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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Shadows of Eastern Europe

Posted by: Prospero Dec 3 2003, 12:03 PM

Okay, so after just reading through the Shadows of Europe thread, I was really wondering about Eastern Europe. Are there any plans to do anything with the area? Several important characters (Nadia Daviar comes to mind) and locations (lots of archeology in the Ukraine and around the Baltic states) not to mention all the history and devastation of the Euro Wars and the New Islamic Jihad(s) are centered in the area. Plus there is the one Hungarian sourcebook out, _Arnyek Magyarorszag_ (BTW, as far as I understand that book wasn't actually authorized by FASA - anybody know whether its technically "cannon" or not?)

Posted by: Synner Dec 3 2003, 02:52 PM

QUOTE

I was really wondering about Eastern Europe. Are there any plans to do anything with the area?

Note that several countries of "Eastern Europe" are supposed to be in the book, it's simply they're the minority. There should be passing coverage of the situation as far as Russia.

QUOTE

Several important characters (Nadia Daviar comes to mind) and locations (lots of archeology in the Ukraine and around the Baltic states) not to mention all the history and devastation of the Euro Wars and the New Islamic Jihad(s) are centered in the area.

Some teasers on the Ukraine and Turkey were included in the recent Sprawl Survival Guide and even SOTA63. The Balkans might be getting coverage of its own.

QUOTE

Plus there is the one Hungarian sourcebook out, _Arnyek Magyarorszag_ (BTW, as far as I understand that book wasn't actually authorized by FASA - anybody know whether its technically "cannon" or not?)

It exists and from what I heard it was published without license which means it wouldn't be considered canon (not that a license guarantees the books are canon to the english audience, ie. France sb).

Posted by: Ancient History Dec 3 2003, 04:51 PM

Speaking of which, there's always Target: Awakened Lands 2, which I have great hopes for.

Posted by: Adam Dec 3 2003, 06:38 PM

Errr... there is no "Target: Awakened Lands 2" - please try to be a little more clear as to whether you hope there will be a product, or whether you hope a previously-announced product will be good.

Posted by: Ancient History Dec 3 2003, 08:41 PM

I have heard a rumor that there will be such a product, and hope it is true. That's all I know.

Posted by: otaku mike Dec 4 2003, 01:47 AM

As far as I know, there is no T:AL2.
The rumors you may have heard were probably about the possibility to have more magical topics (including locations) dealt with in SOTA 2064.

Posted by: Prospero Dec 4 2003, 05:36 AM

QUOTE (Synner)

QUOTE

I was really wondering about Eastern Europe. Are there any plans to do anything with the area?

Note that several countries of "Eastern Europe" are supposed to be in the book, it's simply they're the minority. There should be passing coverage of the situation as far as Russia.

QUOTE

Some teasers on the Ukraine and Turkey were included in the recent Sprawl Survival Guide and even SOTA63. The Balkans might be getting coverage of its own.

QUOTE

That's good to hear. I read the list of countries in the SoE thread and was glad to see Austria and the Czech Republic in there. I would, personally, have liked to see more of Central and Eastern Europe in there, but I realize that there are space considerations and all that (and that I'm probably in the minority - most people want more Western Europe. I'm just the other way because I lived in Hungary and travelled a lot in Central Europe). Anyway, I'm already so damn excited about SoE that it doesn't really matter.

I'm really glad to know about the Turkey and Ukraine stuff in SOTA63 and SSG (which I really, really, REALLY want to get now). Thanks for the info.

Posted by: Synner Dec 4 2003, 10:30 AM

Hungary was a difficult call and was chopped mainly because it would require a lot of space to develop the other side of the Austro-Hungarian Union and how it ended and there wasn't a local contributor to give it that extra edge.

Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland on the other hand have a lot to offer to Europe and have big parts in the overall Euro picture which is why they were included. All three have nice surprises in store for the visitor.

Ukraine plays a big regional role that has already been touched upon in SOTA63 and SSG has a brief profile on Odessa.

The situation in Turkey is brought up regarding Constantinople/Istambul in SOTA63 and is mentioned again under Aden in DotSW.

Posted by: Prospero Dec 4 2003, 09:30 PM

QUOTE

Hungary was a difficult call and was chopped mainly because it would require a lot of space to develop the other side of the Austro-Hungarian Union and how it ended and there wasn't a local contributor to give it that extra edge.

I figured it was something like that. Especially since (at least in the Hungarian sourcebook) the coutry's been split into something like 8 semi-autonomous regions. Ah well. Thanks for the info.

Posted by: Synner Dec 5 2003, 10:22 AM

QUOTE

I figured it was something like that. Especially since (at least in the Hungarian sourcebook) the coutry's been split into something like 8 semi-autonomous regions. Ah well. Thanks for the info.

Yep that's one of two trends we tried to combat in SoE. For some reason balkanization of countries was really popular in the early 90s and the German material is guilty of a lot of it (known as the North Am syndrome). They originally broke up Germany, Austria and Switzerland... the other huge problem is exemplified by the original France sb (licensed but not canon btw) and boils down to national ego stoking otherwise known as the My-country-is-bigger/better/cleverer/cooler-than-yours syndrome.

Micro-nations in most cases are not economically and socially viable in the long-term (yes, some get away with being tax havens and such but not when there's twenty or thirty of them) and we're no longer living in the middle ages when borders can be enforced relatively easily.

Posted by: Prospero Dec 5 2003, 12:11 PM

One interesting take on that is to look at what's happening in the real world - in the early 90's everybody saw all these new, smaller countries forming from bigger ones. Now, in the early 2000's the trend seems to be towards bringing countries together (all the new nations accepted in the EU, for example). Art mimics reality or something, I guess... I'm really excited to see where the NEEC stuff is going, what with Lofwyr backing things, etc...