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Posted by: Imaginos May 24 2011, 04:00 PM

Looking for opinions on what are the best or most usable of the pre-4E supplements for Shadowrun? Which ones are mostly usable as is? Which ones require the most reworking?

(I posted this on rpgnet as well.)

Posted by: sabs May 24 2011, 04:09 PM

That depends. For what?
Setting?
Rules?

Obviously none of the rules are useful.

Runner's Companion 2E is great.

Posted by: Shaikujin May 24 2011, 04:12 PM

There are lots of pre SR4 books. Here's an official compatibility list to get you started:

http://www.shadowrun4.com/game-resources/shadowrun-fourth-edition-compatability/

One of the ones that I love is sprawl sites.

Posted by: sabs May 24 2011, 04:12 PM

London Sourcebook is a fun read.
Rigger Black Book is /awesome/

Posted by: Prime Mover May 24 2011, 04:14 PM

Usable for what? There alot of 1st thru 3rd edition books. Narrowing your search might make it easier. Usable for what? Learning about the world? Magic? Critters? Want adventures, location guides, info on the dragons. Obviously the gear books wouldn't be much use for current edition but the SR world is full of fluff and almost every book adds too or adds some plot seeds.

Posted by: Prime Mover May 24 2011, 04:17 PM

I do agree with checking out the London book along with the first Tir and Seattle book. If your looking to understand the early tone of SR these three would go a long way in accomplishing that.

Posted by: DireRadiant May 24 2011, 04:17 PM

Depends what you use it for.

Top of my list is the Denver Boxed set. Even with Ghostwalker, it's incredibly useful and fun to use as a setting.

After that I would look at books Like Native American Nations, Aztlan, Tir Na Nog, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Real Life, Lone Star, Sprawl Survival Guide, Sprawl Sites, Corporate Shadowfiles. These give you flavor and history that can be made relevant in any game.

Posted by: Yerameyahu May 24 2011, 06:38 PM

Rigger 3, yay!

Posted by: Critias May 24 2011, 08:36 PM

I was a bit more specific over on RPG.net, but the long and short of it is you'll likely get the most mileage out of setting/fluff books. Anything that's got a name in the title -- Denver, Seattle, Asia, North America, Europe, what-have-you -- will still largely be usable. Anything else, you'll be looking at reading about outdated technology, maybe having to convert a bunch of rules from earlier editions, reading about a Matrix that no longer works that way, etc, etc.

All in all, though? My suggestion would be to just poke around eBay or something, doing searches for "Shadowrun lot." Find the biggest bunch of old books you can for cheap, and the odds are good you'll at least get some fun reading material and it'll spark some campaign ideas.

Posted by: Ryu May 24 2011, 10:07 PM

Hmm. Awakenings or ShadowTech? I´d tend towards the former.

Posted by: Bigity May 25 2011, 01:00 AM

Shadowtech
Lone Star
Rigger's Black Book

Those were my favorite three.

Posted by: Tyro May 25 2011, 02:47 AM

Cybertechnology, for the story of Hatchetman.

Posted by: sabs May 25 2011, 04:20 AM

*sniffs* Hatchetman...

*pours a whiskey* Now there was an asshole Shadowrunner. Damn Aztechnology.

Posted by: LurkerOutThere May 25 2011, 05:00 AM

Neo-@'s guide to real life and sprawl sites are still excellent. Renraku Shutdown can be used with some timeline tweaking and minor rules fixes.

Posted by: Imaginos May 25 2011, 11:20 AM

Thanks for all of the replies folks. By usable, I'm referring to books that aren't outdated by the current books in so far as technology. So really, I'm asking more toward fluff and usable adventure concepts (realizing that some tweaking to SR4A will be needed).

As for using SR4A or an earlier version, I have the SR4A books. I'm considering running Shadowrun at a local store, so I'd like to use the edition they can still sell.

Posted by: LurkerOutThere May 25 2011, 01:23 PM

At the risk of being all fanboy have you considered Shadowrun Missions? They can be snapped up for a few bucks a pop and are a good setup as part of a living campaign or just your own tweaking.

The first hit of season 3 is even free. All of them are for SR4.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=4328_4820

Posted by: Ryu May 25 2011, 08:41 PM

QUOTE (Imaginos @ May 25 2011, 01:20 PM)

Posted by: CanRay May 25 2011, 09:44 PM

Street Samurai Catalog and Fields of Fire.

What? I likes me my Gun Porn!

Posted by: LurkerOutThere May 25 2011, 09:45 PM

As do we all but he/she is looking for fluff and adventure concepts. Fields of fire would be good for that, SSC not so much.

Posted by: baron_samedi May 30 2011, 10:08 AM

if you can get it, for some real fluff, find Universal Brotherhood and Bug City.
those are 2 of my faves.

also, I tend to gravitate towards Awakenings and Lone Star.

Posted by: Platinum May 30 2011, 02:11 PM

UB and Bug city for sure!
Cybertech gives you an icky feeling about the true cost of essence loss.
Street Sam Guide is my favorite book for layout. The comments are brilliant.

The older novels are really gritty and dark. Basically novels written before Kenson and Sargeant are worth reading, especially 2XS. There are some short stories by Dowd which are great as well.

Anything Shadowrun 2E is worth reading at least once. 3e stuff is basically a watered down rewrite of 2E stuff, but smooths our rules.

Posted by: baron_samedi May 30 2011, 09:30 PM

2XS is a rare treat!
it's SR sprinkled with Noir elements.
Imagine Sam Spade going after Doc Wagon and you get the idea.

The commennts in the player's guides are also great- SSC, Shadowtech...I wonder why no one ever expanded them into one Alternate Rule Book.
Instead of pages of dry rules explanation, let the "boardspeople" explain it with their anecdotes.

offa the top of my head, i like the one comment in ST where one guy explains why you never stiff a street doc. the doc cranked up his kidneys to 11, and the poor bastard spent more time whizzing than shooting things.
that's nothing but flavor in the SR universe to me.

Posted by: Megu May 31 2011, 06:33 AM

I personally love Shadows of Asia, because they in general actually tried to get creative, and because I'm a SE Asian Studies guy and I liked seeing that area get some love, although it has moments of derp. I love the whole Platoon meets Princess Mononoke thing they've got going on with the hilltribe war, and as much as people complain it's Nam 2: Electric Boogaloo, a lot of what they've got going on reminds me far more of the Laotian Secret War in the 70s. I dislike what they did with Iran and Bangladesh, though, but really, that's only two countries, not too shabby.

As far as runs go, I liked Ivy and Chrome a lot. Mostly because I'm a sucker for star-crossed lovers and because I liked that there were several routes laid out to the destination.

Posted by: nezumi May 31 2011, 01:07 PM

I assume it wouldn't be too hard to convert SR3 to SR4 (I really have no idea). If that's the case, anything SR2 is also fair game, but yes, technology has moved on, the costs are all wrong, and matrix is a whole new beast. Still, you can use the plots from stories, as long as you're willing to tweak the mechanics.

Regarding color/setting:
Neo-Anarchist books are fantastic and timeless. I refer to these setting books more than any other, and AFAIK, most of that data has never been repeated.
Lone Star has a lot of good data (as well as a lot of crazy data). It's a good read, but handle with caution.
Books relevant to the area of your campaign are good (Seattle has been rehashed, so go with the SR4 book on that one, but other sites receive less attention).

Plots:
If you don't mind running your characters through past events (i.e., codified in the SR timeline as happening in 2050s), Bug City and Renraku Shutdown are both fantastic.
A lot of the SR1/2 missions were really great, with a strong focus on character conflicts and locations over tactical setups. You can search for reviews of specific ones.

Artwork (visual and written):
Street Samurai Guide, Fields of Fire, Rigger Black Book, SR1 and 2 manuals

History
SR1 main book
Native American Nations sourcebook

Posted by: TheWanderingJewels Jun 12 2011, 11:50 AM

well...the pre-collapse Tir books are and interesting read, if only to give people and idea of the mess from Portland coming over the border