Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: Tzeentch Jan 6 2015, 09:55 PM

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/142521/Shadowrun-Shadows-in-Focus-Sioux-Nation. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Posted by: Prime Mover Jan 7 2015, 12:16 AM

If not for following Critical Glitch on Twitter, wouldn't even have known this was out.

Posted by: Sendaz Jan 7 2015, 02:29 AM

Many players asked for more location materials and someone upstairs answered.

The nice thing is if they continue to provide location e-books like this a GM can pick and choose what regions he wants as not everyone will be going off to all regions.

First you have to get in so they start with border crossing info, legit and otherwise. They even tip their hat to the system provided in Coyotes for rating crossings.

Once inside it gives you a quick layout of locales of interest and the people you will be dealing with, covering civilian, corp, security/law enforcement and the government agencies.

Not a lot of stats anywhere, this is written mostly as the travelogue and corresponding shadowtalk.
So don't expect to see the BGC of Devil's Tower or stats for a 11 man Sioux Wildcat squad, but again the fluff and skill packages (see below) give you a good starting point to lay them out yourself.

With 4 pages devoted to Sioux Shadowrunners you will have plenty to tease out little details about your character for added flavour.

While they do not have Life Modules, they do have Skill packages like Sioux Army Veteran below which a GM could then add stat bonuses and qualities to turn it into a LM easily enough.

There is no new equipment/spells/vehicles, but then this is supposed to be a locale book afterall.

Overall I like it and if you want some ideas for taking your runners out to Sioux country this gives a good starting point.

Posted by: Not of this World Jan 7 2015, 03:40 AM

I always loved the NAN settings and I fear to ask how badly its been Anglo-sized in this edition?

Posted by: Sendaz Jan 7 2015, 04:21 AM

Well, remember this is just the Sioux territory so this does not cover the rest of NAN lands.

The Sioux have embraced technology, but do seem to favour more green concepts when feasible. This does not endear them to their more back to nature neighbours, but then few I think would say something to their face.

The majority of folk there live in or near towns/cities, while the more rural areas are the home of traditionalists, the Anglos on their reservations, and the occasional retirement community or isolates.

But the 20 main tribes of the Sioux remain a force to be reckoned with among the People in their form of their government,aka Council of Chiefs which runs things as well as selects the people running the various bureaus who have wide remits within their area of control.


Now if only they were not so busy with their infighting and corruption at several levels, but hey it means more work for us as well as palms to grease so you can go about doing it.

Posted by: hermit Jan 7 2015, 06:46 PM

Well, that's a pleasant surprise. I was hoping for this book (and, given some of my late experiences with CGL, kinda dreading it at the same time) ever since it was irst announced over a year back.

It's a location splatbook, pretty much along the lines of the writeups in old books. With the exception of Skill Modules in the back (not Life Module System compatible, though; would that have been too much to ask?), there's no Crunch in the book.

The book reads nice. It has, by CGL standards, relatively few glaring editing or spelling errors; the language is fluid and even varied according to whoever posted it. I do miss an into page that informe me why an obviously ShadowSEA thread is hosted on Jackpoint - few JackPoint regulars are seen posting, but a lot of - presumably local - posters appear. Also, there's no Table of Contents, again. at least the bookmarks work and, at least in PDF form, will provide a good alternative.

The content starts with the literal lay of the land, like Findley did, providing an update on what is going on in the Sioux Nation's infrastructure, geography and the local weather (turns out manastorms are getting rather common and nobody knows what to do about it), as well as a rundown o the country's ethnic makeup. In fact, it starts with a page from the 2075 CIA World Factbook, which is a good update on the old "Facts at your Fingerttips" section in FASA era splatbooks, if you ask me.

The Sioux Nation is described extensively, building on the "warrior nation" nimbus (stereotype) built up in previous NAN-oriented books like the Denver section of Spy Games or Shadows of North America, and nicely expands this into an Israel-on-the-Plains, though without painting Anglos overly as the poor, oppressed and disposessed Palestinians, which, given the conscious connections to Israel in the writing I admit I kinda was bracing for. The Israeli connection is even canonized (after their founding, the SN hired retired Mossad and IDF personnel to help them build up OMI and the SDF). The Sioux are also highly patriotic, have modern US firearms regulations (concealed carry isn't allowed, but you are welcome to take your AR-16 to the restaurant, at least if you're White Amerindian). The Sioux isn't described as perfect, but not in a way that comes across as too condescending. The Sioux are apparently rather Anti-American, but that is not thrown out in a defensive tone, just matter-of-factly. After all, they do have, in-setting, good reasons to really dislike the UCAS.

Anglos are portrayed pretty much as the SINless in the UCAS - shut out from social life, by and large, and often orced into a life of crime, but reasonably powerful in the Sioux Underworld. Some may carry grudges against the Sioux - a plot seed even picks this up - but generally, they are given the same matter-of-fact description as the Amerind majority.

There's even an attempt to explain the country's handling of it's large land area and how to control that with very few citizens (drones and robots; the Sioux Nation is robot country), why they believe they can take on the UCAS (use their army to stall in assymetrical warfare while theitr magocracy does a new Ghost Dance and shinks the Eastern Seaboard or something). The Sioux' possession of nuclear weapons is also canonized.

Plot threads are woven, and a good deal of attention is paid to advance plot threads from Spy Games, Clutch of Dragons, and Shadows of North America. A few things are conspiciously missing, though; Sioux apparently didn't burn their Apple commlinks and withdraw their money from their Bank of Amerioca accounts when Ares produced a crappy show-off rifle with even crappier customer support, and still think Ares is Awesome; and there's no mention of CFS at all. That may be due to development limbo, though.

There are some very fun ideas, such as "Azkaban" (Blackstone prison, which is Azkaban in all but name), which I really have to find a way to use, and the scnenery of the Sioux is described vividly and in a useful manner - the Game Info section details Sious dress customs in a surprisingly detailed manner, explains how local archetypes may work, abd gives some good hints at playing a Sioux of various classes. There are some things I do not appreciate very much, like the Skill PAckages not being compatible with the Run Faster Life Modules system (or at least using their terminology); there are some obvious editing glitches, like the headline in the Blackstone Prison sidebar calling it Blackwell Prison, but overall, this is a really good book that's a fun read and quite useful if you want to have a go at adventures in America beyond Seattle, Manhattan, Chicago, or Boston.

One final thing: The artwork is excellent. Art Direction really picked up recently. The images even display actual guns from the actual game!

I definitly recommend anyone who's interested in using the Sioux Nation as a setting to have a look at it.

8.5/10

-1 for bad editing
-0.5 for incompatibility with the Life Modules character generation system.

To answer Not of this World's question: It hasn't been hit hard with the Murican Hammer. In fact, this book has the lowest Murica factor of any CGL Shadowrun book in quite a while. Very refreshing.

Posted by: Tecumseh Jan 7 2015, 10:36 PM

Woah, slipped by me too. Wildcats be sneaky.

Posted by: adamu Jan 8 2015, 12:43 AM

Another nice book!

I just love these things cuz we get a steady stream of material and the price is so low, and it's so convenient, I don't even think about it much.

I did make the mistake of reading the DriveThru RPG splash a bit too quickly. Where it lists all the cool things they are going to come out with LATER on the Sioux, I just saw the candy without reading carefully and was expecting all that in this book. OOPS. Definitely my bad though.

Now looking forward to the next ones on the Sioux, and the next other locales!

Posted by: Tzeentch Jan 8 2015, 10:19 AM

The Life Module system was not finished when this was written, though in retrospect I should have made time to integrate it, as I am a huge proponent of leveraging existing systems instead of creating bespoke rules.

My sourcebooks are not in front of me, but the prison is actually prior canon from SOTA: 2064. Tracking down as many of those one-off references to the Sioux since Shadows of North America was something of a priority so that this book could be the new jumping off point with a minimum of canon "gotchas."

Was a very interesting project to work on. I think these type of tightly-focused products have a lot of promise in doing justice to the great depth of the Shadowrun world and history . . . and are much easier to schedule (on the writing side, and presumably on the production side) and do research for.

Posted by: hermit Jan 8 2015, 01:23 PM

Yeah, I assumed as much ... was it the same with CFS?


What, this slipped by me before? Well, thanks for the reminder then. ^.^


Indeed. I'd really love to see more of these in the future. There's a lot on Shadowrun that deserves such closer attention (basically, it's like a chapter from a Shadows Of book), and if it's feasible as PDF products, then I'm happy if there'll be more like these.

Posted by: Method Jan 11 2015, 09:06 PM

I haven't had time to really pick through it, but on a cursory review I really like this book. Its a nice little update on a region of the Sixth World near and dear to my heart. I especially like that it isn't some exotic local like Lagos or Hong Kong since I tend to stick to the default Seattle setting, so its easier to integrate.

Also the art is really good, especially the cover art, which is phenomenal. The only exception is the well dressed native on page 20, who is apparently carrying his handgun is a way that makes it impossible to draw and use effectively. Great character art but that little detail kind of ruins it for me. But in general I wish Bullets & Bandages had gotten similar attention in the art category.

Posted by: Not of this World Jan 12 2015, 04:25 AM

That is a pretty good review. I just picked up GMing again today, and we're going with 5th edition rule system with a 3rd edition-ish setting.

Anyways it was a good review. Do they use Shadowslang or setting appropriate language in the book?

Posted by: hermit Jan 12 2015, 09:52 AM

Not very much shadowslang, but some. A very quick text search:

Drek: 5 counts (includes drekhead, hot-drek).
Chummer: 7 counts
Hoop: 3 counts
Wiz: 1 count

Posted by: hermit Jan 16 2015, 09:01 PM

Tzeentch, if you're still having an eye on this, I have a question, since it's on Sioux territorry unless I am very mistaken:

What happened to Mount Rushmore in Shadowrun?

Posted by: Tzeentch Jan 17 2015, 08:42 AM

Intentionally a point of canonical doubt, as is the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Posted by: hermit Jan 18 2015, 12:34 PM

Okay. I can see why, just wanted to ask, not that I missed something. I'll handle it privately when it comes up (one of our teams has just gotten lost east of Rapid City).

Posted by: Nath Jan 29 2015, 10:51 PM

I only took a quick look at it so far. I couldn't help but notice a few things...

Page 12
"Resettlement policies by the U.S. government drove many tribes to near extinction and splintered others along family lines even before the genocidal campaign against them was kicked off following the Lone Star crisis."
The Lone Eagle crisis, not the Lone Star.

Page 14
"But all notions of tribal democracy went out the window when Howling Coyote walked out of Aberdeen with the spirits at his back and the shamans pulling the strings."
Abilene, not Aberdeen.

Page 15
"Hell, they have more ambassadors serving in Amazonia than the rest of the NAN combined."
Actual diplomatic rules as established by the Vienna convention allows any number of diplomats and consuls, but only one ambassador to be recognized. But I guess a Jackpoint poster can also be wrong sometimes.

Posted by: DeathStrobe Feb 18 2015, 05:52 AM

They just released a new Cheyenne source book

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/144658/Shadowrun-Shadows-in-Focus-Cheyenne

Posted by: Sengir Feb 18 2015, 01:34 PM

Another book just for the capital? Looks like they are really trying to make up for the previous lack of NAN material

Usual look at the incoming files

The Matrix has become the home of a number of different “friends”. [Tag: 10 AIs]
Sometimes, it is all about the nuyen. [Tag: Starving the Masses]
The Neo-Anarchists aren’t the only ones who gather in tribes. [Tag: Virtual Tribes]
On JackPoint we even show the evil of the evil some love. [Tag: 10 Terrorists]


10 AIs was already mentioned, Virtual Tribes is new but sounds related. Odd that this makes two matrix-related announcements without an announcement for Data Trails...
10 Terrorists, another of the list books, meh. Although maybe we could get an update on Teachdaire
Starving the Masses sounds like a Missions book?

Posted by: Nath Feb 18 2015, 09:35 PM

Cheyenne push from a mere 100,000 to almost 3 millions (so as to make it worthy of M. Johnson and shadowrunners' interest) sounds somewhat... forced. That would require a 5-6% urban population growth per year, on-par with modern China, except that China did not sustain such rate for six decades, and it ha a rural population to move in in the first place, as opposed to, say, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Feb 18 2015, 10:05 PM

Or there were a couple larger migrations.

Posted by: Sendaz Feb 18 2015, 10:07 PM

Well part of the growth may have been from the Sioux limiting the Corps to just that city to be their main operations. They may have branches through the region, but the main clump of corp drone bodies will be in the capital.

Another part may be from semi-forced relocation due to some areas going more feral than even the locals care to deal with. I picture a lot of ghost towns through that piece of land as they were barely hanging in there under normal circumstances, let alone add in awakened flora and fauna.

May not tick all the boxes, but then from looking at the Tir we know explosive population growth is a tried and true thing for the setting, even if it doesn't always make sense.

Posted by: Sengir Feb 18 2015, 10:16 PM

Populations apparently lacking both hobbies and contraceptives are a Shadowrun tradition, so when revisiting a traditional setting, using traditional demographics seems to fit just right

Of course part of the growth may also stem from simply incorporating a few neighboring towns.

Posted by: Nath Feb 18 2015, 11:54 PM

That's Cheyenne, Wyoming, we're talking about. There are no other city of a significant size within 60 kilometers of Cheyenne. Laramie, 65km west of Cheyenne, has a population of 30,000. Fort Collins-Loveland metropolitan area, about 60km south, right on the border with the Denver Free Zone, does have a population of 300,000, three times that of Cheyenne.

Posted by: Nath Feb 19 2015, 11:59 PM

Let's make a review.

Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation is a PDF product of 39 pages, written by a single author, Kenneth "Tzeentch" Peters.

It covers geography, climate, some magical sites, transportation, main cities (three really short sections on Cheyenne, Billings, and Rapid City), local culture, government, law enforcement, armed forces, corporation and the underworld of the Sioux nation. It covers everything that was previously covered in the dozen of pages of Native American Nations volume 1 and Shadows of North America. As each had a different approach as to how to cover a country, basically half of the book are "only" updates. After twenty five years, that has to be expected with Shadowrun, but the fact shouldn't be overlooked: if you already have those books, SF:SN will feel a tad short in some departments.

Moreover, I had the feeling the author gave varied levels of fuck. There were things he clearly wanted to write on the Sioux Nation, and others were he paid little more than lip service. I'm glad to finally get the list of the government bureaus, but I was kinda disappointed not to see the name of a single incumbent politician to use as a NPC (overall, the number of NPC is fairly low, most of them returning from other sourcebooks).

As far as I can tell, what he really wanted to write was about the Sioux culture, regarding the military, firearms, or Howling Coyote legacy as a founding father (I'm not sure if it's a mistake, but the fact he hailed from the Ute tribe is never mentioned). The Game Information also features a novel idea, with a lengthy section on how to give each PC archetype a local flavor.

It also sneaks some retcon, like distancing itself from the old tribal breakdown to suggest it is more a matter of administrative registering than actual lineage (at least that's how I understood it, but it also happens to be an idea I tossed around, so maybe there's a confirmation bias). It is also stated the Sioux hasn't ratified the Business Recognition Accords (as a result of http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12436.msg229749#msg229749 I think - I do have a different interpretation of what the BRA imply, and what refusing to ratify them should imply, like the Corporate not granting a license to mint physical nuyen for instance). If it wasn't for Ares, MCT running a prison from SOTA:2064 and some mentions of Shiawase, there would be nothing to remind you the Big Ten are a thing.

SF:SN aims to make the Sioux nation a stand-alone usable setting, something location background sometimes forget to do (Shadowrun had in the past a thing for dedicating entire sourcebooks to country with paranoid totalitarian governments with over-the-top security forces that were essentially unplayable). And so it tries hard to justify it by distancing itself from the default Seattle setting, with the scenery, with the culture, with the local players. As I said above, Cheyenne got ascended to a 3 million metropolitan area, seemingly to make it a respectable location for shadowrunners to work (but maybe the new Cheyenne PDF does give a more elaborate explanation). By the way, the book completely omit the fact Cheyenne was the seat of the Sovereign Tribal Council of the NAN.

As I pointed out previously, there are a few mistakes, including some proper nouns who were replaced by a software or something I think ("Lone Star" instead of "Lone Eagle", "Aberdeen" instead of "Abilene").

Overall, a good sourcebook. Even more so for those who don't have the NAN and SoNA SB. But to use it to play only an adventure or two in the Sioux and support the NAN ex-military background of a player-character would be underusing the product. But on the other hand, I have yet to found what overarching theme could be the basis for a full campaign.

Posted by: Not of this World Mar 22 2015, 04:19 PM

Are there any updates on the False Face Society from Threats 2 in this or the other Shadows in Focus documents?

Posted by: Grinder Mar 23 2015, 11:50 AM

I like your optimism.

Posted by: Not of this World Apr 12 2015, 05:03 PM

I bought this finally and was glad to see the False Face Society on page 31.

I haven't read the book thoroughly but overall I'm very impressed. I hope this is a sign of where 5th edition is moving because its considerably better than the setting material initially following after the new edition.

Posted by: Voran May 6 2015, 04:08 AM

I just noticed the Shadowtalkers in the book. Is the Raygun listed inspired by old Raygun and his firearms site?

Posted by: Modular Man May 11 2015, 01:23 PM

This is a pleasant surprise. My group is just stuck in the Sioux Nation as of now I'll have to point this book out to the GM. Maybe he'll be able to use some more input.

Posted by: Tzeentch May 19 2015, 06:55 AM

Yes. Raygun was a very cool dude, I hope he's doing well and still looks on his days talking about fictional guns fondly

Posted by: Wakshaani Jun 14 2015, 04:22 AM

I'm all kinds of nervous on that one. It's the second thing I ever wrote for Shadowrun and it was "finished" several years ago, but held off on since the next edition was just about to be started on and eventually settled into a "Sometime just after the new Matrix book" slot. I've had to go back and edit it a few times to take out dead Shadowtalkers and clean up a few things, but it'll be the first, and thusfar only, book that has me out there, hangin' in teh breeze with no co-authors.

Hopefully, the Pinata treatment won't be too terrible.

(Geeze. Has it really been THAT long ago? Meep!)

Back on actual topic, I'm *so* *thrilled* that we've been getting to hit up the NAN more these days. It's been unloved for far too long and needs some exploration. I've not gotten to write for any of these yet, but the topics are just faboo.

Keep it up, gang!

Posted by: Deckbeard Jun 15 2015, 02:15 PM

Wakshaani maybe you can tell us maybe you can't, do you know what Sioux place is getting detailed next or are they gonna move on to another one of the NANs?

Posted by: Wakshaani Jun 15 2015, 06:02 PM

If it was an announced product I could, but if it isn't, then NDA keeps the lid on it.

Either way, I actually don't know as I haven't been following that product line. D'oh! This past Fall, I did work for AEG's Legend of the Five Rings, and toook about four months off of Shadowrun to focus over that-a-way. I've been getting back into the mix after doing work on some books for those guys, but I'm still in catch-up mode for SR5.

Personally, I want four things - A PDF focused on the Pueblo Corporate Council, then a tighter-focus on the capital, followed by a look at the S-S COuncil, with a tight look at probably Vancouver. Then you could wrap all six books under a hardback and sell that as a single NAN Volume III.

So, technically, I guess that's five. Hrm. Regardless, I have no idea what the ACTUAL plan is. Not my department.

Posted by: Deckbeard Jun 18 2015, 09:28 PM

It's all good. Thanks anyways.

Posted by: CanadianWolverine Jun 28 2015, 02:24 PM

Ooo, am I glad I logged back into Dumpshock for old times sake!

Ooklama CanadianWolverine.

This is fantastic and if a SSC is getting a dedicated write up, I would like to volunteer to the author as a virtual tour guide since I am an IRL husband to a lovely Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Nation politician and Canadian Ranger to what the Shadowrun's British Columbia, especially Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii, might be like (*hint - very wild outside the cities, its already pretty wild here before the Awakening, don't feed the bears you damn gorbies and use the damn mountain pass pull outs slow pokes or else)

Send me a PM if you would like my gmail or some other method of communication

Klecko klecko, Chuu!