Heh i on the other hand love this new format and hope they use it in all the upcoming books.
But hopefully in a way closer to Attitude then Spy Games, as it's much easier to find the relevant fluff texts of the items in any given sidebox in Attitude.

...an estimated 30% of the time. This time they made it consistent, by removing these remaining 30%.

I can find pretty much every single(a whole lot more then 30%) items fluff description in a very short time in Attitude, but really cant do the same with Spy Games.

I have to agree that finding the crunch is kinda frustrating in Spy Games. It's scattered throughout the fluff and even when contained in the black sidebars none of the gear gets much text. A line or two and a stat block.

I'd much prefer all the crunch in a separate section for ease of reference.

I will say though - the snot drone is simultaneously disturbing and fascinating.




-k

I interpret Spell Masking as applying to all spells you cast, including those cast on others; Extended Masking only effects spells you cast on yourself. So with Spell Masking you can put a Mask spell on a teammate that might not be spotted by astral viewers. Still not great and I'd probably tweak it, but there's at least a rationale.

After the centipede, yet another Deus drone that was cut from Brainscan makes it's way into Canon.

I found the clothing chapter to be extremely lacking in this regard...and of course the author who thought (f) denoted fire damage, which tells quite a bit about how often that person has played (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)


PS: Is there anything publicly available about cut content from Brainscan?

Demonseed Elite used to have them up on a page.

Managed to miss a few updates of this thread, and just wanted to thank Hermit for taking the time to tackle this chapter and share his thoughts on it. I had a blast writing it, and I'm glad folks seem to be enjoying it. No one's commented on any of the little easter eggs hiding here and there, but it's only been out about a week.

Okay, on with the review. Equipment, was it. Overall impression: As in Attitude, with some rulesslightly more wonky. Which is not bad because equipment was the best chapter in Attitude. Lotsof stuff here I'll like to use, some old things raise their heads again (Loved that blob drone when I ran Brainscan and found it really missing from the book; damnit though I cannot find the page to link it to you anymore (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) ).

So. We start off with general stuff on camouflage we know (and I loved) from the SOTA books, ported into SR4. This is quite nice. The rules work a bit odd, as mentioned by others, and could have used someone familiar with the core rules books to look them over and straighten them out. But they still seem to work more or less, just using unnecessary deviant rules from similar items elsewhere. I like that sidebar with the fake SIN's contents. CCC got stats in this thread; at least that. Commlink Accessories seem a bit futile to me, but if you want to do everything with your commlink now, including decapitating people and blow hit up, you'll love it (I prefer internal links for the business work and secondary external links for private things and PAN, maintianing a business and a private PAN on my charactetrs). Commlink mods are not forme, hence, but YMMV. Some of the other stuff seems really redundant, but hey, Ican still use them for brand names of high-class image recognition software. Gadgets are fun for the most part. New Spells are interesting and, o far, I haven't found a terrifyingly broken thing like Slow. Inculate is, as mentioned before, the final piece for my Space Marine project. Other than that, some metamagics seem redndant, as others have said.

One thing I miss is the ELINT stuff from SOTA. what happened to sattelite coverage, drones, and stuff like this? Granted, Spy Games goes farmore Bond than Bauer, but it should've been accounted for. Not that the Gadgets aren't nice, which they are. Overall, this chapter leaves a positive impression, as well as the impression that it could have been a lot better if there had been tighter editing by someone who knows the rules.

Then, it continues with something completly unrelated: Conspiracy theories and bizarreness. In ... a chapter on equipment. In continuing text, with nothing at all indicating a complete change of topic. Like, what? Was there no fitting short story and art so you could make it's own chapter of these 1,5 pages? Which actually are 1,75 pages, making this longer than extraplanar intelligence. The mind boggles.

Contents are: The Palantir - Quantum Communications. Well, I guess they're useful for that extreme fringe of Deep Space Shadowrun, so you don't have 10minute delays in communication (actually, we're more talking about hours with blackouts due to albedo, but meh). Number stations are the Machine God Talking To US ...? Bizarre. But that is the intent of that section, I guess. Lonsestar can search commlinks? Boo-fucking-hoo, really. Like they couldn't get away with this before. Nerfing the Resonance Realms has long been overdue to make data runs without a technomunchkin viable again, so good stuff. And finally, Skulls&Bones, who are behind everything in the world because the world apparently starts at the Californian West Coast and ends at the Eastern Seaboard. America focus much, here? Anyhows, how does the New Revolution factor in this, then? Alamos 20K and the American agencies? Mr Knight? Daviar? McBain? Colloton? Coleman (Daniel, not Loren)? Look, if you want to build up an America-centric world conspiracy, at least tie up all the weirdness in America. There is plenty of it, after all.

The placement of "The Classified Section" is absolutly bizarre. It could just have been put together with extraplanar intelligence into a section called "The X Files", where it would have been a lot more appropriate. But what's it doing in equipment? The crunch section? It's not really badly written, though falls short of a proper conspiracy theory, but what the hell.

So now. The stuff I was interested in most is done, and I have a fairly positive impression of the book, though it seems a bit rough and could have used some more polishing, it is not a failed potential parade like Atitude, or ... well, let's not even mention War here. Some format decisions are completly out there though.

I'll check on Denver next, but that might take some time.

It makes total sense when you remember that the gear section is written by Plan 9, the resident conspiracy nut.

That's because I haven't bought it yet. I will, and I will do my best to dig up your easter eggs, sir. That's half the reason I buy new SR books, honestly.

Also, the slew of conspiracy/fringe madness stuff is going to fit perfectly with my new game.

Hmm...I think you mean the material cut from Renraku Arcology: Shutdown. Though that didn't have new drones in it, I don't think. There was material written up for shadowland.org by Dave Hyatt (one of the Deus writers) that did have new drones in it. I know I have it somewhere, but I'll have to dig around.

Then I misremembered, but maybe you linked to it once? Would be very nice if you found it, though.

EDIT: Thanks for the offer and your time, but Crimson_Dude found it!. Thanks for the help.

For reference, the Drone I meant is the Plasm. That and the centipede have been released as drones long after this was cut and compiled.

On the one hand, that's a cool bit of character showcasing... on the other hand, people shouldn't have to be aware of NPC quirks in order to understand the text. At least, not if you want to attract new readers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

Is the link only dead for me?

Well, it works fine for me. Strange. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif)


The NPC's voice narrating the chapters is the authors' choice. Hence, even if this was to showcase Plan9's randomness, it just is downright bizarre because this book ought to also be useful as a gaming ressource, and not mixing everything randomly like a badly kept blog should go without asking there.

Besides, why does the conspiracy nut narrate all kinds of equipment anyway these days? Fashion? what the hell? Why not give Plan9 the entirety of The X Files, which is extraplanar intelligence and The Classified Files? That would be much more in character for Plan9 than having him talk about fashion and runner equipment. Yeah, that makes him not a well-rounded, deep, intellectual character. Newsflash: That's not what shadowtalkers are all about, and it's certainly something that becomes annoying when it drops pure fluff into a crunch section for no reason at all.

Also, does the artist have the cover image for download anywhere?

It's in the photos section of the Shadowrun Facebook page--the full picture, without the text on it.

Jason H.

Thanks. That's quite an outstanding cover there, best in a long time (since Companion).

Forgot about that cover.

I wouldn't mind her being my companion. *Wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

Ye dirty mind. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

When will we see a follow-up on Debt of non-Blood, btw?

Next time I write for "Money" Johnson. He's still hunting for the folks that put the chips out on the street. But that's really, really, REALLY off topic here.

So, Spy Games, anyone go through it with a fine-toothed comb yet? I can't at the moment due to other issues cropping up, but...

Well the quirkines of this particular poster is pretty clearly mentioned near the beginning of both gear chapters he 's narrating(or go narrating in the case of Attitude.)

Um, there's a big (If non-updated) list of who the Shadowtalkers are and their personal quirks available on the website. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Well yes, but I have to ask *somewhere*, do I?

A bit more on topic: Glossing over Denver, I found a map. Now, I approve of maps, I really do. We need more maps! But next time, please, use one that doesn't look good only in colour, when printing a b/w book.