Yeah, I'm planning on doing the same with Augmentation. Attitude I'm fine with though - but that may be because I don't own it in print yet...

I'm one of the few people who actually likes the old Arsenal cover, though. It has a nice old-school Shadowrun feel to it.

The point is that leaving a certain brand of rifle says NOTHING. It is not a claim of responsibility, hence it does not frame anyone.
Think of the shootings in France last week, did anyone assign any significance to the fact that the guy used a handgun by an American manufacturer and a scooter built by a Japanese company? Do you remember reading anything about an American-Japanese conspiracy based on the choice of weapon and getaway vehicle, or claims that a third party was trying to implicate those two countries?

His Mini-Uzi jammed when he used it to shot at Jewish children. Isn't that a proof of... something?!

Well, the worst part is, there actually are conspiracy theories on the web that point out his choice of weapon as a proof the whole story is a setup. Real freedom fighters only use Kalashnikov I guess.

Reminds me of the satire video of Hitler getting mad at a NPD (German nationalist party) politician...ok, they found stolen goods and a weapon stash at your place, that happens. But a STEN SMG?! You goddamn Allies' friend, how could you!

Looking at the cover, all I have to ask is if Bull got Leonization, shaved his head, and went slumming with an M-23. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I hope for your sake you are talking about MacCallister...

add me to the list. The new one is bland in comparison.

So nobody has gotten Damage Control yet and has anything to say about it?

Oh, I have it, but I have yet to read it.

Alright - a quick look at Damage Control:

Warning, there may be some spoilers ahead!

Note: This adventure takes place shortly after Hestaby went nuts in Dubai, and as such is set before some of the stuff in the recent Campaign Books.

The PCs are hired to work for Saeder-Krupp, travelling to Dubai to help S-K in the aftermath of Hestaby's destruction.

Chapter 1: The adventure assumed that the PCs start out in Seattle, but that detail is easy to change. There's even a section with suggestions for starting in Bogotá, Denver or Manhattan

The 'Tell It To Them Straight' section starts with a dialogue between the PCs fixer and the one who gets the call - this may not suit many groups, and the discussion as written feels a bit off in my ears. The fixer alerts the PC to a job posting on ShadowSea, and explains the johnson will interview several teams for the job. The meet itself occurs at Fenris Nacht.

A lot of emphasis is put on this initial meet section, which stretches over 6 pages (the longest I've seen for a first meeting, I think) Mr. Johnson starts by asking a series of questions to the PCs, their answers giving dice pool modifiers for the negotiations test.

There are some good ideas for Pushing the Envelope and Debugging here.

Chapter 2: As written, the PCs are supposed to arrange for themselves and their gear to get to Dubai, and provide their own accomodations there. I know my players would balk at this, wanting more pay as compensation. There are suggested prices for accomodation, but no suggested prices for travel - only travel times.

Half a page is devoted to ideas on how to turm this scenario into a mini-campaign in the middle east, with adventure seeds.

The Job at hand (spoilers):


There are short descriptions on three places of interest for the run, and 3 pages of NPCs, plus half a page on Dubai law enforcement.

Next, it's time to deal with smaller threats to S-K:



Here, there are more suggestions on how to gather information: 2 pages of NPCs, brief notes on some runner hang-outs, and some suggestions for Subplots, Debugging and Pushing the Envelope.

After this, the runners has the option of ending their contract or stepping things up...

The next parts of the job, each of them optional:


There's a one-page Aftermath section with a long list of possible Karma awards (14 total for team karma, and 3 points for Survival, plus the usual bonuses for good roleplaying etc), some information on the consequences of the runners' actions, and suggestions for possible contacts and Notoriety.

3 pages of legwork, a reprint of Hans Brackhaus from Street Legends, and 1 page of info on Dubai plus a full page map with points of interest rounds out the adventure.

The intro fiction and epilogue are short, but to the point.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes after the attack in Dubai, and Damage Control is a good way to get the runners involved in some of it, and hint at the bigger picture.

The scenario has some rough patches, and the legwork may seem a bit railroaded at times given that the PCs are likely forced to rely on the presented NPCs. The book is quite text-heavy, with not much art and only two maps (both reprinted as full-page hand outs in B/W). In total, it's 54 pages long, containing 6 adventure scenes - add the plot hooks and adventure seeds for the suggested mini-campaign, and I'd say it's quite good value for your money.

The art is quite cartoonish, and doesn't have much at all in the way of Dubai-feel to it - the cover even less so.

There's a lot of opportunity for good roleplaying during the runners' legwork in Dubai, but more action-oriented groups may find that patr boring. There's several opportunities for action as well, but no 'big fight' really. As shadowruns go, it's varied, but caters mostly to faces, hackers and covert ops specialists. Pink mohawk razorguys will have a harder time being useful, but if the players like roleplaying and culture-clashing comedy there's much fun to be had with such characters as well.

The backstory gives some insight into the delicacies of the 'dragon civil war' metaplot, but the PCs won't learn much of that - if anything.

All in all, I think it's a solid product. About 3.9 out of 5 for the runs, text and info and value for money - but a 2 for the art (if that...it's only a two because of the higher quality of the reprinted Brackhaus image and the decent quality maps...).

Thanks for the review.

IIRC, rules for travel prices are actually in SR4, at the beginning of the gear section.

Those are for legal travel, but yea, pg 314 SR4a.

With a decent fake SIN you should be able to manage legal transport to Dubai. Assuming you wanted to take your guns with you though....I'd probably just double the rate and make them arrange it via a fixer.

DOTA: Darkest Hour also had a table with travel times and costs for smuggling--that was Seattle to Hamburg (8,000 km). It can be modified easily for the trip to Dubai and your starting city by figuring out the distance.

Reading through it I liked the adventure, needs some tweaking in some areas but over all is pretty solid. I loved the interview scene, the various fixer "factions" was interesting (I really like the Vor), getting involved with DIVE opens up some plot hooks. The art not so much, it's quite jarring considering how good the rest of the art has been lately.

I was surprised the characters didn't end up defacto company men afterwards.

Am I the only one who found the rewards a bit lacking?

There's like four or five objectives. The base pay is 10K per runner (negotiable up to 20K, or down to 7.5K) per objective completed.

And to emphasize the the stakes SK/NeoNET/Ares are playing for:



I'll say it plain: Throwing beginning characters into this is like throwing lambs covered in tasty sauce into a pit filled with starving lions. There are several cases where if the party makes a wrong choice, THEY DIE (I'm talking about Gygax-level "Party dies, no save allowed" stuff here) Including:



In short, this book is the first of a series, but is basically designed for "I'm the best at what I do" runners with a ton of experience and will kill an unwary party fairly quickly (I'd rate it at about a 9.6 on the Gygaxian probability for TPK), for rewards that seem pitiful considering the amount of money at play here.


Not sure this is a recommendation.. but there are groups out there that will want to play this just so they can brag they completed it.

Fixed that for you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

anyone has an idea, how much play time one can expect?

Longer than DotA or Horizon adventures, it really depends on how your group plays. Damage Control is a lot of tiptoeing around and there's little room for error or becoming known, so more planning tends to be necessary.

Yeah, this is one of those runs that could really drag on, depending on how meticulous your group is.

Of course, there's always opportunities to nudge them into action if things take too long...

Not that we usually need to be nudged to go into action mode...... Just have us good and tired and we do the brute force solution more or less everytime no matter how ill-advised it might be... Just sayin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)