Eh, my foreign collection is really just a smattering, but my paper collection is complete.

How does this licensing work, given the legal issued surrounding CGL? I'm assuming the WizKids, Inc part just hasn't been updated? Or is there a convoluted path of ownership involved?

Oh this makes me so sad. :/ I got rid of most of the novels in a fit of teenage angst (depression is a hell of a drug), and whenever I went sourcebook shopping I never found any of the old ones (and when I found old ones, I never had the dough). Once saw a box of DMZ at a game store... wish I'd snatched that up, just for cool points.
Well. For a limited definition of "cool," anyway.

Amazon has most of them on their marketplace. Ebay is probably the best source, especially if you're missing a lot of books (lots go up far more often). I've seen lots that were damn near half the sourcebooks ever printed (including Denver and UB) go for under $200, and I've never seen a novel lot go above $50 even the one that had every single novel (pre-Duels). If you have anything like a Half-Price Books near you, they tend to have a big collection (though you'll pay more than the other sites). It's really easy to get a collection damn close to finished. The problem is getting those last couple of books at a price you're willing to pay (I am NOT paying fifty fucking dollars for Paradise Lost!)

Ok, so the entry cost for writers is ~$300 and a few weeks of reading. That's getting more doable, I guess.

In Germany, SR has constantly been among the Top 3 RPGs for almost 20 years...

Video Games?

The 5 chapter manga by Saiki Kazuma published by Dragon Comics in Japan?

Considering the SNES game has you executing Inezo Aneki at the end and obliterating the server that spawned Deus/Morgan - I am leaning towards no on the canon front. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

On the slightly brighter side quite a lot of cannon is re-hashed in other books and or completely ingorned/left open.

Germans love shadowrun. It's even mentioned in the SR TVTropes page.

However, some really ought to be translated. The German line had a lot of rubbish so bad it makes you cry, but also some real gems. The Heintz books, Pesadillas, the Alex Wichert books, Feuerzauber, Altes Eisen ... not everything focused on a foreign setting too; about half these books are set in Seattle or elsewhere (Alex Wichert's books are set in Yakut and Afghanistan, respectively).

I dunno, it might also be a cheap way to get material to put out fast? Of course, novel rights are in some weird legal state, what with FanPro's novels division being legally undead or something.


Is there a web-based fan translation? Is it any good?


Quick correction: original Euro stuff is published in 4th too. There is the franco-german cooperation on the SOX book/module, a Munich module for the German market, a Marseilles add-on to Corp Enclaves (franco-german again), a huge Hamburg chapter for the German Runner Havens, some bits for Emergence in German. Also, a Berlin sourcebook seems to be in the finishing stages at Pegasus.

To the Comments!

I would like to put forward that I consider very little of anything SR to be canon simply because of the fantastic way it is written. Keep in mind that I only have a BBB SR4 from FanPro (with a bunch of missing pages in the skills section) and SR4A from Catalyst. Other than that, I read a few SR novels that first piqued my interest in the setting.

What I mean is, even the history/setting of SR is presented in such a way that it can be called into doubt if it is the final word on what the truth of the setting is, given the limited (yet quite expansive with some characters) view points. Take for example the death of Pres Dragon Dunk, sure, I have been enlightened by such generous folks as AncientHistory as to what there is on what went on with that but to much of the setting, all those characters know is that Pres Dragon of the UCAS was assassinated.

And then there is the opposite effect had on such a person as myself so relatively new to the setting, the lack of details on particular areas of interest. In my case, that would be more info on the detailed workings and history of NAN and even more specifically SSC. When I start exploring that, in the face of lack of info I just make up my own setting to let my imagination play in, where I take into account parts I am familiar with IRL.

So in effect, in so many words, I guess I have just echoed what another has already said: Canon is whatever the GM says it is (which may be as little as just the SR4 BBB or even less if they are new to the SR setting).

That's interesting. I actually hadn't considered that before. Is it selectively canon, meaning whatever TPTB choose to use, or simply always canon? I mean, what's to stop a foreign entity to create something that completely goes against the setting/feel of the game? And now there's no choice but to accept it? How closely are the foreign editions monitored?

Very, for all I know. Didn't use to be like this (check Germany Sourcebook for how much), but by now everything is discussed at length, given how several high-profile German people are working closely with the international team, and work on the international books, too. The Berlin book, for instance, is a pet project of Lars Blumenstein, who has been a prolific contributor to just about any 4th edition book. Of course, that alone is working to integrate German and international books rather seamlessly. I don't know about France, but I think similar mechanisms are in place there.

Oh, I agree, just saying that they shouldn't get left out of consideration when mapping out the cannonicity levels of the franchise as a whole. For example, consider the venerable Remington Roomsweeper. As far as I know of, it's only ever been depicted visually twice in Shadowrun products. Elmore's SR1/SR2 cover art, and the Sega Genesis/Megadrive game.

Elmore's version certainly conveys the shotgunness of the weapon, but sort of falls flat on passing itself off as a concealable heavy pistol. Also, the only thing establishing that Sally's holding a Roomsweeper in that picture is the introductory fiction from the first core rulebook, so for those who discount the canonicity of the fiction pieces, art showing a scene from one of those fiction pieces may also be questionable.

The video game version, while icon sized and pixelated, manages to capture both these critical elements. One of the artists who did weapon art for Arsenal had a line-art version of the video game version of the Roomsweeper, but since the Roomsweeper was a core rulebook gun, and not a new item in Arsenal, CGL instead used that piece for the Nitama NeMax.

Now while I don't think the video games are consistent enough to the other published material to warrant a a label of Canon, in cases where they don't blatantly contradict the setting (*coughMicrosoftcough*), they should be used to inform and enrich material that is Canon. The case of the Roomsweeper is a missed opportunity for this.


No scanlation that I've ever been able to find, I'm afraid. Individual pages have been scaned & not translated, and the art's decent from what I've seen.