Actually, it's propably more because once upon a time a guy called William Gibson did.


And you get that from where? The pages and pages of writing in the companions, SSG, the little black book, the BBB and elsewhere that say it doesn't?

You're welcome to use the setting like that, of course, but don't pretend it's the only feasible way to.

Publication dates:
1990 - Harlequin
1992 - Deutschland in den Schatten
1994 - Germany Sourcebook

Hamelmann, T. and Lonsing, C. (eds.): Shadowrun - Die 6. Welt, pp. 404 and 426

Ah, I looked up in a German edition of Harlekin (where it says 1995). Silly me.

Though, since Lonsing had a hand in it, it might well be badly researched. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Who cares about the past, anyway? So there were some f*ckups in the old DidS. There were f*ckups in early SR everywhere. It was the nineties and everyone was on dope anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Now it's chilly-frilly 2008, the edition is 4th, a lot of the old mess has already been cleaned up, and as far as foreshadowing and forum's buzz is concerned the setting will be "de-weirded" some more.

De-weirding the Berlin setting will be kind of hard (and I'm fairly glad I'm not Californian, since they have it about as bad). Eismann, Medic and Lab-Rat seemed to have some ideas for a berlin setting book, though.

But I guess if there's to be such a thing, you'd be better informed than I am.

I certainly hope so (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

A quick update on things in Berlin: As you may have heard, a new and official Berlin sourcebook will be released in October this year, FINALLY answering the question of this thread once and for all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Berlin as a setting will be de-weirded without boring it down to "just another SR city" level. As I can't reveal more: It's a setting with wild and chaotic areas, totalitarian corporate enclaves, hidden conspiracies, terrorist bombings, greedy organized crime syndicates, infighting on all levels, and evil agendas on all sides.

Also, the book will feature a lot of detailed locations and more mission hooks than Dunkelzahn had scales (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
As you might have guessed I'm HUGELY looking forward to the book (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Will feature 90+% raben-aas art, too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

EDIT: And Berlin 2070+ will NOT! be the Berlin you see on Rabenwelten (link below). If you are esp. fond of "my" Berlin setting, be sure to download/copy everything for your own use, since I will rewrite/restructure the Rabenwelten when Berlin releases so that the Rabenwelten will be fully compatible with the canonical Berlin setting.

Are you sure you're not describing a Denver book there? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Jokes aside, I'm really looking forward to a de-crazed Germany sourcebook, and a book which has not been rushed out amidst several rewrites.

Actually, there will NOT be a Germany sourcebook. The upcoming book is about BERLIN and nothing else. I'm quite confident that there will be 2–3 other German citybooks (or maybe one other citybook and some other cities collected in one (third) book), but that is pure speculation.

It all depends on how well the Berlin book will be received and what the demand for additional German setting-books is (in Germany – I know nothing about any plans to translate any German setting book into English).

Seems like another reason to start learning German. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I was using "Germany sourcebook" as a generic term - Berlin will be a Germany sourcebook, a hypothetical Hamburg book would be a Germany sourcebook... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Ah. OK. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Two quick peex 4 those who are interested.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/244...aas-d2xrbdo.jpg
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/244...aas-d2xrb6p.jpg

Thanks to Google translator we can stalk the German SR sites. Now is there a translator for pdf's or would we have to cut and paste the text? Arts awesome as usual by the way.

There is no pdf, and AFAIK there is none planned, but I may be wrong.

A while back there was some talk about Pegasus considering .pdf releases, but not word since then whether they have reached a decision or what that decision might be.
So for the time being you will have to pay transatlantic shipping and learn German.

Yeah, there was some solid material in CFS, but like Berlin, we never used either. Imagine being from San Diego and finding out that you're now Mexican. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) But really, the worst transgression against California came in 4e when somebody leaped off the deep end and decided to write in the incredibly cliche and unlikely "Big One" scenario which sinks half the state. Still trying to figure out how LA and SD function since the map shows them to be essentially gone.

I'm with you that the setting has to make sense if it's derived from reality. If I'm supposed to believe that all the shit in the game works, then you can't really develop a setting in the game where it doesn't. People are more than free to use the Berlin setting as it was originally written. I think the R-guy seems to take it personally that people didn't like that it didn't make sense. There are different interpretations of Shadowrun, and none of them are wrong, unless you sit down at a table with a GM who has a vastly different one than your own.

But there's no need for the gonzo crowd to get offended when people discuss "realism". That term really strikes a chord with some people who apparently think if somebody else on the Internet doesn't think it's realistic that they are threatening to kick in the door of the game session and force that on them. Now, while that's probably the way it should be (because door kicking is fun), it isn't the reality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Some new info on the upcoming release of the Berlin sourcebook:
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.wordpress.com/20...2073-shadowrun/

With the Berlin "double cover" revealed (Berlin limited edition can be read from both ends of the book, one offering the corporate POV, the other detailing the Anarchist POV):
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....n-cover-kon.png
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....in-cover-sg.jpg

I'm really looking forward to this book - hopefully it will bring Berlin closer to become a realistic sprawl, as much as this is possible for Shadowrun. Still wonder how many of the old wanna-be-anarchists have been working on this book (the last german-only books suffered a lot from the influx of teenage-punkish anarchism).

What would be interesting to me.. is more what the Re-Awakened Black Forest looks like.

To me the only way the Shadowrun Sprawl + massive depopulation of the world works.. is if most of the world is just too dangerous to live in, so people congregate into the cities.. creating these highly dense sprawls.. because outside is Nature with all her awakened bitchiness.

As an update: BERLIN has been released, and here is a link to some PDF preview pages:
http://www.pegasus.de/1984.html