Feral Cities Options

[Casper]

Wow PDf has been out for a day and a half and still no mention of it.

[bofh]

Right up there in the stickies (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Carl

[Tiger Eyes]

I think he means no reviews, no comments, no discussion, no ripping it to shreds... I'm a bit surprised too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Black Jack Rackh...]

I'm waiting with baited breath.

Mark

[Malachi]

I think he means no reviews, no comments, no discussion, no ripping it to shreds... I'm a bit surprised too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'm looking forward to reading the Lagos chapter. Oh and congrats on the new job Jennifer.

[Chrysalis]

I hate to say it, but at 18 dollars for the PDF it's a bit too expensive for my wallet.

[Casper]

oops over looked that

[bofh]

I started reading it last night. The Chicago stuff is pretty interesting so far (page 24). I'm off tomorrow so I'll be reading some more as the weekend passes.

Carl

[Mäx]

Pretty cool book, feral cities look like interesting places to run the shadows. Chigaco really made me think Fallout.
But most of all i loved Karavan (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

[Wesley Street]

I'm waiting with baited breath.

"Bated." Unless you've got worms and nightcrawlers in your mouth. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I'm waiting on the printing for this. I'll do the PDF+Book combos for rule books but for location books, where I don't need to quick search a rule in-game via laptop, I don't feel the need to take on the extra expense.

[Brother Julian]

Maybe he ate some fishing stink bait. That would certainly qualify as "baited breath". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Brother Julian, Defender of the Faith.

[gryphon340]

Will there be the European map in this file/book?

[hermit]

There is no map, sorry. Will be in the Almanac 2072, though, propably.

I think he means no reviews, no comments, no discussion, no ripping it to shreds... I'm a bit surprised too.

Anything to please a pretty and important lady ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Overall, decent book - Chicago post-Bug City is nice, though no real news there, and Lagos is just the hellhole one would expect, plus some nice info on Africa in SR in general, which is really handy since before, there was exactly one book mentioning anything about Africa (two if you count a novel as a source).

Chicago revisited. Mixed feelings there, actually. Mixed because it's a setting that's reaqlly only good for visits, not nescessarily to run a campaign in. The Writing's good, it's nice to revisit the site of one of the top 5 Shadowrun books ever published in my opinion, but ... I can't helt but feel that someplace else might have been mroe rewarding for me personally to have been given the spotlight. My opinion, though, and I bet many palyers will differ there. And as a setting for runs, though not a campaign, the place's great - you can do so much to your PCs there. Just, I would've taken a different city here, maybe an anarchist collective like Kronstad or even a Region like Northern California. YMMV.

While I never cared much for post-Bug Chicago - SR has more than enough post-apoc settings, for all I am concerned - Lagos really turned out nicely. The fluff is well written, creepy and violent as it should be, and the setting really breathes a very violent, dangerous and barbaric vibe, without going too Joseph Conrad. Sample runs are also nice, even though a bit generic - I swear, my characters are gonna just walk out on the next johnson who wants them to escort some crackpot scientist into $hellhole. That's starting to rank up right there with those "of course we will fly you out" kinda runs into extremly hostile environments. Good writing, overal, though. And great to finally know a bit more about SR's Africa. Looking forward to seeing Lagos explored further in future books!

The smaller settings are, with one exception, nicely done, too. Karawan is a cute, if a little Mad Max, idea of a magic moving city the GM can have pop up at will. While a bit like Lagos, Sarajevo maintains it's unique vibe and provides a very fine barbaric setting for Europe-based campaigns beyond the lunacy of the SOX. Same with GeMiTo, one of the most intriguing Barrens zones in SR. Colombia could really have used a few more pages; and it's again a sad reminder of the Book We Will Never Get To see.

However, Geneva flat-out makes no sense. What exactly is stopping the Blues from just cutting all power in the city, blowing up all backup generators in quick strikes (by Blues or corp strike teams using commlinks with sattelite uplink and disabled wireless connectivity hardware), to take the Technos' entire power away? Without a wireless network, they're powerless. Then they could cordon off Geneva and filter out any Techno for internment or even summary execution. Any AI present in the Geneva grid would perish when their home nodes go offline. Problem solved.

Also, why no barter economy in Geneva? Are the Swiss too degenerated to set one up once their credit cards stop working or what? Why doesn't the UA's apparent betrayal of the UN for the sake of Technomancer terrorists give them even a little dent in the public's opinion? Please, PLEASE don't tell me it's yet again Mary-Sue, inc. (Horizon)'s work in mediablitzing nonsense into the setting ...

Finally, why no outrage about this new and entirely genuine case of technomancers killing thousands? Why doesn't anyone elsewhere seem to give a shit that Humanis apparently was spot on about mancers?

There. You asked for it.

[TW]

I like to think we included a lot of new stuff in the Chicago write up while adding more than a few references to Chicago's rich history. I also think it definitely provides more than enough 'meat' for a full campaign. Whether dealing with the Corridor's enclaves, the feral Zone or Corp-controlled O'Hare, there are lots of possibilities for a full fledged campaign exploring the various facettes of 2070 Chicago.

As for Geneva, keep in mind by the time the Feral Cities compilation is uploaded onto JackPoint, the Geneva situation is only a mere few weeks old. So some of what you are questioning / suggesting could still happen sometime down the road. That goes for a possible solution to the situation as well as for the Undernet Alliance. Also, to what extent the UA is involved, betrayed the UN or was manipulated is still unclear at this point.

[hermit]

Since when have uncertainities stopped people from making up conspiracy theories? The first about 9/11 were around at the same day. Also, with the technomancer scare only a year ago, I fail to see why noone would stand up and say "see, we told you so, they're monsters and have to be exterminated".

And yes, there is new stuff in Chicago, sorry if I made it sound otherwise. Basically, the Zone has expanded, and it's now a lawless city entirely, subsprawls included. There's this royal jelly, bugs still not exterminated, and the whole setting seems like a less ludicrous version of Germany's original Berlin (one that may actually work somewhat). Still not my cup of tea. And an entire campaign there ... sure, you can run a specialised campaign anywhere you want, whether on a space station, in the arctic or in the SOX. It's not too good for a standard campaign, though, if you ask me. Too far down the post-apoc road, and some character types, especially the tech-oriented like riggers, hackers and mancers, have little to no use there. Mages have a hard time too.

[TW]

The Geneva write focused on, well, Geneva, and the limited wordcount didn't allow expanding into the world's (or even the Jackpointer's) reactions in more detail. Again, that's not to say we don't have plans for it further down the road (for example, the Jackpoint log in page in Ghost Cartels makes mention of the Geeva situation).

As for Chicago, I'm not talking a specialized Campaign, but a regular campaign, 'challenges' to particular archetypes included (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[hermit]

I don't really consider "Is rendered obsolete" as a challenge, myself ... or "is rendered obsolete and goes insane", as would be the case for mancers. Much as I dislike them, they're just no option in the Chicago setting. And "dies if he does his stuff" isn't any better for mages ...

We seem to disagree on what constitutes a challenge. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

As for Geneva ... I can only comment what I see written, and that's mainly "zomg /b/ took over Geneva l33t" and nobody seems to give a damn or do the blatantly obvious and pull the plug of these bloody computers (and reinstall them after exchanging the HDDs). No network, no technomancers annoying you, problem solved. Half the mancers are gonna die from pulling the plug, and the other half can be stripped naked and dumped into the Alpine Interdict or something. All the AI that set up shop there will perish anyway.

And why doesn't this spark new mancer riots, if a much, much smaller attack last year sparked a second night of rage?

[Fuchs]

Well, I'll not use Geneva in my world, just does not make sense - especially not in Switzerland, who is if anything over-insured for everything. Sounds like "oh, and all Texans went pacifist, so they had no private guns left, since that would not fit with our plot idea".