"Heavy manipulation of local mana levels", WTF? Options

[AllTheNothing]

Why the hell isn't every other nation and corp on Earth pounding the living hell out of the Azzies already?

Most of the dreck happens out of site and the Azzies take pain to keep it there, it usualy hit the fan due to shadowrunners and when it happens the Azzies just put on the market four or five new line of products distracting the attenction of the masses from the bad news and allowing the incredibily short lived memory to focus on something else (most likely something absolutely useless that won't be trendy anymore in about a week).

[hobgoblin]

i guess its also a question of who owns the news...

[Stahlseele]

Aztech is basically in there so the PLAYERS have some big bad booman to be afraid off.
But If that stuff were common knowledge, even in the Shadows, who would do business with them?
No runner ever would risk being sacrificed or something like that.
One of the reasons why it should, technically, be safe to do runs for Aztech.
They can't really afford to fuck you over or let you see what they are doing.

[Dr Funfrock]

I tend to stay way from "franchise" novels on general principle, unless it's an author that I know and like. I've read exactly one (1) Shadowrun novel (Worlds Without End), and it was years ago. I might still have in lying around somewhere. I don't remember if it was any good or not, but it didn't really inspire me to go out and pick up more SR novels.

So? I've never read any of the Shadowrun novels and I still know this stuff.

What you need to be reading is stuff like Threats 1 & 2, because they are freaking glorious, and give you a fantastic glimpse into just how fucked up the Shadowrun world really is. Also, because the Winternight chapter of Threats 1 will give you fucking nightmares.

In fact, go to Battleshop and download the following:

• Threats
• Renraku Arcology Shutdown
• Bug City
• Universal Brotherhood
• System Failure
• Portfolio of a Dragron: Dunkelzahn's Secrets

That covers pretty much all of the batshit crazy whackiness going on in the SR universe, and none of those books costs more than about $8 for a pdf. It's just a pity that there isn't an e-book of Threats 2 available yet (Oi, Catalyst, I hope you're taking notes here). It's inferior to the Threats 1, but still full of useful material, especially for understanding half of the madness that goes down in System Failure.

[Snow_Fox]

"That Devil's food cake? Real devils man. They're a coven and they summon 'em up, then grind 'em into powder. That's why it rots your teeth. It's sinful!"
"What about their angel food cake?"
"Dude, it's angel's food cake. Just a frickin' cake. Durr."

dude, it's worse than that. the peanut butter cookies are made from peanuts. The oatmeal cookies are made from oat meal, and the GIRL SCOUT COOKIES ARE MADE FROM.....

{Doctor's note, we've upped Ms. Fox's medication at this point as she is still clearly in the grip of delusions brought on by the feaver she suffered as a result from an infection she picked up on a recent trip to Accapulco. Naturally we at Atlan Medical services are deeply saddened by such a vibrant woman becoming so ill while enjoying a holiday, we wish to assure the public that this is an extremely rare case and we take every possible step to ensure you stay at such affordable luxery resorts as the Aztlan Hilton and the Accapoluco Aztlan memorable and exciting and safe.}

[hobgoblin]

So? I've never read any of the Shadowrun novels and I still know this stuff.

What you need to be reading is stuff like Threats 1 & 2, because they are freaking glorious, and give you a fantastic glimpse into just how fucked up the Shadowrun world really is. Also, because the Winternight chapter of Threats 1 will give you fucking nightmares.

In fact, go to Battleshop and download the following:

• Threats
• Renraku Arcology Shutdown
• Bug City
• Universal Brotherhood
• System Failure
• Portfolio of a Dragron: Dunkelzahn's Secrets

That covers pretty much all of the batshit crazy whackiness going on in the SR universe, and none of those books costs more than about $8 for a pdf. It's just a pity that there isn't an e-book of Threats 2 available yet (Oi, Catalyst, I hope you're taking notes here). It's inferior to the Threats 1, but still full of useful material, especially for understanding half of the madness that goes down in System Failure.

can someone recommend a ebook reader that can handle us letter sized pages and pdf files?

[Tiger Eyes]

So? I've never read any of the Shadowrun novels and I still know this stuff.

What you need to be reading is stuff like Threats 1 & 2, because they are freaking glorious, and give you a fantastic glimpse into just how fucked up the Shadowrun world really is. Also, because the Winternight chapter of Threats 1 will give you fucking nightmares.

In fact, go to Battleshop and download the following:

• Portfolio of a Dragron: Dunkelzahn's Secrets

Could we possibly have a 20th anniversary year without a nod to Dunkie's will?

And, personally, Loose Alliances is another on that must-have list if you want a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes craziness of SR.

[Demonseed Elite]

can someone recommend a ebook reader that can handle us letter sized pages and pdf files?

I couldn't really recommend one yet. There are a few full letter-sized readers, but they are expensive. And PDFs still suffer from the problem of taking a long time to turn pages because of the amount of data in each page. PDF was designed as a print format and not really for e-readers.

Plastic Logic has a nice looking (and most likely expensive) letter-sized e-reader coming out soon. And the new rumor is that Amazon will have a letter-sized e-reader out by Christmas this year. If you want a comparison chart of the e-readers that exist, MobileRead has the best one.