The shadowrun stuff you dont get in english Options

[Noirfatale]

well the french version of shadows of europe had improvement over the original and now the German and the french are doing it again:

http://www.black-book-editions.fr/index.php?site_id=104

for those who cant read french:

SOX: a radioactive hell two hour from Paris. Tens of thousands people irradiated living for 60 years in the middle of ruins of a forgotten region, behind wall were the only law is : Survival

A region between France and Germany were the corporation use the isolation and the complacency of the governement to get rid of their waste , industrial and human, conduct bacteriological, chemical and nuclear tests, do military operations under the eyes of media who spins it all into record ratings. Welcome in hell, welcome in Sarre-Lorraine-Luxambourg.

The first part of SOX covers local history, the effect of radiation on the environment, magic and its inhabitants, the various groups of survivors along their culture and rites, machination of the corporations and their security forces, all from the point of view of a shadowrunners.

Second part, Bad Omen, is a great Campaign which leads the runners through SOX to find a secret buried a long time ago, who once uncovered may touch the whole country of France...

SOX is both a supplement and a campaign for Shadowrun 4th edition, made in collaboration with the German shadowrun team.

Shadowrunning in Europe looks fun!

[Metalmek]

you gotta give those french credit for top notch writing ... hopefully they didn'nt make the gaming mechanic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

French story and background writers ares awsomes!

It was an reading orgasm for me when I read "Les ombres d'europes" (shadows of europe)

well ... and other 60 nuyens on my budget when it will be available here.

[walkir]

This book actually is a French-German cooperation. The German version came out in 2007.
Each version includes its own campaign, but AFAIR, the background part is the same.

The German campaign is about an "accident" (the meltdown of a nuclear reactor) in an ESUS-owned arcologie which strengthens radioactivity in the southern SOX. "strengthens" because the whole zone is the result of a nuclear power plant meltdown in 2008 anyway...

[Wesley Street]

This is my punishment for dropping out of French class in high school. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Machiavelli]

Right. I have the same problem but don´t forget the immortal words of Al Bundy "It´s wrong being french" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) And btw: the german core-books are awesome^^

[BlueMax]

Heck, I don't *get* the fluff written in English some of the time now. I need my younger players to translate for me.

[GreyBrother]

Have to say... the german Version of SOX is awesome and a really good read. And i am one of those "German is probably bad, no recommend"-gamers. But SOX is well written. Best part is, that those who always lived in the zone have not much clue about metas and magic ^^

Yet to read some of the Pegasus translations, tough. Can somebody spare me a dime so i can work around my prejudices? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Stormdrake]

Are there no translations of the German or French books? The SOX sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

Maybe I could bribe my wife to translate the french version, lol.

[Uli]

Well I suppose I am allone with this, but I detest the self-made German fluff and crunch and couldn't care less about the shinenigans in the alliance. Only Hamburg is halfway decent.

And above of that, I have no clue what could be interesting about a lethal place. Are you going to roleplay with the toxic waste, engineered viruses, sealed corporate military forces, or bathe in the radioactive fallout? Sounds like one hell of depressing GM descriptions, lacking dialogues, and fights.

Okay, now I'm being a little biased: So please explain to me, what is so cool about the SOX and what could you do there that would not be more interesting in a halfway safe and populated area including infrastructure?

[Blade]

To put it simply: it's Mad Max/Fallout/S.T.A.L.K.E.R in Shadowrun. It's a different setting.

[Machiavelli]

Yeah Baby!!! Fireballs and full-auto bursts without attracting cops....no cops at all....a alot of paracritters, mutants etc. to frag and everything without a bad conscience....you´ll love it.^^

[Uli]

Actually I've never played Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I have only seen the move, but as I've heard these two are quite different from each other. And the problem I see there is the following...

[threadnap]
Games visualize their action and plot for the player through direct input. In RPGs this input is indirect and dependent on the interactive storytelling telling, reception, and visualization ability of the whole group. Therefore, I think most extreme environments (e.g. the SOX, Antarctica, deserts) are hardly portrayable. In populated areas you can rely heavily on dialogues to illustrate whatever you need ("Yuk, that Roadmaster splatted a devil rat..."). Dialogue is the only medium in RPGs that provides a direct interaction and is thus prefered by me and other quality GMs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)
[/threadnap]

Fireballs and machineguns are not exactly my SR style. So thank you, but no thank you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Wesley Street]

And i am one of those "German is probably bad, no recommend"-gamers.

Coming from an ignorant American I ask, where does this attitude come from? Do German RPG-tie in products have a tradition of lower quality?

[Adarael]

Uli, the game STALKER Is based much more on Roadside Picnic (Пикник на обочине), which inspire Tarkovsky's Stalker, but wasn't directly the story itself.

[GreyBrother]

Wesley: Several things the german community likes to argue about. Some don't like that the ADL started as nothing more than a bunch of bad fanfics gone to printing (or so some people said, you probably know how that is). Then there is that nice thing with the Zeiss Cybereyes in the german Man and Machine. Similar stuff happened, but the german Devs had the notion of "Must make better gear from germany" and those Zeiss eyes were Cybereye sets which were cheaper in essence and nuyen just cause. And thats only one example of this übergear.
There is a friggin elvenland in the ADL, why? Was Tir na n0g not enough? To top that there is a troll kingdom in the Schwarzwald. At least trolls are awesome and i would've liked to see more from that instead of another friggin elven "holy land" (and i'm not even biased against elves like some others).

On a personal level, i - as an austrian - look at the german media landscape (including roleplaying, movies, games and stuff) and could facepalm all day, it annoys my best friend, a german. Sucky translations, not needed "additions" and censorship, it's just not cool anymore.

[Noirfatale]

well there is always a corp somewere that wants something inside and need to get it quietly.

now why in the blazing hell would your shadowrunner want to go in, get exposed to bio-chemical and rad hazard?

well the seven figure paycheck of course!

I would not do a entire campaing in a setting like that but I did a string of free flotting runs in bug city and my players had a blast!

this is the kind of Hi-Risk Hi-pay jobs that intelligent shadowruner can pull off with good planing and a bit of luck and daring.

And it make them apreciate the rotten slums they live in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[BlueMax]

On a personal level, i - as an austrian - look at the german media landscape (including roleplaying, movies, games and stuff) and could facepalm all day, it annoys my best friend, a german. Sucky translations, not needed "additions" and censorship, it's just not cool anymore.

When you said Austrian, it brought back memories. I say this because some folks are treating this all likes its new. In 1995 when I was in Austria and Germany, there were two Austrain gentlemen (maybe 17-18) reading Battletech novels and I talked to them. It amazed me how much had been translated and how different some plot elements came out.
nineteen ninety five people.

Then they proceeded to act shocked that I had read Marx, Lenin and Mao. Proceeding to give me a lecture on how they thought those books were banned in the U.S. and we must all be neanderthals. I honestly wasn't angry but I did tell them
"I think your Kangaroos are wonderful"

I should have put sarcasm tags up as I said it though.

BlueMax

[GreyBrother]

Bastards deserved it, BlueMax (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[MYST1C]

More fodder for the "Germany does it different"-crowd:

• The upcoming Pegasus reprint of Straßenmagie (Street Magic) will include Digital Grimoire as extra content.
• The upcoming Pegasus translation of Corporate Enclaves (Konzernenklaven) will include not only Rotten Apple: Manhattan as extra content but also an all-new chapter on Frankfurt.

[Issmir]

It looks pretty interesting, but all I can think when I read "SOX" is "CHAUSSETTES!"

(for the non Francophones among you, it was very funny. Honest.)

[Stahlseele]

Heck, even we german Players more or less think the German Only stuff is bad . . At least, i do . .
Any of you know about the URBAN Series from H&K? Yeah, those guns were so Uber, even the Tasers could kill big Critters.
As for the Zeiss-Eyes. I can SEE that . . Zeiss is the Number One Optics Corporation in Germany and has been for a LONG time.
Specializing in Miniaturization and other such stuff, as far ar i know. Basically, Zeiss-Eyes can be considered Beta-Ware.
But, and here comes the big Problem with them: They are frigging INCOMPATIBLE with EVERYTHING NOT ZEISS.
Straight Reading that, take for example your Smartlink or Smartlink 2 . . you love that one, don't you?
Yeah, no, won't work with the Zeiss-Eyes. And this Incompatibility extends, as far as i know, to all other German ware.
So in Essence, the German Ware is WORSE than the American, because even if you save some Essence/Nuyen,
you are fucked as soon as you need anything else that is not from there and has to work together with the german stuff.
As an aside:"It's wrong being french" < = this is more or less the mindset of most germans too ^^
and i guess i am a bit biased about the Hamburg Writeups, because i live there, but i think they are freaking awesome o.O

[Zombayz]

To put it simply: it's Mad Max/Fallout/S.T.A.L.K.E.R in Shadowrun. It's a different setting.

[derail]As someone who actually made rules and statted out weapons, armour, anomalies, artifacts, 15 non-unique NPCs and 14 unique NPCs, 11 different mutants/critters, made local maps(along with satellite shots) of areas for STALKER: Shadowrun, I'd like to say that it's not STALKER: Shadowrun.[/derail]

[Dumori]

[derail]As some one who "works" on a mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R to add shadowrun elements I all so have to agree. The Zone and SOX are different bests.[\derail]

[Uli]

I join the other Germans in this thread by saying: It really bugs me that German publishers just cannot be satisfied by mere translations. But the new addition (and there are [again] additional weapons and stuff in the German Arsenal for example) are at least not broken.

[BlueMax]

More fodder for the "Germany does it different"-crowd:

• The upcoming Pegasus reprint of Straßenmagie (Street Magic) will include Digital Grimoire as extra content.
• The upcoming Pegasus translation of Corporate Enclaves (Konzernenklaven) will include not only Rotten Apple: Manhattan as extra content but also an all-new chapter on Frankfurt.

Must be nice...