Coyotes, Crossing Boders! Options

[CloisterCobra]

Following up from CanRays announcement, Coyotes has also just been released.

Coyotes

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Edit: thirty pages of fiction, art, border crunch and sample characters topped off with a short mission to help you get into the mood.

[Not of this Worl...]

Has anyone read it? What is the writing like? I read the sample on Drivethru but didn't get a good feel for what the book is.

I'm very on the fence about any setting related material for 5th edition.

[CloisterCobra]

Has anyone read it? What is the writing like? I read the sample on Drivethru but didn't get a good feel for what the book is.

I'm afraid that's not the sort of thing I can comment on in an unbiased way.

I'm very on the fence about any setting related material for 5th edition.

Why is that?

Cheers
CC

[Backgammon]

I flipped though it, it's on my pile of things to actually read. I was amazed by the sheer amour of useable content. You have fluff, then you have stats for generic NPCs as well as actual named ones, so GMs can add ready made NPCs to their campaigns. And then there is TONS of extra rules for using Coyotes, I.e. crossing borders. And then if that's not enough, there and entire mission in there, formatted much like a Mission adventure, so pretty detailed.

Honestly, it sets the bar pretty high for future books.

[Knight Saber]

Were there any new vehicles or vehicle mods in it, or was all the crunch on the border side of things?

[CloisterCobra]

Were there any new vehicles or vehicle mods in it, or was all the crunch on the border side of things?

No new vehicles, the only mod is the ability to wire grenades into the passenger compartment.

Cheers,
CC

[tasti man LH]

Has anyone read it? What is the writing like? I read the sample on Drivethru but didn't get a good feel for what the book is.

I have, I have!!! XD

So, if any of you have any doubt, yes "Coyotes" is in the same vein as "Assassin's Primer" was. The difference being that it's about the people who transport other people across borders (geographical, political, extraterritorial, etc.), and that unlike A-P, it has quite a bit more crunch to it. So much so that it makes A-P look comically bare-bones and underwritten (if it already wasn't for you).

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Fluffiness

And thankfully, "Coyotes" premise as an article/thread on Jackpoint isn't quite as silly as Assassin's Primer was. Here it's just a guest Coyote on JP (fellow by the handle of "Timothy Movo") explaining the Coyote lifestyle, what they do if their "cargo" turns on them (which by the way, I think to be the DUMBEST idea anyone can do. I mean, isn't there a golden rule to SR to "Never fuck with the rigger while he's in his van"?) where and how to hire one (especially if you're in a situation where you're in a pinch and can't call your fixer), and all about the different kinds of border checkpoints one will find. I have no idea if the fluff on Coyotes is extensively covered already in previous sourcebooks for SR, or if any of it is contradictory, so I'm not the guy to ask about that.

One of the major flaws of this release, however (skipping ahead a bit, but this is kind of important) is that "Coyotes" is oddly...lacking in explaining how to actually get past border security. Considering the nature of this release, you would think that this is the most important part of e-book. But no, the "Getting Past Borders" section barely accounts for half a page, and the methods listed are only a sentence long in it's description. Now I'm not sure if the author (...er, a "Mr. Grant Robinson") felt that the points were self-explanatory that they didn't require further explanation, or if he simply was getting close to the page limit and didn't want to cut anything out, but it's still a huge misstep and is woefully underdeveloped.

Oh, and one odd story continuity error(?) I found: Marcos is posting in this one. Now I still haven't read through Storm Front, but wasn't Marcos along with the other casualties like Black Mamba? So unless if this and A-P really do take place before Storm Front, I call shenanigans.

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Crunch Time

Crunch-wise...well, as I said, there's a LOT here. Really, comparing it and A-P is like comparing a gourmet steak to a cheap fast food burger.

For starters there's a table that lays out Border Crossing Costs when you need to determine the asking price of a Coyote. I know, I know, people here aren't too thrilled about SR5's payout tables. Still, I'll take what I can get, and it's a start. Plus, this chart actually DOES include multipliers depending on the difficulty of the border crossing (a measly x0.5 for the CAS/UCAS border to as high as a x10.0 for Aztlan/CAS).

We've also got full stats for Border Checkpoints...

(yeah, full stats! In an e-release that's not a gear/critter/faction splat book! It really is Christmas!!!!)

...ranging from Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. The stats listed include those of your typical border guard, the Matrix Host ratings and running programs and a description of their Matrix policies, what type of magical protections they have, and physical protections. Just from reading through the stats once, nothing immediately jumps out to me as being misplaced or horribly unbalanced (although I did chuckle over how the 'Easy' Border Patrol Guard's overall inherent Limits were worse then the 'Very Easy' Border Patrol Guard's Limits). Well, unless if you count the Matrix Hosts, whose stats seem to be rather high ("Very Easy" having a Host that's Rating 6, with ASDF of 6 9 7 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) . So either a.) The Matrix stats are ridiculously high and need to be scaled back or b.) In the Sixth World, border security is treated VERY seriously. I would say the same with Magic security...buuuut then again, if the party's magician has a Magic of less then 5 and don't have a single Bound spirit that's Force 5 or higher, then they're doing it wrong.

(which even then I'm not sure of, since I have no basis of comparison with RL border security)

And as if that's not enough, the e-book also provides six sample Coyote character sheets. They range from Jock Bean, your friendly Ork Underground guide, to Timothy Movo himself, to even Contrail the high-flying TM air jockey. In terms of variety, all of the core metatypes are represented and come from a variety of archetypes (from your standard riggers, to the aforementioned TM, and even an adept). And because of that, they're good for when the GM needs a Coyote NPC in a pinch, or to use them as guidelines for making your own Coyote characters.

As for the character sheets themselves, I'm happy to report that in terms of format, everything is where it should be. No weird cases of Initiative missing, or the CMs being gone, everything is where it should be. The only exceptions being that Menole's Skills are listed as their Ratings only and not in their Dice Pools like everyone else, and that he and Oorzark don't have any qualities, but these are easily forgiven, with only one resulting in minor tedium in figuring out. And besides, this is Shadowrun: if you made it this far, a little bit of arithmetic isn't going to kill you. That said, as of this post, I have not crunched the numbers to see if these characters are Priority-legal, or if they even were made with Priorities. I doubt it, especially since Contrail is Submerged at Rating 3.

And if THAT wasn't enough, the e-book even comes with it's own little adventure module! "Piping Hot" is a one-shot mission where PCs serve as temp Coyotes to get a guy across the Seattle-Salish border. It's a pretty straightforward mission: meet the Johnson, get across, pick up the target, get through a detour, sneak back into Seattle, payday. There are a couple of combat encounters sprinkled through the mission (which I will not spoil here) to spice things in between, naturally. Obviously, the players need to have a PC with a good Pilot Groundcraft skill, otherwise the whole mission falls apart (as well as if the PCs choose specifically not to go by land and opt for air or sea...which at that point I'd say you're missing the point of the Mission, but w.e).

Now the one huge flaw that I DID find though: the mission doesn't list the base payout price. It lists the maximum amount you can Negotiate up to and it lists the bonuses they could receive at mission's end, but not the actual base price. Definitely a really bad oversight.

Were there any new vehicles or vehicle mods in it, or was all the crunch on the border side of things?

(The Kicker)

...and this, I believe, is the biggest flaw of "Coyotes": out of all the crunch they could have added, the one that's the most absent is any gear related to the art of human smuggling. There are no vehicles or vehicle mods listed specifically for Coyotes. Part of the problem has to do with how the SR5 vehicle mod rules aren't out yet, so I get why there aren't any listed here. And because of that, I wish this had been released AFTER Run and Gun's release instead of before, as this would have made a good follow-up to those rules. To further drive this point home, the sample Coyote characters vehicles as they are seem a bit under-equipped, because they don't have the bells and whistles that would be essential to their trade. As it sits no Coyote-related gear, and it's omission is puzzling.

And here's the thing about Coyotes: it seems to be more of a GM-tool on knowing about Coyotes and setting up Coyote-esque runs, but little for players that want to BE a Coyote.

Just from reading through this, I can understand that the role of a Coyote is an incredibly niche one. So niche that you're better off doubling up on another archetype, or just being a full-time rigger. And you're not still not completely boned if you want to make a Coyote PC; that's what the sample Coyotes are for. Even then, it still seems odd to not have any goodies specifically for players on being a Coyote, or a character with a Coyote background. And, well, you never know when you'll get that one player that wants to have a PC as specialized as the metahuman smugglers. Bare minimum, some Coyote-themed qualities would have been nice; the full-Nelson, some vehicle mods or even statted out vehicles that were built specifically for Coyotes.



TL;DR Overall: it's a HUGE step-up in this new line of "How to do ______ Runs" PDFs. It's not perfect, but for what it does offer, and any omissions are sorely missed, but for what its' got, it's good stuff. Worth the $8 bucks, but if the omissions I mentioned are a make or break for you, then skip it.

[Sengir]

Oh, and one odd story continuity error(?) I found: Marcos is posting in this one. Now I still haven't read through Storm Front, but wasn't Marcos along with the other casualties like Black Mamba? So unless if this and A-P really do take place before Storm Front, I call shenanigans.

Marcos was initially MIA but Sticks later reported him being alive.

However, you just reminded me of another casualty: Aufheben, who does to a piece of shadowtalk in GH3. Can't anyone from this goddamned battle stay dead?

[Nath]

I'm telling you, the entire 4th edition only took place in Fastjack's head!!!

[tasti man LH]

Marcos was initially MIA but Sticks later reported him being alive.

Ah, k then. No major continuity inconsistencies here then (at least from what I can see).

Speaking of Sticks...I'm not sure if this is OoC for him, but I'm kind of amused at the idea that the guy is very paranoid about being in the back of a Coyote van because of how they really do have a gun pointed at him while sitting cramped in the back.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I'm telling you, the entire 4th edition only took place in Fastjack's head!!!

Which is complete Crap... *shakes head*

[Not of this Worl...]

Why is that?

Basically I'm one of the people who ditched 4th edition, in part because they decided to reboot the entire setting and change the setting. I started Shadowrun with 1st edition and it wasn't great rules that got me into the game. It was the writing and the setting that hooked people. 1st through 3rd Shadowrun was always Cyberpunk with High Fantasy and had a well detailed setting. 4th edition changed the details, the language and changed the setting to a World of Darkness style urban fantasy with Transhumanism. If I ever buy any setting books for 5th edition it will be based on 5th edition deciding it is Cyberpunk & High Fantasy and returning to the lingo and other details of the setting that made Shadowrun unique.

I don't expect the setting to go the way of Nath's "It only took place in Fastjack's head", but he isn't alone in the sentiment.

[garner_adam]

tasti man LH,

Thanks for the review I found it helpful. Does it expand at all on the use of Fake IDs and SINs? I imagine when it comes to crossing borders that's when they are of paramount importance.

[tasti man LH]

tasti man LH,

Thanks for the review I found it helpful. Does it expand at all on the use of Fake IDs and SINs? I imagine when it comes to crossing borders that's when they are of paramount importance.

No problem, man. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And sadly no, there are no new additional rules for fake IDs and SINs. It DOES, however, explain the process of when border checkpoints do check for your SIN . It's all explained in the stats for the border checkpoints under the Host heading. And while they don't explicitly explain how to get past this (crunch-wise), it does explain the process well enough for GMs, and hopefully when it is thrown at a party, should give the deckers something to think and work around.

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Also, finally got Gun H(e)aven 3, which I noticed that all the guns there DO list the weapon mods built into the guns, which I understand is because these guns are dual-statted.

And even then...sooooo it's ok for a bunch of guns to get dual statted even if the rules for mods aren't officially out yet.....but it's NOT ok to list vehicle mods to aid Coyotes in their line of work?

Yeah, count me in on the conspiracy against Riggers.

(...unless if there aren't going to be any vehicle mod rules in Run and Gun and there really is going to be a legit Rigger 5...but I doubt that)

[Prime Mover]

I got these pdf's along with assassin. Assassins I feel like I could have passed on and been ok. Gun Haven is what it says it is, I'm liking art and layout for 5th ed stuff, not sure if it's colors but seems crisp and clean.

Now Coyote Wow. No product is perfect but when I pick up a PDF this is what I want to see. I agree with previous poster this is were the bar should be set. This product answers the questions I'd ask if asked about the topic and provides the info I need as a GM to open this up and put to use right at table PDQ.

I hope folks take notice and use this release as the standard going forward.
Really been looking forward to Aetherology, Metaplanes have long been neglected. My Xmas wish is continued excellence going forward.

[Sendaz]

However, you just reminded me of another casualty: Aufheben, who does to a piece of shadowtalk in GH3. Can't anyone from this goddamned battle stay dead?

The confusion of war is like that, assuming it IS even the same person.

Between possible hacked personas, shedim and other things any of these parties that have been out of touch/assumed dead could be compromised.

Merry christmas

[Redjack]

I'm telling you, the entire 4th edition only took place in Fastjack's head!!!

Which is complete Crap... *shakes head*

Yea. We're not playing Bob Newhart Run or something equally silly stupid.

[Nath]

I didn't it think it would require more than three exclamation marks to make the irony obvious.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I didn't it think it would require more than three exclamation marks to make the irony obvious.

Ironic, Yes?

[Fatum]

I flipped through the book, got the impression that it's remarkably light on things that your actual runners might do to get through the borders, other than hiring someone to do it for them, and dropped it.

[tasti man LH]

I flipped through the book, got the impression that it's remarkably light on things that your actual runners might do to get through the borders, other than hiring someone to do it for them, and dropped it.

The book is written primarily as a GM aid, and not a player aid. Hence why anything that specifically benefits players seems to be absent. And by the book's own admission, a PC runner being a coyote is not really something that a lot of people do. And given the way how the book presents the sample coyotes, you're better off just making a regular ol' rigger. Besides, think you're throwing it under the bus a little bit too quickly. What crunch is here is very good crunch.

Although I'll give you how the book doesn't really explain much on how to actually get runners past border security. Unless if the author here felt that the "suggestions" given were self-explanatory enough.

[Fatum]

Dunno, my games tend to revolve primarily around players.
Even when reading a setting book, especially a setting book from the older editions, I get a bunch of info on what my troupe could be doing: be it straight plot hooks, general attitudes of different parties that the runners could turn to their advantage, or whatever else.

[CloisterCobra]

Hey guys, thank you for the nice comments, for those of you who have picked up Coyotes, I am glad that you seem to have enjoyed reading it, I enjoyed writing it for you.

This sort of thing has been mentioned a couple of times, and I thought I would explain what I was thinking at the time.

I flipped through the book, got the impression that it's remarkably light on things that your actual runners might do to get through the borders, other than hiring someone to do it for them, and dropped it.

Basically I write what I like to see in a supplement, so I personally tend to go quite heavy on fluff. After Magical Societies there was a clear call here and on the official forums for more crunch, which I think I delivered with Coyotes.

Anyway, what I like to see is a descriptive document which shows what the situation is, so that creative and imaginative players and GMs can tell their stories with some new tools. Therefore I didn't dedicate much space to getting past borders and checkpoints, because to me, that would be cutting out most of the fun.

It seems, however, that there are gamers here and elsewhere who prefer a more prescriptive product. Thank you for letting me know,I will try to add a little more of that in the future. Also, some folks also wanted more toys, I'll see what I can do on those fronts. I don't promise to get it right every time, and I won't promise to make all people happy all the time, but I will promise to listen to you guys and keep trying to improve.

Cheers,
Grant

[Fatum]

Magical Societies contained much more info that relates directly to the runners, as for me. I'm not saying that every book should be all "your runners should do this and that", but in my opinion, they definitely should be giving you ideas on what they could be doing based on the fluff presented.
That's why I'm not a fan of, say, books on corp politics, either - yeah, this Shiawase got that many shares from that Shiawase, and that particular member of Renraku board is now heavily into mysticism. So what, if there's at least three intermediaries between these people and the runners at all times?

But pay me no heed on what comes to SR5, really. I'm not buying it until an errata or a fixed version is out, and likely not switching, either.

[CloisterCobra]

Now the one huge flaw that I DID find though: the mission doesn't list the base payout price. It lists the maximum amount you can Negotiate up to and it lists the bonuses they could receive at mission's end, but not the actual base price. Definitely a really bad oversight.

Hey Tasti man,

Thank you for the review, it looks like you enjoyed it.

On the topic of th payout, there is actually one in there, I should probably have called it out more obviously and provided a cash equivalent number, but the base payment for the mission is the van, or the Johnson can sell it on behalf and give the cash equivalent.

i chose that as a payment in order to encourage players to treat the van nicely.

Cheers
Grant