When will Shadows of Europe be out?, I'm waiting.... Options

[Black Isis]

Well, I guess I feel silly posting an entire topic about this, but I am waaaaaiting. :) I preordered SoE with an order for the SSG, so I am wondering when I will be getting them. Can anyone shed some light on it? I thought Rob said it was at the printer when he was at GenCon, in which case, I'm assuming it's pretty close to release, but I haven't seen anything anywhere on the shadowrunrpg.com page and there's no forum here yet.

[Adam]

It's not at the printers - Rob didn't say that at GenCon, at least, not around me.

Rob's opinion is that if the book is late, it may as well be more late and be further improved; better to ship a quality product late than a half-assed one on time.

[Synner]

Adam is absolutely correct. The original plan was to try to have it out for GenCon. For a number of reasons this wasn't possible, including the fact that almost every author handed in way too much material and that most were not native English speakers which meant the book required more editing than usual. Rob decided that since it would ship late it might as well be the best that it can be and has the book is being "tweaked".

[Boondocker]

Geez, take your time! I just spent $200 on half my textbooks for uni... I don't have the cash for SoE quite yet. :)

[Adam]

Just checked the latest sell sheet; says October.

[hobgoblin]

noted, then im looking at early november before it shows up around here...
if im lucky i may be able to get it for the capitalist worlds favorite holiday...

[snowRaven]

Darn, and I was hoping to order that one and SSG at the same time, to save shipping :|

[hobgoblin]

thats why im holding back on ordering SSG...

[Black Isis]

Doh! Dangit. I thought Rob said it was at the printer. Well, phooey! I guess that means I am going to be waiting a while for it. Maybe I will ask the place I am ordering from to send me SSG and the Heavy Gear 3rd Ed PHB to me when that comes out and I'll order something else to stick with the SoE preorder. *sigh*

I agree though -- I'd rather see a good book come out late than a mediocre one sooner, especially since it sounds like editing is a rather important part of this one. Adam, do you know if it would be possible to get the sell sheet up on the shadowrunrpg.com site? I know DP9 puts their monthly release schedule fax up in PDF format on their website, that'd be really nice to see from FanPro....

[CloneAdam]

All the information on the sell sheets is on the individual product pages at ShadowrunRPG.com.

FanPro doesn't actually do a weekly fax sort of update simply because Fast Forward handles that facet of the business for us. FF normally posts their weekly faxes to http://www.fastforwardgames.com/faxpage.cfm - but as you can see, they've been a little lax with the postings as of late, for reasons I do not know.

[kylleran]

Since you asked for it here's the latest on the sell sheet:

SHADOWS OF EUROPE™

Publisher: FanPro
Title: Shadows of Europe
System: Shadowrun, Third Edition
Release Date: October 2003
Stock Number: FPR10668
ISBN: 1-932564-10-12
Retail: $24.99
Format: 160 pages perfectbound
Authors: Multi-author
Developer: Rob Boyle
Cover Artist: Klaus Scherwinski
Description:

A New World in the Shell of the Old

“Clash of cultures. That’s what Europe is, term. One day you're fighting Moroccan pirates on the docks of Lisbon, and the next you're hobnobbing with the academic elite of Prague. It’s a friggin’ maze of people and places, all acting like a big dysfunctional family. The Euro shadows are treacherous to navigate, but believe me, chum, the opportunities are unbelievable.”

Shadows of Europe details over a dozen European countries, from the fractured Allied German States to the mysterious elven nation of Tir na nOg. Each entry covers the prime locations, people to know and buzz on the street, all from a shadowrunner's point of view. The New European Economic Community is also described, as are corporations, criminal organizations and magic unique to Europe. For use with Shadowrun, Third Edition.

Shadowrun® is a registered trademark and trademark of WizKids LLC in the United States and/or other countries. Shadows of Europe™ is a Trademark of WizKids LLC. All Rights Reserved.

[Synner]

I wonder why I like that blurb so much more than the previous one? :grinbig:

[JongWK]

LOL

What about that "perfect bound" they mention? Will SR books finally get good binding? :P

And wasn't it supposed to be a little bigger than 160 pages?

[Adam]

"Perfect bound" is the name for the style of binding that Shadowrun - and most RPG books - have been using for years now, if not since the start of the SR line.

[Hot Wheels]

[Synner]

Just keep repeating to yourself, "Good things come to those who wait."

[Adam]

Wasn't your game group complaining about releases coming too fast early in FanPro's publishing history, Hot Wheels?

[KosherPickle]

[Adam]

I wondered the same thing, but I am completely resigned to the fact that no game publisher is capable of pleasing everyone. A release a month and it's too fast. A release a quarter and it's too slow. A reprint of a necessary supplement and they're wasting their time when they should be working on new stuff. New stuff instead of a necessary reprint and suddenly everyone wants the reprint. No matter how many changes you make between editions, and some people want more, some people want less. It's impossible, yet publishers still keep trying. :-)

[Although, IIRC, there was only a 3 month gap between Threats 2 and SONA.]

[KosherPickle]

[Adam]

And then roughly a book a month arrived from June -> August. [Wake of the Comet, Target: Wastelands, and SOTA: 2063]

It would be great if the Shadowrun release schedule was less erratic, certainly. I doubt it will be until FanPro is able to bring on another full-timer to handle administrative/logistics duties, though.

[Synner]

The big slip was with "Dragons" but thats long gone. "SSG" is barely a month old and "SoE" will be out soon, so let's just give it some time.

[KosherPickle]

[Bob the Ninja]

It's better than FASA was at least. How long was Magic in the Shadows delayed? A year and a half?

[kylleran]

I'd also point out that we're getting both the Dossier and R3 Revised in between SSG and SOE. They may not look like that much on the outside to most people but they still take time, and when you're working with limited manpower this means things will get pushed back.