shadows of asia Options

[Snow_Fox]

[Adam]

Release dates have to be set to satisfy the book trade and the RPG distribution trade, so they can take pre-orders. The_Dunner made a nice post about that earlier in the thread.

Unfortunately, it isn't a system that punishes for late releases -- and in some ways, it actually rewards for late releases -- late books tend to sell better than on time ones!

[otaku mike]

http://www.shadowrunrpg.com/wordpress/?p=49

The release date is the 15th of August. It's official

[fistandantilus4....]

score

[SL James]

As much as it may make me the turd in the punch bowl, I found the lack of mention as to System Failure particularly telling, and not a little annoying.

[fistandantilus4....]

[SL James]

I'll enjoy it when it's sitting in my hands, and not a second earlier.

[Ranneko]

To be honest, I am more curious as to when the PDF of Shadows of Asia will turn up, we have a hardcopy release date true, but not a softcopy one (other than the good old, when it is done of course)

[fistandantilus4....]

[ring3tones]

The book is coaming we just need to wait. I just hoped I am not picking it up on the way to gen con. At leat we have one date the pdf should be out soon hopefully. :)

[Vairdic]

Shadows of Asia is available for purchase at BattleCorps now.

Pre-Order the book only : Click Here
Pre-Order the book and get the PDF too (and save $) : Click Here
Order the PDF only : Click Here

We've also added SR4 for pre-order, and reduced the price of Loose Alliances from $22.00 to $18.00!

[SL James]

[ring3tones]

I was just over at BattleCorps and was thinking of buying the pdf, untill I talked to my gm and he said he wanted the non pdf version. I am still thinking of buying it. I saw they said there was info on the asian magic system. Any idea if there is information on the matrix? :)
ring3tones

[SL James]

Yeah, I'm curious as to what they mean by "magic traditions" given what's been said about Fourth Edition and magic traditions in a game that will be released at Gencon four days after the hard copy of this book.

[Starglyte]

Glancing at the table of contents, there is info on the Japanese Matrix.

So far I read all the way thru China. I like what I read so far. The first chapter mostly deals local corps and some info on the religions. Basic info similar to the first chapter of SOE.

The second chapter is China. It describes some of the splinter states in semi-detail. The book does not go to far in focusing in on one particular region, but instead gives a rough look of each of the regions. Just enough info to give some plot seeds and how the government of the regions interact. I would recommend reading a travel book before running a game in China. One non-game thing that stood out to me was there is a splinter state in Northern China known as the Republic of China. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Taiwan was the Republic of China. I don't recall reading in the history section where Taiwan became offically independent, but I might have missed this. If fact, I don't think there is any dicussion on Tawain as a country in this chapter. If you read the Lung section of DotSW, then you know about the five sacred mountains and the importance of the dragonlines. This chapter covers the same ground as the earlier book, so if you don't have DotSW, you are not missing anything. It feels like this chapter had a lot of stuff cut to make it fit into the book. Since they have to cram this into 28 pages when they could make a book the size of SoNA for China alone, I believe they did the best they could do.

After reading about Hong Kong, I hope they release more info for it during SR4.
The next chapter is India and after that the Japan.

[Synner]

[Dashifen]

[Slacker]

Shadows of Asia PDf

Looks like the PDF is finally available and they are even offering a discounted bundle for pre-ordering the hardcopy with the pdf.

[FlakJacket]

[Starglyte]

Continuing with my mini-review, I come to chapter 3. The Indian Subcontinet.

This chapter has a tighter focus than the previous parts, mostly due to the fact that is is focused on the Indian Union. It starts off with a short history of India during the 21st century and moving on to the caste system. A lot of focus is in describing the caste system and how it was resurrected. How the castes interact with each other, how they do business, and most importantly, how they deal with shadowrunners in their ranks. I found it to be a enjoyable read and it provides some of the flavor the GM could use in placing a run in India.

Moving on, the other religions of the country are describe and some ideas for runs are thrown out. The best part of the chapter is next, describing the sprawls. New Delhi, Calcutta, and Bombay are given roughly a page and half description. Each of the cities has a different flavor, from Politics(New Delhi), Corps battles( Calcutta), and my favorite Bollywood society plots( Bombay). Each a of the cities has a plot seed injected in the Shadowtalk. New Delhi has the privatization of the national highway network, where competing Megacorps trying to get a piece of the pie. The Bombay plot seed is by far the best, involving a upcoming wedding between to uppercaste weddings. There is so many plot twists that is could be a whole campaign in itself and lends it self to a international runs.

The last part of the Indian Union goes over the mystical sights that dot the landscape. The holy rivers and been discovered to flow over Manalines. This causes some interesting effects in that pilgrims bathing in the waters will sometimes Surge. These individuals are treated as holy men by the local populace. The mystical sites are given some detail and how the local mages like to treat them.

The chapter finishes off with the rest of the nations in the area. Nothing really special with the execption of Tibet. If you are running games with Indian Jones type runners, this is your country. Tibet's mana cloud that has been keeping out unsavory types like Chinese Warlords, Megacorps, and PCs is begining to weaken. This just happens to occur while the country is is without its leader. Much politicing and soulsearching is going on and just asking for your PCs to go in and make a problem into a disater. It is describe in basic detail, so the GM has enough to make whatever s/he wants to place there.

This chapter is a good read and plot hooks stand out. I hope the rest of the book keeps this up.

[Synner]

[Demonseed Elite]

Hehe, Peter's Bollywood plotline is great. That was cracking me up during the writing of SoA.

I have much more material on Tibet in my notes that never made it into SoA due to word count. I have to see yet if FanPro wants to do anything with that material and the website, but if not, it will still be put out there.

[Starglyte]

Now, on to the most important chapter( to me) of Shadows of Asia. Being the one reason why I bought the book, I have very high hopes for the chapter on Japan. I will start off with a disclaimer. One, I'm a Japanofile. So if there is any RPG sourcebook on Japan I will get it. Second, being a fan of anime, I don't automatically hate any references to the medium( and its older brother Manga). Third, since it says Target under my name in the forums and I have let it been known that I look forward to SR4, you should take my next mini review with a grain of salt. I am easily pleased. So off to the tour of Japan.

The first I will go over is a RL issue. On the map of Japan, it appears that the Southern Kurils near Hokkaido have been returned to the control of Japan. This had not been mentioned in the history part, and it is really not that important to the scheme of things, but it does bear mentioning.

The chapter starts of with another history lesson. What makes this lesson from the previous one is that it feels like it was written by the Japanese. Extolling the virtues of Japan while brushing aside the shames of it past, it describes the Imperial Japan we all love to hate. The racism against metahumans and a sense of national destiny are not condemed but explained away as a unforunte happening that was inevenibtle.

The next section goes into the power struggle between the Emperor and his aides, the Megacorps, and the Great Dragon Ryumyo. The metaplot started in YotC and contiued on through DotSW is expaned on. It seems the Emperor is not as all powerful as he seems to be. With both the dragon and the Megacorps chomping at the bit to bring him down, runners can make plenty of Nuyen by choosing a faction(or better yet, playing them off against each other). A religious schism is growing between the Shinto shrines, where some support the Emperor while others support Ryumyo.

Up next, the Japanese criminal underworld is described. The yaks have there turn in the spot light, but if you have the 2nd edition Underworld sourcebook, it is not anything that you don't already know. The Ninja clans are what would interest players the most. With mentions of some notable clans and a famous swordmanship school, your elven Kunoichi PC can have her background fleshed out. I don't consider this a bad thing.

A code of the Salaryman is the following section. Describing the mind of the local corps employees, it is mostly used for background color for runs. The next two sections are viewpoints of Japan from outsiders and natives. My only problem with this is they are two short! So much more could be put in.

Pop culture is the next section, but like the Code of Salaryman, it is used more for background color for the locale.

The last part of the chapter deals with sites. First up is the Nippon Matrix, which is the future of Shadowrun. No really, it is. Set to be the first wireless network in the world, this section screams metaplot. With Transys Neuronet helping MCT build the network, it is being touted as the next best thing. Much can be weaved around this and it will probaly tie in with Systems Failure when it comes out. You heard it hear first. Neo-Tokyo and Nagaski are given some description, and somewhat fleshed out for runs. I stand by my opinion that Neo-Tokyo should be one of the six core cities for SR4. Most likely in the 2nd cities book. Nagaski is the local Barrens, but in a city wide scale.

In conclusion, I like the chapter alot, but some things bug me. How prevalent are spirits in SR? It seems most of the rebuilding is to be done by the local spirits. I still having trouble with the concept that magic is common enough that instead of construction companies doing the work, that magical beings will be the ones to be rebuilding on such a massive scale. Second, the information in the chapter has enough background color to run some runs, but if you plan on running a game in Japan, I recomend purchasing the Call of Cthulu supplement Secrets of Japan. It goes into more depth on the culture and if you remove the Cthulu stuff, it can be used as a generic soucrebook for any game system set in Mordern( or Future) Japan.

Next chapter is the Middle East and following that is one of my other favourite countries, Russia.

[ring3tones]

Thanks for the review so far. Do you know if there is any info on otaku? I am hoping they may have some. :)

[Starglyte]

There are some information scattered throughout the book. Nothing major yet.