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MYST1C
When it was first announced several people here expressed interest about the German Shadowrun - Die 6. Welt (aka the "SR Worldbook") so I thought I'd share some information.

SR6W is a 21x14cm (8.27x5.51") sized paperback book containing 512 pages (16 full-color). The list of contributors (authors and illustrators) is too long to repeat it here.

I'll now give a synopsis of the chapters, translating the titles when necessary:

Inhalt (Table of contents) - p6
Take a guess wink.gif

Vorworte (Forewords) - p7
Tobias Hamelmann talks about his personal SR history while Christian Lonsing explains what RPGs in general and SR especially mean to him.

Shadowrun - ein Phänomen (Shadowrun - a phenomenon) - p12
Reflections on SR's target audience, realism and the relations between in-game and IRL world and history.

Kurzgeschichte: Erwachen (Short story: Awakening) - p23
Holly Brighton's recollection of the day she met Dunkelzahn. (Sidenote: We learn that Holly had a daughter named Annabell who was born a dwarf.)

Shadowrun vs Cyberpunk - p44
What is Cyberpunk - and is Shadowrun Cyberpunk?

Der Zahn der Zeit (The ravages of time) - p51
The complete SR timeline up to 2064 (including information about South America taken from SoLA).

Kurzgeschichte: Kabale (Short story: Cabal) - p121
Hedwig Gabler, leader of the German Grand Badisch Crusade terrorist group, is taken to Liechtenstein where she meets a political figure of the past she'd never have expected to be still alive - Alfons Hunggarten, once chancellor of the South German League (2038-2044), who explains his unbelievable plans to her.

Die Hintermänner (Those behind the scenes) - p134
FASA and Fantasy Productions.

Interview I - p140
L. Ross Babcock III and David Charles Wylie talk about SR.

Access All Areas - p144
Peer Bieber and Tobias Wolter tell how they turned from fans to freelancers and explain how an idea becomes a book - using SoE as an example.

Interview II - p165
Christian Lonsing talks about SR4 and the decisions that led to the new edition.

Kurzgeschichte: Der Echtleder-Koffer (Short story: The real-leather suitcase) - p169
In the latest session of their favority virtual reality game teens Tom and Max discover an object that should not be there - and suddenly a heavily-armed elf stands in their room and demands the game chip...

Shadowrun - das Rollenspiel (Shadowrun - the role-playing game) - p176
An overview of RPGs in general and the various SR editions.

Kuriositätenkabinett (Freak show) - p186
Freak (and fun) characters (from deliberate powergaming to rule misunderstandings) encountered at conventions.

Mächte der Sechsten Welt (Powers of the Sixth World) - p188
Dragons, corporations, magic, matrix, political powers, religion, immortal elves, underworld.

Earthdawn - die Welt davor (Earthdawn - the world that came before) - p248
A rundown of ED - history of the game, description of the game world, connections to SR (ends with an explanation of what Proteus was originally meant to be before the ED/SR crossover storyline was buried).

Kurzgeschichte: Ein Sack voll Glück(Short story: A bag full of luck) - p259
Two garbage collectors find and keep a suitcase full of money, unaware they disrupted a blackmail payment and have two runners on their tail...

Who is who - p280
Personal profiles of various people involved in SR.

Interview III - p300
Lars Blumenstein, Tobias Hamelmann and Tobias Wolter talk about the German SR crew and give a brief glimpse of future projects (new-style citybooks called "Hot Spots" and a new German adventure campaign centered on the 2064-2070 events from an AGS point of view).

Farbseiten (Color pages) - p305
Various color plates from SR1-SR3 (including the North American country flags, the coats-of-arms of the AGS states and even one of the photograph illustration from London Sourcebook).

Kampf der Editionen (Battle of the editions) - p321
Four rounds of SR combat told rules-wise - one round for each SR edition.

Kurzgeschichte: Zum Wohle der Forschung (Short story: For the sake of research) - p349
The voluntary extraction of a genetics researcher and her motives for doing so.

Ware 101 - p361
Thoughts about SR cyberware - what is it, why is it used, how do cloning or a DNI work?

Schonungslos (Pitiless) - p368
Freak stuff, glitches, mistranslations, miscommunications between FanPro and FASA (resulting in canon deviances), strange rules, trivia.

Rhein-Ruhr-Newsfax (Rhine-Ruhr-Newsfax) - p377
Ingame news dated April 2, 2064 (among them speculations about the Novatech IPO and the death of Cardinal Heeremann, de facto leader of the theocratic AGS state Westphalia).

Kurzgeschichte: Resurrection (Short story: Resurrection) - p382
Anna, a young wife and mother, works tirelessly for the German Liberal Democratic Federalistic Party - to the point where her family breaks up and she recognizes her ambitions and goals to be just illusions.
When the Crash 2.0 sends her into a nine-day coma she awakes to discover strange new abilities - she can feel the cyberspace around her, see data in ways never thought of before and doesn't need a cyberterminal anymore...
(Unfortunately, due to an editing error the end of the story is missing. The full text can be downloaded as a PDF here.)

Produkte (Products) - p398
All SR products ever produced (not including SoA and even more recent stuff) - game books (including those from France, Hungary and Japan), novels (English and German), mangas, TCG, miniatures, magazines and merchandise.

Zum Ende (Closing words) - p470
Lars Blumenstein talks about the SR future: 4th Edition.

Glossar (Glossary) - p472
A glossary of SR terminology - with ingame comments by a runner called Zwieblblootz.

Anhänge (Appendices) - p487
Comparison charts of dice roll success probabilities in SR3 and SR4, maps of Europe, the AGS and Seattle, corporate logos, metahuman illustrations and various German SR ID cards given away as goodies at conventions.

I hope you appreciate my overview.
It is a really nice book, full of information and nice tidbits - of course, you must be able to read and understand German...

(The chapter showing the different combat rules from SR1-SR4 working side by side is one of my favorites.)
SL James
Gee, no one outside of Germany could ever want what's in there.

Cripes. Even I want this book.
Oracle
Sounds great. A bit cruel to release it in German only. At least for people not speaking German. biggrin.gif

Ist das schon draußen?
Critias
God dammit. That sounds like ~500 pages of paper awesome, and so, naturally, it's unavaiable to most of the fucking world.

*sigh* Thanks for the breakdown, but it just pisses me off I can't get it. wink.gif
MYST1C
QUOTE (Oracle)
Ist das schon draußen?

Ja, ist zusammen mit SR4.01d zur SPIEL imOktober erschienen.
MYST1C
QUOTE (Critias)
*sigh* Thanks for the breakdown, but it just pisses me off I can't get it. wink.gif

Well, start a petition to Rob to produce an English translation.
But I'm afraid that, as it is a book by German authors for a German audience, this would face the same problems that lead to the massive changes done when Deutschland in den Schatten was transformed into the Germany Sourcebook.
Grinder
What's with editing? Is it as poorly done as the last FanPro german books?
PiXeL01
Bleh I was hoping I would be forced to use my German ever again! Guess it is time to pull out the old lacking language skills and worm eaten dictionaries just to get through this one, but I'm sure it will be well worth it!
MYST1C
QUOTE (Grinder)
What's with editing? Is it as poorly done as the last FanPro german books?

I thinks there' a discussion somewhere in the German FP forums...

Personally, I have no complaints. The missing ending of "Resurrection" was explained and the story offered for download.

Of course, with this book the problem of translation didn't arise and time was not as pressing as with SR4.01d.
Grinder
What was the reason for not printing the whole story?

MYST1C
QUOTE (Grinder)
What was the reason for not printing the whole story?

As I said in my synopsis above it was not deliberate but an editing error.
It was explained in the last FP newsletter.

It is not much that is missing and the story works without it but the mid-sentence ending looks strange.
Grinder
QUOTE (M¥$T1C)
It was explained in the last FP newsletter.

In the same in which they said "sorry" for the bad translated Loose Alliances-Sb? At the moment i have the impression that the FanPro Germany guys are a bunch of a)overworked poor souls or b)idiots who don't care too much about either SR nor the quality of their work.

I tend to b.
Oracle
Let's just face it. The quality of the Germany-only SR publications has never been very high. I just hated Chrom und Dioxin and Walzer, Punks und schwarzes ICE. And I am ignoring most of the content of Deutschland in den Schatten II.
Grinder
B:ADL had some nice ideas, but also a lot of crap (Berlin *cough*).

But the worst thing is the fact that the german translations of the last SR-books (including the very important SR4 rulebook) had been done really bad.
Oracle
The first printing of SR3.01D wasn't any better.
Grinder
But the german versions of CC, M&M and MitS had been nice and offered some extras compared with the english versions. But after that (and Crazy leaving FanPro) the quality became worse and worse.
Oracle
That's true. Shadowrun without Crazy isn't the same.
Fortune
I wanna know the story behind Proteus! frown.gif
JongWK
QUOTE
Der Zahn der Zeit (The ravages of time) - p51
The complete SR timeline up to 2064 (including information about South America taken from SoLA).


Ok, I'll bite: What did they include?


QUOTE
Kurzgeschichte: Zum Wohle der Forschung (Short story: For the sake of research) - p349
The voluntary extraction of a genetics researcher and her motives for doing so.


Anyone we know?


QUOTE
Mächte der Sechsten Welt (Powers of the Sixth World) - p188
Dragons, corporations, magic, matrix, political powers, religion, immortal elves, underworld.


This chapter alone has almost 60 pages?

I want this book, dammit. wobble.gif
MYST1C
QUOTE (Fortune)
I wanna know the story behind Proteus! frown.gif

Well, some hints are OK, I guess...

1.) One of Proteus' backers was the late Great Dragon Nachtmeister who, considering the life expectancy of dragons, might have witnessed certain horrible creatures invading earth millenia ago.
2.) Proteus' research was aimed at adapting humans to dangerous surroundings otherwise uninhabitable - underwater, space, etc.
3.) Proteus built isolated habitats in remote locations, partially (or totally) submerged, heavily armed and shrouded in secrecy (hint: try replacing "Arkoblock" with a different, much shorter, word...).


biggrin.gif
Fortune
Ah ... much obliged. smile.gif
MYST1C
QUOTE (JongWK)
QUOTE
Der Zahn der Zeit (The ravages of time) - p51
The complete SR timeline up to 2064 (including information about South America taken from SoLA).


Ok, I'll bite: What did they include?

E.g. elections in Ecuador 2062 (and related events), easter riots in Argentinia, peace talks between Aztlan and Yucatan 2064 (at least it's my guess these are from SoLA - they're too recent to be from Aztlan Sourcebook).


QUOTE
QUOTE
Kurzgeschichte: Zum Wohle der Forschung (Short story: For the sake of research) - p349
The voluntary extraction of a genetics researcher and her motives for doing so.


Anyone we know?

The story is about a woman named Kendra Parker who works for Ballantine Biochems.


QUOTE
QUOTE
Mächte der Sechsten Welt (Powers of the Sixth World) - p188
Dragons, corporations, magic, matrix, political powers, religion, immortal elves, underworld.


This chapter alone has almost 60 pages?

It describes each group, names examples and lists the sourcebooks where further information can be found.
Dragons: p188-201, Corporations: p201-209, Magic: p209-218, Matrix: p218-230, Political Powers: p230-232, Religion: p232-235, IEs: p235-240, Underworld: p241-247.
Note: A person named "Ancient History" is thanked in the first line of this chapter... wink.gif
MYST1C
QUOTE (Fortune)
Ah ... much obliged. smile.gif

But keep in mind - that was the original Proteus concept!

The recent Schockwellen campaign gave a different explanation of the "mystery corp".
Fortune
Oh, I understand that. I was just curious about the original intentions, as I'm a relatively big fan of The Metaplot™.
otaku mike
QUOTE (M¥$T1C)
QUOTE (Fortune)
I wanna know the story behind Proteus! frown.gif

Well, some hints are OK, I guess...

1.) One of Proteus' backers was the late Great Dragon Nachtmeister who, considering the life expectancy of dragons, might have witnessed certain horrible creatures invading earth millenia ago.
2.) Proteus' research was aimed at adapting humans to dangerous surroundings otherwise uninhabitable - underwater, space, etc.
3.) Proteus built isolated habitats in remote locations, partially (or totally) submerged, heavily armed and shrouded in secrecy (hint: try replacing "Arkoblock" with a different, much shorter, word...).


biggrin.gif

Well, I didn't need that book to know that.
It was quite blatant from the beginning that it was a not so subtle ED link...
Bearclaw
Please forgive me if I'm wrong, but can't most Germans read English?
Critias
QUOTE (Bearclaw)
Please forgive me if I'm wrong, but can't most Germans read English?

Oh, you're such a silly. If everyone could read it, it wouldn't be special!
blakkie
According this about 1/2 of Germans can speak English, though that's somewhat different than reading and includes people with only basic conversational skill.

Damn, that's not very special at all. frown.gif
Oracle
Nearly every German under the age of 50 speaks English. Not necessarily good English, but...
blakkie
So maybe my very drunk friend, on a business trip, might have been able to get by with simple English rather than blurting in an alcohol amplified tone "Atchung! Schnitzel!" to get the cab driver to take him to a restaurant? rotfl.gif

Aren't tourists great? beret.gif
TW
@Mystic: Your assumption regarding information from SoLA included in "Die sechste Welt" is corect. At time of writing "DsW" SoLA was still up for in print release, IIRC.
MYST1C
QUOTE (blakkie)
blurting in an alcohol amplified tone "Atchung! Schnitzel!" to get the cab driver to take him to a restaurant?

Well, considering German has the same word (only pronounced a little bit different and spelled with a capital R)...
"To a restaurant" isn't that much different from "Zu einem Restaurant".
SL James
Urge to kill... Rising.
bclements
I'd kill for this book in English. Sounds very cool.
FrankTrollman
QUOTE (Oracle)
Nearly every German under the age of 50 speaks English. Not necessarily good English, but...

Then it's no different from America! I for one, speak evil English.

-Frank
brohopcp
QUOTE (FrankTrollman)
QUOTE (Oracle @ Nov 22 2005, 04:00 PM)
Nearly every German under the age of 50 speaks English. Not necessarily good English, but...

Then it's no different from America! I for one, speak evil English.

-Frank

Bah, we wish most of us spoke well.
blakkie
QUOTE (SL James)
Urge to kill... Rising.

What, you heard the same rumour i did? That the SoLA sections they included were all psuedo authored in bantering dialog by the entire cast of "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" with the exception of a piece called "el Sudar a Despertar" done in the voice of Richard Simmons.
Synner
QUOTE (blakkie)
(...) That the SoLA sections they included (...)

To cut off unfounded speculation I'd like to reiterate what MYSTIC has already said - only basic snippets of info from the SoLA timelines (ie. one entry in twenty made it) were included in the overall timeline in Die 6. Welt. These, the full timelines, and in fact the entire contents of SoLA are to be released as free downloads upon inauguration of the Holostreets subscription service.
blakkie
QUOTE (Synner)
QUOTE (blakkie @ Nov 23 2005, 05:03 PM)
(...) That the SoLA sections they included (...)

To cut off unfounded speculation I'd like to reiterate what MYSTIC has already said - only basic snippets of info from the SoLA timelines (ie. one entry in twenty made it) were included in the overall timeline in Die 6. Welt. These, the full timelines, and in fact the entire contents of SoLA are to be released as free downloads upon inauguration of the Holostreets subscription service.

Hmmmm, then maybe the rumour i heard in my head wasn't true? Must be time to replace the batteries in my tinfoil cap. frown.gif
SL James
You need to add solar panels.
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