Basically the premise of this thread is this:

Imagine Fanpro had a raffle and the top prize was the right to design, at least generally, one of the Shadowrun Products for upcoming production, what would it be?

For me, being a geography information enthusiast it would be the CIA World Factbook 2071 edition, with some shadowland annotation. Basically a country by country rundown, with a graphic for a map and flag and containing the basic info for the countries listed in a fashion similar to the actual CIA World Fact Book with a little room for Shadowtalk been there run that blurbs at the bottom. Basically a whole world briefing on the countries, but not the in depth history included in the Shadows of ... Series.



EDIT: One afterthought here, if your answer is just going to be something along the lines of "A rules system that makes sense" or "A return to the old rules" please don't add it, I'm hoping to see new creative ideas not a revival of the old The rules in X edition suck compared to the rules in Y edition argument. In other words focus on the fluff not the mechanics.

Epic level handbook.

What happens when you move beyond 4 initiative passes.

Mr. Studd!!!

Oh, you mean like a sourcebook. Hmm...

Probably redo R3 so it's a tad less complex. Also I'd love to see SR3.5 come out : )

edit: Sorry, didn't read the whole original post. Well... my opinion still stands! I'm reasonably likely to buy R4 for SR4 even though I don't play SR4, just because R3 is too complicated for my tastes. I'm sorry, Kage.

nezumi grabbed my answer, I would like to write Rigger 4 and not name it Rigger 4. Something a little more interesting like, "Glass and Steel." That kind of sucks but its all I could come up with right on the spot.

My runner-up choice would be to write the SR4 Corporation sourcebook.

A history book that explains a bit more of what happened between 2065 and 2070.

Something like Fields of Fire... the military/mercenary-scale equipment. Maximum Metal from CP2020 is another good example.

Give me APCs, MBTs, powered armor, full borgs, guns intended for the "larger" user, attack helicopters with integrated mage-sight systems, mortars, rocket launchers, sentry guns... all that stuff that makes a GM cackle and dream.

Oh, I completely forgot. I *STILL* want a book of non-runner only cyberware (like mr. studd). CP2020 had a lot of good stuff that's great for corp execs and the like, but pretty limited in use to runners. just legal, common stuff, the cyber version of the ssg. Again, I'd buy an sr4 version of that.

Also a new rocker handbook would be supercool.

I would love to see a Shadowrun version of the old CP2020 sourcebooks Wildside: The Cyberpunk Sourcebook for the Street.

...my first choice would be a new rigger/vehicle supplement on the lines of Rigger 3 but (as mentioned in other posts) a bit less complicated. Definitely would include vehicle design rules.

I was only able to whip out new vehicles from R3 because I worked up an Excel spreadsheet where I just had to plug the custom components in. and let the formulae do the all the grunt work.

My second choice would be a new CC. With more guns, specialised arrows, comprehensive tables for improvised weapons (both melee & thrown), custom concealed gear rules (ala SOTA 2064 - love all that "spy toy" stuff), martial arts rules, and more armour including Formfit and the Zoe line of high fashion armoured clothing.

I'd like to see a Shadows of The Void sourcebook, detailing the various facilities, vehicles and skills for space operations, along with things like space station squatters (remember the cool Rastafarian commune living in an abandoned space station in Neuromancer) and runner bars in Z-O etc. After the probe race the various AAA corps will have greatly expanded in their aerospace abilities and endeavors and I'd like to see how that could pan out in an extended setting.

Wyld Karde, you may like Target: Wastelands. It has space, ocean, desert, and toxic locations - more flavor than rules. Set in 2063, IIRC, but it gives you an idea of the corp curve. Construction of the space railgun should be complete by 2070 since they solved the Kilimanjaro issue. Oh, and Yamatetsu landed a manned mission to Mars back in 2064.

I guess I'd like a SotA/NAG2RL/SSG after all the expected supplements.

I know! A Shadowrun RPG for the Wii. That would rock so hard.

I'd like to see an industry sourcebook in which some of the technological systems and infrastructure of Shadowrun is fleshed out. It could contain some information on what exactly is inside the laboratories runners are always stealing from, how 2060-70's academic, industrial and governmental interactions play out and what's hot and what's not in the technology community at large -- for example it could give some suggestions about what kinds of work is going on to improve optical chips or commlink security.

It would also be kind of neat if it included an under the hood look at the security industry to see how the technological systems runners deal with are put together and exactly who pays security guards what to protect their property.

pragma, everything you talk about there is in SOTA:2063 and SOTA:2064. They're decent enough books that you should be able to "extrapolate" their material into the 2070 setting. Remeber, just because "canon" says it happened in 2063 doesn't mean you can't say its happening in 2070 instead! (Especially if you or your players haven't read the book before)

I'm going to put in a second entry: Shadows of the Past

This book would detail archaeological hotspots providing both the publically available data, and the quieter shadow speculation. I would ask for some heavy ED-SR linkage in the Shadowtalk for in this one.

All I want is something that tells me how to hotwire a car. I'd really rather "borrow" Joe Sarariman's car, letting his insurance company pick up the tab, than plunk down thousands of nuyen for a car of my own, only to see it smashed to into teeny tiny bits. SR4 doesn't say anything specific about hotwiring, though, so I'm stuck.

What would an epic level handbook have in it?

SR4: Plots and Hooks

Details every metaplot that happened from 2050 to 2070 all in one nice portable book. So I don't have to keep lugging around or referring to SR1, SR2, or SR3 books. A one book (or PDF) solution to this problem.

SR4: High Tech Low Life Redux

Basically reissued taking into account AR and VR.

SR4: Seattle Web Extras

A page on fanpro that re-introduces places from the SR1 Seattle Sourcebook and brings them up to date for 2070. New Seattle missed some of them, and I doubt Runner Havens is going to have all of them either. Including a downloadable (and printable!) Seattle Downtown map updated to 2070.

SR4: Magic in the Shadows-2070 (working title)
Basically, the SOTA book for Magic, brings the best of the SR3 magic info into SR4.

SR4: Montezuma's Vengeance
No, not the intestinal disorder. This is a Harlequin's Back-style adventure that tells us what happened when Aztechnology took the Big Dive, but didn't go down peacefully. Mayhem, sabotage, double-, triple-, multiple-crossing & back-stabbing that has the player's teams hip-deep in drek...or is that blood?

SOTA-2070
Yes, I know this idea may be stillborn, but why not revive it? A yearly book that gives us the latest in magic, tech, chrome & toys.

Star Trek is pseudo-scientific social critique, Star Wars is mythology. Yes, midichlorians rock, but the thing about the Force isn't that it's like blaster rifles or cyberware; it is the triumph of the mind over matter. Once you anchor that power in matter, it loses any sort of metaphysical and moral authority it once had.

I've got my sights set on Unwired, myself. I just hope it expands on Miracle Shooter, gives us some rules on it.

"You can't always get what you want...
yes you can!"
--Old flatvid jingle

I would have a difinative history of everything shadowrun.
Constantly updated as the timeline progresses.

So i could look up anything at all and get an answer.

Yeah.
Wanna see what happened to McDonalds? It'd be in there.

The last IP would be used to conjure an earth elemental, channel it, and fuse with Verjigorm to make the world's first Battlemech.

Oh, and Sharingan eye the next dude into submission.

I want shadowtalk. In ever book. As much as possible. Shadowtalk gave the old sourcebooks it's unique flair and the lack of it made the newer ones (like CC, M&M) so boring. One of the few good things FanPro Germany did was to create new shadowtlak for the german versions of it.

So give me shadowtalk and I'm happy.

I second (actually third ) Grinder's request.

The consolidated histories and metaplot sounds pretty good.

I'd love to see Threats 3. Especially with a section on what previous threats are up to now. (is Winternight completely toast? What are the AI's doing? How are the bugs coming along with their 'more human than human' project? etc etc.)

The uber rigger book would definitely be my kind of thing as a player. Something that would let you effectively reverse engineer a Gorgon, Medusa, Banshee or Rapier for instance. It should also explain more clearly just how far a Technomancer can duplicate what a rigger can do. (Maybe a new technomancer type sort of equivalent to a Mystic Adept)

Also Hoi! (First post)

According to Synner here:

Gamemaster Screen
Some sort of Matrix Book
Gamemaster Screen

in that order (extra screen added for emphasis)

I would really like to see a supernatural threats book for SR4- especially one that deals with the Enemy. They may not be big-poo Metaplot right now, but collecting the history of the SR-version of the Enemy into one book, with story hooks and *rules*, would rock.

Also an Insect book... they could be 86 pagers even, just Adversary books to add whole new types of threat to your game, doubling as metaphysical history of the 6th World texts.

That's my wishlist.

--PenAgain
Trying a new outlook on life today after my somewhat harsh rantings.