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Dargurd
Hi folks,

For good old fasioned background fluff and expanded info on Shadowrun - which of the older version Shadowrun books are worth picking up ?

Regards...
Fortune
Pretty much any that you can gets your hands on. smile.gif
Chandon
Whatever you do, don't read all 40 of the old novels at once. Only about a third of them didn't make me want to stab my eyes out, and only about half of those were what I'd rate as good. That experience was only slightly less painful than the time I decided to sit down and watch every episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
fistandantilus4.0
Depends on if you like plots with Immortal elves and dragons or not. Give us that guide line at lest, and we can give you a nice list (IMO, avoid Nyx Smith though).

I like Head hunters (stuff with Skater's Team) and Night's Pawn, as well as psychotrope for matrix stuff personally.
Chandon
Just to make sure that my novels comment doesn't throw the thread off... Fortune's right. All of the old sourcebooks have potentially useful content in them.

My personal suggestions would be: Target: Matrix, Shadows of North America, Shadows of Europe, Shadows of Asia, Threats, Threats 2, Year of the Comet, and (after all that) System Failure.
Dargurd
i've just re-read my post and i was a bit ambiguous to say the least.

I should have said which of the old sourcebooks are worth picking up ?

I appreciate that a lot of them are extra rules that perhaps its just better waiting for 4th ed versions of but im sure there were many e.g. setting books that are worth considering for resource.

Regards...

Smed
The sourcebooks with the best atmosphere were the old first and second edition books. Awakenings , Grimoire and Fields of Fire were great books to pick up the atmosphere of the game. Atzlan wasn't bad either.
Singe
I enjoy Into the Shadows, it is a collection of short stories...almost each one is short enough to read on the john.

I know you are meaning Sourcebooks, but I'm reading through the older ones now, catching up on my timeline since I never played SR1-3.

Now I know which ones to get to first.
Thanks,
Singe
ElFenrir
Im a big fan of Shadowbeat myself, i liked the extra stuff they put in there.

For bang-bang, Fields of Fire is great....and Matador's narration in that makes it even better. I loved it.

Shadows of Europe was great, too...though it sort of skimped on the Northern areas....Im hoping that Erika manages to start doing something or other making it easier to stick more runners up in these parts, well, by canon anyway grinbig.gif
eidolon
In no particular order:

Shadowbeat
Neo Anarchist's Guide to Real life / Guide to North America

Ah hell, all I'm going to do is list them all. Go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shadowrun_books

Not 100% complete, but I pretty much recommend reading all of them. smile.gif
Thorn Black
I was always a big fan of the first Rigger Black book, the pictures of the vehicles is something I keep refereing my players back to. Same with the Street Samurai catalogue.
ChicagosFinest
Rigger was a good one but Street Samurai catalog was the best as well as Shadowtech and any of the cyberware books.

Adventures would be anything doing with the AI's before the crash. and all of the bug stuff (Queen Euporia anyone).

I was also a fan of the Underworld sourcebook
Chandon
Although the early rules expansion books (Shadowtech, Fields of Fire, Cybertechnology, Street Samurai Catalog, Rigger Anything) defininately do contain some key bits of gameworld trivia (i.e. who Matador, Hatchetman, and The Smiling Bandit are), I don't think they're a good starting place to start for a new player.

I'd stick with current rules expansions like Street Magic and Arsenal, and any pure-sourcebooks you can get your hands on. I think that plot advancement books (like Year of the Comet) are probably more useful for getting a feel of the gameworld than placebooks (like Target: Awakened Lands) are, and I think that the newer placebooks are more valuable than the old ones are (although some of the old ones are awesome).
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