Cape Town

For me, Cape Town really presented the feel of the area well. They didn't have a lot of space to add thigns in, but a few nice little plot hooks were inserted, as well as updating a couple of things, which is always nice.

For one, they updated the situation with Universal Omnitech. UO always seemed to have a lot of stand alone presence, and them playing second fiddle to Aztechnology, especially with a partnership with DeBeers, never really made sense to me. I just didn't see the motivation. So like the book says, it came as no suprise to see them break off and do their own things.

Other plot hooks, UO using the info from the gene bank financed by DeBeers years ago to work on their anti-aging project 'Methuselah' is pretty neat, and gives another good reason for UO to make the partnership last. Roxborough has always been very big on using his company for the sole purpose of saving his own life. Trying to use a massive data base to find gene sequences for immortal elves, or what ever other secret they might be loking for, is a good plot for an epic scale run.

They also brought back up the Kiliminjaro 'space catapult' and research going in to making a space elevator, leaving the door open for more space-centric runs, as well as reminding folks that Cape Town isn't the only place thigs are going on in Africa.

To me, the CapeTown section was the best Fringe area of the book. It had a little more space to work with, which did likely help. But the plot hooks not with standing, I'd say my favorite was the opening section that introduced it as a harsh place where life was cheap cheap cheap. You here that a lot in different area books, but Cape Town put a lot of effort into reasserting that point. You've got things like families indenturing children to mines so that the rest can eat, blood diamond trade, cheap and permissable human testing laws, and vicious gangs that call them selves 'organized crime'. Everything is watched over by a dragon, who apparently doesn't real give a damn what everyone else does as long as her tribe does what they want and aren't attacked over much. That makes for a nice harsh setting.

Out of all the sections in the book including Hong Kong, this was the section that immediately made us start a game set there.

The mention about Kilimanjaro was interesting, and you make a good point. However, while it's nice to know that there are things going on in Africa, I'm still pretty disappointed in how the overview in Sprawl Survival Guides pretty much wrote off 80-90% of Africa, excluding Azania, the Desert War zone from Wastelands, the Ivory/Gold Coasts and Kilimanjaro/Nairobi.

Cape Town made it seem like the rest of Africa might be fun and exciting in SR, until you go back and read that.

Lest people thing I'm picking on AH, let me show you what I was looking for. I did the white-out trick again, but this time to show how you'll know a place, even with the serial numbers filed off.

The whole thing was probably colored by preconceived notions of Africa, but I pictured this rough, dusty town with huge skyscrapers suddenly springing up out of a savanna and lots of mercs sitting in cafes while trucks drove by down dirty roads. Lol, a bit of a miss matched image but pretty appealing from an SR point of view. I have to admit you stirred my imagination quite a bit with Cape Town.

Cape Town's not exactly a Deadwood with a couple of skyscrapers now. For that matter neither is Nairobi.

Synner, reading the Guide again (in my lap) I can see the mention of a tribal confederation, but that still lives "Dark Africa" which is most of the continent and a huge amount of land relatively forgotten. It's a nice start mind you.

One of the interesting things I noticed in Shadows of Asia was a reference in the Arabia section to the Ethiomalian Territories. That would have a lot of promise to it.

Oh, I understand that it's not really a dirt street kind of place, hence my "preconceived notions" comment. I'm actually chuckling at my own mental picture, you see...

Still, it sounds cool.

There's been a bit of demand for a Shadows of Africa book for a while now.

Cities on the Edge was written by Lars Blumenstein and Peter Taylor, both of whom are talented European authors. Like everybody else, they have their own quirks and styles-you'll notice a heavier use of localisms and more balance in the shadowcomment length.

Smaller sections like this tend to cover slightly more out-of-the-way places, sprawls the JackPoint krewe can't be expected to have a true expert on-hence the stronger reliance on guest posters in the section. Lars and Piotr were also heavily involved in Augmentation afterwards, which should tell you why the material in these sections lines up so well with that sourcebook.

This isn't actually the first time SR's dealt with Capetown, but most people try to forget the Serrin Shamanadar novels by Carl Sargent and Marc Gasciogne.

Some of the material in Runner Havens, particularly Caracas, goes over or expands on material in Shadows of Latin America-again, there's some bleedover of SoLA[i] authors and [i]RH writers. Particular bits to take note on are the BADs and the execution of the feathered serpent Dzitblachen. Other bits like the AZT-ORO connection are to catch up newer players who wouldn't be familiar with the material from previous editions.

I noticed I really connected with the Cape Town and Caracas sections, but not as much with Hamburg and Istanbul. I don't have a lot of in depth feedback at the moment as to why this is, though, since midterms are kicking in for me, so I've had less time this week to really dig in to them.

I think Hamburg suffered because the writers knew it'd have 40 pages added in the German version. All the short-shots tried to go over a lot of information in a hurry, but I think Hamburg just didn't work as well, because of all the extra material that was skipped.

Since Catalyst doesn't have he German rights, probably not.

-Frank

Under any future license agreement, local Shadowrun licenses (including the one for Germany, once it is sorted out) will likely be able to produce their own material and/or expand on Catalyst material in their own local language publications.

FYI - Much like Hamburg was expanded for the German release, France's Black Book Editions is adding a chapter on Marseille to their upcoming version of Runner Havens. Arclight in Japan contributed to the upcoming Neo-Tokyo chapter of Corporate Enclaves, but I'm sure they may will eventually produce their own material as well.

Echo that

What sort of issues would you run into posting notes and segments cut from the final chapter? Does WizKids technically own the rest of anything you produced, even if it isn't used?

I know lots of people post their own rules, theories, and runs on the net (which in the US, should fall under fair use as long as they don't profit from them), but at what point are we violating WizKids's ownership of the licenses?

I don't think there is any problem posting notes and things you write that are related to a published piece but not part of it. Cut segments can be a bit different, since oftentimes they are part of the piece that was purchased by FanPro (now Catalyst). So they are no longer yours to post, even if they didn't see print. But from my experience, asking if you can post cut material usually gets approved or they suggest it being posted to the website.

Note that this will all get easier once there is Holostreets. I imagine we'll be posting a lot of cut material and supplemental material there. I'm really looking forward to that.

OK, I am finally done with this book. Overall I am impressed by it and really enjoyed it. I thought all of the sections gave a good feel of the haven they were covering. Although I tend to enjoy books like these.

I must admit to not having the issues others have with the Seattle section. I know that if you blanked out the specific Seattle names and inserted D.C. names (The city I live next to and most familiar with) they would not be interchangeable. you would have to do more work than that.

Now that the GM spot has rotated to me for the next campaign this book helped me better form some general ideas I had about some runs.

You could, but it'd take a lot more work than simple white-out. I'd have to do some serious editing to make it not the Renraku Arcology anymore, almost to the point of rewriting huge chunks of the section.

Lemee show you:

Aside from the interchangeability argument I will say I most likely did not get all the Easter eggs in the book. Of course I only knew to look for some by the comments in this thread. I did catch references here and there, like the Firefly/Serenity one, but some passed me by. Especially the box office ones.

Did anyone post what the easter eggs are and what they reference?

Well, part of it comes back to having multiple authors. When I wrote Hong Kong, I started out with key ideas and themes I wanted to express and developed the pieces (locales, district descriptions, NPC personalities) to express them. For example, I wanted to express the desperation and darkness in the lives of the refugee population, so I packed them into the Kowloon Walled City, had them tormented by the Yama Kings, and ruled over by the butchers of the Black Chrysanthemum Triad. Once I express those conditions, understanding why the 9x9 terrorists exist becomes more plausible. The links between the elements are what create the grounding that Cain seems to really like.

But when you have multiple authors, each one has their own ideas they want to express and it's difficult sometimes to cross those ideas over between different authors. If I had a co-author on Hong Kong who was writing the Districts section, it's tough for me to tell him to write a district a certain way because it strengthens an idea I have for one of my sections. Even if he agrees with my idea, it's still his writing and is going to have its own flavor.

I think that's why you have some sections of Seattle that have strong links and flavor, because they were the ones each of the authors working on Seattle really wanted to express. In between those, however, you inevitably end up with orphan ideas that aren't as well linked or grounded. Those can easily be transplanted to other sprawls just because they aren't as linked to everything else. Which could be good or bad. Equally, if a GM favors his ideas for a sprawl over the writers' intent, it's easier to change up those elements than it would be for him to change up the material in the Hong Kong section.

On the topic of in-jokes in the material. It's purely personal opinion, but I think there were a few too many in-jokes in the Seattle section. When reading it, I'll admit I spent more time hunting for easter eggs and less time really focusing on the setting. It got a bit distracting.

But, on the other hand, in-jokes highlight a weakness in my own writing. I'm pretty terrible at them. Early Shadowrun books had a recognizable quirkiness to them, creating lasting jokes like NERPS. There isn't much of that quirkiness in the Hong Kong setting, because I'm not so great at writing it.

I want to add this. I am not trying to get Cain or anyone else to change their opinion I am merely injecting a counter-opinion. I am also not disagreeing with all of Cain opinion. I will present what I think his opinions are and Cain is free to correct/clarify if he feels the need:

"Some parts of the Seattle sections are so bland that they barely seem to describe the city I live in"
- This part I cannot disagree with since I do not live in Seattle and have only spent a grand total of two days there ever.

"These parts are so bland you could plug them into any major city by just changing the names"
- This part I disagree with. These parts may be bland to Cain, maybe even bland for Seattle, but cannot, in my opinion, to transported to any major city without either becoming even more generic or being changed more than 'cut and paste' a few names.

After not playing SR for the longest time and getting back into it with SR4.... the Seattle section in Runner Havens left me less than impressed. Then again even the New Seattle sourcebook left me with a "meh....whatever" for the most part.

Runner Havens, at least the Seattle portion, left me so unimpressed that I went to the half-price books across the street and bought 3 copies of the old Seattle Sourcebook for $10, since then I've cracked open Runner Havens.... maybe twice?

So, I definately agree with Cain.

Let's try Philadelphia, then:

As someone who's never even been to the USA, much less Seattle in particular, I found the Seattle section of Runner Havens a useful extension of info I'd gotten from the Seattle Sourcebook and New Seattle. Brackhaven's return, in particular, really caught my eye.

Changing name of cities with names of other cities isn't funny. Why not try to change every word longer than 4 characters to the 5th word after it in the dictionary? Or with a word taken out from a synonym dictionary?

So...does anyone want to fill me in on the easter eggs I obviously missed?

Actually...About Seattle's "having the ability to undertake its own foreign relations"...

1. If I remember correctly, isn't the UCAS constitution more or less a cut-and-paste of the US one? (I think even the amendments are the same, up until the...13th is the SIN Amendment (ironically)?)
2. In such an instance, how in the hell is such an ability constitutional? I believe the Constitution -really clearly- reserves foreign relations powers to the Federal government?
3. If an amendment of that sort could be passed, it'd mean that *all* of the states have the ability to conduct their own foreign relations. Which...Well, Articles of Confederation, I'm looking at you.

(In other words, maybe a Supreme Court decision to retcon that piece of stupid would be good.)