I swung by my FLGS today for the first time in a year, they're not that local, or that friendly.

Noticed they had only one Shadowrun book on sale: Target Matrix, an old Shadowrun 3 book. I bet I could haggle the owner down on the price since he has had that book on his "mixed gamesystems" shelf for years now, along with some Star Wars RPG LARP stuff, AD&D 2nd edition stuff (lol) and everything else he can't shift.

What was the Target: Matrix book about? (I understand it was a fluff book) What kind of stuff would I expect in there, and does it have anything I'd find relevant to my SR4 campaign (since the whole matrix has changed in SR4!)

I have Emergence (not read it yet, but it's on the to-read list after I am totally familiar with Augmentation/Street Magic/Arsenal and Runner Havens), so does Emergence basically duplicate/update T:Matrix?

Or, should I suggest he compost it?

Seeing how much the matrix has changed since 4th edition, I'm not sure if it would really be worth it...

The only part I liked about TM was the description of the Berkeley People's University host, and that sort of thing. Other than that... meh.

That said, currently the matrix is so different that buying the book will serve to do nothing but distract you. The focus is entirely different now: shifted from hack-the-great-big-server to hack-the-itty-bitty-device. The descriptions and security sheafs will not be compatible; I'm not sure any of it would be, except maybe the satellite stuff.

The profiles of popular Matrix personalities (like Slamm-o, etc) were interesting.