Can I please make a request for The Sixth World Almanac book that's on its way:

Can we please, please, please finally have a book that deals with the modern Ukrainian area?

None of the existing source books mention it in with more than a passing 'the Draco Foundation is digging in the area' but I think its got huge potential as a Shadowrunning area and I'd like the official intel on what's going on up there- esp after the Comet etc...

Yes I know I can make it up but the official word on what's going on in ex-Barsaive would be great please!!

Heh. Patience, young shadowrunner. I counsel patience, and faith.

I would love it if the book had a formatted table-based summary for every country along the lines of the Infoboxes included in Wikipedia entries, or the CIA World Factbook. Of course with around 250 countries on the planet, one country per page would fill the book. If the the countries that already have good coverage (North America, etc.), and those that are very small, are limited to half a page each, then that would let some locations use 2-3 pages.

Anyway, I would argue for breadth, over depth, with at least an overview for every country. If a country does warrant more then a few pages I would rather get a summary in the Almanac, and a full chapter in a separate location book later.

I vehemently disagree with the breadth over depth comment and I will attempt to explain why.

IMHO, location books peaked at New Seattle. I have yet to buy a new location book since New Seattle for this very reason. I know there's some good stuff in Runner Havens and I probably need it but right now, I can't bring myself to buy it.

All the later generation location books from Shadows of North America through to Runner Havens have had notoriously sparse detail on each region. Cities were missing key locations/venues to check out. This is the sort of detail that makes a city feel "alive"and is crucial to all GMs. To be even more frank, the GM is the one that gets the most value from these books so they should be heavily geared to them.

As a GM I don't like having to create a thousand locations for each city. If I have a good chunk of the more common places a runner will visit in a given city are defined that frees my mind to focus on other game elements or creating a new, single location as required. I can fully flesh out MORE cities in more DETAIL and do it more QUICKLY. It makes my job as the GM EASIER. That is what a location book should be able to do.

If I have to spend my time writing up every location in a city for every adventure after already spending money on the location book then I am sorry but it fails in my eyes.

If, however, we were to see sparse descriptions on countries and a more detailed description on a key city (e.g. 2-3 summary of Russia, detailed description of Moscow - off the top of my head), that might work.

I just really want to stress the fact that this continued "breadth over depth" is hurting the game and this mentality has to stop.

- J.

Personally though,
I am happy with information on a regional level, but specific locations are a waste of time for us.

The UK material out there on Merseysprawl is actually all we needed to run our current campaign in the Merseysprawl.
Despite what some might see as sparse in detail, we have a very descriptive narrative due to Google Earth and Google searches to pad out names of actual locations.
We even get photos of the locations and maps so descriptions can be very detailed.

Hey Jake, where do you play in Melbourne?
We find it almost impossible to find players. Everyone seems to be playing 4E D&D (and many of those groups in my area are dying as people find they hate the new rules set).

South eastern suburbs mate. I run a game fortnightly for my mates and I'm slowly finding my way around with the 4E rules.

Flick me a PM if you want with your contact details (IM or whatever). I'm on Gtalk.

cheers,

- J.