Two of the worst additions to the Shadowrun line I think have to be the Tir Tairngire and Tir Na nOg sourcebooks. Sure they might be run by IE's so that gives them some bonuses, but what the authors made them was just funny. In a I can't believe how badly they wrote this kind of way.

Bring on the downfall of Tir Na nOg to rival Tir Tairngires in SoE I say! Come on Elissa, we know you can do it!

Hey, TT might have been an über elven utopia, but it was cool and a goodd read. Not like TNN, might Gascoigne and Sargent rot in Hell...

Heh. I actually prefered Tir Na nOg to Tir Tairngire by a mile. With TNN I liked the author and the fact that there was actually some serious opposed views inside the place- unlike TT where they just squabble over control, TNN had an IE that was unhappy with the whole set-up. With TT, I had to practically force myself to finish.

Chalk it up to differences. You say tomato, I say tomato.

Hell, there might even be detachable mini-credsticks to which you can withdraw small amounts of funds from other credsticks "on-the-fly" to create a tip you can toss to the bellhop, a payment for a stick of gum, whatever.

~J

On the currency debate, I prefer the "amorphous Nuyen" paradigm. Currency is obtained in a certain form (coin, paper, credit, oversized novelty checks, etc.) but enters a state of uncertainty once any period of downtime has occured. The currency stays in this unknown state until a specific form is needed or desired to pay for something. The dominant recording method for this Heisenburgean monetary state is a small number penciled on the character sheet.

I approve

~J

in my game, credsticks are only about half the size of a pen, and most come with a small loop for a key ring to fit on, much like that new discover(?) card that flips out. there's also credcards, which are just another form of credstick. I think this is a bit more realistic than the old SR art portrayed, where the sticks were like those big ass first grade pencils.

I've said this before, but... the form factor should be pretty much irrelevant. The important part of it is the chip inside, and, per SSG, they have short-range wireless capabilities (though, by canon, it's used only for beaconing, which seems a bit odd), so it should be theoretically possible to stuff the chip into just about anything and handle everything wirelessly. There's no reason it has to be restricted to the standard "stick" (or even "card") format... it should be technically feasible to put them in rings or tie-tacks or watches or keyfobs or body-piercing studs (though that could lead to some interesting problems... "I'm sorry, ma'am, we're not getting a clear signal from your credchip. Could you place it in contact with the reader?" "Do I look like Janet Jackson?!?") or whatever... even, as I suggested earlier, a DNI-controlled implant.

And that last one solves one of the other problems I've wondered about... which is, how the hell do you actually perform a stick-to-stick transfer? The things don't appear to have any manual controls on them. I assume that when you slot it in a reader, the reader has controls to set the transaction amount (or does it automatically, like a cash register), but when all you've got is two sticks.... ?

I hold my players to what ever I give them. In the corse of one evening I paid them in Cert. NewYen, Ares Corp scrit, and Euro Cash (yeah, like bills in a briefcase). But Im kinda a bastered when it comes to the payoff. At least that way they feel good about getting 20k, only to have to exchange it into something useable.

Oh yeah. Whilst credit/debit cards are good, I've still found myself wandering around with five/six-hundred dollars in my pocket at times.

about the stick to stick transfer, dial up your online banking service and have it transfer the amount to the other persons acount (even certified cradstick have accounts in my view, they jsut dont need the holder to id himself to use it) or get yourself a pocket secratary as i belive one of its focntionsare stick to stick transfers...

In America, the whole electronic transfer thing is still slow to work it's way through all sectors of business.

The local fast food places in Atlanta just started accepting the card and only in the high end parts of town.

Whereas in Europe, I could pay with an electronic debit 9 times out of 10.

One of the major impediments to wide-spread electronic use is the problem of identity theft and if the retailer mishandles the credit card data, customers could quickly find themselves becoming victims.

-Siege

My least favorite additions to the Shadowrun line or themes I've gathered over time. Keeping in mind some of my source books are out of date, and its a major hassle trying to find some of the more popular stuff (out of print!).

1. Corporate Security. Corps with anything worth stealing also have the resources to protect their stuff. They have scads more resources to protect and whack runners, than runners typically have resources to now intrude upon. Nowadays it just strikes me as plain ol' MEAN for a gm to have a Johnson give a runner team an intrusion mission. Worse yet, to me, it seems to bog down the adventure/run even more because you have to adopt a siege mentality when regarding break-ins. I liked the flow of even the old 2nd and early 3ed published adventures that included corporate office/lab breakins. Matrix security, the occassional monomolecular wire strung across the hall, but no ridiculous ideas like a Rigger DRIVING a building.

2. The 'big deal' regarding SIN vs SINLess. To me it was never really made clear why you'd want to go SINLess. You have a SIN and get busted on a run by Lonestar? Ok, thats bad. You get busted without a SIN on a run by Lonestar and they slap you with a "criminal SIN", isn't that worse? Seems better to just have fake SIN and identities.

3. Language rules. Why they don't just make languages a 2 or 3 point maximum costing skill I dunno. Rating 1, basic communication. Rating 2 Active Speaker, accented. Rating 3 Native quality speaker, no accent. Dialects would have its own game effects, but having skill rolls for languages just seems kinda retarted

4. Don't hate me for this one. But I'd been a little frustrated Shadowrun didn't come up with an easier way to figure out whether or not you succeeded in using a skill when you're not rushed at all and had decent resources, without having to roll. The rules for rolling seemed contrary to the little 'flavor' examples they gave of what a rating 4 or 5 or 6 meant in a particular active or knowledge skill. Rating 8 you are 'one' with the weapon, zenmasterdooooom! But whoops you have to roll anyway.

5. Inflated dice pools. How do we simulate the increased capability of 'prime runners'? Lets add more dice to roll at one time and slow down the process! Jimmy must be a prime runner, cause this action he rolled 16 dice! Personally, I think some sorta homebrew that allowed characters to add a -1 to TN or something instead of adding another die of karmapool/whatever might work a bit better. Just my opinion.

6. Others have mentioned it too. Compared to the earlier editions of the game, Shadowrun now seems less 'cyberpunk' and dark/gritty/dangerous, and is instead a bit more neon/flashy/complicated/over-analyze-the-run sorta stuff. Its still enjoyable, but there seems to be a definate difference in tone and flow.

if your sinless you officialy dont exist so it can have its perks (atleast if you back that up with say 3-4 fake sins) as your fingerprints and face leads to no record other then what a fake sin can leave behind and if the fake sin becomes compromized then just dump it and you no longer exist.

for a person with a valid sin you risk haveing the police run a check for your fingerprints or face and get not only fake sin plings but allso your real sin.

the language skills indicate how many words you understand, not how well you speak the language. a person with 1 in a language is like a tourist, he may know how to ask for the toilet and so on but for more technical stuff he is in trouble. as for skill rolling, sometimes you may not catch all of what the person is saying and end up missunderstanding. personlay i would never roll for a roles native language, only for all the others...

and even a zen like master of a skill can have stuff impact what happens. chaos is everpresent.

Well to be honest there wasn't much in YOTC I did like, Shedim just seemed like an excuse to recreate Resident Evil but I do like the idea of Master Shedim in Threats 2. SURGE just seemed like an excuse to create X-Men - it took all of 2 days after it's release for one of our players to make Nightcrawler, the only reason it took so long was because we didn't have a session on the day our supplier got it in. There's a few things in M&M I consider somewhat pointless too, most all of the nanotech section for example, and a good deal of the chemistry section, the less said about the vast majority of Rigger 3 the better - I mean aircraft carriers and submarines for crying out loud!?!

That said, I can see why some people would like such things, but quite often it does seem like the writers are getting to wrapped up in high powered [and generally magical] metaplots and global conspiracies, that they're missing the things that really matter to "normal" shadowrunners and the normal people on the street for that matter, things like politics, what the corps are up to behind - and in front of the scenes.

I know a lot of people have said they want to see a 'Joe Public' sourcebook, and Sota 2063 had a cracking section on that sort of thing - in fact Sota 2063 was probably the best release last year with very little in it that wasn't useful for everyday runners.

Anyway, I'll end the rant on that note - in short I don't like the reams of obviously over powered and therefore unnecessary stuff

It seems to me that people like Darkest Angel who decry things like nanotech and submarines and aircraft carriers as too high-powered are clearly not GMs. I can say that those items are perfectly valid and in fact an important part of the gritty, street-level experience. It just will never be the players using them.

~J

here here. kagetenshi!

as a GM those types of things are what I love, random wierd strange things to throw at my PCs, yeah they may not be for every game or gamer, but I am glad that they are there.

my least favorite would have to be the GM screen. it is lacking a lot of info I would like, and the critters book was skimpy. I would love a full fledged critters book, with ecology and nice pics. (like the older style)... but I'll take what I can get.

-Mike R.

About the surge issue, one, not every addition is about making a more powerful character, it is about style. I for one give out extra karma to good-roleplayers, and to people who have to overcome handicaps. Second, did you actually play through the Surge episode. Where you on a run when news reports started coming in about the new vitas outbreak, did your team freak out when someone in the team or maybe your target on the extraction started to feel the effects of this new 'disease'? It made for some exciting play down here in the south.
And no I have never used the BP method. I started well before that and am still playing the same three characters, as are most of the people in our group. Additionally, there are time when you might not have access to your magic or ware, then those with natural abilities will come to the fore.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times.

Shadowrun is not Cyberpunk. Shadowrun is not High Fantasy.

Shadowrun is a totally unique setting. It is Cyberpunk, High Fantasy, Ultra Conspriacy, and Alternate History all mixed into one. That is what Shadowrun is to me at least.

If a runner's vehicle comes under fire from a Main Battle Tank or an aircraft carrier, it's dead, no question about it.

However, depending on the vehicle and skill of person driving/flying/rigging it, how quickly they get dead is important and a factor that requires stats.

~J

Also, I've run Spec Ops games where the captain of the sub has to evade an enemy fleet, merc missions that have tanks, D-Day like missions that need shore bombardment.

I wonder though, how long will it be before the Shadowrun timeline/setting allows for teams of runners to flit about rooftops making booster propelled jumps, ala Bubblegum Crisis and the Knight Sabers in their combat hardsuits. The setting seems to be heading down the line that leaves the age of Robocop to the realm of Anime.

Let me look into my crystal ball: Not anytime soon.

lol

If you want it too, the rules are already there... (hydraulic jacks + hardened envirosealed military armor) but I don't think Canon is headed that way.

SR has a flexible enough system to do that if you want, or avoid it if you want. same with Subs and aircraft carriers, don't play pirates, prolly don't need them... but it's nice to have the stats if you do.

-Mike R.

Now you have me wanting to run BESM Shadowrun.

Frag, some samurai might as well be living, breathing suits of APCA.

Be that as it may, I have no doubt that some bright think-tank or even some street level inventors could and possibly would develop some "GrassHopper" ACPA -- 2020 reference. The tech exists -- all that remains is to find someone bored or motivated enough to develop the application(s).

Whether or not canon writers choose to pursue that theoretical development of tech is another matter entirely -- I chalk it up to the same board as the "ambidexterity chip."

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if poser gangs didn't start adopting anime motifs as their gang sign/emblem.

If I lived in 2060, I'd have skillwires, chipjacks, datajacks and knowsoft links and be a bipedal brain -- making and testing things just because I could. And with gangs looking for an edge, willing to take up experimental cyberware...wheeee!

-Siege

Not that I'm necessarily advocating ACPA, nor do I want to start a cybog vs. ACPA vs. cyberzombie debate, but:

Even with BubbleGum Crisis, I never thought of ACPA as being especially anime-ish. Granted, moments of BGC were -- which is fitting, considering it is an anime, but still...

-Siege

Starship Troopers (the book) wasn't animesque in the least (appropriate, for when it was written) and had powered armor as the main focus of the book.

~J

power armor (ie, 10-20 cm of armor over a powerd skeleton that the user wear like a overgrown bodyarmor) is in no way anime, one where ride a robot that looks like a overgrown person in said armor is very anime. the style here is important. in one you are doing the lifting and moveing and the armor just amplify the movement, in the other you are piloting a walking tank.

Battletech, and the more commonly known offshot Mechwarrior, are in no way, shape, or form similar to anime save for the basic similarity of giant robots.

Though, of course, the entire concept of "similar to anime" is silly. It's like saying that shotguns are similar to paperbacks, or Ares Viper Sliverguns are similar to photography.

~J