Have recently started getting into Shadowrun again and something I've been wondering about, which of the older books are still useful for Shadowrun 4th Edition? Have been looking some at Shadows of North America, Shadows of Europe and Shadows of Asia. How useful are those and are there other very useful books? Appreciate any help on the subject.

Actually those three you mentioned are very useful.

Other suggestions (as they have good fluff that may proove useful in a 4E game):
Neo-A's guide to real life (some what dated, but still a good primer on surviivng the shadows of the sixth world)
Neo-A's guide to North America (Dallas, Atlanta, SF (pre-saito), washington DC are covered here)
Bug City
Loose Alliances
Threats 1&2
Prime runners (good for an NPC or two)
Sprawl Sites
Lone Star Source Book
Field of Fire (good background info for a merc campaign)
Portfolio of a Dragon
Dunklezahn's Will

I'm sure others will have different suggestions.

SHADOWBEAT!!!!(!!!!!!)

SR4 has the best mechanics to support the rocker archetype since... wow, maybe forever.

Also, note that the SR1 and 2 books have beautiful pictures of gear. I love some of those books for that alone.

QFT.

Grexul

The three "Shadows" books are all excellent resources for getting information for character and NPC backgrounds, or even running outside of Seattle (whether you start there or not). I recall something about a Sixth World Atlas or some such currently in production, though whether we see it is, I suppose, up in the air. Until then, the Shadows series is your best bet for rest-of-world info; plus, as 3rd edition books, they're not that far out of date.

If you like delving into the metaplot a bit, I would suggest Dragons of the Sixth World. It goes over all of the big-name dragons in the world aside from Big D, including a bit on drakes and the Draco Foundation. Even the dragons that don't seem to do very much all get some shadowtalk about what goes on behind their closed doors.

The Threats books are likewise out of date a bit, but Threats 2 specifically has a lot of stuff that's low-key that's still valid for running groups. If you want to confuse the hell out of your players, I suggest taking a good look at the Aleph Society and Imps sections; for overt threats, the orders for the new Knights Templar make for good fight scenes.

Shadowbeat is a good one, I must agree; although dated, it provides a decent look at how life is lived in the shadows and also provides the rules for Combat Biker and Urban Brawl, which were mysteries to me until I found a copy of Shadowbeat at my LGS in the Forgotten Books section for $10. Talk about a steal.

Some of the country-specific information from books like Tir Na nOg and Target UCAS is still applicable, because although the history of those places has been updated (see: "Shadows of --"), the organs of state and most of the demographic information won't have changed too much. I was going to give my players a giant headache by making them travel to Tir Na nOg for a run, and boy oh boy, reading the TNO sourcebook makes getting in and out of there sound like a pain in my ass. And theirs.

If you are at all interested in playing an augmented character, try (very, very hard) to track down Cybertechnology from 2E. Hatchetman's tale is still the best and most affecting piece of SR fiction I've read.

Corporate Download and the Shadows of Series, followed by the Target: Series.

Those contain most of the background material.

Not only do I own this book, my copy has an inverted cover. So much in fact, we called the book "Cutting Edge" for so long, I didn't even have an idea what book Cybertechology was when I first saw a list of current books at the time, and I wondered where Cutting Edge was.

Sounds like theres a lot of books I've never even considered! Will have to start lurking ebay some I think.

One thing about Dragons of the Sixth World is that the Draco Foundation bit at the front has a picture of Nadja Daviar. She's pretty, sure, but I still wonder how a badass like Mercury could wrapped around her little finger so easy.

What about conversions? I think this would give us the biggest reuse of existing materials. Is there a conversion from 1E to 4E or 2E to 4E or 3E to 4E or all three? It seems like with some effort a balanced conversion should be possible.

There is a guide for converting characters from 3rd edition to 4th edition in the back of Contacts and Adventures (not sure if you can buy that as a standalone, mine came with my GM screen), but it is not 100% comprehensive.

3E to 4E can be found on www.shadowrun4.com or just here since I went to check it up myself anyway. Its only character conversion, but should give you the idea for how to convert the rest if theres something not covered there.

Almost every statistical thing (weapons, spells, critters, etc.) from SR1-3 has been statted up in SR4 books.

"Well, he called it the Bermuda Triangle. He said that a man could get lost in there and never be heard from again." - Ebby Calvin LaLoosh, Bull Durham

*puzzled look as flipping the pages* But where are the item weights?


*runs.....fast*

Que hiciste, lo veo.

I only speak two languages, omae: english and bad english.

All excellent choices! And I second the Target: series and Shadows of North America as well.

Ok questiona s this thread seems the best place to put it. Where is my go to source for information on the CAS?

I personally second Dunkelzahn's Will. It's loaded with plot hooks that could carry on to the present Shadowrun date.

Shadows of North America???

One of the books that is still packed away.

I have it, i'll read it again, it's been a while but I recall it being somewhat lacking. I'll have to dig out my copy and go through again.

Loads and loads of plot hooks! I haven't gotten through a tenth of them to date in terms of games that I have run.

You are right about background info on the CAS. I seem to recall that there were some interesting fan sites that dug into it a little more. If I find them I will post them up. Thinking about lost fan sites, makes me sad (Raygun's and Blackjack's top the list).

I digress though.

For CAS, Neo-A Guide to North AMerica had a better write-up. It covered two cities (Atlanta and Dallas), as well as some background materiel. I think there was a write up on New Orleans in an RPG mag somewhere too.

Any idea which RPG mag it might have been?

NoLA also is covered in that Smugglers/Pirates book, wasn't it?

Yep.

Do any of the books cover South America and/or Africa?

Cyberpirates! covers the Carribean, Nigeria-ish, and Southeast Asia. Also, I think it's an awesome book in its own right. I mean, it has an exclamation mark right in the title!

Feral Cities (4th edition book) covers Lagos (again). As for South America, it doesn't get much love in SR.

You do not talk about SoLa.

FOrgot about cyberpirates, I think Target SMuggler's havens might have some info on the Big Easy. (I'll have to check to see if I have a copy of it)