Hello,

I'm a bit of a lurker, and only a very occasional poster here on DS, so please be gentle

I've just been reading the topic about people's favourite editions of SR and found a lot of what people are saying really rings true with me. I only started playing at the beginning of 3e (hence I haven't waded in on the topic), and I loved the setting straight-away, but the rules were a big turn off for me. Now I've been buying 4e stuff, and I find the rules much more accessible, but I'm not feeling the fluff so much.

It's weird. On the one hand, I feel like a lot of the fluff for 4e is written assuming a certain amount of prior knowledge about metaplot, which I don't have in most cases. A good case in point is the fleeting mention of SURGE in the original 4e BBB, which described almost nothing about it. I assumed on first read that SURGE had been a new wave of people turning into orks and trolls. I didn't work it out until I read Runner's Companion.

On the other hand, it also feels like a lot of of the 4e fluff isn't as in-depth as some of the 3e fluff I've read. As such, a lot of the DS die-hards, who know all the meta-plot, seem less than satisfied when they comment on the new fluff books. I've ended up buying most of the crunch, but little of the fluff for 4e because of this feeling. Recently, I've been picking up 3e fluff books, however, trying to find stuff that would still be interesting/useful and have been quite enjoying some of them, especially Dragons of the Sixth World and Sprawl Survival Guide.

So, getting to the point, two questions:

1) What source books, new or old, do people really recommend/love, whether for general interest or plot-building inspiration - bear in mind that I have only a fleeting knowledge of the metaplot (it's not that I don't want to learn about it, I just don't want to be punished for not knowing it).

2) Do people that have read it feel that the 6th World Almanac gives a genuinely decent overview of the history/geography of the 6th world - enough for someone like me to feel better versed/grounded in the universe after reading it?

Any comments welcomed. I know you guys will have interesting stuff to say.

1.) For fluff? Damn near all of them. The current metaplot in the 70's seems to be focusing on the space elevator and the corporate rush to get contracts to work on it - and Saeder-Krupp's inexplicable stockpiling of cash. It's delicious stuff as long as one reads more between the lines.

YoTC was fun, even if people decry the SURGE aspect. SSG and Dragons of the Sixth World were also fun times. 6WA is a fantastic fluff book and gives you a breakdown of notable areas in the world as well as a timeline from the Seretech Decision to 2072.

Emergence is all right, though I'm not sure how well it's fitting in with 4th ed. It seems to me like people are trying to shoehorn in this hatred of technomancers and AI's in some places, but what some corps are doing about it makes other interesting points.

6WA will help you out a lot.

Seattle 2072, not a fan of 4e but I love that book possibly my favorite SR book of all times. Its even more fun if you get the original Seattle book and compare the entries for the same location

Depends on what parts you're looking for more info on. Here's my break-down of what metaplot points are in which books. Please note this list is NOT all-inclusive as it's been years since I've read some of them.

Virtual Realities - Halberstam's "Matrix-born" are introduced
Rigger Black Book - Pictures of all the fictional cars
Shadowtech - Smiling Bandit and KAM's debuts, lots of background on the development of a lot of different cyber and bioware
Universal Brotherhood - Introduction to insect spirits. Seriously, one of the best-written sourcebooks ever for a game and one of my personal favorite novellas of all time (because that's how the sourcebook comes off to me...a novella)
Street Samurai Catalog - Commentary, pictures, and corp marketing for a lot of different types of guns and cyber
Corporate Shadowfiles - VERY nice overview of how megacorps work
Fields of Fire - Mercenaries and background info on a lot of military-grade gear
Lone Star - Lone Star...kinda self-explanatory.
Prime Runners - A WHOLE lot of background on different characters, many of which pop up again several times.
Bug City - Fallout from the Universal Brotherhood/insect spirits
Cybertechnology - Goes deep into the street sam/cyber/bio culture, giving a lot of info about what it's like to actually have half your body replaced by chrome
Awakenings - What Cybertechnology is for street sams, Awakenings is for spell slingers.
Threats - Oh dear...if you want metaplot, that's ALL this book is. Alamos 20,000, horrors, insect spirits, dragons, Atlantean Foundation, more Halberstam...definite must-have if you want to delve into the secrets of Shadowrun
Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets - Dunkelzahn's assassination. His will basically drove the plotline for years following...and some of the effects are still rippling through the game world in 2072.
Underworld Sourcebook - Gangs, yakuza, triads, etc.
Target: Matrix - A lot of stuff here, but the only part I really, really like are the profiles of the various Shadowland regulars like Fastjack, Smiling Bandit, Ronin, Slamm-O!, etc.
Year of the Comet - This one's REALLY important because it was the first time this many world changes were shoved into so short a period in Shadowrun.
Threats 2 - See Threats. Same deal. Lots of fun.
Renraku Arcology: Shutdown - Deus, Otaku, and the Renraku Archology crisis...and a REALLY well-written story of the original lockdown through the eyes of a small child's journal.
Target: Wastelands - There's a lot of stuff here, but I can't remember all of it. The big one is the wrapping up of Chicago and the bugs.
Dragons of the Sixth World - Want to know about any Great and several of the Adult dragons? Here you go.
Sprawl Survival Guide and Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book - GREAT intro to the game world for people who don't know much about the world, basically an in-world version of "Shadowrunning for Dummies"
System Failure - The last hurrah of 3rd Edition...this explains the Crash and the rise of the wireless matrix, wraps up a LOOOOOT of plotlines.
Tir Tairngire & Tír na nÓg - Immortal Elves and the nations they run
Denver: The City of Shadows - Otaku, the treaty, and if you read this before you read Year of the Comet, the Ghostwalker section will make a LOT more sense.
Aztlán - Ooooooh...Aztlan and Aztechnology's incestuous relationship...oh, and there's a commentary on the Shadowland commentary from several Big Boys in the SR universe...Dunkelzahn, Harlequin, Ehran, and lots more
Shadows of North America, Shadows of Europe, and Shadows of Asia - Any plot that was ongoing in any of these regions, this is your stop.

Adventures

Mercurial - Maria Mercurial is mentioned many times, and it also introduces Perianwyr, a dragon who ends up in Denver.
Dreamchipper - BTL + SkillSofts = Brainwashed super-soldiers. The A-rated corp in this book ends up becoming big and eventually joins up with Horizon.
Queen Euphoria - Yay for more bugs! This was technically published before the UB book, but UB makes a far better intro IMO.
Bottled Demon - Arleesh and "the enemy" aka Horrors from Earthdawn
Harlequin - Harlequin, Ehran the Scribe, and Immortal Elves. Also, a really fun adventure tract.
Dragon Hunt - Dragon with a datajack. I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he ends up with NeoNet.
Imago - More Immortal Elves stuff
A Killing Glare - Urban Brawl and Perianwyr shows up again.
Harlequins Back - More Harlequin and more Horrors
Super Tuesday - The Presidential election of 2057
Missions - Non-standard Shadowrun adventures. One of the missions explores what happened with the pictures from Mars from Dunkelzahn's Will.
Brainscan - More Renraku stuff
Survival of the Fittest - An attempt to re-create Harlequin...and a failure in that respect. Lots of info on the most powerful Great Dragons (since you're running against each of them) and is the fallout of Dunkelzahn's assassination.

Novels

2XS - Bugs! This is hands-down my favorite Shadowrun novel and seriously one of my favorite novels of all time.
Never Trust an Elf - Tir Tairngire and the reason Lofwyr has a major hatred of Glasgan Oakforest...and makes a one-off comment in Dragons of the Sixth World (under Hestaby's section) INCREDIBLY funny.
Burning Bright - The lead-in to setting off the Carmack Bomb in Chicago
House of the Sun - Hawaii and Horrors...and Nigel Findley's final work for Shadowrun. Sometimes I wonder how amazing the Shadowrun world would be if he hadn't passed...
Worlds Without End - Harlequin, Aine Dupree, Immortal Elves, and Horrors. This is actually the third novel in a trilogy, with the first two novels being Earthdawn novels.
Dragonheart Saga (Stranger Souls, Clockwork Asylum, Beyond the Pale) - What REALLY happened with Dunkelzahn's assassination and the closure of the Horrors plotline...for now at least.

I didn't see Night's Pawn in that list.

Night's Pawn - What happens when a legend of the shadows walks.

I only read that one once and it was something like 7 or 8 years ago...I can't remember much about it really.

I'll admit that I have a particular love for the Secrets of Power Trilogy, but that is likely more because it was my introduction to Shadowrun and I view it with nostalgia goggles, considering I was five when it came out.

Honestly, I just snatch up any older fluff books I can find. It's served me well enough so far. Combining the books with the Sixth World Wiki, the Ancient Files and the 6WA is a great way to get up to speed quickly. Spending the next few months of your life obsessively reading is likely best.

Abstruse, where can one find 2XS these days? I often hear you praise that particular book.

Amazon, you can find used 2XS in print or kindle version.

I have always maintained a singular admiration for Chris Kubasik's short story in the back of Virtual Reality (first edition); it was required reading for each player that wanted a decker character for three editions at my table.

Wow! Thanks guys!

Investing in Seattle 2072 and will see what else is lurking in the local game shop.

Out of interest, what's covered in Mr Johnson's Little Black Book? I loved the Sprawl Survival Guide, so would definitely be interested in something of similar flavour.

2XS by Nigel Findley

Also, you can pick up a LOT of the old Shadowrun books on Amazon Marketplace as well as in lots on eBay (especially around this time of year when people are more likely to move and want to get rid of a massive pile of books).

EDIT:

If you're more of a digital rather than dead tree fan (which I'm not personally though I can see the appeal), you can get 2XS as a Kindle download here for just $2.99 (seriously, best three bucks you ever spent) or just get the Nigel Findley Omnibus which includes 2XS as well as Shadowplay, Lone Wolf, and House of the Sun here for $11.99.

Pretty much the same sort of stuff that's in Sprawl, but it's all out of character with no Shadowtalk. Think of it as SSG is for the players while LBB is for the GM (though both groups will profit by at least skimming over both books).

Well to be honest the fluff in 4e has gone through a bit of a up and down itself. There seemed to be a resurgence about the last couple of years of 4e with the return of an in-character file header of JackPoint reminiscent of the old Shadowland stuff. It was in all the books I have (I can't confirm Emergence, Ghost Cartels, Vice, or Running Wild, as those are the only paper copies I am missing.)

Then it disappeared after the anniversary edition; I noticed that Seattle '72 and Corp Guide doesn't have it, can anyone confirm that JackPoint has been taken off of 6WA?

I think this has a lot to do with some of the freelancers and execs leaving this year and directions being changed. Maybe now that things have settled we'll see a resurgence in 4e fluff.

/This, and I would add if you like that kind of stuff check out the Neo-Anarchist Guide to Real Life. It was the previous SSG and its a Nigel Findley book

It's half GM and half PC stuff...really well written and lots of fun shadowtalk, but it's not as informative as SSG or LBB is...but that's mostly due to the much lower page count and the fact that a lot of the concepts and tech being covered in the Guide to Real Life was appearing for the first time. Meanwhile, most of the stuff in SSG and LBB had appeared elsewhere with a few exceptions.

You know, it hadn't occurred to me before reading all this quite how much brilliant stuff from the history was actually originally played through by people. I'm supposed to be running a one off game for a gathering of old gaming buddies in September and now I'm thinking I might go back to something historical... hmmm.

Definitely more of a dead tree fan than an eBook person, but will start looking into some of this stuff.

Thank you for all of your suggestions.

Thanks Abstruse and tete. I'm more a dead tree fan, but files are a nice stand in.

The nice stuff about a lot of the fluff is that it often transcends the editions. My absolute fav' is the original Seattle Source Book followed by Shadowbeat and the original SR Companion, NAGtNA and the SotA books. Nigel Findley's novel 2XS is pretty much considered one of the best bits ever done to explore the world.

I agree with AH, the novella in the original Decking SB (I can't remember it's name) was pretty good and shaped the matrix for years.

Every novel by Nigel Findley is what I'd suggest. "Into The Shadows" anthology is also a good read, as is "Wolf and Raven" (Some of which was written before the Shadowrun Main Rulebook was!).

I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to be done with the new novels.

For those of you who are also dead tree fans, the old edition book prices vary WILDLY on Amazon Marketplace. Some of them are available for a couple of bucks or less (most of the novels are, most expensive I saw was 2XS for $3.70+shipping), some are around cover price (Tir Tairngire is running in that range), and some are INSANELY overpriced (someone had Denver for over THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!! I bought that for $30 when I was a friggin' kid! Shame I only have the two books now...I liked that CAS Pass that came with it). Most of them are very reasonably priced though.

Personally, I just got a new bookshelf and my Robert B. Parker, Jim Butcher, and Patricia Briggs books don't quite fill it...looking forward to overloading it with Shadowrun books (I only have (or was able to find...I SWORE I had copies of A Killing Glare, Shadows of Europe, and Mercurial!!) about 1/3 of the books printed not counting the novels).