The latest Shadowrun sourcebook, Spy Games, is out now (Battleshop, DrivethruRPG)! It provides an update on the intrigue-filled city of Denver--find out what Ghostwalker's been up to and why the different sectors of the city are pushing for a renegotiation of the Treaty of Denver. The book also tells you what you need to know about conducting intelligence operations, including a briefing on counterintelligence and details on using spirits in intelligence operations, and of course it contains a nice helping of new spy gear and new spells, adept abilities, and metamagics. All this, and dozens of plot hooks and information on other global espionage hotspots, including Brussels, London, Kansai, and Austin!

For more info, let's check out the official summary:

CITY OF SECRETS

Listen to the whispers—they’re all over town. People have secrets, millions of secrets, and some of them are so explosive they could shift the balance of power in the Treaty City of Denver. Normally, the great dragon Ghostwalker’s tight grip would keep the city under control, but some of the whispers moving around town say that Ghostwalker hasn’t been himself lately. The powers of Denver are scrambling, the Treaty is about to be renegotiated, and information is the hottest commodity in town.

Spy Games brings Shadowrun players to the espionage-filled city of Denver, where secrets are bought and sold, and sometimes the price is paid in blood. Accessing these secrets may mean using cutting-edge surveillance gear or powerful magic, or it could mean turning back the clock and breaking out low-tech cloak-and-dagger approaches that the techheads of the world would never expect. Spy Games provides the setting information, gear statistics, and game rules players need to dive into Sixth World spycraft.

Spy Games is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.

Jason H.

So 23 pages of goodies and how to hide them, interesting.

btw, seems the jackpoint page name drops two unknown (to me) books:
- Street Legends
- Unfriendly Skies

And wtf is Hestaby doing at the UN?!

(do not have the full pdf yet, just looking at the sample from drivethrurpg).

Who did the cover art? And is Deep Shadows some kind of concept book, a series, or what? Books like War? I sure hope not.

Cover art is by Eric Williams. Deep shadows is a series of books where each book is built around a theme, and features place information, gear, and other material related to that theme. They'll have one or two locations that will be the most detailed locations, and generally shorter bits of information about them. War! and Spy Games are the first two of these kinds of books; the next is Conspiracy Theories.

Jason H.

The cover is by Eric Williams. (EDIT: Ninjad by Hardy...figures.)

Thanks (to both). The cover's real pretty. Can't say about the book because I don't have it (yet, I suppose).

Conspiracy theories is the London-centric book, right?

Are there any crunchy rules for fluff and gear in this book, or is it another useless Amazonia-book with a page or two of stuff slapped on it, like war?

Get a post like that not a half dozen comments in, and yet people still wonder why most of the devs, writers, etc, choose to spend most of their time elsewhere on the 'net.

The preview pdf is right there, contents page(s) and all. Feel free to take a look.

To be quite honest, it's not like we published a book as deeply flawed as War (and Attitude also wasn't exactly top of the line, though better). While it's unfair to condemn the book straight away ... well, it'S not like this comes out of the blue. And unless you ban all who don't suck up to you, you will get such voices for some time anyway. It's publishing, you gotta learn to live with that (even if your stuff objectively is good, some 20% are gonna hate it).

Since my download works now, I'm just skimming, but there seems about as much equipment and rules as there was in Attitude. 83 pages Denver, 48 opages of background fluff and other places, 30 pages equipment and rules. Well, it was 17 pages in Attitude and 26 in War (though it really felt like the reverse - Attitude was 17 pages of interesting and useful stuff and War was 26 pages of fail). So it's a bit more than War. Can't say if there're rules scattered through the background fluff sections (Espionage 101), but I hope not. That went very badly in War.

It's not a matter of arguing about War's popularity, or talking about banning, or demanding sucking up -- note, please, I mentioned none of those things, you did -- it's just me pointing out a basic truth. Acting like an asshole to every dev and constantly bad-mouthing their work before even looking at it means it's less fun to hang out here for the devs. It's not rocket science. I see people on here fling stones around willy-nilly, then complaining about a lack of dev interaction; well, you aren't likely to get both at the same time.

There's a world of difference between constructive criticism, a productive dialogue between consumer and producer, and the level of vitriol and entitlement that's been leveled around here since War. Don't be surprised that so few of us choose to hang out here, that's all I'm saying.

And, for the record, the closest you'll come to rules/crunch mixed in with the Tradecraft chapter is a series of NPC templates presented there, very clearly delineated from the rest of the chapter, presented in a shaded text-box and clearly marked as OOC game information (but there within easy page-flipping distance from the discussions about their various roles and agencies, for ease of reference/use).

Do you notice the correlation between the Level of Vitriol and the Production of War?

Fair enough. But War! and the ... way soem authors trolled here in the aftermath after they were not praised to high heaven for their writing left an impression by itself.


Certainly not.


Yeah, just seen that. It's surely an improvement on the War mishmash. That's been done in Attitude already and I liked it there, too.

Hermit, just an aside, but please note a quick edit I made of my last post (handling your question about mixing IC/OOC stuff).

Scanned through it, seems interesting. But I thought the same of War! until I hit that ER Waiting Room.

One thing I did notice, Clean Car Coating is listed and described, but no price, availability or modification slots are listed for it. And I doubt it's the only item that's missing (Again, no fine toothed comb.).

The update for Denver and the Data Haven/Nexus is greatly appreciated, however.

@Critas: Thanks. Edited.

And yes, Clean Car Coating misses price and potential mod slots (though really, mod slots for paint ...?).

Which is part of my point, and part of why the constant dredging up of War! gets so frustrating. Lots of us very quickly caught on that War! was kind of the "African Child" (Get Him To the Greek? Anyone? Anyone?) of recent Shadowrun products. The very day War! hit, we started to talk about what needed to change to keep it from happening again. When folks act like those changes absolutely never happened, several releases later, it gets a little irritating.

We're trying to listen. We're trying to make changes. Some of you guys even (grudgingly?) have admitted that recent products have improved over War!, every once in a while. So then when every release is greeted by "LOL herp derp more War? I hate them all and their mothers smell funny!" before folks even crack the e-cover open and take a peek inside, it gets a little old.

I'm the last guy that's gonna claim every book is perfect. Heck, Way of the Adept was all mine, writing-wise, and I've still admitted that parts of it didn't turn out quite like I would have liked. I'm not passing the buck or claiming we're batting a thousand, here. I'm just wishing the feedback could be a little more constructive, in order to encourage discourse instead of defense.

Hey, please excuse me if I want SOME insight into a product I'm interested in buying, before putting money down for it.

At the time of my posting there wasn't a lot of details about what's actually -inside- the book. The battleshop preview has, the table of contents and the intro fiction and... thats it. Compare to This Old Drone's preview, which actually had a hint of interesting useful things for people to look at before hand.

And, well, now there is. Post accomplished, I guess.

You see, I'm actaully playing a spy type in an upcoming game. I want this book to be good, to be worth it, to not cause my gm to roll his eyes at Yet Another Splatbook. I want him to go 'holy crap, this is great, lets all use it'. Coming from someone who loved Attitude, I think you're headed in the right direction.

Since you want some constructive criticism, I figure I'd chime in with my 2 cents. I LIKED the older book design schemes: You want magic stuff, buy street magic, you want setting stuff, buy corporate enclaves or seattle 2072. Currently, it feels like they're kind of being crammed together in one book just to charge a bit more. On the flipside, I'm not sure there's a lot of content left to be treaded for a 200 page book to be made just one of the other.

But yeah. WAR! is basically catalyst's black sheep right now. Sorry if its pushing the devs sensitive buttons right now, but damn, take some pride in your work. Way of the Adept did wonders in my faith that some content producers still understand the system, and what needs shoring up and improvement. Attitude made me laugh, and I rather enjoyed the expanded clothing section ( would it have killed you to put the german arsenal 2072 clothing options in this section too?). Just becuase I enjoy debating rules on here all the time, doesn't mean I won't appreciate a good product.

Spy games, well. We'll see.

C'mon, man. Go read your post. Is that closer to "Hey, can I get some insight," or "Hey, you guys write shit?" Honestly. And then, note that in the same breath you bemoan a lack of information about what's in the book, and mention that the table of contents is there, clearly visible to all and sundry. I mean, it's the table of contents. If that's not "some insight into the product," I don't know what is.


I'm glad you enjoyed it, I very much enjoyed working on it. Just do us the favor of remembering not every book is War!, okay? Or, at least understand how treating every book like War! (sight unseen) might explain the scarcity of dev commentary of late, is all I'm saying.

Nah, not grudgingly. Me, I want good SR products. I am deeply disappointed by bad products. I am not happy at all about any bad product. But that doesn't mean I pretend to be happy. And yes, there has been improvement in the line. Credit where credit is due.


To clarify: No options, just different mix-and-match clothes from different brands. There's a wealth more in the Berlin book (fluff only, though) and AAS' personal homepage (some crunch to the fluff), though.

Really, the Berlin book ought to be translated. Right now, it's my benchmark for a truly great SR book. I have to go way, way back to books that are flavored by nostalgia to find one I like as much.

*Cough*

THIS! IS! DUMPSHOCK!!! *Kicks random person into a bottomless pit*

Sorry, couldn't help it.

More like DUMBSHOCK! Haha! Cause it is. Most of the time.

*ahem*

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I think the shortbus has enough seating for all of us, anyway.

Actually, most of us are quite intelligent. Just opinionated and unabashedly willing to say what we think without caring about other people's feelings.

Not quite Internet Trolls, but not exactly safe for public consumption either.

Which, ironically, makes this forum perfect, both In Character and Out Of Character. Go figure.

Well, when's that one coming out? Sounds perfect for fleshing out the conspiracy theorist contact of my groups hacker.

Conspiracy Theories is a conspiracy put out by Topps and CGL to take money away from us in exchange for a PDF or a book!!!

So. I read the parts that interested me most: everything except for Denver. Okay, no, just the "hotspots", since they cover a number of actually interesting settings.

I gotta say, this is an improvement on War and Attitude. It's back to a Shadows of Europe level. Editing still could use improvement, but the margin of typos and grammar, format and other errors is back to the level of older books, which is alright I guess. Still, another glance-over would have been nice. The less errors, the better the impression.

Now, to the meat of the section.

The E.C. chapter has some bumpyness and sounds like it was written by a German (Lars, were you very tired when writing this? Uusally, your English is better), though I found it makes sense for German-Dutch Ecotope in a way. It's an interesting writeup though and makes me want to know more about Brussles, E.C. London surprised me most in that it did not make me want to type a colourful, insulting rant. It was a logical development of the SoE plot and respectful to canon for the most part. I care a great deal about London as a setting, and while I miss Lord Marchment, they backpedaled from their making this yet another Seattle clone setting apparently. That's the right choice. Maybe, just maybe, conspiracy Theories will not be an utter and total disaster. Now, Kansei and Austin are only marginally interesting but at least add some local hat to the settings. Berlin South here, with Lone Star; Ninja Samurai Corpers duking it out with Katanas there. Those settings will not win the cake but hey, they're okay. They even tell you why you might be interested in them, which is something that Bogota in War didn't manage in 50-odd pages. Improvement. A nitpick: It's the Yamato ideal, not the Yasuhito ideal. Nairobi is nice to see a mention too, since Africa usually is mentioned only in an offhand way, dismissed as the home of hellhole feral places where people eat each other habitually and love ghouls. And finally, Tel Aviv, another city I've long hoped to hear from again. and it's done reasonably well (as in, SoA quality) again.

Tradecraft looks ok too. Loose Alliance level write-ups of agencies and the likes. I'll read that too, but tomorrow. More then. Unless it'S seriously bad, then I'll just stop.


I hope not too soon. I'd hate to see yet another hackjob book like Attitude and it's wasted potential because no direction and editing happened.

Still picking my way through it, but right off the bat I'll say:

Thank you guys for fixing the pdf issues.

Grabbed Spy Games and Way of the Adept and they both open beautifully in Apple Preview.

Glad you enjoyed those bits, or at least tolerated them.


Nitpick query: Where are you seeing Yamato? It's called the Yasuhito Ideal (all capitalized and everything) in 6WA. Yamato was the pro-segregation one, that encouraged Japanese xenophobia. The Yasuhito was the one that opened up the borders and trade more, softened (in theory) social norms towards metahumans, etc, etc.

I apologize for the lack of info on clean car coating. Stats should be as follows:


Mod Slot Threshold Tools Cost Availability
CCC 0 8 shop Body x 50¥ 4

Jason H.

So, when can we expect the errata for this to come out, Jason?

Then it was too late and I messed up. Withdrawn.


Tolerated is a bit harshly put. Overall, it was like reading SoA or SoE. some parts were more interesting than others, but all were useful in case you ever wanted to take your campaign(s) there (unlikely in case of Austin and Kansei with me, but you never know), and none included a wtf moment.

And we found out that the JackPoint can be hacked more than once.

And that FastJack's patience about "The Poster With No Name" is starting to wear thinner than his grey mohawk!

Heh, we got another leonardo on our hands?!

Btw, i seem to have missed out on the first hack. What book was it in?

On with my possibly even complete this time review.

So. Thorn is the Brit/Tír Michael Westin of Shadowrun? He sure sounds the part in Tradecraft. Thorne's Top Tricks remind me of the voiceovers in Burn Notice - tone, topics covered, their relative randomness (but at least vague coherence with the surrounding narrative). Not that that's a bad thing for me, I like that show, I even like Westin's somewhat smug tips and tricks (actually, I compiled some 20 out of a long list I found on a web site for newbie players as a quick 101 on what I think a runner should know). Spy Games' Tradecraft could work the same way, which is, I guess, what the chapter aims at. Also, some parts remind me of Spy Games (the movie), like the almost literal part about lies (keep it simple, bla bla). Hey, at least someone did some research here.

Possible Nitpick: CIA and Langley are a CAS affair in SR, right (being in Virginia)? So why compare them to Yale (which is UCAS in SR) and speak of "this country" as though there was an actual USA in SR?

Then, agencies. Here's where we'll see whether canon is getting the War treatment or is handled as respectful as it ought to. First is the UGB. standard russian agency stuff, but reasonably well done. MI5/MI6 next. Can't really remember those form London, but IIRC they were in SoE. Argus and Aegis Cognito then (given the existence of Jellyfish Intel, I'll never say anything about theior dorky names again), Information Secretariat, the CIA and DIA and all the other UCAs and CAS agencies (well, some of them, going by the current USA and it's 25-odd agencies). Short, fast facts in Thorn's anecdotal Westin way of telling things. Reads nice enough. I'd almost say this book is not overall going to stink, but then again I said that about Attitude too. And it did in the end. So, reserving my judgement for now.

A treatise on the tech curve, Technos and the value of not relying on a Matrix that is fundamentally impossible to secure (and emotitoys; not sure if I am angry about their mention or amused at their dismissal) later, we get to the NPC section. Okay, Hardy seems madly in love with teh idea of putting NPCs into his books. The upside: clear differentiation between crunch and fluff, even if they're on the same page (whcih, mostly, they are not). It's not quite ideal but I can't think of any better way to possibly do it, hence I'll save you smugness here and just say it's probably best way to handle this. Unless you want to ban the crunch into the back of the book entirely, that is. The article ended a bit abruptly, with the page space wasted at the end of the 'hotspots's ection, surely a smug good-bye from Thorne would have been possible?

Next stop: counterintelligence, the spy scene seen from the other side of the equasion.

CIA remains in Langley and remains an UCAS agency. A chunk of Virginia, north of the Rappahannock River, remained in the UCAS as the state of North Virginia. I'm not sure it appears on all SR maps, but the Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America and the novel Just Compensation clearly state the point. Actually, according to the Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America, the Fairfax county itself became part of the Federal District of Columbia. On the other hand, SOTA:2064 says CIA headquarters are in North Virginia. Anyway, CIA is UCAS.

Thanks for clearing that up.


Well, being sold out to Horizon probably isn't what he expects from his potpourrie of fans and favourites ...

Anyway, on with my review.

So it's time to discuss the opposition: counterintelligence. Writing is solid and sounds different from thorne, because it's a different voice. That's not been standard in previous books and hence, a good sign. Again, the writing's quality seems on par with Loose Alliances, which is good enough (though not great). Info on the working of agencies tries to take into account that SR is not the current real world with elves, but has mechanisms that are real gamechangers in the realm of intelligence. Well, that's also a step up from Attitude (which failed to even acknowledge the prevalence of holo-TV (TriD) and SimSense). I really like the agencies covered, too. The UCAS now has something that is the Jack Bauer CTU in all but name. On a side note, do I understand this right, the UCAS has even more semiindependent or fully independent agencies than the US? Here's something I miss: inter-agency rivalry. It made 9/11 possible, so it can have horrendous consequences. It should get more than a passing mention by Thorne.Anyway. Truth dancers: interesting. KE: well, that's one of these story updates. At least it fits in and does not stand out like a sopre thumb, like that Horizon guy in War's Bogota article who actually isn't even remotely in Bogota and probably does not exist. KE's entry sound useful too for a Seattle campaign. The SSD are a counterintelligence group masquerading as a protection detail - isn't that what the Secret Service does? Anyway, they're a scary corporate-based enemy. GRU, of course. Zone Defense Force (why isn't the ZDF in teh large Denver section though?).- And the Stasi-like Texas rangers, which again made me both laugh and want to cry. Nice writeup though. Not planning a trip to Texas with any of my campaigns anytime soon, but if I did the Rangers woulkd definitly feature. A Mix of Harry Callaghan, deep-accented Texans and grey-faced creepy Stasi who bug everything and have an incredible web of contacts. Neat. Oversight Board - does it have Aurors? SIS is a new face again, and I don't really see the difference between them and ARGUS, but I guess their marketing towards OC and Megas without a dedicated Elite Spy Force gives them their own niche. Also, it's apparently a hook to get anyone to use Kansei. Well, maybe someone will bite. I probably won't.

Of note: The art in tis book is top notch (one thing that has extremly improved with CGL for some time now and steadily - the only thing unbaffected by the Derp that came with the Line Dev transition), and both the shaman and the Ranger in this chapter are priceless as character/NPC illustrations. Bottom line: useful. Not stunning, or dazzlingly written, but solid and usable, tells you why you should care about it, and comes across as coherent with previous chapters, and established Shadowrun canon.

The chapter then wraps up with two counterintelligence scenarios narrated by Hard Exit. It's actuually solid writing, and I like how he describes the first, an Aztlaner doublebluffing locals in Yucatan into killing UN forces, adnd how Hard Exit stopped him (through harsh and illegal in most civilised states means). The second sums up an op in Denver, a classical investigation and a masterful (and almost legal) conviction of a double agent. The kind of stuff you see in shows like Lie To Me and The Closer. As it'S titled "the Legal Divide", I missed some explanation wrapping it up; as is, it'S more like Hard Exit Tells War Stories. Niot bad, but it could've needed an editor's touch and a new writeup, maybe a pargraph explaining the legalness in the elgal divide.

And now, since it's one of the raw spots in the book, comes another chapter that really left me wondering. It has all the makings of a chapter, but where the previous is some 20 pages long, this is a stunning *three*, including a one-page chapter intro fic. What the fuck?. Is this where the missing 36 pages were? Spy Games was originally announced as 206 pages, but clocks in only 170 in it's final form. What has been cut? Did sanity prevail over madness and potted plant plots, a continuation of the "storyline" introduced in War? do I even *want* to know?

Anyway. The one-and-a-half page text detailing "extraplanar intelligence" actually is a good summary of why and how the metaplanes and spirits affect the way intelligence works in SR. That's a good thing, but does it need it's own 1,5 page chapter? Actually, 1,25 pages, since one quarter of the second page again is empty. This format leaves me wondering, even though the writing as such is not bad or anything. Why not just attach this to the previous chapter? Is this intro fic so damn important to some obscure metaplot build-up? Not to even mention that Milan the tent city (this is Italy, not Vael Dothrak) is the first major break with SR canon in this book. A resounding WTF, though no bad content apart from the intro fic.

Next stop: Spy Stuff. Crunch Time! But not now.

I'm glad you like it and that the setting's established roots are noticeable. I tried to continue the developments mentioned in 6WA as well as the plots seeded in some olders, like SoE. Out of curiosity, when stating the write up is respectul to canon "for the most part", which parts you noticed that did not?

SIS had a mention in Loose Alliances, page 68, as a competitor of Aegis Cognito based in the CAS. But nothing else was known besides this so far.

That was simply badly worded. I don't know London canon that well by heart, not the later developments at least, so I just can't say if not some small thing about the Pendragon was odd. I haven't found any canon issues in that article though (nor anywhere else, except for the weird Vael Dothrak that Milan suddenly has become). One question though, why no mention at all of Regulus? It's born of the large local manufacturing corp, after all, so it should still be felt nationally? And what happened to the Aztech-NDM Alliance of old? Also, will you also do the London part of Conspiracy Theories?

Overall, Spy Games lookes like a book of old, of the height of Synner's era. Some rough edges and weirdness, but nothing like the total offense War was, nor as lackluster thrown together, unguided and beyong canon as Attitude was (which was good in parts and horrifying in others). Not through yet though.

Okay, my grumbling goes under a spoiler tag...
They made the Main Intelligence Directorate a counter-intelligence agency now? Any opinions from the UGB on that? :\

I'm not too keen on Europe fluff, but isn't Milan kinda a part of GeMiTo urban superagglomeration?

The GRU is more or less for the internal stuff, from what I gather, the GRU is the big scary KGB successor who will have Russian mobstes kill you in your sleep if you fuck with them.
Taken from the text: " The Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye (GRU) is the Red Army’s military intelligence directorate, an oft overlooked, but fearsome, presence in the spy game." Also, the GRU runs Speznaz, is in league with the russian mafia, Aztech (because Aztech built thjeir own security service with former GRU people), is very fond of assassinating people, hates technomancers, wants to explode the Resonance realms and has some Winternight sleepers still lurking among them. they are, essentially, acting interior intelligence agency, also out to intimidate army and other officials that they better be in oine with the Kremlin.

Compare: "Upravleniye Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti [are] the inheritors of a couple hundred years of cold Russian brutality, hearkening back to the Cheka, the NKVD, the KGB, and all those other alphabet agencies that perpetually played bad guys in European and American tridsims about suave spies and sinister Russian assassins." My KGB comment was off, hence. Apologies.


Yes, which is why it should be houses, not tents. Because Italians are not some sort of Touareg who just long to live in yurts again if their government'd only let them.

North Virginia is not on any of the North America maps since Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America. And in that book the map is pretty rough and shows a much bigger portion of Virginia as part of the UCAS. Here is the interpretation I came up with based on the verbal description: http://shadowhelix.de/images/4/4a/Illustra...on_Virginia.png

Wordcount, really. There's a lot of other stuff besides Regulus that I wanted to include in the London write up but then focused on what I considered "the important bits" instead. In hindsight I see the London write up as being not so much about the city than about the state of the nation itself.
No, I won't.

I didn't mind that. It was a direly needed update.


shame really. Just when things started to look up again. Well, hopefully whoever picks this up will continue in the vein you did and not in the vein CGL did with their last two books.

Oh. Well, yeah, "military intelligence directorate", about right. Pretty much taken from SoE otherwise, with all the errors trailing.

Canon. Warts and all. Just look at the Germany setting. Though they fixed Berlin good, gotta hand them that. Looking forward to the Urban Brawl book.

Anyone been able to fully translate what the nameless poster said on page 166? Running it through Google translate so far I can get . . . "Dose: Two fifty. Thirty six. One*. Forty-Five*. Forty-seven**. Ninety-two**. Nine hundered and five***. Fifty-eight***. Quarantase. Konets."

Wasn't able to translate the last two unless the writer meant to say sex in Swedish. Presumably they're numbers like the rest though.



*Spanish

**Italian

***Norwegian

Konets seems to be transliterated "конец", "end" in Russian.

Which makes sense for the end of what appears to be a sting on a numbers station. I wonder if quarantase was meant to be quarantasei, which is forty-six in Italian.

Now I really wish I had been able to learn French.

There is nothing there in french.