I've been playing Shadowrun between 1999 and 2007; then I got a full-time job and gamed only a little for a year or so; then I moved to other RPGs, such as Traveller. Now I'm considering getting back to Shadowrun.

I've sold my SR3 collection to finance several SR4 purchases. So far I have the 20th Anniversary Edition and the Sixth World Almanac in hardcopy, as well as Street Magic, Arsenal and Augmentations in PDF (bought from DTRPG). I think that my next purchase will be the Manhattan sourcebook from Battlecorps (?) and Running Wild from DTRPG.

I intend to run a relatively diverse campaign, with the main player playing an Orcish Combat Hacker. The setting will, tentatively, be NYC, with the PCs living outside of Manhattan but some runs taking place there.

In order to avoid an information overload and, more importantly, to avoid a power creep, I intend to start with the SR4A core-book and introduce some of the sourcebook stuff gradually as the game goes on.

So, which additional books would you recommend me to buy?

I recommend the fewest number of rulebooks you can get away with. They tend to exacerbate the inherent flaws in the core system and encourage 25+ dice pools.

Street Magic is kinda okay, and I think Arsenal. Runner's Companion is pretty lightweight. The rest make my head hurt.

Companion and Unwired would be my two recommendations, they're the last two you don't have that I would consider primary books before getting into the odds and ends splat books. The Companion is mixed set of general and specific character options, even if you ban some of the specific stuff, like infected, there are still plenty of regular things like qualities and lifestyle options that you'll want to use. Unwired helps explain and properly gear up hackers/technomancers and covers some general comlink/program use and options that just aren't in the main book.

Runners Companion is a nice one, but be careful with it. It has some great options for new qualities and some fun things like advanced lifestyles and qualities for that, but it also has stuff that could be more headache than it is worth such as free spirit PCs. If you do get it, I'd suggest limiting its use to the qualities and lifestyles and maybe the metavariants.

I haven't gotten War! but from what I've heard that will also be more headache than it is worth.

Unwired also has some cool things, but introduces a ton of stuff for the matrix and can make things somewhat confusing. If there is a TM in the group I'd highly suggest allowing the TM stuff, but the rest can cause potential problems if you aren't ready for it.

Those are the books that I keep open on my PDFs fairly consistantly. Otherwise if you're looking for setting stuff, Runners Havens and Corporate Enclaves have a bunch of great stuff in them.

And that's just about everything I have

LOL I was just writing the same
that the Runners Compendium is a great book, but that it has to be handled with care !
(personal Tip : stay away from HMHVV Variants !)



It is ! ImO
Don't buy it
there is (ImO) a needless Powercreep (Comlinks Rating 9 & 10, according Progs,MRSI,etc,etc.... )

Unwired is of the same "mixed Blessing".
It explains the Matrix better than the Basic book, but makes the Matrix more difficult at the same time

with a mixed Dance
Medicineman

Thanks for the info!

In a similar thread on ENWorld, I've been told to stay away from the Companion due to power creep issues (is it true you can play an AI?! a vampire?!) and from Unwired because it doesn't contribute much to actual play (or, at least, some ENWorld people think so).

Now, I'm also looking for fluff sourcebooks; I have the Almanac and I'll definitely buy Rotten Apple, but which other books are useful for a mixed-bag NYC campaign?

I don't think any of the books cover NYC at all, so you're kind of stuck on that.

Yes, there are rules for all infected (including vampires), free spirits, shapeshifters, AI, Naga, Pixies, Centaurs, and Windego among all the other stuff in RC, and so is a book where you use parts of it, but tend to ban the rest. As I said, all the extra qualities are very nice, and very much not power creep. It is very easy and common to ban the extra races from RC.

Unwired doesn't add much to the game unless you have a TM or a very dedicated hacker (As in one who really wants to get into it and isn't just a hacker so they can break into system and such) simply because most of the rules revolve around advanced hacking techniques and program options and yadda yadda. It's good stuff, just not for everyone.

@Powercreep.
the Runner Compendium has the Karma generation Option. Its a good System but only If You use the Errattaed version (the German Version)
If You Use the Old Karma Generation System,You get Chars that are "bigger" or better than Standard Chars from the Building Point System
I really like the Karma System because You get more ...."well rounded Chars"


AIs, Vampire,Ghouls, (every HMHVV Variant, but You better don't !) Sasquatche,Pixies,Nagas,Kentaurs,Shapeshifter, and dozen of Meta Variants (including Nartaki(4 Armed Human,) Menehune(Surfer Dwarfes) and many more)
Thats why its a mixed Blessing .You have can create very (Very !) interesting Chars ,but also Wahay over the Top Chars

YahtaHey
Medicineman

You need War! it has Nuclear Weapons and 800,000,000¥ naval vehicles, essential for your average Seattle Campaign.

In fact they should just rename War!, Shadowrun Companion 2

... just get your SR3 stuff back and pretend that never happened.

Core rulebook, street magic, augmented, and arsenal(go go extra martial arts rules!)are very basic for me. They give you the main "core" rules for both magic and tech.

I like Runner's Companion for the expanded lifestyle rules, the advice to players, and the master list of qualities (very handy). Keep a short leash on your players, however, or you will end up with a Satyr who turned into a Ghoul and then underwent Surge. Or a centaur. It can get a little goofy. Also be wary of Karma Gen rules as written. A min/maxing number crunch can build a much more powerful character with it. I have seen claims that the German version of the rules have errata for it, but beats me if that is actually the case.

Unwired has a huge amount of extra detail for matrix stuff. I have the PDF but have not absorbed it all. If you want a Matrix heavy campaign go for it, but for most players it is probably skipable.

I have not read "War" but it is largely reported to be power creep.

I am dying to get a look at Spy Games, but I am too broke to buy it right now. It is supposed to have background on Denver, some spy gear, information on Fake SINs and IDs, etc. Thats my next purchase if my finanaces improve a bit.

There are a number of PDF supliments like "Unfriendly Skies", "Milspec Tech" "This Old Drone" that I have seen floating around. Definatly less critical. They are fun, but its gear that won't come up very often for most runners, unless you have the type of campagin where driving through the security fence in a hovertank is an option.

Seriously though, the best book to get besides the core is Unwired, I really like the Seattle 2072 book as well.

No Need to beat You if You don't beleive us
The German Translations HAVE all Errattas included before Printing.



I recently read that they will (may ?) be included in the new english Arsenal (the one with the German Cover)
there are also Rumors that this Version has the long lost Errattas included

with a Dance to the Beat
Medicineman

Well, its not that I think people are lying, but its just not remotely usefull. A rules update that is in a language I don't speak and not available in the country I live in is basically not a rules update. If there is errata the publisher needs to organize and release it. Its called supporting the product line. Especially in a game that has an organized play community (Missions) there needs to be an official set of rules. If you can't walk into a missions game with something from one of the core published books there needs to be formal, up to date, easily accessable list of changes. If there isn't such a list then there is no errata, there is just a differnt version of the game in Germany

Core Book + Arsenal + Runner's Companion is a wholly enjoyable ruleset with enough flavor and variation to be really interesting, without being annoyingly complex.

Since you mentioned an ork hacker, I would get Unwired for ideas, and clarifications on the system(read the first 90 pages or so) but be wary about introducing the 5-pass hacker, or program options, right off the bat. Gradual introduction, rather, is what i would be shooting 4.
If you have a technomancer, however, the echoes within are pretty much crucial to making them *interesting*.

Would avoid Running Wild, unless you really want to throw paracritters and ai's at the party. Go for whichever setting book your campaign is in. For what its worth, i -really- liked seattle 2072.

As for the RC, the best things in that book are: New Positive and Negative qualities, Advanced Contacts, Advanced lifestyles. Use the book, but toss out HMHVV and Surge, but consider alternate metatypes/metavariants if someone has a good idea (just be aware that they have a BP price for rarity, not their actual capabilities)

Thanks for your advice!

I think I'll but Augmentations and Unwired next (after the Rotten Apple, of course).

Are Corporate Guide, Attitudes, Corporate Enclaves and Vice worth their price?

How's your german?
Get the german books ^^

Corporate Guide is decent if you want Megacorp fluff, it doesn't really add a bunch of crunch unlike previous iterations of the corp books (Shadowfiles and Download). It's okay though but strictly an optional purchase.

Corporate Enclaves is okay but unless you want to mess with Mega-Tokyo or LA you can probably skip it.

Attitudes is pretty much full on fluff. It's kinda fun nonetheless.

Vice is another fluff book but I think it can give people good ideas on underworld plots. Corporate Guide + Vice can pretty much cover the motivations of most Johnson you will interact with for instance.

I'd go with the getting the core system books first although Unwired is kinda a mixed bag of useful and way too complicated to implement. Of course decking/hacking has always had that problem so why should 4e do something new

I have looked at a Friend's copy of Attitudes and Vice. Vice is basically background, info on how various organized crime groups work, examples of gangs of various levels, etc. Not much in the way of mechanical crunch but useful if you want a campaign more focused on the criminal parts of the 6th world as opposed to working for/against the megacorps all the time. Employment and opponents can come from many places.

Attitudes- humm again don't own but have paged through. Its kind of a pop culture guide. Good if you want a campaign filled with media, rocker boys, avante garde artits, underground writers, simsense stars, etc. Personally, it didn't do much for me (and again not much mechanical crunch). But if your campaign is going to be full of media types and jet-set Goblin Rock bands, its not a bad investment. Personally, I would buy Vice first, but thats just me. I like to see the rust on the edge of the chrome and am much more interesting in a story about a smuggling ring or a combat biker gang than if some virtual porn princess gets into a club or not. Your milage may vary.

I thought you said you already had Augmentation. Did you mean RC?

As Vuron said, all those books are basically fluff with little to no actual rules, but are still very interesting. I'd say get them if you have some extra money to spend, but if you're looking at 'Do I buy X or Y because I can't afford both' I wouldn't worry too much about them.

Thanks you all for the info!


Unfortunately I do not speak German


I don't have Augmentations yet, only Arsenal, Street Magic, the Almanac and the core book. I apologize if I erroneously wrote Augmentations above, as I don't have it yet. I meant that I'll buy both Augmentations and the RC.


Fluff with plot hooks would be great, especially for corps/gangs with presence in NYC. 'dirt' on corps/crime would be good, too.

I'm a bit surprised no-one mentioned Attitude really. Part of the reason I love shadowrun is that I love reading the books. I found Attitude to be a really nice book, especially for introducing new players to what it's like to be a shadowrunner. There are some chapters in the middle relating to sports and music and stuff that you'll either find interesting or not depending on whether it's relevent to you, but the first 3 chapters are really nice and tie together well. For each NEW player in our group I'm trying to encourage them all to read the First few chapters of the core book (History Lesson, Life in the Shadows etc) and then the first few of Attitude. I think overall that gives a good picture to start from. Of course, of if all your players have been playing Shadowrun since 1st edition then this may be less valuable.

Other than that, to re-iterate what was said above, I loved reading Seattle 2072 (and Runner Havens before it), and all books labelled Core are useful in their own way.

Will Seattle 2072 be useful for an NYC campaign in any significant way?

Also, anything with plot hooks I could use in NYC would be cool - does Vice and Corporate Guide contain useful plot hooks and 'dirt' on the corps/gangs/syndicates?

I'd say you already have everything you need to play. Honestly SR4 actually runs great with just the main rule book.

Seattle 2072 will be useless for you since your campaign is in NYC. Vice and Corporate Guide may be useful because they do at least have general information about their topics. So you might not get info on the NYC mafia but you will get info on how the mafia operates and crime in general.