I'm just curious as for me there are many more things I'd like to see as SR has some of the better writers in the RPG business these days.

What would you like to see in a mini-release like Unfriendly Skies, Gun Heaven or Deadly Waves?

I for one would like to see a selection of newer drone models, and perhaps a good look at civilian drones and equipment such as bulldozers, cranes, forklifts and the like. I know I've gotten my players in plenty of runs where they are in a warehouse or factory or construction site where these things would be around.

More Fashion styles. More civilian car models. More gadget artwork.

I'm hoping that the upcoming SotA 2073 will have atleast a few of those

I'm gonna second civilian cars. New software or sprites would be nice as well.

Honestly, tools and toolkits. What do people use for b&e. Are there still dremels? Leathermen? How do I take a commlink apart and slip in a rfid tag? How big is that rating 6 medkit? What does a rigger carry in the back of his Bulldog? What's better than duct tape?

I pronounce you heretic for even asking that

The World According to C-24

[sarcasm]
Accurate Errata for all of the existing books?
[/sarcasm]

Really I'd add my vote to more vehicles/drones.

Let's go one better... THE 4E RIGGER'S BLACK BOOK!!

Another vote for more non-military ground vehicles - or, even better, a book that presents a number typical "base stat" vehicles and suggests ways in which they can be slightly adjusted to make many different models.

And it should include such minor details as number of people that can fit inside, and how much cubic space there is inside for cargo, and how much weight they can carry.

Here's the official word as to what is planned.

And that's just what they have in the pipeline likely.

I'd like a booklet on BTLs and drugs. I'd really like BTLs with game effects, just like drugs get right now, including all the downsides. And personafixes.

I second a call for more drug rules, as I must say I am partial to quite a few sixth world substances, but BTL's have fallen by the wayside a little in this edition. The matrix mind bends belong to the Technomancers and other oddities, these days, and BAD's have taken much of the drug focus. Like in real life, everyone has their particular taste, not everyone, in fact, not many simply use one drug, and here's the cliche, what is the sixth world's gateway drug? There is so much real world inspiration in this area, such as pharmaceutical companies, cartels and their practices, and of course real world drug cultures and environments. This has been done a little with Aztlan and the Ghost Cartels, but with both of those groups the big deal is magic, one percenters, if you will. I want a sense that every corp with a buck and a chemist is fighting tooth and nail to get the general population high. In my ideal Substance book, we'd see the sixth world's substances through the eyes of two chemists leaving a university, one with a corporate sponsorship and placement, and the other with a drug habit or five, student debts and a bankable skill. For those not interested in a PC addiction, there could be some more focus and applied chemistry on the streets, how to get the ingredients and tools to make things like thermite, ANFO bombs, etc. Even for things that replace other things, what about ganger explosives, such as improvised smoke and flash grenades.

It's a pipe dream, but I'd like to see a book of non-generic npc's, based on the characters the devs and those affiliated with them have played over the years, perhaps organized into teams. Then my characters could actually run against the best ork decker they never... wait, scratch that.

A more realistic options book would be one on close combat, something like "Brawling". An expose article on sixth world bar brawls, pit fights, fight clubs and maybe the anatomy of a ganger rumble, and a look at how adepts, augmentations and other tech have changed the rules. Rules would include things like being thrown through various kinds of windows, a more detailed (but still optional) foray into called shot rules, such as dislocations, concussions, blood loss and especially to avoid overflow damage (this has come up, when a politician tried to fight back against a dual-cyberarmed, red eyed ork samurai). On the other side of the coin, a look in on the life of a sixth world cut-throat, and the various ways, pros and cons of killing some-one up close and personal. Even though I veer towards high power games and high tech characters, the social conditions in the sixth world mean that even if you're a ruthenium ghost HALO dropping onto a CEO's SOTA penthouse there are still people fighting on the street with broken glass and bricks.

Street Legends should scratch that itch for ya. It's not gonna be a mini-net release, though (just the opposite, in fact).

Seconded.

Tossing in my 0.02 nuyen.....

Runner's Tools: The actual equipment some (if not most) shadowrunners use to get the job done. From the classic maglock passkey, flashpak & such, to the latest multi-tool (such as the Leatherman 2073 edition), plus new goodies for the tech-heads.

That Special Place: Not every safe-house is a house. And not necessarily safe. Some places make the Councilman Suite at the Ritz-SeaTac look tacky in comparison, some are nothing more than a cot, a chemical toilet, and a cabinet for non-perishable storage. If that. This supplement provides looks at the places where 'runners can crash for a few days, from soft sythetic-silk sheets & room service to the most 'inexpensive' capsule-room hotel with a half-working vending machine down the hall.

I would have to throw in my vote for a 4e(a) Rigger's Black Book. I'm getting tired of watching G4tv/AOTS' segemnt "Whips, Rides and Hoons". What the Smegging Frak is a "hoon" anyway?!

Shadowrun: IIN SPAACEE! *echoes*
SeaQuest DSV: SubSea-Arcologies.

So, an updated Target: Wastelands?

Personally, I would like to see weight and cargo capacity rules.

Was trying to figure out what can fit into an Air Supply drone and came to the conclusion that "enough gear for a team" is a really non-specific amount.



-k

Errata for all previous publications.

Other than that:
- fashion stuff. I'm thinking Chromebooks here, just a little expanded. Needn't even have super stats or anything. SR needs some flavor. And please, have more vision than to force this year's pop stars onto SR.
- Civilian ground vehicles. Cars, trucks, bikes. We hve more MBTs statted than bikes. How useful is a bike in a normal game, and how useful is a battle tank? 32 cars, 32 trucks/vans, and 32 bikes (each a seperate file maybe?) or something would also round out the book you plan to make of thse gear pdfs nicely
- new program suite packages, new programs, new commlink accessories and hacker/rigger cyberware.
- A book of gadgets would also be nice (you could also fix rules questons there, we're used to that by now).
- What do people do in their downtime? A book on downtime. Parties, clubs, drugs, SimSense which, after all, still exists, despite Attitude not knowing of that ...
- A book detailing pettier crime and low-level games, complete with less-than-powerful equipment, rules for bad cyberware, stats fr some aged and dated cyberware and gadgets.

The 99 bottles idea - short story that has all it needs to be played as a short adventure - has appeal as well, though a cmbined story/adventure format has always been used in SR. Maybe try something experimental and make a toolkit adventure in the vein of Trail of Cthulhu?

...

Parabotany? More carniverous (sic!) trees?

A book that apologized for War, and Attitude, and pretty much everything CGL has put out. And Bob Newharted it.

One Dwarf.
Or 2 Pixies.

Two Pixies, One Thimble?

One What?

Thimble.

Kinda like "Two Girls, One Cup". ... If you don't know, you don't want to know. Even the kinkiest of us are probably squicked out by it. (And if they aren't, I don't want to know.).

Ok one thing I would also like to see is a book on the smaller companies and shell corps. Give what they do, some history and business culture background, some details on their staff/important people, something around a company per page.

Gear porn. With shadowtalk. Basically, an old-style (ca. SR2) sourcebook.

That looks like the back of a Dalek . . what is that supposed to be?

It's a THIMBLE. They're used in sewing to prevent you from stabbing your finger eleventy-billion times while darning your socks.

dude, you know what i do for a living right now, what do i know about sewing?
i can do it, if i have to, and i usually do not stab myself in the finger either O.o

I'd be more interested in something fluff oriented. Perhaps something on non-Big 10 corps, to supplement the Corporate Guide. Maybe also something on countries that didn't get any love in the 6WA?

Or maybe Africa in general?

I wouldn't mind seeing more about the street level stuff that most people have mentioned. Fashion, small gadgets or programs that make life easier, but don't (necessarily) help many runners, some other non-military vehicles. Maybe something about bicycles, and snowmobiles (I was just thinking about it the other day when considering run ideas for the winter.)

Everytime anyone in Shadowrun writes about Africa, it's incredibly racist and obnoxious. I'm not sure I really want them to write about Africa.

I thought that was a kiss.




-k

Maybe we can get an African to write about Africa?

Cyberpirates was, by and large, not too racist. But 6WA and Lagos are stale stereotypes (and War is full of Nazi shit anyway). I'd also like to see some actual nations beyond the steretypical "African Hellhole". Neo-Dubai Angola as outlined in Barocco Tropical, or New Mombasa from HALO. Well, the latter might be what they intended fr Kenya, the one other somewhat decent piece of SR fiction on Africa.

But a "Congo Tribal Confederation" that stretches to [Mozambique ... right. But the current writers seem to be unable to read maps, so it probably should not surprise anybody. CGL could just have labeled the entire continent "here be [that is politically incorrect to write!]."

Pity Findley never laid out what he had in mind for his Africa book. He meant for Nigeria to be a modern nation, at least that much we know.

Just a quick aside, but there is a short update on Nairobi in Spy Games.

I notice that no one comments about the racist methods that are used when Quebec is written about.

...

...

Yeah, I couldn't keep a straight face for that one either.

French ARE Racist assholes though.
Canadian French are worse, which is amusing cause they don't even speak proper French

Not all French-Canadians are like that. Quebecois, yes. The rest, well, you get a dogs dinner of social acceptance and racism. Just like every other culture.

Most of the French-Canadians (Ontarian and Manitoban) I've met are fairly decent, and I've heard good things about Acadians.

I entirely agree. And what's funny is the hints dropped in early 4e books about the rest of the place were tantalizing. Awakened Sheba in the Horn of Africa? Neo-communist Angola?(I've used them as a plotline before) Things like that make the wheels turn. Although I'd love Hermit's Dahomey or something like it, too. Anyways, I think they've wasted a lot of opportunities, such as the Somalia writeup in War.

Ethnomalia could also have been interesting. Given that Ethiopia is among the very few places in Africa where the native culture wasn't entirely colonized away, you have a lot to work with there - you could, for instance, make it the new Kingdom of John, reflecting on medieval history, you have one of the oldest and weirdest Christian offshots to work with, the supposed ark of the covenant, the lost 13th tribe of Israel, and the general idea of a lone Christian nation within a bunch of primarily islamic countries. But no, instead it's "all some desert shithole with guns and starving [not the n-word!]s which is totally uninteresting and had all it's water stolen by Looten Plunder. Bravo.

Why Southern Sudan (which really, really hates the rest of Sudan) joined or is controlled by Egypt is another question, this is as much unmentioned as is what Egypt does with the entire Libyan coast (I gess the Israelis nuked Tripolis, Misurata, Benghazi, Sirte and Sebha, but even then there'S a lot of the country left. It'S pretty huge for an arena for Desert Wars, and a few local tactical nukes won't make it uninhabitable (it's not like New Mexico is one huge despiled zone either, is it?). Libya is about the size of Texas, for measure. And at least a note on the Sudanese oil fields and the South who is mainly animist and Chrsitian would have been nice.

And I'd like to see a bunch of more organized magical realms in Africa (beyond 'it's unknown, scary and they luve in mud huts' as in the Congo Tribal Confederation in 6WA) as well as some smi-working modern states. Like Dahomey/Benin could be. Or Cameroon. Angola. Whatever happened to the Empire of Zambia anyway?

"Of COURSE I know everything! I'm French-Canadian!" - Laurent Nazaire, unscripted, Shadowrun Missions LARP, Origins 2011






-k

It might have been interesting if the Western world had devolved down to a wild "African" wasteland (Mad Max style), while Africa had actually gotten its shit together and become an exotic and prosperous continent.

There's DeGenesis for that.

If I can trade in the NAN for that, you have a deal.

That's very interesting. Thanks for pointing it out to me

With regards to Africa, the Awakening would not likely have changed the fundamental politics of the region so much as adding an arbitrary shift in power.

While I don't believe it would have significantly raised or lowered any group or nation outside of a select few (via magic and Corp meddling) to a higher standard, the interplay of magic and technology in that landscape WOULD have made for a dangerous, and intriguing, runner landscape. Combine this with the territories routinely plagued by Desert Wars between corps, and runners have ample opportunities to aspire to profits. You'd have smuggling, both standard AND to support Desert Wars teams, bounty hunting (each other), hooding to protect food and drink deliveries/stores at remote areas, agri-business interests in one of the less tainted areas of the world... the possibilities are even more endless than Seattle, due to the scope available.

The real concerns, which are probably what hold it back, are the fear of appearing racist and lack of personal experience in the region.

Sure but the Quebecois don't even think the Acadians are speaking real french
And really, for shadowrun that sort of rampant culturalism makes for awesome gamage. Quebec is one of my favorite Shadowrun settings to run a game in. Although I admit, my Quebec isn't SR-RAW.

The basics of Quebec for me:
1) All corporations must be owned by someone with Quebec Citizenship.
2) Most of the population is centered around Montreal and Quebec City.
3) The wilderness is a giant Awakened Critter wilderness. There are small communities of independents dotting the landscape, but they tend to get run over by horrible magical crap.
4) The #1 Magic Tradition is Catholicism. The Quebec Catholic Church trains Mages, and they tend to go out and protect said small communities.
5) The racism is rampant, but weird. Naga, Centaurs, etc are non-humans. They are hunted, and served in some of the finer restaurants. Metahumans are treated like trash, and Trolls keep on running into this problem that the Government can't decide if they should be on the bounty list or not. Unless, they are Native French Speakers. That's the most important trait. A French Troll is given more respect, than an non-french Human.
6) Only Native French Speakers are Quebec Citizens. Non-French speakers are literally second-class citizens, or immigrant workers with "work visas" who are forced to live in the 'Barrens'. Because in order to be a citizen, and have a valid Quebec SiN, you must speak french.
7) There are very few sinnless, but most people have 'work sins' and still live in the barrens.

It really makes for some amusing 'running.

Interesting Indeed... Will have to remember this.

I also run an interesting Lagos setting. But it's very different.
I gave a runner team a bad week once, when they went on a job to Lagos, and tried to bully their way in one of the Lagos Zero zones. They were pretty freaked out when they kept on running into really powerful adepts, shifters, etc, trying hard to survive in the Zones. It didn't occur to them that such a hellhole would weed out the weak.