Conspiracy Theories is evidence that the Shadowrun writers do not need a whole lot of pushing to get nuts. Great dragon conflicts? Sure! Bug spirit rumors? Absolutely! Stories of strange relationships between humans and dragons? Well, why not? And that's only part of it.
The book is full of stories and rumors that range from the possibly plausible to the quite deranged, but the biggest challenge is figuring out which is which. It's also got plot updates, setting info for London and DeeCee, and some magic rituals that are not easy to cast but could have stunning effects--if anyone ever manages to get everything they need to cast them.
You can read a little more about Conspiracy Theories on the blog, or you can check it out on Battleshop or DriveThruRPG. Either way, enjoy!
Jason H.
Full Version: Conspiracy Theories PDF/Print Pre-Order Available
We couldn’t get all the good stories
into a single posting. [Tag: Street Legends
Supplemental]
*sigh*
Ok, after reading the table of contents, Dunklezahn Lives had better not be true. That's just such a great in-universe conspiracy theory to settle as true. Too many sarcastic Shadowland posts have been made about that to make it real. It's still tons of fun to read the theories, though. I'm interested in the DeeCee and London info, and conspiracy theories are always fun. I'm hopeful, I'm intrigued, It's out in Dead Tree now too, right? I may have to flip through this a bit.
QUOTE
The Tangled Web of Truth
War rages in Central America, tensions between dragons are on the rise, and the Watergate Rift has been closed in a display of power that shook the city of DeeCee to its core. To many, the world is becoming more disordered and unpredictable—but there are those who look underneath the surface chaos and see order, or even a plan. They see people and organizations who pull the strings and make the world shake, and they wonder if they can find out what these people are up to before it’s too late.
Conspiracy Theories is a deep dive into the underbelly of the Sixth World, a place filled with crackpot theories and insane ideas that would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that some of them are most assuredly true. If they want to stay alive, shadowrunners need to know this information to keep them a step ahead of the forces that may be massing against them behind the scenes. If they want to do more than survive—if they want to prosper—they really need to know this data, because any runner worth a damn knows that manipulating people based on what they believe to be true is a great way to make a few nuyen.
Bringing together plot elements from War!, Spy Games, and the Dawn of the Artifacts series, Conspiracy Theories adds a twisted element to Shadowrun games. Conspiracy Theories is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.
War rages in Central America, tensions between dragons are on the rise, and the Watergate Rift has been closed in a display of power that shook the city of DeeCee to its core. To many, the world is becoming more disordered and unpredictable—but there are those who look underneath the surface chaos and see order, or even a plan. They see people and organizations who pull the strings and make the world shake, and they wonder if they can find out what these people are up to before it’s too late.
Conspiracy Theories is a deep dive into the underbelly of the Sixth World, a place filled with crackpot theories and insane ideas that would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that some of them are most assuredly true. If they want to stay alive, shadowrunners need to know this information to keep them a step ahead of the forces that may be massing against them behind the scenes. If they want to do more than survive—if they want to prosper—they really need to know this data, because any runner worth a damn knows that manipulating people based on what they believe to be true is a great way to make a few nuyen.
Bringing together plot elements from War!, Spy Games, and the Dawn of the Artifacts series, Conspiracy Theories adds a twisted element to Shadowrun games. Conspiracy Theories is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.
QUOTE (ggodo @ Nov 21 2011, 05:26 AM) 
Ok, after reading the table of contents, Dunklezahn Lives had better not be true. That's just such a great in-universe conspiracy theory to settle as true. Too many sarcastic Shadowland posts have been made about that to make it real. It's still tons of fun to read the theories, though. I'm interested in the DeeCee and London info, and conspiracy theories are always fun. I'm hopeful, I'm intrigued, It's out in Dead Tree now too, right? I may have to flip through this a bit.
It's at the printers now, so it'll be out in dead tree in a bit.
Jason H.
Adjusts tin foil hat, checks the extra dead-bolts, assure matrix buffers in place, drinks "special" kool-aide and impatiently awaits print release.
QUOTE (Prime Mover @ Nov 21 2011, 03:55 PM)
drinks "special" kool-aide
Good advice, lay off the Kool-Aid, you can't know what they put in it. Switch to something natural, orange juice maybe. Not tapwater, hell knows what they put in that either.
Before I plop down my 45 bucks for the PDF and hard copy-what kind of page count can I expect? I'm just trying to figure out what to expect. Make no mistake though, my junkie ass is hooked on Shadowrun so eventually I'll buy it.
The PDF is at 176 pages, according to the link at drivethrurpg.com.
Cool. I started with Battle Shop, which didn't have that information.
QUOTE (Sengir @ Nov 21 2011, 05:01 AM)
We couldn’t get all the good stories
into a single posting. [Tag: Street Legends Supplemental]
*sigh*
Would you rather the bad old days where it never saw the light of day, and seemed an unfinished product?into a single posting. [Tag: Street Legends Supplemental]
*sigh*
QUOTE (Prime Mover @ Nov 21 2011, 10:55 AM)
Adjusts tin foil hat, checks the extra dead-bolts, assure matrix buffers in place, drinks "special" kool-aide and impatiently awaits print release.
I find your preparations to be sadly lacking.QUOTE (Seriously Mike @ Nov 21 2011, 11:10 AM)
Good advice, lay off the Kool-Aid, you can't know what they put in it. Switch to something natural, orange juice maybe. Not tapwater, hell knows what they put in that either.
You can't trust "Natural" food any longer either, unless you grow it yourself. With all the Frankenfoods created by genetically altering the basic chemistry, you never know what they've added into even an orange you juiced yourself. Trace amounts of a long-acting PCP just in case the "police" need to shoot you and ensure it's a "Righteous Shoot" is just the start of the possibilities.
QUOTE (CanRay @ Nov 21 2011, 05:33 PM)
Would you rather the bad old days where it never saw the light of day,
I would be very happy if that particular product never saw the light of day. SL1 couldn't work, didn't work, and now they are doing part deux...where are the MiB if you need them?
I take the good with the bad. While vast swaths of say Street Legends doesn't see use in my game I do glean from it the useful stuff-setting information mostly. I'll give Conspiracy Theories a chance. I've had a few surprises thrown my way here and there-this could be one!
Wut, Street Legends 2 is in the works?
Eh. I am not going to get to excited over the title of a chapter. That said let's say the worst case scenario is they somehow jump the shark and find a way to make it so Dunkelzahn is alive. For me it's a big so what. I never used Dunkelzahn. I don't use Fastjack. None of the Prime Runners have a place in my game. I'll ignore it, and go back to telling the stories and playing the games we like.
Now all that said, I can see expressing your concern and doubt over a product you're paying for. One attitude that's always surprised me in the RPG community as a whole is how upset people get when their customers offer feedback. (This not meant to be a specification accusation at any one from any company before someone's panties get way too waded up.)
Now all that said, I can see expressing your concern and doubt over a product you're paying for. One attitude that's always surprised me in the RPG community as a whole is how upset people get when their customers offer feedback. (This not meant to be a specification accusation at any one from any company before someone's panties get way too waded up.)
QUOTE (Sengir @ Nov 21 2011, 06:41 PM)
Nah, doesn't confirm that it's gonna be a full-blown sourcebook.
To side step and clarify...
Street Legends Supplemental, came about because the original Street Legends only planned for X amount of characters. Before it was even done, the freelancers (Including moi) were asking about the chance to do a follow up to cover some characters that were missed the first time around.
It will be a smallish PDF only product, nota print book. These are not characters that got held back from the print book so that we could release a PDF afterward to make a few extra bucks.
And, as always, ignore it, or just get it to read the flavor and background material, or whatever. It's cool.
As for conspiracy Theories, yeah. 176 pages, B&W, softcover. Some fairly cool stuff in there, a nice update to London, a short write up on Denver, and a fair bit of Plan 9 and Scopes going bonkers. There's also a couple really, really nice new Laubenstein pieces in there, which makes me a happy, happy ork.
Bull
Street Legends Supplemental, came about because the original Street Legends only planned for X amount of characters. Before it was even done, the freelancers (Including moi) were asking about the chance to do a follow up to cover some characters that were missed the first time around.
It will be a smallish PDF only product, nota print book. These are not characters that got held back from the print book so that we could release a PDF afterward to make a few extra bucks.
And, as always, ignore it, or just get it to read the flavor and background material, or whatever. It's cool.
As for conspiracy Theories, yeah. 176 pages, B&W, softcover. Some fairly cool stuff in there, a nice update to London, a short write up on Denver, and a fair bit of Plan 9 and Scopes going bonkers. There's also a couple really, really nice new Laubenstein pieces in there, which makes me a happy, happy ork.
Bull
QUOTE (Bull @ Nov 21 2011, 06:58 PM)
Laubenstein
Jeff was at Gen Con in 2010, and mentioned he was interested in doing Shadowrun work again, so I made it a point to have him and Brent Evans sit down and chat
<grin>
Bull
<grin>
Bull
QUOTE (Grinder @ Nov 21 2011, 06:51 PM)
Nah, doesn't confirm that it's gonna be a full-blown sourcebook.
Book or PDF, it is a waste...
So don't buy it? Write a letter of protest?
Write your own? Write something you'd rather like? Pay bored writers who have nothing but time on their hands to write something for you?
...
OK, that last one might have been me looking in a mirror.
...
OK, that last one might have been me looking in a mirror.
QUOTE (Paul @ Nov 21 2011, 09:47 AM)
Eh. I am not going to get to excited over the title of a chapter. That said let's say the worst case scenario is they somehow jump the shark and find a way to make it so Dunkelzahn is alive. For me it's a big so what. I never used Dunkelzahn. I don't use Fastjack. None of the Prime Runners have a place in my game. I'll ignore it, and go back to telling the stories and playing the games we like.
Now all that said, I can see expressing your concern and doubt over a product you're paying for. One attitude that's always surprised me in the RPG community as a whole is how upset people get when their customers offer feedback. (This not meant to be a specification accusation at any one from any company before someone's panties get way too waded up.)
Now all that said, I can see expressing your concern and doubt over a product you're paying for. One attitude that's always surprised me in the RPG community as a whole is how upset people get when their customers offer feedback. (This not meant to be a specification accusation at any one from any company before someone's panties get way too waded up.)
I dunno, they brought back Nadja and made the doubles canon, who knows what's coming next. I don't mind The Nadjas, but some presidential conspiracy theories need to remain paranoid delusions of The Children of The Dragon and folks like that. I like a world where not every crackpot theory is true. That makes it all the more fun when Players find out it's not real. Keep some stuff fuzzy, especially if it's not directly metaplot necessary, and maybe keep the metaplot away from the crazier theories. Also, Where's Puck?
I like a world where no one comes into contact with most of these theories, or if they do they end up in a dumpster, dead.
Any interesting gear, rules, spells, etc. in this book or is it all crazy madman "the gov'ment is controlin' our brains!" crackpot theories? All of that is good, just wanting to know what exactly this book is.
Judging from Spy Games, all of those things. I really wish they'd separate the gear and fluff books more. It seems like it's hard to jam in gear that fits the theme, and the new gear seems to suffer for it.
QUOTE (Paul @ Nov 21 2011, 01:15 PM)
I like a world where no one comes into contact with most of these theories, or if they do they end up in a dumpster, dead.
I figure that so much of it's true, that any of the PCs that had heard anything about one would believe all of them are real, so finding out that those crazy cultists were in fact just crazy is a great twist. Plus, my players are still adapting to SR from That Other Game. Hearing a legend that isn't true still blows their minds.
It's largely fluff. IIRC the only "Crunch" in the book are some Magic Rituals, something new for magicians. Rituals are specialized spells known only to members of certain powerful groups (Illuminates of the New Dawn, Atlantean Foundation, Apep Consortium, etc) that involve a lot of specific and specialized reagents (Sometimes including certain named artifacts like the DotA ones, or one of the Coins of Luck, exotic reagents suchs as the body of a banshee or feathers from a thunderbird) and usually multiple high level initiates that know a specific metamagic or two.
Cool stuff, and performing a Ritual could be the culmination of a short campaign, but not something players are going to be able to learn and use on a regualr basis.
Otherwise, it looks to be all fluff and fiction.
Cool stuff, and performing a Ritual could be the culmination of a short campaign, but not something players are going to be able to learn and use on a regualr basis.
Otherwise, it looks to be all fluff and fiction.
QUOTE (Paul @ Nov 21 2011, 05:15 PM)
I like a world where no one comes into contact with most of these theories, or if they do they end up in a dumpster, dead.
I remember one game, I had a MiB-type character just tell the group: "Go ahead. Tell everyone you care to. The media, the people, whoever. There's no evidence. There's nothing backing you up. I give you two weeks before you're in an insane asylum by your very own acts. You're not even worth the clean up of killing. As for myself, I was never here, for I don't even exist. Good day, gentlemen, and good life, if you choose it to be."
QUOTE (CanRay @ Nov 21 2011, 02:01 PM)
I remember one game, I had a MiB-type character just tell the group: "Go ahead. Tell everyone you care to. The media, the people, whoever. There's no evidence. There's nothing backing you up. I give you two weeks before you're in an insane asylum by your very own acts. You're not even worth the clean up of killing. As for myself, I was never here, for I don't even exist. Good day, gentlemen, and good life, if you choose it to be."
This is more or less how I treat it. The fun ones are the ones where the "Magic Ritual" turns out to be powerless. That Johnson was very confused with that report.
Vampires... In... SPACE!
QUOTE (ggodo @ Nov 21 2011, 06:05 PM)
The fun ones are the ones where the "Magic Ritual" turns out to be powerless. That Johnson was very confused with that report.
Heh. The one game where I left the group with a mentally retarded child because he wasn't what the rumors said he was was epic. Until they dropped him out of the van into a tombstone, head first. Made the news at least, right beside the Nun getting crippled from the neck down by an Elven Jailbait Bioninja.QUOTE (Christian Lafay @ Nov 22 2011, 05:08 PM)
Vampires... In... SPACE!
As long as they don't sparkle."Oh drek." "What?" "We're coming onto the bright side of the moon." "So?" "THE SUN!!!"
QUOTE (CanRay @ Nov 22 2011, 09:25 PM)
As long as they don't sparkle.
"Oh drek." "What?" "We're coming onto the bright side of the moon." "So?" "THE SUN!!!"
"Oh drek." "What?" "We're coming onto the bright side of the moon." "So?" "THE SUN!!!"
I'm thinking more Dr. McNinja with Dracula living on the moon.
Great, now I have a picture in my head of a physical adept surfing a Dracula Robot from the Moon to the surface of the Earth.
...
And the "Soft Landing" section of the movie "Heavy Metal". I now have Radar Rider stuck in my head, too.
...
And the "Soft Landing" section of the movie "Heavy Metal". I now have Radar Rider stuck in my head, too.
QUOTE (CanRay @ Nov 22 2011, 01:37 PM)
And the "Soft Landing" section of the movie "Heavy Metal". I now have Radar Rider stuck in my head, too.
That film is truly a one-way ticket to midnight.
Now I have to find a copy on DVD for all the extras that must be on it. Wonder if it's been modified for Blu-Ray?
Back to Shadowrun. (That said, the acid trip that is Heavy Metal could be one hell of a trip for the Metaplanes or Matrix Run.).
Back to Shadowrun. (That said, the acid trip that is Heavy Metal could be one hell of a trip for the Metaplanes or Matrix Run.).
Decided I couldn't wait, and purchased the PDF. A lot of interesting things I could do with this, and a lot of it was either amusing, or interesting. The only thing that truly disappointed me was there was no 'crunch' chapter that I could find. The book was entirely fluff. This isn't a bad thing, mind -- the fluff was worth the money I paid for, but I've been desperately wanting to get my hands on new mechanics as well. (New spells, new Adept powers, new technology, new metamagics, etc). The rituals shown were interesting, I'd have loved to see a solid effect from a number of them, or instructions on how to set up rituals for the PCs to perform (or spoil).
The rituals shown were interesting, I'd have loved to see a solid effect from a number of them, or instructions on how to set up rituals for the PCs to perform (or spoil).
Picked up the PDF - dunno what to think of the bunch of short stories, layout-/format-wise...
QUOTE (Grinder @ Nov 23 2011, 05:59 AM)
Picked up the PDF - dunno what to think of the bunch of short stories, layout-/format-wise...
Can you be more specific? I know that Matt was trying to set up the fiction pieces so that they appeared differently from the in-character pieces. So it's possible that it's deliberate. Whether it succeeded or not is kind of subjective; I liked it personally, but I'm hardly a comprehensive statistical sample.
Yep, I was talking about the separation of stuff like "It's The Fall That Will Kill You" from the Introduction and the first chapter. Don't think that it gels well layout-wise and don't think that the short stories are essential enough for the book to justify their appearance and a new layout style.
Who's the author of the London chapter, btw?
QUOTE (Grinder @ Nov 23 2011, 09:22 AM)
Who's the author of the London chapter, btw?
Don't recall offhand, but I can find out if someone else doesn't post it first.
QUOTE (Grinder @ Nov 23 2011, 11:22 AM)
Who's the author of the London chapter, btw?
Malik Toms and me.
Jason H.
QUOTE (Grinder @ Nov 23 2011, 04:22 PM)
Don't think that it gels well layout-wise and don't think that the short stories are essential enough for the book to justify their appearance and a new layout style.
In case you didn't notice, JH obviously thinks short stories are the best thing since sliced bread
BTW, do the chapters still have intro fiction on top of that?
QUOTE (Sengir @ Nov 23 2011, 01:37 PM)
In case you didn't notice, JH obviously thinks short stories are the best thing since sliced bread
So, Mr. Hardy, how are the novels coming along?
QUOTE (CanRay @ Nov 23 2011, 01:47 PM)
So, Mr. Hardy, how are the novels coming along?
There is some progress being made in the fiction area, but that's all I'm allowed to say right now!
Jason H.
QUOTE (JM Hardy @ Nov 23 2011, 02:01 PM)
There is some progress being made in the fiction area, but that's all I'm allowed to say right now!
Jason H.
OK folks, we need a Decker here to hit up his files. Jason H.
QUOTE (Sengir @ Nov 21 2011, 08:28 PM)
Book or PDF, it is a waste...
That's your opinion, there are other opinions too.
QUOTE (Sengir @ Nov 23 2011, 06:37 PM)
BTW, do the chapters still have intro fiction on top of that?
Yes.
@JM Hardy: thanks for the info.
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