I bought a copy. I am the worlds slowest PDF reader. (I get distracted by shiny stuff, you name it.) but as soon as I read it I'll post up my own thoughts.

OK... I'm just blown away. Safehouses is still in the Top Ten at Drive-Thru RPG! Almost two months after release! Coming out on the same week the MARVEL RPG came out and conquered the #1 spot like Conan and Wolverine teaming up for a "King of the Hill" battle royale!

Thanks to all of you who bought it and helped keep it in that spot!

Congratulations Ray!

Wish I could say I helped, but I got my copy from battleshop

Sorry, bit of an in-joke about the Conan thing. One of the artists that's a regular at my FLGS/Army Surplus Store used to work for Marvel Comics Conan in some fashion (I can't recall exactly how right now), and a sure way to get into a fight with him is to refer to "Furry Diapers" due to his work.

He's still doing Comic Book Work, and was there when I presented the shop with their own copy of my e-book. (I printed it out and put it into sheet protectors and a cheap cover)

As the co-owner of the shop said when I handed her my book, "That's the great thing about Winnipeg: If someone says they're a musician, they're likely to do more than play a few chords. If they say their an artist, they've probably been in shops or such. Writers have actually gotten books published."

Now if only I could find gamers who don't have a full table...

No worries about the Conan thing, he is awesome. Tormenting someone about Burn on the other hand...

Hey, it's me!

Personally, I'm surprised more people haven't called me on the horrible music puns I had Man-Of-Many-Names give. Thing is, one was unintentional, which makes me think I was channeling him and makes me wonder if it was meant as a joke, or if he really was serious...

*Sighs* Knocked out of the top ten. Oh well, still a major seller despite being months old.

Any questions, comments, concerns, demands for Errata?

Hey CanRay!

First of all, great work there! Good to see it is well-received, too.

One thing I was wondering... why are the Luxury Options for Safehouse-"Lifestyles" 5 LP instead of the 6 LP from Runner's Companion for Advanced Lifestyles?

Bye
Thanee

Well well well... That's... Wow. I even had the Advanced Lifestyle Rules open when doing that. Wonder how I missed that.

OK, unofficial errata on this ("word of author") is it's GM's choice for it to be 5LP or 6LP. Luxury while on the lam is not as nice (and thus as expensive) as it is when you're living the high life out and about. It's not like you're going out and doing the high-end clubs while hiding after all. But some Safehouses will give you Luxury you can get at the high end, but will charge for it as well, despite being stuck in the one apartment/loft/suite.

Unintentional?? Which one?


Great quick-save there!

I see.

Considering that some parts are taken in from Runner's Companion (i.e. Comforts), it is probably best to just use the same value for both (i.e. 6 LP for Luxury). At least that's what I am going to do.


On a related topic... why the cost changes to the LP:¥ table (low-end cheaper; high-end more expensive)?

Oh, and while I am looking at it, the "Neighborhood" part might require a little more explanation. It says to increase the threshold by 2 for every rank, and that Z-zones and barrens decrease the threshold by 2. So is that Street = -2, Squatter = 0, Low = +2, etc? Or something different.

Bye
Thanee

The Simon and Garfunkel one.I'm good at those. Please note that those prices are per week, not per month. But the low end is cheaper due to volume. It's where all the low-end hoods hide out and other "No Tell Motels", cheap and sleazy. Kind of like the place /dev's parents were stuck in. Everyone knows they're dens of scum and villainy, but they're usually lower class than most Shadowrunners would bother with. So, because they deal in volume, they're cheaper because there's lots of "Mr. Smith"s staying there constantly.

The higher-end safehouses are specialized Fixers, really, and you pay for their silence.Z-Zone = -2, Street = 0, Squatter = 2, Low = 4, and so on. In Runner's Companion, Z-Zone is a second 0LP Neighborhood.

Thanks for clearing it up!

Bye
Thanee

NP. Part of the job.

This is the first SR4 product I've purchased and I'm glad I did. Safehouses has lots of interesting ideas, entertaining fiction and good artwork. Some of the artwork is re-used but it's good stuff worth re-using. I'll have to convert the mechanics to SR3 but that won't be difficult. My wife and I (she plays SR too ), look forward to the addition to our games.

I love the touches of humour; my personal favourite is the black mould paying rent!

Thanks!

Shouldn't be too difficult to convert to SR3 as I understand it. Glad you enjoy my twisted mind!

Just to remind folks, my first book is still available for sale.

lol "Rigger 4 is free.... but this one you gotta buy!"

Well, considering how much I got paid for Rigger 4...

Just bought it. Someone around here is a damned good writer...

*Looks around* Who?

Ok, CanRay. Bought this one too. I'm a big fan of supporting writers I like and I liked what you did with Sims.

First off, the intro story was awesome. Kane and Kat at the Sci-fi convention (Carefully not actually named) Kat as a Jedi. Great stuff.

I had a question for you. Was Kane supposed to be a Stormtrooper/Clone trooper or Boba Fett? I know you couldn't actually say in the work it self but you can tell us what... "influenced" his armor. Also, when she's not green, have we ever got a description on Kat?

The file being a home work assignment from Jack to Dev was nice too. The quip about the torture implement called a number 2 pencil was fun. How many times I've thought the same thing.

The file was a fun topic. One I'm sure not everyone really thinks about ahead of time, but it's nice to have if your group likes detailing out such. I also like the different 'levels' of the sort of thing. Bolt Holes, Safe houses, and such. The Supply list reads like one for my Bug Out Bag. (( Some differences and less detailed)) but still. Familiar in many areas.

Again, not sure if I'm looking too deep, but Kane being stuck in a safehouse and reading Catcher in the Rye, three times. I'm guessing you didn't pull that title out of your rear. Were you trying to connect Kane's .... life, lifestyle, lol Rebelliousness, and all of that with the book that has been often banned, fought against but also taught in schools for years and years, the challenges coming from the drinking, sex, smoking, cursing, lying, blasphemy etc, most of which Kane seems to use as his standard...

or... was it because Catcher in the Rye has been connected to so many shootings/assassination attempts, Rebecca Schaeffer, Reagan, Lennon. All of which the assassins or wanna be assassins had copies either on them or well read in their apartments or houses and stuff, and linked to Kane this way?

Or.. am I just reading deeper than you'd meant again?

The Saint Nicholas being the Patron Saint of Shadow Runners was a nice touch. Not sure how many are going to be wearing the metals around but I'm sure one or two hedge their bets.

Man of Many names pullin' the "I went through the desert on a horse with no name" Bit was pretty classic. Hard to tell with him if he was being serious or just waxing poetic. Though I'm not sure if I'd call it Rock.

Kat o'Nine Tails (Not to be confused with Kane's Kat from the previous lead in) getting a brit lord sloshed and bumming crash space at their house was a pretty cool too. I'd love to see Kat o'Nine Tails, Dev/grrl, both in the next Street legends type write up, or "Ten More Jackpointers" type thing. Butch and Goatfoot too if you're taking requests.

The actual game material seems like you were having fun while writing. From Sock puppets, to people stealing the Gideons Bible, to doors that could be kicked in by anorexic elves. (( Yeah Yeah. I know it's not PC to use Anorexia that way, it was still funny)) to little things, like the "Shoemaker" being the forger. I'm sure alot of people missed that one.

The nod to the fact that huge parts of the world were RAPIDLY depopulated during the multiple VITAS outbreaks and how that helped to contribute to he balkinization that we see in Shadowrun was nice. Another fact that people forget, living in the sprawl.

The "Hotel California" Reference. "You can check out, any time you like, but you can -never- leave" lol. Then the very next entry you take a swipe at the Bible Thumpers. I thought you were Canadian. *Grins* You don't have near the amount of Religion that I suffered growing up. Then a little bit later, Tree Hugging Hippies make the page. The "Can't Sleep or the ghouls will eat me" Made me laugh too.

Great read. I'd have liked to have seen Coffin hotels make an entry of some sort or merit some mention more than the one sample in the back. (Which seemed astronomical for price on a coffin hotel. But I guess you're paying for the Candy Man and organized Crime link ups there. I always liked the concepts of Coffin Hotels in Shadowrun and my characters have often used them for just this sort of thing. I've actually had caracters that used them as fronts or Ran them when not shadowrunning.

Other than that though, great little book. I enjoyed it. The art on the last page, tieing back into Dev's 'punishment' was a nice touch. Again you came through with some small details, that could easily be glossed over, but paint vivid pictures in the mind, if you're paying attention. Stuff that inspires vs just informs. Which to me is a good thing. I love it when I read through supplements and I crack a grin at something slipped in that while may give absolutely no game mechanic what so ever, adds flavor and depth to a setting and helps me feel more immersed in the 'world' that it's talking about. I don't know if it's fully on purpose, or accidental, but you've done that in both the books I've read from you lately. Good job.

...wait, what now?

*reads his copy that he had yet to read previously*

0_o

...and this was the one, the ONE bit of paydata about the entire SR lore that I was trying to discover was true or not! Thank you CanRay for bringing this little factoid to light!

Now I need to plan accordingly so I can send my PCs there...

YAY! Maybe I'll get the top rating on Drive-Thru for Safehouses yet!Clonetrooper, as he's walking beside a Jedi. However, as a lot of the Clonetrooper gear is based on the Stormtrooper stuff, some things were mingled. And, no, we've never gotten a description on Kat. As she was a CAS Air Force Rigger/Fighter Pilot before she was "Disavowed" and left in an Aztlan Prison, I'd assume she's slightly below average in height, in fairly good shape, and can't outdrink a Marine. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine until someone decides it's time to reveal more about her. If ever.I haven't handwritten anything of any real length when I was doing the brainstorming for the book, which I do on paper with a mechanical pencil. I was amazed at how much it hurt to use one again. /dev, OTOH, has never done any extensive writing so would be in almost agony due to it. It's a legitimate complaint for her.I've done quite a bit of research on BOBs, as well as talked to a lot of veterans on various similar subjects. I had to tone down the list as I didn't want it to totally dominate a page.I had go through CitR for High School. I detested every moment of it. This is my revenge.There's enough Anti-Catholic groups out there that Catholic Shadowrunners doing a lot of Hooding is likely in my mind. It was either him or Saint Joshua who is considered to be the Patron Saint of Spies. I figured Nick, being the Patron Saint of (Reformed) Thieves, Pawn Shop Owners, and a few other "Shadowy" elements was more accurate in the end. I'd also list St. Nicholas as the Patron Saint of Fixers, BTW. St. Joshua would be the Patron Saint of Mr. Johnsons.

Yes, I've thought entirely too much about this.You know the scary part?

I'm not sure if he's being serious or making fun either.

I haven't written for Street Legends. ... Yet."Shoemaker" being slang term for a forger of fake IDs is actually from Cyberpunk 2020, which was the only Cyberpunk game I was able to get anyone interested in back home. I decided to touch on the connection the two games had through that. I'll probably be yelled at here for saying so, but it's true.The NAN is like Northern Ontario: "Fifteen Billion Miles of NOTHING!" as one Canadian band put it (while playing in a Northern Ontarian mining town!). To be fair, I can't fault them.There was a house owned by the Church of Latter-Day Saints two houses down from mine, which they used as a staging area for my neighborhood. I marked the fact that they felt safe in my neighborhood as an example of the place "going to hell" and losing the title of "Worst part of the city".

Also, almost everyone has to deal with some kind of self-righteous person at one time or another. A College Professor of mine was like this with his idea of Communism, for example.There's a lot of stuff you can research on Coffin Hotels IRL that work well enough in Cyberpunk, so I felt that, with Google today, it didn't really need expanding upon further. Leaves room for other items.Apparently I'm good at fluff and know the universe really well. They keep me around for some reason after all...

My group had to find Batman.

Yes, in the middle of the convention.

Yes, I'm a

Also, note how tight Aztlan (And thus, Aztechnology) will want to keep things in the city, ensuring that it STAYS a safe place for tourists. Shadowrunners are certainly not welcome there!

Dude, you were too easy on them!

I would have had them try to steal one of the last surviving copies of Action Comics #1...which I imagine would be as heavily guarded as a newly discovered artifact that a Mega just recently acquired

This one time, we had to track down this elf. We were given a photograph of him, and got a handwritten note that said where he was going to be. It had an address, and underneath said "Elven Convention".

Or so we thought.

We got to the address, which turned out to be a convention center, and it didn't say Elven.

It said Elvis.

And no, the pic was not of the elf in Elvis costume.

Bull

Totally doing this.

Crazy Talks, my group's Raven Shaman, is from Vegas... I'm totally doing this!

Oh yeah, chosing Kane the psychotic mass-murder for the intro fiction and portray him like a more or less likeable dude was a great move. I love CanRays writing, but still don't get why he and others are trying to portray Kane in a more positive light.

Even "Bad Guys" are allowed a vacation ? it's hard graft being an ass 100% of the time

Yeah. We mad scientists can't be mad all the time, for instance. After all, we need to invent something vaguely marketable now and then to fund our plots for world domination. Ditto with warlords, pirate leaders ect: it's hard to get loyal followers in any quantity if all you do is be an absolute asshole to them the whole time.

On a completely unrelated topic, I have a couple of hundred older model killer robots if anyone's interested. Good condition, apart from occasional laser burns, only one owner.

The problem is, "evil" isn't that much fun to write. And also barring them being some kind of all-powerful demi-god, it's really, really hard to explane how they haven't gotten themselves killed. No matter how good Kane is, he would simply not have survived this long if that's all there was too him.

He also likely wouldn't be on Jackpoint and/or would not be tolerated by many of the Jackpointers if he was half as ruthless and amoral and downright evil as he's occasionally claimed to be (Or has been accused of being). Look at Clockwork, Puck, and even Haze. They're barely tolerated and looked on with contempt by a lot of members. Kane is arguably worse than them, far worse if you believe a few of the things that's popped up about him (especially in early 4th edition). And yet, everyone seems to respect him and even like him.

So for my money, Kane has three traits that are important:

1) He's a massive showman. So he does these big, over the top stunts, like writing his name in bullets or pulling these dramatic attacks and runs on high profile targets.

2) For a long time, Kane was borderline suicidal. He was driven hard by his desire to find Kat, and by his despair that he wouldn't find her and that she was already dead. I think most of his reputation as a "bad guy" came during this period, as he was willing to do nearly anything to find her and/or make money (WHich went toward finding her and then rescuing her).

3) Combining the two above, Kane is a liar. Kane claims a lot of things to bolster the reputation he's built up. He's also likely taken cradit for things he didn't do, and has had the blame for other things placed on him (which he's accepted because of his current rep).

I'm not saying Kane has a heart of gold or anything, but I don't think Kane is nearly the villain some people assume he is, and I didn't write him as such in Street Legends. He's mean, he's viscous, and he's willing to do a lot. ANd his hands are far form clean. But he's not some amoral, monstrous psychopath. He's just, well... He's Kane.

*shrug*

Bull

I keep seeing reference to Kane selling cargo containers full of live people either into slavery or for Ghoul chow.

Can someone point me to where I can find that so I can read it for myself?

Why Sticks?

Ok, I've had this PDF since it came out. I have no group to play with, so I haven't read it yet. After reading all of this, I have to load it into the Nook and spend hours reading it as the Nook doesn't handle PDF's very well.

<shakes fist in the air> Darn you CanRay for being such a great writer!

More when I finish reading it.
<edit for grammatical errors>

I see where you are coming from. I personally would have liked if some Jackpointers like Kane or Clockwork remained the evil fuckers nobody wants to deal with, but who remain on Jackpoint for the experienceb (it's another topic if they needed to be introduced to Jackpoint in the first place). But making them more human, more likeable is makes them and the setting more grey when a bit more black | white would have been cool.

I think Clockwork and Puck fit that role fairly well, myself, in different ways. And Kane does settle in there some, don't get me wrong. None of these are *good* characters in the least. But I think Kane was so far over the top crazy that it just doesn't work for him to be truly evil. Plus, I don;t really enjoy Shadowrun when everyone is an amoral bastard bordering on being a psychopath, sociopath, or worse. I like my Shadowrunners to be decent folks who are stuck on the wrong side of the law for various reasons. They're criminals, sure. But not evil, not bad guys, just.. Doing what they need to do. ANd usually not doing any more than necessary.

But then again, maybe those stories are true. Maybe Kane did all those things and far, far worse, and he just has everyone fooled. Either way, it's obvious Kane is a smart, smooth, and fairly charismatic bastard.

There are so many Jackpointers who fill that role already, why has the rest join the crew too? Why does Kane have to charismatic and not an ruthelss, amoral bastard who actually enjoys doing all the nasty things he did and does?

"Has everyone driven across Northern Ontario?" *cheers* "... stop cheering!"

I imagine the NAN is somewhat more respectful with their nature trails, though.

Didn't Kane once offer advice on what sort of ammunition and machine gun is appropriate to use for murdering helpless castaway survivors of ships he's downed? As in, shooting up folks who are in the water and completely unable to resist?


Frankly, I think the only reason Kane has survived so long is because he's so charismatic, and so well armed that Caribbean island nations bow to him rather than attempt to fight him, and he's liked by enough people in high places who have an appropriate lack of morals so as to enjoy being pals with a guy who can jack onto Jackpoint and offer tips as regards what sort of gun is best for murdering literally helpless people.

It's like in Red Dwarf, when they meet their future selves who like to go on about how much of a hoot the Hitlers are when entertaining, just don't bring up politics.


If I had to choose, mind you, an opportunity to kill one but only one, I'd probably kill Kane, over Clockwork and Puck. Clockwork is a vicious little psychopath and neither the Devil nor the Deep Blue Sea know what the fuck is going on with Puck, but Kane is a legitimate menace to a sufficiently large portion of the world that taking him out would simply be improving the world more.


Also, CanRay: Still don't have a copy of Safehouses, but for what it's worth, it's not for lack of wanting, it's for lack of money.

Well, I read Safehouses last night. LOVED IT! I didn't understand a lot of the rules, but that is completely my lack of familiarity with the game and nothing about CanRay's ability to write. I was so impressed, I tried to get Sim Dreams & Nightmares, but forgot my drivethroughPRG password and can't seem to access the "change your password" email. I am looking forward to when I can read Sim Dreams & Nightmares.!!

I cannot believe I really haven't posted a review of this yet. upcoming.

I fail to see the big issue with Clockwork. He sold Netcat out to AZT? So what, runners sell each other out all the time. You can be sure the rivals like Mika and Mafan did this to each other, for example; and shadowtalk in the previous editions is full of it.
How can this even be compared to being a willing accomplice in a mass murder, like Puck was?

Because Netcat was both a woman and a designated repressed minority we were to sympathise with.

Also, Clockwork is Slavic, equals Russian, equals evil.


But Puck is SO EMO. He feels genuinely sorry, he just cannot express it. Also, it drives home what a dark world Shadowrun is. Or something. I never understood that either, after all, Puck was directly implicated in the death of Captain Chaos.

Part of it is that Clockwork was extremely close to breaking the rules of Jackpoint, which are designed to protect it's members. If those rules start being broken or otherwise circumvented, it's a potential danger to everyone on the network. Also, selling a technomancer to a corp is sending someone to a fate a good deal worse than simply getting sent to jail.

Selling your teammates out rarely if ever ends in jail for them, too.
As for the fate of a technomancer sold to the corps - how does it compare to the fate of the thousands experimented upon by a mad AI with the help of technomancers?

Hasn't it been mentioned numerous times that he really doesn't?

Technomancers and Otaku are not the same thing, first and foremost. Even if that was a valid equivalency, that's a hilariously invalid argument - I cannot conceive of the possibility that you don't realize that.