Last page, someone was asking about French products.
I thought I had this post bookmarked, but I didn't. So now I do, for simple (IE, not spending half an hour before work digging through old posts) reference!
To answer ravensmuse request, I made a short review of Shadowrun French-only releases (quite faster to do than for German products). Not sure it'll interest a lot of people, but feel free to ask for further details. I do not list
Shadows of Europe (as it is not a French-only product), but knowing its content would probably help understand some things.
FRANCE144 pages
ISBN: 2-7408-0147-5
Release: September, 1997
Date: May, 2057
Early in the process, Descartes Editeur submitted a list of the major highlights to FASA to be approved. As far as I understood, the project took a lot more time than planned, with some part being heavily reworked several times (hence some bizarreness like a Royal Army without having an actual king or queen). Major features are:
- France new regime is the Oligarchy (yes, it is the official name). Four families gets to sit on the Oligarchic council to rule the country. The country is divided into duchies, with one or several dukes gets to rule. Widely considered silly.
- Brittany is entirely covered by the Mist. By the rules, you can stay inside the Mist for twelve turn in the best case. After that, you
cease to exist. Fluff has Lofwyr trying to enter and after being wounded by something in the astral. It is suggested the Mist is a cocoon for something nasty (read: Horror).
- A massive volcanic eruption destroyed Clermont-Ferrand and most of Auvergne. The largest dragon in the world is sleeping at the bottom of a caldera.
- The French Matrix is the most advanced grid in the world. French programmers designed the Corporate court system security. Foreign megacorporations just beg to work with them. They avoided the 2029 virus thanks to a kill-switch.
La Passerelle ("The Gateway") is a single Red-10 node that segregates the French Matrix from the rest of the world (security tally has it cascading into an AI at 27).
-
Monsieur de Fontainebleau is the richest man in France. He is a friend of both Damien Knight and M. Darke (sic). Owns a copy of the Book of Harrows. It is suggested he is working for the Horrors.
All the French authors working on
Shadows of Europe knew and read the book. We willingly choose to rework or ignore its contents.
CAPITALES DES OMBRES160 pages
ISBN: 978-2-915847-222
Release: March, 2008
Date: February, 2070
French version of
Runner Havens. It features an additional chapter on Marseille, which is 16 pages long (thus quite shorter than Seattle and Hong Kong).
In
France, Marseille was a fully independent city. In
Shadows of Europe, its status got a passing mention, but it was practicaly described as under full control of Saeder-Krupp.
Capital des Ombres retcons the autonomy status as mere political gesture with almost no practical effects (but it doesn't explain if and how law enforcement is affected), and Saeder-Krupp domination is also made a thing of the past. I must admit I was not fond of the move.
Otherwise, you get the classical elements of Marseille setting: shipping, various Mediterranean and Asian ethnic communities, the mob, hip hop and the allmighty football, plus urban brawl (a sport born in France according to
Shadowbeat). It also provides small update to the French setting at large (Yohann de Kervelec as the new president, the death of Charles de Rohan, a possible alliance of ESUS and Index-Axa).
SOX168 pages
ISBN: 978-2-915847-55-0
Release: July, 200 9
Date: October, 2070 / April, 2071
The
SOX book is a French-German joint project. The first 68 pages feature the description of the SOX area and is the same in both the French and German version. SOX is a walled radioactive area created after a nuclear accident in the French power plan in Cattenom in 2009, covering a part of France, a part of Germany and all of Luxembourg. I found the book to be sometimes unclear for instance on what is the exact level of security MET2000 enforce on the wall or inside the zone, how much exchange there is between the zone and the outside, or the zone and the corporations' arcologies, how important is the zone to corporations and smugglers, and so on. But so can every GM adjust the background the way he wants it. You can have a team of rookies sent with armored chemsuit and fully loaded weapons to fight against a gang using crossbows and rusted XXth Century firearms in an area where there are no police and SIN check to bother them, or experienced runners with a single knife and half a bottle of water, trying to get into an enclosed arcology, hunted by corporate forces, with toxic spirits geting in the way, knowing they're going to die from radiation poisoning anyway.
The last 96 pages is a French-only campaign titled
Mauvais Présage (Bad Omen). The German version features another campaign, titled
Hoffnungsstrahlen ("Beacon of Hope" ?). The original plan was to have the French and German campaigns connected, with each group triggering events that affect the other. That probably was a bit too ambitious. There still are a few links (but also some inconsistencies).
[ Spoiler ]
In the first adventure, the PC investigates the death of an old ork in Marseille. It turns out he died in robbery attempt that went bad, but also happens to be a former légionnaire that disappeared three decades ago (the reason the employer got interested in the first place) and suddenly resurfaced with traces of radiation.
The PC are sent into the SOX zone, performing some side quest to learn more. The ork was held in top secret prison inside SOX. A member of the aristocratic conspiracy put him there, along with several other people, as an "insurance" against his rivals. The intel the PC retrieved gets all the way up to the president. The PC get to break into the prison with the help of French military units involved . French airfighters officially involved in the "Rad War" (Desert War spin-off inside the SOX, with several national forces competing) leave the area of engagement to bomb Ares and Ruhrmetall units protecting the prison.
As expected, the surviving prisoners testimony unveils the truth on the aristocratic conspiracy, forcing most of its members to quit their positions or even leave the country. However, megacorporations decide economic sanctions against France for attacking Ares and Ruhrmetall assets, forcing the government to axe most of France extraterritoriality regulations.
The best thing about Mauvais Présage is that it is the very first published adventure that actually use the French background. On the other hand, I think it works a lot better if the players already know the French background, how the nobility controls the country, and the official history, so they can understand what's happening and how important are their findings.
ENCLAVES CORPORATISTES168 pages
ISBN: 978-2-915847-56-7
Release: August, 2009
Date: February, 2071 / March, 2072 / October, 2072
French version of (you guessed it)
Corporate Enclaves. It included the Manhattan PDF Only product as an additional chapter, and a few pages about Lille, in northern France (set in March, 2072). After the events of
Mauvais Présage and the corporate economic sanctions, the French government offered them control of the Lille sprawl. And so you get a corp council and private police services.
CARTELS FANTÔMES192 pages
ISBN: 78-2-915847-85-7
Release: September, 2010
Date: February-November, 2071
French version of
Ghost Cartels. Written by a French-German team, it adds a chapter between The Source and The Final Cut, with five adventures in Europe (it should actually be played between Neo-Tokyo and Los Angeles). They take place in Rotterdam, Lille, Marseille, Genoa and Lisbon, as the PC follows the Olaya cartel envoy in Europe. The book first chapter also includes some news item linked to the European events.
There are two minor ties with
SOX campaign
Mauvais Présage first chapter: a minor NPC (who actually had significant chances of dying when she first appeared) returns in a more prominent position in Lille, and the PC may already have visited the night club in Marseille where some action will take place.
I took a part in writing that one (I reworked a bit the Genoa adventure to fix some issues) but never actually played it, so I can't really comment. I have the impression inserting a whole new chapter kinda "break the flow" of the original GC campaign. The adventures themselves are closer to First Taste than The Source, as the adventures are a lot more connected: though the team moves, the events in most cities have later consequences, and the relationships between the Olaya delegation members play a big role.
=^.^=
I used this for my first SR character, a scottish patriot. About a year later, I first read the BT books and discovered that the mech was named for the same reason ^^
