http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1257...gital-Tools-Box
Does anyone know if any of the compiled errata has been applied to the QSR or Rules of the Street?
I'm all for documents that are easier to parse, but if they're still bugged/incomplete, I'd rather wait for official errata for the main book.

Well, it'd be kind of a dick move to put the first official bit of errata in the box sets, especially since you got to pay money for it.

I was thinking it would be a dick move to release it without errata.

They wouldn't have to release it with the errata of the whole book, just the pieces that are in the box.

I'm confused by these products and going digital has only made it worse.

20 bucks for this set compared to the $20 core-book strikes me as bad product placement.
Actually looking into the features we have, Pregenned characters, how to gm, Sixth World intro and the rules?
I might be wrong but isn't all of that available from the core-book?

Hell, if it's about new players how does this compete with the FREE quick start rules?

What's that leave us? A character booklet of dubious utility, some maps and cards. Is the value in the maps and cards? Probably not, as a digital package the cards lack the usefulness provided by their physical counterparts. The maps might be the saving grace but not for $20

So I ask, Who is this for?

For starters, it's two box sets for the price of one. The physical copies, one worth $20 and the other worth $60, would come together to be $80.

And actually...the core book doesn't really have a section that maps out the timeline

The point for this kind of thing is that it's supposed to ease in players new to SR without having to dump all of your money into just the core book, which on it's own isn't really optimized for beginning players. As for comparing this to the QSR, in terms of extra goodies that you can play with. In other words, it's supposed to be the middle ground between the QSR on it's own, and the actual rulebook.

Of course, if you already feel fairly confident in your ability to teach SR to new players with just the core book or the QSR, there's no need for you to get it.

...out of curiosity, have you used any Beginner's Boxes from other existing TRPGs?

Yeah I've used the 4th ed D&D set, which was pretty slick in terms of the amount of tokens but the books in it fell completely flat.

I can't believe they ripped out the history section from 5th Ed. That was my favourite part of 4AE, man that's seriously disheartening. I went straight to the crunch this time round while I relearn the game. The stories and history were being saved for the end

Physical assets tend to be more expensive. It's not the point, I get that having it on the shelf in the real world will be cool. Good for the parents looking for a cheap gift, oh ill grab johnny that! The physical one will also have dice, which will add to the cool factor and make me pick up the newbie kit but that $80 dollar one is a damn hard sell.

Truths be told at this point the physical items don't even matter. The current product is digital and it makes you choose between core-book and itself at the same price. The digital market isn't little johnny's parents, it's us, you, me, dumpshockers and RPG geeks en mass that makes it a very strange proposition.

From my side of things I am really hankering for that Runners Toolkit they had in 4th. Cheat sheets for the newbies but with reference books to all the gear from the Core Set, not to mention a gm screen. These new products seem like a weak version of that.

Anyways, still reading through everything right now. First thing of note is the reveal of a new upcoming release: a Seattle Boxed Set. Am I correct to assume that this is supposed to be in the same vein as the old Denver Boxed Set?

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...wait...you know kids that play Shadowrun? D&D and Pathfinder I can understand younger players getting into, but bleak dystopic Shadowrun? I don't think so...

I personally found the cheat sheets to be kind of useless. At the very least, my players never used them and some of the tests they outlines were straightforward enough to not need to consult them. Plus, the most damning was how there was no hack/decking cheat sheet, which makes all the convoluted mess of the SR4 Matrix rules even more stupid.

And, well, the other advanced rulebooks aren't even out yet so making the Runner's Toolkit from SR4 for SR5 isn't even viable yet.

Plus, if it makes you feel any better, there is a "Betaware" Toolkit being planned that IS supposed to be the SR5 version of the other Toolkit.

Seattle box set. Sign. Me. Up. Right now. Please.

I seriously love the Denver box set and still use bits and pieces of it. My players were given the expired border passes from a dodgy contact that was trying to get rid of em. Boy did that lead to some fun.

You'd be surprised who actually plays these games.

I can see why not everyone would want em but for my group those cheat sheets are indispensable. One of my runners doesn't know how to breath without guidance, we've been playing for a year or so now and he just figured out the burst rules. (before you ask. Yes, He is a Sammy.)

God I can't wait for the other books in the core-set. Anyone know if we are getting them anytime soon?

That said, the pitch for that set:



Also, titles revealed for some of the upcoming novels:

"Fire and Frost"
"Hell on Water"
"Dark Resonance"

And no, no plot synopses or mentions of who the authors will be for those work. All are being priced at $14.95. No idea if that's the price for a print release or a e-pub release.

And a mention that omnibuses of the older SR novels are in the works as well.

Who wrote Fire and Frost?

Novels:

Fire and frost by John Helfers

Hell on water by JH (line developer)

Dark Resonance by Phaedra Wildon

From looking at the net (where I found the names) these where set back in 2010ish time frame. Wonder what the 4yr delay was about?

If these are the same titles, I am super happy for the writers to finally see there work getting to the public.

The budget only allowed for one typewriter for the lot, so they all had to take turns typing up chapters.

Oh dear, I do hope that thing stays buried.

Hm, 1 out of 3 could be good. There go my high hopes that Goodman or Zimmerman would get a novel contract.

Oh dear, another game designer "inventing" the idea of segmenting the product line into experience levels through which new players are supposed progress. Hint to GCL: A lot of games, made by publishers with far larger marketing budgets, have tried the very same concept, and they all failed.
A dumbed-down entry tier that cannot be used in conjunction with the more advanced tiers does not make people more eager to pick up the game, it just makes them more angry about sinking money into something they cannot use after a few sessions. An "Advanced" as stepping stone and companion to the "Expert" tier leads to completely inconsequential usage of these labels at best, more likely it actively hampers the product line because "X is supposed to be an advanced-tier product, we can't use those great ideas there".

But at least we now know where the history chapter from the BBB went -- you can buy it for just 19.99 (less that 1$ per page!), and get some handouts left over from the last con on top of it...

Not to mention the free-for-download quickstart rules. But hey, they might contain the Errata CGL is keeping secret from all other customers.

As far as one can tell from the Digital Tools Box there is no history chapter included in the Beginner Box Set according to this (sorry German): http://www.foren.pegasus.de/foren/topic/21...owrunboxen-wtf/

The way I understand that posting, he just read the description of the contents (interpreting "gives the flavor and background of the Sixth World" as something else than a history chapter, which certainly could be the case) and decided not to buy the set

I picked this up, and while I haven't had time to go over it comprehensively, it does appear that the GM screen in the Alphaware set does have at least a few updated tables, since I noticed that the Defense Modifiers table was missing one or two of the useless lines that didn't make sense that were in the CRB. So, it's definitely possible that some other modifications have been snuck in.

No, Synapscape downloaded the Digital Tools Box ("Habe sie mir gerade heruntergeladen und gedacht WTF???") and it seems "The Edge of Now" is an excerpt from the core rulebook.

I understood "die Inhalte" as the list of contents, not the contents themselves. But looking a bit further down on his comments about the maps (copied from Sprawl Sites) and the gear cards (too pixelated to be useful), he obviously does have the product and it sucks...

Here's hoping Pegasus makes good on their promises to just release their own box, improved and unrelated to this money-grabbing scheme.

Here's a quick translation of the previously linked post on the german forums. I left the original statements and added my translation in the line below.
The original poster quotes the advertisement text and then comments on each bulletin.

Habe sie mir gerade heruntergeladen und gedacht WTF???
- I just downloaded it and thought WTF?

The Edge of Now gives the flavor and background of the Sixth World
Das ist einfach nur der Text über das Leben in der sechsten Welt aus dem GRW.
- This is simply the text about living in the sixth world from the CRB.

Quick-Start Rules: Fast rules and a quick adventure to whet your appetite for more.
Das gab es im Vorfeld schon gratis zum Download oder als Booklet.
- These were available previously as either booklet or download for free.

A pre-generated character booklet: Allows for a gamemaster and one person to run a solo adventure.
EIN einziger Charakter, kaum Inhalt, kein Solo-Abenteuer im Sinne eines Abenteuerspielbuches oder so.
- One single character, no content, no solo adventure like an adventure book or such.

5 pre-generated character sheets: Details that’ll allow up to five players to play with the help of a gamemaster.
Wow, wer braucht die?
- Wow, who needs those?

Rules of the Street: An 88-page rulebook designed to be accessible and simple to use.
Genau so layouted wie die Regeln im Buch. Was genau soll daran einfacher in der Anwendung sein? Es sind immer noch 88 Seiten Regeln!
- The same layout as the rules in the CRB. What's more accessible here? It's still 88 pages of rules!

Plots and Paydata: 80 pages of adventures and tips for any Shadowrungamemaster.
Hier der erste echte neue Inhalt, den es so vorher noch nicht gab.
- There first real new content that didn't exist before.

Eight double-sided maps to help players and GMs track the action.
Alle Maps gab es auch vorher schon in diesen Sprawl Sites supplements. habe ich alle schon, brauche ich keine von doppelt.
- All maps existed previously in the Spawl Sites supplements. I have all of them and don't need doubles.

110 spell, weapon, and gear cards for quick reference.
Das mag als Hardcopy ganz ok sein, als PDF in der miesen Qualität völlig unbrauchbar, da die Bilder vollständig verpixelt sind.
- This might be OK as a hardcopy but they are useless in a PDF due to the lousy quality since the pictures are completely pixelated.

5 pre-generated characters players can use right away.
Und noch mal 5 vorgenerierte Charaktere ... wie unglaublich nützlich.
- And five more pregenerated characters... how incredibly useful.

Also ich bin enttäuscht. Ob ich mir die Boxen noch holen werde, glaube ich nicht. NIX davon macht irgend einen Sinn.
- Well I am disappointed. I doubt I'll buy the boxes. None of this makes any sense. (Or rather, this is pointless.)

Catalyst's facebook page claims this has eratta, but they also say the real eratta is coming soon...heard that one before.

Unrelated maybe, but I'll only believe in a better entry product (instead of a dumbed-down spinoff from the main line) when I see it. Like I said, it's a popular fallacy among publishers, maybe Pegasus just wants to fit in



(The ultimate irony award in this regard goes to Wizards. Long after they stopped printing separate starter sets because nobody liked to have his first cards turn out to be useless for actual play, Wizards actually made the starter sets legal in "eternal" formats. With obvious results)

http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index....84.15;topicseen

What I read on the second Page (regarding Totems, Manaspells and the splitting of a Char Sheet) makes me a sad Panda (again) and quite disapointed in CGL (again)

with a sad,sad Dance
Medicineman

Just looked through the cards, and there are several repeats:
41-43 are all Ares Predator V
58-60 are all Armor Jacket
61-63 are all Lined Coat
68-69 are both Renraku Sensei
101-102 are both Cybereyes [Rating 1, w/ flare compensation, image link, low-light vision, thermographic vision]
103-104 are both Cybereas, but with different ratings and additions, yet the same Essence, capacity and cost.

As mentioned on the other forum, it's my understanding that the repeats are intentional (because they figure folks might need more than one Predator, Armor Jacket, etc). The cyberear thing, I would assume, not so much -- but there is time to get some stuff fixed prior to this going to print, so I'm doing what I can to get info like that to the bosses.

Question for those that have played with other Intro Boxed Sets TRPGs: have any of them included some version of the core game's character generation rules? Stripped down or otherwise?

I heard that there are little inconsistencies from the SR5 core rules, like Contacts in Rules of the Street only having connection ranks 1-6 (like SR4) instead of 1-12 (SR5, pg387). Is that true?

There are no Rigger control consoles in the cards. Why is that? RCCs finally get named and diverse, and not one of them is in the cards, but there are several redundancies for other stuff? That kinda sucks. Also, though the graphics quality is terrible, who made the images for the guns? They look rather neat.

On a more positive note, I got the stuff, and am reading through it bit by bit. So far, I've read the Charsheets, The Edge of Now, and Plots and Paydata. Here's my impressions.

The Charsheets. Who wrote this? The charsheets are nice work. They give a player a character, not a bunch of stats, which for a newbie is quite helpful, give detailed rundowns how the character is likely to act in several kinds of situations, a short vita, and Lists of Likes, Dislikes, Downtime activities, even alternative MCT names for the MCT-addicted ex-corper dwarf. And - my favourite part - a short intro adventure tailored for the character. This is good stuff for beginner GMs, as it shows them how to approach a character individually and see their strengths and weaknesses, and it's also good for the player, who gets to see what the character is good at. It is in the same booklet as the PC, though, which kinda raises the question how to keep this "secret" from players. A rather strange design decision; I'm not sure how to handle this with a print product, since *most* of the book is quite vital for the player to read. I'd rather like them gathered in a separate little book for GM eyes only, myself. 9/10.

The Edge of now is the most disappointing thing in the book. It PAINFULLY! lacks a history of the 6th world chapter, and instead is pretty much a reprint of the world intro from the Core Rules, with some Info on Seattle sprinkled in at the end. What the hell, CGL? This is stuff GMs and players need! Why have you tossed the timeline entirely? this is a bad, bad decision. 3/10.

Plots and Paydata is an interesting book. For starters, it does offer good advice on building an adventure and running it. Kinda like the intro to Missions, and kinda redundant with the Core Book, though. Then there's a rundwon of a story with inserts to inform what happens in the rules. Reads nice enough, but I'd have liked thie side-by-side presentation from the Toolkit preserved, it feels more ... even.
The main body of the book, though, are little adventures. Again, nicely written, and a good overview over how diverse runs can be. It starts with the ever-popular food fight (with a twist this time - seems hyper-powered Thrill Gangers are so 50s these days), proceeds with a smuggler's rescue and a datasteal with a bad apple Johnson, then has a bodyguard mission for a hard-to-handle Yakuza daughter, A corp datasteal, and a Corp extraction (complete with moral challenge). Detail level is good; precise with enough gaps for GMs to put their own stuff in. The runs read short, and probably are doable in one to two tabletop sessions. The book then moves on to a few pages of hints to flesh out these adventures, pick up loose threads pruposely left, and un things as a campaign. Nice.
What follows is a reprint, though CGL at least informs this is a mashed up reprint of stuff from previous publications. Still, to me this feels like padding and drags down my previously pretty good impression to "better than average but ends on a meh note". On a final and slightl chauvnist note, the German maps use an icon system for cameras and things and a common design and look pretty awesome. Not to diss the art and maps too much, but I kinda miss game-relevant info presented with such ease.
Finally, there's a host of connections. Which is good, because you can never have enough of those. 7/10.

The Fire&Frost excerpt reads nice; it's fluid reading, and the characters are somewhat well described. There's also fluff stuff that I'm such a sucker for - brand named products, name-dropping of equipment, the works. I always like that. A bit of fluff inconsistency - Aztlan still is a nation - but that could just be Elijah's view of things. Good rendition of a creepy social adept. I'm looking forward to the novel. There are layout problems though, such as some lines being entirely italicized when only a few words should be. 8/10

More to come when I'm done with the rest.

Haha. We've heard that before.

He's perfectly honest. There is time.

You just never know what Jason Hardy is going to do with it.

*raises his hand*

Glad you dig 'em.


I'm gonna do my best not to take that as you calling me a liar, thanks.

I'm thinking he is referring to decisions made above your head and out of your control... but if you do have the power now, you'll make a lot of us much happier. That said, release date for official errata for SR5 Core?

Yeah. Which is how I'm trying to take it.

It's not that I have power, it's that I asked, and saw a window of opportunity. I can't say that every line I submit will be acted upon, but I've got a compiled errata document that's been growing every day this week, and I'm engaging in discussions with TPTB about not-quite-errata/not-quite-errors stuff I'm finding, too. I'm gonna turn it all in a full day before the deadline I was given, and just cross my fingers that I get some stuff fixed. I figure it's better than doing nothing, and at least I can know that I did my best.


Haven't the foggiest. I only know about these boxed sets because such big chunks of 'em were written by me, and because I've remained stubbornly entangled in the ongoing email discussions.

Yes, I should apologize. I am a fan of yours, having regarded Way of the Adept quite highly. My derision was for the whole idea of "If we get them this information, they will act on it before it goes to print!" We have heard that before, and in those cases nothing was changed before things went to print. While I salute your dedication, I have no faith that your efforts will bear any sort of fruit. You can take satisfaction in your hard work and in what you do, but I'm not sure I can say the same about who you're working for.

Apology accepted, but unnecessary; clarification was enough.

Critias, nobody is holding the writers/freelancers to blame for the lack of errata - that falls on the heads of Catalyst. However, it should say a lot that we all want it so badly so we can play the game as intended without so much confusion.

I hope your work from Way of the Adept is either included in the Magic sourcebook or receives a sourcebook of it's own. That was IMO the best non-core supplement of SR4.

in Germany it was included in the " Shadowcatalogue III"

with a German Dance
Medicineman

Schattenkatalog being the translated Runner's Blackbook. Pegasus released three volumes.

And now time for my long-delayed review of the Beginner's Box Set!

Ok, something I also want to get out of the way first: While the Edge of Now and QSR books are ripped from previous releases (Edge of the first chapters from the SR5 core book and QSR being from…well, the original free QSR). That said, they are NOT the exact same thing as the original releases. Some parts have been partially rewritten and there are even some additions that weren’t present in the originals. So no, it’s not a complete copy and paste job.

For the purposes of review, I'll be looking at how useful the set is for new players and GMs (both people new to Shadowrun, or new to TRPGs in general) this will include: is everything there that needs to be, is everything explained with clarity to understand the basics, and is everything presented clearly enough for instant understanding. So for everything missing or that's not explained clear enough, it is a more serious matter for new players and GMs, especially those to TRPGs, on the impression that you leave on how the system work and it's dependent on how well you sell the system to potential new customers.

So in other words, NOT from the perspective of teaching veteran SR players how to play 5th edition (although I do intend to find that out).
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Edge of Now

Ah yes, the Edge of Now…somewhat of the more controversial addition to the box. Because yes, it is essentially the Life in the Sixth World chapter from the core rule book. Some of the passages have been slightly rewritten, and the only notable addition is a section at the end that talks about Seattle and gives a paragraph summary on each district.

Now here’s the thing: I don’t mind the fact that this is just an excerpt of the “Life in the Sixth World” chapter. What I DO mind, however, that it’s not properly labeled as such.

See, if it was labeled as such, it actually would have been an excellent decision in marketing. If they had done so, it would have served as a preview of part of the core rulebook. It could have done its job at enticing buyers to start thinking about picking up the core rulebook. Unfortunately since it isn’t labeled as such, when new players do get the new rulebook, they’ll be looking at the Life in the Sixth World chapter and going: “Wait, what? Didn’t I just read this?”

As for its’ use on getting players up to speed on the setting, well…it can or can’t work.

A 26 page document can be still a bit hefty for new players to get through. A new GM I can see reading through it with no problem, but using it for the players, not so much. In order for it to work, you’d have to hand off a copy of Edge of Now to everyone to read through. But even then some players might not want to read through it (especially if you have players where the prospect of reading through any material seems like an intimidating task). The other alternative is to read the whole document aloud to your players…and that’s hardly appealing either. While TRPGs are basically a different form of storytime, at least the players are still involved by adding to the story in their own way. And at least back in the days of story time, you had pretty pictures to entertain your juvenile young minds, Edge of Now doesn’t even have that. All it has is the image of Seattle and the logos of the megacorps, and that’s it. So, if you try to read it aloud, your players are probably going to get bored. And it’s not as if the thing is a subject of light reading; it’s a 26 page document, with no pictures, and is very text heavy. It’ll likely take up a good chunk of a session, or even an entire session. And after awhile, the players are probably just going to stop the GM and start wondering if this is one of those fabled non-dice RPGs.

So then the only option you’re left with is to just summarize Edge of Now…which chances are, summarizing the Shadowrun setting for new players is what veteran GMs have already been doing.

It’s all the more frustrating if you have the kind of players who expect the GM to be the guy to explain EVERYTHING…which tends to be especially true for newer players.

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Quick Start Rules

The notable additions are found mostly near the last third of the ruleset. For starters, the adventure in the back is the classic Food Fight adventure, Stuffer Shack, Food Fight Table and all. After that section, we have the “Next Mission” section, which not only includes plot hooks of what players could do after Food Fight, but it also provides a GM 101 section and a couple of NPC stats (unrelated to the Food Fight NPCs). Now these alone are a huge improvement over the original QSR. GM 101 section should go without saying and is a boon to any new GM. The plot hooks afterwards allow for the players to keep going after Food Fight is over especially if one were to kick off a formal campaign from there. And that NPC stats (from a Street Ganger, to a Mercenary, to a troll Businessman) for use in later adventures. Again, big help for those that want to continue, and I always welcome premade stats.

Other than that, the QSR is mostly the same as the previous one. The other difference being that the examples changed to accommodate the stats of these new pre-gen characters.

That said, there is one addition that this new QSR doesn’t have that it really, REALLY needed:

Rigger rules.

There are no rigger rules at all in the QSR set, meaning that Hardpoint the dwarf rigger is essentially unplayable in the Beginner’s Box Set as a rigger. And while the QSR does define what a drone is, it makes no reference at all that drones could be controlled in the same way as devices, or at the very least doesn’t make it explicit enough. And it doesn’t differentiate between a cyberdeck and remote control console. A GM already experienced with SR4-5 would know that you’re supposed to roll Pilot (Vehicle) + Reaction or Gunnery to get drones to do their thing, but a new GM won’t know this. And the rules don’t really give much of a hint otherwise.

Which is a damn shame, since I personally feel that the drone rigger is just as unique to the setting as the Street Shaman or the cybernetic street samurai. As far as I know Shadowrun’s the only TRPG that does anything this unique with the “wheelman” class versus any other modern/sci-fi TRPG, since you’re usually married to your vehicle Plus it’s also damn cool with the idea of having a Steel Lynx combat drone or your armored van bust through a wall to bail your team out.

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QSR Character Sheets

We have a grand total of 5 character sheets in both this and the Alphaware box: Gentry the human decker, Coydog the elven street shaman, Hardpoint the dwarven rigger, Sledge the ork street samurai, and Ms Myth the troll face(!). The sheets themselves and their layout is overall good. The only thing that can get confusing is that for the skills, while the sheets do say that the number in the brackets is the final DP, it doesn’t say what the parentheses is supposed to be. And that they’re all cluttered together so it can be difficult to read, and lord help you if that character has a specialization.

Now I am not going to comment on how optimized the characters are; number crunching isn’t really my thing. So between this and the Alphaware review, don’t expect me to say much on the subject as I’m the wrong guy to ask for that kind of thing. That said, I will say that in terms of DPs and in the skills of what each character is supposed to be best at, the DPs tend to average out in the 10-11 dice range. Highest end is Coydog’s Spellcasting (13 dice) and Summoning (12 dice by default, 14 dice with specialization in Air Spirits). From my short time poking around on DS, the consensus seems to be (at least from the optimizers) that 10-11 DPs for starting characters is kind of on the low end of things. Now obviously opinions tend to vary on what’s the best optimization, but personally I think the 10-11 range works fine enough on consistently doing well at what you need to do.

One little touch I like is that for gear, they list a specific brand name with each piece of gear gives a unique flavor to each character.

Now the artwork is…a bit mixed for me. On the technical side of things, it’s very well done and detailed. I’m a bit annoyed that the same artist who did the original SR5 book cover art didn’t do But personally, there’s some hits and misses. Coydog, Sledge, and Ms Myth looks absolutely awesome and I love how they turned out. Gentry and Hardpoint on the other hand…not so much. Gentry has this really chiseled face and wide forehead, and really wacky looking hair, which altogether makes me think of Universal’s Frankenstein. Hardpoint looks…completely goofy and off. Dude’s got this creepy looking grin on his face and sporting wild, long hair. And while this reinforces the stereotype of your typical dwarf, but given that, according to his dossier in the Alphaware box, he’s described as being the most clean-cut and professional of the team, you’d think he’d make his appearance a little more…presentable?

One important note is that these characters are NOT chara-gen or Missions legal. Critias himself has admitted that he tweaked the characters to make them a little bit more powerful than your average starting runner. Personally I’m not too tweaked that new players can have a little bit of fun with characters then they normally would, and I don’t about you guys, but from my experience, newbie players aren’t going to try to stop to try to reverse-engineer pre-gen characters. And even if they wanted to, they’d have to have the core rulebook and know the rules of charagen to do so, and if they do already, what the hell are they doing stopping to play from a Beginner’s Box?

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Ms Myth’s Dossier

Oh Ms Myth…the troll face. Right now I can hear all of you optimizers grinding your teeth in frustration.

On one hand, Ms Myth’s stats are a good demonstration to new players that, despite some tweaking around (sometimes extensive, other times not), you can make an atypical build work. On the other hand, it could also have the adverse effect of making players think that the troll would be the best build for a face…which I don’t think I need to explain how inaccurate that statement is. Still, I can understand wanting to give representation to all the core metatypes…and both the troll and the ork are known for being the physical bruisers, so one of them had to get stuck with the atypical archetype. And for what Ms Myth ended up turning out to be, she still does well at her job.

The dossier part of this I’m not going to get into for now, since the majority of the other dossiers are found in the Alphaware box, and I’d rather comment on when all of them are together. As is, I will say that the dossier is very well written and from reading through it, I do think I get a very good feel of how Ms Myth is like as a character.

As for the run itself…without getting into spoilers, basically it’s Ms Myth doing a long con and setting up for an actual shadowrun. Which yeah, is an excellent idea to showcase what the face can do outside of negotiations, and is an excellent introduction to one aspect of shadowrunning to new players. The long con, when one usually thinks of Shadowrun, is not the first thing that comes up. Or, rather, when performing a run, not the first thing people think of. And whenever newbie’s first see the face, chances are they’ll think of the guy that negotiates or is the silver tongued devil. Here, they introduce some of the more elaborate things that a face could do and taking their base abilities and using them for more advanced purposes. The best part is that in terms of role-playing versus roll-playing, you could go either way. The adventure itself only gives the dice rolls and extended tests that the player should be making. And while it may be very boring to do so, it’s perfectly serviceable to do just the extended tests. That said, the adventure does explain what’s happening in each Scene enough so that for roleplaying, you’re given a lot to work with. What I typically do for these kind of moments is that I let the player roleplay the negotiation/persuasion, and if they do particularly well or bad, give them the appropriate modifiers to their DP and (if I’m feeling generous) to the threshold number. This particular approach works well for the adventure, but it can work well the other way.

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Final Verdict

Overall…it’s ok.

The main problem I see is the lack of much goodies to the set. You get the slightly different QSR rules, some new character sheets, an excerpt of a chapter from the core book that explains the setting and not the history, a solo adventure and extensive back story on ONE of the pre-made characters, and an excerpt from an upcoming Shadowrun novel that not everyone is going to read. While some of the changes to existing material are significant enough to not be completely superficial, there isn't much else to justify the purchase if you only want the Beginner's Box. As it sits, most of the real goodies are in the Alphaware box, but we'll get there when we get there.

If you have the free QSR already, there’s not much incentive to get this box over that. Otherwise, the only time that you should get the Beginner’s Box is if you want to get both that and the Alphaware box. So as it sits, and given the price point, I’d say get the Digital Tool Box version.