Hey folks,

I am champing at the bit to pledge in support of the new Shadowrun kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeha...owrun-hong-kong

This is the first kickstarter ever where I have been tempted to donate more than the minimum amount to get the game when it is released. I genuinely want this to be a big successful project, as big as it can be while still being good.

I am tempted by the $55 level "Mercenary" tier where it says I will be able to download one out of print SR sourcebook in PDF format. This could be my chance to enjoy the very best of retro-80s Shadowrun that I missed the first time around. It's not every day that you get a second chance in life!

I already own (combination hard copies in storage somewhere and PDFs) lots of SR3 books: the main rule book, Canon Companion, Magic In The Shadows, Rigger 3, and Year of the Comet. I think for SR2 I only have the main rulebook.

The question is, which SR sourcebook is the most entertaining to read and retro-futuristic 80s of them all? I doubt I will ever run another pen and paper game so I am looking for good and memorable reading and nostalgia.

Maybe list a few possibilities in case one of them isn't available under this offer for some reason.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Aha, here we go. Down on the page it lists the books that are available:

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

If you don't have or haven't already read Universal Brotherhood, I can't recommend it more highly. That is one of the best SR sourcebooks/adventures ever produced in any edition.

I have always been a huge fan of Shadowbeat, as well...

Go for Corporate Shadowfiles!

In order, based on 30 seconds consideration:

The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Neo-Anarchists: Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley

Every one of those OOP ones are pure gold. You really can't go wrong. Downright seminal works, the lot of 'em.

I can't say enough good about either of the Neo Anarchist's guides. Those and Shadowbeat are absolutely great setting books.

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
- Serious must have. Useable across editions despite the by now inaccurate specific data on corps

2. Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
- Style book, I like it.

3. Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
- That´s the one I´d like to have.

You can get all of them as PDF on DriveThruRPG too.
Some of them for 5$ or less.

For you, Wounded Ronin, I'd say Shadowbeat, or Fields of Fire.

Aha, here we go. Down on the page it lists the books that are available:

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley <= It's an interesting book, very enjoyable to read and understand how corporation works. A good one, but mainly useless for playing (how corporate-shares work and the tricks they can use, the corporate court and so on, all doesn't usually affect your street level runners).

Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd => Equipement book, can be skipped

Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd => Mostly boring and shitty. Way too general to be worth a trip outside of Seattle.

Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley => Vast parts re-used elsewhere (like SIN). Not worth it.

Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
=> Both awfull. Usually, Findley's work was good. Those were damn bad. Illogical (protectionism but still on the edge of technology, anti-abglo mentality yet everyone having at least an indian in their genealogic tree could become an indian), lacking of gaming elements (how is life in the NAN)... Bad one.

Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr. => good one. But Seattle exists in it's 2060 and 2072 version, so I don't think it's what you look for.

Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume => I have a gripe with this one. I've read it for the first time in 2013 or 2014, and, heck, I can tell you that it's only nostalgia because this book sucks hard under current criteria. You learn that in 2050, part of the music is computer generated only (good foreseeing), you learn wich are the great media compagnies (ok) and you get some of the worst rules ever to play a journalist. Bad one. Maybe inovative back in the days, but today, avoid this one.

Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs => no clue

Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione=> I didn't read this one yet

Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley => well, I must re-read this one. I did 10 years ago roughly so I'm not sure, but I don't think it's a retro-futur you look at.

The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley => Very very great book. IMO, at best, taking the full series about the insect menace is the best way to go. That is UB, Double Exposure, Bug City and Target UCAS (+eventually Queen Euphoria)

To be noted: Black book editions compiled that story plot in a franch 4th ed version.

I was wondering what the benefit of getting it via kickstarter might be, though.

I do too.

Let me know if there is any guys.

If you choose Universal Brotherhood, and the Pictures are good quality, and the text is done with regular Vector Graphics (doesnt pixelate on zooming in),
it is a way better version than on DriveThruRPG, I wouldn't get my hopes up on that though.

>Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley

This one depends on your tastes. I read it when I was just a juvenile offender, and it had a lot of background on how corps work, et al. So quite useful in that regard, although given your background, it may not be a huge help. Most of the gameplay information (like which division is part of which organization) is out of date or integrated into other materials.

>Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd

This really focuses on mercenary operations. It's SR2, so it plays nicely with SR3. Plus lots of pictures and Shadowtalk. However, many of the equipment roles have been subsumed by new materials in SR 3/4/5.

>Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd

I actually really liked this one. Dowd chose a few different cites and drafted up some nice data on them. The section on DC is pretty solid and I've been wanting to run there for ages. It doesn't go into a huge amount of detail; about what you get on Seattle in the main book.

>Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley

This one goes a lot into living in the Shadowrun universe. I don't remember the details. Pretty sure the more useful parts of thsi book have been pulled into newer ones. I can't remember the last time I went back to look up anything in this one.

>Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
>Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley

These two are pretty rough. They're two entire volumes based on the most ridiculous conceits in the setting (that there were scads of Native Americas hiding in the wings who have re-established their culture basically overnight). Fair bit of silly mysticism and such. As I never had any interest in playing that region, and the whole background is crazy, I couldn't stomach them.

>Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.

Solid, but yeah, repackaged three times now? I'd hold off for a better quality reprint.

>Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume

WHOO!!! Rock and roll! This book is a little crazy, but also a little underwhelming. There's all sorts of rules on holding concerts and reporting news. Unfortunately, not all of them make sense, and there's really not a lot on topics like snorting coke off of hookers or anything. I am hesitant to say it, but in many ways, this made rockers boring Still, it's the only book where you can find costs for a synthesizer I know of.

>Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs

It's a reskin of SR4 in the setting of SR2. However, you already play SR2, so I don't know why you'd want this.

>Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
>Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley

Flipped through them, never read them, can't help too much. However, Trollman and Ancient History wrote an interesting review of them (the topic: Failed Game Design) which I found worth my time. Link redacted, since I don't want to cross any forum rules, but you can google it.

>The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

Great reading, generally considered the best SR adventure ever. Haven't run it yet, but I plan to. Still, if you don't plan on running UB, it may not get a lot of use.

Depends of whether they give out new, improved scans, or just vouchers for DTRPG. The preview for Universal Brotherhood on DTRP for example is so hideous that I certainly wouldn't pay $55 for it...

Good point.

I've had a lot of fun reading seattle and seattle 2072 at the same time, kenson did a great job updating the book and there's a lot of fun with OMG the shadowtalk was correct on that one and wrong on this one. There's also more than one oops where they flat out got something wrong in 2072 that was in the original. If you enjoy a compare and contrast you can have a lot of fun there. Otherwise I'd say UB, NAGTRL, LS or CSF

What, No Shadowrun 1st Edition rulebook

Woo, just upgraded my pledge level!

I got:

Shadowbeat
Fields of Fire
Seattle Sourcebook
Universal Brotherhood
Corporate Shadowfiles

So basically I went hog wild in order to support the project.

This one's great.

I'd suggest Arcology Shutdown.

Some info on each of the books. Very personal, I don't claim to be 100% objective here. But I hope it'll help those of you who don't really know what to choose.

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
A well written sourcebook on the Shadowrun corporate world that doubles as an Economics 101 in an amusing gaming package. I still like and use the Corp ratings rules, despite the examples given being sorely out of date. And it's really informative beyond a gaming content, so you take away something or life, too.

Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Gear books like this aren't made anymore. Great aretwork that is eeriely similar to modern equipment at times (especially with the drones) - something which the artist wrote me a couple months ago himself. However, given it's a gearbook for a bygone edition, it might not be that much actual use or someone playing SR 4 or SR5.

Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Dated, but nonetheless an amusing read about the non-NAN parts of North America. IT details some areas, like the CAS and mainland UCAS, that haven't gotten very much attention in the setting.

Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
While the stuff and rules are dated, this may be one of the best Shadowrun sourcebooks ever written, both in terms of immersion and value it adds to any campaign in terms of flavor. With details on DocWagon, private security, fashion and other small areas, presented in a package as a collection of files on a Neo-Anarchist website, it's a joy to read.

Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Deep details on the NAN, part one, and a decent adventure in these parts. Good read, though some facts are questionable. Also not so great to have without the companion part.

Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Deep details on the NAN, part one, and a decent adventure in these parts. Good read, though some facts are questionable. Also not so great to have without the companion part.

Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
The Mother of all location books. While very dated, it has immense detail and flavor. For an updated version in a similar layout, try Seattle 2072 (not on offer here). Given that I didn't previously have a decent PDF of it, and my old SSB becoming as delicate as na ancient tome, this is what I personally chose, though.

Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
A fantastic, if somewhat dated book on fashion, entertainment, music and the news circuit, complete with rules or playing a journalist or a band (including payment guidelines ect). Gear stats are outdated, as is much of the gear, naturally. But it's so stufed with flavor and background info, this is forgivable.

Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
The only CGL book among these (and the only one not out of print?). It's pretty good, though the rules are for SR4 (the German one has rules for SR5). I like it, I enjoyed reading it and I even used some of the cyber rules for an ancient character I keep dragging through the editions, and adapting SR4 rules to SR5 is much easier than adapting older stuff. Good choice if you're considering adding to your pledge and buying more than one old book, because it'll help you transfer their items to current editions.

Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
People are torn about this. It's got its share of haters, but I personally really like it. It is about Euro-Elves, who are different from American Elves, though they share many of their secret agendas. Given that SR5 puts mroe emphasis on Elf Culture, with the Path of the Wheel and all, this is the prime source on this. So if you play SR5, and want to play an Elf Culture elf, this is what you want to choose.

Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
A quirky setting that got even more hate than TNN, and one that's quite dated. Still, I do like it, and it's as good a read as all of Findley's books are. It has a lot of info on AmericElf culture, so if you play a character based on Tir Tairngire and are looking for a source on them, this is it.

The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley
Arguably the best Shadowrun adventure ever written. 65% of it is one single handout, and it's ... wow. It's definitly something that you and your players will fondly remember. It also is a great, if deadly, adventure in itself.

...and it is a really, really bad scan. Just compare the few preview pages of RA:S ( http://watermark.drivethrustuff.com/pdf_pr...1870-sample.pdf ) with the preview of UB ( http://watermark.drivethrustuff.com/pdf_pr...2766-sample.pdf ).

Urgh. What did they scan that with?

Stone Knives and Bearskins?

Guess this is what it looks like when you try to scan with Wireless OFF

Indeed...

Made my day

But seriously, this has nothing to do with the input coming from the scanner: The majority of a book is text and already gone through OCR, the problem is that the UB PDF is a "searchable image", meaning the recognized text is invisibly laid on top of the (low-res) image.
If the OCR program had simply been set to put out just the recognized text (with the correct font), we'd get the crisp text as seen in the RA:S PDF.

That leaves a few B/W images. Open them in any graphics editor, pull the contrast slider a bit to the right, done.