Okay...I used to be a player, moved, and knew nobody who played here, so I rounded up some friends and started a game... So far I've got my old SR3, Rigger 3, Magic In The Shadows, Man & Machine, New Seattle, Cannon Companion, Shadowrun Companion, and the Critters book and screen. Is there any other basic books I'm going to need? (Besides VR2 and Matrix...I'm really not "into" PC Deckers...they just take too much time for me.)

Also, I'm terrible (as are my players) at mental combat...so I want to get some miniatures and a battle mat to draw on for the "big fights" (like those 8 gangers...I was just making stuff up half the time 'cause I'd forgotten what was going on), but the old Shadowrun miniatures are nearly impossible to find. Can anyone recommend new or new-ish lines of miniatures that work for Shadowrun? They don't need to be "perfect", but as long as they're vaguely modern/sci-fi as opposed to fantasy (which seems to be all I can find) it'll do.

Thanks a lot.

You've got just about all the books you need to run a game, beginning or not. Of course, you'll probably want to pick up more setting style books as the game goes on (I hear good things about the Sprawl Survival Guide, which I should have in my hands next week and Shadows of North America will probably serve you well if you're going to be Seattle based), but rules-wise, you're good. SOTA 2063 might be a good further item, though it's mostly just new tech with a few magical crunchy bits (symbolic tracking, mmmm... from what I hear at least. It's coming in the same box as my SSG).

As for minis, they're a pain to come by, but Stiggybaby has a descent selection. Possibly the best blister pack of them all was one of the Ral Partha blister packs (20-510) with 5 corp sec guys in it. Of course, finding it may prove a pain. I have no idea where I found this one (have yet to open it).

If you don't mind internet shopping, StiggyBaby still has lots of Shadowrun minitures. I have heard nothing bad about them so far.

No other basic book you'll need, really. Sprawl Survival Guide has a very nice breakdown on ID's and Lifestyle, and SotA:2063 has mercenary gear if you need that type of informaiton.

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TinkerGnome bet me to the click

Yeah I've been looking for Sprawl Survival Guide and the other one...it's OOP I believe...it has the maps of all the sample building types?

As for that site...thanks guys, that'll be where a big chunk of my next paycheck is going, apparently.

I've done a bit of looking around, and I've had good luck finding SR minis. It appears that a lot of Ral Partha minis are coming back under the name Iron Wind Metals though the site isn't really up yet for easy online ordering (you'll probably have to do it via mail or phone). Click on downloads and then save the cataloge to view it (it's pretty big, ~10MB, so you might not want to do it via dialup). All of your favorite OOP Shadowrun mini sets are present and apparently being produced!

I've never dealt with the company in question, though, so I can't vouch for them. If anyone has ordered from them or contacted them, I'd love to hear about it.

I won't be ordering from them till Stiggybaby's quits getting a significant share of my income.

Sprawl Sites is the book that has all the maps. It has been OOP for a long time I believe. I have seen it on ebay a lot over the couple of months and stiggys has it for $12.

Sprawl Sites...that's it. (If ever there was a book that deserved to be available in PDF as a purchase, for just the sake of printing it, there's one. ) Stiggy is really gonna be eating up my next paycheck...

For stuff older than the last couple of years, used and secondhand bookstores are invaluable. Second edition stuff, in particular, is easy to come by in some areas (like mine). You'd be surprised how many places have a small stack of used SR books laying around somewhere.

My not-so-local store stocks a line of miniatures called "Street Violence" which the guy who owns the store recommended to me when I asked about SR minis.

This is in Australia and I have no idea if they are avaliable overseas or even in other states.

Just ask someone at a gaming store and he/she should be able to point you in the right direction.

-Strobe

You don't really need miniatures. Use pennies with colours on them, or glue cardboard cut-outs to them. Use the pennies as a base, draw a character on a piece of card, and glue the card to the base - or use washers, and have a bigger scale. Metal washers are probably better, because they come in different sizes. Also, with cardboard cut outs, you can make vehicles, buildings, etc. Don't be a slave of the miniatures companies!

The Street Violence stuff looks good and would probably fit well with the "real" Shadowrun stuff...concerns about the scale, though. Ral Partha stuff always seems a bit "undersized", and the SV stuff seems more GW-scale.

If you want you can use this, I think Adam or AH pointed this out. I haven't had a chance to get it yet but, it looks good for a cheap alternative to metal minis. Microtactix

For those wondering (I know I was), you can find a short listing of Street Violence minis here. Again, I make no claims about the store. The card buildings sets look great and well worth the effort if you have easy access to a printer. I like the look of a lot of the Street Violence minis, but there are a factors to consider... the first being price. 5 mini blisters of the Ral Partha stuff are $6-$7 cheaper than 5 of the SV minis. The second is that the SV minis lack metahumans.

Oh, well, nothing can be perfect. I do like the strike team models a lot, though, and will probably pick some up sometime.

My group has also begun to use computer graphics - as well as, of course, online resources - with greater frequency. Maps scanned into the computer and modified by graphics pen, or 3D environments created with 'virtual characters' shifted around as required... All I need now is that digital projector and everything will be peachy (completely flashy and overdone graphics swirling in the background, etc. - Kidding!)...

Kage