In that case you'll know that it more approriately translates as "shi-ya-dou-ran"

Nice to know that the Shadowrun RPG is still being advertised in 2070 or whenever they are setting SR4. What edition will they be using then, and will there have been as much debate prior to it's release?

It's a heavy pistol with an extended magazine and a silencer. While the model may not appear to exist in canon, many guns in SR remain un-illustrated. Did you notice that the magazine is transparant? Nice touch.

On the other hand: What's with the dildo-shaped building in the background and the Jetsons-looking flying thing to the left of the Lone Star LAV? Just because the game is set in the future doesn't mean that everyone wears tinfoil jumpsuits and eats their meals in pill form.

I think "zero" would be the appropriate number of flying things in the background. There is not enough sky visible (and visibility is too low, what with the smog) to warrant being able to see all that air traffic. If they had to have a flying object they should have put a drone in the upper left foreground and given the sam something to aim at.

And some of us are disappointed with the art.

We agree to disagree, but don't knock on our own taste in what we like for visuals. We all have different standards.

I'm disappointed in your disapppoinment in the disappointment of the art...

1. If that's a silencer, it's a really bad rendition.

2. A transparent magazine that's mostly obscured by the opaque grip of what should be a smartgun is actually rather silly. "Uh-oh... The transparent part of my mag is empty! I now have... between 10 and 1 rounds in the gun... Damn, I wish I could read, so I could use the smartlink ammo readout in my field of view..."

Smartlink doesn't help when the clip is not in the weapon, which coincidentally is right around the time that you're much more likely to see the whole clip.

Which comes into play how often? It's only useful if you're doing something stupid to begin with - specifically, commonly carrying half-empty ammo clips around with you - and assumes you actually have the time to examine the clip and count the bullets as you load.

In real life, the only weapons (AKAIK) that use transparent mags are ones where the whole clip is visible at all times - and the benefits are not universally recognized, since hardly anyone has them in service. I think the use of plastic has more to do with weight savings than with transparency anyway...

So you've never had a character with more than one type of ammo and more than one clip of each type? Sure, color coded tape on the clips is a good start but if you switch out ammo types a few times during a run how do you keep track of which clips you previously used part of?

If you want to get all mechanical: Yeah, the sam has a 6 INT anyway so of course he remembers. And nobody ever actually runs out of ammo during a firefight in Shadowrun anyway (I've had it happen once in the past four years of weekly play).

But I still don't think it's that ridiculous.

-- EDIT --

Care to elaborate? A GIS on "silencer" doesn't seem to pull up anything radically different in appearance from the illustration...

A matter of opinion. YVMV.

Sure. It's much too small - real silencers, as opposed to the things seen in movies, tend to be big, fat ugly things that are often nearly as large (if not larger) as the body of the pistol they're attached to not counting the grip.

NO. Since SR4 split INT, he wikll have a intuition of 6, and logic possibly around 3, since he spends all his Karma on edge, reaction, and intuition. Hence, he now needs some way to keep track of his bullets. Problem solved.

Since glitches hapen more often, we can well presume that people now actually miss every once in a while when shooting. Besides, it happened to me recently, on that New Orleans run in Brainscan. Burst fire is good at wasting ammo.

Not quite that stupid. I know personally that if I use up about half a magazine and have a moment, I'll swap it out, and I'd consider it less sensible to dispose of the extra rounds than to save them just in case.

One thing that really gets to me is the lowermost laser. Either that's coming from someone pressed into the near wall of that doorway or it's vanishing in midair for no apparent reason.

~J

Did I notice? How could you NOT notice. One glance at the picture and that damn "Dum-dum-de-dum, can't touch this!" was running through my head.

The bulkiness of the smoking jacket style long coat struck me as odd at first too, but maybe it is armoured? At this resolution at least the coat now looks like a camo pattern instead of a paisley print.

I'm guessing that round bun shaped thing strapped to his chest is likely hes personal network hub? So he doesn't need the wires hanging out all over, including to his weapon. The cyberspur does have a bit of an odd angle.

I am ok with the hacker still having the menu up. Even after the door is crack if he has mananaged to get right into the building CCSS he still has some work to do.

Postscript: Check the vapor trails below the LS VTOL, they are taking off not landing. Could be coincidental traffic at this point. That gives the hacker something to do, make sure a call can't be made into LS or their goose be cooked.

...and that laser... could just be a case of dust/no-dust in the air. Looks allright to me.

The other two lasers are clearly visible for their entire in-picture length, as is that laser until it hits there. It's not at all reasonable to assume there's a gap in the dust unless there's an invisible mage there. If there is then Zug gets some awesome points, but also loses some for not conveying it at all.

~J

That might be the runner's salvation, they are going up against crapy rent-a-cops.

Indeed...for dick-waving-contests-over-minutae. To this forum that picture is like the crank version of Where Is Waldo.

Do we have confirmation that this is the final version?

~J

Actually, I think that's a lady dwarf. Which would go a little further toward explaining the pants.

Maybe the troll is one of these new, lower-magic mages who can spend their remaining "empty" essence points on cyber, and the bulges are actually some sort of muscle replacement thingy (as with Laubenstein's sammy in SR2's BBB).

Ewww. And here I thought women have a higher chance than men at displaying fashion sense. Besides, didn't female dwarves have beards too? Novels and sourcebooks never quite seemed to agree there.

Why would I want to pay a thousand bucks for that?

Higher, maybe--but not 100%. Maybe she got caught out in her underdrawers...or else she was fresh from an audition for "Disco Dwarfs 2070"

Maybe they do, but they can shave... With a mug like that, though, the question is whether they should...

I just took the piping on the shirt to be a fashion statement. A statement that screams "victim", but a statement never-the-less. Notice that the piping running down the backside of the arm splits roughly around the form of his elbow.

Its up on the www.srrpg.com as the final version , so I would say yes.

Style over substance?

Because it looks cool (in his opinion)?

Because people do stupid things regularly?

Thats to bad.

maybe we have grown too old (me 28 too)... maybe they are aiming for the younger market...

HA... and I want it to look serious !!... maybe its time I find another hobby where the rulebooks fit the self-image I want to project??

seriously.. I will certainly play SR4, I'm just still shaking my head at the new front cover of my favorite book.

They do, and there 12 and play D&D and Vampire.

Exactly what I was thinking. Even the Third Edition cover is better than this joke...

And not just the cover art of any old book, but the cover art of their brand new edition main book. This is the book that needs to sell. I just don't understand the logic that 12 year old doodles and cartoons sells books. Look at the DnD books, they look pretty good. I just picked up Alderac's L5R, and though a decent game, the cover look awesome and awe inspiring. The book looked professional based on its cover and that was nearly enough for me to buy it. It definitley stood out on the shelf. Too bad I can't say the same for SR4's cover.

Veracusse