My review of Shadows of Asia is what follows. Spoilers abound. You were warned. I will be cross posting this pretty much everywhere.


Synopsis:Overall I really liked this book. It's been a long time in the making, and it was nice to see it. Uncle Jospeh bought this book for me, and I was pretty happy to get it.

I like the Shadows of format, and I realize it's a trade off. Get more in, but each place has less space versus the Seattle Sourcebook style, where in depth coverage of one area is spotlighted. I wouldn't mind some in depth coverage of a few areas in asia, and other spots, but I realize they have to sell books in order to write them,

The Very Good.

My overall favorite thing from this book was that it definitively reconnected the fourth world and the sixth. I have always loved this connection and hated when they stepped away from it. I understood peoples frustrations with Harlequin style characters, but disagreed that they should have been completely written out. One of the best things Shadowrun has ever had going for it was it's interconnectivitiy. It's connection to our world as it is, and it's depth. Shadows of Asia strikes the perfect balance of this, in my opinion.

There was just enough teasers to get you interested in asking questions and doing some leg work on your own. That to me is perfect. Just enough of a hint to make it mysterious.Tasteful and playful, but interesting. I applaud this the loudest.

A close second for me personally is something I have always liked. I love seeing people I know make appearences in books. Ancient History, Raygun, Flak, Demonseed elite, DV8, and more. I think that is the ultimate nod to the fans. It makes the people at Shadowrun look very fan orientated, which I believe is what they really are. What other game can you find your name as a part of the mythos? As a part of the world?

Sure it's a silly thing, and a small thing, but it matters to me. So I was pleasantly surprised and happy to see Miss tja make her appearence in SoA. (I need to get the books I am missing now to see if anyone else made appearences that I missed! Damn divorce!)

So imagine just how tickled pink I was when I saw my name in SoA! Holy Crap I am in a book! This is just the sort of gigglely silly thing that makes me love the people at Shadowrun. Somebody is going to get a drink on me someday! ( I think it's Jong, but I don't know that for sure.)

The Good.

These are in no particular order, just my notes as I wrote them down.

Social adepts. This was something that I recall beingkicked around by me and some people at DSf a while back. It was good to see that they are starting to permeate into the writing. I heard they made a appearence in SOTA 2064, so I need to get that. But it was a great to see mention of them in the Russia section.

Speaking of Russia, I have to say that between that and India, and the Korea section I am having a hard time picking my favorite section. Those three spoke the most to me, but all of the sections were pretty good.

The art. SoA has some of the best art I've seen in a long time. The piece on page 123, in the Russia section is just Wow. I mean really good art. The art people outdid themselves. My congratulations on a good product!

I liked seeing the Organized Crime expanding beyond the big three (four I guess), and was pretty impressed with how organized the overall approach to this area. It must have been hard to keep track of it all, but they pulled it off. One thing I didn't see though was mention of Indian Tongs.

I thought the Neo-Asia, and Eastren Spirituality part did a pretty decent job of setting the stage, and was a great lead up to the rest of the book.

At 227 pages I certainly got a lot of information. In fact i was pleasantly surprised to see Micronesia, the Stans, and Russia. I didn't expect them to be included in this compilation. I had excpected Japan, China and Southeast Asia. So that was nice. Overall the appearence of the book is very nice, and it is well organized. I am alreayd setting about using it.

The Not So Good.

I don't mean any of this to be a personal attack, or to say that these are the end all end all of opinion. This is just what little that didn't set well with me.

Anime/Manga/Mecha references: Two and a half pages of Technofets? I can deal with the reoccuring Godzilla and Monster Island jokes with good humor, but look we all know that the Japanese like anime.We know the fads, like in any entertainment medium, come and go. And we all know they like Manga, and yes some of us have even seen Tetsuo, but really was this necassary? In my opinion we just blew two pages on this when I could have been learning about much cooler thinsg in Japan. I get that these damn furry mecha loving technofets buy books, and sure you have to give them two pages here and there, but damn it can't it be online? Let them download it!

On the good side, pretty much those two pages were it. The reoccuring Godzilla jokes aside, and some Akira based names for gangs in one spot, the restof the book took itself a little more serious than this. Thankfully.

Metahumans. This isn't necassarily abad thing, but more of a spot I seem to disagree with the powers that be. (Seem maybe the operative word.) Did anyone else think the number of Metahumans seemed pretty low? I mean Orks alone breed ain what? 20 year cycles? Am I just not giving death by various methods enough credit? I think shadowrun overall seems to project a low growth rate for the world. I mean I understand why places like Japan or the Middle East will ahve low rates, but even in India where the Caste system puts everyone but dwarves down a rung, population growth would be hard to check. Sure it'd be a seething mass of metahuman poor, but that seems in line with the dystopian world of Shadowrun.

South East Asia. was anyone else just confused by this section? I had a really hard time following it. I know it was supposed to convey the confusion and mayhem of the land, but I think it was a little better at that then it wanted to be. Maybe it was the way it was organized, or maybe the way it ended up looking in print, but I had to read this section three times in order to follow it. Clear up until the Phillipines I was having a hell of a time keeping track of this section and following it.

It is not that the content was bad. Just the way it ended up looking, and reading in the book was hard.

Questions and Comments ala Paul.

There is so much in this book. I mean a ton of things. So much that I will miss some. I'm bound too. This is just what I wrote down on my notes at work. I took the book to prison with me, and read it over the last two nights.

Japan related: Who was the first Mega? I was so disappointed we didn't get to know whichif the Japanese Mega's came first. I know that's a hard thing to write in, and requires a lot of fact checking and etc...But man I wanted it! Still learning more about the evolution of the Japanese megas was cool.

Tibet! My vote is don't open it up! I love the mystery of it. I love the idea of keeping it one of the many secrets int he world. One of the unexplored countries!

Okay what is the joke about the spirits who work for odl reruns about? Anyone know?

0110001? Clutch reference or am I silly?

Was Cynical Paul a nod to me? I'm pretending it was regardless, and loving it!!!!!!!!

Obsidamen! Where the rock meets the sky! Lake Bayaka! Oh baby am I happy. Perfect fourth world teaser.

Verjigorm? Wild Child? tell me I got that right?

So there you have it. Buy this book. It's worth it. Well worth it. This product fullfills and exceeds my expectations. I thank everyone involved in getting out to my grubby greedy paws!

Ignore this. Nothing to see here, move along people.

On a brief note:

Which one is correct for the ruble?
The book states:
1 RUB = 0.33 Y (3 Y = 1 RUB)

one of which is obviously wrong

well, considering i think currently the rub is less than the US dollar, i would think 3 rub=1 is probably the accurate way

The Despoiler is Vestrivan? Region and Name seems ok...
Feng Xiansheng ??? a geomancer? lung? ryumyo?
and who is sunset blossom? the spirit of yakut?

Good enough answer.

My gaming group and I were reading SoAsia yesterday... and we were impressed that you managed to cram so much information, but some of them think that the writers dropped the ball when they wrote the chapter for Southeast Asia (particularly since we live here!).

Indonesia fracturing into many different "kingdoms", good. Kicked the Sultan of Brunei(one of the richest guys in the world) from his home, ok (if you keep telling yourself - suspension of disbelief, you can swallow it, don't forget the "secret" defense alliance between Singapore and Brunei). Malaysia and Singapore, believable (especially since it seems that the writers simply copied and pasted the contemporary history of Malaysia and Singapore into the book after altering a few names and dates). Overall rating for the chapter: 6/10

I can see where they got the basis for running the Sultan out though. How many times have you seen a rich powerful enemy defeated by a smaller, more determined prepared to lose their asses force?

Maybe the Sultan just wasn't prepared to drop the money it took to fight. Or maybe the current Sultan lacks the nuts to put a real fight up. Or maybe he was caught off guard. Magic is supposed to be the great leveler, right?

I am not saying you're completely off base with your asessment, I am however suggesting that you consider the situation completely.

Dude... Currently people in Brunei... DO NOT PAY TAXES! Everyone wants a piece of that paradise.
And IRL, the Brunei Sultan is a close personal friend of the Lees. You should see how fast the Brunei royalty relocated to Singapore during the SARS outbreak(even though Singapore had SARS cases and Brunei did not!) and every crisis that hits the region.
We were not so much surprise that the Sultan had to evac but that he chose to evac to (of-all-places) Sumatra! And he had the cash and the balls to fend of the Javanese army on Sumatra but not retake his own kingdom back(take a good look at the map, Brunei is WAY smaller than Sumatra). But ok, it is canon now and as Mr Canon, I MUST swallow it!
It would have been much better if they had asked a native of the area to write it up like they did for SOE.

Yeah, because a lot of East Timoreans play Shadowrun.

No, but (my gang and)I do. And I surf here nearly everyday too.

I don't live there, Mike. So I'm not in any position to judge. But my brother's girlfriend is Vietnamese, and she gives a 6-7/10 for Indochina.

*bump* With all the fuss about SR4 and System Failure this is getting buried. So anybody else out there read the book? Comments and reviews? Is the artwork as cool as I've heard?

I read 2/3 of it so far. Nice Artwork, yes, though i don't like the pics in the middle east-chapter (guess it's larry mcdougall).

It's well written and has a lot of useful information in it. Escpecially the chapter about Russia is very good and gave me a lot of insight into this huge country.

Quick Comment: One of the best books pubished till now...
Only thing I dislike was the AMiddle East chapter... Dunno why, but it was boring...


I think each one of the last books publuished was better than the one before...

So really good job

I read something about Stonemen, that's right. But is was said in the shadowtalk that it's just a version of the stoneskin-spell.

There are some more hints to ED scattered all over the book.

As the mana level in the 6th World rises it is likely Obsidimen and T'Skrang will walk the face of the earth again - when Rob Boyle wants to keep the ED-SR connection alive and breathing.

As a side note: how many inhabitants does Malaysia have? Page 167 says 35 millions, while pg. 168 says 22 millions.

Some other stats are also broken, escpecially when it comes down to major ethnic groups: on some tables the added groups don't match 100%.

They probably hadn't been awaken from their magical slumber (or sth. similar) at that point in history, so no chance of wiping them out

I have forever thought that the population projections are off in Shadowrun. Even if you add in VITAS, wars, and a variety of infanticide, I still think the world comes up population light, expecially in the ork arena. ak404 however pointed out the one thing I have negelected to mention so far which is that these population statistics are generally estimates made by the governments, and don't include an accurate count of the SINless.

In the end it is a choice I can make to run my own game in a way that suites me here. (Which is why I love Shadowrun by the way, all the choices I get to make!)

Heck, if you want to see population discrepancies, check out the differences in population between the NAN 1 and 2 sourcebooks and Shadows of North America.

Wordman has done some rough population projections, which can be found on the Sixth World Wiki here:
http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/Image:...rtWorldPop2.gif

Thanks for posting that. I'd forgotten all about that. I remember when he first posted it.

I have a quick question for those of you that have read SoA.

My group and I are (for now and the forseeable future) sticking with SR3 rules. Is the ratio of fluff and story vs. rules and mechanics high enough that it's still a good buy for the SR3 crowd?

I know that most of the older sourcebooks (London, Germany, NA, SoTA, etc) have so much story that they're almost indespensible no matter what rules you're using, and I'm assuming that SoA is no different, but I wanted to ask.

Thanks in advance!

Shadows of Asia is a 3rd Edition sourcebook, light on mechanics.

Oh! Okay. Lol. Here I was assuming that new=4th. Thanks for setting me straight on that one.

Me -

so far I haven't seen anything that matters for the rules system (FINALLY GOT IT! ).

I'm puting together a world tour for my mage character using T:AL, SoE, And SoA. Getting to big a long and interesting list now.