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Shadowrun: DocWagon 19
by William J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2022 16:40:26

I was recently recommended Jennifer Brozek's work and I picked this up on a Bundle of Holding a while back. So I figured I'd finally get around to reading it.

This novella is told from the perspective as YOU, the Viewer of a popular Trideo show. It quite literally describes camera transitions and what imagery the reporter is able to capture using her cybernetic eye drone, smart glasses, also some footage from a third party VTOL aircraft, and studio cameras. And it even has commercials. Honestly, a tiny bit off putting reading a story like a TV show, but you know what; it grew on me. I really enjoyed the narrative presentation, and thought to myself, without some behind the scenes exposition for us to see behind the curtain, would this work? To put it simply, it does. There are a few questions left unanswered, but overall it wraps up pretty satisfactorily.

So, YOU, viewer, are watching Stories with Hart, starring Simone Hart as she does an investigative report on DocWagon High Threat Response Team 19. We learn about the team, which is honestly a pretty standard and well balanced SR team, see them navigate some corporate politics, save clients, save clients in hostile situations (which is why you'd call in an HTR Team in the first place), and get caught up in an elaborate conspiracy. Surprisingly, it really has everything that makes SR great and told in a very condensed format.

Brozek get's what makes Shadowrun an interesting setting and I'm looking forward to reading her other works.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: DocWagon 19
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PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/21/2022 00:23:35

A fun diversion, nothing more or less honestly.

PseudoTech Arcade Operations is CGL taking the old Tactical Operations power ups and then saying "But what if more?" Some might find this a mere silly April Fool's product and to them I say: Yeah so? Personally I enjoyed reading through this because in the Battletech universe they have simulartors, both military and commercial, for basically playing out a Battletech fight in a cockpit. So all those times we played the various electronic games where we rode in a Mech? Congrats on some strange level of canon someone in the universe too did that. So imagine a Patch Day where their precious Clanner PPCs just fizzled out for a fight because reasons.

The product, as a PDF, is probably the better choice but the print copy itself isn't too badly priced. The reason why I suggest the PDF is because the tokens on the last few pages don't come perforated or any easy way to split them out from the print book. So either you get brave with the scissors or use a printer to get those from the PDF. Or get the combo if that's your style.

The contents of the book are the powerups themselves-some pulled from the decade old TacOps powerups just updated (they even admit it on print), scenarios based on video games like Pac-man or Metal Gear (mostly the sneaking around parts), and then there's the achivement and award system.

On the subject of Power Ups, I can see a use for them because they're just silly fun. Some are overpowered, but there's rules for randomly rolling to acquire or setting a power up location for a player only, giving you reasons to compete over map space like the old Deathmatches of Doom. Your group will need to probably vote on some of the more powerful ones but that should be fine.

On the subject of the scenarios: While most are fun, a lot of them are just Mech centric. I get that, the giant robots are the bread and butter. There are some which can be adapted for space (make a bullet hell scenario like Raiden). Eventually you'll be able to get a feel for which can be updated and which would just break horribly.

Last I'll talk about are the awards and achieves: I like them. I like the loose rules on making your own. I like the ones established, some are simple while others tread upon old Battletech memes (Atlas versus a hoard of Stingers anyone?) You can award money and exparience points to players for getting a "level" of a reward; the easier ones dole out a pittance while the harder ones might take time but reward bigger. Now would I put this in a regular campaign? No. Would I set up some crazy Solaris kind of deal where you don't die, you respawn and all that xp and warchest points could take a green pilot and shape them into someting useful? Yeah I'd do that.

Final thoughts: This is a decent fun gimmick to add to the boxed sets just to shake up your standard "dueling robots" moments we all do from time to time. Don't look for super serious things here, but merely look at what's provided and see how you can extrapolate something unique. Case in point, I plan on taking the Patch Day notes and using them for rolls when shady black market dealers visit my players. Did this "amazing" pulse laser they got just work like a normal one, work better, or was it total crap and they got tricked out of their C-bills? They won't know until they install the thing.

A solid buy, not as focused as say Escape from Castle Wulfensteiner (God I love that April Fool's product) but as welcoming and a playground for ideas like Welcome to Nebula California. Worth a buy if you're willing to say "Okay let's not take ourselves seriously tonight".



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
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Shadowrun: 30 Nights (Campaign Book)
by Jean-Michel O. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/19/2022 15:18:27

It could have been an extremely interesting single adventure or mini campaign, but it was badly thought out, lacks critical detail and is full of missed opportunities.

Straight up you need to understand that the whole blackout concept potentially cripples any existing character with cyberware, which immediately makes it unsuitable for most preexisting groups to be present at ground zero. As for the 30 nights worth of adventures following the grand event.... I'm sorry but nothing stands out here, it feels like 30 random adventure seeds presented with the barest of detail while only surface level thought has been given to the social, political, or even logistical effects of a protracted blackout as described. You could do this yourself with a handful of d6 and some rolls on a 'random shadowrun generator' table.

Where are the refugee columns and the stories about guiding or protecting them? where is the UCAS equivalent of FEMA? where are the aid camps? You've chosen to set it in winter and turned the heat off - where are the considerations about winter temperatures, what about exposure? The reasons why either A) power has not been restored in at least key areas in 5 or 10 days or B) why the bulk of the population hasn't simply up and left are duvious and unsatisfying.

If you want to see what this could have been like, you could play the computer game 'the division' for ideas and do a lot better yourself - but should you be having to put this effort in? Wasn't this meant to be a precooked campaign? Don't we buy these to save us all that time?

Badly thought out, lacks critical detail and full of missed opportunities - the quintessential 6e campaign!



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: 30 Nights (Campaign Book)
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PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
by Edward K. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/19/2022 14:44:31

All in all, a fun little toy to add to your BattleTech games, and not bad for the price, but the book does have some issues. First and foremost, it is heavily skewed towards 'Mech-only play, which admittedly isn't really a big problem for most players. However, the author seems to have a limited knowledge of aerospace rules in particular, and it definitely shows in the few instances where it comes up; infantry and combat vehicles are better accomodated, but still find themselves dealing with edge cases or highly exploitable setups. Truthfully, if you're just in it for the powerups, you're better off downloading the old April Fools powerup rules for free.

That being said, the achievements and scenarios do provide some entertainment. The achievements seem like a fun, relatively standardized format to award outstanding, creative, or frankly hilariously improbable play. A few of the pre-made achievements have somewhat ambiguous unlock conditions (most are fairly obviously meant to be done all in one game, while others are clearly long-haul achievements to be worked at over the course of several matches, but a few fall into something of a gray area). The book also can't seem to decide if the achievements are meant for players at your local for the sake of bragging rights, or for characters in a campaign as a way to get bonus money, XP, and occasionally bounties. While I understand that they wanted to keep the achievement system to remain somewhat freeform to allow for creativity between players, the result is, unfortunately, something of a lack of focused identity.

The scenarios provided are interesting, and the accompanying art is incredibly charming. The scenarios aren't always very well balanced, well, at all, but they still have all the ingredients with a good time with your local players if things start getting a bit stale. They feel less like proper game emulations, and more like a video game running a weird server-side script to try and emulate the structure of a completely different game (think of old TF2 server mods like TF2Ware and Parkour Fortress). This gives them a charming, if sometimes brow-furrowingly quaint nature.

All in all, if you're looking for the new set of innovative and well-designed and thought out rules to supplement your collection of core rulebooks and sourcebook rules annexes, this isn't what you're looking for. Arcade Operations is more akin to the BattleTech equivalent of a 24-hour Source engine modding competition entry, complete with all the creative reinterpretations, and all of the jankiness. Still, for $3 digital and $20 physical, there are certainly worse deals out there. I'd say it's worth grabbing a digital copy just to peruse the assorted rules and see if any of the new toys are right for your group, either straight out of the book or with some tweaks to suit your own needs.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
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Shadowrun: Sixth World Companion (Core Character Rulebook)
by Jean-Michel O. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/19/2022 11:06:02

As others are saying (indeed as most shadowrun players will say, or so it seems), I was not impressed with 6th ed. Not at all. The more time you gave it, the more you were really just giving it rope to hang itself with. In fact my group gave up on 6th ed, we went back to playing 3rd ed - which wiped the floor with 6e when you played them side by side.

Having given up on 6e once already, this book's only attraction is the lure that the section of 'optional rules' might alter 6e to the point that it's playable, possibly even enjoyable.

It's certainly not a cure all for 6e's ills, theres still fundamental issues with 6e, flaws at root level that just won't get cured with tweaks and the fixes are so deep that they'd really constitute a 7e. To name a few.... skill list (I can't be an ace gunner without being mcguyver? ffs!). Still issues with the entire major/minor action system. Still issues with the way AR/DV is an entirely separate sum to do for every action when the things being discussed would be much more economically dealt with as pool modifiers so we are just counting one thing (like earlier incarnations of the game).

I'd have been happier with a 'we screwed up, we're sorry' statement and an open beta on a 7e where player feedback is actually considered (ie the way FFG developed the star wars and L5R games) But the companion is a start and it goes in a much needed right direction. So for me the companion gets 4 stars just for this one section. I'm not convinced it will win my group back to 6e, but it might yours. Worth a look even if it's the only 6e book you buy alongside the core rules.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Sixth World Companion (Core Character Rulebook)
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Shadowrun: Sixth World Companion (Core Character Rulebook)
by Rion S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/15/2022 18:54:47

This book has a ton of options in it. Some of the best provide alternate character generation methods, and rule variants to patch some of the issues many SR players find problematic with 6e. For a 210 page book, it pack a lot of options inside. Character creation is definitely expanded to be in line with prior editions, but there are also lots of RP options in here.
As someone who has chosen not to play SR6, this book is the one that could make me take a new look at it. The variant rules make certain issues I had go away or become workable. The editing also appears to have had a lot of attention paid to it. I am happily suprised at the content and quality here. Hopefully the quality here is an indication of future products.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Anarchy
by Simon [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/07/2022 18:11:29

Sloppy editing costs it a star but don’t let that put you off. If you want to play Shadowrun, this is a fantastic modern, lite ruleset that keeps the action front and centre. Community created Foundry VTT module means playing it online is a breeze too.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Anarchy
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Shadowrun: Chicago Chaos (Anarchy)
by Simon [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/07/2022 18:05:44

Fantastic addition to Anarchy but has to drop a star for the sloppy editing again. Great opening story introducing Grims Reaper, who is the person on the front of the Anarchy rule book. So I wasn’t shocked by the fact that the name is used for an new pregen who is completely different in every possible way… come on Catalyst you can do better. Anarchy is a fantastic system, if you want to play Shadowrun then pick it up. This fixes up some of the rules, Chicago covered in enough detail too.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Chicago Chaos (Anarchy)
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BattleTech: Recognition Guide: ilClan Vol. 4
by Björn [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/05/2022 05:26:16

The following Mechs are shown the updated art: WSP-1S Wasp, WSP-3M Wasp, WSP-3W Wasp, WSP-4W Wasp, WSP-5A Wasp, Wasp C, Blackjack BJ-5, Thresher II, Trebuchet TBT-9N, Awesome AWS-11H, Warhammer IIC, Warhammer ICC2, Wahammer IIC13, Ice Ferret/Fenris Configs T, F, G, I, J, K



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
BattleTech: Recognition Guide: ilClan Vol. 4
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Shadowrun: Fifth Edition Core Rulebook (Master Index Edition)
by wade g. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/29/2022 23:30:46

What a pain in the backside trying to get into Forums where, possibly, errata can be found. That's not happening.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Fifth Edition Core Rulebook (Master Index Edition)
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Shadowrun: Lofwyr's Legions (Shadow Stock)
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/19/2022 13:53:28

Shadowrun: Shadow Stock - Lofwyr’s Legions is a book of NPCs and introduces the drake, part dragons, as an optional metatype. It is interesting and useful for a GM. But the drake write up has some very serious balance issues that should make any GM reluctant to allow them for player characters without considerable revision.

Shadowrun: Shadow Stock - Lofwyr’s Legions is one of the Shadow Stock pdfs for Shadowrun, providing both interesting non-player characters and new character options, in this case NPCs associated with the dragon Lofwyr, his corporation Saeder-Krupp and rules for drakes, part dragons.

As is usual for Shadowrun it begins with a short fiction piece to set the mood, which is that drakes and S-K operatives are scary.

Following is Those Who Serve the Dragon, which presents ten different non-player character types, mostly these are the higher end of Saeder-Krupp ranging from veteran security guards to top researchers and assassin, including one mage and one drake. Each is given a history and a background so they can be more than just a cardboard opposition figure but one can be woven into interesting plots and adventures. Personally, this reviewer would have liked to have seen more lower corporate members, the veteran security officer is about as close to normal folks as they come, as even the “middle manager” has half a million in bio/cyber upgrades! Additionally, each should have been giving a connection rating so they could be used as models for S-K contacts.

Next there is a section on drakes, metahumans tied to dragons and able to take on a quasi-draconic form, some background on them as there are “true drakes” which are created by powerful magical rituals perform by dragons (natch) and then there are the weaker “bred drakes” which are (super)naturally occurring. Mechanically, this is express through two new qualities Drake (at a whopping 50 karma) and Latent Drake (a mere 25 Karma) which will, eventually in the later case, open the door to the powers of the drakes! Which is mostly the ability to assume a quasi-dragonic form which has improved abilities, scaled skin, a movement power and the ability to breath fire. Why they all breathe fire as they come from different world traditions, this reviewer is unsure.

But that is just to start, the drake can spend karma to undergo dracogenesis, which is rather like initiation for magic slingers, which unlocks additional powers for the drake. The cost per level is less than initiation and opens access to some amazing powers such as: compulsions, hardened armor, influence and regeneration being the obvious top tier from this reviewer point of view. A charisma-focused drake could take compulsion and influence and mind mages, step aside, this drake is controlling people’s thoughts and actions with no drain. A combat focused drake takes two levels of hardened armor and regeneration and it is going to take the main gun of a tank to put them down. This is problematic at best. The dracogenesis powers really needed a pricing tied to utility. For examples, when you gain a new dracongenesis power you can gain regeneration or wide band hearing . . . they cost the drake the same, one dracogenesis power but are the two abilities even vaguely on the same level of power or usefulness?

The product wraps up with a new magical society, one of drakes run by S-K as an enforcement wing (sorry) and a new martial art, taught by S-K and rumored to have been developed specifically for drakes and is brutally efficient with natural or implanted weapons.

So, what to think about this? There is some useful material for games involved S-K and the drakes . . . while this reviewer likes the idea of drakes and how they fit into the Shadowrun mythology, there are some considerable game balance worries about the dracongenesis powers that need to be addressed before allowing them to be played in a game.

You can find more of my reviews and commentary at my gaming journal: https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Lofwyr's Legions (Shadow Stock)
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BattleTech: Strategic Operations
by Bliss O. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/05/2022 18:13:45

Since I purchased this book the publisher removed a good chunk of the book. Dropped from 450 pages to 186 pages.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
BattleTech: Strategic Operations
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PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
by Daniel O. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/03/2022 08:11:13

Essentially an expanded version of an older April Fools supplement called TacOps PowerUps (an "optional" expansion for Tactical Operations that added MechAssault-style power-ups to the game), this product adds a lot of silly and random power-ups to any BattleTech match, from the somewhat reasonable (repair power-ups or an extra artillery strike) to the truly absurd (ever wanted an UrbanMech to pick up the hammer from Super Smash Bros.?).

But this supplement doesn't just stop at power-ups. There are also rules for achievements (again ranging from the reasonable to the absurd), as well as several scenarios meant to emulate classic arcade and other video games (ranging from Pac-Man to Space Invaders and even Metal Gear Solid).

For proper versimilitude, there are also rules for respawning, as well as a slight nod to the MechWarrior video games by way of the Patch Day rules (will your PPC be nerfed or OP this match? The dice will tell you!).

The supplement gets a slight point deduction (not reflected in the final score due to rounding errors) for not having rules for finishers in the Melee Kombat! scenario.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
PseudoTech: Arcade Operations
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Shadowrun: Emerald City
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/28/2022 15:32:25

Shadowrun: Emerald City is a setting book for the Sixth World Edition of Shadowrun covering that most Shadowrun of all cities, Seattle. If you are running a Seattle-based campaign, obviously this book is going to be extremely useful while not indispensable but close. For non-seattle-based campaigns, it is a fun read and gives you some information of things that will have rippling effects on the rest of the Sixth World. However, the lack of district maps and an index do badly compromise its usability during a game.

Shadowrun: Emerald City is the Setting Book for Shadowrun’s hometown, the Metroplex of Seattle. Designed to link into the new city edition of the core and providing a detailed look at the city and its situation following the city’s declaration of independence.

As is usual, it begins with a brief introduction about why Seattle remains important and one of the shadowrunning centers of the world. Next is a short fiction section to set the mood and it does an alright job of showing a new runner in Seattle.

Following is the Weight of History, which gives a brief (Shadowrun alternate and future) history of Seattle. Then it pivots to looking at the current political situation in Seattle and how the other power players, both national and corporate, are approaching the new situation.

Seattle Basics, well, covers what it says, overall population numbers, getting in and out and getting around in the city all get covered in this section. All useful information for the runner (or other visitor to the city). Personally, some more information on public transportation would have been welcome and the cab fare seems way too low.

Next we move into the city, section by section, giving each a breakdown by population and other useful information including a color-coded “average security rating” which is not defined, so not as useful as it could be (also to make things more confusing, within each district, the old letter codes for security rating are often referenced and are also not defined). Each chapter ends with a few new qualities, mostly positive and a few negative, all themed to the district being covered.

There is little point in going through the districts chapter by chapter, each has a bit about local politics and what is happening there, some of the power players -individuals and groups- noted, interesting locations, and a lot of implied adventure hooks. Though perhaps some straight up, ‘here is what you as runners are likely to be hired to do’ in this district might have been helpful to focus the options for games masters and players alike. As is usual, some of the writing appeals to me more than others, but that is just the way of things.

However, the style of the writeup of the downtown section pleases me the most, just stylistically. While it might have broken up the “stream of consciousness” style of some of the reports, bolding the names of people, places and groups in the paragraphs would have been amazingly helpful in finding things when you go back to look for them especially when a character or place is mentioned halfway through a paragraph. Ease of use is important for game supplements, really people, it is. Also, though most sections are good at this, if you include a bar or restaurant, have a sentence or two describing the decor/feel of the place and maybe the food not just who you can meet there.

Now, this being Shadowrun, there is not much that breaks my suspension of disbelief (anti-grav technology aside), generally, maybe an eye-roll or two but even then, most things this reviewer will let slide. But a mercenary strike carrier? Specifically, a nuclear strike carrier. A helicopter carrier, that would work, but those big carriers? That is on the order of a minimum 6.2 billion just for the ship (or more than 13 billion for the new ones), air wing extra, and operating costs of 400 million or more a year! No mercenary company can afford that, just no. Especially as the next largest ship in the mercenary navy is a corvette, which pretty much the smallest warship you can have and still call it a “ship.”

As has been the case when they have done the qualities by chapter (I am looking at you Power Plays) there is no place in the book that gathers them in a single list for you to reference and be able to quickly find them in the book. Additionally, like all of the qualities, the price for effect is all over the place with many of them being with group X, you get one bonus edge for social tests, with sometimes an additional benefit. The social bonus should have been broken out and made into a general quality that anyone could take and define who it applied to and then the secondary part could have been made into it own quality (with the ability to combine with the previous one to get around limits on number of qualities possessed by a character). This would have made it more flexible (“I am not playing in Seattle and my character has ties with the Gulf Coast Smugglers”) and unified the pricing of Quality mechanics, which, as I mentioned, are all over the place when it comes to price for effect.

Now, for people, like this reviewer, whose campaign does not have Seattle becoming an independent city-state, how useful is this book for them? Well, obviously not as useful as if you are following the current official metaplot, but my guess is at least 85% of it will remain useful for any campaign set in Seattle (independent or not). It certainly has my mental gears turning with interesting ideas and runs set in districts rarely visited in my campaign.

However, and this is enough to cost it a star on DriveThru, no maps, at least one in the electronic version I have access to. There should be a big city map and each of the district sections should have started (or ended) with a map of that district. Without maps, the product is much less usable and gamer friendly. And, of course, no index either. So good luck finding a place or person if you remember the name but not the district they are in.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4.

Read more of my reviews and articles at my Gaming Journal



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Emerald City
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Shadowrun: Double Clutch (Core Rigger Rulebook)
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/24/2022 12:34:11

Shadowrun: Double Clutch is a sourcebook, specifically a “Core Rigger Rulebook” for the Sixth World Edition of Shadowrun covering vehicles and more things that can be done with them. This book is an essential addition to a GM’s collection for seeing the state of play for vehicles in the Sixth World and the rules for chases and repairing and modifying vehicles. Obviously, anyone playing a rigger or other vehicle specialist will want access to this book but GM should be careful about letting people go crazy with vehicle modifications.

Shadowrun: Double Clutch, is the Core Rigger Rulebook for Shadowrun, Sixth World Edition, providing a look at the current state of play for vehicle and drone technologies along with expanded rules for piloting vehicles and using drones.

It begins with an introduction, as expected, this one talks about why riggers are important and why you want one on your team. One of the ubiquitous fiction sections follows then we begin with: Zen & the Art of Vehicle Maintenance, a look at what rigging is like in the Sixth World, who does it and what sorts of jobs are performed by riggers. While this is all good practical advice of where and what riggers do, I would have liked a bit more about how riggers sense and perceive the world when they are rigged in, it is referenced.

Next is Hot Rods & Cool Rides, a selection of new ground vehicles. Ranging from motor cycles to tanks and everything in between. Mostly these are wheeled vehicles, as you would expect, though there are some tracked and several ground effect craft (hovercraft). Some additional information of how the ground effect vehicles interact with the environment would have been useful. How high can they get off the ground? What are the effects of moving from land to water and vice-versa? There are also a pair of exotic vehicles, a highly adaptable and versatile, but rare and distinctive, gyro-car, and a jet-powered skate board (no really).

Angry Water looks at (surprise!) water craft. The section on watercraft is well written, enjoyable to read and, unfortunately, it is about half useless for gaming purposes. Speedboats, jet skis, patrol boats, all of these vehicles could conceivably be encountered or used by the runners or both. But while four different types of sailboats are interesting how likely are they to be used? This goes double for the replica of the Cutty Sark, cool idea for a ship, but when will it (or its game statistics) ever matter? A lovely, truly lovely world background piece though. The same goes for the Aztechnology corvette, the new UCAS Battle Cruiser, and the Japanese Imperial Navy’s hunter-killer submarine, interesting to know they are out there but do their game statistics matter? Equally, there is useful information that can be provided for cruise liners, massive container ships, and factory ships but knowing their acceleration, body and armor is not part of that and is nearly pointless. My feeling is this chapter could have served a better purpose by providing game information on the small craft and a slightly higher level discussion of navies and shipping for the rest of it. But, of course, this is still the toys section of the book so everything has to have statistics and prices (because runners can certainly afford the 180 million NuYen for their own corvette).

Next up (pun intended) Rare Air, a look at available air vehicles. These are vehicles that runners are more likely to encounter, even if only to cower until they have gone past. There are some hints of wackiness that the ground and water sections could have used, with a jet-pack and glider packs. There are a variety of gliders, copter, small planes and (so nice to see them again) zeppelins. Everything runners are likely to need for smuggling or landing in restricted areas, things to highjack or get rescued by (DocWagon vehicles and such) and things to avoid, such as armed helicopters in various sizes. Overall generally useful and likely to appear in campaign using air vehicles, well except for the two fighters and the spacecraft, but also just good background material (medical tilt-rotors for example). Except, except, grav vehicles, as I mentioned in my review of Power Plays, I do not think anti-gravity technology belongs in Shadowrun, most everything else in Shadowrun is an evolution or extrapolation from existing tech (yes, AIs are off the scale tech too, but very much embedded in cyberpunk fiction) but anti-gravity . . . that is serious handwavium. Worse, if you are going to include this sort of tech and mention that it can do amazing things, you had better have rules for said amazing things!

Then we get drones in Spies, Snipers and Force Multipliers (terrible chapter name), now, drones are just fun and so flexible but much of this chapter just seems off. Again, too much space is given to high end military drones (automated tanks, mini-assault copters, drone fighter jets, submarines) and not enough domestic drones and no building or construction drones at all. Also, the prices are all very odd as there are no really low end drones (pricewise). Right now, here in the modern world, online you can get a flying quadroter drone with a camera for less than $100 but the slightly more capable (?) MicroSkimmer (from the core) is ¥850, the Bust-A-Move toy drone is ¥2,500 (!! pricy toy) and the size of an Elmo doll, while the Man-at-Arms, a man-sized armored humanoid drone capable of using weapons (up to an LMG!) Is ¥4,500? Just odd and does not fit well in a reality that I can understand how it works. However, there are a couple of fun things, the Bust-A-Move being one of them, but also a security drone that is disguised as a (working) vending machine, now that is brilliant. More weird and wacky stuff like that and less high end military hardware would have made this a much more interesting and useful chapter from this reviewers point of view.

Making it Yours in the chapter on how to modify vehicles, adding everything from sensors to alternate forms of mobility, and providing new rigger cyberware options and uses. Chapters like this are always interesting and frustrating, interesting because you get to see the interesting way you can kit out vehicles to suit just about any purpose, frustrating because some player will always find ways to abuse them and because you get weird things like you cannot make a pigeon sized drone that appears particularly realistic (maximum of two levels of realistic appearance, which anyone with an average perception will tag as a fake). Still, fun stuff for all that.

Build Your Dreams are the actual rules for building a vehicle from the ground up, so take all of my comments from the previous chapter and apply them again here. And, of course, every player is going to argue that their custom vehicles can be a junkyard frankenstein because it halves the cost to build with no disadvantages at all. Still, it gives you an idea of why the prices for some of the drones seem so out of whack with reality, they are slaved to the pricing system here. Nice idea, unconvinced about the execution.

The Grease Monkey Way talks about repairing vehicles and provides the rules for the same, defining some of the items available from the core book (tool kits, shops and facilities) and what they can be used for. Again, used parts from junkyards are the cheapest option and come with no issues which is just weird. But a solid chapter for those who wish to take the time to carefully Detail vehicle damage and repair.

Gearhead Anatomy is a wide selection of new qualities focusing on piloting and working with vehicles, not unexpected right? Fifteen Positive, including five driving styles which half the edge costs for a set of themed maneuvers, and some which open up new edge actions for technical characters. And thirteen Negative Qualities. Some quite fun additions to the options, Silver Lining, which lets you gains some benefit from a glitch and Junkyard King, which lets you find just what in needed through various routes. However, among all of this good stuff there is one terrible design choices: Attribute Mastery, which takes the mistake made by Analytical Mind in the core book and doubles down on it. Giving Edge just because you use a skill linked to that attribute goes against the entire purpose of the Edge system as I understand it, what bother to be creative when you just get an edge by doing what you built you character to do? Counterproductive at best and actively corrosive to the Edge system at worst.

The final section is The Rigger Advantage with chase rules and new Edge actions. The chase rules have variants so you can use the system to represent racing or shadowing (something which should probably show up more in Shadowrun actually).

There is an index of sorts, an alphabetical list of the vehicles, modifications, and so on. Which is great . . . if you can remember the name of what you are looking for in the first place. And as the longest section is 38-pages, for drones, which is already neatly chopped into the sub-types of drones, finding things should not be that difficult. So nice to see an index, too bad it is not as useful as it could be. What would have been more useful, from my point of view, would have been a combined table of core book and new vehicles so as a GM you could grab the statistics for, say a van, knowing you had all of the basic options at your fingertips. Also, one of the great sections of the core book was the “Other Makes and Models” section so you could rapidly produce the names of equivalent vehicles, seeing something like that here would have been nice.

Overall, a useful sourcebook verging into vital given the way it expands both the available vehicles and their uses. Every GM should add this to their list of books to pick up at some point. Though I wish it had spent less time and space on military vehicles, especially absurd things (from the point of view of a shadowrunner) like tanks, warships and fighter aircraft. While it is interesting to read have how they have adapted military gear to Sixth World technology, my campaign will never need to use them and that is just as well, my campaign would have been better served with more low end (but useful) drones and civilian vehicles.

Read more of my review on my gaming journal: https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Double Clutch (Core Rigger Rulebook)
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