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Shadowrun: The Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Timothy M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2019 01:11:17

I'm a long time shadowrun fan. I own almost everything published in English, just missing a few things from 2nd edition era. And I think is probably the least useful thing I've ever bought. I am not sure what it is supposed to be for? If you are familiar with all the shadowrun lore, its mostly going to be annoying because of the "unreliable narrator" angle giving half truths or straight up propaganda. And if you don't know SR lore and were hoping to get a leg up, this isn't going to help you because its almost completely detail free.

I mean, they drop two new Great Dragons into the world. And sure, I've long thought that there were too many European Great Dragons and not enough others. But if you introduce a Great Dragon and all you can find to say is "She lives in India and likes nagas and buddhists", what exactly is the point?

The whole book is just full of fluffy, detail free blurbs on various things. Some of which are just oddly wrong. Like the Astral Space Protection Society article saying they are bankrolled by Hestaby, which that's histroy and Wuxing bankrolls them now. Which is referred to in another article on another topic.

Its sometimes amusing, but its definitely not informative.



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[1 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: The Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia
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Touched: A Darkening Alley
Publisher: Ardens Ludere
by Timothy M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/18/2019 21:02:22

This supplement is basically a way of merging Call of Cthulhu with The Sprawl. It does a reasonable job of providing mechanics for doing that, with Moves for CoC style magic, Eldritch Trauma (san checks), and some other things of that sort. Its pretty sparse on details of the setting. The flavor text is almost all backstory with little focus put on how you'd actually play the game. There's like 4 short paragraphs in the whole "running the game" section. Which really don't say much besides "everyone's gonna be interested in the weird stuff". Little to nothing about the flavor and mission implications of these setting and mechanic changes.

The mechanics seem serviceable and the writing is the expected high quality that previous Sprawl books have had. But the substance just didn't feel "there" for me in this one. I was more inspired by most of the short settings in November Metric than I was by anything in this book.

If you already have lots of ideas for your Event Horizon/Cloverfield/Delta Green-cyborg edition game and want some workable mechanics to support it, this would be a worthwhile pick up. If you are hoping to be inspired by a unique twist on cyberpunk settings the way November Metric did, but with horror/urban fantasy, this probably falls short. At least, it did for me.

Hopefully the 2nd one in the series (Touched Prime) has more focus on flavor and gameplay implications rather than a pile of mechanics that assume you already know how to play a Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu game effectively.



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[3 of 5 Stars!]
Touched: A Darkening Alley
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Shadowrun: Street Lethal (Advanced Combat Rules)
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Timothy M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/19/2018 20:42:25

So, after a series of books about mages or magical threats, we finally get something oriented towards non mages. But, unfortunately, its not really all that useful, though the fluff on mercenaries, corporate security, and such is well written. This book is basically a Gun Heaven + 10 Merc 2 smooshed together. About half the guns are 5e stats for stuff in earlier Gun Heaven books or other 4e products. A few interesting new pieces and a whole bunch of Warhammer-esque "Krime" brand weapons. Shotgun hammers, personal gatling guns, and that sort of thing.

A big section is on 'future tech' weapons in case you want to turn your Shadowrun game into Eclipse Phase with anti grav and personal shields and all that. But with it all being speculative and said to be not really working, so.... okay?

Unfortunately, there is nothing in this book that actually plays towards street samurai or does anything to address the fact that street samurai have real trouble with the hordes of magical threats (bug spirits, shedim, toxic spirits, etc) that are all the rage in the books over the last year. There's nothing in this book that doesn't work at least as well for the adepts and mages in the group. Though the few new mechanics are pretty much just more "small unit tactics" actions that are generally more trouble than they are worth, same as the originals in Run & Gun.

I enjoyed reading the material in the book, but I doubt there's much in it that will ever see a use in a campaign beyond the fluff of someone using an Ares Striker instead of the similar Colt Manhunter. Though if your gameplay style tends more towards the kinds of antics Krime encourages, you'll find more useful stuff than most.



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[3 of 5 Stars!]
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