Review: Star Wars Edge of the Empire

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, is the current incarnation of the Star Wars role-playing game. Published by Fantasy Flight Games this game comes as a 448 page full colour hardback. Available separately are sets of dice for use with the game. Yes this is a game that has its own custom dice, but bear with me here as I think they're worth it.

So Star Wars: Edge of Empire is definitely a Star Wars RPG, set firmly in the setting we all know and love in the period after the events of the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the first Death Star. Now there have been some criticisms of the setting (and connected rules) provided in this game as now being very Star Wars circulating on the net, and there is a lot of negativity about the game as a result of people expecting something that this game was never supposed to deliver, so lets get the elephant in the room out of the way immediately.

Jedi, lightsabres, fighting valiantly against the Empire as part of the Rebellion starring down Star Destroyers and fighting squadrons of TIE fighters. All Star Wars tropes. All not part of this game. You see Fantasy Flight Games have decided they can't cover all the bases in one go, and there are many different aspects to the setting, so have decided to cover the main aspects one at a time. As a result Edge of Empire does not cover the Rebellion or Jedi, they will come in later releases one specifically for each of those topics.

Some people reading this right now are going, "yay I hate Jedi anywhere there's so much more than can be explored," while some are thinking "no Jedi? Then it's not Star Wars." I personally make no pretense about it and find Jedi the least interesting part of the Star Wars setting. However I am a huge Star Wars fanboi and have been ever since I was a kid, and as a result this game speaks to me.

So what is here if there's no Jedi or Rebellion? Well Edge of Empire is designed to cover the edge of the Empire. It's the outer reaches of space and civilization, the smuggler, the bounty hunter, the moisture farmer who wants to get off his dustball and see the galaxy. Basically role-playing with all the people on the fringes, all the stuff people were doing before getting involved with Jedi and rebellions. Han and Chewie making spice runs for Jabba, Lando conning people, all the people on the edge of the law or who are running from something. That is what this game is about.

So now that out of the way, onto the book itself. The book is a well bound, full colour hardback, weighing in at 450 pages. There is plenty of artwork, but not so much as to take away from the setting and game material, and that artwork is all of a very high quality. Some of the art is original to the game, some is from other Fantasy Flight materials and some comes from the Lucas Arts archives where they seem to have been given access.

Special mention has to be made of the font chosen for the book. The font for the majority of the text is about the same height as a normal font, however it is very light and narrow of stroke. This means that it can sometimes be hard to read. Now I have pretty much perfect eyesight, never had any issues and as a pilot I get a good eye test quite regularly, but if I wasn't reading in bright full on light I had trouble with the text. There simply isn't enough weight to it to be perfectly legible in a decent range of light and sight situations. I've heard from people who simply can't read it, it gives them too much eyestrain as the font isn't heavy enough. Since the line won't be released in PDF format there is the theory going around that the font was chosen to make it difficult to scan the books. Whether there is any truth in that, I don't know. I suggest however you look at a copy to ensure you can comfortably read it before purchasing.

The only other issue I have with the layout is that sometimes, particularly as you come to the end of sections and columns, you can accidentally skip to the wrong section and have the reading not make sense. What I mean by this is that some sections flow through the regular columns as we're used to reading. You read down one column of text then read the next. Sometimes however if you come to the end of some sections, for layout purposes they will instead of continuing a section down a column they've wrap it across two columns at the top of the page and start the next section part way down the page and wrap it across both columns with not a huge amount of space between the sections. Many times while I was reading it I continued down the page into the next section without realising I should have skipped columns then come back. It can be confusing as it doesn't seem to stick to a style.

The various special dice for Edge of Empire

The dice. A lot has been said about the special dice used for the game. Some like the idea, some don't. Personally, I love them.

Basically there are 7 types of die

• 6 sided positive blue boost die. This is used to give small bonuses and benefits to rolls
• 8 sided positive green ability die. The core die of a dice pool roll, used to represent basic ability
• 12 sided positive proficiency die. Used to represent particular skill or talent in a roll, improved version of the ability die
• 6 sided negative black setback die. Used to represent negative affects on a roll, weather, distractions, disadvantages etc
• 8 sided negative purple difficulty die. Used to control the basic difficulty of a task, the more difficult the more of these are added to the pool
• 12 sided red challenge die. Used to represent challenges over and beyond the mere difficulty of a task, a skilled opponent etc
• 12 sided white force die. populated with dark and light side results, used to generate destiny pool at the beginning of a session and to resolve force related tasks

From these dice you can get the following results

• Blank, the die contributes nothing to the end result
• Success, a positive outcome to the success of the roll
• Advantage, a positive outcome that doesn't affect the success of the roll directly but provides other positive outcome and advantage
• Triumph, a positive outcome above and beyond, a very powerful result that counts as a success and additional bonus
• Failure, a negative outcome to the success of the roll
• Threat, a negative outcome that provides negative side effects and hindrances but doesn't affect the actual success of the action
• Despair, a very negative outcome that can be both failure and a severe setback
• Light point, a light side force or destiny point (Force die only)
• Dark side, a dark side force or destiny point (Force die only)

Confused? Actually it's pretty simple. You build your dice pool based on your characters skills and abilities, add bonus boost die dependant on the situation and that's the positive portion of your dice pool. The GM will then add your difficulty dice and any setback and challenge dice as appropriate to what is happening and then you roll them all.

A failure cancels a success. A threat cancels an advantage. If the success number is positive the action is successful, if 0 or negative it is now. If the advantages are positive then you can get some other positive outcome to the roll often as a narrative result (you manage to duck back into cover after firing, you find something you weren't looking for.) If the threats are negative then you will suffer some kind of setback (you may have succeeded but now the path is blocked, you shot the stormtrooper but your blaster has just run out of ammo.) Triumph and Despair can add very powerful advantages and disadvantages to the outcome.

I will agree the actual symbols used on the dice could be more intuitive, they're not immediately obvious what they may be, but once you have a few rolls people get it incredibly quickly so the learning curve is very low. 

If you really don't want to seek out the special dice (you'll need at least 2 packs, or 1 if you have the beginner game,) there is a conversion chart in the book for regular polyhedral dice to the Edge of Empire results, though consulting this could get cumbersome very quickly as opposed to the actual dice where it's very easy to determine the dice pool results from looking at them. I really recommend using the specific dice.

So how about the game itself? Well unlike many of the reviews I do I've actually run Edge of the Empire, and I can tell you it's a blast. The dice system once you get used to it drives the game considerably. I find myself needing less prep for a session beyond the generalities because the interpretation of the dice when the players attempt something can narratively drive so much of the session.

For character generation the players get to choose one of six careers; Smuggler, Colonist, Explorer, Technician, Hired Gun and Bounty Hunter. Each of these careers is then split into three specializations that give you the ability tree you are working on. During character creation you choose your career and initial specialization and off you go.

A character is considered of the career they initially join, however they can spend their experience to buy into additional specializations, even those from other careers. For instance Han Solo would have taken the Smuggler career with the Scoundrel talent tree to begin with. However as we know our old friend Han has many other skills under his belt, so it stands to reason he's taken the Pilot specialization at some point (also from the Smuggler career) and later in life has ended up in the Politico tree under the Colonist career. Maybe a bit of mechanic under the Technician career. No matter all these other specializations, Han is still at heart a smuggler.

One very key part of the character generation process is the subject of obligations. All characters start off with an obligation, with the option of buying more to gain additional experience or starting cash. An obligation is basically debts and, well, obligations that the character owes. It could be they have a bounty on their head or owe someone a lot of money, perhaps their family ties bind and restrict them more than they'd like or they're obsessed with finding the Katana Fleet or some such. These obligations can, under the stock system, come up in play either a plot points or just as dramatic tension.

For example in my game one of the characters has an obsession with destroying the Corporate Sector Authority after the took over his homeworld for it's resources. In a session this came up in the form of a holonet news report announcing the CSA expansion into new world. This had the effect in the game of reducing the amount of stain the character could experience over the course of the adventure (due to thinking of it constantly and it weighing down on him) and ended up with him trying to knock over a protocol droid store that was owned by a CSA signatory (completely the players idea but an example of how these can easily become drivers for side points in an adventure.)

Characters have two trackable resources. The good old hit points and strain. The Hits threshold dictates how much damage physical damage a character can sustain and doesn't require much further explanation. Strain Threshold on the other hand is more interesting.

Strain represents the characters duress, both physical and mental. It represents how much damage you can take from stun weapons for example, or how much psychological stress you can take. It's also interestingly an expendable resource for the players.

A character can choose to experience strain to activate various special abilities and talents that their character may have, to gain extra manoeuvres during a combat and the like. If the character is suffering from an Obligation they may have their strain threshold reduced which obviously makes the available pool smaller. Spend too much, and you'll collapse. Don't use it and you'll be losing out on some of your better abilities and that little but of edge that makes a difference. Just don't get hit by a stun bolt while you're spending them. Strain can mechanically be recovered by gaining advantages on dice rolls or by rest.

One of the most interesting and fun mechanics of the game is the Destiny Pool. The destiny pool is a set of Light Side and Dark Side counters that sit on the table and can be spent by both players and GM. If the players need a little extra boost for a roll they can flip one or more light side counters to the dark side to get that number of upgrades to their dice roll. Similarly the GM can spend Dark Side counters by flipping them to light side to help his NPCs rolls should he desire.

The more interesting aspect is that after the controlling side decides if they're going to upgrade their roll the opposing side can choose to spend to upgrade the difficulty of the roll just the same way they could spend the points to upgrade their own.

For example if the players really want to make that roll to shoot the Imperial Commander before he gets and summons reinforcements they could spend their light side points to upgrade their dice pool to make it more likely to succeed. After this if the GM is feeling mean he can then spend dark side points to make the shot more difficult.

The Destiny Pool is determined randomly at the beginning of each session by each player rolling a force die and allocating the results to the pool.

The pool is a very fun mechanic. Do you save your points for the really difficult challenges, knowing that if you're not spending your points they're not being given to the other side? This can result in a constant flow back and forth in the pool from light to dark and back again. Players are encouraged to spend to make things more heroic while GMs are encouraged to use it to make it more dramatic, swing things in their characters favour and try and keep some light side points for the players to use.

Some of this sounds complex, but in reality it works really fluidly at the table. Rules are kept pretty abstract for the most part in order to keep the system relatively simple so they don't get in the way. The dice results surprisingly, even for ardent role-players who don't always go with dice rolling, drive the flow of the game in a greater way than I've experienced in other systems. The dice allow the GM to say yes to even the most ridiculous requests of the players, if they really want to try it. You really want to try running and slipping under that rapidly closing blast door in the rain while being shot at? Well that will be a difficult athletics skill roll and I'll add 2 setback dice to the roll and spend a dark side point to add the nasty red challenge die to the pool (the only die with the dreaded despair result.) Are you sure you wish to try? And let the dice be the judge.

The flavour of the game through the text is excellent, it really grabs you as a Star Wars game, not as a generic game with an interesting system. The rules really emphasize the narrative nature of the game and the fact that the players are joining the GM in making the world work, not just sitting through the GM's prepared adventure.

If you have any interest in playing in the Star Wars universe this is definitely the game for you, and I say that as a huge fan of the original West End Games D6 game. This is some of the most fun role-playing I've had since I can remember. Highly, highly recommended.

Oh, and don't try and convert, use the special dice, you'll get so much more out of it if you do. 

Review: Shadowrun Digital Tool Box

This is my first review in a little while so apologies for that. Also apologies to the kind guys at Catalyst for giving me this to review several weeks ago and not getting around to it (sorry Randall.) I've been stuck in property purchase hell. Anyway moving along.

So the Shadowrun: Digital Tools Box is now available from DriveThruRPG, and this consists of the digital versions of the upcoming box set for Shadowrun; Beginner Box and Alphaware. The two sets complement each other (it was originally planned to be one large box set but I believe it got so large it made sense to split it down) and there is a definite progression and solid connection between them. Even so I'll take them one at a time.

Beginner Box 

So lets start with what do we get in our virtual toolbox.

First up we have the Instructions sheet. This is obviously made for the physical box set as the first instruction is to get to know the six-sided dice. Basically it's a walk through of the order in which you should read the books and components. This is pretty common in modern box sets (Edge of the Empire Beginners Box Set did the same thing) so nothing strange here.

The Edge of Now is the introduction to the setting and starts with a short story introducing us to the heroes from the 5th edition rulebook fiction; Gentry, Coydog, Sledge and Hardpoint. The rest of the book is basically background material culled from the main 5th edition rules, Life in the Sixth World, info about shadowruns, background on the corporations and general setting information and a couple page overview of Seattle. At 26 pages it crams enough in for a beginner to get a vague flavour of the world, but other than the fiction there's nothing new here if you've read the core book.

Next up are 5 two page character sheets for new players representing our four heroes from the fiction and a new Ms Myth character, sort of a streetwise face/security consultant. The new character is the most interesting as she sets the stage for a concept that carries over into the Alphaware box (more on that box later.) 

The new concept is the character dossier. The Beginner Box comes with an 8 page dossier for Ms Myth which gives a pretty detailed background, information on her contacts and roleplaying hints for player the character. Also included is a very nice 2 page section on favoured tactics for the player playing the character which is very appreciated for the target audience of the box. Also included is a 2 page solo run if the GM wishes to take the character through an introductory run with just the one character.

The only bad thing I can say about the character dossier is the lack of them for the other characters. They are found in the Alphaware box, but I think they should be included in the Beginners box instead as it's more of the target initial audience who will get the most mileage out of the concept.

The Quickstart Rules give a simple quick and concise overview of the main rule points, as expected. It also includes a new version of the classic Shadowrun staple adventure, Food Fight. A quick reference sheet for the GM on the PC stats and a one sheet GM screen round out the booklet. It does the job reasonably well and is newly put together for this box set, it bears little to no resemblance to the quick start rules from last years Free RPG Day.

Rounding out the box is a rather solid excerpt from the upcoming novel Fire & Frost to help wet the appetite for new Shadowrun fiction.

So what's good? The characters are good, the dossier idea is excellent (did I mention that already?) and the quick start rules definition do the job. 

So what's not so good? Well the only criticisms I'd have is that the character dossiers for the rest of the characters really should be included in this box set rather than the Alphaware box, and I would like to see a more substantial adventure in a beginner's box to introduce new players beyond just the expanded Food Fight.

All in all, a really good attempt with a few minor criticisms, however I'm not the target audience. Could I run an adventure or two with this? Absolutely.

Alphaware

Now this section is where the meat of the download content is, and it's pretty impressive all in all.

We have the instruction sheet, same as the Beginners Box, but it starts strangely by referring the players to the Edge of Now booklet which isn't contained in the Alphaware set (at least not in the digital review version I received.) I think there's an assumption written in that both sets are available to the reader which is certainly the case in this digital copy, but may cause some confusion if the print version ends up the same as the digital copies, but maybe the booklet will be reproduced in both boxes.

Rules of the Street is a substantial 90 cut down version of the SR5 rules. At 90 pages it's obviously not massively cut down, most of the core rules are here. Some of the nuances and more specific rules may not be present (such as the grenade chunky salsa rules) but all the major ones are present and correct including a 20 page gear section. Sometimes it amazes me how you can reduce a tome like SR5 into a more accessible package and they clearly manage it well. Not so sure about the art on page 2 however, unless it's a deliberate Cyborg Commando homage the cyborg our elf ninja is attacking is not very Shadowrun to my mind.

Next up we have new more detailed character sheets for the five characters presented in the Beginners Box and the character dossiers for the remaining four.

Cards PDF. Here we have a 110 page PDF of two card sets, Spell cards and Gear cards. Basically simple cards that detail the pertinent information about the more common spells and pieces of equipment. These have been on sale for a little while (and I bought a physical set of them in the store just yesterday.) Handy for some groups, not all will make use of them. However I can easily see these being very useful for beginning players who buy these box sets in physical form. 

The next book is Plots and Paydata, an 82 page GMs book. Now often these books are just GM information, experience rules etc and an adventure tucked in the back. Not quite in this case. Yes it starts with the GM advice (condensing the phenomenal GM advice section in the core rulebook) and contains the same Food Fight adventure from the Beginners Box set, but then it differs from most.

This book doesn't just contain an intro adventure (the aforementioned Food Fight.) Oh no. This booklet contains a min-campaign of 5 connected adventures. And they're pretty good as well. That's 30 pages of mini-campaign, enough to keep a group going for 5 or more sessions. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The remainder of the book is taken up with explanations and details around the maps that are included in the box (good old Sprawl Sites) that include decent sets of adventure hooks (some are pretty fleshed out and taking almost half a page on their own) and a decent section of NPCs and contacts for the players to interact with.

Finally we have two sets of maps. One is a double sided map of North America in the Sixth World on one side and a nice poster size version of the final box set cover image by the talented Echo Chernik.

The other set are sprawl site maps. These are 8 locations taken from the Sprawl Sites: High Society and Low Life and Sprawl Sites: North America map sets that were released last year. 

Overall

All the material is presented to the same high quality as the SR5 main rulebook. That is decent amounts of art, all full colour and using the same new layouts and styles as the 5th edition line. It all comes across as very professionally done.

For beginners to the game these box sets will be very useful in physical form, and also in digital as this material currently is. For more established players there is definitely useful stuff in here such as the maps, cards, beginner characters and dossiers etc if you're starting a new campaign. The mini-campaign is pretty good as well.

The only real thing I would say against it is not about the digital version really, but is about the final print versions that will come out of it. That is the repetition of some stuff and their separate availability. Mainly the card decks and maps. They're available outside this box and some will already have them. Sure it's useful to have extras but that may be a consideration for established players purchasing the physical set.

As for this digital set, it is retailing for $19.99 over at DriveThruRPG and I honestly believe it's easily worth that price for what you get. Even for established players. So yes, this gets a two thumbs up chummer.

Review: Shadowrun 5th Edition (Part II)

(Update: The PDF of the game is now out. You can grab it over at DriveThruRPG.com. Highly recommended.)

Welcome to Part II of my Shadowrun 5th edition review. If you missed Part I you can find it over here.

In the previous review I gave a brief overview of the book and went through the first 5 chapters as far as the combat rules. In this review I'll cover the remaining sections as well as my overall thoughts on the product.

1. The Matrix
2. Riggers
3. Magic
4. Gamemaster Advice
5. Helps and Hindrances
6. Streetgear

The Matrix

The Matrix, as we all know, is the information systems that surround metahumanity on a daily basis. The Matrix chapters goes about explaining what it is and the people who can manipulate it for their purposes. Enter the Hackers. 

In Fourth Edition we had two types of people who could manipulate the Matrix, Hackers and Technomancers. In SR5 these are grouped under the Hacker descriptor and split into Technomancers and Deckers. Yes deckers are back. (Does a little dance.) There's a small party going on here. Seriously, there's cake and everything (Editor's note: The cake is a lie.)

With 4th edition the changes from wired decking to the wireless world was one of the most controversial of the game. Yes it made sense to increase the technology to accommodate a logical extension of connectivity but a lot of people disliked it. Well with SR5 the hacking/decking/Matrix has been almost completely rewritten. Wireless is still there, items are still connected to the matrix wirelessly and it's still a major function of the setting but the hacking itself has changed along with the Matrix.

Not having read the setting books for 4th edition for the metaplot I'm not entirely sure of the reasonings but the corps have taken back control of the Matrix from the free for all it was in 4th edition. The Matrix is now organized into grids, think of them like your cellphone providers network. You want to hack into an Ares facility but you get your access from Shiawase, then you'll need to change grids to gain access if you want to go in wirelessly. There are public and local operated grids as well.

With the changes in the Matrix the corps have cracked down on security heavily. Now each grid is monitored by a division of the Grid Overwatch Division (GOD) of the Corporate Court (we all know them, they're the big guns of the corporate matrix world.) The division in charge of each grid are known as demiGODs. Basically it is their job to monitor their assigned grid for illegal activity. If you play nice there isn't any problems, but as soon as you start doing something illegal you begin to build an Overwatch Score (OS.) This score represents the traces you're leaving in the Matrix and allows the demiGODs to track you down and attack and dumpshock your decker ass. Anything you attack something you will gain a score, if you fail to sleaze your way past a barrier your score will increase. If you hack someone's commlink to access their files you'll gain a score. Hit 40 and they're all over you.

With all the changes to the hacking rules, and believe me from 4th edition they're practically rewritten everything, it flows in a much more general manner. The disadvantages you get from working wirelessly through static and noise encourages the groups decker to join the rest of the team in getting close to the target, or if possible, physical contact for that elusive hardwire connection that is the best.

The decker can also help bolster the groups defenses against wireless attack on their own personal devices since most things connect to the Matrix for one reason or another. Smartguns connect to download up to the millisecond wind conditions, vehicles connect to determine traffic patterns etc.

Oh and decks are back. With the increased security the average commlink just isn't up to the task of performing the illegal activities required by the average groups hacker. And yes, there is a Fairlight Excaliber for a large fee if you want it.

Most of the actions in the Matrix are more generalized in order to make the system flow smoother but the core dynamic now is the application of MARKs (Matrix Authentication Recognition Keys) to a target. Basically a mark is like an authorization code. The more of them you can apply to an icon/device/file etc the more access you can attempt to get. However they've also played up brute force as a way to get things done. If you don't have authorization, and don't want to spend the time trying to sleaze your way into it, you can go the full frontal attack option. Noisy but effective.

Lets not forget the technomancers now. Another controversial part of the SR4+ world they are definitely here to stay, rare as they may be. In previous editions technomancers seemed overly powerful but here they've toned them down a bit. Yes they have huge advantages but their disadvantages are also played up a bit more. They've basically balanced them in with deckers in the new hacking rules and for the better.

If I have one criticism of the Matrix chapter it is the art. Don't get me wrong, the art is good, but I would have liked to have seen some actual images of what the Matrix looks like in standard iconography to give the players and the GM an idea of what to imagine. Granted a lot of it is a lot more abstracted than it was, gone are the days of the massive host maps from 1st edition, but it would still have been nice to visualize it a bit more.

Riggers

The Riggers section isn't very long, only 9 pages, but it means it's concise and to the point. Basic rules for those who wish to take complete direct control their vehicles and drones (and even buildings) as an extension of their own body. No real surprises or differences from previous versions here, just a simple set of rules for this area.

Magic

Ah magic, that one place where Shadowrun stands different from the other cyberpunk style RPGs out there. Well that and the orks, trolls, dragons, you know what I mean.

Magic has always been a complicated set of rules in Shadowrun. SR4 and SR20A made an attempt to unify the systems and simplify the magic rules that had gotten out of control over three previous editions and numerous sourcebooks. SR5 does the same thing.

Not a huge amount has changed over the previous editions. Some drain has been tweaked in the spellbook to balance the mana and physical spells out a bit more, some spells have been tidied a little but not much has altered.

The main spellcasting flow seems to have been simplified from earlier editions and it now consistent for all spells. This means no more trying to remember sub rules for different spells.

The biggest change is what seems at first a very minor one. Reckless Spellcasting. It's only briefly mentioned but the impacts of it are huge for any combat spellslinger. In previous editions (as with SR5) casting a spell is a complex action, so you can only do one per action phase. What Reckless Spellcasting does is allow you to cast a spell as a simple action instead of a complex one. This add +3 to the drain value of the spell. Unlike with regular ranged combat (I'm assuming most of this will be due to combat and a single gun can only fire once per action phase) you can attack/cast twice in your round. In that case you would get +3 drain to each spell.

This is one paragraph under the Sorcery section that mentions this, blink and you'll miss it, but it will definitely change the way you think about your spells and will like make people bold the old adage "geek the mage first."

The traditions, that practically disappeared in SR4 and SR20A, have re-emerged. While not as defining as they were in earlier editions (1-3) they're definitely brought back in and acknowledging that strong history and setting element.

Watchers are now not straight spirits but creatures created from a (short) ritual and therefore brought into being with Ritual Spellcasting rather than Conjuring as previously. Although Watchers do now have the manifest power whereas previously they were confined to the astral plane alone (though now entirely sure if this is a typo or not especially now that rituals can animate an inanimate object as a homunculus as well.)

One other big change is to spirits and edge. Catalyst have already spoken about this one on their blog so I won't go into it too much, but basically a bound spirit can now no longer use their edge while bound or during a service. The summoner can allow them to use their own edge pool. This does prevent massive spirit edge spamming that could result when spirits could use their own edge while bound. It does make conjurers a little less powerful (if they took advantage of this previously,) but in a good way.

Spirit summoning, binding and banishing works pretty much as I can recall it working before just with a bit more attachment to the types of spirit based on the conjurers tradition.

Alchemy is called out as a separate skill now in order to encourage the use of preparations, and has been incorporated into the core rules. This allows the alchemist to create single use items (want to put a fireball spell on that doorknob, well you can.) Also allows you to have healing stones or items in your pocket in case they're needed (I had sudden visions of it merging with D&D there.) Useful stuff, if you've got the skill, even if the items don't retain their potency for more than a matter of hours.

Adepts, nothing really new here. Metahumans who instead of casting can use the mana to enhance their physical attributes and abilities. Perfect for those who want to play a ninja, or perhaps Chuck Norris. Useful people to have around especially if the fighting gets up close and personal.

The chapter rounds out with details on the astral plane, nothing new here for old timers but a decent overview of what it is and how it interacts with the physical world, details on mentor spirits for the traditions (this is a little more detailed than in SR20A), a pretty good section on using reagents in spellcasting and rituals, and the good old Initiation. Initiation is a short section (only 2 pages) but it's something that usually gets expanded upon greatly in later supplements.

Gamemaster Advice

A 46 page section geared towards giving advice to the gamemaster. We've all read these sections before yes? Right? No, not like this. My favourite GM advice book/section is definitely "Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads" for Cyberpunk 2020. This is now my second. It's not so much about fragging the players over as Listen Up, but more about giving the players a challenge, presenting the world in a suitable manner etc. It also handles general everyday interactions between the world and the characters including the best description and details about SINs since the gameline came out (seriously how has it taken this long to examine SINs in any detail?)

The focus shifts around quite a bit covering designing a run, interaction and motivation of NPCs, running and managing sessions and campaigns, reputations and other areas for the character interaction, but it does it all in a very detailed and yet concise way with good writing that is a joy to read. It's a general grab bag of what doesn't fit in the other sections that a GM should know with a large section on how a High Threat Response team would act and an extremely useful bit on various types of security and how different threats are dealt with. Excellent work.

There are also a collection of small location templates and maps that seem to have been taken from the Sprawl Sites series of products released over the last year. It's a good idea to have them in here for reference and to help the GM.

Helps and Hindrances

I love the name of this chapter, it sets the tone perfectly. This is where you find the meat of the information on NPCs from a rules perspective, grunt rules and the like. A good number of pages are devoted to contacts, the rules for them and how a player would interact with them. 

 It's also where we get the critters, the big nasties of the sixth world. Also included are rules for drugs, toxins and the substance abuse and addictions that can come from them. It's a shame more of the great information from the excellent Sim Dreams and Nightmares couldn't have been included here, but you can't include everything in a core book. 

Streetgear

50 pages of toys and guns. Everything from things that go boom to vehicles to get you away from things that go boom. Cyberweare, biotech, magical equipment, drones all of the fun stuff. No point going into details here, it's a collection of everything a team (or a GM) needs to make a run. 

The only real flaw with this chapter is that there isn't enough art. Really there is art of some guns, but almost nothing else. This is a great place to illustrate the style and look of Shadowrun in the equipment used by those in the setting, but the quantity is slim. Yes there's plenty of art through the rest of the book but I like to see more pictures of cool stuff. Personal preference.

Remaining Pages

Closing out the PDF, along with the obligatory character sheet is a one sheet Random Run Generator. Basically a series of tables to randomly roll and generator a run on the lines of "The runners go to a meet at XXXXX, are hired by YYYYY for ZZZZZ targeting AAAAA and is complicated by BBBBB (because we know it always gets complicated.) Fun for those writers block moments.

At the very end are two massive pieces of art of cityscapes that we've seen online before, one of Berlin and one for Tenochtitlan. Some nice high resolution copies of the art for all Shadowrun rulebook covers (1-5, 1 & 2 used the same art.) And four other art pieces from various other books, of which I only recognize one from the PDF book Elven Blood.

Conclusion

This is a hefty PDF, and will make a hefty book when it arrives. Sometimes size isn't everything but I believe the decision to increase the page count was a good one for one particular reason.

I can envision that during the SR5 production meetings someone put up their hand to make a suggestion to their megacorporate boss to meekly suggest that they increase the page count by 30-40 pages or so and fill that extra space with examples of the rules. To whomever made that suggestion in the face of corporate greed and risk their metahuman hide, I salute you. I'd like to come round and shake your hand. 

Every major rule is detailed with an example in this book. Every time I'd read a rule or section and think "I didn't quite understand that," I'd turn a page and there would be an example going through that rule in a gaming situation that made everything perfectly clear. Every. Single. Time. If there was anything someone thought could potentially be confusing or would be useful to clarify, there's an example. This may seem like a small thing, but it was something SR4 and SR20A suffered from, and it's great to see that having being taken into account. So bravo, I can't thank you enough.

The layout is much better than the previous two editions. SR4 had a completely uninspiring layout with the colour scheme causing things to not register in the mind so well and making it hard to reference. SR20A was too cluttered and while beautiful made referencing difficult as well. With SR5 they've cleaned it out, cut down the clutter from SR20A and made it very standardized for easy referencing. Good job guys.

The artwork is generally of very high quality and, good news for older fans of the game, there has been a conscious attempt to head back to its roots in the art with lots of tribal motifs, feathers, tasselled leather and the like. Not sure I saw a mohawk though.

All in all Shadowrun 5th edition is well worth it if you're a fan of the game. It improves on 4th and SR20A in almost every way and some smart design decisions have ironed out some of the issues of the new system from SR4. I wasn't the world's biggest fan of SR4, but I could see what they were aiming at. It's taken a couple of iterations but I think SR5 has finally hit the target that Catalyst wanted.

I will say the book may not win any new fans though. If you hated the world and rules of SR4, you'll not like this. Also unfortunately due to it's lack of background material it may be too intimidating for a new player to get into at this point, but for people who like SR4 & SR20A but thought the rules weren't quite there then this is the product for you.

Did I mention yet that I love the examples?

(Update: The PDF of the game is now out. You can grab it over at DriveThruRPG.com. Highly recommended.)

Review: Shadowrun 5th Edition (Part I)

(Update: The PDF of the game is now out. You can grab it over at DriveThruRPG.com. Highly recommended.)

Shadowrun 5th edition, a new edition of the classic RPG. If you're a frequent reader you'll know it's one of my favourite settings and I'm a massive collector. Catalyst were kind enough to give me an advance copy of the PDF so I could review it for you all. So here we are.

It's a sizable review, for a sizable book, so I've split this review into two separate posts. This is part 1 and will concern itself with the first half or so of the book.

(Caveat: While I've been collecting and reading Shadowrun since it was first published and own almost everything in print, I have never run 4th edition. I also never finished reading the entirety of the 4th edition line despite owning them all. Therefore any rule comparisons to 4th and 20th Anniversary editions may be shaky. I've read the rules, but not run them.)

First off it's a big PDF. The copy I have is 489 pages and weighs in at 42.8mb. I've definitely seen larger filesize core rulebooks (Legend of the Five Rings I'm looking in your direction.) However for all it's size this PDF is well designed. It has bookmarks and the pages are very responsive, even on my tablet. Which is great as this is a full colour book.

The artwork in the book is mostly new. I noticed some reuse (the header art from the Combat chapter for instance is from the cover of Feral Cities, and a full page shot in the Matrix chapter is the cover of the fourth edition Matrix supplement. The art is mainly full colour though there are a few black and white line drawings through in for variety.

From a layout perspective the book is definitely more Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Edition than the relatively plain Shadowrun 4. It is mostly a two column style with consistent looking red bold for major headers and black bold in a smaller font for sub-headers. There is additionally white text on red sidebars and callout boxes. Tabular data is presented cleanly in grey boxes with yellow headers and white text with the rows consistently identified with alternating grey shades just like many spreadsheets. The predominant colour scheme is red, black and white, and it works. I like the layout, it's clean and the text doesn't bleed into the background at any point I noticed.

Layout example with subheaders, callout boxes, tables and example styles (note this is an abnormally busy page)

The same background image seems to be used for each white background page, seems to be a cityscape shot of Seattle, and the image is subtle and never interferes with the text. It's mainly there to provide some texture to the pages and works well as a backdrop.

The material of the book is split into 11 numbered sections, most preceded by a 4 page short story.

1. Life in the Sixth World
2. Shadowrun Concepts
3. Creating a Shadowrunner
4. Skills
5. Combat
6. The Matrix
7. Riggers
8. Magic
9. Gamemaster Advice
10. Helps and Hindrances
11. Streetgear

1- Life in the Sixth World

The first chapter gives an overview of the Shadowrun world as told by a fellow running set in the present. It covers the Shadowrun world in incredibly broad strokes covering topics such as Where to Run (incredibly brief overview of the entire geopolitical world), day to day life of a runner, analysis of a run, details on money, brief talk on the Matrix and the like. The section is well written but, it has to be said, it feels very short and lacking in any depth.

Surprisingly to me, doesn't include any real history. No mention of the Great Ghost Dance, Lone Eagle Incident or the like. It gives brief mention to UGE, date of the Awakening and mentions Dunklezhan was elected president, and then assassinated, but it fails to give real context to these items. I understand that the Shadowrun history has gotten very complex but the exclusion of any real discussion on the Native American uprising resulting in the NAN I'd imagine would leave a new player or GM scratching their head trying to figure how the world works. It's mentioned that Seattle is on its own in a sea of NAN, but no talk as to why.

What material is there however is well written. It's not dry and is presented in a pretty good, and sometimes amusing, manner. I guess it's a very brief overview and the setting would be explored more in later books, but it feels that this could have been meatier. However the game is likely being aimed at people who have more than a passing familiarity with the setting so for a rulebook it's not a great loss, though a couple pages of timeline would have been useful even if they weren't expanded upon.

2. Shadowrun Concepts

This is the section that gives an overview of the core dice mechanics and introduces you to the character attributes. It isn't a full exploration of the rules, you won't find any details on combat in here, just a concise description of the core mechanic.

And that core mechanic has changed a little from the 4th and 20th Anniversary editions. It's still a D6 system with 5 or 6s counted as hits. It's still a threshold based system with X successes needed. Glitches seem to be the same as 4th edition from what I can recall, or at least not changed significantly.

What has changed and is new if the concept of Limits. A limit is basically a rule that prevents someone from having too many successes in circumstances where something may limit them. For instance if you're firing a gun you will be limited to the number of successes (hits) you can have based on the accuracy of the weapon you're using. If your cheap gun only has an accuracy of 4, even if you're the best shot in the world you cannot under normal circumstances get more than 4 hits on a shot due to the equipment bring you down.

There are ways around these Limits using edge, buying better equipment etc but they do add a limiting factor into the mechanic, possibly to avoid the ridiculous successes that are possible when dice pools get large. They're what stops a weakling elf from benchpressing a Mitsubishi Jackrabbit just because he rolled well.

As mentioned the limits can be imposed by the equipment you're using, or in the case of a basic skill test, by your Physical, Mental or Social limit scores. These scores aren't really handled in this chapter but are calculated based on your stats and other factors (such as essence being a factor in the social limit score.)

I can understand that some may not like this new mechanic, and I'm sure it would be easy to ignore, but I quite like it. It adds more differences to equipment and characters.

They also introduce the concept of a standardized notation for tests that I can't help but be reminded of the Universal Task Profile from Megatraveller when I look at it. A sample of the general skill based success test given in the section to spot a detail is;

PERCEPTION + INTUITION [MENTAL] (2) TEST

How this breaks down is the Skill + Attribute being used, followed by the Limit (in this case your Mental limit score) then the number of hits required to pass. The final TEST indicates that this is a straight forward success test and not an opposed test which would look like;

SNEAKING + AGILITY [PHYSICAL] OPPOSED TEST

If they keep to this standard it will make published adventures and the like easy to determine the tests required (not that it was every really that difficult.)

The extended tests follow a similar format and the rules for these seem simple and elegant. The mechanic behind this doesn't seem to have changed from 20th Anniversary other than to add the Limit into the equation.

Teamwork tests again are similar to SR20A but the successfully helping player also raised the new Limit score by 1 in addition to the extra die they provide.

Edge makes a return as well with very similar rules. Again it seems possible for a high Edge character to dominate, especially on the Push the Edge use. This allows them to add their Edge rating into the dice pool, initiate the Rule of Six (which allows each 6 to generate an extra die roll) and ignore all limits. However while it's powerful I suppose a GM could be more discerning on when they allow such a player to regain Edge to prevent them dominating. I'd have to see how it plays out on the table.

Generally speaking I like the base rules presented here. The changes from SR20A and 4th are really around the Limits which again some people will love or hate.

3. Creating a Shadowrunner

First off Priority Purchase is back!!!! Yay. 

So in Shadowrun 4 and SR20A character generation was a points based system, well now it's gone back to the priority system we all know and love where you assign one of five slots to Race, Attributes, Skills, Magic/Technomancer ability and Resources. I'm going to reproduce the table here because this conversation will be easier (I hope Catalyst don't mind.) It's the same as that in Preview #3. Forgive the size and that it breaks my formatting but it's more important that you see it all.

So for priority generation for those who don't know, you allocate a single priority level to each of the five purchases. Some explanation is needed here as it differs from the previous versions in a couple of respects.

The number by the Metatype is the number of points you initially have to spend on Special Attributes. Special Attributes are Magic, Resonance and Edge. These points can only be spent on Magic or Resonance if you pick a priority for Magic or Resonance that grants you that in the first place. This actually leads to an interesting situation whereby if someone choose A as priority for a human and didn't want to be a Magician or Technomancer then they end up with more Special Attribute points than they can possibly spend on Edge alone. Edge (basically your luck skill) starts at 2 for humans and can go to 7 (8 with a quality picked later.) This means you can only use 6. Obviously you wouldn't pick that, but you can get into a strange situation if you're not careful.

The rest is relatively straightforward if you have any experience of Shadowrun. Attributes are how many points you get to spend on attributes, Skills are how many you get to spend on Skills with the number after the / indicating how many you get to spend on Skill Groups. It's not entirely clear from the text if the number to be spent on Skill Groups comes out of the former number or not, however the character generation examples clear this up.

Resources are the amount of nuyen (the cash in Shadowrun) you character gets to buy gear with before the game starts.

Magic or Resonance is where you pick if you are going to be a Technomancer (someone who can access the Matrix without any gear just the power of his/her mind) or some flavour of magic user. This splits down into full magician, mystic adept (someone who can cast spells and use magic to enhance their natural abilities), Adept (someone who uses magic to solely enhance their abilities) or Aspected Magician (a magic user who can only use one type of spell from Sorcery, Conjuration or Enchanting.) It's too complex to go into all the magic rules here, but this priority selection allows you to customize how powerful you wish your character to be in their area.

So the character generation chapter takes you the whole way through the generation process one step at a time in a relatively logical manner. Having a quick play through it myself I will say that because of the stepped approach, and the return to the priority system, character generation is much more rapid than in 4 or SR20A.  It's also much more focused. It's easy to pick qualities from the list in the chapter, determine your stats and follow the examples.

Ah the examples. During the character generation chapter you are guided through on each step the character generation of not one but three different characters. A Technomancer, a Street Samurai and a Mystic Adept. Every single step of the process ends with these three characters going through it and showing the results. This makes it much easier to follow than previous character gen examples in almost any game. They even show you the character sheets filled out at the end.

The unfortunate thing about the chapter however is there are a few mistakes in the tables and examples. Dwarves have lost thermgraphic vision, some of the examples are missing items either from the text or the resulting tables and the increase in lifestyle and equipment costs for a troll changes between 50 & 100% throughout the chapter. I've picked up from other forums that they are aware of these issues and a day 1 release errata PDF will be available to cover these issues. I'd imagine this PDF will be updated for the core book at some point in the near future.

The chapter ends with 16 sample characters that you could just pick from if you liked. These consist of the usual range of Shadowrun archtypes; Street Samurai, Covert Ops Specialist, Occult Investigator, Street Shaman, Combat Mage, Brawling Adept, Weapons Specialist, Face, Tank, Decker, Technomancer, Gunslinger Adept, Drone Rigger, Smuggler, Sprawl Ganger and Bounty Hunter. I must say though, I miss the Burnt Out Mage from previous editions.

All in all it's one of the best character generation chapters I've come across in a while in any RPG. There's nothing strange or particularly new in it from previous core rulebooks that I noticed, some qualities have changed (qualities are advantages and disadvantages you can pick) and I do like that having a valid SIN (System Identification Number) is actually considered a negative quality due to the tracking that comes with it.

4. Skills

The skills chapter is all about, well, skills. As expected it's mainly a list of all the official skills in the game, what they're used for and more information on each one. It goes into more detail on Skill Groups, using specializations in skills and the substitution system for if you don't have a particular skill you need. 

It details uses of certain skills, how to incorporate their use into games and introduces specific rules attached to some skills like Stealth, Swimming, Tracking, Survival, Social Influence skills etc. Also includes more details on languages

There's not much point going into much detail on this chapter, you know what to expect. Useful and highly referencable chapter, but not exactly the world's most exciting prose. It does the job though and the text is clear and not confusing. 

5. Combat

At first glance the combat system doesn't seem to have changed a huge deal. Combat still starts with a roll of initiative and characters acting in initiative order. At the end of the phase 10 is taken off all the Initiative scores and those with +ve scores left get to go again. Rinse and repeat.

Actions in combat are split into Free, Simple and Complex actions with a character getting a free and either two simple or one complex action in each initiative pass. Nothing new to see here.

Attacks consist of a roll to hit, a roll to avoid and then a roll for resisting the damage, just like SR20A. I wonder if there is any way to houserule that down to two rolls, one on each side as it feels like one roll too much to me. However this is the way it was previously and it seems to have worked out so I'll defer to those who've managed to play with the 4th and SR20A rulesets. 

Other than the occasional modifier change and the introduction of limits not a huge amount has been altered as far as the general flow of combat goes. There are obviously some changes though.

For burst fire instead of adding 2 damage to the damage dealt bursts reduce the defender's pool by 2 dice to avoid the attack.

Recoil has been to have more options and a greater range of progressive recoil through multiple shots. Recoil  continues to build action phase after action phase, turn to turn, until the character stops firing the weapon for a phase to bring it back under control (note this is for an individual action phase of the character, not a combat turn.)

Related to the recoil, semi-automatic weapons can only fire once in an action phase. In SR20A they could be fired twice, one for each possible simple action. As a result though SA weapons don't build recoil over time.

Grenade scatter has been made more granular with much less chance of them coming back towards the thrower. Previously if you missed there was a 50% chance it would come back in the thrower's general direction as it was a simple scatter based on a single die. Now it is a 2D6 roll with only a 1 in 6 chance of it coming back (2, 3, 11 or 12 on the roll) and the possibility of it now going sideways instead of past (4 & 10.)

Also speaking of grenades the "chunky salsa" effect, a grenade going off in tight confines, appears to have been increased considerably. This is due to the fact that grenade damage has been dialled up in general considerably. In SR20A a Frag grenade did 12P damage, in 5th it's 18P.

Onto armour, most of the rules are the same as previously but the big big change is gone are the differences between Ballistic and Impact armour. Now it's just a single armour rating. All previous versions of Shadowrun have featured this distinction but now they've simplified it down. Make of it what you will, but it can serve to make the system slightly simpler (though only slightly.)

If someone shoots at you you have two choices. You choose to just take it and get a Reaction + Intuition roll to try and avoid it (unless you couldn't see it coming) or you can take the option of taking a Full Defense. Full Defense however has changed considerably from SR20A rules.

In SR20A Full Defense was a complex action you could take if you were expecting to get shot at, and that was your action. In SR5 it's more reactionary. You can choose Full Defense at any point in the round as long as you still have an action to come. Under Full Defense you roll Reaction + Intuition + Willpower as your defense roll (bonus of Willpower.) You also get the Willpower bonus for the rest of the round. The cost, you immediately lose 10 points off your initiative. The effect of this is you don't always have to anticipate the need for a Full Defense, but you'll forgo some of your later actions as a result of the reduced initiative.

Some more options have been added for Called Shots and as a Called Shot you can now

• Knock an object out of someone's hands
• Perform a dirty trick combat manoeuvre
• Make a harder knock (turning a stun damage into a physical damage)
• Perform a melee knock down
• Trick shot (shoot a cigarette out of their mouth for instance) to increase intimidation checks afterwards
• Split damage between damage tracks (physical and stun,) only for physical attacks
• Shake the opponent by shooting past the ear, shoot by their foot etc
• Aim for the vitals to increase damage

One big change in the combat chapter however is examples. Yes there were examples in previous editions, but not to the extent that there is in SR5. In fact for the entire book their use of examples is fabulous. Almost every significant rule in the combat chapter either has its own example or is involved in one of the examples. I cannot stress enough how much of an improvement these are. While much of the actual rules text in the combat chapter is copy and paste from SR20A with some alterations, the examples are where you're happy they spent the extra effort in clarification.

Overall I like how combat is structured and it seems that after a few tries it should flow relatively smoothly. If you've played SR4 and SR20A it seems it will run more or less the same, just a few minor tweaks. Are they good tweaks? My instinct says yes, but as always not everyone will agree on that one.

So that ends part I of my 5th edition review. Come back for Part II shortly.

EDIT: Part II can be found here.

(Update: The PDF of the game is now out. You can grab it over at DriveThruRPG.com. Highly recommended.)

Review: Shadowrun - Sim Dreams and Nightmares

It's been a little while since I last did a review, but I've been reading a bit more again lately so I'll have more coming in the near future.

For this review we have the newest PDF only Shadowrun release, Sim Dreams and Nightmares (available as usual from DriveThruRPG.) Following in the lines of many of the other PDF only releases, Sim Dreams and Nightmares takes a single topic and gives it a nice expansion to flesh it out in the world. In this case we have the topic of Simsense, more specifically in the terms of simsense chips and related uses.

For those who aren't completely up on their Shadowrun technologies, Simsense is a tech that at it's most basic allows a person to live the experiences and sensory input of another in a situation. Mostly used in the entertainment area, simsense is popular in movies in that it can put you right in the action. Obviously it has also found a lot of popularity in the pornography industry as well.

Simsense at a basic level is completely legal throughout the Shadowrun world and is used by billions as part of their normal entertainment. However this supplement isn't dealing with that legal simsense. It's dealing with the darker side. Addictive sims, mood enhancers, BTLs (Better Than Life), persona chips and the like.

So what do we get in our PDF this time? Well we have 17 pages. These pages are broken down into

• Cover page - 1 page
• Obligatory JackPoint login page detailing upcoming files and some news from the setting (incidentally the date on this file is for 27 Dec 2074) - 1 page
• Two short stories - 2 pages
• Sinsense: The Ultimate Opiate (the meat of the supplement) - 9 pages
• Game rules and prices - 4 pages

So onto the content of each part. The cover I quite like, and it illustrates the subject relatively well. On one half you have a well to do ork in his finest snow ensemble skiing down a slope in some lovely mountains. His ski outfit appears to be partially a white suit, with bowtie and it looks like there are some people chasing him lending the suggestion that he could be a Bondesque character. The other half of the images is of a down and out ork with a cable running to his datajack, making skiing motions while dressed in a garbage bag in among dumspters in some dark alleyway. It's pretty well executed and I'm quite fond of it.

The JackPoint is pretty much as standard. Two callouts for upcoming products (Parazoology 2 & Storm Front) and a couple of in universe news items. Also a mention long time JackPoint contributor Turbo Bunny who is trying to clean up from doing chips (which is relevant to the meat of the PDF.)

The two short stories are appropriate to the topic at hand, but in all honesty I had a little trouble figuring out quite what they were referring to. I'm not sure why, maybe I'm missing something. I'll have to read them again.

For the main bulk of the book the information is presented, as usual, as a file uploaded to JackPoint and commented on by regulars. The file this time is being presented by Turbo Bunny who is going through the cleanup process after her fall into addiction and back out, and doesn't get the easiest time of it from the other posters. (For more information on Turbo Bunny check out 10 JackPointers, another of the PDF only releases.)

It delves into how governments and corporations can use simsense to help control the populace. There is discussion on how some forms of simsense can contain mental massagers to try and subconsciously influence people, and also discussion on how simsense can help people for rehabilitation and to assist with psychological issues.

Then we get into the types of chips, the ones that can be abused more by individuals.

First up is Moodchips, chips that you can slot to help set your mood level. Next is more discussion on the most common BTL type of chip, Dreamchips (where you can live someone else's life effectively) and tripchips (moodchips with other programming enhancements such as slowing down your perception, introducing other sensations and the like.)

Personasofts are another of the chips touched upon, where you can overlay another personality onto someone. Want to pick what personality your girl has in that Yakuza run Bunraku parlour? Well pick your girl, pick the personality from the menu, slot and go.

The text also touches on the dangers of the common skillsoft, including addiction and the inability to use your own skills even if they are better than the skills you can slot.

All in all this section could be expanded a little more, but the shadowtalk really helps to flesh it out and drops enough ideas that most GMs will get something from it.

For the rules pages we are presented with a selection of new advantages and disadvantages for character creation related to drugs, addiction and the like. This is followed up with advance addiction rules and the rules for going cold turkey. Following that are the addiction ratings and thresholds for the various drugs in the Shadowrun world, from chemical and Bio-Awakened Drugs (BAD) to simsense and magical fetish related items. Finally we have a list of the prices for the various simsense drugs.

Overall I really enjoyed this supplement. The subject matter is an interesting exploration of a small part of the Shadowrun world and it is well written. The shadowtalk within the articles is actually of a higher standard than usual and overall very entertaining, even if we never find out what happened to the sheep (you'll have to read it to find out, but /dev/grrl can be single minded sometimes.)

All in all I think it's a buy for the flavour it can add to your games and some great background for the setting. 4/5 chipheads. (Available from DriveThruRPG.)

Review: Delta Green Eyes Only

Delta Green: Eyes Only, is a book that has been out for a few years, but given that it has just been released in PDF format alongside the rest of the Delta Green books, I figured it was time to dig it out and give it a proper review.

Eyes Only is a collection of the original three Delta Green chapbooks released previously that were available only from Pagan Publishing themselves (see my other posting Delta Green Overview for more details on their release) plus a couple of adventures and a few appendices articles.

The three chapbooks that are reproduced here were all originally written by the excellent Dennis Detwiller.

1. Machinations of the Mi-Go: this gives an excellent overview of what the Mi-Go are like in the Delta Green setting expanding considerably on the information presented in the main rulebook. (30 pages)
2. The Fate: very detailed coverage on The Fate, a network/organization based on New York city that is intertwined with the worship and works of Nyarlathotep. This section of the book gives the keeper more than enough information to use The Fate in any game, on either side (because we all know Nyarlathotep isn't predictable.) This is definitely the best part of the book and is worth the purchase on it's own. (66 pages)
3. Project RAINBOW: This is based around the so called Philadelphia Experiment that was performed on the USS Eldridge in 1943 in an attempt to make it invisible to radar. The Eldridge was in fact made invisible, using Tillinghast radiation, but it also travelled outside of our dimensions for 20 minutes. When it returned over half the crew were dead and it was hushed up. Unfortunately Majestic-12 is still experimenting with the technology in the present day. (34 pages)

On top of these three chapbooks that are reproduced we have 3 full adventures, the first two again written by Dennis Detwiller and the third by Adam Scott Glancy.

• Artifact Zero is a full adventure for Delta Green agents around the events of Project RAINBOW. It is a very complex adventure but one that should be a memorable experience. If anyone wishes to run it there are some excellent resources on the web to assist in this. The Deep Background and Player Handouts both being very useful. 
• A Night on Owlshead Mountain was originally published in the re-issue of  Eyes Only Volume 1: Machinations of the Mi-Go, and as you can guess is about Mi-Go in a mountainous area. It concentrates on a hermit on Owlshead Mountain in Vermont who has been enhanced by the Mi-Go using their protomatter and the search for some missing surveyors in the area.
• Holy War is a scenario for experienced investigators concerning Delta Green, The Fate, everyone's favourite modern horror Y'golonac and New York in the months after September 11th as Delta Green wakes up to the new world they now operate in.

Rounding out the book are some small articles written by Dennis Detwiller and Shayne Ivey

• A short article on policing in turn of the century New York, most of which was made obsolete in the months after September 11th.
• Some miscellaneous, but very useful, short pieces on Delta Green tradecraft including
• Green Boxes
• Telephone Communications
• Interrogation rules
• Sanity costs for murder
• Hacking

All in all this is an excellent book. It is very like all the other Delta Green books in that it doesn't have a specific focus, but this turns out to be a strength meaning there is something for everyone. Like every other Delta Green book published, this one is of high production standards with writing quality that every other writer and publisher would be proud to put their name to. Definitely a must buy. It is available in hardcopy or in PDF from DriveThruRPG (where it is currently only $14.99 for 266 pages of Delta Green goodness.)

Review: The Ballad of Bass Rock for Call of Cthulhu

Over the last couple of years Cubicle 7 has surprised us all by releasing their Cthulhu Britannica line for Call of Cthulhu to great acclaim. Their most recent print publication for the line, Shadows Over Scotland, was very well received (I really need to finish reading that.) If you haven't read any of the line go and grab them, they're all available from DriveThruRPG in PDF format.

The Ballad of Bass Rock is an adventure for Shadows Over Scotland that was originally supposed to be contained in the original publication of Shadows Over Scotland, but was cut when the layout of the book resulted in the page count growing beyond what was planned. Cubicle 7 has now laid out this adventure and made it available for sale.

So what are we getting for our $3.99? First off the adventure is 14 pages. It is professionally laid out and looks like it would if it had been part of the original book. Except the adventure isn't really 14 pages. The first page is taken up by a cover with a nice enough faux oil painting of the island of Bass Rock, and the second page is completely taken up by the credits for the product and license information. So now we're down to 12 pages out of our 14. For $3.99 my feeling of value is already dropping fast here.

The adventure starts in a minorly contrived way, but hey we're Call of Cthulhu players we're used to that now, with the players on board a boat on a pleasure cruise off the coast of Scotland. A storm suddenly arises and smashes the boat on the rocks of Bass Rock. The players, and any surviving NPCs, are then faced with getting help and surviving the day on the rock.

Bass Rock is mainly a bird colony, and the only structures are a lighthouse, the ruins of an old castle and an even older chapel. Unfortunately it's only inhabitants at this point are 150,000+ birds and one huge shoggoth. The shoggoth has been here a couple of weeks, has devoured the lighthouse keeper and the crew sent to find out why they hadn't heard from him. It has also been pulling dolphins and orcas out of the sea and leaving their rotting remains in the castle ruins.

The only real objective of the adventure is to survive and try and contact the mainland to get help.

The bulk of the 0 pages of the adventure are taken up with descriptions of the NPCs involved and descriptions of the locations on the island. The NPCs, two crew members and a newly wed couple, are given sufficient information to be interesting characters in themselves and there is certainly enough information to make them memorable NPCs for the players. Unfortunately there are no illustrations of the NPCs.

Most of the description concerns the lighthouse, and it is fairly thorough. Descriptions of each floor of the lighthouse and what can be found on each floor is very helpful in bringing life to the locations.

All in all the adventure is very basic but could be fun as an introduction to Call of Cthulhu. It will provide a challenge as it is unlikely that the players will find any way to kill the shoggoth, so other solutions need to be considered. I will likely find myself using the adventure at some point.

Finally at the end the last 2 pages consist of reproductions of the handouts already contained in the text, and a plot map table. Considering how short the adventure already is for the money, spending nearly two pages reproducing the handouts again feels like a complete waste. Since this is PDF only we can easily print whatever pages we like and cutout the handouts as needed. I understand this is normal laidout process for an RPG adventure, but in this already short product it feels like padding and a reduction in the value for money.

Overall I don't think this is value for money. $3.99 is simply too much for what amounts to a 10 page adventure and this really should have been made available for free on the website for Shadows Over Scotland. So I can't recommend it from a value perspective.

From an adventure perspective it's enjoyable if a bit short. Not exactly the best adventure out there, but adequate for the size. It is however the kind of adventure you'd expect to see in a magazine or as a free download on a website rather than a sold product. If it had been included in Shadows Over Scotland it would have been fine, but here it's a little lacking. Maps of the lighthouse, ruins and chapel would have been appreciated, but aren't necessary.

Tablets for PDFs: Nexus 10 Review

(UPDATE: Please note the performance figures in this article have been updated due to configuration changes I made in the software. See Tablets for PDFs: Update on Nexus 10 Review for more accurate figures.)

So as I mentioned before my Nexus 10 arrived on Thursday (it's now early Saturday morning as I write this.)  So I've had a day or two to play with it, but not really enough time to really sit with it and read a lot.

First impressions, this is a pretty neat tablet. It's fast, responsive and the screen really is to die for. My experience on the Retina screen iPads is limited but this is as good if not better (though I can't quantify that better.)

However we're not concentrating here on the review of the tablet as a whole. If you've used a modern Android tablet then you should know what to expect from it and it does all those things. What I'm going to concentrate on here is how good is the device for reading PDFs.

Point of comparison, I have a first generation iPad with the lower resolution screen (1024 x 768.) I never found this really useful for reading PDFs on due to the low resolution. Sure it was good for some larger font books, but unless you wanted to zoom it wasn't ideal.

The Nexus 10 has a 10.1" screen boasting 2560 x 1600 resolution, so over twice the original iPad. It is a widescreen (16:10) rather than the iPad's 4:3 screen. So what does this mean? It means that the screen in portrait mode (I'm going to do most of this in portrait mode as that's a more natural mode for reading PDFs) is much taller than the iPad's, but about 1/2 inch narrower (5 3/8" versus the iPad's 5 7/8".) As a result if you read a regular PDF on this you will get the black bars at the top and bottom unless you zoom.

For most of my tests I used very large and heavy PDFs to try it. I used those with the smallest font I could find and the most graphical umph to them. So the Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition PDFs were perfect.

On my first gen iPad the L5R books were readable if you squinted due to the lack of resolution of the screen. Zooming to remove the margins made it more bearable, but unless you zoomed into just a single column of text I would find myself getting a headache in short order.

On the Nexus 10 I find the PDFs readable without zooming. Yes the text may appear small to some people, but for my eyesight (I don't wear any corrective lenses at all for reference) I find it readable but almost right on the smallest size for me. If I zoom to remove the margins then it's perfect for me. Of course this varies with PDF, for example all my Shadowrun PDFs are perfectly readable without issue straight off with no zooming. The L5R PDFs however look absolutely gorgeous and the text is pinpoint sharp with the 300DPI screen showing what it can do and doing it perfectly.

Clip in full camera resolution to show sharpness of the text in unzoomed mode. Strongholds of the Empire.

As far as performance goes, it's adequate. Remember that this tablet is throwing around more pixels and graphical output than any other tablet on the market so I expect a slight performance hit. I'm using ezPDF on the Nexus 10 for my tests as in my experience it is the best PDF reader on the Android OS (I would use GoodReader on the iOS.)

Using the Strongholds of the Empire PDF for L5R again I was getting adequate performance. If I was reading a page at a time and I have the Cache the Next Page turned on (on by default I believe) it could take less than 2 seconds to turn to the next page. If I'm flicking through the pages quickly, or I jump to another page not adjacent to the one I was last on, it could take up to 5 second to turn depending on the complexity of the page it was going to.

Comparison of the same page on both the POD and PDF on Nexus 10 copies of Strongholds of the Empire

Full shot of a page from Strongholds of the Empire to show readability and how it looks on the screen

So the Strongholds PDF is one of the heaviest PDFs I own. Trying out other PDFs for comparison.

(UPDATE: Please note the performance figures in this article have been updated due to configuration changes I made in the software. See Tablets for PDFs: Update on Nexus 10 Review for more accurate figures.)

• Black Crusade 40K RPG Rulebook - Another very heavy PDF. Perfectly readable with no zooming. Performance: When cached up to 2 seconds. Not cached up to 4 seconds. (a side note on this it is often an issue on 40K RPG PDFs on the iPad that images don't always appear due to their types and the layering. However I experienced no such issues on the Nexus 10.)
• Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Rulebook - Moderately heavy PDF in some places, but reasonably well optimized straight off. Completely readable. Cached up to 2 seconds. Not cached up to 4 seconds.
• Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - A large PDF (almost 130 mb), perfectly readable. Cached up to 2 seconds. Uncached up to 4 second, but often only around the 3 second mark.
• Mongoose Traveller Alien Module 1: Aslan - Much lighter PDF than the others on this list. Very readable. Cached up to 2 seconds. Uncached up to 3 seconds. This one did perform noticeably better than the others on the list, probably due to the lack of layers and less graphic intensity.

Personally I find those performance figures quite usable, and while they may be considered slightly slow by some they're fine for me.

Note that this review was done using the PDFs straight from the publisher as they come. If you were to use a PDF editing program to remove the margins you could make it even more legible. Also most PDF reading programs for tablets come with a crop feature, some allowing a different crop on odd and even pages (both GoodReader for the iPad and ezPDF on the Android allow this) which would allow you to only have the pages show the text columns automatically which again increase the readability.

Overall the 1/2 inch difference between the iPad and this shouldn't be a factor unless your eyesight is poor, so on that scale I can only recommend the Nexus 10. If you have a current generation iPad with Retina screen then there is no reason to by the Nexus 10 for PDF reading, you won't gain anything by switching. If however you are in the market for a table to mainly read PDFs on, and possibly do other media consumption, then I can highly recommend the Nexus 10. It's $100 cheaper than the iPad for each capacity level. If you like Android then it's a no brainer. If you want to pay the extra then the iPad is an excellent piece of hardware and seems very suited to reading PDFs. Though I haven't tried it I believe it's possible that GoodReader on the latest gen iPad may shave some off time off the Nexus 10 performance figures. 

The only real downside to the Nexus 10 is its availability. Currently I believe it's only available direction from Google and the stock is low. I find myself lucky that I've been able to get one as they keep selling out when they're made available. That should fix itself in the coming months, but likely not until after the new year. 

Review: Shadowrun Parabotany

Shadowrun: Parabotany is one of the line of PDF only supplements being released by Catalyst for the Shadowrun 4th Edition line. The PDF was actually released back in April 2012, but despite picking it up shortly after it came out, I just didn't look at it and it has languished in my collection ever since. Recently I decided to pull it up and give it a read.

As you may expect from the name, this supplement covers awakened flora in the sixth world. At this point some of you are probably thinking "Oooo, magic plants, big deal." I must say the thought crossed my mind as well when I first picked it up with the added "what possible use could I have for this, it's probably even less use than the military equipment catalogues in my game." How wrong I was. This may seriously be one of the most useful of the PDF only supplements to date.

So what do you get for your money. Well you get a 51 page PDF with the image of a car driving into an awakened tumbleweed on the cover. This is followed by the now familiar Jackpoint page.

After this is the meat of the product, lots of pages on plants (still boring you say, well it isn't.) This is split into subsections

• 27 pages of Paranormal Plants - new plants discovered in the sixth world that weren't in the fifth
• 5 pages of Blighted Plants - awakened plants that have been corrupted by their environment or turned toxic
• 2 pages of Mutant Plants - mutant members of regular fifth world plants
• 3 pages of Engineered Plants - plants that have been developed by the corporations for security purposes
• 4 pages of Botanical Advances - details on new advances in plants (yes really) and information on new forms of plant based alcohols and drinks
• 7 pages of Game Rules - information on the new abilities and powers of some of the plants, information on creating your own awakened flora, information on various plant based magical compounds, paints and drugs
• Plant index - an index to all plants in this PDF, plus those plants detailed in other 4th edition supplements

Still doesn't sound like much, well it's hard to get into the details as to why this is so useful. Each of the sections contains interesting plants that can be used to both add colour to the world of Shadowrun, and to surprise your players with. An example from each section

• Paranormal Plants - Sleeping Willow - A willow tree that has the ability to record what happens around it. If you sleep under the tree then you will dream in great detail of a random day around the tree. Incidentally recently the Corporate Court ruled that recordings made by the tree and played back in someone's dream, is not admissible as evidence
• Blighted Plants - Gomorrah Apple Tree. An apple tree where the consumption of its fruit starts a rapid petrification process in the eater. Once paralyzed the tree extrudes tendrils that then such the life essence out of the unfortunate victim
• Mutant Plants - Dropping Pine. What seems like a normal pine tree that defends itself from being attacked or chopped down by weakening branches so they fall off onto the person below
• Engineered Plants - Thornblades. A grass with stems consisting of small wooden pikes that can be placed among regular grass and are capable of piercing the soles of most regular footwear

This is just a taste, but the supplement is surprisingly useful for almost any game. Even a deep shadows game set in Shadowrun will find some use inside, even if it is only the plant based compounds and the security engineered plants. I highly recommend Parabotany.

Parabotany can be purchased from DriveThruRPG for $7.99.

Review: Never Unprepared - The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep

I've recently finished reading through Phil Vecchione's, Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep, and now that I'm finished, it's review time.

Never Unprepared is 134 pages long in what appears to be a large digest format (I only have the PDF version, not the print copy.) This short length of the book, plus the easy writing style, make it very accessible and easy for even a busy GM to read and get something out of. Additionally since the pages are in a smaller format, it's easy to read on a smartphone or small screen tablet.

Screenshot taken from DriveThruRPG for illustration purposes

First off lets go over what this book is not. This book is not a plan to tell you how to do your session prep. It will not say you should do X and Y before a game, and will not solve all the problems that you have in getting preparation done before your game.

So, what is it? I've never seen one before, no one has, but I'm guessing it's a white hole. Sorry, been watching too much Red Dwarf lately (if you've never seen the series it's a BBC sitcom set on a deep space mining vessel, and the early seasons are really good.)

So, what is it? Well Never Unprepared is a book that takes some project management principles (don't worry, it's not scarey) and attempts to apply them to the art of game mastering. Effectively treating the approach to game prep the same way one would a project plan for a large project. Yes this may sound daunting, but don't worry it's all distilled down in the book. The aim of the book is to provide you with a means of developing your own method of gaming prep that is repeatable and honed to suit your gaming needs and your GMing strengths and weaknesses.So the book doesn't tell you how to prep your games, it tells you how to go about working out how is best for you to prep for your games.

I'm going to borrow from the index now to guide you through the book contents.

• Foreword
• Introduction
• How to Use This Book
• Understanding Prep
• Prep is Not a Four Letter Word
• The Phases of Prep
• Brainstorming
• Selection
• Conceptualization
• Documentation
• Review
• Prep Toolbox
• Tools for Prep
• Mastering your Creative Cycle
• Evolving Your Style
• Your Personal Prep Templates
• The Prep-Lite Approach
• Prep in the Real World
• Conclusion
• References and Inspiration
• Index

The core content of the book is explaining the five phases of prep that Phil has identified over his years of GMing. Brainstorming, Selection, Conceptualization, Documentation and Review. Each of the sections on that particular area of prep goes into details on what would be contained in that phase, some common pitfalls to avoid, and a quiz to rate your effectiveness at the particular phase. Additionally there are a load of hints and tips along the way on how you may be able to accomplish this phase without telling you how to do it (in other words it doesn't dictate a methodology.)

For example the section on brainstorming suggests just throwing ideas down on paper that seem vaguely interesting. Don't think about them in great detail, don't analyze whether or not they'd be useful or how you can use them, just basic thoughts. Deciding if they're good comes in the Selection phase, and fleshing them out in Conceptualization. Some hints on capturing your brainstorming, such as always having a note application on your smartphone, or a small notebook tucked in your pocket.

There is advice on how you can improve what you do in each section, and how to spot when you are doing too much. For instance are you really good at coming up with evocative location descriptions on the fly? Then you really shouldn't be wasting your time writing it out in more than a bullet point or two to keep a focus.

Yes some of the advice in the book may see obvious to many, but sometimes you still need someone to point it out to you to make it stick in your mind.

It's hard to pick out specifics that are good, and what is bad, but there is so much useful ideas in the book that I'll end up taking on a lot of them and most won't even be conscious. From that perspective you can get more out of the book that you think. In many ways it's a self help book to give you the push towards thinking in a more efficient way about the approach you take to gaming prep.

 Conclusion: Is this a book worth reading for any GM? If you find you're not ready in time for your games, or that the gaming prep is taking too much of your time and you consider it sometimes to be time wasted, then definitely buy this book. In fact I'd recommend buying it anyway as even the most experienced Game Masters will likely find something in there that is useful to them. Myself, I'm taking the templates concepts and applying them into my notes, it's already improved things. And since reading the book, I now use Evernote on my smartphone constantly to enter ideas and carry a small notebook in my jacket pocket.

So go over to DriveThruRPG and pick up a copy today. It's not that expensive and it could well help.