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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 2872536" data-attributes="member: 363">I only ever had first edition. Loved the premise and setting, didn't care for the system. I dig the main conceit - that the Mayan calendar was essentially correct, and the real world and spirit world will merge together around 2014. The resurgence of magic and the reappearance of creatures once thought to be completely legendary was fantastic. What I didn't dig was the "chummer" speak, which got to be almost as bad as Planescape's "cant." Everyone was hipper than thou, supposedly, but more often came across as trying way too hard to be cool, rather than actually being cool. This was pretty much embodied in Elmore's cover art - Elmore can do great work, but his covers for Shadowrun and Dark Conspiracy are among his worst. They simply don't capture the feel of the settings they're for very well.Somehow the book managed to evoke a distinct feel. I was never a big fan of cyberpunk as a genre itself, but SR managed to add a new twist to it and make a genre unto itself. I have a number of supplements for the game. The two monster books, Paranormal Animals of North America, and the one for Europe, are decent enough critter books, though they don't ever seem to spark into greatness. Sprawl Sites is a halfway decent collection of adventure hooks and mini-encounters, but the cartography pales beside what is seen in similar books more recently released.Something I really dug about SR was a very simple thing - the stats for typical NPCs the PCs might encounter - talismongers, metroplex guards, etc - which could be tweaked to the GMs taste. They included more of these in some later supplements, like Sprawl Sites. As an aside, I was really happy to see d20 Modern included such stat blocks in the core book as well as the Menace Manual.Speaking of d20 Modern, it seems like WotC tried to do something like "d20 Shadowrun" in Urban Arcana. In my opinion, it just doesn't quite work.</blockquote>

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