Recommend me a few Shadowrun 4E Books

[Wik]

I do notice that most of the really usable cyber and bioware comes straight outta the core book. Augmentation adds a lot of neat stuff, but it doesn't really invalidate the core book stuff.

Brad

Hm. I haven't used Augmentation, so I wouldn't know. But I have noticed a sort of trend in the later products to encourage hyper specialization, and there are SR builds that are so insanely crazy that Pun Pun would be proud.

Personally, I think the biggest problem with SR4 isn't really the rules, though, but the world itself. It's become very detailed and confusing, and I think it needs to have some of that complexity stripped away. It's very intimidating for newcomers.

 

[Shades of Green]

If you're interested in using Chicago, which is still messed up significantly so long after Bug City (and there are still bugs there!), then you want Feral Cities as a good resource for it. I do believe that Chicago is the most-detailed city in SR, after Seattle, of course.

Well, is it still some kind of a blockaded (or semi-blockaded) area ala the S.T.A.L.K.E.R 'Zone' as it was presented in Bug City? If so, I might end up buying Feral Cities...

Running Wild has critters, normal, para-, and cyber- (feral AIs!). And lotsa stuff on funky spirits, too.

Bug spirits too?

 

[Nifft]

Street Magic has some good stuff, but also a bunch of bad stuff. On balance IMHO it's worth your money, but I recommend you read through it and add specific things rather than just allowing everything into your game. My recommendation is to not allow the new traditions, and just let the Hermetic and Shamanic traditions gain access to a new spirit type or two... after you play with the core traditions for a while. Spirits are powerful and complicated enough in the Core rules. You won't need new ones for quite some time.

Bug Spirits, and some other proto-horrors (like Wraiths), appear in Street Magic.

Same deal with Runner's Companion. There are some nice options in there, but there's also a lot of pointless stuff, and some stuff which should be thrown away. Read and selectively add, or let someone in your group read and recommend specific additions. Free Spirits merit their own discussion: they are either horribly broken or terribly underpowered, depending on how you read the Force rule. If I allow those, I'll be re-writing their rules from scratch.

Arsenal and Augmentation are decent. For the former, some of the rules are underpowered (like martial arts), but underpowered is not a problem so long as you're aware of it. Some of the equipment is overpowered, especially if you're using antagonists straight out of the books.

I read through Unwired, but I didn't see how those rules would add to my game, so I didn't even try them in play. Recommend ignoring entirely.

Cheers, -- N

 

[pawsplay]

I'm pretty happy with Street Magic and Augmentation. I actually like the new traditions in Street Magic and the level of flexibility there.

I like the idea of the Runner's Companion, but until I have an active group, it's hard to justify it, especially since it would take a while to exhaust the more normal options before really needing some of the odder concepts. I might buy it for a more world-changing campaign.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Well, is it still some kind of a blockaded (or semi-blockaded) area ala the S.T.A.L.K.E.R 'Zone' as it was presented in Bug City? If so, I might end up buying Feral Cities...

Barricaded? No, a couple of years after Bug City Ares and the Army went in with insecticide and some astral bacteria and wiped out most of the bugs (obviously, not all). The walls are mostly gone, but it's still an anarchic hellscape.

One of the more amusing bits from Feral Cities was that the University of Illinois at Springfield offered, as a graduate non-thesis option, their veterinary students and ROTC cadets to go safeguard a herd of deer on Northerly Island.

I'm unaware of any quarantined area like the aforementioned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. one. Crater Lake in Tir Tairngire is quarantined off by the Tir military, but they're not going to send a bunch of humans in, despite how disposable the elves think they are.

Bug spirits too?

Yup!

 

[Shades of Green]

Barricaded? No, a couple of years after Bug City Ares and the Army went in with insecticide and some astral bacteria and wiped out most of the bugs (obviously, not all). The walls are mostly gone, but it's still an anarchic hellscape.

One of the more amusing bits from Feral Cities was that the University of Illinois at Springfield offered, as a graduate non-thesis option, their veterinary students and ROTC cadets to go safeguard a herd of deer on Northerly Island.

I'm unaware of any quarantined area like the aforementioned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. one. Crater Lake in Tir Tairngire is quarantined off by the Tir military, but they're not going to send a bunch of humans in, despite how disposable the elves think they are.

What I like about the original Bug City is that it has SO many opportunities for a 'sandbox' - gangs, looting corporate assets left in the quarantine zone, fighting bugs, establishing your own turf/faction and so on. I might just change the timeline to make the Bug City debacle erupt in 2072; or I could simply use the SR4 rules to play it back in the 2050's (and just ret-con 2072s tech to the 2050's).

 

[Thanee]

Hey Shades of Green,

are you looking at buying actual books only?

Asking, because the PDFs of the five Core Rulebooks (that is, Street Magic, Arsenal, Augmentation, Unwired, and Runner's Companion) are only $12 each in PDF (www.battlecorps.com - which is the official online store for CGL; you have to look closely, though, there are some older edition books mixed into the lists also). The SR4A book (20th Anniversary Rulebook, the Main Rulebook in its latest incarnation, which changes quite a few things under the hood, and is a very nice book overall) is only $15 in PDF.

I would definitely recommend getting the full set here, eventually, as they all integrate together. Though, Unwired is the one that you could skip the easiest (using only the basic Matrix rules, which are quite complex already, from the Main Rulebook -- if those seem to be lacking something for you, then you might want to take a closer look at Unwired).

Street Magic and Arsenal are pretty much must-haves. Augmentation and Runner's Companion are close.

Those are the first four books I would get, when I only had the main SR4 book, yet.

Running Wild, if you like having a larger amount of Critters to choose from, makes sense. I'm not using it much, though. It's not like D&D where you really need a variety of monsters as opposition. Most of the opponents in SR are metahumans after all.

Other than that, I think getting some setting books will be the most useful.

Seattle 2072 and/or Runner Havens for example. Both are good books, especially Seattle 2072 (if you want to use the iconic SR setting, that is).

If you are not a SR history buff, the Sixth World Almanac might also be worth a look. It's a bit shallow (i.e. not very detailed, especially when it comes to the geographic parts), though it does offer a good overview.

From future releases (coming soon), Attitude (Sixth World culture) is a nice addition. Runner's Toolkit might be useful as well.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Shades of Green]

Hmmm... Some of the books I *could* probably live with as PDF, especially stuff I won't refer to often (or refer to only when prepping).

The only books I need in print are ones I'm going to refer to very often; maybe Street Magic?

Feral Cities, Arsenal, Sixth World Almanac and Running Wild I can probably live with as PDF.

Your opinions on this will be welcome.

 

[Nifft]

The only books I need in print are ones I'm going to refer to very often; maybe Street Magic?

Feral Cities, Arsenal, Sixth World Almanac and Running Wild I can probably live with as PDF.

I have Street Magic as a PDF and it's great in that format. I can cut & paste antagonist stats, and I put all the approved new spells & meta-magics on our private wiki.

6th World Almanac, on the other hand, has a nice big fold-out world map. I pick it up whenever I need inspiration (... or for toilet reading). Having that in hard-copy has served me well.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nyarlathotep]

If you are looking at getting them on PDF, I'd recommend staying away from Battlecorps for the purchase. You're much better off getting them at DTRPG.com instead. At DTRPG you get download links that don't expire and if you happen to miss an update to the PDF, you can grab it at your leisure. With Battlecorps, if you don't get your updated PDF within something like 14 days (maybe 30), tough. You can't redownload it until another update comes out.