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Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 5411419" data-attributes="member: 5948">To be honest the whole section smells to me more of sheer ineptitude on the part of the writer rather than any sort of agenda.  It's just very, very poorly written, and because of that it's really hard to decide whether the intent behind it is actually offensive or not.Is the site only dangerous on the astral plane, or in the physical world as well?  What influence/impact does the haunting of the camp have on the actual modern living town of Oswiecim which surrounds it on two sides?  How on earth are pcs meant to find out about the scalpel, and what would they want it for?  Will the PCs REALLY have to fight through the ghosts of death-camp victims?  Is the scalpel even in the physical world, and if so, how has it not long since been discovered, when the site has been combed by countless historians, curators, researchers, tourists, and war crimes investigators for decades and pretty much every artifact catalogued?   As written this is a deeply conventional old-school D&D-style kick-down-the-door-and-see-what-we-can-loot dungeon in a setting that really should be relatively free of such things.  I mean jeez, there's even what is basically ye olde magic shoppe sitting out the front for use of PCs to tool up for ghost-fightin' before they kick the door in.   And there's certainly no mention of laying spirits to rest, learning information, contacting the spirits of ancestors, or any other possible plot- or character-related motivation that the PCs might have for going to the place - it's loot the scalpel or nothing.  It's a really bad fit for Shadowrun, quite aside from anything else.  The whole place seems to only exist in the game world for the purposes of housing the scalpel, and that's what gets to me the most.  I find it nasty and cheap - the lack of research, empathy, and even interest in the history or facts of the site except for 'we can get a cool magic knife here dude!' doesn't paint the writer in a good light.  It comes across as really immature and juvenile in approach, actually, when addresssing a subject that needs to be covered with maturity and sensitivity if at all in a gaming book.  Say what you like about White Wolf's Shoah sourcebook, they at least tried to give the reality of the holocaust a bit of respect, though your mileage may vary as to whether they succeeded or not, or even whether it should have been attempted.   This book comes across as simply not giving a damn.</blockquote>

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