Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Senko on <04-19-14/1623:07>
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I wish there was more source material on Japan (especially 5th edition stuff). That hopeful poke to future content out of the way I'm intrigued by its mention of something slowly rising from underneath Tokyo that's so horrible even the HMVV sufferers and spirirts are running scared.
Anyone have any ideas about what it might be that devours from beneath and whether it had anything to do with why Ryumu is so careful about construction and the leylines there?
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Godzilla
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I doubt it, hes more an unstoppable force of destruction as opposed to devouring.
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I wish there was more source material on Japan (especially 5th edition stuff).
Like, two books have come out. Give us time to write things. ;)Godzilla
I doubt it, hes more an unstoppable force of destruction as opposed to devouring.
Also, I think he is in North America now, and a recipient of Dunkie's Will. ;D
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Oh don't worry I'll give you time . . . Are you done yet? . . . Are you done yet? . . . Are you done yet? ;D
Seriously I'm happy to wait for a proper sourcebook (and I know if one does come it'll be awhile as there's more important stuff to come out first) I'm just interested in that country and there's not a lot out there on it except these tantalizing hints of things so I figured I'd at least indicate that there is one person interested in stuff on it when you get around to doing city/country specific suppliments.
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Oh don't worry I'll give you time . . . Are you done yet? . . . Are you done yet? . . . Are you done yet? ;D
Seriously I'm happy to wait for a proper sourcebook (and I know if one does come it'll be awhile as there's more important stuff to come out first) I'm just interested in that country and there's not a lot out there on it except these tantalizing hints of things so I figured I'd at least indicate that there is one person interested in stuff on it when you get around to doing city/country specific suppliments.
Be lucky you have as much as the Neo-Tokyo chapter in CE and the Japan chapter of Shadows of Asia. For the first 15 years of Shadowrun there was nothing on Japan (not counting the Japanese translator/publisher's Japan sourcebook, which took an axe to SR canon) except for the occasional reference. That said, if you haven't yet you can always check out SoA, even if it's an older book.
Setting books aren't big sellers and it's a big-ass world. It took 22 years and me being a bit of a pest for an update on DeeCee. But it's not as big a priority as other locations, especially Seattle since it's the default/home setting. New York City/Manhattan also seems like a damn important city that's only been updated a couple of times. I mention that because it and Boston are actually going to get coverage because of their relevance to certain products (Boston is where SR Online is set).
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I know what you mean, Crimson. It's a shame to me that they aren't big sellers, because I love to use the info in there to give my runners opportunities to explore the world. Still, I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at fudging things enough that they don't know that the material didn't come from a source book.
The thing I'm easily the most impressed about with these setting books is how spot-on accurate the cultural and geographical information is. I mean, from predicting which social structures will rise to power, which will fall, to how an earthquake might affect a whole city... just beautiful analysis and prediction.
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Hmm I'll look for shadows of Asia and see what its like. Still curious about what might be lurking down there.
Maybe they could be convinced to do a world book. Ch1 General timeline info and relations between groups. Ch2 America. Ch3 Asia. Ch4 Afrika. Ch5 Middle East. Ch6 Europe. Ch7 Antartica. Ch8 Oceans. Ch9 Orbitals and deep space. Ch10 Hazardrous zones. Chapter 11 cyberculture.
Not as good for me as Japan would be part of one chapter but probably a better seller than a setting specific book and the chapters could give details on how attitudes to various events differed in different cultural groups and the like especially if it was sized like the core book at 400 odd pages. You could even have maps showing political boundaries and the like for each continent and a world Atlas at the front.
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You mean like the Sixth World Almanac from 4th edition?
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Maybe, as I haven't heard of that I can't say but the name sounds promising.
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Even as a long time player, I only have about 80% of all the books... (and that is going from 1e to 5e)
Sadly, like Crimson and Canray said, "fluff" books don't sell overly well :( which is a real shame, cause this is where some of the freelancers really shine!!)
As for Japan.... : "predijuce, mixed with superiority, dashed with fear" sums them up pretty well :P
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A bit strange that Japan has never got heavy coverage since, y'know, Japanophilism is one of the big backdrops to cyberpunk.
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You can use the older books. While the setting has been updated with 5th edition, not all older material is invalidated. In fact, most of it is still usable. And you should consider the lack of material not a problem, but a challange. If there's nothing (or not much) background on a location, you can play there without the rule lawyers amongst your players going 'that's not correct', because you make the setting yourself. It's a bit more work, I grant you that, but it can be very rewarding.
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Maybe, as I haven't heard of that I can't say but the name sounds promising.
Here's links to the PDF on Drive Thru (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/81942/Shadowrun-Sixth-World-Almanac) and BattleShop (http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_187_239&products_id=2530). RPGNet has a review (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15027.phtml) as well.
If I could recommend a single fluff supplement book for SR, that'd be it. The title might not be great, and there are some serious errors here and there. (Not sure if the errors were ever corrected in the pdf, I own the dead tree version.) But overall, I think it's one of the best fluff books. Between the expanded timeline and the country snapshots, you can get a good overview of SR. That said, it's a fairly high level view and details are missing. Also, there are a ton of potential plot hooks all over the place.
-Ariketh
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It really is a shame because it was the SR fluff that hooked me on the setting decades ago. The fluff is where I think Shadowrun survived because the world was so well thought out and the Shadowtalk format created a sense of intimacy that wasn't present in other books around the same time.
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That hopeful poke to future content out of the way I'm intrigued by its mention of something slowly rising from underneath Tokyo that's so horrible even the HMVV sufferers and spirirts are running scared.
Anyone have any ideas about what it might be that devours from beneath and whether it had anything to do with why Ryumu is so careful about construction and the leylines there?
Probably the same thing that eats the spirits the eggheads in LA keep sending into the Lacuna. Wouldn't surprise me if, down there, they found signs of an alchera... with an old Enemy formerly trapped inside now looking to get out...
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NEVER ENUFF FLUFF!!!
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NEVER ENUFF FLUFF!!!
HEAR HEAR!!!! :D
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A bit strange that Japan has never got heavy coverage since, y'know, Japanophilism is one of the big backdrops to cyberpunk.
Shadowrun wrote itself into a corner early on, ad it took quite some time to work itself out of it.
In the early fiction and fluff, the Japanacorps were everywhere, and involved with everything. Half the original "Big" AAA Megas were Japananese, and they had a major influence on the world (reflecting the late 80's belief that Japanese business dominance would continue). Hence, Nuyen. And there was a lot of little Japanese phrases and slang that were commonplace in the fiction as well.
But Japan itself was written as this hardcore, imperialistic, completely racist (to both gaijin and especially any metahuman), and totally corporate dominated. There wasn't any ROOM to actually play a game set in Shadowrun shy of playing a team that was completely human and completely loyal to one corp and worked exclusively for them.
Over the years, and especially with Year of the Comet, we tried to shake that up and loosen it up a bit. A couple corps moved away from Japan (or fell apart, like Fuchi), and a new Emperor with a different outlook rose to power. This loosened the corporate stranglehold a little and relaxed the racism a bit. It's still not the best place to run though.
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FWIW, Storm Front has an update on the Japancorps in it, including some implications about Japan as a whole.
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ALso? If I could talk them into it, I'd write books that were nothing *but* fluff.
For reals.
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ALso? If I could talk them into it, I'd write books that were nothing *but* fluff.
For reals.
I'd say "good luck" but I'd be sarcastic. Judging from the Freelancer posts here, it seems like fluff would be a lot of fun to write (and for some of us, to read) but it doesn't sell very well at all. Therefore, it's unlikely to happen. What I do like though is the push toward "enhanced fiction" which includes game-legal items, NPCs, qualities, etc. This is, of course, in addition to the fluff. So a book that is 99% fluff will still sell better because that 1% of crunch.
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Yeah, the crunch is what moves product, sadly. Still, even that part's fun to write, sometimes! Just no as fun as the fluff. :D
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[Threadhijack]
As I said in another thread, the realities of that make me sad. I love buying fluff books and reading them. Arguably, I spend more time reading Shadowrun fluff than I do playing. It's a slight sore spot that my SR GMs ignore the fluff to do their own thing. For once, I'd like to take part in/witness/stop canon events. Or play in some of the modules. It especially hurts, because they are awesome SR GMs. If they sucked as GMs, I'd just fine new ones that used canon fluff more.
Le sigh.
[/Threadhijack]
-Ariketh