[Sichr]

Yeah. Like every Nadja Daviar was born as a woman

[Crimsondude]

Yeah. Like every Nadja Daviar was born as a woman

This.


But, no, Dr. Catherine Sharon is a woman. Or at least she was last we saw her in Corporate Intrigue.

[CanRay]

But, no, Dr. Catherine Sharon is a woman. Or at least she was last we saw her in Corporate Intrigue.

Thing is, is Dr. Sharon a Transhumanist like Plan 9, and is a woman THIS WEEK?

This is Shadowrun after all...

[Mirikon]

But, no, Dr. Catherine Sharon is a woman. Or at least she was last we saw her in Corporate Intrigue.

Thing is, is Dr. Sharon a Transhumanist like Plan 9, and is a woman THIS WEEK?

This is Shadowrun after all...

The kind of person who runs an operation putting technomancer brains in jars (and in cyborg bodies) against their will and driving them insane probably isn't big on the 'transhumanism' kick.

[RHat]

But, no, Dr. Catherine Sharon is a woman. Or at least she was last we saw her in Corporate Intrigue.

Thing is, is Dr. Sharon a Transhumanist like Plan 9, and is a woman THIS WEEK?

This is Shadowrun after all...

The kind of person who runs an operation putting technomancer brains in jars (and in cyborg bodies) against their will and driving them insane probably isn't big on the 'transhumanism' kick.

I don't know, they could be far too into it - to the point that she's forcibly trying to bring some people into a posthuman state...

[Mirikon]

Given everything I've read about her, I'm going to say the chances of that are about the same as Lofwyr suddenly giving up his post at Saeder-Krupp to Hestaby and going off to lead a quiet retirement in the mountains, reflecting on how much he enjoyed the company of his dear departed brother.

[CanRay]

Given everything I've read about her, I'm going to say the chances of that are about the same as Lofwyr suddenly giving up his post at Saeder-Krupp to Hestaby and going off to lead a quiet retirement in the mountains, reflecting on how much he enjoyed the company of his dear departed brother.

I've seen weirder things IRL.

[raggedhalo]

But, no, Dr. Catherine Sharon is a woman. Or at least she was last we saw her in Corporate Intrigue.

That'll teach me to post without checking my source material!

[Nath]

Always lagging behind, as the rest of the world is only concerned about the latest piece of SR5 preview offered to the public, I finally put together a review of Storm Front.

Storm Front is a 196 pages long sourcebook (plus three pages of advertisement and one focus on the cover girl boobs). It is divided into eleven chapters, plus two short stories. It isn't labeled on the front cover as a "deep shadow sourcebook" or "campaign book" like most recent releases, but as "Sixth World Chaos". It covers events happening in 2074 and early 2075, playing the same role of conclusion to the Fourth edition than Blood in the Boardroom and System Failure respectively did for the second and third editions.

Larges parts of SF were released as teasers on shadowruntabletop.com to be accessed by solving various puzzles.

Let's go for the spoiler tag, since the entire book is about either concluding or starting major plots. I'll sometimes extend by review to the plots themselves, as they reached their conclusion.



Eye of the Hurricane (3 pages, plus one full page illustration) is a short story about a technomancer in Italy whose "dealings" with the 'Ndrangheta are interrupted by a fight between dragon. It worked well enough as a separate teaser. I'm less convinced as actual sourcebook content (but, on the other hand, I often get bored by short stories after the first page).
 
The Triumph of Aztlan (26 pages) is about the war of Colombia and the Aztlan attempt to take on great dragon Sirrurg. This war, that began in the aftermath of Ghost Cartels, has been a central point in late fourth edition.
It goes on to make a recap of the whole war... which can be sumed for a large part to "Aztlan advanced fifty kilometers and then Amazonia pushed them back." Considering how often the recent sourcebooks failed to properly introduce the ongoing events and seemed to assume you had thoroughly bought and read every book released previous, you can't blame them for doing it. It leaves me with the impression that the whole war of Colombia plot never had any of the freelancers really inspired or interested (Storm Front doesn't even got the right date for the start of the war). War! only covered the very first few months of the war. Past that point, only Colombian Subterfuge and two adventures from Jet Set, Photo Ops and Operation Blindside, have really used this "central point" as an actual setting (there were a bunch of other adventures for which the war was nothing more than a decorum for Horizon/Aztechnology confrontation, that could have taken place just as well in Los Angeles, Denver or anywhere else).
To me, the most telling point is how we got to learn about every single place Sirrurg attacked from Cali, the only places he hit in actual in Colombia (which is 300 kilometers away from Bogotá and the supposed front-line), to Lubbock, Midlands and Seminole, Texas. You have to dig deep to find the name of places in Colombia where fightings actually took place (found one, Yopal).
In Storm Front the war again takes a backseat while Sirrurg action gets all the spotlight. The major thing happening is operation Marauder, the Aztlan army attempt at taking down Sirrurg. On that one, I can't help but thinking the authors wrote themselves in a corner. The paradigm is held so far that immortal players cannot be stopped or defeated by mortal forces (as shown with Harlequin in "The Things We Do For Love" in The Clutch of Dragons). The old Horrors metaplot is so reviled that I guess the authors were reluctant to give Aztechnology some dark plot magic that could rival the immortals'. So we were stuck in a situation were Sirrurg could lead an eternal guerrilla against Aztlan and nothing would stop him. Storm Front is putting an end to it, by throwing a large force and equally large losses, some secret biochemical weapon and a bit of magic on top of that, but without daring to kill the dragon.
While Sirrurg had never operated anywhere near the frontline, his defeat happens just at the right time to pave the way for the war to end, as the United Nations side with Aztlan (which I wouldn't find that surprising, considering that as far as market economy and developed countries short-term interests are concerned, Amazonia ecological revolution is way more evil than Aztechnology dark magic practices). The Free Marine Corps get a lot of spotlight for no real added value (besides, I find it kinda ridiculous to suggest a CAS air carrier and a FMC amphibious assault group could somehow "sneak" from the Aztlan Gulf to the Pacific Ocean).

Fall of a Dragon (28 pages) covers the dragons "civil war". It summarizes a bunch of things from The Clutch of Dragons and adds a conclusion on top of it. The major point is Lofwyr leading an attack against Alamais in northern Italy and Hestaby getting "exiled" and stripped of her possessions. It tries hard to make it an epic battle by having a lot of casualties, and thus starts with large forces. It didn't work with me, for the reason stated above: mortal forces are no match for immortal players. Lofwyr is playing an act for some reasons that I didn't buy. In the end, the entire dragon civil war felt to me like someone thought the fourth edition needed a big plot, and involving all the great dragons was a simple way to make it big.
This chapter carries on (what I hold to be) a failure from The Clutch of Dragons with the plot of entire families disappearing with their assets. It does state no one know for sure and let alone can prove who's behind this and why they are targeted, yet it must be dragons because... No reason is given but it's written in the middle of a chapter about dragons.
Another failure is the final part of the chapter is Frosty report on a secret dragons assembly that she recounts like it was your typical Washington backroom deal. Frost, the DIVE and Wyrm Watcher appear to have several sources that told them about what happened during a meeting only attended by dragons.
Those two things makes me say that the author has trouble adjusting to the typical SR in-context Shadowland/Jackpoint posting format.

Seattle Shakes (24 pages) follows Missions season 4 and Dirty Tricks. I didn't take the time to compare DT and SF side-by-side, so I'm left wondering what was actually new. I got the same impression that parts of it were just a recap of the Missions, and that I was, so to speak, late at the party. It does bring the Seattle city hall politics that I think have been too rare in Shadowrun through the years.
My major grievance about the chapter is the lack of proper introduction when names are dropped. So you're left to guess who are the Skraacha, Marin Parker, Tosh Athack or the Black Knights for a few pages, if you're told at all. The text also rarely attach actual dates to the events recounted, which left me a bit puzzled to know at which point Dana Oaks was District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney or Acting District Attorney, and if she actually got "brutally murdered" in March 2074.
The idea of making the underground a separate district hurts a bit my suspension of disbelief on how big the place can be and the legal issues of having an administrative division on top of another (I also noticed that past Seattle sourcebooks used "districts" in various ways: within the "Seattle Downtown District" are the "Elven District", the "International District" and the "University District"). But I can understand rules of cool and all that.

Lightning in Denver (25 pages) narrates the events in Denver as Harlequin tries to enact his revenge on Ghostwalker for Aina's death. Though this motivation, or just Aina's name are actually not mentioned anywhere... Upon reading, the escalation from little gang warfare to the final fight really got me thrilled. Though the events take place over several weeks and how things slowly assembled as pressure grows to lead the final showdown. I was a bit disappointed when I read the adventures described in Game Information who, it makes sense, put the runners in charge of doing things and thus planning and building the pressure, rather than put them in position to feel it builds up around them. Maybe a ZDF campaign would be best.
Another problem is, you got to learn about the situation through only chats and posting of people who try to figure out what's happening in real-time, while there are something like sixteen different parties involved (Harlequin, Ghostwalker, Zebulon, the ZDF, Dean Costello, the Godz, Fronts, Aurora Angels and Zombies gangs, Alamos 20,000, the Nexus, the Yamato clan, Tenebrous, Puck, Frosty, Ehran, Aztechnology and Maelstrom and Oblivion). In this regards, involving Puck really felt an unnecessary complication.
As I said when the plot was originally introduced in The Clutch of Dragons, I find it disappointing that it doesn't dare to end it with the death of either Ghostwalker or Harlequin (though I considered at some point a possible twist that could in satisfying way). The climax falls flat as two immortal beings fighting to death are just told to calm down and do so, because two Deus Ex Machina arrive to threaten the city.

Ares Trembles (28 pages)
This chapter concludes the Excalibur Battle Rifle plot, an ties it to the Ares Bug Hives. It acknowledges a single rifle would never take down an entire megacorporation and turns it into a brand image issue.
What I held to be the biggest documentation failure in this chapter, and possibly the entire book, is how Nicholas Aurelius Junior is made responsible for the Ares bugs projects, while being completely oblivious to the fact that he left Ares for Cross Applied Technologies in 2059, and did not return to Ares before 2072. It really looks like a name tossed without bothering to take a look at the past history between Damien Knight, Aurelius and Gavilan Ventures.
Ares' fate is left pending. I doubt one of the most iconic megacorporation and one of the most iconic CEO of Shadowrun are ever going to be thrown out. Maybe I'm in for a surprise. I would be less surprised if the suggested merger between Ares and Horizon was to take place (afterall, you can wonder if there was a need to introduce a corporation like Horizon when Ares already had a major media division and owned Apple corp).

First Among Equals (5 pages) gives the result of the Prince Council election in Tir Tairngire. The Telestrian family gets several ot ifs member on the Council, including the new High Prince Mary-Louise Telestrian. Small update, nothing really thrilling. The Telestrian corporation and the Telestrian family now are the dominant power in the country. As it puts it in its conclusion "The borders will remain (comparatively) open, the atmosphere will stay (relatively) friendly to outsiders, and the economy will continue to grow"

The Artful Dodger (3 pages) is an update on Dodger status. The new Matrix design is used as a background, without giving anything significant that is also told in The Cracks Inside. For the rest, it's mere nostalgia. Having formed no particular bond with Dodger myself, it left me unimpressed.

Sleeping With the Enemy (5 pages) introduces changes for the HMHVV: harsher sunlight sensitivity for no reason (outside the usual "mana level rise"), more feral ghouls because the statistics were rigged (and the mana level rose I guess). And Martin de Vries is forced into hiding. So basically everything to put HMHVV out of PC options and into the "critters" category. Not that I personally really mind about it. But it reads too much like a mechanical adjustment and not enough like a compelling story you want to tell as a GM. The idea to explain Asamando good fortune as the result of lucrative deals with megacorporations to run prisons would deserve to be more expanded upon.
Maybe it's just the teaser for an epic campaign from Asamondo prisons to the Ordo Maximus club in London, with Martin de Vries as a guest star, but if so, it's not a very good teaser (and the more I think about it, the more it sounds like an Emergence in reverse, a whole plot just for the sake of adding/removing PC options).

Escaping the Ghost Decade (6 pages and a half) is an update on Shiawase, Mitsuhama and Renraku. It somewhat acknowledges that they didn't see a lot of actions during the late 4th edition. The introduction emphasizes on the alliance of the Japanese corporations, as it already used to be in the past. Shiawase remains the traditionalist corporation, aligned on Shinto spirituals and the Emperor words. The fact that Mitsuhama gets a distinct section maybe is the most distinctive thing there is to say about "the-Japanese-corp-that-is-not-Shiawase-or-Renraku," though there are a bit of random corporate plots ongoing (the fact the title simply reads "Mitsuhama Computer Technologies" while the other two are "Shiawase, the Emperor's Hand" and "Rebooting Renraku" is telling). Renraku gets a new focus on services, and a new boss, and that's about it.
I, for myself, still find disappointing that no one rather extends on Renraku historical specificities, as an European corporation taken over by Japanese investors, who put their fate in the hands of the North American division, and how those cultures interact.

Fractures (4 pages) is a short story with Fastjack about [spoil] his personality disorder. Most Shadowland or Jackpoint posters got to leave with a one-liner somewhere, so it can be said Fastjack here got some preferential treatment for an exit with style for his tenure.

The Cracks Inside (31 pages) is a collection of articles on the Matrix changes. It quickly introduces the new Matrix security protocols, then gives some information and examples of nanotechnology malfunction and the personality disorder that seems to be related. It stands out a bit in the book as it gave some vents away but doesn't get behind the scenes (even the Game Information in the following chapter go away stating the full details "will be revealed in upcoming sourcebooks").

Game Information (11 pages) is information for the gamemaster. It features stats for a Priest M. Johnson, Sirrurg, Alamais, Jane Foster, Harlequin, Perianwyr and Martin de Vries (some of them copied from previous books). The two great are a tad weaker than Hestaby and Lofwyr were in Street Legends and Street Legends Supplemental. There is also one adventure hook related to Sirrurg, five hooks related to Alamais, two hooks for Seattle politics, eleven hooks for Denver and two hooks for Ares Macrotechnology.
It seems to be extra information provided on a voluntary, non-mandatory basis. The author for the Tir Tairngire chapter seemed to get away without providing any GI, while the author for the Cracks Inside with litle more than a placeholder. On the other hand, copying Frosty stats is mostly a filler (she does appear during the Denver events and one of the plot hook, but her stats serve no real purpose considering the much more powerful Ehran, for which no stat are given, is also present).

I find it difficult to give an overall assessment of Storm Front. The fact that it gives as a conclusion for ongoing plots, and also possibly that a significant part of the book was released as teasers left little room for surprise. As I said, Sirrurg and Denver situation already put themselves in a corner. Everyone expected the "good guys" to win in Seattle. And since it was pretty obvious the Matrix rules would be revamped (again) in the 5th edition, the outcome of the Danielle de la Mar initiative was clear from the moment it was introduced in Jet Set.
I was actually expecting much bigger thing to happen after reading Dirty Tricks and The Clutch of Dragons, like the death of Ghostwalker or a war in North America (but maybe it was actually proposed and turned out). So, no big surprise, just the 4th edition getting to an end. I guess it's somewhat telling that I commented the plots in their entirety instead of just SF content. At least, most if not all chapters don't require the previous sourcebooks, but major points are missing here and here (the death of Aina, how DA Oaks faked death...).

[Nath]

For some additional comments:

- Again, a corporate index was used to pull off corporation names without bothering to look for details. Among four corporations forced into insolvency as part of the dragon civil war is Baihu Corporation, which was, according to Shadows of Asia, a AA megacorporation and the second largest Chinese corporation, after Wuxing. Covered in a single sentence.

- In Lightning in Denver, the DIA acronym is used indifferently (and without any explanations) to refer to both the Denver International Airport (as in "the DIA air traffic control") and the UCAS Defense Intelligence Agency (as in "the UCAS is waiting on the DIA to provide more intel"). It can be guessed from context, but can be confusing if you don't pay enough attention.

- The book mentions the ZDF's Cyber Defense Division as involved in hackers matters. As far as I can tell, use of the "cyber" term to specifically refer to network operations has been rare in Shadowrun so far, due to its much more widespread use to refer to cyber-implants.

- Seattle "Who's who" gives a different analysis of the 2057 Presidential campaign on page 64 than Shadowland did at the time. The revelation that Kenneth Brackhaven was secretly adopted to replaced the ork son of the Brackhaven family is said to have a "devastating effect," while it was previously described (in Dunkelzahn's Secrets: Portfolio of a Dragon, page 58) as "[hurting] Brackhaven's campaign... for about five minutes."

- The Ares Excalibur assault rifle is referred to as the M-256. For armaments, the M-something designation normally refers to US Army Nomenclature System attributed upon acceptation (as in M16, M4, M60, M240...). It's not clear if the author was aware of this and thus suggest the Excalibur has been accepted by the UCAS Army (or CAS Army?) or if he simply thought it sounded cooler for a gun.

- Disguised HK G36 has been used to fake Excalibur demonstrations. The G36 design first came out in 1997, eighty years ago. Unless the footage was really heavily edited, this would imply the Excalibur fires cased ammunitions.

- The Ares Trembles chapter conclusion is that Ares is "likely one good shadowrun away from the Corporate Court knocking them down to AA status". Considering the Corporate Court bylaws guarantee the founding corporations like Ares always retain one justice seat on the court and thus AAA status, it would be one hell of a shadowrun. Even more if you consider that by May 2072, Ares even had two justice seats it would have to be stripped off before losing AAA status.

- I already mentioned the name dropping that occurred in "Seattle Shakes". The book is again guilty of this in a few other places: /dev/grrl refers to Albuquerque in "The Artful Dodger" without providing any context for it if you haven't read The Clutch of Dragons (otherwise, you need to read 35 pages more before getting to understand) ; knowledge of what the "Neo-Genyosha" first mentioned in Corporate Guide and the "Sangre Del Diablo" from War! are is also taken for granted.

- The Entropy spell described on page 187 has the same effect than what Sirrurg did in Cali, yet it needed something more. The spell requires line of sight, which Sirrurg is unlikely to have had on all the victims, and it affects a number of victim up to the Force it's cast at. Considering ten thousand people were killed in Cali, Sirrurg simply doesn't have a Magic attribute high enough to pull it out.

[PeterSmith]

- In Lightning in Denver, the DIA acronym is used indifferently (and without any explanations) to refer to both the Denver International Airport (as in "the DIA air traffic control") and the UCAS Defense Intelligence Agency (as in "the UCAS is waiting on the DIA to provide more intel"). It can be guessed from context, but can be confusing if you don't pay enough attention.

This happens in real life all too often. NATO? North American Theater Organization. NRA? Either the National Restaurant Association or the National Rocketry Association. PETA? People Eating Tasty Animals.

[Boomstick]

This happens in real life all too often. NATO? North American Theater Organization. NRA? Either the National Restaurant Association or the National Rocketry Association. PETA? People Eating Tasty Animals.

Some are random, other are hazardous jokes, and some like the latter pure trolling;)

Very interesting review, Nath. Thanks:)

[Black]

- In Lightning in Denver, the DIA acronym is used indifferently (and without any explanations) to refer to both the Denver International Airport (as in "the DIA air traffic control") and the UCAS Defense Intelligence Agency (as in "the UCAS is waiting on the DIA to provide more intel"). It can be guessed from context, but can be confusing if you don't pay enough attention.

This happens in real life all too often. NATO? North American Theater Organization. NRA? Either the National Restaurant Association or the National Rocketry Association. PETA? People Eating Tasty Animals.

True, but in a rpg book it does make it hard to follow what's going on.

As someone who can only read a Shadowrun book every now and then (I may own them all, but I haven't even got through the core rulebooks yet...)  it is really, really hard to follow the plot sourcebooks at times.  I don't have many complaints about these books, I generally do enjoy them... but they are very tiring to read because I have to spend time either working out what they are refering to or just ignore/gloss over whole sections. 

I hope the new books resolve this problem, perhaps by keeping the number and direction of plot lines tighter?

[Aaron]

- The book mentions the ZDF's Cyber Defense Division as involved in hackers matters. As far as I can tell, use of the "cyber" term to specifically refer to network operations has been rare in Shadowrun so far, due to its much more widespread use to refer to cyber-implants.

Or "cyberdeck," ne?

- Disguised HK G36 has been used to fake Excalibur demonstrations. The G36 design first came out in 1997, eighty years ago. Unless the footage was really heavily edited, this would imply the Excalibur fires cased ammunitions.

The Shadowrun history diverged from real history in 1989. So HK didn't necessarily come out with the G36 in 1997.

- The Entropy spell described on page 187 has the same effect than what Sirrurg did in Cali, yet it needed something more. The spell requires line of sight, which Sirrurg is unlikely to have had on all the victims, and it affects a number of victim up to the Force it's cast at. Considering ten thousand people were killed in Cali, Sirrurg simply doesn't have a Magic attribute high enough to pull it out.

Do you find it equally unlikely that Sirrurg knows Ritual Spellcasting?

[Nath]

- The Entropy spell described on page 187 has the same effect than what Sirrurg did in Cali, yet it needed something more. The spell requires line of sight, which Sirrurg is unlikely to have had on all the victims, and it affects a number of victim up to the Force it's cast at. Considering ten thousand people were killed in Cali, Sirrurg simply doesn't have a Magic attribute high enough to pull it out.

Do you find it equally unlikely that Sirrurg knows Ritual Spellcasting?

As far as SR4 rules go, Ritual Spellcasting is still not enough. It sure isn't hard to create a Force 10,000 Magical Lodge: it only requires twenty-seven years of work and a ten kilometers radius. Then Sirrurg can form a ritual group with a single magician who just need Magic 1 and Ritual Spellcasting 2, overcast the spell with him in a single hour at Force 10,000, and burn Edge to survive Drain with the Hand of God.

But they still can't get all the targets in visual range from the magical lodge, nor can the one acting as a spotter "travel physically or astrally to where she can assense the target of the spell" because the astral shadows of buildings are opaque and will hide some people (probably the vast majority, considering people rarely hand out in the streets during a battle). Unless Sirrurg first had initiates crafting one symbolic link for every people that would be in Cali business district on January 18th, 2071 (he can't do it himself, as he doesn't have the Sympathetic Link metamagic...).