[nerdcore]

Hey,
I am completly new to shadowrun and just got the Toolkit and the 20th aniversay special edition.

I need some input on what else to get. I am usually not a big fan of "players book" because my group is full of munchkins and they tend to screw things up with many options.

I like some more "setting oriented" material, and pre-made adventures or things that helps make my own adventures. From what I read so far, the Big 10 are something that sparks my creativity.

What should I get?

[FastJack]

Besides the "Quints" (Arsenal, Augmentation, Runner's Companion, Street Magic, and Unwired), which are the Advanced rulebooks, just about everything else is good. Some key books may be:

Adventure
Dawn of the Artifacts (Dusk, Midnight, Darkest Hour, and Dawn) plus Artifacts Unbound.
Twilight adventures (A Fistful of Credsticks, Anarchy Subsidized, Colombian Subterfuge) plus The Twilight Horizon

Location
Seattle 2072
Sixth World Almanac
War!

Sourcebooks/Campaign Books
Shadowrun 2050 (if you want to get nostalgic about the early days of the game)
Conspiracy Theories
The Clutch of Dragons

There's a bunch of other books, but these are my (current) faves. Check out some lighter PDFs like Safehouses, MilSpecTech, and Way of the Adept too for gaming crunch.

[nerdcore]

Thanks fast!

Seattle 2072
Sixth World Almanac

Are on my list.

I didn't find The Clutch of Dragons on dead tree edition.

I was thorn between Conspiracy and Corparate Intrigue. I was tending more towards the later...is this a better book?

[Walks Through Walls]

Hazard Pay has a lot of setting information for more exotic settings. They are deep sea, arctic, toxic, desert, and space. The arctic section has several plot hooks/seeds in addition too.

So if you want to introduce interesting locations this is a useful book to have also.

[FastJack]

Thanks fast!

Seattle 2072
Sixth World Almanac

Are on my list.

I didn't find The Clutch of Dragons on dead tree edition.

I was thorn between Conspiracy and Corparate Intrigue. I was tending more towards the later...is this a better book?

Conspiracy Theories is all the crazy sh*t that's in the world, and includes a lot of the world's metaplots. Corp Intrigue is great if you're going to be running games with a lot of megacorporate interaction.

[Wailer]

Since you're brand new to Shadowrun, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with most of Fastjack's recommendations - many of them are "big picture" Shadowrun.

Runner's Companion specifically, despite it being one of the Core books, is what you'll want to hold back from the table - or at least introduce only the pieces that you specifically like, especially if you want to keep the weird stuff out of the hands of twinky/munchkin players. The rest of the Core books like Street Magic and the others are definite must-gets once you get into the swing.

If the Big 10, and the general Corporate atmosphere are what you're into - I'd definitely recommend that you get Corporate Guide. It's a huge (232pg) sourcebook all about Corps, then look into Corporate Intrigue. The Twilight Adventures that he suggested are great Corp related stuff, built though for a slightly more experienced group.

All of the products that were listed are top notch, but my advice to a brand new player of Shadowrun is not to tackle too much, too quick - there is a TON of stuff out there and it'll get very overwhelming if you try to hit it all.

Corporate Guide will definitely give you the info that you want on the Big 10 (and others), and as far as stuff to run for a group of brand new people? There's a section on this site called Missions, the Denver Season Two mods are all free and great for new peeps. Try out a couple of those to get your feet wet and build from there.

- Wailer

[nerdcore]

Thanks a lot for the input.

Really there is a TON of stuff out there and i am having trouble to catch up without burnnig out.


What are your comments on the Conspiracy Theories book? It "sound" awsome! Does it "play" awsome as well?

[lurkeroutthere]

With a brand new group i would avoid War! With an experienced group i would also probably avoid War!

Companion is perhaps the most essentially book as a whole, but as others have said you may want to read through it first and decide how well the stuff in there will fit some of the tone of your game. For example one of your players may get it into their head they really want to play a naga or something else highly distinctive, not the best fit if your running a black trench coated spy games type setup.

Conspiracy Theories is a great book don't get me wrong, but if you want to walk before you run for both your sake and your players sake you might want to keep your setting immersion to Seattle 2072 and 6th world alminac. Corporate as other people said is great for info on the corporate area. There's also an underworld book Vice that has a lot of useful info if you want to focus on that area.

Basically SR doesn't suffer from some of the "player book" syndrome that other systems have, so anything the players have the opposition realistically can have and in some cases more of.

There arn't any player books in SR. There are the 4 core crunch books "stuff and setting books" arsenal, augmentation, street magic, and unwired. All will offer new options and info both for your players and the opposition. Of them the one that you need to be careful with are street magic, especially the possession traditions as they are pretty much minmax/twink gold, and unwired because it has some rules in it that can just tend to confuse or make things a smidge unplayable if taken literally (i'm looking at you software piracy rules).

After that there's companion which gives more info on the world and some of it's oddities and also adds a few much needed options to runners (it's hard to start out as a serious street sam without the restricted gear quality for example).

Everything after that is fluff books, don't get me wrong with the singular exception of War! (and even it isn't worthless, just more rough then good) their all worth buying, but there is a derth of material.

Sixth World Almanac is hard to beat for a new GM, as is Seattle 2073.

[nerdcore]

Luker,
thats for spending your time on the long explanation. It was great the "clear" thing up for me.