Customer Reviews

Harlequin (Shadowrun RPG)

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This big (152 pages) adventure book is a collaboration of some well-known names in RPG writing (W.G. Armintrout & Tom Dowd & Jerry Epperson & John Faughnan & Paul R. Hume & James D. Long & Lester W. Smith & Ken St. Andre). Yeah. Very popular and out-of-print.

Note: Inexperienced sellers often confuse this book with "Harlequin's Back" (ISBN 1555602487). They are NOT the same.

Back cover text follows:
"IMAGINE A HATRED THAT HAS ENDURED FOR 5000 YEARS. The shadowrunners are sent on a string of missions, collecting obscure items, all seemingly unrelated... or are they? From the streets of Seattle to the heights of the Bavarian Alps, from the magical mayhem of Columbia, Missouri to the headwaters of the Amazon the adventure unfolds. Who would go to all this trouble to destroy one man... and why?. * A datafile. * An ancient magic Tome. * A flower. * A collection of Elven ears. * The manuscript of a soon to-be-released bestseller. * A young woman of mysterious heritage. * A world famous Elven societal theorist. All are pieces to the puzzle. Finding them is one thing. Putting it all together is another. HARLEQUIN is a series of eight adventures for SHADOWRUN designed to be interwoven into in already existing campaign. Over the course of these adventures, the players are presented with a progressively larger picture of a very complex tale of revenge."

What you have here is not a sourcebook. It is a set of 5-6 adventures in one package that all relate to each other in a way you probably won't expect. The adventures all (eventually) link to a pivotal character in the Shadowrun universe. It's actually one of the few adventures that has you connect so closely to a pivotal character (kinda). That character is Harlequin (i.e. Laughing Man for those that have the Tir sourcebook) and your runners will get swept up on a crazy ride that takes them all over the Sixth World.

For you gamemasters out there this book is made to have the adventures spread out between other adventures you give your runners, but in the end the runners will figure out that they played part in some elaborate plan all this time. It's kinda cool when you see them start putting the pieces together by the third or fourth run, and by the time it's all done the looks on their faces is worth the price of admission.

Sorry if I'm being a little vague on the details. I don't want to spoil the fun. The gist of it all is this is a really well written book with a nice set of adventures. Technically the individual adventures themselves are not all that long on details (or run time for some of them) and that can give the gamemaster a little room to be creative. Then again these adventures aren't meant to be individual, big as life kind of runs. They are meant to be relatively simple runs in regards to complex twists and such since they all end up linking together. Trust me, it's fun.

I recommend this adventure set to any SR campaign, especially those who like to dabble in metahuman and magical elements (even for just a little while). It's not just fun adventuring, but an intersting read as well.

Harlequin is an amazing story with amazing runs to send the players on. But it's old. It smells strongly of the 80's with its 1990 publishing date.

I have been running Harelequin for my players, and we are nearly done. They are enjoying it quite a bit. Here are my (hopefully spoiler free) thoughts:

1) It was written for Shadowrun 1st Edition, but is easy enough to convert on the fly to 3rd. I have no idea about 4th, as I have never played it. The major things you'll need to change are the hacking sessions, as those are completely incompatible.

2) Read the ENTIRE book before playing. The storyline of every run is connected, so make sure you know why each set piece exists so you can figure out what to do if your players mess with the world (they will). Remember that they're not the only runners on the block.

3) It needs some changes. I recommend throwing out almost all of the "tell it to them straight" sections, unless your players really like storytime. This book is written to have each run start with a job offer, segue into planning, and then 20 minutes of explosive action ending in a single set piece. This was the style of this type of game around '89, and it really shows. So, be prepared to improvise and change things as you're going to fit with your group. In particular, many of the "read to the players" sections assume that the runners are all biker-gang-member bar-hopping lowlifes, but that may be absolutely not true.

In particular, one run in particular (where the runners have to get a flower) needs to be completely retooled. It involves the runners doing nothing while you talk at them for nearly 3 full pages. I suggest thinking of a run of your own to replace it.

So, if you're willing as a gamemaster to do a little more work than your usual premade, you will have an amazing, unforgettable campaign. I highly suggest picking up a copy of this. I know this review looks negative with my major points of contention, but the fact is, nearly everything else is stellar. This book is very out of print, so if you're even on the fence about it, I would pick it up just to have it.