Customer Reviews

Magic in the Shadows (Shadowrun RPG)

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Magic in the Shadows, while long overdue, is most definitely worth the wait. It's a little dry in places, but anything with this much information and rules clarification is going to have that problem. Overall, the book is well worth cover price because of its excellent organization and clear writing. Shadowrun's magic system needed a major overhaul, and this does the trick beautifully. An absolute must-have for anyone, player or GM, who deals with magic in Shadowrun Third Edition.

I remember when I first played Shadowrun how much of a pain using magic was. Fasa has finally come out with a much needed update for the magic system. This is an excellent source book that expands the system for magic and makes it very easy to use. No longer is magic confusing and hard to understand; now it is a breeze to play a magic using character in the Shadowrun world.

This book has it all in one place and is a must for the Shadowrun player, especially if you dabble in the mana-manipulating arts. It gives you all of the previous magic info covered in the main source books and the extra bonus I was surprised to get: those hard to find magical references that only came with some of the geographical sourcebooks (like the Elven magical ways from the Tir source books). Anyway just buy it. After all it's got the Smilin' Jack stamp of approval.

;)

Mike, aka Smilin' Jack

Shadowrun, despite being my all-time favorite gaming universe, was a complete money drainer, with an excessive amount of supplements to purchase in order to flesh out your campaign.
3rd edition and its updates however, seemed to consolidate and condense better, focusing on game mechanics and rules rather than pictures and colorful quotes from fictional characters.

Magic in the Shadows is no exception, as it compiles all three previous magic books, updates their mechanics, and also introduces new 3rd edition magic rules, skills, and abilities. Although the 3rd edition books are not as colorful or fun to read as previous books, they do a much better job of actually providing rules and mechanics to streamline your game.
This book is a must have for anyone with "awakened" characters, because it covers the rules for initiation, a process that makes a magical character uber-powerful.

Heh. I remember my troll mage. He kicked so much, well, you know. And to think, that wouldn't have been possible without this book. So wonderful. Magic becomes so much easier with the updated rules. And rules for making your own spells? Exquisite. Although some of the combinations are so powerful that my GM disallowed them. Dam. Ah well. Anyway, the point is that I can assure you that if you're playing a magic user in Shadowrun 3rd Edition, you'll want, nay, you'll NEED, this book. Get it. Now! Enjoy!

Looks like FASA got their act together for this book and really gave what both players and GM's can use. The background information is clear and concise, the game effects are balanced and well-thought-out, and the new rules enhance the depth of the game. Clearly worth the money.

I'm lucky enough to have read this book already, and it is everything promised. Very well concieved, with good art, it takes SR3's magic to the level previous books did for SR2 and beyond, while avoiding those books faults. If I saw this book in a store, I would want to buy it and learn to Play SR.

Physical Mages do still exist, but they've changed how they are looked at. Now they're Adepts who buy a Magic Talent Power at 1 point per level. The level of the Power is your effective spellcasting Magic rating.

Deal with it. I'd rather have a good, usable book then something rushed to market.

In response to: grimlakin@mindspring.com from Dallas Texas , March 22, 1999 A nessesity that is WAY LATE! I am blatantly offended that FASA has not yet published this book. I have a NEED for it in my FASA game. I am certin that every other magically endowed gamer out their needs this also. My query.. why the wait! I say stop all preorders untill it is released.

This item is a must have since the revision of the Shadowrun Game to 3rd edition. I agree, it is very, very, very, very, late.........gotta have it to convert my magically active characters to the 3rd Edition....do Physical Mages still exist?