27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Comprehensive GM Resource, September 16, 2011
This review is from: Shadowrun Runners Toolkit (Paperback)
Given the lack of a product description, and a singular lacking product review, I thought this kit was little more than an expensive GM screen and maybe a booklet.
This product is actually a hefty boxed set filled with, well, tools for the GM.
1. Glossy four-panel heavy card stock GM screen. A panoramic shot of the Seattle skyline dominates the player's side. There's a variant version available from Catalyst you can only get at conventions, but I like this one better. The inside of the screen is full color and packed with tables every GM will need.
2. Five booklets: the meat of the set. The first is a 56-page introductory adventure called "On The Run." As an FYI, the adventure states it's intended to be run with the 20th Anniversary Edition of the core rulebook - page references refer to that book. So, this may be a little confusing for people with the regular 4th Edition core rulebook, but I'm sure it's nothing a smart GM can't figure out quickly. The 20th Anniversary Edition is still 4th Edition, so there's no system change.
The second booklet is called "Anatomy of a Shadowrun." As the introduction states it "presents a step-by-step walkthrough of a difficult shadowrun performed by a group of experienced runners known as the Smoker's Club." I've not looked at it took hard but it looks like a fantastic resource for new GM and players. You have in your hands a completed run with narrative dialog, dice rolls, notations for the systems used and their respective page numbers in the core rulebook, and so on. I think this is a really great idea. You see it a lot in the introduction section of many RPG core rulebooks, but a session from beginning to end, with all the ins-and-outs that go along with that is really cool.
The third booklet is "PACKS." It's an acronym for Pre-generated Auxiliary Character Kit System. It's an alternate character creation system that breaks down the process into a series of "kits" you choose for each step of the process.
Fourth is "Contacts - Adventures - Sprawl Sites." The title more or less says it all. The booklet is split into three sections: "Contacts" is a list of pre-generated NPCs complete with backgrounds, suggestions where you might encounter them, their similarities to other contacts (maybe you don't need a stripper, but an adult model), and their uses. "Adventures" is a section on various, well, adventure ideas. Seeds really. Pretty straightforward. Finally, "Sprawl Sites" is a series of pre-generated locations you can put into any games. You get descriptions of these locations, what they're used for and how, as well a crunchy mechanical stuff. There's also floor plans for three of the locations. Adventures seeds are given here as well.
Finally, you have "Compiled Tables." This booklet is a catalog of, well, tables for weapons, equipment, spells, cyberware, bioware, bodyware, and on and on. But there's no description for any of it. Again, these are just the tables, so all you get is the crunch. If you want more, you need the books they're pulled from, which the booklet kindly provides the names and page numbers for. So, don't go thinking this booklet will substitute for the equipment supplements, because it won't. It's useful, but it's not everything you'll need.
3. Six dual-sided quick reference cards for that various systems you'll use in the game: Character creation walkthrough, Defense, Matrix Combat, Astral Combat, Compiling, Autonomous Drone Combat, Indirect Combat Spells, Spellcasting, Melee Combat, Ranged Combat, Banishing, and Summoning. Each card has a step-by-step walkthrough for the system it covers. So, hopefully, there won't be as much flipping through the rulebook for "How do I do this?" questions. These cards should be able to tell you concisely how to do what you want with each system.
4. Remember those floor plans I mentioned for "Sprawl Sites"? You get four laminated full-color pages of those locations. One side of each page is just the location without any indication of what you're looking at (for GMs who want to keep players from discovering things they shouldn't know), while the other side provides an enumerated legend for that location.
5. A color poster of the Seattle skyline used for the GM screen.
6. A "Shadorwun" sticker. You can stick on stuff. Well, one "stuff".
So, that's about everything. I've not used the things yet so others may be able to provide a more detailed description. I plan on running a "Shadowrun" game at some point and thought this would be a good buy. For Amazon's asking price, it's a steal. There's a whole lot of awesome in this thing!
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