Customer Reviews

Virtual Realities 2.0: A Shadowrun Sourcebook

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There are three books that are "must haves" in the SR world, and this is one of them, with the other two being the main rule-book and Rigger2.

Sure, you can run a campaign with just the BBB (Big Black Book, aka main rulebook) but why? Add in the spice of the decker, give him a place in the group. Combine this with the Rigger book and you have a well matched system. GMs! Give your deckers a reason to exist, buy this book and scare them out of the matrix!

VRII is an excellent book. Throw away everything you knew about the old matrix rules before you pick this up, as almsot everything is different. You still have the same ICE types (Trace, Killer, etc) but they have added a few more surprises.

The biggest change is actually how the Matrix works. Instead of just a generic number of successes to get something done, you have Target numbers for ACIFS (Access, Control, Index, File, and Slave), with your programs reducing the TNs. Want to log on? Look at the Access rating, reduce it by your Sleaze, and viola, you're in.

The artwork does leave some to be desired (the Virtual Reality guide in VRI is better then the one in this book and the black and white artist doesn't seem to be able to draw a straight line to save his life). and there are a few places were the rules get sketchy (such as Scramble IC and in depth detail into the Otaku) and that can get annoying, but overall the rules are excellent.

If you have people who want to be deckers, this is a MUST have. It will speed things up and make the game a lot more fun for both the GM and the players.

PS: I have had a chance to speak to the author, Paul Hume, as he once assisted us on the Shadowrun MUX on the Internet. Very nice guy :)

VR 2.0 is a definite must for any campaign incorporating deckers, and FASA's views of it greatly reducing the time matrix runs take (everyone who uses the old system has rented a flic while the decker is navigating through rough diagrams that look like crumpled spiders) are just. However, the amount of setup (beforehand) time in character creation is greatly increased, and a decent eratta sheet has yet to be published. Start bringing that calculator to gaming groups...

This book is an absolute must if you incorporate decking in your Shadowrun campaign. Never again will the decker character feel left out while he decks and the rest of you go for pizza. This new(er) rules supplement brings decking into real time gaming with a vengeance.

Now everyone will want a datajack........

Think you know it all about the 'trix cummer, guess again. You dont know drek but this book could change that. "Virtual Realities 2.0" is the most extinsive matrix suplament published by fasa. A great addition to any deckers library.