From:	Robert Watkins robert.watkins@******.com
Subject:	Why Shadowbeat both rocked and sucked
Date:	Wed, 17 Feb 1999 13:46:41 +1000

Lehlan writes:
> <SNIP good and bad of shadowbeat>
> >If you're a player who tends towards physads, merc,
> >mages and sammys -
> >there's not much here for you.
>
> Well I'll agree its a mixed bag of stuff. But it has some
> good stuff for players. I just made a dwarf for a one
> shot game I'm in, and he is a former urban brawl
> player. Shadowbeat was great for background
> material, and was a nice change from the gang or
> military/corp background alot of runners have.
> Shadowbeat is nice for fleshy things out.

Ditto here... and it can be good in a lot of other settings too.

1) Play a gang campaign? There's the Combat Biker rules! An excellent way
for gangs to settle their disputes, without _too_ much bloodshed. Players
can take the roles of the gang champs, and when they aren't running, they
can settle scores with their rivals in other gangs.

2) Come across something really down and dirty in the shadows? Mitsuhama
dumping drek in the Sound? Gaeatronics supplementing their fusion power
stations with gasoline turbines? The Tir about to launch an invasion of
CalFree? Shadowbeat tells you how to get the word out. Not to mention that
providing a free-lance media report can often supplement a runner's income.

But seriously, folks... Shadowbeat is a sourcebook, providing background
info and a few rules about parts of the SR world. Like most of the theme
books, it's really only useful for the GM. How many people here, for
example, bought the Tir Tairngire book, despite never running in the Tir? Or
the NAN books?

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons. robert.watkins@******.com