{"id":256,"date":"2016-10-09T22:42:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T22:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2016\/10\/09\/shadowrun-anarchy-review\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:41:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:41:25","slug":"shadowrun-anarchy-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2016\/10\/shadowrun-anarchy-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadowrun: Anarchy Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

My very, very long Shadowrun: Anarchy Review is HERE!<\/b>

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Shadowrun: Anarchy<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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First things first<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

I won\u2019t be commenting very much on the fiction in the book because I don\u2019t typically read it and I\u2019d rather focus on the game, but I will be looking at flavor text in character descriptions and so on. I haven\u2019t yet played the game for logistics reasons, so this is purely a review of the mechanics, art, and characters. I intend to eventually read the Seattle background but I have set it aside for this review to get the things out that people will see first and most often. <\/p>\n

I have only played Shadowrun 3e, and only built characters for 3e and 5e. I\u2019ve been playing tabletop RPGs since I was 15, text-based since 11, and my first TTRPG that I recall playing was Shadowrun. I\u2019ve played indie and story games since around 2011, and I\u2019ve been writing on Thoughty about games, doing interviews, and occasionally writing reviews for like, 4 years I think. Maybe longer? I bounced blog names a couple times. I\u2019ve GM\u2019d and played, and I\u2019ve worked on some tabletop games which you can read about here on my work page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With that out of the way…<\/i><\/p>\n

Shadowrun: Anarchy on first glance is a true family member to 5e, having beautiful art, lots of graphics, and fiction first. The art fits just fine! The graphics we\u2019ll get to. The fiction\u2026 let me explain here that I don\u2019t like fiction on RPGs, for the most part. I like fiction within RPGs \u2013 specifically, if you look back to like, Shadowun 3e where the interactions between The Smiling Bandit and Harlequin were interspersed in the rules and flavor text, that kind of thing I like. Unreliable narrators having interactions between bits of important information just really felt<\/i> like the game to me.<\/p>\n

That is, unfortunately, not the dealio in Shadowrun: Anarchy. I am sure the fiction is fun and great \u2013 but I don\u2019t really have interest in it. I hope you do! But the fiction does you no good if you don\u2019t like the rest. Covering art, then layout, then mechanics, then flavor text. Basically what you see first, whether you can even read it, what\u2019s inside, and how it\u2019s dressed up. (click thru)<\/p>\n

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The Art<\/span><\/b><\/u><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m not doing a full numbers breakdown of the art in SR:A because 1) I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as valuable as it seems and 2) I don\u2019t think it\u2019s entirely necessary. The art in the book is still majority men or masculine, but there are a greater number of women or femmes than I expected to see. There are a number of androgynous people, but I was incredibly disappointed to see zero androgynous or nonbinary styled characters in the pregens. Getting close to gender binary parity is great, but this issue is in the forefront for me of late<\/a> and I still can\u2019t fathom why \u2013 I never have been able to \u2013 we don\u2019t see more androgynous characters, especially in identity as opposed to simply presentation, in Shadowrun. I mean, y\u2019all. Y\u2019all.<\/i><\/p>\n

Also, most of the time we get this:<\/p>\n

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But then we got this:<\/p>\n

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But let me be clear, my problems with the second piece here are mostly that it seems somewhat disjointed (kind of literally, but if it had a caption talking about an articulated spine, I\u2019d be cool) and I was just kind of bummed out by how it felt in comparison to the other (frankly badass) art. This is the only piece that really stood out, but I wouldn\u2019t be a cranky critiquing feminist if I didn\u2019t point it out.<\/p>\n

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The Layout<\/span><\/u><\/b><\/div>\n

The layout overall has a couple of hinky bits. Foremost, shaded boxes. Shaded boxes are not something I\u2019m a fan of, and everyone who has talked about layout with me probably knows that. One of the biggest complaints I\u2019ve heard thus far, that I agree with, is that the shaded boxes on the character sheets are bad news bears.<\/p>\n

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There is also shading\/coloring on sidebars and callout boxes that could be done away with for readability and to make it possible to print. I\u2019ll say this one time: If I cannot print a character sheet, it is functionally useless to me. <\/b>Bonus note: If you make it a fillable form downloadable as well with the game that can also be printed and legible, <\/b>I\u2019ll love you forever<\/i>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Most of the rest of the book is bog standard Shadowrun\/80s-90s-esque layout, from what I can tell. There are some more rounded edges, but that\u2019s not too different. Standard two-column, as following.<\/p>\n

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There are also, of course, tables. I personally love tables, but the tables in SR:A leave me wanting because they don\u2019t have any dividing lines. Some people like them without, they flow more easily. For me, they\u2019re less readable, and I also just don\u2019t really dig the look. Gimme something that looks directly ripped out of Excel and I\u2019ll be cool. Example of current tables follows!<\/p>\n

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Also, the text is super, super small. Like, I have to zoom in to read it clearly a lot of the time, and I have no issues with reading up close most of the time. Perhaps it\u2019s better in print? But we should be designing for digital too. I also don\u2019t know if it works well with screen readers, as I couldn\u2019t figure mine out. That\u2019s something that should be clear!<\/p>\n

Aside from those things? I\u2019m sure someone with more graphics and layout experience could nail down further problems. Those are the ones that hit me. Moving on!<\/p>\n

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The Mechanics<\/span><\/u><\/b><\/div>\n

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First, a quick note on the way the game works in Shadowrun: Anarchy. <\/b>Anarchy is not a game with a GM running the show and the players taking on roles within that show. Anarchy is about collaborative narrative storytelling<\/i> (it\u2019s a thing!) and there are things that they\u2019ve done great about this, and things that may be confusing for people who haven\u2019t done it before. I may be translating the rules incorrectly, but if you like what I\u2019m saying, just play it that way, it\u2019s just a damn book.<\/p>\n

SR:A institutes turns<\/b>, effectively letting each player take a turn playing their part of the scene. From what I can tell, there are no rules preventing other players from acting within that scene, but they would most likely need some input from the lead player in those scenes. From there, we can see each player narrates<\/b> within their turn their actions and their interpretation of the situation. Cool! Now, I\u2019ve seen some people get stuck on Talk Time<\/b>. Admittedly, I kind of hate the term, and would prefer something like \u201cfree play,\u201d but that\u2019s just being a jerk about semantics.<\/p>\n

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Talk Time itself makes sense. When things are going down or it\u2019s too hectic, let\u2019s stop with turns for a minute and get shit done, right? However, from the comments on the Prototype review<\/a> and the forums I\u2019d seen it interpreted that you can\u2019t interact freely at all<\/i> outside of Talk Time, and regardless of how it was originally intended in the text, I read it otherwise, and it has been clarified since then in the text under Turns and Narrations. Specifically, it says that \u201cOther players may have things to say during a narration\u2013their characters may react somehow, or players may offer commentary, ideas, or observations\u2013but the primary thrust of the Narration should be directed by the player whose turn it is.\u201d Which, I mean, yeah? That\u2019s just being polite. However, I see why they had to write it out. Hooray, rules to help solve social play problems!<\/p>\n

For framing of the next mechanical bits, you use six-sided dice (d6s) in dice pools, scored individually \u2013 5 or 6 on the die is a success. <\/p>\n

Character generation<\/b> is not complicated, in my opinion. There are definitely a crapton of characters to select from if you want to just quick start, as the section for pregenerated characters is massive (but I have some thoughts later). The game suggests you select a contract brief (scenarios for quick play), but if you want to build characters first or play without a contract brief, I\u2019d just go to it. For a new GM or a new group, you might find the briefs useful, at the very least to learn useful structure for a general shadowrun. <\/p>\n

Characters use some stuff that seem kind of \u201ceh, maybe,\u201d while others seem absolutely essential. The perceived essentials are: Personal Data, Attributes, Skills, Shadow Amps, Karma, Qualities, Weapons, Armor, Gear, and calculating your condition monitor. That\u2019s a lot of words, not as hard as it sounds. The things I\u2019ve noted as seeming optional are Dispositions and Cues. These don\u2019t have a lot of mechanical impact, and I can guarantee for a lot of people they\u2019ll be dismissed. However, you\u2019re playing a narrative game here. That makes a difference.<\/p>\n

If you look at the character sheet for Ms. Myth (one of my favorites), you can see how these things might be useful for 1) new players, 2) players new to narrative games, 3) players with a new character, 4) players who are unfamiliar with Shadowrun\u2019s world, and\/or 5) players who are just plain tired and need some good ideas on a slow day. <\/p>\n

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This is a moment where I remind people that just because you don\u2019t need a thing, does not mean no one<\/i> needs a thing<\/b>, or would benefit from it.<\/p>\n

Character creation goes through these items, however, pretty smoothly. Don\u2019t be fooled by the early character creation section like I was at first, go straight to page 61. <\/p>\n

To create a character, you:<\/p>\n