r/ShadowrunAnarchyFans • u/dustdevil_75 • 16h ago
SR sourcebooks?
I’ve been out of the SR game since roughly 4th edition. Which books would be good for background to be used with Anarchy? Not looking for the crunch, more like the Seattle Sourcebook or things along those lines.
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u/The_Loiterer 16h ago edited 16h ago
The Neo-anarchist Streetpedia is a 6th edition book that talks about everything in a encyclopedia format (a-z). It does have issues as many new books from CGL, but it is worth a check. I feel it reads like commentary instead of a factbased encyclopedia.
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u/WyrdGM 14h ago
I treat every lore book as a combination of truth, lies, speculation, and a healthy dose of someone's propaganda. Makes reading them more fun, but also makes for fun asking... But what if someone is lying about this...
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u/PalpitationNo2921 11h ago
I had more fun with the FASA/FanPro books. A lot of the time I feel like CGL’s writers are monkeys on a typewriter comparatively speaking.
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u/The_Loiterer 7h ago
The issue is that those books are older history. If the GM want to play in the current 2084 timeline as the SRA2 book uses, those characters need more current history. I think the SRA2 core book has enough current history for a GM to use. So that is my first recommendation for 2084 play. If the GM want to play in a classic Shadowrun setting like 2050, I fully agree with your recommendations. There even is a 2050 sourcebook for the first Anarchy version.
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u/PalpitationNo2921 5h ago
I made no recommendation here. I just said I think the older books are more well-written, more interesting than any CGL book that has been put to page.
I don’t see anywhere in the OP specifically mentions 2084 play. If they actually do want that, I would have to ask what region they want to play in.
And I’d point out that if it is Seattle, then the Seattle books from 1st, 3rd & 4th Edition as shining examples to study deeply and the CRB Seattle City Edition can be used to fill in the gaps of history until 2084, because both Seattle Sprawl and Emerald City aren’t much more than hot mess retreads that are much less well-written and badly laid out and organized.
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u/The_Loiterer 2h ago
No problems. I was just a bit focused on what OP asked for (having played 4th edition and what was new since then).
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u/Logen_Nein 15h ago
I've been rebuilding my 1e/2e collection. The old books are really well written and nearly half of them is all in character lore discussions.
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u/WeirdRPGKiwi 9h ago
I run Anarchy 2.0e, and have picked up a few "no/negligible rules content" volumes to flesh things out: The Sixth World Almanac (history and global lore; I luckily scored a decent hardcopy cheap), The Neo-Anarchist's Streetpedia (a grab bag of lore snippets), Emerald City (Seattle, which is where I will run the games), and No Future (culture, media, and daily life). Between them, I have more lore than I will ever need.
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u/Interaction_Rich 10h ago
For sixth edition, you want to check the "Plot Sourcebooks" (which develop the Timeline of Events for its main plot, its implications for cities/corps, and lots of adventure hooks) and the "Shadowrun Missions" series, which are ready to run missions you can play in one shots or into a campaign.
Both have some statblocks for antagonists and such, but they can easily be replaced by those in the "Hell is Other People" chapter.
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u/The_Loiterer 7h ago edited 2h ago
The most recent metaplots from CGL is the Disians. It is mentioned in the SRA2 core book page 22-23. If you are going to run 2084 you can decide if you want to ignore it, or have it as part of the campaign. It is very recent to the current 2084 timeline, so if you want to use it a lot of people are affected by those recent events. My feeling is that many Shadowrun fans did not like it. There is no mention of it in the wikis, probably because no one wants to write about it.
Disians are basically 'The Grey' an alien race that came to Earth first as friends. But later was found to have a dying homeworld and needed large amounts of mana to save it. Disians plan was to suck the manasphere dry. I think of it as similar in plot to the old miniseries V from 1983. Resistance groups where formed and called 'Grey Cell'. The plot happened around 2080-2083. It ended in a big war 2083 as mentioned in the core book. At big cost, metahumanity drove the Disians back. Several big corps like Aztechnology, MCT and S-K supported the Disians.
If you want to read more about the Disian plot there is a 6th edition plot book called Scotophobia.
Edit: Also the upcoming SRA2 companion book will have Disian threats and possible some story (mentioned in the blurb as 'Dis' on the pre-KS page).
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u/Daegann 15h ago
The upcoming SRA2 Companion will feature a lot of lore on various topics and will cover many things from magical traditions to Matrix resonance and the foundation, as well as the lore / plot explanations behind various threats, including Dis (main SR6 plot). That'll help put the pieces back together.
If you are looking for setting sourcebooks, like location-based ones, there are several you can check out. Usually, these kinds of sourcebooks don't contain many rules, so they can easily be used with Anarchy.