The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Corporate Download is (yet) another of the "everything old is new again" sourcebooks for Shadowrun. If someone is paying attention to what I write, then you'll know that the whole 3rd edition project (IMHO) has been a difficult experience. The first book out of the 'chute, the Revised Shadowrun Companion, was disappointing. The next, Magic in the Shadows, was considerably better. Corporate Download continues this upward trend. Although most of the information contained therein is not new, this is one update that has been long overdue.

Most of the changes from Corporate Shadowfiles to Corporate Download was necessitated by the evolution of the Shadowrun story line. For a long time, the Shadowrun story was driven slowly by each successive sourcebook. FASA also released novels based on the Shadowrun universe, but these novels were largely independent of the game world. This changed with the novel "Burning Bright" which brought the joy of "Bug City" from the novels to the actual game world. Since that time, the novels have had more and more to do with the story line. Shadowrun's story, under the direction of Mike Mulvihill for several years now, is now driven by the novels with the sourcebooks providing context and background structure. The changes featured in Corporate Download derive from several novels, including Technobabel, The Dragon Heart series, and others. In these novels, events such as the death of UCAS President (and great dragon) Dunkelzahn, accession of an AI named Deus, and various other events have caused one corporation to crumble and several others to rise to power.

All of this information leads to this: Corporate Download is good book. Its hard pressed though to beat an old favorite: Corporate Shadowfiles. Shadowfiles was a thick book with a lot of good background info on how businesses work. When I first picked it up, I knew nothing of how big business works. Shadowfiles was good introduction to the hows and whys of corporations. It was written by the late Nigel Findley, and he put a lot of good stuff in it. In fact, I'm in law school, and I just took a class on Corporations. Shadowfiles was actually a good primer, and it discussed many of the basic concepts we covered in that class. It was very well written, and I still enjoy reading it. So, any book that came along is going to have to pass a stiff standard.

Corporate Download passes the test. Its not a business treatise. Instead, this is a tiger of different stripe. Download corrects one of the few flaws with Shadowfiles: it discusses the AAA megacorps in great detail. Several new corps are discussed (Novatech, Wuxing, Cross Applied Tech), and the information on the older corps are brought up to date. Shadowfiles was thin on information specifically about the megas. Instead, Download is almost completely about the megacorps. Extensive information including names, places, and dates is really helpful to the gamemaster. Its now much easier for GMs to integrate info on the megas into their games, especially with the "Using Ares," "Using S-K," etc. sections.

However, this is not a book for the easily bored or most players. In fact, I've gone so far as telling my players not to buy the book. Its much easier to preserve suspense and surprise if you keep your players in the dark. If you're looking for info on guns and gear, this ain't it. It does provide a lot of color for the game world which will enable the gamemaster to round out his game world in the Third Edition era. Overall, great book and a must have for most Gms.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Corporate Download
Author: Mike Mulvihill, Steve Kenson, et al. Category: game Company/Publisher: FASA Line: Shadowrun Cost: 18.00 Page count: 143 (including index) ISBN: 1-55560-362-9 Capsule Review by Brian Gambrell on 06/27/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day	Corporate Download is (yet) another of the "everything old is new again" sourcebooks for Shadowrun. If someone is paying attention to what I write, then you'll know that the whole 3rd edition project (IMHO) has been a difficult experience. The first book out of the 'chute, the Revised Shadowrun Companion, was disappointing. The next, Magic in the Shadows, was considerably better. Corporate Download continues this upward trend. Although most of the information contained therein is not new, this is one update that has been long overdue. Most of the changes from Corporate Shadowfiles to Corporate Download was necessitated by the evolution of the Shadowrun story line. For a long time, the Shadowrun story was driven slowly by each successive sourcebook. FASA also released novels based on the Shadowrun universe, but these novels were largely independent of the game world. This changed with the novel "Burning Bright" which brought the joy of "Bug City" from the novels to the actual game world. Since that time, the novels have had more and more to do with the story line. Shadowrun's story, under the direction of Mike Mulvihill for several years now, is now driven by the novels with the sourcebooks providing context and background structure. The changes featured in Corporate Download derive from several novels, including Technobabel, The Dragon Heart series, and others. In these novels, events such as the death of UCAS President (and great dragon) Dunkelzahn, accession of an AI named Deus, and various other events have caused one corporation to crumble and several others to rise to power. All of this information leads to this: Corporate Download is good book. Its hard pressed though to beat an old favorite: Corporate Shadowfiles. Shadowfiles was a thick book with a lot of good background info on how businesses work. When I first picked it up, I knew nothing of how big business works. Shadowfiles was good introduction to the hows and whys of corporations. It was written by the late Nigel Findley, and he put a lot of good stuff in it. In fact, I'm in law school, and I just took a class on Corporations. Shadowfiles was actually a good primer, and it discussed many of the basic concepts we covered in that class. It was very well written, and I still enjoy reading it. So, any book that came along is going to have to pass a stiff standard. Corporate Download passes the test. Its not a business treatise. Instead, this is a tiger of different stripe. Download corrects one of the few flaws with Shadowfiles: it discusses the AAA megacorps in great detail. Several new corps are discussed (Novatech, Wuxing, Cross Applied Tech), and the information on the older corps are brought up to date. Shadowfiles was thin on information specifically about the megas. Instead, Download is almost completely about the megacorps. Extensive information including names, places, and dates is really helpful to the gamemaster. Its now much easier for GMs to integrate info on the megas into their games, especially with the "Using Ares," "Using S-K," etc. sections. However, this is not a book for the easily bored or most players. In fact, I've gone so far as telling my players not to buy the book. Its much easier to preserve suspense and surprise if you keep your players in the dark. If you're looking for info on guns and gear, this ain't it. It does provide a lot of color for the game world which will enable the gamemaster to round out his game world in the Third Edition era. Overall, great book and a must have for most Gms. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)