Target: Awakened Lands
a location sourcebook for the Shadowrun game system
Intro:
As Year of the Comet was the first expansion for FanPro in the
Shadowrun world, Target: Awakened Lands marks its first foray
into Shadowrun location books. This book covers Australia and its strange manastorms,
talks about other specific locations that have odd magical things happening
to them, and a short chapter on general high magic areas better known as mana
lines and power points. This book is also told in the 'Shadowland E-Book' format
that FASA used to such good effect, which means that 3/4 of the book is written
as in-game information that can be freely distributed to players. In addition
to the primary content of article, fictitious online users post comments on
the subject matter. This flavor text is some of the most useful information
for a Shadowrun GM as many of them provide informal plot hooks.
Book Contents:
Chapter 1 Manic Mana: This chapter deals with locations of aberrant
magic, whether that means too much magic or too little magic. Manalines and
Power Points are gone into detail and Mana Shallows make their first appearance
in SR. Interaction between the Astral and Physical planes is also discussed,
whether that be ancient Egyptian cities that suddenly appear at dusk only to
fade away again with the dawn, or areas where even a mundane can see the
Astral Plane (first touched on in Year of the Comet). One part
of this chapter that I personally dislike is that nearly all places of magic
are now 'aspected', meaning that while one type of magician may get a bonus,
all others see the area as background count. This is a personal quibble and
doesn't take away from the quality of the chapter overall.
Chapter 2 Australia: The Land of Oz: The bulk of the book is covered
in this chapter dealing (finally) with the land down under. Previous books had
hinted about big magical storms going on in Oz, but other than dropped tidbits
from time to time there was no definitive source for Oz information in the SR
world. This book covers the cities, peoples (both contemporary and Aboriginal),
geography, and magical happenings of Oz. Manastorms, Aboriginal magic, and locations
of power are gone into detail and the section on manastorms was especially interesting.
Whether it was intended so or not, the entire chapter has a very post-apocalyptic
feeling about it.
Chapter 3 Awakened Sites: This chapter covers a number of other locations
of magic, from the Nazca lines of Peru to Angkor, the huge temple complex in
Cambodia. Each site only covers a page or two and in truth the whole chapter
is a little disappointing due to the lack of depth that each entry receives.
This chapter turns a number of other magical sites into what Australia used
to be; possibly an interesting location, but not much solid information to build
much on it as a GM.
Chapter 4 Game Information: This chapter covers rules that GMs need
from sites located in the previous chapters. Of note are two new metamagical
talents and a new spell option. Channeling, one of the new
metamagical talents looks unbalanced at first glance, but time will tell.
Review:
Though the name may state otherwise this book is really all about Australia
and little else, and in that context it succeeds well. Both the mundane and
supernatural sections of Australia are covered in great detail. Australia however
is only one of many magical sites that we've been given bread-crumbs about in
the past and the book fails to bring up any of them except for a short look
at Crater Lake (Madagascar, Tibet, Atlantis, and parts of Africa to name a few
sites completely left out of Target: Awakened Lands).
The 'shadow talk' is of above average quality, though it lacks some of the
freewheeling spirit that was found in other recent works like Target:Matrix.
Generally, the artwork follows the recent 'cartoonish' trend, but some of the
new artwork in the book seems to be taking on a harder edge and returning to
the more gritty world that most 'punk games have, which in this reviewers opinion,
is a good thing.
Final opinion? If you're planning on playing in Oz then hurry up and buy
this book now! If you want to do a game with strange magical happenings then
this book will help you on your way, but it won't get you all the way there.
If you're a completist...well then you probably already have the book. :)
Otherwise this book, while very interesting and full of new information,
ultimately has limited appeal.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)