Target: UCAS
Shadowrun Sourcebook
FASA Corp.
104 pp
There have been some major shake ups in the sixth World in recent years, what
with Chicago turning into an insect nest, Dunkelzahn being elected president,
and then assassinated, it all seems to have gone rather pear shaped. Well, now
that the dust has settled somewhat just what state is the UCAS in?
The info herein is posted as electronic bulletins to Shadowland and takes the
form of a guided tour around the hotspots of 2058. First up is the State of the
Union address from the new president. This sets the tone as you quickly realise
that the UCAS still holds plenty of surprises, in some of the unlikeliest
places Boston, the economic hub of the world, home to the Stock Exchange and
Richard Villiers of Fuchi. A town that runners would normally avoid out of
sheer boredom but recent events have made Boston a goldmine of shady business
opportunities. There's all the usual corporate backstabbing as you'd expect but
when you add in the magic universities of Harvard and MIT&T, as well as the
witches of Salem then you've got a potentially explosive mix.
Elsewhere we're brought up to speed on events in Detroit. Virtually owned by
the mighty Ares Macrotechnology this city is the personal playground of the
corps' CEO, Damien Knight. He's got fingers in plenty of pies and his schemes
and secrets could provide gainful employment for your players for years to
come. He has his fair share of enemies too and they're all hiring right now,
looking for ways of taking Knight down.
Last up is Bugtown itself, Chicago. This is one of the most exciting locations
you could visit in any gameworld and "Target: UCAS" simply ups the ante.
Chi-Town's been walled off from the outside world for nearly three years but
now Ares have pulled out claiming to have solved the bug situation. The walls
are open and President Haeffner has officially declared the emergency over. The
behind the scenes machinations make fascinating reading and there's no danger
of Chicago becoming mundane for a while yet. The cure could be worse than the
problem, and there's umpteen reasons to `run the Windy City even now "the bugs
are gone".
All these locations are treated in terms of usefulness to your players, and
they certainly provide plenty of inspiration to even the most jaded GM. Read
through this and you'll be itching to get your runners on the next suborbital.
All the game information is handily collected at the back and is exhaustive in
its treatment of some of the new threats
that you can unleash.
Overall: If you want to stay up to date with FASA's vision of Shadowrun then
you'll need to get this book, but you'll be glad you did. There are literally
dozens of plots here, all of them potentially thrilling. The shadow information
makes the truth as flexible as you want it to be, so no-one really knows what's
up, except maybe Damien Knight, and he's not talking. Literally
inspirational.
Review by Barry Stevens
