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Chapter one will seem familiar to anyone who has ever read an OGL sourcebook. It has the obligatory new feats and powers for character creation. The two new powers "Scientific Genius" and "Spontaneous Inventor" (or the MacGuyver Power) are different takes on the Gadget power. Scientific Genius gives you a pool of points to create devices from and allows you to change how those points are allocated given enough time which is a nice way to handle gadgety characters. There is an Extra for this called Utility Belt which is basically the Gadget Power without a hero point cost. The Spontaneous Inventor power is just fluff on top of the Gadget Power. Instead of just happening to have what you need, you are able to create what you need from available materials. It has a time cost instead of a Hero point cost. There is also an alternate rule for the Gadget power that allows you to spend fatigue instead of a hero point to pull out whatever Gadget you need. This makes less sense than the hero point cost. "Bat Shark Repellent, sure I've got it, but I've worn myself out trying to get it out of my belt pouch." The next section is a discussion on construct characters that has some nice ideas on how the different power sources can be used to make a construct. It also includes new feats specific to construct characters [tank treads, organic facade, telescoping head (basically like one rank of elongation limited to neck), and some feats that are basically the Disable Device skill. There are some expansions on the Knowledge and Science Skills that considerably broaden their use by making specific areas of knowledge sub-skills of Knowledge to represent the way an educated person integrates information. This is similar to the way each rank in Perform is chosen for a separate instrument, but they all go to a total Perform rank. Some additional stunts and extras for brainy powers are included as well.
Chapter two adds a layer of complexity to designing gadgets. "Templates" are included for gadgets made with a particular technology that change the cost of items or add quirks such as auto- healing for biotech gadgets. The idea of Tech Levels which change the cost for Powers in worlds where everyone has a flight pack or power armor is common are introduced, but then the reader is referred to chapter three where more is promised. A new power is introduced here called Independent Intelligence which grants varying levels of independent action to Devices. This can be used for anything from a automatic security system to K.I.T.T. It doesn't feel necessary, but I haven't figured out how I would do it under the existing rules. It also adds a Device Size modifier to Device Cost indicating that because Colossal devices can't be carried in your pocket they should be cheaper...a lot cheaper -2pp/rank. This ignores the fact that Colossal devices will likely do different things than miniscule devices. I guess you could make a Colossal spy cam that would get less use than a miniscule one, but I doubt it. It certainly didn't need a rule. The book makes my point for me in the last chapter where one of the Devices is a Colossal tunneling machine that includes the note, "Note that the power borer's massive size gives it a total cost of 0" despite Corrosion +18. The chapter finishes with some entertaining or useful Stunts, Extras, and Flaws.
Chapter three is on integration of devices into the campaign. It has suggestions for what to do when the heroic characters used to playing D&D loot the villains instead of turning over the weapons to the authorities, as well as some power level limits to keep cheap imported NPC devices from overwhelming the hardworking mutant powers of the heroes. There is also the promised section on Tech Levels. My main disappointment with this section is that while the discussion mentions low tech settings, the examples given are "Far Future", and "Mecha."
Chapter four contains the bulk of the material in the book containing 88 of the books 128 pages. I have begun to refer to it as "Chapter 4: Revenge of the Typo." There are lots of spelling errors in this chapter. From and editing standpoint there are three large bits of the chapter (Robot creation rules, Vehicle rules, and computer rules) actually seem to belong with the construct rules from earlier on. The chapter has two parts. The first part breaks gadgets down by function, sort of. There are new Features/ Extras/Flaws for Arcane/Armor/Biotech/Computers/ Cybertech/Robots/Spytech/Vehicles/Weapons, Melee/ Weapons, Ranged. The computer rules are the biggest mass of unnecessary in the book. There are sections on "Writing Programs," "Repairing A Computer" (which begins "Fixing a computer...works just like repairing any other broken device") "Computer Actions" both offensive and defensive, and a large number of "Programs" for use. I think that people interested in this kind of computer intrusion detail are already playing Shadowrun. The second section goes through every power in the core book and presents a Device for it. It is frequently written that a particular power is best suited for an arcane device. This is frequently followed by a Tech device for the power. I can't tell Arcane devices aren’t considered "real" devices, or if it is an effort to do things the hard way to help players to think differently about powers. This part is the closest to the Catalog form of a gear book, but doesn't have cool pictures of each device. Rather it has a description of each and a Good M&M standard style illustration of one of the devices on the page in use. Not a big deal, but I like pictures of gear.
Something that I had never seen before is the compilation of the new rules for Feats, Powers, Power Stunts, and Skills in an appendix labeled “New Rule Compendium.” I thought that this was a great idea until I noticed that it only included items from Chapter One, rather than including The other new items like Power Suit from Chapter Four, or the Device Flaws from Chapter Two.
In summary-This is a very pretty book, with some useful additions to device creation, but it contains much that just adds unnecessary complexity to a great system. I hope that the hiring of Steve Kenson as full time Line Developer will produce a tighter product, more consistent with the great core book.
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