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Seattle Sourcebook
The SEATTLE SOURCEBOOK is a gamemasters reference for SHADOWRUN. It furnishes all the information you might need to run a campaign in Seattle, Hundreds of locations are described In detail - from big to small and from opulent to seedy. The movers and the shakers of Seattle are fully profiled, be they political, corporate, or underworld. A color section details gang colors, corporate security uniforms. and tribal garb. The book is loaded with maps and will be a great addition to any SHADOWRUN campaign.
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First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 3, 2015
Seattle in the 2050s
29 December 2012
I have noted that the only review of this book indicates how much the authors did not know about Seattle and suggested that none of them have ever been there, let alone lived there. I do sort of wonder why this one city was picked out of all of the West Coast cities to be a major setting for the Shadowrun game. I guess because the way they have designed the world Seattle had simply become a frontier town again, basically a city state that is surrounded by Native American tribes who had managed to rise up and overthrow their oppressors by bringing magic back into the world. The other reason is probably because Seattle is a major city that is quite a long way from many of the other major centres of the United States, sitting alone up in the northwestern corner of the continent.
This book simply details the Seattle sprawl region by region and sort of provides a lot of detail as to what can be found in this city as well as providing hints for possible adventures. I have noted that they created these places called the barrens, which are pretty much where all the poor people congregate, sort of like no-go zones where there is pretty much no law, and people don't actually leave the expressways when they pass through it (and the police certainly don't either). I suspect, though, if they wanted people bad enough, they would send enough fire power into the region to try to deal with it.
I have noted that they do mention Microsoft in this particular sourcebook, but it sounds as if Microsoft, by this time, has lost its dominant place in the corporate structure. This is not surprising, and I believe that it happens all the time. I remember when Yahoo was the search engine, and it was the search engine right up until Google came onto the scene, and now it is struggling to survive and making deals with other companies to stay afloat.
Google has managed to survive against the onslaught of Facebook, because all of the sudden, these social media sites are pretty much shutting out the rest of the internet and the traditional search engines are struggling to survive. However, interestingly Google have branched out into other areas, which include cloud computing with their Google Drive, and also operating systems with their android smartphone technology. Microsoft is still struggling to keep up.
Another thing about this world is the idea of the archologies. These are massive buildings that are owned by a corporation. Basically people (wage slaves and salari-men) live, work, and pretty much spend their entire life in these complexes. There is no need to go outside because the corporation provides everything. We have towns like that out in the mining regions of Australia, where the company gives subsidies to people who they want there, and pretty much run a monopoly on everything. However, it is interesting how times have changed in that Japan is suffering from a severe bout of stagflation, and the whole Japanese dominance that seems to have been the belief back in the nineties has failed to materialise. What we are seeing now is not so much a Japanese century, and the beginnings of a Chinese century.
29 December 2012
I have noted that the only review of this book indicates how much the authors did not know about Seattle and suggested that none of them have ever been there, let alone lived there. I do sort of wonder why this one city was picked out of all of the West Coast cities to be a major setting for the Shadowrun game. I guess because the way they have designed the world Seattle had simply become a frontier town again, basically a city state that is surrounded by Native American tribes who had managed to rise up and overthrow their oppressors by bringing magic back into the world. The other reason is probably because Seattle is a major city that is quite a long way from many of the other major centres of the United States, sitting alone up in the northwestern corner of the continent.
This book simply details the Seattle sprawl region by region and sort of provides a lot of detail as to what can be found in this city as well as providing hints for possible adventures. I have noted that they created these places called the barrens, which are pretty much where all the poor people congregate, sort of like no-go zones where there is pretty much no law, and people don't actually leave the expressways when they pass through it (and the police certainly don't either). I suspect, though, if they wanted people bad enough, they would send enough fire power into the region to try to deal with it.
I have noted that they do mention Microsoft in this particular sourcebook, but it sounds as if Microsoft, by this time, has lost its dominant place in the corporate structure. This is not surprising, and I believe that it happens all the time. I remember when Yahoo was the search engine, and it was the search engine right up until Google came onto the scene, and now it is struggling to survive and making deals with other companies to stay afloat.
Google has managed to survive against the onslaught of Facebook, because all of the sudden, these social media sites are pretty much shutting out the rest of the internet and the traditional search engines are struggling to survive. However, interestingly Google have branched out into other areas, which include cloud computing with their Google Drive, and also operating systems with their android smartphone technology. Microsoft is still struggling to keep up.
Another thing about this world is the idea of the archologies. These are massive buildings that are owned by a corporation. Basically people (wage slaves and salari-men) live, work, and pretty much spend their entire life in these complexes. There is no need to go outside because the corporation provides everything. We have towns like that out in the mining regions of Australia, where the company gives subsidies to people who they want there, and pretty much run a monopoly on everything. However, it is interesting how times have changed in that Japan is suffering from a severe bout of stagflation, and the whole Japanese dominance that seems to have been the belief back in the nineties has failed to materialise. What we are seeing now is not so much a Japanese century, and the beginnings of a Chinese century.
April 7, 2008
Being that I'm from Seattle originally I found this book pretty frusterating as a source book. While newer editions do a better job of getting the character of the city in the text the Seattle Sourcebook seemed to be written by people who had never been here.
August 24, 2021
I really wish Shadowrun had a functioning system worthy of its fans. Even in its FASA days it was rife with shoddy editing and design. But, Shadowrun's heart was mostly in the right place.
This book gives the rundown on the 'main' setting of Shadowrun: Seattle. One of the things I like most about Shadowrun as a setting is that it doesn't revolve around New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago like almost every other piece of fiction. This guide covers Seattle's history through the then-current developments in the Shadowrun universe and gives dispositions for each suburb in the city-state.
It has pretty cool layout, set up as an E-book or website guide of Seattle with commentary and additions from users on the Shadowlands BBS messageboards. This includes popular Shadowrunner haunts as well as seedy rumors about the various businesses and resources discussed. This makes a neat package full of history, GM resources, and quest hooks. The PCs need to find a quick body shop? Look one up in the Seattle suburb they're in and mine any connected rumors for further plot developments. The political machinations give further long-reaching plot options. It is, admittedly, extremely dry since it's largely just a running discussion of businesses but I love the flourishes.
The Shadowlands BBS commentaries are actually really good. A lot of the names repeat giving insight in to the character and maybe your next NPC. Nick Nuyen has the low-down on business skullduggery in the region. Connie Connoisseur knows the best Shadowrunner hangouts. And the most fully developed is SPD, a retired former Seattle police officer who's first introduction involves him threatening grievous bodily harm to a member of the racist Humanis Policlub who dares insult him. But we also see other sides to SPD. He's trying to embody the good-cop archetype but clearly has a serious blind-spot for police corruption. He wants to be the cop from TV/Sim Sense police procedurals but his biases do bleed through (though this may be a result of viewing it from a 2020s perspective and may not have been intentional by the 1990s writers).
Shadowrun, because of its fantasy elements, often gets accused of not being real cyberpunk. To which I respond that Shadowrun has always been smarter than the other stock cyberpunk genres. The people making Shadowrun tend to be better versed in things beyond the flashy neon lights and orientalism aesthetic than what I've observed in other cyberpunk games. The Industrial Workers of the World, even called by their traditional nickname the Wobblies, are a political player in Seattle in this book. I haven't seen the IWW's inclusion in any other Cyberpunk work I've looked at. There is mention of a white human supremacist policlub called 'The Order' which seems so specific and deliberate it can't not be a reference to the execrable hate book The Turner Diaries that real-world racists base their own organizations on. Shadowrun's depiction of race (by replacing human ethnicity racism with racism against elves and dwarves) is more than a bit clumsy but it takes a more serious look at this very serious real world problem than most games would. I give some points for effort even if the execution is flawed
The preponderance of art in the book takes the form of advertisements for the businesses listed in the guide. Most of these advertisements are very basic but the book is broken up by periodic full-page color magazine-style ads. The visual language of these ads is very, and I mean very, late-80s/early-90s and it's not terribly effective now in the 2020s but it's nice and gives it that consumerism-gone-horribly-wrong cyberpunk touch. There is also a series of character studies at the end of the book showing example members of the various factions and gangs and companies listed in the book. They have a very 90s-comic-book-style art to them and while I wouldn't call them great or ground-breaking they are effective character studies and give you enough visuals to turn in to GM flavor text visual descriptions of a sample member of an organiation.
All in all, it's a flawed book and a bit of slog to read by virtue of what it is but it also has a lot of really nice touches to it that I think make it a solid 'ok' setting sourcebook.
This book gives the rundown on the 'main' setting of Shadowrun: Seattle. One of the things I like most about Shadowrun as a setting is that it doesn't revolve around New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago like almost every other piece of fiction. This guide covers Seattle's history through the then-current developments in the Shadowrun universe and gives dispositions for each suburb in the city-state.
It has pretty cool layout, set up as an E-book or website guide of Seattle with commentary and additions from users on the Shadowlands BBS messageboards. This includes popular Shadowrunner haunts as well as seedy rumors about the various businesses and resources discussed. This makes a neat package full of history, GM resources, and quest hooks. The PCs need to find a quick body shop? Look one up in the Seattle suburb they're in and mine any connected rumors for further plot developments. The political machinations give further long-reaching plot options. It is, admittedly, extremely dry since it's largely just a running discussion of businesses but I love the flourishes.
The Shadowlands BBS commentaries are actually really good. A lot of the names repeat giving insight in to the character and maybe your next NPC. Nick Nuyen has the low-down on business skullduggery in the region. Connie Connoisseur knows the best Shadowrunner hangouts. And the most fully developed is SPD, a retired former Seattle police officer who's first introduction involves him threatening grievous bodily harm to a member of the racist Humanis Policlub who dares insult him. But we also see other sides to SPD. He's trying to embody the good-cop archetype but clearly has a serious blind-spot for police corruption. He wants to be the cop from TV/Sim Sense police procedurals but his biases do bleed through (though this may be a result of viewing it from a 2020s perspective and may not have been intentional by the 1990s writers).
Shadowrun, because of its fantasy elements, often gets accused of not being real cyberpunk. To which I respond that Shadowrun has always been smarter than the other stock cyberpunk genres. The people making Shadowrun tend to be better versed in things beyond the flashy neon lights and orientalism aesthetic than what I've observed in other cyberpunk games. The Industrial Workers of the World, even called by their traditional nickname the Wobblies, are a political player in Seattle in this book. I haven't seen the IWW's inclusion in any other Cyberpunk work I've looked at. There is mention of a white human supremacist policlub called 'The Order' which seems so specific and deliberate it can't not be a reference to the execrable hate book The Turner Diaries that real-world racists base their own organizations on. Shadowrun's depiction of race (by replacing human ethnicity racism with racism against elves and dwarves) is more than a bit clumsy but it takes a more serious look at this very serious real world problem than most games would. I give some points for effort even if the execution is flawed
The preponderance of art in the book takes the form of advertisements for the businesses listed in the guide. Most of these advertisements are very basic but the book is broken up by periodic full-page color magazine-style ads. The visual language of these ads is very, and I mean very, late-80s/early-90s and it's not terribly effective now in the 2020s but it's nice and gives it that consumerism-gone-horribly-wrong cyberpunk touch. There is also a series of character studies at the end of the book showing example members of the various factions and gangs and companies listed in the book. They have a very 90s-comic-book-style art to them and while I wouldn't call them great or ground-breaking they are effective character studies and give you enough visuals to turn in to GM flavor text visual descriptions of a sample member of an organiation.
All in all, it's a flawed book and a bit of slog to read by virtue of what it is but it also has a lot of really nice touches to it that I think make it a solid 'ok' setting sourcebook.
October 20, 2024
The SEATTLE SOURCEBOOK is a Shadowrun supplement that details the Emerald City as a place where you can do a lot of fascinating adventures in its multiple districts. The book suffers a bit that a lot of it is just detailing bars, organ grinder docs, hotels, and so on while telling you how racist they are against humans or elves. The Night of Rage and the role of race among the various factions in the city provides plenty of fodder for gaming, though. This book has a lot of flavor and that's something I love in all of my classic supplements.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews