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How to Install Google Cloud AI Python client library to interact with Vertex AI

In this article, we will see how to install google cloud AI Python client library to interact with Vertex AI programmatically. If you are looking to interact with Vertex AI using python programming language then Google Cloud provides an AI Platform Python client library that you can install and use for this purpose. This client library would allow you to train machine learning models using custom training jobs or pre-built algorithms. It will also allow you to deploy trained models as REST […]

https://www.ubuntu-server.com/ubuntu/how-to-install-google-cloud-ai-python-client-library-to-interact-with-vertex-ai/

How to Install Google Cloud BigQuery Python client library on Linux

In this article, we will see how to Install Google Cloud BigQuery Python client library in python environment on Linux. If you are looking to interact with Google Cloud BigQuery service using python programming language then you are going to need google-cloud-bigquery client library. This library helps you interact with BigQuery programmatically. You can easily manage bigquery datasets, tables and jobs using this client library. You can also execute SQL queries on datasets stored in […]

https://www.ubuntu-server.com/ubuntu/how-to-install-google-cloud-bigquery-python-client-library-on-linux/

I’m pulling together some thoughts I was moved to post on social media regarding the standard D&D spellcasting classes. I don’t know if any of this is incredibly profound, but I’ve also learned that I can’t trust social media as a storage format for my thoughts, so here’s hoping you don’t mind me sharing.

Over the years, I’ve posted many articles about the philosophical differences between different spell casters in D&D, yet I’m still moved to take another run at it occasionally. Perhaps someday I’ll have as many posts about this as alignment or how to make traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws work better (which I guess I can retire now that D&D 2024 and Tales of the Valiant both jettisoned the concepts).

Spellcaster Emphasis

This time, I was going for a very simple, very quickly summarized way to express how each class approaches spellcasting. I’m also only looking at spellcasters that derive their power from an outside source, which they had to take some action to access.

Clerics believe one or more Truths must be recognized.
Druids feel the flow of nature.
Paladins know that something must be done.
Rangers chase something in their soul.
Warlocks need the ability to accomplish their goals.

The most challenging summary was probably the Ranger because it’s easy to assume “like druids, but less.” What led me to this idea that a Ranger has something in their soul that makes them restless to chase the feeling of being “in” the right spot with nature is that Rangers move. They roam. They hunt. All of that suggests chasing after a feeling, and the supernatural manifestation of chasing that feeling is their various powers.

To develop this concept, I also considered the philosophy of spellcasting and the idea that different editions have had means of shifting what spellcasting statistic classes use. I wanted to consider what having more than one spellcasting stat would mean and what additional one makes the most sense for each class.

I also added this disclaimer online–I’m not saying this is what you should do. I’m playing around with a thought process to see what it would mean if this were true. I’m sure some issues could arise from this, and I know this won’t “feel” right for some players.

Alternate Spellcasting Statistics by Class

Artificer (Int or Wis)
Bard (Cha or Wis)
Cleric (Int or Wis)
Druid (Cha or Wis)
Paladin (Cha or Wis)
Ranger (Int or Wis)
Sorcerer (Cha or Wis)
Warlock (Int or Cha)
Wizard (Int or Wis)

It’s my blog, and I can’t help myself, so let’s look at each of the classes, and I’ll explain my logic for the additional spellcasting stat.

Artificer

The standard spellcasting stat for Artificers is Intelligence, which makes sense because they are effectively magical engineers. My logic for adding Wisdom of a secondary casting stat is that I can see Artificers that create things by rote. In other words, they don’t draw up their own plans, and they don’t vary the plans they use. They just adhere to what they have internalized and practiced over time.

Bard

I was very tempted to use Intelligence as the Bard’s secondary statistic. I could probably still be persuaded to do so. Still, I felt like there is a natural dichotomy between relating a story or an artistic piece with enough energy and emotion for people to internalize it or knowing the most important aspects of a story to emphasize and convey meaning to a specific audience. With all of that said, if you wanted to convince me that Bards would be the one class that could pick any stat from Int/Cha/Wis, thematically, I would have a hard time arguing against it.

Cleric

I added Intelligence as an alternate for Clerics based on the concept of religious scholars. I can picture Clerics versing themselves in scholarly works to reinforce the history of the religion and details of all of the church’s practices. You could argue for the Charismatic evangelist, but Paladins have the primary Charisma Divine caster role in the 5e SRD classes.

Druid

I can see Druids having Charisma as their secondary spellcasting statistic option because I can picture Druids that don’t contemplate their place in nature so much as they are imposing the will of “nature” on the world, assuming they are already right with the balance of nature. In some ways, it also dovetails with the roots of Bards and Druids and how, conceptually, they are essentially the same thing in some stories.

Paladin

It makes sense that Paladins can manifest their powers by Charisma, because they have a deeply held feeling that something must be done to effect a specific change in the world. They are a force of personality. Even with that understanding of the Paladin, though, I can picture the Paladin that still deeply feels what needs to be done. They are very proactive but may be introspective enough to want to contextualize their actions and choose between potential outcomes quickly.

Ranger

Wisdom represents the Ranger’s awareness of and perhaps even subconscious preparation for everything happening around them, especially in the environments they are most comfortable traversing. I don’t picture Charisma doing much to allow for an understanding and assessment of a situation. Still, I can see a more formalized approach to information gathering and threat assessment being something some Rangers may lean toward.

Sorcerer

I think the primary story of the Sorcerer is that they don’t learn their magic through scholarly study. They have a natural connection to the power they wield. While the default may be that Sorcerers can use the power they are connected to by force of personality, willing the world to change in accordance with their powers, I can also see Sorcerers having a deeper understanding and feeling for the depths of their power. They would still be using intrinsic power, but potentially with more intentionality.

Warlock

I picture Warlocks using Charisma to impose the power they have bargained for on the rules of reality. That’s looking at how Warlocks use their powers from the point of view of already having the power and then using it. I can also see Intelligence being a spellcasting statistic because the Warlock learns the forms and ways to communicate with otherworldly powers and measures the limits of different sources of power. Additionally, I just think the story of the Warlock leans away from assuming Wisdom, carefully considering repercussions, and avoiding unseen threats, so Wisdom isn’t the best fit for them, even with an expanded range of spellcasting statistics.

Gathering Information

I would love to get feedback on this post. I would love to know if those quick summaries of spellcaster approaches are helpful to people and if you have your own summaries that you think would work.When my “narrative” brain is going, it often pushes out my “rules” brain. I would also love to see if there is any issue with how the 5e SRD works compared to swapping out some of the spellcasting statistics, as I have conjectured above.

But most of all, I just like talking to other people about games.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/10/17/grasping-power-playing-with-spellcasting-assumptions/

#00ccff #3366ff #339966 #5eSRD #800000 #800080 #808080 #993300 #99cc00 #Arcane #Artificer #Bard #BlackFlagReferenceDocument #Cleric #Divine #Druid #DungeonsDragons #ff00ff #ff9900 #ffcc00 #Paladin #Primordial #Ranger #Sorcerer #Spellcaster #TalesOfTheValiant #Warlock #Wizard #Wyrd

@sarajw @danhon I made the simplest, ugliest fansite (background was solid #ff9900, never forgetting that orange hex code!) when I was about 10, but the feeling of "wait, I can actually do this?! It _works_?" is probably the reason I love CSS as much as I do.

I wish I had the original files, or maybe I do on an old hard drive…

There were a lot of milestones in my appreciation of D&D, and one of the big ones was when I first started reading the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes. No matter how vast and interesting the mortal realm of a fantasy setting might be, other worlds and other planes of existence where the normal rules don’t apply fascinated me.

It brought together my love of cosmologies, about the differences between Asgard, Jotunheim, and Niffelheim. It incorporated concepts like the River Styx running through the underworld, letting mortals receive a glimpse of the afterlife. It even made me think about how to integrate the dimensions I read about in comics, like the Negative Zone or Nightmare’s dream realm.

Different fantasy worlds have introduced cosmologies with varying levels of detail, some more stylized and restrained, and others more open-ended. Whenever I see a new fantasy world, I am very invested in finding out the context of reality as it relates to the planes of existence. That brings me to the Guide to the Labyrinth, a supplement from Kobold Press, detailing the cosmology of the Tales of the Valiant RPG.

Disclaimer

My copy of the Guide to the Labyrinth came from backing the Tales of the Valiant crowdfunding campaign. Since it details some broad setting information, some of it has already leaked into the planar traveling aspects of the Midgard campaign that I run.

Guide to the Labyrinth
Designer: Wolfgang Baur
Editors: Michele Carter, Meagan Maricle, Kenny Webb
Cover Artist: Krzysztof Porchowski Jr.
Interior Artists: George Johnstone, Viktoria Kanellopoulou, William O’Brien, Ian Perks, Roberto Pitturru, Kiki Moch Rizki, Florian Stitz, Bryan Syme, Egil Thompson
Cartographer: Damien Mammolini
Graphic Designer: Marc Radle
Layout: Kennedy Williams
Backer World Designers: Willy Alers, Alice Avoy, Boleslav, Patrick Boyer, Jonah Buck, Bob C., Brad Castles, Ressu Crebalt, Curtis, T.D. Daigle, Fish Davidson, Rob Dearsley, Stephen Diamond, Jason Dincauze, Stephen Michael DiPesa, Benjamin L. Eastman and Matthew Dunn, Echidna Design and Follow the Fool, Emirranth, Myth Epicweaver, Robert Fairbanks, Mycelia Fearne, Cameron Feiler, Scout Fenton, Lola Fortney, Mark G., gaelQuest, David Garrison, Marbles M Goblin, Richard Green, Ian “Grendel Todd” Grey, Austin H., Hbossssobh and Baldesion, Gabriel L. Helman, Jessica Henry, Levi Indvik, IrRyo, Darryl T. “Splattered Ink” Jones, Sawyer Judkins, Marc “DM Mythall” K., Phillip Larwood, Jeff Lee, John Leonas, Christopher Lockey, Nick “Jack1Spade” Lucas, Grant Martin, Phil Mason, David Mathews, Ryan McLaughlin, Paul McNeil and Edward Rollins, Nick Milton, R Moorhead, Isaac Morley, Vish Naidoo, Sean Nester, Zachery Newbill, Evan Noone, Bill Olander, Biometal Omega, Daniel Paoliello, Justin C E Penner, Jeff Quick, Thomas M. Reid, Richter, Sebastian Rombach, Eric Sage and Gates Perrault, J Santana, Dreamfyre Shadowcaster, DC Shepard, Montana Sparks, Chelsea “Dot” Steverson, Will Struck, Brian Suskind and Jon Enge, Talador, Jonah Tappan and Katie Truelove, The Manhattan Kobolds, Jorge A. Torres, Jenn Tsai, Valin, Phil Welch, Mike Welham, Elliot Wenzel, William West, Wyrmworks Publishing

A Map of the Planes

The Guide to the Labyrinth is a 74-page PDF. The pages are allocated like this:

Credit Pages–2 pages
Table of Contents–1 page
Art Preview–2 pages
Tales of the Valiant ad–1 page

In addition to the setting information included in the book, there are about 21 pages of the PDF dedicated to backer submitted worlds. There are several art pieces in the book, many that come from previous Kobold Press products or from Tales of the Valiant projects.

My favorite piece in the book is the cosmological map that appears in the PDF, showing various clusters of worlds and planes in relation to one another.

The Twists and Turns of the Labyrinth

The Guide to the Labyrinth touches on several topics. This includes a history of the Labyrinth, the Labyrinth’s structure, and the people that live in various regions of the planar construct. The modes of travel for traversing the Labyrinth are discussed, including underlying tunnels connecting worlds, branches of Yggdrasil, the River Styx, and the Astral Plane.

The book also includes several factions that are active across a variety of planes. The factions detailed include:

Concord of Stars–agents of various celestials
Keeper of the Keys–arcanists and planar travelers expanding connections between worlds
The Old Ring–an organization dedicated to planting seeds of Yggdrasil to grow new worlds
Servants of the Dreaming God–followers of Dreaming God, traveling the planes to discover revelations

Each of these factions contains an overview, goals, the most common adherents and agents of the faction, and three example NPCs from each faction. There is also a table of adventure hooks for each of the major factions. In addition to the major factions outlined, there are four other smaller factions given a few paragraphs of description.

There is a Pantheon of the Labyrinth presented as well. This isn’t a pantheon in the sense of being a related group of gods, so much as the most commonly worshiped gods in the major regions of the Labyrinth. The gods detailed include:

Cartokk, The Dreaming God–god of dreams and divine revelations
Herak-Mavros–god of war and thunder
Nakresh–god of thieves and tomb robbers
Rava–goddess of fate and mechanisms
Sabateus–god of magic, the moon, and the night
Solana–goddess of the sun and the forge

Because Tales of the Valiant doesn’t import alignment from the 5e SRD, the gods are presented in terms of what they represent and what goals they present to their followers. That means that some followers have a more malevolent bent to their form of worship. For example, some followers of Cartokk are laid back, hedonistic dreamers, and others are more obsessed with all of the worlds falling into Cartokk’s dream. Harak-Mavros is often seen as a god of heroes, but also has the portfolio of strife. Nakresh can be presented as a devious, dangerous, greedy deity capable of anything for personal gain, but Nakresh can also be seen as the god who inspires his followers to bring down the wealthy and powerful.

In addition to the “heroic factions,” or the factions PCs are more likely to join, work with, or at least negotiate with on a regular basis, there are also Void Factions. While not all of these are allied to one another, they all generally have nihilistic tendencies. The Great Chantry is more concerned with collecting and translating works inspired by exposure to the Void. The Last Cathedral is a cult ruled by undead brothers, raising armies to recruit the living to undead status, and opposing the forces of Solana. The Followers of the Pure Void are a group of mystics and cultists that seek to hasten Ragnarök and other Apocalyptic prophecies across the Labyrinth.

What’s Inside the Labyrinth?

The book details multiple worlds and planes. Unlike many of D&D’s worlds, a lot of the sites in the Labyrinth are specifically defined as worlds, rather than planes, but both exist, and there is an important distinction.

Worlds are different locations related to the Prime Material plane. While some of these worlds have been changed to adapt the traits of different planes of existence, these worlds didn’t start out as “conceptual” realities, like the outer planes. These are worlds with their own rules that conform to mortal assumptions, until they are fundamentally changed by forces that adopt those worlds as home.

The planes, as more traditionally defined in games like D&D, include the Astral Sea, the Elemental Spheres, and the Ethereal Plane. There are also the elements that run through the planes and worlds, such as Yggdrasil, the River Styx, and the Void. The Labyrinth itself is a mysterious construct that creates tunnels and passages between all these planes and worlds.

As described, the Labyrinth downplays the Outer Planes, as one would imagine them from D&D. Those planes are more “unknowable,” but various worlds within the Labyrinth have been converted to use by creatures from those planes. There are worlds that serve as the staging grounds for celestial armies, and worlds that serve as the dominion of archdevils.

The Labyrinth has clusters of worlds with similar traits. The Old Ring are worlds seeded directly from Yggdrasil and favor natural elements as their primary traits. The Celestial Worlds are worlds organized under the purview of celestial armies, staged to oppose the forces of the lower planes and the Void. The Void worlds are clustered together conceptually, and they represent worlds that have been infected by the entropy of the Void. These are worlds that are dying, often populated with creatures of the Void and various demons. There are about fifty sample worlds included in this section, each of which are detailed with a paragraph of text.

Other Tools

There are several tables that pull together what creatures are likely to be found in the Labyrinth, creatures that are suited for planar traveling and world hopping campaigns, organized into different challenge ratings. There is also a cult name generator, for rolling up a prefix, core, and suffix for the cult’s name.

The Outer Worlds

One of the clusters of worlds in the Labyrinth shown on the cosmological map in this product, the Outer Worlds are all worlds that were contributed to the project as part of the crowdfunding project, which allowed backers to pitch worlds to be included, with 70 of those pitches being chosen for inclusion.

These worlds get a little bit more detail than the fifty example worlds given in the previous section of the book. They each feature a high concept summary sentence for the setting, the names of the creators, and a slightly longer paragraph description hitting all the high points of the world.

Because these worlds were pitched by backers and not developed alongside the concepts guiding the rest of the Guide, there are a few worlds whose assumptions feel a little at odds with the “realities” of the Labyrinth. Some of them imply a greater cosmology of their own. Many of them are more science fiction/space opera oriented, which isn’t heavily supported by the currently available Tales of the Valiant rules. There are multiple worlds that are allegorical commentaries on modern issues.

Many of these are fun to read and introduce interesting thought exercises. There are definitely some worlds that work as a place to namedrop when your planar travelers need to explain where they’ve been before, or as a place for a quick visit for an adventure or two. Many others require a bit more thought and effort if they are introduced, especially since many of them describe “twists” that aren’t well supported by Tales of the Valiant (protagonists as insects living inside a giant tree, tiny protagonists living in a human scientist’s backyard, etc.).

A Heaven for Every Soul

I like the idea of making the Outer Planes/Afterlife/Divine Domains more remote, with various thematic worlds all being worlds outside of the realms of the gods that have been shaped and populated by various planar travelers. Not only does it deepen the mystery of what the afterlife is really like, or what the true nature of the gods might be, it also gives you a lot of flexibility for creating a unique realm for your Archdevil or Demon Lord without fitting them into a more all-inclusive planar framework.

I also like the theme of the Void cultists spreading through different worlds, and portraying the variety that exists within similar nihilistic organizations. I’ve been enjoying the huge, plane spanning organizations that have appeared in WotC releases like Glory of the Giants and The Book of Many Things, and I appreciate more of them, taking the Tales of the Valiant sensibilities, appearing here.

No Way Out

Here is where I get to be a little conflicted, because while I like some of the mystery and customization this planar setup allows, I also really enjoy the big, strange conceptual planes for D&D’s outer planes. They aren’t impossible to reconcile, but they also aren’t a focus of this setting. While I like the factions presented, I feel like we’re missing some archetypes, especially on the villain’s side, with the antagonist factions being Void related.

Much like factions, the pantheon presents good information, but feels a little thin and lacking in wider archetypes. Most of the gods we have can be benevolent or malevolent, and that’s cool, I would love to have a few more unambiguous gods and a few less broad concepts for the deities’ portfolios. I know, you might say “ambiguous gods with a broad collection of concepts that may not always match up” is absolutely the way actual real-world religions often work. I’m not against some of those gods, but D&D-like settings aren’t always served best by only including elements that fit a concept of historical accuracy over fantasy archetypes. The Midgard setting has similarly ambiguous deities, but also includes “Dark Gods,” which are more commonly understood to be dangerous and antagonistic.

This final comment isn’t entirely fair, but with both WotC and now Kobold Press moving toward “the setting is the broader cosmology,” it does make me wish we had a more traditional campaign setting product on the horizon.

Tenuous Recommendation–The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.

I really like the flexibility of the Labyrinth and the idea that worlds, rather than planes, might be the thematic locations that PCs can explore. I really like the concept of the Labyrinth, tunnels beneath reality that run all around the multiverse, as a fantasy concept. I think this product gives us a good glimpse into what we’re going to see when the Tales of the Valiant universe is expanded, and it provides some ideas that are immediately usable in game. I’ve already incorporated some of the concepts into the plane hopping segment of my current campaign.

My main hesitation when more broadly recommending this product is that later this year (as of this writing in 2024) there will be a crowdfunding campaign for the Labyrinth Worldbook, a campaign setting book that provides more details about traveling between worlds, factions, and dangers lurking in the tunnels that crisscross reality. If you want to pick this up to see the shape of things to come and get some inspiration right now, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, but it also may not be too difficult to wait for more in-depth setting information.

If you would like to see what I’m talking about for myself, or want to see some of the other takes on the cosmology in which the world of Midgard exists, I hereby present these affiliate links, which will gather unto me a tiny bit of what you might spend when you use them. I appreciate you stopping by!

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/06/10/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-guide-to-the-labyrinth-tales-of-the-valiant/

#00ff00 #800080 #DD5e #ff9900 #KoboldPress #Multiverse #rpgs #TalesOfTheValiant #ttrpgs

Agreements with Indigenous people being undercut in a rush for resources. A nation declaring genocide because they feel threatened after terrorist attacks. Worldwide pandemics that devastate the world, fade out of the public consciousness, and then resurge. US Supreme Court decisions that erode the legal assumptions of modern life. Russia gets into a war in Europe for trying to annex the domains of sovereign nations. Allegations of rigged elections. A rich media personality is elected president.

No, really, I’m not talking about the news, I’m taking a look at an RPG product. Usually I keep my reviews within the first year of their release, but you know what? Dystopian future stuff is speaking to me right now, so we’re going to look back to December of 2021, to when Shadowrun: Anarchy 2050 was released.

I’ll be honest, part of this is because I’m curious if we’re going to see any more Anarchy products. The line has been a very slow burn, with the original release being in 2016, and Shadowrun: Anarchy Chicago Chaos, in 2019, meaning we’ve had three years between releases before. We may be due for more Anarchy.

Disclaimer

I picked this up on my own, and did not receive a review copy. I haven’t had a chance to use this product. I have gone through character creation with some players without getting a campaign up and running, but I have had the opportunity to play the game as a player.

Shadowrun: Anarchy 2050

Shadowrun Line Developer: Jason M. Hardy
Product Development: O.C. Presley
Editing: Clifton Lambert
Original Cue System Design: Matt “Holo Man” Heerdt
Writing: Cullen Erbacher, Jason Hawks, Clifton Lambert, O.C. Presley, Oscar “Ozz” Ruso, James “Scorch” Spahn Cover Art: Bruno Senigalha Cover Layout: Matt “Holo Man 2.0” Heerdt
Senior Art Director: Brent Evans
Shadowrun Art Director: Ian King
Interior Art: Doug Andersen, Bruno Balixa, Ryan Barger, Gerald Brom, Wagner Chrissante, Brent Chumley, Angga Dwipayana, Larry Elmore, Fred Fields, Ben Giletti, Phil Hilliker, Jeff Laubenstein, Lukasz Matuszek, Chris Moeller, Mark Molnar, Victor Moreno, David Nash, Jim Nelson, Kristen Plescow, Júlio Rocha, Luis Royo, Rob Ruffolo, Bruno Senigalha, Klaus Scherwinski, Filipe Siqueira, Peter Tikos, John Zeleznik, Mark Zug
Interior Layout: Matt “Holo Man 3.0” Heerdt Proofreading: Bruce Ford, Jim Greene, Mason Hart, Jeremy Weyand

Physical Pulp Based Interface Device in Digital Form

I have the previous Anarchy releases in both PDF and physical form, but 2021 was a different time, and I never followed through on picking up the physical version of this book. Unfortunately, that may be trickier now, because I can’t find it on any game store retailers or on Catalyst’s shop, although the PDF is still available on DriveThroughRPG and Catalyst’s site.

The PDF is 159 pages long. This includes the following distribution of pages:

Credits Page (1 page)
Table of Contents (1 page)
Introductory Fiction (5 pages)
Setting Information (23 pages)
Pregenerated Characters (40 pages, 20 characters)
Icons and Monsters (18 pages)
Contract Briefs (49 pages, 23 briefs)
Gear and Items (8 pages)
Optional Rules (4 pages)
Closing Fiction (7 pages)

Because this is all about presenting the Shadowrun setting how it appeared in 2050, the book reproduces a lot of classic artwork from 90s-era Shadowrun adventures and sourcebooks. There are a few full page art images, often the cover art from classic products. The book itself is arranged in the same yellow and black two column block setup as the previous Shadowrun Anarchy products.

What’s This About?

The original Shadowrun Anarchy rulebook presented the setting as it appeared at the time of that book’s publication, with the final date in that book’s timeline being in 2077. The events of Chicago Chaos take place from 2075 through 2079. The assumed timeframe that Anarchy 2050 is playing with is from 2050 through 2059, much earlier than the previous Anarchy releases.

This has the same structure as the previous volumes in the Anarchy line, with setting information, pregenerated characters, NPCs, mission briefs, and gear. Like Chicago Chaos, this does not include the general rules of the game, or the system for building Shadow Amps (the game’s name for anything that makes the character mechanically distinct in the game, like spells, cybernetics, weapons, and cyberdecks).

2050 was Wild, Y’all

Shadowrun as a game was born in the 1990s, a time when RPGs often thought they were touching on serious topics in a deep fashion, and often fumbled that presentation, even if the designers meant well. The history section of this book could have been a way to smooth down some of those rough edges, but the intent of the book seems to be to use the Anarchy ruleset to present the setting very much as it appeared in its earliest editions. Full credit to the authors, they have used language that is better accepted for terms regarding race and ethnicity in the modern era.

Some of those rough spots include the United States declaring overt genocide on Indigenous peoples and Indigenous people threatening to kill all people of European, African, or Asian descent if they don’t leave North America. It also contains some pretty sweeping generalizations about the Yakuza, Korean organized crime, and the Mafia, as well as some statements about national and cultural attitudes towards metahumans that are pretty sweeping and lacking in nuance.

That said, like a lot of cyberpunk from the 80s and 90s, way too much of this history is on the nose, and not created for this particular product with the hindsight of 2021 in mind. The US Supreme Court is the impetus for some of the legal foundations used to make corporations into their own sovereign bodies. There are several wars breaking out in different parts of the world, destabilizing parts of Europe and the Middle East. The world is still recovering from devastating global pandemics. And none of that even touches on the people that turned into elves, dwarves, orks, and trolls, and the fact that people can suddenly use magic again.

If you know Shadowrun, you probably know most of this, but in case you don’t, or you are used to fewer details, just know there are a few jaw droppers in there that haven’t been retconned or given added context.

One of the differences in the 2050 version of the setting are the top 10 megacorps that are ascendent. The number of Japan based megacorps in 2050 is 5, versus the two that remain in the big 10 in the 2070s. That’s definitely a reflection of where cyberpunk was at in the 1990s, where a paranoia about Japanese corporate expansion seemed to flavor a lot of setting details.

Dated world-building aside, considering both Shadowrun Anarchy (the original rulebook) and Anarchy 2050 focus greatly on the Seattle area, I think I got a better idea of what the Seattle Sprawl should look like, and what’s going on in the various regions of the Sprawl, than I did with the original book. This is continuing a trend, because I felt like Chicago was also better handled in Chicago Chaos than Seattle was in the original book.

Population

The pregenerated characters in the original Anarchy release and Chicago Chaos have a page of backstory on one side of their sheets, and their character statistics on the opposite side. Anarchy 2050 follows this same pattern, but with a little bit of a difference. The NPCs in previous releases have basically had a biography of the character with notes on playing them. Some of the NPCs in this book have that, but others have a much less detailed section directly addressing the reader about what the character does and why they do it. It’s a little jarring, especially when the book doesn’t call out why it alternates between those formats.

Some of these characters also have a special effect called out on the backstory side of the sheet, usually specific alternate events or rules interactions that trigger under different circumstances that don’t really fit into the standard character building paradigm. They aren’t built as Shadow Amps or listed as Positive or Negative Qualities. They are just an extra thing that the pregen can do that isn’t expressed elsewhere in the rules. It really makes me wonder if some alternate rules were cut from the book, and/or if development of the NPCs happened at different times, with different designers, under different directions, and were consolidated at the end of the project.

The NPCs and creatures presented are a mix of NPCs and creatures that appear in the mission briefs, and general Shadowrun Archetypes. I put together a collection of all of the stat blocks from the Anarchy line, which shows an interesting thing. While there are a few duplicated creatures, they are often built in very different ways. The book itself says that when presented with different versions, to use the most recent ones, from Anarchy 2050. My initial assumption for this is that it reflects years of experience with the rules of this line, but when we get to the gear section, it implies that the gear in this book is built to reflect 2050, so it’s not a new design philosophy, it’s the difference between eras. I don’t think that would be true of adversary stat blocks, but then again, I could be wrong.

When I mention the differences, I also wanted to point out that this isn’t “oh, that’s a point higher, and that’s a point lower.” It’s more along the lines of the barghests in one source have a Critter Amp built to paralyze people that hear its howl, and in another source, their howl is a debuff. As I’m not a Shadowrun expert, especially not the early years, I don’t know if there was a statistical difference between how the eras represented barghests.

Mission Briefs

This entire product is meant to recreate the experience of the early Shadowrun setting with the Anarchy ruleset. This includes setting rules, such as not allowing technomages in the campaign, because they haven’t started appearing yet. It also means that they have reproduced some of the earlier edition Shadowrun adventures in the Mission Briefs.

The mission briefs for Anarchy have often presented adventures published for the main Shadowrun line in the Anarchy format. The mission briefs take up much less space, because when those same missions are presented as a mission brief, it is usually summed up with the PCs getting hired, how they first engage with the mission, a few complications that the GM should make sure occur, some objectives that the PCs need to meet to get to the end of the adventure, and the final scene. The objectives are usually painted in fairly broad strokes, allowing the players to come up with their own solutions.

In other words, if a tradition Shadowrun scenario would show a building’s layout, provide stats for its security systems, and describe the guard patrols and how many should be where at one time, the mission brief will suggest that if the PCs describe their approach as X, give them an encounter that includes Y, and let them make a check to see if they have to do it the hard way or not. This makes sense because of Anarchy’s more narrative approach to resolution, and I personally like this much better, because it takes much less time to say that the PCs failed their Logic test to guess at the guards pattern, so now they have a fight, than it takes to actually figure out if the PCs are approaching at a time when there would be guards present.

There are two interesting developments in these mission briefs. Anarchy has some rules for calibrating the degree to which a traditional GM needs to facilitate the game. The mission briefs don’t usually directly address some of the different techniques for this, but one in particular in this batch calls back to the player facing narrative rule of letting the PCs tell the GM what they find when they make a test to notice a detail. In this case, it uses that mechanic in a very specific way, and that is to say that the PCs need a certain number of clues, but the PCs can look for them how they choose, and determine what they are if they are successful.

The other development is less of a callback to rules that don’t usually get referenced, and is more of a callback to how a lot of RPG material was written in the 90s. There are two series of interlinked mission briefs that represent some historic Shadowrun missions. One is a series of missions they undertake for a secret boss that turns out to be the infamous elf Harlequin. The other is a set of missions for the draconic presidential candidate Dunkelzhan. When I say these are very 90s adventures, I mean that these mission briefs have a whole lot of scenes in them that the PCs are just meant to be present to witness, and have very little ability to affect. The only agency they really have in some of these scenarios is to see if they can survive the free for all that often erupts after they have witnessed a moment in history.

I like the investigation technique, although I have had some players that don’t like the idea that they know a mystery is just a storytelling device and not a real thing that can be solved. On the other hand, I really don’t want to walk PCs through a tour of important events just because they were important, formative adventures from early Shadowrun. I don’t care how much they love Shadowrun, I don’t know many players that want their PCs to be the Shadowrunners that failed to stop the President from being assassinated.

Amps and Gear

I was really excited in Chicago Chaos, because just seeing some of the gear made it much easier to understand how the rules handled certain situations, like cyberdecks, that were left much more vague in the core Anarchy book. The process for custom building Shadow Amps from the core book doesn’t really map 1:1 for the equipment they present in the game, and if you custom build the powers, abilities, spells, or gear, you almost always end up with something more powerful than it looks like the rules want you to have.

Here is where things start to cross some wires. This is a largely narrative game, where a lot of what a Shadow Amp does is to give you narrative permission to do a thing, or to roll extra dice when you do something. However, the gear in this book is expressly stated as 2050 gear that you shouldn’t use for the 2070s+ presented in Anarchy and Chicago Chaos. Part of this is due to the fact that cyberspace has been kind of rebuilt over the next 20 years, and it accounts for having spellcasters that can manipulate technology. The system looks granular enough to handle this kind of hair splitting, but it’s really not.

Additionally, you don’t get a different set of values for how much individual components of Shadow Amps cost if you custom build them, relative to 2050. These are all things built with the same point spending rules as the core Anarchy book, with some narrative limitations thrown on them, or some extra points used to create something very similar to the Anarchy core book.

I like the concept of building cybernetics, spells, and weapons in the same system, and knowing that a mage is going to be building out spells, and a street samurai will be building ridiculous electrified katanas. But the custom building rules feel like “rules of last resort.” If you can’t find a gear package that’s already be pre-built and tells you how many points it costs, and you can’t find gear in the core Shadowrun books, and walk through the conversion process to determine what the item does and how many points it costs, then you can freestyle build something, and hope it doesn’t outshine the prebuilt Shadow Amps the other PCs got out of the gear catalog.

Optional Rules

For a narrative game that was written in 2021, what optional rules would you add to a mission based game that wasn’t as common in the gaming vernacular in 2016? The optional rules in this section are all about different kinds of clocks, but in this case, they are referred to as plot status monitors.

This section outlines using them to measure incremental success on a mission, introducing dueling status monitors to measure the PCs progress versus a rival group, or using a status monitor to measure how long the PCs have until they are detected or reinforcements get sent in to wipe them off the board.

It’s a good addition to the game and it fits very well with the more narrative structure of the core Anarchy rules. Between the Shadowrun branded terminology and some of the descriptions, this system may come across in a manner that’s a little more complicated in its explanation of what it’s doing, but it’s a good and workable addition.

Payday

The information about the setting feels dated in its content, but is very engaging to read, and presents the history of the setting in a clear and understandable way. The environs of Seattle have a much more clearly defined purpose and theme than they did in the core book. I can envision the Sprawl much more clearly, and I know where the rich patrons would live and what neighborhoods are going to be potential ganger hot spots. There are a few solid utilitarian additions to the stat blocks for the game, and the plot status monitors feel like a missing piece that we didn’t know we were missing back in 2016.

Cashing Out

It may be me, and where my head is at lately, but it seems like the core Anarchy book and Chicago Chaos were a little more opinionated about taking missions from corps and what that says about you. Maybe it’s because it’s calling back to the early 90s, where the fact that you mentioned politics at all was revolutionary, so you didn’t want to push the boundaries by having an opinion on those politics you introduced. It just feels like a lot of this book is saying, “yeah, corporations are bad, but it’s the world we live in, so we should find out who pays the best and resign ourselves to the fact that it’s always going to be this way.” Part of this may be the motivations of the pregenerated characters, and having fewer characters like reporters trying to stick it to the people in power or altruistic street medics that go on runs to fund their illegal clinics.

Tenuous Recommendation–The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.

After seeing how it expanded the number of pre-built Shadow Amps and provided some interesting interlinked scenarios, and expanded the setting to include the 2070s Chicago, Chicago Chaos had me enthusiastic about what this line would look like if it got more entries. Outside of the Plot Status Monitors, this one feels like it’s not bringing the same variety of tools to the table as Chicago Chaos, and it’s very, very focused on presenting the 2050s and that’s it.

Even the glimpses we get of the wider Shadowrun world of 2050 feel like very thinly drawn two dimensional spaces. From playing the Shadowrun: Dragonfall video game, I was expecting a much different Germany than the brief glimpse we get in one of the mission briefs, where it appears as a cartoonishly regressive medieval fiefdom isolated from the rest of Europe.

I like Shadowrun Anarchy, but it’s kind of in spite of itself rather than because of itself. If the line is going to continue, I really think it needs to relaunch and reorganize. The priority right now feels like it’s about playing the pregens through the mission briefs, and maybe engaging with the gear catalog and point buy rules if the PCs advance enough to want something not on their character sheets. I think this game could really sing if it were better organized, had its emphasis on being a long term gaming solution, and wasn’t quite as focused on being a sporadically supported thought experiment.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/03/22/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-shadowrun-anarchy-2050/

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