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Aye, aye, aye: Shadows of Britannia

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Fisher

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« on: <06-24-17/1755:24> »
So hey gang! I've been brewing over a game set in the UK. I'm a Brit, and while my feelings on my country are a little mixed, I like the idea of bringing players somewhere a little less trod. My concept is a group of detectives and counterterrorism experts, reforming the Spcial Branch that was dissolved under Marchment (well, dissolved, absorbed into the LPO... semantics.)

I've been reading up on the relevant lore: Dirty Tricks, and the London sourcebook being my two primary sources thus far. I'll note that I find things a little confusing, especially when it comes to the green party and NDM's rise to power. And I'll confess I'm not a fan of the Pendragon plot one little bit. Anyone who wants to bring up cool UK Shadowlore that I may have missed, please chime in, but the lore isn't exactly my focus here.

No, I'm more curious about feeling. Themes and ideas and all that jazz. What should make the UK different from other parts of the Sixth World? How high magic should it be? Where does it fit into the larger picture? I'm...not really sure what one question I'm asking here, I'm just curious as to what people think about the UK in Shadowrun?

Crimsondude

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« Reply #1 on: <06-24-17/2304:17> »
There was a major update on the UK in the London chapter of Conspiracy Theories.

Marzhin

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« Reply #2 on: <06-25-17/0758:11> »
Recently there's also been the London Falling Missions book taking place there.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
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adzling

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« Reply #3 on: <07-10-17/1907:18> »
a couple of the consistent themes re: GB are:

1). Lesser availability of firearms (pistols are effectively BIG GUNS with almost everything else impossible to obtain legally).

2). Elves. A big chunk of the british aristocracy expressed as Elves and everything elvish is seen as di rigeur by the brits.

You should get the london sourcebook from 1e, it's really the best source of info and they did such a good job back then that the street addresses of places are real and searchable via google maps!

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #4 on: <07-10-17/2335:20> »
I give the London Sourcebook a 9 on quality, a 6.5 on playability, and a 3 on my Good-Game-O-Meter; it suffers heavily from the 'everything in the next sourcebook must be better if it was good, worse if it was bad, and more powerful if it was strong' situation that sometimes plagues games (especially those named Rifts).  Sargent and Gascoigne did a good technical job of writing, but they did a bad thematic job of writing.  In any case.

Take the London Sourcebook with a heavier grain of salt than the Seattle of the same era; the 'not so' statements of the shadow posters is more likely to be accurate, such as the observation about 'UGE dwarven stillbirths vs. UGE elven live births' - if it was an elf UGE, it was allowed to live, but if it was a dwarf, it was usually killed.  All the disasters are bigger, all the scandals are more foul, the dangerous things are more powerful, the conspiracies are mightier, etc. etc.  The intervening time has done a lot to weaken that issue, but once set, the elements more-or-less remain, so ...
Pananagutan & End/Line

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lokii

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« Reply #5 on: <07-13-17/0450:38> »
I remember vaguely that I heard Undershadows added to the current UK metaplot. Any truth to that?

Valis

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« Reply #6 on: <07-16-17/1724:50> »
There's some stuff kicking around Reddit, plus been giving it some thought of my own.

Quote
So far there's British, Scottish, Welsh & Tir Na Nog (leaning towards yours) Nat wise, though I'm thinking that when Tir took over any displaced Irish who didn't want to bow out brought out the Isle of Man and turned it into an Island Sprawl. Then we have General UKGB, Noble, Citizen (going by LSB, skilled professionals rate above general populace), Sinless (I've taken to calling them Sightless as the Euro SIN is CEERS).
Which more plainly means:
United Kingdom of Great Britain: General UKGB, Nobility, Citizen, Scottish, Welsh & SINless.
Though I'm thinking the Isle of Man became The Irish Republic of Man at some point.

Thinking the Isle of Man would have taken into some Scottish survivors as well and be the Gaelic Republic (of Man?) and also considering something I'm calling a Ruralsprawl for the moment. Which is more or less a blend of Rural/Industrial Walkways with Small Wilds interspersed.