[Grinder]

Also (spoiler tag added out of an abundance of caution),
[spoiler] I think this is the first Shadowrun book I've seen that explicitly calls out Thera (by name) as being Atlantis. [/spoiler]

In which context? In-game our out-game?

[UnLimiTeD]

I'll have to chime in as well with the +1 on the fluff.
Also, I definitely appreciate the in depth on blood magic etc.
Branding something as "Evil" was never quite believable even though it's sometimes the obvious choice.
I myself, f.Ex. see no reason not to have a non-toxic radiation mage (maybe he worked in a power plant or space engineering at the time of his awakening), so giving players the tools to play something potentially evil and hideous, but not necessarily, is a step in the right direction.
Just like infected, really. That the two are found combined in the book is just gravy.

[RowanTheFox]

I'd just like to once again applaud Waakshani for the Jackpoint shadowtalk section he wrote with Elijah.  It hits some personal notes for me, and was very, VERY well done.  Also, holy shit.

I second this! I actually felt genuinely worried reading that! I'm wondering what's going to happen to Elijah now, since I doubt our resident Lightbearers are just going to let him go. Wordsmyth and The Laughing Man scared? I second that holy shit.

[Wakshaani]

That whole chapter was fun to write. There's a few other bits tucked away in there as people settle in past the crunch and get to the fluff. A bit of a nod to the LA situation, for instance, some corner bankshot references to magic drawing from big name central figures, corporate magical theories, talk about all sorta of background counts and magical zones that people overlook, a bunch of new spirit types, Crater Lake, corporate Kami... and the CanRay lead-in story is da bomb.

The spirit contact is something I wanted to do way back in the SR5 core book, honestly. The Street Shaman called out for it, and there's always a nice spot for a group having to go out into the middle of nowhere to get a spraypaint artist to do a big mural to attract a wild spirit's attention who they can then ask questions about some OTHER thing somewhere else.

Artisan skills suddenly getting useful. Backdoor buff!

[UnLimiTeD]

Damn, he buffed the backdoor. I did not expect that. 

[Marzhin]

Also (spoiler tag added out of an abundance of caution),
[spoiler] I think this is the first Shadowrun book I've seen that explicitly calls out Thera (by name) as being Atlantis. [/spoiler]

In which context? In-game our out-game?

It's in the introduction of the Advanced Alchemy chapter, which also refers by name to other Shadowrun books, so out-of-game. But there are other references to Earthdawn in Forbidden Arcana, such as a reference to Passions in the chapter on Traditions (not explicitly named but if you're familiar with Earthdawn you'll know what they're talking about).

Laverty mentioned something in a language I didn’t grok, but the context clued me into that they were speaking of beings revered by ancient people in the way that some today worship gods. They spoke of how dragons knew about these beings as well. If, during a time of higher magic, elves and dragons followed or revered beings higher than themselves, who then empowered followers with magic ability, that is a paradigm shift. Unified Magic Theory doesn’t come close to explaining that kind of thing. Were these beings gods? Mentor spirits? Metaplanar beings? Do they still live?

[RowanTheFox]

Also (spoiler tag added out of an abundance of caution),
[spoiler] I think this is the first Shadowrun book I've seen that explicitly calls out Thera (by name) as being Atlantis. [/spoiler]

In which context? In-game our out-game?

It's in the introduction of the Advanced Alchemy chapter, which also refers by name to other Shadowrun books, so out-of-game. But there are other references to Earthdawn in Forbidden Arcana, such as a reference to Passions in the chapter on Traditions (not explicitly named but if you're familiar with Earthdawn you'll know what they're talking about).

Laverty mentioned something in a language I didn’t grok, but the context clued me into that they were speaking of beings revered by ancient people in the way that some today worship gods. They spoke of how dragons knew about these beings as well. If, during a time of higher magic, elves and dragons followed or revered beings higher than themselves, who then empowered followers with magic ability, that is a paradigm shift. Unified Magic Theory doesn’t come close to explaining that kind of thing. Were these beings gods? Mentor spirits? Metaplanar beings? Do they still live?

Well, given the current state of the SR world, I'd say ol' Dis has been a busy little bee. There was also the casual mention of Thystonius by a certain Dr. Dyna Might

[Beta]

I'm working my way through the book, and have a couple of questions:

1) the "Yellowstone Incident" keeps getting mentioned ... but is never explained.  I don't recall reading about this in other books, but I admit I've not yet read Cutting Aces or, umm, the' one that ties into the Tarot, whose name escapes me right now.'

Could someone point me to what covers this incident? (would have been great if Forbidden Arcana had included a couple of lines to summarize it, but according to the search function it doesn't do such a thing).

2) Did they just change the primary function of reagents in spellcasting?  Per CRB you may use reagents when casting a spell and set the limit equal to the number of reagents used.  But in here it says that a normal level of reagent may be used to raise the limit by one per point used, which should really cut down on the amount of reagents needed overall (of course they also implied higher prices, but left inferior reagents at the old 20Y price, and made them perfectly good for anything but refining, so ... ).  I did read that right, that I can cast a force 3 barrier and use 4 reagents to raise the spell limit to 7, instead of using 7 reagents to set the limit there?

[Marzhin]

I'm working my way through the book, and have a couple of questions:

1) the "Yellowstone Incident" keeps getting mentioned ... but is never explained.  I don't recall reading about this in other books, but I admit I've not yet read Cutting Aces or, umm, the' one that ties into the Tarot, whose name escapes me right now.'

Could someone point me to what covers this incident? (would have been great if Forbidden Arcana had included a couple of lines to summarize it, but according to the search function it doesn't do such a thing).

Court of Shadows, "The Yellowstone Calamity", page 23

To sum it up there was a volcanic eruption in Yellowstone, only it occurred astrally rather than physically, tearing a hole across the metaplanes (and notably toward the Faerie planes).

[Beta]

Ah, I'd forgotten that I hadn't read that one.  Seems a bit weird to lean so much on something only mentioned in a pretty niche product without giving a recap.  And thank you for providing that missing recap!

[Wakshaani]

There's a lot unknown about Yellowstone. The whole thing takes a while to explain, but, "mana cloud appears, lingers for a while, vanishes, then shows up somewhere else" is the short of it.

No one knowns why it exists or how it was created, it just started happening after Yellowstone and doesn't really have a name yet.

[Mirikon]

There's a lot unknown about Yellowstone. The whole thing takes a while to explain, but, "mana cloud appears, lingers for a while, vanishes, then shows up somewhere else" is the short of it.

No one knowns why it exists or how it was created, it just started happening after Yellowstone and doesn't really have a name yet.

Vivane

[Nightmare]

Just got the book and I'm really happy to see mentions of stuff that harkens back to second edition. I would've liked to hear more than that single post from Red's mysterious friend Silk, though. All that build up from Red and all she did was "regurgitate" the blood mage bounty info? Hopefully we see more of her.

[UnLimiTeD]

I had a question about how Traditions interact with other bonuses that I figured would fit better in a rules question thread, so I put it here.
For the writers consideration.
Also a fluff question:
How would a pariah mage see another "of his kind" if he's one of the homicidal rage types?
And was the concept of "Toxic" Traditions/Awakened individuals weakened? I'm all for flexibility, and my pool even allows 'detoxified' versions of, say, plague cloud, but then the Followers of Elder gods are more or less mandated to pick the two available toxic metamagics even though that seems rather obviously connected to most peoples preconceptions of danger and "evil". I'd think that lunatics following eldritch horrors wouldn't limit themselves to the common folks ideas of what a sane person should not do.
Also, I think in the future we also need Tarot casting, or something alike.
The thrill of "What will I cast this time? stay still and let's find out!  ... I'm actually really curious" should be available to all the awakened.

[Loki]

A pretty solid book, great work guys! Some top notch fiction, a much needed expansion on alchemy, and the mastery qualities are some pretty great ways to make your magicians more specialized. The only major shortfall IMO is failure to address the lack of non-corporate early life modules for magicians and LMs for other adept types in general.