The funniest thing I've seen was on Dumpshock. I can't comment there, but I read the SG and SL threads (Man ... That book). Nath was commenting about how it's espionage/HUMINT-focused; specifically mine and Critias' chapters (the ones titled Tradecraft and Counterintelligence. Guess what they're about) and the lack of info on SIGINT and such.
That's hilarious.
1) SIGINT and ELINT and all that noise is in SOTA64. It has some value for alternate PC campaigns in a pure intel campaign. For the purposes of integrating into normal campaigns? Not so much.
2) I think my position has been pretty g-d clear on this for years, and especially since I've been on this board rambling about the book for nine months. It's so clear in fact that I made the Espionage and Shadows PDF that same year SOTA64 came out because it didn't do much to integrate espionage into ongoing campaigns.
3) Which brings me to: I've been a fan of espionage longer than SR, and I started playing SR in 1992. We could have done a writeup similar to Szeto's, which is what I was expecting (and how EXPINT came to pass in the form it's in, AFAIK) with little blurbs on HUMINT, SIGINT, TECHINT, and shit that if you are so inclined can be found explained in excrutiating detail all over the Internet and shelves of books. The entire point of our chapters (And I can speak for Critias because we've been at this for a while) was to give readers a taste of what you cannot find anywhere else. As a side note, of course it's HUMINT-heavy when you involve runners. After playing SR for 20 years and spending a goodly number of those years playing in and GMing espionage-heavy/dominant/based/related/mentioned games I can tell you one inescapable fact: The most straightforward SIGINT op (SIGINT is boring, btw, but that's beside the point), once runners are involved, becomes a Metahuman-based field operation. Period. Deniable decking job? Close-in SIGINT support like the ISA and CSS does/did/never existed to do? Reference work of any kind? All end up relying on the human element. I mean, fuck, one of my regular co-gamers' main PC was a NSA combat decker. He spent more time shooting people in the face than decking because when he did his stats and deck were so insane that he just annihilated the opposition. IMO, Bamford's books on NSA (no "the," btw. Their policy) are only interesting for the political intrigue that, oh wait, that strays into human espionage/intrigue ... You show me a game where a table obsesses over a crypto pattern and I'll show you an empty table.
Besides that, SOTA64 does still exist. There is this thing called a back library, and aside from UB if you want an old, even OOP, book it's damn easy to find on eBay, etailers, LCS/LGSes (support your local stores, damn it!), etc. SOTA64 is six or seven years old. It's not a lost jewel requiring adventure to find. There's also this SR fandom thing on the Internet that I hear may be going places. Or so's the word on GENie and usenet. *shrugs*
