I have mixed feelings on Dirty Tricks. As a rabid Missions player, I liked the followup on Prop 23. I liked the stuff about Tsimishian, and about the UK. I found the snippets of the Congressional and Mayoral races in the UCAS interesting. I like the "Peurto Rico" problem and its ripples. I'm amused at the rumblings about trying to reunite St. Louis.
I loathe that once again, the CAS got a rehash of dumb stereotypes, a caricature of Texas, a big rehash of New Orleans, a bit on Atlanta, and that Newfoundland's secesionist movement got more written about it than Virginia, the Carolinas, or Florida. The PCC/Aztlan/Texas thing is weird, arbitrary, and makes no sense without any sort of context from the PCC side. Admitedly, it was nice to see Tennessee get flushed out, but it would have been nice to see it done without being another stupid stereotype. The narrative voices for the CAS section of the book make dev/grll look informed and intelligent.
And kudzu? Really? Kudzu got more discussion than the state of South Carolina, South Missouri, or Virginia, all delivered in the meandering, ignorant narrative voice that I knew the CAS section would get saddled with.
In short, if you're looking for a few world events, an overview on UCAS politics, a wrapup for Season 4 of Missions (despite the last two modules not being released yet), and a bunch of stuff about the anatomy of political dirty tricks, and are willing to accept yet another shallow and pointless treatment of the CAS, go for it.
