Shadowrun: Smooth Operations

Pegasus Spiele · 2024

Translation, English to German

Yeah, running the shadows often requires brawn. Or superior firepower-slash-mojo. And sure, it’s your team’s Face who gets you the good gear for the best deal. That’s their job, that and sweet-talking the client into paying a bonus. After that, leave the heavy lifting to the real runners. Okay, enough faff. Anyone who believes what they just read is a roadside John Doe waiting to happen. Your team’s Face is the key to every door. They’re your get-out-jail-free card, the favour you’re always owed, your stacked deck and weighted dice, the queue you never have to join and the reason your target invites you to use the VIP entrance and join them at the family dinner table. Sit down, chummer, and learn the tricks of the trade from some bonafide legends. This sourcebook was one of the most highly anticipated Shadowrun publications in 2024. It features a wealth of material for anyone playing a Face character to delve into, often lined with a smattering of philosophical considerations regarding value and virtue of, well, grifting. (Obviously, any GM worth their salt will find a million ways to shaft their players here, too.) As usual, the book was broken down into chapters and I got ‘Tricks of the Trade’, once again flavour only and no rules text. Of the many things I might say about the content, I think ‘fascinating’ and ‘absolutely wild’ will serve best. The chapter is basically a detailed introduction into how scams work and what the different playbooks for each might be. Lots of it is based on things that the morally impaired have actually pulled off over the long history of people stealing from people. It took me a fair bit of diving even deeper into the subject to make sure I was using the proper German lingo for this most particular of crafts. Much like other Shadowrun source material, this book is a pure delight to read.