Grok this, Chummer.
Seattle's been the scene when it comes to the down and dirty of the Sixth World. Since the Awakening, its been where every runner who's any runner comes to get regular work. Sure, it's dirty and polluted, the politicians are corrupt, the streets are soaked in acid rain and blood - but hey, it's still home, eh?
Seattle Sprawl is a pretty hefty product, and not bad for the nuyen. It goes a bit old school, calling back to the days when you call the full battleplan in a box. Let's break it down for the kiddies.
General Overview: Like everything in the SR5 line, the stuff we get is pretty. It's well laid out, tightly packed and very evocative of the setting.
The Emerald Shadows: 87 pages, this book is pretty much a tour of Seattle. It provides a broad overview of several key locations in the Sprawl, with the typical sidebars and in-setting discussion indicitive to Shadowrun. This is a great primer for providing the feel of Seattle. It might be a bit daunting for new players to try to absorb the city in a large book like this, but you could have a player reach the section associated with one district and they'll get a feel for the part of Seattle they know.
Ruling the Queen City: This is clearly designed for the GM. It gives a brief history of the city, particularly how it stands in the Sixth World. It's also peppered with NPCs and plothooks across about 50 pages.
Tangled Threads: 30 pages. If Ruling the Queen City is NPC focused, this book is location focused. But it's not really specific locations as much as a collection of generic location types within the city and then it provides, as a secondary function, how these locations relate to Seattle. Tey's are clearly designed to be quickly and easily dropped into a campaign. It provides 3 adventure outlines as well, which can be easily expanded.
Map Cards: While this is 55 pages, its actually a set of 11 cards repeated 5 times, which is redundant for a PDF - but given this was clearly designed to primarily be a physical product, that's fine. Its reminicent of "Dungeon Tiles" for fantasy RPGs, but with a Shadowrun bent. Offices, Labs, Bars, etc. They're generic and useful - but not necessarily directly related to Seattle.
Seattle Sprawl Map w/ Gang and Map reference: This is three different PDFs, and while the map is beautiful, it's more an art piece than anything. While it's great to look at, you'll be looking from the reference cards to the map itself to get a sense of what district you're in and who controls it.
Character Cards: 24 two-sided cards (48 PDF pages) gives you a nice spread of NPCs to grab and go for encounters in Seattle, or any other urban location in SR. While this is pretty standard for "box set" style products it makes them no less useful.
Bottom Line: Is Seattle Sprawl Digital Box Set worth it? Well that depends. If you're a casual SR player and don't really ever GM it, I'd say its a pass. Now if you're a big fan of Shadowrun or run it with any regularity, I think the product is well worth it. It its reminicent of the halycon days of box set settings, and there's a lot of useful content here that's flavorful. Now, admitedly the physical product is pricey but if you're just using it to get inspiration and a sense of SR's most iconic setting I'd absolutely recommend the PDF.
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