Target: Wastelands (Shadowrun)

I bought this book in the hopes of finding some more detailed data on spacecraft and space facilities in the Shadowrun 'verse, everything else would have been a side benefit. While it did have some nice fluff, I had been hoping for some more maps and statistics, something that D&D 3.x/Pathfinder is quite fond of ladling out by comparison. Sure, this game's a bit less map-oriented and kind of free-form, but there's only so much I can handle myself. Ah well. At least I now know what the Desert Wars are.I see why they complained a lot about cruft in 3E, organization leaves something to be desired in these books. I'll figure out how to make use of it somehow...or I'll find a more skilled GM to sell it to.

Updates on the toxic zones of the 6th world but it also contains information/rules for extreme environments (vacuums, deserts, polar climates) which was not expected based on the title.

Target: Wastelands is yet another 3rd edition location book. It's nice to see some more original material coming out in 3rd edition instead of just rehashed previous material.This rather slim book (133 pages) gives details and rules for the following types of places: Polluted/Irradiated toxic zones, underwater platforms/arcologies, orbital space habitats, the extremely cold polar regions, and desert lands.The theme that ties all these places together of course are their natural dangers. Toxic zones are those places that have been warped (especially magically) by pollution or wholesale human suffering. It gives some nice rules for making toxic shamans, mutant critters, and toxic paranormal animals. The space portion gives the rundown on current space habitats and finally makes it possible, even reasonable to have a Shadowrun in space. The underwater portion reads pretty much like the space portion only it takes deep water characteristics into account like pressure, oxygenization, and unpleasant sea life. The desert section gives us a little info on the Desert Wars (but not nearly enough) and gives us the details on several deserts throughout the world. The polar section gives us some brief info on extremely cold regions of the Earth such as polar research stations and resource extraction facilities.This book really seems to do a good job of making these regions dangerous and a pain in the ass to work in yet within the realm of possibility in the game world. The desert and polar sections especially give some places for magicians to shine too. The rules section in the back is nice and concise and makes sense. It's also an interesting read just for fun.You don't need this book for regular campaigns but it will give you the background needed to allow your players into some weird, new locations. Seems hard to find and is usually full price. It'll probably get cheaper as the book gets older.