EuroSB (short for European Sourcebook) was a fan project initiated in 2000 on Dumpshock Forums, that led to the release of Shadows of Europe by Fantasy Production in 2003. The EuroSB project aimed at producing a sourcebook for Shadowrun that would cover European countries.
A core idea of the EuroSB project was to have content written by natives from each country. That idea had previously been applied by FASA Corporation to hire Carl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne to write the London Sourcebook and translate as the Germany Sourcebook the German supplement Deutschland in den Schatten. While some nationalities had as much as six volunteers involved (France, Germany), some other had only one representative (Italy).
The EuroSB project was led by Peter Taylor, also known as Synner. Topics such as European megacorporations, criminal syndicates, the Eurowars were discussed accross national teams. The EuroSB also originally developed the New European Economic Community (NEEC).
Continuity issues[]
German and French members of the EuroSB had access to several locally produced supplements: Chrom und Dioxin and Walzer, Punks und Schwarzes Ice by Fantasy Productions and France by Descartes Editeurs. It was decided the EuroSB would follow as closely as possible German contents, while the French content would be adapted in a way that could allow gamemasters to bridge the two if they wanted.
During the EuroSB project, FASA Corporation and Fantasy Productions released several supplements that contained information on European countries or European organizations. Rigger 3, released in January 2001, provided new information regarding Airbus, Saab and Kvaerner-Maersk. Threats 2, released in January 2002, contained a chapter about Knights Templar, which required rewriting of France and Italian contents.
Officialization[]
In 2001, Fantasy Productions took over the development and publishing of Shadowrun. The EuroSB project initiated contact with Shadowrun Line Developper Rob Boyle for publishing an official supplement.
The project switched from public discussions on Dumpshock Forums to a restricted EuroSB Yahoo Group created in September 2001
Members of the EuroSB project submitted proposals for Shadows of Europe to Fantasy Productions in November 2002, along with several US authors who submitted proposals for United Kingdom and Tir na nOg. Shadows of Europe was released in July 2004.
Cut material and re-use[]
A full write-up on Greece was cut because of the prominent role of the area in the Earthdawn setting, assuming it would be covered more in depth in a future publication.[1] Some of the (modern) Greece material was used in State of the Art: 2063.[2]
Aftermath[]
A number of EuroSB project members subsequently joined the pool of Fantasy Productions freelancers, starting with Dragons of the Sixth World. Former EuroSB project leader Peter Taylor worked with Rob Boyle on Shadowrun development between 2007 and 2009.
References[]
- ↑ Dumpshock Forum post 117221, 2004-05-22, Peter Taylor: "the Federal Republic of Hellas (aka Greece) was cut in development of SoE. The EuroSB crew had considerable material on the current situation for use in the book, but exactly because of Greece's historic peculiarities [refers to 'possible ED connections'] it was decided to leave it out for a eventual book where it would get significantly more attention."
- ↑ Dumpshock Forum post 117221, 2004-05-22, Peter Taylor: "However, some of the EuroSB-spawned Greece material did see the light of day in SOTA63's Culture Shock section (thanks, Michelle) and suggested in the Merc section (thanks, Jon) too."