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Title: Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets by Steve Kenson, Mike Colton ISBN: 1-55560-306-8 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: October, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: the Big D's will: why the world went nuts in 2057/2058
Comment: In _Super Tuesday_, Dunkelzahn (the only great dragon to cultivate a popular public image) became a serious candidate for the presidency of the UCAS. This book opens with the event that shaped so much of later Shadowrun history - Dunkelzahn's assassination on the night of his inauguration.

As with the other really great Shadowrun sourcebooks, this volume is organized as an electronic document from the fictional Shadowrun world, as posted at that spiritual home of shadowrunners everywhere: Shadowland. Captain Chaos (sysadmin extraordinaire) begins by posting nearly raw coverage of the assassination, then Shadowland chat (some in the form of articles by major shadowrunners like the Chromed Accountant) interspersed with backtalk, rumors, and on-line quarrels from the various folk who post to Shadowland. Lots of ideas for GMs here.

First, of course, there's the death itself, and the who-killed-Dunkelzahn theories as the murder continues to go unsolved. The primary focus of this book, though, is Dunkelzahn's last will and testament (Captain Chaos includes the full text of the bequests).

The Big D left large chunks of nuyen to found various foundations and study groups, the entire estate being administered by the new Draco Foundation under Nadia Daviar, who's gone from the Big D's mouthpiece to one of the most powerful women on the planet. The individual bequests, though, leave a lot of room for speculation and for adventures. (On occasion, the purpose of a bequest is made clear by later events; this was still happening as of the release of _Year of the Comet_, so it's still to one's advantage to get a copy of this book just to get the text of the will.)

Many of the bequests could give rise to adventures either to protect an item in transit from the Draco Foundation to the new owner (or to acquire it), such as the undiscovered da Vinci "Seraphim". Some items offer even more scope, having unspecified properties, such as the dagger Wyrmtooth (to his security advisor) or the Ring Ouroboros (to Ryumo).

Some bequests, of course, are famous: the Big D owned HUGE blocks of stock in various competing AAA megacorps through various shell companies - enough to change the balance of power in various boardrooms across the world now that the secret's out. The most notorious (at least, up to the present) gave the chief of internal security of a AAA megacorp 4 million shares and an accompanying seat on the board of directors - but of *another* AAA megacorp, a blood enemy. Other bequests include bounties on toxic shamans and practitioners of blood magic, with particular reference to Aztlan.

And, of course, there are the conditional bequests, e.g. "to the first party to find my lair in the Caucasus Mountains".

Heck, the will alone is worth the purchase price. It's followed with postings from various runners who've gotten involved with the bequests, one way and another, and the dirt they've dug up on some of the more mysterious items. (Not just outlines for how an adventure based on a bequest might be designed, but a good read.)

Rating: 5
Summary: Oh boy, it's better than Christmas!
Comment: The Big "D" is dead, and he's left a will. This book sets in motion events that will guide the world of Shadowrun for years to come. As well as ahving a chapter concerning the events of Dunkelzhan's death, it has a transcript of his will (courtesy of Captian Chaos, as always). With over 200 separate entries for GM's and player alike to use, this sourcebook is unlike any other FASA has put out. It allows the PC's to be active an go out after the missions they want, instead of waiting around for Mr. Johnson to call. A must have for anyone playing Shadowrun