Mercurial (Shadowrun)

[1] Soon it becomes clear that this is not a simple bodyguarding gig, as first a Yakuza gang and then a second group appears, and details of Maria's unhappy past begin to surface.

[2] Following the publication of the role-playing game Shadowrun in 1989, FASA immediately followed up with the first adventure supplement Mercurial,[3] an 80-page softcover book written by Paul Hume, with interior art by Joel Biske, Timothy Bradstreet, Barry Crain, Tammy Daniels, Tara Gallagher, Earl Geier, Rick Harris, and Jim Nelson, and cover art by Jeff Laubenstein.

[4] In the January 1990 edition of Games International (Issue 12), Lee Brimmicombe-Wood admired the production and layout, especially the "debugging" instruction for gamemasters in each section, "for getting players back on track if they wander off course."

Brimmicombe-Wood concluded by giving the adventure an average rating of 3 out of 5, saying, "for a referee who is not afraid to handle plenty of action and turn up the style this is a tight, compact little scenario to throw (grenade-like) at his or her group.

"[3] In the May 1990 edition of White Wolf (Issue #20), Stephan Wieck gave it an above average rating of 4 out of 5 overall, stating, "Mercurial's only weakness may be that some of its storyline transitions are difficult for the players to follow and for gamemaster to run.