From the introduction:
It would be nice to say that this edition of the Handybook was “years in the making.” Perhaps it took “a collabarative team of the industry’s top insiders and graphic designers.” In fact, don’t tell anyone, but this project has been going on for years under government auspices, and I have only now received authorization to declassify this portion of our research. But if anyone asks you, here’s the cover story...
I’m one lazy mofo. Actually, that’s not it, although I do have (what I like to call) a selective work ethic. The main reason for the delay can be tied to three factors. For a while, I just utterly lacked the inspiration to do a new Handybook. I finally got the druthers to work on it, though, and it came along great...until hard drive troubles erased it and I lost all my work. Needless to say, this was a bit discouraging—factor number one. Factor number two is Vassar College, which I am now attending and which takes up enough of my time that I like to utilize my free time by just not working (on anything, including the Handybook). Finally, FASA, bless their hearts, released a string of books (e.g. Awakenings, SR 3rd Ed., Magic in the Shadows) that kept me on my toes more than expected. Gotta’ stay on the bleeding edge...
So finally, with the much appreciated (grumble, grumble) prodding of friends, I decided to just buckle down and do a new edition. Granted, this ‘buckling down’ has still taken, well, quite a while, but so it goes. Oh, and it’s now version 1.0 because, as of SR3, physical adepts are now adepts. Thus, the name had to be changed—hence the new version number.
All things being said, is it worth the wait? Probably not. But oh well.
