Question from an SW newbie: where would you start reading to get a general idea of the setting? I'd prefer available material (I actually own a copy of the Master Atlas 2nd edition, but I'm not sure if I want to read something that might be considered terribly out of date).
So where would you start? Player's Guide, probably? And after that - Master Atlas? Which edition - 3rd or 4th are both available on drivethru.
Yes, definitely the
Players Guide first and then a Master Atlas (either
MA3 which is in colour and has Terry's computer generated art or
MA4 which is reformatted but in black & white but also has very good stat blocks for both RM2/RMC and RMSS/RMFRP).
After that, you have the choice of either the Jaiman or Emer continent.
The new Jaiman book has just been released and the
Emer 3 book is quite recent.
Jaiman is one book for the entire continent but Emer is split into quadrants. Emer 1 & 2 are going to be redone and Emer 4 hasn’t been released yet.
Looking at more specific locations in Jaiman, the
Xa-ar region is fairly recent as is the
Cloudlords of Tanara region.
The more localised
Gryphin Inn town setting is also very recent.
In Emer, the only recent book is
Eidolon but it is a great place to start.
However, it's not that any of the older books are 'out of date' except perhaps the original Master Atlas and the Emer box set. I'm not sure about the original
Loremaster books (Iron Wind, Vog Mur, Shade of the sinking plane, original Cloudlords book)
If you're new to Shadow World, I'd stick to the
Cannon books as well.