In the world of Cyberpunk, there is nothing more powerful than the media (if you don't believe it, look at the real world and O.J. Simpson). Other corporations may deny it, but if confronted, they can't seem to explain why they court the media so openly. No other group wields as much power over the minds of people. No other group can mold and shape public opinion the way they do, and no other group is more thanked for doing it. Characters who work for media corporation have the capacity to be the most influential figures in a given campaign, and that's what Live and Direct is all about.

The book opens with a beautiful bit of fiction/commentary on the power of Media. ("Who comes into your home every day, invited, treated like an honored guest, fussed over, taken with you in the car, to the gym, to your desk at work?"). The authors catch the feel of the game wonderfully here, and those new to Cyberpunk will want to read the first few pages carefully.

The first half of the book is background. The history and current uses of cyberpunk broadcasting are discussed for several chapters. The death of print and the rise of the screamsheet are thoroughly detailed, and commentary is made on a wide variety of topics: the music industry, cable TV, and more. A lot of time is spent dealing with pirate radio and TV stations. Why these media renegades do what they do - and how they do it - is great to read, and running a group of broadcast pirates can be loads of fun.

The book also talks about abuses of media power, citing several fictitious example that are hysterical and disturbing at the same time. The media circus surrounded a televised execution is examined: a major network outbid (out-bribed) all others for exclusive broadcast rights, the public was allowed to call for or against a pardon (9.5 million votes in favor of execution), and the event drew the single largest audience ever (an estimated 2.5 billion viewers). There are more examples of such Cyberpunk media abuse (including the news anchor that no one knew was an AI construct until she went public...), but you'll have to read the book to learn all the juicy details.

The last half of the book goes into game mechanics and the nuts and bolts of running a media campaign. Character templates and sample motivations are described and even combined in one of the book's most interesting twists. For instance, the War Correspondent template follows the Adrenaline Junkie motivation, and the Investigative Reporter template follows the Crusader motivation. The combined templates can then be easily applied to the sample stats of the media types that follow: the techie who runs the camera, the solo who shoots the gangers taking exception to the presence of the camera, the netrunner who digs up the latest political scandal, the corporate who the team has to try and sell the story to, and of course, the media himself who gets to take all the credit.

After the character section comes the GM part, focusing on how to run media adventures. Rules are provided for interviewing, editing and presentation, and a sample TV schedule is provided so that your edgerunners can pick their favorite shows. Different types of media campaigns are mentioned (the corporate campaign, the pirate campaign, the freelance campaign, etc.), and the corporate profiles and strategies of the top three media providers (DMS, Net 54, and WNS) are summarized in depth.

The book closes with a marvelous little story by fictitious reporter C.J. O'Reilly. He recounts an experience in which a hungover insult landed him on a game show called "The People's Arena" (where plaintiff and defendant settle their disputes with live ammo, after a quiz show segment which earns them cash to purchase show-supplied weapons).

R. Talsorian has one of the best handles on game-world ambiance I've ever seen, and Live and Direct continued that fine tradition. If your cyberpunkers are getting too cookie cutter-ish, throw 'em a curve, and make 'em reporters.

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