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Message no. 1
From: "Michael R. Goldberg" <mrgoldbe@**.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Corporate war timeline
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 23:27:37 -0500
I just thought I would dump my unneeded two bits into the whole
conversation. Currently, no one has been asking to run stories
anticipating what FASA might be on the verge of doing. If they have
been and communicating their intentions with the list on plot-d, then
things could be worked out. (Both in how to not kill the on-going
story, and to move the way FASA wants the world to go.)

In the case of Burning Bright and Bug City, FASA's surprise of the nuke
on Chicago caught the list completely off-guard. Enough to disrupt a
couple of on-going stories and plans for stories. It caused the FAQ to
be modified for the month of lapse time for people to pick FASA's
latest gem up so that it could even be discussed on plot-d how we want
to handle the change.

The basic agreement from the Burning Bright escapade was that having a
world-shattering event that catches the characters off-guard and force
them to react is one thing, but destroying on-going stories in the
process is not something to be done without serious planning. Hence
the reason for discussing it on plot-d beforehand. Luckily for the
list, FASA's surprises this time will be easier to incorporate than
Burning Bright was.

As such, as long as we don't act out on the list one of FASA's
published adventures, I don't have any problem with seeing the posts.
IMO, the published adventures should be left for home play. I really
don't feel like re-reading them here. (Which is a similar reason to
why none of the characters on the list have officially gone through any
of the modules that FASA has put out. We all at least a couple of the
modules. How many characters here have gone through at least one of
FASA's modules? Probably a decent amount.)

Mike
Message no. 2
From: Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Corporate war timeline
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 04:37:06 -0700
On Wed, 6 May 1998, Michael R. Goldberg wrote:

> I just thought I would dump my unneeded two bits into the whole
> conversation. Currently, no one has been asking to run stories
> anticipating what FASA might be on the verge of doing. If they have
> been and communicating their intentions with the list on plot-d, then
> things could be worked out.

At least, in this case, the big public events have been published
sufficiently ahead of our time line that it shouldn't interfere too much.
And like Erik, I believe, pointed out: despite people calling it Corp
Wars and what-not, there isn't going to be any major ordnance falling,
unlike Bug City.

> In the case of Burning Bright and Bug City, FASA's surprise of the nuke
> on Chicago caught the list completely off-guard. Enough to disrupt a
> couple of on-going stories and plans for stories.

Yeah, especially if by the time people had the book in their hands, the
bomb was already "history."

> As such, as long as we don't act out on the list one of FASA's
> published adventures, I don't have any problem with seeing the posts.
> IMO, the published adventures should be left for home play. I really
> don't feel like re-reading them here. (Which is a similar reason to
> why none of the characters on the list have officially gone through any
> of the modules that FASA has put out. We all at least a couple of the
> modules. How many characters here have gone through at least one of
> FASA's modules? Probably a decent amount.)

What's a module? (j/k)

Actually, I've never played a single RPG from an module. Depending on the
GM, that can definitely be for better or for worse.

As for my ShadowTk Characters, while one of them may bear a resemblance to
a character I played in an campaign once, given a certain amount of
liberty to conjure them up for a fiction formant, I decided all of my
characters are to be ShadowTk originals.

Since, at lest theoretically some of the more "pivotal" modules are for
all intents and purposes canon, I guess we can assume that a good
percentage of them have already "taken place" just not necessarily by the
people who did them in any of our respective campaigns. Mercurial can
only be saved once.

Actually, there's a question for my own edification to anyone who has
the Mercurial module: What happened to Mercurial at the end of that? Did
she make it, did she go back to music? What?

--My two yen

Jeff
Message no. 3
From: Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Corporate war timeline
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 23:54:13 +0100
In article <Pine.HPP.3.96.980507042310.17726A-
100000@****.ugcs.caltech.edu>, Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
waffled & burbled about Corporate war timeline
>On Wed, 6 May 1998, Michael R. Goldberg wrote:
>At least, in this case, the big public events have been published
>sufficiently ahead of our time line that it shouldn't interfere too much.
>And like Erik, I believe, pointed out: despite people calling it Corp
>Wars and what-not, there isn't going to be any major ordnance falling,
>unlike Bug City.

Hehe. Yeah, right. :) You wait and see.

>> modules. How many characters here have gone through at least one of
>> FASA's modules? Probably a decent amount.)
>
>What's a module? (j/k)

I believe it is a book type thing that has very rigid and structured
adventure guidelines, incorporating actions that characters would not
normally take. I could be wrong of course. <g>

>Actually, I've never played a single RPG from an module. Depending on the
>GM, that can definitely be for better or for worse.

None of my stable has been near an adventure. Those run by other people
in my twisted ramblings on the list, such as Shado, Blaze, Dewdrop and a
couple of others were controlled by players in my games. I stole those
characters happily to pad out what I was doing. :) Me? Never playeed
the game.

What's it like?

>Actually, there's a question for my own edification to anyone who has
>the Mercurial module: What happened to Mercurial at the end of that? Did
>she make it, did she go back to music? What?

Well, from what I can gather she married her manager and disappeared
into retirement, then made a comeback a couple years later.

My players killed her the first time. Second time they tied her into
several terrorist operations, and she was prosecuted by Lone Star
successfully and imprisoned for crimes against the UCAS. The third time
they almost got it right. :)

--
Avenger
Message no. 4
From: "Michael R. Goldberg" <mrgoldbe@**.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Corporate war timeline
Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 22:08:48 -0500
Jeff wrote:

>Since, at lest theoretically some of the more "pivotal" modules are
>for all intents and purposes canon, I guess we can assume that a good
>percentage of them have already "taken place" just not necessarily by
>the people who did them in any of our respective campaigns. Mercurial
>can only be saved once.

I agree with that. I have always been under the impression for
shadowtk that the modules were done (and successfully (more or less))
by someone, but not a poster on the list. That way no GMs get their
game spoiled if they want to run it, and you avoid the people who would
have liked their characters to have gone through it.

Blitzkrieg would be a great example. In my campaign world, it would
have been a highly impactful story to send him through the Mercurial
adventure.

>Actually, there's a question for my own edification to anyone who has
>the Mercurial module: What happened to Mercurial at the end of that?
>Did she make it, did she go back to music? What?

I think she makes it, based on the fact that she also creeped up in
Shadowbeat which way after the module was out. In my campaign world,
she made it and went back to music. (Actually, I believe in the series
of game sessions I ran, I believe the characters came close to killing
off her manager. (One of the characters was an extreme fan and
couldn't handle the fact that the manager had slept with her. *grin*))

Another friend of mine ran it with a slight twist and the characters
completed their job -- which was to kill both her and her manager.
After they did that, the GM made it impossible for them to hear of any
decent bands. Such is the price of success, I guess.

(A valuable lesson, I suppose. Not all missions should be completed.)

Later,
Mike

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