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From: Matb <mbreton@**.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: (Amazingly OT) Re: Chicago - Fasa Representative
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 07:13:40 -0700
> >I've learned this from the RPG, though: sometimes you have to create
> >your own publicity. I mean, the other gamers have to get tired
> >sometime, or you can start a converaton with soemone hanging on the
> >sidelines -- it all depends on the quality of marketer they have. But,
> >from your description.. well, I wouldn't've played the game either.

> I am not positive, but isn't Legend of the Five Rings (I think that is the
> name) a new card game also? There were at least 8, if not more, people
> playing that game and having a blast. People going through binders of
> their cards, pulling out stuff, trading and all. I brought my extra SR
> cards with in hopes of trading with others, but no one was interested.

L5R came out in - I think - 1995. It's got a few years on it.

Some may hold me in contempt for saying this, but I view it as the
pinnacle of card games so far.
It came out with a very distinct flavor (Japanese traditional), ways to
get free stuff (Koku - every booster pack was worth one, every starter
worth ?5 - free cards started around 20 or 25, all the way up to a
katana for ?2500). So even if you bought a starter and got dupes of
cards you already had twelve of, you could still get something new from
it.

It had an ongoing plotline, and from the beginning, everyone knew the
story was going to *stop* in three years. No endless re-creation of the
same old, same old, and enough time that players could offer up
suggestions. Intrigue from the cards themselves -- there were certain
clan symbols every card had, and soem unaligned cards had those symbols
as well.

Multiple ways of winning the game. No stress to be the first one to
draw channel-fireball...

I'll stop now. :) I was hoping SR would be as good. In some ways I
like the "simplicity" of SR, but some innovation would have been nice.

> >Definitely need another NERPS! though. That and a Maglock..

> I have three NERPS! now.....

Jerk. :)

> <more snip snip>

> >The biggest problem is relying on freelancers for all the work. (Says a
> >guy who's been pushing more than one subby to FASA lately.)

> >Seriously, though, it's a problem with all RPGs: If you leave everything
> >in general terms (GURPs for the longest while) then there's nothing for
> >the players to grasp. If you put down too much, then there's no
> >freedom, and they're trapped in someone else's plotline. And if you
> >don't update those plotlines, you're being stagnant, and if you *do*,
> >you make everything written before obsolete.

> >Honestly, I've never, not once, been satisfied with the "canon" SR
> >universe. It's simply not my style, though it's the closest an RPG has
> >gotten. So I don't buy most of the universe books, and avoid arguments
> >about who shot Dunkelzahn.

> I on the other hand enjoy the "canon" SR universe. Except it seems they
> are going to extremes with it. Maxing out the archetypes you might say.
> Though it is good progress for the universe overall, it feels like they are
> trying to push the later years into a specific path. I can't really
> pinpoint it, just a feeling. While the early game years were open-ended,
> the later is "The only way a street sam can survive is via a delta clinic
> and cybertechnology..."

It's a hard thing to balance. Tech *does* get easier to access -- who
heard of personal computers twenty years ago? -- but it can be hard to
keep the game in balance.

They do seem more into linking things together -- y'know, '95 was Bug
City, '96 the Election thing, '97 the Underworld.. I actually like
seeing that, although the execution hasn't always been spectacular.

> >Nobody says, after all, that you have to buy them.

> As I mentioned above, I like the whole so... addictive habit you might say.

Ah. I used to have one myself. Then my wallet left me and I sorta woke
up :)

> >> And then add the mess with the collation problems, I have not been the
> >> happiest of customers lately *shrug*.
>
> >I haven't had any problems with the cards at all. I had a couple that
> >were severely miscut; FASA replaced them all for the trouble of a
> >stamp. I'm not sure I like the policy of going from the 'original set'
> >to an updated 'unlimited' release in less than three months, but that's
> >another deal altogether.

> My problem was the boosters I bought had common cards repeated within
> themselves, along with many, many, many times over the cards listed in the
> exact order on the card list from FASA. Seeing two starters have the exact
> same 20+ cards in the exact order was a blow too (my first two to start).
> Getting repeats is one thing - getting the same cards over and over within
> one pack is another.

I've heard from Skuzzy that FASA's looking seriously into getting a new
printer -- hopefully that might cure things. While I've gotten a lot of
repeats (no, really, four boxes does that to you), I don't think I've
had this problem. Repeats, sure, but not sets of the same cards.

> I would not mind so much if the 'unlimited' release fixes cards while
> retaining the same color and all that as the initial release now. Unless
> they start altering cards ala Magic did with the sets and expansion packs,
> making past cards null and void while the next expansion is already slated
> for a three month release, then the game should be affordable. Yes, I do
> not have to buy any of it, but I like the game. I want to get a set just
> to have everything from Shadowrun again. But quick releases just to make a
> quick buck would turn me off like it did with Magic.

From the initial statement, they're looking only to change about 50
cards from the original set (although from all the erratta I've
counted...) Supposedly, all of the Objectives are getting changed.
Which is funny, because I've been designing a few cards myself, and I
always have problems creating new types of Objectives.

Ang Ghod -- Magic -- don't get me started. Now there's a big money
game for you.

-M

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