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Message no. 1
From: "Mark Steedman" <RSMS@***.rgu.ac.uk>
Subject: FASA adventures [was RE VR2.0 review]
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 11:17:15 GMT
U-Gene writes

> S.F. Eley:
> >Since I was planning on running _Imago_ this weekend, I'll probably come
> >up with some conversion guidelines this afternoon then I'll post them.
>
> That would be great. By the way, is it a good module? A friend of mine
> wanted to run a module for the first time but it appears that I have GMed
> most of them. The only ones left are: Imago, Total Eclipse, and Celtic
> Double Cross. As we don't have the Tir book, Double Cross is not likely.
> That is unless someone highly recommends it or the Tir book.
> So if anyone out there has any real good or real bad reviews of these,
> please post them if you don't mind.
well i have not read any of those but.
Imago recoments VR and GR2 to play on the back and i think gets the
closest of anything to 'magic in the machine'. As someone else
commented does not look a good choice unless both players and GM are
used to SR. How good it is well, the only comment i had was from
someone whos group gave up half way through, read the back and you
might well guess why [but if i say it outright thats a spoiler and a
half]
Tir na Nog, well thats one country i have considered putting a GM
strength force field round!, the magic in the book is ultra powerful,
even FASA issue warnings and its not a good country to be a foriegn
runner (worse than atzlan). So i dead to think about the power
levels, never mind the complications, look its got 'double cross' in
the title! and since when did most FASA runs not have a twist anyway.
Total eclipse, don't know but its not one of those 'special'
adventures so the best of the above on that basis alone.

>
> How many Gm's out there actually get to follow the chapters as entered in
> modules anyway?
Well when the players are actually kind enough to follow them!
Actually the best of the FASA adventure are the free form ones where
the encounters are there to be visited if the PC's want to.
Eye witness is one of the best, only works once, but lets say there
are sections detailed on 'if they really want to!'. You certainly can
miss on at least 3 of the encounters easily and in some cases should.

> I remember about skipping 2 or 3 chapters/sections in
> Dragon Hunt while in Dark Angel I think I added in about 4 of my own!
> The Debugging section in these modules have _no idea_ what PC's do. :)
yes. I also regularly have to doctor 'tell it to them straights' that
either contain data the PC's have not got or have such silly comments
in them. Where they are used for description they are often good but
the ones that try to put thoughts in the PC's heads/ guess the
players thoughts rarely work.
Sometmies the debugging is useful but it does vary, but then FASA
really be expected to predict inter pc warefare right in front of
Harlequin at HB 'the bridge part 1' !! [ok extreme example but it
happened]

> Dark Angel turned out to be a really good module by the way, highly
> recommended.
>
> U-Gene << will spend most of the day installing his shininy, >>
> << new and improbed hard drive. Yaaaayyyy! >>
>
Mark
Message no. 2
From: The Digital Mage <mn3rge@****.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: FASA adventures [was RE VR2.0 review]
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 12:08:21 +0000 (GMT)
On Fri, 1 Dec 1995, Mark Steedman wrote:

> Tir na Nog, well thats one country i have considered putting a GM
> strength force field round!, the magic in the book is ultra powerful,
> even FASA issue warnings and its not a good country to be a foriegn
> runner (worse than atzlan). So i dead to think about the power
> levels, never mind the complications, look its got 'double cross' in
> the title! and since when did most FASA runs not have a twist anyway.
> Total eclipse, don't know but its not one of those 'special'
> adventures so the best of the above on that basis alone.
I'm a player (first time in ages, instead of GMing) in a Tir na nOg game
and it is cool. The magicians in our group are not followers of the
paths. One is a British hermetic who came over to Ireland, the other is a
Danaan Morr rogue who learnt magic in teh normal way, not trhough paths,
teh physad is not a follower either. In fact most characters aren't even
Irish. The closest we get to a follower is my character a Seeker on teh
Path of the North -a street sam with no cyberware or magic, a body only
of 4, yet who is one of the most effective members (he manages to keep
opponents alive by using Aikido).

Our campaign started off low powered nothing higher than a HP without GM
permission, the st sam couldn't have reflexes greater than level 1, teh
mage couldn't have any spell with a drain greater than light (without Gm
permission) and the rigger didn't even have a VCR or more than 2 vehicles
(unrigged).

ANd to tell truth it is one of teh best campaigns I've played in -except
I'm tehonly person who does an Irish accent and I get strange looks from
players when I throw away guns I've picked up (hey my characters legal
-throwing blades and staff are legal for just possession -and I'm an elf
so I don't get hassled too much :)

The Digital Mage : mn3rge@****.ac.uk
"So that which I imagine, is that which I believe" -Rush
Shadowrun Web Site http://www.bath.ac.uk/~mn3rge/Shadowrun.html

Further Reading

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