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Message no. 1
From: NeoJudas neojudas@******************.com
Subject: Brainscan (please keep the spoiler spaces out of respect)
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 03:46:54 -0500
From: <caelric@****.com>
Subject: Brainscan


> Spolier space
Adding more here ....











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> Uh, ok, that should be enough...
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> Uh, wow, is all I can say. Very deadly, especcially the last part, and
> very devious. Along the lines of Harlequin's Back in power level, but
> nothing like it adventure wise.

This much I can agree too.

> Two things that stand out:

Only two???

> 1-Runners get to meet and run with the Dodger, one of the legendary
deckers
> of SR

Oh hell, he isn't anywhere near the surprise for me. That encounter set in
the last chapter is the one that just blows my mind personally. I am not
sure I can even begin to place that into perspective, and I'm used to having
games of a vastly more powerful scale than most groups.

> 2-Runners without datajacks get them forcibly implanted....this should
> bother a few people out there!
> Dave

Oh yeah, and does it ever. My biggest personal beef comes in two fold right
there in the entire adventure. The first part is the enforced datajack
usage. Okay, what I think should have been done is a better job with the
"pushing the envelope" or "GM Suggestions" areas of that book.
Basically a
warning that groups who have characters with regeneration (aka;
Shapeshifters) should NOT go into the adventure, as they are going to be
screwed over in a way that totally espounds the boundaries of GM evilness.
This is what I, and quite a few other people I know, term "Railroading".
Deus has so many other options out there, so many of them that would be both
quicker and cheaper to produce with his resources, that you'd think he'd use
them. I mean really come on, anything that can mimic the effects of the
Resonance within his own system should be able to hyper-pipe the ASIST
tracks on something and not require the surgical or cybernetic resource
usage that is put into place.

The other one is how the time factor has been reduced. Less than an hour
for the datajack to be implanted into a character, ANY CHARACTER, and it's
fully functional beyond the degree of (meta)human profile/psyche shock that
would occur with such an event.

Now as for a critiquing scale or application to the module.

Overall, I think the adventure set is well done actually, even if there is
such an obvious degree of coordinative inconsistency. It is almost tangible
the differences between some of the chapters that you can tell diversely
applied writing/authoring styles are employed.

There are two principle gripes with the overall adventure that I have
questions with.

First of all, when in the SR Universe timeline does this happen? There are
no uses of solid dates that could be applied. I realize that they may have
been omitted for the sake of keeping everything "fluid" for any GM,
regardless of what time in the overall application is implied. I know it
sounds strange, but of all things that "Shadowtalk" once helped with in
regards to the SR Universe, the tracing of the timeline is the one part I
*DO* miss in the new material.

Secondly, what level of character is supposed to be ported into this game?
Brand new ones? 100 Karma earners? 500? 1,000???? Most of the
adventures, the first half of the book in fact, could easily be integrated
with pretty much any scale of character-power/development. But the latter
half of the book makes me start to really try and place heavy considerations
onto effect. The adept power that is introduced in "Return of the Father"
(I hope I have that chapter right, I don't have BS with me ATM) looks like
something we've had on HHH and I've seen on a dozen other websites now for a
couple of years. But to see it implemented within a "canon source" such as
this makes me wonder what else is coming and what considerations/scale of
power development FASAn's are going to be using from now on.

And no offense to Steve K ("Legion"), but the "sudden manifestation"
that
occurs in that chapter seems like such a smack in the face of character
creation for players that I really do wonder. Again, for the purposes of
storytelling I can see it and it is REALLY cool, but I realize that whenever
an NPC manifests actions like this one does then the players start to ask
"well why can't it happen to us then?" Call it my GM instincts wanting to
head-off problems arising at the Pass.

What did I like about the book?

I REALLY like having a lot of my questions answered, including the "Fate of
Deus" (someone else can have the honor of bespoiling that one, not me), but
it really makes me wonder what is to happen with "the Fate of the Arcology".
Talk about nightmare possibilities.

I also liked some of the introductions of new technology as well, except for
that Skillwires system thing in the one guy (don't recall the chapter name
off-hand). But so many other things seemed like stuff that was needed
intro'd into the universe so VERY long ago. Damn, makes me wish I had
brought the module in to work with me now ...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NeoJudas ("K" to Friends)
"Children of the Kernel: Reborn"
(neojudas@******************.com)
Hoosier Hacker House (http://www.hoosierhackerhouse.com/)
Message no. 2
From: Bull bull@***********.com
Subject: Brainscan (please keep the spoiler spaces out of respect)
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2000 03:55:20 -0400
>Adding more here ....
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>> 2-Runners without datajacks get them forcibly implanted....this should
>> bother a few people out there!
>> Dave
>
I haven't gotten BS yet, but I did get a decent plot summary of it a couple
months back... Funny thing is, I ran a modified version of R:AS, combining
it with access of The Matrix (The movie, not the new decker book :)) back
in December/January, before I found out about this bit in BS, and well...
I gave all my players Datajacks during THAT run :] Of course, they weren't
Alpha (Which I think is what they get in BS), but... When I decide to run
parts of BS for my group, they already have that going for them...

((And boy were they pissed... I have 4 players: A sammy (WHo didn't have
one, but didn't mind it too much), a Voodoun, a Mage, and a Phys Ad :))

Bull


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