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Message no. 1
From: Frank Pelletier <jeanpell@****.IVIC.QC.CA>
Subject: Damn books (was Re:Mo' bettah Cyberdoodads)
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 12:29:05 +0000
Airwasp <Airwasp@***.COM> once wrote,

> Guys, in one of the latest books (I believe in the Dragonheart Saga), one of
> the deckers had a dermal patch to cover over a datajack port. Would you guys
> consider this as something similar to the Protective Cover option available
> for cybereyes, and the same essence cost - nothing ?
>
> Mike
>

Sure... that's one piece of cyberware from the books I'd consider putting
in my games.

Then again, there's.... there's... 6-port multi-datajacks? Munchie.
Extendable finger digits? Munchie. Retractable back-mounted minigun?
Munchie. Third cyberarm implanted in the chest? Mun...nah..that one's
just lame.

:) SR Books have let me down more than once. Some interresting pieces
might filter through, but the DragonHeart saga was such a munchie fest and
(all respect due to Jak Koke) the last book was..to say the least..
well..you know...

SR Books always seem to have the need to push the rules of the damn game
they're supposed to represent (And I won't even touch anything written by
Carl Sargent). Why? Dunno.

You can have a pretty damn good book without those GIJoe squared-jaw
supermodel-shadowrunners-of-death-and-destruction (i.e. Neuromancer,
Count Zero). Please, SR writters, if you give a damn... can't you write
something that remotly ressembles the game we play? Last time I checked,
I couldn't play a drake... I haven't found a drake in the paranormal
books, or Awakenings, or the Grimmy, or... ya get it.

Trinity
------------------------------------------------------
Frank Pelletier
Trinity@********.com, jeanpell@****.qc.ca
This message was brought to you by Gangstarr - "Moment of Truth"

"life is a blur"
Message no. 2
From: Lehlan Decker <decker@****.FSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Damn books (was Re:Mo' bettah Cyberdoodads)
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 13:56:43 -0500
>
> Airwasp <Airwasp@***.COM> once wrote,
>

> :) SR Books have let me down more than once. Some interresting pieces
> might filter through, but the DragonHeart saga was such a munchie fest and
> (all respect due to Jak Koke) the last book was..to say the least..
> well..you know...
>
> SR Books always seem to have the need to push the rules of the damn game
> they're supposed to represent (And I won't even touch anything written by
> Carl Sargent). Why? Dunno.
>
> You can have a pretty damn good book without those GIJoe squared-jaw
> supermodel-shadowrunners-of-death-and-destruction (i.e. Neuromancer,
> Count Zero). Please, SR writters, if you give a damn... can't you write
> something that remotly ressembles the game we play? Last time I checked,
> I couldn't play a drake... I haven't found a drake in the paranormal
> books, or Awakenings, or the Grimmy, or... ya get it.
>
This fits in with an interesting theory of mine, so I guess I'll
mention it here. Do you ever notice how in many games, the rulebooks
dictate the history,game etc, and the novels just fill in the story.
(Case in point, FASA,Battletech and the Clan invasion, at least the
early books). Lately in SR it seems the novels describe the story, and
you must by them not the rule books. No offense to Kenson (who is
a wonderful writer) or Koke. I haven't read TechnoBabel yet, and
most likely won't get around to it for awhile. So instead I buy and
read BinB, but am I missing the background from not reading Techno?
So do I buy the book, read it, and then summarize it for my players
so they know what's been going on? See what I'm getting at?
Usually I buy every sourcebook and most modules, but pick and choose
novels, since some authors are better then others.
Just my grip perhaps.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
Lehlan Decker 644-4534 Systems Development
decker@****.fsu.edu http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~decker
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The universe doesn't have laws, it has habits. And habits can be broken.
Message no. 3
From: losthalo <losthalo@********.COM>
Subject: Re: Damn books (was Re:Mo' bettah Cyberdoodads)
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 14:51:53 -0400
At 12:29 PM 5/5/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Then again, there's.... there's... 6-port multi-datajacks? Munchie.
You could always just get six datajacks, tho' I can't figure what you'd
need them all for. I have given a character -two- before, and that seemed
sufficient...

>Extendable finger digits? Munchie.

I can't understand why this is munchy. A little odd perhaps, but so is
replacing a meat limb with a meatl and plastic one ("My hands are never
going to feel the same again"). Think if you were rebuilding some part of
your body to be better, stronger, more useful, wouldn't you want to be able
to palm something bigger than a basketball? :) Cyber is there to offer
abilities that didn't exist before... Frankly, I think CP does a better
job in some places of offering cyber that people would really buy, because
it's interesting and useful. SR has a habit of only presenting the things
you'd see on a runner, or from a runner's POV. Think for a minute, if you
will, on what you can actually -do- with a computer in SR. How much memory
does a word-processing/desktop publishing prog use? What all can one
actually do with a wrist comp? Apparently they are only there to hold
datasteals. :)

>You can have a pretty damn good book without those GIJoe squared-jaw
>supermodel-shadowrunners-of-death-and-destruction (i.e. Neuromancer,
>Count Zero). Please, SR writters, if you give a damn... can't you write
>something that remotly ressembles the game we play? Last time I checked,
>I couldn't play a drake... I haven't found a drake in the paranormal
>books, or Awakenings, or the Grimmy, or... ya get it.

Yes, I think scale is a problem for SR nowadays. While it is interesting
to have novels which give some glimpses of the really powerful folks, the
emphasis of SR early on was the -street-. Runners, while perhaps sometimes
wealthy, were still street-level criminals. They might have an impact on
the city, but they weren't shaking the world. Now, I realize some people
run campaigns with earth-shaking events based on the characters' actions,
but I think it far from the rule. I think the novels would be best if they
concentrated on characters that you might see in your average Saturday
night SR game. They might actually be Shadowrun novels, then.


losthalo@********.comwhileyouarelisteningyourwillingattentionismakingyoumore
andmoreintothepersonyouwanttobecome.

"Some things are true whether you believe them or not."
Message no. 4
From: Alex van der Kleut <sommers@*****.UMICH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Damn books (was Re:Mo' bettah Cyberdoodads)
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 17:37:49 -0400
At 01:56 PM 5/5/98 -0500, you wrote:

>a wonderful writer) or Koke. I haven't read TechnoBabel yet, and
>most likely won't get around to it for awhile. So instead I buy and
>read BinB, but am I missing the background from not reading Techno?
>So do I buy the book, read it, and then summarize it for my players
>so they know what's been going on? See what I'm getting at?
>Usually I buy every sourcebook and most modules, but pick and choose
>novels, since some authors are better then others.
>Just my grip perhaps.

I don't think that you miss out. In this case, BinB shows you what happens
on a global scale to the corps, how they affect the world, and what the
runners can do to affect these changes. TechnoBabel tells a side story of
how some of this stuff was actually setup, and what happened in the
background. I know from the story why Lanier sold his shares to the
Corporate Court, but 99.9999999 percent of the world wouldn't.

I used to work at Ford, so I was right there when some decisions were made.
So I might know more about why their stock is doing something, or why
they're not making the Thunderbird right now. But you can still follow
along in the papers and journals to figure out what Ford is doing, and
predict fairly well where they're going. I just happen to have a little
extra background.

Sommers
Message no. 5
From: Lehlan Decker <decker@****.FSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Damn books (was Re:Mo' bettah Cyberdoodads)
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 09:50:37 -0500
>
> At 01:56 PM 5/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >a wonderful writer) or Koke. I haven't read TechnoBabel yet, and
> >most likely won't get around to it for awhile. So instead I buy and
> >read BinB, but am I missing the background from not reading Techno?
> >So do I buy the book, read it, and then summarize it for my players
> >so they know what's been going on? See what I'm getting at?
> >Usually I buy every sourcebook and most modules, but pick and choose
> >novels, since some authors are better then others.
> >Just my grip perhaps.
>
> I don't think that you miss out. In this case, BinB shows you what happens
> on a global scale to the corps, how they affect the world, and what the
> runners can do to affect these changes. TechnoBabel tells a side story of
> how some of this stuff was actually setup, and what happened in the
> background. I know from the story why Lanier sold his shares to the
> Corporate Court, but 99.9999999 percent of the world wouldn't.
>
> I used to work at Ford, so I was right there when some decisions were made.
> So I might know more about why their stock is doing something, or why
> they're not making the Thunderbird right now. But you can still follow
> along in the papers and journals to figure out what Ford is doing, and
> predict fairly well where they're going. I just happen to have a little
> extra background.
>
Well that's good to hear. From the comments I had seen on the list, I
was starting to wonder. :)
Guess I should get off my butt, and go snag a copy of BinB :)


--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Lehlan Decker 644-4534 Systems Development
decker@****.fsu.edu http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~decker
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The universe doesn't have laws, it has habits. And habits can be broken.

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