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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net
Subject: Earthdawn in Shadowrun
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 14:08:28 -0800
From: Mockingbird <mockingbird@*********.com>
> O'kay,
> The short version. Earthdawn was Fasa's attempt at a fantasy
> world. When it didn't go over, they decided to link it to Shadowrun in
> the hopes the SR fans would start buying it. This lead to alot of
> immortal elves and horror related material in SR.

As opposed to now where things seem to conflict a lot and you're beaten over
the head with clue-by-four secrets. If future books end up looking like
Cyberpirates I'm going to scream. Whatever happened to sneaking these
conspiracies in? It's like watching an X-Files episode where you go "DUHHH!!
I figured it out" within 5 minutes. They even have the Lone Gunman make
guest appearances now. How original.

Just kill off Harly and his little band of "Gee I wish this was a White Wolf
game because we have manipulated all of mankind forever and are so
tragically hip" immortal elves. It would save us all some trouble.

Or better yet, why don't they make some effort to tie up continuity errors
that already exist..like what happened at the Olympic Games, what that huge
cube in Tir Tairngire is, where the corrupted dragon eggs are, what about
the "little Horrors" already on earth, the long term effects of the second
Great Ghost Dance...I could go on.

> By the time Mike took SR over, it was impossible to do anything
> scary in SR, because everyone just said "Oh, its another Horror thing"
> instead of letting SR have its scary unkown side. Mike didn't like
> this, so he axed the connection (everything already done is still
> canon, but no new stuff will be added).

Not a big fan of Earthdawn I can tell. I personally thought it was cool...

So instead of Horrors we have the oh-so-original insane artificial
intelligences. Ho hum.

Ken

"If some unemployed punk in New Jersey can get a casette to make love to
Elle McPherson for $19.95, this virtual reality stuff is going to make crack
look like Sanka."
-Dennis Miller

> Mockingbird
Message no. 2
From: Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com
Subject: Earthdawn in Shadowrun
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 04:00:27 EST
In a message dated 12/7/99 5:23:18 PM Eastern Standard Time,
tzeentch666@*********.net writes:

> > By the time Mike took SR over, it was impossible to do anything
> > scary in SR, because everyone just said "Oh, its another Horror
thing"
> > instead of letting SR have its scary unkown side. Mike didn't like
> > this, so he axed the connection (everything already done is still
> > canon, but no new stuff will be added).
>
> Not a big fan of Earthdawn I can tell. I personally thought it was cool...
>


I was really jazzed about ED before I started to note how it leeched off SR's
success and damned Shadowrun to *it's* sequel.

Harlequin's Back (one of the all-time great adventures) would have worked
just as well if we'd never known of ED. (In fact, it would have been more
frightening.)

I'm fine with immortal elves and great dragons (and even the Enemy while they
were here), but their past should have remained in mystery.

> So instead of Horrors we have the oh-so-original insane artificial
> intelligences. Ho hum.
>
> Ken

Insane AIs aren't original by cyberpunk standards, definitely not. However,
they do fit perfectly well within the SR universe. As did the Enemy under
the category of "Weird Junk happening in astral space". What was bad about
the Horrors was that they were coming to dominate the plot line. The
cyberpunk/grittycriminal element was getting shafted for the magical side of
the game.



-Twist

"We've never backed away from evil incarnate before, Peter, why this?"
"Evil incarnate can't sue, Frank."

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Earthdawn in Shadowrun, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!