| From: | Jason Ustica <usticaj@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | GenCon Shadowrun Report (fwd) |
| Date: | Tue, 22 Aug 1995 10:31:51 -0700 |
enlightening report from Gencon about the future of Shadowrun.
--
Jason Ustica * Coming to you from Lancaster,CA * Email: usticaj@****.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 21 Aug 1995 02:25:54 GMT
From: Rick Jones <rick@******.com>
Newgroups: rec.games.frp.cyber
Subject: GenCon Shadowrun Report
Rather than doing a big, nasty con report, and since other folks have
echoed my comments, I'm just going to do a report on the Shadowrun and
Castle Falkenstein scenarios, since they would have been the most
interesting parts of the the reports.
The Shadowrun section will be posted to rec.games.frp.cyber and the
Castle Falkenstein section will be posted to r.g.f.misc and falken-l
SHADOWTALK or "We're FASA, We're going to put out something that's cool."
--one of the editors whose name I didn't get
In case you wondered why FASA has seemed a little chaotic recently, it's
because there's been both a shake up in management and a lawsuit. Sam
(Lewis?) the old CEO has gone off to do computer game stuff, and Jill
Lucas (the new CEO) is taking up the reins. She's very cool, by the
way. And, they had a suit against Playmates because one of the E-Frames
in Exo-Squad was uncomfortably close to the design of the Mad Cat mech
for Battletech. So it's been chaos there lately, but they're back on
track.
Yes, Virginia, there will be a Shadowrun Collectable Card Game out next
summer. (and a Battletech one too) You "play" the part of a fixer, putting
together teams of shadowrunners to make runs on your opponents
installations, while building security systems for your own installations.
They would have brought some cards for demos, but the art right now is
something out of stick figure theater, and they didn't want to give the
wrong impression. It'll be almost entirely new art on the cards, except
for one or two really cool pieces (like the Harlequin cover, ferinstance).
Ka-Ge is dead, wrapped in plastic. Sword of Knight productions is going
to be doing the Shadowrun fan magazine. Old subscriptions will be
honored (so you'll get however many issues you were due). You can get in
touch with them at SWRDKNGHT@***.com.
New Stuff: (They didn't talk about the adventures, since those are less
set in stone than the sourcebooks.)
Cybertechnology - on the stands now. The 6 Million Nuyen Man's Essense
is -.76 not -7.6. Typo.
VR-2 - It's in the art department now. It should be out in around 6
weeks. They think that they will finally be able to give the party
decker something to do, and still have him be a part of the team. It's
a complete re-do of the Matrix, somewhat similar to the system in Divided
Assets. Instead of going node by node, it's more of a system layer by
system layer. A new concept in it will be "State of the Art" software.
So, if you get a Sleaze-6 program, for instance, and think you are hot
drek. Just wait a few months, while system defences get better, and it's
now "really" a Sleaze-5. So deckers will have to keep up with SOTA.
When asked about techno-shamans, "'Techno-Shamans?' Yeah, there's a rumor
about that." There's not going to be a novella, but there will be text
pieces to show the GM how to narrate the new matrix.
Awakenings (formerly the Neo-Anarchists Guide to the Awakening) - Magic
in 2057. The analogy they made was that Awakenings is to the Grimoire as
Cybertechnology was to the Street Samauri Catalog. There is a lot of new
toys in there, as well as some things in there to help with the power
curve mages have. There'll be new styles of magic (i.e. voodoo shamans),
new spells, at least 16 new adept abilities, and some nasty stuff for
mages, like "focus addiction" (whatever the heck that is).
California Free States Sourcebook (formerly the Los Angelas Citybook /
City of Angels) - It's by Steve Herrin and Lori Massini. (I hope I got
the names right.) Essentially, the City of Angels sourcebook grew and
mutated into a book on the whole state. [As a side note from the SR
fiction seminar - while the SB was being written, a novel (Dead Air by
Jack Cooke) was being written at the same time, taking place in LA. The
SB had some sections changed to fit the novel.]
Australia Sourcebook - It'll also have stuff on New Zealand and some of
the Pacific Rim Islands.
Running Short - A collection of short adventures for 1 character.
Then in '96 (subject to change)
Threats - This is the product I'm the most jazzed to hear about. It's
about the Big Movers and Shakers of the Shadowrun Universe, and how their
mechanations affect street runners. They haven't decided who all of the
featured Players will be, but the examples they kept tossing out were
Lofwry and The Bugs. It's a book for those interested in the larger
story going on in the Shadowrun Universe. They all seemed hyped about it
too.
Rigger 2.0 - Written by Tom Dowd, along with Tom Peters (who used to work
for NASA - designing rockets and such). It'll have new stuff for riggers,
more drones, cranial riggerdecks, and upgrade rules, so you can turn your
Nissan Jackrabbit into KITT.
Novel Stuff: Present were Tom Dowd, Chris Kubasik, Mel Odom, Jack
Cooke, Caroline Spector and a few others whose names I didn't catch.
Worlds Without End - By Caroline Spector. It's about (yet another :>)
Immortal Elf named Aina. She and Harlequin are old "friends" from the
Forth World, getting back together in the 6th. It's going to have a lot
of deep background material, and will be followed up with two "prequel"
novels set in Earthdawn. Originally, they were going to do the two
Earthdawn novels first, but instead decided to release the Shadowrun
novel first.
Dead Air - By Jack Cooke. It's about a Combat Biker rigger, and has
a lot of stuff about sports in the 21st Century, as well as Simsense and
LA news.
Other novels out soon are "Just Compensation" and "Black Madonna." I
missed what they were about.
Tom Dowd is just now in the brainstorming part of a novel called "Father's
Blood," concerning the triangle of Harlequin, Ehran the Scribe and Frosty.
That'll be out in '97 at the earliest.
Now's apparantly a good time to write for Shadowrun,as they're up to 6
books a year.
Random Q&A:
* Yes, there is a big poltical change on the horizon. Shhh. [My bet is
a war between Aztlan and Texas.]
* They're going to start putting more stuff in the Shadowlands sections
of each book,and keeping the "GUI" interface for the table of contents.
* They'll happily do Japanese, Middle Eastern or African sourcebooks, but
they want to have a native do them, to get the authentic feel. They may
have something for Hong Kong or South Africa sometime on the horizon, as
they have locals on tap.
* If you're going to make software tools or post stuff to the nets using
FASA's stuff, don't make any money off of it and do credit them. Also,
while combat tools and such are okay, don't scan in the combat chapter
and then post it.
* They're brainstorming on a "Hot Spots" book, on such trouble spots as
Austin, San Diego and the Panama Canal. Places where trouble is about to
happen.
* Nigel Findley wrote a section on organized crime for Lone Star, but they
decided to expand that section for an entire book. He wrote a first draft
for it, which they bought, and they'll work with. It's on their A-List.
* They want to do some "interesting" stuff with the Big 8 corps, that
will trickle down to the runners. Corp Wars, anyone?
* Bug City had a strange evolution. Initially, it was going to be an
adventure. But they decided that something as important as nuking Chicago
needed to be set in stone, and not something in a module, which should have
options for the runners. So Tom Dowd wrote Burning Bright, picking the site
of the nuke as a spot he could see from his office window at FASA. Then,
Bug City provided the runners with a new playground, that they can run
about in.
* There's a lot of technology they will AVOID as it will ruin the world
as a game environment. Nanotech, for instance. And weapons technology has
not ramped up as much as other technologies for the simple reason that they
don't want insta-kill guns. (Though when I played SR, my troll's shotgun
was a point-and-kill kind of weapon.) And they use some technobabble (such
as megapulses) to avoid getting embarrased by current technology
outstriping them, like GDW did when they said that Traveller spaceships
were piloted by 16K computers. As Tom Dowd put it, "Ah, it's a megapulse,
GO AWAY!"
Looks like it'll be interesting times, chummers.
--
Rick Jones Tap three and get a life, punk.
rick@******.com --Anti Magic Tee-Shirt (seen at GenCon)
Meyrick@***.com
http://www-ece.rice.edu/~rickj/
