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Message no. 1
From: Damon Harper <nomad74@*******.COM>
Subject: Modules
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 04:22:20 PST
This is my first original post on the list... so please, be gentle?
:)

Okay, the meat and potatos-
How come FASA has clogged up when it comes to producing modules? Now,
if your answer is "It doesn't matter because I don't use the modules"
Then go ahead and hit the 'Delete' button on this message now. I'm
talking to the people out there that use- either moderatly or profusely-
modules. I don't think they were that bad of a sell, certainly a better
sell than the Location books, IIRC. So why stop with a good thing?
Now, in my opinion, the last *REAL* module to come out was 'Shadows of
the Underworld'. 'Missions' wasn't really a module per se because each
'run' was geared for non-shadowrunners(except for the Doc Wagon one) and
you could maybe fudge 'King of the Mountain'(which your character would
have to loaded with karma to succeed in- any level character my hoop).
The other two, you'd have to be a really imaginative soul indeed(which I
am, but not that imaginative) to gear towards 'runners.
'Mob War!' was a joke, IMO. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a book of
good ideas... but not much else. Either the writers were lazy or wanted
to crap so much info into so little a space.
Now, I know 'Predator and Prey' is coming soon, but it sounds like
another series of run ideas, not well written modules. I find it so
FASA-like that FASA just now is coming out with runs for Critters, and
both Critter books are out of print. What's next? A run set in London?
But any way. If anyone know of modules like the ones that were put
out prior to Super Tuesday are in the works, or if they know why they
are only getting worse, I'd like to know.
As it was said before in a different thread- "If it ain't broke, don't
fix it."


-Vagabond (nomad74@*******.com)
¹vag·a·bond \va-ge-bänd\ adj. 1: wandering, homeless
2: of, characteristic of, or leading the life of a vagrant
or tramp 3: leading an unsettled or irresponsible life

²vagabond n: one leading a vagabond life; esp : tramp


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Message no. 2
From: William Gallas <wgallas@*****.FR>
Subject: Re: Modules
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:16:35 +0100
>'Mob War!' was a joke, IMO. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a book of
>good ideas... but not much else. Either the writers were lazy or wanted
>to crap so much info into so little a space.

I don't agree with you. I like the way FASA handles modules now. When you
only found an adventure in a book, you now find a lot more. Plus, mob war
(and predator and prey it seems) gives an evolution of the world. You have
different adventures related to a given event. That gives more continuity
to the overall course of the world.
When you begin with GMing, you need a lot of informations about every step
of an adventure. With time, you only need the general plot to handle the
scenario. I really like to be given a lot of ideas on which I can create
adventures. The only problem comes when ideas aren't fine... I liked mob
war but I found shadows of the underworld was really a bad thing. Ideas
were simplistic and sometimes dumb.
Another problem could be that all these modules create big events in the SR
world. If such an evolution is fine from time to time, it can get boring to
see the world crumbling each year... If super thuesday and mob war were
fine to me, I don't think I would like to see a big corp war. It simply
doesn't fit with the world I GM. Anyway, the advantage of being given a
unique book for the background and scenario ideas gives you the possibility
to simply ignore the world evolution.
Now, perhaps it could be regreted that independant scenarios aren't sold
anymore. IMO, shadowrunners have to deal with runs independant from major
events because the world continues to exist. The shadowrunners are more and
more considered as super heroes involved in world wide plots. And I don't
like this, except from unique adventures like Harlequin's back.

>Now, I know 'Predator and Prey' is coming soon, but it sounds like
>another series of run ideas, not well written modules. I find it so
>FASA-like that FASA just now is coming out with runs for Critters, and
>both Critter books are out of print.

Well... This comes with the way Mike sees the evolution of the SR line
product. He seems to want to give a theme for each year. If this is
interesting for some special events (like underground), I don't like it
for, say corps. The idea can be interesting because you'll have different
scenarios on a part of the society. The only problem is that it almost
always come with a big transformation of the universe.
For a campaign book with critters, I don't think I would buy it. The only
thought of scenarios with a different critter in each, to test all the
possibilities is a bad thought.

> What's next? A run set in London?

A decent london sourcebook would be fine.

> But any way. If anyone know of modules like the ones that were put
>out prior to Super Tuesday are in the works, or if they know why they
>are only getting worse, I'd like to know.

I don't think there are. Again, they're not worse, simply differents.
IMO, they should use both. Modules to give single and complete runs for
beginning or tired GMs and campaign book for modification of the universe
and/or thematic books.


Cobra.

E-mail adress : wgallas@*****.fr
Quote : "Never trust an elf"
Message no. 3
From: Adam J <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: Modules
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 07:37:05 -0700
At 04:22 16/01/98 PST, you wrote:
> This is my first original post on the list... so please, be gentle?
> :)

Hrm.
Where was that delete command again? ;)


> How come FASA has clogged up when it comes to producing modules? Now,
>if your answer is "It doesn't matter because I don't use the modules"

It doesn't matter becau..oh, nevermind!

>Now, in my opinion, the last *REAL* module to come out was 'Shadows of
>the Underworld'. 'Missions' wasn't really a module per se because each
>'run' was geared for non-shadowrunners(except for the Doc Wagon one) and
>you could maybe fudge 'King of the Mountain'(which your character would
>have to loaded with karma to succeed in- any level character my hoop).
>The other two, you'd have to be a really imaginative soul indeed(which I
>am, but not that imaginative) to gear towards 'runners.

I've never read Missions, but wasn't it put out right after the SR
Companion, to give some ideas and suchlike for the non-'shadowrunner'
characters?

>'Mob War!' was a joke, IMO. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a book of
>good ideas... but not much else. Either the writers were lazy or wanted
>to crap so much info into so little a space.

I was dissapointed with Mob War's size, but reading through it, it seems
like it could easily be turned into a small campaign all on it's own,
something I'm thinking of doing.

>Now, I know 'Predator and Prey' is coming soon, but it sounds like
>another series of run ideas, not well written modules. I find it so
>FASA-like that FASA just now is coming out with runs for Critters, and
>both Critter books are out of print. What's next? A run set in London?

Hey, there *was* a module set in London, IIRC it was Imago.. :)

> But any way. If anyone know of modules like the ones that were put
>out prior to Super Tuesday are in the works, or if they know why they
>are only getting worse, I'd like to know.

I don't imagine that they will go back to the old format. Quite simply,
they're working to have every product 'tie-in', and whether that's a good
or a bad thing, it means that 'themed' sets of modules will probably be the
norm.

I like the idea of them -- I don't want 4 pages describing how to run an
encounter in a bar when I can just ad-lib it myself, but I would have felt
cheated paying 12 bucks for Mob War, which was 60 pages or so..

-Adam
-
http://shadowrun.home.ml.org \ TSS Productions \ The Shadowrun Supplemental
ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader \ AdamJ@******** \ fro@***.ab.ca
The Shadowrun Archive Co-Maintainer: http://www.interware.it/shadowrun
Message no. 4
From: JonSzeto <JonSzeto@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Modules
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:17:40 EST
In a message dated 98-01-16 07:23:15 EST, Damon Harper writes:

> Now, I know 'Predator and Prey' is coming soon, but it sounds like
> another series of run ideas, not well written modules.

As I understand it, Predator and Prey will be a set of four (or three? I don't
remember) adventure 'modules' in the format we're all used to. It's not going
to be the track-based format that Mob War! used (and that will be used in
Blood in the Boardroom).

> I find it so
> FASA-like that FASA just now is coming out with runs for Critters, and
> both Critter books are out of print.

Actually, (as I understand it from FASA, anyway) Mike M. wanted to publish
Predator & Prey simply to see if there WAS an interest out there for critter
books (or at least enough interest to warrant FASA publishing more critter
books). I may be wrong, but that's the account I heard.

-- Jon
Message no. 5
From: John Dukes <dukes@*******.NET>
Subject: Re: Modules
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 15:46:25 -0600
<<<Snipped>>>

>Actually, (as I understand it from FASA, anyway) Mike M. wanted to publish
>Predator & Prey simply to see if there WAS an interest out there for critter
>books (or at least enough interest to warrant FASA publishing more critter
>books). I may be wrong, but that's the account I heard.
>
>-- Jon

There is enough interest! I suggest printing a book that reprints the
previous two para-critter books and adding a few more to boot. The
para-animals add quite a bit of spice and atmosphere to the game IMHO.

More para-critter books! :)

-John

Further Reading

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Thwap!