| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (BD) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Oy, shadowtalk again! (was: Brand Names) |
| Date: | Thu Jul 5 18:20:01 2001 |
> manufacurer, while other have some to chose from. So I'd say that you
> can print enough alternate names on two pages, to satisfy everyone...
Um, isn't it enough that Man & Machine devoted two pages to telling who
the big names in cyber-, Bio-, and nanoware were? There's your list
already... just use what FASA supplied. It's something that I'm sure a
minimal amount of players worry about, and when it's an issue, they can
make it up. I do some writing and for that, I've made up car and gun
names... it ain't that tough. <Megacorp/Fake Corp name> + <neat-sounding
name> = new product (same as the old product).
> Hmm....we are talking about roleplaying, not rollplaying. Spare me
> with broken rules about, say, jumping and give the game some flavour.
> I don't mean to cause any holy wars here, but it's my feeling that SR
> has gotten its soul edited out. I mean shadowtalk gave you something
> to rate the quality of items and in my game, people would look quite
> disgusted if I tried to sell them a Sandler TMP.
Its soul edited out!? That's a little harsh, eh? Personally, I think
that the newer rulebooks have included plenty of "atmosphere": take the
essay on automobiles in the 6th World that prefaces Rigger 3. Lots of good
info there that adds to my idea of the SR universe.
The shadowtalk was nice, sure, but if it was cut to give us more room for
meat, that's a good thing. Look at the Street Samurai Catalog, for
example: a typical gun entry is about 60 words, with perhaps 30 words of
shadowtalk. 90 words total, right? Per PAGE. Cannon Companion, mind you,
has maybe 650 words per page. That's a fair friggin' difference.
Yes, they could have made Cannon Companion basically a reprint of the
Street Sammy book, with shadowtalk and Nelson gun-art and one entry per
page. But we wouldn't have gotten Martial Arts rules, we woudln't have
gotten Simsense, Advanced Combat options, Amour modifications, etc. We
wouldn't have gotten anything NEW. Unless of course they did it in two
books, but frankly, I pay enough money as it is for this stuff.
> When you read a Chromebook (e.g) you're pretty much absorbed into that
> world. They
> tell you things that give you a clear picture of the setting. SR
> doesn't do this anymore. I get a list of items that look like a list
> of items in an RPG-book, not like a list of items in some catalogue
> or on some future BBS.
Now granted, I've not seen the much-touted Chromebooks, but I'd argue
that in each rulebook (maybe barring CC) there've been sections that expand
on the SR world, whether it's the preamble to Matrix and Rigger 3, or the
bits at the beginning of each M&M chapter. If there have been sacrifices
made by eliminating catalog graphics and shadowtalk, it's been worth it.
All, naturally, IM(C)O :)
====-Boondocker
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