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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Rich Stokes)
Subject: Shadowrun CD and a bit of an intro...
Date: Thu Feb 28 17:10:01 2002
New to the list, so a bit of an intro...

I'm a 10 year Shadowrun veteran who's just gotten back into the setting
this last month after almost 4 years away. I bought the 3rd ed when that
was released, but various personal commitments and basic lifestyle changes
I haven't really had any time to devote to SR for a while and it kinda just
sat there, gathering dust. Somebody recently game me a copy of the SR3
companion and I'm not working right now so I have more time to spare. I
had a flick through and it all came back. I've since bought the Cannon
Companion and Man and Machine and I'm desperately trying to get hold of a
copy of MITS but it's harder to find that hen's teeth (CC and M&M weren't
too easy to lay my hands on either). Needless to say I'm hooked again...

>Ok, that leads us to the next question. Which would you rather see more:
>a) the core rulebooks on CD, or
>b) out of print sourcebooks on CD (and if so, which ones)?

My ideal Shadowrun resource on CD would need to offer more than just the
core books. Not necisarilly new material, but maybe a new way to present
the existing huge back catalogue. For instance, the illos and shadowtalk
from Fields of Fire and The SSC were removed from the Cannon Companion due
to the obvious space limitations. Ditto Shadowtech and Cybertechnology (I
especially miss the diary of Hatchetman from the latter). I dare say that
the same thing is true of MITS and the stuff from Awakenings (which added a
great deal of "feeling" to the world). But the production of the old books
looks somewhat dated (not shabby, just very "of-it's-time"). Ideally what
I'd like to be able to buy might be the illo's and shadowtalk from the
older books with the amended stats and rules from the newer ones. So
perhaps CC, but with the added art and shadowtalk, far too big to release
in print (probably 300 pages) but a valuable and butiful work. Also the
other books. Re-instate the fiction to Virtual Realities. Space (and
pagecount) cease to be an issue. Art for equipment (not so much the
cyberware, but it still helped) really made things seem somehow more
"real". Maybe a small application so that you can tick off you character's
equipment and print it with stats and pictures. Maybe have an app that
creates "cards" for pieces of equipment which include stats, a description
and a picture. Or just a set of printable PDFs with 9 cards to a page
(formatted in such a way that I can print it easily on UK A4 paper as well
as American letter).

I realise that this really would require more than just a quick scan and
pdf, but I said it was an IDEAL right? I don't think there's much need to
reprint the core rulebooks as such, just the stuff that's missing from the
current editions. Maybe even in a totally rules-free way, so all you get
is the essays, pictures and shadowtalk, all "in character". Maybe even
organise the whole thing like a Shadowland forum. Again, probably
imractical, but a cool idea...

But I can't deny that I'd LOVE to be able to read some of the old OOP
stuff, the adventures (harlequin and UB etc). At the time when that stuff
came out money was always the limiting factor in my buying
books. Adventures I could write myself, so I really didn't see the
need/couldn't afford to shell out for them. As a result I don't have that
many, so classics like Harlequin etc would be great. And the more recent
stuff like Portfolio of a Dragon and Super Tuesday etc... Stuff which still
impacts the SR world today. So a CD with all the "important" out of print
sourcebooks with metaplot in, such as the UB, Harlequin, Super Tuesday, etc
would get my money. Not a straight scan and OCR of the old core books
though. If I really wanted a PDF of Fields of File to go with my dead tree
edition, I could scan it myself.

Hope I haven't rambled too much,

"Darth" Rich Stokes.

www.microsith.com
"What do you want to blow up today?"
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Shiva Khan)
Subject: Shadowrun CD and a bit of an intro...
Date: Sat Mar 2 03:35:01 2002
> Ok, that leads us to the next question. Which would you rather see
> more:
> a) the core rulebooks on CD, or
> b) out of print sourcebooks on CD (and if so, which ones)?

My collection has a few holes in it as for what to put on the CD kind of
hard to say. My Shadowrun group is very interested in the idea and all
of them would definatly buy the CD or CD set if everything up to the 3rd
edition release was put on CD. As my chummer, Knothere put it 'forget
the current books just get the OOP on CD, 3rd can wait its turn.' That
is pretty much what the SR players I know are saying. I am sure though
it will all make it at some time though. Personally the books that come
to mind that I would like to see are the various books describing the
world. The Tirs, Germany, Target: UCAS, and all of thoose other books
like that.

Shiva Khan
Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Lars Wagner Hansen)
Subject: Shadowrun CD and a bit of an intro...
Date: Wed Mar 13 13:50:03 2002
From: "Shiva Khan" <shiva@*********.net>
>
> My collection has a few holes in it as for what to put on the CD kind of
> hard to say. My Shadowrun group is very interested in the idea and all
> of them would definatly buy the CD or CD set if everything up to the 3rd
> edition release was put on CD. As my chummer, Knothere put it 'forget
> the current books just get the OOP on CD, 3rd can wait its turn.' That
> is pretty much what the SR players I know are saying. I am sure though
> it will all make it at some time though. Personally the books that come
> to mind that I would like to see are the various books describing the
> world. The Tirs, Germany, Target: UCAS, and all of thoose other books
> like that.

According to http://www.shadowrunrpg.com/products/complete.shtml both
Germany and Target: UCAS are still available.

Lars

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