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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: David van Nederveen Meerkerk <D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl>
Subject: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 17:50:51 +0200 (MET DST)
The thing I don't like most about Bug city that we have had NO clue from
FASA about what has happened the last year. The same goes for about
every sourcebook about a city or country: after you've had the
sourcebook, in which you read a lot of "soon there will be...." or "they
are expecting that...." or "they have plans to....", you never hear what
happens next except for some short comments in other books or novels.
I've been asking Mike (and Lou for earthdawn) if they maybe could give
us some "continuing timeline" or maybe better, a newspaper in the world
of SR (it could be publishes as a part of shadowland) whihc tells us
what's happening in the world. This way we get info about lots of stuff
before and after the sourcebook comes out, like now we don't have a clue
about australia and we'll have to wait for the book. But we also don't
know a thing what's happening in Tir Tairngire right now: what's
changed, any new princes? Or maybe the situation in GB: who's in power
now, what have the druids done the last few years etc. etc.
The german RPG "Das Schwarze Auge" (The black eye, in america known as
Realms of Arcania or something like that - yes it is originally german)
has done this for more than 10 years now: every 2 months we get a
newspaper which tells us the current situation in the world, and I can
tell you: this is fun! Most of the time, I'm anticipating the new
newspaper more than a new adventure or sourcebook! With this newspaper
they can develop campaigns that last for years without having to put
everything in sourcebooks. Like now, there is the return of some evil
sorcerer from 500 years ago. You can play this with only the series of
adventures which are made around it, but there are alot of hints and
ideas in the newspaper which you can use while you're waiting for the
next adventure to come out (like wars and other things that are in some
way related to the campaign - or maybe not! - and in which the players
can "fill their time" while waiting for the next related adventure).
Maybe if we all mail Mike and ask him for this (AND a sourcebook
detailing all the (major) countries of the world in about 2 pages for every
country WITH worldmap) then he will give it to us.....

VrGr

David

*****************************************************************************
This is not a signature, I type it every mail again.

David "42" van Nederveen Meerkerk
Warande 128
3705 ZK Zeist
Netherlands
tel: +31 (0)30 6951487
D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl
http://www.fys.ruu.nl/~nederv1
Message no. 2
From: mbroadwa@*******.glenayre.com (Mike Broadwater)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:10:58 -0500
[big snip]
Of course, I, on the other hand, like the fact that FASA says "here is whats
happening, here is some stuff that might be happening" and then leaves it
mostly alone to let you decide what the effects are and weave them into your
campaign rather than telling you what happened. I like to play SR. If I
wanted to read a book and have no creative influence of my own on it, I
would. SR lets you take a rich campaign and do with it what you want rather
than tell you how it is.
Message no. 3
From: David van Nederveen Meerkerk <D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl>
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 18:28:18 +0200 (MET DST)
>
> [big snip]
> Of course, I, on the other hand, like the fact that FASA says "here is whats
> happening, here is some stuff that might be happening" and then leaves it
> mostly alone to let you decide what the effects are and weave them into your
> campaign rather than telling you what happened. I like to play SR. If I
> wanted to read a book and have no creative influence of my own on it, I
> would. SR lets you take a rich campaign and do with it what you want rather
> than tell you how it is.
>
I was never saying that I don't want to include my own ideas. The
example I gave, that german game, is one of the best games I know,
because they give you a complete world in which there is still more room
for your own ideas than you can come up with in 100 years. They make
their sourcebooks and the newspaper in a way that you get a good view of
their idea, but still can fill in lots of open space they leave you. But
when you''ve not much time but still want to play, there's a lot of
background material you can use. But in all, I think BECAUSE they give
you more info, you get more inspiration for your own.
And I'm also not saying that I follow all of their plots. But it's
always nice to know "the partyline". I can have some great ideas for
some country in the SR world, but it's nice to know what ideas the developers
have for it. Than I can decide if i like my idea better or if I use it
for another country in which it fits as well and go on with the
partyline for the original country. Or maybe I hate their idea and use
my own. But it's always nice to KNOW so that later you don't get
dissapointed because you want to use something from them but it's not
or hard to use because of what you already did.

VrGr

David

*****************************************************************************
This is not a signature, I type it every mail again.

David "42" van Nederveen Meerkerk
Warande 128
3705 ZK Zeist
Netherlands
tel: +31 (0)30 6951487
D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl
http://www.fys.ruu.nl/~nederv1
Message no. 4
From: mbroadwa@*******.glenayre.com (Mike Broadwater)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:39:17 -0500
>>
>> [big snip]
>> Of course, I, on the other hand, like the fact that FASA says "here is whats
>> happening, here is some stuff that might be happening" and then leaves it
>> mostly alone to let you decide what the effects are and weave them into your
>> campaign rather than telling you what happened. I like to play SR. If I
>> wanted to read a book and have no creative influence of my own on it, I
>> would. SR lets you take a rich campaign and do with it what you want rather
>> than tell you how it is.
>>
>I was never saying that I don't want to include my own ideas.

Thats not what I meant. I just like give a lot of information and then let
you do what you want with it, and, for the most part, whatever they publish
next isn't going to effect you too greatly. Ok, well, if you started your
campaign in Chi-town...

Mike Broadwater
http://www.olemiss.edu/~neon
"You only need two things in this world. WD40 to make things go, and duct
tape to make them stop."
Message no. 5
From: David van Nederveen Meerkerk <D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl>
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:14:02 +0200 (MET DST)
> Thats not what I meant. I just like give a lot of information and then let
> you do what you want with it, and, for the most part, whatever they publish
> next isn't going to effect you too greatly. Ok, well, if you started your
> campaign in Chi-town...
>
But in the end, they _will_ do something with it. Gurth gave a good
example: Bug city was great, but it's annoying to use it for some time
and then suddenly get a book which tells you something that was going on
at the same time (the novel about DC, Just Compensation). What I mean
is: it's no problem to get the novel which details everything a little
later, but they should've mentioned it _somewhere_. Just something like
"riots in DC, some guy in military top tries to take over the country but
fails" and some more information would've been enough. Then later we
would've reacted even more like "cool! now we get the details!" when the
novel came out. It works the same with the german game. There are things
going on NOW and you get to know them as background information for the
world you're playing in. Maybe next year there will be a adventure which
details the event(s) and the players can even participate! You'll have
to use other characters for it when you are already further in time with
your primary game, but when you want, you can play it and at least you
get to know the details!
Example: last year it was 2056 in the SR world, now it's 2057. People
who were playing it was 2056 last year and are now in 2057 DIDN'T NOW A
THING ABOUT THE ELECTION AND THE RIGGING OF IT. How wuld you react if
your GM told you: "Oh, by the way, seven months ago there was an
election, and ehm...it was rigged; sorry you didn't hear about it
before...." It's not a problem that we get the details now, but it
would've been nice if we'd had KNOWN about the events. Then you could've
used it as background for the runner's lifes, to make the world more
"alive". No doubt you do that, but this way you could have used
something from FASA with which they'll do something in the future. But
now you and the runners only hear about the rigging at the moment the
new election starts.....get my point (yes I know we already knew about
the election some time, but lots of players aren't in the rumour mill,
especially people not on the net, and even we didn't get the info at the
moment the supposed rigged election should've been).

VrGr

Quindrael

*****************************************************************************
This is not a signature, I type it every mail again.

David "42" van Nederveen Meerkerk
Warande 128
3705 ZK Zeist
Netherlands
tel: +31 (0)30 6951487
D.N.M.vanNederveen@***.ruu.nl
http://www.fys.ruu.nl/~nederv1
Message no. 6
From: mbroadwa@*******.glenayre.com (Mike Broadwater)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 07:36:53 -0500
>Example: last year it was 2056 in the SR world, now it's 2057. People
>who were playing it was 2056 last year and are now in 2057 DIDN'T NOW A
>THING ABOUT THE ELECTION AND THE RIGGING OF IT.

Do you _read_ the sourcebooks? The last several have mentioned in the front
part (where the ShadowLand interface is) that there is a new election coming
up because the old one was rigged. The people I play with knew. Of course,
if you don't buy the books you wouldn't know, and if you don't read the
front you wouldn't either. Of course, then you probably wouldn't have found
out about it if FASA had published another book. If you and your players
didn't know about the messed up election, it was yours and their faults for
not reading the books, not FASA's for not sending you some mail and saying
"Hey! You! Did you hear about the election! And here's everything else you
wanted! Sorry, that means every book is two months more behind now!"

Mike Broadwater
http://www.olemiss.edu/~neon
"You only need two things in this world. WD40 to make things go, and duct
tape to make them stop."
Message no. 7
From: mbroadwa@*******.glenayre.com (Mike Broadwater)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 07:46:18 -0500
(yes I know we already knew about
>the election some time, but lots of players aren't in the rumour mill,
>especially people not on the net, and even we didn't get the info at the
>moment the supposed rigged election should've been).

(sorry(almost) to be making two posts about one article, but I just noticed
what was said here)

"We" may have found out about it earlier, but it was mentioned in the other
sourcebooks for quite some time. No one knew about Bug City in August 94
(when it would have happened SR time) but thats because of publishing dates.
I've been on this list for about 3 months, and played for 5 years before
that, and never have I had trouble finding out whats happening or what might
happen in the SR world. I read the sourcebooks. I find out what they have
to say, and then I either see the effect in the novels or other sourcebooks.
If its not mentioned, it was significant or I can do what I want with it.
Why do you _need_ to know every little detail that's happening in the SR
world? FASA does an adequate job of keeping the consumer informed, and
thats more than they're required to do. I wouldn't mind a little bit of
info on every country in the world, but I don't want FASA to say "this is
whats happening here and here and here. No, you don't need imagination, we
will supply that for you." Make up your own stuff, and if FASA says
otherwise, ignore it, or be subtle and explain how what FASA says really
does fit with your world ("No guys, that just a continous typo. Actually,
it _was_ D/FW that was hit by the bugs.")

Mike Broadwater
http://www.olemiss.edu/~neon
"You only need two things in this world. WD40 to make things go, and duct
tape to make them stop."
Message no. 8
From: dbuehrer@****.org (David Buehrer)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - what's happening in the world (was: Bug city)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 06:57:10 -0600 (MDT)
David van Nederveen Meerkerk wrote:
|
|Example: last year it was 2056 in the SR world, now it's 2057. People
|who were playing it was 2056 last year and are now in 2057 DIDN'T NOW A
|THING ABOUT THE ELECTION AND THE RIGGING OF IT. How wuld you react if

Change the dates in the source books. If your game is in 2057 then change
the rigged election to 2057 (maybe it was delayed a year because congress
and the president weren't able to come to an agreement on election
reforms). You own your campaign, not FASA. The sourcebooks, adventures and
books are guidlines. Hell, even the rules are guidelines. If something
doesn't fit into your campaign because of a date or something else, then
change it (assuming that you want to use the sourcebook or adventure).

-David

/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
~~~~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.html~~~~~~

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