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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] High Tech VS Low Tech
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 19:54:49 -0400 (EDT)
At 08:43 AM 7/31/96 -0600, Ahz wrote:

>Does everybody her play that all weapons/armor/equipment is available?

I use the availability ratings listed in the gear section, but foresee
having trouble with players who either (1) ask their fixer for item X every
n hours in the hopes of getting that lucky roll and (2) having other team
members ask their fixers for items their own fixer couldn't get.

>What is the average pay for your runs?

Hmm, it depends on the group and what the adventure says.

>Did they all start off with priority A in resources? Try starting them off
>as street rats, priority E in resources, but give them more freedom with race
>and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!!!!!!

It depends on the player. One making a street almost always uses Resources
highest, another who likes Troll Physads leaves it lowest. I don't think
it's possible to have E priority resources, is it, unless you're a non-human.

BTW, my (Astral adept) detective took resources highest in order to get a
small office in the Barrens, lots of contacts for footwork, and some
miscellanies mundane detective equipment for those times looking around in
Astral form is going to draw too much attention.

--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484
Message no. 2
From: Faux Pas <fauxpas@******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] High Tech VS Low Tech
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 23:12:29 -0500
>>Does everybody her play that all weapons/armor/equipment is available?
Starting off, I limited everyone to availability 6 or lower, after
misreading the "rating no greater than 6" for starting equipment. It worked
out okay. I won't allow some things in Cybertechnology or in Awakenings.
My game is set in April of 2056, some of the things in these books don't
exist yet (like the Bug Barrier spell).

>>What is the average pay for your runs?
Depends on the run. Average pay is 1000 to 5000 nuyen apiece, although the
current run they're on is paying 800 nuyen total with the promise of future
help.

>>Did they all start off with priority A in resources? Try starting them off
>>as street rats, priority E in resources, but give them more freedom with race
>>and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!!!!!!

Some did, some didn't. Priority A in resources doesn't cause stunted
character development - having the mentality that your character is a
character, a set of numbers with a gun, is the problem. Ask your players
why their character is running in the shadows. If they reply "because",
then you've got a problem.

Here's how to solve it. Have the players write down a description of a
character, using the twenty questions as a guide. After they've answered
the questions, have them read the answers again. Then go through the ABCDE
priority system, then flesh out points/'ware/gear/yadda/yadda/yadda.

I realized this was the way to do it after my group had made thier
characters. I had most of the characters ask the twenty questions in the
character generation section when making characters. I've got detailed
backgrounds for half of the group (the rocker and the two magicians), one of
the others (street sam) hasn't written down anything on his background and
is just a set of walking stats on paper [although he did roll up a character
background/personality from the CP2020 random past generator - I just wish
he thought about his character instead of randomly generating one]. The
other two (ex-simsense actress and ex-Texas Ranger) have given me sketchy
backgrounds.

>Although, we play a quite continious timeline - no "now it's three months
>later, what did you do in between?", but *GM1 leaves top of table, GM2 takes
>over* "It's the next morning, your bodies are still arching from last night's
>tortures, but your *point at some player* phone is ringing..."

We jump ahead a bit. Sometimes it's a month between runs, other times it's
a day or two. This way, when the actual year 2057 comes around, we still
won't be gaming in the fictional year 2057. The gamers in my group are all
connected to e-mail, and we're switching over to having in-between session
stuff (fencing the loot, side personal adventures, between session plannings
on the extraction/security of a site) done by e-mail. I'm also working on
my web page which will include my campaign's notes and descriptions so the
players can check out stuff in 2056's Dallas/Fort Worth. It's modeled after
Rick's Houston SR Campaign web site, and should be up on the web by this
weekend [at www2.cy-net.net/~fauxpas/shadowrn or something like that].

-Thomas Deeny
Art Director, K&L Advertising
Cartoonist at Large

"Oh happy day! I've discovered a surprise Ding Dong in my pants!"
-Robin Joynes' brother-in-law "Dave".
Message no. 3
From: "Andre' Selmer" <031ANDRE@******.wits.ac.za>
Subject: Re: [SR2] High Tech VS Low Tech
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 12:12:41 GMT + 2:00
@ >Does everybody her play that all weapons/armor/equipment is available?
@
@ I use the availability ratings listed in the gear section, but foresee
@ having trouble with players who either (1) ask their fixer for item X every
@ n hours in the hopes of getting that lucky roll and (2) having other team
@ members ask their fixers for items their own fixer couldn't get.

We solved that a simple way, we use group fixers for example, if
we need weapons etc we use my fixer Uncle Bob, for the more uncommon
stuff Cowboy the fixer of choice. We play that all fixers can get the
same stuff, just each is specilized in certain fields. Pickups
however can be unique as in one of our fixers lives in NAN, we needed
some rockets, he got them, we sat stuck with getting them over the
boarder.

@ >What is the average pay for your runs?

@ Hmm, it depends on the group and what the adventure says.

Depends on the run, we have be playing for years and now are up
to the +/-50,000=Y= per runner per run, but normally we take pay only
from 1 in every 6 or so runs, we usually take equipment, favours,
goods etc. When we started we earned about 2000-5000 a run (for the
team)

Andre'

-- We exist because you want us to, because you are
|__|__ afraid to face the facts. We are what you fear
/\ /\ \ in the deep recesses of your soul, yourselves.
|\ /\ /| | It is there in the shadows of your soul and those
|/ \/ \| | of the street that we exist. Through the use of
\/__\/ might, magic, cunning, blood, sweat and tears we
protect you from your fears, from youselves, from
others and keep your utopia, not ours, intact.

Further Reading

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Thwap!