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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Stefan <casanova@***.PASSAGEN.SE>
Subject: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 19:01:13 +0000
Well I sort of have a problem with the questions in the begining of
the BBB ... Well the problem is that my players sort of ignore them
... they didn't use to but then an ugly trend developed with alot of
All Dead .. Do it for the money and answers like that .. and no
nobody really cares about them at all ..

It would be nice to get them again since they are always useful when
constructing own adventures (atleast I think so) .. but I don't
really feel like I wanna force them to answer them since I know what
the answers will be like ... So I am planning to do the next best
thing ... BRIBE them :) So I am interested in knowing what others
have on there mind about this issue ... force / ignore or bribe ? and
if I should bribe them what should I use ? A contact / buddy ? Money
? Skill points ? Guns ?

/Stefan

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Message no. 2
From: Adam J <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 11:13:44 -0600
At 19:01 8/29/97 +0000, you wrote:

>thing ... BRIBE them :) So I am interested in knowing what others
>have on there mind about this issue ... force / ignore or bribe ? and
>if I should bribe them what should I use ? A contact / buddy ? Money
>? Skill points ? Guns ?

This is basically what I said when I started my new game.
"Guys, write a page about your character, and a paragraph or two about each
contact. If you don't, I'll write it myself, and I won't be nice."

We play on Sunday, I think.. *chuckle*

-Adam


-
http://shadowrun.home.ml.org \ TSS Productions \ The Shadowrun Supplemental
ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader \ WildAngle@******** \ fro@***.ab.ca
From The Jury's Bench: http://www.interware.it/shadowrun/channel
Message no. 3
From: Bull <chaos@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:22:43 -0400
At 07:01 PM 8/29/97 +0000, Stefan wrote these timeless words:
>Well I sort of have a problem with the questions in the begining of
>the BBB ... Well the problem is that my players sort of ignore them
>... they didn't use to but then an ugly trend developed with alot of
>All Dead .. Do it for the money and answers like that .. and no
>nobody really cares about them at all ..
>
>It would be nice to get them again since they are always useful when
>constructing own adventures (atleast I think so) .. but I don't
>really feel like I wanna force them to answer them since I know what
>the answers will be like ... So I am planning to do the next best
>thing ... BRIBE them :) So I am interested in knowing what others
>have on there mind about this issue ... force / ignore or bribe ? and
>if I should bribe them what should I use ? A contact / buddy ? Money
>? Skill points ? Guns ?
>
Do what I do... Bribe them with the best thing for a character... KARMA!
And be sure that they know ahead of time that "I do it for money" and "All
dead" answers lower their "grade" substantially...

Generally I'll give away karma equal to the amount of work they do. I have
that 50+ questions that I make my players fill out, and they get at least
one karma if they bother to put in one word answers to everything.
However, if I get back 6 pages of written history, with at least a
paragraph answering each question, then they get between 5 and 10 points.
Yeah, I know that's a lot, but it forces them to really think about their
characters background, and to be creative. Plus, it generally makes my job
a helluva lot easier by giving me SOOO many plot hooks and things to pick
up on,...

If you are interested in the 50+ questions, they're available on my webpage
at the link below in my .sig...

Bull
--
Bull, aka Steven Ratkovich, aka Rak, aka a lot of others! :]

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Message no. 4
From: Jimpy <lowfyr@***********.COM>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 09:58:37 -0500
Adam J wrote:
> This is basically what I said when I started my new game.
> "Guys, write a page about your character, and a paragraph or two about each
> contact. If you don't, I'll write it myself, and I won't be nice."
>

I took this even a step further and wrote their backgrounds and contacts
up myself, giving them only a few choices to influence what I wrote.

I let them chose the basic type of bg they wanted, such as former
military, ex corp, street kid, etc. Then I let them pick their
nationality. The only thing they got to know about the other characters
in the group was generally what each was playing so they wouldn't all
play a decker, or a street sam.

As far as their contacts, I wrote up about a page on each on (Totalling
72 pages all together!)giving their street name, real name if
applicable, how they met, what things they specialize in, any family,
habits, or other personal information the player might know, general
terms of payment used in the past, and how they contact each other (ie,
whether they have ever met in real time, or always on the phone, email,
etc.).

I should note that all my players are very good when it comes to making
their own backgrounds, there were just common elements I needed to
place in each one for my story's sake. The end result was probably
twenty hours in front of Word, but the end result was worth it.

They loved their backgrounds, and really got into their contacts. Been
playing for about a year now, and I think those backgrounds really
helped build the characters.

Just my $1.00 worth ;)

Jim
Message no. 5
From: Jaymz <justin@******.NET>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 10:52:27 -0500
At 09:58 AM 8/30/97 -0500, Jimpy wrote:
#Adam J wrote:
#> This is basically what I said when I started my new game.
#> "Guys, write a page about your character, and a paragraph or two about each
#> contact. If you don't, I'll write it myself, and I won't be nice."
#>

The Lifepath section from Cyberpunk can help generate backgrounds as well.
--
/--justin@****.mcp.com----------------------justin@******.net--\
|Justin Bell NIC:JB3084| Time and rules are changing. |
|Simon & Schuster | Attention span is quickening. |
|Programmer | Welcome to the Information Age. |
\------------ http://www.mcp.com/people/justin/ ---------------/
Message no. 6
From: Adam J <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 10:54:43 -0600
At 10:52 8/30/97 -0500, you wrote:
>At 09:58 AM 8/30/97 -0500, Jimpy wrote:
>#Adam J wrote:
>#> This is basically what I said when I started my new game.
>#> "Guys, write a page about your character, and a paragraph or two about
each
>#> contact. If you don't, I'll write it myself, and I won't be nice."
>#>
>
>The Lifepath section from Cyberpunk can help generate backgrounds as well.

The friend whom I visited this month had a book with a system similar to
the Cyberpunk lifepath thingie. There's a sci-fi version and a fantasy
version, I believe, but I can't remember the publisher and all that. I
knew I should have written it down.
It helped immensely to create a AD&D character.. took about an hour to do
two characters backgrounds, and they ended up pretty interesting.
My character's mother was a prostitute :P

-Adam

-
http://shadowrun.home.ml.org \ TSS Productions \ The Shadowrun Supplemental
ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader \ WildAngle@******** \ fro@***.ab.ca
From The Jury's Bench: http://www.interware.it/shadowrun/channel
Message no. 7
From: "Wendy Wanders, Subject 117" <KGGEWEHR@******.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 13:05:09 -0500
You wrote:
> The friend whom I visited this month had a book with a system similar to
> the Cyberpunk lifepath thingie. There's a sci-fi version and a fantasy
> version, I believe, but I can't remember the publisher and all that. I
> knew I should have written it down.
> It helped immensely to create a AD&D character.. took about an hour to do
> two characters backgrounds, and they ended up pretty interesting.
> My character's mother was a prostitute :P
Yeah, it's called Central Casting, and it's a very useful item, especially for
learning GMs, or people who need ideas.

losthalo
Message no. 8
From: Tobias Berghoff <Zixx@*****.TEUTO.DE>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 14:56:00 GMT
on 30.08.97 lowfyr@***********.COM wrote:

l> I took this even a step further and wrote their backgrounds and contacts
l> up myself, giving them only a few choices to influence what I wrote.
l>
l> I let them chose the basic type of bg they wanted, such as former
l> military, ex corp, street kid, etc. Then I let them pick their
l> nationality. The only thing they got to know about the other characters
l> in the group was generally what each was playing so they wouldn't all
l> play a decker, or a street sam.

Another way to keep the group balanced: Just yesterday my whole group met
(we're seven players by now!) and we started distributing the roles we
needed. So by now we have a killer-babe (this isn't macho speak, just the
truth), a physad (me!), a PI, a rigger, a merc, a terrorist and a sorcery-
adept. So the whole thing is pretty balanced (deckers are NPC only) and
everyone knows how far s/he can go hardwarewise. The nice thing about this
method is that - as everybody knows what kind of people will be in the
group - you can prevent two players from creating charakters that *have*
to fight eachother, thus killing the fun for everybody.



Tobias Berghoff a.k.a Zixx a.k.a. Charon, your friendly werepanther physad

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Message no. 9
From: George Metz <W0lfstar@***.COM>
Subject: Re: the 20 Questions issue.
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 13:38:46 -0400
In a message dated 97-08-29 13:01:52 EDT, you write:

> It would be nice to get them again since they are always useful when
> constructing own adventures (atleast I think so) .. but I don't
> really feel like I wanna force them to answer them since I know what
> the answers will be like ... So I am planning to do the next best
> thing ... BRIBE them :) So I am interested in knowing what others
> have on there mind about this issue ... force / ignore or bribe ? and
> if I should bribe them what should I use ? A contact / buddy ? Money
> ? Skill points ? Guns ?

Bribing the players to do an integral part of Character Creation is IMHO a
really bad idea, because then you'll seem like a pushover, and the players
will get upset when you WON'T let Lone Star ignore the pretty Assault Cannons
strapped in an X pattern on their back. 20 Questions is more a validation of
Character appearance, personality, and why they chose what they did. I
recommend - if you can get it - using the Lifepath charts in Cyberpunk,
editing where appropriate. This part you can force the players to live with,
and enables you to distribute lovely things such as contacts, FOF's, enemies,
Edges, and Flaws without appearing to be a pushover.

Wolfstar - Never let 'em push you over. =)

Further Reading

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