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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: "Craig S. Dohmen" <CSD108@*****.PSU.EDU>
Subject: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 14:01:00 EST
To all who've been asking, if I can remember the seminar at this year's
GenCon, the so called "Techno-Shamans" will be described in the
forthcoming Virtual Realities 2; along with revamped decking rules.

Of course, I could be wrong. :)

--Craig
Message no. 2
From: John IV <John.Moeller@*.CC.UTAH.EDU>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 11:49:45 -0700
Craig S. Dohmen wrote:

> To all who've been asking, if I can remember the seminar at this year's
> GenCon, the so called "Techno-Shamans" will be described in the
> forthcoming Virtual Realities 2; along with revamped decking rules.

Alright. I keep hearing about "Virtual Realities 2" but never hear any
confirmation that it will come out. Is this just a rumor, or will
somebody point me to the source?

John IV <John.Moeller@*.cc.utah.edu>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John, John, the piper's son, stole a .sig and away he run...
Message no. 3
From: Doctor Doom <jch8169@*******.TAMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 14:46:11 -0600
Von Herrn Moeller:

> Alright. I keep hearing about "Virtual Realities 2" but never hear any
> confirmation that it will come out. Is this just a rumor, or will
> somebody point me to the source?

The source, Herr Moeller, is none other than the Dark Lord on High himself.

What follows is a posting which I dispatched 7 August 1994 (21:35:14) with
regards to the FASA production schedule at that time, as per testimony from
Tom Dowd and Michael Mulvahil of the FASA offices:

Up & Coming in 1995:

January Running Short A collection of short adventures for
particularly small groups of players
February Corporate Security
March Bug City Adventure *shudder*
April Aztlan
July Cyborgs
August Virtual Realities II
September Organized Crime Originally intended as a chapter in
the Lone Star Sourcebook, but FASA
was so taken with the material they
requested more.
Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Magic by Paul Hume
October Rigger Revised
November California Free State

Mind you, these dates are /intended/ and naturally subject to change.
Also, it was intimated that the 1995 schedule shall probably delay one of
the sourcebooks in favor of an adventure module, if for no other reason
that to maintain the sanity of the workers.

And as anyone who has e'er labored in publishing shall tell you,
(including me), the sanity of the workers, although technically dispensible,
is a very salient concern.


Colonel Count von Hohenzollern und von Doom, DMSc, DSc, PhD.

Doom Technologies & Weapon Systems -- Dark Thought Publications
>>> Working on solutions best left in the dark.
<<<
[ Doctor Doom : jch8169@*******.tamu.edu ]
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
"I've resigned. I am not going to be pushed, filed, indexed, stamped, briefed,
debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own."
-- The Prisoner, Number 6
Message no. 4
From: Gurth <gurth@***.NL>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 19:11:09 +0100
>Alright. I keep hearing about "Virtual Realities 2" but never hear any
>confirmation that it will come out. Is this just a rumor, or will
>somebody point me to the source?

If it does, I hope it is better than VR1. I bought that one (mainly because
I suddenly had a decker in the group), but I was rather disappointed when I
found out that more than half the book is that short story about that
whats-his-name kid in the matrix. The adverts, alright, sort of nice; the
Fuchi tour is good, finally "real" matrix pictures; the rules, I don't like
decking, but they are OK anyway, but that story. I mean, what's the point?

BTW, I noticed ona FASA price sheet that Sprawl Sites is called Sprawl Sites
One. does that mean there's going to be a second book or something? (let's
hope that's more useful than the first).


Gurth@***.nl | GEEK CODE v2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g P?(3) !au !a>?
Windows -- the | w+(+++)y v*(---) C+(++) U P? !L !3 E? N++ K- W+ -po+(po)
largest virus | Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@ D+(++) B? e+ u+@ h!
ever written | f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y?
Message no. 5
From: Gurth <gurth@***.NL>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 19:11:13 +0100
> Mind you, these dates are /intended/ and naturally subject to change.
>Also, it was intimated that the 1995 schedule shall probably delay one of
>the sourcebooks in favor of an adventure module, if for no other reason
>that to maintain the sanity of the workers.

Wasn't Corporate Security planned for '93 originally? Talk about delays :)
Good to see an Aztlan sourcebook, and I also think Running SHort (hey, that
one also appears in my 1993 FASA flyer!) would be very useful to my
extremely-not-so-big group of players...


Gurth@***.nl | GEEK CODE v2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g P?(3) !au !a>?
Windows -- the | w+(+++)y v*(---) C+(++) U P? !L !3 E? N++ K- W+ -po+(po)
largest virus | Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@ D+(++) B? e+ u+@ h!
ever written | f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y?
Message no. 6
From: Stefan Struck <struck@******.INFORMATIK.UNI-BONN.DE>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 13:22:31 +0100
Gurth writes:
> If it does, I hope it is better than VR1. I bought that one (mainly because
> I suddenly had a decker in the group), but I was rather disappointed when I
> found out that more than half the book is that short story about that
> whats-his-name kid in the matrix. The adverts, alright, sort of nice; the
> Fuchi tour is good, finally "real" matrix pictures; the rules, I don't like
> decking, but they are OK anyway, but that story. I mean, what's the point?
I didn't find it that bad. I have to agree, if you buy a sourcebook you
don't expect a story. So it was kind of unfair. But I found the story very
interessting for descriptions of nodes and programms etc.
>
> BTW, I noticed ona FASA price sheet that Sprawl Sites is called Sprawl Sites
> One. does that mean there's going to be a second book or something? (let's
> hope that's more useful than the first).
The places archetypes were o.k., but the encounters... I don't think I have
to go into the details here. I think they even had an elfen princess and
hippogriffs in it. Baaah!
bye,
Stefan
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e-mail: zeus.informatik.uni-bonn.de
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Message no. 7
From: Gurth <gurth@***.NL>
Subject: Re: These 'Shamans' in the matrix
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 21:45:06 +0100
[about VR]
>I didn't find it that bad. I have to agree, if you buy a sourcebook you
>don't expect a story. So it was kind of unfair. But I found the story very
>interessting for descriptions of nodes and programms etc.

The story was interesting to read once or twice, but it's not something you
read over and over again (it was _not_ award-winning fiction, IMHO). My
problem with Virtual Realities is mostly that I hate the decking rules'
guts. Nothing more and nothing less. The few times I tried to put some
decking into an adventure (or the few times I was forced to, like in the
adventure in NAN1), all that happened was that we were rolling huge handsful
of dice in situations I couldn't picture inside my head (I have a great
whatsitcalled, err, you know, building mental pictures of 3D objects [forgot
the word :( ]), but with those decking rules I just can't picture things
because there is no real distance involved: you can be at Sensor range to
one bit of IC and at Contact range with another one that is sitting right
next to the first... that goes directly against the way my brain works.
(dammit, I should stop _doing_ that all the time :)
So, where was I? Ah, yes. The die rolls. Nobody seemed to get anywhere:
decker dogfights where the first Light wound was given in about the sixth
turn of combat, despite the fact that everybody hit everybody with Attack-6+
programs, and more of those kinds of things have really done little good to
my appreciation of the Shadowrun decking rules...



Gurth@***.nl or Gurth@******.nl
Remember all your yesterdays / GC2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g P?(3) !au !a>?
In the deep blue / w+(+++)y v*(---) C+(++) U P? !L !3 E? N++ K-
Before the world came / W+ -po+(po) Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@
And rested down on you / D+(++) B? e+ u+@ h! f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y?

Further Reading

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Thwap!