| From: | Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Informal Survey - answer (long) |
| Date: | Fri, 20 Sep 1996 04:05:37 +0100 |
<hedley@********.com> writes
>Hoi!
> I'm a bit curious about who's playing Shadowrun these days. I wonder,
>if you folks don't mind, if you could e-mail me with some data about your
>ages and professions. I GM a group in Springfield, Missouri. At age 32
>I'm the youngest of our group. The eldest is very nearly 40. We are all
>engineers for various computer companies in my area. Needless to say we
>spend a lot of time on Matrix runs.
> Anyway, if it isn't too much of an imposition, your replies might help
>me to get a mental image of the person behind the posts.
OK.
I'm 36, a PC technician and network engineer, currently residing under
the wife's auspicious eye. The ages of my players are 34, 30, 28, 32,
46, 58, 27. I also have a 32 year old player who runs solo by remote
via E-Mail. I'm partially disabled (Osteoarthritis), coffee addict,
insomniac, and inseparably married to my computer (ouch - and the wife -
whom I love lots - grovel grovel) :-) I live on "The Garden Isle", the
Isle of Wight, south of Portsmouth, possibly one of the most beautiful
locations in England, and I have a three year old son - who is more than
a handful. Oh yeah, and a cat, four chipmunks, six lovebirds, two
cockatiels and a headache.
Personal
Height: 1.81m Weight: 76.2 kg
Hair: Brown (Short) Eyes: Brown
British by birth, of German & Austrian parents.
Current Status: Temporary holiday at HM Goverment's expense.
(Unemployed)
Failings:
Computer addiction, reading addiction, Shadowrun addiction,
coffee (of course), I smoke, make models, break wind (rarely), suffer
from a cutting sense of humour, usually at someone's detriment. Paint
figures (stunningly), oh yes, I also adore chinese food - both cooking
and eating it. I also suffer from being overly modest.
Been GM'ing for about 3 years. My players don't seem to know when to
end the game, and usually continue to talk about runs/information during
the week, including e-mailing each other at regular intervals. The
official game is on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings, though mid week
gatherings are not uncommon.
Current team
Elven Bounty Hunter - Blaze - female (Student/Teacher)
Elven Mage - Ace - female (Junk Collector/hippy)
Human Mage - Dewdrop - male (email player)
(Database programmer/International Troubleshooter currently in Thailand
- lucky git.)
Government Agent (FBI) - Talisman - male (email player when he
visits) (AS Dewdrop)
(it's OK, none of my players currently subscribe to this list)
Human ??? - Pharoah - male (player can't make up
his mind, the character is custom built, and still developing -
Information Gatherer probably describes him best.) (Trainee Network
Administrator)
Human Decker - Gates - male (Network Manager)
Human Decker - Spider - male (Book Sales Person)
Human Doc - Doc - male (Network Administrator/IT
Manager)
Elven Samurai - Sunstar - female (Sales - clothing)
Human Mercenary - Mack - male (Rivers & Lakes Bailiff)
The team is in it's seventh incarnation, with one original
character (now three years old) and one aging character (one year old),
current team name - Red Shift, current mission, adaptation of F.Paul
Wilson's "The Tomb". Unfortunately they are currently 6 years ahead of
FASA's timeline, but they don't seem too worried. Well, not about the
date anyway. :-)
Aside from spending my entire life writing adventures and compiling
weapons/equipment into a manual for Shadowrun, I also produce a
newspaper for the players centred around the game. (They demanded it to
keep up with current events around Seattle, the UCAS/CAS and the rest of
the world. Occassionally I have time to watch satellite, but normally
it's just on in the background, allowing me to steal ideas from various
programmes.
Current player problems:
Doc - has a suit of powered armour - no power pack, though he
doesn't know that yet :-), he didn't realise that it was an optional
extra.
Pharoah, constant parental problems, mother just loves to visit
at inopportune moments, he's also having a deep meaningful relationship
- with a newspaper reporter (tee hee), also has a severe fear of the
dark, something to do with a "thing" he met one night in Germany.
Dewdrop - an inexplicable case of terror - something to do with
voodoo and vampires - a problem he met in New Orleans.
Gates - severely alergic to Sewers, can't imagine why :-)
Blaze - for some reason, everyone is nervous of her, really
don't understand it myself. :-)
One thing I'm pleased with, and that is, that considering the amount of
gear they have access to, I don't suffer from munchkinism or idiocy.
They do occassionally need a nudge in the right direction though, but
then so does everybody else occassionally, I guess.
So far, I've managed to reduce the occassional player to either a cold
sweat, tears or outright panic, so I guess I must be doing something
right. We had a very touching evening about eight months ago, when
everyone thought Dewdrop (the mage) had died, the player was almost in
tears, which is the first time I've seen a fella reduced to this state
over a character, but then, the evening had gone exceptionally well, and
a real atmosphere had built up. Unfortunately, Dewdrop's player got a
well paid job in London (well north of where I live) and I lost one of
my best players, he visits every couple of months, and plays by e-mail,
but he is sorely missed. :-(
Pharoah's player has sat in fear of me for a couple of sessions - a
period where the team had a minor vampire problem - gosh did he sweat :)
and asked whether I was one - apparently I was a little too convincing,
(knew I shouldn't have eaten that raw meat) :-)
and Doc's player lives in mortal fear of what I'm going to do to him
next. So far, he has had two characters voluntarily commit suicide
because of untenable situations, and one that emigrated to South Africa.
Blaze is my wife's third character, her first is in LA, slightly insane,
and looking for a life. The second was lost heroicly on a mission,
taking on the bad guys while the team escaped.
I have four NPCs whom instill terror and panic attacks in all the
players whenever they are mentioned, although thus far, they have not
acted against the players - amazing what rumour and reputation can do.
I've just noticed how much I've written. I've bored everyone enough.
Talk to ya'll later.
--
Pete Sims (aka Questor/Avenger)
