| From: | Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: World Map |
| Date: | Tue, 1 Apr 1997 04:36:25 +0100 |
u.au>, "MARTIN E. GOTTHARD" <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU> writes
>> Rifts series of books, all of which contain detailed maps of the areas
>> concerning the sourcebook.
>>
>Very true. If they define an area and then right a sourcebook that
>contradicts their earlier statement they look like fools. FASA is fairly
>careful about that kind of thing.
Agreed, maybe a little too careful sometimes. It would be nice if just
for a change Mike stuck his foot through the floor and laid down some
ground rules for SR. Like making sure that what they produce agrees
with other materials. So that future publications would either be based
around the ambiguous decker comments that litter their books at the
moment, or at least reflected the world in it's changing form. I would
so much like to see them actually confirm some of their insistent and
endless generalised hints on so much of the SR world. The rather silly
photographs in POAD, concerning Mars, what is the present condition of
Ares/NASA, what orbitals are there, and why. (A space book please -
hell I'll even write it.) :) Little irritating things like their closet
suggestions on parts of the world that don't mean diddly, the IMNSHO sad
state of the equipment books. one item per page, most of the more
recent additions concerning cyberware/weapons, but little else (they
could learn something from the Chrome books here), and a *huge* number
of other things which I won't get into, yet. :)
>Azania, from memory is the old Zulu nation come back to haunt us. Yet
>another super-powerful all-elven nation. Fuck I'm sick of them.
Ditto. It's so refreshing to see that there are more than two IE haters
on this list.
>> Nan-Og and Tairngire, more would put me right off the game entirely.
>> Damn elves.
>> <grumble, grumble, groan, moan, mumble.>
>>
>Hear hear. I'd like to see an Orc nation or two.... there's certainly
>enough of them in the game world to justify it, especially if the elves
>have managed to form three little racist enclaves.
With some considerable writing and ignoring of existing material,
Cascade Ork, could be turned into an Ork nation, even if it is part of
the SS. Though it is strange that the Orks have only formed little
enclaves (ie Seattle's underground) and the dwarves/trolls have done
nothing except roam aimlessly in ever increasing circles. Considering
the mythology surrounding those races is well founded and even, to a
point refelcted in ED. Why haven't the drawves formed their famous
cities and dug bloody great holes in the rockies, why haven't the Orks
congregated into the huge clans their race is mythologically famous for,
etc etc. Why is it the damn elves have two bloody great nations that
govenr this world, have all the fun, are immortal, get to have dragons
as best buddies, and influence all of creation? Bloody elves <grumble,
grumble, groan, moan, mumble>
And yes I do remember Mike's statement regarding them "elveses". I just
hope he sticks to it. For centuries mortal man has been saving this
planet from all sorts of nasty beasties, including the gods, with a
little help from his not so human friends, all of a sudden it's the
immortal elveses who do everything, and mortal man and his cohorts is
merely a pawn in a shooting gallery. Give me a break...
<hits off switch before rant takes full hold...>
>> the next book due out is an "Art of", yeah like there's been some art
>> recently worth sticking in a book. :(
>
>That's only because Elmore doesn't work for them anymore. The rumour is
>that it had something to do with an exclusive contract from T$R or
>something.
Whatever the reasons, I miss the good art we had in the earlier
sourcebooks. This insistance on smudgy, poorly defined brick art is
really beginning to cheese me off. It spoils the whole impression of
the book. Looking at the quality of artwork in the CP2020 books, and
its consistency, and the high and consistent quality of art in the Rifts
books, one wonders where the hell the SR line went, did somebody decide
to accept contributuions from kindergarten? Again the artwork in the ED
line of books has been collectively excellent. Shadowrun? Dogs drek.
>I'd have to agree with you though; The artwork inside the
>sourcebooks looks pretty shitty these days; Too heavy and unfinished, a
>bit like a pre-schooler's finger paintings.
Agreed. :)
>O.K., for the record Japan would be a feudalised society with an
>entrenched caste system, ruled by the Corporations, who would mimic the
>ancient daimyo's. Not sure where the Emperor would figure in the
>society... considering the Japanese reverence for history and culture he
>may still be there, with as little real power as ever.
The Emperor is the son of the gods. There have been attempts in the
past to remove him, most recently at the end of the second war. But, he
_is_ a figurehead that the people revere, in a similar way the the
British monarchy, figureheadss with little real power, but the people
like 'em. so... I reckon the Emperor is still there, and he's still
just a figurehead for the ruling daimyo's, erm, corps. :) I'm not sure
on the feudal aspect though, a technological, financially superior
nation like Japan would not host a feudal society very well, a
democracy with feudal undertones may be a better way of considering it.
The Islands are too small to maintain the kind of battles that Fuchi and
Mistuhama/mistubishi etc are likely to get into, but in a finanically
governed democracy, they could have a go at each other legally,
utilising the weapons of their time, money and shares.
>I've formed the impression that most of South-East Asia is a pirate kings
>paradise, with little or no central government.
>
That's pretty much how I see it as well, with the richness that
technology offers, and the corruption that would be intrinsic in
countries where "haves and have-nots" would be more defined than in
western culture.
>> FASA - making it out to be a world utopia and all round nicey nicey
>> place).
>>
>Geez, no surprise. SR players don't go in for utopias. Dystopia maybe,
>a bit like the London sourcebook where everthing is nice on the surface
>but with a cesspit of a core.
Hmm.. I won't comment on the London sourcebook, most here are already
aware of my impression on that particular piece. <g>
>Who wrote the 'official' sourcebook anyway?
A company similar to FanPro. They are apparently licenced to produce
FASA material over there, and took it on themselves to produce this
wonderworld, where everyone loves each other, no corruption exists and
the corporations are bestest buddies. There's an extensive rant on the
subject on Gen-ichi's site. :)
>> it all starts in 2054, it's now 2058, and the entire world has stagnated
>> into "nothing happening" except of course the UCAS, where everything
>> happens.
>
>That's partly due to a change in product line developers, but I know what
>you mean.
OK, Mike has walked into a difficult position, he has material that has
been planned prior to his assumption of the mantle, and is going to take
the flak for something he has had little choice about. But even so, the
players and GMs of SR have been crying out for updates and material for
quite a while. Even Cyberpunk offers the players updates on the game
world at regular intervals. with a wealth of material on all sorts of
subjects (and they have a "Space" Book...) I appreciate that Mike is
nervous about releasing "location" sourcebooks because of their poor
reception with gamers. Seattelites <g> complain about the Seattle
sourcebook, Germans complain about the Germany sourcebook, many Brits
moan about the London sourcebook, so he's got a nasty task on his hands,
but it would be so nice to see the rest of the world dealt with. Too
many countries and areas are arbitrarily writen off. Todays hostile
countries are obliterated and claimed as radioactive or toxic, other
countries have massive chunks removed from them for no better reason
than saving on sourbook space, some, like Gurth's homeland, are utterly
destroyed. Why?
Britain has a massive wealth of history, concerning magic and
witchcraft, legends and myths, yet they were brushed aside and given two
coats of whitewash, half of the wealth of this country wasn't even
hinted at, let alone detailed, Germany was dealt with in a similar way,
and large chunks of Europe written off, probably to save the bother of a
European sourcebook.
Dirty great big chunks of the American continent have been removed and
handed over to the Native Americans, with _very_ little detailing what
they're doing, how or why. I mean what is going on in those vast tracts
of land. Two sourcebooks later, and I'm none the wiser.
I can see his logic in producing half sourcebook half game book, but
only if it's done in the manner of the Denver source material, or the
Universal Brotherhood, where there are two books, Players book, and GM's
book, combining the two, just increases a GMs headaches. It's much
easier to let players have a sourcebook directed at them, and keep the
meat back, than to keep handing books around saying "please don't read
that bit".... <sigh>
>Us Australian gamers have been waiting for the much touted
>Australian sourcebook for six years now.
Yeah, and by the looks of things, you'll be waiting even longer. I have
the feeling that it had been turned into another massive Elven nation,
and Mike realised that FASA would likely be torched if he allowed it's
release.
>Personally I think that (copyright problems aside) FASA should
>tour the web and pull everything off that looks decent and will fit in
>their development plan..... it'd certainly speed things up, and most
>peiople I know would be happy just to have their stuff used, as long as
>they got their name inside the front cover as a contributor.
OK, in refelction of this, that's precisely what happened with the
Chrome Book 4 release from R. Talsorian. The staff toured the web, took
what they thought was cool, and stuffed it into a sourcebook,
unfortunately a couple of mistakes were made, one contributor was
missed in the credits (ammended) and a couple of seriously stupid items
got into the book. R. Talsorian are also, I believe hosting the web
site of a player who had to remove his web pages for personal reasons.
They were more than happy to take his archive and stick it on their
site, a move that may set a precedent amongst game companies, though I
doubt it.
Yes it would be nice if FASA decided to take some of the fan material
and put it in a book, copyright isn't an issue, as it merely requires
the permission of the owner, however, payment is another matter. I
don't think (though I could be wrong) that Talsorian paid for the
contributions to the Chrome Book, people were just very happy to be a
part of the official material and get their name in print.... the
fifteen minutes of fame thing. :)
>There are of course, major problems with doing that, but surely they
>could give it a go?!!?
I don't think so. Have you read the FASA Submission Guidelines? They
are incredibly draconian, and very demanding.
>> seem to like to actually commit themselves to something solid, prefering
>> to leave things like this to ambiguous comments and shabby hints.
>>
>But only if we're lucky,
LOL, Never a truer statement has been said.
>and they decide to stop promoting the American
>plot as much.
Oopsy... That'll get a reaction from the Yanks. :)
You know the sort of thing. "American company, the majority of players
are American" that sort of drek.
>One major problem is that FASA tries to get local authors to write the
>sourcebooks.... if there isn't one for your area, it could be your fault.
> Get off your butt and ask FASAMike if there's one under submission, and
>if there isn't, consider writing one.
Read the Guidelines, it ain't that easy. :(
>BTW; There IS one under submission for Aus. at the moment, but it's
>nowhere near finished due to a major re-write. They aren't able to
>really accept any other competing submissions. (I asked)
Yeah, still makes me think it was an other Tir Tairngire/Tir Nan-Og...
<sigh>
>> <Going away and eating coffee in an attempt to calm down>
>>
>And that's going to work?
Yep, crunching coffee beans always helps me wind down if I'm getting a
little heated :) I hate the stuff that comes in jars, it's dehydrated
tasteless garbage, give me a good Columbian or Kenyan bean anyday. :)
>*grin*
Try it sometime, coffee beans are tasty, relaxing, and very very bad for
you <g>
--
__ \ | \ __
| | _` | __| | / _ \ \ / _ \ __ \ _` | _ \ __|
| | ( | | < ___ \ \ / __/ | | ( | __/ |
____/ \__,_|_| _|\_\ _/ _\ \_/ \___|_| _|\__, |\___|_|
A Dark Shadow in a Dark World |___/
