| From: | Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Thoughts: sourcebook ideas |
| Date: | Sun, 11 Jul 1999 06:42:03 EDT |
> > > > a media article without risking going way off track of the future
> > > > of the Shadowrun universe.
> >
> > So, as i said above who said you have to follow their track? That's the
> > beauty of an RPG you can make your own world.
>
>
> while I agree with everyone that has said FASA does not (or should not)
> describe all the places (though, they really need to hit a few major ones
:-)
>
> I do have to mention something here. It is nice to say "you can just
ignore
> it" when such inconsistancies come up, but the point is that we all buy
FASA
>
> products to further our campaigns.
> While any product needs to be tweaked, it would also be nice if GMs
could
> get an idea of what is going on so tehy can plan around that eventuality.
> While I liked the Big D's death, imagine how much this could have affected
> campaigns?
The real problem with FASA's direction of Shadowrun (I think)
actually only came with the Dunkelzahn plotline, which ironically also
provided the momentum which has transformed SR from an RPG which felt stuck
in neutral to one which now cruises along. Before the election (and the
accursed DHS) the SR books offered GMs all the freedom in the world, but
aside from the Universal Brotherhood/IE thread nothing much happened with
continuity. There was no ongoing storyline. Then the election came along
(with Mulvihill driving it, even if I must cop that Koke kicked the universe
forward with his idea, even if his novels were terrible, and Ryan Mercury
worse) and suddenly Shadowrun had a storyline which developed from sourcebook
to sourcebook, a trend which continues to this day, and a damn invigorating
one.
But there's the problem. This kind of developing storyline forces
player characters to take backseat roles to the action. The truly monumental
stories happen in the sourcebooks or the novels, and answers to the big
mysteries or rumors are now answered with disappointing utterness. The
reason Dunk died, the truth of Thomas Roxborough's situation, whether Damien
Knight was really part of EM, what really caused the Crash of '29, what is
Deep Resonance, and even most of the so-called "rumors" in Threats have been
revealed (there was a great one; GMs were told it was up to them to decide
the truth of each entry, but not one single entry remains which novels or
sourcebooks haven't revealed, and two of them were never in doubt in the
first place!). All of these elements were put in SR to give GMs and the
players through them exciting options, and now they're being taken by
sourcebook and (especially) novel writers and the GMs are being left with the
answers they provide or forcing their players out of the direct action.
Now, to me, the way this all should be handled should be like Bug
City. There a situation was set up with a cool sourcebook and a novel, and
then FASA stepped out of the way to let players and GMs run wild. This seems
like the perfect way to handle the storyline momentum FASA is currently
putting out. Give us a situation in the gamebooks or the novels and then
don't meddle with it.
None of this is a bash at FASA's recent stuff (the game has been
cleaned up considerably and looks to have a bright future) but instead a grip
towards the way GMs and players are getting left out of the coolest new
stuff.
-Twist
(Okay, okay, I do bash the way FASA killed the Neo-Anarchists.
"Retro"-Anarchists? Erugh.)
