| From: | mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Hmmmm? |
| Date: | Mon, 3 Jun 1996 09:36:02 -0700 (PDT) |
>Just a couple questions that came up after reading this morning's mail...
>
>1) If watchers cannot ever post, and the canon provides no means for this,
>would someone please explain Umsondo (of the Aztlan sourcebook, p. 172) to
>me?
Someone else can handle that one: I do rulebooks, but not sourcebooks as a
matter of general principle. =)
>2) If the FAQ is mutable and flexible, why can't INTERNAL messages be used
>to indicate twists in the shadowrun world? If shadowtk board is merely
>Shadowland, and plotd is entirely behind the scenes negotiations between
>"real" people, so much of the intricacy of the game is lost (or extremely
>difficult to convey with quality detail). If INTERNAL messages are just
>for Shadowland posters, then THAT needs to be stated in the FAQ instead of
>the sampled piece that has been quoted much frequently. (I personally
>vote against such a change.)
We're trying to reconcile the fact that Shadowland per se _is_ supposed to
work like the BBS, but that for the purposes of the collaborative fiction
we write here on the ShadowTK mailing list we sometimes need to slightly
deviate from what would be "normally" realistic. The idea is to come up with
a "good" excuse for why some event would be recorded on some medium, rather
than a "bad" excuse. Having a security camera record an exchange between
a mage, a watcher, and possibly the rest of the patrons of a bar is fine.
Just pulling the conversation out of the hat without any "plausible" reason
it should have been recorded is probably not.
>3)Finally, if all posts are supposed to be recorded conversations, and not
>conversations that are on-going, then shadowtk will look nothing like
>Shadowland. Very very little on the Shadowland BBS occurs as recorded
>conversations. The vast majority of material is ongoing banter and
>commentary from various runners. THE QUESTION ACTUALLY IS: What types
>of conversation are applicable to post here? (Being inclined to
>flexibility here, I think there's room for many many types of messages--
>however, some of you may feel differently.)
Well, here's some stuff to consider. First of all, is all the stuff that
happens off the net _really_ that important? Do we _need_ to see every
time some Faceless Minion comes up to his boss and says some cryptic
phrase like "The Pig is in the Blanket?" I tend to think not. The really
important "runs" can be recorded one way or another by their participants
with ease usually, but a lot of the other stuff is probably less important.
Secondly, if people _do_ feel that a certain amount of "Internal" external
traffic is necessary to make the ShadowTK list work, I say so be it. We're
trying to balance "realism" in the functioning of our game world with
"expressiveness" of the list in the real world. I think it can work as
currently set up.
So, if it's _crucial_ to the enjoyment of the list-members that they hear the
all-important message your next watcher delivers, figure out what the closest
security system is and record it that way and post as Internal traffic.
Otherwise, it is probably best left unsaid.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
