Shadowrun Projects as a Group.

[Serious Paul]

Right. So the Seattle Sourcebook Addendum is nearly completed and will soon be released by the good people at TSS. So now the question is what next?

32 and I kicked about some ideas with Bishop and Instant Cash tonight, and Eva, Jaded and Meri, and here is some of what I thought was cool. So here is some ideas for your thought, and I am asking for ideas from you.

Additional Locations for the Seattle Sourcebook Addendum. Once a month or maybe once every three months assemble ten/twenty/thirty locations for the various districts in Seattle.

Another idea was pick a city and do it once a year.

Still another is to pick an idea, anything and do it up proper.

So what do you people think? Any one want to help show what a creative show piece Bulldrek can be?

[Maelwys]

A few pros, and a few cons.

Adding the occasional Seattle Update. Good idea, keeps things fresh. Gives more to work with. Con: Seattle gets boring after a while.

Different city each year. Pro: New, different, exciting. Con: Very easy to make the city sound/look almost exactly like Seattle (or other previously done cities). Unless it's a strictly location book, in which case, it's probably easier for the GM just to grab a location in the Seattle book, and use it, with minor modifications.

Pick and idea, and do it up proper. Pro: Indepth look at things, very structured.
Cons: It gets boring reading about the same thing for an entire update. Oh joy. 20 pages of parabiology. Ug.

[Serious Paul]

I appreciate the honesty. Thats what we need, an honest assesment of what we are intrested in and whether it will work.

I do agree that Location books can get to be Seattle with a new name, which is why I want ideas.

[DV8]

I'd rather see Bulldrek deliver Bulldrek: The Cardgame or Bulldrek: the Role Playing Game than a Shadowrun project.

[Cash]

Different city each year. Pro: New, different, exciting. Con: Very easy to make the city sound/look almost exactly like Seattle (or other previously done cities). Unless it's a strictly location book, in which case, it's probably easier for the GM just to grab a location in the Seattle book, and use it, with minor modifications.

And you stand a good chance of getting things...well...wrong. For example, Cal Free. Somethings were good in the book, others (they sadly outnumber the good things) just plain sucked hard.

[Darth Sophia]

Additional Locations for the Seattle Sourcebook Addendum. Once a month or maybe once every three months assemble ten/twenty/thirty locations for the various districts in Seattle.

In small doses this would be good. But as I don't use Seattle as a setting, then it doesn't really interest me.

Another idea was pick a city and do it once a year.

I like this idea; there are some cities out there that are crying out for more than a few pages in a Sourcebook, and could handle a decent write up.

Still another is to pick an idea, anything and do it up proper.

This I like a lot. People are often complaining about one thing or another not getting enough coverage - this would make the perfect place for those people (and others) to throw around ideas, and do something about it.

Where do I sign on?

[Adam]

Personally, I'd rather see something besides yet another citybook, at least in the near future. Also, I'd like to see how readers respond to Seattle 2063 before deciding on whether to do another citybook - whether Seattle 2064 or SomeotherPlace 2064 - or not.

Finishing up the two Bulldrek games, like Dennis suggested, would be a good idea simply because they're already started. They're not something that I have a huge amount of personal interest in, though. How close are they to completion, and who's really in charge of organizing them? Eli for both, I think?

[Eliahad]

I didn't realize I was in charge of organizing them (Well the Card Game was an idea I was throwing out, someone else thought of the RPG. I think you're right, Adam and Dennis, the "Game" ideas would be completely Bulldrekian and not Bulldrek 'for' something else. If someone else wants to take over the card game, go for it. For the next two weeks I don't really have that much time to think about it or get anything organized.

[Serious Paul]

Well I have to admit I have no real intrest in Bulldrek the Card Game, but I agree that finishing it is a good idea. I have never been a fan of card games, Car Wars and Magic were never my style. But I thought the idea was cool when Eliahad first started talking about it, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing all sorts of things happen 'round here.

Cash said:

And you stand a good chance of getting things...well...wrong. For example, Cal Free. Somethings were good in the book, others (they sadly outnumber the good things) just plain sucked hard.

Too true. I want to try and avoid that as well as:

Adam said:

Personally, I'd rather see something besides yet another citybook, at least in the near future. Also, I'd like to see how readers respond to Seattle 2063 before deciding on whether to do another citybook - whether Seattle 2064 or SomeotherPlace 2064 - or not.

I agree. Locations are cool, and they can be modified to work nearly anywhere, but I too am waiting to not only see the finished product, but how it is received as well.

Darth Sophia then said:

This I like a lot. People are often complaining about one thing or another not getting enough coverage - this would make the perfect place for those people (and others) to throw around ideas, and do something about it.

Where do I sign on?

I agree. There are things that can be done. Things that if nothing else will make a good read online. As for signing on, well welcome aboard. Start tossing ideas out either here, or in threads in Words Without End.

Any ways thanks to everyone who has replied. Keep those cards and letters coming as it were.

[Anguirel]

Are you going for pure BD here, or general SR fandom? I wouldn't mind seeing more effort put into the previously started DSF projects, such as the Adept Sourcebook. While we're at it, BeCKS could probably use a revision (as noted in the other thread). I wouldn't mind seeing a codification of various house-rule variants people have put together.

SP, you mentioned that you had a fast-play combat system worked out, maybe you should share that. I know that a few hit-location and non-generic armor systems have been done by people in the past. Others have certainly tweaked a plethora of various item-creation rules and skill systems. Finding a way to present those such that the various alterations could be mixed and matched to suit a campaign would be fairly keen.

For pure BD-ness, I'd be willing to edit together the BD-RPG rules, but I'm not going to know a lot of the older jokes and schticks that should be included so I can't exactly write it up entirely myself. If nothing else appears about it for a large period of time, I'll put together the posts already up into a (hopefully) more-legible collection of rules that can be followed than the present thread is.

Of the other ideas presented, I'd rather see new cities, collections of NERPs (hey, some of my characters don't spend every single cred earned on more weaponry) and psuedo-NERPs (stuff that seems frivolous but can be useful on occasion), or the above-mentioned variant rules (fast combat, less abstract combat, fast vehicle resolution, fast decking, new spells, new powers, new cyberware, new bioware, new genetech, magic-system ethnic variations, new totems, etc...) rather than more Seattle-specific locations.

[Adam]

In terms of Shadowrun stuff, I'm way more interested in world material than gaming material - new gear, spells, cyberware and all that stuff isn't all that exciting as far as I'm concerned.

[Serious Paul]

Well Anguirel mainly I was apeealing to Shadowrun fans here at Bulldrek. Others are of course welcome by me, but I speak for moi.

The Adept sourcebook is being handled by a group of people, I believe they have a board, check Jr. Woodchucks sig at DSF. It will link to his board and hose people.

SP, you mentioned that you had a fast-play combat system worked out, maybe you should share that. I know that a few hit-location and non-generic armor systems have been done by people in the past. Others have certainly tweaked a plethora of various item-creation rules and skill systems. Finding a way to present those such that the various alterations could be mixed and matched to suit a campaign would be fairly keen

Sounds good. My own system isn't really a system per se. I ignore vast tracts of rules and what ever suits me to enhnace game play. I also read Shadowrun books nonstop so my players don't have to.

I have to admit, I am similar to Adam. I like more on the world at large, you can always make new guns and shit.

[Raygun]

In terms of Shadowrun stuff, I'm way more interested in world material than gaming material - new gear, spells, cyberware and all that stuff isn't all that exciting as far as I'm concerned.

Amen.

[DV8]

In terms of Shadowrun stuff, I'm way more interested in world material than gaming material - new gear, spells, cyberware and all that stuff isn't all that exciting as far as I'm concerned.

Amen.

I'll second that.

[Adam]

Had a thought based on a few threads on Dumpshock. Some people there are working on "<blank> Annotated" files, basically explaining the who/what/where/why from sourcebooks like Aztlan.

I say we could run with an idea like this. Take a sourcebook that has a fair amount of background material, and do the following:

* Profile the major players.
* Explain the major plot threads happening in the book.
* Add some short fiction to tie bits together.
* Offer suggestions for how the older material can be used in some way in a modern-day [2063] Shadowrun campaign.
* Provide a list of cross-references to other books and specific segments that relate to the above listed things.
* Offer additional/new resources for people using the original book.

Thoughts?

[Anguirel]

I'd rather see more world stuff than gear myself... but I'd rather see more gear than add more to Seattle after you've just put out an addendum for it. I also don't see a large difference between more gear and more world material. Perhaps I expect more regional variation in gear, which is more of what I was hoping to see when I mentioned new gear / totems / magic systems / spells...

The cybered-out warriors in other cultures might pack different 'ware for purely cultural reasons. With multi-armed gods available, perhaps obtaining extra cyber-arms isn't seen as particularly odd, but rather is simply an attempt to come closer to the gods.

There might be more alternative magic styles (similar to the way the wujen are different from the common hermetic and shamanic styles already in SR) that could be tapped (for example, a Japan sourcebook wouldn't be complete for me without adding Onmyouji and Shinto Miko).

Back-To-The-Land types are likely to use equipment based on what natives of a given region used as that will generally be available and fairly effective for that particular region.

So if we did do sourcebooks for various locales, I'd expect at least a little gear to show up, and that gear would help to define the region and set it apart from others.

[Wildfire]

The problem with grabbing a chunk of the world and going as I see it is the very real possibility of it being a carbon copy of Seattle 2063. I can't write Seattle, I've never been there, I wrote things and places inspired by a thought or a feel. There's nothing unique I could write to make Seattle sound different than Amsterdam than Hong Kong than Denver. Seattle was what it was called though, so that's where everything is. I think that's the case for a lot of people, we don't have enough knowledge to make cities have their own 60/70 pages of unique character.

[MissTeja]

I agree with Wildfire. I think that creating other cities would be an opportunity for uniqueness, but if you create multiple cities, some may begin to find them redundant. It's going to not only create criticism for the new cities, but possibly Seattle itself. It's one thing for others to come and steal the idea and rip it off by creating new cities, but I wouldn't want to risk Seattle's credibility if it were I. I think focusing on Seattle itself and trying to expand it would be the best move. There's unlimited possibilities here as well, because if necessary, you can create different districts and such. There are so many different types of businesses that ya'll have covered, like the hotels, restaurants, etc., but you can even get more specific if you wanted. What metropolitan city doesn't have the tatoo parlor, insurance agency, pawn shop, fortune teller, child care centers, book stores, photography studios, travel agencies, laundromat, taxidermist, etc.? (Forgive me if I've listed something already in Seattle 2063). LOL --Not to say that you necessarily want a laudromat in SR-Seattle, but I am simply saying that I think there is just a lot of unused ideas and opportunities that could be taken advantage of, creating S-2063 into a huge deal, should they be acted upon. Just my op, though.