The Shadowrun Situation

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Mon May 09, 2011 4:58 pm

Well, he called Medicine Man Timmy from SouthPark .. that's SOMETHING at least. And there was the obligatory insult to grammar and punctuation.

Google Translate had some amusing side effects. Including this gem:

Genug Bashing eines geistig minder von Gott angelächelten, der eigentlich wahrscheinlich gar nichts dafür kann, dass er diese Platzverschwendung ist die er nun einmal ist.
Translated to :
Enough bashing of a mentally less about God in smiling, which really probably can not do anything that it is this waste of space he is now.

Which doesn't make ANY sense.. but is at least funny.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:04 pm

But deep down, they all love each other in a purely platonic and brotherly way . . yeah sure!
Also, Pegasus Spiele has announced plans to include shirts and sew on patches with limited editions of the german books, at leas with the Blut und Spiele (Blood and Games) one, which deals with Urban Brawl.
And i STILL want one like this for Combat Biking!
Furthermore, rumors about little splat books set in the Troll Kingdom Schwarzwald and Pomorya for example.

Aaah, it's GOOD to be german! ^^

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:44 pm

Also, Pegasus Spiele has announced plans to include shirts and sew on patches with limited editions of the german books, at leas with the Blut und Spiele (Blood and Games) one, which deals with Urban Brawl.

Well, here's hoping that book will be as good as their Berlin book. Much as their forum is run by imbeciles and morons, they do know how to make a kickass gaming sourcebook.

Furthermore, rumors about little splat books set in the Troll Kingdom Schwarzwald and Pomorya for example.

Oh dear. On the other hand, they made Berlin work, so maybe they'll offer a pleasant suprise again.

And there was the obligatory insult to grammar and punctuation.

With Medicineman, it really is obligatory.

Genug Bashing eines geistig minder von Gott angelächelten, der eigentlich wahrscheinlich gar nichts dafür kann, dass er diese Platzverschwendung ist die er nun einmal ist.
Translated to :
Enough bashing of a mentally less about God in smiling, which really probably can not do anything that it is this waste of space he is now.

That's because English is fed cases, doesn't know them and is very confused. Well, great you marginally like my diss.

In other news, is this french SOX file any good?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:55 pm

Dunno. I like Frenching, but i don't speak the language.

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:02 pm

I memorised some from my school days, enough to use google translate to figure out what i can't quite understand. And since it's a PDF, and I liked their SOX campaign ...

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:10 pm

What French SOX file?

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:15 pm

Black Book Editions (whose newsletter I subscribe to) sent me this:

BBE wrote:Le fichier SR4 09 SOX est prêt
et peut être téléchargé sur votre compte (rubrique liste des PDF à télécharger).

(C) 2011 Black Book Editions

http://www.black-book-editions.fr/

Aaah wait ... do they mean to inform me that the file I downloaded a long time ago is available?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:16 pm

The Sox Book was a collaboration between Germany and France, but the Frenchies did another File on the Sox on their own it seems.

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:19 pm

Anyway, sabs, if you drop by your FLGS any time soon-ish, could you please check who did the cover art for the new edition of 2XS? Speaking of this: clicky

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Mon May 09, 2011 6:27 pm

I can try.. though my FLGS is in Newark De, USA

Should be there tomorrow night.

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Mon May 09, 2011 7:55 pm

They would need to work miracles to save the pile of stupidity that is the troll kingdom and the Tir Na Klon.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon May 09, 2011 7:56 pm

*shrugs*
at least the troll archer regiment would be a force to be reckoned with *snickers*

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 8:21 pm

I can try.. though my FLGS is in Newark De, USA

I keep forgetting you do not live in France.

Thanks though!

They would need to work miracles to save the pile of stupidity that is the troll kingdom and the Tir Na Klon.

That's my point. They did work one already saving the brainfart/black block fanwank that was the Berlin setting. Not really holding my breath, but maybe they can make these settings a bit more bearable.

[EDITED] too, while we're at it. Less [EDITED], more sax.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon May 09, 2011 8:40 pm

i'm still hoping they'll wall off bavaria or throw a nuke down there . .

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Mon May 09, 2011 10:35 pm

I'm still hoping they go for a slightly more believable Saxony. Less prancing [EDITED] pseudo nobles, and more nazis.

And an Eastern Europe book. I want, damnit, an update on Poland, Austria and Czech Rep, I want descriptions of other countries there. Of course, never gonna happen because Jason is a Mor(m)on, with all the scope and interest in things non-Salt Lake City that comes with this.

Damnit.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue May 10, 2011 8:01 am

*shrugs*
maybe the germans will take care of the eastern parts of europe . .

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Tue May 10, 2011 8:50 am

They mustn't, for all I know. They SHOULD, however. Because mormon moron Jason and his strange underpants overlords are clearly incapable.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue May 10, 2011 9:03 am

*nods*
afraid you're right, seems they are not allowed to do it any more than before <.<

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue May 10, 2011 12:19 pm

Back when I was writing we would all cringe whenever we heard that the German team had come up with something, because it was always stupid. Anti-technology zones, Smurf villages, Time travel, Alien invasions, or whatever. It was dumb. All dumb. The running joke was "The Germans wrote something about this, what are we going to do?" "Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Ignore it and hope it goes away!" The official bastion of sanity on Team Deutschland was fucking Lars, and he wrote Bloodzilla after I told him not to and why.

These days the upper hand is on the other foot.

-Username17

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue May 10, 2011 2:56 pm

Hell, even we germans preferred the english stuff for exactly those same reasons . .

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Tue May 10, 2011 4:04 pm

Yeah, but.. mormon jokes aside, CGL is just.. bad.

hermit · Post by **hermit** » Tue May 10, 2011 6:12 pm

That is no joke. The only tangible reason why Jason still has this job is because he's a Mormon, the US economy sucks and imbeciles have a hard time finding a job in the first place. As Bills said with Coleman before, he's not gonna let a underpants brother hang out to dry.

LabRat · Post by **LabRat** » Wed May 11, 2011 7:08 am

FrankTrollman wrote:Back when I was writing we would all cringe whenever we heard that the German team had come up with something, because it was always stupid. Anti-technology zones, Smurf villages, Time travel, Alien invasions, or whatever. It was dumb. All dumb. The running joke was "The Germans wrote something about this, what are we going to do?" "Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Ignore it and hope it goes away!" The official bastion of sanity on Team Deutschland was fucking Lars, and he wrote Bloodzilla after I told him not to and why.

These days the upper hand is on the other foot.

I don't know whether I have to feel honored or offened by your post, Frank.

And it requires a little more context. It is true that in earlier editions (esp. SR 1-3) German Shadowrun tended to go a little over the edge in regards to the ideas that were presented, which is why even a number of german players disliked the AGS setting.

However, while there people who created blue-skinned dwarves in DidS2, there was is nothing else from the things you have described above in german canon. That is just rumormongering in times when there was absolutely no communication (or few) between Fasa and Fanpro. This changed in 3rd edition when Rob took the helm and German freelancers (like Tobias Wolter and myself) became part of the international pool of freelancers and information and ideas were exchanged. This even increased when Peter Taylor became developer because we were constantly exchanging ideas.

Since that time, german canon has tried to be 99% compatible with international canon and vice versa because both Tobias and I campaigned for it. We tried to get rid of former edition bullshit in the German setting and we mostly stucked to our territory, collaborating with the French freelancers for SOX and Eurocorp stuff. Since I have been doing work for Catalyst until recently (I wrote Brussels for SpyGames and you are very much invited to shoot at it, Frank, as soon as the PDF comes out) there was still a connection in regards to the german setting and europlots. And while the AGS setting isn't perfect, I have the feeling that the work we are doing with Pegasus now is well received by at least the german fans and brought a lot of people back to the setting. But that is just my impression.

So I would really like to know who that other person of the "we" was you "cringed" with. Because I am not sure that the other freelancers, who worked on Augmentation and Streetmagic, share your opinion.

As for "he wrote Bloodzilla after I told him not to and why". Maybe you can refresh my memory, what exactly you mean by that?

Lars

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Wed May 11, 2011 7:25 am

LabRat wrote:It is true that in earlier editions (esp. SR 1-3) German Shadowrun tended to go a little over the edge in regards to the ideas that were presented, which is why even a number of german players disliked the AGS setting.

By that measure World War II was "a little on the violent side". German Shadowrun utterly sucked ass, nothing redeeming at all.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed May 11, 2011 7:53 am

Hi Lars!

LabRat wrote: As for "he wrote Bloodzilla after I told him not to and why". Maybe you can refresh my memory, what exactly you mean by that?

Fair enough. First off, Bloodzilla. You wrote in a special Essence Drain for spirits to have that raised their fucking Force instead of just their Essence. And like all Essence Drain the limit was no more than double the creature's base Essence. And as spirits, the base Essence was... equal to their Force. So every time they drained an Essence point their Force went up by 1 and their Essence Drain cap went up by two. A simple infinite power loop that breaks the game in half all by itself.

And I explained this to you before it hit print. I explained it three times. Once when it was sitting there in the proposal stage before it had even been written, again when it was in draft stage, and a final plea to for fuck's sake not print something so incredibly stupid and broken shortly before publication. And you rebuffed me every time. And do you remember your reasoning? Because I do: you said that you felt that threats wouldn't be unique enough unless they had nonstandard mechanics. Period.

You broke the game with an infinite power loop because using functional mechanics that already existed for similar enemies wouldn't be special snowflake enough. And for no other reason. You spat in the face of math and sanity and your only excuse was "at least it's different".

And let's not kid ourselves. Even if you had figured out some way to word the damn thing so that it worked the way you obviously wanted it to (with the spirit draining Essence to double its Force), that still would have been both stupid and broken. SR4 exists on what is essentially a log scale as regards adding bonus dice. Spirits with Forces in excess of 12 start becoming completely nuts, and a trivially easy to summon Force 20 Blood Spirit can slam dunk Great Dragons with ease. And the Essence Drain doesn't actually have a human eating requirement and without a daily cost for power like the SR4 vampire, the drinking requirements are ludicrously low. Even the "limited" Bloodzilla you imagined was already beyond the numbers that the game could handle and only required torturing about two pigs a year to maintain. And you could do it with a Magic attribute of five.

And I told you so. I told you so three times. And I will get to hold this over you forever, because I was right and you were wrong. And that is part of the historical record.

Now as for your work in Spy Games, I doubt I will read it. Chances are good that it will come out while I am in Ghana, and even if someone emails it to me I won't have time for it. No reason to believe I'll care enough to go back to it when I get back to Central Europe. CGL's latest releases were really bad and more importantly they were wholly without merit. It's not just that Attitude was terrible (although it certainly was), it was worthless. I wanted the time I spent reading it back. And I think I'm basically done giving you guys more chances. Until you change your editing staff, I can't really see myself bothering with the material you shit out.

-Username17