|
cool maybe WotC will pick it up and make Shadowrun 4e
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2010 21:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 18:20 |
|
|
Shadowrun 5E you mean. This really loving sucks and I'm sad Catalyst will go out of business over something like this, though fairly large-scale embezzlement does seem to be a recurring theme with RPG publishers that implode.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2010 21:12
|
|
|
There isn't a big enough gently caress! to express my words right now. Shadowrun 4 and Eclipse Phase were doing pretty great.LGD posted:This really loving sucks and I'm sad Catalyst will go out of business over something like this, though fairly large-scale embezzlement does seem to be a recurring theme with RPG publishers that implode. More often than not, it is a sign of collapse, but it is a survivable situation. Palladium Books had around $850,000 to $1.3 million dollars embezzled from them by Siembieda's old gaming partner and business manager, only got $45,000 back from the courts, and this was during the collapse of the N-Gage game and stalled business deals. But Siembieda and Palladium Books managed to bounce back. The guys who run Catalyst are old FASA veterans, have been through over the years, and far more profitable and more business savvy than crazy 'ol Kevin Siembieda and his mimeographed books.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2010 23:26
|
|
|
CGL has released a statement:quote:Catalyst Game Labs recently completed a detailed financial review of the company. We learned that over the past several years the company has achieved dramatic growth in terms of demand, increased total revenues and strong sales with an increasing market share in the gaming industry, despite a lackluster economy. We are thrilled by that news and are eager to move forward with our upcoming original game Leviathans, along with our other new casual games. We also remain committed to plans for our beloved licensed games: Shadowrun, BattleTech, Eclipse Phase, and CthuluTech. Either the Internet amplified the severity of the situation or CGL is doing some major damage control. Of course, it could be both. The news of the owner participating without the threat of legal action or jail time does sound encouraging.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2010 10:22
|
|
|
I'd just like to mention that if someone is really fiending for a game, there is one (conditional) spot open in my SA PBP-game Heists in Hamburg. Only open for people who are really dying to enter, as the group is large enough.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2010 14:23
|
|
|
I've gone ahead and uploaded the Mook cards to Mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ikdnyz0ojnn/SR4 PDF Mook Cards.zip Let me know what you think about them. Don't complain to me about the challenge levels of these guys, because a lot of those old adventures I converted these guys from are really overwhelming. Especially the Aztechnology guys. Burn in hell, Nigel Findley.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2010 15:06
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:CGL has released a statement: quote:However, I will state that on Monday, March 15th, I resigned from working as CGL's bookkeeper and office manager, due to a conflict involving my personal ethics. The Operations Manager resigned the week before that, for similar personal reasons. I have been told that Adam Jury, our Layout Guru and Overall Awesome Guy, resigned as well. People don't resign from jobs in a recession for ethical reasons unless they have very good reasons. The real telling point is Adam Jury resigning. Here's what he had to say on his website: quote:Shadowrun fans: thanks for years and years of fun and feistyness. Last year, when Jason Hardy took over as Shadowrun Line Developer, I told him simply: “If you kill the one thing I’ve loved my entire adult life, I will kill you.” As of today, you’re off the hook no matter what, Jase.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2010 16:33
|
|
|
Gobbeldygook posted:People don't resign from jobs in a recession for ethical reasons unless they have very good reasons. The real telling point is Adam Jury resigning. Jesus. Adam Jury's been in Shadowrun since the Internet. Didn't he created Dumpshock? I can start seeing why this isn't a good sign.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2010 16:56
|
|
|
So, anyone down for joining our coming 4E Shadowrun pbp here on SA? Character/Info thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3279446&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post374156809 We'd like at least one more player.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2010 11:35
|
|
|
I'd love to join, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience playing Shadowrun, and I have zero experience with play by post. I don't want to end up frustrating/annoying people. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 00:08
|
|
|
PunkBoy posted:I'd love to join, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience playing Shadowrun, and I have zero experience with play by post. I don't want to end up frustrating/annoying people.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 00:35
|
|
|
PunkBoy posted:I'd love to join, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience playing Shadowrun, and I have zero experience with play by post. I don't want to end up frustrating/annoying people. If you're "not sure you have enough experience" you probably have more experience than me  .
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 01:07
|
|
|
I just started a new SR game with three newbies, one old-hand, and one irregular old-hand. The hardest part is just getting everyone on the same page. Right now, I'm pretty liberal about asking people to make rolls in order to pass along stuff their character Ought To Know but their player doesn't yet, along with some old-fashioned leading questions. The worst example so far was when they were offered 300k to split, plus a rating 6 fake SIN with appropriate licenses for them, plus 5k nuyen attached to each SIN, plus air travel and accommodations at a five-star hotel in Hawaii, and it was indicated to one of the runners by his 6/5 contact that he would consider doing this run to be a personal favor to him. They turned it down because they were only offered 50k up front and after the face failed the negotiation roll, the Johnson pointed out they were getting 5k each from each SIN, so she cut the up-front fee down to 30k. They had some other runs available, so they ended up going for a run where the final payout would be 35k. Nothing up front, but they talked the Johnson into coughing up 10k. They ended up deciding the Johnson was a bit of a dick and target was a really nice gal, so they went to the target and asked her to match his price. She had no money, but she did have some sex drones and a rocket launcher. After some debate, they settled on giving the guy his money back, leaving, then coming back in an hour to kill him and take all his money.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 01:48
|
|
|
Alright, I'll give this PBP a shot. I'll try to make a character tomorrow. Are there roles that need to be filled? Or can I make whatever?
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 06:27
|
|
|
We've got a close combat specialist/infiltrator, a support mage, and a face. Two of the characters can also actually hit the broad side of a barn, the mage is a bit  with guns. We could use a hacker or a street sam to round things out, or you could try something more specialised if you like - combat mage, rigger/transporter, investigator, demolitions man, etc..
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 10:04
|
|
|
PunkBoy posted:Alright, I'll give this PBP a shot. I'll try to make a character tomorrow. Are there roles that need to be filled? Or can I make whatever? I don't know how new to SR you are, but read up on the thread - you will notice what seats are filled (Face, Mage, CC/infiltrator) so far, and then you can probably work out what the group could use of extra help. Note however that Matrix-characters (technomancers and hackers) are really hard to play, and I run the chronicle so that you don't need any particular skillset, as you are only four players. The most important thing for you is to keep your eyes (and mind) open, and always just ask me or the other players for help with whatever.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 10:29
|
|
|
Tias, how do you feel about the adept powers from Street Magic? I know in your OP that you said that you were unsure whether or not we could use SM.
PunkBoy fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Mar 22, 2010 |
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 15:12
|
|
|
My reluctance is based solely on things that are rule-heavy or broken balance-wise. Just run it by me, and I'll probably approve of it 
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 15:43
|
|
|
The only problem with any adept powers, core or SM, is that many of them are ludicrously overpriced because no-one thought to update the prices from 3e->4e despite the value of a PP changing dramatically. In earlier editions, you got 6 PP just for writing 'adept' on your sheet whereas now you have to cough up 10 BP per PP up to 5. Spirits are kind of absurd by default for the exact same reason. Except Commanding Voice. That power's kind of awesome.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 16:35
|
|
|
Gobbeldygook posted:The only problem with any adept powers, core or SM, is that many of them are ludicrously overpriced because no-one thought to update the prices from 3e->4e despite the value of a PP changing dramatically. In earlier editions, you got 6 PP just for writing 'adept' on your sheet whereas now you have to cough up 10 BP per PP up to 5. Spirits are kind of absurd by default for the exact same reason. I just realized that the recent changes in the 20th Anniversary book regarding the PP cost of Improved Attribute and Improved Reflexes were in response to that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2010 17:00
|
|
|
Does anyone have any tips for software that makes running an IRC / online game of SR4 worthwhile? Die rollers and stuff are everywhere (from coding IRC bots to on the iPhone), but I have yet to see a worthwhile group environment that includes chat, messages (for GM <--> player or player <--> player whatever), and the ability to show a map or place tokens. Ideas?
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2010 10:01
|
|
|
FreshFeesh posted:Does anyone have any tips for software that makes running an IRC / online game of SR4 worthwhile? Die rollers and stuff are everywhere (from coding IRC bots to on the iPhone), but I have yet to see a worthwhile group environment that includes chat, messages (for GM <--> player or player <--> player whatever), and the ability to show a map or place tokens. Maptools with some imported building floorplans or something?
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2010 11:02
|
|
|
FreshFeesh posted:Does anyone have any tips for software that makes running an IRC / online game of SR4 worthwhile? Die rollers and stuff are everywhere (from coding IRC bots to on the iPhone), but I have yet to see a worthwhile group environment that includes chat, messages (for GM <--> player or player <--> player whatever), and the ability to show a map or place tokens. Gametable is a free java app that you can host a server and have people connect to. It works pretty well but not perfectly and the tilesets are made for D&D but you can gently caress with it and make new tiles and the like.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2010 03:35
|
|
|
Still couldn't run my SR4 game today, because one of the players was out of town for Easter holiday  . Anyway, I did manage to pick up another player, who is hoping to play an ork drone rigger. Of course, I didn't piece it together when he was buying it, but I realized him buying plastic explosives and multiple Renraku Manservant-3s can either go really, really bad or really, really awesome. Considering I convinced one of my players to round out his cowboy-inspired gunslinger adept by not only going with twin Ruger Super Warhawks, but BTW, does anyone have a good general-purpose character sheet? The official SR4 ones online are pitifully superficial and a couple I found are about 10 pages long. I'd like something in the middle and customizable.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2010 02:53
|
|
|
I've got a solid excel one, but I can't remember where I got it. Want me to email it? Edit: Also have a really awesome, but huge and complex character generator. Does vehicles and poo poo too. Handy for my rigger.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2010 04:24
|
|
|
One of the best character generators is the excel one on the dumpshock forums. Which can be found HERE
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2010 08:35
|
|
|
YOTC posted:One of the best character generators is the excel one on the dumpshock forums. Which can be found HERE Good God, this is a find. I was just looking for character sheets, because I was using Deagann's SR4 character generator. This is even better. I may need to send this to the rigger player, because this will be helpful to generate characters without the books.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2010 08:53
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:Good God, this is a find. I was just looking for character sheets, because I was using Deagann's SR4 character generator. This is even better. I may need to send this to the rigger player, because this will be helpful to generate characters without the books. It's almost perfect, there are a few flaws and some small things missing but they update it all the time. Best advice is watch the Nuyen count when you add things. That's where most of the errors are and its easy to tell when you add an item and it doesn't lower your total $.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2010 08:58
|
|
|
YOTC posted:One of the best character generators is the excel one on the dumpshock forums. Which can be found HERE This is the uber sheet I was talking about.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2010 19:30
|
|
|
FASA/WizKids/Catalyst have no loving concept of scale. I decided to try and make some quickie models in SketchUp of Renraku Arcology and the Aztechnology Pyramid, and maybe those giant tent greenhouses of the Plastic Jungle in Redmond, to make visualizing Seattle better (and make it somewhat compatible with Google Earth). I'm going to preemptively  myself, because this gets crunchy and grognardy, and I'm sorry.First off, the Plastic Jungle would explode out of Redmond, because there's no way you could fit 20 7-kilometer diameter buildings in Seattle. Maybe they meant 7-km circumference, which brings down the diameter to something like 2.22km diameter, which is a bit more managable. I've been pouring through Renraku Arcology Shutdown and the only dimensional reference I could find is 920m. In the first edition corebook, the map they give of downtown Seattle makes 600m x 700m, but this is before it was fleshed out in Shutdown. I used the scale given in the Google Earth Shadowrun maps and kinda combined the original measurements with that, which also gave me something that fit the pictures of Renraku Arcology. However, the dimensions of the Google Renraku Arcology are loving huge. The final design came out to be 1.2km x 1.2km, with the 920m exposed height being preserved. Goodbye Qwest Field, guess the Seahawks will be needing to play somewhere else. I'm also pretty sure the Mariners had to play away games during the Shutdown as well. I've got a screen cap from Google Earth so everyone can see how huge 920m actually is.  Click here for the full 1668x1103 image. Young Freud fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Apr 7, 2010 |
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 05:55
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:FASA/WizKids/Catalyst have no loving concept of scale. Another example is that the various races had heights and weights seemingly randomly assigned before SR4. This led to trolls actually having body mass indexes comparable to terminal anorexics. That's why they gained a shitload of weight from sr3 to sr4. Anyway, the Renraku arcology probably really is that large, but maybe in a slightly different location. After all, it's supposed to house 100k people in style.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 17:26
|
|
|
Gobbeldygook posted:Anyway, the Renraku arcology probably really is that large, but maybe in a slightly different location. After all, it's supposed to house 100k people in style. yeah I looked at the horrifically massive structure superimposed onto that image and thought "okay what's the problem here that's shadowrun as gently caress"
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 17:47
|
|
|
Quick, someone get the measurements for the Pyramid and superimpose that. It's probalby bigger.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 17:52
|
|
|
Angry Diplomat posted:yeah I looked at the horrifically massive structure superimposed onto that image and thought "okay what's the problem here that's shadowrun as gently caress" My big problem with it is that it's size doesn't match the official pictures of the place. The official drawings make the place smaller than the listed dimensions actually say it is. For example, here's it on the Runner's Toolkit. It looks like about 60-70 stories tall, not 300 stories tall.  I have no problem with Renraku Arcology gobbling up Qwest Field or anything. I can see that Renraku probably has it incorporated into the giant shopping mall that makes up the bottom floors, as well as any important roadways (which probably filter into their underground parking lots). Given the size, I'm starting to think about running a campaign entirely in the ACHE, the giant project that the UCAS government turned into after Renraku failed to pony up the cash for cleaning up Deus. It would be like a giant-sized version of the projects from New Jack City. YOTC posted:Quick, someone get the measurements for the Pyramid and superimpose that. It's probalby bigger. Aztechnology Pyramid? Everything I've seen of it is much smaller than the Renraku Arcology. From what I can tell (from the first edition maps), it's probably about 300m x 300m, although that could just be the upper floor section. Edit: Aztechnology is my next Google Earth project.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 19:04
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:Aztechnology Pyramid? Everything I've seen of it is much smaller than the Renraku Arcology. From what I can tell (from the first edition maps), it's probably about 300m x 300m, although that could just be the upper floor section. There's also the fact that Aztechnology, controlling the government, doesn't exactly have to disclose how far down it goes below ground level. For all we know there's another 100 levels of sub-basements.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2010 22:11
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:My big problem with it is that it's size doesn't match the official pictures of the place. The official drawings make the place smaller than the listed dimensions actually say it is. For example, here's it on the Runner's Toolkit. It looks like about 60-70 stories tall, not 300 stories tall. Are there any natural features to compare size except the night sky? If that's a corporate enclave (I don't know anything about the ecology, if that's a SR geek fail I'm sorry ), the other buildings could conceivably be just as big - if we wrangle the sky a bit and say that GRITTYCYBERPUNK skies are quite a bit higher up nowadays :p
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2010 08:46
|
|
|
Tias posted:Are there any natural features to compare size except the night sky? If that's a corporate enclave (I don't know anything about the ecology, if that's a SR geek fail I'm sorry
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2010 11:57
|
|
|
If you look at the bottom left of that cover, there's one of those assembly cranes, if it is supposed to be about on par with the ones we have now, it adds a certain amount of scale to the whole picture.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2010 17:47
|
|
|
For those not keeping up at home, here's what's going on at Catalyst: As was mentioned earlier, the owner of the company, Loren L. Coleman, was accused of stealing from the company to the tune of 650k. The former book keeper and freelancer, Jennifer Harding, says: quote:To be even more blunt, I quit when, after being informed of the request by Loren to falsify royalty reports, Randall Bills stated that Loren was the best person to carry on all negotiations with Topps, the SR/BT license holder. I found this decision even more upsetting to my personal ethics than the original request, since I had been assured by Randall that certain behaviors were going to be halted, and they were (blatantly) not. The company had just not been paying royalties to other companies at all and they were lying to Topps about it. A 'repayment plan' was being implemented by Loren, his wife Heather, the operations manager, and the book keeper. The operations manager and the bookkeeper both resigned, meaning the Coleman's are currently in charge of their own plan to pay back the 650k they stole and used to build a mansion in Snohomish, Washington. I'm sure they are doing an excellent job. Tthey now have 5 lawyers on retainer for when someone finally sues them. One of the other freelancers, Bobby Derie aka Ancient History, decided he was no longer going to deal with them and terminated his contract because they had owed him several thousand dollars. Loren hired writers from Battletech to rewrite the portions of the books Bobby wrote (Sixth World Almanac, Corporate Something (the book about the status of every corporation), and Runners Toolkit). Several others are also supposedly playing hardball with catalyst to a quieter degree, notably the book keeper who never signed an NDA because Catalyst is run by monkeys. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. In 1.5 months, they need to find the money to renew the Shadowrun license with Topps. If they don't, the company loses its license to print SR material, declares bankruptcy, and someone else snaps up the license. This exact same set of circumstances is how Fanpro died and Catalyst came to be. The new company will probably do its best to pay freelancers for the material they have already written but not published, publish that, then it'll start work on 5th edition.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2010 08:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 18:20 |
|
|
Gobbeldygook posted:The new company will probably do its best to pay freelancers for the material they have already written but not published, publish that, then it'll start work on 5th edition. I so hope whoever picks up the license doesn't release a 5th edition book. CGL simply put their name on the FanPro books, so I would like that situation. However, if it's the 20th Anniversary edition rebranded as 5th edition, I wouldn't mind that. I really don't want to rebuy the core and the Cyber, Magic, Rigger, and Weapons books again. In other SR news, I finally got to run my game. It went okay, due to the Street Sam player having to leave in the middle of the game. I do need to think about forming the mission around the players. Currently, I have a Gunslinger Adept, a Street Sam, and two Riggers, one a more front-line character with an trio of armed Renraku Manservant-3 robots (he didn't go for the suicide bomber robot, much to my relief and chagrin) and another who uses primarily rotor-drones. This is quite a bit of firepower, so what should I do to balance this all out to keep it fun for everyone?
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2010 05:58
|
|