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moths posted:He's basically schmoozing his way into the production side of the industry, which is annoying because his involvement is one of like three things that would stop me from caring about a Kenneth Hite Vamipre the Masquerade. I have no interest in White Wolf products. Never have. But hearing Ken Hite talk about it on KaRTAS made me cautiously interested for sure. I'd summarize the interview like this: Robin: "What should we expect from your work on this game?" Ken: "I want to cut all the metaplot bullshit, cut out racially insensitive poo poo, and modernize Vampire. gently caress the grognards." Robin: "Nice. Is there anything standing in your way?" Ken: "Yeah, the IP owners are huge grognards. But I'll do my best despite them." Do we know Ken's opinion of Zak? I sure hope Zak doesn't work on it - that'd put me in a hard spot between supporting designers I like and not supporting self-googling sock-puppeteering serial harassers.
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Jun 3, 2017 22:15
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Ken's been cordial with him, but he's also very diplomatic and fence-sitting in general. My understanding is that he gets that it's a tiny industry and you don't want to burn bridges - but he's generally been a stand-up human. With Z writing that lovely app and twittering all over Ken's announcement, my fear is that OPP management (being rear end in a top hat grogs) will just make it happen.
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Jun 3, 2017 23:17
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moths posted:With Z writing that lovely app and twittering all over Ken's announcement, my fear is that OPP management (being rear end in a top hat grogs) will just make it happen. You mean "WW", not "OPP."
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Jun 4, 2017 01:16
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moths posted:Ken's been cordial with him, but he's also very diplomatic and fence-sitting in general. My understanding is that he gets that it's a tiny industry and you don't want to burn bridges - but he's generally been a stand-up human. Has this been a more recent opinion? Because I remember him gushing over Zac when Red & Pleasant Land won an Ennie two (?) gencon ago. He only talked about him from a designer perspective, but Zac's horrible behavior was well known at that point (This was this the same Ennie where a bunch of people walked out when Zac won).
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Jun 4, 2017 04:27
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That Old Tree posted:You mean "WW", not "OPP." gently caress, yeah I do. I even thought to myself that it's important not to mix them up just before I mixed them up. E: I'm not sure what the timeline is. My take is that Ken is the proverbial "good man who does nothing." moths fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jun 4, 2017 |
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Jun 4, 2017 05:06
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PJOmega posted:Didn't the first Codex Alara predate Exalted? I'm guessing the series was written around the time StarCraft: Brood War came around because it becomes straight up Zerg down the line. Nah, Exalted 1e was 2001, Alera didn't start until 2004.
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Jun 4, 2017 07:39
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I'm not sure where to post this really... https://reason.com/blog/2017/06/15/dd-creator-gary-gygaxs-fbi-records-make
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Jun 16, 2017 20:05
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I'm not sure where to post this really... The follow up article includes a link to this, which I found even more hilarious somehow: https://cdn.muckrock.com/foia_files/2017/06/14/1347138-000_Part_3.PDF
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Jun 17, 2017 00:07
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I'm reminded of being told that the FBI considered the SCA to be the largest and best-trained militia in the States. For years I thought it was one of those self-congratulatory myths, but I'm not so sure now.
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Jun 17, 2017 02:08
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The FBI's reaction to 'Dungeons and Dragons' reminds me of the disconnect when Hoover was trying to figure out what was going on with the Beat Poets.
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Jun 17, 2017 03:32
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I've heard that about the SCA as well, also that they used to put member names on a watchlist or something. I mean they do teach and practice fighting and survival techniques, it's just that it's carefully curated swordfighting rather than guns and the only governments they want to overthrow are rival cliques fighting each other for the budget.
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Jun 17, 2017 04:24
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It's more that the SCA is actually organized. There's a clear chain of command and they work on small unit tactics. Most of the gun nut militias in the US practice shooting a lot but couldn't organize themselves well enough to build an IKEA end table and spend most of their time arguing about who's in charge. Militaries learned long ago that teaching people to shoot is the easy part, and you're a lot better off with a bunch of people who are good at small unit tactics but are mediocre shots than the other way around. The modern day version is that an air soft team that had never touched a real firearm before would almost certainly win a battle against a bunch of gun nuts who spent all their time at the range.
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Jun 17, 2017 05:17
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Bieeardo posted:I'm reminded of being told that the FBI considered the SCA to be the largest and best-trained militia in the States. For years I thought it was one of those self-congratulatory myths, but I'm not so sure now. Kai Tave posted:My favorites are the real early superhero RPGs where you'd randomly roll to determine your powers and so you could wind up with nigh-literal Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit situations. I remember one story about a guy whose only power was Radio Hearing (Technology)...aka he owned a radio. I played in a Villains & Vigilantes campaign for precisely one hour once. I rolled a character with super strength and accelerated healing; cool! I rolled the subsequent numbers, it was something like +3d6 extra strength and +5 regeneration (I see the actual tables were posted on the next page but I cannot stand to read all of them to figure the numbers out exactly). The next guy rolled up his character, and got something like +6d6 extra strength, +10 regeneration, flight, and heat vision. I laughed and said "I assume I can reroll?" and the GM got kind of indignant like "hahaha, what, you think you're better than the rules?" Despite the fact that these were people I had been gaming with for years, and continued gaming with for years after that, I was like "hmm, O.K." and got up and left a few minutes later and never came back until they started a campaign in a different system the next year. I still feel that was the right decision. Even though in hindsight naming myself "[That Guy's Character Name] Jr." and playing an obsequious dork who would never actually amount to anything might have been pretty entertaining. Screw you, Villains & Vigilantes
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Jun 19, 2017 20:19
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Once the solar flare hits and all technology gets wrecked the army of epic fat LARPer sirs will establish New Camelot on the entire Midwest
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Jun 19, 2017 20:56
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It's an honor to meet you Mr. Stirling.
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Jun 19, 2017 21:22
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All my experience with the SCA was desert camping, college level hookup culture, and archery. Is it really insane in the Midwest or something as compared to the coasts? Hell, our tagline was "gently caress authenticity."
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Jun 19, 2017 21:30
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PJOmega posted:All my experience with the SCA was desert camping, college level hookup culture, and archery. Is it really insane in the Midwest or something as compared to the coasts? That last one shows up a lot. There's more than a few SCA groups which are basically swinger club with a medieval veneer.
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Jun 19, 2017 21:50
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Comrade Gorbash posted:It's more that the SCA is actually organized. There's a clear chain of command and they work on small unit tactics. Most of the gun nut militias in the US practice shooting a lot but couldn't organize themselves well enough to build an IKEA end table and spend most of their time arguing about who's in charge. Militaries learned long ago that teaching people to shoot is the easy part, and you're a lot better off with a bunch of people who are good at small unit tactics but are mediocre shots than the other way around. That was one of the founding ideas of the Boy Scouts way back in the day, that teaching boys leadership, outdoor skills and how to be comfortable with hard living would prepare them to be tip-top soldiers for the Empire  .Then WWI happened and the founder who was brought up in late 19th century warfare decided that wars nowadays kinda suck so let's dial back the military aspects of it I don't disagree with your assessment that airsoft dorks would be more effective in an engagement than one would expect, but I don't know how well the SCA stuff would translate into effective post-apocalyptic militias because FMguru posted:SCA varies greatly by group and by region. Some places are all about the costumes, some are about the fighting, some are keen on the material reenactment (brewing mead and assembling chainmail and pressing their own parchment and hand-binding it), some are about the heraldry and courtly poo poo, and some are really into the feasting and mead and wenching. the variance. Also, this airsofter is part of Meal Team 6 
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Jun 19, 2017 22:20
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I was in the Kingdom (then late Principality) of Ealdormere, and we had all kinds. Our little canton had some crafters, some fighters, and a pretty good sense of humour. We toted someone's enormous A-frame tent to Court at Murder Melee one year (the Baron good-naturedly declared us trailer trash), and as things dragged on we'd pick the tent up, shuffle it a few feet further away, and repeat until we were far away to make a run for it. I think it was that year that I woke up in the middle of a meadow at two in the morning, clutching an empty flagon and a cigar. Bryniau Tywynnog (which we called Burning Twinkie) had a reputation for being much stricter about keeping things in period, but I don't think I ever ran into anyone from there. Well, except Myfanwy, but she was a professional costumer. The drinking and sex? Totally college shenanigans. As soon as dark-thirty hit, pretty much every event I attended turned into bonfires and booze. The sex happened to other people, but waking up with a cigar and someone's mug was its own kind of fun.
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Jun 19, 2017 23:36
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My only experience with the SCA was a gaming buddy who explained that if any dudes decided to join, they should ignore all the sword fighting bullshit and spend their time learning courtly dance because doing so was basically a guaranteed way to get laid; since the vast majority of the men were off doing practice military poo poo and all the women were on the other side of the site being courtly ladies, the dudes who said 'screw the swordfighting, I'm gonna go over here where the gender ratio is very much more in my favor' were reportedly in high demand. So that was a thing.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:10
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FMguru posted:That last one shows up a lot. There's more than a few SCA groups which are basically swinger club with a medieval veneer. After all of my experience with LARPs - well, you can't see how flat and unsurprised my expression is right now, but I assure you, it is exceedingly flat and unsurprised.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:17
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:My only experience with the SCA was a gaming buddy who explained that if any dudes decided to join, they should ignore all the sword fighting bullshit and spend their time learning courtly dance because doing so was basically a guaranteed way to get laid; since the vast majority of the men were off doing practice military poo poo and all the women were on the other side of the site being courtly ladies, the dudes who said 'screw the swordfighting, I'm gonna go over here where the gender ratio is very much more in my favor' were reportedly in high demand. Even if the odds were good, I expect the goods were odd. My wife's sister and her husband were involved in it for a while. She's the spergiest of costume nerds, and is incredibly talented (as in, makes period replica clothing in museums talented). The better she got at it, the less she wanted to be involved with all the brokebrains SCA people. She told us about this one chick who was super promiscuous and sexually flirty ~*~*in character~**~, and she had to repeatedly tell her that she's behaving incredibly inappropriately. They moved away a year or two later, and never had to see her again. Her name was Gypsy Willis, which you might recognize from this incredibly bizarre murder tale! http://people.com/crime/utah-doctor-trial-mistress-shares-marriage-shocker-in-testimony/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Michele_MacNeill So, yeah, for all the cool and interesting people involved you get a handful of total creeps along for the ride too, and the cool and interesting people eventually get sick of the weirdos and move on to other hobbies. All their friends from that scene have moved on to other things in the last 15 years
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Jun 20, 2017 00:24
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:My only experience with the SCA was a gaming buddy who explained that if any dudes decided to join, they should ignore all the sword fighting bullshit and spend their time learning courtly dance because doing so was basically a guaranteed way to get laid; since the vast majority of the men were off doing practice military poo poo and all the women were on the other side of the site being courtly ladies, the dudes who said 'screw the swordfighting, I'm gonna go over here where the gender ratio is very much more in my favor' were reportedly in high demand. This also works in real life, where training the skill Dance:Sensual is never wasted.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:28
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I went to a small SCA event in high school and it was fun and chill, though not so much that I really wanted to get into it. Then I went to another one in my 20s, where an unpleasant woman who was also into Gor kept trying to corner me. It was funny afterwards, because I thought she was talking about "gwar" (I had no idea what Gor was at the time), and was horribly confused. So yeah, different groups and all that.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:39
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Jimbozig posted:Do we know Ken's opinion of Zak? I sure hope Zak doesn't work on it - that'd put me in a hard spot between supporting designers I like and not supporting self-googling sock-puppeteering serial harassers. Belatedly, Ken will always have work coming out that has nothing to do with Zak, you can always just pick and choose which parts of his output deserve your money.
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Jun 20, 2017 01:17
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Desiden posted:I went to a small SCA event in high school and it was fun and chill, though not so much that I really wanted to get into it. Then I went to another one in my 20s, where an unpleasant woman who was also into Gor kept trying to corner me. It was funny afterwards, because I thought she was talking about "gwar" (I had no idea what Gor was at the time), and was horribly confused. I feel like it might almost be worse to be cornered by a GWAR fetishist, depending on how much you care about surviving the experience. Anyway, to throw another anecdote on the pile: I had a friend in college who was a Pennsic regular, and while she was broadly interested in SCA stuff, she was pretty open about going to Pennsic for the booze/drugs/sex in the woods. Whatever works for folks, I guess?
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Jun 20, 2017 02:49
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"It was weird, she had this squirt bottle full of fake blood and kept calling my dick the World Maggot." If you're poor and don't mind a a week of communal camping with ten thousand of your closest friends, Pennsic can be a really cost-effective way to keep yourself 'occupied' for a week. The party camps tend (or tended, but I imagine little's changed) to be very generous with their booze, and weed wasn't exactly hard to find even back in the Nineties.
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Jun 20, 2017 04:13
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:My only experience with the SCA was a gaming buddy who explained that if any dudes decided to join, they should ignore all the sword fighting bullshit and spend their time learning courtly dance because doing so was basically a guaranteed way to get laid; since the vast majority of the men were off doing practice military poo poo and all the women were on the other side of the site being courtly ladies, the dudes who said 'screw the swordfighting, I'm gonna go over here where the gender ratio is very much more in my favor' were reportedly in high demand. I never did courtly dance, but I did contra and square dancing in college. The look on a woman's face when she realizes you actually know how to spin her so she can have fun without worrying about being dropped...
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Jun 20, 2017 06:59
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Dr. Quarex posted:I did not expect that Gary Gygax FBI thing to bring the SCA/FBI thing up. I think they told me the "SCA is scariest organization to FBI!!!" as a recruiting tactic back when I briefly considered joining up as a teenager; fortunately, one of the middle-aged ex-marines who taught combat telling me he looked forward to "beating me to a pulp on the field" made me think "you know what, I am not interested in joining a group of sadistic medieval hillbillies" and I made my pre-escape. As the writer of the FATAL & Friends, review, I can honestly say that the only fondness, I have for V&V is nostalgia now. It was either that or Superhero:2044 for superguy games at the time and that was it, and even I'm not insane or grog enough to claim 2044 was a good or even playable game.
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Jun 20, 2017 16:31
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Not to dig on SCA people - they seem nice - but my friend's mom was a rather earthy former hippy type who used to be in the SCA and she described it as extremely hornt out at all times. Or, as she put it "those SCA guys would gently caress mud."
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Jun 20, 2017 18:46
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Desiden posted:I went to a small SCA event in high school and it was fun and chill, though not so much that I really wanted to get into it. Then I went to another one in my 20s, where an unpleasant woman who was also into Gor kept trying to corner me. It was funny afterwards, because I thought she was talking about "gwar" (I had no idea what Gor was at the time), and was horribly confused. You missed out on getting your own freaky sex slave, you god drat dummy.
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Jun 20, 2017 20:33
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It's all over the industry pages, but in case anyone hasn't heard, Stewart Wieck passed away yesterday. He was 49, in good health, and apparently just collapsed after a fencing session. He was always incredibly nice to me the handful of times I met him.
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Jun 24, 2017 13:56
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Peas and Rice posted:It's all over the industry pages, but in case anyone hasn't heard, Stewart Wieck passed away yesterday. He was 49, in good health, and apparently just collapsed after a fencing session. He was always incredibly nice to me the handful of times I met him. I was just about to post that. I met him at a couple of the Grand Masquerades. A really great guy.
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Jun 24, 2017 14:50
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In regards to Gygax's FBI file, a police confidential informant is the modern equivalent of a gullible teenage girl at a witch trial. To me, it basically reads like someone with a grudge got contacted by the FBI and took the opportunity to sling some mud around. The whole "personally answers every letter from prisoners" thing has a much nicer explanation than "he's a drug-addicted, armed profligate,": Gygax was a devout Christian (specifically a methodist, I think) and works of mercy like corresponding with prisoners are things Christians are especially supposed to do.
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Jun 26, 2017 05:54
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I used to get a letter from prison about every other month at a previous job, and I always wrote back. I didn't know that was subversive!
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Jun 26, 2017 22:14
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CHIMlord posted:In regards to Gygax's FBI file, a police confidential informant is the modern equivalent of a gullible teenage girl at a witch trial. To me, it basically reads like someone with a grudge got contacted by the FBI and took the opportunity to sling some mud around. The whole "personally answers every letter from prisoners" thing has a much nicer explanation than "he's a drug-addicted, armed profligate,": Gygax was a devout Christian (specifically a methodist, I think) and works of mercy like corresponding with prisoners are things Christians are especially supposed to do. He was a Jehovah's Witness if memory serves, although not a terribly devout one. They talked a little about it in Playing at the World.
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Jun 26, 2017 22:47
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So FFG is finally going to unshackle the narrative dice system Jay Little made for WFRP3e from other people's IPs. I have never played a Android/Netrunner game, but with all the art they have built up, I think that art and this system could be a good match. They certainly imply so in the release.
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Jun 27, 2017 19:22
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I wonder if they'll do an actual Android supplement or just do what WotC did with Magic and put out a small online thingy to go with the existing art book/setting guide.
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Jun 27, 2017 19:33
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I just came here to post that Stewart Wieck was extremely important to White Wolf, and without him there wouldn't have been a White Wolf as we knew it.
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Jun 27, 2017 19:48
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Siivola posted:I wonder if they'll do an actual Android supplement or just do what WotC did with Magic and put out a small online thingy to go with the existing art book/setting guide. Just guessing, but I doubt their contract for Netrunner IP includes making an RPG.
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