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Shadowland/Jackpoint Members List (Updated 4/23/23)

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SnackerBob

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« Reply #240 on: <11-10-13/2057:13> »
I always thought that Hecate was obviously Alachia, but Alachia might not be Blavatska.

I guess Lou Prosperi one time said that they were all supposed to be the same person (Hecate, Alachia, and Blavatska) on Dumpshock, but Alachia choosing to run the AF instead of heading an Elf country seems out of place tome.

Bull

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« Reply #241 on: <11-11-13/0030:09> »
And at one time, the plan for "Lore master" back in the pre-YotC days was that Loremaster was going to turn out to be Harlequin's father who had gone Walkabout to the Astral Plane near the end of Earthdawn, and came back to fight the Horrors or some such.

Until it's in a book, it's not canon.  The writers and even developers might have very firm ideas of where things are going, but those ideas and plans can and do change, sometimes VERY radically, as storylines progress. 

Mirikon

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« Reply #242 on: <11-11-13/0122:24> »
I always thought that Hecate was obviously Alachia, but Alachia might not be Blavatska.

I guess Lou Prosperi one time said that they were all supposed to be the same person (Hecate, Alachia, and Blavatska) on Dumpshock, but Alachia choosing to run the AF instead of heading an Elf country seems out of place tome.
Actually, I can definitely see Alachia doing somethingn like that, Bob. Remember that in the Sixth World it is corporations, not nations, which hold the major power. Why settle for just an elven land (especially when some of your rivals are setting up camp in a couple of them) when you you can be the head of a multinational nonprofit foundation, able to wield massive money and influence without the headaches of actual rulership? The heads of megacorps (and make no mistake, the Atlantean Foundation is at least a AA in all but name) can wield significantly more power than even the leader of major countries like the UCAS. She might not be Lofwyr with SK, but the Atlantean Foundation presents much less of a target to others than the number one AAA does. As long as people think it is 'just' a glorified new-age science project, then they won't look at it as being a major threat. Which is why the AF's main source of trouble comes from the Draco Foundation, the Black Lodge, the IOND, some dragons, and other awakened interests, compared to all the same people who like to take pot shots at Lofwyr, who also has to deal with the other nine AAAs, all the other corps, terrorists, and more. If, as I believe, Hecate is Alachia, she pulled a slick move by starting the AF. Especially since she still has her power, while Lofwyr's given up the title of Loremaster, the Elders in Tir Tairngir got kicked out, and Tir Nan Og is experiencing all kinds of problems.
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SnackerBob

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« Reply #243 on: <11-11-13/0151:40> »
And at one time, the plan for "Lore master" back in the pre-YotC days was that Loremaster was going to turn out to be Harlequin's father who had gone Walkabout to the Astral Plane near the end of Earthdawn, and came back to fight the Horrors or some such.

Until it's in a book, it's not canon.  The writers and even developers might have very firm ideas of where things are going, but those ideas and plans can and do change, sometimes VERY radically, as storylines progress.
That ruins my pet theory that YotC was the start of bad Shadowrun metaplot ideas.

Actually, I can definitely see Alachia doing somethingn like that, Bob. Remember that in the Sixth World it is corporations, not nations, which hold the major power. Why settle for just an elven land (especially when some of your rivals are setting up camp in a couple of them) when you you can be the head of a multinational nonprofit foundation, able to wield massive money and influence without the headaches of actual rulership? The heads of megacorps (and make no mistake, the Atlantean Foundation is at least a AA in all but name) can wield significantly more power than even the leader of major countries like the UCAS. She might not be Lofwyr with SK, but the Atlantean Foundation presents much less of a target to others than the number one AAA does. As long as people think it is 'just' a glorified new-age science project, then they won't look at it as being a major threat. Which is why the AF's main source of trouble comes from the Draco Foundation, the Black Lodge, the IOND, some dragons, and other awakened interests, compared to all the same people who like to take pot shots at Lofwyr, who also has to deal with the other nine AAAs, all the other corps, terrorists, and more. If, as I believe, Hecate is Alachia, she pulled a slick move by starting the AF. Especially since she still has her power, while Lofwyr's given up the title of Loremaster, the Elders in Tir Tairngir got kicked out, and Tir Nan Og is experiencing all kinds of problems.
That would make Alachia far smarter than her fellow IEs. Good on her for being smarter than just about anyone else! Just in case that came across as sarcastic, it isn't. I totally get it, and appreciate that she's probably the best IE for adaptability, assuming it's true.

Bull

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« Reply #244 on: <11-11-13/0340:57> »
Year of the Comet was actually a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, FASA closing kinda derailed it completely.  Since it and Wake of teh Comet were largely done, they were the first things FanPro put out when they picked up the license, since it was quick and easy.  unfortunately, some of the key people weren't really around anymore and some of the FanPro guys weren't really interested in it.  So it sorta got dumped, the plots got run in wierd directions (When they were used at all), and it ended up being something of a poorly implemented mess. :(

And trust me,. there is a LOT of bad behind the scenes from 1st ed on. :)  Often it's just crazy spitballing concepts that never stick, but sometimes writers really latch onto an idea that they love, but everyone else thinks is a stinker, and, well...  Usually tehy get swept under the rug.  usually.

SnackerBob

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« Reply #245 on: <11-11-13/0359:17> »
Okay, I'll be fair. MOST of YotC was pretty OK. I just hate SURGE. And drakes are a bit.. Meh..

I would love to know a lot of the behind-the-scenes of yesteryears Shadowrun, since I had no idea about the ShadowRN list back in the day.

Bull

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« Reply #246 on: <11-11-13/0449:04> »
Most of it wasn't even on the RN list.  There's a bunch of stuff I picked up from talking with other freelancers and Mike Mulvihill back in the FASA days.  Much of it I either don't remember or shouldn't really repeat.

And yeah, SURGE got...  out of hand, and unfortunately quickly became the domain of furries and min-maxers.  the original concept was that "partial metahuman DNA" awakened, leading to effectively half-breeds.  Unfortunately that was deemed a little too limiting and not really taht cool, so more stuff got added.  I actually don't mind them when done right (I tend to run them like Jokers from the Wild Cards series), and a number of cyberpunk stroies have done variations of gangs with implants to give them animal traits as a theme (the dog-gang from Johnny Mnemonic, for example), or even gene-splicing gone awry type stuff.  this just did it via magic.  But it needs to be kept rare and mostly in the background (And you'll note how little SURGE has gotten used over the years.)

Drakes aren't a terrible concept, I just don't know that they should have ever been Player Characters (much like AI's, Free Spirits, Vampires, etc).  And they're something of an ED port anyways.

Marzhin

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« Reply #247 on: <11-11-13/0710:04> »
I was recently reading an old Shadowrun book, Shadowtech (1st edition I believe) and I was pleasantly surprised to see some shadowtalk by Bull in it (the runner, not the writer).
What's even funnier is that other posters are basically considering him an annoyance, kinda hoping he'll kill himself at some point. And now he's like one of the wise old men of Jackpoint.  ;D
It's also funny to read FastJack's old comments. He was pretty cocky and arrogant at the time.
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FastJack

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« Reply #248 on: <11-11-13/0743:09> »
It's also funny to read FastJack's old comments. He was pretty cocky and arrogant at the time.
At the time?? I'll have you know... Oh, the other one... ;)

FastJack

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« Reply #249 on: <11-11-13/1700:30> »
By the way, thanks for playing around in this thread, you reminded me that I had a couple updates to the files. ;)

Oh, and there was no "in-universe" date attached to Assassin's Primer, so I'm basing it off a published date 62 years after the actual publish date.

Bull

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« Reply #250 on: <11-11-13/2030:01> »
I was recently reading an old Shadowrun book, Shadowtech (1st edition I believe) and I was pleasantly surprised to see some shadowtalk by Bull in it (the runner, not the writer).
What's even funnier is that other posters are basically considering him an annoyance, kinda hoping he'll kill himself at some point. And now he's like one of the wise old men of Jackpoint.  ;D
It's also funny to read FastJack's old comments. He was pretty cocky and arrogant at the time.

That actually predates my involvement in Shadowrun (And actually slightly predates the character, since I made Bull under 2nd ed). But since we started our game in 2050, we assume that is actually Bull. ;)

CanRay

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« Reply #251 on: <11-12-13/0319:04> »
Bull is likely a pretty common username.  Far more common than, say, "Cow".

But, yeah, let's go with that being a young Bull.  ;D  Even he had to start out at the /dev/grrl level at one time.
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Sendaz

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« Reply #252 on: <11-12-13/0656:15> »
Bull is likely a pretty common username.  Far more common than, say, "Cow".
Though to be fair I did once see a Minotaur Street Sammie with the handle of CyberPsyCowtic. :P
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Mara

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« Reply #253 on: <11-13-13/0505:31> »
Most of it wasn't even on the RN list.  There's a bunch of stuff I picked up from talking with other freelancers and Mike Mulvihill back in the FASA days.  Much of it I either don't remember or shouldn't really repeat.

And yeah, SURGE got...  out of hand, and unfortunately quickly became the domain of furries and min-maxers.  the original concept was that "partial metahuman DNA" awakened, leading to effectively half-breeds.  Unfortunately that was deemed a little too limiting and not really taht cool, so more stuff got added.  I actually don't mind them when done right (I tend to run them like Jokers from the Wild Cards series), and a number of cyberpunk stroies have done variations of gangs with implants to give them animal traits as a theme (the dog-gang from Johnny Mnemonic, for example), or even gene-splicing gone awry type stuff.  this just did it via magic.  But it needs to be kept rare and mostly in the background (And you'll note how little SURGE has gotten used over the years.)

Drakes aren't a terrible concept, I just don't know that they should have ever been Player Characters (much like AI's, Free Spirits, Vampires, etc).  And they're something of an ED port anyways.

I have used SURGE to do some interesting things with characters. What I really feel is the bad thing about Surge is, sometimes, you
only want some disadvantages from it, none of the advantages. The other problem is that some of the disadvantages are purely
cosmetic.  A character I threw together with SURGE that I never got to play had a very tight theme on the effects: Underwater vision,
gills, webbed hands and feet, unusual eye colour(Solid black), can't remember what the other disadvantage was, though. Gave the
character a level 3 Dermal Sheath with colour modifications to it to be dark grey over back and sides, white over the stomach..Character
became an under-water operatiosn specialist(complete with gyrojet). Another, I went with Third Eye, and a few other minor things, and
built the character as a really high powered Conjurer. Then, there is the Thorns, Metagenetic Enhancement:Willpower, and a few others
that we have used to give something similar to the effects of the Ritual of Thorns...which is darned fun to have as a Surge package when
going into, say, Tir na nOg, especially when the GM knows about the double histories.

I don't think SURGE is just the realm of Furries and Powergamers. I think, however, a GM needs to be paying attention to what the player
is trying to do with the SURGE.

Mirikon

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« Reply #254 on: <11-13-13/1046:54> »
Indeed. To pull a parallel with Hero System, SURGE would be like the powers marked with little Caution signs, warning the GM to take extra care when examining the character before play starts.
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