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'Red's Return' or a A Bloody Thanksgiving in 2015

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AJCarrington

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« Reply #60 on: <04-14-15/1053:20> »
Yeah...appreciate the challenge ;) Good luck!! ;D

Not of This World

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« Reply #61 on: <04-16-15/0033:30> »
My FLGS had it on the shelf tonight, so its out there.

Patrick Goodman

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« Reply #62 on: <04-21-15/0919:07> »
Well, my local B&N finally got it, so I got mine....
Former Shadowrun Errata Coordinator

Sendaz

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« Reply #63 on: <04-23-15/1553:53> »
couldn't find a FLGS or B&N that had it in before I had to pop back to the UK, but it's on order with Amazon so just have to be a bit more patient until it gets here. :P
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AJCarrington

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« Reply #64 on: <04-23-15/1621:15> »
Got my copy online late last week...just in time for the movers to show up and pack it up... :-\

Now we just need those digital editions... ;)

Sendaz

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« Reply #65 on: <04-23-15/1645:07> »
CAN you copy/digitize a vampire book?

I mean does it even cast a reflection for the scanner to read?  :P
Do you believe in a greater WIRELESS, an Invisible(WiFi) All Seeing(detecting those connected- at least if within 100'), All Knowing(all online data) Presence that we can draw upon for Wisdom(downloads & updates), Strength (wifi boni) and Comfort (porn) or do you turn your back on it  (Go Offline)?

Sterling

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« Reply #66 on: <04-24-15/1520:12> »
IT'S HERE!!!

DrivethruRPG has Shadowrun:Crimson available as an ebook download:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148228/Shadowrun-Crimson

I know what I'm reading tonight!
"His name is Sterling. He’s an ex-pat Brit making a living as a fixer and a hacker in Metropole. He’s a rare blend of upstanding and fun...(so) listen to his experience."
>>Data Trails, p.82

AJCarrington

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« Reply #67 on: <04-24-15/1601:29> »
Indeed! ;D

Also available from BattleCorp.

PiXeL01

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« Reply #68 on: <04-26-15/0117:05> »
Bought it yesterday and completed it this morning.

I would call it an interesting read, dealing with an unusual story. I like the vulnerability of the main character and how the current situation in Chicago was described. I found it to lack something. It felt it lacked direction in a sense.
Still I'd give 4 out of five.
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

AJCarrington

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« Reply #69 on: <05-09-15/1154:44> »
Was able to finish this while traveling last week and must say that I really enjoyed it. Hope we see more of Red in his new environs in the (near?) future.  ;D

Marzhin

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« Reply #70 on: <05-09-15/1330:05> »
I would call it an interesting read, dealing with an unusual story. I like the vulnerability of the main character and how the current situation in Chicago was described. I found it to lack something. It felt it lacked direction in a sense.

My thoughts exactly. It was a nice read, but it lacked direction. I actually found myself enjoying it more when I realized it was, in fact,

[spoiler]the story of the ghoul pack and not Red's story.[/spoiler]

Although to be honest, some character interactions felt rather cliché and Red was a bit too Mary Sue-ish for my taste. I mean

[spoiler]He was awakened before the Awakening, became both a Vampire and an Elf, he was in Bug City, met Tamir Grey, he was a hero of the Arcology... At this stage I almost expected him to have been a personal friend of Dunkelzahn and have Harlequin's phone number ^^
That resume screams "player character" (basically listing the campaigns the player/character took part in) but feels a bit too much for an actual in-universe character, you know?[/spoiler]

That said, I appreciated the fact he's not painted as a superpowered individual and is actually pretty vulnerable. And the main threat of the book was pretty cool, in a nightmare-inducing way :)
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Sendaz

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« Reply #71 on: <05-09-15/1537:57> »
SammyStan:   Oh my God, they killed Gypsi!!!

KabbalistKyleYOU BASTARDS!!!!


Heh. :)


Finally got my physical copy, yeah I am old timey sort who still prefers the feel of a solid book in my hands when possible, and practically devoured it. 

Definitely a fun read and struck a decent balance between telling the story and still fairly fitting in with the game mechanics of the universe he is in.

Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Stackpole's Wolf, but even the author admitted he wrote most of it without even know how much of how the game worked back then.
It still makes for a great read, but was hell when you were trying to replicate it for a campaign at the time and there have been novels since that sort of caused all sorts of canon confusion. ( We are looking at you Gascoigne & Sargent, great read but canon headaches galore)

Plus they have Metacooking, making use of what an awakened world has to offer for chow, an Art I thoroughly endorse.  ;D

Like Hell on Water it gives a pretty good feel for the areas they are located in, making this a nice addition to campaign/missions material for those wanting more.

Is it a little over the top at times?
Yes, but then it reads like a player's campaign put to ink so we can well understand how crazy can creep in and thus forgive this a bit.
Again it gives the feel of being written by players for players.

All in all, we enjoyed this and look forward to more,
[spoiler]Especially a prequel dealing more with Gypsi and the events leading up to her unfortunate end. [/spoiler]

We give this a 4.5 out of 5.

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Red

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« Reply #72 on: <05-12-15/2018:21> »
I really appreciate the reviews, everyone. I'm always game for constructive criticism. I'll try and address some of the things I've been seeing.

I'm glad folks saw that the real story is about the pack and Chicago. Red is just the medium.

That being said...

The original form of this story was just a piece of short fiction as background for a character I'd been running for a long time. Then Rob Boyle asked if I'd expand it. So I somehow turned it into a novel. I'd just recently been diagnosed with porphyria, and Shadowrun and Red were part of my coping mechanism. And then he dropped it, so it sat on a shelf. One of the original intents of the story was to help players get the transition into 4th ed, but by the time I was a freelancer, it was 5th, and I'd gone to college for writing. Going back and reading it now, I can feel the difference in the writing between how I write now and how I wrote back then, something like a decade ago.

One day on the boards, it came up in conversation that I had a novel sitting on my shelf. John took a look, said he wanted it, and we set about updating it.

I might have miscommunicated Red's origin, since a lot of people keep calling him a spike baby, which he is not. Part of the intent of the book is to talk about vampires that have been around since the 5th age, and how they might spread or survive in a low-mana environment. Red being an Elf or Awakened is the result of latent SURGE activated by Infection. Again, we wanted to show some of the other angles of Infected, much like Patrick's Dwarven vampire. The book, I hope, gave a glimpse into life as an Infected, the things they have to deal with, and Chicago in general. At least, before the corps get their hands on it. And we have things cooking for the Infected, for Chicago, and more things I can't even mention, all of which I tried to give a little advance notice of in this book.

A few folks mentioned that Red having done runs into the Arcology during it's shutdown, or tangling with bug spirits in the 50s, means he was there for all the big plot developments. Personally, I look at the number of runners who had done the same and just lump him in with them. And I was kinda surprised, considering how many major events he's missed on, given his age.

There's something my group reflected on after a three year campaign. They'd been through a lot, survived much, and not all of them had made it from the beginning. And as they accumulated successes and stories and strange encounters, even the least exotic of them became more and more exceptional. By the end, we shouted together, "It's snowing!" And we realized that any given runner is already a weirdo in the cosmopolitan Sixth World. If they keep surviving and evolving, they are just that stranger. If you've got ten years of running under your belt, you're either a cliche, or a snowflake. Either way, if it makes for a good story, I say embrace it. Because in the end, RPGs are getting together with your friends to tell stories. Different folks have different ideas about what makes Shadowrun and even stories in general great. For my money, I think the Sixth World is big enough for all kinds, and I like a novel about someone on the fringe. Hopefully for at least one idealistic, anachronistic vampire. ;)

I do hope everyone who picks it up enjoys reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. If not, it's cool. Even Shakespeare has his detractors, and I'm no bloody Shakespeare. ;) If so, I'm thrilled to have brought a smile and some escapism. Passing on that legacy from the likes of PN Elrod and Aaron Alston is all I could ask for.

This is becoming more sweeping than I intended.


tl;dr
So, yeah, there's some of me in Red. In that, he's definitely Mary Sue. I own that freely. :)
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