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Street Legends

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Bull

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« Reply #60 on: <07-15-11/2133:10> »
Hey, there are some great characters from the little WizKids experiment.  The game was crap, the action figures were often a bit light on the action part, and sure the novels were basically "young adult" Shadowrun Fiction because they were aimed at an audience that never materialized, the one WizKids hoped would be introduced to the world through the Clix game.  But some of the characters were really cool. 

Of course, having written G-Dogg and Silver Max for some fiction for the website, I'm biased.  But there was a cool backstory to Lothan, G-Dogg, and company.  And I plan for G-Dogg to make a reappearance at some point, maybe in Missions.  :)

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CanRay

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« Reply #61 on: <07-15-11/2148:57> »
All right, I'll be nice, sorry.  The rest of the characters are pure awesome!

Although, I do have to wonder about Bull being included.  Bugger's got a big enough head as is.  :P
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Bull

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« Reply #62 on: <07-15-11/2228:45> »
Trust me.  Th character of Bull?  Yeah, he never quite manages to become arrogant.  He's good, he knows he's good, but...  As FJ mentions in the preview, he's a constant hard-luck story.  Bad shit happens to him, constantly. 

Me, on the other hand...  Muhuhaha...  Oh, no, wait.  Bad shit happens to me constantly too. :)

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Crimsondude

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« Reply #63 on: <07-15-11/2357:19> »
That seems to be a constant among SR freelancers.

CanRay

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« Reply #64 on: <07-16-11/0002:31> »
What?  Bad shit hitting people?  I think it's gamers period.

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Mystic

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« Reply #65 on: <07-16-11/0101:08> »
The more often you stick your neck out, the greater the chances your head is gonna be cut off. But then, if you never stick your neck out, nothing seems to get done. Vicious catch-22, no?
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CanRay

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« Reply #66 on: <07-16-11/0140:43> »
Why do you think I have an entrenching tool?
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Mystic

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« Reply #67 on: <07-16-11/0323:15> »
Why do you think I have an entrenching tool?

Personally, I prefer a good old axe or machette, but that's just me.
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Irian

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« Reply #68 on: <07-16-11/0441:07> »
hey, a preview http://www.shadowrun4.com/2011/07/ennie-voters-earn-street-legends-preview/

Wow. It must be really hard work to produce something THAT boring. Half a page badly formatted equipment list for a character? Are you kidding me? And some of the characters are the ones I hoped never to hear from again. And of course, the "legendary" people are better why? Because they have different rules. Yes, of course. Makes total sense, breaking the system just because you can't build these characters otherwise.
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CanRay

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« Reply #69 on: <07-16-11/0443:56> »
Why do you think I have an entrenching tool?
Personally, I prefer a good old axe or machette, but that's just me.
I live in Canada, a shovel is easier to explain to the cops.
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Critias

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« Reply #70 on: <07-16-11/0511:26> »
Half a page badly formatted equipment list for a character?
You're looking at quite simply the most gear intensive page in the book, the equipment list for a high-end drone rigger, and a page so full of goodies that it got Jason to comment -- just about the amount of stuff in that one page -- about it over on the Shadowrun blog months ago.  I'm sorry if that part of the preview doesn't float your proverbial boat, but trust me when I say not every write-up is that gear intensive (if that's what's bothering you). 

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And some of the characters are the ones I hoped never to hear from again.
As has been said already, there's no pleasing everyone when it comes to trying to make a list of characters for something like Street Legends.  Some will complain that their favorite legend isn't there, some will complain that characters they don't like are there, some will complain that it's nothing but old characters who've already been around the block, some will complain about any new faces.  Plain fact:  someone will complain, no matter what. 

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And of course, the "legendary" people are better why? Because they have different rules. Yes, of course. Makes total sense, breaking the system just because you can't build these characters otherwise.
Not quite, no.  I'll tackle this one in part because I'm the only guy around at 4:00, but in part because this rule was largely my idea. 

They're better because they have an awful lot of dice to roll for most of the things they do.  In order to highlight that, we suggest an (existing!) optional rule gets used.  One that's designed for cinematic gameplay (as befitting the best of the best), and one that mathematically increases the effective difference between very large die pools (like these guys) and moderate to small die pools. 

Rather than "break the system" by only applying that rule to these top-tier characters, though, please note that we're suggesting it occur for everyone (PCs most certainly included, as the focal point of any campaign) when one of these legendary 'runners is around.  The inclusion of a street legend into a campaign should be a Big Deal (tm) and players should know that, and understand that things just got kicked up a notch or two -- so, with the pressure on and the stakes high, the laws of probability get tweaked on the nose, your campaign gets a hit of high-octane awesomefuel, and suddenly everyone starts pulling off more awesome shit, leaving grunts in the dust.

As a preemptive strike against the "ZOMG MARY SUUUUUUUE" complaints about an optional rule being suggested for/applied to these NPCs only, we included an end zone, a goal post, a clear line in the sand that offers player characters a way to earn legendary status themselves.  It's an optional rule (just like using the cinematic rules in the first place!), but a fun way for some players and GMs to have a clear end-of-campaign or retirement (or whatever else) goal.  Hitting level 20 in D&D used to be a big deal, right?  Now there's a similar sort of finish line available in Shadowrun, offering those who want it a clear delineation between being just plain old awesome, and being genuinely epic.  If someone's in such a long-standing, high-powered, campaign that they think the 100 karma is worth it, they can drop that chunk of change and start pulling off crazy James Bond shit.  If they don't, they don't have to. 

I'm sorry if you don't like that whole inset box, but do remember that "Running Legends" is optional.  You can feel free to just let the legends get hits on a 4+ but everyone else sticks with the normal 5+ (which was suggested), you can let legends always reroll a 6 instead of just when they spend Edge like everyone else (which was suggested), you can come up with some other special rule that legends get (Edge manipulation differences, for instance, which were suggested), you can of course run a whole campaign with the cinematic rules if you want, or you can just ignore that whole box and hope that the real-life probability curve lets their larger-than-normal die pools do the heavy lifting. 

It's a suggestion for a way to capture some of the over-the-top cinematic fun that some of these characters can muster up, it's not a rule carved in stone.

hobgoblin

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« Reply #71 on: <07-16-11/1016:17> »
Half a page badly formatted equipment list for a character?
You're looking at quite simply the most gear intensive page in the book, the equipment list for a high-end drone rigger, and a page so full of goodies that it got Jason to comment -- just about the amount of stuff in that one page -- about it over on the Shadowrun blog months ago.  I'm sorry if that part of the preview doesn't float your proverbial boat, but trust me when I say not every write-up is that gear intensive (if that's what's bothering you).
Heh, riggers basically come out as metahuman packrats.
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« Reply #72 on: <07-16-11/1047:34> »
Wow. It must be really hard work to produce something THAT boring. Half a page badly formatted equipment list for a character? Are you kidding me? And some of the characters are the ones I hoped never to hear from again. And of course, the "legendary" people are better why? Because they have different rules. Yes, of course. Makes total sense, breaking the system just because you can't build these characters otherwise.
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CanRay

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« Reply #73 on: <07-16-11/1201:11> »
Wow. It must be really hard work to produce something THAT boring.
You're welcome to try and make the list look much more interesting in the same space and show how it's done.  If there's no construction to it, it's just bitter criticism.

The only time I've seen equipment lists that looked interesting, it filled a binder.  For one character.  Not exactly conductive to put into a bound book intended for sale.

As well, the interesting and intriguing parts are going to be the fluff text that is the rest of the book which goes into character history, personality, concepts, and so on.  You know, life!
And some of the characters are the ones I hoped never to hear from again. And of course, the "legendary" people are better why? Because they have different rules. Yes, of course. Makes total sense, breaking the system just because you can't build these characters otherwise.
I've already put my two cents in about Kerran Colt so I don't need to again.  Choices had to be made, and in a book like this, yeah, no pleasing everyone with every choice.

As for breaking the system to make these characters, these are legendary, epic characters that the PCs want to be like when they grow up.  They have to eat all their vat-grown veggies to do it, too.  Some of these characters have been working the Shadows for over a decade.  Half of the 'Runners die in their first job, and 9-out-of-10 'Runners don't last a whole year.

Saying that it's "Broken" is like a 200 BP street bum character complaining about how the "Standard" 400 BP characters in Shadowrun are "Broken" because they're able to go out and do jobs that pay more than sitting on the sidewalk begging for spare cred.  Or complaining about how a beginner guitarist can't play as well as Randy Rhoads.
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Frankie the Fomori

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« Reply #74 on: <07-16-11/1219:53> »
I have to say I love the preview so far.

The rule adds exactly the tone to the game legendary PC should preform to!

I see street legends as a possible platform that we fans could use to get what we want. Offer support, appreciation along with professional criticism and SR may put out smaller supplements to include the more demanded prime runners.

Would I love to see Argent, wolf, Ryan mercury, dirk, wolfgang, doc raven, ghost, and sally sung among many others stated up? Hell yes, but I feel the tone of the book is focused on current runners. I also see it mainly steering clear of messing with writers PC's as much as possible.

I know I have talked to Michael A. Stackpole and he stated he would love to do another wolf and raven novel. Possibly the ones that are omitted or added hint at future fiction in the works?

Regardless of the last few hopefull thoughts, I again would like to thank the writers and staff for there work.

Edit: changed stupid mistake on writer lol. I knew that!!!
« Last Edit: <07-16-11/1619:13> by Frankie the Fomori »