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MilSpecTech now available!

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FastJack

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« on: <01-22-11/1807:04> »
DriveThruRPG and BattleCorps now have MilSpecTech up and available for download.

I'm going through the book now, but the first thing I can tell you is this: I recall Mystic talking about how he missed the catalog format of the old books, where everything got a full page spread.

Hope this makes you smile, Mystic. ;)

Bull

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« Reply #1 on: <01-22-11/1947:26> »
Heh, was just coming over to post up something :)  Here's the full Back Cover Copy...

MilSpecTech

$7.95

Things That Go Boom in the Night

The corporations of the Sixth World love a good challenge—as long as it suits them. Ending world hunger? Not interested. Eliminating poverty? There’s no margin in that. Finding creative and more effective ways to blow things up and/or reduce them to rubble? That, they can do.

War is raging on the Aztlan-Amazonia border, and there are plenty of other places in the world where people are willing to fork over piles of nuyen to buy that tank or fighter that would help them sleep better at night. There is good demand for military technology, and the corps are stepping up with the supply.

MilSpecTech presents new vehicles (including groundcraft, watercraft, and aircraft), missiles, and vehicle weapons for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition. It can be used as a companion piece to War!, or on its own to add extra danger to any war zones characters may be running in—or if they’re lucky, to give them more ways to cause havoc.



I'm really, really digging the full color art, all done by the talented AAS. :)

PeterSmith

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« Reply #2 on: <01-22-11/1953:59> »
Thank you FastJack. :)
Power corrupts.
Absolute power is kinda neat.

"Peter Smith has the deadest of deadpans and a very sly smile, making talking to him a fun game of keeping up and slinging the next subtle zinger." - Jason M. Hardy, 3 August 2015

kanislatrans

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« Reply #3 on: <01-22-11/2051:30> »
just bought it...Nice job! Shadow talkers are back "in character"(my biggest issue with War!) well put together and full of good stuff.
One question, is the Esprit Cazador a reference to Fallout,New Vegas's evil fraggin butterflies?  ???
As night descends upon the city
The streets are cold, the lights go by
And in the stories of the people
A million faces, a million lies
They'll never say they feel what you feel
That they can see the world you see
And in their faces, their expressions
A million faces, a million lies... VNV "Chrome"

Starglyte

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« Reply #4 on: <01-22-11/2104:32> »
The e-book reminds me of the Street Samurai Catalog. Cool to see that Kane is creating trouble.  Just curious, what is 99 Bottles?

Bull

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« Reply #5 on: <01-22-11/2229:31> »
just bought it...Nice job! Shadow talkers are back "in character"(my biggest issue with War!) well put together and full of good stuff.
One question, is the Esprit Cazador a reference to Fallout,New Vegas's evil fraggin butterflies?  ???

Cazador is, apparently, Spanish for "Hunter".

KarmaInferno

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« Reply #6 on: <01-23-11/0043:22> »
There seems to be a lack of vehicle sizes in MilSpecTech. Which includes both what size drone they are, and if they are a drone or vehicle to begin with.

Vehicle size determines a few secondary things like whether certain mods can be installed.

Also, there's a couple of air vehicles in there that don't have any clear indicators on how they achieve flight. Vectored thrust? Magic levitation?

Be kinda nice to know.




-k

JM_Hardy

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« Reply #7 on: <01-23-11/0049:53> »
The e-book reminds me of the Street Samurai Catalog. Cool to see that Kane is creating trouble.  Just curious, what is 99 Bottles?

99 Bottles is an experiment--"enhanced fiction," where we present a short story, then some of the game rules so you can take elements of that story and put them in your game. More details to come!

Jason H.
Jason M. Hardy
Shadowrun Line Developer

"The thing is, I’m serious about what I do, and the people with whom I associate are serious about what they do. We’re all serious people. Look, I can even make a serious face. See?" --Quinn Bailey

Dread Moores

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« Reply #8 on: <01-23-11/0116:35> »
I like the proposed idea of enhanced fiction. I haven't had a chance to see this specific implementation of it, as I'll be picking up the PDF next week.

Mystic

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« Reply #9 on: <01-23-11/0219:07> »
DriveThruRPG and BattleCorps now have MilSpecTech up and available for download.

I'm going through the book now, but the first thing I can tell you is this: I recall Mystic talking about how he missed the catalog format of the old books, where everything got a full page spread.

Hope this makes you smile, Mystic. ;)

Ohhhhh payday can't come fast enough!!!!
Bringing chaos, mayhem, and occasionally cookies to the Sixth World since 2052!

"Just because it's easy for you doesn't mean it can't be hard on your clients"-Rule 38, The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries, Schlock Mercenary.

« Reply #10 on: <01-23-11/0220:56> »
Like KarmaInferno mentioned, there is a lack of drone sizes in MilSpecTech.  I love the new approach of providing a catalog and some extra flavor to new crunch, but it just seems like this is an incomplete product.  Is it just me or does the lack of a 'Compiled Tables' section for easy reference bother anyone else?  Maybe we'll see a reprint with extra details, or at least an errata?

FastJack

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« Reply #11 on: <01-23-11/0930:26> »
Like KarmaInferno mentioned, there is a lack of drone sizes in MilSpecTech.  I love the new approach of providing a catalog and some extra flavor to new crunch, but it just seems like this is an incomplete product.  Is it just me or does the lack of a 'Compiled Tables' section for easy reference bother anyone else?  Maybe we'll see a reprint with extra details, or at least an errata?

Regarding drone sizes, if you take the section in Arsenal, you can figure out how big the drones are:

Quote from: Arsenal, p. 102
DRONE SIZES
     Exactly how big is a minidrone? To a large degree, this is fluid and up to the gamemaster. As a general rule of thumb, apply the following size ranges to different drone types:
     Microdrones (Body 0): These insect-sized drones are typically under 10 centimeters in length. They receive a Concealability modifier of –6 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Minidrones (Body 1): The size of a large insect or mouse, minidrones range from 10 to 25 centimeters in length and fit in the palm of one’s hand (or a pocket). They receive a Concealability modifier of –2 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Small Drones (Body 2): These drones range from the size of a commlink or toaster up to the size of a large dog. They have a Concealability modifier of +4 to +6 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Medium Drones (Body 3): Medium drones range from large dog to human or motorcycle-sized. They are unable to carry an adult metahuman, though they could potentially carry a child or small dwarf.
     Large Drones (Body 4): These drones range from the size of a motorcycle to a small car. With the exception of medical drones, they are typically not designed to carry metahumans and lack passenger compartments, though a metahuman (other than a troll) could potentially ride on top of one or be carried by one.
     Though all drones are considered vehicles, the term drone is generally used to refer to vehicles that are not designed to carry passengers or are specifically designed for remote/unmanned usage.

Arbalest, Popocatepetl, and Mixcoatl are Medium Drones; Unicorn, SK Blitz, and Huitzilopochtli are Large Drones.

And the tables doesn't really bother me since (just about) each item gets it's own full page spread. It's easier to find that way, unlike the denser listings in Arsenal where the tables help me find the items.

Starglyte

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« Reply #12 on: <01-23-11/1005:02> »
The e-book reminds me of the Street Samurai Catalog. Cool to see that Kane is creating trouble.  Just curious, what is 99 Bottles?

99 Bottles is an experiment--"enhanced fiction," where we present a short story, then some of the game rules so you can take elements of that story and put them in your game. More details to come!

Jason H.

This sounds like a really good idea. I am looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

KarmaInferno

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« Reply #13 on: <01-23-11/1019:16> »
Like KarmaInferno mentioned, there is a lack of drone sizes in MilSpecTech.  I love the new approach of providing a catalog and some extra flavor to new crunch, but it just seems like this is an incomplete product.  Is it just me or does the lack of a 'Compiled Tables' section for easy reference bother anyone else?  Maybe we'll see a reprint with extra details, or at least an errata?

Regarding drone sizes, if you take the section in Arsenal, you can figure out how big the drones are

Yeah, but why am I having to "figure out" this information when it really should be given in each entry?

I mean, there's a couple of items where it's not even immediately apparent if it's a drone, or a passenger vehicle.

Heck, I'd love to see a return of formalized stats like Powerplant, Movement Type, Passenger Capacity, Carge Space, etc. I mean, for a lot of vehicles the info is already in their descriptions, it would be nice to have that info standardized and part of the actual stat blocks again. The current Vehicle rules are a little schizophrenic, having extremely detailed stats for some parts (like Sensors) but seemingly refusing to stat out other very basic info (like passenger space).



-k
« Last Edit: <01-23-11/1131:57> by KarmaInferno »

« Reply #14 on: <01-23-11/1313:48> »
Regarding drone sizes, if you take the section in Arsenal, you can figure out how big the drones are:

Quote from: Arsenal, p. 102
DRONE SIZES
     Exactly how big is a minidrone? To a large degree, this is fluid and up to the gamemaster. As a general rule of thumb, apply the following size ranges to different drone types:
     Microdrones (Body 0): These insect-sized drones are typically under 10 centimeters in length. They receive a Concealability modifier of –6 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Minidrones (Body 1): The size of a large insect or mouse, minidrones range from 10 to 25 centimeters in length and fit in the palm of one’s hand (or a pocket). They receive a Concealability modifier of –2 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Small Drones (Body 2): These drones range from the size of a commlink or toaster up to the size of a large dog. They have a Concealability modifier of +4 to +6 (see pp. 301–302, SR4).
     Medium Drones (Body 3): Medium drones range from large dog to human or motorcycle-sized. They are unable to carry an adult metahuman, though they could potentially carry a child or small dwarf.
     Large Drones (Body 4): These drones range from the size of a motorcycle to a small car. With the exception of medical drones, they are typically not designed to carry metahumans and lack passenger compartments, though a metahuman (other than a troll) could potentially ride on top of one or be carried by one.
     Though all drones are considered vehicles, the term drone is generally used to refer to vehicles that are not designed to carry passengers or are specifically designed for remote/unmanned usage.

Arbalest, Popocatepetl, and Mixcoatl are Medium Drones; Unicorn, SK Blitz, and Huitzilopochtli are Large Drones.

Thanks, FastJack.  You saved me some work  ;)  The 'Compiled Tables' make it much easier to quick reference vehicles and such, especially when players do some something unexpected and you need some vehicle stats STAT!  (pun intended).  I guess we can create our own quick reference tables but it is just a shame that the product does not already have that available considering it seems standard on most SR products.  This Old Drone doesn't have the 'Compiled Tables' but does detail drone sizes and provides summary tables for each size section.  This at a minimum would have been nice.  Maybe I'm getting pickier in my old age  :P