[CanRay]

Twenty-ONE years soon, and still haven't played.   

If you can't find a local group, get in on a Play by Post game. There are several running on this site, and whenever someone advertises a Shadowrun game on rpol.net, the games fill quickly. The problem there is that there are more people who want to play than there are DMs.

Can't do PbP for some reason, never could. 

[Patrick Goodman]

Can't do PbP for some reason, never could. 

I'm finally getting used to it for a Star Trek game I'm involved in, but it's just not the same as sitting around a table tossing dice around.

[Mirikon]

PbP is definitely different from sitting around the table. You lose some of the spontaneity you get in a game over chat or at the table, but if you have a good group, you can get some excellent writing and roleplaying as people have time to think out their response.

[All4BigGuns]

Completely off on a tangent here, but, does anyone else play Legend of the Five Rings? If so, then you're familiar with the Friday Fictions, where the writers behind the game churn out a new fiction (Nothing terribly long, but something.) every week to post on the website. I'd love to see if we could match 'em on that. We have the Shadowrun 4 site, it's designed for blogging, seems like something that could be done. This could be fiction, or it could be just chatting. A week where Bull talks about the game, a week where Patrick Goodman talks about the secrets behind an older product of his, a week where I drool fanboyishly over Nigel Findley, a week where we see what Sally Tsung is up to these days, etc.

Back on topic, I'm reading Conspiracy Theories now, but I'm not terribly far (Just about to start the stolen CC protocols), but the 'Sam' from the original post here? She doesn't come off as Villers. She comes off as kind of an AI to me. She's ... drifty. Her mind is on another level, doing math and looking at social connections, and Fastjack has to bring her back on task. She reads to me, and keep in mind this is a single reading, to be just a tad ... off ... from what I'd expect a human, let alone a powerhouse human like Villers, to be like.

Now that would be cool if there were weekly SR fictions like there are for L5R. *stares off into space thinking of the fictions that could come about*

[Critias]

The enhanced fiction line started off as something kind of like that, in concept -- short fiction, simple stats at the end (of a new gang, a new gun, a character from the story, whatever).  How it mutated into 99 Bottles is still beyond me, even though the end product was pretty awesome it wasn't quite what had been the pitch for the line (for the last 5+ years, as I recall it).

I don't think the plan was ever to try and churn out one a week, because there's other stuff to work on and other checks for CGL to cut...but the plan was for them to be pretty quick, yeah. 

[hobgoblin]

Sam is not a JackPointer, and the meeting was in the flesh.

For ol' Jack, that's a rarity.

[Crimsondude]

That was the point.

[CanRay]

I think that's, what, the first time we've ever heard of him going to someone in person???

[Crimsondude]

He was used in the flesh for examples in the SR1 and SR2 sourcebooks. He also appeared somewhere else (I can't recall offhand where) in-person, but it's a very rare thing. His profile in Target: Matrix describes him as always doing business over the Matrix.

The original idea was ...


But, no, it's very very rare that he would do that.

[CanRay]

When FastJack comes out of the basement, drek is going DOWN!

[hobgoblin]

Given that, this Sam is highly trusted.

[Stry]

This is a lot of extrapolation and I may sound like lLan 9, but hear me out.


1. One could guess that FJ could have been part of Echo Mirage, he is old enough, and the other surviving members of Echo Mirage tend to still be heavy weights in the 6th world. 

2. I do not think it is ever mentioned who supplied Echo Mirage with the first generation of cyber decks, but my guess is it was Fuchi by way of Viller Electronics (Richard Viller's company before he merged  with Fuchi.)   My, guess is because Fuchi was the first corp to come out with a consumer cyberdeck.   

3.  IF it was Fuchi/Viller Electronics,  the corp probably had team of techs assisting Echo Mirage with designing and fixing the equipment. 

4. Said team of tech probably had a supervisor to make sure they bring enough of the tech back to the parent crop,and that supervisor could be Samantha Viller  (yes I know this is a big stretch.

5. Do not forget that word on the street says that Ms. Villers could be thinking about breaking away from Neonet and is going to start her own corp.   

6. Do to possible previous connections with FJ, Samantha Viller may want to hire FJ and bring him into the light for a new crop (yes I know this is an even bigger stretch.)

[Mirikon]

Jack isn't part of Echo Mirage. Unless he was lying in his history lesson for the reality impaired:

Most of the surviving members of Echo Mirage disappeared afterward into the private sector, taking their knowledge and experience
with them. Only a few known team members ever resurfaced; nobody knows where the rest are today. I know that some think I might have been a part of all that—I only wish I had been, because they were among the finest people I have ever known.

[Black]

Jack isn't part of Echo Mirage. Unless he was lying in his history lesson for the reality impaired:

Most of the surviving members of Echo Mirage disappeared afterward into the private sector, taking their knowledge and experience
with them. Only a few known team members ever resurfaced; nobody knows where the rest are today. I know that some think I might have been a part of all that—I only wish I had been, because they were among the finest people I have ever known.

Actually,  the above implies that Fastjack knew them personally.  Not a member of Echo Mirage, but someone who did infact known them.  Support personal?  He would have been younger, less experienced.  Someone who witnessed events and the people involved without being directly part of the team.

[Mirikon]

I personally think Jack found them after they left the project. I'd look to some of the big names of the shadow matrix from editions past. Wouldn't Captain Chaos have been about old enough to have been part of Echo Mirage?