[Kincaid]

I know some players who are already in their 4-5th month and the question came up at the last con I attended: what happens when you finish month 12 of your calender?  Is retirement strictly karma-based, or is a season 1 year in-game?

[martinchaen]

The logical answer is that it's just one year, as I believe Season 5 begins in February (friend of mine is incessantly teasing me with having access to SRM05-01)...

[Michael Chandra]

I recall Bull saying there's no specific timelimit for characters, just grab a second calender. Can't recall where he said it so no link, sorry, and keep in mind I might be recalling this entirely wrong.

[Bull]

Season 5 is planned to go 24 Missions, and will take at least the next 24 months to release.  We've had 8 CMPs for this year, and the 8 2010 CMPs. So we halso have at least 2 more Convention seasons, which means at least 16 more CMPs to go.

So at a bare minimum, there are 56 possible Missions adventures before the end of Season 5.

So yeah, you'll need a second calender.

Bull

[martinchaen]

Screw downtime, DO ALL THE MISSIONS!

Bull, do you know anything (or suspect anything) about when we can expect to see the 2013 CMPs released to the general public?

Alternatively, as a guide, when was the 2010 CMPs released for general consumption?

Thanks!

[Michael Chandra]

Alternatively, as a guide, when was the 2010 CMPs released for general consumption?

Those would be Sprawl Wilds and Firing Line.

So that'd be 32 missions max unless more CMPs are made available, which still is an easy 200 karma. Sounds like Season 6 will still have quite a few retirees.

[Fedifensor]

I know I'll get flamed for this, but hear me out...

Why do we have a calendar?

I understand why we track time, and there's a good reason to not allow more than one month of downtime activity between adventures.  But why are we tying ourselves to months of the year?  If I play a module where the characters are slogging through snow in the dead of winter, but my calendar says June...that doesn't make any sense.  Why not have a simple time tracking sheet?  Just write the name of the adventure, and the activities that took place after that adventure.  It's easier to record what I'm doing when I don't have to cram my writing into a tiny box, and easier to figure out how long my downtime took between each adventure.

[Michael Chandra]

But Fedifensor, the Missions calendar doesn't list months, right? Isn't it just "Month one" and so on?

[Fedifensor]

But Fedifensor, the Missions calendar doesn't list months, right? Isn't it just "Month one" and so on?

The problem is that the maximum time spent is actually more than a month - it's 5 weeks.  1 week set aside for the mission, then a maximum of one month (four weeks) downtime.  Plus, you don't have to spend the full month between missions.  As such, a weekly tracker makes a lot more sense.

Besides, while the calendar may not list the specific month, it's entirely possible to play one module in the dead of winter and the next one in the summer heat, which is the same issue with suspension of disbelief.  It's easier to ignore that disconnect if you're looking at a list of modules played and downtime used instead of a calendar.

[Bull]

Mainly, calendar is there to track Lifestyle payments, and when those are due, less than it is to track "real time" for the games.

[Deacon]

The duration doesn't get me so much as the release schedule.

Honestly, I don't know what the holdup is on releasing modules.  Whether it's lack of modules, lack of art, lack of editing, or just failure to coordinate, all I know is this:

I tried to run Season 2 of Shadowrun Missions.  It failed, because my players got bored with the lack of new missions to play.
I tried to run Season 3 of Shadowrun Missions.  It failed, because my players got bored with the lack of new missions to play.
I tried to run Season 4 of Shadowrun Missions.  It failed, because my players got bored with the lack of new missions to play.
I just had a major gaming convention in town, where I wanted to kick off Season 5 of Shadowrun Missions.  The first module, which was supposed to be released after GenCon, instead was not released in time to run at the convention.  So already Season 5 in town has missed out on players.

That's where the situation is.  A release schedule of one module a month, for 24 months, will not sustain a regular campaign, at least in my experience.

Is it a lack of modules?  I'll step up and write some, if need be.  I've done it before.  A lack of art?  There I cannot help you.  Editing?  There I can.  Coordination?  I have nothing BUT time. 

Running previous Seasons might be an option were it not for the 'hard reboot' at the beginning of Season 5.  Having the players go from Denver to Seattle to Chicago gets a little confusing, not to mention costly for the PCs. 

"But Deacon!  You can run your own campaign in the interim!"  Yeah, right.  My players want to run the official campaign.  Not my homebrew.  I need more Missions, to satisfy players.  Otherwise Season 5 will fail just like before.

[Michael Chandra]

Design&Layout seems to be the limiting factor. You could have used Sprawl Wilds for Shadowrun 5 Missions by the way.

[martinchaen]

^ And Firing Line.

[Bull]

It's a combination of factors.  Our sticking points are often art, layout, and proofing/approval, because those are the areas where we're "narrowest" as far as personnel.

Missions is, unfortunately, a niche product within a niche market, so sales are pretty low most of the time because not every GM buys them the way they might a regular ebook or even a print adventure.  This means that it tends to get "low priority" status among the products being worked on.  When you have one layout guy and he has to choose between a Mission or the next print release, we get the short end of teh straw.  It sucks, and it's one reason we've been doing everything we can to get more attention for Missions and thus more sales, including things like selling the CMP compilations as print products and incorporating Missions plots into the main sourcebooks to tie the two together better.  Because if we can boost sales, then we can afford to do more with the line.  Until then, we're stuck with what we got, and I'm doing my best to make the most of it.

[martinchaen]

And we appreciate the efforts, Bull! Can't wait to play SRM05-01