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Posted by: Bull Aug 13 2009, 12:08 PM

Caine Hazen and I (and a few others) have been talking about doing a new Shadowrun Webzine (ala http://tss.dumpshock.com/). So I'm basically just wanting to get some base feedback about interest in this. The 'zine will, ideally, include a whole host of different things: Fiction, new rules, in-world fluff, locations, adventure seeds, etc.

Right now, I'm just looking to see how many folks are interested. Please hold off on any discussions about what you want to see, what you don't want to see, etc. We'll dive into some of that more once I get back from Gen Con. So for now, focus on the poll!

I figure this is pretty much a no brainer, but... Anyways, I'm off to Convention and get my geek on. I'll post more info in a few days!

Posted by: Synner667 Aug 13 2009, 12:13 PM

I'd be very interested...
...tho I think it might be better handled by an often updated website [or you could, you know, just contribute to one that already exists]

Posted by: Grinder Aug 13 2009, 12:52 PM

I am interested, and would like to contribute - might be good chance for writers to get the attention of the-powers-that-be.

Posted by: Prime Mover Aug 13 2009, 01:33 PM

Be nice to see a fanzine for SR return.

Posted by: deek Aug 13 2009, 04:01 PM

I'm interested and would likely contribute. I'd certainly check each issue out, seeing that I am running a campaign.

Posted by: tisoz Aug 13 2009, 04:08 PM

I'm interested, even willing to help out. I'm interested in the fiction. This might be the format we were looking for.

Posted by: ravensmuse Aug 13 2009, 04:22 PM

Dunno if my vote went through or not, but definitely interested in both reading and submitting to a SR magazine!

Posted by: WhiteWolf Aug 13 2009, 04:39 PM

I am definitely intersted in reading. I would also like to see if I can help contribute.

Posted by: Alex Aug 13 2009, 04:44 PM

Please count me in. I'm OK (not great mind you) with rules but like to write fiction.

Posted by: nezumi Aug 13 2009, 05:20 PM

1) Does it cost anything?
2) SR2/3 stuff as well?

Posted by: Kerenshara Aug 13 2009, 05:34 PM

I would love to contribute.

Let's see, alternate firearm rules that add variability without altering the core rules?

Expanded mentor spirit guidelines for customization and increasing connection?

13,000 words of same-character fiction in a month or less?

Yeah, I have no problems with that. And getting it onto an officially sanctioned format would be a nice feather to go with it all.

Judging by the poll...

"Booster?" "Go!"
"Retro?" "Go!"
"FIDO?" "Go!"
"Guidence?" "Go, Flight!"
"Surgeon?" "Go!"
"ECON?" "Go!"
"GNC?" "Go!"
"TELMU?" "Go here, Flight!"
"Control?" "Go!"
"Procedures?" "Go!"
"INCO?" "Go!"
"FAO?" "Go, Flight!"
"Network?" "Go!"
"Recovery?" "We're Go!"
"CAPCOM?" "Go!"

Posted by: hobgoblin Aug 13 2009, 06:54 PM

"sanity?" "left for tahoe a month ago"

Posted by: Kerenshara Aug 13 2009, 07:36 PM

*sighs sadly, realizing that joke is going to get past just about everybody*

It seemed funny at the time. I guess I'm an even bigger "geek" than I thought.

Posted by: oboreruhito Aug 13 2009, 08:00 PM

You threw me off because I thought Guidance responded with "Guidance go", not "Go, Flight."

Posted by: Kerenshara Aug 13 2009, 08:07 PM

Oh, thank heavens. One person.

Keep in mind, that's the old Apollo checklist, and Gene had his own ideas. In the pieces I have seen/heard, he did a quick roll and not all the responses were uniform.

These days, I imagine it's slower and more formalized.

Posted by: hobgoblin Aug 13 2009, 09:05 PM

heh, i understood it was a launch check, seen one to many discovery space programs to not notice that. just felt like adding my own little "flare" to it

Posted by: Kerenshara Aug 13 2009, 09:36 PM

*Breathes in relief*

I was really beginning to wonder if I was the only person who would get the reference. It's a little off-the-wall and obscure, but ammongst a group like this, I figured I'd get a good saturation rate.

Posted by: Stahlseele Aug 14 2009, 07:56 AM

Are you talking about Holostreets again?
*runs for his life*

I'd be interested, but i can't write worth crap sadly, so i probably won't be contributing.

Posted by: Darth Phylos Aug 14 2009, 11:19 AM

Heh. I was just thinking about TSS the other night, and was considering doing something similar myself!

Posted by: Warlordtheft Aug 14 2009, 05:14 PM

I'm the 1st other. I would be interested, but probably not as a regular contributor.

One of things that make me waffle on this is I have seen some RP magazines do things that make you cringe. With unbalanced, unplaytested options and so forth. If it is to be an official CGL publication, you'll need to make sure that this does not happen.

As for content(yeah I am jumping the cybernetically enhanced piasma), I think some of the regular features could be the following:

Optional rules:Example detailed ammo types (does the Assault rifle you use chambered for 5.56mm, 7.62X39, or 6.8 SKS?).
Tactics:Discussion of tactics be it physical, vehicle, matrix, social (engineering) or magical.
Archetype:An character built using the BP system, whith attached fiction on the character.
Sprawl Sites: Anyone have a copy of that book? Have a site map created for download. THis could be anything from Dante's inferno to a generic McHugh's.
An adventure of the month:self explanatory.
Riggers column: A new vehicle type.
Matrix Site: SImilar sprawl sites, but would be for a matrix node or nodes.
Mages column: Discussion of a tradition, new spells, meta magics, or magical phenomenon.
Patterson Guide:In depth discussion of new paracritters that will eat you. (No I don't care about the Amamzonian Red specled rocket snail that has the movement power! Not unlesss it is 10 feet tall and will eat me for lunch. Oh-if anything bigger than it gets near it causes confusion-I'm interested.)

Posted by: Ice Hammer Aug 14 2009, 05:54 PM

I would like to throw my hat in the ring to help contribute to this adventure as well.

Posted by: vladski Aug 14 2009, 07:08 PM

Warlord,



Judging by the poll/thread tag, the webzine would not be an official CGL product.  But, considering it would be Dumpshock's baby, it would be as close as you can get without all the legal crapola.

I like your list of columns and would toss yet another into the ring:

NPC mooks and Major NPC's

It would be great to see, say, a Doc Wagon team statted out, equipped and include a typical "station.".  Or a specific security team.  Or how about a team of runners that cold be used as an opposition team? 



Vlad

Posted by: Bull Aug 15 2009, 01:17 AM

@Warlord: Yes, this would be an unofficial, strictly fan-created project. However, if we do this, we will have a couple of people (Namely me, Caine Hazen, and maybe one or two others) that will likely act as editor, developer, etc. We'd like to have at least a minor level of professionalism for the magazine, and as a number of folks who will work on this are also freelancers (past and present and maybe future), we'll try and bring a little bit of balance and common sense to it

Anyways, off to play some FFG Board games. More soon!

Posted by: Zen Shooter01 Aug 15 2009, 01:29 AM

I can write fiction.

Posted by: Dumori Aug 15 2009, 01:44 AM

I'll help any way I can. I'm getting quite good with the rules and char gen may be a pushing your bp/karma the most column I'd gladly work with all of the much more experienced rule masters on that. Stuff like don't take groups if you need only one or two skills when to use edge. (sure some of its old news but having it in one place wouldn't hurt.)

Posted by: siel Aug 15 2009, 03:45 AM

I would also be interested and contribute if I can.




I have been wondering about one thing though. Is it possible for dumpshock to have a wiki for the purpose of everything non-canon?

I know there's the Sixth World Wiki (http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/Main_Page) for stuff that are canon or mostly canon, but I am not aware of a place where people can contribute their creations. 

This non-canon wiki would basically be a repository of the same material that would show up in the webzine. For example, house rules, npcs, maps, adventure seeds, and so on. 




I think a wiki would be a better source to search for information than on the forum. It would also centralize Shadowrun players' works and creations in one place.

There would be two type of pages. One would be a page that serves as an index/portal/directory, the other would be any page that's an original creation.




To reduce clutter, pages created by users for their original creation would have his or her user name in the name of the page. 




For example, the Houserule page will be a general index page that lead you to index page of different section of rules such as magic, matrix, and so on. Under the page Matrix Houserule, you might find a link to page labeled "FrankTrollman Matrix Houserule." In the page Magic Houserule, you might find "Kerenshara Mentor Spirit Houserule" under the mentor spirit section and so on.

Also, each user can have their own page and another user can go to their page and find their creations. So for example I can go to Serbitar's page and find his karma gen house rule package.




So, this might help alleviate some of the complaints about the forum's search. If I want a specific person's houserule, I would go to his page or search his name. I can also find pornomancer by going to the page on character builds.  

Similarly, there are often posts asking about what people have created. With a wiki that anyone can contribute, the inquirer can just go search the wiki for intuition-based traditions that people have made. Then post on the forum to discuss if there's something interesting to discuss (as opposed to just asking for something).




Anyway, just an idea. I really think this would be useful to everyone at dumpshock though. Has this idea already came up before? Is it possible to create one? Difficulties or why its a bad idea? 

Posted by: oboreruhito Aug 15 2009, 03:49 AM

I've seen people on Sixth World Wiki have non-canon contributions referred to the http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page.

Posted by: Method Aug 15 2009, 04:19 AM

Just thought I'd point out a potential source of bias in your poll: I doubt people who have no interest in this are likely to care enough to vote to that effect.

Anyway, I too am interested and willing to contribute. Knasser and I have been bantering about collaborating on some SR locations (maps + all the crunchy business). Maybe this would be a good venue for such a project...

Posted by: Tachi Aug 15 2009, 06:23 AM

I'd love this and like to contribute, but, unfortunately I'm carrying 18 credit hours this semester, plus working, so, uh, no. I R headless chicken already.



Signed,
The poor, benighted, over-worked, and under-appreciated thirty year old college freshman.... whose been awake for nearly 40 hours Oooohhhh, algebra time. Please kill me.

Posted by: knasser Aug 15 2009, 06:50 AM

I would certainly be interested and would almost certainly contribute. I can also assist on editing if anyone is interested and, if there's a need for the expertise and you go with a downloadable PDF format, I can also assist no layout / formatting.

I produce a fair amount of Shadowrun material, both rules and fluff, and I don't mind adding some of that to the e-zine, but I'd like to also place the material on my own site. If this is not a problem, then you could get quite a bit of material from me. If it is a problem, then I'd be choosing a smaller proportion of my work for the e-zine as I like my site and need to keep it fed with material too.

@Method: This sounds like a good venue for some collaborative map making - I'm with you!

K.

Posted by: Grinder Aug 15 2009, 11:12 AM

Dude, it's not like you're the only here with that problem, so stop complaining, get rid of sleep and start contributing!

Posted by: AJCarrington Aug 15 2009, 02:52 PM

Am definitely interested in this and would love to contribute when I can, but can't make firm commitments at present due to time constraints in RL.

AJC

Posted by: Tachi Aug 15 2009, 09:18 PM

Posted by: OneTrikPony Aug 16 2009, 05:28 PM

I'm online for that. I'd love to see the TSS or something like it again. I'd even pay a bit for it like I do for the SRM's (that i'm probably never going to get to play. )

I'd even contribute at least once. back in the dayse of yor I was working on a submission to the TSS that i never finished. It was a write up on Franklin Associates; the firefighting contract company in Seattle. It was in SR3 but I'd dig it up and do it again for SR4.

I know we're not talking about content yet but I will echo Warlordtheft to say that Sprawlsites and Matrix sites would be great. the zine should include anything that would make a GM's job easier. I hope it goes lite on the optional rules and gear twinks tho.

Posted by: nezumi Aug 17 2009, 04:15 PM

Will there be a monthly drop bear special feature? That would get me to read it.

Posted by: Bull Aug 17 2009, 09:32 PM

Ok, dropping the sticky for now.

I didn't actually expect anyone to actually vote "No" on the poll. Just kinda threw that in there just to see if anyone would actually vote that way Mainly, it's something we've been batting around for a bit now, and we're starting to try to seriously get it firmed up and since we were at Gen Con and fairly busy, the poll was a quick way to let people know about it without needing to spend a lot of time on things

To answer a couple questions:

1) It would be free. It's purely a fanzine done for fans and to help get the Shadowrun community involved again.

2) It will have an editor. This means that articles are subject to approval by the magazine staff, and that the editor may work with the writer to adjust approved articles. This will be primarily done to help maintain the quality of published articles, and sop we're not just publishing any old broken house rules, crazy over the top non-canon adventures, or someones personal erotic fanfiction

3) It will be SR4 rules focused.

4) Just to reiterate that while some of the writers and magazine staff will likely be affiliated with Catalyst as freelancers, playtesters, or whatever, that this will be strictly a fan-run production. That means no input by our grand overlords, and no editorial control.

Ok, that's all for now. I'l, have more very soon.

Posted by: the_real_elwood Aug 17 2009, 09:56 PM

I'd love to see a wiki set up for people to post up their homebrew stuff. I always like to see the different things that people have created.

Posted by: Muspellsheimr Aug 17 2009, 10:26 PM

I would be interested in this.

I am willing to assist in layout, additional material (mechanics), & playtesting/review.

Posted by: Falconer Aug 17 2009, 11:45 PM

Just to put this out there... a minor webzine doesn't have to be dragon. Not to go into details but just to give an idea of one of the better web formats I've seen.

http://www.eve-tribune.com/

Posted by: nezumi Aug 18 2009, 04:37 PM

Where's the option for 'won't read, but would contribute'? If it's primarily SR4, I don't have much reason to read it (I don't read a lot of SR fiction, and I have limited interest in fluff, so...) However, I have plenty of SR3 stuff, or stuff which isn't tied to a particular edition (long live the Drop Bear Revolution!)

Posted by: DireRadiant Aug 18 2009, 05:46 PM

I would love to help. Probably most effectively in terms of editorial review and schedule controls.

Posted by: Pinkys.Brain Aug 19 2009, 10:54 PM

Would there be members willing to translate it into other languages, say German? Grinder? Stahlseele?

Posted by: Stahlseele Aug 19 2009, 11:22 PM

Sure. translations i can do. Probably even while i am at work.

Posted by: Tachi Oct 25 2009, 08:24 PM

[casts thread necromancy]

I'm not meaning to be a pest Bull, but, uh, how long until the first issue is available? Just wondering, cuz, you know, we're like 20 days past the original publication date and I'm jonesing for new stuff...

Posted by: Method Oct 25 2009, 09:11 PM

It sounds like CaineHazen has had a catastrophic computer crash. Its unclear at this point when the first issue will drop. Hopefully soon tho...

I think we are all learning to appreciate why Catalyst doesn't talk about release dates.

Posted by: Platinum Oct 25 2009, 10:41 PM

Hey, if anyone is interested in producing stuff for a 2/3 edition issue (Nezumi), I would be willing to contribute and do the layout. I took graphic design in college and have done a few side projects in the past.

Posted by: 3278 Oct 25 2009, 11:50 PM

If there were a serious attempt at producing content for previous versions, I would certainly contribute. I have and could continue to produce a variety of vehicles for all possible uses in-setting, for instance, something I'm almost completely unwilling to do in SR4 without vehicle creation rules.

Posted by: Chrome Tiger Oct 26 2009, 02:50 AM

That is because you are too stubborn to do it the one way possible. You know, like modifying an existing vehicle into something new and exciting. Yeah, it sucks that the 'from scratch' rules are missing but that does not mean it is impossible to make it happen. Some people just feel handicapped to do anything unless somebody else puts it on paper for them!

Kidding on that last part, for the most part (I do think some people get like that a little too much), but I am with you 500% on thinking that SR4 needs a dedicated rigger/vehicle supplement beyond the mentions they get in the core book and Unwired. Rigger 4 for the win!

Posted by: 3278 Oct 26 2009, 03:05 AM

I have no problem modifying existing vehicles into new and exciting ones; I have five or six already done, for my rigger character. However, there are so few classes of vehicles currently existing in SR4 that there simply isn't enough to modify for my tastes.


In this case - kidding or not - I definitely wouldn't want to. It would be like SR having no character creation rules, only rules for modifying the [few] sample characters; there's no way to share any made-up characters with any sense of cohesion: every group is going to have their own ideas of what's reasonable, and without any arbiter in the rules, sharing these creations between groups is problematic. Canon may be weak armor, but it's better armor than having no canon at all; indeed, it's a significant portion of the reason for having rules to begin with.

Posted by: Chrome Tiger Oct 26 2009, 03:21 AM

Well, if the game were based around playing vehicles as your characters, then I would think that the vehicle creation rules missing were THAT big of a deal.

But, as you know, I am all in agreement with having more vehicle creation rules. I just had to jab at ya. I do hope that this is just a delayed release of some sort of info and not a total neglect of one of the top sections of the game for a lot of people.

Posted by: AKWeaponsSpecialist Oct 26 2009, 09:09 AM

Extremely interested, but I could only contribute if there was a Munchkin's Corner or somesuch