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[Pepsi Jedi]

One thing about that section that really made me smile were all the little references to "This team I'm working with" and "These really promising up and coming runners that pulled this job". Because anyone who plays through the Season can then sit back and go "Hey, that was me!" Which is often something that's hard to do in Shadowrun. Too often the players end up being spectatcors to the big event, or at best escorting major NPCs around while they do all the important stuff. And we didn't want to do that. Even with my GM PC involved (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I -did- catch this during the read through. The "missions" are probably the only stuff I don't buy asap.

Reading the chapter I defiantly caught those instances and grinned a bit. I think it was Netcat or something that describes them as talented but a bit rough around the edges or could use some work or something and chuckled.

Glad to know, it is what I thought it was, with out being 'too' overt.

[Wakshaani]

I'm surprised Critias hasn't gone and gotten skin grafts to give himself elf ears yet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Says the man with Ork tusks in his drawer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Bull]

Says the man with Ork tusks in his drawer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

If I had the money, I'd totally get a custom set of ork dentures (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Grinder]

Or just parachuting the Drop Bears right on corp sec. They'll be standing around joking and suddenly they are covered in parachute and claws.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

[hermit]

@Wakshaani

[ Spoiler ]

This one's a problem. The Alpha document said '64 (I'd been working from the 6WA instead of the Comet, an error I caught early on, but did initially make.) but the Beta corrected it to the proper 2061. Either I transpowed a number, or it flickered during being retyped, or an edit just got misplaced. I'm not sure. This did mess with my 64-74 band by 3 years, but 'Ghost Decade' still worked, showing a slow build in the early 70's before really getting a few steps past. In essence, it technically ended in '71, but you didn't really have the nation feeling it for a few more years. That was caught and corrected, but the edit didn't "take" for some reason. My apologies on this one... I'll have to watch pages I send in a bit tighter in the future. And teh 20 year comment makes me want to ... hang on, lemme open up the PDF.

I don't see the note of 20 years ago, other than the "When working for Japanacorps back in the 50's", which is a nod to the 2050-55 era of Shadowrun, where the majority of teh Big Eight were based out of Japan and the culture was omnipresent. If you can show me where I missed it, I'll see if we can get those errors corrected for the print release. It's **probably* too late in the process to do that, but I'll ask

Okay, so this is an editing thing then, and not lack of interest in research. Apologies on my part, but I tend to take books at face value. *sigh* So it is another case of "whoops, I sent the first draft to the printers". At least with this, no errata were invalidated for Missions games ...

I meant: "they want to present a unified front to the rest of the world and are showing levels of cooperation not seen in twenty years." Okay, I seem to have misread that then.

Shiawase was the second-largest EuroCorp as of Corporate Download (The second of the three corp books out there) having gathered up all of Fuchi's Euro assets. The "Passed up S-K" is a misread of what the line indicates, but, I can see how it confuses. With Aztechnology's current problems, Shiawase is now the largest food producing corporation in the world, with Saeder-Krupp and Horizon nipping at their heels. S-K makes more food in Europe, but Shiawase makes more worldwide. If Shiawase could scoop up some os S-K's EuroAg, then they'd start stretching their lead at the cost of their natural rival, taking advantage of Lofwyr's weakened state. It's a very Yamana-style gamble, but Tadashi backed off of it. That could be wise, that could be foolish, we'll see. Regardless, Shiawase's been leveraging their food surplus for several months, and is looking to expand it.

What I was getting at is that there's a number of Eurocorps who are in teh Agribusiness too. There's Zeta-Imp Chem (via Nestlé), there's AG Chemie (via Nestor, Modern Foods, though they have sunk low), there's Meridional Agronomics, there's Regulus Joint Enterprises (via Regal Foods), and Fuchi Europe was not all that invested in Agritech (they had electronics plants and arcologies all over the place though). It seems a bit odd that, in this setup, Shiawase just becomes one of the largest food producers. I'm not saying it's impossible, but something about that should be mentioned at least.

Yeah, baggage. Knowing that requires having read the first two corp guides (Download and Shadowfiles), Shadows of Europe and I don't know But that's what you get in a setting running this long. Maybe a relaunch of the Shadowrun wiki, with official support and all, would be helpful there? It'd probably make research easier.

Yamana does sell his stock ... but, again, there should be some thoughts about why.

Haha, you caught me on that. I wrote this over the course of a week, while reading the PDF. It actually WAS Morbus Schletz, so acting out of character is in character there.

As for the Emperor... you have an interesting read on it. He's growing up, but there's still some power struggles between himself and the Megas. Shiawase is now solidly allied with him, but, well, there's an old saying about riding a tiger that should be remembered. A new wave of nationalism can work to his favor, but could work against him. Of course, with it is a rise of Shintoism and related religions, which hold the Emperor as a revered figure. Again, there's more going on here than at face value.

When Yasuhito ascended to the throne after the Ring of Fire breakout in '61, he ordered an end to japanese Imperialism, pulled out of all colonies, leaving the Megas hanging to dry, and at the same time shamed/coerced them into rebuilding Japan after the quakes. He also made the New Way - acceptance of metas' rights to exist, closing Yomi, opening Japan up to foreigners a bit - official doctrine, turning from the Yamato doctrine to a new one he calls the Yasuhito doctrine. I've not been a particular fan of this magical child ruling Japan and flowers sprouting everywhre back in the day but there it is. It would have been nice to see soem explaining why Yasuhito turned from his ideal. Influence from the Shiawase? The Kami telling him otherwise? I don't say it's impossible, and he IS growing up and changing, but it could have used a sentence or two in explanation.

And, hm, I find calling the office Tenno more interesting, but that's a matter of taste entirely.

Loyal opposition, yes. You simply can't stand up and say, "The Emperor is wrong! Screw his laws! We do it my way!" You'll get crucified by the public. You have to demonstrate being loyal, even while working to undercut policies that hurt you. Hiring deniable assets, then lamenting the death of public figures, or producing documents/photos that can swing a vote in private, etc etc etc. It's the sawn approach ... serene and peaceful on the surface, feet are churning underneath to make it move. MCT, same thing ... in public, they use careful wording and delays to fend off the Emperor's laws and "suggestions", while in the shadows, knives are bloody.

Ah, we just mean different things with 'loyal opposition'. To me, that's nominally opposing parties or groups who really toe the government's line in every way ('independent' parties in some Eastern Block states, for instance). Groups pretending to be opposition while actually being another arm of the ruling group, and not pretending to toe the party line while backstabbing the government and it's loyalists whom you loathe if you think you can get away with it.

There's more to them to come. Renraku essentially took 4th edition off ... it's time for them to get back in the game. (Oh, and Renraku buying up land all over Seattle was mentioned in Dirty Tricks, by another author, and I felt that it was a great way to start getting them back in Seattle and, by extension, the showcase city of Shadowrun. Always read previous books, always research, and run with things other authors introduce. I'm just a caretaker of the universe, not the owner. Vital to show it respect.

Well, yes. They needed a purpose for most of 4th. And I'm fairly okay with it, though maybe not a return to seattle in all openness (and taking back the arcology) just yet. But hm. So you guys do not consider Shadows of Latin America (the drafts) canon anymore?

Compare it to the 80's in America vs the malaise of 70's America.

No offense, but it needs more malaise. It's been a creeping and, I think, subconscious process, but it's got far too many shinies by now. Four Mega HQs, the UCAS with an Army that rivals modern America, and then all this MarySue Corps stuff ...

The Exceptionalism bit was added after I was worried that someone might read it as an anti-Japan rant, so I added more examples, to showcase that, in history, when this happens, well, I shouldn't have to say more. I didn't add America, but I also didn't add facism.

Well, America is the current example of this kind of exceptionalism - "We're an Empire now, we make our own reality, and all you can do is watch in awe" (P. Wolfowitz, IIRC, quote from memory). At least, that's the States seen from the outside. And while a touchy subject, Hitler's and Mussolini's fascism would have been good counterpoints (which were a lot more agressive - "we're great because YOU suck so much!"). I'd probably have come down less on this if it hadn't been for chapters 1 and 2 and a general trend.

There's also some infordump in here for newer players who haven't seen much of the 2050-55 stuff, where Japanese culture was amplified and sprayed around the setting. Prepping new players for some flavors that might start rolling out is never a bad idea. Someone, somewhere, will read this and go, "Wait... you don't get a pass for failing? What's up with that?" which can lead to research and reading, an exposure to a new mindset, and maybe, just maybe, a new outlook on things. I hope to expand on this more in the future, exploring the modern Samurai mindset and code, Bushido, and a few other concepts in the future.

Uhm, where do you get a simple pass for failing a run ...? Hm. Here our different cultural backgrounds might play into the perception of the writing. But yes, prepping new players with flavor isn't a bad thing. Japanocorp flavor back in the game would be nice, but don't focus all on the AAA megas; some AA (Monobe) are larger than some AAA (Horizon).

So, right now, looking at the document printed and what came out of my notes process, it looks like some fixes didn't get in. That's on me, and afte rthe book's been in print for a month, I'll see if the higher-ups will let me give out some corrections. The original Word files aren't mine to give, obviously, but I can walk through some fixes. Where my original says "As everyone knows, when Halley's Comet flew by in '64" and the corrected text reads "On October 27th, 2061," it's a different read. I won't blame it on editing because it's more my job to have it right in the pass than it is for them to change things afterwards. The error was caught in proofing but the mistake made it through. It shouldn't hav ebeen there in the first place.

*sigh* So nothing has changed. This has been plaguing CGL for a long time now. Blunders like this happen again and again, and often with more high-profile, important titles (see the reprint of the core expansions disaster). And frankly, mistakes happen when writing, especially when writing aside other occupations. This is where editiing comes in. This is why the editor exists at all. While you may not want to blame editing, I do. This should not happen so often.

Maybe more later, gotta run now, got a train to catch.

[hermit]

@Bull

[ Spoiler ]

And as a side note, you guys do realize that EVERY character here is a GM PC to one degree or another? That's the nature of creating characters for fiction, there's very little difference between the two other than an actual PC you actually have a handle on their stats and they often have a much more detailed personality and backstory to work with. There *IS* the danger of making them a Mary Sue where everyone loves them, they always succeed, etc. But I don't like to play characters like that, and Bull is often deeply, deeply flawed, and I try and make sure that comes through. He's also probe to blowing up and losing limbs. It's also why I was against him becoming a Jackpoint Admin, but I got overruled on that one

I guess it's just a gamer'S sensitivities speaking there. I think everyone who has been in the RPG scene for some time has experienced the super-GMPC who just walk all over the adventure, make the players feel entirely redundant and are the GM's precious pet. Maybe I'm reacting harshly there, but it's there. Also, I like Bull as an NPC, have used him often when running the Missions (I'll second Bannock there, the tie-in between Missions and book is awesome for someone who played them). He's pretty far from being a Mary Sue just now, gets knocked down a lot (haha for CanRay's second story btw), and yes, tends to explode and lose limbs (I even played that, haha!). And in-game, he's a logical choice for Admin on Jackpoint sans Jack.

[Nath]

[ Spoiler ]

Aurelius also oversaw UnlimiTech's fight bugs with bugs program.

Just checking, but does it somewhere address the fact the fact Ares bugs program was already underway in 2062, according to Threats 2, while Nicholas Aurelius had been at Cross for three years, and he only returned to Ares in 2072, according to Corporate Guide, on the Draco Foundation's behalf (thus, at the time, Aina's) ?

[Fatum]

Art is, otherwise, consistently high quality, and two pieces deserve special kudos; more on that in the appropriate section of the review.

Except a few of the pics don't fit the text at all. See p.59, p.93, p.147 or p.182.

[ Spoiler ]

The Aztlaners then realise he's about to cast Ultima and counter by casting Life 3 on all people in the area Special Blood Magic #69, which promptly doesn't work. Despite that, Sirrurg explodes somehow, and falls down to earth.

Laughed at the Ultima bit. And the blood magic did work, reflecting the Ultima right back at him. It's pretty obvious from the text that this was what got him.

[ Spoiler ]

When the dust lifts, the borders have shifted a very meaningful 50 km, Bogotá is now officially Aztlan, and nothing else has changed from before the war. The war where nothing happened. Great writeup, CGL.

That's my biggest issue with the whole War plot, as well. Much ado about nothing.

[ Spoiler ]

Lofwyr, Loremaster and respected elder of dragonkind, 'presses' a bunch of dragons into his services, and then hires an army of 1000 shadowrunners as auxiliaries for himself, Lung, Arleesh and 20-odd dragons. Because why not? Because run opportunities? Because Saeder-Krupp suddenly forgot they already have an army? Runners and dragons start off uneasy, and a dragon bites a merc who wanted to pet it. Lofwyr, seeing this might make the runners uneasy, orders the dragon executed. What the hell, Lofwyr. I mean, it's nice that you suddenly discovered your heart for humans, but seriously? Are you ... drunk or on Zen or weed? Do you have Morbus Schletz? Are you still Lofwyr?

Who's Morbus Schletz? Otherwise we have discussed this chapter in detail in this thread already.
It's Great Dragon etiquette, lel!

And there're implausibilities galore. There're glass beads dropped by mterialising spirits. Where were the beads before? Did they dematerialise too? How? Please keep to the established things magic can and cannot do and don't just write every crap up to "Magic!" like a lazy, unimaginative, and incompetent writer, thanks?

Ha, I totally missed this one.

One is that at least one Techno believes Paragons are actual 1st Gen AI, bringing them in line with both my theory on them (heh) and the second Sprawl trilogy book's (Neuromancer's successor, Biochips) take on the Matrix after the Singularity of Wintermute/Neuromancer.

She believes a first-gen AI can be a Paragon, not that all Paragons are first-gen AIs. That's a huge difference.

[Fatum]

At least this story seems to follow some inner logic for now, and the Matrix maybe is demagicized. I'm all for that, I absolutely loathed 4e's magical take on Mancers and the Matrix.

Except deckers were called matrix mages as well; so 4E Matrix is not any more "magicized" than before.

Now it expands into South America because the people there are too poor to be of interest to megas and have no economies - apparently the authors have stopped considering SoLA canon?

Have they started considering it such, to begin with?

Not good enough, though not quite as bad as Aztlan's Triump [sic!] either.

Okay, I'll cave: I've just rechecked, and I can't see Atzlan's Triumph spelled wrong anywhere.

I also wonder if this plot originated in Hardy's lemons-to-lemonade philosophy that also spawned the JackPoint intrusion by the Poster With No Nick, to deal with vastly inaccurate and faulty and badly researched and lazily written shadowposters.

Going by the previous posts in the thread, yeah.

And I am certain I am not alone in the observation that SR seems to drift towards a highly America-centric and American-dominated world view. Kind of like Tom Clancy was made Line Dev.

Even for someone buying Pegasus stuff, it's kinda hard not to notice Shadowrun has always been America-centric.

[bannockburn]

Just want to drop in and say... "Awesome!" That's what we were shooting for with Missions. We'll likely never be a major, big time, "OMG! Stop this or the WORLD ENDS!" set of adventures, but we wanted what you did in Missions to feel impactful and meaningful.

Well, in my opinion, you succeeded (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
And it's appreciated that the runs stay on the street level. That was one reason why I liked Harlequin 1 and loathed Harlequin 2 (even with the adventures being very creative if taken for themselves).

One thing about that section that really made me smile were all the little references to "This team I'm working with" and "These really promising up and coming runners that pulled this job". Because anyone who plays through the Season can then sit back and go "Hey, that was me!" Which is often something that's hard to do in Shadowrun. Too often the players end up being spectatcors to the big event, or at best escorting major NPCs around while they do all the important stuff. And we didn't want to do that. Even with my GM PC involved (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Funny thing is, Netcat is even one of the connections I use (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
And I'll echo here, that Bull is not that bad as a 'GM PC' (although I believe, he's far beyond that status). He's a mover and a shaker, sure, but he's not a sparkling example of everything that's cool. Quite the opposite, indeed, with his refusal to use hip language!

(If you're not subscribed to the SR Missions Facebook page, I posted a teaser of one of the Season 5 Contacts/NPCs there already, and more will be going up in the near future. I tend to use Facebook for most of my sneak peeks and teasers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

That's too bad, I hate Facebook and don't use it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Okay, I'll cave: I've just rechecked, and I can't see Atzlan's Triumph spelled wrong anywhere.

Check the thumb marker on the side. It is on _every_ page.

Even for someone buying Pegasus stuff, it's kinda hard not to notice Shadowrun has always been America-centric.

There's a difference between being America-centric and pushing current American views into the game world.
America-centric writing is quite alright, after all an author should write about what he knows. I even like the American setting better than the crowded European one. But it takes a special effort to not overdo it.
SR started out with a splintered America (& Canada, how funny is that? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) where they _lost_ the big war. Not even Vietnam can have been that hard on the collective self-image. The government was powerless, the army was rented out and not even that mentionable anymore and most of the continent belonged to the natives. Even Hawaii seceded.

Nowadays, there's a certain paradigm shift and it rubs me the wrong way. It's subtle, but I'll go ahead and say that I've noticed it, too.
However, discussing this topic in depth goes too far into RL political views, so maybe we should nip this in the bud and just take it as a caveat lector.

[Fatum]

Check the thumb marker on the side. It is on _every_ page.

Oh. Well. I...I mean..

Nowadays, there's a certain paradigm shift and it rubs me the wrong way. It's subtle, but I'll go ahead and say that I've noticed it, too.

Dunno, the FMC shenanigans are ridiculous, of course; but other than that, I can't say I see anything all that worse than what we previously had.

[lokii]

SR started out with a splintered America (& Canada, how funny is that? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) where they _lost_ the big war. Not even Vietnam can have been that hard on the collective self-image. The government was powerless, the army was rented out and not even that mentionable anymore and most of the continent belonged to the natives. Even Hawaii seceded.

Taken together with Crimson Skies, they must have had some real counterculture-infested hippie-leftovers employed at FASA. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Wakshaani]

Oh man, Crimson Skies, don't get me started. Such a great game world! It died too young. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Sengir]

[ Spoiler ]

Runners and dragons start off uneasy, and a dragon bites a merc who wanted to pet it. Lofwyr, seeing this might make the runners uneasy, orders the dragon executed. What the hell, Lofwyr. I mean, it's nice that you suddenly discovered your heart for humans, but seriously? Are you ... drunk or on Zen or weed? Do you have Morbus Schletz? Are you still Lofwyr?

Dragon society is obviously heavily inspired by the old fealty system. As such, one of Big L's vassals misbehaving in public would a serious stain on his reputation. Or on a more pragmatic note, he needed to give the impression that the humans would not be considered forlon hope fodder (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Pepsi Jedi]

Runners and dragons start off uneasy, and a dragon bites a merc who wanted to pet it. Lofwyr, seeing this might make the runners uneasy, orders the dragon executed. What the hell, Lofwyr. I mean, it's nice that you suddenly discovered your heart for humans, but seriously? Are you ... drunk or on Zen or weed? Do you have Morbus Schletz? Are you still Lofwyr?

Well the problem with this thing is.... that's just not what happened. Colorful language aside. It just didn't go down that way.

Yes, the Dragons and mercs were uneasy.
No, a merc didn't try and pet a dragon. Fallacy one. (For the record the dragon just killed the merc for no reason that the storyteller in that section could ascertain what so ever.))
No Lofwyr didn't order the dragon Executed. It's on page 50 if you want to look. SCALES, the Drake steps in to stop the violence from erupting. Acting on Lofwry's behalf (Not even with a direct order).... ordered the dragon killed. There is a difference. Yes one of Lofwyr's people ordered the death, but it wasn't Lo himself. So that's fallacy two.
The death wasn't "Seeing this might make the runners uneasy" in causation either. This is a very important point. The dragon wasn't killed, for killing the merc. The dragon was killed, --For violating Lofwyr's standing order---.... of non violence. There's a huge huge difference there. It wasn't reactionary. It wasn't to placate humans. It wasn't to even keep the uneasy peace (Though it functioned for that as well)) The dragon was killed, for violating an order from their leader. So that's Fallacy three.

So the rest of the point there about Lo suddenly discovering his heart for humans drunk or Zen or on weed is just hyperbole. The scene didn't shake down like was indicated and the reasoning wasn't as stated, and Lofwyr wasn't even the one that commanded it. His lieutenant was. Lofwyr didn't even show up at the camp --till the next day--. He wasn't even there.

This is the sort of thing that I mentioned on Hermit's review. Alot of the stuff that he 'reviewed' or said, just wasn't based on what actually happened in the book. It's flowery and very pissy, but doesn't actually address the book in many places. It's why I said he should go back and re-read. He seems to have skimmed or missed things in his first read through.

[CanRay]

I'm surprised Critias hasn't gone and gotten skin grafts to give himself elf ears yet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Probably holding out to see how my operation goes.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Probably holding out to see how my operation goes.

I've seen about 5 people that have had their ears pointed... I just say. Be careful. 2 worked out quite well. One just.. not really at all, the last two.... all I can say is --EWWWWww-- and --OUCH---. lol

[Critias]

20 bucks on the Tír section.

Yup, but another one, too!

I'm surprised Critias hasn't gone and gotten skin grafts to give himself elf ears yet. [img]http://forums.dumpshock.com/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img]

You kiddin'? No way I can afford that on freelancer and adjunct faculty pay!

Err, I mean, not that I've looked into it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif)

[Umidori]

Find a Street Doc.

No, really. Do a little research, schlep on down to Mexico, have it done for 1/10th the normal price or less.

~Umi

[Pepsi Jedi]

Find a Street Doc.

No, really. Do a little research, schlep on down to Mexico, have it done for 1/10th the normal price or less.

~Umi

Dude!! No no no no no. Do NOT schlep down to Mexico to have medical procedures done!! lol You'll go to get your ears pointed, and come back with out a liver or something even worse!

[Critias]

Hahah. No, no. I'm not about to go get cosmetic surgery for elf ears. And I wouldn't run down to Mexico to get it done, if I was.

[lokii]

And I wouldn't run down to Mexico to get it done, if I was.

Yes, I see. Cuba, right?

[Bull]

@Bull

[ Spoiler ]

[ Spoiler ]

I guess it's just a gamer'S sensitivities speaking there. I think everyone who has been in the RPG scene for some time has experienced the super-GMPC who just walk all over the adventure, make the players feel entirely redundant and are the GM's precious pet. Maybe I'm reacting harshly there, but it's there. Also, I like Bull as an NPC, have used him often when running the Missions (I'll second Bannock there, the tie-in between Missions and book is awesome for someone who played them). He's pretty far from being a Mary Sue just now, gets knocked down a lot (haha for CanRay's second story btw), and yes, tends to explode and lose limbs (I even played that, haha!). And in-game, he's a logical choice for Admin on Jackpoint sans Jack.

Totally understand that, and have been there myself more than once, where you sat there for several game sessions feeling like YOU were the NPC to the GM's pet character. Not fun, which is why I try and be very careful whenever I use Bull in writing myself. Anyway, glad you enjoyed the Missions side of things at least. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[hermit]

@Fatum

Who's Morbus Schletz?

The personality-eating whatever plague in Fractures and Cracks. Until it has an official name, I'll call it Morbus Schletz, after the initial patient (Scott "Wolf" Schletz).

She believes a first-gen AI can be a Paragon, not that all Paragons are first-gen AIs. That's a huge difference.
(...)
At least this story seems to follow some inner logic for now, and the Matrix maybe is demagicized. I'm all for that, I absolutely loathed 4e's magical take on Mancers and the Matrix.

True enough, but that WOULD be consistent with the fact that at least one of the AI has the same mindset and icon as a paragon. And by 'demagicizing' I meant that the Matrix is not treated as an awakened realm where things happen because "Magic!", since it is entirely artificial and entirely man-made and machine-controlled.

Have they started considering it such, to begin with?

Synner said so quite clearly once, and I heared that from old guard writers repeatedly, too. I am not sure about the new writers, nor Hardy's stance on this.

Even for someone buying Pegasus stuff, it's kinda hard not to notice Shadowrun has always been America-centric. (...) Dunno, the FMC shenanigans are ridiculous, of course; but other than that, I can't say I see anything all that worse than what we previously had.

SR3 and early SR4 were different - the setting grew more international, even writeups in different languages were acknowledged. I'm pretty certain the writers of that time being from all over contributed a lot; today, it's pretty much all white, American, and a good deal Mormon. And even back in the early days, where Seattle was the only setting (with some nods to Chicago and NYC), there was a lot less chest-drumming and flag-waving. The FMC are the most crass example, and the one that really annyoed me, but please, look into 10 Mercs and where the units there - a supposedly international selection of mercenaries - are from. It's rather disproportional, especially given North America is the least interesting continent to mercenaries in SR (except maybe Antarctica). The UCAS also is often taken to be a military powerhouse (it shouldn't be), and then there're slips of ideology soemthines that ... are just plain unpleasant. War! was full of them, of course, but so were the Gun Haven books.

Maybe I am overreacting there a bit - Wakshaani seems to have put in his Exceptuionalism bit with the exact opposite in mind - but it's something I wanted to bring to attention after observing the trend for some time now. Probably, most really isn't conscious, but born out of the cultural homogenity of the current writers. But seriously, the FMC is taking this too far.

@Sengir

Dragon society is obviously heavily inspired by the old fealty system. As such, one of Big L's vassals misbehaving in public would a serious stain on his reputation. Or on a more pragmatic note, he needed to give the impression that the humans would not be considered forlon hope fodder

He could have slapped the dragon and told it off, then glared at humans, and be done with it. A life for a life seems very, very off for Keyser "Lofwyr" Soze.

@Critas

Yup, but another one, too!

Denver, right?

@Bull

Totally understand that, and have been there myself more than once, where you sat there for several game sessions feeling like YOU were the NPC to the GM's pet character. Not fun, which is why I try and be very careful whenever I use Bull in writing myself. Anyway, glad you enjoyed the Missions side of things at least. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Missions is sadly underrated, I think; it could be a major selling point for the setting if more muscle was put behind it. And I think that reflex is unfair for Bull as an NPC as written; it is just a knee jerk reflex develped overthe years I guess. I usually enjoy reading Bull a lot.

[CanRay]

As my "Author Avatar" is Slamm-0! (amongst others), I love making Bull suffer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)