Shadows of Latin America?, Whats the story? Options

[Synner]

Here's Argentina.

For those of you who are familiar with contemporary South American history the idea was to play off the traditional charismatic dictatorship (in the Peron vein) but replace the ubiquituous external influence peddling of a superpower with the meddling of the megacorps and Aztlan. I've also played around with the perceptions people in South America have of Amazonia - is the Awakened threat real or an illusion perpetuated by the regime and its friends? I also had fun playing with and subverting some of the stereotypes and staples of Latin American and Argentinian media and culture. As with some of the other chapters, some of the passing references to other subplots (ie. the Legio, the South Am corps, etc) actually tie into other chapters that have not been posted and you only get the full picture by reading the book.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Thanks, but that seems to be the link to your account version of the file, not the public one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Synner]

Fixed.

[hermit]

Awesome. Thanks!

[Ophis]

Thanks Synner!

Also thanks to all of you who've posted here and to JMHardy for admitting that the book was dead so you all could post this stuff with out legal issues.

[Ancient History]

... and to JMHardy for admitting that the book was dead so you all could post this stuff with out legal issues.

Yeah that's...not quite how it happened.

[Synner]

Ancient is correct. For the life of me I have no idea why Jason and Catalyst made the call. All the time I was with the company I pushed for the release of this project as an ebook given that Holostreets remained in limbo. I specifically asked some of the authors to put off releasing their drafts at one point or another in the hope that we'd get to SoLA once Catalyst had the ebook thing down pat... Since the drafts were all edited and ready for layout and work left on it was minimal, the project had earned quite a reputation as the missing SR3 book, and all in all it seemed like easy money to me. Still does, so Jason's decision seemed odd, but he's the line developer these days not me so maybe he knows something I don't.

[hermit]

I think his preesent attitude is to never look back. Understandably, given the amount of flak he received for things he had no influence on, like any decision Randall and Loren make. Not very wise, perhaps, but maybe he also didn't want to distract from the Almanac he feels very strongly about?

What I cannot understand is why SoLA wasn't put together long before. It seems all pieces have been around for a longer time? Was there still hope for the-subscription-service-one-must-not-speak-about?

[Ophis]

Yeah that's...not quite how it happened.

Guess I'm thanking him for not causing a fuss, and just letting this all get posted.

[Synner]

The initial hurdle to releasing SoLA during my involvement with Catalyst was that Holostreets was very much a possibility for a long time (it took most of a year to hammer out the minutae of the license since this coincided with Wizkids being closed). Meanwhile Adam Jury and I pushed for the pdf exclusive releases as a test bed for e-only products. By the time that was underway and we had someone to helm that side of things we were busy with other stuff and the layout work needed to put out SoLA was low on our priority list - the remaining ebooks were all much smaller and easier to layout. So things kept slipping. When I left Catalyst I handed over all the SoLA files with a note that should the project be greenlit it only required layout and a piece of art or two. A year flew by and recently Jason voiced his position that SoLA was dead.

[Ancient History]

Yeah, he didn't "let" anything.

[hermit]

He did in explicitly saying (in one of the speculation threads, so I am not going to link) SoLA would never see print with him in control. That may have persuaded some authors to let go. I think that is what people who think he 'let' habe in mind.

[Synner]

What Ancient means is that for Jason to "let" anything he would have had to have control over it. Once FanPro tanked the SoLA contracts ceased to be valid. The writing is/was the various authors' to do as they saw fit (as long as it doesn't try to make money off the IP, such material is considered unofficial/fanfic). Any and all of them could have released the material for free at that point (though by doing so they'd pretty much exclude that draft from any type of future official publication).

Authors voluntarily withheld their drafts because either (a) I asked them to do so in good faith because I wished to release the book and/or (b) they hoped that SoLA would eventually be released in some form and its contents be made official thereby making their own small contribution to SR canon. The payment issue while important had ceased to be a motivator a very long time ago.

"Letting" suggests allowing something to happen that would otherwise not be allowed. Contractually SoLA was never a Catalyst project. Had the ebook been greenlit then new contracts would have been required. What Jason did was say he's not interested in persuing this particular project and consequently the authors have given up the ghost. If Jong, Jay, Bobby or any other of the writers had wanted to release their material 2 years ago as free fanfic they could have and there was precious little I, or now Jason, could have done to stop them.

[FlakJacket]

No country writeup/SoLA draft exists for Uruguay since it was decided in development that Uruguay was no longer a sovereign nation in 2064.

You got rid of Uruguay? Bah! I bet JongWK must of loved that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Please. Really, Argentina is one of the two nations I was very much looking for (the other being Amazonia). HAs Argentina swallowed Chile, as it did in CP2020, or does Chile still exist?

As of Third Edition a number of sourcebooks have Chile still around as an independent nation, can't say whether that's changed since the jump to Fourth Edition and I haven't noticed it though.

[Synner]

You got rid of Uruguay? Bah! I bet JongWK must of loved that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Jong was in on the decision and though I'm sure he'd have liked things differently, Uruguay as a source of separatist tension inside the Green Goliath Amazonia was also interesting - particularly when the separatists are supported by Aztechnology, Argentina and Legio...

As of Third Edition a number of sourcebooks have Chile still around as an independent nation, can't say whether that's changed since the jump to Fourth Edition and I haven't noticed it though.

Chile got a full writeup in SoLA as a sovereign nation. As of the Almanac I don't know if Catalyst maintained that.

[SirBedevere]

Many thanks Synner!

[MJBurrage]

Compiled Shadows of Latin America links
(all relevant links from this thread, in the Community Projects section)

Many, many, many thanks to all of the authors (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

^{Updated: 20 December 2010}

[Synner]

That was not the "planned cover" though. It's placeholder art from the SRTCG cards. I might actually have a rough preliminary sketch by an artist on file somewhere.

[Ryu]

Fanboy self is very happy. Much obliged.

[JongWK]

I've talked with the Peruvian authoris, and they are OK with releasing Peru's chapter into the wild. I also have the Crime section, and not enough time this week for both, so... which one do you want first?

[Megu]

I've talked with the Peruvian authoris, and they are OK with releasing Peru's chapter into the wild. I also have the Crime section, and not enough time this week for both, so... which one do you want first?

I'd say Peru. The Cartels' section in Vice should cover crime pretty well in the meantime.

[pbangarth]

Peru, please!

[hermit]

Peru! Though the general sections are pretty nice, too.

[SirBedevere]

Peru please. Though I too am looking forward to the other sections. Thanks very much to the author(s) for allowing the releases.

It has been difficult to set runs in South America with not much info about the place. Though one memorable run in Argentina involved three spirits of Man each claiming to be Eva Peron!

[Snow_Fox]

the area around Montivideo harbor and the River Platte is what I'm interested in. among other things it's a part of the ocean that is supposed to be fresh water.