The Great CGL Rumors and Speculation Thread Options

[emouse]

Heh. I was at the Colemans' house this fall and it was amazingly free of extensions.

Not saying this is the case here, it's just an amusing aside...

A local guy wanted to knock down his house and rebuild on the same land. Local authorities wouldn't issue the needed permits to do so, but they would issue permits for remodeling and adding to the structure.

So he had 'extensions' built all around his house, essentially a larger shell around the existing house. He then 'remodeled' the inside extensively.

[kjones]

Yeah, I thought better of it.

[Stahlseele]

Ah, yes, following the law BY THE LETTER instead of by the meaning.
I'd probably have torn down one half of the house and rebuilt that one to my liking, then repeat on the other half.
It's the same with my old grandfathers old axe. He switched out both blade and handle more times than i can remember, but it's still my old grandfathers old axe.

[Sengir]

Irony: Shadowrun players offering to donate money to a corporation on news of internal corruption.

Not corruption, but something between mismanagement ("right, we have this bunch of cash here...where does that belong?") and blatant embezzlement. Neither those extremes nor anything in between increase my confidence that the powers that be can sort out this mess - which is not CGL's problem, but the same will be true for potential financiers...

[tete]

But I think what would really do it for me is if the SR stat/skill rules were altered just slightly such that instead of 6 being the "highest possible in a stat/skill ever" (baring genetic aptitueds, etc) it was more like 12. Then your starting "one 6 or 2 fives, all else 4" means that at best you're only half as good (at a skill) as you potentially could be (baring genetic aptitueds, etc).

/tangent

That is what Ubiquiity (Hollow Earth Expidition & Desolation) does. Frankly I think Ubiquity rocks! It takes the best of Shadowrun and Storyteller and mixes in some d20 influence along with thier own house rules and twists becoming the system I really love to play.

[olddogtree]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but who is Frank Trollman, and why would he know this?

[Stahlseele]

Frank?
Frank is one of the ex freelancers who felt he was treated badly by CGL and quit.
He is a bit of an ass and certainly pretty condescending about much stuff. Arrogant.
But i like that about him actually. And he usually knows the stuff he bothers to talk about.
Also the guy who started this here thread.
Actually, we thought he would not be posting here anymore. Hasn't done so in over one year i think.
But i guess he felt this was important enough to leave his exile for some time.

[kzt]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but who is Frank Trollman, and why would he know this?

Frank is an ex-freelancer. Extremely smart guy, has demonstrated a really good feel for the SR world and seeing what the rules imply about the world. Highly opinionated too about what is wrong. It would be interesting if Frank was the line developer for SR, but almost certainly wouldn't work out. He's now in med school in Prague. He's apparently still owed money for work he did back when he was a freelancer.

[Stahlseele]

Frank is an ex-freelancer. Extremely smart guy, has demonstrated a really good feel for the SR world and seeing what the rules imply about the world. Highly opinionated too about what is wrong. It would be interesting if Frank was the line developer for SR, but almost certainly wouldn't work out. He's now in med school in Prague. He's apparently still owed money for work he did back when he was a freelancer.

Frank as . . oh god . . It would be highly detailed and a lot more realistic and cohesive in itself . . but it would also be a lot more detailed, realistic and cohesive in itself <.<

[Kid Chameleon]

Not saying this is the case here, it's just an amusing aside...

Hehe, well it's not even completed yet, so I have no idea why someone would even float such a rumor.

[Cheops]

But I think what would really do it for me is if the SR stat/skill rules were altered just slightly such that instead of 6 being the "highest possible in a stat/skill ever" (baring genetic aptitueds, etc) it was more like 12. Then your starting "one 6 or 2 fives, all else 4" means that at best you're only half as good (at a skill) as you potentially could be (baring genetic aptitueds, etc).

Or go back to SR3 like I am doing. Skill 5 is professional and 9+ is world class. Variable TN makes it possible to actually challenge someone with a big dice pool.

[Freejack]

Or.... Shadowtalk? ;P

Well, it's just a blog. Now Jackpoint.net is a project (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Carl

[Dwight]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but who is Frank Trollman, and why would he know this?

Frank Trollman is a man who marches to the beat of his own drum...a drum which is actually a set of bagpipes.

[Stahlseele]

Frank is a great guy.
Not a too much of a nice guy, but a great guy nonetheless.

[Dumori]

Yeah I respected Frank and tbh I was sad to see him leave DS. Just cos he says things some people don't like about SR dose not mean hes evil or a troll as much as his name would imply.

[Method]

I thought for years that "Trollman" was just his Dumpshock moniker, and then I saw it in print and realized that was his last name.

Frank is a good guy and a talented game designer, but its telling that he hasn't posted here in many moons, except to herald the "demise" of CGL... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Method]

Double Post

[hobgoblin]

Or go back to SR3 like I am doing. Skill 5 is professional and 9+ is world class. Variable TN makes it possible to actually challenge someone with a big dice pool.

depends, do one inflate the TN just to make it hard on the high pool char, or is there some in game reason for the inflation? if its the former, thats basically making the goal narrow or wide depending on who has the ball.

[hobgoblin]

Yeah I respected Frank and tbh I was sad to see him leave DS. Just cos he says things some people don't like about SR dose not mean hes evil or a troll as much as his name would imply.

well, when combined with a posting style that make sand paper smooth as silk, the end result is somewhat flammable...

[Black Jack Rackh...]

well, when combined with a posting style that make sand paper smooth as silk, the end result is somewhat flammable...

Even though he doesn't know it, I still owe him a beer for all that his posts have taught me about SR (even and especially when I didn't agree with his conclusions).

Mark

EDIT: Oh and add my name to the list of freelancers still owed (at least it will be when/if the next round of pdf and book releases come round).

[Method]

Just re-read a few pages back....

Congrats Bull! So much for DDH then?

And does that mean John Dunn is moving up the chain? Wasn't he Missions coordinator?

[hobgoblin]

Even though he doesn't know it, I still owe him a beer for all that his posts have taught me about SR (even and especially when I didn't agree with his conclusions).

i guess thats basically an effect of digging into the rules and math to prove him wrong. While that work, i wonder if it puts to much focus on the "game" aspect of things.

not that i am much fan of the people that focus to much of the resulting story either. I guess i am the kind of person that want to dig into the character and world.

[Dwight]

i guess thats basically an effect of digging into the rules and math to prove him wrong. While that work, i wonder if it puts to much focus on the "game" aspect of things.

not that i am much fan of the people that focus to much of the resulting story either. I guess i am the kind of person that want to dig into the character and world.

Playing the game is a different thing than designing rules for the game. Game designers dig into the rules so you don't have to to explore the character and the world.

Like Black Jack, I have more than once been driven back to SR books to see how exactly Frank managed to come up with some off-the-wall pronouncement of his. Like the infamous "SR vampires are not creatures but colonies of individual single cell microbes acting with a hive mind".


"200 hits of acid is just too much acid" - Rex Murphy

[Cheops]

depends, do one inflate the TN just to make it hard on the high pool char, or is there some in game reason for the inflation? if its the former, thats basically making the goal narrow or wide depending on who has the ball.

It's the later. A normal task is TN 4 while an impossible one is TN 10+. Instead of just requiring more successes to accomplish hard tasks you needed to beat a higher target number. This meant that a high skilled character had better chances of getting a success against a hard target number while also getting tons more successes than an untrained person would get on normal difficulties. Some GMs I had were dicks and made high TNs just to make things more difficult but that is a problem with the table not with the rules. No system yet designed has removed GM dickery. Some try and end up being Player Dickery systems instead (D&D3.5 I'm looking at you!).

[hobgoblin]

No system yet designed has removed GM dickery.

well there are some, but those have all tossed the player, and made everyone a GM with some way to decide who gets to decide the next couple of steps.