JackPoint: The Novel, To the rescue of Hackbaby! Options

[CanRay]

Did he? I never realized he actually found her.

It's mentioned... Somewhere. Vice, I think.

[ggodo]

It's mentioned... Somewhere. Vice, I think.

uh, may I ask who?

[Doc Chase]

It's mentioned... Somewhere. Vice, I think.

Haven't picked Vice up yet. Explains why I didn't hear anything.

[Doc Chase]

Yeah. Brackhaven is too big a tool for the universe at the moment. You just KNOW he'll be going after the oval office again.

Charisma Associates Public Relations Specialist "Michael Fredrick Overton", on the other hand, may end up in the "Too stupid to live" section if he finds out who Hackbaby is through various means at his disposal, and attempts to blackmail JackPoint again, after The Exchange has already done so. Karma is a bitch, and the JackPoint will be owed heavily at the Karma Bank as far as The Exchange is concerned, especially as they failed in protecting their primary interest...

Mister Overton, I think, will transition from Sinister Secretary to Well-Intentioned Extremist if/when he finds out just who Hackbaby is. I don't really see a problem with Horizon trying to play the long game and planting a TM potentate in the family of one of the most influential households in the Seattle area. One that's very public. One fraught with controversy. One that has Charisma Associates there to engender goodwill, and to convince Brackhaven to make a very public, very ironclad statement that he loves his child no matter what...

Also been thinking, some of the chapters should be written in a chatroom style, with the characters popping onto the JackPoint at various times, and all the authors involved actually RPing as the characters. Have it be fluid and dynamic, like a RL chat. Give a bit of reality to the characters. Slamm-0! and NetCat calling an emergency meeting of the JackPoint members about the missing Hackbaby, and The Exchange butting into the FastJack-Approved secured chat room to give the ultimatum and promise of significant karmetic reward for the destruction of the MCT Rose Gardens. Which, knowing this group, would have them hitting the chatroom flamethrowers pretty hard and heavy until cooler heads, probably FastJack, pointing out, "This is just another Shadowrun. The Johnson just screwed us before the 'Run rather than after for once. Let's get it done, and may $Deity have mercy upon The Exchange if they screw us, because we sure as frag will have none!".

Not sure how the flow would look with this. It's one thing I'd like to avoid - packing a chapter with too many characters makes it too busy and difficult to read. Packing a book with same gets you A Song of Ice and Fire (but without as many named characters dying). Perhaps two sample chapters. One being the traditional manner, one being the chatroom style you're suggesting - then we take a look, and offer them up with the outline. If it whets their appetite, it's one step closer.

[CanRay]

Not sure how the flow would look with this. It's one thing I'd like to avoid - packing a chapter with too many characters makes it too busy and difficult to read. Packing a book with same gets you A Song of Ice and Fire (but without as many named characters dying). Perhaps two sample chapters. One being the traditional manner, one being the chatroom style you're suggesting - then we take a look, and offer them up with the outline. If it whets their appetite, it's one step closer.

Yeah. One chapter written in a Chatrooom style, of Slamm-0! calling in the Posse to find Hackbay... When The Exchange walks in as if FastJack didn't even have security on the JackPoint to "explain" the situation, stating that a Shadowrun needs to be done.

The first and most important link being given as a set of GPS Co-Ordinates that direct to... A nondescript, and slowly falling apart supertanker.

"Your reward will be the return of your child, unharmed, and a major increase in said child's karmetic destiny. Follow the chain, break the chain. A simple enough task for people such as yourselves."

And is gone.

[ggodo]

Who'd Kane find? What subplot am I missing?

[CanRay]

Who'd Kane find? What subplot am I missing?

IIRC, Kane's character started out as a CAS Armed Forces type (Don't know which branch) whose op was denied while he and his wingwoman was in Aztlan. She was captured, he wasn't.

As he was now SINless, and had all that "Honor, Duty, Loyalty" that the military gives you basically turned into complete and utter drek, he went from Ice Cold to Pink Mohawk. Funding his search of his Wingwoman in Aztlan with piracy and Shadowruns. This was explained in a 2nd or 3rd Edition book I saw in my FLGS way back when, and stuck in my head.

He finally found her sometime, and IIRC, it was stated he did in Vice, but not when. They mentioned a name, but I don't remember it. It was in the "Time Out" room of ShadowLand for breaking the rules or some such.

[ggodo]

Gotcha, I'm missing a lot of the character specific info for earlier than 4, but I've got a fairly firm grasp of major events.

[CanRay]

Well, folks are starting to e-mail me a few items. Not exactly sure how I'll be able to use them. Still have to wait to see if Shadowrun Novels even get off the ground again or not...

I think there is something about punching people in the neck if it doesn't start getting forward momentum by GenCon Indy.

[Doc Chase]

Lay them out and we'll see what we can do.

There's the possibility that an outline by chapter could always be done, get a rough idea of how many pages book one is going to be.

[ggodo]

So, Where do we go from here?

[Xahn Borealis]

Incidentally, I love how a little comment from me has now become practically canon in the name of Hackbaby. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

Yeah, going to be a major pain thanking everyone for the little contributions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Where we go from here is probably a start and finish of the first series of stories. At this point, any major planning might end up with us getting a C&D, like the Shadowrun MMO had gotten.

Yeah yeah, I know, CGL/Topps isn't like M$. But IPs are "You protect them, or you lose them" from a legal standpoint. Right now, we're doing fan work, which Topps has granted legally in a disclaimer. Thing is, we're dealing directly with the IP characters, we go too far... Not so good.

Also, with people from CGL on the Dumpshock forums, it would be difficult to say, "Hey, we didn't know!" to a Judge when other proof can be given. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) So I'm trying to run that razor's edge of "Let's work on a proposal" and "Let's get this done".

[Xahn Borealis]

In terms of finish, I think there should be a big change. I think we should have a death. Someone important. Maybe someone from a certain VPN run by a certain decker (being subtle so as not to invite C&D's).
And of course, this being a chronicle of the shadows, there will be revenge.

[warrior_allanon]

we need an irc channel to talk and work together some on this as well, a ooc and an ic channel, and i have to say i'm mentally seeing the full VR representation of a chatroom as the aforementioned meeting takes place.

[Sixgun_Sage]

If a major character dies my vote is for Kane, he's a figure that you have to have strong feelings about one way or another and it would give the other Jackpointers a chance to look back on him from a differant perspective. That can give a bit more.... nuance to the character, flesh him out posthumously and interject some scenes from the past in to the story to anchor it more completely in the setting than just using the IP characters might. I really do wish I could offer more help on this but I'm up to my eyeballs in my own little projects.

[Winter]

Longtime lurker, chiming in here.

As a suggestion, you could have some stories deal with runs in other sprawls, other countries, perhaps gathering information/invoices for the creation/commission/docking of the Event Horizon? For example, cut to a group of runners in Hong Kong, during their unrelated run, they find invoices by MCT retrofitting an old tanker. Not sure what they have, they grab the invoices, which get sold to a fixer, who knows a guy, who sells/favors them to one of the main protagonists...

[CanRay]

The idea we're currently going with (Remember, work in progress, this might turn into "Hello Kitty Island Adventure 3" at any time!) is that the Event Horizon is the only place that has the locations where it's docked, all other records destroyed, if not actively never made in the first place. The rest of the sites would then be assaulted by an international team of different Shadowrunners set up by the JackPoint alumni. Either with them in charge (For the more militant types) or hiring services (For the fixers and like.).

Also, "Death" does not always mean "Change", "Life" can mean it as well. Shadowrun has shown time and again that "Anyone Can Die" (No TVTropes for you! End of the line!). Maybe we can use this as the reason that they're able to find Captain Chaos in all his insanity. Or perhaps a major blow happens to change the opinions of people. Or nothing happens at all except Hackbaby comes home and the team goes on an International Bender in celebration.

[Doc Chase]

Yeah, going to be a major pain thanking everyone for the little contributions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Where we go from here is probably a start and finish of the first series of stories. At this point, any major planning might end up with us getting a C&D, like the Shadowrun MMO had gotten.

Yeah yeah, I know, CGL/Topps isn't like M$. But IPs are "You protect them, or you lose them" from a legal standpoint. Right now, we're doing fan work, which Topps has granted legally in a disclaimer. Thing is, we're dealing directly with the IP characters, we go too far... Not so good.

Also, with people from CGL on the Dumpshock forums, it would be difficult to say, "Hey, we didn't know!" to a Judge when other proof can be given. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) So I'm trying to run that razor's edge of "Let's work on a proposal" and "Let's get this done".

This isn't for the purpose of writing the novel itself, but for the creation of a viable proposal for an anthology of Shadowrun fiction novels / a forward change in canon that may have an adverse effect on the remainder of 4E.

CGL folk who post here are a blessing and a curse - they may see what we do and like it, and reccomend the proposal to whichever arm deals with it, or they can lambast us rabid fans for fanning and torpedo the project. I don't think they'd do that, but we may get lucky and they would give a better idea if this kind of proposal would even fly. Since we haven't really seen these guys in a novel setting, I suppose it remains to be seen.

[CanRay]

Thus why I'm trying to be careful to keep this at the "Fan Wank" level. They, legally, can't nail us for that. Topps has given a full disclaimer about fan sites and permission to use the universe in that.

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, let's keep the ideas flowing, but realize that this is going to take a few months at the very least, and we'll have to adopt a "Wait and See" policy on what happens with the novels, and who CGL puts in charge of the novel line.

[Doc Chase]

Yes. Short of actual writing (besides two sample chapters), we can outline the anthology and see if they pick it up.

[Xahn Borealis]

"Fan Wank"

Stop saying that! I'm easily confused!

[Xahn Borealis]

Double the post, double the fun.

[CanRay]

Stop saying that! I'm easily confused!

Damned teenagers, no attention spa... OH SHINY!

OK, outline: Chapter One: The Theft of HackBaby.

Chapter Two: Slamm-0! and NetCat are the worst parents ever!

Chapter Three: In-Character Online Chat between JackPoint members. Everyone is downright slotted off something fierce. The Exchange walks in like it owns the VPN, and tells them the deal. FastJack calms everyone down enough to point out, "It's just another Shadowrun, the Johnson just screwed us first, rather than last."

Chapter Four: (Moral) Event Horizon: Hard Exit comes up with a brilliant, Ice Cold plan for Kane and his crew. Kane goes Pink Mohawk and changes the plan to include pyrotechnics and heavy metal, along with taking the ship instead of just the paydata. Hints to the "Rose Garden" are found onboard, bad enough to make a Somali Pirate yarf.

Sound like a good start?

[Xahn Borealis]

Damned teenagers, no attention spa... OH SHINY!

I'll get back to you on that.