Yakut Shuffle: questions, ideas, criticism Options

[Backgammon]

Not so much as spies as... well rounded agents. Enforcers. Boots on the ground. Doers. They are versatile, and that's useful.

[Fatum]

Okay, this is about how I see the first volume.

[Fatum]

Added an intro piece (I'd honestly like your opinions on it, guys). Now it just lacks the maps (I've messaged fexes, but so far without a reply), and I'm thinking of adding a stats blocks section to it. Like, Volume 1 will have wild animal stats, background counts and such; Volume 2 will have typical combatant stats, and Volume 3 will have weaponry stats. Then it just needs a few editing pass-overs, and the Volume 1 is about done.
The Volume 2 is actually close to completion, as well, I just want to add a few pieces here and there in the Yakut section, and stick the aforementioned statblocks in.
The Volume 3 will have an account of actual war, a GM section on using the book (both need to be written), and the aforementioned weapons section (needs to be heavily overhauled).

[Fatum]

So, about those critter stats. I've browsed the books available to me, and arrived at some 69 canonically statted critters. Ffs.

[Fatum]

First, I've separated the draft of the second volume.
Second, I've incorporated some info from Vladivostok Gauntlet into the first volume, like Oksana Kovalenko winning the Vory war in Vladivostok, and I also made tiny additions here and there, like expanding the bit on the industry of Irkutsk and adding more info on "walled cities" in Moscow.
Third, I've rewritten the section on Yakutian shapeshifters in the second volume, expanding it and providing space for incorporating the canonic Wolf King by mentioning wolf shifters possessing their own hierarchy with a distinct leader. Also wrote in Ulric Bezyzvestnykh from RC.
Finally, I see that the reader interest level by now is around zero, and as the new edition develops, the number of people needing my work will be lower and lower still. Which means that it's high time to finish it up.

[Fatum]

Added a single page write up of Sagan Zaba into Volume II, there is precious little info on it.

[Fatum]

Added intro fiction for the second book, and I have a pretty solid idea of what the intro piece for the third will look like.

[Fatum]

Wrote up the intro for Volume III. Haven't uploaded since the volume is not even really started, and the part on stats will require a lot of manual work to carry over between documents I fear.

[Fatum]

Statted up Shono from Vol II intro for the NPC stats section there. Tried to make him a playable 400BP character.

[Fatum]

Split off the Volume III.
Added aforementioned intro fiction and a small GMing section with some ideas on what shadowrunners can do in the army without dying too fast to what was in the original draft already.

[Fatum]

Expanded the GMing section in V III with a couple of paragraphs on POWs liberation and pilots search-n-rescue work for the runners.
Added a lidar chemical detector system and a medium plane to the Red Army section.
Started writing the description of the war itself as an IC account from a subscription-only crisis center, but haven't gotten too far yet.

[Fatum]

Wrote up statblock descriptions in Volume II, and also a few small fluff tidbits on Kronstadt, UGB, etc. Will upload later today.

[Fatum]

Okay, this whole Crimean ordeal really put me off my stride, so I'm afraid my SR activity will be on hold for a while.

[Fatum]

Well, at least we can now see how good omnipresent cybereyes and commlinks will be for gathering objective info about a war. Nowadays everyone has a phone with a vidcam in their pocket, but what's going on in Ukraine is barely documented.
"Well they downed a copter over there, a couple kilometers away. Look, smoke!"

[Fatum]

Wrote up the local magical traditions, including Communist Red Magic and Yakutian White and Black shamanism.

[Fatum]

As I've bragged on main, I have commissioned covers for all three volumes: first, second, and third incoming.
I have also drawn a map of Moscow.

[Fatum]

Third cover.

[Tias]

I decided to have a go at the "Nagant revolver": Use, re-write or discard at your leisure.

M2016B

The Nagant M1895 Revolver, with its gas seal and seven shots, were one of the most enduring status symbols of the original Soviet Union, the final copies not retiring until 2003 where the last members of PSB (Postal Security Service) handed in their revolvers. It is fitting then, that scores of its modern inheritor now roll off the workshops at Tula & Izhevsk every year.

The M2016 was originally designed in 2016 (thus the designation) back before the rise of the Neo-Soviets, as a collectors item for imperialist policlubbers and soviet nostalgia. The design has since been taken up, polished off by a design team at EVO, and now sees action all over the armed forces. Being given a M2016-B embossed with a red star on the shaft is one of the highest honours for apparatchiks in the know.

Using a highly refined version of the original gas seal and holding 8 cartridges, the revolver fires high-velocity, high-power rounds with integral silencing. This means that they're a great hit with spooks, crooked militsiya and well-off criminals alike. An integral smart system and ammo skipper rounds off the design, offering tactical flexibility in the field.


Damage: 7P AP: -2 Mode: SS Ammo 8 (cy). Avail: 9R Cost: 800 ny(sans bribes)

Upgrades: Ammo Skip System, Silenced, Smartlink System.

"Respect, flexible loadout and great fragging holes in the other guy. What's not to love?"
- Commenter A

"It doesn't take speed loaders due to the drek-old loading gate design, and it has a heavy trigger pull. Eh, what are ya gonna do, it was made to be fired by a man."
- Commenter B

"One thing to note is that these are really valued by their (nearly always military-employed) owners, who nearly always upgrade with biometric safeties and even razorblade or poison-injecting safety systems! Not a good mark for those plans needing a throwaway gun."
- Commenter C.

[Fatum]

Who are the Neo-Soviets?

[Tias]

I thought that was inter-changable term for the National Soviet Reconstructionists, change if needed.

E: though it is also before the rise of the DRA, I guess. I just don't know what the govt. was called in 2016, at least not canonically (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

E: Does it bear mentioning that cylinder revolvers with ammo skip don't have to eject rounds to switch ammo type? We should assume people know that already, I think.

[Fatum]

I thought that was inter-changable term for the National Soviet Reconstructionists, change if needed.

E: though it is also before the rise of the DRA, I guess. I just don't know what the govt. was called in 2016, at least not canonically (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yeah, we know remarkably little about that era. Although frankly speaking, we don't even really know the Border Wars history all that well; just that Russia by the 60ies essentially returned to its modern day borders sans Awakened Yakut and the bits the TPA got. For all we know, the Soviet Union could as well not have fallen apart the exact same way it did in real life (and it appears not everyone is content with the way it did even in real life).

E: Does it bear mentioning that cylinder revolvers with ammo skip don't have to eject rounds to switch ammo type? We should assume people know that already, I think.

I believe most people will know it, no need to worry.
Also in what comes to revolvers, I've heard something about an ongoing project to design one that can accept silencers thanks to an intricately sealed cylinder construction; I'm not sure if it's worth including at that point.
In all fairness, it all burns down to three questions for me:
1) Is the new gun iconic or at least interesting, does it add anything of worth to the system that wasn't present before? (See various AK variations for an example of iconic guns, and , say, SPS Glefa for adding value).
2) Can it be statted up reasonably?
3) Is there a fitting picture of it? (For this matter, I'm considering removing the PYa from Volume III: when the old Soviet instruction manuals had drawings for illustrations, the new ones simply use photos, so I can't find a fitting picture).

[Tias]

Considering the massive import the original Nagant had as a status symbol, I'd say it's iconic allright.

Mechanics are not my strong suit, so the statline I posted was mostly a guess. The Nagants strength was allegedly higher damage output/velocity, so I added some damage.

Perhaps one could tart up the original Nagant in photoshop or something..

[Tias]

While technically of the M1895, this linework drawing (on the right-hand side) is beautiful:

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/319...erg-d5l3432.jpg

[Fatum]

I'd sooner go with something like this that'd work with the SR illustration style, and not poly.

[Tias]

I'd sooner go with something like this that'd work with the SR illustration style, and not poly.

There is no set SR illustration style any longer (save for "glitzy + lots of neon", it seems (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ), but I take your point. Perhaps enhancing the M1895 in photoshop would do the trick.