[X] My Assistant

[Sengir]

Cool. SOX was a what, several years ago or more now? Have they continued to use a mostly closed pool of posters for the Helix since then, ala Jackpoint?

According to the imprint SOX is from 2007, one of the last Fanpro books. The only other German-only book (the translated ones keep Jackpoint) I have is Berlin, which has two logins: Panoptikum for the corporate side, Arachnet for the anarchists. So you'll probably have to ask somebody in the loop if such a list exists and if it survived the change of publishers

[CrowOfPyke]

I saw the full color glossy book at GenCon. It's very nice, a very well produced book. This combined with Spy Games book and the Runner's Toolkit... and the new set of convention only SR dice... and the nice full color SRM Season Four modules. Catalyst has be doing A LOT of really great work for Shadowrun over the past year since GenCon 2010.

As for Street Legends, it looks like a great source book for high level campaigns - allies and antagonists, possible competitors. It could also be used in a low level new campaign as a source of Mr. Johnson's or mentors/contacts.

Did I mention how good the Runner's Toolkit is already? It's good, very good. I might go so far as to say awesome.

[Bull]

According to the imprint SOX is from 2007, one of the last Fanpro books. The only other German-only book (the translated ones keep Jackpoint) I have is Berlin, which has two logins: Panoptikum for the corporate side, Arachnet for the anarchists. So you'll probably have to ask somebody in the loop if such a list exists and if it survived the change of publishers

Ok, cool.

And yeah, Berlin was BRILLIANT. Jan had a copy with him at Gen Con (Along with Blut & Spiele and a couple other german books), and I loved the idea of the dual-POV book. Having it be a "Flip" book is a fantastic idea.

(For those that haven't seen it, Berlin is apparently a split city, partly corp controlled, partly anarchist controlled. Half the Berlin book is written from the Corp POV, and faces one way. If you turn the book over, the other side if the Anarchist POV with a different cover and the pages face the opposite direction.)

I would really, truly love to see some of these books translated into ENglish, as I mentioned. Shame that's not likely anytime soon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Bull

[hermit]

Thanks for the reply! We have a couple German Freelancers in the CGL Discussion Pool (AAS, and at least one other I think).

I know Lars Blumenstein said he is on the CGL freelancer board. He is also fairly close to Hamelmann and other long-time German freelancers. Also, at least at one point you had a bunch more, but there seem to have been certain artistic differences there.

I think they dropped the Helix, though, for the sake of Panopticon/Arachnet. At least AAS is dedicated to these on the official in-game boards (or was when I read them). Can't say anything for certain, maybe they just alternate logins according to what makes sense for the books and adds flavor. The new German stuff is quite spicy, you gotta hand them that. Maybe you should try and publish the translated German-only weapons and cars (from, I dunno, 2006?). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Also, there seems to be a quite different Runner's Blackbook brewing there, or at least there should be; after all, they already added some of the PDF content to other books, like Fronteinsatz (the translated War), in an effort to make it look like worth buying (I still hope they ordered a minimal print run, for the sake of Pegasus).

And yeah, Berlin was BRILLIANT. Jan had a copy with him at Gen Con (Along with Blut & Spiele and a couple other german books), and I loved the idea of the dual-POV book. Having it be a "Flip" book is a fantastic idea.

(For those that haven't seen it, Berlin is apparently a split city, partly corp controlled, partly anarchist controlled. Half the Berlin book is written from the Corp POV, and faces one way. If you turn the book over, the other side if the Anarchist POV with a different cover and the pages face the opposite direction.)

Yup. The writeup also carefully retcons previous Berlin fluff, while reworking it into something not as horrible. Still not my favourite setting, but usable and with an interesting twist to the usual Feral City.

As for the book's overall quality, consider it was my personal hate pet before War, and the new book would rank among my top ten books ever. For some perspective (and I read into it in the FLGS expecting to rip it a new one, despite knowing AAS' fanwork, and liking much of it, because that deviated from the original fluff far more and I expected most of it to be shot down). Just for some perspective. Even the special edition is worth it's rather steep (€39,90 = $57,56) price. B/W print, bound hardcover, silver lining, flipover book (which indeed goes very well with the concept and from what I heared as Blumenstein's original idea for another Berlin book during FanPro days).

Blut&Spiele (which uses Panoptikum as a login page) has a slightly less impressive layout, slightly lower but still steep price (€34,95 = $50,35), and comparable overall quality, with great attention to detail in the sourcebook section, and Brawl-related adventures. Oh, and boy is Urban Brawl rigged. Curious what their upcoming Adventures book will be like.

If interested, I can put up a full, detailed review of the Rhein-Ruhr book when it's out, which seems to be soon-ish.

I would really, truly love to see some of these books translated into ENglish, as I mentioned. Shame that's not likely anytime soon

More's the pity. 2E/3E German books and Add-Ons were very 'ymmv' to just crap, though they significantly picked up after Germany II, but these are far better than the main line right now.

A "How Do I German?" pdf release might be in order too, with things covered like ethnic population makeup (it is not what you may think it is in the sprawls, especially Berlin). Well, depends on sales projections, I guess. Of course, there's always the possibility of a fanslation, if someone feels inclined to.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

What I mean was, regarding the original discussion, Lugh Surehand doesn't look like an Inuit.

Maybe not, but he sure looks like an Elf? So, What Culture is he exactly? You know, because all elves look alike to me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[CanRay]

Cop 1: "Was he Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, African, Indian, AmerIndian?"

Witness: "I don't know, all them damned keeblers look alike to me."

*Cop 1 looks at his elven partner*: "So he looked like him?"

Witness: "Nah, he wasn't a cop. I can spot those a mile away. He was a crook."

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Cop 1: "Was he Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, African, Indian, AmerIndian?"

Witness: "I don't know, all them damned keeblers look alike to me."

*Cop 1 looks at his elven partner*: "So he looked like him?"

Witness: "Nah, he wasn't a cop. I can spot those a mile away. He was a crook."

Totally. Freaking. Awesome. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well done Canray.

[Neurosis]

Just got done reading Street Legends and had a question. Did the writers change Lugh Silverhand into a regular elf rather than an immortal elf? I am running the artifact series of encounters so I know immortal elves are still in the game but as he is listed he seems a little underpowered for one of the immortal jerk crowd, lol.

Let me field this one.

Textual portion of chapter: Discussion of his elven immortality was omitted by design; IEs are NOT common knowledge, even to the Jackpoint crowd.

Stat block: Looks like I failed to include his Immunity to Age, Poisons, and Pathogens in his Qualities. Human error on my part. I apologize if it caused any confusion.

As for his power level, I had a few goals when statting the character:

* Make him a highly competent politician and magician. (Crizh has already pointed out how I somewhat underdid the latter, but I think the guy is still fairly beastly by any reasonable standard.)
* Create stats that would make him very powerful overall while still leaving room for at least one other metahuman magician (Harlequin) to be significantly better than him.

Everyone's opinions of what "Power Level" is vary. In my opinion, Lugh is extremely powerful as written. Your mileage may certainly vary.

In any case, I did not intend to actually change what flavor of dandelion eater he is. : )

[Glyph]

It sounds fine, to me. I've never gotten the whole immortality = superhuman thing. So they've lived thousands of years. Will they really remember any significant amount of it? Yeah, their long lives should mean they have a wide variety of skills, and they should be pretty high in initiate grade, and they should have significant resources to call upon.

I don't think it makes them underpowered if they are vulnerable to the most elite of shadowrunners, who are pretty elite to begin with. I think you did it exactly right if you made his stats internally consistent with what he is supposed to be good at. I would rather have stats that make sense, than stats that seem designed solely to make the character impervious to the most powerful of PCs.

[hermit]

Seems like this book was a bit rushed, because the errors like Neurosis admitted should all have been caught during proofing. I assume this absolutly had to be out for GenCon?

I've never gotten the whole immortality = superhuman thing.

Well, given how Karma works, it make perfect sense. Think about how much Karma your character earns in an ingame year, and multiply this by, say, 8000. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Sengir]

So they've lived thousands of years.

Well, they didn't just live, they survived thousands of years full of Horrors and other things which don't care about your immunity to age, pathogens, and poisons. So any IE still around in the 2070s is either really lucky or has to be a mean motherfucker (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[hermit]

I don't think it makes them underpowered if they are vulnerable to the most elite of shadowrunners, who are pretty elite to begin with.

Of course it does. They're a whole different league of power compared to "the most elite runners", especially those in the book (Rigger X, I'm looking at you). Well, except maybe Brane Deigh, who is about Thorne's age. Oh, and they'd need metamagics that are unique, like "summon Wild Hunt", and be blood mages (all IE practiced heavy blood magic at one point, because early in the 4th world that was the way to go for everyone; again, exempting Brane Deigh, possibly).

[CanRay]

Well, they didn't just live, they survived thousands of years full of Horrors and other things which don't care about your immunity to age, pathogens, and poisons. So any IE still around in the 2070s is either really lucky or has to be a mean motherfucker (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Don't forget the minor parts of history that the Fifth World was going through as well.

I rather highly doubt Harlequin was kicking back in South America while WWII was going on.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Of course it does. They're a whole different league of power compared to "the most elite runners", especially those in the book (Rigger X, I'm looking at you). Well, except maybe Brane Deigh, who is about Thorne's age. Oh, and they'd need metamagics that are unique, like "summon Wild Hunt", and be blood mages (all IE practiced heavy blood magic at one point, because early in the 4th world that was the way to go for everyone; again, exempting Brane Deigh, possibly).

Not all IE's were alive in the 4th Age though.

[Stormdrake]

For most of Lugh Surehands stats I had no issue. What I was curious about and the author has already responded to is the lack of qualities and his initiate rating.

If you take into account the IE's inability to initiate during the down cycle (no magic) his magic/initiate stat is not really underpowered. Most of his and other IE's magic/initiate stats would have been from the last magic cycle. To my way of thinking the higher you get, the longer it takes to hit the next grade.

Also as for the IE's knowing each other (at least the really old ones) they all were members of the elvish court that ended up becoming Thorn Elves (Earth Dawn reference) through the afore mentioned heavy use of blood magic. This is mentioned in one of the novels (the name escapes me at the moment) were their former queen approuches them to warn them of the return of the Horrors.

Another usless fact; the Immortal Elves (according to Earth Dawn) are yet another failed attempt by the Great Dragons to create a loyal servator race. In this case by breeding with metahumanity. For some reason, the elvish half breeds are the only ones to have survived to the sixth world. It may have something to do with the fact that they staged a revolt, stole the lands of their father dragon and founded the elvish court which later became Thornwood.

I say they were the only half breeds to survive but the German source books do mention Immortal Dwarves so it is possible IE's are not the only ones with the immortal gene. In any case it explains the rather heated antagonism between IE's and GD's.

[CanRay]

I can just imagine how that experiment was discussed:

"You got to be kidding? With the lesser races? BESTIALITY?" "It would give them..." "I'll say it again for the slow of thoughtmind, BEST-I-AL-I-TY!" "Well, um..." "You didn't." "Sorta kinda, yeah." "That is beyond disgusting. I mean, they don't even have SCALES!"

[Stahlseele]

I say they were the only half breeds to survive but the German source books do mention Immortal Dwarves so it is possible IE's are not the only ones with the immortal gene. In any case it explains the rather heated antagonism between IE's and GD's.

And Hwaldos rears it's little head again O.o

[hermit]

Not all IE's were alive in the 4th Age though.

As I said, except Brane Deigh. Lugh was active during the down cycle, it's fairly certain he was active before, because they effectively stop being elves in mana-drained times. And Frosty, I must add.

I rather highly doubt Harlequin was kicking back in South America while WWII was going on.

No, he was in America at that time, dodging the draft and high on Absinthe with fellow junkie Aina.

And Hwaldos rears it's little head again O.o

The idea of more immortals than just elves and dragons has always been interesting for me. The execution in Hvaldos, though ... WAY too DSA.

Also as for the IE's knowing each other (at least the really old ones) they all were members of the elvish court that ended up becoming Thorn Elves (Earth Dawn reference) through the afore mentioned heavy use of blood magic. [...]

I say they were the only half breeds to survive[.]

Actually, no, even discounting the German additions to canon (there's more crazy you probably have not heared of, like the Austrian Immortals below Vienna and the Negamages that somehow were created by someone to kill immortal elves, for instance, or the plummed serpent/western dragon crossbreed). The Elven Court is those whose story we followed, and certainly the biggest concentration of them. There were others, though, in Sereatha (Erhan, Harley) and Shosara (though this has never been made official, it is likely the German elf state elves are from there somehow). And then there's Urdli from Australia, and the Heavenherds, who also have immortal elves and used to be Thera's elite (who might or might not be connected).

[Stahlseele]

And Smurfs. Don't forget the Smurfs.

[hermit]

Of course, there's a Saxonian metavariant of dwarfs who have blue skin. Querxes are a Saxonian/Anhaltine legend, though, so they didn't just make that shit up. I think they are not supposed to be blue, though.

[Neurosis]

Seems like this book was a bit rushed, because the errors like Neurosis admitted should all have been caught during proofing. I assume this absolutly had to be out for GenCon?

I'm not going to throw my fellow writers/proofreaders under the bus here; suffice to say the lesson learned was that I need to rely more on my own internal editing and less on the proofing process to catch mistakes and/or omissions.

If it helps at all I do help on posting some unofficial errata for a few of my chapters on the official forums once I get it all compiled. (I know other writers have done the same in the past, at least Critias has.)

If you take into account the IE's inability to initiate during the down cycle (no magic) his magic/initiate stat is not really underpowered. Most of his and other IE's magic/initiate stats would have been from the last magic cycle. To my way of thinking the higher you get, the longer it takes to hit the next grade.

That what was I was thinking; I was also trying to sort of emphasize that developing his magical abilities had not been Lugh Surehand's primary/sole focus throughout most of his lifetime.

I rather highly doubt Harlequin was kicking back in South America while WWII was going on.

Really? That's exactly where I picture him. Under a sunshade sipping pina coladas. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Sengir]

And Hwaldos rears it's little head again O.o

If they want a subterranean kingdom in the RRP book, I hope Pegasus will rather revisit the old Grubenwehr story...that idea always struck a chord with me

[Stahlseele]

Writer Errata is allways welcome, as the writer is the only one who knows what the intent was . .

As for the subterranean kingdom: very much yes please! ^^

[Grinder]

Lugh was active during the down cycle, it's fairly certain he was active before, because they effectively stop being elves in mana-drained times.

Lugh isn't one of the old Wym Wood/ Bloodwood dudes?

[hermit]

Lugh isn't one of the old Wym Wood/ Bloodwood dudes?

Oakforest is, Lugh, I do not know. IIRC he is a City of the Spires guy, like Erhan and Harlequin.

That what was I was thinking; I was also trying to sort of emphasize that developing his magical abilities had not been Lugh Surehand's primary/sole focus throughout most of his lifetime.

Yeah, though IEs should have unique metatechniques (astral gateway, invoke Wild Hunt, pattern magic have been described in fluff, and basically, everything in the medium and upper (4+) circles in ED is fair game), and definitly all know sacrificial and self-damaging blood magic as a baseline. Just a nitpick, as I would handle one. And Immunity (age, toxins, pathogens), though it should be noted that while toxins have little effect on them, drugs have normal effects. I'd refer to Aina but she was killed in a half-sentence last I heared. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)