[X] My Assistant

[Neurosis]

I thought the thing you guys did with cerberus/eliohann was an interesting idea.

That chapter was all me, actually. I mean, Jason approved it but...yeah. So blame or praise, I guess, right here. (Well, I mean, look at my user name.)

Haze is listed with an augmented Edge of 7. As in "6 (7)." There is nothing I recall that augments Edge like that. If it's supposed to be from his rating 1 lucky rabbit's foot power focus, it needs to be spelled out in the stat notes.

This was an error inflicted on my revised draft during the layout phase; a similar thing happened to Winterhawk. It made me a sad panda. His Edge should be 4. His Magic should be 6 (7). I know that 6 (7) may technically not be the correct annotation but it seemed the clearest way to indicate his Magic was 6 without the focus and 7 with it. If I had just put '6' or '7' that would kind have left it up to the reader's best guess.

Haze's bit comes off as strange in a document that looks to make mass mrerers and organ traders seem sympathetic. So he mindfucks people. That's probably not very nice, but come on,it's what everyone with an instruction manual and a PAB, or psychotropic programs, personafixes and the like, can do. Yeah, it's an asshole thing to do, but come on, in a community where there are one of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century, a pirate who can one-up Asdrubael Vect in terms of wanton cruelty, several hitmen, and a ghoul who happily sells peoples' organs with the people still being alive, fucking someone up so they kill themselves is something that terrifying? It's okay to murder millions because you're a supernerd and some fucked-up entity whose madness is obvious tells you it's allright, it's okay to sell children to bunraku parlours by the hundreds, it's perfectly fine to blow up uildings, but woe be you if you edit someone's mind? A bit strange coming from that crowd. He's a magical conman specialising in mindfuck. Most on Jackpoint are worse, some even far, far worse, than him. Other than to illustrate Pistons losing it, the article seems a bit pointless in pushing Haze as a villain.

Come on dude, it's Shadowrun in-universe narrative we're talking about here. The point isn't some objective statement that Haze is a bad person, it's that Pistons thinks he is. We're in unreliable narrator city, here. Also, in truth, real life criminals due tend to accord a lot more respect to murderers than they do to (perceived) rapists. But I see your point and I do kind of wish I had had Riser or Kane make it a little bit more obvious in the text, the kind of thing you're saying. My authorial intent certainly was not to say as word of god that Haze is a "villain". Just that he's done some sketchy stuff which has made a lot of enemies with the more squeamish or morally sensitive runners out there.

- Villiers and Lanier have several points of Essence in Deltaware, that's anything but "minimally augmented"

You think Mr. Bonds or even FastJack knows the full extent of either of these guys' augmentations? Another example of in-universe shadowtalk being inaccurate, as it should be. Anyone on Jackpoint would be quite likely to underestimate the personal power of Miles Lanier, and regret it. I mean the guy has been past the point where he needs to kill people himself for many decades, but that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy it.

That said, for the amount of augmentations they have both men have quite a fair bit of Essence remaining.

[Critias]

*OM NOM NOMs on popcorn*

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

This was an error inflicted on my revised draft during the layout phase; a similar thing happened to Winterhawk. It made me a sad panda. His Edge should be 4. His Magic should be 6 (7). I know that 6 (7) may technically not be the correct annotation but it seemed the clearest way to indicate his Magic was 6 without the focus and 7 with it. If I had just put '6' or '7' that would kind have left it up to the reader's best guess.

Except that Foci don't Increase the Magic Attribute in 4th Edition, they add Dice to the Skill pool. Unless there is a new Foci I am unaware of. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Patrick Goodman]

*OM NOM NOMs on popcorn*

Pass some of that over here. *offers a caffeinated beverage in return*

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Pass some of that over here. *offers a caffeinated beverage in return*

Does it have to be Caffeinated? My popcorn just finished popping... *profer's Bowl*

[Patrick Goodman]

It doesn't have to be, I suppose; it's just that most of my offerings are.

[Bull]

Here Patrick, I have a wide variety of Mt. Dew flavors available. Scott Schletz was kind enough to bring me a 12-pack of Mt. Dew Pitch Black (WHich had been almost impossible to find locally), and I had a couple 2 liters of Typhoon stashed (Typhoon & Rum is a tasty combo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ).

As for me? Well... I happen to still have Gurth's Stairs in storage, so I'm pulling them out and dusting off the couches for the freelancers. Come on in boys and girls, the freelancer crack has been refilled. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bull

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

It doesn't have to be, I suppose; it's just that most of my offerings are.

Heh... Water is always good too, you know... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I only comment because I cannot have caffeine. *shrug*

[Grinder]

Ok, we got it.

[Critias]

Given I like the whole neo-Hindu (in-world, pre-Hindu) Paths of the Wheel stuff (and all it's implications), Thorn is an interesting idea. I guess I like him better than I thought I would. Whose PC is he?

Thorn's chapter (and fiction) were mine, but he's not my PC (which is to say he's no one's PC). He's a character from a short fiction piece I threw together many moons ago, that quite a few folks seemed to like but that never went anywhere else (Prayer, in case folks are wondering). The character's basic idea and evolution owe more to Jack Higgins' fun (if sometimes shallow) spy novels than he does any serious Hindu/Tir na nOg philosophies, but I thought it'd be fun to point out the perhaps-hypocritical pattern in how his life's fallen together.

He's also the guy that was the voice for a good chunk of Spy Games, and his reception from that piece earlier in the year is most of what got him into Street Legends. Other freelancers really glommed onto him and used him for lots of shadowtalk throughout SG (one even used him as the writer of the Tel Aviv section), and quite a few fans liked him, too...so, well, I figured I'd go ahead and stat him up, toss him in, and let 'er rip.

[Starglyte]

Thorn is my favorite of the new JackPointers. All in all, other than a couple of entries I was meh about, I thought the book was well done.

[Critias]

Thorn is my favorite of the new JackPointers. All in all, other than a couple of entries I was meh about, I thought the book was well done.

Cool. Glad to hear it!

[Neurosis]

Except that Foci don't Increase the Magic Attribute in 4th Edition, they add Dice to the Skill pool. Unless there is a new Foci I am unaware of. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

In all seriousness, the post that you were quoting when you posted this is in itself the response to this post.

[ggodo]

I'd just like to say that I hate Kellan Colt for nothing else than being in Born to Run, and being a headdeskingly out of place character who is loved by all for her Purity of Heart. I was kinda hoping she had mind altering capabilities. Also she should have Fireball on her list, it was her first spell, after all.

[Critias]

Also she should have Fireball on her list, it was her first spell, after all.

I'll readily admit I never made it all the way through her trilogy to see, but in what I did read of them, I don't remember her ever casting it again. Could be it was just that first random, terrified, angry, manifestation of power (as fire), and she never actually learned the actual spell, I guess.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

In all seriousness, the post that you were quoting when you posted this is in itself the response to this post.

I think that you missed the point I was making. I was replying to your assertion that a Focus added directly to Magic Rating (Thus your annotation of 6(7)). Unfortunately, Foci do not work that way, least of all the Power Focus. THAT was what I was replying to.

No worries though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

I'll readily admit I never made it all the way through her trilogy to see, but in what I did read of them, I don't remember her ever casting it again. Could be it was just that first random, terrified, angry, manifestation of power (as fire), and she never actually learned the actual spell, I guess.

I read the whole trilogy, continually going, "It's gotta get better, it's got to!", then drinking a whole case of brain bleach.

[Fortinbras]

- Puck doesn't have any cyber, not even a datajack
- The guy writing about Puck (Icarus IIRC) casually mentions that both Deus and Pax are still around. The assembled matrix elite of the Sixth Worlds responds with "will it rain, do you think?"

Not only does Puck have no cyber, he has no Echoes either, which is odd, but explainable if he rid himself of all his cyber, got cloned eyes implanted and genetic alteration to replace his lost Essence(the money for which, I guess, he could have gotten if he sold his island) and, in becoming a technomancer, he lost all his otaku Echoes and had to re-learn Matrix immersion.
If you would like a nice juxtaposition, though, check out Puck's creepy picture from Shutdown and compare it to his sad, hands-in-his-pockets picture in Legends.

What is truly unnerving is that Icarus casually mentions that Deus is out there. This is a direct contradiction from Emergence. The God-like AIs were dead, integrated into the Matrix as a whole. That was the point of bringing about non-God like AIs. Letting them be PCs even.
To say that Deus is back should be an Earth shattering revelation which should shake everyone in their boots. Deus' abilities are unlimited in the Matrix, which is why letting him out of the Network or the SCIRE was super scary and now not only is he back, it is generally accepted he is back by everyone on Jackpoint, except maybe Snopes who still isn't quite sure.
Moreover no one is worried about it. Slamm-O! gives him a shout out. The most feared Matrix entity in all of Shadowrun, which needed two other God-like AIs to take him down, the perpetrator of one of the single greatest acts of malevolence in the history of of the world is now back from the dead and this, THIS is the first we are hearing of it.
Not the first the Sixth World is hearing of it, but the first we, the readers are.
It brings up a million questions; everything from "Are Mirage and Magaera back too?" to "What is the nature of the Resonance now that Emergence and Unwired have been ret-con'ed in a single paragraph?"
It's be like finding out, second hand "Oh, and did you know that Gengis Khan is back and this time he has a nuclear bomb?" It's big deal, a VERY big deal and deserves either a dismissal as the ramblings of that nut Icarus which everyone dismissed as crazy or a full explanation somewhere.

That and why did no one mention that Puck is British?

[CanRay]

No one ate his cooking, so they never knew before?

[Grinder]

The picture of "Agent" shows him having an obvious cyberarm that isn't mentioned in his statblock.

[Grinder]

Miles Lanier is taller and weights less than Richard Villiers, yet the picture on pg.159 gives the opposite impression. Bull's picture protrays him as way too slender for a guy who's just about 2 meters tall but clocks in at 159 kilograms.

[Sengir]

Not only does Puck have no cyber, he has no Echoes either, which is odd, but explainable if he rid himself of all his cyber, got cloned eyes implanted and genetic alteration to replace his lost Essence(the money for which, I guess, he could have gotten if he sold his island) and, in becoming a technomancer, he lost all his otaku Echoes and had to re-learn Matrix immersion.

Even provided he was willing and had the funds: With all the stuff high-ranking Whites got he would need years to get back to full Essence, and Revitalization is something completely new in the 2070s.

Also, as with all Jackpointers (who are supposed to be on the network for the unique intel they can provide) his knowledge skills are extremely underwhelming. If memory serves, he as one of Deus' former elite soldiers, knows NOTHING about Otaku, the cult of Deus etc. pp., and knows as much about AIs in general as about Urban Brawl.

If you would like a nice juxtaposition, though, check out Puck's creepy picture from Shutdown and compare it to his sad, hands-in-his-pockets picture in Legends.

Puck's been pictured before? Got a page number for that?

What is truly unnerving is that Icarus casually mentions that Deus is out there. This is a direct contradiction from Emergence. The God-like AIs were dead, integrated into the Matrix as a whole. That was the point of bringing about non-God like AIs. Letting them be PCs even.
To say that Deus is back should be an Earth shattering revelation which should shake everyone in their boots. Deus' abilities are unlimited in the Matrix, which is why letting him out of the Network or the SCIRE was super scary and now not only is he back, it is generally accepted he is back by everyone on Jackpoint, except maybe Snopes who still isn't quite sure.
Moreover no one is worried about it. Slamm-O! gives him a shout out. The most feared Matrix entity in all of Shadowrun, which needed two other God-like AIs to take him down, the perpetrator of one of the single greatest acts of malevolence in the history of of the world is now back from the dead and this, THIS is the first we are hearing of it.
Not the first the Sixth World is hearing of it, but the first we, the readers are.
It brings up a million questions; everything from "Are Mirage and Magaera back too?" to "What is the nature of the Resonance now that Emergence and Unwired have been ret-con'ed in a single paragraph?"

It's be like finding out, second hand "Oh, and did you know that Gengis Khan is back and this time he has a nuclear bomb?" It's big deal, a VERY big deal and deserves either a dismissal as the ramblings of that nut Icarus which everyone dismissed as crazy or a full explanation somewhere.

Yep, that's more or less what I was thinking, too. Although I consider it an extremely stupid error on the writer's part rather than a retconn.

[Patrick Goodman]

Thorn is my favorite of the new JackPointers. All in all, other than a couple of entries I was meh about, I thought the book was well done.

Glad you liked it.

Curiosity compels me to ask: Which entries were you "meh" about?

[Starglyte]

The picture of "Agent" shows him having an obvious cyberarm that isn't mentioned in his statblock.

In the shadow talk on Agent, they mention the possibility that his cyberarm might be fake.

[Starglyte]

Glad you liked it.

Curiosity compels me to ask: Which entries were you "meh" about?

Kellen Colt is my least favorite. The only Shadowrun novel I have ever read to completion was "House of the Sun" ( I couldn't get past 100 pages for Shadowboxer). I guess her entry would be better with having read the novels. The writing is not bad, just the character herself is just not interesting to me. She seems to be to much like Frosty.

Didn't like Yankee, but this is all personal bias against the shadowtalker who provided it ( Riser is one of the Jackpointers who I hope gets a bullet, preferably while mouthing off to someone he shouldn't have). I also thought Yankee was going to be someone else, and was somewhat disappointed it was not that character.

All in all, I hope we see more full color books like this. Hopefully one detailing Tir Tairngire. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)