CMP & PM availability?, When and where can I get them? Options

[Larsine]

So now that the shadowrun4.com is updated, it's quite clear that there is much more than SRM to the Missions.

The SRM I can buy from the usual e-pushers, but where on Earth can I get my hands on the CMP and the PM scenarios?

[cryptoknight]

Good question... I had wanted to do some CMPs for a gaming convention I work with, but Bull seems to be ignoring my PMs on this board and my emails.

[Bull]

Sorry Crypto. Been crazy busy as of late, and messages just tend to get buried (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) Generally if I don't reply within a few days, i missed the email. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

As for CMP availability... I hope to have something to announce soon.

[cryptoknight]

It's no big deal... in this case the convention I'm working with the collective players have no experience with SRM... so I'm running SRM Year 3 at them.

But I've got 4 different cons that are all related... so if I can get the CMP's for years 10, 11 and 12 before September.. I'll have a lot of material to keep the players busy for quite some time...

[Larsine]

Sorry Crypto. Been crazy busy as of late, and messages just tend to get buried (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) Generally if I don't reply within a few days, i missed the email. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

As for CMP availability... I hope to have something to announce soon.

Any idea when "soon" will be?

[Bull]

Sadly, no. They're out of my hands at this point. I've handed things off to various folks to get finished, and it's pretty much a matter of when they can be done and when they can fit into the schedule. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) And with convention season in full swing, the pipeline is clogged to hell and back.

[Critias]

Yeah, what he said.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Shortstraw]

"There are also Convention Missions (CMP) adventures, which are exclusive to conventions that Catalyst and Agents for the Catalyst Demo Team are running events at for the year. These Missions are looser and not tied to a specific location of storyline, and will be made available the following year."

Is this accurate or is someone blowing smoke?

[DWC]

"There are also Convention Missions (CMP) adventures, which are exclusive to conventions that Catalyst and Agents for the Catalyst Demo Team are running events at for the year. These Missions are looser and not tied to a specific location of storyline, and will be made available the following year."

Is this accurate or is someone blowing smoke?

I wouldn't call it 'blowing smoke', since that implies a deliberate attempt to deceive. Only one of the CMPs from 2010 is publicly available, and that's as part of the download of one of the Season 4 Missions which includes it as source material for the GM.

[Critias]

Is this accurate or is someone blowing smoke?

Neither.

It's not accurate, because things have fallen behind that schedule. But it's also not someone blowing smoke, because that makes it sound like Bull is some mustachio-twirling villain who is up to nefarious and manipulative schemes. The proposed release schedule was not a lie, it was just a schedule that wasn't kept up.

[Larsine]

that makes it sound like Bull is some mustachio-twirling villain who is up to nefarious and manipulative schemes.

But even if he was, we all know that he would be able to hide the fact, since he is also "The Best Ork Decker You Never Met".

But now it's out in the open, and he has to change it to:

Bull - "The Best Ork Decker & Mustachio-Twirling Villain Who Is Up To Nefarious And Manipulative Schemes You Never Met"

[Shortstraw]

Are they going to be released individually like the missions are or are they going to be a pack?

[Critias]

Are they going to be released individually like the missions are or are they going to be a pack?

I will get smacked with an NDA and probably run over by Bull if I steal his thunder, but...just...keep an ear out for an announcement soon.

[Bull]

While there are some things I can't really talk about, I do try and be as open as possible about how I run Missions, so here's the deal...

The 2010 CMPs were a bit of a mess, developmentally speaking.

I got hired as Missions Developer in Mid March, 2010. The idea for the CMPs were already in place at that point, but many didn't have a writer yet, all we had were titles and a 1-2 line concept (Which we had to have to get the events registered for the cons). All 8 CMPs had to be written and ready for Origins in early June. Besides those, I also had several SRM Season 3 adventures taht were being worked on AND I was starting to outline Season 4.

During all of this, I was learning everything mostly from scratch, and this was the same time CGL's financial and legal issues cropped up.

So the net effect is that while the adventures were good, they weren't ready for publication. They were a new idea taht year, so developmentally speaking they were all over the board. They were done in Season 3 style, with Table Ratings. A couple tied into Season 3 itself and were set in Manhattan, while others were "prequels" to Season 4 and set in Seattle, and others were in random locations. Some were done very well and highly polished, some were very last minute rush jobs.

They were playable, because convention GMs can and will roll with things and adapt things as needed. But they were not publishable. They had errors, they had typos, stats were wrong, etc. These were very, very rushed.

I had planned to go back after the cons and work on them some more, clean them up, do some heavy editing, etc... But with con season past, we began wrapping Season 3 and starting Season 4. I ended up writing the first two Missions for Season 4 and I was working on several pieces for Artifacts Unbound. I had to do the FAQ, work up the Promotion system, and to top it all off, I moved and started a new job that took up a lot of hours. And we started a whole new batch of CMPs for 2011. So I ended up badly overwhelmed, and a couple things had to go to the bottom of the pile: The 2010 CMPs, since tehy were the lowest priority.

In 2011 I ended up organizing Gen Con and Origins again as the coordinator for the last few years had stepped down. This coupled with everything else kept me crazy busy. And as usual, as soon as the cons were done for 2011, I had to start looking at 2012.

Now, the 2011 CMPs are in much better shape. I had a much better idea of what I was doing by then and had the process streamlined quite a bit. We even have a number of the CMPs laid out in PDF. But they're also not quite release ready yet. The PDFing was done mostly to make them cleaner, nicer, and easier to read for GMs and for when we sent them out to folks running at conventions. It wasn't the design we had in mind for the final release. And layout never managed to find the time to tweak them of finalize them, especially as we wanted to get the 2010 ones out first.

So where do things stand now?

The 2010 CMPs have been handed off to someone else to finish up, leaving me free to focus on new releases. He's been hammering away at them, cleaning them up, rewriting some of them, and bringing them all better in line with the Season 4 standards. But, it's a lot of editing to do, and he is just as underpaid as the rest of us, so his day job and such take priority. So it's been slow going there. It is being worked on, and we do hope to have something in the near future.

The 2011 CMPs will likewise get a look over once the 2010 ones are done. I expect they'll be much quicker, since they're in better shape.

the 2012 ones are even better organized, and we did some different stuff with them, centering two sets of 4 CMPs in different locations (London and Tir Tairngir/Portland) so taht they provide something of a mini campaign as well as working as stand alone adventures.

Now, Prime Missions are another story. They're a story of failed deadlines and some flip-flopping on what we wanted to do.

In late 2010, we contracted two writers to work on teh first two Prime Missions. Both writers missed several deadlines, and eventually backed out. I put the PMs on hold until after the conventions, because by that time con prep was in full swing. After the cons, I contracted two more writers for two new PMs. Same thing happened. In early 2012, I was looking at the Prime Mission concept and decided to shelve it for the time being. We'd already missed a year of play time, I reasoned, and my experience was that we didn't seem to have all that many players who had been promoted to Prime Runner status, so there wasn't a lot of call for the PMs, since they weren't going to be designed for regular Missions play, just the Promoted Prime Runner characters. I also knew by that point that we would likely be wrapping Season 4 up and moving to Season 5 early in 2013 to tie into some new products we were working on.

I've since changed my mind, and am going to try and get two PMs out the door by the end of the year, ideally one in September/October and one in December/January. These will partly be a test run to see how they sell, and partly a design test to see what we need to do different with them. We do hope to have these in full production for Season 5, as I expect there will be a lot more Prime Runners then.

At the end of the day, Missions suffers as something of CGL's red-headed step child. We've vastly improved production quality (In my not so humble opinion), and actual sales have improved some, but it's still a very niche product that sells very low on the CGL food chain (Being taht it generally only sells to GMs, and even then only to a select group of GMs.) And being PDF only doesn't help sales any (PDF sales are generally much, much lower than print sales). We're last in line for layout, we pay some of the lowest rates not just for CGL products, but in the industry as a whole. It's rough going.

There are some plans in the works I'm told to help promote Missions and get more use out of them. CGL has a new marketing guy who wants to do some stuff with Missions(though I can;t talk about specifics yet). We're going to be trying a few other things out in the coming year, and if successful will help give me a bit more pull to move Missions along faster and smoother.

I would also note taht sadly, the website rarely gets updated, outside of th wordpress blog on the front page. We don't really have a web guy right now (Which is a huge issue, IMO, but not something i can control). So unfortuantely the Missions information is a bit out of date. It's all I can do to get the SRM sales pages linked on the downloads page.

So all I can say is please, have patience with us, and my apologies for not communicating better. We're full on in convention season right now, and I'm organizing things as well as doing missions and freelance duty, so my free time is pretty much nil. Not an excuse, just hopefully something of an explanation.

Also, if you're on facebook, check out our Missions Page there. I try and post information there about what we're doing and how things are going, and usually post art sneak peeks and the like when I can.

Bull

[Shortstraw]

Thank you.

[Critias]

For those wondering about at least a few CMPs being made available for sale, here's a little something straight from the horse's (or would that be Bull's?) mouth:

Elven Blood is a compilation of 5 Convention Mission adventures that can be run as a mini-campaign. They start off in Seattle where the runners get mixed up in a power struggle with the Ancients, and then moves down to Portland in the Tir. Here's the Back Cover Copy for the set:

BLOOD WILL OUT

Shadowrunners have a lot of rules, and each and every one of them can be overruled by the proper amount of nuyen. So when shadowrunners talk about “never trusting an elf,” that’s more of a bargaining position than anything else.

Luckily for them, some elves have plenty of scratch they can use as a persuasive tool. And for the tasks they have in front of them, they’re going to need it. There’s money waiting for runners if they’re willing to venture into elven territory and take on a host of odd jobs. Jobs like: Tracking down reagents from cranky critters. Messing around in the affairs of Tír royalty. Dealing with a number of different punks and thugs, none of whom like you. And intervening in a leadership challenge of the most powerful elven street gang there is.

Elven Blood is a compilation of five different Missions that have been written to premiere at summer conventions. They can, however, be played by anyone. Whether you’re playing at a con, in a game store, or in the comfort of your own home, Elven Blood has an adventure for you. Taking you from the mean streets of Seattle to the wild lands of Tír Tairngire, Elven Blood offers exciting and inventive adventures for all Shadowrun fans.
Elven Blood is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.

For now Elven Blood will be a limited print run at the convention, testing the waters to see how these do as a print product. We will have the adventures available in PDF though once convention season is over (since we're actively running these adventures at the cons).

Bull

[Larsine]

I want the limited print, but how can I get that when I'm nowhere near an American convention?

[Critias]

I want the limited print, but how can I get that when I'm nowhere near an American convention?

From the sounds of things, CGL isn't going to put it up for sale (unless maybe POD?) or anything, so I'm not sure of any "official" method to get a copy to Denmark for ya.

So the traditional answer to this convention-conundrum would be "find someone going to the convention, pay for the book and the shipping, and ask them to buy and mail you a copy." Lots of folks do it with other convention exclusive books (or even convention premier pieces, just out to get them as early as possible). The problem there is, of course, finding a secure way to handle the payment without major hassle, trusting them with it, etc, etc.

That said? I happen to know a guy who's gonna be there, who has a vested interest in the book selling well, and who would be happy to sign any copies he picks up for people. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

EDIT: To clarify, I meant me, not Bull.

[Bull]

From the sounds of things, CGL isn't going to put it up for sale (unless maybe POD?) or anything, so I'm not sure of any "official" method to get a copy to Denmark for ya.

So the traditional answer to this convention-conundrum would be "find someone going to the convention, pay for the book and the shipping, and ask them to buy and mail you a copy." Lots of folks do it with other convention exclusive books (or even convention premier pieces, just out to get them as early as possible). The problem there is, of course, finding a secure way to handle the payment without major hassle, trusting them with it, etc, etc.

That said? I happen to know a guy who's gonna be there, who has a vested interest in the book selling well, and who would be happy to sign any copies he picks up for people. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And just to add to this, if sales are good, that helps give me some clout to do more of these as print, and gives CGL more incentive to help get the other CMP's together and released. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Shortstraw]

And just to add to this, if sales are good, that helps give me some clout to do more of these as print, and gives CGL more incentive to help get the other CMP's together and released. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Never understood this sort of thinking. All you need to play is the core book and enough premade missions to keep going when life gets too busy to write them yourself. A constant pile up of splatbooks is more of an annoyance than anything else - the main reason I like pathfinder is the focus they put on their adventure paths. Also thank you again (not that it really helps me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) ).

[Larsine]

Splatbooks generally sell better that adventuers. More books sold = better profit, and management always like profit, nomatter which market we are talking about.

[Shortstraw]

Splatbooks generally sell better that adventuers. More books sold = better profit, and management always like profit, nomatter which market we are talking about.

Then I don't understand the buying of splatbooks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Larsine]

Splatebooks are for everybody, adventures are only for GM that don't create their own.

So the market for splatbooks are bigger than the market for adventures.

So bigger markat = more sale.

[sds]

From the sounds of things, CGL isn't going to put it up for sale (unless maybe POD?) or anything, so I'm not sure of any "official" method to get a copy to Denmark for ya.

So the traditional answer to this convention-conundrum would be "find someone going to the convention, pay for the book and the shipping, and ask them to buy and mail you a copy." Lots of folks do it with other convention exclusive books (or even convention premier pieces, just out to get them as early as possible). The problem there is, of course, finding a secure way to handle the payment without major hassle, trusting them with it, etc, etc.

That said? I happen to know a guy who's gonna be there, who has a vested interest in the book selling well, and who would be happy to sign any copies he picks up for people. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

EDIT: To clarify, I meant me, not Bull.

Soo... is that like an offer for the Danish crowd? I would be very interested in both the book and the cards.

[Critias]

Soo... is that like an offer for the Danish crowd? I would be very interested in both the book and the cards.

Well, it is, but keep in mind that upon further research, we were looking at $100+ for the shipping part (to get it overseas, from the FedEx shippers at the convention and/or hotel). My terribly limited travel space (since I'm flying this year) means I can't get swag home, I can only pick it up for people and ship it from Indianapolis directly. Which would mean paying like $150 for a $15 book.

So it's looking less and less like a good idea, sadly. Y'all may just have to wait for the pdf of the book, looks like.