Street Samurai Catalogue <2060 Edition>, A web-based Shadowrun resource Options

[Dave]

This project started as a simple paper-based format many months ago and as it grew I found it easier to maintain in electronic format. Eventually I put together my own site and it made sense to convert all the Word documents into HTML and voila, the SSC <2060> was born.

One thing that I will be adding over the next couple of weeks is more Shadowtalk but if any of you have ideas let me know.

I would really like some feedback, both good and bad, and hope this will be something that both players and GMs can use to enhance their own games.

Just a couple of points before we get started:
- I didn't use the Firearm Creation rules in the 'Cannon Companion', just some common sense.
- I freely used artistic licence when coming up with the stats and description in order to make everything balanced.
- Thanks to my players; Skulker, Aegis and Jackhammer, who provided some of the images and descriptions.

Enjoy...

Street Samurai Catalogue <2060 Edition>

[Austere Emancipa...]

All the links on the left side, apart from Latest News, just show javascript:void(0) and do nothing if clicked (as expected), at least on my Mozilla 1.6b.

[Dave]

The links on the right are rollover menus, if clicked they do nothing (hence the Javascript Void) well expect for the 'Latest News' link.

I must admit I didn't test the site with anything other that Netscape and IE, apologies for that. I'll look into making the site compatible with more browsers.

Thanks for letting me know.

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Hmmm, not a bad site at all. Haven't had time to totally look through and evaluate all of the data, but the layout is clean, very readable and easy to navigate. Speaking of which, is there any way to "slideshow" the entries - IE: flick from one item to another without having to go back to the dropdown meun each time?

However, its nice to see the old SSC style again. Pictures and diagrams of all the guns & stuff - great! Missed for too long. I do note that many of them are "real life" images and several have already been used for the original SR soucebooks Street Samurai Catalogue & Fields of Fire. Plus there's one or two I recognise from certain films... :)

Now, where's the hand-to-hand comabt stuff? Dikoted Bat'leths and electric-powered combat chainsaws anyone?

[Dave]

At the moment it is totally menu-driven but I can't see why '< Prev' and 'Next >' links couldn't be added at a later stage.

Hand-to-hand weaponry and armour will be making an appearance sometime in the near future.

[D.Generate]

Very nicely done. But I have to agree a <prev> <next> option would be nice. I'm also glad that you went realistic with the weapons, too many site I've found that have pistols with damage codes high enough to drop a troll in one round, and sniper rifles that are the equivilent of the death star planet killing laser cannon. The comentary is also nice very old school which I do admit I miss from the new books. I also miss that nice clean Catalogue layout in the new books where each item had its own page and was easy to find when needed.

So bravo my good man, a job well done.

[FXcalibur]

Incredible job. I'd love to use these in my future games.

EDIT: Interesting CS homages you have there. I like what you've done stat-wise with the 5-7, though.

I've seen many iterations of that Ruger M41 design, but this is the first one in 3-D. Did you model it yourself? If so, very cool.

[The Question Man]

Looks great, thanks.

[Arethusa]

That picture of the M41's just a plastic replica, and, honestly, not a very good looking one.

Also, I'll get back with some more decent comments at some point, but about the Five-seveN: this is not the joke that the Five-seveN C is in the books, but it still weighs in as inferior to basically every single heavy pistol because it, at best, penetrates requally, and more often, does a worse job of it. Kind of counter intuitive, even if I am no huge fan of PDWs.

[Dave]

Thanks for the feedback so far, just to address a few points.

I found that picture of the M41A and, to be honest, it was the best of a bad bunch. At the time it seemed like a decent enough image but it is probably time to try and find a more 'realistic' one.

I have deliberately toned down the power of the 5-7 for two reasons, I felt that as a standard, out-the-box, armour-piercing weapon with such a large magazine capacity making it 9M would make it too powerful.

And to those of you who want to use it in their games...go for it.

Keep them coming.

[Arethusa]

I have no doubt that a 9M armor piercing pistol would be too much, but if realism's your intent here, 9M is, entirely separate from game balance, a ludicrous damage code for a PDW. Personally, I hold with the 9-10L school of through.

[Marynsar]

Mozilla Firefox here, no links functionning. I assume you used IE standard Javascript code, and I suggest you look into the function "GetElementById()" to make it compatible with more browsers.

I can only comment on the first page by saying the layout is very clean and efficient and really makes me want to see what's inside (not to the point of using IE though :D )

[Azrael]

Excellent job.

The only addition I can think of is a summary table like what is at the back of the original SSC for quick reference.

[Diesel]

You and Raygun ought compare notes, you've a lot of crossover.

[Dave]

[Dave]

OK I have uploaded a 'SSC Gear Listing' page, which is a simple list of hyperlinks and a quick way of geting to any page without having to use the menus.

I have not had time to add the 'SSC Gear Listing' link to every page so for the time being it is only available from the 'Latest News' page, apologies for the extra clicking invovled.

[Cpt_Haddock]

Okay, I have just given it a quick look, and so far I must say that this is (together with Raygun's site) the best website I've seen about additional SR gear.
Kudos, man.

[Connor]

I'm looking forward to seeing those menus working, but I did notice the Sony Ericsson themes. Very cool! I'm using the SR3 one currently. :-)

[Raygun]

The picture you have on your "Ruger Thunderbolt Mk.II" page was lifted from my site, as was the flavor text mentioning Metalstorm operation. I made the picture myself by modifying one of a currently manufactured Ruger pistol.

I would appreciate it very much if you'd link to my site on the pages that you borrowed info or used pictures from. Otherwise, you're pretty much stealing from me.

A few corrections:

The picture you have of the M16A4 is actually an M16A1 with an M203 grenade launcher attached. The picture is also reversed, as the ejection port is on the wrong side of the rifle. The flavor text is also incorrect. Even though Colt's own website says it is, the M16A4 is in fact not the fourth generation of the M16 line. It's actually the third model of the third generation of M16 to be type-classified by the US military.

Gen 1 = M16
Gen 2 = M16A1, XM177 "Commando"
Gen 3 = M16A2, A3, A4
Gen 4 = M4, A1, M4 "Commando"

The assertion that the M4 is the only assault rifle that can be suppressed is also incorrect. The vast majority of assault rifles manufactured today can be suppressed. Most made since about 1995 are designed to accomodate it.

The "Ruger M41A Pulse Rifle" would not use the same electronic operation as the Thunderbolt, as the M41A is magazine-fed and the Thunderbolt (in my estimation and consequently through your own flavor text) uses the Metalstorm concept wherein ammunition is stored in stacks directly in the barrel. It appears that you have some flavor text about the M41A that comes from the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual. That book has a very detailed explanation of how the rifle supposedly works. I don't see any need to change that info.

Otherwise, everything that I've seen so far looks okay.

[Kagetenshi]

To add to the bug reports, neither Safari 1.2.3 nor FireFox 0.9.3 get the popup menus. I'll test with Opera a bit later.

Needless to say, the side links are also broken in Lynx.

~J

[Kurukami]

Nice site, and I agree that you and Raygun might want to collaborate in the future. Of course, both of your sites are already quite good already... :D

One small thing, though, and this has nothing to do with site design or the like -- looking at the page for the Steyr Scout sniper rifle, why on earth would you ever need a bipod giving -2 to recoil on a semiautomatic gun? (I'm guessing that it's something that's on the actual gun, which would make sense from a sniping standpoint, but the recoil benefit seems... useless.)

As a tangent, perhaps bipods could be useful for something other than recoil reduction. Add in an additional -1 bonus to the aiming bonus, perhaps? Thus, one action spent aiming would give you a -2 TN, two would give you a -3, etc., to reflect the greater stability given by the bipod?

(Says the guy whose only direct experience with rifle shooting was with the Boy Scouts long ago...) :D

Anyways, other than a desire that the site actually worked with Mozilla, quite well done.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Luke Hardison]

[Arethusa]

That's kind of odd. Why not just increase the number of actions allowed for taking aim?

[Dave]