If E could barely do it in YotC I don't have much regard for the likelihood of it happening here. Something more along the lines of being a bystander to a shitstorm (GW, Night of Rage, etc.) seems more in line with the context, but then there is the matter of there being a whole ton of events in which one could pick as the setting.

See above.

Sounds interesting, especially for deckers since I see a considerable amount of opportunities for them here.

That is a cool idea unless it ends up reading like Redeye Flight, which is a mental abortion of a story. I would be severely distracted by people writing immersed rigging scenes that are as bad as Szeto's crap.

Why did you make me read that? I want an explanation, and none of this funny-talk about having done nothing of the kind.

~J

Are you talking adventure modules or the half dozen SR Missions? At first, I thought you meant a published adventure, and though I would also like to read a story about them, it would need to be novel length to do it justice. Maybe one of the shorter sections of Harlequin would work...

Something like this would be a good entry in the general contests that apparently no one wants.

I see these as turning out like a third person re-telling of how events unfolded. Or mostly inside the fixer's head, telling about potential problems and devising ways to circumvent them, all ahead of time, all in the thought process.

I have a spike baby character that kind of fits this. He was born aboard a ship passing through the Bermuda Triangle in 1850 on the way to the California gold rush. (It was nice having him coming of age in the golden age of the West, also accounted for his pistol and gambling skills.) As a starting PC in the 2050s, I needed him to be relatively poor and unwise. I had fun coming up with all the times and ways that he had lost accumulated fortunes during his life. Heavily invested in San Francisco real estate got wiped out during the great quake and fire. Another fortune got wiped out in the original crash of '29. Lost his casinos and hotels when the commies took over Cuba. Lost his Vegas casinos and real estate plus what little he tried to diversify with factories in Mexico and some real estate outside Seattle in a town called Puyallup due to the NAN takeover. The next crash didn't do him any favors either. The most recent setback was losing his Chicago holdings to the bugs. With little more than the clothes on his back, he decides to see what is what with his Puyallup property and heads to Seattle.

The Life and Times of Ezekial Brown, if anyone wants to use it.

No Drop Bears, there is plenty to read about them elsewhere. If you really feel the need, wait and enter it in a general contest.

Because if I am going to suffer, then by God I'm not going to suffer alone.

I'm seeing this more along the lines of a spy story running agents and ... so on. Kind of like a story about Mr. Johnson.

I actually just thoguht up the idea, i don't mind the "general" category, maybe the broader theme would be "What i would do to get into X group"

Speaking only from my perspective, but I see the problem being that the general contests have a much higher failure rate than themed contests. I personally intended the whole way through to write something, and still hadn't come up with exactly what that "something" would be by the time I heard the nice whooshing sound. With the themed contests, half the work is done before we even start thinking about it.

~J

I want to see Spider Robinson take on this problem (not that it'll ever happen, but a man can dream). There's a man with a dab hand at metaphor. And before you tell me that he can't write gritty, find yourself a copy of Telempath. Maybe he can't sustain it...

And I agree with Kagetenshi WRT the value of themes.

l, what l?

docmortand----->

Go go drop bear legions of editing!

I would be afraid that with this for a topic, there would be a variety of stories that had little to do with Shadowrun. I mean the point of a metaplane or UV host is that it differs from the reality of Shadowrun.

Is this getting worked in with the from a fixer's POV?

Really, as long as there is entries and submissions, we can eventually do all the topics. I have at least 20 books to give away, probably more like 50, and if I go through all of them, I'll buy some more.

So feel free to keep adding topics.

Can we start to settle on the next topic?

Also, since there is a topic and general contest, what about running them concurrently? Or overlapping deadlines, so there is always something to work on and something that just ended that can be enjoyed by all? Which brings up suggestions for a deadline for the topic contest and maybe a deadline for the general contest.

ya know, i've heard a couple of time, that more or less loosely translated, "aku" means "evil" in japanesse.

I'm not so sure it's a good idea to pat evil on the head

Bad idea IMO. The whole cycle of tension and release is more conducive to work without having to deliberately skip contests. I think starting a contest about a week after the previous one ends is probably a good idea, though.

~J

Yeah, I realize that - just was suggesting it as a wierd topic to stretch people's creativity. You definately have enough topics here for a decade worth of contests.

No. You need one metaphor and one metaphor only.

Turbo Teen

So far, only one author has participated in both contests. Since everyone can rely that there will be a general contest as long as there is interest, the only real deadline is for the topic contest.

I am thinking of setting a deadline the first day of the month. General contest submissions will be due on odd months (1, 3, 5, Jan., Mar., May...) and topic submissions on even months (2, 4, 6, Feb., Apr., June...)

I could also wait until I get 10 submissions for the general contest, so there would be no set deadline. If an author submitted more than 1 entry, they could designate which submission they wanted to run in what order (or concurrently.) This could mean an author with 10 submissions is guaranteed to win, and I don't know that I want that, especially if all 10 pretty much suck (if I get 10 straight great submissions from the same author, I see no problem posting them and choosing a winner.) So with this format, an author may be able to guarantee a winning piece of fiction.

I am also thinking of taking submissions via PM. Then I can use the quote function to reveal formatting language, then cut and paste into a thread. Rooftops took me an hour to post with all the italics formatting, and even a piece with no special formatting usually needs paragraphs double spaced.

Unless I get complaints in the next few days, I think I will set the deadlines for the chosen topic contests for the first day of even months. I will even go through the suggested topics and assign them to the next few months. If you like the ideas I've come up with, say so, and I may not even wait a few days to post the new information.

i'm definitely playing a rigger, next game.

That is one way to get 7346 character backgrounds.

When I read this, I thought that is a good idea. Then the reality of what I will get hit.

Heh. I was hoping to write a story for each specific topic, and I thought the rigger topic was giving me a hard time. But if it comes down to writing a love story? Man, I don't think I could handle that. I think I'm incapable of writing about people being nice to each other. Like, I could write about it physically and use words to describe something like a kid petting a dog, but I'd be totally unable to take the story seriously and I'd probably die of akwardness afterwards.

The love story: the one thing I cannot write.


Heh, oh, also, since this *is* the internet I'm afraid we'd get dragon pr0n.

Wait, so you're saying I should submit sequential art to Heavy Metal magazine?

*ahem*

Hatred is more permanent and more powerful, and a hell of a lot more ubiquitous.