Could someone give me a rundown of what was said/revealed/discussed at the FanPro seminar at GenCon on Saturday?

There were several reasons I missed it, the primary being that I did not know it was happening. I'm very frustrated about this, but I don't want to gripe right now, I just want to know what was covered.

You weren't alone. The seminar was very sparsely attended (I think we had two actual players, one SR novel author (Jason Hardy), and a couple of freelancers (including Bull) wandered in late. We had a scheduling problem so the seminar didn't make it into the booklet, so the only way to find out about it was to see the announcement on the board at the booth.

Lemme see what I can remember...

Rob had another meeting at the same time, so Adam and I (mostly Adam) did the honors. We showed off our shiny new ENnies for Best Product and Best Rules, announced upcoming books (the GM Screen (we have the inserts, but the actual screen got held up in Printer Hell), Emergence, Arsenal, Augmentation, Corporate Enclaves, Unwired), talked a little about Holostreets (they're trying to get it off the ground now, but no definitive word yet about when that'll be happening), the novel line (the sixth novel will be out in late summer--Roc didn't renew so it's up in the air after that), the Missions program, the Microsoft game (which we don't have much knowledge about--they don't share details with us), and...that's about all I can remember. Hopefully if there was more Adam can fill it in.

We really only talked for about 15 minutes, answered questions for about 15 more, and then hung around and just chatted for awhile after that. I was bummed about the turnout, because I'm sure if it had been publicized better we would have had a lot more--especially when I heard that the "Whose Run Is It Anyway?" game, which was publicized, had 80 or so attendees (woohoo!)

Hm. Well, the FASA Interactive community manager said they were talking to Jordan Weisman about the game (nove idea: Talk to him before committing programming resources. Nah...).

Anyway, is there anything further that can be said about Emergence?

yes. inquiring minds want to hear the gory details about how my precious otaku are being horribly mangl--er, would like to give any new ideas a fair shake!

it may have been fun at one time, but now its starting to get on my nerves.

better than me actually going apeshit over every new travesty, isn't it?

I dunno... How about you go apeshit every third item just to add a bit of variety?

... Or waiting until something youu've actually seen actually offends your sensibilities rather than blowing up everytime you think about a book that you think is going to offend your sensibilities. That would be good.

-Frank

hey, i haven't said anything about Arsenal yet, have i?

in all seriousness, i actually am looking forward to Emergence, and not just so i can hate it. i suspect there will be lots of things i dislike about it, what with it centering around magical brain laser people and all, but i'd really like to see what sort of flavor TMs are being given.

and... how, in good conscience, can y'all really call one snarky comment from me 'blowing up'? i mean, seriously. you've seen me blow up.

yep, quite the firework. but i wonder what person on this forum have not gotten the message that you "dislike" SR4...

He does? Really?

Wow... I just thought he used pages of the SR4 BBB as toilet paper because he likes how soft and clean it leaves his behind afterward...

well, it is much silkier than the copy of Sprawl Sites i was using...

Why does everyone hate SR4 anyway?

Dude. Don't. Seriously, just turn around and walk away.

Didn't I ask that like seven hours ago?

*looks up*

Hm. I did.

I'm just waiting to see whether Awakened Haunts involves cities or someplace else.

I just thought of how we could get the answer. We could put together a team of four people and pay them to go on a run to get the information. I'm sure FanPro would appreciate the irony of it.

i think SL James already suggested that, except... oh, right! it wasn't for answers, it was for horriffic revenge. i always get those mixed up!

Answers first. Then the fun begins.

Let's offer them a bonus to burn down White Wolf on their way back. Then, we'll have had both.

Emergence Sell Sheet

Typos and interim art and everything.

Key features:

• Technomancers become common knowledge just as the awakened are.
• Contains several separate adventure paths and storyline.
• Probably has the same format as System Failure.

Withchunts!

That's good classic FanPro right there.

-Frank

Awesome. System Failure was the best!

mmm, interim art. grumble, no juiciness. i really wanna know what sort of organization and philosophy accrues around TMs.

As the sell sheets says, Emergence will deal with the technomancer phenomenon, how it becomes public knowledge, how people (at all levels handle it) and to in no small part what makes TMs different from otaku. The campaign book unfolds during late 2069 and thru 2070 and follows the results of widespread public awareness and good old human nature kicking in. And that's only about the half of it.

I fail to comprehend how a society as PC as it is in 2070 becomes insane at the idea of TMs. But that's just me.

We'll see. I'd bet on a "Wow. Just another oddity"-kind of reaction.

it... agh! so, this overrides the hearsay translated from a German fanzine that says that TMs are basically unknown in 2070? i ask because, well, until now that hearsay was really the only flavor text anyone had to go on.

i've had that nugget from other sources, but the German zine translation is the only one i'm sure is public knowledge. i don't care which it is, so long as it's confirmed one way or the other soon, y'know? and so long as TMs get some sort of flavor in the same timeframe. just because i think radio brains are the silliest thing since Hitler-based street gangs doesn't mean i don't want to know what my preciouses are up to.

The information from the German newsletter is correct. Technomancers are rarer than magicians and at the start of 2070 society at large is blissfully unaware of their existance and their abilities.

So is there going to be some event that freaks out the public regarding technos? Like some terrorist hacking or public airwave hijakcing?

Thanks, Winterhawk. Actually, it makes me feel a little better knowing I was not the only one who missed it...

It sounds like most of the stuff covered is stuff that we've already heard hear on dumpshock, so maybe I didn't miss as much as I thought I might have.

Oh, & for the admins, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to provoke any flaming with my thread title, I was just aiming for a play on the seminar title....

Well, sounds like Emergence won't work with my campaign. I always assumed technomancers were public knowledge, to some degree. The group met a technomancer DJ, even. (Kidnapped her, actually.) Ah, well. I was never good at sticking to a pre-defined world. My game definitely takes place in my own version of Shadowrun 2070.

I'll probably get it anyway, because I think technomancers are neat.

Magical hysteria has died down a lot, but people are always afraid of something new. They've lived 50 years with nobody taking over their mind, but they're probably also experieinced at least one case of identity theft or other hacking crime. That someone can do it with their brain alone will scare people. Sure, logically it's little different than someone doing it with a commlink, but logic rarely matters in mob mentality.

Additionally there is now a huge security problem for corporations. you used to be able to scan people for commlinks if you wanted to keep them from gaining access in your facilitity. Now they can walk through your scans butt nekked and still hack you blind.

well, by taking over your fridge they can proceed from there to contaminate your food source. they could also take over various other things (like most of your apartment).

for example, they could lock you into your apartment, turn off the phones, activate all your security features... and have half a dozen cleaning/maintenance drones waiting for you inside.

furthermore, if you own a sim module (hint: most people will) they can hack that and force you into the matrix and proceed to use black hammer/blackout on you.

but what gets *really* scary, is when the rules for psychotropic IC come out. because, as we all know, technomancers can learn any program as a complex form. *any* program. such as a "send me all your money, and be my slave for the rest of your life" program. which they can use on you from more or less anywhere, as long as you have trodes/datajack/implanted commlink and a sim module.

so yeah, i could totally see how TMs would become demonized.

You can demonize anyone and their dog. (Especially their dog.)

Just trying to demonize tech-affinity in a hightech world isn't really going to hold well.

From a security standpoint implanted commlinks are different because you can detect an implanted commlink. From a personal standpoint they're different because implanted commlinks have been around a while and nobody thinks about them. TMs are new and not understood. Therefore they're scary.

It doesn't matter much if threats have changed any, people want something new to be scared of. It's fairly standard for there to be a "threat" that's the flavor of the month. For awhile it was nukes, then AIDS, more recently it was terrorism, then Armageddon, now terrorism again.