I respectfully disagree - I think Fanpro/CGL is doing a great job at ressuscitating that game we all love.

Their publishing strategy is excellent from a gamer's perspective, and is clearly a compromise for their financial efficiency.
What I mean by this is : they make sure we have a proper gaming environment, with enough sourcebooks, with some of them appealing only GMs (more limited market), instead of hammering everyone's wallet with cool nifty rulesbooks.

So, they published SM, which every magic-loving player bought (and which player has not done at least one awakened character in the past). Presumably, SM sold well.

Then, they published Runner Havens, which is mostly for GMs. Presumably, this didn't sell as well, but if you look at the quality of the book (the like I haven't seen in a long time), you realise that it certainly asked as much time from their dev team as SM (given that tehre are no rules, though, I guess it didn't need playtesting, which is a major hassle removed).

Then, they published Augmentation, which I'm sure everyone who owns a SR4 book will eventually get to buy. That book is extremely well made, and the fluff about the tech (the large large bit before the stats) is so in-depth that it is almost a sourcebook (I personnally think that is exactly what it is, at heart : how does Joe Average interract technology on a day-to-day basis).

They published Emergence (which I haven't gotten to get yet), again a presumably less popular choice, but relevant in explaining TMs and the crash.

They plan on releasing extremely cool setting describing stuff - Corporate enclaves and Feral Cities. All of this is great to give GMs a solid background on which to build their campaigns, and CGL has to be commended for developping a consistent range rather than publish a flurry of rulesbook (with plenty of new, more powerful prestige classes and feats in it...).

What we do miss from the novels days, is some flavour and badassery ideas - but then again, I always thought that the novels were slightly edulcorated, not quite as gritty as they should be...

So, is that true or not? I'm confused now...

But I sure hope that you guys are right for the novel things. That would be awesome.

True. They do a great job. But novels can also boost the sale of the sourcebooks they relate to imho.

True, true - I hope my post didn't appear as overly defensive or so... I just meant that in my opinion, their concerted and relevant publishing strategy was doing more for the game and its atmosphere than dime novels.

I miss them as well, but it isn't Twist and Sally that got me in SR - I got into Twist's misadventures after I was blown away by my first SR games (the character creation was so incredibly new back then... letting you tweak this and that to finally get to exactly what you wanted).

What was great about having novels was that your players sometimes had an idea of what it was they were facing, whithout exactly knowing everything about it (and most particularly, the finer technical details ). That led to some seriously insect spirit paranoïa after one of them had read 2XS - a bit like an urban legend the character had heard about, in fact....


Has anybody read the Born to Run series ? I found them extremely poor - and uber boring. It was a physical effort to finish reading the 3 I foolishly bought (always start with the first one and see from there...).

Cheers,
Fumble.

I faced the same thing too ^_^ it was really great roleplaying since my players knowed a bit more about the context.


As for the Born To Run novels, I found them exceptionnally poor too... Like if it was written for a younger public... And guess what? This was the case, they were written to promote the Shadowrun: Duels action figure game.

Thanks for the reply, Adam.

Can you tell us why Catalyst arn't accepting Novel submissions from independent writers?

Is it a Wizkids decision?

We don't have the license to publish Shadowrun novels, so we aren't at the stage yet where we would be looking at novel proposals from anyone.

Is Roc just sitting on it?

Aaaaaand that makes this as good a place as any for me to check into this thread. Thanks Eugene!

Here's what I can say: At GenCon 2006, I made it my personal crusade to save Shadowrun fiction. I held meetings. I made sure various people talked to each other. I worked the con as best I could, and I thought I made good progress. I left GenCon ready to follow up until things actually happened.

I kept following up through the end of 2006, prompting whoever I could on the subject, wondering why there hadn't been more progress. Then, in early 2007, the switch to Catalyst happened. I learned some things then about why more progress hadn't happened in 2006, and I used every opportunity as the change was happening to remind people to think about SR fiction.

Which brings us to GenCon 2007, when I once again took up the cause. Good things happened, and I believe progress was made. I can't give details, but I am optimistic about progress on both the novels and Holostreets fronts. I'm going to keep working on Loren Coleman and whoever else I can to get things to happen, but at this point I don't think I need to do much work--most everyone's on the same page. By the time GenCon 2008 rolls around, I hope I will not need to be scrambling to save SR fiction. I hope by that time it will be clear to everyone that SR fiction is a living, growing area.

A couple quick notes about why Catalyst is not accepting manuscripts: First, as Adam noted, they do not have novel publishing rights. Hopefully that will be resolved soon, but until it is there is no sense in spending any time reviewing manuscripts.

Second is a sad business fact. By the time any novels start coming out, it will be a year since the 6 Wizkids SR novels came out--and those novels had pretty much no promotion. The profile of the line has dropped precipitously. If Catalyst decides to go with new SR novels, they'll want to relaunch the line with a splash (we talked about resurrecting Nigel Findley to start us up, but sadly SR rules don't allow for that). That likely means no new writers to launch the line.

But that's just for the launch. If the line continues, then the need for new writers will definitely be there. If I was looking to get into SR novels if/when they come about, I'd be sharpening my skills by writing stories for Holostreets (which, as a matter of fact, I am doing), and flooding the editors as soon as that site is launched. Just look at what happened on Battlecorps--two writers, Kevin Killany and Ilsa Bick, were widely praised for their stories on BC. The MechWarrior: Dark Age editor noticed them and brought them on to do novels. To date, Bick has written three MW:DA novels, while Killiany's second is due out early 2009. As with BC, Holostreets will likely serve as a great "farm team" for the novels. You can build a reputation among the fans and the SR powers that be. Be ready to be active there.

Okay, this was longer than I thought it would be, but I hope it was helpful and appropriately optimistic. Just wanted to say that I will continue pushing for SR fiction from Catalyst until it happens.

Jason H.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's aware of the existence of 'Mechs. But as long as she's having fun doing what she's doing, I'm not inclined to interfere with her. She's tougher than me.

Jason H.

I plan on using the letter D, R, O, P, B, E, and A in every SR story I do. I hope that will suffice.

Jason H.

Missions I believe fills the "scenario" role, as well as many of the ideas from the plot books. I mean at this point having the number of missions currently out would keep a once a week GM busy for at least 3 months.

Find a group and then play?

On the Run should handle the basic "teach a new GM and Players" method, as well as the quick-start. Sooner or later however, you need to have a GM who will do some work to keep things moving.


This is also the place where we vote for JM Hardy for the new launch novel (which I couldn't do because I was running the sound at the "What's Up" session.. and I'm sticking to that as my excuse)

Ouch man, that's a bit rough.

There's always the Missions games, which are pretty decent from what I've seen. And at one a month, they're nice for keeping a group busy most of the time.

Bull

I think you're underestimating the logic of Dunkie's decision.

First of all, we was the President of the UCAS; a quiet private suicide was out of the question. If he died in private then it would be obvious that something was very wrong. Only a fake public assassination would avoid undue public panic and throw off speculation.

Second, it was an Astral Rift, not a mana warp. The two are completely different things. And the rift served his purposes by giving his brother a passage back to Earth from the Deep Metaplanes.

if they dont have the rights to publish shadowrun novels then why accept submissions? they cant produce/print the novel without the rights are they get into lawsuit where they will probably lose lots of money. it wouldnt be good for anyone.

Now if they can get the rights to publish novels (that they come up with or not) then that is a different story. But by his posting they dont have the rights at this time.

whenever you get "license", "rights" and lawyers involved it can get touchy/ugly. Let them hash it out and they will let us know when they have the rights/ready for submissions.

For myself at this point, it's kind of moot. I don't even know if anyone in my county plays or has even heard of SR. I don't really have a group up here anymore. The Missions are awesome, and if I still had a group, it would be great.

Unfortuately, at this point, the lack of local game group is tough to get around. IRC, PBB, and Teamspeak style gaming only get you so far, and don;t suit many players wants or needs. I know that I much prefer to be physically hanging out with folks, to feel and hear the dice, etc.

I haven't really played SR in years now. OUtside of a handful of playtest sessions for SR4, and a couple aborted attempts to start new games, there's been woefully little SR activity locally :/

Of course, the fact we've all "grown up and gotten real jobs" doesn't help matters any, as scheduling anything is a nightmare these days.

AMEN!

Ummm, does working in the roleplaying game industry count as "growing up and getting a real job"?

I never had problems to find enough fellows for a gaming round. In fact, at the moment I have too many different groups to choose from. Guess that's an advantage that Germany is so small and crammed with people.

Out of sheer curiosity, Bull, where are you living?

*shrugs* I'm running an ED campaign for six years now and despite a few player changes and some of us working shifts, we never had trouble to game every tuesday.

Cleveland, Ohio.

Oh, finding Gamers isn;t really the problem, nor is it finding SR players even. It's finding active SR players close enough by.

Dunner runs Missions games out of a shop on the West Side of town, but as that's an hour or more drive, it's a bit far for me.

At one point there were probably 3 to 4 active SR groups locally, playing at least weekly. But most of those players have moved on. THere are a lot of games out there, the groups change up from time to time. And since most of our groups are pretty incestuous (Player 1 will game with both group A and B, player two with A and C, Player 3 Plays in A and B and GMs for D, etc), I've also noticed the games tend to cycle in and out as a group. Everyone plays SR for a couple years, then someone starts up Deadlands, and then everyones playing it, and then D&D, and so on.

And of course there's also the matter of who I actually want to play with. My free time and play time is limited enough now that I honestly don;t have the tolerance for hanging out and playing with people I don;t really like that much. It used to be no big deal, but these days... I can;t be arsed with dealing with them.

Right now we do Board Games on Saturday nights (And I occasionally GM a Post Apocolytic Fantasy game I wrote up), and Sundays we do D&D (lucky me).

Bull

Pssstt... I heard that causes cancer...

Ah, it isn't so bad for you then. That's cool.

I completly agree with you here. What's the point in playing with people who are jerks? Makes wonder every time when I read a complaint about a player on a board.