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Ancient History
System Anomalies
This first chapter of Emergence demonstrates that not everybody knows about tehcnomancers, and tries to catch new readers up on the history of the otaku and the connection between the two groups. Most of the section is shadowtalk, which helps give a more personal feel to the whole thing-it sounds like a discussion. Little idiosyncrasies are worked in to help differentiate the characters, and this is really some of the best characteriszation to date (keep in mind that prior to Emergence, only Street Magic and Runner Havens had been released).

References to the lost AIs-Deus and Morgan/Megaera are made, and also, to help demonstrate how new technomancers are, a handful of different terms. Virtuakinetic was a favorite one as you can see.

The real impetus of this chapter is Sunshine, who gets the ball rolling and then chases after it and won't let go like a rat terrier.

Something that really sets Emergence apart from preceding books is the unusual format; extremely varied in content for a book, even a plot book: conversations, snippets from talk shows, definition-boxes, newscasts, personal anecdotes. I think it helps to really expand the ability to roleplay a technomancer when you see how other people react to the idea of them.

The game information of this chapter is a datadump by comparison.
JBlades
I loved all the shadow talk in this book, made it feel more like reading a story than a campaign guide. Really kept me entertained. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to say besides that on the first chapter, being already familiar with otaku and the AIs, etc. Well written, flew through it, good intro.
NightRain
My issue with the first chapter of emergence comes from the fact that it's almost impossible to make use of it in most running games involving a technomancer.

SR4 suggested that technomancers were linked to the 2nd crash, and hinted that they covered a wider cross section of society, but it never really suggested that they were new or unknown. Given that it's been 6 years since the crash in SR4, most people, like myself, would have assumed that technomancers were a known fact of life in the Universe, even if they're a fact that can't be explained.

This makes it hard to use the information from that chapter in any meaningful way in an existing campaign.
Synner
For the record System Anomalies was purposefully set in late 2069- early 2070, acknowledging the in character chronology of both SR4 and Runner Havens. Had circumstances allowed us to meet our initial goals Emergence would have been released much earlier, but plugging this particular story into ongoing campaigns that were already using technomancers was always going to be an issue. We just thought the story was worth telling anyway - so instead we avoided hard timelines and wrote stuff so that it should be relatively easy to move events chronologically forward or back.
NightRain
It's not the chronology that bothers me so much. That bit is easy to fix.

The technomancer in my group for example simply doesn't use a commlink most of the time. She carries one so she can broadcast an ID when moving in public, but when she doesn't need to keep up appearances, she dumps it and lets anyone who's clued in see that's she's a techno. She sold herself to the group when joining by admitting that she's a techno.

Whilst I can rework timelines, I can't rework the storyline to reveal the emergence of technomancers in my campaign, or even investigate the story arcs that involve hunting down and capturing these new and mysterious beings, because all parties have assumed that they're just another everyday part of the sixth world. It's hard to suddenly make them mysterious smile.gif

I am however going to quite enjoy bringing on a bit of technophobia (bad pun) by unfolding the Hong Kong events, and having the corps blame the troubles on technomancers. That bit works just fine even with my current setup...
Nightwalker450
Just started reading Emergence this last weekend. Picked it up because I've started playing a Technomancer. All I have to say is "DAMN".. I thought technomancers were part of everyday life as well. I'm glad I'd already decided to keep my Technomancer ways secret. Carrying 2 commlinks, so I look like your standard hacker. Unless someone took a look at my "good" comm. Just an upgraded firewall, encrypt, and analyze. Nothing remotely illeagle on my character. I'm half afraid to hand this over to my GM, but I'm liking the story potential if he decides to use some of it.

I also look forward to unwired, and getting probably some Technomancer qualities. (Already want to talk my GM into "Sprite Mentor")
Nightwalker450
For those that haven't read the major events that might mess with your current idea of 2070 are:

May 31, 2070
Hong Kong Disaster

Technomancers escape from mental ward and wreck havok upon the city. This is the first real public knowledge and proof of technomancers existance. Before this corps had been researching and kidnapping them, but public notice was nothing but late night talk shows, and small blurbs in papers nothing believable or concrete. This launches a full scale witchhunt against this new threat fed by corporations blaming technomancers for the Crash of '64 and everything else.

August 20, 2070
AI Sojouner announces his existance

The AI is inside of a medical space station, and threatens to start dropping the bio weapons in production there into cities unless his demands are met. His demands are to let the Technomancers go, stop the witchhunt. This leads to even more speculation on Crash 2.0 + AI's + Technomancers. The witchhunt isn't changed except to incorporate AI's into the public fear.

August ~25, 2070
AI Pulsar announces existance

Pulsar basically is the Public Relations AI. He steps up as representative of a group of AI's and wants to quell the fear of AI. Works for equal rights for AI's, and Technomancers. Wants the "Digital Intelligences" to be able to live and cooperate with the organic Intelligences. He also assists in the negotiations with Sojouner to release the hostages of the space station.

September 18, 2070
Gennex's (subsidary of NeoNet) experimentation on Technomancers unmasked

A shadowrun team gets into Gennex labs and sees the extent to which Technomancers are being experimented on. People of all ages children to seniors, are cut open, body and skulls, with trodes everywhere. Not all are even technomancers, but anyone who is suspected of being one. The team is killed, but sends out video footage in a mass spam before they are brought down. This turns some of the population towards protecting the Technomancers due to memories of UGE, SURGE, and the Awakening.

Well I haven't finished reading the whole thing yet, but these events have greatly altered some of my thinking on the whole SR4 world. Many people are speculating whether Technomancers are even Metahuman, and thus many have no problem with them being tagged and bagged. Others have seen the atrocities by Gennex as something that noone, Metahuman or not, should have to go through. I'm playing a technomancer currently and the world suddenly seems alot scarier than before. I recommend people get this book to get a better understanding of the chaos and panic that is currently taking place in 2070.

[EDIT:] Added more dates, and updated my summary
Magus
I personally loved Emergence. Just as Nightwalker stated it does give you a more personal view of the SR world if you are playing a techno. I built one for me to play in when the BBB was released and did not get a lot out of her. But now, Emergence really opens your eyes to how bigotry and fear mixed with political maunevering can be used to bring a realism to the world setting. I was amazed and overjoyed as now I am gming for the group and I can dip my fingers into this steaming cauldron of intrigue. This should be interesting, my group is based in London.
Ancient History
One thing I'm curious to touch on-how does this chapter affect your interpretation of technomancers as "just another type of magician?" I realize that's a bit of a leading question, but it's a common enough idea on the board.
Nightwalker450
Hadn't really thought of that since reading this. But with the reading I'd say calling them just another magician is selling them short. 5% of the population is Awakened, I haven't been able to find an estimate for Technomancers anywhere, but I'm guessing it at about 3%, and 2% of that are people suffering from AIPS and are not in control of their abilities. The difference between Magician and Technomancer is their ability to affect you, and the way they gained their abilities in the first place. The Matrix is worldwide and is imbedded in everyones lives, so a technomancer could be anywhere or in anything. The Magician has great power, but not the reach that the technomancer does. The world became awakened as one, and has been that way for almost 60 years. Technomancers are the biproduct of Crash 2.0, which was brought about by powerful AI that didn't have the best in mind for mankind. The AI who had been tinkering for years in the heads of Otaku. Its easy understand the fear and the lashing out by metahumans toward them.

Magicians are able to sense a technomancer, but its not an astral signature that they are seeing, distasteful as it is Corporations have found that the mental activity and nervous system of a Technomancer are quite different from other metahumans. As far as I know a mage on a cut table will appear the same as any other metahuman, the races even follow the same set of physics, they have different strengths or capabilities in the physical sense but all biologically the same. The book doesn't answer but only apply theory after theory and none proven as to "What are Technomancers, and how'd it happen?"
NightRain
QUOTE (Ancient History)
One thing I'm curious to touch on-how does this chapter affect your interpretation of technomancers as "just another type of magician?" I realize that's a bit of a leading question, but it's a common enough idea on the board.

The only place I was left with that feeling was the mechanical similarity of the rules that are used for technomancers and magicians. Flavour wise, they've always felt completely different to me, and Emergence did a good job of widening that gap even further
martindv
I would have preferred if the book was more about the AI and didn't go back and make TMs a secret until all of the sudden in 2070.

But it was a nice read.
FrankTrollman
I thought the book got stronger as it went on, but that the first chapter was pretty bad. Almost bad enough to make me just stop reading altogether. As it was I found that the first chapter was pretty useless to someone who has read all the Deus background and fairly incomprehensible to those who had not.

I don't have the book with me, so I'm going by memory. Still, the little statement by Puck that he used to run with a bad crowd realy stuck with me. Not because it is was an in-joke tossed to the people who remember the Puck storyline, but because it was an insult to them. People who haven't seen the entire Deus storyline from the beginning read that chapter and did not come away with the knowledge that Puck was a willing White, nor did they know what that would mean had they known that fact. Meanwhile, people who did know that were in no way enlightened as to what the hell happened or what Puck is doing now.

The rest of the chapter is much like that. People who knew the storyline aren't given enough meat in all the shadowtalk to really piece together much of anything, and people who don't know the storyline aren't given enough facts to have a working knowledge of any of it. New players who read that chapter seriously come away confused and just ask me "What the hell does any of this mean?" And I can't blame them.

If you had to come out with an opening of retro-history, it would have been far better to just seriously give a double page spread of a timeline in direct Game Information dry no-nonsense info dump. People who knew the information could skip it, and people who didn't could get brought up to speed quickly.

---

The second problem of course is that the game had been going for some time, and the basic book implies that Technomancers are 5 years old in most cases. But Emergence makes Technomancy secret and the term brand new, even contentious. That means that people who started 4th edition characters who were Technomancers (like say, the archetype Technomancer character on page 103) all have their basic introductions to the team retconned out of existence. That was a bad decision.

The whole "what the hell do we call these guys?" segment should have been pushed back to 2068 so that player characters who came on the scene in 2070 as technomancers could stay in canon.

---

Each chapter in the book is better than the one before it. By the time we get to the last chapter, it is actually quite good. But I almost didn't read the whole thing because the first chapter is really bad.

-Frank
Critias
QUOTE (FrankTrollman)
The second problem of course is that the game had been going for some time, and the basic book implies that Technomancers are 5 years old in most cases. But Emergence makes Technomancy secret and the term brand new, even contentious. That means that people who started 4th edition characters who were Technomancers (like say, the archetype Technomancer character on page 103) all have their basic introductions to the team retconned out of existence. That was a bad decision.

Which is a continuing beef of mine with several of the 4th edition products. I understand that -- apparently -- a five year timeline leap was needed for technology to advance or whatever, but it's still being handled poorly enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth. There are an awful lot of details that have yet to be explained to us, that can (and will) matter quite a bit to an awful lot of gamers when they really do come to light.

Perhaps because the five year jump builds on it, I'm reminded of how we've been "teased" for several years now about the situation in the Tir. GMs are having to make up their own details for how some major stuff in T6W went down (sometimes five or more years ago!), that is the sort of detail that can really affect a game... and then, after the fact, in some supplement a year or two or three from now we'll find out what really happened (and/or what's really happening, as is the case with Technomancers) and it can throw a major monkeywrench into a game that's trying to stay "canon" while also being internally consistent.

Making Technomancers X-Men in their book but not really bothering to mention that in the core SR4 book a few years ago is just...a headache. No one likes retcons, and we're being spoon fed them left and right.
Blade
I think that Technomancer shouldn't have been in SR4 BBB. Something about "strange Matrix phenomenons" maybe, but not archetypes shown and known to all players.

I mean, it's like telling players about insect spirits before the UB/Bug City Arc...
Paradigm
@ FrankTrollman

Can understand some of your comments about the thing about Puck, but as it is, the way it's handled doesn't feel wrong to me. (I'm aware of the storyline myself, though I never really used the arcology and only used the network once, just for completeness' sake). Things like this to me show how much of a reset of the setting there is, the basics for the entire redemption story are in canon (system reset) but enough is left open to avoid invalidating specific runs people would have made. Also, for people new to the setting in 4e, they're not bogged down with having to know the entire history, though they're given enough glimpses to know that he's most likely not fully trustworthy. The idea that he's got a place in jackpoint because of the information he has, yet in spite of the blatant hatred towards him just serves to them to make the setting seem alive and give them a better feel for it.

As for what Puck's doing now, do we even want to know? For now, I think I'll sleep better being unaware of what he's up to *grin*

I'll end my derail here, as I've not had my hands on emergence yet and shouldn't be hijacking the thread, basing the above comments on runner havens. Feel free to PM me about it though.

Demonseed Elite
As a writer, I still find the five-year leap awkward. I understand why they did it, but as has been touched on here, in a game like Shadowrun, it does lead to some continuity issues and sometimes puts the writers in a difficult bind.

Though I will admit that it sometimes makes my life easier as a writer too. When I wanted to change Hong Kong's government structure, the five-year gap gave me some convenient time for the changes to take place instead of it being very sudden.
Critias
I think it's also irritating because (prior to the edition change, of course), the "real time" environment was something Shadowrun was kind of known for (along with *cough* combat/magic pools *cough*). The ongoing metaplot, not just the unfolding metaplot, was something that was very cool to be a "part" of by playing through certain adventures, and that sort of thing. It wasn't just something you walked up to and read all about, it was stuff that was, for lack of a better term, events you felt you were there for.

But, oh well. Sorry, Book Club. Not trying to thread crap, just expanding upon my earlier sentiments that were specific to Emergence.
Buster
QUOTE (Blade)
I think that Technomancer shouldn't have been in SR4 BBB. Something about "strange Matrix phenomenons" maybe, but not archetypes shown and known to all players.

I mean, it's like telling players about insect spirits before the UB/Bug City Arc...

I completely understand what you're saying. The whole time I was reading Emergence, I was saying to myself "This would have been an awesome introduction to Technomancers if they hadn't already introduced Technomancers in the main book." LOL.

Instead it was like "Pretend you don't know anything about lightbulbs, now let me begin my presentation by showing you this normal appearing kerosene lantern that glows without kerosene!!! (pssst, now pretend you're amazed)."
martindv
I seem to remember it being sold as a TM plot book. It would have been much more interesting if they focused on the AIs, although using TMs to cover them up was a good idea that should have been written into the whole "they're still 5 years old and new and scary and maybe Otaku, which were weird and scary and maybe caused what was damn near the Apocalypse in 2064."
NightRain
QUOTE (FrankTrollman @ Nov 16 2007, 06:29 PM)
As it was I found that the first chapter was pretty useless to someone who has read all the Deus background and fairly incomprehensible to those who had not.

I don't have the book with me, so I'm going by memory. Still, the little statement by Puck that he used to run with a bad crowd realy stuck with me. Not because it is was an in-joke tossed to the people who remember the Puck storyline, but because it was an insult to them. People who haven't seen the entire Deus storyline from the beginning read that chapter and did not come away with the knowledge that Puck was a willing White, nor did they know what that would mean had they known that fact.

I'm going to disagree with you here. Renraku arcology shutdown was my least favourite bit of Shadowrun plot development, and was the straw that broke the camels back, and saw me turn away from Shadowrun. I read arcology shutdown once, many years ago, and have not read a single thing from that plot line since then.

I knew /of/ Deus, and that it had taken over the arcology. Other than references in books since then, I know nothing at all about the apparent schism between the various tribes of otaku, or how the events unfolded leading to Deus' downfall. I also have no idea who Puck is, though having read various bits of Shadowtalk regarding him since coming back to Shadowrun with 4th ed, it's become clear to me that he was an otaku that was initially allied with Deus, and switched sides, and still has a bad rep for playing for the wrong team initially.

I did not come away from the chapter with knowledge that he was a "willing white" but that would not have meant anything to me anyway, not having any idea what a "white" is. I did get the idea he picked the wrong side when the events went down though, and to me, that seems fine. Nearly every character in shadowtalk hints at events and backstories that may or may not be fully fleshed out in a plot book or fiction, and Puck struck me as no different. I had enough information to form a high level summary of who he was and what he was about, and that's honestly all I needed
martindv
QUOTE (NightRain)
I'm going to disagree with you here. Renraku arcology shutdown was my least favourite bit of Shadowrun plot development, and was the straw that broke the camels back, and saw me turn away from Shadowrun. I read arcology shutdown once, many years ago, and have not read a single thing from that plot line since then.

Well, some people are just wrong sometimes.
FrankTrollman
QUOTE (NightRain)
QUOTE (FrankTrollman @ Nov 16 2007, 06:29 PM)
  People who haven't seen the entire Deus storyline from the beginning read that chapter and did not come away with the knowledge that Puck was a willing White, nor did they know what that would mean had they known that fact.

I'm going to disagree with you here.
I knew /of/ Deus, and that it had taken over the arcology. Other than references in books since then, I know nothing at all about the apparent schism between the various tribes of otaku, or how the events unfolded leading to Deus' downfall.

I did not come away from the chapter with knowledge that he was a "willing white" but that would not have meant anything to me anyway, not having any idea what a "white" is. I

Wait... where's the part where you disagreed with me? I think you just confirmed exactly what I said about the chapter. You might not mind on the grounds that you didn't really feel the need to make use of the plot lines that you don't understand, but the point remains that you reading that section did not tell you what happened in those plot lines and does not allow you to use it.

I suppose you'll have to take it on faith that for people who already followed that plotline this section provides insufficient information for them to continue those plotlines.

---

But you seriously did make my point for me. You walked in with minimal understanding of those events and walked out no better. My complaint against the chapter holds.

-Frank
NightRain
QUOTE (FrankTrollman)
But you seriously did make my point for me. You walked in with minimal understanding of those events and walked out no better. My complaint against the chapter holds.

Well technically, yes, but if that was your point, it's a non point. Any and all shadowtalk that hints at a story line, whether it's one developed elsewhere or not, does not give you enough information to use that storyline in and of itself. Why should the Puck storyline have different expectations on it?

I was able to read it, follow it, and glean a bit more background information, all without knowing the underlying details. In my mind, that means it achieved its goals, whether or not it explicitly closed/developed an existing storyline
FrankTrollman
How is that a non-point? An entire book of Shadowrun was filled up with information about a set of events and yet that information is specifically insufficient to run a game based on those events. That means that the entire chapter is a failure as anything but fiction.

And that's up to personal taste. Personally I thought it wasn't good as fiction. You may differ. But my point is and always has been that it was completely worthless as a game aid, which means that it was worthless as what it was supposed to be whether you liked the pacing of the fiction or not.

-Frank
JBlades
Time out, I'm a bit lost here. There's a plot line that runs from Renraku Arcology Shutdown to System Failure to Emergence. I get that (In fact I've read and own all of that). Now, is the complaint that the comments from/about Puck in Emergence don't provide enough info to run Emergence, or they don't provide enough info to continue the plotline, or that they don't provide enough info to completely replace Shutdown and SF? At times it seems like you're all (specifically Frank, if you could clarify here I'd appreciate it) saying one, at other times your comments seem to imply another.

It's entirely possible I'm just tired, however. Thanks for any clarification. smile.gif
FrankTrollman
QUOTE
Now, is the complaint that the comments from/about Puck in Emergence don't provide enough info to run Emergence, or they don't provide enough info to continue the plotline, or that they don't provide enough info to completely replace Shutdown and SF?


The entire book does not contain enough information to continue the plotline.

Also, the book does not contain enough information to catch a newbie up to speed on what happened in that plotline.

---

Basically I see two possibilities with that plotline: either people who already knew where it was would like to continue it (Emergence provides inadequate information to do that); or players unfamiliar with the plotline would like to interact with it (Emergence provides inadequate information to do that).

So regardless of who I happen to be as a reader, Emergence doesn't give me the information I need to move forward with the Dissonant Voices. The fact that they had Puck come on and make vague uninformative comments was just rubbing salt in that particular wound. He was actually there, which means that of all the people in the entire Sixth World who could give a coherent in-character description of those events, his would be the most valuable to a player or Game Master. Then he pops in to say that he'd rather not talk about it and then he doesn't fucking talk about it!

-Frank
NightRain
QUOTE (FrankTrollman)
or players unfamiliar with the plotline would like to interact with it (Emergence provides inadequate information to do that).

We come back to this again. I am a player unfamiliar with the plot line, yet I don't see the problem you describe. The book hints at past events and a past plot line, whilst giving high level knowledge of how it resolved. Players wanting to interact with that plotline though would not be looking at this book for that. Even if it did give the specific information you're looking for, the information would not be usable by a person not familiar with the plot line already.

As a player unfamiliar with the Dues plotline, Emergence would be /less/ useful to me if it went in to specific details on resolving a plotline I'm unfamiliar with
Demonseed Elite
And Emergence isn't meant to be a continuation of the Deus storyline. That storyline wrapped with System Failure. If part of Emergence seems to rely too much on that earlier storyline, that might be a problem, but it isn't intended that way, from what I know.
Synner
QUOTE (FrankTrollman @ Nov 18 2007, 10:12 AM)
QUOTE
Now, is the complaint that the comments from/about Puck in Emergence don't provide enough info to run Emergence, or they don't provide enough info to continue the plotline, or that they don't provide enough info to completely replace Shutdown and SF?

The entire book does not contain enough information to continue the plotline.
Also, the book does not contain enough information to catch a newbie up to speed on what happened in that plotline.

That's actually good, because, as Demonseed has said, neither Emergence nor the System Anomalies chapter is intended to do either. I'm not sure where you drew that expectation from aside from the presence of one character but no revisiting of past storylines was intended.

None of the main figures or story elements of the AI plotlines of the past play a role in Emergence nor were they ever intended to - that story arc was wrapped with System Failure. Emergence is not a continuation of that story line in any direct sense (though the secret history is needed to ground the fears and reactions of the corporations in 2070. In fact, there was a development decision to include only the bare minimal pre-SR4 information necessary to understand what lies behind certain events—hence the focus on the technomancer Netcat rather than the (apparently) faded otaku Puck.

QUOTE
So regardless of who I happen to be as a reader, Emergence doesn't give me the information I need to move forward with the Dissonant Voices. The fact that they had Puck come on and make vague uninformative comments was just rubbing salt in that particular wound. He was actually there, which means that of all the people in the entire Sixth World who could give a coherent in-character description of those events, his would be the most valuable to a player or Game Master. Then he pops in to say that he'd rather not talk about it and then he doesn't fucking talk about it!

Since Emergence isn't a continuation of Dissonant Voices, but is rather an entirely new story arc that plays off some similar elements and was never intended to continue any of the previous storylines, that is as it should be. As NightRain pointed out, the development course chosen provides enough details for newcomers to know there are precedents and history to events. Old timers will or will not have read the Deus and Ex Pacis arcs (in fact, any one still can since they can pick up the old books) but whether they did or not doesn't matter - Emergence was never billed as a follow on and it isn't.

Game information, passing fiction mentions, and character references to past plotlines are there to provide a minimal amount of setting history/context that is absolutely necessary to understand some of the hidden fears and the scope of reactions to AIs and TMs), as well as provide a sense of setting continuity to all the old players who have followed those stories in the past.

That said, Emergence represented our first chance to really delve into some of the Jackpointer's personalities and fill them out a bit. You actually learn a lot more about several of them than is immediately apparent or even relevant to the ongoing story in Emergence (ie. Sunshine's mentor and idol in the news biz is in there, that Beaker has a sister, etc). That being the case, it was inevitable that some of the old Shadowland hands on Jackpoints (particularly Slamm-O! who lost friends when SLSeattle went down) would bring up Puck's old alleigances when technomancers are tied to otaku and AIs. But given that Puck's history (as indeed all the previous AI storylines) are only tangentially relevant to Emergence (and no one knows about his role in the Boston Singularity), it was kept as nebulous as possible.
Ancient History
Revelations
This chapter begins one of my favorite bits about Emergence: the newsfeed on the left hand page.

This chapter bites more into the reaction to technomancers than what they are, and pulls out some of the rational and irrational arguments for and against-kinda like the things you say in your head when the news is running and all the jackasses are talking. There's also a deeper focus on AIPS and its connection to the emergent technomancer phenomenon.

Revelations also has some of my favorite art in this book.

One thing you'll notice is that the primary protagonist behind these postings is Sunshine; which was set up in the earlier chapter. This gives the whole plot a much more personal feel to it.

Don't let all the technobabble scare you (actually, I think I suggested some of it). For those not aware, the human body has an electromagnetic field associated with it-if you're not a science-type, think about the fact that humans were used as batteries in The Matrix. One of the prime sources for the human EM field is the sino-atrial node, a cluster of cells that cause your heart to contract by sending an electric current through the muscles-essentially the biological pacemaker everyone is born with.

No known connection between "Patient V" and "V for Vendetta"-honest!

And of course, Netcat's whole "coming out" bit is a major highlight to the chapter, as well as Shelbramat's (he's smart, but we never said he was clever-hell vampires and nobles did the same thing with the backwards-names bit) apparent demise.

The most notable part of the Game Info from a metaplot viewpoint is probably the last adventure track, "The Rise and Fall of Joey D."
Penta
I always thought "human electric field" thing was unscientific new-age crap.

It's been proven?
Ancient History
Bioelectromagnetism is scientific fact. New-Agey shit like aura photography is crap.
Penta
Ah.
martindv
QUOTE (Ancient History)
Bioelectromagnetism is scientific fact. New-Agey shit like aura photography is crap.

Even the kind in State of the Art?
martindv
QUOTE (FrankTrollman)
Then he pops in to say that he'd rather not talk about it and then he doesn't fucking talk about it!

I hate it when people do what they say they will.
Synner
QUOTE (martindv)
QUOTE (Ancient History @ Nov 18 2007, 12:53 PM)
Bioelectromagnetism is scientific fact. New-Agey shit like aura photography is crap.

Even the kind in State of the Art?

I'm fairly certain Ancient meant in real life. In SR, both bioelectromagnetism and kyrilian/aura photography are facts of life.
TW
QUOTE (Ancient History)
This chapter bites more into the reaction to technomancers than what they are, and pulls out some of the rational and irrational arguments for and against-kinda like the things you say in your head when the news is running and all the jackasses are talking. There's also a deeper focus on AIPS and its connection to the emergent technomancer phenomenon.

Earlier draft(s) of the chapter focused a bit more on Technomancers themselves, but the whole thing underwent significant editing and some pieces also had to be cut for space reasons. Then again, the earlier version(s) also contained a lot more technobabble, so I guess it all evened out (And yes, AH suggested came up with a few of the ideas presented in the chapter).

Initially, I was trying to give some more suggestions on how to play TM PC's or how GM's could better incorporate them in their game (also as NPC's). One of my personal favorites (but cut during editing) was a ripped email communication between two corp network admins/sysops who kicked an intruding hacker out of their system. However, the system's logfiles reviewed afterwards as part of the clean-up protocol left the sysops puzzled. According to the system's log files the hacker didn't steal anything but went straight for the company's virtual programming/test environment. When he was discovered and kicked out he was using the system's resources to run diagnostics programs on his persona and 'custom programs'.

I still think that while it's true TM's are not really the big secret anymore to GM's or players, there are still a lot of roleplaying and plot potentials in personalizing 'the Apes' or technomantic abilities with PC's and NPC's such as contacts, friends or family - regardless of whether the PC's know up front what they're quite possibly dealing with or not.
Ancient History
Sorry for the delay...but I did indeed survive another Black Friday.

Witchhunt
Okay, here it is, the "big breakthrough event." The center action in Hong Kong is a nice touch, but the various articles and newsbits give a decent global coverage.

BTW-I love the little job offer bits. It's a nice way for GMs to tie directly into the book, but ambiguous enough to give them leeway and let them play.

E-Ghost stories is another hint at something that's made the rounds in SR for years, and ties in neatly with the growing AI hints near the middle of the chapter.

The real gem of this section is Clockwork, in my opinion, who receives some of the best characterization of any of the shadowtalkers yet.
Buster
Wait, aren't you one of the writers on Emergence?
Synner
Yes, Ancient is indeed one of the writers involved (as he has been on several recent books, and as are TW and I). However - and even though Emergence was a highly collaborative project - he only wrote the final chapter. Consequently he's been including his likes and dislikes regarding the content in his overviews of the other author's chapters - something authors often do at mid-stage of development, but which they rarely get to do on the finished product.

The point of the book club threads is (at least partially) to discuss and review the books from a writing and content perspective, and having a writer's POV on this side of things (rather than say rules clarifications and errata) is useful to say the least.

But back to the reviewing...

Regarding Clockwork, I've got to say I was a surprised that some people thought he was so much of a straw man bad guy, considering we put quite some thought into choosing him.

Possibly it isn't obvious enough to the reader that Clockwork is a metahuman hailing from an area of the globe where his kind are the subject of racism and descrimination, and that he's suffered through the same type of prejudice he's heaping on technomancers. It's not intended as a profound statement on racism, but it does give a bit of depth and personality to the character.
Buster
QUOTE (Synner)
The point of the book club threads is (at least partially) to discuss and review the books from a writing and content perspective, and having a writer's POV on this side of things (rather than say rules clarifications and errata) is useful to say the least.

But isn't the writer's point of view included in the book already? Isn't this just spam?
Blade
Not his point of view on other's chapters.
Frank Trollman has already given his thoughts about the work of other authors in books he has worked on... and it wasn't exactly a positive opinion.
Ancient History
QUOTE (Buster)
But isn't the writer's point of view included in the book already?

Not if you're doing it right, in my opinion. When I write in-character fiction for a plot-book like Emergence, I go for what the character's POV is-not my own. One of the things about the Book Club threads is that it also gives readers and authors a chance to go over things like presentation, shadowtalker style (and how it changes with author), language, and any other more technical or metatextual elements. Personally, I also like to point out the things I think are really cool or maybe expand on a reference or gag I might have made-things you can't usually do in the middle of the book.

QUOTE
Isn't this just spam?

Nah, because anybody is free to tell me I'm full of shit. Honestly, once the book is published I can't go back and tell people "No, you're wrong, I meant it like this"-that's a BS response. I can expand on, explain, talk about behind the scenes a little, but I can't invalidate someone's comprehension just because it doesn't jive with what I was thinking when I wrote it. I can tell you now that Steve Kenson didn't think of all the theories people would come up with for the bequests in Dunkelzahn's Will, but that doesn't mean any of those theories are incorrect-at least, until another book comes out and explains something.
HappyDaze
AH, you're full of shit.

What?

You said I was free to say it, so I had to. I just had to...
Critias
QUOTE (Buster)
But isn't the writer's point of view included in the book already? Isn't this just spam?

I'm not sure how much you think your average freelance schlep's "point of view" gets through into their own portion of a gaming book, much less all the other freelance schleps' chapters, but I can tell you it's not very much.

You don't get four cents a word to share your "point of view." You get paid to write what they need written (and that's even before the editors get ahold of it). It's not an editorial, it's a game book.

And how anyone can call anything on Dumpshock "spam" is fucking beyond me. Seriously. Someone can eat bandwidth just demanding attention and opinions on their latest thrown-together character sheet, we can have the same nine people arguing in the same three threads about Trolls all at the same time, everyone and their uncle can post their own ideas for how the Matrix should work...but someone trying to organize people to sit down and share their opinions in an in-depth review of a published gaming product is "spam?" How does it even make sense to say something like that out loud?
martindv
QUOTE (Ancient History @ Nov 26 2007, 08:10 PM)
The real gem of this section is Clockwork, in my opinion, who receives some of the best characterization of any of the shadowtalkers yet.

He's a strawman.

I'd hardly call that characterization.

QUOTE (Synner)
Regarding Clockwork, I've got to say I was a surprised that some people thought he was so much of a straw man bad guy, considering we put quite some thought into choosing him.

Possibly it isn't obvious enough to the reader that Clockwork is a metahuman hailing from an area of the globe where his kind are the subject of racism and descrimination, and that he's suffered through the same type of prejudice he's heaping on technomancers.  It's not intended as a profound statement on racism, but it does give a bit of depth and personality to the character.

It didn't work.

Besides, racist minorities is hardly something unheard of. Exploiting it is quite useful, especially in politics.
Demonseed Elite
In the interests of book club discussion (and my own curiosity), I'd like to hear more detail on why martindv feels that Clockwork is a strawman.
Critias
It might have something to do with everyone who's ever expressed any racist feelings in any Shadowrun subject, ever, being a strawman. Just a hunch.
Moon-Hawk
QUOTE (Critias)
It might have something to do with everyone who's ever expressed any racist feelings in any Shadowrun subject, ever, being a strawman. Just a hunch.

That's the impression that I walked away from those sections with. It's partly Clockwork, but a big part of it is everyone else who is disagreeing with him.
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