It’s the first of the month, that means I spend the day uploading PDFs.

This week, we take a deeper look into the people behind the shadowtalk and get more hints into the true purpose of Horizon’s Dawkins Group and the Consensus.

Everyone’s Watching Everyone

The problem with keeping files about ne’er-do-wells is they’re a curious and clever lot. Curious and clever enough to pilfer those files from the corporate compiler, repost them, and add their own commentary-providing a level of meta-information like you’ve never seen before. Get the scoop on Jackpoint-posters like Kay St. Irregular, Ecotope, Man-of-Many-Names, and Turbo Bunny.

Remember: not everything you read is true. When the two sources of information are Horizon and Jackpoint … all bets are off.

The Jackpointers presented in this download are: Baka Dabora, Ecotope, Fianchetto, Kay St. Irreggular, Lei Kung, Lyran, Man-of-Many-Names, Orbital DK, Riser, and Turbo Bunny. Each has a 2 or 3 page profile.

Product via Catalyst Game Labs – $4.95
Product via DriveThruRPG – $4.95
See you in a couple of weeks!

Hoo-ha!

Hey folks–

So with yesterday’s release of 10 Jackpointers, we wanted to follow up with some more classic releases. Today we have two Shadowrun, Second Edition books for the street sam in all of us: Fields of Fire and the Street Samurai’s Catalog. We also have a preview of the Table of Contents for 10 Jackpointers.

10 Jackpointers

Table of Contents

Product via Catalyst Game Labs – $4.95
Product via DriveThruRPG – $4.95

Fields of Fire

The streets are a violent place, as dangerous as any battlefield. And the lessons men and women learn on those fields of fire can save their reputations-and their lives-in any combat situation.

Fields of Fire is the mercenary sourcebook for Shadowrun. Information on how to act like a professional merc, and pages of new weapons, support gear, and optional combat-rules clarifications and expansions make this book something no merc, or runner, should live without.

Product via Catalyst Game Labs – $7.50
Product via DriveThruRPG – $7.50


Street Samurai’s Catalog

You’re the ultimate fighting machine. A predator-for-hire in the savage urban world of Shadowrun. You’ve devoted your life to honing your combat and martial skills. The tools of your trade are airfoil grenades, form-fitting body armor, and an Ares Crusader machine pistol. An expansion for Shadowrun, the Street Samurai Catalog will let you outfit yourself with the latest equipment available on the black market: retractable hand razors, ultrasonic sights, enhanced reflexes, and maybe a rangefinder for your cybereyes. Whatever you need to get the job done, you can find it here, but it won’t be cheap. And remember to watch your back before someone decides to make you yesterday’s news.

Product via Catalyst Game Labs – $6.00
Product via DriveThruRPG – $6.00

You may now commence kvetching about how we didn't do your favorite shadowtalker.

Hell, most of my favorite Shadowtalkers aren't even *in* SR4

Pleasantly surprised with 10 Shadowtalkers, nice to have 4th edition commentators fleshed out.

On a related note, how are experiences with paypal? Is it safe to use?

I had no problems so far, works good.

cya
Tycho

Can I kvetch about how you did a shadowtalker I hate?

Certs.

The what-now?

[Redacted] Horizon [Redacted] fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord...

Well, I knew that, cos I heard the Dawkins Group was Horizons Social Strike Team equivalent. I've got the PDF, and it sounds like it's an AI or something?

I can't believe that Neon Samurai and Steel Lynx weren't in there! Ugh! =P

While i was initially skeptical of some of the picks you had me from the interaction between Baka Dabora and Kane, that and I'll be using Baka Dabora in tonight run so it was certainly money well spent. If i had one little complaint it would be that there are no stat blocks for these guys. While i can certainly understand the argument behind that as a GM it would have been nice to even have something vague to go off of especially if my characters tried to contact such individuals.

Are we likely to see more books like this, featuring JackPointers exclusively? Also, I noticed on the intro screen, it pointed to a file called 30 Rides, any info on that?

Xahn--

We are going to be doing more PDF exclusive products, though I don't have another 10 Jackpointer project scheduled at the moment. 30 Rides is another project coming up soon. It's about thirty rides.

It's nice. I haven't finished reading it. One thing that would have made a big difference is that I would have liked stats (other than TurboBunny's, thankyou). I worry that the devs aren't running Shadowrun anymore and have forgotten that it's more than just a setting, it's a game. Certainly I can improvise stats for these characters, but it would be helpful if they were pre-done. If this is just for reading, then it's fine. But I might want to suddenly drop Lyran into the game as a contact or Riser as a nemesis. I understand that this means players could then *gasp* kill cannon characters. I'm good with that.

K.

10 Jackpointers is an excellent read.

Riser's stats will be published in an upcoming project. For the record, the devs and freelancers went to the mat over the "stats or no stats" debate. Yes, the statement of "if we stat it they will kill it" came up, but ultimately, we didn't want to limit the writers in the future. Many of our other projects will be including stats and crunch.

And for the record, the three of us in Seattle play Shadowrun together on a weekly basis. I'll have to ask around for our folks who work remotely.

I have a Shadowrun game group that meets on average 2 times a month.

Jason H.

Has anyone compiled an exhaustive list or so of all the JackPointers? I know there was a list ("Jackpoint User List") released as a PDF that had 57 on there, but there are some that didn't get on that list... like Change Agent. DefCon5, /dev/grrl, Pyramid Watcher, et al. I'm assuming they are new users or ones invited by FastJack to contribute info on specific files (sourcebooks). How many users have access to FastJack's VPN?

For what it's worth, I'm all for leaving out stats for JackPointers and prime runners, that gives me the freedom (as a GM) to make them as powerful as they need to be to survive. Take a published sample character or contact that resembles the JackPointer, boost the attributes/skills a bit, add a lot of Edge/Karma, & voila!

This is the current list of regular JackPoint users:
/dev/grrl (new addition)
2XL
Am-mut
Arete
Aufheben
Axis Mundi
Baka Dabora
Beaker
Black Mamba
Butch
Clockwork
Cosmo
DangerSensei
Dr. Spin
Ecotope
Elijah
Ethernaut
FastJack
Fatima (deceased)
Fianchetto
Frosty
Glasswalker
Glitch
Goat Foot
Hannibelle
Hard Exit
Haze
Icarus
Jimmy No
Kane
Kat o' Nine Tales
Kay St. Irregular
Kia
Lei Kung (new addition)
Lyran
Ma'fan
Man-of-Many-Names
Marcos
Mihoshi Oni
Mika
Mr. Bonds
Nephrine
Netcat
Orbital DK
Picador
Pistons
Plan 9
Puck (missing)
Red Anya
Rigger X
Riser
Slamm-0!
Smiling Bandit
Snopes
Sounder
Sticks
Stone (new addition)
Sunshine
Traveler Jones
Turbo Bunny
Winterhawk

The others like KAM, Pyramid Watcher, Otaku Zuku, et al. are guest users who do not have regular access.

Great to hear. As regards "if it has stats they will kill it", my opinion is "good". We don't want any Elminsters in Shadowrun and whilst I personally like the IEs in moderation, the eruptions of scorn on these forums when they come up gives a flavour of how much some people like the statless wonders.

The converse of "if it has stats they will kill it", is that "if it doesn't have stats, it can't kill them". Seriously, if Turbo Bunny has no stats, then she can't get in an insanely dangerous road duel with my group. If Man of Many Names doesn't have six initiate levels and a Magic rating of ten, then he can't cut my mage player's character to silver ribbons in Astral combat. This is Shadowrun and it don't cause cancer, have hit points or ancient Mary Sue archmages. Instead it's a game where everything is a little bit riskier, but also a little more rewarding as a consequence. I say if that's how it is for the players, then extend that to the GM. Stick Riser or Clockwork into your game and watch the more knowledgeable players freak out. I connected the players up to Jackpoint in an adventure and watched one player going nuts as he was torn apart by out of character knowledge. But the impact was totally worth it because it suddenly drew him into the setting in a way he hadn't been before. This was actually one of the characters from the setting he was talking to. Totally worth it, but the only fair way of doing this is if the characters have actual attributes, not just GM handwavium. My 0.02¥, anyway. Others may differ.

I'm currently playing in one regular game that meets twice a month (Got a game in about 2 hours, actually ), and just got our Missions game back up and running, which will be once a month.

I really miss the days of playing 3+ times a week

Bull

Speaking of Puck, will the story about his disappearance ever be treated in more detail? You know, like some pdf-only fiction...

Few questions:

What book was she introduced in? I saw her in 10 Jackpointers.


When did she die?


He was investigating Ex Pacis wasn't he? In Unwired? What happened?

/dev/grrl was introduced in Vice
Fatima died in Ghost Cartels

cya
Tycho

He went AWOL and Netcat has been looking for him in several places around the world.

I'm not going to do a big reveal, but Puck's disappearance will be addressed in one of the upcoming books due out this year.

Bishop: You're in Seattle now-a-days? Your info says San Diego? Its amazing to me how hard it is to find a game in these parts, given how many Dumpshockers there appear to be.

Anyway, back on topic...

I could swear I remember her in an earlier book somewhere...

I bet you know THE user we'd like to know about in detail. Possibly, more detail than 2-3 pages.
Yeah, his nick begins with "Fast".

Dream on. Any information you get on FJ will likely be false, hacked together by him, or at least seeded with fake info

FJ works better as an legend with a mysterious past. As soon as you define him, he loses some of his power (so to speak).

Bull

You know...I always thought Kay St. Irregular was read as "Kay Saint Irregular" not "Kay Street Irregular."
I also thought he was a she, too...(oddly, I thought Lyran was a guy). Shows how we can get some off
impressions on them from just what we see on JackPoint.

I admit, though...Kat o' Nine Tails was one of the ones I was hoping for a profile on. Not kvetching, mind you.
The book is cool as heck.

Isn't he the original Echo Mirage team leader? Or did everyone decide that was Damien Knight... or are they *gasp!* the same person!

I'm just going for the first.

Actually, I PAINTED Lyran to be a guy, until the devs got back at me and told me he's a she
For what it's worth: this was how Lyran was supposed to look in 1st draft

[img]http://rabenwelten.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/false-lyran-male.jpg[/img]

Cya!

You're not the only one. I'm all about word play and puns and it wasn't until someone flashed the Jackpointer list PDF that I put 2 and 2 together.

I thought Sunshine was a chick for a looooong time. But it's not like it really matters in the end. Except for those who use their real names, I don't know who's male or female on Dumpshock.

Method--

Yeah, I forgot to fix it. I'm up in the Everett area.

She appeared in Running Wild, which was written after the portion of Vice where she was introduced...

I've been arguing that FastJack is really Damian Knight who is David Gavilan for years. No one ever believes me.

And for what it's worth, I thought Lyran was a male shapeshifter. Don't know where I'm getting that from.

Lyran are a form of elven lycanthrope I believe.

And a faction within the Battletech universe...

No relation.

Unless Lyran plays BattleTech.

Stranger things in SR have happened.

You were not the only one.

this forum should seriously autoconvert [img] unto [url]...

Me too, on both counts!

Ditto on the Kay "Saint" Irregular, though I always thought Kay was a he. Sunshine, on the other hand, I thought the opposite.

I wrote both Lyran and Kay St. for the 10 Jackpoint Users. I can point exactly to the shadowtalk comment that defines Lyran as a 'she' (as well as a dwarf). It is in Corporate Enclaves, p. 20, when Ma'Fan teases Lyran about a 'certain dwarf' stunning herself out with her own stunbolt. Lyran responded by saying, 'shut up,' in a very joking manner.

In the very early process of drafting Kay St., I also envisioned Kay. St. being a woman as well. I was soon told that Kay St. was a guy.

Pistons doesn't quite lean that way...most of the time.

It's the 'trix, pics or it never happened, chummer.