Hey folks--

I'm pretty sure that all the freelancers know who I am, and that includes the last few developers I've worked under. The owners have gotten to hear from me over the last few weeks as well. Some of the old timers may have noticed that I've been keeping my head down and staying out of the conversations because of the current situation.

While I'm not a moderator on the forum, I'd like to ask that all of the owners take a deep breath and back away from Dumpshock. There are other ways for each of you to communicate with each other. Those methods don't involve hiding behind veils and obscure screen names while sniping at one another. In many ways, I think the arguments (and this extends to the freelancers, SR Fans, BT Playtesters and authors) have come down to a war of ideology. There is your side, their side, and somewhere in the middle you'll find the truth. My job has been both professionally in my work for CGL and personally as a freelancer, to remain emotionally uninvested and look from both sides. I hope that I have done that and portrayed an equitable vision of the facts without emotional bias whenever I have been asked for them.

Please, take the flame wars, personal grudges, and zealotry from both sides, to a more private venue. Leave DSF to the fans to discuss their take on things. You'll see both sides get picked up without needing to air the dirty laundry of your personal relationships here. If you are taking legal action, then just take it and don't antagonize each other like parents bickering in front of their kids. If not, then posturing in front of everyone is no better than a peacock strutting with its tail feathers.

Thank you.

I'm assuming that CGL is paying the freelancers they need too, to get out product so they can pay the rest of the freelancers.

At least thats what i hope they are doing.

That would make sense, but honestly I'm not sure that's what they are doing. What would make sense, to me, is to pay off Vice and Midnight - which are already printed and in the US, pdfs ready for sale. Choosing not to do that is...weird.

I loved Seattle 2072 and Arsenal was very well done. the rest were okay, maybe allowing in a bigger group of people would help.

Continual efforts were made to grow the SR freelancer pool by the SR developers during all the time I was at Catalyst -- both in the direction of fans that were ready to step up, and towards established gaming professionals interested in working on the line.

But we don't want people as freelancers who ask things like:"Can all people see augmented reality?"

@Cain: You can usually bring suits against out of state people arising from transactions that took place within the state (e.g. a contract being signed), but most employment contracts will include venue and choice of law provisions that would prevent actions in the freelancers' home states. Jurisdictions that bar counsel in small claims court can't/don't stop people from consulting with attorneys out of court, so there's no problem with talking to an attorney to figure out how to get a case removed. The biggest bar to removal will usually be reaching the amount in controversy requirement for diversity jurisdiction ($75k), but that can often be circumvented by pleading high-dollar counterclaims (e.g. defamation, slander of copyright, tortious interference with contract). Courts accepted amounts pleaded unless it's certain, as a legal matter, that the amounts can't be recovered.

Also, Catalyst may not need to worry about fees and costs. Comprehensive general liability insurers will assume defenses in many suits against insured businesses. If an insurer gets involved, the settlement calculus totally changes. The whole thing is a crapshoot, depends on contracts we don't have access to, and isn't something we can reasonably speculate about. People need to see their own attorneys (esp. where copyright issues are involved); decade and a half old anecdotes from one's own state aren't good legal guideposts.

You know, something I really do not like seeing is all the vitriol over this.
I mean, Ms. Harding being upset because she is getting payment for some, but not all of her contributions is understandable,
but the books she listed includes not getting payment for includes some of the latest books.
Did CGL really say "We will pay you for A, B, and C, but not Y and Z"? Or did they say "We are sending payment for A, B, and C, but not Y and Z"?
The semantics could mean alot. In the first, it would mean not being paid for them, in the second it can mean not being paid yet.

I can envision, since I have been in similar situations myself, RL, that they got money in, and first thing they had to do was decide what bills to pay NOW,
and what bills to pay on the next paycheck. I could see it being alot like this: "If we pay these books that are out NOW, that people REALLY want, we can make sure
we are getting more money to pay these books that just came out and are not selling as well, or that we are waiting on to come out. Let's pay what is most likely
to get us income to pay the other books off." I mean, who has not put off paying their cable or phone bill to make their house-payment and power bill? Honestly, I
am inclined to see it in more that light.

Really, though, as just a fan of the game, there is not much I can do. I can express my opinion(which is an, admittedly, optimistic one), and hope for the best, or I can
descend into the negativity many here seem to be showing. I would rather be positive and hopeful, though, since that is just better all around. I know Shadowrun has
survived three publishers, and that, when all is said and done, will still be here in years to come. Whether that is under current CGL, CGL with management changes,
or a new company, who can say. All I can do is wait and see. Who here, really, can do more then that?

If the person is a better writer and rules designer I'd rather have the, "Can all people see augmented reality?" person design rules and write sections and then have someone who knows the setting and rules better proofread it. Ignoring talent due to setting snobbery just means you might be settling for lesser talent.

I'm sure effort was. I just look at my Batletech stuff and then I loo at my SR stuff and maybe because I love SR more i am biased, but it really looks like a lot more talent(numerically at least) and effort went to battletech.

I love both games. What I don't get is why SR would not get priority. Last I heard, Shadowrun made more money for Catalyst than Battletech. And since the situation has to do with lack of funds, I would think even more effort would go into sure things to generate more cash.

To whoever does eventually take the reins of Shadowrun, I have one request. Please hire a technical writer, someone who actually knows how to tell people how to do/use/make things. We have enough die-hard SR lovers who fluff like there's no tomorrow, but put half of Dumpshock out of commission and write the damn rules properly the first time out.

Just sayin'.

This is to show the difference between what is a useful post, and what falls into the category of that catch all "flaming". If you "don't want to be smug", don't. It's like saying "With all due respect" and then saying something that simply isn't respectful. The last couple of pages are getting more and more of this kind of tone in them. It needs to stop. Apologies if we're a page or two behind, everyone is posting quite actively, which is great.


Case in point. Don't try to tell another poster what they should or shouldn't say.



Emphasis mine. There is at least some evidence to the contrary.




Again, these posts aare not in their entirety bad. Post your opinion on the situation, we have no particular side to espose. But keep it civil. Do NOT come over from other boards for the sole purpose of trying to burn other users.

We now return you to your normally scheduled program.

No idea. And like I said I could be biased. But maybe the owners just like battletech more, it would not surprise me if the owner of a game company made decisions based more upon his hobby preference and not what was best financially.



Which is why I'd rather they hire someone who knows how to write rules even if they don't know shadowrun perfectly and then have people who know the setting proofread it. It is a game and probably the most important part is the rules, and a good technically writer can do wonders.

I don't expect them to completely get it right the first time, since I have never seen that happen before.

There are a variety of factors that went into the differences between the SR and BT publishing schedule and methods. One such thing was simple: FanPro had already started working on color BT books, and Catalyst continued that work. FanPro had cast the die with SR4 books in B&W, and Catalyst continued with that until it came to a point where they thought moving to [some] full-color titles was something that would be feasible for the line. The BT full-color books often have much lower art costs than a Shadowrun full-color book, for example, because they use many photographs of minis instead of art.

In summary: BattleTech had a head start in pretty much every aspect _because_ IMR was originally formed as a BattleTech support company. But some Shadowrun things didn't materialize or materialized more slowly/differently than expected because Catalyst learned from some mistakes and didn't want to repeat them.

If you are going to say someone is directly lying, don't state it as fact without proof. Do not make one statement that is black and white (proof/no proof) then include a subjective alternative, and sell them both as correct.

And drop the language. If you cannot post without anger coloring your posts, take a moment. That goes to more than a few.

This probably won't make you feel any better, but I have minor in Technical Writing.

You'd rather have the person who just assumes?

I mean, we haven't had a good decker/magician for a while....

The quote was more humorous, and more disturbing, in the original. I believe it was "Can all augmented people see augmented reality?"

No, we don't want those either.
Yes, we are quite picky.
And we are not amused at the current situation at all!

Yeah, going from deckers to hackers and mixing up hermetics and shamans STILL doesn't sit well with me either . .
Yes, i am one of those people who still would prefer to play SR3 instead of 4.

AH, good, such details are what's highly important to me *nods*

Unfortunately, you're not with them anymore and when you were, you probably didn't vette all rules for possible contradictions and errors.

A writer for Shadowrun needs to have both talent and a knowledge of the rules and setting. It isn't a case of saying if you have to pick one, then X is preferable to Y. It would be like asking for salt and someone saying, "sure, we don't have sodium, but I'd rather just be given chlorine than just sodium, wouldn't you?" You've got to have both, both are requirements. Poorly written Shadowrun material is very disappointing to me. Well crafted words that get Shadowrun wrong are probably even worse. We don't need a Lone Star cop mounted on a Unicorn because the writer thought - "hey, it's fantasy in a sci-fi setting, right?"

I, and lots of other potential customers, would rightly reject anything that didn't fulfill both requirements. I'm sure you would too.

K.

And made my own share of mistakes, let us not forget.

Of course, if there was a REALLY good reason for the Lone Star Cop to be riding a unicorn, no matter how improbable, and it managed
to come across as "Cool," it would be alright? But not just mixing Lone Star Cop+Unicorn to mix sci-fi and fantasy?

Now a Lone Star cop mounting a unicorn...That ,my friends,is Shadowrun!!....

If Jen writes a short story called Starsky and Sparklelord, I will hunt you all down.

Rule 34? *runs for his life*

Are you kidding, that would be fantastic!

My next SR character is going to be a Mounted Lone Star Cop who rides a Unicorn. Just because that is fucking awesome.

Right after the Pixie street samurai.

God I love Shadowrun

I'm on it... What an excellent idea, Bobby, thanks!!! (Hey, you guys know that the Tir picture in 6WA is just a horse, right? The artist took out the spiral horn...)

You can't be a Pixie Street Samurai (at least not one with any cyberware) without special rules. They require deltaware implants if a GM allows them at all. It makes me a sad, sad panda as I had that concept a while back myself. A geneware/nanoware-only Pixie Street Samurai might be cool, especially if the GM lets you cheese out the Animal Transgenic option that allows you to take bioware as geneware. But it'll be pricey as heck.

I have to say that this would be wickedly kick ass: Earthdawn-style corrupted Unicorn with a Lone Star mage who's gone toxic because she got too close to 1 too many magical serial killers.

I was out for most of the day, and I had no idea where this thread would be by the time I checked in again. The fact that it arrived at unicorn-mounted Lone Star officers was both unexpected and way better than I could have hoped.

Jason H.

It would be a house ruled character, likely, though I could probably get Caine_Hazen to let me play one

Actually, my next Missions character is very likely going to be a Pixie Mage (Or maybe Adept)... With a Loyalty 6 Ork Body Guard. So when I play the Scramble, *I* play the Ork, and I get a GI Joe doll (I collect GI Joe toys, and I still consider the 12" figures to be dolls) and put bigass wings on it, and mount that on my shoulder

Bull

Actually, I think you missed where it went PAST unicorn mounted Lone Star officers to Lone Star mounting Unicorns...
And, you realize that, with SURGE, that really does become less disturbing then it could be...

Cain, I'm a little confused here. So, Bobby/Jen/Adam were forced out for only ethical reasons/nonpayment? Is this one of the facts you mention above? Because as far as I've seen in public, Adam's been pretty clear that his reasons for his choices are private, and intended to stay that way.



Statements like what you have above, which seem to be indicated as facts, and then may not quite be so...well, that certainly makes it seem like you have a horse in this race. I'd also be curious to see your responses to Patrick's most recent posts. I think some fair points are raised there.

I'm also a bit confused on this idea that three of the torch carriers of SR is not enough to support a game line. Whatever the business issues with CGL (and there's plenty, along with a whole laundry list of personal ones as well), this is not the first time that SR has lost a great deal of its freelancing talent. It has quite clearly come back from that sort of problem with the creative side of the SR business needing more personnel before (aside from the business issues, as mentioned). Synner himself mentioned it in the post you seemed to be referencing.



So again, I get the business issues. Better folks than me have debated them, and that's something which is best decided by the fans as individuals. If I'm misreading what you posted, then that's my mistake. But having a phrase like "not enough to support a game line" reads as if there's some kind of doomed prophetic announcement shown there. The creative talent leaving is in no way the singular guarenteed thing which leads to the death of SR under CGL. This is in fact an issue that has clearly been addressed by the SR side before. All that said, I think you have a valid point. I'll be curious to see who the BT writers are that are involved. I've been pretty happy with BT product to date, but yeah, I think losing the folks we've lost does have a legitimate and noticeable impact on operations moving forward for SR. Is it some immediate doom? Not so much. I think there's some solid points you're making, but maybe just scale back on the dramatic overtones a bit?

Adam posted elsewhere that there were ethical reasons involved. The precise conflicts are indeed private. I can also say that anybody who's as dedicated to Shadowrun as Adam is would not leave a job like this without good reasons. We know it wasn't another job, so that reason's out.


I'm not exactly sure of which freelancer worked when; but IIRC, there has never been a time prior to this when the experienced writer pool has been so small. Maybe back in 1989, it was smaller; but Shadowrun has grown a lot since then.


Actually, I'm not the one prophesying doom and gloom. Other people, some much better informed than me, are making the claim that CGL will not be able to pay the SR license fee come May. I will say that treating experienced writers so badly and unprofessionally is not a good thing. Sure, you can replace them, but then you end up with people who think all Lone Star cops should be riding unicorns instead of patrol cars. Learning how to manage creative talent is a tricky business, and CGL by all reports isn't doing a good job of it.

Where will this end up? I don't know. I'm not going to make a prediction, since I don't have all the information. But we do have some verified facts that make things look not-so-good for CGL and its future with Shadowrun. The disappearing cash, the nonpayment of freelancers, forcing out several key Shadowrun contributors-- it all starts to paint an ugly picture. What it will lead to is anybody's guess, but it probably won't be pretty no matter what happens.

Any chance you have a link on that?



The section I just quoted above from Synner certainly sounds as if it was pretty close to the size of the loss you're seeing now.



Not disagreeing on some potential issues with mismanaging talent. It certainly seems that way. But if you replace talented writers you only end up with untalented writers? I mean, are you saying it's impossible to find anyone to come on board that can't do even a passable job, let alone a good one? I mean at some point, every freelancer started somewhere. At some point, they were the "new kid." It seems a little reactionary to imply that these people can never, ever be replaced. I recognize that the folks who have left have had a really significant impact on the company and the game. There's no doubt on that fact at all. But SR has lost freelancers before. And new ones have started. And whatever the future of SR is, past history certainly seems to indicate that there will be new ones who bring the necessary skills and creativity to fill in the gaps. Setting aside CGL, your post reads as if there's no chance of ever finding talented writers for Shadowrun (not the company, but the game line) ever again. That would be that overly dramatic bit that I mentioned in my last post that you chose to ignore.



Thanks for that. No, that's not an insult. I honestly mean that. I can't say I agree with all your points, or even some of the presentation, but it's just nice to see the notice of waiting until more information is presented.

I was being slightly sarcastic, but the point is that Shadowrun has a long and involved metaplot. We're reportedly down to three people who know most of it. Those three people, in addition to their other writing duties, will have to train each new freelancer on the Shadowrun world. That takes time, non-productive time at that, and still doesn't guarantee continuity. In the past, the people who have come on were partnered with experienced Shadowrun writers before they could submit their own stuff-- that's taken from the old FASA requirements, which Jay Levine can attest to. Occasionally, you have someone show up who's knowledge is so encyclopedic, you don't have to train them; but as far as I know, AH was the only one.

Oh, pardon me. There is one other who might have come in with that level of knowledge, and that is Adam Jury. Adam has been influencing Shadowrun since the dawn of the internet. First as a columnist in the Shadowrun Archive, then as the editor of the Shadowrun Supplemental, then as a paid writer or contributor since about 1998, IIRC. You can't replace that depth of experience.

From a more artistic standpoint, you can't ever replace talent, you just get different people to do their job. If you like the way Shadowrun is going, you may not like the way the new freelancers will take things. Because I can guarantee you, things will be different. I cannot say if they'll be better or worse, but they will be different.

That doesn't necessarily follow, either. Bring them up to speed on the current plans for the metaplot, yes, but you're saying that no other writers in the world have a knowledge of existing Shadowrun canon? No other writers in the world are fans of Shadowrun? Sorry, but from where I'm sitting, that notion's just silly on the face of it.

That brings up a good point. Is the whole metaplot documented somewhere? Anyone who has played the game and read any of the novels for any length of time knows that in about 2000 game years it gets real ugly real fast, but how much of that future has been planned and documented?

If there had been a "closed pool policy" for freelancers at FASA, Peter, I never would have gotten the break that I did. Mike Mulvihill was very open to giving new blood a shot. He hired me, after all, and I'd never had a professional credit in my life before I wrote for Shadowrun with FASA.

So let me chime in with a resounding "This is bogus" to the notion of a closed freelancer pool.

Approximately 45 seconds.

On a slightly more serious note, last time I looked at any metaplot threads, I think we might have spoken of a few things as far out as 2074. In general, though, not too much of it has really been planned out, certainly not nearly as much as some people out there seem to think.

We could start a whole new thread off of this topic...

I'll echo Patrick here a bit. I actually got involved with playtesting before writing, but other than writing up a few goofy things that I posted to the ShadowRN mailing list and to Paolo's Shadowrun Archive, such as the First Church of Elvis and Elvis Shamans, I'd never been published or even done much game writing. I talked with Mike a bit via e-mail, and met him at Gen Con back in 97. Me, Dvixen, Caric, and Loki (R.I.P. buddy ) ran into Mike and Steve Kenson at the Mall Food Court one day, and after we chatted for a bit, he invited us in as Playtesters. A little while later, I expressed interest in writing and he sent me an NDA and bunch of notes about current and future products.

Granted, I'm a lazy, lazy writer, so my print word count sucks pretty bad compared to a lot of our freelancers, but I like to think I've contributed over the years in a lot of other ways. I've always been very vocal and active whenever discussions about future metaplots and books come up, and I'd like to think I've had at least a little impact during those. And, God willing and CGL doesn't lose the license, I've gotten a lot more involved once more since Gen Con, so I'm hoping I can add more to the game line. I just wish my decision to try freelancing again had come at a better time

Bull

Then again, Bull, this could be the BEST time. You never know. When everyone gets paid, this might
be the renaissance that SR has been looking for, what with the company eyes now on the line. We will not
know, either way, until the SR Eurovan gets out of the garage.

There's really not too much to spin another thread off with. Patrick won't be able to discuss any details regarding the actual plot. Beyond that, everything generally grows organically based on two criteria: WHere the current published plot and story would go naturally, and where the metaplot can intersect books we'd like to do in the future.

Generally though, the developer lays out concepts for anywhere from 4 to 10 books. These are generally books that are designed to fill certain sales needs, whether they're filling up "Adventure slots" in the publishing schedule, location books, or whatever else. Half the time, until the developer and writers start focusing on that book in specific, there's little more than a few words describing it. Year of the Comet, for example, was "Halley's Comet comes back around, weird shit happens."

Individual writers try and lay hooks, hoping that either they can pick them up in a later book (ideally), or even that someone else will run with them. I had been really interested back when I worked on Year of the Comet to eventually try and do some follow up on Amazonia, and I laid a few hooks to play with. SOme stuff with the Sangre Del Diablo's, and a note about Dr. Patterson, author of the Patterson's Paranormal Guide's to NA and Europe, having disappeared in Amazonia while doing research. Of course, that was also a hook to let me write from the POV of a character of my own creation, his protoge and student, Dr. Wright. I never had any solid ideas for where to go with it, honestly, but I always thought it would have been fun to explore that.

Of course, by the time the late and lamented Shadows of Latin America was being worked on, I had stepped out of freelancing for a while, so I never really gota chance to pitch anything. Which is fine, I wouldn't have had the time back then to work on anything anyways. Still would have been fun though.

To follow up another example though, I had written Perianwyr up in Dragons of the 6th World, and had a lot of fun with him. I was tickled pink to see that someone had followed up on and updated that in Running Wild a bit, and even added a little bit to it.

<shrug>

I'm tangenting a bit here, but, point is... While there is usually some groundwork laid out for a year or even two for Metaplot, keep in mind that's rarely going to really be more than one or two books. The key to Shadowruns metaplot is that each writer builds on the last few books. So Steve Kenson was able to utilize some of Ghost Cartels to springboard into some events written into Seattle 2072. (There are at least two Missions adventures coming down the pipe at the conventions this year that will follow up on stuff from Seattle 2072 as well). But there's not really any major road map worked out in advance. Mainly because you don't want to lock yourself out, in case someone comes along with a great idea for where the plot should go.

Bull

Well, I'm mainly speaking from the point of view that it's tough to watch people I consider friends and that I like fighting it out privately and publicly, and to watch people like Adam walk away, who has been involved with the SHadowrun online community longer than I have (I've almost literally watched Adam grow up. He was barely in High School when I met him. Annnnnd... Now I sound like a creepy pedophile ).

I just hate seeing the Shadowrun community tearing itself apart over this situation. And I really hate seeing friends and colleagues tearing each other apart. And I REALLY hate not knowing what's going to happen next. I have a pile of Missions stuff that we're laying out, and I'm starting to work on the groundwork for the next year or so of SHadowrun Missions on top of that. I'm also trying to help out behind the scenes, support Jason, and try to hopefully help make sure the stuff we have to redo due to Bobby's departure (Which was a big loss) doesn't suck. And knowing that at any minute it could all be gone, and who the hell knows when or even if Shadowrun will recover, and under who, and with who... It's scary and frustrating.

And it's one of the reasons that everyone on here and elsewhere that has no direct involvement (i.e., non company personnel/freelancers) bitching and complaining and predicting doom and gloom make this that much harder for everyone. We have to proceed as if there will be a tomorrow and a next week and a next month and a next year.

Ok, I'm babbling again. I really get rambling sometimes, I know. I just... I hate the drama, you know?

Bull

It is now, I suppose, time to make my eighth post on this subject. Now that the other shoe has dropped and Jennifer Harding has come out with the accusation that Loren Coleman and Randall Bills conspired to falsify earnings reports, we can all well imagine the repercussions that will come from Topps and quite possibly the IRS. But let's talk about the here and now. Now, the company has a month and a half to position itself. And more importantly, the people in the company have a month and a half to maximize their own benefit before the license changes.

Six weeks is actually a long time in the age of digital sales, and while no power on Earth can save CGL from the wrath of Topps as regards falsified royalty reports, that doesn't change the fact that when the license ends different choices made now can leave different people with different amounts of money in their pocket. Here's he short version:

Loren Coleman is not going to get the license back. The company will then have a lot of debts, negative money in actual assets, and no intellectual property. The company will cease to exist. Everyone who has not been paid at that point will not get paid. Everything that is sold from now until closing time will put money into Loren's pocket. The only way anyone is getting paid anything is if they exert actual leverage on the company with real extortion in the form of "You cannot sell this product for X dollars until you pay me Y dollars (where Y is less than X)." Anyone who is not holding out on a product whose remaining sales values in the next six weeks are are estimated to be more than their demanded fees will not see a dime.

A new company will happen. And really quite soon. They will want to get the rights to any new books they can. Thus, Jason Hardy's big push to get new books ready for publication when the company can't even pay to sell the books it has already published makes perfect sense - for Jason Hardy. After all, the more books that are "ready" that have his name on it, the better a bargaining position he will have with the next company.

So let's consider possible actions in this situation:

• Withdraw Copyright/ Maintain Silence Imagine for a moment that you understand the extortion paradigm required to ever get paid for your work at Catalyst. If you want to maximize your personal chances of getting paid, it is in your interest to begin extortion now, and also to minimize the amount other people know about the situation. After all, if two people are extorting on the same project, that increases the "Y" money, but it does not increase the "X" money. That increases the chances that Loren Coleman will simply write the project off and then no one gets paid. So people who personally withdraw copyright and then publicly tell people to "wait and see" and get angry when people release details of the situation can be seen as attempting to maximize their own position. Encouraging silence, confusion, or delays in the general population decreases the number of other freelancers who will go for the extortion option, which reduces their chances of getting paid, but increases the chances of the person advocating silence and personally withdrawing contract. Essentially, they are trying to take money out of the pockets of other freelancers and put it into their own.
  
• Support the Company There are a number of people under the mistaken understanding that it s somehow "professional" to sit around and wait, and even keep working while a company refuses to pay you your wages. Some of these people even think this will ingratiate them with the new company. This strikes me as naive. The first thing you do when you take over as a new regime is to purge the loyalists of the old regime. Anyone who stood by the old guard while they were stealing from the company is going to be a potential quisling. I understand the thought process - it's just wrong. Those people will not be paid for their old contracts and the new company will get them off the roster as fast as possible.
  
• Withdraw Copyright/ Go Public Extorting the company is the only way a person is going to get paid. Going public with this fact causes other freelancers to go for the extortion option. This effectively increases the "Y" money while not only leaving the "X" money the same, but also leaving the amount of money actually promised to the person making this decision the same as well. The extra money, if it is paid out at all, merely goes to other writers who are now on the extortion train. However, it's more dangerous even than that, because it also makes the people cutting checks (or not) angry, because it increases the amount of extortion levied against them. This increases the likelihood that the head of the company will simply swallow the loss of X and not pay the writers a dime. Spite is a powerful motivation, and if X and Y are similar, it can easily break a tie. As such, some freelancers may wish to "go public" by releasing information to an uncompromising ideologue like Frank Trollman, who will maintain source confidentiality in the face of torture and will absolutely go public with the information for them. It's the same moral position of trying to maximize the number of people who get paid, but somewhat reduces the chances of personal reprisals against the freelancer.
  
• Start Working Right Now Not as crazy as it might seem. Remember that books are normally stuck in development hell for a couple months anyway. So while Loren Coleman will never pay a dime for any work being written right now, he's also not going to be in charge of making that decision when the work is actually completed. That choice will be made by the next company coming in, and they are of course going to want to slap down production costs for books that are already ready to print and ship if they possibly can. Of course, you'll be working with scabs who don't know Shadowrun and can't tell on reading whether Shadows of Asia is set before or after Corporate Enclaves - so it's entirely possible that this gamble will fail and the new company will not want these "finished" submissions. It's essentially akin to actually writing a completed draft and using that for your proposal to a publishing company you know nothing about. But as gambles go, it's not as crazy as going to work for an average company on the verge of dissolution. The product being made is a licensed product, and the license will be taken over by a new company, who may want to buy it for the original "contracted" price or some lesser negotiated value.

But it's important to keep things in mind. Every single dollar that freelancers don't extort out of the company by holding up future sales until demands are met is going to be locked into Loren's homestead where it will be inaccessible to bankruptcy recovery. Every single dollar that is demanded in total extortion on a project reduces the cost/benefit equation on that project, and increases the likelihood that paying the extortion on that product will not pay itself off in the remaining time. Every project that is canceled outright, reduces the cash flow for this period and reduces the company's ability to pay even those extortions that they want to.

So let's consider something like Sixth World Almanac. If Robert Derie had not pulled his contract, the book would go to print in a couple of weeks. At that point, the small initial print run would get sold and the company would have 30 days to pay Robert Derie before he could withdraw copyright for failure to pay. The company at that point would lose the license and walk away - leaving Robert Derie with nothing and Loren Coleman with some number of thousands of dollars depending upon the initial print run. If he pulls his contract, that doesn't happen, and he can try to make a new contract with the new company in June. But wait! Jason Hardy is the developer. If he can get new writers to rewrite Mr. Derie's pieces, then he can sell the completed work to the new company in June. So you can see how both of them are acting in rational, professional self interest - and also why they are extremely angry at each other, because they are now in direct competition.

You can also understand the anger and vitriol from some of the freelancers at the people who are publicizing this stuff. Especially the ones who understand enough about the situation to be withholding copyright themselves on one or more projects to try to get paid. Attempting to get other people to also stand up for themselves and withhold copyright has a very real chance of making the gambits of the people already withholding copyright fail. It's the only way the people who haven't stood up yet are ever going to see a dime, but it has a chance of zeroing out the demands of the people who already stood up.

Selfishness brings out the ugly in people.

-Frank

So Cain, I'm guessing that's a no, then?