Thank you for the honest answers.

Now, for the question we've all been wondering about: will you seek reconciliation with the freelancers and employees who have left, or will you try and replace them with new talent? Understandably, we'd prefer that you stick with the capable people you had; but if not, do you have a plan to guarantee the direction of Shadowrun without some very key people who have helped it for a very long time?

I'm pretty sure my relationship with freelancers is between me and the freelancers. But yes, I have a plan. It continues to adapt, as it has to, but there is one.

Jason H.

I will preface this by saying that I am hardly one of the key freelancers in the current crew.

That said, after I had announced my decision to him to leave the CGL freelancer stable, Jason immediately told me that he understood my decision to stop freelancing for the company, and at the same time told me (without hesitation) that the door was always open and he hoped to be able to work with me in the future. If he's taking that tack with the other freelancers who've left, I'd have to say that he's going to seek reconciliation.

I will say in closing, however, that I'm also not Jason and I could be reading an awful lot into our exchange from last week.

Oh, crap.

Well, I'm not one to redact posts...but if I spoke out of turn here, hoss, I'm sorry.

Don't feel bad Padraig. Some of us prefer to burn our bridges.

Posted in another thread by Cardul. Moved here at Bull's request.


Can't speak about Jennifer Harding much, but let me tell you a story, sonny-boy.

Waaay back in the day, there was a special place on the web called the Shadowrun Archive. It was the first place for Shadowrun fans to gather, and one of the earliest places on the nascent Internet dedicated to a RPG other than D&D. And one of the more steady contributions was a column called "From the Jury's Bench", written by our own Adam Jury. That's right, before there was Google, Adam Jury was contributing to Shadowrun. He also did the Shadowrun Supplemental, an early online fanzine. The Archive eventually melded with the ShadowRN mailing list, and formed an early set of forums, called the Deep Resonance.

See where this is headed?

To date, Adam, Bull, and myself are about all that's left from those early days. I don't think but maybe five Dumpshockers (including us three) would remember the original Archive and the Deep Resonance Forums, let alone have posted there. Adam has been an active contributor to Shadowrun for almost all of its existence. The thought of Shadowrun without some additions by Adam Jury flies in the face of the way things have been for close to twenty years. And in this case, change is a bad thing. Adam is skilled at more than layout: he has influenced many generations of fans with his skilled writing. To lose that is indeed a tragedy.

God, Cain, that's so old school, it's pre-school! I remember the Archives and Deep Resonance but the internet here was then so nascent I only managed a post or 2. I agree that losing Adam is a big blow to my confidence in the product.

I didn't have a lot to do with the Archive, but I was a member of the ShadowRN mailing list for a long while, and I did more than my share of rambling on Deep Resonance.

You do, in fact, predate me, but not by a lot.

I was an avid reader of Adam's columns from the old Shadowrun Archive. Although I wasn't on the forums, I used to hang out in the old #Shadowrun channel on... Undernet I think. I also ran, and participated in a few games via IRC. Those were indeed, the old days.

More than 5. I actually made one of the ShaodowRN t-shirts- on a 386.

Man, I miss those shirts (The grey ones, with the Celtic looking symbol that was a mix of a gear and biohazard symbols). I had three of them, and I wore them till they fell apart

I'd love to do a new one one of these days

Bull

Another old-timer here. I've been playing since just before the first edition was released (my GM was a player in one of the play-test groups). Been a web lurker since the first sites went live.

MJBurrage is actually my second account here. Sometime in the past I had an account under either Vanguard or Bulwark (past names of characters), but wanting to post something back in 2007, I could not recall a working combination of username and password, and started the current account.

Speaking of the old days and Adam:

• FASA Closing FAQ (by Adam)

I was there in those days. And yes, I agree 100%.

- J.

Pre-school for you, maybe. I remember surfing the internet using a program called Turbogopher. Now *that* is ancient!

However, I fully agree with you: Shadowrun has had Adam for so long, it won't be the same if he's not doing something for the game.



No snark: Are you part of the 1989 club as well? That's when I got my first Big Blue Book.


I may have underestimated slightly. Fortune used to be here when it was Deep Resonance, but I haven't seen him post in quite a while. Other than that, I can't actually name anyone who's still around. I kinda miss the days of ThatPaolo, Dvixen, mistress of the BanHammer, and when Bull would SMITE!™ your right testicle for mouthing off in his personal sub-forum. There's a certain legacy here, one that would be lost if we lose any of the longstanding greats.

I was around, I used a different screen name back then. I started using tete in 96 or 97 after a pizza guy couldnt get my name right and all my friends started calling me tete. I also might have been a bigger jerk back then... I mellowed with age but I still have my moments of jerkdom. I started my internet escapades with a 2400 baud modem, msdos 4.0 and prodigy.

[edit] I also thought I was almost l33t. Knowing what I know now, I didn't know jack. Ahh silly high schoolers.

i think i found said channel first, then someone linked to the forum.

btw, this was when the forum was somewhere between brown and pink, iirc.

Cain, I was born in 1989. You have been playing Shadowrun as long as I have been alive, or longer, depending on the month.

I've still got the file (for the front, at least). I've considered putting it on cafe press, along with some similar art I did in the same vein. It looks a bit dated by todays graphics standards, but I've tried some variations that are higher res and multiple shades of grey.



I'm honestly surprised there's as many still around as there are. I haven't played in years, and mostly drop in to keep tabs on the game, and on old players. But I think this board speaks to the fact that new blood can keep and old cyborg healthy long past 0 essence...

I started on a C64 and CompuServe. That was about twenty-five years ago or so. And I used to think I was so hot, since I knew some BASIC. Holy cow, that was a long time ago!


Don't worry, it's not the years, it's the mileage.


Don't count us old timers out just yet. There's a lot we can share with the new players; they can get the benefit of what we have to offer and still find their own way to have fun with Shadowrun. That's why losing Adam Jury is such a big deal to Catalyst: they lost part of the heart and soul of the game.

I think there's a few more than that. I can think of an oversized handful at least that don't post a lot frequently now, but are still about and reading who've been here since the Archive days, myself included. (Although not under this name.)

In BSG, the cyclons were said to have a plan too. They even made a movie of the same name to explore it. It was crap.

Great, now this thread turned out to be a reunion of a bunch of Old People™ remembering the Old Days™
I can't claim I'm that old though, I was only 6 years old when Shadowrun came out and would only hear about it 7 years later when Devir translated the second edition, The Urban Samurai Catalog and Metagene (whom I own all three), of course it was my early teenage years and we would all play what I know now it is called pink-mowhawk.
Nothing like shooting from the top of a van with a HMG putting wasp choppers down while driving in downtown seattle.

You guys are older than dirt O.o
But at least, you're not the kind of old that's telling us to get off the lawn ^^

Cain's got me bit by a bit. I made my first SR Character in high school in 1990. I didn't buy my own copy of SR till SR2 came out. I first got online in... '95? Early '96? It all blurs togther.

I need a new hobby

Try Megamek. It's Battletech completely without Books.

Back then, I went to the computer pool at university to browse the Shadowrun Archive ... it was hosted in Italy. Printing PlasticWarriors books on a Star LC10. Trying to find out Gurth's real name =)

mongoose, I still have that shirt, and the SR:Assassin flyer you mailed me with my BABY ... good old times.

I do not miss Dvixen as a Mod (had to change my screen name because of her)... What ever happened to her and ThatPaolo? I haven't been around for almost a decade.

As for Adam, he didn't work on any of the SR books directly for a long time. So what's to stop him from not working on any of the SR books directly again? It's his choice whether he stops with SR or not, also keep in mind he has a new baby 'Eclipse Phase'. Rehiring Adam isn't as necessary as you seem to indicate (sorry Adam ;-), SR worked fine before he worked directly on it, it will do fine without him.

Oh... And get of my damned lawn! ;-)

Unless 9th Grade was the best 7 years of your life, I just felt a wee bit older, kid.

Wow. This sure made me feel old. I was posting under a different name (which I can't for the life of me remember), but I was around back in the days of RN, the carpings, undernet, fifteen million irc games that never got past the meet because they all started at 1am, the Archive, and the beginnings of Deep Resonance.

Yep you blokes are old, old, old.

Codgers.



Funny, I never really got into the online thing, I was far too busy cutting classes to play SR.

I do distinctly recall feeling like the end was nigh and SR had been ruined when FASA replaced that beautiful Big Blue Book with that nasty Big Black Book.

I've felt that way several times since, when FASA went under etc, etc.

This week has been particularly sucky. I'm very sad to see Adam and Jennifer go. I didn't know Adam at all and Jennifer only slightly but I liked her and respected her professionalism. It's hard to see products that you worked on, even only as a playtester, start to follow SoLA into the great garbage dump in the sky. I was shocked to see AH go as well, he's always struck we as pretty level headed, at least compared to Frank, I can only hope that this will turn out to be just the latest in a long series of 'Mark Twain'ian' false alarms.

That's a horrible turn of phrase but it'll annoy my wife so it can stay.

God you old folks, go back to the home already

We newbies respect the eff out of you old guys. This thread's starting to remind me of Jackpoint

Yup. Had just gotten back from England, got myself stationed in Nebraska, and saw the original Elmore cover in November of 89 at Ground Zero Comics and Games in Bellevue. Been playing ever since.

Ordered my first BBB from Wargames West in 89, yes kids an actual newspaper style catalog no inter-tubes back then. No community or news outside of a few publications and your local gaming group. Every few months we'd drive a few hours to a game store and see if anything for our favorite games had been released, no release dates posted anywhere. Waregames West was a great catalog due to fact it would list upcoming products as well as available. Oh and heres a funny one. First rpg was a gift my second I ordered from a Sears catalog in the games section AD&D.

1991, I saw the book for the first time. I had only been RolePlaying for a year, and I fell in love with the game, which led to me attempting to run a session. Gawd, that was horrible. I really sucked at it at first. Ah well, still love the game and now I don't suck at running games nearly as much...


Graywulfe

I got involved in 1997, but I've been playing double time since to catch up.

My first run was in the spring of 1993. Living in Germany, we got SR2 (2.01D as FanPro called it) some time later. I started to to hang around at the FanPro (Germany) board in the late 90s. About '98 or '99. I was the proud owner of a 56k modem then. I've been visiting about six to ten conventions per year for a decade now. Last year a player at a con asked me, since when I was playing SR and was shocked he wasn't even born then. But reading this topic, I feel young again.

I was twelve, it was 1993; summer vacation was just about to start. I went over to my friend Jeff's house and he had this book, it had a cow skull and an elf, and a guy in warpaint with two guns on the cover. Machine guns!. And trench coat armor! It was (and is) the coolest thing ever. I had no idea what table top gaming was, none of us did, but I wanted to learn.

In my eyes SR4 has been a Renaissance for the game and it's setting. SR4A is easily one of the best looking books on the store shelf and wonderfully suited to get new players off on the right foot. I've personally watched seven people become avid fans of the game over the last four months, having finally found a game that allows them to make pretty much any character type they like in a setting that is both familiar and at the same time deeply unique. The history alone has been enough to snag a few of them. One devoured the fiction in SR4A, then came to me and asked for more. He plays because he wants to be a part of that.

Guys. as much as I hate to disrupt the nostalgia, and would love to drop in some of my own, let's please keep this thread on topic. Uncle Bull is even older than Uncle Fisty (not by a lot) and isn't up for breaking up more threads.

Can you guys split the thread up? With the nostalgia posts in a separate thread?

Edit: weird double post

Let's see if I can remember this correctly ... started playtesting in 1998 with SR3, first published in late 2000 in Target: Matrix, started working with FanPro on their site and some misc stuff in early 2001, started working at Guardians of Order fulltime in late 2002 [writing my parts of Sprawl Survival Guide in the GoO offices, after hours...] until late 2004, and then hit the ground running with a bunch of freelance for FanPro in early 2005.


Hell, I haven't even said it was necessary. [At the least, though, I'd make a very useful consultant to any new venture... ]

Is that an alternate handle that Aaron used?

ThatPaolo would be Paolo Marcucci of the Shadowrun Archive.

I got into SR back in the 1st Edition days with Dodger, Sally, and that sam whose name I keep forgetting on the front cover. I was still in high school. I was too poor to buy the hardcover so I bought the softcover and used my l33t cardboard cutting skills to make a nice sturdy cover for the book.

Got into BattleTech back in 7th grade... in 1987. I believe I got into SR in 1989/1990 time frame. First time online was 1996 after my wife & I started living together after being married for almost 8 months (yes we were married and still not living together, long story). Didn't search out Shadowrun online until much later though.

That's a good first decade of SR without Adam (with publishing credits) Also, you might not want to mention your previous employers, bad mojo *grins evily* FASA => FanPro => Guardians of Order => CGL, guess what all those have in common...

Absolutely.



Much less than you might think.

That I've enjoyed products they've produced?

You really need the books, or to have memorized the rules, to play though. It is a java interface that allows you to play people that aren't at the same table as you and has digital maps and calculates out the rolls for you. However, MM has claimed a good amount of my life in its various incarnations so I can attest that if you are CBT fan it is a great place to play.

i can play just fine with just a rudimentary understanding of the rules . .
some stuff i do in there, i don't even understand and it still works . .

Yeah, from first to last:

1) got out while the getting was good, owner sold a number of IP assets, passed others on to offspring, retired
2) blindsided by sourcing house sub-contractor bankruptcy and then drained in a doomed attempt to prop up owner's larger main corp
3) shoestring budget running at the borderline hammered into insolvency by currency fluctuation (a sharp rise in CDN$ vs US$ is very hard on Canadian companies exporting to the US)
4) accounting and operations "difficulties" have come to a crisis