This is the full, 8 hour long transcript, copy and pasted and PDFified by yours truly. Just 0 per copy!

Jason was kind enough to answer all kinds of questions, ranging from confusion about rules to inquiries about upcoming titles (no streetdates, on pain of giant cockroaches and/or other dire consequences) to recent goings-on at Catalyst.

Download the transcript here! (Right click, save as...)



P.S. Cary Goldman!

LOL - Goldman in '74!

Great job putting it up so quickly.

For those of us too lazy to skim ready, anyone willing to summarize the high points?

I'm amused by the question that Michael R's cat asked @ 09:24.

Happy to do so.



That'd be me/my cat, Merlin. He can be rather... talkative, when he wants to be.

If he weren't napping right now, I'm sure he'd want to say hello to your cat.

And may Gary Coleman rest in peace. One of my GM's did make Cary Goldman canon in the game.

Release schedule :
- Corporate Guide
- Sixth World Almanac
- Dawn of the Artifacts 3
- Runner's Toolkit
- War!
- Attitude
- Dawn of the Artifacts 4
- Spy Games
- Some Horizon-centered adventures

Sixth World Almanac will be full-color. It will features a full world map, and write-ups for 39 countries, including Asamando, Azania, Egypt, Kenya, Kingdoms of Nigeria, Amazonia, Argentina, Aztlan, Peru, Algonkian-Manitou, Athabaska, PCC, Salish-Shidhe, Sioux Nation, Denver (2 pages), Quebec, Australia. Not Antarctica, not Denmark, not Poland.

There are 4 SR Missions left to go in the Manhattan series, then 8 conventions Missions, before moving to Season 04.

One of the ideas that I liked were ebook short stories with stats / location data appended. Reminded me of what the Star Wars Adventure Journal used to do back in the day.

At least one other book that follows up on DoTA. (Mentioned on some other website by former freelancer) That may still see the light of day but requiring some revision/rewriting?

Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything about that unless somebody asked. There was a master plan - original handed down, I believe, from a meeting with Loren L. Coleman, filtered through Peter Taylor a couple times, in an effort to reduce it down the bare minimum of stupidity (you don't want to see the original draft, it drives some grown men and women to tears). We hadn't gotten most of the stupid out by the time the first half became Dawn of the Artifacts, and I rewrote the second part - the campaign that was to come after - myself. Again, I think we stopped one proposal draft short of minimum stupidity. Anywho, first drafts for most of the book were posted, but the whole kibosh was on the back burner and the bottom fell out when freelancers (including me, since I was writing two chapters in the damn'd thing) evacuated with extreme prejudice.

So, I have no idea what they're going to do for that particular book.

When it all shakes out some day I'd love to get more info on that first draft, sounds like good times. Be a shame if DoTA fizzled out without its planned follow up.

Trust Ancient on this one. You do not want to see the original concept/idea that I was presented with.

Interesting indeed...

Now I want to see it even more.

i dunno. by the sound of it, it quite likely falls into the "So Bad It's Worse" category.

that said, Jason did mention there was a plan for "something" to follow up on DotA, but that they didn't really know exactly what it was yet and it was still in the early planning stages.

which could very well be much as Ancient History and Synner have stated, an indirect way of saying "it's currently so incredibly bad that we're not admitting there actually is anything until we've improved it enough that it won't make you want to stab your eyes out with a hot needle."

So, I saw a mention of "googleWave" in the chat transcript. Does that include voice-chat capability for running a game?
Or is it entirely text and typing?

This is a good example of what Google Wave can do. (Contains Pulp Fiction soundbites, so audio may be NSFWish.)

Re: DOTA follow-up campaign...

I kind of fear that, with only a little bit of inside information to call my own, I can see where this might be/have been going, and it certainly does give a person a serious case of reservations (or, to be more blunt, an acute onset of WTF). But, I also believe that, being as far down the line as it is in the upcoming schedule, there's still hope that it can be guided to a finer state before we all see or hear anything official about it.

So--thank you AH, Synner, for addressing your feelings on the piece without spoiling it, because this way those of us who want to live in optimism have an easier time doing so.

Or it could be that between the three writers (AH, like he said, wrote 2 of the 4 sections, BishopMcQ, and myself) and the developer (once Peter, now me) for the project, there is a bit of an issue. So, there was a plan for a full length campaign to follow up DotA, and it was fully developed, complete with first drafts, and now... I wouldn't call that "didn't really know what it was yet" or "early planning stages" since it has been in the works for about a year. But perhaps it means that Jason plans to rewrite the plot, erase all the previous elements (derivative work and all that) and assign new writers. *shrug*

Think he'll still use the proposal I wrote?

You think he'll post a reply?

I sorta hope he's off with the wife and kids for Memorial Day weekend.

Teleporting Islands full of ninja zombie pirates, a Prague-based golem army led by an immortal vampire elf who can only be killed by a tasmanian, which means the runners have to travel back in time with the help of dunkelzahn's spirit to find a live Tasmanian? And steampunk Nazis from Neuschwabenland, Antarctica. Never forget the Steampunk.

I sincerely hope it is not even more inane than thi. The above was a draft leaked from FanPro Germany back in the day, the infamous Nexus plotline the then line dev Chris Lonsing wanted to push through.

Ye gods and hairy fishes, I remember that one. The no-magic zone...wasn't there a bizarre no-cyber zone too?

There are names that should not be spoken, Hermit. There are ideas that should not even be repeated as a warning. Excuse me while I search for the brain bleach.

Fuck, I'm in love (great stuff for a one-shot spin-off sort of thing, but nothing for the metaplot). And want to know what the authors smoked during their brainstorming session!

Freelancer Crack. It's been really hard to get since Jon Szeto left the freelancer pool, but... It's the good stuff!

And seriously... You should see and hear some of the crazy ass stuf fthat gets tossed around at Freelancer brainstorming sessions And then I just make it worse... (I still want that nation of Sasquatch north of Seattle, dammit!)

Given that I just woke up...

"I love the smell of freelancer crack in the morning."

It might make for a nice metaquest.


Yup,. where only steampunk tech works, if I remember correctly.

Sorry, Ryu. If anything, it will prevent you from being shocked by the original proposal for DotA?

Yes!!!

Grexul

You are likely correct, that can´t be worse.

My GM loved Cary Goldman, and he is now canon in my game.

@ Ryu
There are Things that are not meant for Men to know and sometimes Ignorance is Bliss
The less we talk about it,the better it is

He who dances on a "Reichsflugscheibe"
Medicienman