i was thinking that we could maybe open with a bit of a fest paced action scene, something that would be the set up for a larger job upon which netcat and slamm0 are asked to help, maybe they both owe someone a favour or something and as such they "need" to do the job...

something like

sprinting down the hallway CHAOS was in trouble, hot on his heals where two red samurai, some derkhead messed up and they messed up hard. weaving through the office building CHAOS was looking for a way out, without a bullet in his back, he was on the second story and trouble was closing in fast.
"we have set up the ambush" the guards walkie talkie squawked, upon hearing this CHAOS knew that he was cornered, it was just a matter of time before the two samurai chasing him caught up, or one of there shots hit him.
"JAVA" CHAOS said over the tac-net, "i need a pick up now"
"where are you? i have been locked out"
"south side, second story, fifteen seconds"
"ok i will meet you their" JAVA jumped from the back of her van into the drivers seat and put her foot to the floor.
CHAOS reached up onto his chest where he kept his HE grenades and pulled out the pin cooking the grenade off, he fired two shots, the ex-ex rounds amde short work of the large glass window. CHAOS leapt into the air dropping the grenade, as he sailed out the window he let a couple of shots of at the samurai chaising him.
JAVA saw CHAOS as he lept out the window, she moved the car into a course that would intercept the falling runner. their was a thud on the roof of her van, CHAOS climbed in though the passenger side window,
"thanks for the assist, now i have a call to make."
"yeah good to see that your ok" said JAVA as she put her foot down.

.............................................

around about here CHAOS could call netcat to see if she could clean up the mess that was made when JAVA was locked out... or something like that

last noticed (corp guide lead in for Mitsahuma) Puck is in physical and electronic isolation and only one technomancer who is working his own escape knows about it. HE IS IN A ZERO Zone! though if things work out right i might be able to arrange a jail break, (i havent finished reading CG yet)

though a bit of a change and this could work for Scarbus's little blurb

We're working on writing the setting that cements the universe of Shadowrun. A Zero Zone run is a bit heavy on just the dark and deadly side. An excellent idea for later work, however.

can some one PM/e-mail me what they have on the setting so far?

It's all here, Scar, and here.

Should the opening include a description of the Sixth World, or should we assume this is primarily for people familiar with the universe?

Considering that this is "JackPoint: The Novel", it might make a good intro to the universe and the people that make up the sourcebooks, so a description of the Sixth World might be a good suggestion as an Introduction.

People that are already familiar can always just skip it.

That can be the foreward.

Maybe the Backward?

Don't write it backward, DaVinci.

And here I was hoping to get it mirror written...

Publish it in Sperethiel, Or'zet and City Speak.

And only those languages.

On that subject, is there a Sperethiel lexicon anywhere, like my handy Klingon dictionary?

Not a full one. There's tidbits here and there. Same with Or'zet. Not sure where they are at the moment.

I'm hoping to find it someday. I need my character Nas to punch an uppity Elf in the face, "I'm Texan, you idiot. Speak American!"

I want that to be my character Face. And then his face leaks false front signal drugs.

City Speak, BTW, is a Patois made up of the various languages that make up a particular city. In Seattle, that would be English, Japanese, and Russian mostly. In New York, it's English, Yiddish, and about a dozen others. In Austin, it'd be the Aztlaner-version of Spanish with some English thrown in for flavor.

There isn't a written version of City Speak, only a spoken one.

I still think there should be a crossover between our characters, CanRay.

Not necessarily. There was a CitySpeak chip utilized back in the 50's, according to Night's Pawn by Dowd.

I've been thinking some about the Big Bad. I like the idea of someone with an actual conscience, like the Mr. Johnson equivalent of a hooder. He's not in it for the money, he does care about innocent lives and sincerely regrets doing nasty things to people and secretly weeps everytime his runners are cacked. Awwww. This guy gets actually SAD when people die, would you believe?

Yeah, for speaking it. Again, not writing.

And there would be a market back then for something like that. "Thug" was stylish in the '50s, so you better sound the part.

It's back in favour, isn't it? Only more ork-flavoured Goblin Rock now?

Favor? No. Not with the corp sect at least, unless they're "Sprawling", hitting the bad parts of town in an act of "Rebellion" that the Corporations allow.

As I said, it's a Patois, which means it's mostly a major language, with a lot of loanwords from other areas. Often repeating words and phrases in other languages to make sure the person is understood.

So, Vinnie and Mike are talking City Speak in Seattle. Vinnie is speaking mostly English, with some Japanese and Korean thrown in, while Mike is speaking mostly Russian with English and Japanese. Every now and then, they have to switch languages for certain words if something doesn't come across, or if it's important to be understood.

Yeah, but Goblin Rock's big, so there'll be posers (there's always posers) wearing fake tusks and slotting (heh) Or'zet lingochips, right?

Goblin Rock was big. In the '60s. It's so last decade!

Orxploitation was big after Or'zet came out and Ork/Troll Rappers came out using the language of "Their Culture" (Which is even more fictional than Elven Culture.).

But, yes, there are Ork Posers, there are Or'zet Linguisofts, and there are now Ork Households were children grew up with it as their first language. Litters of ork children, in fact!

So what's the big thing now?

Read "Attitude" and find out!

Guh. One day...

fraggin hades Canray, cant you at least give those of us stuck in DT format a hand

Steampunk is the big thing (Which is actually told in Arsenal. ), but there's a lot of other styles that are happily about.

Post Apocalyptic has evolved from the "Thug" or "Armored" look of the '50s, which makes Shadowrunners stylish with only a minimum amount of work.

And a bunch of stuff from /dev/grrl that I could care less about. Because it's /dev/grrl.

You just don't like the fact that you're generation is being replaced. Go play with your old rusty cyberdeck, Grampa, the real hackers are taking over.

I got no issues with young Hackers, notice that I don't mind Slamm-0! or Netcat at all, and they're young(ish).

I just have to agree that there wasn't much reason for her to be on someplace like the JackPoint until Attitude came out and she finally got to provide something other than carrying the ignorance ball so the older group could explain all the stuff that happened in the game's past.

In JackPoint: The Novel, we'll have to demonstrate her "1337 Haxxor 5K!llZ" or something.

Sorry, if that sounded confrontational, I meant to put a smiley after it. Nothing is offensive on the internet if you put a smiley face after it, right drekhead?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You all are the best!

First, a description of a fly-by of Seattle describing the history in a nutshell up to the 2070s...

Then, focus on a Short-Time Con-Infiltration to the Aztechnology Arcology for Netcat's Sprites to lift whatever they want from the Muckity-Mucks CommLinks while Slamm-0! and team are riding oversight via a tap-in from a low-level security station. I'm figuring the other characters used would be One-Offs, probably characters we have just because, well, hell, we can. Accentuate how wonderful and great life is, and how controlled everything is as well.

So, for the team, we'd need a Magician that can read minds or force the truth from someone to get the check-in passcodes (Remember: The old ways are the best when it comes to security at times.), someone that can fake a voice well enough to fool a basic vocal scan (Either an adept or cybernetic), some Muscle/Samies to deal with the other guards (No Geeking! Can't have AZT on them for geeking security.), and probably a Wheelman for an exit. Possibly an additional asset to assist Netcat in her exfiltration.

OK, escape scene. Through the Arcology, outside, show the niceness of Downtown Seattle, but how it's now run by the gangs at night... Move through some of the areas, show how things are going progressively worse in condition as we move away from the position of money and power... Hit the Barrens where even the Security Forces won't pursue.

Need a Johnson for the job, as we're trying to explain how and why the world of Shadowrun works the way it does. Demonstrate just how Mercenary Shadowrunners are and how they operate, demonstrate how Mr. Johnsons will attempt to weedle and screw them in turn. So on and so forth...

Yeah, that sounds like a good start.

Use an MCT Johnson, we need an MCT angle here so we can play to it later.

i'll pony up the rigger, an AI in a Renraku Manservant drone and a battle buddy commlink, but we have to show how worn the manservant is.

her handle is Tank Girl, I'll email discuss things with you soon

What good is a Johnson that you've been able to track?

Although, seriously, we are talking Slamm-0! and Netcat here. They could easily trace him/her back by even the smallest clues that were looked over.

this is true but an MCT Johnson would be a marvelous red herring to hack baby and allow certain persons to be released.

Then Mr and Mrs Hackbaby get home and realise they've been played like a particularly well-tuned piano?

Slamm-0! and NetCat come home to find the Proud Grandparents (Finally find out who Slamm-0!s parents are! YAY!) knocked out like John Q. Wageslave in a slappy fight and HackBaby gone, yeah.

Was it their Johnson, was it someone who had a beef with Slamm-0! or NetCat, or with Slamm-0!s parents, Clockwork selling them out again? Or someone else entirely. Let those those thoughts run around in their heads for a bit, then log into ShadowSEA, JackPoint, and so on, trying to call in the Posse and get a search party going...

hey canray, do you have any updates on this? email me if you need to

Well, with CGL not giving any concrete statements about a novel, and contemplation of the nightmare that would be created trying to credit everyone properly (And getting legal documents allowing us to use their ideas)...

It's on the backburner of my mind. Don't worry, there's lots of room in there, even if it is pretty dark. Like, pitch black. OK, now where did I put that flash... OW! Damned end table!

News update!

Congrats Slamm-0! It's a boy!!!

Now the real question is if he's a technomancer.

So.......
What's happening with the story

As cool as it would be for FJ to pull the trigger on his pred I; I think he should also have to call in Skald (or whatever she calls herself these days)

An intristing twist would also be that one of the teams didn't know who's baby they helped extract and turned around was hired later to extract them again just not knowing it's the same baby.