A new series of adventures has been launched with the release of A Fistful of Credsticks, the first in a new series of adventures that will dig a little deeper into the Horizon Corporation. It's available in PDF form and for print pre-order at the Battleshop, and in PDF form at DrivethruRPG.

Here's a little more info to whet your appetite:

Fame, Fortune, and Felonies

Nothing’s as simple as it seems—any runner knows that. So what seems like a simple job guarding some precious cargo on the set of a trideo shoot is bound to get complicated. And it does—but are you ready to travel the full length the long, twisted road ahead?

A Fistful of Credsticks begins a new series of adventures centered on the machinations of the Horizon Corporation. Runners will learn more about the dark side of Horizon, leading to future developments that could change the shape of the entire corporation. Runners that see this adventure to the finish will encounter trideo makers, music celebrities, showbiz leeches, some gang members bent on fame, and a very peculiar corporate experiment.

A Fistful of Credsticks is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.


Enjoy!

Jason H.

So what's next? "A Few Credsticks More"? "The Good, The Bad, and The Shadowrunners"? "Once upon a time in a Shadowrun"? "Last 'Runner Standing"? "Yojimbo Q. Wageslave"?

Probably. Can you blame them?

Though this will give fans something they've been clamoring for. They've alllll said Horizon is too squeeky clean which means they have to be dirty underneath. Looks like we'll see.

You know, that would be a massive twist that none of us would expect. A legit AAA-Corporation that only has bad apples in it for the nasty things going on.

So is this an LA run or what?

It's Horizon, where else?

Much of the adventure concerns the P2.0 (or “pito”) social network tool. Information is given in this adventure to explain how the tool works, but gamemasters and players can gain a more detailed understanding of this software and its place in the LA social scene from the Corporate Enclaves sourcebook.

Pity, we play in LA currently so I was considering running this. But P 2.0 doesn't exist in my Shadowrun

Wait, you Shadowrunners lack male genitalia?

There's only one elf on the team

I tend to emphasize the "shadow" in "shadowrun", so camera drones and Like buttons are right out.

dunno if you know this or not, but there's allready a german shadowrun novel called:"für eine hand voll daten" which would be "for a hand full of data" or something like this.

"A Fistful of Data", a Shadowrun equivalent of "The Seven Samurai" or "The Magnificent Seven". Not a bad book at all, despite a tendency of going into game terms (Something that I find as a cop-out with novels that take place in games.).

Other than that, it's a decent novel.

Ah, good, so you know ^^
personally, i'm not too big a fan of the newer german novels, but to each their own i guess . .

The newer novels left a lot of be desired. "A Fistful Of Data" and "Aftershocks" were the only two that really appealed to me. Aftershocks being the better one. I'm hoping to see more of Hood.

However, Jason has said he's going to start getting things really rolling for new novels during/after GenCon Indy, come hell or high water. Something about punching people in the neck (Or maybe I just gave him that quote.).

And, I hope it turns out. And not just because of the mean, nasty, miserable things we're doing with Hackbaby...

*snickers*

I'm planning to help him withn that whole punching people thing. And I'm a LOT bigger than Jason. Novels need to start happening again, for two reasons...

1) Mel Odom was slated to do one of the new novels, and I loved his Jack Skater novels.

2) That gives me a very tiny, very slim chance of maybe someday getting a shot at doing a novel.

Mel's back? God damn but at least SOME good news in all of this . .
Also, you're bigger than a LOT of people Null *snickers* ^^

Null?

And yeah. That helps with the punching too

Whoops, typo'ed, sorry Bull . . On the other hand, it'd be the perfect insult for you O.o
Null-Head is old slang for people without a jack of any kind implying no knowledge in computer stuff at all, which would be a horrible insult for ANY decker . . and it works with your handle too ^^

You know, if Bull were to punch you in the neck...

I don't understand why anyone in 4th edition spends nuyen and essence on a data jack when trodes do the same job for less nuyen and no essence cost. Save the cyber for things you actually NEED cyber for.

Because a lot of folks had Datajacks before 'Trodes became common?

Also, 'Trodes take a bit to set up. Datajack? Slot and run, Chummer!

Frankly, I'd extend the same argument to cyber eyes and ears when there's perfectly good earbuds and contact lenses out there that do the same thing.

Mages can't target through contacts but they can with cybereyes.

First of all, cyber and mages doesn't exactly go together very well. And I was under the impression they very much could, as long as there wasn't no polarization going on. It's still the same light going through the contacts.

I meant they can't use them for low light or thermo or any other interesting gizmo you can put in them. Yeah they don't mix, but some cyber or bio can give them an edge.

Because SR do not have rules for the latter two being lost?

It does in Runner's Companion, under the Lifestyle rules.

What a odd place to have them.

After a quick glance over the chapter i can not find whatever it is your referring to...

also, lets be clear. I was talking about dropping or such the devices from taking a hard blow to the head or similar.

Let's be clear, I wasn't.

Runner's Companion, Page 163, "Black Hole".

Also, reusing contact lenses are a great way to get an eye infection.

Besides, who needs rules for it?

Hell, I can't count the number of times Bull the Ork Decker had his big, expensive toys blown up, stolen, vandalized, or sabotaged... I had a tricked out custom GMC Bulldog that, after building the damn thing in Rigger Black Book (Which was a nightmare), I simply bought the exact same one over and over again after a dragon melted it, or Cockroach spirits trashed it, or I rolled it in a collision, or it got stripped and left on blocks, or...

And lets not talk about how often Bull lost his right arm. *grumble*

Also, at character generation, there's a limit to how much you can put into Goggles/Contacts/Etc, because everything you put in adds to the total availability. You can't completely trick out a pair of goggles, because tehy end up with an availability of around 20 or more, depending on the enhancements.

Cyber, on the other hand, is handled on a piece y piece basis... And with the exception of Retinal Duplication (for eyes) and Select Sound Filter 5 or 6 (For ears), all the mods fall within starting availability.

Plus, if you are operating something through a datajack and have teh wireless turned off, you can't be remotely hacked.

Bull

Because if there is not, people on this forum and elsewhere will argue that in SR said devices are stuck to the body using the strong nuclear force?

Basically it is the age old hazard of "railroading", the GM stripping someone of their gear by fiat.

I guess I've been lucky enough that I've always trusted my GMs enough to never worry about that, and the majority of my players have likewise trusted me when I GMed.

Just like if you have it skin linked?

Damnit, I want to be in Bull's group.

Yeah. But with a cord. And cords are cool

(Keep in mind, most of my comments are semi-in character, fro the perspective of an old, cranky Ork Decker)

But, lets put it this way. With very, VERY few exceptions, paper Checks are completely outdated. And yet, people still write checks at the store. I know, I always get stuck behind their slow asses. Why do people still use those? or have Land Line telephones? Or use Dial Up when there is broadband? Or heck, why drive a car 10 years old, when they have newer, nicer cars?

The fact is, WIreless is still a new(ish) technology. Not everyone has it, not everyone is comfortable with it. And some people have just still have datajacks and wires, and if they work, why replace them?

*shrug*

Bull

Um, older cars are better. Not ten year old ones, but older than that.

Also, being a computer tech with networking knowledge, skinlink just makes my skin crawl (Pun intended.). Skinlink would work, at best, like a hub. If you have more than one or two items connected through it, you're looking at some rather bad "Datastorms".

There's a lot of good reasons to use shielded wired connections. And Datajacks just make sense as they're faster and more reliable than 'Trode Nets. What takes longer? Carefully putting on the 'Trodes, or just plugging in?

Also, the major advantage of cables (Especially shielded ones), is that they can be used as a lanyard. Very advantageous when you're dealing with a multi- piece of equipment.

Are trodes really that hard to put on? I'm currently playing a wolf (well, domestic dog, but wolf stats) shifter and kind of figured she could just nestle and fasten them with the thick fur in dog form/big 80s hair in human form and get em to stay put. Will that work?

Having had electrodes put on IRL, they need to be placed VERY carefully and accurately. It's not a slap dash job at all. Once they're on, OK, no problem. But it's going to take a bit of time, and unless you have a good reason to be wearing them...

Nanopaste 'Trodes are a bit better, you can try and fob that off as club-going hair gel or colouring or some such, but that's wireless and we're back to problem A again. Also, they'd probably wash out, and still need to be very accurately placed.

Also, datajacks can be anywhere on the body, and come with their own internal storage. IMO, worth the Essence hit for technomancers.

So, is the adventure any good?

Doesn't necessarily help shifters all that much, though.

And I'm with Bira. Is the run any good? What exactly is in it?

I'm curious because my GM is running a Minneapolis game, and Minneapolis, having a thriving entertainment industry, it might be something we could port to our sprawl.

A datachip costs 1 , and you could probably hide it under a fingernail or in your hair. Why take a jack?

Because you have to have some other interface for that datachip, maybe not wireless, but still something that can be removed.

Well, no one has posted frothing at the mouth, screaming "CGL IS KILLING SHADOWRUN!!!", so signs point to yes.

*Looks at Magic 8-Ball and grins wickedly*

One of these days, I'm gonna get a material link to that Magic 8-Ball... One of these days....

Or nobody is bothering to buy any more crap from CGL?

cya
Tycho

How will we know it's crap if we don't at least have someone check it out?

That way, we'll know when to start buying again. Because, you know, the alternative sucks badly.

Or an additional alternative is that the folks in charge of the DDH get chained to desks until the next one comes out.

Right, and IIRC the 4th Ed Core book even gives examples of where this would be desirable. Dated technology is still prevalent in areas that aren't riding the waves of innovation. Some corps might used old-fashioned hard-wired closed networks for storage of sensitive, but not highly used, data, such as records of no-longer-relevant projects, failed research programs, ex-employee profiles, etc. I imagine that the barrens may actually have more wired connections than wireless, having most likely inherited all the obsolete technology thrown out with the development of wireless. Then throw in the likelihood of a security program or hacker even checking on a wired connection these days... I'm sure a great deal of them don't consider a hard-line hack as a possible security breach, and might over look such a connection as simply leading to another node. After all, people don't plug into the Matrix anymore, at least not in the literal sense.

Another place that uses Wired Technology is MCT's Rose Garden. After all, if the inmates are able to hack wirelessly with just the power of their minds, how better to secure a network than with wired-only technology?

I suspect that the barrens are a mishmash of tech, some so old it may predate the first crash, some so new that is is not rated for human use yet (or ever will be, thanks to some flaw or other).

So your probably looking at everything from some old fiber (anything metal is likely sold for scrap already, unless defended by whoever has the most guns and thugs in the area) wrapped around a clothes wire (or masking as one), or a recently repossessed sat dish aimed either at the sky or down the road for a long distance linkup.