Uploaded the religions chapterettes.

Yeah, I admit some of them have been very nice actually.
Freezing Water isn't a major problem actually, especially in confined zones or if you stay away from the surface enough. In order for a whole river, surface to bed, to freeze you have to be talking MASSIVE cold, the kind of which only hard-core science or magical intervention produce. The flow-turbines themselves also adjust some of this to their favor in that they keep water moving, which while it doesn't change the freezing temperatures, it does alter the ability for Ice to form up a solid enough matrix to form.
I not too long ago had a client whom used an entirely different outlook on materials. Neither concrete nor wood, and three to ten times stronger. Infused fiber with various plastics. Resistance to weather. Loads more durable. Recyclable. Colorable. Investable. Yup, I can readily resolve the entire problem in little to no time actually and that's using again, real-world products.

I've always loved the "chunky salsa" rules myself, more often as a GM story-telling element but on a rare occasion as an actual trick. We always argued that the maximum damage could never exceed twice the base barrier rating of the confining area though. This lent itself to one hell of a scared group the day that an augmented Golem walked through a chunky-salsa trap they had set. Golem wasn't scratchless mind you ... but the fact it kept moving had them up in arms instantly.

I will get to it as I can.
Tell me about it. When you reach the point than an entire gaming community questions you and your "dislike or LARPS" ... come and talk to me. (Yes, I'm *THAT* "K")

I couldn't remember whom had done this, but thought I remembered reading it somewhere before. What have been their problems/hangups with this operation?

Want some fun? Seriously. Use the Hydro-Dynamic rules or Thermo-dynamic rules for Water flow and apply it to mana. I also love how people always say it drains the ambient mana-field. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Shadowrun is a LONG WAY from becoming another Dark Sun World.


I think I'm more relating to the conscript idea, but maybe not. Can you explain to me what you are inferring with the WWII PTSD consideration?

No Comment ...

Ah, isn't power wonderful?

Actually, while you are without question partially correct, you aren't entirely so. Yes, it's somewhat of an "open market" ... however, in the states super-huge quantities of ammunition were being acquired in numbers that have not been seen since the Korean or Vietnam Wars. But mostly of a particular caliber (the .22 LR). It is without question the caliber of ammo with the widest usage, but it literally vanished. No amount of investigation ever surfaced with a real answer as to why. Common Answer(s) frequently circulated along the lines of "the government is buying it up". Turns out FEMA was in fact buying up super-huge volumes (tens of millions, enough to wipe out the population of the US in a per bullet/per person comparison). But the manufacturers were simply unprepared for these numbers, and could not keep up with the demand. Combine the governmental purchases with the then inspired paranoia/conspiracy circles going gun-crazy, and I would only add that when people are buying up ammo privately in numbers I have personally only before seen IN A SHADOWRUN GAME ... yeah, well.

Sent ;

Wondering if you two picked up The Vladivostok Gauntlet. Might be some interesting elements for your discussions in there.

I will honestly say that I don't know how the Siberian hydroplants work in winter, when the temperatures drop to -50 routinely or even -60 in some places. Or rather, for dam-based hydroplants, it's likely that the depth of the reservoir does not let it freeze entirely (but the output still drops); for in-flow plants in rivers, I have no idea. Let's just not focus on this too much in the text.

If it's so good, why's everyone still using the good old sand, concrete, and asphalt?

I am not aware of that story, frankly, but isn't the American community much larger than Russian one? Ours is pretty insular, frankly.

The Soviets did it, for all I know. Lena's not too deep a river, so they had to do a lot of dredging to make the port workable.

Frankly, we know preciously little on how mana works. Does spellcasting simply move ambient mana, or burn it up? If the former, where does the energy come from for a scrawny mage to produce balls of fire?
I'm using the good old conservation of energy principle in my idea. Nothing appears out of nothing, or into nothing dissipates. So burning mana for extended periods of time producing a mana shallow or a mana void makes sense to me: same as if you light a pool of oil on fire, the areas where the fire has burned the longest will have the least oil left.

The WWII PTSD consideration is simple: after being caught off guard by a foreign invasion that cost us some 10 million soldiers and some 20 million civilians, I'd say it's hardly surprising that the population places a lot of expectations in the government in what comes to being prepared for another one - or better yet, having a military strong enough to prevent it altogether.
As for the conscripts - well, as I said, Russia has one of the world's lowest population densities, so if conventional war was to break out, a small professional army would just not be enough to protect the extent of its borders.

Sure is, especially minding that as a ruler of a country you live as a, well, ruler of a country. And once you retire from the presidential post in Russia, you also get massive benefits. So frankly, I don't see much incentive for Putin to amass personal wealth.

Why would FEMA even need ammo? Much less in huge volumes?

Well in a real conflict a single death is per tens of thousands bullets fired, if I remember (hundreds of artillery shells, dozen of rockets, and so on, and so for).

Anyway, isn't it a temporary shortage, not a long-term availability issue? Self-regulating market will self-regulate, and everything will be fine again! :3

Allowed you access.

I am not sure what you're referring to, since I can't really remember any major plot hooks in the existing canon books left hanging for Vladivostok (except for the Mosaic datahaven debacle, and a simmering gang war). So my writeup's here.

The most relevant bit would be that Bloody Otsana is now the sole ruler Vory of the city. The other two are out. Also focuses on Yakut Shapeshifters.

Uh, source? Last I remember, the situation was as follows:
Has anything changed since then?

Yes.

So, what happened is I wrote a Vladivostok chapter for the ill-fated Border Runners sourcebook. In that chapter, things changed considerably, with Bloody Otsana actually winning a war against the other two and becoming sole Vory empress of Vladivostok. Now, Border Runners doesn't exist and neither does that chapter. BUT, while writing the Vladivostok Gauntlet, I operated under the assumption everything I wrote for Vladivostok was going to be released prior to the story being published, and so all would make sense. Things didn't work out that way - we have the story, but not the sourcebook.

So while a lot of the explanation from the sourcebook are missing, Vladivostok Gauntlet does firmly state - though without going into too much detail about how that happened - that Bloody Otsana is now the sole Vory leader of Vladivostok.

Sweet. What's your date set in that book?

No date is mentioned, but it would be "present", so 2075

I'm down with a fever, so I'm not reading this cover to cover, but please say, if you decided you can retcon Otsana's name, why did you change the surname (incorrectly) instead of the first name?

UPD: nah, I still got into it. I'll just say it'd benefit immensely from half an hour of research and someone who knows SR Russia fluff proofreading it. As it is, there's about one and a half blunder per page.

Thank You... I don't always get to the new short stories or novels the way I once did.

I wasn't going to, I was just pointing it out for future debates.

That's like asking why we are still a fossil fuel world when alternative fuels and options now exist in abundance. Power. Social, Political, Economic, who cares ... as for the company producing this, there are a couple here in the states but most of their work is concentrated on the Residential and Light Commercial Markets. And since here in the USA, the whole "rail industry is fixed" situation won't let something like this out of the bag so far.

Hrm, is there a chance we can get some Mapping benefits to the document soon ™?

I would like to give a sort of view on this based upon interpretations from Core Books and Novels of Shadowrun over the years. Magicals in Shadowrun are like Circuits not quite touching the power supply all the time. When they do utilize (actively) the power, the circuit touches down (or into, your choice) the reservoir of power and with the aid of genetics, spell formulations, magical foci, etc... the energy is shaped/transformed into a manifesting magical effect. As per Core Books, the Astral Plane (and the imbuing Mana) is insofar as earthlings are concerned, Infinite. Corruption, Degredation, Mutation, Toxification are all due to prolonged damage to the surrounding environment by harmful factors on a persistent level well above and beyond the natural (or even paranatural) norm. It's a debatable issue that keeps the interest of hard core Shadowrun players going.

Understand that causality and effect. I've often wondered that given the "Living Memory" effect of VITAS I & II and how that makes people around the planet respond to "innoculations".

That's because *YOU* do not possess any of it. It's a terrible psychological trap of sorts. And when you have a global interaction zone like Putin does, you do not want to appear "lesser" than any of the other peers that are also playing/engaging in that field.

Ah, the 300 Million Round question ....

You are correct, but the point I was trying to make perhaps you missed. It's the consideration that an amount of ammunition now exists that exceeds a population of "First World Nation" in a new terms. Not just older stockpiles, but NEW AMMO.

Yeah, the factories and manufacturers are catching back up, but the market has been permanently altered (or so it seems for now) in that price adjustments have been made to what was previously very inexpensive items to obtain now are not so inexpensive.


Thanks... haven't done anything yet, waiting until I see some areas that I have something truly compatible with your work before tossing stuff up and out for review.

Soooo, here's my bundle-of-karma question for you. What are you allowed to state regarding that material? What else could possible be used to enrich Fatum's project?

Yeah, I feel ya... not much I'm afraid, NDA still holds as far as I know. Last I checked there were some tentative plans to get part of Border Runners, including Vladi, in some sort of published form.

Going from memory, the elements from the sourcebook that made it to the story are first and foremost the change in Vory leadership and how this affects the Yakut rebel movement. Aside from that, it gets a little more fluffy with stuff like the "Stalin Industrial Complex" and Stalin's Cough, which is an interesting aspect. The idea actually originated from DSF's own Redjack, to give credit where it's due. But the entire thing plays on Evo's image. Evo is one of the Megas you don't hear that much about, and they almost seem like good guys. All meta friendly and all that stuff. I thought it'd be nice to show the ugly side of them, how some of the by-products of their genetech are nano dust and weird bacteria and god knows what else, messing up the health of workers in the industrial park. Of course, the also happen to make replacement lungs and tracheas and stuff, so it all works out pretty well... so long as you don't mind being indentured. The story of Yuri's mother is a good personalization of that problem, the angle that when it opened up it seemed like an answered prayer, good paying jobs that anyone could get into. But, it ends up all so terrible...

Another tip-of-the-iceberg are the Vladi Neo-anarchists. The Border Runner write-up goes into a LOT more detail about Vladi's Neo-A community and introduces a very large and vibrant tangantly related hacker community. I couldn't think of a good way to fit in the hacker community, but they were a big part of the Vladi scene. The Neo-As are again summarized in Vladivostok Gauntlet by Yuri's thoughts about them - wide eyed dreamers with a ferocious death rate. Vladi doesn't seem like the sort of place where Neo-As scrounging off "the system" would actually live very well, considering the harsh climate and the sparse population, though the prresence of Evo facilities would help.

Anyway, I'm sorry that's all pretty vague, I'm not at liberty to get into much of the true crunch.

I guess it'd make sense to add the stuff in Yakutsk chapterette. Plus the in-flow hydropower has the added benefit of being pretty much sabotage-resistant, unlike dam-based hydroplants.

Actually, price/benefit analysis covers the "alternative fuels". When biofuel requires eleven liters of fuel to produce ten, yeah, the world is not switching any time soon.
I think the idea that the established companies hold the innovation back is a fundamentally flawed one, because in reality the more established players are usually the first to go after anything that's giving them an edge over the competition.

Depends. I hoped to get fexes into it once the writing's done. I feel that at least the largest sprawls of both countries deserve a map each, but we'll have to decide how detailed those are (as in - are only districts marked? Or maybe roads, sights, military bases, corporate HQs, what have you?)

Well, I'd argue that enslaving a fire elemental to power a powerplant is one such prolonged harmful effect.
This is a fan supplement, so nothing I'm writing is canon - if some GMs don't like this idea, they can simply drop it.

Minding ZIC projects in Africa, Japanacorps stelilization of metahumans, and samesuch, I figure there's a lot of paranoid people in the Sixth World. Then again, in what comes to Russia in the 70ies, there must be a bunch of revanchists after losing the Euro War, losing the Border Wars acquisitions, being thrown out of Poland, and losing half the country. Actually, it's the same for the UCAS and NAN, but UCAS suffered much more than Russia, so they have less incentive to act out their revanchist plans.

So what you're saying that everyone at the head of the state is using the power invested in them for amassing personal wealth? While that theory sounds natural, I find it hard to believe, minding the kind of intricate power balance present at such levels.

No, seriously now, I was under the impression they were something like our EMERCOM, no?

Please don't take any criticism, should it happen, personally.

The fact that SR Russia is suddenly a Federation now, while it hasn't ever been? The fact that Yakutian shapeshifters are limited to wolves (while SoA openly claims otherwise), and there's a Wolf King at the head of the nation? *fp*


I figure if they have a datahaven, there's bound to be a hacker community around it, otherwise it just wouldn't be viable.

Big change from the Runner's Companion information on the Bear. I get the idea of Wolves being pack oriented, more able to coordinate, yada yada yada ... but I don't get it on other facets. This isn't about one species, this would be on several.


One would think so, yeah.

Simply put, I won't use Vladivostok Gauntlet as a canon source of far-reaching consequence.
The locations like that one entertainment street? That I might pick up.
Kovalenko winning the Vory war in the city? Sure.
Wolves everywhere and the Wolf King? Nah, I'm cool.

I've completely rewritten the section on the Red Navy, moving from specifics, vessel names and project numbers towards a more general overview approach.

Okay, unless a car hits me any time soon, the first full draft Volume I might be finished in a reasonable amount of time.

I *finally* finished the Gauntlet now myself. Interesting fiction, and as a short-story, not so bad. I appreciate having the statistics with the "Enhanced Fiction" materials like this. It does help a bit. Doesn't always seem to make sense to me, but oh well.

Pros :
"Infectious" and "Daydov's", definitely keeping both of those.
Otsana winning Vladivostok and "the Far East"... I can see that even (gang wars are gang wars, regardless).

Cons :
"the Wolf King"... I have to admit, it's not as inspiring an idea as I might have liked, but it's also extremely thin on that regard. I can certainly see various Wolf Packs (and other Yakutians) having territories certainly ... but there is a scary reason to remember to that Vladivostok's Patron Animal is the Siberian Tiger......
The story needed better resolution. I understand it was part of a larger work at one time, but it would never have made a larger work complete. It needed to have a tad bit more to it IMO.

I'm still glad I bought it, and I can always be inspired by new material. This didn't let me down personally.

Thanks

The Wolf King... I don't consider that an "official" thing, but I don't think I managed that well in the story. I think I meant to elaborate on this but kinda didn't and moved on to other things. Basically, it's not clear exactly what Soren stole from whom. She is no expert in Yakut affairs and neither is Yuri, despite his days as a soldier. He wasn't Intelligence, know what I mean. Perhaps Otsana knows more (she almost is certainly very well versed in Yakut affairs) but she didn't comment one way or another. So, yeah. Feel free to ignore the "Wolf King" whoever that is.

It's ok if you don't like the shapeshifter agents in the city. I liked that angle though. Little underground war going. Was probably better explained in the sourcebook though.

Well, for what's it worth, I can just mention that wolf shifter have their own hierarchy, and leave the rest up to the GMs.
You have to realize everything written in books with stats is canon, though. Even Russian Federation.
I like the idea of shapeshifters being spies, but there are a few shifters better for that than wolves.

Not so much as spies as... well rounded agents. Enforcers. Boots on the ground. Doers. They are versatile, and that's useful.

Okay, this is about how I see the first volume.

Added an intro piece (I'd honestly like your opinions on it, guys). Now it just lacks the maps (I've messaged fexes, but so far without a reply), and I'm thinking of adding a stats blocks section to it. Like, Volume 1 will have wild animal stats, background counts and such; Volume 2 will have typical combatant stats, and Volume 3 will have weaponry stats. Then it just needs a few editing pass-overs, and the Volume 1 is about done.
The Volume 2 is actually close to completion, as well, I just want to add a few pieces here and there in the Yakut section, and stick the aforementioned statblocks in.
The Volume 3 will have an account of actual war, a GM section on using the book (both need to be written), and the aforementioned weapons section (needs to be heavily overhauled).

So, about those critter stats. I've browsed the books available to me, and arrived at some 69 canonically statted critters. Ffs.

First, I've separated the draft of the second volume.
Second, I've incorporated some info from Vladivostok Gauntlet into the first volume, like Oksana Kovalenko winning the Vory war in Vladivostok, and I also made tiny additions here and there, like expanding the bit on the industry of Irkutsk and adding more info on "walled cities" in Moscow.
Third, I've rewritten the section on Yakutian shapeshifters in the second volume, expanding it and providing space for incorporating the canonic Wolf King by mentioning wolf shifters possessing their own hierarchy with a distinct leader. Also wrote in Ulric Bezyzvestnykh from RC.
Finally, I see that the reader interest level by now is around zero, and as the new edition develops, the number of people needing my work will be lower and lower still. Which means that it's high time to finish it up.

Added a single page write up of Sagan Zaba into Volume II, there is precious little info on it.

Added intro fiction for the second book, and I have a pretty solid idea of what the intro piece for the third will look like.

Wrote up the intro for Volume III. Haven't uploaded since the volume is not even really started, and the part on stats will require a lot of manual work to carry over between documents I fear.

Statted up Shono from Vol II intro for the NPC stats section there. Tried to make him a playable 400BP character.

Split off the Volume III.
Added aforementioned intro fiction and a small GMing section with some ideas on what shadowrunners can do in the army without dying too fast to what was in the original draft already.

Expanded the GMing section in V III with a couple of paragraphs on POWs liberation and pilots search-n-rescue work for the runners.
Added a lidar chemical detector system and a medium plane to the Red Army section.
Started writing the description of the war itself as an IC account from a subscription-only crisis center, but haven't gotten too far yet.

Wrote up statblock descriptions in Volume II, and also a few small fluff tidbits on Kronstadt, UGB, etc. Will upload later today.

Okay, this whole Crimean ordeal really put me off my stride, so I'm afraid my SR activity will be on hold for a while.

Well, at least we can now see how good omnipresent cybereyes and commlinks will be for gathering objective info about a war. Nowadays everyone has a phone with a vidcam in their pocket, but what's going on in Ukraine is barely documented.
"Well they downed a copter over there, a couple kilometers away. Look, smoke!"

Wrote up the local magical traditions, including Communist Red Magic and Yakutian White and Black shamanism.

As I've bragged on main, I have commissioned covers for all three volumes: first, second, and third incoming.
I have also drawn a map of Moscow.

Third cover.

I decided to have a go at the "Nagant revolver": Use, re-write or discard at your leisure.

M2016B

The Nagant M1895 Revolver, with its gas seal and seven shots, were one of the most enduring status symbols of the original Soviet Union, the final copies not retiring until 2003 where the last members of PSB (Postal Security Service) handed in their revolvers. It is fitting then, that scores of its modern inheritor now roll off the workshops at Tula & Izhevsk every year.

The M2016 was originally designed in 2016 (thus the designation) back before the rise of the Neo-Soviets, as a collectors item for imperialist policlubbers and soviet nostalgia. The design has since been taken up, polished off by a design team at EVO, and now sees action all over the armed forces. Being given a M2016-B embossed with a red star on the shaft is one of the highest honours for apparatchiks in the know.

Using a highly refined version of the original gas seal and holding 8 cartridges, the revolver fires high-velocity, high-power rounds with integral silencing. This means that they're a great hit with spooks, crooked militsiya and well-off criminals alike. An integral smart system and ammo skipper rounds off the design, offering tactical flexibility in the field.


Damage: 7P AP: -2 Mode: SS Ammo 8 (cy). Avail: 9R Cost: 800 ny(sans bribes)

Upgrades: Ammo Skip System, Silenced, Smartlink System.

"Respect, flexible loadout and great fragging holes in the other guy. What's not to love?"
- Commenter A

"It doesn't take speed loaders due to the drek-old loading gate design, and it has a heavy trigger pull. Eh, what are ya gonna do, it was made to be fired by a man."
- Commenter B

"One thing to note is that these are really valued by their (nearly always military-employed) owners, who nearly always upgrade with biometric safeties and even razorblade or poison-injecting safety systems! Not a good mark for those plans needing a throwaway gun."
- Commenter C.

Who are the Neo-Soviets?

I thought that was inter-changable term for the National Soviet Reconstructionists, change if needed.

E: though it is also before the rise of the DRA, I guess. I just don't know what the govt. was called in 2016, at least not canonically

E: Does it bear mentioning that cylinder revolvers with ammo skip don't have to eject rounds to switch ammo type? We should assume people know that already, I think.

Yeah, we know remarkably little about that era. Although frankly speaking, we don't even really know the Border Wars history all that well; just that Russia by the 60ies essentially returned to its modern day borders sans Awakened Yakut and the bits the TPA got. For all we know, the Soviet Union could as well not have fallen apart the exact same way it did in real life (and it appears not everyone is content with the way it did even in real life).

I believe most people will know it, no need to worry.
Also in what comes to revolvers, I've heard something about an ongoing project to design one that can accept silencers thanks to an intricately sealed cylinder construction; I'm not sure if it's worth including at that point.
In all fairness, it all burns down to three questions for me:
1) Is the new gun iconic or at least interesting, does it add anything of worth to the system that wasn't present before? (See various AK variations for an example of iconic guns, and , say, SPS Glefa for adding value).
2) Can it be statted up reasonably?
3) Is there a fitting picture of it? (For this matter, I'm considering removing the PYa from Volume III: when the old Soviet instruction manuals had drawings for illustrations, the new ones simply use photos, so I can't find a fitting picture).

Considering the massive import the original Nagant had as a status symbol, I'd say it's iconic allright.

Mechanics are not my strong suit, so the statline I posted was mostly a guess. The Nagants strength was allegedly higher damage output/velocity, so I added some damage.

Perhaps one could tart up the original Nagant in photoshop or something..

While technically of the M1895, this linework drawing (on the right-hand side) is beautiful:

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/319...erg-d5l3432.jpg

I'd sooner go with something like this that'd work with the SR illustration style, and not poly.

There is no set SR illustration style any longer (save for "glitzy + lots of neon", it seems ), but I take your point. Perhaps enhancing the M1895 in photoshop would do the trick.