Twenty years ago today I signed on to Dumpshock. I was at the tender age of Fifty. Though not the longest running member, I believe I am the oldest.

Many campaigns in which I was involved started and died during that time. At least one I killed when as GM I fell off the edge of the Earth for a few years. I've experienced lots of awesome, creative play up to and including current campaigns. I've earned some props for play, and endured calumny for some opinions, like my belief that 'magicrun' is a problem created by GMs not using the tools readily available in the game. The wounds from the responses still ache on rainy days.

I've watched in awe as some vitriolic arguments carried on for months. I've seen some deep thinkers apply themselves to the most minute issues of the game. It would be an interesting sociological study to investigate the reasons for DS almost completely stalling at SR4A. Why did so many of us stay? Why did so many leave?

I participated in 'science in the home' as three of us each used different mathematical techniques to arrive at the breakpoint value of 2.5 as a ratio of dice pool to Edge rating to guide when to use Edge before or after the dice roll. I use it all the time.

I have played or conversed with so many people whom I have never met in person but wish I could. There's a couple of you I would be kind of afraid to meet in person.

So, here's to a community I am happy to have found. In as much as friendship can be engendered in virtual reality, I consider many with whom I have played and conversed to be friends. Thank you all for enriching my life.

May DS and my membership last another 20 years.

Happy Porcelain Anniversary!

I think it’s probably not a coincidence that DS stalled at the edition that was current during the 2010 contretemps, the creation of official fora in preference to treating Dumpshock as de-facto official fora, and the departure of many of the Old Guard here from the SR freelancer pool (in some cases in circumstances unpleasant enough that they departed from Shadowrun entirely). Then there were probably a series of mutually-reinforcing circumstances that steadily siphoned off anyone who would even consider signing up to the official fora.

But Dumpshock remains special. Not just because of its place in Shadowrun history, but because of its position as a stable rock in the shifting sands of the modern web—I can click on a link to the Dumpshock fora without a moment’s doubt as to whether the link will still point to its original target. It isn’t perfect here—there’s an SR2 revival going on, and Dumpshock should really be a preeminent resource for that, but the loss of the Jive fora means it sadly cannot be; the bits of Dumpshock that aren’t the fora are extremely spotty in terms of preservation; PM bodies older than some time in (I think) 2007 have all been lost—but if you compare it to the internet as a whole, links posted here to external sites have almost universally rotted while links to the DSF remain intact.

Dumpshock is also special to me personally because in a very real way I grew up here. I registered in the dying days of 2002 as a snot-nosed seventeen-year-old, brash and arrogant. And man, this place was welcoming in exactly the way I needed—when I said something dumb I would get slapped down hard for it, but people took things thread by thread, the same person who’d tell me (with only moderate exaggeration) that I’d proposed the dumbest thing they’d ever heard in one thread would be nodding and encouraging me in some other thread where I was being less dumb. Raygun, Arethusa, Austere Emancipator, and others brought me from an action-movie level of knowledge about firearms to being able to discuss internal, external, and terminal ballistics without embarrassing myself. The board in general encouraged me to be rigorous in my analysis and to do the math. I would not be the person I am today without Dumpshock, and while we never really know what the roads not travelled will look like, I certainly prefer the person Dumpshock made me to the person I imagine having become without it.

So yeah. I’ve been waffling about starting a “Where are they now?” thread to see if anyone knows where some of the old guard are, maybe I will one of these days—some people are easy to find (or at least seem to be, maybe there’s another motorfirebox out there tricking me) but others are trickier for various reason (Eyeless Blond, Doc Funk, Nezumi will probably be back one day but if he didn’t come back he’d be very difficult to track down). But it’s good to know that the old place is still standing with some of the old faces still around, and I second the wish for another twenty years of Dumpshock.

(Incidentally, does anyone know when exactly Dumpshock was born? I know the stories of having evolved from the Deep Resonance boards, but as far as I’ve seen no one ever put years to the changeover.)

~J

That was rather touching. Thank you for that and I also hope for another 20 years here.

Assuming I'm not one of the people you're afraid to meet in person...

As for DS almost completely stalling at SR4A, well, how do you improve upon perfection? I want SR4EVER as my license plate.

~hmm~ I can't actually tell how long I've been here because my original join date certainly was before 26th of Febuary 2002. That's a date that the Dumpshock forums were moved to a new board version and nobody except Redjack himself has an earlier join date.

With memory not serving well, I'd guess it must have been sometime in 1999 or 2000

My credentials here also only just turned 20! Hooray! Although I had registered and lurked on the previous generation of the board. It's just that when the new board got installed, I didn't bother registering for a few years because the SR3 game I'd played in at uni (which modelled The Matrix, and had deckers on Psion palmtops realtime "hack" new equipment (ID badge, clipboard, ammunition, ladder, etc.) to drop into the scene by its Availability and failed hack rolls alerted I.C. / Squiddy Sentinels... to lock on and home in on the incursion both inside and outside the VR... it was a fantastic game!) had concluded.
It's falsified.

I joined the day FASA announced they were closing, likely January 25, 2001. I got online for the first time, searched "Shadowrun" and found this place.

Well said my friend. This is the place for all the old grognards. Been here since the transition. I do hope it continues for another 20. I may not be as old as you but Im getting there and no one can ever take my Shadowrun away. I think we need to start a "tell me a story about that time" thread so all of us old timers can remember those days and impart all our hard fought wisdom to the younger generation . Take care to all of my DS friends.

Trevor L.

Very eloquently said. Here's to you, PB, for keeping DS alive and civil /toast

Happy Anniversary and remember don’t deal with Dragons and stuff….

More of that latter than the former, sadly. With the official forums, Reddit being the death of forums everywhere, and the new editions actively taking the fun out of the game, DS really feels empty.

First time caller, long time listener - just joined up recently as I've started up a 3rd edition game. Looking forward to picking people's brains and postin'

Welcome to our world! Glad to see a new member.

Welcome, NotBob! Always happy to see new faces here.

Also Welcome NotBob!

I was gonna post my 20 years message earlier, but I sprained my toe, then Ignored it for 3 days while driving to-and-from work. So yeah, Genuis move that has resulted in an intense, entire-foot sprain now.

New job and trying to move with best foot forward as well. The irony is thick.


But seriously, stick to the shadows, get some chummers and look out for Vitas, it's coming, I tell ya.

Seriously, wasn't there a thread about how some of the guesses were a little too accurate, at one stage? It's like that LK TV station that Dunkie used to pass phrophetic musings to, anomyously. Or the Simpsons....


Regards,
Tir.

Wow it really has been that long! Still luring here, been a member of this version of Dumpshock since it opened and was a member of the previous version of the forum for a few years.
But yeah this place is still way more friendly than Reddit even though it's not as active.

Eh, bit over 16 years ago only.

gosh its been so long. I missed the place....

I can also still double post like no other.

Hey! I'm the proud owner of LE SR3 #763! It even has signed art in the frontispiece by Fred Hooper and James Nelson. An awesome gift from my ex-wife in better times between us.

It feels good to hold a bit of SR history in my hands.

This makes me realize that in a few months, it will also be the twentieth anniversary of Shadows of Europe's release, the project having been started on the Dumpshock years before that (my earliest archives go back to November 2000, but the project had been underway for some time when I joined). Next year we'll reach the point where the 4th edition that had a 20th Anniversary special will itself turns twenty.

This whole "getting old" thing is getting completely out of hand.