OK, now that things have calmed down a little, and I've rested up from both Gencon and Hurricane Charley, I would like to submit my Gencon report...

Gencon 2004 marked the "official" beginning for the Shadowrun Missions campaign. Everything up till now has been an introduction to prepare the players and community - to get a jump on things, as it were. "Double Cross" is the first adventure in the actual story arc, and those interested can check out the results of their "handiwork" by reading SOTA:2064 (but wait until you play the adventure!).
Over the next two years, we hope to bring to you a story line rich in plots and counterplots, intrigue, and good old fashioned shadowrunning. I hope you'll enjoy the excitement we intend to deliver over the next coming months!

First of all, THANK YOU to all my Judges - these guys not only rock and kick major hoop by volunteering to work long hours for very little, but went beyond the call in many cases and were just top notch gamemasters. Many thanks go out to the following:

Matt "Spooky" Phillips (also author of A Dark & Stormy Night)
Nate "Pimpin'" Stiles
Russell "Cheesehead" Timm
Greg "Gershy" Gershowitz
Larry "Maps" White
Ed "DaBitch" DeJesus

Thanks also to all my writers - most of which could not attend the con to help promote their "babies":

Mark Somers and Chris Maxfield - Mission Briefing
John "Deacon Blues" Scheibeler - Demolition Run
(Me - FORCEd RECON and Double Cross)
Matt Phillips - A Dark & Stormy Night

We ran the following tables during the con:

Thursday
Mission Briefing - 2 tables
Demolition Run - 5 tables (that's 1 extra!!)

Friday
Demolition Run - 4 tables
FORCEd RECON - 3 tables
Mission Briefing - 5 tables

Saturday
Mission Briefing - 3 tables
A Dark & Stormy Night - 3 tables
Double Cross - 7 tables
A Dark & Stormy Night - Midnight Edition - 2 tables (1 extra!!)

Sunday
Double Cross - 2 tables

So, the totals are
Mission Briefing - 10 tables
Demolition Run - 9 tables
FORCEd RECON - 3 tables
A Dark & Stormy Night - 5 tables
Double Cross - 9 tables

Most tables were full with 6 to 8 players each. We only turned away about 4 people, 2 of which were because of the last minute scheduling confusion felt by many of the games through Gencon's faulty system where the book, tickets, and hall captains/computers all had different values for where and when a game was supposed to be located. All in all though, I heard nothing but compliments on the quality of the tournaments, the fun had by all, and the overall excitement about the new Shadowrun Missions campaign concept.

So, with over 120 unique players, most of whom returned for more than one session (we had about 20 people that played 4 or 5 of the sessions!) and over 200 total players, I believe that Gencon 2004 was a great success for Shadowrun Missions. We also brought in about a dozen or so new players to the system, and another dozen players that hadn't played Shadowrun in 10 or more years, and have now returned to participate in the Missions campaign.

Also, I need to thank Rob Boyle, Adam Jury, Brett Roberts, and everyone else involved with FanPro for helping make the tournaments and Gencon a success.

And finally, of course, I would like to thank YOU, the players, for participating in the campaign and keeping it going. We need to keep the campaign growing and maintaining players, new authors, and gamemasters to keep it a success - I think we are well on our way!

Submitted for your approval -
Rich "bitrunner" Osterhout
Campaign Director, Shadowrun Missions
FanPro Commando 104

It's great to see that SRM runs well! I'm happy to see that's it's working for others, since around here I had great success with my games. I have a question however : SRM00-04 wasn't available at Gencon? I thought they would all be available there.

Anyway keep up the great work, and I encourage everyone to contribute to this campaign, either by playing or by volunteering!

SRM00-04, A Fork in Fate's Path, is debuting at DragonCon in Atlanta GA this weekend...it will be posted to the public shortly thereafter...

it was not finished at the time the Gencon event listing was posted, so we scheduled it for Dragoncon...

Although SRM00-05, A Dark & Stormy Night, has been played in a few places, it "officially" becomes released to the public for October...er, HALLOWEEN!!!

Damn, I'm jealous.

You got your big Cons down there in the States ... try to find a con - any con that would run shadowrun tables - in my part of northern Germany. Well, that still leaves GMing the SR Mssions adventures with my home group ... with much success up to now, I admit ...

Keep up the good work ...