Hey folks,

I thought I'd report a bit on what I got from Propwash's Shadowrun Archive sale. I know there's a thread dedicated to it, but ... well, that thread's gotten a tad bit out of control and hijacked. So, it didn't seem unreasonable to start a new one.

Also, I wanted to at least touch on some of the stuff I found while going through things. There's a few anecdotes here that *I* at least found amusing, and I thought others might too.

I contacted him Propwash a few weeks ago, when he initially mentioned that he had hauled away a ton of Shadowrun stuff that he needed to get rid of. I took a look through his listings of stuff, and put down a deposit on several of them. Today I made the drive up to Kalamazoo (from Cleveland) and picked up what I reserved.

I've just taken a first look through *some* of the stuff. But, I'm finding the stuff fascinating, and I wanted to share some of it.

I snagged the original Shadowrun core rules, Universal Brotherhood, both of the Corporate books, the original Earthdawn core book, The Worlds Without End manuscripts, and quite a few other items. I've just looked through the Shadowrun core and skimmed the UB books, but I thought people might be interested in the kinds of things I'm finding, and also a few specific things that caught my eye.

First off, the orignal Shadowrun stuff is printed on old school Dot Matrix Fan fold paper, with the editors comments scrawled in the margins. I'm having a blast looking through the comments. What's funny as hell is that the editors were constantly ripping on the examples that the authors used. When you consider how buggy many of the examples were in 1st edition, the irony is just amazing.

Here's a few of the editorial comments that caught my eye:

Under Ranged combat modifiers

Running : Can't shoot (This was X'd out, and the word bullshit! is written next to it in red marker)

I think I found editorial requests to define what a burst is about 20 times.

The editor requested that point blank range be added for all weapons.

Armor was initially counted as automatic successes against all damage. This was highlighted with the words "Let's Talk" written next to it.

The Reaction stat was listed as Reaction time.

Under diseases, Aids was listed. This was Crossed out with a huge "NO!" in red next to it.

The definition of the word "Frag" was crossed out.

The Troll example character Smedley was renamed to Grinder. This was reversed about 3 or 4 times, both ways.

There's a timeline, which may have seen print, but I didn't recognize it readily. It placed the date October 2nd, 8238 BC as the Beginning of the Fourth World.

I found chapters for the Native American Nations and the Free City of Denver as submissions for NAGNA.

I've got Paul Hume's original outline for the Grimoire. At the time, it was entitled BBOM. (Big Book of Magic?)

I found the adventure "Maria Metallica" which was obviously retitled to Mercurial.

Photocopies of maps of North America and Seattle, with the authors marking off the various countries and regions.

I have the original, hand drawn map for the Food Fight! adventure.

I have the original Hand Drawn maps for UB. Also, the proposal for UB. In it, Kubasik mentions that the scenes at the UB chapter house were based on personal experiences dealing with the Dianetic's office in LA.

That's all that I was able to get through tonight. If people are interested in this material or have particular questions about specific items, I'll see what else i can turn up. Otherwise, I'll probably post some additional comments as things strike my fancy.

If you do find this material interesting, I'd strongly encourage you to contact propwash and ask him about availability of some of the other manuscripts. He's, quite literally, still got a garage full of materials. It's pretty amazing how much stuff is left. I'd have loved to have picked up more, but my basement is only so big, and my free time to go through the materials is finite.

Ah, if only I had the time, money, and space...or if I could move into Propwash's garage for a summer with my scanner and a few heavy-gigabyte hardrives...Thanks dunner.

The UB-Dianetics thing is hilarious.

BTW, what is the definition of "frag?"

Killing of an officer by enlisted men.

Smedley the Troll holds up his middle finger and says "frag off".

'Frag' = 'kill' in online gaming, especially FPS's, might well be the most common use of the word these days, however. And that about covers it, so people can get back to discussing Propwash's archive stuff.

The deleted definition was something along the lines of "to copulate." So, frag = F*ck.

Wow.

I never thought such a straightforward question would elicit such non-sequiturs.

It means both, so get back on topic.

That was on topic. Popwash´s archive stuff apparently contains the original authors intended definition of the word 'frag' in the shadowrun universe. Wanting to know what that was is on topic and damn interesting. It has after all been discussed before (many, many times wich may be the reason people get so edgy about it).

I don´t have anything else to say eccept I´m looking forward to more amusing anecdotes from the archives. This is a great thing going on.

LOL

I'm sorry, I find it amazing people could't figure out what "frag" meant in Shadowrun simply from the usage.

Are there any notes that could shed light on what "drek" means?

~J

I point to "frag" as an example of our inability to rely on a preexisting definition

~J

Then you obviously don't recall it's use in the Seattle sb as a substitute for (cover your eyes, children) Fuck.

More to the point, I was interested in what the creator's definition was, since it has been used in many different forms--most of which are basically so that fuck doesn't appear in a book (which in this game just... !). For all I know, the definition that would have appeared in the book was in a rather novel or light-hearted context (yeah, I know. In SR1? Shocking).

Or at least the 2.6.4 patch.

~J

Just a bit of an update.

I had about 50 eBay auctions end yesterday. So I spent most of yesterday and tonight boxing stuff up to ship out. (As an aside, my very nice copy of UB only sold for $25. Boo, hiss. OTOH, since I've got a "good enough" copy for running it, the original manuscripts, and about 9 edits and proofreads of it, I probably don't need two regular copies anymore. )

I did get a chance to glance through and sort a few things. I've got the original author's copy of Dunkelzahn's secrets. Along with about 5 different edits of it. That's the next thing that I'll be going through.

I did take a glance through Denver and Corporate Shadowfiles too. Other than to say that the editor's really reworked Findley's writing style, I didn't come up with anything particularly fun on first pass.

I want to go through the Earthdawn design notes soon, but I need to re-read the original first. Since I don't have a hardcopy of ED any more, that means going through the HTML'd CD release. (ick) It's also two banker boxes full of manuscripts. That'll take a couple of days.

Tomorrow's gaming night, don't expect any major updates until Thursday at the earliest.

I knew I should've rented a truck and gotten there earlier.

You know dunner, you really should just set up a SR webpage and call it "The Smoking Slivergun" or something and post scans or photos of the archives on it.

Or perhaps, "The Dikoted, Ally-Inhabited, Drone Silvergun"

still, I'd like to see a lil website with at least a few juicy excerpts.
I can't wait to hear about some the design notes for big D's folio.

If I come across enough really cool items to make a web site worthwhile, I'll get in touch with FanPro/Wizkids and see if I can get permission to put selected items up on the web. But, that's a long ways off. IMO, it's not worth putting together a website and a permission request until I've got some content to host.

I bought Aztlan and Threats stuff form Propwash; anyone know who got the Bug City docs?