You won't be able to see that home run this year

~J

hehe yeah....i like the Mets better myself...

I think it was more the "Oh and there was a nuclear exchange between these two countries that we just didn't mention before now." Now I know you can't foreshadow everything and that you've got to work around what the previous writers have left you with, but it's just a bit jarring and also doesn't really seem to add anything to the game. :/

Well, I imagine it will when SoA comes out.

I was just wondering, since it seemed rather straightforward with the other cities. In Old World Magic, one of the "Most Important Universities" lists Madrid. MY question is: Which university in Madrid? The Complutense? (I assume this would be self-evident if I owned, or even read, SoE).

nothing in the Madrid section of SoE.

Goodie.

Although I guess there's a reason Salamanca's not mentioned.

BTW, this is one of the funniest lines I've read in a SR book

Actually, now that I think of it sitting here--This was a really funny book.

My enjoyment of SR is much like my enjoyment of The West Wing--there are things that are dead serious and others that are patently absurd. Neither reflects reality, and the ones who are most acutely aware of it either hate them for it or don't care because it's fun. But what has made them, in my mind, is that they are ultimately infused with a great deal of humor that makes it all okay. There was actually a bit of a drought, but...

You brought the funny with this one.

Maybe if they do the same on the West Wing I might keep watching past Thanksgiving.

Anyway, we now return to me hijacking the thread about the book, which I've just about finished (I saved Prison for last).

One of the things that I think is interesting is the whole set of criticism about the book's direction to "Screw the mundanes." Well... I think that Games of State reflects almost an antithesis to this. With magic in the world, they could have really screwed mundanes, but they reigned in the screwing pretty well. It didn't even seem that far of a stretch from what will (or should) probably happen given the level of technology. But I mean, gee... Who'd have thought that magic in espionage would be subtle?

On spy satellites in SOTA64 (I've only read the first chapter) the initial impression given is that they are quite uncommon, though there are a fair few listed on the chart.

I had always considered that by 2050+ spy satellites (of variable quality) would be widely distributed with most nations, megacorps and media corps having them.

If you consider that people take holidays in space and with the further miniaturisation of electronics, it would be fairly cheap to have your own spy bird up there. Present spy birds are usually pretty small in our time are they not?

Also, the Setup Time listed on the spy-sat table, is this the time before one becomes available for use?

(Quick aside-- for those who haven't noticed, the "forums-temp" line is gone, perhaps meaning a new SOTA64 sub-forum will arrive soon. Bravo to the intrepid forum-fixifiers--"fixers" has another meaning here, and I wanted to be clear about it)

For the folks interested in the Euromagic traditions, especially the Norse stuff, I'd like to take a moment to pimp one of my favorite movies. Go ye forth and rent or buy The 13th Warrior if you have not already done so. Great stuff, and finally a chance to pimp it in relation to Shadowrun....

I have no idea why so many people dispise that movie. I thought it was rather cool overall, and the characterization between all the different warriors were great. Even if one of them was Antonio Banderas.

The scene where the small, old Herger was toying with the tall, young, red-headed viillager was fantastic.

Never underestimate a fan of Pagels.

Anyway, it could be worse. One of my comments was going to be about the references to NA shamanism until I stepped back and realized it was, you know, fiction. And then I smacked myself because I was being stupid.

The Link club could have been much cooler if they used simsense instead of your run-of-the-mill augmented reality, so you can cherry pick the clubgoers you want to see or just overlay the whole club experience in something more... personal. Meanwhile the club itself is just a giant box.

I don't get the part about Matador being hired by Argus, unless he didn't know, because in Fields of Fire Matador was talking trash about MET2000 with the tone of someone with a personal grudge.

(insert random obligatory comment about what a "true professional" Matador was to be able to set aside personal feelings and gut reactions, and take a job anyways)

On the other hand it doesn't explicitly say he knew he was working for Argus...

Well, yeah. I don't know enough about his death to have presumed that with much confidence.

No, not any more than a Perfect Memeory Edge does.

Odd, since Eiditic seems to just be a souped up version of the mnemonic enhancer. Ah, but what am I doing bringing logic into this?

No, Cognition is the magical version of Mnemonic Enhancer.

CrimeTime is just about the funniest name I've ever read, yet so accurate to the theme. That whole section is such an amazing portrayal of today's world that I almost can't stand it. The bratpacks are so ridiculous they make you laugh, but fit into the mold so perfectly, it's like a missing piece of Shadowrun just slid into place. The gene art is so horribly dark that you almost want to punch somebody, but funny because that's the kind of stupid crap we really make with technology.

The post by Sirius made me crack up, but without the name it would have otherwise been just another comment - but it was perfect. Wonder if the character is a shapeshifter... But I digress.

The runner army is brilliant. Though I'd really like to see more about Saito's forces in terms of quantity, the qualitative is very cool.

The "hint" in the Amazonian interview about the elf age crisis starting to show. I know this is just one tiny statement, but it really highlights the coming issue of elves living fit and trim until their late three hundreds.

Everything about the Ork language was spot on, and some of the slang had me laughing.

The top 10 lists had some moments, like the cows (which reminds me of "Holy monkeys prey on children").

Anyway, that's off the top of my head. There was more.

I've been pretty busy (aisde from last night's postathon re: movies), but when I get a chance I'll list what I found funny. It ended up taking me a while to read the whole book, and so it's probably going to take soem time to get all of them, or at least all of the good ones.

Right off the top of my head, I liked the reference to Beirut being so tense the UCAS Ambassador probably flinched every time a truck drove by the embassy. That was really funny.

heh, yeah. funny in a "holy shit, i can't believe they said that" way. which is one of my favorite types of humor.

Well, I'd be shocked if 10% of the readers got it IRL let alone IC.

I'm having nightmares about bratpacks and AR tagging wars. Even the PvP Miracle Shooter would sprial drastically out of control with these kids.

Next Shadowrunner: Runners are hired to sabotage a bunch of corp kids commlinks the night before a match of "Miracle Shooter:Regionals" . Hired by another bunch of corp kids. Maybe after they screwed up real bad on a run and are getting all the bitch jobs?

Or maybe an overprotective father happens to be a Johnson and skims some of the slush money to pay them. It's so RL that it's almost too much.