I've been trying to track down Blackjackfor a little while, but haven't had much success. I've already tried the poc listed on his webpage.

Is anyone here still in contact with him? Does he ever visit dumpshock?

He disapeared from the SR community many years ago. I don't think you'll have much success in communicating with him.

But I might know someone who knows someone who was part of the extraction

(No, I tease, but considering how complete his disappearance, I blame either shadowrunners or the NSA).

Or a wife...

Under the new SR4 rules, those are referred to as 'mentor spirits'.

My wife gives me +2 dice to coming home early.

+2 dice for coming home early...

Im not so sure.. sounds like more of a geas....

If you aren't home early, the geas is broken.... lose a magic point

And you do not get to have any unarmed combat.

That's not true. It's just that I'm always on full defense during it.

Just be careful. When getting wired reflexes, get the triggered version, otherwise "unarmed combat" won't last long.

And by all means obey the "one mentor spirit per magician"-rule. Jealous bastards they are

We are all pretty good at Inneundo.

Right here. What'cha need?

-bh

*Falls prostrate*
All hail the mighty Blackjack!!!

I was originally trying to get in touch because somebody here on the forum was setting up an NPC wiki, and I wanted to know if you'd allow us to post the NPCs from your site on it.

It's hard to turn down something like this without coming off as a complete butthole, but I'm not 100% comfortable with wiki-izing my NPCs just yet. I like the wiki concept when applied to the genesis and revision of an idea, but, in my mind, my NPCs are already done and don't need to be changed. Granted, it would be nice to have people add stats to them, but it's not worth trading away the original, unadulterated form of something I created.

That sounded a lot snottier than I had intended, but I'm sure you get the idea.

In any case, I'll be deciding on the eventual fate of my site and the material contained within over the next few months. I may keep an archive up; or I may try to divest everything across the net and then wipe out my main site. Poof. Gone. (I envision a shockwave animation in which the site physically burns off the page).

Or maybe I'll just write up some more Brumby.

-bh

There are some persons who are worshipped in the SR-scene. bh is one of them.

I'll toss in a vote, don't wipe the old site!! Let your stuff get duplicated elsewhere, but there's nothing quite as pleasant as googling blackjack shadowrun and jumping straight on in, something I'd worry I'd lose if things got scattered to the winds.

The nice thing about the wiki format is the built in search engine. there have been a couple times I've had to go through several pages to find what I wanted, 'cause I couldn't remember exactly where it was.

also come in handy for general browsing. need a mechanic contact? easy search.

Another suggestion would be to archive the entire site to .rar or .zip, host it for a few months (a bittorrent would work really well, it would save you mucho bandwidth), then, as you said, burn all the evidence.

Could the wiki include an HTTP link to Blackjack's site? That would let it be searchable without compromising his artistic rights.

Wow. Thanks for the disturbingly zealous compliments. Guess perhaps I'll keep things running a while longer and at least get things organized so the site looks a little less dead. If only I had the vaguest recollection as to what my FTP password is. I think the last time I accessed the site was in the summer of 2001.

Fix-It: I'll still probably hold off on the wiki deal for a while. I'm kind of picking and choosing what I'm doing, where things are going, and my various goals rather carefully (not just in SR, but in general) and don't want to committ myself to something I'm not 100% sure I'll enjoy (even if my actual participation would minimal).

I'm just keeping it simple across the board so I'm not forced to hibernate for another 4 years.

Thanks in advance to anybody else who sends along a emoticon laiden message of greeting. I'm happy to see you guys (and hopefully girls, because I really need to get myself laid) again and look forward to not vanishing abruptly in a cloud of psychotic neroses.

-bh

Welcome back, "plus ca change?"

Good to see you're still alive, Blackjack. 'nother vote for keeping the site, but best of luck whichever way you decide to go.

Blackjack!

It's really good to see you up and around again. My vote: Bring Back Brumby! That's some of the best SR stuff I've had the pleasure of reading. I could heap praise on you for hours but you know you're a crowd pleaser. Anyway, keep the site up if you can. I'm happy to throw any help your way that you need from This is Shadowrun (aka i lost my passowrd and started posting to shadowrun.thoughtwired.net)

Malik

Wow, he has returned!!!

Hope thing have been going you're way more or less...

I'm wondering what you're opinion on SR4 is, assuming you've even picked up a shadowrun book in the last 4 years? Let alone purchased the SR4 PDF or book.
Either way I figured I'd ask, you never know. I got a few friends who have renewed intrest in SR since 4th edition has been released. Figured maybe you're in that boat...

Am I the only one who cried when I saw that Blackjack has left Shadowrun for... D&D? *cries* ;P

I am going to side with the keep-the-page-up-for-now contingent.

And if you write more Brumby poetry let us know about it here. I use the example of a typewriter using, poetry writing Troll to get the point of role playing across to my players failry frequently.

Oh, and I love the poems, too.

Yes, at least keep the site up.

Thats close to how I used your site back in the days my group of friends became computer literate - downloaded whole and transfered to my modem-free pc on a network gaming session. Your content was always a bit static for me, but good nonetheless...

Due to popular demand, the site will remain up for now; thanks for the feedback. As soon as I regain access to it hopefully we'll see some changes (the very least of which will be getting rid of most of the PDF files which, while convenient to download, are a true bitch to maintain.).

Now where'd I put that pesky FTP password......

-bh

try "one two three four five"

no, no, no, that's the access code to the air shield and the president's luggage.

Eric the dread0395

Below is a mass-eimail I sent out to a couple hundred people whose e-mails I had neglected over the last few years. Just though I'd post it here because it kind of sums up how I'm going to handle my page from here on out:

BLACKJACK'S SHADOWRUN PAGE: THANK YOU

My apologies for sending out this impersonal mass-produced message, but it turns out that vanishing for 4 years can leave a person with quite an e-mail backup.

First, my sincerest apologies for ignoring any problems, complains, complements or other comments about my site, Shadowrun as a whole, or just life in general. I have, for the time being, and probably far into the future, given up on being the Bob Vila of Shadow run, reason number one being that I really don't play the game that often anymore. So to all who had questions (or corrected my incorrect answers to your questions) I hope you'll forgive.

Despite all of this, however, Blackjack's Shadowrun Page is NOT going to vanish off of the Earth - at least not for a while. I hope to give it a cosmetic overall over the next few weeks and begin adding new NPC profiles and short fiction. I am, however, taking my leave of giving out advice, which means that I'm basically going to be a dick and not reply to e-mails asking for this kind of assistance. It is nothing personal and I appreciate the help everybody provided for me when I needed inspiration from all of your obscure problems, such as what to do when your dog eats your Magic pool dice. But I just don't have the time now and I don't play the game enough to even made an educated guess. You may, however, see an advice column here or there, but nothing truly interactive.

With that said, I hope everybody pisses off and lets me work on some writing for a while. I'm kidding, of course. You can find me around the Dumpshock Forums if you really need me, although if I reply to your e-mail with something like "Werbert wazzlefloo", it just means I'm in a hurry and can't come up with anything interesting to say or don't feel like talking. (Hey, I have never once claimed NOT to be a prick).

BTW, the e-mail address blackjacksr@mindspring.com will not be active much longer; a replacement is forthcoming. Please contact me through Dumpshock if you need me. Thanks again for everything and best of luck with your gaming endeavors.

-bh

Hrm. Blackjack and Malik.

Weren't you guys the two columnists (for some weird "archive" or something) that ran away with all the money and the nymphs I managed to collect over the years?

PS: Werbert wazzlefloo.

Received my LE today and read that Blackjacks page will be updated in the near future - a good start into a day.

I couldn't fail to disagree with you less.