Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

News in the Shadows-All the latest at your personatips

Well so far 2057 has been a fairly eventfull year. In January we found out that last year’s elections for UCAS Pres were rigged, so President Steel and VP Booth were impeached, and now Pres Pro Tem Betty Jo Pritchard is calling a new election. Normally that wouldn’t mean a lot to Joe runner, since most of us dont have a SIN to vote with, but since the announcement of new elections it seems everyone and their brother/sister is declaring to run for the presidency. At last count over 40 different drek heads had made it onto the ballot.

Now comes the news last week that the Big D himself DUNKELZAHN (Yes the GREAT DRAGON DUNKELZAHN) is running for the presidency of the UCAS. Biz in the shadows was already jumping, with everyone trying to find/make some drek to sling at their competition, and now I do belive we might see more activity then ever before.

On the smaller scale, here in Seattle we have a couple of groups opening up new digs that could be interesting. You could say we have good guys and bad guys showing up (who’s who depends on your feelings on the matter). Both Humanis Policlub and The Universal Brotherhood are opening doors next week of their new homes. Fortunatly they are quite aways apart from each other 🙂

Its still not making the newsfeeds for the rest of the scags here in town but we still have scattered reports of folks going missing all over town in the less affluent areas, something or someone is out there folks, dont let your guard down, and keep your friends close.

The rumor mill is buzzing lately with word that the Orks in the underground were expanding their tunnels and made a wrong turn. It seems they may have tunneled into the Renraku Arcology sub basement or some such. My sources tell me several poor orks got greased when the samurai responded to the intrusion; no word yet on what the orks are gonna do for revenge.

Well thats the headlines for tonight, remember shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never ever deal with a dragon. See ya next time.

(Minor edits and linkenation by Scott 6/20/05)

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #30: Whaddaya Got?

Li asks

What’s the last board, card, or roleplaying game you bought, and what do you think of it?

My last purchase was Power Grid, a board game by Rio Grande. We’ve played twice (only once through more than Phase 1) and messed up the victory conditions a little. It was a lot of fun– I think it will be one of the more played games for a while. Slick, competitive, but not excessively challenging. The two sided board looks like a great value, a good way to shake things up.

My most recent RPG purchase was a trio, but last night I read Primetime Adventures again. It looks solid and Actual Play has indicated it’s good for one shots as well as seasons, so I’ll be taking it up to the 4th of July gamefest Zack’s throwing.

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #29: Us and Them

Another interesting question from Li:

Do you consider the GM part of the group, and why or why not?

I do consider the GM part of the group, though Julie’s comment about the style of the game does seem to apply. On the one hand, Dad’s definately a member of the group– socially, he’s as much a hub as any other person– but he’s not facing the same challenges in the same way. His role is different, but he’s working with us to make a story for the characters, so he’s a member of the group.

Part of the “group status” also comes from the way we get together frequently outside of roleplaying, where he’s just another player to crush (in boardgames, for example). Also, we rotate GMing (Kev’s stint begins this week), so that keeps him from ossifying as different.

Categories
Politics

Abortion, Marijuana, and War

Abortion is about Autonomy Good diarist post about the KOS keruffle

The World of Commerce A fun mocking of the recent supreme court decision

History Rhymes Fifteen similarities between the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Thought provoking.

Baby Name Wizard Charts the popularity of names over time. It has a nice interface.

Plus a snarky quote about roleplaying below the fold.

Categories
Game Group

Sunday June 19th: Shadowrun

UPDATE: Due to Father’s Day conflicts, this was moved to Sunday June 26th.

After last night’s conclusion of the Dragon Coast coup in D&D, we’ll shift gears and move along to Shadowrun.

Sunday we’ll get together at 2 and chat about Shadowrun, go through a quick run with sample characters to let everyone shake down the system, then crate characters as a group. [Subject to correction by Kev.]

There are lots of good links in the Shadowtalk Comments if you want to read more before we get together. For the basics– what the Stats do, how magic works, and the like, here’s DMP’s writeup. See you all Sunday!

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Game Group

Next Game: Sunday June 12

We’ll start at 2 pm, as we agreed at the end of last session.

Also, we asked Dad what a good stopping place would be for this campaign. He suggested that after the battle with the Baron, IF we win, would be a good time to take a break. Hopefully, that gives us a vague timeline for getting Shadowrun prepped… does that sound doable Kev?

I’ll try to write out my character concept in the Shadowtalk thread; if we babble about characters maybe we’ll get some coordination out of the way.

Categories
Politics

Peak Oil gets some discussion

After reading some of the more extreme Peak Oil sites (and finding flaws where they tried to stretch their arguments), I was content to just about write them off. Kevin Drum did the research though, and while there’s a lot of disagreement on particulars, there seems to be some wide concensus. Kevin Drum’s Peak Oil reporting–
Executive Summary.
Details: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Coda

Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

Shadowtalk

Repost of Kev’s Site link. His World history, & Character Creation rules.

I thought we could use a thread to talk about character concepts, ask questions, figure out what we want to see in a campaign, and the like. (Plus, if I find any useful links, I’ll tack them on.)

Categories
Game Group

Next Game: Sunday June 5th

What time do we want to start this week– our standard 2pm, or closer to noon (like last week)? Do we want to stop earlier? [I’d be OK with a solid 6 hour session, for example.]

Most of the spells were wonky again; I’ll have to check out your generator Dad & try to find out why it’s only churning out stuff we don’t have books for.

Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

Next Game: Hopefully Memorial Day Weekend

Since days & times are up in the air, here’s a thread for figuring out when we can meet next. Everybody, say “Arrr!” with me.

UPDATE: So, Monday’s the plan. Ben suggests an early start… say, 10 or 11 am. Does that work for you?