I've never played D&D as often as I would like, though in my early days I imagine that left more time for dreaming. I remember putting myself through early modules (pre-made adventures) like Keep on the Borderlands and Castle D'Amberville because I didn't have a DM. It was probably not surprising that I always survived and walked out with heaping piles of treasure, even that which was hidden behind secret doors I never would have found playing correctly. I remember poring through the Monster Manual, Fiend Folio and Deities and Demigods (D&D rulebooks) almost obsessively, constantly checking the creatures Treasure Types to figure out what type of loot they would have. I remember hand-drawing hundreds of maps, most of which never saw a single adventure. I remember creating a thousand NPC's (Non-player Characters) that never lived anywhere other than in my head.

I remember our first tentative steps to 'real' D&D, playing with my friends and a couple of times with my brothers. The first times were pretty bad (I still have some of that, but hopefully less), with our share of Monty Haul and deity-challenging games. But we rolled dice, put on cool armor, cast amazing spells, and let our imaginations roam to lands no one else has ever visited. I remember playing once at the town library with Greg and Leila Godowski and her flaming red hair; Greg and I both died twice in the first two hours to a several-years older DM and figured out that was not our style of game. This was the era of Lord O' Leisure (Greg), the most memorable and enduring character I ever knew. I still regularly use his signature line in various circumstances, 'Hi there, I am the Lord O' Leisure, and you are pleased to meet me!'

In our twenties, we hit our stride. Greg, Tina, John and Kenny were the core group of the longest campaign I ever DM'ed, and some weeks we played 20 or 30 hours. I remember Greg's Na'ag, Necromancer extraordinaire and bane of the world, John's Heroic Baron and his island estate as the bastion against the will of evil, Tina and Fiver, her giant bunny familiar, and Kenny as the all-around sneak. We laughed and shared hundreds of good hours during that campaign. We had pun-fights where we all ended up black and blue (you got punished for punning by being punched). Life was good. However, as it always does, time eventually got to us and the game broke down, with Greg disappearing to Law School, the collapse of my long-term relationship with Tina, and John and Kenny moving to North Carolina.

Although we've had some good campaigns in my thirties, finding a large core set of players and working around scheduling conflicts has definitely been challenging. However, I am ever hopeful that we'll find a groove and 10 players that can meet 5 times a week!

More than just good times though, Dungeons and Dragons helped teach me to think, write, and appreciate numbers and statistics. It developed my imagination, confidence, public speaking and a myriad of other skills I never would have learned without the constant interaction of the game. It was something to turn my mind to in my darkest hours, and probably carried me through several times when I otherwise wouldn't have made it.

To Gary, I pray you are on high with full knowledge of the millions of people's lives you have improved. I honor and thank you for all you have given me, and my heartfelt condolences to your family and loved ones.

Though you never knew me, I will miss you.

I thought the rules simplifications worked well. Taking 3 damage isn't much different than taking 1d6, it just doesn't take as long. I definitely enjoy the fact that special abilities just work without a bunch of rolls as well, and combats seemed to go much quicker than the old days, though they've all been small so far. Still might make a few tweaks, but it seems like things were clicking.

I'll have diplomacy better and more consistent next week. I started working on it but wasn't quite done with it Saturday. The folks with high Charisma, Comeliness and Diplomacy will definitely see some impact from those numbers

Anything else? I don't know when y'all want to get together again...I have an engagement party to go to on Saturday, so Friday if that works or next week.

Thanks!

It reminds me that we need to have that discussion, fun as usually it is, this weekend. Personally, and y'all are welcome to disagree, because of the way Sphere is structured, there is no resurrection magic per se. At the same time, intelligent enemies (typically) will not kill you intentionally without trying to bind your soul, make you their servant, hold you for ransom, etc. (though the man-eating beetles likely won't be so discriminating)

Here's a random thought, and I wonder what y'all think. In Sphere, karma is very real, and not only the people, but the Sphere itself, has a long memory. Each player, based on their actions in-game, would be awarded karma points, mostly by the other party members, whenever they did something especially cool, heroic, or otherwise important.

Then, if at any point a player dies with a lot of karma points, could convert those karma points to coolness on his rebirth. For example, for 10 karma points, a player could come back as a previously restricted race (Drake, Gryphon, Djinn), for 5 karma points a player could come back with a chosen guild or order and the appropriate template without having to go through the in-game process of joining. Each 2 karma points might equal an extra attribute point, and 3 points might bring you back knowing one of the great secrets of Sphere (I am working on a list of 50 secrets that may be revealed at certain points in the game).

This would do a couple of things...first, let the dice fall where they may, and keep me from having to fudge or even worrying about whether fudging is important. Second, encourage good role-playing to earn karma. Third, remove some, even if not all, of the stress of losing a cool character. I won't reveal all now, but even death in Sphere is vitally important and your characters memories may outlive you. More on this Saturday, as I think I've come up with a way narratively to make it important for the party to work together (including bringing in new characters after one has died) instead of the usually forced method we normally have to rely on.

Of course, it would have to have some caveats. The method of a character's death might give a positive or negative karma bonus. Intentional death would automatically erase all karma; stupid death (Hey, I wonder if spider-climbing into the wyvern's lair is a good idea...) might be -5 karma, while non-intentional and heroic would be worth a bonus.

Just some thoughts!

Instead, each player will get 28 attribute points, and each ability score starts at 8. So, you could give yourself 6 scores (Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Chr) of 14, 10, 10, 14, 16, 12. Additionally, based on my earlier research on 'Point-buy', I'm nerfing strength. Instead of getting a bonus to both to-hit and damage, the bonus will be split. For example, with an 18 strength, you would get a +2 hit/+2 damage, while with a 12 strength you could either have +1/hit or +1/damage. This will be somewhat balanced by many low-level creatures only having '1 hit' worth of HP's, meaning that any hit by anyone will kill them. I'm simply tired of the ridiculous bookkeeping requirements to run even slightly complex fights.

Additionally, if we are not going to use the point-buy system, you can also sacrifice an attribute point for either 8 skill points 2 feats, one special ability, one Force Level (max 5) or 10 Force Store. Special abilities will all draw on the 2 new sub-attributes, Force Level and Force Store.

Each player automatically starts with 1 Force Level and 5 Force Store. (so you can take powers later even if you don't at first level) Each player will automatically gain 5 more Force Store every 2 levels (3, 5, 7, 9, etc). Force Level is defined as the number of Force Store regained daily when under Spherelight. Force Store is vaguely related to the total power available for an ability, and is the equivalent of spell levels.

Special powers can be pretty much anything anyone wants (barring area-effect combat spells), and will be calculated according to its power level. A power will be equated to spell levels, and require a certain number of force store to use. The Force Store required for the power will be:

1st: 1
2nd: 3
3rd: 6
4th: 10
5th: 15
6th: 21
7th: 28
8th: 36
9th: 45

The reasoning is that special powers of 9th-level proportions are massively greater than just 9 times the power of a 1st-level spell. However, this also means you can take pretty much any power you like assuming you have the Force Store to use it. However, take note that if you give yourself 50 Force Store but only 2 Force Level, it will take a character 25 game days to regenerate their complete Force Store. I hope this will create a self-balancing, but completely open, system of making yourselves the coolest heroes around.

I'm curious what folks think of this whole system; I'm not attached to it and am willing to look at other ways of doing things. I do however, want folks to realize that every creature in Sphere has the potential to have special abilities, from the greatest Dragonlord to the lowliest farmer to the strangest creature. The farmer might not be able to swing a sword, but don't be surprised if he tosses off a couple of telekinetic bolts before attacking you with his rake. And the Giant Woodpecker might not look particularly menacing, until he charms the nearby hippopotomus and sends it your way.

Per previous posts, here are some obvious character choices:

Dragonkin - Mages, Samurai, or Brutes

Lizardfolk Spiritbinder

Eloin Forcebinder (Mage), Rocbinder (Ranger), or Wingjumper (Fighter/Mage)

General character info

Generally speaking, the world is a conglomeration of small populations except for the 3 main races (Humans, Dragonkith, and Eloin). Beyond that, however, you are free to make just about any type of character or race you like. There are Aztec-like lizardfolk who gain power through their dead ancestors souls that have been trapped in living crystal, pale-skinned Technomancers that fly steam and sphere-powered gliders and baloons, feline mentalists that can see seconds into the future making them nearly impossible to hit, ascetic humanoids that collect and control magical 'sparks' that are resonances of age-old spells and grant them longer lives, greater strength, control over fire and wind, among other abilities. Core-dwelling folk tend to be scrappers, or folks who make their lives collecting the discards of all the other civilizations, and might have weak attributes, but a Batman-like utility belt full with grapples, one-shot projectile cannons, and magic-sapping ironlike powder.

The classes I am creating, for example the Eloin, are going to be geared more toward role-players. Even though they have fewer overall abilities than your typical D&D character, they will be just as powerful. This allows me to have cool magical NPC's without having to worry about which 90 spells the wizard has. The same with the Dragonkith; they will have great, but few, powers. Dragonkith or Eloin really just have a variety of powers that can be broken down to flight, telekineses, energy bolt, and a couple of defensive abilities. Certain dragonkith also get benefits to their physical abilities, while the Eloin have lower-than-average physical attributes.

Overall, the game should have a non-western feel, meaning no knights, paladins, or traditional sorcerers. Whether that means Asian-like ninjas or samurai, Indian-myth-like Orangutan Mystics wielding slings and rods, or Meso-American jaguar or ocelot lycanthropes, I'll leave that up to each player. Of course, there is one fully human kingdom where one could be a 'typical' fighter, but even there the cooler classes would be a Spellsword (Arabian fighter with the powers of desert and wind), Gryphon-Rider, or Anti-Mage (Less cordially known as Spheresuckers).

Some things to note: spirits in the world are real, and folks can regularly (well, semi-regularly) expect to see the souls of dead people as they make their journey to wherever it is they go (hint: there's a mystery the characters can try to solve there). Instead of having balance in everything, which I used to try to do in my games, this game will have no balance. Instead of the four elements being equal, wind is dominant, earth second, and fire and water come in a weak 3rd and 4th.

Also to remember, the world is basically 'open'. People from other continents can literally watch you as you journey across a massive desert (glass, lenses, and telescopes are huge business), so ticking people off is likely to get them to pile on you when you least expect it, potentially parachuting, levitating, gliding, flying, floating, or teleporting in to either help or hinder you.

Magic in the world will be potent, but it shouldn't be spells that define your character, at least in terms of combat. If you want to be able to use the power of wind and earth to fling pebbles at high velocity at your opponent, great. However, there will be no 'throwing rock' spell per se, and if you are in a barren area with no loose rock, you're probably out of luck. But in some places you may be able to use that same ability to create a rock stair to ascend to an island that appears to have no way up.

There will be just as many cool friends and badguys as y'all and I can think up, and they will quite possibly be more powerful than yourselves. I anticipate three-dimensional battles where the flying, telekinetic monkey-shaman attempts to fling you off the edge of an island. However, even being thrown off a cliff doesn't mean you don't pull out the bat-glider wings and land gracefully (however disgraced) on the island of man-eating beetles 2000 feet below.

It is my intention that magic items will be rare, and those that do will not be your standard +3 doohicky. Instead, it might be a sword that only attacks once every 3 rounds but grants a cleave that means it can attack 4 times on the round it does attack. Also, magic items will not be used to grant bonses to your abilities per se. No rings of protection, no girdles of strength, or the like.

Instead, character will be able to grant themselves the same bonuses magic items used to do through their orders and guilds. For example, joining the Contemplation and completing the 7 Steps would grant you a higher wisdom, the ability to heal 15 damage once per combat, a bonus against mind-affecting abilities, free lodging and healing at any Contemplation shrine, and the ability to sense invisible spirits or creatures.

A more martial order of dragonkith might grant over time a +4 ac, higher physical attributes, a +2 in combat when fighting only one opponent, the chance to avoid attacks of opportunity, and a call to arms that once per week lets you summon all nearby drakes to your aid.

A magic order might grant an increasing spell-bolt like ability a la the warlock, the ability to levitate, increased charisma and dexterity, and the ability to barter with a Djinn for services once a month.

It will be like the prestige classes, with only the abilities being granted, instead of the spell progression, save bonuses, extra hp's and the like.

To be honest, I hope I am not painting myself into a corner and trying to build something that won't ever work, or that people won't like. I will definitely need a lot of folks help, as I have some grand ideas, but might need some help in translating them to a viable game.

Does that help?

I'd like to discuss a number of rule changes or potential rule changes.

Among them:

Luck is going away; it is going to be replaced by Action Points, something I mentioned in an earlier Sphere post.

I'm going back to the standard attributes: Comeliness will become a skill that modifies first reactions. Perception will become a skill that replaces search, spot and listen.

One rule that I'm thinking of but want to discuss is making basic monster (and NPC) HP's simpler. I'm thinking monsters will get 1 hit per HD. That way, weak humans and monsters are dead in a hit or two, and it kind of gives the 'Crouching Tiger' feel while making the bookkeeping easier for me. Boss Monsters or major NPC's will still have normal HP's.

We need to decide whether we will be trying a skill point system or sticking with standard character classes. I will be trying to maintain a 'semi-eastern' feel regardless, so no Paladins or Clerics, and more Spellswords, Monks, and Gryphon Riders.

No area of effect combat spells, and no direct damage combat spells. (No fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, etc) If we decide to keep character classes, mages and the like will be buffed to rogue range to compensate for their lack of direct damage.

All magical energy in this campaign will be powered by the Sphere. A new secondary attribute will determine how fast magical abilities and spells will regenerate. Be prepared for much slower refueling of magical energy, but a higher starting pool when fully charged.

Orders, guilds and covens: there will be dozens of possible 'templates' that will sit on top of your character (similar to the way you can add templates to creatures in 3.5), based on the factions that exist in Sphere. Over their career, each character will be able to be a member of up to two non-conflicting orders, one technological and one magical. Each template will give players bonuses to stats, skills, relationships, or give them unique abilities. I will need the players to help create these orders, as I perceive a world populated with them, but I don't have the brainpower to come up with all of them.

We will need to come up with a simple set of flying combat rules.

Also, be prepared to discuss any other things y'all are worried about or that didn't work in the last game. (I'd also like to know what did!)

One final note! I love games, and would really love if we rotated between D&D and something else every third week or so. I have a new European board game that is supposed to be cool, or we could play short-handed poker or somesuch.

I'm going to be adding something to the blog to help stop spam comments. If your note doesn't post right away, it's because it was caught in the filter. As soon as I have a fix in place I'll let you know!

Thanks!

Newton Tchaikovsky, one of several Artisans who agreed to be interviewed, was very open about the tenets of Sphericism. 'As a venerable science fiction writer once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." You could say that is definitional to our creed. All practioners of 'magic' are simply obeying universal laws through what everyone will someday think of as basic science. Just as splitting an atom generates huge amounts of energy, the spells of a Shaman, Mage or Artisan are simply a different way of harnessing the energy that is omnipresent in all things."

"We don't subjugate spirts as the mage or worship them like the shaman; those are simply illusions they build for themselves because they cannot comprehend the science. We create constructs through the arts and sciences, much as a programmer might code an artificial intelligence or a bio-engineer does for sentient dolphins. For Artisans, ideas have power. Through the use of a mathematical formula, we can create a concussive force, or various forms of energy. Through a geometric proof, we can reconstruct a physical body to add strength, agility, even intellect. And through thought itself, or what Spherics call the Binding Principle, or just Truth, we can create something tangible from the intangible."

"Artisans use the arts and sciences to create a framework for power generated by the ever-present harmonics of the celestial spheres. No, don't raise your eyebrows. Copernicus almost had it right and could be considered the founder of our society. Why do you think all of the most important objects in our lives are spheres? The sun, the moon, the planets. Even more, any object you can imagine spinning and rotated at sufficiently high speeds will take on the appearance of a sphere. I am not talking about the spheres as presented in ancient times, which was a naive notion. But like many of the ideas propogated throughout the renaissance, there was a huge kernel of truth in Copernicus' ideas. All matter in the universe exists within the boundaries of progressively larger dimensional spheres. When I apply thought to that mathematical formula mentioned earlier, it causes a resonance in the sphere layered on this space, generating energy, which is manifested physically when the barrier separating the physical from the immaterial is temporarily disrupted."

Artisans believe there are 4 pillars upon which the Binding Priniciple rests. The pillars of science are Geometry and Mathematics and the pillars of art are Language and Music. Upon this structure, they say, the entire universe is built.

For example, his basic spell, Stunbolt, will likely incapacitate any metahuman other than a troll in one shot. One silent, invisible shot, where I don't even have to act like I am casting a spell. I get 11 dice vs. the opponents Willpower only, likely 2-4, with a base damage of 6s. On average I will get 4 hits to my opponents, 1, doing 9 damage. So maybe not a 1 shot kill, but it might as well be. I can also overpower the spell to up 8 easy enough. (all spells can be overpowered up to twice their force, so I could do a Force 12 Stunbolt; increasing the force makes it more likely a mage will take damage every time they cast a spell)

On the other side of the coin, the Mage version of cyber/biotech is both very expensive and costs karma, where most characters don't lose anything adding most tech (well, other than essence). For example, a talisman to add 3 dice to one spellcasting category would run 45,000 credits as well as 12 karma. The additional possibility of losing the item makes it very scary; high price is one thing, but losing 12 karma because someone steals a random item from you would be very discouraging.

Also, Drain is another balancer to mages. Every time a mage casts a spell, there is a chance he takes damage; the more powerful the spell, the more damage he can take.

Summoning spirits also seems pretty powerful (though this is also the easiest way to knock yourself unconscious). A basic Force 4 air spirit has 16 reaction, Dodge 4, plus Immunity to Normal Weapons giving it Armor 8 (however, if the DV does not exceed 8, the spirit doesn't even have to roll a damage resistence test). At that level it probably won't do much damage, but is nearly impossible to kill. A Force 6 spirit is up to 24 reaction, 6 dodge, and armor 12 and could do a lot of damage (6p).

It will certainly be interesting to play. It might make parts of a particular adventure very easy (combat mostly) unless spellcasters regularly show up as NPC's. However, that could add even more to the easy lethality of the game.

Ending up in run-debt to this particular Johnson was as good as signing up for a year's worth of suicide runs, probably the Kansas City-New Reno-Dubuque loop. There were worse things in the desert than go-gangers, and a cute street shaman I'd once lived with told me they'd be drawn to my tech like a rat pinscher to drek. But at least on this particular jaunt, that tech had saved my life more than once. Piloting the Japanese bike at over 100 klicks was only something I would do with my wires on; the reflex enhancements had set me back a year's gig, but I knew I would need an edge if I wanted to take on the high-kale speed-courier assignments. Seeing and interacting with the world in slow motion was an addictive experience, and one I knew not to abuse lest I end up like every other burnout.

Still, I sometimes felt my humanity leaking out of me like oil from the old Yamaha I made my first delivery on. I was scared of the dark as a child, so the cyber-eyes were obvious, and my first implants. I'd guilted my parents into buying them for my graduation from Tech School. No big deal, and only people running active lev 6 scans ever knew I had them. Still, my parents nearly disowned me when I got busted peeping into Sally Straw's bedroom window at 1am, not 3 days after install.

The control rig implanted into the back of my skull is a little longer story. When my parents nearly ended up dust after a late-night B&E by some stimmed-up ganger, I knew our section of zoo was out of control. I had made a killing selling creds I pilfed from a million newbs in Eve 6.5 until I zapped one of a mod's sig-ots and got booted. That paid for the drone-rig and a couple of GM-Nissan Dobermans. At my parents insistence I went with the stun-stik mod instead of a belt-fed automatic (I later found out my Dad didn't want anyone running his SIN, which would be required for the Ingram, and that it wasn't any of his old-lib ideals manifesting themselves as concern over gang-bangers).

A few months later when the ganger tried to hit us again with some of his slimy friends the puppies worked just fine. After emptying their credsticks and nicking their jackets, I got my hands on the modded Pred-4 semi-aut I still carry today. No one much bothered our squat 2 bedroom slum-house after that, though dad did replace the aging wooden fence with some electric chain and concertina wire, so I don't know whether that was for fear of being eloctruted by the by steel mesh or being brought down by 400 pounds of faux-barking goodness.

As the snows came down heavy and radiated that winter, me and that Pred-4 making courier rounds of Denver proper on an old Japanese dirt-racer, picking up nickels and dimes. Doing cake-runs for mid-level suits paid the bills, but I knew that was not the way to wealth and power. (Yes, I was young and naive to think a slummer punk could find any way to wealth and power.) However, with visions of sugar-plums and nuyen dancing in my head on Christmas Eve 2067, chance put me in the path of Gerald Grieves, alias Spartacus, a local merc, and perhaps my closest friend.

A botched courier run the previous night had left Chuckie Tillman's Swift Courier Inc. quite short on manpower. I had done a couple of slum-runs for old Chuckie-boy, and he knew I wasn't afraid of a little risk if there were zeroes attached to my paystick. Spartacus was to be my cover as we picked up a package south of Denver in Aztlan. If things went wrong, I was to haul-tail to an underground tunnel run by Swift Courier Coyotes and pray that Gerald's augments gave me a chance to hit the border before I got shot in the back.

Well, things went wrong, and no mistake. Instead of grabbing the steel case and jetting as quick as I could get it stowed as I normally did, I found myself face to face with Brazilia, the Aztlan courier. A little shy of two meters tall, hair to her shoulders died azure with silver taglights running the length, and hypnotic eyes of no color that had ever existed in nature. Underneath her left eye was a digital tatoo of Quetzacouatl, feathered serpent of a thousand hues. It slid beneath her skin and she smirked as my eyes couldn't decide what to focus on: her eyes, her face, her augs, or the figure-hugging jumpsuit of electric blue. Her body was tight and fit and I knew immediately she rode as well, her bike's chrome sparkling dimly at the far side of the dark warehouse. When she winked at me, a slow, langorous movement, her eyelid sparkling sapphire, the world stopped.

Watching her, my breath caught, my heart skipped and my voice caught in my throat. The 45 seconds it took me to stammer a not-very-smooth hello probably cost her her life. The moment I decided I loved her, the first bullets sprayed from a jeep-mounted Ingram behind us. The Aztlan courier team opened up as well, but I knew it was already too late for Brazilia, as a half-dozen rounds nearly cut her in half. Before loss could form or my brain could even register what happened, Spartacus had me planted behind some steel pilings and had gone to work. I had never seen someone move so fast, and thought it must be the grief distorting my vision. Three members of the Ares Interception Team went down before I thought to pry my Pred-4 from its holster. Still, even the big mercenary wouldn't charge a 50-cal, and the Ingram was laying down heavy suppression fire on the opposite side of the warehouse, pinning down the remainder of the Aztlan unit, when the rage came on me.

I was on my bike before I knew what I was doing, the old engine purring gamely for a second before I gunned it in the direction of the jeep. Halfway to my destination the gunner noticed a madman on a dirtbike firing wildly toward him with a semi-auto and began to bring the White Knight around to end my life. He was almost grinning when I plowed the little bike into his jeep. He didn't grin when fate improbably decided to intervene and I rocketed toward the turret like a walnut launched from a slingshot. My helmet caught him under the chin with a crack and we went over the other side, me landing on top. Before he was able to regain his senses I had started to pound his head into the hard concrete of the warehouse floor.

I don't know how long I did so, but it took Grieves manhandling me to make me stop. If the gunner had once had a skull, it no longer resembled anything but a random lump of processed oatmash. Snapping to, I looked around, noting only Gerald and I remained in the cavernous building. He looked at me but didn't say a word and just handed me the case, silver with several rust-colored slashes. I recoiled slightly at the sight of her blood, but the big merc pushed it into my hands. He was insistent, but gave a knowing nod as well, and gestured over his shoulder and said I had 30 seconds to say goodbye.

I tried to argue. "Man, my ride's busted, there's no way I can get this back across the border in time." He pointed again and I knew what he had really meant.

"Sorry chummer, but she really won't need it."

I glanced at her for only a second as I passed her body, and I barely recongnized the life it once held. With her bioelectic engine dead, the taglights in her hair had stopped twinkling and the electric tatoo on her cheek was no more than a spec of black nanotic ink.

I wasn't the slightest bit surprised when I fired up her Suzuki and the body shone a rich, electric blue.

First, my suggestion is everyone make a 2nd character now, right at the beginning. I would even try to make something completely different, and have that character even potentially be a 'contact' to the main character. Then, if a main ever dies, there is an easy transition to a new character. Also, having a Sniper backup, or a bioSWAT member, or a Helicopter Pilot, might be useful as well. As the character progression is slower in Shadowrun, and the 'power variances' are high even in starting characters, I also probably wouldn't have a problem with switching characters between sessions if that idea appeals to anyone.

Second, if a character dies, your new character can start with the same number of Karma as the old character had. The level loss thing in D&D was kind of arbitrary and consistently weirded the game (my fault), so I'm just going to do away with the death penalty. Losing a cool character is probably more than enough penalty.

Finally, I just want to note that at some point, one or more character deaths are inevitible, and I hope when it happens it won't dampen anyone's enjoyment too much. As you saw, a full-blooded Street Samurai can go down in one round, and had he gotten off his attacks first, could likely have done the same to anyone in the party. Heaven forbid you have to face a squad of them (or to be honest, a squad of anything simultaneously, which hasn't really happened yet, though it was close this weekend). I've tried (for my own benefit as well) to introduce just very small pieces of the game at a time. There are deadlier things to come for all players that will have to be dealt with. For example, drones, mages, spirits, for almost everyone, IC and defending hackers for Gribble, more complex security (biometrics, RFID) for Nadia and higher-level and bio/drug-enhanced corporate personalities for the face. Additionally, squads and bad guys also have edge they can use based on their professional level, and they'll start using it more regularly as we move forward.

So, if and when a character loss happens, I hope we'll all just take a short break, honor the memory of one fallen, and get back at it.

I'm open to any other options, suggestions and comments. This isn't set in stone, but I thought it might be a good way to address some of the challenges we've had in this area.

It is being reported that a 3000-degree fire at the Bethden Hills Research Facility was caused by a ruptured faxil valve on unit 4 of their on-site sub-fusion generator, and not by a terrorist cell as was initially reported on the Lone Star CrimeNet. Adjustors are calling the facility a complete loss, and accountants at several regulatory agencies are guessing the lengthy insurance process will force Dionysius into Chapter 22 Bankruptcy proceedings. Aztechnology, parent of DPI, has distanced themselves from their subsidiary. A leak from an anonymous manager show reports of lackadaisical safety procedures.

The death toll stands at 32.

Policlub Massacre Sparks Meta-Tension, Alamos 20k Reprisal at Ork Enclave

"We were just having a peaceful march when out of nowhere the dirty orks began attacking us. We were weaponless. Defenseless. And they just slaughtered us. And they say they wonder why our organization exists. Just take a look, the corpses are stacked like cordwood." So says Dave Dukelin, organiser of this weekend's Policlub March for Unanymity where more than 100 Humanis members were slain by a previously unknown ork military society. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Alamos 20k, often called the militant arm of the Unanymity movement, struck back. Using milspec armored vehicles and weapons, they leveled the Red Tuskan Bareo on the outskirts of Denver; 30 orks and several trolls are reported dead, including 10 human children who an ork mother said had come to play whizball at a local field. 55 more were injured and taken to a local clinic.

Commlink Prototype Goes Missing Along With Inventor, Ares Shares Down

Noted physicist, inventor and playboy Vladimir Kruschenkov has been missing for over a week and Lone Star has called off the search. It is assumed he was killed some time after 8pm on June 9. He was last seen entering a limousine owned by a local high-society metahuman outside a poche downtown restaurant where he was dining prior to unveiling his latest creation. The XJ-12, a prototype comm-unit purported to be capable of stable quantum processing and 2048-bit encryption as well as an optional 7-point AI, was supposed to propel Ares back on top on the commlink market. Shares are down more than 3 points to 232.75.

Ares is offering a reward of 100,000 nuyen for information leading to an arrest or recovery of either the prototype or Vladimir Kruschenkov, no questions asked.

For everyone's benefit, here are a couple of links you should check out:

www.dumpshock.com and the Dumpshock forums are the two main Shadowrun sites on the net. When reading the forums, you should probably stick to the 4th Edition one so as not to get confused; there were a lot of changes between 3rd and 4th.

This site is the one where I got the little print-out sheets for combat; everyone should probably print out their own, potentially for ranged and melee. It has a lot of other cool tools on it also.

Thanks!

TT's campaign and social contract

What types of game do you like best - action-based or role-playing? (use percentages to indicate how you would like your game to look)

Do you want the GM to fudge (to keep characters alive, for example, or to keep the villain you've been tracking for 6 months from going down to the first critical hit or stun effect) -
Never
Rarely
Occasionally
Often

How much does character death affect your enjoyment of the game?
Much
Some
Little
Not at all

Character death should happen:
Never (if the answer is never, please give me an idea on how to maintain tension and risk vs. reward)
Rarely
Occasionally
Often

Would you rather have your character improve through stat bonuses, skill points, luck and the like or through cool stuff, like weapons, armor or tech? (use percentages)

How much impact do you want your character to have on the world? Which best describes: (save the town; save the city; save the country; save the world; save the universe?) How much should that scale as characters grow in power? (Do you want the players to always be just one part of the world or should they always be saving the world?)

How many mood-setting, or minor scenes should there be? (For example, minor combats, side quests, NPC discussions, etc)

How do you want to acquire your stuff? Do you want to role-play acquisition or be able to assume most general merchandise is available to buy between sessions as long as you have the cash?

How much wealth should be available? (low, medium, high...whatever we can get our hands on?)

How much of the action should the dice determine? (Dice are deities, they should determine everything!; Dice are dirt, they should only determine combat!; Dice should be used for anything above an 'everyday action'; Dice should only be used for difficult actions)

Most adventures should be:
Life-threatening
Challenging
Moderate
Easy

Additionally, I would like to offer up what my guidelines will be when running games. Feel free to discuss these as well and your thoughts on them.

T's rules of GM'ing

If there is a rules disagreement, no more than 3 minutes should be used during a session to discuss. A note should be made and a permanent ruling decided after the session, either through discussion or email. The main reason for this rule is simply to avoid spending 4 hours on a minor rules point when we should be playing instead.

All players (and the GM) should be civil to everyone else at all times.

If a players or players do not like something about a game (ongoing or one time), they should feel free to present the topic for discussion.

*Getting on a schedule*: Of course life happens and events will occur that will interfere with a game from time to time, and everyone understands that. However, there needs to be a consistency people can count on that applies as well (I understand this applies to me as well as I've been as guilty as everyone else). Lack of transportation, surgery, kids and the like are good excuses. Shopping, hangovers, playstation or getting food or coffee should not be reasons people are absent or tardy. I commit to putting substantial resources of time (and money, though I don't expect everyone to do that) into a game, and with hope others will do the same. If you want to be a part of a gaming group, be a part of it, and if you don't, don't. If you are unhappy with an aspect of the game, it should be discussed, not ignored through non-participation. If someone is not up for a particular game on a particular day, there are other things the group can do other than cancel, just to keep the continuity of a scheduled game.

I know this can be a touchy subject, but to have a truly workable game, I need to know how to plan my time. If Gribble does run the other half of the Shadowrun game, he’ll know how I feel (and I know Rodney already understands this completely)

Feel free to discuss any of this or anything I have missed!

I'm about 60 pages through the rulebook (300 to go) and I remember some of why I thought it was so cool way back when.

First, although I'm a big fan of sandbox games where everyone gets to do what they want, Shadowrun offers that but is also a hugely mission-focused game. The name of the game even reflects that, as a 'Shadowrun' is the name of a job that a group of hackers, riggers, technomaners and others complete, generally for a mysterious somebody. This should help with the directionless syndrome it felt like my last group had gotten into.

Second, (although it feeds into the first point as well), the game has a system of 'contacts' one can take at character creation, as well as acquire throughout one's career. For example, I can have an Arms Dealer contact (to buy guns), a Fixer contact (to get me work), a Hacker contact (to get me information). So, if someone doesn't feel up to a huge roleplaying event to get a mission, they just give their fixer a call and have them set something up.

Third, the setting is fleshed out and fine with me. I usually tried to create my own settings in 3.5 because I never really cared for any that others had created as other than Eberron and Dark Sun they mostly seemed pretty generic. With Shadowrun, at this point I am mostly worried about learning the rules, so it will be nice to give my brain a rest and use the readily available and fairly detailed free campaign.

And finally, (though maybe most importantl) every round is like a dozen fireballs! Yes! Seriously, no more d12's, d20's, d8's or any other such weirdness! It's all standard 6-siders, all the time! Yay!

Why Shadowrun? A couple of reasons, not least of which is because it is not 3.5 D&D. I'm just tired of it and want to try something new. I played Shadowrun 2nd edition a couple of times back in 1990ish (or at least some time around there!) It seemed even more complicated than D&D at the time and we didn't really have a consistent group. However, the setting was fantastic and I remember the Sega Genesis had a Shadowrun game that was awesome (and it still fetches a hefty price on Ebay as a collector's item) that G-Max and I played the heck out of.

Anyway, I'm willing to start as soon as we manage to get 4 people together. I've got a bunch of pre-genereted characters from the book, so we can use them and do an intro adventure to try to learn the rules. If people want to create their own characters from scratch after that they are welcome to. Shadowrun 4th Edition is the rulebook if anyone else wants to pick one up. They are around $23 on Amazon and it's the only book you need to play (that's refreshing in itself!).