November Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#80)

Shadowrun has been a bit slow this month for various reasons, we did not even get in our usual Halloween-themed game!  But looking forward to GMing at Tyche’s Games this coming Saturday, so please come and play if you are in the Athens, Georgia, area.

I did realize that I am going to have to totally revamp my Songs in the Key of X campaign (pitch here for those interested).  it is an investigation-heavy and themed game and I did not force that focus hard enough leading to a set of characters mismatched to the problems at hand.  So, need to recast it for a second pilot and see how that goes.

Read all about it, the latest Seattle Scream (#80)!  News from near and far!  Sadly, nothing locked into actual runs but some good background stuff including international news!

Started work on my review of Hack & Slash, the new Shadowrun Matrix book, and hope to have a review of that up soon.

Notes: Photo from Seattle pi and is probably owned by someone and is from the real Seattle Fashion Week.

Update!  Due to the UGA/Tennessee Football game locking up traffic, we are trying the monthly Shadowrun game at Tyche’s again on the 12th.

Dark Future Ahead 31 – News from the ‘Net of a Cyberpunk bent

As usual, I have been following interesting dark future, technology and culture related stories that might be interesting to remix and use in Cyberpunk and near future (or even proper science fiction) roleplaying games.

Is this the future of fast food?  The new Taco Bell in Minnesota.  It is fascinating.

October Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#79)

Just finished up with the traditional first Saturday game at Tyche’s Games (please come and play if you are in the Athens, Georgia, area) which was successful.  September was fairly light on Shadowrun sadly, just the one Tyche’s Games run and finished up one SoCal game online.  But been thinking about Shadowrun quite a bit and opened a file just for adventure ideas (which served me in good stead earlier today).

Hot off the bit presses, the latest Seattle Scream (#79) again nothing tied directly to recent adventures as the runner managed to get out fairly clean.  Today’s adventure actually spiraled out of the combat soccer news from Issue 78, where they had to track down a Russian combat soccer player who had gone walkabout.

Still waiting for the official release of the new Shadowrun books so that I can get them reviewed which I am quite looking forward to.

Notes: Image from PxHere and is free to use under a CC0 Public Domain release and is thus free for personal and commercial use and chosen because combat soccer.

September Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#78)

Back from GenCon and back into our Shadowrun campaigns!  Visited the Shadowrun room at GenCon and got some cool Catalyst Demo Team gear to wow the players with.  The next game I will be CHing will be tomorrow, the usual first Saturday game at Tyche’s Games, please come and play if you are in the Athens, Georgia, area.

Hot off the bit presses, the latest Seattle Scream (#78) nothing tied directly to recent adventures as the runner managed to get out fairly clean.  I ended up using the MetroPlex Marketplace Meetup (M3) from the last issue for three separate runs!  All taking place more or less simultaneously at different places around the convention.  Very pleasing.

Notes: Image from Pixabay and is free to use and ties into an extraction at a dance club during M3.

August Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#77)

We hit a big summer gap in our Shadowrun campaigns though did get a little bit of play and run a game that served as a swan song to my long-running character, PinkCat.  I sure miss that hacker.  The next game I will be CHing will be an unusual second Saturday game at Tyche’s Games, as I will be at GenCon for the first Saturday, so please drop by and join in if you in the Athens, Georgia, area.

The next Shadowrun sourcebook, Hack and Slash, for hackers and other computer specialists, will release at GenCon.  I will try and get a review of it done soon after I get a copy.

Now what you really came here for, the latest Seattle Scream (#77), the M3 story and the one about Horizon’s expansion are obliquely tied to PinkCat‘s swan song.  The rest are just the usual scattering of news, ideas, and potential plot hooks.

Notes: Image found on pxhere and is in the Public Domain.

Dark Future Ahead 30 – News from the ‘Net of a Cyberpunk bent

How dark is the Future?  As dark as you need it to be for an interesting game.  (Personally, I am pretty hopeful but happy, shiny futures are not as interesting to play in.)  Let us see what interesting things await us in the near future:

Food thefts become more common?  Look at the case of the purloined pistachios.  At the very least it would make for a different sort of adventure.

Looking at alternate forms of powers, what about harnessing the power of the wind through kites!  Kites can be used to generate power in several different ways and take up let space than a windmill and can even be mobile.  Or perhaps you would rather convert obsolete oil tankers into floating energy generators and maybe even factories as they travel the world, fishing for power.  Seems like a great place for a job.  Other companies are working on modular turbines that can be used in rivers and tidal basins and easily connected into existing grids (or create new ones in isolated areas).  This sort of turbine powering a small, out-of-the-way community could be a good centerpiece for a magnificent seven sort of scenario.  Interesting ideas all.

Speaking of interesting ideas, what about underwater greenhouses?  Using the water outside for temperature regulation, maybe hook them up to some of the generators above for a complete closed system.  A fascinating idea but harvesting and retrieving the plants grown seems a bit tricky.

Water systems seem to be a theme, Bechtel is working on ways to use water to improve the efficiency of cooling data centers, which is a huge energy sink apparently, so reducing energy costs for cooling such is important for a variety of reasons.  Again, another interesting place to set a mission.

So, who is watching you?  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has advice on how to know who is watching you and how at street-level surveillance.  Good things to keep aware of.

And more ways to use technology to learn things, there is a way to use a single laser to “see” what is in a room, useful if you need to break into that room, troubling if someone is planning on breaking in on you.

Need a campaign idea?  How about rescuing stranded and damaged container ships?  It is likely to be a growth industry, requiring specialized skills and nerves of steel, sound like player characters to me.

Now, to wrap up on a lighter note.  Need some ideas for new and almost real media for your game world, try NestFlix!

Photo underwater greenhouses from Nemo’s Garden and used without permission.

 

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June Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#76)

Our Shadowrun campaigns continue:  we did get to play some more in NorCal, adding a new player and character.   My campaign is still mostly on hold due to other commitments, but I am still carving out time to CH a game a month (usually on every first Saturday at Tyche’s Games please drop by and join in if you are ever in the Athens, Georgia, area).

I did find time to review the latest Shadowrun book, the Sixth World Companion, which is currently only available as a PDF but will have a hard copy release sometime soon.  It expands massively on character options with new character creation methods, new variant metatypes, more qualities, rules options, an d more.

Now for something completely different, the latest Seattle Scream (#76), the Frontier Market story links back to a game some time ago while the Rusted Stilettoes report ties into two stories from last issue.  The MetroPlex in my campaign is changing, just in a different way from the official metaplot.

Notes: Image found of Google image search but its original source seems to have vanished from the web, it is actually of the Port of Oakland and ties into our ongoing NorCal mission.  Though it could refer to the Seattle dock upgrade as well.

Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#75)

Shadowrun continues though slowly, currently GMing one game a month (every first Saturday at Tyche’s Games if you are ever in the area, come and join in).  Due to the work thing not sure when I will be CH more Shadowrun apart from the Saturday games.  However, still getting about a game a month in the NorCal set campaign which has been swell.

And, of course, what you are really here for, the latest Seattle Scream (#75), nothing directly tied to my latest adventures.  Though one of them did involve the Rusted Stilettos and the Banners, both gangs in Glow City, so it was on my mind.

For those interested in such things, I have a review of the latest Shadowrun resource PDF up, Shadowrun: Shadow Stock Lofwyr’s Legions. in case you want to learn more about who works for S-K and Drakes in the Shadowrun setting.

Are you slipping into the shadows?  If so, how is that going?  Watch out for those S-K operatives, they are serious jerks.

Notes: Image Nuclear Power plants. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress collection. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel and is in the Public Domain.

Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#74)

Shadowrun continues though slowly.

My Shadowrun demo games are played every first Saturday at Tyche’s Games if you are ever in the area.  Due to the work thing, not sure when I will be CH more Shadowrun apart from the Saturday games.  Though I have been able to play in some NorCal set games which has been nice.

A few minor changes to my house rules, taking into account some of the latest books, but –as always– a work in progress.  Comments and discussion welcome.

Here is some of the news from my campaign, recounted in the latest Seattle Scream (#74), only the Tornado Hydroponics story is tangentally related to one of the games we played.  But who knows what troubles on runners will get themselves into tied into what is happening in Seattle?

Speaking of Seattle, you can read my review of the new Seattle sourcebook, Shadowrun: Emerald City.

How are you runs into the shadows going?

Notes: Image from Max Pixel and used under the Creative Commons Zero – CC0 license.

Shadowrun Campaign News and a new Seattle Scream Prop (#73)

Still playing Shadowrun.  Actually managed to start the Songs on the Key of X campaign just in time for a bunch of work to drop in my lap, so I am not sure when we are going to play more.  Will keep up my Shadowrun demo games every first Saturday at Tyche’s Games if you are ever in the area.  And playing in the occasional NorCal set game.  Due to the work thing, not sure when I will be CH more Shadowrun apart from the Saturday games.

Did finally finish my review of Double Clutch which overall I am pretty happy with, though you can check out the review for more details.

Now for what you have all been waiting for, the new Seattle Scream (#73)!  The story about Nightmare Chorus is the aftermath of one of the runs, one that I had a great deal of fun with (and the players seemed to as well).

Hope that your Shadowrunning is going well.  Feel free to share your adventures in the comments.

Notes: Photo found on Pixabay and is free for use.