Author Archives: jhardy

Yesterday we had a post updating Missions; today it’s time to talk a little about the main line.

I’m going to start with a disclaimer: Much of this is going to be vague, perhaps frustratingly so. But that’s because there are some things going on that are simply not for public consumption, as they relate to the personal lives of people involved, and I don’t feel appropriate to share some elements in a business post.

The past half-year has been chaotic for Shadowrun. Chaos and lots of work is not new, but the nature of the chaos was different. Some of it involved different systems that have been set up over time, including the proofing system, not working as they had; others involved trying new types of products, and the inevitable mistakes that come with trying something new. Catalyst is a small company, and there is almost no redundancy built into it. When something breaks down, it’s difficult to fix it on the fly, and repairs don’t always come quickly as time is short.

One of the results of this chaos was that product proofing was not what it always should be. That’s not at all the fault of any proofers—it was a problem of my process and Catalyst’s process. As new processes were being built, I made some mistakes in judging what would work. I learned from the mistakes, and they have led to changes that will make the new processes stronger.

The good news is that most of the chaos has now passed. Systems that were not working right are back to regular functioning, or have been rebuilt so that they will work better going forward. Some of this was discussed in yesterday’s post, so one thing you can expect is more regular Missions. What else should you expect?

• More regular releases of books;
• More accurate, more reliable rules documents;
• Release of errata for Run & Gun and Street Grimoire by the end of summer or sooner.

We hope to use the changes and processes we have in place to provide books and more that will improve your Shadowrun experience and make you excited about the options you can introduce to your game!

Missions developer Steven “Bull” Ratkovich put together this post to get everyone up to date on what’s been going on with Missions and what you can expect in the near future. Check it out!

Where We’ve Been

Shadowrun Missions Season 5 launched with great fanfare last fall, released a single Missions adventure, and then fizzled for over six months before the second adventure was released. This has left a lot of fans wondering just what happened? There were a number of issues that cropped up, but the biggest was that I had a number of health issues that sidelined me for several months. This derailed Missions pretty badly, since almost all of the work for it was sitting on my hard drive.

To all the fans out there, I apologize most profusely. It was not my intention to leave everyone hanging for so long, especially with little word as to what was going on. We’re picking up steam again, though, and working to make sure we don’t suffer gaps like that again.

Where We Are

We’re diving forward once more, and we released the second adventure a couple months ago. Of course, then we ran into Convention Season, which is always a difficult time at CGL, because we end up with a handful of print products that need to be ready in time for the conventions as well as a lot of non-book production issues that have to be taken care of, and this diverts a lot of resources. We’re still moving Missions forward, and the next one is close to being finished, but the convention rush has caused some delays.

There’s a good side of the chaos, though—the Missions we prepare for convention are the early forms of what will be released, so by the end of convention season we’ll have several Missions that have made great progress toward completion.

We have several more of the current Missions queued up and ready to go, mostly waiting for final edits, final art, and/or final approval. We have our first Prime Mission finally approaching the launch gate. I call the Prime Mission line cursed, because we’ve hit so many production snags with it over the years. There are eight more Convention Missions that were run at Origins and will be at Gen Con and Dragon*Con, and that are available for members of the Catalyst Demo Team to run at smaller, local conventions. So there are a lot of Missions heading your way.

I’m really excited to have things back on track, because I think we have a fantastic storyline for Chicago, and I think our players will have an amazing time with it.

Where We’re Going

In the shadowy halls of Catalyst Game Labs where we meet and plot and scheme, the way we plan to release the Chicago Missions has been the topic of much discussion and debate. Last season in Seattle, we had two six-Mission story arcs that we alternated between. This worked out okay, but some players didn’t like the layout. It occasionally led to some confusion because the story kept bouncing back and forth, and some players enjoyed one story and didn’t want to play the other, and it wasn’t always obvious which Mission went where.

With the Chicago Missions, we decided to try something a little different. Season 5 was designed as one big story, but it would be broken up into smaller story arcs that would be six continuous Missions long. Some would directly fit into the mini-arc, some would be more stand alone in style, and all would fit into the larger overall story arc. The plan was for Season 5 to run 24 missions, and each arc would be designated by a letter code. So the first Mission released was SRM 5A-01: Chasin’ the Wind. The second arc’s first Mission would have been 5B-01. Unfortunately, this too led to confusion, both internally and externally. It turns out the more letters and numbers you add to a product like this, plus the title and everything else, the harder it is to keep track of things. Go figure. Because of this confusion, the Missions are even numbered weirdly in the Gen Con registration, with what would have been SRM 5B-01 being listed as SRM 5-07 instead. So obviously something needed to be done.

So after even more debate, we’re making another change. The Missions FAQ and other resources will eventually be updated to reflect these changes, but the long and short of it is that the Chicago Missions are no longer considered “Season 5”. Instead, it is simply the Shadowrun Missions: Chicago Campaign. Each of the short six Mission arcs will now be a separate season for purposes of adventure numbering. So SRM 5A-01: Chasin’ the Wind should now simply be considered SRM 05-01: Chasin’ the Wind. The first adventure in the second arc, which would have been SRM 5B-01: 10-57 (And is listed for Gen Con as SRM 05-07: 10-57) will now be SRM 06-01: 10-57. And so on. We have 24 adventures planned for Chicago, so it will encompass four seasons now instead of just one.

The other thing this affects is that traditionally we’ve re-evaluated the Missions rules and FAQ, sometimes done a player reset, promoted characters to Prime Status, etc. at the end of each Season. We will no longer be doing that. Instead we will do that when we start a new Campaign in a new city. So players won’t need to worry about Prime Runner promotion or any of that until Shadowrun Missions: Miami launches (or wherever the next season takes place—we haven’t yet decided when that will be).

This is how we will proceed from here on out. Hopefully this clarifies things and brings everyone up to speed. As always, the latest updates, previews, and discussions for Shadowrun Missions can be found at our Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/SRMissions) and over at the Missions section of the Shadowrun Tabletop Forums (http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php). Hope to see you all at the table, and remember to always keep a point of Edge in reserve!

–Steven “Bull” Ratkovich, Shadowrun Missions Developer

We have a new electronic release for you today! Bullets & Bandages (Battleshop, DriveThruRPG), the latest book in our Shadowrun Options line, is now out. Packed with fun info about medtech, high-threat response teams, and optional rules to use in you Shadowrun game, Bullets & Bandages gives you the chance to add more details to healing the bumps, bruises, and bullet wounds runners in the Sixth World often take. And it’s got information that will make it usable to both Shadowrun, Fifth Edition players and those using Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Here’s the full description:

Sew ’Em Up, Ride ’Em Out

The only reason shadowrunners have scars to show off during their downtime is that when they got hit, someone had the guts, the skill, and the speed to pull them out of whatever drekstorm they’d gotten themselves into. Maybe it was a DocWagon High Threat Response team who rode in to save the day, or maybe a teammate who’d picked up some handy medical skills in the course of their career in the shadows patched them up enough to keep them moving. Either way, having someone who can pull your hoop out of the fire is handy in any situation. Make sure you thank them and buy ’em a drink—assuming, of course, they made it out with you.

Bullets & Bandages is part of the Shadowrun Options line, presenting new rules and background for players and gamemasters who want to add more detail to how medicine works when it’s practiced under fire. With new gear, qualities, actions, spells, adept powers, and more, it will add depth and excitement to your Shadowrun game—and maybe help you keep your chummers alive.

Bullets & Bandages is compatible with both Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.

The latest book in the Deep Shadows line for Shadowrun is now out (BattleShop, DriveThruRPG)! Building on plot threads presented in Storm Front and Splintered State, Stolen Souls details a crisis shaking up all parts of the Sixth World, including the refuges of the richest and most powerful individuals on the planet. People are losing something they can’t replace–themselves. Their minds and their personalities are being taken from them, with few prospects of getting it back. People are running scared, and they want answers. That means the market for people who might have answers has skyrocketed, and corporations are working over time to snatch the best and brightest minds from each other, in order to find answers to the growing problem–and perhaps discover who was behind it in the first place.

Stolen Souls introduces a new focus for the Deep Shadows book. They have always focused on a particular subject, giving tactics, game advice, gear, and rules associated with this area, but with Fifth Edition, each Deep Shadows book will focus on a particular type of shadowrun. Stolen Souls focuses on extractions, providing advice on how to successfully carry them out and gear, spells, and other rules to help you get the job done. With plot information and details on one of the extraction hotspots of the world–the corporate haven of Manhattan–Stolen Souls is full of information to rocket your game ahead and send it catapulting through twists and turns that will make your game memorable.

Need more info? Here you go:

The War Within

Not all has been right in our shadows of late. Especially in the dark shadows of my mind.

Those were among FastJack’s parting words to JackPoint when he left, the victim of a condition that divided his mind against itself. And the condition is spreading. Across the Sixth World, people’s minds are in schism, as new personalities emerge and battle the old. The world is in chaos, and there is a dramatically increased demand for extractions, to get infected people out of sensitive positions and to steal the insights of people who might know what’s gone wrong.

Stolen Souls is a Deep Shadows sourcebook for Shadowrun with plot updates and adventure hooks, as well as information, techniques, and gear to help make runners extraction aces. It also contains setting information about Manhattan, where key extractions are taking place. Players will get the chance to dig deeper into a new mystery that has torn through the Sixth World—and discover just how deep the conspiracies and cover-ups go.

Stolen Souls is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.