Another freelancer speaking out against Catalyst Game Labs

[Trill]

Or rather in this case Menehune

But seriously, Considering the quality of art in the books it's a big question:
Is the art that bad because they paid nothing or did they pay nothing because the art is so bad?
Because seriously, look at this and tell me where you expect to see it more: A fantasy cyberpunk game or a horror game

Those black eyes, that lifeless smile

Also, a lot of the art is just real people mildly photoshopped:

There's also one piece of art in there where nobody knows if CGL even paid royalties

And of course some of the art is just unfitting.

This is supposed to be a Street Shaman with the Cat Mentor Spirit

[Whipstitch]

Giving unpaid Rando Calrissians the impression that they have a real say in the creative process is often an unforced error. Remember, they are not your employees and they will not bring a sense of professionalism to the exchange. They are your potential customers and the last thing you want is a bunch of goons acting like they commissioned a product when they haven't paid you one red cent.

[hyzmarca]

Also, a lot of the art is just real people mildly photoshopped:

There's also one piece of art in there where nobody knows if CGL even paid royalties

\
Middle Age Couple Cosplaying, Very Bored Mage, and Mom Taking Kids to the Shooting Range.

Giving unpaid Rando Calrissians the impression that they have a real say in the creative process is often an unforced error. Remember, they are not your employees and they will not bring a sense of professionalism to the exchange. They are your potential customers and the last thing you want is a bunch of goons acting like they commissioned a product when they haven't paid you one red cent.

Right. That's why you use Kickstarter and have a credits section that's several times longer than the actual book.

[RelentlessImp]

Shadowrun 6th Edition

Seriously, after Anarchy and 5E you'd think Catalyst would have thought to focus on unfucking the game as it stands.

[Trill]

But they did.
They just can't into game design.

[Woot]

I CAST... BEES!







(Yes, as someone who's kept honeybees, I know that those are wasps. Just let me have this.)

[Iduno]

Seriously, after Anarchy and 5E you'd think Catalyst would have thought to focus on unfucking the game as it stands.

There is a very real possibility that they think this is better. It also works as a metaphor for the gaming industry in general.

[phlapjackage]

Bees!

someone who has the book says that's a Cat shaman.

[Trill]

Yup. The best part is that the character has a mild allergy against insect stings

[Username17]

Bees!

More seriously, insects in Shadowrun have a really weird and specific history in Shadowrun's magic. Ancient History and I did a whole thing about it in our Bug City OSSR.

And while you can make a compelling case that the entire Insect Magic plotline was on the whole a negative and should be walked back, it's certainly a thing that exists and has meaning for people who have ever paid any attention to Shadowrun of any edition. For good or ill, it's a significant thing in Shadowrun and having a picture of a magician and a bug of any kind in a Shadowrun book sends very specific signals.

There is therefore a number of bees that should appear in the Shaman drawing in a new edition of Shadowrun. And it's zero. It's zero bees. Having any other number of bees requires a very lengthy discussion about what is and is not canon as well as quite a bit of metaplot progression and shit.

And this is coming from someone who straight up asked for Insect Shamans to be playable in Street Magic. I was overruled at the time because it was felt that that would be too big a change to canon and other authors didn't want to harmonize their work with mine. The idea of just putting a picture of a Shaman and some bees into a core book with no explanation is genuinely inconceivable. I don't understand how it is possible for the art direction to be bad enough that it wouldn't get across to the artist that such a submission was prima facia unacceptable. Let alone for such an art piece to end up in the final product as is.

-Username17

[Trill]

Rejoice, Frank! Insect Shamans are playable in 5e (in the "there are rules for them" sense at least)

[Username17]

Rejoice, Frank! Insect Shamans are playable in 5e (in the "there are rules for them" sense at least)

Dare I ask what "book" those rules are in? I did a review of the 5th edition corebook, and it is really bad. Like really bad, but I definitely didn't see any rules for Insect Mages or hints that they were going to make them playable in any way.

In any case, my proposal was to combine the Inhabitation rules and the Possession rules so that Possession Spirit binding is what turned them into permanent (or semi-permanent in the case of non-living hosts like Zombies) occupants. This was a better fit for the Awakenings era Houngan rules, completely incorporated the Insect Spirit shtick, and to this day I believe it produced a more balanced result. And I was over ruled.

But the larger point is that bringing up magic and bees in the same sentence or the same picture inherently brings up this very thorny conversation with regards to Shadowrun. Because magic bees are, for good or ill, a very big deal in Shadowrun.

-Username17

[Trill]

Dark Terrors.
Which also has a segment where a Mantis Insect Spirit is granted temporary access to Jackpoint and they are immediately welcomed except from the mean bigot Clockwork who is so bigoted against it.

OPTIONAL RULES: PLAYABLE FREE INSECT SPIRIT
Free insect spirits should only be played with a gamemaster’s permission. Their nature as spirits and several of their powers (most notably Immunity to Normal Weapons and Flight) can create several gameplay difficulties that may not
be suitable for a player character in every game. However, if a character is played as an insect spirit primarily for storytelling purposes, there is great potential for betrayal, redemption, and drama. Playing an insect spirit should be limited
to groups operating at Prime Runner level. Only flesh form (Inhabitation, p. 196, Street Grimoire) spirits are viable as player characters.

Every free insect spirit gains begins play with Magic 1, though the Magician, Adept, Mystic Adept, or Aspected Mage qualities may be purchased as usual during character creation (when using the Point Buy system, p. 64, Run Faster). Free insect
spirits learn and cast spells as usual, although they never need spell formula. Spells are learned intuitively from observing the mana flow. Learning a new spell still takes time and Karma as usual. Being an inhabiting spirit, free insect spirits can never
learn skills from the Conjuring skill group nor can they astrally project. They also cannot select the Mentor Spirit quality.

Free insect spirits gain the following critter powers: Aura Masking, Dual-Natured, Enhanced Senses (Smell, Thermographic Vision), Immunity to Normal Weapons, Realistic Form, plus any powers specific to their insect type. Free insect spirits
gain the weakness Allergy (Insecticides, level as described by spirit type) in addition to any weaknesses specific to their insect type. They also may purchase one optional power for every three full points of Magic they possess for 9 Karma each.
They may select from the following: Animal Control (Insect Type), Compulsion, Confusion, Enhanced Senses (Ultrasound), Fear, Search.

Creating a free insect spirit is just the same as creating any other character. The Point Buy system must be used, and the Free Insect Spirit quality is purchased for 42 Karma during character creation when qualities are purchased, and the various
benefits and penalties are assigned. The normal limit of 25 Karma worth of Positive Qualities does not apply to the Free Insect Spirit quality, though the limit on 25 Karma worth of Negative Qualities remains in place. Newly created Free Insect Spir-
it characters are assumed to have been recently Invested. Minimum and maximum attributes, inherent metatype abilities, augmentations, and Essence are unaffected. Free insect spirits can be of any breed, although solitary types are the most
common.

It is possible that a character may become Invested in the course of playing Shadowrun. If the character has any unspent Karma at that point, it needs to be spent paying off the cost of the acquired quality. If the character does not have
enough unspent Karma to pay that amount, they need to spend all Karma they earn on the quality until it is fully paid off. Note that the Immunity to Normal Weapons power may bring some difficulties to characters who want to acquire further aug-
mentations. Street docs who can wield a scalpel weapon focus don’t grow on trees.

Free insect spirits are almost always considered scout insect spirits, although females may be nymphs with the potential to evolve into a queen. If a nymph evolves into a queen through the course of play, the character becomes an NPC
and gains all the listed powers of a queen (p. 99, Street Grimoire). Player-controlled free insect spirits never begin play bound to a queen, though they may become bound to one over the course of play. This does not make the character immediate-
ly unplayable, though their actions at the queen’s command may put them at odds with their allies very quickly.

and on that page there is also this box:

NOTES FOR GMS ON THE INHABITATION POWER
True forms, hybrid forms, and flesh forms all have a Magic attribute equal to the Force of the possessing spirit.
True forms have an Essence equal to the Force of the possessing spirit and an Edge equal to (Force of the possessing spirit / 2).
Hybrid Forms have an Essence equal to the host and an Edge equal to the possessing spirit’s (Force / 2).
Flesh forms have the Essence and Edge of the host. Insect spirits have the Allergy (Insecticides, [level as described by spirit type]) regardless of form.

[phlapjackage]

beads?

Haha I just noticed the Chinese character in the upper right corner - it means "wolf". I guess the artist just thought it looked cool...

This pic is really terrible, and the more I look at it the worse it gets. Like someone else said, it's like they just took a real pic of a person and PS'd it a little bit and called it a day. The "cat shaman" doesn't even have any cyberware, tech, or magic gear on them, it's just the most boring rando in ripped pants and a jean jacket with some added glowing-eye PS effect. And bees. And a wolf.

[Trill]

The "cat shaman" doesn't even have any cyberware, tech, or magic gear on them

Which is fine because they have no ware and the only gear they have is an armor jacket (probably shown), a Meta Link (easy to hide) and a Suzuki Mirage (too large for the pic)

metatype: human

B	A	R	S	W	L	I	C	EDG	M	ESS
2	3	2	1	5	2	3	5	7	6	6

Initiative/Actions: 5 + 1D6/1 Major, 2 Minor
Condition Monitors (P/S): 9/11
Defense Rating: 5
Active Skills: Athletics 1, Close Combat 2, Conjuring 5 (Summoning +2), Perception 2, Sorcery 6 (Spellcasting +2)
Knowledge Skills: Dive Bars, Seattle Shamans
Languages: English (Native)
Qualities: Allergy (Mild, Common, Insect Stings), Distinctive Style, Focused Concentration 1, Mentor Spirit (Cat), Spirit Affinity (Beast), Spirit Bane (Fire)
Spells: Animate Plastic, Burst, Chaos, Clairaudience, Darkness, Fireball, Heal, Increase Reflexes, Levitate, Overclock, Physical Barrier, Stunbolt, Trid Phantasm
Contacts: Beat Cop (C2/L3), Smuggler (C3/L3), Street Kid (C1/L4), Talismonger (C5/L4), Yakuza Soldier (C1/L4)
Lifestyle: Low (1 month prepaid)
Gear: Armor vest, Meta Link commlink (Device Rating 1, D/F 1/0, Programs 0, w/ trodes), Suzuki Mirage motorcycle
Starting Nuyen: 230¥
Weapons:
Colt Government 2076 [Heavy Pistol, DV 3P, SA, Attack Ratings 10/8/6/—/—, 14(c), w/ 100 rounds regular ammo]
Combat knife [Blade, DV 3P, 8/2*/—/—/—, *max range is 20 meters]

[RelentlessImp]

I CAST... BEES!







(Yes, as someone who's kept honeybees, I know that those are wasps. Just let me have this.)

[Username17]

Those rules for playing an insect spirit are not actually playable and more importantly aren't the same as rules for playing Insect Mages.

The fact that they made an attempt at rules for playing free insect spirits has to do with an argument I had with them several years before. A really significant amount of rules changes in SR5 come down to people having had arguments with me personally and being over confident and bitter about it. It would be less surreal if it wasn't for the fact that all the things that I told them wouldn't work actually don't work. SR5 could seriously just be called "Frank told you so edition."

Anyway, there have been various attempts at making playable free spirit rules. And these have all been extremely bad, because spirits in every edition of Shadowrun have been fucking bonkers with powers and limitations that are way off the scale of what other characters are capable of. A normal Water Elemental can't read or even perceive AR but can inherently fly and teleport through walls. It's like trying to play a cruise missile or a garbage truck.

My point 13 years ago was that actually Flesh Form Insect Spirits have the least of these incomparables. They can pass for mundane humans, they can read documents and order pizza. They can't fucking teleport or fly. They are something that you could map onto a normal character. And of course there are a number of things you'd need to do to make that work, and they obviously didn't do those things.

Anyway, one of the key points I made about free spirits was the overhaul of the dicepools that needed to happen. SR4 characters have attributes and especially skills that are too low to be put up next to spirits that have base attributes and skills equal to Force. I demonstrated some math that showed skills should be cheaper and also too that spirits should have base skill levels of half Force and capped Edge and mental stats. And the 5e people did limit spirit Edge, which was a step in the right direction. But they didn't do any of the rest of that and the numbers on Free Spirit characters were simply incapable of being "not ass."

-Username17

[Libertad]

I remember back in the halcyon days of 2003 one of Savage Species' writers admitted that the Level Adjustment system intentionally made underpowered monsters so as to encourage people to play "the core races." The end result was that WotC pleased nobody with their gimped monster classes.

Shadowrun is an interesting setting is that beyond the metatypes you have lots of sapient beings regularly interacting with the cyberpunk world to varying degrees. There's a Chinese nation where people's ancestors can manifest and are treated as full citizens, so I can totally see a cool scenario where Mr. Johnson summons some runners from the dead because they know where some black ops site is and how to break into it. Hell, it can partially nullify the sting from PC death if some dearly-departed runner can stick around "in spirit" so to speak.

I think Shadowrun suffers in that it tends to have a setting where things are intentionally so, but they give rules as though they're legitimate options regardless of how they'd interact with the world and its rules. I once wanted to play as a Kitsune foxperson (was a Shapeshifter I think) but was a bit dissuaded when their entire point was "they grew up in the extreme fringes of society and don't grok modern tech and can't think like people" and the vast majority of nations view you as a third-class citizen. It seems that spirits are in a similar boat, but with less "the setting will fuck you over" and more "the rules will let you fuck everyone else over."

[phlapjackage]

I once wanted to play as a Kitsune foxperson (was a Shapeshifter I think) but was a bit dissuaded when their entire point was "they grew up in the extreme fringes of society and don't grok modern tech and can't think like people" and the vast majority of nations view you as a third-class citizen.

I think this is a problem shared by most games with a modern/future setting - if the game allows characters who can't interact with tech very well, it's a huge limitation to the character. I remember playing Werewolf back in the day, and it seemed that pretty much choosing any clan but Glasswalkers (and maybe Bonegnawers) would mean your character was a fish-out-of-water in any kind of modern society. Or if your character was a wolf that turned into a human.

[Stahlseele]

Mr. Johnson summons some runners from the dead because they know where some black ops site is and how to break into it.

THIS is one of the most argued about cases in Shadowrun.
Lore says yes. RULES OF THE WORLD SAY NO.
In the timeline at some point there was mentioning of watching a recently created free spirit to determine a murder case . . .
But at the same time, the rules quite explicitly state that no, there is no immortal soul, free spirits are not the dead rising again and thus they can not tell you where they left their will when your backstory rich as fuck mentor / uncle or whatever dies . .

[Iduno]

Mr. Johnson summons some runners from the dead because they know where some black ops site is and how to break into it.

THIS is one of the most argued about cases in Shadowrun.
Lore says yes. RULES OF THE WORLD SAY NO.
In the timeline at some point there was mentioning of watching a recently created free spirit to determine a murder case . . .
But at the same time, the rules quite explicitly state that no, there is no immortal soul, free spirits are not the dead rising again and thus they can not tell you where they left their will when your backstory rich as fuck mentor / uncle or whatever dies . .

I think they like to keep it vague. There might be a soul, there might not. Spirits will claim they are the soul of the departed whoever you are trying to contact, but they might just be lying. Or they might think they are that person because somehow (magic) they took on the person's memories when they died while that spirit was passing by. Or they might actually be the ghost of the dead person. But, more importantly, there's no real way to know unless the spirit admits it was lying.

Edit: That's also important, because some people believe that they are calling on their ancestor spirits to gain power, and someone else's beliefs that there is no soul, and both of those beliefs work because they are "true" or close enough for the magic to work.

[hyzmarca]

Free spirits really shouldn't be playable at all in RAW. And I say this as someone who generally supports letting people play whatever they want. But it's such a pain in the ass that it's easier just to say "no, but you can houserule it at your table."

It's not just the powerset. It's where they fit into the themes of the game.

Free spirits are to the mystical side what corporations are to the cyberpunk side. These massively powerful, monolithic beings that you can work with or against. It would be like letting players play as Shiawase. Not a Shiawase exec, the Shiawase corporation.

Playing an insect shaman is comparatively easy. You're an insane serial killer being manipulated by a monolithic conspiracy that just happens to be composed of bug gods from Yuggoth the metaplanes. You're absolutely a bad guy bringing the world closer to ruin, but you're no more a bad guy then the Street Sam who shoots an EPA inspector for 5k nuyen so that he can buy new penis software and the corp that paid him can continue dumping radioactive waste in Seattle's drinking water.

[saithorthepyro]

So, one of the new fluff books for Shadowrun has dropped, and they've essentially fucked over the entire UCAS as a setting. Some key points

-Ares' experiments with bug spirits ended poorly, surprising no one and now there's a new breed of insect spirits wandering around attacking people.

-The UCAS has decided to repeal the BRA as a result, no longer giving Megacorps the rights recognized in it. Surprise, most of the megacorps stop pulling out.

-EMPs hit all of the UCAS' major cities. People start dying, the matrix is permanently down, and the mageocracy has begun

-NAN has invaded

-Sea Dragon now rules Seattle. Ghostwalker 2.0 everyone!

Edit: Oh, and DocWagon merged with Lone Star

[Libertad]

Please tell me they had at least had the good sense to get rid of the Confederacy. If not, we can officially put Shadowrun down as being less progressive than Deadlands.

[saithorthepyro]

Nope, it's still around, and with UCAS weaker than ever the CAS is probably stronger than ever. Especially now that Ares has completely pulled out of the UCAS and is now setting up it's HQ in Atlanta.