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*Wooosh*
http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/Renraku_Computer_Systems

Ok, the technology is here. Now, where can I sign up for my DocWagon contract?

Speaking of amusing add-ons, did you know it wasn't originally part-and-parcel of SR? FASA half-finished ED before thinking, "Hey, we could just make this the 4th World, yeah?" Unfortunately, by then it was too late to dispose with ED's step system [and magic and race differences] which seemed to mostly make everyone bleed from the ears, although I found after a few sessions it burned its way into your brain.

When it comes to Earthdawn, I'm un-out-geekable. ;) Well, with the exception of Ancient History, perhaps, whose list of links between SR and ED is as close to canonical as it gets, which almost makes up for his grievous personality faults. [Hello, Annie!]

FASA may be gone. FanPro may be gone. But BattleTech and Shadowrun live on.

All the primary developers for CBT and SR for the past 7-ish years are now at Catalyst Game Labs And, already, they've released around half a dozen new products in the last 4 months.

As Robotech Master pointed out, there's still MegaMek.

Heck, if you want a taste of old-school FASA Interactive, there's even an approved copy of the sub-rosa PC BattleTech that JUST became available (thanks to Virtual World and Microsoft).

If you're looking for fiction you have BattleCorps and, eventually, Holostreets.

That and the Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun communities have been alive and bustling for the better part of a decade now.

For the Shadowrun fans out there, perhaps the Awakening is coming a year late?

I'm sorry, but I have to call you out on this.

I don't know what kind of "flack jacket" you're talking about that's comprised of "rticulated ceramic/steel plates with a touch of Kevlar fabric to hold it together" but it's nothing that I've ever seen. And a flak jacket from the Korean war, that was rated to stop a .50 BMG? That's ridiculous. There isn't any type of personal body armor that will stop a 50-cal, even today (unless you consider an armored vehicle a form of personal body armor).

I'll refer you over to the Body Armor page at Globalsecurity.org. "The [pre-Interceptor] "flak jacket," constructed of ballistic nylon, provided protection primarily from munitions fragments and was ineffective against most pistol and rifle threats. These vests also were very cumbersome and bulky and were restricted primarily to military use." This adequately describes the vests used up through Vietnam and which were even issued during the onset of the current war in Iraq. On the Interceptor system, which is current issue, "The outer tactical vest consists of a Kevlar weave that's very fine and will stop 9mm pistol rounds. Webbing on the front and back of the vest permits attaching such equipment as grenades, walkie-talkies and pistols. The Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) is made of a boron carbide ceramic with a spectra shield backing that's an extremely hard material. It stops, shatters and catches any fragments up to a 7.62 mm round with a muzzle velocity of 2,750 feet per second."

The old, Vietnam-era vest would not stop a 7.62mm rifle round. Whether it would stop a 9mm handgun round I'm not sure, but there are plenty of reports of guys being killed by being shot through the flak vest. It was never intended to stop aimed rifle fire. And it certainly wasn't made from hinged solid plate! Here's a page with a photo. It was made primarily of nylon.

That the new armor system -- with plates -- can reliably stop rifle rounds is a big deal. It was not true before; I do not believe there was a personal armoring system available to the average troops in any war before this one, that would stop bullets. The WWII, Korea, and Vietnam "flak jackets" were exactly that -- to stop flak, that is, fragments produced by things exploding.

You are also mistaken about the 5.56mm round. It does too have a steel penetrator. Nonwithstanding my personal experience (fire one through several layers of 1/4" mild steel plate separated by a few inches and you can see the copper jacket and lead surround strip off, and the steel core continue), there are an abundance of references on the net. The current issue is called the M885 Ball round, it is a 62 grain bullet with a full copper jacket and lead surrounding a cylindrical steel core. It's commonly referred to as "Green tip" because the tips of the bullets are painted green to differentiate them from the older, solid-lead M193 round, which has no coloring on the tips.

You can get quite an argument going with people familiar with terminal ballistics by asking about whether the wound profile of the new M855 bullets (they're quite a bit messier than the old solid lead ones) are due to the bullets 'tumbling,' or breaking apart on impact, but it's quite well known that they have a steel penetrator, and that this was introduced principally to defeat new types of body armor. The Russians have a comparable cartridge, for similar reasons. (Best reference: http://matrix.dumpshock.com/raygun/basics/pmrb.htm l)

Also read:
http://www.geocities.com/odjobman/r1r42.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/lib

to bother getting the point, I see.

The point was, that it's likely that this was a continuation of the game Microsoft started and canned years ago.

It's kind of hard to find a link seeing as how Shadowrun the pen & paper RPG, Shadowrun the SNES game and Shadowrun the Genesis game all have more active fan communities and such, and therefore come up first. The fact that the game has assassins in it doesn't help my cause either. Overrated, Troll, whatever, it's all wrong. That's not misinformation and it's not trolling.

But here you go, ye of little faith and memory:

I always thought that Deus Ex did a very good job of capturing some of the feel of Shadowrun,and would make a good basis, as far as how they did storytelling and skills and all that, for a Shadowrun game. Not to mention that anotech upgrades and such really were a fun analog to cyberware.

Yes, Morrowind is HUGE -- and it would be awesome to have a Seattle Metroplex that was as accessible as the continent in Morrowind ... But honestly, I could not really PLAY morrowind much because it was _so_ open ended. =/ I'd settle for a Deus Ex -like game ("levels" that were largely open-ended, and a pretty linear plot) if it were Fun and Well Written. I suspect that a game like that would be more feasible to be written by a game company (though goodness knows, I'd LOVE for Bethesda to try it. ;)).

Fun and well written ... heh ...yeah, I guess that's really why Morrowind and Deus Ex wouldbe good though-food for a Shadowrun game.

On a side note -- does anyone know of any good online SR games? I'm tempted to go back to the Dumpshock Forums, but ... *sigh* ... actually I suspect I answered my own question, since that's pretty much the largest set of SR games/etc that are play-by-forum. (Now if I could only find live ones them near ME...)

I've always been fairly un-social, but back in junior high I found a group of people who played Shadowrun, and joining them did wonders for me. I learned how to interact with peers, and had a strong common interest

It is true that RPGs are typically geeky activities, but that's both a good thing (since we feel more comfortable playing them) and a bad thing (since it won't help with popularity at school), so, in the end, you have to take the good with the bad. But how much do we really have to care about stereotypers? I know I don't :)

Having stuff inplanted in brain could be fun, and also, these : not so famous last words. Could become more widely used ;)

Paramedic - "Well here's the problem! He's got a chunk of C4 sitting in his brain!"

Yep, looks like you're right, according to the Official Shadowrun FAQ. I was thinking of FanPro, which is the German company that is releasing any new Shadowrun RPG material on behalf of WizKids. Guess I need to get Bill on the phone and nag him to do something cool with that license. :)

For one thing, Kevlar is not effective against rifles:

today's modern generation of concealable body armor can provide protection in a variety of levels designed to defeat most common low- and medium-energy handgun rounds. Body armor designed to defeat rifle fire is of either semirigid or rigid construction, typically incorporating hard materials such as ceramics and metals. Because of its weight and bulkiness, it is impractical for routine use by uniformed patrol officers and is reserved for use in tactical situations where it is worn externally for short periods of time when confronted with higher level threats. ( reference)

Another thing about shadowrun, if anyone's interested, here's a the original timeline from 1997 to 2058, and here's another, more detailed timeline.

http://forums.dumpshock.com//Forum1/HTML/001271.ht ml.

It's available at http://www.dumpshock.com/FASA-FAQ.html.

(Yes, I'm one of the webmasters at Dumpshock.)