From: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Shadowrun: Controlling magicians
Date: 16 Apr 92 01:37:55 GMT
	<1992Apr14.201111.6482@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
	<0dv6v5q00WAuQ94Vkd@andrew.cmu.edu>
	<1992Apr15.220726.13571@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu's message of 15 Apr 92 22:07:26 GMT
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>>>>> On 15 Apr 92 22:07:26 GMT, rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester) said:

rcashman> [My original post deleted.]

>	Sigh. I haven't been following this thread, but let me indicate why
>they are discussing such things:

rcashman> That wasn't the point.  The point was that they had beat the
rcashman> topic to death.

Had we? I think we actually came up with a damn good reason for the
existance of Shadowrun's Matrix, it's functionality, and the apparent ease
that a hot deck-jock can finagle so much useful information.

>	Yeah, it's just a game. Because it's a game, you want things to
>make sense. If you are a being with even a shred of curiousity, and your
>character has to blunt any intelligence to avoid seeing things that don't
>make sense in his/her world, then you get annoyed.

[much ado about suspension of disbelief]

>	Reality testing allows you to suspend disbelief, and allows you to
>come up with ideas. The worst thing in a game is not to be able to come up
>with ideas because the background has contradictions or makes no sense.

rcashman> I don't see the background as being contradictory or false.  The
rcashman> story told was simply that computers got advanced enough so this
rcashman> beast called the Matrix exists and flourishes.

But, by the nature of many of the players who know how *TODAY'S* computers
and networks function (and make our livelyhoods that way), it's hard for us
to just throw all of that out because FASA or someone else says so. It's
the same way when any professional is asked to forget everything about
their abilities/knowledge/skills/whatever.

And, by ``beating the dead horse,'' we managed to discover a small basis in
reality for the existance of the Matrix. That little bit of reality makes
it all that much easier for us to accept it, as is, rather than that
``magic core to the Matrix'' garbage (IMO).

--Rat
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