My thanks to mister Pondsmith

[RabidSmurf]

My thanks to mister Pondsmith

When i was a kid around ten years old i began playing D&D. Years went by and i became a well versed gamer. Then one day i saw this book "Cyberpunk 2020". Something inside clicked then whirred before a hum started up. It was my cybernetic dreamworks. I got a copy of the players book i think in '89.

From that day i wrote mixtures of fantasy and cyberpunk to ease my friends from elves and invocation to riggers and datahacking implants. Ever since then i have kept files alive of adventures i ran on and ran as game master.

Thank-you Mr.Pondsmith for breaking through barriers and setting cyberpunk2020 in the tabletop world. I have enjoyed my 20+ years of digital dreams.

 

[Sardukhar]

We don't call him "Mr. Pondsmith" around here. He gets all flustered and stuff. Instead, we call him Mike, Mikey, MikeP, Mystery Mike, Magic Mike, Michelle and sometimes The Main Pond.

And Carl, of course.

 

[kyberpunkki]

When i was a kid around ten years old i began playing D&D. Years went by and i became a well versed gamer. Then one day i saw this book "Cyberpunk 2020". Something inside clicked then whirred before a hum started up. It was my cybernetic dreamworks. I got a copy of the players book i think in '89.

From that day i wrote mixtures of fantasy and cyberpunk to ease my friends from elves and invocation to riggers and datahacking implants. Ever since then i have kept files alive of adventures i ran on and ran as game master.

Thank-you Mr.Pondsmith for breaking through barriers and setting cyberpunk2020 in the tabletop world. I have enjoyed my 20+ years of digital dreams.

Elves 'n stuff? Do you have chrome books?
I think it was Chrome book 2 (if my memory serves me right) where there was "exotics body sculpting".

 

[RabidSmurf]

yerp, up to chrome book 5. had some vampire neko elves with transgender parts and tons of stuff in the game. I kinda miss my girlfriend from my teen years. she was a great player who made some of the best mixes of cybertech gear.

I made quite the abundance of booster and theme gangs. The swiss dollies were dolly parton fans who dressed in chocolate latex and used implant weaponry or double barreled rpgs.
then the werewolves of london, hairy wolf like crowd of dental hygeinists and salon workers whom spoke with outrageous fake british accents.
list was like in the 40's of just random ones. then like 10 deadly ones that were serious.

 

[wisdom000]

Elves.... riggers....


Sure you got the right game mate?

 

[kyberpunkki]

yerp, up to chrome book 5. had some vampire neko elves with transgender parts and tons of stuff in the game. I kinda miss my girlfriend from my teen years. she was a great player who made some of the best mixes of cybertech gear.

I made quite the abundance of booster and theme gangs. The swiss dollies were dolly parton fans who dressed in chocolate latex and used implant weaponry or double barreled rpgs.
then the werewolves of london, hairy wolf like crowd of dental hygeinists and salon workers whom spoke with outrageous fake british accents.
list was like in the 40's of just random ones. then like 10 deadly ones that were serious.

Erm...
Chrome book 5? O__o

 

[Nomad_Xenon]

Yeah, certainly Maximum Mike has also provided me with years and years of entertainment with this game.

 

[RabidSmurf]

Yes, riggers from shadowrun. I found a even better version in cyberpunk. And there is no chrome book 5...officially. Me and the community that was around in the 90's created our own catalog of exotic and simple devices of everyday life in the cyberpunk 2020 world. Then known as Lower eastings, next to metro-central or High state or Ba-wai kentucky. We brewed our own history to explain states and global economy. With our foundation planted we heaved the pondsmith world onto it.

Since we were a multi-game group with regular game sessions if not overdrawn gaming nights or weekends we tended to mix arch-types. I sometimes forget that the terms i use for one game are from another.

Who hasn't had that one game that was written for one game but translated into another. If you haven't then you need to.

Just fyi cyberpunk2020 > shadowrun.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

And there is no chrome book 5...officially.

It's apparently in the pipe. Soon TM...

 

[braindancer12]

Soon TM...

Soon.........not the best word in our forum

 

[Frankensteel]

Yes, riggers from shadowrun. I found a even better version in cyberpunk. And there is no chrome book 5...officially. Me and the community that was around in the 90's created our own catalog of exotic and simple devices of everyday life in the cyberpunk 2020 world. Then known as Lower eastings, next to metro-central or High state or Ba-wai kentucky. We brewed our own history to explain states and global economy. With our foundation planted we heaved the pondsmith world onto it.

Since we were a multi-game group with regular game sessions if not overdrawn gaming nights or weekends we tended to mix arch-types. I sometimes forget that the terms i use for one game are from another.

Who hasn't had that one game that was written for one game but translated into another. If you haven't then you need to.

Just fyi cyberpunk2020 > shadowrun.

*very nervous pointing Rabidsmurf with extended menacing chrome finger*

Don't never mention that game again if you want to live, chombatta ! Your words here are a blasphemous thing to the holy MaxMike, the only elves, orcs and trolls of Night City are biosculpted posers, period ! ... if you say "magician", i swear i shoot u dead, gato ! ... NEVER AGAIN !

*Mad as hell*

 

[eraser7278]

don't worry guys, chrome 5 is right around the corner! none other than mike himself said we'd have it in our hot little hands come January. and when mike P gives you a street date, you can take that shit to the bank

Actually, Dave Ackerman (RTG's old Production Mgr., who is back on the job again) is on my butt about that very subject right now. He wants to start hiring artists ASAP. So it should be by Jan 2014 at latest or Dave will kill me. And he can do it. He has mad skillz.

see, straight from the man himself January of... GORRAM PONDSMITH!

one is left with a single burning question to ponder...

BTW: I told Dave about my post and his response was : " I might not get to you immediately after you missed my production deadline, but I WOULD get to you. Very Soon afterwards."

wtf Dave, i thought you had mad solo skillz. 10 months out and you still haven't collared your mark?

 

[Sardukhar]

A) I like Shadowrun. A lot. I'm a backer! So, there's that.

B ) @eraser7278 I get that you're not happy/mildly bemused that Mike didn't meet a forum-specified street date for content on a game R.Tal hasn't worked on in years. Do you think pointing it out to him is a) likely to move that date up or b)encourage him to post here?

I kinda like the guy - he's a blacksmith. That shit is hard work. But he doesn't owe me anything. If he changed his mind or got busy on Mekton, great. If I get Chrome 5 ever, that'll be nice. If he says we'll have Chrome 5, 6 and 7 in the next two years and Cyberpunk 2050 to boot, that means he owes me exactly...nothing. Unless I pay the guy, that is.

I raise this point in order to differentiate from the old R.Tal forums, which could be quite the festering sluckbed of resentment from time to time. That won't be happening here. Well, silent resentment, maybe..

 

[eraser7278]

other folks were riffing on the nature and meaning of the term "soon" so i felt compelled to remind them, the man might have made something we all love... but he's also spend the last decade building a solid reputation as a guy quick to over promise and under deliver. are you disputing that?

 

[Sardukhar]

other folks were riffing on the nature and meaning of the term "soon" so i felt compelled to remind them, the man might have made something we all love... but he's also spend the last decade building a solid reputation as a guy quick to over promise and under deliver. are you disputing that?

If he's built such a reputation as you describe, then you shouldn't need to bring it up. If he hasn't, then don't build it here.

Either way, let it lie.

Edit:

I'm going to expound on this a bit for anyone reading this. In a thank-you thread, ( sorry, Mike!), no less.

Criticizing someone's work - courteously, hopefully accurately, possibly with humour - is fine. No problem, welcomed even. If it's out there, if they put their workout there in the world for you to see, go right ahead and take issue with it if you'd like. Be nice. Be constructive. But go ahead.

Criticizing an entity for decisions it makes is also okay, more or less. CDPR and regional pricing, EA and oh-so-much, Walmart and crushing local business, whatever. Works created by and policies put in place by companies or entities are in the public space and worthy of attention. Good and bad, wise and..less wise.

Criticizing a person/creator for a policy or failure to meet your expectations....that walks a tighter line. Partly because of accuracy - is Bobby Kotick the only factor in the decisions ActiBlizzard makes? No. So feel free to nail CDPR or ActiBlizz or R.Tal, but try to leave people out of it.

Partly because it leans towards the personal and that's a red light for moderators. We twitch if it looks like people are being picked on, not policies, (except Redge, of course. Pffff. Redge. I hear he got Firefly cancelled. That bastard)

And mostly because it's just not constructive to criticize or call out a person. They are exceedingly unlikely to "mend their ways" based on a comment or statement read on a forum or PM. Especially since those ways are quite possibly the result of a complex series of decisions and interactions over months or years.

So, yeah. If R.Talsorian puts out a press release announcing Chrome 5 in January 2015 and blows it, absolutely raise that as a point. Although raise it and then move on, at least until they do it again. But that's if the company announces it - and then nail the company, not the guy. That's all.