Homme Chapeau said:

Well, it is YOUR opinion after all...

I guess I too have read way better stuff from Rich Wulf in L5R, but I don't think the story is by any means "subpar writing" as others think. You people should try to let your feelings for Shadowar out of the equation when judging the quality of the stories. I do believe the man is doing what he can for a license that has still to prove its worth against solid licenses that appeal to many many people, like SF or KOF.

I think we should just wait and see...

Zoldyk said:

And to think I'm, amongst the detractors, the one who's actually willing to give this a chance. Maybe it's the character involved, I don't know. I'd need to read more of him touching other characters from the same universe. Right now though, I'm not impressed. Maybe I wasn't meant to be. But I definitely was expecting more than this.

Sorry. Instead of professional writer, I should have said good writer. I've seen worse, but I've also seen a LOT better. I'll admit I don't read as much as I used to (a couple books a month instead of a couple books a week) but still, I've read a LOT of stuff that's better. Of course, I've read worse too... Regardless, it's not very inspired or inspiring writing. Maybe it's because the source material isn't all that amazing or original. Honestly the playtest versions of the characters I saw were almost offensive. Personally I think Shadowar would be best served by sticking to being entirely in-game. Maybe add some flavor-text to the Shadowar cards. If they relied primarily on flavor-text to convey information about the world, it would leave much more of the world in people imaginations, and done right, it could be far more awesome then what we're getting now, for much less work.

You want to know something?

Honestly, if these stories were presented in a hardcover book (say, the player's handbook to a new tabletop RPG) alongside beautiful pictures and a bunch of combat mechanics, we'd probably read them without such a stale taste in our mouths.

The web is a terrible format for short fiction. In order to be tolerable, the writing has to be TRULY exceptional.

A terrible website makes it even worse.

I think the writer had an even harder time, since most RPGs start with a whole lot of world and character building, and mood-setting stories are written _afterwards_.

These stories would have been MUCH better presented in the form of comic books--even webcomics, ala Dr. McNinja--than as a straight short story. If you want to capture action and violence on a budget, comics/graphic novels are the way to go. (Anime or live-action wirefighting are the preferred methods for when you have lots of money.)

By the by, I'm in the boat of folks who think Rashotep is the most interesting character, and the world needs a hook. Webs of intrigue aren't enough; if they were, we'd be playing Vampire the Masquerade, or some variant. I want to know what the Shadow War is actually being fought over. Wars are fought over resources and, to a lesser extent, ideologies. What resources do the factions in ShadoWar seek to claim? If they're just looking for total world domination, or its prevention, then color me bored. If it was something closer to the plasmids from Bioshock, then my interest is piqued. If it's magical artifacts, ala Soul Calibur, then I'm suitably interested by default. If it's control of several geographically located and mystically powerful quasi-holy sites, I'm pleased.

What's the war about? I'm taking control of a character: what am I fighting for?

Other things to think of as far as hooks go: what style are they really shooting for? Dark Stalkers won a bunch of fans because it combined campy monsters and cartoony animations with badass, beautiful, or just plain strange character concepts; Guilty Gear pulled off something similar. Soul Blade/Edge/Calibur pretty much defines international medieval wandering and fighting. I think ShadoWar could get something by going for ultraviolence in a slightly more tasteful way than Mortal Kombat, or by showcasing some truly unique styles and special attacks (like the Guilty Gear and Tobal series).

They could have hooked in a good crowd by doing proper historical fiction: using historical and mythological characters with name recognition. I'm still not sure why they didn't.

You know what fiction I really want to see? Move names and descriptions.

I want to hear about a character ripping off his own head, punching you with his face, and leaving bitemarks on your eyebrow. I want to hear about a character who sits back and orders a small army of trained wags to do his/her fighting (thinking Captain Commando or Tron Bonne). I want to hear about any sort of fighting that makes me sit up and say, "What?" As Hatman noted, the most interesting thing we've read about so far is SNAKE BLING THROWING. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing more of that.

ARMed_PIrate said:

And to think that I was skeptical of this awesomeness the first time around. I am now converted. The future of ShadoWar = SNAKE BLING THROWING.

BANK ON IT.

EDIT : To put it in all caps, as to denote the awesomeness.

aslum said:

This. Why couldn't I have thought about this by myself?

I read all of the stuff FFG has put out for Shadowar so far and I gotta say... it's just boring. I am interested in seeing the cards and charactrers (some cards I just collect for the art) but as far as the story goes, I just don't care. I hope it is good, I am a big supporter of original thought. I like the idea of UFS having an Original IP, I just really hope it doesn't flop and hurt the game... cause right now it's looking about 50/50.