Shadowrun Webcomic - Beyond the Panels

After last week's venture into a dangerous place, time to switch back to preparing for November.  For this, I'm going back to the webcomic.

One of the things that makes for a fuller world is the sense that there is something happening beyond what's shown.  Not just the lives of the characters off-screen, but the world being populated by other people who may or may not interact with the cast.  My plan is to have the webcomic share the setting with By the Numbers.  Will Numbers show up?  I have no plans, but would anyone be able to tell given that she can alter her appearance?  However, some of the supporting cast is more likely.

In my notes, Corporal shares a fixer contact with Charles - Mr. Macro.  The decision was one part cast reuse*, one part realizing that there aren't that many fixers relative to the general population, and one part making sure that my leads had contacts in certain areas.  Does this mean Corporal and Charles are aware of each other?  Probably.  Likewise, with By the Numbers, I reused Baba Ganoush in an actual campaign.  Fixers - the people who know people for a price - are nice to have.

I'm planning on using locations from the Seattle 2072 supplement.  Some of this decision is to keep to the canonical locations of the megacorporations.  The first run will involve Ares Macrotech**, and if I create a location, someone is going to bring it up.  I will have some of my own locations, too.  Seattle of 2072 is large enough to have many nightclubs, many corporate buildings both official and unofficial, and many minor gangs.

I do have a follow up for By the Numbers planned.  Characters from the webcomic may appear in the sequel, though knowledge of one shouldn't be needed for the other.  I may be tempted to show a crossing of the runs, but not right away.  The webcomic needs to be its own thing before I start adding outside elements unrelated to the general setting.

It does occur to me that it could be interesting to see By the Numbers adapted as a webcomic.  Three-quarters of the cast should be interesting for an artist to do.  After all, Charles is visually impressive being the wall of augmented muscle of a troll, Oswald does scruffy with magical effects, and Treehugger has her elf poser deal going on.  Numbers, though, adds a challenge; her appearance changes, but she needs to be recognizable to the audience.


* Go green!  Recycle your supporting cast!
** However, the book lists two addresses for Ares.  If I were a GM, and I have been, I'd say one is for the company's northwestern headquarters and the other is Ares Seattle.