As August’s Shadowrun Chat will fall in the middle of GenCon, we’re going to try to cover a couple of months worth of materials at the July Shadowrun Chat. With that in mind, we’ll be doing a double feature covering the Shadowrun Missions campaign, the upcoming Runner’s Companion core rulebook (and the new player-oriented material it introduces), and touch on a few other topics. The Shadowrun chat will be held this coming Saturday (19 July) at 10AM (PDT). The chat will be held as usual on the BattleCorps Shadowrun web chat.

Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to learn that our free Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Quick-Start Rules have been nominated for an ENnie Award in the Best Free Product or Webhancement category.

Voting will be open from July 21 to August 3, and the winner’s announced on Friday, August 15th at Gen Con Indy. We’ll be sure to reminder you when the voting starts!

Woohoo! After a stretch of nearly three weeks where I’ve been buried from the time I wake to the time I pass out in laying out upcoming Shadowrun books, I’ve managed to make a day for catching up on those little tasks that have been slipping through the cracks. We’re hip-deep in preparations for Gen Con Indy, and looking forward to this year’s show in a major way!

That said, here’s the transcript of last month’s Shadowrun chat, where we talked a heck of a lot about Unwired, which is now available in PDF and Pre-Order.

Catalyst Game Labs wants to give a big thank you to all of our gamemasters, the Origins Game Fair, and, most importantly, our players for a great weekend of gaming at this year’s convention.

The Shadowrun tables were packed all weekend. We ran over 200 players through 35 tables of events. Plus, we introduced dozens of new players to the game world and rules system at our demos in the dealer hall.

Shadowrun Missions players got a sneak peak at the New York City campaign. These events were consistently overfilled, and we appreciate the the enthusiasm on everyone’s part. The first adventure – SRM03-00 Everyone’s Your Friend will be broadly available later this month.

This year’s Origins Shadowrun tournament – Death of a Samurai – gave players a look into the underworld turmoil that the upcoming Ghost Cartels book introduces. The competition between teams was fierce. The winning team barely eked out their victory.

We tried a new handout this year – NERPS Cards. These gave players some extra tricks to influence the games as they played through them, and everyone seemed to enjoy the added flexibility. These seemed to be trading pretty hotly on the black market, so we’ll have more of them at GenCon.

GenCon Indianapolis is just a few weeks away. If you’re planning on attending, make sure to look up the Catalyst Game Labs Shadowrun events. We’ll have the same great gamemaster team, more Shadowrun Missions Scenarios, and this year’s tournament – Bad Moon Rising – also ties in to Ghost Cartels. Of course, we’ll have game demos available in our dealer’s hall booth to introduce new players to the system.

Lake Stevens, Washington (June 24, 2008) - Catalyst Game Labs (An InMediaRes Productions, LLC company) announces the return of novels for Classic BattleTech, MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. The re-launch of these perennial lines will include an amazing selection of authors—including New York Times’ Bestselling Author Michael A. Stackpole.

"The triumphant return of three of the most seminal adventure gaming book lines heralds a great next step for all the brands," David M. Stansel-Garner, Operations Manager for Catalyst Game Labs said. "We're really excited to bring these novels back to thousands of eager fans who have been waiting patiently for their return."

"An estimated 25 million people having played a game or read a novel set in the BattleTech Universe since its inception almost 25 years ago," Stansel-Garner continued. "Throughout that time BattleTech alone has inspired over a dozen video games, a cartoon, a collectible card game, a collectible miniatures game and several toy lines. Additionally, it has amassed one of the largest fictional universes in the sci-fi genre, with over 170 gaming products and almost 100 full-length novels (with much of that translated into over a dozen languages world-wide). Tie that together with the hundreds of thousands of copies of Shadowrun's 120 game sourcebooks, video games, and 50 novels (also translated into numerous foreign markets)… we have a lot of eager fans chomping at the bit for these new books."

Bestselling author and owner of InMediaRes Loren Coleman will return to pen more novels in the Classic BattleTech line. "In 1994 I read through the Warrior trilogy in a single weekend. I've been a devoted fan ever since. I expect to feel much the same way as I pick up the new storyline installments. Working with top writers on a compelling storyline is one of my greatest joys as a writer. Coming back to it now—and with Mike back on board as well—it's like our favorite park has just been reopened. I'll bring the green army men. He'll supply the fireworks."

Look for the first MechWarrior novel, A Bonfire of Worlds by Steven Mohan, Jr. in November 2008, followed by the first Classic BattleTech novel, Shadows of Faith by Loren L. Coleman in December. The first of the all-new Shadowrun novels will appear in January, 2009.

About Catalyst Game Labs Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to producing high quality gaming products that mesh sophisticated game mechanics with dynamic universes, presented in a form that allows both beginning players and long-time veterans to easily pick up our games. Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which specializes in electronic publishing of professional fiction. This allows Catalyst to participate in a synergy that melds printed gaming product with all the benefits of an electronic interface and community, creating a whole-package experience for any type of player. For additional information, visit www.catalystgamelabs.com.

About WizKids, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Topps Company, WizKids is a Seattle-based game developer and publisher dedicated to creating tabletop games driven by imagination. Its HeroClix® and Pirates brands are among the most successful games on the market today, with over one hundred million miniature game figures sold worldwide. For additional information, visit www.wizkidsgames.com.