The word 'monthly' still scares the holy heck out of me - as I'm writing this it's a few days before my desired release date for this magazine, and I still have cover art yet to arrive, and I need to edit one article, do layout for it, compile the magazine, and then do a final proofread. Not to mention work my day job. And then the day after I upload this issue, we get to start the process all over again with the next issue.

Now that I'm stuck with writing 10 or 11 of these Editorial Verbiage articles each year, I'm feeling a bit lost as to what I should write about here, so I'll try to address a few of the concerns that were brought up in the Issue #14 survey... starting with my own.

The amount of feedback from the survey for issue #14 was a bit on the slim side, although it was about what I expected. If you have a spare five minutes though, and you read issue #14, please go back and fill out the survey (It's available at http://tss.dumpshock.com/feedback_14.html) - and when you're finished with this issue, there's a new survey at http://tss.dumpshock.com/feedback_15.html. No whining - honest - but it would be really helpful if more people filled these surveys out. As it stands about 1 in 100 readers is filling out the survey-I'm sure a few more of you have a little bit of time that you could dedicate to letting us know what you liked and didn't like, and how we could improve the magazine.

Now, onto your concerns. Several people were upset by the smaller size of Issue #14 (21 pages) compared to other recent issues (Issue #13 was 43 pages). This is a reality of the new publishing schedule - this issue clocks in at 23 pages, and I don't imagine that the page count will increase to beyond 30 for awhile. So yes, a smaller magazine kind of sucks, but (there's always a but) if we publish 10 issues a year at 22 pages each, that's 220 total pages-as compared to 4 issues a year at 40 pages each - 160 pages.

Several people requested more articles like Seventh Samurai - and several people said they didn't want anything like Seventh Samurai again, and that they can come up with pre-generated characters on their own easily enough. I think a pretty interesting compromise would be articles about various shadowrunning teams - an overall team profile, quick bios of the characters, and then stats for each one. The individual characters could easily be dropped into a game as NPCs (Ignoring the background) or the entire could be used, keeping their background and motivations in mind. So, for those of you who like designing characters, consider that a hint!

Also requested was more adventure and plot hook material. There will be some adventures in future issues (I have a couple sitting in the 'incoming' directory right now), but very few people seem to submit adventures. We've had them on our Wantlist (p. 3) for awhile now and have only had a few submitted. On the plot hook front, I took it upon myself to write up a couple plot hooks for the generic archetypes included in this months Places to Go, People to See (p. 18). Let me know what you think of this approach - this is also the first issue that we've featured NPC archetypes in Places to Go, People to See.

And finally, a "master index" of every issue was suggested. That's a project that's been sitting in the back of my brain for a long time now, and I think it would be truly cool. Unfortunately it's something that can't be done for awhile - the old issues are simply in too many formats and too haphazardly designed. As time goes on we're looking at editing the older issues and re-publishing them in HTML and PDF format, and as we do that we'll look into building a master index.

Have Your Say

Just as important as the people who create are the people who consume-so please, let us know what you think of The Shadowrun Supplemental. There's a small survey to fill out available at http://tss.dumpshock.com/feedback_15.html, and you can always email the editorial team at tss@dumpshock.com. Your feedback is always appreciated!

Submission Guidelines

Our submission guidelines are also available on the web at http://tss.dumpshock.com/guidelines.html

General Guidelines

The following guidelines apply for both written and artistic submissions. All submissions and submission inquiries should be sent by email to tss@dumpshock.com

1. All submissions should relate to Shadowrun in some way. Submissions that fit more generally in the 'cyberpunk' genre may also be accepted, but submissions that are oriented toward other cyberpunk genre roleplaying games are probably better submitted to a magazine or website devoted to them. We prefer that submissions are 'original' to The Shadowrun Supplemental - that is, that they haven't seen widespread distribution on another website already. We're flexible, though - if an article has been posted to a message board or mailing list so you can gather feedback on it, that's generally fine. When in doubt, ask us!
2. You must be the legal owner of the work to submit something, and you remain responsible for your work.
3. You retain all copyright to your material, but grant The Shadowrun Supplemental the right to edit your work before publication, and perpetual online rights to publish your work online and to edit/update it as necessary. You may republish any such material online, but we appreciate it if you give credit and provide a link to The Shadowrun Supplemental as the original place of publication.
4. All submissions should include the author's email address and real name. Neither of them need to be published, but we need to have them. If you wish to have your email address suppressed or your work credited to a handle, include that information in your email message.
5. No payment or compensation is available (unfortunately) for authors or artists.
6. All authors and artists should recieve an email within 7 days about the status of the article. If you do not recieve a reply within 14 days please send a follow-up email to us.

Written Submissions

1. All submissions should be sent by email - please put '[SUBMISSION] Name of Submission' in the
   subject line of your email. For example:'[SUBMISSION] Firearm Prices the Sensible Way'.
2. Submissions should be either included in the body of the email message, or attached as a .RTF, .DOC,
   or .TXT file. If you are unable to send a file in these formats, please email to ask for further instructions. If
   you have graphics that belong with the article - such as maps or character illustrations, please see the Art
   Submission guidelines.
3. Please keep formatting to your documents minimal - bold, italics, and simple tables are fine and is generally all that's necessary.
4. If possible, please follow our Style Sheet, available at http://tss.dumpshock.com/style.html
   

Art Submissions

1. All submissions should be sent by email - please put '[ART SUBMISSION] Name of Submission' in the subject line of your email. For example: '[ART SUBMISSION] Resturant Maps'.
2. All forms of artwork are acceptable - hand drawn, computer generated, computer modified photographs, etc.
3. Images should be in at least 300DPI format, 150 minimum. .TIF format is preferred, but .GIF, .JPG, and .BMP are all acceptable. Please email to ask about other formats.
4. All graphics must include the artist's signature or other defining mark.

The Wantlist

Some semi-specific things that we would like to see submitted for future issues of The Shadowrun Supplemental include:

• Places to Go, People to See - We're eagerly looking for more NPCs and Locations to fill out this column.
• Tai's Magical Goodies - Our new/revived Magic column, home for spells, adept powers, totems, and other magical mayhem!
• Organizations - gangs, smugglers, initiatory groups, policlubs.
• Adventures - short adventures, especially focusing on Year of the Comet events.