OK, for any who are interested in a Shadowrun narrative roleplay, here are some fundamentals about the Shadowrun world:
Shadowrun is a future version of our own world. Set in the year 2070, it combines cyberpunk, corporate-controlled society with magic and fantasy races.
Major historical events:
2009 & 2010 - After continually taking more and more land away, Native Americans protest the treatment of their people. A small terrorist band of Native seize a nuclear weapon silo and threaten to aim it at Washington. A US strike force goes in and kills the terrorists, but not before the weapon is launched at Moscow. Moscow fires a counter missile but neither land, both disappearing mid-flight. Seeing a possible threat, the President sends all Native Americans into "re-education centers" to contain the threat.
2011 - The "Awakening". At the end of the Mayan calendar, Magic returned to the Earth, signalled by the flight of the first known dragon, Ryumyo around the peak of Mt Fuji. A rash unexplained birth defects ebgan appearing in new children. Labelled UGE (Unexplained Genetic Expression) this gave rise to the first elves and dwarves.
2012 - Dniel Howling Coyote leads a revolt and walks his people out of the re-education centers using shamanistic magic. After he leads a shaman council into causing four volcanos to erupt simultaneously, the US concedes most of their land back to the Natives. Eventually the South separates and California becomes independant, leaving Seattle as the last American Western port. Canada's losses to the Native cause their economy to wane and they unite with the US to form the UCAS (United Canadian and American States).
2021 - Goblinization. As mana levels in the world continued to rise more latent genetics came to the forefront. Unlike the rise of elves and dwarves, those who underwent Goblinization spontaneously manifest, giving rise to orks and trolls. Hysteria ran rampant as many church leaders labelled these people as manifest demons and gave rise to what is known as the "Night of Rage", where riots rose up around the world and many of these newly manifest metahumans were hunted down and butchered.
2029 - The Crash. Out of nowhere seemingly, the world's first AI-driven virus is unleashed on the Internet. Adapting to all attempts to stop it, this virus brought down the entire infrastructure. It took the first "cyberdeck" users to ultimately defeat the virus. Cyberdecks, or computers that allowed direct neural contact with a computer become commonplace and the Matrix is born.
2030-2050's - Corporations continue to gain more power and replace many governments in the power hierarchy. There are seven corporations that are rated AAA, meaning they can enforce their own laws, keep their own police and have rights as nations.
2057 - The Great Dragon Dunkelzahn runs for President of the UCAS and wins, but is assassinated on inauguration night by an unknown weapon that creates a rift in astral space. He leaves behind a will, bestowing gifts to seemingly random people. Several corporations rise up to gain AAA status, while the largest corporation is ripped apart and crumbles under its own weight.
2059 - One of the seven mega-corporations, Renraku builds a massive Arcology in Seattle, but something goes wrong. A blackout strikes the city and the Arcology shuts down. An AI known as Deus, who was supposed to operate the building's higher functions, goes rogue and begins experimenting on the trapped humans inside.
2060 - Deus is finally evicted from the Arcology (thought destroyed), though his minons would hold on to most of the Arcology for another couple years.
2061 & 2062- Year of the Comet. Halley's Comet returns and causes panic amongst the people as further genetic anomolies pop up (called SURGE or Sudden Unexplained Recessive Genetic Expression). The mana sphere surges upward and brings rise to new dangers. A new dragon, called Ghostwalker emerges from the rift created by Dunklezahn's death and he claims Denver as his personal domain. New spirits emerge, known as shedim, who possess the corpses of the dead to lead lives alongside humans. Cremation policy is passed to prevent shedim possession. Volcanos erupt all around the Pacific Rim, creating several new islands and leaving Japan in a state of ruin. Once Halley's Comet heads away from Earth, almost all instances of SURGE cease.
2064 - Crash 2.0. Deus is reassembled and compiled in the world's Matrix and seizes control of the East Coast Stock Market. He kills most people in contact with the matrix at that point (but granting power to others). As he assimilates all the planet's data, a new virus is unleashed, tailored to destroy Deus and all AI's of his kind. A terrorist cell called Winternight seeks to send humanity back to the stone age and detonates underground nukes underneath several world data havens. The resulting EMP and the wat against Deus shatters the infrastructure of the Matrix. In the new Neo-Tokyo a new Matrix technology is being unveiled, having the entire Matrix go wireless. It is taken as the new world standard and the second Matrix is created.
Key Corporations: Ares Macrotechnology, Aztechnology, Evo, Horizon, Neo-NET, Mitsuhama, Renraku, Saeder-Krupp, Shiawase, Wuxing Inc.
Other Big Players: Lone Star, Emerald City Graphics, Telestrian
North American Nations: UCAS, CAS (Confederate American States), Algonkian-Manitou Council, Sioux Nation, Pueblo Corporate Council, Salish-Shidhe Council, Athabascan Council, Trans-Polar Aleut, California Free State, Tir Tairngire, Quebec, Aztlan (formerly Mexico)
Magic: There are three major branches to magic: Sorcery, Conjuring and Somatic Magic. A traditional mage has access to spellcasting and summoning. The spells the cast and spirits they can commune with often take form according to their ideology (a spirit summoned by an American Indian won't look like a spirit summoned by a voodoo practitioner). Some magicians don't cast magic in the traditional sense, but instead augment their skills instead. This is somatic magic. Somatics are typically called "physical adepts". They can do any number of things, like hypnotic suggestions, to running up walls, making impossible leaps and boosting their strength to impossible levels.
There are several things that magic cannot do, however.
1) No magic can be indirectly targeted. There must always be a subject to cast upon.
2) No magic can affect space/time. No teleportation or stopping time.
3) You cannot divie the future with any certainty. While some have learned the art of divingi it takes some degree of interpretation. You will see images, but it is up to you to decipher them.
4) Sorcery cannot banish spirits. You can attack them and force them back to their native plane, but only Conjuring can effectively banish a spirit.
5) Sorcery cannot raise the dead. Once someone has died, there is no coming back. While some magical traditions can summon spirits that can possess corpses, this is not resurrection.
6) Sorcery cannot create magical items. Only pain-staking effort of an enchanter can manufacture foci or other magical goods.
7) Sorcery cannot bridge the gap between astral and physical worlds. You cannot cast a spell from the astral plane and have it hit something on the physical plane. Likewise, you cannot hurl a lightning bolt and hit a spirit that is not manifest outside the astral plane.
Sorcery cannot create complex items. While magic exists to create any raw element, creating non-existant manufactured itesm is impossible.
9) Magic is not intelligent. Mana only does what it is told.
If you are not born with magic, you can never acquire it.
Technology: Cybernetics and Bionetics are fairly commonplace in 2070. Simple implants like a datajack, limbs and eyes are common just about everywhere, as part of the medical community, giving back to people who were born with missing limbs or suffered an accident. However, the flow of military hardware also exists and can be concealed just beneath the skin. However, too much metal and the body can't handle it. The body takes longer to heal, or if stretched too far, will simply pass away.
The Matrix plays a huge role in modern society. Because everything is wireless, you can be tracked almost constantly. It's takes a delicate balance to know when to stay on radar (with a good neutral persona) and when to fade into the cracks. A talented hacker is essential to any Shadowrunner team.
Shadowrunners: The core of any story in Shadowrun centers on a team of Shadowrunners. These are people the system forgot. Often there are no records they exist and they like it that way. They come from all varieties of lifestyle, from ex-military, ex-corporate, mercenaries, even civilians fed up with the painted area that corps will allow them to see. These people risk life and limb for cash. They do the dirty work the corps can't afford to be affiliated with. Black ops are their specialty, although they are occasionally called upon to do work for other organizations. Their employers are usually as anonymous as they are and both sides like it that way.
Well, there's a brief primer. If you are interested in playing and have a character concept, I can help you fill in the blanks and help you to play their role to the fullest. once we have 4-6 players, we should have a decent number to start the first Shadowrun
J.
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