[Shadowrun 4e] Cyberpunk Tabletop Game

[Turtlicious]

Elendra is running Scion, Foxes has DnD, but me I'm a fan of the technological classics, I want to run a game of Shadowrun, so here I am on this site trying to recruit 4~6 lucky runners, to participate. I just finished the book "Neuromancer" so I'll probably be pulling a lot of inspiration from the books by William Gibson.

Shadowrun is a science fantasy role-playing game set in a near-future fictional universe in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy fiction, horror and detective fiction.
The Shadowrun world is cross-genre, incorporating elements of both cyberpunk and urban fantasy. Unlike in a purely cyberpunk game, in the Shadowrun world, magic exists and has "worked" since 2011. Among other things, this split humankind into subtypes, also known as metatypes/metahumans. Some of these metatypes take the form of common fantasy races. Likewise, some animals have turned into familiar monsters of past fantasy and lore and both monsters and human magicians have regained magical powers. By the second half of the 21st century, in the time the game is set, these events are accepted as commonplace. Man, machine, and magic exist in a world where the amazing is among the most common and technology has entered into every facet of human (and metahuman) life.

Characters in Shadowrun can be humans, orks, trolls, elves, dwarves, as well as certain diverging subspecies (known as metavariants) such as gnomes, giants, minotaurs, etc. In the early days, when magic returned to the world, humans began to either change into, or give birth to elf and dwarf infants, a phenomenon called Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE). Later, some juvenile and adult humans "goblinized" into other races (mostly orks, but also some trolls). The term "metahuman" is used either to refer to humanity as a whole, including all races, or to refer specifically to non-human races, depending on context. With the return of Halley's Comet new human variants called "changelings" arose. Two of the metahuman races have fictional languages.

Additionally, a virus known as the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus (HMHVV), with many variant strains, has been known to cause further change, far beyond that of traditional vampirism, frequently resulting in fierce abominations that are no longer human and sometimes no longer even sentient: bandersnatches, banshees, dzoo-noo-quas, goblins, ghouls, nosferatus, vampires, wendigos, wild fomorians, and others. Most of these species do not consider human/metahuman types as more than victims, and should be treated as dangerous subjects. They are not normally available as player characters. Dragons are also present in the awakened world, though not as player characters. Dragons are very powerful physically, magically, and in some situations, financially. Some dragons found the riches they hoarded, and hid during the last Awakening. Their great intelligence allowed them to gain a great deal of influence and power quickly and a few have risen to high political and economical posts, running entire corporations or even as head of state.

The game is set 62 years in the future, following a great change that has returned magic to the world. The emergence of magic, the outbreak of the VITAS plagues, the Computer Crash of 2029, the Euro-Wars, and the fevers for independence of Amerindian tribes, Chinese provinces, and everything else that came with the many struggles that ravaged Europe and Asia left the world's governments tumbling and falling. The United States was broken into substates. Monetary value was lost. The world had to rebuild, and rebuild they did, this time in the image of the Mega-Corporations that seized power. Taking advantage of the laws that had been passed years ago, and using their new found freedom, the Mega-corps began impressing their power on the failing governments. Before long the world was transformed. Boundaries were redrawn, and the political landscape was changed forever.

A basic premise of the setting is that as the world endured the string of state-changing events and conflicts, the political landscape fragmented and reformed. In North America, for example, some nations broke apart and reformed, as was the case with the Confederation of American States and the United Canadian and American States; others became havens for specific racial or ethnic groups, like the councils of the Native American Nations, the Native Americans having used their new found magical abilities to regain massive tracts of land; or the Elvish principality of Tír Tairngire, that encompasess all of the state of Oregon. Some, like the California Free State, simply declared independence, or became de facto corporate subsidiaries like Aztlan (the former Mexico) to Aztechnology Megacorp. Despite the new role of megacorporations, many nations still hold considerable sway through economic, social and military means. For some, getting by means taking advantage of whatever the corps, or the government might bring their way.

The monolithic "enemies" of the Shadowrun world (borrowing heavily from cyberpunk mythos) are the corporations, dubbed "megacorporations", "megacorps", or simply "megas" or "corps" for short. Megacorporations in the 21st-century are global, with all but the smallest corps owning multiple subsidiaries and divisions around the world. They are the superpowers of the Shadowrun universe, with the largest corporations having far more political, economic, and military power than even the most powerful nation-states.

In Shadowrun, corporations are effectively "ranked" by the amount of assets under their control, including material, personnel, and property, as well as profit. These ranks are A, AA, and AAA; AAA corporations are top tier. Most corporations in the AA and AAA level are immune to domestic law, responsible only to themselves, and regulated only by the Corporate Court, an assembly of the ten AAA-rated corporations. All AAA-rated and most AA-rated corporations exhibit a privilege known as "extraterritoriality", meaning that any land owned by the corp is sovereign territory only to the corp and immune to any laws of the country within. Corporate territory is not foreign soil but corporate soil, just like its employees are corporate citizens, though dual citizenship in a corporation and a nation is common. The AAA corps, as well as numerous minor corporations, fight each other not only in the boardroom or during high-level business negotiations but also with physical destruction, clandestine operations, hostile extraction or elimination of vital personnel, and other means of sabotage. Because no corporation wants to be held liable for damages, it has to be done by deniable assets, or shadowrunners, invisible to the system where every citizen is tagged with a System Identification Number (SIN).

Here's the big ten

Despite the Crash which caused much data corruption, technology in the game is advanced. Cyberware (technical implants) and Bioware (genetically engineered implants which enhance a person's abilities) emerged. Characters can also augment their bodies with nanotechnology implants.

In earlier editions, direct neural interface technology enabled humans and metahumans to directly access computers and the Matrix, the ingame global computer network restructured after the 2029 Crash. Access to the Matrix was accomplished by "deckers": individuals that have "cyberdecks". These interface machines are connected to the brain through a Datajack generally located at the temple or behind the ear.

After the second Matrix crash in 2064, Matrix technology was moved away from the wired network and led into a wireless technology. The most noticeable difference between the Matrix in the 2070s and the earlier editions is that wireless technology has become completely ubiquitous. Communications and Matrix access is provided through wi-fi nodes placed throughout the infrastructure of just about every city on Earth, fulfilling a service similar to contemporary cell towers - but as these nodes are as numerous as telephone poles, only a tiny percentage of their range is necessary. The nodes of all electronic devices a person carries are connected in a similar manner, creating a Personal Area Network (PAN). People access their PAN with their Commlink, a combination personal computer/cell phone/PDA/wireless device available either as an implant or a head-mounted display. This access can be the total sensory immersion common to cyberpunk fiction, or a sensory enhancement by which the virtual features of one's physical surroundings can be perceived and manipulated. The Matrix of the 2070s is thus not only a virtual reality, but an augmented or mixed reality. Cyberdecks are obsolete, so "deckers" have once again become "hackers". In turn, the otaku of previous versions (deckers who did not need decks to access the Matrix) have been reworked into technomancers, who possess an innate connection to the Matrix that permits them to access the wireless network without hardware.

Those able to actively interact with the magical energies of the Sixth World are known as "awakened". An awakened character's power in magic is linked to their Magic attribute. A magic user's approach to working with mystic energy is called their Path. The Awakened fall into three general Paths: magicians, adepts and mystic adepts. Broadly speaking, magicians focus their magic outward, actively affecting the world around them, while adepts focus their magic inward, passively enhancing their bodies and minds.

Magicians are able to cast spells, summon spirits, and create magical artifacts called "foci". All magicians follow traditions that determine their understanding of magic, including hermetic mages (whose control of magic comes through study and manipulation of magical energy or mana, and who summon and bind elementals in lengthy and expensive rituals to be called on later) and shamans (whose magic derives from a connection to nature via a totem spirit, and who can summon the nature spirits associated with a particular place). Adepts use magic internally in order to accentuate their natural physical abilities. Adepts can run on walls, use mundane objects as deadly thrown projectiles, shatter hard objects with a single unarmed blow, and perform similar feats of incredible ability. All adepts follow a very personal path (Path of the Warrior, Path of the Artist, etc.) that normally determines their abilities which might be very different for any two adepts (while one might demonstrate increased reflexes and facility with firearms, a second might possess unparalleled mastery of the katana, and a third might be able to pull off incredible vehicular stunts). Mystic adepts, also known as physical mages, are part magician and part adept who distribute their magic power between the abilities of both aspects.

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You're a group of Runner's, you all have been running together for a long time. Crack a terminal here, waste some poor ass hole there, doing the dirty work that only the low men on the totem pole get. A mysterious job offer came to you in a weird way, in the package were siz individual twenty nuyen credsticks. Under the cred-sticks was a holocorder, when you turned it on it said come to Red Baron in Seattle if you'd like to start making more creds. The flight was planned for you and (when we start) you're in a large van being driven over there.

http://www.chummergen.com/downloadchummer.aspx First, download and use that, it's going to help a lot and it'll give you the kind of CS's that make my job as GM a whole lot easier. You build your character with points, (This will be a 400 BP campaign, with an availability of 12) deciding his abilities, skills, postive and Negative Qualities.

I've included some stuff from the book you can look over while creating a Character. There is literally everything you need to know in these excerpts, I've trimmed all the fluff and am giving you the condensed version. You can download them (or read them online) at the Following Links.

Character Creation
Skills
Gear
This is for Mages
This is for Hackers

It should be noted that skills are pretty self explanatory by the name, and I really wouldn't hold it against you for skipping everything but Character Creation, Gear is explained (at least what their stats are) in Chummer, and I'll be in IRC to talk too if you need help or need me to explain anything. Again, I really really really strongly suggest you use Chummer. Which is why I didn't include a Character Sheet, in the hopes that you'll use Chummer.

When you're finished with your character click Print, and then where it says Shadowrun 4 change that to text. Paste that text in a hider and I'll be happy with your CS

Good luck out there Runners.

[Turtlicious]

Oh and tell me what times are good for you? I want to make sure all players are properly accommodated.

[CommunistZed]

Fucking boss.
I'm in.

[Asuras]

I'm in. How do we work around cybernetic prosthetics and stuff? I wanna be like, a Deus Ex human Revolution character or something.

Considering my Scion days are Friday evenings, my best times are any other time after 6 PM US Pacific time.

Also how much money we get boss?

[Turtlicious]

What do you mean work around? It's all in Character Creation or Gear. <_< Cybernetics are added in through Chummer. Just click add Cyberware the point the gen to the piece of equipment you want.

[Asuras]

Ah sorry. Didn't know it was included in cyberware. Thought that kind of stuff was for external equipment only.

Also is it possible to create custom weapons?

[Turtlicious]

Ah sorry. Didn't know it was included in cyberware. Thought that kind of stuff was for external equipment only.

Nope, tell the game you have a full Cyberware arm, then add-on the attachments.

[Asuras]

Would you mind explaining what these negative qualities are?

Cyberpsychosis
Biosystem Overstress
Assensing Rejection

Maybe it'd be best if we were on chat, because I've got many, many questions. Sorry.

[Turtlicious]

No problem

- - - Updated - - -

IRC

[Asuras]

I don't know the link/URL for RpG's IRC. ;_;