Welcome to the Shadows

The year is 2060. The world is changed, some say Awakened.

A long lull in mystical energies of the universe has subsided and magic has returned to the world. Elves, dwarves, orks, and trolls have assumed their true forms, throwing off their guises. Creatures of the wild have changed as well, transforming into beasts of myth and legend. The many traditions of magic have come back to life and shamans and mages have carved out a place in the new world for themselves and their powers. Many aspects of the Awakening remain mysteries, but modern society fights to assimilate the ways of magic into a technological world.

The decades that followed the Awakening were years of panic and turmoil, as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemed to race across the Earth. Cultures that had never lost touch with their mystical past began to use magic against the great nations that suppressed them for so long. The vast global telecommunications network collapsed under an assault by a mysterious computer virus. Dragons soared into the skies. Epidemics and famine ravaged the world's population. Clashes between newly Awakened races and the rest of humanity became common. All central authority crumbled, and the world began to spiral downward into the abyss.

But man and his kin are hearty animals. Out of the devastation and chaos, a fragile new social order slowly emerged. Advanced simulated sensorium (simsense) technology helped eradicate the last vestiges of the computer virus and replaced the old telecommunications network with the new virtual-reality world of the Matrix. Amerindians, elves, orks, and dwarves formed new nations. Where environmental degradation and pollution have made many areas inhabitable, eco-groups wage wars on polluters, and Awakened powers use incredible magic to heal the earth. Central governments have Balkanized into smaller nations and city-states, as fear of the world's changes drive wedges between people of different backgrounds. Vast metropolitan sprawls known as metroplexes cover the landscape, these urban jungles swallow whole regions. Police departments unable to contain crime waves and civil unrest have been privatized or their work contracted out to corporations.

------Shadowrun: Third Edition

Greetings, chummers. Vex Godglove here again. So you want to know about Shadowrun? Well, I am here in an attempt to get you enough information that you can at least start playing. As I come across new info, I will either post it or provide links to those that can as well as present it in a semi-organized manner. It is a great game, it has a very rich and detailed environment. It supplies players with the best of fantasy based and futuristic RPGs. Buy it, you won't regret it.


Game Concepts:


Shadow Activity

As a player, you are a Shadowrunner. What do shadowrunners do? Well, to put it simply, they commit crimes. When a corporation or other sponsor needs someone to do their dirty work, they look to the shadows. As "deniable assets" runners make advantageous--and expendable--tools. Most "runs" as they are called involves several specific criminal operations, such as:

Datasteals are jobs where a decker hacks into a computer system host and steals information. This can be done from a remote location, though there is always the danger of being traced and raided by police or security forces. Many computers stay disconnected from the Matrix for security reasons. In these cases the decker must break into the facility and access the computer directly.
Extractions are frequently arranged by corporations who wish to steal valuable personnel from other corporations. Top research scientists, skilled financial agents, and other suits with valuable knowledge are hot commodities, and are suitably protected. The "victims" in many extractions are willingly targets--employees who have decided to defect to another corp. Some corporations consider certain personnel so valuable that they would rather have them killed than see them working for a rival.
Courier runs are glorified delivery jobs. Most often, the object to be delivered is of strategic or monetary importance, or it is otherwise valuable and so needs protection from others who want it. Runners hired for this job must make sure the object reaches its destination safely and intact.
Smuggling is similar to courier work, though smugglers usually have their own specially equipped vehicles for sneaking goods across borders and out running (or outgunning)the law. Smuggling can be quite lucrative if the runner knows the markets. Such work usually goes hand in hand with piracy, as pirates are often the cheapest source for illicit gods. Smuggling is done through various means and with many different vehicles, but the smuggler's choice is undoubtedly the Scout-class, vector-thrust, low-altitude vehicle (LAV) known as the thunderbird, or t-bird.
Wetwork is assassination, pure and simple. Many runners refuse to take these jobs, and view dirtying their hands for money in this way as vile. the world of 2060 contains many factions, each with a multitude of enemies who they find most convenient and cost effective to simply remove. Corporations or underworld figures sometimes place bounties on certain individuals; collecting on these can be profitable, if risky.
B & E stands for breaking and entering. Most runs involve B&E in some way, whether to steal research, commit sabotage, plant false evidence or otherwise further the nefarious plot of this week's Mr. Johnson. Security in the 2060s is considered an art form, ranging from mundane retinal-scan maglocks to concertina-wire electrified fences to patrolling spirits to full blown security riggers. Any runner team worth its name is going to need the know-how, creativity, or brute force to bypass these defenses.
Hooding is robbing from the rich to give to the poor, a definition that has expanded to include any run spurred more by a commitment to social justice than anything else. Examples include destroying a pollution-producing factory, mugging the Yakuza protection-racket enforcers and returning the money to the neighborhood, or defending a metahuman community from a human supremacist group. Some, especially corps, view such acts as "terrorism", while more cynical people may view such social concerns as a weakness to be exploited.
Structure hits are sabotage runs intended to do structural damage to the target that will cost time, nuyen, work and perhaps more to repair or recover from. Runs of this nature often involve large explosives so demolitions is a useful skill. Structure hits can be accomplished by other means from smart corrosives to rampaging elementals to pushing the button at the wrong time.


Basic Runner Types


Adepts, , the modern day ninjas and berserkers, use magic to enhance the body's abilities. Adepts tend to be athletically oriented with good stealth and combat skills.
Deckers are skilled at computer programming and maneuvering through the datastreams of the virtual-reality telecommunications grid known as the Matrix. They use special, custom-built computers known as cyberdecks that allow them to project their minds directly into the Matrix complex, three-dimensional reality. By illegally logging on to the Matrix, deckers can run search routines, tap phone calls, and break into system hosts to retrieve data. They use a variety of programs to accomplish such operations, as well as attack and defense programs should they engage in cybercombat with another decker or an Intrusion Countermeasures (IC) construct.
Mages are one type of magician character, known for using thaumaturgical abilities in a scientific manner. To mages, magic is about knowledge and structure. Mages cast spells, perceive and project astrally, and conjure elemental spirits.
Riggers have a piece of cyberwear known as a vehicle control rig (VCR) installed in their bodies. The VCR helps them to interface directly with suitably adapted vehicles, seeing through the vehicle's sensors and controlling it as they control their own bodies. Riggers can use a remote-control deck to do this from a remote location, and may control several vehicles or drones at once in this manner. Many riggers specialize in drones, remote-control vehicles of various sizes and capabilities used for surveillance and combat. Certain riggers, called security riggers, use their cyberwear and skills to jack directly into a building's security system; these characters become living monitors that can react instantly to intruders.
Shamans are magicians who follow a totem spirit animal, such as Coyote or Bear, and embody that totem's characteristics. To shamans, magic is attunement with the forces of nature. Like mages, they can cast spells and astrally project and perceive. They can also conjure nature spirits and Spirits of Man.
Street samurai are physically enhanced combat monsters. With cyberwear implants and combat skills, they attempt to be the quickest, meanest, and strongest killing machines on the streets. Many of them cybernetically boost their reflexes to get an edge, or boost their strength so they can inflict more damage. Many are also lethal with firearms, and almost all have a smartlink cyberwear system installed. for increased precision in shooting. Some fight for honor, some because they get paid (usually called mercenaries), and others just because they are insane enough to go up against anything.