History TAbletopGame / Shadowrun

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls). A [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns new game recently started getting funding via Kickstarter]] and exceeded it's $400,000 goal in just 28 hours, making $1,889,416 total.

* GambitPileup: The circumstances leading to the Second Crash. To begin with, you have [[MegaCorp Novatech]], the largest privately owned company in the world, gearing up for an IPO to solve their cash flow problems. In order to accommodate the massive amount of trading that's expected, the East Coast Stock Exchange upgrades their servers. Meanwhile, [[AIIsACrapshoot Deus]], having been disassembled and stored in the heads of his cult members since fleeing the Renraku Archology, decides to take over the [=ECSE=] and use its facilities to compile and upgrade its code, giving it almost complete control over the Matrix. Meanwhile ''again'', [[AnimalWrongsGroup Winternight]], a Scandanavian Luddite terrorist group, has obtained a number of nuclear warheads and has modified them to produce massive [=EMPs=]; with the help of a rogue member of Deus' Otaku cult, they have identified two dozen of the world's Matrix nodes. Disabling over half of these would bring down the Matrix permanently and send the world back to the dark ages. The same rogue Otaku also helps assemble a virus to be implanted directly in the [=ECSE=] servers to do the most damage. On the appointed day, Deus invades the [=ECSE=], takes over, spreads itself worldwide, takes over dozens of other servers and forces them all to work at upgrading his code. At the same time, Megaera, another [=AI=] who had been battling in Deus' "subconscious", breaks free and attacks him. Meanwhile ''yet again'', Mirage, the original [=AI=] who had served as Deus' and Maegera's source code, breaks into the [=ECSE=] servers to eliminate Deus. While they are battling, Winternight's Jormungand virus is triggered, along with a significant number of their [=EMP=] devices. Between the devices destroying vital Matrix nodes, the nigh-unstoppable virus, the battle and subsequent damage caused by three battling [=AIs=], the damage done to the [=ECSE=] servers and dozens of others by Deus, and a Dissonance Pool created by the rogue Otaku to amplify everything else's effects, half in hopes of destroying Deus and half out of spite, the entire Matrix collapses.
** If you didn't get all that, you're not to blame. For the Shadowrun movers and shakers, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday this was par for the course]], the only difference being the collateral damage.
*** Also this can happen during a run too. One story got so tangled up that the runners gave up, shot everyone, and used the MacGuffin as a paperweight.

* Xanatos GambitPileup: Too damn many to count. Every country, {{megacorp}}, and two-bit astral spirit has a lot of irons in the fire. And then there's the dragons...

* XanatosGambit: [[GambitPileup Too damn many to count.]] Every country, {{megacorp}}, and two-bit astral spirit has a lot of irons in that particular fire. And then there's the dragons... In fact there is a negative quality you can take that gives your character a built in cranial bomb and the GM decides what corporation gets it.
** Special note goes to [[spoiler: Dunkelzahn's HeroicSacrifice mentioned above. As anyone who played Earthdawn will point out, the Horrors managed to drive a few ''gods'' mad back in the Fourth World. So it's even odds whether Big D's plan is going to succeed or not.]]
** The ''Threats'' supplement said this was true of the Great Dragon Lofwyr. He always has multiple plans in motion, all of which will succeed regardless of what you do.

* QucikDraw: The Quick Draw action in 2nd Edition.

* BrainInAJar: Halberstam's Babies in the 2E supplement ''Threats''. Also how full cyborg conversion works.

* {{Cyborg}}: Cybernetics are common, but the term "cyborg" in the Sixth World is reserved for... Something far less pleasant. Specifically, a cyborg is [[BrainInAJar a metahuman brain implanted into a drone body]], which is kept in a constant state of alert 16 hours a day by a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters. Like cyberzombies (see below), making someone a cyborg is ''very'' rarely a consensual procedure, and since adult brains tend to develop severe psychoses more quickly, most corps just [[PoweredByAForsakenChild use the brains of children instead]], since they tend to last longer. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Neat, huh?]]

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls). A [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns new game recently started getting funding via Kickstarter]] and exceeded it's $400,000 goal in just 28 hours, and as-of the 23rd of April has raised over $1.37 million and still has another five or six days to go.

** Averted in that they point out that while every single inch of the urban landscape is under ubiquitous surveillance, the different owners of all of those surveillance cameras (that is to say, the different megacorps) do ''not'' like to share information with each other. This is how shadowrunners can still survive in a Big Brother world -- by knowing where the invisible borders are and the cracks between them, and crossing them back and forth as rapidly as they can. They also get away with it because there is so *much* data recorded, that it's too expensive to process all of it without a good reason, and the Megacorps generally hate spending money without a guaranteed return.

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls). A [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns new game recently started getting funding via Kickstarter]] and exceeded it's $400,000 goal in just 28 hours, with nearly a million dollars pledged after just a fortnight (and still with another fortnight to go).

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls). A [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns new game recently started getting funding via Kickstarter]] and exceeded it's $400,000 goal in just 28 hours, with nearly a million dollars pledged after just a fortnight (and still with another fortnight to go)

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls). A new game recently started getting funding via Kickstarter.

Probably the most popular CyberPunk [[TabletopGames role playing game]], which pisses off CyberPunk purists to no end (due to the system's blend of cyberpunk with fantasy species and tropes). Games were made for both the SegaGenesis and SuperNintendo in the 90's. Both were very different from each other, and the Genesis version was considered a classic for its console(the reason [[DragonAge Greg]] [[MassEffect Muzyka]] ''left medical school'' to work for BioWare), while the less-popular SNES version is thought of as one of the console's hidden gems. There was also a Japan-only game for the [[{{OtherSegaSystems}} Sega CD]]. A recent adaptation for the Xbox 360 and PC, however, has been much less well-received. The primary reason you will find it referenced is the rare use of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC versions (This game is also the ''reason'' it is rare, as gameplay was massively unbalanced in the favor of PC players due to superior controls.).

** Considering that the game's "history" revolves around the end of the world in accordance with the Mayan calendar, it makes perfect sense. The world has "ended" and "returned anew." Hence, the welcome back.

* TheFace:
** Any character with a high Charisma and Social Skills like Etiquette, Interrogation, Leadership and Negotiation. Earthdawn. Having a high Charisma is essential for each of the following.
** The Troubador Discipline was good for this, with Talents like First Impression, Lasting Impression and Haggle.
** Characters with other Disciplines can fill this role by choosing General Skills such as Acting, Bribery, Conversation, Engaging Banter, Etiquette, Fence, Flirting, Seduction, Streetwise and Trading.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Literally; In the first editions (1-3), until 2064 (the 2nd crash), only three AIs existed (Mirage, Morgan/Maegera and Deus - the latter one being the big, bad kind of AI). All of them were extremely powerfull entities but all of them vanished in the 2nd crash which ended the 3rd edition. In the 4rd Edition, starting 2070, lesser AIs started to appear. Self-awareness can't be written into a program; it has to occur on its own. The best that the corps can do as far as creating AI goes is to monitor their most data-intensive programs closely and see what happens. Second, the result may be self-aware but not sapient, like a dog or a cat. Or it could be the very rare third type where it still is somewhat like its original program. These are called xenosapients because they are so alien to metahumanity that they are pretty much StarfishAliens. Then there are the metahuman-like AIs. Some have just spawned from nothing, some from existing programs and others seem to be based on people that got trapped in the Matrix during the Second Crash or later events.

*** There are also actual snuff BTLs, recorded from the victim's perspective, which can very well kill the user as well.

* {{Technopath}}: 3rd Edition's Otaku and their Technomancer successors in 4E

* TransNature: Elves are a subrace of humanity. Some normal humans are "elf wannabees" who want to be elves, and sometimes use plastic surgery to make themselves more elf-like. They're usually looked down upon by real elves.

** Until the twin earthquakes and subsequent flood of 2069 described in 4th Edition's ''Corporate Enclaves'' supplement. Then, ItGotWorse: two thirds of the LA sprawl are now flooded and demon-possessed corpses often lurk in the ruins. Also, the water is extremely toxic and inhabited by all kinds of nasty fauna. [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks Including giant sharks.]]

* RuthlessModernPirates: Kane "the most notorious man in the CAS" is wanted in over 17 countries for piracy. his entries in Jackpoint tend to involve colourful boasts about the people he has killed, ships he has successfully destroyed/ survived/ added to his fleet and the profit he makes from both [[HumanResources the slavetrade and organlegging]]. [[PeopleFarms the organs are provided in their...]] [[NightmareFuel original packaging]]. he has expressed a fondness for [[SubmarinePirates submarines]] and [[MoreDakka excessively]] [[CompensatingForSomething large ships]].
* XanatosGambit: [[GambitPileup Too damn many to count.]] Every country, {{megacorp}}, and two-bit astral spirit has a lot of irons in that particular fire. And then there's the dragons... In fact there is a negative quality you can take that gives your character a built in cranial bomb and the GM decides what corporation gets it.
** Special note goes to [[spoiler: Dunkelzahn's HeroicSacrifice mentioned above. As anyone who played Earthdawn will point out, the Horrors managed to drive a few ''gods'' mad back in the Fourth World. So it's even odds whether Big D's plan is going to succeed or not.]]

* TheAgeless: Dragons and elves have this as a racial trait.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Literally; Self-awareness can't be written into a program; it has to occur on its own. The best that the corps can do as far as creating AI goes is to monitor their most data-intensive programs closely and see what happens. Second, the result may be self-aware but not sapient, like a dog or a cat. Or it could be the very rare third type where it still is somewhat like its original program. These are called xenosapients because they are so alien to metahumanity that they are pretty much StarfishAliens. Then there are the metahuman-like AIs. Some have just spawned from nothing, some from existing programs and others seem to be based on people that got trapped in the Matrix during the Second Crash - which was ''caused'' by an AI shutting off an arcology from the rest of the world and performed gruesome experiments on the people living there. In its defense, it was constructed from the "dissected remains" of a friendly one, '''and was completely aware of this when it became sentient.''' The arcology experiments were part of a decade-long {{Scheme}} to free itself from the corporation that butchered its predecessor - which involved blowing up the internet. Figuratively, it's mostly subverted in 4th edition. By that time, AIs are given the full rights of citizens and are as well-behaved as the rest of meta-humanity, if not noticably better on average. That doesn't stop the public at large from believing in this trope.