Harebrained Studios, the company making Shadowrun Returns, is seeking character names!
I thought some of you would be interested in this.

“Help us fill out our roster of hire-able Shadowrunners! We need a long list (over 100) of runner names and short descriptions (108 characters only – please count, the form won’t do it for you!). We’ll match the names and descriptions to our runner portraits so we won’t need (or accept) physical descriptions. Enter as many names as you like. Feel free to use characters from your game but don’t use any from Shadowrun fiction. We don’t want to mess with canon. Thanks!”

Click here

I’m submitting a bunch of NPCs (with some liberties taken). I’m not submitting any of your characters, but if you are interested you should!

Count your characters! The form doesn’t.

Here’s who I’ve submitted thus far. I’ll update the list as I add more.

If there are any others you want me to submit, let me know!

They will probably receive thousands of submissions, but who knows, maybe some of them will become cannon.

Marc Greenboro
Male / Human / Rigger
A chromed out “Transportation” specialist for the corps by day, drone rigger by night.

Cerra
Female / Human / Mage
A pyromancer whose looks are as hot as her skills. She’ll use all her “assets” to get the job done.

Goldgar (One of my coworkers)
Male / Dwarf / Decker
A corporate drone who developed anarchist tendencies after years of working tech support.

Daemon
Male / Troll / Shaman
A demonic looking troll obsessed with summoning spirits to increase his power.

Sealie (My dog)
Male / Elf / Adept
A man of endless energy whose as lethal with his bare hands as most are with a blade.

Pound Sand (Random name I liked)
Male / Dwarf / Rigger
Former UCAS Rigger who was discharged for excessive use of force. Explosions are his answer to everything.

Misha Salsbury (Character I was using in short stories)
Female / Human / Decker
A highly professional, if picky about who she works with, technology wiz seeking to supplement her income.

Bounce Miranda
Female / Elf / Adept
A youthful runner on an endless quest for adventure. She’ll take any job and she works for cheap.

Evan Eye
Male / Human / Sam
A security expert who is more than willing to apply excessive force if the job calls for it.

Professor Julian Creaks
Male / Human / Mage
An intellectual wizard who takes odd jobs to fund his research, especially if they further his studies.

I owe everyone another mission write up for “Survivalist Tendencies.” What I can tell you now is that the PC’s solution was to call in a favor with a Mercenary Group and essentially carpet bomb the target.

Not sure why they were so jumpy, maybe that had ants in their pants!

Hopefully I’ll get that written up sometime this week. The next mission in the current arc will run at Gaming Weekend. This should be the epic conclusion to the first half of the arc. Granted I am still working on the “epic” side of things.

Another topic of note is that I had a bunch of shadowrun fiction posted on live journal, but they have been purging journals lately. To preserve the stories I have moved them here. If you are curious you can look at Misha’s entry. They are rough drafts and need a lot of work, but they also provided an additional glimpse into the setting. “The Misadventures of Misha” is the first time I started crafting Boston as a setting.

Lastly I have mentioned this to some people directly, but I figured I would put it out in the open. I am looking to update some of the setting so you may find some unexpected changes to the wiki. Part of this is searching through shadowrun cannon to make sure my setting is “correct”, so if you know of any shadowrun references to Boston, let me know!

Another part is that I am looking to retire some NPCs and considering who their logical successors will be from the current group of “heroes”. Keep that in mind. :P

This is in preparation for 5th edition.

OOC NOTE: This summary combines the results from two sessions. Its more amusing this way.

Tossing the report on the table, “This is a nightmare!” Evan exclaimed.

Rapidly flipping through the report and selecting pages:

• “We allow an individual to schedule an appointment with no background vetting.”
• “Someone pretending to be a customer deliberately floods our bathroom before starting a firefight in our lobby.”
• “The Troll Plumber, who was obviously a fake, throwing a fit and plunging our guard’s head.”
• “Two runners kick in our backdoor and burst into the cafeteria during a meeting and somehow escape the dozen guards present.”
• “Someone bribes a neighbor for access to their apartment and proceeds to shoot frozen pigeons through the windows.”
• “Our netops worker was busy playing Quake2070 and ends up dying from electrocution.”
• “And to top it off they access our internal server grabbing confidential data.”

“At least one of the runners had the decency to tell us about it. They thought it was an authorized security test.”

Practically growling as he slammed his fists into the desk Evan shouted, “That just makes it worse! Not only were we hit, but we were hit by a group of idiots!”

Those named in this story can consider it IC knowledge. All others are to interpret it as OOC.
A large wooden table dominated the center of the room. Four of the six sturdy oak chairs were occupied, and a fifth was pushed away from the table. The long shadows cast by the dim lamplight seemed to emphasize the seriousness of the mood. The men around the table waited patiently until a wizened man with pure white hair and a long flowing beard gave a nod to the girl standing at the head of the table.

The scene could easily have been a student giving her dissertation to faculty staff, in fact that is how it was supposed to appeared. The actual matter at hand was more serious, and very few in the room had an affiliation with MIT&T.

Idly turning a gear on her bracelet, the blond spoke, “We are concerned. During his patrol last night at The Estate, Simon Felix reported a change in the energy at the grounds. To a Magician the area normally feels twisted with a aura of Terror mixed with Curiosity. Last night it merely felt dark. He described it as if part of the house’s soul was missing.”

At that the bearded man and the dwarf leaned forward more attentively, they knew the nature of that estate, and that could have very serious magical implications. The elf and the ork seemed less moved, the elf seemed to be more action oriented and the ork had the air of a grizzled war veteran.

“Following standard protocol Simon commanded Yip Yap to investigate.” The scorn in her voice made it clear to all in the room that Yip Yap was a spirit rather than one of the security guards. The veteran gave a small nod of approval, he had heard what happened last time someone entered the house after dark, especially this close to a full moon.

“Surprisingly Yip Yap returned unharmed from its foray into the house and reported that Subjects Two and Three were no longer present.”

The Dwarf cleared his throat, and spoke once he gained the group’s attention. “So what you are saying is that a Nightmare and a Muse which were both bound to a location are now unaccounted for?”

“Yes. Two f***ing shadow spirits are somewhere in my city. Now if you will let me continue…” She glared briefly before speaking once more, “At dawn an elite squad was sent in to investigate. The resistance was much weaker than previous attempts and Subject One was dealt with.” Her eyes seemed to glow with a sadistic sense of pleasure as she spoke, the emotion strong enough to send a chill down the spine of those who were magically aware in the room.

“It was discovered that certain research files and records were missing and that the two missing monsters had formed spirit pacts enabling them to leave.”

Now the elf was the one who seemed attentive while the ork seemed lost in thought, as if he were planning some manner of military excursion.

“While we had expected some sort of action at the estate, this is different than predicted. Provided there are no objections, we will be implementing Dive Protocol.” Her tone implied that there would be no objections and none spoke up.

“Professor, Maynard, see that Kharn is able to get to location B without being detected and ensure he has all research material he needs. Once Kharn and the relic are secure, you are to go about your normal routine Professor. Maynard you are to take point topside. I expect you to keep your eyes and ears open. Etrine, we want you on standby at a moments notice. Questions?”

There were none and the group quickly disbursed.

A quick note since I have been so quiet lately.

First off, the subject of the post – Dig Town in Media

If you have watched the series Bones, in the first season there is an excellent example of what Dig Town would be like.

Episode 16 – The Woman in the Tunnel

There is an entire community living under the streets of DC. It also shows how convoluted the tunnel systems are. I will try and extract some images for Shadow Lives 2080.

Which brings me to my second point – the future of my shadowrun campaign.
Currently I am working through an 8 mission arc. I’ve told everyone about this already. Once that finishes, time passes. This will give me an excuse for a fresh, fifth edition, start.

Once that happens, I plan on having two parallel campaigns. The primary campaign will be a closed campaign. We will have a set group of 6 players and there won’t be random people coming and going each session. The secondary campaign will be a series of convention one shots. They will fit in the overall setting but not advance plot and people can come and go as they please.

But I don’t want to leave everyone in the lurch. I am looking into handing off the setting for a couple IC years. Alex has expressed an interest in running a campaign which would allow those of you who are hesitant to reset a chance to continue on. That is assuming the current arc doesn’t kill you off ;)

More detail will follow later. My schedule is really messed up from conventions, weather, and colds. I hope to post some fluff mission wrap ups this coming week. I still owe post session write ups for “Estate Sale” and “Beware the Auditors”.

Howdy,
I’ve been very quiet on the Shadowrun front lately, being focused on my Savage Worlds game, but I have some news which needs to be shared.

http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/2012/12/21/the-year-of-shadowrun/

Spring
- Shadowrun: Crossfire, The Adventure Deckbuilding Game.

Summer
- Shadowrun, Fifth Edition RPG
- Shadowrun Returns (Old School Style computer game)
- Shadowrun Online

Fall-Winter
- Shadowrun: Sprawl Gangers (Tactical Miniatures game. Necromunda anyone?)

Spring 2014
- Shadowrun: Hostile Takeover (Euro-Style board game)

I can’t guarantee any dates for these releases, I know as little as you at this point, and even if I knew more I couldn’t say. (NDA)

Still, its a big year coming up.

Also, an additional tidbit for you… Arisia and Templecon are coming up. I’m writing a new mission for each con and need to test them sometime in early January.

Arisia: Beware the Auditors
Building security is the bane of every runners existence, few and far between are the jobs that don’t devolve into a firefight. At least this time you know what you are getting in to, an agent of EE Security hires you for an internal “audit”

Templecon: Templecon Tryst
Not all jobs involve breaking the law, sometimes there’s a more traditional bodyguard job. Though why the Johnson hired 6 runners for protection at a convention is beyond you…

Happy New Year!

Hoi Chummers!
This is just a quick post con write up.

Garage Sale (Part 2)

This did not run mostly as expected! The team stole the tank but were excessively smart about it. If it wasn’t for Lucian Dirge telling the Knights the route and where the drop was going to be, it would have been a milk run. The team had some clever ideas and actually used a flatbed truck INSTEAD of driving the tank… Until they crashed.

The funny thing, even after Lucian admitted to the runners he set them up, several of them still wanted to work with him in the future.

Xolotl’s Box

The second time this mission ran on Friday the 13th! The team social’ed their way to the box but couldn’t sell their story to the guards. They eventually got the box and made it to the drop point, but then a couple players had to leave early so we had to fast forward the end.

Imaginary Friends

For once there were magicians in the team! They carefully made transfer arrangements for the patient and successfully extracted the child without a hitch. Then again things like influence help greatly with that.

They would have made quick work of the other runner team as well, except someone thought it was a good idea to throw open the rear door of the van while under suppressive fire. The stray bullets nearly killed the child…

In the end the hacker saved the day by ordering the drones to retreat.

Nature Hike

The Con ended with a bang. The team slaughtered the possessed hikers with abandon. They skipped the encampment (as expected) and snuck up on the guards at the cave. Due to time constraints the Muse retreated quicker than it would have otherwise, compelling half the team (and all the magic support) to creativity.

It looked like it would be a success except one of the runners decided to see what would happen if Cerra had grabbed the chess piece… The cave filled with flame and two runners fell. The Queen, and Cerra, got slightly singed, but remained largely unscathed.

Shadowrun Online (SRO)

And in other news, the SRO Kickerstarter is up!
This is your chance to get a foot in the door and possibly leave your mark on the Shadowrun world.
Click here for more: Shadowrun Online Kickstarter

In response to popular demand, here is the crunch summary from the Nature Hike test run.

Runners

• Grrl (Tony)
• Guido (Stacy)
• Maynard (Chris)
• Twitch (Rich)

Rewards

• 3000 Nuyen each
• 6 Karma
• 1000 nuyen worth of magical reagents

Contacts

• Cerra at Connection 1, Loyalty 1 if you don’t already have her.

Loot

The following gear is available from looting bodies.

• Kris (Dagger, resell 100)
• Colt Manhunter (Heavy Pistol, resell 30)
• 1 clip of regular ammo (16 bullets, no resell)
• Remington 750 (Hunting Rifle, resell 50) – Only two available
• Survival Knife (Dagger, no resell)
• Shadow Priest Robes (6/4 Armor, no resell)
• 1000 nuyen magical reagents (ash / granate / mushrooms)

I came across some news today that I have to share.
Remember the old Shadowrun video games for the SNES and Sega?
Would you like to see them again?

If the answer is yes, then you should support this kickstarter project.

They have a fairly modest funding goal, and will probably make it. I know I certainly am looking forward to it.

And if you do back it, let me know.

Here’s the “crunch” portion of the mission. I need to add the fluff, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. This test run ran for a full table at Gaming Weekend. I personally felt the mission was lacking though it did have its high points.

This mission used pregenned characters. As such there is no direct rewards for the players. To show my appreciation though, my players will get a small amount of transferable karma.

Players

• Alex (?). This was a new player who expressed interest in the campaign. If he joins he will get 6 bonus karma and the knowledge skill Boston Toxic Scare at rating 2.
• Tommy. Etrine earns 3 bonus karma and the Boston Toxic Scare knowledge skill at rating 2. Presuming he heard stories from Erk.
• Solly. Solly arrived late and as such gets 2 bonus karma and 1 point in Toxic Scare knowledge.
• Micah. Not a member of the campaign.
• Tom. Not a member of the campaign.
• Nina. Not a member of the campaign.

Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it!