Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Jamelfr on <09-06-14/1254:23>
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Hoping this is the right section for this thread...
I am curious about the character Maria Mercurial, but a quick search only gave me this adventure: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/87675/Shadowrun-Mercurial. Is there any story/novel involving the singer? Or any fiction delving into the entertaining business in the Sixth World (I already have the Attitude book)? Thank you.
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Shadowbeat, while a 1st edition book (Or possibly 2nd?) is, by far and away, the best Entertainment book for Shadowrun. One of the better books overall, IMHO, but some GMs can't stand it.
As for Mercurial, she had her one adventure, then would get mentioned in fiction from time to time, until eventually dropping off into relative obscurity. (The in-world reason was her multiple personality disorder kicked in strongly and she had a horrible depression cycle for several years.) As of Attitude, she'd started a comback tour and was seen as a sort of comeback kid, but lots of stuff is still a bit in the air over her.
Dr Sorayama, the cybertechnician who was based on teh artist who painted the picture that Mercurial was based on, was a top-rated doctor in ... Chiba I think? Japan, whose clinic was the one and only Deltaware clinic open for the general public. By the time 2070 rolled around, he was at the tail end of his career, having lost luster on his work, and his clinic had suffered, dropping down to just a Beta-grade.
Lots of neat hooks in all of that. :)
(But, seriously, track down Shadowbeat. You won't regret it.)
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Shadowbeat is then added to my to-buy list. Thank you for the suggestion and the for little summary! :)
Too bad Mercurial is not used in more books, I will have to hunt down other content to satisfy my curiosity about the entertainment business. Speaking of this, what did happen to Las Vegas since the Awakening?
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Lots of stuff. :) It was in the Ute territory, given protected status as a reservation for Anglos along with Salt Lake City, and that status was continued when the PCC absorbed the Ute nation into itself. The mob's still big there, but it's also a big corporate retreat.
The best info on Las Vegas can be found in Twilight Horizon, which gives you a nice summary of the place in addition to having several adventures there (And a nice appendix about assorted Skillsofts.)
Since the Rain of Blood (See Twilight Horizon!), I don't think there've been any big changes out there.
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Another PDF to put in the list then, thank you very much! I often visit Las Vegas and I can't wait to see how it is depicted.
Speaking of entertainment at large (including sims), I've just found Sim Dreams & Nightmares.
So many things to read, so little time. :)
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Mercurial is one of my favorite adventures, by far. I've played in that a couple times with different characters, and run it three or four times over the years.
She also makes a short appearance in the Shadowrun Missions Seattle Adventure SRM 04-00: Back in Business (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/87673/Shadowrun-Mission-0400-Back-in-Business) in an homage to the opening scene of original Mercurial adventure.
(http://criticalglitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/WP_SR_Mercurial_1680x1050.jpg)
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I'll simply add my voice to the chorus of people who love Shadowbeat. That and Bug City are essential reading, regardless of what edition you're playing.
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I am sure those books will be interesting to read, even if I am not playing in a group at the moment (and in the near future... oh well lol). Thank you all for the suggestions. Keep them coming if you have more ideas. My next shopping session at Drivethru will be a big one it seems. ;D
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Anyway, to address your original question...
Attitude is ok, but Shadowbeat should be your "Go To" book, IMO.
There are also a couple other adventures that involved Rockers (Total Eclipse and Dark Angel), as the idea of "Rock n Roll can Save the World" was still big back in the early days of SR, and musicians still had a bit of that "bad boy/girl rebel" image to them that fits Shadowrunners so well.
Plus there's A Killing Glare, which is a psuedo-sequel of sorts to Mercurial (It involves some of the same enemies/antagonists) and deals with one of Shadowrun's made-up future sports, Urban Brawl. More info about UB can be found in Shadowbeat, and also gets some detail in a German created sourcebook (that is sadly only available in German) called Blut & Spiele (I think that's how it's spelled, and translates as Blood & Games, I think).
The old Roc Novel (long out of print and not available digitally due to... issues) Dead Air by Jak Koke deals with Combat Biker, another Shadowrun original sport.
The third edition book Sprawl Survival Guide has a little bit talking about reporters as well, though I think that's delving outside your original question a bit. (Rockers, Sports Stars, and Reporters were the key things covered by Shadowbeat, so I always lump them together :))
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Bug City was great. Very flavorful. One book I don't see mentioned a lot is the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Real Life. That was a very nice primer on day to day life in the Shadowrun universe. Very useful I would think.
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I'd absolutely LOVE to do a modern take on that one, by the by. 20,000 words on going shopping, what's in an apartment, and taking the bus to work? Oh LORD yes.
(But then, I'm weird)
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.....
though I think that's delving outside your original question a bit. (Rockers, Sports Stars, and Reporters were the key things covered by Shadowbeat, so I always lump them together :))
Thank you for the many useful suggestions. No worries if some subjects seem to be outside my original question : I am also interested about how people are living a "usual" life (as usual can be the Sixth world lol) and entertain/inform themselves, so reporters and sports are valid reading matters.
Bug City was great. Very flavorful. One book I don't see mentioned a lot is the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Real Life. That was a very nice primer on day to day life in the Shadowrun universe. Very useful I would think.
I have the Guide to real life and The Universal Brothehood (they were written by Nigel Findley, so I had to buy them!), but not Bug City yet. It is often mentionned, I'll have to get it indeed.
I'd absolutely LOVE to do a modern take on that one, by the by. 20,000 words on going shopping, what's in an apartment, and taking the bus to work? Oh LORD yes.
(But then, I'm weird)
If you are weird, then we are both in this situation. ;D
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Bug City is right up there with Renraku Arcology - Shutdown for me as my all time favorite campaign book.
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The Neo Anarchists's Guide to Real Life was a fun read. Probably not very exciting if you are looking for a book to base campaigns on. I would think of it as a book that helps you get the setting details right. For example, there's a section on air travel. Semi-ballistic planes versus sub orbital vs HSSTs. I don't recall that info being replicated anywhere else in other books.
There's info about the Shadowrun equivalent of McDonalds. And how credsticks work.
I should add something here: I've never actually *played* Shadowrun. I could never find a local group to join. But I've read most of the books for fun. So my perspective is going to be different than the majority of people who have actually played the game.
Renraku Arcology was also great. It took the cover off of the arcology and was appropriately creepy. I'd think that book would generate a million campaign ideas.
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My hands-down favorite piece is the UB download. Oh, Bug City, Dunk's Will, the Arcology Shutdown, all those (and more!) are great - but for no-holds-barred oh-my-frickin' you-gotta-be-fragging-with-me chills up your spine don't sleep for two days pieces, nothing matches the UB download. Especially if you're walking into it cold.
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Going into Shadowrun Returns, and just seeing the UB chapterhouse at the beginning of the game gave me chills so bad I had to step away from the screen.
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I apologize if this is too off topic but... what the hell has Ares been doing with the insect spirits lately? I only know they (mostly) kicked the insect spirits out of Chicago.
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Experimentation. They try to turn them into weapons. This includes investing their own people with the damn things. Last time I checked, jury was still out on whether Ares has been turned into a hive or not.
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Or rather, whether or not the insects have gained control of critical points of influence. It's extremely unlikely that the spirits would be able to take control of and invest the greater part of Ares' workers, but a small, frequently-overlooked subsidiary is possible, as well as an occasional 'inspector' whose disappearance for a couple or six days can be explained away.
And I'd actually say less 'trying to turn them into weapons' than 'trying to figure out how to harvest / make marketable their innate weapons'. A slight shift in viewpoint, but important.
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It started as a way to get some nice guard animals, by the by. Parazoologicals that were dogs invested with insect spirits, figuring that a double-dose of loyalty would be a good thing. This moved up a step into investing humans, trying to get some kind of bio-augmentation designs. (Or, more likely, investing a critter, killing it, harvesting parts, and attaching THOSE to people, but residual buggyness seems to come through.) At some point in the process, one of teh researchers got infected somehow (invested or emotionally) and flipped to the bug side and started working for the captive queen that had been pumping out spirits. Very slowly, they worked together to take the facility over, but when an investigation hit (Roge Soaring Owl went there in person), they realized that the jig was up, killed everyone in the facility that wasn't buggy, and took off.
Since then, there's been an quiet war going on, where the bugs have realized that Ares is Enemy #1 and that they have weapons that hurt. They've set about killing their enemy, both by infecting personnel and trying to bring the company down from the inside, and hitting other targets, most especially anything insecticide-related. Some Ares people have been invested and now work for the other side, with Leonard Aurelius' death at the hands of Wasp spirits a sign that someone higher up, or at least with knowledge of where to find higher-ups, has been flipped.
Ares hasn't made any of thispublic (obviously) and Knight himself seems to either think it's no big deal or is confident that his people can handle it while he focuses on other matters. When Soaring Owl brought all this to his attention, whatever Knight said was enoug to make him say "Screw you guys, I'm going home" and he bailed on the corporation, returning to teh Sioux lands (Where, a few months later, there was a lot of activity. Presumably, he's setting up his own Firewatch teams and trying to roust any invested in his homeland.)
Where it goes from here is anybody's game, but we know that the Firewatch teams of Ares are disrupted and the Ares higher-ups are still in a tug-of-war for the company. Stock prices are down, their reputation is bruised from teh whole Excaliber thing, and the future's nebulous at best.
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Thank you for the info. Sounds like Knight hasn't heard the phrase "pride goeth before the fall." They should have stuck to hell hounds.
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Going into Shadowrun Returns, and just seeing the UB chapterhouse at the beginning of the game gave me chills so bad I had to step away from the screen.
I took a screenshot of the "Enter the Universal Brotherhood [y/n]" screen and sent it to all my old group that did a months-long (in-game time) grinder in Bug City to cap off second edition. The memory's still fresh.
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Going into Shadowrun Returns, and just seeing the UB chapterhouse at the beginning of the game gave me chills so bad I had to step away from the screen.
I took a screenshot of the "Enter the Universal Brotherhood [y/n]" screen and sent it to all my old group that did a months-long (in-game time) grinder in Bug City to cap off second edition. The memory's still fresh.
Reading all of you makes me kinda sad I was not able to play those adventures when I was younger : books in 90's were really rare in my city (and french translated books were soooo expensive for teenage-me). I remember that I played some sessions of Shadowrun but our players group dissolve soon after that.
Now, at least, I can buy and read PDF of those books and play some Shadowrun Returns campaings to catch up. ;D
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My hands-down favorite piece is the UB download. Oh, Bug City, Dunk's Will, the Arcology Shutdown, all those (and more!) are great - but for no-holds-barred oh-my-frickin' you-gotta-be-fragging-with-me chills up your spine don't sleep for two days pieces, nothing matches the UB download. Especially if you're walking into it cold.
The player hand-outs in the original UB campaign were awesome -- when you first got them, you were 'What the drek? then 'What the drek!!!' ;)
I think players were used to the scifi/cyber aspect --- when a little horror poked it's way through, it had maximum effect! :D
Dark times. Dark times.
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While not Mercurial specific it is related to the Entertainment Biz in the 6th World.
"Free Fall" by Tom Dowd was one of the original SR short stories that was part of "Into the Shadows". It centered around an extraction of a Simsense Starlet and Director.
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Has anyone ever produced "Maria Mercurial" music? Besides the SNES Shadowrun game tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFou-xkECE0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFou-xkECE0)?
Because I have always wanted to listen to what the Shadowrun's version of a hit musician sounds like.