[GiraffeShaman]

Mar 19: A virus of unknown origin attacks Seattle's Matrix RTG. People accessing the RTG suffer memory loss, psychotic episodes or brain death. The attack lasts for nearly ten minutes, then ends with no explanation or aftereffects.

From the Shadowrun wiki. So, who was behind this and what happened? Any good sources for it? My campaign is currently at mid February, 2060, and so I'd really like to know.

[Black]

Wan't that Deus?

[CanRay]

Mirage.

[Mirikon]

Mirage.

Indeed. That was Mirage, and this is where you get some of the original Otaku (including Empress Hitomi, IIRC). I think the book that goes into it is Psychotrope, though I could be wrong.

[Wakshaani]

Ayup, that's the Psychotrope novel (And, technically, it was Psychotrope, not Mirage (Yes, one in the same, bear with me) who did that.

In essence, what happened was that Fuchi had kept Mirage in storage for 30 years or so, and had some minor contact with him. When Fuchi collapsed, this got forgotten about. Mirage stopped getting info that Fuchi was there and, for some reason (I don't have that novel, sadly), read this is the USA having gone down. He flipped out and turned the Seattle Matrix off... people who were jacked in at the time got messed up (Recall, even line noise can be fatal if you're in Hot Sim!) and a few wound up as Otaku.

The novel has better info than I have, and James will probably be by in a while to smack me upside the head and correct the glaring errors that I have, but, that'll give you the short form.

[GiraffeShaman]

Thank you,. I just ordered it. Now I just hope I can get delay time enough for the book to get here before we hit that date. I'm guessing this is a good time for some Johnson to call to hit some site during the chaos this causes. Kind of like a more advanced version of the looting that went on during the New Orleans flooding or the LA riots.

[raggedhalo]

Indeed. That was Mirage, and this is where you get some of the original Otaku (including Empress Hitomi, IIRC).

Weren't there otaku before that, though?  ISTR they were introduced in Virtual Realities 2.0, which was an SR2 book (thus pre-2060).

[Crimsondude]

They were most of the adult Otaku, which presaged adult Technomancers and the end of adult-onset Fading. The original (known) adult Otaku was Michael Bishop, a/k/a Ronin.

And yes, this is in the middle of Seattle being the site of the Redmond Crash, the Arcology Shutdown, and the blackout before Deus' escape in May 2061. To say Seattle was chaotic is an understatement, and it allows for some pretty good times (speaking from personal experience).

[lurkeroutthere]

Thank you,. I just ordered it. Now I just hope I can get delay time enough for the book to get here before we hit that date. I'm guessing this is a good time for some Johnson to call to hit some site during the chaos this causes. Kind of like a more advanced version of the looting that went on during the New Orleans flooding or the LA riots.

Potentially but only if the Johnson can reach them by courier. The grid going down killed everything, phones, grid guide, everything on top of that you've got all the people that went slack jawed in the matrix when it happened and unplugging them caused them to flatline, scary stuff.

A better way to use it might be to have them in the middle of something else when it happens.

[GiraffeShaman]

Potentially but only if the Johnson can reach them by courier. The grid going down killed everything, phones, grid guide, everything on top of that you've got all the people that went slack jawed in the matrix when it happened and unplugging them caused them to flatline, scary stuff.

A better way to use it might be to have them in the middle of something else when it happens

.

Or a hired merc spellslinger to summon a watcher spirit messanger. Unless magic is effected, which I wouldn't think. (Beyond background count perhaps in certain areas from the horror of mass matrix deaths)

That indeed might be a better way to play it, certainly more shocking. I'll have to see if I can think of a good scenario for it. And of course it depends on which of the two faces of the GM they get. Hmmm, maybe a chaotic scene in a corp office, with secrataries unplugging unresponsive matrix users and creating corpses.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Giraffe, understand that the total time of this 'virus attack' was five ... what, five minutes, I think I remember?  An exceedingly short time.