[WSN0W]

I love Shadowrun. The dystopian setting where characters can thrive is a blast. While I like the cyberpunk feel, magic adds another layer to it too that I, personally, find to be pleasant.

But it's also easy to get lost in the magic. There is little a full mage, given enough Karma, can't do as well if not flat out better than another character, save a Technomancer (which is basically the cybermage.) And while Karma is a good balancing factor as magic is a huge XP dump, it does make a lot of the metaplots have a series magical bend to them.

I don't want to bemoan the pros/cons of magic/technomancers and how they can in the long haul really just grow to be beasts with a (theoretically) infinite area of expansion (uncapped Magic/Resonance) where everyone else has to manage a finite research of Essence. What I more am looking for is something to introduce (double-edged is fine too) that you have to be a cybered...or low essence or something so it tends to favor or be exclusive to augmented characters that Mages/Technomancers can't 'partake' in (much like Meta planes, Resonance realms, Sprites, auras, etc.) I'm not looking for a huge stat bonus (I have Wired 2 thus I get +4 on...) but more of a nitch and world aspect. The Mages and Technomancers have their Initation clubs and Echo streams...Sam's have...augmented bars?

[Henzington]

With uncapped Magic/Resonance comes a huge cost of karma.  Augmented characters are limited by money more then karma as their karma costs are generally a bit lower.

[WSN0W]

Yeah, Augmentation has a smoother upgrade (Runs generally bring Karma AND cash as rewards, mundanes use both to upgrade. Magic users tend to by high price foci which also take karma to really 'buy')

But it's more of a quest for some kind of nitch for the mundanes. To inject some plot/world/theme elements that bring the focus on being SOTA with 'Ware and having that 'man/machine' story element going on to keep the game from taking too much of a transition from Cyberpunk to Urban Fantasy.

it's not a 'power' thing, but an in-world perception thing, especially for the players. For unlike the masses the players can 'choose' to be magical/technomancer.

What's the difference between a physical adept and an augmented character in play? Their end stats/abilities look the same (or can, depending on ware/power choices). BUt the adepts can grow to be Thorn and also can have access to spirit killing powers and the ability to see the astral. They can join 'Adept Clubs' and write thesis on magical practice.

I've been injecting some theme bars and trying to play up a few characters like Ghost Who Walks in Shadows who are not just 'a dude with a gun' but have this code and blending of their Cyberware into something more than human. That was something about the original triology I loved how there was the other guy in Ghost's gang that was just as cybered but still didn't have the same...moxy that Ghost did and it was evident between the two and to Sam. (the Samurai that died in Australlia.)

[Wakshaani]

It's an issue for me as well. There're a *ton* of magical plots, because, well, let's face it, while there are a couple of other cyberpunk games out there, none of THOSE have magic, and the return of, and steady increasing of, magic is one of the core elements of the story.

That said?

I love my smaller stories. Slumlords abusing their renters who have nowhere else to go, drug rings, criminal outfits, gangers, megacorps being megacorpy and taking over stuff form smaller people just becaus ethey're bigger and can bully them, etc.

I really want to focus on the meat world, or meat and metal world, rather than the magical one. I figure that rare people use the Astral, uncommon folks hit the Matrix, but *everybody* walks the streets. That's where the story needs to be, with a *dip* into the other two, but mainly stay grounded.

Magic shouldn't dominate *everything*.

[WSN0W]

I agree, Wakshaani. I also don't want to PUNISH the Magic/Technomancers either, but I like the smaller, personalized struggles. One of the most amusing runs I had recently was a Escort contact that was being scammed by a fake online college with promises of some corporate interviews/etc and they were using outdated source material.

I want to make 'Ware more 'in your face' and while theme bars are nice, it's kinda like pushing drugs at the PCs (Because at the end of the day, it all revolves around the PC's connection to whatever theme/enviornments) You can have a drug flare up or what have you, but unless it's a specialized concept, most PC's won't dabble in the vice unless they know its 'safe' to do so.

Having a lot of Ware available is kinda a similiar problem. While Joe Average might go 'oooh, Second Hand Cybereyes from the chop shop!' most PC's wouldn't even THINK about slotting second hand basic ware and if they do it's a truly temporary thing.

Maybe a plot line about Beta clinics openning up or..

Oh, maybe a plot about a new drug/product that is designed to help the body be more accepting about the invasiveness of 'Ware (help curb the natural bodily reaction to go OMGWTFBBQ, what the HELL is attached to my heart now!) that has some interesting sideeffects.

[Black]

Maybe a storyline involving living nanotech...  Something like the bugs, but with a nanotech process.

Introduce new cyberware that might mimic some of the magic effects could be interesting.

A 'purity' group against augmentation might be interesting... but it may be a bit late for a neo-luddite movement to make much headway.. or maybe the onset of technomancers etc has provoked a new extermist movement.

Introduce cyberbased 'groups', similar magic groups.  eg Red Samuaria or other ex-mercenaries.  Street Sams with personality, eg an honor code or maybe something darker.

Introduce AI backups, similar something I've seen in Deadlands.  If the cybersam is taken out or similar, the low level AI takes over.  Actually, a 'Combine' like plot would be interetsing in Shadowrun.

[Makki]

Introduce cyberbased 'groups', similar magic groups.  eg Red Samuaria or other ex-mercenaries.  Street Sams with personality, eg an honor code or maybe something darker.

That's what I was thinking. There's infinite possibilities, like a Ninja Clan, or the League of Shadows from Batman. Maybe an exclusive hacker guild or a gentlemen society for all those uber-faces.
Joining costs 5 karma and need some rare knowledge skill test (similar to the Arcana test.
some ideas:
-Groups require/provide special Cyber- or Bioware suites
-Groups allow to go through "Initiation" with ordeals
-karma reduction on learning realted Martial Arts
-possibilty to increase one related skill group to 7

maybe we can start with the (absolutely useless) Code of Honour quality from RC

[ArkangelWinter]

You coyld even add initiation levels. Instead of Metamagic or Echoes, samis could get martial arts, Biocompatability, or ditch 'ware related negative qualities. Maybe each Initiation level adds 1 to an augmented phys attribute cap determined by initation group, since you dont have Magic/Resonance.

For Hackers, replace metamagic with Codeslinger, dropping things like Scorched, or bonuses to Lifestyle spoofing. Insteas of augmented phys attribute, initiation could add to one augmented mental attribute cap.

Faces are easier. Each initiation could mean a free contact worth (Initiation+1) BP, and add 1 to an existing contacts' loyalty, through the "club" helping the Face connect with people.

[AndyNakamura]

That gave me an idea.

(My players have already learned to fear these words, muahahahaha.)

In short, a group of SOTA people impersonating mages for some nefarious reason, Clarke's Law style. Will playtest on  PbP once it develops. I'll need to figure out how these guys would deal with astral sight.

[Reaver]

Prejudice is alive and well in the 6th world, play it up! Why wouldn't there be 'cyber-arm only' clubs around? Use the setting to your advantage and make the world come alive with descriptions, smells, sounds, hatreds, and bigotry.

Have to remember, people fear what is different than them, and what they fear, they soon hate magic ability is still ultra rare (something like less than 2% of the population can use magic) and yet can do awesomely fanstastic things! This breeds hatred and fear in alot of people. So much so that I would expect people without visible ware to be getting alot of second looks and prejudice thrown at them all time. It need not be overly threatening... Maybe they have to wait an extra 5 mins for that soykaff, or the merchant wants 3 forms of ID instead of 2, or the police officer runs a triple check on their ID for a routine matter. If you trivialize the intangibles in the game you are not doing the game any justice (At least in my mind)

Just don't get too carried away (it's supposed to be fun remember?) and be careful of trying to "tweak" the stats of things cause you never know, what you think is a 'great fix' to an issue could in fact cause you a major headache down the road (found this out through personal experience!!)

Magic is the long haul to immense power, but it takes time to get there (Karma cost), and usually ends up with people do overally relant on magic that they just can keep up in other aspects of the world (social interaction, matrix basics, let alone 'job' skills! ) the attitude generally becomes 'there's a spell for that' attitude. While there is spell creation rules, it's up to the GM to thoroughly review what a player is trying to do and ask himself "is this unbalancing for MY game? What exactly can the spell do, and NOT do?" if you put your magic users into "easy mode" they can rapidly unbalance a game!

Cyber/bio/gene ware allows for a huge boost in ability right up front, but caps out relativily quickly (essence is finite!). Judicious implantation of 'ware turns 'Mr. Average' into a God... At least compared to mere mortals. But once the body has been pushed to that edge of death (0 essence) there is no more to be done. The shallow will continue the hunt for that next greatest implant that will 'fix them up right'. The smart realize they have gone as far as they can physically, and begin to look for an other avenue of advancement (skills!). A cybered individual who has been around for a long time can usually do just about anything if he puts his mind to it (just maybe not very well, in relation to other things he can do) climb a wall? Sure. Take down a guard? You want him alive or dead? Smooze with high society? No problem? Infiltrate a facility? Ok. In short, they end up with a huge host of skills that (should) cover a broad range of topics and thus make him more adaptable to any and every situation.

The mechanics of a game are just bits of rules and dice held together by abstract words. It's the GM who creates the environment and turns the abstract words, dice, and rules into a living breathing world. It's the players who give the world flesh and strength.  Be careful you don't break your world by introducing an imbalance... And don't let your players break your world by imbalancing it either!

[DarkLloyd]

introduce some new really helpful piece of mundane ware. Something that will be as Ubiquitous as the Datajack, something every wage slave can't live without. Maybe a datajack type interface that also improves the cognitive functions or attention span or helps them work longer or faster. Or it acts as a Level 1 skill wire or some such. But it gets this better functionality done with the help of nanites.

don't give it any real combat bonuses but make it useful some way so that at least one of your players will want it.  And introduce it to the group from a sideways angle, have them hired to go on a run to steal the schematics for another corp. Then have it proliferate thru out your world. (don't just say, "Hey I came up with this new gear! who wants it!" that is a GM plot device giveaway. Work this into a pre-published module and then give the people that want the stats a handout.)

After awhile in your game universe you start having the PC, that took the ware, to have negatives to their Willpower.  -1 every now and then in stressful command situations or negotiations or interrogations. then as time progresses make it a full -1 to Will all the time. If they don't look into it increase it to -2 and so on. if they loose all of their Will take that person aside and tell them its time to make a new char.(if someone has continuously lost starts and hasn't tried to diagnose it they don't deserve that char anyway.)

When the PC's investigate have their "Street Doc" contact find "something" wonky (yeah that's a technical term) but not have the gear/expertize to figure it out. But He has a contact that might be able to help, a Prof. at the local University. (Oh by the way make sure the street doc never gets one of these implants for some reason.) The Prof. will be able to tell the runners that the Nanites seem to have malfunctioned and have been "accidentally" rewriting parts of the PC's brain. Parts like the motor-cortex, the parts that control unconscious thought etc etc (Ive just woken up and the biology classes parts of my memory aren't online yet) and that the PC needs to get the 'Ware repaired. Make sure that the Prof. ensures the PCs that this is a malfunction on the nanites/Ware's part, even when presented with evidence otherwise.(also the Prof. might require a run/favor before he/she helps them) After more scrutiny, the nanites appear to be in parts of the body they were never meant to be and that they have turned one of the users kidneys into a nanohive to produce more.......

At this point the PC had best be screaming "GET IT OUT ......BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!" lol. Once the Prof. gets it out of the PC let them analyze it. and find out it was meant to convert the host into an automaton. To be controlled by something or someone. Oh and then, if they haven't asked before, let one of the PC's notice that the Prof. has one too......

At this point it will be a paranoia filled campaign as the runners try and figure out who they can and cant trust and who or What is behind these implants and what they want. And most importantly how to stop them. 

It's up to you who you want the bad guy to be and how far you want this to have spread. it could be that just the runners city is a test market, or it could be that this product shipped to the world a couple of years ago. Make it as small or far reaching as you want. But the runners will have to dodge mind controlled people throughout the campaign, maybe even their own contacts and friends. (Yes this is basically a tech version of the Body Snatchers.) Maybe it's just one scientist at a mega that stumbled onto this tech and used it to gain control over his branch of the corp and then had the corp ship out this new product without his CEO overlords any wiser. Especially if they think the new tech is Wiz and want one for themselves......... Or it could go all the way up to being a reformed amalgam of Deus/Psychotrope and  newest plot to Control/Fix the world/metahumans using deus' knowledge of manufacturing and Psycho's knowledge of brain manipulation. Or it could be the Human Nation in an attempt to finally control everyone's attitude on Meta's and magic and in this version it only manipulates thought patterns not out right controls. So now Racism is more prevalent, and rising daily. Hate crimes are rising daily, even in Meta on Meta hate crimes(for those that have the link)........... And lawmakers have begun to come down much harder on the populace with heavy Anti metas laws. repealing sentience to the critters and AI's, and outlawing, severely restricting, magic. And maybe opening up some internment camps again......

When I can think better I'll came edit this for clarity and grammar, have fun.

[WSN0W]

Lots of cool stuff

That's a rather fitting and cool idea, though it actually pushes things in the long haul back in favor of magic as Tech is 'bad'. Short haul it's solid. Though allowing the mod to go from 'useful but not game breaking' to 'wonky' to 'tweaked for Awesome' could be another way to spin it.

While the plot can definitely have some 'suck' factor, the long term goal would certainly not to push character even further from 'Ware.

Though to play on the mind control device, it could be interest to add a 'suck, but perk' double edge to it. Where you can be influenced through the ware, it might also make you more resistant to magical influence/suggestion as technology has kinda...taken the will from you. While it's unlikely to be a PC thing at that point (as what Runner would want any email that says 'Purple Sunshine' to cause them to blank out and go 'yes Master I will obey') it could give a solid edge to some corp hit teams or security...or even on Mr. Johnsons and the like so they are harder to magically bambozal.

[Edited for completion[

[Orvich]

I'd honestly look at the technomancer streams in Unwired. They are more or less the traditions of the technomancers, but they have a much much cooler feel, because they are more close to home for us, the players.

Check out the singulatarians, who believe that the Matrix is the next step to fusing mankind together in a giant vulcan mind meld. Or the Technoshamans, who see echos of sentient souls in the information that flows from them.

While mainly a technomancer thing, you have to remember that in this future age, the web really is everywhere. Imagine the amazing things that people do now-a-days with the internet and groupthink, and how much bigger and better (and worse) those would be in the future.


EDIT: In other words, something like what was suggested by DarkLloyd could be a malformed plot of some techie to bring in the beginning of a true mind network.

[lord_shadow_666]

You could always do what I am considering when I run my first to counter high level mages is that the lower someones Essence becomes the less effect magic has on them, so yes this does mean a mage might become less effective against these style combatants but I will make sure spells that effect cybernetics do more damage (I am still reading up on how mages and technomancers work, but I know mages can be deadly.)

[Reaver]

You could always do what I am considering when I run my first to counter high level mages is that the lower someones Essence becomes the less effect magic has on them, so yes this does mean a mage might become less effective against these style combatants but I will make sure spells that effect cybernetics do more damage (I am still reading up on how mages and technomancers work, but I know mages can be deadly.)

The problem with this is how you explain to your Mage how his 'flamethrower' force 8 spell is LESS effective then an actual flamethrower VS a low essence target

They both produce fire in a directed area, they both have a damage code... But now you are arbitrarily saying "cause of 'X' essence, you do 'Y' less damage." how does a Mage hurt an unliving target (car)? It is already immune to mana based spells, and now you want to penalitize the Mage more?

Like I keep saying, think HARD about house rules/adjusting rules, they have a nasty way of coming back and hurting the game later on, when you least expect it.