Final modules will be a continuing storyline that will continue to added on to... as well as providing a Seattle base for everyone to create Shadowrun modules, so gameplay is potentially unlimited.
Number Players
Untested - so far the PW server has a maximum of 8 due to financial restrictions.
The year is 2059. The world has changed, some say Awakened. A long lull in the mystical energies of the universe has subsided and magic has returned to the world. Eleves, dwarfs, orks, and trolls have assumed their true forms, throwing off their human guises. Creatures of the wild have changed as well, transforming into beasts of myth and legend. The many traditions of magic have come back to life, and shamans and mages have carved out a place in the new world for themselves and their powers. Many aspects of the Awakening remain mysteries, but modern society fights on to assimilate the ways of magic into a technological world.
The decades that followed the Awakening were years of panic and turmoil, as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemed to race across the Earth. Cultures that had never lost touch with their mystical pasts began to use magic against the great nations that had suppressed them for so long. The vast global telecommunications network collapsed under an assault by a mysterious computer virus. Dragons soared into the skies. Epidemics and famine ravaged the world's population. Clashes between the newly Awakened races and the rest of humanity became common. All central authority crumbled, and the world began to spiral into the abyss.
But man and his kin are hearty animals. Out of the devastation and chaos, a fragile new social order slowly emerged. Advanced simulated sensorium (simsense) technology helped eradicate the last vestiges of the computer virus and replaced the old telecommunications network with the new virtual-reality world of the Matrix. Amerindians, elves, orks, and dwarfs formed new nations. Where environmental degradation and pollution have made many areas uninhabitable, eco-groups wage war on polluters, and Awakened powers use incredible magics to heal the earth. Central governments have balkanized into smaller nations and city-states, as fear of the world's changes drives wedges between people of different backgrounds. Vast metropolitan sprawls known as metroplexes cover the landscape; these urban jungles swallow whole regions. Police departments unable to contain crime waves and civil unrest have been privatized or their work contracted out to corporations.
Megacorporations have become the new world super-powers, a law unto themselves. The entire planet speaks their language, as the nuyen has become the global monetary standard. The megacorps play a dealy game, paying pawns in the shadows to help them get an edge on the competition. Meanwhile, corporate executives and wage slaves hole up in their own enclaves, safe behind layers of security and indoctrination. Outside the walls of these arcologies and gated communities, whole stretches of the sprawls have become ungovernable. Gangs rule the streets; the forgotten masses grow, lacking even a System Identification Number (SIN) to give them any rights. These outcasts, dissidents and rebels live as the dregs of society, squatting in long-abandoned buildings, surviving through crime and predatory instincts. Many of them attempt to rise above their miserable existences by slotting addictive BTL (Better-Than-Life) chips, living vicatiously through someone else's senses. Others band together, some for survival and some to gain their own twisted forms of power.
Technology, too, has changed people. No longer merely flesh, many have turned to the artificial enhancements of cyberware to make themseves more than human. Some acquire implants that allow them to directly interface with machines, like deckers who run the Matrix with a cyberdeck and programs or riggers who jack into vehicles or security systems and become one with them. Others seek to push the envelope of their physical capabilities, testing themselves on the streets against other street samurai. The human of 2059 is stronger, smarter, faster than his predecessors.
In the world of 2059, the metroplexes are monsters that cast long shadows. And in the cracks between the giant corporate structures, shadowrunners find their homes. Entire societies live and die in a black-market underworld, exploited and abused, yet powerful in their own way. The Mafia, Yakuza, and other crime syndicates have grown explosively as their networks provide them people that will buy. Shadowrunners are the professionals of this culture where self-sufficiency is vital. When the megacorps want a job done but don't want to dirty their hands, they need a shadowrun, and they turn to the only people who can pull it off: the shadowrunners. Though only the blackest of governmental or corporate databases even registers a shadowrunner's existence, the demand for his or her services is high. Deckers can slide like a whisper through the databases of giant corporations, spiriting away the only thing of real value--information. Street samurai are enforcers for hire whose combat skills and reflexes make them the ultimate urban predators. Riggers can manipulate vehicles and drones for a variety of purposes. Magicians, those rare folk who possess the gift of wielding and shaping the magical energies that now surround the Earlth, are sought aftter to spy on the copetition, sling spells against an enemy, commit magical sabotage, and for any other purpose that their employers can dream up. All thses individuals sell their skills to survive, taking on the tasks too illegal or dangerous for others to dare.
Welcome to the sprawl, chummer. This is your life.
Watch your head chummer. You never know whos on the rooftops above you.
Firearms aren't everything - a good group of buddies will pull you out of the fire quite a bit. Quite a good reason not to jump into a conflict you aren't already a part of.
You don't own the streets, and nobody cares. You ought to look out for number one...
Always time to take a breather at the local establishments...
A server-side image of the Renraku Arcology, one of the latest additions that will be included in the next update.
A server-side image of the Renraku Arcology, one of the latest additions that will be included in the next update.
Make sure you're always prepared. When you're not on a run, make sure you stock up back at your safehouse. When you are, make sure you've got it with you. You never know what will be thrown your way... or who will double-cross you.
Be wary of your surroundings - life in the Sprawl tends to be none too friendly, and there's nobody that really cares.
It's an excellent idea, but perhaps you could package it all into one big whopping ZIP file?
Posted by Eric at 2005-09-1516:12:20
It's an excellent idea, but perhaps you could package it all into one big whopping ZIP file?
Posted by Jory at 2005-08-1322:37:42
Sorry I didn't mean to spam, I promise my comp froze up and I hit refresh, not submit more than ONE time then I hit the BACK button again NOT submit, so I am very sorry. *ducks heads in embarassment* Jory
Posted by Jory at 2005-08-1322:37:42
Sorry I didn't mean to spam, I promise my comp froze up and I hit refresh, not submit more than ONE time then I hit the BACK button again NOT submit, so I am very sorry. *ducks heads in embarassment* Jory
Posted by SDX at 2005-08-1305:19:39
I meant this beta to be more of a demo of some of the systems - and to be a base to run some GMed games... but it also gives you the basics you're going to need for the next release. Ultimately I'm going to give most (if not all) NPCs conversations and try to make them lifelike. As far as the strange woman goes, that was put there to work out some kinks in the hallucinogens - and I forgot to delete her. Essentially one of the things you might see if you use a hallucinogen is a strage man or woman, depending upon your own gender... basically what happens is you think its the strange person you interact with (if you talk to one), but in reality its either another PC or a NPC... so you could end up ticking someone off... its basically one of those things where what you see isn't quite what you get. In any case, I'm going to be gone for a few months, but after that the full release should be closer... if I get a chance to work on anything while I'm gone I'll try to release a run from the full version, and perhaps the seattle areas.
Posted by SDX at 2005-08-1305:19:39
I meant this beta to be more of a demo of some of the systems - and to be a base to run some GMed games... but it also gives you the basics you're going to need for the next release. Ultimately I'm going to give most (if not all) NPCs conversations and try to make them lifelike. As far as the strange woman goes, that was put there to work out some kinks in the hallucinogens - and I forgot to delete her. Essentially one of the things you might see if you use a hallucinogen is a strage man or woman, depending upon your own gender... basically what happens is you think its the strange person you interact with (if you talk to one), but in reality its either another PC or a NPC... so you could end up ticking someone off... its basically one of those things where what you see isn't quite what you get. In any case, I'm going to be gone for a few months, but after that the full release should be closer... if I get a chance to work on anything while I'm gone I'll try to release a run from the full version, and perhaps the seattle areas.
Posted by Mysterious at 2005-08-0312:44:20
DAM theres alot to load for this moduel!!
Posted by Duelist at 2005-07-3021:32:45
Downloaded this today and can't get any where even with runners made in the game.Jessie tells us where to get stuff and we can buy our gear but other then the doc.Knok,karl and that strang wowman(Don't know what's up with her).Oh and the bartender that starts to give us a job but doesn't finesh his conversation no one talks to us.Can't get anywhere other then the bar,chop shop and wharehouse #4.So far it's been a lot of map clearing and a few guard dogs on us.Is this all there is after so many files?We realy would like to play the game so shoot me an e-mail if we're missing something please.
Posted by Chess_0 at on07/23/05
Forgot to vote ! :)
Posted by Chess at 2005-07-2311:00:00
Really nice ! It's about time a project like this comes up.
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