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Message no. 1
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 11:38:50 +1000
An idea that's been bouncing around in my head for a fair while now. It
makes more sense in a White Wolf game, but has much greater potential in
Shadowrun.
The idea is, there is a shift in reality, or the mana level rises to a
certain level. All of a sudden, nothing will burn faster than a certain
speed, very slow. Rockets wont work, guns just fizz for about ten seconds
when fired, cars wont go, most power generators fail. Nuclear reactors
become extremely safe. Society is thrown into turmoil. What do you do with a
sammy who can't shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker that can only
deck when the electricity rationing is right for the matrix (until they get
the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game world,
unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all unplugged from
the simsense" situation. What do you think?
Message no. 2
From: Rookie bane_mcklaine@*******.net
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 21:11:17 -0700
Why not just play ED then?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: shadowrn-admin@*********.com
> [mailto:shadowrn-admin@*********.com]On Behalf Of Simon and Fiona
> Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2000 6:39 PM
> To: Shadowrn
> Subject: campaign concept
>
>
> An idea that's been bouncing around in my head for a fair while now. It
> makes more sense in a White Wolf game, but has much greater potential in
> Shadowrun.
> The idea is, there is a shift in reality, or the mana level rises to a
> certain level. All of a sudden, nothing will burn faster than a certain
> speed, very slow. Rockets wont work, guns just fizz for about ten seconds
> when fired, cars wont go, most power generators fail. Nuclear reactors
> become extremely safe. Society is thrown into turmoil. What do
> you do with a
> sammy who can't shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker
> that can only
> deck when the electricity rationing is right for the matrix
> (until they get
> the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game world,
> unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all unplugged from
> the simsense" situation. What do you think?
>
>
>
Message no. 3
From: Keith Duthie psycho@*********.co.nz
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 16:46:35 +1200 (NZST)
On Sun, 14 May 2000, Simon and Fiona wrote:

> the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game world,
> unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all unplugged from
> the simsense" situation. What do you think?
Two words: "Simsense Vertigo"

--
Understanding is a three edged sword. Do you *want* to get the point?
http://www.albatross.co.nz/~psycho/ O- -><-
Message no. 4
From: Alfredo B Alves dghost@****.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 00:44:34 -0500
On Sun, 14 May 2000 16:46:35 +1200 (NZST) Keith Duthie
<psycho@*********.co.nz> writes:
> On Sun, 14 May 2000, Simon and Fiona wrote:
> > the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game
> > world,
> > unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all
> > unplugged from
> > the simsense" situation. What do you think?

> Two words: "Simsense Vertigo"

Two words; "Yeah. And?" :)

--
D. Ghost
Profanity is the one language all programmers know best
- Troutman's 6th programming postulate.

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Message no. 5
From: Tobias Diekershoff Tobias.D@********.de
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 09:28:43 +0000
Simon and Fiona wrote onSun, 14 May 2000 11:38:50 +1000

> An idea that's been bouncing around in my head for a fair while now. It
> makes more sense in a White Wolf game, but has much greater potential in
> Shadowrun.
> The idea is, there is a shift in reality, or the mana level rises to a
> certain level. All of a sudden, nothing will burn faster than a certain
> speed, very slow. Rockets wont work, guns just fizz for about ten seconds
> when fired, cars wont go, most power generators fail. Nuclear reactors
> become extremely safe. Society is thrown into turmoil. What do you do with a
> sammy who can't shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker that can only
> deck when the electricity rationing is right for the matrix (until they get
> the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game world,
> unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all unplugged from
> the simsense" situation. What do you think?
>
Nice, but what do you think about a loophole like this:
the mana rises are caused by an extrem rarely stellar constellation
and will be close by themselve during, say one week.
Might be enough.

Tobias
Message no. 6
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 12:46:03 +0200
According to Simon and Fiona, at 11:38 on 14 May 00, the word on the
street was...

> The idea is, there is a shift in reality, or the mana level rises to a
> certain level. All of a sudden, nothing will burn faster than a certain
> speed, very slow. Rockets wont work, guns just fizz for about ten seconds
> when fired, cars wont go, most power generators fail. Nuclear reactors
> become extremely safe.

It's nitpicking, but if the "only" this that happens is that nothing will
burn fast, nuclear reactors (and weapons) wouldn't be affected.

What would be affected, though, would be all living things that breathe
oxygen. Suddenly, the metabolism of every creature more sophisticated than
bacteria will virtually stop...

> Society is thrown into turmoil. What do you do with a sammy who can't
> shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker that can only deck when
> the electricity rationing is right for the matrix (until they get the
> reactors online)?

Take a look at an article about dead zones in NAGEE 1 and 2, at
http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/nagee. These are areas where
technology won't work, with much the same effects as you described take
place, and more on top of that. Jerry told me he never actually used the
idea in an SR game, but it is an interesting concept.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
But it's obviously a dream, as I'm waiting for that beam...
--Millencollin, "Vulcan Ears"
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ UL P L+ E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 7
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 22:06:01 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: Tobias Diekershoff <Tobias.D@********.de>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Sunday, May 14, 2000 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: campaign concept


>Nice, but what do you think about a loophole like this:
the mana rises are caused by an extrem rarely stellar constellation
and will be close by themselve during, say one week.
Might be enough.

>Tobias

Hey, I like that. Especially if nobody really knows whats going on, and so
countries make all sorts of changes, then a week later everything goes back
to normal and they're stuffed again.
Message no. 8
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 22:13:05 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: Gurth <gurth@******.nl>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Sunday, May 14, 2000 8:43 PM
Subject: Re: campaign concept


According to Simon and Fiona, at 11:38 on 14 May 00, the word on the
street was...

>> become extremely safe.

>It's nitpicking, but if the "only" this that happens is that nothing will
burn fast, nuclear reactors (and weapons) wouldn't be affected.

>What would be affected, though, would be all living things that breathe
>oxygen. Suddenly, the metabolism of every creature more sophisticated than
>bacteria will virtually stop...


Well, its a bit of licence here, all kinds of energy producing reaction are
affected, they still all work, but a fast energy release is impossible, it
will happen but slowly. Breathing and stuff still works because the energy
release isn't fast enough to be bothered (it probably is, but I choose to
ignore that :?) ). Guns don't work because when the cordite or gunpowder or
whatever burns, it burns too slowly. The slug would probably pop off, but
far too slowly to hurt anyone more than throwing a fishing sinker at them
would, if it has enough momentum top reach them at all.

>>Society is thrown into turmoil. What do you do with a sammy who can't
> shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker that can only deck when
> the electricity rationing is right for the matrix (until they get the
>>reactors online)?

>ake a look at an article about dead zones in NAGEE 1 and 2, at
http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/nagee. These are areas where
technology won't work, with much the same effects as you described take
place, and more on top of that. Jerry told me he never actually used the
>dea in an SR game, but it is an interesting concept.

I'll do that.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Message no. 9
From: Wolfchild nathan.olsen@*******.msus.edu
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 12:48:54 -0500
At 09:28 AM 5/14/00 +0000, you wrote:

[snip]
>Nice, but what do you think about a loophole like this:
>the mana rises are caused by an extrem rarely stellar constellation
>and will be close by themselve during, say one week.
>Might be enough.
>
>Tobias

Or you could do what our group did a couple years back. Similar idea except
that everything electronic was disrupted by an unusually large solar flare.
Just about all electronics worldwide shorted out. We decided that cyberware
would only glitch once in a while (think second-hand cyberware rules) so as
to not instantly kill the sammy in the group. At any rate, the solar flare
only lasted a few minutes but it took a week or two to get everything back
up and running, and longer to track down and reconstruct lost data
transmissions on the matrix. This may not be exactly what you were looking
for, but it worked nicely as a temporary global catastrophy. YMMV.

BTW, another catastrophy that is fun in a one-shot game is another more
virulent VITAS outbreak ala "The Stand" by Stephen King. The PC's, of
course, would be among the initial survivors.


Wolfchild - "Life ain't easy for a troll named Sue."
--
"Quin tu istanc orationem hinc veterem atque antiquam amoves?"
-Plautus, Miles Gloriosus "There are nights when the wolves
are silent and only the moon howls." -George Carlin
Wolfchild <nathan.olsen@*******.msus.edu>
Message no. 10
From: Manolis Skoulikas great_worm@*****.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 11:07:25 +0300
Simon and Fiona wrote:
>
> An idea that's been bouncing around in my head for a fair while now. It
> makes more sense in a White Wolf game, but has much greater potential in
> Shadowrun.
> The idea is, there is a shift in reality, or the mana level rises to a
> certain level. All of a sudden, nothing will burn faster than a certain
> speed, very slow. Rockets wont work, guns just fizz for about ten seconds
> when fired, cars wont go, most power generators fail. Nuclear reactors
> become extremely safe. Society is thrown into turmoil. What do you do with a
> sammy who can't shoot, a rigger that can't drive and a decker that can only
> deck when the electricity rationing is right for the matrix (until they get
> the reactors online)? Could be fun, but it would ruin your game world,
> unless it's a seperate campaign or a "And then you are all unplugged from
> the simsense" situation. What do you think?


I don't think the Technocracy would let it happen. :)

any way, seriously, it is a great idea. Why not REALLY use it in a short
story in the context of ASSIST technology?
The players are arrested by a megacorp (if and only if they ever screw
up) and when they come to they are held in chains and subjected to
horrible experiments, being tottaly unable to escape (no spells and
heavy restraints) and then suddenly, they are released as the lights go
out.
After a while of living in a world with no technology being hunted by
the megacorp anyway, they wake up and are still in the megacorp's labs.
Then a suit comes in and proposes a deal... :))))
Of course they could refuse... :)))))))))))))))))))))

the wiz

Their civilisation stops with the first power failure.
Message no. 11
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 07:12:08 -0600
Simon and Fiona wrote:

>From: Gurth <gurth@******.nl>
>
> >It's nitpicking, but if the "only" this that happens is that nothing
will
>burn fast, nuclear reactors (and weapons) wouldn't be affected.
>
> >What would be affected, though, would be all living things that breathe
> >oxygen. Suddenly, the metabolism of every creature more sophisticated than
> >bacteria will virtually stop...
>
>
>Well, its a bit of licence here, all kinds of energy producing reaction are
>affected, they still all work, but a fast energy release is impossible, it
>will happen but slowly. Breathing and stuff still works because the energy
>release isn't fast enough to be bothered (it probably is, but I choose to
>ignore that :?) ). Guns don't work because when the cordite or gunpowder or
>whatever burns, it burns too slowly. The slug would probably pop off, but
>far too slowly to hurt anyone more than throwing a fishing sinker at them
>would, if it has enough momentum top reach them at all.

What happens when furnace that we call the Sun goes out? :)

To Life,
-Graht
http://www.users.uswest.net/~abaker3
--
"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday ... and all is well."
Message no. 12
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 12:59:38 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org <dbuehrer@******.carl.org>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Monday, May 15, 2000 11:13 PM
Subject: Re: campaign concept



>What happens when furnace that we call the Sun goes out? :)
>
>To Life,
>-Graht


Oh picky picky picky, I'm not telling you guys anything any more :?)
But seriously, that gives me another good angle for the story. If it's the
mana level, then it would be limited to Earth's biosphere, so the Sun would
fusion away as normal. Also all the space stations would still be wourking,
except that they'd be cut off from Earth.
Message no. 13
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 07:03:47 -0600
Simon and Fiona wrote:

> >What happens when furnace that we call the Sun goes out? :)
> >
> >To Life,
> >-Graht
>
>Oh picky picky picky, I'm not telling you guys anything any more :?)

LOL :D

>But seriously, that gives me another good angle for the story. If it's the
>mana level, then it would be limited to Earth's biosphere, so the Sun would
>fusion away as normal. Also all the space stations would still be wourking,
>except that they'd be cut off from Earth.

Sounds good to me.

Everyone who used to own a gun might quickly get themselves a sword and/or bow.

Would electric generators be affected at all? I'm thinking that hydro
electric dams would become very valuable.

To Life,
-Graht
http://www.users.uswest.net/~abaker3
--
"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday ... and all is well."
Message no. 14
From: Phil Smith phil_urbanhell@*******.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 17:20:56 GMT
A brilliant idea for a campaign we are currently fighting our way through is
playing a bunch of convicts in Chicago as bug city goes down. We're a bunch
of maniacs, terrorists and thugs armed with bits of wood looking for food in
a city with no law and loads of magical bugs trying to kill us; I strongly
recomend it.

Phil
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Message no. 15
From: Scot Hayworth scoth@*********.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 11:31:39 -0600
>>From: Phil Smith
A brilliant idea for a campaign we are currently fighting our way through is

playing a bunch of convicts in Chicago as bug city goes down. We're a bunch

of maniacs, terrorists and thugs armed with bits of wood looking for food in

a city with no law and loads of magical bugs trying to kill us; I strongly
recomend it.

Phil<<

I have been thinking of running a campaign like this. all ghouls trapped in
the
CZ fighting to defend their little enclave from the bugs.

Scot Hayworth
Message no. 16
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 11:33:06 -0600
Phil Smith wrote:
>A brilliant idea for a campaign we are currently fighting our way through
>is playing a bunch of convicts in Chicago as bug city goes down. We're a
>bunch of maniacs, terrorists and thugs armed with bits of wood looking for
>food in a city with no law and loads of magical bugs trying to kill us; I
>strongly recomend it.

What keeps you from killing eachother? Is everyone in the group really
that scared of the bugs? Or is there one overpowering leader?


To Life,
-Graht
http://www.users.uswest.net/~abaker3
--
"Warm nights, good food, kindred spirits....great life!"
Message no. 17
From: Phil Smith phil_urbanhell@*******.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 20:20:35 GMT
>From: Scot Hayworth <scoth@*********.com>
>I have been thinking of running a campaign like this. all ghouls trapped in
>the
>CZ fighting to defend their little enclave from the bugs.

Another cool campaign would be a "Rats In The Walls" one; normal folks
trapped in the archology pulling people out, fighting drones. They would
all start off with no (or few) fighting skills and have to get there the
hard way (unless of course they were a bunch of Red Sams).

Phil
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Message no. 18
From: Phil Smith phil_urbanhell@*******.com
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 20:27:18 GMT
>From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
>What keeps you from killing eachother? Is everyone in the group really
>that scared of the bugs? Or is there one overpowering leader?

My charater is a metahuman-rights terrorist, he has written loads of books
released since his imprisonment and had them published. 2 of the other
prisoners are members of the same organisation, last game I managed a great
line just as a troll was about to beat the hell out of a human bigot; "You
know what would be cool? if we could kill every bigot in the whole fragging
world. You know what would be even cooler? if we could show them that we
aren't a bunch of barbarians - put him the hell down!"

The tension makes it fun, especially seeing as one of us plays a half crazed
ghoul.

Phil
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Message no. 19
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: campaign concept
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 16:35:28 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org <dbuehrer@******.carl.org>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: campaign concept



>Everyone who used to own a gun might quickly get themselves a sword and/or
bow.
>

Spending those valuable karma points buying skills they may never use again
when the effect fades. In one game I dropped the team in Mongolia (carefully
misrepresented so they all thought they had warped into Earthdawn times),
and one wanted to use saved up karma to buy the Mongolian language skill. At
first I thought 'no chance' but thenI realised that the character would
never conceivably use the skill again.

>Would electric generators be affected at all? I'm thinking that hydro
>electric dams would become very valuable.
>
>To Life,
>-Graht


Just generators that depended on combustion. Solar, hydroelectric, wind etc.
would be fine. The way I see it, its like the speed of light. Nothing can
move faster than the speed of light, and nothing can burn faster than the
speed of candle (or whatever) for two weeks.

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