Don't remember THAT being there..., The weird things GMs do with canon Options

[Dr.Rockso]

All this recent talk about metaplot has got me thinking: what as a GM are the weirdest/over-the-top changes you have added to or altered in your SR world? Has Evo started a dinosaur theme park off Costa Rica? Has Knight Errant deployed AI run droids to patrol the mean streets? Did Ares develop 12 meter tall walking tanks powered by fusion reactors ?! Inquiring minds want to know. Feel free to mention the stuff your GM has done as well.

[Caadium]

All this recent talk about metaplot has got me thinking: what as a GM are the weirdest/over-the-top changes you have added to or altered in your SR world? Has Evo started a dinosaur theme park off Costa Rica? Has Knight Errant deployed AI run droids to patrol the mean streets? Did Ares develop 12 meter tall walking tanks powered by fusion reactors ?! Inquiring minds want to know. Feel free to mention the stuff your GM has done as well.

Actually, I've got the dinosaur park being opened in Montanna. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The players are pro's in that they get a job, they do the job, they don't pay much attention to who may or may not have been doing what with the target of their jobs. They've helped steal some Data (Dino DNA), tech (to help get the dino DNA to clone stage), and will soon be doing an extraction. These are just a couple of the key pieces that the players helped 'acquire' for various employers of theirs. All of these runs have been spread over the course of other runs or thigns that are based around their personal backgrounds/stories. I plan to invite them to see the "fruits of their labors" so that they are there, isloated, when fit hits the shan.

[hermit]

Damian Knight has a thing going called the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG), which he finances through his Mega. It's kind of like his personal Shadowrunning team and does a lot of hooding. BEcause Damian feels he ought to do *something* charitable. Of course, Ares being Ares, they outfit the FLAG with sports cars with Level 7 AI autopilots, cutting-edge visors, Jump Jets and Firelance lasers.

I made a character join this outfit because he actually dared to ask Knight a big personal favour (he had him as contact from one or another run someone else ran for him). Well, the player expected to pay Knight for servies rendered. I just smiled, shook my head and asked him if he remembered what Damien Knight owns. And then ... well. He had to work for these guys.

Oh, their mobile base is in a trailer truck, they got a sexy mechanic and the guy commanding the PC looked like ... well, guess.

[Wandering One]

Ghostwalker eats diplomats he doesn't like in my game, he doesn't only work through his 'speaker'.

[The Jopp]

the guy commanding the PC looked like ... well, guess.

I love it when a plans come together...

[Sixgun_Sage]

HMHVV as a "weapon gone horribly wrong" in one game I ran.

[Maelstrome]

my game world had the ijin which were artificial lifeforms created by saeder krupp originally to be bioweapons. one was a mage and became the big bad of the first campaign. an other was a streetsammy that offered advice and such as a contact for the group. the last was a decker that kept the other two from killing each other as she considered them family.

Requiem as the bigbad started a cult that followed him into believing the awakened were the master race. first idea was to subjugate mundanes. he instead settled on trying some metaplanar mojo to seperate the awakened from everything ele.

Maelstrome just liked to live fast and free. opened a fight club in the barrens and ran the shadows with his own team. and offered assistance to a few would be runners that came through his door.

Shattengeist was rarely seen in game as i had little use for her outside of a few story purposes.

[Kid Chameleon]

I love it when a plans come together...

I have the feeling he's more of an uptight British gentleman sporting a three-piece suit.

[Ancient History]

Bugworld, set in 2070. The insect spirit outbreak of 2055 was wider and better organized, leading entire cities and nations to be transfigured. The nations of the world responded with overwhelming nuclear retaliation against the hive-cities. Now metahumankind live in heavily fortified corp-run megalopoli, beyond which are the nuclear wastes, insect spirits, and strange survivals...including the hybrid half-invae/half-human maggots.

[Doc Chase]

The most over-the-top thing I ever ran (besides the shadowrunners, natch) was the Awesome Taco franchise. With rapid developments in cloning technology and the increasingly digitized archives of animal DNA, the decadence of having your own small-scale clone tank to make a variety of endangered critters for consumption was realized. No chain understood this more than Awesome Taco, which offered a wide range of species to fill your fajita.

Awesome Taco: Because narwhal is delicious.

[Apathy]

Every game needs genegeneered dinos. So then you can war-form them and inhabit them with high force insect spirits.
GM: We have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the Heavy Response team has just arrived on scene. The worse news is that they're riding 15' T-Rex's with multifaceted eyes and antenna...

[Fuchs]

Deus was taken care of within a week by UCAS and Renraku.

There was no Crash 2.0

Aztlan got kicked out of most of Texas.

There was no year of the Comet.

There was no Ghostwalker.

Dunkelzahn did not commit suicide.

[Kanada Ten]

I have really big gangs, even bigger syndicates, even more extraterritoriality, and lots more people. Like a lot more.

[Daylen]

Damion's kid (with the name he had before Knight) takes a team to explore an alien craft.

[Maxwell Silverha...]

Playing in the old 2nd ed. My group liked both the Star wars RPG and Shadowrun. Since they were both D6, it was fairly easy to balance out the bonuses and die rolls, and combine the two systems. Earth had been discovered as a very very very far out of the way system, by the new galactic republic. Made for some great role playing, we had lots of fun with that. Mage's didn't like it so much though... nothing like leaving earths gai-shpere and having all your mojo go poof. Then again Lightsabers are way cooler than silly old mono-filament whips heh.

[Martin_DeVries_I...]

Bugworld, set in 2070. ....beyond which are the nuclear wastes, insect spirits, and strange survivals...including the hybrid half-invae/half-human maggots.

Maggots. Oh, that's... that's disgusting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

My campaigns always start very close to canon but I aim to make them odder as I develop metaplot. Unfortunately my games fall apart before they get far enough... so my team in LA never figured out the secret behind the mass murderer they were chasing (who only killed Awakened female elves, as part of a ritual to call forth the Enemy), and they never got very far in my Dragon plot (in which Ryumyo nearly achieves his transformation, unless the runners can stop him).

Starting up a new campaign though so maybe I can dust off Ryumyo...

[wind_in_the_ston...]

My world has immortals of races besides elves. They only showed up once, though.

[MindandPen]

Princes of Tir went ape on their population, then the world. Became an Elvish Nazi Germany and blitzkrieged all the way to Seattle. Seattle got nuked.

-M&P

[Medicineman]

I created an Alternative Background for one of my Chars
(similar to AHs Bugworld) who comes from a parallel Universe in which the Bugs were far more succesfull (thanks to Queen Euphoria .She was able to Unify all Swarm Insect Spirits(Bees,Ants,Termites)and so there is now a Terminator-like-Universe with Bugs instead of Bots. 1/2 of the North American Continent and nearly all of Russia is no Bug Territory ).
As a GM I invented/inserted two "A" Cons #1 is Parachuvia(=Umbrella) in Portugal and Metropole
#2 is OCP in Australia

witha n alternative Dance
Medicineman

[Elfenlied]

Aztech and EVO employing type-O vampire adepts as assassins in their own personal turf war.

[Blade]

Did Ares develop 12 meter tall walking tanks powered by fusion reactors ?!

S-K did. And it's closer to 20m. But it's just to show off for the rad-wars.
There's a kind of Blockade around Hamburg too, and most of my Hamburg is non-canon.

There's also this story about a punk band, aroused cockatrixes and the board of directors of Aztechnology but that's something else.

[crash2029]

In my game we've had a few crossovers. For instance there is a bad guy named Maelstrom out there who pretty much all the players hate. The guy thinks he is some kind of Lex Luthor/Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Ba'al supervillain. He even has an evil laugh. The characters have killed him before, a few times. He has access to a stargate sarcophagus. Why he has access to one is a long and bizarre tale.

One time we had a run in chi-town before the bugs where we faced the Gua. That was fun. Probably my most boneheaded decision as a GM was an early game when I had a buried TL15 spaceship and a Doctor Who vampire ala State of Decay. That didn't go as planned. The vampire was killed but the character managed to keep the ship and it's now in orbit. Yeah. Since I don't take away toys I give the players on general principle I have had a few headaches since then. Then there was the time the players made an expedition into the ruins of Area 51. I had rules that in all the craziness of the Ghost Dance War it got covered by a lava flow. The crash of '29 destroyed the records so it was left to die. I further decided that it was an X-Com base. Luckily I blew it up before it could have serious repercussions. As you can tell my early SR games were wierd.

[hobgoblin]

Every game needs genegeneered dinos. So then you can war-form them and inhabit them with high force insect spirits.
GM: We have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the Heavy Response team has just arrived on scene. The worse news is that they're riding 15' T-Rex's with multifaceted eyes and antenna...

hmm, a rigged t-rex as a heavy weapons platform.

[Abstruse]

Bugworld, set in 2070. The insect spirit outbreak of 2055 was wider and better organized, leading entire cities and nations to be transfigured. The nations of the world responded with overwhelming nuclear retaliation against the hive-cities. Now metahumankind live in heavily fortified corp-run megalopoli, beyond which are the nuclear wastes, insect spirits, and strange survivals...including the hybrid half-invae/half-human maggots.

So, did the judges arm themselves to uphold law and order in the megaplex and take to the streets on flying motorcycles with voice activated guns?

[Neraph]

hmm, a rigged t-rex as a heavy weapons platform.

I'll laugh at everyone when humans finally clone t-rexes and we find their attitudes to be more along the lines of labradoodles than alligators.

[hobgoblin]

I'll laugh at everyone when humans finally clone t-rexes and we find their attitudes to be more along the lines of labradoodles than alligators.

http://www.dinoriders.com/Toys/Toys%28Dino...s%29Rulons.html

[Draco18s]

Actually, I've got the dinosaur park being opened in Montanna. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The players are pro's in that they get a job, they do the job, they don't pay much attention to who may or may not have been doing what with the target of their jobs. They've helped steal some Data (Dino DNA), tech (to help get the dino DNA to clone stage), and will soon be doing an extraction. These are just a couple of the key pieces that the players helped 'acquire' for various employers of theirs. All of these runs have been spread over the course of other runs or thigns that are based around their personal backgrounds/stories. I plan to invite them to see the "fruits of their labors" so that they are there, isloated, when fit hits the shan.

Are the velociraptors going to become sentient and build themselves some jetpacks anytime soon?
</multiple references, including, but not limited to, Nanosaur>

[Caadium]

I'll laugh at everyone when humans finally clone t-rexes and we find their attitudes to be more along the lines of labradoodles than alligators.

Oh, I don't think it will matter. It's not the attitude that is intimidating; its the LARGE mass of walking death that they are physically.

Even if they were labradoodle friendly, they would still need to eat a lot. And much as a cat is your fiend mice are small and taste good; so to are humans small, and taste good with ketchup compared to a T-Rex (even the friendly, catch-playing, cuddly kind).

[Emeraldknite]

Actually, I've got the dinosaur park being opened in Montanna. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That is where I was gonna put mine. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Emeraldknite]

I think that my biggest WTF for my players was an NPC I had named Winnowil who seemed like a genetic engineer to the PC's. Then one day out of the ble the team mage decide that he was going to Assense her. So he found out not only she was an initiate of about grade 6 but also she called herself a Biomancer. She had created a line of rituals that could in essence could turn some one with an essence of 6 into effectively an Adept. Well it was more like just magical augmentations much like bioware and cyberware except that you couldn't upgrade them augments except through her erasing the current onse and completely redoing the ritual on you.

The players thought it was a pretty neat concept I ran with it for a while until one of the PC's let it slip that she could do that sort of thing in front of the wrong people and well she got killed. People hunted high and low for her notes and secrets. This sparked a world wide scavenger hunt of them following vague clues and half finished passages.

[Neraph]

Oh, I don't think it will matter. It's not the attitude that is intimidating; its the LARGE mass of walking death that they are physically.

Even if they were labradoodle friendly, they would still need to eat a lot. And much as a cat is your fiend mice are small and taste good; so to are humans small, and taste good with ketchup compared to a T-Rex (even the friendly, catch-playing, cuddly kind).

They won't be that big anymore either, for the same reasons that our dragonflies are not two feet across anymore. Not saying they wouldn't be big, just not as big.

[Apathy]

They won't be that big anymore either, for the same reasons that our dragonflies are not two feet across anymore. Not saying they wouldn't be big, just not as big.

If they're engineered from the original DNA, they'll be just as big as the originals. It's just that their DNA would not be optimized for the current environment. Assuming that their corp handlers continued to breed for size and power, and that they supplied adequate food, modern-day dinos could be considerably larger than their ancestors. After they escaped, and assuming they survived long enough, it would take them thousands of generations to breed back to a smaller, modern-era-appropriate size.

[darthmord]

If they're engineered from the original DNA, they'll be just as big as the originals. It's just that their DNA would not be optimized for the current environment. Assuming that their corp handlers continued to breed for size and power, and that they supplied adequate food, modern-day dinos could be considerably larger than their ancestors. After they escaped, and assuming they survived long enough, it would take them thousands of generations to breed back to a smaller, modern-era-appropriate size.

Not necessarily. The reason why insects don't get as large nowadays is mainly due to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere. The ratio of Oxygen used to be much higher in the prehistoric eras.

Goldfish are an example of this phenomenon. They will only grow as big as the container they live in will let them.

The limiter isn't so much the food as it is the root basics of the biological processes. You need oxygen and a lot of it to support that massive of a creature. The largest land mammal anymore is the elephant. Water animals are certain sharks & whales. Those are all big but nowhere near as big as creatures *USED* to be.

[StealthSigma]

Actually, I've got the dinosaur park being opened in Montanna. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The players are pro's in that they get a job, they do the job, they don't pay much attention to who may or may not have been doing what with the target of their jobs. They've helped steal some Data (Dino DNA), tech (to help get the dino DNA to clone stage), and will soon be doing an extraction. These are just a couple of the key pieces that the players helped 'acquire' for various employers of theirs. All of these runs have been spread over the course of other runs or thigns that are based around their personal backgrounds/stories. I plan to invite them to see the "fruits of their labors" so that they are there, isloated, when fit hits the shan.

Oh, please please please tell me they are extracting a baby Dilophosaurus or a baby Raptor that has been genetically engineered to be smarter than most humans and can talk.

[hobgoblin]

how about one that can drive a car?
http://blurst.com/raptor-safari/

[Draco18s]

how about one that can drive a car?
http://blurst.com/raptor-safari/

That one seems to have it out for his species, too.

[Caadium]

Oh, please please please tell me they are extracting a baby Dilophosaurus or a baby Raptor that has been genetically engineered to be smarter than most humans and can talk.

Oh no, I'm thinking they will be without most of their gear and sort of dumped in the middle of the park.

[Doc Chase]

Oh no, I'm thinking they will be without most of their gear and sort of dumped in the middle of the park.

The raptor boarded the helo with all their gear and flew away with it, leaving the team stranded with whatever's on their backs.

Commercial breaks in-game can be used to describe the raptor's escape from corporate security aircraft until it crash-lands in Amazonia and embarks on a campaign to free the Yucatan from the toxic influence.

[StealthSigma]

The raptor boarded the helo with all their gear and flew away with it, leaving the team stranded with whatever's on their backs.

Commercial breaks in-game can be used to describe the raptor's escape from corporate security aircraft until it crash-lands in Amazonia and embarks on a campaign to free the Yucatan from the toxic influence.

And it's done this at the ripe age of 3 weeks?

[Doc Chase]

And it's done this at the ripe age of 3 weeks?

We're talking about genetically engineered dinosaurs hijacking and flying evasive actions in helicopters, and your suspension-breaking problem is that it's three weeks old?

[Banaticus]

Would a 3-week old dinosaur be technologically advanced enough to be able to take evasive actions in a helicopter without crashing? I mean, I doubt he was given flight training, so he can't have any skill in it, and you can't default, so technically he'd just be rolling a chance die for every action he does -- 2/3 of the time he'll be failing and 1/4 of those failures will be a critical glitch. So, let's say that the helicopter has a really advanced agent. Would it recognize the baby dinosaur's voice as an authorized user? So, let's say that the dinosaur turns out to be an adept dinosaur or a magician dinosaur who magically learns really fast how to fly (skill boost?) or summons a spirit of air to help him out or something and then starts flying away. Why wouldn't the team's rigger/hacker/technomancer (while in mutual signal range with the helicopter) be able to jump in and force it to land?

If I was a player in that game, I'd be calling shenanigans.

[StealthSigma]

Would a 3-week old dinosaur be technologically advanced enough to be able to take evasive actions in a helicopter without crashing?

Yes. That 3-week old baby raptor is actually a baby dragon.

[Kid Chameleon]

They spliced in some pterodactyl genes. Everyone knows they are natural born chopper pilots.

[Draco18s]

They spliced in some pterodactyl genes. Everyone knows they are natural born chopper pilots.

I thought chickens were.

[jimbo]

In Calvin and Hobbes it's pretty well documented that T-Rex's have been flying F-14s for a few decades now...

[AStarshipforAnts]

In Calvin and Hobbes it's pretty well documented that T-Rex's have been flying F-14s for a few decades now...

Well there you go. It's practically cannon.

[DamienKnight]

Scientists and mages developed a way to tap into Mana Ley Lines and (with a greater form spirit to protect the bodies) transport people bolidy into another Planet.

While there they were attacked by giant 20ft Slaads and one player and one NPC returned infected by parasitic collective minded magical worms. They began taking over the world.

One character developed a metamagic that allowed him to communicate and control the parasites inside of himself and keep them seperate from the collective. Ares stole the infected NPC and began developing a parasite hive, which the players found and destroyed (partially by having the PC w/ parasite control manipulate the drugged parasites Ares was creating). They swirled into a magic cloud of power and exploded out of the bunker, destroying the character anime style.

Later two runners went on an astral quest and found the destroyed character begin sustained in the metaplanes by her friendly parasites. Brought them back to the earth, inhabited a new body, and the threat to the world returned.

I dunno why I started all of this. I was bored and trying to think of run ideas and fighting Slaad in NWN 1 at the time. So much crazy stuff in RAW, and I hafta go making up new junk...

[Kid Chameleon]

I thought chickens were.

I think they are related.

[CorvusVlos]

I'm running my game with Texas being on the verge of being taken over once again by Aztlan, by way of AzTechnology. Takes place in Austin, and revolves around a conflict with Rockers using music to express to the outside world the opressive nature of AzTech.
Figured I couldn't run an Austin game without a heavy dose of "LOLMUSIC". It's going to eventually evolve into an overarching campaign where the whole 'music' thing was just a minor plot.

[FlakJacket]

Tír na nÓg got nuked - there was some sort of big Seelie Court/major Danaan Families pow wow and someone was pissed off enough at them that they managed to subvert control of part of the UK's nuclear arsenal just long enough that they were able to order the launch of a single Trident VII nuclear SLBM. Scratch Dublin, most of the heads of the Danaan, and a large number of Immortal Elves. The place went into anarchy mode for a good while, the Unionists in Northern Ireland staged a revolution and seceded in what was a very nasty little war, and eventually it became know as the Republic of Ireland again and a lot less Elven-centric. The diplomatic repercussion from all that were not pretty.

[Draco18s]

Well there you go. It's practically cannon.

No, I'm pretty sure T-Rexes flying F-14s is not a cannon.
(Please learn the difference between "cannon" with two Ns and "canon" with one N, from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanón), meaning “‘measuring rod, standard’”)

[AStarshipforAnts]

No, I'm pretty sure T-Rexes flying F-14s is not a cannon.
(Please learn the difference between "cannon" with two Ns and "canon" with one N, from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanón), meaning “‘measuring rod, standard’”)

Sorry about that. But, wouldn't T-Rexes flying F-14s be better with a cannon?

[Draco18s]

But, wouldn't T-Rexes flying F-14s be better with a cannon?

Why yes! Especially if it fires lasers.

[AStarshipforAnts]

Why yes! Especially if it fires lasers.

Or other, smaller dinosaurs.

[crash2029]

Tír na nÓg got nuked

'Nuff said.

Or other, smaller dinosaurs.

Weilding dikoted monofilament chainsaws...

...and then...

...EVERYTHING EXPLODES!!!

[StealthSigma]

Or other, smaller dinosaurs.

T-Rexes flying F-14s with cannons that shoot sharks with lasers attached to their friggin heads?

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

You can't do that with sharks. They are an endangered species, but you could use mutated angry sea basses (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Sixgun_Sage]

'Nuff said.



Weilding dikoted monofilament chainsaws...

...and then...

...EVERYTHING EXPLODES!!!

You forgot the neon mohawks and engineer's goggles.

[crash2029]

You forgot the neon mohawks and engineer's goggles.

Damn. I knew there was something...

[Neraph]

Sorry about that. But, wouldn't T-Rexes flying F-14s be better with a cannon?

You're starting to sound like this.

[Draco18s]

You're starting to sound like this.

There's only one thing I can think of that's more indicative of the writer being on LSD.

[Dr.Rockso]

...I wish more of my runs ended up like that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

[AStarshipforAnts]

There's only one thing I can think of that's more indicative of the writer being on LSD.

A buddy of mine forced me to watch that once. A good hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.

Edit: typo

[Draco18s]

A buddy of mine forced me to watch that once. A good hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.

I watched it as a kid. On multiple occasions.

But I suppose that watching it now would be less entertaining (just as I found watching Freakazoid mind numbingly boring).

[Caadium]

There's only one thing I can think of that's more indicative of the writer being on LSD.

Not only did I watch it when I was younger, but I had fun playing the RPG. I don't remember much about the system but I do recall something about size charts and how that affected your abilty to be hit and your physical stats. Again, I don't remember the system so much, but a good group of friends can make anything fun.

[Draco18s]

Not only did I watch it when I was younger, but I had fun playing the RPG. I don't remember much about the system but I do recall something about size charts and how that affected your abilty to be hit and your physical stats. Again, I don't remember the system so much, but a good group of friends can make anything fun.

I didn't know there was an RPG based on Ralph Bakshi's animation...

[hobgoblin]

i think its a veiled reference to that "cancerous" rpg...

[Caadium]

i think its a veiled reference to that "cancerous" rpg...

http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=7368

No, it was a reference to its own game.

[hobgoblin]

well heck, i stand corrected.

[Caadium]

well heck, i stand corrected.

As shadowrun lovers, seeing a copy of that on the discount rack at our old comic/gaming store meant taking a look at another system that meshed magic and tech. I really don't remember the system, but I do recall that we had fun and it was a usable system.

[crash2029]

My Mom loves that film. Every now and then we share a semi-private joke:

"Mom always told me to keep something up my sleeve..."

[nemafow]

I heard there is a #2 out?