The Eighth World, Shadowrun in AD 12070? Options

[Zhan Shi]

RedBrick is working on a game called "Equinox" which could (I emphasize COULD) be a continuation of ED/SR into the Eighth World. Suppose Harlequin and Ehran will still be bickering in 10,000 years?

[Ol' Scratch]

Blurb available at the bottom of the page.

It does sound like it could be fun. I've been hankering for a good space-based game for a while now, and I've always loved the way Shadowrun made magic and cyberpunk so plausible together. So doing the same in a far future world has a lot of appeal to me.

If it is the Eighth World, meaning the same storyline as Earthdawn and Shadowrun, I really hope they go out of their way to emphasize that it's an alternate version of Shadowrun's world. Why? For the same reasons that the Earthdawn-Shadowrun links were vastly toned down; it sucks trying to make two completely different and independant setting work together, especially when the "older" one is still in a state of constant flux and advancement as far as storylines and the setting goes.

But yeah, I'm definitely going to check it out!

[Zhan Shi]

Well the entire earth has been destroyed, not to mention a 10,000 year time lapse. I guess they could explain any variations from canon by those two things alone. Maybe we'll finally figure out what those pyramids and skeletons on Mars represent. Perhaps the "Great War" that is mentioned is an after effect of the Sixth World scourge.

[Ol' Scratch]

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't, especially since space stations and orbital platforms were one of the areas Dunkelzahn and Co. were very interested in getting humankind to explore in preparation for the next Scourge.

The problem is that it makes the impending doom that is the Scourge a little less climactic since we'll "know" we did, in fact, survive. At least the time difference between Earthdawn and Shadowrun didn't include such a major event, so nothing was really ruined by linking them together. But if this does prove to be the Eighth World relative to the Fourth and Sixth from those two games, it does, in fact, tell us we're going to make it... so it's suddenly not quite as scary as it could be.

[Zhan Shi]

Did'nt the blurb also mention "tainted artifacts"? Maybe the Enemy (Horrors) are still lingering somehow. Interesting theory....Earthdawn on a galactic scale. I assume mteahumanity has found a new gaiasphere, or the folks at RedBrick have figured some game mechanic for magic use in orbit. This would be an ideal setting for The Jopp's "Force Tradition".

[Ol' Scratch]

<just shrugs> Another thought I had is that it would be interesting if part of the premise revolved around that speech Ehran gave some time ago. About magic working like a Sin wave through the universe, and with metahumanity figuring that out near the end of the Sixth World and deciding to "ride along," possibly to warn other civilizations of the impending Scourge, unlike cowards like Dunkelzahn and Harlequinn.

[hyzmarca]

Spell Matrices and Grimoire casting should allow magicians to cast spells in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace without difficulty.

[Zhan Shi]

BTW, any info on when it will actually be released?

[MITJA3000+]

[Ol' Scratch]

Yes, but technology in the Fourth World was nothing like it is today. We could destroy the entire planet hundreds of times over today. Just imagine what we can do after another thousand or two years. Then think to how the Horrors operate. They're not just mindless killing machines. They're the stuff of nightmares. Infesting every aspect of civilization, taking everything we know and hold dear and twisting it to their ends. It's going to be brutal. A handful of kaers or some thorns sticking out of your skin isn't going to protect metahumanity this time around.

Which is exactly why I can see the premise for Equinox coming about. But I'll still find it a bit of a letdown because no matter how much of the knowledge may be lost about the events that took place, we'll know what the outcome is.

[Grinder]

The question is: can we beatt the Horrors?

:D

[Blade]

And the answer is: it depends on what the dev team wants.

[Kalvan]

We may have survived, but I'd say that the price was rather high...

[Dread Polack]

I can see an interesting new option in for the next scourge: the use of Hot-sim VR tech to suppress fear in our minds, thus making us nigh-invisible to the horrors, allowing us to actually fight them. I can see teams of ultra-high-tech street sams and cyberzombies hunting down horrors that would have massacred entire populations in the fourth world.

Anyone?

Dread Polack

[Zhan Shi]

That can also cut two ways. Imagine Verjogorm's mind set loose on the net...."shudder"

[mfb]

actually, i'm picturing Nebis spreading via flash cartoons. or whatever the zomgztech equivalent is.

[Zhan Shi]

Well, I suppose NEBIS that's possible, but NEBIS NEBIS a horror really do thNEBISNEBISNEBISNEBISNEBIS

[mfb]

nebis nebis nebis nebis MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

[Big D]

There should be some old threads (last year?) with anti-Horror ideas aplenty. Several people made the point that "conventional" Horrors would be toast, but the infiltrating, chaos-sowing ones might have a field day turning us against each other.

[Zhan Shi]

Since we're on this subject, I've been thinking for a while now of bringing the lightbearers to SR4. Perhaps making the lightbearer "talent" the equivalent of a metamagic technique, which would in turn grant automatic abilities at every subsequent initiation, or maybe all at once, using initiation grade as a "+" modifier. Would such powers only be effective against horrors? Or against any spirit classifiable as a magical threat? Or maybe fully effective against horrors, with somewhat lesser effect against other threats (blood spirits, bugs, shedim, etc.) And how excatly would a runner learn this technique? Perhpaps through one of the lightbearers preserved artifacts (see ED companion). Any thoughts?

[Big D]

[Naysayer]

Mmmh, but when I hear dark, grisly future, magic powers, orks, elves and a dark, all-poweful corrupting evil fiend... IN SPACE... I kinda think Warhammer 40k. Of course, that Equinox thing is very likely going to be something very different. Just saying.
The fact that where I am, it's 3am and something like shortly past booze-time may be relevant when evaluating this post.

[Ed_209a]

Horrors=Warp demons?

Could be...

On a side note, 40k would be at least the 12th world, since 40k does not mean AD 40,000, but 40 millenia since some arbitrary event (rise of the emperor?)

[Naysayer]

Thinking about it, when I first read about the whole "backstory" of the Emperor, it reminded me of the IE's.

[Kyoto Kid]