Becoming an E-Ghost? Options

[TheMadderHatter]

I was just wondering if there was any way by which a player could reasonably make themselves an e-ghost, post-Crash? We have such a panoply of resonance realms, dissonance realms, UV nodes...is there any way to produce a self-sustaining consciousness separate from the host brain?

Perhaps a Technomancer could do it? Could there theoretically be a resonant E-Ghost?

[Weaver95]

I was just wondering if there was any way by which a player could reasonably make themselves an e-ghost, post-Crash? We have such a panoply of resonance realms, dissonance realms, UV nodes...is there any way to produce a self-sustaining consciousness separate from the host brain?

Perhaps a Technomancer could do it? Could there theoretically be a resonant E-Ghost?

Forgive me if my understanding of the e-ghost is flawed, but it seemed to me that most (if indeed not all) of the e-ghosts were created either directly or indirectly of the chaos of the matrix crash 2.0. So if that is the case, then maybe the creation of those beings requires certain conditions to facilitate their creation. conditions that might not ever come into existence ever again.

[Adarael]

The Jack B. Nimble program could do it, if you could find an uncorrupted version of it, from pre-crash drives. Jack B. Nimble was largely responsible for the e-ghosting during the crash, as it attempted to "back up" as many people as it could.

[Weaver95]

The Jack B. Nimble program could do it, if you could find an uncorrupted version of it, from pre-crash drives. Jack B. Nimble was largely responsible for the e-ghosting during the crash, as it attempted to "back up" as many people as it could.

well....it was certainly responsible for SOME of the anyways, but there could have been other circumstances that led to the creation of e-ghosts. I think what I was getting at was that there are some unique elements that go into the creation of e-ghosts. certainly some sort of strong emotional attachment or situation, the sacrifice (or destruction) of the physical body. perhaps a resonance well might be required? I'm just tossing out ideas here.

[TheMadderHatter]

Pardon me, but where is Jack B. Nimble? The rulebooks? The novels?

[Adarael]

Dunkelzahn's Will, System Failure (fluff, largely). I think there was some on it in Emergence, as well. It may have been mentioned in the novels, but I avoid those like the plague, so I wouldn't know.

And yes, I wouldn't discount the unique nature of the crash as being responsible for many of the e-ghosts, as well. It's just that Jack B. Nimble is a *confirmed* factor in their creation, and seemed capable of generating them prior to the crash event itself - albeit only by an hour or two.

[LurkerOutThere]

System failure actually has a fair bit on Jack B Nimble including it's break out from containment and it's backing up of captain chaos

[Weaver95]

System failure actually has a fair bit on Jack B Nimble including it's break out from containment and it's backing up of captain chaos

I wonder....

Could the 'jackbnimble' program have required a certain 'resonance level' before it became active? since SR4 Technomancers are in some ways similar to shaman and mages (and other awakened beings), could the matrix also be evolving into a 'parallel universe' alongside the 'real world'? if that theory is correct, then technomancers are the digital/online version of mages and there could be digital objects analogous to foci, spells and/or various 'power objects'.

Of course, much of the rules and background story does seem to indicate that technomancers ARE 'digital mages', and the SR4 rules have a noted similarity between technomancers and the magic rules. But conceptually speaking, the idea lends itself to a couple of interesting story seeds. Especially since the immortal elves/dragon contingent don't easily control the world of the matrix as they do the 'real' world. And they don't have as many advantages there. In many ways the matrix is a level playing field, at least as far as the earthdawn/shadowrun crossover idea goes anyways.

[The Jake]

Canonically, there is no ingame method for doing so. JackBNimble was a special program/circumstance.

If a GM is willing to create his own method, then you are deviating from canon but I think its a rather interesting potential plot device.

This happened to one of my PCs during Crash 2.0. We accepted that we have deviated from canon somewhat though.

- J.

[Ravor]

Also are we actually sure that the E-Ghosts are really backuped people and not merely deluded AIs?

[LurkerOutThere]

The game makes a clear distinction in Unwired and elsewhere.

Also and this entirely homebrew. I don't subscribe to the "AI's are just another race of people" metric so they are almost unheard of in my game. Where E-Ghosts are scary and hardly understood matrix phenomenon.

Basically things people are scared concerned about in the matrix for my game.

Normal Users >> Hackers >> Otaku/Technomancers >> E-ghosts/????????

[Weaver95]

Also are we actually sure that the E-Ghosts are really backuped people and not merely deluded AIs?

or maybe some fusion of the two beings? they could be something caught in between an AI and a copy of the person in question. The matrix was in flux, weird programs were running around 'saving people' (and the fluffy story seemed to indicate that even Jack B Nimble was surprised to see old Captain Chaos remain self aware) and the Resonance was shift/changing at the time. So again i'm forced to wonder if the creation of e-ghosts had more to do with the unique circumstances surrounding the Crash 2.0 than with anything else. Certainly, the matrix itself is a much different place than it was prior to the second crash. the tech has upgraded, certainly. But technomancers and resonance wells and dissonance all play a role now. In many ways, the matrix has started to mirror the meat world - with it's own versions of awakened critters, mages, shaman, toxics and spirits, mana spikes and ebbs. The question you have to ask is 'what if this is being done on purpose?' Is something guiding the world of the matrix to become a reflection of the meat world? if so, to what end?

[DireRadiant]

Does simply building an AI character, and then claiming it is an E-Ghost work? Mechanically an e-ghost is a Matrix Entity and relabeling an AI character should work. Alternative is to look at a Sprite, but that are no character creation rules for those.

[Ravor]

I must have missed that section in Unwired LurkerOutThere because in the other places that I've see E-Ghosts mentioned, their true nature wasn't clearly spelled out.

I most surely hope not, the day that the devs do that to the 'Trix is the day I walk away from Shadowrun Weaver95, I hope that as time goes on newer Editions start to distance the bullshit comparisons between Resonace and Magic.

DireRadiant is my memory playing tricks on me? I could've swore that there was an AI Edge that made you an E-Ghost... Hmm, wouldn't be the first time that I glimsped rules from an alternire universe...

[DireRadiant]

DireRadiant is my memory playing tricks on me? I could've swore that there was an AI Edge that made you an E-Ghost... Hmm, wouldn't be the first time that I glimsped rules from an alternire universe...

Runner's Companion p. 91

"Ghost in the Machine
Bonus: 15 BP
The AI’s origin is that of an e-ghost, a metasapient that is, for
all intents and purposes, an imperfect copy of a formerly living
person (p. 170, Unwired). Most e-ghosts are only vaguely aware
of their previous life, remembering most clearly the events leading
to the death of the person in question and perhaps any unfinished
business or injustices left over from that person’s previous life.
Some e-ghosts are aware of their “new� life, while some believe
themselves still alive and trapped in the Matrix.
E-ghosts follow all the same rules as AIs, except that they do
not receive any free inherent programs at character generation."