Survivors of Arcology, PTSD patients Options

[Saint Hallow]

During the "Year of the Comet" and such, the Renraku Arcology shut itself off and down from the rest of the world. After some time, it opened up again and survivors came streaming out... the few that could. The rest of the clean-up went on... much to the mental disturbance of the rest of the world. My question is... what happened to the survivors of the shut down and how has the experience changed them? I was thinking of creating a character who was a regular Joe Average who had to spend days/weeks/months learning to survive in the arcology and dealing with the horrors within. If you saw the movie Pandorum, you get the idea pretty quick.

I was trying to look up some background info on the shut down and possible ways to play the character, but haven't been able to find anything. Anyone here have some details or clues?

[Medicineman]

I was trying to look up some background info on the shut down and possible ways to play the character, but haven't been able to find anything. Anyone here have some details or clues?
The Shutdown was Christmas 2059 and it was forced open Mid 2061
The official Campaign consists of 2 Books
Renraku Arcology Shutdown and Brainscan

with a Survivors Dance
Medicineman

[Snow_Fox]

And in Threats 2 the chapter network.

As medicine man pointed out, it had nothing to do with the comet. Do you not know what caused it or are you unclear about why there were survivors?

[ Spoiler ]

in short, a self aware AI developed by Renraku decided it didn't want to be a corp slave. It siezed control of the archology and tried to download itself into the minds of people living there. Then it could just walk out the door with the other survivors and then reform itslef on the net outside the Renraku defenses.

[Medicineman]

@Snow Fox
I would use Spoiler Tags !
Saint Hollow wants to create a Character possibly playing the whole Incident (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

with a secret Dance
medicineman

[Snow_Fox]

I added the spoiler tag but seriously, since Archology Shutdown came out in 1998 it's like putting a spoiler alert on the outcome of the Dole/Clinton election.

[Medicineman]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)
You're totally right
but he might be one of the Rare Kind of People who don't really know about SR and just started gaming it.
I've got 2 New gamers here in Germany that don't know anything....yet (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Ok BtT

HokaHey
Medicineman

[Snow_Fox]

Ooh, maybe they should get an invite to a Universal Brotherhood chapter meet. You meet the nicest people there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[KCKitsune]

Ooh, maybe they should get an invite to a Universal Brotherhood chapter meet. You meet the nicest people there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

... and some that really get under your skin...

[Method]

SR virgins are such a rare find...

[kjones]

There's no way that Renraku Arcology stuff is a spoiler. It's all spelled out in FastJack's "A History Lesson For The Reality Impaired" in the BBB.

[Valashar]

SR virgins are such a rare find...

In our group I'm the only SR non-virgin. Even the GM is new to running the system, although he's read past sourcebooks and so isn't unaware of past events. While the Arcology Shutdown casts a large shadow over our campaign, the other players have only been learning the details about it at the same pace as their characters (while all of them were alive during that time, one lived in L.A., one was a merc in the bush, and the third did live in Seattle but was more or less a teen stoner). It's been fun working with the GM to use my character's background as a way of the team getting firsthand accounts of what really went on inside (as opposed to what information got released publicly).

[Wacky]

The type of character he creates depends on which of the subgroups he fell under during his stay at the ARC.

First is the RESISTANCE. These are the brave few whom escaped or fought against Deus and his minions. They are composed of three factions: Those that were residence, those that worked with the military, or those who were military but lost their unit and had to join up with the residence fighting the AI.

Second is the CHOSEN. These are the (mostly artificially created) Otaku (pre-technomancers) that followed Deus believing him to be an actual Matrix god. I think they followed him the same way the Kree followed the Supreme Intelligence of the Marvel Comics universe.

Third is divided up into several categories of RESIDENCE. What makes these individuals different from others that were living there is the what Deus did to them during his control of the ARC. Some were experimented on seeing if he could create "better" humans to serve him, create artificial Otaku, and even house his own being in their biological computers that they called brains.

Depending on what the player wants should decide on the background; mages might have been studied by the computer or fought alongside others in the RESISTANCE (having a Wreck Drone spell would be good). A street sammi with mysterious bio-/cyber-ware might have been experimented on (he didn't go in to the ARC with an artificial limb but he has one now!). A face might have conned others into giving him resources so he didn't go without (soap becomes surprisingly valuable fast in weird times).

All of these should work together for a great background story.

Sign--
Wacky

[Saint Sithney]

Well, he could always have been with the resistance for a time, but eventually captured and had his implants installed. That would explain both skills and cyber.

Say what kind of character you need for the group and we'll help you with suggestions, but we don't know if you're going to be a hardware hacking infiltrator with automatics experience or a captured mage with forcefully-implanted cybereyes. Just about any character type you want could be an Arcology survivor. Let us know who you want to play.

[Saint Hallow]

Sorry, I was away for a while and couldn't get back on the boards. Anyway... Wacky has it right. My character concept is that he was a survivor of the shutdown. I was thinking he worked as a Renraku Security Guard... just a mall cop. He was stuck when the arcology shut down and had to join the Resistance. During all that time, he worked with the resistance, fought, and generally became a paranoid nut.

I like the idea of some sort of secret cyberware as it gives credence to that idea.

As for being a SR virgin... not quite. I played SR1, SR2 in the 80's and 90's. I got SR3, but never got to play it as I was in college in the time and very busy. I have only recently come back to SR and SR4 this past 2 years ago... but have missed out on all the stuff that happened. So, as I was reading in the SR4 main book, under the heading of Year of the Comet, there was a subheading for the Renraku Arcology shutdown. I did some google-ing and read about the Shutdown book. I couldn't find any spoilers, but saw some posts and got the gist that some really screwed up stuff happened.

[Saint Sithney]

DSwiki entry

[Saint Hallow]

I've been looking through the wiki and have gotten an idea of what happened. I also got an idea what the survivors may have gone through and how that can be an interesting character background. To me... trying to come up with an interesting, well-thought out, and realistic/probable character background has been tough for Shadowrun. Other games are easy... but this one, not so much for me.

Now... to take that traumatic background and to make a character born out of that. I am leaning more and more of a mall security guard forced to turn tunnelrat and close-combat samurai.

[lordnth]

I added the spoiler tag but seriously, since Archology Shutdown came out in 1998 it's like ...[snipe]...

Being reminded how long you were gone from the game (1994) and how much you missed since getting back into it a year ago.

But then that's why I read the spoiler.
I should really check my timeline facts. I was about to read into the Archology Shutdown and apply it to my 2064 setting. I quess my players are just going to get into it later than what was penned in the cannon source books.

[Valashar]

Being reminded how long you were gone from the game (1994) and how much you missed since getting back into it a year ago.

But then that's why I read the spoiler.
I should really check my timeline facts. I was about to read into the Archology Shutdown and apply it to my 2064 setting. I quess my players are just going to get into it later than what was penned in the cannon source books.

Nothing wrong with adjusting the dates as needed. I would recommend that you also push back the date of the 2064 Crash 2.0 as well, since the events of the Arcology Shutdown were direct causes of the Crash. Renraku Arcology Shutdown sourcebook, Brainscan adventure, Threats 2 sourcebook, and System Failure sourcebook are the things you can read through to get a good handle on how events dominoed out from the Shutdown to Crash 2.0. From there you can retool to your heart's content.

[Semerkhet]

I've been looking through the wiki and have gotten an idea of what happened. I also got an idea what the survivors may have gone through and how that can be an interesting character background. To me... trying to come up with an interesting, well-thought out, and realistic/probable character background has been tough for Shadowrun. Other games are easy... but this one, not so much for me.

Now... to take that traumatic background and to make a character born out of that. I am leaning more and more of a mall security guard forced to turn tunnelrat and close-combat samurai.

A player in my current game is playing a survivor of the arcology shutdown. She has it that her character was 13 when it happened, a Renraku corp brat growing up in the arcology. We haven't fleshed out what happened to her during the two years she survived in there, except that it was pretty horrible.

She is the group Face and infiltration specialist. She has a number of identities, each with their own personality, mannerisms, and body language. She shifts between these identities with frightening ease. She has a low tolerance for weak people who let themselves become victims. She destroys unattended emotitoys on sight. She also has the "secret implant" flaw, which hasn't been revealed yet.

Hope that helps the brainstorming.