Close encounters, of the 4th kind Options

[Snow_Fox]

With all the problems with horrors, evil corps, go gangsm toxics and Jahovah's Witnesses, has any one followed up with an adventure with someone downhere, encountering someone out there?

I was just watching Mila Jankovich's "The 4th Kind" where people in an isolated community are dealing with alien abductions/visitations/examinations and was thinking about the old 1960's show UFO where space aliens are harvesting human organs.

Admittedly ET is going to get his little ship jacked if he lands in the barrens and we'd probably notice Klingons or Darth Vader but still it could be an interesting run, especially if the jaded go ganger/runner thinks the metalic man walking towards them is just some corp chrome and not a 'grey' or even worse, a militant pepper pot with a mutated Kaled with a racist attitude and an itchy trigger finger inside

[Backgammon]

With all the problems with horrors, evil corps, go gangsm toxics and Jahovah's Witnesses, has any one followed up with an adventure with someone downhere, encountering someone out there?

I was just watching Mila Jankovich's "The 4th Kind" where people in an isolated community are dealing with alien abductions/visitations/examinations and was thinking about the old 1960's show UFO where space aliens are harvesting human organs.

Admittedly ET is going to get his litlte hsip jacked if he lands in the barrens and we'd probably notice Klingons or Darth Vader but still it could be an interesting run, especially if the jaded go ganger/runner thinks the metalic man walking towards them is just some corp chrome and not a 'grey' or even worse, a militant pepper pot with a mutated Kaled with a racist attitude and an itchy trigger finger inside

I inserted a reference to aliens in the Manhattan ebook, in reference to TransOrbital's HQ building. That could be a good starting point. Actually, if I remember correctly, it was a reference to them analyzing outer space signals. I think for Shadowrun, that's the right level of "close encounter". I wouldn't pit runners against alien rayguns and stuff, I think the setting is wrong, it would cheapen it. I'd have the runners pull runs for corps stealing info from each other, revealing as the punchline we're dealing with extra-terrestrial intelligence, and the massive implication, that perhaps something is trying to communicate with us, all of humanity, and the corps simply fight over it cause it's just money to them. THAT'S Shadowrun IMO.

[Snow_Fox]

yeah, Darth Vader coimng at the average street sami is not intimidating but what about a lot of the so called 'effect' like electronics shutting down and stuff like that? keep the runners in the dark, informationwise, or maybe they have contacts who are scared spitless about 'something' that runners think is some corp scheme but doesn't fit the usual pattern

[Backgammon]

I don't know, I'd never have actual aliens. Just signs of them. And nobody should know anything about it, except some really, really well placed all-powerful corporate guy. And have him be scared. I'd just have the idea of them around.

[Snow_Fox]

yeah, but what if you're the guy on tyhe spot who tells it to the corp guy who's really freasked or your friend comes to you because the corper won't do anything?

[MikeKozar]

Fox's idea about the 'encounter' symptoms is pretty good, actually. The traditional encounter as played in cinema is as follows:

* The subjects feel uneasy, but they can't put their finger on why. They probably attribute it to being alone at night, or in a strange place.
* Electronics start to go funny. Static on the radio, wireless chatter, cameras are full of noise. Subjects start to try and diagnose the problem, changing stations or rebooting, with the system continuing to behave abnormally - the static may persist when the device is unplugged.
* Electronics go dead. For a few heartbeats, everything is silent - the subjects are acutely aware of their breathing, and their pulse pounding in their ears.
* There may be a bright light.
* The subjects are back where they started, and everything is perfectly normal. If they are in a vehicle, it is likely in motion. If they are observant, they may notice that they are missing time - from fifteen minutes to several hours. They have no memory of what happened during the missing time, and have difficulty talking about what happened. Normal people decide to ignore it.

Now, consider that in Shadowrun terms. What was it? A corp grab team relieving you of your paydata? Unexpected 'upgrades' to your headware by an old friend? A commando unit out of the Tir with a Technomancer and a pack of Laes cigarettes? Or is Lowfyr not the strangest person running a corp these days...?

I agree that the 'ray-gun' route is weak, but having some mysterious, high-tech force abusing your players might work out just fine. I find a healthy fear of corporate pique to be tremendously appropriate.

[Teulisch]

hmm. what if its not from outer space physically, but astrally? a full ship of some sort, a hull of pure orichalcum, weird symbols in a language not known in modern times. let the mage see it astrally for a brief moment when your other weirdness is going on.

aliens may be weird, but astral aliens? thats even more dangerous. xeno-spirits could make bug spirits seem downright normal.

[underaneonhalo]

Now, consider that in Shadowrun terms. What was it? A corp grab team relieving you of your paydata? Unexpected 'upgrades' to your headware by an old friend? A commando unit out of the Tir with a Technomancer and a pack of Laes cigarettes? Or is Lowfyr not the strangest person running a corp these days...?

Don't forget a mage for the ominous "alien whispers" and darting shadows.

I can see it now.

You're shocked awake by your commlinks alarm clock buzzing, it reads 4:00AM. You sit in the middle of your bed, rubbing your eyes in the darkness, then you hear it. A faint clicking like some sort of chitinous chipmunk's mating call, where did it come from? Did some sort of animal get in? A shape darts between shadows, almost instantly your hand is on your gun... You stare into the open door of the vending machine in front of you, an unappealing sandwich stares back. Your internal commlink tells you it's 5:25AM as you turn slowly, taking in your surroundings. It looks like you're in one of those automated all night cafeterias you see in the not so bad parts of town. Your team mates are sitting at a table to your right, a sandwich in front of each of them, they are looking around with a dazed expression that mirrors your own. You're the first to break the silence. "At least they bought us breakfast this time." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Udoshi]

* The subjects feel uneasy, but they can't put their finger on why. They probably attribute it to being alone at night, or in a strange place.
* Electronics start to go funny. Static on the radio, wireless chatter, cameras are full of noise. Subjects start to try and diagnose the problem, changing stations or rebooting, with the system continuing to behave abnormally - the static may persist when the device is unplugged.
* Electronics go dead. For a few heartbeats, everything is silent - the subjects are acutely aware of their breathing, and their pulse pounding in their ears.
* There may be a bright light.
* The subjects are back where they started, and everything is perfectly normal. If they are in a vehicle, it is likely in motion. If they are observant, they may notice that they are missing time - from fifteen minutes to several hours. They have no memory of what happened during the missing time, and have difficulty talking about what happened. Normal people decide to ignore it.

I agree that the 'ray-gun' route is weak, but having some mysterious, high-tech force abusing your players might work out just fine. I find a healthy fear of corporate pique to be tremendously appropriate.

I'm not extremely well versed in previous edition SR lore, but something like this sounds like it fits right in with the Resonance/Dissonance messing with people. Or at least, with the bad public image they have.

Heck, at our table, one of our players was joking about taking a Gremlins quality - fluffed as having pissed off a technomancer at some point in the past, who was angry enough to spend a few fours every other day to whip up a sprite and tell it to go harass him.

Psychotropic black ic/black out can deal with memory loss. Commands to commlinks can be spoofed to turn on linked VR units. Messing with electronics is easy with Gremlins, hacking, and electronic warfare. All in all, a technomantic force could be a reasonably party to blame for an alien-themed SR encounter - whether orresonance is -actually- responsible for it.

[The Jopp]

Why do i suddenly have this image of a metagenic quality that works as a jammer instead of background count.

ECM emissions (-15 / -30 for Technomancers)
The character bioelectronic field emits a frequency that twists and warps signals and disrupts electronics.

Apply a rating 4 gremlin quality to all electronics and transmitting cyberware in range of the characters Essence. Also, All signal ratings within Essence meters is lowered by -4.

[The Jopp]

You can also have information about how the characters cybereyes have recorded something that never showed up in the characters vision during that day.

So the characters natural vision nerves never picked up the information but the cybereyes malfunctioned and decided to record the sighting.

[Xahn Borealis]

You can also have information about how the characters cybereyes have recorded something that never showed up in the characters vision during that day.

So the characters natural vision nerves never picked up the information but the cybereyes malfunctioned and decided to record the sighting.

Cybereyes replace your natural vision nerves. Also, if I find something I didn't see recorded on my cybereyes, I'd think I was hacked.

[The Jopp]

Cybereyes replace your natural vision nerves. Also, if I find something I didn't see recorded on my cybereyes, I'd think I was hacked.

Where do they explicitly say that? It says that they replace your natural eyes, not the actual nerves.
AFAIK they connect to the natural nerves and use them through a DNI to convert the data from the eyes into information the nerves can understand.

[hermit]

Do Lovecraftian Horrors From Beyond count?

Also, I did more than one SciFi themed metaquest, usually happening in a Shadowrun 40K setting roughly analogous to ... um ... that game in development whose name just escapes me.

But I never used aliens as in X-Files. I prefer metaplanar 'aliens', and if I am feeling like horrors, I ask a buddy about 40K warp creatures. Enslavers sound interesting, even if a little extinction level event-y. Or, in the spirit of Shadowrun's metaplot, precursor type artifacts.

No Greys or stuff like that though. Doesn't seem right to me.

[Professor Evil O...]

As an aside...What would people's reaction to aliens be in the SR universe? Given all that people have been through with the awakening, bugs, the comet, etc. I kinda doubt aliens would really phase people all that much, though I can see govs/corps being interested in the tech.

Do Lovecraftian Horrors From Beyond count?

Only if Mr Johnson actually works for Delta Green (or one of their competitors).

[hermit]

As an aside...What would people's reaction to aliens be in the SR universe?

Shoot first, loot and possibly clone later.

[Hagga]

I don't know, I'd never have actual aliens. Just signs of them. And nobody should know anything about it, except some really, really well placed all-powerful corporate guy. And have him be scared. I'd just have the idea of them around.

No need for the aliens to be physical, if they even had to exist. They migght have long since transcended until they're just frozen lattices of light that leave strange anomalies in their presence, but don't even realise it. These anomalies add up until the corporate guy just goes "Wait a minu-oh fiddlesticks.

[Backgammon]

I was thinking about it, and I put my finger on it. If I played Aliens in Shadowrun, I'd go for a plot like The Andromeda Strain. A micro organism that is alien and terribly scary because it's unstoppable. The corps don't understand it, but they want to play with it. An arrogant chief scientist thinks he can master it using the massive body of human knowledge, but he's pwned by it's alieness. And the runners are stuck in the middle (perhaps their callous actions to steal the organism force them to breach failsafe, and now they have to deal with something that cannot be stopped.

Something else I've always found terrifying is the deranged called on the Art Bell show talking about Area 51 aliens. It's sampled in TOOL's Faaip De Oiad, and IMO, far more disturbing following the piece's noise, but you can hear the diatribe here. I always had a chill in my spine listening to this, and the impeccable timing of the signal loss (the caller is suddenly cut off, reportedly as power was lost for kilometers around). THAT would be a good start for a run, especially if the runners receive this message from an otherwise reliable contact.
.

[Blue DragonFly]

I too support the idea of creepiness, lost calls, people claiming to be in the know of something terrible or awesome, etc. but no written alien encounters. I also like the idea of meta plane creepiness. In the old world of darkness there was a "deep umbra" out beyond where planets influenced. It was dark and creepy and you could bring stuff back.

I also like the Andromeda Strain idea, corps want to make money and would play with something they didn't understand.

On a side note, there are Le Grange stations and a Mars base, we could have funkiness there as well. Or general corp shenanigans, maybe making people think there are aliens to cover up their own amoral metahuman experiments. I also remember this movie from the 60's or 70's i think where they fake a Mars Mission and then try to off the Astronauts, they don't want to be offed...

[Daddy's Litt...]

Snow Fox and my husband both point to the Nerva space station as proof the designers left the possibility of space aliens.

[Prime Mover]

Wasn't the Nerva from Doctor Who?

EDIT: NM Went back and read Target Wastelands entry. Hmm perhaps a twist on the astral aliens , some astral monstrosity that can survive in space, with a foothold in area 51. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

EDIT2: One astral entity that can only exist in space but can posses multiple hosts at once and can reach earth via hosts..... (ala body snatchers)

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

Can't bugs be considered some sort of alien intelligence anyway?

[Daddy's Litt...]

I don't think so, they are magical and different but from out Gia sphere.

[hermit]

The relationship between Gaiasphere and the Planes is dubious at best; there's no saying the Planes are all tied to the Gaiasphere. For all we know, it could be usable for mass transport, like 40K's Warp (just with less ridiculously cheesy dark grimness, please). Basically, an initiate knowing a metatechnique right now only known to dragons and IE (planeswalking, an adaptation of metaplanar gate, the spirit power - it existed in ED) would open a gate, shove a space ship through, and exit someplace else.

And Nerva reminded me less of Bodysnatchers and more of Lovecraft, especially The Color From Space and that short with the Great Race of Yith.

[Prime Mover]

The relationship between Gaiasphere and the Planes is dubious at best; there's no saying the Planes are all tied to the Gaiasphere. For all we know, it could be usable for mass transport, like 40K's Warp (just with less ridiculously cheesy dark grimness, please). Basically, an initiate knowing a metatechnique right now only known to dragons and IE (planeswalking, an adaptation of metaplanar gate, the spirit power - it existed in ED) would open a gate, shove a space ship through, and exit someplace else.

And Nerva reminded me less of Bodysnatchers and more of Lovecraft, especially The Color From Space and that short with the Great Race of Yith.

Been reading too much H.P. stuff lately and EP already going that route, I was trying to avoid it. lol