Universe changes, What did you change in your SR universe Options

[Birdy]

Okay, I am not looking for "alternate Universe" ideas but more for single changes that are major enough to make a difference and minor enough not to invalidate the printed material. I'd like them "one change per post", like the Example:

1) No exterritoriality and proxy votes
[Based on: Cyberpunk, Bubblegum Crisis, Dark Conspiracy, Falkenbergs Legion]

As stated before, even the AAA Corporations are not "beyond the law". The police can still search their installations, arrest Damien Knight, put Lucien Cross in front of a court and punish Lofwyr for murder.

At least in theory. In reality the financial power of the big companies can buy enough judges, police chiefs and politicians to make them reasonably immune to prosecution. Not totally so there are some jobs, a corp does not want to be linked to. That are the kind of jobs, you use Shadowrunners for.

A citizen will still identify with "The company" first, use company money, life in company towns etc. Existence is far closer coupled to having a job [And thereby a SIN] so "company SIN" or "Taxpayer SIN" is the term used for "Working persons SIN" as opposed to "Social SIN" or "Citizen SIN", the one you get when you life on welfare.

Proxy votes allow you to buy an other persons vote for a certain amount of money and vote in his place, again giving more power to the corporations. Typical payment is housing/feeding/drugging in a "Project", slightly better than the State-run slum next door.


Birdy

[mmu1]

I'm really not a big fan of the whole SR metaplot, truth be told, so I have no clue how badly running SR my way would screw things up (and I tend to play rather then GM) but...

1. Great Dragons are not gods. They're amazingly powerful - for a single being - but a 6th world equivalent of an army division (which presumably isn't naive to the existence and use of magic) will rip one to shreds without trying too hard.

2. Immortal elves were wiped out long ago by a unique awakened venereal disease.

[Sharaloth]

Hmm, Changes to the SR world.

1) Dragon colouration: I didn't know what colours the GD's should be, so when 4 of them appeared in my campaign, I just used how I always imagined them. Lofwyr = deep red; Celedyr = reflective white (not the pale blue of Dunkelzahn and Ghostwalker); Hestaby = Black; Ryumyo = Gold.

2) The entire reason for the cycles of magic, as well as how magic works on the metaplanar level. This one's a big one, and is actually intrinsic to the campaign, I might post the full explanation later.

3) New York. Actually, I didn't change this one outright, per se. But the players from a previous campaign DID set off a nuclear device under Union Square in late 2059, blowing a big crater in the city. My current campaign (with different players) takes off after the old campaign and uses Manhattan and the thing the nuke was supposed to destroy as major driving plot points.

[Nyxll]

1. World is in bad shape, weather is extreme, the air is quite dirty and the radiation levels are extremely high. You have to head out with a mask and suit.

Mutations: Many people are hunchbacked and warped. People that live inside arcologies and domes are usually fine, but small cities and raiders struggle with the effects. (you can localize this to a state or small country.)

[Velocity]

1) Deus squelched its ego and decided to be patient, building more subtle, long-term plans instead of taking over the arcology outright.

2) The Fuchi/Renraku corp war, with Miles Lanier doing his little dance. In my campaign, the four million shares weren't left to Lanier in Dunkie's will, they were sold to him by conniving Renraku execs. The PCs were heavily involved.

3) Haven't decided yet if the Horrors exist.

[Fygg Nuuton]

in the current campaign, i made up a company named umbrella. no zombies or nothing, i just like the ominous name. plus, this way i can have a run and not have the players be all like "oh, its ok, i read it in a source book"

[nezumi]

1) Horrors exist and they're secretly laughing at Dunkie.

2) The concept of dates haven't been invented yet. I run whatever I want whenever I please. (Alright, dates have been invented, but I change specific ones at my whim.)

3) Wireless technologies exist and have prospered (although not as much as SR4), the command line has avoided extinction. The mystery of the five ounce cell phone has been unlocked, and not all phones weigh two pounds.

4) No one has figured out how to use pretty pictures that communicate as much as the written word. Hence, when people talk, they generally have at least a vague idea how to spell the words they're using (or can at least read it). r/w skill equals the language skill.

[Cray74]

[Nikoli]

Wow, that sounds like a workable cyberpunk political atmosphere.

[Cynic project]

California.

San Jose is the seat of what most people of corp power.

San Fran is largely a ghost town compared to what it is now. Having about 70% of the usable building "legally"used.

LA LA Land is the land of broken dreams. The billion airs live within miles of the SINless. No one cares, and the streets are patrolled either things more related to armies that cop or left to rot.

Sac town is well scary in it's own right.

The tir took some land up north, no one cares, Aztlan didn't get San Diego. San Diego is an armed camp, with most of the US pacific fleet and Cali's armed forces there.

[Sahandrian]

The main difference in my world is SURGE. First, it was only accelerated by the comet, not caused by it. Anyone who experienced high mana levels (living near a manaline, toxic site, or focus of ongoing emotion) through development and childhood could express SURGE traits, either at birth or later on. Second, SURGE'd parents can pass on some of their traits to their children, and their children will also be more likely to express other traits. Either way, spontaneous SURGE in adulthood only appeared during the comet.

[nezumi]

Now that I think about it, I change a lot depending on the particular campaign. In some cases, space travel has gotten much farther and there are even lunar bases (not 'colonies', but bases). Sometimes the Soviety bloc is still around. Sometimes there's more magic, sometimes less. I'm not too tight-fisted when it comes to canon stuff, so if I want something to happen, I don't mind letting it be so.

[arcady]

[Cynic project]

I know about san fran.I was refering to that 305 of the useablebuildign weren't used. Not 70%. 30% of a city being unused will cause major heads to turn.

[arcady]

Yes it would.

You've got then owned and unused? Or deserted from blight / other factors?

[Cynic project]

I tis mainly do the fact that that the land is owned by a very few people. Most the city is owned by 4 parties, and they set the rent to high that they gain mroe money by keeping the rent so damned high. Less money spent on upkeep and such. San Fran is place for rich people.

[arcady]

That wouldn't work actually - upkeep on the unused land would outstrip any benifits you could gain on the used land. That much property left open would blight the property around it - even if it was maintained. If you have 30% vacancy, regardless of the reasons, you will drive the region into social and economic blight. High vacancy is very bad for an investment. Present Day San Francisco is only upwardly mobile because of its density. The same is true of Manhattan, Seoul, and Tokyo - high vacancy in any of these regions for any reason would ruin their value.

[Birdy]

Arcady: Interesting on the personel idea but that kills not only a major part of SR but also of Cyberpunk

Cray74: That basically sums up, what I was trying to say

Nezumi: I am really looking for single ideas, not complete universes. I.e your altered space travel ideas would be interesting

Sahandrian: Staggered SURGE, hmmmm

Cynic: Sorry, I'd have to read up on the FreeCal stuff to comment on your changes.

========================

Another change:

Dragons do exists but they are far more an enigma to humans than in-game. There are rumors of "Great dragons" and such but no definit and final data.

The same goes for the PR-Dragons. Sure, a BILD/SUN/NationalInquirer style journalist named "Holly Brigton" claimed to have made interviews with a "Great Dragon" but it could never be verified indipendently. A lot of persons claim S-K is run by a dragon named Lofwyr. There is a Mr. Lofwyr but wether he is a dragon...

"President" Dunkelzahn claimed to be a Dragon and he sure was a high-initate Mage but beyond this, nothing was ever proven. And some people claim Mrs. Daviar can be linked to an "enhanced excotic dancer" in Vegas.

As of other Dragons, there are claims that they are controlled by someone, changing their Voices to their Handlers.


Birdy

[SL James]

"Mrs."?

Aren't there enough rumors out there already?

[Panzergeist]

In my shadowrun games, I have a larger penis. Beyond that, you would have to ask Grendel.

[Bandwidthoracle]

1) Absolutly no horrors

2) No immortal elves

3) No links to Earthdawn

4) Magic is scary/hated by the ignorant masses of the world (with exceptions like NAN and azetlan)

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]

Adelaide, the only Australian Capital NOT covered in T:AL, and the surrounding land is the centre of aqau/agriculture and mil-spec factories for the region, resulting in a combination of high security and nothing worth stealing from a runners perspective. Basically I was coming up with something that would explain why it wasn't already covered.

The combination of some of the largest tracks of land in Australia unaffacted by mana storms with the relatively clean waters of the southern ocean mean a large quantity of the worlds best fresh produce comes out of the area. The agriculture and aqauculture is mostly controlled by the formally named 'National Foods Ltd', which was bought by local interests from San Miguel Corp whilst trying to raise money to fend off a hostile take over. The new owners changed the name, realising low public opinion about corps, to that of one of the more family freindly sounding subsiduaries, Farmers Union. The other major corporate presence is The Submarine Corporation, Australia's largest producer of military hardware.
Aside from remaining Military Factories, Residential areas (about 85% of which is corporate enclaves) and a small military base, the majority of land is used for farming and seafood processing. Most of the suburban areas of 50 years ago have been demolished and replaced with farms, not dissimilar to the 'market gardens' that occupied the area a hundred years ago. Adelaide has also managed to maintain it's title of 'the City of Churches', being the home of numerous religious orders.
Adelaide is a very clean city, full of corp citizens and military, that is plentiful in resources that are rare in this country (water and fresh food) and stockpiles of military hardware awaiting delivery. But with almost no research facilities, or targets that would be of interest to runners, and the high amount of security that accompanies the almost purely corp and military presence, and the need to safe gaurd the plentiful resources from hostile forces,
Adelaide is a nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to run there.

[Demonseed Elite]

Hmm, trying to recall all the universe tweaks I've tended to make in my own games.

1) Otaku are not playable by players. They remain spooky and strange antagonists for the player characters.

2) The California Free State is a shaky national government propped up by a messy international nation-building effort. Think Iraq, but with the Tir, Aztlan, UCAS, and NAN all pretending to try to build a stable government there while making sure their pawns get into power. Saito used his station as the Protectorate Warlord to negotiate himself into the position of Secretary-General of Defense for the CFS and remains the de facto mayor of San Francisco.

3) Dunkelzahn did not sacrifice himself (oh, and a few Secret Service agents) in an overdramatic act involving cyberzombies and Ryan Mercury. Someone killed him. The mystery is still not solved, but the Scott Commission in DeeCee still has some very influential backers and is certainly not above hiring runners.

4) SURGE never occurred on a large-scale. It does sometimes happen in extreme concentrations of mana (like the Ganges River--see Shadows of Asia).

[Birdy]

[Bandwidthoracle]