So, what's going to be the next big metaplot event in the Shadowrun universe?

So far, we had things like Bug City, the 2057 elections, the Arcology Shutdown, the Year of the Comet, and finally the Crash 2.0.

But in the game world, that was six years ago. So what big event will shake up things next?

Your thoughts, please.

Elf porn.

Nah Troll Porn. It would scare more people


Reminds me of my uni's rpg soc motto for the t shirts one year - almost as disturbing as goblin porn

Horizon does something big. It will be a great way to introduce the "new kid on the block" and establish their little plot hook.

Well, Horizon's big in Calfree right now, and I for one have been really agitating for Cal to get back its lost territory, especially now that it's "only" fighting a two-front war (a less-unified Tir to the north and Pueblo to the south) than being penned in on four sides. Both of its fronts are distracted too: Tir's got their internal squabbles, and Pueblo's busy with the desert hating them and chewing on Ute.

So the time is ripe for Calfree to go expanding, with Horizon providing a bit of backup.

Hmmm.

An interesting consideration. I'm trying to think off the top of my head regarding plot hooks that have come up lately that would seem prominent enough to warrant the metaplot continuation.

Actually I think hahnsoo might have something-Horizon was pretty much unheralded before SR4 came out (tiny write up in one sourcebook, apparently), so they may well be on their way to establishing some sort of corporate presence for our benefit. By which I mean, they'll bring back the "Rocker" character type, and we'll all sigh and go home.

Keeping in the vein of what is still continuing.....Wuxing? While their ascendancy to the AAA was meticulously detailed, I still get the impression that they're not done with them.

Yamatetsu and it's swiftly dying (dead?) orc CEO. Not sure what'll happen there.

Whatever the hell happened in Tir Tairngire. "Lugh Surehand hires the runners", you say? Sure, why not.

Emperor of Japan vs. the megacorps?

I don't know for sure. They seem to have wrapped up most of the key players and events from previous plotlines in time for SR4. Yucatan "skirmish" is over IIRC, Winternight is 'dead', Ibn Elsa is (presumably) out of the picture, Masaru in the Phillipines seems to be minding his own business hanging out with Lung, and all the AIs seemed to buy it in a digital pillow fight in System Failure. Of course, this is all off the top of my head. Anybody else have some theories, promising or otherwise?

I'm expecting something along the lines of:

The Emperor vs. One or More Megacorp. And I expect the Emperor to win. Because he'll have some freaky advantage (Like he's best friends with a previously unknown Great Dragon, or something)

Horizon is going to do something spectacular - and it will turn out that the person(s) in charge are Deus Drones.

The Renraku Arcology will explode. This will start off another round of Corporate wars, as Renraku blames (Insert Rival AAA here). And the fighting will be -nasty-

Ghostwalker will finally reveal his relationship to Dunkhelzan.

Methusalah Syndrome will become extremely important.

And HMHVV Krieger victims will finally gain full rights, and be allowed to be citizens of the UCAS. The CAS will still be anti-ghoul, however, and this will only add to the rising tensions between the two nations - possibly culminating in a war.

A few more possibilities:

- The Bugs making a comeback, but in far more subtle ways and under a far deeper cover.

- A new Mars mission by one of the corps, and The Veil trying to stop it from bringing back data; maybe a few more interesting happenings in space and/or in relation to the Veil conspiracy.

- Several more opressed groups in Aztlan following the example set to them by Yucatan and starting a revoltion; a civil war Aztalan; a paradise for mercs, runners and spies-for-hire.

- Something interesting found in Antratica; a corp war over its ownership.

- Eco-terrorism and/or eco-revolutionism becoming a major issue.

- Something changing in Japan; a new assasination of an Emperor? An anti-Imperial movement? Squabbles inside the Imperial ruling class?

- A new BIG war in the Middle East.

The Veil? Who or what is that?

I'm thinking less with the Azzie's for a bit ,since there has been so much on them lately. Not that they'll stop doing crap. Just a pull away from the focus. Same with 'all out' corp wars, also 'cause they just finished that in '60.

I think we'll see mroe of the groups we first saw in Loose Alliances, since now they have all that material to work with and put to use. Also, like hahnsoo said, the new dogs will get to go out and play for a while, to expand their 'corp personality', especially Neotech, or whatever the hell it's called.

Yamatetsu already has a base on Mars, according to SR4. Not likely that the Veil has anything left to cover up.

SoA, Russia, Spaceport: The Shuttle coming back (and rumored bringing back some bones) disappeard passing moons orbit for sixth days - the crew didn't remember ever having lost contact or the last week for that matter.

Highly unlikely, given the constellation of Missions.

The question is not so much whether or not Evo has an official base on mars... but which other corps have so, too... inofficially.

I've just gotten an idea:

What if Evo tries to build a Space Elevator?

This would be a huge undertaking with vast economic repercussions for the world - and thus provide plenty of opportunities for shadowruns. And it would also give a big boost to the space exploration theme that has come more to the foreground since the Year of the Comet...

Horizon screams hive-mind nastiness. The bugs tried to enter through the soup kitchen last time. I'm putting my money on their 10:1 dark horse to be behind it trying to come through the boardroom this time.

P.S. My non-nostalgic side is guessing whatever remains of the Deus network is the odds-on favourites for being behind it.

What ever happened to the mass driver on Kilamanjaro?

it wont be bugs... they will create a new type of astral threat instead... as bugs have been done

If the games were still supported by the same company, I'd say it'd probably be Horrors of some sort, but since they're not, I doubt it. *sigh* Vergigorm, I MISS YOU!

not fanpro

huh?

considering the people that work on the line currently and the stuff that they have published I think it is more likely that something to do with the horrors is coming up next...

However the offical line is that they are dropping the ED links to the background, and you don't get much more ED linked than Horrors.

or obsidimen...check out page 104 of system failure

Sssshhhhhh

Someone "SURGEd" into a half-ton man-rock. I think it paints its own picture.

Were they sure he hadn't just been, you know, hitting the gym hard while applying a large amount of a clear "flax oil" substance?

P.S. That would be an ultra-bizzare way to bring in obsidimen given that they aren't suppose to be any more human than dragons are, in fact less so since (and i'm not an ED player, so i could easily be off-base here) they can't normally take human form like dragons do.

there are legends that orcs, elves, dwarves, and trolls are descended from humans acutally. But no one believes them. Since it would have been some 2,500-3,000 yrs, not hard to believe that there'd be little proof (or belief) in the thoery. It's acutally statedi nthe human section of the first Denizens book. No such claim is made of obsidimen, or t'skrang (or windlings acutally) though.

obsidimen would be the last to show up because of their nature and stronger elemental connections to earth. Windlings were the first of the three (see Paranormal Critters of Europe) followed by T'skrang and now Obsidimen.

Surging is probably the best way to introduce them since extensive mining has probably wiped out most of the "true" liferocks. Hmm...I wonder if obsidimen would go to sleep as if they were underground if the lived in arcologies.

Mining may have claimed a number of them but there are huge ranges of mountains, for example, that are largely untouched. The ratio of rock with commercial amounts of metals or minerals to those without is fairly small, let alone the reserves that will have been exploited by that time.

EDIT: And it would be my understanding that we are talking about surface rock, not sub-surface? Any of them that went sub-surface would have to be counting on someone coming down and hauling their sleepy butts to the surface.

Well I suppose if you really wanted to shoehorn them into the Shadowrun world you could have had some of the dragons stashing a few liferocks in their lairs before taking a nap, i.e. GM fiat.

However, in ED the liferocks normally have large deposits of valuable metals, such as gold, silver, as well as true earth and orichalcum around them. It is more likely that a lot of them got wiped out because of this. They aren't located in the middle of a bunch of worthless rocks.

So they are mostly dead, except the ones with Life Rocks primarily surrounded by True Earth or where there are undiscovered surface deposits (which are likely fairly limited).

Or in the case of a friendly dragon stashing them away.

P.S. So what happened during the big rush for True Earth before the Horrors came last time?

there are probably also some that were surrounded by orichalcum too. i mean, i can't imagine the megas got *all* of the deposits during the comet's pass. that just seems a little unlikely to me...

Is it just me or is the Humanis Policlub mentioned far more times and far more seriously in the SR4 core book than in previous editions?

So what do you all feel about the idea of a Spirit War, where the Spirits are going up against the megas and occasionally each other?

Meh.

I would like to mention that as they write Runner Havens not to forget that whatever happened in Tir Tairngire, let alone what happened between Salish and Tsimshian, will affect Seattle.

This kind of thing was done with Killimanjaro, but it wasn't fleshed out nearly enough ... especially the consequences.

There already is a country in Shadows of Asia in former China that declared spirits as legal citizens. Not freakishly relevant, but nonetheless it does touch on spirits as "more elaborate entities".

As for the whole mysterious Tir Tairngire scenario, I admit I'm curious as to what exactly the hell happened, but as to how much it would affect Seattle depends purely on what it was. "Lugh Surehand leaves/is expelled from the country" isn't really enough to go on.....Unless there was more somewhere that I missed...

the whole spirit war thing was done in the Yucatan as well so that is a little played out.

"Leaves" is an understatement. Most people who leave a country don't have a badass team of trained adept and magician commandos hunting them across the continent like a dog.

I only mention it because there's not a lack of precedent for writers to not fully appreciate the context of what they wrote. I was re-reading Life on the Edge last night and thinking that they have constructed a hell on earth for so many people, and yet everything's just chill. Or as I was telling someone last night, how is it pedophilia when you're fucking a "non-human" clone with a p-fix implant?