That's pretty much it.

I class the Horrors and the blood mages as one thing, just so you know.

I don't think blood mages and horrors belong in the same class, but that's me starting with Earthdawn rather than SR.
I voted invae, they splatter nicely, and create Giger images in player's minds.

I voted for Lofwyr, because of those listed he's the one I prefer. In actuality, though, I wish there'd been an "other" on the poll -- I try to keep games a little more low key when I run them, with the "big dogs" being organized crime and the occasional megacorp's dabbling in the gutters.

I'm a big fan of Deus, but the Horrors are my absolute favourite threat.

Of course, I also prefer to keep things low-key. How, you may ask? Long, long chains that are unlikely to ever be followed. Tiny Cult #29581 receives training from Mid-Sized Cult #1394812 which receives materials from University Conspiracy #439812 which gets its orders from… and somewhere way up the chain there's someone trying to build a Bridge. This lets me add even more red herrings, as I am a big believer in the principle that most information encountered, even if not strictly false, should be misleading or irrelevant.

~J

I guess it depends on what's meant by "threat," exactly. I initially took it as "nasty thing that your PCs fight," in which case I stand by my "I prefer Yaks, Triads, the Mafia, or corps" sort of stance. I guess, though, Emo could've meant "Threats" with the capital t sort of meaning -- the globe spanning threats to everything, the big power players, yadda yadda.

Winternight.

One of my favorite (unfinished, sadly) campaigns I was in was based on Winternight.

oricalchum enhanced nukes! what's not to love!

and they waste a guy with a thor shot.

That wasn't Winternight, that was just a side-effect of Winternight's actions.

still the same plotline. so it counts.

The Shedim - I love Zombies

Horrors were a close second, no surprise for an old Earthdawn-addict like me

Voted Deus, but Lofwyr would be second place (if GMed right). Mind you I do love me a bit of Horror / Invae action too. Ah so many choices..

The Lofwyr chapter was a cheap jab at playing, "who can we turn into a Keyser Soze badass?"

Well personally I voted for Deus, but as a disclaimer, everything I know about him was gleaned from the Arc Shutdown book, I never read System Failure, but I've always loved the concept of A.I. as villians...

you didnt list my fav, but i voted for the horrors. I mean Bugs are a constant threat that can be brought out over and over again. You can only save the world from Deus once and only twice from the horrors, of course i'm the crazy guy trying to run the same character all the way through the entire 3 editions.

I get scared as much as anybody, but it's pretty rational fear of real things. Except for zombies. I have no idea why. I can't sleep after watching zombie movies. Nothing else gives me the creeps like that. I pick Shedim.

Voted Tutor because I've used him way more often that I did with any other threat. (Used to play an open group, that beeing a loose asociation of about 30 to 40 peps which would meet each week and play in random groups, with way to many "magic pencil" mage types.)
Second would be Invae simply because bug city rocked that much.

Wow. It has been too long since I last played. I don't recognise any of these.

I started with 1st ed. I got a few supplements, then started playing another game, and have only recently returned. So I'm totally out of the loop as regards most of the organisations and secret history of the world. ^_^;

If you're interested in learning more about this threats, pick up Threats 1 & 2.

The one choice I'm missing is the "all of them" one. OK, *most* of them. I like to create worlds where shadowrunners are among the few who sometimes get to peek behind the stage. The Joe Average knows just about nothing about horrors, bugs, blood mages, secret religions, great dragons... Oh, he heard all kinds of stories, but they are nothning but weird stories seen on the trid.

The runners, on the other hand, sometimes encounter something... different. The johnson works for somebody with matrix muscle FAR above the norm. A free spirit off-handedly gives out a piece of knowledge that, while not being consistent with common knowledge, is a perfect explanation for something the characters have encountered some time ago. The hideous spirit that tried to kill the characters doesn't fit into *any* accepted category...

The characters rarely get to play a big part in the save-the-world (or conquer-the-world, for that matter) epics, but they *do* learn that there are things out there that you never see on the trid.

In short:
Shadowrunners often live on the fringe of society, they find work on the borders where the laws break down, they lurk in the shadows on the edge of things. No wonder they sometimes encounter the threats that hide even further in the dark.

Winternight. Mostly because they DID actually make a good attempt at ending the world.

Where's the freakin' bugs?

Second item.

~J

I like Deus mostly because I've never had so much fun as I have conjuring up the part of a campaign where I pit the runners versus a ton of Banded cut off from Deus after the Fall (sticking with the pseuco-Christian/Biblical imagery).

Man, not much love of the Templars? The Vatican's Latin spouting, magical ninjas are awesome! Plus, add the black vault and all these threats really come together.

I wonder if their MRI contact lenses ever attract large metallic objects into their eyes. Objects like, say, a Templar's drawn sword.

Gah, that whole idea is so retarded.

It's hard to pick one...

Hmmm...

Dr. Halbertsam would be my favorite...

Gavillan/Roxbourough/Dunklezahn connection will be my second favorite.

Deus/Mirage will be my third favorite if I totally ignore System Failure which was a disaster in the Shadowrun timeline IMHO.

Bugs - love to hate 'em

A lot of these I've never heard of:


The Invae
Winternight
Pax
Tutor
The Templars
The Aleph Society


Who are they?

The Invae is a fancy name pseudo-intellectuals use to refer to Bug Spirits.

Winternight is a buncha crazies that instigates the crash that is the basis for ahuge chunk of matrix changes in SR4.

Tutor is a free spirit.

That's all I can remember. It's been waaay too long since I read Threats and Threats 2.

I voted Horrors by the way. Don't ask me why, I just love the lil' beasties.

Are the templars even a threat? They're just a goon squad, so much smaller than anything from Threats 1.

Pax, or rather the group Ex Pacis, was a bunch of evil otaku who created something called Jormungand to destroy the Matrix and wipe out the legacy code so that they were forced to move forward.

The Aleph society is a society of burnout mages who use willing blood sacrifice to gain the favor and potency of a shadow spirit named Gaf.

The entries in Threats 2 describe more down-scaled threats than the ones used in volume 1. The Templars can be a real pain for runners, especially when doing runs in catholic countries like Spain. I used them once, tracking down a fallen former comrade who hired the characters to protect him. Was really nice and I would have used the Templars and the Catholic Church further on, but sadly the campaign didn't last long enough.

I voted The Templars...

they are my favorite because they are down-to-earth. AND fanatical AND equipped with everything they could ever need. Most secret services can do the same, but lack the vision and mystical angle of the curch. Encounters with them are much more likely than ever meeting Golden Snout or Tutor.

The possible reaction of catholic players towards representatives of the curch actually enhances gameplay IMO - everybody knows what to do with bugs after all.

Horrors, as personal threats!

I would vote from a SR4 perspective, but too bad you can't have a multiple-choice vote, because I would vote for Horrors, Invae, and Shedim combined. Give me juicy creepy magical threats to smack down in a nice magic-threats hunter cmapaign anyday. Lofwyr is a worthy employer (far better to run for him if you wish magic focused mega employer, than for Azzies), the Aleph Society provides a nice burnout rehabilitation service to society, and blood mages... I play blood mages.

Street urchins.

My favorite threat is simply the (meta)humanity...

I prefer corp intrigue than the save_the_world_of_this_new_magical_threat_coming_from_nowhere approach. To be clear i don't say I dislike them (except when we have too much link with earthdawn) but there is so much surnatural threats that it's good to have plots which doesn't involve dragon, spirits, immortal elven, etc. Then when you add an insect spirit hive, it's not banalized and give a better ambiance. Just my opinion tough, it depend of what style of gaming we want.

- Daegann -

Navel lint.

Immortal Elves!!!

The Horrors! The Horrors!

GO HUMANS! (So now that we got time to digest SR4 and that Street Magic is out, can we get back to our regular yearly scheduled Metahuman vs Horror slugfest?)

Can anybody give me more details on Tutor, or do I actually have to go and buy the book? Which one is it in?

I believe Tutor is in the original Threats sourcebook.

Hmmm... People seem to like the horrific, world-threatening threats. Why don't we come up with a new horrific, world-threatening threat?

Emo