hey all! dumpshock's hungriest (and least learned)info-monder here again...anyone know where i can dig up histories on some of the prime runners who arent really in any of the novels...wedge, hatchetman, matador, fastjack and the like...any info would be greatly apreciated!

The books Prime Runners and Target: Matrix, along with Cybertechnology would be good places to start.

Your best bet though, is to ask specific questions here, as most of the shadowtalkers are not described in detail in one place.

For instance, Matador is most definitely dead, and Hatchetman is almost certainly so.

Wasn't Hatchetman's big story in Cybertechnology, and Fields of Fire had a big long narrative by Matador.

Fastjack was a peripheral character way back in the first trilogy by Charrette.

Unfortunately, a lot of the information is laced through several rulebooks, adventure modules and/or novels and short stories, as well as another game system - Earthdawn.

Wedge... isn't he that Star Wars Fighter jock?

Get all the books and all sourcebooks and read them. No seriously, you should read everything.


On a similar note...
Why not make up histories yourself? There are some interesting shadowtalkers without any stats or coverage, just pick one you like (from the writing) and go to town. Should they get retconned by FanPro just go "Pshh!" and ignore them.

so hatchetman is "the" original cyberzombie right? ive been able to glean that info and picador(who i believe is matador's protege) says that matador is dead in the new runner havens book right...im also pretty sure there is shadowtalk in street magic or runner havens about wedge being dead as well, but im kinda looking more for history, not to use in any games or as plot points but jsut to get a feel for some of the important runners in the canon...also is fastjack in the never deal with adragon trilogy...i thought the main decker in those books was doger...well i havent read them in prolly close to 10 years so that could explain my foggyness!

also alot of the narrative shadowtalk in the sr4 rulebook i done by fastjack, so he seems to be a pretty long lived and successfull runner anyone got an idea as to his age and race?

Fastjack was born during the 1990's, he mentions it a few times. Including the RAS when he's fighting off the otaku trying to crash shadowland. Something along the lines of "I've lived for six decades and have dealt with better snotnosed brats than you." I think he may have been one of the original Echo Mirage deckers.

Wedge is dead as of the SSG, along with Rikki Ratboy because they "got sloppy". Hatchetman's backstory is pretty fully covered in his Cybertechnology narrative.

I know Wedge was a big "gun nut" and shot off something to the effect of 50,000 rounds a week.

If I remember correctly, Wedge wrote the "how to be a runner" essay at the end of the original Street Sam Catalog.

Rikki Ratboy 4 Evar !

was it Captain Chaos that was involved with Echo Mirage? I swear I remember somebody big was.

Many of these characters were first introduced in the example sidebars in 1ed.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that FJ was not one of the Echo Mirage guys.

lol perhaps that was written before they had really fleshed out who or what harlequin actually was!

Maybe there's more than one person who goes by that. I remember someone complaining about all the people running around with the name Nemesis. Hell in one of my games another player and I came up with the same streetname for our characters.

That isn't the real Harly. That little section doesn't tell the real story. That Elemental was actually sent by the painted one himself to pay the imposter a visit. It just happened to arrive at an opportune moment.

I mean, really!!! Charisma of 3 and Magic of 5???

The legwork section in H1 addressed that.

i still can't believe rikki ratboy is dead one of my favorite characters


wath about Smiley? or the guy that says (auroa has really "big guns" too) in the aztlan book?

Fastjack states that he wasn'ta member of Echo Mirage, but that he wsa friends with several of the members and that they were damn fine people.

SR4, Page 27:

"Most of the surviving members of Echo Mirage disappeared afterward into the private sector, taking much of their knowledge with them. Only a few known team members ever resurfaced; nobody knows where the rest are today. I know that some think I might have been a part of all that - I only wish I had been, because they were among the finest people I have ever known."

Classic way to divert suspicion!

Then it's proven. There's a conspiracy of silence.

~J