Ok, I had a bit of an unpleasant night last night, or rather a rather pleasant dream turned into an unpleasant nightmare (which is why this college student was awake at 8:30 on a Sunday morning). So, in revenge for robbing me of another few hours of sleep, I'm going to make use of my dreams and adapt them to Shadowrun, and I would like some opinions on the in-universe feasibility:
1. (This one is from before I fell asleep last night, BTW) The runners are hired to retrieve an artifact from a research lab somewhere and bring it to Mr. Johnson. However, the artifact is from the Fourth World, and the researchers have been a little too enthusiastic in their experimentation, and something goes wrong when the runners make off with it--every few minutes, they teleport randomly and switch positions. So suddenly the street sam will be where the face was, the face will be where the hacker was, the hacker will be where the mage was, and the mage will be where the street sam was, and the pattern and timing of the shifts, of who switches with who and when, keeps changing.
I don't know if Earthdawn let characters teleport, but if it did, this would be an interesting complication for a high level team.
2. (this one is from a dream) An accident or maybe just an act of Awakened nature actually physically shifts an entire university campus to the metaplanes. This would be bad normally, but the way it works out, quite a few of the students, professors and others went with it, and they only have limited food and air. Also along for the ride is the significant other/crush of one of the runners.
3. An Awakened serial killer/blood mage with an eye towards girls. He's also on the campus when it gets shifted (or might even be the one responsible).
And that, as the saying goes, is all that's fit to print. (and I assume that I don't need to spell out what woke me up, do I?)
Full Version: Dream-inspired ideas for Shadowrun
i don't know that ED really allowed teleportation willy-nilly... having only read one of the rulebooks (and that only partially, iirc), i'm not 100% sure... it was also a while ago...
i do recall there were some definite teleport-like effects, however, and if you were to take that one object and turn it into several, i could certainly see it happening that your runners switch places. there is, if i remember right, a spell which basically allows you to use a normal door as a teleportation portal, and an adaptation to just use an item doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.
it would definitely have to be a unique enchantment, though... much like SR, the impression i got from ED is that items generally have to be bound to people to be anything more than a normal item.
i do recall there were some definite teleport-like effects, however, and if you were to take that one object and turn it into several, i could certainly see it happening that your runners switch places. there is, if i remember right, a spell which basically allows you to use a normal door as a teleportation portal, and an adaptation to just use an item doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.
it would definitely have to be a unique enchantment, though... much like SR, the impression i got from ED is that items generally have to be bound to people to be anything more than a normal item.
So, were you the blood mage in this here dream? 
oh, almost forgot, as far as the second one... fourth world magic actually did launch a city into the metaplanes. that being said, the city that got launched hasn't come back, and iirc there was a great dragon looking for it...
so getting a location into the metaplanes is certainly possible. improbable, and probably would draw an awful lot of attention in the 6th world, but not impossible. getting it back, otoh, should be almost impossible.
so getting a location into the metaplanes is certainly possible. improbable, and probably would draw an awful lot of attention in the 6th world, but not impossible. getting it back, otoh, should be almost impossible.
| QUOTE (nathanross @ Apr 22 2007, 11:44 AM) |
| So, were you the blood mage in this here dream? |
Nope. I was the guy with the gun trying to keep him away from my crush and my college-bound sister.
I failed.
| QUOTE (Jaid) |
| oh, almost forgot, as far as the second one... fourth world magic actually did launch a city into the metaplanes. that being said, the city that got launched hasn't come back, and iirc there was a great dragon looking for it... so getting a location into the metaplanes is certainly possible. improbable, and probably would draw an awful lot of attention in the 6th world, but not impossible. getting it back, otoh, should be almost impossible. |
What about a college campus instead of a city? A college is smaller and thus easier to shift, especially if you just do a few buildings and not the whole thing.
| QUOTE (bibliophile20 @ Posted on Apr 22 2007, 11:36 AM) |
| What about a college campus instead of a city? A college is smaller and thus easier to shift, especially if you just do a few buildings and not the whole thing. |
I think what the point is that the magic used to move anything of that size to the metaplanes would be so far out of the range of the PCs that it is impossible. If even GD's cant do it, neither can you.
Im not exactly sure how they work, but an alchera shifting everything to astral space for awhile could be quite strange. You could also have just a normal metaplanar quest which involves the people in question. Read Harlequins Back, it gives a great idea of how to run a metaplanar quest. If you want you can make it world sweeping, or it could just be some freak magic phenomenon. That is all up to you.
BTW, throw out whatever cannon you want if it makes your campaign better. Runs can get a bit droll if you stick to what the producers make for you. It keeps you from thinking fresh.
Easy - make it happen as part of a fluke mana storm and astral rift. First the area turns into an astral shallow, then it shifts into the rift and you treat it first as an astral construct, then move it into the metaplane - the area it once occupied is now a huge rift.
Runners go on a quest to end the storm, and when that happens the campus returns to astral construct state, then shallow, and then normal.
I'd split the team in two here, and run it parallel. The initate mage goes on the quest (taking representations of the runners with him) and the runners go into the rift to make sure everyone there stays safe etc. Keep switching back and forth for dramatic tension, and maybe let the mage player have a secondary character along into the rift to keep them interested.
Runners go on a quest to end the storm, and when that happens the campus returns to astral construct state, then shallow, and then normal.
I'd split the team in two here, and run it parallel. The initate mage goes on the quest (taking representations of the runners with him) and the runners go into the rift to make sure everyone there stays safe etc. Keep switching back and forth for dramatic tension, and maybe let the mage player have a secondary character along into the rift to keep them interested.
I could be wrong, but I own "The Book of Dragons revised and expanded", and I'm pretty sure it says she's an adult western dragon.
I think that it's a Dragon spell that she spread against the orders of the Great Dragon Council.
The city was returned, but I think it was wiped out by the horrors while in a metaplane. It also says that several liferaft type airships were missing.
I think that it's a Dragon spell that she spread against the orders of the Great Dragon Council.
The city was returned, but I think it was wiped out by the horrors while in a metaplane. It also says that several liferaft type airships were missing.
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