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Kronk2
So if is possible for everything in SR to be awakened why not diseases, and wouldn't the WHO/CDC be all over cataloging them? And since they are now a corp they have the money to make things happen. I can see an interesting campaign based on seeking out outbreaks of sickness worldwide.

Relevant question, does the cure disease spell work if you have no idea what the condition is? I guess this is kinda a question for Franktrollman, do you have any ideas along this line to give me a kick start, or any ideas for future outbreaks/ diseases? I could almost see putting up a map and throwing a dart to determine where outbreaks occur.

NightRain
QUOTE (Kronk2)
So if is possible for everything in SR to be awakened why not diseases, and wouldn't the WHO/CDC be all over cataloging them? And since they are now a corp they have the money to make things happen. I can see an interesting campaign based on seeking out outbreaks of sickness worldwide.

There are magic diseases listed in Augmentation. Some of them are even resistant to magical healing. FAB has been an example of a magical disease in previous editions, so they're not new

Great potential for a story arc though I have to say! Good idea...
Kronk2
Funding would not be a problem for the team, but bringing in a little extra cash for the team is always good. I can easily see a team going out with flamethrowers and hazmat suits to eradicate and burn a hot zone.

How great a draw would the CDC have for Magic users? Would they risk them on field ops?

Ideas and comments welcome and requested.
MaxHunter
Once, a group of shadowrunners (I was GM) was hired by a UN Johnson and sent to Swaziland to rescue a WHO doctor who was stranded in the jungle and captured by unknown parties The meet was in Geneva and half of the run was getting from Cape Town to the midst of an Awakened Jungle.

[ Spoiler ]


and...

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also...
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and imagine the player's surprise when they discovered that...

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FrankTrollman
The ideal conditions for the creation of new diseases are places where humans are in close proximity with each other and with other animals and not in close proximity to hygene, good nutrition, and healthcare.

In the awakened world, virtually every animal is running a 1-30% totally weird crap rate. That means that close proximity to a large number of other types of animals is virtually guaranteed. So really you're looking for groups of metahumans in crowded conditions with poor hygene and nutrition.

Obvious places of course are Barrens and Sacrifice Zones in Sprawls, especially Asian sprawls. There is a reason that most influenza comes out of China, and it's becase you have big crowded dirty cities with large numbers of humans and pigs in cramped conditions and nothing but folk wisdom to keep disease away. Indonesia and Guan Xi are probably on virtually continuous plague watch.

In 2070 there are other problems. Not only is the diversity of animal life (and thus potential bacterial and viral hosts) exponentially larger after the awakening than before, not only do viruses and bacteria themselves have magical powers, but in 2070 there are a number of groups which are actively attempting to create pestilence in an effort to create suffering, mass die-offs, or both.
    Toxic Mages Pestilent Rat isn't just a totem, it's a way of life. It's a tactic. They have what is potentially the most deadly weapon in history and they want to use it.

    Demons Yama Kings, Oni, Rakshasa, and whatever else you can imagine. There are spirits who come with bowls full of plague which they intend to unleash upon the unwashed masses of humanity.

    Dirty Wars What better way to reduce an enemy's market share than to manually reduce the demand in areas where an opposing corporation is doing well? Corporations are nable to move against each other openly for fear of an Omega Order, but throwing out a biological agent can come with some nice plausible deniability. The disease spreads itself, and runs silently enough for long enough that it leaves less evidence than wildfires.

So what does the CDC have to look out for? Well some of it is pretty standard mad-man who steals a sample of military biologicals and then throws it into a water source or opens it in a busy airport. Some of it is people running natural plage factories (large numbers of malnurished children forced to work in chicken and pig feces on little islands until they get deathly ill). Some of it is people actually designing new plagues with computer systems and such.

That being said, here are some campaign arcs:
    The Worst Hajj
    Every year muslims from all over the world meet at the sacred city of Mecca in the Arabian Caliphate for five days of prayer and community and festivals in cramped conditions. Then they go back to their respective countries and go about their lives. It's the fifth pillar of Islam and every single able bodied muslim man is supposed to perform this ritual at least once in their lives. There are over 2 million people attempting to kiss a single black rock inside of a week.

    So if you were to release a new deadly disease that incubates for about 6 days, you might be able to infect over a million people. A million people who would then immediately get onto airplanes and fly to every corner of the globe and start coughing In airports. Do I have to draw you a diagram where a billion people die in 28 days?

    The players catch wind of the plot somehow. A cryptic divination, an intercepted transmission, a captured prototype operation on a contained island installation. Whatever, the characters are then forced to race the clock against an extinction level event while surrounded by neo-luddites who don't trust them and believe that the CDC is part of a techno-magical conspiracy to undermine their religious beliefs.

    Bats in the Belfry
    Welcome to the Lagos Necropolis. Run by ghouls who claim that by right of the might of their machette arms and their ability to combat the shedim who continually assault the most populous city on the dark continent, Lagos is shunned by nations and corporations alike who refuse to acknowledge the regional authorities or the plight of the citizenry who live under them.

    The ghouls seize the corpses of the fallen for food and keep them in specially warded warehouses ironically to keep them from rising as flesh eating monsters. But while the ghouls are resistant, nearly immune to disease, the 10 million metahumans who make their homes in the necropolis enjoy no such advantage. Should non-magical mamals like say bats get in and out of these warehouses they could easily carry whatever corpse rot happens to be en vogue today across the city skies in the dead of night.

    Once the problem is underway, how do the CDC operatives get professional cooperation from the government when the CDC organization officially recognizes that government as a disease?

    Slaves to Darkness
    In Kowloon Walled City there are creatures of great evil called Yama Kings. They gain power from the suffering of others, and they have been known to grant powers to those who would hurt the innocent on their behalf.

    So what if one of the Yama Kings decides to spread some real misery? Of course, for reasons that are hard to explan they'd start by infecting people who use loopholes in laws to cheat with deadly flesh eating bacteria - but these things spread quickly and the cramped conditions would cause them to flourish. The city has walls as much to keep people in as to keep people out, and you can bet that Wuxing would try to just lock everyone in to die and feast upon the dead. And that, of course, would strengthen the Yama Kings beyond what is acceptable to anyone. So the CDC would have to go in and fight back, while being hounded by demons and risking being firebombed by an impatient corporate authority from the outside.

-Frank
Ancient History
Nurgle much, Frank?
Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (MaxHunter)
Once, a group of shadowrunners (I was GM) was hired by a UN Johnson and sent to Swaziland to rescue a WHO doctor who was stranded in the jungle and captured by unknown parties The meet was in Geneva and half of the run was getting from Cape Town to the midst of an Awakened Jungle.
<snip>

...damn, sounds similar to a set of missions I was on (3e). The difference was it involved VITAS III instead of Ebola. We did pretty much the same thing rescued the Dr, got back at the J, but the difference was we went back to find the lab where they were working on producing the virus and Leela (#50) blew it up real good (man, I miss supplementary skills). However, a couple members of the team contracted the virus after being bitten by infected critters. Fortunately we were able to get to a medical facility which had an experimental antiviral agent and the magical expertise to arrest the disease before it completed its incubation period (36 hrs). Cut it real close as well & while we had our own means of getting back, the owners of the lab made sure the trip wasn't an easy one.
MaxHunter
Sounds like fun KK. Maybe your GM also watched "Outbreak" and "Tears of the Sun" on cable tv the week before the game as I did. smile.gif

Cheers,

Max

p.s. any runner group should have someone who knows demolitions


Simon May
QUOTE (MaxHunter)
Once, a group of shadowrunners (I was GM) was hired by a UN Johnson and sent to Swaziland to rescue a WHO doctor who was stranded in the jungle and captured by unknown parties The meet was in Geneva...

You do realize that Geneva is in Switzerland not Swaziland, right? Cause if you packed for one and ended up in the other, it could be really awkward.
MaxHunter
hahaha!!!

They met in Geneva, had dinner with Johnson, arranged payment and transportation. They spent a couple days in the hotel there making final preparations and handling how to move their gear and then flew in a UN sanctioned flight to Cape Town. From Cape Town to Swaziland (Azania) they had to move on their own, and they got hold of a Gaz-Willy Nomad truck.

Later in the run and now deep in the jungle their vehicle was blown to pieces in a corporate bombardment meant to cover the corp's illegal operation. They ended up stealing a Hummer to return to civilization.

Cheers,

Max
Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (MaxHunter)
Sounds like fun KK. Maybe your GM also watched "Outbreak" and "Tears of the Sun" on cable tv the week before the game as I did. smile.gif

Cheers,

Max

p.s. any runner group should have someone who knows demolitions

..I think he saw one of those...

...the ability to hack together an FAE isn't bad either. Especially when the fools leave 200 litre drums of petrol on site.
Method
Here is a thread you might want to check out for ideas.

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