Ok I'm still getting use to everything, but I have run a few test missions and we finally roll out tommorow for the first real starting of my campaign.

I need some help with background story any opinions/information would be a great help. Here is the run down.

I gave my group the options to decide on a group background story if they wanted too, where basicly the team knew each other in the past etc from creation, So they operate smoothly together. With that being said, I threw out a few options in hopes they would come together with one and run with it.

Well they went with one of my idea's that i used as an example and I like the idea but i don't know how much further information i can give on it.

Basicly I gave them the run down of being Ex Sec Force for an Orbital Relay/Colony/Research Facility etc, of a Corp who lost its holdings etc (Overtaken, Destroyed etc) In the process everyone except top level exec or sec, were left behind/killed etc, After being rescued or found they were sent to back to earth.

That being said, they were shuttled to an refugee/holding area once getting back for processing, Since the Corp didn't want any traces left behind all records were destroyed leaving the survivors with nothing no SIN's no ID, nothing Deniable Assets in a literal form. (any gear other then cyber *see below* is presummed to be theirs and was picked up with them)

(I'm running a introduction Campaign, Characters are built as normal but with NO cyberware/Bioware of any kind, I'm allowing them to have contacts via friends family etc, but as it stands they spent most of their lives in space, So the entire SR world is new to them. So I'm making them roleplay to get there cyber gear etc, I think it will add some depth no trusting the cyber doc etc etc.)

Anyways, As such they start off being in question their gear being held, while they are being processed how they handle it is up to them, I.e escape, wait to be processed and SINed up as new citizen etc.

So is this something that could be done? staying true to SR? I mean i know ares and Evo have space stations etc but no real information as of yet has been released *that i know of anyways* So any help into this or idea's i could further run with would be a great help.

As the game is tommorow and i would like to have as much background information for them to throw around or run with that i can. Or if not come up with a new idea to have ready by morning.

There was a section on orbital space stations in Target:Wastelands I believe, although it sounds like you don't really need details about life in SR space for their background per se.

Its not totally unreasonable that they were guarding some orbital corporate holding, but I think it would be unusual if they had never been to earth. SR is pretty advanced, but even in 2070 there are few people born and raised off planet, at least as far as I know.

EDIT: Some thing weird just happened and half my post disappeared... I'll try to recap.

If you're looking for some cannon history to fill in the blanks read up on Cross Applied Technologies Corp (CATco). They were a AAA mega that lost an an on going feud with Ares and were gobbled up around the time of the Crash 2.0 (2064). CATCo had a kick ass intelligence gathering network called the Seraphim that was known to hire runners for black ops and operated almost entirely in the shadows. When Ares took over Cross, many Seraphim went into hiding, and many were killed. The Crash could also explain the loss of SINs. Plus Ares is the big fish in space exploration, which could explain why they took over the station your PCs were guarding.

Ares also has a secret station that maintains an orbit directly opposite earth on the other side of the sun call the Helios Research Station. Nobody really knows what they are doing out there. Maybe your PCs learned a secret that sheds light on Helios' true (and probably evil) purpose. Maybe they raided an Ares ship bound for or returning from Helios (or responded to a distress call) and saw something they weren't supposed to see. Maybe the buyout of their employer is meant to root out who knows what and silence them.

Cyber and Bioware is common everywhere, and being an a space station or colony in space would probably be bioed or cybered to the hilt. That or at least know about it. If these folks have lost their identification, then they are up a certain creek w/o a certain paddle.

I think a more interesting vantage point is that this station was more like a bio-dome where the team had to be in for ten years. Completely isolated from the rest of the world. Their SINs might not have survived the second crash, and so when they leave the complex they are in for a large shock on how quickly the world has turned in just ten plus years. If that is the way you want to run it sure be my guest, but they would not only have to live in a bubble, but have to have been living in a bubble for like freekin' 50 plus years to not know about cyberware or bioware.

If you want to try something like that may I suggest some kind of bomb shelter in the barrens a la' Fallout? Thus a lot of what they have kind of sucks and you could set them in this alien world, but personally I would maybe stick them in a self contained structure that ended up surviving unnoticed until they have landed. On the downside they will be unable to invest in contacts, but it seems like you have already put them in a situation where they can't really have character generated contacts anyways.

Ok the boards or my connection are doing so weird shit so I'm going to post more ideas here instead of attempting another edit above and loosing everything a third time.

On the Helios idea:
Maybe your PCs were Cross Seraphim agents sent on a mission back in 2063 to find out what Ares was doing at Helios. Maybe they have just returned to Earth to learn that their parent corporation is no more and they are in fact owned (literally) by Ares, the company they have been working against for years. That gives a space background but also explains why they might not know all the ins and outs of the SR world in 2070. Contacts could be parts of the spy network- people they used to know that are in hiding or have new identities or were lost in the Crash. You could have whole adventures revolve around finding some old contact...

Ok let me reword somethings, and the above posts help alot with some things thanks again, But as i was saying they haven't not ever been from earth they are from earth just spent most of their lives in space or on the station etc. *considering most of them are in there 20's for age hasn't been that long. Also from master's post I am allowing them to have contacts as i said in my post above, that its via family friends vacations whatever... the players choose to go with no cyber/bio and wanted to role play getting their gear...

Also as for the cyber/bioware again I never said they didnt know what it was, just that they would have to roleplay getting it, as I wasn't letting them take it from chargen since all 3 players are new to SR they really don't know where to begin or start with it, and they are all ok with the idea of role playing getting there new gear etc, Once back on earth.

And I will attempt to find the above mentions ref's material maybe ebay or something or PDF somewhere... though the Helios or Cross theorys are good as well...

I'm starting to like this Cross/Seraphim idea, I think it might be able to work some crazyness out of it, I was also pitching an idea with Horizon station being overrun by an AI and running the meat's off his new found home * and just to be an ass hacked everyones life away lol ,but was thinking that was too much...

You don't need a far out reason why they chose not to get any cyber or bio. Not everyone and their mother has it. Not everyone wants it. Not every runner has it. Cyber and bioware is very nice, but it is not the end all be all and you don't need a far out story to explain it. If you want to have the runners feel disjointed from the setting then there are ways to do that. It also might help the players get integrated into the world at the same time the characters are.

I like the idea that there are no actual contacts except the ones that the GM has provided. They are literally stranded and have to kind of dig around before they find their old contacts (and the GM can then assign an importance and loyalty rating to this person.) Contacts are people you can basically phone up on the spot and request their services. You know where they are and what they do. I like the fact that they will start out with nothing and it will actually require them to get a grip on how to do investigation and leg work in the Shadowrun setting.

What types of characters do you have in the setting? I think that is very important to note. Do you have a gun adept? A mage? A technology expert? Have you thought about your characters working at a zero point facility? It would explain why they are completely out of the loop as far as the history is concerned, and at the same time not let them be totally ignorant on the changes in technology. I guess the space station could be a zero point facility that has fallen out of the corps favor, or even better they proved that what they were working on is actually impossible and tried to ride the wave of funding for as long as possible (the director of the project is horribly killed and everyone working there is told to get lost as the company doesn't want to have any affiliation with them ever again.)

What are the characters your party has written up and how many of them are vets of SR?

Ares also uses its space stations to train their secret elite magical shock troops, because one's you're able to reliably cast a Force 6 spell in space you're an incredible baddass everywhere else. And Ares space stations are also used as staging grounds for incursions into The Hive because there is less of a chance of armies of bugs following them back.

So, if they were on an Ares station then they would probably not be ignorant of magic though it is impossible to justify a magician who is not a double-digit initiate coming from that background.

Do let us know what you come up with and how it goes.

Sadly, I didn't get to run with any of the idea's I merely ran two missions to let them "try" out there characters and get a feel for each other, Last minute one of my players decided he didn't want to play his hacker and made a new one, So we spent two hours with him helping him make his character.

By then there wasn't much time left so i ran two on the fly missions and told them next week we can set up the background story and get everything into order.

With that being said, I now have time to build on this idea, which im happy about, just hope during the week i get a call or another last minute i want to change my character again.

Well I think it's actually a good thing that someone decided not to be a hacker. The matrix is all sticky and filled with goo monsters of ickyness. Best to shy away from the matrix until unwired comes out, or maybe try looking up and using frank trollman's matrix rules. They are posted on Dumpshock.

Ya I was looking into those a little bit, but as you said I might just wait for unwired. Guess what, Ring ring - Got a call today i want to change my character again lol. I love my group they are great but one of them is always changing his mind, now he wants a mage.

But regardless, I can run any matrix actions on the side as a support role NPC, or the Agent thing as mentioned above. Might keep things moving along more smoothly anyways. then i can give them timelines via mission in real time from hacker without them knowing any specifics from a PC playing one, Like you have 2mins to get in and out before this happens or you got hostiles coming your way but they jammed the camera feeds, watch your ass.

Might keep them guessing more with only narrative support from the NPC hacker, also may play well letting them find a trustworthy hacker to work with as a story arc, or contact.

I'm sitting down with the players today again, I lent them some of my books to let them go over the skills and get better idea on the setting all 3 of my players are new to shadowrun, I've played 3rd but not heavy enough to know all the in's and out's. they are vets of D&D 2nd and 3rd and Rifts.

two of my players want to remake their characters which is fine, since i never really launched the Initial Story arc, and one wants to play the same character with some minor adjustments.

I just got off the phone with them all, we are meeting in a few hours to get everything ready for next tuesday, I told them as well i would have the story arc ready for them as well by the weekend and would call them or email them a basic outline.

That being said; Characters are 1: Sammy Type, 2: Rigger Type and the third wants to play a mage now which im really happy about and so is he, I've been working with him alot on his mage via the computer and phone. Again the characters are all happy with starting with no cyberware/bio and want to roleplay getting it. I told them this time around they could and they rather enjoyed the idea i presented to them with being new to the game them selves that their characters starting without it and roleplaying getting it after Chargen.

I really liked Method's Idea of the Cross Seraphim *not 100%* decided but I think im running with the idea the team was Seraphim trainee's being trained as direct action - counter intelligence team, they were shipped out for their training in 2063 around the ages of 18 - 20 the training facility being cut off from most contact to insure proper training and in the case of wash outs who know to much easy deniable asset, if know one knows who or where they are. After 5 years of intense training, they were sent on deep space mission to a remote relay station/research facility.

The round trip of the mission taking almost 2 years, *The mission was targeting an *Ares* relay/station, unknown why it was so far out or what it was doing, the team was to investigate. After reaching the relay/station they find a abandoned, or so they thought, after boarding the station and restoring power to the rest of the station and searching they find evidence of it being some sort of research facility, and all personnel dead. Once securing the command center the hacker tried to break into the system and download all the information on the facility, most of the information being damaged or deleted, the hacker tries to piece together anything left... only getting a transmission from earth, stating that the facility was to cease all research, that a ship was coming to debrief them secure the facility, and the station was to be destroyed, along with all evidence and data and non-essential personnel were to be neutralized.

Few minutes after reading the log, the station's security systems activate and the station goes into Self-Destruct mode, The team making their way back to their ship get attacked, by a group of Mages out of know where. after all is said and done, most of the team is dead... only 3 members of the 7 man team make it, finding a data disk on one of the mages the remaining 3 flee to their ship and make their way home.

After another long trip and reading the data on the disk, they find out a little about what was going on their, Seems the facility was used to staging ground for awakening and training mages via spacial distortion exposing the young minds to a distortion not far from the station produced an effect similar to the original awakening in meta-humanity only it was unstable and killed most subjects or caused them to go insane. The R&D team was trying to focus in on the distortion and control its effects so they could breed and train an army of mages.

The only other information on the what was going on was a Project code name - Helios

Thats all i got, how's it sound any ideas or to change or better clarify would be appreciated again the below entry is one of the options i could give them.

(Upon reaching their destination they team finds out that, their station and home is now under the control of Ares, having no idea whats going on now, and knowing they been gone for awhile the team is left with a choice, Board the station or attempt to land safely on earth.) ??? Maybe or something else...

I'm at a lost now, if anyone could contribute or help polish it up some would be great...

Thanks

Is the sammy or rigger an adept? I think the problem you might not be seeing is that space really screws with mages. If they can handle summoning a spirit, they have to have a large magic stat (one that a starting character probably wouldn't have.) Why not have them on the research station that was dealing with the distortion? The mage is created through this training and was one of the few who didn't go insane. They were not actually told about the project and were sent to the station under different pretenses. The station has it's minor problems, but most of it is swept under the rug until all hell breaks loose. They have to flee the ship and many of their friends are killed. When they escape the station someone was able to activate the self destruct mechanism and blew the station. Yet the party is able to notice that five other escape pods were launched. When they return back to earth they find that their corporation has been taken over by Ares (maybe for even a few years,) and realize that the higher ups in the station probably knew about this but decided to continue with the research.

What happened in that station? What went wrong? What was really going on in that space station? One of the subjects is now suddenly a mage when he returns to earth and all the training he received suddenly makes a whole lot of sense. Why was he the only one to become awakened? There should be a ton of questions that the party has and no answers. After that you can take time for the party to go on a few runs, and start trying to piece together what really happened on that station on the side. Maybe after the party has made a name for itself, and your players know how to deal with the SR setting they then find another mage who survived the station who is completely insane (and was able to escape in one of the pods) and after killing or subduing the mage finds out through his comlink the changes in his behavior in his journal (and the party realizes that the dates are when this mage was in the station and for probably five times longer then the party) until he just sounds nuts and is talking about some strange beings, or just says something like "the warp feeds me" as his last entry. There might be some other clues on his person that they might be able to look at. Maybe play the fact that there is a HUGE background count around this mage that someone wants handled after a while, and the party realizes that it doesn't actually effect them. Maybe it in fact boosts the mage to fight on the same level that the other mage is fighting at (boost the rest of the party as well so it tips the scale in their favor or something like that.) Although when the other mage dies the background count fades and your mage goes back to being his old low magic self. Maybe he gets glimpses into the mind of the other mage? Maybe some dark creature calls out to him? Maybe there was other person in his pod that the mage was deathly afraid of? Decide for yourself what you want mate.

No the rigger and sam are mundane... But i sat down with them today, the Sammy is content, I have one mage and the rigger is thinking about making a Adept or mage himself, but might stick with his rigger idea, Im going to meet with him this weekend to finalize his character.

Ya i was just taking a stab in the dark, but i kinda like what you listed in your post, I've read up some on Harlequin and the horrors (love that elf) maybe the station had something to do with a portal or distortion dealing with the them? Hence why they were able to be awakened by beings from the other side, and were trying to use the mages to help them enter the 6th world easier? Hence why so many were just killed (moral reasons or just weak) or insane clouded by the horrific images of whats to come. I could make the mage have nightmares and visions regarding these things but no clear images, as time progresses i could bring together other mages or people involved in the project, and as he grows he starts to piece together some of these images.

Could use this as a backdrop for not starting them with cyberware/bio, they were being trained and used as vessel's for something else... hence no ware, they would be highly trained and then awakened, that would be a scary concept?