I know I read somewhere the the Devs had someone in mind as the person who is accessing Jackpoint in the books.
I have gone over it and cannot for the life of me figure it out. has anyone come out with a guess or the actual person that it is supposed to be?

Trevor

I thought it was mentioned once that it was meant to be directed at the player reading it as "there" jackpoint account.

That is what I thought but I know one of the freelancers on the board asked if anyone knew who the Jackpoint user was due to the clues left in the books. Any Devs shed any life on this?

Trevor

What makes you think it's not you?

Well, if there were clues left in the books, it would defeat their purpose if developers told you outright, wouldn't it?

Peter

Agreed but it is driving me crazy. A little more of hint?


Trevor

Kat O' Nine Tales is actualy Maria Mercurial, let me guess it wasn't this that you were looking for.
Sorry I don't get the whole thing, but I'll reread the loging interfaces (the only place I'm aware of in which thare is something personaly related to the reader) and try to figure it out.

There's not a lot of personal information in the jackpoint logins, but there are some consistencies. It's difficult to know what might be useful in identifying the person. A few bits of information we're given are:

From Street Magic: Netcat, Beaker, and Nephrine are online and in your area

From Runner Havens: Netcat has increased your Rep by +1
Netcat and Haze are online and in your area

From Arsenal: Am-mut is online and in your area

From Ghost Cartels: Your Shagalicious friend of the week Unna will be at Dante’s Inferno tonight
:: It’s not just kids though, far from it. I was at Dante’s Inferno’s a couple of nights ago and a bunch of corporate suits were doing flipside. They were talking trash about how it was going to get them laid and even handed out a few derms.
:: Devlin


So, Dante's Inferno is apparently a club in Seattle. Stands to reason that the jackpoint user lives there or at least was there at the time of Ghost Cartels.
What do we know about Netcat, who is the only runner to be mentioned twice as being 'in your area' and apparently likes our jackpoint user? If he/she has a home sprawl, (Seattle?) it seems likely the jackpoint users is the same. Beaker, Nephrine, Haze and Am-mut are also contacts.

I suspect our jackpoint user will be one of the people making comments throughout the books. There might even be a correlation between the 'responses to your jackpoint posts' and comments made throughout the books, but I'm not bored enough to try to find it!

There's really not a lot to go on. I imagine we'll need to wait for more info.

Netcat's a technomancer and has her own section in the fiction at the end of Runner's Companion...

She's a TM and Slamm-O! is flirting with her.
But there are more than the login pages. There are also some personal messages from time to time.

I think Mercurial got herself killed in Crash 2.0.

And in later books they seem to be less personal for some reason. Messages are pulled from junk rather than sent to you, or are from other people.

As a writer, I'm not aware of any secret Jackpoint poster. I thought it was just supposed to be written as if the reader is viewing his/her own Jackpoint account.

heh. Ever since the Arc's shutdown, which seriously dampened the rep and access to Club Penumbra, Dante's Inferno has been THE club in Seattle.

However, there are actually three locations of Dante's. The original in Seattle, one in Hong Kong and one in London. And Purgatory in Atlanta(? I think). They're all owned by the same guy.

I disagreed.
Lets take a look to Unwired, at p.17 you jackpointer recive a private message from Kat in which she gives you a list of some of hers favourite virtual clubs, she also offers you a VIP pass to any of them in exchange of a little favor, the interesting bit is that the masquerade is the virtual extension of the Grande Tour, very exclusive, she must have some serious connections and be accepted among the high and mighty to provide a VIP pass for that club. Lets pass to Runner Companion, in the ministory introducing the advanced lifestyle she is looking for a place to stay away for a while, she can afford any of is offered to her but hers requirements are strict; in the end she accepts to inspect a penthouse in Tacoma, there she realizes that the place is the replica of a previous place where she spent time, she asks the guy showing her the place if he was a stalker and he answers that he's just a big fan (she also introduced to the guy's goulish friends). To have more reveling particulars we must take a look to Corporate Enclaves, at p.45 Kat states that she hates the Aztechnology (but can't live without a lipstick they produce) and Frosty (no need to explain who she is, right?) asks "Yes, but where do you get that silver body glitter?"; placing the various particulars together we know that she she has silvery skin, hates the Azzies, has clout in high society and fans. It all gives a certain meaning to hers comment on biosculpting in Augmentations (p.56): "Ever thought about fucking Maria Mercurial? Well, you can - by lining some mobster's pocket, of course".



What?

Anyway I've found an interesting bit, in the log-in page of Augmentations the Jackpointer recives a message from Ms. Brackhaven, anyone have any dirt on this?

You're right... I hate you now I have to go trough all the books again.

I don't know, I just think it's awesome that they made my favorite character from unofficial shadowrun fiction (winterhawk) a shadowtalker.

heh, some SR3 books had dumpshock nicks show up in the shadowtalk

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but Kat isn't Maria. Kat's info (as well as the others) can be found here: Jackpoint Poster List. As you see she's got a fan base all her own. As to why she's accepted amongst the high and mighty... well... I guess you'll just have to keep watching for comments as more of her background is revealed. (Same as for the other shadowtalkers.)

edit: oh, and the silver body glitter is makeup.

You may have just engendered a horrible sense of hope in me, though I'd much rather my character (Nighteyes) get one than some guy named Pyrite.

but of course, either would be indescribably awesome, and both mean I need to post here more.

Hell it's the tird time I try to respond you, if this connection actes up again I'm giong to scream ; anyway:
That link puts a serious dent in my theory, I'll give you that, but it doesn't make it impossible just improbable.
According to the Maria's stats provided in the Mercurial adventure she had 1,3 points of essence left. She could have awakened (and with all that she has been trought she probably had enough karma to initiate and raise hers magic several times) as an adept, Voice Control, Facial Sculpt and Melanine Control would allowe her to be whoever she want to be (Note: Melanine control affectes the skin and hair color not their reflective properties, that silvery glitter could be that; when Frosty asked Kat where did the glittering come from Kat answered that it was a quite a story, Maria's life IS a quite a story). Why would she have done it? Why not? Maria always pursed thing she was interested in, money and fame were just welcome byproducts, if she had any reason to wish to do it I would see her to do it. However an interesting cojecture could be derived from the band's name: Grim Aurora. The name implies a bitter new day, the day after the Crash would be fitting, maybe Maria's houseband died in the Crash and she couldn't keep singing as Maria as nothing happened, but she couldn't give up music though (what gave her back hers sanity), so she formed a band and named it after hers pain.
Naturaly this is just an hypothesis of conjecture, as you said we have to wait new books to learn more about characters background.

P.S.
Thanks for the link.

Deo gratias, it went trought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

Indeed, but it applies bith the ways. I said that it can't be ruled out that Kat is Maria, not that Kat IS Maria. I made no assumption, just provided a plausible possibility among the others; and ruling out that possibility is as incorrect as considering it true just because it's not impossible, we know that Kat is the singer of a punk band, not what she did before the crash or how she have become what she is, ruling out that possibility is making an unprovable (based on this moment knowledge) assumption, even if this assumption has much higher probability of being true than the scenario I've depicted.
I have written that it was just an hypothesis of conjecture because it wasn't meant to be even a conjecture, in time we will see but right now we have no way to prove or disprove one way or the other.

hehe, I think when the assistant Dev of the game tells you your theory is shoot, that the info might be good enough to drop the debate I'm pretty sure it counts as an almost definite canon answer.

A picture of Kat can be seen on pg 151, Runner's Companion. And hey, the guy stalking her is Larry.

!!!!!!!!! I had completely forgotten that she's a assistant dev!! I must have lost too many neurons recently.
Sorry, just think it as a narrative exercise (now I know why my connection didn't want me to post).
Sorry for dubting of your word Lady, actualy I didn't think you were wrong, just that there was no right answer at all; in the end I just played the part of the idiot, well I deserved it. Laugh on chummers, laugh on.

So the chick is Kat, thanks I didn't understand the meaning of the picture.
By the way, is she human or elf?

P.S.
Can you give us an insider info on who's dead and who's not of the SR big names? You know, Maria Mercurial, Nadja Daviar, Milo Chezna, Aina, etc. Just to let us know.

Kat is human.

I can't say much on the other question. Except that Aina is a favorite of mine...

Not decided yet or keeping things under wrap?

P.S.
Speaking of Aina, could it happen that you know where I can find some pic of her?
The only one I have a hold of is the one in "Dragons of the 6th world", and she just looks angry in that pic. How does she look like?

By the way, more or less back on topic, in the news section of the log in page of Augmentations there's a bit of info about stolen artifacts; am I the only one who thinks it's tied to that upcoming Dawn of Artifacts adventure arc?

It's not her man, let it go.

On a side note, wasn't it explicitly stated somewhere Mercurial died? I can't remember but I get the nagging feeling it was...

- J.

You should bother yourself of reading a few more posts, the issue has been already resolved.
Also what do you mean with "it's not her man"? You mean Armando Hernande? He and Maria got married at the end of the Mercurial adventure.

P.S.
I know of no statement about Maria's fate after the Crash, if you ever find any evudence pleas tell me.

I think he meant "it's not her, man." Like "it's not her, dude" or "it's not her, my friend." Just a grammar fail

Yeah, it makes sense.

Wanted to try and resurrect this thread because it is a lot of fun. Perhaps we can speculate that Goat Foot is really Martin De Vries, Axis Mundi is Richard Raven, or Am-Mut is Cog.

Looking over the list that Jennifer provided us.

http://shadowrun4.com/resources/sr4/shadowtalker_list.pdf

It seems that the developers have provided us with a quality and entertaining cast of shadows who consistently speak to us in various sourcebooks through the Jackpoint bulletin board. For some reason my inner voice is telling me these characters are just waiting to be fleshed out by the fans in fanfiction and various short stories. I know this is a long shot (I own only the SR4th Main Book, On the Run, SR4th GM Screen, One Stage Before 2nd edition, Tir Tairngire from 1st or 2nd. You may laugh here. ), but would anyone be able to provide me with information on the following characters from the list above from what they know or from the Jackpoint references in other sourcebooks.

1. Hard Exit
2. Red Anya
3. Sounder
4. Sunshine

I'm attempting to scribe fanfiction, SR style, and would love to incorporate these characters into the stories in some fashion. Thanks in advance.

Unless said Assistant Developer is intentionally dropping misinformation to throw off the runners who are getting close to discovering one of the companies super secret secrets.

(Damn! I've been playing this game too long!)

Goat Foot first appeared in Loose Alliances. She is certainly not Martin de Vries. He'd still be using Stalker or whatever douchebag name he used back in 3rd edition.

On this note, Fastjack had a daughter?!?

ok, where did that bomb drop from?

I know I am planning on making fleshing out Clockwork. Seeing how violently he reacted in Emergence, I am making him into a technomancerphobe who starts targeting to kill 'mancers through the matrix (according to the books he's a hobgoblin hacker). Runners are hired to stop him.

On a side note, we may not know who the mysterious jackpoint logger is, but we have a few clues in the form of personal messages he/she recieves.

I will compile a list, but we know:

1)Our Logger is fairly well known in the shadows, having a respectable rep with most of it being positive. (44 rep, 96% positive in emergence)
2)Our Logger sets up shop in Seattle (He has a shagworthy contact at Dante's Inferno.)
3)S/he has a contact in a smuggling outfit (Possibly called technicolor wings) that can smuggle people into Boston (Emergence.)
3.5) S/he is NOT Netcat, but knows her, and is on an 'exchange favors' basis with her. (From above box.)
4)S/he is fairly net savvy, as s/he has various spam filters and search agents bringing in related articles when browsing Jackpoint. Not saying s/he is a hacker, just matrix savvy.
5)At least somewhat active Shadowrunner, as s/he recieves job offers from the automated job bank. (Emergence)
6)Has a contact on 'Orbital DK' and is a high-profile enough runner to be considered for a 7-digit retrieval job.(Emergence)
7)Knows a Hacker named H, but is apparantly, not a hacker him/herself (or was at least passed over in favor of H.)(Emergence)
7.5) Is not Axis Mundi, but knows him. (From above box.)
It is exreamly unlikely the logger is Clockwork. In Emergence, his Rep score "Bottoms out" but in all books, the logger's rep score maintains a fairly steady level.
9)Implied to have a sister called 'M' to whom s/he is close (M herself is implied to be a technomancer or a ghost in the machine, caught in the crash of matrix 2.0). Also implied to have a living mother, and a brother named Francis. (End of Emergence.) Closer to M than Francis or mom.

I'll review other book PMs and post that information.

SR4A - Fiction written by Bobby 'Ancient History' Derie (great stuff, IMHO!)

The jackpoint user has got at least one cyber-eye (on the right) and it is "reporting a stress fracture and impaired operability" in the Arsenal.

I also read in a German Shadowrun wiki that NeoNET troops tried to catch Netcat in Hongkong (due to the happenings in Emergence). Would that mean that she lives there? Because then I would assume the jackpoint user might live/have a stay in Hong Kong aswell since Netcat is in his area twice as mentioned already in this thread and there is this Dante's Inferno club in Hong Kong aswell. Just random thoughts, though :x

He's 73, and has been world famous since he was 51. I'm surprised that he doesn't have grandchildren.

IIRC, AH wrote a story that was set during the final hours of the second Crash. The unnamed otaku who divulged the secrets of otakudom in the Denver boxed set was Fastjack's daughter, who led Fastjack into a trap set up by Pax.

Interesting to see he got to stick that in official canon now

I could have sworn I read something a while back that alluded to the fact that Peri was Fastjacks daughter. Could just be too much information rattling around in my brain though.

Not necissarily true. Netcat goes all over the world during the events of emergence in order to find more info about other technomancers. It would make sense to visit Hong Kong, because that is where the massive technomancer breakout happened.


Here is more info I turned up, and I started adding references.

Is not Fastjack, logger recieved a PM from him reminding the logger about loading malware onto Jackpoint (presumably because his commlink was recently hacked, which could have lead to an attempted hack on Jackpoint) (Unwired, Jackpoint Loggin and page 14)

Is not Glitch or Smiling Bandit, as they are admins and our logger is not (Corperate Enclaves, Jackpoint login)

Is not Hard Exit, but knows him. Hard Exit feels the need to forward information about Red Samurai to our logger, implying that he may have been involved in a possible run against Ares in 2071(Corperate Encleves, pg 70)

Unlikely to be Sunshine. Our Logger's Agent is named "xpl0lt3r" (Corperate Enclaves, Jackpoint Login) and Sunshine's Agent is named "Wanderlay" (Emergence, pg 22)

Is neither Glasswalker nor 'Don Hoji.' Knows Glasswalker well enough to be called compenero . . . commrade. (Corperate Enclaves, pg 89)

During early 2071, was looking to transport goods into Neo-Tokyo (from above.)

Has a contact named Mihoshi (Implied to be a Japanese female Elf who lived on Yomi for a short time.) Knows her well enough to get her to open up about the tramatic experience. (Corperate Enclaves, page 96)

Has a contact named Mihoshi Oni (possibly same as above) who knows the ins and outs of typical Yakuza operations in Neo-Tokyo (Corperate Enclaves, 89)

Owns a Remington Roomsweeper, which is smartlinked (Arsenal, Jackpoint Login)

His/Her right eye is a cybereye (Arsenal, Jackpoint Login)

Has posted at least once on Jackpoint, and has at least one response (Arsenal, Jackpoint Login)

Has two more agents (Agent Smithers and Agent Scully), in addition to xpl0lt3r, that makes three total (Unwired, Jackpoint Login)

Is not Kat o' Nine Tails, but knows her fairly well (well enough to be called 'Sugah' in any case.) In 2071 asked Kat about various high profile clubs around the world. (Unwired, 17)

Is not Clockwork, but recieved a message from him concerning how to hack with malware. Implies our logger is somewhat accustomed to hacking but not a full-fledged hacker. (Unwired, 87)

this all assuming its a single person...

Are you guys trying to identify the Jackpoint user of the reader's perspective? I don't think it's supposed to be any of the posters.

Sort of. It started out that way . . . now I think we are just trying to learn as much about him as possible. From what I have been able to gather the big points on our logger are:

1) S/He has a living mother, brother (named Francis, implying that s/he may be of European decent), and a sister referred to as M. Sister may be a technomancer or a ghost trapped in the matrix.

2)S/He is matrix savvy but not a full fledged hacker.

3)S/He is a fairly active shadowrunner, and is highly respected, given how high his/her rep and positive rep % is.

4)Has many, MANY contacts around North America, and even some in orbit.

It's too obvious to be the reader himself.

Come on. These are SR fans you're talking to.