First off an intro. If you just want to see my SR questions scroll down to the smilie.

Hi all. I'm glad I found this forum because I have gotten really into SR. I played SR3 a decent amount but it never really resonated with me. However I recently played some SR4 and for some reason my interest level has gone through the roof. I don't know what it is but I am berserk for SR now. I have been writing up scenarios and I'm even working on a character history generator (just for fun but I may post it at some point). Anyway, yeah I like SR.

So I have been working on some campaign/mission ideas and I came up with a few questions, mostly involving the metaplot and SR history. I have access to all SR4 books and a good number of SR3 and a few SR1,2 books but I can't find a few things.


So the Questions:

Are there any members of Echo Mirage detailed in any SR products (besides Damien Knight)?

Is there any specific info on the virus that Echo Mirage eliminated?

Is it possible that an AI could merge with a sprite?

Can a sprite possess a person and if so would the only circumstance, where that would be possible, be if the possesee had some kind of headware or was a technomancer?

Are any of the Shadowland contributors in the SR books detailed in any product? Like Captain Chaos, Terwilliger, Synner etc?

What might be the likely reaction of the world, if a longtime contributor/admin type of Shadowland was captured and taken captive by Lone Star? Then LS started arresting large numbers of known and respected runners, presumably because this guy is handing them info on shadow-ops and runners. Would the corps go nuts and bust him out (who knows what this guy knows about all the dirty corporate secrets?)? Would LS not do this because it would bring down too much heat? Would a lot of runs happen to kill this Shadowland contributor? Basically thats kind of the hook for a long story arc I'm working on and maybe you folks can give me some perspective.

Sorry if thats an explosion of questions but I figured one thread would be better than six.

So any answers/ideas?

I "think" Captain Chaos is at least rumored to be an ex-member of the original echo mirage team, but don't quote me on that. Could've been a personal story arc from my GM as that came up in our group.

Most answers regarding sprites depend heavily on what exactly they are in the first place, which isn't fully disclosed (yet?). I wouldn't think that they could merge with a "regular" AI much less possess a regular guy, but that's just personal opinion. If you need it for as a plot element, go wild.

Secondly "the" shadowland (Seattle, that is) is gone, as is Captain Chaos. Thinking of any other data heaven, though, I don't think anyone would care too much. The megas know every information available at the data heavens anyway, so there's nothing that could "leak out". The operators don't have any useful information for tracking their users, as a) they don't care and b) their users are career criminals spoofing their IDs anyway. So, every con that never got any personal advantage from the specific data heaven may cheer about it shutting down, the others wouldn't, but life would just go on as usual. For the most part, trying to track the operators down is more work than it's worth, considering they all mirror each other's data anyway.

Alice is the only one I can think of, and she's essentially an E-Ghost.

Like what? I don't think anyone knows who released it, if that's what you're after.

See above. Entropic sprites can eat other sprites, but no one knows if they can eat AI's, or what would happen.

Sprites can't possess people, but I can see a Machine sprite inhabiting someone's skillwires. In fact, using Diagnostics, that could turn into an ugly combination.

Welcome to Dumpshock. Hopefully the current state of the place and it's posters doesn't kill your buzz for SR. That said, onto some of the answers I can provide.

I'm not sure on Captain Chaos being a member of Echo Mirage, but Fastjack is heavily rumored to be and there are a couple others who I can't think of at 1am. A ghost in the machine deal with someone's wife, I think former UCAS president Kyle Haeffner.

No real specific info on the original Crash Virus, though I seem to remember hints somewhere. There is info on the original Anit-Crash Virus which is the AI Mirage who's detailed in Brainscan and SR3's Matrix book I believe.

AI merging with a Sprite, I don't see why not. Both are "unexplained Matrix phenomenon" and if you need them to for plot purposes, go for it. As for sprites possessing people, that's a little stickier, but again if it's for plot, go for it. You might want to check out Unwired for the simsense reprogramming stuff and work the "possession" through that if you can.

Many of the Shadowland posters in SR2 and SR3 are detailed in various places in lots of books. Harlequin, Ehran the Scribe, Dunk and Hestaby, all of them posted. There was a book in SR3, Target: Matrix, that had alot of the personalities detailed someone. As for the ones I just mentioned, well, they are harder to nail down to just one book.

Good scenario, but a data haven admin isn't likely to be a good person for it. They wouldn't know a bunch of runners, just a choice few and probably not well enough to get them busted. Now a big time fixer, like one with Connection 5 or 6, would know a shitload of runners and how to contact them and what they are capable of. That is probably more up the alley of what you want. Could even have ties to a data haven like ShadowSea or something and it would be news worthy there if they start snitching out the community. If he started to talk about specific runs against corps, some (ie the ones who hired the runners) would try to have him killed, others (ie the ones the runners broke into and stole from) would try to question/ mind rape him and then kill him.

Hope that helps. If you want more details, let me know and I'll try to help you out tomorrow or something. Right now, it's time to crash.

Fastjack has denied being one of the Echo Mirage team. And the E-ghost you're referring to is the Alice I mentioned. Thank you, I had forgotten her last name.

The "sprite possessing a person" thing is covered in one of the SR4 Denver missions, I _think_ number 5.

The Ancient Files are the usual first stop for SR lore.

No. A sprite is a resonance based creature. An AI has no resonance. A sprite and AI are both sentient, however, and could form a partnership, work together, fall in love (okay, that's stretching it), battle, etc, etc.



A sprite cannot possess a person. They're not spirits. They could certainly take over an internal commlink (or external) and cause a lot of misery for a person with cyberware. If you want this for a plot point, I'd suggest using someone who's got a thing for persona-fixes and do some evil gm things (hey, who said GMs needed to follow all the rules if it makes a great plot point???). Personally I'd use a dissonent sprite. They're meaner.



I think Target: Matrix (?) has a section on the top ten hackers, with The Smiling Bandit, Slamm-0!, Red Wraith, and Fastjack in it.



If you want a datahaven admin, remember they just manage the datahaven. They aren't likely to know where all the runners who contribute are living. Heck, they probably don't even know the runners' real names, just their handles. Also remember that Lone Star has limited jurisdiction. Lone Star can't just fly to Hong Kong and arrest Ma'fan, or sent officers into Pueblo Corporate Council to arrest Mika. And why does Lone Star want to arrest a bunch of runners, anyway? Unless the runners have committed a crime specifically against one of the jurisdictions Lone Star patrols (ie, if the runners are hitting Lone Star or hitting a public facility - Lone Star probably jumps for joy if they hear about some runners hitting Ares). Now if someone got ahold of a fixer in Seattle and sucked his brain dry of information, they might have a personal reason to start going after the fixer's runner teams...

Now, say the Admin was arrested for some trivial reason. Say a half-dozen corps hear that this guy (or gal) is sitting in a Lone Star detention facility. Hm... I could see all of them in a race to get their hands on this person before anyone else does. I could also see a lot of the person's contacts attempting to get them out first - you can't be a long time, prominent admin without getting a large stack of IOUs in your inbox...

She died in 2064 when the Crash Worm (2.0) wiped out her system. There is brief mention of this in System Failure


... and my favorite: Grid Reaper.

I would imagine that Shadowland and similar organizations are the sort of things Lone Star (or other security/police groups) would want to infiltrate on the sly so that they can keep dipping into the well rather than making a whole lot of noise for a few months before the shadow folks reorganized and relocated. Which isn't to suggest that a need for some large public and quite visible action wouldn't spur LS into pulling something like this with the intention of getting the initial target to roll on as many contacts as possible and pulling in a larger budget thanks to the PR they receive by arresting a bunch of runners. Of course that leads me to this issue: The sysops and admins running a data haven like Shadowland are likely to be protective over their members and site security. I'm sure things are as compartmentalized as possible to avoid situations like this. Contributors wouldn't want to post data of any sort if they thought it was too easy to trace. Still, individual members are likely to have a wide net of contacts and the more powerful/important the initial target is, the larger their net is.

Just some things to keep in mind On a side note, were I the one writing this sort of storyline, I would certainly expect swift and severe retribution from those members of Shadowland who are not busted right off. Does anyone really want all those prime runners? Is it really worth the time and trouble? It is your story though, so it likely is worth it

From the Sixth World Wiki

Former Members of Echo Mirage

* Alice Haeffner was the late wife to Kyle Haeffner, president of the UCAS. It is rumored that she is still alive, a “ghost in the machine.�
* Buddy was a research at U-Dub in 2027 who gained a massive bi-polar disorder and other personality quirks due to the Crash Virus. After decking in the shadows for several years, Buddy died in 2050.
* David Gavilan was the head of Echo Mirage, and is rumored to be the previous identity of Damien Knight, which would explain the Nanosecond Buyout.
* Ken Roper and Michael Eld left Echo Mirage and formed their own company called Matrix Systems. They created the first portable cyberdeck called the Portal, then both died in “accidents.� Matrix Systems was bought out by Richard Villiers, and the technology became the first Fuchi cyberdeck.
* Keith “The Suit� Hannigan was a technician working for Echo Mirage. He worked for Fuchi until 2046, then was snatched by Mitsuhama.
* Erica Rutledge was the chief technician of Echo Mirage. She became a shadowrunner known as “Static.�

Crash Virus of 2029


Not in anyway that I could think of. Of course, The GM can always bend the rules for the sake of a good story.



No, not unless the Person had A Stirrup Interface (Aug 153)

List of Shadowland Personalities


Shadowland didn't keep any information that could be used to track it's users, also, Shadowland was destroyed in the Crash 2.0.

It was replaced by Jackpoint, which is invitation only, and managed by Fastjack.

Wow! Thank you everyone. All that info is going to help out quite a bit. It also shows me that while I thought I had a decent grasp on the lore, I actually have a lot to learn.

I think I will just modify my story and make "the guy" a fixer who's enemy is leveraging his own downfall. Cool stuff.

The same "Static" who's a member of Riser's crew of assassins, the Smokers' Club?