Hi folks,

Little history please be patient

My husband and I used to be addicted to Shadowrun. I used to post on some of the sites and the mailing lists as Kismet, but I doubt anyone would remember me after ten years. We own every book up to Dragons of the Sixth world, but we really stopped playing around the time of Year of the Comet. We moved on to the world of MMORPG's (I would kill for a Shadowrun MMO but that's another story).

We had twin boys in December and are going to be spending a lot of time at home, but we don't have enough time to play an MMO so we're thinking about coming back to Shadowrun and reforming our old gaming group. I don't really care about the official rules. Our group came up with our own system years ago, we just change the setting and characters of our games. The setting and the story arc's of the world are really all that I am interested in. So if you guys could help me out a bit it would be very appreciated:

Is there a site that has a basic timeline of world events leading up to 2070(or whatever year it is currently)?

Is there a list of all books in the order of release? The official Shadowrun website is rather clunky and I couldn't figure out what came first.

Did they release novels to advance the story, like with the dragon heart saga? Where can I find those?

Has there been any further delving into the immortal elf/earthdawn story arc? Harlequin et all were always some of our favorites.

Which books would you recommend for pure story value?

Thanks for the help!

There is a time line on wiki i believe.

Emergence and Ghost Cartels advance the SR4 story most.

List of books - courtesy of Wikipedia

Yep emergence and unwired are huge as far as the wireless world and the technomancer issue.

Just a quick note, in the Shadowrun timeline, it is now 2071. This is somewhat important because Technomancers (introduced in the main book) don't get exposed (even to the shadow community) or widely accepted until the end of 2070 (November, IIRC.) Before that, no one knew about them, then there were riots, and people (even fellow shadowrunners) were killing them off left and right, fearing them to be monsters or agents of Deus, or evil mutants, or that any one of them could crash the entire matrix.

Some of them (like the Seattle-bassed Clockwork) still believe they are a menace, while others are technomancer posers.

According to SR4A it is now 2072.

Lars

Ah, see, I don't have SR4A, as I think SR4 is perfectly good

The upcoming adventure series titled Dawn of the Artifacts might be of interest...

SR4 was published in 2005, and it was then 2070 in Shadowrun timeline.



So do you also ignore other rule/soucebooks that advance the timeline?

As it is now 2009, it should be 2075 in Shadowrun timeline, but apparantly we have skippe two years somewhere:

When Street Magic was published in 2006 it was still 2070 in SR.
When Augmentation and Emergence was published in 2007 it was still 2070 in SR.
Not until Arsenal, Ghost Cartels, Unwired and Runners Companion was published in 208 was the SR timeline advanced to 2071.

Lars

When?

Do you really expect a definitive answer to that question?

Please tell me Uncle/aunty(whatever) Ancient gets to take Care of most of this Baby Tigger? ^^

I have a feeling by the end of this fiscal year (2009) two or three years in Shadowrun timeline might pass. Dawn of the Artifacts (Which sounds great by the way, and if Ghost Cartels is a sign of things to come, then we're in store for a treat) maybe the big event of 2072 for the SR universe. So in essence by the time 2010 comes around, we maybe in 2073 or 2074 in the SR timeline.

Actually, Bobby's been a little busy with other projects. Principle writing on the first two installments of Dawn of the Artifacts is courtesy of Jennifer Harding (aka Tiger Eyes herself). I'm very happy with the way this was shaping up.

No, it was just to tell that I'm looking foreward for it.

Wow this forum moves fast! I'm so happy that so many people are still playing Shadowrun. Thanks so much for the information. I hadn't thought to look for a SR wiki(sleep deprivation ftw). I'm excited about the Matrix changes, that part of the old Shadowrun was pretty clunky. Noone in our old group ever wanted to play the decker so it was almost always an npc. After reading that timeline, I have a few more questions:

Which book covers the plotline for Lofwyr and Ainthe Oakforest stepping down from the Council of Princes?

Did the Phillipines win the war for their country, or is it still a province of Japan?

With Hugh's assassination did Nadja Daviar become president?

I have never purchased a net book before, but the price difference is making me consider that(and there are suddenly so many I want to buy hehe!). If I pay for it and download it can I print it out? Can I send it in an email to the other members of our group, or is it something that's a one time only file?

Thanks again for the help!

None, unfortunately. It was an event that was silently "skipped" when SR4 began. I believe it was mentioned at one time that this was (and hopefully still is) the subject of a book.


Yes they won their independence. When the previous Emperor died during the events of Year of the Comet the new child Emperor withdrew the Yomi Island decree as well as all the IJA soldiers. The Huk declared open rebellion and one their independence with the help of the Great Dragon Masaru. Information on this is scattered in Year of the Comet, Shadows of Asia, and Dragons of the Sixth World.


I don't remember exactly, but I don't think so. Nadja Daviar has disappeared for some time now.


Technically you could. You're not really "supposed" to just share it with all your friends freely, however. I don't think CGL will send 'runners after you for passing it around your gaming group, just don't post it on the web for everyone to download. If the other members of your group are really liking the books I would encourage them to purchase their own copies in order to support CGL and the Shadowrun brand.

It hasn't been explored in any real depth. All that we know is that the Tir Council of Princes was dissolved and that Larry Zincan, a former ork Prince, is now the Chairman of the Star Chamber. Horizon is working the PR angle for the new Tir leadership.



A Huk uprising was mentioned in Shadows of Asia...


No, she disappeared after Haeffner was killed by the New Revolution. Where she went is one of the most frequently asked of questions. Gene Simone took over for a time and in 2068, Angela Colloton was elected president.

EDIT

http://wiki.dumpshock.com


Yes. There are no restrictions on printing, copying and pasting, etc.


No, please don't -- while we totally understand reasonable use of our PDFs within a gaming group [printing out some reference sheets to pass around, cutting and pasting some stuff into a quick reference for the person playing the hacker, printing out a few pages of the story to give to the runner team as they discover info in game, etc], sending the entire file to someone else is outside of the scope of that reasonable use.

nothing against her eyeness, but i am a bit of an Ancient History fanboy i am afraid ^^
I'll give it a read, see how her style works out for me

Thanks for the responses!

If Nadja has disappeared who is in charge of the Draco Foundation now?

After discussing it with my husband, we will probably buy the sourcebooks in print form to complete our collection anyway. I would be afraid of a computer crash losing the book. I knew better than to post it anywhere of course. I do want to support the game and the authors that work so hard to make it shine.

Which book mentions the Tir takeover? I guess that means the Rinelle's(sp?) rebellion was ultimately successful? I'm one of those geeks that would scour every book for entries from Laughing Man et all, and if I recall correctly it was fairly obvious that Harlequin was behind that movement.

I actually kind of like that there are some mysteries that have never been solved officially. My all time favorite sourcebook was Dunklezahn's secrets for that very reason. Although it would be nice to have official answers to most things after such a long period of time.

Thanks again for the help. Now if one of you could make these boys go to bed so I can sleep!

Sorry, dunno. I never kept track of the Draco foundation myself.



The SR3 Fluff Book Target: North America has a big ol' listing of Tir. Sadly, the book is out of print by the, now Defunct, FASA. Basically, the elven princes were finally forced to realize that their economy had completely and utterly collapsed (No imports or exports WILL do that . . .) and the peasants were out for blood. Large amounts of power shifts happened, and somehow an ork was elected president. Pretty big slap in the face to all elven supremisists.



Dunklezahn's secrets were explained, though I am not sure where. Someone on the board told them to me (though, being the 'net, he could have been messin' with me, you never know.) Anyway, it was written in some novel, and has to do with Earthdawn.

Sorry, dunno. I never kept track of the Draco foundation myself.



The SR3 Fluff Book Target: North America has a big ol' listing of Tir. Sadly, the book is out of print by the, now Defunct, FASA. Basically, the elven princes were finally forced to realize that their economy had completely and utterly collapsed (No imports or exports WILL do that . . .) and the peasants were out for blood. Large amounts of power shifts happened, and somehow an ork was elected president. Pretty big slap in the face to all elven supremisists.



Dunklezahn's secrets were explained, though I am not sure where. Someone on the board told them to me (though, being the 'net, he could have been messin' with me, you never know.) Anyway, it was written in some novel, and has to do with Earthdawn.

Sorry, dunno. I never kept track of the Draco foundation myself.



The SR3 Fluff Book Target: North America has a big ol' listing of Tir. Sadly, the book is out of print by the, now Defunct, FASA. Basically, the elven princes were finally forced to realize that their economy had completely and utterly collapsed (No imports or exports WILL do that . . .) and the peasants were out for blood. Large amounts of power shifts happened, and somehow an ork was elected president. Pretty big slap in the face to all elven supremisists.



Dunklezahn's secrets were explained, though I am not sure where. Someone on the board told them to me (though, being the 'net, he could have been messin' with me, you never know.) Anyway, it was written in some novel, and has to do with Earthdawn.

Sorry, dunno. I never kept track of the Draco foundation myself.



The SR3 Fluff Book Target: North America has a big ol' listing of Tir. Sadly, the book is out of print by the, now Defunct, FASA. Basically, the elven princes were finally forced to realize that their economy had completely and utterly collapsed (No imports or exports WILL do that . . .) and the peasants were out for blood. Large amounts of power shifts happened, and somehow an ork was elected president. Pretty big slap in the face to all elven supremisists.



Dunklezahn's secrets were explained, though I am not sure where. Someone on the board told them to me (though, being the 'net, he could have been messin' with me, you never know.) Anyway, it was written in some novel, and has to do with Earthdawn.

Sorry, dunno. I never kept track of the Draco foundation myself.



The SR3 Fluff Book Target: North America has a big ol' listing of Tir. Sadly, the book is out of print by the, now Defunct, FASA. Basically, the elven princes were finally forced to realize that their economy had completely and utterly collapsed (No imports or exports WILL do that . . .) and the peasants were out for blood. Large amounts of power shifts happened, and somehow an ork was elected president. Pretty big slap in the face to all elven supremisists.



Dunklezahn's secrets were explained, though I am not sure where. Someone on the board told them to me (though, being the 'net, he could have been messin' with me, you never know.) Anyway, it was written in some novel, and has to do with Earthdawn.

The Draco Foundation is still nominally under the control of Draco Chairman Nadja Daviar, but as of now, Aina Dupree is the acting Chairman of the Foundation.

As for the Tir, SotA2064 mentions both Oakforest and Ehran stepping down from the council, and Surehand & Hestaby bringing in the Horizon Group (while Jenna was busy slaughtering protesters). System Failure (also 2064) had Surehand on the run from Tir Ghosts as the new regime in TT tried to assassinate him, and briefly mentions the radical change in the government.

Really sorry about the multi-posts, board was messed up last night. moderators, feel free to delete them.

I think I actually remember you. I'm pretty sure I was only lurking back then, I don't think I started posting until a fair bit later.

Do you mean Shadows of North America? I actually own that one, but IIRC I think it only mentions the rebellion starting, not whether or not it was successful.

The assassination(suicide) of Dunklezahn was covered in the Dragon Heart Trilogy. I was one of the few that actually liked those when they were released. Most people didn't like the Earthdawn crossover idea back then including the main developer(was it Mike Mulvihill?). Our old group had played both games and so we found it all rather fascinating. What I meant about Dunklezahn's Secrets being unanswered were plot hooks mentioned in the will. For instance whether either Tir gave a public list of the ages of the immortals in exchange for magical artifacts etc.. That sourcebook was so chock full of unique adventure idea's. Some of our most memorable adventures originated from there.



Thanks so much! What is Horizon Group and which book has more details on them?(gah my list is growing!)



I wasn't ever a superposter. I mostly posted to the mailing list, and it used to be quite a lively group. I think we quit right around the time that dumpshock was just really getting off the ground. I'm just happy to see that the game is still going so strong after all these years.

Yeah, guess you are more in the know than I am. Don't know what else to tell you. The rebellion was kind of successful in that it accomplished it's goals. However, the big deciding factor was that the place was destitute. There was no money, no food, no nothing. The country just kinda collapsed like a flan in a cupboard.

Okay, I am sure I am getting this wrong, but, the elven economy collapsed completely in the Tir, and the princes were forced to deal with the very real fact that their peasants were revolting and they had no money. Most (if not all) the princes stepped down, and new Princes were put up in their place (including one of the great dragons, the one down in Free Cal, IIRC.) The government was restructured. The President is now more than a figurehead, and the princes have less power, and I THINK they got rid of the stupid class-promotion-by tests system (forgot what it is called) but I could be wrong. Anyway, an Ork is now president.

The Tir was in a bad way, but luckily (for them) the new Megacorp Horizon saw an opportunity for profit. They stepped in with a MASSIVE stimulus package and donated a tonne of money to schools and the like. Their hope was to get lucritive long-term government contracts, and that hope panned out. Now Horizon has a lot of influance in the Tir and is the number one Megacorp there. I don't know if they have recouped their losses yet, but it is looking like they stand to make a substantial bit of money if everything holds out for the next few years.

Also, they aren't isolationists anymore. Now they trade, and do business with anyone, and are more non-elf friendly. A troll with the appropriate amount of cred can go vacation there if he really wanted. That's not to say that there aren't elf supremisists there, just that they are more tolerant of outsiders than they were.

As for the Elves, well, as of Shadows of Europe (which is in 2064), neither Tir has aired out their dirty laundry to get their hands on the magical McGuffin, though both sides have REPEATEDLY sent high-profile shadowrunners to retrieve it. Neither side has succeeded (and it is saying something when Elven GHOSTS fail at getting what they want.) I haven't heard anything about either elf group getting their hands on whatever the will promises, so I doubt it has happened, and with the restructuring of the government, I doubt that the North America Tir ever will.


Personally, I don't know what it is about. The elves have to reveal some family history to the world, and in return Big D wills them . . . something magical? I dunno, but the elves must not want it too bad 'cuse neither side is willing to come clean.

Horizon is a freshly-ascended AAA-Megacorp based in California, specializing in all things media-related. AFAIK there's detail about the corp in the Los Angeles chapter of Corporate Enclaves.

ARRRRGH! bloody thing ate my post! Don't currenly have the time to retype it all out, but I'll try to get that done tomorrow.

I just flipped through that book and I couldn't find anything about Tir politics. Are you sure that's the book?

SotA:2064, p. 160 - 161. "Shakeup in Portland" - there's more, but here's the quote about the Horizon Group.

Ah, way back there. Thanks TE!

Basically. Although the ork was a Prince prior to this (Larry Zincan is mentioned in the Tir Tairngire book) and Hestaby (the Northern Cal dragon) was a prince, and still is a prince.



No. Surehand (and Hestaby) hired the Horizon Group, prior to the Horizon Group becoming a AAA. What influence Horizon has in the Tir, it isn't from donating a bunch of money... Most government contracts are still with Telestrian, the Tir's own AA corp.

Thanks for straightening me out, like I said, I was sure I was getting parts wrong.

Which would have made it actually interesting if someone was co-opting the d-bag's schtick. Someone like Alachia.

It's not covered. It's referred to in passing. You'd have better luck pulling ideas out of your ass than expecting any sort of explanation within a reasonable few years.

As for the DF, Aina Dupree was the Vice-Chair. I seem to recall a reference to her stilling running the DF in an early 4th ed book, but don't recall which.


I will never understand why the Tir needed to go away. But the nonsense of the Rinelle and the uprising is based in the fact that the original grievances were based on the Rite of Progress being canceled, and thus causing some people (some influential people in part, one would figure) a chance to move up the ladder. How that movement was incorporated into and subverted into a catch-all group that combined every type of group with a grievance--people pissed about gaming the system were lumped in with those who wanted to kill the system, meta-rights groups, and everything in between. Sure. I bet.--into a movement that operated as a terrorist network with cells is stupifying and beyond any sense of logic.

And besides the gross retconning of the Tir in the Shadows of North America book to include a movement which had been operating for years next door to Seattle was that, really, the writing was just awful. It sucks. Well, the whole book sucks.

And, no, in case anyone asks. The writing hasn't gotten much better.