How do you think burial of the deceased is carried out in Shadowrun?

Probably more cremations than before, but I'm sure that a lot of (meta)people still opt for the dirt nap.

Do you think its still the traditional coffins or something a little...safer?

NERPS!

"It's made from people! People!!"

Given the Shedim factor, and the general crush of many sprawls, I could see cremation being quite often the burial method not of choice, but of convinience/necesity (especially for the SINless, who'd become little unidentified baggies of dust). With the better off, however, I think traditional burials would still be the way. I can even picture more wealthy persons having access to warded cemetaries, with on site magical staff to prevent those nasty body snatchings.

How would you get past magical wards that might be present?

I'm sure I've read somewhere that ever since shedim became a recognised threat, everyone got cremated. The ones that Tanamous doesn't get, anyway. Can't remember where I read it though.

I sort of remember that too, but I kind of doubt it. It was certainly true during the innitial Shedim epidemic, but now I would favour more Digital Heroin's view. Default is cremation, but burial can happen for more well-off people who really want it.

If I recall, I had a comment in the Neo-Tokyo write-up about the Emperor ordering the exhumation of a lot of graves and having the bodies cremated, Buddhist burial-style.

In the published SR2 adventure Eye Witness they talk about "necroplexes"- huge multi-story mausoleums mixed in among the urban buildings and skyscrappers. Basically since land is so expensive you can buy a drawer in a necroplex for a fraction of the cost of a grave. The Hammond Necroplex detailed in Eye Witness is inhabited by an overly-protective free-tomb spirit named Gallowgrey (with powers strikingly similar to a shedim....)

Hrm . . a Question just popped up.
What does Tamanous think of Shedim/What do shedim think of Tamanous? Or Ghouls?
Three fractions fighting for the dead? O.o

Ghouls and Tam could easily work together. The ghouls hunt down bodies and get paid in nuyen and some of the extra parts that don't get sold or repurposed.

The Shedim on the other hand are just plane dicks so the Tam/Ghouls (unless they have equally evil members) would probably be fighting them at every turn if they started cutting their profits.

The concept of a 'necroplex' is a strange and quite alluring one, from a gritty fiction perspective. It is also quite plausible in a very densely packed urban sprawl. There are cultures, after all, that frown heavily upon cremation. I love the imagery that comes to mind, stepping off of an elevator into a pristine white hallway with sedate, tasteful marble floors. Inset into the walls are small plaques with a simple name upon each, embedded with an RFID tag that displays a more detailed marking in AR when called upon. Row upon row of shelves hold coffins, with a small shelf for the placement of tokens of respect. People sedately standing in front of the shelf of a recently deceased loved one, mourning under the gaze of the security spider.

Higher floors would of course house familial private spaces, with more comfortable viewing arangements.

People take a lot of things with them to the grave and I bet there’s someone out there willing to pay for it.

Maybe someone had some sort of special spell/spirit design engraved on the titanium lacing of his bones. He wanted a hard copy because digital can be hacked but paper can be stolen. This way no one would be able to get it without him knowing who it was. Now dead, one of the doctors who applied the formula (and somehow resisted the memory altering spells) wants it for his own and is hiring you to break into the private floors. They have the best security and the pay reflects this. Not only that but since you don't know which part has the formula on it (there is gibberish surrounding the real formula in a form of code) you have to take the whole body. Now your fighting your way out carrying a dead body, hoping that a stray bullet doesn’t ruin the design.

When I actually get around to Gming my first game (I know I will eventually) I think this may make a good higher up mission.

That is one scintilatingly good run idea. I've messed around with the concept of hidden spirit formulae before, but damn... just plain damn.

I'll have to try really hard to resist the urge to steal that concept for a run, especially given I'm feeling the urge to do up a run again (and have much more time to run it now, given my sailing).

One of my favorites is having a team steal a body from the County Coroner for any number of reasons. Players tend to enjoy it when you throw them that curve ball.

Mr. Johnson: "I'd like you to acquire something for me."
Runner: "What kind of something?"
Mr. Johnson: "Well, how should I put this...."

There is, of course, only one correct answer for how every shadowrunner should want to be buried:

In a longship set on fire, on top of a heap of the bodies of his enemies, under a burial mound.

Cryogenically frozen, in a vacuum sealed tube, mounted in a probe... launched into the sun.

I was thinking more along the lines of "in less than 2 pieces" but thats cool too...

With the lamentation of those who knew said Shadowrunner echoing through the air during the ceremony. Then, the ashes disposed of in a way that they can't be used for necromantic purposes.

HA!! Thats funny cuz IRL I've been saying for years that I want to donate my body to science except my head which I want launched into space to be salvaged and reanimated by an advanced alien race.

The character Im making is basically a grave robber. He goes for cyberware, bioware (if it isnt too badly degraded), items buried with the deceased, tissue samples and whatever else he can sell.

If a cemetery was protected by a spirit or astral defenses, how would he go about getting around them?

Distract the spirit with a lucifer lamp and get past the area it's set to patrol. Wards and anchored spells would generally require a magician.

Why thank you! I'm quite new to the game so I wasn’t sure if that was even a viable idea or not. Hey if you want to use it go ahead! You have more experience then I do so you could probably flesh the idea out more then just hand it back to me and we can call it a team effort, especially if you can give me some feed back on how they solved the problem. I could see some teams cutting it up into large chunks so they could divide the weight and not be slowed down as much. But then if someone falls behind and their chunk has the formula well then your in a nice hot steaming pile of dragon manure.

On a slightly related note dead bodies make good ways to smuggle things across borders and such. But what if your pick up man misses the drop point and that dead body is now on its way to be cremated because of no prior instructions by the family? Now its a race against time to recover the goods before their lost forever.

Dead bodies make such good inspiration lol.

While it's not explicitly in the rules, I don't see any reason why bone lacing couldn't be done up with a more exotic element and the implant surgeon or nanites could etch it. It works within the bounds of the tech avaliable, in my vision, and that's what matters. If it's your vision, then roll with it.

...and I intend to roll with this.

Of course now you've got me on a corpse grabbing/smuggling tangent of ideas... this could become one macabre campaign.

Speaking of using dead bodies for smuggling, my GM shamelessly to a page from an episode of Firefly and had us looking for a dead body filled with experimental bioware, except that the body wasn't actually dead.

And that necroplex concept is. . . . really cool. I've been thinking about trying my hand as a GM, and that just might make its way into a run.

A team of runners are contracted by a trusted fixer to work for a mysterious benefactor. The pay is good, the missions reasonable, but slowly you begin to think something is not quite right with this guy. The missions become more and more dangerous, peaking with the near fatal assault on the necroplex for what seems no reason but to grab a body (they don’t know about the formula only that they need the body in one piece). When you confront your fixer about all these body grabs, the subterranean mausoleum under the mansion of a then unknown vampire lord (they don't know that unless they face him in combat. Otherwise they fought a bunch of vamps and ghouls which rise equal suspicion), the locked data storage (forgot the technical name) taken from the skull of a retired admiral who had been killed with a ritual spell that causes a heart attack (they would probably not know the ritual part but may find out with enough leg work and magical connections), and how they were recently attacked by a mini army of paladins (holy* blade/gun adepts and mystic adepts) and Battle Priests (holy* combat mages/mystic adepts). When they meet him they begin realizing how screwed they are. He is nothing but a puppet, his mind slaved to something dark and powerful (Assensing test 2-3 hits, not sure). Now their targets, not just from the dark force they have been working for without knowing it but also by the people trying to stop it.

Rough outline, could use more work. Feel like working on a team project DH?

*They don’t have to be exactly religious but for once I think a religious organization should be good guys lol.

It's always a bit refreshing to see a new generation of bonejackers start their work.

blown up by the explosives carried, in case there is no escape...

it might be that traditional cemetarys are only for the very rich and you might get a flash back to the late 19th century with watchmnen in the yards to look for body snatchers and lovecraft, with maybe a whole industry in kepeing you're loved ones safe from possession. mages, wards and the like.

Maybe the legend of undead (shedim) unable to enter concecrated ground

I had a decidedly more tacky use in mind for the liberated corpse/spirit formula, one I'm going to continue to develop as a sideline. Of course that doesn't mean I couldn't do with some co-plotting. I love my plotting.

Care to share with the class?

Well if I shared, that would be telling. Especially if I want to run it here.

But what motivates people to do anything? The almighty nuyen, and long, long life...

Come now, I was the one that gave you the idea, I demand co plotting lol.

I will accept that answer only if you let me in on that game when you launch it!