hi hi

I'm wondering what other people's take on this is. As the Shadowrun timeline gets further along, the number of people who were alive before the awakening slowly dwindles. By 2070, there is hardly going to be anyone involved in the shadow business who was around before the awakening.

What effect, if any, does it have on your game world when the only people who have any memories of life before the awakening are 60-70 (depending on how early in their childhood they can remember) years old? Do overt displays of magic not even interest younger characters? Do old executives reminisce about the good old days when life was easier? Do artifacts from the 80s and 90s end up in museums?

I have made the case to my players that corps wouldn't think twice about having magical security, be it wards, bio-fiber, astral SWAT teams on call, spirits or defensive ritual links on one's goons. Some of them disagree with that assessment on the grounds that magically active people are still rare, but I have to wonder who in the year 2070 doesn't know the scoop when it comes to magic?

You've lived in a world that's had working and fairly reliable electrical technology for at least hundred years. Think you know the scoop when it comes to electricity?

hi hi

I know enough about electricity, and whenever I can't remember a particular formula, the textbook isn't very far away.

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I hope people don't think that the last question I asked about magic was the only one I was interested in. I really would like to hear about any situation where the simple past-ness of the awakening has had an effect on gameplay. Who even remembers goblinization day, and does humanis policlub have more difficulty finding people outside their own circles who even care about it? Where in the world might you find an actual physical library anymore, and who would use it?

BWWAAAAAHHHHAAAAAAAHAAAAA!!!!

Thank you AH!

My wife was just fuking around with an outlet (i was getting around to fixing eventually) and she electricuted herself.


My thought was; How does an adult (who's actually pretty sharp) not know something like that?

(so I just draged her in here to show her your post and now she pissed at me again and at you too for some reason AH ROFL)

But this does prove a point. People are ignorant. Corps may be aware of the potential risks the magic user poses but may have no real clue about what to do about it. It's fairly cannon that the general populus spends quite a bit of money on fake telesma, and a corp might spend quite a bit of money on fake 'magical security'

Things we do today that our transhuman grandkids won't.

thow paper credit card reciepts in the trash.
cary wallets.
ask for directions.
wait for downloads.
wear corrective vision devices.
hammer nails into wood.
get back pains from sitting at computers.
complain about the two party political system in north america.
take US history twice before college.
Hide the fact that we think about dragons all the friken time from our friends.
tap the number 7 four goddam times to get one 'S'
Go to three different stores looking for a DVD
Tell mexican jokes
Tell Black jokes
Listen to mongoloid rednecks tell mexican and black jokes.
(blond joke will still be very popular however )
Lick postage stamps.
pull the magazine out of a gun to see how many rounds are left.
watch opera because we can't find the goddamn REMOTE!
Pledge aliegence to the flag.
Forget to remember to google that one thing as soon as we get home.
Convert metric to british units.
read ceriol boxes.
walk across a room to turn off the lights.
Stay up way to late reading text post's on dumpshock because we have to go hammer nails into wood tomorrow.
(Dumpshock will still be around tho. Just Wait till you see OneTrikPony's custom Icon! )

[Snark] So "mongoloid redneck" is still acceptable? Good to know.

And I'm pretty sure we'll just move on to ork jokes like everyone else [/Snark]

But one could expect that the Corps are wealthy enough to be able to hire better consultants and sevices. They will at least be better equipped than Joe Average is.

Also, some of these Corps, especially the big ten Megas are akin to small governments, and governments (despite what people may say) are actually pretty intelligent. The US gov't for example has several agencies whose SOLE purpose is to separate fact from fiction, on could assume that a Megacorp might have a similar agency too, so they probably do know a lot about magic in general, and how to defend against it.

Granted, specific people in the corp may not know much about magic, only those whose job it is to actually nkow about it. A secretary for an electrical company may be very ignorant about electronics, binary or circuits, but some of the other workers probably have extensive knowledge on the subject (I would hope, at least). So while the big CEO or the blue collar worker may not know much about Magic in the 6th world, the company probably has enough brains to at least hire someone who does... and they are probably smart enough to at least get a feeling whether they are bogus or not...at least to some degree...

With Leonization, some of those pre awakening (rich)people may still be around and young again.

Plus...are we talking since the awakening? Because magic wasn't very commonlpace back then still...so some aspects of culture probably survived for a couple decades...and Elves have a much longer lifespan...hundreds of years, right? The SR4 book does say that some first generation elves are still alive and kickin'...they might have been growing up near the end of Pre-awakening times, but they probably still have some knowledge of the earlier 21st century...

I had an issue last week at a game where the GM has not embraced the wireless world yet. Playing an SR4 hacker is a real pain in the ass when the GM states outright that toasters wouldn't have a wireless connection. Aside from the fact that no self respecting person in 2072 would waste kitchen space with a device who's only function was the toasting of thin food items, I had to explain to him that everything is wired, everything is connected. It's a lot to get your head around, and I can only guess what's it's like to live in that world.

As for corps and magic, I don't think it's a matter of knowing. Of course they know there's a danger of not having magical protections. They just need to do a cost benefit analysis to determine if it's worth warding or protecting a certain asset. On the GM side it's just a matter of setting up a reasonable challenge for the players to overcome, or a solid enough barrier for them to get the hint. Same goes for the matrix.

As the population ages, and we can assume that the human lifespan is the baseline here, the collective understanding will update the status quo. Kids will still think about dragons all day and want to cast spells, only they will be hoping to awaken around puberty and wonder if their future boss eats employees like Dad said he does. Those things that can conceivably happen will loose some luster, but anything suitably rare will still draw a crowd. The future will become some place further than we can see today and the same pimply faced geeks will be pirating simsense in their living module thinking up a way to get there. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Great stuff right here. While fantasy will still have its share of flying cars and wizards shooting fireballs, I think a lot more of it will thrive on the stuff that still can't be done. Flying cities, wizards shooting earthquakes, and maybe even alchemy (I see the old "iron into gold" story coming back into vogue once enough shapechange spells disprove Dalton's atomic theory).

hi hi

I would have probably stolen the toaster and sold it to an antique dealer.

It is sort of ironic though, designing and stating a complex corporate research fortress is a lot easier for me then making someone's living module, if for no other reason than the fact that corporate fortresses are built with shadowrunning in mind, while apartments are not. Maybe there could be a household appliances companion, but I don't think it would get used that much.

In the grim darkness of the far future, the toilets have three sea shells.

Is cursing a finable offense too?

No, that would solve the previous problem, and solving problems is neither GRIM nor DARK. That way lies Reasonable Marines and Rockers.

I can just see some of my players downtown getting a text message fine each time they drop an f-bomb. Think of the children!

"I can't <5¥>ing believe this socialist <5¥>ing bull<5¥>! I'm gonna skull <5¥> the guy who came up with this <5¥>ing system! <5¥>!"

Why do I have this thought running through my head about a trid series called "1998 House?"

"We take an ordinary family to see how they cope with living life the way it was all the way back in 1998!"

MCT Entertainment Exec:
"Yeah-humanis would love that show! No trolls, orks elves or dwarves in sight! Real popular with that demographic. I think we can add it toour scheduled fall line up!"

That's an amazing idea! Pure genius!...hehe

What do you mean when you say there is no trids to watch? And what the hell is a VCR?
Uahahahahahah, if I lived in Shadowrun, I would definitely watch this show.

I think my character would actually love to be on a show like that...he has the Gremlins ability and my GM plays it so that older electronics don't malfunction as much, so he actually owns a really old TV and VCR...or rather, several of them...since he still somehow manages to break them....I'll tell you though...lots of antique hunting went into his entertainment...hehe

hi hi

They could probably have an entire episode devoted to watching the family try to set the clock on the VCR. Names would be called, relationships strained, household items thrown.

Maybe this is already an issue, but I wonder how many people in the sixth world would know how to do math without a calculator. I don't know many people who know how to use a slide rule anymore for instance, but would long division even be taught in schools anymore?

I'm majoring on Science Computers and we did "learn" how to use one on the first semester. The teacher said that if whenever Skynet took over (and sadly only 6 people in class understood the joke) we would be able to do complex calculations faster.
If you ask me again how to use it, I would write a program for it instead

Man...I'm a CS major too, we never learned how to use a slide-rule...
That's pretty funny that your prof used a terminator reference though...

It was just one lesson on Introduction to Computer Sciences. He showed us one and said, this is what was used around 50 years ago. If Skynet ever takes over, you will be able to do complex calculations.
Which was when I realized that not everyone in Computer Sciences is a geek.

Well...at least you can take comfort in that you are indeed a geek, and that other geeks like you and I will hopefully get it as well....
Though I suppose with the release of the new Terminator movie, maybe more people will start getting that reference too...maybe...

G33X 4EVAH!!!!

Something to remember is that people basicaly only know what their parent corp and whatever matrix filtering software they install on their MSPs wants them to know. Very few people will remember the days when the corps couldn't kick down their door and drag away loved ones for "testing" at a whim, or when they could actually legally quit their job, ect...

Concerning one of your other questions about would Humanis still be around, I would say yes and probably stronger than ever. Further into the future the longer lifespans are going to allow Elves and Dwarfs to have more seniority at whatever job they are working, more experience, higher pay, more time to accumulate possessions and wealth. Orks are going to be multiplying like rabbits and taking every low paying job they can muscle into.

So humanis won't be telling predictions about how it is going to effect humans, there will be examples everywhere anyone looks.