As no-one has insisted on knowing each other before the game has started, I have assumed that the first adventure is the first time the characters meet. Therefore the adventure itself is designed so that there is plenty of possibility for character interaction.

The adventure outline is that you all have received hand delivered invitations to come to an after hours book signing off-campus of the university of Maryland. The topic of the book signing is the release of a history of AEGIS. The adventure will start with the presentation.

so we aren't aegis agents yet?

OK, I will rewrite the invitation at the end of Professor's background description to reflect the book signing. Hand-delivered, huh? Just as mysterious.....

So, who is the author whose book is being released? Who is the publisher? Can Professor check him/her out before the book signing? What else has he/she written? Any reviews of the book?

Hmmmm.... and what is this thing called AEGIS? (Yep, he's an academic fish... soon to be out of water I think!)

Mickle5125: Not yet

Peter: The author is a "world renowned conspiracy theorist" (at least according to the RFID link on the invitation) and his book has been published by Legendary Times Books.

The reviews from the publisher involve reviews under their publications claiming this to be a potential goldmine of knowledge on the secret societies that influence us in our daily lives. The more wilder sided chatrooms seem to be divided on the book. However, from what you have read the majority have not read it - just the reviews. Some who did read it complained it was dry and academic with too many references. The other side which is well organised, and could set off any professors bells for sounding like grad students writing an undergraduate student's papers, seems to go out of its way to debunk the book at every turn. Even claiming that the book itself is a hoax.

"Aegis" is a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority or, it is the holder of a protective shield signifying the same, such as a bag-like garment that contained a shield. Sometimes the garment and the shield are merged, with a small version of the shield appearing on the garment. It originally was derived from the protective shield associated with a religious figure when related in myths and images. The wearing of the aegis and its contents show sponsorship, protection, or authority derived from yet a higher source or deity. The name has been extended to many other entities, and the concept of a protective shield is found in other mythologies, while its form varies across sources.

AEGIS as an organization does not show up on the Matrix outside of the crackpot chatrooms and even there as oblique references to 20th century documents.

More complete background is here.

Character sheet to follow. Gear still a work in progress....

edit- character sheet up. Still tweaking gear but nearly done.

Well, this should be interesting. I've had a look at Cruze and Warrior. This will be the first time I will play a PC who will try hard to rise to the challenge of being a second tier combatant.

I know! I could be Giles to your Buffys!

I think I have finished my starting gear....

There are one or two items there that need GM approval. Fiber-optic cable is priced in Unwired at 5 per meter which is the price I have assumed.

The drill is a custom item based on the monofilament chainsaw. It is priced the same and will drill a discrete hole in anything quickly and quietly. Feel free to ban it if you don't like it.

Crizh: I have no problem with the two items. As long as the monofilament drill is not going to be used as a primary weapon. Bad experiences with things like this trying to be flown under the radar.


Everyone: Today is the final day for character submissions. I still have not gotten characters from Marduc or ChipheadCharlie. Send me a PM if there are any issues you need to discuss.

Secondly, if you wish to do any background research feel free to do so. There are three days to the book signing so you have plenty of time and opportunity to conduct your own research. If you do any research tell me about angle and scope.

In the Professor's example he has drifted to the fringe of the conspiracy theorists online. He could optionally also look at physical material or then phone up contacts. His angle has been online and focused on the conspiracy side of things. I am sure he has acquaintances who he could also utilize if need be, such as political science professors and historians.

Yesterday was a really bad day for me because of my migraine. So if I have not answered anything fully then just highlight it for me again.

I like doing rounds of introductions with any game, as it gives me a good idea where everyone is coming from and lets us gel as a group.

I am a 29 year old Finnish Canadian citizen who lives in Oulu. I am trying to finish off my studies by Spring 2010 with my Master's. I have lived in Russia during its years of infamy. I am a second generation roleplayer - Although I really started gaming when I was 12 with D&D (although there was at least one game of paranoia somewhere in there before). Was a university officer cadet in Glasgow. Ran a business and was working in a start-up business in Scotland. Currently unemployed and looking for work to finance my studies. Been a member of AIESEC for two years now and I am looking at going on traineeship in June (LCP of AIESEC Oulu 2008/2009) - I have one place in Bahrain lined up as well as another in Pattaya in Thailand. I like teaching English, which I have been doing on and off for near six years now.

-Lauri Christina Gardner

P.S. I also like spelling Lauri as Laurie - confuses the literal minded Finns to no end.

I'm a nineteen year old Australian citizen. I live in Sydney, NSW. I dropped out of highschool to work a lousy cafe job under the minimum wage, took stock of my life and decided I wanted to go back and finish the last year of highschool. Right now I'm looking for work to enrol as a mature age (21) student at a university here in Sydney or maybe in melbourne looking to get an degree at art school and a diploma of education. I'm looking into TSOL courses to teach english as a second language in the meantime, possibly in India or south-east Asia.

I started playing Shadowrun at 15, perhaps? One on one shadowrun games with my best friend with a tattered 3rd Edition, while we bought a few books as well as indefinately borrowing SR1-SR2 books from an anthropologist I know who lectures at UTS here in Sydney. Unfortunately we missed out on a lot of playing experience due to studies and youthful procrastination and discovery, but I have amassed a massive collection of books and PDFs, and unfortunately I think about it more than I manage to play it, it's hard to get a group together in Sydney, and PBP post games are less reliable, I think.

-Jay Dalgleish


Can we discuss some details about the letter? Do we have flexibility in how we are delivered? I was wondering if (perhaps via PM) I could get some information on the circumstances of receiving the invitation. Blackie will begin by entering the FDC at the airport, picking up his gear, and maybe investigating the death of his friend.

I was wondering if we could roll some Data Search/contact legwork tests. Also I was wondering if I could roll perception to check if there's anyone watching Meta's old apartment, then if the coast is clear Electronics/Infiltration/Lockpick/Athletics (group) to investigate the place. If there is some flexibility, I was wondering if I could perhaps find the invitation in a Legendary Times book at the apartment? Because we are posting weekly, I was thinking of writing a fairly extensive opening.

Well, I'm 32 US dude. I live in Ephrata, Washington and I'm a Correctional Officer by trade been with the Sheriff's Office for six years now. Before that I was in the US Navy and did my Four years. I've been playing Shadowrun since 2nd edition and RPG's since grade school. I'm also into Martial arts (FMA, and WMA). That really about it I'm a simple man.

Thanks,
Brent Coomes

Well I'm a [cough]36[/cough] year old Scotsman living in Kincardine on Forth which is pretty close to Stirling, you can actually see the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle from the top of the Street.

I'm a serial University drop out with nothing but myself and a love of role-playing to blame. I'm married with two kids and I work on the weekends as a cabbie in Edinburgh. Pays well enough to get by and I have plenty of spare time to spend with my family and farting about on these forums.

I've been playing Shadowrun for as long as such a thing has existed and I fear that means that you may have to prod me with a stick now and again. Caution, planning, covering all the angles and having several backup plans are my style and I've noticed that weeks of sitting around scheming followed by five minutes of frenetic activity that back-doors 90% of the scenario annoys a lot of GM's. If things are going too slow give me a poke and I'll try to move along a bit faster.

@Chrysalis. Dang, you get around lassie... Don't worry I don't intend using a drill as a melee weapon. Lacks style apart from anything else.

That must make me a 22 yr old lad from central US. Illinois, to be precise. Southern Illinois, not Chicago. currently unemployed, although I'm really hoping that changes soon so that I can actually pay for some schooling in the fall. First gen gamer, and have been playing shadowrun for...3 years now, I think.

In regards to the legwork, I'll be ringing up Jess to see what she knows about Aegis. I might even take her out to dinner, if she so desires. ^_^

Cruising in on crutches at 55, I'm a doctoral candidate in archaeology, writing my dissertation now. I was a computer programmer for many years, but a trip to Peru broke through my blindness and I realized what I really wanted to do. So I went back to school at age 42, starting an undergraduate anthropology degree. And here I am. I live currently in Alberta, but Toronto, Ontario is home, and will be again in a year or two.

I started roleplaying about 30 years ago, with Dungeons and Dragons (yes, before AD&D) and played various incarnations of that game till about six years ago. We had ended an incredible campaign in which my wife (now ex-) wove a great campaign about ... wait for it ... saving the world. Incredible story, setting and acting. After that, there wasn't much point to learning the next generation of AD&D, so I left it behind.

I've played and/or GMed many different games besides AD&D (and some of its RPGA 'Living' worlds): Paranoia, Mechwarrior, Changeling, Amber, Call of Cthulhu, and of course, Shadowrun. I started it right at first edition, and have stayed with it all the way. There were a few one-shot attempts at a few games like Bounty Hunter and Biker Nuns with Guns, but they didn't stick.

I've both GMed and played Shadowrun since 2nd edition. It's in that series that I played an early incarnation of Professor, but that character, Arjuna, was built quite differently... more athletic. He had a nemesis as well, but I soon discovered that the driving reason for him to be in the shadows, to find the guy who ruined his life and set things straight, didn't mesh with the 'one-off', 'new GM every time' nature of RPGA games. So when I wrote to the Virtual Seattle admin people, asking for ideas on how I could get more of the character's back story into play, they told me they were looking to create a 'Kingpin' style arch-villain to oppose Claudia and her stable of runners (us). We grabbed the opportunity. I turned Arjuna's nemesis into The Blind Man, who in the last Virtual Seattle mission, X, killed Claudia and got away. I also wrote a few runs for them then, some connected to the series involving the Blind Man, some as one-offs.

I had backed myself into a corner, though, because once I had access to all the modules ahead of time, I couldn't play anymore. So I had effectively retired Arjuna. Sucks to be me, huh? I figured I would have to wait until I was in a group that played together regularly to play him properly. That opportunity hasn't come till now. I rewrote Arjuna to become Professor in part because new books/adept characteristics are out, and in part because I think this version is a better representation of an academic who has been thrust unwillingly into the shadows. And really, his investigative personality should be right at home as mysteries begin to unfold.

One of my favourite parts of Shadowrun is character creation. I think a story writes itself if you have well formed characters who can just, well, act out their own lives in the situation. I am hoping Professor will be that kind of character. Once I let him start living, I hope there really will not be all that much for me to do except follow where he leads.

Peter Bangarth

For those who are still wondering what the invitation looks like it can be found here

Each invitation was found in an envelope in your mailbox, tacked to the door of your safehouse or then found in the apartment of a departed friend. The envelope was white with no descriptions except for your names written in pencil on the front.

Who sends letters anymore? And especially hand delivered?

I have yet to hear back from Marduc or ChipheadCharlie, who I have sent PMs to find out what their status is. Even if I do not hear from them by Friday I will still start the game and they can join in at a later date.


Now to answer all of your questions.

SirPsycho wrote:

Can we discuss some details about the letter?

Yes you can. I think it will help with sorting out your conceptions with others. We are sort of in if-game territory until the game begins on Friday.

Do we have flexibility in how we are delivered?

Define delivered. Unless you are Hunter S. Thompson, I doubt you will be knocked out, drugged and placed in a mail bag and THEN delivered in the back of the truck to the book signing.

If you wish to conduct the search of Meta's apartment the best way to do it is by conducting it in PM or gmail.



Mickle:

What kind of girl says no to free dinner and a potential scoop for the tabloids? A little digging on her part finds quite a bit of interesting leads. While tabloids have moved from headers of: "aliens have impregnated me!" to "I am having Damien Knight's baby!"; there is still a lot of juicy rumours going around.

AEGIS is a supposedly an honest to god agency that has existed since 1947. They come across in the media here and there, but the most recent event which is a solid lead was 10 years ago when the Corporate Court did research into the goings on of an AA corp working out of LA - supposedly they had all kinds of affiliations with alphabet soup organizations - the name though which kept on popping up was AEGIS. What started out as a big news story about evil government usurping the free market (it was all over the headlines) went weird and then got dropped to the dark side of the moon.

Weird means that there are indications that GTE electronics was conducting illegal experimentations with humans and electronics. Several journalists "disappeared" and there was every inclination that this would become a massive tridee spectacle. Then after several weeks with even promises of pay-per-view showings of the trials. There is some muttering, shuffling of paper from the Corporate Court and the whole thing gets dropped. A couple weeks later the head investigator gives a pathetic press conference explaining the allegations were an elaborate hoax. Nothing is heard of the investigator or his team since. Then everyone shifts over to talk about the big D.

Nowadays if you ask for information the Corporate Court's PR person claims that it was a hoax/smear campaign while gently asking you to leave your details so that you can be traced. It all smells of cover-up and if you do find out something and if there is something worthwhile, get her a couple names and she can have a peek on what she can find in the tabloid's prodigious databases. Of course she will want the exclusive.

Philip arrives home after a day of meaningless small jobs of corporate security details. He walks through the door to see this envelop. Picking it up thinking, OK, what the hell is this now. Who the hell hand delivers mail anymore are commlink messages to good for them or what? After opening it up and reading it, AEGIS? What the hell is AEGIS and who is Conrad Tyrell? I think I need to see what all this is before I even think about going.

After setting down the invitation he calls his old buddy John McCabe from his ERT days. "John, hay man hows are things going with the team? I have a few questions that I could use your help with. Have you heard of AEGIS before and how about the name Conrad Tyrell? Thanks man I'll keep in touch."

Then he sends his agent on a data search for any information he can find.
>>Data Search for Conrad_Tyrell + AEGIS, then a second data search for AEGIS<<


Once his agent is off and running he showers and hits the sack for some rest.

John McCabe gets back to you in a couple hours.






Your agent come across lists upon lists of conspiracy chatter about AEGIS. It would take hours if not days to sort out the wheat from the chaff. The first one claims that AEGIS has something to do with some super race called the Atlanteans. another says they are conducting all sorts of mind-control experiments and that orbital mind control lasers keep people in forgetting the existence of the whole organization.

Hard to say which one does Tyrell belong to: intelligence agent or crackpot. Well it is after hours and there should be free coffee.

Cruze pondered the envelope that sat on the breakfast table propped against the ketchup.

She knew she ought to call it in but her last assignment had only just finished and she'd barely done memorizing her new cover ID. Besides this wasn't the first thing she hadn't reported up the chain. Although this was the first one that wasn't purely in her head.

Still, better not to take too many risks. She pulled some latex gloves on and scanned the uninvited paper guest with a number of high tech widgets. They assured her that there were no hidden electronics. That didn't mean there wasn't some biological or chemical agent lurking within so she pulled on another set of latex gloves and a gas mask before carefully slitting the bottom of the envelope with a razor blade. She gingerly extracted the letter with tweezers and slipped it into an air-tight food storage bag. She did the same with the envelope, razor blade, tweezers and the carefully inverted second set of latex gloves. She took high resolution scans of the text on both letter and envelope before stashing them at the back of the apartments small freezer behind the suspect ready meal whose sputtering RFID tag claimed ought to have been eaten by the end of June 2069.

She opened the windows and went through to the bathroom and climbed into the shower fully clothed. After ten minutes she had the courage to remove the gas mask. Another 30 seconds and she finally exhaled explosively. Half a dozen breaths later she was certain no nerve agents or air-borne pathogens were going to cause her skin to melt or her brain to dribble out of her ear.

She climbed from the shower and shook herself like a dog, water raining everywhere in the tiny bathroom. She brushed her hair and tied it back out of her eyes. It would take hours to dry and yet the smart fabrics of her beloved jumpsuit had already returned to normal. She knew it had cost somebody a fortune but it was worth every nuyen. It had saved her life countless times she was sure. Besides wearing it made her feel like James Bond or Lara Croft or somebody.

She needed some perspective. The address on the envelope raised several difficult questions and the text of the letter itself was beyond comprehension. She needed to let it all sink in and come back to it later. She made copious electronic notes on the server about the incident, detailed an action plan, set an alarm and disengaged her data-filter.

She stood for a few moments gazing at herself in the mirror before suddenly shivering and looking around in confusion. Her hair was soaking wet and the apartment was freezing. Someone had left all the windows open!

She checked her to-do list and saw that she had some errands to run. Her cred-stick was bulging with the fat termination bonus from her last job.

It was time to go shopping.

Well, that was almost useless to me, but hay it was good to hear from John again. Well I hope they have good coffee. I can at lest get a photo of this Conrad Tyrell character for John to run with. Philip thinks to him self while going to the information.

Going through the agent search data (lightly) Man some of this stuff is out there, I think these people should be on meds.

Philip saves the attachment maybe he'll find some one who can use this.

Philip cleans up and dresses out in his civilian clothes with his lovely toys of course. Then he heads out to the book signing.

[Professor]
Hmph. This is strange. I haven't had any deliveries like this since I left India. The text sounds like this is some kind of anti-terrorist organization from the old days. And the pictures are odd. What do auroras have to do with such an organization? Hmm.... solar energy .... bombards Earth from space... atmosphere protects us like a shield ... aegis-- Greek shield or protector...but what about the space thing... the one photo looks like the aurora follows a path across N. America like the old DEW line... anything to do with Russia?...nuclear missiles... the text does say protecting America and killing ten-to-one...wasn't there an old flat movie about that?... Broken Arrow?....could AEGIS be some kind of retaliatory power?.... but who gives a damn about the UCAS these days?...not Russia... maybe some NAN power?... Oh! What about TerraFirst?... what could they do from space?... or to space?... what about satellites?...what if the name is an acronym that has nothing at all to do about protection?... maybe a little search on the Matrix will help.

... some time on the Matrix....

That was a waste of time. The publisher puts out books I wouldn't wipe my hoop with. Not much on Tyrell either. And AEGIS...damn, it's like there's a filter keeping info out of the public eye... oh drek, I'm starting to sound like them. I think I better try a different angle. Nandi might know something about this, she's been in this town for years and has a handle on who's doing what and where the money goes. I've got a couple of days till the book signing. I 'll get a hold of her and ask about this AEGIS thing and maybe the author too. She's been after me for a coffee after work, maybe we can mix a little pleasure with research. In the meantime, I think I will chuck the Matrix and go to some libraries. Flex the old search-fingers again. The university has a good one, and maybe even poke into the Library of Congress. Let's see if the hardcopy or microfilmage has something to say.

A run right now would be inconvenient. I'll let Zoltan know I'm unavailable for anything long for the next few days. Hmm... Zoltan. Well, I doubt it, but it can't hurt to ask him if he knows anything about AEGIS.

"Namaste Professor. Ap kaise hain?" said Nandi. Her eyes twinkled as they both sat at Café Assorti, a comfortable ten-minute walk from the Rosslyn metro. Normally they would meet at the park, but it was November and as was usual for Arlington - cold and wet.

"I was intrigued when you left me a message. It's always such a pleasure to see you. Now I have to say you are the first person who has asked me about AEGIS, not exactly the kind of thing most people ask about. So where can I start? Well, don't go for the online chatrooms, I can guarantee that all that will happen is your eyes will get sore and the vein in your forehead will start beating, which might be quite amusing after a bit. Although I spend quite a bit there. I am writing a journal article on memes which are cultural echos." Her eyes continued to twinkle.


"I doubt you want to know about the urban myth side of AEGIS, but the more colder facts I suspect. Unfortunately it is a bit hard to seperate fact from fiction in this case. AEGIS has been around since the 1940s. It's primary purpose was to work as an internal intelligence gathering apparatus and intelligence services monitoring agency. There was a big scare in the 1950s and 60s that the soviets had been able to penetrate the upper echelons of the United States and were being used in the formenting of a soviet revolution on U.S. soil. It started growing from there, expanding. It's not sure what was AEGIS' involvement in some of the less savioury side of "mind control" which was being conducted, but they were certainly conducting black propaganda at the time, and were certainly involved at least tacitly in some of the projects. Supposedly there is a whole chapter from the Church Commission which was never released because of AEGIS. They sort of weave in and out of history until the VITAS outbreak and megacorporate war in 2010 and then disappear. The next time anyone hears of them is in 2055 as UCAS President is briefed about the role of NASA and Ares. All we really know is Ares was really pissed. Even had Damien Knight taking a verbal jab at the UCAS government and AEGIS during a public speech."

Nandi takes a sip of her coffee and looks over the cup at the Professor "So what's your interest in AEGIS? You not planning on joining the tin-foil hat brigade are you?"


[I will comment on the Library of Congress, but not tonight. - Cookie for you for the DEW line.]

I altered dates in Professor's background to reflect the timeline suggested in the invitation.

"Yes, Nandi, I do feel as if I am way out of my element here. With all that has happened to me lately, I think I am a bit paranoid and spooked by things that are probably innocuous."

Professor sips his coffee, and smiles at Nandi, happy to be with someone who knows his story and believes him, not the frame job done on him.

"I don't think I would look good in tinfoil, my dear. No, I just received an invitation to a book signing in a couple of days, right out of the blue, and I don't know whether it is simply a publicity ploy that found me somehow, or the smuggler who framed me looking for a chance to finish me off. It's probably nothing. It has piqued my curiosity, though. I think I will attend, just to see what it is all about.

"Listen, I was going to go to the library tonight, but it feels very good to be with you right now. I can go in the morning. Would you care to have dinner with me? I would appreciate the company."