We are going into the silly season time of year and I was thinking. In the SR world we focus on runners. Professional thugs fighting the evil corps and magical horrors while most people sit at home and watch trid and try to ignore their dystopian existance.

Most know of magic from the trid or school and see metas on the street- those fragging partying trogs next door or the nice old dwarf in the corner shop but what about other magical creatures? In a world where magic is real and spirits exists and more than just New York recognizes the existence of ghosts. Would there be a service to take care of the unexplained? Would there be skilled individuals freelancing their abilites-potneitally while traveling around in a daisy decorated van with their meta-great dane? Or would there be scientists who look in to this?

As one expert once said on the record:
There are some things in this world that go way beyond human understanding. Things that cannot be explained. Things most people don't want to know about. that's where we come in. Sometimes shit happens, someone has to deal with it,
who you gonna call?

Knight Errant!

Bill Nye the Spirit Guy on PBS teaches small children about the science of spirits. With Halloween specials for staying safe on that day every year.

It might work. Science cannot create magic but something working at the subatomic level might be able to block a spirit. Remember the proton packs would blast holes in walls but when it hit a spirit it would just wrap around it like a rope.

I liek the "Bill Nye the spirit guy" but think how 'Mythbusters' could change:
"Look at everything we had to do to get this effect and the hole we had to make inthe wall to do it. So if this is happening in your house? Let's call it, you've got a spirit."

there is a throw away line in the movie from Bill Murray that is never explained. He is given the sheet for that night's appointments and says "great, pre-repeaters" like a cop chasing down known criminals but in the film they lock up all the ghosts.

The quote is actually, "Great, three more free repeaters."

The idea behind Proton Packs is that they throw off a stream of electrons stripped of their negative particles, making them positively charged. This is why they put holes in the wall and light things on fire, they're small lightning bolts.

The Ghosts, which are negatively charged, are trapped in the beam by the simple nature of "Opposites Attract". The Containment Unit (And possibly Ghost Traps) hold the ghosts in a positively-charged laser grid, using the nature of "Likes Repel".

Or, at least, that's the Handwavium that was used to explain things.

But, when talking with Ryu one day (The guy that writes the ShadowSkool stuff better than I ever could), he figured out that Paranimal Pest Control would fall under, well, Animal Control Officers.

One day, they're getting a genegineered cat out of a tree in Bellevue. The next, they're dealing with feral, rabid Hellhounds running amok in Touristville.

Either way, one hell of a contact to have when the Devil Rats start eating into your basement.

yeah, but it's a good idea. what does the average joe do when that hearth spirit starts acting up? What do you do when aunt Bertha ,who was run over by a semi while water skiing in lake michigan announces she's movbing in- For-EVER?

One of our many threads for our gaming group is a team of monster hunters based heavily on
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. Which, BTW, is a fun read for any gamer.

Its pretty much a put on the armor and shoot-em up game for us. Reminiscent of a classic hack & slash, but with pay in bounties so no need to loot the bodies! So far its been ghouls, bugs, some cthulu-ian portal horror, and intelligent slime/tentacle thingies. A nice break from the intrigue and subtle planning of our normal campaigns.

So ... when someone has to deal with it, who you gonna call? Team Newbie!

(... uh ... yep, our PCs are still stuck on the bottom of the bounty hunter totem pole in our game. )

So you don't get to meet the Gatekeeper?

Depends, are you the key?

Actually, I'm a good friend of his...

I did always like Rashid.

"I like her because she sleeps above the covers. Four FEET above the covers!"

I've got 12 Kilotons of extermination in this backpack.....

and we know how well that worked in Chicago.

Ghost Busters!

It was obviously considered an appropriate solution by the UCAS government.

It wasn't from orbit, but then it's still the only way to be sure.

Knight Errant. You don't fuck with. Firewatch mages train in SPACE! I mean your average firewatch team will make your PCs look like roaches; not roache spirts how ever though firewatch would like crush those under their heels as well. If genemods and nanotech aren't also pumped in firewatch now I'd be hugely surprised.

These guys would make move SF look wimpy if only due to the crome and mojo they'd pack. Of course Firewatches eliet teams are quite busy takign the fight to the bugs via a space station. So there'd be at ~6 month return trip hardly rapid response. Though I guess the teams would be rotated.

Since SR is an 80s game, here's the intro to the 80s ghostbuster cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xfwz2TRGss

No, they were po'ed and Ares got grief for it, something about setting off an atomic bomb in the 2nd largest city in the country that most governments are not cool with.

Send in Team UCAS - World Police.

"UCAS..... F*** YEAH!!!!"

They paid Ares to "deal with the situation" post bomb, which suggests that a) they got away with it and b) got their bill paid. If the customer pays the bill, does it matter if they are not completely satisfied with the method you choose to solve their problem?

Don't forget that the nuke wasn't sufficient to the task.

It did generally what it was intended to, which was to shut the hive down. More nukes would have worked to remove the problem, but a giant crater east of O'Hare didn't seem desirable.

FAB 3 does seem to have done a pretty good job. ...

On the bugs, the ghouls, the free spirits, the devil rats... Any Paranormal Creature, for that matter.

Too bad it didn't wipe out those lousy Shadowrunners as well.

"You ordered our complete 'paranormal extermination' service and now you are whining that we provided a complete paranormal extermination service?"

well the proton packs should deal with ghouls and devil rats too-crispy critter city