SHADOWRUN …IN SPAAACCEEEE…

Ok, what can we do to ”up” the game a bit to function in a slightly more future setting. Well, lets brainstorm.

The 2090 Spacerace
2090: Ares began the Colony Race
2093: Pinnacle Station is planned
2095: Permanent Colony on Mars
2112: Pinnacle Station building is started in earth orbit
2118: Permanent Colony on Europa
2125: Breakthrough in Terraforming technology
2130: Begginning of Moon Terraforming project
2133: Pinnacle Station is finished
2141: A technology to insert Biofibers in spacestations is found
2153: Pinnacle station is the first space station to get its own Gaiasphere due to extensive biofibers throughout the station.
2155: First official space conflict (Actual space pirates hijacking of Renraku luxury cruiser)
2162: Research base on pluto
2163: Project Garm is started on Pluto
2164: All contact lost with Pluto
2170: Present day
Tech is essentially the same except all availability is halved.
Obvious cyberware is more accepted, especially in space as the human body needs less protection if replaced by mechanical parts.

Space Tech (Or gear that can easily be used as such)
Planetary Personal Vehicle (Horseman)
Suncell
Life Support Lvl 2
Special Armor Mod: Cosmic Radiation Seal

Come on, gimme more ideas, what vehicles can be used, what AI’s might have surfaced, have Aztechnology begun on their Jupiter based Space Arcology?

...and...Space, yea, space...

Mages would require some sort of dual natured slime (bacteria algae whatever) in their suits to prevent insanity and provide power - also void tradition as another bad guy option

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Ugh, Void Tradition mages. That's something that I don't want to contemplate. I wonder how Equinox is going to handle it? In one of my games I had S-K making Orichalcum on the moon. The theory is that because of mana void thing, you can get away with less drain. I didn't really understand it, but they say that stuff works in Target: Wastelands. Also, stay off Pluto or you'll piss of the Migou.

Lets not forget other hazards.

Since the SUN is a huge fusion reactor and therefore nuclear then it is the habitat for Toxic Fire spirits (Nuclear). Whenever there is solar flare they ride the flare and lands on anything with a manasphere in order to survive - be it planets, spacestations etc.

Mercury is close enought for the sun to be constantly bombarded by radiantion and have a cosntant population of Toxic Fire Spirits.

No, they just wouldn't be able to use magic when in the void. Dual natured beings however who can't fully leave the astral however...

How do the spirits survive their time in the void? And why is earth not overrun with them? Oh and remember its living things not planets that make the astral plane habitable, Mercury would not be able to support a population of spirits.

Don't you mean stay off of Yuggoth? Though I'm sure the Mi-go would welcome any higher apes that came to visit, in fact I'm sure they'd want the visit to be permanent; though lodgings would likely be limited to a small box with interior dimensions of about a half a cubic foot...

Firstly, why would Pluto be chosen as a research habitat? There are much more interesting planetoids out there. Sedna's orbit means it swoops in from deep in the Oort cloud then flies off again, and it's coming through the 'local' neighborhood right around the time you're looking at.

Before you start dealing with mages, I think you need to ask, out of character, how you want them to perform. Do you want them to keep the mage/mundane balance we see in Shadowrun? Should they be more powerful? Less? More 'mystical'?

I've done a few things in my game; I've made plants which generate magic, so even small habitats can support mages. With some adaptation, larger planets (like Jupiter) can support a LOT of the plants, giving magic some major oomph. I've also introduced technology which feeds off of magic and vice versa, so people have magical 'batteries' they can use to support their spirits (or mages) as well as to power manatech (sort of like ED tech but in reverse). Finally, I decided that different planets have different magical biomes. Mars is pretty angry, so the first mages had to relearn how to cast, they found their spells a lot more destructive and flashy, and their spirits had to be wrangled or satiated with blood. (However, this game has basically one or two players who are all magical, so balance isn't a huge issue.)

*Cough*Planet!*Cough*

Lets just say taht then project needed the cold and a safe distance from other living beings or inhabited worlds...They lost contact for reason.

What did they do? Capture a Horror? SUmmon Chtulhu's little brother? Create a people out of Ice Humonculus - well, you'll never know until you go there...



Good point. Limited but powerful I would say. Magic would advance quite a bit in a hundred years but limited in space. I would have mages 'armed' with a nutrious living Bioslime that is magical in nature as a form of ammunition they can use to power any magical action, each action they perform would drain the bioslime. They would still have to deal with drain but it would be lower and not be affected by space...unless their bioslime dies, then they will be just like vanilla mages in space - Dont use it.

If someone has a degree in astronomy and would like to correct me, please do, but I’m pretty sure that terraforming the moon is pretty much out of the question. One, there is no atmosphere. Two, it has insufficient gravity to hold an atmosphere. So domed and/or underground cities – sure, no problem, assuming you have economically-viable means to routinely access the moon and haul cargo to and from it. But terraforming it enough to someday be able to walk outside without a spacesuit (if that's indeed what you mean by the above)? Nope.

Nothing doing. Whatever Target: Wastelands says, it’s not 4th edition. As per the current edition, the most relevant sections on magic use off of Earth are in Street Magic, pp. 119 – 120. Working magic on the moon would incur much *more* drain, not less.

Um…no.

Is every body of water inhabited by water elementals? Is every fire home to fire elementals? Does every nuclear power plant in the Sixth World necessarily host hordes of fire/nuclear elementals? No.

Just because the sun is a big nuclear fusion reactor doesn’t mean that it’s inhabited by anything. It has no life *at all*. No life, no mana. No mana, no spirits. No spirits, no hordes of fire/nuclear elementals. It’s a mana void, there’s nothing magical going on there. And even if there *were*, there’s 93 million miles of cold, empty mana void between the Earth and the sun, so the proper response to learning that the sun was full of toxic elementals would be “Who cares? They can’t get to us here on Earth. Don’t go walking around on the sun and you should be pretty darn safe.” So Smash Mouth would be in danger, but one else would.

I don't know... I am sure that I saw a terraformed Moon in Star Trek... If they can do it...
/sarcasm

Though to be honest, it is often a Trope for most Science Fiction...

The moon at best could be used as artificial satellites are, enclosed spaces that are habitable to humans. But yes it would be impossible to terraform. Note: the most important reason for the moon, mars and other planets not being terraform-able is their lack of a strong magnetic field, without this any atmosphere introduced would quickly be blasted to space by the solar wind, and radiation would be a bit high.

They had their brains placed into jars by the Fungus that is using the planetoid as a scientific outpost...

http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/2/Migoos/

Yes, I believe this little video best expresses my opinion of the "Pluto is no longer a planet" nonsense.

One of my good friends had a brilliant idea for a free spirit character. Being a james-bond movie inspired new runner, his eventual end goal/retirement retirement was to pull a Doctor Manhattan and set up a martian moonbase.

Basically by getting to a decently high force, cuddling up to an astral hazed changling(-4 is more survivable than -12) for the trip over and setting up a Personal Domain once he actually gets there. Once you're there, getting there and back is easy enough for a free spirit via astral shortcut.
The finishing touch was picking up the Wealth power, and using it to make or build things, sculpt the terrain, or even write messages to telescopes when you're bored.

Also if you have access to space and a free spirit's formula, its a wonderful way to get them to disrupt themselves, because you can compel them to come to it.
And, well, they're kind of screwed if its in a location that just so happens to be lethal to them. Not that they are easy to come by, but its a possibility.

That qualifies as Grade A munchkin cheeseballing of the poor-worded entry for Astral Hazing, in Runner's Companion on p. 116. I really don't think there are too many GMs who would let that fly.

Allright, that is munchkiny and I would interpret it differently.

If we go by the rules that a changeling has his own little domain around him that is a -4 Astral Hazing then I would say that the actual background count is in opposition of that domain. So we reverse that to say that the -12 is lowered by the Astral Hazing to a -8.

Astral Hazing would then work similar to reducing the force of magicians but now does it with background count. The immovable object meeting the unstoppable force.

Its still better but not good.

As everyone knows, the moon will be used as anchor for the space elevator .

Solar wind/radiation on Mars is already less harsh than on Terra due to simple distance. Lack of a strong magnetic field would simply mean there's a need for atrificial protection - just like there is on space stations, albeit less so.

Thats entirely fair and one of the more sense-makey-but-not-rules-provided solutions we discussed.
but basically as long as you're force 1 you can survive the trip.

Under your interpretation wouldn't this make multiple astral hazings desirable, then? Even if it is a background count, its a -positive- one, and if you're adding background counts in the same area together.....

Nope, multiple domains would contest each other and only the strongest would function, or they cancel each other out. Whatever suits the current GM the best.

If that breakthrough in 2125 was energy efficient transmutation then any reasonably large body could be made habitable (as in support habitations as opposed to true terraforming although that could be possible) even non-planets such as the moon and Pluto.

Will the game be anything like this?

What? I think you posted in the wrong thread. We're talking about space where there is a mana void and free spirits wouldn't make it a mile out the atmosphere. Much less have a chance of doing anything as moons don't have any better background than anywhere else that lacks a biosphere. The most populated satellites have only a slightly better background than the void, and your changeling hypothesis is wrong, try reading the part on Target: wastelands about up the gravity well. They deal with void/hazing.

Yep, right before the cable snaps or the moon is brought down by the cable to destroy the earth.

Its less harsh but still very nasty. For instance it is strong enough that it stripped Mars of all but the most pathetic excuse for an atmosphere. My point was not that mars was uninhabitable, but that it can't be terraformed. Buried and sealed habitats would work just fine.

RAW says the void always wins.

For most understandings of the prefix 'terra', yes. However, it is certainly possible to make the moon habitable by life. If humans are modified to resist the vacuum (which wouldn't be that far out of the question), we created a vacuum-friendly plant, and a method of water transportation, the surface could support life. Or you can dig out the interior of the moon and seal it off, creating earth-like habitation in there (which will be lacking only for a source of energy).



It seems like the only change you're hoping for is lower drain when wearing your vac suit. If that's all you want, then that's your answer right there. This section though will require a lot of thought, since I dont' think it's ever really been done before, and it'll have a huge influence on how your world works. Do you want magic to be basically the same as SR? Different in flavor? In functionality? A little more powerful? Much more powerful? More or less powerful depending on the environment?

Part of this depends on your group. Do you have a mix of mages and non-mages? If so, the mages need to keep pace with the mundanes, and you can't crank it up and down a lot. If not ... feel free to explore a little more. Regardless, feel free to make things more alien, to take the opportunity to make magic more weird, so your party really feels like they're exploring (if that's what your players would enjoy).

Resisting vacuum may be fine, but you couldn't be immune. Maybe modified to prevent explosive decompression, but still wouldn't survive very long. And there's still the whole issue of no oxygen.

Just use a maker... Oh, wait, wrong game.

Explosive decompression is a bit of a myth when it comes to humans. We leak we don't explode.
Depends on what you mean by immune. With stronger skin that is a more impervious membrane vacuum can become inconsequential to skin and water loss. Eyes would be the toughest thing to guard against the vacuum and still retain their function, likely a layer of clear skin would need to be grown over the eyes in addition to the lids. A stronger sphincter and intestinal fauna that minimizes gas production would keep that system immune to vacuum. The only real problem would be getting oxygen into the blood, but that problem is not about immunity to the effects of vacuum; just a lack of oxygen...

For that minor problem (getting Oxygen into the system) we have cyberware and drugs (oxygenated fluorocarbons iirc) from an old 2nd edition sourcebook whose name escapes me at the moment.

I suppose we could have a nanite hive handle that too...

yeah, yeah, tell me i'm doing it wrong and then to to read a book for an edition we don't play in. Speaking of....


Can you quote me a page number for that?

I'm pretty aware of background count, and how it works in space. -12 void is really harsh, but there are ways around it.

general 'Herpaderpa there's no magic in space blah blah biosphere' moaning doesn't really fly when they tell you exactly how much magic there is in space.


I, for one, really like the idea of a crazed and maybe insane Doctor Manhattan-esque spirit on mars just messing around with it and maybe renovating the planet in his spare time, and then popping back to earth for lunch.
Then again, we play an LA game.