PDF is out.
Big chunky book.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1298...erm=Stolen+soul

what is CFD?

Consciousness Fragmention Disorder? (just random guessing)

Also been refered to as Sybil virus.

Sure, but what does the acronym mean?

Cognitive Fragmentation Disorder (splintered states pg 56), a technologically propagated computer virus that can directly influence human brainwaves in a manner superficially similar to simsense, changing thoughts, overwriting memories, and altering behavior patterns

Or at least that is what the docs are treating it as.

They do not understand all of it so are trying to fit it into terms that make sense to them, where as scrambling a bunch of e-ghosts together and pouring straight into someone's brainpan is not so scientific sounding.

Flashed through, lots of stuff here. Gear, vehicle/drones,spells, city write up, extraction advice and more. First fiction does add a creepy vibe though. This "virus" pretty scary concept for metahumanity.

So they took the "Living Net reprogramming people" thing from TSR's Kromosome and plugged it into Shadowrun.

Sounds more to me like they almost listened to Frank.

Strap yourselves in, folks, the metaplot's about to get even dumber. Because clearly bug spirits, Shedim, Loa, Psychotropic IC and the like weren't enough of the same tired fragging thing.

Loving the positive reaction.
Come on, Deus has been running around in people forever, and you now hint at plagiarism? Seriously?
Now, has anyone read the book? Is it any good? Of all the recent CGL stuff, this book is the only one giving me hope.

Haven't had ton of time, but working my way through it. Engaged and enjoying what seen so far.

Who, or what, is Deus?

The AI responsible for the Renraku Arcology situation.

Renraku Arcology Shutdown, originally published in 1998, predating Kromosome by 6 years.

In a nutshell, Renraku creates an AI to run their arcology in Seattle, partly by mashing together and experimenting on some existing AIs. Then somehow everyone is surprised when it goes berserk, seals the arcology shut, and turns the place into a biomechanical horror nightmare. Surgical experiments on the captive population, bizarre nanotech and mechanical creations, and a lot of tinkering on otaku technomancer children.

Eventually the arcology was breached and re-taken, but a lot of the experiments escaped and vanished. Also missing was the insane AI, now known as Deus. It was suspected that it may have downloaded parts of itself into the otaku that escaped. Since then there have been references over the years to Deus and his legacy, but nothing really concrete.

Of course, as soon as the hints of the whole Sybil thing started appearing, first thing that popped into my head was, "DEUS IS BACK!"


-K

Yeah, it's hardly the first incidence of Body Snatchers from X in Shadowrun -- but you got to admit that the concept creates horror and paranoia like few others



Deus' recompilation from the fragments stored in the minds of his victims was a central part of the Crash 2.0

What happened to Deus (and the other AIs involved in the battle) afterwards is not known, Street Legends made an off-hand reference to Deus being back (which somehow worried none of the assembled matrix elite), but...well, it was Street Legends...

Indeed - I see this as a pretty lame Plot hook, personally. I was never a huge fan of the Super-AI.

If by 'hardly the first' you mean 'literally every major threat introduced since 3e', then you're tracking. Seriously, Catalyst, there are other compelling threats beyond body horror and possession. I know it was a huge thing in the 1980's media as a parallel for Communism, but still.

*Bzzt!* Wrong answer! Kromosome was originally published in 1994. To be honest, I can't fault them too much as the Kromosome game world is one of the better CP genre tabletop gaming worlds published. System was shit, but the game world rocked.

Ahhh Yes, The Amazing Engine System.

I'd say 2nd Edition at least. Bugs, Tutor, Winternight...the even the Horrors would qualify.

But if a big bad threat has not been done to death in SR, it has been done to death elsewhere

That actually makes doing it yet again even more creatively bankrupt and uninteresting. Not to mention that it pretty solidly implies that the whole handwaving of all the previous Matrix problems to make always-on Wireless as the default state accepted by everyone something that was jammed down the players' throats specifically to make this a threat.

Can I say... Well Duh?

You know, I have to facepalm at myself, because for some silly reason when I looked up the publish date of Kromosome my mind saw "2004" instead of "1994".

Still, I have doubts on whether Kromosome was a direct influence. Let's be honest, Amazing Engine was never a particularly popular RPG (heck, a lot of folks in that era never even knew it existed), and mind or body invasion themes were pretty common in 1980-90s cyberpunk.



-k

Okay, seriously? Frag this. If I were reading a physical copy, that's when the book would be flying into the wall.

Can I just say I love the cover art for this book?

Crazy guy who isn't very good at being sedated with a big frag off axe?

Life is good.

Good point.

Yep, Seriously... I have to ask what was being smoked, and why they were not sharing.

Is this what happens when people who've never read their own setting or any science fiction try to write it?

Probably.

Man, y'all are saving me tons of money. Thanks for jumping on these grenades for me, guys.

To me, it sounds like someone given a mandate to come up with a semi-plausible reason for nano-fabricated materials being affected by the nano-apocalypse, and doing the best they can with that stricture.

Why blood nanites would be able to talk with dormant plastic nanites, I have no idea, though.


-k

Why the plastic nanites would be -able- to deviate from their original use, virus or no, is a better question. I mean, anyone who's read even a -little- sci-fi literature is aware of the grey goo possibilities inherent in Von Neumann machines.

This is bush-league stuff, so I'm not at all surprised to see Catalyst tripping over it given the quality they've been pushing lately in sourcebooks.

So, what exactly was the last great metaplot that you remember and loved about SR then? And that also didn't involve some degree of mind/body horror?

I loved the bugs when they were done, because it was new to the system and a scary bit of horror to play with.

It was less fun the second time around with possession mages becoming more common.

It was boring by the time the Shedim came around.

Now it's just 'really, this again?'

I think my favorite 'big' plot so far has been Dunkelzahn's will, because it has a ton of hooks to play with that go in different directions and don't rely on any singular player or universal reaction to work.

Ok, so while everyone talks about how all plots in Shadowrun of the past 10 years have sucked but they only noticed it now, can someone post a bit more information about the book?

Whats the story/rules ration for example and are the rules workable and useful?

Unless I'm missing something, you're throwing books already because nanites integrate themselves into structures instead of just being magical molecule assemblers? It's a departure from previous descriptions, but with all the stuff that has already been handwaved "because nanites" you should have grown a thicker skin by now

I think the only thing about nanites which could still shock me would be self-replication...which is hopefully never going to happen

Don't buy this book if that is the final straw then...

Seriously?

They not only integrate themselves into structures (which is entirely possible by the previous fluff), but they can also apparently be reactivated, regardless of the time passed since assembly (despite the nanite degradation), and reprogrammed to do stuff other than assembly. This is again new Matrix-level bullshit that makes absolutely no sense on any technical level.

That's been the case since Arsenal -- buy cheap legal nanites at high level and reprogram them into Cutters or something else. Or use your "builder" nanites to tear down stuff into usable feedstock, or...

The narrative is that AIs are using nanotech to take over people's minds. The opening fiction is amazing, showing how the naive AI is dealing with his new meat body and actually appears to be slightly guilty for taking someone's body. However, it also implies that the original owner is able to subconsciously affect the new personality to do things that would endanger itself. It also appears that as long as the nanotech "lives" the AI lives and can infect a new body. And if two or more nanite clusters from multiple different AIs are in the same body, the nanites start to fight each other and create a hybrid personality. There is a lot of fluff dedicated to this, and I think its very well written and adds a good level of paranoia back to the shadows.

There is a sizeable chunk of setting fluff on Manhattan. Though I haven't gotten to read this yet. But if you're looking to run in New York in the 2075's this would be the best bet.

I have not found any adventures yet. Which does have me a bit disappointed. But there are a lot of plot hooks in the fluff for GMs to milk for runs.

New spells and powers for awaken faces.

New drugs, and new rules for people who have negative reactions to those drugs. The drugs are designed around the concept of extractions. So most of it is pretty subtle stuff to knock people out. As well as some gear to facilitate that.

Some new toys and mods for riggers to stay incognito. Very important for extractions.

There are also rules for becoming a headcase ( one of the AI infected), but the book makes it clear that you should not force PC's to become infected, mostly because it'll be very difficult to roleplay, and it also sucks to lose your PC to this thing. And some of the headcase nano powers will make them pretty difficult targets for extraction runs, which is of course the point.

I like it so far. But I realize the popular opinion in dumpshock is that CGL are morons and couldn't possibly write their way out of a paper bag. But I think this is a good book. The crunch seems to be dedicated to a very specific niché, so if you have an awaken face or a rigger who wants rules to be more subtle, than it'd probably be worth picking up for that. If you're a GM that wants to run NY and play with the new metaplot, I'd highly recommend it for that. But if none of those things interest you, then its something you can totally skip over.

Thank you very much sir for a level-headed, constructive overview/review.

So what about TeOdio's cryptic warning? Did they really bring out the von Neumann machines?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA well. Well. They sorta do. But given how unrealistically Nanites have been treated in Shadowrun ever since Arcology, that's nothing to throw me off by now, or blame CGL for. I have seen worse in TV and other SciFi that treat nanotechnology as pure magic (Diamond Age, anyone?). It's a genre trope, has been for 20+ years, the setting has been running with it for 10 years straight. I can't see how that can be laid at CGL's feet. Pity they went with this instead of Shadowtech's much more plausible (and therefore, original) approach when they wrote Arcology, but spilled milk and all.

Gotta say though, it's written decently until now (page 142) and has a lot more horror potential than any bodysnatcher plot since the bugs. Plus, it's primary contamination vector does not require wireless - the books isn't sure whether or not the virus can be communicated over the Matrix alone; I guess this will be in the rules section. However, I really envy the Jackpointers' funds; Clockwork blows through decks as though they were Commlinks.

Haven't gotten to the rules yet, but so far, the writing and editing is a lot better than in Run&Gun. No snide remarks at the reader, it has a Jackpoint login page, and aside from five (so far) painful misspellings and one paragraph that ends mid-sentence it reads pretty smoothly.

The idea is ... well. Another bodysnatcher plot? Hoo boy, never seen before! However, it seems, for now, better written and built up than any of their other metaplots - the Excalibur and the Weyland-Yutanification of Ares, the Artifacts, the 'Dragon Civil War', the War over Potted Plants.


As if much in 4th edition about nanotechnology made sense on any technical level. 4th gave us Matrix Magic because Unwired was written by Otaku fanboys. Much as I dislike this, this is not the fault of the current writers.

Clockwork?

Jackpointers just build their own Decks...

Because who needs rules when they're NPC?


A Shadowtalker. Angry Hobgoblin rigger/decker who hates technomancers and is shunned by all the other super progressive Jackpointers because hating authors' pets is bad (in a community that harbours two mass muderers, two serial rapists and is generally made up of cold blooded killers).

Well, that does not make it less unrealistic

But the major problem is not the technology itself, it's the effect this technology has on society -- or rather, doesn't. Diamond age and others spend a lot of paper on exploring the major socio-economical such technology would cause, SR uses it as a crutch to handwave stuff without stopping for a second to think about the wider implications of the technology.

The virus plotline looked like a solution to this insanity, since it would have curb-stomped the widespread usage of nanobots. Instead, they are seemingly turned up to 11, and I doubt too much thought went into the consequences of an incurable, highly contagious disease capable of self-replication without a host. To say nothing of what would happen if the self-replication gets used for more than just spreading the disease...