I am going to be running a team, which includes an amnesiatic physical adept, through the "Imago" module from SR2. The "Imago" module includes a trip to the metaplanes. I'm not sure how to approach the situation and am hoping for some advice from some of you. How do you think the Dweller on the Threshold would behave towards an amnesiac? What might it choose to reveal, if anything? Any insight you might have to offer would be greatly appreciated.

have the Dweller reveal something about the adept's past--something unpleasant and disturbing.

<shrug> You can just have the Dweller confront them about their personality...or their dark fears about what their past might be, why they can't remember it, etc.

What is the amnesiac PC's forgotten past and personality like? I'd suggest either something that contradicts what they think they've remembered/found out or a piece of information that puts it in a different perspective that makes them requestion everything.

air all of his dirty laundry in front of everyone and then replace his amnesiac with another appropriate flaw that would make sence ...ie...hung out to dry if its so bad that his characters drop him ...ect..........

Sounds to me like you have the Dweller say anything you want. Just like normal.

Have you decided what this character actually did before becoming amnesiac?

Reminds me a little bit of this one comic book called The Maxx (the first 10 or so issues of which even aired as a segment on on of MTV's animation anthologies).

The protagonist of the series is a "superhero" (and the word is used quite loosely here) who was a homeless bum by day, and a crimefighter... well whenever crimes would find him, which was quite often. He had this thing where he'd switch between the real-world and a dream-like plane of existence that he called the Outback, which seemed to be patterned after every bad jungle movie cliche ever made, thrown into a blender with weird Dr. Seuss-style logic.

Anyway, Maxx's Outback could easily pass for an astral metaplane, and the funny thing is, while he couldn't remember what his life was like before he was a "superhero" each time he'd go into the outback, he'd discover a little more about himself, until one of the native threats would distract him into a scene of gratuitious violence. In one point of the storyline, he overdoses on saturday morning cartoons and pez, passing out and waking up in the Outback. The lead character of the cartoon he was watching is there, and taunts him that he's forgotten who he is, and isn't even trying to find out what's under the superhero mask he always wears.

Never read the comic but I saw it on MTV. Good stuff all around.

Or the reverse-give him nothing. Or the wrong information completely. What if the Dweller is actually telling him these memories aren't real, and he doesn't get it?

What aired on MTV Oddities is almost panel for panel what was in the comic books, with a few exceptions, that mostly dealt with cross over characters from other comic book titles, that for licensing reasons, couldn't be included.

One of the first characters ever played in my group was an amnesic elf, who woke up one day in an alley way beaten half to death. After being nursed to health he just sort of fell in with the runners in the group. We never really got to the why, but that's not important.

When the character was built, because back then I made everyone's characters, one of the things he had on him was a camcorder with a full tape. For the firs few months of actual real world time the players never really noticed this. They just carried it around on the character sheet, never thinking to ask that question.

Finally one day they did. The camcorder contained some pretty wild footage that if correct suggested that the elf was a dethroned Prince from the Tir High Council. It was over the top, too over the top. The footage had been edited in some spots by the runners former team mate, so that he'd know it was false. That the footage was trumped up crap designed to make him go after a certain Prince, and die in the process.

Problem is the players never came to that conclusion. They thought it was real. The bought it hook,line and sinker. After that they went out of their way to frag with th Tir as often as possible.

We never resolved that arc. I left for boot camp, and when I returned we never picked up those characters again-we'd played them every weekend for four years. Imagine what a character builds up to be playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday damn near every weekend for four years. At the time we were quite worse. (We were young okay.)

Now 10 years later we still laugh about some of the goofier shat we did, but we're stil proud that first group was as damn cool as it was.

That's an option. or you could just completely mislead him , with no clues.

"Yeah dude the Watcher on the Threshold totally told me I'm Dunkelzahn. No really. Watch me smack Lofwyr's bitch ass at this party mano! I'm totally a Dragon man, you'll see."



Or another option is just lead him up to that point, and then Bham. Stop. Roll dice, then say something like "Yup, and then you wake up on the other side...." Let him think something transpired, whether it really did or not.

Of course do this sort of thing toooften and your player will lynch you eventually, but a little suspense never hurt anybody.

I liked Amneisacs. They make it easy for me to introduce anything I wanted to, on any whim. "Yup you knew Damine Knight in your pat life, and boy is he pissed..." "Gosh you never told us you were gay..." "You have kids? And a wife????Wives????"



What can I say?

Hm. It was my understanding that the Dweller wasn't emotionally invested and didn't have any real vested interest in the truths it revealed. It laid out (one?) truth for each person that accompanied the questor. Possibly at random, which made it all the more nerve wracking for those accompanying the questor, since they couldn't predict exactly what would get revealed. "You SLEPT WITH MY SISTER?!" kinda stuff. or "You wet the bed until you were 14?". The sense I got though was, the truths that were revealed were of the relatively 'same' value between the people questing. So you would end up with everyone feeling the overall same level of discomfort.

My last character was an amnesiac who had a cranial bomb go off in his head and live. He has extensive modifications to his body that basically allow him to alter his appearance within +10/-10% parameters (i.e. a doppelganger done cybernetically). Part of these modifications include a modified encephalon and headware that holds simsense personality engrams (similar to the stuff used in meat puppet parlors) that allowed him to more accurately portray the person he is impersonating. When the cranial bomb went off, the encephalon engaged a failsafe that, along with the medical care he received, fused the alternate personality and memories with his own personality.

The long and the short of it is that he lost a significant portion of his past, and whatever memories he has may be false. He doesn't even know what he really looks like, because of his appearance-altering cyberware. This gave the other GMs a bit of glee as they introduced various runs with people claiming to be his wife, his gay lover, his daughter, and even in one case, his college roommate. Before I retired him, he basically couldn't trust anyone anymore except his fellow shadowrunners (the only ones NOT claiming to know him from his past life). Since our campaign is in Las Vegas, my character's punchline kept becoming "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, apparently..."

Unless I read it wrong, the Dweller reveals a piece of information about the PC and if you make it that the Dweller lies about the amnesiac, then you've to lie about all the other PCs' dirty laundry as well. Which will tip off the other PCs that it is not telling the truth and defeat the purpose of the Dweller revealing secrets that will embarass the PCs.

Which lead me to the next point: what if there are no secrets? What do you reveal?

Yeah there's always going to be secrets. Maybe not earth shattering, but possibly embarrasing.

Heh.
(Paraphrase)
"You masturbate more than any other person on the planet." "Yeah tell me something I don't know." "When you do it, you're thinking about guys."

You may not have any top shelf front page type secrets, but I dare say that every normal person (not even having to be a SR runner) has something they may not want others hearing. Like how often they like to pleasure themselves. How they (as I mentioned in an earlier post) wet the bed when they were younger. Some details about their first sexual experience. How often they pick their nose. Some blurt about the time they ate what they picked out of their nose. Or the like.

Its a useful tool I think for preventing astral teams of 12 going in to help their buddy every time. Even if I don't have any damning secrets, I sure as hell may have a bunch of personal details I don't want anyone, especially friends, knowing about.

If more than one person knows about it, it is not a secret. Secrets are never part of Shadowrunning.

Ahhh, but it is not embarrassing! And the runner doesn't consider it a secret since the people that is going on the quest with him probably went with him for the run anyway.

Dweller: Soooo you ran against Lowfyr's Saeder Krupp yesterday.
Runner A: I'm a runner that's what I do.
Runner B: Tell us something we didn't know, I was there with him.

Could always reveal that the runner's sister is the star at a puppet parlor, especially if the character frequents one.

Or a a prostitute, if they patronize the ladies of the night.

Or that his mother was a puppet and that's how she got him.

Or his grand father founded the Humanis Policlub.

That itch he can't quite scratch on his shoulder-blade is more than a skin contition.

etc.

Like anything in your game, the Dweller is a tool, to be used in a way consistent with your game and vision.

Semantics may be fun to kick around here, and Canon may be a religion to some, but in the end do what is fun for you and your group. DSF isn't the FAQ guide, or Fan Pro's direct line to the rules. Take the things from here that are cool, and leave the rest.

I know I do.

I don't know, this is turning out to be one of the more amusing threads I've seen.

Thats the sorta thing you run when/if you have a PC with any of those mysterious flaws... use it wisly, its the only time you can make your players cry.

The Dweller might not even appreciate the amnesiac's presence.

Dweller: "Fix your mind, plebian, before seeking me."

You don't really seek the Dweller, more like you want it to get out of your way.

Oh, you mean you don't seek the Dweller as the point to a jaunt into the Metaplanes?

Because the PC passed the Quest Rating TN?

"Exactly, because I have no secrets, therefore all secrets must be made known to me. For nature abhores a vacuum and I am a vacuum of secrets, I do not deserve to know secrets but you WILL allow me entry because I have none. Because I am nothing, I can pass."

It would be very high Willed (or whatever) to exhibit all his flaws and secrets.

By the way, the test isn't Willpower. It is whatever skill/Attribute that the GM can come up with. So if it is the metaplane of Racing, it'll probably be Reaction. Or metaplane of sex, Body (or Athletics).

Well, I've never met anyone more embarrassed by how pathetic they are than myself, so I'd be a bad choice. I've always felt that the Dweller is a part of the person, a metaphysical representation of their past, present and projected future.

Maybe what I mean is that I'd be a poor (or great) choice of Dweller against myself...

A bit of the the collective unconcious? I'm right there with you.

Well, soooo that's how... Beer helps people to project into the metaplanes.

And helps ugly people get laid.

Ah, at last, an entity with no secrets. Finally. I have waited for so long. You are now the Dweller, and I can go home!

That's dirty pool old chum. I like it.

Which part?

OurTeam's suggestion. It made me chuckle. Imagine the look on yuor players faces when they hear that. Of course, my own would have dollar symbols in their eyes, and greed in their beady little hearts. I could see it now.

Astral Quest made cheap and easy. Just call the Dweller now! For three easy payments....

Just print up some buttons:

You too can be The Dweller on the Threshold. Ask me how.

Call 1900-DWELLER now for your very own piece of Astral Space. The first 50 callers will get a complementary stay at the Meta-Hilton Jewel of Memory Suite. Don't hesitate, call now!