Oi, Chummers...

I was just paging through Dunklezahn's Will, the annoted version and that along with other source materials have so many different theories...

I think my brain is going to run out of my nose and ears respectively...

Does anyone out there really know what happened? Fine! I admit the curiosity is eating me from the inside...

Please, someone! EXPLAIN!

Read the Dragonheart novels.

Thanks, Smithy...

Now I dont have to go read the DragonHeart Novels.
So, how the frag did the horrors manage to gain access to our world en-masse?

Well, there's the "when the mana level gets high enough they can come bounding through of their own volition" bit.

However, being able to come early is because of the Great Ghost Dance. It created a spike in the mana at certain points, thusly giving them a bit less time to wait for the mana level to get high enough before they can come into our world.

You don't "have" to read them?
That's like "Thanks for the karma, Mr. GM now I don't have to play Shadowrun."

They don't have access to our world en masse. They had some nasty planes involvling the mana spike made by the GGD, and some other things to try and sneak over early, but those were defeated by various means. There are hints that a few of the powerful ones are already able to try and reach across and affect things, while minor (supposed) Horros like Wraiths are already in existance.

I like the World, so I enjoyed most of the novels despite some of them having shortcomings.

So, does anybody have a reasonable explanation for how the GGD could possibly have RAISED the mana level? Logic would dictate that using up magic in a spectacular way would reduce the amount of mana by consuming it and turning it into something else. Lest ye think magic doesn't work that way, remember that Mana can be Exhausted by FAB eating it all so it is a finite source of energy.

Yes, I do expect real-life physics to influence my games. I'm stupid that way.

I read it more like the way the music snobbery bit goes down in High Fidelity. Vhatever.

Well, Shadowrun's novels ... *sighs*

The first few novels were fun, and especially Nigel Findley's can be recommended (the Secrets of Power triology too, though it already has some parts that are a bit too epic for the whole cyberpunk feel). The series has more high points - the early Marc Gascoigne novels are decent, The Changeling is excellent - best SR novel written, ever, in my opinion, and even Nyx Smith's early striper novels are fun, though the shifter is a bit overestimated there.

But with (and after) the dragonheart triology, which was WAY uber, lost all the cyberpunk feel, and introduced Supers-like characters, which I at least really don't appreciate, it was ... well, it changed for the worse.

Generally speaking, Shadowrun's novels have lost the original idea, and since I started early with the game and am generally more fond of "little" stories than of world-changing comic-esque superhero stories, they have nothing to offer to me any more. I stopped buying them with the dragonheart books.

Of course, this may have changed ... like I said, I haven't bought a SR novel in years. They may have turned away from that style again; if so, someone please tell me.

I haven't read any of the SR novels as i am reluctant to see someones views on the whole SR world, however if it tells of the history could anyone recommend any??

torz x

It should be mentioned that...

Until they translate them into something I can understand, doesn't count.

How are they, for those of you who can read German?


Edit: Hey, I've evolved!

I think the site said they're going to be publishing some novels to go with Shadowrun Duels... erm... Yay?

Referring to Moonstone Spider's post, the GGD created a literal 'mana spike' (you actually get to see it in 'Harlequinn's Back'), with the Horrors far off in the distance working hard to build a 'bridge' so that they could reach the spike, and start pouring into our world (this whole sequence took place on some sort of meteplane, where the mana level was an actual physical manifestation. As the mana level grows, the chasm seperating us from them gets smaller).

Big D died, because he was aplot device,and with him dying they could stop a whole bunch of bad plot ideas and start a whole lot of good ones. They could pretty much stop most if not all the Aztlan is the devil plot line,they could stop most of the earth dawn cross over plot lines, and they could start the Corp war,make three AAA's, and totally make it hip to be Orkish. These are good things.

But Big D, started out as a plot device,and ended as one. He happened to be fun,and cool. He happened to be an enjoy character, but in the end, your runners should have never really even acted on the same playing feild as him.

Um, I don't think D's death ended the earthdawn crossover, or shifted away the evil azzies thing.

For one thing, if you look in SOTA 2064 they are bringing back thread magic. (Wicca section) Also, physads are turning more and more into the adepts from earthdawn. Also, there are a higher percentige of adepts every year.

Also, the foeve ect are still a problem in azzy land.

The dragons are still around, along with the IEs running the Tirs.
With all of this, I don't think you could ever completly eliminate earthdawn.

I also don't see the earthdawn crossovers as a bad thing. They added some extra flavor, and made it so that you could play just a group of runners, or a group of runners involved in something big. (they may or may not know this.)

Course, tis just one persons opinion, I could be wrong.

Agree @Mortax. You didn't have to have any of the metaplot in your games if you didn't want to. It's like SLA Industries; if you didn't like The Truth (and a lot of people didn't) then there was no need to use it in the game, since the existence of The Truth altered nothing in the day to day lives of the citizens. Similarly, the fact that ED and SR share the same universe, that unspeakable Horrors twitter away just outside our dimension, and that GD's and IE's move people and corps around like pawns on a chessboard only impacts the lives of the runners directly if the GM lets it.