At the time of writing, the campaign is envisioned as a group (in this case four) Shadowrunners from the mid-2070s being thrown back in time to the mid-2030s.   The exact specifics as to how and why that happens aren't set in stone at this point; and much like other facets of the game, is anticipated to be character directed.

The discussion will start here....

There may be a need to either fudge some of the dates in the timeline and/or pick a different year (like 2015) to land in.  That said....

I'm planning on picking four players plus a co-gm; whom will also have a character.   Selection will be finalized Friday morning.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:36, Wed 02 Aug 2023.

While we're not really at the point of talking about character backgrounds yet; I'd like everyone in the group to have worked together several times before.   The opening that's been brewing around in my head involves physical penetration of a black site to secure materials....hence my desire to have everyone possessing some form of combat skill.

Thoughts.....

<joking on>Shadowrun should really be renamed 'magic-run' :)  <joking off> A mage or a mystic adept is strictly better than all other characters mechanically. And as the karma comes in they get better and better (and importantly more fun to play) All that said a troll cybersamurai is awesome and might give a mage a run for their money and they are a lot of fun to play. I am thinking of this.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHgZh4GV9G0

I'm not planning on having any combat skills as per the other thread. It just doesn't fit the idea. I mean I can throw the idea away and come up with something, but I am quite attached to this idea and a big part of it is NOT being good in combat. This character is a support character, not a primary combatent. Come combat it's kiss the ground time

To support your idea of the start (which sounds like a great introduction) The blackops pentration can easily be done with Angel 316 in a Transys Steed and a rigger cocoon. In SR4 that would be about 10K nuyen. I assume there is similar stuff in SR5... but I don't have the books. I do know I don't have the resources for that... but that's easily fixed 'it blew up' or 'it won't fit in the time machine' (i.e. the gear we don't have points for can be left on this side of the time rift). And then I can make one / do stuff on the other side when we get the resources.  If Angel 316 does her job properly then there won't be any need for fights. That's what deckers/technomancers do. And if it does come down to combat then the combat mages and troll will deal with the problem.

Nothing Angel 316 does in combat would make a difference physically, but hacking the enemies tacnets and giving confusion works a treat. When the alarms go off somewhere else, orders come over the tacnet to redeploy 'this is just a diversion the real attack is ...', or sticking hallucinations into their AR. Or cooking off their own grenades. Or....  That kind of action is far more effective than shooting them with a popgun using 4 die when we have Ironsides. And makes for a more interesting character for me (I've played many shooters or melee characters in shadowrun, this character is something different for me). It works against most corporate enemies. Doesn't work against spirits or a non-cyber controlled parazoological critters... but you can't have everything with one character. And that's why we have mages and a huge troll alone.

It's an interesting idea to have been on a couple of jobs together. I'd have to adjust the backstory I have in mind a little but perhaps the 'last run' was 'getting me and Ironsides' out, and then we could have done one or two easy runs before this one.

In reply to Angel 316 (msg # 4):

Transys Steed is found in Rigger 5.0 on page 140: I found it online but not in the wiki.  I'll put the stats here for reference.

Transys Steed
(Pilot Ground Craft)

• HANDL 4/2
• SPEED 1G
• ACCEL 1
• BODY 3(1)
• ARM 0
• PILOT 2
• SENS 2
• AVAIL 2
• COST 4,000 nuyen

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:07, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

That's great thank you! Could you price adding a rigger cocoon to it (assuming that exists in SR5)

It's actually useful for all sorts of things. Mages. Riggers. 'Guests'.

In reply to Angel 316 (msg # 6):

That's actually in the Shadowrun Wiki under Vehicle Mods.  ^_^

On the other subject: As long as you're reasonably confident that your decking/rigging skills are going to sufficient to make you an asset in combat, then I'm happy with that.  I'm more concerned about anyone being nothing more than a target.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:13, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

I've been thinking about the setup of this campaign. I am not sure how the GM plans to play this out, but if our characters really get transported 40+ years in the past, we would have to be very, very careful not to reveal this to anyone. I mean, look at this entry from the Shadowrun timeline, year 2026:



Can you imagine the effect of showing up in this world with, say, a trodes headband that can do the same thing, only better? Or a comlink device that can run circles around their mainframes? Every piece of knowledge our characters have - from future tech to magic to politics to culture to whatever, every scrap of data on our comlinks, every piece of gear we bring back from the cheapest comlink and clothes on our back to state-of-the-art implants and magical foci - all would be absolutely incredibly valuable.

Seriously, if this became known, I imagine any number of factions would disappear us down some hole to never be seen again, strip every possible bit of info from our minds and take every bit of tech we may carry (which is kinda of a problem when that literally includes someones arm and a leg, not to mention parts of their nervous system).
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

In reply to Raven (msg # 8):

Exactly. As a mage, you can hide your time travel past by only casting those old, common, spells that have existed since that time period (think spells that existed in SR2 or 3) like Trid Phantasm, Improved Invisibility, Increase/Decrease Reflexes etc.

Although I will point out that Power Foci in SR2 and SR3 were actually -more- powerful than SR5 rules - you could use them to help with drain tests which I beleive in SR5 is not the case. Also, according to the older rules, you couldn't use regeants to assist with reducing drain whereas in SR5 you can - that would be incredibly valuable knowledge but you'll have to find a talismonger in the past who posesses the skills to create the stuff.

In reply to Raven (msg # 8):

My expected story route is that you'll end up working for the U.S. Government in some capacity; but the final decision on that is up to you as the players, hence my comment about the story being player driven.

I consider the most likely scenarios to be either in Intelligence (CIA or Homeland) doing basically the same kind of black ops work that you've been doing.   Alternately, you could swap over to the military; in which case you'll be doing stuff more like you find in the movies 13 Hours and  Act of Valor.

But that's the main purpose of this thread; to tell me how you want the story to play out so I can start figuring it out before we get there.   Also bear in  mind, that you can easily swap knowledge and tech for a cushy lifestyle in addition to the danger driven elements.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:55, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

So we're G-Men (and G-Women)? I always saw ourselves as working independently in the past as the prototype for what shadowrunners became (making it something akin to the grandfather paradox), trying to take on jobs and work out a way to return to our time time.

Can you flesh out your idea some more of how we came to be working for the government? To what end?