To be brief: I wrote a huge first draft, then decided I could cut away most of it. In the end, I decided to just add a new AAA corp (WME) and make cyberware more common.

-----

No one was left who could remember how it had happened.

How the world had fallen under darkness.

At least, no one who would do anything.

No one who would oppose the robots.

No one who would challenge their power.

Or so Dr. Wily believed.

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SHADOWRUN 20XX
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Popular posts: "What's with all the buzz about Renraku's arcology?" by deadmannwalking, "The Complete WME Implant Modding Guide" by Doctor Ow, "How The World Fell Under Darkness" by Machina Ex Hominid

>> Displaying post "How The World Fell Under Darkness" by Machina Ex Hominid:

Okay, I've seen enough of this shit. You know what I mean-- all the kids who think that what they learned in school or what they see on the trids is verbatim history. Remember: history's written by the winners, and the losers have very different versions of those stories to tell. I've spent the past few months collecting accounts from the contacts I can tug on and the few old-timers who still drift around here (I'm looking at you, SolJack), and this is the best account of the post-Awakening world that I could piece together. Take it with a grain of salt and leave the rest of the packet for whenever the evening news comes on.

[File attachment: hoperidesalone.atx]

>> Opening attached file "hoperidesalone.atx"

> File title: House Unrest
> File author: Machina Ex Hominid

Forty-five years ago, a brilliant scientist by the name of Albert Wily created a prototype of what would eventually become the modern implanted commlink. I couldn't find any data on what it stands for-- probably one of those shitty backwards-acronyms-- but it was called a TEAM back then: an implanted computer that runs off bioelectricity. The prototype couldn't run more than Nethack, but you know what these things are; Wily Medical Engineering makes them now, and if you don't have at least one of their implants, you're probably SINless. Which, relatedly, is why the best magicians come out of places like the Barrens these days, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The thing is, Wily didn't work alone. He had a partner who designed the software for this stuff, a guy with the last name "Hikari" (that's about all the consensus I could get out of my sources). This guy made the first Agents-- you know the things. They're marketed as NetNavis now, but the basic idea is the same: they're an internet-connected expert system designed to simulate an artificial intelligence.

// Yeah, that's right, don't let the marketing fool you: real AIs do exist, like Deus, but they're not on your commlink. NetNavis are agents. Programs. They don't think, they don't feel, they can't improvise... but the cloud-based SoulNet subscription that you pay for is designed from the ground up to fool you into thinking they do. --klocKTea
// Wow, an actual constructive comment from klocKTea? Color me amazed. --AndRise_UP
// What? I know my shit. Fun fact: A WME subsidiary actually runs the most popular torrents of their basic NetNavi software because it's worthless without SoulNet. There's talk of making an open-source version, but it hasn't gotten anywhere, as far as I know. --klocKTea
// I heard that was because WME hired some runners to delete the codebase. --sonata
// Is that so~ --Love Spark

Hikari intended these to be used for conversations in nursing homes and the like once they were finished, but Wily bought the rights to the underlying code

// Or cheated Hikari out of them, depending on who you hear the story from. --klocKTea [USER WAS SUSPENDED FOR THIS POST]
// Friendly reminder: keep your conspiracy theories to yourself unless you have proof. Thanks, and have fun. Love, the mod staff. --kraps

and started marketing cheap ones like virtual pets instead. Those are the Navis you know and love today, plus the battling minigame shit.

If you're a legitimate citizen of any first-world country these days, you have a System Identification Number, or SIN. Post-Awakening, since pretty much all the infrastructure collapsed, the governments had a sort of amnesty thing going: you come to them, you get yourself into the system legitimately, minimal questions asked. Of course, the questions they DO ask involve plenty of biometric identification, so while you can still get one voluntarily, it does tend do put a damper on your ability to run the shadows properly. More commonly, if you're caught and you don't have a SIN, you'll be assigned a criminal SIN, which has all of the drawbacks of a regular SIN and none of the advantages, as you might expect.

// Not to mention in this day and age, if you're a SINner by birth, you've pretty much got an implant of some kind. Sure, there are the exceptions, but at least stateside, good ol' WME has such a stranglehold on the government that if you don't give your kid a cybereye or a mechanical lung to fix some birth defect that may or may not even exist... --AndRise_UP
// Yeah, one of my friends got handed over to WME's "sales team". Their sales tactics pretty much boil down to "you're gonna buy one of these, or we're going to make your life as miserable as we can without actually breaking any laws". --LunaticDial
// They're WME. Who would prosecute them if they did? --Doctor OW
// Even if you refuse them, though, the real killer is public opinion. If you don't have one of these, pretty much everyone considers you below them. That's why a profitable grey market has sprung up in prosthetic cyberware-- basically, a way of making yourself look like you have one of these implants without actually getting one. --Love Spark
// And, naturally, guess who makes these? Yep, it's our old pal Wily, playing to both sides. --AndRise_UP
// That's politics for you. --Machina ex Hominid

The vast majority of shadowrunners, likely including you, were born outside of the system. We're SINless, and we have no official rights, but at the same time, it gives us a sort of invisibility that's very useful within our occupation.

But what IS shadowrunning?

// If you don't already know, how the hell did you get here? --LunaticDial

In a nutshell, you're a deniable asset. Pretty much all the governments are still recovering from the Awakening this long afterward (naturally, those people most resistant to change seem to be in denial that magic even exists, despite some of them having become trolls during said event) and that leaves the corporations more or less in charge of the world. What do corporations do, then, when there's not much in the way of laws or police infrastructure to enforce what laws there are? They start going at each other's throats. And that's where you come in.

// Wow, Machina makes it sound so romantic. Has he ever actually *been* on a shadowrun? --sonata
// I have! Several, as a matter of fact! --Machina ex Hominid
// Methinks the machine doth protest too much. --sonata

// All right, kids, before you get all starry-eyed daydreaming about explosions like in the trids, let me give you a heads-up: Shadowrunning is basically organized crime. The corp pays you to do something, like cripple their rival's production facilities, or break into some place and steal a prototype, guard someone, assassinate someone... whatever they need, you do it, and they pay you decently in return. The more of a reputation you get in the right circles, the more exciting and lucrative your jobs get. --Love Spark
// I think I heard it best on an interview once... "Sometimes, we're heroes. Sometimes, we shoot other people right in the face for money." --sonata
// "cripple their rival's production facilities" Are these related? [Linked file: "Foxconn plant explodes, killing several and delaying the iPhone 23G | MSNBCBSBC News"] --Doctor OW
// That's part of the Shadowrunner's modus operandi: ask no questions, give no answers. You should know all about that, Doc. Doctor-patient confidentiality, right? ;D --Love Spark
// Of course. I always respect my hypocritical oath. --Doctor OW

Well, that's all; if you have any other questions, cruise on over to JackPoint and read yourself FastJack's excellent treatise on the history of the Sixth World, "A History Lesson for the Reality-Impaired".

// And how is knowing the date Renraku was founded going to keep a bullet from cruising between my eyes? --klocKTea
// Shadowrunning isn't all about running and gunning. Knowledge is power. Pay attention and you might be able to talk yourself out of a gunfight one of these days. --Love Spark
// But what fun would that be? --sonata