Shadowrun Play > Gamemasters' Lounge

System Failure, Otaku & Mirage

(1/2) > >>

Odsh:
I don't know if I need to do this in this part of the forums, but be forewarned that there are heavy "spoilers" ahead.

I'm about to resume an old Shadowrun campaign after a few years of hiatus. We finished the Renraku Arcology Shutdown arc and now I'd like to follow-up with the events leading to the Matrix crash 2.0.

I'd like the players to have a minimum grasp of the ins and outs to be able to understand what's going on. For example, when Megaera and Deus ultimately duke it out in the stock exchange servers and Mirage joins the fight, it would be kind of sad if they didn't realize this.

Specifically for Mirage, I remember reading (from somewhere?) that AI's have sometimes their "own" Otaku, like Deus had the Whites, and that Mirage is no exception. Since one of my players will be playing an Otaku character, I was thinking about making him an Otaku "belonging" to Mirage. I'm not very knowledgeable about this relationship between Otaku and AI's and am thus looking for counsel.
I'm not even sure if that would be a good idea at all. Maybe knowing about Mirage in the first place is way above a Shadowrunner's paygrade. Or maybe it doesn't make sense for such an Otaku to be a Shadowrunner.

Could someone please point me towards a book with relevant lore concerning the AI/Otaku relationship in general, if it even exists?
What is the nature of this relationship? What does the AI request from the Otaku? What can the Otaku ask to the AI? How do they communicate? How many other Otakus are there that are in the same situation? Do they know each other?

If someone would be so kind as to give some guidance, that would be much appreciated.

For what it's worth: we'll be playing with the sixth edition rules. Mechanically speaking, the Otaku will use the rules for the Technomancer.

Reaver:
Wow, been a while since I went down this rabbit hole...
Books you'll want to read: Vurtual Realities 2.0 (3e matrix sourcebook) had a lot of game info on otaku.
SOTA 2064/system failure  (last 2 books of 3e) has the conclusion to the otaku. (Spoiler, its not pretty).

Between those 2 books are a bunch of scattered references to otaku, but I can't remember anything of substance on otaku...

If you remember the arcology adventure, then you know about the AI code fragments of Deus in the Arcology victims..... (technomancer tie in?)


From what I remember (and its been a while). Pax was the only otaku working with an AI.... this was because as Pax aged, she was losing her Otaku abilities (otaku were all young.... early 20s at the oldest, and otaku lose their 'gifts' the closer they get to full adulthood).

This was part of the whole Resonance/Disonance matrix realms meta-plot... (you know, that place technos go when they submerge? Same place).

IF i remember correctly, almost ALL the otaku were wiped out by Winternight, just before they released their Virus. This was part of Pax's mad plan to control Submersion, and hold onto her Otaku abilities... (she thought her gifts came from ths Disonance, and that other otaku were stealing her gifts. IF they were dead, then they could no longer steal her 'power'. As for Winternight, they saw the otaku as a literal symbol of everything wrong with society (Tech is bad, Matrix is bad, people corrupted by tech  yadda yadda yadda) so they happily did the deed (or paid for the deed to be done in some cases).



Anyways  that should get you started...

Xenon:
Events leading up to Crash 2.0 (November 2nd, 2064) are explained in SR3 -- Brainscan, Emergence, Renraku Arcology Shutdown and System Failure. From the after match you have some bits and pieces in both Storm Front (SR4) and Lockdown (SR5).



--- Quote from: Odsh on ---Specifically for Mirage, I remember reading (from somewhere?) that IA's have sometimes their "own" Otaku, like Deus had the Whites, and that Mirage is no exception. Since one of my players will be playing an Otaku character, I was thinking about making him an Otaku "belonging" to Mirage. I'm not very knowledgeable about this relationship between Otaku and IA's and am thus looking for counsel.
--- End quote ---
IIRC the only two AI's that created their own Otaku used to be Mirage and Deus.

Mirage was linked to the whole Echo Mirage program which also got a revive again in 2060 leading up to the events that caused the Seattle Regional grid to go down for 11 minutes (there is a novel called Psycho... -something that describes this). For some reason Mirage created Otaku didn't suffer Fading (loss of their Otaku ability as they grew older).

In the final events leading up to the point where Deus could break free from the Arcology (with help of Otaku he got influence over by pretending to be the Deep Resonance which many Otaku worshipped fanatically) he did some nasty experiments on metahumans which resulted in loss of a lot of lives but also the the creation of his own army of Otaku.



--- Quote from: Odsh on ---IA
--- End quote ---
It is Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short (not IA).

Odsh:
Thanks for your responses. Time to dig out Virtual Realities 2.0 and SOTA 2064 then!


--- Quote from: Xenon on ---For some reason Mirage created Otaku didn't suffer Fading (loss of their Otaku ability as they grew older).

--- End quote ---

That's quite handy actually, a perfect explanation for the PC continuing as a Technomancer after the crash.


--- Quote from: Xenon on ---It is Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short (not IA).

--- End quote ---

Veuillez m'excuser, je pensais aux Intelligences Artificielles  ;)

Xenon:

--- Quote from: Odsh on ---That's quite handy actually, a perfect explanation for the PC continuing as a Technomancer after the crash.
--- End quote ---
From SR4 20A  p. 221 Technomancers
It took several years for the new rumors and reports to cohere, but undoubtedly something was different. A new generation of otaku had come into being—only this time they were no longer just children. Most of the young otaku that survived the Crash had also undergone a transformation, and they found that their powers no longer faded with age. This new breed renamed themselves technomancers, specialists in manipulating the Matrix with nothing more than their minds.



--- Quote from: Odsh on ---Veuillez m'excuser, je pensais aux Intelligences Artificielles  ;)
--- End quote ---
Fair enough :-)

Reminds me about the whole UTC debate.

Coordinated Universal Time CUT + Temps Universel Coordonné TUC = UTC

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page