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Ares Macrotechnology and Insect Spirits

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Angelone

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« Reply #105 on: <02-18-12/1013:37> »
Investing babies would lead to some nightmare inducing encounters.
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Red

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« Reply #106 on: <02-18-12/1024:32> »
Echoes of a disturbing scene in [spoiler]Missing Blood[/spoiler].
"My writing is more akin to a cook than a farmer: give me the pieces, and what comes out of it is greater than the sum of it's parts. Give me nothing, and I just stare dumbly. It's a failing, but then, it's also a living."


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Bruce

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« Reply #107 on: <02-20-12/1902:05> »
Investing babies would lead to some nightmare inducing encounters.

It did; such things happened in the first wave (cf Universal Brotherhood old school adventure; at one point the runners come across a (deceased) infant/insect merge.

Red

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« Reply #108 on: <02-20-12/1953:40> »
That's... what I just referenced. Then again, maybe the adventure is old enough that we can skip spoiler alerts.

... nope. Even twenty-plus years later, I gotta warn.

SPOILER ALERT FOR MISSING BLOOD.

.
.
.

The encounter in question may not have been an actual investment, as the baby, a hybrid of a fly and a human, appears to have been a flesh form with a human soul. Ant flesh forms are sent to kill it.
"My writing is more akin to a cook than a farmer: give me the pieces, and what comes out of it is greater than the sum of it's parts. Give me nothing, and I just stare dumbly. It's a failing, but then, it's also a living."


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Black

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« Reply #109 on: <02-20-12/2223:38> »
That's... what I just referenced. Then again, maybe the adventure is old enough that we can skip spoiler alerts.

... nope. Even twenty-plus years later, I gotta warn.

SPOILER ALERT FOR MISSING BLOOD.

.
.
.

The encounter in question may not have been an actual investment, as the baby, a hybrid of a fly and a human, appears to have been a flesh form with a human soul. Ant flesh forms are sent to kill it.

Whooooahhhh!  That's sold it for me!... wait, what's missing blood?  Is it a mission or a fiction or an adventure?

A flesh form with a human soul? That's wierd.  Bet its not what the bugs were hoping for....
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Patrick Goodman

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« Reply #110 on: <02-20-12/2239:00> »
Missing Blood is the adventure that comes with the Universal Brotherhood sourcebook. You have to have both; make sure that you get both if you find it online. Of course, I think it's available as a PDF now.

It's like Aliens, only scarier. Buy it. You will not regret it.
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Crimsondude

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« Reply #111 on: <02-20-12/2249:08> »
Universal Brotherhood PDF
* Battlecorps ($10)
* DriveThruRPG ($8)


That's... what I just referenced. Then again, maybe the adventure is old enough that we can skip spoiler alerts.

... nope. Even twenty-plus years later, I gotta warn.

SPOILER ALERT FOR MISSING BLOOD.
[spoiler]
.
.
.

The encounter in question may not have been an actual investment, as the baby, a hybrid of a fly and a human, appears to have been a flesh form with a human soul. Ant flesh forms are sent to kill it.
[/spoiler]

Since the editor is wonky, there is a spoiler tag. (spoiler)(/spoiler) only with brackets instead of parentheses.

Angelone

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« Reply #112 on: <02-20-12/2302:35> »
Yeah, I thought I had seen the idea somewhere. I was going for more of a swarm of babies though. I imagine the runners in a hospital with an entire maternity ward full of spirit babies. Or a Children of the Corn type encounter.
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Crimsondude

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« Reply #113 on: <02-20-12/2321:25> »
If I'm not mistaken, the Children of the Corn idea showed up in a Shutdown game I followed.

Angelone

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« Reply #114 on: <02-20-12/2353:26> »
*mumble mumble* From now on I'm wearing a tinfoil hat. I could see that, I ran a game in which I used one of Blackjack's evil places, the archology, and did something similar.

Edit- http://web.archive.org/web/20040220143809/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/stuff/EVPLfacility.htm
« Last Edit: <02-20-12/2357:36> by Angelone »
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Marzhin

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« Reply #115 on: <02-21-12/0633:29> »
Universal Brotherhood and Bug City are probably my favorite Shadowrun supplements. I remember reading them and feeling the hairs raising on my arms and a chill running down my spine. To this day no other RPG book had this effect on me. Amazing pair of books (and the associated novels too). I love them so much that I bought the original English prints and bought them again in French when they were (finally) released here a couple of years ago.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chosé.

By the way, the correct spelling should be Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose, without any accent on chose.
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Red

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« Reply #116 on: <02-21-12/0703:06> »
I've heard it said that the Universal Brotherhood "Printout" is arguably one of the best written flavor texts in role-playing history. I really can't argue yet.

Renraku Arcology: Shutdown was a hell of a ride, too, but it's REALLY hard to top UB.
"My writing is more akin to a cook than a farmer: give me the pieces, and what comes out of it is greater than the sum of it's parts. Give me nothing, and I just stare dumbly. It's a failing, but then, it's also a living."


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Mirikon

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« Reply #117 on: <02-21-12/0743:56> »
I only read Bug City and Universal Brotherhood recently, and, knowing everything that went down, it STILL creeped me right the hell out! Excellent writing on those two. Of course, the reason it worked so well is that it was something completely different from the rest of Shadowrun, which made it a shock to the system. Sci-fi setting aside, those books are just classic horror. Once in a while, it makes a great impact. If you do it too much, you're like "ANOTHER eldritch horror from beyond the worlds? It must be Tuesday."

Shutdown was awesome, as well, though a completely different kind of book. More of a war story than a horror story. I read it, and I start getting pictures of the French Resistance in WWII, except that they are locked in a building with something that is infinitely more intelligent than they are, and doesn't have a physical body they can get to.
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Hiddenhope

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« Reply #118 on: <02-21-12/0851:17> »
....

I just thought of something.
I had this idea of a high level campaign. At first it was going to be a real life irony thing were a group of shadowrunners get employed to start a revolution in Libya, and then I thought of a way to include the Insect Spirits.

1. The Johnson tells them to start revolution in Libya, however he mentions that he doesn't care if it succeeds or not, he wants the conflict to last for least 3 months.
2. The Runners get the freedom to start the revolution in a number of ways, then they have to keep it going. Also they have to stop the other cops from intervening.
3. Pass out hints that something is not right on the astral plane, if the runners don't get it have a loss of contact from one rebel cities.
4. Turns out that the Johnson was an Insect Shaman and he, along with the queen, realise that the chaos caused by an armed uprising would provide the perfect breeding ground. Also he doesn't kill the shadowrunners when they find out, instead offers to pay them along with a bonus if they just walk away (because money is the only thing that motivates your kind).
5. The group can either side with the rebels, the Egyptian army or just run away.

How does this connect to Ares?
Well in the corporate guide (can't remember the page put it’s near the end of the Ares article) it mentions that one of the jobs given out to Ares-loyal high-ranking shadowrunners is "start a revolution with a spoon"

Longshot23

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« Reply #119 on: <02-21-12/0931:54> »
There's no central authority in Libya in the Sixth World to revolt against - hell, Libya the nation no longer exists.  It's not a bad idea, it just may need to be staged elsewhere.  Unless the multi-megacorporate plus nations backdrop of the Desert Wars is part of your concept?