NEWS

Metaplot updates in Better than Bad (spoilers)

  • 15 Replies
  • 11558 Views

Ixal

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 148
« on: <11-23-18/1431:12> »
There are updates on several plotlines (some of them nearly forgotten) in BtB. I hope I do not forget anything:

- Chicago
In the BtB timeline the Chicago issue has already been resolved and Bull gives a small summary.

A Truman guy managed to infest a dragon with a wasp queen spirit, bugs were multiplying again and the UCAS decided to completely nuke Chicago.
Aztechnology and S-K swooped in, saved the day (somehow) and told everyone what the UCAS planned. Somehow the bug threat is permanently resolved and a lot of people are either fleeing Chicago or ready to revolt because they were about to get sacrificed by the government.

I am not really happy with this one as it sounds very B-movie to me and Catalyst seems to thing that whenever they need an enemy they just add "dragon" to it. First dragon-Deus, now dragon-insect queen...

- Unseelie court

Lord Gwyn is dieing and has chosen the Ebony Queen as his successor. Bad thing is, she is held captive by the previous seelie queen Alachia on a plane which has been overrun by Shedim.
Oh, and the Ebony Queen is in fact Aina Dupree

I have not followed that storyline at all, so no idea how much of that is new information

- HorrorsTerrors
Remember the Astral tears in Atzlan which lead to plane with a canyon and bridges that need to be rebuild? Apparently several things Jackpoint now calls "Terrors" escaped from it and are now on a rampage worldwide

- Captain speaking
Seems there are still some consciousnesses of deckers trapped in the matrix. Very deep in the matrix so that they unable to interact with anyone and anything and are not even able to discern anything. Still, somehow someone named DionySys got a call for help out. He also mentioned that one of them who calls himself Kaos was able to leave from where they are trapped, but he hasn't come back in a while now.
« Last Edit: <11-24-18/0536:16> by Ixal »

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #1 on: <11-23-18/1458:55> »
The Chicago story was already told in seasons 5-8 of SRM.  Of course not everyone does Missions play, so it's good to re-print/summarize those developments.  It does sound like that's the canonical announcement of the results of season 8.

(The "bad" ending apparently didn't happen for the official storyline..)
« Last Edit: <11-23-18/1501:24> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Ixal

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 148
« Reply #2 on: <11-23-18/1520:38> »
Of course not everyone does Missions play

Me for example. Was the story as cheesy as the recap sounded? How do you infest a dragon anyway (and who was it)?

Beta

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1946
  • SR1 player, SR5 GM@FtF & player@PbP
« Reply #3 on: <11-23-18/1600:13> »
There was one dragon marked for infestation in season 7, I guess they came back to that idea in season 8?

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #4 on: <11-23-18/1616:53> »
Of course not everyone does Missions play

Me for example. Was the story as cheesy as the recap sounded? How do you infest a dragon anyway (and who was it)?

That's pretty much exactly what happened.  The "somehows" are all explainable as "thanks to shadowrunners".  That is, "your" characters if you played the climax of the Chicago Campaign.  The nitty gritty details are available particularly in the Season 8 missions, although the seeds go further back. Although if you want to know the specific NPC you could check out the SRM NPC sheet for the Chicago campaign.  It's pretty obvious who the "Truman Tech" guy is.  (sorry about being coy, it's kind of a spoiler for anyone who DOES play SRM but hasn't done those missions yet)  But as for "how did he infest a dragon!?!?" again the answer is "Shadowrunners helped him do it!"  Of course when I played that particular mission, I didn't know the guy was going to infect the dragon... I was fooled and thought he was gonna help the dragon!  So I'm partly responsible (via my Decker I played in the Chicago campaign), at least in a spiritual sense :D

Quote
There was one dragon marked for infestation in season 7, I guess they came back to that idea in season 8?

Indeed they did.  Pretty epic climax not just to season 8 but the entire campaign. Not to get too spoilery, but the ending as described upthread is the happy ending. A much worse outcome was certainly possible.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Ixal

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 148
« Reply #5 on: <11-23-18/1620:14> »
Of course not everyone does Missions play

Me for example. Was the story as cheesy as the recap sounded? How do you infest a dragon anyway (and who was it)?

That's pretty much exactly what happened.  The "somehows" are all explainable as "thanks to shadowrunners".  That is, "your" characters if you played the climax of the Chicago Campaign.  The nitty gritty details are available particularly in the Season 8 missions, although the seeds go further back. Although if you want to know the specific NPC you could check out the SRM NPC sheet for the Chicago campaign.  It's pretty obvious who the "Truman Tech" guy is.  (sorry about being coy, it's kind of a spoiler for anyone who DOES play SRM but hasn't done those missions yet)  But as for "how did he infest a dragon!?!?" again the answer is "Shadowrunners helped him do it!"  Of course when I played that particular mission, I didn't know the guy was going to infect the dragon... I was fooled and thought he was gonna help the dragon!  So I'm partly responsible (via my Decker I played in the Chicago campaign), at least in a spiritual sense :D

Quote
There was one dragon marked for infestation in season 7, I guess they came back to that idea in season 8?

Indeed they did.  Pretty epic climax not just to season 8 but the entire campaign. Not to get too spoilery, but the ending as described upthread is the happy ending. A much worse outcome was certainly possible.

I actually meant if that was a named dragon or one made up for missions.

Back to topic, as Chicago was already known, what about the Dupree plot? That she was alive we know since Stormfront or even longer. But how much of the Seelie court drama surrounding her was known?
Also, sounds like Captain Chaos is "dead, but nor really" and not dead dead. So Nimble pressed "n" at the delete prompt...

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #6 on: <11-23-18/1629:41> »
I actually meant if that was a named dragon or one made up for missions.

I think both.  Yes it had a name, but I don't recall that name being given ever before and I've followed the lore, more or less closely over the years, since 1st ed.

I'm less familiar with the Unseelie Court, but it was touched upon tangentially in the 2018 Conventions Mission Pack. I honestly don't know enough about that topic to tell if that connection to a sleazeball in Las Vegas has any deeper implications.  I wouldn't be surprised if it does or doesn't.



RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Beta

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1946
  • SR1 player, SR5 GM@FtF & player@PbP
« Reply #7 on: <11-23-18/1746:59> »
If it was the dragon from season 7, it had not awakened yet when trouble found its lair under Chicago.  So not a dragon that we know, and that is how someone managed to do this to a dragon.

Opti

  • *
  • Freelancer
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 428
« Reply #8 on: <11-24-18/0059:22> »
The plotline with Aina/Gwyn can be traced from the artifacts plots from 4th to Conspiracy Theories, then Denver stuff in Storm Front, then a 4-part mission in the Anarchy core book, then Book of the Lost, then Better than Bad, and then.... something else later.

I think that is it...

Michael Chandra

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Prime Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 9920
  • Question-slicing ninja
« Reply #9 on: <11-24-18/0436:34> »
So Ghostwalker was right when he was being a twat about Harly being a fool, eh? Interesting... Glad she lived, though I liked Ghosty getting a bit of a beating and Peri being busted out of jail while all that went down in Storm Front. I like it when a cocky dragon is taken down a peg.
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

Marzhin

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 616
  • I must confess, I was born at a very early age.
« Reply #10 on: <11-27-18/0622:29> »
I see the metaplots topic needs a big update. I'm really behind in my reading... Still haven't finished reading Dark Terrors ^^'
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
(Groucho Marx)

TonyK

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 120
  • 20 year on-and-off SR fan...
« Reply #11 on: <11-28-18/2145:12> »
I see the metaplots topic needs a big update. I'm really behind in my reading... Still haven't finished reading Dark Terrors ^^'
Still working my way through the book, but every time, the Log Song keeps running through my head: It's log, log / it's big, it's heavy it's wood / it's log, log / it's...
My fave quote from SRR: "Damn you Mike Pondsmith"

PMárk

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 137
« Reply #12 on: <12-18-18/1948:25> »
- HorrorsTerrors
Remember the Astral tears in Atzlan which lead to plane with a canyon and bridges that need to be rebuild? Apparently several things Jackpoint now calls "Terrors" escaped from it and are now on a rampage worldwide

Was the Aztlan tear in Dark Terrors? I read it, but I remember only Elijah's ordeals.

Still, it's huge. I hope it'll get a follow-up. If the Azzies really did it... And If there are servants of the Terrors in the Azzie leadership... If those Terrors are out there, masquerading as metahumans, possibly building cults and searching for ways to bring more of them through... Then there is that stuff with S-K in Scandinavia...

Somehow, the Chicago stuff just seems less of a big thing.

Quote
- Captain speaking
Seems there are still some consciousnesses of deckers trapped in the matrix. Very deep in the matrix so that they unable to interact with anyone and anything and are not even able to discern anything. Still, somehow someone named DionySys got a call for help out. He also mentioned that one of them who calls himself Kaos was able to leave from where they are trapped, but he hasn't come back in a while now.

I hope they'll do something with that too. Maybe a big adventure. I'd love to see Captain coming back somehow and it'd be a good Matrix-centered adventure, with ties into the whole deep resonance and Null thing.


Aaaaargh. I wish CTG would do more with all those plot elements than just dangling them in and then mostly forget about.
If nothing worked, let's think!

PMárk

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 137
« Reply #13 on: <12-19-18/1617:09> »
Oooh, some follow-ups on Crimson. Nice. :)

Honestly, I have exactly one issue with the current SR novels, namely, that they are one-shots. I generally prefer longer stories.
If nothing worked, let's think!

Wakshaani

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 2228
« Reply #14 on: <01-27-19/0109:38> »
I see the metaplots topic needs a big update. I'm really behind in my reading... Still haven't finished reading Dark Terrors ^^'

This is quite true! And there's more on the way.

Mwu-hahahaha... ahem.