[Mirikon]

Harlequin still worries about that sort of thing, as do all the old Powers, to varying degrees.

[wolfrider66]

My campaign is taking place in FDC. The players will eventually get involved with Rozilyn Hernandez through a botched assassination attempt in front of their apartment complex. Her motorcade or escort is ambushed, her vehicle disabled and blown open. Her security attachment is toast. She will be the damsel in distress that my newb runners, fresh out of AD&D, won't be able to ignore. They will rush to her aid to find out just how deep a rabbit hole can be as she doesn't remember her name or anything else for that matter. A minute later their news feeds light up with sketchy details of the attack and who she is. Then a Mr. Johnson calls and offers them a job they can't refuse.............to be cont.

That is for the future.  Right now I need to know what caused the Rift at Watergate. Was it Dunkelzahn's assassination? I am also a Shadowrun newb as my Jack Point tag so elegantly states, and although I have alarmed my wife with hundreds of dollars worth of "research" materials (Game books by the dozens lol), I don't seem able to sort that out. I have found tons of rumors on who was there at it's closing, but I might want to play that out with my guys. So I need to know how it started and is there a mission book or something that has it? 

wolfrider66
"Make your own luck"

[Wakshaani]

The in-world talk is that it was some kind of bomb (Some say nuke, others point out that there wasn't enough boom for that) and the assassins have never been caught.

Behind the scenes, Dunk found out that the Horrors were near to coming over way, way early, due to mana spikes from the Great Ghost Dance. Having to act quickly, he used himself as a blood sacrifice, killing himself violently and using that power to take care of business.

It's the Dragonheart trilogy that gives full details, I believe. I read the first one, but never got any further than that.

http://www.amazon.ca/Shadowrun-Dragonheart-Saga-Stranger-Souls/dp/0451456106
http://www.amazon.ca/Shadowrun-Dragonheart-Sage-Clockwork-Asylum/dp/0451456203
http://www.amazon.ca/Shadowrun-Dragon-Heart-Saga-Beyond/dp/0451456742

The novels are a weakpoint of mine, sadly. Lots of stuff went on there that's hinted at in other places, but only really discussed in the novels. The whole Crashcart thing, for instance, which I *still* haven't tracked down. That'll teach me to loan out 2XS, huh? *grumble*

[CanRay]

2XS, good book!  I think I have two copies at the moment.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

The Rift was caused by Dunkelzahn, yes.  In a moment of extreme duress (i.e. he discovered that the Horrors were getting help and were about two days from bridging the gap between their world and ours instead of, you know, a thousand years) he self-immolated.  Certain individuals (*cough* Harlequin *cough*) believe it was a nuke that did the job; I highly doubt it.  Very high level, possibly a unique spell derived from what Dunkelzahn knew of his brother Ghostwalker's ability to, ahh, 'planewalk', yes.  Nuclear, though, no.

[CanRay]

I think the "It was a NUKE!" thing is in the same vein as "Mama Cass choked to death on a ham sandwich", some WAG stated, "The only way a dragon could have died was due to a nuclear weapon", and it just went from there as gospel, then he was really talking out his hoop.

My money is on a pocket FAE, myself.

[Wakshaani]

I remember when a FAE was used in Desert Storm. Some of the US allies flipped and were, like, "Did you just nuke those guys?!" and teh US military had to be all, "No, no, just a fuel-air bomb. No fallout, you're fine."

The Marines wound up dropping around 250 of 'em, mostly on minefields, where the pressure wave would set 'em all off.

Neat toy.

[Crimsondude]

I think the "It was a NUKE!" thing is in the same vein as "Mama Cass choked to death on a ham sandwich", some WAG stated, "The only way a dragon could have died was due to a nuclear weapon", and it just went from there as gospel, then he was really talking out his hoop.

My money is on a pocket FAE, myself.

It was Mike Mulvihill's (the Shadowrun line developer at the time) explanation on Dumpshock. So it's not quite gospel. However, I seem to recall some characters in Stranger Souls thinking it was, including Daviar (which is probably how Harlequin would "know"). As far as I know it's never been explained in-canon. I know I didn't say for sure what the official cause is in CT because I was already being too clever with "And then Dunkelzahn exploded."

It's also reinforced by the run in Super Tuesday where the runners are hired by Carla Brooks (Dunkelzahn's head of security) to do a Simsense run where they are to rig a shoebox-sized "recording device" to the bottom of another presidential candidate's (Booth's) limo. The presumption there is that the only thing that size capable of creating an explosion as powerful as described in PoaD and Stranger Souls—which in both is also described as being very powerful but clearly contained by (Dunkelzahn's) magical defenses—would be a miniaturized SADM, AKA a briefcase nuke. Though there is a character in PoaD who gives a gloriously wonkish non-nuke explanation.

There are also references in the online material, though I don't recall offhand if it's in PoaD, about the Gen Con '96 tournament run (when Dunkelzahn bit it in one of the most memorable events in Gen Con history, and PoaD was released) where the runners are serving as security for the Grundland's Cookies Ball at the Watergate and had to stop a group of wendigo shamans in the underground garage from completing a ritual.

[Puls3evo]

Request:

Target: UCAS describes changes made to the Boston MBTA Subway system, and the emergence of the Catacombs. Is there any information on what parts of the T are Active/Black in 207X?

Target: UCAS, pg 43, The Catacombs
... but nearly all records and maps of the early subway were lost during a fire in the Hall of Records in June '29...

[Bonesinger]

I would like to know about South America, not just Amazonia and the northern part of the continent.
For instance, what about Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay? Did Brazil split into various separate countries (other than Amazonia) like the USA did?

[samiam]

Along the same line...I'm gearing up to start a 2050-based campaign and am looking for a 6th World map in 2050 - any chance of pointing me in the direction of a good source?  The 6th World Almanac is great...is there anything similar for the 1E time frame?  Alternatively, if it exists, a list of border changes from 2050 to 2070s.

[Crimsondude]

Eh ... This is close enough for government work. Though it seems to have been updated to 2062.

http://thor.divnull.com/pub/srun/maps/world2062.pdf

[samiam]

Much appreciated, 'dude.

[Nath]

Eh ... This is close enough for government work. Though it seems to have been updated to 2062.

http://thor.divnull.com/pub/srun/maps/world2062.pdf

The map was updated with Year of the Comet (it shows Los Angeles as Pueblo territory) but doesn't include information brought by later books, like Target: Wastelands (Egypt annexed Lybia, not Algeria), Shadows of Europe (Euskalherria is independent, Belgium splits in two, with Wallonia joining France and Flanders joining Netherlands), Dragons of the Sixth World (Sudan mentioned as separate from Egypt), Shadows of Asia (lots of things), Feral Cities (Angola and Tunisia still exist), etc.

Also, it got one thing wrong from Year of the Comet, made clear in Wake of the Comet: Amazonia annexed Guyana, not French Guiana (where is located the Kourou space center).

[Wakshaani]

Also missing: the Rio Gambit from Dirty Tricks.

I need to go ahead, bite the bullet onmy weak cartography, and post that map.

...

Note to self: Drop a line to Mr Hardy when I get off work.