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A few questions about CFD

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Lorebane24

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« on: <07-11-15/2229:07> »
So I'm starting up a pbp game soon with my buddies from back home, and I'm thinking about doing some shit with CFD in it, but it's been hard for me to find much concrete info.  I've always ignored canon in the interest of doing what I want to do with the Shadowrun setting, but sometimes canon ends up being cool as fuck, so I figured I'd try to figure out what I can.  I picked up Chrome Flesh and Stolen Souls last week, and that's about what I'm going to be spending on rpg books for a while, so I'm hoping to fill in the holes that those two books leave about the condition.  So, if you would indulge me, here are a few questions I have about this thing.

1)  Do we know it's precise origins and/or purpose yet?

2)  I keep hearing it linked to Boston.  What, in a nutshell, happened there?  Did NeoNet create it?  Or Celedyr?

3)  I see Deus's name coming up more and more.  How is he linked to CFD?  On the topic of Deus, is he still around somewhere in any kind of complete, self-aware form?

4)  Do you think things will work out between Netcat and the toaster?
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Reaver

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« Reply #1 on: <07-11-15/2333:26> »
No.


The toaster has way too much class to ever bother with Netcat again.
« Last Edit: <07-12-15/0309:43> by Reaver »
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PiXeL01

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« Reply #2 on: <07-12-15/0103:04> »
1 - probably Albuquerque but nothing concrete.

2/3 - read Lockdown. Deus wasn't the mind behind it, and whether it's truly back in full or just a small fragment hasn't been revealed.

4 - The Toaster moved on when it discovered NetCat was unfaithful with Slamm-0!
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Lighthouse

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« Reply #3 on: <07-12-15/1650:30> »
I suggest getting Stolen Souls and Lockdown. All your questions will be answered...mostly, and play Shadowrun Chronicles.
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The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #4 on: <07-13-15/0040:13> »
I suggest getting Stolen Souls and Lockdown. All your questions will be answered...mostly replaced with an entirely different, and much, much worse, set of questions, and play Shadowrun Chronicles.
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Lorebane24

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« Reply #5 on: <07-13-15/1018:40> »
Well, I've got Stolen Souls, and even though it's cool, I don't think that I'm going to be using enough of what's in there to justify the price.  I feel like the same thing would happen with Lockdown, which is why I'm asking here instead of dropping another 25 bucks to pick up a couple of tidbits.  I guess I'd call myself a casual/semi-casual visitor to the shadowrun setting, since most of my buddies prefer fantasy over cyberpunk, and it's difficult to justify buying a ton of books when you don't have a group to reliably play with.
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Wakshaani

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« Reply #6 on: <07-13-15/1306:06> »
Not my plot, so I'm gonn aget some details wrong. Keep that in mind.

Short form is that several companieshave been looking at digitizing brains, turning living beings into "Ghosts in the Machine". One group was using the gear from Imago (Ollllld adventure), others were going from different directions, and some figured that the best thing to do would be to capture a bunch of eGhosts and experiment on them until they could figure it out. Some of the eGhosts in confinement found a way to sneak out by implanting their code into some Nanoware that was going out, eventually corrupting the files in the nanomachines and taking control. Some of these attempts failed dramaticly, resulting in nanomantained things going 'Blorf!' all over the place. A small number found themselves in Metahuman hosts and were able to slowly over-write their brains using cyber the host had, eventually getting them to implant a Nanohive, which allowed the eGhost to just rebuild the body and eradicate the host, leaving them in charge. Once onw figured it out, it managed to get word to others, and, eventually, the main facility that held teh captured eGhosts was broken open and they escaped with dangerous knowledge.

Since then, you have people terrified by corpaganda about "Sybil" and, later, "CFD", treating it as a disease that you could catch. The eGhosts, who settled on the named "Monads" for themselves, are mostly terrified of being captured again and facing more experiments, so are planning on gathering together and running away to Mars, where they, in theory, can live happily ever after, them on Mars, Metahumanity on Earth, and never shall the two meet again. Of course, in the process, they're going in dozens of hijacked Metahuman bodies, which isn't going over so well with relatives of said persons.

That's gappy as Hell, leaves out some important info, and doesn't even touch on Boston Lockdown, but that covers the *very* basics. The general public, and indeed most Shadowrunners, don't even know all of this. It's speculation city out there, and I've left off names of corporations and people on purpose, since I don't know how much of the plot is out there. Chrome Flsh moves it ahead, including the planned Martian Exodus, while Stolen Souls and Lockdown have way, way more information. Other people can feel free to chip in, natch.

Beta

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« Reply #7 on: <08-04-15/2034:16> »
What you need to know about Lockdown to decide whether it is worth buying or not:  a bunch of corps crit-glitch their experiment, resulting in fast acting, powerful, nanites of the CFD causing kind getting spread over much of Boston.  Corps react by a) covering up what is really going on ("it is an outbreak of a regular virus, yah, that's it!"), and throwing up a cordon around Boston and environs, cutting it off and leaving a lot of people in there with the infected.  Cue something between a zombie movie and invasion of the body snatchers.

Oh, and it was written to correspond with a new multi-player computer game of some sort.  So it all working as a computer game was important.

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #8 on: <08-05-15/0109:40> »
Well. That's incorrect on several points, both IC and OOC, but for a general overview, 'tis not so bad.

For me, since it is (and will remain) core to SR's future development, I'd call it a must-buy - not unlike Dunkelzahn's Secrets, Bug City, or the Arcology Shutdown books.
« Last Edit: <08-10-15/1512:08> by The Wyrm Ouroboros »
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Mirikon

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« Reply #9 on: <08-05-15/1653:53> »
Indeed. Lockdown is one of those 'game changing' moments in SR.
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CitizenJoe

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« Reply #10 on: <08-06-15/1603:26> »
I think that CFD is just a symptom of a broader issue.

As nanotechnology grew more and more common, it became virtually impossible to avoid.  For the most part, this was harmless nanites that made products better.  There wasn't some weird intelligence guiding them, they just did their simple job and got purged through natural processes.

Sometimes the nanites would stick and people would react in different ways.  Some people, even in the late 50's developed allergies to radio waves, which got worse as the wireless technology developed.  In some people this sensitivity was enough that they could make sense of the electronic world of the Matrix without any extra translation hardware.  These were the Otaku and later developed into the technomancers. 

Now with the Matrix 2.0 we've got all these people sensitized to an ever present wireless connection to the matrix.  Some people just get headaches, some people hear voices from all the commcalls. Some go completely off their nut. 

It is not beyond some corps to notice this and think "advertising" to a captive audience 24/7.  Programs would be set up to take advantage of that sensitivity.  That invariably falls into the wrong hands and you've got active nefarious intelligences mucking around in people's heads.  Then to make things worse, nanites designed to increase the sensitivity get released or put into carriers.

HMMVV infected, or more specifically, creatures with regeneration power end up dumping the nanites as part of the rejection process the same way that other augmentations get rejected.


psycho835

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« Reply #11 on: <08-07-15/0839:13> »
Hang on, does that mean that Regeneration could be used to cure CFD?
Because nahala aloe from 4E "Parabotany" temporarily bestows that power on the user.

DeathStrobe

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« Reply #12 on: <08-07-15/1040:05> »
Hang on, does that mean that Regeneration could be used to cure CFD?
Because nahala aloe from 4E "Parabotany" temporarily bestows that power on the user.

Man, Parabotany is one problematic book for CFD.

But i don't know if Regeneration is a hard counter. HMHVV is, but before the fact. But not all the infected have regeneration. Lockdown does say critters can be infected, but unsure if that's because of the dragon branded nanites or if it's something that normal nanites can do. And if it can affect critters, can it effect shapeshifters? Not sure.

Sendaz

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« Reply #13 on: <08-07-15/1134:15> »

Man, Parabotany is one problematic book for CFD.

Parazoology 2 also had interesting ideas on going after soft nanites and playing havoc with the rest at least.

Quote from: Parazoology 2 pg 37
NANOPLASMOSIS (AWAKENED TOXOPLASMOSIS)
Vector: ingestion
Speed: 1 Day (8 )
Penetration: -2
Power: 10
Nature: Parasitic
Effect: Special
This unusual protozoan infects nanosystems, destroying the nanites as if it were a competing species. This protozoan not only feeds off the organic compounds
found in soft nanites, but it has the ability to resonate a field that jams individual nanites.
Nanoplasmosis degrades nanites faster by any remaining Power rating it has after a disease Resistance Test. If the Power is reduced to 0, one nanosystem is still
permanently reduced by 1. If an infected subject has a nanohive, the protozoans infiltrate the system, preventing the creation of new nanites. The going hypothesis
is that the protozoan Awakened within a netzumi and is transmitted through fecal matter.
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CitizenJoe

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« Reply #14 on: <08-07-15/1303:57> »
I would say that acquiring regeneration will have minor benefits.  It would purge the nanites, but the sensitivization may have already occured.  Once regenerstops holding off the nanites, reinfection can occur just like an addict after treatment.