(My standard Disclaimer:
One big NOTE: This isn't a wheedling plea to people like Hardy and Adam for explanations or an accusation that they screwed up on x plot point. I appreciate the hard work that everyone who's ever penned the game has put in and understand the difficulties that it takes. If someone who works/worked on Shadowrun WANTS to give a "official" explanation, great. Or they can put their own speculation in. biggrin.gif It's all for fun.
SECOND NOTE: If the Unsolved Mysteries have in fact been explained, please provide reference, not just go "This already got solved!" I may own a LOT of the books, but maybe there's one I didn't get to yet. Danke schoen.)
There have been a few dozen things that just seem to have blipped off the radar here and there, either never to be brought up again or just simply shelved. The obvious answer is change in direction for the game due to new staff shuffling in and out, and frankly 20 years of canon will cause many a headache of loose ends and frayed edges. Just ask any Trekkie. There have been three major causes of UM: The end of FASA, the sweeping of 3e storylines due to System Failure/4e, and the recent financial problems making many freelancers quit.
Will they get worked out? I don't know. Maybe some of them were left intentionally vague in order for enterprising GMs to work out in their own games, or for future freelancers to gather together for their proposals. But that's what this thread series is about. The chance for we 'Runners to discuss and speculate about those things that are unsolved. If anything, it makes for a good collection for theories and explanations.
Since the Nadja Daviar one seemed to provide quite a good discussion, I present another recent Unsolved Mystery of the Sixth World:
Art Dankwalther's Money.
As most of us know, Mr. Dankwalther received 34.5 billion UCAS Dollars from Dunklezahn's will. For five years he spent it on the high life and also working out a personal vendetta against Richard Villiers, through corporate raiding of Novatech, eating two other Megacorps on his way up. (One happened to be the AA Gunderson Corporation, well known in Cyberpirates and the main bad guy in the "novel" Shadowboxer, causing J.J. Harvin to move over to Aztech with what was left.) He then focused his energy on fracturing Novatech, causing the IPO that leads to System Failure. This is not to lament him, he got a full and interesting storyline that ended with a nasty Thor Shot right to his cranium.
But what happened to his cash? The Omega Order did mess with his assets and Novatech did a hostile takeover on most of them. But that's largely his holdings, and theoretically his estate would still have benefited from the actual taking over. Also, you can't assume he dumped all 34 billion into his project, and he would have made a lot of money being a shark in order to work his next level up. He would have to have socked away a reserve in case his current scheme didn't work out. Even say, putting away a billion or two to live off of and have in reserve.
So, let's assume the other 33 billion and later assets were seized by Novatech and the Corporate Court in general when they Thored him. (That's my biggest thought is that the money just went into the CC and got split up, with Villiers bitching for the lion's share.) Would Art have left a will himself or instructions to divide up his estate? Or did he leave some other projects cooking on the side in case he got blowback from his scheme?
While a billion wouldn't really tweak with a AAA or some higher governments, it could still have severe ramifications for everything else below that..
Thoughts?