The year is 2060.

The late president of UCAS was a dragon! Manastorms have wrecked Australia, bringing into our world a whole slew of nightmare creatures, many of which were driven back thanks to the Australian Standing Army and various merc companies. Oddities are seen and felt at the Dunkelzahn Rift at Watergate Hotel, where the Presidential Dragon was assassinated. And there’s a new social enlightened group trying to help out their fellow man in heavily the repressed Japanese Empire, which has triggered off rumours and concerns about a new hive of Insect spirits.

This year has the feel of electricity in the air, like a harbinger to something greater coming.

Important Note

This game will be using 3rd Edition Shadowrun rules modified with some house rules to make rigging and decking that much easier, and combat that much flowy.

All players, please select your Metahuman Type, Ethnicity, and Country of origin! It’s been suggested that folks talk with one another about being part of the same old merc company or having something in connection to one another to skip over the intro bit.

On An In Character Scale

In late 2059, Australia admitted that there was a grave issue that they didn’t have the metahuman resources to fully deal with. With the scale of desturction, many of the top corps began to pull out their resources, leaving Australia to deal with the issue. The Japanese Emperor offered aided to the country, mostly undesirables. By September, Australia put out a bing on the Matrix at a variety of Data Havens and Shadowlands, unofficially of course, promising top nuyen to those who signed on to deal with an invasion of unknown entities from a rip in the fabric of reality.

While many called this an elaborate hoax, it was in fact the chip-truth. The manastorms had torn not only the fabric of space but punched a hole into the deep metaplanes where things that shouldn’t be on the Prime were coming in over the Black Mountain, known as Kallajaka by the local Aboriginal peoples. Those who managed to survive witnessed one of the greatest acts of ritual magic in forcing the tear close with the aid of one of the items bequeethed by Dunkelzahn’s will that somehow managed to focus the energies into driving back the invasion. But echoes were felt as wraithes (A datapull on these creatures found “Kill these horrors whenever you encounter them. They are Evil, if anything is.” -H on the matrix) floated outward, causing entire platoons to turn into homocidal maniacs that needed to be put down. Spirits and elementals also became mad, breaking free from their master’s wills. It was the End of Days preview. And all those who survived were granted bonuses for a job well done.

Many were granted Australian citizenship, complete with a SIN, with all of their service records heavily encrypted and ESPER Vetern permits for all cybernetics and restricted spells, if they agreed to be reactivated should another rift form or other disaster. Many of the veterns, having had a taste of the rush that comes with near death, turned to the Shadows to make a living post Rift. Others have attempted to etch out a calm existence, and have scattered world wide.

Note: all Rift Veterns should take Paranormal Activity as a knowledge skill. This reflects a basic understanding of some of the paranormal animals, spirits and plants out there.