New Story! Probably every Sunday. This is set in the same universe as Freezing Shadows, but following a group of players in Atlanta, instead of Seattle. No planned crossover yet, but who knows what will happen?
Prologue: You Have Died
You have died.
Every Shadowman knows that eventually the story has to come to an end. If you’re very, very lucky, you get a big score, and retire. You were not that lucky, and died a violent death. Unfortunately, your story is over.
“FUCK!” I cursed as I found myself in the black empty space that players fell into after death. In the beta for Shadowmen, they called it ‘Loading Limbo’. It gave the AI running the game system a chance to ‘unload’ the implanted memories and skills from your old character, and ready your account for a new game.
My in-game name faded away, as it always did when I left the game world. Not forgotten, but in a different ‘drawer’ from the ‘hey, this is me’ stuff. Only, this time I was snapped back to being just Rachel Adams, day trader and gamer, rather than a badass Shadowman. But I knew that feeling from the Beta, every time I’d died, or had a character reset. It would go away once I got my new character.
I took a breath, and thought back on that last job. It was an infiltration gig. It wasn’t supposed to be a big thing. The job was to infiltrate and investigate some charity place doing rehab work for the lower-class and the SINless. The Brotherhood of Unity. Sounded like a cult, but weren’t really a cult? Either way, the local Yakuza were upset that the Brotherhood were not paying the appropriate protection fees, but weren’t going to make a move until they found out who the Brotherhood’s backers were. Which is why her team had been sent in to check things out.
Shit. The rest of the team had gone down, too. They’d all been beta players, met on the New York beta server, and bonded over the fact that they were actually all based in Atlanta IRL (in real life). When the beta ended and the game went live, we all hooked up in game, and become a team, running the shadows of Atlanta. And we’d done a good job of it, too.
However, permadeath was a bitch. That meant our characters were all gone. And we would be starting almost from zero. Thankfully, not all the way back at the beginning. The devs weren’t that merciless. We got to carry some of our old Karma and Nucred forward.
Party Death Chat:
This OOC chat will allow you to get closure with your team members who died, and perhaps set up a new story with them, if they are registered on your Friends list.
BigGirl, Beepers, Disco, KittyKittyKitty, SendIt, and Flip are in the chat.
BigGirl: Damn, Kitty, they got you, too? Guess that’s a full wipe.
KittyKittyKitty: Fuck, what the fucking fuck were those things?
Disco: Don’t know. They seemed to shrug off bullets, unless you hit them really hard. Like you have to do against spirits. But there weren’t supposed to be any magic types in this Brotherhood!
Beepers: Spirits? But those things were people! Sure, people that looked like someone played mad scientist doing roach transformations, but still people!
Flip: I don’t remember seeing anything like that in the beta.
KittyKittyKitty: I would have remembered something like those bug freaks, that’s for sure.
BigGirl: So, probably something that the devs kept in reserve, so that they could still surprise all us beta types.
SendIt: Sounds like it. Probably failed some investigation part of the job, without knowing it. Maybe we needed some magic with us? Or special gear?
Flip: I managed to drop a couple when I switched to the SnS ammo by mistake when reloading. That seemed to do more than the ExEx for some reason.
KittyKittyKitty: Sounds like they are more and more some kind of spirit. Or at least one of the paracritters with the Hardened Armor ability. Either way, that means those things are a PROBLEM.
Disco: Problem for our next lives.
Flip: Speaking of, check the other notices. Since we’re all starting characters at the same time, and are on each other’s friend lists, we can do a group start!
Group Start Available
Due to your team being registered as friends, the Group Start rules are available. This allows you to work together to create a backstory and connect your characters together in a meaningful way.
Do you wish to make a Group Start?
Yes / No
KittyKittyKitty: I’ve got an idea.
Flip: Oh, no. You’re wanting to go all in on the group start, aren’t you?
KittyKittyKitty: Damn straight. And if they’re letting us get the band back together, why not be a band?
SendIt: Like, a rock band?
KittyKittyKitty: Yes! Think about it. I doubt any of the other beta players have even thought about doing something like this. But there are examples in the game lore of NPCs who were rock stars and Shadowmen. We could be the first!
Flip: Huh. It would make good content for my stream. No one has delved into the entertainment biz in game.
Beepers: What kind of band? And who will be doing what?
SendIt: If we’re going to do this, let’s do it. Full send. Pop-Rock, Glam to hell, theme band and all.
KittyKittyKitty: Oh! How about we go with a catgirl theme? Call the band Kittenz! Do it right, and everyone will love it!
BigGirl: In that case, we should work out a baseline everyone needs to have, and get a proper group composition, both for the band, and for the ‘real’ work.
Flip: If we’re doing this, then let’s be good at what we do. For qualities, everyone should pick up Fame 2 (National), Erased 1 (Weekly), Day Job 2 (20 hrs/week), and SINner 1. We’ll be famous, bad things will disappear off the Matrix, our band will all have legit SINs, and the day job combined with the fame will be giving us 12500 nucred a month.
KittyKittyKitty: Good call, Flip. Also, with skills, everyone pick up Artisan 6, with a specialization. That’s the ‘creative’ skill, and there’s situations where it can base off CHA instead of INT when performing. That will limit our starting skill ranks in other areas, but Rating 4 is still huge.
Disco: I call lead guitar. And I’ll be the Hacker, this time around.
KittyKittyKitty: I’ll be the lead singer, and I can cover Face and at least backup Street Samurai. Not going cyberarms and the like, but I should be able to get fairly tough, while still being pretty.
SendIt: All right, I’ll go adept, focus on ranged combat, and I’ll be the second guitarist.
Beepers: Screw it, I’ll go drums, and a hand-to-hand specialist, with some stealth.
Flip: I’ve done some piano IRL, so I can do Keyboards. I’ll also rock the Magician route, since after this last time, we’re definitely going to need some magic on our side, moving forward.
BigGirl: In that case, I’ll be the Bass player, and reprise my role as rigger. May be on disability IRL, but I still love getting to fix and drive cars. Especially when I can jump in and BE the car!
KittyKittyKitty: All right, one last thing. Everyone pick some kind of cat-themed street name, to finish out the theme. I’ll be Pussycat.
BigGirl: I’m Lioness.
Disco: TechKat sounds decent.
SendIt: I guess I’ll prowl like a Tigress.
Beepers: I’ll one-up you and go Cougar.
Flip: Hah, you would! I’ll snipe our face’s name and go KittyKat!
KittyKittyKitty: This is going to be great!