A Shadowrun-esque Timeline

[Xathan]

[spoiler=Background]Earth has undergone radical changes in the past seventy-one years. By the year 2085 AD, intelligent machines walk the streets. Corporations call the shots, ruling most of the world. Anyone who doesnâ,¬,,¢t possess a PIC (personal identification chip) is a non-citizen, having very few rights in the eyes of what little law there is. Cities have grown to massive sizes, some covering fifty or more miles. Magic has come to the world. Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and other intelligent creatures walk the streets alongside humans; living, working, fighting, and dying. Most are non-citizens, lacking a PIC.

These outcasts, along with PIC-less humans, form the Lost, the largest impoverished group in the worldâ,¬,,¢s history, and the dregs of society. However, to survive among the Lost, in a world where survival of the fittest is the only real law, humans and demihumans develop unique talents to survive, adding cybernetic implants, nanotechnology, and magical supplements to enhance their prowess. When an organization needs dirty works done, and doesnâ,¬,,¢t want to sully their hands, members of the Lost are called upon to get the job done. Call them bounty hunters, call them hirelings, call them what you will, they donâ,¬,,¢t care. They exist outside the law, many of them breaking it merely by waking up in the morning. And when you need to get the job done, they are the ones to do it.

Explanation:

This setting, which I havenâ,¬,,¢t named yet, arose from my love of the cyberpunk genre and the Shadowrun campaign setting, and my frustration with that settings two flaws: Shadowrun doesnâ,¬,,¢t use d20 system rules, making it hard (read: impossible) to get my gaming group to play in it, and the settingâ,¬,,¢s history doesnâ,¬,,¢t, in my opinion, accurately reflect the idiosyncrasies of todayâ,¬,,¢s world and what could theoretically happen. It was written in 1989, and the settings storyline is showing its age. Also, a native to STL, I wanted to make that city more prominent, so my players could use familiar locations. Therefore, I am creating my own history for this d20 adaptation of the setting, using the rules presented in d20 Modern, d20 Future, and Urban Arcana. The only change to these rules are going to be classes, races, and ideas of my own I will introduce, and modifications to the progress levels of d20 Future, which would change with the introduction of magic.

Also, I need help with the timeline. After about 2030, it starts breaking down and loosing cohesion. I need to change and update everything past that, and I need help bringing it up to date.

NOTE: I know there are some holes in the timeline, but for the life of me I can't find where they are. If you notice them, please point them out - Im looking for both praise and attacks here. Also, I wrote this about two years ago and did a hasty update, so I canâ,¬,,¢t promise it is as good as my other stuff â,¬' and most of this isnâ,¬,,¢t original, if you are familiar at all with Shadowrun. Enjoy.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Timeline of the changes]
[spoiler=2006-2011: Storms on the Horizon]

2006 â,¬' Three Supreme Court Justices retire, allowing a conservative majority in the Supreme Court of 7-2. Airbus develops and releases the A380, a massive plane the size of a football field, heralding the aerial arms race with Boeing that leads to the creation of the flying fortresses known so well this day. Later that year, terrorists detonate nuclear devices in downtown New York. An estimated 285,000 people are killed. In response, President Bush passes the American Protection Act of 2005, which severely limits many of the freedoms of the American people and places Arab Americans in internment camps in hopes of curtailing the waves of racial violence that result, despite the lack of proven link between the attack and Islamic terrorists. Hundreds of Arab Americans and non-Arab Muslims are killed across America, and hundreds of thousands are put into interment camps. All other Americans suffer from decreased civil liberties. The Supreme Court upholds the American Protection Act despite numerous Lawsuits by the ACLU, finally declaring the ACLU a terrorist organization and disbands it. President Bush begins searching for the terrorist group responsible. Nuclear strikes are launched against Libya after it is determined that terrorists they harbored were responsible for the attacks. World War Three is avoided by a razors edge, mostly because the majority of other nations are too busy weathering natural disasters to react.  

Elections are held in Iraq, resulting in Amed Hitollay being elected. Amed Hitollay is the son of Musaff Hitollay, the founder of the new Iraqi oil company Oil Works, which buys the Halliburton Company. Vice President Dick Cheney dies of heart failure, and Rick Garmund is chosen as Vice President. Plagues begin to spring up in Asia and Africa from the huge number of corpses caused by the disasters.  

Meanwhile, two Supreme Court rulings allowed for two things that set the stage for the world to come. First was the decision that a company can maintain and hold a private security force for self defense, the second granting corporation grounds extraterritoriality, essentially turning corporations into their own nations. This sparked corporate lands grabs, and as Americaâ,¬,,¢s history shows, the first people to loose land when there is land to be lost are the Native Americans, who were quickly pushed off what little land we had left them. This proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the proverbial camelâ,¬,,¢s back, and most Native Americans turned into guerilla warriors, fighting the corporations. Those that turn to fighting were rounded up and stuffed into camps with the Arab Americans.

The final note about this year is that a few people begin being born with odd features, such as slender faces, pointy ears, and almond eyes, or bulbous noses, stunted arms and legs, and unusual amounts of body hair. No one is quite sure what to make of these children, and science is equally flummoxed by them â,¬' genetically, they have some similarities to humanity, but there are enough differences to classify them as different species. Classifying these first elves and dwarves as Homo Sapiens Nobilis and Homo Sapiens Terren, science does â,¬' and can do â,¬' nothing more than scratch its collective head in confusion. Although the events are traumatic to the parents, family members, and friends, it is not widespread enough to get a large amount of notice, especially in the face of widespread natural disasters tearing across the land. That the two events might be linked never occurred to anyone, though in hindsight, the link was obvious â,¬' they were both signs of the first trickles of magic into the world.

2007-2011 â,¬' A massive earthquake hits the western United States, breaking off a sizable chunk of western California and pulling it over a mile from the mainland United States. The earthquake causes a massive tsunami along the western US, Canada, Mexico and the northwestern part of South America, as well along many of the pacific islands and actually hitting Japan and parts of eastern Asia. Over 300,000 people are killed worldwide. A new corporation, CyberNetworking, announces its plan to recruit a volunteer corps to provide relief. CyberNetworkingâ,¬,,¢s corps grows to over 3,000,000 volunteers, who are trained with military style discipline. CyberNetworking is contracted by numerous nations struck by this and other disasters. Legislation passed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who owns 22% of the shares in CyberNetworking, gives CyberNetworking unprecedented power in providing relief to California, virtually giving the state to CyberNetworking. Other corporations, including Microsoft, Wal-mart, and the new media magnate MultiMedia, create similar â,¬Ërelief corps.â,¬,,¢ Meanwhile the terrorist group calling themselves the Bill of Rights springs up, in opposition to the American Protection Act. They manage, in their first public act, to assassinate President Bush. Vice President Garmund becomes president after narrowly escaping a similar assassination attempt. Arab Americans and Native Americans begin to riot inside the camps, sparking harsher oppression, and even more violent retaliation.

In response to the success of various American relief corps, other nationâ,¬,,¢s corporations form their own relief corps. Oil Works buys several Saudi Arabian oil fields, shortly before a coup â,¬'funded by Oil Works â,¬' brings the Saudi Arabian government under corporate control. Due to increased violence inside the United States from Bill of Rights and copycat organizations, the Security and Stability Act of 2008 is passed, giving President Garmund more power than any president in history and suspending the elections until â,¬Å"such time as peace and stability are certain inside our borders.â,¬Â CyberNetworking forms an ad-hoc militia from its corps, and begins to fight the terrorists. The Supreme Court declares such actions legal, and other corporations begin forming their own armies to help insure the peace and stability of America. Foreign corporations begin doing the same. The last of the disasters hits, a massive hurricane that engulfs the southeastern United States and eastern South America. The total death toll from the disasters is over a million people, and plagues begin to spread across the Americas and Europe, killing millions more. Between the disasters and the plagues, almost 180,000,000 people are lost.

As this year goes on, CyberNetworking takes complete control of California, as war erupts in the Middle East, with Oil Works emerging the victor. Wal-Mart, newly christened ShopCorp, begins to rapidly gain a great deal of political clout in the Southeastern United States, especially along the Mexican Border, under its new CEO. Other corporations begin to make tentative pokes into political arenas. Japan comes under corporate influence as well. Wars break out in Africa, slowly spreading across the continent. The Russian Mafia begins to gain even more power in financially weak Russia. Riots in the American camps become worse, and guards begin shooting without provocation.

To cap off this era, six great wyrm dragons appear, scattered across the globe. The appearance of these beasts sparks riots around the globe, as people believe the apocalypse is upon them. As for themselves, the dragons keep to the wilderness areas, though the Red Dragon Sjackigix takes to gliding along with the massive A380s for as long as he cans.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=2012-2022: The Storm Breaks]
2012 - The first recognized demihumans, known as Ghouls, (Homo Sapiens Mortis) begin crawling out of the radioactive ruins of New York and various Libyan cities. Horribly mutated by radiation, these creatures resemble the zombies of popular fiction. They had survived underground mainly, carving out subterranean cities from the sewage and subway systems of the aboveground cities. Panic ensues, and New York is placed under quarantine. Libyaâ,¬,,¢s neighbors take similar action to prevent any Ghouls from leaving Libya. Meanwhile, in various parts of the world, the first overt effects of magic are being felt in two ways. First, there is an increased wave of paranormal sightings, especially of ghosts and yetis, along with sea monsters in the oceans. Second, the birthrate of elves and dwarves increases dramatically, until one in every ten people born is born one of these species.

As this is happening, and perhaps partially because of it, tensions in the United States reach a breaking point, with Bill of Rights seizing control of Florida and attempting to seceded. Many Southern States, seeing an opportunity to resurrect the old CSA (sentiments for which had been growing in response to increased federal pressure), secede as well, creating the NCA (New Confederate America). The NCA closes down all the Arab-American and Native American internment camps and declares amnesty for all citizens of the United States of those nationalities. President Garmund, is ready to declare war on the NCA when Mother Nature intervenes, four massive tornados devastating the Midwestern United States, followed almost immediately by an earthquake that rocks Washington DC. In the chaos, California declares its secession as well, with CyberNetworkingâ,¬,,¢s advanced robotics backing their army. President Garmund allows the Independent Californian Republic to exist, simply because there is nothing else he can do to stop them.

That same year, Microsoft renames itself Intellisoft as a tribute to their creation, the first self-aware computer system â,¬' true artificial intelligence. Iraq formally annexes the territory Oil Works conquered, calling the new nation the Union of Arab Nations (UAN). Unable to stop any of the wars that have happened in the past 9 years, as well as proving extremely inefficient with providing relief, the UN collapses and is disbanded as an organization. The European Union attempts to become a formal nation. However, nationalism springs up unexpectedly, and Europe is once again plunged into war.

2012 - 2022 â,¬' backed by Intellisoft, Northern California secedes from the Independent California Republic, giving the corporate giant its own country to rival CyberNetworkingâ,¬,,¢s. Utah succeeds from the United States, declaring themselves the Nation of Desert, and Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas secede as well, backed by ShopCorp. The USA is forced to acknowledge the existence of these new nations (Northern California, NOD, and the Southwestern Federation, respectively.) The NOD begins to actually worsen the oppression of Native American and Arab Americans people within the borders, especially after Nevada joins them. In the Southwestern Federation, Native Americans fare little better, though Arab Americans are released. Finally, New York City declares itself to be a free city, and the United States is happy to see the Ghouls go.

Meanwhile, Quebec withdraws from Canada, backed by the United States. Shortly after, the United States annexes Quebec.  The UAN declares war on Israel, who fights back and actually manages to gain territory. Israel and the UAN make peace, mostly because the UAN fears how much more damage Israel could do if war continues. Israelâ,¬,,¢s size is effectively doubled.. The Russian Mafia formally takes control of the Eastern half of Russia, and the corrupt Russian government allows it to happen. The war in Europe changes when Russia withdraws. Russiaâ,¬,,¢s allies, including Great Britain and France, begin to fail. Germany rises as the European power, but is challenged by Romania, who unleashes new soldiers that fight only at night and seem posses supernatural powers. It is later discovered these soldiers were actually vampires.

However, the most dramatic change occurs in 2022. In this year Native Americans make an amazing discovery â,¬' their tribal magics, so long thought to be nothing more than superstition, are working. Spiritual animals fall upon the camps, slaughtering the guards, and tornados strike the nearby cities, killing tens of thousands. In Africa, many of the tribes that held on to their humanistic traditions discover that their magic is working, and the face of the Trans-African War changes dramatically, as shamans unleash spells of destruction against their opponents. Monks in Tibet find similar powers and simultaneously declare themselves a free nation and declare war on China

Amongst all this, people are barely surprised when Sjackigix announces that he owns a controlling majority of the stock of both Airbus and Boeing, and merges the two companies into Draco Industries.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=2023-2031: The Flood Hits]
2023 - 2029 â,¬' Where magic had been leaking into our world before, it now floods it. During the summer of 2023, animals and humans undergo transformations, creating entirely new life forms. Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Giants, Ogres, Hobbits, Gnomes, and others all appear as life forms from humans, transforming adult humans into adult members of these races. The number of creatures that spawn from animals (known as demianimals) and plants (demiplants) are more numerous than can be counted. Several new sentient life forms arise from animals, including the Roaches (insect creatures that bear a vague resemblance to giant cockroaches), Catfolk, Gnolls, Minotaurs, Troglodytes, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, and others.  Native Americans that escaped from the camps band together and unite under the charismatic Silent Coyote. They send numerous magical attacks at various cities in the Californias, the Mormon Nations, the Southwestern Federation, and the USA. The NCA supporters the Native Americanâ,¬,,¢s actions, though they provide no military backing. However, Native American guerillas shelter in the NCA.

Meanwhile, Asia is plunged into war, resulting in China being split into four different nations, Hong Kong becoming a free city. Europe settles back into its old borders to rebuild, though Germany and Romania gain a great deal of territory, and Warsaw is declared a free city. Africa divides itself into five different areas, with Ghoul populated Libya forming a sixth nation. Tribal leaders assume control of the other five areas, using their powerful magic to retain control. A UAN Oil Freighter crashes off the coast of Madagascar, killing thousands of plants and animals and beginning the mutations of thousands more. Tibet gains a good chunk of land from China before Japanese intervention ceases hostilities.

Not surprising, but disappointing, racial violence breaks out across the world against the demihumans. No laws are passed to protect them in most nations, the notable exception being the NCA, who gives them full rights. Ironically, the hate group the Ku Klux Klan, almost near extinct, is revived in the NCA, focusing its hatred on demihumans. When asked about their new, tolerating stance on human minorities (excepting Native Americans), a Klan spokesman was quoted as saying â,¬Å"Hey, they may not be perfect, but at least theyâ,¬,,¢re human.â,¬Â The Grand Wizard of the Klan is discovered to be Michael Ritneour, the newest CEO of Intellisoft.

2023-2031 The Native American War ends when the Native Americans send a massive storm of fire against Washington DC. The Native Americans are giving a sizable chunk of the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada to form their own nation on. Meanwhile, numerous nations pass laws requiring every citizen receive a chip implant, known as a Personal Identification Chip (PIC) that grants them citizenship. Corporate pressure results in virtually every nation passing PIC laws. Only in the NCA, however, are demihumans granted PICs, and pro-human sentiments make it difficult demihumans to receive PICs here. Those without PICs are non-citizens, loosing many rights. Meanwhile, Starspace Industries begins colonizing space, with other corporations following suit. Elves carve out their own nation from Washington and Oregon while Roaches make Houston, Texas into their own haven. St. Louis, Missouri becomes a free city to facilitate trade between the NCA, Native American Nations, and the USA, becoming a smugglerâ,¬,,¢s paradise in the process. Alex Raizman, former District Attorney of St. Louis, takes control of the criminal syndicates he so long fought against, forming the Dementists, a crime syndicate that quickly spreads its influence across the various nations.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=2032-2044: The Modern World]
2032-2044 â,¬' Queâ,¬,,¢Tassilir, the elven nation, gains formal recognition as a nation by the various world powers. Gaeaworks, a company founded by the elves, becomes the foremost company in the area of technomagical products. The humans of Queâ,¬,,¢Tassilir are forced into status as second class citizens, and any attempts to rebel are quashed by Queâ,¬,,¢Tassilirâ,¬,,¢s strongest military technomagic, known as Mythals. Dwarves in Northern Mexico attempt to follow their elven brethren in forming their own nation, but their hopes are dashed when Queâ,¬,,¢Tassilir refuses to lend aid. Dumâ,¬,,¢zalad is a wonderful dream quickly crushed by the forces of Mexico, notable only because Genomorphâ,¬,,¢s genetically modified mercenaries make their first appearance, proving the power of these mutated humans.

In 2044, Arcanaologists (scientists who study magic) nearly bring about the Apocalypse. In their experimentation, the managed to open the first known portal to another plane â,¬' an infernal realm that has since been dubbed simply â,¬Å"Hell,â,¬Â for the biblical Hell it so strongly resembled. Denizens of this realm pour out into Arcane Research Unlimitedâ,¬,,¢s (the company that was in charge of the experimentation) laboratories. Only the magic they had available, coupled with the technological weapons manufactured by Gaeaworks (including two prototype weapons that Gaeaworks had no idea ARU was in possession of) managed to turn them back and seal the breach, though 34 fiends escaped. What they have been up to since then is anyoneâ,¬,,¢s guess, but it is worth nothing that James Ball, CEO of PENTAGRAM, appeared on anyoneâ,¬,,¢s radar for the first time a week after the near disaster â,¬' before that, there is literally no trace of his existence. PENTAGRAM later buys out ARU, and comes to challenge Gaeaworksâ,¬,,¢ supremacy of technomagic development.

2045-2061 â,¬' The dropping of the New Years Ball in Boston for the 2045 year heralds the rising of an island in the center of the Bermuda triangle out of the ocean and into the air, complete with a population of humanoids â,¬' the nation and people of Atlantis reborn. Calling themselves the Kalashtar. The technology of Atlantis is as advanced of that of this modern world, and the people of Atlantis possess a magic foreign to our knowledge â,¬' the magic of psionics. Psionics begin manifesting in members of every race, and still do, appearing at any age without warning.

The appearance of psionic heralds a final wave of magic washing over the world. This one leaves humans untouched, but instead twists the demihumans, creating peoples such as the Dark Elves, Grey Dwarves, Deep Gnomes, Aquatic Elves, Nighttouched Hobbits, Star elves, and others. The demihumans welcome their mutations with varying degrees of warmth, though the elves of Queâ,¬,,¢tassilir are quick to expel the Dark Elves. The Dark Elves literally tunnel under the earth, forming their own nation in the Rocky Mountains.

In the corporate world, the Japanese base Okirona Corp stumbles across a safe, reliable way to attack cybernetic implants without the insanity accompanying the older methods of cybernetics, vaulting them into the ranks of the Megacorps. Okirona Cybernetics becomes almost a necessity for life on the streets as black market dealers who share their profits with Okirona break laws by selling to the Lost. President Garmund finally dies, after a reign from 2008-2051, nearly forty-three years, at the age of 93. The United States has itâ,¬,,¢s first democratic election in over four decades, elected Garmundâ,¬,,¢s fifth vice president, Jake Richards, who takes a hardliner approach to demihumans and the Lost in general.

2062-2085 â,¬' Things finally began settling down into the routine we know and love today. There are a few major events that lead us to this present era, however. The first was the Ghoul city of New York used powerful magic to relocate their entire city offshore and began to expand, ripping up the sea to double the size of the newly formed island. Count Vlad Tempes Dracul I of Romania becomes the first non-human to ever rule a nation of humans, paving the way for other creatures to follow him. PENTAGRAM and Gaeaworks let loose on each other, sparking the state of constant corporate warfare that dominates todayâ,¬,,¢s society. Starspace Industries developed the first practical interstellar drive for a ship, allowing humanity to begin to dream of reaching other worlds. Both Mars and the Moon are terraformed, the Moon an open colony for any corporation to use as a staging platform, and Mars becoming a wholly owed subsidiary of Starspace Industries. Almost coinciding with the Mars takeover is the takeover of Starspace Industries by their new CEO, an Elf Nyata Alanadel. The Raizman crime syndicate is taken over by Alexâ,¬,,¢s half-drow daughter, Naomi Raizman, who extends their influence beyond her fatherâ,¬,,¢s dreams, gaining a foothold in many corporations. Meanwhile, the rich get richer, the poor multiply, and we arrive at the status quo. Welcome to this brave new world. Welcome to the glorious future.
[/spoiler][/spoiler]

EDIT: For those of you who know my real name, you'll see I'm in here. That's something I forgot to edit out, so don't worry, this isn't supposed to be an ego trip.

[CYMRO]

BIG GAPING HOLES:

China/India.  
As the two most poulous countries and superpowrs, what is happening there?
Remember, India's Agni rockets are just the ticket for Hindu extremists to revenge themselves on Islam while the world is focused on events in Amerika.

EU.
Give Europe some love...

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Touche... we need to remember, this isn't a typical disaster movie where all the important stuff just happens in America ; ;)   Good job though, I look forward to seeing more.

[Xathan]

I knew I was forgetting something. I have stuff happen with China and the EU in the 2nd and third decades, then I forget to follow through with it. Thanks for pointing that out, and I need to bring India in.

I do have china divided in 2023 - 2029, and the EU breaks apart in war in 2012, but I don't do much beyond that...I need to add more.

[CYMRO]

And don't forget South America.  
Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Chile.  All have potential for rattling the world's cage.

[Xathan]

Yeah, Eldo mentioned that on AIM. I can't believe I completely didn't do South America. >.<

What Im going to do is listen to feedback and ideas, then next week sometime collect everything I missed and put it together into a new timeline, clean it up, and post it in crossroads.

Question: Keep the things I missed and mistakes I made coming, but I would like to know A) what, if anything, I did right, so i can repeat that and B) if anyone has any questions, since I love questions. :D Thanks for the quick feedback, and keep tearing it apart so I can rebuild it better than before!

[Poseptune]

What about when the first Elves and Dwarves are appearing? No strange cults, or anti-nonhuman groups rise? Do the births happen only in the US? If not does every nation allow them to survive?

What about Australia? Some strange creatures/races could be right at home there between the Great Reef and the Outback.

[CYMRO]

The tone of the Puritanical wierdness in America is spot on.  This country has a bad habit on falling back on Salemesque reactions when any sort of threat is at hand.  You have captured that quite well.

Two other points to ponder:
Ice caps and Hawaii.

[Poseptune]

The Ice caps must stay frozen. Florida must survive!!!! :P

[Xathan]

The births are global, but I claim that most people were too busy being torn apart by mother nature to give too much of a much with elves and dwarves at first, though I'm not sure how logical that is. The idea of some nations not allowing them to survive is a good one, I'll have to play with that.

part of the reason other regions don't appear that much is due to ignorance on my part of the role they could play. While China, India, and the EU are easy, I have enough knowledge to add them in. Same goes for the Middle East. But the rest of Asia, South America, sub-sarharan Africa and other regions of the world go beyond my intimate knowledge, so I feel awkward dealing with them. I'd love to hear everyones thoughts on what actually did happen in those reigons.

Oh, and the ice caps...I'm not sure what to do with them. Thoughts?

One more thing, to those who have D20 Future - the setting is PL 6 with magic, but cybernetics and computer related technology are at PL 7.

[Lmns Crn]

Okay, a few minor things:

Why are elves christened Homo Sapiens Nobilis by scientists? Seems the first thought on their minds upon seeing these strangely deformed infants is going to be one of birth defects or disease; nobility seems like it'd be very far down the list.

Concerning Kalashtar: Are you planning to incorporate their symbiont Quori spirits into their flavor here in any way, and if so, how? Does our world have a Dal Quor (or equivalent), or are the Kalashtar just a non-symbiont fancy term for psionic-enabled Atlantean?

In general, it seems like you have a pretty clear vision of what DnD in the future is supposed to look like, and you're working pretty hard to get there (as opposed to following a logical chain of events without a preconceived plan about what the end result is supposed to look like.) That's fine, but it tends to cause little logical idiosyncracies to pop up here and there, so be careful about it. (Example: Your elven stuff has a very stereotypically elven sound to the names. If elves are magically transformed/mutated humans, why do they suddenly have a new elven language instead of speaking English/French/Italian/whatever?)

General question: what is causing all this transformative magic to leak into our reality? What's the catalyst that starts it all? Are you even going to answer this question, or leave it as a mystery?

Are the ghouls of New York and Libya undead, or are they more mutants/aberrations/etc.? If they're undead, do undead and nuclear radiation have some kind of cause/effect relationship? And if so, does that somehow extend to these nocturnal Romanian supersoldiers, the increased paranormal phenomena (presumably ghosts) and other undead? (And while we're on the subject the whole Romanians=vampires thing strikes me as very campy, almost humorously clichéd. Maybe that's the intended tone, but it seems to really clash with the starkness of your setting.)

Overall, good work. A compelling (and even scary) read, and one that creates an interesting setting. My only big concern is that maybe you're trying to throw too much into it, overstressing the limits of what you can logically derive, and making it seem a bit contrived in places.

[Poseptune]

@LC: Elves were named Homo Sapien Nobilis because the scientist in charge of naming them was a fan of fantasy and thought they looked simialr to the elves in stories. Just be glad he didn't think they looked like Vulcans and named them Homo Sapien Snobilis. :P


If the births of nonhumans coincided with the world wide natural disasters, I would imagine there would be more people taking notice.


Like I said before the ice caps must stay frozen. :P Frost Giants and such inhabit the polar regions and stop them from melting. (Warning this is only a semi-serious idea. I'm kinda partial to Florida not sinking below the rising waters. :))

If you feel comfortable with anthropomorphs Australia would be the place to have them appear. How I don't know. Another idea is that one or more of the Corporations conquered Australia and converted it back into a system of prison camps. Possibly for some of the groups they are fighting against. (I stuck with Australia only because it was what I brought up)

 You really don't have to go into much detail about every nation on the map, but some of the major ones should get at least a sentence or two explaining their current state.

I like the rebirth of Atlantis and what you did with it. Psionics lend itself well to some of the imagines I have seen where people depict Atlantis as a city with strange crystals everywhere.

I don't know if any of these comments are helpful, but I figured I've been semi-lurking on these boards for some time I may as well contribute to something.

[Xathan]

very[/i] campy, almost humorously clichéd. Maybe that's the intended tone, but it seems to really clash with the starkness of your setting.)

Overall, good work. A compelling (and even scary) read, and one that creates an interesting setting. My only big concern is that maybe you're trying to throw too much into it, overstressing the limits of what you can logically derive, and making it seem a bit contrived in places.
[/quote]

Thank you and I think thatâ,¬,,¢s a good point, a lot of the changes I make for the final version will be cutting things out.

[Xathan]

@LC: Elves were named Homo Sapien Nobilis because the scientist in charge of naming them was a fan of fantasy and thought they looked simialr to the elves in stories. Just be glad he didn't think they looked like Vulcans and named them Homo Sapien Snobilis. :P

If the births of nonhumans coincided with the world wide natural disasters, I would imagine there would be more people taking notice.[/quote]Like I said before the ice caps must stay frozen. :P Frost Giants and such inhabit the polar regions and stop them from melting. (Warning this is only a semi-serious idea. I'm kinda partial to Florida not sinking below the rising waters. :))[/quote]If you feel comfortable with anthropomorphs Australia would be the place to have them appear. How I don't know. Another idea is that one or more of the Corporations conquered Australia and converted it back into a system of prison camps. Possibly for some of the groups they are fighting against. (I stuck with Australia only because it was what I brought up)[/quote]I like the rebirth of Atlantis and what you did with it. Psionics lend itself well to some of the imagines I have seen where people depict Atlantis as a city with strange crystals everywhere.[/quote]I don't know if any of these comments are helpful, but I figured I've been semi-lurking on these boards for some time I may as well contribute to something.
[/quote]
 
 They are very helpful, and have given me tons of ideas. Thanks. :D

[Epic Meepo]

Shadowrun doesnâ,¬,,¢t use d20 system rules, making it hard (read: impossible) to get my gaming group to play in it...

If I'm not mistaken, the only "official" Shadowrun still in existence is a d20 adaptation that began not long after the demise of FASA...

...but I whole-heartedly agree that the Shadowrun back story is out of step with the modern world, so I support your Shadowrun-eque history 100%.