Characters: The Oddity (Talanie 'Tala' Minnins)

Thought, consciousness, reason, whatever you want to call it, are so-called emergent properties, insomuch as there are no clear physical explanation for them, you just make a complex enough nervous system, and they are just there, they emerge.

Tala is one of these wonders.

A quick (and simple) genetic resequencing to improve her memory left her with an interesting side effect. Something no one would believe and something Corps would kill for.

Tala is, for all intents and purposes, a telepath.

She found this out soon after her treatment, and has kept it secret ever since. Tala is a part-time writer and high-level division leader for Infinity Logistics, and on a good day, she 'overhears' enough criminal and corrupt thoughts to feed a lifetime of information-gathering and prison time.

She became an information broker, selling and trading titbits of information, always careful to keep herself in the shadows.

Some fight the corruption of the Corps from the outside, with guns and explosions. Some do it from the inside, with a smile.


A test character. Gave her the Arcane background (Psionics) to see how a telepath would work in New Hades.

WE DARED TO PLAY GOD, NOW LOOK AT WHAT WE BROUGHT FORTH!!....

So Shadowrun famously has fantasy elements in a cyberpunk setting. I kind of crave that for New Hades, but don't want to simply do a pastiche of it. Also, I could introduce aliens, but again, don't want to have to fall into the same cliches. The solution (so far, it might change....) is to use genetic engineering.

So if in need a monster as a guard (troll, Thing-Man-isn't-Supposed-To-Know, humanoid with 8 eyes), I'm going to explain it as being a MegaGen construct. The discovery of DIVERS (Delivery Viral Genetic Substitution), viruses that could take anything and splice it into anything, allowed for a blank canvas. With a little trial and error, any animal could be fine tuned to its makers' content. Big teeth, fine! 6 legs? Good times! Tentacles?.... FINE!

It's all about the money (The MegaCorps)

Ah the MegaCorps.... Where would sci fi be without them? No longer were the shadow-y dealing of governments be enough! Oh no! We needed bigger, badder, stronger!

I know virtually nothing of economy or global trade/business, but everyone else seems to have MegaCorps, so hey, I jumped on that bandwagon.

What I tried to change were the key players. I didn't want my characters to identify as Americans or British or whatever, so that's where the War came in. After all that destruction, and the unnumbered waves of refugees, I wanted to break with all these early 21st century trappings. So nationality is something that only matters on your ID file. Also ethnicity, people have names and backgrounds that make little sense to our ears (Caucasian people having Japanese names, for example). Also, you could live and die in Little Moscow (still to be mapped), speaking Russian every day of your life, without ever leaving New Hades.

But back to the Corps. At this stage, they are just these brooding presences, with tentacles all over town. The only thing that keeps them in check are each other, and the nightmare scenario of another major conflict. With a very few exceptions, each Corps will be involved in pretty much everything you can think of (Pharma, Weapons, Aerospace, Weapons, etc.) but they have a tendency to specialise in one or two areas. Eclipse, Inc., for example, is one of the major players in space. They have a reputation for inflexibility and ruthlessness, in one case eliminating a couple of hundred rebelling miners without a second thought. 

So for now, most of these are simply logos on boxes in alleyways. But never forget, they are pulling all the strings. So sooner or later, all roads lead to the Corps.