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MidgetMarine
2012-09-20, 10:53 PM
Ladies and gentlemen of the GiTP Forums. This is it. I am about to intrust you with something very dear to me. The finale of my current campaign. Now, this is Shadowrun 20th anniversary that I'm running BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING, read on to understand.

One of my characters was secretly, since character creation, in possession of a datalock (For non shadowrunners, a implated box/hard drive that holds information, that the holder does not have access to, they are only a carrier.) However, in this case, the character (an Ork warrior named Ivan Toler but known as Rails) Lost his memory thanks to someone's experiments on him. He is basically a killing machine with no mercy. Yet one of the most tragically human characters I've seen in ages. Anyways, Rails has, over the course of the campaign had flashes of memory in moments of great stress. Last session, the group found out about the datalock and it ended with the sentence "And suddenly, it all comes back." Now, Rails' memories were in there, as planned from day 1, as was information on who did this to him. But let me ask you a question GiTP Forum members, What else was on that datalock? Was it an unfinished assasination contract? Video of his wedding? LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOU WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF THIS CHARACTER
. So, what information was on that datalock? you decide.

(I'm kind of excited about the prospect of this actually working.)

TheThan
2012-09-20, 11:09 PM
Here's a few ideas.
You could make it something completely silly, like Colonel Sander’s fried chicken recipe.

Or you could make it something gonzo like a message from himself to himself, think total recall here. Not sure what it would say, maybe some sort of warning.

It could be something sentimental, like a video of his wedding day, or a love letter from his loved ones, that sort of thing.

Heatwizard
2012-09-21, 01:02 AM
A .txt file, consisting only of the number 142.18 (http://m-net.arbornet.org/~kzyla/tootsie/).

Rockphed
2012-09-21, 01:10 AM
Obviously it is the keycodes to the US missile launch protocol, which have been dutifully handed down for a thousand generations.

Kol Korran
2012-09-21, 01:25 AM
I do think more information about this character, what the party went through, and how he responded to thinks might help us provide something more tailored for the character.

That said, here is an idea: You need to explain why the memory was wiped, and also give this long suffering character a light at the end of the tunnel. I suggest the following: You throw in some love story, a touching one, one of gentle, soft, rare love. And you also put in a child or more, perhaps non identical twins- a son and daughter.

Then the ork got a mission, a mission that was too amoral even for him, by someone the party might have allready dealt with and got the better of (or someone for their last mission). The ork refused to complete the mission, and tried to evade the contractors, but they found his loved one (doesn't have to be wife yet) and killed her. But the babies were hidden somewhere else. They left a message. "we'll find you, and then your babies, and extract vengence. NO one messes with us!"

Using his contacts he hid his children way away, paying a talented hacker to erase their identities and build new ones. As for himself- he couldn't let himself get caught and his memory used to find his last loved ones, so he went to a dear friend who dealt with memory alteration, and had the memory wiped. For him it was also a sort of punishment for the death of his loved one, and an easy way to "forget" the blame and heart wrecking pain. Only the friend wanted him to have SOME way to get things back, and gave him the datalock, encrypted to insanity.

Yes, I know it's a bit dramatic, but it might work? unlocking the data lock brings back both memories of the loved one, the sacrifice/ escape, but also theinfo of the children- hope?

Ninjadeadbeard
2012-09-21, 01:27 AM
On a serious note: Make it something soul-crushing. Like reveal that someone he's killed recently was his brother, or something.

On a sillier note...

ASTONISHMENT: It would appear this datalock contains the memories and programming of some sort of advanced Hunter-Killer Assassination robot. Astounding!

LIE: Oh my no! I am not being overwritten by the datalock! That would be terrible. And sad.

BOAST: Although if I do say so myself this particular bit of programming seems, well, ingenious. Such a beautifully crafted weapon of mass chaos and destruction!

BEMUSED QUERY: What are you looking at, Meatbag?

UNCONSTRAINED GLEE: Destroy all humans! Destroy all humans! Ex-term-in-ate!!!

Acanous
2012-09-21, 05:04 AM
He was the big bad all along. The owner/CEO of a megacorp, who altered his body and his mind to better go undercover as a runner and get closer to the PCs. Dude had it locked until his subconsious ruled that the party trusted him enough that he could betray them in one fell swoop, taking all their intel and evidence of other megacorp criminal activity while giving them a long time to think in maximum security prison.

DigoDragon
2012-09-21, 06:35 AM
Maybe the data is a big reveal that he is actually a clone of the currently dead original person. That would be pretty interesting.

nedz
2012-09-21, 06:53 AM
<Insert name of BBEG's Dragon> is really his father.

Silma
2012-09-21, 07:48 AM
He was the one that implanted this box/hard drive into himself. He was the one making the experiments using himself as a test subject.

MidgetMarine
2012-09-21, 12:55 PM
*Stunned silenced.*
WOW. Um...Wow. How do you guys come up with this stuff?
SO MANY GOOD IDEAS.

paddyfool
2012-09-21, 03:02 PM
He was the one that implanted this box/hard drive into himself. He was the one making the experiments using himself as a test subject.

Tres Zaphod Beeblebrox. The only question is, why lie to yourself? (Unless it was originally only meant to be temporary...)

Some more ideas:
- BZZT: Your sentence is now served. Now learn the crimes for which you were sentenced to X years of amnesia (cue list of appalling crimes). You now have a choice: do you wish to carry on living as you are, or do you want the memories of the person you used to be to be returned to you?

- "If you are receiving this information, I am dead, and you are free to reclaim the life I stole from you." (Cue saga of dames, wealth, etc., in another city somewhere).

- Sleeper cell 117: activate. Your mission is to eliminate this target, found at these coordinates. Memories of your relevant training will be restored to you for the purposes of this mission. Eliminate the target and you get the rest.

- The memories, whatever they are, are a lie. Possibly generated by an AI within the box, or by some unknown party with access to the box's files, which has been monitoring his behaviour and the group in such a way as to come up with a convincing lie. (Apologies for my ignorance of the level of AI found within shadowrun).

Slipperychicken
2012-09-21, 05:32 PM
Countless videos of the character training in a closed room with commentary about a new program "to forge soldiers from complete garbage". Soon enough, he's no longer using punching bags or targets, but he begins beating live, screaming humans to death with his fists, shooting them in target ranges, while they're usually tied to metal poles. He appears lifeless and emotionless, following orders precisely and without question or hesitation. Pictures of the character posing for photos with a woman and two children in front of a suburban house... he's younger than in the videos, much less muscular, and is wearing glasses.

A short letter detailing how the author is "a monster.. so much death. So senseless". The character needed to be "let go", since "funding ran out, I had no choice. Before they were going to liquidate you, I gave you another chance at life. The smoke should have cleared by the time you read this, so come to [address] and have your revenge on me".


Short Version: Basically, the Ork was taken from his life, mindwiped, and trained to be a mindless supersoldier. Funding ran out, so the [Big scary organization] had to "liquidate" all subjects. The scientist in charge of the Ork took pity, and released him into the world for a "second chance". The datablock contains instructions to locate the scientist. The scientist, emotionally, is a wreck, having taken to drinking and can never forgive himself for the horrors he's done. He gives the Ork a choice: Kill the scientist who ruined his life, or let him live on in misery.

turkey901
2012-09-21, 05:58 PM
The datalock contains the essence of a renegade AI. The AI is extemely opposed to life and has the capability of suberting the entireity of cyberspace. Before it was able to access this function its creator managed to effectivly reduce its power, temporarily cutting off its escape. Destroying it wouldnt work ( you can come up with your own reasons why, maybe its a part of an existing system and the destruction of this piece would bring the world down, etc ) so he came up with the only prison that he thought could hold it, a human mind. The process would take so much of a persons mental capacity to act as a jailkeeper that it would amount to a near complete mind wipe. Your character stepped in ( assisstant, concerned citizen, unwitting merc, etc ) and only now is aware of what/who is sharing his head space. This program would only be too happy to be released into the world or failing that will settle for slowly attempting to gain control of you or influence your actions and hope you die so it may eventually escape.

Kalirren
2012-09-21, 06:38 PM
He is walking Wikileaks.

Slipperychicken
2012-09-21, 07:03 PM
He is walking Wikileaks.

But why stuff the information in some Ork, rather than release it to the press?

kardar233
2012-09-21, 07:12 PM
I like the idea of a Wintermute-esque AI living in the box, making up fake memories for the guy so that he can execute his nefarious plan while making the Ork think he's doing something great.

Hanuman
2012-09-21, 07:17 PM
The datalock contains the essence of a renegade AI. The AI is extemely opposed to life and has the capability of suberting the entireity of cyberspace. Before it was able to access this function its creator managed to effectivly reduce its power, temporarily cutting off its escape. Destroying it wouldnt work ( you can come up with your own reasons why, maybe its a part of an existing system and the destruction of this piece would bring the world down, etc ) so he came up with the only prison that he thought could hold it, a human mind. The process would take so much of a persons mental capacity to act as a jailkeeper that it would amount to a near complete mind wipe. Your character stepped in ( assisstant, concerned citizen, unwitting merc, etc ) and only now is aware of what/who is sharing his head space. This program would only be too happy to be released into the world or failing that will settle for slowly attempting to gain control of you or influence your actions and hope you die so it may eventually escape.
^This, except Daemon voiced by Colombe Demers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEgFgT5u8E

But yeah I think it really should be an AI entity which reveals itself globally as something important as the second coming, that way you get the muggles and the tech heads to jump on it, and because of the emotional and mental importance on the event and everyone going bananas you can use that as justification to trigger an event based on the magisphere or whatever its called, the thing that uses thoughts, feeling and directed importance to determine magical focus.
Because of so much focus and attention and praise and dislike and suspicion and whathaveyou around the AI goddess you get this big storm of intention and focus about her, causing her to be a nexus of magical energy herself.

And there you have it, BBEG.

Lycar
2012-09-23, 07:09 AM
So, what information was on that datalock? you decide.

(I'm kind of excited about the prospect of this actually working.)

Okay, there are already a lot of good suggestions for that. There is another thing one might consider: If the contents of the datalock were supposed to be revealed eventually and if there is someone besides the PC who wants to keep the data alive...

What if the PC suddenly becomes aware of a few close calls he survived only because of serendipity... Except it wasn't serendipity but a 'guardian angel' of sorts, tasked with keeping him (and thus the data) alive on behalf of that mysterious someone else?

Misery Esquire
2012-09-23, 07:18 AM
OPENING...
...
PROCESSING...
...
...
<<FILES DELETED>>
<<NOTE>>
It wasn't worth it. I'm sorry.
<<NOTE ENDS>>
<<ERROR : END OF MEMORY>>

Naaaaah.

endoperez
2012-09-23, 04:21 PM
Digital: A Love Story (http://scoutshonour.com/digital/), a free and small indie game, might work for inspiration.

It's more of a story than a game, really. It is set in 1980s, simulates early online communications (BBSs and so on), and consists of pseudonyms discussing and solving the fate of several advanced AIs and, incidentally, falling in love.

Secrets, conspiracies, larger-than-life AIs, relationship drama... It ties all of these different things together pretty well.

Deathkeeper
2012-09-23, 05:25 PM
He is actually the most powerful being in the world and nearly immortal; he decided to start some LARPing in an effort to find some excitement, but decided to lock his own memories away because he knew he'd be too tempted to break character and cheat with his ultimate cosmic powers when things got hairy.

Anxe
2012-09-23, 10:43 PM
So the person who hired him as an assassin must've wanted to store info there and retrieve it later, right? The info is probably a video of Rails killing one of his old targets. He recorded it using some tech in his eyes, so its from his POV. The person who hired him wanted to make sure the target ended up dead, so he asked for a datalock recording. This means the killed person, would be someone who is difficult to kill and difficult to know if they are dead, like Osama.

I think that's the most logical thing to store there. His memories just got backed up there at some point later on.

Siosilvar
2012-09-23, 10:46 PM
A single question:

"What can change the nature of a man?"

Anderlith
2012-09-23, 11:24 PM
The datalock is of a man talking about how he has to hide, how "they" are following him. "They" are too close now & he needs to find an out, camara pans over to a test subject lying on a table (the character) The man talking explains that he is going to hide inside the man's mind, it's the only place that's safe. Now that the datalock has leaked the downloaded consciousness & the player's will merge, fight, or possess him, whichever you think is better. Also when the datalock bleeds through the player will know & understand what it is the man is hiding from & why. Fill this for whatever interesting plot hook or adventure seed you want.

As an added bonus you might want to consider that the datalock stores a Free AI that the character was supposed to transport somewhere or hide but his loss of memory removed that prerogative was lost after the implantation, or the amnesia was deliberate to hide the known existence of the hidden AI

Kol Korran
2012-09-24, 12:04 AM
A single question:

"What can change the nature of a man?"

Bloody hell! That blasted me to the past! good memories, good memories... Thank you! It's been awhile since I thought about that game. :smallbiggrin: Hmmm... I need to find if I can find it anywhere.

Morph Bark
2012-09-24, 04:23 AM
I'd go for something of sentimental value to him (such as the wedding video idea suggested in an earlier post) or something that connects him to one of the other PCs, which could even be a high-value assassination contract. Something that will arouse emotion in the other players as well, at the very least. Possibly something that will create an ending to the campaign as well, though you should talk that over with the GM.

If he'd be psychically forced to assassinate a fellow PC for instance, he could do so while acting in a manner that seems rather out-of-character for him -- mainly since he now has all his memories back and as such might not be as merciless and cold-blooded anymore, especially when he has to kill one of his friends. Heck, he could end up murdering one of his best friends while crying a lot.

After that, he convinces the other party members to go "collect the reward" with him, but end up killing the man who gave the assignment.

JohnnyCancer
2012-09-25, 03:54 AM
The uncut footage of a suppressed documentary filmed in some oppressive, dangerous corner of the world. It documents some of the traditions of a minority group targeted for extermination by the regime (and effectively their last testament), the actual war crimes committed by the regime, and proof linking the regime's actions to a profiteering MegaCorp who doesn't want the film shown.