Local Shadowrun History

Local History

The Albion Campaign - A lot of the material here dates from this campaign which took place circa 1992 to 1994 at Albion College. Scott Frank was the GM and we abused him unmercifully. This campaign was the springboard for both the House of Cards and Body Count. My original character was Wildeblood. However, he was a bit too powerful for the game, so he "mysteriously disappeared" and Dulcimer was introduced as my PC to go looking for him. Dulcimer, being the street samurai type, immediately "lead" the group into a very lucrative-yet-bloody raid on a corporate R&D facility. This raid was supposed to be wetwork, but we turned it into a hostile extraction (because it paid better). This failure to fulfill the original contract lead us into a war with the Mafia. A war, I might add, we gleefully escalated to satiate the needs of our egos. The game collapsed when the GM realized that his collective players could easily stay a step ahead of anything he could throw at us.
House of Cards - In game terms, this is a group of veteran 'runners who would die for each other. They organize themselves around the high cards of a standard playing deck. Notable personalities are Harley (Ace of Spades), Dulcimer (King of Spades), Wildeblood (King of Hearts), Autumn (Queen of Hearts), T (King of Clubs), and Phoenix (Ace of Diamonds). According to House legend, Harley, Wildeblood, Phoenix and T were all born in the late 20th century. Only T actually looks that old, but then the other three are all magically active to obscene levels (e.g. Wildeblood regenerates).
(As a "credit where credit is due" aside, the House of Cards has its origins in the "Real World™" and some of the personalities were loosely based on real people. Where applicable, these people are, in no particular order: Jason Demlow (Harley), Patric Rogers (Wildeblood), Autumn Nancarrow (Autumn), Tim Kornacki (T), and Will Neumann (Phoenix). Amanda Mattlin would have been the model for the Ace of Hearts and Jaymi Smith the Knight (Jack) of Hearts had either of those characters ever been introduced to the game. I'm not going to explain any of this. Instead, I'll leave you to wonder.)
Body Count - This was the name our shadowrun group got dubbed with. The game mechanics, like Real Life™, reflect the most efficient way to neutralize an enemy is to kill him. Thus, we generated a lot of corpses. I started the game using Wildeblood, but it was decided he was too powerful, so I switched to Dulcimer. Other members included Merlin (John Gilmore), Mr. Coffee (Jason Ruiter), Molotov (Chuck Brewer), and Bear ("Southern Fried Rigger" - got taken out in the first game session by an AV missile) (Colin Meilstrup). Other players included Louise Meilstrup-Ruiter, William Neumann, Michael Knabusch and Finian McGaffey.

Local History Cast of Characters

Dulcimer: Retired from Renraku after nearly 20 years in their security and "special operations" division, he moved to CalFree to "retire". He met Harley years before and when retirement bored him he took up Harley's invitation to become the King of Spades.
Wildeblood: A paranat and founding member of the House of Cards, he is the King of Hearts. Shortly after Body Count formed, he disappeared and Dulcimer was sent to Seattle to find him. He is extremely charismatic and knows many secrets. It is rumored that he is a good friend of Dorian Gray.
Harley: The Ace of Spades, Harley is one of the world'top decker's and physical adepts. Because he gets bored easily, he started the Troll Patrol, his own little group of "shadowrunners."
Dorian Gray: Also rumored to have been born in the 20th c., this enigmatic rigger-engineer turned corporate high-roller is the owner and CEO of Morpheus Vehicleworks. Most analysts place Morpheus Vehicleworks less than ten years away from being big enough to qualify for extra-territoriality.
Autumn: The Queen of Hearts. Autumn is her real name and she took leadership of the House when Wildbloode disappeared. She was royally pissed at Dulcimer when his war on the Mafia interferred with House business (the Mob had been a good client up to that point). [As a side note, Autumn the character was named after Autumn Nancarrow, a friend of mine at Albion.]

Bragging Rights

Robert Hayden started the ShadowTalk listserve after Scott and I annoyed the ShadowRN listserve by appending "matrix dialogue" to some of our posts to it. Some subscribers got annoyed by it and complained, but it inspired others. Hayden created the ShadowTalk list, several members of the Albion gaming group participated (notably Michael Knabusch and Michael Hilliard (aka Phellan, aka ?? (now has a new name which I need to find a record of))) and the rest is ShadowTalk legend.
A couple years ago Pyramid magazine published one of our pieces about the Tactical Computer (q.v. Shadowtech). That was very cool. If I find the link to it, I'll set it up.