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Chronologically, Shadowplay takes place a year before the previous novel, Streets of Blood.
Nigel Findley is the author of the novels 2XS (1991), Shadowplay (1993), Lone Wolf (1994), and House of the Sun (1995). He also wrote many of the early Shadowrun sourcebooks: Paranormal Animals of North America (1990), The Universal Brotherhood (1990), Native American Nations 1 (1991), Native American Nations 2 (1991), Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Real Life (1992), One Stage Before (1992), Tir Tairngire (1993), Corporate Shadowfiles (1993), Lone Star (1994), Paradise Lost (1994), Double Exposure (1994), and Aztlan (1995).
p.14: "Frequent retellings of Louis' story on 'tabloid-style' news shows had embellished matters until the facts became distorted into a kind of urban myth: 'Child Grows Up in Matrix.' (Actually, Sly had heard rumors that there actually were children who'd been raised entirely in the Matrix. But, strictly speaking, Louis wasn't one of them.)" The rumors refer to Renny, a child raised entirely in the matrix as part of Dr. Thomas Halberstam's Matrix-born project. See the short story Virtual Realities by Chris Kubasik in the first-edition Virtual Realities sourcebook (p.82). Dr. Halberstam also reappears in the Threats sourcebook (Halberstam's Babies).
p.15: Sly was paid ¥10,000 to acquire the personnel file of Maria Morgenstern. She subcontracted the run to Louis for ¥1,000. That leaves her a ¥9,000 profit margin. Never work for this woman.
p.19: Falcon is being chased by Disassemblers, a troll street gang in downtown Seattle (Seattle p.156, New Seattle p.39).
p.20: Falcon is himself a member of the First Nation gang. Shadowplay is the first mention of First Nation, later referred to as the First Nations (plural) in Mob War (p.40) and New Seattle (p.39).
p.27: Falcon's principal source of knowledge about Amerindian culture and shamanistic magic is an antique book, Spiritual Traditions of the Northwestern and California Intermountain Tribes by H.T. Langland. Can't find it in any online library catalogues, but it might have been an actual book on Findley's reference shelf. The testimonial at the beginning of House of the Sun was written by Holly Langland. Coincidence?
p.31: "Classic angst-rock issuing from cheesy speakers as background music -- something by Jetblack, Sly noted." Jetblack is a Jim Morrison-like musician who faked his own death and went underground after becoming a vampire. He's featured in the published adventure One Stage Before, also written by Nigel Findley.
p.38: the Armadillo is a decker bar in Puyallup (Seattle p.141, New Seattle p.131), owned and run by a retired decker named Theresa Smeland. Theresa mislikes her given name, and prefers to go by her initials "T.S." The sourcebooks hint that she recruits deckers for the Mafia, but that doesn't figure in her appearance in Shadowplay. The Armadillo has an extensive closed-circuit simsense surveillance system which can be operated via datajack from the back office.
p.45: "She remembered getting a call last year from the head of Yamatetsu's local operation, a contract to dig up background on some street op called Dirk Montgomery. Everybody works for everybody, right?" That would have been Jacques Barnard checking out Dirk in 2XS. Small world, huh?
p.47: Falcon's gang, First Nation, is at war with the Bloody Screamers (Seattle p.156, New Seattle p.39), another Downtown gang.
p.59: Firearms aren't in common use among street gangs in 2053: "Like most of the First Nation gangers, he'd bought himself a 'Saturday Night Special' -- a jury-rigged, single-shot zip gun, picked up for about twenty nuyen from a bartender in a dockside tavern. But -- again like most of his First Nation colleagues -- he'd never used the weapon, never intended to use it. Owning a zip gun, carrying it in his waistband, wasn't much more than macho posturing ... a gun was more a prop, like a jacket with the gang colors, not a tool to be used."
p.60: Falcon picks up a Fichetti Security 500 light pistol for ¥450. Lousy deal. List price is ¥400, and with a street index of 0.8 he should have been able to pick it up for ¥320.
p.64: Kamikaze Sushi is owned and operated by a Japanese man named Tiger, whose cybered reflexes make him the fastest sushi chef in Seattle. He has a habit of matching his customers drink for drink, which unfortunately impairs his skill to the point that he has on occasion served his own fingers to customers.
p.72: Jacques Barnard's replacement as head of Yamatetsu Seattle is Blake Hood. Barnard was promoted to head Yamatetsu North America following the events of 2XS (Corporate Shadowfiles, p.152), and eventually promoted again to Chief Operations Officer of Yamatetsu (Corporate Download, p.115).
p.78: Modal is addicted to "deadhead", a drug which blocks out emotion. No fear, anger, sorrow, joy, love, or anything.
p.93: The Concord of Zurich-Orbital is an agreement made by the major megacorps under the direction of the Corporate Court following the Crash of 2029, under which they agree not to pursue or employ technologies that might destabilize their mutually beneficial business interests. Anti-satellite warfare, aggressive computer-viral warfare ... and untraceable fiber-optic eavesdropping. The subject of secret, pan-corporate concords is covered, briefly, in Corporate Shadowfiles (p.102).
p.104: Agarwal collects and restores antique automobiles. Among the dozen cars in his collection are a 2005 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, a 2000 Acura Demon, a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4, and a 1991 Calloway Twin Turbo Corvette.
p.125: Knife-Edge, Slick, Benbo, and Van are all from outside the sprawl, special forces from the Sioux government Office of Military Intelligence (OMI). Night-walker, Cowgirl, Cat-dancing, and Marci were all local shadowrunners hired to help them.
p.127: "Argent had a strong -- Sly thought obsessive -- hatred of Yamatetsu, for some reason he never discussed with anyone." That reason would be the death of several teammates in a shadowrun against Yamatetsu's Integrated Services Division in 2XS.
p.134: Knife-Edge describes Argent as, "Another local runner, used to work with a chummer of my brother's, before he got geeked." That would be Hawk, a member of the Wrecking Crew who died in the ill-fated shadowrun against ISP.
p.160: a Barret sniper rifle in action. Modal describes it on p.170: "You ever hear of a Barret? It's old, maybe nineteen-eighties or nineties. But it's the ultimate sniper rifle. It's a big thing. Bolt action, single-shot. But it's chambered for fifty-caliber rounds. Bloody fifty-cal machine gun rounds, mate. It'll take any standard MG ammunition -- military ball, tracer, explosive, SLAP, APDS, white phosphorous -- and it's accurate at a klick and a half. A good sniper can squeeze off three shots before the first hits." The sniper at the pier was probably using "APDS tipped with depleted uranium. The ultimate anti-armor round. The slug hits anything solid -- like armor -- and the kinetic energy pushes the uranium over the activation threshold. It catches fire, and burns at more than two thousand degrees Celsius."
APDS stands for Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot, available in the Street Samurai Catalogue (p.63). I don't know anything about SLAP ammunition (Standard Light Armor Piercing, maybe?). A newer version of the classic Barret, the Model 121, is described in the Fields of Fire sourcebook (p.35), probably inspired by its appearance in this novel. I suggest using ranges for a Heavy Machine Gun for the Barret 121, rather than a sniper rifle. Under SR3, a sniper rifle has an extreme range of 1 km, while a HMG has an extreme range of 1.5 km, which is more consistent with the caliber and Modal's description.
p.174: "The Sheraton's weapons detectors would pick up their handguns, and Modal's Ingram. As in most better-class hotels, the security personnel would simply have recorded that the guests in rooms 1203 and 1205 were carrying 'personal defense devices.' But the matter wouldn't be so routine if the electronics suite were to pick up the AK concealed under somebody's coat." An important point for GMs to keep in mind: runners can go almost anywhere with a pistol, occasionally even an SMG. In Seattle, at least, it's practically expected. But heavier weapons will provoke a response.
p.177: "In 2041, an Atlanta-based corporation called Lanrie -- a small player, its influence limited to the Confederated American States -- infected a competitor in Miami with a tailored computer virus. Somehow the major zaibatsus found out about it. Under the terms of the Concord of Zurich-Orbital, and with the sanction of the Corporate Court, the megacorporations totally destroyed Lanrie. Shattered its financial structure. Destroyed its facilities and assets. Executed its Board of Directors. All as an object lesson. Since then nobody has actually practiced viral warfare."
p.188: Typical contents of a synthleather wallet: "Laminated hard-copy printouts of the personal drek found on anybody's credstick -- driver's license, DocWagon contract, gun license, etcetera drek etcetera..." All this information (and more) is coded on an individual's personal credstick, but it's customary to carry hardcopy as well.
p.191-194: Findley describes Shadowland -- what it is, how it works. Sly considers the possibility that Shadowland is secretly controlled by a Megacorp. If so, she can't trust it. If not, she still doubts whether it can defend itself against a concerted attack by a mega.
p.218: The matrix muscle of the UCAS armed forces is the CSF (Cyberspace Special Forces). The CSF have no qualms about employing lethal intrusion countermeasures. Additionally, they are able to employ some technique -- probably related to Black Ice -- that prevents a decker from jacking out.
p.261: For long-haul cross-country freight, the NAN and Australia are using fully automated trucks with up to five self-powered trailers in tow (100m bumper-to-bumper). These road trains are piloted by limited artificial intelligence expert systems. They often don't use headlights, only basic running lights after dark. Night drivers are advised to be very careful on narrow roads.
Automated freight trucks also make an appearance in the Super Tuesday adventure scenario, Strange Attraction (Steve Kenson, 1996).
p.271: Most minor transactions in Sioux Nation are conducted using hard currency: "Coins made of metallicized plastic, bills of coated mylar."
p.286: In one of life's peculiar little coincidences (arranged by the Author), Sly discovers that Dirk Montgomery is living and working in Cheyenne. He's still there at the beginning of House of the Sun.
p.288: An amusing description of the Shadowrun version of an online chat room: a virtual club. "The patrons of Erewhon reminded her of a group of video-game characters who'd taken a night off and gone out for a beer."
p.292: Sly asks for a Phase Loop Recourser (PLR), a device which used to be effective in blocking the lethal effects of Black Ice. It was also mentioned in Into the Shadows (Whitechapel Rose). As is so often the case, however, yesterday's State of the Art is today's junk. "PLRs don't do squat against the ice they're writing now. Any black ice worth its name's gonna go through a PLR like it wasn't there."
p.304: Mary Windsong uses an unspecified magical technique to take Falcon on an astral quest, hoping to awaken his latent magical powers and help him reach his totem. As an untrained magician, Falcon shouldn't be capable of reaching the metaplanes independently. Perhaps Mary is an initiate practicing a metamagical technique that mimics the Astral Gateway power of a Free Spirit. Or possibly there is a free spirit helping her, of which Falcon is unaware. Or Mary might actually be a Free Spirit in human guise -- this would also fit the circrumstances of their meeting.
p.311: A nasty drawback to a datajack: simsense torture. All of the pain, none of the physical limitations.
p.330: Like Twist in Never Deal With A Dragon, Falcon employs his untested magical abilities in ways that normally require a great deal of training and practice (sorcery, astral projection). Apparently, a shaman's Totem can grant special proficiency in extreme circumstances.
p.370: Off-planet accounts with the Zurich Gemeinschaft Bank are exempt from any taxes or IRS audits.
Sharon Young has a cameo appearance in House of the Sun (Nigel Findley, 1995).
Argent also appears in 2XS (Nigel Findley, 1991), Lone Wolf (Nigel Findley, 1994), and is the main character of Run Hard, Die Fast (Mel Odom, 1999).
Aftermath: Sly posted the fiber-optics manipulation technology to the Corporate Court, where it immediately became available to every AAA megacorp and any decker with the ability to hack into the Read-Only board (since Sly herself could do this after a five-year hiatus from the Matrix, I have to assume that it's within the ability of any reasonably competent decker). This represents a SOTA (State Of The Art) increase -- all secure systems will have to add new levels of encryption and error-detection/correction to any information passed through vulnerable fiber-optic lines. Files will get bigger and transmission times slower, at least until data compression algorithms and processing speeds catch up. GMs can use this to justify the wildly fluctuating file sizes in earlier published adventures.
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