You live in a fantasy setting. There are humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, trolls, magic, monsters, and so on.

However, it's also a cyberpunk dystopia, in that the setting you live in is a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology.

Except there's no such thing as computers. There's barely such as thing as technology, unless you wanna count crowbars and levers and pulleys and stuff.

So it's a fantapunk dystopia, in that the setting you live in is a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by magical technology.

Industrial espionage and corporate warfare runs rampant. 

A heist– a successful theft of information and/or magical power which may or may not involve a physical break-in at a location owned by a corporation or organization– is one of the main tools employed by both corporate rivals and underworld figures. Diviners-- mages or clerics who can tap into an immersive, three-dimensional-seeming plane of magical reality-- are opposed by rival diviners and lethal, potentially brain-destroying magical beings called "E.G.s" – short for "Elemental Guards" –who are protected by street fighters and/or mercenaries, often with magical implants (most often called Steelware, although elves make Woodware and Glassware, respectively), magicians, and other exotic figures, on such missions as they seek access, physical or remote, to the power structures of rival groups. Dragons who can take human form are commonly found in high positions of corporate power.

Megacorporations control the lives of their employees and command their own armies. Magical advances make steelware (replacement body parts) but also alkware (augmented alchemical-vat-grown body parts implanted in place of or in tandem with natural organs) common. The Planeweb is worldwide information network that users interact with via direct mental interface. When conflicts arise, corporations, governments, organized crime syndicates, and even wealthy individuals subcontract their dirty work to specialists, who then perform "darkraids" or missions undertaken by deniable assets without identities or those that wish to remain unknown. The most skilled of these specialists, called darkraiders, have earned a reputation for getting the job done. They have developed a knack for staying alive, and prospering.


ARBALEST MACROTECHNOLOGY
 specializes in law enforcement, military hardware and arms, aerospace (they have five floating fortresses), entertainment, transportation, and smaller divisions in many other areas.

AZTECHNOLOGY
 make everything from chemicals to spell scrolls to military goods and magical supplies. They’ve got their fingers in more pies than just about any other mega, and their public relations campaigns are second to none. Which is good, because
they’re also all about blood magic and evil conspiracies. Allegedly. Just don’t say anything about that within earshot of the Big A’s ferocious legal team.

EVO CORPORATION
They focus a lot on transhumanist projects ranging from steelware, anti-aging experiments, and other even more out-there projects designed to take people to the next stage of evolution. On top of that, they’re the first megacorp to successfully set up a base
on the moon. Evo leads the megas in goods and services designed with orks, trolls, elves, dwarfs, changelings, and
other nonhuman people in mind.

HORIZON GROUP
specializes in anything that can be used to manipulate opinion (media, advertising, entertainment, social networking), along with consumer goods and services, real estate and development, and pharmaceuticals.

TSUHA TECHNOLOGIES
all about the elementals. Automata, heavy industry, you name it— but it’s less well known that they’re one of the biggest manufacturers of magical goods around.
in bed with the Yakuza
 pays very well for success in shadowruns, but when you fail they … disapprove.

NEONET
NeoNET is the primary power behind the Grid Overwatch Division, and they
practically invented the Ioun stone. Needless to say, they’re heavily invested in Planeweb infrastructure, along with steelware, woodware, glasswear, alchemy, aerospace, small arms, and many others. As a corporation, NeoNET is pretty fractured, with
the major factions controlled by a long-time corporate raider, a reclusive dwarf, and the great dragon Celedyr.

RAKU INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS
Raku controls the world’s largest info repository
 their Red Warrior military automata are universally feared. Not respected, feared.

SAEDER-KRUPP HEAVY INDUSTRIES
Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries can be summed up in one word: Lofwyr. The great dragon owns nearly one hundred percent of this
German-based megacorp, and he rules it with the kind of attention to detail that only one of his kind can maintain. It’s not impossible to put one over on Lofwyr, but it’s very difficult—and usually fatal. The wyrm doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and nightraiders who go against him (or fail in one of his jobs) might just find themselves on his list—which is probably also his lunch menu. S-K is primarily involved in heavy industry, chemicals, finance, and aerospace with a presence in many other areas, which is just what you’d expect from the largest corporation in the world.

SHIAWASE CORPORATION
The oldest of the megas, run in a traditional “family” style, with most employees signing lifetime contracts and even marrying within the corp. Families, however, tend to squabble, and plenty of runners have made good cash in the course of these quarrels. As for what they do, what don’t they do? Either directly or through subsidiaries, Shiawase has its hands in elemental energy, environmental engineering, alchemy, heavy industry, technical service, minerals, military goods, and a whole lot more.

WUXING INCORPORATED
The corporation is quiet and conservative, the stealthiest of the Big Ten.  Traditionally focused on finance and shipping concerns, Wuxing also specializes in magical services and goods, vying for the top spot of most mystic megacorp. Wuxing has also expanded heavily into other markets, including agriculture, engineering, consumer goods, and chemicals.


God of charm: CN
God of thieves: CN
Goddess of magic: LN
God of knowledge: LN
Goddess of creation: LN
God of money: NE



Former corp enforcer
Gang member
Merc
Street enforcer 
Barbarian
Combat Mage
Martial artist

Burned out Mage
Thief

Sniffer
Detective
Former wage Mage
Street Mage

Rider
Bard
Shaman
Street shaman
Charmer
Medic





WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING

Stealing secrets: Whether it’s plans for a new magical weapon, information on a corporate manager’s private life, or details of a corp's research budget over the next year, information can equal power. So darkraiders are often sent to snatch information— the kind worth something to someone.

Burglary: Sometimes information needs to be stolen, and sometimes it’s actual stuff. It may be a racing carriage prototype (call me if you get that job—I want in), an artifact stored away in some museum, a corporate exec’s left shoe, an eye, or something truly esoteric. Whatever it is, it’s not easy to get, which is why someone’s willing to pay you to go fetch. Sometimes this requires subtlety and stealth; misdirection, subterfuge, impeccable timing, and nuanced moves. Other times you bust in, grab what you want, then run like hell.

Breaking shit: Sometimes you’ve got to break someone's carriage to remind him what he could lose if he keeps making waves. Sometimes you’ve got to burn an exec's house down to inspire her to go into seclusion and contemplate her life choices. Sometimes you might have to break parts of an ambitious executive’s body, like his head, to encourage less teamwork and more independent entrepreneurialism. Destruction, in all its glorious forms, is a standard part of darkraiding. You just have to decide how much destruction you’re willing to live with.

Extraction or insertion: In the old days, corporations would get into bidding wars to win the rights to employ hot talents in all sorts of fields, including engineers, researchers, actors, and even corporate managers. That was before corporations got the leverage they have now. These days, the megacorps have large legal departments and considerable security devoted to making sure people stay in place, employed for life by the same boss. Which means you can’t just wave money at an employee if you want to hire them; instead, you’ve got to get them out of where they are. Extractions of valuable personnel, and then insertions of those people into their new corporate homes, are a regular part of the darkraiding biz.

Delivery: Darkraiders get jobs like making sure a vial of dragon blood gets to the right enchanter or delivering a sample of the newly synthesized narcotic to the labs for chemical analysis or, always a favorite, take a thing they don’t want to tell you about to a person they don’t want to identify. As you might guess, there’s a little more than travel going on here. There will be people who want whatever it is you’re carrying—or want it back—and there’s a good chance they’ll come after you while you’re in transit. Stay sharp, move fast, and don’t drop anything important. Oh, and make sure all your papers are in order, because “delivery” usually means “smuggling,” which means transit documents with all the right clearances that look good enough to get you across security checkpoints.

Protection: Just like darkraiders are hired to steal information and objects, break things, and extract people, darkraidersare also hired to stop other darkraidersfrom stealing, breaking, and extracting. Sometimes the employer thinks darkraidersare the best defense against darkraiders; other times the employer just needs expendable assets she can plausibly deny knowing anything about. Protection can be bodyguarding, defending, checking an area out for traps and ambushes, or tracking down and neutralizing threats. The important thing is to be as good as you say you are.

Hooding: The world might try to beat it out of us, but some darkraidershold on to a streak of idealism. They favor jobs that hurt the rich and powerful and help everyone else. It may be as simple as stealing cash or precious goods and redistributing them, but it can also be more sophisticated. Remind me to tell you sometime about the guys who broke into a magical research facility and got all the royalties in perpetuity for a new gizmo assigned to the residents of the 178th Street Clinic and Shelter.

Misdirection: In misdirection jobs, you get to be the waving hand or the dancing sideshow, keeping the attention of law enforcement or other darkraider teams away from whatever important drek is going down. Of course, all that attention is seldom admiring and it’s unlikely any of the watchers have your best interests at heart, so be ready to be creative and fast on your feet.