What am I missing? Options

[Impact]

Okay, planning a nasty run for my players - wanting to make it pretty tight, so here's what i have so far and let's see the holes....

the setup:

a few games back, one of the players(who invited teh team back to his house with the merchandise they were stealing) blew up his domicile after the team ran on discovery that the corp who's ledger books they had obtained(namely, Disney), had located tehm and was on the way. Player, who had neglected to inform me that he had wired his house, sez that he's setting the house to explode once the Disney team is inside.

I let this happen, since, well, this is an ecellent opportunity to instruct the players in why we don;t do such things.

Okay. So, player goes into hidding, and time has passed. He's running VERY low on cash, and things seemed to have cooled off(disney not having much of any prescence in their town). So, he's going to get contacted about a job, and being broke..well, he's gonna take it.

So - who's behind the job? turns out the blast killed 3 out of 5 disney sams, and one of teh 2 survivors didn't really make it out 100%. Together, the two convinced the widows and widower of the 3 ictims to donate 1/2 of their insurance policy to punish their spouse's murderer.

The players get offered a one-time deal: An out-of town job has been completely hosed, hosed so bad that it's not safe to re-shop it locally due to the high chance of teh target being aware of teh team getting the job. So, the gentlemen from Chicago come to teh player town of St. Louis to offer it there. The fee: 25k just to listen, in person, in Chi-town, paid before they even arrive. The job itself is rumored to run over 500,000k a person. No other details will be given before the meet, due to the already aware nature of the target.

The players will have to arrange transport to chi-town, which assuming the rigger's in is no big deal(big truck) and have to find teh meet. Mind you, none of the characters is familiar w/ chi-town, so this will be fun.

The meet:

The met is being held in a resturant near the shattergraves, obstensibly located there due to the massively weird astral situation that makes it almost impossible to percieve, this making it a fav spot for meets. It is indeed, but not being locals, the crew doesn;t know that it's a ghoul and organlegger hangout, as well as hiring hall for the most twisted and depraved - people that would be attending Neal Gaiman's "Cereal convention", if you will. Fava beans are definately on the menu:)

The players will sit down in a seperate room, getting enough info to set off a weird untrusting vibe, but not enough info to scare them off. The Johnson will show up, via holo-projector and a Steel Lynx drone, which will drop credsticks and datachips to the crew. The projector will shut down, the drone go into sleep mode, and dinner will be served.

Would you like thigh, breast, or leg?

At thispoint, teh runners should be panicing, and the room is rather well sealed - if they look on th datachips, the targets are - themselves. The one way out of the room is provided by the Steel Lynx, which begins to exit rapidly out of a side door - with quickness tests to see if they can get out in time.


Into an access tunnel. Lined with family photos of the deceased, "World's Best Mom" coffee mug, a picture of a young man holding a 2 year old up, both in mouse ears....you get the picture. While above, the beating of hungry ghouls is echoed in their eardrums....

good start? what do i need to address, to make sure they get to the tunnel?

[Arethusa]

Out of curiosity, doesn't it seem like a bit heavy handed and overly psychotic to create a shrine to the deceased in an access tunnel, even if it is specifically meant as a guilt trip? The entire situation is just too messy to fit the modus operandi of any professional, much less corp samurai.

[Impact]

Well, dude mainly in charge of setting this up spent 2 months waiting for his body to regrown (burn damage, even with SR tech, still is nasty), so psyco....part of the fun of this run is that when the other survivor finds out what exactly has happened, disney will try and step in and say that everything's now kosher between them and the runners.

The psyco is definately playing off the reservation - so is his buddy, but he's thinking that they're setting up the runners to buy it in a more traditional manner. Once he finds out what's going on, he'll be trying to cover his ass as well as keep the knowledge of what happened from getting back to the families(who, on the other may find that their father, mother, or husband's killers getting eaten by ghouls a fitting punishment, but may be a bit upset that they PAID for it...)

Part of the fun is that the St. Louis shadowrun scene is very close-knit - this couldn't happen there. The runners work in more regular teams, and there's a pretty strict "code" that keeps runners from hitting other runners, at least, locals. So this style of double-cross setup will be foriegn to their normal style.

It is over the top - but with the targeted runner having run to teh Anglican church for comfort and counseling after a run in with a unhappy ghost, a bit of realization of Newtons 3rd law is in order.

[Drain Brain]

Bunnies. There should be bunnies somewhere. :D


















Only kidding. It's a good sadistic plan, but you need to monitor how much gear they take with them. If they are the sort of "in your face" group who bring assault cannons to their meets, then they are gonna have an easy time. You don't want, conversely, for them to be totally unarmed and therefore deadmeat. They will never learn their lesson! How to accomplish something in the middle of that road is a bloody good question, to which I sadly have no answer.
:spin:

[Raiko]

Personally, I'd consider dropping the shrine. While this would mean you loose the guilt trip thing (for now), it would mean that the runners end up not knowing exactly who set them up. Then you can make the pycho-roasted-disney-sam a recurring enemy rather than just using him for this one run. Runners can never have enough enemies IMO :D

One problem I can think of is that if they have any sense they won't send the whole team into the meet, then again you could plan for this and turn it to your advantage, as it's never a good idea to split up in a horror themed adventure.

[The White Dwarf]

Well, to answer the question "what do I need to address to be sure they get in the tunnel" let me start with these few points.

Were this to happen to me, I would research the destination before going. Thus I would presumably have some idea of the locals in the shattergraves and would pack something. Not anything huge but at least a pistol with the right ammo, maybe with a shotgun in the car. Something of that nature. And Id go in at least passable armored (which for our games is something like 6/6, and yes very concealable). So, just to be sure youre on the same page here, thats the stuff Id walk in with.

Now, as soon as there was no Johnson and a Steel Lynx pulled in Id head for the door. No screwing around here. The J didnt show and in his place we get a freaking combat drone. I would already be suspicions of A) the setting and B) the deal because 25k just to show means they want me there bad, I wont even go into the 500k thing. For some reason its imperative *I* go there. Not any team, me. So after 2 red flags already, no meat body Johnson means I walk, and fast. So the whole "trapped" thing wouldnt work so well. Between the team Im very sure we could come up with some method out unless the GM went into "god mode" and just said "uh, youre trapped, no that cant get you out, you have to go this way, where the plot is" in which case I make a Willpower (6) test to not walk on the run in RL.

So, were I going to GM that adventure, I would change a few things. First Id bump the pay down to like 5k to listen and 50k for completion, per person. This dodges the first red flag because its not out of the ordinary. But its also high enough that it makes the deperation of "local job gone bad need out of towners to fix it before it gets unfixable" real; essentially the J isnt screwing around with this "Im gonna start low with your pay" crap he just jumped to the high end because he needs it done pronto. Second, Id put the J there in person. You said dinner was going to be served ... have him get an "Important Phone Call From His Superiors" with "Leet Beta Infoz" on the run, and he has to take it as the food gets there. He can dismiss it with a casual sentence like "Excuse me, I have to take this call to get the up to date information on the situation; please enjoy your meal 'till I return". So he gets up, walks to the back room to get the call in private, and boom, never comes back. Now youve dodged the second red flag. Now just trap them in there with only one path to go, and let the psycho thing play itself out.

[Raiko]

If you go with White Dwarf's idea and use a real Johnson, remember that as Johnsons are often middle men rather than the actual person that is hiring you, and sometimes don't even know who they are working for, you could just trap the Johnson in the room with the players.

[The Jopp]

[EVLTIM]

You guys are so evil . I love it .:)


*Snips and borrows Meta plot for future run .;)*

[Impact]

Well, after input, here's what I'm thinking:

The up front cash is still going to be in the 15-25k range, simply because it will take that much for a relatively established team to risk operating outside their known environs, as well as simply be too much money to the more greedy to turn down. Will it make smart players suspicious? Yep. Points for them. The actual fee for the job is just street rumors - the current run the team is involved with is tracking down a 5 million nuyen sniper - their minds went all mushy at the concept of clearing that kinda dough. So it's a huge payoff, but in their experience, they'll feel that it's possible - esp. if they pull off the current run.

The meet - i'll probably swap out the drone for a flesh and blood Johnson, although i may leave some generic small security drone in the room as bodyguard(wanting to have something the rigger can hijack so as to not be lonely the entire game) The runners will be lightly armed, pistol and compact SMG's at best, possibly with swords depending on how the physad plays it.

I like the idea of a useless johnson getting in their way - a friendly chi-town contact if they play it right, or a very bad mark against them in the town if they kill him/get him killed.

Part of teh hall of insanity/guilt is to see how the rest of the team reacts - they didn't know that dude was going to blow up the building, and had nothing to do with it. So, it will be interesting to see how the runner's loyaties are pulled...


Thanks for the input, yall !

[Drain Brain]

You're going towards a very "Aliens" style progression - go watch the movie again. The Colonial marines are your runners, and Carter Burke is the Johnson. He sets them up from the beginning but ends up in trouble himself.

All you have to do is decide is you want to follow their progression and make him doublecross the runners a second time (although in this case it would be likely an effort to save his own skin).

[Impact]

Except, now that i have a human johnson, I'm leaning towards making him as ignorant of the the real situation as the runners - his whole purpose is in getting them to the spot. Allows the disney crew to get back at the johnson...who must have arranged some anti-disney runs in the not so distant past. Nice housecleaning all around:)

[Drain Brain]

Oh yes, I caught that line of thought, but that's what makes the doublecross sweet!

Picture this: The Johnson is an intermediary. He's been hired as a Negotiator, basically, to give a "Briefing" to a group of "Shadowruners." He doesn't know that they're ALL being set up so, needless to say, he's pretty pissed when they get screwed over. He tels the runners everything that he knows about who hired him (good for the uber-plot progression).

Now... since they're all in the same boat ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and all that), the runners let himn tag along. Give him a marginally useful skill so they don't just geek him.

But remember - this guy is a profesional NEGOTIATOR. He works in the shadows rather than for, say, the police. That means he has a certain moral lattitude. If (when) the opportunity presents itself for him to talk his way to safety at the expense of the runners, don't you think he would take it?

Then you have "Hey, Johnson, you were on our side! Bas*ard..." Then you can present later the opportunity for the runners to geek him.

Failing that, if you have him withold the information about his employers, such a doublecross makes him detestable enough that the runners can justify extreme prejudice when the finally find him later and torture said information from his battered and bleeding body.

:evil:

[Impact]

:) Well, although the guy is a professional negotiator, to do that he has to have some ....ethics. Not morals, but once he gives his word, he is going to have to keep it - in a lawful evil kinda way, to be sure, but if he's a complete weasel, runners nor corps will work with him.

So, he'll first give the runners a chance to bid, before selling them out:)

[Street Wyze]

Maybe I'm just not professional enough, but I don't know why you want to get back at your runners for what they did. So they guy was a little unorthodox and killed some people who were coming to kill him...what's the big deal?

[danbot37]

hey-why not? Gives ya a story line to run with, moves the team to another area, giving more oppurtunities for more plot lines. PLus for adding contacts, all kinds of nasty things from chi-town you can throw at em. Opens up a whole nother aspect for that campaign, I think. Besides, when you can f somebody, do it. GM's gotta have fun too!

[Street Wyze]

[Impact]

Well - i'm doing for three reasons -
One, there was no need to blow the house - or at least, no need to blow the house w/ others inside. If his intent was to hinder being traced, blowing the house before they got there would have been a MUCH better plan. Up until this point, no one had been killed, and hardly hurt. By killing three DisCorp employees(not runners), and wounding two more, he made it personal.

Two, related to one, was that the player just didn't think. They had hot merchandise that he brought back to his HOME, along with his team. Dumb. To his credit, the PLAYER recognized this:) And before you set off a few kilo's of C-12, you should think. A lot.

And thridly - it's not fair:) Possible, but not fair. One of the survivors goes a bit whacky, and the other, who's angry as hell, is willing to go along so long as it's untracable and not too freaky - and i don't doubt for a minute that families, who view their loved ones as cops, not thugs, would want the "guilty" part punished.

That part is a big reason for all of this - the runners have been trying to star themselves as saviors, and then they do something that really calls that status into question. A firefight is one thing - but ambushing folks who you have a 90% solid feeling that they WON'T geek you on sight, is a tad different.

[Street Wyze]

Well, you didn't mention any of that before. Now it makes more sense.