Create My Demo Scenario, Not laziness, curiosity. Options

[eidolon]

Hey all.

Here's the situation. I'm starting a new gaming group, consisting of one player that has played some SR, two people that have RP'd but never played SR, and a player that hasn't gamed in years, has never played SR, but would like to try it.

This coming weekend, we're having our first meet to sort out game issues, schedules, all that good stuff. Now, the current game proposal is me running a SR3 game. In that light, I plan on running a demo scenario, using, of all things, the sample characters from the SR3 BBB.

The main goal I have in mind in doing this, is to allow the players, of which only one has ever played SR, to get a feel for the game before they have to think about creating characters. The sub-goal is to expose the new players to SR at a level that allows them to decide whether they would like to play this, or that we should choose another system. (Perish the thought. :D)

With these thoughts kicking around in my head, all the sudden I thought to myself "I wonder what I would get if I asked Dumpshockers to create a demo scenario".

I'm used to the way I create games. I'm wondering what your approach(es) to this situation would be like, thus this thread.

The Guidelines

1. Allow for success regardless of character types chosen.

Now, I don't mean that there can't be any tasks or portions that are skill specific. However, I'd like it to not be a requirement that a certain character type (decker, et al) be chosen in order to run the scenario.

2. Cover the "norms".

Since this is intended to give them a taste of various aspects of the game, it should include as many "generic types" of encounters as possible. A fight, a sneaky bit, some RP possibility, some need for the matrix, etc.

3. Short and sweet.

Since it's a demo, it should fit (barring unforseen circumstances) into a session of about 4-5 hours (not including prep and setup). Don't feel too restricted by this, as it's not a con game or anything. I just want to be able to run the demo session in one day of play, so that after getting a taste of the game, we'll have time to discuss and prep for the next session (whatever that may be).

4. You agree to my (or someone else's, since this is public) running your scenario in my game, either now or in the future.

This seems obvious, but I thought I'd put it on here. I will be giving you credit if/when I run your scenario. Whether that means saying "DSscreen_name" wrote this for us, or whatever is up to you pretty much (although that will be my default if you provide no other information). If you like, I can also try and get feedback for you, which I can either post here or email to you.


There's the loose bases I'd like to see covered.

Please either spoiler your submission or pm it to me. I wish to avoid having players read it before playing. Thanks.

I'll be working on my own, which I'll post later on regardless of whether I use it or not. I don't want anyone accusing me of using DSers as slave labor. ;)

I'm looking forward to seeing what others come up with when they think "demo scenario for Shadowrun". Thanks in advance.

[Mistwalker]

Any reason why you aren't using any of the SR missions?

Seems to me that the first one have a bit of everything, and you can upgrade on the fly with a few of their suggestions.

[Blade]

I've got this little demo scenario I've GMed many times (even with a 50+ years old player). It was originally intended for SR3 and has then been adapted to SR4.

It's really simple, short (about 4 hours), can be played by any kind of team, shows many aspects of the game and get the players into the basics of Shadowrun.

To sum it up :
- The runner are contacted by their fixer for their first run. The meeting with the Johnson is scheduled for 10PM at the "Wasteland" club. Mr. Johnson will be an human wearing an old fashioned red suit with an matching old fashion red hat. It appears that he's working for "Indus" a small public works firm.
- The Wasteland is your typical small, noisy, smelly and mostly metahuman underground club. The only humans in the room are an old mercenary-looking guy and M. Johnson.
- M. Johnson makes sure that the runners are beginners and explain the mission : all they have to do is to install some big holographic projectors on the drain pipes of a little factory on the docks. All they have to do is set down the projectors on the pipes and press a button. The projectors will then project holograms in the sky, over the pipes, showing the toxic and illegal things that the factory dumps in the water. The factory is owned by "Block" another public works firm. Security will be low and the run will be paid 2000 :nuyen:. Once the run is over, the runners are to come back to the Wastleand to collect the payment.
- The docks are in a rough neighborhood and you can show the players some examples of the typical night life of Seattle (or wherever they are)
- You can find the map of the factory here (along with the whole scenario in French). There are some security devices (cameras, motion detectors...), one guard in the front porch (monitoring the devices) and another one patrolling around the factory with a barghest. You can add a patrolling Doberman drone. The factory is surronded by electrified-wires. The drainpipes are accessible via the sea (but the water isn't very clean down here) or via the roof of the building but there are no door leading from the building to the pipes. The runners can sneak, talk, bribe or fight their way in. If an alarm is set off, reinforcements arrive quickly (in less than 2 combat turns) on a patrolling boat.
- As soon as the runners installed the projectors on the drainpipes, one of them start emitting a strange noise, and a small led screen on it prints "BOMB MALFUNCTION". The runners barely have enough time to flee before the whole thing blows.
- When they come back to the Wasteland club, M. Johnson is missing. The old mercenary then tell them : "Let me guess : first run and the Johnson is double-crossing you ? Welcome to the Shadows !" He then goes on on explaining that they were surely manipulated by Terrafirst who hoped to kill them with the explosions. He then offers the runners to act as their "mentor" and fixer for their next runs.

The truth behind this :
The old mercenary is an executive of "Urban" a third public works firm. Urban is small and emerging firm facing two big troubles : Indus and Block are dominating the market and Terrafirst has filed a lawsuit against it (with good chances of succeeding). The aim of the "old mercenary" is to start a covert 'war' between Indus and Block (rumors will soon spread in the shadows that Indus is responsible for the explosion of Block's factory) and to get the runners to hold a grudge against Terrafirst so that he may send them to destroy some of their documents (including, of course, the documents involving Urban) for free (justifying it by saying that the runners ought to hit Terrafirst to show everyone why you don't mess with them).

I tried to sum it up as clearly as possible but if some things remain obscure or if you don't understand my bad english please let me know.

[Oracle]

Reinforcements arriving in under 6 seconds???

[Blade]

Oops, forgot to mention that the factory is guarding a valuable prototype. Block doesn't want to draw attention by posting a lot of guards in the area, but they have a contract with a security service patrolling the sea-side of the docks for fast response in case of emergency.
So in under 6 seconds, the runners will see a speedboat closing in with some heavily armed guards in it.

[eidolon]

[Deamon_Knight]

eidolon, I think Oracle is referrring to the persistant Convention World scenario thats posted on the SR Website. Getting into a food fight, then meeting Villiers and a CyberZombie is a bit silly, but the one from the website look good.

[eidolon]

Ah, right on. I had forgotten all about those.