Working for the Universal Brotherhood, When GMs want to be hated. Options

[JongWK]

I'm GMing a campaign before the events in Bug City, late 2054 early 2055. The plan is to run UB in a few months of game time.

However, since just throwing them to the lions isn't fun enough :vegm: I've been considering that perhaps they should start working for the UB on a regular basis.

In fact, two of the runners hvae potential as members (an Eagle Shaman who is trying to leave her BTL addiction and thinks they do a wonderful charity work, and an elven covert-ops who lost his left arm to a rocket). The party might as well use the Dark Secret flaw at some point in the future...

So, what kind of runs could a team perform for the UB? Keep in mind that they should still believe that the UB are the good guys.

Also, how the frag do I trick an Eagle shaman? My best plan so far is to have an indian UB member, perhaps from her own country. Getting a good friend and contact in a sprawl like Seattle might be all that is needed (and how painful it will be later :evil: )

[Kagetenshi]

You just have the actual human members who think they're helping the world do the talking to the shaman. IMO, what made the UB so creepy was that amidst the bugs there were the people who were sincerely there to do charity work, and I doubt that the bugs would've taken everyone; I'd imagine the organizational front men/women would've stayed, for the most part, perfectly human.
As for jobs, it'd be things like maybe stealing a food shipment to an ultrarich compound or something, or maybe hunting down a serial killer who had been preying on the disadvantaged population recently, with maybe the occasional attack on an "immoral mage doing experiments on the poor" (a mage who suspects that something's up).

~J

[RedmondLarry]

Many years ago a good GM ran our team through the following:

Locate and kill a Shadowrunner (or team) who knows of the UB and is actively working against them.

Break into one of the major water filtration plants for the Seattle Metroplex, and remove a device that was adding a Toxic liquid to Seattle's water. A year later we learn that the Toxic liquid is an insecticide, designed to make all people in Seattle unusable as bug hosts.

Break into a winery that produces 2 liter and 3 liter bottles of wine and remove a device that was adding a Toxic liquid to cheap wine. Months later we learn it was an insecticide designed to make the alcoholic bums in downtown Seattle unusable as bug hosts.

[sir fwank]

extracting corporate vips to be used as bug spirits?

[Kagetenshi]

[RedmondLarry]

By the time the Player Characters become aware of the bugs in a regular campaign, there is already a "good merge" flesh-form bug in almost every major corporate and government organization at exactly the right point in the organization to hear about "weird magic or spirit stuff going on". E.g. in the FBI, before Scully and Mulder hear of something, it goes through a clerk who routes the report to the right place.

As sir fwank points out, it would be a great campaign for the shadowrunners to be one of the teams getting these strategically placed people into the hands of the UB.

"Don't hurt 'em, no killing, no collateral damage, and leave behind paperwork indicating that they went to a detox clinic like Rush Limbaugh."

[Lantzer]

I'd say it depends on your group.

A street-level group likely wouldn't be doing jobs for the UB parent organization - They'd be doing jobs for the local Chapterhouse. For example:

Steal medical supplies.
Hijack food.
Rescue a group of relief workers in the Barrens.
Convince a local gang to lay off the protection racket.
Hand out flyers and sandwiches in the Z-zone.
Shut down a local BTL pusher or drug dealer.

Remember that the UB actually did good work for the SINless poor - that's part
of why it was able to cover for such a huge conspiracy.

[Syndyne]

[JongWK]

The idea is that the players don't suspect anything is wrong with the UB. Sure, they have to do some questionable things from time to time, like stealing a food shipment or "convincing" a gang to stop harassing them, but then again, "even the good guys need to do such thing in this rotten world".

Of course, once they are deep in their pockets, the runs should become more weird and questionable (obviously, most of them should come from an anonymous Mr.Johnson, perhaps an UB member working as a resource adjuster for a corp).

I am concerned about the Eagle shaman and how would her totem react to the bugs. Nightmares about army ants eating a poor little eagle, maybe? I want her to think that the UB is the ultimate do-gooder. When the drek hits the fan, there shuold be an UB NPC to tempt her ("you dislike the corruption in this world, we can give you the power to change that! And, by the way, Luke, I'm your father! :rofl: )