Doc Wagon Options

[swirler]

Has anyone ran a DOc Wagon campaign? I always thought that would be an interesting idea. Give a different perspective on the whole "run" thing.

[Zhan Shi]

I believe there was backround on running Docwagon Characters in the SR Companion, both in first and second editions.

[Gelare]

There was definitely something on it, but I can't remember the book. There was a bit of in-game fiction where they can't rescue anyone on the extraterritorial side of the fence, and one of the dogwagon guys cut off someone's cyber or possibly organs for resale value. That's life in the shadows for ya.

[Fortune]

I believe the book Missions has quite a bit on Doc Wagon campaigns as well.

[Mercer]

Not a campaign, although I once ran a Lone Star miniseries.

I did run a Doc Wagon session once though, after the runners had been fragged in a plane crash. (It was kind of a plot derail, I hadn't really intended for the plane to crash, but the pcs took control of it and rammed another aircraft.) I had a DocWagon HTR team already statted out, so I handed those sheets out to the group and let them attempt to rescue their own bodies.

It was going okay when the same player who had wrecked the plane attempted what might charitably be described as a high-speed water landing. Two of the DocWagon personnel survived, a troll sam with a serious wound and a snake shaman who'd been knocked unconscious.

I heard a report on NPR about six months ago that was about ambulances in Brazil (I think). There are neighborhoods that are essentially warzones, and when the police or military have to go in there the ambulances they use to get the wounded out are converted armored cars or APCs. It seems like that would be good research for a DocWagon campaign.

It seems like the turnaround on the "runs" would be a lot quicker. Someone's biomonitor would go off and the team would have a fairly short amount of time to go in and get them. On the other hand, it seems like more work to expand the campaign beyond the central gimmick. What does the team do when they aren't on the clock, and how do you build towards something that's more than a series of unconnected tactical challenges. (Not a dis, but a jumping off point for discussion.)

For me, I'm thinking of an old campaign concept that I like to call "This Ain't the Summer of Love". Basically a heat wave, a gang war, fatal BTLs, a serial killer all culminating in a riot or a series of riots. A little Strange Days, a dash of Dark Blue, and a hint of Predator II. The metaplot is the city going to hell in a handbasket, and that'd be a hell of a time to be a paramedic. Throw in some Bring Out the Dead (and some Blackhawk Down) and you got yourself a stew.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Platinum]

There was a whole novel ... I think it was 2XS that had crashcart and docwagon in them. It was a cool story. CrashCart comes on the scene, winds up out performing Docwagon, and performs some miracle recoveries of some high corp Execs. While in the hospital Crash card winds up embedding control chips into them. Wasn't there a module that was based on this in second edition?

[Mercer]

I remember Neo-Anarchists Guide to North America covered DocWagon and Crashcart personnel, and also some dangling plot hooks about competition between the two. Also the picture of the DocWagon guy in NAGNA looked a hell of a lot like OJ Simpson, and that just got creepier and creepier as the years went by and the bodies stacked up.

Norberg! Say it isn't so!

[Okay, so OJ only killed two people but: 1) That's only so far, 2) Its only the ones we know about, and 3) Its still enough for a stack. Also, add some "allegedly's" in there.]

[swirler]

[Fortune]