So, I've tried writing these things out before but...
... well, I think its rather too long. The only thing I can think of is that I'm trying too hard to meld a document to bring newbies up to speed on Shadowrun AND tell more exprienced players what 'changes' to look out for. Not that I consider most of these to actually BE changes, they are just my spin on existing institutions and gap fillers. Working with the books I have (Main rules and anything with more toys, really... not much setting expansion, sadly) I know I won't match up with the canon ninja on things like how the 'Star operates, what Organized crime really looks like (by Canon).
Anyway: Essentially, I'd like some help breaking it down the bare bones of what really needs to be said to help a player, new or old, feel at home in Spike's Shadowrun. So without further Ado:
[ Spoiler ]
Welcome to Shadowrun 2070:
This is a brief document for both new and expirenced shadowrun players. New players can use it to get a leg up on how the game world works, while players familiar with Shadowrun can use it to get more familiar with the specifics of MY Shadowrun.
Obviously it's 2070, it starts in the greater Seattle Metroplex, a state of the United Canadian and American States. Whatever their backgrounds the characters are professional freelance criminals. Used to be they'd call you terrorists, but that went out of fashion once the fanatics got started. Now they call you Shadowrunners, and Seattle happens to be the hottest city in the Western world for Shadow.
Who pays the bills? Most corporations, though none of them will admit that, even internally. Not that you are limited. Anyone with enough money can hire a Shadowrunner to do something, from vengeful housewives to perky reporters looking for a scoop... anyone.
The employer traditionally is referred to as a Mr. Johnson. Sometimes the Johnson does this out of a desire for anonymity, othertimes its just shorthand, and the Johnson has a name or alias of their own chosing. Typically, a Johnson doesn't seek out runners directly, unless they've worked together in the past. The Johnson typically contacts a Fixer who in turn contacts runners. You Fixer is a mix between your agent, your spy, and your fence. A fixers biggest asset is his vast web of connections, followed very closely by his reputation. As a Runner you don't NEED to know a fixer... if you have a good rep, they'll find you, but it helps considerably. They are one stop shops for shadow business.
Speaking of Contacts: Every runner lives and dies by his connections. Seriously. Good connections work in conjunction with reputation. Sure, you can fence loot through a fixer, but he'll take a cut. More profit can be had contacting a fence directly. If you happen to know a Johnson (that is, a professional Shadow contact from a specific Corporation) jobs from that Johnson will pay better than the ones from a Fixer's Johnson... the Fixer doesn't get a cut. Contacts are rated by loyalty and value, and its better to have a mix of decent contacts than one excellent contact as a general rule. Ideally, every character should have no less than three contacts from different areas, with 'social' characters having even more.
Social skills: Even if your primary purpose in life is shooting a fool in the face, you need to know how to talk to others, at least some of the time. Social skills are important to improving your list of contacts, some social skills offset the use of such skills against you. Antisocial loners tend to have short miserable lives in the Shadows, and for good reasons.
Trust: Just because you like them (and they you), or just because its a contact with loyalty 6, doesn't mean you can trust them blindly. Even your best buddy can be tricked into doing stuff to hurt you. I encourage players to extend this general low level paranoia to other party members within reasonable limits.
Violence: Running the Shadows is a dangerous business. Wimps and pacifists do not last long. As a general rule, I assume every character has at least a pistol on them at all times. However, I also assume just about everyone else you meet also has a pistol. That said: the thing about everyone being armed is that no one in the shadows is all that hesitant to shoot someone for being a jackass, or in self defence, or for money.
That said, this is not urban warfare. Running gunfights will call the 'Star on you like no ones business. Assault Rifles are rare on the streets, as are SMGs. True Milspec hardware (panther assault cannons being the low end, right alongside grenade launchers) WILL get a military style star response, regardless of where they are employed. Thats not to say you can't have the big toys, or use them, but understand that using them means that very very quickly there will be lots and lots of people showing up to shut you down. Assault cannons end fights for multiple reasons.
Organized Crime: There is very little to distinguish an organized crime syndicate from a smaller corporation but for the decentralized distribution and the prevelance of criminal activities as a source of income. All the traditional OC's are present in Seattle, the Mafia, the Yakuza, the Triads/Tongs, the Vory... plus some newer faces in the Seoulpa Rings, the Ancients Gang and more. Of the various OC's, the traditional ones are the biggest and richest. Taken as a whole, the yakuza is as powerful as a AAA megacorp. Ditto the Mafia and the Triads. However, none of the OC's are that unified. There is no boss of bosses for the Yakuza, just different competeing gangs. The Triads are worse, they don't even pretend to belong to the same criminal family as other Triad gangs. Here is the thing: many runners got their start in organized crime. The various Syndicates are filled with people who are 'runner calibre' criminals, and they generally have greater levels of contacts and wealth to draw on. One on one a runner, or team of runners should be able to handle pushy wiseguys, but remember that they look out for their own.
As friends and employers the OC's are great. They have plenty of work for freelancers, they tend to pay as good, if not better than corps, and they are less likely to treat you like scum. More-ever, they work as middlemen for entire networks of criminal enterprises. A mafia contact can provide anything from guns, to warm bodies, to information, all for a cost. On the other hand, getting too chummy with a single syndicate is a great way to earn enemies, and Mob Bosses are not known for taking 'No' for an answer... not kindly anyway.
LoneStar/the Cops: Lonestar is a corporation, and one of the few that will never (or extremely rarely) hire Shadowrunners. Lonestar's business is enforcing the law, its how they make money, and Shadowrunners are the worst source of PR for the corp, they are the enemy. Due to the patchwork legal system (each corporate enclave being its own legal entity), Lonestar shouldn't figure too heavily into an ordinary Shadowrunner's job. However, when they do...
Lonestar is bad-ass. They aren't freindly donut dippers, they aren't some 9-5 monitor watcher. Sure, Lonestar has a freindly public face, and sure they have monitor watchers... but the Runners won't see those guys. Thats for the public interface. there are three faces of Lonestar the Runners need to keep an eye on: Patrols, Investigators, and High Threat Response.
Patrols are two men in an armored patrol car. They are armored, have at least minimal combat cyber (smartlink and two or three initative passes, often muscle replacement). They are bruisers, deterent... and even meant to be able to face down a small group of angry Orks if necessary, or slow down a berzerk troll until back up arrives. They wear heavy armor, helmets, and aside from heavy pistols, tasers, shock batons or glove, the squad car will also have a shotgun, maybe an assault rifle, depending on the neighborhood, and likely a pair of SMGs. Again, neighbor hood dependent, in AAA neighborhoods you aren't likely to see these guys, but there is a HRT team 90 seconds out.
Investigators: Unless Lonestar has an additional private contract with a Megacorporation, they won't be investigating much, but any major disturbance will see a handful of Star outside the fence (or right on the crime scene if the action takes place in municipal territory), looking for clues. They aren't front line combatants, though they generally will have the Lonestar logo on their gear. They will, however, have at least one mage on the team to do assensing. Having an investigator team make a personal case out of you can be very bad, these guys are professional, and while the Star doesn't mind busting some poor sinless bastard to close a case, they know that headlines making busts and open trials of Runners make for excellent PR, not to mention a fat bonus on high profile criminals built into their contract. Investigator teams are fearless and dangerous, despite not being front line combatants. Most of them started in Patrol and will have, at a minimum, their original implants, they just lack the armor and heavier firepower. However, often Investigator teams will have several 'Patrol' teams backing them up.
What are they looking for? All the stuff modern CSI teams look for now, plus RFID tagged slugs, astral signatures, electronic trails from PAN's interacting with their environement. Never mind the fact that in 2070 there are potentially dozens of cameras per individual... If they've got a hot lead, or can squeeze/pay off a fixer they'll even follow a trail into the Barrens to make a collar, and you can bet nothing short of HRT teams will be backing them up then.
HRT: Lonestar's Swat force. These guys are Runner grade threats, and they run in groups of ten or more. THey wear security grade armor, carry assualt rifles and milspec weapons, and generally there will be several teams on any given op. Their ride is an armed Citymaster, and they think nothing of wasting every motherfucker in the room before asking for surrenders. The only time they use less than lethal force is if HQ directs them to capture alive. Thats when the gas grenades, area denial sonic weapons and stun nets come out in force. Not that they think anything of using Narcojet gas grenades on a site before wasting everyone in the room. Running to the barrens doesn't help, HRT teams just break out bigger guns for that.
Here is the thing: Lonestar is very protective of it's rep, and very aware of its bottom line. Replacing cops and paying death benefits to families is not cost effective. They are also aware that, at the end of the day, there are far more people that hate and fear the star than like them. The guys paying their contract know the city is rife with violent heavily armed felons, terrorists, runners, and expects the Star to do something about it. Shooting a Star is an open invitation to war. Plan accordingly. Even the OC's don't challenge the cops openly very often. Considering that where Runners and other criminals are most comfortable operating is where the Star is most comfortable using superior firepower it makes for an uncomfortable detante.
What about your rights and the judicial system? Forget it, mate. Best chance you have there is for the Star to want you for a show trial. That's the only way you'll get 'Rights' as a Runner. the only other way to get 'Rights' is to be a major contractee of the Star... and Runners generally don't have that. And that show trial? Good luck getting an aquital. They won't even bother until they have you so nailed you'll consider opening a hardware store. Your lawyer is essentially an actor with a sheepskin, his job is to lose convincingly.
The Barrens: Puyallup and Redmond, part rural, part urban, all blighted hell. These are the Z zones, areas where decent tax paying corporate citizens fear to tread. There is no surviving infrastructure here, only what the natives can rig for themselves. The OC's and streetgangs are the only authorities, the only powers that be. Its a zigzag patchwork of shanty towns, squatter ville, burned out ruins that have been partially renovated and overgrown blight. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe more, living in each Barrens, desperate to get out, but with no where to go and no way to get there. Your Runner probably calls one of the better parts home, a place with intermittant power and sewage provided by solar panels, generators and sheer ingenuity in hacking 100 year old systems. He's probably got freinds, neighbors and even stores and clubs he shops at, just like the 'real world'... only difference is that security comes from the barrel of a gun, and instead of cops you have heavily armed ork gang bangers patrolling their turf. Its a mixed blessing, this near settled frontier life, these areas attract all the attention, from Star 'raids' to eliminate the squatters, to corporate testing, to serial murderers and other predatory bipeds. Plus the various Syndicates and gangs war constantly over control of the best regions, rather than trying to build up other zones.
Unlike the rest of the city, in the barrens its actually better to be an Ork or Troll. You're in the majority out here, pinkies (humans) and dandies (elves) are looked down upon by many. Here in the barrens you find Ork politicians campaigning (sometimes with force) for control over their people, you'll find Trolltown, where the Mahdi walked away from his SIN and corporate job as a stevedore and led his people (like minded trolls) to rebuild part of the barrens into a 'trolls only' neighborhood. Ever since the Ancients (a rare presence in the barrens) tried to burn it down most folks leave them alone, no one else wants to risk another Troll Jihad. The border is still marked with poles capped by twisted bikes wrapped around rotting elf corpses. Everyone's holding their breath for Lonestar to make a run for 'em, but then again, the Star has a shockingly high number of Trogs on the force for a corporation... never mind the PR black eye if they met the same fate as the Ancients pack.
Campaign in-brief/handout, Help me trim it down
Mar 1 2008, 02:02 AM
