Runs with a time limit, Shadowrun: Six Hundred Seconds Options

[Tanegar]

A quote from TVtropes.org's Shadowrun page has given me an idea for a Shadowrun one-shot. I'd use pregen characters, probably base the run on the Sense/Net job from Neuromancer in terms of needing to use creative tactics to infiltrate a high-security building, and give a strict time limit (maybe the titular 600 seconds - 200 combat turns - maybe less). If the players don't exfiltrate with the objective within the time limit, cut to black and the sound of gunfire: the PCs are dead.

Good idea? Horrible idea? Eldritch abomination in text form? Feedback, please.

[Synner667]

Love it !!

Let us know how it turned out.

[Ascalaphus]

I've had something like it once; we had X OOC minutes in which to complete the mission. Everytime we travelled IC, the clock moved forwards as well.
It wasn't very successful, but I think that was also because most of the group was new to both the game and the game system...

Hmm. I do like the idea of trying that again though - but giving a strict limit of X combat turns is even better. I'll give it some thought - might be a nice thing for a run against an AAA.

[Omenowl]

It is a good idea, but make sure there is a reason for the time limit such as the code only works for 10 minutes before the alarm sounds or that the players will trip the alarms and have 10 minutes until reinforcements arrive. Don't make it seem arbitrary, but rather a limitation of the security or the codes they use.

[Ascalaphus]

Especially when they clearly know the time limit, and you have some imposing device on the table to count down with. Prepare a lot of complications that threaten to cut into the time they've got left and watch them squirm. If they don't spend all their Edge, you didn't scare them enough.

[Sponge]

Sounds like a great idea to me, I may have to steal that ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Method]

Very interesting idea. I think the key is to come up with an overarching story that fits within the scope of 10 minutes (like Omenowl suggested). I could see this working really well for an in media res type game where the players (not necessarily the characters) are thrust into the middle of some convoluted situation and have to figure out what is going on. It would also work well for a game with only one player (that pesky character with the Amnesia Quality) or where the characters are independent of (or pitted against) one another.

All this of course requires that your players are willing to participate in this kind of game. Obviously I'd be sure to talk to them before hand.

[Jaid]

of course, it might be equally amusing to just put a timer there and not tell them why, and have it do nothing important =P (as the clock starts flashing 00:00:00, you hear a series of loud, annoying beeps, and a digitized voice announces "your popcorn is now ready. Thank you for choosing NERPS brand real butter popcorn.")

[Draco18s]

of course, it might be equally amusing to just put a timer there and not tell them why, and have it do nothing important =P (as the clock starts flashing 00:00:00, you hear a series of loud, annoying beeps, and a digitized voice announces "your popcorn is now ready. Thank you for choosing NERPS brand real butter popcorn.")

This reminds me of the "actors playing shadowrunners on TV" idea a friend of mine had. Your characters are effectively shadowrunners, but they do it for entertainment (are aware of this) and so a lot of things are scripted (eg. you might have to really hack into a secure computer network, and it might really actually hurt, but you're not really breaking into anything important).

[Ascalaphus]

"Space shuttle has entered decaying orbit...repeat..."

"The nanotoxin will activate two hours from now"

[Anythingforenoug...]

One of the characters is an astraly projecting mage who’s body is inside (and guarded) and he must get back to it before he dies….

[Omenowl]

Yes, putting a timer helps keep players focused and creates tension in the story. It doesn't have to be a normal scripted shadowrun either. It can be like 24 where you know the clock is ticking and you have a deadline that is looming. Just be careful of setting up a run where the players feel the odds are against them due to time and the payoff is minimal. This might just make them walk away as I hated any shadowrun where I had less than enough time to hit facility without knowing its problems. However, you could make it where they get a normal run and then suddenly find out something that would have a huge impact such as bomb, critical meltdown or something else that would make time of the essence.

[Screaming Eagle]

I ran a Zombie Apocolypse Survival Horror game a few years back when the idea came to me to have a soundtrack that dictated the game - say a 4 hour play time on the disc starting with "Typical day music" working its way into creepy background with periodic "we are getting mauled by zombies" tunes. Whatever they players were doing would be interupted by the scene swap (zombies finally break down the baricades, the horde inexplicably looses interest and go to chase something else). Did actually use it for that game (I feel it was my finest game ever actually) but thet idea has been rolling around since and it could work for Shadowrun... hmm

[The Jake]

I've found that my PCs if given an unlimited timeframe can plan amazingly well and overcome almost any level of opposition.

This has been quite frustrating to me as a GM to come up with reasonable scenarios to challenge them.

Using time limits has been EXTREMELY effective at nerfing their overplanning and made games challenging, fast pacing and exciting.
Other tricks I've used is to throw them multiple jobs at the same time, random spanner in the works (X-factors), red herrings, etc.
I've yet to really use a double cross however. I really need to do that...

Maybe I can combine the double cross with a time limit?

- J.

[MikeKozar]

Maybe I can combine the double cross with a time limit?

- J.

That's actually pretty good. Have a Fixer's right-hand-man be a Judas plant, and have him sell you out on a run. Trick is, the Fixer never trusted the Judas as much as the Judas thought, and when the Judas makes contact with the corp they're planning the run against, the Fixer calls up the PCs: "You're made. He's on his way to a meet to sell you out. You've got 30 minutes before the weasel sells the details to the target - go NOW and you can still pull this off."

A sensible person would walk away...but maybe the money's too good, or it's a once-in-a-lifetime security hole, or maybe the players just feel lucky...

[Ravor]

I think I'd go with the "its personal" as a motive to hit the target regardless, but that's just me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Tachi]

1. Escape from New York.
2. Escape from L.A.
3. Escape from Chicago. Pliskin's at it again. Implanted with an experimental nano-kill-switch; Snake must infiltrate Bug City, retrieve a powerful magical item, and return it to (Enter BBEG here. Damien Knight? It is Chicago after all.) before his time runs out.

[Tanegar]

I'm thinking about keeping the setup pretty basic for the sake of simplicity and ease of comprehension: there's no way of getting in without being made as intruders, and the runners have exactly ten minutes before overwhelming security forces arrive. As the fixer says, "If you're in there for six hundred and one seconds, the only way you're coming out is in body bags."

[MikeKozar]

I'm thinking about keeping the setup pretty basic for the sake of simplicity and ease of comprehension: there's no way of getting in without being made as intruders, and the runners have exactly ten minutes before overwhelming security forces arrive. As the fixer says, "If you're in there for six hundred and one seconds, the only way you're coming out is in body bags."

I've used the threat of Heavy Response Teams before...as soon as the alarm gets pulled, the Corp will scramble a team of million-dollar cybersams in an attack helocopter, and you have X minutes before they arrive. They're on Deterrence duty - they want to take you down so hard, mean, and memorable that nobody will dare frag with Corp property again. Pray they don't take you alive.

I'm lucky enough to play with a group smart enough to believe me when I say that the Heavies will wipe them out, so I haven't had to actually deliver on the threats. It might be fun to take every dirty trick I've learned on Dumpshock and load them all up in a helo, though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Ascalaphus]

I just came up with the following:

Ares McJohnson hires the PCs to kill an Ares researcher.
- It can't look like an inside job
- No need to be nasty; he's not a bad man
- Don't damage the facility too much; it will be deducted from your pay
- Don't look at what he's working on
- We'll have to make it look like we're trying to catch you, so get out before our security team gets there; you have T seconds from the moment he dies (he has a biomonitor implant)

The background is like Soylent Green; the researcher figured out what Ares is doing with bug spirit research. He has conscience issues and is about to go public.
Of course, if the PCs do get caught going through his stuff, Ares has no choice but to kill them, if they can...

[Drraagh]

There are a lot of options and ways to make a run like this work with a timer, especially since in Shadowrun, there is a defined system to determine how far the characters can travel in a set amount of time, and most tasks have a time set for them. Which means, you could easily figure out a time limit on how long it will take the team to get from the entrance to the target, do what needs to be done and get out, assuming optimum conditions, and add some time on top of that for stealth and the like.

It may end up playing like a minature style game, moving the pieces around on the board as they go, and may be one way to allow them to visualize the time limit and the like. It's one of the few ways I can think of to give a good visual representation besides say having a laptop nearby and subtracting some time as things go on. Every turn, take off so many seconds, etc.

Part of me now wants to take one of those 'Create the board as you go' games and use that sort of rules to convert it to SR.

[Tanegar]

The actual timer mechanism (literal and figurative) will be one of those little clicky mechanical pitch counters. Every three seconds of in-game time, I click the counter and say, "Turn." I think this will produce the degree of tension and holy-crap-we're-running-out-of-time-ness that I'm looking for. I was already planning to use 1-inch grid paper to draw floor plans on and use those as maps.

[Ascalaphus]

A big bowl of M&Ms, each representing one turn. When the bowl is empty, people die.

[Screaming Eagle]

A big bowl of M&Ms, each representing one turn. When the bowl is empty, people die.

This has the bonus of both crunching noises and eatting candy. But 600 is alot of M&M's. 60 at one every 10 turns or 120 at one every 5 turns would be alot, but eatable. Anyone know how many are in the standard pack? I may be doing just this in the near future... feels like a run that has a Dragon in it and thats whats causing the deadline.
"Crunch - Crunch - Crunch"

[Xahn Borealis]

Add the time limit during the run. No smart runner would take a job with that sort of limitation. Make it something like the extraction target just got shot/poisoned/Infected, get to him and get the paydata/prototype/antidote.