Which adventure should I run?, Ghost Cartels, Dawn of the Artifacts or Emergence Options

[Tyro]

I'm about to start running my first Shadowrun game, and 2 of my 3 players have never played before. Which of the three adventures I have available to me (Ghost Cartels, Dawn of the Artifacts or Emergence) should I run, and why?

Potentially relavent information: Nobody's a hacker (they're going to pay an NPC for when they need hacking done) or rigger. We have a conjuring-focused mage, a tank with cyberarms and torso, and a charismatic assassin adept (infiltration/face). The bullet sponge hates drugs, to the point where he won't even use slap patches.

[Edit:] I live in Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle and part of the Seattle metroplex in Shadowrun canon.

[Daylen]

not to sidetrack your thread badly, but did you know there are a bunch of SR3 and SR4 adventures on the SR site that are free?

[Tyro]

not to sidetrack your thread badly, but did you know there are a bunch of SR3 and SR4 adventures on the SR site that are free?

I knew about the introductory adventure (the demo thingy), but I didn't know there were others. Would you suggest any in particular?

[DireRadiant]

Ghost Cartels. Good framework you can adjust as you need to your players. Has Seattle. Can grow as needed.

[Johnny Hammersti...]

We're about 2/3rds through emergence and we had a hacker and currently have a technomancer.

I wouldn't recommend it.

[Daylen]

http://www.shadowrun4.com/missions/downloads/

http://www.shadowrun4.com/missions/downloa...R3Archive.shtml

unfortunetly I havent played any published adventures more recent than SR1 or SR2... whichever one had the pissing contest between Harlequin and Ehran the scribe.

[The Jake]

I am running Ghost Cartels and I have Dawn of the Artifacts for next as well.

I am a big fan of GC but it comes down to how much time you have to prepare. Ghost Cartels will last you much longer than Dawn but requires a lot more effort to get running.

- J.

[Hagga]

Emergence, if you don't have On-The-Run. Great fun.

[Tyro]

Looks like ghost cartels is probable. All the free adventures on the site are 3E from what I can tell.

[Bira]

I actually wouldn't recommend Ghost Cartels if you have a PC who hates drugs. Most of the campaigns in that book have the characters working for one criminal syndicate or another, and mostly helping them distribute drugs. Emergence can still be run if there's no hacker in the group, but won't work as well if they're not interested in finding out about technomancers and AIs. If they are, however, it can give you plenty of material to work with.

Dawn of the artifacts is pretty sweet, and shorter than both Emergence and Ghost Cartels - it's three full-featured adventures rather than a campaign book covering a whole year of game time. Two of those have already been published (Dusk and Midnight). They seem to be pretty high-powered, action-movie stuff, and I would recommend them if you and your players are into that.

As for the free adventures, there's a set for SR3 that takes place in Seattle, and another for SR4 that takes place in Denver. They're OK - I've been running the Denver ones.

[Yogo Ted]

Go with Dawn of the Artifacts. Bira outlines it pretty well, and I'd like to add that it is very mage friendly, or so it seems to me.

[The Jake]

I actually wouldn't recommend Ghost Cartels if you have a PC who hates drugs. Most of the campaigns in that book have the characters working for one criminal syndicate or another, and mostly helping them distribute drugs. Emergence can still be run if there's no hacker in the group, but won't work as well if they're not interested in finding out about technomancers and AIs. If they are, however, it can give you plenty of material to work with.

Good point. Ghost Cartels is a very dark campaign so if you have any do-gooder/Robin Hood types at your table, I wouldn't run it. I have one player who made such a character (very annoyingly), despite KNOWING in advance that this is a dark campaign and now finding his character really doesn't fit. He is slowly coming to the realisation he will need to either revise his concept or create a new character.

That said, I really didn't like Emergence. It isn't an adventure anyway, its a story book chock full of ideas. I hated that book personally as a GM, but it did make for interesting reading.

- J.

[Draco18s]

Another fun one is Renraku Shutdown (or whatever its title is) with SHODAN soundclips.

One session in and I'm already loving it.

[Yogo Ted]

Another fun one is Renraku Shutdown (or whatever its title is) with SHODAN soundclips.

One session in and I'm already loving it.

Quoted for truth and justice.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

We're about 2/3rds through emergence and we had a hacker and currently have a technomancer.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Why Not? Anything in Particular?
We have been playing in Emergence since it came out and I love it... We have a hacker and a Technomancer as well as 4 various other archtypes...

Keep the Faith

[kanislatrans]

echo what others have said.

We ran GC and my rigger was designed to be the voice of reason. The tone of the campaign took the poor "corp newbie" into a downward spiral that he still hasn't recovered from.(grin) granted, it was extremely fun, but I had to really get into character to not to come off as a Paladin. a glimpse of what happened can be found here

collateral damage.

Id go with the DOTA run as a GM as its a little more white hat.

[tete]

unfortunetly I havent played any published adventures more recent than SR1 or SR2... whichever one had the pissing contest between Harlequin and Ehran the scribe.

Wait wait, you played classic SR and didn't play Universal Brotherhood?!

PS. The adventure you speak of is the original Harlequin.

[The Jake]

I'm assuming we're talking SR4 unless someone specifically states otherwise...

- J.

[Tyro]

I just talked to the player in question, and he says he's fine with running Ghost Cartels (after I explained that it's a dark campaign, we aren't the good guys, and he'd be distributing drugs). This should be interesting - his character is a Desert Wars vet, a mercenary who has Prejudice (Specific, Outspoken: Drug dealers), but needs the money and justifies taking it with the fact that he's hunting down the source of a dangerous new drug.

[The Jake]

I just talked to the player in question, and he says he's fine with running Ghost Cartels (after I explained that it's a dark campaign, we aren't the good guys, and he'd be distributing drugs). This should be interesting - his character is a Desert Wars vet, a mercenary who has Prejudice (Specific, Outspoken: Drug dealers), but needs the money and justifies taking it with the fact that he's hunting down the source of a dangerous new drug.

That's a dangerous flaw to possess in Ghost Cartels.... I hope he intends on paying it off with karma at the first opportunity...

I would have gone with Dawn of the Artifacts with a PC with THAT flaw...

- J.

[DireRadiant]

Looks like ghost cartels is probable. All the free adventures on the site are 3E from what I can tell.

http://www.shadowrun4.com/missions/downloads/

are all SR4 missions in Denver.

For new players, I also suggest the quick start rules free download http://www.shadowrun4.com/quickstart/

[Method]

And I'll take this opportunity to whore out the map I made for use with Food Fight 4.0 (included in the Quick Start Rules).

Oh, and if you're looking for another player in the Seattle area... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Axl]

Like DireRadiant, I would recommend the Denver SR4 Missions to start off. They are free and you can easily adapt them to your local setting (Seattle). Each adventure is self-contained and guidance is given if the PCs go too far off-track. It will also help you and your players gradually learn the rules.

[Jimson]

That's a dangerous flaw to possess in Ghost Cartels.... I hope he intends on paying it off with karma at the first opportunity...

I would have gone with Dawn of the Artifacts with a PC with THAT flaw...

- J.

I agree with The Jake. If he plays his character true, he'll be pissed off the whole module (year game time). More importantly, being Outspoken, he'll most likely piss someone else off. I haven't ran Dawn of the Artifacts, but that sounds like it might be the better choice for your team.

[TeaTime]

I'll join the voices recommending Ghost Cartels. It's pretty involved, and probably best for mature audiences (and experienced RPGers). I'd definitely run a couple of non-connected starter adventures for everyone to work the kinks out of their PCs and to get to know their characters before hitting the campaign (yep, Denver Missions would work well for this) and laying the groundwork for the start of Ghost Cartels during the inital sessions.

I'd also suggest rewarding a high degree of moral flexibility in the characters, and being quite generous with the nuyen and Karma. Towards the end, it gets.... thrillingly brutal.