Buggin Out, SR2 brainstorming Options

[baron_samedi]

My 15 year old niece was going through my bookshelf and saw my SR section.
She dedcided that she wanted to play a campaign this summer and asked me to GM it for her.
i agreed to throw one together. but with a twist.

I am running using my SR2 books/rules.
I always wanted the Bug City sourcebook and now i have a chance to throw her and her Scoobies a real humdinger of a campaign.
i am still putting it together, but i was hoping for some input.
my campaign has 3 parts and it is designed to go from a walk in the park to urban horror.
(none of the players knows what BC is.)

part 1- they are hired to go to Chicago and retrieve a girl who ran away from her corporate daddy's enclave. this is mostly legwork and skirmishes.
part 2- hassled by the natives. the people in Chicago start giving hints that the team isn't welcome, and this distracts them from the mission.
part 3- the con/big reveal- the team gets herded into the dangerous areas of bug city where the real bugs do the job of eliminating (or try to) the team. This is where they learn why Chicago was hard to get into to begin with.

the real fun here is i want to see if they stick to the mission or abandon it altogether for survival's sake.
(i'd really like to see them frag the target and try to explain she was a casualty on the streets of Ol' Chicago.)

this is my first campaign in a while, so i am trying to keep it simple and clean.
so what do you think?
a great intro the shadows or what?

[DV8]

It sounds like a really fun game. What I'd do, though, depending on whether you have the time of course, is do a tiny mission before the big one before hand. Let the Johnson hire them for something simple, just to see if they're a capable group, which will also get them familiar with the mechanics and setting.

[Bigity]

It sounds like a really fun game. What I'd do, though, depending on whether you have the time of course, is do a tiny mission before the big one before hand. Let the Johnson hire them for something simple, just to see if they're a capable group, which will also get them familiar with the mechanics and setting.

No one can join the Shadowrun family without running through the Stuffer Shack intro 'module'. That's just the law. Make sure you use the exploding food charts.

[longbowrocks]

I didn't know there was a stuffer shack pain intro. Is there something more difficult to slay than Llofwyr?

[Tiralee]

Stuffer Shack Run Seconded.
...Although you'd make it awesome by including it as part of the main mission, somewhere to hide from some overwhelming threat, and then have a bunch of bugs burst in AFTER the gangers. Ditto on the exploding food tables.

Also, enforce the "phone" rule at the table. If somoene's mobile rings, their PerSec/phone, whatever rings in game. It's funny as hell during a stealth mission.

And don't forget, it's likely you're going to lose people...or have them reappear later, oddly calm and accepting of the situation. (if this happens, do let the person in on what's happened to their character, and have them roleplay the smiling flesh-form. Awesome for tableside creepiness)

Have a great time,
_Tir

[baron_samedi]

thanks.
the legwork at the beginning was intended to get them used to the system and working together.
but i am thinking about adding the Stuffer Shack idea (as Tiralee suggested, as part of the campaign.)

the more i can add to this campaign to make it outlandish (and horrifying, considering the area) the better.
i hope to fall just short of the game turning into a Paranoia story, lol.

[Platinum]

thanks.
the legwork at the beginning was intended to get them used to the system and working together.
but i am thinking about adding the Stuffer Shack idea (as Tiralee suggested, as part of the campaign.)

the more i can add to this campaign to make it outlandish (and horrifying, considering the area) the better.
i hope to fall just short of the game turning into a Paranoia story, lol.

I recommend the "silver angel" for a starter. It's a bit more involved. Have you read 2xs recently? It's a great book to give you that feel once again. I didn't realize how much I forgot. I have always tried to have the mission reflect the professionalism and competance of the team. Bug city is a 75 karma level run, not something to first throw them into. Plus it allows the players to develop a personality and get emotionally attached to their characters.

[baron_samedi]

i still have my copy from my high school days- first SR book i have read.

i see your point of getting them attached and invoved with their characters; and i can see how it would turn them off spending all that time creating characters, then watching them get geeked, then rebuilding new ones.

it isn't easy to balance outright fun and pure terror with a noob squad.

[Platinum]

[quote name='baron_samedi' date='Apr 22 2011, 08:20 PM' post='1063242
it isn't easy to balance outright fun and pure terror with a noob squad.
[/quote]

I agree that it's not easy. The beauty of shadowrun is that there are so many different levels of threats you can throw at players.

Start with gangs, or simple corp security, or a body guard

then move to Lone star or knight errant, or mage

after try initiate mage, free spirit, heavy response teams/ other runners

blood/toxic mage or bug spirits

I would keep immortal elves and dragons to meta plots or teams with 400+karma per member.

here is a little investigative run that I put together for a new team. It allows mages to use ritual magic, deckers to do some decking, and some legwork.

--------------------------------------

Here is a detective run, where a player has to try and locate a missing Musician.

Scenario
Krava Proge is a musician who's music creates intense emotional responses without the assistance of Sim or BTL emotive tracks. (He's just that good)
He is releasing an album under a persona (Velosa - a grey alien with a big head)
Krava went missing 2 days ago, and missed a meeting with his agent Maryna Janaesson.

Realizing that Krava is going to be a huge success, and that the majority of her money will be from booking his performances, (virtual and physical) she doesn't want to lose her ticket to success.

Krava's release is 20 days. He has a physical appearance scheduled on his release date.
Finders fee for Krava is 25K with, 10K up front

XXXXXXXXX, got wind of the Rave Riot, incited a few years ago, and are looking to use this to their cause.

Krava -
- no one knows he is the person behind the stage persona Velosa, wants to keep it that way
- Best friend - Kevin Garsal
- works for his best friend's landscaping company
- Med lifestyle in auburn
- has a girlfriend - Katy Bivona
- Lives in the same building as parents
- Search apt
- no signs of struggle
- can hack into entry system to get logs
- Data Collection
- popular in the underground music scene
- played at raves
- music incited a riot at a rave a few years ago
- could be dangerous if a company used his music to pitch their products
- Hack telecom -
- Call from Kevin at 11 pm night missing
- Call from mom each day
- Call from Maryna day after, and when missed meeting
- Call from news channel 457 with a job offer
- Call from another agent
- buried in back files - brain scan imaging. Modelling shows the shrinking of the brain

-There is a lot residual spirit energy in the apartment.
-Karava met a muse with a recording studio, he is there to finish off the album before download


Kevin Garsal
- Landscaper
- Went to the black orchid with Krava 2 nights ago
- Left in a limo with business people
- hangs out at the black orchid (last seen there with Kevin)
- knows Krava's plan to try and virtualize his conciousness, has a will that leaves everything to his girlfriend.
- girlfriend left after a huge fight when she begged him not to do it

Girlfriend
- The girlfriend doesn't trust the manager, and hires a gang to find her boyfriend. There are now two teams, working at cross-angles on the same objective.
- is pregnant. knows about the download. I mean, it's not like she's going to show little Susan or Johhny a toaster and say, "This is Daddy" (You could REALLY make the whole emotional stuff messy this way. Great RP opportunities)
- he thought that she was cheating, (but she went to the Dr's office)


Ask parents:
- Live in the same building
- Mother just cries all the time, father is morose
- Krava was a unique and difficult child, had lots of headaches as a teen ager
- Music helped him cope, and he was able to relieve his pain and others with his music.
- filed missing person's report with LS after manager called looking for him

At black orchid:
- video footage of Krava and business people leaving the place will cost 10K or requires a hack (or can get video from stuffer across the street for 1K / easier hack)
- Krava is a regular, no one knows about his alter ego
- bartenders recognize him by face/name, didn't pay any attention to the people he was with/left with Maybe something on video.
- video from orchid has licence plate and faces
- video from stuffer has faces but no plate
- hack surveillance for the club is 10
- hack surveillance for a building across the road is 6

- Car is registered to a small time crook - Dropped Krava off at a warehouse.


Has an untreatable brain wasting disease.
- Is going to a studio to finish the album then off to have brain downloaded
- at studio for 24 hours
- at clinic for 24 hours
- krava spotting at a stuffer shack - police search has been started, message boards are going crazy

Encounters:
- Gangers looking for Krava. Hired by girlfriend to find him. Reasoning is that they were watching the manager's office, and tapped the line. Got intel that the PC is doing the hard work, and they are hoping to swoop in and profit by snatching Krava from the detective.
- Business suits from YYYYYY med corp, looking to find Krava so they can break into clinic and steal research.
*They a going to download his brain into a cyberbrain. (keep a copy for themselves of course so they can capilalize on his musical talent without him knowing)
*It costs Krava the entire advance from the album company
- Is at a studio of a muse. Creates incredible music, and burns karma. Muse causes brain wasting disease.
Muse idea. After he downloads, his music just isn't as inspired.

- detectives hired by record label.
- The hit team both have "cyberbrains" (electronic matrixes, no actual bio in cyberbrain) jacked into either biodrones, or human looking droids.
- The hit team is 1 persona that has been copied into two bodies. They are independantly two people, but have all of the knowledge and instincts of each other.
- runners hired by manager - part of a PR scam

At Clinic
the body of cojoined twins who were trying to be separated in a room one the way to Krava, just as something random and freaky.
Team will get to Krava, in the middle of the download.
It is irreversable as it puts such a strain on the neurons that it burns out major pathways. He has to complete or dies.