Favorite Runs-, Favorite runs you've either designed or been a part of... Options

[Crazy Ivan]

I've always been curious about how other GM's do their runs, and what they come up with.

Thus far, my favorite run that I've "designed" was vaguely modeled after the Smokin' Aces layout with a Shadowrun skin. Not the most original, but the party had been clamoring for some guns ablazing action. I used the same base layout (secure hotel, target is a popular celebrity who got himself embroiled into the Mafia, the party is hired to extract the target while everyone but Lone Star and UCAS authorities are trying to kill him, and adding in the Tremor brothers as 3 ork street samurai on Kamikaze coming up the elevator with all sorts of crazy gear). The run went as expected, and just as a lil mercy to my players, I reduced the number of different hitmen coming in since in their shame, they did NO LEGWORK about it! They didn't ask about why the target was being extracted, or researched anything. They just hit the hotel. I got a good laugh as one party member retreated (wise decision), while one was arrested (and later sprung by the escaped party member) and the party's street samurai was very close to death (DocWagon saved the day there). The party managed to muscle out an escape with the target, but it still seems to be their most memorable run. And since then, they have not forgotten legwork at all (if anything, they've become semi-anal about it, which makes me laugh). I'm proud of them.

So what runs for you guys stick out? I'm curious about how you guys planned it and how it went in execution.

[ggodo]

I sent my runner team to the moon as a sort of retirement party for them. I'll tell the story when I have time, but I figure I'd ship in that ridiculous run.

[Teulisch]

ive got a couple. first there was the final run of my first SR4 campaign. I had sprinkled some clues through the various runs they had done. the first clue was a banged up datachip that a rat handed to the rat shaman. It had some data about his pre-crash corporate life. Later on, they robbed a lab to steal a box, and grabbed a full tray of biotech on the way out. for some reason, nobody wanted anything to do with the magically active symbiont. when they met the johnson he was killed by a sniper (the troll sniper took out the enemy sniper). they called the employer listed in johnsons commlink, which was aztech. they then got an attack helicopter escort to the archology, where they completed the run and sold a lot of stuff to aztech. the box they were originally after contained a sleeping girl (think river tam from the pilot episode of firefly). they got some nice ware from the beta clinic in the archology as part of payment (with cortex bombs they learned about much later). the girl later sent them a call for help, asking to be rescued from aztech.

So, eventually they find the pre-crash underground lab mentioned in the chip, the one they were to paranoid to look inside. inside, they saw materialized black ice and other materialized matrix icons. this place was linked to the girl, and to the company that the shaman worked for before the 2.0 crash and his awakening. they did an epic run to rescue the girl they sold to aztech earlier, after a shadow beta clinic got the bombs and back doors removed from their ware. she was a very powerful technomancer, and they got her to the mysterious site which went haywire thanks to the experiments that were run on her. And then i gave the players a choice- keep the world the way it is, with a tchnomancer ally? or let her change the world, make the matrix more powerful, and reduce or remove the essence cost for all cyberware? they went with the boring option to keep the world the same.

The other run was a halloween shadowrun. so i gave them something to be afraid of- a new chemical not in any book. The run looked simple, the johnson was the handler of a jappanese idol singer, who (along with the daughter of a NAN ambassador) had overdosed and died. they were to clean up and keep things quiet. the complication was paparazi with radar sensers peeping through the wall from next door who saw the whole thing.

now the weird chemical.... it was a block of blue powder, and they had snorted it. the powder contained nanites. after a few hours, the cyberware in the corpses turned back on and started to move. the team had them hidden in luggage, and took them out, going to a secure warehouse with RFID blocking paint. now the cyberware in the corpses was looking for a matrix signal, and it was growing/changing, cannabalizing the iron in the bodys blood to build more parts. In the end, they burned the corpses, and shot the cyberware that was still coming towards them until it was destroyed. they kept the blue powder for some time. eventually (after they found the aztechnology lab that makes the stuff, and some capsule rounds of the stuff) they sold it to the yakuza, who discovered that there was a trace amount of oricciulum in the nanites.... they never used any of it, or found out what it really did. but they had a solid fear of it.

[Bushw4cker]

These are my favorite type of posts so I'm going to share...

The Runners where hired to investigate a beacon that went off in the arctic circle from a base that had been abandoned for over 40 years. At the Meet with Mr. Johnson the team had an unfortunate accident in the women's restroom involving a spy and a cranial bomb. Luckily the situation was defused because the Mystic Adept had plenty of Tampons (She actually had them written in her inventory...what was I suppose to do?) When the only staff member that didn't botch a perception roll, came to investigate, the response was "Just having a Heavy Flow Day." which sent the group into a fit of laughter for about 5 minutes or so. The group, not having a rigger needed to hire a rigger to drop them off in the Arctic.
They arranged a meet up with a pair of smugglers , Hannibal and his Sasquatch partner, at a Changeling Bar, who agreed to fly them to a drop point and then return them. The Runners found the beacon, they encountered a group also interested in finding out what set off the beacon. One of the NPCs actually killed himself (Rolling ALL 1's on a quick draw test, 8 dice.), thinking that the shadowrunner's where the ones attacking them, the rest started opening up fire on the Runners. The Runners quickly disposed of the group, then worked their way opening up an entrance to the base.
Everyone in the base had been dead for almost half a century, then the runners came upon a man standing up in a hallway just swinging side to side with his head down, when he looked up, the runners saw that the dead weren't staying dead in this place. With the help of some burnt edge, and Grens, the team survived the Shedim battle. They discovered some additional pay data on research investigating an astral Shallow at the base sight right around the awakening. They ended up selling that information to the Draco Foundation, much to the displeasure of the team's Johnson, when he found out.
A month later the team was sent a notice to meet with a Johnson at a local diner. He introduced himself as an assassin and gave the runners an Ares Predator and offered them the chance to kill themselves to make it easier for everyone. (And yes everyone in diner was freaking out when he put the gun on the table). The Mystic adept was the only one that managed to survive that encounter, they made the mistake of trying to fight when they should have ran, the assassin wasn't working alone.

[Raiki]

A month later the team was sent a notice to meet with a Johnson at a local diner. He introduced himself as an assassin and gave the runners an Ares Predator and offered them the chance to kill themselves to make it easier for everyone.

That is fragging amazing! I just might have to shamelessly steal that at some point. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)


~R~

[Bushw4cker]

That is fragging amazing! I just might have to shamelessly steal that at some point. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)


~R~

Thanks )) , They were working for Aztechnology, and that corp is not known for being very forgiving. I had assassin idea for a while, his signature is to always announce himself, and offer the target a chance to kill themselves. He works with a Hacker/Rigger to clear up his data trail, and occasionally help take down a target.

[Raiki]

Thanks )) , They were working for Aztechnology, and that corp is not known for being very forgiving. I had assassin idea for a while, his signature is to always announce himself, and offer the target a chance to kill themselves. He works with a Hacker/Rigger to clear up his data trail, and occasionally help take down a target.

It actually reminds me of the Sorrowful Men, in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. They always say "I'm sorry" just as they kill you (hence the name). I've always thought that was fairly badass, and the thought of someone doing it in Shadowrun just makes it that much cooler. It's easy to do stupid shit in high fantasy and not die, Shadowrun is slightly less forgiving. Only someone who's the real deal can pull that off.


~R~

[Bushw4cker]

One of my first times GMing 4th ed, to get the players used to the combat system, their fixer (everyone starts out with the same fixer, found it makes things a lot easier) sent them a Beta Matrix Game to try out before selling copies. (He didn't want to be responsible for frying some kids brain). So everyone hooked up and Played Dungeon Run. (I took a D&D adventure, and used all Shadowrun rules and creatures, I premade 8 different characters. Monk (Unarmed Phys Ad.), Elf Archer, Thief (Edge 8, Perception 6), Paladin (Mystic Adept), Cleric (Magician), Ork Barbarian (High Pain Tolerance 3), and a few others. It was nice because Arsenal has armor and weapons perfect for a medieval campaign. I got to use all sorts of critters GM's almost never get to use Goblins, Ghouls, Naga, Hellhounds, Each Uisge, Gargoyles, and a Dzoo-no-qua. The players all had fun, and I had fun making the premade characters, even though I've never actually played D&D before, I have played NWN, and Baulder's Gate PC games.

[Nerdynick]

I'll have to say the best run I ever ran as a GM was the opening to my first SR campaign (which sadly fell apart after the second session due to RL problems with players not being able to come).

The PCs were being transported in a prison transport (think the mutant transport in X-men) to a higher-security prison. The transport was the party (a wolverine rip-off with dual cyberspurs and titanium bone lacing, among other things. A weapon specialist with plenty of chrome and skills to match [character had a fully armored cybertorso among other things]. And a toxic Nuclear mage with magic 6) and the son of a russian mob boss. They were rolling down the street in the transport (which had three SWAT officers in it. One driving, two guarding), which was escorted by 6 patrol cars with two cops each. The Russians fired an RPG from a nearby tall building and flipped the transport. Other Russian mobsters started pouring out of alleys and got into a firefight with the cops. The weapon specialist's "cell door" had been bent open a bit. The SWAT officer with the shotgun was taking stock of the situation inside the transport and walked by the Specialist's door. The specialist reached out to yank the shotgun from his hands and succeeded (though he took a slug to the chest). He shot the guard and broke through the door. Stepping into the isle between the cells, he took another shot from the SWAT Officer in the front, who he gunned down. The driver hid up front behind the partition separating the drivers and the prisoners. Specialist walks around the corner, gets shot again (he kept rolling really well on damage resistance tests), and kills the driver. He frees the other two party members and he and Wolverine salvage SWAT armor. The mage goes up front and nukes (literally) the cops in front of transport through the window. Force 12 overcast nuke almost kills him and he sits tight in his armored cell for awhile. Wolverine grabs the Russian mob-prince (who got knocked unconscious) and sits there, since he doesn't have a gun. The specialist sits at the rear door of the transport and takes pot shots at the cops. The Russians kill the cops and ask for the mob-prince at gunpoint. Luckily for the PCs, they agree readily and go sprinting down a nearby alley to plan their next move.

After that incoherent rant, it wasn't really the best SR run from an in-setting perspective (I messed up on a lot as a GM), but the party *loved* it, so it sticks out in our memories. Even if our current SR games don't go anything like it, it still reminds of SR.

[Tiralee]

Ehh...the majority of our games people talk about 5 years after the fact...it's the bad ones that stick out in the mind more:(

I Digress:

My Fave?

Smash & Grab run on Horizon Entertainment's Snohomish data store (2060-not a mega yet).
Marked the first time the team went up against Corperate assets, eventually making out like bandits even though a lack-of-prepardedness (and legwork) almost killed them ~ 7 times.
The Street Monster also came away with ~ 20 million (!) worth of porno master tapes, "to add to his collection" (8 in pornography).
Noted for EVERYONE unleashing hell at least 6 times, each, shooting down a chopper with a bow-and-arrow, discovering the joys of burst-fire flechette vs hellhounds and what happens when you detonate ~ 250 kg C12 on top of a rearming and refuelling station.

Also marks the first time the players planned for a mission... And wrote up new characters for the next week's run...


People remember that one and ask us if we're doing stuff like that anymore, mark of a good run.

-I'll ask the people what they think of theirs,

Tir

[CanRay]

My favorite still has to be the game where the group had to steal the cow that was hopped up on Novacoke.

[Bushw4cker]

My favorite still has to be the game where the group had to steal the cow that was hopped up on Novacoke.

DETAILS!

[Christian Lafay]

My favorite still has to be the game where the group had to steal the cow that was hopped up on Novacoke.

I thought it was a cow that produced Novacoke... Or was that someone else?

[ravensoracle]

My favorite run was an intro for a new team after all but one of the players, the face, lost their PCs to a TPK, that run was epic but what makes this one stand out more is how it stood out for the players. They had a blast reliving their PC's last moments through a fresh set of eyes. The player of the PC that survived wasn't able to make it to the game with the TPK so he comes to the next session completely in the dark. The others decided it would be funny to drop the surprise on him with fresh characters.

The original run involved 6 months of in game build up and planing for an assault on Gold Depository that was loaded. It was suppose to be the crowning achievement of the campaign and after the PC's were gonna retire on some sandy beach. Needless to say it did not go as planned and much carnage ensued. SO then we fast forward to the next game night and in comes the unsuspecting survivor. He had bee instrumental in the planning stages but was going to be relegated to a small part during the run itself so when he was injured the last time he played he decided to use that hospital time to get some ware improved. We he walks in he has a message waiting for his PC that is still recuperating in the hospital. It's an SOS from his team with a link to the still active tacnet that had two of his 5 old teammates' biomonitors already flat-lined.

SO now our survivor rushes out of the hospital still recovering from major surgery and has about half of his Physical track full. He pumps himself full of drugs just to stay standing really. He drains his accounts to hire a new team through his fixer that "Had better be ready to hit Ft. Knox when they meet the Johnson." HE could care less about getting out with the gold at this point, he is just trying to save his old friends that are still alive.

SO now he meets the new team, which are about as pink mohawk as you can get. The original team was definitely a mirror shades bunch. This was seen as kind of a one shot to wrap it all up so they went a little wild with chargen. The team's briefing takes place on the plane taking them to site for a low altitude jump while the plane is hauling ass through a Zero zone airspace. The briefing amounted to "My team is in there. The plans went to hell. We're here to get them back. You better have a lot of firepower."

The team does the drop under fire and is basically put right in the middle of a warzone. The original team has been dead for several minutes by this point but no one wants to spoil it for the absent menber of the last session so they don't tell him. He is still going off of the biomonitor feeds which show that most are still living. Of course this is a zero zone on full alert having just had a major battle with a group of pros that had planned the hit for six month's. So the fighting is intense and everyone is having a blast bringing in the heavy pink mohawk style gameplay.

The best part of the run is when the Face finally makes it to the location of the biomonitors and finds a hacker plugged into the team's pile of corpses feeding a fake signal to whoever was responding. Fighting to get in to that point was hell it was leading to a trap for the new team. SO the fighting to get out was even harder. It was one hell of a ride but the face managed to get the bodies of the original team out and got to play a double crossing johnson by playing the new team to sacrifice themselves for him. For some reason the dice loved him that night and while everyone thought he was going to die, he managed to be the sole survivor barely getting himself and the corpses pulled out of the hot zone by a skyhook. (yes this was long before Spy Games, where it made an official appearance.)

[CanRay]

DETAILS!

I thought it was a cow that produced Novacoke... Or was that someone else?

OK. I'll give the full story.

The group, at the suggestion of one of their Mr. Johnsons, had started buying stocks and such, and decided to do a little stock manipulation using their Shadowrunning skills on their own. (I was encouraging this to get them thinking of things on their own, but they went left-field. WAY left field!).

They literally picked a random small agricultural business that specialized in bio-engineering livestock to bump up, and using their skills made the rest in the city fall apart through various means (I can't remember them that much this time.).

However, in the middle of the night, one of the PCs gets a call from his Mid-Level Mafia Connection, "I'm calling in every favor you owe me, and a few more as well! I need a... Screw it, details coming in an e-mail!" *Beep* Mail received. They had to steal Cow 42 from one of the businesses they put out of business, having no idea that it was a legit mob front that had a few dirty bits to it. Namely, working on making cows that could be fed the ingredients for Novacoke and have it literally milked out. They were getting the bugs out, mainly that the cow was high all the time, with all the health problems therein. The company had gone into receivership, and was being audited. Heavily.

So, crew called in, "Yeah, we screwed this one up badly, and now we have to make sure he never even suspects it was us that did it." And off they go to steal a cow.

After getting a vehicle big enough for a cow, they drive up to the "Redneck" part of Seattle and "Stealthfully" steal the cow. ... ... OK, the Pixie Mage levitated the cow over the fence with a really good roll. Too bad this woke the cow up, and, remember what I said about being on Novacoke? Yeah. A coked up cow, freaking out, and one M-16 with a M-203 underbelly grenade launcher away from going Tony Montana on them! It was kicking the hell out of their commercial van they were all crammed into. And, suddenly, it's implanted Commlink starts broadcasting:
"I'M BEING STOLEN!!!"

Further hilarity ensues.

[Christian Lafay]

Plot plot plot.

I thought Shadowrun was connected to EarthDawn, not Exalted. Take your Beast of Resplendent Liquids, sir! Heh

[CanRay]

Anyhow, with the cow now transmitting in the, luckily, backroads of "Rural" Seattle (What passes for it in the Sprawl), the group goes into full freak-out mode, and start erasing every tag they can find on the cow (They finally bought and remembered to bring a RFID Tag Eraser.). No good. It's an implanted commlink, and no one has a jammer.

After a bit of calculation, they figure out how far the signal is broadcasting (Not far), and that it isn't going out on the matrix, only in AR. So they ditch the drek-kicked van they had, and steal a transport truck with a box trailer that covers up the AR feed mostly, and send out one of the PCs to go get a Signal Jammer ASAP. After a quick run across town to the Crime Mall (Not knowing where else to get one), the guy gets it, but cheaps out and doesn't buy the manual. Gets it back to them as they're driving along randomly, spoofing their truck's signal to keep from being noticed, and try to figure out the jammer.

First try gets it working, at over ten meters in radius. Powerfully, too, cutting off everyone around them. The group looks for the manual, and resist slapping the PC upside the head for not springing for the manual, and call up their hacker contact, dumping a 1000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) into his account before he can even wake up fully. "Get us the instructions for this device, NOW!"

"Um... OK." *Downloads the manual off the company's website* "In order to set the radius of the jamming area, you need to adjust the rheostat to it's minimum setting as indicated by the blue marking, and activate the power toggle." "What?" "Turn the knob all the way to the left and flip the switch." Easiest grand he ever made. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

So, AR turned off, and with some careful driving (The minimum diameter sphere of jamming capable with their device was 1 metre.), and trying to hold the coked-out cow steady as it's freaking out, they finally get the cow to the Mafioso where it needs to be.

Damn fine 'Run. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[longbowrocks]

I sent my runner team to the moon as a sort of retirement party for them. I'll tell the story when I have time, but I figure I'd ship in that ridiculous run.

It was good. My part in the retirement party was trying to kill a great dragon. I'll plan it out next time instead of just rolling archery on sight.

[Crazy Ivan]

Currently, I'm trying to design a run in which the party publicly assassinates a potential Senator in Seattle, only to have to escape some special forces soldiers who have infiltrated their location, thinking someone sold them out. Prior to the assassination, the party receives a package in which contains a data chip directing them to a club (Infinity) not far from the hit location after the job is complete. The catch is that the "Johnson" is the senator that they are trying to assassinate. The actual victim will be a body double, and will the senator will miracolusly "survive" the shot. Essentially, the senators opponent got wind of her attempted trick and is subtly hiring the runners to get their revenge and actually kill the original senator. Hopefully, this will play out as I hope. But we know what players do to planned runs...

[Draco18s]

My group stole an oil tanker for $30,000 and whipped up a hurricane (in the North West) to cover our escape.

[Raiki]

My group stole an oil tanker for $30,000 and whipped up a hurricane (in the North West) to cover our escape.

I'm familiar with at least *most* possible ways to cause massive chaos in Shadowrun, but short of epicly high force air spirits or highjacking corp controlled cloud seeding tech (does this even exist in canon?), I'm really failing to see how you could 'whip up' a hurricane...? Care to share with the class?


~R~

[Draco18s]

I'm familiar with at least *most* possible ways to cause massive chaos in Shadowrun, but short of epicly high force air spirits or highjacking corp controlled cloud seeding tech (does this even exist in canon?), I'm really failing to see how you could 'whip up' a hurricane...? Care to share with the class?

You had it in one. High force air spirit. It also rolled well on its Control Weather action.

[longbowrocks]

You had it in one. High force air spirit. It also rolled well on its Control Weather action.

The following is to the tune of hellfire, if anyone's curious.

Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti (I confess to God almighty)
Beatae Mariae semper Virgini (To blessed Mary ever Virgin)
Beato Michaeli archangelo (To the blessed archangel Michael)
Sanctis apostolis omnibus sanctis (To the holy apostles, to all the saints)

Deus Mundanam
You know I am a righteous man
I use my munchkinry at your command

Et tibit Pater (And to you, Father)

Deus Mundanam
I must convey misgivings
For these mages that are somewhat out of hand

Quia peccavi nimis (That I have sinned)

So tell me, my GM
Why they taunt and test me so
Why their powers never cease to swell

Cogitatione (In thought)

I shoot them, I burn them
But nothing I can ever do
Will halt the apt predictions of Orwell (1984)

Verbo et opere (In word and deed)

It's magic
Confound it
Just call it what you will
Free hurricanes
No defense
The mere thought makes me ill
It's not my fault

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

I'm not to blame

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

It's Draco 18 S
Who caused this venting flame (and I'll feel much better once I'm done)

Mea maxima culpa (Through my most griveous fault)

It's not my fault

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

If in God's plan

Mea culpa (Through my fault)

He made Awakened so much
Stronger than a man

Mea maxima culpa (Through my most griveous fault)

You name it, I've tried it
The drones, the 'ware, the magitech
I feel my wits to be quite near their end
Just give a core book
That lets me foil astral sight
So my stealthy sam can finally unbend
It's magic
Distasteful
Well now it's mundane's turn
Next session
My rigger
Has 80 K to burn

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

I've heard magic is rare

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Not rare enough I'd say

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

So let's begin my
Stealth Warfare!

[ggodo]

I. . .. wow, I'm a bit a afraid of this.

[longbowrocks]

There's no way I can spend it all. I'll spend most of it on R3 cerebral boosters, a control rig, and an improved commlink. I might even splurge on some concealed armor for my modified GMC chariots.

I eventually plan to get an ares Coyote to replace my doberman, but that's for later.