I run Shadowrun!, Holy crap! Options

[thorya]

I'd love to hear more about your groups runs. Besides hacking everything, what has the group been up to?

For the train job, was he hacking commlinks to get access to accounts? Did they steal anything physical. You can have further complications when someone does a follow up and traces where the money from one of those accounts went. Or from a street cam that happened to catch a few frames of the train going past and shows two people still conscious so that KE knows it was someone on the train or a KE counter terrorism team higher up might send them a casual warning not to pull heists that can be mistaken for terror attacks, it's a ton of paperwork. A few loose ends coming back to haunt them can be very educational for new players. Obviously, you don't have to be a dick about it, just enough of a threat to make them cautious. A virus that wipes there systems or their fake SINs being erased. Just ideas, if you were planning on running a more "mirror shades" game than a "pink mohawk" game.

[Tanegar]

Last session, I threw them an extraction run, as a follow-up to the train job: Renraku scientist involved in cutting-edge biotech research is appearing at a science & industry conference, Johnson wants him abducted. The PCs hatched a reasonably cunning plan and did some good legwork, and I'm currently coming up with wrenches to throw into the works during the execution next session.

During the train job, the only things stolen were the paydata and a bunch of nuyen. It was a cross-country train, Kansas City to Seattle by way of Salt Lake City (the PCs' insertion point), so no street cams. I am trying to steer the game towards the "mirrorshades" end of things, but I'm open to a little bit of mohawkness.

[Tanegar]

OK, the run went off more or less without a hitch.

The Scenario: The paydata from the train job indicated that Renraku was working on something new in biotechnology. Ms. Johnson's employers (who have yet to be revealed) wanted to know what, and they planned to get the information by extracting the scientist supervising the project, one Dr. Trenton Smithfield. Smithfield is a virtual recluse, residing in an ultrasecure Renraku enclave north of the city and hardly ever leaving it. It so happens, however, that the Northwest Conference on Biotechnology is coming up, and is the only public event that Dr. Smithfield reliably attends. The PCs are hired to extract Smithfield from the conference and deliver him to a waiting black-bag team in the Redmond Barrens.

The Team: Mike Lawson, dwarf technomancer; Hideki Chosokabe, elf rigger; Sam, tiger-shifter magician and street doc; Random; free spirit.

The Plan: Recon reveals that Renraku has reserved three rooms on the northeast corner of the 18th floor of the hotel where the conference is being held. Lawson hacks the hotel server to acquire the room directly above the corner suite. The plan is that an entry team composed of Chosokabe and Sam will rappel down from the 19th floor and enter the 18th-floor corner suite, presumed to be Smithfield's, subdue Smithfield and his bodyguards, then lower Smithfield to the ground and escape by road. During the course of further reconnaissance, this is revised when Lawson and Sam, posing as a couple of married medtechs, schmooze Smithfield prior to the kidnapping and succeed in scoring Sam (who is female) an invite up to his room.

The Execution: Sam seduces Smithfield, slaps a tranq patch on his neck, and alerts the team that their target is ready for transport. Lawson rappels into the room, straps Smithfield into a harness, and lowers him to the ground. Sam and Random, who had been posing as Lawson and Sam's bodyguard, exit the hotel normally, Sam taking pains to create the illusion that Smithfield did not want to be disturbed. Lawson uses the admin account he planted in the hotel server previously to delete all security footage of the team, and the team absconds to the rendezvous with Ms. Johnson's black-bag team without incident, where they are paid the agreed-upon sum of ¥40,000 (¥10,000 apiece).

Once again, my players defied my expectations. The original plan was looking like they were going to exit the hotel in a running gun battle, and drive to the rendezvous site under fire the whole way. During the preparation phase, however, Sam's player took the initiative in approaching Smithfield during the conference and engaging him as a fellow scientist. She earned his trust, and ultimately conned her way into his room, where she tranq'd him while he was distracted by her... feminine wiles, shall we say? On the way out, she successfully conned the guards into thinking that their boss was sleeping it off, which gave the team the time needed to make their escape quietly.

Karma awards: 6 each for Mike, Hideki, and Random, 7 for Sam.

Obligatory anecdote of hilarious failure: Lawson, preparing to hack the hotel's security provider's node, tried multiple times to compile a sprite to help him. The Dice Gods did not smile upon him. First, he tried a Rating 6 sprite. He rolled 3 hits, the sprite rolled 3 hits. Lawson took 3S damage. Trying again, he rolled 3 hits, the sprite rolled 3 hits. Lawson took 2S damage. Lawson rests for several hours to shake off the stun damage. Third attempt, he dials it back to a Rating 5 sprite. He rolls 4 hits, the sprite rolls 4 hits. Lawson takes 4S damage. On the fourth attempt, for a Rating 4 sprite, he finally gets one that owes him 3 tasks.