Harlequin, How to run the campaign? Options

[Enkeli]

Any advice on the campaign?
How did you do it, did you change anything etc...
Gonna start my game soon and gonna implement the Harlequin campaign on it.

[Synner]

To begin with are you referring to the original "Harlequin" (in which case you have significant updating to implement so it works with SR3 power levels) or "Harlequin's Back" (which requires minimal rules tweaking but a lot more background work)?

[BishopMcQ]

Wow it's been a long time since I've read through that book. I think the biggest question as to how much you will have to change or not is the time line. When is you game? If it jives with the module you should be fine, with only bringing the module up to date for 3rd Ed. If however you are in 2063, then you may need to work out how these events were impacted by recent changes such as surge and current elven politics after Dunkies death.

[Enkeli]

I`m refering to the original Harlequin.

[TinkerGnome]

Lots of updating required, then. I did an update of the host in the first section for SR3, which is floating around here somewhere. The timeline also doesn't work too well, but you can always GM fiat your way out of that problem.

[Enkeli]

I`ll see what i can cook up.
Or maybe i`ll just let it go and use some of the more resent material.

[Cain]

Harlequin is one hell of a campaign to run. I highly suggest that you customize it to your game-- replace some of the NPCs with your own, and spread the adventures out, between other runs of your own design.

IMO, Harelquin is the best campaign ever developed for any game system, anywhere. It's highly flexible, easily customizeable, and helps you learn to adapt to changing circumstances and unpredictable player actions.

[Ancient History]

That said, the make sure the runners feel the humiliation when they're stripped nekkid. Torture them many times. More than absolutely necessary. Even if they tell you everything. In fact, I like to take exceedingly long role-playing the torture sessions one-on-one with each person so that the others have to sweat it out and wait.

<sniff> Ah, the memories.

[Xirces]

"What is my name."

The best NPC line ever.

As an aside, do many people run 3rd edition games in the past. It seems like quite a good idea to start in 2050 and see things develop - you get to see Harlequin and Bugs up close and personal.

[snowRaven]

If I ever start GMing for a new group (that is, a group new to SR), I'm going to use SR3 rules, but start 'at the beginning' and run the adventures in chronological order...

As for advice - what has been said; prepare specifically for the group and maybe replace a few NPCs, and make sure to play other runs inbetween the Harlequin ones.

[Abstruse]

I'm going to start a SR3 game in December 2051 with Food Fight, then Mercurial (modified), then the first run of Harlequin, then a self-written adventure, then either another self written adventure or Missing Blood (from UB), then the 2nd chapter of Harlequin and go from there. I figure if I can get the group together 2-3 times a month, we can get past Eye Witness (or is it Double Exposure? The other big Bug adventure...) and then the last bit of Harlequin in 2054 before I send them on my self-made mini-campaign remiscent of The Thing. Then I'm going to do Harlequin's Back, then try to find something else that'll suck up a year or two of in-game time before doing the Election stuff, and so on until I figure by the end of 2005, I'll have finished Survival of the Fittest. I wonder how many characters will make it to the end?

When updating Mercurial to 3rd Ed and helping the PCs create characters, I noticed a few problems that came up. The first thing is 1st Ed NPCs are pussies. Even a 100 BP character would walk all over the major bad-asses in Mercurial. Second is the gear. A lot of stuff even in the core rulebook wasn't available in the early 50s, and a lot of the gear that was available was crap compared to the new stuff. So you either have to shift the SOTA or disallow a lot of important gear. The third and probably either the hardest or easiest to fix is the Matrix. The 1st Ed and early 2nd Ed "dungeon crawl" Matrix systems are incredibly difficult to convert to 3rd Ed unless you have a good understanding of both systems. However, if you learn what the different bits do (The double hexagon, the square, the triangle, etc.) in 2nd Ed, you can convert it to 3rd Ed without too many headaches. The best option I think is to take a glance at the old system, get a basic idea of what the system's like, then throw all that crap out the window and build a 3rd Ed system from scratch.

Good luck with your conversions, and if anyone else has any advice or ideas, please post them so I can make last-minute additions to my campaign.

The Abstruse One

[Enkeli]

Thanks for the advice.

[snowRaven]

Abstruse, if you happen to own the old Shadowtech and Cybertechnology books, just forbid most things out of those in the beginning and introduce the tech during the campaign when the right year rolls around. Or, to make it easier on you, forbid all 'new' tech from M&M and introduce during the campaign.

The alternative is to have technology at a stand-still from 2050 to 2062 and run with all the books (except SOTA 2063, of course) from the beginning.

[shadd4d]

As things go, I'd keep in the basics of Matrix, Rigger (to an extent), and MitS (minus the bug spirits and anything about the threats). You can always have the alchemical, BTLs, and subthings in the beginning.

There are a few things you can add in.

2052: Street samurai gear
2053: Shadowtech and a lot of genetech, bioware, matrix ware, chemistry, etc.
2054: Cannon Companion: Merc Gear
2055: Bug City (run double exposure).
2056: Cybermancy appears, invention of CCSS, Prometheus system, integrated Control Room, Corp Sec.

As usual.

That's how I think the technology breaks down, but I'd have to check the dates in a lot of books.

Don

[Snow_Fox]

The key thing is break up the runs. space some things out. With each run the drop something off, pick something up. They will catch on real quick something is up UNLESS you spread them out. So to a Harliquin run, then some normal stuff, another harliquin ruin, then somethnig else etc.

[Abstruse]

Try to space them out as randomly as possible too. One book run, one Harlequin run, one self-made run, another book run, another Harlequin run, two self-made runs, a book run, a Harlequin run, a book run, a Harequin run, etc. Try not to fall into a pattern if you can help it, don't run them back-to-back until you get more toward the end, but also don't spread them out so much the PCs forget the previous runs or it takes you 3-4 game years to finish the thing.

The Abstruse One

[L.D]

If you can find a way to hide the Harlequin book then it's even better. Copy certain pages, or write down the really crucial parts on your own so that the players have no clue.

[snowRaven]

YES! That is crucial - either copy the pages, write things down, or hide the cover by putting uniform color wrapping paper on all your adventure books (a bit boring, I know...)

That is also a good idea for Brainscan and SoTF - and any adventure where you don't want the players to anticipate tings based on what they can deduce from the cover...

[Kagetenshi]

From SotF, all they can deduce is that they're going to be spending time defending themselves with heavy weapons.

~J

[Fygg Nuuton]

ive always wanted to play those books. never even read 'em :(

[Abstruse]

Harlequin: Nice campaign for starting characters, don't get too overwhelmed by it.

Harlequin's Back: Charater experience is much less important than PLAYER experience. They need to know the system because you're altering it slightly on every chapter. New players will get confused quickly between rules that stay the same no matter what and rules that change from quest to quest.

Brainscan: A mid-range group can handle this fairly well without being totally slaughtered. Deckers will be glad to have a game where they're the big guns.

Survival of the Fittest: High level groups or you're DEAD! Make sure your players know when to BUG OUT and RUN AWAY!! Otherwise, they're screwed. Make sure they can handle HUGE encounters or they're dead.

Did I miss any of the big "campaign" books other than Mob Wars (never read it thoroughly)?

The Abstruse One

[cutter07]

What exactly is Harlequin? I know hes old (hes seen in Earthdawn) so know he appears when the wave hits. Other then that I'm not sure what his role is.

[Ancient History]

"Role?" He's an IE! THey're ebyond roles.:P

Seriously, Harlequin is the most powerful metahuman magician on the planet. Not the most powerful magician, but the most powerful /metahuman/ magician. Ehran comes in second, at best.

Aside from that, he tends to add a bit of chaos to life, and fights off nasties like the Horrors.

[Just Jonny]

He's also a bit of a drunk (just for laughs, imagine how much a being with immunity to poisons would have to drink to do so), and enjoys putting the self-important in their place. If any runner mouths off to him, "arrange" weird (and humiliating) random accidents. I don't know if I'd say he's THE most powerful metahuman magician, but he's definitely up there (It's been pretty strongly implied that Alachia's much older). He's also rather fond of making cryptic comments that hint directly at what's going on, but in such a way as to mean little to nothing if one doesn't already understand. Also, the players shouldn't even see him till about halfway through the campaign. Subltely is king with anything related to IEs or dragons.

[BitBasher]