Bounty Hunting Campaign, All the bang-bang, but legal! Options

[SpasticTeapot]

After watching about three hours of assorted Cowboy Bebop VCD's someone lent me, and consuming enough caffiene to jump-start the heart of a moose, I was thinking about doing a bounty hunting-style campaign for Shadowrun.
If you stop and think about it, bounty hunting makes a lot of sense. Hunting down offenders is expensive, and if a shadowrunner gets killed, you pay him nothing as opposed to a small fortune in death benifits for his or her family. As an added bonus, it gets shadowrunners to kill other shadowrunners, so LoneStar saves money either way.
Also, the megacorps need someone to hunt down offending runners; why not get other runners, give them permits, and let them do it for you? This is more economical, not to mention feasible, then sending in a platoon of Red Samurai or whatever to the Redmond Barrens to kill Freddy the Decker Who Knows Too Much.

So, the upshot is this: Characters would be shadowrunning on the good side of the law. So long as they stayed with the assigned wetwork, they get permits for all sorts of things, with better permits assigned as their legal record becomes more and more solid. Of course, characters would be limited as to what they could do (Hostages mean no grenades, for example) and limited as to their weaponry for the first few 'runs, but it might be interesting.
And, as an added bonus, many megacorps are more than happy to give runners access to high-profile cyberware and "field-test" upcoming weapon designs if they're eliminating potential profit-killers. If the police already have a bounty on the person's head, the price of a 3,000 nuyen SMG pales in comparison to the price of hiring someone to do it illegally.

And, of course, this leads the way for a Cowboy Bebop modification for Shadowrun.
Any thoughts?

EDIT:
Perhaps the biggest issue I (and many other people) have seen is wether 'runners are allowed to kill bounties, or must take them in alive. In my opinion, the latter makes more sense; it requires players to avoid using high-power explosives and powerful weapons to avoid killing the target, as opposed to wounding or stunning them. It also allows for PhysAds to truly shine; an unarmed-combat expert would be able to knock opponents unconcious with little risk of death, and do'nt require weaponry to do it, allowing them to get very close to targets before they realize they're under attack.

EDITED, AGAIN:
Perhaps "'Special' beef with green peppers" would be an appropriate name for the campaign setting? :twirl:

[BishopMcQ]

There is currently one bounty hunting game going on in the PbP section of this board. (There was another one earlier but it is on vacation at the moment.)

The entire concept is highly plausible and simply requires buy in with the players and a change in the philosophy of the characters both during creation and during the game itself.

As long as everyone is legit, has permits for their gear and acts responsibly (not shooting the guards or using lethal force without proper cause) then everything would run smoothly. Unfortunately I don't have a regular tabletop game running at the moment or I would actually try this concept there as well.

This post has been edited by McQuillan: Mar 26 2005, 05:51 AM

[Arethusa]

Bounty hunting, even in a dystopic future, can't really be about assassination. It's sloppy, it's bad pr, and it's more than a little hard to swallow as a premise, let alone the deluge of logistical problem and potential dangers. Besides, if you want Cowboy Bebop as a model, they have to come in a live or your players don't eat for a month.

[DocMortand]

Of course bringing 'em in alive is sometimes a SERIOUS problem. Check out Corey from Prime Runners - In a low player turn out day I basically teleported him to Seattle (by having him going on a killing spree through NAN) and had the runners get contacted through a Johnson representing Lone Star - they got the equivalent of a "get out of jail" bonuses and the reward was dead or alive.

Believe me, Corey wasn't going to be alive - a possessed ork with Regeneration...

The premise as a hold is very cool, and I can see it in Shadowrun easily. Just make sure to define whether it's Alive/Dead or only Alive at the start.

[Edward]

There is one difficulty.

There is a million nuyen bounty on live confirmed toxic or blood mages. If you can get to one they are not all that hard to bring down. Expect every bounty hunting party to want a crack at one of those one day.

Edward

[Mortax]

If you can get a hold of the Lonestar source book, it has a section on bounty hunters.

And you are right, in that a lot of times, the star leaves the "dead or alive" option open.

this could be a fun idea, I'll have to try it sometime. :-)

[DocMortand]

[Thomas]

I see no problem with the concept. Corps already hire runners to track down runners, and as long as the character doesn’t have an outstanding warrant with the ‘Star I could see a reward being offered.

I’d be tempted to play.

By the way, if it’s beef with green peppers – where’s the beef?

[Edward]

And there is always the ever present bail jumpers, a previous thread suggested that they would be available.

I knew the draco foundation quickly made lists of known toxic magicians but I thought they where a lot longer than 10 indeviduals.

Edward

[DocMortand]

The Top 10 was updated each time a toxic from the list was caught - and when you get up in power, Toxics are a little harder to catch than a normal magician - especially with the Potency rules.

[Kesh]

Traditional bounty hunting isn't going to be terribly glamorous. It's basically private or corporate bail bondsmen. See the show Dog, the Bounty Hunter on A&E for an example. Not only do you have to bring them in alive, you really can't mess them up much either. Due process, and all.

Now, if you were working on the sly through a Johnson, yeah, anything goes. But then, you're not so much a bounty hunter as... well, a Shadowrunner. :)

[Arethusa]

Dog's not quite standard, though. He's a chaplin, and also a pretty nice guy. While (most) real bounty hunting still is about hunting low level bail jumpers, it can get a bit rougher than that. Still, rarely if ever anything like movies makeit out to be. Cowboy Bebop, being set some 70 years in the future, doesn't have a whole lot to do with current day bounty hunting other than its complete lack of glamour.

Of course, even today, it's not all hunting bail jumpers. Osama Bin Laden does have some 30 million on his head, after all, and while I doubt there are any private mercenary groups after him at the moment, that sort of thing is not impossible.

[Edward]

[DocMortand]

Hey, go read AH's annotated Will if you don't believe me. I don't remember what his source was, tho.

[SpasticTeapot]

An idea for a bounty hunter character:
Take a PhysAd, give him absurdly high charisma (Elf+Improved Attribute Edge-Charisma), strength 6, Etiqutette 6, Negotiation 6, Delayed Strike (silent), \ Killing Hands: Serious, and every social skill edge in the book.
The character could find the bounty, walk by, and brush against them, doing 6(S) Stun damage which, if I recall, armor does not apply to. Watch target fall unconcious, or suddenly stumble in place about two minutes later. If the character is K.O.'d, tell people you're taking him to a hospital in your conveniently parked sports car; if he's still concious, pretend to see if he's okay, and slap him with another 6S.
The absurdly high charisma rating combined with absurdly high social skills means that he can usually smooth talk his way into parties and such, and then convince everyone nearby that you've got his best interests at heart when you zip away with him in the back seat. The next thing mr. Bounty sees are prison cell bars and some guy named Big Ed.

[Sandoval Smith]

[Nikoli]

Well, if you want a PbP bounty hunter game, I'll toss in my hat for that.

[Fortune]

[SpasticTeapot]

[toturi]

Play by Post (on the forums).

[Maimer]

It's a great concept. Especially getting the corps involved. I've run campaigns that included some "bounty hunting" and it went over well. As runners, the hardest part was stressing the "bring them back alive and unharmed" part. But when the money is good they tend to listen very well.

I'm as much into trying to bring a moderate amount of realism into the game, and bounty hunting is quite a bit that. You have to take into account the current laws concerning this type of activity within the UCAS. I'm sure they would turn a blind eye to it if the person you are bringing in happens to be on their top 10 list. I wouldn't expect that to happen if it was just someone that crossed borders to get away from the Yak's or the Rings. Its all in who the runners are having to hunt down.

The real issue comes with the "dead or alive" option. When not stated specifically you can expect the target to end up dead at the most or very much hurt and unconscience at the least. Runners tend to take the attitude . . . .shoot now, shoot some more, shoot later and ask a question...shoot again just in case.

[Nikoli]

Player, I'm through GMing for a while yet