I'm reading an absoloutely wizzer (snuck in an SR3ism, yaay!,) book by Nora Roberts, penned as J.D. Robb, titled Origin in Death. Even if you don't like the rest of the series, which I think you did, this one has an absoloultely awesome plot that would be perfect for a Shadowrun campaign.
The gist is that the murder of a doctor who can be termed only as a saint, multiple Nobel Prize Winner, golden-hearted doctor, is the spark of an investigation that leads to the uncovering of a giant covered-up conspiracy of eugenics and cloning; reproducing people, tailoring them to certain specs. Many of them tailor-made, educated in girls' schools and colleges, custom-trained to be perfect wives for influential or rich people, while others are being custom-made research geniuses and laboratory assistants, and yet others are being designed, tailored, and trained to be assassins, spys, and generally the kind of person who'd make a perfect Shadowrunner.
The question, of course, is how to put the right SRism on it. I imagine that Extraterritoriality puts a wrench in the illeagality of it all, but certainly not the atrocity. How could you see this plot being used for Shadowrun? Where would the Shadowrunners come into it?
Full Version: The mother of all runs
Give the conspirators a dumptruck full of money and leave them the hell alone. That's damn important stuff they're doing.
| QUOTE |
| Where would the Shadowrunners come into it? |
stealing the research for another corp. Probably originated from UniOmni. I could see Ares wanting that certainly. SK, Pheonix Biotech as well.
I was thinking more along the lines of "Fragging the whole mess up and trying to do a Good Thing (And of course, make a dumptruck load of money in the process.)
this is shadowrun. We don't do good things unless we get paid, not and get paid. Having said that, pick up a copy of Loose Alliances, and decide who has a problem with stuff like that. THen have them hire the runners to go do it. soka?
Have your own initiative, for once. Be heros. You may not be being paid by a Johnson, but the karmatic rewards will be stratospheric. Not to mention that when you bust up something like this, there is going to be a metric buttload of expensive swag to swipe.
OR a matric buttload or corp sec coming down on you. Remember that usually when you do a run, you're just a tool. If they wanna frag the guy responsible , they just have to follow the trail back from you, and drop the snipers on whomever is at the end of the line. In this case.... you are the end of the line. So to be at your end of the line. Self motivated runs are dangerous, because when the heavies come knocking, the only name you have to drop for them.... is yours.
Unless, of course, they don't exist anymore. Because you blew the whole thing wide-open on the news media, while at the same time making sure every corp and government know who they were and where they are. Which resulted in getting EVERYBODY to tear them apart like rabid wolves. Just dissapear into the confusion with your Karma, your 
, and your new family of clones. 
, and your new family of clones.
until the one guy that you thought was dead comes back for you ala Die Hard 1.
And then the clones kill you, ala Austin Powers 2.
And the friend you thought was clsoe to you ends up harboring the enemy ala Hicks (R.I.P.) ala Alien 3.
4..... I got nothin'
And then the clones kill you, ala Austin Powers 2.
And the friend you thought was clsoe to you ends up harboring the enemy ala Hicks (R.I.P.) ala Alien 3.
4..... I got nothin'
I'm all for saving the world. Hell, I do that to my PC's all the time. The reason I give them runs like that is to get them to realise that they're just guns for hire, not some super special secret force that defeats the Bad Guys. If there's no money involved, and the players have no character motivation to do a run, they will not do it.
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| The question, of course, is how to put the right SRism on it. I imagine that Extraterritoriality puts a wrench in the illeagality of it all, but certainly not the atrocity. How could you see this plot being used for Shadowrun? Where would the Shadowrunners come into it? |
For one thing, go rent The Stepford Wives (the original, not last year's remake).
Perhaps a PC could discover their own "secret origin" as a product of this facility. Maybe a particularly nasty Manabolt sizzling through her cranium unlocks some deeply-repressed memories of growing up as a genetically-engineered bio-golem. In a bid to uncover her shadowy past, the PC uncovers the project and has some decisions to make as a result. This has the advantage of personalising the story, so the PCs really care about it. Also, it means that the GM can stretch it out a bit, throwing in some dreams and nightmares for a while before 'unlocking' the memories and setting the group on the path that will eventually take them face-to-face with this eugenics factory.
Hope that helps.
I was going to use something similair. When a player wanted his sam to Awaken (SR3) I had nothing for that because no matter what they say, there are still two classes in shadowrun, Mundane and Awakened, so I thought about having him come to in a what amounts to a special coroner's fridge, but with feeder and waste removal tubes, hooked up to a dialasys machine, etc (gotta keep those kidneys nice and fresh). And he would have no memories, no skills, nothing and default his way out of a facility. Decided against that as DocWagon doesn't keep whole bodies on hand, just vats of spare parts the client is likely to need according to the genetic screening and pre-filled application.
Instead of real schools, they use Simsense for training. The result is that they have have the girls grow to adulthood in a matter of months but still have a full 22 years of life experience. However, some random dissonant otaku hacks the system for fun and switches the programing. The result is that assasins are being shipped out as wives and subsequently killing their new husbands.
The corp in question stages a recall. This recall consists of hiring runners to track own and terminate every last wife model (and their husbands who know too much) in service and to blow the facility to kingdom come so that it can never be traced back to them.
The corp in question stages a recall. This recall consists of hiring runners to track own and terminate every last wife model (and their husbands who know too much) in service and to blow the facility to kingdom come so that it can never be traced back to them.
You can't grow a viable clone to adulthood that fast, Hyzmarca. This would have to be a long-going conspiracy. And stop thinking "Megacorp."
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| You can't grow a viable clone to adulthood that fast, Hyzmarca. This would have to be a long-going conspiracy. And stop thinking "Megacorp." |
You can grow everyhting except the brain to adulthood that fast and you can pump the brai full of so many sim experiences that it might as well be an adult.
Ugh. That's some terrible science, there. Not to mention the interactions between flooding a human brain with sims as it's been force-expanded from an infant's size to an adult's? There's going to be some problems there.
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| Ugh. That's some terrible science, there. Not to mention the interactions between flooding a human brain with sims as it's been force-expanded from an infant's size to an adult's? There's going to be some problems there. |
It is Shadowrun science. You can grow a whole body in a few weeks just not the brain. You can, however, put baby brains in a jar and connect them to the matrix. Replace martix with UV host and you'll have the perfect training ground for experienced, if somewhat childlike, designer slaves.
I doubt force-expanding will work very well. It may be better to put time-degrading bioware bioware shack absorbers around the smaller brain so that it doesn't bang armound in the skull. But then again, I'm not a Shadowrun matrix neurologist. Ask Dr. Halberstam what he thinks about it.
You'd probably be better off doing it the old-fasioned way.
This also leaves a lot of sticky questions for Shadowrunners who find that they have a schoolfull of teenaged and preteenaged girls in the line of fire.
This also leaves a lot of sticky questions for Shadowrunners who find that they have a schoolfull of teenaged and preteenaged girls in the line of fire.
Yes, it's bad science, but bad Science makes good story. Besides, unless you could force-grow the clones into adulthood, the process of creating them would take a greater outlay of resources and far to much time to be profitable, unless the average clone sold for around 25 million Nuyen.
Anyway, Adult women who act like children are considered "Cute" by some. And if you were selling to the Japanese, you wouldn't have to age them that much. They aren't side effects, they're bonus features!
Anyway, Adult women who act like children are considered "Cute" by some. And if you were selling to the Japanese, you wouldn't have to age them that much. They aren't side effects, they're bonus features!
Here's an interesting idea: the guys that hire you to take out the clone facility? They're Humanis. 
x.x
And yes, I was bloody well thinking the clones would sell for about 25 M:nuyen:. Think about it, you're a rich and influential EU politian, or Renraku Exec. Your 1 year old son is going to need a mate someday that, in all reality, is not so far off, so what do you do?
You place an order, and get him a girl who is well-versed an able to be everything a perfect traditional Japanese wife should be, and is utterly subserviant because she's been bred and trained that way. She's cultured and educated, and has a perfect every-i-dotted-every-t-crossed background that is 100% solid if nobody looks to when she was five, and she has real parents listed as parents of record - but oh my, they're deceased. No way to investigate that. The parents are also some people who're respectables type, like doctors or something.
Bam, there ya go. 25 million is a chunk, but when you have people who're tossing around a billion a year.... Yeah. Not to mention the ones who'll want a perfect offspring and don't trust their genes to do it, and don't want the hassle of raising them themselves.
And yes, I was bloody well thinking the clones would sell for about 25 M:nuyen:. Think about it, you're a rich and influential EU politian, or Renraku Exec. Your 1 year old son is going to need a mate someday that, in all reality, is not so far off, so what do you do?
You place an order, and get him a girl who is well-versed an able to be everything a perfect traditional Japanese wife should be, and is utterly subserviant because she's been bred and trained that way. She's cultured and educated, and has a perfect every-i-dotted-every-t-crossed background that is 100% solid if nobody looks to when she was five, and she has real parents listed as parents of record - but oh my, they're deceased. No way to investigate that. The parents are also some people who're respectables type, like doctors or something.
Bam, there ya go. 25 million is a chunk, but when you have people who're tossing around a billion a year.... Yeah. Not to mention the ones who'll want a perfect offspring and don't trust their genes to do it, and don't want the hassle of raising them themselves.
Well, you can still have teenaged and preteen girls there. I'm sure many clients would want their wives and their assassins to be a little younger than average. It just makes things creepier. You can have a group of 10-year-olds with 30 years of simulated experience obediently waiting to be shipped to the people who orderd them.
There is one other advantage in the clone route, customizability. People aren't going to wait a decade or two for their new custom toy, which means that people would have to settle for generic mass-produced clones. If they are froce-grown, then the customers can design their clones from the ground up, specificing every little detail from height to eye color to virtual training regimine.
There is one other advantage in the clone route, customizability. People aren't going to wait a decade or two for their new custom toy, which means that people would have to settle for generic mass-produced clones. If they are froce-grown, then the customers can design their clones from the ground up, specificing every little detail from height to eye color to virtual training regimine.
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| Have your own initiative, for once. Be heros. You may not be being paid by a Johnson, but the karmatic rewards will be stratospheric. Not to mention that when you bust up something like this, there is going to be a metric buttload of expensive swag to swipe. |
Bah. What do you think this is, D&D? You are not the long-lost true king prophesied to cast down the evil usurper and rescue the beautiful princess. You are a hired criminal.
Have the PCs be the ones paid to off the good doctor. Or track down a runaway girl and return her to her loving corporate family, unharmed... or perhaps in a bodybag (and make sure you don't leave any bits lying around!). Or track down a certain nosy media figure who's spreading (-ahem-) false rumors about the kindly paternal corporation and make sure that he understands that it's not in his best interests to continue to do so (practical demonstrations may be required). Or liberate some of these poor girls, and as much associated data as possible, and entrust them to the care of the Johnson's corp, which is clearly better equipped to take care of them than a bunch of hired thugs, and, of course, far more caring than the evil bastards who originated the program. Or attach this vial, it's just saline solution, really, to a certain bit of apparatus in the cloning vats. Or destroy these mindless machines disguised as women, purge the on-site host and off-site backups, and burn the facility to the ground.
And even if the PCs balk at doing these things, it still makes for a lot more interesting gaming than being the heros. Heros are boring, and the pay sucks.
| QUOTE (John Campbell) |
| And even if the PCs balk at doing these things, it still makes for a lot more interesting gaming than being the heros. Heros are boring, and the pay sucks. |
Nah. Being a hero in this situation has its rewards, most notably being the ability to emulate such shounen romance anime series as Tenchi Muyo and Love Hina. One could collect a rather sizable harem by raiding shuch a facility. Especially usefull would be the designer assassins.
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| And yes, I was bloody well thinking the clones would sell for about 25 M:nuyen:. Think about it, you're a rich and influential EU politian, or Renraku Exec. Your 1 year old son is going to need a mate someday that, in all reality, is not so far off, so what do you do? |
That works for the lovely brides, well some of them at least. However, it doesn't work for the designer assasins or the super scientists.
Yeah. Makes me glad I'm not playing in your games, or with you. Or even know you, for that matter.
Just because you're criminals dosen't mean you have to be bad people. Or do bad things for hire.
Just because you're criminals dosen't mean you have to be bad people. Or do bad things for hire.
Yep. Much better to play Shiny Happyrun. 
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685 @ Oct 7 2005, 03:15 PM) |
| Yeah. Makes me glad I'm not playing in your games, or with you. Or even know you, for that matter. Just because you're criminals dosen't mean you have to be bad people. Or do bad things for hire. |
Yep. Just 'cause you fuck people's lives over for a living, just because you have in all probability personally brought more misery into the world than the entire cloning operation, no reason you have to be a bad person.
~J
Unless the people you're fucking over are the kind of rich and corrupt people who make their fortunes at the misery of others. It's certainly illeagal to do that, because that's the kind of person who's money buys them their laws.
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| Yeah. Makes me glad I'm not playing in your games, or with you. Or even know you, for that matter. |
The feeling is mutual.
Superhero-izing Shadowrun disgusts me.
| QUOTE (Fortune) |
| Yep. Much better to play Shiny Happyrun. |
I was thinking Robinhood Run, but yours works better.These two quotes really make this thread for me though:
| QUOTE (Hyzmarca) |
| The corp in question stages a recall. |
| QUOTE (Eyeless Blond) |
| Here's an interesting idea: the guys that hire you to take out the clone facility? They're Humanis. ] |
Just those two make we want to actually GM this run
| QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) |
| Unless the people you're fucking over are the kind of rich and corrupt people who make their fortunes at the misery of others. |
When you screw a corp, who suffers? Is it the fat cat at the top, or the wageslaves who get their pay cut and the guards who get fired or reassigned to Hellhole Beta? Sometimes it's both, sometimes only one. I leave you to guess which one.
Consequences.
~J
It's a glitch in the Matrix!
I agree with Shadowdragon8685 on this one. Shadowrunner aren't superheroes, but cyberpunk loses its "punk" feel if the runners are just low-rent criminals. They should be fighting against the system, while realizing that they are still essentially part of it - you get all the angst, soul-searching, and tough decisions then. You need people trying to do the best they can, sometimes failing, sometimes giving in, sometimes messing up and making it worse, and sometimes perservering.
Yeah, runners do criminal acts for money, but they do have their own individual, quirky codes of morality. A shadowrunner who is coldly professional and only does jobs he is paid for is just as boring and one-dimensional as a D&D paladin. Shadowrunners include near-suicidal corporate burnouts, fanatic eco-freak shamans out to cleanse and protect Mother Earth, street samurai who pride themselves on their honor, rabble-rousing neo-anarchist hackers, and so on. Runners doing jobs on their own may not be the norm, but it shouldn't be that surprising.
Yeah, runners do criminal acts for money, but they do have their own individual, quirky codes of morality. A shadowrunner who is coldly professional and only does jobs he is paid for is just as boring and one-dimensional as a D&D paladin. Shadowrunners include near-suicidal corporate burnouts, fanatic eco-freak shamans out to cleanse and protect Mother Earth, street samurai who pride themselves on their honor, rabble-rousing neo-anarchist hackers, and so on. Runners doing jobs on their own may not be the norm, but it shouldn't be that surprising.
I have no problems with 'runners setting up and completing jobs on their own. Nor do I have a problem with 'runners doing the occasional (or even not-so-occasional) 'good deed'. I do have a problem with an all-encompassing, unrealistic, altruistic bent that Shadowdragon8685 seems to demand from his players' characters.
| QUOTE (Glyph @ Oct 8 2005, 01:28 AM) |
| Shadowrunner aren't superheroes, but cyberpunk loses its "punk" feel if the runners are just low-rent criminals. |
I agree as well. There should be high rent too. Simple economic demands for a better product really.
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