Alright, I'm starting a new SR3 campaign, and I want some input on the first story arc to help fine-tune it.

The Runs:

1. The players are set up a Johnson through a fixer. They are to break in to an Ares office building and steal a file, and make it out without having any fuss raised. The file is a hard copy in a hanging folder, so no Matrix work is required (the team has no decker). While in the building, gangers break in and try to torch the place, naturaly, the runners don't want them to draw Lonse Star to the place, and besides, the gangers attack on sight anyways. Run is completed, and the runners chill for a few days.

2. The same Johnson as before want another job done. He wants some crates from a warehouse. This time he doesn't care how they do it, as long as it gets done. The warehouse itself is at a harbor, and they crates are coming in in three days, then shipped out in another two, so the runners have some time to plan. The dock that the warehouse is at has some beefy security provided by Knight Errant, and is fenced off, but the player still have a few options. Obviusly, they can infiltrate the compound, but if the players are cleaver, they may realise that they could steal the crates by hijacking the truck that will be shipping them out of the warehouse, or even by stealing them from the boat before the crates get delivered.

3. Mr. Johnson wants one more job. He needs bodyguards while making an arms deal with a local gang with Yakuza connections. During the deal, the place is attacked by Mafia goons, and the players need to make sure that Mr. Johnson doesn't catch any flying lead.

4. This time Johnson contacts the group directly. He needs another job done, and needs it done NOW. The pay is good, but the motives seem sketchy. The team is to assassinate the leader of the gang whom he had sold the arms to, as well as the gang's magician and adept. Getting the guns back would be a plus, but it's not a priority.

What Realy Happened:

Johnson is actualy a free spirit who wanted to know more about how the shadows operated. He wanted to give this 'Mr. Johnson thing' a try, and also desired a quick buck to buy a fake SIN with (because he also wanted to try out this 'Human thing' for a while). He arranged to sell the gang some guns in exchange for nuyen, and hired the runners with part of his up-front overhead to find out when the guns were coming in, and where they would be kept (run 1). Afterwords he hired them again to attain said gun (run 2), and once more to help him sell them (run 3). During the mafia attack, the adept and mage from the gang realised the Johnson's true nature, and subsequently undertook an Astral Quest to find out his true name, which they planned to use to blackmail him out of his money (niether the adept, nor the mage whom is an aspected sorcerer had much use for a true name, but they knew a few people who would pay handsomly for one). The spirit, who gave most of his money to the runners as payment, needed them one more time- he had no one else to hire on short notice, and is in quite a panic at this point. He needed the gangers dead, and he needed it done ASAP.

The Player Characters:
Elven Mage/Face
Ork Covert Ops/Wetwork specialist
Dwarven Rigger
Human Razorboy/Keeper of the Realy Big Guns

C&C?

Toss in the Free Spirits ability to make precious, colorful jewels and crystal clear diamonds. Nothing piques a teams interest than a johnson who, instead of paying his team in a cred stick, tosses a silk bag full of gems on the table.

Plus, this might give your face a chance to use whatever negotioation skills he might have to fence the goods.

1 problem with all of this: You need to be able to astrally project in order to go on an astral quest, unless a Free Spirit w/ the Astral Gateway power takes you there.

Yeah, sadly, without a Free Spirit with the Astral Gateway power, Adepts cannot go on astral Quests. (and that's not the only reason I befriend them).

Uhm, It's a good story, but, make sure you have some way for the runners to figure out some of the real details, otherwise, It's not nearly as fun for them. I actually just had a discussion about that with my brother, who used to GM shadowrun all the time (He runs ED for us now). It's kind of a problem if they can't find anything out. So, let them read the file, and open the boxes to find out about the guns.

Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good arc.




~ C

It sounds like the free spirit is new. How does it have all these contacts and skills or the existance and location of the shipping information? I would change it to just a free spirit being a player, the jobs are just ones of several that the spirit is involved.

Getting into an office for a file should be simple for a spirit. They get there astrally and materialize, take the file and leave, or put the file in an envelope, mail it to itself and dematerialize and leave. So there needs to be a reason to go to the trouble of hiring shadowrunners. Why is the gang raiding the place other than a complication? (If it is a second gang, it really sounds like a freak random encounter. They are a rival gang that got wind of the arms deal and though they do not know what they are looking for are trying to disrupt its completion) Did the spirit let it slip when setting up the arms deal and the gang is trying to eliminate the middle man?

Better still, let them assume that they're normal gangers, when they're really triads.
Also, make the cargo something unusual, and not terribly valuable; I.E: The furniture intended for a model apartment at a new arcology. It'll keep the PC's guessing, and likely lead them on a wild goose chase trying to find which corp is employing their Johnson.