Dumpshock Forums > Lone Star centric campaign

Westiex

Mar 21 2006, 04:03 AM

I've been approached by a friend of mine who wants me to run a SR(probably 3) campaign. The only real idea I've had so far is one based on getting hired regularly by a Johnson from LS

The Premise: There's someone doing high profile crimes all over Seattle.
The Problem: They're pretty sure that the person responsible is a exec for a AAA corp
The Soloution: LS will hire runners on a semi regular basis (1/3 of the runs at the start, growing to about 2/3rds to all runs at the end) in order to track down who it is, why he's doing it and possible stop him/'extradite' him.

The only real thought I've had so far is to make it revolve around art thefts for the primary campaign - I do plan for other, non related cases (Such as getting evidence on a gang) and such.

Any thoughts?

emo samurai

Mar 21 2006, 04:25 AM

Lone Star aren't the good guys. They won't pursue a case if it looks closed. Maybe you could have the Johnson be a lone cop with a conscience who finds a case that doesn't add up that his superiors are blocking. That could be a good run idea.

hyzmarca

Mar 21 2006, 05:00 AM

Lone Star does employ Shadowrunners for some thing that they can't or won't use their regular officiers for. Assasinations, illegal intelligence gathering, anything in a Z-zone, and ect.

And no, they most certainly are not the good guys. Very rarely they are the lesser evil but that is as good as it gets.

emo samurai

Mar 21 2006, 05:01 AM

I remember from the 40 pages or so of "Never Deal with a Dragon" that Lone Star's supposed to be mostly clean, but I'm reading 2XS right now, and they seem to be dirtbags.

Wounded Ronin

Mar 21 2006, 06:40 AM

Well, if LS dosen't want to prosecute through the legal system, it really would be no different than any other job from any other Johnson.

Westiex

Mar 21 2006, 07:41 AM

A bit of the 'good guys' bit comes from the public perception. Sure, apart from KE trying to bring up every major scandal that they hear of, LS are there to serve and protect, aren't they?

(Or at least thats the corporate image that LS likes to promote.)

-Nyx-

Mar 21 2006, 09:52 AM

And that's what at least some of the Stars believe, too.

Lone Star as a Corp is exactly that: A corp. Interested in making money, pleasing it's owners, expanding, keeping up the public image...

And Lone Star's business is providing public security. And if the usual and legal ways to do this aren't sufficient, they're not concerned to do this under the hand... if this is necessary, cost-effective and unlikely to backfire...
___

And a Lone Star Cop can be a racist a**hole in uniforn, a cynical lone gun-man or a dedicated public servant or everything you wish and/or a nowaday cop can be.

Greetings,
Nyx

Paul

Mar 21 2006, 03:10 PM

QUOTE (emo samurai)

Lone Star aren't the good guys.

I'd say that depends on who is running the game. In my own games Lone Star is a mixture of good and bad, just like real life police departments. Some of the people, in fact most of the lower echelon people are everyday, normal people-good people. But there are bad cops, and I do agree with you that at the end of the day the guys calling the shots are looking at the almighty bottom line.

This seems pretty epic in scope, your idea Westiex. Depending on what you want to do here are a few suggestions:

A detective, or detectives, have been investigating a series of interelated cases-robbery, homicides, etc-when they realize that what they've found is someone who's been hiring a team of Shadowrunners. Maybe even the same team each time. As they investigate more, they become much more sure of what they've found, but realize that the legal system is set up for people like this, and situations like this. After the men upstairs turn down their requests for funds and manpower they decide to take the law into their own hands.

Or conversely someone upstairs at Lone Star could decide this series of runs is affecting the bottom line, and that needs to stop-and two detectives with a gun isn't the way to do it. In order to maintain plausible deniability they hire out.

ShadowDragon8685

Mar 21 2006, 05:04 PM

If you want to do a good guys campaign that's not purely Robin Hood, your best bet is the Draco Foundation. As the executors of Big D's will, they're the highest ratio of good to questionable to rotten.

Wounded Ronin

Apr 17 2006, 02:25 AM

Would Dirty Harry hire shadowrunners if he had to shoot more than 6 guys?

SL James

Apr 17 2006, 02:41 AM

QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685 @ Mar 21 2006, 11:04 AM)

If you want to do a good guys campaign that's not purely Robin Hood, your best bet is the Draco Foundation. As the executors of Big D's will, they're the highest ratio of good to questionable to rotten.

Funny you should say that. In my games, the DF is probably more conventionally "evil" than any other group except maybe Tanamous (I'm surprised DocWagon doesn't do some of the stuff they do).

emo samurai

Apr 17 2006, 04:09 AM

Why is it evil in your campaign? The founder, like, sacrificed his own life in order to live as a cyberzombie for all eternity as humanity's savior. Is it evil simply because it doesn't have pragmatic goals like profit the way megacorporations do?

hyzmarca

Apr 17 2006, 04:25 AM

Notice that SL James typed "conventionally" evil instead of absolutly evil.

Just because their ends are just doesn't mean that their means have to be. Infact, they can probably accomplish their just ends much more efficiently using the most brutal means possible.

Take, for example, Section One from La Femme Nikita (the series). These were the good guys, there is no doubt about that. Their actions have saved countless lives and prevented World Wars. Yet, their tactics are most certainly "conventionally" evil. They recruit agents under threat of death and routinly "cancel" those who fail to preform up to expectations. The people who aren't quite bad enough to cancel are sent on suicide missions instead. They kill innocent civilians without hesitation. They turn women and children over to be raped and tortured in exchange for information. The propped up Saddam's regime because removing him would have worse consequences than leaving him in power (and I'm still expecting those). In short, Section One used tactics that were actually morally worse than the tactics used by the terrorists they tried to defeat. But their use of brtually efficient tactics saved countless innocent lives, thus excusing them in the long run.

brohopcp

Apr 17 2006, 04:49 AM

This sounds like a good idea for a game, though stay away from the rogue moral detective story. I would say that Lonestar Corp upper office is behind the hiring of Runners. Have the J set it up as a PR story. Lonestar wants this guy caught... and they want him caught by them as publically as possible. The Runners may actually be the ones doing the work, but Lonestar would show up with camera's and uniforms for the actual arrest.

The first few runs would be surveillance and evidence collecting, probably stuff like hacking security for art galleries and placing hidden cameras. Later missions would include setting up a sting operation to catch this guy in the act. They may even have a few missions using copycat crimes to build up the guy's public image as master thief.

The runner's may have been captured by Lonestar and now forced to work for them, especially since you'll be hard pressed to find Runner's willing to work for the Star, no matter what the price.

SL James

Apr 17 2006, 04:52 AM

Because I subscribe to the "Dunkelzahn allowed Aztechnology to get as far as it did on purpose" school of thought. It's sheer lunacy, but it is also really cool because it sets a nice bar for some really awful things they would do for their long-term goals.

IOW, "charitable" is a loose definition.

Besides that, Dunk's "charity" in his self-sacrifice killed 4 Secret Service agents, created the Rift which Ghostwalker and countless shedim and "other" spirits emerged from, and at the end of Beyond the Pale a lot of people who probably had no idea what was going on got killed (in addition to the fuckton of other people killed in the DHS), plus the mages GW ate when he emerged and the people he killed or who were collateral damage to reprisal attacks when he took over Denver.

Yeah... Dunk's a real humanitarian. At least Lofwyr never bullshitted people into thinking he cared about them.

Voran

Apr 17 2006, 06:17 AM

Depends tho, on your point of view, if the dragon heart stuff is to be believed, big D also made a judgement call, beliving the side effects of the rifts/shedim/death of collateral innocents of the immediate explosion, was preferable to the horrors coming early. The whole, needs of the many outweighing needs of the few, sorta thing.

Oddly enough, his decision, was rather conventionally Presidential.

SL James

Apr 17 2006, 07:16 AM

True, but my two main premises are that 1) he let it get that far, and 2) he didn't give a fuck about anyone; he cared about a principle. They were as disposable as John Timmons, and all those listed above. At least Lofwyr never pretended otherwise.

ShadowDragon8685

Apr 17 2006, 07:36 AM

Aieeesh! Can't you people just allow any frigging moral beacons into Shadowrun, and for once chalk down all the bad stuff as "mistakes" and "failures" on the part of the good guys rather than calculated-evil-for-the-freaking-greater-good?

emo samurai

Apr 17 2006, 04:29 PM

Even if he sacrifices other people for the greater good, does that in any way make him worse than the megacorporations? They sacrifice people for the sake of money and screw them over in the end. Dunkelzahn, yes, allowed for shedim and stuff, but they're much, much better than aircraft-carrier sized horrors that corrupt and eat souls from half the world away.

And we know nothing of his activities at Aztechnology; I can't see him allowing for Horrors to be summoned benefiting him in any way.

SL James

Apr 17 2006, 07:57 PM

"Crisis precipitates change." It was basically the entire point behind the Aztlan sourcebook.

Wounded Ronin

Apr 17 2006, 09:36 PM

QUOTE (Voran)

Depends tho, on your point of view, if the dragon heart stuff is to be believed, big D also made a judgement call, beliving the side effects of the rifts/shedim/death of collateral innocents of the immediate explosion, was preferable to the horrors coming early. The whole, needs of the many outweighing needs of the few, sorta thing.

Oddly enough, his decision, was rather conventionally Presidential.

Besides, wasn't there some discussion on DSF about how the Horrors would basically get pwned because of t3h firearms and t3h essence draining plants?

emo samurai

Apr 17 2006, 09:45 PM

Oh yeah... if Aztechnology was just another corporation and not Wolfram and Hart with a pyramid, no one would have thought about the horrors, even if all the immortal elves told everyone about it. If there wasn't a mana spike that the horrors were drawn to, there wouldn't be an epic conflict in which Darke dies and Aztechnology is revealed to be evil, evil, evil. Mankind is not good at counteracting large, impending threats, but it's good at killing what's in front of it.

Voran

Apr 17 2006, 09:47 PM

QUOTE (Wounded Ronin)

QUOTE (Voran @ Apr 17 2006, 01:17 AM)

Depends tho, on your point of view, if the dragon heart stuff is to be believed, big D also made a judgement call, beliving the side effects of the rifts/shedim/death of collateral innocents of the immediate explosion, was preferable to the horrors coming early. The whole, needs of the many outweighing needs of the few, sorta thing.

Oddly enough, his decision, was rather conventionally Presidential.

Besides, wasn't there some discussion on DSF about how the Horrors would basically get pwned because of t3h firearms and t3h essence draining plants?

Don't forget the drop bears.

ShadowDragon8685

Apr 17 2006, 09:57 PM

How about essence-draining drop bear paratroopers armed with firearms?

emo samurai

Apr 17 2006, 10:27 PM

essence-draining drop bear paratroopers with the Mechashiva™ rig, wailing on two guitars, firing off 4 Ares Predators, and using D20 rules.

hyzmarca

Apr 17 2006, 11:24 PM

QUOTE (emo samurai)

essence-draining drop bear paratroopers with the Mechashiva™ rig, wailing on two guitars, firing off 4 Ares Predators, and using D20 rules.

You shall not make fun of the Holy Drop Bears.

emo samurai

Apr 17 2006, 11:25 PM

It is YOU who deny their greatness! Mechashiva rigs will only improve anything they're attached to!

Voran

Apr 18 2006, 04:19 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

QUOTE (emo samurai @ Apr 17 2006, 05:27 PM)

essence-draining drop bear paratroopers with the Mechashiva™ rig, wailing on two guitars, firing off 4 Ares Predators, and using D20 rules.

You shall not make fun of the Holy Drop Bears.

Not only d20 rules, but Epic Dnd d20 rules.

Kremlin KOA

Apr 18 2006, 04:27 AM

epic is implied when the words 'drop bear' are used