Once upon a time I ran a Shadowrun game that actually involved a classic dungeon crawl. It was a rather silly session and it was meant as a joke since I stocked the dungeon with orcs wielding rusty daggers who were pretty helpless against PCs with firearms, and there were old fashioned traps like a pit filled with peanut butter. The PCs had to kill the "evil sorcerer" at the end of the dungeon.

Silliness aside, though, I suppose that there's no reason not to still play a classic dungeon crawl even though you're playing Shadowrun. I don't think you should do it every day, but I find that after a few years of normal SR you start to feel a little bored and would like to try something a bit different. And few things are more soothing than a simple, basic dungeon crawl. I remember how a number of years ago when I wanted to zone out for a bit and relax I'd run Daggerfall and just follow the right-hand rule through the randomly generated buggy dungeons. It was soothing because I had to clear my head and remember my path and be sure that I had checked out each possible passageway.

Here are some ideas I had to include a classic style dungeon crawl in Shadowrun.

Serious:
1.) The team must investigate the steam tunnels of a university. University students, LARPers, have been sneaking into the steam tunnels and disappearing. University police suspects that there could be an awakened threat down in the steam tunnels and could not afford the PR fallout if this were the case. So they send a team of Shadowrunners to check it out. Remember that if you chose to put the PCs up against ghouls a single bite is enough to infect. That should really make the player sphincters tighten in a "serious" way. Traps can include hot jets of steam and broken walkways and maybe boobie traps if you're using ghouls.

Perhaps D&D really *is* Satanic and the PCs encounter a Wendigo and the LARPers themselves have joined the Wendigo cult.

2.) A band of ghouls has snuck through the sewers under the city and are holding part of the electrical infrastructure hostage while demanding basic rights. The PCs are provided with a map of the sewers and approximate positions of the ghoul force. They must approach the ghouls using stealth and take them all out before any of them can damage the electrical system. This would be a tactical challenge with plenty of infectious sewer water to fall into.

3.) As part of a covert military operation the PCs are hired as mercenaries to "clean out" a VC-style tunnel system in a jungle conflict somewhere. A dungeon crawl at its modern best.


Humor:

1.) The PCs offend a great free spirit and are sent off to Mystra. Convert everything in the classic module, "Chateau D'Amberville", to SR stats and run them through it. When they finally get to burn the tapestry at the end they're sent back to Seattle as part of the overall affect of the world around them righting itself. At first encounters will be easy because of t3h firearms but on the other hand there's no way to restock ammuntion. Also, a lot of the enemies which require a +1 or better enchantment to be hit will have SR "Immunity to Normal Weapons". Kind of off the wall but still probably potentially a great romp.

2.) A Conservative Christian group hires the PCs to kill a famous rich S&M enthusiast who produces a lot of controversial, pushing-the-envelope porn films. The problem is that the S&M king has bought out the Paris Catacombs and has converted them into a huge medieval style bondage dungeon. (He used to play D&D). The PCs must go into his lair of pain and kill him...or end up pilloried on the S&M infrastructure in the attempt!

3.) In a blatant Wolfenstien ripoff a bunch of Neo-nazis in Germany have occupied a historic castle and the PCs are asked to clear them out while minimizing damage to the castle so as to prevent national embarrassment. Whenever the PCs shoot someone he screams, "MIEN LIEBEN", just like in Wolfenstien 3D.

I suppose it could be fun. I'm a big proponent of using a system that supports the game you want to run though, so when I get bored with SR I switch systems. If I wanted to do a dungeon crawl, I'd bust out D&D. Horror? Call of Cthulu. Etc.

I think about mixing genres with Shadowrun a lot. If I could figure out how to send my players to a cowboy type setting, I so would. Maybe I watched Army of Darkness to much, but the coolness of it just seems....cool.

I love all your ideas though and will probably steal one like the cheap bastard that I am.

Ever since I read the original Orange-Cover version of In the Palace of the Silver Princess I thought it would be fun to convert it to Shadowrun.

It could start out with some rather worldly runners being hired to procure some items from an abandoned castle whose ownership is in legal dispute. Both the Atlantean Foundation and DIMR have laid stake to it and one of the two is the runner's ultimate employer. Inside the abandoned castle they become embroiled in an adventure identical to the Silver Princess module. Of course, they'll run into all of the original monsters; these include a clan of inbred three-headed pseudo-hermaphrodites, a tentacle monster that uses magic to disguise itself as a beautiful woman being beaten and molested by nine ugle dwarves, and magical man-eating moss that can put people to sleep.

A couple of the guys in my current group have been itching to do a meld of Shadowrun and In Nomine for a long time. There was some initial talk about hashing out a conversion to allow it to function well, but I don't think they ever got beyond talking about it.

A Serious One:
Bathotech has just lost contact with one of its underwater mining stations deep in T-PA territory. As the mining station has been secrety releasing waste products into the surrounding water (rather than paying the money to treat them), the last thing Bathotech wants is the T-Pa's Peace Force involved. So the Runners are hired to check out why the station has dropped off the 'net - this might be just a torn-out underwater datacable, but foul play is also a possibility. Bathetech will supply them with a minisub and a pilot for it.

What they don't know is that the colony has been overrun by a high-force toxic Sea Spirit (summoned by an Inuit Angakok turned toxic) and its mutated, toxic Merrow minions...

Humor:
A very eccentric but very rich LARP enthusiast (sp?) has built his own LARP-D&D "dungeon" for his large group of LARPer friends, complete with "monsters" (drones controlled by a central computer) and "treasure" (fake, but RFID-tagged so that the computer gives you "points" for finding it). However, a prankster has hacked the computer and put the drones ("monsters") out of control, making them attack - with intention to harm - anyone who enters the "dungeon". Worse, the main computer core is situated on the lowest level of the "dungeon" (to discourage cheat-hacking), so the Runners are hired to go through the "dungeon", reach the final level, and purse the main computer.

I've not read it or run it, but Renraku Arcology: Shutdown seemed kinda dungeony.

Yeah RA:S plays out real well as a dungeon crawl.

Come to think of it, I am working on a conversion of the SR rules to a western setting. (By "working on" I mean I started it at one point and got sidetracked, and now have no idea where I put my notes.)

An exceptionally large warehouse or subbasement in the Barrens would work well, too.

When it comes to mixing genres, the metaplanes are cheating

Our dungeon crawlers were corp runs. We did way too many of them. I found myself asking my team "Haven't we been in here long enough? We got what we needed. We'll get in more trouble if we hang out here any longer." With which my friends reply "Shut up, Akimbo. We can make a HELL of a lot more money this way."

I find myself getting in a lot of trouble because of dumb players. Thankfully I GM now.

Hahahaha. I love it when the players try the "let's take everything that isn't nailed down" routine.

Im not sure how AR works i havent gotten that far into my rulebook but doesnt it just super impose images into your normal field of vision?

I gotta fall back on the only thing i can think of that compares and thats the holodeck in star trek. So like you could just slip on a pare of AR glasses and the walls in a corporate office would go from being ultra modern to like stone slabs or burrowed cave walls. As you move through actual physical space and walk along corridors you could see "monsters" and other mythical creatures. And then you could have programs for attack weapons and armor and you would be able to "attack" these images.

So like you could actually play DnD IN shadowrun by actually moving around and swinging your imaginary sword??


Still... i think it would be kool to go outside the box. Not have my shadowrunners actually doing a dungeon crawl but having them doing virtual reality training drills and stuff or playing the "video games" of 2070.

Yep, you could definitely program an AR D&D. If the Knights of the Dinner Table found themselves being subjected to Shadowrun by B.A. they'd probably do just that.

They actually list a game made by Ares (Miracle Shooter, I think it's called) which works like that. You have a gun in AR. It paints other players, who you interact with, and also creates AR enemies, gives you particular goals and the like. While it doesn't paint the WHOLE WORLD, it paints enough to make it seem like you're really some sort of covert angel. Unfortunately, a few deaths have already been reported, but it's supposed to be really popular.

THere's no reason to assume that they couldn't make something else. Paints all elves in princess dresses, all orks and trolls in furs, puts random stacks of l00t in 10X10 rooms and creates "legitimate" AR-only guards and the like.