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Crossfire
Good Monday everyone!

Anyone here ever played some kind of "different" scenarios (as a GM or a player)?
I'm looking here for interesting/out of the ordinary scenarios. I'll give you an example of a run I've GMed in the past...

I ran a game a la Pulp Fiction. The scenes were all mixed up. We actually started the game with a fight scene on the docks on Krondstadt (sp?), the players being attacked by dwarves nazis riding bikes (lol, fun times...). Then we had a scene with legwork and stuff, followed by the trip on a ship to the city. Then, we had the meeting with Mr. Johnson followed by the last scene. It was a very funny and out of the ordinary mission... My players liked it a lot!

What about you? Anything creative or artistically interesting (read: weird) ?

Peace!

Crossfire


Platinum
I ran a few scenarios based off tv or comic stuff I read.

1. Max Max desert apoc type of run. There was an isolated community out in the desert, far enough from civilization to make conserving resources very important.

2. A sliders/stargate/wheel of time kind of run, where there was a portal to another world, that was preparing to invade and destroy the world. Had to blow up their gate and the one here.

3. A kind of tunnel to another hidden prehistoric/Jurassic park world where everything was toxic, giant and aggressive. Had a couple of dinosaurs in there for good fun.

4. A deserted island taken over by a brilliant scientist. he went underground because his experiments on animals/human hybrids was unethical. Island of Dr. Moreau(sp fixed) feel meets TMNT.

Are you looking for something differnt ... like different styles of running the game?

I heard of someone that ran a group through a shadowrun, jotted notes about what they did, then ran them against themselves for a later version. I think they ran the offensive first.
Moon-Hawk
"Dr. Moreau"
Crossfire
QUOTE (Platinum)
I ran a few scenarios based off tv or comic stuff I read.

1.  Max Max desert apoc type of run.  There was an isolated community out in the desert, far enough from civilization to make conserving resources very important.

2.  A sliders/stargate/wheel of time kind of run, where there was a portal to another world, that was preparing to invade and destroy the world.  Had to blow up their gate and the one here.

3.  A kind of tunnel to another hidden prehistoric/Jurassic park world where everything was toxic, giant and aggressive.  Had a couple of dinosaurs in there for good fun.

4.  A deserted island taken over by a brilliant scientist.  he went underground because his experiments on animals/human hybrids was unethical.  Island of Dr Marrow (sp?) feel meets TMNT.

Are you looking for something differnt ... like different styles of running the game?

I heard of someone that ran a group through a shadowrun, jotted notes about what they did, then ran them against themselves for a later version.  I think they ran the offensive first.

Cool! All of those are exactly the kind of things I'm looking for... I especially like the dinosaurs nyahnyah.gif

QUOTE
Are you looking for something differnt ... like different styles of running the game?


That would be cool. Maybe like a "joint" game, a game with multiple GMs or something like that. I was thinking about running a Lone Star campaign (CSI:Seattle lol). The players would have to investigate "themselves" from another game... anyone has ever done that?

I also ran a game where the players had to bodyguard the actor playing "Neil the Ork Barbarian"...

I also had my players wake up Sinless and naked in the streets of Seattle, their memories wiped after a run. They had a few clues and realized that one of their contacts double-crossed them (paranoia!!!) It was really fun as they had to backtrack their last run (that the player never did) being very careful and having lost of problem trying to get around Seattle without ID (I was really mean with cops lol) so it was interesting, with some occasional memory flashes and stuff...

Something kinda related... I had a player once who decided to take the amnesia flaw. I had him wake up naked in a dumpster with a serious wound and a blank character sheet... lots of fun smile.gif

Peace!

Martin
Lindt
I played (gasp of horror, the GM playing for a change) in a game where it was in reverse order of scenes. A total mind fuck, but a great weekend worth of SR goodness.
JesterX
The best runs are often related to the shadowrunners buddies who need help... in an unusual way...

For instance:

----
A character have a taxi driver contact who is crazy abour vehicules? Ok, no problem, here is a run:

The contact recently purchased on the matrix PAX (Public Announcement Services) a really nice 1960 chevy... which is located in the pueblo corporate council... He hires the runner to pick it up and he wants to come along... That will make a very nice road trip. ^_^
----

James McMurray
I was going to mention Memento, but Lindt beat me to it. I've never ran a game with that setup, but I'd love to try. I'm not sure how to avoid it being a railroad though, because you have to make sure every scene happens just right to lead you up to the one you started with.
Lagomorph
I thought about doing a DocWagon HTRT style game, where it's peoples mission to go in and rescue the downed shadowrunner, or the assassinated senator, or what other wierd ideas there could be. It could be interesting because you'd end up being a 3rd party a lot of times in very hostile areas.
Kyoto Kid
...I ran a Mistaken Identity scenario titled "March Mayhem" where there was a 50-50 possibility the characters would protect the wrong pair of NPCs . One pair was Leela (from my Rhapsody campaign) and her friend Tracey while the other pair was a set of twins who were basically were the Russian equivalent of Paris & Nichole. Of course as part of the hook, Leela's visit was incredibly hyped up by the Seattle media while the Russian twins & their father were an "afterthought" buried in on the "Back Page" of the Metroplex Datafax.

At the site of the meet (Club Penumbra), both pairs of women were present down on he dance floor at the same time while the Johnson & team were in on the balcony level. One of the main tenets was that the team just had to shadow the girls and were not make any direct contact unless there was trouble. As I expected (and hoped), the team followed the wrong pair for nearly three days but did manage to get themselves on the right track in time.

Oh, the title came from the fact that one of the Elite Eight" matchups of the NACAA tourney was in Seattle which was where the Russian airhead twins would be kidnapped. Anyone with a gambling addiction (which one of the characters in our group did have) also had to deal with the temptation.


I also did a one shot Extraction mission to basically finish out the storyline for one of my new incoming PCs called "Summer of Love - 100 years later" (it occurred in 2068). Basically the PC/NPC in question was a teenage tech genius who became the ward of a corp (and was being groomed to become their up & coming SOTA Hacker) after her parents disappeared. She wanted out & cut a deal by selling out the corp's design for prototype commlink implanted in her which she managed to reverse engineer through it's diagnostics.

Once the initial meet was over, everything was left up to the players as to how they would gain access to the girl (who was heavily protected) and get her out. In the end, I must say that the players came up with an interesting and inventive solution to nabbing the kid and getting her to Seattle where she would be given an entirely new identity.
2bit
I hate elves so much, I made a one-shot adventure with my normal gang of players where they all played 18 yr old members of elven royalty from TT that had to go through a rite of passage together to become accepted by society or some bull crap. Anyway it was all an excuse to get everyone to RP as these classic elf stereotypes. The group was:

1. The crusader - gorgeous, noble, idealistic, naive... glory hog. The only one with survival skills.
2. The princess - gorgeous, rich, spoiled, lazy and manipulative. Useful for the rich part.
3. The goth - dark, tragic, penniless. Adept with heirloom mageblade. Can't really be bothered to do anything, except draw attention to his mysteriousness.
4. The megalomaniac - obtuse, power mad, backstabbing. Mage. Can't really plan, only scheme.

The adventure itself was more or less pointless, it was just about putting these characters in good RP situations. Some of the most fun Ive had as a GM, actually.
hyzmarca
If I ever find some players insane enough or bored enough to try it I am going to run
DesertBusRun.
Telion
Often we will play Go-gangers protecting our turf against the pink penguins and bomb their ice cream parlors. Our 5 man gang will carve out our turf. We've done many variations of this, including going for true gangers with low availability on guns and low skills, gotta climb your way to the top from somewhere right?

We've done some bank heist campaigns.

oh and we converted to a wild west adventure, plenty of fun as tanto and his merry band of miscreants.
Wiggle
By far the best scenario I GMed wasn't actually...technically shadowrun, but it used the rules.
Simply put we got together and put ourselves onto the character sheets, so the characters are based on the players. Then grabbed a local street map, glanced over our houses to see what equipment we own and would be useful in case of... ZOMBIES!!
All of my players said it was the best they've played and we're setting up for our second campaign. Quite a few house rules need to be implemented but thats easy. The best part is watching the players talking about crazy little things like tapeing a small battery powered radio to a RC car and driving down the street to lure the zombies away.
It gives the whole thing an extra touch of reality when your talking about breaking into the supermarket down the street from where you live cuz you've eaten all your food.
James McMurray
How'd you do character generation?
PBTHHHHT
QUOTE (Wiggle)
By far the best scenario I GMed wasn't actually...technically shadowrun, but it used the rules.
Simply put we got together and put ourselves onto the character sheets, so the characters are based on the players. Then grabbed a local street map, glanced over our houses to see what equipment we own and would be useful in case of... ZOMBIES!!

I had that thought back in high school, but my group were never keen on playing something like that. dang it.
Grinder
Zombie-scenarios can be a lot of fun, even though most of the time it's simply comabt. But it offers possibilites for nice roleplaying scenes as well, especially when the families and friends of the chars are involved.

All the players need to do is forget their knowledge of zombie movies.
nezumi
Except for Sean of the Dead.

I think when zombies work by tremendous numbers, but lack any real fighting prowess, it forces more RP.
Moon-Hawk
QUOTE (James McMurray @ Jul 24 2006, 07:31 PM)
How'd you do character generation?

I'd like to know, too.
I think the only way to do a "make yourself" type of thing would be to just give them a set number of BP (or whatever edition you're using) and tell them to try to get as close as possible, try to be honest, and no one's really allowed to challenge them. Otherwise, you spend the whole night arguing and wrestling to see if Jeff really has a strength of 4, or if Simon actually has a Logic of 5.

edit: And by the way, this scenario is particularly near and dear to me. I have to run this some time. For some unfathomable reason I have a slight zombie phobia. Really, I have an irrational fear of being attacked by zombies. I can't say it actually affects my life in any way, but I DO think about it; planning defenses and what not. And Shawn of the Dead is definitely my favorite zombie movie, but I think 28 Days Later was the scariest movie I've ever seen. YMM(and probably does)V
FanGirl
I would love to run a campaign based on the Sherlock Holmes stories. They're a great basis for a campaign: even though most people know about Sherlock, many have never actually read his adventures. The team could start out taking jobs from Holmes' arch-rival, Professor Moriarty, but then they can switch sides and take jobs from Holmes after the latter catches them. biggrin.gif
Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (FanGirl)
I would love to run a campaign based on the Sherlock Holmes stories.  They're a great basis for a campaign: even though most people know about Sherlock, many have never actually read his adventures.  The team could start out taking jobs from Holmes' arch-rival, Professor Moriarty, but then they can switch sides and take jobs from Holmes after the latter catches them. biggrin.gif

...now that sounds like fun. I always love a good mystery.

I happen to have the entire opus on CD Actually worked for the company (now defunct) that compiled it.
James McMurray
What happens when the Hound of the Baskervilles gets blown away by an SMG the first night? smile.gif
Moon-Hawk
...Then the PCs realize that they're dealing with the Hounds of the Baskervilles. biggrin.gif
James McMurray
They'd better be cybered and/or awakened and not just painted. smile.gif
Kyoto Kid
...hmmm, the Barghest of the Baskervilles. That would be nasty.
Platinum
I was just thinking that I might have something based on a steampunk idea. The players head off to a remote island that has electrical inteference or they are just technically primitive, but the island is a giant geothermal powersource, and everything on the island runs off steam power, or gun powder. Someone has a steam powered suit of mechanized armour. There is a huge underground lair, that runs off steam.
Kyoto Kid
...though written under Shadowrun 2, one of the more fun scenarios was the segment entitled "Fist Full O Karma" from Harlequin's Back. It had a decidedly Wild West flavour very similar to the SteamPunk setting though all the tech ran off of a mysterious substance called Phlogiston.

This is where my namesake Kyoto Kid got her name, beforehand she was just known as "The Kid".

Definitely one of my favourite adventure modules.
Pendaric
Ran a run base on a cross between Dusk till Dawn, Tremors and Them only with Termite bug spirits. Was a game of three scenes with the first two scenes being personal plot heavy, had the party so wrapped up in the personal angst that the fore shadowed danger had them on edge but they hadn't guessed the real reason for the odd town folk. At least till 30 plus six foot long termites and hybrid flesh forms came for them (que manical laughter.)
They did very well actually, mostly because the mage got medievil on the true spirit bugs really fast and used her two fire elementals well. The other two where tight in their team work, firepower, dice rolls and heavy karma use. The look of consternation as the insect shaman turn round and shot them with a AR was nice too.
eidolon
I ran this a few months back. Sorry if there are odd references, I had posted it to another thread and didn't feel like retyping it all.

I liked running this one just for the sheer amount of "who the....what the...where the??????" that went on. smile.gif

QUOTE (me)
They were still up and comers, and so were taking whatever jobs they could get. They had just come off a hard one, and so when this came up they jumped on it. (This was set in Year of the Comet) Long story short, one of the big players in the Probe Race wanted to off their lead program team to keep them from leaking information (they had already suffered one such leak, and didn't want it to happen again). They were monitoring the programming team 24/7 to figure out how and when they could do this in a way that would give them plausible deniability.

So one day, Jack Behrenger (one of the programmers) is sitting around in the same room he has been in every night for three years (the corp had them on lockdown while working on the project, with the only time they let them out being when the leak occurred) when he gets word that they're actually getting a week off, and can actually leave the building! A few days prior, he had been watching a Shadowrunning Movie Marathon when he saw a commercial for Adventures Unlimited.

<cue commercial>
That’s right, you can be anything you want. Do anything you want. You want to explore the Australian Outback? Done! You want to be on an Urban Brawl team? Done!
</commercial>

It was settled. Jack wanted to be a Shadowrunner For a Day (the name of the run). So he booked a flight for Seattle, and made arrangements with AU to be a shadowrunner. AU wanted the experience to be as realistic as possible, so they hired "outside talent" to form Jack's team (cue 'runners). AU also "rented" a nicer section of the barrens and roped it off with guards at the perimeter. Then AU stocked the "target" building with "terrorists" and a "hostage", all played by AU actors.

Knowing all of this, the corp (SK in this case, because it fit the ongoing plot) sent their own talent to replace the actors and kill Jack.

The other complication? A rival corp had found out that Jack (and the other programmers from the team, but Jack is the only one that matters here) was going to be in Seattle, and through their own legwork, that he would be at this building doing this "adventure". So they hired a team of SRs to go in and extract him.

So, the job ended up being:
- Protect Jack
- Rescue hostage AU employees
- Escape from crossfire between SK goons and another SR team
- Figure out why all these people were after Jack, and how they could make more money off the situation (okay, so they made that goal up themselves wink.gif).

It was great fun. A huge cluster. The best part? The runners' weapons were loaded with blanks and hooked up with lazer zap equipment for the simulation. So here they are "sneaking up on the building" with their lazer tag guns and this chattery dorky programmer guy that knows nothing about combat, and I tell them "you hear a weapon go off (faces steady), and the wall of the building next to you explodes in a shower of concrete (faces not so steady)". smile.gif Thankfully, they're paranoid enough that they brought actual ammunition for their weapons, and back up weapons. Also there's the mage, which kept them safe long enough to make the quick B/R check to take the lazer zap junk off their weapons (it was low and only there as a tension device).
TeOdio
I just ran this one a few months back and it went rather well. After a successful run my players were living it up with their Fixer, and at the end of the session I had a heavily armed Knight Errant come in and arrest the Fixer and anyone else of ill repute (IE: Sinless, metahumans, and anyone there that might have had a criminal SIN) The next session I explained to them that there were each being interrogated separately about a run they had pulled for their fixer a few months back (before the Campaign started). Each scene was set up by one of the characters being interrogated by my investigator about the events of the run. I gave the player being interrogated a list of things they had to say to set up the scene, thus giving them the duty of flavor texting it. Then we "flashbacked" to the scene and played as normal.
As a previous poster stated, mixing things up a bit is fun as well. The first Run I did in my current campaign started at the end of a Data Steal where Mitsuhama security robots had cut off the runner's avenue of escape. That was very fun for me as they had no clue. I rolled off the flavor text explaining the situation and then asked them to roll for initiative. Priceless.
nuyen.gif nuyen.gif nuyen.gif
Dogsoup
I seriously have wanted to do a "find person" run that gradually gets weirder and weirder in a Lost Highway kind of way. This builds up towards a climax in wich the PCs wake up at their fixer, all connected to a simunit by trodes or whatever. Then I explain they all remember they're already on a run to find a person and the details around that and how the came to find the simstuff. All PCs remember everything prior to putting the trodes on their heads, and the fixer can also verify that the first person that checked the chip told the others that they had to see it, but was very lucid and rational about it (slight railroad explanation, but acceptable). They've been out for 20-40 minutes. This of course include a little Gm speech explaining the short adventure the PCs went through up to this point, including lots of little details related to each PC's role and personality.

The chip is actually a distress call from an AI semi-created by the person the PCs are after. The places and events they experienced are all cryptic leads in this search. For example, an apartment the PCs visited is perfectly real, but lies in a wholly different building. The PCs may encounter a lobby with a lift and presses the button the did in the ultraviolet simchip only to end up at a completely unknown place (even if it's the correct location for the adventure to progress).
Wiggle
Character Gen was just a case of be honest. We didn't bother with BP. Some of the roleplaying scenes can be really good, plus they're easy cuz you are yourself. There is not actually a great deal of combat, more running for your life, setting up barriers, food runs, building new and intresting weapons, researching the zombies. Also, I don't make the players forget the films they've seen, because they have seen them. This time round I'm even letting the characters remember what happened in the last zombie run.

Dogsoup: I was gonna do the same sort of thing, only the players wake up and don't know anything...lots of investigating.
Dog
I was digging around in old threads and found this. Crossfire's been holding out. He hasn't GMed for his new group (which includes me) since he joined us. Now that I know you do this stuff, I'm gonna hold you to it.
smoking-mirror
I based my entire campain on thr précolombian mythology to give consistance to the metaplans. Aztech point of view.
In fact the underworld of Xibalpa (9 linked métaplans ruled by powerfull free spirits) are the gate to Mictlan, a far métaplan (hermetic human p.o.v) inhabited by the mictlanese: kind of ETs. Mictlan had a colony on earth during the 4th age, and maintain close diplomaric relationship with the great feathered dragon Yuichotol. This colony is the aztlan place of Teotihuacan. Besides Mictlan people fight the tzitzimines (Horrors). After Yuichotlt death and the downing of mana the mictlanese vanished beyond the metaplans only managing sparce conexion with the précolombian peoples. All communication were lost due to the fall of the aztec empire and the conquista.
When Aztechnolgy dug up the Locus south of Texas and made it the heart of his new organic biocomp server a new entity rose in the azzie datacore: Tzecaltlipoctla. The azzies thought they were confrontind a true AI, in fact Tzecaltlipoctla is a matricial construct sent by Mictlanese imperial counsel.

i've been GMing this gampaign for 12 years now, sending the players characters up to Mictlan imperial court in the middle of political intrigues whoses consequencies ripples as far as the Aztlan, denver, london....
In order to enter xibalpa, the land of the deads, one have to...die! The players agreed to have their characters head severed of by an azzie priest !!!
They died of course, and after a few adventures in Mictlan i gave them the opportunity to come back "home". They were were aghast when they realized their characters were shedims possesing a clone of their first body!!
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