I watched the first episode of the Sci-Fi channel's "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" and I think that it's ridiculously awesome. Seeing some of the commercials for it just now got me thinking of an awesome idea for a campaign:

"Who Wants to be a Shadowrunner?"

Ordinary metahumans from all over try out to be the next shadowrunning trid stars! These are, again, people who aren't actually ex-military prime-runner material, but want to be one anyway. Of course, there's nothing stopping a character or two from secretly being awakened (maybe even unknown to them!) or having a couple pieces of cyberware, but they'd be relying more on improvisation.

They compete for an exclusive NERPS advertizing contract, prize money, possibly some trinket left over from Dunkelzahn's Will or something.

Of course, unbeknownst to these average joes, the runs the show sends them on each week are real. Those who fail are voted off... permanently. As the contestants start to figure out that this show is more than pure entertainment (probably after the first gunshot ), it's up to them to figure out what's going on: Who's behind this? What's the deal with the runs they go on? and Why were they chosen?



Now, I'm not really one for GMing, so I'm probably not going to use this. If anyone else likes the idea, feel free to run with it. I just though it would be cool.

I think it's hilarious. I would probably run (pun intended ) with it for newbie players.

I can just imagine the personalities they would have on the show. The Bisexual Male Troll, Bitchy Old Female Elf, Wise Dwarf, Cornball Human, etc. The possibilities are endless

This certainly seems like it'd be an interesting way to run a game. I'd be inclined to run it for experienced players rather than newbies - experienced roleplayers could get really into that transformation from average Joe to seasoned pro or the reaction of the average Joe to being in a life-or-death situation (or rather, a situation that they realize is dangerous as it advances). It also kind of reminds me of X-Force / X-Statix if anyone is familiar with those comics.

But while it's a cool idea, it goes against something I've always taken to heart, which I read here. (The URL is to the web archive b/c the actual site is down). Canon is probably on your side if you wanted to do this, but I personally tend to lean towards the idea that shadowrunners should be the most secret rung of the underworld, out of the public eye as much as possible.

"Canon" definitely is on his side this time. I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea to have Shadowrunners as a deep and dark facet of society if you want to do that. Going by strictly what's written in SR4, though, we get referances to a Shadowrun MMORPG (including in a fiction piece, not just a joke comment) and that Shadowrunners with high enough Public Awareness become household names.

Captain Chaos Coffee. Yum.

I could see this, heck I could even see Horizon bankrolling the show and hiring a well known retired runner or two to host it or do color commentary.

The show better not air live!

Presumably it'd have to be filmed in advance like most reality shows, otherwise the workd would catch on pretty quick after the targets of the run report being hit and seeing it happen on TV.

I put the SR4 universe's awareness of shadowrunners right up there with the Mafia, CIA, NSA, and MI5. Which is to say, almost completely devoid of fact, highly romanticized and dramatized, and very much stereotyped.

Which means it is the exact kind of doofus thing that would get a "Who wants to be...?" show. It would have lots of quasi-real runs (meaning it is a security drill for the target, with the high muckety-mucks in the know but the grunts not sure why they were issued gel rounds).

It would also be a prime thing for real runners to infiltrate, using magic or nanopaste so they appear to be the contestants on camera. Watch the hilarity ensue as the target corp goes ballistic on the TV network.

Alternately, real runners are hired by an opposing TV network to pose as security guards that make the run turn into a bloodbath. Bonus points for causing highly visible wounds (spurting blood, bleeding head wounds) or inflicting non-incapacitating injuries that allow the target to cry and scream in pain (illusion magics are fun!).

"Folks, none of you will be elliminated after the run, but looking at this group, I can definitely say that more than a few of you will be eliminated during each run."

I think I'm going to steal this for my game.

I wonder if Lone Star is in on this?

I think the best part of the campaign would be if the show decided to backstab the players in the end and the grand winner gets a one way ticket to prison (thanks to all the incriminating film that can be used agains them).

I could definately see "Who wants to be a shadowrunner?" on trid. Look at all the brutal combat sports and there are probably a million other violent gameshows, too. I don't think that they would be sent on real runs though, mainly because:

A) they most likely wouldn't succeed because they're not pros.

B) the sponsoring corp would basically be broadcasting and recording it's crimes.

As for the "Shadowrunners are a secret society". I doubt it. They're probably on level with todays Mafia, at least top-flight or connected runners, but even the mob isn't on the same level as the CIA or MI5.

How about this idea. The Horizon Group contacts a SR group and signs them to a long term contract. The terms state that a external camera will be attached to each SR member in the group and record everything they do for a 8 month period. SR will have the ability to delete "sensitive" shots that may incrimidate them (edit test with low threashold 2 maybe). The cameras (and thier footage) are handed over to the Horizon Group to create a new reality show in which the SR get a cut of the profits (>1% of total profits).

As a side note to this Lone Star has also made a contract with the Horizon Group to do a similar show called "The Star" (a Cops clone at best), and in the negotiations they learn of the SR group. Using this to their advantage they get a hold of the group and have them do runs against Ares (mainly Knight Erant). In the end you do a run against Lone Star which is fundamentally a trap. Your payment for making Lone Star look good is your freedom.

Ideas?

Actually, this is very similar to my latest run. The runners were picked up for a job, good money, but the catch is that they needed to record and send a realtime simsense feed to a "command center".

What the runners didn't know was that it was a setup and the employer really wanted to get some runners to die, so they could produce and sell it in the underground entertainment market.

So, for the run, the group had a simrig on, sending the feed back while doing a fairly simply sabotage and data grab run in a warehouse. On cue, the command center sends in some armed guards to exterminate the group. During the prep phase, all runner turned in their weapons to have them scanned and checked out, and their ammo was exchanged with gel rounds.

It didn't take them too long to figure it out in the gun fight, but with all three of them getting injured and two NPC runners getting dead, they realized the set-up and are now out for revenge!

So, I like the idea of recording a groups runs like this!

Actually one of the old FASA adventures did end up in the runners actions becoming national footage I believe. I can't remember which one, but in the end they got stiffed and a media company made a fortune from the footage. Was it Queen Euphoria?