I'm thinking of trying this for a change of pace. I thought some of you might like it.

Repo Men: Two days ago, seven of RhoTek's reposession officers failed to report in and haven't been heard from since. New employees are being sought and will start work at the beginning of the month, but in the meantime RhoTek needs some specialists to collect on outstanding contracts.

Upon accepting the assignment, players are given a list of items they need to collect. The "owners" of these items have failed to pay on their loans and now these items need to be repossessed so that RhoTek can refurbish and re-sell them. Each item received has a payout listed. In addition to the list, the players also get a RhoTek Security Badge attached to one of their fake SINs and a certified repossession license for each item. After acquiring an item, the players are to ship each item to RhoTek Acquisitions Department along with a copy of the repossession license, and a copy is to be sent to Lone Star. RhoTek will send the money to any account the players wish, but won't deal in illegitimate payment means (i.e., credsticks) and all licenses expire at the end of the month. In typical corporate fashion, payment will be based on the company's bottom dollar and profit margins and payment will have nothing to do with the difficulty in retrieving the item, but just to the item's worth.

The Repossession License and Security Badge gives them a great deal of flexibility and at least minimal cooperation and respect with all authorities such as Lone Star, staff in office buildings and hospitals, etc. They do not, however, have official jurisdiction anywhere and can't "outrank" anybody, although Lone Star will turn a blind eye to almost all crimes they commit so long as it directly falls under the category of retrieving the item from its current "owner" or tracking down that item.

GM INFORMATION: Most of these "retrievals" are meant to take only 5-20 minutes of actual play time. They are put in for a change of pace, to get PCs moving around the city, socializing, trying different stuff, and having a good time. Generally, whatever harebrained plan they come up with should be allowed to work and thresholds shouldn't rise above 2 or 3. Less than half will involve combat (unless the PCs want them to, of course). One of the reasons I'm putting this "run" in my game, is to get the PCs used to the idea of investigations and legwork and see all the different methods there are to track someone down in the 6th World.

Okay, so here's the list:


1.) SN #150A467-C48. Item: Class II Adrenaline Pump. Specialized production for size-2 Hell Hound. Defaulter: James T. Brown, registered SIN 382971-091. Ares Macrotech Corp. Payment: 9,000.
GM INFORMATION: The dermal plating was bought by James Brown when he worked as a security consultant for Ares Macrotech. He no longer works there, but the dermal armor is installed in one of Ares' Hellhounds for their storage facilities. The PCs can extract the hellhound, in which case, this is a full-blown Shadowrun with all the works. Otherwise, the PCs can negotiate with Ares financial department who will review the records, apologize for the inconvenience, and wire the money owed to RhoTek immediately. (The PCs may be unclear whether or not they still get paid for this "repossession" and go ahead and let them wonder, but yeah, they get paid.)

2.) SN #182-00002G. Item: Metallic Crysanium-Alloy Cybernetic Hand, medium size. Build in cyber-hand class gyromount. Defaulter: Abraham Lincoln IV. SIN 382328-090. Invalid SIN. Payment: 1,600.
GM INFORMATION: The hand was purchased by a fixer Eugene Harris, aka "Snitch". No matter how much legwork the players do, they can't find this guy but can find out that he's been in contact with his sister, Ariel Harris, at a mental asylum in the wealthier parts of Seattle. Ariel is a technomancer who one day snapped and she's been insane ever since. She can't communicate in anything that makes sense, but her new native language is one of metaphor and riddles. If the players learn the language, they can communicate with her and find Eugene who is "in terrible danger" about to get over his head in some stuff concerning the Mafia. If the players do a good job here, they might get a new run off the deal, if they're willing to accept a job from an insane Ms Johnson who probably isn't planning to pay with cash. Unfortunately, while Eugene would be too scared out of his wits to offer much resistance, there's really only one way to retrieve the hand...

3.) SN #382H237R. Item: Class 6 Maglock Security Device with integrated datacard reader. Additional Class-4 Anti-tampering system included. Defaulter: Judis Gerheart III. Registered SIN 382391-091. WorldMedia Studios. Payment: 200.
GM INFORMATION: This one's easy. Find the guy's address. Negotiate your way into the apartment studio compound and take the maglock off the front door. If you can. The Repossession License and Security Badge will stop the compound security, so you only have to worry if the guy is home and packing heat. The license doesn't protect them for attacking the owner, even in self-defense, only for taking the maglock.

4.) SN #377RY-44R. Item: Cybernetic headware module with Hermes Ikon Commlink. Iris Orb operating system included. Defaulter: Thomas Romone. Criminal SIN 44882938-81. Invalid SIN. Payment: 900.
GM INFORMATION: This one's a bit harder to pin down, since the SIN is long since been ditched. Nevertheless, the players can track the use of this commlink through matrix transmissions or do some legwork to see if anyone previously ran the shadows with the name Thomas Romone and track that to other (invalid) SINs. Each person the players talk to about Romone (or whatever name he's using) has some kind of grudge against him. Play this up. Have fun with it. Eventually the players find the incompetant (and rather rude) thief, but he's stuck in a Lone Star jail cell with 10,000 nuyen bail. Lone Star will cooperate with the players, but they can't retrieve the item until after the trial (which isn't anytime soon) nor can they authorize Romone's release (at least not without a hefty bribe). Players may have to be a little creative to solve this problem, although springing him out of jail just to remove his headware might be a likely possibility. Alternatively, maybe some unscrupulous Lone Star officer needs some work done and a deal can be made...


5. SN#18886-88E4. Item: Synthetic Cyberskull with integrated Class-2 Simulation Module. Defaulter: Nathon Smog. Registered SIN 382774-095. Deceased. Payment: 2,500.
GM INFORMATION: There's a good reason this guy hasn't paid. He's dead. This one's basically broken into two parts: the first is tracking this guy down. He's legend and reports of him show up everywhere, alive or dead. Eventually the players discover that "those in the know" are having an auction for his brain. See, his whole head has been magically preserved after his death. Dr Smog is a renowned expert in the field of experimental aviation, and more than a few research departments want a look into his head. So there's a really high class auction and only select clientèle are invited. It will take some good social skills to score an invite. But the players aren't the only people representing a company that claims to "own" it, nor are they the only company there wanting to repossess Dr Smog's headware. He had a lot.


6. VIN# 199283-A4. Item: RhoTek Military-grade Hovercraft, type II. Defaulter: Maximilion Pane. SIN 381779-092. Invalid SIN. Payment: 9,000.
GM INFORMATION: Okay, this one's for the rigger/hackers out there. It has exactly the same stats as the GMC Beachcraft. Whoever this thing belonged to before, it belongs to the Zer0 S3rf3rs now, a rigger gang of pirates that preys on Seattle's port authorities and generally causes mayhem and terror up and down the coast. They're a troublesome sort, but no real challenge. Players could easily track this vehicle with its VIN, and possibly use its integrated commlink to trace it back to its current location. If your players have the vehicles, now's a good time for a car chase on the beachfront sands, no?


Karma Awards: Hopefully, all six ops should be done in a single session. They're meant to be easy, fast paced assignments with only one or two scenes each plus brainstorming the legwork section. Use this as an opportunity to use some of the less common skills and knowledge skills. Standard Karma award is 1 per item retrieved.

Warning: There's a risk that the players may decide not to turn over the items and keep them. That's okay, RhoTek will be hiring some new repossession officers at the beginning of the month.

I think it would be a good way of having some extra income. You could always drop off to do some repo work in between other runs to spice it up.

Overall, looks good. It would be easy to write up new items too, just have a flick through the equipment sections. You could even have a flat percentage fee on the item like %20 or so.

-Strobe

These are pretty interesting.

That being said, I'm not sure any team of runners would get out of bed for, say, 200 nuyen. Especially if the target is an unknown, who might be armed and dangerous.

But very doable as a service for a contact, without harming reputation

I really like this idea. As said, very easy to integrate in. Might be worth a company having a BBS sort of thing(a lil underground perhaps) that offer these type of jobs(explaining not the full nature, but a basic outline, offering people to contact them if they want to know more.)