Okey, here's the deal


This will be 300p characters with no available points in contacts nor resources
(Max attribute before race mod 4, max skill rating 3)

Anyhow, the old colleague (Greg) puts up a sob story about how his girl (Nancy) was kidnapped and turned into a meat puppet (no surgical alterations just a permanent personafix that you just dont take out and get the old girl back) His apperant motives... is ofcourse, to rescue the girl and live happily ever after, It might just be a red herring however.

The job will consist of five parts
1st. obtain information and means of restoring a meat puppets original personality

Possibilities:

*An Orc streetdoc in downtown has some rep of curing BTL burnouts to a resonable state
* An off-shot of Seretech has an new industrial use hardware that is tailored to remove the psychological effects of Simsense burnouts (intended for Blackhammered corp hackers first and foremost), Supplies can be found at the factory or its harbor district warehouse, (alternative hacking for constructing their own chip)
* Researching enough of Nancy's past and personality to substitute it with a new Personafix

2nd. Extract the puppet

* Mayhem, Stealth, Bribes, Negotiations, hell the possibilities are infinite

3rd. Restore the puppet to the girl she once was
4th. ??
5th: Profit!

Deus Ex Machina: Greg was actually the guy who chipped Nancy! What will conquer justice or greed?

The guy's will receive 500 (each) nuyen up front aswell as being introduced to a homosexual troll fixer called Ceasar
(actually based on the one from Runner's haven, but hey! it's a lovable concept)

well, as the title suggest.. I have no experience what so ever on structuring runs (but I still want the first run to be genuine and not a pre-made one) so please help me out

Nice first run. Here's what I recommend; never plan out what the players will do. You'll always be wrong. Instead, prepare the environment and NPC's the players will interact with, and have a good idea how the NPC's will react.

In this example, say your colleague's name is Greg. Greg hires the runners to go rescue Sandy, his meatpuppet GF. The runners find a street-doc who says he can "reset" her memory, and the run is on. They extract Sandy from the seedy brothel after beating down the bouncers or coming in through the ceiling...whatever. Then they take her to the street doc, and stand guard while doc does his thing.

Meanwhile, the owner of the brothel is pissed; Sandy was his number one girl! He sends his toughs to Greg's place, where they kidnapped her the first time, to find out where she is. After some beating, Greg spills the beans, and the runners get ambushed. Or Greg doesn't talk, but the toughs are there when the runners return with Sandy.

Or you could have something happen unexpected at the brothel...while they're extracting Sandy, somebody notices that one of the dancers looks exactly like Hannah, his sister's friend that he had a crush on. And she's being sold to some guy in a suit. Or the PC's could overhear a conversation about a big shipment of drugs/guns/valuables coming in.

One other tip...be flexible. If the players come up with a good idea, go with it, even if it isn't how you thought the run should be done. Good luck!

What do you need help with exactly?

1. I like your idea as it sounds like a good one, but is your first run or everyone's first run. If it is the former, this sounds like it will take about 2 sessions. If this is everyone's first run, prepare for each of your steps to take at least one session if not more. Learning the rules is one thing and then getting everyone to streamline the process is an entirely different situation.

2. With 200 BP you know that they could spend all those points on attributes and not have any skills (unless you are changing more chargen rules than that) Also, with the given background why would any of them have any combat skills, maybe pistols and/or unarmed combat at the highest of 2, but anything else would be slightly out of character.

3. 500 upfront is probably good for this level of game, but what is going to be their final payout?

Hope these questions have helped you out.

I second the "don't plan the for the PC's action" sentiments. It won't work. Ever. Sure, you can predict somethings (like they'll have to extract the meatpupped GF) but you won't be able to predict how they're going to do it. The best you can do is have good notes about the security and opposition that they might face during that extraction and go from there.

Don't let them plan too long. They're going to want to sit down and discuss the best way to pull the extraction, but it can be the death knell of such games when that planning session goes on for 1 hour then 2 hours, then in the 3rd hour. No plan the PCs have will last past the first encounter with the bad guys, anyway.

1. Everyone's first run.. Myself had played some SR before (3rd and 4th, mostly 3rd) and is somewhat familiar with the rules, its intended that the players should have some opperturnity to familiarize with the system the first mission, of the other players most are somewhat familiar with the skill and combat rules but totally newbies to the hacking/rigging/magic rules, aswell as begin stuck in some D&D thinking (What? we can search the net for info? uhh, you actually need pilot groundcraft? and such) so mostly they need to get used to thinking in 2070th's insteed of 1070th's

2. Plan on setting a limit on attributes to 4 and skills to 3 (not sure whether to allow specialisations) the gun skill can be allowed at high rating (such as 3) if the character had in his background that he used to be security at the corp.

3. I have no real plan for this, thinking about 500-1000/ char (that would be 2k-4k) alternative more if the first part requires more effort



Yea just that type of input I need, how can a memory be restored?
(maybe a B&E is needed for some component, maybe a software need to be created)
how d'ya get a willing to serve meat puppet to tag along?
are there any opposition?
Is he really only trying to save his GF?
I thought that maybe a Cybercombat would be part of the restoring of the GF's memory

Quote: "Never plan out what the players will do!" The absolute best advice any GM for any system can get, be ready to change things on the fly is the most important aspect of most games but SR in paticular, play their opposition smart, the npc's should have plans and be able to think on there feet as well as the pc's. For me thats a point ya cant drive home enough for a successful game be ready for anything, think on your feet and players will always do exactly what you didnt expect them too.

Pesonally I wouldn't give them a happy ending either, at best a bittersweet one as they find that at best the old girlfriend simply can't be "reset" or perhaps even that their old buddy is just trying to start up his own pimping circle and needed talent.

ohh that gave me a nice idea, how about after reseting the girl they finds out that her BF was in fact the the dude who chipped her in the first place and just wanted her back cause she was "stolen" before he could fix her loyalty to him, hence he wanted her back but had to start over

200 bp might be a bit too low. Maybe 300 bp with some limitations as to what they can take or not would be better...
But you'll be able to see that and adjust during the character creation.

As for the run itself, the global idea seems ok to me. It's innocent enough so that former wageslave in the need could accept it (I always had trouble with backstories like "He lost his job, so the next day he decided to become a professional criminal, risk his life and kill people on a daily basis.") and can lead to some interesting story.

There are a lot of ways to structure a scenario. Some prefer to have everything planned, railroading the players if needed while other will describe in details every person/place/object involved and make everything react accordingly to what the players did.

For this kind of scenario, I'll go the second way:
* Try to get a list of the ways the players could restore the meat puppet (but leave the list open to solutions the player could find during the game).
* Describe who and what is involved by each solution, if needed.
* Get some details about the place where the puppet is: a map, a backstory, a list of NPC the runner can find there (with a short profile, so that you can pull them out randomly during the game if the players go to such place), a list of NPC/group that can be linked to that place (mafias, important customers...)
* Maybe plan some events that will happen during that time (for example on day 2, at 10PM, a rival group will try to blow up the place)

Then the run will construct itself, as PC interact with NPCs and groups. Just keep a piece of paper handy to keep track of everything (I usually go with a table keeping track of what each party wants, knows and does) and don't hesitate to stop (or at least pause) a game when you feel that everything is getting too complicated for you so that you can sort it out.

I've found that while it is a bad idea to plan for player's actions, that doesn't mean you shouldn't plan.

I would get a general map for the brothel and a sense for its security, etc. I would try to think of general contingencies before the players bring it up. You know they'll be visiting there.

Be ready to do the same thing for other places on the fly. My problem here is my players ask 'would they have done X'? How they ask changes the answer. While my players are planning something I haven't planned for, I try to tune them out and plot out on my own what the opposition is. That way it was developed independently, and if they come up with an ingenious idea, it won't fail JUST because I heard them talking about it. It also makes for great scenes when I finally come back from my side of the planning and note-taking and they suggest the one idea that I didn't (and wouldn't have) planned for.

Sounds good to me, especially if the players are around to witness the boyfriend's reaction when he realizes that whatever method was used for the periment chipping and reseting would almost surely kill the girl if tried again.

The short answer is this: it really doesn't matter. Make it up, whatever. You could say that the personafix is like an AI, and they have to defeat it in cybercombat to free her. If it seems like it will add something, that sounds good. If it's just going to be gratuitous combat, I'd say skip it, or just don't bother doing the entire combat, especially since it's just going to be one player involved.

Getting a meat puppet to tag along...shouldn't be too hard. A meat puppet is probably gullible. Or, if she refuses to leave, maybe showing a picture of her boyfriend and her or giving her a prized possession could jog her memory enough for her to cooperate. Or knock her out.

There should be opposition, even if it's just some thugs. Or the owner could be on good terms with Lone Star. They steal the girl, then get stopped and arrested for theft. (That would be evil. )

Or maybe he's not trying to save his GF...maybe HE saw some hot dancer/prostitute and wants to have her as his meat puppet. In that case, he (Greg) should have the technology to "erase" the personafix on her. (It could just be a chip that you slot.)

Any of these would be good runs...try to pick one before the session. If you know everyone's motivations and have the layout/security of important buildings ready, everything else will fall into place. Having some stats written up for likely opposition would be good, too.

More of, I will leave it up to the players, will they screw the girl and turn her over to face her fate, or will they Hood and try to save the girl.. I will keep her somewhat blank but stove her away to make a useful contact if saved maybe she didnt lose all memory from the meat puppet time, afterall.. who would shut up in front of a Chiphead sexslave? or maybe she just happens to got some useful talent/connection.. would turn out rather intresting if they turned her in just that she could escape and get in contact with her bruiser troll mate

Oh! Maybe he can read some of the data from her memories or from stuff on the matrix and use it to create a new personafix chip? So it's not actually Nancy, it's Nancy's body running a Nancy chip!

you lost me there?
Use a personafix to re-create the orginial persona?

*evil chuckle* Sounds cyberpunk to me nezumi.

Of course, things could delve into Bladerunner turf if you combine the AIs from Emergence with the next logical step of biodrome tech from AUG as well.

Precisely.

wait.. taking another body and make it look like nancy? now that's way over their head xD
or did I just mess up what I got right the first time?

Basically if I understood nezumi correctly, the "real" Nancy is gone, whatever was done to her simply can not be undone. However, it is possible to change her current programming to simulate what the programer thought Nancy was like based off of the records of her life. Of course even in the Sixth World it isn't really possible to recreate someone's personality exactly so Nancy 2.0 isn't going to be the same as she was beforehand and it is only a matter of time before her friends and family start to realize that something isn't quite right.

*writing down as possible scenario*

Modified original post

Sounds like a nice first run. 200 pts are too low, 300 will definitely work bettter, considering you would keep a close eye on magic rating, killer gear and such.

Be sure to have a nice setup for the place they have Nancy in. map, stats for the guards, maybe one tougher and more memorable NPC (and by tougher I mean stg like a troll or an adept with magic 3)

Possible Complications; i.e. "pushing the envelope"

-Nancy walks and talks but she is fried. Her neurons dead, can't be reversed to her normal self. / or has addiction (terminal) to BTLs; Greg finds her dead a week after being released.

-Nancy's owners go looking for her; follow Hank's post right above.

-Nancy has seen something she shouldn't. Maybe she was implanted a data filter so she is not aware of that, but she was witness to something nobody is supposed to know and now that inconvenient piece of data is stored in her cybereyes. This will come back to haunt her later on.

Possible bail out, i.e. "debugging"
If things go wrong on the extraction a neighbour could call the Lone Star. The cops could save the runner's butt and them have them arrested. The arresting officer might happen to be in need of some shadowrunners for some job and voila! you have next run in motion.

* A good idea is to watch closely the list of contacts the characters have and think in advance if any would come handy for the run. Then you can have a meeting and some lines prepared for the moment that comes up.

* Do hand in a couple free contacts that could work as plot devices later on. A lone star officer, a minor sports star, a bartender, whatever, plant your seeds for later on.

* 2000 nuyen a piece for a first run could be ok. But that's me speaking. do download and consult some of the SR missions at the Sr4 website. There you will get plenty pointers, opposition stats and game aids that will come handy to your GM work. It doesn't matter if you never play the missions as they are intended to be, Recycle and cut and paste.

*My groups' style is quite cinematic, so I often prepare a music soundtrack to introduce some of the scenes.

Good luck and happy gaming. Everything will be cool if everybody has fun. Do not forget to tell us later how it went by, we are a curious lot.

Cheers,

Max

Well, this is kinda "This time, we build characters from scratch.. and that means SCRATCH!"



Now that's my area of expertise



Hm, I'll dump the first.. but the second will sure haunt atleast Greg if they choose to turn her in, the third.. well that what will make her a useful contact she KNOWS things



Nice idea, ill keep that one handy



No contacts, A clean start.. recent re-assignment coupled with getting fired.. life sucks sometimes
Although, its not impossible of gaining contacts, provided you dont spit them in the eye, after all rating 1 and 2 loyalty is all and mostly biz



Hmm, sounds like more work than actually doing it yourself, although it could provide some cheat sheets



Music tend to distract the gaming mostly, i'll skip that part ^^




Thanks mate, wont be running this mission until atleast the week before the next anyway

Joe Average pedestrian in Shadowrun has 160 BP worth of Attribute points in just the 8 main stats (whether he should or not is another question). I think 200 BP for the PCs is way too low. Even 300 isn't really enough to make a well rounded (but not exceptional) character.

why is the 200 bp possibility even mentioned in the SR corebook?
3 in all 7 base stats (140)
skillg 3 (170)
two random skills 3 (194)

Man you're right, even without magic/resources/contacts.. that's ridicolously little

There are eight base Attributes.

strength, agility, body, logic, reaction, intuition, charisma... what did I forget? you dont pay for essence

Willpower