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CrystalBlue
So, I've tried making them deal with a dragon, I've thrown an ambush at them, and I did a bad job at throwing a SWAT based team their way. So far, I've not gotten many results that I like. I'm not challanging them very well. Hell, even a whole house of vampires and ghoul servants didn't phase them much (since they rented the limo they drove through the front door...). So I'm left with a lot of good ideas that may never see the light of day, because I can't do a very good job at making them feel scared or challanged.

I've still got insect spirits, toxic shamans, and shedim in the bullpen, just incase I have to give them the worst of it now. But that just seems childish to throw your most powerful things out and make the PC's fight them. So I'd like some help on this next run.

For anyone in my gaming group, please don't read on. I'm sure you all know who you are if you're on these boards.

My next run is going to involve a very morally questionable act that I'm sure some people in the group won't be too hard on. I'm going to have the group pose as an ambulence crew and make sure someone dies so that they can later be harvested for some vital parts.

The Johnson's name is Dameon Willhelm, a big CEO of a close-to-AAA corp, Bearing Bio and Culture. His daughter is suffering from a very terminal case of genetic mutation that modern science has deemed uncurable. She's got about two weeks left from the time the runners take the job. Her main concern is her heart, which can't be removed and replaced with cyberware or bioware due to complications with ware and the mutation. Also, cultured clones won't take, as the genetic marker that the mutation is attached to is all through her body. The heart needs to be a new one for her to survive long enough for BBC to research a cure to it

Note that this virus is actually a mutagenic that was being experimented on in the BBC labs in Seatle, labeled as a competitor to modern bio ware. It's purpose is to restructure parts of the body through genetic mutation and make people faster, stronger, that sort of thing. What it's doing to her, however, is something completely different. In the end, the mutation won't actually kill her, but BBC and the CEO don't know that...and niether do the PCs.

So, here's the run. The Johnson has located a perfect match for a transplanet. Unfortunately, that certain target is an 8 year old boy. And the Johnson wants his heart now. So the PC's have to get the heart somehow. However, the Johnson wants none of this traced back to actually being wetwork on a kid, so he's hiring the PC's to stage an accident. A very, very convincing accident. They'll set up a car crash with the boy when he's somehow on the road. Once the accident happens, the PC's need to pose as the ambulence that's being sent to pick up the kid. The accident can not cause physical damage to the kid's heart or areas around that, obviously. While on the way to the hospital, they have to flat-line the kid before he gets inside. They also have to make sure it looks like it was part of the crash, or something more plausible. Once he gets there and doctors in the hospital have confirmed that he's dead, the kid will be taken to the morge. He'll then have an autopsy performed enough to rule out all other possible causes of death. At that point, they are done, as the Johnson is already prepared to offer the family a large sum of money for their boy's heart, spinning the story about his little girl dieing and how his death could mean saving the life of his little daughter.

Very cruel, very sneaky, and very Shadowrun'y. ^.^ Here's what I need. They obviously need to do a very good job of posing at EMT's, fake records, set up an accident perfectly, and kill a little kid. All of which they have never done before. I know I'm going to blind side them with this challange. But my problem is, what obstalces do you see in this mission? And what are a few ways to get around them? Here is what I have so far.

1.) Somehow get access to an ambulence for Seattle General Hospital
2.) Fake employee records
3.) Practice their EMT acting and skills
4.) Find out when the boy would most likely be on the roads with parents
5.) Set up the ambush
6.) Play out their roles and save the boy's heart
7.) Kill the boy in the ambulence before it gets to the hospital
8.) Finish out their roles as EMT's and leave no trace that they were ever there.

I also want to somehow have the 1:1000 chance of them finding out that the little girl really won't die, and what they're doing can be prevented and avoid the boy from dieing needlessly. Any thoughts?
cREbralFIX
Now you're thinking! Challenge their *characters* and their playing skills, rather than just throw combat at them. This makes for a really fun game because it's safe to mess around with morally questionable topics.

Be prepared though!  They may refuse the run.  It's also a bit messy in that too many people know about it.  Organleggers specialize in this sort of thing.

***

Change the age from 8 years old to 17 years old.  The small heart won't work in an adult body....

***

You may want to conceal it a bit or set-up a second team to cause the accident...compartmentalize the information.  That way, the runners think they're only transporting a kid.  

Better yet, have one team kidnap the kid.  Then have a second team crash the first team's car or otherwise flatline the kid.  Of course, the flatlining could always happen after the runners drop him off.  
Ice Hammer
Sometimes you have to be careful about these morally questionable runs. I've learned the hard way with my own players. Sometimes, the players and their characters will turn down the run because they don't want to be involved in killing a kid. Some characters/players will out and out refuse to harm a child, and they would rather to take a hit to their reputation than doing this. And if you wait to tell the runners about them having to kill the kid, ie, at first tell them he has to be extracted and then tell them he has to be killed, they may be likely to turn on your Johnson. So, if you think your players may have problems actually killing the kid, you may have to just have them extract the kid for the Johnson. They may not have to necessarily do the killing, but they should be aware that by turning the kid over to the Johnson, than it will be likely that the kid will die.

Also, I believe the heart/organ cannot wait for an autopsy to be performed. By that time, the tissue will have died. The more realistic scenario is that the kid arrives to the hospital brain dead, but the hospital is able to keep the kid on life support until the hospital is able to get authorization from the family to allow for organ donation. One complication could be the family does not want to have the kid's organs donated. So the runners may have to find a way around that. Also, if the runners are careful enough about the staging of the accident, then an autopsy may not be required, if it is blatantly obvious what killed the child, ie, blood loss.
Sponge
Don't forget that if the players hijack an actual ambulance and/or EMT crew, that crew won't be able to save someone who is *actually* in need of assistance... which might turn out to be someone they know and/or care about. Or having to choose between the two vegm.gif

Nightwalker450
Just a difference in gaming groups, but this seems very planned out from the GM.

Usually our Johnson's give us the job as: We need this person, with his internal organs able to be harvested, no missing persons alert, and if they must be killed it must look like an accident.

If a Johnson gave us this job with the details as you described, I'd expect him to have all the legwork done to get us into the ambulance, EMT SINs etc. Even without knowing who we were going after (most of my team probably wouldn't go for the kid killing) this is too detailed of a job that might not be in our style or handling things. So the pay would have to be extreme if he's got these deadlines and exact ways of it needing to be done. It leaves us minimal to no room to improvise as we might need to.
Method
Here is a recent thread you might check out for some ideas. Mostly fluff about what it would be like to work as an EMT in SR.

I like the premise of your run. Very creative.

I disagree with cREbralFIX: if the daughter is a small teenaged girl and the "donor" is a large 8 year old boy (maybe even an ork) the heart would work just fine. A slightly smaller heart can match the cardiac output of a larger heart simply by beating a little faster. Besides, its not like she'll be running any marathons after the transplant anyway.

As far as the virus is concerned, I'm trying to think of a reason why a virus would destroy her original heart and a new cloned heart and preclude a cyberware replacement. The contraindication for cyberware could be that she is (or was) magical and doesn't want to loose the essence. Otherwise one possible explanation is that the genetic changes made by the virus induced an autoimmune reaction similar to rheumatic fever. If the virus caused her immune system to become sensitized to her own heart, the 8-year-old's heart could be HLA compatible but genetically different in some particular way.

Or if you go with the magic angle, maybe the 8-year-old is also awakened- the only HLA compatible magician they could locate...
W@geMage
QUOTE
Sometimes you have to be careful about these morally questionable runs. I've learned the hard way with my own players. Sometimes, the players and their characters will turn down the run because they don't want to be involved in killing a kid.
All the more fun. The Johnson doesn't have to tell them they're going to kill the boy.
Maybe they just need him in observation for couple of days cool.gif
When the ambulance arrives, they just have to hand him over to specialized medics.
A couple of days later they might recognize the boy on the news as he's found floating in the harbor, missing some organs.
CrystalBlue
The main thing I want to keep up is the illusion to the rest of the world that nothing is wrong with the 6th world we happen to live in. Sure, we have magic and cyberware, but those are things that have been regulated to better enhance our lives. And the normal wage-slave or corporate worker sees the worlds through rose-colored glasses. It's not untill you decend into the Shadows that you truely know how dark things really are.

I'm trying to get more of a message out to my PC's. So far, they've been killing 'bad guys'. And doing it well. So they need to know that as a Shadowrunner, putting food on the table may soak thier hands in blood too innocent for them to ignore.

Anyways...I tried to make it linear for them, because when I give the group the reins of figureing out how to do a mission, half the group goes one way, a few others go another way, and a few of them just want to shoot their guns off randomly. And then we sit there for hours while they try to figure out if they should open the door to leave the apartment or not. *sighs*
Nightwalker450
QUOTE (CrystalBlue @ Apr 3 2008, 03:36 PM) *
Anyways...I tried to make it linear for them, because when I give the group the reins of figureing out how to do a mission, half the group goes one way, a few others go another way, and a few of them just want to shoot their guns off randomly. And then we sit there for hours while they try to figure out if they should open the door to leave the apartment or not. *sighs*


Understood, like I said different groups. Our games usually break down for a few hours as we attempt to make a plan, it works for us, and the GM likes the extra planning time. But I can see the wanting plans to continue, and not spend hours or sessions just in planning. biggrin.gif
Ice Hammer
QUOTE (CrystalBlue @ Apr 3 2008, 04:36 PM) *
Anyways...I tried to make it linear for them, because when I give the group the reins of figureing out how to do a mission, half the group goes one way, a few others go another way, and a few of them just want to shoot their guns off randomly. And then we sit there for hours while they try to figure out if they should open the door to leave the apartment or not. *sighs*


There are certainly pros and cons of doing it that way. Certainly things flow a lot better if its all linear, but than again, the PC's won't really learn to work or think as a cohesive team if its all laid out for them. Given them a little bit more freedom allows them to make mistakes, and then they will ultimately have to face the consequences of those actions.
Method
I think running a few linear adventures is a good way to get players into the planning mindset. When the Johnson presents them with a well laid out plan and they make some easy money as a result hopefully they will have a "wait a minute... we can do that?" moment. You want them to realize that all their runs could be easy money if they think things through.
masterofm
The hardest thing that I see in your game for the players to obtain is to not raise any red flags. For instance when they have to take the ambulance do the EMT's inside have time to react? If they take the ambulance out of the hospital without authorization they are in trouble. Even if they forge papers and seem to know the slang of the EMT then how to they make it untraceable? Honestly this boy is probably not enough of a high profile case that there will be a lot of investigation into his death, and if they autopsy is clean this does not seem like the most challenging run. At least in my opinion.

The one thing I found odd about when you mentioned about them getting into the vampires layer with just a limo is the fact that didn't anyone check inside of the limo to see that the people inside the limo were legit? Wouldn't vampires realize instantly that the people in the back of the limo were shadowrunners (that is if they realized they had guns or were tripped out for destruction?) The minute they blast the gate guard the security guard in the compound would notice and all hell would have been raised. Try making it harder with the fact that if they show their real face, or in some way are identifiable then that can get traced back to them. Maybe if a vampire survived he will hire a Johnson to "hire" the team to basically walk into a trap.

Remember survaliance is cheap in the world of SR, and even when a team of runners do something there are reprocussions.

Try setting up a run where basically it seems like some vanilla easy peesy run. Like a Johnson asks for you to go to bla location and protect a courier carrying a case. He is wearing red sunshades, is bald, and has a ring on his index finger. The minute they get out the door they get hammered by another SR team that has been tracking them secretly. Since the Johnson is leaving first he takes a full auto burst to the chest and his bodyguards heads explode. Since they don't know where the shots are coming from (2 snipers about a block away who ended up getting unlucky on their first shots.) The rigger of the other team sends a few drones to try to slow the party down while the snipers can find a better vantage point to pin down and kill the team. The mage of the other team at that point throws a stunball and it forces the team underground (place manhole cover where the team can slip into) to run threw the sewers with drones chasing them. Your party slags the drones, and probably knock out the other mage (or force him to retreat.) Later the party can either catch wind that the team was sent to put a hit on the Mr Johnson and the team he was employing or they were hired from another run where the team ended up showing face, so they tracked them down and set up an ambush where the team might least expect it. After that maybe they find something else they don't really want to deal with after being battered by another team of shadowrunners
Fleming
Sounds interesting.

A problem I see with the run is the kid's parents. If he's out with them, and gets hurt in an accident, you can bet that at least one of the parents will insist on riding in the ambulance with him. The team would have to secretly kill the kid while his mother watches. If that isn't bad stuff, I don't know...

What I don't get is, why the complications? Why not simply have someone grab the kid off the street and hand him over to the Johnson? Or does he really want to appear legit that desperately?
Method
QUOTE (Fleming @ Apr 4 2008, 12:09 AM) *
What I don't get is, why the complications? Why not simply have someone grab the kid off the street and hand him over to the Johnson? Or does he really want to appear legit that desperately
Three words: "Missing Person Report" and two more: "RFID tags". biggrin.gif

It sounds to me like the whole idea is to take the kid out without raising any suspicion of foul play. Granted it is an elaborate "accident" but if its convincing people might not notice the organ theft.

Of coarse, parents do tend to want their kid's body back, so maybe you're onto something... indifferent.gif
CrystalBlue
The guy is desperate, but not stupid. He knows that he's gotta cover his tracks and make it look like, to the parents, that he's just a nice guy that wants to pay them for the troubles that they've had in return for the boy's heart to fix his daughter. It's seedy, underhanded stuff and that's what I want to convey to my PC's.

If they parents do ride along, all the better. That'll make it so the PC's have to play their parts extra well. And deal with the parent losing their son on the ambulance ride over. "Ma'am...it hurts..." "Don't worry, hun...everything's going to be fine. These people are going to help you." ^.^;; I'm maliciously evil.

And there are a few ways I've already thought of that the PC's can get around the whole killing kids thing. Maybe they deem that the boy's heart is in critical shape and try a bioware transplant once they get to the hospital. Then again, they'd have to arange to be part of the ER or OR staff once that happens and mess around with it that way. Then, the boy lives, the Johnson gets his heart, and no one is the wiser. In fact, the PC's are hearlded as hero's in the eyes of the parents.
Hat
So.... to throw a large wrench in the works, why not simply pay the family for a tissue sample to clone the heart of the "donor" kid and avoid the run in the first place?

If it's timing, why not offer the kid a free heart upgrade (cybernetic) along with additional enticements in order to get them to buy in? Even going so far as to offer to clone the heart from his original tissue if he's not satisified with the replacements?

If the family's not well to do, then offering them a good paying job for at least a couple of years would more than cover the costs, eliminate the risk and be mutually beneficial.

More specifically, what is it that makes the run necessary? Is there more to killing the kid than desperation? Does the CEO like being cruel for example?

With a sweep of his...

Hat
The Jopp
The �Not-killing� is actually rather simple.

Keep the kid alive and perform heart surgery on him and switch control to a heart-lung machine that keeps the boy alive while the heart is out of the body.

Have a mage cast a heal spell to repair the damage of the missing heart.

Quick and easy.

The Johnson gains a new heart and the kid stays alive.
DTFarstar
I'm totally co-opting this run into my game sometime in the near future. Modifications for my team, of course- for instance in the version of this I'm going to run the little boy is also the son of a AA or near AAA corp CEO. So, there will be bodyguards to deal with as well as probably a nanny, and possibly drone surveilance. The kid will also be contracted out Platinum to Doc Wagon, so they will have to pose as DW employees and get the kid, as well as somehow blocking his transponder or relaying that they are on duty and taking care of it(a lot of hacking). Hmm... layers upon layers... vegm.gif

Chris
Pyritefoolsgold
QUOTE (The Jopp @ Apr 4 2008, 08:04 AM) *
The �Not-killing� is actually rather simple.

Keep the kid alive and perform heart surgery on him and switch control to a heart-lung machine that keeps the boy alive while the heart is out of the body.

Have a mage cast a heal spell to repair the damage of the missing heart.

Quick and easy.

The Johnson gains a new heart and the kid stays alive.


I don't think I like the idea of the heal spell being able to regenerate whole organs. Patch them back together when they've taken a load of buckshot, yes. Create new ones out of thin air, no.
cryptoknight
Looking at this... I see a huge problem.

If the heart is in the boy up to and including the autopsy, it's not going to be of any value to anybody by then.

Today, they transplant hearts from people who are still on life support and then rush them quickly to other nearby hospitals.

If the body goes to a morgue, it's not very likely that a coroner is going to get to it today or tomorrow even, and by the time he's done, it will really not be useful for much.
vladski
QUOTE (Hat @ Apr 4 2008, 07:46 AM) *
So.... to throw a large wrench in the works, why not simply pay the family for a tissue sample to clone the heart of the "donor" kid and avoid the run in the first place?

If it's timing, why not offer the kid a free heart upgrade (cybernetic) along with additional enticements in order to get them to buy in? Even going so far as to offer to clone the heart from his original tissue if he's not satisified with the replacements?

If the family's not well to do, then offering them a good paying job for at least a couple of years would more than cover the costs, eliminate the risk and be mutually beneficial.

More specifically, what is it that makes the run necessary? Is there more to killing the kid than desperation? Does the CEO like being cruel for example?

With a sweep of his...

Hat

These were my thoughts too. Unless the Johnson is a psychopathic bastard, why kill the kid? Wouldn't the simplest solution be to approach the kid's family and play out his sob story about his daughter's disease and her need for the boys heart? Unless they are rich themselves, if the money is good enough and the boy gets a cyber heart or bioheart or a cloned heart, they'd probably be onboard. Hell, maybe they are real Samaritans and would volunteer. Little Johnny, the hero boy. All the Johnson would have to do is pay the same thing he was paying the runners to the family. Even if that "fails" and they deny the request, the boy still doesn't have to die. Why can't he jsut be kidnapped, taken to a remote location, have his heart removed and replaced with a cyber one and then have him dropped back off to the parents? Even if they somehow suspected the evil Corp father (which they shouldn't because he would send someone anonymous to approach them) how are they going to prove anything? No one would take them seriously. Little Johnny is alive and doing just fine with his cyber heart and a bank account to pay for his college. Big deal... people are geeking each other in the Barrens everyday over a pair of shoes.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE testing the morals of my players and think it's the best way in the world to shake up a game. I once had my players' "cops" release a less virulent virus into the air to allow them to stay undercover when their "mission" from the terrorists, who believed them to be Alamos 2Ksympathetic runners, was to release something that was particularly devastating to metahumans. Where before it would have resulted in nearly a hundred thousand deaths, it resulted instead in an "unknown dangerous ramification" that in the end resulted in nearly a hundred innocent deaths. The terrorists simply believed that the virus they purchased from the notorious Dr. Death scientist wasn't as good as he touted it to be. The runners were really... torn afterwards. But, they were following orders straight from the Homeland security director. And, they didn't blow their covers, are trusted by the terrorists and are now in place to take down many higher up members of hte organization. Still, all those deaths... it's a little dark spot on their souls now.

Anyway, I like the idea of testing runners' morals, but I think this scenario could be a lot more well thought out. The whole deal feels very railroaded and I think most players would not enjoy that.

Vlad
Sponge
QUOTE (vladski @ Apr 29 2008, 04:46 PM) *
following orders straight from the Homeland security director


Who of course wouldn't THINK of killing 2 birds with one stone by taking the opportunity to test out their own genetically-targeted viral warfare agents... devil.gif
vladski
QUOTE (Sponge @ Apr 29 2008, 05:01 PM) *
Who of course wouldn't THINK of killing 2 birds with one stone by taking the opportunity to test out their own genetically-targeted viral warfare agents... devil.gif

For the record, the undercover cops' commanding officer seemed very, very unhappy about the orders he had to pass along. And, there has also been a sense, occasionally, that they are working on someone's agenda. I can say no more, as one of hte players occasionally lurks on these boards. wink.gif

Vlad
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