Hello all,

I am relatively new to Shadowrun, and the group of players I play with have interests in playing in Seattle and in Japan. I want to know how to handle travel back and forth. With fake SIN's, I imagine they could just get on a regular charter airline to go back and forth, but how do you handle all their gear? Guns, or magical foci, or even things like biowear? I wouldn't imagine they would make it through airport security, even if they were checked in as bagage...well, can't check in biowear... Do they always have to hire smugglers...and if so, are the smugglers that can travel that distance easy to find (I imagine that would depend on the GM...).

Kastie

Hi Kastie,

I would look at the travel from the storyline perspective. If the struggles of figuring out how to get there are not really part of your core storyline, find a GM Plot Device to make it happen (supplied by the corporate Johnson, fixer already has a smuggling run going there which could use an armed escort, etc). This is definitely my personal recommendation - saves game time and lets the runners deal with the meat of the story.

If, however, the struggles of dealing with travel is key to the story, then try to allow for additional time getting there so the runners can create an option on their own. Focus more on the legwork involved in convincing a ship captain to take stowaways, or negotiating with a smuggler to make a detour on his normal route. Either way, let the players think the mode of travel was their idea, not yours. If they come up with something crazy that they think is brilliant, try to make it work anyway! If the travel is really an adventure of its own, create a plot element during the travel that the runners have to solve to complete their trip (traitor or crazed stowaway on board could work - especially if it somehow ties into the story in Japan).

Reminder: Do *not* draw out any section of the run where the players are not really running the story. If nothing is going to happen from the time they leave port to the time they arrive, do not let the story of their travels last more than 2 minutes. It may seem fun to a GM to tell the players what is happening to them, but players really enjoy the parts of the game where they *think* they are in control.

Good luck!

I'm still trying to figure out how to smuggle the Cybered-Up Street Samurai past the Metal Detectors one piece at a time...

I did it one piece at a time / and it didn't cost me a dime...

I was going to suggest Fake Medical Papers, but I have no idea how extensive the mods are...

Generic fake SINs are no good for all the gear. Get them to pick up specially-priced SINs as registered mercenaries or bodyguards or whatnot. Anyway, that's just how I'd handle it, that or use a patron of some sort like Game suggested.

Also, if they're bouncing back and forth between the same two regions all the time, it isn't unreasonable to have the characters keep a list of restricted/forbidden equipment for each region. They would probably have contacts in both regions, also. It would really stink to need that Panther Assault Cannon in Tokyo when it is in a warehouse in Seattle, but that's what those contacts are for

Actually, my NPC Johnson character, "Money", has quite extensive modifications done, but they're all on his real SIN.

He's the Victim of a Terrorist Assault. He gets hassled by Airport Security, and his team of rabid attack lawyers are on them to "Increasing the psycological damage already done to our client."

Through he goes.

Sad part is, however, that unlike a lot of Shadowpeople, his story can be 100% backed up, because it's 100% true.

Thanks Game. I'll keep that in mind. I wasn't sure if I should use the travel aspect as a way for the team to get creative with roleplaying their airport experience, or just hand wave them through and give them chances to roleplay creatively in other apects of the game.

Generally speaking, your options are to fool the detector ("scanning dyslexia prosthesis implant ... Government approved. Welcome to Newark"), hack the detector (Exploit, Stealth, Browse, Edit), or subvert the system higher up (suborn guard cooperation through bribery, blackmail and/or mind control).

There's an essay I've been meaning to write about this, but the short version is that you've got three choices: leave your games in a single locale (minimal border-crossing), play the kind of game where characters are not dependent on any kind of gear that could get them into trouble at a customs inspection, or play up the weak-government aspect and make it fairly easy to cross borders with illegal equipment of many kinds.

The first two options suck. That's not to say that the type of game described by the second option sucks, but being forced to play it, in direct defiance of much of the Shadowrun style as espoused in the flavourtext, definitely sucks.

Japan is one of the few nations described through most of Shadowrun as having a pretty firm grip on the reigns of national power, but if you imagine a world where governments simply do not have the resources to effectively secure their borders, and where airlines may be able to dictate terms to nations rather than the other way around, you can make your players a great deal more mobile.

~J

...never, never fly commercial.

Two words: Amphibious RV.

I'm sure that all of us have, at one time or another, dreamed of purchasing a recreational vehicle, modifying it for ocean travel, christening it the USS Enterprise and taking it on a five-year voyage around the world, meeting new friends and thwarting the plans of an evil orginization bent on world domination at every port.

Call it the Thunder in Paradise method of mercenary travel.

I'd just like to point out that a Fixer, traditionally, is the guy who bribes officials on behalf of criminals. Johnsons can also be useful here, as they have access to corporate jets and the like. Smugglers obviously too.

usually you have to have weapon and gear waiting for you handled by your contact.

Ok there are actually a number of easier ways to get there.

For one thing boat. Smuggling people into a country via boat is done every day, and on a low budget. If instead of being jammed into some little boat along with 50 other people you bribed your way onto a container ship it'd be pretty hard to catch you I'd think.

Boat a little slow. Next you have the Shadowrunners friend. The seaplane/flying boat. Those were more popular with runners after "Preying for Keeps" came out.

[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G4D720M0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg[/img] Very nice for getting where you want to be.

Now that one is a little smaller. You'd probably have to make a stopover half way to fuel up.

But larger ones can simply go all the way from Seattle to Japan. Again your contact should probably have some flightplans and a reason why they're stopping on some remote shore but again fairly free to do what you will. You could also stay in international water and stop in some more chaotic zone, like China, and take a boat or minisub in from there or some such.

Actually on that note there are rules for submarine based shadowrunners. In principle you could hitch a ride with those guys, some probably have regular Seattle/Japan runs.


Finally if I recal correctly from the only smuggling sourcebook there is a lot of smuggling traffic going across the alaskan way. That'd be mostly T-bird Jammers, but there are a wide range of vehicles that can handle it. The route is almostly entirely over NAN/Transiberia. In both cases VITAS and the natives kicking out the Americans/Russians have resulted in those areas seeing a large population drop. And they weren't very populated before. Making the route workable.

And finally corps have externality. SO long as they file a flight plan their planes can take off from a corp airstrip and land on another.

Not just Alaska way, if you're headed East as well. Runs to Quebec bring in quite a bit of cash due to the weird laws they have set up there.

Portage La Prarie (AKA: P-La-P), a town near where I live now, apparently has a new "Main Industry", supporting T-Bird 'Runners.

Winnipeg is a major city that's pretty fragging close to a border town as well, being near the Algonkian-Manitou Council. Especially with Aztechnology having such heavy pull there.

Good to get some Flatlander Beer at the very least. (REAL BEER! Not Synthahol Soy-Based Substitute!).

Also on running those routes. Remember the governments aren't that wealthy and so while they probably have some basic ground radar T-bird and other low flying vehicles will get under it. They wouldn't be running AWACS. They might have some spirits out I suppose, but astral space is probably a little risky there. And a vehicle doesn't glow that bright in the astral compared to woods and such, so I'd probably give some astral visibility modifiers.

And, on the routes that are most likely to have Spirtual Surveiliance (Most likely just a passle of Watchers), The T-Bird Runners are likely to have their own magician teams set up (Probably at refueling sites, so most can use the same person), who gets pain in talismania for some simple spirit summoning to conceal from magical sight.

Can't do it at every spot. Again, Magicians are RARE, and in high demand. Even ones that can ONLY summon Watchers can demand top dollar!

The group I GM for is wanting to leave Seattle for Denver (kitchen got too hot). Right now they're thinking of just buying tickets. To gently show them how bad an idea that would be, I'm having them pick their fixer up from the airport (he's expecting some rivals to try to off him there). When the characters realize "Oh wait, I can't just waltz into an airport with a sidearm (which for the sammie usually means an assault rifle) and wired reflexes, and a criminal SIN, let alone board a commercial jet," I'm hoping they'll get a little more creative about how to travel.

Having a Criminal SIN. Worse than being on that "No Fly List", because you *KNOW* why you're on it, and so do they.

and with the big guys being basically nations in their own right, diplomatic currier for the gear

also, if one can ship people via converted containers in real life. how hard would it be to send a sammie by air mail?

"They said I have so much metal in me that I'm no longer a passenger. I had to fly freight... No pillow, no magazine... Not even the bag of soynuts..."

Sounds like they need to book passage with "Big Louie's T-Bird Xpress" or some other smuggling outfit.

Heck, you could easily turn the passage into an advenutre. Imagine the trouble they could get into while laying over at a smuggler haven for a night or two. I'm thinking lawless border town, a la the wild west meets Mad Max here...

Reminds me of my home city, only my home town's gun rate is about on par with Mad Max than the Old West.

I can't say much about the Japan side of things however, I'd generally push for the following things:

1) Employer worries about it. If you're working for Renraku, they'll have no problem transporting you, no questions asked. If your employer won't do this, consider taking some additional jobs on the side with an employer who will. Aztechnology doesn't have much presence in Japan, but I'm guessing they'd be happy to take on some deniable assets and won't have much trouble transporting you there. Yaks might be a little more discerning, but they can certainly set you up and will be more help on the other side anyway.

2) Get gear on both sides of the pond. For some people, this is all you have to do. Your mage or adept can have bonded foci in secure locations in both countries, along with guns and other gear. No smuggling necessary! Of course, this doesn't work so well for the street sam, so...

3) Private charters from private air fields (using extraterritoriality/neighboring nations where you can). On the Seattle side, it's trivial to smuggle this stuff to the NAN, and some of the NAN are pretty easy going about letting you fly in or out, especially with the right contacts and money. If you have your own plane or ship chartered (or you're driving yourself!) this is an easy way to get out of Seattle. There are some private airfields in Seattle itself and tons of private ports, so just leaving from Seattle is also pretty easy, if a little more dangerous (I'm sure they do regular searches of these things, especially a plane company which is making a lot of undocumented income).

4) Smuggle yourself like the SINless scum you are. Riding in the bottom of a freighter full of tennis shoes isn't particularly glamorous, fast or fun, but it's cheap and effective. Seattle probably scans through no more than a third of the ships coming through, and the scans certainly aren't impossible to overcome.

5) Blow a ton of money on lots of licenses, fake SINs and high-level contacts, plus bribes where appropriate, to allow you and your gear through as 'security specialists' or a group of medical experiments. There's lots to go wrong here, and all eyes will be on you, but hey, it's feasible, and allows you a very wide degree of flexibility you won't find in most other methods.