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PalaNolho
Greetigns everyone. Im new to Shadowrun and to GM'ing and im just going to start a campaingn using the missions available on the official website but im thinking in making my own too.

My idea is to create a campaign based on the Doc Wagon company. The runners are contracted to join the ranks of a special unit inside the Doc Wagon company (a special "secret" unit that even works inside corporations territory even with no autorization)

Since i have no experience in the metter, i would like to ask for some ideas i can plug in to create a decent, funny, challenging and entertaining campaign.
Also, if anyone have tips on how to organize/struct the campaign, ill be thankfull too.

Thanks in advance

Regards.
- Miguel
CanRay
I suggest finding some Forums that deal with EMTs and their gripes, find their "Funniest Story" thread, and go with those.

They'll usually be horror stories for the people involved, but will make your group roar with laughter!
PalaNolho
QUOTE (CanRay @ Apr 29 2008, 03:32 PM) *
I suggest finding some Forums that deal with EMTs and their gripes, find their "Funniest Story" thread, and go with those.

They'll usually be horror stories for the people involved, but will make your group roar with laughter!


whats an ETM ?
Nightwalker450
QUOTE (PalaNolho @ Apr 29 2008, 09:53 AM) *
whats an ETM ?


Extra-Terrestrial Mother..

Or EMT: Emergency Medical Technician
Hatspur
EMT is an Emergency Medical Technician. They range in training from an EMT-Basic all the way up to EMT-Paramedic. They are EMS (Emergency Medical Service) workers whose sole job is to get you to the hospital alive and ticking.

Edit: Beaten
DocTaotsu
Ooo ooo!~ EMT is...

Aww... a day late and a dollar short... again.


Speed Wraith
I've wanted to do a Doc Wagon campaign before, just never actually did it. In my musings I was going to go with at least one long-term arc revolving around the characters seeing something they really shouldn't have and that trouble slowing catching up with them. That's probably something you should consider, especially if your characters will be going to be picking up really high-level, high-paying VIP clients. They're bound to get into some serious trouble with some of those clients and the things their clients are involved with.
DingoJones
I would suggest a good supporting cast, quirky boss, slutty secritary...humourous and fully fleshed out and omnipresent. That way it will distinuish itself from a normal shadowrunning campaign since in a normal one the players have no real boss and get to come and go as they please. Switch it up and have them worrying about what ther crazy boss who rides them all the time instead of being betrayed by a johnson.
DocTaotsu
Okay, before you begin go and beg, borrow, steal or rent this film:

Movie that "Sealed the Deal" to me becoming an EMT
"Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world. For days, sometimes weeks afterwards, you walk the streets, making infinite whatever you see. Once, for a few weeks, I couldn't feel the earth - everything I touched became lighter. Horns played in my shoes. Flowers fell from my pockets. You wonder if you've become immortal, as if you've saved your own life as well. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there - why deny that for a moment there, God was you? "

That'll cover a lot of the flavor for a funny/horrifying Doc Wagon themed game. Running an Doc Wagon black ops unit would be pretty entertaining as you'd need a full Shadowrun team to make it work, from decker to face to gun bunny.
CanRay
Sorry folks, distracted by GTA IV.
Shiloh
As DocWagonneers, they'll be doing the whole "ER" soap opera thing. As DW "Special Forces" they'll be infringing Corporate Extraterritoriality. Depending on their outlook you could mire them in some Tamanous/Ghoul unpleasantness related to their company: another division, or even their superiors and co-workers, in a sort of "Internal Affairs, but without the institutional backup" horror/abandonment/betrayal-fest. They could do some standard Shadowrunning on the side, maybe, either for cash or to assuage their social consciences.
vladski
As much as I like hte idea of Doc Wagon, everytime I have considered it, I don;t see how it is sustainable for very long. The missions seem very limited.

Heck, I even ran into that with my "you are all cops" campaign for SR4. That's why, after a very enjoyable Gauntlet meets Six Blocks meets LA Confidential long scenario, I had the characters inducted into a Black Ops division of the Federal Marshals. Now, instead of just solving hte mystery of the week, they can do almost any other type of run available to most Shadowrunners. The only major difference is that the Guvmint is the Johnson/Fixer. It's worked out pretty well. Sometimes they get to be cops, sometimes detectives, somtimes body guards, sometimes commandos, sometimes spies, and even sometimes "terrorists."

As far as a black ops Doc Wagon team... how does that go? Is there a super secret double platinum account that guarrantees you an extraction from within a Corp? And even if that is the case, wouldn't you pretty much always be running "extraction" based scenarios?

Vlad
vladski
QUOTE (DocTaotsu @ Apr 29 2008, 10:17 AM) *
Okay, before you begin go and beg, borrow, steal or rent this film:

Movie that "Sealed the Deal" to me becoming an EMT
"Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world. For days, sometimes weeks afterwards, you walk the streets, making infinite whatever you see. Once, for a few weeks, I couldn't feel the earth - everything I touched became lighter. Horns played in my shoes. Flowers fell from my pockets. You wonder if you've become immortal, as if you've saved your own life as well. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there - why deny that for a moment there, God was you? "

That'll cover a lot of the flavor for a funny/horrifying Doc Wagon themed game. Running an Doc Wagon black ops unit would be pretty entertaining as you'd need a full Shadowrun team to make it work, from decker to face to gun bunny.


Another great movie for "flavor" is the old Bill Cosby classic "Mother, Jugs, & Speed."

Vlad
Speed Wraith
QUOTE (vladski @ Apr 29 2008, 11:36 AM) *
As far as a black ops Doc Wagon team... how does that go? Is there a super secret double platinum account that guarrantees you an extraction from within a Corp? And even if that is the case, wouldn't you pretty much always be running "extraction" based scenarios?


Sure, of course there is. The more you pay, the better your service biggrin.gif But yeah, that's the reason I never got beyond the planning stage for my own Doc Wagon campaign. I run my games like a serialized television show, but this would become more of a mini-series...
DocTaotsu
I think the key to making it successful is running a wide open campaign. They have these high profile VIP runs into other corps but you should model a lot of the day to day shit in between. Maybe some of their more mundane calls can be lead in to other plot lines (Tanamous for one). I'd encourage your players to develops side passions that drive their characters and give them off hours jobs to occupy them. Perhaps one of them wants to do some shadow doc work, maybe one of them really hates being a DW and wants to run a car shop, whatever...
vladski
QUOTE (DocTaotsu @ Apr 29 2008, 10:42 AM) *
I think the key to making it successful is running a wide open campaign. They have these high profile VIP runs into other corps but you should model a lot of the day to day shit in between. Maybe some of their more mundane calls can be lead in to other plot lines (Tanamous for one). I'd encourage your players to develops side passions that drive their characters and give them off hours jobs to occupy them. Perhaps one of them wants to do some shadow doc work, maybe one of them really hates being a DW and wants to run a car shop, whatever...


Oh! They could be Doc Wagon employees, but moonlight and do other runs!

Or, they could become disgruntled employees and start up their own HTR Paramedic service. Compete with Crash Cart and Doc Wagon. Only work in the shadows. No guarranteed contracts, but if you call and we are available, we'll do our best to get you out. "If you survive, only then do we get paid." *Can see the latenight trid commercials even now!*

Vlad
DocTaotsu
Oooo! I like that last one. Freelance Doc Wagon/Crash Cart contractors. They pick up the shit jobs that are too messy for Doc Wagon to send in "real" units. 5 Standard contract folk go down in an Azzie lab. Not really worth sending a team but the sorta of money they could make on the back end... might be worth flippin ga couple grand at some "Alternative Medical Service" folks.
PalaNolho
QUOTE (vladski @ Apr 29 2008, 04:36 PM) *
As much as I like hte idea of Doc Wagon, everytime I have considered it, I don;t see how it is sustainable for very long. The missions seem very limited.

Heck, I even ran into that with my "you are all cops" campaign for SR4. That's why, after a very enjoyable Gauntlet meets Six Blocks meets LA Confidential long scenario, I had the characters inducted into a Black Ops division of the Federal Marshals. Now, instead of just solving hte mystery of the week, they can do almost any other type of run available to most Shadowrunners. The only major difference is that the Guvmint is the Johnson/Fixer. It's worked out pretty well. Sometimes they get to be cops, sometimes detectives, somtimes body guards, sometimes commandos, sometimes spies, and even sometimes "terrorists."

As far as a black ops Doc Wagon team... how does that go? Is there a super secret double platinum account that guarrantees you an extraction from within a Corp? And even if that is the case, wouldn't you pretty much always be running "extraction" based scenarios?

Vlad


hmm the extracting client could pay them to do another thing ( for exemple to finish the job he was doing something like that)
sunnyside
As has been stated your biggest challenge in a docwagon campaign is going to be keeping it fresh.

In a typically SR campaign the Fixer/Johnson allows each run to be totally different and the players get caught up in that.

In a DW campaign you can have some things to keep it interesting, like a competitor that always tries to get their first.

But ultimately to make it work you're going to have to have the RP angle. Think ER style I suppose. You're going to have to make them care about some of the patients and some of the NPCs.

Potentil issues.

Classic female they want to save but she requires a transplant the hospital simply doesn't have.

Dealing with some parents that don't want dirty Trogs touching their wounded kid.

Relationships within the NPC (suggest at least one for each player).

Have a disaster in the city happen and have them not get the call to go while they can see people on the Trid dying.

A kidnapping where they'd have to actively search for a client over a period of time.

They get temporarily located to somewhere else. (Azzie boarder?)


However luckily you do have an out. If things simply start getting stale you can always mix things up in SR. A good example of this (that you could use if you start them back in time) was Bug City. That was a great book for taking runners what were doing the same old same old and suddenly you totally change the world on them.



Speed Wraith
QUOTE (sunnyside @ Apr 29 2008, 12:03 PM) *
In a DW campaign you can have some things to keep it interesting, like a competitor that always tries to get their first.


I like that. I'm a big fan of using recurring prime runners that are not so much enemies as in the way, so that's right up my alley. It'd really suck if some other bus (even in the same company) keeps beating you to the target.
sunnyside
One other thing. I perceive that many players in RPGs tend to start feeling somewhat invulnerable. (Including myself if I figure out the GM doesn't want to let us die). SR4 can make this more prominent with the edge rules. And this tend to be especially true with newer GMs.

Anyway where I'm going with this is that I would suggest including NPCs on the extractions ideally that the players care about, have them date, have one night stands, have competitions and stuff. This way even if a player can use their edge to survive things going down the drekker they may have to watch their girlfriend get cut down or somethng because of something another player did.


Oh and something I do sometimes that might fit a campaign like this is ahead of times I give players a slip of paper with something their character is dealing with or wants. Following this up would be worth a Karma. You really have to have a feel for your players for this though. Sometimes it's fun to have a couple competing over the same secretary, or have one that really really wants to get to see the Concrete Dreams reunion tour concert. Sometimes it's just annoying and they'll do plenty on their own.
Method
There were a few threads recently that went into some detail about Doc Wagon operations and plot ideas.

Link and Link.

Also, search function is your friend... grinbig.gif
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