Just read this article about a billionaire private art collector with his own ultra private gallery. Thought it was very interesting, plus it's located in a very posh region and I've always wondered about that one place whenever I drive by there.

Anyway, thought y'all may be inspired by a good adventure plot out of this article.

I mean really, a private billionaire, who buys millions in arts, having his own private gallery (and can outbid many a galleries on the auctions). With its own security staff, situated on 200+ acres with its own walls and private guardhouse. This screams plot for a shadowrun game. Remember, there are apalcas running around on the grounds too... in shadowrun world, make them awakened apalcas*koff*land sharks*koff*... with friggin' lasers on their heads!

...I often like to yank ideas from the news. Like the bombings in London a couple years back or the Polonium poisoning incident. These make great seeds for plot hooks.

Just take a quick peek at the Fox news website right now.
"Arson behind Governor's estate blaze"
"Street stabbing spree rocks Tokyo"
"Medical Helicopter Carrying Patient Crashes, 4 Dead"
"Missing Sailor Found Dead in Gulf"
"Basra 'Assassination Squad' Leader Captured"
You got a good point. Watch the news and get your next shadowrun lined up. Good God, is it the Sixth World already?

That would explain the growth spurt I just had. It's weird being 3 metres tall.

The missing european divers that were found, who had to fend off a komodo dragon...

possible variations
a) have the shadowrunners end up in that position, and they have to use their rocks and sticks to fend off a komodo...
b) those divers are now shedim!!! Who will know... maybe some unlikely shadowrunners will find out later on.
c) the shadowrunners are hired to find the divers before the authorities for some reason...

Another good article... showing disparity between a gated community and the slums right next door. I'll probably use this for something in the future to give the adventure some flavor/atmosphere.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/09/asi...ated.php?page=1

Check out Speed Tribes: Days and Night's with Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld. It's about the subcultures of Japan during that country's economic height in the 80s. Fascinating read and chock-full of potential Shadowrun hooks. Wired, New Scientist and Giant Robot are also good sources of inspiration and in the magazine section of most (good) bookstores.

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/0,1518,581107,00.html (in german, sorry).

A sniper killed a prisoner while the latter was outside his cell in the prison yard. The sniper fired five shots over 300 meters and was later caught when he tried to flee with a motorcycle.

another article this time in english
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7641305.stm

The suspect denies any wrongdoing. He was caught on the motorcycle with the rifle and the barrel of the rifle was still warm. Anyway, guilty until proven innocent, right? waitasec... I meant inno-

I'm having trouble getting used to the tusks, personally.

-paws

Checks chest... I don't believe it! I got Dryad???

Could be worse.

There's something called a Drop Bear I keep hearing about and...

Eh, I've always suspected my business partner was a latent technomancer. She'd better find a stream soon, it's a real bitch having to do tech support on all those Random Glitches Which Defy Explanation that happen around her.

As for myself, I've always been an ork with the human-looking quality.

Or she has a special (strong) version of Gremlins?

I feel my Emergence coming up...must be that time.

What time? Time for the Sixth World to happen!

Edit: Of course, my stream is E-scapist. The internet is just so much more...interesting than the meatworld. That holds for all technology, 'smatterofact.

Somalia's pirates seize 33 tanks

So, Who wants their own black market tank?

I'll take two.

I'm somewhat surprised that a shipment of arms and armament didn't have any kind of naval escort. Talk about sloppy. Then again... it was a Ukrainian ship. Ex-SovBloc client states aren't well known for their sparkling security records.

check this one out, kinda interesting use of craigslist...
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW...P.ce3930c1.html

I actually crafted a pretty fun adventure out of the rash of celebrity sex tape incidents. I hired the runners to reclaim a sex vid Evelyn Aurelius (daughter of a powerful CATCO share holder) had with an ex boyfriend. Unfortunately for the boyfriend, he was beaten down by some Yakuza and had the vid stolen before he could sell it. The runners then had to deal with getting the Vid from tha Yaks's before they could start distributing their new pornographic cash cow.

ooo, here's something.
jewelry heist in the middle of downtown milan. broad daylight with crowds everywhere so it's gutsy as heck, window washer so everyone ignored him, and he walked off into the crowds...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7690868.stm

edit: ARRRRGH, before someone points it out. Yes, I just saw after posting this that it's been posted in that other thread. sheeesh.

Here are stories I had set aside as story ideas over the last couple years:

2005 - In December, job recruiter J-Com's IPO in Tokyo goes awry when a trader for Mizuho Securities types in an order to sell 610,000 shares at 1 yen (less than a penny) per share instead of the intended 1 share at 610,000 yen (about $5,000). Though the order is for 41 times the number of outstanding shares, the Tokyo Stock Exchange insists that the order be processed as entered. Mizuho loses at least 27 billion yen ($225 million) on the typo, an amount nearly equal to its entire profit for the prior fiscal year.

2005-02-01 A few weeks after eZiba.com sends out its winter catalog, the call center's pin-drop silence begins to worry execs. As it turns out, a bug in a program designed to identify the best prospects on eZiba's mailing list led to the catalog instead being sent to those deemed least likely to respond. "Sadly, our probability estimates were correct," says eZiba founder Dick Sabot. On Jan. 14, eZiba suspends operations while seeking new investors to cover its cash shortfall. Overstock.com later buys the retailer's assets for $500,000.

CAMBRIDGE, England (AP) -- A museum visitor shattered three Qing dynasty Chinese vases when he tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and brought the vases crashing to the floor, officials said Monday.

2006-02-02: In what is becoming a common state of affairs, a Russian rocket has run into issues during the launch of an Arab communications satellite. The ARABSAT 4A satellite, riding on a Proton rocket, was supposed to enter geostationary orbit after a series of engine burns from its Breeze M upper stage engine. However, one of these engine burns ended early--for an unknown reason--and the satellite was automatically separated from the engines.

2006-03-24: A suspected fuel leak causes a failure of the first attempt at a independent corporate launch into space that threatened to devalue the cost generated by those countries that can launch satellites into space or possibly allow satellites to launch that would not have been approved by the major powers who controlled the launch sites.

2006-05-21: An undefeated horse named Barbaro suffers a broken leg as it starts the final race to win the US Triple Crown. While the prize for 1st place is only $1M, the horse was a 1:2 favorite in the betting circles.

2007-05-02: While hauling segments for the space shuttle, a train derails after a bridge collapses

2007-07-24: San Francisco data-center operator 365 Main issues a press release touting its 24/7 reliability: "In the unlikely event of a cut to a primary power feed, the state-of-the-art electrical system instantly switches to live backup generators, keeping the data center continuously running." That day a power outage hits and three of its backup generators fail, taking down high-profile customers including RedEnvelope, Technorati, and Craigslist.

Y'all hear about this one?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081205/wl_af...eluxurydiamonds

A couple of the thieves were in drag when they pulled it off.
Heh, reminds me of the old news story about the crazed gamer who had a knife and was in drag when he threatened a florist, he blamed shadowrun...

The US Gov may be setting up a Cyber sectrity center to protect its matrix...er...computer networks from Hackers...er...Hackers and what should they call this new "Cyber center"?

Might I suggest Echo Mirage?

"It notes, for instance, that "the U.S. has a 'blue-force tracking' that tells commanders where friendly forces are located," and then goes on to posit a scenario under which an opponent could turn some of the blue signals to red, a color used to flag adversaries' forces. The implication is that an intruder might, for instance, provoke a so-called friendly-fire incident in which U.S. fighters mistakenly target U.S. personnel."

Isn't that the first thing on you Hackers to-do list once they have admin access?

Echo Mirage is a bit more competent. The gov't hasn't quite wrapped its head around cyber security yet.

its easy...you just plug up some of the tubes!

ted stevens on the internet

and a techno savvy version:
tecno ted

Those are Kenyan tanks: paper mache held together with hopes and dreams.

No, the tanks are old russian/ukrainian ones. Kenya is the buyer, not the producer.

Here's a new one from wired. about a diamond heist. What I like is the ending, possible insurance scam?

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine...currentPage=all

ah, death, destruction, fear, all the things that sell ad space...

meh, thats just the forced update code kicking into action...

bad enough getting rid of them in hot-sim, i dread having to deal with them if one only had a tortoise to work with...

how old? T-34?