I'm currently planning a "Ghettopunk" campaign. The PCs are in the Gutter, but are looking up.

Now, how do I step on them and show them that they can fall further down?

I like you.

Insult: Gangers fight it out near where they are, ignoring them completely. Perhaps the gangers even outclass them.

Corp: Their current hideout is owned by one corp or another. For a tax break or some other corrupt thing, the building is being renovated as a 'community outreach centre' for publicity. The PCs get arrested as vagrants, humiliated, then tossed out.

Start small and work your way up--same as them! Having them start off with 'Hood' Runs where they work the Shadows to help their fellows in the Barons and such will give them cred and motivation as these persons can off essentials to keep their characters alive.

But then they have to deal with Lone Star officers giving them a hard time. Once an ecounter goes off where one or more players get thrown in jail, have them stripped of their equipment and put in a jailcell with a bunch of fellow Ghetto trash. Make these ghettoers hold an opposite position from the players.

Got metas? Make them Humanis Polioclub. All human? Make them troll gangers working off some Nitro that's still in their system! The possibilities are endless. But what you get are players who hate the streets they're making better as well as the established bureaucracy.

Sign--

Wacky

Keep the rewards low, the more insane equipment out of reach, and maybe cap starting skill levels somewhat lower than normal.

The rewards/equipment factor is extremely important. Take an example:

Our alternate campaign is focused on a bunch of gutter runners and street scum, and the cash we made on one story arc was nearly all related to our "day jobs". The smuggler smuggled, the street doc patched up paying patients, the troll worked as a bouncer and the ganger got in on the proceeds from the gang's activity.

Out motivation for the whole thing was part protecting our hood, part hoping for a big payoff at the end, and we succeeded more or less at both. The great twist was that the payoff wasn't in the form of cash, but some equipment that was hard to come by and a serious boost to the lifestyles of the characters (using the alternate lifestyle rules). And I have to add that everyone was really chuffed with that. It felt more like a reward than the standard cash payment from a run normally does.

For a real street level feeling I tend to put the availability ratings up for starters. It takes characters longer to get nice equipment and when they do get something special some of the locals will just happen to get word and come looking to borrow it from the characters still steaming corpse, life is harsh on the streets! When the time does come to run with some of the bigger boys they will find themselves outclassed, maybe even they will have to borrow money for the gear they need to get the job done. When the job goes tits up and payment is not forthcoming they find themselves back on the streets trying to avoid the loan sharks thugs. Having said all that don’t dump on them too much or they might loose interest, they should always be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel at the end of every gaming session; they may however never quite get there.

And I figure there'll be at least some Americar stealing for the Chop Shop.

80's D&D cartoon, heh?

lol if the little bald bloke in red robes appears to offer you wisdom, just geek him

After he gives each person their special magical item, not before.

Drug dealing. Start them off young. That means between 15-18. They still live with their parents. You see the dope fiends on the corner. Some of them might be even your parents. They'll steal the clothes off your back if you are not careful.

If someone wants your corner they kill you for it. You have stick up artists, dope fiends, parents, police, and not one of them gives a fuck.

There are no options. The school system is about teaching the exam, getting the right points so they can pass. Most don't know how to count, read, or anything outside of the corners.

So either they are stoop kids, the ones who sit on the steps because their parents say so or are corner kids who learn quick how to sling.

Cruise around Winnipeg and offer a dope fiend dinner and you can hear what kinds of depravity there is. Or ask a cop friend for some ideas.

Maybe that's a bit too much reality for you.

Haha awesome. Last SR3 sessions I ran were Ghetto Punk Sessions, and I'm considering trying them again once the current campaign takes off into the land of milk and honey runs. What I did back then and might need some slight tweaking to keep up with 4th Edition, is I used BP system of creation, and halved the build points. This halving caused my regulars to get a little whiny at first but after my not budging on the build points they sat down and genned up characters that were not only well rounded, but they were proud of building! It was pretty awesome event. After getting them built up I put them in as members of a Gang, with a gang boss filling in for Mr Johnson and tossing out missions not necessarily for cred, but more like barter and room/board. They had to go hijack stuffer shack supply trucks, fight rival gangs, extract some hoez from rival pimps etc. Eventually they pissed off the wrong hombres, who in turn blew up their safehouse, killing their boss. At that point I let the characters since they had built up some street cred start a new gang, they had to find a safehouse that was sturdy enough(though the one they found was originally a ghoul haven) and then create a gang name and gang colors etc. I also had the players stumble onto a pocket secretary for a shadowrunner that was eaten by ghouls in their safehouse, so that they could slowly move on up to bigger and better fish to fry.

If you keep money low you don't need to worry about tweaking availability, if you limit the connectivity of the players contacts you can keep big toys out of their hands. I honestly think building 400 bp ghetto punk characters would be unrealistic as they are too "professionally" stat-wise to be kept low to the ground, so hobble the chargen and the rest will come natural.

Rules Wise, I'm starting them at 250 BP, severe restrictions on equipment (Haven't figured out the Availability yet, but nothing above Rating 2 for gear), they're living in one of the Seattle Barrens, were part of a gang that just got stomped (Hard) realized that, "You know, we're getting old. Almost 16. Time to get serious.", and that's where I'm starting them.

They'll live together in a building that's "Squatter" level for everything except for one, which is "Low". I describe it as an old storefront that has almost four walls and most of a ceiling. See what I get from there.

In addition to hobbling BP, you also might want to reduce starting attribute and skill caps. Just reducing BP would encourage players to specialize and twink more, and you'd still have characters who were too good in their niche to be gutter-level.

This sentence is made of win! I'm left speechless. Bravo sir!


Ouch!


Put this on repeat while you play.

"Pandemic, get your pandemic."

The sound of the street filtered through the broken and boarded windows. The few lamps with their bulbs lit the rooms, juice was being stolen from a nearby house, eventually someone would notice the drain and the electricity would end.

An SUV blaring out old skool hip-hop wandered past, the black tinted windows did not tell who they were, but land sharks nonetheless. Weakness always meant the animals came out, and if they were on the street they would certainly be shot.

Already the gang was there. Most looking a bit worse for wear, they had been stepped up to and they had fallen. Now most of their corners were no longer theirs. Some of the gang was still together, but once the packet would run low there would not be a re-up, they would switch over to the next gang.

Taking a darg on a cigarette, Bunny only could think that family only mattered only so far it served the interests of the family. The family was the mopes and humps in the room now and they were hurting. Everyone was here but Colby.

"Where the fuck is Colby man."

"He went off for some Shack."

"Dai-amn! I hope he brings back one of those long pig burgers because I'm starving."

"Shut the fuck up! What are we going to do about our situation?"

Hmm, kindof makes you wonder what it would feel like to Awaken, only to discover that the Background Count was higher than your new Magic Rating, would you even realise the truth or just think that you went on a bad BTL trip?

I think there are alot of awakened who technically have magic attribute, but don't know any spells or even that they are awakened in the first place. Some might even know what they are but simply lack the talent to learn spellcasting or adept powers.

So yeah, them thinking its a bad BTL trip, by small paranormal things happening abound the character or catching glimpses of the astral plane sounds reasonable.

Then there is Tempo.

Nothing explains humiliation better than forced sodomy.

How about sodomy as foreplay for cannibalism?

Remember it is all fun and games until you wake up without a leg.

But only if they did something stupid to deserve it.

I've imagined putting on a flak jacket and a backpack full of cookies and beer and taking a hike through your mind, Chrysalis.

I've run several low powered games, where a few points can make the difference between survival and death. In addition to much of what's already been said here: start off with a low number of build points, cap skill, equipment and and attribute ratings-but you also cap the rewards they can get, and the type of jobs they do.

The last game like this I ran the players were apart of a small gang, that worked for the Yakuza. They controlled a small piece of territory, and in turn were expected to kick up profits, street intelligence and anything of interest to their Yakuza boss. Much of the game revolved around them trying to take their bosses place in such a way that didn't arouse his suspicion, and didn't get them killed.

I kept the game, with a few exceptions limited a small part of the map. (About 30 square blocks.) Much of the game revolved around them consolidating their control of the neighborhood, and helping it's inhabitants when needed, selling BTL, and stolen goods to make a profit.

Do you happen to have notes from that campaign? If so, can I get copies?

Ah, what sights I could show you. Where would you go first and what would you sample?

Turns out they all had Data Filters implanted at a very young age and do even MORE questionable activities they are unaware of.

For added torture, make them scrounge for food, and roll for diseases!
Also, put hookers all over the sidewalks - even propositioning kids. And Pickpockets. I was in Ecuador a year or two back, and DAMN f I didn't have to keep my hands IN my pockets to keep my shit there... Not saying Ecuador is like that, just giving an example. I respect the Ecuadoian people, and would rather not be eaten or sodomized (kudos to Chrysalis)...

Either the petting zoo or bunraku parlor....oh wait, they are one in the same.

PS:Sorry couldn't help myself.

Sorry several rebuilds later my machine has been cleansed of anything I'd like to have saved. Luckily from now on I have a 1Tb back up drive, so I won't lose anything. But I'd love to help you out!

I started by picking a section of map from Google, hitting Print Screen and pasting it to Paint. From there I edited the map and added locations of note-Police Substations, Fire Substations, important physical plant structures (Any power substations, sewage treatment, etc...), landmarks, bars, etc... When the players asked for something I could look at the map, and so could they. I used a second copy to keep track of other things: strange possible random encounters (One home was the lair of a serial killer, another was a randomly placed ATF safe house-if the PC's never came near them they'd never encounter any problems.)

From there an essential piece of notation is the Gang. If they work for the Yakuza, you'll need to know who the local mover and shakers are, who their enemies are, and what they're up to. At any rate let me know if you have any specific questions!

Also I spent a lot of time making the PC's deal with neighborhood issues. If someone pays you protection money, then they'll occasionally expect actual protection. I made sure that at creation several of the Player Characters were invested int he neighborhood. One had a mom that lived there, whom he pampered and spent massive amounts of his take on, another had a day job in the hood. They spent as much time dealing with issues like finding illicit sources of power, food and water as they did stuff like actual Shadowruns. Remember these guys generally live in their hood.

It's an interesting idea. I once played a game of 2E D&D where I was a goblin. It was a lot of fun - after hacking through rooms of giant celestial badgers, it was interesting to deal with the simple issue of not getting eaten by a bear.

Encourage characters to take useful background skills: for example, a thief might be very athletic and skilled at breaking and entering, a drug dealer might have a reasonable negotiation skill, and a geek with a high intelligence and enough B/R skills can turn worthless garbage into just about anything. You might also want to use the karma build system, as it punishes anyone trying to heavily optimize a character. (I could probably build a competent gunslinger with 250BP.)

I made sure that all of the players invested in Local Area Knowledge Skills. (Their Neighborhood, so they should know where breaks in the fence occur, which spots the police avoid, who's doing what and when.)