So I've decided that the next session for my game is to have the characters work as body guards for Janus Kraal, the leader of the Ork Rights Comity from Seattle 2072. This seems to fit rather well since two of the PC's are orks and all the PC's live in the underground and are pretty active there.

I want the session to end with the PC's trying to thwart a kidnapping attempt by some Flaming Sword mooks at a rally where Janus is the keynote speaker.

My trouble is building up to that point. I'd like to have two other encounters before the rally, perhaps them having to guard Janus while he's in a private meeting with some other leaders from racial organizations where something happens to make the PC's react. Could be just a false alarm or it could be a real attempt, but at the moment my brain is in block mode and I can't seem to think of anyway to flesh out the beginning of the adventure.

Any ideas you folks have would be appreciated.

Oh man, you made me remember something I did once, and it's also my suggestion to you.

Kill Janus Kraal.

I know, I know, people are going to jump all over me because I'm telling you to railroad, but hang on a second before you string me up.

Protecting Janus Kraal is the job they're hired to do. If they succeed, they get paid, you have to figure out what to do with them next week, right? (Of course there are lots of things you could jump off to from the successful protection of a major figure, but hang on one more second.)

Janus dies.

Who did it? Why?
Who actually hired the PCs? Were they in on it? Are they framing the PCs?
Who else knows who did it and why?
What if it was someone else within the Orc Rights Committee?
What if it was MoM? Wait, why would MoM want to kill off an Orc rights leader?

And yeah, if you hire them to guard the guy and then engineer their failure, it could be called a tad bit railroady. But I guarantee you that if you put some good thought into it, basically set it up so that they performed admirably but there just wasn't any way for them to prevent (however it happens), and then you lead them through the aftermath right? Pure awesome.

How about having something thrown through a window? A brick with a message or a molotov cocktail would do.

Then the thrower can simply disappear all you could let your players chase him. Maybe he leads them to an ambush? Maybe all they find is a 10 year old who was talked into doing this by his elders?

There are two types of situation a bodyguard can be charged to deal with things directed at their charge and things that happen near their charge but are not dictated by their presence. It'd finding what sort of idea works in those two themes.

Here's some situations i can think of:

The characters and their principal are stuck in traffic, some kind of violent event breaks out (bang robbery/shadowrun gone way wrong, think final scene of heat, gang warfare in the street, gas main rupture that traps everyone in a tunnel or other enclosed space) how do they deal witht he situation.

PR Nightmare: The characters are given a situation to protect their client from where main force is not an acceptable option. Desperate crowds of hungry protestors or adoring fans, a riot, and attempted arrest of their principal by lonestar. Something where diplomacy and a cool head will be as important as shooting skill.

Nightmare scenario: The need to secure a site for their client that's pretty well unsecurable. An open air concert, a dilapedated building he's laying low in before a rally, any number of things.

Car bombs are also a fun option; scary enough to be a real threat, but not practical to guard against.

Ok, here's my take on it. Bodyguarding runs SUCK. Everything that really matters the players can't do and don't know that they should do. It's all piddly details that have to be done right. Things like precisely positioning the security team members and maintaining separation from the crowd and moving effectively. Plus telling the guy you are protecting what to do and what not to do, which of course the players won't have a clue about, and the characters probably don't have the cred to make it stick unless they have a social adept. Then you are running on the schedule of the NPC, so the players don't get to make any real decisions. The other part that sucks in a game is that most of the success is from recognizing people and body language. The recognizing faces is mostly advance work. So you get this really boring run with the the players who are still awake asking for great detail on boring stuff, and if they do their job right NOTHING HAPPENS.

If you want a more interesting time having the players do the advance was suggested by someone in a thread here quite some time ago. I've never tried it.

I like bodyguarding work for the reasons kxt mentions.

However, you can be a real dick and have Janus Kraal like his expensive escorts and drugs. Nothing quite like being a bodyguard and having Janus Kraal Oding on K-10 in his hotel suite with one girl badly beaten, but alive and the other badly beaten and dead.

Who slipped Janus a hot shot? How do the bodyguards deal with the escorts? How do they deal with Janus five seconds before this hits national headlines? How do they keep their rep and not have a negative rep which looks like it was weather observation from the arctic?

Or something a good pornomancer should not have trouble dealing with.

Eidolon's idea could be good if the PCs aren't that well geared towards protecting a principal. But if you have 1 or 2 guys who really good at this kind of stuff (Security Knowledge skills at 6, Tactic-al skills at 6 and/or maxed Perception dice pools), I'd not simply kill their principal without letting them actually have a good chance at stopping the assassination.

For ideas, I highly suggest Better to Beg Forgiveness, by Michael Z. Williamson. Science fiction set a couple centuries from now, and the story centers around a group of highly professional bodyguards. They do their job right, but things go to hell anyway, due to political corruption, greed, the incompetence of others, and so on. The players don't have to screw up in order for there to be Bad Things Happening; the principal is hiring highly dangerous killer bodyguards for a reason, after all!

Suggestions for scenes include:

Distraction: A car wreck, fight, or explosion happens a distance away; this may or may not be an intended distraction. The Stone Cold Pro 'correct' response would be to comm the appropriate people (LoneStar, fire department, HRT, etc.) while maintaining position on the principal, removing them from the area if the situation calls for it.

Riot: A large crowd is gathering around where the team and principal are going, and the mood is turning ugly. The group is likely in a ground vehicle or convoy.

Incoming: One or more of the larger groups that wishes to see the principal very, very dead figures they have enough firepower and manpower to take him directly. The obvious happens. The trick for the players is to remember that they're not after a body count; the goal is to keep the principal alive, period.

You will play nice: The principal is at or near a public function, either the focus of it or simply attending. For PR reasons, the players are required to use minimal force; preferably non-lethal, and not 'ugly'. For after that scene, I suggest a 'news report' highlighting the behavior of the bodyguards-- as biased against them as possible.

Hope these help-- I more or lifted those scene ideas directly from Better to Beg Forgiveness.

Also, rather than having enough checklists to launch the shuttle, have the characters' employer tell them what is expected of them in addition to keeping the principal alive-- Rules of Engagement, if you will. Broad hints of media or police presence, news of ugly crowds or riots help. Dress codes as well-- sure, at 'home' the guards can dress up like armored and armed pros, but that isn't always appropriate elsewhere.

On-site, Perception tests tell the characters who's a subtle threat; Etiquette, Con, Intimidate, and the like can defuse situations. If the players get into the right mindset, and are thorough in their preparations, when the drek hits the turbine things should merely suck, rather than look like a last stand.

Looks like you have some good suggestions, let us know how it turns out.

Thanks a bunch guys. This really helps a lot and has given me a bunch to think about.

Hopefully I'll be running this session on Friday or Saturday this week.

ShadowPavement: If you PM me an email address I'll send you a map I made that you might find useful...

Before the main attempt, give them a false alarm- a crazed fan wants an autography, The car has an honest accident.
Some one throws an egg at him-harmless stuff that makes them feel silly if their first thought was "Here it comes, get 'em" Also for the serious hit, I'd wiat until he's leaving. I for one do not want to hit someone at a rally in front of 5,000 witnesses. Or there's a clumsy attempt-a burst of MG fire that, as his gurds respond, drives him into the real killing zone.

Think it through, shots fired, the guards grab their subject, firing behind them they push him towards the car-where the real kill is-like a bomb. Thinking the real attack is behind them they don't have time to look ahead, for a sniper or chekc the car, they have to go NOW! and that's where they get sloppy.

If you don't have someone covering the cars they are dumb and asking for it. That's what security drivers are for. They check the car in the morning, drive the car, maintain it, ensure it's always fueled and ready and keep people from messing with it in the field, then put it away in an secure place at night.

I did mention that these runs then to bore players....

Exactly, because a magnetic mine under the body of the car takes 3 seconds to place and demands vigilance by the driver by being *outside* the car to notice.

I like adventures where nothing happens, means that everything has gone right. Not every adventure has to involve everything going Pete Tong.

That's the kicker though isn't it? We all like different things. What works at your table may not work at mine.

Paul, Doesn't mean we don't commit character suicide by looking for plots where there are none.

Can't the vehicle's sensors detect the mine? Not that I am saying that it is actually able to but doesn't it even has a chance to do so? Maybe a weight or load check or something?

But personally I agree with you. Not all runs has to go south to be exciting. Most of the time, in fact all of the time, I emphasise to my players, if they do it right, it is boring. Otherwise, when things get exciting, well... fun doesn't begin to cover it. In fact when things go right, my players begin to wonder when the other shoe is going to drop.

GM: OK, that's it, the Johnson has paid up. You get 3 karma each. Thanks for coming for the game.
Player 1: That's it? That's all? No betrayal, no doublecross? No ambush?
Player 2: Yeah, I've been waiting for something to go wrong all game.
GM: You want something to go wrong? I can arrange it, if you want... Where's that cyberzombie I've been saving up for a rainy day...
Player 1 & 2: No! Quiet runs are fine...

We're talking 300 grams on the under carriage. I would rule a perception test though. Depends how the sensor system works and what areas it notices.

In SR I'd have a couple of flying drones covering it linked to an expert system agent in the vehicle. But I'd still expect that the driver is always physically present covering the vehicle too. If he has to go to the bathroom someone else from the security detail covers it while he's gone. It is that important, as it's the easiest way to attack the principle.

I never said that.

Now if I were going to use a mine I'd posit that instead of risking discovery by a routine search, or having it triggered prematurely in some way (Like say some schmo starting the target's car for him) I'd try to put it along the route. If you can afford one 3 hundredths of a kilo mine, likely you can afford two. What makes IED's so deadly in Iraq and other places is the difficulty in detecting them.

Assuming the target isn't flying, there's only a finite number of routes the security detail can take. A little planning can close some of these options, and make them think that your new route is their idea. From there it's just a matter of good timing.

So, taking some of the advice from folk here these are my game notes for the session:

Aegis

Chains (troll fixer) contacts the PC’s and wants to meet with them at a nice restaurant in the Underground called Ivory. He tells them to come “dressed for success.�

When the PC’s get there they find Chains having dinner with a well-dressed ork wearing glasses and an expensive, if understated, suit. The PC’s notice that he has a small gold O.R.C. pin in his lapel. - Chains introduces the team to Janus Kraal, the executive director of the Ork Rights Commission.

Janus explains that with the surge of race based hate crimes in the last few months that he and the leaders of some other racial and religious groups have decided to meet and to discuss what can be done to try and decrease the level of animosity throughout the city.

He would like them to act as his bodyguards for the three days of the meetings. He usually doesn’t have bodyguards because of the image it presents but feels that with the large number of potential targets in one spot it is wiser to be prudent in this case. – He wants independents since he can’t be sure that some of the “competition� hasn’t made bribes to some of the local security companies to send him substandard help.

He is willing to pay them 2000¥ a day for their work. He’s allotted a fund to make sure they have the appropriate clothing and armor for the job (each PC gets an Actioneer Business Suit – armor 5/3). He tells them that personal bladed weaponry is fine since it is currently “in vogue� with the businessmen to have their bodyguards visually armed in the Japanese style.

He also uploads to them his itinerary for the duration of the meetings, which is as follows.

• Day 1 – A meeting with the leaders of the Underground to discuss their goals.
• Day 2 – Meeting with racial leaders of various factions in Seattle Center.
• Day 3 – Holding a speech at a public rally to announce what the council discussed.

Day 1: This day starts off with Janus meeting with several prominent members of the Ork Underground to hash out their goals for the talks the next day - The PC's see Ms. Wilson, the watch leader from their earlier job in the underground as well as Rakard, Hawk's MA instructor. - Their goals are things like trying to be recognized as a formal district of the city, which breaks down in to who would be mayor...but Janus brings them back to task.

During the meeting a group from the Suns of Sauron try to attend - But the council won't recognize the group since they are terrorists. - Janus messages the PC's and asks them to remove them from the premises, "nicely, if possible."

Day 2: The schedule for this day has Janus attending meetings at the Seattle Center with leaders from various racial, religious, and civil groups to discus the racial tensions that have been growing around the city and come up with a plan of action to try and reduce the violence and promote good will. Attending the conference will be: Janus, Juliana Corma - director of the empowerment coalition, Amanda Goldwing - leader of the Seattle chapter of the Church of the Dragon, Governor Struthers, Rabbi Bran ben Ysaac - from the People of the Book, as well as representatives of the Humanis Policlub and Lone Star.

The meetings have garnered so much attention that the streets around Seattle center are packed with cars and pedestrians. - The driver of the car will have to make a Reaction + Pilot + Handling (4) test to make the assembly on time.

If the PC's make the driving test then they get there with a few minutes to spare. If they fail the test then they arrive one minute late for each success they failed by, which also affects Janus' position during the meetings.

At the Seattle Center the mob outside is huge and populated by protestors and fans of every stripe. LS has a barricaded area for attendees to unload but the crowd is too thick to get there with a vehicle (not without running over pedestrians). The PC's will have to escort Janus through the throng on foot to get him inside.

There are lots of Media personnel and camera drones around so anything the PC's do will be caught on camera.

• Encounter 1 - When they get into the crowd an Intuition + Visual Perception (4) test makes out a large bald headed human moving towards Janus very quickly. It will take a separate Intuition + Visual Perception (5) test to notice the autograph book he has in his hand. - See what the PC's do.
• Encounter 2 - Once the PC's get onto the walkway secured by LS they will have some freedom of movement and be able to head straight towards the entrance to the Seattle Center. However, a shouting match between some Humanis supporters and some elven activists has developed into a brawl and will spill over the barricade and into the PC's group. - The fists are fast and furious - see what the PC's do.
• Encounter 3 - Some ork hating cybered assassin jumps the barricade with a gun behind the group and takes out the nearby LS cops with spur before taking a shot at Janus. PC's must make an Intuition + Visual Perception (4) test to spot the guy before he gets his shot off. - See what the PC's do.

Before this happens the assassin jams the comlinks of the LS officers in the area so if they want to inform anyone of the event will have to hack through the jamming.

The rest of the day is uneventful and the talks end for the day.

Day 3: The PC's escort Janus to the rally where he gives his speech to the gathered crowd and media. The event is tense, but uneventful.

On their way back from the rally however they notice a dump truck in the other lane of the road suddenly go out of control and crash into the car in front of them. This slows down traffic and three black cars move into position to block escape. PC's can get an Intuition + Visual Perception (3) test to notice the cars move into place and the guys getting out and heading towards them.

The PC's can either get out and try to fight off the guys - In which case they run the risk of getting sniped. - The sniper can be detected via his comlink.

If they decide to stay in the car they can crash through one of the parked sedans with a Reaction + Pilot + Handling (5) test. If they do that then the other two cars will give chase with a Hacker trying to get into their system and stop the car, with guys shoot at them out the windows and the drivers trying to force the PC's car off the road. Once they can get rid of both cars chasing them they can get away clean.

When the day is over Janus thanks them and pays them their 6000Â¥ for their days work with an extra 2000Â¥ each if he didn't get injured during the ordeal.

You can put four artillery shells with an RFID detonator backed up by a radio detonator in a shopping cart and fill it with trash.

My preferred method though is dress up as a stewardess with a carry-on luggage, you have a two inch steel plate in the back of the wheeled carry-on and three claymores in the front. Ativated from the handle. This is used when the car just starts moving. Lots of people and press means you can be almost touching the car. Even an armoured car is not going to do much about that.

You can also do a shaped charge as well.

Sure, but that's why you want to create chaos with a faux attempt-the's where the attention goes, sure there's a drivier in the car but when the hammer goes down he'll be distracted talking to the team. Think of the chaos when they tried to shoot Reagan or the scene in In the Line of Fire when Clint eastwood took a bulet for the president from John Malkovich.

The attention is on getting the target safe and rarely for the person going after the car.

1) Why mandate seperate Perception checks? Why not make a single Perception check and compare to the Thresholds? In your case, it seems that the PCs must make the first Perception check before even allowed to make the second at an even higher Threshold. Personally I do not think it is fair, the players may call specifically for a second check once their attentions are drawn to him since they are no longer Distracted and now Observing in Detail with a simple action, but I'd allow them to take it all in a glance if they are good enough.

2) Overall the Thresholds seem to be quite high. Especially for the cyber assassin and the cars. If the Thresholds are applied on top of modifiers, I'd think it would be really unfair. Personally I'd lower the Thresholds and apply appropriate negative modifiers. Of course unless the NPC/s are using a Stealth Group skill, then I'd be using the result of the roll as the Threshold and I'd note that relatively few Grunt-type NPCs have 12+ dicepools.

3) Is the sniper supposed to able to be detected via comlink in addition to other detection methods or is he meant to be only detectable via comlink?

Thats part of the problem with these kind of games. To do the job successfully you have to cover your sector and trust that the rest of the team is doing theirs. That is hard to get across in an RPG. Hell, it's hard to get across to people who do this stuff in real life. Everyone wants to move to the guns, but what you have to do is keep doing your damn job. Unless you are on the counter assault team, your job is almost certainly not to dash off in the general direction of the action.

Most of those thresholds are just guidlines that I use when I think about how difficult the test might be. In actuality they end up being lower during the game. This is also the first draft of my notes and will see at least two revisions before actual game play.

I figured that the crowds would be thick and make things more difficult to spot. I'd rather mess with the thresholds by one or two than worry about modifiers for my players. It makes things quicker overall for my gameplay.

The sniper is detectable by other means. Writing down the stuff about the comlink is for me to remember that with the lack of long range weaponry in the PC group that focusing on the comlink is a good way of getting the hacker involved in the action as well.

That's up to you, it is your game. But altering the Thresholds can drastically change the difficulty of the test, in order to get a success, you'd need about 3 dice on average. Increasing the Threshold by 1, the character needs another 3 dice to have a good chance of making it. On the other hand, reducing the dice pool by 1 doesn't really have as great an impact, to have an equivalent impact of +1 Threshold, you'd be talking about reducing dice pool by 3-4.

oh, right, we're talking a game. yeah.

Look at the various approaches people are suggesting. They screw the characters if the players behave like people playing a game and not as experienced professional bodyguards. That's why the whole "players bodyguard Mr. Blah" is most often a complete disaster of a scenario. At the end the GM is frustrated, the players are both bored and angry and NOBODY had fun.

If you read my posts on this thread, I did suggest that the various Security and Tactics Knowledge skills that the PCs may have be put to use. Sure, it may end up little more than rolling buckets of dice but at least some people enjoy that sort of thing.

the problem with real body guard work is that you're purley reactinoary, the fun comes if you can start hunting down the shooters while someone else hangs around the mark.

Mmmmm... counter assassination.

GM: "well, since the bodyguard run didn't work out so well, I've got a new one for this week."
Players "Oh, cool, what!"
GM: "Forensic accounting. Here, each of you gets a spreadsheet...."

I think that sometimes it's a good thing to force the PC's to react. Things can't be in their control all the time and I find that doing something like this every once and a while forces them to make hard choices and can encourage some character development.

To a large extent I am in agreement. I sometimes like making my players realize they are not all-world-centric and as shadowrunners they are often pawns to the larger conspiracy.

When in doubt, if you're set on the bodyguarding thing, make them the counter assault team for a large PSD. Spare them the monotony of walking the diamond, doing preliminary surveillance, and long boring convoy duty and start things off two seconds after the first shot is fired, when the PCs get to tee off on the attackers so that the rest of the security detail can get the principle out of the ambush zone.

Or just swamp them with groupies and coke.

So I ran this run Friday night and everything went really well. The team liked the idea of a "legitimate" job and were really amiable to the idea of guarding Janus.

They handled the two encounters that I gave them in the underground well. There was some good RP as they tried to convince the twitchy terorists from the Son's of Sauron that they weren't invited to the meeting and should leave, and were able to get them to go without any violence, though it did come close. And they were smart and checked out the sound from the air ducts instead of just riddling the thing full of holes, especially since it was only three ork kids trying to sneak into the councel chambers to see what all the hubub was at the Underground city hall.

They handled the attack at the Seattle Center like pros. One of the team took Janus, put himself in a position to intercept bullets and rushed him inside to cover. Our shooter stood in the way and did his thing, and the weapon specialist girl enguaged the cyber assassin with swords that kept her pinned down in one place.

The best part was the attack on the limo at the end. They decided to take the car chase option to get away and ended up being chased by two cars after ramming through the back end of the third. Our hacker delt with one of the chasing cars by hacking into the controls of a nearby crane at a construction site and having it dump a bunch of metal girders on one of the cars. The adept, who was driving did some good driving rolls letting the weapons specialist pop out of the sun roof and hose the chasing car with full auto fire from her SMG causing the car to go crashing into a building.

Fun times.

If anyone is interested a full writeup can be found here

Sounds like a good, excellent run, ShadowPavement. Looks like you have a good group to work with, too.