How would you employ a band of Shedim and a master?

Big bads, Shedim are nasty enough, when used properly, that even a smart group of runners fully prepared are going the be in for a serious world of hurt. You throw in anyone crazy enough and powerfull enough to control them and....

I ran a group of runnners through an early-stage shedim infestation (local morgue got its wards disrupted by a rival). There were several moments of awesome, including the part where the demo expert rigged the room where the master Shedim and the team were fighting to collapse. He dropped it on HIMSELF, but that's glitches for ya. Even with relatively low-force spirits, the team had a tough time of it. Noone was uninjured, and most of them had passed out at least once. Granted, part of the problem was the Master influencing the party combat mage to drop a stunball on himself...

The Threats 2 and various other source book mentions have indicated that what is really disturbing about the shedim is that the master shedim are very smart, and very cunning. They think long term, and lay plans well in advance. They use the regular shedim as cannon fodder when needed, but otherwise keep their identity concealed and are more than happy to use proxies.

Shedim want to spread death and destruction, but there are so many fun ways they could be aiming to go about it. Sure, there is the big stuff like nukes and biological weapons, but they can be far more devious about things too: I especially like having the shedim support other magical threats like toxic spirits and bug shamans. It's a great way to do layered threats to keep the runners confused, and can scare the hell out of them when they start to realize what is going on. They are the perfect villains, really: evil, creepy, very smart and extremely hard to kill. If you work the creepy aspect of their powers (the deathly aura, shadow cloak, etc.) and generally go for the horror factor (particularly with what they do to astral space), you can get the players to run away without ever having to actually break out the fear power.

In my game, a couple of master shedim are behind one of the ongoing meta-plots. The team (hi guys!) finally knows that shedim are involved, but they have no idea what their objective is - which is as it should be. The real nasty that my shedim use is Shade (Arsenal, pg 78) - a magical drug that forces the user to astrally project, even if they are mundane. Single master shedim walks into a room, starts injecting everyone with Shade, opens an Astral Gateway to bring in a bunch of regular shedim to possess the now empty vessels, and -poof!- squad of shedim. Really unnerved the team when they came across the scene of the crime.

That's how I use them, at least.

The group I'm running just did a job that they know could possibly start a mob-war in Denver. Understanding the ramifications they went to a Mafia boss contact they knew and bought some protection (half their take from a major Yakuza hit). Their boss contact (earned in-game by the way), has grown within his family and made it clear that he would be willing to make a move on the Yaks if the runner's pulled off their job.

Long story short, the run was pulled off, the players are happy because they hit a big score, and they kicked the door open for a mob war in Denver. The war will grow to include going after the bodies of the dead, making morgues and cemetaries vulnerable. In the end, once it becomes apparent whats going on, the players will eventually realize that the man that gave them the go ahead was pulling the strings all along.

The war will start slower, and those runs will be mixed in with other runs (as the gather the last few things for the Jurassic Park they are unknowingly helping to open), but before long I plan to make Denver messy. Throughout it all, the boss that they started with will make it worth their while to help ensure his 'family' is on the 'winning' side of it all.

How bad are Shedim?

One could tattoo a picture of Muhammad on an Extreamist Mufti and get away with it.

That's how bad they are!

You don't use Shedim.

In Shadowrun Shedim use you.

Just to throw a number in there:

How would you rate a R14 Master Shedim against a new 400 BP group? I know my answer. I am just interested in yours.

We have only run into them once.It was almost a TPK on a group of seasoned runners and the Master got away. Nasty buggers for sure. As a Gm, I would use them sparingly or as a lesson in humility.

I use the masters as, well, puppet masters, unless one has only JUST turned up. The regular Shedim make great force equalisers if your runners are just blowing through things. Just slaughtered 50 men? Great, they start getting back up again.

I'm actually going to start bringing them into play once my PCs team gets into the ACHE. They'll find a Tamanous cell making a TON of money organlegging the body parts out of the building.

What I'm not going to let them onto is the fact that Tamanous is actually serving a necessary goal: There's a Master Shedim trying to bring over enough cannon fodder to cause a bloodbath of epic proportions on several floors. The Ghouls, being dual natured, can see the inhabited bodies, and those are the ones they're culling in the middle of the night for parts. They don't want to say anything because they doubt anyone would believe them, and they don't want to be purged from a very successful operation.

It all depends on the force you set them at. At higher forces, the runners should run into significant problems.

I've got a theory:

Shedim are an evolution of D.I.s, insofar as that they can do a sort of reverse resonance (ala technomancers).

As a player we have come across shedim serveral times, been screamed at, lost karma and generally been hurt. My character has even a specialised version of manabolt (called alarmingly "Shadim Bolt"). Bypasses their magical defences but useless against anything else.

Obviously, in order to justify such time researching and learning said spell, it would mean for shedim to be a major part of a campaign. In ours they are, and they still keep turning up.