Guys,

In around five weeks time I'll be running a session of Shadowrun. I have an idea for the run, but I have a couple of questions I could use some input on.

1) I want the players to have to travel from their normal place of operation, and I want them to have to fly to get there. Thing is, what would be the normal level of security for an international flight out of the UCAS and into Scandinavia (Denmark)? And how would that be reflected in in-game mechanics? I'd expect security to be rather tight, but just how tight? And is it even realistic to ask a bunch of competent runners to be able to get their gear and possible augmentations onto a plane?

2) I recall reading that at some point in the Shadowrun history, the North Sea more or less vomited up a crapload of toxins etc., and flooded significant parts of Jutland, the Neatherlands and more. With regards to Denmark (Jutland), are there any official sources that mention anything about just how big an area that was flooded? And how big an area (if any) remains uninhabitable/affected in 2072?


Thanks in advance

/Kyrel

For 1, the way that a lot of cannon adventures have traveled internationally is that the Johnson provides a pane for the flight. Much easier to get the items on planes, and only have to defeat customs. Sometimes the Johnson will even make arrangements with customs to overlook certain gear.

If you don't want the Johnson to give them that advantage, it is possible for a person to board with cyber. You might want to go to your local street doc and have it "medically disabled" if its restricted, but they should be able to get something on board. Now, there could be hidden compartments for gear, but there is also the good point that you really don't want a gun fight on a plane.

Personally, I'd advise handwaving most of the travel restrictions and have Mr. Johnson provide a private jet of some sort. Otherwise you end-up in a hellish argument over what's 'realistic' in the made-up world of Shadowrun. That said, if you've spent the time to design a whole security layout for Customs and whatnot, great, feel free to have the PCs work through it. Just remember that if they get caught with a minigun in their pants, it usually means they get put in a jail-cell, or a firefight, or other things that eat-up lots of table-time.

Skip to the fun parts.

Would you mind elaborating on your run idea? There has to be pretty good reason for a Johnson to hire shadowrunners to do international run instead of hiring a more local talent, especially if the Johnson has to fly the runners to the location. Seattle to Denmark is going to be about 1k nuyen per runner for regular flight and 5k per runner on a suborbital.

One of several toxic landscapes the United Kingdom continues to
struggle with, the Scottish Fringe Toxic Zone was the result of a terrorist
strike in the North Sea oil  elds. Although it seemed that the
wind should have pushed the spill the other direction, it  owed up
and covered the entire costal area.  e spill continued moving inland,
penetrating more than thirty kilometers inland.
A er that initial push, the spill only expanded a meter or so
each year. Recently, however, monitors have noticed the inward push
picking up again. Last year the spill expanded over thirty meters. To
date, no one has an explanation for the initial inland push or why it is
picking up again now.

Main part of the run is intended to be a B&E job on a high security estate. I got the idea for the run at a recent visit to a museum at the place IRL (Skagen's Museum, should anyone care). My idea is basically that the Johnson wants runners from abroad for two reasons:

1) Harder for the "victim" to potentially trace back to the Corp. behind the Johnson.
2) Forcing the team to travel internationally should weed out the potentially most incompetant. If they can't get themselves and potential gear through customs and aboard an airplane, then they won't survive the run anyway.

The reason for the extra paranoia in the situation, is that the target of the Run is the home of the CEO of a Saeder-Krupp company in Denmark, and the people behind the Johnson is the Maersk Group, a AA company. The AA Corp does not want to risk having the operation traced back to it by a AAA Corp like Saeder-Krupp.

As a GM my goal is to make the run a little different than what we normally run, and also to potentially broaden the set of skills required of the team. It's not my intention to try and make it too hard for them to get on the plane, but I want them to put some thought into exactly what kind of gear they are going to bring, and how they are going to get it onto the plane. Also, or alternatively, I want them to have to try and locate gear in an area where they don't normally operate, thus providing some real work for any potential Face in the group. If the team doesn't have a proper Face, the Johnson will be able to help them out.

The Run has two objectives:

Primary: Steal a large piece of art. The object is unwieldy and magical, and if it should end up being broken, it will release a captive (Master) Shedim.
Secondary: Find and break into the owner's work related Node, and upload a Trojan and steal some files. (The Secondary objective is optional and mainly intended for if anyone wants to play a Hacker/Technomancer.)


The Run is intended as a one-off event with more focus on challenging the players, and providing a fun operation, rather than get overly stickly with the established canon. Realistically the area I want the players to infiltrate, will probably have been swamped by toxic crap spewed out by the North Sea, but the area makes for a nice setting for the Run, so I'll use it anyway.

The PC's will be made by Karmagen, and they will likely have around 12-1500 Karma to make them with. They are meant to be highly skilled people, and it allows me to pile on the preasure a bit more, without necessarily (and unintendedly) killing them in seconds...


/Kyrel

Have you GMed Shadowrun 4th ed before?
And have the players played 4th ed. before?

If it was me, I would have runners establish relationship with Johnson first by doing a few runs in their area, especially if players and Gm are new to Shadowrun. My first time GMing 4th ed. I had some wild Ideas and took the group to Chicago (Bug City), it was fun, but It would have been better if I had saved run for later, after gaming a few sessions.

I have my runners keep a good list of contacts for a very good reason. On the list that I have had them build up (or start with) they have charter Pilot from a small local flight strip. For us it is Harvey field in Snohomish. The charter pilot flies the crew down to SeaTac on a standard flight, then they rely on three contacts there. One is in ticketing and booking, they will have seats on an international carrier. Then there is a Baggage sup. that gets them to the plane, and then they make arrangements with the Flight Cap. and crew with sufficient bribes. There is still allot that can go wrong, but there hacker works a major spoofing over watch, and there face has amazing dice. For their gear they arrange it through smuggling routes to get there. It takes cash, but usually if I need the team the money is part of the upfront pay.

1200 to 1500 is A LOT to give starting players, even veteran shadowrunners

1200 to 1500 is A LOT to give starting players, even veteran shadowrunners

Aircraft will be at least as protected as today, which means everything'll be scanned on the way in... metal detectors, cyberware scanners, probably some astral security to sniff out mages and make sure that they're registered, along with facial scanners, fingerprints, etc, for making sure everyone's SIN is in order.

So, not easy.

Anything that goes boom is out ... sneaking ammo or explosives onto a plane just ain't happening. Ceramic guns, maybe, but, really, it's just going to be easier buying stuff when they arrive.

Cyberware ... tricky. Anything Forbidden is going to get them in a world of hurt. Stick to Restricted or less and get liscenses for everything, along with an ironclad SIN for the trip.

Alternately, get a private flight, either Johnson-provided (Hope you don't screw up if you need him to fly you home!) or, better, a third party... maybe a corporate type owes them one, or they have a few favors to cash in that, together, can get someone who has a cousin who's sleeping with a pilot who can get them flown in, or *something*.

The hardest part will be getting there. They can gear up once overseas to do whatever it is that they need to do. Hopefully.

I can only really respond to the first one as I'm not too familiar with the Sixth World Euro Zone.

It depends on how high-caliber the run is. If the Johnson is having them do something that's fairly low-brow like kill someone or steal something high profile, cargo planes are a good choice. It's uncomfortable for the PC's, but it will get them into places that are otherwise difficult to get into. It's much easier to bribe your way past a couple of cargo throwers than through customs. Once they're in-country, have the Johnson set them up with some temporary ID. Leaving the country that way is also good because there isnt any record of entry or exit.

If it's a more legit job, the Johnson will probably have travel booked in advance with a more legit method; airline tickets if you arent carting too much illegal stuff or private flights if you need to get heavy stuff into a particular country.

IIRC, Denmark is a pretty crappy place to be so border security probably wont be super tight.

For air travel, there are some baselines I like to use:

1) Harlequin p144. Gives the prices and a general idea of the difficulty in traveling from point A to B.
Most importantly, it gives the rules for traveling by private plane. Private planes cost 3 times more than usual(4 or 5 times more if you're carrying mil-spec) and an additional landing fee for bribes and what not, but you don't have to by-pass airport security.
There is no TSA in Shadowrun. A private business can do what ever it likes and answers to no government in 2070... for a price.
This gives the runners the option of risking being caught with gear, or paying more for travel.

2) Missions 2. It gives a few good scenarios for being caught with restricted gear at a border crossing. My favorite way to run this is put best by Chief Wiggum
"I'll tear this ticket up, but I'm, um, still going to have to ask you for a bribe." The Sixth World is a crappy world. There is no justice. Every cop is on the take and criminals get away with murder every day. If the runners fail their check to get past security, they pay a bribe. They botch, they pay a bigger bribe. They critically botch, they lose some gear.

3) Dawn of the Artifacts 3 gives some more modern prices on travel expenses, how much stuff you can take and smuggling prices if folk's fake SINs aren't up to snuff.

4) The TSA currently has a 30% success rate in finding firearms or explosives on passengers. This is in a world at the height of it's fear of terror.
In 2070, it's worse. Much worse. The resourcefulness of criminals far exceeds the funding of governments, who are pressured more by a AAA's need for increased gun sales than by a growingly apathetic populace who kissed the thought of security goodbye with the Great Ghost Dance.

Your runners live in a dystopian world and the best the real world can do is 30%. As long as they don't curse and don't whip it out, they should be fine.

Yes, I've run a Shadowrun game before, and yes all are both veteran roleplayers in general and Shadowrun players.

And yes, 12-1500 Karma is a lot, but for a 1-off game I expect it to be fun and a bit different than what people normally get to play with in terms of characters.

Had I been planning to run a campaign, then I agree that it would have been more logical to have the players do a couple of smaller runs for the Johnson, before pulling off something like what I have in mind. However, the game is a 1-off, and it will be run during an annual summertrip me and a number of other friends take every year, where we basically do nothing but have fun, relax, eat (too much) good food, and play a variety of RPG's where we try to do something different from our normal games. For a normal campaign I wouldn't set up the game like this, but for a 1-off it should be fun.


Thanks for the feedback so far people

Well if your comfortable with the rules then Go all out ). ..download War! pdf for the Tanks and Nukes

Have you considered taking a container ship? I ask this because the security thresholds would be substantially lower, and one with a modular configuration could be used as an en route training vessel with a life sized mock up of the intended B&E target (this could present a fun twist where your target has something important changed/different). New England is about 4000 miles from Denmark. you average container ship is going to travel at a fairly constant speed of 20-25 knots (maybe faster in the future?). This means it will take you about a week to reach your destination. Your average AA (at least one that deals in commodities, large durable goods...anything that would be shipped) shouldn't have any problem getting you on one of it's ships and it would be even harder to trace you because your departure/arrival wouldn't be on camera, you could avoid customs fairly easily, etc. Just a thought.

Aircraft carrier speed (close enough) is 45 meters per turn.
45m/3s = 49ft/s
5280*4000/49= 429158 seconds = 119 hours = 5 days

I'd let it be up to the players.
Pay is obviously going to be high, as Shadowrunners are expected to work without their usual network of contacts, so getting to Denmark is not a question of whether they can do it, but their risk/reward ratio.
- Unlicensed pilots able to fly the distance (maybe with a few lay-overs in wilderness, while the plane recharges using solar energy?).
-- Bring whatever the plane can carry, no questions asked. Cheap. Not very reliable.
- Official airports.
-- Severely limited in what you can bring without getting very creative. Fast, comfortable. High chance of having to burn SINs.
- Passenger Ships
-- Slow. Somewhat limited in gear selection. Did I mention slow?
- Cargo Ship
-- Very slow. Will have to freeload or make other arrangements for the duration of the travel. Little to no security issues.

Instead of flying smuggler-class, they could also work a few contacts to meet someone in Jutland who can supply them with gear they wouldn't normally be able to smuggle in.

EDIT: In response to Fortinbras... suborbitals are going to have significantly higher security checks, as they make a much larger kaboom when they go off course and crash. However, I can see regular airlines possibly relying on armed flight attendants, pilots, and the occasional (augmented) plainclothes air marshal to supplement generally lax security procedures... especially for shorter flights.

... or maybe you do! That could make for a very interesting start to the night. Each missed shot punches a hole in the fuselage. After a few missed shots, the plane starts to go down, then it's an intense fight for the few parachutes or gives the player with Pilot Aircraft to show off his skills and turn a deadly crash into a mere catastrophic landing that the PCs "miraculously" survive. Start things off with some intense action to change things up a bit.

I generally introduce the PCs to a Smuggler with a T-Bird and let them pay for it out of the Johnson's expense account. You could also make some arbitrary rules about "checked baggage" and let them get their weapons through with some expensive, shielded suitcases. Illegal Cyberware is probably only checked for if it is a threat to the aircraft - implanted weapons might not be allowed, and then you might have to have the Samurai put on a specially shielded cast and explain about his "skiing accident". You could justify the flight with a corporate personality - an Aztech transport might be willing to allow any kind of weapons, but onboard security systems are lethal...and twitchy. Alternately, you could take the "Fifth Element" route, and simply make the plane so secure that they don't care *what* you're packing - climb into a shielded coffin with complementary REM inducers and sleep away the trip secure that none of the other nutjobs on the plane are going to start throwing fireballs.

i dont know i honestly think it would be cool to have a big shootout in the airport when/if they get caught(making it so they more than likely will) and a race against time to get to the plane before it takes off and then to hide themselves before they get taken out by security