Hey fellow Dumpshockers!

I've been absent awhile, but my gaming group is getting back into Shadowrun (huzzah!) and I'm putting my GM hat back on. I'm currently working on designing the campaign for them.

I'm looking at designing a medium-sized campaign that consists of 2 "major" runs and perhaps an opportunity for 1 or 2 minor runs. I want to have an overarching plot connecting the two runs.

My players consist of:

Human Face: His Charisma is so fucking high he can talk himself into anything. He has an EDGE of 8, so whenever he gets into combat he burns Edge to make up for his lack of combat skills (and this usually works out really well)

Human Gun Expert: He'd be a Street Sam... if his character wasn't totally against the idea of cyberware. So, he's a totally unaugmented Street Sam, which honestly makes him rather mediocre at what he does.

Human Rigger: Only member of the group with even rudimentary hacking skills. He's got a couple of drones, but doesn't yet have the finances for the really big, powerful stuff. He's still pretty good in a fight though.

Mage: Player is re-making his mage, so I'm not sure what it'll be yet. He's hinted that he's going to specialize in Summoning and Manipulation spells (this player loves mind control, stealth and summoning, and STRONGLY avoids direct confrontation like Astral Combat)

The players take care of Hacking by means of an Agent, and occasionally contracting it out to NPCs.

* * * * *

So now that you know what I'm dealing with, here's what I've been thinking regarding a campaign.

Some players are very new to Shadowrun, and they haven't dealt with Insect Spirits yet, and neither have I. I think Insect Spirits sound downright terrifying and would be a great plothook to get them into. I think what would be fantastic is putting them into a Shadowrun where they are dealing with an Insect Spirt cult before they realize what the hell they've gotten themselves into. Cue frightening music.

I'm thinking of framing this mission as a rescue mission. Here's a brief outline.

Local Suit has a young rebellious daughter who has gone missing. She's a bit of a troublemaker, and her father wants her found without alerting authorities.

Daughter has an ex-boyfriend who is secretly an Insect Shaman (Haven't decided what kind yet. Wasp?). The Ex-Boyfriend is obsessed with her, and wants to make her his Queen.

Ex-Boyfriend kidnaps the girl, and is holding her captive. His Ex-Girlfriend is obviously terrified to discover the true nature of her Ex-Boyfriend. The Insect Shaman is so obsessed with her though, that he wants her to become his WILLING Queen and is trying to slowly bring her into the fold.

Runners try tracking down the Ex-Boyfriend, and run into a small nest of Wasp insect spirits before they realize what they're dealing with.

Runners track down the Shaman himself where he is holding the suit's daughter captive.

* * *

I think this sounds like a decent run, and there's ways to flesh it out. I have some additional things to worry about though.

a) The team likes Search and Destroy missions with big payouts. Need to figure out a way to get some good paydata into this mission for them.

b) Need to figure out how to work this into a real plotline that I can use for a second mission.... hopefully more complex than "Oh no it was just a small part of a LARGER insect hive. Go kill those guys too".

c) Only one Mage in the group. I don't want to have SO much magical stuff that the Mage steals the show and the others don't have anything to do. Worried that when it comes to fighting the nest, they won't have enough magical firepower with just one Mage.

I'm also having a difficult time understanding how Insect Hives work.

The rules for Insect Spirits don't include a Manifestation power, but yet in Street Magic, it talks about their Manifested forms crawling up walls and flying around like giant bugs. Can Insect Spirits manifest or can't they?

I sort of imagine an Insect Hive (lets take Wasp as an example) of having Drone Insect Spirits bound to actual Wasps, creating big flying Wasps, as well as Humanoids who have been bound to them, and have taken on Wasp-like appearances. Then you might have a few Insect Spirits that have NOT been bound to a host yet, who are simply Astral... but they can't Manifest?

If a GM could give me some insight on the rules for Insect Spirits and how I should lay out a couple small nests of them that'd be really helpful.

If you read this, I thank you. Thanks for your assistance! I appreciate any ideas anyone has.

As to how to hook the team there's always the old bait and switch. it doesn't always work, but sometimes it can. "Yeah we were hired to get this [Insert whatever here] but while we're here we saw this insect shaman doing his thing. We can't let that stand."

If they're way too jaded for that another tactic could be to establish the female NPC as a contact, friend or family member.

As to the Hive-currently it sounds a lot like you're discussing a Hive that's still in the process of being set up. They don't have a Queen summoned yet. That means it's still small, and likely a little unstable. Organizing it like a traditional terror cell could help. Small groups of like minded individuals, who meet in secure locations or in public places where they won't stand out. I've had fun in the past using apartment complexes in low end neighborhoods. Places where people don't ask a lot of questions about strange happenings, and the added benefit of being physically intimidating if you use the locale correctly!

Places like this are reminiscent of what people think of when they say hive. I'd layer the place with improvised traps, unmapped and secret passages between floors and apartments. The Hive's location would depend on the type of bug you use-upper floors for flying bugs, lower fro the creepy crawlies. Not everyone needs to be possessed obviously-but snagging the right people helps. Create an aura of fear. People can't leave because they can't afford to leave. The bugs could even offer up edible secretions to the local homeless to provide an initial layer of security. ("Yeah, hey it's me Bob the homeless guy on that disposable comm you gave me. Anyways a bunch of dudes with weapons are scoping stuff out. Hmm? Naw they're not cops.")

Then you need to provide a reason to get them inside. If their sense of civic pride is lacking then it's money. Just because you know it's an insect hive, doesn't mean Mr. Johnson does. Hell until they get in there they may not either.

In terms of Manifestation, that's different from Materialization, which is the taking of a material form on the physical plane. Manifestation is like a ghostly apparition that is visible and audible to living things but not to machines. Any astral form can do that, whether it is a Materialization, Possession or Inhabitation (like Insect spirits) type of spirit.

If the players are hesitant to take a job that is not about paydata, you could use data as the pay. The father knows stuff and is willing to share it for the return of his daughter.

Heavy magic makes it easier to deal with spirits, but it isn't necessary. Along the way, once the team learn what they are up against, they may have to acquire suitable weapons to deal with spirits.

Thanks for the replies so far!

Yes, I'm leaning towards having the Insect Hive not be quite established yet. There are a few insects about, a small cult, but no Queen and no high organizational structure.

Yes, this team doesn't have much of a sense of "Civic Duty". It is totally about the paycheck. I've tried to throw them into situations of questionable morality before. They're more concerned about completing the mission to Mr. Johnson's specifications and making sure they get a paycheck than what the "right" thing is to do.

Ah ha, thank you for clearing up the Materialization vs. Manifestation to me. I got confused.

But why the heck would Insect Spirits manifest themselves? Wouldn't they want to stay hidden? They can't affect anything in the material realm by Manifesting, so it's not like drones can help build the nest or anything of that nature.

I'm still sort of confused as to what the Insect Hive would consist of and how it would work.

Should it be as simple as a few Insect-Possessed humanoids and the Shaman?

In addition to the Insect Possessed humanoids, should there be living bugs that the Insect Spirits have possessed (Giant Wasps?)

Should there be unbound Insect Spirits around? I suppose they can act as sentries, and could fight any Astral Spirits the party summoned, but otherwise since they have no Manifestation powers, they have no ability to harm the party.

Okay I think I figured out where my confusion was coming from. I finally found the section in Street Magic which talked about the difference between True Form, Hybrid and Flesh Form.

So Insect Spirits that attempt to Inhabitate and are created as True Forms are basically just giant insect spirits that CAN Manifest. That makes total sense now.

So a Hive will consist of a few True Forms who build / guard the nest, some Hybrids who act mostly as drones, but maybe soldiers since they can use guns, etc, and some Flesh Forms who are the camouflaged "Face" of the nest.

Knowing this, I've made some adjustments to my campaign, if people have additional ideas to help out I'd be glad to hear them.

I got the idea from someone to use a street gang as a recruitment tool for the hive. Most of the gang doesn't even know what's going on, but when they get close to the inner circle, they become recruits for Inhabitation.

I've added in the idea that "Daddy" is being blackmailed by an executive from a rival corp. I'm tentatively saying that Daddy works for Horizon, while his rival (let's call him Bob) is at Ares, but I may choose something besides AAA players for this one.

Anyways, when Daddy's daughter goes missing, he's afraid Bob will find out about it before he does, and use this to continue blackmailing him. His daughter got mixed up in the Tempo trade, and Bob found out about it. Daddy tightened the leash on his daughter, but he's afraid that she'll go back to her old habits. When she suddenly goes missing, he's anxious to make sure Bob never finds out about it.

(I'm not sure I'm quite happy about this plotline yet. Daughter is a drug dealer? Looking for better ideas. Bob really has to have a good reason to be interested in her, and Daughter needs to have something that's really damaging if Daddy's corp knew about it. Ya know... something... blackmailable. I thought about maybe making the Daughter a Technomancer, and Daddy is trying to keep that a secret, but Bob knows about it... something like that?)

Meanwhile, Bob absolutely has found out that she is missing. He has contacts keeping a close eye on her. When he finds out Daddy is hiring Shadowrunners to track her down, he has one of his contacts approach them to offer them an alternative. Find out where she is, inform him, and tell Daddy that she's nowhere to be found. (Maybe something more nefarious? If she's really a Technomancer, maybe Bob wants to bring her over to his company? Shadowrunners bring her, willing or not, to him?) Obviously I'd have to dangle a fat payoff to the Shadowrunners. A big Nuyen payment in addition to some juicy information about Daddy's company might work.

Legwork leads to a performer that Daughter is close friends with. She's pretty famous though and isn't going to talk to just anyone who sends her an email. Shadowrunners are going to have to show up at her concert, and find out some way of getting close to her so they can get some information. Shadowrunners are also supposed to keep Daughter's disappearance "quiet" so they can't just blab to her friend "Oh your friend is missing do you have any good leads?". Good social encounter for the team and an opportunity for the Face to do his job.

The Performer friend should be able to tell the Shadowrunners about Daughter's ex-boyfriend, and that the Daughter was getting nervous about being stalked.

Once they ID the boyfriend it shouldn't be too hard to look up his gang affiliation and track him down to his turf.

At that point the runners can try and infiltrate or fight their way into one of the gang's houses. It'll be watched outside by a Flesh Form. There's a True Form spirit in the basement with a couple of hosts, and some Hybrids, making the beginning of a rudimentary nest. A gang fight will quickly turn bizarre as they fight off the Insect Spirit and the Hybrids. Some clues down in the hive will clue the Runners to the location of the Insect Shaman himself, and where he's taken the daughter.

Here's an interesting twist I could throw in...

If I make the Ex-Boyfriend a Flesh Form instead of the Insect Shaman himself... after the Runners break up the first hive, and track the Ex-Boyfriend down, what if I make it such that the Ex-Boyfriend can be persuaded to betray the Insect Shaman, and save the daughter? The Flesh Form is so in love with the girl that he wants her all for himself - he doesn't want the Insect Shaman to have her.

That might give the Runners a chance to penetrate the hive with some assistance. Of course they could also just choose to kill the Insect-Infested bastard.

Once the Insect Shaman is rescued I'm thinking that "Part 2" of this campaign may consist of Daddy getting revenge on Bob, and sending the Shadowrunners after him to make sure he never has to worry about this asshole blackmailing him ever again.

Not sure about Bob or whether he is necessary for your machinations, but like you say, could lead to a future revenge run once Daddy knows he can trust the runners to get the job done.

I like your idea of the daughter being a drug user/dealer, which would explain why bigshot Daddy doesn't want to involve CorpsSec or the police. Perhaps Daddy is a R&D bigshot, and because his second wife controls the pursestrings and disapproves of stepdaughter, he has to offer the runners R&D paydata as payment. The Insect Shaman could also have a rare book of Bad Insect Magic which the players could sell (plothook for later runs) for cash or destroy for karma.

Making the ex- a fleshform could be a fun idea (perhaps he was only turned after they broke up, perhaps the break up was what drove him to the bossom of the hive in the first place); if only he knows where she is being held, you could treat him as a Jeckyl-and-Hyde character conflicted between helping the PCs liberate his true love and protecting the hive, his inner struggle between man and insect letting him help and betray the PCs in turn as he leads them to the hive. The PCs might get their first hints as to the threat they face by his constant flipping from shy stammerer to sly sibilance. PCs clever enough to keep reminding him "he needs to save Charlotte" could get bonus karma for using that to keep his good side in the ascendency.

As for the second part of your story, perhaps the Insect Shaman could have been instructed to start a new hive from the Queen in a more established one. Once the PCs foil her plans for the new hive, she could sporadically send minions to teach them a lesson. Her anger increases as they keep defeating her progeny until finally she inadvertantly shows her hand, the PCs discover her lair and take the battle to her at the climax of the campaign.

Too bad you're not playing in the early 2050's. This would be a great lead-in to a Universal Brotherhood or Bug City campaign. Of course, you could just file off the serial numbers and change the names of the not-so-innocent....

This reminds me of classic adventure Queen Euphoria. In it, an insect shaman abducts Queen Euphoria, his favourite simsense star, in order to turn her into his hive queen. He is selling a secretion from his flesh forms to a synth foods company that uses it to produce a very successful product named Amber Gel, giving him some corporate backing.

When involving Tempo, you might consider letting the secret behind it play a role, too. Perhaps the shaman is still involved in the trade. Imagine flesh forms selling Tempo by day and snatching addicts by night.