I've always been interested in fleshing out the day-to-day portions of a Shadowrun game and I am working on some random event tables. Harkening back to the gritty random encounter table days of Blue & Red D&D, I have been working on tables for various kinds of events.

Think of them as random weather tables, but itemized into specific categories. Of particular concern for this thread are Contact events. The goal here is list a series of events that can provide prompts for action, be it just a quick RP scene or even a full run. Having tie-ins to Qualities or Skills or Race or [any other game mechanic] is a plus.

Any ideas?

A quick basic list of what I am looking for:

job offer - a contact comes to you with a possible job opportunity, be it a day's work as muscle or a full on run.

asks a favor - someone you know needs a favor: maybe they need you to pick them up some groceries or drop a bag someplace or accompany them on to a social event.

social call - a contact wants to go out for a night on the town, grab some lunch at the noodle hut, or go dancing. A little face time.

networking opportunity - a friend of a friend is interested in meeting with you, and your contact is going to facilitate the face-to-face.

item available - an item of interest becomes available [random chart or perhaps what you've been looking for].

paydata available - someone you know comes across some information that might be of interest to you.

in trouble - the contact has a problem that they can't work out on their own and need your help to solve it.

job offer - Your Johnson calls you up the day after you complete an extraction for him. It seems there's been a complication. The manager/researcher you hired is having an affair with his secretary/lab partner and refuses to work until they are extracted too. Go git 'em.

asks a favor - One of your high loyalty contacts in a dangerous profession (like a weapons dealer) needs to be out of town for a meet, but still wants to see his son's T-ball game (or daughter's dance recital). You need to attend and record it (or broadcast it) so he can be there to support his child, all the while dealing with his ex-wife and her questions about why he's late with the alimony check.

social call - That hawt little barrista in the local joint where you always get your soykaf after a run? She's suddenly very available and very interested in one of the runners (probably of a different metatype). A lot of influential people frequent her shop, it might be worth a little wining and dining to get in her good graces.

networking opportunity - One of the regulars at your bar (or other hangout of choice) walks up to you and says that his manager is looking for some extra "help" off this books. This guy's been around the bar as long as you can remember, and while he's not a real contact, has picked up your tab a time or two. You owe it to him.

item available - One of your hacker buddies says that he's managed to get ahold of a leaked copy of your favorite sim star's new movie. This ain't the one that's currently available for download though; they edited that one. This is the good one; the one with all of the sex scenes still in it. And yeah, it's a Cal-Hot.

paydata available - Quality: Erased. The hacking group that does your erasing comes to you and lets you know that someone's been making inquiries into you. They'll tell you who, but it's gonna cost ya.

in trouble - Your regular fixer had the terrible luck of looking just like someone KE had a warrant out on. He got picked up while at coffee this morning and he needs your help. He's got a few leads: a name, what he's been arrested for, and a vague description (which matches the fixer exactly); now it's up to you to get the right guy in custody and prove that it wasn't your fixer. This plot can also be used when a member of the team can't be there for a night or two, especially if they have the Quality: Blandness.

Thanks for the help fleshing out the posted events.

Anyone have some ideas for different, new events?

Double Cross! - Maliciously or unwittingly, a contact has set up a meet with you and someone else is going to crash the party.

Information Request - Hearing about your last or upcoming job, a contact calls and asks for some paydata related to the action. Loose lips, omae...

Busted! - Someone you know in the shadows gets put in the spotlight by a corp or the Star. Hopefully they won't rat on you to get out from under the heat.

Puget Sound - One of your contacts makes the evening news by being found floating in the sound.

Friend of My Enemy - An interested party with a grudge against your friend comes calling, looking to settle some business the hard way.

Welfare - A contact is a little short today, maybe from a bad day at the track or from the most recent shakedown, and is asking for a bit of 'yen to cover the gaps till the next payday.

Crashpad - Outed by an angry girlfriend or on the run from the Star, a contact wants to lay low for a while... at your doss.

or Sounds a little Puget - in which one of your contacts needs a hand dumping a body into the sound

also

Hands On - a friend of a friend is in dire need of a [high availability piece of gear you own] and fast, and he's willing to pay big for it, maybe a little extra if you're willing to deliver...

Hotwire - a contact knows of a "recently abandoned" vehicle, but doesn't have the chops to bypass security by himself. Help him get it to a chop shop and he'll cut you in on the deal. Don't sit in the passenger seat, it's still a little ripe...

Buttdial - the call from your contact wasn't meant for you. You know you should hang up, butt...

Cab Call - a half-hour after getting a call from your contact he rings back, but it's not him! someone who claims to be a cabbie says that he found this commlink in the back of his cab, and he could only redial the last outgoing commcode. He'd be willing to return it to you for a fee...

I really like that one. Made me think of another:

No Scrubs - Someone you know is in dire need of a ride (pronto) across (the bad part of) town, and they called you.

Baby Sitting -- Your contact calls with an urgent job. Seems a recent extraction got a bit messy and the extractor is now deceased. You contact wants you to sit on the Extractee for a few hours until the Johnson comes for the pickup.

"Johnny, are you here?" -- Your (parent/sibling/significant other) drops by unannounced, just as you're prepping for a run!

EDIT: Had a 3rd, but it had nothing to do with contacts, so I deleted it.

For posterity, it was:



And you can make it about contacts... The jackass who just got pinched squeals that he wants a deal and starts name-dropping, from your contacts list!

Lost in translation (multilingual runner) - A contact calls, saying his meet isn't going as smoothly as desired due to a language barrier. Judging from the heated voices in the background that you understand, you're the only one who can help. Pushing the envelope, when you get there, there's no sign of your contact but a struggle has taken place. You have to find the group those voices belong to, with your only lead being the language you share.

Confidential Source (Records on file, dark secret, Criminal SIN, etc.) - You're cornered by a cop. He's without a partner, and he wants to have a one on one. Before (or after) you tell him where to stick it, he calls you by your street-name and says he knows how you became "independently wealthy". Now you have to decide whether he's full of shit or a serious threat, and what to do about it. Think fast, some-one might see you talking to the bulls.

Tutoring- (Instruction Skill) Hey, omae! How'd you do that? Help a chummer round out his skillset will ya?

I really, really like this one. I have found that--at least in the games I am in/run--that being multi-lingual is rarely, if ever, a benefit or even a factor in the game.

One of the core goals of this kind of random contact event system is to create challenges that require PCs to have more than 1 Charisma and skills besides Automatics 6 (SMGs).

You Said What? - Your contact (minimum loyalty 3) calls you up. Apparently he was deeply ingrossed in conversation with a new "friend," and he said something unsavory about "them scaley lizards, wizworms ain't all that smart." Turns out that great new chummer was actually an adult dragon in metahuman form. Now you owe the dragon a favor,or your friend owes hjm a "snack."

I'm going to spring Lost in Translation on my group in the VERY near future. Most of them speak eastern block languages and there can't be too many mercenary groups that speak Czech in Bogota. Thanks for the idea!

Wrong Part of Town - a contact of yours calls and requests a meet at a place of their choosing. Before you can get down to biz, things get pretty tense as some humanis goons start to gather 'round. Nobody is happy, and everyone is staring at your (contact's?) tusks.

Headhunter - Someone is looking for one of your contacts and is offering some cred in exchange for their whereabouts. Whatever it is that they want, it isn't just a social call, but their beef isn't with you. They just want to find one of your buddies and 'talk' -- about debts, alimony, something unpleasant.

Guys,

I've compiled a "Random Encounters" Excel file with all of the suggestions from above. There is room for more items on the list and it will automatically update the number chart to match the number of items in the list.

Download from here:
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D024671_68_002477822

Not such a fan of the Other Game, so I don't like the idea of "random encounters/events" ... although I definitely encourage the idea of fleshing out contacts and having them sometimes ask the PCs for help or give them a business proposition. This makes them more than just info sources for legwork and helps breathe life into the game world.

Some good ideas here that I might hoick, so feel free to keep 'em coming ...

Right Place at the Right Time - someone you know just so happens to be in the same part of the sprawl as you are when the job goes down. They are able to lend a hand. Maybe they slip you a weapon they got past security, maybe they patch you up, maybe they create a diversion, or maybe they just say 'look out!' just as the ambush comes down.

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Even if you do not use these in a Random Events Table format, I should hope that there are some fertile adventure sub-plots in here.

Knock it off the Back of the Truck- A buddy of yours has a lead on an easy grab job on some merchandise, just sitting in a warehouse with almost no security. He'll give it to you cheap, if you can figure out how to move 500 kilos of frozen krill burgers or 5,000 authentic knock off Ares Tigers Baseball jerseys.

Blackmail- Someone got vid of you on your last job and you forgot to wear your ski mask. How much is it worth to keep that off the matrix? Just how untraceable is this message?

Blackmail 2- You've got a buddy and he got a little greedy. Took a cut from some Yakuza money that he shouldn't have. Now someone's threatening to tell the Yakuza unless your buddy does something dangerously stupid and steals a priceless antique katana from a Yakuza bosses home. What's your buddy going to do?

I thought I'd contribute some spirit-themed events.

Spirit Guide: Your contact has an incredibly rare opportunity! They have somehow made an acquaintance with a Free Spirit. These beings are powerful, smart, privy to Astral secrets that even the most powerful mages aren't and can even move around the world at a moment's notice. The only catch is that they've never been to this city before..... and want to see all it has to offer out of curiosity for metahumanity. The runners need to babysit a whimsical and bored free spirit, making sure it doesn't get any Bad Ideas or flip out and make the news headlines. Because, let's face it, spirit's don't quite 'get us', so try to keep misunderstandings to a minimum and entertainment to the maximum, and you might just make a powerful new friend and earn a favor from a contact....


Friends On The Other Side: A contact needs to retrieve vital, time-sensitive information - a witnessed crime, ancient knowledge, location of secret death star plans - from an associate. The only problem is that they have been killed recently, banished to the metaplanes for nearly a month, and that's FAR too long! The runners have to find a way to get in touch with a particular spirit, whether through going on an Astral Quest to summon it back early, gathering ritual components for someone else to do the same, or even sending someone on a journey to ITS home metaplane for an interview.