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Noll
Everything started in Seattle, 2060.

The player characters are:

Ivan Bane: A human street samurai.
Angelique St Just: A dwarf female street samurai.
Elroz Vizzini: An elf sun shaman.
Regina George: A very young female elf hermetic mage. (17y old)
Gruumsh Espinosa: Am ork Physical Adept.
Legolas (seriously) Caruso: An elf decker.
David Regan: A human monkey shaman.


After few runs in wich the characters get to know eachother, the party was offered a very well paid run. The objective was to steal an ancient Aztec artifact (a skull) that was part of the collection of a very rich tv producer. Problem is, this producer was very caution and had a paranoic behaviour. The Johnson offered them a bonus reward if they were also able to kill the producer, a guy named "Ryan Nicholson".

So the party started investigating this guy by matrix and contacts means.

Ryan Nicholson is a very paranoid person. He lives in a very big estate on an huge terrain property in the rich part of Seattle. He has on his paycheck a small army of mercenaries. He never leaves his house, he's never seen outside, he runs all his affairs from his estate. He seems to like young and beautiful females and he has few agents that provide him young actress in search of success for his purposes.

The party tried to scout the estate, and they noticed to their surprise that the walls were also full of wards.

After some more investigation, the characters found the name of a Dwarf Tv agent linket to Nicholson. This dwarf apparently was one of the main agents providing young girls for the producer, and conveniently the shadowrunner had Regina, a young and attractive elf female at their disposal. (ND She even had Charisma cool.gif

They decided to produce a false portfolio for Regina, giving her a false identity with Elros Vizzini acting as her agent. They were able to meet the Dwarf to introduce him Regina. The Dwarf liked the girl, and so he offered to the Agent "Vizzini" to buy out her exclusive to become her own agent.
At this point the characters accepted, but basically they left Regina alone. After a day spent with the dwarf and some tv people, Regina was invited to Nicholson's estate. When finally inside she sent a message trough her mobile to warn the other shadowrunners. Problem is they really didn't had a plan for "what to do next" and when Regina finally was introduced to Ryan and even left alone with him, to her surprise she was dominated by a control thought spell. Turns out this Nicholson is an awakaned. Nobody know what happens next to her.

The party worried by Regina not coming back nor calling decided to go berserk and drive inside the estate, firing bullets here and there at the mercenaries. Legolas died during this action and the party had a very hard gunfight against many bodyguards, with mages support too.

When they finally surrounded Ryan Nicholson (he was in the basement part of the state, acting as a bunker) they found Regina laying on the sofa, sleeping. They decided they didn't want to talk and they wanted to settle the thing "fast and furious". They attacked Nicholson, but unfortuantely for them they had a vampire in front them, not your regular producer. The vampire was also an awakened mage, and he was very well prepared for defending himself. The also were bad injured and with one mage (David) passed out because of the earlier gunfight. The battle against Nicholson was very, very hard.

In the end they weren't able to kill him but at least they knocked him down for enough rounds to get away from the estate, with the skull (and a very nice Aztec enchanted bone sword) and with Regina. Turns out Regina was also Essence drained by the vampire.

They decide to run to a safe place. Elros has a knowledge on the safest places of Seattle, and so inspired by the old snes game, I tell him there's an old cald wreckage that is a safe zone from the authorities, if you pay enough newyen to "King", the boss of the gang protecting the place.

The skull they stole was in reality a very, very powerful power focus, but the characters decided to give it to the Johnson anyway, they pay for the run was high, but not as high as the value of the focus.

Thing is, as they attacked berserk style, and most of them were registered UCAS citizens, they basically where an all tvs next day, as the terrorist that attacked the Nicholson's estate, stealing treasures and killing "innocents". The characters where in real trouble.

The Johson that gave them the first mission offered them a deal: "You are in deep trouble and I have a symphaty for you, due to how you bringed me the skull I wanted. I noticed you brought with yourself a nice sword too, that would be enough to give you a free ticket to a safer country where nobody will ask wtf you did in Seattle".

Reluctantly the charactes accepted. They went abroad to the Republic of Sicily, Italy, host of a small mafia gang that is trying to gain influence in Palermo. There as there's not much material on Italy and Sicily, I had to make the setting myself. A nice thing the characters found is that as the weather changed, Sicily is not an arid island anymore but it's very green. The governement is in reality a puppet of the boss of the bosses, a big Mafia Boss. There's no chance of bathing on the seas 'cause there's a very bad infestation of mermaids around the island, and the two most influent corporation are the "Florio - Rubattino", operating in sea travel, seafood, having a small fleet of 12 ships. The other one is in reality a Vatican "Embassy", keeping some influence in the island, preventing magic users to cast spells if not with their licenses or under their mage order of St Sylvester.


So here's where they are now. The boss asked them to gain control of a drug refinery base from an enemy clan (we're talking small clans tho') and the characters did so. Most of them are learning Italian and they're starting to settle in Palermo.
nylanfs
Umm, what's the background of the players (and you while we are at it)?

You and the players seem willing to roll with the results of the run, this is VERY good. While I wouldn't have had the character having to relocate to Sicily, that's a GM call.

How many runs in is this? Because it sounds to me like this group was in NO way ready to take on a vampire in his (or her) lair. Getting one of the characters inside is good, not having a plan after that is really, REALLY bad.

It sounds like they needed to do some more legwork, find out EVERYONE that has had contact with him for the past couple of years. If somebody is THAT paranoid, and in a profession where you have to be sociable. There should be warning bells all over the place.
bannockburn
Sounds epic, though smile.gif
Should teach the players that 'guns blazing' isn't the way to go.
Did the player of the decker make a new character, and if so, what kind? smile.gif
Glyph
Why was a group of professional shadowrunners composed of SINners? They would have been in trouble after any run. And why didn't they just expose their target as a frikkin' vampire?

Overall, be sure to adjust the difficulty level to what the players are able to do/play, and be careful with things like clues - things that may be obvious to the GM might not even occur to the players. Also, don't be afraid to impart common-sense information that the characters (not necessarily the players) might know. Right now, the group seems to be accepting of things, but they might eventually get frustrated, if their characters keep running into situations that are too difficult or complicated for them to handle.
Noll
First, thanks for the advices!

It was a very long set of adventures before this Ryan Nicholson thing. (1 and half a month of playing regularly 2 times x week)

The thing is they didn't HAD to fight him nor go Berserk. I gave them some clues that this guy could have been a vampire, especially when they took the information that he liked young women, I also said them "Many young women enter the estate, but they never leave it". In fact both the shaman and the dwarf had a strong suspect that the guy was a vampire. Thing is, they decided to go there anyway. And yeah, they didn't had a PLAN after infiltrating Regina...

I like to give them free will over everything. When they accepted this mission the Johnson was very clear to them: "This is a huge pay mission, so don't expect an easy one". The characters weren't -forced- to take it.

The Elf Decker player made a new character, using the Gun Specialist Archetipe, as she's not very good at creating characters, but she's pretty good at role-playing.

Relocating in Sicily was also a deal, they weren't forced to. (But they were of course in a bad, bad position after the mess they did)
They will come back to Seattle eventually with new identities, new astral signatures and probably new faces. (unless they really want to stay in Italy!)

BTW tonight they did another small mission, and I'm happy that they're finally starting to solve missions without going berserk. A thug of the mafia gangster they're working for, asked personally to Grummsh a favor.

His cousin is a young shaman, and an illegal magical behaviour upsetted the clerical magical authorities. The boy was held in prison for few days and an unlicensed wood carved totem (a foci) of his was sequestrated by the clerical authorities as an illegal focus. Eddy (the thug) said to Grummsh: "I don't have much money to pay you or your friends, but if you can retrieve that item in someway, it will give me and my family a great favor".

Grummsh and some of the others decided to investigate the matter. They found that there's a warehouse for confiscated magical gears of low level in the city, and that the item was probably there. They also found the name and identity of an elf working for the clerical company by the name of Mario Borghi. One of the characters approached the building, went to the office and asked to this Mario guy in person what they would have to do to bring a magical item from the UCAS to the Republic of Sicily. So the guy just gave them the modules and explained them what the procedure was. After scouting the place and getting more info, they (wisely) decided to NOT go berserk. They kidnapped Mario and tried to get information about the security of the place, but in the end after some interrogation and talking they were able to bribe him in getting the totem for them, for the right price. Thing is, Mario didn't had a chance of getting the right totem without enough informations.
The party hired an NPC decker to retrieve the totem file number based on the young shaman name and the database of that office. They provided the info to the elf and the guy got the totem for them.
This time they were REALLY careful with a lot of planning, like that the elf never really saw the face of any of them less the guy that went to the office (but that the elf didn't know was related to this thing) etc...

In the end they spent around 9k Y between the bribe and the decker pay for the run. Eddy gave them only 500 Y for the totem, but they gained a level 2 contact (friend) [Himself - Eddy] for helping him for "free".



Of course all your critiques are very welcome! And thanks for reading my bad grammar English smile.gif



About our background:

I (30y) was a Shadowrun 2nd edition master something like 13-15 years ago. I just recently started a new game using the SR3 rulebooks (but I'm still learning many things).

The players are of different backgrounds. They're all NEW to Shadowrun tho'.

Three of them are good (the Ork (24y), the sun Shaman (19y), the Human Samurai (24y)) roleplayers.
One of them is my wife (30y) (the dwarven chick) - She's quite funny to play with, she's basically the fun moment of the game. She have a very bad attitude and she often put the others in danger just with her mouth!
The Elf Mage chick is actually a 17y old girl for real. She's a decent player, but she don't have much experience in RPGs.
The Elf Decker is a woman (27y) that although has not much experience in roleplayng games, plays very well. Unfortunately she doesn't play so well when a combat is involved. Running without any protection with an elf decker armed with a Beretta pistol, against mercenaries is not very -wise-.
The Monkey Shaman (35y) is an asshole player. The kind of player that stops the game in order to ask game mechanics questions and that question always any other character strategies with "BUT and IF". He even often ask me "What happens if I do so?" and my answer is always the same: "Do it and check it for yourself!". Not surpisingly he was the one pushing the others to just go berserk against the Vampire.
IanW
I'd look at this from the perspective of the other "players" on the island.

The small gang has just brought in a strike team of Americans. No one knows them. No one knows what they can do. No one has a handle on them.

Presumably, the Order of St Silvertre has fingered three of them as magically active.

Presumably, the government/bigger Mafia have noted them coming in.

My feeling is that the other "players" would be putting out feelers to them, and seeing if they'll take side jobs. Personally, I'd say hiring them to move a package from one end of the island to another is worth it, just to get a couple of good looks at astral signatures and so on.


kzt
It's almost always appropriate for the GM to point out obvious holes in the players plan. Like asking "and once she is inside you are going to do what?"
LurkerOutThere
Honestly it sounds a little bit like you set your runners up for failure from jump. Yes they a couple of serious mis-steps, but it all sounds like a railroad. As much as I like to punish people for mistakes the whole "your instantly identified because your on national TV and must leave the country" thing is frankly garbage. Why were they on national TV the next day. It's the rich part of seattle, people don't just drop a dime to the local news outlet out there, and even when they do it's hardly national news. It took hours for the media circus to really get into high gear at OJ's house and running gunbattles are all too common in seattle. Likewise the target has a interest in keeping things the hell off the news as otherwise his vampire status (who are persona non grata in the UCAS) might be exposed. If he's a super powered vampire why does he have an army of guards? More people at his estate means more chances for his secret to slip. Some level of protection is reasonable sure but if his estate was basically a military compound out of a bond film that's a problem.

I realize i'm getting the abridged version and there should be consequences to things but one botched run against a non-megacorp shouldn't lead to LOL go to Itally.

Also saying "I didn't make them go overseas" is never much of an out because players will presume if an NPC poses the option to them it's the GM suggesting the best course of option in his mind, and if he's suggesting it it means he's going to punish them for non compliance.

I can't believe i'm saying this because i'm a huge fan of realistic consequences but honestly your going way overboard. To work as a game Shadowrunners need to occasionally be able to do things loud and get away to run another day. Getting tagged on national TV, if that happened should have resulted in them having to go under ground and see what came of it.

Now i need to very carefully state that I spend most of my time on the GM's side of the table so I understand some of the challenges and frustrations, but it sounds like you made every effort to strip every reward from the mission and send the players to a new locale because they didn't run the mission YOUR WAY. I realize we're getting the synopsis but that's just bad form because it leads to every run against a hardened target needing to be this splinter cell esque thing, and then LOL vampire.
Noll
@Lurker

Well actually it wasn't just the day after. I thought it was in Nicholson interest to show them on the tv. (As he also has good connections with the TV being a rich producer) But you have a point about the Vampire identity. (Anyway he didn't show that he is a vampire to the characters, he acted like a "mage" to them. Regina was essence drained during a control thought spell.)

I understand your point of view when you said that I had set the runners to failure, but trust me this is not the case. It is not like I had in mind the perfect way to do the job (I never do, I just see what the party does and act accordingly, I never script up my quests). I thought they had many chances of getting that item without fighting.

Also, since I'm slowly introducing them to the world of Shadowrun, I like to put a paranormal twist in most of my adventures, (like the vampire!) otherwise the game will look like another-cyberpunk-neuromancer game.

Btw at the end of the Nicholson's adventure, the players were very satisfied with the experience they had. Few of them even said that I was "too good" on their side. (If you think about it, they attacked a vampire estate and only one character died, due to a normal gunfight)


Anyway, thanks for the advices, I'm not an experienced Shadowrun master, I GMed other kind of games, even tho' I LOVE shadowrun. So I might make tons of mistakes, and I didn't read all the setting materials out there.
Noll
QUOTE (IanW @ Aug 26 2012, 06:18 AM) *
I'd look at this from the perspective of the other "players" on the island.

The small gang has just brought in a strike team of Americans. No one knows them. No one knows what they can do. No one has a handle on them.

Presumably, the Order of St Silvertre has fingered three of them as magically active.

Presumably, the government/bigger Mafia have noted them coming in.

My feeling is that the other "players" would be putting out feelers to them, and seeing if they'll take side jobs. Personally, I'd say hiring them to move a package from one end of the island to another is worth it, just to get a couple of good looks at astral signatures and so on.



Thanks IanW I really like the idea and I might employ it!
ravensmuse
I just want to say Noll, it sounds like you have a great group going for yourself and you sound fun as hell to play with. If we were living in Italy, we'd love to hang out with you guys!

It also sounds like you and your bunch are good with rolling with the consequences. I'm there with you on that! I've also had players deal with their consequences by travelling to other countries - though in our case, it was to Japan smile.gif

A few small things I would mention that would help your game out some -

Italy is essentially in the hands of two powers - the Vatican and the Mafia. The Vatican controls mostly the central portions of Italy, either directly or through puppet states. The Mafia, meanwhile, has the Alta Commissionne, an attempted brotherhood between the Camorra, Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra, Sacra Corona Unita, and the smaller organizations of the Corsican pirates, the French Millieu Marseillais, and Spanish Don Vasquez's group. Scuttlebutt there is that the current Capo di Tutti Capo is seeking to mold them all into one solid Mafia syndicate and take over European organized crime in the face of encroaching Vory groups.

Up north of Italy is the GeMiTo - a triangular region stretching between Genoa, Milan, and Turin that was essentially left to its own devices after years of rioting and brutality to turn into a quiet armed area. As of 2074, Alamais and some other dragons are using it as both a staging ground and a place to eat. So...

So those are the two big forces your group will come up against in Italy.

What you've got going currently sounds pretty in line with canon though, so good job! It sounds like a crazy good game and I'd love to read more of it!
IanW
QUOTE (Noll @ Aug 26 2012, 05:35 PM) *
Thanks IanW I really like the idea and I might employ it!



Mock up something like this, and have the other powers do Legwork on Our Heroes. Think about what each of them know.


Legolas (seriously) Caruso: An elf decker.

0 Successes : A security rigger, specialising in Drones

1 Success : a decker

2 Successes : a decker, probably skill around 6.

3 successes : uses a MPCP 7 Transys deck, probably with hardening 2 and response increase 1. Some custom code.

4 successes : <software list follows>
LurkerOutThere
QUOTE (Noll @ Aug 26 2012, 11:24 AM) *
@Lurker

Well actually it wasn't just the day after. I thought it was in Nicholson interest to show them on the tv. (As he also has good connections with the TV being a rich producer) But you have a point about the Vampire identity. (Anyway he didn't show that he is a vampire to the characters, he acted like a "mage" to them. Regina was essence drained during a control thought spell.)

I understand your point of view when you said that I had set the runners to failure, but trust me this is not the case. It is not like I had in mind the perfect way to do the job (I never do, I just see what the party does and act accordingly, I never script up my quests). I thought they had many chances of getting that item without fighting.

Also, since I'm slowly introducing them to the world of Shadowrun, I like to put a paranormal twist in most of my adventures, (like the vampire!) otherwise the game will look like another-cyberpunk-neuromancer game.

Btw at the end of the Nicholson's adventure, the players were very satisfied with the experience they had. Few of them even said that I was "too good" on their side. (If you think about it, they attacked a vampire estate and only one character died, due to a normal gunfight)


Cool cool, sorry if I sounded a little harsh but it did sound fairly heavy handed. As some others have said while you don't want to save the players from all their mistakes if it looks like they are setting themselves up for failure and it's something the characters might know better sometimes you might want to give them a roll or make a roll in secret for them before they do something head bangingly stupid. Sometimes things that seem obvious to us as GM's can be missed by our players.

During my last campaign i had suprisingly similar event happen. The team was trying to infilitrate a clinic suspected of doing experiments on technomancers under the guise of AIPS research. The team technomancer decided to go in as a patient under a fake sin. She took precautions and even arranged for a contact of hers to come in as her family member to check on her. Another team member was infiltrating as a nurse as a safety net.

How it went bad: The team missed in their recon that the facility administrator was actually one of their old enemies under an assumed name. He made her as soon as she checked in and had her given a sedative. The nurse runner crit botched her check later and didn't realize there was a problem leaving patient runner without backup for 24 hours. By the time the team figured out how badly things were when the backup contact kicked in and notified them that the "patient" wasn't on the rolls at the hospital they knew they were ins erious drek. Fortunately they had people station outside the hospital and nothing major had left the facility so they had a high degree of certainty she'd just been moved to the underground facility they were eventually going to break into.

My team had a bit more karma under their belts then i suspect yours did. They called in a marker with a city councilman and another with a KE captain and leveraged the fact that their friend was a sinner. That and a very expensive bribe got them a warrant for KE to search the place for their friend AA authority or no (which normally doesn't work, but is a funny quirk of the city they were running in, corps immunity is tuned down a notch). After they got their friend out they gave KE time to clear out and then went in pretty much guns blazing to be punitive. Very satisfying and it did have consquences for them but they rode the line between trying to mitigate those consequences ahead of time and being willing to shoulder them when they came down.

The one thing I think to remember when it comes to public exposure. A lot of the powers that be in Shadowrun have a vested interest in things not making the news. That's not to say that stuff doesn't get splashed on the news, especially if it happens downtown in a non feral city, but I would just caution in the future to be careful of the "you guys were on TV, you have to leave town" plus your team should be investing in masks for when they go guns blazing.
Tiralee
Personally, I'd be inclined to take the player with the monkey shamen down to Basement 2 and give him a .40 S&W earcleaning - it looks like you've managed to tie in disparate people and launch a decent campaign, except for the rules-lawyer.

You may wish to make it clear that there's no "winners" in Shadowrun, only survivors...and that SINners (!) going on a rampage (!) through a vampire's lair (!) will cause massive, massive side-effects.
I'd be tempted to give them all "Hunted 2" as a start, maybe "Hunted 3+" for the Monkey-botherer due to their "Distinctive style", although I can't really see a Monkey Shamen inciting a team to go full pink-mohawk:"Monkey is clever and playful and likes people because they are funny. He is a foe of evil and enjoys taunting and frustrating the plans of those who would harm him or his friends. Monkey likes to taunt opponents, using magic to trick them and make them look foolish rather than slaughtering them."
Yeaaaaaah, sounds like a minmaxer with no roleplaying ability.

Good luck and best wishes on your next run.
And don't stress on the use of english - you're doing fine:)

-Tir
Noll
You won't believe what the Monkey Shaman did tonight. They startet to settle in Palermo/Sicily and so many of them got new houses.
The monkey shaman bought a middle class lifestyle, and I said him that the landlord was an old lady living on the next floor and she had an habit of keeping the TV at high volume during the night. You know what the guy did? He went upstair, ringed the bell at her door, and attacked her with a club! Then he proceeded to cut her TV wires. When he went out of her apartment he found that a woman was watching from the next door apartment. When he saw her he yelled "The bitch had TV on all night!". Then he went to bed. After few hours two local police agents ringed his bell, and this guy instead of trying to bribe them or run in a regular way (they weren't a treat, 2beretta pistols regular cops), just casted invisibility in front of them and went away. (And magic is basically forbidden in this city, undert the supervision of the Vatican)


Well, to go on with the main adventure, one of the party members heard from a contact that a fixer was looking for Shadowrunners to make them meet a Johnson. This guy was not related with the small Mafia boss they're working for occasionally. They decided to meet the Fixer and then the Johnson. The Johson asks them to just bring a package to Enna (a mountain city in the middle of City), then pick another pack and bring it to Catania (other side of the island). They accept and they drived all the way to Enna, using secondary roads (they did not use the highway) and mountain roads. They were attacked by a small pack of harpies during their trip on the mountains, they easily disposed of most of them then runned away. When they reached Enna they found an elf with golden eye waiting for them, getting the pack and giving them another one. Then the party went to Catania but they didn't found the person they were supposed to meet. They called the Fixer and also the Contact of the guy but those ppl didn't answer the phonecall again. They went back to Palermo and they're now trying to find what happend. They'r only hint is the Johnson (but they don't know how to meet him again for now) and the golden eye elf. Nobody paid them.

Reality is, I followed IanW advice. The harpies were sent to "test" and "study" those Americans Shadowrunners skills and get their astral signatures. The Golden Eye Elf was an awakaned that checked face to face them. Their real purpose was to "check" those new guys.
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