It looks like I am going to be running Shadowrun for the first time in a number of years. While it is a game that I have always liked, I generally feel a bit lost and overwhelmed with it at times. At this point I don't have a whole lot of information on what the players are going to be bringing to the table, but was trying to come up with an intro adventure for the group. This is what I have got in my mind ATM, it is a basic courier mission with some humor thrown in.

Fixer calls the individuals offering a low pay job, but it gets their foot in the door and is a chance to meet with some important people. Stresses that the runners don't want to mess this one up.

The group meets Mister Johnson who is a member of the local mob. He isn't anyone too high up, but someone that people might recognize or be able to find out about if they do digging into who Mister Johnson is.

Johnson sends the runners to pick up a package from a freight plane, one that is not his package to start with. He doesn't provide any parameters for how the job should proceed, so there are a lot of options depending on how the group wants to approach the situation.

After gaining the package, they are to take it to an address, pass it to someone who can verify its contents and then wait to receive another package.

The second package then needs to be brought to one final address. This package will be very fragile and temperature sensitive. This final delivery is expected at midnight, and if they make it on time with the goods delivered intact they will get a cut.

After their brief with the Johnson it is up to them to make or break the job that they have. The facts behind it are they are stealing a batch of smuggled meats and cheeses that are supposed to end up in another crime family's larder. The plane has also been picked out by a go gang looking for a good time and to steal what was on the plane.

When they get to the first address given, they find an Italian restaurant and deliver the (theoretically) unopened package. The bad news is that the local crime family is in the restaurant that night and a group of runners are likely to attract their attention. This is the same group who had their supplies hit earlier that night, though they are unlikely to know that their package has gone missing already. Guiseppe makes the best pizza in the city, and Johnson's boss wants a pizza special made by him tonight.

Finally after the team gets their pizzas from Guiseppe a ganger sees them leaving with a large stack of boxes and picks them as easy targets. While they are trying to make their pizza delivery the gang attacks them, certain that there is something far more than a few real pizzas being transported by the runners.

When they make it to their final destination they are invited to sit down and enjoy their cut!

Thoughts? Feedback? Ideas to make this better? Thanks for anything and happy gaming!

Wait... they get a cut? Of the pizza?

while I love the idea, I'd have a hard time keeping the hole "cut" pun up. Players tend to ask more questions.

in fact when the Johnson mentions a "cut" most players immediately look to the face or whoever is handling negotiation for exactly how much this "cut" is. I know my team wouldn't touch a mission if money wasn't discussed ahead of time & exact figures hammered out, don't wanna do a job for a bag of fries after all.

Ahhh "You'll get a piece of the pie"
"How much?"
"How does 20% sound?"
"25% or no deal"
"Alright, 25%"

my initial reaction to that would be "20% of what? unless you're handing me 5 grand at the end of this, I'm walking"

Your players will likely be very cross if the mob tries to pay them wholly in pizza. Likely, cross enough to draw guns on Mr. Johnson and tell him to start coughing up some nuyen or they're going to add a whole new form of red sauce to his pizza.

Instead, have Mr. Johnson offer them a low, but reasonable amount - say, 7,000-10,000 and his first inclination will be to negotiate for a percentage of the mystery cut rather than extra nuyen. If the players refuse and insist on talking in cold hard jing, such is the way of the shadows, and Mr. J shouldn't balk about agreeing to pay them in nuyen.

If they get a cut of the pie, well, play up the fact that it's likely going to be the best and most authentic food they have ever tasted. Really play it up, too - if this group is tabletop, order the most awesome pie you can think of from the most awesome pizza place around, and time as best you can to arrive when they make the delivery. If they go for jing only, order the pizza all the same, but don't let them dig into it when they make the delivery, and play up how good it smells and how hungry they are after a hard night of felonies, and the fact that they've been given their money and showed the door.

Of course, if it goes the latter route, play it up hard how hungry they are, then mention that there's a Stuffer Shack nearby, and while it might not exactly be the same as the best pizza in Seattle, it'll fill them up.

Actually, you might want to forgoe the whole 'cut of the pie' thing altogether, and use it to get them riled up and hungry...

Also...if you take this approach, since the Mob boss is obviously being chummy, allow the opportunity to roleplay out the Mob Boss becoming a possible contact for the group or a player, since IMO most mob bosses would rather say thank you with a bullet even if you did bring him the best slice of pie in the city. I'd take a slice of Pizza if it meant having a connection 5/Loyalty 1 or 2 Mob Boss that I could ask favors from in return for completing a few jobs for him.

The Johnson was going to offer some nuyen, but a pretty low amount for the job. However, he would allude to the cut as a reward for a job well done and on time.

The end was going to be the mob boss inviting them to sit down with him over the pizza and talk some business. Business on an empty stomach is just barbaric.

ShadowDragon, I love the idea about the pizza. Sadly my wife has a terrible allergy to dairy. So while we make pizza at our home with vegan cheese, finding places that make it while you are out is a bit hard. I know of one, but I would not say that it was that good of a pizza. I keep wanting to figure out a way to bring a pizza from home and keep it hot where we play...but that would be in the morning and not when the run would be winding up anyway.

Based on the replies that I have gotten, I know that the run has more than enough cheese, but is there enough meat to it? ....Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I'm trying to keep things in broad strokes so I don't run into a wall when the players go left instead of right at their first opportunity, but have a general plan of how things can go down.

At the airport I can see an open gun battle, sneaking in and swapping delivery information on the package, taking over airport rigging and loading the package onto their own vehicle, waiting for the go gang to attack and either liberating it in the aftermath or taking out the go gang for it, convincing the go gang that they need to do something for them, and a few other options, but those seem like the main avenues...which tells me that I am wrong and the players are going to think of some other plan entirely...maybe taking the plane before it has been unloaded!

At the restaurant it all depends on how they want to play the situation. Using the front versus the back for the delivery, coming in as a group loaded for bear or sending in a face. The different ways that they approach what is going on depends on how much the members of the other family take notice of them.

Thanks for replies thus far.

Unless you know the players VERY well & can anticipate how their minds work, don't keep a plan of HOW the run should be done, keep some guidelines that need to be done.

If their objective is to reach the plane, leave that as an objective, let them figure out they how & when that way you can more easily react to their plans with appropriate force or ease, a Well thought out & executed plan should not have a monkey wrench thrown in because they out thought the GM after all, unless it makes perfect sense for it happen.