Hello,

I'm preparing adventures based on the the sourcebook "Year of the Comet". I would really like to include the probe race, the surge, the orichalcum deposits, the shedims, etc in my games, but I'm lacking imagination and inspiration for it. There are a few plot ideas in the book, but not enough to flesh out a complete adventure in my opinion. I hate those kind of Shadowrun books: the background is nice and interesting, but it's a pain (at least for me) to incorporate them in my games. I know that "Wake of the Comet" contains complete adventures, which I also plan on playing, but they don't cover all the events depicted in "Year of the Comet".

I would be grateful for any help, suggestion or adventure ideas (like those). Or even better, links to complete adventures, if they can be found somewhere.

are you wanting to start out PRE-comet and work up the horror aspect ?
or post-comet and work on the fear and loathing ?

*EDIT*

I'm thinking along the lines of Cloverfield - an as it happens play by play

or

28 days later

I would prefer if they discovered most of the events in-game rather than bluntly explaining them the situation. So yes, working up the horror aspect (though not everything needs to be horrific, I certainly don't mind ).

Currently they just finished the Renraku Arcology arc, which, in my somewhat altered timeline, was concluded at the end of 2060. It's now the 1st January 2061, and I sent them Captain Chaos' new year post, directly taken from the preface, as a teaser:

Welcome to the new year, my friends. I hope your hangovers aren't as bad as mine. I should have stuck to the nano-energy drink and champagne mixes rather than the hard stuff.
This year certainly promises to be an interesting one - perhaps even a new beginning. The first news item in my inbox this morning tells me that the UN has officially declared 2061 to be the "Year of the Comet". Massive celebrations are already being planned to commemorate the arrival of Halley's Comet and the fiftieth anniversary of the Awakening. Many of you readers are already celebrating the new job offers arriving on your doorstep.
Something tells me we're going to have a lot to talk about this year. If the guy I saw walking down the street wearing tinfoil on his head is any clue, things are going to get interesting. I've used this as an excuse to open up this new SIG. Maybe we'll find some answers here.
"Why bother?" you say? I've heard the arguments. So what if the Awakening occurred fifty years ago. Fifty is just an arbitrary number, right? Maybe, chummer, maybe. But if there's anything the Awakening and the return of magic taught us, it's to expect the unexpected. As any magical theorist can tell you, perception is the key to magic. According to the files I've read, our willpower and our emotions have a strong impact upon the fluctuation of mana. So if all across the globe people fear, desire or simply expect something to happen simply based upon an arbitrary measurement, it just may.
Even more to the point is this comet business. You have to admit it's quite a coincidence that this historical harbringer of upheaval and doom just happens to be cruising back by our planet at the same time as the big five-oh. Now we're getting two doses of hype for the price of one.
I know some of you don't believe in coincidence; some do. You either think the universe is yanking our collective chain, or we're in for a wild ride.
Which begs the question: do we strap on our safety harness or crank down on the gas pedal? I think I'll do both.

Captain Chaos

Transmitted: 1 January 2061 at 15:23:23 (PST)

From there, anything is possible...

okay,

I haven't read the YOTC book but I get the general idea, were it me GMing the scenario I'd have some of the following.

Early runs intra corporation looking for data - what does Renraku know ? do they have anything to do with this or Aztechnology or whoever.

Then some capture living subjects as the SURGE hits .. possibly critters but maybe Meta humans or test subjects from other corps. (DocWagon)

then if you feel really combat heavy throw them against gamgs of mutants or defending mutants against the cleansing fire of the humanis ?

I reckon you can have a LOT of fun with this

Johnson: "Someone's mining orichalcum."
Team: "That's impossible, orichalcum doesn't occur naturally."
Johnson: "I know, but fifty years ago dragons and magic were impossible, too. Can you go look into it?"

Hilarity Ensues (warning, TVtropes link). I'll assume you have the team discover that yes, there actually ARE orichalcum deposits showing up. Cue all the usual corporate "omg we can PROFIT from this", the team having to decide whether to stick with the Johnson or sell their paydata to the highest bidder, deciding whether or not to just lift some of the stuff for themselves, and so on.

If nobody on the team has the skillset to actually identify orichalcum, you can use "get some and bring it back" or having to escort a scientist as a McGuffin, and it opens things up to a longer plot arc if the company wants to hire them for security/to prospect for more veins/etc. Looking for rocks in the middle of the wilderness is a great chance to bring in paracritters, too. Vorpal beaver, anyone?

Thanks for the ideas so far.

For introducing the shedims, I plan on making one of the characters' contact die and be possessed by one. As that contact is already quite mentally unstable, it may just go unnoticed for a time.

I like Freya's idea !

could make it more intense if there was potential for a "Deposit" discovered near to civilisation,

the runners are hired to keep out other corporate interests, perform espionage and protect the Sampling teams as they narrow down the search in the barrens

Throw in some riots about people being displaced from their homes out there, some eco terrorists and magic users too

Maybe make it sacred ground ? add some critters and free spirits into the mix. and you have the makings of a situation that can spiral out of control.

and that they can massively profit from, playing interested parties against each other.

in between that you have all the SURGE stuff happening and other side jobs being offered and nothing to say teh PC's don't get SURGE'd too ... and then they have to hide from being "tested" ..

that needs to be something the player is onside with though ... I dislike having "stuff" happen to my Char without some form of headsup.

it has all the makings of an EPIC campaign

You could actually potentially have just as much fun with the orichalcum thing at the end of the Year of the Comet as at the beginning. The orichalcum was only minable during that year, then stopped naturally occurring everywhere except Snowdonia, so you can imagine the shake-up when the corps realise their motherlode (literally) is disappearing from beneath their feet.

Now that I think of it, the big challenge with running the Comet stuff is that there's just so much of it. SURGE and the upswing in metaracist activity that resulted from it, the Orichalcum Rush, practically the entire Ring of Fire going off at once (along with a bunch of other volcanoes around the world, like in France), the shedim, the whole Yucatán turning toxic... any one of those could make for a huge plot arc in its own right. I'd almost suggest picking one or two elements that you like the most instead of trying to do all of it at once, otherwise you're going to be running Year of the Comet stuff right up until Crash 2.0.

It was not my intention to do everything at once - at least not everything in a single game. However, I'd like to cover the most important or interesting parts, possibly over several game sessions. We're not in a hurry, it doesn't matter if it takes some time. Besides, there's a lot of Shadowrun lore there that I'd like to convey to my players.