Greetings,
I posted her about a year ago with my world domination scheme and got some helpful hints. Now after 5 years of playing shadowrun, I actually want to try my luck at running a game. But the idea I had in my mind was rather unorthodox, especially for a first time game. I'd like your opinion.
=players of my game do not tread beyond this point=
Man do I love space. I've been thinking of a space centric shadowrun for some time now. Here's the basic outline. (please forgive me and help me out if i'm messing up SR lore.) Ares was pretty shocked when Evo set up Gagarin Base and have been itching to get their own manned mission up there for some time. The next Mars launch window is coming up in 2074 and Ares is ready to even the playing field in deep space. Amid rumors in the shadows that Gagarin Base has mysteriously cut off transmissions, the players (who need to be some pretty stable characters, and not....ahem murderhobos) are contacted for a job in deep space.
The Johnson wants them to to take a job for freelance runners who are specialized for space ops. The job is on the Artemis Base in Mare Tranquillitatis, where and computer virus is wreaking mayhem on the base. They will have to get through spaceport security, and somehow get clearance to the base. Shouldn't be too difficult since they have it open to VIP tours of the Apollo 11 landing site (through teleoperated drones). The Johnson will add at the end that they are to do their best to make a good impression on the Ares Executives.
So after they troubleshoot the problem (and what's behind the problem) and get back to Terra firma safety, the cogs are gonna turn for a few weeks and the Johnson is gonna contact the runners again. Through careful measures taken by interested parties, they have been selected for the Ares Mars Astronaut program. Their job is to get on to the prime crew for Ares's first metahuman Mars Mission. This mission will be the first one to be truly broadcast to the world in the form of a periodical reality trideo series(with heavy editing of course). The Johnson tells them that during the mission they will be getting coded instructions from one of the three mission CAPCOMs (capsule comminucators) and unless these instructions conflict with the mission directives they are to follow the mission as it has been written down. So essentially they will be doing some deep cover espionage.
One of the main challenges they have is that when they arrive in Mars orbit they will receive an special set of instructions. Because of a previous agreement between Evo and Ares, the primary landing site cannot be less than 100 km away from Gagarin Base. The secondary and tertiary landing sites are some distance closer, but when they arrive the conditions will be good enough for a landing at the primary site. The orders are that they somehow have to convince or coerce the commander to land at one of the closer sites, and if he doesn't budge they have to bypass him somehow. They are authorized to space him as a last resort but they must not blow their cover.
Now this is about as far as I have thought about, I have a few more ideas about what happens once they land, but I'm not writing those down until i have them better crystallized. My main issue is that this game is gonna be lacking combat in a major way. I have to somehow keep Shadowrun interesting with little to no combat, which might be a challenge. Any thoughts or suggestions?