So, this morning while driving to work, my Vietnam War obsession spilled over a bit into the world of Shadowrun.

I'm imagining a campaign where the player characters are Lone Star or Knight Errant grunts, or perhaps even UCAS Marines. For political reasons, there has been a call for the pacification of the Barrens around Seattle, which has high strategic and economic value for UCAS. Maybe there's a Communist insurgency or something in the Barrens or the various gangs and entities are becoming a more cohesive threat to general order and stability for some reason.

However, again for political reasons, maybe even austerity politics, this can't be accomplished using brute force on a war footing. It either gets outsourced to private police companies or maybe the UCAS Marines on the cheap with lots of diluted political rhetoric and objectives. So the player characters have to try and manage some kind of counter insurgency effort on the cheap in the Barrens, winning hearts and minds and that kind of thing.

There can be ambushes, insurgency, booby traps, villages, all this sort of thing.

They can call in gunship support and that kind of thing but in general not so much artillery strikes. To make everything Vietnamilicious for some reason there should be lots of helicopter based insertions and casevac. Maybe some patrol boat insertions or extractions for areas that are adjacent to water.

I am thinking for more of an Aliens-type-Vietnam-inspired look and feel this would work best with SR 2nd or 3rd edition which better reflects the Aliens tech level sensibility than does later editions.

I like the general idea, but it sounds like it would quickly turn into Stalingrad or Baghdad. It would really depend on the reasons for the pacification, what the targets and objectives are, and the ROE. Plus, why are the locals resistant? That will be a major factor(s) in how the teams go about their business.

If you wanted to do a campaign like this, think about how the setting would change the objectives of your players. How do they advance? Is money no object? What kind of cyber is KE willing to provide them?

The reason I bring this up is that I briefly tried to run a ganger campaign, and was surprised by the number of mages and adepts in the shadows. It turns out an availability cap causes certain incentives I was unaware of going in. I'd just spend some time thinking about how your player's characters would advance.

Additionally, I'd think about how to make the character's mission more "shadowrun". One thing that jumps to mind is a recon team- they'd have to be stealthy, as well as fast talkers with the locals to get information. Plus they could get involved in a firefight or two to keep things interesting.

-DrZ

I would bring your attention the The Pit, aka the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which is controlled by Neo-As, basically an independant stronghold within the corporate fortress of Manhattan.

In other words, a huge piss off.

I had a campaign where the MDC gathered paramilitary forces, dressed them as cops, and invaded The Pit. Of course, the Neo-As were also armed to the teeth, so it ended a lot like the urban warfare scene from "Children of Men".

With the runners stuck in the middle, dodging both forces as they tried to do their thing. But you could easily have the players be on either side of the conflict

Neo-As...

Roots in real world Neo-Natzi's?

Neo-Anarchists. Basically think that the 6th world's power structures are so corrupt and hopeless that every single motherfucking one of them needs to be burnt to the ground.


They have a point.

I dumped a gang war on my runners on the last run, but the arc wasn´t to their taste. Anyway:
- Their motivation was supposed to be keeping their backyard clear, which they
- The Catholic Church is a major player in our campaign. Could work as a task master for you, as they would want to avoid open war for political reasons. Providing mobility and good on-the-ground intel is possible.
- You´ll need a contact web to keep track, but try to have tons of smallish factions - neighborhood gangs, small corps, syndicates, larger go-gangs, militant policlubs. Lots of targets, lots of potential allies, many moral decisions. Let them change the balance of power, always afraid of retaliation from their enemies.

I dunno, isn't this idea a bit too "Bug City"?

~Umi

Actually, shouldn't the question be... "Isn't Bug City a little too much Saigon?"

I would seriously query whether or not your players have the patience, stamina, and attitude to run a COIN campaign.

It can very quickly turn into "generally connected run of the week mercenaries" or "licensed firefighting theatrics." Both of which are entertaining, but hardly truly get across the feel of a Vietnam type scenario - unless of course, your goal is to recreate that Vietnam movie-grun" feel, where things just seem to be Bad Things Happening to Me in a Strange Land that No One Cares About and Higher Doesn't Get It.