So my gaming group has a kind of "introduce new systems" model going, where we play a new system for a couple of sessions as a one-shot.

I decided to do Shadowrun 4E the only way I know how: Fragged up chatic run where the fate of the 6th world hangs in the balance!

I know I want the team to recapture the final part of the Fátima prophecies, recently liberated from the vaticans secret archives, and now on the run somewhere in the Italian confederation.

I need exciting action scenes, but also things that showcase the mood of the setting well. I wanted a clue to be placed near a street doc, where they're tipped off by one of the many limbless chipheads littering the street. Also, a run-in with some jesuit mages, Black Madonna-style.

Still, I need some help tying it together, so I thought I'd post here and benefit from your collective psychosis wisdom! Do you have any suggestions to spice up the setting, or scenario?

So far I've written the Johnson meet on-line, and then a quick detour in a GeMiTo black mall for equipment and weapons.

It's 4E, premade 400 BP chars so I can line up the skills the encounters will need easily.

A few thoughts on possible ways to bring the setting home:

- Have someone very 'legitimate' early on be an orc or a troll (as in a corporate contact, a priest in the vatican, etc). 'trogs aren't just enemies to shoot up, they are part of the culture at various levels! (unlike many games)

- Bring in a passing encounter with some pretty paranormal early on.....traffic jam due to free spirits playing on the freeway, a dragon seen flying between office towers, etc. And nobody is freaking out, this is as much a part of life in the 2070s as car accidents and helicopters are now.

- I don't know if you have a source book describing the Vatican, or are work free-hand (I certainly don't have such a source book), but I'm assuming that some of the swiss guard (those currently ceremonial guys in the colourful outfits, with the halberds) are physical adepts, with halberds that are weapon foci. They are probably also packing machine pistols.

- Bringing in the degree or corporate sovereignty (and associated not-giving-a crap-about-most-of-the-population-ism) to light in this situation seems harder. One possibility is that a corp could get wind of the theft, and try to steal from the thieves? Adding a second layer of people chasing after the runners could be too complicated, or it could make things interesting.

Thanks! All good stuff.

I'm working from Loose Alliances and Shadows of Europe, mainly.

I thought about having the characters working for a corp, maybe even a dragon. (I can definitely see Schwartzkopf going "Yeah, this stupid-ass prophecy will have people ready to kill each other ALL over again if it leaks, I better eat it")

Another thought: as a player and as a game master, one of the cyber-punk type things I've always found most disturbing was the concept of personality chips. I think this slips in and out of official material, but there was a entire adventure module built around the concept in 1st edition, and in the 5th edition core rules they mention 'puppet houses' (brothels where the 'workers' are chipped with whatever personality the situation/client requires).

You could have a clue be known by a 'worker' in such a puppet house, but they need to determine what personality she was chipped with and plug it into her, for her to recall the information correctly. I had a scene set up in one run that sadly never got used, where for their night/sleep period the workers are chipped with 'good girl' chips and all behave/believe themselves to be sweet little 8 year olds, snuggling up with their teddy bear, while still wearing bits of whatever costume they had on last. Except maybe for one room where a woman is writhing in her sleep and screaming from horrible nightmares --the other workers can tell you "she was bad today, she doesn't get to be a good girl tonight"). When they unchip the required worker she goes pretty much blank (she has been lobotimized), until they chip in whatever it was, and they see her personality totally change. (I've said her, but could be a him, as you like).

Granted, I think puppet houses are usually considered more of a Yakuza thing, and presumably they would not have as much presence in Italy. But then again, someone will take advantage of such a 'business opportunity' in their absence--it is a dystopian world, after all.

Oh, and you can time it so they have to break in during off hours, rather than just go in and hire the right person chipped with the right personality. Or give them the options about which way to go.

And to pimp CanRay's work on chipping.

http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product...roducts_id=3129

As a first exposure to the setting and system, this seems awfully... dense. It's also doesn't quite scream "Shadowrun" in that gritty cyberpunk way that you get from a classic corp-heavy run in Seattle.

Maybe that's fine with the folks you're introducing SR to, I dunno. Just not sure I'd use it for the groups I play with that aren't already into SR, personally.

They have tried Shadowrun before, but don't really seem to "have a feel" for it. I just want to give them an experience, it doesn't have to be classic Seattle style.

While not set in Rome, Artifacts Unbound also has a couple of Plot Hooks (pgs 61-80) and NPCs (pg 145-146), the Templar Combat Mage and Sylvestrine which might help you populate Rome's shadowy side.