Hi,
I havn't really read the magic source book for shadowrun so bad that I've forgotten what it's called and I need help in planning something.
I'll post briefly what has happend so far in our campain and then inform you of what I have in mind and then if possible anybody could tell me where I've gone wrong or what won't work.
Start of a new campaign...
GM: The campaign starts on February 1st 2051 in a distinctly non-canon Seattle Metroplex. This is mostly because I don't know the canon history of Shadowrun, and may end up diverting radically from the accepted history.
Players : Jon H (Jacy Roberts), Sean D (Ray Fletcher), Steve F (Pietro Savveti)
GM:The players decided to base themselves in Everett, the northernmost district of the Seattle Metroplex. Quite handy for a smuggler with connections in Vancouver (Jacy). I have done a floorplan for their shared apartment as well as a map of the surrounding area, and the Everett district which will be uploaded later onto the club website.
February 1st
Play starts with registration opening for the SEATAC open - the premiere event on the street racing calendar. Jacy is a fairly well known street racer, who wouldn't dream of missing this opportunity of improving his reputation. Slight problem - the entrance fee is 20k, and between them the players can only raise 9k with only a few days before registration closes.
Not to worry, Pietro is connected to the Fiorelli family (who control the Everett mafia) and he's sure the Don will advance the money on generous terms.
February 3rd
Ray gets a mysterious phone call from a journalist contact (Dominic Sage) saying that he's onto a hot story and that if it checks out he may need the groups help at a later date.
February 4th
Needless to say, Jacy prefers to find alternative means of financing than owing the mafia. He tries a contact to see if he needs any high-end cars boosting but fluffs his negotiation roll. Eventually Jacy resigns himself to visting Don Luigi at his Italian restaurant.
Don Luigi is most amenable to lending money and advances 25k for 2 weeks at 10% interest per week and a small favour. Pietro even vouchs for Jacys ability to repay so now both of their necks are on the line.
GM:There were several other means of raising the cash without going to the mafia e.g. Pawning gear, Sponsorship, Gambling etc.
After taking the cash (yes, cash) from the Don the team immediately head off to the race management to get Jacy registered. Nothing like a trip to the bar to relieve stress and tension.
The Last resort (just outside the Federated Boeing complex) is the players local. Saturday night is fight night ! and the barkeep does a lockin so the satfeed of the illegal fights can be shown uninterrupted. A local factory worker is in the fourth fight and the team um and ah about whether to back him or his opponent. Eventually Ray and Jacy put 500 each on the local (wise decision, as there would have been violence otherwise and apart from Pietro the team was unarmed from their meeting with the Don). On some random die rolling the local guy wins giving Ray a small win and Jacy a bar tab.
February 6th
The team notice a black sedan car patrolling their neighbourhood. Ray cannot use astral projection to get inside the car.
Lowrider (Jacy's mechanic contact) comes back to him and says he can help Jacy out with moving a couple of high-end sedans. He'll pay 10k per vehicle. Having got the money Jacy is rather non-committal.
February 7th
Jacy tries a DMV contact to help him locate vehicles of the requested model but fails his etiquette roll. His contact obviously knows the purpose of the enquiry and realises that it could be traced back to himself if he helped Jacy out and the same cars were stolen shortly thereafter.
Around 5.30pm a black stretch limo parks outside the warehouse, and a flunky gets out and waits outside the entrance. Pietro comes down to check it out and after a bit of macho posturing takes an embossed calling card.
"Mr Pietro Tomasetti requests the presence of Mr Jacy Roberts this evening from 7pm until 10pm. Transport & Refreshments will be provided". Pietro recognised Mr Tomasetti as the Don of Dons.
After reviewing the options Jacy agrees to go as he recognises the paucity of options. Ray and Pietro both brief him on Mafia etiquette (GM : I allow each of them 1 intervention during the meet if they think Jon is about to foul up) The flunky even gives Jacy a black tie outfit in the right size, clealy these guys have been doing their research.
Traffic is terrible, and Jacy arrives slightly late for the Opera (1 in 6 chance and Jon did roll that 6)
As a result Jacy is kept waiting until the overture is completed. Don Tomasetti is a cultured man nearing retirement, who would not make most people's stereotype of a mafia don. Also present at the meeting are Stefano Giovanni (the Don's consigliere), Marco Ciarniello (Don of the Southern districts) and one of Marco's capos - Gianni Calvo (a bald street thug). During the intermission, the reason for the meet quickly becomes obvious. It appears that Gianni's son - Gianni Russo is a darkhorse competitor in the street race. Don Tomasetti has ruled that the race will be fair and that no-one will receive retribution if they beat Gianni Russo. There is one key proviso however, no harm must come to the kid else all bets are off. Calvo is not happy but grudingly assents when pressed by the Don. Jacy is dismissed as the intermission ends, and is presented with an english language programme after explaining that he didn't speak Italian.
February 8th
Pietro contacts Alfonse (a bookie) to place a bet. Alfonse goes on about the odds shifting overnight as a lot of money is being put on the darkhorse Russo. Unfortunately Pietro explains Russo's extremely well connected background before placing his bet. Alfonse decides to terminate the call and start laying off his liabilities in the light of the new information.
Jacy and Ray decide to scout the race route and given that is urban street racing, its lethal with virtually unlimited opportunities for someone to cause trouble along the way.
February 9th
There is a noisy disturbance in the street outside the team's warehouse around 6am. After investigation the team find a large mob (100-150) surrounding and beating up a lone figure without much success. Ray's reads the guy's aura and works out that he's a werewolf. Pietro shoots a fire hydrant and starts to intimidate the mob. Wolfman starts to break free, but almost simultaneously four helicopters arrive overhead and several combat teams disgorge by rappelling to the ground. Unlike the public these guys were prepared and didn't take long to subdue and capture their target. After loading the captive into one of the helicopters a squad goes around the neighborhood suggesting that "nothing happened here today", which the team were smart about agreeing with.
Jacy spends most of the day trying to locate cars matching the profile downtown.
Players : Jon H (Jacy Roberts), Sean D (Ray Fletcher), Steve F (Pietro Savveti), Martin ? (Terry Brown), Gareth C (Charter Smith)
Pietro remembers that he really ought to keep his family informed when he found out that Gianni Russo is connected to the Ciarniello family, so he makes a call. GM: Good job that Steve remembered this because I was going to pull him up on it a couple of days later.
February 10th
Ray receives a phone call at 2.30 in the morning but it rings off before he can answer it. Caller ID indicates that it came from Dominic Sage. When Ray tries to call back he gets no answer. Ray doesn't go back to sleep and waits for the rest of the team to get up. Ray asks Jacy's to use StrongMad (Decker contact) to hack the phone company and find out where Dominic Sage was when he made the call. Jacy calls StrongMad and it rings for 30 seconds without answering before he gives up. Shortly afterwards StrongMad calls Jacy on a secure line and tells him not to call him from unsecured lines. After Jacy explains what he wants, StrongMad is a bit disappointed expecting more of a challenge but agrees to do it just this once. Jacy receives an anonymous email a few minutes later which simply says University of Washington.
After a little prompting, Ray decides to watch the Trid News. Sure enough a grisly murder at the University of Washington is reported. Further down the news is some grainy phootage of four black helicopters disgorging unknown people who dart and abduct a man from the street. Lone Star are asking for volunteers to assist them with their enquiries.
Jacy resumes his search for the cars that he wants to steal for his contact. He strikes lucky and finds two of them in different garages. Jacy tries his luck with the first car, and evaluates the security as tough (as you would expect with a high end saloon car). After failing to spot any security cameras (and then having Ray helpfully point them out on camera Jacy decides it's time to leave before they attract unwanted attention. Jacy and Ray head North to investigate the death at the University Campus.
Jacy hasn't prepared his cover story when he gets to the Campus security booth, so he mumbles something about a work order for Dr Jones at the archaeology department. The guard doesn't believe him but he doesn't get paid enough to care. Jacy parks up and the intrepid duo go in search of the murder scene. GM: They really should try talking to people more often. Instead of wandering aimlessly for an hour and a half, anyone on campus could have told them the murder scene was down by Husky Stadium and they could have gotten there in 10 minutes.
Whilst there are lots of rubberneckers there isn't very much to see by the time Jacy gets there. A white canvas tent has been erected over the actual crime scene, and the body has already been removed. Ray's astral scan of the area doesn't reveal a background count. Jacy starts talking to a patrol officer guarding the perimeter of the crime scene who doesn't profess to know very much. Jacy lets slip that he knows the victim was a journalist (not public information) which convinces the officer to call in Detective Marshall. Marshall quickly cottons that Jacy knows a little bit more than he's letting on, so Jacy does the obvious thing and sings like a canary. Before letting Jacy go, Marshall checks his SIN card and immediately reveals his strong racial bias against amerind s*** like Jacy.
Ray is called in and 'invited' to go downtown for a statement. GM: That alter memory spell could have been a really useful get out of jail free card, but obviously Sean quite likes cold coffee and stale donuts. It soon becomes obvious that Ray doesn't know that much about Domonic Sage so he is released after a couple of hours with the usual warning about not leaving town.
Meanwhile, Pietro has received an invitation from Don Luigi for Lunch at Mama Fiorelli's. No Atkin's diet for Pietro as he loads up on the carbs. After lunch Don Luigi invites Pietro to his own table and discusses the upcoming street race. A few weeks ago, the Don barely knew that street racing existed but now he's a keen backer of anyone but Gianni Russo. The Don asks for that small favour to be repaid by ensuring that Russo is dishonoured (and the Ciarniello family by association), but not harmed (as that could lead to a war).
The deal is sealed with a kiss on either cheek.
Whilst Ray is being helpful with enquiries, Jacy visits Washington Park, the start area for the street race next week. He meets an average 7'10" troll who conveniently happens to be a bit of a race fan (well, why else would he be there ?). Jacy invites him to come back to the team warehouse later than evening to discuss security work.
After his release from the police station, Ray teams up with Jacy and they promptly return to the parking garage to have another try at grand theft auto. GM: Good job I'm not a vindictive type who would have had Ray followed by a camera drone upon his release. Jacy parks his RV to block one camera's line of sight. Ray uses lightning bolts to take out the other 3 cameras. Jacy sets to work with his Sequencer (Rating 4), and despite being woefully underequiped to take on a Rating 8 antitheft system, comes remarkably close by tieing on two occasions. GM: If only he had used his electronics skill as a complementary he might have made it. The inevitable happens on the fourth attempt when the vehicle alarm goes off. Jacy ignores the vehicles instruction to await apprehension by law enforcement and drives off in the RV.
Even the slacker posing as a security guard takes notice when the vehicle alarms trips and closes the entrances and exits to the car park with rollerblind barriers. Luckily, Jacy only has to maneuver a couple of floors in the car park (not easy in an RV). Some skillful driving by Jacy (possibly assisted by fervent requests for divine intervention by Ray) allows him to take the final corner reasonably fast and then accelerate enough to crash through the barrier. Further hectic driving sees Jacy escape long enough to use his photovoltaic paint scheme to change the appearance of the RV. Good job the Friday afternoon rush hour hadn't really got going yet.
Back at the garage, Charter Smith (currently unknown to the other players) emerges from the shadows where he had been observing Ray and Jacy. Amidst the confusion generated by Jacy's hurried departure he seizes his opportunity to try and steal the same car. With the same equipment he has less luck than Jacy as receives serious stun damage from a 10S electroshock defence mechanism. Like Pietro woulda said, yousa shoulda used a brick. 2-0 to the car.
After getting back to the warehouse, Jacy decides that he just doesn't have the gear to go after topend vehicles and contacts Lowrider to know he won't be able to help out with the vehicles. The dramatic car chase makes the local evening news, with a followup story about Police commisioner Haig complaining about criminals having easy access to photovoltaic paint schemes.
Shortly after the news Jacy receives a slightly condescending email from Lowrider saying that he could understand Jacy's problems.
Terry Brown ain't the smartest bear in the woods but manages to use his local knowledge to find the warehouse and gets introduced to the other team members.
February 11th
Jacy repairs the scratches and bumper damage to the RV. Pietro's bookie gets back to him and offers 3-1 odds on Jacy to win. Pietro wastes some time by trying to get better odds, with no result.
February 12th
Pietro accepts the odds of 3-1 and collects 8k in cash from the team and they all head off to the bookie to place the bet.
It all goes on Jacy to win. Jacy then spends the rest of the day tinkering with the drive-by-wire system on the sports car.
February 13th
The morning news has a brief story about Deputy Mayor Vendedor inspecting the metroplex guard at Ft. Lewis. It was anticipated that the Deputy Mayor was going to announce a major initiative on crime blighted areas of the city. Commentators were writing it off as a publicity stunt ahead of the November elections.
Qualifying sessions for the street race.
All the competitors pass their vehicle inspections easily but both Jacy and Gianni Russo do abysmally in their qualifying sessions. They will start 8th and 9th (out of 12) on the grid.
Terry is left to guard to Jacy's car overnight, even though no one attempted to interfere with it. GM: Perhaps its because most of the mafia guys were busy at the docks ?
Very early in the morning, Ray gets a call telling him that something is happening down the docks. At the speed of Astral he investigates the area and finds a large crate being unloaded. Sufficiently large to contain a vehicle even. He follows the crate down to a warehouse in Tacoma (an area controlled by Ciarniello family) before jumping back to his meat body.
Well we're trying to come up with ways to either make Russo loose or to win and then get him disqualified.
What I have in mind is to summon a greater spirit(city) (I'm in a building and can see the start of the race through binoculars) and get it too either make sure that Russo's car get too the front(we have 24 hours after the race to dispute postions, and as your not surrposed to be allowed to use magic to aid or hinder each other thought that this would help embarras him and his family.)or to clog up his engine somehow. So what I really need is the answers to these few questions.
a/ Do spirits function like elementals for the purposes of remote services? - as the spirit will not be in your vicinity if it's helping Jonny Red. If so, you'll only get one service out of it. Phrase this service carefully, as Andy can deliberately misinterpret the command if it's too vague.
Something along the lines of "Use power X to help the TVR Manticore reach the finish line first" should work.
b/ Make sure the spirit is summoned before the start of the race. I think summoning activity acts like a beacon in astral space. If the no magic rule is being enforced by hired astral mages, doing it during the race will be risky.
c/ Great form spirits would be best, as the normal spirits may not be able to cross the bridge from one part of the city to another (possible domain change). I think the number of these you can summon depends on your initiation rating.
d/ If the city spirit's Accident power can be exerted at sufficiently subtle levels (ie the spirit doesn't have to jump on the vehicle to use it, and can affect small parts of the machinery), it may be worth clogging up some of the fuel injectors on the Manticore's turbine and trying to drop its performance. Not all, as the car will stall, crash, or explode from what Steve was saying, but enough to level the playing field. This approach is the reverse of your suggestion, and depends on what is in the books.