Hey, I'm running a timeline driven campaign in early 2059. I know what's happening in date/time as it goes along, and of course the upcoming fun is the Renraku Arcology shutdown. Now I'm wondering, what are some of the hooks people have used to get them into the Arcology - and missions that people ran inside the Arcology. (I know there are three in the back of the sourcebook, I'm talking about other ones.)

I loved the idea of a run gone bad where they blundered into the arcology through the sewers - may use that if things don't work out. It was a fantastic story, tho, by Kagetenshi...

Any help/anecdotes are appreciated!

Doc

[edit] Oh, and things that didn't work for people. Pitfalls to avoid, etc. [/edit]

Well, it's a good thing that I reread your second paragraph

One of the easiest is giving the runners a reason to be there before the shutdown. If you've got a really good (and decently large) team, having only part of them start inside and the others have to go in to help get them out could work, too.

~J, who almost made a fool of himself by posting the link to that

I'm thinking about doing a run where the team is sent in to capture alive a midlevel coder in the archology. Along the way, they find another shadow team that's on a mission to steal something from the archology, but lost their caster and want to join forces for a bit. They also see evidence of two other shadow teams. I wanted to give the impression that everyone and their mother was trying to break into the archology for one reason or another, so that when the shutdown happens they think it's just another shadow op, until things get ugly...

JaronK

Anyone else run a campaign in Arcology land? The ideas so far have helped.

Any pitfalls I need to look out for? (What drones I shouldn't use, etc. because they're pathetic or too powerful)

I did a run before the shutdown, while construction of the top 20 floors was still underway. They had to get from where construction materials were delivered up a 300 story construction elevator shaft and change the firmware in a networking device that had been delivered but was not yet installed. It gave them a sense of the size of the archology. When you are riding a steel girder which is longer than the maximum range of a heavy pistol ...


Another pre-archology opportunity is to simply have them meet some contacts on the shopping or club levels a week or two before the shutdown. They'll remember the busy, lively, vibrant place that is the public floors, so when it is different later the contrast has a bigger impact on them.

okay one I had up my sleeve for when I run my newbie players through this is to have them complete a run for Renraku in early to mid december and have them paid in Scrip... along with a license to spend the scrip on renraku property until christmas

the simple one is people.. there are som many thousands of people in the arcology that a friend or family or family of a friend is likely to be inside..
those are the best runs, not for money but when the runners actually care about the target..
only works if you rp a lot though.. you cannot `create` a family member just for this..

DS

I like the idea of a character's contact, that works in Renraku or transfers to Renraku, being excited about his upcoming "Cyberware Upgrade", a month prior to the shutdown.

Thanks everybody. Now I can plot my evil campaign with tons of hooks.

Anyone know where I can get the arcology shutdown book? and is it 2nd or 3rd edition?

SR3

try Stiggybaby.com

one thing i did or actually am still in the proces of doing is that, basically i got the team good and tied up with a sort of hugley powerful spirit who had lots of ties to the events surrounding what in the future would be Halley's Comet. Basically the tema had to get inside the Renraku facility to obtain a rare artifact that was found on a dig in Siberia. Any ways the mafia got them in and they got hosed and actually are still on the 128th floor. Only prob is that they stepped into a magic experimentation area and ended up in the same area but now, hehehe, the time is 20 to forty years after the shutdown. Oh yeah and did i mention that, in addition to fighting red samurai and other groups I also came up with a reason/ story line for the U.B. to be there.... they have to fight the bugs! hehehe (evil laughter).

If it were me, I'd give them a really vague mission to get "a package" from the Arcology. I'd use the exact sentences and words from the Genesis Shadowrun game for the Arcology package run. I'd make everything happen exactly like in the game, but just when the players wonder how much more lame I'm going to become, the shutdown happens and I start using my own sentences.

And I'd bitch at you for not being able to reset the alarms by decking in and resetting the mainframe at the CPU

~J