My runners are currently in the Arcolgy searching for the two children of Meg Compton, the widowed army housewife turned shadowrunner.

Now, the younger child, Brechen, who is 9 years old has recently manifested magical ability. She has been captured by Deus and has been banded.

The older child, Dakota, who is 13, has just manifested adept abilities of his own under the stress of being in the archology, and has managed to hook up with a resistance cell.


I'd like to set up a situation where the mother has to choose between which child she can save from the Arcology. Any ideas how I can set this up?

Wouldn't it ultimatly be the shadowrunners who have to choose? (I assume this Meg character is an NPC)... when it comes down to it, the Runners are going to have a hard enough time in the arcology without some NPC nagging them and ordering them around. There is a good cahnce that they will just grab the first child they can find and call it a day - or, if presented with a situation where they have to choose between them, they'll just save whichever one they can - even if Mommy is standing a few feet back barking orders.

That is, of course, assuming she's even there. Which is some dead-weight the runners are going to want to avoid at all costs. Sure, she's sort of a shadowrunner, but she has too personal an interest in this run. If they're looking at this run like any other, she's their johnson, and if she wants them to save some children, so be it... but the runners are the ones who are risking their lives for the money, and if she dies in the arcology they get nothing... if they even make it back out.

If this Meg character is a PC, then I'm sure you could set up such a situation, and the other runners would be more likely to listen to her. Mainly, the banded child would know a great deel about the family and that the adept child would probably want to rescue its sibling if possible... so maybe the adept child went to try to free the other one, and either the banded child pretended to be freed (working as a spy for Deus) or, more likely, the adept child was captured, and will be used as a hostage by the time the runners get there... (Maybe the team arrives just after the adept and some buddies went out to try to rescue the sibling... so the group follows suit, and when they get there, the younger sibling uses the older sibling as a hostage.)

Honestly, once you're banded, I think there isn't much hope of being "rescued" the best I have seen is being given a quick death once captured. Assuming they bring high-end jammers to keep Deus from activating the kid's cutter nannites they might buy it some time... but such a jammer sould shut down all radio communication within the arcology, and defiantly warrent a responce from Deus (who absolutely hates it when he can't play with his drones).

Meg Compton is one of PC's in the Arcology. I'm not going to set up some tough to deal with moral choice scenario for an NPC that dosn't have any say on what goes on in the Arc. That just would be lots of work for no reward on my part

I like the idea of having the son taken hostage and then encountering the two together. This game has been on hiatus for a little under a year now so my SR brain isn't working up to snuff quite yet.

It will also be fun to see what happens if she chooses to save the daughter since she doens't know that the cutters will kick in if the girl gets captured. Hee hee.

I hate to point this out but thge reality is there is no agonizing choice, as the banded will be opening fire and all the though process will come down to one surprised moment of either pulling the trigger against the banded or not. It's a situation that sounds good on paper but never works out well when I have tried it.

What always happens in my experience is the emotional trauma follows the act when they look back and wonder what else they could have done and blame themselves. In the actual moment though it's either kill her kid or die unless it's a seriously trumped up scenario because of the zealot nature of the banded.

Remember how the banded are, they allow no real room for an emotional choice or a heartfelt speech without a seriously contrived scenario.

Just something to think about.

Don't forget that it is possible for Banded to throw off their "programming" due to certain circumstances (usually due to GM fiat, and usually results in cutter activation)

A more nasty decision for Meg to face is to find the Banded one attacking the resistance...or attacking Meg and it's obvious that the Banded one no longer recognizes Mom.

Hm... Sophie's Choice comes to mind. If you haven't, rent it. If you have, what more can I say?

Have the daughter implanted with a cortex bomb, and have the kid thriving in the environment. First, the parent finds that her son has been quite happily making mincemeat out of spider drones and has been promoted at least once, and then haver her daughter go "boom". If mom has cyber, have the resistance detain the group with plans for their eventual death, and are spared only because the son recognizes the group.

Groovy. Thanks for the help guys. You've given me some good stuff to work with. Now I have some writing to do before this weekend.