Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: friczvonbrock on <08-19-15/1649:43>
-
Hey everybody, I'm new here in the forum, but I know shadowrun about 10 years.
I decided to play it last year with the 5e and I'm the GM. I took the Splintered States adventure and it was just great!!!
So.. satruday now I'll run a new adventure with some other players, involving Halloweeners, EVO and a cloned girl who needs to be smuggled to the EVO corporation.
In the ends the runners will have 2 options, to return the girl to her "father", or to give her to EVO. The Halloweeners just kidnapped her and Nightmare made her, his sex slave.
After that, I'm planning in master a run in Neo-Tokyo. One of the player is from there, and I'm thinking to do a more personal adventure. He sends money to his family(Old parents and a paraplegic sister).
I want some opinions. If the plot of my Saturday run is nice, if the endings are good, and if it is too soon to involve everyone in a personal adventure.
Thanks
-
First, welcome to Shadowrun, and sounds like you've got some cool things going on there!
But I think you may want to post this up in the "GM Lounge" sub forum, rather than this one. This part of the board is dedicated to the Shadowrun Missions Living Campaign.
Happy gaming!
-
Thank you so much Belker!!
I'll do that!!
-
Hey everybody, I'm new here in the forum, but I know shadowrun about 10 years.
I decided to play it last year with the 5e and I'm the GM. I took the Splintered States adventure and it was just great!!!
So.. satruday now I'll run a new adventure with some other players, involving Halloweeners, EVO and a cloned girl who needs to be smuggled to the EVO corporation.
In the ends the runners will have 2 options, to return the girl to her "father", or to give her to EVO. The Halloweeners just kidnapped her and Nightmare made her, his sex slave.
After that, I'm planning in master a run in Neo-Tokyo. One of the player is from there, and I'm thinking to do a more personal adventure. He sends money to his family(Old parents and a paraplegic sister).
I want some opinions. If the plot of my Saturday run is nice, if the endings are good, and if it is too soon to involve everyone in a personal adventure.
Thanks
If the PCs succeed, there are a lot more options; never underestimate the creativity of Players, because they'll always surprise you.
One option is hiding her, fake her death, and give her a Fake SIN to live in Seattle or wherever, not with her "father" (because EVO would probably find her that way). Would your PCs do that? Hard to say, because Players will always find a way to do what they want to do in spite of whatever Codes of Honor or beliefs their characters may have.
Another option is just letting the Halloweeners take her. I realize that's monstrous, but Players can be very monstrous if you let them.
There might be another rival corp who may want her, and are willing to pay the PCs. Maybe the PCs aren't yet contacted, so they get a little pro-active, and contact EVO's rivals.
Don't make assumptions of what the Players decide to do. They'll find options you've never considered. Just run the game, don't try to force their hands (at least, not directly), and watch what happens.
-
Thanks I'll do that!!
Just the ending I'm very afraid to lose control, I want to see all possibilities to debbug it hehe
But I though in that option of Halloweeners, very brutal nightmare take her again and use like sex slave. Evo is a brutal too, cause in my plot she's a clone who survived, but she was made by the daughter of one of the bioengineers, and he was killed cause he deleted all the files to the corps can't copy his project. That's why they need Betsy (BioEngeneering Technological SYstem). They'll need to made many and many experiments on her. But I'm thinking more in the consequences and the rewards to players, the number of notoriety that they'll get, the number of karma and there it goes.....
-
Thanks I'll do that!!
Just the ending I'm very afraid to lose control, I want to see all possibilities to debbug it hehe
But I though in that option of Halloweeners, very brutal nightmare take her again and use like sex slave. Evo is a brutal too, cause in my plot she's a clone who survived, but she was made by the daughter of one of the bioengineers, and he was killed cause he deleted all the files to the corps can't copy his project. That's why they need Betsy (BioEngeneering Technological SYstem). They'll need to made many and many experiments on her. But I'm thinking more in the consequences and the rewards to players, the number of notoriety that they'll get, the number of karma and there it goes.....
Generally speaking, if you run your campaign to include things like Reputation and Notoriety, your Players will take that into account. But, and I can't stress this enough, I've seen Players do the most morally reprehensible things that their characters would never do, and not even bat an eye at it. You can watch them go through the machinations, believing, strangely, that their own justifications will be shared by the shadowrunning community if it's ever found out. Maybe I'm cynical; I've watched my own Players murder whole villages for the XP alone, so I could be overreacting.
If I were running that adventure, my goal would be to develop an emotional attachment to Betsy somehow. This is easier said than done (for my Players, at least), but even if I fail I make sure I don't force their hands into doing the right thing. My games have a film noir motif going, where doing the right thing may get you Karma, but it won't pay. If I can't develop emotional attachment, then I make it in the Players' best interest to, at the least, keep her alive and out of the hands of either the gang or EVO, appealing to their self-interests. Maybe Betsy is great at doing something? If she can be of great use in their jobs as runners, they'll be far more interested in that than money alone. I throw them a bone or two to get their greedy little minds working. Maybe she can be a great hacker, or a super assassin like River Tam out of Firefly, or a powerful magic-user of some kind? I haven't ran that adventure, so if she's none of those things, I might have to make something up. Maybe she's naive, but not stupid. Maybe she knows where something of value to the PCs is that they'd want to keep her from the more barbaric elements at least long enough to do what she wants them to do? Maybe she knows where a fortune of paydata is and knows precisely how to bypass all the security protecting it so that the group's hacker will never be found out?
This is why I say know your players. You may end up burned believing that they'll try to be moral upstanding guys, but I admit I've trained my Players to behave like criminals in Shadowrun, because that's basically what they are. Sure, they could be good, but being bad is easier.
-
Thanks I'll do that!!
Just the ending I'm very afraid to lose control, I want to see all possibilities to debbug it hehe
But I though in that option of Halloweeners, very brutal nightmare take her again and use like sex slave. Evo is a brutal too, cause in my plot she's a clone who survived, but she was made by the daughter of one of the bioengineers, and he was killed cause he deleted all the files to the corps can't copy his project. That's why they need Betsy (BioEngeneering Technological SYstem). They'll need to made many and many experiments on her. But I'm thinking more in the consequences and the rewards to players, the number of notoriety that they'll get, the number of karma and there it goes.....
Generally speaking, if you run your campaign to include things like Reputation and Notoriety, your Players will take that into account. But, and I can't stress this enough, I've seen Players do the most morally reprehensible things that their characters would never do, and not even bat an eye at it. You can watch them go through the machinations, believing, strangely, that their own justifications will be shared by the shadowrunning community if it's ever found out. Maybe I'm cynical; I've watched my own Players murder whole villages for the XP alone, so I could be overreacting.
If I were running that adventure, my goal would be to develop an emotional attachment to Betsy somehow. This is easier said than done (for my Players, at least), but even if I fail I make sure I don't force their hands into doing the right thing. My games have a film noir motif going, where doing the right thing may get you Karma, but it won't pay. If I can't develop emotional attachment, then I make it in the Players' best interest to, at the least, keep her alive and out of the hands of either the gang or EVO, appealing to their self-interests. Maybe Betsy is great at doing something? If she can be of great use in their jobs as runners, they'll be far more interested in that than money alone. I throw them a bone or two to get their greedy little minds working. Maybe she can be a great hacker, or a super assassin like River Tam out of Firefly, or a powerful magic-user of some kind? I haven't ran that adventure, so if she's none of those things, I might have to make something up. Maybe she's naive, but not stupid. Maybe she knows where something of value to the PCs is that they'd want to keep her from the more barbaric elements at least long enough to do what she wants them to do? Maybe she knows where a fortune of paydata is and knows precisely how to bypass all the security protecting it so that the group's hacker will never be found out?
This is why I say know your players. You may end up burned believing that they'll try to be moral upstanding guys, but I admit I've trained my Players to behave like criminals in Shadowrun, because that's basically what they are. Sure, they could be good, but being bad is easier.
Thanks again man!!!
You gave me a brillant idea, I was thinking in her just like some object, and maybe have a emotional attachment, but I'll try to do that without been too forced up.
But you gave me the idea to put her like a magician, cause they don't have that in the group, and well, if the Doctors of EVO cloned someone with awekened powers, that means that they discover how to reply this, so... that gave more interesting background to the history!! FANTASTIC MAN!!!
Betsy was living in Czech Republic with Dr. Martin (A dwarf who, with another doctor created Betsy based in Emy, the daughter of the other doctor). But Evo killed the other doctor and tried to kill Dr. Martin who take Betsy with 3 years old and raise her in the Eastern Europe. Everything was fine until Betsy discover that she was UCAS citizen (Somehow, don't think about that yet) and travel there without the "father's" knowledge.
There where the shit hits the fan, and Betsy, alone try to make contacts and start to envolve herself with the Halloweeners, and Nightmare get so much interest in her, and made her "Girlfriend". But in this time, Evo Dicovered that she is in Seattle again (other thing that I can't mind yet how), then Evo took her from Halloweeners and ask for some Runners to do of the scenes a Smuggling run, of some merchant, a heavy box inside of a bunker, and in the second chapter of my history the Halloweener attack the bunker.
Well my Players are:
-Playstation (Yudi Takahira)
A Japanese human decker, who made infiltration of bioquimic industries and have a very old parents and a tetraplegic sister, and with every money of runs, he send a part of money to them.
He's too the non-elected leader, and the person with most sense of honor and duty in the group.
-Gnoll (Sergei)
A troll that was abandoned by the parents in the russian neighborhood in a frontdoor in a basket. But by twist of fate, the house was of the Vory, and they decide to raise the baby to become a killing machine.
He's the tanker, with prejudice for indians cause he blames the return of magic in the world becaus of them, and in consequence he borned a Troll because of that.
-Ripper (John Smith)
A Ares military officer, travelled his whole life there and try to get some influence and power, but he needed outside contacts and more money, so he decided to become a Shadowrunner, unfortunaly he's broken now cause he made an implant of Wired Reflexes 2, and is desesperate looking for job, cause he lost his car, and his good looking appartment.
-Quicksilver (???)
A rich elf from Tir na Tairngire who decide to be cool and try to walk with Lačsa, he though that would be easiar, and after been trolled, he take his money and payd a sensei to train his adept powers and become good with people and to shoot. He's the face of the group, and also very quick and intuitive.
-Kamicrazy (Akira)
Daughter of an important member of Yamagichi-gumi, Akira always took interest in the criminal life, but she always liked the go-gangers and was fascinate with them. One day she escaped through the walls of her house and meet some go-gangers called 405 Hellhounds and begins to rendez-vous with them. She dated a Troll of the Spikes and after that her family disowned her. She's the rigger of the group.
-Kairus (Without shadowrun name yet)
Kairus born in greece around the 20's, when he was just a teen elf with his twin sister and parents in the country side of the Greece, The AFA attacked his village and he saw just fire and blood, became a machine of anger. He escaped and enter the military forces with 15 years. Now he's running out from Greece cause he killed a very important member of Turkish mafia, and he's getting in Seattle now.
The last Player didn't decide his character, cause he's between an awekened character or a grimmick decker. But I know very well this player (he's my older brother) and he's the mechanic like player, who made very peculiar characters and eat the rules of the system.
Of all of those players, just 3 (Playstation, Quicksilver and Gnoll) played the last session, the other players, some fight between the group, others live in another city now. So the rest will be the first run.
And 2(Kairus and Akira) of them I never played a table with them... so it will be a incognite.
But I think Akira will like more Betsy, and Playstation for be the more "soft" guy from inside.
Thanks again, and nice to talk with you.
You have awesome ideas and somehow understands the feeling that I want to pass!!!! That is Awesome!!!
-
So, to understand this a bit better, Betsy, I'm assuming, is a clone that's only 3 years old? Is that in terms of physical development, or actual age? I ask because I assume she's past the point of physical adolescent development to be considered attractive enough to be "girlfriend" material to the Halloweeners. Then again, she could actually be underage and the Halloweeners are monstrous pedophiles, which would really make things rather sordid, and could help develop an emotional attachment to the Players, even my own wretched bastards.
There are lots of ways to give Betsy a UCAS citizenship. Basically, at the time of "birth," fill out a birth certificate, online, using the Matrix, and give Betsy a surname, such as Betsy Martin (named after Dr. Martin). Or, have Doc Martin buy her or make her a Fake SIN. But the first way is the easier option (and cheaper).
But, beware. One of my players, having looked at this thread, is a Law Clerk, and he came up with this option. If Betsy has a citizenship status, that gives her powerful legal protections. UCAS Law prohibits certain cloning (I know this because I read a story about it), and the instant she sets foot on UCAS soil, she's legally a free girl. Though the UCAS is not the United States of America, Slavery is still illegal (corporations get around this with Extraterritoriality, but even so, the Corporate Court, I believe,has sanctions against it, but, there are all kinds of ways around this). This means that if your players are legally savvy, and they want to keep her out of the hands of EVO, one way to do that is to give her to the UCAS Justice Department, and make this a public thing, so that the politicians will have a harder time being bribed by EVO to get her back. The JD will put her under Witness Protection, give her a new identity, and perhaps even send her to another country where Extraterritoriality is not an issue (like Tir Tairngire).
I'm assuming Betsy may be intelligent, but naive, which is why she found herself with a notorious street gang, and fell in with them mainly for the protection, unaware of what lay in store for her. After all, she may not be stupid, but she is unacquainted with the seedier side of the Sixth World. If I am correct, and as you say the Halloweeners are going to make her into a sex slave, then you might be able to bolster up this aspect of the adventure a bit in order to develop an emotional attachment to Betsy for the Players. But what if a savvy gang leader realizes she's a magician of some kind? Having a mage or a shaman in the gang is worth her weight in platinum, and maybe this leader doesn't want to make her into a sex slave (but you use that as a going premise for the Players)? Maybe this gang leader has a fatherly (or motherly, as the case may be) fondness for Betsy and wants to raise her as a daughter and bring her up in the gang, because once she learns her abilities she will be a force to be reckoned with. They may even be able to take on the stronger gangs and organized crime syndicates in the Seattle area if she's a magical savant. So that gives you, as the GM, a powerful villain in the form of that gang leader; he will commit his gang to the recovery of that girl at whatever cost, even if it costs half of his guys their lives, because he can always recruit more and reclaim any lost turf with Betsy as his right hand go-to magician.
I'm assuming the Players will be hired by a Mr. Johnson in affiliation with EVO. If Betsy is as valuable as I think she is, Mr. Johnson will not just hire one team, but two, maybe three? Maybe even four, but keep it simple: Mr. Johnson may well want to pocket the rest of his expense account for himself, after all.
When I run my games, I have an overview of the situation that I record on a kind of a collage-flowchart kind of thing, where I can see who's involved, what their goals are, and what they're going to do. Don't be too afraid to make one faction, or all of them, make some mistakes and blunders, because that makes the game interesting and kind of makes the Players nervous. Say one of the runner teams that Mr. Johnson hires is a bunch of street-level wannabe punks, easily dispatchable by your Players (especially against a dude like Sergei). Players love to kill, even if their opposition is a bunch of wannabes, because it's a good test of their abilities and makes them feel real good. That's a good blunder for Mr. Johnson to make, and it might even lead them to suspect that Mr. Johnson is trying to hose them. I love that kind of angle. And if the PCs are really nervous, Mr. Johnson himself could say that he's only one of perhaps two or three others in the company who want Betsy back, and he's counting on them to help him, which gives the PCs a lie to possibly detect. Makes putting points into the more social skills and attributes worthwhile, so try to sneak that in if you can.
Gangers are easy to make incompetent, but send in a B-team of gangers against the PCs first, to let them know the gang means business, unless the adventure says otherwise. The gang leader is not stupid, and though he's not going to send in his A-team yet (in fact, he may go with the A-team) right away, he's needs to appraise his opposition, and he may even consider hiring more professional help, especially once they see the PCs have guys like Gnoll, Ripper, and Kamicrazy (gangs tend to be rather wary of Riggers, at least in my games, because Riggers might as well be wizards as far as they're concerned).
-
Nice, TheWayfinder!!
I'll see that, but I think that option about other runners team, unfortunally I'll not integrate in my adventure, cause, the game is tomorrow, and I don't hav much time to implement this.
But I'll think in something else to have this competitivity between runner or maybe in another run.
But I'll use the idea of she been a important magician to the gangers.
And she's 14, she went to Czesh when she was 3 years old.