Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Conundrum on <05-31-16/0348:51>
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So in my current campaign my players are heisting a magical item and being players may grab other items not nailed down. Given the circumstances corps and police are unlikely to come looking for it so they have good odds of getting away clean if they do grab extra stuff. I am currently planning for it to be pretty basic stuff like some rarer reagents but am hoping to come up with something more interesting, I am about to trawl through my 4e books for some stuff and just was wondering if any had some decent ideas that would not be absurdly valuable like orichalcum or simpler stuff like basilisk scales. I am often open to bringing things forward from older editions or outright homebrewing so I am not particularly restricted.
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Understand that the cheapest 'magical loot' is worth thousands of nuyen; serious stuff is worth tens and hundreds of thousands, and if they're picking up 'anything not nailed down' and you state that there's a bunch of things, they can easily walk out of there with a million or more.
This means 'the people they steal it from are definitely going to come looking.' This is the sort of thing that's the start of a whole series of issues for the PCs, even if they play their cards right.
That said, you are essentially looking at 'stuff that fits what the book says'. This isn't D&D, where you can (normally) have a little gizmo that does something interesting all on its own; a focus in SR requires a magically-active individual kicking it, or a summoned-and-commanded spirit at the very least. Things that don't fit into that general viewpoint are either dangerous ('Bottled Demon'), powerful ('Bottled Demon', the essence focus possessed by Martin de Vries), or peculiar (the 'attention focus' used by the Tir na nOg assassin Teachdaire) - and often all three. Otherwise, unusual magical items are rare and made for a specific, usually target- or time-sensitive purpose: 'Bind the House On The Hill Demon', or 'Gather Power At The Utter Dark of the Moon on 23 September' (which happens once every seven years or whatever, and is keyed to the two hours on either side of the exact time the moon is at its darkest, which in turn relies on a specific longitude on the planet which changes each year). These things are usually very expensive, insanely tedious and unique, and will typically work very rarely, but since they're made for a specific reason, the owner will definitely come after it.
Something 'unusual but safe' is likely to fit under the 'normal focus, unusual shape' category: a power focus designed as a pair of handcuffs, for example. But remember, you are still looking at tens and hundreds of thousands of nuyen just for that pair of 'cuffs, depending on the power of the focus. So just remember - stealing one or two small thing (in this case) might be doable, but stealing a lot ... well, it can really bump your game to a whole new power level. Be forewarned.
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A nice way to do this would be cursed objects.
A weapon focus with some of the fouler characteristics of the Imbue Item ritual from Street Grimoire. It would explain why the current owner isn't very interested in getting the thing back and also makes for nice plot hooks.
Another option would be broken artifacts that aren't worth that much in their current state (and consequently don't display any powers)
But yeah, otherwise your runners would be guaranteed to be hunted for those objects - magical artifacts are very, very valuable indeed.
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Remember that these things are rare and exotic, so security would be more like a museum then a vault. So the cheaper things, like reagents and radical reagents would be grab able in bulk, but artefacts would be indivually secured. People don't just snatch everything if they rob museums, they plan out each target specifically, because security and storage are often different on a case by case basis for each artefact.
Likely they'd be able to target one or two high value items, and then a mass of reagents, possibly a couple lower value foci. At least it would be reasonable for you to set it up this way to limit the rewards to a reasonable level for their power.
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Yeah - TWO nailed it. I'd second his suggestion on 'Bottled Demon' --- check it out sometime if you can, it is a 1st edition run, but some of the plot hooks could easily be used. An unknown artifact could be interesting -- if it's something not everyone knows about, you could for example have one person/entity interested in it. Maybe a small stone that is of interest to a Free Spirit? Or something along those lines.
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Please heed TWO advice, man knows his stuff.
But, there is an other type of artifact out there that he didn't touch on. the "Freaky Stuff"...
There are rare items out there that have "just become active" all on there own..... (Well, not really. Read on)
Usually connected to places of great emotional discord, these artifacts embody the places that awakened them. Like the scalpel of Mengele, or the knife of Hiroshima, these items are both a benefit and curse to those that bond with them. (And they are scattered about through over 100 books and 5 editions)
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There was a NAN combat knife too, close to sixty years old but still a Force... 7 Weapon focus?
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There's been about 15 items they have examoned during the books, be it novel, short fiction, or game supplement.
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... I would definitely want a reference on these.
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... I would definitely want a reference on these.
The pearl earring in the Burning Bright novel.
There was an other 2 in the Dragon Heart Trilogy, but I forget what they were and I don't own the books anymore to double check.
The Artifacts trilogy has 2 more that I remember (the major item for the most of the plot, and a lesser one)
The Mengele scalpel and a "open bonded' weapon foci were in a 4e PDF (the name escapes me ATM and I don't have my PDFs on this device)
Predator and Prey had a minor artifact that could be recovered from the amazon rainforest. (3e)
That's a few off the top of my head, would have to go looking for more examples.