I ran this shadowrun as the first easy run of a campaign. It's part Pink Mohawk, part social challenge, part "don't crap your pants" and you'll be fine. I didn't have a name for this mission, but in the spirit of this thread I will name it "A Boat Load of Taxes." There is no real legwork portion, as this is a milk run. Simply a Johnson meet, a likely fight, a minor electronic security system, and a "don't crap your pants" encounter with a police boat.
Mr. Johnson is actually named Stuart Glass and he doesn't hide this like typical Johnsons. He holds the initial meet in the rented back room of a nightclub called the Rook Squared (With the actual word Squared being a squared sign, as in the math notation). It is a club that caters to science geeks, chess geeks, sci fi geeks, and geeks in general. There is a slight bias by the staff against non geeks, but it should not be a challenge to get inside, inquire where Mr. Glass is, and get into the back room. The players should not be able to get anything larger than a light pistol inside though. This is one way they can fail to get in there. Extremely lethal cyberware will be detected probaly by scanners and make the staff nervous. However, they will calm down if Mr. Glass' name is dropped and and ask him about the runners, at which point staff security guards will escort the runners to the back room. The only way the runners will fail to get back there is if they are ridiculously stupid and pink mohawk. Feel free to add complications if you wish at this point, such as making it harder to get back there.
Stuart Glass is a Fed (An agent of the UCAS federal government in Seattle. Specifically he is an elite auditor agent for the IRS) He is every stereotype you can think of about a tax geek. He is dressed conservatively in a gray suit. Has a severe haircut, glasses. He's a Human about 50 years old. He talks like Ben Stein as the boring economics teacher from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Stat wise, he is not all he appears. He does indeed have a high logic attribute and accounting skill. However, he also has the typical stats of an elite agent. Use Company Man or the equivalent. If the characters are stupid enough to attack him they can probaly kill him, but it will get nasty. And it will destroy their reps. So, hopefully they aren't that dumb. They weren't in my game.
Mr. Glass wants them to steal a boat from a UCAS citizen who is way behind on their taxes. The boat is located on a dock on a private island in the Puget Sound. (This is a Seattle based campaign) Mr. Glass will provide both a boat and a pilot. It will be easy to get there he says. (It is easy to get there when I ran it. You can make it harder as a complication if you wish) The target is rich and thus has very good security and huge bribes to the cops. However, Mr. Glass has his own connections and will interfere somewhat with the police responses. As for actual island defenses, the target's mansion will be heavily defended, as the owner is paranoid about the mansion being robbed or attacked. Mr. Glass tells the runners to not go near the mansion. If the runners are stupid enough to do this, they will fail at the run and possibly die. (If your game is pink mohawk and your runners are crazily pink mohawk, they can assault the mansion and possibly win. If so, they can loot the place if they have time. Do what you wish in your own campaigns you pink mohawk wackos! But you will be forced to design the mansion defenses and what loot is in there)
Mr. Glass tells them there is security on the boat, both alarms and guards. Probaly about 10. (This is true for the most part. The guards can be anything you wish. I had two teams of 6, and one elite. The regular guards I used similar to rookie cops. The elite I used similar to a veteran cop. He has level 1 wired reflexes and a smartlink. All the guards had smartlinks only. Mostly submachine guns and armored jackets all around. The boat has both an electric trap and an alarm system on it. Not too difficult, but at least some electronics or hardware skills will be needed. (Add as much security to the boat as you wish)
The boat and dock are located on one side of this small island, about 100 meters from the mansion. If the players go no where near the mansion they are mostly fine until they run into the guards. There is some slight vegetation, and runners can use stealth skills until they are 20 meters from the dock. (Mine did) There are 6 guards 20 meters from the boat. There are 3 guards on the dock, and 3 guards and an elite guard on the boat itself.
Assuming the players take care of the guards and the alarms, they just need to pilot the boat to the pier in Seattle Mr. Glass had laid down in their GPS. It is likely the players have no boat skills. Force them to make some default rolls, but don't make it too hard, as the route is easy.
The runners will be ordered to stop on the way by a police boat. (At least in how I ran it. Remove this encounter if you want to make this milk run even more easy!) In the way I ran this it wasn't really a true social test. It was more a "don't crap your pants" encounter and a tension builder. The cops have not been alerted that the runners stole this boat. (Stuart Glass used is Fed influence to stop that) It's just a routine stop. (Feel free to make it a social challenge if you wish)
The boat cops are slightly suspicious, but only slightly. They will demand to search the boat in a very forcefull manner. The cops know this is an illegal search, but they don't give a damn and suspect that most proper citizens will cave to this. They also know criminals often don't have SIN numbers and thus no rights. The smart move for the runners here is to simply let the cops search the boat. (My runners did this, fortunately) The cops will NOT search the runners themselves. (You can have them do that if you wish, but it could get very ugly, because the runners will almost certainly be hiding guns under their long coats. If the runners refuse the search, then this encounter will become a social challenge. They had better have a Face or at least a partial face to smooth this over. If the runners were stupid enough to loot the boat guards and thus have a dozen submachine guns stashed on the boat (And possibly their armored jackets) then the runners need to avoid a search and thus really need a Faceman.
If the runners succeed in stealing the boat and getting it back, they are paid 10,000 a piece and as a favor from Stuart Glass get a 10 % discount discount on lifestyle, tied into whatever fake ID they pay their lifestyle with. (Adjust this pay as you wish. I realize it's generous, but I ran this at the start of a campaign when I'm Mr. Smiley GM) The runners can negotiate the 10,000 pay up to 25%. They can not negotiate the lifestyle bonus.
The runners also gain Federal IRS elite auditor agent Stuart Glass as a connections 4, loyalty 1 contact. A very useful contact, especially if the runners have no federal government contacts.
The runners are paid at the dock when they deliver the boat, by some hired goons. There is no need for a second meet with Stuart Glass, unless you want one to happen for some reason.
