[BrusselStark]

Greetings!

I have a cool adventure idea forming, just want some ideas to flesh it out. 

This is a starting adventure for a new group of players... I'm also a fairly new GM (but I have played and GM'd a few times before).

A smuggler has some "business interests" in a certain part of town.  However, word on the street is a gang war is brewing between two local gangs.  A gang war will attract attention from Lone Star, and the smuggler doesn't want to risk moving goods if there is too much law enforcement around.

The runners' job is to STOP the gang war and keep Lone Star far away.  The smuggler needs at least a week to move his goods - but if the runners can keep the peace for even longer, they might get a nice bonus.

I like how this is open-ended, and there are different levels of success based on how stable the PCs can make the area.  Maybe they try to find the cause of the gang war, and "resolve" it?  Maybe they intimidate one side into leaving town?  Maybe they stall by stealing weapons/vehicles, or assassinating the gang's leaders?

I still need a lot of details to flesh this out.  Like...
 - Who are the gangs?
 - What's the motivation behind the gang war?
 - What types of things could my players do to try to stop it?  I want to try to anticipate as many courses of action as possible.

Guess I'll leave it at that for now and see what people think! 

[pariah3j]

I would say if you take that idea and break it into multiple runs, with clear and specific objectives I think it'd work better. Maybe the Johnson aka smuggler has gotten word that something specific is going down and sends the shadowrunners in to intercept/stop the event.

[Walks Through Walls]

I agree that a definite objective to throw the group into the middle of the situation and to get them started is a good idea.

Another idea would be that the smuggler has a stash location in one of the buildings that is now in the middle of the gang war. If it is in a more run down or even abandoned part of town the building could even have changed hands a couple of times. The runners need to get into the building recover the stash and get out.
Now of course things will go  wrong from there. One or both gangs could think they are hostile, the stash is gone and they have to track it down, or the stash isn't exactly what they were lead to  believe are a few of quick possibilities. Heck you could incorporate all of them together.

As far as what gangs it would depend on how big league you want this to be. If your in Seattle the Seattle 2072 book has a list of gangs in the back. One of the advantages of the other reason for the runners to go in is the details like why they are warring isn't as important right off the bat. This way if the group doesn't show as much interest as you had hoped or just lays waste to everyone you haven't wasted hours of prep for nothing. If they latch onto the story then you can add these details either on the fly or before the next run. Some of my coolest twists have come spur of  the moment.

As far as anticipating actions my experience with shadowrun is that no matter how many possible actions you think of the runners will come up with something else. I would spend time on a bit of background and details to the gangs and then just go with my gut on how the gangs would react to what the runners are doing. Or even what would make the best story even if it isn't the most likely course for the gangers.

Hope all of this helps.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

I like your original idea the most.  It gives the party freedom to play it their own way.  As for gangs, just pick any two.  The ancients and the blood razors, or whatever.  The reason for the war is turf.  That's plenty of motivation. As for what they might attempt...  It could literally be anything.  Suction of one gang leader and talking him out of the war.  Poisoning one gang at a hangout.  Assassination of a leader.  Instigating the war to make it happen sooner, and then wiping out the remnants after they weaken each other.  Convincing a different gang to attack one of the two gangs, diverting their attention and forces.  See? Anything.

[Walks Through Walls]

For an ongoing or existing campaign or a group experienced with the system a free form adventure can be really cool and one of the big benefits o Shadowrun. This is also true with a new GM it is harder to keep things going with more going on.

This is the reason I suggested a more specific start that then can easily expand into the original idea. It is always cool when you revisit the same location and meet NPCs over multiple adventures. My thought being let everyone get used to game universe and genre allowing yourselves to grow as you become more familiar with everything.

[GiraffeShaman]

- What's the motivation behind the gang war?

Sometimes the corps or other powerful parties "donate" some major hardware to a  minor gang. This ineviatably leads to the minor gang butting up against other gangs. It can get pretty ugly when 2 corps are each giving big guns such as assault rifles to 2 different gangs. Sometimes it's just one party supplying both sides. Sometimes it's 2 corps fighting a proxy war, using the gangs as proxies  since they can't out right attack each other due to pressure from more powerful corps or the Corporate Court. So there's a possibility for a cause for the war.

[Warmachinez]

GiraffeShaman's idea about the Corps also makes me think that you could include the Syndicates in this story to have a political side to the whole adventure. Maybe the Syndicates are the ones pushing these gang to go to war?