[MijRai]

Hey there everybody!  I'm starting up a Fifth Edition game at the end of the week through Skype, set in Hong Kong.  The premise is based vaguely off of Far Cry 3; the PCs are 'normal', unsatisfied college kids from Seattle who end up getting sent up shit creek without a paddle.  This occurs via kidnapping (for various nefarious reasons, at that) and being shipped to Hong Kong for whatever horrible thing the players can think of before they can pull off a 'jailbreak', so to speak.  They find themselves trapped in Hong Kong, freaking out, terrified, etc.  Between the episodes of bowel dumping fear and chaos, however, the PCs realize that they... They LIKE it.  Not just like it, but freaking love it!  The law-breaking, the fighting, the chaos.  It brings the excitement and purpose they'd been missing in life, at the low, low cost of some of their humanity.  Them being stuck on the 'wrong' side of the Pacific, the eastern center of 'running, quite close to the Warlord States and all them fancy pirates, starts looking like a good thing to them. 

Anyways, this is going to the the first time I'm actually GMing Shadowrun at all (I do have experience with other systems, though, and I've played a bit of Fourth Edition).  As such, I'm interested in having a thread I can bring up issues, discuss ideas, all that jazz.  As far as planning goes, I've gone with a skeleton system for the plot- a bunch of bare-bones that can be put together however they need to be (within reason, the skull obviously doesn't belong in the pelvis unless you're a corp-spokesman ).  Things that 'have' to happen are planned out to some extent, even if they can fit in different parts of the timeline, and there's plenty of side-options as well.  As we all know, no plan survives contact with PCs, so I'm keeping the options wide open so I have a better chance of catching some tasty plot-fish.  Some nice lures I'll be tossing out are leads in relation to the individuals/organizations who were trying to buy them; a personal motivation is a great motivation. 

The characters are as follows:
One Chinese-American Ork language major, who pays the bills by delivering take-out Chinese or working in the kitchen. (the 'rigger')
One half-Native American parabiology/ecology major, who grew up in upstate UCAS on a farm. (the 'sam')
One Manhattan-born computer/optics major, a gymnast/Aikido chick. (the 'decker' and 'infiltration expert')
One elf mage, does performance art for a living while working on a (you guessed it) liberal arts degree! (the mage)
One engineering major, a Seattle-native, who is going to end up Awakening as this stuff goes down. (the 'conjuror' and something of a 'fighter')

Any initial ideas/comments/suggestions?

[cantrip]

You have it pretty well thought out! 
I like your player concepts - simple with lots of potential. And setting them up as 'fish out of water' setting is a good way to bring them together as a team.

Keep flexible as a GM and have fun -- and really, it sounds like you are already doing that!

[Wavefire]

Something that's come up in my campaign is that characters that aren't "criminals" seem to try to avoid commiting crimes. I've had a few instances where intention was for a run against something and the players instead decided to use some round about legal way. A lot of fun but be prepared for some very out of the box (legal and peaceful) ways of problem solving.

[MijRai]

I am prepared for off-the-wall (I've known some of these players for years, they can get a bit rambunctious), although I doubt round-about legal methods are really going to come up.  I'm just happy I managed to snag some drama-free players; I met them through an Exalted chat, and Exalted (and all other White Wolf games, for that matter) gets full of drama. 

[Blazrath]

As one of the players for the campaign, we are already taking bets on who will break first and who will become the bleakest. I'm just hoping to use a spear as a lance and kill someone riding a motorcycle like that. Pass that, I'm up for most stuff. I do like how I signed my own extradition order by asking where we were going to play and then tell him I thought about starting a game in Hong Kong. Oh well, at least I get to play Far Cry 4 before it goes on the market.

Anyways, if you can't guess, I'm the player that is playing what the GM characterizes as the Sam. I was going to make a funny comment on it meaning Scout Assault Mercenary, but that seemed kind of lame. But I was figuring on being the main fighter of the group with gear and weapons that are not normally wireless.

[cantrip]

As one of the players for the campaign, we are already taking bets on who will break first and who will become the bleakest. I'm just hoping to use a spear as a lance and kill someone riding a motorcycle like that.

You should look into Combat Biking then! 

Not as long as a spear - but cyberspurs would work well if you are the Street Sammy. (Also check out monofilament whips --- shhhhh! Don't tell your GM I brought it up!) That is something that would be ultra-fun on a bike. 

Welcome to the shadows gentleman!

[MijRai]

Oh, I'm perfectly fine with someone trying to learn how to use a monofilament whip.  I mean, they'll be starting at Exotic Weapon 0, so that means I have many chances to see them glitch before getting good enough to use it properly!

[cantrip]

Oh - are they starting with no/low combat skills? I saw they were all starting out as non-runners/student types. Did you go with street builds or just have them put skills into non-runner areas so to speak?

Monofilament is pretty unforgiving when it comes to Glitches!

[MijRai]

Non-runner areas.  A lot of Bs and As for Attribute, that's for sure.

Also got a new character; a Dwarf lotto winner who did the stuff you aren't supposed to do with the winnings- drugs and pricey expenditures that you don't need!

[MijRai]

The first session went down, and it went down great!  The highlight?  Our ork managed to critically glitch his roll against the Narco-jet he took (he ran outside with a baseball bat, came around the corner, and failed his perception test to detect the drone with a dart rifle right there until it got a shot off).  He got to wake up with no pants and a sore ass, since killing him with an overdose seemed a little premature (the lack of pants is from the fall he took, actually). 

[cantrip]

Oh, man! I read that the first time and was like "Double Take" -- I misconstrued the lack of pants and soreness. LOL. I think I'll go home now.

[MijRai]

Oh, man! I read that the first time and was like "Double Take" -- I misconstrued the lack of pants and soreness. LOL. I think I'll go home now.

That was the entire point of it, actually.  All of the other players woke up with him missing pants, and complaining about a sore ass (and whole body), and they're trying to figure out how to broach the subject.