[Leevizer]

I'd like to discuss a possible scenario or campaign idea I had a few days ago and would like to know if this has been done before? I'd be amazed if it hadn't been done...

Basically the premise is as follows: The players are contacted by their fixer about a job and a meet is set up. The players will meet with a mild-mannered and well-dressed individual who they will propably assume for Mr. Johnson. He will place a commlink with a trideo projector on the table and turn it on.

A grave looking hologram of a man is seen sitting on an armchair, a table with a wineglass next to it and other stereotypical stuff like that before he begins to speak. "If you are watching this, I have come to an unfortunate end... In short, I am dead." etc.

Basically, the run is a rich individuals last wish/revenge on his murderers/something like that. The mild-mannered individual will act as the middleman for this run, for example "I promise a sum equivalent to hundred thousand nuyen for whoever brings my murderers to justice, to be given to the responsible party by my assistant/butler/servant (pick the one most suited)". The main point being is that the Johnson is dead. He isn't an AI, a magician who's about to lose his link to his meat-space body or a fragmentation of data or a spirit. He is dead.

Here I have a few questions, hooks, ideas and so on that I'd like comments on.

Run ideas:

1) Revenge: Find out who did it and either kill or capture them. I think this is the simplest one.

2) Find the body: If Mr. Johnson is missing, presumed dead, the objective here might be to find where he is and confirm that he is, in fact, dead. Either muscling their way to a Organized Crime boss basement to find his body tied to a chair and beaten to death or legworking to find the morgue where his body is... If he is in a morgue at all.

3) Last request: There is something that he needed to do before he died and hadn't gotten around to it. This can be pretty much anything but might take off some of the uniqueness of this idea away?

Hooks and Twists

1) Other runners: The Trideo has either been leaked to others as well, there are other runner teams that have been contacted about this, or instead of a meet, the trideo is actually broadcast publicly (If you have seen the Japanese movie Shield of Straw, you'll know why this might not be the best approach)

2) Police: The will has been also distributed to Lone Star who obviously wants to solve the crime and get the money as well.

3) Family: What are the opinions if the other family members? Are there other family members? Did they actually facilitate the murder? Do they want the Runners to do something as well?

4) I'll be seeing you: This isn't all that the man had prepared and is only an introduction to a long-standing campaign, facilitated from beyond the grave by a crafty businessman.

5) The identity of Mr. Johnson: Corrupt politician? Local benefactor and Meta-Rights activist? Just a succesful businessman? What he did and how he did it might affect who the players encounter and even if they want to do this job at all. Should it come to light only later or would he be upfront about it?

Issues:

1) The players want more info: As the Johnson is dead, free questions are somewhat impossible as is negotiation. Should it, instead of just being a recorded Trideo, be a programmed software imitating this person, thus allowing for questions and negotiation in a limited sense? "Ah, your offer is killing me..."

2) Enough to drive a campaign on: Would this work as a campaign or just as an one-off scenario? If it is not an one-off thing, should there be relatives or such of this person asking the Runner team to Run? Or should this person just be crafty enough to facilitate stuff in advance? Dunkelzahn did it... Though he was a dragon.

Do you guys think this might work? Did this spark any ideas on your end? Or can you see any major issues with a campaign or run such as this?

[ZeConster]

Considering this is more or less the same plot hook as Dead Man's Switch, there are definitely possibilities here.

[Leevizer]

Considering this is more or less the same plot hook as Dead Man's Switch, there are definitely possibilities here.

...That was the scenario in Shadowrun returns? I feel embarassed about not remembering that one...

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

... and most of Dunkelzahn's Will had plenty of carrots like Plot #3, and several sticks like Plot #1. So the idea isn't totally new.

What you might do is build up to it - make Mr. Johnson a well-liked and -respected member of the shadow community.  Make him someone with fingers in lots of pies, but who did his best to a) do good by his teams, including the PCs, and ) do good by the community.  Someone similar to Bull, for example.  Not always a totally righteous dude, but a good guy to work for.

Start setting this up early on, if you can - make him a frequent Johnson (1 run in 3, perhaps) or the team's Fixer, let the PCs meet other shadowrunners as both competition and allies when arriving early for a meet or leaving one, or even just standing guard for the guy for a couple days while he does business.  (Ooo - I like this latter part.  Anyhow.)  Start quietly planting hints and implications - this guy has big personal plans, or has a cause he's either the driving force behind or to which he is really dedicated.  This makes him enemies, but he's a smart guy, so he has contingency plans in place, and has figured out the 'road signs' on the way to the completion of his goal(s).

Then he gets whacked.

So his assistant (beautiful elf fem or brooding ork, whatever) calls all his teams - the PCs, sure, but you know, a dozen, two dozen other crews from relative noobs with only 3 runs and 20 karma under their belts to street-legend pros who the PCs have only heard about (good time to bring out one or two of those favorite old PCs of your own) and gets them all together.  "I regret to inform you all that Johnson X is dead.  He has, however, made some plans, and here he is to tell you about it ..."

Then run with all your ideas.  Recover the body; identify who did it; take retribution in a truly spectacular and excessive fashion (or subtle and quiet, if you want).  Then start pulling out the 'road map requests'.  The assistant has the full set of plans, but certain branches are trimmed depending on what happens since the guy's death - the Yakuza are getting uppity, or the Governor is backing down on something, whatever.  And the guy has put aside a Big Chunk of Change in order to get all these things done.  Oh, there's some room for negotiation - 5k or 10k per entire run (not per runner) at the most, though, so you can start treating them as 'good karma' runs.

Maybe some of the other teams will try to horn in on your PCs' business; ideally, they won't, but that's up to you as the GM.  However, sometimes the PCs might be called in with another team, for one or the other of them to act as a distraction - or even both teams mixing, the 'hot members' going off to do the distraction while the 'cool' members do the sneak-and-grab.  This could allow the players to design and play other character concepts for single runs, all of them working together on a temporary secure WAN, each player playing two PCs - their own on one team, and a temp one on the other.  And you can switch back and forth between tense sneaking and hacking over here and wild heavy-weapons-fire chaos over there.

Or maybe one of the teams does start trying to horn in on the others' jobs, and as a result the PCs are asked to perform an 'overwatch' function for a couple of critical runs by the other teams - and to finalize the troublemakers if they show.

And once The Goal is achieved, you can conclude the adventure series, perhaps with the assistant now taking the old Johnson's job.

[Leevizer]

Thanks Wyrm, that wasn't anything like I'd have run it originally so that gave me a lot to think of...

And I guess the idea is or atleast came off like a mini Dunkelzahn's will, especially with the title like that... Though I wasn't really going for that.

Wyrm, one of my main points in this is to "shock" or surprise the players with a Dead Johnson, which means I don't think that they should have ran for him before. Your idea is a good one to make sure the players want to work with him though... But do you recon you'd be able to part with any knowledge regarding how to make the players want to take the job without knowing him personally? Still the same "shadowrunner benefactor" angle or just enough cash to make the players sure to accept it? "I promise the sum of one hundred thousand nuyen..." or some neat gear?

Obviously the assistant would need to be a brooding Ork. I had thought of one idea being that either a bunch of runners are contacted and played the same Trideo at different locations or at the same time, especially if they are given the SAME objective. But like I said, it might lead to a lot of chaotic stuff going down with the Shadowrunners.

Do you think this would work as a more "personal" thing for the runners, though? Not to involve other runner teams? My players are not really experienced enough for the latter part of the stuff you said. And I was thinking that if any player had the SINner quality, then it could be a VERY distant relative or such excuse like that.

And if this was run as an oneshot mission instead of a campaign, should it involve both plot ideas 1 and 2 or either or?

Thanks for your thought-out reply, though. Gave me a lot to think on.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Presuming you've got adult players I doubt working for a dead guy is going to really throw them too hard, if at all.  I expect they'll take it as working for the assistant, as compared to working for the dead guy.

IMO, the shock factor would only come if they did know the guy, and were particularly invested in him emotionally for them to take the runs.  Otherwise, it's really just another run.  Sure, you can't screw over the 'official' Johnson if he screws you over, but you can at least whack the ork.  *shrugs*

[Leevizer]

Presuming you've got adult players I doubt working for a dead guy is going to really throw them too hard, if at all.  I expect they'll take it as working for the assistant, as compared to working for the dead guy.

IMO, the shock factor would only come if they did know the guy, and were particularly invested in him emotionally for them to take the runs.  Otherwise, it's really just another run.  Sure, you can't screw over the 'official' Johnson if he screws you over, but you can at least whack the ork.  *shrugs*

I guess I'm going more for a surprise than a shock in any case. I find it an easy way to make a scenario interesting to have an interesting Johnson compared to Mr. Suit.

[Dangersaurus]

Good ideas here. Got something similar to this going in my game, although IMC the noose hasn't closed yet and the NPC is still alive.

[Blazrath]

You can always do a 'The Usual Suspects' and have a Mr. Kobayashi be the person they deal with.

Then you can always do the twist from Clue, where the assistant is the one that is dressed up in the trideo that gives all of the details and the real Mr. Johnson is the man giving you the orders. What better way to get the drop on the competition is to have them think you are dead.

You guys could be hired by a different Mr. Johnson to spy on what he wanted done because at the end he was suffering from major dementia and was crazy. Up to you if he was or not and why they are spying on him if he was not crazy.