[phydaux42]

So this weekend I'm running a Shadowrun 5th ed. demo adventure .  Several players have played SR before, but not since 2nd ed., and at least one player will have never played Shadowrun before.

Five players total.  I'm using the example characters out of the SR main book, so they will have 16 characters to choose from.  I wouldn't call any of them "optimized" characters, but whatever.  I just want them to get the feel of the game.

As far as a run, I have a few ideas.  I'd love to get some feedback from the board for twists and options.

A local fixer contacts the characters and puts them together with the Johnson.  The Johnson is distinctive by his swarthy completion and that he speaks English with a british accent with another indeterminate accent underneath it.  Specs of the run as as follows:

The British Museum has recently hired a squad of mercs to enter the Chicago Containment Area and retrieve select items from the Field Museum's permanent exhibit of Egyptian antiquities.  Three hours ago the merc team was extracted from the containment area with the items, but they sustained 85% casualties in the process.  The British Museum's Chicago ground team is currently arranging alternate security prior to transport of the artifacts to Seattle's Toby Gates Museum of Cultural  Antiquities.  The new escort is expected to depart Chicago within the next 8 hours.

The mission is simple - Intercept the artifacts and deliver them to the Johnson.  They can contact the Johnson through the fixer to arrange delivery.  The team is free to devise any method they wish to obtain the artifacts.  Payment is Y5k each up front, with another Y15k each upon delivery.

I figure most of the run will be frantic leg work including hacking the British Museum's Matrix node to get information on how the items will get to Seattle, followed by an ambush and fire fight to actually get their hands on the stuff.  Naturally, the Johnson has no intentions of paying off.  When the runners go to the meet up for the delivery,  the team will be met with ANOTHER team of runners whose job it is to wipe them out and take the goods.

Feedback is appreciated.  Thanks

[RiggerBob]

Naturally, the Johnson has no intentions of paying off.  When the runners go to the meet up for the delivery,  the team will be met with ANOTHER team of runners whose job it is to wipe them out and take the goods.

I would change this last part...

1) A Johnson betraying the runners (while always a looming possibility^^) should be rare. It hurts the johnsons reputation (and his ability to find other teams for other jobs). It reflects bad on their fixer too, who's job it is to do background checks on clients...

2) Not paying the team, then hiring (and paying) another team to kill them doesn't make much sense. Either the johnson wins nothing or the new team is really cheap with a low chance of success. Most of the time it's not even his own money... So why should he take an additional risk  to save a few thousand ¥?

If you want an additional turn of events, a different team hired by some third party interferring would be more fitting.

Or give the Johnson a better reason for betraying them. -> He works for the British museum too, directly competing with the guy responsible for organising the original transport, and uses the runners to discredit his colleague, then tipping them off to the authorities... 
The runner's chances to get paid are near zero in this scenario of course, but  you can't always win. (or better: you win experience and insights into the strange coporate machinations your constantly dealing with when working in the shadows  )

[phydaux42]

If you want an additional turn of events, a different team hired by some third party interferring would be more fitting.

That was my initial plan, but I felt it was just too awkward to have them finish a fire fight with the team of escorts, win, then have ANOTHER team just spring up out of nowhere.

Maybe after the first fight the players can get ambushed on the road?

[Sterling]

If this is their first run, and you want to go with getting screwed by the Johnson, then have your players think that they are the main team for the heist but actually they are there to distract security and police whilst the real runners (your team of NPCs) get on with the job.  If they survive they don't get paid because they didn't actually complete the job they thought they were on.

[BetaCAV]

I just had an idea reading these, but I'm not sure it's a good one.

Basically, hand out pregen characters, and make it clear that they are just for the initial part of the game, and that the players will have an opportunity to create their own characters (or tinker with the pregens, if they find they really like one). Start things off easy, with low threat enemies, and let them hopscotch through a couple easy encounters, maybe some kind of scavenger hunt, and then an opportunity to strategize against a (still fairly easy) final encounter opponent... which will shimmer and transform before heir eyes into some horrible monster, which they can only really attempt to escape/evade, or go out in a blaze of glory.

They're in a BTL multiplayer game (Shadow Art Online, anyone?), and some decker/technomancer is griefing them, and possibly others as well. So, this is your "real" doss, and this is dumpshock.... when it wears off, you owe some fragger a serious beatdown. But who are you?

Of course, the only thing that tends to piss players off more than an "it was all a dream" scenario, is a scripted loss... but it's just a game, and they haven't really lost much except short-term memories. Probably.

[phydaux42]

Got it worked out.  After the fire fight with the escorts, as they're loading the crates into the get away vehicle, I'll have them all burn a point of Edge in a Perception test, and "miraculously" see a roto-drone hovering just above treetop level, watching them.  Then a heavily armored panel truck will close in on them as the roto-drone descends through the sun roof.

[Lighthouse]

Why have them spend edge (you said burn but burning edge means to use a permanent point of edge to get 4 auto successes but the loss of edge can only be regained with Karma)?

[phydaux42]

Why have them spend edge (you said burn but burning edge means to use a permanent point of edge to get 4 auto successes but the loss of edge can only be regained with Karma)?

Two reasons:

1 - They will need to spot a small drone hovering just above tree top level 50 yards away, AT NIGHT.  Odds are a standard Perception test won't beat the threshold unless they spend Edge to re-roll misses. 

2 - This will be a first time playing this system for most of them, and the players will have no idea they CAN spend Edge to get bonuses if I don't tell them to.

[Lighthouse]

Ah ok

[phydaux42]

So I ran the demo yesterday.  The one area of the rule book I didn't even bother to study beforehand was the section on Techmancers.  Naturally one of the players, one who has never played Shadowrun before, pushed all the other character sheets aside and grabbed the techmancer character sheet.  sigh....

Anyway, things progressed well.  Having a time limit really added a sense of urgency and drama, and really helped to cut down on the useless leg work (one player was just ALL OVER THE MAP with things he wanted to do, contacts he wanted to call, etc.). 

I was all set to have the players try t oambush the transport team on the road and have it devolve into a MASSIVE fire fight.  As it turned out, the playes hacked the Toby Gates Museum's matrix node and found out when & where the transport team would be landing.  Then they scanned e-mails until they found out who was suppose to meet the transport team.  THEN they hacked the HR records and got that employee's emergency contact info.  They tracked the dude down, tied him up, and took his van, the one clearly marked "Toby Gates Museum" on the side.  They put on some drab coveralls, met the transport team, collected the artifacts and said "Thank you."   The transport team even helped load the crated into the van before they flew back to Chicago.  No shots fired at all.  A perfect milk run.

Until the SECOND team showed up.  I had one Razorgirl, fully wired up with max AGI and a monofiliment whip, and a Troll with a combat ax and lots of Body & Armor.

See, I REALLY thought at least one character would have an assault rifle.  Or a mage.  Alas, no character with  an assault rifle and no mage was chosen by the players.  The Troll just laughed at the Heavy Pistols wielded by the Gun Adept.  The Razergirl cut the Gun Adept up to near death with the monowhip.  The Bounty Hunter emptied his shotgun at the Razergirl and dropped her, then the troll dropped the Bounty Hunter in two chops.  All that left was the Technomancer with a light pistol facing a big, ugly Troll with a big, ugly ax.

Fortunately one of the PCs had a contact with the Ancients, and arranged to have four of them standing by with weapons ready, just in case.  They came in guns blasting, just like the 7th Cavalry, and saved the day.

Lots of fun was had by all.