[Wickidsurfer]

Hey Guys and Gals, I am new here.  Been away from shadowrun pretty much all of 3rd edition and 4th until now.  Starting a new campaign....  Thought I'd set down some ideas for all of you to mull over and hopefully get some of your stories whether from a campaign you played in or GMed.

I've always wanted to GM a street level campaign, players are underdogs, not really shadowrunners(in the sense of AAA corp espionage).  The players are in the barrens; stuck in warred over turf trying to eek out a living doing pick up work for the syndicates and gangs operating in the area.

My normal style of play is sandbox; I like to create a list of NPCs, locations and set all the pieces in motion with the players stirring the pot.  I have rough ideas of what direction I want to take the campaign and try and let it unfold for maximum fun!

And to that end and without further rambling let me put forth some questions.

Has anyone ever incorporated illegal street fighting or critter fighting matches into a game? and if so how did you handle it?  I was thinking of letting a couple of the PCs control the fighters so they aren't just watching me roll dice.

And for the next question, I am leaning toward a seedier more underworld feel, so I am looking for suggestions on types of runs or even stories of runs you've been on.  So far I've got organ-legging, pandering(regular and bunraku parlors), extortion, gambling, human trafficking, gambling, smuggling(gun running, people smuggling, anything), drug dealing, etc...

So i know thats more of a list of criminal activities, but I know they will generate ideas for runs, like protection, shake downs, smuggling, etc...

So yeah I am looking forward to hearing everyones ideas.

[CanRay]

Rip off Gone In 60 Seconds.  Either version.  "Go steal me this list of vehicles.", essentially.

[Wickidsurfer]

thats a good one!  I didnt even think about chop shops and car theft! thats exactly why I started this thread, thanks a ton! I having been watching tons of movies looking for inspiration....Mean Streets, Bad Boys(sean penn), A fistful of dollars, Sons of Anarchy, Heat...

[Canticle]

Arson. Definitely arson—and make sure to include orphanages.

If it is a street campaign, try starting with 250-300 BP (no more than half for Attributes). This makes the PCs feel more like underdogs.
If someone has a 400 BP character starting out, why not become a corp runner?

[Rockopolis]

There's always Yojimbo for a classic inspiration.

[Wickidsurfer]

I was already thinking of dropping the starting BP for that reason right there.  and Yojimbo is on the netflix instant queue... Mainly because I want to compare it to A fistful of Dollars and to a lesser extent.... last man standing.

[Rockopolis]

Last Man Standing...wasn't bad, I guess, but I don't think it was as good as Yojimbo, even though it had guns.  And Christopher Walken.
Well, your characters might be the mooks for Toshiro Mifune's Sanjuro to slice up.  A Street Samurai might make an interesting Prime Runner.

I keep meaning to watch more Kurosawa movies, but they're pretty long.
Stray Dog was pretty good, and might give you more ideas for this sort of game; (really young) Toshiro Mifune is a rookie cop who gets his gun stolen and has to hunt it down...I should rent it again, I think it'd be pretty good for legwork.

[Cass100199]

Are your players intended to be low-life's as well or more "hooker with a heart of gold" types?

You could just set things in haiti.

[Wickidsurfer]

I've got a combination of players. I know one guy intends to make a criminal.  Doing what is necessary without getting himself killed(by way bigger fish) to get ahead and I've gamed with the other guy enough to know he will make a  brooding anti-hero, and the third player never ceases to amaze me with his character selections; ultimately he will go along with the other two in whatever direction they go.  Which should make interesting situations if I give him a solid reason to side with one or the other....

Do any of you guys or gals have players in your groups who wholeheartedly embrace the insane criminal mind?  Playing lunatic type characters who might not go around killing innocent people but never hesitate to get their sadistic kicks off on security guards, double crossing mr. johnsons etc...(I know thats most 'runners), but I mean that guy just itching to smoke someone? How does the group dynamic usually work with someone so er...  "bold"?

[Cass100199]

As a GM, I let it happen. If that's what they want to do. Usually the rest of the team will "fix" nit after the cops come breaking down the door.

[Canticle]

Do any of you guys or gals have players in your groups who wholeheartedly embrace the insane criminal mind?  Playing lunatic type characters who might not go around killing innocent people but never hesitate to get their sadistic kicks off on security guards, double crossing mr. johnsons etc...(I know thats most 'runners), but I mean that guy just itching to smoke someone? How does the group dynamic usually work with someone so er...  "bold"?

When that happens, I do one or more of the following things:
1. Introduce the character to the Wanted or Enemy negative quality.
2. Have one of the innocent people have a loved one who pays a team of runners to go after the character who committed the act.
3. The next run has the characters meet a Johnson who wants them to kill a psychopath who is worse than the player character.
4. Have contact loyalty ratings diminish.

If any of these things does not make the character act like a human being, then it will probably die. People are normally not outright insane and others do not tend to trust people who are twitchy and loose cannons (especially in the shadows). I've had characters have been killed at the table from being whackjobs or crazies who have no sanity—both as a GM and as a fellow PC.

[Wickidsurfer]

I really like the idea of lowering loyalty ratings of contacts for loose cannons, that would also work great if the player's character is ever seen as a rat.

I don't intend to go out of my way to punish players for being insane, but I definitely want repercussions.

I decided to create a list of illegal operations and then various activities the players could be involved in related to those operations.

Illegal Metahuman Fighting
   -Gambling
   -Training Fighters
   -Recruiting
   -Ruffing up guys to take a fall
Illegal Critter Fighting
   -Critter Catching
   -Critter Smuggling
   -Gambling

[Canticle]

I really like the idea of lowering loyalty ratings of contacts for loose cannons, that would also work great if the player's character is ever seen as a rat.

I don't intend to go out of my way to punish players for being insane, but I definitely want repercussions.

It is not considered punishment to make the player pay for their actions. Smiting the player for how they play their character is not very nice, but getting them on the bullet end of a drive by shooting or finding out that there is a Wanted RFID on the wall of their favourite dive for the PC generates game-play and drives the narrative.

I decided to create a list of illegal operations and then various activities the players could be involved in related to those operations.

Illegal Metahuman Fighting
   -Gambling
   -Training Fighters
   -Recruiting
   -Ruffing up guys to take a fall
Illegal Critter Fighting
   -Critter Catching
   -Critter Smuggling
   -Gambling

How about this one:
Illegal Arms Operation
  -Gun smuggling
  -Bribing officials
  -Succouring deals
  -Weeding out competition

Doing the simple day to day stuff a criminal  has to do like finding contacts, getting a deal with an Everett ski-gang, planning the route, bribing a Lone Star beat cop to close off a road in Everett for easy access, smuggling the arms (while dodging the Rusted Stilettos) could last for multiple sessions that gives the run a real flow to it.

[CanRay]

Transport Hijacking.  Steal a load of cigarettes and sell them piecemeal on the streets from the back of Gaz pick-ups.  They did that in Mafia II, IIRC. 

[Glyph]

The trouble with 300 BP games is that characters don't even start out average on Attributes, characters will often have a dreary sameness as everyone gets the same "essential" skills, and if you limit resources, everyone will play awakened metatypes.  I would recommend, instead, using a lower-karma allocation of karmagen, with some other restrictions, if you want a lower-powered campaign where you can still have some variety.  As an example, here's a set of rules that Tyro posted in a Dumpshock thread:

600 Karma with German errata, max avail. 8, no restricted gear, max natural attributes 5 + racial modifiers, max skill 3 with two 4's or one 5, max base starting cash 150k (no born rich, in debt allowed but gives no points), max magic 4, max edge 4/5 for humans, max Connection rating for contacts of 3 (the low power option).


Be sure your players are on board first, though.  It sounds like they will all be okay with an amoral campaign, but be sure they will also be okay with playing gutter punks.  Not just the low power aspect, but the barely scraping by aspect.  A lot of people play to escape their daily grind, not to do something similar to it.