[desdinova81]

While cleaning out my closet recently, I found some of my old Shadowrun 2nd Edition stuff, including some of my old characters.  Since I'm getting a new group going, I've been trying to come up with campaign ideas so I can do some prep work.  Old characters... new campaign... lightbulb moment.  Still a pretty rough idea that needs fleshed out, but I'd love some input on it.

A Brother's Love

After a handful of successful runs, the team receives a call from their Johnson.  Apparently, their names have been brought to the attention of one of the Johnson's former runners, now retired, who would like to meet with them.  They follow the Johnson to the meeting and are introduced to Stormcaller, a retired combat mage who tells them a story.  Ten years ago, Stormcaller's brother, Blackmane, was on a run that went very badly.  Almost all of his team were killed and the brother was severely injured.  The brother has been in a coma ever since and Stormcaller has been caring for him while trying to track down the other survivor of the team.

The survivor, a street sammy, has finally resurfaced.  Stormcaller wants the team to confront him and find out what happened that night.  When they manage to talk to the sammy they get more information about the botched run.  Blackmane's team had been hired to extract a geneticist and his research data from a privately-run research facility.  They were just coming out with the scientist and his data when they were ambushed by a rival team of runners they'd encountered a few times.  Most of their team and the scientist were killed immediately.  Blackmane, who was carrying the research data out, was gunned down but the sammy managed to distract their opponents and dragged him to their vehicle and escape.  He provides the team with the names of the rival shadowrunners and some information about them.

After returning to Stormcaller, the team is dispatched to kill each of them members of the rival team.  When they get to the last name on the list, that person contacts them through another Johnson and offers to trade the truth about that night for their life.  It turns out that Blackmane's street sammy had orchestrated the whole mess to get in good with a corp who wanted the research data and the scientist dead.  Instead of helping Blackmane escape, the shammy left him for dead and delivered the research data.  He's been working for that corp overseas for the last ten years.

When the team delivers this news to Stormcaller, he joins them for a little revenge against both the sammy who betrayed his brother and the corporation who set the whole thing up.

Like I said, this is a little rough, and definately needs to be fleshed out alot.  It'll be a nice bit of nostalgia for a couple of the folks in my group who ran characters alongside Stormcaller and Blackmane back in the day though.  Let me know what you think 

*Edited... typing while nearly asleep causes issues*

[Talmor]

Not a bad setup, but I would offer two slight modifications:

1) Make the Johnsons not a "random NPC they've never heard of" but one of the characters parent or mentor, or their Johnson/Fixer.  Basically, an NPC they DO care about, and would want to help. 

2) Alternately, make it one of the PC's.  You can justify vague memory of the event to a head shot that should have killed them, but they manager to survive with scattered memories.  Alternately, you could run it as a one player one shot, so that player can see what went wrong from their side of things.  That way the revenge is personal. 

Then, give another PC a personal vendetta against the rival runner team, and a third a personal mission to recover the stolen data (it might be years old, but someone still wants it, and is willing to pay handsomely to get it back).

Otherwise, sounds like a solid setup!

[Talmor]

Ok, slight variation.

Storm—survivor looking for payback
Blackmane—victim
Ghost—Street Samurai

So, let’s say you make Storm the mentor/friend/contact of the PC’s, versus “some random dude” (though I still do like the idea of making him a PC, but that might be too awkward to pull off).  Blackmane isn’t a runner, he’s Storm’s (brother/father/sister/wife/child/lover)--a civilian.  Look, a runner get’s ambushed, a runner gets ambushed—you knew the risks when you got into this game.  But, family?  A civilian?  Only the lowest of low attack another runners family, it is the ultimate violation of Street Bushido.  Hell, any PC runner with family should want to take these guys out, even if it’s just to send a message—you DO NOT target families.
Here’s an slightly tweaked background.  Storm and Ghost and their team were on a run.  The Johnson was new, someone they hadn’t worked with before.  The run seemed simple—your basic data steal—but they were leery of this guy, who gave off a scent of desperation and seemed really unprofessional (“hell, he tried to give us his card!”), so they bargained him up to a large payout—Storm viewed it as an “idiot tax” for the Johnson.  Run went decently—for a Run at least—but after the job was done they couldn’t get a hold of the Johnson.  Even the fixer who sent this meeting up couldn’t get a hold of him.  They were just starting to put together a plan to sell the data on the street when it happened.
It was a basic Sunday dinner—Storm, Ghost and the rest of the team were enjoying the summer warmth with an impromptu BBQ.  Blackmane (the “loved one” of Storm) and a few other family and friends of the team was there.  The rival runner team hit them hard, and hit them fast.  Blackmane was put into a coma (or killed), Ghost managed to get most the family out of danger.  Storm was critically wounded—in fact, when the meat wagon showed up, they thought he was DEAD—but the miracle of modern medicine, right?
It took Storm months to recover—by the time he had, Ghost had picked up a new contract somewhere in South America.  He did all he could to track down the team, but he had little to go on.  The survivors were all civilians, and they had panicked and ran when the shooting started.   The cops(Lonestar, Knight Errant, whatever) didn’t even bother to investigate.  He knew whoever hit them was good though—they had left no trace on the net or astral realm, the cameras and wifi had been blocked.  Storm had nothing to go on.  But he would not let this go—not only had his team been betrayed, their family had been attacked and the Sunday Truce (the most hallowed of all N. American street traditions) had been violated.  He didn’t care how long it would take—he would make the bastards pay.
Game begins
Storm receives word that Ghost is in the area.  He had been off in South and Central American for years, running his own team, and doing quite well for himself.  They had talked occasionally, but Ghost denied having any other info to give Storm.  Storm didn’t believe him. 
Ghost managed to get himself captured—some corp or another, does it matter?  He sets the players to bust Ghost out, and bring him in for questioning.  This is the first run.  Now, you want Ghost to be likeable and sympathetic—he wants to help, but doesn’t know much.  Storm, who at least 1 pc is tied to, and who has “righteous fury” behind him, should be more of an off-kilter person, perhaps too obsessed with vengeance.  This is key for later.
After questions, they get more information on the team—Ghost doesn’t remember much, but his info combines with Storms should be enough to lead the players to get some information on the team that hit them (maybe some tech info leads to a fixer who has the info—though getting him to talk will be a challenge).  The team has moved on, the former face is now a Johnson himself for a corp.  The battlemage is running his own team, the street samurai has his own dojo, etc.  Some died elsewhere.  Some feel horrible about killing the family, some shrug it off as “a job is a job” and others pass the blame back to Storm and Ghost—a job isn’t over till it’s over.  So love as they had the data, the Run was still on, and THEY were the ones who brought the civvies into it.
Eventually, they find the Johnson.  This is the uber-final mission, infiltrating a corporate arcology, abducting an executive in an area swarming with cops, security, and civilians.  This should challenge everything the players can do.  However, the Johnson surrenders as soon as they see him—and is willing to strike a deal.  Yes, he sent the other team after them, and he felt horrible for the civilian’s deaths.  In fact, HE’S the one who has been paying for Blackmanes care all these years.  He also has a video—a video taken the night after the meeting, where Ghost comes up to him with a proposition….
As this is revealed, Ghost and Storm are listening (gotta love the wireless future).  Storm confronts Ghost and Ghost, only somewhat reluctantly, kills his own friend—heck, maybe have the protégé see it happen through Storms eye camera.  Ghost, freed from his captivity, escapes back to South America.  The players need to hunt him down, in a foreign country, surrounded by his own team of runners, if they want to put an end to this. 
Fortunately, Storm had a cache set aside for an emergency….
So—is that interesting?  I really like your idea, I just think you should make it more personal.  Also, cut back a bit on the “the players go here, and someone tells them more backstory.” 
Oh, and you’d also want to come up with multiple ways for the players to get the information.  Maybe instead of the other runners spilling the beans, one of them had made a copy of the data.  It was for a new trivid player technology.  The data was 10 years old and from Aztechnology, but everyone has a Renruku player nowadays—oh, hey, here’s the photo of the guy running that department.  He sure does look like the Johnsons Storm described….
Love to hear how the game goes!