[Daeryth]

I recently picked up the 4th Edition rules - I haven't played since second edition back in the 90's - and was thinking of starting a game.  Most of my friends are familiar with the genre of cyberpunk (and several have played Shadowrun in the past), so they know the default campaign archetype for this game.  I would like to do something a bit different than that, so what I am wondering about is if anyone has had success running a game where the PCs start out working within a Corporation/Megacorp? 

When I played in the past, one or more of us would usually have some sort of Corp background that we could refer to from time to time from a role-playing perspective, but I have been thinking it might be interesting to play that out as a long prelude to getting into the shadowrun business rather than jumping right into it.  I am sure this is not a new idea, but I figured I would post up here to see if anyone has done this in the past and has any guidance to pull this off successfully.

As I am still working my way through all the rules I have only jotted down a few notes as far as campaign creation.  My thought right now is the PCs as a 'special projects' team answerable to an up and coming vice-president (young guy, lots of potential and not afraid to step on some toes).  I figure all such individuals might see the value of having some in-house help they could trust moreso than farming out everything to mercenary shadowrunners.  This internal team would be acting as a combination personal security/espionage/counter espionage team.  Drawing on one of my favorite movies, 'Robocop', I see the internal power struggles within a Megacorp as nearly (perhaps moreso) as deadly as those external to it.  At some point of course, something will happen and drive the team (those who survive) to the shadows.

Appreciate any thoughts on the subject!

[lurkeroutthere]

The biggest thing that's going to be absolutely drilled into the team when on black ops is they must do nothing to compromise the company. Encourage people to take the dependant flaw and have that be part of the arrangement. If they are ever caught they will be disavowed and they are expected to go to lengths, including suicide to avoid hurting their company/neo-feudal lord. In exchange their family will be protected and provided for. The company failing to hold up it's end of the agreement could be the catalyst for a later break into shadowruning.

The biggest hurdle I was face in doing this kind of campaign is how are you going to handle gear requisition and to a lesser extent payment. As company men their lifestyle being covered is expected but what limitations do you put on what gear they can have. Do you pay them for runs and then require them to buy their own gear for extra deniability, etc.

[JustADude]

Tried it... got derailed due to the fact that the group decided we wanted to play something other than Shadowrun, but it had some great potential.

The biggest hurdle I was face in doing this kind of campaign is how are you going to handle gear requisition and to a lesser extent payment. As company men their lifestyle being covered is expected but what limitations do you put on what gear they can have. Do you pay them for runs and then require them to buy their own gear for extra deniability, etc.

That's the easy part, really. The first question is, of course, where on the food chain you want them in terms of "eliteness". Do you want them as the equivalent of a Corpsec High Threat Response team? A standard "Military Equivalent" unit? A squad of something ultra-elite like S-K Prime or Aries Firewatch? Some super-duper-special mega-soldier project?

Once you figure that out, give them appropriately loosened "Availability" restrictions, with an extra budget for gear above and beyond their 400 BP. The catch? They can't spend any of their own BP on gear and they can't take the Restricted Gear quality, plus they get saddled with Negative Qualities to balance out the bonus-cash. These, of course, give no actual BP and wouldn't count towards their Negative Quality total.

Since this sounds most like something in the HRT-to-Military-Equivalent range, I'd recommend going with an Availability of 20 and 150,000¥ for starting equipment. The balance is SINner, Day Job (40 hr version, enough to cover a Middle lifestyle), Records On File, and Bad Rep (applied to shadowy dealings only, not the corporate side of things) as "freebies" as well. Encourage them to also take Corporate-Owned as a Negative Lifestyle Quality.

Give them their "payment" for runs in the form of a gear budget.

Their starting gear will, invariably, include things like Heavy Military Armor with chameleon coat mods, etc. Don't worry about it... they should have stuff like this, given their positions. Once they drop into the Shadows, assuming they're smart enough to get all this starting gear out with them, their need to keep a low profile will severely restrict its usefulness.

[Cass100199]

Sounds like a fun idea. I'd stay away from the "black ops and wet work" stuff; it's cliche and overdone. I think that modeling your team off of Taken would provide more flexibility. Maybe have everyone take day job and indebtedness while throwing some free chrome would make for happy players. Make all gear free and let them out the extra bp in skills and such to make them über cool, but still give a gear budget and them from here on out all hear must be requisitioned and approved.

[Daeryth]

Thanks for the great responses so far!

@lurkeroutthere - Agree that this part of the campaign should definitely emphasize the importance of loyalty to the Megacorp and what that means to each of the of characters.  Consequences for failure should always be in the back of their heads, as well the rewards.  As far as gearing them up, yeah, I figure I could get into trouble on the gear end since this would be the first time running the system in a long time so I figure I will stumble a little bit until I figure out what trivializes the game play too much.


@JustADude - Not sure how I would classify the characters.  I still want it to feel like Shadowrun, so I don't think I want to go too overboard.  My thought is security (of the VP and whatever projects he has in his portfolio) is the main focus during this point of the campaign.
- One assignment may have them shadowing the VP at a party
- The next night they may be at the docks ensuring that a delivery of important components goes off without a hitch
- Another assignment might have them following up on the murder of a important developer

I agree with the suggestions as far as negative qualities - as the game goes on, I am pretty sure some of my players would have their characters looking for a backup plan once they see how cutthroat internal politics are at the Megacorp.

@Cass100199 - Good suggestions!  I picture the characters as being the ones attempting to thwart black ops and wet work.


Any suggestions for interesting plot hooks beyond the few I have posited above?

[Cass100199]

Have a rival team from a more senior VP that is a little better and more seasoned.

[JustADude]

@JustADude - Not sure how I would classify the characters.  I still want it to feel like Shadowrun, so I don't think I want to go too overboard.  My thought is security (of the VP and whatever projects he has in his portfolio) is the main focus during this point of the campaign.
- One assignment may have them shadowing the VP at a party
- The next night they may be at the docks ensuring that a delivery of important components goes off without a hitch
- Another assignment might have them following up on the murder of a important developer

I agree with the suggestions as far as negative qualities - as the game goes on, I am pretty sure some of my players would have their characters looking for a backup plan once they see how cutthroat internal politics are at the Megacorp.

It's more about where you want them, in terms of how many dice they can sling. My suggestion (20 Avail and 150,000¥) would be enough to give them a few pieces of REALLY good chrome, or good starting equipment, but not both.

[lurkeroutthere]

The complication is of course a street sam with only 150k of ware is really kind of subpar, where as a mage or adept as more gear then they know what to do with. My advice would be to use the character creation rules as given.

[All4BigGuns]

Just give an extra 50 BP (automatically maxing gear out for mundanes but just covering gear plus a little boost for Awakened). The higher availability is good but go 30 rather than 20.

[WSN0W]

I ran a game of Tir Ghosts that worked really well. They worked as a squad, had a few NPC support faces that they could tag in and out for their missions. I drafted up a gear package of 'you get all this' and then let them round out their character's as desired.

The politics were nice as they had to dance to keep all the varied powers that be happy. Big ops brought home rewards of gear and upgrades as fitting. It worked well and the game transitioned (without them realizing) to the dragon adventures where the Great Dragons have their Wager and Hestaby goes for the swing vote by baking a runner team to let the mortals to decide the fate of things. It was actually quite easy to change that from 'runners' to 'Ghosts' for the adventures and she was able to work in the shadows using the social elites of the Tir to front the assignments.

Really, the key is to get the buy in from the players. If they all go 'Yeah, being Red Samurai or DocWagon HTR team (which will be the next game I run) could be fun,' then it'll work great. The Corps have lots of fluff about them so you can make ANY of them stand out as a unique little evil snowflake, and really, from the PC's perspective, they may be the good guys. While Knight is kinda a jerk, Ares Firewatch teams that smite bug hives are hardly the bad guys.

While 'straight cash' is less likely to be a reward, a trip to the beta clinic for a choice of 3 pieces of ware to try out is hardly out of the question. Loyal soldiers getting better AND giving you field stress test results on your product? All you're missing the extended warranty!

[JustADude]

The complication is of course a street sam with only 150k of ware is really kind of subpar, where as a mage or adept as more gear then they know what to do with. My advice would be to use the character creation rules as given.

Just give an extra 50 BP (automatically maxing gear out for mundanes but just covering gear plus a little boost for Awakened). The higher availability is good but go 30 rather than 20.

Ah, good point about the 150k.

Indeed, it might be best to just go ahead and do the full 250,000¥ each for gear. I would suggest leaving it at 250,000¥, not 50BP, though, since a Mage can, at Avail 20, sink their teeth into a Force 4 Power Focus, a F4 Sustaining (Health) Focus for Improved Reflexes, and two other Force 5 Sustaining Focus of their choice, with just enough cash left over for some quality body-armor.

As for Availability... I suggested 20 just because it seems like the baseline for equipment that's really hard to find on the street but still common in "legitimate" channels. If you're going for 30, you might as well just tell them to buy anything they want, since that level of Availability basically puts everything in their reach anyway.

[All4BigGuns]

Reason I said it as BP was because the Awakened will probably want non-gear stuff with it.

[JustADude]

Reason I said it as BP was because the Awakened will probably want non-gear stuff with it.

Well, tough noogies for them, then. This is their equipment budget from their employer, not to put them ahead of the power-curve compared to everyone else.


... ... ...


Now, if you really want a High-Power campaign, I'd suggest something more like the idea I call Project Delta. Have them pick what they want to do, then tell them they get 6.00 Essence to spend on Bioware (and only Bioware) at Deltaware essence costs... no nuyen or Availability limit... that won't actually come off their Essence total. The catch is, they can't buy any other starting gear.

Next, drop them into a "Wake up naked in the middle of a bunch of fiery wreckage with no clue what's going on" type setup. Give them Sensitive System, Biosystem Overstress, Nano Intolerance, and the lesser version of Amnesia... on top of any other complications you want to start throwing their way. Don't tell them about these until they figure it out, but also apply the effects of Enemy (pick a powerful organization), Wanted (Alive Only or either meaning of DoA, as fits your metaplot), Records On File (maybe their Enemy, maybe someone else), Type O System, and Erased - 24h (fit who's doing it to your version of the plot).

[Cass100199]

not to put them ahead of the power-curve compared to everyone else.

If a corp has a team of ops guys on staff, you'd think they'd be ahead of the curve. Not invest  a ton of A-D grade ware ahead of the curve, but definitely, you're professional and here's the latest and greatest guns from our factories.

[JustADude]

not to put them ahead of the power-curve compared to everyone else.

If a corp has a team of ops guys on staff, you'd think they'd be ahead of the curve. Not invest  a ton of A-D grade ware ahead of the curve, but definitely, you're professional and here's the latest and greatest guns from our factories.

I meant putting the Awakened guys ahead of the power-curve compared to the rest of the team. All things considered, Mage can do more with a 50BP bonus than a Street Samurai can, while both can make good use of a quarter-million dollars in gear.