Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => GM's Toolbox => Topic started by: brasso on <12-10-15/0018:38>
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http://deckersdemise.com/media/81/negotiableethics.pdf (http://deckersdemise.com/media/81/negotiableethics.pdf)
First I ever wrote for SR :) If there's any mistakes, let me know and I'll edit it.
[spoiler]Playtest: The runners and GM were both new. The runners spotted the van outside the coffee shop, and wired a bomb underneath it, which then pulled out into rush hour traffic and exploded. This should have brought down severe heat on them, but I didn't know enough about SR setting or rules to handle it properly. At the end, with the extractee needing to "disappear" they initially wanted to let him go, but insisted on giving him one of their fake SINs (a ladyboy) and disguising him to match! But it soon became clear to them that he was going to be trouble, so they used control thoughts to make him run across a busy highway in his high heels, and he got splatted.[/spoiler]
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Awesome uploads!
I did a round of editing on Negotiable Ethics (not sure if I'll have time to get to the other three). Of course they're suggestions, minor corrections, and general questions concerns...take as you'd like.
Link to the annotated pdf is here (http://fizzygoo.com/Sr/Runs/negotiableethics_fizzygoo_edit_1.pdf).
Thanks again for the works!
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Read it too, and i've got to agree with fizzy.
It's definitly an awsome plot 8)
About the language corrections i'm going to withold myself, as i dont speak english natively :P
As for the plot points, don't seperate the family and let the team deal with them :'(
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Hey guys - thanks, glad it's of some use!
@fizzygoo - thanks for taking the time to make the edits, I'll update the pdf when I get a mo.
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I took a read through, and will likely adapt it to my game. In other words, I liked it. The rest of this post is generally a quibble, although obviously by the length, a quibble that I think is important.
I do think that the ending could be problematic for a lot of players and/or characters. Some will do wetwork without much concern other than how it may hurt their karma/reputation. But others will have a lot more of an issue with it, and being put in a position where they agreed to an extraction and then are forced to either off the guy that they both extracted and helped arrange the extraction of, or else to have their reputation smeered ... well I know I'd be furious as a player. Changing part of my focus onto taking down Hudson would not be beyond the range of possible reactions -- depending on the character I was playing, I could imagine deciding that my goal with the character would be to capture, psychologically torture, then execute him, then retire the character as having turned too evil to enjoy playing him. Not saying that I'd go that far for sure, but it would certainly be in the range of reactions I'd consider.
Not saying that a GM should never do things like this in SR. The world is nasty, the corps just don't value human life for its own sake very highly, etc. In fact it is exactly that sort of moral question that can really elevate a campaign, forcing characters to decide where they stand on some of these issues. But this sort of thing should, IMO, only be done with careful forethought and the expectation that it could impact the tone of the campaign.
So .... I'm looking to use this, but I'm trying to decide how flexible I'll be about 'clever' player plans to keep the guy alive, and exactly when this would work well.
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Well, I can understand your trepidation with regards to your runners (and thanks for not slating it too heavily!)
My attitude to runners and adventures is to drop them into difficult situations, where there is no right or wrong answer, but there does need to be a solution. Most published adventures tend to be A-B-C-Boss, which doesn't suit me as a GM. I much prefer sandboxes. Although a good many of the elements of the adventures I throw at my runners could be said to be linear, it is really just to present them with a difficult situation. So, "problematic"? Good! Ethics can often be ignored in favour of the old murder-hobo in Shadowrun, but this situation is meant to cause problems for the old "code of honour" runner, etc. and to get the players talking about their characters' ethics. If they are all murder hobos, that's fine - Pegworth is just food for the ghouls...
My goal as a GM isn't to provide a route that the PCs "should" take, but to provide them with total flexibility - which is what brought me to roleplaying in the first place :)
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Well, I can understand your trepidation with regards to your runners (and thanks for not slating it too heavily!)
My attitude to runners and adventures is to drop them into difficult situations, where there is no right or wrong answer, but there does need to be a solution. Most published adventures tend to be A-B-C-Boss, which doesn't suit me as a GM. I much prefer sandboxes. Although a good many of the elements of the adventures I throw at my runners could be said to be linear, it is really just to present them with a difficult situation. So, "problematic"? Good! Ethics can often be ignored in favour of the old murder-hobo in Shadowrun, but this situation is meant to cause problems for the old "code of honour" runner, etc. and to get the players talking about their characters' ethics. If they are all murder hobos, that's fine - Pegworth is just food for the ghouls...
My goal as a GM isn't to provide a route that the PCs "should" take, but to provide them with total flexibility - which is what brought me to roleplaying in the first place :)
Generally like this, though I also like to have an "intended path" followed by a "What If path." Thanks for sharing these Brasso!
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Wow. I ... don't think I have a character who wouldn't grease the 'boss' Johnson just on principle - or, perhaps, refuse to deal with him at all in the first place. Or, you know, turn on the recording device and ask him to repeat his instructions to kill the guy. Or all three.
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I think the plot sounds very nice. Did you use any maps or floorplans with the mission? Maybe I am just looking the wrong place.
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I mostly skimmed it, but I'm a bit confused as to why the runners are required for this. Seems like NeoNET could just do it themselves-- If they can pick up the family from the home, and if Pegworth can drive to wherever he wants, what exactly is stopping him from just being picked up in a corporate van and casually "stolen"? My understanding of extractions was always that the target is more or less "stuck on corporate campus", sleeps in a nearby dormitory, eats in their cafeteria, etc, and isn't allowed to leave the property. Couldn't the family just take a cab to somewhere, then be picked up in a corporate van?
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This is very true.