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Campaign Ideas

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mike929

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« on: <03-05-14/1834:01> »
My group has asked in to run a Shadowrun Campaign.  None of us have ever played nor ran Shadowrun (so this should be a new experience).  I have been reading through the rulebook.  I am planning on running the one-shot in the quick-rules guide to get them used to the game (and me also).

My problem is getting a series of runs to tie together better.  I have looked at the mission seasons available, and I understand they are for fourth edition and I may have to edit them some.  BUt I am drawing a blank on creating a full campaign.  Any help would be great


Namikaze

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« Reply #1 on: <03-05-14/1849:50> »
I would recommend your setting be in Seattle, simply because of the gigantic metric ton of information for the setting.  When I'm coming up with a campaign, I try to think of recent events that have been outlined in the books and then get a spark.  For example, the creation of the Orc Underground as a district of Seattle.  There are people who wouldn't want that to happen on both sides of the metahuman fence.  Humanis folks don't want it because it legitimizes the Orks and Trolls of the district.  The Underground doesn't want it because they have to pay taxes, get SINs, etc. and now they're subject to Knight Errant patrols.

Let's say, for example, that there's an Ork who has pushing hard from the back for the passing of Proposition 23.  Once the measure passed, the district became legitimate, so the ork's political ambitions grew.  Now he wants to be the mayor of the district.  To do so, he'll have to sway public opinion in favor of the district, take a hard stance against Knight Errant, and also push out Humanis.  Once he's got his name on the ballot, then it's a matter of fixing the election in his favor by discrediting his enemies, literally stuffing the ballot boxes, and dissuading his opponent's supporters from voting.  That's easily 10 or so games right there, and with a few one-offs thrown into the mix, you've got enough games to last quite a while.

The scenery for Seattle is very rich too - you've got the Underground, the Puyallup Barrens, and the Redmond Barrens.  They all exist in stark contrast to the glittering green towers of Downtown, the mansions of Bellevue, and the embassies of Council Island.  Within each district, there are power players vying for a bigger piece of the pie, which can include criminal activity, political ambition, corporate greed, or just street survival.

If you have an idea of what kind of power level you want to play at, it can help narrow things down a lot.  If you're going for a gritty street game, where survival is the reason for running, then you probably want to stick to the various Barrens or Underground regions, with jaunts into the glitzy areas for contrast and to rub it in the players' faces.  If you're going for the big time, you probably want to play things really tight with what is colloquially known as a "black trenchcoat" game.  Spycraft, subterfuge, and assassination are the names of this game.  Data thefts are common, but more common is planting misinformation and counterintelligence.  The runners won't often know who hired them, but if they figure it out they might be able to make a payday - and an enemy.

I hope my rambling helps in some way, perhaps by inspiring you to try something out that you've never done before.  If you need support (and we all do) that's what we're here for.

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mike929

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« Reply #2 on: <03-05-14/1923:18> »
Thanks for the help.  Right now I just have the rulebook for 5th edition and some stuff I have glanced at online.

Not sure how my group will want to play.  Until I see how they run with the Food Fight one-shot I am going to try out with them.

They may like the idea of spying, and assassinations to get things going.

Where can I get some information on Seattle?  I see the older edition books out there, would they be helpful?

Thanks again for the step in the right direction

mike929

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« Reply #3 on: <03-05-14/1940:06> »
One other question....

Are the mission seasons a good idea to use and run for the players?  I know that I will need to update the stats to 5th, but it may make it a little easier with the lack of time I got.  This may help me to get ideas to expand upon depending on how my players react and complete some of those particular runs.

Namikaze

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« Reply #4 on: <03-05-14/2313:50> »
My recommendation: pick up Plots and Paydata.  It has a good starter campaign in it, and each mission builds on the last.  If you want to know more about Seattle, you should look at the 4th edition books Seattle 2072, Dirty Tricks, and Storm Front.
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mike929

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« Reply #5 on: <03-06-14/1633:07> »
Is plots and pay data available by itself or only in the Digital tools box?

Namikaze

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« Reply #6 on: <03-06-14/1640:51> »
Ah good catch.  Looks like it's part of the box set.  The box isn't bad actually for beginners.  It has some issues with rules consistency, but it's completely playable out of the box.  The maps are nice too - not huge, but more than sufficient for laying things out for people.  Each mission uses the maps that are included with the box as well.
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mike929

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« Reply #7 on: <03-08-14/1157:55> »
Ah good catch.  Looks like it's part of the box set.  The box isn't bad actually for beginners.  It has some issues with rules consistency, but it's completely playable out of the box.  The maps are nice too - not huge, but more than sufficient for laying things out for people.  Each mission uses the maps that are included with the box as well.

What issues shold I Look out for?  I was explainging the character creation to the group last night before we started our Star Wars game.

I think I am going to look into the Digitial Toolbox and use those to help me.  It was interesting, they wanted to be more told what to do instead of feeling completely directionless and I think these adventures will help.  Just hope there are statted out npcs in there ready to use for the adventures

Namikaze

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« Reply #8 on: <03-08-14/1211:10> »
The issues are that some of the rules in the Toolbox don't cover all of the eventualities that players will come across.  You'll have to house rule some things to make it work flawlessly.  Additionally, the PCs that are included with the box aren't actually built by the core rules.  They're a little more powerful.  This is partly to give players an idea of what the game will be like after a couple of games, and partly to make it easier for players to survive their first couple games.  There are fully stated contacts and NPCs in the box set, which I love.  Honestly, despite the contradictions of some of the more exotic rules the box set is fantastic for new players and GMs.  I'd highly recommend it.
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mike929

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« Reply #9 on: <03-08-14/1724:17> »
The issues are that some of the rules in the Toolbox don't cover all of the eventualities that players will come across.  You'll have to house rule some things to make it work flawlessly.  Additionally, the PCs that are included with the box aren't actually built by the core rules.  They're a little more powerful.  This is partly to give players an idea of what the game will be like after a couple of games, and partly to make it easier for players to survive their first couple games.  There are fully stated contacts and NPCs in the box set, which I love.  Honestly, despite the contradictions of some of the more exotic rules the box set is fantastic for new players and GMs.  I'd highly recommend it.

Thanks for the help.  I believe this will be a great purchase for me to make.  Unless my group thinks otherwise,we are going to do a session zero character creation.  Just going to use the pre-gens in the quick-rules (or these) for a one-shot using Food-Fight run to get a feel for the game.

Namikaze

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« Reply #10 on: <03-09-14/0130:30> »
Awesome.  In fact, the toolbox has Food Fight as the introductory adventure, and it has a nice map of the Stuffer Shack and such.  It even has some pretty detailed descriptions of the NPCs, which is a nice touch.  Given that there's only about 6 NPCs to deal with, it makes sense to flesh them out a lot more than just "Stuffer Shack Clerk #2."
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