[James McMurray]

Lately (when I've got time) I've been trying to throw in something not related to The Job for every character in every run. So far we've had:

• Rudy, the quintessential hot elf chick Face, came home to find that a local ork kid had hacked her house. Dinner came out charred in the middle with the phrase "D SHNZ WZ HR" (Da Schnoz Was Here) cooked into her Lasoygna patty. When she connected to her home's PAN to do some research she got flooded by pictures of the same large nose. She did some street work to find the kid, got her stuff fixed, and has turned him into a contact. He's even come on a run with them (though a really crappy roll made him more of a detriment than a benefit that time).
• Big Ben, ork street sam, is ex-Mossad (Israeli intelligence). A local rabbi with an oddly Irish accent noticed Ben's distinctly Israeli accent and wondered why the ork hasn't been to synagogue (while at the same time chastising him for "helping a friend move" on the sabbath). Since then Ben has started going to services more and pondering tha nature of morality and free will (spurred on by the multiple times he's been mind controlled).
• Blackjack, jaguar-shifter gun-toting physad, once put a gun in a Johnson's face and would have killed the man if the rest of the group hadn't talked him out of it. The Johnson, who also happned to be the assistant governor, didn't take kindly to that and has hired a professional prankster to put the shifter in his place. The first "strike" was a bomb-like box under Blackjack's car that turned out to be filled with streamers, confetti, and a phone whose other end gave the foreshadowing phrase "that was number one."
• Doc, ork wiccan mage, was approached by a magical group to determine where he stands on the philosophy of information. It turned into an in-road for a job and a possible magical group for him to join if/when he's ready to start initiating through a group.

Future plans include (SPOILER ALERT FOR MY GROUP):
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• Da Schnoz's mom is in trouble, because the runners were inadvertently hired to kidnap her.
• Ben is headed to the synagogue when he sees it's on fire. Who set it, and why target a synagogue?
• Blackjack's sprinkler system is corrupted with silver nitrate and remotely activated. The floor has been painted in a halide solution so that when the two compounds mix the words "that was number two" are spelled out. What started as a confusing prank turns serious, since the shifter reacts to silver like it was acid and won't be able to live in his apartment any more. Sure, they can clean it up so that a normal Joe would enver know, but that much silver sprayed everywhere makes it a major irritant at best and a death trap at worst.
• On the current run Blackjack murdered a security guard in broad daylight when the guard realized he was wearing a disguise and asked what was going on. The police don't have a elad (they're looking for a mage with the shapechange spell) but the shadows have a good idea what happened. Blackjack will be disinvited from a run whose goal would be hampered by too much violence.
• Doc has been going out of his way to treat his spirits well, even buying rare reagents to give them as thanks for their services. He'll be awoken by a wounded water spirit and, if he accepts (bypassing the naturla urge to need payment that his Gator/Crocodile mentor imposes), he'll be taken on a minor metaplanar quest to help a sick water spirit retrieve some essence of fire to purge it of its illness.

[dashifen]

I actually usually don't mess with the players.  Worst case scenario is a chase scene as they drive through go-gang territory or some side-line stuff just to fill in the space.  I think that with six people and only meeting once a week, we do our best to stay on topic because, otherwise, things just take for freaking ever and nothing would ever get done!

[James McMurray]

I should add that I don't tend to mess with them while they're on a run. It's restricted to short pre-run vignettes that are there to try to keep the world feeling alive instead of an unrelated series of missions, as well as give them something to deal with that can't necessarily be easily solved with a pistol and a silencer. Blackjack's current problems are tied to the character's actions, while the other PCs hadn't really done much to trigger reactions from NPCs (good or ill) so they were there to give the guys a chance to react to stuff so I'd have that first fallen domino to use when making future scenarios.

I'd love to have a session that didn't involve a run at all, or perhaps had them using something from a run to work out their non-runner problems.

[Canticle]

I encourage PCs to take Judas, In Debt, Lost Loved One, Prejudice, and other interesting negative qualities. If the PCs take them, that is what they want to happen in the game. It is really easy to pick on a player who buys a shiny new gun—but denies to spend the money on their sever NovaCoke addiction; what is the PC going to do there? go into debt with the local dealer, or do a job for 'free' with the local street gang or organized crime group?
When players make contacts with 4-6 Loyalty, have them show up and want to hang out. What is the PC going to do? blow off his friend to continue legwork (the PC knows he has not seen his buddy in a while) or go out for a night of drinking and be hung over for the run?
Exploiting what the players put on their character sheets is the easiest thing to do, especially since it costs Karma to get rid of Negative Qualities. Often times, the sheet will expand into the rest of the game and make extra complications: "Oh, you insulted a group of dwarves and had to leave the casino you needed information from. Next week the metahuman rights group shows up to try to fix you of your ways. You close your door in there faces? Cool. They hire a Horizon spokes team to change your mind: get ready for non-stop Horizon education ads spamming your inbox for the next week."

[The Cat]

In a SR2 game, ccasionally, almost randomly, a group I was with in college would start having trouble from the Mob, or the Yaks or the cops would come looking for us, or a corporate strike team would hit one of our safe houses.  There was no reason for it, the trouble would be entirely unrelated to what we were doing or had done in the past.  then cryptic warnings woudl start showing up that turned out to be correct.  Thsi went on for month of ingame time before a player realized what was goingon.

The GM had noticed that our current characters were very similar to our previous ones (from SR1).  When we'd changed editions we basically "reboooted" the characters in the new system but altered their names, backstories and such.  The GM was having a bit of fun with us by having us mistaken for the previous group we'd played and the opposition from each run we'd done then, coming after us now thinking we were the same guys.

It was a funny little bit of quasi-metagame harassment to keep things amusing.

[CanRay]

One time my group was going out to get a few kegs of beer for a bar in the deepest, darkest Barrens.  (The bar ran out, and their tabs were the highest.).

They were harassed by various groups shooting at them from various vantage points, as they were "Rich" (They had a vehicle), and turned down the wrong alley, the headlights showing a meet between two groups in dark suits, AK-97s, and suitcases.

Both of those groups, already keyed up, shouted "YOU SET US UP!" and started shooting at each other and at the SUV the group was in.

Just completely random.

[ARCimedes]

I had the Yakuza leave them an "invitation" to a meeting in the form of an orgami crane with the note written on it and left in the middle of their apartment. That freaked them out.

Also making it part of the plot that only the 2nd Ed. Rigger could do something and had to leave his vehicle was fun, too. For some reason he always got paranoid when he got out of the truck...

[JimJungle]

Those are all great ideas. I like the cow scenario. I was already thinking of introducing some Genetically Engineered Super Cows. For unkown (to the runners) reasons a AA Genetech company has created a breed of cows capable of being magicians and adepts, along with cybered mundane cows. Thier idea was that if you are going to make a Super Soldier, why not make one thats tasty as well as efficient. Not only would they make great soldiers, but if any die, then the higher ups in command got dinner. The ultimate in expendable fodder. Cows With Guns. And Attitude. Scary.

[ARCimedes]

Those are all great ideas. I like the cow scenario. I was already thinking of introducing some Genetically Engineered Super Cows. For unkown (to the runners) reasons a AA Genetech company has created a breed of cows capable of being magicians and adepts, along with cybered mundane cows. Thier idea was that if you are going to make a Super Soldier, why not make one thats tasty as well as efficient. Not only would they make great soldiers, but if any die, then the higher ups in command got dinner. The ultimate in expendable fodder. Cows With Guns. And Attitude. Scary.

A little silly, but not all campaigns have to be dark and dirty. Still, don't forget how much high or even low explosives you can pack into a cow. Each Super-Soldier Cow can also be a fairly high yeild bomb.

[Morg]

Advanced Chemical Plant disguised as a Milk Farm all the Cows have had their udders replaced with chem glands that reproduce a difficult to make chemical....

I am not sure to laugh at my own idea or give it some serous thought

anyone else think it is even feasible or cost effective?

[ARCimedes]

Advanced Chemical Plant disguised as a Milk Farm all the Cows have had their udders replaced with chem glands that reproduce a difficult to make chemical....

I am not sure to laugh at my own idea or give it some serous thought

anyone else think it is even feasible or cost effective?

It is certainly feasible to have the cows being used to biologically manufacture different chemicals. With the advent of symbiotes, it would be as simple as replacing the mammary glands with a gland designed to manufacture what you need. However, cost effectiveness might be an issue. I suppose it depends on how the chemical is processed now. But a cow farm would require the normal scientists that a manufacturing plant would require plus a staff of veterinarians for the cows and farm hands to feed and clean the cows, not to mention "milking" the cows. Then you have to include the cost of feeding the cows, which you don't generally have to do in a manufacturing plant. On the other hand, the fact that it is a hidden asset may make it worth the extra cost.

[Dead Monky]

I don't mess with them very often.  They're good enough at screwing things up and getting sidetracked on their own.  But, on occasion, I'll toss in a monkey wrench if things are going unusually smooth or if they're just blowing through something with little effort.  What I hit them with depends on what they're doing and what seems logical at the time.  Though once I caused an accident with a falling satellite just to cause some chaos.

[JimJungle]

Advanced Chemical Plant disguised as a Milk Farm all the Cows have had their udders replaced with chem glands that reproduce a difficult to make chemical....

I am not sure to laugh at my own idea or give it some serous thought

anyone else think it is even feasible or cost effective?

It would all depend on what you feed the cow and what you want coming out of the cow. If you could alter a cow so that it could feed off of toxic waste or other hazardous materials, and turn those into usable bi-products, well then you got a money maker right there. Hell, why not kame one into a walking nuke? Now there is a mission, trying to difuse or dispose of a Toxic Cow before it goes nuclear.

[CanRay]

Never did tell you guys about the cow my group stole.

That's my way of harassing you. 

[Tagz]

One of the other things I will do is use names to mess with the group.

Like Rando Nomè.  Obviously a terrible play on "Random Name".  And I'll say it like this:
"His name.... uhmmm.... crap... ... ok, Rando Nomè.  Ok, back in character.  'Yeah, this guy, Rando Nomè, I think I heard him talking about the fellow your looking for over beers the other day.'"

Little do they know that Rando Nomè is fully stated out and has his own interests in this.