[Cass100199]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and it's my 1st post. I haven't played since SR2 and have picked up some SR4 books and thinking at starting a campaign. I haven't GMed in a while so I'm rusty.

The campaign is meant to be a long story arc driven by NPC motivation. My two NPC's are the surviving members of a UCAS black ops team who were ambushed and murdered by another team. The CDR is an adept (Face/ Shooter) and the 2nd is the team's overwatch/ sniper. They went underground after the incident (presumed dead) and are now focusing their resources on trying to figure out why they were set up, who ordered/ paid for it and finding the betraying team for revenge. Since they are presumed dead, they can't tap into the merc and former operator specialists and being military they don't fit in well with Runners. So they cook up a plan to liberate some convicts with military/ paramilitary experience and offer them a complete system wipe and a new life in exchange for their help.

In come the players. I'm going to ask my players to incorporate some things into their background: 1) a military/ paramilitary background. They were average grunts. 2) Something in their backstory about going to prison, whether it be a set up or they actually committed a crime is up to them. Essentially though, they did thier time in whatever organization, got out and started leading normal lives in some capacity. In exchange for partially dictating some background, I figured I could give them some free stuff: a skill group based around their prior service and 2 knowledge skills, all at 3. The skill group is Fitness, military firearms, and a skill reflecting their MOS. My thoughts on the fitness was it could be used to re-roll any 1's on an athletics related test. The idea is they stayed in decent shape and it's that little bit of intestinal fortitude to push through physical pain. The military firearms gives them a familiarity with military style weapons, but not specialty. They can choose to upgrade those per the rules and whatnot using BP. The free knowledge skills are to reflect their post military/ paramilitary time in whatever career they started with.

I'm not planning on allowing heavy cyberware. I like the idea of them starting with normal amounts of cyberware for civilians.

My biggest problem is figuring out the hook. Obviously, offering convicts doing time is an easy one, but I can't figure out how my NPC's present their deal while keeping their motivations hidden. That's how I want to spend my first 1/4 of the campaign with the players going on missions that seem unrelated and slowly figuring out what the NPC's are up to.

Any ideas?

[Canticle]

Offer them ¥¥¥.  Nuyen makes the world go round. Their fixer sets them up with the Johnson. He could be one of the surviving black ops, or someone who they hire to be the Johnson. The PCs do their legwork, then do the job. They get paid. You never have to show the black ops team until you want to. Use middle men. That way you can have the PCs do jobs without giving away motivations.

[Cass100199]

That could work. My original intent was to have the two operators bust them out of a KA van while in transport to another facility (arranged by a hacker) and then take them to their HQ and offer them the deal.

[Glyph]

Plots are a good thing to have, but stories are more problematic.  The problem is that the PCs will, by their nature, tend to go off the rails.  It might be better to have them be more peripheral to this story - the NPCs will be doing their thing, but it will happen with or without the PCs.  The PCs just happen to get dragged into it some times.  But this way, if they don't pick up a clue, or otherwise do what they are supposed to do, it won't completely derail the story.  And if they go do their own thing for awhile, have the NPCs continue their plot in the meantime, and then they can get hooked back into that story at some future point.

[Walks Through Walls]

You could still have them broken out only have it be by more traditional shadowrunner type group who then bring them back to the Johnson who pays the liberation team and then offers the players work. You could have this Johnson be a middle man still or even a man of a man.

They do this job for money, freedom, and he'll put them in touch with some people. Then have them get other jobs mainly from the black ops team through intermediaries, but you could throw in some from third party groups also as the players gain experience and make a name for themselves.

After a time you could even have the people who ambushed the black ops team approach the players because they think they know who might be looking for the info the team has been amassing.

[Canticle]

That could work. My original intent was to have the two operators bust them out of a KA van while in transport to another facility (arranged by a hacker) and then take them to their HQ and offer them the deal.

This idea sounds a little rail roady. Have the runners escape themselves (maybe with the help of their contacts) then have the military folks offer them jobs through Johnsons. My idea of SR is having different Johnsons offering different jobs with different feels. If about half are given through the military group, that would start to point out the runners as on their pay roll. The team should always decide what they do, who they sign up with, and who they piss off.

[Cass100199]

I just like making players think outside the box. I've found that when you set parameters for character creation it makes them think the character through a little more thoroughly. Seriously, how many times did you have the radical, badass former ganger with a blue mohawk, wired reflexes, smartlink, cyberspurs, Ares Predator, and an Ingram smartgun sit down at your table? You get my drift anyways.

[Charybdis]

I just like making players think outside the box. I've found that when you set parameters for character creation it makes them think the character through a little more thoroughly. Seriously, how many times did you have the radical, badass former ganger with a blue mohawk, wired reflexes, smartlink, cyberspurs, Ares Predator, and an Ingram smartgun sit down at your table? You get my drift anyways.

This sounds less like a Shadowrun campaign, and more like the A-team (which is fine, am just trying to scope the situation).

So, standard SWOT analysis (because I'm at work, and bored)

Strengths:
- Good strong campaign opening. This is a solid concept
- Having the PC's starting together in a jail cell is much better than the 'you meet in a bar' cliche.
- This can start the action immediately: 'You're in a prisoner transport on the highway. A flash of light catches your eye and you see the tell-tale plume of an RPG streaking in your direction. There's barely time to duck and cover when BOOM the truck is spinning and incomprehensible shouts and screams assault your ears.'

Weaknesses:
- As others mentioned, this sounds a bit rail-roady (which isn't in the dictionary, but should be).
- It's fine for the PC's to be given jobs as directed, but do they have options to refuse?
- Is there money to be spent on their own desires?
- Do they get to have lives outside of the set missions?
- You advised that the two guys in charge (Face/Shooter and Overwatch/Sniper) have been cut off from their normal contacts, however you have a hacker involved with the KE breakout. This is confusing.

Opportunities:
Depending on military background and campaign, you can call on a lot of existing Shadowrun/War! material for big kabooms and general explosive fun.
Depending on your 2x God-NPC's (ie, the Black Ops johnsons) the PC's can be clearing their name, as well as their employers
This campaign has a lot of flavour you can add.
- Depending on campaign tone, PC's may be directed to help civilians, as directed by their bosses
- Depending on A-team influence, PC's will have a lot of cinematic visualisations to fall back on (which will avoid boredom).

Threats:
- Having God-NPC's (basically these black-ops guys who are for all intents and purposes currently untouchable) needs to be addressed. Why do they need the PC's? What skillsets are they looking for beyond deniability?
- The PC's themselves will be HUNTED criminals. Not just SINners, but people being deliberately hunted for escaping custody. Criminal SIN's? Wanted negative quality? Or is this part of their Fake ID backstory being done during campaign? Not a big issue, butt needs to be addressed to maintain continuity.

Anyways, you may find all or none of the above useful. But I'm now less bored at work, so thanks for the chance to rant

Cheers!

[Cass100199]

Thanks for the input. I'm going to take a step back and re-look the beginning. The root was two things that intrigued me: 1) What happens when normal people get pulled into the shadow's? and 2) I know my friends, so what happens when I pull them outside their comfort zone of character creation?

I wasn't consciously thinking A-Team, but yeah, I see the parallels. I grew up on it. As for the NPC's, my thoughts were they had money stashed so they used it. And as for why the PC's need them, it gives them a readily available training option to upgrade. But I see where you were going. I didn't plan on having the NPC's accompany on missions as it would be too easy to use as a crutch, but instead doing things related to the mission and story as time went on.

Think you for the input all of you, and more is welcome. Like I said, it's been a while.