[Magnificzero]

Hello Fellow GM's,

I have been lurking the forums for a while now, gathering as much information I can and mostly to answer certain questions I had concerning both rules and the storyline. Now I am in need of both your insights and creativity in order to turn my game for the better.

I have recently started a Shadowrun 4e game with 4 players. We decided to go with a DocWagon theme style game and each one decided to go with a certain background (see below for the players and a brief description), but all off them are connected threw a certain way. Now they ended up being together as a HTRP and they face multiple scenarios that HTRP might face pretty much every day ( Save Mr.X in a Aztec Co. Facility, Save Mrs.X from car crash, but saving her means death of the kid in the passenger seat, etc...). So far the games have been fast paced and very good, but I am sensing that after another couple of games...it might get a bit old. So what I am looking, is a way to turn this fine little group of heroes into shadowrunners.

Here is a bit about the players...

- "The Artist" Wilson Fisk
Fisk is a troll that believes he as been born in the wrong body, wanting to be human rather than troll. He altered his skin, his features and his voice in order to appear more human like (even if he is bigger than any human). When he is not working for DocWagon, he spends time working on his pieces of Art and taking care of his art gallery that is starting to get the exposure it deserves. He as a big mouth and he knows how to use it. Also, he manages to get the information he wants out of people by reading into them. Metahuman life is very important to him, and even if it might cause him harm (physical or psycological), Fisk will do anything he cna to protect it. He saved is companion Manny (see below) from a group of extremists and they have been working together ever since.

- "The Indian" Manny
Living by a code that everything mother earth created is sacred, Manny highly respects both the life of metahumans and nature. The only thing many holds closer to himself than is code is protecting Fisk from whatever may cause him harm. With his abilities as an Adept, he gains supernatural speed helping him incapacitate people before they can be a treat. Prefering to solve situations peacefully, he waits for the final word from Fisk before doing anything during a High Threat Response. During his free time, he enjoy's spending time in the slums helping those in need.

- "Robo"
Robo, the rigger, as went trough a lot. He sustained a near fatal injury that caused him to lose his legs. Luckly for him, he had a DocWagon contract and he was saved by a team composed of Manny and Fisk. Keeping in contact with them ever since, he was quickly invited to join the team as Pilot an support. Even if his anti-social ways sometimes seem harsh on the two, they know he means no harm...

- "Doc" Wilfred Stern
This elf-hater was the head of Seattles University Chemistry Department, and while doing research, he came accross a chemical compound that helped the healing process of many patients.. He was approached by Docwagon due to his high expertise and his secret formula. He as been with the team for a few months now.

So there you have it. Pardon my english as it isn't my primary langage.

If you require any more information in order to help me, feel free to ask

[Walks Through Walls]

One way you could switch it over is similar to the idea of saving the paying customer and letting the kid in the passenger seat die. Only instead have it where there are more victims with Doc Wagon bracelets then they will be able to save. Someone will die. This sets up the next part where you have it where there is a high powered suit has ties to the person who ends up dead so then they go out to ruin the team.

Another possibility would be to have them show up and find that their "victim" is one of a group shadowrunners who are under attack from a corporate hit squad for the run they just finished. As the team moves in and rescues the injured runner he slips a data chip onto one of them without their knowledge to hide it from the corp. security.
However, when the security can't find it they figure that the Doc Wagon team has it. The runners know they have it and both groups go to get it from the team. If you want to be particularly devious you could make it info that Doc Wagon wouldn't want to come out and so then their superiors give them orders about the chip once it is found. The corp security thinks they were in on it from the beginning and maybe go to press charges against them and ruin their careers.

Just a couple of ideas hope they help you out.

[CanRay]

*Looks around*  There's a bunch of wise hoops here, but I'm not sure that's the wise you're looking for. 

[CitizenJoe]

Doc is a lawsuit waiting to happen.  He will either use his secret formula, which is not UCASDA approved (since it is secret) and cause unforeseen side effects or allergic response, or someone will die and he'll be accused of not using his drug to save them. 

I'm not sure if you're playing in Seattle, but back in the 50's DocWagon wasn't allowed to work in the Salish lands.  They had a working arrangement for DW patients that get injured in Salish Lands that allow for short term border crossings but the patients have to be delivered to Salish hospitals and Salish patients get preferential treatment.  They've been gaining better coverage, but the troll and indian could go a long way to making this group a Salish authorized DocWagon team.  See if you can get the Elf Hatred to be directed/founded on the Tir secession with lingering mistrust of elves otherwise.

[raggedhalo]

The other thing to remember is that most police procedurals (or medical procedurals) tend to focus on the characters' lives and relationships rather than the crime/medicine after a while.  The initial premise (in this case, DocWagon HTR team) becomes the backdrop against which other stuff happens.

A family member or old friend in trouble, a dark secret from the past, or simply a frame-up job as described above could all work well to turn them into shadowrunners.  Likewise, if they were to save the target of an assassination then they might find themselves in a spot of bother.  Hell, HTR teams usually have a few more people in them, so you could use one of them to pull the PCs into a shadowy situation - especially if an NPC team-mate is a shadowrunner on the side.

However, it's worth considering whether this is something your players want.  They have signed up for a DocWagon HTR campaign, not a straight shadowrunner campaign.  Changing things up on them might cause resentment and problems down the road.

[Magnificzero]

Thank you very much for all your help!

The reason I am asking this is mostly in case the concept gets old, and I have no intention of initiating the change at this instant. I have elaborated minor side quests for each character in order to have them actively occupied with both their work and personnal lives.

I have found a copy of an old "Mission" book with a campaign for DocWagon in there. I haven't manage to read through all of it yet but I am guessing that it could be easily bendable to fufill the purpose I am looking for if I ever get there.

I really like what Raggedhalo suggested, taking a turn more on the caracters lives and relationships. The focus as been so much on all the action that could be in a HTR team intervention that I completely overlooked the other aspects of the game.

[Crash_00]

You don't have to turn them into runners to get a different feel. You just have to get them dirty. Maybe a shadowy guy corners one of them one day and demands that they steal a chip off of Mr. Anderson when they bring him in...sure enough an hour later they're on a call to save a Mr. Anderson. Should tell them they've spoken with someone powerful, what happens if they didn't steal the chip. Maybe they get another call three days later. It's Mr. Anderson again, only this time he's been shot three times and left on one of the PCs lawn (whichever one has family preferably).

One evil bastard can make the entire group sweat it as they try to stay on his good side, do their job, and not get caught.

[inca1980]

Have Doc Wagon double-cross them.  Let's say that Doc Wagon sometimes throws some other AAA corp. sec. unit a bone for some serious cash so that that AAA's Sec. Department's can justify its exorbitant budget at the next board meeting.  The team then has to learn that they're just being sent in as cannon fodder.  This probably is best after an assault that the team survives.  Make it painful (i.e. have the bad guy's use a lot of Edge), preferable forcing one or more of the players to burn Edge so they get pissed off enough so that when they find out it was Doc Wagon did it, they will want payback.  Have a Johnson who has a nice inside job run against Doc Wagon hire the team and before leaving the company they do a "fuck you" run against them. 

Then have a whole part of them getting new identities and viola!, they're now shadowrunners!

[Magnificzero]

Just to give everyone interested a little feedback, we had our game yesterday and I decided to include HTR situations but also decided to involve a bit more of the characters at a personal level.

During one of the situation they faced, they had to extract 2 contract holders from a gunfight between a team of runners (the 2 contract holders were with them) and the 405 Hellhounds. "Doc" quickly arrived on scene with Fisk, Doc quickly going to stabilize the CH and Fisk being there for back up in case. Failing a perception roll, one of the runners that was not a contract holder came by to see if his team mates were going to be all right as an excuse to slip a chip of data in Fisk's pocket.

During a simple night a few day's after, Fisk was at home painting when is security system sensed a hacking alert advising him...a few seconds later the front door explodes with a few gas grenades being thrown inside. Fisk quickly grabs a piece of art he as been working on for the past month (18 successes so far) and jumps threw a window (falling on his back to protect the art). He gets up only to feel multiple gel rounds hitting his body until he just falls unconcious on the side. He wakes up not too long after with a couple of neighboors trying to stop the fire from spreading on his house and to see how he was doing (of course, they only heard the big boom sound and didn't see a thing). The first thing he looks for his the art he was trying to protect that was not there anymore! So he believes he was robbed for his painting when it was actually for the data chip.

Doc, on his side, was the victim of information theft. A hacker managed to go threw all the protection he had in his lab to steal his secret medical formula. So he is trying to find who did it, and to what end?

Robo, during a solo investigation of something completely unrelated (theft in a local museum), he visited the house of the person he received information that commited the theft. The door slightly open, he entered only to see the body of the thief in a puddle of his own blood. Piece of paper was left lying on the body, a crypted message that left him clueless of what happened. Also, he as yet to detect that whomever did this...also left a nice bio-enginered disease that is contracted via Inhalation...to be followed

Finally for Manny, I decided to play on family ties ( he is a Sioux ) and have on the news a report that several mutilated bodies of Sioux origin have been found only a few miles outside of Seattle. Authorities still have not released much information other than the bodies are those of kids, women and adult men. That news will keep him busy

So I think that I will be able to keep the HTRT game running if I go with side quest like these.

[Walks Through Walls]

It sounds like you came up with some really good twists and personal hooks for each of the characters to keep the game interesting and entertaining.
The misdirection with the painting was especially nice in my opinion and should make for some great follow up adventures.

[Mystic]

As a former EMT,  I can make a few suggestions about the scenerios

1) Hazmat. Always a "fun" call if I ever had one. If the runners have the strong urge to run in to save the day, throw a toxic environment in their way to see how far they're REALLY willing to go. One time it took all I had not to rush in a few times. Also, have them arrive, then have them make body checks to stay awake until they realize: Oh crap, that van that was involved with the pile up was unmarked and is carrying bad chemical/material X! Cholrine gas is good for that one, but feel free to get creative. Also, what if they find that they can't shoot because they may set something off...too bad the opposition dosen't see it that way.

2) Jurisdictional nightmares. Cops/corp sec says "F-U" becasue they are under orders to under no circumstances let any non-us types in "secured area-X". Or, what if among the "group" there is a rival provider who is getting in the way. Loved it when I had to deal with private companies and county departments when they fought over who had the bigger...truck. Yeah, that's it

3) Equipment failures at the worst time, or as we called it "Partnerned with Mr. Murphy". One of my pet peves when multiple crews share one rig is when people get sloppy with restocking or equipment maintenance. Need that defibulator? SORRY! Battery's drained, or worse it surges. Oops.

4) LAWSUIT!!!!! I had to defend myself in court or in front of a board several times because someone felt that my actions were wrong, that I was an idiot, or just wanted to see if they could make a buck. My favorite is the guy who tried to sue me when I broke his ribs while performing CPR. DUH!

5) Pranks. Some hacker finds it funny to send you on a run thats BS but then there is a REAL emergency across town. Damn

6) Some nut takes a shining to you and decides to put you to the test. He keeps coming up with more and more elaborate senerios to see how long it is before you fail, crack, or both. Think of anoter version of SAW. Thankfully, I just made that one up and never had to deal with that.

[Magnificzero]

Wow Mystic, that is very insightful. I would love too see this lovely brady bunch in court trying to defend themselves!

You have just made the little hamster in my head work a bit and now I have way too many scenarios pilling up

[Mystic]

Often, the truth is stranger than fiction. And for the record, I've never had a decision go against me when it came to the care of my patients.

 

[JustADude]

Often, the truth is stranger than fiction. And for the record, I've never had a decision go against me when it came to the care of my patients.

 

And I'm sure you've gotten at least one situation where some self-entitled jackass thinks their schedule is more important than the life of the person you're treating.

[Mystic]

Often, the truth is stranger than fiction. And for the record, I've never had a decision go against me when it came to the care of my patients.

 

And I'm sure you've gotten at least one situation where some self-entitled jackass thinks their schedule is more important than the life of the person you're treating.

Oh no, that NEVER happenes. Not once, never...Never had a person who thought the four-in laceration was more important than the gunshot victim, or the person who has a head cold thinks they deserve preference just because they "came in first" over the person who can't fricking breathe! And if I may say, people NEVER seem to want to stop and gwak at an accident scene which never causes problems becasue emergency vehicles can't get in or out. And rich jerkwads in expensive Jaguars ALWAYS get out of the way when a fire truck or ambulance comes roarling up behind them with lights flashing and horns blaring. Yeah, we're just messing with them, we arent serious.

Heh I know this sounds like a lot of bitching....and it is, but I did have some good memories and am proud of my service, but it was eventually too much for me, so I became a Cop instead! HA!

 

That reminds me of another senerio, someone on the "team" maybe an NPC is slowly losing it and causes problems. I admit I almost went downt that path until I was just honest with myself and decided I'd rather arrest fu...er fine upstanding individuals rather than have to treat them.