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Shadowrun Adventure Seeds

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Darrian Wolffe

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« on: <09-05-10/0552:12> »
To fill this forum with something other than spam, let's try a thread wherein we post that advice most needed by all GMs - adventure ideas.  Mechanics aren't necessary (and should probably be tweaked to your own group's power level anyway) - just plotlines and enough info on who's screwing over whom to make everything clear.

And just in case it needs to be said - PLAYERS (especially MY Cincinnati players) STAY AWAY.

Adventure #1: Knights-Errant in Tarnished Armor
The party gets a new job. Just a simple hit. Bust in, create at least twenty-five confirmed kills, destroy the building, then leave. The contract? It's from Knight Errant. The target? A mid-sized gang out in the barrens. KE doesn't have the manpower free to hit them right now, so they're subcontracting.

---The kicker: The gang has expanded its 'pay us or we break stuff' extortion racket into an actual security company. They're providing legal law enforcement and protection for businesses and homes in their area at a fraction of what KE charges. This isn't undercutting them much now, since it's only one small gang, but word travels fast in the shadows and slums. If more gangs incorporate and get licenses, they might lose profits. KE can't take direct action, or they'd be liable in Corporate Court for unfair business practices, so they have to shut down their competition under the table. Enter the runners. So, do they take the job and slaughter the only organization that's willing to defend the SINless and slums?

--The screw-job: There are only 17 members of the gang. The 25 confirmed kills stipulated in the contract cannot be achieved without killing innocent bystanders, and KE knows it. They have the area under surveillance, and plan on ambushing the runners as they make their getaway, killing them in the name of 'law enforcement' and covering their tracks to make sure there's no link between them and the hit.

--The double-double cross: one of Lone Star's spies within Knight Errant tipped off the gang. They're expecting the hit and are fully prepared.

--The triple-cross: a group of disgruntled citizens-turned-domestic-terrorists are supporting the gang and its anti-megacorp stance. They've set up sniper roosts in seven nearby buildings, and are ready to open fire on the KE troops as soon as they show up, thinking they're the ones who'll conduct the initial hit.

Got all that? End result: the party is running into a warehouse full of heavily armed gangers expecting them with sniper support outside and the cops waiting until they get weakened to take them out, while another cop company tries to screw them over. And no matter what, they aren't getting paid. How do they salvage this mess?



Adventure #2: Crap...did anybody raise their Social Skills?
A rich heir(ess), inexpertly contacts the PC's or their fixer for a job. He/she is pissed at a friend or rival, wants the runners to do something petty like wreck the target's latest Big Public Event. It's about revenge and humiliation. Not guns blazing.

Play up the extravagance. High security (but with gaps since hey, dumb kids don't know better), rare decorations and loot (all of it tagged and monitored) and some pretty awesome awesome food and drink.  This is a high-roleplay opportunity to get to walk around and talk with some real movers and shakers if the runners play it cool and subtle.  For a team of veteran runners, imagine the hilarity that might ensure if one or more of those movers and shakers recognizes them while they're at the event.

If they screw it up, the runners have probably just gotten an enemy who might squeal to Daddy/Mommy that "mean 'ole shadowrunners exploited him/her".  If they do the job successfully, the runners'll probably get called upon to do other jobs and potentially get embroiled in the petty BS of the rich and idle - a stomping ground few runners are going to be comfortable being in.

Imagine this whole thing being something like, "the Olsen Twins hire you to wreck a young Paris Hilton's Sweet 16 party, but instead of her father running hotels, he's actually the head of Lone Star."   ;D

« Last Edit: <09-05-10/0554:38> by Darrian Wolffe »

MikeW

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« Reply #1 on: <09-05-10/1617:31> »
I'll toss out a couple of adventures that I have used in the past, to keep this thread going.    :)

Run #1
The runner team is hired by an Arms Dealer.  He is known for smuggling weapons into the Metroplex, and has a large shipment coming in.  Somehow, details about the shipment has been compromised, and that Knight Errant has been tipped off.  They have increased security at all the checkpoints leading into the metroplex, and they are currently looking for the specific truck and the drivers who are bringing the goods into the metroplex, for a delivery in the Redmond Barrens.  He has informed his employees to find a place to stop along the route, and to await another truck and another team that would bring the goods into Seattle instead.  He provides the runners the location of where the truck is, so that they can meet up with the truck and make the switch. 

The problem is that by the time the runners rendeavous with the truck, it appears to be abandoned. When they check inside the truck, they find the driver and the muscle had already been killed, and the shipment intercepted by someone else.  When the runners contact the Johnson again, he will offer the runners a bonus for disposing of the truck and the bodies, and tells them to wait for further instructions.  He locates the source of the leak in his outfit, and pumps that person for information.  He calls the runners back and informs them that the greedy individual had the shipment stolen, and redirected to a storage facility where the weapons could be discreetly sold off in the Salish-Shidhe Council.  He pays the runners an additional amount of money to recover the goods for him, and to bring the weapons up to Seattle, where they can be delivered to his buyer.  The group that stole the weapons is a professional runner team.  The runners can earn the Arms Dealer as an additional contact should they do this job right.

Run #2
The runner team is hired by a member of the Tir Peace Force, who has been working on tracking down and eliminating a specific smuggling group, that has been smuggling BTLs, drugs, weapons and other illicit goods into the Tir for the past two years.  This group has been highly successful in its efforts to bring the goods into the Tir, and he is under tremendous pressure to have it stopped.  He wants the runners to locate the smuggling ring that is based in Seattle.  He tells the group that the leader of this particular smuggling ring is a Drake.  The runners are free to use lethal force on the rest of the smuggling group, but he has orders to recover the Drake alive (Hestaby's orders), and so the runners must find a way to capture the Drake alive, and turn it over to the Peace Force operative.   
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Longshot23

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« Reply #2 on: <09-08-10/0716:38> »
I came up with this one a while back - it's more of a framework than an adventure, because every gaming group tends to have its pet loves & hates . . .

A meet with a Johnson in a secluded but open place - i.e. outdoors - craps out.  During the meet things go dark.  The runners fall unconscious and wake up 2 or 3 hours later in the same place.  The Johnson is gone - there are [possibly] some indications that he/she was taken unwillingly - blood splatters, clothing fragments, whatever.  The runners were concealed by a fetish/focus sustaining a spell.
The runners learn that their peers expect them to get the Johnson back safely - their reps & street cred are at stake.


Doc Chaos

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« Reply #3 on: <09-08-10/0731:41> »
I came up with this one a while back - it's more of a framework than an adventure, because every gaming group tends to have its pet loves & hates . . .

A meet with a Johnson in a secluded but open place - i.e. outdoors - craps out.  During the meet things go dark.  The runners fall unconscious and wake up 2 or 3 hours later in the same place.  The Johnson is gone - there are [possibly] some indications that he/she was taken unwillingly - blood splatters, clothing fragments, whatever.  The runners were concealed by a fetish/focus sustaining a spell.
The runners learn that their peers expect them to get the Johnson back safely - their reps & street cred are at stake.

Ok, I will play the Advocatus Diaboli here.
The runners meet the Johnson at a secluded open place - why? Of course, if they just show up without even checking out the place or even place guards, they deserve whats coming to them.
The runners will have to get the Johnson back - why? If you don't make it personal by assigning (false?) blame for the kidnapping on one of the runners, why would they, or their contacts, care about a Johnson that obviously got in over his head in something and now got snatched to pay the bill?
The runners were left alive - why? Unless (see above) it is a plot tp blame on or more character/s for the kidnapping, why keep potential witnesses alive, who might even have a good connection to the Johnson and therefor are reason to come after the kidnappers?
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FastJack

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« Reply #4 on: <09-08-10/0941:10> »
Actually, I like that it's left open like that. It's a 'seed' after all, meant to give the GM a start on an adventure and build it up from there.

Doc Chaos

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« Reply #5 on: <09-08-10/1004:31> »
Sure, but if I see a seed and immidiatly two or more "but... why?"s jump into my face... *shrugs* Just wanted to comment on that.
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FastJack

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« Reply #6 on: <09-08-10/1037:06> »
Ah, but it got you thinking about the why's didn't it? And from your post, it looked like you were already thinking of answers to those questions.

Doc Chaos

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« Reply #7 on: <09-08-10/1045:56> »
Indeed I did :) And I know I could answer all of those questions realisticly to get a good story out of it. I just wanted to point out some problems people might run into when using that seed :)
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Longshot23

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« Reply #8 on: <09-08-10/1049:12> »
Indeed I did :) And I know I could answer all of those questions realisticly to get a good story out of it. I just wanted to point out some problems people might run into when using that seed :)

Quite reasonable to stop and ask too - i knew that when I put it up.  It is, after all, a starting point.

sidslick

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« Reply #9 on: <09-09-10/1310:54> »
Requiring an infill bounty hunter mission or five?  Have found a lot of inspiration from the FBI website's "most wanted" list.  Obviously tweaked to Lonestar, KE or whomever, for the benefit of the game - but a great way to start a short session, and has all of the information to hand.  You just have to create the contacts and locations, and decide whether the target returns dead, alive or in pieces.
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Longshot23

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« Reply #10 on: <09-10-10/0030:50> »
how about a themed game more or less based off one of the cop shows - i like the idea of NCIS Shadowrun, but there are so many others

FastJack

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« Reply #11 on: <09-10-10/0035:49> »
CSI: Seattle

... I was going to list a bunch of others, but I couldn't come up with 2072 titles for shows like Dollhouse, 24 and Law & Order. :)

Longshot23

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« Reply #12 on: <09-10-10/0050:56> »
A much crazier one I thought of was Stargate: Shadowrun or SR: SG, only involving a weird astral rift rather than a stargate.  There are so many problems with it though.

Walks Through Walls

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« Reply #13 on: <09-10-10/1716:20> »
24 could work really well only being as everything happens even faster maybe make it 12 or just the worst night of your life.
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Ragman

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« Reply #14 on: <09-10-10/2116:02> »
The runners are hired by a low level free spirit. He managed to pose as the worshiped deity of a very small sect.
He got a little bit of money(enough to pay the runner) and karma from his followers
and everything was fine until his "prophet"(leader of the sect) started loosing it and made prophecies that the Spirit has trouble fulfilling with his limited powers.

The runners are hired to infiltrate the sect as "believers" and help fulfill the prophecies,
get rid of the prophet (of course one of the first prophecies was that $deity will protect him, so it has to look as if he sacrificed himself) and
find a replacement prophet who is also charismatic but more reasonable.

If a PC mage has trid phantasm add a few cult members with astral perception or the fulfill prophecies part will be to easy.