While I don't have one set up in the above manner - it's far too PC-specific for it - I like the
Fantasy Island / Zombie Breakout adventure. I have done this, or had this done to me, in several SR games, almost universally with smashing success. It helps if there's one character whose first reaction to 'someone pops out of the bushes!!' is to quickdraw and put a few APDS/AV rounds through them.
The PlaceFantasy Island. No, literally - an island with several 'zones', within which paying customers get to fulfill a large number of potential fantasies, depending on how much the package they bought cost. Tailor the zones to your players - a Wild West zone for a cowboy/adept-pilot, a Feudal Japan zone for a Japanese street samurai, a Caribbean party zone for the ganja-loving voodoo guy, a Monaco zone for the speed-freak rigger, whatever. The zones are
defined by your PCs, by which I mean each PC has a 'zone' that's just right for them to go vacation in. (You WANT them to be split up for the first part of it.) If guns are allowed - even required in some places!! - then they are
supposed to be loaded with gel rounds for the shootout-at-high-noon or the gunfight in the A-OK Corral, or the guns-blazing bar-brawl in the saloon, or
whatever, and people are NOT supposed to be killed. (But make sure there's a way for psycho-shooter to smuggle in and load up his APDS.) Easiest places for this are the Caribbean, the South Seas, or somewhere in Southeast Asia - especially the Phillipines.
The TimeImmediately after an earth-shattering run for someone who can pay a drekload of cash for them to go to Fantasy Island 'as a bonus for such good work'. Preferably after the PCs' Public Awareness has shot through the roof, and they have to get out of town for a while, and dammit, a vacation sounds
great. Have the Johnson pay for two weeks for a one-or-two-steps-below-top-grade vacation - not the million-nuyen expense of being the Japanese daimyo, but at least they can take the part of a valued retainer - or a mysterious ronin.
The SetupThe runners get together every couple of days for lunch, dinner, breakfast - whatever. They may hang out in different places, but this ain't nobody's home ground, and a smart shadowrun team is going to double-check each other's safety. If necessary, the GM should take aside one of the players and ask that their PC insists on the team getting together at least that frequently. Then, one evening when they're walking together (very important!!) down a dimly-lit 'romantic' path towards (or away from) their get-together, somebody clad in dark clothing, armed with an SMG, pops through the bushes
right next to them. Or down the path a ways from them, but raising the gun to point at them.
Then ask for initiative. 90% of the time, your gun-bunny will loose off at least one shot. If he gets even one hit, the shot connects, and the target goes down like a sack of potatoes. Security shows up a minimum of two minutes later - tough to track down the target - so the PCs can decide whether or not to take off, or wait for security.
The Sucker PunchThe next time the PCs get together, all hell breaks loose. It's a zombie outbreak - and not the nice fluffy voodoo-based spirit-inhabitation zombies, but viral-caused gonna-eat-yer-flesh-baby zombies!! The PCs are armed only with what they happen to have with them - ammo count (and type!) is critical, because y'know, gel rounds are gonna knock that zombie down, but they sure as hell ain't gonna take it out.
The OppositionThere's three types of zombies.
- Type III, which is your classic zombie - make them shambling Walking Dead ones, with the lunging at the last second if you like, but they infect other people into other Type IIIs. Dismemberment might put them down, or a heart-shot, but to be smart, aim for the head.
- Type II, which should only be a few dozen, and should be 'boss zombies' - always run, never tire, dead only with an explosive/evacuating headshot or decapitation - severing spinal cord or destroying the brain. World War Z or 28 Days Later.
- Type I, the (potential) number of which is (Number of Players) + 1. Think of whatever will make a character a seriously scary badass, from +4 to all attributes to Awakening (adept or mage, GM's choice) to regeneration to invisibility (Adaptive Coloration, i.e. the Predator effect) to ... whatever. Definitely infection - because anyone they kill by biting or with their 'natural weaponry' gets turned into a Type II. But whatever makes them an oh-shit badass, that's what the Type I gets. And as the 'event' happens, until one of the PCs dies, there's only one Type I - the person Mr. Trigger-Happy blew away.
Type III and II should not be able to survive underwater; you want this to be a one-time highly-controlled (i.e. not leaving the island) event. Make them take on weight as well - bonuses to their body and strength mean denser materials, means sinking like a rock and drowning. As for Type I ... that's up to you.
The EscapeThe PCs are, obviously, 'survivors'; the plague should otherwise spread like wildfire though an island population of actors, waitresses, cooks, guests, and service personnel. A few of the very-rich should flee - or try to flee, perhaps, if you want the PCs to watch the automated systems pop off a couple of SAMs and take out the luxury helo of some rich guy trying to get out of dodge. The PCs have to find out what the hell caused all this, discover if there's a way out, then make it to that escape boat/sub/helo - without, of course, getting eaten by some damn zombie. Sure, there's mass panic, especially when conversion takes only ten or twenty seconds. But since there's only a handful of the Type II zombies (and only one of the superzombies), there's a middling-decent chance of finding pockets of survivors - an exec with his bodyguards holed up in a hotel room, a squad of security keeping on the move, whatever.
The main encounters will be, first, a security guy who knows a way out and is willing to take the PCs with - maybe because he can't pilot the escape craft, and the PCs can; second, a scientist who was involved with the creation of the virus; third, lots of zombies, including both Type III and Type II; and fourth, an encounter with the Type I pseudo-zombie.
Key encounter, the last one. The Type I retains full sentience, and even gets an enhancement to their brainpower. He or she desires a partner, and has tracked down the PCs in order to identify which one would make the best partner - and be most likely to take the plunge into becoming an elite impossible-to-kill assassin. Seduction is the key, here; try to get that character alone, so you can take the player aside in an attempt to seduce them to the dark side. After all, they have cookies. If the character agrees, great!! Surrender the character sheet, and off they go. If they say no, up to you - or them. I tend to have the Type I pull a fast fade, and figure out his/her own way off the island.
The ExplanationLook, the island was a cover - a very good one, too. Deep in its heart, it is/was a biowar research facility, trying to create a variant of HMHVV that only drains essence and thus kills the person. A highly-skilled black ops infiltrator, world-class, broke in, stole the latest iteration, and was in the middle of evading security and heading to his or her extraction point when s/he accidentally came across the runners, wrong place wrong time, and the stupid APDS put a hole
right through the frakkin' tank, infecting everyone. Thing is, the virus only goes to work
after you're dead, and it can't survive in the open for very long - which means only the people who were right there (PCs + World Class Black Ops) were initially infected, and only the WCBO
died, activating the virus.
Of course, the virus mutated on transfer, getting weaker with each iteration; anyone the Type I killed (with bites and claws) became a Type II, while Type IIs could only create Type IIIs, and that's where the virus's mutation stabilized, so Type IIIs could create other Type IIIs. But the panic button was pushed, and oh, by the way, not only do the PCs have to escape the island, but they have to do it in X hours - because that's when a series of low-yield thermobaric devices will be launched, blanket the island, and sterilize it of all life. And, err, unlife.
The LetdownSo you escaped - congrats. Just in front of the blast wave, ooo, cinematic. But the parent corporation has sent a ship (or ships) to wait just offshore, and of course they pick the group up a scant hour (at the most!) after the escape. They take the PCs into custody, isolate them, take samples ... but the PCs are already fighting off the virus, and the only effect on a living person is for the person to ... do something harmless but kinda disgusting. Shed all their skin and hair, for example. So Sorry, Umbrella Corp, good luck next time.
The Comeback ... ??Did the Type I escape? If the PCs didn't manage to kill him/her - and s/he's an experienced ops agent with lots of evasion know-how and the brains to run away when outnumbered and outgunned - then mmmaaaaayyyybe. Keep your ear to the ground for a zombie outbreak ...
