Shadowrun

Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: brasso on <04-05-14/1541:10>

Title: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: brasso on <04-05-14/1541:10>
Hi guys - during an adventure I like to throw some oddball encounters in which are nothing to do with the plot, but just reflect the strangeness of the Shadowrun world. It also keeps them guessing if an event is actually to do with the scenario or not. Can anyone come up with a few? Here's a few examples:

#/ A clerk in a shop they're at flips out and tells the boss 'stuff this, I quit!' and starts knocking displays over, and smashing things up. The owner has to draw a shotgun on the the clerk to get him to leave.

#/ A couple of guys in a suped up red car, pull up next to the runners at the lights and start revving the engine, obviously challenging them to a race. Do they race or just leave it?

#/ While the runners are in a shop, some gang members come in and demand this week's protection money. The shop owner reluctantly pays up.

Stuff like that. I like to think that the shadowrun world has a life of its own, and doesn't just revolve the runners and their current plot, but I'm kind of dry of ideas at the mo. Little help?
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: daGob on <04-05-14/1824:03>
Those seem pretty interesting but you could also include flavor stuff in slightly more mission close things.  I'm often inspired by the little side rooms/scenarios that occur in video games. Like when you find and abandoned room where something clearly went down, or some 20 year old letters detailing the drama.

Examples:
A perception check reveals some communications detailing an affair/drug deal/etc. etc. that doesn't relate to their current plot.

You search a room and discover a hidden drug stash (also perception check)

Players may pass/run into gang related deals or other Shadowrun teams at random moments or you can have side events like is their meeting with the Mr. Johnson the only meeting thats happening or do they meet him right as a different group of people is leaving.

Also I think you can reuse a lot of scenarios with slightly different details (such as the store clerk could get in a fight with a customer) and have lots of reusability. A lot of these events also seem like things that would be easy to come up with if you really fleshed out NPC backgrounds.  You could take an extra 1-5 minutes just coming up with more background for your NPC's and then figure out some of the crazy Shadowrun stuff they'd do from those extra background details.   
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-06-14/0116:17>
I like this Topic. Here is a few I plan to use soon.

You see a man running down the street. A pizza delivery MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone zooms after the man. The drones speaker, in a thick Italian accent, says "I got your Pizza right-a here!",
The man shouts "Leave me Alone!"
The drone catches up to the man, then when it's about 5 meters away, Tasers him in the back. He collapses, and the drone drops a pizza box on the man, and says "Enjoy your Pizza!"
The drone comes towards the Runners "I got your Pizza right-a here!"

The drone has been Hacked, or is possessed by a Machine Sprite. The owner would probably be happy to get the drone back or it could definitely be sold for some Nuyen.

A group of Gangers driving in a beat up Americar, speed pass the Runners (This encounter is assuming they are on foot) and crashes into a building a few meters away.  One Ganger goes right through the windshield and is a red stain on the building, his body is contorted in a way that leaves no doubt to his fate. The gangers look at their dead friend, then look at the Runners.
"Those %$^#@!ers killed Kenny!"
One Ganger pulls a pin on a Grenade and charges the Runners holding onto the Grenade like it's a melee weapon.
The rest of the Gangers charge pulling knives and clubs.

The Gangers are high on Kamikaze


Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Cowdragon on <04-06-14/0127:43>
I like this Topic. Here is a few I plan to use soon.

You see a man running down the street. A pizza delivery MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone zooms after the man. The drones speaker, in a thick Italian accent, says "I got your Pizza right-a here!",
The man shouts "Leave me Alone!"
The drone catches up to the man, then when it's about 5 meters away, Tasers him in the back. He collapses, and the drone drops a pizza box on the man, and says "Enjoy your Pizza!"
The drone comes towards the Runners "I got your Pizza right-a here!"

The drone has been Hacked, or is possessed by a Machine Sprite. The owner would probably be happy to get the drone back or it could definitely be sold for some Nuyen.

A group of Gangers driving in a beat up Americar, speed pass the Runners (This encounter is assuming they are on foot) and crashes into a building a few meters away.  One Ganger goes right through the windshield and is a red stain on the building, his body is contorted in a way that leaves no doubt to his fate. The gangers look at their dead friend, then look at the Runners.
"Those %$^#@!ers killed Kenny!"
One Ganger pulls a pin on a Grenade and charges the Runners holding onto the Grenade like it's a melee weapon.
The rest of the Gangers charge pulling knives and clubs.

The Gangers are high on Kamikaze

you're an effing genious!
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-06-14/0307:46>
Thanks Cowdragon. I Have a few good ones for upcoming game, but I don't want to post till after game in case any of my player read my post.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: firebug on <04-06-14/1617:51>
A great way to make the setting seem more alive is to describe things like ARO ads and news feeds and stuff.  "Hovering near the beverages section of the Stuffer Shack you see an ARO for the new Starkaf 'Iced Soykaf Mocha Explosion' drink." or "Near the lottery machine an ARO flickers.  Soundlessly you see an elf newswoman speak while what she says flies across the bottom of the image.  '...Lone Star claims the explosion in their new barracks building was caused by a rookie improperly storing a flashbang in his locker...'"
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Aqukie on <04-07-14/1227:13>
If your safe house is in a residential area, I like the idea of the Troll vacuum salesman who wants to clean your carpets. Or the drunk who tries to break into your place in the wee hours of the morning, thinking that this is his house.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Mithlas on <04-07-14/1331:05>
Quote
I want to train my Throwing Weapons.
Okay, you go to the local kindergarten. Then they call the cops and you can train Dodge.
The results of players being faster than me in down-time conversation.

On secondary details and options I've actually participated in...
- As you're walking down the street, you see an ARO ad in front of the mini stuffer shack flicker with a custom icon. You recognize it as a marking used by [Red Glen (local gangers)].
- While you're riding away from the meet, ticking away gear you'll need for the job in your head, you see flashing lights speed down the highway. Your bus comes to its stop and the ambulance turns the corner ahead and keeps going.
- When you head into the bus to find a seat, you notice a [young/old] [human/ork/dwarf/troll/elf] fidgeting nervously in the back. [He/she] notices you, then avoids eye contact.
- The subway station has about a dozen people in it - lighter than the upcoming rush hour, but a little heavier than it tends to be outside the rush hour period. There are a couple grungy [elves/humans/orks] meandering through the clumps of people.
-- After this one I either roll perception against them or have the pick-pocketing happen to somebody else, and then see what happens. I've only actually had a purse-snatching happen to another person once, but the PC was rather mercenary and said "I'm not getting paid for this, I sidestep and let the elf run up the steps".
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: brasso on <04-07-14/1601:14>
Thanks for the ideas guys - especially like the pizza delivery drone :)

Pickpocketing is an interesting idea, regardless of whether it succeeds or not.

I thought it'd be interesting to have a religious group (any) accost the runners as well and start to debate them.

I like anything which gets the group talking and roleplaying (often outside of the actual plot) really.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-07-14/1717:24>
This Encounter assumes character is not magically active.

Your meet with Mr. Johnson is in an hour. Suddenly you hear ..Theme Music?.. (Perception 3 test to see the Watcher in your Blind spot). A Watcher is following you providing you with your own Theme Music, you must have pissed off some mage.
"Going to see Mr. Johnson!, Going to make some Nuyen, probably going to screw him!" he sings.
People on the street start staring at you.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: cr4kp0t on <04-07-14/1724:50>
This Encounter assumes character is not magically active.

Your meet with Mr. Johnson is in an hour. Suddenly you hear ..Theme Music?.. (Perception 3 test to see the Watcher in your Blind spot). A Watcher is following you providing you with your own Theme Music, you must have pissed off some mage.
"Going to see Mr. Johnson!, Going to make some Nuyen, probably going to screw him!" he sings.
People on the street start staring at you.

This is so fragging awesome!  ROFL so hard it actually hurts... +1 good sir.

I so nee to do this with my table top group when we get together next
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Michael Chandra on <04-07-14/1811:42>
Had a PC encounter an agressive donator-person who was in truth using the reputation of a good samaritan to scam cash himself, he got agressive with the neighbour and pretty soon the guy had a gunfight with the PC and the local gang. PC then started digging into the good samaritan, and was extremely distrustful of the lady when they were sent over to her place a few runs later.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-07-14/1944:59>
This Encounter assumes character is not magically active.

Your meet with Mr. Johnson is in an hour. Suddenly you hear ..Theme Music?.. (Perception 3 test to see the Watcher in your Blind spot). A Watcher is following you providing you with your own Theme Music, you must have pissed off some mage.
"Going to see Mr. Johnson!, Going to make some Nuyen, probably going to screw him!" he sings.
People on the street start staring at you.

This is so fragging awesome!  ROFL so hard it actually hurts... +1 good sir.

I so nee to do this with my table top group when we get together next

Thanks, your comment made my day 8)
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-07-14/1947:58>
For Christmas Encounter you could use my Jolly Old Ork.

Santa Ork who brings guns to all the needy SINless in the Barrens.
 

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Barrens.                                 
Not a Ghoul was stirring, not even the sound of Sirens.                                 
The bodies were laying in the gutter, a stench in the air,                                 
The Ork ganger’s gun was broken, beyond repair..                                 
                                 
The squatters were nestled using dumpsters for beds,                                 
While BTL visions danced in their heads.                                 
The Ork needed a new gun, the one he had was crap.,                                 
It wasn’t safe to be unarmed in Redmond not even for a nap.                                 
                                 
When out on the street there arose such a clatter,                                 
He hoped it wasn’t Stilettos looking for some brains to spatter..                                 
A Red Harley-Davidson came down the street in a flash,                                 
Hauling ass down the road, looking like it would crash.                                 
                                 
As he got closer to the ganger his bike began to slow                                 
The biker was an old Ork with a cache of weapons in tow                                 
“Old man what the Frag are you doing out here?”                                 
The ganger cursed at the old Ork with a sneer                                 
                                 
The old ork smiled and said my name is “Saint Nick”                                 
I have a new Predator for you, if you stop being a Dick”                                 
“It has built in smartlink that’s sure to help your aim”                                 
Shooting your enemies will never be the same       
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/0000:36>
You see a dumpster lid slowly open, a man slowly peeks out, looks around, then sees you. He expression is full of fear, he looks at you pleadingly for help. In the distance you hear what sounds like a large group of people.
He looks at you and says "You got to help me, crazy bitch put a curse on me."
The noise from the crowd gets louder. "I think he went this way" you hear someone shout in a deep voice.
"whatever you see, it's not real!, it's a spell!" he tries to explain.
He climbs out of the dumpster, he's wearing a white shirt. In big black letters, on both sides it says "I HATE TROGS!"
You now see the crowd that you could only hear before, which would probably be better described as an angry mob. An Ork holding a club seems to be leading the mob. He points a finger at the man. "There he is!"

A wife has put a curse on her husband for cheating...A woman scorned and all that..
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/0100:11>
You see a young dwarf boy hauling two buckets of dirt down the street, in the opposite direction, going where the other boy was coming from, you see a dwarf boy dragging some large wood boards.
The boy with the boards hands them to someone underground, all you can see are his arms.

You see an AR sign above the hole.

"Kaer"
-No Girls Allowed!
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Michael Chandra on <04-08-14/0351:15>
It says quite a bit about my personality that I'd knock the guy unconscious and tell the crowd I'm bringing him to an asylum since he's clearly suicidal and needs the doctors performing 'tests' on him.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/0653:20>
You see a Mime Desperately trying to escape a Physical Barrier Spell...

Is it an act? or someone doesn't like mimes?
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Namikaze on <04-08-14/1040:36>
For Christmas Encounter you could use my Jolly Old Ork.

Santa Ork who brings guns to all the needy SINless in the Barrens.

Your poem is adorable.  :)  However, I can't picture Santa Ork bringing guns to the Barrens.  It sounds like it would lead to the destruction of whole city blocks.  Granted, the cynic in me wants to think that a mega might do this kind of thing just to get that response.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/1104:02>
For Christmas Encounter you could use my Jolly Old Ork.

Santa Ork who brings guns to all the needy SINless in the Barrens.

Your poem is adorable.  :)  However, I can't picture Santa Ork bringing guns to the Barrens.  It sounds like it would lead to the destruction of whole city blocks.  Granted, the cynic in me wants to think that a mega might do this kind of thing just to get that response.

He only brings Guns and ammo to the Gangers who have been good boys and girls...well relatively speaking.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Namikaze on <04-08-14/1243:10>
For Christmas Encounter you could use my Jolly Old Ork.

Santa Ork who brings guns to all the needy SINless in the Barrens.

Your poem is adorable.  :)  However, I can't picture Santa Ork bringing guns to the Barrens.  It sounds like it would lead to the destruction of whole city blocks.  Granted, the cynic in me wants to think that a mega might do this kind of thing just to get that response.

He only brings Guns and ammo to the Gangers who have been good boys and girls...well relatively speaking.

I keep picturing Robot Santa Claus from Futurama.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/1331:54>
I need to think of an Easter Encounter...

Maybe something involving Dragon Eggs.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Mithlas on <04-08-14/1704:32>
You see a Mime Desperately trying to escape a Physical Barrier Spell...
Is it an act? or someone doesn't like mimes?
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

You could also have a more literal milk run - where your runners get contacted by mistake by somebody rich but new to shadowrunning because he wants real bread, milk, and eggs.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-08-14/2139:50>

I thought it'd be interesting to have a religious group (any) accost the runners as well and start to debate them.


Don't know how Familiar with the whole Earthdawn/Shadowrun connection (No one made any comment about my Dwarf Kaer Encounter  :'( ), but you could have Guy with a AR sign saying "The Horrors Are Coming", the AR sign shows videos of Bug spirit Attacks, Articles of about the Shedim, Changlings, ect..
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: SirValeq on <04-09-14/0224:16>
(No one made any comment about my Dwarf Kaer Encounter  :'( )

I loved it!
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-09-14/1342:47>
I like to take modern day news stories for some of my "Flavor" Encounters. History does tend to repeat  itself.

You see a group of teenagers in flipping over a C-N Jackrabbit.

Knockout game with Orks and Trolls targeting Humans and Elves.





Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: The Wyrm Ouroboros on <04-10-14/0039:16>
You see a Mime Desperately trying to escape a Physical Barrier Spell...
Is it an act? or someone doesn't like mimes?
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

You could also have a more literal milk run - where your runners get contacted by mistake by somebody rich but new to shadowrunning because he wants real bread, milk, and eggs.

That's not a milk run; that's a cake walk.  :D

(No one made any comment about my Dwarf Kaer Encounter  :'( )

I loved it!

I'm just not sure if it's ICly appropriate, though, that's all.  Haven't read all of the Artifacts missions, though, so I don't know if the term 'kaer' is out and about in the SR world.  Don't think so, but I could be wrong ...

Some of my best 'flavor encounters' were ones I generated myself.  Do a hiring meet on a bus - one guy is hired by the Johnson to do a job for X amount of money, he hires the rest of the runners - and, while on the bus, a trio of gangers gets on and harasses their way down the bus to the back.  See how the PCs react.  One thing I did was to stunbolt all three of them in rapid succession, then pull the 'stop requested' cord, get off the bus and drag them off with me, then lift a) all their weapons and b) something personal from each of them.  I then planted those items in the vehicle (stolen, of course) I used as the initial get-away vehicle for the heist.

Another was purchasing a half-dozen cheap ground drones, and letting neighborhood kids play with all but one (I used the last one) in the street/lot near the facility.  A good way to cover your snooping - do it in plain sight, but with an obvious reasonable explanation for what's going on...
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Poindexter on <04-10-14/0107:16>
Another was purchasing a half-dozen cheap ground drones, and letting neighborhood kids play with all but one (I used the last one) in the street/lot near the facility.  A good way to cover your snooping - do it in plain sight, but with an obvious reasonable explanation for what's going on...

That's one of the greatest things ive ever read. If none of my players do this, someone is gonna do it to them.
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: SirValeq on <04-10-14/0156:24>
(No one made any comment about my Dwarf Kaer Encounter  :'( )

I loved it!

I'm just not sure if it's ICly appropriate, though, that's all.  Haven't read all of the Artifacts missions, though, so I don't know if the term 'kaer' is out and about in the SR world.  Don't think so, but I could be wrong ...

The thing is, children invent new words all the time and then stop using them as they grow up. The word 'kaer' might not exist in any written SR material, but what's to stop kids from inventing it? It does sound cool and while it can have no meaning for the PCs it could be fun for the Players themselves if they have experience with Earthdawn.  :)
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Reiper on <04-10-14/0216:32>
one thing I do on my runs (I use roll20) is I set up the first screen as a KSAF news screen. There is usually a primary news article story that talks about an event related to the last week's run and how it affects the world, and I'll even do a little news bar across the bottom with other information (which may or may not have anything at all to do with the campaign, but the more paranoid ones tend to read those two).

But I love that pizza drone idea, I think I'll have to use it.

On my maps I also try to add a lot of random things to it, whether it be drunk people, drug users, prostitutes (male and female) and other random things that they may or may not want to investigate. And then I even added a wacky waving inflatable tube man on one map.

I added a screen shot of one of my news casts to give an idea of what I'm talking about. (couldn't do an image link since I have no storage space from work that I have access too).
Title: Re: "Flavor" Encounters
Post by: Bushw4cker on <04-10-14/1140:04>
Yeah I like the drone idea.

Kaer if from Earthdawn. If Shadowrun is the 6th World, Earthdawn is the last time Magic came to Earth. The Kaer's where underground cities built to hide from the Horrors (Think Shedim, Bug Spirits en masse) Kaer could be the Dwarf kid equivalent of a Tree house.

Just thought it was funny if Kaer's were No girls allowed. Would have been end of Metahumanity.