*Sneak Peek* Shadowrun Game Hook

[Wayne Gray]

I like tabletop RPGs (PnP for you oldtimers).  I run and play many kinds.  I've never gotten to play/run in Shadowrun, but I love the setting and the detail of the setting, magic system, and the overall vibe.

 

I had grand ideas for running a game in Shadowrun, based off of the Pathfinder ruleset (since I know those rules inside and out).  Anyway, when I run a game I write out a sample of how the adventure is "supposed" to go if the players take the hints given, and if they don't go completely off the rails.  Here's how it turned out.  It makes me want to try my hand at modern fantasy.

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Dox Blackeye breathed deeply and inhaled a chaotic mix of scents: tire rubber, wet asphalt, burning incense, and the iron smell of blood from the ritual cut on his hand.  He took it all in for a moment, and let each sensation linger for a few seconds.  Then he opened his eyes.  He immediately began to play with the shiny bits of glass, leather, and metal so carefully placed about him.  He felt the slide in mind and spirit toward his totem as he became more attuned to Raccoon, and with that came an insatiable curiosity - an overpowering need to touch, and feel, and hold.

 

Clever hands batted the toys around.  Where they lay now suited Raccoon's purposes more fully, and suddenly the spell was finished.  Power flashed, and Dox sat ramrod straight, a ghostly vision of whiskers and long slim paws was superimposed over his own features as his totem powered the spell.

 

“Got her.”  Dox grinned.  The magical mask faded from view as quickly as it appeared.  The shaman stood and wrapped a medicated bandage around his hand.  “But we need to move while Raccoon's power guides me.”

 

“Moving's what I do best.”  Half-Keg, their resident dwarf smiled.  His eyes were hidden by mirrored shades, and his hair was pulled back from his face in a tight ponytail.  The sides of his head were shaved, and a datajack gleamed in the candlelight.  There was a cord trailing from the datajack to a small kevlar backpack tightly strapped to his wide body.  “I'll get Bertha warmed up.”  As soon as he said the words they heard the engine of their ride start, remotely triggered by Half-Keg's connection through his cyberdeck.

 

Two other runners also checked their own holstered weapons.  One was a sleek elven woman who bore the moniker of Whisper.  Like the dwarf, a datajack was visible on the side of her head.  But hers was connected to a brutal looking pistol – an Ares Predator.  Her eyes were a cool blue with no irises – another cybernetic enhancement.  She had other chrome as well, but the rest wasn't obvious.  She exuded the impression that she was continually holding herself back from bursting into motion.

 

The last of them was a tall, muscular Orc.  He was known to the others only as Apophis.  Apophis was dressed in simple black and gray combat fatigues.  A single pistol was strapped to one leg, and a katana was on his back.  They all knew Apophis could move his bulk faster than most people could even think.  He could do things using magic to enhance his body that took most other people cyberware to pull off.  Whisper and Apophis sparred on downtime occasionally, and it was a blurred, confusing event for most anybody watching them.

 

They all left Dox's squat - a small apartment in Redmond Barrens in Seattle.  The reason they were here was so Dox could perform the ritual to find their target – some girl snatched from a subsidiary of Ares.  Now that it was done, they were on their way so they could finish and get paid.  Half-Keg grinned as he got in the heavily modified panel van, patting the dash affectionately.  “Hey, girl.”  He discontinued the street etiquette skill-soft and began running one for driving instead.  Immediately a ghostly overlay of the streets appeared in Half-Keg's vision, showing him exactly where he was in real time.  “Dox, you're shotgun.  Tell me where to go chummer.”

 

Dox relayed information to Half-Keg, and the dwarf drove 80kph through sometimes crowded streets.  The rest of them had learned to trust the dwarf and his driving skills and used the opportunity to recheck their weapons.

 

A few minutes later they were in the southern edge of the city, nearly outside the limits.  Dox looked out a window as Half-Keg idled up to the front of a tall, run-down apartment building.  “She's here.”  He looked over at the dwarf.  “Park in back.”

 

“So ka,” Half-Keg said and smoothly pulled Bertha into a spot behind the complex.  As soon as the van stopped all the doors opened on Half-Keg's command.  They exited the van and sidled quietly to the single door on this side of the building.

 

Dox jerked his head at the door, and Half-Keg nodded.  The driving skill-soft was discontinued, and he called up the lockpicking program in his cyberdeck.  The program helped his own naturally honed talents, and soon they had gotten past the door.

 

Whisper entered first.  Only she could hear the faint whirring of her mechanical eyes as they adjusted to take in as much light as possible in the dimness.  Dox followed her, then Half-Keg and last Apophis.  All were armed with various sidearms except for the orc.  Apophis needed no weapon in hand to be dangerous.

 

Quickly, professionally, Whisper led them through the halls following the silent cues from Dox.  They ascended to the top floor.  Though they could hear activity behind doors and down various hallways, the skills of the elf kept them out of sight.  Whisper came to a corner, and Dox nodded and smiled.  They knew their mark was behind the door at the end of this hall.  Whisper started to proceed, but Apophis grabbed her wrist.

 

Without a sound, the Physical Adept jutted his chin at the end of the hall and mouthed the word “Camera.”  Whisper nodded her thanks.  The orc had incredible powers of perception, and he had heard the tiny servos in the camera as it swiveled to take in the hall.

 

Dox nodded at Half-Keg.  The decker grinned, then he took off his pack and removed a sleek cyberdeck.  It was made of high impact molded plastic, with various ports, and about two dozen unlabeled buttons spaced in an odd formation.  Half-Keg traded out the connecting wire leading from his temple to the deck.  His eyes fluttered as the connection was made and he looked down the hall they had just traversed.  There he saw what he was after.

 

A telecom glowed, an access port to the matrix - and more importantly, directly into this building’s place within it.  Half-Keg walked over and jacked another cable from his deck into the telecom.  

His body shivered.  His eyes glazed over, and his fingers began to fly over the cyberdeck.  Whisper moved to stand guard over the now unaware decker and settled into a combat crouch.

 

Half-Keg’s awareness shifted to the electronic world of the matrix, and he was now in a what appeared to be a sterile and gaudy room, with doors leading out of it in every direction.  Each was painted in a different, but vile pastel color - perhaps a statement as to how the architect of this particular corner of the Matrix felt about threats from outside this refuge.

 

He looked over his shoulder.  There, about 50 feet away in front of a tiny, frail representation of a camera, he saw a three-headed dog.  All of the heads were up.  Ready.  Watchful.  Waiting. He grinned.

Half-Keg called up a very rudimentary Smartframe.  It was a program he designed on his downtime, specifically for IC (Intrusion Countermeasures) like his three-headed friend here.  And instead of taking on a hostile form, the Smartframe took the shape of a skinny little alley cat.  As soon as the smartframe left his hand, it darted toward one of the doors near the dog.

 

The IC jerked all three heads toward the cat, eyes wide.  The programming underlying the defensive program that protected the camera went through its motions, trying to decide if the smartframe was worth giving up its post.  Half-Keg’s programming skill won out, and the dog was up and chased after the little black cat.  The feline jumped through one of the doors, and the dog followed, leaving the camera undefended.

 

Half-Keg strode over, and with a thought he shattered the representation of the camera, showering bits of code all over himself.  With a smile, he closed his eyes and forced his meat body to reach up and disengage the dataport to the telecom.

 

Back in the real world, Dox watched the camera stop moving and smiled at the decker.  The dwarf grinned back and put his deck into the pack.

 

Apophis moved toward the door.  The orc slowly unsheathed the katana on his back and listened at the door.  After a moment he held up one finger.  One individual in the room.  The team assembled behind the big orc, and with a final glance at them, he kicked, hard.  The synthwood and plastic shattered and flew into the room.

 

Standing in the center of the room, in the middle of what looked to be a powerful magic circle was their mark - the young woman they were hired to gather and deliver back to her uncle.  It was an easy mission to take on.  She was in some trouble with some corporate mooks, and they were here to bail her out.  They got paid and got to be heroes.  That was the story at least.

 

Dox drew in a deep breath.  His astral perceptions went haywire, and he realized this girl was NOT your typical maiden in distress.  The circle was HERS.  And she was summoning some baaaaaad mojo into the room.

 

“I won’t go back!”  She screamed.  “And you can’t make me!”  With a final motion she completed the spell, and a vast snake-like spirit appeared between the runners and her.

 

“Ah drek,” Half-Keg said. “I think uncle has some explaining to do …”

 

Dox sighed.  They were here for the job.  Family issues or not, it was time to get it done.
 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Wayne Gray

[Jdonley75]

Nice read.

 

I never played Shadowrun when I was younger.  My friends and I stuck mostly to World of Darkness games for our entertainment.  Mostly Vampire: The Masquerade but sometimes we'd do Mage or Werewolf and once a disastrous encounter with Changeling.

 

I actually wrote a short for something not unlike WoD.  Mostly just the feel of the setting without the backstory and such.  Once I get other things completed, I intend to get back to it. 

[Wayne Gray]

4 hours ago, Jdonley75 said:

Nice read.

 

I never played Shadowrun when I was younger.  My friends and I stuck mostly to World of Darkness games for our entertainment.  Mostly Vampire: The Masquerade but sometimes we'd do Mage or Werewolf and once a disastrous encounter with Changeling.

 

I actually wrote a short for something not unlike WoD.  Mostly just the feel of the setting without the backstory and such.  Once I get other things completed, I intend to get back to it. 

Thank you.

 

I've dipped a toe into WoD, VTM specifically as well.  Love me some Tremere!

 

I love the setting.  You should definitely get back to it!  I'd love to read it.

[Thorn Wilde]

This seems pretty cool! Though it took a bit getting into as there are some terms and things I'm not familiar with and I didn't quite get what kind of setting I was in at first.

[Wayne Gray]

11 minutes ago, Thorn Wilde said:

This seems pretty cool! Though it took a bit getting into as there are some terms and things I'm not familiar with and I didn't quite get what kind of setting I was in at first.

Yeah, that's pretty much what Shadowrun does to you - throws you in the deep end and screams "HAVE FUN!"

 

The succinct way I have to describe it is: Near/alternate future dystopia brought about by the coming of the fifth age.  That is the waxing of magical power which meant orcs, dwarves, elves, and more races began to show up in otherwise normal human parents.  Magical power returned, and the most spiritual peoples on the planet suddenly found themselves with a new weapon.

 

All the while innovation is happening to technology and the internet (becomes the Matrix).

 

It's a fascinating setting.  Check it out sometime if you're bored.  Here's a timeline of major historical events.  It's not the whole picture, but you'll get the idea.

 

https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline

[Thorn Wilde]

16 minutes ago, Wayne Gray said:

Yeah, that's pretty much what Shadowrun does to you - throws you in the deep end and screams "HAVE FUN!"

 

The succinct way I have to describe it is: Near/alternate future dystopia brought about by the coming of the fifth age.  That is the waxing of magical power which meant orcs, dwarves, elves, and more races began to show up in otherwise normal human parents.  Magical power returned, and the most spiritual peoples on the planet suddenly found themselves with a new weapon.

 

All the while innovation is happening to technology and the internet (becomes the Matrix).

 

It's a fascinating setting.  Check it out sometime if you're bored.  Here's a timeline of major historical events.  It's not the whole picture, but you'll get the idea.

 

https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline

You'd like Myke Cole's books. Military fantasy. Weird magic stuff starts to leak over into our world from alternate planes of existence. It's weaponised by the government. Less sci-fi, but it's reeeeaaally good. Myke is a former coast guard, I seem to recall... Cool guy. I had a beer with him at a convention once.

[Wayne Gray]

Just now, Thorn Wilde said:

You'd like Myke Cole's books. Military fantasy. Weird magic stuff starts to leak over into our world from alternate planes of existence. It's weaponised by the government. Less sci-fi, but it's reeeeaaally good. Myke is a former coast guard, I seem to recall... Cool guy. I had a beer with him at a convention once.

I will!

 

My favorite part of the Shadowrun universe is Daniel Howling Coyote.  He leads the biggest ritual magical spell ever performed, and his tribe which was imprisoned on a reservation cause the eruption of Mt. Ranier, Baker, and Redondo simultaneously.  He demands their lands be recognized as their own nation.  The govt refuses, sends a fleet of helicopters to kill them, and the helicopters are wiped out by tornados.

 

Suddenly, the govt wanted to talk.

[Thorn Wilde]

Just now, Wayne Gray said:

I will!

 

My favorite part of the Shadowrun universe is Daniel Howling Coyote.  He leads the biggest ritual magical spell ever performed, and his tribe which was imprisoned on a reservation cause the eruption of Mt. Ranier, Baker, and Redondo simultaneously.  He demands their lands be recognized as their own nation.  The govt refuses, sends a fleet of helicopters to kill them, and the helicopters are wiped out by tornados.

 

Suddenly, the govt wanted to talk.

Yeah, you'd really like Myke's books.