One-Night Adventures
Scenarios for Shadowrun

Extraction

Background

Harlan Dawkins is a brilliant economic theorist currently working for Knight Errant. He recently published a paper on the effect of trafficking in illegal goods on the economy, including the boost in monetary churn rate and secondary effects on money supply and prosperity. His current job involves working on software to track down illegal operations by looking for anomalous effects in neighborhood economies.

Data Haven Apeiron thinks that they can make this guy a better offer, but they don’t exactly get much chance to talk with a guy like this holed up in a corporate burbclave. They’re going to perform a hostile extraction on the fellow. The runners will be given the known parameters for the fellow (works for K-E, lives in a burbclave in Seattle) and told that they can tell the target that his new job will be just as secure as his old one, more interesting, and will have a great deal more hands-on black market data to work with. He will still be able to publish his theories.

Opposition

A whole K-E burbclave, and K-E itself as soon as they figure out that Dawkins is missing.

Characters

Harlan Dawkins is a human academician (of Jamaican extraction) in his early forties with an impressive set of credentials. He understands the ins and outs of the stock market. Harlan’s idea of a good working environment is a comfortable armchair at home in front of the fire with his cat (a very elegant Himalayan who is spoiled rotten with expensive cat food) on his lap and a large computer hooked up to his encephalon, pulling in data from the Matrix as he works on his theories. He doesn’t go out much, except for meetings. If the runners take the time to explain the new position to him, he will make a point of looking like he has surrendered against a threat but go along with them— getting more hands-on data sounds quite interesting to him. He will not leave without his cat and his latest work data, both of which are available in his home.

Shadowrunner Rescue!

 Michelle Ellison is an eight-year-old girl who’s got a big problem: her parents are in the clutches of an evil corporation, and she needs them rescued.

The catch is that Michelle is an accomplished cat burglar in her own right who knows the shadows quite well; her parents are shadowrunners, and she was raised by a team of shadowrunners.

Feint

Background

A small company is trying to generate hype for their new product. How better to do so than to get some publicity with by having an attempted theft of their technology?

One way to run this is with the Johnson cooperating with the runners, but that gives out too much info for most corps. Instead, it’s better to come up with a “Johnson trying to screw the runners” scenario, hiring them to attack the facility to steal a certain technology.

Opposition

KSAF

KSAF needs to get a camera crew in someplace special to observe something (possibly even Bug City going down)...

Disaster Area

The Great Ghost Dance has repercussions in more than the weather. Winter storms are afflicting Seattle, and there’s a mana storm on to boot (check Shadowrun Companion for details— make it tough on mages but not ridiculous). Emergency crews are putting in serious overtime, and even SEA-TAC is having to be shut down at times due to high winds and rain. The mana storm is affecting paranimals, so there are all kinds of berserk creatures running around out there as well.

This is an excellent time to demonstrate the ability of shadowrunners to work as emergency crews. A Physical Adept with Smashing Blow should be just as good at breaking up fallen trees as a chainsaw; a mage with Levitate Person can pull people out of muck and mire far better than a winch. Riggers can navigate through situations that would leave an ordinary driver in deep trouble; deckers can stay home and coordinate with everyone through GPS locators.

There are many possible hooks for this one: the runners could be hired by someone who has a friend or relative camping out in the Salish-Shidhe area, or a tribal contact could ask them for help. Pay might end up being mostly karma rather than money, and perhaps a chance to join a tribe and make new contacts.

Disasters

Dirty Tricks

Someone wants someone else framed for philandering, adultery, something devious... not personally harmful, but very defamatory. The target is an Everyman type, neither a saintly do-gooder nor an obvious villain who’s “just asking for it”.

Trump Call

A real estate developer wants to consolidate his control of an entire block of a relatively nice patch of suburb in order to put up a high-rise conapt or burbclave. He’s been careful about doing so through holding companies, quietly taking over mortages by targeting people with chances to refinance their home loans, acquiring property, and so on, and now needs to get the last people out. He wants the runners to make the neighborhood's property values drop and generally make the residents worried about continuing to live there, so he can snap up the houses and put in his project. The runners should be able to increase gang activity, cause brownouts, and all sorts of other things to make people want to move.

Some of the residents are rotten, some are quite nice. The ones who are left have been there for years and don’t want to leave. This should give the runners a nice set of moral qualms for the night...

Repo Man

A shadowrunner has defaulted on a cyberware loan, and the company or face bank wants him brought back...

Liberation Day

It’s October 25 in the Bay Area (see CFS p54ff) and when the sun goes down, the Japanese in San Francisco are going to go into the East Bay and start hunting for trophies. The hunters will vary from sararimen to corpsec folks to Imperial Marines still in uniform to shadowrunners hired to accompany various of these groups on their hunts.

The runners are hired to come help out on the East Bay side of things, capturing as many “ear-collecting” corporators as possible, to hold them for ransom. (The money came from Tir Tairngire, some middle-tier corps who want to see the Japanese megacorps suffer, and some funds very subtly funneled in from Saeder-Krupp.) Reprisals are expected, with “anti-guerrilla” squads, and they want the runners to stick around for this as well. They want the illegal Liberation Day festivities to become a hideously expensive debacle for the Japanese megacorps, as well as a media extravaganza.

This is a chance for lots of combat as well as a few moral decisions. The metahumans from Orkland are not going to want to be nice to the people who have tormented their folk for years. The corporate reprisals may mount up. (They can’t go too far because there’s lots and lots of film of the Japanese folks making trouble— in a genuine military situation, they could just hold lots of people hostage.)

I Saw Shadowrunners Kidnapping Santa Claus

A very well-protected megacorporate executive has one vulnerability: he likes to play Santa Claus every Christmas Eve, a habit that started after his first granddaughter’s third Christmas. Since his megacorp controls toy companies among many others, they’re happy to get the public relations boost, and give him lots of toys to give away at a local upscale mall that has good security. He has several Elven bodyguards and Dwarfish magicians protecting him while he plays Santa.

The Johnson hires the PC’s to extract him on Christmas Eve...

Tickle Me Dunky

Bull had a great posting on the ShadowRN list that should be worth a nice late-December adventure. It doesn’t necessarily have to wait for Dunkelzahn’s death/disappearance: Dunky already had a stuffed toy out when he was just a media star...

“Tales from the Shadows will be back after these messages...”

[Snappy music and a happy blue cartoon dragon appear on screen. The dragon dances around the screen happily as a deep, clear voice speaks.]

“Dunkelzahn was a lovable, wonderful, magical dragon who changed so many lives and made the world a better place for everyone! While it’s sad that now deceased, Dunkelzahn and his spirit live on!”

[Cartoon dissolves to a picture of a 3 year old ork holding a stuffed blue dragon.]

“Now, you can bring the magic home to your children this holiday season with Dunky, the Interactive Dragon! Using state of the art technology, Dunky sings, laughs and responds to your child, teaching them the message of love, hope, and peace that our beloved former president brought to everyone.”

“Get your Dunky at all fine Toy Stores, Department Stores, Magic Shops, and Grocery Stores everywhere!”

[Closing happy song with the cartoon Dunkelzahn flying around, then a final still shot of a smiling 4 year old elf girl hugging her Dunky doll]

[Fade to black]

>>>>>( Anyone else feel like vomiting after seeing this piece of trash? )<<<<<

— Who Me?

>>>>>( Yeah, but all I know is I'm putting a team together to hit the local toy store the night these fraggers come in. My kids have been on my case for months to find one. Anyone else want in? Payment is all the Dunky’s you can carry.)<<<<<

— Bull

>>>>>( Hell, that’s payment enough, Those things are worth a mint. )<<<<<

— Mom on the Run

>>>>>( But they're so cute! My kids just adore the 4 I bought! )<<<<<

— Mall Lemming

>>>>>( Bah. Biggest piece of propganda drek I've ever seen. Who the hell came up with this crap, anyways? )<<<<<

— Sinnical

>>>>>( Apparently someone who slipped a licensing agreement past the Dunkelzahn Foundation without getting it checked out thoroughly. I wouldn't want to be that toy maker when Nadia Davier catches up with them. )<<<<<

— LaBlue

>>>>>( Ya know, I woulda thought they'd have learned their lesson after that “Tickle-Me-Dunky” thing a couple years ago. )<<<<<

— Justin Case

>>>>>( Hell, I’d have though I’d have learned after that Tickle Me Dunky thing a couple years ago. )<<<<<

— Bull