Shadowrun Game Day Thoughts

I like Shadowrun quite a bit, and I think the style of play suggested by that game and setting really lends itself towards the Game Day application (see previous post). So Shadowrun is going to be one of the games in rotation but I wanted to post a few ideas I've had so that people had the right idea.

The first thing is that the actual runs won't be limited to a single city, or even a single country. There are a lot of really cool places and people in the world of 2071 and I'd like to get an opportunity to spread out. Now, with that said, each runner is still going to need a home, and I'd like to use Seattle as the default "base."

Each runner's piece of illegal gear will need to be written up on a small gear card that I have, for several reasons. The first is that every single Shadowrun character sheet I've seen has had very little space for equipment, which is odd considering how much emphasis the game puts on high tech gadgetry to get in and out of situations. Having each piece of illegal gear on a card allows for a much better management of on-hand equipment, so you don't have to take everything with you (some of it may be impossible to pass customs with anyway depending on its legality code). It also allows the player to jot notes about what the gear does for quick reference.

Also each runner's contacts will be written up on a small contact card, similar to the gear card. This avoids the issue of having too little space on the character sheet for contacts and makes managing them much easier. Your contacts are your lifeblood, and one of the rules I'll be using is the Friend of a Friend system - it's possible, depending on how connected your contact is, that they know someone in a city or area where you otherwise are without a friend. This will be the primary means for gaining new contacts.

I'm going to keep the naming convention of metal song titles for each run, and I might jump around a bit between artists. Definitely Iron Maiden's on the docket, but there are a lot of Megadeth titles that would work as well, plus some Metallica names I didn't get to use.

New Shadowrun Campaign

I think I'm going to put to rest the current Shadowrun campaign. We've had 19 sessions (2 with Harris, 17 with me) and it's been a good run. The main crutch of this first campaign was set in North America, specifically Seattle, and focused on runs based on Metallica song titles. This worked exceedingly well in my mind, allowing me to focus a scenario on an aspect of a really cool song for each session.

Here's a quick recap of the Metallica songs that turned into runs:

"Trapped Under Ice"
"Where the Wild Things Are"
"Stone Dead Forever"
"Holier Than Thou"
"Hit the Lights"
"Whiplash"
"Ain't My Bitch"
"Leper Messiah"
"Invisible Kid"
"Wherever I May Roam" 3 sessions in Africa!
"The Frayed Ends of Sanity"
"The Thing That Should Not Be"
"The Call of Ktulu"
"The End of the Line"

I know I'm missing a few, but those were the big ones. So now it's time to look to the future. I'd like to start a new Shadowrun campaign, this time set in the unstable patchwork continent known as Europe. In keeping with the theme of musically inspired runs, I've decided to use Iron Maiden tunes for these runs.

The new "Iron Maiden" campaign will be more focused on travel as well, since there are a lot of interesting places in Europe to run the shadows (Europort, Brussels, Paris, London, most of the Allied German States, Prague, etc., etc.) and you can expect to hit the highlights and lowlifes. I'd like everyone to make new runners, though you will be starting with a bit of experience under your belts. Many options are available, including new metatype variants - comb through the Shadowrunner's Companion book for ideas.

More details to come.