| From: | korishinzo@*****.com (Ice Heart) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Game Advice (Long) |
| Date: | Wed, 6 Nov 2002 14:27:43 -0800 (PST) |
> Hi,
>
> I have just stated a new SR campaign with my
> players, set in 2060.
>
> All the PCs have started with some connection to a
> small Jap corp (VP Sec.
> Consultant, VP Chauffeur, VP Personal Decker, VP
> Mistress, VP Company Man).
>
> The company itself is in trouble and the VP, trying
> to secure some profit
> ahead, decides to steal the lead project of the
> company that has been sent
> from Japan to Seattle in a courier. He has asked his
> minions, the PCs, to
> get the info inside the head of the Courier.
>
> What I plan is that the PCs get the info, but
> everything is discovered. The
> VP is killed by his own company, and they are chased
> by his company and
> other companies that want the project. They have
> also the option to sell
> the info.
>
> What troubles me, is how much money should they get
> if they sell the info.
> I have decided that the project is the "infamous"
> process to make synthetic
> human flesh for ghouls. The project is like 70%-80%
> done, so it must be
> worth a lot of nuyens. How much money is right? Less
> than 1 Million, sounds
> that I am not being true to the story. Giving a
> Million or more sounds like
> I am giving them way too much.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thank you,
> Pepe
The most basic question here is whether you, as GM,
want this tech in production and on the market in your
version of the game world. Think about how much
something like this will change things in your SR
world, and decide how (and if) you want that change to
happen. So, let's look at both directions.
You want the tech.
As GM, you want this change to take place in the SR
world. Ghouls can walk into Stuffer Shack and
purchase dinner. Okay, great, but what is that worth?
To the corp who get's the patent...potentially
billions of nueyn over the life of that patent. What
corp would not do pretty much anything to get their
hands on billions of nuyen? A hundred million nuyen
seems like a small investment, right? But, the tech
is only 80% researched. And everyone will want it.
That hundred million has to cover research,
developement, security, legal wrangles, and aquistion.
The original corp probably already patented a number
of the sub processes, so the new corp will have to
come up with alternate routes to the same end product.
Or get a hold of the sub-process patents. And not
arouse the attention of the Corporate Court. Pretty
quickly, they are going to be hemoraging money on this
project. Taking that into consideration, they are not
going to spend any more than they have to to get this
info. Now, if I were the potential corp, I'd handle
the purchase like this...
These underlings are freshly on the run, new to the
word of clandestine ops, and holding info worth far
far more than their lives. So, find out who they know
who could set up a meet. Make a juicy offer, but a
low offer. A hundred grand or so. Then, send out two
black ops teams. One dresses up as a gangers, but act
like shadowrunnners. One dress up like a rival corp,
but have IDs as memebers of a different rival corp if
PCs are (rightfully) suspicious and go digging. Both
teams have simple instructions. Rough them up. Don't
kill them unless they are dumb enough to have the
target data out in the open and easily snatched.
Impress upon them that the corp is ofering to buy
something, while "everyone else" is trying to just
kill them for it. Also, have another Johnson on your
list of retained assets call and offer a slightly less
juicy purchase price...and have him do it in pushy,
rude, this-is-non-negotiable sort of way. Spend, say,
9,500,000 ¥ on these ops. That is the total cost of
surveillance/equipment/deployment of all assets in the
field. The remaining 500K of your aquisition budget
(1 tenth what the stockholders approved to
aquire/research/develope/defend this data) is the
maximum you will pay the corporate expatriots who
currently have it. Go to the meet. Be cool, but
flexible. Very professional. Cater to the new
runners ego in subtle ways. Allow them to haggle you
up from the intitial offer of 250K. Leave the meet
with the new tech, watching the runners leave, happy
with their haggling. Let them observe your helicoptor
getting hit by a missile (while you drive away in a
secondary vehicle). They think you are dead and the
tech lost. The cops are coming. They flee. They
cannot tell anyone who comes calling much of anything,
and you are back home with the data on or under
budget.
And the GM is happy. Why? Cause the brand new
runners did not get the severely game imbalancing sum
of 10 million nuyen for the data. In fact, no matter
what they got, it will get mostly spent as they equip
for life in the shadows.
OR
Let them go looking for a buyer. You want to sell
what? You have what? Yea right! That tech doesn't
exist! Oh it does? I'll call you back...
Have everyone they contact be skeptical or shifty or
both. Make it clear that what they are holding is
equal parts dangerous to their health and low on
credibility. After all, the corp did the R&D is not
going to tell anyone what they had, nor will they
admit it is gone. Have the characters chased, scoffed
at, set up, double crossed, etc. Finally (if they
don't think of it themselves), have a contact suggest
they just publically dump the tech where everyone can
get it. A few tense game session later, they get the
data uploaded somewhere anyone can get access
(Shadowland BBS, Corporate Courts BBS, etc). Funny
how a sysop will open a few back doors if they are
told to by superiors who are expecting the data drop
(because they made sure the idea was given the holders
of the data). So, suddenly, all the players in the
corp game have the data. Everyone settles down, the
synthetic meat goes to market, and the PCs are
anonymously paid a small sum by the grateful neutral
party who helped them dump the info (the
Neo-Anarchists, the Corp Courts, whoever). That small
fee can be whatever you want, but I suggest something
like 25-50 thousand per runner. After all, they are
now SINless and must gear up for shadow life.
You do not want this tech.
This one is easier to do, and you can more easily
justify the small sum the PCs are going to be getting.
One real nice way to get the data from them and build
adventure hooks for later...
Have anti-ghoul activists (Humanis and their ilk wokr
nicely) be the "good guys" who come offering money
instead of bullets. Disguised as corp Johnsons of
course. In the midst of betrayals and bullets, the
PCs are offered a modest fee for the tech. Manipulate
much as you would in one of the above options so they
are happy to just et rid of the data. The twist comes
when Mr. J pays them with a smile, then blatantly
destroys the tech. What?! Why?! Who...?! The
smarmy Johnson can gloat about his anti-ghoul stance
or lie and say the tech was known to not work. No
matter what, the players will most likely look into
the Johnson's backers and find out that they just let
some scummy policlubber types cheat ghouls out of a
chance at legitimacy. Whole new adventures can grow
from here. Metahuman rights groups will be coming
around demanding to know what they did with the tech.
They will be dogged by new enemies and unwanted allies
as they struggle to clear themselves of complicity in
this selfish act.
OR
Have the tech be flawed, bogus, non-funtional. Have
them learn of this. Now what? Dump it some
unsuspecting data fence quickly? Try and tell
everyone who is gunning for them that they don't have
anything? Again, your next few months of plot are
already made.
In any case, there are myriad ways to give them very
little money for the data, or even none. And you can
do it with an eye toward how your personal metaplot
will develope.
Note: Smart/devious PCs will make copies! Have a
backup plan. :)
Controlling the amount of money the PCs make is as
important as controlling the karma they get. Either
resource can wreck a game. Too little, and
development is stunted, perhaps fataly. Worse, the
players get bored and frustrated. Too much and the
power level of your game spirals out of your control.
And the players get jaded. "What? An extraction run
for 10K a piece? Frag that? Let's hold out for a
real run."
One of my most devious tactics ever came after my
players were unexpectedly clever and managed to turn a
run that was supposed to net them 50K as a group into
a run that netted them 400K as a group. Ooops! Now
what? This was their second run. I did not want them
making that kind of cash at the outset. Hmmm...the
solution came in examining their methods on the run.
They had destroyed a building. Okay. It was
abandoned, and serving as terrorist headquarters.
However, it was next door to a Saeder-Krupp subsidiary
which manufactured munitions. The brass were NOT
happy about large explosions next door. The runner
were sitting around their safehouse, counting their
money happily, when a knock sounds at the door. The
local gang, who are being payed to act as security of
sorts, notify them that some suit with some tough
bodyguards is parked at the end of the block and
telling everyone they'll pay for the exact whereabouts
of the runners. The runner's leader heads out back,
and drives around to have a word with the suit. Turns
out Mr. Johnson has a proposal. He hands over a very
large optical chip, containing an itemized bill for
damages (property and emotional--the factory
supervisor seriously drekked his pants when the
initial blast went off) to an unnamed but familiar
sounding piece of real estate. Payment options are,
400K (negotiable) or the runner's lives. The runners
sweat a bit, and negotiate a 350K settlement with the
Mr. Johnson, who then calls off the inbound strike
teams while the runners listen. Problem solved AND
the players decided that maybe large scale demolitions
was a bit less subtle than they needed to be.
======Korishinzo
--stingy with the nuyen
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/
