From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Number Ten) |
---|---|
Subject: | Help needed w/new campaign, rules questions. |
Date: | Sat Dec 8 13:30:01 2001 |
After about a year's hiatus I have decided to again take up the gauntlet of
Shadowrun GMing. The last campaign I ran was a Ye Olde Standard
Seattle-based shadowrunner team. This time, I am trying something a trifle
different.
The basic idea is a "We Are the Law" campaign from the Companion. The
players are all a part of a small team of Lone Star rookies, being assigned
to various departments as a "pilot program" to give them maximum exposure
before permanent assignment. The game takes place in New Orleans, with it
being posited that Lone Star won the law-enforcement contract away from
NOPS sometime in '57-'58, unlike what "Smuggler Havens" states.
So, the first question is -- has anyone ever done anything of the sort,
either a law-enforcement campaign or a New Orleans campaign or both? How
did it work out? If it didn't, why? What valuable experience can you share
with me?
I also have several less-generic rules questions.
1) The Lone Star book says that street patrolmen make from 20,000 to 48,000
nuyen a year. This rather neatly explains why a lot of cops are on the
take, since even the highest quoted salary is not enough for a middle-class
lifestyle. The Companion, however, directly contradicts that by suggesting
that cops are paid enough to maintain a middle-class lifestyle. So, what I
was figuring was to start my players at a salary of Y5,000 a month plus a
little bit. Keeping in mind that this "little bit" will have to serve them
for -everything-: repair costs, new equipment, medical bills, etc., I can't
quite make up my mind how much it should be. I want my players to feel the
strain of tight finances, but I don't want to make it so tight that their
characters -have- to go on the take right away, or so tight that the
players lose interest in the game. (I have specifically barred decker and
rigger characters, for that reason among others, so the financial strain is
not -quite- as big of a deal, but it is still a concern.)
Would anyone care to make suggestions?
(In my last campaign, I did not pay quite this much attention to the
monetary value of the rewards, and got my come-uppance when the group's NPC
rigger got her helicopter blown out from under her... and the group came up
with the cash to replace it without feeling the strain. Was a rude
awakening, to say the least.)
2) One of the archetypes in the 2nd-edition Lone Star book is a DPI astral
backup mage. Given the changes between 2nd and 3rd edition magic, am I
correct in assuming that staying behind and astrally attacking incoming
spells is no longer an option? In fact, the closest modus operandi I've
been able to come up with for a "backup mage" is to stay out of sight and
allocate spell defense dice. Does anyone have a better idea, or am I
basically right?
Thanks in advance,
--Number 10.
====number_10_ox@**********.com IM Nick: number10ox
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