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From:	Ronnie Grahn sbe14114@****.netlink.se
Subject:	Low-level campaign
Date:	Sun, 21 Mar 1999 21:00:38 +0100

Message no. 1 Hi,
I'm soon gonna start my Shadowrun campaign and I'm thinking about
starting it with the pc really at the bottom. I read Black Jacks
ramblings on how he liked to make the new pc go after the runs, not
serving it to them on a silver platter ("GM: What do you do? Merc pc:
We wait for a contact to call us..."). I'm gonna start with new pc
that has just moved to Seattle and only know 3-4 people there.
I want loads and loads of ideas for starting out low. Put on your
thinking caps and think of all those wonderful ideas you have but
can't use since the people your playing with think they can take out
Renraku.
All I know at this point is that the pc will probably meet through the
Food Fight scenario in First Run (if nobody has a better idea...).

Hope I get some response...

Thanx
Ronnie

From:	Scott Wheelock iscottw@*****.nb.ca
Subject:	Low-level campaign
Date:	Mon, 22 Mar 1999 06:36:34 -0400

Message no. 2 "And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Ronnie Grahn."
] Hi,
] I'm soon gonna start my Shadowrun campaign and I'm thinking about
] starting it with the pc really at the bottom. I read Black Jacks
] ramblings on how he liked to make the new pc go after the runs, not
] serving it to them on a silver platter ("GM: What do you do? Merc pc:
] We wait for a contact to call us..."). I'm gonna start with new pc
] that has just moved to Seattle and only know 3-4 people there.
] I want loads and loads of ideas for starting out low. Put on your
] thinking caps and think of all those wonderful ideas you have but
] can't use since the people your playing with think they can take out
] Renraku.
] All I know at this point is that the pc will probably meet through the
] Food Fight scenario in First Run (if nobody has a better idea...).
]
] Hope I get some response...
]
] Thanx
] Ronnie

Well...start them as Gang Members or non-shadowrunners, or
old runners who've lost their reps and edge, etc. Or limit them
in a rules way...Make them start with half the attribute and Skill
points, or say their max level for attributes and skills is 4, or
whatever. There's plenty of ways to start them off weak.

-Murder of One

From:	Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject:	Low-level campaign
Date:	Mon, 22 Mar 1999 12:03:15 +0100

Message no. 3 According to Ronnie Grahn, at 21:00 on 21 Mar 99, the word on
the street was...

> All I know at this point is that the pc will probably meet through the
> Food Fight scenario in First Run (if nobody has a better idea...).

A good way to get a shadowrunning group together would be to have someone
hire all of them even if the PCs don't know each other yet. Perhaps
someone wants to give new runners a chance, or wants to have a team that's
intended to take a fall -- better to use newbies that nobody knows than to
frag over hardened shadowrunners who know their business.

Once the newly-assembled team has done a run, they'll have the start of a
reputation _together_, and they know more or less what to expect of the
other members. Good enough reasons to stay together for the time being,
IMHO.

The Food Fight adventure is a lot more suitable for a team that already
has a reason to be together, else there would be a big chance that, after
the smoke clears, they split up again. After all, what is a plausible
reason to keep running with a bunch of people you met during a firefight
in a Stuffer Shack?

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
What in the wide wide world of sports is going on here?!
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998

From:	Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk
Subject:	Low-level campaign
Date:	Wed, 24 Mar 1999 01:14:49 +0000

Message no. 4 In article <000201be73d6$129060c0$bb3cf2d4@****>, Ronnie Grahn
<sbe14114@****.netlink.se> writes
>Hi,
>I'm soon gonna start my Shadowrun campaign and I'm thinking about
>starting it with the pc really at the bottom. I read Black Jacks
>ramblings on how he liked to make the new pc go after the runs, not
>serving it to them on a silver platter ("GM: What do you do? Merc pc:
>We wait for a contact to call us..."). I'm gonna start with new pc
>that has just moved to Seattle and only know 3-4 people there.
>I want loads and loads of ideas for starting out low. Put on your
>thinking caps and think of all those wonderful ideas you have but
>can't use since the people your playing with think they can take out
>Renraku.

Have them think for themselves - like, plan and carry out a heist. A
Stuffer Shack truck carries quite a lot of money, if you know the right
people to fence the food through :) Make them find their own work. Tell
them about the Mafia vs. Yakuza war in their area, let them pick a side
to sell their skills to.

Alternatively, use low-level jobs. Carry this package from X to Y, for
five hundred nuyen per person. A cop friend wants to know what's in a
certain safe, but doesn't want the hassle of getting a search warrant.
The little stuff that shadowruns can be made of.

I played in an excellent low-power campaign, where my PC - the team's
weapon expert and combat specialist - owned an automatic weapon for less
than half of one run. His arsenal consisted of a Browning Max-Power and
a semi-auto shotgun: he briefly had a HK227 provided on one job, but had
to dispose of it after he actually _used_ it...

Low power is great fun provided the GM remembers that fact: if you keep
the PCs low power, do the same for the opposition they have to face (of
course, opposition they stupidly decide to fight is their problem)

--
Paul J. Adam

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