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Message no. 1
From: Scott Wheelock iscottw@*****.nb.ca
Subject: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 16:52:56 -0400
"And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Mark A. Imbriaco."
] > Whoa...how long have we been back On Topic? I must
] > have missed the announcement...
]
] We've been back on-topic ever since the lists at iTRiBE went away.
]
] -Mark

Maybe it's just me, but it's been really hard to tell...

So, an on-topic post. Hmm....

Has anyone tried a campaign where the PCs all
start as very low-power characters? I'm thinking
of running a campaign where the players all have
PCs who start off as corp wage slaves, or Stuffer
Shack owners, or cab drivers, etc. Through
whatever circumstances, their lives are destroyed,
and they must resort to shadowrunning to clear
their names, or get revenge, or just survive, or
whatever. I think it would be a pleasant change.
And yeah, I have read Secrets of Power, but I
thought of this before reading it, really I did.

Scott
Message no. 2
From: Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk
Subject: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 22:39:30 +0000
In article <3.0.5.32.19990228165256.007a3a50@********.nbnet.nb.ca>,
Scott Wheelock <iscottw@*****.nb.ca> writes
> Has anyone tried a campaign where the PCs all
>start as very low-power characters? I'm thinking
>of running a campaign where the players all have
>PCs who start off as corp wage slaves, or Stuffer
>Shack owners, or cab drivers, etc. Through
>whatever circumstances, their lives are destroyed,

Actually, when we did this we started as a crew of recent university
students, still living in digs: and George, landlord of our local pub,
asked if we fancied making a bit of money by delivering a package. That
got us into the business.

My character had the only firearm in the group: his father's Browning
Max-Power, stolen. He'd been a officer-cadet through most of university,
failed final selection and was working as a motorcycle courier while he
decided what to do with his life.

Cyberware was limited to a couple of datajacks, we had almost none of
the usual shadowrunner skills (Jules was a good shot, but lacked guns
beyond the Browning, and in a lot of London you couldn't make much use
of firearms anyway).

We were mostly doing cheap delivery and observation work, hardly ever
got into firefights: the one serious gun battle we did enter left three-
quarters of the group hospitalised (though we did win, and we were
legitimate enough - having SINs and clean records - to get treated
rather than arrested)


--
Paul J. Adam
Message no. 3
From: Bruce gyro@********.co.za
Subject: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 10:24:50 +0200
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Wheelock <iscottw@*****.nb.ca>
To: shadowrn@*********.org <shadowrn@*********.org>
Date: 28 February 1999 10:58
Subject: Re: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)


>"And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Mark A. Imbriaco."
>] > Whoa...how long have we been back On Topic? I must
>] > have missed the announcement...
>]
>] We've been back on-topic ever since the lists at iTRiBE went away.
>]
>] -Mark
>
> Maybe it's just me, but it's been really hard to tell...
>
>So, an on-topic post. Hmm....
>
> Has anyone tried a campaign where the PCs all
>start as very low-power characters? I'm thinking
>of running a campaign where the players all have
>PCs who start off as corp wage slaves, or Stuffer
>Shack owners, or cab drivers, etc. Through
>whatever circumstances, their lives are destroyed,
>and they must resort to shadowrunning to clear
>their names, or get revenge, or just survive, or
>whatever. I think it would be a pleasant change.
> And yeah, I have read Secrets of Power, but I
>thought of this before reading it, really I did.


I ran a gamne for a group of six that started out with the PCs as Uni
students and degraded horribly from there. The scientest/researcher
type ran into some trouble from the UCAS FDA for doing unauthorised
human trials of her experimental drug. I also had a thaumatugy student
a compsci and a journalist

Highly recommended from me as you have tons of time to develop
characters and get the interPC mojo going before tackling more serious
runs.

-- BRUCE <gyro@********.co.za>

<hard@****>

Step from my tables as I start to chop
I'm a lumberjack DJ Adrock
If you try to knock me you'll get mocked
I'll stir fry you in my wok

Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Message no. 4
From: Jason 'Ding' Dowd jdowd@****.edu
Subject: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 16:47:10 -0800
> Has anyone tried a campaign where the PCs all
>start as very low-power characters? I'm thinking
>of running a campaign where the players all have
>PCs who start off as corp wage slaves, or Stuffer
>Shack owners, or cab drivers, etc. Through
>hatever circumstances, their lives are destroyed,
>and they must resort to shadowrunning to clear
>their names, or get revenge, or just survive, or
>whatever. I think it would be a pleasant change.

Actually, yeah. My group and I right now are playing a very low-powered
game. Our characters are street kids (mine is the oldest at 17) with low
skills (highest skill is a 4) and no magical ability. One of the characters
does courier jobs on his bicycle (yes, a regular old bike, not a
motorcycle), the female in the group plays a prostitute, and my character
breaks into cars and steals their electronics. It's been surprisingly fun,
because we have very few resources and have to be very innovative about the
way we do things. It's quite a refreshing change from the regular ol'
shadowrunning campaign. I recommend it for anyone who hasn't done anything
different in a while.


Jason "Ding" Dowd
http://home.san.rr.com/jdowd
"There is no problem in this world that cannot be solved by the
judicious application of high explosives."
Message no. 5
From: Steve Collins einan@*********.net
Subject: Low-Power Campaign(was: Off Topic Posts)
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 99 07:11:14 -0500
On 3/1/99 7:47 pm, Jason 'Ding' Dowd said:

>> Has anyone tried a campaign where the PCs all
>>start as very low-power characters? I'm thinking
>>of running a campaign where the players all have
>>PCs who start off as corp wage slaves, or Stuffer
>>Shack owners, or cab drivers, etc. Through
>>hatever circumstances, their lives are destroyed,
>>and they must resort to shadowrunning to clear
>>their names, or get revenge, or just survive, or
>>whatever. I think it would be a pleasant change.
>
Low power campaign's like this can indeed be fun but they do require more
commitment on the part of the players and GM. Character advancement is so
slow in Shadowrun (not necessarily a bad thing) that you need to either
play alot (more than once a week) or for several years to allow the
characters much hope at all of resolving whatever conflict forced them
into the shadows. I know that people on this list have been playing in
the same campaign's for several years but I have had problems keeping a
campaign going with for much more than 2 years. If you are students then
playing often works but for us older folks with Jobs Wives and Kids it
gets difficult to find the time to play once a month (gods am I going
through gaming withdrawls, I havn't played anything yet this year and I
havn't played Shadowrun in about 6 months). Also you pretty much need to
keep magic out of it, if the non mage characters are struggling to come
up with ammo for the light pistols they have then a single mage is going
to be ridiculously powerful. It is possable for example to have a mage in
the party if he starts off with no Magical Skills or Spells (he just
discovered he was a mage) and has to learn every thing as he goes along.
The other problem is that the mortality rate can be quite high. Combat is
an inevitability in a game like Shadowrun, you may try to avoid it but at
some point it's going to come looking for you. Without the heavy armour
(armour jackets and lined coats) most runners wear even hand to hand
combat can become quite deadly. The final problem in the setup you have
described (there are other low powered campaigns that don't suffer from
this, a street gang for example) is how do you replace a dead character.
The characters remaining aren't going to trust many people and so when
one of their number is killed they aren't likely to be looking for the
first runner they meet to join them. It can get difficult to explain why
the runners will accept a new character into their midst.

Steve

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