From: | silvercat@***********.org (Jonathan Hurley) |
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Subject: | New Run |
Date: | Mon, 28 Jul 2003 20:44:06 -0400 |
Actually, I'm going to post a plot synopsis of the latest run in hopes of
sparking creative (evil) juices.
Background:
Vail, CO is now in the Front Range Free Zone (at least it looked that way on
the map - if it's not, it looks like its in the Ute Nation - plot still
mostly applies), and is effectively a free city (run by a City Council whose
main goal is to maximize the tourist trade). It is one of North America's
premier social destinations for the extremely wealthy during the winter (and
a few visitors go skiing, also). One of the services provided by Vail, Inc.
is custom skiing apparel, unique and made to order, measured and designed in
the comfort of the buyer's home, to be picked up at the start of the Season
(most likely in the closet of the buyer's private chalet). The policing
contract is currently held by Lone Star, and is up for renewal at the end of
the year - and it's the beginning of the Ski season at Vail.
There is a terrorist group spun out of various splinters of PETA, Green
groups, and anti-corporate/anti-globalization groups. They call themselves
the People Against Corporate Exploitation (I haven't bothered to look up for
namespace collision with current groups), and are a rather ineffective
combination of communism and radical green ethos. They are also deeply
infiltrated by Ares; Ares doesn't control them fully, but can make use of
them as a catspaw from time to time.
Anyway, on with the show: an Ares agent-provocateur has suggested to the
leadership of a cell that a really good idea would be to hijack this year's
shipment of skiing apparel from the sweatshops in China that actually make
the stuff en route. The cell can then hold the shipment hostage for a lot of
money, and then, once they've got the money, detroy it to show the
capitalist running-dog polluting oppressors of the People what the People
really thing of being exploited... And while the terrorists can't do the job
themselves, they've just received a 'donation' of money, and this guy nows
some politically correct shadowrunners.
Ares' goal here is to discredit Lone Star and increase their chances of KE
getting the police contract for Vail. They arrange for a known terrorist
outfit to hijack an important shipment to Vail, while at the same time,
tipping Lone Star anonymously that a hijack attempt will be made by some
semi-incompetents. Then they will hire via a front some competent
shadowrunners, getting egg on LS' face when their increased security fails
to prevent the hijacking. At the back end, KE, which has a contract with the
shipper for insurance purposes, will recover the stolen cargo and deliver it
to Vail, saving them from a potentially embarrassing situation. Variations
on the theme include stabbing the runners (by sending in the recovery team
before the runners have been paid off and left the PACE hideout). In my
game, KE deliberately set things up so that the runners would be gone before
they sent in the gunships - they didn't want to lose future services of the
team, and this team has a solid rep for not talking about their jobs.
However, a climax gunfight between the runners and KE with PACE people
incompetently trying to help the runners could be a lot of fun. In this
case, you have to be careful that the team believes they were hired by PACE,
not KE - it doesn't make sense for KE to leave that loose end dangling
(especially since the plot requires that KE believe the team to be
exceptional - otherwise why hired them after tipping their opposition).