An excellent choice. I myself would like to meet
SCENARIOS AND PLOT IDEAS
the real Captain Chaos someday.
people have logged on
to Shadowland since September 22, 1998.
An excellent choice. I myself would like to meet
SCENARIOS AND PLOT IDEAS
the real Captain Chaos someday. people have logged on
to Shadowland since September 22, 1998.
Welcome to the Shadowland BBS, chummer. I'm Captain Chaos, the sysop around here. Think of this as the seedy underbelly of the Denver Data Haven. But don't go getting any bright ideas about sneaking past Shadowland and messing with the Haven. Don't let the friendly appearance of this particular icon fool you. We have enough security on this system to fry you where you stand if you try to go where you're not allowed.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can get down to business. You see, since Shadowland is a massive repository of information--some of it good, some of it bad, much of it ugly-- dealing with life in the shadows of the 2060's, I've seen and heard a lot since I took over my current position. I'm here to share with you some of what I've seen and heard. Maybe you can learn some lessons from other people's mistakes. Maybe you can succeed where others have failed. But for god's sake, pay attention. In the stories you'll see here, people made decisions. The good decisions saved their hoops and maybe made them a decent pile of cred. The bad decisions got them killed, or worse. I'm tired of seeing newbies who think they understand what it is to run the shadows get geeked because they refused to pay attention to the experience of others.
Most of the scenarios and plot ideas below were created for Shadowrun, 2nd Edition by the author of this site. Some plots were created by others. Follow the links on some of the Shadowrun plots to see detailed descriptions of those plots, including characters to use and gamemaster information. You may use this material for your own personal use, and you are free to make any modifications you choose--including modification of characters to fit Shadowrun, 3rd Edition rules. Commercial use of this material is prohibited, both by the author of this website and by the copyrights of FASA Corporation and others.
GAME SYSTEM: Shadowrun, 2nd Edition
SETTING: San Francisco, 20 years after Shadowrun game time.
PLAYERS: 4, experienced (but not necessarily with Shadowrun)
PLOT SKETCH: The world of Shadowrun and the world of Blade Runner combine for a run like no other! The PCs are bounty hunters working for the San Francisco police department, tracking down renegade synthetic humanoids. But how do you catch something that's smarter, stronger, and faster than you are--and maybe more human than you are as well? I would have called it a Blade Runner tribute, but the scenario has more in common with Phillip K. Dick's novel than with Ridley Scott's film. One or two plot twists along the way will keep even players who've read the novel guessing. Click HERE for Gamemaster Info.
GAME SYSTEM: Shadowrun, 2nd Edition
SETTING: Chicago, 2056
PLAYERS: 2-8, any experience level
PLOT SKETCH: This scenario takes a somewhat different look at the Chicago Containment Zone. The PCs are members of a UCAS military Counterforce Team, protecting supply drops into the Zone. Things don't go exactly as planned, and suddenly the captors become the captives! Trapped inside the Zone, the PCs will have to rely on every ounce of training and resourcefulness to survive--the bugs aren't the only predators in the Zone. Click HERE for Gamemaster Info.
GAME SYSTEM: Shadowrun, 2nd Edition
SETTING: Indianapolis, 2060
PLAYERS: 1, experienced with Matrix rules
PLOT SKETCH: This scenario borrows heavily from the work of William Gibson, but the situation is original. A down-on-his-luck ex-decker with an amphetamine habit tries to break back into the biz and finds himself in way over his head. What was supposed to be a simple datasteal puts him square in the middle of a Mafia turf war where everyone--even those he thought he could trust--has an agenda, and both sides would kill for the data he's carrying. Click HERE for Gamemaster Info.
GAME SYSTEM: Champions
SETTING: The film Aliens
PLAYERS: Up to 8, any experience level
PLOT SKETCH: The situation is identical to the film, right down to the fact that you have one hour and forty-two minutes before the reactor core explodes (gamemasters be sure to have a clock handy). In the movie the unit of Colonial Marines didn't fair too well. Think you can do better? Remember, just because you saw a particular solution in the movie doesn't mean that the same solution will work for you.
GAME SYSTEM: Marvel Super Heroes, Original Version
SETTING: Muir Isle, Scotland, in the Marvel Universe
PLAYERS:
PLOT SKETCH: The United Nations has put together the ultimate super hero team. Known as the Alliance, it is composed of a representative super hero from each of several UN countries. You'd better haul out the great big baddies if you want to give this team a challenge. Membership fluctuated a bit, and no adventure ever included the entire team, but here's a representative list:
UNITED STATES: Iron Man
UNITED KINGDOM: Captain Britain
IRELAND: Banshee
KENYA: Amra the Golden Lion
GREECE: Apollo Sol
AUSTRALIA: Wombat
GERMANY: Panzer
JAPAN: Sunfire
CZECH REPUBLIC: Quicksilver
RUSSIAN REPUBLIC: Vanguard
CANADA: Northstar
ISRAEL: Omit
There's no central storyline here, just a team of super heroes dealing with world-threatening villains (we faced such imposing opposition as Magneto and even--gulp--Dr. Doom). Click HERE or on the linked character names above to see stats on the original characters.
GAME SYSTEM: Call of Cthulhu
SETTING: A small, all-male, liberal arts college in the Midwest.
PLAYERS: Up to 8, experienced enough to be able to poke fun at gamers and gaming.
PLOT SKETCH: After one too many losses in their college's intense football rivalry, a group of stereotypical role-players with a tenuous grip on reality decides that the rival university must be in league with the Mythos deities. Determined to rid the world of the dark menace, they go on a misguided killing spree on the rival campus. A very tongue-in-cheek Cthulhu adventure.
GAME SYSTEM: Call of Cthulhu
SETTING: 17th century France
PLAYERS: 4, some experience with gaming and familiarity with The Three Musketeers is preferred.
PLOT SKETCH: When the Bastille prison was raided during the French Revolution, the prisoner records contained a mysterious entry for "The Man in the Iron Mask." Who was he? Alexandre Dumas gave us one explanation, but how do we know that the truth was not something more sinister? The players take on the roles of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan. These "investigators" will have a level of fighting skill and a flair for adventure that is rare in Cthulhu, but how much good will it really do them?
GAME SYSTEM: Call of Cthulhu
SETTING: The Shadowrun Universe, around 2014.
PLAYERS: 4, some experience preferred, and a liberal arts education wouldn't hurt.
PLOT SKETCH: The PCs are a group of editors for a small vanity publishing house in Scotland. The year is 2014. The company for which they work used to be a small academic publishing house, but in the last few years the owner of the company has shifted their focus to books on the occult in order to play into the current fury over things supernatural and magical. The PCs are deeply frustrated by this, but they have little choice but to remain at work for the company—the larger publishing houses would have little use for such specialized editors.
The last three or four years have seen a seemingly endless parade of crackpots, each with his or her own personal theory about things occult, and his or her own explanation for the events of the last few years. Some say it’s Judgement Day, some say it’s the doing of the faerie folk, others even claim that we are nearing the time of Ragnarok. Recently, one crazy old bird even claimed that the Knights Templar are still alive and well and working in Scotland.
One of the editors, an atheist Jewish intellectual and aficionado of Cabala, decides to collect all the elements from each of the crackpot stories and theories they’ve dealt with over the years, and throw them into his computer, which he has named Abulafia. He instructs Abulafia to randomize and recombine each of the elements in the stories, just as a Cabalistic exercise. To his astonishment, the story actually hangs together. Before he can get the word out about his discovery too far, the editor mysteriously disappears. Now it begins to appear as though dark forces may be pursuing the other editors as well. Two people appear to come to their aid—their crackpot client with the Templar theory, and a mysterious dark figure. But neither of their benefactors trusts the other, and the PCs must decide whom they can trust—if anyone.
GAME SYSTEM: Shadowrun, 3rd Edition
SETTING: An underground research lab in the desert Southwest
PLAYERS: 5 to 10. WARNING: This scenario contains a level of graphic violence and horror that is best suited to more mature, if not necessarily more experienced, players.
PLOT SKETCH:The players are members of a high-threat anti-terrorist/hostage rescue team doing contract work for a security company. A small biomedical research corp hires their team to rescue the personnel in an underground research lab that has apparently been overrun by crazed eco-terrorists. When the team descends into the facility, they discover just how dangerous misinformation and flawed intelligence can be. The nightmare they face is far, far worse than any radical Greenie with an Uzi and an agenda. It will require all of their training, all of their wits, all of their teamwork, and a touch of nobility just to survive. Relying solely on their firepower will get them all killed. Is your team up to the challenge?
THIS PAGE IS STILL VERY MUCH UNDER CONSTRUCTION