Shadowrun 4E - Missions - Election Day.pdf - Shadowrun 5th ed Core Rulebook - artofantonius

Writing

Brandie Tarvin

Art

Maps

Patrick Sullivan

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Brent Evans, Matt Heerdt

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Matt Heerdt

Art Director

Brent Evans

Shadowrun Missions Coordinator

Steven “Bull” Ratkovich

Shadowrun Line Developer

Jason M. Hardy

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Victor Corbella, John Emmons,

Kat Hardy, Andreas “AAS” Schroth

Prooing

A.A. Salati, Jean-Marc Comeau,

Jeremy Weyand, Matt Manganaro

SHADOWRUN MISSION 04-11

ELECTION DAY

Redaction

As far as the eye could see, protesters lined the street in front of

the governor’s mansion. Only a thick double-line of Knight Errant

riot-control police prevented the anti-Proposition 23 crowd from

tearing into the metahumans broadcasting their sympathies for the

Ork Underground and Project Freedom. AR graiti painted the

UCAS lags along the mansion’s perimeter in lurid coats of neon

colors, each “for” and “against” message desperately trying to override

the opposition. None of the groundskeepers dared go out into the

crowd to remove the “protest art,” and several employees called in sick

rather than brave the crowds for work.

he relected image of a grimacing Governor Brackhaven shined

in the bulletproof glass of his oice window. “hat pesky FBI agent

is sniing around. I don’t know what to do anymore, Emile. How

could this whole Ork Underground district nonsense have gotten so

out of hand?”

Standing on the other side of the governor’s desk, Emile

Corrigan shuled through sheets of electronic paper, barely glancing

at the contents. “I’m not sure, Governor.”

Brackhaven spun around, slapping a heavy hand on his desk.

“Unacceptable. Simply unacceptable. Dammit, Emile, Proposition

23 was supposed to die a silent death. ‘Ignore it and it will go away.’ I

distinctly remember saying those words, telling everyone to keep their

mitts of. And now, this.” He waived his hands at the view outside the

mansion. “Did you hear what they’re calling it on the news? ‘Project

Freedom.’ How the hell is anyone supposed to bury that?”

Corrigan waited a moment to be sure the rant had inished

before shrugging. “We could postpone the election.”

As Corrigan expected, Brackhaven snorted in refusal and sat.

“And tell the press what, exactly?”

“he truth. Due to the escalating violence, Knight Errant is

over-extended and cannot guarantee the safety of the voters. he

election will be rescheduled when the criminal anarchist factions are

contained or when we’ve had a chance to bolster the city’s security

forces. We’ll make an appeal to the president for UCAS reservists

to help out during our time of trouble. his election was only called

because of Representative Anders’ untimely death. Since it’s just a

special election, and not a constitutionally required election, we can

simply keep the appointed representative in her oice until the next

scheduled election. By that time, the supporters of Proposition 23

should lose their momentum.”

he governor frowned and clasped his hands together on his desk.

“You know damned well that I’ll be cruciied in next year’s campaign

for that kind of decision, Emile. What would possess you to come up

with an idea like that?”

“You asked for my opinion, governor,” Corrigan pointed out. “I

can only give you advice. It’s up to you whether you take it or ignore it.”

“Don’t suppose we could alter any results we don’t like before it

gets reported to the newsies,” Brackhaven said wistfully.

“Get caught doing that and your entire staf will be cruciied, gov-

ernor. You included. Hell, you might not even make it to next year’s

elections.”

he echoed taunts of shouting protestors illed the air as both men

sat in temporary silence. Brackhaven’s eyes narrowed as he sipped as his

imported cofee. Ater a long moment, he broke the tension. “Emile,

you and I go a long way back. I trust you with everything, you know.”

“Yes, governor.”

“If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be my chief of staf.”

Corrigan stifened. His ingers let indents on the papers they now

clenched. he last time Brackhaven talked to a staf member that way,

she found herself playing scapegoat the next morning when Knight

Errant arrested her for a fraud she hadn’t committed.

Brackhaven put his cup down and folded his hands before him

once again. “I want to know what happened. Find the bastard who gave

those idiot trogs legitimacy and bring me that name. I don’t care who

he or she is, what job he may hold, or who his friends might be. Find

him and bring him to me alive and in one piece. I have questions that

I will get answers to before I skewer that son of a bitch to the wall and

ruin his life. I run this oice. I dictate policy. No one so much as sneezes

around here without my say so, and everyone better remember that.”

Cold wormed its way inside Corrigan’s gut like a parasite waiting

to devour him from the inside out.

“Find him, Corrigan. Now.”

Corrigan knew a dismissal when he heard one. He acknowledged

the order and beat a hasty retreat like the good little toady Governor

Brackhaven expected him to be. Once in his oice, ater the door

was securely closed behind him and the sound dampeners had been

activated, Corrigan dropped both the papers and his meek demeanor.

He sat down, pulling a disposable commlink and a pair of AR

glasses from a secret compartment in his desk. Leaning back, Corrigan

activated his agent that waited for instructions with artiicial patience.

“Search the city employment records for an ambitious employee with

no family and who is willing to follow orders, no questions asked. And

get me Edmund Jefries’ schedule—the private one he keeps on his

home commlink.”

he agent acknowledged the commands and disappeared with its

usual brisk eiciency.

Exchanging the glasses and ‘link for an empty mug, Corrigan

allowed himself one brief moment of temper.

“Damn that man!” he shouted as he threw a mug at the wall.

Redaction

intRodUction

SRM 04-11: Election Day is a Shadowrun Missions campaign

adventure. Full information on the Shadowrun Missions campaign

is available at shadowrun4.com/missions and includes a guide

to creating Missions characters and a regularly updated FAQ. All

maps, player handouts, and other playing aids are found at the end

of this document.

RUNNING THE ADVENTURE

Gamemastering is more of an art than a science, and every game-

master does things a bit diferently. Use your own style when it comes

to preparing and running the adventure and do whatever you feel is

best to provide the best Shadowrun game you can for your players.

Shadowrun Missions adventures are designed to run in a standard four-

hour convention time slot.

Please keep this in mind when running the adventure. You should

leave at least 15–20 minutes at the end of the time slot to complete

any necessary paperwork and pass out the players’ Debrieing Logs.

(Make sure that you have enough copies of the Debrieing Log for this

adventure to give one copy to each player ater running the adventure.)

his section ofers some guidelines you may ind useful in preparing to

run SRM 04-11: Election Day (or any Shadowrun Missions adventure).

PREPARING THE ADVENTURE

SRM 04-11: Election Day is intended for use with Shadowrun,

Twentieth Anniversary Edition , and all character and rules information

refers to the fourth edition of the Shadowrun rules.

Adventure Structure

SRM 04-11: Election Day consists of several scenes. hese scenes

form the basis of the adventure, which should be completed in approxi-

mately four hours. If you are running short on time, you should stream-

line each and be a little more generous with clues, target numbers, and

other requirements to aid in guiding the players through the adventure.

Each scene outlines the most likely sequence of events, as well as

how to handle unexpected twists and turns that inevitably crop up.

Each one contains the following subsections, providing gamemasters

with all the information necessary to run it.

Step 1: Read The Adventure

Carefully read the adventure from beginning to end. Get a feel for

the overall plot and what happens in each scene. hat way, if something

diferent happens, you won’t be caught of guard and you can adapt

things smoothly.

Step 2: Take Notes

Take notes for yourself while reading through the adventure that

you can refer to later on. Possible things to note include: major plot

points (so you can see them all at a glance), the names of various non-

player characters, possible problems you notice, situations where you

think a particular character can shine and other things you’ll want to

keep in mind while running the adventure.

Scan his provides a quick synopsis of the scene’s action, allowing

you to get a feel for the encounter at a glance.

Tell It to hem Straight is written to be read aloud to the players,

describing what their characters experience upon entering the

scene. You should feel free to modify the narrative as much

as desired to suit the group and the situation, since the char-

acters may arrive at the scene by diferent means or under

diferent circumstances than the text assumes.

Step 3: Know The Characters

Prior to the start of the adventure, examine the PCs’ record sheets

and Debrieing Logs for your reference and have basic information

about their important abilities handy so you can refer to it during play.

Also go over the characters and keep their previous events listed on

the Debrieing Logs in mind when determining non-player character

actions in various scenes if such a dynamic has been included.

Behind the Scenes covers the bulk of the scene, describing what’s

happening, what the non-player characters are doing, how

they will react to the player characters’ actions and so forth.

It also covers the setting of the encounter, going over environ-

mental conditions and other properties of the location as well

as providing any descriptions of important items.

Step 4: Don’t Panic!

Gamemastering involves juggling a lot of different things.

Sometimes you drop the ball and forget something, or you just make a

mistake. It happens, don’t worry about it. Nobody is perfect all of the

time and everybody makes mistakes. Just pick up from there and move

on. Your players will understand and forget about it once you get back

into the action.

Pushing the Envelope looks at ways to make the encounter

more challenging for experienced or powerful characters and

other ways you can add some “extra spice” to the scene. his

subsection should usually only be used for home games, or

games where time is not a factor. At most convention and

Open Play events, gamemasters should omit this informa-

tion. It adds to the scene, but does not contain important

information.

GENERAL ADVENTURE RULES

Shadowrun Missions adventures use the rules presented in

Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition ( SR4A ). Standard rules such

as success tests, the Rules of One and Six, and other common mechanics

are described in SR4A and are not repeated in this adventure.

Please keep in mind when preparing for the adventure that the

PCs will not necessarily compose a balanced party. It’s entirely possible

Debugging ofers solutions to potential problems that may crop

up during the encounter. While it’s impossible to foresee

everything that a group of player characters might do, this

section tries to anticipate common problems and other sug-

gestions for dealing with them.

intRodUction

ELECTION DAY

that the party will be made up entirely of technomancers or back-to-

nature shamans. If the characters run into a brick wall because of such

complications, show lexibility and use your best judgment in how you

lead them back to the plot.

will earn the character positive or negative Faction Reputation. Positive

Faction Rep doesn’t mean that a runner has become a member of that

Faction, but rather just notes that the Faction looks upon the character

favorably, and is more inclined to deal with the runner. High enough

Faction Rep will earn the character a favor from that Faction at the end

of the adventure (see Picking Up he Pieces for more information). If

your Faction Rep drops low enough, contacts that are members of that

Faction may not deal with you at all.

Each Faction keeps tabs on its opposite, and every organization is

full of spies, so any time a character deals with one Faction, the other

side inevitably inds out about it. his is tracked on an individual basis,

so even if one teammate sells out information to NewsNet, another can

sell out to KSAF and still earn KSAF Faction Rep.

Non-Player Characters

Non-player characters (NPCs) are essential to any adventure. hey

are the allies, antagonists, and background characters in the adventure

that interact with the player characters. NPCs in this adventure have

already been created and can be found throughout the adventure.

Minor NPCs are found in the individual scene that they appear

in, and generally have a brief write up, noting only their important

skills and the gear they are carrying. Note that their dice pools are pre-

calculated to save the gamemaster time.

Major NPCs can be found in the Cast of Shadows at the end

of the adventure, and they have more detailed write-ups, and include

most of the skills and the gear they have access to.

he NPCs in this adventure should generally stand up to the

average player character but may need some adjustment to suit a par-

ticular group of characters, especially a more experienced and powerful

group. he scenes and NPC descriptions ofer tips on adjusting the

NPCs to suit the abilities of the characters in your group. To adjust

the power level of an NPC, refer to the Prime Runner Creation and

Advancement Table (p. 285, SR4A ). Take the player characters’ abili-

ties into consideration when assessing the NPCs in this adventure and

modify them accordingly.

A Note on Commlinks

In 2074, commlinks are a universal appliance. Because just about

every NPC is going to have one, they won’t always be statted out in the

adventure text. For NPCs who do not have a statted commlink, assume

it has all necessary ratings at 3. hese commlinks will not contain any

valuable paydata.

Paperwork

Ater running a Shadowrun Missions adventure, there are several

important pieces of paperwork that need to be illed out.

he irst is to make certain to distribute a copy of the adventure’s

Debrieing Log to each player. As the gamemaster, please make certain to

ill this out and sign of on it for each character. In the interests of time,

you may have each player ill out the sections, with appropriate values

that you give them. Please consider the PCs’ actions in the scenario when

providing Reputation modiiers, per those rules (p. 265, SR4A ).

he second is to make sure that all players have updated their

character’s calendar. PCs are allowed to go on one run per week. he

calendar is used to track the character’s monthly lifestyle expenses,

adventures, and their downtime exploits.

Finally, once an adventure is completed gamemasters should head

over to the oicial Shadowrun forums at forums.shadowrun4. com

and look in the Shadowrun Missions section. here will be a section

to post the outcome of the Missions adventure. Future adventures will

be afected by these results. Without gamemaster feedback, the PCs’

exploits will be unable to afect the campaign.

Mission Difficulty

Gamemasters are encouraged to use their own judgment and to

adjust the diiculty of the encounter to take into account the abilities

of the players. If the players have no magical support, replace magical

defenses with mundane ones. If the players are weak on combat, reduce

the number of enemies by one or two. Conversely, if they’re steam-

rolling the opposition, add one or two enemies to the ight. Missions

should be a challenge to the party but should never be insurmountable

for a team playing it smart.

Choosing Sides

During the course of a scenario, the PCs will be presented with

options to choose sides between several Factions in the adventure.

Seattle is a city full of conlict and is full of opposing Factions who butt

heads constantly. Characters can try and remain neutral, but oten any

decision they make will favor one Faction over another. hese choices

MISSIoNS FACTIoNS

BurieD unDergrounD PLotLine

Ork Rights Committee: this faction is pushing to see the ork Underground become a full-

ledged, legitimate district of Seattle, by any means necessary.

Seattle Government: the city of Seattle is hurting for money and sees the Underground as

a huge expense they can’t afford, with little to no gain from its largely Sinless population. the

government worries that making it a district would give legitimacy to the gangs, crime rings, and

smugglers that use the Underground as a base of operations.

NewsNet: Horizon’s lagship news outlet in Seattle, newsnet has long struggled to main-

tain its status as Seattle’s top reporting agency against its primary rival, KSaF.

KSAF: KSaF built a reputation on reporting the news before anyone knew it was news.

those days are past, but with the brewing ight between the city and the ork Underground, KSaF

sees a chance to get the scoop and reclaim their glory days, burying newsnet in the process.

intRodUction

PRevioUSly in

SHadowRUn MiSSionS ...

his Mission builds on, and is the climax of, the entire run of

Season Four Missions , including CMP 2010-02 Copycat Killer , SRM

04-03 Rally Cry , SRM 04-05 On A Silver Platter , SRM 04-07 Burn

and SRM 04-09 Assassination Nation . It is suggested that gamemas-

ters run or read these adventures before running this one, though it

is not necessary. his adventure summarizes the situation so that the

gamemaster (and the players, if they talk to the right NPCs) can get

all the relevant details.

he disenfranchised orks of Seattle are agitating for recognition,

voting rights, and the establishment of the Ork Underground as its

own political district. Somehow, the various metahuman rights groups

have managed to get the issue on the ballot for this year’s elections.

“Project Freedom,” a.k.a. the infamous Proposition 23, grants the Ork

Underground full district status, acknowledging it and its denizens as

a recognized part of the city rather than the embarrassing neighbor

they have tried to ignore and forget for the last ive decades. As a result,

violence has erupted across the city. Politicians have been assassinated,

metahumans murdered, riots have devastated enormous swaths of

Seattle, and multiple arsons have razed sections of the Underground.

he Sons of Sauron have declared war on Humanis while M.O.M.

tries to present a peaceful, united front. Retired shadowrunner turned

ixer William “Bull” MacCallister has reluctantly stepped into the

limelight as a respectable Underground leader while trying to honor

his murdered daughter’s memory, and A.D.A. Dana Oaks has made

both Underground enemies and friends as a result of her mission to

clean up Seattle’s crime-ridden streets.

Among the anti-Prop 23 crowd is Edmund Jefries, Governor

Brackhaven’s press secretary. For the past two years, he has made

multiple attempts to solve the “ork problem.” Instead of destroying

the orks, though, his work seems to have generated sympathy for their

cause. he disaster started with an of-the-cuf remark about Seattle’s

“ork problem” to old college chum George Mathers, a former Knight

Errant employee and Humanis member. Wanting to impress Jefries,

Mathers took matters into his own hands. He hired an unstable ex-

UCAS Ranger named Shawn Walker to impersonate a serial killer,

called the Mayan Cutter, and kill the leaders of various metahumans

rights groups, along with a few innocents along the way to throw the

authorities of the trail. One of Walker’s irst victims was MacCallister’s

daughter Rebecca, a student living in the Ork Underground while

doing research into her ork heritage. Bull activated his considerable

network of contacts and took down Walker. hough Walker’s inter-

rogation gave few clues as to who hired him, the copycat serial killer

let a trail.

Using his KE connections to keep him informed about the evi-

dence uncovered by the unit investigating Copycat Cutter’s murders,

Mathers managed to protect himself for the better part of a year.

Unfortunately for him, MacCallister’s shadow sources provided addi-

tional information that Mathers couldn’t contain, leading to Mathers’

capture. Mathers died under mysterious circumstances shortly ater

providing MacCallister with the information he needed.

During all of this, a series of explosions and ires spread across the

Underground. One such explosion killed a classroom of ork children,

enraging the metahuman population. he ork gangs went on a revenge

spree while MacCallister hired a team to track down the culprits. he

runners discover that known criminal Captain Jack Turner, and cur-

rent prisoner of Knight Errant, is selling information on the arsons to

the local media. Ater being sprung from jail, Turner gives the runners

information that assists with locating the arsonists. he arsonists die

without revealing much useful information, but MacCallister’s team

recovers a damaged commlink the arsonists tried destroying before

their untimely deaths.

Recently, a terrorist calling himself Anarchy orchestrated the

murders of District Attorney David Beatty, most of his assistant dis-

trict attorneys, and high-ranking members of ork Maia. his leader-

ship shakeup has severely afected the morale of everyone in Seattle,

making even the toughest people in Seattle jump at shadows. A.D.A.

Dana Oaks barely escaped with her life thanks to the quick thinking

of Knight Errant Detective heodore “Tosh” Athack and is now, as the

only survivor, Seattle’s Acting District Attorney.

Not everyone in the Seattle government is against Prop 23, and

some are more than willing to exploit that. On the lip side, not every-

one in the Ork Underground is thrilled with the idea of going legit.

Election Day is around the corner, and the bloodshed has just started.

MISSIoN SyNoPSIS

Emile Corrigan is not a happy man. For years he has played the

power behind Governor Brackhaven’s throne in secret while working

at Brackhaven Investments, manipulating things politically through

his extensive web of contacts while staying safely out of the limelight,

carefully handling the dirty work that Brackhaven couldn’t know

about. Earlier this year he reluctantly stepped in as chief of staf to

clean up ater the scandal that Brackhaven’s previous Chief Marin

Parker was caught embezzling (see Dirty Tricks for more details). Now

his subtle web of intrigue, bribes, and blackmail is beginning to tear.

His primary pawn, Press Secretary Edmund Jefries, has botched the

Ork Underground issue on multiple occasions. Corrigan is a skilled

political manipulator. He can deal with failure, assuming the culprit

is willing to admit a problem exists. But not only is Jefries refusing to

admit he screwed up, something that is increasingly obvious to every-

one on Brackhaven’s staf, but the man is showing signs of paranoia

and a nervous breakdown. It’s only a matter of time before Jefries does

something that leads directly back to Brackhaven’s oice, something

that will shatter Corrigan’s private little empire. herefore, Jefries must

be taken out of the equation.

Election Day is tomorrow. Today is the day before all of Seattle

turns out for the most important vote in the city’s history. As a prelude

to the festivities, Corrigan wrangles a low-level bureaucrat to play Mr.

Johnson and hire a group of shadowrunners to start a riot between

Humanis and the Sons of Sauron at a polling station. Starting the riot

PRevioUSly in SHadowRUn MiSSionS ...

Shadowrun 4E - Missions - Election Day.pdf

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