(An explanation of the items in each book review can be found here.)
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Released: 1989
Authors: Dave Arneson & Kent Stolt
ISBN: 1-55560-113
Price: $8.00
Pages: 64
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: A biotechnology company hires the PCs to break into an Aztechnology lab and retrieve a sample and a computer file about a "metavirus" which (unknown to the PCs) can transform humans into all kinds of strange animals. This should go relatively easily, but the PCs get into trouble when an Alamos 20,000 faction starts interfering. The PCs then go into the sewers under Tacoma where they run into a group of orks living there since the Night of Rage of 2039. These agree to help the PCs but only if they go back into the lab and deliver one of the research staff to the orks.
Thoughts: DNA/DOA's main problem is that its basic premise—the metavirus—doesn't fit in all that well with the possibilities of the Sixth World that were established in later sourcebooks. However, since the virus itself is not of real consequence to the adventure it's easy enough to leave out this explanation and cook one up yourself that makes more sense, if your players are the types who want to know these things. Mine didn't bother asking or investigating what the virus does, so I didn't even need to.
Similar Products: Silver Angel
Survey Rating: 5.5 (22 votes)
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Released: 1989
Author: Paul R. Hume
ISBN: 1-55560-116-2
Price: $8.00
Pages: 80
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: The PCs are hired to protect mega-rockstar Maria Mercurial, alledgedly from her former manager. In truth Aztechnology and a Yakuza clan are working together (and with Maria's new manager, the person who actually hired the PCs) to capture Maria and retrieve valuable data she is carrying in her headware memory, but which she does not know about. Hit teams come after Maria at various points, and when the PCs think it's all over (because their contract is over), Aztechnology decides to take care of the witnesses—naturally, the player characters—by having one of their operatives, the dragon Perianwyr, breathe fire on the team's hideout. A few enquiries lead the PCs to the hiding place of the Aztechnology team, and it ends in a big firefight which, hopefully, ends with the PCs as the winners.
Thoughts: A problem area in the adventure is the transition between part 1 (hiding Maria for five days) and part 2 (dealing with Aztechnology), since part 2 seems to assume that part 1 ends differently than it does (to be precise, part 1 seems to assume Maria is in the PCs' custody, while part 2 seems to be written on the assumption that Aztechnology captured her). This requires some creativity on the gamemaster's part.
Similar Products: Dark Angel, Queen Euphoria
Survey Rating: 6.9 (20 votes)
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Released: 1989
Author: James D. Long
ISBN: 1-55560-120-0
Price: $8.00
Pages: 80
Edition: First
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: A simsense company has developed a new kind of simsense chip: one which transforms the user's personality to that encoded on the chip. The three prototypes (Cleopatra, Ghengis Kahn, and Jack the Ripper) have been stolen, and the PCs are hired to go and get them within a week. This brings them in situations ranging from a gang war to a simsense company party to the back alleys of Redmond.
Thoughts: This is really an uncomplicated adventure. It just takes a while to finish, largely due to it being in three parts: every chip retrieval is in essence a separate adventure that will likely take up most of a game session. It's not a particularly difficult adventure, just one that will take some time.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 6.0 (23 votes)
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Released: 1989
Author: Stephan Wieck
ISBN: 1-55560-117-0
Price: $8.00
Pages: 72
Edition: First
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Queen Euphoria is actually two adventures, one right after the other. In the first, the PCs are hired to abduct simsense star Euphoria and keep her hostage for a few days so that she'll miss some important promotional dates. Nothing much happens here, and the main action is in the actual kidnapping itself, and in one rescue attempt the PCs hopefully fend off.
In the second part of the adventure, the company which had Euphoria under contract has found out that the PCs were responsible, and hires them to find Euphoria as a way to make good for what they did earlier—she's been kidnapped again, this time by an insect shaman who wants to make her the host for his Queen spirit. After some (fairly simple) investigating the PCs discover where he's hiding out, and it all ends in one big firefight where the hive is reduced to rubble (or the PCs are :) but in which, unfortunately, Euphoria can't be saved. Queen Euphoria is the first appearance of insect shamans in Shadowrun as far as I know.
Thoughts: A pretty good adventure, especially for players (or characters) who haven't encuontered insect spirits before. The first part is pretty simple, and the second part is also straightforward, but still it's good fun and if played up sufficiently by the gamemaster, the ant spirits can make players want to avoid them at all cost in the future.
By the way, my advice is to pretend to the players that the run is completely over after part 1—hand out Karma, let them relax, buy stuff, etc., and only then start part 2.
Similar Products: Mercurial, Missing Blood, Super Tuesday!
Survey Rating: 7.1 (21 votes)
Note: This book was originally numbered 7205, a number now taken up by The Universal Brotherhood. The reviewed copy has a sticker on it saying "REVISED STOCK # 7304" as does another copy seen by this reviewer. However, a third copy has the revised stock number printed on the front cover, but says "7205" on the spine. It's been put into the 7300-series here because it's clearly an adventure.
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Released: 1990
Author: James D. Long
ISBN: 1-55560-124-3
Price: $8.00
Pages: 64
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: A talismonger hires the PCs as bodyguards for a meeting at which he plans to sell a powerful magical item. From the start, the meeting goes wrong when the person they meet there, a mercenary called Blackwing, who has been hired to retrieve the item for some Tir Tairngire nobles, is not the one the talismonger expected. Lone Star moves in to arrest Blackwing, and a firefight follows, leaving the PCs in possession of the item. They now have to try and dispose of it while everyone is after them—Blackwing, Lone Star, and the late talismonger's friends. They learn that a dragon, Geyswain, can destroy it, but the one they're told is interested only wants it for his own, personal gain—but they don't know this, so they give the item to him. The PCs then meet a great feathered serpent who tells them to get the item back and give it to her instead. They now have to join up with Blackwing to defeat Geyswain while Lone Star again moves in to arrest everyone.
Thoughts: I'm not thrilled with this adventure, but I can't really put my finger on the reason. It's not a bad adventure as such, but it's not brilliant either. "Very average" may be the best description. Also note that there is a way to destroy the bottle in a way the author didn't think of: shoot it into space. Last time our group played this adventure, somebody had the brilliant idea to simply put it on a semi-ballistic and be done with it. We cut the adventure's length by at least half that way (and annoyed the gamemaster, who hadn't expected this move either).
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 6.1 (22 votes)
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Released: 1990
Authors: Ken St. Andre, John Faughnan, W.G. Armintrout, Jerry Epperson, Paul R. Hume, Lester W. Smith, James D. Long & Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-125-1
Price: $12.00
Pages: 152
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Plot: Harlequin is a mini-campaign with eight separate, but linked, adventures. Each of them is described separately below. The main storyline is the resolution of a feud between two immortal elves, Harlequin and Ehran the Scribe, which has lasted for over 5,000 years; the whole Harlequin campaign is actually a ritualized form of revenge on Harlequin's part.
Physical: The PCs are hired to steal the paper manuscript to a new novel by Ehran the Scribe from the publisher. This is a simple breaking & entering job with no strings attached.
Hates: Someone hires the PCs to kill the main members of the Association Para-Nobilis (APN), an elf poser group, and cut off their (fake) left ear tips. They are also to leave an envelope (with the first page of the manuscript from Physical) on the leader's body. Again, a simple adventure that will most likely be not much more than a big firefight.
Past: Another B&E job, but with a twist: this one takes place in Germany, in a castle to be precise, and the object to be retrieved is an ancient book. The PCs are also to leave a little valise containing the ear tips from Hates in the castle.
Loves: This run strikes at Ehran's favorite policlub, the Young Even Technologists (YET). The PCs are to break into the YET's building so they can access their computer system, and from there deck into another company so the YET will be implicated. By the time they're almost done, the APN attacks the YET building, and the PCs have to pull out through the ensuing firefight.
Counterstroke: Here, Ehran tries to stop Harlequin by having the runners kidnapped for interrogation. They're taken to a house overlooking the sea. A chance to escape presents itself, and there's also the chance of striking a deal with Ehran's ally spirit, Ariel, to help her go against her master.
Spiritual: Another run to a foreign country, this time Amazonia. The runners get to travel through the jungle for several days before they reach one of Ehran's houses; once there they are to cut a flower from the greenhouse and leave a datachip in its place. Another a simple adventure, but because it places the runners in an area totally out of their normal field of operations, it can be quite challenging.
Future: Ehran has a daughter called Jane Foster, who lives in the city of Columbia, Missouri, UCAS. She doesn't know who her father is, but the runners are hired to bring her to Harlequin, and leave the flower from Spiritual in her apartment. There are some complications, such as Jane's friends and a shadowrun team hired by Ehran, though.
Present: The runners bring Jane Foster to Harlequin himself. He uses her to locate Ehran, then sends the runners to Ehran's "vacation resort" where they find a dead Ehran lookalike, meet an envoy from Tir Tairngire, and finally the whole campaign comes to an end with a big sword duel between Harlequin and Ehran...
Thoughts: The individual adventures are not all that complicated or difficult to complete, nor do they take very that long to play (two game sessions seems to be about average). The thread running through all of them makes them enjoyable, though, especially once the players start seeing it too.
Similar Products: Harlequin's Back
Survey Rating: 8.0 (27 votes)
Notes: As the intro to the book recommends, it's best to place Harlequin-adventures between other ones so players won't see the whole plot unfolding right away.
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Released: 1991
Authors: Michael Lee
ISBN: 1-55560-137-5
Price: $8.00
Pages: 64
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Plot: A wounded dragon suffering from amnesia hires the PCs to find out who he is, and why he is wounded. Based on the clues and an earring he gives the PCs, their investigation leads them to a jeweler's store, where they find records pointing to company called Emerging Futures Unlimited (or "EF" for short). This company denies all involvement, but is of course the main enemy—they send a team to warn the PCs, among whose members if Blackwing, the elven mercenary from Bottled Demon. Further clues point to a nightclub where the PCs are met by representatives from Ares who assume the PCs work for EF, and warn them to quit. From there, leads point to an ork working for the dragon, and depending on the PCs' actions earlier he might have to be rescued from Knight Errant. Finally, Ares moves in to secure the dragon in the hospital, and the ork persuades the PCs to stage a rescue. Blackwing's team also makes an attempt on the dragon's life at this point, leading to a grand, three-way firefight to wrap up the adventure.
Thoughts: This adventure I like, it starts out straightforward and then turns back on itself to become quite complex, but still survivable for the runners. In the end, though, it's essentially a no-win situation for the PCs (yes, they get paid, but that's about it for them), so players wanting to change the world for the better may not like its ending.
Similar Products: A Killing Glare, Ivy & Chrome
Survey Rating: 6.1 (18 votes)
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Released: 1991
Author: William Tracy
ISBN: 1-55560-151-0
Price: $8.00
Pages: 56
Edition: First
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: A shaman hires the PCs to kidnap the four members of a rock band, because he needs them to perform a song that will bring an ancient, evil spirit into the world. Once everyone has been kidnapped, the PCs are offered a second job to act as guards for the group when they go into the forests of the Salish-Shidhe Council to perform the song. Should they turn this job down, the shaman sends an assassin after them, while if they agree they get to fight it out with some wildlife. Either way, the intention is that the PCs end up at the scene where the song is played and have to choose whether to stop the song, or let the band play and conjure a rather powerful spirit, which the PCs then get to deal with.
Thoughts: This is not a terrific adventure, relying too much on forcing the players into a course of action, which means they don't get much of a say in what's going on. In the first part of the adventure this happens by the PCs having to abduct the band members right away, in the second part they either follow the shaman voluntarily, or they will be attacked until they go after him (in order to put an end to the attacks). On top of that, it can be a very deadly adventure, especially for groups that do not consist of physically tough characters.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.3 (16 votes)
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Released: 1992
Author: Carl Sargent
ISBN: 1-55560-150-2
Price: $8.00
Pages: 80
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: The runners are flown to the United Kingdom to investigate the disappearance of a valuable corporate decker-slash-researcher of an important British corporation, who has been murdered, together with his girlfriend, by a competitor. Unknown to everyone including his bosses, he had encoded himself into a number of chips that, if assembled into his cyberdeck, will more or less allow him to live on. The runners do not know this, and upon investigating the disappearance they will discover a Matrix entity that starts them off on a search through the wilds of Scotland for four chips that together will make the entity whole again. When that has been accomplished, it wants to "die" in such a way that it can join the decker's dead girlfriend in the afterlife. This requires the help of a player character decker, but the competitor attacks before the ritual is complete, leaving the runners to try and hold them off long enough to finish it.
Thoughts: This adventure is definitely "out there." Its basic concepts are beyond "standard" ideas about Shadowrun, though it looks like it can be a very good run if handled well by the gamemaster (I haven't run it myself, so I can't say anything about whether or not this really is the case). The book does warn that the adventure deals with concepts that are not normally possible in Shadowrun, though.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: Imago is very definitely way out of the ordinary and I would say it requires characters who are interested in investigating strange things for themselves. Both Virtual Realities 2.0 (note that the adventure was written for the original Virtual Realities) and The Grimoire are suggested for play and some source material on druids (e.g. London Sourcebook) is a good idea. The principal problem with the adventure is that the characters may well feel unprepared to finish it as Mr. Johnson dies during the run and some of the things you have to do in order to acquire chips for the cyberdeck are likely to put runners off who are not sure of getting really first class rewards out of it.
I added further twists of my own to this adventure, basically involving another Mr. Johnson figure to make it clear to the characters it was worth doing, using some of the spirits in the adventure as a link as to how this other source knew something was worth investigating.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.6 (14 votes)
Notes: The London Sourcebook is useful when running this adventure.
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Released: 1991
Authors: Tom Dowd & James Reichstadt
ISBN: 1-55560-170-6
Price: $8.00
Pages: 70
Edition: First (with DMZ character stats and Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: Gang violence is on the increase in Seattle (I would recommend to start playing this up several adventures in advance, by the way), and a Lone Star detective takes it upon himself to hire the player characters to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Lone Star as a corp, though, has decided that the proper way to deal with it is to institute martial law—and governor Schultz agrees with them. The PCs are the only ones who can stop this from happening. It turns out that someone is trying to destroy the Ancients go-gang, using a fake gang called "Elven Fire" to make other Seattle gangs go to war with the Ancients. Unfortunately, some yakuza members were killed in an Elven Fire attack, thus bringing the crime syndicate into the picture as well. All the while, the specter of the governor declaring martial law hangs over the PCs' heads as well. Eventually, the PCs find out that the cause of all the trouble is a Tir Tairngire agent, and the final scene of the adventure is a big gunfight between this agent, the PCs, the Ancients, and possibly Lone Star as well.
Thoughts: This is a well-thought-out adventure with a good plot that combines investigation, gang politics, and combat in a way that produces an adventure most groups will like and that will also challenge their skills in a variety of areas. Definitely recommended.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.8 (11 votes)
Notes: Elven Fire includes notes for playing out a big combat in the middle of the adventure using DMZ rules.
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Released: 1991
Author: Thomas Kane
ISBN: 1-55560-145-6
Price: $8.00
Pages: 64
Edition: First
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: Fayette Myers has disappeared from a boarding school, and her aunt hires the PCs to find her. Unknown to the aunt, Fayette has run away with her boyfriend, a go-ganger, partly because her father—an Aztechnology wage-mage called Anton d'Venescu—plans to sacrifice her to an Aztec god, like he did with his wife fifteen years earlier. The PCs start the investigation at the school, where they make a big impression on the teenage girls ("Oooh! Real shadowrunners!"); other stops are a bar where an anti-metahuman policlub has its headquarters, a clinic run by a friend of d'Venescu where Fayette was examined, and a garbage dump that is the hangout of the go-gang Fayette's boyfriend belongs to. In the end, the PCs discover that Fayette is on her way to an elven community in the Salish-Shidhe Council where her aunt lives, and hopefully they follow her. d'Venescu has hired mercenaries to attack the community and kidnap Fayette, something the PCs can prevent if they go to the community as well.
Thoughts: A standard Shadowrun adventure—find the missing person, and run into tougher opposition than you expected while foiling the evil plot in the process. Still, it could be a whole lot worse than it's turned out.
Similar Products: A Killing Glare, Dragon Hunt
Survey Rating: 5.6 (16 votes)
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Released: 1992
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-192-8
Price: $9.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: The manager of The Shadows, the hottest rock band of the moment, a dwarf named Allenby, has received death threats. An executive of Allenby's company, Teague, hires the runners to investigate the threats, since Allenby himself doesn't want to cooperate. Teague, though, really wants to buy the company and is using the runners to achieve this. At the same time, the FBI is investigating Allenby and the runners, due to their association with him, are also under scrutiny. Allenby is murdered, and the runners end up being prime suspects; on top of this, Teague has decided to eliminate the runners to tie up loose ends, but they get help from one of Teague's underlings who disapproves of what Teague is doing. To clear their name, the runners talk to Allenby's secretary and to The Shadows, and from there go in pursuit of Teague, who escapes. Another lead gets blown up when someone bombs his house. However, the runners can talk to an ex-musician-turned-vampire, who liked Allenby and wants to find out who was responsible for the murder. He points the runners to a secret datastore, where they find evidence of who killed Allenby; with this they can get the FBI off their backs, provided they help the FBI solve the case and bring Teague to justice. That requires some more investigation and a raid on the compound wher Teague is hiding out.
Thoughts: Though this is another adventure I haven't run, it looks like a fairly complex run. On the other hand, the investigation is fairly linear, with only one or two paths from one event to the next, so there is not all that much chance of the runners getting side-tracked. Still, the players probably have to pay close attention to understand what's really going on, and who is involved with what.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: The problems start if you get off track. There are several ways to do the adventure but if you miss a vital clue or don't ask in the right place you can just end up running about getting shot at with no leads. However with a more experienced gamemaster I suspect there is a good adventure here that for a change gives players several ways to complete it.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.9 (14 votes)
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Released: 1993
Author: Thomas Kane
ISBN: 1-55560-194-4
Price: $8.00
Pages: 72
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Recordings made by a recently-deceased musician called Dark Angel turn up in the hands of a certain Dynamo Blue. Angel's girlfriend, who believes she has the rights to the songs, hires the runners to get Dynamo Blue to sign them over. Unknown to Dark Angel's girlfriend, Dynamo Blue only got the songs because Angel was forced by the Yakuza to give them to her. Angel's old friends and band members involve themselves in the investigation because they do not believe Angel killed himself; the runners eventually learn that Angel's brother and the Yakuza were involved in his death, and also that he is not rally dead—the Yakuza is holding him hostage. However, they must carefully negotiate with other Yakuza clans before they can stage a rescue, to prevent themselves from ending up high on the crime syndicate's hit list.
Thoughts: There are multiple ways to conclude this adventure, which is a plus point, and thereby it caters for both trigger-happy teams as well as those that like to talk and investigate without shots being fired.
Similar Products: Mercurial
Survey Rating: 6.3 (13 votes)
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Released: 1993
Authors: Louis J. Prosperi
ISBN: 1-55560-195-2
Price: $8.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Second (with DMZ character stats and Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Plot: Punch and Judy are the hottest players in the 2054 urban brawl season, but it appears they have a background they'd rather not talk about. Their team's manager, who's in trouble with the Yakuza, hires the PCs to investigate this background, because Punch and Judy have been threatened by the Mafia to lose an upcoming game. The manager hopes that he can blackmail his star players with the information from their past so that they will play to win after all—which would stop the Yakuza from killing him. Investigating Punch and Judy is not too difficult, but the manager betrays the PCs to the Mafia (hoping to keep himself out of trouble by letting the runners take the blame), and the Mafia in turn warns the PCs to stop while they still can. Unfortunately, the investigation turns up that someone wants to kill Punch and Judy over their past—to be precise, Kyle Morgan and Perianwyr the dragon from Mercurial, and in the middle of the urban brawl game, where a few dead more or less won't arouse any suspicions. The runners now have the choice between helping Punch and Judy or keeping the Mafia friendly.
Thoughts: This can be a lethal adventure if the runners make the wrong moves (like offending the Mafia or Yakuza too much, or trying to do a full-scale battle with the fake urban brawl team that tries to kill Punch and Judy). It's an enjoyable run, however, and something different than typical shadowruns.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: The investigative part is fine; the problems come in that basically the only way to save Punch and Judy (the clear aim of the adventure if you want to get paid) is to enter the brawl zone at the end, a proposition most runners are not going to be keen on. Runners and about 100 trideo capable drones in the same place? Especially given there is a dragon working for the bad guys and they are going into a brawl zone where they are outnumbered 2:1 by bad guys, plus Punch and Judy's team and then security...
Similar Products: Dragon Hunt, Ivy & Chrome
Survey Rating: 6.1 (15 votes)
Notes: The back of the book includes the rules for urban brawl, also published in Shadowbeat, and DMZ stats are included for the characters in the urban brawl game the PCs get involved in, for those wanting to fight it out as a tactical skirmish.
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Released: 1993
Authors: Carl Sargent & Mark Gascoigne
ISBN: 1-55560-221-5
Price: $8.00
Pages: 80
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Pat MacNamara is running for mayor of New York City, and wants to play up his Irish heritage, and thus get votes from descendents of Irish immigrants, by setting part of his campaign in Tír na nÓg. He owes some favors to the Mafia, though, who want him to dig up dirt on someone. MacNamara hires the PCs as bodyguards for his trip to the Tír because, with the Mafia involved, he doesn't trust his normal security staff. When one of MacNamara's aides, MacSweeney, goes to deliver the data to the Mafia, the runners are to act as muscle; during the meet, terrorists attack. They were tipped off by MacSweeney, who wants MacNamara to go down while MacSweeney himself makes a lot of money. The runners are left behind in a forest in Tír na nÓg after the raid, and have to avoid the terrorists as well as the police, who have been made to believe the runners are members of the terrorist organization. However, the runners have no real idea of what's going on (they were just security, after all), but it's in their best interests to find out. If they play it right they can clear MacNamara and place the blame on MacSweeney, but ironically, to do this they will need to be able to blackmail MacNamara themselves.
Thoughts: Like other adventures set in foreign countries, the runners can be a little (or a lot) out of their depth in this one. They have no access to their normal contacts and resources, and in a country like Tír na nÓg they will have a lot of trouble getting things done.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: This adventure is nothing like as bad as its reputation, though putting "Double Cross" in the title really was not a good idea. It is quite feasible to finish it. My principal complaint is that the adventure hinges around a very specific timeline occurring when the terrorist hit goes down. Unfortunately the bad guys need in the order of 30 seconds or so while the PCs just stand there looking like idiots to make that work — the bad guys are using helicopters when transporters (as per Star Trek) are what they require to have a hope! The gamemaster needs to think over this encounter and be prepared for the fact the incoming helicopters will probably get shot at by the PCs for several combat turns and also ensure there is some way the players will have an idea about how much trouble they are then in.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 6.2 (12 votes)
Notes: Tír na nÓg is useful when running this adventure.
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Released: 1994
Author: Mike Nystul
ISBN: 1-55560-232-0
Price: $10.00
Pages: 72
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: A shadowrunner hires the PCs to help her figure out what a blueprint she's obtained is for, so she can use it to take revenge on the company that made it, and which killed her brother. The PCs' investigation leads them to the brother's laboratory, to the fence who handed the brother the blueprint, and then to a street gang which sold a cybereye containing an image of the blueprint to the fence in the first place. Along the way they become a target for the company's strike teams, but eventually figure out that a community of ghouls is involved—the eye containing the blueprint came from a body they used for food. From there the trail leads through a necroplex (run by the ghouls) to the ghoul leader, who has the blueprints the runners' Mr. Johnson is after.
Thoughts: Though this is an adventure I haven't run or played through, it seems quite a good investigation with a bit of combat mixed in for good measure, and will therefore probably work for most groups.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: This is a good investigation and can be finished a number of ways. In fact there are several ways to get to the showdown. Also it can either be finished by just blowing everything to bits (I have seen the final encounter levelled) or with minimal fighting (as I've also seen done).
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 6.5 (11 votes)
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Released: 1994
Authors: Tom Wong & Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-227-4
Price: $10.00
Pages: 80
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Mr. Johnson hires the PCs to go to Hawai'i to investigate the massacre of a number of corporate representatives at a meeting. To do this, they will have to break into a corporate building, where they run into some members of the ALOHA resistance movement, which turns out to be linked to the massacre. From here, they can investigate the lab of one of the corps involved, called 2M, which means they will run into a Mitsuhama security force—who performed the hit on the representatives—and can save one of them from being executed, which will give them another lead to follow. In the end, the runners have to go to ALOHA's remote headquarters, where they first have to sneak or fight their way inside, and on the way out, deal with ALOHA's leader, the dragon Naheka.
Thoughts: Like most adventures that transport the PCs to a foreign country, the players can feel a bit in the dark in Paradise Lost. The adventure compensates by having most clues come easily, and provide an NPC helper they can fall back on. In this respect it will likely work better than, for example, Peacekeeper.
Similar Products: Eye of the Eagle, Peacekeeper
Survey Rating: 6.9 (17 votes)
Notes: See the sourcebook reviews for details on the Hawai'i section.
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Released: 1994
Author: Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-233-8
Price: $10.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: This is, simply put, a babysitting job—an anonymous corp hires the PCs to kidnap and take care of Shawn Gaffney, an eight-year-old boy, to persuade his mother to come work for the corp that hired the runners. During the days the spend watching Shawn, the runners will learn some things about him, and have some moral decisions to make when they are ordered to release him. In the mean time, Knight Errant attempts to free Shawn, and a well-known investigative reporter tries to find out who kidnapped him as well, giving the runners a very bad reputation by doing so.
This adventure is set in Denver, but runner groups not native to the city can easily be flown in.
Thoughts: This adventure is very heavy on roleplaying as opposed to dicerolling, which means it may not be to everyone's taste.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 6.0 (14 votes)
Notes: This adventure contains optional rules for resolving Matrix runs in a way that seems to have been the model for Virtual Realities 2.0. Owning the Denver — The City of Shadows boxed set will help in running the adventure.
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Released: 1994
Authors: Fraser Cain & Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-240-1
Price: $10.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Second (with Rigger Black Book vehicle stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Project Hope is a relief effort for the people of the Redmond Barrens, providing a number of camps where the homeless can get food, shelter, and medical aid. Too bad it's the Universal Brotherhood who set it up (but this is not general knowledge), and are using the project to breed insect spirits. Renraku Computer Systems is also involved, using the homeless as test subjects without knowing of the UB's involvement. The UCAS FBI is investigating Renraku's activities in the camps, and they hire the PCs to infiltrate.
Double Exposure is actually three separate runs. In the first two (which are very short), the PCs are hired by the FBI (without knowing it) to commit some crimes that the FBI tapes. This gives the Feds material to blackmail the runners into accepting the true job, namely to dig up information that Renraku is breaking the law in the Project Hope camps. They must blend in with the homeless to get inside, and once there—without their usual equipment and contacts to fall back on, of course—find out what's going on. To make things worse, Renraku is planning to pull out, and Aztechnology wants to steal the research data before they do. On top of that, the Environmental Protection Agency also has an interest in the project due to a new water purification system being used in the camps. All of these organizations will eventually collide, with the runners caught in the middle...
Thoughts: This is another adventure I haven't run or played, only read through, but it looks like a pretty good adventure to me. However, it also looks quite complex, so the gamemaster should know very well what's going on and who is doing what to whom at which time. This could make it a difficult adventure to GM, so I don't think it's very suitable as a first adventure. Still, with some experience it could be a good run.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: To put it simply, the Universal Brotherhood round 2, well as if the back cover didn't indicate that. This is an adventure for experienced gamemasters and characters, who know about bugs. Fairly tough characters are required but the adventure will be solved by sneaking about and not getting noticed by the opposition. Unlike nearly any other adventure the NPCs are tough enough to cause experienced characters serious trouble in a stand up fight, and the final showdown will have you thinking of a scene out of a film that if mentioned would make experienced players run. However the adventure certainly can be done quite reasonably. The two intro's are good, though I would replace DocWagon™ with a competitor if any PCs have DocWagon™ contacts or they may very sensibly turn it down as not worth the risk. Finally note that originally this adventure was "how the UCAS FBI found out about bugs and therefore started the cleanup that lead to the events in the novel Burning Bright and hence Bug City," so beware of the timeline or carefully rewrite a few bits, though if you never used this in the first place that's easy, just the FBI finding out about bugs does not matter.
Similar Products: Missing Blood, Queen Euphoria
Survey Rating: 6.4 (13 votes)
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Released: 1994
Authors: Nigel D. Findley, Paul R. Hume, Carl Sargent, Mike Nystul, Steve Kenson & Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-248-7
Price: $15.00
Pages: 152
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: Unlike the first Harlequin adventure, this is not a series of linked adventures that can be played separately, but rather one big adventure made up of a five smaller ones and some in-between sections. The basic premise is that the runners go on an astral quest (involuntarily) to stop the "Enemy"—in which we recognize the Horrors from Earthdawn—from crossing into the astral and physical planes much too early. The separate adventures are all manifestations of their attempts to find something that will stop this Enemy.
Aftermath: The runners appear in a desolate wasteland where a small village is trying to survive against the best efforts of both the environment and an opposing people. It's the runners' job to save the village and at the same time steal an item they need for their quest from the village's enemy.
A Fistful of Karma: The next "world" is a Wild West-type place with magic added in for good measure. Here, the runners must defeat the local tyrant who oppresses the people of a mining town; doing so gives them another item they need. Also, they must help the sheriff face his problems and stand up to them.
By the Sword: This part of the quest takes place in a land based on the early legends about King Arthur (not the later Christianized versions), where the runners must help an old and weary Lancelot regain his honor by finding a piece of his broken sword and making good for his past mistakes. They then get to carry the sword with them to the next adventure.
The Impossible Dream: An immensely tall tower must be climbed, after the runners talk to the Architect, a man living in a ruined village at its base. The runners must defeat the man who talked the villagers into building the tower, and rescue the Architect's girlfriend. The Architect then turns Lancelot's sword into the third object the runners need for their quest.
The Songbird: The runners are in a ruined city with dead bodies everywhere, and they must make their way to a tower where a songbird sings. The bird is the object of their quest so far, and once they defeat its guardian they can take it to Harlequin. The bird's singing fails to stop the Enemy, though, forcing the runners to go on to find someone who can.
The Masquerade: In this adventure, the runners go to a large party in a 19th-century setting where they will meet all manner of weird and wonderful guests. A murder is committed, and the runners should help solve it; this leads them to secret tunnels and chambers, and a face-off with their host andhis deformed brother before they can rescue the person they came to find.
Finally, the runners return to the site in the metaplanes where Harlequin was attempting to stop the Enemy, and find him overpowered by an agent of that Enemy. The runners must fight off this rather powerful character, and then make probably the biggest decision of their lives: to stay here and prevent the Enemy from coming closer, or to go home and give them another shot.
Thoughts: If you don't like the immortal elf/Horrors theme Shadowrun was involved in when this adventure came out, it's probably best to stay away from it. On the other hand, for an epic adventure that requires a lot of thinking, good roleplaying, and characters who can handle themselves, you could do a whole lot worse than run Harlequin's Back.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: Take the notes about runners who care for the world etc. given by FASA seriously; if the runners meet FASA's advice criteria it's wonderful, otherwise things may well go wrong. Similarly for players that like such things. By the Sword: beware that players can easily wander in the wood forever, a little gamemaster fiddling may be required to avoid boredom. The Impossible Dream: the one bit that just gets silly. I would try and make sure this runs rapidly unless your players really like a ridiculous adventure where reality itself forces them on one route! Finally if you cannot run it at least Aftermath and A Fistful of Karma would make quite entertaining astral quests in and of themselves, dropping the link to Harlequin. Note to comply with FASA's big timeline this adventure MUST run prior to the Aztlan sourcebook as this refers to it, and MUST occur well before August 2057 as events then assume this happened many months previously.
Similar Products: Harlequin
Survey Rating: 8.1 (24 votes)
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Released: 1996
Authors: Stephen Kenson & Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-303-3
Price: $15.00
Pages: 112
Edition: Second (with Virtual Realities 2.0 Matrix stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: Like Harlequin, Super Tuesday! is a mini-campaign of five adventures with a common theme. Although there is not really a thread running through them as there is in Harlequin, all the adventures are concerned with the candidates for the 2057 UCAS presidential elections. Each adventure starts off with some source material that the players might be given to read, which gives some background to the following adventure.
Political Poison: this adventure revolves around Arthur Vogel, a shaman and presidential candidate for the Democratic party. A toxic shaman plans to take revenge for something that happened years before by poisoning thousand of people at a rally for Vogel. The runners get involved because a friend of theirs stole the chemical agent to be used for the toxic shaman, and gets poisoned herself. Meanwhile, the corporation whose poison was stolen hirs other runners to retrieve it.
Strange Attraction: The runners wake up in the middle of a forest, and can't remember anything about how or why they got there. They have to make their way back to Seattle, and once there avoid or work together with up to three groups (Tir Tairngire agents, Aztechnology, and the Illuminates of the New Dawn magical group/political party) who are after them for an object they have in their possession, and preferably also find out what happened to them.
Casualties of War: A reporter hires the PCs to escort her and vice presidential candidate Anne Penchyk into Chicago (see Bug City), alledgedly to find and retrieve Penchyk's missing brother. The reporter turns out to be a mantis spirit whose group plans on turning Penchyk into one as well and use her to further their own aims. This leaves the PCs stranded in Chicago either with or without Anne Penchyk, searching for a way out. With Penchyk, this is relatively easy. Without her, it could be the start of a whole new campaign.
Ghost Story: While recovering from wounds, one of the runners is visited by the ghost of a young ork boy. If the runners ignore him, he will come back to haunt them until they find out who he is. The trouble is that the boy is Kenneth Brackhaven, who is running for president for the pro-human Archconservative party... The real Kenneth Brackhaven goblinized and was murdered by his father, then replaced by the human child who is now running for president. If this were to come out, his chance of being elected is virtually zero, so Brackhaven tries to stop the runners from digging too deep.
Dry Run: Believing they are hired by the head of security the election campaign of the great dragon and presidential candidate Dunkelzahn to perform a run in Washington DC against James Booth, presidential candidate for the Technocratic Party, the PCs are actually in a virtual reality environment in one of Dunkelzahn's companies. They "wake up" just at the time some thugs take the facility hostage, resulting in a Die Hard-style finale where the unarmed and pyjama-wearing runners have to beat AK-97-wielding terrorists.
Thoughts: Super Tuesday! has some good adventures, especially because three of them don't start out in the old "Mr. Johnson walks up to you to hire you"-way. Despite not being all that long, the individual adventures can take plenty of time to play through, so I feel you get good value for money from this book.
Similar Products: Missing Blood, Shadows Of The Underworld, Queen Euphoria
Survey Rating: 7.2 (19 votes)
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Released: 1996
Authors: Jennifer Brandes, Chris Hepler, Stephen Kenson, Brian Schoner & Chris Hussey
ISBN: 1-55560-307-6
Price: $15.00
Pages: 96
Edition: Second (with Virtual Realities 2.0 Matrix stats)
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: Five adventures in one book, some of which have to do with the 2057 UCAS presidential election, and some which are totally unrelated to this event.
Excelsior: Whereas Dry Run in Super Tuesday! only bore a minor resemblance to the first Die Hard movie, this is almost a straight rip-off. The runners get trapped at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City with a Dunkelzahn representative when misguided Dunkelzahn supporters decide to make a statement by taking the building hostage and preparing to blow up the top floors. The runners have to stop them without causing any unnecessary casualties.
Two Solitudes: In San Francisco, a missing young man's parents hire the runners to find him. He was being blackmailed to steal Yamatetsu secrets his father has access to for Saeder-Krupp, but after stealing them he decided to run away instead. Both S-K and Yamatetsu are after him, and the runners must avoid both and convince their target that they can help him.
C.O.D.: The Human Nation, an anti-Awakened policlub has stolen a dragon's egg and wants to use it to make dragons get bad PR—they will make the dragon it belongs to so angry that it will cause a lot of needless destruction—which will be bad for Dunkelzahn's chances of becoming UCAS president. The runners are hired to simply guard the egg for a while (without knowing what they are looking after), but the Yakuza, who were involved in the affair without knowing what it truly was, want the egg back before getting a great dragon too angry at them.
Double Dipping: The runners are hired to kidnap someone, but are really set up to take the fall in another anti-metahuman PR campaign, this one by the Humanis Policlub. The runners must try to clear their names by finding the true guilty party and its motives, but this is difficult when their contacts don't want much to do with them anymore.
Dead Run: Another set-up, this time making it appear as if the runners have killed presidential candidate Franklin Yeats. In truth the wasp spirit inhabiting Yeats' body was eliminated by mantis spirits, among them Yeats' VP candidate Anne Penchyk (see Casualties of War in Super Tuesday). The murder results in the runners being wanted by the FBI, but they get help from the fixer (Eve Donovan from Silver Angel) who set up the meet with Yeats; their only option is to expose Penchyk as working together with insect spirits.
Thoughts: I haven't run any of these adventures, so I can't say much about them. It does seem to me that they are a bit time-critical, in that they won't make much sense if not played as part of the 2057 election plotline.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: Excelsior and C.O.D. at least are good, though the first is rather difficult to finish unless the players find a faster way of moving about than the adventure assumes. Both could also be run with a different background story, though having the runners do the run they were actually being hired for when Excelsior starts is fun, even if the gamemaster has to write the whole lot.
Similar Products: Super Tuesday!
Survey Rating: 6.9 (16 votes)
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Released: 1997
Authors: Brian Schoner, Jennifer Brandes, Chris Hepler & Bill Agular
ISBN: 1-55560-294-0
Price: $15.00
Pages: 96
Edition: Second (with Cyberpirates ship stats, Rigger 2 vehicle stats, and Virtual Realities 2.0 Matrix stats)
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Plot: This is another book with multiple adventures in it, three this time, but they are all unconnected except by their theme: they pit shadowrunners against paranormal critters in environments where the critters have the advantage.
Forbidden Fruit: The runners are hired to provide security for a team of scientists travelling into the Amazonian jungle to "collect" some fruit that is illegal to export from Amazonia. After some run-ins with border guards and critters in the rainforest, the team finds what they need and can go home. Unfortunately they also take with them a spider-like parasite that attacks the team on the way back home.
Wild Kingdom: Another escort job, this time to guard a scientist being shipped from North American to Africa against his will. The runners have to fend off several parties interested in the scientist, one of which manages to kidnap him without the runners noticing. They then have to try and get him back, but the kidnappers use paranormal guard animals, and even once the rescue has succeeded there are more paranimals to deal with. This adventure ties in with Cyberpirates.
Baser Instincts: Lone Star hires the PCs to investigate reports of very violent behavior of paranormal animals in Seattle. Some digging turns up that all affected animals can be linked to one person, who is aparently controlling them. This leads to a confrontation in a zoo where the runners will have to fight off several waves of paranormal animals before they get to their target, and the astral entity controlling him.
Thoughts: Although I haven't run them, the adventures appear reasonable, though not outstanding in any way. They are all very linear, which limits the players' choices and freedom to do what they want, and the situations in which the PCs have to confront paranormal animals are also a bit contrived in many cases. Certainly, if you want to make it challenging, you should attempt to disarm the runners to a degree—hardly any paranimal can stand up to a gun.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.6 (14 votes)
Notes: The back of this book has an updated list of powers and stats plus (very) short descriptions for all the paranormal animals published in Shadowrun, Second Edition, Paranormal Animals of North America, and Paranormal Animals of Europe.
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Released: 1996 according to the credits, 1997 according to the back of the book
Authors: Brian Schoner, Zach Bush, Louis J. Prosperi, Jennifer Brandes & Christopher Hepler
ISBN: 1-55560-181-2
Price: $15.00
Pages: 96
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: Missions has four adventures in it, designed primarily for non-shadowrunner characters, and intended to be used with sections of the Shadowrun Companion that provide guidelines for campaigns which feature the player characters as something other than shadowrunners.
Under the Influence: The PCs are Lone Star cops investigating the disappearance (and re-appearance a short way into the adventure) of one of their colleagues, and uncover a plot where a street doc is trying to make the perfect gang by implanting his patients with a device that will make them obey him, and then forget all they did while the device was active.
Malpractice: A former DocWagon employee wants the PCs (who can be either shadowrunners or regular DocWagoneers) to infiltrate DocWagon and uncover someone who's been selling confidential information about patients. They'll go through basic training as well as some real emergencies during their investigation, and get the chance to do some good if they want to.
Mission: Mars As AresSpace security employees, the PCs are to investigate whether someone knows more about the photos published in Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets than they are telling—and as a result, if there is more on Mars than there appears to be. NASA is trying to keep exactly this information secret, and actively opposes the PCs.
King of the Mountain: In this adventure, the PCs are UCAS Army Special Forces soldiers given the mission to find out what is happening in a mountain fortress, located in the Trans-Polar Aleut Nation, and occupied by a magical/religious cult led by a crazed, former colonel.
Thoughts: The fact that these adventures are intended for non-shadowrunners is the biggest weakness of the book—you'll either need to play them as one-off adventures with characters made especially for these adventures, or run them as part of an ongoing campaign in-between adventures you made up yourself. The former is okay if your players don't mind the lack of continuity, while the latter means you'll only use a quarter of the book for a campaign, which isn't really value for money I feel. Sure, some of the adventures include guidelines for playing them with shadowrunner PCs anyway, but this goes against the idea behind the missions somewhat.
Additional Thoughts by Mark Steedman: Malpractice and Mission: Mars both easily convert to runners doing them, in fact Malpractice rather assumes the characters are "semi-shadowrunners." The hitch is that if you actually complete Mission: Mars the Draco Foundation showers shares about, though as happened to the team that got them off me Damian Knight may take an interest in recovering them, the Draco Foundation being hard to push about, while a few shadowrunners are rather easier. Under the Influence I ran for runners by having them be the folks hired to stop the cops. Ok completely different angle but it actually worked out quite well as the team involved where on good term with the AAA-corporation involved.
Similar Products: none
Survey Rating: 5.7 (14 votes)
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Released: 1997
Author: Stephen Kenson
ISBN: 1-55560-328-9
Price: $12.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: James O'Malley, the top boss of the Seattle Mafia, is assassinated in January 2058, sparking off a struggle between the important Mafia families in the city in their attempts to gain control. Rival syndicates such as the Yakuza, Triads, and Seoulpa Rings see their chances to expand their own influence at the cost of the Mafia and each other, leading to a 'Plex-wide criminal war.
Thoughts: Mob War! is not a true adventure but rather something I would describe as a sourcebook that gives starting points for adventures you have to design yourself, but no ready-to-run ones. (FASA calls this a "tracked adventure" but your guess about what that means is as good as mine.) I feel this defeats the object of publishing adventure books, because it seems to me that you buy an adventure if you want to run one that doesn't require a lot of work; with all the adventures published previously, all you needed to do was read the book two or three times, build a mental picture of how everything fit together, and you could run them. Here, however, you need to be thoroughly familiar with the whole story, and then you still have to design the adventures you're going to run mostly from scratch anyway.
Similar Products: Blood in the Boardroom
Survey Rating: 6.6 (14 votes)
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Released: 1998
Authors: Brian Schoner, Mike Mulvihill & Robert Boyle
ISBN: 1-55560-346-7
Price: $12.00
Pages: 88
Edition: Second
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: From late 2057 through mid 2060, the world of the Big Eight megacorporations changes tremendously; Fuchi collapses, Yamatetsu moves its headquarters from Japan to Russia, the Renraku Arcology shuts itself off from the outside world (see Renraku Arcology: Shutdown, below), three new corporations achieve mega-status, and in general the corporate world is undergoing major restructuring as each tries to gain from the others' misery.
Thoughts: This is another major event in the Shadowrun timeline that's received a book full of plot hooks and partially-finished adventures but very little in the way of adventures that can be run straight from the book. Some like this format, I personally don't.
Similar Products: Mob War!
Survey Rating: 7.3 (22 votes)
Notes: This is another "tracked adventure" like Mob War!.
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Released: 1998
Authors: David Hyatt, Brian Schoner & Robert Boyle
ISBN: 1-55560-347-5
Price: $15.00
Pages: 88
Edition: Third
Status/Availability: in print/common
Plot: There isn't one, really. Oh, okay, the Renraku Arcology in downtown Seattle gets taken over by an artificial intelligence, but this book does not contain even one thing that could be called an adventure. For this reason, it's reviewed on the 7200-series page with theother sourcebooks dealing with parts of the game world.
Thoughts: I call this a sourcebook, not an adventure.
Survey Rating: 7.7 (21 votes)
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Released: 1999
Author: Michael Mulvihill
ISBN: 1-55560-323-8
Price: $12.00
Pages: 64
Edition: Third
Status/Availability: in print/common
Overview: Another book with multiple adventures in it.
Food Fight: An update of the adventure of the same name that appeared in the first edition Shadowrun main rulebook. It's still a very simple "run" that mainly introduces the combat system to players, and the only changes over the original version (below) are in minor details.
Supernova: The PCs are hired by Novatech to bring a small company, that used to belong to Fuchi (which broke apart in 2060), under the Novatech umbrella. Renraku, however, is also after this company, and the PCs will have a few run-ins with Renraku forces. All in all the adventure will take less than 24 hours.
Site of Desecration: A free spirit has allied itself with residents of the Cascade Mountains to harrass the smugglers coming through the area, forming a group called the Tooth. Sometime later, the PCs are hired to go into the Cascade Mountains to meet up with some smugglers; however, the Tooth have stolen the cargo the runners are to take with them to Seattle, so the PCs will have to go after this group and negotiate and/or fight to get it back.
Thoughts: All three are decent adventures, and although they may be too simple for experienced groups, that's not what they are aimed at. A group of new players will have a good introduction to Shadowrun adventuring with this set, and the fact that the book provides all kinds of pointers for inexperienced gamemasters should make it much easier to use than most other FASA-published adventures. My recommendation is to make this one of the first things to buy if you're new to gamemastering Shadowrun (right after the main rules, of course).
Similar Products: Food Fight, Silver Angel
Survey Rating: (not rated)
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In addition to the 7300-series, adventures appear in a small number of other Shadowrun books. These are discussed below.
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Released: 1989
Author: Tom Dowd
ISBN: not applicable
Price: not applicable
Pages: not applicable
Edition: First
Plot: Very simple: the player characters are hungry and go into a Stuffer Shack™, which a thriller-gang is about to rob. Once the PCs are spread out through the supermarket, the gang makes its move and a firefight erupts.
Thoughts: This is a good "adventure" though extremely limited in scope—it's not much more than an introduction to the Shadowrun combat system, and it can be run in one session easily.
Similar Products: First Run
Notes: This adventure was the last chapter in the first-edition Shadowrun main rules. An update for use with the Shadowrun, Third Edition rules appears in the adventure First Run, above.
Survey Rating: —
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Released: 1989
Author: Tom Dowd
ISBN: not applicable
Price: not applicable
Pages: 32
Edition: First
Plot: Mr. Johnson hires the runners to break into a research center and steal data on a project the center is working on. Another corporation is also after this same data, and the PCs will have some run-ins with them and/or their handiwork during the adventure. That's about it.
Thoughts: Most of the adventure is built around legwork, with the players trying to find out all they can about the target building before they go in. However, it is perfectly possible for them to skip this whole business and go in straight away. The way the book is set up makes it a bit diffcult to figure out where to go next in certain situations, but an experienced gamemaster should not have too much trouble with it. For inexperienced gamemasters, though, the adventure is probably less suitable. The adventure as a whole is rather simple—probably too simple for many people's tastes.
Notes: This is the adventure booklet that came with the first-edition Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen.
Similar Products: DNA/DOA, First Run
Survey Rating: 5.9 (15 votes)
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Released: 1991
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: not applicable
Price: not applicable
Pages: not applicable
Edition: First
Plot: Hired to track down a Jesse John, the PCs travel through several of the Native American Nations before finding their target. Jesse John, however, is a toxic shaman and a former member of the Humanis Policlub, who is trying to start a war between the Nations. It is up to the runners to prevent this from happening, even if they don't know what's going to happen beforehand. Others are also on the tail of the shaman, though, and some are also after the runners because without knowing it they were hired by the Humanis Policlub.
Thoughts: If you want an adventure that takes place away from Seattle, this is a good starting point. Peacekeeper is rather linear, though, so it is important to prevent the players from feeling they are being forced in one direction. Still, this should not be all that hard because they are there to find someone, and the obvious choice is to go where he leads them. The adventure has a lot of potential for trouble when it's over, as the list of people who might get angry with the PCs includes Humanis, the UCAS FBI, Renraku, and the NAN...
Similar Products: Eye of the Eagle, Paradise Lost
Survey Rating: 5.9 (27 votes)
Notes: This is the adventure in Native American Nations Volume One.
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Released: 1990
Author: Chris Kybasik
ISBN: not applicable
Price: not applicable
Pages: 56
Edition: First
Plot: A mid-level corporate manager hires the PCs to track down his mistress and get back the necklace he gave her; his wife found the receipt, and he told her the necklace was for her. Unfortunately, the mistress is a member of the Universal Brotherhood, who plans to transform her into an insect spirit. Investigations turn up a number of leads, but in the end all go to the Universal Brotherhood, and the only choice left to the players is to make an assault on one of the chapterhouses to try and find the woman, or at the very least the necklace. With insect spirits, though, this sounds a lot easier than it is. However, the PCs will not be completely caught off guard, because during the course of the investigation they will turn up pointers than not everything about the UB is the way it seems.
Thoughts: If you have players who don't know what insect spirits are (like a new group), run them through this one to let them slowly discover there's more out there than they ever held possible. The adventure is pretty good, starting out as a standard investigation into a missing person, but by the end there's a good chance your PCs will run away as soon as they see an insect...
Similar Products: Queen Euphoria
Survey Rating: 8.9 (18 votes)
Notes: This is the adventure from The Universal Brotherhood.
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Released: 1991
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: not applicable
Price: not applicable
Pages: not applicable
Edition: First
Plot: In this adventure, a shapeshifter hires the PCs to stop a "grave danger" to Tsimshian, one of the Native American Nations. A toxic shaman plans to poison much of the land, unless the players can stop her. This is not a straightforward matter, because the PCs won't know what they're up against—their employer cannot provide much usable information, and it is unclear who the ral enemy is due to two liberation movements in Tsimshian getting mixed up in the aventure as well. The conclusion of the adventure takes place on a cruise ship hijacked by the shaman and her supporters, and loaded with a biological weapon to serve as one huge bomb.
Thoughts: Like Eye of the Eagle, this is a somewhat linear adventure in which the PCs have to follow where the target leads, in the hope of catching up with her in time. One thing I didn't like is the safety net the adventure provides: even if the PCs can't stop the toxic shaman for whatever reason, the bomb fails to detonate, thus saving Tsimshian. This might give the players the feeling that their actions would have been unnecessary anyway, and also could make them take future adventures too lightly.
Similar Products: Paradise Lost, Peacekeeper
Survey Rating: 5.8 (31 votes)
Notes: This adventure appears in Native American Nations Volume Two.
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