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[kv]

Hey everyone, I know I mentioned this in another thread, but I've run into a problem, and I'm trying to figure out how to resolve it easily.

I've been running Shadowrun Missions for 4th edition for my brothers for a few months now. We get together, I run them through one of the adventures, and everything goes well, but for some reason, this adventure they're not doing so hot on. The run is here: http://www.shadowrun4.com/missions/downloads/srm_204.php , you if you want to take a look at it.

This is my problem: the runners have one week to wreak havoc and convince the owners of the property to sell. The Johnson made specific mention of not killing employees of the company, and no physical damage to the buildings (since Mr. Johnson wants to buy them). There are a few route outlined in the run, but my runners wanted to be unconventional (as always), and decided to start a grassroots campaign against the company, going around and getting signatures, and programming the toilets to overflow.

How do I tell them (without hurting feelings) that these plans won't work? Or should I let these plans work (at least the toilet one), and go from there? I'm usually pretty prepared for runners to head in a direction the writers of the run weren't expecting, but this time they've gone completely off the map. I don't even know how an environmental petition would get processed in a week, seeing as how the lawyers would seize it up in court for a few years, at least.

Also, can you even program toilets to flow backwards in Shadowrun? It seems like maybe that sort of funtionality would have been left out of the design.

 Also, I'm continuing this game on sunday, so any immediate help would be appreciated.

  -kv

[Ingo Monk]

Well, you could always let them do their thing... and then they fail

If one of the runners has a contact that has any type of legal/governmental/political background who happens to get involved in the signature campaign you could have them say something like "This is great, maybe in a few months we can get that place shut down!"  Hopefully they'll catch the (not so) play on words and realize they only have a week. 

Some other ideas you could drop a hint about:
 - a thrashed biz and broken windows may not be considered a damaged building (all the walls and necessary support and infrastructure and facilities would still be intact).  Windows and desks can easily be replaced.
 - (If one of the runners is a magician) have a spirit literally haunt the place while the runners mess around with the toilets.  Dunno bout SR4 but in SR3 you could have spirits do all kinds of stuff without actually harming people (air or water spirit would probably be better than earth and fire in this case).  Air spirits could regularly blow stuff around, cause a small whirlwind in the middle of a big room, etc.  Water spirits could flood a few rooms, or hide in a toilet to freak people out when they gotta use it.  Another thing to remember, an astrally projecting person could 'possess' a mundane. After that experience the mundane probably wouldn't want to come back.  If possession is not their forte (or if it's not possible in SR4), I recall that a mundane will get a very weird chilly/unnatural feeling when a projecting magician passes through their body.  Do that for a few hours each day...
 - Somehow get the employees to not want to work there.  No employees to run the place means no biz.  Get the place enough of a bad enough rep on the street and no one would want to work there.  Then later they could 'cleanse' the place of evil spirits after the Johnson buys it.
 - Get some toxic chemical (not deadly, but one that smells bad or causes nausea or something) and have it released into the HVAC system. 
 - Hire some gangers to regularly vandalize employee's vehicles.  This doesn't damage the buildings and would seriously curb employee moral.  Enough times and people will want to work from home.

If you do get them to decide to drop the petition thing and get them to try something else you could help them realize that a week may not be enough time for another elaborate scheme... so they could negotiate with the Johnson for a few more days or whatever.  Just because you're running a prepared adventure doesn't mean you have to follow it exactly

[Capt_North]

The window smashing and all sounds alright to me, its a quick easy replace, and its pretty effective terror method, and for the company owning it can get pretty costly to keep replacing them, and if they dont they have a boarded up window which drives away customers. Heck, have a couple of orc and troll hecklers outside, dont ahve to touch anybody, just look mean and able to scarper if LS swings by (which in itself might drive away business)

Heck, for some good ideas make your players watch a couple episodes of Burn Notice (I think it should be required watching for shadowrun players:3)

And yes! The Capn Is still alive! ... Ish.

[kv]

I like both Burn Notice and Leverage, which is a very awesome show about Shadowrunners. Well, sort of.

Anyway, for Thrash the Body Electric, we ended up re-starting and having a slightly larger group. They cased the place, the hacked went out onto the water (the target is on a lake, in case you weren't aware), and sent drone buoys to crash into the security fencing around the compound. After the buoys, he crashed an automated jet ski, and then a little racing boat... and then the boat of the harbor patrol. The fence was pretty messed up, and so the hacker bailed.

A couple of the other runners cased the place next door (soy processing plant), and shot a guard, so they ended up blowing up the place, using shaped charges to make sure the soy sprayed as much of the parking lot and buildings next door (the target).

Rancid soy smell? Not pleasant, and hard to get out of anything. Feds crawling all over your place, looking for a terrorist connection next door? Also not fun (the guy had mob connections that he really needed to keep quiet, but the runners didn't know that).

So the Casquillo mafia tracks down the runners working on this place, and shows up with baseball bats and tazers to have a 'meeting' with them, to convince them the error of their ways. Surprisingly, one of the runners was able to cut apart the mob goons with the monofilament whip in his cyberarm, so the mob goons turned tail and ran.

Even more surprisingly, the runners showed up to apologize to the casquillo mafia people for working against their friends. 

So they got the karma for finishing the job (two or more actions against the company, convincing them to sell), karma for apologizing to the mafia (more rep than anything, but I call it a plus), but not the karma for a bloodless run.

It was a good game.