Superseeds
This is an argument I've heard before, usually in threads where the original or a following poster says that they want to use Shadowrun for something, but are changing or removing this or that element.
Now, I understand where these people are coming from -- Shadowrun does have a lot of unique details that contribute to its originality. However, I see no problem in altering the setting based on what your ultimate goal for the campaign is.
And in my defense, I never said I wanted a perfect fusion between the Marvel and Shadowrun universes. All I needed was a familiar cyberpunk frame for the future of my alternative Marvel setting and all my players knew Shadowrun.
Still, if you want metahumans in your take on this campaign, that same discussion threads offers some alternatives, from OZ to Terrigen mists. You can also say that the battle with the Celestial broke the wall between Earth and Asgard, flooding the planet with elves, dwarves and trolls. It's not like Marvel doesn't offer a lot of options.
Campaign Pace
If you want to preserve the mystery until the big reveal (which happens before the end of the campaign), you need to introduce Marvel elements in homeopathic doses, as we say down here. And you need to disguise them -- being too on the nose will spoil the fun (yours, mainly).I would try to include at least one Marvel element in each adventure, but that is not set in stone. Running generic cyberpunk adventures might be a nice change of pace and allows some breathing room for your creativity. It also gives you a mechanism to adjust the length of the campaign.
By elements, I mean people and things from the Marvel universe. These, as I said before, should be disguised. So, it's not the supersoldier serum, it's a physical-enhancement combat drug; it's not Logan, it's Jimmy.
Some details may be obscure enough that you might not need to change them, like this address: 177A Bleecker Street (on the corner of Bleecker Street and Fenno Place). Do you know that reference without checking Google first? If you don't, odds are your players can't either, unless you have a diehard fan among them.
Anyway, the idea is that in the first couple of runs, the PCs will be hired by the megacorps. Then, the adventures are split between regular missions and the ones conducted for the Renegades. By the final phase of the campaign, every run will be related to the resistance.
The first megacorp-based runs will be the moves in the budding turf war the archvillains are waging against each other. In my campaign, I restricted the action to four corporations: Ares Macrotechnology, Aztechnology, Saeder-Krupp and Shiawase. These were the ones headed by the archvillains.
By the third adventure (give or take one), the PCs will be approached by a Mr. Johnson who works for the Renegades, although they will not know this upfront. The run is a test to see if the characters are competent and trustworthy.
The next ones might be regular missions or just the PCs trying to survive payback from the megacorps they hit in the early adventures. After that, the Renegades will give the characters their first big mission and if they succeed, will introduce them to the movement and reveal all or part of the secrets of the campaign. From then on, it's resistance missions all the way.
This also serves to gradually expand the concept of the campaign from a street level one to a more heroic series. The PCs start fighting corp security and mercenaries, transition to powerful Awakened foes and may end up battling Arishem himself.
The inner council
There can be several variations on the Renegades' inner council composition. While I'll be presenting the one used in my campaign, you can choose those characters that you like most or that work better with the idea you have for your version of the game.In choosing my inner council, I went with characters I found interesting, but that could also fulfill a couple of conditions. Mainly, that could plausibly survive the battle with Arishem, either by sheer power or some other reason, and still be alive (or at least around) 100 years later.
Remember though, that they cannot have remained as powerful as they were, otherwise the wiping out of the resistance, inner council included, might seem a bit forced to your players. With that in mind, here's my councilmembers, listed by the names they use in the future (and which help not giving their true identity away to Marvelite players):
Maestro: a severely weakened version of the Maestro Hulk is the head of the council. Although still strong enough to give most people pause, the Green Goliath is a pale shadow of his former savage self. Maestro has Banner's intellect and over a century of experience fighting the megacorps. He's the biggest supporter of finally taking the fight back to the archvillains, but he is not reckless -- at least, not at first. As the PCs succeed, he will be more confident they can pull off a final strike
Stephen: Stephen Strange is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme -- he's no longer alive either. The former doctor is now a ghost that haunts his Sanctum Sanctorum (that address above belongs to it) and the Renegades' base. Although he lacks his sorcery, Stephen still has knowledge and contacts in the spiritual world. He usually is the voice of reason in the council. Since materializing is hard for him, Stephen employs a medium for communication, an Awakened teenager that goes by the name of Ghost Girl.
Johnny: Johnny Blaze has a demon bonded to his soul and that has saved his life more times than he can count. Plus, he gets not to age. Blaze has a particular beef with Aztechnology, because of Mephisto, and is always going after its assets. He's a man of action and usually sides with those that propose kicking megacorp ass, like Maestro and Jimmy.
Ty: Tyrone Johnson was the hero known as Cloak. He survived the battle with Arishem, but lost Tandy there. He's over 100 years old, but doesn't look a day over 90. Although his powers are no longer what they were, Ty can still provide teleportation in and out of tough spots. He's committed to fight the archvillains, but Ty always worry about the innocents caught in the crossfire and will only agree to a plan that minimizes collateral damage.
X-51: Machine Man barely survived the battle with Arishem, but he rebuilt himself and now is the decker/rigger extraordinaire for the Renegades. Not only does he roam the Matrix inflicting digital damage on the megacorps, he commands a veritable army of drones and vehicles that he rides or flies wherever there's need. X-51 is interested in results and will back any plan that maximizes the archvillain's losses.
Jimmy: James Howlett, or Logan, as his friends used to call him, doesn't die easily. Like his former namesake, the wolverine, Jimmy is a vicious fighter and the main field agent of the Renegades. In fact, he often misses the inner council meetings because he's in a run somewhere. Jimmy doesn't care how he messes up the archvillains' plans; he only wants to inflict as much pain on them as they have on the world. Jimmy always say yes to plans that strike deep into their enemies' territory or assets, no matter how crazy it sounds.
Of time platforms, idea mechanics and cosmic cubes
My intention with this campaign was always to have the concept expansion I mentioned above. I wanted the adventures to morph from cyberpunk to super-hero, introducing the more fantastic elements of the later as the campaign progressed. And I wanted to end the story with a bang.What better way to do that than have the characters travel back in time to change the course of history and become the ultimate heroes of the setting. So that's what I did and it just required a bit of GM fiat and Doctor Doom.
See, the Renegades' inner council knows they are outmatched, but is certain the time has come for the final showdown and the campaign will build towards this goal. Unfortunately, in keeping with the pessimistic tone of cyberpunk, they will fail.
The PCs' (hopefully) accumulating successes will draw the attention of the archvillains, who strike back with full force during one of the later missions, when the characters are not at the Renegades base, wiping out the resistance. Only the PCs are left.
That's when they are contacted by the surviving Doctor Doom (his appearance in the campaign is chronicled in one of the seeds below), who offers them a chance to change the course of history. They use his time platform to go back in time and steal the Cosmic Cube from AIM -- battling its goons plus the Super-Adaptoid!
If they succeed, they use the cube to stop Arishem, destroying both of them in the process. The campaign ends there, as the characters receive the accolade for their heroic action from the Marvel heroes.
Of course, now you have the perfect set up to start a regular superhero campaign in the Marvel universe of Earth-7722.
Wait! Earth-7722?
Yeah, I had to come up with a number for this alternate, so I used the name of the column -- super and seeds start with the letter s, which corresponds to the number 7 in the phone dial, so 77 -- and the number of last month's installment: 22.
A quick check on the Marvel multiverse list shows no reality has claimed that number yet, although there's a close one: 7712, from a 1977 What if?. So there you have it, a brand new Marvel Earth for you and your players to mold.
Some Marvelrun seeds
Here are a couple of seeds for your campaign.Boxed Lightning: This is actually two interconnected seeds. The first is a straightforward datastealing run where the PCs are hired to invade a secure delivery company and find out when Saeder-Krupp is moving a specific item from the UCAS to Europe. That's all they have to do. Later in the campaign, they will be approached again by the same Mr. Johnson (who works for Ares Macrotechnology). He will hire them to steal the item from Heathrow Airport while it is being exchanged between the delivery company cargo plane and Saeder-Krupp's. By that time in the campaign, the PCs will probably have joined the Renegades and the inner council will task the characters with getting the item for them. So the mission will proceed as Mr. Johnson planned, except that after acquiring the item, the PCs will escape with it. Just so you know, the item is Don Blake's wooden cane, i.e., Thor's hammer, Mjˆllnir, in disguise. Loki's agents finally found it and are bringing the hammer to him. Ares (the god, not the corp) was informed of the discovery and is now trying to lay his hands on it. So, obviously, Saeder-Krupp will have a tight security at Heathrow, including Awakened agents, and Ares Macrotechnology will also have stationed their troops nearby, in case something goes wrong or the shadowrunners try something funny. Be prepared for the players opening the box the cane is in and realizing what they are holding. If they are in a tight spot, someone might have the bright idea of using it to save their bacon. If that will work, it's up to you, but once the thunder is out of the box, you'll have a hard time putting it back in.
In Haasenstadt: This is the adventure that reintroduces Doctor Doom. As such, it's pivotal to the planned epic ending of the campaign. The Renegades' inner council tells the PCs to go to a small country in Europe called Haasenstadt. It's ruled by Baron Sabbat, who is a technological genius. The inner council wants the characters to assess if Sabbat can be an ally or if he's a threat and deal with him accordingly. Getting to Haasenstadt will be an adventure in itself, with the character having to find ways across several borders. Haasenstadt's capital is like the perfect, happy city, but one cannot fail to notice the omnipresent robot guards. The Baron does not receive guests unless it's of an official nature, so the PCs will have to fake their way in the castle. If they are successful, Sabbat will receive them, but he already knows they are spies and will try to capture them with the help of his robots, his personal armor and his magic knowledge. Sabbat will interrogate the characters to know why they went to Haasenstadt. If one of the characters is from the Age of Heroes, the Baron will be intrigued by him, his face jumpstarting his memory. See, Doom survived the battle by sending his mind to another body. The process wiped out his memory, but he still kept his personality and devotion to Latveria, which he rebuilt and ruled once again. Doom never recovered his memories and believes he's a descendant of Haasenstadt's original founder, but he knows there's a big chunk of his past he doesn't remember. As Sabbat is interrogating the PCs, his castle will be attacked by Saeder-Krupp's prime Awakened team (Enchantress, Executor, Fafnir and Valkyrie) plus troops. Sabbat will offer the characters their freedom if they help him against Saeder-Krupp. If the PCs help, Sabbat will count them as allies (or pawns) in the near future, when he recovers his memories and offers them a chance to change the past. By then, he's actually using the characters to get the Cosmic Cube for him, so he can defeat Arishem and remake the world in his own image.
Inspiration
Sources to draw ideas from, besides the usual suspects in the Marvel comics line.Marvel 2099: For a while there, Marvel had a line of near-future titles called 2099. I never read them, but it seems like a good place to plunder for seeds.
Shadowrun modules: The ëIn Haasenstadt' seed was built using one of the chapters in the Harlequin adventure as a frame. There are many others like that in the line that could be used for that.
I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever run this, let me know too.
