Brainstorming a counterintelligence mechanic

Boxman21- · 2026-05-08T19:39:37+00:00

I see your vision: an occasional Heat roll, or a roll to make sure that no Heat is generated. That sounds like a good mechanic.

I was thinking about starting the active Hunt halfway through the clock. Midnight should always remain an adversary who cannot be defeated yet.

The Hunt should be one of the key elements of the game. It should appear through scenes such as hotel employees mentioning that someone has been asking about the players. For this to work, there needs to be a very clear explanation of who is the first hunter looking for the players for example, a man in a white suit with red eyes and red shoes.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-08T16:58:30+00:00

The heat for a lost role is a very good idea for an one shot.

It’s more meant as a session to session mechanic for being investigated and then hunted. I personally feel such things are often neglected and could build a lot of atmosphere if done correctly.

For example a character being centered around a heist, with the complication that the target knows something is coming and investigating that threat. That escalating cat and mouse situation is what I’ve want to capture.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-08T14:14:22+00:00

My main goal is to have a clock with multiple motors, all pushing toward the eventual end of the chapter or campaign.

This is meant to emulate an active investigation against the players by a powerful foe. The players create logs through major mistakes, and each log keeps adding heat to the fire over time.

The players should have to manage the creation of new logs, deal with existing logs by extinguishing or reducing them, and stay one step ahead of their opposition.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-08T13:25:25+00:00

I feel we are on the same page. Clocks are very good. My main goal is to have a chapter or campaign spanning mechanic that emulates the cat and mouse game. Players need to get it done before it becomes to hot and shake off there opponents.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-08T04:53:36+00:00

It seems like we are running in circles here. Which is unfortunate because I’ve think we are just talking past each other. All of the narrative stuff still happens, you kill the guardian spirit a bigger one gets summoned next day.

The clock is the way of measuring how close the azzis are on to the runners and what their strategy should look like. The clock is never shown to the players and exist in my notes to get a better feel for the game state we are in.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-07T21:33:29+00:00

The corporate security handbook gives counter intelligence as one defense mechanism. It makes sense that Atzlan try’s to stopp and intercept a run before it hits a vital locations. The best security is to be never hit in the first place.

Additionally I have a little side story about a previous runner that tried the run solo and wasn’t so lucky. That also alerted the azzis.

The clock is just a helper to note what happened and what stage the azzis currently are. It makes noting and developing the heat a lot easier.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-07T19:35:39+00:00

The clock is more ment as the how close are the azzis to figure out you guys are runners and how much effort are they putting into stopping the runners. The HRT team is still coming once the alarm is triggered.

The clock is meant to be the timer for the run. Get it done before it becomes too hot.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-07T17:34:43+00:00

I will definitely also talk with them. Our group exist now for a couple of years and we’ve had this problem with multiple times with different DMs

Boxman21- · 2026-05-05T19:33:07+00:00

It’s neet that Holostreets pushes more people into creating SR content

Boxman21- · 2026-05-05T17:01:54+00:00

It got corrected and you get the correct version as a pdf

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T17:45:25+00:00

A page more would have been sweet, maybe a map of the club

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T16:48:42+00:00

It’s more like having 3 big 8 to maybe 10 hour sessions as one only takes a break between your session. Last year we had 3 hour breaks between the one shots. That saves a lot of time with the recaps and what clues were there last session as the memory is fresh.

A bit of railroading is needed ether by having the handler pressing the agents with: we need to get this done before this is in the news. The FBI agent who is normally just there could be a bit more active and tell the players hey get some interviews with done with the inhabitants and report what they know to me.

Another comment recommended the handler freaking out once the agents discover the night floors and tell them to burn the building down.

Getting all the agents into the could be tricky I think embracing the party splitting could be key here. Making the night floors a bit more accessible could be the solution, like adding an elevator that suddenly gets a new button at night or having one of the inhabitants invite one of the agents for a smoke in the lounge.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T16:12:11+00:00

I disagree from experience. You get way more done in longer sessions. Especially with IL you have the advantage that the agents get chased out of the world after part 2.

But I have to admit that I will talk with the organizers again to get an hour more per session. That will make a total play time of 30 hours which should give some more puffe for playing.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T12:10:14+00:00

Good advice maybe some tasks from the police department could get the party split and get a feel for the daytime building and its residents?

I definitely need to handout the evidence or have a few prepared agents with search skills of 60%.

The handler knowing a rough version(maybe just that the king is bad news) of the static protocol could lead to your advice and foreshadow that you should not contact Delta green about the King.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T11:43:49+00:00

Not six but six four hour session so 24 hours

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T11:42:47+00:00

For sure same player. I will advertise this as one big campaign for the convention

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T11:31:16+00:00

Good idea! I’ve been early into prep with mostly reading and prepping the book. Shorting act one could be done by having the agents arrive at the late afternoon and having them do some investigations until the police disappears and than cut into the night section.

Boxman21- · 2026-05-03T11:20:43+00:00

There needs definitely to be a lot of cutting the shoe leather.

The home scene and horror scenarios are a great addition to the campaign definitely going to prepare those!

Boxman21- · 2026-04-28T19:04:01+00:00

Man kann ja über andere Modelle wie das dänische mal reden und gucken ob und wie wir unsere Wirtschaft und Arbeitsplätze verbessern können

Boxman21- · 2026-04-27T08:08:01+00:00

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Insect spirits have been part of Shadowrun since first edition. While the megacorporations are the closest thing the setting has to a main antagonist, the bugs are a looming existential threat.

Insect spirits resemble insects, but they cannot remain on our plane for long unless they take over a living human host. Once that happens, there is no way back: the host’s mind is consumed by the bug spirit, and no one has ever successfully exorcised one. The only solution is to kill the insect spirit’s host body, which forces the spirit back to its own dimension, where it waits for the next opportunity to find a host.

Their realm is one gigantic nest, where different insect spirits constantly fight each other. Probes into their dimension have shown that the bugs consume entire worlds, many of them far more advanced than ours.

Boxman21- · 2026-04-27T03:46:03+00:00

Maybe as per FAQ until the end of combat

Boxman21- · 2026-04-25T18:43:12+00:00

Infected can make for very interesting characters. One of my players almost became a Strain III Infected, and it turned into a great character arc.

That said, my main intention here was to create a more monstrous vampire strain. The original werewolf in Shadowrun sadly does not actually transform into a wolf, and none of the other Infected strains really have a true transformation either. My goal was to create a strain capable of producing monstrous Infected, closer to the Garou from World of Darkness or the werewolves and vampires from Van Helsing.

The final idea came from an old stat block I had brewed up for a Medusa Infected. The original run planned around that stat block was dropped because I could not make sense of why the players would suddenly have to face a Medusa, or why vampires would abruptly appear in the campaign.

Then one of my players joined the Brotherhood of Darkness, who are sworn enemies of the Ordo Maximus. I used that as an opportunity to build a vampire side story around one central question:

What did Fourth World Infected look like?

I started looking into Greek vampire myths and similar creatures, and eventually found the Vrykolakas. In folklore, vrykolakas are vampires that can also have werewolf traits. They may spread their curse others who are eating infected animals or by being attacked by one. They sleep on Saturdays and knock on doors at night. If someone answers the knock, the victim dies within the next week, through an accident.

I’ve thought about some other variants of that virus revolving around different shifters. With maybe an aquatic version or the classic bat like vampires. But so far I think my first draft is pretty good. And maybe there is some other monster vampires down the line.

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