As I was prepping for my Shadowrun game last Friday, I rediscovered an interesting tidbit that I wrote for the Shadowrun Storm Front’s Seattle Shakes chapter. In a fit of “evil gamemasterness,” I printed it out and took it to the game.
As each player arrived, I pulled them aside and asked them about their commlink setup (PAN, associated devices, how many commlinks they have, etc.). Then I said “As you go through your morning messages, you find this in your inbox” as I handed them the below message.
Dear Constituent,
On behalf of my husband, Governor Brackhaven, I am pleased to welcome you and your kin to Seattle. As you know, we recently passed a law that brought all residents of the Ork Underground into the Seattle metroplex family. Welcome to your brand new life as a legal and contributing member of society.
What you may not know is that Kenny has opened up a fund to give all new citizens of Seattle a 600¥ tax credit for the next 5 years. This tax credit will be sent to your bank account immediately, and on the first of every year thereafter. Think of it, my friend. 600¥ with which you can pay medical bills, buy groceries, or put a down payment on a new apartment. But you can only receive this credit if you register with the online census committee. Click this LINK here for more details.
Again, Kenny and I are thrilled to add you to our ever-growing family of friends and constituents. We look forward to speaking with you and don’t forget to register to vote!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Brackhaven
“What do you do?” I asked after they read it.
So the decker (the first player I talked to) was wise enough to do research on the message before touching anything. Another player said “I forward it to the decker and ask him to check it out.” The other four players, much to my evil dismay, decided to ignore the message, declining to click the link.
But their reactions were more hilarious than I counted on. They didn’t ignore the message because they recognized the SPAM factor (despite seeing spam every day IRL). They ignored the message because 600¥ was NOT enough money for their runner characters to risk putting themselves on the grid by registering with the Seattle metroplex government. On the other hand, one player admitted if I’d put 10,000¥ in the message, he’d have known it was suspiciously spam-like.
And as soon as I permitted them to talk to each other about it, the decker immediately yells out “Don’t click the link!”
Ah, well. It didn’t work on my players, but maybe your Shadowrunners won’t be quite so clever or greedy. Give it a try and see what happens. If you haven’t already clicked the link above, it takes you to an otherwise unlinked page on my website with stats and scenario details. Check it out and let me know what you think. Before you ask, I admit to fudging things on the Matrix Actions.
