So first up, you could run through the elections, either Kennie's run for UCAS President, or his run for Governor. The first was covered in Super Tuesday, and is still an excellent book for covering unethical elections. The second was talked about in Runner Havens and Emergence. If you or your players never played through Super Tuesday, then grab it up, scrub the names clean, and serve it up for the Party. Perhaps in your campaign, Brackhaven's hidden past (and racist present) never came out. And 2070 is the time to discover it. Or the 2074 election. Choose the one that fits best for your players and your campaign. In any of these scenarios, a political contact may call up a character for a favor. Or perhaps MoM (or ORC, or Sons of Sauron if the players are a bit more hard-core) get in touch. Give those characters who have more than a street doc and an armorer contact some love. Remember that if the Crew exposes Brackhaven, they will be in his Book of Grudges. This could lead to Runs to Nowhere (runs where the Crew is not supposed to succeed, but either provide a distraction, or just plain get frakked), opposing teams showing up at Meets/Runs/Swaps (especially Swaps), or approaches from really shady Fixers/Mr. Johnsons. And of course, if your Crew is full of racists, perhaps they get hired by Brackhaven to Run the opposition.
Mrs. Mulwray: Why is that unusual?
Gittes: He passed away two weeks ago and one week ago he bought the land. That's unusual.
So on to Thing Two. Brackhaven starts forming dummy corporations and begins to buy up the Barrens. This is all a bit more subtle, but there is plenty of room for player interaction, especially if the Crew is more of the Hooding bent. This all starts small. Perhaps a finance contact mentions that someone is creating a full hosts of shell companies. For a more concrete lead, have that contact turn up dead, with the proverbial Dead Letter drop for the character. Okay, a Dead Disc drop. But the characters end up with the tropey "I'm dead and find out who killed me" disc and an incentive to go do it. Or go a little closer. One of the characters (who lives in the Barrens) is approached by his landlord, who informs the character that next months rent is to be paid to Universal Properties LLC. And the rent (and his lifestyle) is going up 10%. Or the gang that watches the neighborhood and informs the character about strangers asking for him (you know, the one the character has as a contact? He does have one as a contact, right?) tells him that they are leaving, as they can't afford to pay both the next gang up and Universal Properties LLC. Maybe the character can do them a favor and check this new company out? Have some paranoid players? What is Mr. Black saying, of course you have paranoid players. So the above landlord comes in and tells the above character that no more rent is needed, as the landlord just came into money and is leaving. Whether the power and water stays on is of course up to you. (Mr. Black says turn that stuff off, and have the characters Lifestyle drop to Street level or lower. Maybe his neighbors start OD-ing at a frightful rate (they're blowing all that extra money on drugs) or getting robbed at a frightful rate (the above gang realizes that they all have extra money to steal.) Perhaps, they will start checking around to find out what is going on.
The key here is to start things small. Give the players a taste of something wrong. An appetizer of Evil. The main course is still to come. Let the Crew invite themselves to the upcoming banquet. You want them to do the inviting. Then when the dinner turns full-Red Wedding, they have only themselves to blame.
"But my players have no social conscious!" you say. "They would never go hooding!" Well, then make them. You heard Mr. Black, force them to get involved. Someone took the Dependent Negative Quality right? Or Day Job? Put those Qualities to work for you and not the Crew. So Night Striker has an aunt/sister/etc. he helps out. Now is the time for old Aunt May-san to move to the Barrens so she can have the above problems. Or their Day Job moves. The bar they are a bouncer at moves to take advantage of the great real estate deals. And now they are on the front line. Does someone have Wanted/Enemy? Then turn up the heat every where but the Barrens. Give them one place to hide out, other than the Ice Caves of Snohomish.
Or just hire them. This could be a "find my sister/brother who has disappeared in the Barrens", or a more social-oriented hire. Perhaps the Plastics Gardens needs help. And what Crew couldn't use a healing hide out? Or maybe their ganger contact needs some help. With the streets starting to run red, who couldn't use a little Runner muscle? Better yet, if the Crew helped MoM/ORC/Sons of Sauron etc. out on one of the elections, that organization is calling again. Too many meta-humans are being dispossessed. And they want eyes on the ground to find out what is happening. And search for the many missing people. Or maybe the Crew has a contact in the banking/construction/real estate businesses who wants to know what is going on, or why they didn't get a government contract. Or a reporter checking into all the above. Better yet, a reporter that needs bodyguards while investigating the Barrens. This way a combat-oriented Crew can get in on the action, and a sneaky-sneaky Crew will have real headaches trying to keep the reporter alive.
Just remember that this is a low key stage of Kennie's Evil Plan. This part is perfect for investigative, Matrix and Face types. There will be lots of record checking and following up and questioning of people. It is not for every Crew. But even if the players don't want to get involved, you can start to lay in the groundwork for the next part of the Plan. So start now, and prepare your players for Armageddon.
Next time we look at Things 4 and 5, Olympic Shenanigans and the THF's.
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