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Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Halloween Special Part 2 - Sealab 2081

After looking at The Thing and films like it, Mr. Black thought of including Deep Blue Sea. But then Mr. Black realized that horror in a sea base (as opposed to the real life horror of submarines, aka Das Boot) has a lot of material. So let’s cover them in our template. As usual, spoilers.
"But I got 5 successes on my Stealth roll!"

Deep Blue Sea has a lot going for it. Isolated base? Check! Confined underwater? Check! Something has gone wrong and the life support systems have failed? Check! One of the researchers messing about with Things Man Should Leave Alone? Check! About to get eaten by a monster way out of your league? Check and double check! Deep Blue Sea is the very epitome of thing on a sea base. But it is more than that. We get 2 wonderful extras!


Thing One: There is More than One Monster. While the trid has no possession-based thing, that is easy to add. But having a second threat from something that wants to eat the Crew, that is priceless. When the troll is trying to close the huge hatch against the rising water level, and the hacker is trying to turn off the electricity before the Crew gets fried in that water, and the mage is trying fight the giant isopod insect spirit in astral space, and the rigger is trying jury-rig the escape vehicle, all while the street samurai tries to fight to super-brainiac shark, you have a game…


"When does our Edge refresh?"

Thing Two: The Shock Kill. Director Reny Harlin is mostly known for destroying the pirate genre (until its resurgence in Pirates of the Caribbean!) But he knew exactly what he was doing here:


Samuel L. Jackson’s corporate executive Russell Franklin is the trideo’s voice of reason. That is, up until he gets eaten. Reny said he did it for two reasons: 1, it happens on land, out of the water - nowhere is safe! And 2: He kills off the Big Name actor! The one person who you thought would live, gets killed early - no one is now safe! These are great concepts to jack up the tension among your players! You want them to think nowhere is safe, and anyone, at any moment can die. It is just a matter of time until all the NPC’s are gone, and now it is time for the characters to start dying...


Let that sink in before we continue.


"Why is the spirit-y Thing copying my face?"

Next up is The Abyss. It has all the trapping we are looking for, but little of the menace. In fact the most menacing thing up until the thing shows up is a deranged Michael Biehn. Here he plays Lieutenant Hiram Coffey, a special forces type, becoming a More than One Monster. Being in a claustrophobic space with a murderous elite Street Sam type will do that for you. Note that if you want to add a “Hiram Coffey”, make sure he holds rank in the Corporation’s military. It will up both the tension (if he works for the Corp he cannot be trusted!) and the immersion (Corps have militaries! Militaries that are mostly full of special ops types!) With that down we need to amp up the menace. The key is to change the things. Put the sea base near a portal to an astral plane, and have water spirits investigate the metahumans before possessing them. Then once the life support fails and the Wuxing Maritime Security Division/EVO YNT Marine Commandos decide to close the portal with a nuke, you have a race for survival…


"Tell me again why the psycho with a nuke
is duct taping me to bulkheads again?"

Next is Leviathan. This completely lines up with our template, so much so that after the last 2, it is a bit of a let down. A thing that possesses the crew? An uncaring Corp CEO that sends the Crew to their doom? Yep. Still, it has good creature design…


Someone is getting possessed...

Just to keep the rabble at bay, we can talk about Underwater and Sphere, both set on sea bases, but without a lot of possessing, and only Underwater has things. But if you really need more undersea base design inspiration they are there.


And Underwater has a great creepy vibe...

Sector 7 gives a two-fer! This time we get rid of those pesky entitled white people, and let South Koreans fight for their lives. And it is set on an oil rig, giving you another place for fear to strike.


I don'y think a Taser is going to cut it....

The Rift’s one saving grace is R. Lee Ermey. Well that and a giant starfish-like creature...


Someone is going to end up like that soda can...

That is nasty...

Lastly we have Deep Star Six. A mutated extinct sea scorpion* is our thing, which gives us a two-fer, awakened beastie AND insect spirit! It also has navy personnel with nukes, so that’s nice. But an ancient aggressive anachronistic thing from beyond time and space? On second thought, a nuke might be just the right choice…


Looks pretty insect-y spirit-y to me...

So armed with choices, and lots of inspiration, go and scare your players. And don’t forget, they can’t dawdle, there is a major storm about to hit the dive area, and the last LAV out lifts off in 20, so they need to grab their go bags and board with what they have with them!


Next up is using your environment to isolate your Crew...


*Yes, Mr. Black knows a scorpion, sea or otherwise, isn’t an insect, but needs must, neh?

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Halloween Special, Part 1 - Other Trideos and Settings

 So while Mr. Black pondered The Thing, he realized there are others out there like it. That is, other films about a body-possessing alien entity trapped inside an isolated space with a few unfortunate souls about to die. Turns out there are loads of them. So let’s do a quick review for those of you looking for something a little less iconic. Please note, we are talking about sending the Crew into a confined, remote, godforsaken place, so no Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If you can leave town in the family station wagon, it is off the list, so no The Blob. Also, we aren’t looking at the remake. It is not a terrible film, but adds little to this discussion.

So old school it lost it’s color!

First up is the original, The Thing from Another World. Mr. Black still gets goosebumps every time he watches the scene where they discover the ship. While it lacks a body possessing thing, it does have an evil scientist determined to grow and feed the thing at any cost. It also has that square-jawed broad-shouldered All-American jingoism that is generally lacking in the rest of these films, and Shadowrun in general. For most of us, this attitude is lacking in the world. But if you wanted to show some soul-tired Runners a glimpse of what working in a mega is like (that smiling happy can-do attitude, mixed with unbearable confidence and xenophobia: “Gee mister, of course Ares is the best in the world! Together we can do anything, even save the world! Let’s go pin the ears back on those EVO commies”)


That is a big object. I wonder what is inside...

And since we are starting Old School, Quatermass and the Pit, AKA 5 Million Years to Earth, gives us locust-like aliens, using their ancient literal hive mind to kill any human without a strand of the alien’s DNA! While this sounds dodgy, this British Trideography Picture heavily inspired generations of sci-fi directors, John Carpenter included, and Mark Gatiss of Doctor Who fame. Mr. Black recalls being creeped out by it as a child. It goes for a black-and-white, movie time news vibe. And it’s protagonist Professor Quatermass, would make an excellent scholarly NPC, a classic cardigan wearing, pipe smoking square jawed academic, with a mustache that could cure cancer. If we need someone to lead the Crew to our facility to find out what has gone wrong, he’s our man...


Insect spirits, or the Devil? You decide...

Mitsuhama goons escort Mr. Johnson and his impressive mustache away...

Annihilation explores a similar theme, but adds in mutated creatures, and “the Shimmer”, an energy field of some kind that is keeping the thing in. Perhaps the insect spirits have set up a hive, and are flesh possessing animals? What do you have when a piasma and an insect spirit aren’t tough enough for your Crew? How about a possessed half piasma/half behemoth? Mr. Black is not sure even he has enough gun for that…


You are going to need a bigger gun...

The Reanimator is considered one of the best Lovecraft adaptations. It lacks the isolation snd claustrophobia of the other trideos discussed, but Mr. Black mentions it here because The Reanimator may be the best depiction of what happens when scientists mess with death and start summoning shedim…


This is when the Crew will start to suspect something has gone wrong...

...and when they know it has all gone dreadfully wrong.

Though shedim may be at the heart of Event Horizon. It features the Distress Call Lure, There is Another Monster and Failing Life Support, ramping up the distress. Whether you look at this as a shedim infestation, or an Astral Outbreak Event is up to you and the level of hell you are willing to inflict on your players…


There is a lot of Hell to go around...

The Void moves our location from Corp facility to a hospital. This has the benefit of confusing your players with a place that is supposed to help them, with a staff that wants to harm them. While sending your Crew to the isolation/quarantine wing of a Corp hospital is creepy enough, send them to a DocWagon Customer Wellness Center. Even after the mission is over, let them wonder if the terror and the things are the new normal for DocWagon…


A pretty suspicious DocWagon team...

...with even more dodgy facilities.

Next up is Alien. While very similar in tone and pace to The Thing, the key difference is that the Corporation is actively trying to get the thing out. This concept is bad enough when you can’t trust anyone because they might be a thing, but knowing someone in the facility is trying to sabotage your efforts to survive and escape, and is actually trying to get you possessed, triples the terror.


I can't lie to you about your chances,
but you have my sympathies...

Let’s cover the rest of the viable franchise while we are here. Aliens is the version after the thing has struck. This time the Crew’s job is rescue and retrieval, guns a-blazing. Little do they know how insidious is their “bug hunt” or that once again, the Corporation only cares about getting the thing back. This version gives your Crew all their toys and guns and bullets, and counters them with LOTS of things! Aliens also switches up our alliances. In Alien the Android is the traitor, here he is there to help, and a baby-faced Paul Reiser is our thing-loving traitor. (Never give your players the same traitor twice!)


This is the True Face of Evil...

Taken together, The Thing is an initial outbreak/infestation. But after review, the Corporation is excited about the results, and sends in another team. This is Alien, an unsuspecting team sent in to be hosts. This doesn’t work either, so this time the Corporation sends in a strike team, Aliens-style, to rescue a host at all costs. Do you dare run the same mission 3 times for your crew?


We will mercifully skip the rest of the series, except for Alien V Predator. While not a good film by any means, we can look at it from the perspective of another Corp finding out, and sending in their own team. After the first Corporation has sent in at least 3 research/rescue/Runner teams, there must be something useful in there. Perhaps the Crew is hired because of a special skill they have, e.g., mountaineering, arctic survival, jungle survival, LAV piloting, mushing (sled dog handling), etc. Find a skill on at least one of the character’s sheets that will help, and go. This new Corp could just be taking a gander, or it could be a smaller Corp looking to steal a leg up on the competition. It could be that Mr. Johnson is the one going with them. He may be looking for a fast promotion, hoping to bring whatever is in the facility to his corporate overlords. Or he could just be a rich day trader type, watching the fuel expenditures and airplane orders of the first Corporation. He realizes something is worth grabbing up there, and hires the team to take him and a couple of buddies/beancounters/bodyguards to the spot. He promises a cash payment and a share of whatever is in the facility, or whatever his Corp can make out of it, or shares in the new company he is hoping to bootstrap out of the discovery! Lots of angles to play here, and loads of ways to play this out. You take your picks, and the Crew takes their chances.


Runners, Mr. Johnson, and prey...

Next up, we take a jander under the sea...


Halloween Special - A Start...

 A while ago, Mr. Black reviewed John Carpenter’s masterpiece, The Thing. But after doing trunks of research, he had a lot more to say about the genre. So he cleverly waited until October to post it, just in time for Halloween. So we will be talking about all the other movies The Thing inspired, and about running a horror game in particular in the Shadowrunverse. So buckle down, as we have a lot to cover, including a very special 10 in Ten, with a thousand(!) potential runs, just to keep your poor (and about to reroll characters) players guessing. First up is a review of other things in a research setting...

Are you ready? Because the Thing is ready for you!


Friday, August 27, 2021

10 in Ten, Chinatown Hustle

 This 10 in Ten is a combination of date stamping, runs, and Chinese holidays, inspired by our review of Big Trouble in Little China. If your city setting has a Chinatown (or LittleTokyo, etc.), then involve your players in its calendar. The food, the sights, the smells, the fireworks, the Shadowruns… If ol’ Jack Burton can stumble into a millenia-old struggle for the soul of the world, you can expect your players to find some work, as long as they don’t get on the wrong side of the locals, or the Triads.

A note on dates: Chinese holidays are usually celebrated on the lunar calendar, and follow a “second day of the second month” model. That is, a holiday will fall on the second day of the second lunar month. For non-Chinese or non-AAPI, this means the holidays do not fall on the same time each year, and can vary from year to year by weeks. Mr. Black recommends using a good calendar app, that includes Chinese holidays, and using the current year (say 2021) as the year in game. So replace 2080’s calendar with 2021’s. Let the app keep track of the holidays, and give you alerts that you can tailor to your players.


If your location doesn’t have a Chinatown, or you just prefer a different ethnic/regional group, most Asian cultures share many of these holidays. Many celebrate them differently, and often on different days (make use of that calendar app again!) But the concept is the same. 10 holidays, 10 different times of year, at least 10 more runs to undertake…


(Please note, Mr. Black is definitely a gwáilóu. Mr. Black is attempting to use Chinese customs and holidays to add depth and excitement to a game, and intends no disrespect or insult to the Chinese people, Chinese-Americans, or any people who share Asian heritage and/or culture.)


  1. Lunar New Year, Start of Celebration-the Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, is the first major holiday of the year. This year there is competition for the Lion Dancers team. This is a major boon. The chosen team will perform not only throughout the Spring Festival, but also at many other holiday celebrations, and may get to travel and represent Seattle throughout the world. The prestige within the community, the extra pay for the performers, and most importantly, the guanxi and miànzi gained for the team sponsor, elevate this from a single “Bring It On” event into something much grander. For a small nimble Crew this could play out as a less lethal version of A Fist Full of Yuan, or a series of runs disrupting costume storage, painting the lions inappropriate colors, etc. Both teams want to win, but neither wants the other team dead or crippled. After all, beating them again next year just proves the miànzi was properly earned, and, “Lion Dancer team brutally murdered in Hing Hay Park” does not bring the tourists in. The dance team supported by Mama Chiang’s Golden Palace restaurant (or their competitors, Mr. Li’s Market, you choose, your game!) may not pay the best, but the Longevity Noodles are divine, and the good luck is palatable. And who doesn’t need some extra luck, and a new contact in the new year?

    Someone is about to get blown up big time..

  2. Lunar New Year, End of Celebration, the Lantern Festival. Traditionally, this marks the end of the Spring Festival. The Lantern Festival makes a great Meet for a cunning Mr. Johnson, as the lanterns often have riddles on them. Solving the riddle may be a proof of competency, or lead to a second quieter meeting place. This is also a good way for the dance team that lost the above competition to contact the Crew, and use them to get some revenge on the winners…

    So many lanterns, so little time...

  3. Zhonghe, the Blue Dragon Festival. The festival venerates the Dragon God*, but is also a spring planting festival. It is considered a good time to get a haircut. Perhaps a hacker is needed to put a name in the appointment app for Zhao’s, the most auspicious barber shop and ladies salon in Chinatown. Or Mr. Li hires them again, this time to sabotage Mama Chiang’s zongzi, or sticky rice dumplings.

    Zongzi, sort of a Chinese pork tamale.

  4. Qingming, Tomb Sweeping festival. This festival is more solemn than most, but given the distance in both time, space and generations from the homeland (and Seattle Chinatown’s lack of space for tombs/graves,) Qingming has turned into more of a family reunion picnic type of thing. Families gather in the International Distrinct’s parks, and pay respect to their departed family elders. There is feasting, burning of joss paper, and the carrying and pacing of pomegranate and willow branches, But the big draw is kite flying.the creation of kites, selling of kites and flying them has grown into a huge festival in Seattle. While there is no kite flying competition, there is some minor jostling, and much miànzi can be won or lost, especially if a team loses their kite, say to having their kite string cut...

    These kites get kinda big and scary...

  5. Duanwu Festival, or the Dragon Boat races. June. Dragon Boat Races present lots of options for runs. Lots of money from gambling is on the offer, and prestige for winners makes this one of most exciting days for shadowrunners in Seattle. Whether rigging boats to increase drag, influencing boat crews to throw a race, sabotaging boats, providing security against the above before races, providing security during races (water spirits can get quite feisty on Lake Washington during the holiday), and acting as bagmen after races, runners can make a lot of nuyen. And activity during the races have only increased since Salish tribal teams in West Coast Canoes were invited to take part. Team Raven or Team Dragon? You take your pick, and live with the consequences…

    Raven Boats...

    ...or Dragon Boats, take your pick..

  6. Qixi, or the so-called “Chinese Valentine's Day”. August. This is more a celebration of couples, and less of Western Romantic love. But it does involve magpies bridging the Milky Way, and thus Magpie shamans (or in a mixing of Northwestern cultures, NAN Raven/Magpie Shamans), special treats, qiao guo candies. There are also contests for young ladies, testing old-fashioned domestic tasks, such as threading needles in low light conditions. This sounds out of place, sexist and pretty useless, but in Chinatown of 2080, the winners acquire miànzi they can then use through guanxi to earn money to start businesses or help with college tuition. It replaces a beauty pageant in a way. And where there is a contest, there is room for the Crew to work their magic...

    Conflict and candy!!!

  7. Ghost Festival. This festival is famous for burning joss paper, the act of setting food out for departed loved ones, and placing festival lamps out upon the waters. This time Mama Chiang hires the Crew to replace Mr. Li’s joss paper with something offensive, and Mr. Li hires them to replace the vegetarian offering food with meat. The entire festival is a perfect time to harvest spirit summoning reagents, as the heart of the celebration is the opening of the “underworld”. And all this doesn’t involve “Hell Bank Notes”, or Hell Money. Could a savvy Crew sabotage a Triad’s economic base by subbing in their bearer bonds for Hell money, and laughing as the Triad’s members burn the bonds? And could a Crew be hired to help/hinder the summoning of a massive spirit on the day the spirits are released from Hell?

    For burning, not for earning!

  8. Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival. Seattle does this big! More dance teams, lantern contests, food booths and food trucks (Mr. Black’s favorite form of surveillance!) make this another chance to lose or gain both guanxi and miànzi. From Triad protection scams, to “enforced” food shortages, to ultra-rare ingredient gathering (can the Crew gather 4 Broobie or Lesser Roc eggs, for the most decadent and expensive Mooncake ever?), there is lots for a Crew to do, or more likely get entangled in.

    Mooncake.

  9. ChongYang Festival, Double Nine Festival. This October festival follows the traditions of many Chinese holidays, the reverence of ancestors, the drinking of a particular tea/wine (chrysanthemum in this case), the eating/gifting of a dense “cake”, and monster fighting and hill climbing. Wait, what are those last two? Yes, traditionally a hero told his village to climb a hill for safety while he fought a monster. So replace lion dancers with a monster killing parade, and lots of hill climbing contests, both actual (dirt bikes and foot races up East Roy Street on Capitol Hill are sponsored events) and AR (Sonia Danzig’s Emerald Free Climb Challenge 2078 it still widely played, and has 2 special Chongyang climbs in the International District. This year, the Space Needle is chiming in with an AR climb up the needle, complete with “monster attacks”, and a special menu with top chef Peter Yuen flown in from Hong Kong.) Can the Crew help Mister Li or Mama Chiang win? And what of the rumors of an underground wrestling gambling ring? Is the street sam ready to strip down, grease up, and partake in the nastiest one-day fight club that doesn’t permit kicks or strikes this side of the Pacific? Is the mage ready to gather all those “double yang”, doubly lucky reagents?

    Seattle’s most popular AR climbing game!

  10. Dongzhi Winter Solstice Festival. This is celebrated on the actual solstice. Getting together with family, and eating rice ball soup, dumplings, and/or hot pot (depending on where one's family is from, and how strict their traditions are.) After the ceremonies, the “year” is now older, making this an auspicious time for reagent gathering, spirit summoning, spirit releasing/banishing, and debt paying. Any and all of these fall within the Crew’s remit, making this a challenging and enriching holiday. As is gifting your Chinatown patron/Mr. Johnson an appropriate gift. And said gift had better be very appropriate, or the loss of miànzi could be catastrophic in the upcoming year...

    Kicking it Chinese style!

And just think, in a few months, it all starts again. There is a lot of adventure, fun, and runs to execute in just 3 blocks! With 10 holidays, and each having multiple runs for a good group with the right contacts, a GM could do an entire year's worth of runs. And by expanding their guanxi, and the careful management of their patrons miànzi, they could become virtually the Guardians of Chinatown…


*Dragon Gods brings up images of both the Sea Dragon, and Lung, Patron Dragon of China and the Rim of Fire. Do you dare run a game where the Crew, after eating zongzi, slowly transform into drakes? What has Mama Chiang gotten them into?


Saturday, August 14, 2021

Mr. Black's Guide to Creating Immersive Gaming - Part 2 Date Stamp Your Game

In this series we will be looking at methods to increase the immersion of your gaming universe. While these methods are intended for the Shadowrun milieu, most will work in other games or settings. 


Why increase immersion? Shadowrun is set on Earth, our Earth, just different. Creating that difference is key to making your game come alive. More than that, Shadowrun is a “city” game. Most of the time, your adventures will take place in cities, and usually the same city. And just like the song, cities never sleep. Because cities are full of people, and everyone is doing something, and something is always happening. We will be looking at easy ways to simulate that “hustle and bustle”. So let’s dig in and make your gameworld sing!


 A key method of creating immersive play is establishing a sense of the passage of time. Your players should feel the passing of the seasons and anticipate upcoming holidays and events. Mr. Black calls this “date stamping”. Date stamping does this through in-game events and conversations. Doing it in-game is part of the immersive effect. Doing it in a world so close to ours is what makes it work; your players don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of your game world to understand its holidays and seasons.  They are our own. Date stamping also creates anticipation and anxiety in your players. Time and events will pass them by if they let it. They will need to jump into your game head first to keep up. 



So what is “date stamping”? Date stamping is using non-diegetic tools and diegetic methods to establish a sense of time and place, and the passage of time. A simple example is letting the players know the Seattle Sonic Booms made the playoffs. Then later inform them that the Sonic Booms made the Finals. This example increases immersion in several ways. First, as per Part 1, we are using Proper Nouns. The Seattle Sonic Booms play in Seattle, and are a basketball team. So we are establishing place, and outside “civilian” agencies (sports teams, sports leagues and sports fans, and all of their associated social media) a time of year (late spring, early summer) and talking points for NPC’s (“Did you see the game last night?”) And the time difference between the start of the Playoffs and the Finals is usually about 45-60 days, so time has passed. That is a lot of immersion for a couple of sentences. There are many ways and methods of effecting this, so let’s look at a few.


Let’s start with Tools - A key tool for a GM interested in date stamping is a calendar they can write in. Whether this is a hardcopy or an electronic version or even Office is all up to the GM and how he/she prefers to work. One with moon cycles is extra fierce. After all, there is only one new moon every 28 days. If the runners want an extra dark night for every run, they are restricting themselves. Electronic/digital/app based calendars can give you alerts and updates. You could spend an afternoon putting in the rest of the items we will be talking about into your calendar, and then let the calendar remind you of everything! Currently Mr. Black likes the look and layout of Google Calendar. It also adds holidays for most every nation on Earth! Perfect for keeping track of celebrations in, say, Chinatown or Little Italy, or any other expat community in your game.


The internet is a great tool as well. As your game is set in a city, use the city’s many real internet sites to help you. As an example, try this: The Seattle Japanese Garden. This famous garden, designed over 60 years ago, has its own website and calendar of events. So why not use that calendar? 

Pretty nice for a free resource.

It even has amazing graphics to borrow! If you and your players can ignore the year, you could use this as is. Feed your Crew upcoming details, and then stage an event during one of the Garden’s events. Like say, a Meet during the fundraiser? Can the Crew’s hacker get them into a sold out event? You can peruse websites for the many many real places in the city your game is set in, and use their calendars of events to inspire your runs, and date stamp your game. That is a powerful and free tool!


Another great tool is some sort of brief news report at the start of every session. If you use the same one every time it helps create immersion by being local and familiar. Think about those crazy morning radios DJ shows, the ones with news, sports, traffic and weather combined with flirty banter and top of the charts songs. Steal the format, throw in some crazy, and use it as a tool to give your players all the info that follows. “This is KFRK in the morning! KFRK, all frak all the time! Randi and Randy here, along with Dottie on weather, The Meister talking Sonic Boom’s Basketball, Chopper 5 on traffic, and our special guest, Jim the Singing Sasquatch. We will have the BodyLotto number in a moment, but first, here’s Dottie talking about this Spring storm coming in. Dottie?”

So now we have basketball season, a traffic report, a bit with a Sasquatch and an incoming storm, perfect for making the rigger’s job harder later tonight. Again, a lot of world building for a little investment.

Like ‘em? Use ‘em, and tell everyone
Mr. Black hooked you up.

Now that we have an idea of how to track time, and how to interject it into your game, let’s look at select dates to stamp into your players consciousness.


Holidays are perhaps one of the best ways of date stamping. Christmas, New Years Eve/Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and (in the US) Independence Day all have powerful emotions tied to them. They also come with a powerful sense of time, weather and season attached to them. 2 are in the heart of winter. Easter literally represents Spring. July 4th is in the middle of Summer. And Halloween and Thanksgiving remind most of crisp fall days. Mentioning any of these holidays is sure to establish a sense of time and place in your players. Use them to your advantage. You don't want to pound your players over the head however. These holidays are so strong that a little goes a long way. You only need to note that Christmas decorations are going up or that fireworks stands are popping up for this to work. “Randi and Randy here wishing everyone a Happy Easter this weekend, and remember, loving moms put Choco-pops in those Easter Baskets. Choco-pops, the child’s choice in candies!”


Of course there are many, many other holidays you can use. Most big cities have a Chinatown (or its equivalents for Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc.,) and thus Chinese/Lunar New Year/Spring Festival are sure to be big. UCAS day is another good holiday to track. Other classic holidays such as Labor Day, May Day, or the many Shadowrun holidays can also be tracked. Seattle's Awakened Day celebration (the second Monday in December) and the Night of Rage memorial holiday (February 7th) are two major new days to track. Each section of Seattle has its own special holiday it celebrates, giving you more ways to date stamp your game AND give you some great hooks for adventure.


Seasons are another great method to establish time and place. Spring brings rain and green grass and flowers. Summer gives us warm weather and clear nights. Fall is famous for the changing of leaves, and crisp nights. And winter brings snow, cold days and long nights. These can be used by you to show the passage of time, and challenge your players. Snow and rain can try the skills of your rigger, a seasonal change can push your face to find new items to bribe/cajole their contacts (Lunar New Year/Spring Festival requires celebrants to pay all debts in full. Gifts of cash are also traditional, something hard to acquire in a digital world. The U.S. Treasury makes special bills just for such gift giving - Prosperity Notes) Every change of the year can bring excitement and new challenges for your Crew (“Who scheduled this Run on the equinox? All my spirits have slipped their bonds!” “Stash it omae! Just look at the roads! With all these people celebrating, it is going to take 2 hours to get downtown. And I bet you nuyen to soy nuggets that there will be no parking. I’ll be driving the van in circles all night!”)


Weather! It affects everything and no one can do anything about it. But it also tells you players what time of year it is. Even just casual weather reports, say as part of their morning wake up-“Rise and shine! It is a beautiful 26 degrees outside, with clear skies and a 5 kilometer wind coming out of the northwest. Should keep the ash from Mount Ranier out of play today. Air quality is at Green today, so get out and enjoy one of Seattle's many parks!” See, there is a lot of info there. It is nice and warm, sounds like summer right? So with a little throw away line we are creating time, space, and environment. And lots of roleplaying possibilities. Compare that to a snow report, rain information, storm watches, etc. Think about a run with a storm warning in the morning, and a slowly ticking clock of reports until the skies open up and travel is impossible. Never underestimate weather and the reporting of it to immersing your players! “Dottie here, reminding all Seattleites to get indoors. This is a Class 3 storm hitting in just about an hour. We already have reports of waterspouts on Lake Washington, and 2 inches of rain have already hit downtown. All ferry services have been postponed, and the airports are closed as well, though the Seattle-LA monorail is still running as scheduled. Back to you Randy!”


Holidays, climate and the 4 seasons are not the only markers of time. We have artificial seasons as well. Sports are great for this. Spring training kicks off Baseball, football, hockey and soccer start in the fall. Just throwing in a line from a mook, “How about those Seahawks?” instantly establishes a time and place for your players and their characters. And if just a line does that, imagine following that up with months of trials and tribulations of said team. This also can give you mission hooks, options for settings and locations, and rewards that aren’t cash or karma. “Get the Run done by Friday, midnight, and I have tickets, Seahawks and Steelers, 50 yard line. Enough for the whole crew, this Sunday.” “You have playoff tickets for us?!?” “ I do, if you get the job done early...” There, some imaginary pieces of paper might just make your players push their characters a little more recklessly. And with all the many many sports going on, there is always something to use. Throw in a major boxing or MMA event in town, or the tracking of a legendary music act on tour, as the days get closer and closer to the act hitting town, puts a clock on your game that no calendar ever could. “Stephan here with the Weekend Culture Report. Everyone who is anyone will be at the King Dome Saturday night, as the Chondelles return for a sold out show. Bring your goggles, the VR display is to die for. And back to The Meister and baseball.”


There is more than just traditional sports to indulge in. Big conventions (Seattle’s annual E3 show-Electronic Entertainment Expo is a major event, and a huge incentive for runs. The Seattle Comic-Con is still going strong) and e-sports are gigantic. Huge VR displays are set up for team sports, snarling traffic. And the annual Emerald City Rumble Urban Golf Tournament is gigantic. Tens of thousands of players hitting VR golf balls throughout Seattle makes a mess of traffic, both on roads and on foot. And the Hard Targets Charity Zombie Gun ‘n’ Run every Halloween (think Pokémon Go mixed with a live action first person shooter, but with zombies!) is another massive event. Throw in concerts, trideo premieres, fashion shows, food events, local trid shows, 10k’s, car shows, museum showings and much much more. Use them as run locations, or meet locations, or challenges on runs (“Drek! Our exit plan takes us right through a food truck extravaganza! Ditch the van and mingle!”) Use them all to give your players a sense of time and place. Drop hints (“Your girl really wants tickets to the Tretronics 3 concert in 4 weeks.” “That concert is in 2 weeks and your smootchie is blowing up your commlink.” “Why the hell is the traffic so bad tonight?” “Tretronics 3 is playing tonight. One night only. Weren’t you supposed to take your side piece?” “Oh drek…”)

You know we had to use it.
So use the world your game is in, and show your players a complete world, of time and dates, passing before their eyes. Immerse them in a world that does not wait for them, that will pass them faster than a bullet from an Ares Predator. Confound them with the one thing there is never enough of: time.