Vacation from Hell

Introduction

This is a whimsical idea for a plot that I got from listening to a friend describe a particularly harrowing adventure he had on his own vacation. In short, we’ve all been there. This plot line is good to lighten the mood of a more serious campaign, and can be a great deal of fun for your players. Please note that this run has very little in the way of monetary compensation, so it is recommended you award more Karma than you normally would for a run. Believe me, the team will earn it.

Setting the Stage

This scenario works best when run in conjunction with another run that was particularly tough for the team. The corporation/organization was impressed with the results from the team’s last run, and Mr. Johnson has decided that though he cannot compensate them any further with straight nuyen, the team does deserve something for their outstanding performance. So Mr. Johnson arranges for them First Class accommodations at a Caribbean resort for one week, as well as First Class air fare.

The players will be given all the necessary passes and all of the necessary fees will be paid. A free vacation, the sort of thing that most shadowrunners can only dream about! Unfortunately, this is not going to be much of a vacation. In fact, everything that can go wrong, does.

The players’ first indication of trouble will be arriving at the airport. They will get bumped from their flight and have to wait for several hours before getting a new one. After a long, exhausting wait, they finally manage to board the plane, only to find out that First Class has been overbooked, and now they are stuck in coach.

The flight is miserably long and the service is as far below sub-standard as you can make it. Be sure to place at least one of the most irritable of your players next to a very irritating NPC. The flight attendants are slow, rude and clumsy. Spilled drinks, food they wouldn’t serve to prisoners and several annoying children running about the cabin and annoying the runners at almost every opportunity should complete their flight from hell.

Finally the team arrives on the calm, warm and gentle shores of the tiny Caribbean island. The flight is over, and now the players can look forward to a vacation in paradise. Well, maybe they could if their luggage had arrived. In fact, the only player who can locate anything that looks like his luggage should be your largest or most powerful street samurai (a physad will do in a pinch). Unfortunately for this hapless Sam, this is not actually his luggage. It actually belongs to a woman from Detroit that weighs 500 lbs and has a real thing for flowery pink muumuus. Be sure to have lots of fun with the customs agent as he examines this tough guy’s luggage and finds that he is a cross dresser, and one with horrible taste to boot.

You can have even more fun once the team is through customs having this 500 lb lady come to reclaim her luggage. This of course is optional, but if the street sam does decide to defend himself from her flailing purse he should lose Karma points if he actually hurts her.

It takes a great deal of time to find a cab, and when they finally get to the hotel, they find that their reservations have been lost and the hotel is also overbooked. Make sure that the hotel desk staff is snotty, unhelpful and generally adds to the team’s dismay. When they leave the hotel, the cab driver takes pity on them and invites them to his home.

The cab driver and his family have a modest home on the island, a very modest one. But they welcome the runners with open arms. Let them spend a few days enjoying the island’s scenery and basically recovering from all of the problems of the last several days. Then have the local police stop by and try to arrest the cab driver as a revolutionary. The runners should intercede, after all he has been very nice to them. Even if they don’t, a revolution begins. The runners must decide if they wish to help their new found friends in overthrowing the fascist regime currently in power, or if they’d rather stay out of it. If they seem reluctant to assist the cab driver, you can force the issue by having the government declare them as terrorists and mercenaries hired by the rebels.

The revolution can offer a wide variety of challenges to your team, and can help them regain a sense of self worth for doing the right thing rather than getting paid to do whatever some Johnson wants them to do. Once the government has been overthrown, give them a week or two at the hotel as guests of the cab driver, the new president of the island, then send them home.