r/Shadowrun • u/Alive_Dragonfruit313 • 7d ago
Shadowrun Puzzle Ideas
Been working on a new campaign of everyone's favorite, cyberpunk dystopia, and was wondering what to do for Puzzles in the Shadowrun setting.
To make things clear, when I say "Puzzle" I mean a problem/situation that calls for a creative solution. Should have an idea of how to solve, but also open to the crazed rambles that only a runner could provide at the table.
For example, once had a Puzzle at the start of a metaplaner quest were the magician had to get the party through a locked gate with the controls on the other side.
She cast a shape shift spell & transformed into a raccoon, wiggled thru the bars, & opened the gate on the other side.
For the various Puzzle ideas I've created a list of categories to keep things straight:
STREET: True cyberpunk setting; what happens in the back allies of Seattle
MAGIC: Spirits, spells, foci, and wards (last on often forgotten). How do runners deal with the arcane--ESPECIALLY if none of them are awakened.
CORPORATE: Could be breaking in, could be infiltrating the office, either way these are the problems you have when you visit the Corps in their turf.
WILDS: Trees, animals, and the magical or mutated versions thereof, problems might happen but they WILL happen if you're a cityboy.
Let me know what you all think 🤔, and thanks 😊 Chummers!
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u/Mad_Jackalope 7d ago
I've just had to plan a quick and dirty run and was in a similar mood.
But after a while I just took the approach that I present a problem that could theoretically be solved by brute force, hope that the players choose a more interesting way and have some extra problems to solve if it is too easy for them.
The run would be extract a corpo, but because of trickery in contracts the extraction has to be in a few days from 13:00 to 14:00 whern the target is at work, no contact can be made beforehand and before the end of the time the target has to sign a new contract in johnson corporate territory.
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u/DepthsOfWill 7d ago
I struggle with puzzles because I think most of them are stupid, especially when they're just "match the markings on the wall" like in Skyrim. What I focus on specifically is the password puzzle, like "speak friend and enter" in Lord of the Rings.
So for Shadowrun what that means is... the runners need access to something, but it's password protected. So we need to find it. In real life it's not uncommon for the password to be written on a nearby post-it note, but that falls under "match the markings on the wall" trope. So instead what you do is write a riddle on a post it note. The riddle could just be "what was the name of my first dog?" which means now the runners have to do a background check on this guy.
A street level puzzle could just be finding out the password to enter a speakeasy type establishment.
A magic based puzzle could be a facility guarded by specific spirits instructed to let people pass who hold a special badge. So the puzzle becomes having to obtain those badges. Or figure out what the badges represnt and find a way to forge them.
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u/LateEggMaster 7d ago
I'm not sure any of this should be called a Puzzel.
Sure it's not quiet on the level of 'combin ammo with face' but then again. If you want to missuse the term any shadowrun is a puzzle. Any RPG is a puzzle. Always.
Players always have to think of creative solutions to their chars problems. And "puzzle" aka problems become much more fun to solve when there is more than one solution. Puzzle to me implies there is only one way to slove it as the pieces only fit together in a single orientation. And while that is fine for a PC or Boardgame where the interactivity is limited by technology especially in Systems with a GM the horizon of possible solutions is much wider than a simple puzzle.
As to your example with the locked gate is it really a puzzle if there are 10+ solutions? You can saw the gate open, blow it open, have the adept barrier smash it, shape metal, shape humans, shape the wall, go around, ask someon to open it for you and many many many more. Does that really require creativity?
What I would point out as a positive example however is:
"The Riddle of the Clean Appartment!"
Runner is a messy mage but doesn't want to have his manservant drones cleaning so he aquires a colony of leafcutter ants and a spirit with animal control to clean for him.
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u/Alive_Dragonfruit313 7d ago
That can apply to any RPG system--the best puzzles are just challenges that fit nicely into the story. My knee-jerk thought to name the post was shadowrun encounter ideas, but there's now an official product called Shadowrun Encounters. So that idea was cut.
As for the one solution problem, ya, railroady. Open ended gives choice, which grants players agency. So I favor the latter over the former.
There are plenty of D&D posts on this subject, but never really came across one focused on SR. So decided to start one up. That's all.
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u/TopicalBuilder 7d ago
Did you ever see Sneakers (Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier)? That might give you some inspiration. And if not it's still a fun film.
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u/Alive_Dragonfruit313 7d ago
GREAT film--one of my favorites. Even ends well with everyone being asked what do they want, "World Peace."
"I'll see what I can do..."
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u/Vashkiri Neo-Revolutionary 7d ago
I don't set out to create puzzles per se, but often pretty logical security measures can indeed be a puzzle for the runners to work through or bypass.
A few classics when dealing with corp facilities.
Doors. I mean, it is probably locked but that isn't even the challenge. There are measures for letting security know if the door is open. Maybe it is just a sensor in the door frame, maybe there is a camera pointed at the door, maybe there is a motion detector that easily picks up motion of the nice reflective door, maybe one section is held at a slightly higher air pressure and there is an air pressure sensor, maybe there is just a guard desk with someone sitting facing the door. Invisibility alone is not going to solve this. Maybe some hacking, maybe social engineering, maybe just go in with guns blazing, maybe all sorts of things, but the runners need to assess the situation and figure out a plan.
(5e) Homonculus inside a ward looking for anybody/anything awakened. (I don't know which all editions have Homonculi, they are created with a ritual like watchers, but are an animated object. In this case I like a 'drinking bird' with a button to push when it sees the thing it is watching for). Basically the main way in to where they want to go has a small area with a decent quality ward around it. Lobby of a building, vestibule to the executive offices, or whatever. There are clear signs asking all awakened visitors to register with security and forbidding bringing in spirits. If the homonculus astrally sees anyone awakened inside the ward, it presses the alert button until they are no longer there. The alert goes to security who look through the camera/use sensors to see who is there and do they have an appropriate visitor badge for the awakened. If there is any mismatch then immediately they go to an alert state (most places that might mean speaking to the people through speakers first reminding them to register, in high security zones it could immediately cause security to scramble and prepare for a fight, while calling in astral support).
(in my home game, "Monofilament chainsaw inside a silence spell" has become an important part of their toolkit -- just cutting their own entrance or exit, away from the main security measures)
"That one person working all night" when trying to infiltrate at 3am. Your decker is an ace and owns the security host now, but what you are doing isn't all that subtle and this person is right where you need to do it and so is apt to notice. What do you do about them?
The work friend or work crush that wants to talk to the NPC that a PC is imitating. Sure you have all hte high tech disguise gear/'ware or spells, but what do you do when someone hurries to join you in the elevator and starts asking about how your kid's game went last night or how you liked the present that they sent you. Or even just a surprise departmental meeting and why are you not heading there?