Have you ever played in a living campaign?
If you’ve ever played a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) like Shadowrun or Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know what an adventure module is. As a quick refresher for those who don’t know, an adventure module is a pre-written adventure that fits into a TTRPG world. Shadowrun features several of these, such as the recent book Asphalt Jungles, that takes you on 40 separate missions across Motor City (formerly known as Detroit). There are other modules that are more open-ended, made to adapt into a Gamemaster’s (GM) current campaign. Sometimes these are built to be played in certain areas that players can travel to, and other times the location is left vague enough that the module can be played wherever the player characters happen to be. A good example of this is the Battle Royale mission from the Shadowrun Beginner Box, which ostensibly takes place in the Seattle sprawl but can be moved to nearly any Stuffer Shack you want in the setting.
One of the most exciting campaign types I’ve ever played in or ran was always the “living campaign.” These are extremely popular in the TTRPG space; regular adventure releases from your favorite studios and creators that chain together a series of missions that would affect the world as a whole in weird and wonderful ways. Some of these were canon campaigns, like one of my favorites, the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: Age of Worms adventure path that was released in Dungeon Magazine from July 2005 to June 2006. Others are more structured and combine the efforts of hundreds or thousands of players. Two standout campaign systems of this type are Paizo’s organized play systems, the thriving Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society.
The Catalyst RPG Division does something a bit different from either of these examples using the Shadowrun Missions framework. This living campaign initially launched during Shadowrun Fourth Edition and has continued through all of Shadowrun Sixth World, and is currently led by Aaron Dykstra, who is the driving force behind all new Missions content. This narrative adventure series features top Shadowrun writers and guests that have each injected a new sense of what Shadowrun is into each mission. These designers will have a profound impact on the voice of any given entry, like Jeremy Speerstra and Patrick Bryant’s recent entry with SRM 2081-13: A Cookie From Uncle Lung. This run involved working for the Octagon Triad in an oddly political job to not only grab a famed Chinese statue, but to snub a rival Triad and Lone Star Security in one stroke. And with Aaron behind the scenes, these separate adventures are woven into a well-crafted whole!
The really cool thing about these missions though? As a part of a living campaign, it’s easy for a GM to pick up a single mission and either start their runner team there in the middle of the story, grab the first of the series and experience the entire adventure set, or insert a few of them in their existing campaign. As is the nature of Shadowrun, runners can easily find themselves flying across the world to do a job in Neo-Tokyo as with SRM 10-05: The Out of Body Experience, then to Cairo for SRM Legends 2083-04: Nile Gambit: Cave of Shadows, before settling back home in Seattle for SRM 2081-05: This is Renton. The ability to mix and match these missions in this setting really is boundless!
The agents in the Catalyst Demo Team are wonderful in this regard. Agents will run SRM content at large conventions, local shows, and their homebase local game stores! It is only with the effort they put behind Missions that we can show how cool this adventure series can be, especially when they have amazing game moments in places like the Shadowrun room at Gen Con!
If you enjoy Shadowrun, it’s worth it to check out the Shadowrun Missions series if you haven’t already. These adventures offer new GMs a chance to understand the world of Shadowrun while giving a framework to how to write their own missions in the future. Experienced GMs will enjoy seeing new perspectives on the Sixth World and will have more resources that they can throw at their players. No matter what, there are amazing ideas here that all GMs will find use for, whether they use Shadowrun Missions as a building block, a campaign itself, or something in between!
- Meical Kingfisher, Marketing Manager
