Hi In Urban Patron

[The Pakkrat]

A city runner (on-foot courier) accidentally runs into and knocks down a PC. She drops a courier’s canister in their hands with a few thousand credits on a credit rod and begs the character to act normal and get the package to the drop-off destination. She then runs off and is soon chased by underworld thugs, anarchic gangers, corporate agents or the local law enforcement. The character must safely get to the destination on the canister with the contents intact.

Tangeletta Pentalot 6A9986, female Imperium Vilani, age 22, Admin 0, Athletics (Endurance) 1, Blade 1, Broker 1, Carouse 0, Comms 0, Computer 0, Navigation 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 0, Trade (Information) 0, Unarmed Combat 1 Handcomputer/1, WristComm, running shoes, ballistic cloth w/Reflec

The character has only a short amount of time before the pursuers realize that “Tangie” no longer has the package and they start backtracking. They are armed with both non-lethal and lethal weaponry though they do not wish to attract attention.

Inside the canister is a large vial of what might be Darrian Lizard Juice, stolen from the ruins of a pre-Maghiz Darrian Outpost on Epsilon Moon, Bowman (Spinward Marches 1132).

1. The “lizard juice” is meant for the courier’s baby brother who has leprosy. The serum will compensate for the child’s lack of ability to heal naturally. Medic (Edu) Difficult (-4 DM) to identify the serum.

2. The serum is from Bowman; however it is a close mock-up fake. It is a fraudulent ‘find’ peddled by belters who sold it for an exorbitant amount. Medic(Edu) Difficult (-4 DM) to discover its fraudulence.

3. The money is the true package while the green serum is just a fake distraction. It was stolen from a Patron and Tangeletta hopes to reunite with the credit rod at the drop-off and reward the character with a cut of the stolen funds.

4. The serum is a deadly poison meant to be spread in its pump spray. A single sprits into the air can kill a bus-load of people not wearing their filter masks. Everyone will want their hands on it for factional reasons.

5. The serum is a symbiotic algae airplant that is sprayed into the recipient’s lungs via a pump sprayer. Residing in a small section of the lungs, the algae cleans and provides air. The Sector filter manufacturer wants this prototype algae destroyed before their monopoly on filter masks is jeopardized.

6. The courier’s drop point is a recruitment headhunting for the character. Tangeletta is helping her boss bring in new city runners. She will pick the healthiest character to tag for the task. Since runners are paid "under the table", various groups want runners expunged from the streets. Being seen with or acting as a runner will mark the character as wanted, a system cracks dweller.

 

[atpollard]

Pretty interesting ideas.

 

[coliver988]

I like it as well - easy drop-in patron encounter.

 

[The Pakkrat]

While on a High-Population, Industrial world of TL9+, the player-character with the most to-do with Computer Skill and gear receives a compressed e-mail. Before the attached file can be downloaded to the character’s computer, laptop, handcomputer or high-tech computer weave, the file has a sub-protocol to de-compress and then download. A warning or error message will require the use of an empty Data Wafer (Mongoose Core Rulebook pg. 92) of TL 10+ to contain the large folder of several files. At the top of the folder of virtual files is a ReadMe file.

Referee: Select the character with both Computer skill and easily misspelled name or planetary Identification, in this case a Traveller mistaken for a local. The ‘Patron’ has inadvertently e-mailed the character the entire package.

The ReadMe file contains a text-only set of directions. Taking the time to read the file gives the hidden virus program embedded in the file to attack any Security/X programs and threaten the computer in which the folder attachment has been downloaded. In the text, the ReadMe requests the recipient to deliver the entire folder now in the device to a target recipient listed in the text, pay to be rendered upon delivery. While all the files can be skimmed, only well-Educated characters can make sense of the files, taking time and effort in decrypting the data and images tightly packed upon or atop each other virtually.

Referee: Set any difficulty and time increment worthy of the deciphering character to make sense of the files within the folder. Differences in Technology Level can hinder or aid the character as desired.

1. The folder contains schematics, translations and images of finished products of pre-Maghiz, Darrian technology, starship, software, medical breakthrough, captured recordings or other sensitive information from Darrian of the times. The information is historically and technologically valuable to the right persons. The ReadMe asks the characters to get the download device to the local, planetary Darrian embassy as it has been stolen from an archaeological expedition to the Darrian Outpost on Epsilon Moon, Bowman (Spinward Marches 1132). The antagonists can be:
A. Imperial Interstellar Scout Service who unearthed the files
B. Darrian Exiles looking to win their way back into the Darrian Confederation
C. Ling Standard Products, LIC who claim they own all purchased rights to Epsilon Moon
D. Imperial Navy who has tracked the files’ ship transits to the current world
E. Imperial Navy Intelligence whom have lost Agents due to the frequent changing of hands of the folder’s files.
F. Assassins from the Nobility who want to silence the presence of the data for the good of economy or Imperium security

2. The folder holds the motive, high-tech means, the prototype murder weapon, the identity and activities of a Noble recently slain by a Rival Noble. Getting the data to a Darrian embassy can ensure objectivity is upheld as the incriminating evidence makes its way to the halls of subsector justice.

3. The folder holds the software specs and compact coding of an Artificial Intelligence dormant within the files. The original hardware has been off-lined because its creators have decided to end their project before this learning AI gains self-aware sentience. The ReadMe file is a plea from the ‘sleeping’ AI for emigration from its former masters and into a mobile platform complex enough and capable of escaping the megacorporation that coded it.

4. The folder holds the designs for a planetary Meson Gun that has been stolen and ended in the hands of the character. Authorities will be backtracking the e-mail’s download location and coming to arrest (or assassinate) the recipient.
A. The original, intended e-mail recipient was intent on selling the weapon schematics to the highest bidder in the Vargr Extents, the Sword Worlds, the Darrian Confederation, the Aslan Hierate or the Zhodani Consulate.
B. The original recipient is legally licensed to courier the schematics but a misspelling has now incriminated the character by possession alone.
C. While the designs are working schematics, the files also contain a sting operation meant to help law enforcement and/or Imperial Naval Intelligence to track down data Sellers and Buyers in the shadowy black market. Now the characters must race to clear their names.

5. The entire folder and its files are a hacktivist prank meant to expose the overcautious and paranoid reactive regime and its merciless tech-hunters. Knowing they are being watched for extremely large up- or downloads on the local planetary network, the hactivists intend to watch and record as planetary Agents hunt the characters.

6. Oops! The folder’s files contain a recipe book for anarchy that some kid tried to compile and send to a friend as a college term paper on the hazards of being lax on network security monitoring. Most of the articles in the files are TL 7 or 8 in nature.

Referee: Payment for delivery can be in credits in whatever mode from each version of the story chosen.

 

[Enoki]

A city runner (on-foot courier) accidentally runs into and knocks down a PC. She drops a courier’s canister in their hands with a few thousand credits on a credit rod and begs the character to act normal and get the package to the drop-off destination. She then runs off and is soon chased by underworld thugs, anarchic gangers, corporate agents or the local law enforcement. The character must safely get to the destination on the canister with the contents intact.

Tangeletta Pentalot 6A9986, female Imperium Vilani, age 22, Admin 0, Athletics (Endurance) 1, Blade 1, Broker 1, Carouse 0, Comms 0, Computer 0, Navigation 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 0, Trade (Information) 0, Unarmed Combat 1 Handcomputer/1, WristComm, running shoes, ballistic cloth w/Reflec

The character has only a short amount of time before the pursuers realize that “Tangie” no longer has the package and they start backtracking. They are armed with both non-lethal and lethal weaponry though they do not wish to attract attention.

Inside the canister is a large vial of what might be Darrian Lizard Juice, stolen from the ruins of a pre-Maghiz Darrian Outpost on Epsilon Moon, Bowman (Spinward Marches 1132).

1. The “lizard juice” is meant for the courier’s baby brother who has leprosy. The serum will compensate for the child’s lack of ability to heal naturally. Medic (Edu) Difficult (-4 DM) to identify the serum.

2. The serum is from Bowman; however it is a close mock-up fake. It is a fraudulent ‘find’ peddled by belters who sold it for an exorbitant amount. Medic(Edu) Difficult (-4 DM) to discover its fraudulence.

3. The money is the true package while the green serum is just a fake distraction. It was stolen from a Patron and Tangeletta hopes to reunite with the credit rod at the drop-off and reward the character with a cut of the stolen funds.

4. The serum is a deadly poison meant to be spread in its pump spray. A single sprits into the air can kill a bus-load of people not wearing their filter masks. Everyone will want their hands on it for factional reasons.

5. The serum is a symbiotic algae airplant that is sprayed into the recipient’s lungs via a pump sprayer. Residing in a small section of the lungs, the algae cleans and provides air. The Sector filter manufacturer wants this prototype algae destroyed before their monopoly on filter masks is jeopardized.

6. The courier’s drop point is a recruitment headhunting for the character. Tangeletta is helping her boss bring in new city runners. She will pick the healthiest character to tag for the task. Since runners are paid "under the table", various groups want runners expunged from the streets. Being seen with or acting as a runner will mark the character as wanted, a system cracks dweller.

What happens if the player just tosses the canister in the closest rubbish bin and heads for the nearest place to cash out that credit stick?

If it was me, that's what I'd do. I have zero compunction to do the runner's job since I have no incentive to do it and plenty to make money for the "cash stick" I was handed.

 

[atpollard]

What happens if the player just tosses the canister in the closest rubbish bin and heads for the nearest place to cash out that credit stick?

If it was me, that's what I'd do. I have zero compunction to do the runner's job since I have no incentive to do it and plenty to make money for the "cash stick" I was handed.

The adventure proceeds normally.

The pursuers will still track back to the hand-off and pursue you.
They have to catch you to discover that you don't have it.
They may or may not believe you.


... A different adventure, but still an adventure.

(Frankly, every time I plan for two or three possible PC actions, they tend to come up with something that I had not thought of. So I just roll with it.)