Today I’d like to showcase some thoughts I’ve had on Shadowrun adventures… thoughts I’ve had for YEARS. At least over a decade at this point. Ever since Shadowrun has existed, I’ve been a fan of the setting. I’ve really enjoyed the game over the years in various incarnations (ask me about my time playing Shadowrun on MUXes back in the 90s-early 2000s) and I’ve done a lot of thinking about what I would do with it as a creator.
So what are MOHAWKS? There’s been a saying about Shadowrun gameplay over the years, comparing different styles of being Shadowrunners. Imagine a spectrum, which goes from one end (called Mohawks) to the other (called Mirrorshades). “Mirrorshades” is a style of Shadowrun that focuses on acting “smart” and “professional,” where the shadowrunners themselves are encouraged to be (and act) realistic criminal-types who are highly cautious and suspicious of others. A good example of this style would be the film Ronin.
“Mohawks,” on the other hand, celebrate the… stranger aspects of Shadowrun’s setting, and focuses on the “punk” part of cyberpunk. In fact, the name “Mohawks” refers to the eponymous hairstyle which is often associated with shadowrunners of this style. Mohawk games would probably be similar to the Johnny Mnemonic film.
With that explanation out of the way, let’s talk about MOHAWKS. This (all-caps) title refers to a series of adventures–admittedly, somewhat off-the-wall adventures–that I would love to write for Shadowrun. The MOHAWKS series, like the name, aims to explore and highlight some of the weirder, albeit charming, aspects of the Shadowrun setting.
Without any further ado, here are those ideas:
All Elves Go to Heaven: In this adventure, the Shadowrunners are hired by an elven mob boss to make sure that his daughter succeeds in her astral initiation quest. If you’re not sure what “astral initiation quest” means, I’ll try to explain succinctly: the daughter is a mage, and she wants to get more powerful as a mage, and one of the ways to do this is to step through a gate created by a spirit and enter the meta-planes, a realm of metaphor, dreams, etc. This is not an easy task, and she could fail or otherwise die in the meta-planes. So the Shadowrunners are sent with her into the astral quest, leading to all kinds of shenanigans. I’ve actually run this adventure at Genghiscon back in 2015!
Send in the Trolls: This scenario involves trolls, one of the lesser-developed species in the Shadowrun setting. Ideally, I’d love this adventure to involve magically disguising the shadowrunners as trolls (yes, ALL TROLLS ALL THE TIME) to investigate a threat. I’d want to involve as many situations as possible where being a troll causes problems–prejudice, too-small items and places, people thinking you’re far tougher/stronger than you actually are, etc. Very likely a troll biker gang would feature in this adventure as well.
Only a Ninja Can Kill a Ninja: Like the title says, this adventure involves shadowy martial arts enthusiasts. “Physical adepts” in Shadowrun are people who have magically-enhanced physical abilities, including stealth, swordplay, and other ninja-like factors. This adventure involves the Shadowrunners being hired to kill a particularly effective physical adept assassin… which is likely far harder than it sounds! Naturally, this adventure would also play up all the crazy legends that have sprung up around ninjas themselves and physical adepts in the Shadowrun world.
Who Let the Barghests Out?: Based on the popular song from the year 2000 (god, I’m OLD), this adventure involves the use of metacritters (basically, magically-active animals that resemble fantasy monsters) by corporations, including using them as “guard dogs” or for experimental purposes. The Shadowrunners are hired by a PETA-like organization to infiltrate a corporate research facility and make sure all the metacritters inside are released humanely into the wild.
And Maybe More?
If you’ve got any great ideas for an adventure that explores the stranger aspects of Shadowrun’s setting, let me know! I may add it to the list someday.