While the normal Shadowrun timeline includes events designed to shake up the collective lives of those living in 2050, sometimes a GM may wish to interject an event that has a little bit more power than, say, the death of Dunkelzahn (an egomaniac; I don’t miss him). I’m talking about events on a near global level that may effect the lives of each and every person on the planet. When such an event occurs it may result in the full mobilization of every runner on the planet as corporations, governments, security forces, etc. snatch up every available resource in an attempt to gain an upper hand in the ensuing chaos. Even your friends may be hired by a force that opposes your employer - thus making them your enemies.

Here are a few ideas that may help your world of chaos get going. Keep in mind that once you introduce a shakeup of the magnitude that I’m suggesting, you will almost certainly blow the standard Shadowrun timeline to pieces.

Internal Strife

This category of events can range from high powered skirmishes between to opposing governmental parties to full scale civil war within a given state or country. Governmental agencies ranging from the IRS to the military split into different camps and wage a clandestine or open war against one another. The services provided by these agencies is severely disrupted, resulting in riots as two revenue services both attempt to collect taxes or a neighboring country launches an invasion due to the disarray in the country’s security forces. The effects of the breakup may reverberate right down to the streets, and you may find that your most trusted contacts have allied with a ideological camp directly opposed to your own.

Runners would have a ball in such a situation and mercenaries would be in ecstasy. Requests for assassinations, extractions, misinformation, surgical strikes, the seizure of important resources, etc. would soar as each opposing party tries to gain a stranglehold on their enemies. Even foreign elements may get involved, hiring runners to work for or against the governments they feel would best further their interests. Just be careful: If you end up working for the losers, you may have a hard time getting hold of your pay-check.

Fall Of A Nation

A given country or state falls into anarchy, perhaps because of mismanagement, ruthless oppression, or simple chaos theory. The situation isn’t nearly as clear cut as a civil war as the fallen nation’s people divide into a thousand different ideological and military camps. The effects of the fall reverberate far past the boundaries of the nation as the resources the country once provided become scarce, effecting the global political and economic environment. Thousands - perhaps millions - of refugees pour out the afflicted nation and into more stable ones, straining local resources and causing strife among existing residents.

A runner may be hired to try to help elevate a specific group to power, snag data or supplies from unguarded factories and research labs, or simply keep the internal war hot by motivating the opposing forces to stay at each others throats. A corporation may have a facility based in the country and need to extract their own personnel who are being held by a renegade military faction or the runners may act as intelligence agents for a surrounding nation who is considering invasion. The emotion of paranoia would come much into play during such a situation; with 1000 different enemies, every friend will seem precious - and dangerous.

Full Scale Corporate War

When I say “full scale”, I mean no holds barred war Hell; not the clandestine, underground stuff runners normally engage in. The Renraku and Aztech archologies exchange missile fire, hundreds of assassins are hired to waste the opposition’s personnel, research factories the world over become the targets of surreptitious or overt military action and, in the end, one of the corps is beat up so badly that it may actually fold.

The runners would be able to find employment with either of the opposing corps, additional corps who have preferences as to who they would like to see fall, or state/country in which the company is located who are sick of seeing their nation getting torn apart. Mercenaries could find work battling in the once peaceful streets of the city and runners would have much to do as they help to misinform, extract, assassinate, steal, or cripple a corporation into nonexistence.

High Magnitude Paranormal Event

An paranormal event occurs that effects virtually effects everybody on the planet on a significant level. Examples are another wave of Goblinization, the creation of a new race, the development of a new, high powered magical discipline, or the extreme warping of the way magic works. Entire cities are destroyed by runaway paranormal creatures; mages and shamans discover their power has increased two fold - or been virtually eliminated; and the scientists in every magical research facility on the globe work constantly in an attempt to discover what’s going on or how they can harness this new power - or destroy a new, violent race.

Runners may be hired to steal magical research, snag ‘cures’ for new forms of Goblinization, help to eliminate a global magical Threat that makes all others seem puny by comparison, or simply work to discover why their prized mage has suddenly lost all of his power. Since the event is magical in nature, the GM has some control over the situation and can simply ‘turn it off’ if things get too insane.

Plague

A disease rockets around the globe producing effects similar to the VITAS plagues of the early 21st century. From friends to government leaders, the effects are felt. The global economic and political construct is shattered as depopulation creates a run on personnel resources. And then there’s the fear. Riots erupt everywhere as rumors fly as to who is responsible for the disease - if anybody.

The runners may be hired to steal or find a cure for the plague, incriminate or decriminate a corporation that may or may not be responsible for the situation, or simply find a magical herb that will cure the wife/husband of the group’s leader. They may have to work on a lower, community level in order to help dispose of the dead to treat the afflicted members of their local shadowrunning community. They may find they have to band together with enemies in this time of strife - or flee from forces determined to make the situation work to their advantage.