Hey folks, I'm beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that the Shadowrun writers had no clear idea about what they wanted to do with Halley's Comet. It's the only explanation I could possibly come up with for Wake of the Comet's aggressive, unshakeable neutrality about this particular bit of metaplot.
The Probe Race is a funky little bit of crime-drama-meets-cold-war-style-espionage that was introduced in Year of the Comet. Halley's Comet is coming towards Earth and all these various megacorps with a commercial interest in space want to earn bragging rights by sending a probe to take pictures, gather readings, etc. And the "first leg" of the race, the various attempt to intercept the comet as it was approaching Earth, devolved into a comedy of errors, as every single attempt was sabotaged by some shadowrun or another.
That's actually a pretty solid bit of metaplot. It's funny, it's high-concept, it suggests any number of adventures (my advice: have the PCs sabotage one of the probes, and then have them immediately get hired to sabotage the probe of their most recent employer - the campaign will be legendary).
What Wake of the Comet is about is the "second leg" of the race. Halley's Comet has reached the lowest point of its orbit, swung back around, and is now heading towards deep space. The few megacorps that were too proud to just let things drop after the "first leg" debacle are now racing to send a probe as the comet flies away from Earth. And as a series of adventures, it has absolutely nothing to say for itself.
They're fine adventures, mind you. Maybe a little stuck in the published adventures' habit of sending runners to anywhere but Seattle, but it's got a good bit of variety. Run an elaborate false-flag kidnapping on behalf of a dangerously amateur Johnson in French Guiana. Engage in a tricky bit of diplomacy as you attempt to bargain a piece of Yamatetsu's space debris away from the Algonkian-Manitou village that found it first (and before the Yamatetsu security goons come to seize it by force). Go to space to plant a virus that will destroy one of the two remaining probes.
All very interesting and challenging shadowruns. But what are the stakes? What's so important about this damned comet that makes it matter who wins the probe race?
I guess, from a worldbuilding perspective, it doesn't have to matter. Corporations do pointless shit, mercenaries get paid to pointlessly thwart them, the cycle of commerce. Certainly not outside the realm of trenchant late-capitalist satire.
And the first adventure does technically have global consequences. Some weird scientist dude hires you to temporarily kidnap his rival, so that the corporation is forced to adopt his plan for the rocket's on-board tech (which I guess is something that corporate scientists might care about), but it turns out the rival is actually a deep-cover plant by Winternight, the apocalyptic cult. He was going to sneak a nuclear bomb on the rocket so it would divert Halley's Comet into a collision with Earth, somehow bringing on Fimbulwinter instead of being an utter shitshow, even by apocalyptic cult standards.
It's a strange plot, because theoretically it's possible for the PCs to behave entirely reasonably and just miss out on the apocalypse stuff. Halfway through the adventure, while the PCs are babysitting the kidnapped rival, the cult tracks down Johnson, gets all the info, and the uses a Physical Mask spell to call the runners in the guise of Mr Johnson, instructing them to release the prisoner early.
And the whole second half of the adventure (and subsequently, the fate of the world), depends on the PCs finding this suspicious enough to not just go, "okay, you're the boss, so can we just come and pick up the other half of our payment whenever . . . "
It probably helps that Winternight decided to treat the situation like a ransom hand-off, taking elaborate precautions to make sure the PCs wouldn't harm the rival. Like, sure, maybe if you just say "abort mission" the PCs will kill the guy in order to tie up loose ends, but they were hired to "keep him out of the way." If they thought their employer was going to burn them, they probably wouldn't toss in a free assassination. They're much more likely to turn the rival loose out of spite.
I know, I know, Winternight doesn't want to take those kind of chances when the fate of the world is at stake, but Brian Shoener did, in the writing of the adventure "The Messenger."
The middle adventure, "Catch a Falling Star" (Davidson Cole, Andy Frades, and Rich Tomasso) was probably the most interesting of the three in terms of structure. It's a delicate situation, calling for careful diplomacy and the navigation of competing social factions (some of the villagers want to sell the Macguffin, some want leverage it for megacorporate support of the Manitou separatist movement, and some want to chuck it in the river and forget they ever saw it). And the only real pitfall I see is that if you play it wrong, it will become the story of a bunch of white Americans coming in and stealing the Native Americans' shit. At one point, it warns against taking a violent approach by noting that "they are outnumbered at least 50 to 1, and that the Manitou are well armed, know the area and have strong magic."
Not mentioned: it would be a really bad fucking look. Like you and your friends are going to recap the session next week, freeze in horror as you realize what you did, and then take a break from roleplaying for at least a year, maybe permanently. So, you know, just a heads up there.
Though, to be fair to the adventure, the worst-case scenario isn't anywhere close to the intended resolution. I guess it just feels a little sketchy, to my contemporary sensibilities, to soft-lock the option behind a "you dumbasses are definitely going to get yourselves killed if you try this" instead of confronting it head-on in a sidebar.
The final adventure, "The Price of Liberty" (Michelle Lyons and Malik Toms) is probably the most frustrating of the three. "The Messenger" may have had the basic issue of all save-the-world plots where success means nothing interesting happens. And "Catch a Falling Star" may have concluded by saying the Macguffin was totally worthless, no matter who got ahold of it. But this adventure ends by giving your PCs the power to declare a definitive, unambiguous winner to the Probe Race, complete with one of those mail-in "vote on the future of the metaplot" sheets that we've seen from time to time, without ever communicating even a glimmer of broader setting implications tied to the choice.
But I don't necessarily want to put all of that on the adventure itself. I think it's probably a more general flaw in 3e's editorial strategy. There's kind of an implication that the stakes of the Probe Race are that the winner gets to be the first (and perhaps only) group to know what the deal is with that funky comet, but it seems like the final consensus for the line was "oh, I guess there was no deal, the comet was just a little funky."
I wonder if maybe this was tied to the transition from FASA to Fanpro? When the edition first started, they had all sorts of plans and ideas, but then the new publishers took over and all they had was a stack of notes, without any of the associated vision?
Maybe, but even if it's true, I'm guessing it's only part of the story. Except for Saito and the new Japanese Emperor, Year of the Comet seemed pretty eager to wrap up its plots right away. SURGE stopped, the natural orichalcum stopped, and the Probe Race just sort of faded from public consciousness (both in the setting and IRL - once more the Shadowrun wiki reveals that nothing ever came from these mail-in forms and it's unclear whether Halley's Comet was canonically visited at all).
Overall, I guess I would declare Wake of the Comet to be "fine." The situations, the characters, challenges - all would be welcome additions to an episodic "heist of the week" style game, of the sort that would not benefit from massive shake-ups to the status quo. The fact that, 23 years later, a more contentious book would have been more entertaining to read probably doesn't enter into it.
Ukss Contribution: When the PCs visit the Apollo space station, we discover that its various facilities are named after Monopoly spaces - Marvin Gardens, Park Place, etc. This includes less than reputable, off-the-books facilities like the Water Works bar or the Community Chest brothel.
And, I suppose, in my role as part-time SJW book critic, I should call out that last one in particular for being needlessly objectifying, but, honestly, it's such a perfect intersection of smut, pun-work, and board game nerdery that I can't find it in my heart to be mad at it.
Now, this is not something that I can directly port over to Ukss. In addition to being a little silly, there's a whole cultural framework that simply wouldn't translate. However, I can borrow the general concept of a space station with a criminal underworld and when I do, I'll try to remember to have a little fun with it, in honor of Wake of the Comet.
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