Milk Run Structure

So far, my Shadowrun 4 campaign has largely been narrative-driven, but the players have finally transitioned into being runners. The downside of having players with limited playtime, hacking through three sessions has taken six months. I intend to expand my campaign's player base, and offer mini-sessions, possibly via roll20, called "milk runs." Here's the format I have planned for each Milk Run.

My goal is, simply, to create semi-dynamic short sessions that appropriately flex for between 1 and 6 players, lasting around an hour total.  Rather than my prior 5-room plan, I'm moving to a simple 2-room plan.  Sessions become much more linear and goal-oriented, with a larger amount of atmosphere to flesh out the game world, rather than narrative.  This format leads itself well to quick scenarios with limited variability.  Rather than structuring a session like a traditional RPG session, I need to structure it similarly to a MMO dungeon.

I cite MMO dungeons versus RPG dungeons for specific reasons: in an MMO, a dungeon is self-contained, and almost fully resolves itself in one sitting, with few complications directly presented.  The challenge is coping with combat mechanics, rather than interacting and exploring.  The mechanics themselves must be interesting enough to keep the players' attention, and must be tuned extensively to meet that goal.

There are usually two objectives in each run - a primary and a secondary.  The primary should be known to the players up-front, while the secondary will likely reveal itself as an opportunity during the run, possibly changing the dynamics.  Alternatively, the secondary objective will be generated on the fly by the character types: stealing, nabbing paydata, wiping a computer, etc.

Complicating this is the need to be able to flex between 1-6 characters of any type.  This is an added design constraint that MMOs do not have, by any means.  It will require a heavy use of math, and a lot of testing on my part.  The first bit of math-fu based design has been posted here, in creating a valid sustained damage that is designed to challenge almost any character.

The Flex mechanic I'm currently considering relies on generating "trash pulls," groups of enemies not intended to create a significant sustained challenge to the players, each time there are no enemies available.  The type of trash mobs depends on the players' actions: the louder and harder the players go in, the more likely better prepared trash enters the map.  More on that as I do a bit more testing.