Posted by: bitrunner Oct 18 2004, 01:19 PM
As the topic says, here is where you can share your "war stories"...
I've seen a couple of people talk about their horror stories about runs gone bad or the stupid things that they or other characters/players have done.
Rather than clog up other threads with this, you can put them here. I know that a lot of you want to talk and share your experiences, and frankly, I would like to encourage that. Of course, those that haven't played the adventure yet shouldn't be looking at the spoilers - if they do so, they're only hurting themselves. But hey, there's only so much I can do. I think SR players as a whole though are a more "mature" gaming crowd, and can control their impulses.
I only ask two things...
1. Use the spoiler tags. if you don't know how, you put [ spoiler ] as shown with the square brackets at the beginning of your discussion, and [ /spoiler ] at the end of your discussion that you wish to keep hidden. (remove the extra spaces inside the brackets)
2. Put the name or mission code somewhere in the title or immediate beginning of your posting clearly so that people can identify which messages are about which mission. Rather than open a separate thread for each mission, I'd like to keep them all here.
Also, I've started "The Bit Bucket" for you to post in-character about what you find out about missions. You can also ask questions!!! Consider it to work just like Shadowland... 
Have Fun!
Posted by: Whizbang Oct 18 2004, 03:30 PM
A Dark and Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
In playing A Dark and Stormy Night at Dragon*Con, we learned that dark, torrential downpour, and only having met your fellow runners over the phone is a recipe for friendly fire. I was smart...cast invisibility, and sat out the initial conflict. Then I thought to use Trid Phantasm to put up a sign saying "(Fixer's name I forgot)'s group meet here".
The GM let it be seen even through the abyssmal conditions, and two of the players didn't get the clue then. They just kept on blasting until eventually they wandered inside and ran into the defenders. They came back out to the bus they had stolen to get to the place (nice tour bus...no clue what it was doing in the Barrens), where the rest of us had gathered and IDed ourselves. I had already accumulated some heavy stun healing up one of the other players they had shot, so they called a cab (bus was temporarily disabled), and headed off to their street doc.
We got the bus going again, and drove around a bit while we recovered, and plotted what next. We stopped to pick up the idiots, and headed back to the site just to see Ares swarming on the place. The idiots decided to go investigate further, getting blasted up again. They then headed off to have hostile words with the fixer...attempting to kill an illusion, and getting killed themselves.
We got back with our fixer, trying to see what could be salvaged from the run. Not much, but the fixer did buy our bus for more than we would have made on the run. Compensation was nice, but would have prefered to complete the run.
Posted by: bitrunner Oct 18 2004, 03:37 PM
Backgammon's post: A Fork in Fate's Path
[ Spoiler ]
(checking notes...) ??? 400K cyberdeck?? where???? i'll have to go back and find where that was...or did the GM just add that?? if it is in there, i really need to add that to the Mission Log...
Whizbang: Dark & Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
hmmm, well, for the most part, unless you say otherwise, you should realize that most phones are going to have at least the small picture option. after accepting the mission, it would be a good idea to say "ok, let's rendezvous here, and head out to the barrens from there...here's what i look like so you'll know me at the meeting spot..."
i can't believe you guys went straight out to the Barrens and the site without meeting up first and getting a plan of action!
btw, good job guys on following the instructions...thanks...
Posted by: Backgammon Oct 18 2004, 03:43 PM
answering bit (fork in fate's path):
[ Spoiler ]
Well, maybe not... All I know is we got sloppy and didn't check the office near the door of the warehouse. Later, our decker smacked his head and told us we should have checked, there was a decker in there and we could of had his cyberdeck. He said it was worth 400k, but maybe he was wrong. I guess my GM, Dark Father, could better answer what exactly happened or rather could have happened.
Posted by: Whizbang Oct 18 2004, 03:44 PM
Dark and Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
Even with ID...the weather and nighttime conditions made positive ID on site pretty much nil, even for those with cyber. I was lucky the GM let that 'meet here' sign be visible through the storm. I agree we should have picked somewhere to meet up somewhere inside.
Posted by: Dark father Oct 18 2004, 04:21 PM
A Fork in fate's path (answer to backgammon)
[ Spoiler ]
Dee, our decker assumed that the decker had a better deck than his. After seeing the quality of the goods the team had, he was sure the decker too got good tech. However, he assumed he had a Renraku Kraftwerk or better. That's why he supposed the decker had a 400000 deck in the office where he was doing his decking.
This scenario didn't go in the details like every other scenarios. That's why a GM had to assume and improvise things a lot. Like the fact that the decker was decking in the office.
Posted by: Dark father Oct 18 2004, 05:02 PM
A Fork in Fate's Path
Here's a cool conclusion for one of my session I ran for it. My players aren't dumpshockers, so I will recite the story for them
[ Spoiler ]
Desiring to avenge themselves, the runners waited until most of the security quitted, and only Kirkpatrick and his technicians remained to work on the show. They enterred into the facility and managed to force Kirkpatrick and his team to completely erase all the data. However, one of the technician decided to punish them severly for what they had done. While everyone was busy erasing their data, he activated the drones and sent them a command to kill the runners as soon as they exit the building. After everything was done, the runners forced everyone to get out. And the technician who activated the drone knew what would happen... As soon as the door opened, the drones filled the corridor with a storm of bullets. All the technicians and Kirkpatrick were killed, but miraculously the runners stayed alive and managed to escape unharmed. How? Grizzly Bob, the team shaman was sustaining a Improved Invisibility all that time on the other runners. That was enough to fool the drones sensor systems!
Posted by: linei Oct 18 2004, 05:03 PM
A Dark And Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
After a quick start the characters took a huge amount of time to just circle the building, find all guards, get them alive and question them.
This took that long, that they made it just down to the first level of the facility before time was running out and the containment team arrived. Making their way out of the facility was quite a close call.
Oh, did I mention that the stun ball spell in the elevator left the troll unconscious ? The team had to carry him around for the rest of the adventure. Fun times.
Posted by: linei Oct 18 2004, 05:08 PM
FORCEd RECON
[ Spoiler ]
One of the characters (first-time Missions player) was a graduate student of cybertechnology at Seattle University. So the "Field Trip" was used easily.
One other character called a favour from his dad (owning a rental plane company) for a bird's eye image of the facility.
The best thing came at the end: The Shaman positioned himself opposite the gate, using Improved Invisibility to stay undetected. When she saw a civilian (non-uniformed) leave the gate in a private car, she cast the Influence-spell on him, making him stop his car a quarter of a mile down the road. Subsequent casting of the Influence-spell made him talk at length about his research in the facility to a bush (where a voicerecorder had been hidden). The final Influence-spell made him leave his security card at the bush before he left. Of course, the card would be useless a day later, but at least the research report was greatly appreciated.
Posted by: linei Oct 18 2004, 09:04 PM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
The PC drove up the facility, took a look, than turned and drove away to start planning. About a mile from the facility a DocWagon truck came down the road driving up to the facility (the next shift arriving).
The PC decided that this was just a delivery truck, picking up some medkits or something like that. So they stopped and waited for the truck to return. They planned to ambush the truck, subdue the driver, take his entry card for the facility and infiltrate it using the card.
Well, not so luckily for the PC, the leaving shift was in the truck, giving them quite a firefight.
When the smoke settled, the whole leaving shift was dead, most PC severely injured and Lone Star on their way.
So the PC drove away to hide somewhere in the sprawl.
The team decker hacked his way into the matrix node of the facility. As time was running out and the team was severely wounded, I let them use the rocket launchers to destroy the facility through the matrix in order to salvage the run as good as possible.
Posted by: dokuja Oct 19 2004, 05:22 AM
A Dark & Stormy Night - played at GenCon during midnight madness, which added to the insane atmosphere
[ Spoiler ]
We had 2 covert ops in the group so we made short work of scouting the scene. Bypassing the security system in the elevator shaft was a pain though.
What we found and fought inside freaked us out more than anything. One of the best lines in the game, IMO, came from me, a newbie to the game:
"Errr... guys, do ghouls register under thermo imaging?"
Of course, the group sends in the filmsy elf (me) into the scene of carnage. Matt the GM toyed with me and said my chemsuit ripped on the way in. Naturally I freaked out and wanted out. The group wanted me to stay for detox. There's no way I was staying, especially with signs of a T-bird flying in. So I bolted for the exit. The funny thing is, it just so happens that the Cha 8 Elf comes face-to-face with the spirit. My character squished it in 2 turns.
The fun did not end there though. Halfway to our getaway car with the injured man from the lab, the orc demolition specialist asks: "Did we scan him astrally?"
"Hmm... no"
::scans::
::everyone freaks out and start pumping lead into the guy::
::scans::
"Okay, it's dead"
::runs::
We had a blast and had our dosage of fear & paranoia.
Posted by: dokuja Oct 19 2004, 05:40 AM
FORCED ReCON
[ Spoiler ]
Once again the orc demolition specialist (played by Mike) made the run that much easier. He got the entire team a job as the cleaning crew for the facility through an equal opportunity agency (yes, even a job for the "disadvantaged" elf).
With my covert ops' eye camera and fingerprint scanner, we had the entire place mapped out and all the personnel IDed.
The best line came from the GM though.
"Are you guys actually going to do a good job cleaning the place?"
The entire team responds enthusiastically "Yeah!"
The GM looks in disbelieve "Shadowrunners actually doing hard, honest work?"
We did such a good job cleaning the place that we have a special contact with the cleaning agency. We can get a job there anytime if we want to switch from shadow running to janitorial work.
Posted by: dokuja Oct 19 2004, 06:21 AM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
With no magical support in the group, we had to rely on decking and legwork for recon. Of course the no-fly zone made it that much more difficult. We spent a lot of time trying to gather info on the place but didn't get much so we had to go in blind and play by ear. With so much uncertainity, there were many surprises on both sides.
The first shocker came when we arrived at the loading dock and discovered it was locked from the inside with no outside controls. That's when the orc demolition specialist pulled a fast one on Bitrunner the GM and pulled out his private stash of C4s.
Bitrunner gasped in shock: "You LIED to Mr Johnson?!?"
(previously we told our Johnson we didn't have any explosives so he supplied us with crapload of C4s)
The entire table cracked up.
Once we got through the loading area we saw the building-inside-a-building and finally found out why we got two separate floorplans. This is when the guard inside the guardhouse pulled out an assault rifle on me. I shocked everyone when my QCK 11 elf ran across the field to the side of the guardhouse (away from the firing end of the rifle), turned around, stuck my pistol through the firing slit, and fired several gel rounds into the guard, all in one combat turn.
Time was running out so it didn't occur to us to use the missile launchers (though we thought about lifting several of the missiles). But Mr Johnson gave us enough C4s to level the place so we got the job done.
Posted by: OurTeam Oct 19 2004, 06:39 AM
I've run these many times. So the observations are from different groups of players.
Mission Briefing
[ Spoiler ]
A group of 15 year old players who open up with their big guns on the Fixer who is late to the meeting, just minutes into their job. To cover their escape one of them uses a LAW rocket on the convention center for a 'diversion'.
4 characters ALL use their skill on THE drone, and ALL use a Karma Pool for rerolling failures, and NONE has a success. 40 dice in all.
The punk (former ganger) character who rolls a great perception test on a man coming from the convention center, and recognizes a SMG under his jacket. Punk says, "Hey mister, I have a Preditor-2" and pulls out his Pistol, "see, it's cool". Man pulls out his SMG (pointing skyward) "Yup, I have an H and K 227, it's cool too." Punk: "I also have a knife" drawing one from a boot. Man: "I also have a badge" (showing it), "do you have a permit?"
Two motorcycles drive into the park. Character: "Allright! Finally! Something we can shoot."
Troll who throws puppy onto the I-5 Interstate.
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
Two characters kill themselves after uncoordinated attacks fail to dent an organized defense.
The character with Demolitions 2 who proudly tells the Team that he'll provide the demolitions skill, so they don't need to hire anyone else. His third test is a critical failure, so he uses his only Kama pool to turn it into a simple failure. He has to do the remaining checks with two dice and no remaining pool.
A Fork in Fate's Path
[ Spoiler ]
The 12 players who divided up between two tables playing different paths, always thinking that they'd get to go up against the other table before the adventure was over.
The team that assaulted the shelter in order to get clues. And they stole the cookies from the oven.
The team with no vehicles.
Posted by: OurTeam Oct 19 2004, 06:44 AM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
The character with a backpack full of explosives who, after many failed attempts, finally decides that none of the equipment on his character sheet will get him through the locked door and into the facility.
Posted by: Whizbang Oct 19 2004, 09:23 AM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
Our Demolition skill was rather lacking. I'm still not sure the newbie knew what he was doing with it...but at least it went boom in the end. Anyways, our decker got the floor plans and File H (still wondering what that is), and so we ploted. We assumed the warded room was the control room and planned accordingly. To get in, the Levithan shaman toxic waved our way in (I've got to get that spell...) We were running out of time by then, so the GM went theatric. I was rather satisfied with making the outhouse go boom with a fireball, and only coming out with moderate damage. We with our limited knowledge just stuck C4 everywhere, timers at different times, and ran for our lives, just barely getting out of dodge in time.
Posted by: Backgammon Oct 19 2004, 02:16 PM
| QUOTE (OurTeam) |
Mission Briefing[ Spoiler ] A group of 15 year old players who open up with their big guns on the Fixer who is late to the meeting, just minutes into their job. To cover their escape one of them uses a LAW rocket on the convention center for a 'diversion'. [ Spoiler ] |
I'm curious to know, OurTeam, for the 15 year olds, did you let them get away with that stuff? In a regular game all the PCs would end up arrested, but since these were kids, who don't really understand consequences nor "realistic"`gameplay, how did you handle it?
Posted by: Deacon Oct 19 2004, 10:40 PM
Mission Briefing
[ Spoiler ]
Surprisingly my team ran this fairly professionally, though the character who wanted to take Snoop home, not to butcher him for parts but because he liked beagles and wanted a pet, that was amusing.
FORCEd RECON
[ Spoiler ]
None of the team wanted to even go anywhere near the facility. Only the team shaman took an astral flyby -- learning a lot. But they came up with an ingenious plan -- they discovered one of the on-site contractors, tailed him to a stuffer shack, used Control Thoughts on him to make him give them the detailed plans for the facility, and then made him forget all about it (using Alter Memory).
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
This isn't a spoiler about the run but comments from the author -- What were you people -doing-?!? If the team has no Demolition skills then the fixer -- Saint James -- goes in afterwards with the demo packs to blow the place up. And the missiles are not controllable from the Matrix, it even says so in the text of the adventure -- it doesn't make sense for someone to be able to deck in from so far away and use the missiles to destroy DocWagon's own facility. If this were possible the system would have been far more heavily guarded.
PLEASE NOTE: All comments are meant in fun, please do not be offended.
Dark & Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
With the entire team having either low-light or thermographic vision, the only problem was dealing with the rain -- which went away as soon as they got into the building. As the entire team had run before in the last three adventures, there was no friendly fire to deal with. The only problem was that they got into the elevator and immediately went to the fourth floor -- there went half the adventure! The shaman was terrified of the background count and the Force 15 Wards and never thought to assense 'John', the carpenter -- so never discovered his true nature. The Invae have another servant loose upon the city...
Posted by: OurTeam Oct 19 2004, 11:48 PM
| QUOTE (Backgammon) |
| I'm curious to know, OurTeam, for the 15 year olds, did you let them get away with that stuff? In a regular game all the PCs would end up arrested, but since these were kids, who don't really understand consequences nor "realistic"`gameplay, how did you handle it? |
[ Spoiler ]
The guards in the pavillion knocked out the characters with spells and left them for Lone Star. The important people walked away and scheduled a new meeting at a different park a week later. The players grabbed new characters and started the run over, still knowing nothing beyond the first 5 minutes of the adventure. They learned a lot -- which is the goal of SRM00-01.
Posted by: linei Oct 20 2004, 11:09 PM
| QUOTE (Deacon) |
DemolitionRun
[ Spoiler ] And the missiles are not controllable from the Matrix, it even says so in the text of the adventure -- it doesn't make sense for someone to be able to deck in from so far away and use the missiles to destroy DocWagon's own facility. If this were possible the system would have been far more heavily guarded. |
Not offended, but still, let me try to explain:
[ Spoiler ]
I decided to let them blow up the facility via the matrix because I didn't want some new players to be totally disappointed. If I recall correctly, SR Missions were thought to be meant to attract new players. The players were more or less depressed for being so heavily injured by just trying to raid a truck. So to make them feel at least a bit satifisfied with the session I gave them the opportunity to complete the mission this way.
The downside for them was, that I didn't give them as much karma for the adventure as they could have. That way they still felt that it could definitely have been done better, but still left the table with a more or less good feeling about SR Missions.
In my book, that's a call that I - as a GM - am allowed to make.
Posted by: bitrunner Oct 21 2004, 12:24 PM
Linei - Agreed.... 
Posted by: linei Nov 7 2004, 04:43 PM
A Fork in Fate's Path
[ Spoiler ]
The characters searched Downtown for Halloweeners. For hours. When they finally found three of them, they send their most gang-like looking member and inquired for Burpie. After quite some talking (and exchange of money) they got the adress for Eddie's Coffee Shop.
There the same character again had to convince Eddie that they were there for the good of Burpie. Funnily, the team expected the Ravenwing-girl to be a close friend of Burpie. So the gang-like character talked to Eddie about 'a friend of Burpie', they needed to find and help.
The assault on the warehouse went not so good. The troll just went in through the front door, made his way to the restroom (incidently the one were the girl was held), broke right through that door, took the girl and ... well, tried to break through the outer wall of the warehouse. While trying to get through he was shot and spend the rest of the scene unconscious.
The rest of the characters went in more cautiously. But even so ... had I played out 'The Elimators' as written (former SpecOps, ...), they would easily have wiped the floor with the characters.
Finally, they made it out alive, with the girl.
Posted by: Dr. Black Nov 8 2004, 05:53 PM
Seems to me the biggest problem facing players (typically newbs) is the concept of legwork and stealth.
Posted by: linei Nov 8 2004, 06:33 PM
Definitely.
As a GM I see characters totally foregoing legwork at all most of the time.
Personally I think that's because the core rules don't cover legwork as much as for example combat or magic. Just by reading the core rules, legwork falls more or less completely under the table.
I do mostly GMing, so I do tend to read a lot of (prefabricated) adventures. There always are tables on legwork included in these adventures. But most players don't even know these tables exist. They simply don't get the idea of asking their contacts about things. How would they? They haven't been told how important it is. How much more information about the proceedings they might get.
After you've told them about the possibility of using their contacts in this way, after having the first few successes with this angle, players tend to use legwork much more regularly.
Stealth is the same and something different at the same time.
Stealth isn't covered in the core rules, with the exception of an odd sentence here or there. Combat and weapons are covered in that great detail ... how would a player know that stealth is even an option? Just like playing Splinter Cell for the first time if you've just played Doom or Quake up until then. You just don't know that this option is out there and that it makes life easier (and healthier 
).
On the other hand, the life of a Shadowrunner tends to get boring (in the eyes of many players) if he doesn't get to exchange some bullets with a guard from time to time. It seems player revel in these moments. They NEED a hard fight from time to time.
Give the runners enough obviously powerfull opposition and they tend to discover stealth really fast.
[ Spoiler ]
These SR Missions-adventures are quite usefull to present relative weak (because they are new) characters with an opposing force that won't be conquered through pure firepower. So congratulation to the authors of these adventures on this point.
Just give them a battle here and there.
'In case of doubt, roll in grenade and come in firing.'
Oops. this has become one large posting. Seems you touched the right spot.
Posted by: Dr. Black Nov 8 2004, 06:50 PM
Agreed!
I find I have to explicitly mention Legwork for the Newbs and some vets too.
Posted by: Dr. Black Nov 10 2004, 06:31 PM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
Just ran this last night. I had 3 characters, decker (southern style - complete with drawl and idiosyncrasies), Medium weight sammy with good stealth and decent b/e skills (real rough and tumble, uncouth dwarf) , physad with good stealth - light sammy - face - and b/e skills (ex covert operative, really suave, picture james bond except female). They all relied quite a bit on skillwires to cover many different positions on the team. The group had some to moderate experience, no noobs.
It came off without a hitch. Given that they didnt have any magic support I through the mage in there only to make them nervous.
They scouted the facilty by night and day. Did all the legwork/matrixwork. They even took legwork to new levels that I had to addlib to satisfy their insatiable thirst for knowledge. Finally curbing them by mentioning the profile they were creating with so much investigation.
They went in the next evening following the meet. Right after the shift change.
The Stealth/Sammy and Physad went in with the decker providing matrix overwatch. I found it interesting that the system stats had 6s with a 12 for Slave. Given that he edited the video feeds and then provided info to the onsite team as to the location of the guards (that he could see), it made that a bit of a challenge.
The onsite team had Ruthenium suits, along with stealths of 7 and 8 and traceless walk, they made short work of the guards. They took out all the guards with tasers and were only spotted/heard twice - right as they shot the Security guard in the shack and one guard on partol. Neither got so much as a word out before collapsing convulsively. Judicious use of Plasteel restraints and duct tape kept them all quiet.
I rolled randomly for locations of guards when they went into the buildings and then played it from there. The troll opened a door just as they had lined up on it and took one dart in the chest, down he went.
They even looted the place and moved the missiles to point at the building - just in case the demolitions packs didnt level it. While one guy was settings explosives looting and adjusting the missiles, the other ran 2 klicks to the car and drove up to the compound to load everything up.
They did have a challenge getting the unconcious troll out of the basement though. Dwarf str 6, and human str 2. They spent a while rolling him around and used the elevator.
Overall I was very impressed with the characters handle on everything. There was definately some humor as the various personality types interacted.
#1 "Ready to come up the elevator, where's the guard?"
Decker "What guard?"
#1"The one working on the machine above me!"
Decker "heck, he's on the floor"
#1 "whats he doing on the floor?"
Decker "drooling it looks like"
#1 "what?!?"
#2 "He's tagged and bagged, sorry I didnt update you"
I thought of all kinds of ways I could have made this even more challenging, but my goal is not to wipe the floor with the characters. Excellent legwork and planning, good stealth, a broad set of skills (except for magic), and they got the job done like a top flight Spec Ops team should.
Sorry for such the long post, but It was the first of the Missions that I have GM'd and am pretty excited about it.
[\spoiler]
Posted by: Deacon Nov 10 2004, 08:52 PM
| QUOTE (Dr. Black) |
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
Given that they didnt have any magic support I through the mage in there only to make them nervous.
They even took legwork to new levels that I had to addlib to satisfy their insatiable thirst for knowledge.
I found it interesting that the system stats had 6s with a 12 for Slave. Given that he edited the video feeds and then provided info to the onsite team as to the location of the guards (that he could see), it made that a bit of a challenge.
|
[ Spoiler ]
That's exactly what the wiz-kid mage is in there for.
I'd like to hear about the places players go for legwork -- it helps me develop my own sources a bit better.
Mea culpa, I forgot that editing video feeds was done through a Slave Test. (I don't use the decking rules very often.) The high TN was there to prevent other deckers from foozling with the machinery.
Posted by: linei Nov 10 2004, 10:06 PM
| QUOTE (Dr. Black) |
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ] Sorry for such the long post, but It was the first of the Missions that I have GM'd and am pretty excited about it.
|
Oh, don't worry ... long posts make good reading ...
I really like reading these "War Stories" so I learn what I could have done better when I GMed the module. Additionally this way I know of pitfalls in these moduls before I step into them.
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 10 2004, 10:35 PM
Keep in mind that all the demo adventures (especially #2) have been reworked and are being reviewed by the Commandos right now - they'll be posted to Adam soon...
they have been corrected for a lot of the mistakes (mostly stupid editorial ones) that have been made, but there are some tweaks for game play and "realism" as well...
for example:
[ Spoiler ]
in Demolition Run, the rocket launchers now have just those EMP charged anti-drone rockets. Sure, the rigger will have to check for damage and the drone will drop into the complex and be lost, but it makes more sense than total anti-vehicle rockets...i've also modified the description so that they can still be used to destroy the building, but because of kinetic energy and a great deal of luck, rather than explosive force. they also have tamper circuits on them to prevent, or at least make it extremely difficult, for the runners to steal - they might get a rocket or two, but not the launchers...
Posted by: OurTeam Nov 11 2004, 10:49 AM
Demolition Run (#2)
[ Spoiler ]
After the first time I ran Demolition Run, I had the missile storage be underground, and missiles would came up one at a time as part of launching. They could steal one missile with a Launch Weapons B/R ( 8 ) test with a base time of 24 hrs. Or they could try to snag one as it launched, in which case it would self-destruct when it detected it was 'off course'.
Posted by: linei Nov 15 2004, 09:23 PM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
The runners went through the whole scenario almost perfectly. They scouted the area (missed the first shift change), even scouted the facility astrally. Then decided to climb the fence at the security shed. Having three runners across (one watching their backs from outside) they conquered the security shed flawlessly. There they used to controls to launch the missiles on the facility. They even used one pack of explosive from the Johnson to blow up the security shed.
Two patrolling guards were stunned and taken outside the facility to keep them alive.
The runners even discussed ways to get the remaining guards out before the explosion but couldn't decide on what to do.
A Dark and Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
I had some great players this time, including a mouse shaman with a high lockpicking skill. So the stairwell doors proved to be no problem for them when they had shut down the elevator. They even banned the fire elemental flawlessly.
Nevertheless, the facility got to their nerves. They were frightened deeply when they reached the decontamination room on sublevel 4. But they managed to get through it all, killed John without hesitation, than mowed down Bishop with 20 or more bullets ... I guess their nerves were wearing out at that time.
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 15 2004, 10:17 PM
Linei's Dark & Stormy Night:
hehehe....ehhksalent..... 
Posted by: Corporate Raider Nov 26 2004, 10:22 PM
It looks like most posts have been by GMs, but I'll add one from the player's perspective.
the dunner ran two SRM mods at U Con last weekend. I briefly stopped by as he was setting up Mission Briefing, and it was well organized. He was dealing with a few new players to SRM, and at least one that had never played SR3. He had copies of all the SR3 archtypes available to allow for immediate play, and went over the basic rule structure before they began the run.
I played in Demolition Run with 6 other players on Saturday night. the dunner kept things flowing with such a large team, and gave everyone a chance to participate. One rules discussion re: valid spellcasting targets while astrally projecting was quickly resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
Now on to some spoilers re: Demolition Run:
[ Spoiler ]
I was cautious initially when we began this run. It is the first one I've played where large scale destruction was called for against corporate security. We did a moderate amount of legwork, and I have yet to be on a team that ignored that aspect of the game. One of my team members secured some schematics of the facility, and I negotiated for some matrix scouting and overwatch with a decker contact. Another of us called a Doc Wagon contact about the security surrounding the facility just hours before we blew it to smithereens! I hope the dunner added to that character's log sheet that he lost that contact.
The run itself was a cake walk. An astral recon by our shamans, combined with video feeds secured by the decker made it easy to find the fatal flaw in the security setup. A few gel rounds, stunballs, zip fasteners and a roll of duct tape later, the security guards and technicians were being dragged out of the facility before the charges were triggered. The only thing we failed to do was find file H and steal the work drone.
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 28 2004, 01:56 AM
to Corporate Raider
[ Spoiler ]
hehe, well, as you've probably read elsewhere, the first couple in the demo series are supposed to be a little easier than the standard run - it is more important to teach the newbs the importance of legwork and preparation and how that makes the run go smoother...
as for "missing" anything, you didn't - File H is there as a "bone" for decker characters and will be used in one of the story arc adventures coming up. For those that have already started along the path, File H belongs to Walter Broward...he'll be needing that back later...
stealing the work drone would have only gotten you a) more money or b) a work drone the size of a forklift...
Posted by: Donner Nov 28 2004, 03:40 AM
Corporate Raider, if you don't mind, which was your character? As my handle implies, I played Donner.
I had great fun at both of the_dunner's sessions.
Posted by: Donner Nov 28 2004, 03:43 AM
BTW, how do you add the
[ Spoiler ]
links, so that people can read the baseline text without seeing a spoiler?
Posted by: Donner Nov 28 2004, 03:43 AM
Oh. ROTFLMAO.
Posted by: Corporate Raider Nov 28 2004, 04:43 AM
Donner, I played Jesus Benitez, aka "Benny". I was the ork that hired my decker contact for matrix overwatch.
Posted by: Donner Nov 28 2004, 04:55 AM
| QUOTE (Corporate Raider) |
| Donner, I played Jesus Benitez, aka "Benny". I was the ork that hired my decker contact for matrix overwatch. |
Ah, very frosty.
You did a very nice job; I enjoyed your rendition. Happy to do another run sometime, if it can be arranged.
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 28 2004, 07:32 PM
obviously, you figured out that "spoiler" is another tag...if you need to add something after the spoiler, you need to use "/spoiler" to end the spoiler. both of course require the [ ] around them...
Posted by: Backgammon Nov 29 2004, 02:59 AM
Dark and Stormy Night
[ Spoiler ]
We just played this one. Whew. I'd say my combat monster performed very well. Took only a Light, nicely resisting a 6D fireball due to nuyen wisely invested in Fire Proof armour mods, although a Lower Charisma spell almost did me in. My shiney new SPAS-22 did a nice job on the troll vampire, with hits ranging from 11D to 16D.
That mission was just awesome. The best moment was when our shaman was interrogation the insect dude. He let slip "you'll be stuck in this body forever if you don't help us" right before leveling his shotgun at his head, and at that very moment I discovered the ELD-AR had insecticide rounds and put 2 and 2 together. It was *perfect* timing, such a cool moment.
It's too bad I have NO FRAGGIN CLUE what a vampire was doing there... An Ares Arms Insect spirit weapons research lab I can understand, but a freakin vampire complete with theatrical coffin? I'm never gonna wrap my sammy head around that one.
Anyway, I loooved that mission, kudos to the writer (though maps would have been very, very, very nice)
Posted by: linei Nov 29 2004, 11:44 AM
| QUOTE (Backgammon) |
[ Spoiler ] Anyway, I loooved that mission, kudos to the writer (though maps would have been very, very, very nice) |
[ Spoiler ]
From a GM perspective (sorry, I have no other perspective
), I have to say that the lack of maps in this adventure certainly helps to play with the minds of the players ... which is the main goal of pretty much any design decision in this adventure, I suspect.
It increases the level of uncertainty that this scenario spreads. Even if players start drawing maps based on the description of the GM (only one group I GMed this for did that), they still don't know what lurks (not only monsters, but simply what kind of room) around the next corner. Having a printed formatted map of the facility would take away the suspense of how many more rooms there might be, where they might be ....
I simply love 'Dark & Stormy'.
Please write more like this one !!!
Posted by: Backgammon Nov 29 2004, 04:55 PM
Oh, forgot to add also (still Dark & Stormy Night)
[ Spoiler ]
When we heard the Ares megaphone saying the building was surrounded, I really wasn't sure what to do. In my mind it was pretty clear we couldn't fight our way past heavily armed Ares soldiers, and I couldn't see how to sneak past an Ares military cordon. I suggested to the team we should surrender and negociate, but I was still internally debating what move to take, since it crossed my mind we had no negociating leverage so they'd probably just kill us cause we saw too much rather than cut a deal.
It was sort of a "uhm, ok.." moment when our hardly hidden at all team managed to not get seen by the squad coming out of the elevator, and then we easily ran away using the back door. I feel our GM handled the situation well (I got the hint we shouldn't surrender when we called Manny for support), but it stays in my mind that there's NO WAY we should have been able to escape. I simply can't believe Ares would be so sloppy as to leave the back door unguarded.
I think maybe the scenario should allow the team to escape moments *before* Ares cordons off the area, or give the team negociating leverage so they do get captured, but let go in a mutual "we didn't see nothing if you didn't see nothing" kind of way.
I'm a player, so I don't know the full story, but maybe Manny, or more precisely Manny's employer who seemed to know Kat pretty well, could have talked to the commanding officer of the strike force and bluffed some excuse for us to escape.
I don't know, I just don't like how sloppy Ares got at the end.
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 29 2004, 05:13 PM
Dark & Stormy
[ Spoiler ]
ok, first....there is no vampire...he's a poser - like the dudes that dress up and cross their hands over their chest to be invisible...you know, LARPers! this troll is just heavily into the whole Vampire/Goth scene. But he's still a mage, and so Ares puts up with his eccentricities....he has all spells to replicate the powers of a vampire, and cosmetic mods for the rest. i'm sure he's a big hit at the local goth club on friday nights!
maps - yep - we took them out...as well as all the security guards that used to be on random patrols. we found that having them caused the players to over plan things and it really wasn't giving the scary Resident Evil feel we were looking for. Matt ran it at Gencon without the maps, and the rest is history...
Ares - the Containment Team is on its way when the runners start. It is supposed to be announced when they are 10 minutes away. This is to warn the players that it is time to get the hell out of Dodge...to prevent them from Carmen-searching all the rooms of the facility for stuff to scrag as "treasure"...even if you wait around for the team to show up, you are meant to escape out the back door - which should have been described as full of cobwebs and debris and litter - it has largely been forgotten about. An oversight and a hole in Ares otherwise normal strict security...
Glad you liked it...#2 and #3 of the story arc are along similar "veins" muhahahaha!
Posted by: Dark father Nov 29 2004, 06:13 PM
No Bitrunner! You shouldn't have told him what he really was! I liked to know that the runners were pretty uncertain about him... Well that mean I described him good enough to keep the paranoia on!
Posted by: Whizbang Nov 29 2004, 06:16 PM
Argh...and yet again I'm regretting those idiots who spoiled Dark & Stormy Night for me. As said in my version of it...we never got past the ward.
Posted by: Backgammon Nov 29 2004, 06:24 PM
| QUOTE (bitrunner) |
Dark & Stormy
[ Spoiler ]
ok, first....there is no vampire...he's a poser - like the dudes that dress up and cross their hands over their chest to be invisible...you know, LARPers! this troll is just heavily into the whole Vampire/Goth scene. But he's still a mage, and so Ares puts up with his eccentricities....he has all spells to replicate the powers of a vampire, and cosmetic mods for the rest. i'm sure he's a big hit at the local goth club on friday nights!
...
Glad you liked it...#2 and #3 of the story arc are along similar "veins" muhahahaha! |
[ Spoiler ]
AHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Guess blowing off his head at point blank with my combat shotgun was unecessary then
.
That explains a lot, but still leaves many questions. Don't worry Dark, Jaz is still gonna be traumatized for some time to come!
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 29 2004, 08:25 PM
just remember that this *IS* the spoiler thread...
also, you need to be able to separate character and player knowledge...
he's played the adventure - his character is damn sure still scared...just giving him a little piece of mind....
now - what one of you SHOULD do (probably Backgammon) is go over to the Bit Bucket and start posting about how one company has hired someone - that way, when players that haven't played this adventure see him/her, they'll be even MORE scared! "Hey!! I read about this on the matrix!! HOLY CRAP!!"
Posted by: Backgammon Nov 29 2004, 08:28 PM
| QUOTE (bitrunner) |
| now - what one of you SHOULD do (probably Backgammon) is go over to the Bit Bucket and start posting about how one company has hired someone - that way, when players that haven't played this adventure see him/her, they'll be even MORE scared! "Hey!! I read about this on the matrix!! HOLY CRAP!!" |
Have you checked the Bit Bucket recently...
Posted by: bitrunner Nov 29 2004, 09:12 PM
yeah, thought you were talking about someone else...
[ Spoiler ]
thought you were talking about Kat there, not the vampire...
Posted by: Donner Nov 29 2004, 09:41 PM
| QUOTE (bitrunner) |
<<SNIP>>
now - what one of you SHOULD do (probably Backgammon) is go over to the Bit Bucket and start posting about how one company has hired someone - that way, when players that haven't played this adventure see him/her, they'll be even MORE scared! "Hey!! I read about this on the matrix!! HOLY CRAP!!" |
Evil, Rich, evil.
I haven't played it or read the spoilers, and I'm scared just by
inference.
Posted by: linei Nov 29 2004, 11:07 PM
| QUOTE (Donner) |
| I haven't played it or read the spoilers, and I'm scared just by inference. |
Be afraid ... be very afraid ...
Posted by: JackWill Dec 3 2004, 08:17 PM
Mission breifing:
[ Spoiler ]
The party consisited of me... suave early 30's counter-rigger/decker witha fast car and the basic but rookie gun bunny.
To start off we arrive early scope out the place, i mainly scopped out the marathon going on with the news reporters. I volenteered to run, while askign i was smoking a cigarette. Then as the time rolled over to time to watch, i hopped over and walked across the grass to the building and watched from the sidelines. My Partner was on the other side scoping it out.
I remember i found the dog, and i walked around carring it since the start of the game. Petting it and playing with it. My Parnter got fiddled around with the spirit in the game it was moving trash around and harassing him alot, nothing serious.
Rolando rolled up and gave my buddy a very hard time.. then i walked up from a distance jibbering some italian and said Papa Joe didn't say anythign about anybody, and that we got orders, and he should of got the same orders, and that i deffiintly don't want to tell Papa Joe of his insubornation. Me and Rolando chit chatted, he gave me his business card. Contact earned.
Then the Bar-b-que happened... they attacked the chick reporter that i was interviewing with earliy and hitting on her... so i dived and knocked her down, dog in hand, and cigarettin mouth, and pulled my gun and took a random shot at the halloweeners, well luck and partly skill nailed the poor bastard between the eyes with a gel round. He flew off his bike and the Lone star picked up his body, luckly i took off with petra in to a wild mass of people and talked to her and said she can repay me a date by seeing me firday night at Papa Joe's Italian Eatery. Bingo, later on i realized i scored a date with a hot reporter chick, got her number and eveything. Contact earned! My Partner was just watching the building like i told him too weee.
But while i was putting the finishing touches on the reporter, handling the lone star, Scraper started annoying my partner, trying to get him to leave his post, my partner informed me.. .and i started to walk over the long way and get behind scraper, i was going to sneak up and frighten the poor bastard with a gun to the head untill i found something skeechy.. a little garning drone was on the fitz.. so i decided to take him apart, i'm good with those things, i get him open and wow.. look and behold compound explosives, well i remove them, batch up the drone back to normal, re hook his watering line and slap it on its ass and tell it to get wattering.
Oh boy, then those stupid fly by drones.... Well i was near my car so i hoped over to it.. and freaking JAMMED the hell out them. So that cocky fixer didn't get to do much besides fly them off to the distance!
The nosey Fed came up and harrased my buddy, and he just said if you wants you can go visit the main office in redmount. Haha... fed pretty much gave up.
Well it all ended.. and we got awarded our karma and stuff.. i manage to leave with the puppy in my arms and in my car, but i got stopped.. eee.. and some suits took it from me.
[\spoiler]
Posted by: Eugene Dec 5 2004, 01:04 AM
Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
So is the facility not supposed to have any outside cameras? My players all thought it was too weird and insisted that they had a second set of cameras outside that weren't connected to the host!
Things went badly for my group, though they completed the mission. The decker did a poor job, screwing around while the system tally kept going up. Eventually the system went on Active Alert and the Killer IC attacked, alerting the guards in the facility. Lone Star came by and the group waited until they left (I ruled that DocWagon wouldn't be able to send extra guards until the next shift change so they'd still have a chance.
They were ambushed by the guards and only some luck and some grenades saved them. The guy with the rifle in the shack gave them a hard time, too, as the group assumed it was a tool shed and not the control center.
Posted by: JackWill Dec 5 2004, 05:58 PM
Demolition run:
[ Spoiler ]
I went in with more of a team, my Guy KK from the missions breifing, a off the boat 6 foot black man ninja from Japan, a gun bunnies, and sigh a mage.
Well i did the bigger chunck of leg working via Petra, man she's an expensive date. Well she passed up some info to me, gave me some numbers. And i divided the numbers up and started calling and doing the meet and greet. That went well, we got the typical shifts, the number of guard you know all the normal stuff, was told they "keep a astral walker" around. I did some decking of the place and got more detailed info. And waited to get in to do more.
Well we took two cars, i took the ninja and the gun buuny took his, the mage wanted to ride with me, i have a cooler car, so i stuffed him in the back. We go there and basically parked in the woods, Walked up and took over the first guard station fairly easily. This is where i jacked in, shut down the missle turret, and feed a loop with the security camera, unlocked all the maglocks, but made it look like they still worked.
We went to the other outside booth with the mage guy... and he gave us a hard time, wouldn't talk to our mage deisded to take a bullet and feed it to his chest, yeah it dropped him and to add insult to injury i slapped a trama patch on him, and a tranq patch on him. So he wasn't moving around much.
We went inside the main building, and we caught the guard in the room all 5 of them, we decided to just hold the door shut. And the other two went down and met the troll, after a few rounds discharged he was down. The guards jumped at the door and it didn't move.. so me and the ninja moved out of the way this time and they started shooting thru the door. The ninja shoved his sword thru it and scared the bajuese of one. the door cracked and random shots were sprayed i caught a glimpse of a turned over table, so i lined my gun up withthe door and pulled the trigger, i hit one in the chest with a gel round. And we told them to slide their guns out the door and we will stop shooting, and the next time we shot it would be gels. They were like NO, and we said, the building may not be here in 10 minutes, and they mightneed a spunge to pick up the remain of their bodies. They surrenedered.. so i had 4 Hnk 227s slung over my back, and a pistol. We just hit everyone of htem out cold and tied them up.. dragged them to the woods with the mage.. called the Dog Wagon for the mage, didn't say anythign of him being a mage, we removed all the marcking of a mage on the mage... and we took off.
That was that.. i got File H, and i sold it to the MJ. We didn't do it the most subtle was, but we came out withi the most cash possible exspecially after selling off those HnK 227s And some other info and data.
Posted by: JackWill Dec 5 2004, 06:29 PM
Forced Recon:
[ Spoiler ]
Now this was fun. Party Chemistry: KK (myself, counter-rigger/decker), ork Gun Bunny, and the best way to describe this new guy "The Liar/Con artist".
This was just a fun mission from the get go... The Fixer kept saying lines like "i know you need the money" and stuff like that.. and i was thinking to myself "I have money, plenty of money" and i mentioned to teh fixer, i'm in it for the thrill. Got some funny looks from the party. And the GM, who has been the same guy for all my games. Well we find out about everythign we need to know about this building, quickly, we do everything. So we realized there was a building city code expection the next day, so we got "the liar" and appointment my sending a message to the city that they need to reschedule for next week contact tomarrow at 1700, and sent a message to the company that he will be arriving a big earlier around 1000. First we need fake IDs, uniform, and a car. I did some calling around got some stuff, the liar got himself some old city cafeteria reciepts.
THe car, that was going to be fun. I waited out side the garage scoping it out with the Ork waiting for one of those Electric running Nissans that looked perfect for a city of seattle employee would drive... we tailed it to a quit area at a stop light.. and i stopped behind him and walked up with a city map, and said "Excuse me, i know you are from around here, it says it on your car, do you know where the hospital is?" The guy was hesistant but noticed i wasn't packing anythign, and rolled his window down, he started giving me directions and i preteneded to listen, then i took the tranq patch in my back pocked and slapped it on his face. I yelled to my friend, this guy needs a doctor.. take him to the hospital..and mumble and he just gave me directions. Well my ork buddy got out... hopped in his car and took off... i drove off and we meet by my garage. We tied him up, forced some synthol down his throat and called the Liar up..
Well the liar went to work. He dorve down there to the plant he scoped out the place made sure noone was tailing him... I gave him my pager number to page me with the number 4319 for help =) Well we took off and hid in the woods with some camo, and scoped out the areay with binoculars and just kind of waited.
He did his lieing, got in, and started doing some snooping, with a mini camacorder and stuff. (we thought this would be a good idea) well they caught on to somethign fishy about him, and locked him down, he kind of whined and cried.. paged me.. .and we got up and ready to cause some problems to get him out, then the notice the security escorting him out.
We drove off, but we had ALOT of INFO on that building. We didn't complete this mission as good as we had the previous missions, but it was atleadt 90% complete.
Posted by: bitrunner Dec 5 2004, 10:39 PM
To Jackwill:
[ Spoiler ]
hilarious! obviously you're an experienced player...sounds like you had fun, and earned a lot of extra contacts to boot. Excellent non-violent method of dealing with Rolando...just what we like to see...
As for the others - good job also...it sounds like you are enjoying the campaign!
I tip my hat to you, sir!
Posted by: JackWill Dec 7 2004, 04:36 AM
Yeah bit runner it was fun playing them..
[ Spoiler ]
i am not soo sure about the 4th one tho... i was told by 4 people that i would not like it 100%. So i might just sit the 4th one out, even my GM said it not worth running really, its a good one, just not fun for the runners.
But only me and two of my regular gamers go to the conventions where the games are ran. So i ran the Missions to all our non-con goers or people that will probely never play offically in the missions, and they tend to enjoy them. I have to admit, they are getting better and better at preparing for everyhing. I remember me and my GM had to go thru some stuff together and go oh thats what you do, oh that makes sense.
But thanks very much man, i am quite experienced. I try to advoid you know Wired 3, the Ares viper sliver gun, uber mageing out (OMG that mage in our 2nd game i wanted to punch him in the face) and i almost shot in character on PURPOSE. He got mad because when i was decking, i didn't tell him everythign i found, and then he was like can't we see what he is doing and i was like i don't have that stuff, i keep my decking personal. And he was like you should get it ever decker has them, and i go "where are your watchers, every mage worth his gall has it" And combat hits, and you know the DM is like what guns do you guys pull out, and i pull out my trusty HnK (ares perdator with a different name) and i look at the mage and go "and he will pull out his Ares Viper" and load an behold theonly gun he owned was 2 of those. The said thing this was an experenced player. What is so fun about playing the character that can slove every problem the same way and with complete and easy ease. Thats why i made this guy, it can't do anythign GREAT, but he can try and hope things go good for him. So for the rest of the game i kept calling the guy playing the mage "Munchie McMuch" Pisseed him off, then i started calling is character a 2nd rate mage. And when he went and precieved.. i moved his body haha! =) bastard! I mean i know i handled the situation like a child, but you know i am 21 this guy is like 30 something. Eh.. it was almost as bad as the one time i had to play with a 40+ year old guy that was playing a "high charisma elf like in the 14s or so" And my character hit on him, and he was like "thats sick" i was like don't play a hot chick =) I really hate crossdressing roleplayers. /endrant
Posted by: bitrunner Dec 7 2004, 02:44 PM
well, first, i'm not sure name calling is the answer, but i won't harp on that...
as to the 4th demo adventure, you say it is evidently a good one, but you won't play it because you might not enjoy it 100%??? you mean, if you only enjoyed it 80%, it wouldn't have been worth playing???
Posted by: JackWill Dec 7 2004, 09:37 PM
well i think he met "its a good one"mention that its well written, but its not much fun for the runners, and it seems pretty far fetched.
Posted by: Whizbang Dec 8 2004, 02:32 AM
Which one is considered number four?
Posted by: Dark father Dec 8 2004, 03:38 AM
A fork in Fate's Path
Posted by: Backgammon Dec 8 2004, 02:12 PM
The only thing that sucked about "Fork" is (oh.. guess I better put a spoiler, just in case)
[ Spoiler ]
is that it's totally "unrealistic" that there's no way for a runner team to do do both. I mean, come one. What's so hard about sending representatives of the team to both meeting, and either try to do both (probably impossible) or choose the one you like the most. The way the choice is forced on you is totally artificial and doesn't at all feel a choice you. You don't even know anything about the missions, it's practically a coin toss. I thought that part sucked. The actual mission was alright.
Posted by: bitrunner Dec 8 2004, 04:01 PM
Fork Changes...
[ Spoiler ]
yes, i understand...this has been discussed with the Commandos, and we're going to be changing it slightly. The rescue mission is being changed to a "just in time" or "first response" mission and the time frame tightened up to reflect its urgency.
this way, there is no way for the runners to do both missions - why should they?? it is two different missions - path A or path B - you have to make a choice!
that's one of the points of the adventure - sometimes you have to make a decision based on little or no facts, and then live with that decision.
i think what you're really complaining about is that by not "getting to play both missions" that you feel you're missing out on something...you're getting cheated on Karma or money...
in all actuality, this stuff happens in real life - you're presented with two options - you can't pick both - one or the other...this is simply one of those times and shows that sometimes shadowrun opportunities can come at inopportune times. If you're already on a shadowrun, and the call comes through, do you continue with the job, or take the new one and abandon your current job?? would it make a difference if the new job was to rescue a loved one, and the mission you're on now is just a baby-sitting job with some corp suit that you could care less about except for the nuyen??? what would be your answer then?? basically, that is what this adventure is goaled towards getting across...hopefullly the changes I'm about to make to it will make it so...
Posted by: Backgammon Dec 8 2004, 04:19 PM
bit:
[ Spoiler ]
Nah, I didn't care about not being able to play both missions. And I understand that the mission was supposed to reflect "you can't do both missions, you must make a hard choice". I get that, I really do.
But the mission didn't come out feeling like that. There was no sense of having to make a tough choice with hard consequences. I didn't give a damn about this girl to rescue. Why should I? I'd never heard of her even once before. They were both *jobs*.
One paying a LOT of money, but having to deal with an asshole fixer, while the other probably promised more karma. As a player I thought I needed the karma more than the cash right now, so might as well do that one. I'll be pissing off my contact (I'm the one who'd gained Ronaldo as a contact) but I never liked that guy anyway, so what the heck.
And prior to this sense of urgency you're inserting, I honestly couldn't see why we couldn't send a team member to the meeting for the other mission, and chose the one we prefered after knowing more about the jobs. It completely felt artificial and railroaded that we had to choose. If we *had* sent someone to the other meet, would we even have said we can't do both? The kidnapped girl obviously had a tight timeframe, but from what I heard about the warehouse mission maybe not?
In my opinion, there's no harm in letting the players go to both meets. Add a tight timeframe for both missions and it'll be obvious to the players they have to choose. No need for the uninformed decision on their part. And the choice will have far more consequences. A team that turns down the offer to rescue the girl can feel they're going to be directly responsible for her death, having chosen cash over the right thing to do.
Posted by: Deacon Dec 22 2004, 09:54 AM
[ Spoiler ]
Personally, I think the way this kind of mission should be written up is, rather than writing two separate missions and giving the players the choice, write one mission that can be played two ways, and offer the players the choice between the two. For example, let's say a simstar is coming to town. Fixer A is contacted about providing extra security and support during the simstar's stay. Fixer B, on the other hand, is contacted about an extraction on that same simstar by a rival corporation.
So the players get the choice to either guard the simstar (possibly learning something about the business and making a new contact or two) or kidnap the guy (highly illegal and dangerous but more money).
Posted by: bitrunner Dec 22 2004, 03:44 PM
don't worry, we have some of those coming... 
Posted by: Club Feb 2 2005, 12:38 AM
Mission Breifing:
[ Spoiler ]
I've run it twice. Both times the gangers got taken out with a spell. Once stunball, the other time Chaotic World (And crash tests). Under SR3 mages rock, but that is just too much, esp. when even the cops accept that using spells like that is self defence.
The other problem was the adept. Commanding Voice is just too brutal a power in the scenario. GO AWAY. COME BACK LATER. DON"T BOTHER US. Simple commands, but even if they wear off fast...
Posted by: linei Feb 2 2005, 10:28 AM
Double Cross
[ Spoiler ]
The runners planned for what seemed like ages. They bought shares to get 2 runners invited into the stakeholders meeting. On the day before the meeting, one of these 2 runners checked into the hotel. Using a fishing line he brought a pistol from street level into his hotel suite.
The other runner invited to the stakeholder meeting, a female shaman, used a Transformation spell to transform a third runner (no usable SIN at all) into a mouse, put him into her bag and brought him inside the hotel this way.
Inside a restroom the third runner was transformed back into human form. Then the shaman put an Improved Invisibility spell on the former mouse. The now invisible runner - naked (!), because nobody thought about bringing clothing for the mouse - was given the pistol brought in the day before, entered the ballroom and hid under a table. The two invited runners went to their table as backup.
When the time had come, the invisible runner came out from under the table - still naked - and went up to Davenport and shot him twice in the head.
In between the following commotion they started to back out of the ballroom, shot a few bursts at the HTR team, then made their way down to the front of the hotel, where the 2 remaining runners waited with their getaway car.
They arrived at the front of the hotel just in time to launch some shots at the DocWagon ambulance which then exploded.
Mission accomplished.
Posted by: Backgammon Feb 23 2005, 03:33 PM
Double Cross
[ Spoiler ]
Nothing very spectacular happened until the end, where we successfully hit the mark (13D
) and we were making our escape down the freight elevator when we got the radio message that we had to make SURE he was dead.
So, we get outside and run to the front. We get there first, and our decker support has the front doors locked, holding back the HTR team with the wounded target. So, that buys us some time to get the getaway car up front. The HTR APC backs into the door,. letting the HTR out. I take shots at the wounded target ("for the love of god, he MUST be dead...") They return cover fire and get in the APC.
We get the radio order to take out the APC. I have a pistol with ExEx rounds. That's it. So, desperatly grasping to our promised 12k payment, we chase the APC with out pathetic second hand Jack rabbit. We pull up next to the APC, with my desperate and dramatic plan being to jump ontop of the APC and try to use my Shock Hand to disable the truck... My TN to jump on the truck is too high to my liking, so instead I see that I can hit one of the tires instead.
Remember that our puny, unpainted Jackrabbit is as close to the truck as possible since the plan was to jump on it. Figuring, what the hell, it's all we've got, I aim and fire a shot. BOOM!!! Truck explodes violently, sending our puny Jackrabbit flying sideways straight through the window pane of a hair salon. Car is wrecked and on fire, and on top of some lady.
We crawl out and run away to our well deserved payment.
Posted by: bitrunner Feb 23 2005, 04:54 PM
Backgammon - so YOU'RE the group with the jackrabbit i heard about....ROTFLMAO!!
Posted by: Backgammon Feb 23 2005, 06:01 PM
It wasn't MY Jackrabbit though
Posted by: LynGrey Mar 20 2005, 08:31 PM
Mission 4- fork
[ Spoiler ]
Well this was interesting. I have rolando as a contact.. and i really don't like they guy.. just took his number just in case type thing. Well He give me a call.. and i'm like i check into it, my comrads.. in the game got a call from Joey.. and they give it to me also... i went.. mmm street cred or physciall cred... i've made over 25k so far, so my stick wasn't hurting, i also aready set aside cred for my vechincal, and i wanted to do something good for the shadows.
Joey was the way the party went, after convicing two members that Rolando is a chump in the biz, and will mostlikely screw us over, or use us to his advantage.
Well the mission went perfect, why guy was a dwarf heavy weapons expert, me as Kaleab (the counter rigger/decker womanizer) That decker bozo was a major thorn in the side, we took teh first night to just bust our rumps on legworking, i called a reality hacker chick and got her some nice flowers and dinner along with 200 creds, the dwarf bought some 200 cred drinks, and the other guy just some calling around and reasearch. We find out about the Coffee shop, i lone my Max power to a player, and roll in there with my Sub under the coat in a sling.. being all paranoid. We end up buying a 500 Cred cup of coffee. ((if you notice the common trend of over paying)) it works.... well we get a call.. we help that bozo guy out of town ((i personally thing he just wanted some cred to buy the next few doses of jazz)) but we get that abbandoned warehouse and bassically wired some C-4 to the office side, and to the bathroom ((we find out its the mens wwe wired up too)) mainly to provide a distraction has one guy slipped in thru the back, and the other guy slip in the hole made in the bathroom, as me and dwarf laid down some fire thru the front door. It work almost flawlessly.. the sneak popped one guy, and the guy bolted out the bath room to move to the womens, he got shot at, destorying his cover, he blasted the guys leg off.. the sneak tossed a smoke gernade to only have it shot...blasting a hole in his hand. The dwarf took down that guy that shot him, i got shot at as i approached the office.. so i launched a concussion gernade in the room and put my back to the door =)mmmmm chunky salsa. It was horrible, apparently there were other explosives in there so i got tossed and grabbed the railing dangling. Then slipped down and got on my feet.. the guy going for the bathroom found a fire elemental.. and we had to talk sense into the Mge controling him in the bathroom... we struck up a deal... we don't kill him if he gives us the girl. We grabbed her fixed her up a bit, toook her to a steet doc and returned her.
We got paid and it was a good day, we did it all in about 26 horus. So we got some complement and all. I mainly used my contact to find out about that Ares Hacker... slammer or something.. well yeah..
Posted by: LynGrey Mar 20 2005, 08:37 PM
mission 5 dark and stormy night
[ Spoiler ]
Well i came in the game half and hour late... how did this... i loned my Max power and didn't get it back...i forgot to ask.. so i call the bum i loned it too.. and was like.. yo can i get my gun back. And he was like well chum, kind of using it now.. care to help us out? So i drove over to the Destoryed building.. parked my car, straped on my Sub and camos and ran over to the Dwarf with a rat shaman follwing him and link up our frequencies and Find out the guy with my gun is climbing thru the top of the building.. so i rush over and stay about 5m behind him.
We find out first victim, we help the dwarf heavy weapons guy, and the shaman up in the building. She goes improved invis... then she cast silence on the guard... and the guy wanted to know a range and the gm wouldn't give it because the guy asking didn't have anything to tell range welllll... being the ex Forward Observer, i have an orentation system, Nav Dat GPS cyberware, a Math SPU, and RangeFinder... so i just traianulate and feed it to him over the radio..we line up some shots and pop, pop guard down.. i take his helmet we drag him up and hide him.
We move in, after freaking flipping out over the elevator. We find a regular worker sleeping, so i slap him in teh face as an ugly dwarf holding and a guy holding a gun to his face convince him about the plant and all this... ((we are recording all this... and i am mapping it out in my head (ultrasound)with the above stuff and we find another worker so we just basically club him and lock him in a room. We go down another floor.. the alarm goes off.. we here gun shots we get nuttsy. and start looking around.. we find the chick, and some perosnall belongs, throw the chick in a body bag and move up.. we find "john, and we take him up"
we place some c-4 on the bug tubes... and some extra... and the new security comes in.. and we just sneak right pass them as they come in.. we go up and then we blast the elevtor up and the c-4 in the building... hehe we are evil sonsabitches and then i see the glorious Chopper out there.. i start fiddling around.. and realize that i can't fly the dumb thing so i unbolt the captians chair.. and toss it in the trunk of my car and teh dwarf straps some C4 to the chopper and blast it....
I only got cash from what we collected and carried out.. which was quite a bit =) we sold the tape about on the net, and basicalyl did as told.. But if you guys know whats going on.. you will see what we really messed up at... grrrr.. lost karma.. booooo!! But my character is sitting on 25 at this point in time, and i think 5 or 6 contacts, and 30 creds. =) And for my Free week i had a memonic enhancer installed =p
Posted by: Backgammon Mar 21 2005, 07:53 PM
Mission 01-02 Strings Attached
[ Spoiler ]
We got fairly lucky on this one. Me, playing a pure street sam, managed to do the unexplicapable, and actually be useful during the legwork phase!
Having a street doc contact, I decided to check if he could hook me up with someone on the inside willing to take bribes. Succedding at the rather high Etiquette roll, turns out he did (The dude who let people in to soak in the protein mix).
Meanwhile, our otherwise excellent decker got friend in the Matrix and comes up emty-handed. Our other well-connected runner (his contacts may or may not include Jesus Himself) managed to pull some floorplans.
So, we have floorplans, and a tentative way in. We also learn a second runner team is due to hit the place later that night.
We had a pathetic level of intel on the place, and were not very happy with going in. But, we figured we'd at least try, and as a backup plan, I contacted some mafia soldier backup to hit the runner team when they would come out with hopefully our work done for us. Of course, that meant me, a heavily armed street sam with a M23 and a SPAS burst shotgun (very decent) plus 2 goon backup, vs 6 well trained black ops shadowrunner.... not very good odds. And there was also the chance that the runner team would come in by chopper or something else, against which we wouldn't be able to do much against (leading to my quote: "What if they come in by helicopter?" "Well, then, we, uh, shoot it.")
Anyway, turns out bribing the guy worked AMAZINGLY well. He lets in our boys, who then take control of him via gunpoint, let me and my mafia boyz in, we grab everything and zoom away in our truck. Not a single gunshot, alarm or collateral damage inflicted. A Perfect Run.
Posted by: OurTeam Apr 9 2005, 09:56 AM
SRM 00-02 Demolition Run
[ Spoiler ]
They did some legwork, but never looked around the place in person. They looked through the cameras, but those were only on the inside. They looked at the building plans, but those didn't say what the three concrete pads in back were for. Their astral magician couldn't find the place when he flew out from Seattle, and he never tried again.
They came in hot, flying close to the ground, with everyone (but the Decker) in the Vehicle Rigger's combat chopper. Just before rising up over the fence, the shaman had his mist spirit envelop the chopper in fog. No problem, the rigger has flown by radar many times. His radar points out three hard obstacles in the back yard, but with skillful flying he decides he can set the chopper down between two of them.
The most abrupt finish to an adventure that I have ever seen.
Posted by: OurTeam Apr 12 2005, 08:20 AM
SRM 01-02 Strings Attached
[ Spoiler ]
The Decker and the Shaman-Sniper that survived Demolition Run (above) both died in this one.
Decking succeeded in posting a notice to the guards that a DHL shipment of biohazardous material was to arrive at the loading dock at 8 PM. The guards were to unlock the door at the loading dock, but let the shipping crew handle everything else. The team rented a U-haul truck. Had it painted to look like a DHL delivery vehicle, and obtained a large crate to put in the back. They loaded the crate with lots of characters. A decker, a deck, a shaman and a sniper rifle were part of the load.
The Decker never bothered to examine the shipping logs (easily available) to discover that all shipments happened during the day (typically 10AM and 3PM), and that 99% of the shipments were via a Doc Wagon truck and going to or coming from another Doc Wagon facility. As security guards do, they called someone to verify the shipment.
One character followed the 'DHL' truck by a couple blocks. As the truck pulled around back of the building to the loading dock the following character noticed three Lone Star vehicles drive out of nearby alleys and park in front of the Doc Wagon building. By the time he called the characters in the 'DHL' truck there were 8 Doc Wagon vehicles there.
Did the DHL truck flee? Did the characters flee? Nope.
At the loading dock, a guard with a clipboard checked their DHL papers (forged) and had them sign on the clip board. Then he left the loading area as his instructions said. The decker started hacking the security system from within the loading area. The team emptied the truck into the interior loading area, pulled characters out of the crate, and started closing the outer door. A dwarf magician got cold feet and ducked outside just before the door closed.
After the outer door closed the lock clicked and the characters could hear the sound of gas being pumped into the loading area. OH NO! The door to the hall was locked. The decker finished hacking the security system and unlocked the inner door. Anxious voices from the far side of the opening door: "Oh No! Don't open the door yet, the gas hasn't done its work!"
Suddenly the team was facing 10 Lone Star officers who had expected to just pick up unconscious characters and carry them away. A big fight, ending with lots of unconscious Lone Star. Also one sniper-shaman PC on the ground after taking full-auto from 6 meters away.
Most of the team ran to the stairs down, leaving the decker to handle security and one character to protect the decker. The protector stood a couple feet from the decker, facing out. A minute later a small spirit materialized beside the decker, unplugged him and started fighting the protector. After some time the protector won. Lugging the unconscious decker he headed toward the stairs.
Only to surprise two Doc Wagon security members in the hallway. The protector dropped the decker and dove down the stairway. The decker is now in the hall. The shaman-sniper is still in the loading area.
On the Vault level everything worked fine. Characters started moving Primary and Seconday targets to the Pump room. While the others set explosives on the tanks, two characters ran back up the stairs to get the Shaman and the Decker. As they neared the top of the stairs they heard someone yelling at the top, "Get back, I hear them coming." The two characters tossed IPE concussion grenades to the top of the stairs. This took out the Doc Wagon and Lone Star officers at the top of the stairs. Also killed the Decker.
Running to the loading area, they surprised 6 Doc Wagon medics tending to 10 Lone Star officers. Tossing more IPE Concussion grenades into the loading doc area, they knocked them out, killing any Lone Star officer that wasn't yet dead, and making doubly sure that the shaman-sniper was dead. For some unknown reason they carried both the dead bodies down to the lower level. Perhaps they saw this as an honorable thing to do for their fallen comrades.
While opening the drain they heard the explosives blow the huge glass tanks on the Vault level above. Below the sewer grating they gave up the Decker's body and the Shaman's body in exchange for passage. Then the water from the huge tanks reached the sub-basement and the drain. It started running through their tunnels while they tried to enlarge the passageway till it was big enough for them. Many hours later they could finally pull themselves through. Only to find that with no nutrient bath, no oxygen feed, and no intravenus liquids, four of their 7 objectives had not survived the time it took to dig.
So the surviving decker and shaman-sniper from Demolition Run met their tasty end in Strings Attached. THe Dwarf Magician didn't make it either. But his premonition of doom was correct.
Posted by: Tiralee Jul 13 2005, 11:26 AM
Sorry for not posting some of the horror that occurs when people thing a little too much, but WHERE could I find " mission 5 dark and stormy night"?
Because I've got some true, dyed in the wool _3v1L_ characters that would find an adventure like that...fun.
Bring on the Parinoia! (And typo-itis, natch.)
-Tir
Posted by: linei Jul 13 2005, 11:35 AM
a) This is not the correct forum for this kind of question.
b) Dark and Stormy is not available as direct download but only via request at the missions coordinator.
Posted by: Tiralee Jul 13 2005, 12:11 PM
[Sigh] - my Google-fu is strong, but unused. Obviously a not-yet-published Con-run.
(As per SunQuest Games, MegaCon 2005)
Ok, Story Time- I have Nooo idea on how to
[ Spoiler ]
something yet, but this is from an oooold run.
Harken back to the days of yore, when "QuickStart" was new and fresh... I'm talking about Prototype Envy.
Yes, the rules were simplified, no it wasn't really too difficult, but the players (Myself included) made it that way.
Ok, chatted with the nice rep from Saederkrupt, got the info, hustled some transport and were just a liiiiiiiiitle queasy at how smooth the setup was. As experienced gamers, we expected blood and tears and legwork, not something as well-packaged as a soyburger meal at McHughs.
Anyhoo, Troll Mage (Player Favourite), slightly manic human gun-fetishist and an albino Maxed/min elven Mage walk into a facility. Sure, they could burn this place down to the bedrock, but what's the fun in that?
So we did the usual "Nothing to worry about, clean this place up good now, yessir." act while perception rolls got us nowhere. We were driving that dammed floor polisher (GM ruled, 1/3 of the speed of the slowest one there, so quickness 2 - it'll make sense later...) everywhere, doing a seriously good job at cleaning...THEN the pile hit the fan when some inhuman perception rolls noted that:
"Hey, it looks like this bookcase opens into the Security Room"
2 seconds later - Pistol freak has the troll (Stunbolt ready) open the door and successfully takes down the hapless Security guard with 2 taser & Neurostun darts. Did I mention Amberdexterity 8? Yes. One of _those_.
After ransacking the place, shutting down the cameras (Much rejoycing on THAT) and stiffing the guard a couple more times for good measure, the Pistol freak notices the Armoury.
"Let's go shopping!"
A couple of quick dice rolls, the Troll acting as handy transport and the amoury is now filled with the rubbish we collected and the trash recpticles full of guns, ammo and vests...as the Troll didn't bring any.
After dicking around a little more, the elf mage and the bunny go off to find out the target ("Oh, it's implanted in some poor schmo's head. And I forgot my Dikoted Katana. Well, let's see if he can walk?") While the troll mage, with an electronics skill of _2_ manages to figure out how to:
1: Shut down the emergency generators, backups, etc.
2: Scavenge enough electrical kit to
3: Booby-trap the room so that the power is routed from the main feed into the maglocks/door fittings. [Henious rolls there.]
While this happens, the mage and bunny have managed to figure out a working plan, signal the troll and open the door in question.
Troll hits the lights, mage tosses stunball into crowd (Harsh, no drain, highest resist was a 3....evil dice.) while bunny opens door, pumps schmo with assorted toxins and then tossed him into a handy area lined with vests. (Gotta keep the merch safe.)
While escaping, ON THE QUICKNESS 2 FLOOR POLISHER, was nailed by the Armed and alert security chief (Bunny wears armour). 2 Narcoject darts later and security chief was feeling no pain. Then the cavalry arrives, nailing the bunny quite harshly until the combined mage-mojo did very bad things (Powerball, _massive_ case of "Rule-of-6, oh, more successes", TN was 14. Yeah, one of those nights, eh?)
At this case, the team had not killed anyone.
Driving over the unconcious bodies of the guards, STILL ON THE POLISHER, bunny picked off some other ducking for cover with her HK227, loaded with gel. No worries.
This creeping escape vehicle made it, with payload, piles of guns, etc, to the final exit, the loading dock, where an alert guard (In his nice safe cubbyhole with armoured windows, etc) potted the Troll. Bunny has managed to keep her bloodthirsty instincts in check until now, drag out her other HK227, loaded with E-Ex rounds and blows the crap out of the security station.
(Yes, I KNOW the barrier ratings, ok? Didn't do much after the first few rounds made a hole big enough for the Troll.) Guard had vest with plates, lowest the bunny rolled was something like 11D for a single round.
Then they drove the polisher off the loading dock, collected their ill-gotten gear, including developer notes, etc, piled the lot into the car, reluctantly leaving behind the bullet-riddled polisher and drove off happily secure in the knowledge that that was one of their better runs.
Sometimes the dice love you, sometimes...sheesh.
-fear
Posted by: linei Jul 13 2005, 12:16 PM
which SR Missions adventure is this supposed to be?
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