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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Wait, you want us to WHAT?
Posted by: CanRay Jul 23 2010, 03:44 PM
What are the STRANGEST 'Runs your groups have been asked to do?
Mine would have to be when the group was hired to Extract Goofy from DisneyLand.
Well, it was a very specific Goofy, actually. The guy in the costume was actually a robotics expert on his "Day Off" enjoying time with the kids.
It was during this 'Run that the group found out that "The House of Mouse" has it's own SWAT Team and a whole *LOT* of Magicians. (Low powered ones, but even a low-powered magician can summon Watcher Spirits!).
Then the front yard of their safehouse attacked them.
Posted by: Doc Chase Jul 23 2010, 03:52 PM
My team was asked to do a botched jewelry store robbery where we would put down (but not out) a latent Mystic Adept who believed he was a superhero. The Johnson was fairly transparently Horizon after we did the scan, and she said we could actually hit the store as a bonus.
We had a newbie team of players who didn't understand the overpowered wonder of Stick 'n Shock, so we set up a flash mob of folks 'protesting blood diamonds', sleep-gassed the store, cleaned the jewelry out and got accosted by the hero just outside. That's when the LEBD-1 loaded up with SnS opened up, and we vanished like a puff of patchouli smoke.
Posted by: AStarshipforAnts Jul 23 2010, 03:54 PM
We had a newbie team of players who didn't understand the overpowered wonder of Stick 'n Shock, so we set up a flash mob of folks 'protesting blood diamonds', sleep-gassed the store, cleaned the jewelry out and got accosted by the hero just outside. That's when the LEBD-1 loaded up with SnS opened up, and we vanished like a puff of patchouli smoke.
You forgot how we hired a bunch of dwarves and orks to tunnel under the store from the Ork underground, sir.
Posted by: Doc Chase Jul 23 2010, 03:55 PM
Didn't we do that to get the sleep agent in place? I recall taking you and the Pornomancer in under the guise of jewelry shoppers where our 'darling child' fell asleep and set up a backdoor to kill the security while we looked over necklaces.
Posted by: Synner667 Jul 23 2010, 03:56 PM
I have images of Rigger controlled Disney animatronic monsters chasing covert operatives around the disneyworld grounds…
Posted by: CanRay Jul 23 2010, 03:56 PM
Damn... Wish I had thought of that.
Posted by: Doc Chase Jul 23 2010, 03:57 PM
While singing. Nothing like a giant animatronic Ursula the Sea Witch with a pair of HMG's singing 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' while opening up on a group of runners.
Posted by: AStarshipforAnts Jul 23 2010, 04:13 PM
That must have been it.
Also, making note of the Disney animatrons. My players will never see it coming.
Posted by: DireRadiant Jul 23 2010, 04:20 PM
"The Couch" and "The Best Christmas Ever" are two of my favorites.
Normally when a teammate comes to us and says, "Hey guys can you help me with a dead hooker?" we can just point to the nearest organ legger street doc or neighborhood ghouls. We don't expect to spend a week tracking down through the streets the idiots who accessorized the couch our team troll physad was trying to move up the barrens apartment building with the broken elevator for the octogenarian lady on the top floor. We did think the "Good Deed" of moving the couch was too easy... there's always a catch.
Twas the christmas before the team was going to pay a visit to Deus in the Renraku Arcology.... and the team blew all the nuyen we couldn't spend on things to bring into the arcology with us on a party for all the contacts and friends we had and any disadvantaged neighbors kids. Almost half a million nuyen. Then some drive by gangers showed up to party. That's when the fireworks went off.
Posted by: Johnny B. Good Jul 23 2010, 04:24 PM
Normally when a teammate comes to us and says, "Hey guys can you help me with a dead hooker?" we can just point to the nearest organ legger street doc or neighborhood ghouls. We don't expect to spend a week tracking down through the streets the idiots who accessorized the couch our team troll physad was trying to move up the barrens apartment building with the broken elevator for the octogenarian lady on the top floor. We did think the "Good Deed" of moving the couch was too easy... there's always a catch.
Wait, what?
Posted by: DireRadiant Jul 23 2010, 04:26 PM
Run on sentences are good. The couch the troll was delivering had a dead hooker in it. He got upset.
Posted by: Doc Chase Jul 23 2010, 04:28 PM
Why? Normally you have to pay extra for that.
Posted by: Johnny B. Good Jul 23 2010, 04:29 PM
I can only imagine his face when he realized there was something under his 300kg girth when he sat down.
Posted by: Dr.Rockso Jul 23 2010, 04:30 PM
Old ladies need dead hookers, too!
Posted by: DireRadiant Jul 23 2010, 04:31 PM
Oh he didn't care about that. He was upset because he realized the old lady upstairs would not have liked the couch.
Posted by: Caadium Jul 23 2010, 05:48 PM
I once sent a team to kidnap a witness to a crime. The team had to hit the armored car to get the witness mid-transit. Once they eventually got through security they found that the witness was a chimpanzee; a chimp that had been a test subject for early Cerebral Booster technology as well as some ware that allowed it to speak.
Not only did they kidnap the chimp, but they had to keep it safe for about 48 hours before the exhange.
Since some of the players are the same, every four or five years the chimp will make a cameo; to which I get a mixture of groans and cheers.
Posted by: Fauxknight Jul 23 2010, 06:18 PM
After noticing a particular teams lack of subtety I had a Johnson send them into a facility to retrieve his coat that he left there. Since he didn't give them a description of it they stole every coat they could fine after making a mess of the place. When the Johnson didn't seem to care about all the coats they grabbed, they realized that they weren't actually hired to get a coat.
The same Johnson later hired them again to go into a restaurant to retrieve his hat. One of the players wasn't there for the other run and was desperately trying to find a hat, while the other runners were merrily filling the place full of much lead and explosives as they could.
Posted by: IceKatze Jul 23 2010, 06:20 PM
hi hi
Some guy's fiance hired us to kill a tree that belonged to said guy.
Posted by: Cardul Jul 23 2010, 06:26 PM
I once had a johnson hire a team to pick up and deliver...the Johnson's lunch, a very good deli sandwich 
Posted by: Trevalier Jul 23 2010, 06:57 PM
Posted by: CanRay Jul 23 2010, 07:14 PM
One of the best games I ran involved one of the PC's (Vic the Cabbie) having his Mafia Connection call him up and pull in every favour owed in order to...
Steal a cow.
Posted by: BobChuck Jul 23 2010, 07:31 PM
500 lbs of pure, raw beef? I can see that.
Posted by: CanRay Jul 23 2010, 07:38 PM
Yeah, it was a bit more than that.
It was a very difficult run, due to the cow transmitting "I'M BEING STOLEN!!!" across Snohomish, the fact that the cow was novacoked up to the eyeballs, and a few other factoids.
It was actually a Biocow that the Mafia was experimenting with to try and smuggle the raw ingredients of Novacoke at the start (To get through Customs), and have the finished product coming out the udders at the end.
Posted by: Dumori Jul 23 2010, 07:39 PM
IIRC that cow was a novacoke factory. I recall the thread.
I'm really wanting to send my my PCs after Dragon seamen. Thats one odd run more so it is has to be for X age Y type dragon. Yeah I'll pull that if my PCs need a cow droped much more fun and if they can get a dragonss seamen then well they desever to avoid the cow. The negative is they are no the dragon spunk guys. Nice rep there.
Posted by: Draco18s Jul 23 2010, 07:46 PM
I think ours was to extract a guy who "had some info" out of some Archology complex (name, location, and building* all made up by the GM).
Target never left the secure locations of the archology, especially recently.
Target was highly paranoid.
Target could not be harmed, mentally or physically (eg. can't show up, drop a bag over his head, knock him unconscious, and carry him out).
Target had to be delivered to a drop point in Seattle (Target was in New York)**
The group spent over half the reward money hiring a coven of mages to implant a suggestion into the guy's head that he wanted to visit the Archology mall's Hat and Mask shop, where we "traded" him for one of the group via impromptu disguise and control emotions (made the target like the face-ish mage). Later when the safehouse was hit the mage said, "Run, they're after us!" playing off the guy's paranoia. We handily beat up the swat team, recovered the target (I forget how this worked, exactly, just that the "run, they're coming for you" was well used), and flew him to Seattle.
When the GM "wrote" this little side mission he had no idea how it would be possible to extract the guy.
*Was a cool building though: all glass and it had arcs of lighning tracing across the surface.
**The point, for us as players, was to get a job that would--as cheaply as possible--get us from Miami to Seattle. We called in a favor to get to NY, then this job offered to pay the flight costs to Seattle.
Posted by: Apathy Jul 23 2010, 08:44 PM
There once was a runner named Dave,
who kept a dead whore in a cave.
He said "I admit,
it does smell a bit,
but think of the nuyen I save!"
Posted by: Inpu Jul 23 2010, 10:40 PM
Mine would have to be when the group was hired to Extract Goofy from DisneyLand.
Well, it was a very specific Goofy, actually. The guy in the costume was actually a robotics expert on his "Day Off" enjoying time with the kids.
It was during this 'Run that the group found out that "The House of Mouse" has it's own SWAT Team and a whole *LOT* of Magicians. (Low powered ones, but even a low-powered magician can summon Watcher Spirits!).
Then the front yard of their safehouse attacked them.
The most magical place on earth.
Posted by: Daylen Jul 24 2010, 12:50 AM
A team of trogs got hired to guard some pop stars. here is the timeline.
T 0 - team arrives says hello
T 4 minutes - clients say a comment that leads to the team responding in a bad way and a worse comment being said
T 5 minutes - team leader looks around and says well shit lets see if the yakuza we were supposed to protect them from will pay us the 5k they offered as a bounty for killing them...
Posted by: Neraph Jul 24 2010, 03:53 AM
In addition to GMing myself, I also offer services (free of charge) as a GM Consultant as well. One of my clients needed some ideas, so the following was spawned:
The team was hired to find a mint-condition, unopened.... 0.5 lead mechanical pencil, circa ~2000. The eccentric Johnson, upon receiving the item, opened it and clicked it, and moaned like he was orgasming while doing so.
The next run from the same guy was to find a Pink eraser, never been used.
By the way, he was paying over 200k 
per person, IIRC. And he hired multiple teams, so there were gunfights, explosions, and extreme care to protect the items.
Posted by: Dumori Jul 24 2010, 04:20 AM
Wow. Thats one bored J some ones gona get kicked by the mother corp?
Posted by: MortVent Jul 24 2010, 10:26 AM
Not if it's his money being paid. Some people spend thousands on a little rat...err dog... damn it if it bounces when it barks it's not a dog! (bonus points if ya know where I got that)
Posted by: CanRay Jul 24 2010, 02:30 PM
Not every Mr. Johnson works for a Corporation. Some work for the Government, some work for "Interest Groups" (Terrorists, Policlubs, Shelters, and so on), some work for themselves.
Some don't even know they're working at all as a Mr. Johnson. And it's those that you have to watch out for.
Posted by: Martin_DeVries_Institute Jul 24 2010, 09:51 PM
I don't remember the actual run we were hired for, but I do remember that our Johnson was a manager at a Starbucks--he actually had us meet in the back office of his store. I think he wanted something to help him move up the ladder. He ended up paying us with a mass of Starbucks gift cards. If one ran out he could have it reloaded with another hundred nuyen or so. Our team ended up having a lot of planning sessions in various Starbucks' after that.
Posted by: Draco18s Jul 25 2010, 04:07 AM
My group once accepted a job to kill our group. We collected too.
I think the link is in my sig, still, to the logs from that particular campaign.
Edit: it is not.
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=28806.
At least, I think that part of the story was logged. Can't figure out which post its in though.
Posted by: Khyron Jul 25 2010, 08:30 AM
A Manhattan team, the Johnson hired us to break into an Aztechnology subsidiary and steal the data on a new chip flavor they were about to unleash on the public after a huge advertising campaign. Not so bad, some food company espionage. The kicker was we also had to taint the first product batch with huge amounts of extremely powerful medical laxatives.
The team pulled it off, stole a few untainted bags and informed their closest contacts not to buy this particular brand and maybe update their stock profiles. The resulting media blitz product release parties went all wrong on world wide live Trid. We never did find out who the Johnson worked for, but the team figured it was Horizon due to the longevity of the TV embarrassment that followed.
Unrelated, but we also picked up a Marxist AI inhabiting the facility breakroom vending machine.
Posted by: Stingray Jul 25 2010, 08:56 AM
(this is pretty lame..)
Stealing Bio-Engineered pig from hidden r&d lab..
Posted by: Lok1 :) Jul 25 2010, 09:11 AM
Well, the "Ready Set Ghogh" mission from Manhattan is pretty weird. (For those of you who don't know you need to steal a bio-art display "A starry Night" but made entirly of live fish).
My team was once hired to transport a large conatainer to a location and deliver it to the people we found there, it was infact the body of a ex-ancients gang member who was part of our team, the Johnson was infact working on the bequest of a corperation that wanted our team out of the way, needless to say the elf gangers wern't exactly pleased when we showed up with one of their old buddy's in a coffin. Thankfully or face was able to gloss it over.
Posted by: Traul Jul 25 2010, 09:28 AM
You mean you did not drown him in his coffee after that?
Posted by: Draco18s Jul 25 2010, 02:40 PM
When you're saving 12
a cup off every 12 cup and you have it, essentially, for life... You kind of don't care that the prize wasn't in cash.You just start drinking more coffee. Maybe in 10 years you'll get your 50 grand worth out of it.
Posted by: Martin_DeVries_Institute Jul 25 2010, 06:58 PM
Yeah, exactly. This was a street-level group with no rep, so being paid in "free Starbucks for life" was actually a really good deal.
Posted by: CanRay Jul 31 2010, 08:44 AM
Well, aside from my group thinking I was sending them after a cow (again), they've found out they're getting three "Crates" out of UCAS Customs...
A mystery crate that was mis-sent to the warehouse, and is actually a Korean Diplomatic "Pouch".
A Cargo Container (The big ones that take up a whole Flatbed Truck!) filled with "Farm Tractors" from Russia for export to the SSC.
And a wooden crate of "Chinese Electronics".
I'm really wondering if they're going to open the packages. 
Posted by: Simon Kerimov Jul 31 2010, 06:18 PM
In my younger GM years, I sent a team to Vatican City to steal the Necronomicon for Aztechnology. When they finally got out of the trap-filled labyrinthine catacomb, they wanted the drop off to be in orbit. This was when I learned that space is bad for magical items.
Posted by: tete Jul 31 2010, 06:37 PM
Steal a coffee maker... It ended up being we were a security test for the mall and the Johnson had his eye on this particular fancy coffee maker. So as he drank a particularly great cup of coffee lone star came in to arrest us for petty theft, murder (stupid phys adept...) and check our SINs.
Posted by: Hand-E-Food Aug 2 2010, 03:17 AM
Ooh... I'm using that idea, thank you!
Posted by: CanRay Aug 2 2010, 03:23 AM
You know you're in Seattle when...
Posted by: Neraph Aug 2 2010, 02:47 PM
Was Amazon.matrix down or something? The Necronomicon is one of the most prolific occult* texts you can find.
*Occult might not be the best word here, but I'm not entirely sure how to classify that thing. Semi-religious? Spiritual? Something in that field.
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 03:07 PM
Not to mention which Necronomicon.
We had a book in a D&D game (we were running the World's Largest Dungeon) that contained every evil spell, as a spellbook. Any spellcaster could cast the spells without needing to preprare them at a cost of 1 permanent hp per spell level (if you made the will save against the book). We called it the Necronomicon for good reason. And it totally saved the party on like three occasions.
Posted by: Neraph Aug 2 2010, 03:58 PM
Very true. Kinda like how many "Book of Shadows" there are. Almost every fledgeling wiccan (or druid... I forget which exactly) makes their own.
Always wanted to run that dungeon.
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 04:23 PM
Its good. Although unless you want a (very) long term campaign, I suggest picking a single region and using it as its own thing.
The entire thing will run a part of 1st to 3rd level starting characters all the way up through level 18 or so, depending on how many regions they visit. You'll also probably want everyone to have a spare character on hand until they finish Region A; death is almost certainly going to occur for at least one person (the Region A boss is also a dick--it took four simultaneous grapples and a helpless coup de grace or three to even do meaningful damage).
Also a warning: the dungeon has been heavily edited, so be sure to read up on the region before every session just in case room #53 no longer exists on the map. Or if room #16 on the map has no description. Or if that artifact has no stat block. Or if that stated item has no location. Or no use. Or traps that are listed before any description that would allow the characters to be aware of the trap. Or....
Also: the party will want a crafter. There is a singular location to buy anything in the dungeon, so despite having level-appropriate wealth the party* will not have level-appropriate gear, even under the 1/4 cost crafting specialty of a crafter (he simply won't have the time--even if he's a warforged and never sleeps). Also don't worry if your fourth level party crafts an 11 HD clay golem. It might be able to punk anything in the dungeon for a while, but it has good odds to go crazy at some point (cumulative 1% chance to go crazy every continuous round its in combat; our group went 14 rounds once.** Standing orders were that if it did go crazy that everyone just run and hope something else can kill it).
The party will also become increasingly paranoid. It will be fun to watch ("We should spend the 5000 gp to cast Barghest's Feast on the dragon's corpse, we already killed him twice now; cutting off his head clearly didn't work" "But we don't need to! We slew his cleric!").
*Assuming they have a way of hauling it about. We replaced the dog in our "dog-cart" more than once. It was hauling around some million gp worth of "appropriated" paintings and other useless valuables that couldn't be used to craft magic items.
**14 rounds of a cumulative 1% odds works out to about a 33% chance of it having not gone crazy yet (0.99 * 0.98 * 0.97 * ... * 0.86 = 0.331).
Posted by: Neraph Aug 2 2010, 04:31 PM
Yeah, I've looked over the thing, and I am confidant I can solo the dungeon. I am also able to keep OOC information different from IC information, so my preview of the dungeon would not give my character an advantage.
Posted by: jakephillips Aug 2 2010, 04:46 PM
I once ran a tournament at gen con where I had a group run against doc wagon and steal the DNA samples of several numbered lots. They were given the coded numbers to extract the numbers from a high security center in seattle.
The run was high paying difficult job with doc wagon high threat response teams coming to defend the facility and almost mil spec matrix security. After a hard fought battle they have the 6 numbered samples in their hands and turn them over to this johnson and are counting their money when they get a message informing them that their doc wagon samples have been "damaged" and they will need to come in and resubmit samples...
Wait for it, wait for it, they stole their OWN samples and turned them over to a corp,
Round two of the tournament was tracking down who they had worked for and getting the samples back before the ritual sorcery fries them all.
There was cursing and oh you son of a B***h I can't believe this. after round one.
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 04:48 PM
Good luck killing a mummy with Anti-life shell up while a golem-crafting First Lich blasts you with Prismatic Spray (they're not even the bosses).
I don't think the dungeon can be solo'd.
But hey, have fun.
Posted by: Runner Smurf Aug 2 2010, 05:23 PM
Ran a session once where the team was hired to destroy a piece of sculpture in a park. The team thought it was a piece of applied art criticism at first, as the sculpture was ugly - really, aggressively, actively ugly. So ugly it bordered on malevolent. So ugly that a shadow spirit had taken up residence and was draining the neighborhood children. When the team saw all the neighborhood children coming by at night and feeding the sculpture their teddy bears with the eyes bitten out, they realized something was very wrong.
It was a really silly run idea that only worked because the players bought into it. They took it far further than I ever planned, traveling around the UCAS to find the original sculptor, raiding the offices of the construction firm, etc. The shadow spirit so freaked them out that their ultimate solution involved an overcast offensive mana barrier that nearly killed the team mage in the casting, a dump truck, a more kilos of high explosive than I care to think about...and a JDAM.
The team were firm believers in the principle that judicious application of C4 can solve most any problem. Unfortunately, they were also big believers in overkill, so they also solved the problems of too many standing nearby buildings, the lack of craters in the park, the pesky eyesore that was the jungle gym, all those glass windows in the area...
Posted by: Inpu Aug 2 2010, 05:25 PM
It was a really silly run idea that only worked because the players bought into it. They took it far further than I ever planned, traveling around the UCAS to find the original sculptor, raiding the offices of the construction firm, etc. The shadow spirit so freaked them out that their ultimate solution involved an overcast offensive mana barrier that nearly killed the team mage in the casting, a dump truck, a more kilos of high explosive than I care to think about...and a JDAM.
The team were firm believers in the principle that judicious application of C4 can solve most any problem. Unfortunately, they were also big believers in overkill, so they also solved the problems of too many standing nearby buildings, the lack of craters in the park, the pesky eyesore that was the jungle gym, all those glass windows in the area...
That is an excellent idea. Do you mind if I use it some time?
Posted by: CanRay Aug 2 2010, 05:32 PM
But it was worth it to get rid of the statue, eh?
BTW, I'm going to use this one as well, I think...
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:00 PM
I don't think the dungeon can be solo'd.
But hey, have fun.
I so wanna take that bet. One gestalt warforged arti/whatever(thinking rouge/warmage) here WE go I deffently think I could do something with two PCs. Now assume all 18s the big deals will be wealth and EXP however I think a thought bottel and a few portable hole, the I always craft golem thing ect will help there. If I get up to making inane one-million and one template effergies I'll be happy as the added HD/CR dose not effect the how powerful it can be rule can easly getting to to 40+ in all stats with flying ect as a mount. Taking spell sealed warforged at some point is a must if I go warmage at any point. I think this might just work need soem escape spells/abilities tough.
Posted by: Doc Chase Aug 2 2010, 06:07 PM
This is the craziest Shadowrun game I've ever heard of.
What's this 'Warforged' nonsense?
Although, 'World's Largest Corporate Facility' might be fun to plan. The runners infiltrate Gunnerkrigg Court.
Posted by: Squiddy Attack Aug 2 2010, 06:10 PM
Naturally, one part of it would have to involve retrieving some exceedingly rare plant from inside a greenhouse on corp grounds... No idea why there are so many eucalyptus trees in there, though... nope.
Posted by: Doc Chase Aug 2 2010, 06:11 PM
Runner 1: Man, why all these trees in an HMHVV research sector?
Runner 2: I dunno, I--AIEEEEEE
Drop Bear 1: *nomf nomf nomf*
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 06:13 PM
...Let's reign in the infinite combos, shall we? And "18s in everything" stats, because at that point you're not playing the game.
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:18 PM
last four chars I've played have be night on 18 base every thing I think the lowest I rolled on one was a 15. Reign in the combos maybe but I have dice luck in that regard though not in any other roll 1s love me abit too much in play.
Posted by: Inpu Aug 2 2010, 06:18 PM
Yeeeaah, you kind of already lose at the word 'Gestalt'.
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:20 PM
I can play I one class char as well. In fact it would be quite similar us less spell umph. How ever this is still taking one PC in to a dungeon made for 4-8 IIRC
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 06:20 PM
Point buy, please. Dice rolling doesn't make for a good "oh yeah, I can build a character do to X" when, while possible, isn't probable.
Posted by: KarmaInferno Aug 2 2010, 06:21 PM
Wait for it, wait for it, they stole their OWN samples and turned them over to a corp,
Round two of the tournament was tracking down who they had worked for and getting the samples back before the ritual sorcery fries them all.
There was cursing and oh you son of a B***h I can't believe this. after round one.
Ooo, that's evil.
I approve.
-karma
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:22 PM
Humm haven't play point buy for ages but sure. I shall make the OP one and the point buy and singal class and see how much an improvement the former is over the other in this seeing as the main might is golem and item spam.
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 06:28 PM
Remember that crafting costs exp, and you can't be higher than 14th (before crafting).
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:35 PM
I'm sure the lvl requirement is slightly wrong. I recall crafting scrolls/oils/potions at lvl 2-4. Also I believe thought bottles are craft-able and the craft reserve helps on the exp costs.
Posted by: Inpu Aug 2 2010, 06:39 PM
So, strange Run stories from Shadowrun?
Posted by: Troysome Aug 2 2010, 06:40 PM
The run was high paying difficult job with doc wagon high threat response teams coming to defend the facility and almost mil spec matrix security. After a hard fought battle they have the 6 numbered samples in their hands and turn them over to this johnson and are counting their money when they get a message informing them that their doc wagon samples have been "damaged" and they will need to come in and resubmit samples...
Wait for it, wait for it, they stole their OWN samples and turned them over to a corp,
Round two of the tournament was tracking down who they had worked for and getting the samples back before the ritual sorcery fries them all.
There was cursing and oh you son of a B***h I can't believe this. after round one.
I am SOOOOO going to use this for my campaign. I love this idea.
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 2 2010, 06:46 PM
You could craft potions at 2ish, probably (I wasn't our crafter. Crafting pool is very limited, but does offset the cost somewhat (it does NOT grant you 101 stone golems "free") but you'll run out of resources extremely quickly.
You also have to solo a cockatrice at level 3 (good luck!).
Posted by: Dumori Aug 2 2010, 06:50 PM
You also have to solo a cockatrice at level 3 (good luck!).
Yeah I know roughly what I'm up against. I'll have the two PCs and such done soon and then we'll see how far I get.
Posted by: Neraph Aug 2 2010, 11:02 PM
I'm confidant I can do it without gestalting.
EDIT: Also I'm fairly sure I can do it without crafting, or any items really. Which point-buy? 32, 24..? I can do it with 32.
Posted by: KronikAlkoholik Aug 2 2010, 11:45 PM
I sent my group once to grab a elephant from the Seattle Zoo. It was a new sensation in the zoo cause it was a Awakened elephant of a even greater size then the normal ones.
They where hired by a rich eccentric middle european collector and after getting the elephant out of the zoo where opposed by a militant radical african heritage hippie group led by a Lion shaman that wanted to free and return it back to the steppes of africa. Also the elephant started casting illusion spells to confuse the players ( it was semi intelligent so the images where all from it's known homeland, like a Lion attack or things like that ).
Decent run. Many rememberable things happened, like when the big troll gun guy was lucky with his first aid roll (untrained) and got like 4 6's in a row on a exploding die test ( this was 2nd or 3rd edition ) and saved his mate who was shot in the head by a sniper ( I explained how he kinda pushed his brain back in bound the wound ).
Posted by: Udoshi Aug 3 2010, 03:16 AM
Starting at what level?
There's tons of ways to break that game with any class combination. Doing so at level 1, though, is the hard part.
Posted by: Neraph Aug 3 2010, 03:45 AM
No it isn't. CoDzilla, anyone? You can do it easier, but CoDzilla is the strongest, Core or expanded sources.
(Cleric or Druid - zilla)
Posted by: tete Aug 3 2010, 04:28 AM
(Cleric or Druid - zilla)
Dont forget your one level of rogue for trapfinding
Personally I would say Druid, just remember though your a summoner not a fighter.
Posted by: nemafow Aug 3 2010, 04:34 AM
Can we move 'That other game' banter to another thread, I look forward to reading all the ingenius (speeeling) Johnson ideas that have come up earlier!
Posted by: Draco18s Aug 3 2010, 04:34 AM
I'd personally limit you to entering the dungeon at level 2, as that's what my group did. It's written to start at level 1, but advises that all players have a minimum of 2 backup sheets ready to go in case of death.
It's also written assuming only core-3 books, but we ran through it with many many others.
Posted by: Dumori Aug 3 2010, 05:33 AM
Ill start a thread in genral gameing about this soon-ish. CoDzilla bah you can get pun pum at lvl 1 if you know what your are doing. However I'm a fan of the warforged artificer. It's like a combat cleric but not with all the buffs and such. Plus the abillty to on they fly add temp enchantment to weapons always help bane as needed and or protection as needed.
Posted by: Zormal Aug 3 2010, 05:43 AM
Round two of the tournament was tracking down who they had worked for and getting the samples back before the ritual sorcery fries them all.
Beautiful. Just beautiful
Posted by: Neraph Aug 3 2010, 07:02 AM
What is it with all these Mega Man clones? In any event, if you do in fact start a thread off in General Gaming I won't be following - I already spend enough time monitoring the SR tab here.
Back on topic:
1) (I forget if I already posted this - I don't believe I did) I actually had a Johnson hire a hit out... on his wife's favorite pet dog. It was one of those little yappy rat-wanna-be-s, and he couldn't stand the thing, but because his wife loved it so much he couldn't just get rid of it, so he had to get rid of it. This involved infiltrating a corporate housing facility and firing on the dog. They could have done it a cleaner way, but that's what they chose.
2) I also had another Johnson hire a wetwork for his own daughter. She had Awakened and took up an urban druid tradition, not going hermetic and getting involved with the 'corp like she should have. In order to prevent what he considered to be a public disgrace, he ordered a hit on her to prevent his peers from finding out. There also needed to be no traces of a struggle, and no way to trace her.
My group could have abducted her as they did, no problem, and stick her behind a mana barrier until they figured out a way to prevent her from being chased... But they instead killed her and fed her to ghouls.
Posted by: KronikAlkoholik Jan 19 2011, 03:01 PM
Yeah, it seems when playing SR the players rarely take the moral high ground.
Posted by: CanRay Jan 19 2011, 05:46 PM
More like they drove past the moral event horizon going 110 MPH while shooting at the bus full of nuns they just passed...
Posted by: Manunancy Jan 19 2011, 07:01 PM
That's just murder on order and corpse disposal. Certainly far from any sort of moral high ground, but in my opinion still a safe distance from the moral event horizon. No torture or the like, just plain murder for cash.
Back on topic, a scenario I'm currently writing has the players hired to snatch a coffin from a mortuary and replace it with an identical looking one. The coffin to be stolen is occupied by a fresh corpse awaiting the funerals - which will have to be moved from one coffin to the other. The Johnson tells the players he wants to steal some 'hot stuff' hidden in the coffin to let the heat about cool off. The substitution means that the theft won't be noticed before he has covered his tracks.
Of course there's a catch (oh well, even several catches): the stolen coffin if perfectly normal, the substitute has been prepared with enough explosives and metal bits to turn the burial into a bloodbath... Then the corpse is a maffia don's wife. The Johnson has planted false pointing him as a columbian, while in reality he's an italo-amreican working for a maffia member eager to clean up the hierarchy to improve his positions Who will of course take the lead in the maffia's hunt for the PCs that will follow the explosion.
Posted by: CanRay Jan 19 2011, 09:14 PM
While it was a really crappy job GMing, I still take a point in pride that, when my group had to go to LA again, they ended up having to extract...
Batman.
From ComiCon. Which is now a year-round event. In San Diego, Aztlan, near LA.
Posted by: Squiddy Attack Jan 20 2011, 12:13 AM
We once got a job from a seriously high-ranking Azzie executive who wanted us to steal something. Specifically, he wanted us to sneak into a building with ridiculous security and exploit a twelve-minute system maintenance window to get something out of a safe. A hidden safe in the bowels of the facility, surrounded by leech walls and constantly watched by several spirits that would immediately alert people if they saw anything suspicious. In fact, the whole run had to be done without leaving a trace that anyone was even there, much less who it was and what they did.
We eventually got around the Awakened security problem by disguising an anthroform drone as a security guy and having the rigger pilot it into the vault with the object of the run. An object the Johnson hadn't said much of anything about, besides that it was important, and got huffy when we asked why. Said object also had to be returned in -pristine- condition, untouched, unchanged, not even with any tags it may have had on it erased.
The object? A slightly bent tin can.
It -did- turn out to be important, but it was very WTF at the time.
Posted by: CanRay Jan 20 2011, 12:26 AM
The first game I ran was based on Dunkelzahn's will.
The group had to break in and steal the prototype for...
JIFFY POP!
I still have the popcorn hanging in my pantry.
Posted by: PiXeL01 Jan 20 2011, 10:29 AM
I GM'd a game where the runners were hired by an undercover Lone Star officer to get a wooden crate 1.5mx1.5mx1.5m wrappen in paper and then keep it safe for a few weeks. They werent allowed to open, damage or even probe the crate (which also was warded) while they had it.
The way they would recognize the "johnson" was that he would be at the aquarium holding a Betty BigBoobs doll on his arm.
Both the Yakuza and the Triads were holding for the crate and they had ways of tracking it.
It turned out to be a tea set from way back in Chinese history, which the cop had stolen from the Triads, framed the Yakuza for doing it and hoped he could spark a mob war and then "discover" the set and get it back to the triads to buy his way in.
Was fun seeing my team telling to figure out ways to gain knowledge of the contents of the crate, but also keeping it unscratched through all the rolling firefights as they transported the crate around town.
My team actually converted a barbie doll into a Betty Bigboobs doll and gave it to me on my 25th birthday.
I also always wanted to do the "You want me to do WHAT in this cup!?!" type of run ^^
Posted by: hermit Jan 20 2011, 11:01 AM
I had some weird runs.
One Johnson had a special adept power that was essentially acid spray, but actually vomiting. He also had us go on a metaplane that looked like Mars. He killed a PC like that when the PC didn't like his terms. We didn't take any more calls from that guy.
One had my character watch over and record a staged wild west shootout tournament in the sense of for some rich New York dude, which he staged for his enjoyment. The shooters all were other runners, among them other PC. It was fought with live bullets.
One time, we were hired to kidnap a corper and deliver him to a certain location. Easy peasy and standard until it turns out we're actually delivering the guy to his birthday party where all his colleagues jump from behind cabinets and yell "SURPRISE HAPPY BURTHDAY" and start throwing confetti and stuff. Needless to say we all had to make surprise checks to not start shooting the people. Oh yes, his boss also was a dragon.
And then there was this weird run where we had to protect a transport carrying several barrels of nitroglycerine through half of Algeria from islamic terrorists.
Posted by: CanRay Sep 18 2011, 05:04 PM
Necroposting this, as I'm hoping there's new tales to be heard...
Posted by: HunterHerne Sep 18 2011, 05:25 PM
I have one.
I gave my players a little run outside of town, once. To a little cabin on a lake, in order to do an investigation on recent events, and keep it out o the media.
In order to get there, they had to hire a driver (out of 4 players, no one had a vehicle that could transport more then one or 2 people. And only one of them had a bike), then not kill the driver (he was a sexist Ork, and two PCs were female), then they found out the cabin was owned by the governor. That had them excited...
They get to the cabin, and a few minutes later, they hear a crash from the direction the driver left in. When the closest person investigates, she finds a large person (taller then a standard Troll) in the woods. She attempts to communicate... and gets a machete in the shoulder. A long stalemate of a fight involving all the runners later, including the creature going down twice and getting back up, and it runs into the lake and disappears. They hold off exploring inside the cabin until morning.
They enter the cabin, and find it a mess. with 5 dead teens in various poses, and magical after effects (mainly a couple ghosts re-enacting the final moments of the teens, including a screaming one being thrown out the window, and another appearing to fight, and lose, to a huge, humanoid creature).
Posted by: Neraph Sep 18 2011, 06:42 PM
I gave my players a little run outside of town, once. To a little cabin on a lake, in order to do an investigation on recent events, and keep it out o the media.
In order to get there, they had to hire a driver (out of 4 players, no one had a vehicle that could transport more then one or 2 people. And only one of them had a bike), then not kill the driver (he was a sexist Ork, and two PCs were female), then they found out the cabin was owned by the governor. That had them excited...
They get to the cabin, and a few minutes later, they hear a crash from the direction the driver left in. When the closest person investigates, she finds a large person (taller then a standard Troll) in the woods. She attempts to communicate... and gets a machete in the shoulder. A long stalemate of a fight involving all the runners later, including the creature going down twice and getting back up, and it runs into the lake and disappears. They hold off exploring inside the cabin until morning.
They enter the cabin, and find it a mess. with 5 dead teens in various poses, and magical after effects (mainly a couple ghosts re-enacting the final moments of the teens, including a screaming one being thrown out the window, and another appearing to fight, and lose, to a huge, humanoid creature).
Jason?
Posted by: HunterHerne Sep 18 2011, 06:56 PM
Of course. Giant inhabited by a spirit (used PC rules to reliably, and reasonably give it regeneration)
Edit: That particular thread of plot is still very open ended, and the Jason-spirit is still around, though oddly laying low, or out of the media
Posted by: Seriously Mike Sep 18 2011, 07:24 PM
The team pulled it off, stole a few untainted bags and informed their closest contacts not to buy this particular brand and maybe update their stock profiles. The resulting media blitz product release parties went all wrong on world wide live Trid. We never did find out who the Johnson worked for, but the team figured it was Horizon due to the longevity of the TV embarrassment that followed.
Was that before SR4? I'm surprised the players agreed to it if it was SR4 or SR4A...
The run was high paying difficult job with doc wagon high threat response teams coming to defend the facility and almost mil spec matrix security. After a hard fought battle they have the 6 numbered samples in their hands and turn them over to this johnson and are counting their money when they get a message informing them that their doc wagon samples have been "damaged" and they will need to come in and resubmit samples...
Wait for it, wait for it, they stole their OWN samples and turned them over to a corp,
Round two of the tournament was tracking down who they had worked for and getting the samples back before the ritual sorcery fries them all.
There was cursing and oh you son of a B***h I can't believe this. after round one.
Hmmm, where do I find those rituals? Street Magic? Because this sounds like a perfect run for when the players really get on my nerves.
Posted by: Draco18s Sep 18 2011, 07:32 PM
Ritual Spellcasting, core book.
You need a link to the target (and genetic material counts: counts so well you don't even have to know WHO the material belongs to).
Posted by: Seriously Mike Sep 18 2011, 08:24 PM
You need a link to the target (and genetic material counts: counts so well you don't even have to know WHO the material belongs to).
Are we talking about SR4 or SR4A? Because after reading the appropriate section in the former, I can't see any use for Ritual Spellcasting whatsoever. And the question of "links" is not as easy as you say.
Now why did I have to buy SR4 instead of SR4A, I seriously wonder.
Posted by: Rubic Sep 18 2011, 08:33 PM
Now why did I have to buy SR4 instead of SR4A, I seriously wonder.
Ritual Spellcasting is so that you don't need to be in LoS to cast on the target. You can also use multiple spellcasters together with it for a more powerful effect. You make up for this by sharing the drain between casters, a much longer casting time, and the required use of a sympathetic link to your target. Meta-magics are available to initiated casters to broaden the range of material links you can use.
Posted by: Seriously Mike Sep 18 2011, 09:38 PM
Posted by: CanRay Sep 18 2011, 10:47 PM
Using a genetic sample with ritual magic (Blood is typical, but hair, skin, nail clippings, spit, urine, whatever will work.) is handled by Material Links (Street Magic, Pages 28-29), does not require any Metamagic.
Sympathetic Links (Using an object connected to the character, a favorite T-Shirt, part of the seat from a car they've had for 20-years, a coffee cup used just that morning) does require Metamagic to work. Symbolic Links (Same Metamagic), can use a picture, sculpture, or doll.
Posted by: Draco18s Sep 19 2011, 04:22 AM
Read the ritual spellcasting rules again. Drain is not divided between participants. Each one of them has to resist the full value.
Yeah.
It sucks.
Posted by: Seriously Mike Sep 19 2011, 07:18 AM
Yeah.
It sucks.
"Ouch."
This way, ritual spellcasting doesn't really have that much advantage over "point and cast" - all right, being hidden from sight in a (presumably fortified) magic lodge with a blood sample or a lock of hair may buy you some time, but I doubt anyone will be able to crank out a spell powerful enough to take a guy out in one hit without melting himself with the drain.
Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Sep 19 2011, 02:03 PM
"Ouch."
This way, ritual spellcasting doesn't really have that much advantage over "point and cast" - all right, being hidden from sight in a (presumably fortified) magic lodge with a blood sample or a lock of hair may buy you some time, but I doubt anyone will be able to crank out a spell powerful enough to take a guy out in one hit without melting himself with the drain.
Why, if you have that capability with Normal Spellcasting, what is stopping you from achieving that with Ritual Spellcasting? Ritual Spellcasting can be frighteningly powerful, if used well. Especially if you have no hope of Stopping the ritual.
We had an Extract gone sour, and while we were over the ocean with our extractee, we began to notice the effects of a Ritual Casting. Long story short, our Extractee became a Statue (They had the VP of Security's Ritual Sample) while we could do absolutely nothing about it in the moment. Once the spell was in place, we did manage to reverse the effects with Normal Counterspelling and some judicious expenditure of Edge, but had it been a Fireball, we would all have died a flaming, horrible death, and then plunged into the Sea. So, if not dead from the Fire or Impact, we would likely have drowned. That Sucks.
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