God I love roleplayers' superstitions! My favorite that I've seen is when a guy was doing a pivotal thing that only he could do, "Dude you roll like crap when you roll the dice on the table. . . Roll them on the book! (his next rolls) SEE! The few dice that went off the book were crap there! Roll them all on the book man!" Now the player starts beleiving this superstition tells the GM that only dice that end up ON THE BOOK will count and the rest will be rerolled on the book. To which the GM gets a very amused look on his face and shakes his head "No". Now the player starts trying to keep them on the book in earnest and through the rest of the night most of the other players start do figure out where their dice rolls best. Man that was amusing to me!

Oh, finish the story!


BTW I'm just starting to play SR but I have been a big Star Wars GM loads of times and you seem to run a lot like me as well. The more complex and advanced a game system the more loosely you can plan your games. At least if you want to keep the players thinking that they aren't getting railroaded into doing ONLY the actions that you planned for, they hate that. I generally just come up with the plan just like what you did except I don't plan out the needed rolls. I just keep them in mind and when the player does them I eyeball what seems right and it seems to work for my group. Sometimes when it is something that is really variable and hard to imagine I'll come up with a "Formula" for a variable difficulty, IE D3 +2 difficulty. This works well too.

After you summed up the AZT Pyramid I came up with the ultimate drone to actually infiltrate those places despite wireless canceling paint and such. I'm not sure of what name I'm going to give it but I am definately going to build it. Potential names are "Poop-Chute", "Pipe-Snake" or "Fecal Ferret" come to mind. The idea is to infiltrate through the human waste disposal pipes. The drone would be some kind of snake that could swim very well, magnetic feet and grappler, and would carry a spool of micro fiberoptic cable until it got as close as it could to the source. I'm thinking the big wig would have his own bathroom or one nearby. The night before I would have slipped some tasteless tracking powder or radioactive dye that the woman would imbibe in her alchoholic drink. Then because you always have to pee a lot after a night of drinking the drone could follow the trail of excrement to the bathroom near her office and act as a wired repeater so that you could infiltrate with other drones, commanded wirelessly through the "Snake" as the wireless router. A few chameleonic drones with a matrix jack would do the rest and perhaps provide a distraction to get her away from her desk. I don't mind sharing this because they would have no time to build this drone and hence not help your players if they read it.

I hope you like my idea. Am I right in thinking that this is probably the least defended, if at all, route into a building that secure?

The very first RPG I ever learned and GM'd was the old Star Wars D6 system by West End Games. I'm still running sessions for that system to this day, it holds a special place in my heart.


I doubt even AZT spends a great deal of security resources guarding against "poop snakes." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

EDIT: I will most certainly finish the story as soon as we actually play that portion of it. The scheduling of our group members has been off lately.

I've been a fan of SR since 1st edition, although when I actually played the most 2nd edition was current. A friend of mine and I dusted off our SR:TCG cards recently and had a blast playing. We starting to think about trying to get some friends together and play SR. So I picked up 4th edition and now I'm pretty eager to play a few sessions.

However, I was having trouble wrapping my head around the new Matrix. I've been reading posts around here, trying to find useful information on how things work amongst the "this is whats cool/this is what sucks about the Matrix mechanics" discussions (I've made a lot of Computer + Data Search rolls I gather). I came across this thread and although it took a while before I actually got down to reading it I found it to be amazingly helpful. Seeing how it all plays out has been an immense help. Post #15 in particular answered more Matrix questions than anything else I've come across. I also like your GMing style, and your tips will be useful if we can actually get everyone together to play. Thanks for the effort!

Not a problem chainsawash! When I made this thread I was hoping to provide the exact sort of help that you said you got out of it, so I'm happy.

The matrix isn't too hard if your not going to be hacking. For general use there isn't too much to it. HOWEVER, if you are going to be hacking you should:

A) Bring your work IT security administrator to tell you what actions and skills to do in order to accomplish hacking tasks.

OR

B) Read the Unwired book. It is incredibly in depth about how everything works. There is still A LOT of information in it, but it would really help a non computer geek / IT person know how to play a hacker.

I'd be GMing the game so I wanted to make sure I have a firm grasp on how it works, and how to run systems. I understood the rules as fragments, but it was the "now what the heck do I actually do with all this as GM" that was eluding me. I work as a SQA engineer and write java test suites so I understand software, but I must admit when it comes to IT and networking I probably only have 1 die in my pool.

I noticed Amazon is selling Catalyst published SR books for $23 so I just ordered Unwired, as well as Arsenal and Augmentation since I was there.

I've yet to actually play a game of Shadowrun (the Corebook+Arsenal are currently on their way), but I've been browsing these forums in anticipation of doing so. This thread has been an awesome tool for understanding what goes into a campaign, both planning and running, from the gamemaster's perspective.

Thanks Malachi, our small group (just me, my fiance, and my cousin) will certainly appreciate this even more once we settle in and start trying to play ourselves, seeing as how we have no actual tabletop experience. Can't wait to see how it ends. I even registered just so I could add on to the others' my personal hopes that you'll continue the thread once you get around the scheduling troubles.

-Jonny

Alright, don't ever think that posting on a forum doesn't change anything! I let the guys know that they have "internet fans" to appease now, so the next session of this adventure is scheduled to run this Friday. I'll try to have the summary up shortly after the weekend.

Looking forward to it.

-Jonny

My apologies to anyone waiting for an update on this thread. We did indeed play another session last week but I haven't had the time to write up a summary yet. All of my extra time has been used up helping CGL on a project (which will hopefully be announced soon, I can't say anything about it until then). On a positive note, we were all able to schedule another session for tonight (2 weeks in a row, it's amazing!), and I'm going to try really hard to get the adventure resolved in tonight's session. Thanks for reading!

Wooo Hooo! Give me some more ideas ta steal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

Hey, hey... what are you doing posting here? Don't you have work to do? Nose, grindstone, etc etc...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Are you going to make me stay up until 2am again? (grumbles and goes back to work)

Session 2
January 23rd, 2009 - 3.5 hours
The team is the same for this session, here's the recap if you don't want to scroll up:
Reaper - a pistol-wielding, super-stealthy, elf adept
Unbeliever - human hacker, loves to play pranks on other team members
Reso - Latin Ork drone rigger, chronically ill when not in his nice, clean, vehicles
Cruiser/Bruiser - troll tank/brawler, likes to play AR games when not "working"
Pedro - human magician (Christian Theurgist), also a Catholic Priest
Primus - human sammie/combat monster, ex-UCAS Army, now on the run

Ironically, despite the near one-month break between sessions the weather for this session was just a frigidly cold as is was last time we played. As I was pulling into the host's house my car got stuck in the heavy snow approaching his driveway, so Reaper (the host) and Reso got an extra Karma promised for pushing the GM's car out of the snow. After that little hiccup, we got on with the session. Not a whole lot of action happened in this session, it ended up being mostly planning and "legwork" type stuff. However, for a run emphasizing tight timing and stealth as this one did, it is not surprising that the bulk of the work (and the tension) came in what is normally the "planning" phase of the run rather than the "execution." If the "planning" is done thoroughly and properly, the execution should be the last, and easiest part, right? Despite having no combat (which some would consider a "boring" session), it was still fun and included and included an extended social scene in my favorite location: Dante's Inferno.

Since it had been so long we spent the first 10 or 20 minutes reviewing the parameters of the run and what the group had done so far to get everything back into everyone's "short term" memory. Normally, I don't like to have such a long wait period between sessions, especially ones involving as much planning on the players' part as this one, but the Christmas break kind of forced the issue. So, the players picked up right where they left off: Reaper and Primus had just finished their narrow escape infiltrating the Federated-Boeing factory, Reso was waiting with his SUV to pick them up, and Unbeliever was still sitting, firmly in control of the factory's computer systems. Now that Reaper and Primus had broken in and uploaded the orders to build a second drone prototype, all that remained was to alter the records in the Administration node to make the pickup by Reso seem completely legitimate. This meant altering the system's pickup records so that Reso could simply drive in, present his ID, and pickup the drone without anyone being the wiser. However, it was quickly determined that Unbeliever simply couldn't put in a record to pick up the prototype itself because a cursory analysis of the pickup records would show that the drone prototype was picked up by somebody. The team briefly discussed changing the pickup record already present, and then changing it back, but they (correctly) concluded that this would also raise alarms because it would be inconsistent with what that gate guard saw/remembered and possibly any records kept on his verification system. The team (collectively hashing this out, which is wonderfully no longer "meta game" thinking thanks to instant wireless communication in SR4), then determined that what needed to be done was to add a second pickup order for some other item, and then smuggle the copy of the drone prototype out along with it. This was a good idea on their part, so I started to give them some details on how exactly the F-B Facilities computer system was laid out. There is an "Order" table/database, and a separate "Item" table/database which is linked to the Order system via the Item's ID number. Now, someone familiar with normalized, relational database structure will instantly recognize this setup (as several members of the group did) but Unbeliever was not familiar with this setup. So the game stalled for almost half an hour as a few of us (myself included) explained the concept to him. Looking back, it probably would have worked just as well to have him make a Computer + Edit test and "hand wave" the details, but in this particular case I thought it important for everyone to have a clear understanding of what they were doing. The details were this: enter an order for some random item say, a 20 kg box of bolts. Then go into the item database and switch the details for "drone prototype" with "box of bolts" meaning the RFID tag number, and warehouse bin number. The description of the item would remain. When going to the warehouse they could just pick up the item in the appropriate bin as indicated in the order, and when the guard verified the RFID of the item, it would appear to be what was expected. After Reso completed the pickup, simply go back into the system and swap the Item details back. Historical records will simply show that Reso picked up a "box of bolts." After getting all the details hashed out, Unbeliever makes the test and succeeds. However, being the Charisma 1, Incompetent (Etiquette) prankster that he is, he decides to slip "driver is a transvestite" into the "Notes" section of the pickup order. That's jut the kind of guy he is, and I can't really say that he's not playing in character. The action was not unjustified. Reso, having the Asthma quality is quite sensitive to things that are unclean, and Unbeliever with his Squatter lifestyle is almost certainly that (in fact, I reminded the team that in the previous adventure, Unbeliever had lost his clothes (by his own choice) and had replaced them with 5 nuyen vending machine "flats" which he hadn't mentioned that he has replaced just yet). So, Reso announced that after Unbeliever had fallen comatose for full-VR hacking, Reso had dropped him into the nearest dumpster. Cruiser moved to guard Unbeliever's meat bod and informed him via text message of his new lodging, which then lead to the counter-prank by Unbeliever in the order system. So, knowing he'll need to get back into the system later, Unbeliever hacks himself a back door code into the Administration node, which I handle as a Hacking + Edit test. All that remained now was to wait until just after 1am for the drone prototype to be completed, then roll in and pick it up.

With the Drone Prototype target all set, the team turns their attention to Maria Veracruz and the information package they need from Aztechnology. They had learned in the previous session that Veracruz spends most of her evenings at Dante's, living it up and taking "recreational medicines." Padre and Reaper volunteer to head to the club while Primus, Reso, and Cruiser start to brainstorm plans for hitting the Shibata manager en route to the airport. Unbeliever decides its time for his character to take a well-deserved break. Reaper and Padre get dressed up in the best clothes they have resembling "club wear" and head downtown to Dante's. As is normal for the club, there is a large lineup of people wanting to get in and a pair of massive Troll bouncers screening people. Boldly, Padres strides past the line to talk to talk his way past the bouncers and into the club. Not being much of a slick-talker (the group's Face rarely shows up), he doesn't manage to talk his way in. He then decides to show some nuyen to try and grease the wheels, initially offering 500. Now, this little encounter also had an amusing side-show. Primus (the player), who is generally bored with social encounters (and lamenting how long its been since his character fired his weapon) was heckling Padre from across the table to hurry up and get past the bouncers to "get on with it." Because it was amusing I quickly said that some skinny human standing in line was actually doing the heckling to Padre's character (turning the player to player heckling into character to character heckling). This situation produced a good laugh when, after Padre's initial offer of 500 was rejected, he told me his second offer would be 3 times as much (1,500), Primus (as the heckler) shouted "don't screw around just offer him 1,000." To which the Troll bouncer's reply was "nice math idiot" and had him thrown out of line and across the street. Also wanted to expedite the situation, Reaper steps up and offers 3,000 for both he and Padre to get it. Satisfied the bouncer waves them in, much to the annoyance of everyone else waiting in line. Just before ducking inside, Padre says a quick "God bless you" to the Troll, making the sign of the cross. The gain entrance to Dante's just after 10:30pm.

Now, Reaper and Padre head into the always crowded Dante's Inferno in search of Maria Veracruz. I take a few minutes to properly set the scene for them, first by showing them the picture of the inside of Dante's from New Seattle (p. 36), which I have always thought was one of the better pieces of artwork in SR. I set the scene for them by describing the crowded club with its pounding music and exotically-dressed club goers. Padre and Reaper assume (correctly) that Veracruz is not going to be on the top floor, but do a quick sweep just to be thorough. Not finding her, they decide to head down to one of the lower floors (there are 9 floors total). This is where things get interesting. For those that don't know, Dante's is one of the hottest clubs in Seattle and has its own social hierarchy. The more popular someone is with the "regulars" or the "in crowd" of the club, the lower the level they are "allowed" to travel to. Reaper and Padre, being Dante "noobs" are not going to get far. They walk to the ramp leading to the lower level, only to be block by a group of "groupies" hanging around the entrance to the ramp. "Where do you think you're going?" "I have a friend in there." "A lot of people have friends in there. You're just not second floor material, entrance floor." I emphasized the last part of that to let them know that it was supposed to be some kind of local insult. Reaper and Padre try a couple more times to convince the "groupies" to let them down but it is clear that they have no interest in letting them through. In order to get some sort of gauge on the social dynamic Reaper asks me what the lead groupie is wearing. "Clubber clothes" I tell him, "you know, super-trendy stuff." That not being quite what he was looking for, Reaper asks for a more detail description. I didn't have any detailed descriptions prepared in my notes, but I'm quite proud of what suddenly popped into my head: "He's dressed like David Bowie at the end of that movie The Labyrinth; and he's sitting like this - I positioned myself in a "slouch" position in my chair with my knees as far apart as I possibly could. Everyone at the table had a universal "ugh!" reaction, and Reaper announced that his character was leaving to avoid the urge to kick the guy in the nuts right then and there. I'm fairly proud I was able to come up with such a memorable image right on the spot.

So, Padre and Reaper decide to step back and think of another strategy to get down (the lack of their slick-talking Face was hurting them here). Reaper decides to head off and see if he can make contact with anyone from the Yakuza that's in the club. I have him roll his Charisma + Etiquette as an extended test with an interval of 10 minutes and a Threshold of 10 (between Average and Hard). Reaper doesn't roll particularly well so it's going to take him almost an hour to find someone. I switch back to Padre. He decides to take a peek in the Astral and see what the place looks like magically. I handle this as one simple Assenssing test. The top floor contains only mundanes and no active spell effects. Looking down through the floors I let him know that (HINT) all the magic seems to be happening on the lower floors. Padre takes the hint and decides that a little display of mystical talent might convince the groupies to let him pass, but what? He thinks about a few options: turn invisible? Sling a fireball? Call up a spirit? All of those he decides are much too strong for the social situation. Padre finally settles on conjuring a watcher and having it manifest over his shoulder. I considered this a reasonable solution to the problem and decided not to hinder them any further in getting to the 4th floor where Veracruz is. So, with a little winged angel hovering on his shoulder, Padre and Reaper head down to floor 4. The fourth floor has its own special entertainment which consists of a magician casting a mass illusion for everyone on the floor to experience. The illusion changes the landscape of the floor almost constantly: one moment they are walking across a narrow stone bridge spanning a deep canyon, next they are on the roof of an enormous tower overlooking Seattle, and the next moment they are walking along the strands of a giant spider web. Padre is able to block the effects of the illusion with his own personal Counterspelling, but Reaper is at the mercy of the (albeit harmless) illusion. A quick Perception check locates Veracruz in a booth hanging out with some of her friends. They are just beginning the "recreation medicine" portion of the evening and are currently lounging around a table, inhaling Bliss. Padre approaches and asks to join them. They are only too willing to accept because he's "a fragging Mage!"

Padre slides into the booth and begins to try and work some information from Veracruz. It becomes clear quite quickly that she's not in the mood to talk about anything work related. In a bit of quick thinking Padre convinces everyone at the table to "get away from work" by giving up their commlinks and putting them on the table. All of the Bliss-happy people at the table comply, and Reaper swipes the commlinks in a flash. Reaper then makes a quick call to Unbeliever (who is a little annoyed at being disturbed from his lounging as he decided to get a free shower and meal at a barrens drop-in center) to hack the commlinks. The low-cost, consumer-grade links are no match for Unbeliever's skills (I don't even make him roll anything after the first) but he finds nothing of interest on the commlinks (though he does copy down the number of a BTL dealer that he finds). The team then spends a few minutes brainstorming how they're going to proceed next. They know now that they're going to need to get into the Aztechnology pyramid downtown, but they need more information. After running through a few ideas, they come to the conclusion that they need to interrogate Veracruz somewhere else than a public club. So, Padre then decides to turn on the charm. He gets everyone to start into the heavier stuff (the BTLs), which they didn't need much convincing doing. He asks Veracruz to dance, and lays it on as thick as he can. After some good roleplaying and smooth talking, Padre finally makes the suggestion that he and Veracruz continue the party somewhere privately. He makes a Con roll at that point, with some heavy bonuses thanks to his good roleplaying and Veracruz's drugged up state. She agrees and they all head back to her apartment in Lower Queen Anne Hill (downtown Seattle). As they're leaving Dante's Reaper (posing as Padre's driver) lets the rest of the team know what's going on. Once up in her apartment Padre wants to being the questioning right away, but Veracruz is quite insistent on completing her business with him first, which includes slotting an "ecstasy" BTL chip with the RAS override turned off. Padre receives a few boxes of stun damage for his trouble, but much later Veracruz is in the "crash" single of her evening's trip. At this point the team springs into action.

Padre casts Compel Truth and they begin to ask Veracruz about the details of her work. Through a series of questions the team discovers basically all the information I detailed in "what Veracruz knows" in my run notes: she can access the file, she get can to her workstation after hours, only her datajack can access the workstation, she has an implanted RFID tag, she must turn in her commlink entering the building, and she passes a single guard station with a scanner when entering the building. Padre (smartly) asks about magical security but Veracruz doesn't know anything about it. After learning all of the security information the team starts to debate plans for bypassing it and getting the information they need. They discuss a few options including mind controlling Veracruz and sending her in, but eventually they start to come up with the idea that someone will have to pose as Veracruz and infiltrate the facility. This really interested me as it wasn't something I had thought of them doing. I always enjoy it when my players come up with a creative solution I didn't anticipate. Things are starting to come together for the team, but time is running out.

I coulda done without that 'spread-eagle David Bowie' mental image, but hey, whatever, it's probably just my Y chromosome talking. Put him in a dumpster, huh? Sounds like something I did once after a friend puked in my car (ah yes, memories of being 16 and fall-down drunk). Is it just me or did the catholic priest just seduce someone other than a prepubescent boy? Oh, and while it wasn't a little boy... "You're still going to hell, Padre." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Sounds like a VERY interesting group. Keep em coming...

Padre is an "unorthodox" priest to say the least. I likely won't be able to post the rest until after the weekend as Tiger Eyes has dumped a bunch more stuff in my lap.

Give'er lots of spankies for that and get to work finishing the run. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Session 3
Jan 30th 2009, 4.5 hours
The team is the same for this session, here's the recap if you don't want to scroll up:
Reaper a pistol-wielding, super-stealthy, elf adept
Unbeliever human hacker, loves to play pranks on other team members
Reso Latin Ork drone rigger, chronically ill when not in his nice, clean, vehicles
Cruiser/Bruiser troll tank/brawler, likes to play AR games when not "working"
Pedro human magician (Christian Theurgist), also a Catholic Priest
Primus human sammie/combat monster, ex-UCAS Army, now on the run

The final session of the run finally produced some of the tension due to the tight timeline that I had been hoping for when I conceived the concept for the run. All in all, the guys did very well on 2 out of the 3 targets as far as planning and executing a good plan. I kind of gave them a "mulligan" on the third and final target by glossing over some of the security particulars, especially when it came to dealing with their captive afterwards. This was mostly due to physical time constraints (I wanted this to be the last session and it was getting late), plus the fact that I could tell the guys were getting weary of developing these intricate stealth plans. I'm already planning on giving them a break on the stealth stuff for the next session. So, without further ado, here's a recap of the final session of Three Data Monty.

Reaper, knowing that he needs to get a good disguise in order to impersonate Maria Veracruz, calls up his retired Yakuza boss in order to get a reference to a professional disguise artist. Tanaka, the contact, who is getting up in age is not particularly pleased about being woken up in the middle of the night, but Reaper promises that he will make it up to him later. Tanaka, in response, implies that he will be calling in this favour sometime in the future. Getting the appropriate reference from Tanaka, Reaper heads down, with a fist full of nuyen, to beg the disguise artist to do the work immediately. After agreeing to pay more than double his usual price (2,000), the Yakuza disguise artist gets to work making Reaper look like Maria Veracruz. Reaper gives the disguise artist only one hour to complete his work. I quickly roll a Disguise check and get 3 hits which I remember for later Perception checks. While Reaper is in the makeup chair, the team starts to discuss how they are going to get the files, which are undoubtedly protected, with the wireless inside the building being cut off from the outside. The team quickly decides the Unbeliever must have to go into the building with Reaper, the risk of setting off an electronic alarm while trying to retrieve the file is much to great without him.

So, now that they know Unbeliever needs to get into the building they start working on plans to get him in safely. At this point Unbeliever went off on a strange (but amusing) tangent. First, Unbeliever suggest that he be smuggled in inside of a purse carried by Reaper. Now, casting aside the fact that the "purse" would need to be the size of a very large backpack or gym bag, the team already knows that Veracruz passes through "some sort of scanner" on her way into the building. "Excuse me m'am, there's a man inside of your purse." Even though that plan was quickly discounted, Unbeliever decided he had found a work around, and suggested that he be placed inside of a cow inside of a purse. This caused a good amount of laugher on the part of everyone else in the group as the scanner would still pick up a problem: "Excuse me m'am, there's a man inside of the cow inside of your purse." So, after that amusing diversion, the group goes back to some more reasonable planning. In a previous interrogation of Veracruz the group had asked (I remembered) if a "guest" could accompany her into the office after hours and the answer was: yes. So, the group has decided that Unbeliever needs to be her "escort" for the evening. However, getting him into this role is quite a challenge. Unbeliever has a Squatter Lifestyle and very much enjoys his role as the group "bum." Cleaning him up to be presentable in a corporate setting, and getting him a SIN for that matter, was going to be quite a challenge.

The first thing to deal with was clothing. On a previous run, Unbeliever had acquired a good "mafia suit" for use in infiltrating a restaurant that was never used. So, that could definitely be used. Next, they need to clean up him and get him looking (and smelling) not so much like a street bum. So, they found an automated "cleaning booth" and forced Unbeliever to sit in it and get himself cleaned up. While Unbeliever was getting cleaned up and Reaper was still in the makeup chair, Cruiser headed out for some supplies. He picks up a set of 'trodes for use to connect to Veracruz's workstation, since they need a device that matches the ID of her datajack. Cruiser also swings around and picks up some Armored Clothing, since Reaper can't go in with his normal armor jacket, and a fingertip storage unit, as a possible method for smuggling the data out of the building.

Next, they need to get Unbeliever some Identification as they are their SINs will undoubtedly be checked by the security officer when they enter the building. This is a problem because Unbeliever doesn't have a SIN. So, after finishing makeup, Reaper puts a call in to a Yakuza contact who had sold them some fake SINs on a previous run. The problem is: they need something right now. Basically, I was going to let Reaper make one availability roll of Etiquette + Charisma and see what they get. He's willing to pay double for the SIN so that gives him a +4 DP bonus (+100%, with +1 DP per 25%). Reaper doesn't have Etiquette so he's just defaulting to Charisma with the +4 bonus. He also throws in Edge because this is important. After closing his eyes and rolling the dice he ends up with 6 hits: enough for a Rating 2 SIN. Not having any other options, they take the SIN and hope that it holds out against the scanners. However, it's going to be a giant risk because they'll be heading into Aztechnology's Northwest Headquarters with their cover story riding on a Rating 2 Fake SIN. This was exactly the sort of tension that I wanted when originally designing the adventure.

Now, Reaper was done his disguise and was a reasonably good visual copy of Maria Veracruz, but one detail remained. How where they going to get him to speak like her? I didn't want this hurdle to totally derail the run (plus they had been doing so well at this point) so I gave them a little tip. They could record Veracruz's voice, then play it back through a hidden microphone that Reaper could hide in his mouth. Reaper could select prerecorded phrases via mental commands to his Commlink, then lip sync to them as they are spoken. Definitely not a perfect plan but, again, they had to go with what they could do on short notice. So, after giving them the basic concept I let them work out the particulars. Padre cast another Mob Mind spell on Veracruz to have her speak the phrases that they needed. I definitely didn't let the team off the hook at this point, and had them tell me specifically which phrases they were going to prerecord. I didn't want any retroactive "we had her say this" kind of stuff. To their credit, they came up with a lot of good stuff. They recorded things that they knew they were going to need: her name, why she was coming to work so late, Unbeliever's cover identity, simple answers to questions (yes, no, maybe), as well as a couple other common phrases that they thought they might need to get them out of a jam ("please, we'll only be a few minutes").

At this point I change my attention back to the other guys briefly as they seem to have come up with a working plan. It sounds like they want to get in touch with the Halloweeners, the notorious anti-corporate downtown gain, and see if they can help in hitting the convoy as it passes through downtown. Cruiser calls up his Fixer contact (which is shared by most of the group), who is a portly Troll named Tiny. Here I'll divert quickly to say this: contacts play an important roll in Shadowrun and should be more than "vending machines" of information or equipment for the players. I strongly encourage everyone reading this to come up with names and personalities for your contacts: this means GM's and players. If you're a player, make sure you run the contact description by your GM to make sure it all fits. Making contacts come "alive" with flare and colour will add a lot to your Shadowrun game experience, trust me. Feel free to rip off any of my descriptions here, I know it's tough to come up with all the ideas sometimes. Tiny, a Fixer shared by most of the group, is an overweight, out of shape, but very capable fixer. He is usually eating some unhealthy food whenever a member of the team calls him. In this case when he picks up Cruisers call, he's munching on what appears to be a turkey leg (which is probably just krill paste shaped and flavored like turkey, but that's beside the point). While listening to Cruiser's request to find someone in the Halloweeners to talk to, he dips the turkey leg in a bowl of gravy and begins to (sloppily) bunch on the turkey leg. When he mumbles, "I'll see what I can do and get back to you" to Cruiser, gravy and turkey chunks fly out of his mouth. Cruiser promises to buy him a bucket of turkey after the run is over. So, this is one of those "asking around" tests made by a contact (BBB p. 279) so I'm rolling Tiny's Charisma of 4 + Connection 4 against a threshold. I take a quick peek at the Extended Test Difficulties table (BBB p. 58, and on the GM screen) and decide this is "average" so 8, interval 1 hour. I hit my die roller a few times and see that it'll take Tiny 4 hours to get back to Cruiser: 2:30am approximately. I file that away mentally for later.

Now Reaper and Unbeliever seem to be all set to head into the Aztechnology Pyramid to retrieve the data. As one final instruction, Reaper (and the rest of the group) instruct Unbeliever, who has a Charisma 1 and Incompetent (Etiquette), that he is not to speak to anyone. Right around 12:30 am Reaper and Unbeliever head into the employee's entrance of the Aztechnology Pyramid in downtown Seattle. Reaper has Maria Veracruz's Commlink and has assumed her identity, while Unbeliever is disguised as her "escort" for the evening. After a quick exchange with the security guard, who seems to know Veracruz, the group submits their SINs for verification. Veracruz's is a legitimate SIN so I make no roll for that, but Unbeliever's requires a roll. Unbeliever rolls 2 dice for his Fake SIN and decides to add in his Edge for the test. Unbeliever had no luck, unfortunately, getting only 1 hit on the test. Not surprisingly, the scanner the guard is using turns up something unusual. Now it becomes crunch time. The guard notices something strange with the SIN verification ("That's strange..."), and the team knows they need to spring into action. Reaper, as Veracruz begins by stalling the guard with a little flirting: he leans over the table and speaks one of their "delay" phrases ("Please, we'll only be a few minutes.") This causes the guard to look up from his display for a few moments which gives Unbeliever his chance. Obviously, it would look very strange if he were to drop into VR at this moment so he's stuck hacking in AR without his Hot Sim bonus. It takes Unbeliever 3 rounds (9 seconds) to hack his way into the guard's post (using the last of his Edge in the process) and then quickly changes the ID verification software to "ok." During the time Unbeliever gives a "progress bar" to Reaper's commlink/display so that he knows how long to delay the guard. Again, I ask the group what they think a pants-less minotaur icon would use as a "growing progress bar." With the guard's system subverted the two move through the MAD scanner. Since neither of them are carrying any weapons or illegal cyberware they pass without incident. The guard then asks them to turn in their commlinks, which Reaper does. Unbeliever, however, has an internal commlink ("Oh, old school..." says the guard) so the guard pulls out a jamming unit and attaches it to Unbeliever's head. After activating it, Unbeliever loses contact with his internal commlink. The guard informs him that he can return the scanner when they leave the building.

Heading up to the 8th floor where Veracruz works, Unbeliever knows he's going to have to get the jammer off of his head somehow if he is to have any hope of getting the files off of the workstation. After stepping out of the elevator he heads for the nearest bathroom he can find. After spotting the cameras in the room, Unbeliever finds a corner out of their view and gets to work. Unbeliever needs to make a Hardware + Logic test to get the jammer off but he has a -4 modifier for having no tools, and I give him another -1 for having to look at himself through a mirror while he works on something on his own head (I was probably being generous there). I decide to make it an (8, 1 minute) Extended Test and right before I start rolling I warn him: "don't Glitch." Five minutes, an no glitches, later Unbeliever has his head jammer taken off. He leaves the bathroom and heads with Reaper to Veracruz's office. Veracruz's desk is in a "waiting room" type area of her boss's office that includes a sofa and coffee table. This provides the perfect situation for Reaper and Unbeliever to pull their "switch-a-roo." Unbeliever sits down on the couch and appears start flipping through some magazines on the coffee table. Reaper (as Veracruz) appears to sit down and begin working on her computer station. In realty, Unbeliever is using a 'trode net which had been previously modified to have the same hardware ID as Veracruz's datajack to log onto the workstation (with her password) while Reaper appears to be doing the work. However, Unbeliever is still doing all of this hacking in AR, and since he is actually connecting to Veracruz's company workstation, he can't run all of his programs like on his commlink. Of course the first question that Unbeliever asks is which of his programs (if any) he can bring onto the workstation. I was probably being too nice again, but I let him bring over up to 4 programs that would run at a rating 4.

In the system Unbeliever has no trouble finding the file package that they are supposed to acquire. Being wisely cautions he decides to check out the file with a Matrix Perception test first. Getting 3 hits I give him 3 crucial pieces of information: it is not encrypted, it has a Data Bomb attached to it, it is marked as Certified Data. I quickly explain what Certified Data is and the parameters for copying it (as I defined way up in the planning section). I also let Unbeliever know that it appears the Data Bomb is set to go off if the files are accessed or copyed in an unauthorized manner, meaning if he fails the Hacking test to copy the files bypassing the protection. Now comes two of the most tense die rolls of the entire run. Unbeliever and Reaper are deep in the Aztechnology Pyramid in downtown Seattle, packed with a full battalion of Jaguar Guards, and the two of them have no weapons to even attempt to fight their way out. Unbeliever needs to make two rolls in a row, failing either of them will mean the intrusion is botched, and his Edge has all been spent. Since he is running AR and his programs are running at rating 4, Unbeliever only has a dice pool of 8 for both of these actions. First he makes a Disarm Data Bomb Test (p. 223 BBB, p. 230 SR4A) which is his 8 dice (Hacking + Disarm) against the program's 8 dice (rating 4 x 2). He succeeds: 1 down, 1 to go. Now he needs to copy the data while bypassing the protection locks on the files. This is a Hacking + Edit (4) Test (p. 95, Unwired), which means Unbeliever needs to roll 50% hits on 8 dice. After a very tense shake of the dice in his hands, Unbeliever rolls 4 hits! So, with the data acquired, Unbeliever and Reaper waste no time in logging off and heading out of the building before they are discovered. Unbeliever heads back into the bathroom to put the jamming device back on his head and reactivate it. They head back down to the employee entrance, and walk out the door with a great sigh of relief. As GM, I could have made this part more difficult with the two of them having to encounter a random guard patrol or other security measures but I felt that the tension was high enough as it was.