Life in the Barrens 2 - A New Dawn, My second campaign AAR. Options

[FriendoftheDork]

Hey everybody!
As said before in my previous post I have started up a new group in SR. Things will be different that before, both in starting power, rules, and of course the players themselves.
Still I plan to write an After-Action Report, both to make sure I have a log for later reference, and to amuse and inspire you all. 
I can’t guarantee it will be as good a read as the last one, since the players are much less experienced and maybe a bit less enthusiastic roleplayers and problem-solvers, but we’ll try to have fun anyway.

So without further ado, here is the background and starting point for the game:

Chargen: 400 BPs, normal rules for purchase but players should avoid too much powergaming. Magic capped at 4 for starting chars.

Some of the house rules of the previous game continue, but nothing earth shattering. I will be using SR4a rule changes though. Also, Smartlink will have higher capacity cost than in normal SR4a, meaning you’d want cybereyes or goggles/visor if you want a good smartlink. A “SmartLite” with only 1 bonus die will be allowed for the usual cost/capacity though.

The concept for this game will not be poor inexperienced street scum, nor will it be normal experienced runners. The PCs actually all start as non-runners with appropriate military, corporate or technical backgrounds. Becoming Shadowrunners will be the first overarching goal.

Thus they will have to justify all their skills, talents and starting gear. Also, most of them will actually be SINners, or have a good reason for having lost their SINs. Gear has also been severely limited, both because I know how time-consuming it can be to poor through SR4, Arsenal and Augmentation in order to find the perfect combo of gear, especially for newbies, and because I know how gear can upset the game balance. Thus they were allowed to purchase what they want that’s not restricted or Forbidden, but otherwise had to justify every item and have restricted ones linked to their real SINs or having it being stole/illegal (neither of which is good for runners). They were also allowed to save up to 20 BPs of gear for later that they could get from their new Shadowrun contacts/employers.. more about that later.

Background: A team of Shadowrunners have come back from a long run in the crossover setting of Earthdawn, the 4th world. After having become experienced and tough, and having both seen the Horrors and consequences of an extreme Magic Level close up, they have agreed that they should do their best in preventing a premature coming of Horrors in the 6th world of Shadowrun. After a few jobs for the Draco Foundation (they worked with Dunkelzahn back in the 4th world, under a different name of course), they have decided to do form their own Company, called New Dawn. New Dawn wants to recruit, train, and hire potential Shadowrunners - hopefully someone who can become professionals, who are not too jaded yet, and who can be employed later to help thwart an early coming of Horrors.

Meet the characters:


Bates – Troll Samurai. Ex military heavy weapons specialist. Good with Heavy Weapons, Blades, and a set of soldier skills. He’s also learned some about security procedures in the army, which might be applied to running. Honorably discharged, and now wants to get back into the action somehow.
SINner, medium lifestyle. Uses 2 Warhawks in normal combat (one at a time).


Andersen: Human hacker. Ex corporate security consultant, specializing in matrix security. Had a major intrusion incident in his facility that was never really proven to be an inside job. In any case he was fired and his hacking programs and licenses confiscated. He’s gotten used to the High lifestyle though, and thus needs nuyen badly since his fellows in crime left him high and dry without his cut. Despite this he has quite a bit of legal augmentations of high quality (alphaware or better).
SINner, High lifestyle, uses either a taser or a high-caliber hunting rifle in combat.

-Gunslinger Adept. (I can’t remember her name right now, update it later). Previously low-level criminal involved in burglaries and petty theft with her friends. Caught and forcibly enlisted for military service (infantry). While on leave during the crash she lost her identity and was never missed during roll call. So far she is largely unaware of her magical ability, but has found out she is very good at shooting (especially with pistols) and is able to react and act very quickly.
SINless, squatter lifestyle, (getting Low soon). Uses light pistols in combat, notably the Yamaha Sabuki Fubuki or whatever it’s called.


Prelude:

[ Spoiler ]

The characters were all contacted and sent to New Dawn offices for applying to the vaguely described job. Long story short, they all passed the tests and evaluations, while gangers and lesser criminals (including those just out to get a free lunch) were sent away. They also got a chance to meet the founding members of New Dawn, including SAM the likable Street Samurai/ex-delta force, Grey Wolf the amerind Adept/scout/Blademaster, Papa Doc the somewhat evil Hungan/Bokor/Nethermancer (who really creeps out the party with his obvious voodoo ways) and last (and least) Bless, the Uncouth dwarf Mage/Wizard who likes to wear heavy armor.


They were also told a few more candidates were accepted as well and that the two teams might cooperate in the future or even merge together (a good excuse to insert more PCs).

Then we played in media res: The runners were all on the top floor of a corporate office building haven gotten the paydata, but suddenly having triggered an alarm. Not long after a team of corpsec came up in the elevator, shooting with pistols and even a SMG. The fight was more intense that I’d thought and the gunslinger (gunbunny?) was seriously hurt, but they got out on top.

The hacker decided to “pick” the maglock on the emergency exit after Bates tested the guards’ access cards on the elevator and got “insert PIN.” They managed to get it open before more corpsec arrived, and got down to the 2nd floor where they were ambushed by 2 Force 4 spirits and a mage hiding in astral. When I planned the encounter I thought the party would have a mage… not surprisingly they struggled against the 2 spirits (air and earth), and after failing to damage one with the Fubuki, the gunslinger was brought to only one box away from death. The hacker learned the hard way that his taser which worked very well against the corpsec was useless against the spirits (in my game they are immune to stun damage). Bates did well against them with the Warhacks (good penetration and damage), but the real killer was surprisingly the hacker with his hunting rifle (8P base damage!). When the spirits failed the mage came out from hiding to get the troll and hacker with a Stunball, but luckily they both managed to resist it. The Troll had no problem taking out the magician after that!

During this time the troll and hacker wondered a bit about a few odd things. The way the corpsec fought to the death, and how clean everything seemed… the hacker eventually thought it was a simulation and easily hacked out with the troll. The gunslinger failed to disbelieve what happened though so was stuck there while the other two just disappeared! When they got back to the real world they remembered they were connected to a military tactical training simulation program, and were drugged beforehand so they wouldn’t remember it was a simulation (to make matters more realistic). In any case after a break they went back in and finished the simulations.
One week later they were ready for their first run.
That’s it for now. I’ve done writing mission 2 already but I want to post mission 1 first. Stay tuned!