SPOILERS Review of CMP 2011-04: Ancient Pawns Options

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[ Spoiler ]

We are having a special today on our 2 for 2 nonviolent resolution horrible murder package

I played this mission as Cypher with Geoff Raye. I had a great time at this mission and it was my favorite shadowrun I played this year at Origins. Geoff did a great job with a well written adventure. If you are reading this, you probably played it already (I hope). If you haven’t, stop reading this and go play it.

I just want to take a moment to say how great this adventure is, why I think it’s great and thank all of the players who helped make it so great.

What I liked:
The premise: you are on a high-powered mayhem oriented scavenger hunt. It’s silly, it’s wacky, it’s timed.

The NPCs: Despite Geoff being worn down from 4 previous days of running Shadow Run, he still brought them to life as dynamic individuals.

The Challenge: While this mission boils down to “do 5 simple jobs quickly”, we had an out of game clock of ~1.5 hours to do the first 4 jobs. Every job has multiple ways to resolve it, from brutal violence to stealth to negotiation. Every part of the adventure feels open ended, like you could make choices and change how you approach things. The short clock means you can’t debate it however, and the team needs to work cohesively in order to hit all 5 objectives.

Basically the challenge is working together well. If you agree easily, and work well together, the clock is no problem. I really like that as the challenge.

Plenty to hack, face, shoot, etc.

What I didn’t like:
I can’t think of anything to dislike about this mission. The pay is on the low side (7,000 base), but not insultingly low. The job is easy, but the challenge is working together, not combat. Each role has something to do, and everyone at the table got a moment of awesome.

This mission is a rollercoaster crossed with a jetplane. From the moment you sign on, it’s a non-stop flight to fun down where you deliver awesome bombs.