1001 Stuffer Shack Senarios, Stuffer Shack as First Run Options

[st23am]

I was just curious on how many people have ran Stuffer Shack as there First Run as a introduction into Shadow Run for new players. If so other than "First Run" (was a food fight / gang encounter) in the first edition book, what are some other senarios you have came up w/ over the years for Stuffer Shack? Be creative and maybe we can keep this thread going.

[nezumi]

Yes, multiple times.

My wife made it so the gangers were part of some neo-anarchist poligroup which later offered the runners a job. Once I had the gangers as a group of mercs hopped up on drugs (because sometimes those starting players have more balls than brains, and it's good to give them a proper challenge.)

[Lord Ben]

Stuffer Shack scenario?

[Fortune]

It was called Food Fight in SR1 and SR2, and was part of the First Run scenario for SR3.

[FlakJacket]

Someone asked at the GenCon talk whether Food Fight might be used as one of or as part of the introductory adventure but Rob was fairly non-commital saying could be, could not IIRC.

[Lindt]

I couldnt see why not. Like it needs to be published for Sr4, its a very simple run to write up, especally if you have it from any other revision.

[Veggiesama]

I did it last Saturday with my group of three (had four, but one guy couldn't make it). After a marathon character creation session, we sat down and learned how combat worked... Being former D&D freaks, I knew we wouldn't be able to play a game without rules for miniature combat, so the day before I wrote some. They seemed fairly complicated, but everyone had no problem with them.

We played a game with 330 BP characters (180 for attribs), max skills of 5 or two 4's, everything else 3's. Max nuyen of 35 BP (max avail of 8), but nobody spent nearly that much (and since we were running out of time, I just had them buy combat-essential stuff to get on with the game).

Johnny the pimply stockboy got splattered against the glass doors (which got stuck in a "Have a nice day... Have a nice day... Have a nice day..." repetitive loop) by a ganger when he tried to flee.

Zany didn't have a chance. One shotgun blast stuffed her in the frozen food section.

One of the players, an ork mage who wanted to use akimbo SMG's, got pretty pissed after he casted Increase Reflexes, then out how bad the guns suck with the -2 sustaining penalty. Fortunately we found a solution after the game: sustaining foci. Problem solved, everyone's happy (but his IPs went down from 4 to 2 now... which I like :P)

The hacker wanted to hack Catcher's wired reflexes (I totally redid all the enemies' stats from the ground up... that sucked, but somehow it was pretty balanced), but I didn't let him because I simply had no idea how that would work. It was okay though, and between this game and the next, we've been trying to look over how hackers can be useful in combat.

The last character, a "futuristic cowboy" toting a six-shot, just had fun shooting gangers and acting cool. He tried to bandage himself with first-aid at one point, and since the rules weren't in front of me (damn you, PDF!), I just had him roll Logic + Firstaid, then divide the hits by 2 to get the boxes healed. Suprisingly, I found out that's pretty close to the actual system (which is L+FA(2), every hit over threshold 2 heals a box).

At the very beginning, we had some problems (one of the characters went down after I made some bad mistakes, but I fudged it and let him up with one box... later another goes down, but that was because he tried to chase Catcher alone into the back-area of the shop... bad mistake :P)

Overall, people seemed to like it, but the combat went way too long so everyone started getting bored by the end of the fight (something like 12 seconds long for this four-hour fight). It kicked up again when the baddies started dropping like flies.

[Veggiesama]

BTW, anyone want me to post my stats for the gangers? In addition to my miniatures system (hell, I might make a post about that sometime), I was trying to figure out a good way to generate bad guys and tie it to the Professional ratings to make it balanced. I made the total "modified" BP of my enemies vs the total BP of my players equal, but then one of my players didn't show up. Without modifying anything (except perhaps some wasted passes as Spike wandered around grabbing stuffers, and Catcher filling the stockboy up with holes), it still came out balanced, even though it was 3 vs 6, and like 990 bp vs 1350.

[NightmareX]

[Veggiesama]

Here's the stats for each character, kind of slopped together when I printed them off. Format is like this for the character names:
Name TotalBPSpent ProfessionRating AttribBP SkillBP EquipmentBP +Magic/Qualities/Etc...BP

Sorry that the attribs are gonna be pretty screwed up. I used a unitype font, so the spacing isn't working well in this post (even with the [ code] + [ /code]). Just count over.

The only difference I used in building these NPCs is that BP spent on Gear only equaled 1 = 1000n, rounded up or down (I noticed the NPCs in the book don't have a lot of gear, plus these guys don't need to purchase lifestyles and all that). Every point of Edge (even first point) cost 10 bp and correlates with their professional level (and total BP they get to use), and I used some sort of skill cap based on their professional level. Something like 3 for P0, 4 for P1, 5 for P2... or something, I don't exactly remember. Many points were put into non-combat skills though.
edit: Plus I didn't like the idea of not having physical/stun damage as seperate monitors for NPCs. I probably won't care about grunts, but it's not too hard to keep track of two different stats, so I did.

[ Spoiler ]

Catcher 338 bp prof2 220 82 36
B A R S C I L W EDG ESS Init IP CM
4 5 3(5) 3 5 2 2 3 2 2.9 5(7) 3 10/10
Skills: Influence Skill Group 2, Intimidation 4, Longarms 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2 (Motorcycle +2), Pistol 3, Unarmed Combat 1
Weapons:
Remington 990: [Shotgun, SA, 7P, -1 AP, (1) RC, 8(m)x4, SL'd, 1100n]
Ruger Super Warhawk: [HP, SS, 6P, -2 AP, 0 RC, 6(cy)x4, SL'd, 1000n]
Armor: Armor Jacket with Chiller Thrillers gang sign [8/6, 900n]
Cyberware: Smartlink [1000n], Wired Reflexes 2 [32,000n]

[ Spoiler ]

SlicerDicer 239 bp prof1 170 54 15
B A R S C I L W EDG ESS Init IP CM
3 4 5(6) 4 1 2 2 3 1 6.0 7(8) 2 10/10
Skills: Athletics Skill Group 1, Blades 3 (Katana +2), Dodge 3, Etiquette 1 (Street +2), Pistol 1, Throwing Weapons 2
Weapons:
Colt Manhunter [HP, SA, 5P, -1 AP, 0 RC, 16©x1, lasersight, 300n]
Katana [Blade, 5P, -1 AP, 1 Reach, 1000n]
Retractable Spur [5P, 1 Reach, 1800n]
9 Shuriken [2P, can ready 2 per Ready Weapon action, 270n]
Armor: Armor Vest with Chiller Thrillers gang sign [6/4, 600n]
Cyberware: Retractable Spur, Wired Reflexes 1 [11,000n]

[ Spoiler ]

Wiley 232 bp prof1 170 34 1 15magician+12spells
B A R S C I L W EDG M ESS Init IP CM
2 2 3 1 4 2 2 4 1 5 6.0 5 1 9/10
Skills: Dodge 3, Etiquette 1 (Street +2), Pistol 1, Spellcasting 4
Weapons:
Ruger Super Warhawk: [HP, SS, 6P, -2 AP, 0 RC, 6(cy)x4, lasersight]
Armor: Armor Coat with synth-fur [4/0]
Spells:
Clairvoyance [Mana, Touch, DMG:--, Sustain, DV:(F/2)-1]
Heal [Mana, Touch, DMG:--, Perma, DV:(damagevalue)-2]
Hits = healed Phys damage or reduced base time to perma (split)
Only can be healed once per set of injuries
Increase Reflexes [Phys, Touch, DMG:--, Sustain, DV:(F/2)+2]
Hits = T2:(+1 Init/IP). T3:(+2 Init/IP). T4:(+3 Init/IP).
Manabolt (Direct) [Mana, LOS, DMG:P, Instant, DV:(F/2)]

[ Spoiler ]

Static 225 bp prof1 170 42 13
B A R S C I L W EDG ESS Init IP CM
5(6d)3(4) 3 5(6) 1 2 1 4 1 2.7 5 1 11/10
Skills: Blades 2, Pilot Ground Craft 1 (Motorcycle +2), Pistols 2, Longarms 3, Unarmed Combat 2
Weapons:
Remington 990: [Shotgun, SA, 7P, -1 AP, (1) RC, 8(m)x4, 250n]
Yamaha Pulsar [Taser, SA, 6S(e), -half AP, 0 RC, 4(m)x1, 150n]
Retractable Spur [6P, 1 Reach, 1800n]
Armor: Armor Jacket with Chiller Thrillers gang sign [8/6, 900n]
Cyberware: Retractable Spur, Muscle Replacement [5000n], Bone Lacing (Plastic) [5000n]

[ Spoiler ]

Spike 178 bp prof0 140 36 2
B A R S C I L W EDG ESS Init IP CM
4 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 0 6.0 6 1 10/9
Skills: Etiquette 1 (Street +2), Pilot Ground Craft 1 (Motorcycle +2), Pistol 4, Unarmed Combat 2
Weapons:
Colt Manhunter [HP, SA, 5P, -1 AP, 0 RC, 16©x1, lasersight, 300n]
Armor: Armor Jacket with Chiller Thrillers gang sign [8/6, 900n]

[ Spoiler ]

Zany 175 bp prof0 140 32 3
B A R S C I L W EDG ESS Init IP CM+
3 3 3 2 4 3 2 2 0 0 6 1 10
Skills: Automatics 3 (SMG +2), Etiquette 1 (Street +2), Intimidation 1, Unarmed Combat 2
Weapons:
H&K 227X [SMG, SA/BF/FA, 5P, 0 AP, (1) RC, 28©x4, SL'd, 800n]
High Heels [3P, 1 Reach, 0n]
Armor: Lined Coat with Chiller Thrillers gang sign [6/4, 700n]
Cyberware: Smartlink [1000n]

[NightmareX]

Nice! Very close to the spirit to the original crew 8)

[Veggiesama]

One thing I noticed about the SR4 book's stats for Grunt/Lieutenant NPCs... they kinda suck. It's like a giant afterthought. The enemies have guns from SR3 that aren't present in the new edition, so it looks like it was just copied+pasted.

Barring the fact that there aren't any coherent rules for a balanced encounter (mostly seems like you have to play a few games and get a feel for it), the presented grunts/lieutenants don't even follow their own scheme of stats (book says something like "lieutenants should have 4 more skill points than grunts" or something, but they don't... book's not with me now so I can't check specifics). Ends up they generally have a LOT more equipment, skills, and abilities than their counterparts. Oh well.

[blakkie]

I suspect that a number of the NPCs and even sample PCs were drafted up early using old data, or drafted by people used to SR3 without the SR4 equipment list handy because even in the sample PCs you'll find equipment listed that uses SR3 names.

Likely a similar problem occured giving spirits the insane stats they have.

[Veggiesama]

Well, here's to hoping they get some good editors by 5th edition.

[blakkie]

[NightmareX]

[Dogsoup]

I haven't run this ,but i'm thinking of using it as a "throw-in" encounter in a rural environmnet, or when traveling between spots important to the adventure:
The PCs need to fill up on gas, get some soyburger or whatever and pull over to a roadside diner/station when roughly 15-20 of those scrawny monkey bastards from PANA, who likes slinging VITAS-feces, swarm the place.

[Slacker]

I am actually currently running this very scenario in the Welcome to the Shadows section, with a few differences like adding a hacker to the gang for the team's hacker to experience cybercombat.
For the most part the stats I am using for the gangers are slightly lower than what Veggie posted which is a good thing for my players who are having a hard enough time as it is.

Feel free to lurk in the IC thread and the OOC thread.

[st23am]

Sorry that i havnt been able to read the replys untill now. Thank you to all that responded this gives me some ideas on what I might do. Once question I had was since everyone no longer uses credsticks, what kind of currency would the cashier have? Also since everything uses wireless account tranfers wouldnt the cashiers in places like stuffer shack be more like security guards? Perhaps this is why one of the gangers would be a hacker? To get at a localized cache of pay data to hack in and transfer funds? LOL just wondering how some of the new technology affects robberies, though I guess the would just go for the raw tangible goods instead. Thank you all for the help.

[Nikoli]

In this scenario, the "cashier" is little more than a professional witness and a pitiful deterent to the would be criminals who just need a good scare to avoid sacking up for the theft, kinda like those sad little locks that come with luggage