Emo Samurai's Dedicated Campaign Thread, The Next Generation Options

[emo samurai]

I also think that the Champion of Japanese Economic Superiority could work. Maybe I'll pursue it with more vigor.

[emo samurai]

How do you visualize the runners getting involved with him? I imagine them going on a run in which they go in at night, steal the data, and leave without a trace. That means no dead barghests or guards. The run seems relatively easy until they find another runner team doing the same. The leader will be a troll with the world's most sophisticated-sounding Aztlaner accent. If the team has anyone with ANY level of social skills, they'll part on good terms. Right in the middle of the datasteal, they'll hear a gunshot; the other team was there to kill a senior partner who literally lives at work. An alarm will sound, and the team will have to make it out without encountering the guards flocking to the place of the alarm and escape before Knight Errant sets up a perimeter.

I don't know how to involve him again, though. Is it uncommon for a car to drive into the Barrens, load someone into the passenger seat, and then drive out of the Barrens? I'm seeing that as the blood mage's modus operandus. That'll be when they find out for certain that a blood mage is involved, since I'm hoping that one of the players will do the smart thing and astrally follow the car on one of its grocery runs. Which will reveal, of course, both a force 50 bajillion ward on the car and pure evil in spiritual form. Eventually, I'll have him be intrigued enough to steal one of the players away and put him/her in his human meat locker while he/she's on a daily errand. He'll even project out of the car to greet the magician cordially before encasing him/her in a manasphere for long enough to make it back to the compound without being tracked.

[Paul]

[emo samurai]

No, they'll meet the Spanish troll who's actually a body possessed by a hyper-sophisticated blood mage BEFORE the shooting. He'll say they want to complete a completely unrelated mission without trouble. Follow along here. Especially the part about the troll being possessed by a blood mage.

[Paul]

Wow that really cleared things up. It makes much more sense now.

[emo samurai]

He's a crazy blood mage who likes to possess the body of a prime runner whose soul's been ripped out and play Live Action Doom with it. What's not to understand? I mean, if you had no concern for human life, had the power to rip the soul out of a person's body and possess it, loved thrills, and lived completely above the law, this would be a very logical thing to do. The RAW gives us these insane NPC's who aren't even unique, but part of a cabal, and you don't expect me to take them as far as possible?

[Paul]

I haven't laughed this hard in a while. Damn I am so glad I am totally drunk at the moment.

Can I ask a question? Well several actually. I didn't see this mentioned earlier, but I could have missed it-but what sort of characters are we discussing here? I'd like to be able to look at them or a basic description of them. Am I just skimming over that? or could you point me in the right direction?

Don't get me wrong man, I give you credit for trying. Even if your effort is different from what I am used to, at least you're out there gaming man.

[emo samurai]

This is a villain who escaped from Aztechnology and is currently performing cybermancy for Universal Omnitech with little to no oversight. He possesses the body of a locally famous troll enforcer from time to time for fun and death. He also abducts people from the Barrens and drives them away in a car in order to provide fresh bodies for his blood magic.

[Paul]

Uhm, I get that-what I was asking was who the characters-I'm sorry let me be more specific to avoid more confusion (And given how drunk I really am at the moment, this requires a lot of discipline on my part): Who are the player characters?

[emo samurai]

The player characters are the party sent in to do the datasteal; the NPC party is the one sent in to do the assassination.

[emo samurai]

If my characters are all 450 BP and with about 50 karma, would an intiate grade 10 blood mage be too powerful?

[Azathfeld]

[emo samurai]

Yeah... Force 16 physical barrier... force 16 ward... channeling a force 8 blood spirit for good measure just in case he wanted to beat down the party's troll with his bare hands... all without having to absorb drain because of all the bodies around him... I was thinking, though, of having him be cocky and not use anybody's body except one of the runners'. Like, if there was a tanking troll, which I imagine there always is, he'll knock him out with a force 12 stunbolt, levitate him towards him, and then use only the troll's body. That's good for about 2 high-powered fireballs... Okay, so maybe he IS too powerful.

[emo samurai]

You know the "Invae in a Mall" storyline? Would it be possible for Knight Errant to astrally project mages in to place bug barriers all over the place?

[Grinder]

[emo samurai]

I was thinking of having just the Magesighted illusion of the dude be there, and have him cast all his spells through said Magesight.

Let me explain. He possesses the body of a troll because his actual body is lacking. When people see the Antonio Banderas blood mage, that's just an idealized self-image. The image'll have the works; great hair, nice suit, the Devil in corp attire. The actual mage will be in the sewers, and he'll look more like an obese Gollum. He'll have all the sophistication he projects with the troll and the holo-Antonio Banderas, but he'll have a shitty voice, a beer gut, and a 10-pound frame. Hopefully, the party magician will figure this out and send a spirit to trace the optical line. Once they find the real blood mage, he'll be easy to kill.

The story the mage gives will be all about "finding the path of darkness" and "abandoning the world of the sheep," but he'll really be an intern who got lucky. Yes, he'll be a blood mage, but he just doesn't have half the personality he pretends to have.

[nezumi]

[emo samurai]

The thing is, though, that spirits are dual-natured, so they're always on the astral.

[emo samurai]

I'll be running it this Saturday; I'll tell you about it after we're done.

[Dranem]

[Crusher Bob]

That's DnD think, SR levitate is fully 3d movement.

[emo samurai]

Yes, I've found 3 people with a fourth on the way.

[emo samurai]

I've found 2 more people.

[Grinder]

As long as they have the same ideas about SR4, everything will run fine. But is that likely?

[FrankTrollman]

Bug Barrier is a mana spell, so there's no reason that you couldn't have astrally active magicians put it up on the astral plane. It wouldn't nail any purely physical bugs, but since bug spirits by definition aren't purely physical, that's completely acceptable.

In fact, since True Forms can go into pure astral form if they want, putting the barriers on the astral is a very good idea.

-Frank