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

[Kremlin KOA]

Seattle:Nothing

Aztlan: if that spirit is a Free spirit and a citizen, you get executed for murder

Tutor: do you make a habit of finding spirits and fragging them? if so tutor will hurt ya

if there is a single magicin who is sending spirits after you even if it means the sprit gets regularly fragged, then tutor will target HIM/her

[emo samurai]

I see... and what does banishing do to spirits? Does it destroy their minds, or does this just send them back to the metaplane they were randomly torn from?

[Kremlin KOA]

no I was just confusing this thread for another one for a sec
was adding the law concerning spirits into it

the edit tells ya what tutor would do

[emo samurai]

I saw it.

[Kremlin KOA]

sends them back and weakens them

[emo samurai]

Does it reduce their force or something?

[Kremlin KOA]

temporarily

oh Emo, next time ya are online, gimme a buzz over AIM

[James McMurray]

Thought I'd post this here instad of in FanGirl's thread in case the answer was campaign related:

Why the strong desire to force FanGirl into a position where she kills someone?

The funnest part as a GM for me when running characters like that has been to put them in situations where killing was an easy out, and sometimes where it's the only obvious way out, but I'd never massage events to force it. Where's there's a will there's a way, unless you force the issue with Almighty GM Powerz.

[emo samurai]

All I'm doing to force the issue is making the kid a complete bastard. And of course the Johnson will pay her less if she doesn't kill him, but I might give her the full karma payout if she roleplays it well.

[Ophis]

I'm mostly puzzled by a bar owner who thinks that 1) a stunt which is pulled off regularly at his bar turning fatal will help sales, and 2) that even it does mean good publicity it will hardly be 200 grands worth of good publicity, come on how much does a bar make?

[emo samurai]

I'm assuming a lot, at least in his case.

And in the session I ran, a dude jumped off the bridge after the one with protection spells, got himself nearly killed, and was cheered WAY harder by the crowd than the first guy.

As for the corp kid, I'm assuming they'll knock out the shaman and anyone who could help the kid.

[James McMurray]

Ah, it looked to me like you were trying to remove the option of letting him live, because of the "putting self defense back in" comment.

[emo samurai]

If FanGirl opts out on killing the guy and tries hard, oh so very hard, to make it so he lives, she'll get extra karma for the huge-ass paycheck she'll miss out on. It's like a martial arts movie in which the master gives the young grasshopper a secret test of will and character that the student does not know he is getting into and passing it anyway. This will be FanGirl's test of will.

As for making it harder for her not to kill the kid, they're meeting with the shaman in Ares Corporate Park. When they see the shaman, some chameleon-suited guys will pop up out of nowhere and kick the crap out of the shaman; if he sees them, he'll PM them on their comlinks and tell them to opt out, since if they jump in, they might be linked to him. The corp kid will stand right there watching him and silently gloating.

At a corporate party that FanGirl's debutante detective contact set up so that she could talk to CK's bodyguard, I'll have CK drunkenly hit on her to the point that she throws the drink glass at his face. His bodyguard friend will angrily heal him and walk him out.

So pretty much all the railroading I'll be doing is make CK look more and more like an asshole and get Mr. Johnson to put more and more heat on the players, both very plausible IC things.

I'm not NEARLY as linear as people think I am. Yes, I'll have power armor in my game, but the story will be extremely convoluted.

[Dranem]

Maybe someone's English is a little rusty... in the classic case of Jerk hitting on woman gets glass thrown at him.. it's the contents of the glass that are tossed, not the whole thing. It's symbolism for 'cool your heels, you're being an ass.'

You really have a sick sense of excitement Emo, maybe it's all that sheltered boarding school immaturity coming out. Just when you start coming down to earth, you post this concept that shows many how little grasp you have on reality.
And as a note: realisme doesn't mean a lack of imagination. It's easy to create something far-fetched, the trick is making it plausible.

[emo samurai]

I know about the drink getting thrown at the dude; I've also read Neuromancer where Peter Riviera throws a glass at Molly's eye, and I wanted to take the cliche one further. There would be even fewer long-term repercussions in Shadowrun than in Neuromancer, since you can not only get animal melds and cybereyes, but immediate magical healing.

And how does my last post show that my English is rusty? Are you just being a troll? Should I just ignore you completely from now on?

How about I play "speculate as to what Dranem looks like." We'll add another detail every time he is a dick. They will get worse over time.

So... he has.... Glasses!

[Dranem]

I read Neuromancer when I was like 10, I don't remember that scene off the top of my head.

Actually I was mostly pointing out that the classic 'throw the drink at someone' is typically the contents....
You seem to be assuming that FanGirl will follow your concept, which would be again, why we're wondering this dire need to railroad your players to fit your game. You mentioned your plot is quite convoluted, yet how much freedom in this mesh are you allowing for player drift.. in my 10 years as a GM, I've discovered that - no matter how well thought out the plot can be - there's always the chance your players will go a completely different direction.

I'm not trying to troll your board Emo, just merely offering another point of view. Sometimes you talk as if you're running with blinders on.. you see your goal, and you disregard any other concept as trivial. As for my insults... some times you seem to be so far into your own thoughts that the 'verbal slap' is about the only thing that seems gets your attention...

One thing that a few people who post to you discussions ask is that you think about their suggestions, rather than shrug them away as meaningless. That you seem to ignore comments, criticisms and only get excited about those who lead you on is probalby why fewer people post here. I noticed you making a comment further back about the lack of 'gasps and boos' to your ideas... I realize you live for this sort of conflict, but some are probably feeling the game is getting old. Perhapse if at least 'some' of your concepts where a little more plausible you'd gain more of a 'fan base' that you are seeking.

[Dranem]

[emo samurai]

I said I'm starting small, and that they'd get worse with time. It's like a beautiful grotesque, except it's not in any way beautiful. Over time, your portrait will probably have a gaping head wound with botfly eggs in it and a stinky adult diaper, but that's about 15 comments down the line.

And as for her appearing in public, have you ever heard of "nanopaste disguise" or "physical mask?"

Plus, I'm not really railroading them; the whole party thing happened because FanGirl called a contact I didn't expect her to call; and like I said, if you consider making him an asshole railroading, then yes, I WILL treat those comments as meaningless.

[DireRadiant]

What do you do when the players do not play out the scene the way you plan? What if the drink is never thrown? What if the character accepts the advances and doesn't think much of it? And still does not want to kill the target? These are all decisions and actions in the control of the player. Are you going to tell the player, "No no, your PC does this now! Roll your throwing drinks in peoples faces skill."

For me the greatest moments and fun in running games is when the PC does the perfectly logical to the player action that I as the GM never expected. I then have to run through all the permutations and evaluations of the story and NPC characters and work out what to do.

[emo samurai]

I'm talking about the contact throwing the glass, not FanGirl. I control the contact; I do not presume to control FanGirl. At least, not directly.

[Dranem]

Sounds like your trying to move the action to something you can control, where as before, it sounded like you were going to have the kid hit on FanGirl...

Now, a guy being a jerk to someone else, makes a rude public display... Now while - generally - socially unacceptable, and would draw some negative opinion, how does this make FanGirl so mad/desrespectful of the kid that she would forget her morals? FanGirl already stated that something drastic would be needed for her to kill.

[emo samurai]

And if FanGirl doesn't kill the guy, Vranton will; his player assures me that his death will be spectacular and theatrical. He'll get the money and the karma, FanGirl will just get the karma.

I'll also make it obvious that the dudes in chameleon suits were hired by the kid. It'll make the threat to the Johnson's life that much more real and make it into a genuine case of CK's life versus shaman's.

[James McMurray]

[emo samurai]

I had a change of heart while making dinner today. I'll have CK talk to FanGirl over a small amount of wine about how he hates how selfish and cutthroat his life has become, and how Shiawase doesn't have the decency to be cutthroat over something that matters, like acumen. He'll also tell her about how he doesn't really want to hurt the shaman; he never planned to do it and he hoped that threatening would have been enough. If the shaman didn't sell, he'd just have the underground paper that he secretly owns disseminate information on a failed buy offer from Shiawase and make money off the increased circulation.

FanGirl, hopefully, will take the opportunity to offer to fake his death. FanGirl's corp princess contact is an Evo girl, so she'll be able to get cloned bodies of them easily. He'll actually be really smart and good-hearted; he's kept his offer to buy the bar off his daddy's radar, and the chameleon-suited thugs will all be hired by his daddy.

He'll make money in the shadows as a freelance telecommuting stockbroker for Shiawase; during the Crash, he had a hacker make a new SIN for an unknown freelance stockbroker. Shiawase's lacking in daring businessmen, so they take skillful freelancers wherever they can get them. He'll also pay the group an extra 60,000 :nuyen: for their trouble.

Of course, I'll continue to badmouth CK on the rest of these boards to misdirect FanGirl. If you want to, please play along.

[James McMurray]

I thought he was a rapist?