On the Run Options

[Cain]

[Mibo]

[Mibo]

[Chaos Kingpin]

My team asked some orks they were staying with in a nearby safehouse who the opening band for the Nabo concert would be... I whipped out some name thinking, of course there would be an opening band...the next thing I know they are tracking them down at their practice space to knock them out and pose as them to get into the concert.

[FriendoftheDork]

[Cain]

Well, since this thread has returned from the dead, I may as well shill for myself.

[FriendoftheDork]

Ouch, that some hard critique! And it makes me glad I've never bought a PDF book. If only Illegal PDFs were that hard to print, we'd avoid all that piracy ;)

I must say, I disagree with some parts. YES, the initial mission is too vague and requires the GM to convince the players that this mission is not a needle in a haystack. Myself, I told them when they objected, that this disk was one a format so rare that just finding ANY disk of this type would give it a good chance it was the right one, and that one such disk put out in the music industry would guarantee it was the right one.

And yes, I'm also afraid my players will act too professional and simply deliver the disk once they find it. I'll have to use the Mr. Johnson stalling tactic, and hint to them that he won't be pleased if it is a fake - they better check it out.

As for the unbreakable code, well the SR system was flawed to begin with and this actually makes more sense to me than the BBB. Thankfully our hacker is only mediocre (7 dice in most hacking/computer programs), so he'll buy that the second encryption will take a long time to do without ruining the material, and will take programs and equipment he doesen't have.
I'll probably use plot devices like this alot in my game as well, for instance trying to hack Zurich-Orbital will be impossible for my group as it is guarded with unhackable systems and unbreakable encryption too.

The more low-key installations they'll be B&E-ing they'll be able to hack as normal though.

However despite these flaws, I think the plot is kinda cool, and I don't mind the "elvis" vampire at all - at least he won't interact directly with the party.

And that the original employer is hidden is fun too, so I hope they make more of these modules.

We haven't played the bar-to-bar action yet, and no combat, but I shouldn't think it will be boring... and we've already ran some fights in this system so I think we'll be prepared... it can get bogged down if you're not very structured.

All in all, it seems like it could be alot of fun.

[FriendoftheDork]

Hmm, seems like I'll have to bite my words - just ran the adventure and the players were professionals - they sold the disk asap without investigating it (basically the only techie in the party said they couldn't read it).

Still, it was a good way of finishing the game and we had great fun doing it. Gaming time is about quality, not quantity.

[WhiskeyMac]

I didn't like how omnipotent the Johnson was. He knows you made copies if you sell to a private buyer, he knows you screwed up if you sell to the vampires, and he knows if you tried playing the field. How? If you sold a copy to a very private buyer without alerting anyone else, how does the Johnson just "know"?

I actually liked Cain's review. It was kinda corny about the "Elvis" vampire and just to introduce new SR4 players to a vampire conspiracy after so much publicity about SR4 and NewWOD similarities didn't really jive well with me. I liked the rules notes and extras but the layout was pretty bad.

I second (or third, or whatever) the notion about needing really curious or anarchist style players. It doesn't make sense to be considering yourself professional and then snoop around to much. That gets you killed fast in the shadows.

[Demon_Bob]

I agree with WhiskeyMac the only way the Johnson would know that there were other copies of the disc made is if someone else started publishing the songs.
Same can be said for the other party.

I got the players to investigate the disc by not mentioning that it was a rare, and letting them believe that it was a short-lived popular medium gone the way of the 8-track tape. So they had to check it out to ensure that it was legit or risk pissing off the Johnson.

As far as the unbreakable code went, well that had to change. I played as the disc in question only had half the information (tracks) needed for a good playback and had to be combined with information (tracks) from a second disc.

After editing some of the equipment to match the skills the opponents had things seemed to be back on track.

After reading several moduals put out by people for various games, I proof-read the moduals looking for flaws and so I can get a feel for how the flow should go. As far as errors go this one was not nearly as bad as others I have read.
Although, I agree that On the Run is not as good as an introductory adventure as First Run was.