Publicity in the Shadowworld, Or- shadowrunning perks. Options

[Tiralee]

Ok, my usual insane team has developed into an even MORE insane team with fallout from the last run.

[ Spoiler ]

(Long story short, brainwashed Bug shamen in the bottom of the Redmond mall at 4 in the Morning.)

Even against the bugs, the players kicked absolute ass (Drain from the magicians was the worst effect, thank the gods for bound elementals, eg: "You lot of fire elementals, go hug that thing.")

But, the absolute cracker (Apart from tossing a shopping-trolley full of "Bug-Be-Gone" spray down an elevator followed closely by a WP grenade...) was the survivalist-horror-humour enacted by the Decker, the monsterous Troll acting as "decker overwatch" and our bow-wielding sniper.

Scene - it's a tiny Security room, the decker is curled up in the corner while Kronk (Body 17, Str 14, Quickness 8, Int 3 Troll) waits with his Ares Thunderer (only loaded with EX and Gel...like they were expecting this.) and a ballistic shield, troll-size.

Kronk - Flukes his perception and wins a reaction test to BLOCK a maddened force 6 Ant worker from coming out of the ceiling vent with his shield, Ant Spirit rolled results beyond crap for the struggle Vs Str.
I roll the the enraged squeals, etc are fraggin obvious.
Grommit, the surfer Minotaur adept runs in with 2 monster packs of bug-spray "liberated" from the recently opened Stuffer Shack (What do you THINK the decker was doing:)?) and just sprays the damn thing.

Scene: The Troll is holding this horrible thing back, quite successfully and the another Troll bursts, in, spraying the aerosols in like he's at a rave

Mass giggling by the players.

I roll Ant body - it's an irritant...what the hell...HOW MANY ones? The highest result, even including combat pool, was 3. Players are wetting themselves with laughter.

The Ant is scrabbling it's way back up the vent, after taking some S damage so Kronk does the one thing I was not expecting him to do, he tosses the shield aside, lunges up to GRAB the Ant and drags it down into the room.

God, ok, whatever, roll grapple (Unarmed/Brawling, whatever) and I roll...not AGAIN?!
-Players are on the floor after seeing the dice. Grommit is still spraying the cans of spray and they're both laying into the Ant's armoured form, in the SMALL room, with the still on-line decker, who is watching this via the room's security camera.

Grommit - "Hey, wait, open its mouth, mantibles, whatever!"
My head is on the table, I roll the damn dice. Strangely enough, with the physical pounding that they are doing to the Ant (Kronk with the Titanium Bone Lacing), the TN's are reasonable. Ant fails, horribly.

Kronk Hauls the dam thing's mouth open.
Grommit - "I'm gonna shove these cans in its kisser!"
Grommit actually scored higher then the Ant (Goddammed Init of 32, dammed adepts) so while the Ant struggled to get free (no chance) he shoved the cans down its throat.
Me: <Imagine the dull horror in my voice> What now?
Kronk & Grommit - We're gonna kick it in the thorax!
...
The Bug-spirit, battered, ichor dripping from the walls and ceiling, was duely assualted by a combined Strength attack of ~35.
It didn't have a chance.
Insecticide foaming out of it's spricles, it twitters and chrips once before it's kicked out of the security room and into the corridor.

Cue Kronk and Grommit Pumping fists, shouting, then the "V" sign into the security camera

The team's new decker had gathered some fantastic footage (Use the "punch" rules for Shadowbeat) and the resident security expert thought of selling it to an ADVERTISING AGENCY. And wrote a dammed jingle to go with the footage. (See the above spoiler for the description of the footage)

"Okay," I thought. "Here we go."

The Ad execs loved it. Me: Damn
They sold it to an insecticide manufacturer (Bug-Be-Gone, available in Household, Troll and Chicago-size packs) They said, uh, yeah, ok, it looks pretty funny...Let's see the audience acceptance. Whew

The Public loves it - it's up there with NERPS for public exposure, sales are through the roof, the Ad company awards the players mucho nuyen with an option for further work.
( I sometimes hate my dice.)

The players make off with :nuyen: 325K each for the advertisement, they made sure the people doing the hammering were unidentifiable and now they're looking to sell more footage of their exploits. (Ie: Firestone Multipurpose Runflats - they're what REAL riggers use.)

I know about the low-profile, etc...but they did their homework on this one and I'm going to have to award them Karma for sheer Bravado.

Have you GM's out there had similar situations?

-Tir

"Bug-Be-Gone...F#$G Yeah! When you've got a problem, Bug-Be-Gone! F#$G Yeah!" - excerpt of the jingle. Think "America, F#$K yeah!" but a lot better. :(

[SL James]

Your players are fucking awesome.

[Muzzaro]

*wipes away tears*

I agree, your players are the best. That's the best read i've had in ages!

[hyzmarca]

. It's like the antithesis of The CLUE Files. Those players know what Shadowrunning is all about.

[bigdrewp]

I guess I am not seeing the problem. You are the GM right? You don't have to do what your dice say do you? I thought not. Now, you could always stop having Johnsons hire them as they are too well known, or some other such idea. I agree with rewarding their bravado, I would, but don't let them, or your dice, railroad you into a direction you don't want your game to go. Roleplaying is a balance of what the players want and what the GM is willing to let them do.

[Abbandon]

If your runners are famous or have alot of exposure then everyone who has been on the wrong end of your runners could start trying to find them and it will be relatively easy.

Whatever money they are making from commercials and stuff should be just enough to cover the cost of building a new safehouse right after all their old enemies get done blowing up there old one. Maybe they come out a little ahead since they are so creative.

[Forever Zero]

If he plays an open dice game, the GM can't fudge rolls. However, in a case like this, I'm not sure I would want to fudge the dice. This is the kind of crazy runner stunts that when pulled off right, can turn a regular runner team into a legendary team ("You hear about those crazy fraggers? I'd kill to be on their team!"). Sure, their reputation with Johnsons that want a total hush-hush job might go down until the media frenzy dies down, but other interested parties might pick them up just because they look like a top-notch team. If secrecy isn't an issue, then just the fact that some people know that THOSE runners are on the job might scare off most people looking to cause trouble (And will also lead to Glory Hounds trying to pick a fight that want to be "The guys that beat the team on the vids")

Of course, when you're a shining beacon, everyone and their mother knows where to find you. Anyone trying to track them down could easily get names (Hacking the Ad Agencies paying the runners with a decker, or even just hitting the bars and asking around "You know who the guys are in that vid? I'd buy them a drink if I knew who they were and met them"), and be kicking down safehouse doors in no time.

[SL James]

What media frenzy? You did read the part where they made sure that they were unidentifiable, right?

[Tiralee]

Thanks for the replies people - I'm tempted to show the players your kind words, but I think they've had enough fun already.

Ok, so I run an open dice game. It cuts out people bitching about "No way would that happen!" (Force 13 Fireball from my mage is a case in point, or the infamous Force 19 Flamethrower...Players: "My god! You're sustaining THAT? It's eating through the walls! - yes, that was a level 7 initiate Mage who earned her new streetname of "Hellbringer") and it makes things a LOT more intense.
Actual Quote: "Hah, I rock, you <GM rolls> can't touch me <we all look at the table>, oh god, that's a lot of sixes...."
Rest of the Table: "STOP! Hammer time...Do dah doo, dah do, Can't touch this..."
<GM=Me> "Muhuhhauhuahahahahahaahaaaa!"
Player: <Starts frantically rolling body, burning Karma, etc>

Some rolls ARE secret - that god-dammed "punch"roll a case in point, but these guys are quite new to Shadowrun. The Decker (RatH) had been playing Kronk as filler, then wanted to start his own character. (See my fumbling cries for help earlier last week, it's been YEARS since we had a Decker. Now we're cursing the fact that we didn't for so freaking long.)
Maybe 5 sessions into a brand-new system, and he was pulling crap like that? I was torn between laughing and grinding my teeth in fury. :twirl:

I do this (GM/Shadowrun) because it can be a lot of fun and some of the crap that happens is pure comedy gold.

Like one where the mage cast "control fire" on the guard smoking on a roof, killed him with the cigarette, then caused the grenades to cook off spectacularly, which then set the building alight, distracting the rest of the guards busily engaged in trying to wipe out the rest of the team. (Binoculars are USEFUL).

Or the time when another mage dropped a Force 6 Shape Earth on a suspect we were trying to "interview" and invented the Toothpaste Effect.

Or last night, when the Security Expert decided that since he's watched a lot of weird Japanese street racing(Tokyo Driftaloooooooo), he was going to Re-inact the Blues Brother's Mall scene to the theme of "Indiana Jones" because he had 40 seconds to make it out of the mall and the security shutters were closing. Best thing is, he leaned back inside to steal a hat from a hat-rack juuuust as the shutters closed...


Popularity - these guys ARE smart. They already have an example or two of "Don't do this" from other players (Insert Azzie death-squad reference) and they're wanting to have a good time without having to look over their shoulders all the time.

I'm sort of tempted to get the Ad agency to contact them, begging them for the ID's of the guys so they can do a few more advertisments... Heh - I like teasing them.


Look - I was wondering if people had players amaze you with their gumption and how you managed to redirect them away from the dark side of "Jackass", is that too much to ask:)?

-Tir.

[knasser]

Your players are fraggin awesome. That was hillarious. My advice? Go with it! Run a few games where they're sucked into the world of media and celebrity. Let them find out that that world is even crazier than the one they've left behind. Watch in gibbering wonder as they're hired to pull off a shadowrun live on national trid.

"So, can you tell where we are, yet?"

I predict the game will self-destruct in about four sessions, and it will be new-character time. But it'll be totally fun, that's for sure.

[ShadowDragon8685]

That was in fact brilliant.

I'd have Ares Macrotechnology contact the ad company in order to contact the Runers to hire their services on-retainer as urban Bug-infestation troubleshooters. Why not? They may have hit Runner gold here - steady job doing work where you can honestly say you're doing more good than harm, pays well, and the media loves you when you do shit like shove cans of bug-be-gone down an ant form's throat and kick the shit out of it.


I can just see the ad campaign now. The two trolls are brandishing troll-sized shotguns - pump action grenade launchers with a very powerful concentrated form of Bug-Be-Gone.

The first one pumps his shotgun.
"Roaches check in."

The other one pumps his.
"They don't check out."

[Tiralee]

[knasser]

[SL James]

[hyzmarca]

The great thing about Queen Euphoria is that players sign away the media rights to their adventure as part of the contract and the Sim (made from actual footage of their run) goes on to make a few hundred million nuyen.

[knasser]