Life in the Barrens AAR, How did it come to pass? Options

[D Minor]

Hats off to Simon. Sounds like ur mage has had a turn of luck. Still standing at the end of a fight :D

[Jaid]

[FriendoftheDork]

[fumble]

Friend of Dork, good to see you back.

I know it must be tiresome, especially as you write rather long updates, but what can I say ? You have responsabilities to your fanbase now !...

Format is good as is. I suppose what could make a good addition is all the little jokes or awkward remarks and player fumbling that happen during the course of a game.

A friend of mine started collecting the little gems we blurt out during our games (it's here, but it's in french).

Some examples go like that :

- I tell you in character : "keep him busy for 2 rounds"

- So, I have -2 HP : I have to get a "1" on a D10 to stabilize, right ?
- Yep. A "1", or any other number you choose...
- Choose 7. It's always 7 *pretends to throw for craps*
- OK, I choose 7 *rolls dice*
- What did you get ?
- 1...

- I take a -4 penalty to do subdual damage.
- (GM) with a gun?
- (Player, very seriously) Yeah : I aim at the wall behind him so he gets hit by the rubble

However, I suppose if you start collating that sort of thing on top of actually running the game and writting the updates, it starts being a full-time job...

Cheers,
Fumble.

[fumble]

Some more, more related to SR :

- If you really want to play an ork, you might as well play a troll....

- Don't worry Nakamori-san, just stay behind me : I am more bullet-proof than the popemobile.

- Oh for f**k sake, you're not going to use that rocket launcher in the tunnel, are you ?
- Watch me baby. (last words of Bud, Troll mercenary extraordinaire)

Anyway, that's it - wouldn't want to hijack the thread... :D

Cheers,
ChL.

[DTFarstar]

I would enjoy seeing any jokes that you do remember from an OOC aspect as well. I don't know about you guys, but we come up with some OOC gems during our games usually and I usually remember the good ones if I tell someone about the session later.

Chris

[FriendoftheDork]

OK, sure I can try to get more IC and OOC jokes in, our games are full of them. Ok, they are funnier in context and with the mood and all, but still.

Problem is now I can't remember any of them so I need to write them down more often during the game.

[DTFarstar]

You would be surprised how well alot of gaming table jokes translate. Just be sure to provide a dictionary to terms that aren't multi-national. Or at least be prepared for people to be like "What the hell is a _______?"

Chris

[FriendoftheDork]

OK :)

[Warmaster Lah]

Well a pretty good adaption of food fight which turned into an interesting "little" blackmail run.

Jeeze your players are bold.

They should be becoming quite well known in their part of the Barrens. Nice little list of enemies too. This infamy could be good or bad for them... (~_^)

On the other side they seem to have quite a few admirers as well.

I like the direction of the game too, more grimey and street crimey.

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

OK, back to “Life in the Barrens.� I was going to update this last week, but I’ve been very busy and once I had time I forgot a bit about it.

Since these updates are getting longer every time, I’m going to spoiler tag them to make it easier to scroll down the pages. Also, you might have noticed me putting IC on every post that is an update, so you can scroll past the BS if you want to ;)

[ Spoiler ]

While Simon, Uzz and Trog did their thing at the Wiches Circle, Jimmy had been busy trying to get in touch with the Whispering Nights Yakuza. (S)he’s from a Renraku family so he’s familiar to Japanese etiquette and language, which is why he decided to try set up a meet instead of leaving it to their “face� Uzz.

Uzz, Simon and Trog drove Lucinda to Trog’s home among the Vatos, and Jimmy met them there. He checked out Uzz’s recording of his conversation with Lucinda (his cybereyes cameras are always on), and talks to Lucinda as well without really uncovering anything new.

When Jimmy learns they have been in a gunfight, he checks up on Simon first.

Jimmy (to Simon): “Shall I bring the medkit?�
Simon: “I’m not hurt.�
Jimmy: “What?!�

When all the catching up is done, they decide to send Uzz and Jimmy to speak with the Yakuza. AT first they’re not sure how to put it to them, after all they just shot down a lot of Tiger gangers allied with the same Yakuza they’re supposed to speak with.

Trog suggests: “We can claim we are moral people!� At which point everyone looks at him, looks away and resumes the planning.

Although Jimmy had requested a meet, his street cred was limited and it would take many (14) hours until the meet would take place. Therefore, he contacted them again, this time asking specifically for the name Ino Mamoru. This was the name the Tiger adept said wanted to speak with the runners and Lucinda Tangier before they all started fighting. When Jimmy got hold of mr. Ino, he immediately offered to negotiate giving the Yakuza Lucinda.

This was a lot more fruitful of course, and Ino-san agreed to a meet in Loveland, Puyallup in 2 hours. There, outside a shady café, they met their contact – a Yak foot soldier named Tok. He brought them along after exchanging pleasantries in English and Japanese. Jimmy is fluent in the language, and Uzz bought the best linguasoft he could get beforehand.

Now you may recall that Uzz has recently got astral perception, but so far it’s been pretty nice to him, and gotten him accurate information. But when Tok turned his back on Uzz to lead them to the meeting place, Uzz gazed on him. And glitched. Critically… 4 out of 5 dice turned up ones. And with his background and obsession with finding and killing insect spirits, you know what he saw: A big ugly ant.

Saying only “this meeting is over� he turned and left. Tok was as puzzled as Jimmy, but they continued on nonetheless. A few seconds later Uzz sent Jimmy a text message saying that the Yakuza was insect spirits! Jimmy was confused, but continued. He was getting more and more nervous though as he was wondering if he was entering deeper into one of those Hives he had encountered in the past.

At least there was no sign of anything �buggish� as he entered a Japanese-style stone garden and after passing through a point where he was asked to leave his weapons, he met with the Inner circle of the Whispering Nights Yakuza: Ino Mamoru (the man he was to meet ,3rd son of the Oyabun), Ino Hoshiro (the 1st son), Willy Chen (first lieutenant), Robert Ejima (leader of the Tigers) and the big boss himself, Ino Toshihiro.

On the way to the meeting room Jimmy was assensed by Ino Midori, the Oyabun’s blind daughter and a powerful mage, who reported the details on Jimmy’s aura directly into the Oyabun’s head through a spell. Still, nervousness does not equal deception, and Toshihiro thought he only was nervous about meeting a head of a Yakuza clan, while in fact he was wondering if they were all turned into ant spirits! Midori saw that Jimmy was in fact a young woman masquerading as a man (can’t fool your aura (not without Masking)), but she didn’t tell her father about it. Perhaps she felt some kinship about trying to make do in a man’s world (the dominating Yakuza are very sexist and racist), or perhaps she wants something from Jimmy later on.


Meanwhile, Uzz was heading back to Trog and Simon to get reinforcements against the ant spirits. While he’s travelling back to the Barrens on his bike, Uzz confers with Trog on the way. Although I can’t remember all the details now, he basically told Trog that the Yakuza were all insect spirits and that he needed him and Simon to get their gear and go kick ass. Trog was a bit wary though, if he was going to attack a whole Yakuza clan at least he wanted to do so for the right reasons. So Uzz told him he had seen an insect spirit by astral perception (“magic mumbo-jumbo stuff�). So Trog told Simon “Go check if the Yakuza are insect spirits.� Simon: “What? No! That’s dangerous!� Trog: “Don’t worry, if you start bleeding we’ll know you found them.�

Well Trog’s smooth attempt at coercing Simon into checking out the Yakuza didn’t work well, and when Uzz learned that he started pulling some strings. First, he contacted FBI Johnson that hired them against Project Hope back in the day, hoping the feds could go in with T-birds and blow the Yakuza to smithereens. Simon Juarez was skeptical though, and more or less said that even if this was true they couldn’t just bomb them – that would mean war with all the Yakuza in Seattle.

Then he called Koren Thark, the Lone Star officer that hired them for the run. Thark took him seriously when he said insect spirits, thinking this was going to be Chicago all over again. His resources was limited without hard evidence, but Uzz persuaded him to get some buddies over at LS MCSI (Magic Crime Scene Investigation) to look around the area for any sign of bugs in astral space.

Uzz got back to his buddies, and they talked it over some more. They were skeptical as Uzz seemed compulsive about the whole thing and wanted them to act without telling them any details. When Simon learned that Jimmy was still inside, he called him on the commlink.

Meanwhile, Jimmy had been doing very well on his etiquette, avoiding the many pitfalls in this situation. Since it would be impolite to rush the business conversation, it took it’s sweet time with idle chat and a tea ceremony. When Jimmy got his call (about 30 minutes after the meet started), he apologized for the interruption but asked permission to take the call. Simon told Jimmy about the insect spirit thingy, not taking it too seriously. Jimmy gave his own update, and ended the call.

Later in the meeting Jimmy sent Simon a message “Send alarm if Uzz does something stupid.�

Simon: “Alarm!� He’d found out that Uzz had been trying to get both the FBI and Lone Star involved. 2 Lone Star magical investigator scoped out the café where the meet took place, and after checking around and even checking the same guy Uzz did (Uzz sent them video of the person from his cybereyes), they came to the conclusion that it was a false alarm. Thark reported back to Uzz about it, and although he would not believe it at first he eventually accepted that he might have seen something wrong.

The meeting with Yakuza actually worked very well even without Uzz though. When they finally got to the business at hand Jimmy was more than willing to share his info without demanding anything in return. He offered to deal about Lucinda and wanted to know what the Yakuza wanted her for, and when he learned they wanted to know about the assassination at the Witches Circle and find the culprits, he offered to give all the video/audio footage about the conversations with Lucinda about the hit. He also told them that the assassin was in fact a human and part of Elven Fire, not the Ancients. To back this up he gave them the Lone Star files about the analysis saying there is only 20% chance that the shooter is actually an elf. Although the Oyabun did not accept this as evidence, he admitted this material caused him to doubt that the Ancients were responsible for the hit – as he was already puzzled at why the Ancients would do something so suicidal as attack the Yakuza when they are already at war with several other major gangs.

Mamoru agreed, as well as Chen, but Hoshiro was skeptical about letting the Ancients get a chance to prepare for their attack. Ejima protested most loudly, wanting to kill both the Ancients and the runners as well that had attacked his gang. The Oyabun had made up his mind though, and agreed to delay aggression against the Ancients by 48 hours in return for getting Lucinda and in light of this information. He even agreed to give her back to the runners when they was finished talking to her.

After the meeting Jimmy called Thark to update (they were supposed to do so every 6 hours). When he learned about Uzz’s behavior (through Jimmy’s eyes), he was surprised. “Uzz? I thought he seemed ah...�

Jimmy: “Yeeees, he’s very good at “seeming…�

Thark told Jimmy about what he’d been doing himself. After the first update he had contacted an authority on metahuman gang politics, and is going to have a meeting with him tomorrow morning. He congratulates them on warding off the Yakuza temporarily, and tells them if they can convince all the gangs of the same thing it might be enough to prevent the Guard rolling out. But they need more evidence, or actually tracking down the assassin/Elven Fire and dealing with them.

About 12 hours after the mission began there is an update on the ‘Guard situation: All leaves are cancelled, and reserves are called in by the Colonel. The Seattle JST is also on standby, in case the Guard gets bogged down. Although the Metroplex Guard has a lot of toys and manpower, the Joint Strike Team has experience from dealing with the Renraku Arcology situation not that long ago.

Next, the team wants to talk to the Ancients themselves. Uzz arranges the contact, and with an exceptional etiquette roll he gets a meeting in just 1 hour. Now Uzz could probably have done this himself or just with one other, but since the player has actually played the module before someone else has to ask the right questions. So they all agreed to go, if nothing else to provide backup.

They met the contact in Downtown Seattle, near lake Union. A lone Ancient biker showed up, and then led the way. As they followed a lot of other Ancients joined in to escort them to the meeting place at the Tacoma docks.

There they met Sting, the leader, as well as Green Lucifer (second in command) and two other members named Viper and Falchion. The Ancients were surprised at the new information about Elven Fire, although they already suspected they were out to get them. After the initial distrust, Sting believed the runners actually wanted to get to the bottom of this and harbored no ill intentions toward her gang. Lucifer was a bit more reserved at first, but told them the same assassin had made an attempt on his life one and a half month ago, where the leader of a Bellevue gang called the Nova Rich was killed.

Before the meeting was over, one of the Ancients that had been guarding the area rode towards them and shouted “Meat Junkies!� The Ancients, and possibly the runners were under attack. The Ancients scattered, some taking cover while drawing weapons, while others readied their motorbikes to intercept attackers. Jimmy and Simon took cover in the rear, while Uzz and Trog took cover by one of the alleys the Meat Junkies was supposed to come.

A few moments later they came: Big orks carrying ballistic shields (actually citymaster doors), with machinegun teams right behind them. Further back other gangers appeared, with shotguns, SMGs and pistols.

Uzz waited at first, but when Trog started shooting grenades at the approaching machinegun/tower shield combo, he fired some with his Ingram X. The grenades were pretty effective in the alley, but landed a bit too far behind to kill the shieldbearer and machinegunner. Thus they were able to lay down some suppressive fire at the runners and Ancients.

Battle commenced at other places too, and another machinegun sounded down the second alley. Far away to both sides of the main street figures started appearing, and when they came closer they revealed themselves to be meat junkies on bikes with Molotov cocktails.

After the first two rounds Uzz and Trog had dealt with the machinegun, causing a lot of splat damage on the other Meat junkies in the first alley. The primary advance was soon halted, and most of the meat junkies had taken cover as Uzz fired suppressive fire and grenades at them. Uzz were picking off brave ones that tried to get close, all the while both of them dodging an impressive amount of bullets.

In the Sound lay the USS Koontz, an aircraft carrier preparing for the impending civil war and airlifting in supplies and manpower to Fort Lewis not far away.

Once the enemy on the flanks were close enough to target with a spell, Simon cast Control Thoughts on the Molotov-fielding Meat Junkie – and then made him to smash the bottle in the back of the rider’s head! Chaos ensued, and the bike crashed of course. 2 Ancients on bikes rode to meet the remaining 2 Meat junkie bikes, and shot them down.

On the other side the Junkies got the advantage at first, pinning down the Ancients bikers with suppressive fire, but Simon stunballed them all and mopped up the resistance.

If not for the use of accurate gunfire from Uzz, grenades and rifle fire from Trog, and spells from Simon, the battle could have taken rather long (in game), but the Junkies withdrew with heavy casualties, and were pursued by Sting, Green Lucifer and a few other mounted Ancients.

Well that’s all for now folks. This update is dedicated to MaxHunter, who helped me by sending his stats on various NPCs, and giving the encounters a bit more flavor than usual. Thanks Mat!

This week we had to cancel play since two of the players couldn’t make it. I expect to be able to play next Friday though.

As always, feedback is appreciated :)

[MaxHunter]

Hey! I got a post dedicated!!! Take that, fellow dumpshockers!! :biggrin:

And keep it up, mate.


Cheers!

M

[FriendoftheDork]

[MaxHunter]

kind of. We finished Elven Fire some time ago, and the YOTC module was something that we had played before but had consequences that manifested just last time. Unfortunately for the runners, succeeding at Elven Fire and helping the city out of a possible military intervention made them a little too notorious for their own good. -I am using different Public Awareness rules, but it raised to 3 after elven fire- That provided Yamatetsu with enough hits on their investigation roll to discover vital facts on the runners i.e. their fixer's name, from there on it was just the circle of hounds closing on them.

Now they have some carcerands in their blood and just enough time to perform a stunt at Ares and recover the module data and bargain their survival. Hey, maybe I should start posting a "Life in Seattle AAR"... Nah! too lazy... :smile:

Cheers,

M

[FriendoftheDork]

I see. So far I've been trying to follow the public awareness/reputation rules in SR, but I'm having a hard time as they often makes no sense. I mean, just because they do something right and keep a very low profile they get more karma, thus more street cred thus more public awareness?

I changed a few things though, like halving the street cred of Jimmy (who often doesen't even show up on meetings with Johnsons and always use multiple personas), and upping the public awareness of Simon (who got arrested after an APB on Seattle trid for murdering several Lone Star officers).

Next campaign I'm running I will seperate karma awards and reputation, they don't always go hand in hand. Not to mention the alcholic btl junkie who always fails his mission getting a massive boost to initimidate :(

[Karaden]

Woo, been wanting to say thanks for posting these for weeks, but only just got my account approved. So here it is:

Thanks for posting these for us to enjoy.

I know I had other things I wanted to say/ask, but can't remember them at the moment, anyway, keep up the good work.

[FriendoftheDork]

[D Minor]

My life gets a little darker when u don't post. :P

Keep it up. I enjoy following the growth of ur players. I feel like its a monolog/story . and its rude to interupt :D

[FriendoftheDork]

[DTFarstar]

I've read from day one of the original post and I will continue to read as long as you post and I still come to DS. I wish more people posted these things. Of course I spend time sometimes just wandering through the Welcome to the Shadows thread reading peoples games.

I just wish I could see their character sheets because for some odd reason I really like stats to go with characters I read about.

Chris

[FriendoftheDork]

[DTFarstar]

*nods* I make my characters give me electronic copies or for the weird guy with no internet I make a copy of his so I have reference material when I'm calculating things.

Chris

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok DT and y'all, I now present your favourite Troll; TROG.


I'll put his stats in spoiler tag since they are fairly long and includes equipment. The skill are now stand alone with skill+attribute+cyber in paranthesis, but not spezialization bonus or smartlink.

[ Spoiler ]

Trog

Attributes:
Body 9
Agility 5 (7)
Reaction 5 (7)
Strength 9 (11)
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 1 (2)
Willpower 3
Edge 1
Initiative 9 (11)

Pistols 4 (11)
Automatics Spec: assault 5 (12)
Longarms 4 (11)
Blades Spec: cyber 6 (13)
Unarmed Spec: subdue 1 (8)
Climbing Group: athletics 1 (12)
Gymnastics Group: athletics 1 (8)
Running Group: athletics 1 (12(
Swimming Group: athletics 1 (12)
Navigation 1 (5)
Infiltration Spec: urban 1 (8)
Perception Spec: hearing 2 (9)
Con 1 (4)
Negotiation 1 (4)
Etiquette Spec: street 1 (4)
Leadership 1 (4)
Intimidate Spec: physical 1 (4)
Computer Spec: commlink 1 (3)
Pilot ground Spec: bike 1 (8)
Heavy weapons 4 (11)
First aid Spec: Combat wounds 1 (3)


Knowledge skills Value: (not included attributes)
Chinese 3
Spanish 1
English N
Sec. companies (Lone star) 2
Hong kong triads 1
Seattle street gangs 1
Club music 2
Sports (combat biking) 4

Positive qualities:
Toughness

Negative qualities:
Addiction, moderate Alcohol
Bad luck

Contacts:
Mr Sing Fixer 1+3 Barrens stuffer shack owner
Maddoc Street doc 3+3 Scary mofo w/metal head, barrens street clinic.
Gordon Armorer/Fixer 2+1 Yakuza's little gun nut


Lifestyle: Middle


Gear:

Cyberware (all alpha):
Datajack
Olfactory booster 3
Ultrasound Sensor
Dermal plating 2
Internal air tank
Spurs
Nanohive (prob. R4)

Bioware:
Muscle augmentation 2
Muscle toner 2
Platelet factories
Sleep regulator
Cerebral booster 1
Synaptic booster 2

Weapons and ammo:

Ingram smartgun X SMG
Ares Alpha Assault rifle
Airburst link
Gas-Vent 3 system Recoil
APDS for alpha: ~100 (2 mags)
Regular lots and lots...
Gel rounds 0?
ExEx 30 (glemt jeg hadde dem...)
Ruger Super Warhawk
Smoke Grenade 5
Fragmentation Grenade 6 (brukt 4 hittil :)

Armor and vehicles:

Armor jacket
Helmet (customized at great expense with)
Suzuki mirage Bike
Renraku Stormcloud drone
Sensor package camera, lowlight, vision magnification, vision enchancement
3, directional microphone, laser microphone, radio scanner

Commmlink etc:
Erika Elite Commlink
Iris Orb OS Commlink
All legal programs Rating 3
Subvocal microphone Commlink
Skinlink Wireless replacement Commlink
Wall Space Changes the world VR
Virtual Surround Music VR

Glasses:
Low light
Image link
Smartlink
Vision enhancement 3

Earbuds:
Audio enhance 3
Spatial recognizer

Chisel (crowbar)
Glue sprayer (seals doors etc)
Plastic restraints (10)
Lightsticks X 3
Traumapatch (stabilize w/body)
Stimulant patch 6
Docwagon contract Standard
Acid proof poncho
Flashlight
Explosives Foam 2kg,commercial 3 5kg, det.cap (10).
Rope + grapple
Microtransciever 6


Fake SIN 3 (Grot)
Fake SIN 1 (Gort)
Fake SIN 7 (Trogdor Wanunu, bodyguard)(superSIN from FBI, incl licenses)
Fake license (all restricted stuff. R1 for R3 SIN)

Shadow account

This post has been edited by FriendoftheDork: Dec 6 2007, 02:16 AM

[cx2]

Oh I'm still reading and enjoying too... though page 3 is never a good page for getting read ;)

(here in Britain there is a tradition of one of the tabloids using page 3 for a topless picture)