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

[Crusufix]

Sounds like a good run!.

Queen Euphoria was another favorite of mine. Interesting twist in an otherwise standard mission.

[FriendoftheDork]

[Crusufix]

I PMed you a couple days ago with those answers 8)

[FriendoftheDork]

Heh, look at that I didn't notice those... strange that there is no popups like on other fora.

[Meriss]

Hey FoD! Great writeup, it's always fun to see what your players come up with. Quick question. How are they progressing? Like is your hacker getting better programs or links?

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok, it's high time you got the update on this. I didn't post last week as we basically spent the whole evening with the Euphoria part, and we didn't finish the adventure before last friday.

Well, well, spoiler tag time again:

[ Spoiler ]

Ok, picking up from having just kidnapped Euphoria. The team took her to the old Renraku secret lair after checking that the air there was safe. Unfortunately they had no power there now, so trog had to use his immense strenght and a crowbar to open most doors.

The good news was that by getting a power source (aggregate?), Jimmy got the front armored door going, since he had already bypassed the rating 5 maglock with a critical success the first time they went in. So now they were pretty safe from enemies.

This, and the force 4 ward Simon set up didn't prevent a certain Lion Shaman named Shaka to track down Euphoria with a ritual sample, but we'll be back to that soon.

There was some debate by the team on how they should proceed. Some wanted to simply drug euphoria to keep her from learning their identities, but Trog didn't mind that she was awake and wanted to talk to her anyway, being a huge fan (literally). They did attempt to keep her down with Neuro-stun, but once they learned that using a second dose as soon as she woke was dangerous (she took alot of physical damage after the stun overflowed!), they gave up that idea and the more paranoid characters simply stayed out of sight while Simon's Earth Elemental and Trog guarded her.
Trog, being a very wise troll had seen commercials of Euphoria loving the Amber Gel foodstuff, so of course he had bought a bunch of them beforehand, so when Euphoria asked for it she got it right away (the other players laughed when trog did this, but were quite suprised when they found out she actually liked it!).

Simon had a scene were he saw the stuff in Astral, with lots of small ants crawling in it, and into the mouths of Euphoria and Trog. After trying to warn them, he later had a talismonger look at it, who found nothing... but Simon was pretty freaked out after this :)

Meanwhile, Uzz waited at the Royal Meadows apartment to collect the reward. After he got it, he went to the Barrens secret lair, using the sewers to get in discreetly.

They even tried to cover up the front door by making it seen no on had been there in a while.

When Uzz arrived, he started talking to Euphoria, checking that she was ok (she had been healed), getting trog to open up more doors to find more comfortable quarters, getting her some food, entertaintment etc. He told her a story about how Vincent Burroughs of Strice Foods had done this in order to keep Euphoria safe from someone close to her that may have betrayed her... possibly her manager Robert Barrone or her bodyguards! A wild story of course, but despite this Uzz performed very well on his Con check and after awhile Euphoria believed him.

He spent the rest of the days being as nice and charming as he could, and got a horribel amount of hits on his social skill check. Basically he made Euphoria fall in love with him, and even later after the hit they kept contact and became lovers! It backfired of course, as Uzz also fell in love with Euphoria, and things didn't work out very well in the end...

Anyway, they were attacked the last day by an African lion shaman and 3 poorly equipped security guards (uzi 4s and armor vests). He used power bolt to force his way through the main door using stats for armored/reinforced material armor 24 structure 15... but i forgot about the doubling of armor to resist... however security doors have typically low armor in comparison. Hmm, is hardened armor supposed to count when trying to break a barrier as well? The rules do not say so, but otherwise anyone shooting a light pistol will destroy a ballistic glass window in 5 shots (assuming no skills and no hits rolled).

Ok, after finding out they had retreated further into the complex, and easily defeating the earth elemental, he projected astrally and found his target, as well as Simon's second elemental, which he fought and destroyed in astral combat. He found out how many they were, and then he destroyed a second door and was about to rush in when uzz and trog started blasting away at them, using a rifle and uzz grenade launcher to take them all down in the first combat phase (Shaka only had a leather jacket). The survivors were shot again, and I used the hand of god on Shaka so that he lived, caus he was cool (if stupid). They dumped them in the sewer, and will probably not belive it when Shaka returns!

Well it all turned out right, they delivered Euphoria while she was sleeping, and got paid what was promised. Now, 20 000 nuyen richer, Uzz was dating Euphoria, Trog was partying wildly, Simon spent time researching (instead of worrying about his bills), and Jimmy ordered a bunch of stuff, including ruthenium hair implants.

Then it happened again. Elliot Whitecastle called them, telling them they had been busted but that Megamedia (Euphoria's record company) would forgive them if they showed up to give info about previous employers, even money.

Trog and Uzz went - they wanted to make more nuyen and why not? Jimmy went along, but didn't enter the building itself (Pacific Towers). Simon got paranoid and hid in his home. Elite teams of Knight Errants were deployed to get them to the meet (fault in the module I think), and Simon was almost killed as he was levitating out of his home when he heard them knocking on the door. Only after I made clear there was no safe way to escape, did he angrily come along.

Jimmy went a bit smoother - although he couldn't figure out how they got his number so they could trace him (he mentioned that he had never given his number, only an email dump), but he came along when alot of plainclothes errants surrounded him and insisted as he is nothing in combat.

Then after everyone met Robert Barrone (euphorias manager) told the tale on what had happened, as well as some finger wagging for doing a job against them. Euphoria had been kidnapped again, this time a bunch of knight errants had been brutally slaughtered. He wanted to hire them to find out who, and return euphoria, offering 20k each again.

With no real choise the runners accepted without haggling (although feeling railroaded, and I can't blame them somewhat), and started investigating. After finding obscure clues (holes in the ceiling, icky stuff smelling like Amer Gel on the floor, troops massacred by something large and inhumanly strong..) they found the Sim that Euphoria played by her wireless Simrig while kidnapped, and some thorugh the cameras that the knigths had placed in her apartment (something I mentioned to Uzz's player while he was there).

In the sim of her abduction, they learned that Burroughs was involved, and one of the kidnappers worked in Garrety's bar and grill. They went there, Uzz intimidated the bar owner to talk some with his gun, and they got more info from a sympathetic waitress saying she saw Van (the one with the t-shirt from garrety's) standing outside a magic shop in barrens - Magic Crafts.

They went there, found Van outside the same shop, tasered him, checkout out the shop and found Craft's living quarters where he had killed a bunch of people, as well as a map of the Amber Gel production facilty, including the address
in Puyallup barrens! Simon found out that Van was posessed by an ant spirit and Uzz shot him dead.

Then it was off to Puyallup. The place looked deserted and they failed to notice the
2 force 3 flesh form ant spirits on the roof.

After checking it, they advanced cautiously. The ants heard simon though, and the fight begun. Uzz blasted away, while trog readied his axe against them. Still they jumped them, and alhough hurt managed to wound uzz once before going down, and their weakness to Simon's manabolt were revealed (they had only willpower 2 yet body 8!).

They went inside, found the ground level deserted. Jimmy contacted Burrows, and he found out about Ant Spirits and called the rest of the team. Once the details were clear, they were to wait for reinforcements. Burrows rolled out a bunch of Knight Errants, and offered the PCs a new contract - legally one offering 75k nuyen! They were also outfitted almost with whatever they wanted, including a sniper rifle, Panther Assault cannon, super lightweight full body armor w/ a bunch of mods, anti toxin stuff, anti stun patch etc.

They went in, blasted the worker ants with ease, and even the force 5 soldier spirits went faster than I expected, even with the use of edge on their behalf. Uzz used his pistols with APDS ammo to great effect, while Trog used a ballistic shield and his Spurs, and Simon his spirits and manabolts. Jimmy mainly did the communications, using a drone to scout, and threw grenades when needed.

The last fight we had to do quickly since a player had to leave soon, so I tried for a more cinematic approach, by describing the bunch of ant spirits rushing them, mostly weak ones with some soldiers. The main challenge was Craft the Insect Shaman, his two force 5 ant spirit bodyguards. After they were overcome (again faster and easier than expected), they learned that Euphoria was under change.

Simon banished the Queen Spirit, yet that only left a Euphoria with her mind gone, to Uzz's avail.

Later on, megamedia made a huge sim called "Against the Hive Masters" where the teams feelings were recorded (yet faces changed to actors of course), something the team had signed for in their contract.

They got alot of nuyen for this job, and total 16 karma each. Woah.

, since Simon's player will be away two fridays, so not to leave him too much behind in karma and nuyen.

Until next week: 10' under!

[FriendoftheDork]

To those of you who have taken an interest in this thread:


BUMP!

[FriendoftheDork]

Alright, last we played the minirun called "10 feet below."

Basically, it was a very straightforward mission, to capture a shipment of DNA samples, from none other than DocWagon™.

Their fixer Mr. Singh called them up and offered them the evening's job, a simple mission but only 8000 nuyen payoff. Ok, it was not paying the rent, but it was a datafist of nuyen more, so why not.

They learned from Singh that a small vehicle called a Jackrabbit would leave the DocWagon research facility 10am and head for Emergency station 1. Since there was more than one route there, they couldn't lay an ambush like the last time.

Instead, they went to the research facility. When they saw the correct vehicle leaving about 10am Jimmy sent his MCT-spy drone rigged with a powerful magnet to fly behind the vehicle and attack itself to it. It worked very well, and the drone passed it's pilot test. Now he could easily track the vehicle by accessing the drone's GPS.

The team all drove off on Trog's motorcycle (large enough for 2 passangers). They wanted to get past it at a time when it could not change it's route and still reach it's destination efficiently, so I called for Log+Int test from Trog, with a +2 for using AR and a mapsoft rating 5 of seattle. Additionally I let the others help (as long as Trog didn't glitch), and they managed this very well. However, at the location they spotted Lone Star security drones, so they had to delay.

They were forced to delay some more times (bad luck) because of risky locations, but eventually they managed to stop it. Jimmy hacked the vehicle in front of the Jackrabbit and stopped it, Jimmy and Uzz dismounted the boke, while Trog drove on the side of the Jackrabbit to prevent it to go past the vehicle in front.

Uzz was disguised as a carwindow-cleaner, and started to clean the windows of the front car, and when they shouted him off he continued to the Jackrabbit, who's driver got quite upset, thus not noticing Jimmy spoofing the back door to open and "palming" the samples. The car behind saw it and called Lone Star, but then the team managed to escape before getting Lone Star on it's tail.

Mission accomplished. Too easy? Bet'yah. No one managed to spot any of the two spy drones that had followed Trog all the time, getting both their planning and the theft. :evil:


Well there be no playing next week, but perhaps the week after.

[DTFarstar]

Just wanted to say this game sounds awesome and that I wish my players were as adept at getting past problems as yours seem to be. Hell, I guess their feelings of immortality stem more from lingering taint from the Game Which Must Not Be Named. Can't really blame them, but it makes it hard for me to keep them alive and not fudge rolls. The Technomancer (last time I allow one till their rules get improved) in the group almost got himself killed registering sprites. Partly my fault because I rolled really well, but still.... don't try to register Force 6 Sprites when you only have 11 dice, 1 edge, 2 stun on you, and 10 dice to soak. Just my opinion. I let the dice fall where they may and he had to soak 18. With his low body it almost took him out. Anyway, don't mean to co-opt the thread just wanted to say good job, and that I look forward to the next update.

[Jaid]

registered sprites aren't supposed to be massively powerful. multiple rating 6 sprites is just excessive... for registering (or binding spirits, for that matter) you shouldn't be routinely dealing with more than about rating/force 4.

that's not a "flaw" that's how you keep the TM from having an automatic "i win" button.

[DTFarstar]

I realize. however there are no real repercussions for compiling and registering sprites other than the fading and so if he has downtime he spends about half of it trying to do so with Rating 6 sprites, one of each type. Or re-registering for more favors. In his game I am the mage and currently I have one bound force 4 spirit which I routinely use to possess enemies and create a little flanking for us and chaos for them. I also have the channeling metamagic so I have one force 6 spirit that I have possess me if a run looks like I'm going to be getting shot at alot for increased reaction and body. That is it. I have as yet to currently even summon one during a run. It's been all those two bound ones on 3 different runs spanning 5 sessions. He however uses sprites ALL the time practically. It's getting excessive and as he built his character to be useless outside the matrix (till, god help me, he figured out he could rig and now he's buying up dobermans) He's basically a god inside unless I just give everone rating 6 everything. Even then he usually has more dice because he's probably siphoning a favor off of a sprite. So.... it's annoying. I hesitate to impose the -2 for sprites being distracting/draining because he will immediately throw that on me as well with the spirits I have with me. Even when not using them. This is a GM who has decided that you have your movement and you use it all during your turns so, while I have 1 IP and the Street Sam has 3 and much higher physical stats, I move farther than he does in one IP. I go and move 10 meters, he goes and he moves 3/3/4 during his IPs. Anyway, not looking to derail FotD's thread, your comment just sparked the need to respond in me because we actually played 3 times this week. One my game and twice in his.


Anyway, thanks for the response, sorry FotD, can't wait for the next update,
Chris

[Aku]

wow, thats a really gimpy houserule, isnt RAW that everyone's movement get's spread out over ALL ip's?

[FriendoftheDork]

Ah guys, ty for commenting, nice to see that there is still interest here.

As for my players doing well, yeah almost too well. So far there has been no reason for them to burn edge, no casualties in combat. Simon was hurt quite a bit in the Intro sessions, but after that except for Uzz being injured by an insect spirit there has been no serious damage. Usually the team decides which battles to fight and superior planning makes sure the enemy can't fight back.

Ah, so even if this is more realistic for a successful Shadowrun team I sometimes miss big fights common to D&D (oh no I mentioned it!), where the team only barely wins. Well not that I want to kill them but... you know.

As for techies, well I don't have much experience with them fortunately. Our mage does summon alot (he thinks binding is too expensive), but he has yet to try to summon above his magic rating, that would be dangerous. Now he has Magic 5, and can get powerful enough spirits.

As for the speed thingy, well I've always ruled like everyone's movement is divided up, it should never be an advantage in speed to not use iniative encancers.

[FriendoftheDork]

This week 2 players were missing, and thus also their characters Uzz and Trog.

I found a module however made by Ancient History: Zero Sum Gained. Although this module is based on a full team, I thought it would work with 2 players by reducing the amount of grunts.

Anyway, I'll post it all in spoiler block, for your convenience:

[ Spoiler ]

Now the module gives 3 ways to hook the character(s): Impregnating Ms. Johnson with the runner's sperm/egg cells, the good old cranial bomb, or rumors of a target having valuable snuff BTLs.

I chose to go with option B, as option A simply was too far-fetched, and I doubted it would be any strong motivation. I even asked the player in question afterwards to what Simon would say if Ms. Johnson said "do the job or the embryo gets it", and just as I expected he answered "Ok" with a shrug :)

In hindsight I should probably have gone for option C, as I found out the player didn't like his character being blackmailed like that.

Simon (the sorcerer) was kidnapped outside his apartment in a shady area of Renton. The kidnapper were Chaco, the previous ower of the "Biskey Wack" and Ms. Johnson who wanted to blackmail the runner by implanting a stolen cranial bomb.

Ms Johnson wanted the runner to free the boy-toy (Choi) of a local crime lord called "The Greek", so that she could be with him. But since she couldn't afford to either buy Choi from the greek, or hire runners to get him, she resorted to blackmail.

She learned that Chaco wanted to wack the Greek so that he could get his bar back, and they decided to work together. Now, Chaco as a friendly bartender hears alot of rumors, and since the Greek runs his criminal activites in his bar, he probably snapped up information about Shadowrunners there. On of the Greek's accociates, Mr Singh (Barrens Fixer) was also the teams's primary fixer, so chaco knew about most members of the team, and learned from people that Simon was observed in the area alot, as he had his apartment in the Greek's turf.

Ms Johnson provided the (stolen) cranial bomb, while Chaco provided the Neuro-stun gas and muscle to take down Simon. Originally he wanted to take down Uzz, but the elf was on vacation to Maryland so he chose Simon instead, despite him being a magician.

Well that's the background, more or less.

After Simon got rigged with his new bomb (of some old model that went "beep" every second and counted down hours left in a pleasant female computerized voice!), he first contacted the only remaining team member not unavailable: Jimmy "the Shades."

Now if you've been reading this you know Jimmy's a girl in disguise, so this time he said that he was busy but an accociate of his called "Van" could help him instead. "Van" a.k.a Michelle is presented as a Rigger, doing mostly hardware and alot more sociable than Jimmy.

Simon remained oblivious that Jimmy and Michelle are the same person.

The mission started slowly at first. Simon was informed of his new bomb and his mission to free Choi and deliver him to a fertility clinic (where the Johnson worked 2 days a week and actually performed the surgery).

He didn't tell Van this at first, but rather asked for her help in trying to find out if his commlink was bugged, hacked etc. They came up with nothing of course, so they went to step 2: Checking out the Biskey Whack. At this hour the place was closed (8AM), but Simon learned that there were armed ork gangers there at all times, some awake. Van stayed away from Simon, only communicating through their commlinks, and observing Simon with drones.

They never asked around the block or even walked together once, so they did not get any attention from the local crooked cop "The Pig". Simon went home and slept until around 1500 when he knew the bar would open. He went alone again, with van following him at a safe distance. This time he got to talk to Chaco the bartender, and after asking about young male whores he learned about Choi, and was told to talk with One-Nail: resident hatchet-man. One Nail, a houngan (voodoo) priest magician trying to pretend to be a magician in order to fool.... argh magicians?
Anyway, this character talked to Simon about Choi, and after talking to the Greek told him Choi was unavailable at this time.

OK, this post got a bit longer than anticipated. I will finish the story in my next post as soon as I have time.

[FriendoftheDork]

OK, sorry for having been away for so long but my last report was so lenghty I got bored.

Anyway, I'll try to wrap it up and later start on the report for the Double Exposure module we began last friday.

[ Spoiler ]

Well after Simon made his inquiries in the Biskey Wack, Chaco the bartender and conspirer tipped off Paul Mansky a.k.a "the Pig", the local crooked lone star cop.

As Simon was walking home from the bar, two lone star cruisers surrounded him, and the Pig introduced himself (as Mansky). He threatened Simon, pushing him for 20% of whatever he got for his job with the greek. Simon accepted (whatever), with a bomb in the head he just didn't care anymore.

Of course the encounter with the Pig didn't go unnoticed by the Greek and his gangers, so the next evening Simon is invited to talk to the Greek. He shows up, is scanned for weapons etc. and forced to turn off his comlink to prevent recording.

This time around, the Greek explains his little problem with Mansky, and wants to hire Simon to take him out, telling him that One-Nail can clean up afterwards. He offers 30k nuyen for the job, 10k upfront. (this is half of what is in the module, since there were only 2 players). He also throws in Choi as a bonus after Simon asks about him.

On the way out, Chaco stops Simon to deliver him a message - Mansky wants to meet him - in this very bar! Chaco knows when the Greek and One Nail will be out of the office, so he sets up the meet. Simon accepts to meet him - why not.

Mansky tells him he knows he has a contract on him, and offers to pay whatever the Greek payed to geek him instead, as well as whatever loot he can find. He also threatens Simon about his (forged) Lone Star record, and promises to delete the dirt they have on him if he does the job. Simon belives him, but interprets the offers as a threat. He's paranoid, getting very edgy if not downright psychotic after being pressured into the job, especially since the bomb constantly makes beep every second and counts down the hours left to live for him ;)

So he opts to kill Mansky. He communicates with Michelle (who has kept him under surveillance all the time). As Mansky leaves the Biskey Wack, Michelle strolls by him, planting a live grenade in the pocket of mansky's coat. (9 hits Palming check!)

Mansky meets up with his undercover backup, and they walk almost away. When Simon exits the building, Michelle detonates the frag grenade with her commlink.

BOOM!

the human undercover lone star cops lies on the ground, both taken heavy damage despite their armor vests (7-9 damage IIRC)

The "Pig" however, stands there still, squinting through the smoke and brushing off dust... now he was angry!

(ok I did increase the grenade's damage by 50% since it was in his pocket, but his incredible amount of body combined with his armor and edge meant that he soaked a hell of alot of damage! Of the 18 damage he recieved he only took 3!

Now Mansky is pretty angry and he doesen't know who bombed him - but he sees Simon so he aims at him and starts asking questions. Meanwhile Michelle has gone in stealth mod with her cham suit, very hard to spot.

Simon starts hitting Mansky with Manabolts - to great effect (not so tough are you know?) Even with high willpower mansky has little defense against manabolts and goes down pretty fast. Unbeknownst to Simon though, he isn't dead - only filled his condition monitor. Simon turns around, goes in the bar and orders a drink!

People start showing up to see what has happened, and the injured lone star officers gets on their feet, tries to help Mansky and calls for backup and an ambulance. Michelle realizes that Masky is not quite dead, and informs Simon of it. So Simon goes among the crowd to look at the scene, and Michelle tries to get in range for a grenade - with strenght 1 that is quite hard.

Simon starts hitting the other cops with manabolts, and people around him notices this, and old man starts shouting he's a magician. The second cop turns his attention to Simon when Michelle (still cloaked) walks closer and drop a grenade on both the cop and Mansky... this time no amount of body saves him.

Although several eyewitnesses have seen Simon, they do get away before the Star comes.

Simon lays low for awhile, dodging Lone Star and moving away from his old place.

The next day he goes to meet the Greek. Although pleased the job is done he is not pleased that he got observed, not to mention that the assassination took place just some meters away from HIS bar! Still he pays up with the 20k worth of onyx Dreamgate BTLs and tells him he can take Choi.

When Chaco realizes that Simon chose not to geek the Greek, he spikes Simon's drink with Kamikaze as a final desperate act to get Simon to kill the Greek. Despite him being agressive and tense, he manages to keep hold of himself.

(there was supposed to be guns under the table next to Simon and Chaco shouting "watch out he's got a gun!" to the Greek in order to start the fight, but I forgot about that part)

Simon then heads to the Livetech facility in which he met Ms. J and got his cranial bomb. He has not recieved any instructions on how to deliver Choi. Still, on the the Kamikaze works it's ways and Simon drives like a maniac. Only sheer luck (edge test) keeps him from running down passersby or crashing his vehicle. He brings Choi with him (who's pretty apathic since he's still plugged into BTL), and walks in the front door. Now it is business hour though, so the waiting area has customers and the reseptionist is intimidated by Simon's agressive behavior.

Simon walks to her thinking she knows everything, but neither says his name or Choi's. Since the reseptionist only got the names from Ms. Johnson, she doesen't know what this is about. As Simon get's angrier and more frusttrated she calls for Lone Star and lowers a protective ballistic glass cover on the reseption desk. The customer leaves, and Simon takes a seat with Choi waiting for Ms. Johnson.

Instead Lone Star shows up, and at first they only want him to leave quietly thinking he's some addict causing trouble. Then they ID him and tries to arrest him, aiming their guns at him. It doesen't help that Simon seems completely unfaced by their aimed guns and even screams "I got a bomb!"

In a little while Simon makes some moves that can be interpreted as spellcasting, and both officers fire. Simon goes down. Although he recieved medical attention and survives, he's arrested. And since he's a Sinner that means he's in double trouble.

However, by letting him permanently burn a point of Edge I let One-Nail use his metamagic to clean up the crime scene, and the Greek bribes the star officals so that Simon goes free in a couple of days for lack of evidence. Mysteriously those BTL never showed up either, and the Greek's lawyer offers it to Simon later, in return for a favor to be called in later, which Simon agrees to.

Michelle tracks down Ms. J and manages to deliver Choi to her (smuggling him away from Lone Star), in return she get's the code to disable to bomb. Michelle then tries to intimidate the Johnson into spilling her guts, but she escapes as she's behind armored glass when michelle fires her taser at her.

Ms. J eventually flees the country with Choi, fearing for her life (and rightly so).

Simon and Michelle later investigates what has happened, and after being convinced it was the Greek that engineered the all in order to get Simon's favor, Simon remembers it was Chaco that gave him a drink. They easily track him down with the aid of Trog (the cybertroll), and they intimidate him into spilling his guts, and makes a deal with him to forget that he almost killed Simon through his drugs, in return for info, favor, drugs etc.

In the end at least they did not end up with Zero Sum, but it was a close call!

[Ancient History]

Heh. Sounds like you had fun. Certainly some scenarios I didn't imagine (showing up at Ms. Johnson's workplace, f'r example), but it sounds like you did very well. Hope you and the players had some fun.

[ Spoiler ]

Nice touch on the talking cortex bomb!

[FriendoftheDork]

[Eleazar]

I just began taking a look at this thread today. Thanks for posting this, it is always great to read other people's shadowruns, especially ones that are so well done. ;)

[imperialus]

Just figured I'd let you know I've been following the campaign from the begining. Really enjoying it so far. Please keep em coming.

[FriendoftheDork]

Eleazar and imperialus, thanks for commenting that inspires me to continue this thread :D

[FriendoftheDork]

Previously on "Life in the Barrens"

We finally got to start Double Exposure as I've planned for quite awhile. So without further ado, here is the report in Spoiler tags :)

[ Spoiler ]

Ok initially I had planned to emphasise the blackmail part of this module, in order to inspire a feeling of anger and futility in the characters, but the reaction of the previous game made me realize that the players don't like people threatening them and forcing them into things they otherwise wouldn't want to do. So insted I tried to tone down the blackmail part, and just tone up the hiring part.

The background for this module is that Mr. Johnson is a federal agent involved in an independent operation to gain blackmail material against Renraku. They have already found out that the megacorp is secretly funding Project Hope: A charity organization trying to rebuild the Barrens and provide work, clothes and food to the homeless and sinless of seattle.

Ok, that's not exactly what you'd call dirt. This is mysterious because officially they have only donated 10,000 :nuyen: , but unofficially they have invested enough dough to buy small nations for apparantly no real benefit. Thus the feds sent in one of their agents to investigate one of the camps belonging to Project Hope. He never reported back.

Instead of wasting more assets, special agent Juarez has planned to use Shadowrunners for the job. He knows just the ones - a while ago he intercepted some security camera footage shot at Council Island where two Shadowrunners penetrated the island's security (with Trog and Jimmy). After this he spied on them, and even set up two "fake" runs in order to both see how they operated and to use as blackmail material against them. These runs were "Digging their Own Graves" and "6 feet under" which the party have already played (divided between sessions so not to arouse suspicion).

This adventure starts with Trog being called and invited to meet with Juarez, talking about Aztech and Docwagon (the corps they made runs against), and offering 5k each just to hear him out. All the party agree to meet him.

They meet at Mcdonalds (or whatever the 2070 equivalent is called), which has pretty good security, but not too good as Juarez has set up two FBI snipers outside ready to shoot the runners if they attack Juarez. He tells them about the job: to learn what Renraku and Project Hope Hope is up to.

Juarez offers 30k each for the job, half upfront. Uzz is of course the spokesman and he... outright refuses. He says it's not enough to go against a megacorp like Renraku, and demands 10 times the reward!

Jeez, he got me there I hadn't anticipated that they would refuse like that... ah, well time to draw out the black letter...

Juarez showed a small trid of the team planning and executing the runs against Aztechnology and Docwagen, and mention that they would have to take action against them of this fell into their hands. He also assured them that if anything were to happen to him, it would.

The players were unimpressed. It seems like they preferred to have those runs publitized rather than risk really angering Renraku.

Now, according to the module I should have said "ok" and have the Johnson leave. Then the party would start being targeted by the corps, and probably at least most of them would be found and attempts on their lives or capture would be made. Unfortunately I didn't plan this in detail, and in order to make it anything but "free xp" I'd have to take off my gloves and really try to kill them. Basically there were 2 possible outcomes: Either the party would be more or less wiped out, or the party would wipe out the teams sent against them until they stopped sending them. In either case the adventure would be ruined, and alot of my work would be to.

As for the perspective of Juarez, well he had already spent alot of time and money into hiring the runners and didn't want it to fall apart before it even began. Some negotation were in order (but he would never have agreed to 300k each!

So i opted for another solution: Negotiation. The players all wanted to play the game, but their characters did not want this for measly 30k. I guess they were spoiled by Euphoria where they got almost 100k each! And they got the impression this mission was very dangerous and the risk of being discovered by a megacorp very large. So after negotations Uzz managed to raise the price by 2k each (Juarez got a good negotation roll as well). Also, the Uzz wondered if Juarez could provide them with fake IDs for the party's vehicles and for themselves since they'd likely have to change IDs after doing the job. Now, if they government can't get SINs who can? So Juarez agreed to get them "fake" SINs made within the system (thus as good as real ones.. rating.. 7?).

Well so finally the runners agreed to take the job and got the other information: There were 10 camps altogether, the recruitment office was in downtown Seattle and a possible way to infiltrate the camps, other orgs may also be investigating the camps, the camps get their excelent water and fertile soil from New Dawn Electronics... and possibly more I can't recall.

They start with the good old Legwork... asking Juarez alot of questions, getting satelite images of the camps, getting drone surveillance, asking about any of their people having infiltrated the camps..

After some more prodding they learn that another agent tried to infiltrate Serenity Relief camp and didn't report back after awhile (Clint Ranger), that the security of the camps are very high (highly armed and armored guards, high fences etc.).

They find out that a very few people have ever left the camps, and track down one of them: An ork named Grugash. They have his image from the Fed's surveillance footage, so they go to their old turf in the Barrens and start asking questions. Among the Vatos they find out that Grugash was a Blackrock ork (their rival gang).

Trog, Uzz and Simon walks into Blackrock territory to find out more. The last time they were there they had barely 500 nuyen to their names, but this time they are armed and armored, cybered up and ready to take them on. They're also armed with Street Cred and a little bit of Notoriety. They find and face down a group of 4 orks.. it begins like a mexican standoff, everyone pointing guns at eachother but not side willing to shoot. Well, the PCs are certainly willing but they want to info first ;)

They do learn that Grugash has left the gang to join Project Hope, and that his former gangers thinks of this as betrayal. After some more negotation Uzz tries to intimidate them by holstering his weapons to show he's not scared of them and calmly explains that they need to find him or he'll shoot them. They learn than Grugash has joined another gang called the Black Mesa (ok I'm bad at inventing my own names).

Uzz wants more of course, and orders them to leave their commlinks and weapons behind with any credsticks they have. With his gun still holstered.

When they refuse, he slowly draws his taser, when an ork panics and fires (using edge to go first, no one is suprised). Uzz dodges the bullets easily, and then him and Trog takes down all the gangers but one, who uses the opportunity to run away.

Well they got the info at least. They track down the Mesa, and although the gang appear hostile at first, the party gets through with their Street Cred (3 hits). They find Grugash and talks with him, which confirms that it is possible to get through without massive brainwashing or death. Grugash was basically thrown out for tearing out the internal organs of a fellow worker who got too friendly with him. They also learned that the guards were ultra fast - possibly cybered or adepts. (They are actually posessed by ant spirits). Otherwise he had little of valuable organization (except that apples actually grow on trees! Who could have known?)

In the end of the session Simon started to work his magic. He projected astrally and was attacked by a security magician by manabolt the instant he went into one of the camps. He retreated to heal his wounds, and probed some of the other camps with watcher spirits, who encounter other spirits that destroyed them pretty quickly. Apparantly the magical security was also high.

Jimmy hacked the Enrollment Office and found out who had joined the project and what camps they had been sent to (Cliff Ranger was there), but didn't get access to their main computers and economical data.

He tried to hack Project Hope's headquarter, and only barely won a cybercombat against a security spider, and he copied the system for later analysis.

For next time they plan to spend a bit more time legworking, then possibly infiltrate the camp through the legal channels. Stay tuned next week!

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok peeps, we played another bout last friday. Again, most of the session was legwork.

Previously on "Life in the Barrens"

[ Spoiler ]

Just when I thought they were ready to go in through Hope Relief camp, they turn around and plan something else: Infiltrating a New Dawn Environics processing plant. Now this facility has insect spirit flesh form guards, with awesome stats, as well as a bunch of spirits inside.

So far the PCs don't know that though. All they know is that the guards are better armed and armored than usual.

The first plan is abit of probing. After using their drones and vision magnification to map all the cameras and other visible security devices, Jimmy sends a minidrone into the compund. No alarm is triggered as it pass the electrified fence, and he manages to get it right above the security camera on the guard building. He keeps it there for a while, getting a feed of pretty much what the camera would get, but then the guards spots it and with a single ak bullet shoots it to pieces.

The guards are more alert now, but after scanning they can't find out who sent the drone.

After learning that the cameras are wired, Uzz sets up 1.5 clicks away and zooms in with his militairy sniper rifle. He fires at an angle so that the bullet will hit the wire and then continue past into the air so that the guards can't know what has happened.

Although he gets alot of penalties, he aims for several rounds and hits the small wire with no difficulty. Some of the guards could hear the bullet flying in the air (the rifle was otherwise silenced and fired 1.5 kilometers away), so they try to check out what has happened. They also recieve signal from the guard buldings were the cameras are monitored that camera xx114 is offline. A solitary guard walks to check it out, and sees that the wire has been cut somehow. After some patrolling they can find no intruder, and they call for someone to fix the wire.

20 minutes later a small van with the logo "Surveillance R-US" drives towards the facility. Jimmy tries to hack the van and fails, then gives up. The drivers of the van notices this, and they and the guards scans for wireless, but by then Jimmy and everyone else nearby has turned off their commlinks.

The pary still wants more info, so they turn their eyes to the Entrollment center in Downtown again. Since Jimmy already hacked the place, he has access to the people that work there. After learning that the a Ms. Montague is in charge there, Uzz asks for info about where she lives, what she likes etc. He learns from Jimmy the details, including her membership in Brackhaven's party. Turns out she's sympathetic to Humanis Policlub as well, despite the fact that she works with orks, troll and other scum on a daily basis ;)

When Uzz's player learns that racism also applies to elves (and not just ugly orks and trolls), and that Brackhaven has pointed out that 80% of the prostitues in the city are elves and that they spread Syphilis, he almost plans to assassinate him. Instead he starts thinking and says "Syphilis? Can I buy that?"

Undeterred by possible racism, Uzz plans to "accidentally" run into Ms. Montague on the metro, and charm her wits off. At the same time Jimmy plans to steal her commlink.

They're both in the same cab when Montague steps on. Jimmy (disguised so not to be recognized as easily) walks by hear and palms her commlink which she has in a pocket. Since she has her musicplayer wirelessly connected to her earplugs she doesen't notice anything odd before the commlink is out of range to the devices, when Jimmy has already left a stop ago.

She's pissed of course, and it doesen't help that some slimy elf is sitting nearby smiling at her. She tries to avoid his attention, and when she steps off the platform closest to her home she talks to a rentacop about the elf. The cop talks to Uzz, who is more than willing to reveal that he has no commlink belonging to Montague on him.. and he has licences for his 4 guns and a SIN that checks out!

Uzz offers to take ms Montague out for dinner. Although she dislikes elves, he's way too charming and she's just lost her phone, wallet and ID! After all an armed elf that actually seems to like her might not be too bad a company.

During the dinner and the way home to her he doesen't learn much though, and he doesen't get her commcode either. After all, 9+ net hits on a con(seduction) check can only take you so far, and she really doesen't like elves.

Jimmy hacks the commlink with little difficulty, but doesen't get any good info out of it except Jonathan Tung's (a camp director and spokesman of Project Hope) personal commcode.

At this point Trog's player gets a bit impatient, and decides to enroll with Project Hope. He get's in with no difficulty, and although his cyberware is flagged, Project Hope and the Universal Brotherhood that controls it only gets a little bit aware of him.

3 hours later he drives through the Barrens with a host of homeless people, and although he's been living good for the last months he's not unused to the stench and the people.

When he enters Hope Relief Camp he undergoes a thorought search (taking away all his remaining beer), and deactivates his cyber Spurs. He gets to chat with Jonathan Tung (which seems like a nice guy), check out his new living quarters, goes through a thorough delicing and chemical cleaning process for hours. When he speaks with Tung he learns that Trog is actually an offensive nickname for troll! So far noone has had the nerve to tell him... and the truth comes as a shock to the poor trog.. erhh, troll.

A problem surfaces once he's inside though, he can't communicate with his mates as he can't access the Matrix! In fact all wireless signals seems to be jammed. So his team, skilled in electronic warfare goes to a store and buys a... bow? Not just a normal bow, since Uzz is pretty weak (str 1), but a childs bow with suction arrows! Then Uzz waits until Trog walks near the fence and proceeds to shoot him in the face. Pop! On the arrow is a paper message, and then the communications are up and running. Uzz sneaks within 60 meters of Trog to deliver a message, while Trog simply tosses rocks with paper around them 100 meters with no difficulty :)

Now there's a new plan to improve communications (rocks and arrows are a tad too low-tech for them!), so they buy laser links and shoots in the components.

Ok, I don't know drek about these things, and it's not exactly RAW, but you must admit it's pretty inventive!

Well anyway, the plan is for Trog to drill holes through the Solace house wall and plant the laser link emitter and tranciever there, but to do that he needs access to tools, which he probably won't get until the next workday begins. Since there is construction going on in the camp (by the entrollees!) getting those tools should be piece of cake.

Until next week!

[fumble]

Always a pleasure to read about those. :D

Do go on posting your team's adventures - it gives ideas as well as making for entertaining reading.

Cheers,
Fumble.

[darthmord]

Yes, yes it does.