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Zero Sum Gain, A Free, Original Adventure for SR4

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FriendoftheDork

Jul 21 2007, 09:53 PM

Post #26

Running Target

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QUOTE (Ancient History)

QUOTE

Hey ancient history I'm considering using your adventure. Problem is, 2 of the players will be gone and their characyters as well, will this adventure work with only 2 PCs?

At last, do you think I need to tone down the encounters because of the low-powered party?

Yes, you might just want to scale back the thugs-two or three ork gangers or plainclothes cops, max. However, their lower party-strength might encourage them to think and talk through situations they might normally try to shoot through.

QUOTE

The cranial bomb is better then, although kinda mean and they do cost 5000 nuyen, so why not pay the runners that instead of trying to blackmail them? Ok, she could have stolen the bomb from her work, but still.... the runners are bound to try to disable it, anti-tamper system or not. Why don't they just go to a cyberware specialist and pay to have the bomb removed safely?

Five grand is low for this kind of operation. Easier to do the blackmail. And any regular street doc that examines the piece could tell them they don't want to touch it and none of their medical drones are outfitted for demolition work. ;)

QUOTE

But I don't see why she insist on killing the Greek, I thought getting her lovetoy is her primary motivation?

'Ms. Johnson' isn't insistent on killing the Greek by any means-that's Chaco's bag. If the runenrs want to rifle his safe, however, they have to take him out of the way somehow.

Thank you for the quick response. I'm playing this in less than a week and I have a few more questions... it's great to have the designer answer questions about the game, Queen Euphoria should have gone much smoother if I had the designer to correspond with.

Anyway, yeah 2-3 thugs will do, challenge enough I'd think (and too much if the runners act stupid, like starting a shootout instead of ambushing them). I know they will try to talk or stealth through what they can. But I'll use the full amount in the scenes the PCs can easily avoid violence... if they're stupid enough to shoot at the first two meets, they deserve getting blasted down and scratching off permanent edge.

I think I want to go for the cranial bomb anyhow - nice to put some pressure on them, and it gives me the excuse to give the mage more karma for this mission than the other player (as the former has missed a few runs).

And yes since the PC with street doc is unavailable for this mission, it should be hard to find a street doc available. Such a surgery probably costs a few k nuyen, and most street docs don't dare to touch it
"Sorry, insurance company policy says no clients with cranial bombs. Have a nice day!"

"What, removing a cranial bomb? Hmm, tricky... ok I can get a street doc in... lemme see 5 days. What, that doesen't work for you? Shame."

But here are a few more questions I need answered if you please:

1. Locations. Where does The Greek and the Pig live? Since the PCs might be out to kill them they'll want to take them in their sleep or something... or at least learn where they are less guarded. No one is untouchable.

2. What is the nightly security at the Whiskey joint? Are there armed guards in Greek's office 24/7? Any locks? Back doors? Windows? Why do the runners need to take out the Greek before looting his safe? Does the Greek sleep inside the safe? Even so I'd expect my party to find a way to steal it without waking him, lol!

3. How come the Pig learns of them so quickly? They tend to be quite discreet, they may go around asking questions immedeately but are just as likely to do so in disguise. And what's this about their Lone Star file? They've taken pains to avoid Lone Star attention in the past, and although currently a fed actually has dirt on them he wants to use them for his own blackmail purposes and not share it with rentacops. Most of their overt criminal activity has happened deep in the Barrens where no Lone Star has gone before. As for that, they have raided an Aztechnology armoured van, but the whole bust only took a few seconds, and none of the PCs in questions could be identified. Basically, I can't see how Lone Star's got squat, and neither will my players.

4. Same again, except this is the Greek. Sure, the runners have about 3 street cred now, so it's not impossible that he's heard their street names, but knowing where they all live, their contacts, etc? He and One Nail seems way to omnicious. Yeah perhaps One Nail can find out a few things, like where Simon lives (since it is in Greek's turf), but their contacts may be another matter.

What I could do is have their common fixer, Mr. Singh have done business with the Greek before, and although Singh is heavily protected by machinegun drones, the accident power could be used to land Mr. Singh in a hospital or at a street doc recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.... I don't want to kil him off as he's an important NPC to the party, having been there from the beginning (and he's fun and handy).

5... yeah probably more questions coming but this is enough for now :)

Thank you in advance.

Ancient History

Jul 21 2007, 10:10 PM

Post #27

Great Dragon

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De nada.

QUOTE

1. Locations. Where does The Greek and the Pig live? Since the PCs might be out to kill them they'll want to take them in their sleep or something... or at least learn where they are less guarded. No one is untouchable.

I'd deliberately left these locations unwritten in order to give the gamemasters free hand to tailor them to their teams, but for simplicity and ease of use you could choose any of the shops on the back page and have the Greek and the Pig live in apartments above or below them-for simplicity's sake, you could even let the Greek live above the Biskey Whack and use most of the same stats regarding barrier ratings and whatnot.

QUOTE

2. What is the nightly security at the Whiskey joint? Are there armed guards in Greek's office 24/7? Any locks? Back doors? Windows? Why do the runners need to take out the Greek before looting his safe? Does the Greek sleep inside the safe? Even so I'd expect my party to find a way to steal it without waking him, lol!

Proof that no one can think of everything. The Biskey Whack should be locked by a Rating 2 Maglock when closed, but the Greek's business being what it is there are probably ork gangers hanging in and around the place most hours. No back doors or windows, and the brief write-up on the safe is on page 30.

QUOTE

3. How come the Pig learns of them so quickly? They tend to be quite discreet, they may go around asking questions immedeately but are just as likely to do so in disguise. And what's this about their Lone Star file? They've taken pains to avoid Lone Star attention in the past, and although currently a fed actually has dirt on them he wants to use them for his own blackmail purposes and not share it with rentacops. Most of their overt criminal activity has happened deep in the Barrens where no Lone Star has gone before. As for that, they have raided an Aztechnology armoured van, but the whole bust only took a few seconds, and none of the PCs in questions could be identified. Basically, I can't see how Lone Star's got squat, and neither will my players.

The Pig has his network of informants, and if the runners ask questions or show up in the neighborhood he'll take notice. If the shadowrunners truly take outstanding efforts not to be identified in their inquiries, then perhaps he won't hear of them and they can skip that scene. As for the Lone Star files...the Pig is corrupt. If the shadowrunners didn't have files before, he can certainly falsify criminal records for them by fingering them for a few unsolved crimes. On the other hand, the Pig may simply be bluffing the runners.

QUOTE

4. Same again, except this is the Greek. Sure, the runners have about 3 street cred now, so it's not impossible that he's heard their street names, but knowing where they all live, their contacts, etc? He and One Nail seems way to omnicious. Yeah perhaps One Nail can find out a few things, like where Simon lives (since it is in Greek's turf), but their contacts may be another matter.

Same again. If a contact doesn't know something off the top of their head and asks around for the runner, word leaks out. Once the Greek knows the shadowrunners have taken an interest in him, he will take a very serious interest in the shadowrunners through his own contacts (which can be fun if your players go back to their contacts to see what they know and find out people have been asking questions about them). It's always interesting for players to realize how much their "friends" actually know about them.

FriendoftheDork

Jul 22 2007, 01:03 AM

Post #28

Running Target

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QUOTE (Ancient History)

De nada.

QUOTE

1. Locations. Where does The Greek and the Pig live? Since the PCs might be out to kill them they'll want to take them in their sleep or something... or at least learn where they are less guarded. No one is untouchable.

I'd deliberately left these locations unwritten in order to give the gamemasters free hand to tailor them to their teams, but for simplicity and ease of use you could choose any of the shops on the back page and have the Greek and the Pig live in apartments above or below them-for simplicity's sake, you could even let the Greek live above the Biskey Whack and use most of the same stats regarding barrier ratings and whatnot.

QUOTE

2. What is the nightly security at the Whiskey joint? Are there armed guards in Greek's office 24/7? Any locks? Back doors? Windows? Why do the runners need to take out the Greek before looting his safe? Does the Greek sleep inside the safe? Even so I'd expect my party to find a way to steal it without waking him, lol!

Proof that no one can think of everything. The Biskey Whack should be locked by a Rating 2 Maglock when closed, but the Greek's business being what it is there are probably ork gangers hanging in and around the place most hours. No back doors or windows, and the brief write-up on the safe is on page 30.

QUOTE

3. How come the Pig learns of them so quickly? They tend to be quite discreet, they may go around asking questions immedeately but are just as likely to do so in disguise. And what's this about their Lone Star file? They've taken pains to avoid Lone Star attention in the past, and although currently a fed actually has dirt on them he wants to use them for his own blackmail purposes and not share it with rentacops. Most of their overt criminal activity has happened deep in the Barrens where no Lone Star has gone before. As for that, they have raided an Aztechnology armoured van, but the whole bust only took a few seconds, and none of the PCs in questions could be identified. Basically, I can't see how Lone Star's got squat, and neither will my players.

The Pig has his network of informants, and if the runners ask questions or show up in the neighborhood he'll take notice. If the shadowrunners truly take outstanding efforts not to be identified in their inquiries, then perhaps he won't hear of them and they can skip that scene. As for the Lone Star files...the Pig is corrupt. If the shadowrunners didn't have files before, he can certainly falsify criminal records for them by fingering them for a few unsolved crimes. On the other hand, the Pig may simply be bluffing the runners.

QUOTE

4. Same again, except this is the Greek. Sure, the runners have about 3 street cred now, so it's not impossible that he's heard their street names, but knowing where they all live, their contacts, etc? He and One Nail seems way to omnicious. Yeah perhaps One Nail can find out a few things, like where Simon lives (since it is in Greek's turf), but their contacts may be another matter.

Same again. If a contact doesn't know something off the top of their head and asks around for the runner, word leaks out. Once the Greek knows the shadowrunners have taken an interest in him, he will take a very serious interest in the shadowrunners through his own contacts (which can be fun if your players go back to their contacts to see what they know and find out people have been asking questions about them). It's always interesting for players to realize how much their "friends" actually know about them.

1. Ok, that can be aranged. How much security do you figure they'll have? The Pig ought to be a hated person, and the Greek... well it should be a bit don't you think?

Greek could be living upstairs yeah... could even han a secondary entrance to the top floor by a stair on the opposite side of the main entrance. Maglock sure, and gangers in the streets loyal to him. He'd probably have motion detectors as well, alarm in glass, perhaps a drone or two?

The Pig... well he wouln't have armed guards, but alarms for sure. Perhaps a Lonestar I-ball or two patrolling. Not enough, but better than nothing.

2. Got the safe, ty. I'm guesssing there are at most only 1-2 ork ganger inside awake at any time (playing console games or something while the rest sleeps off the drunkeness), but they should be able to alert the others pretty fast if shit hits the fan...

So no magical security heh? Then the mage should be able to get the relevant info pretty fast. I'll have Greek's place warded at least (force 5), courtesy of One-Nail.
Hmm, perhaps having a summoned force 5 spirit on guard at the office during downtime? Could be ordered to attack astral intruders :)

3 and 4: So the important thing is to pay attention to who and what the players ask about, and base what the NPCs know on that...

I'll probably use false files then :)

Well just want to say this is a nice adventure, even if I didn't like the opening much, I think the mood and gritty descrioptions are great, and show off the seedy underbelly of Seattle.

BTW I read somewhere that Jackson says that The Greek is downtown, but the adventure is still located in Renton, right? not Downtown Seattle.

Ancient History

Jul 22 2007, 01:17 AM

Post #29

Great Dragon

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QUOTE

Well just want to say this is a nice adventure, even if I didn't like the opening much, I think the mood and gritty descrioptions are great, and show off the seedy underbelly of Seattle.

Thanks. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

QUOTE

BTW I read somewhere that Jackson says that The Greek is downtown, but the adventure is still located in Renton, right? not Downtown Seattle.

It's a funny bit of trivia: if you compare the current (2007) map of Renton with the 2070 map of Seattle, the Downtown district has swallowed a bit of what was Renton. So while Jackson is technically correct, most of the people living there probably think of themselves as living more in Renton than downtown, particularly the old-timers.

Crusher Bob View Member Profile	Jul 22 2007, 04:37 AM Post #30
Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,598 Joined: 15-March 03 From: Hong Kong Member No.: 4,253	I suppose it makes me a sad, sad little man that I was able to ID the author by the style of the cover art before weapon the credit page...

FriendoftheDork

Jul 22 2007, 06:07 AM

Post #31

Running Target

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QUOTE (Ancient History)

QUOTE

BTW I read somewhere that Jackson says that The Greek is downtown, but the adventure is still located in Renton, right? not Downtown Seattle.

It's a funny bit of trivia: if you compare the current (2007) map of Renton with the 2070 map of Seattle, the Downtown district has swallowed a bit of what was Renton. So while Jackson is technically correct, most of the people living there probably think of themselves as living more in Renton than downtown, particularly the old-timers.

OK, so what's you're saying is that in 2070 it's Downtown, but in RL it is a part of Renton?

Huh, you're from Seattle or something?

Anyway, we're not that much into details as I and the players have no clue on what's in Seattle, apart from what the BBB says.

Ah well I'll say it's Renton, as i want the players to get a connection to where their characters live.

Ancient History

Jul 22 2007, 02:15 PM

Post #32

Great Dragon

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QUOTE (Crusher Bob)

I suppose it makes me a sad, sad little man that I was able to ID the author by the style of the cover art before weapon the credit page...

Scares me. I dinnae post that many bad doodles.

QUOTE

OK, so what's you're saying is that in 2070 it's Downtown, but in RL it is a part of Renton?

Huh, you're from Seattle or something?

Yes and no, but I wrote part of a chapter about it once. ;)

Crusher Bob View Member Profile	Jul 23 2007, 02:54 AM Post #33
Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,598 Joined: 15-March 03 From: Hong Kong Member No.: 4,253	WTF? why did the word 'weapon' appear in the middle of my post? Did my brain wander off somewhere while my fingers were doing their job? As for the art style, you posted some, erm, on underworld I think a while back.

FriendoftheDork View Member Profile	Aug 12 2007, 02:34 AM Post #34
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,288 Joined: 4-September 06 From: The Scandinavian Federation Member No.: 9,300	Hei Ancient history I just wanted to say I've played your adventure and posted the results in my "Life in the Barrens" AAR. If you're interested in how it worked out, check it out :) I wrote it in spoiler tags in 2 posts. Here's a link if you're too lazy to use your Data Search skill ;) http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...+in+the+barrens

Ancient History View Member Profile	Aug 12 2007, 02:50 AM Post #35
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,748 Joined: 5-July 02 Member No.: 2,935	Danke

FriendoftheDork

Aug 12 2007, 03:37 AM

Post #36

Running Target

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QUOTE (Ancient History)

Danke

That was a quick reply. Anyway, please comment on the AAR if you can, so I can see what I did wrong and right, and if it turned out very different than you anticipated.

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