Friends and Foes, the ones that make life fun Options

[streetangelj]

I’ve added the following Qualities to my game. (Admittedly, I just modified other people’s work here, but I think it’s cool to have a Bounty Hunter or Gang after you or have a Patron or Gang willing to help you.)

Enemies: (variable) – You have made someone or some people mad in the past either through extreme failure or too much showboating. You now possess an enemy with a Hatred/Connection rating (same as contact rating.) You earn a number of points equal to the Hatred + Connection rating.

Hunted: (10/15/20/25) – You pissed someone off and now they are gunning for you (consider them to have hatred/connection ratings like enemies- average total 7). Each level of this quality sends a different level prime runner after you (follow prime runner creation and advancement rules). At 10 points you have a 80% prime runner. At 15 points you have a 100% prime runner. At 20 points you have a 120% prime runner. You can also have groups after you. For 15 points you have a group (4-9) of 50% prime runners. For 20 points you have a group (4-6) of 70% prime runners. For 25 points you have a group (2-4) of 90% prime runners.

Allies: (10/15/20/25) – You’ve got a powerful friend or group of pals that are willing to help you out on occasion (consider them to have a loyalty rating/connection rating like contacts, average total 7). Each level of this quality represents a different level of ally willing to help you (follow prime runner creation and advancement rules). At 10 points you have a 80% prime runner. At 15 points you have a 100% prime runner. At 20 points you have a 120% prime runner. You can also have groups of allies. For 15 points you have a group (4-9) of 50% prime runners. For 20 points you have a group (4-6) of 70% prime runners. For 25 points you have a group (2-4) of 90% prime runners.

[Kyoto Kid]

...my one issue with the Hunted Quality is that it frequently becomes a negative quality for the rest of team without the other PCs gaining the benefit of the bonus BPs.

For allies I feel this is handled sufficiently through the contact mechanic in the existing rules. The last thing as a GM I want is to run an NPC runner "cavalry" against my bad guy NPCs.

[hyzmarca]

Gun Bunny, holding a big gun to the back of Hunted Teammate's head: Lisiten, chummer, here's a ten million nuyen bounty on you, dead or alive. So. Well. Frag. You know how this is going to work. We all have bills to pay.

[WeaverMount]

I've so been there. There have been times that I had to meta-game to keep from TKing my team's sloppy and ineffectual hacker who earned himself a bounty. I even wanted to off him OOC so that he could re-roll and we'd stop getting punked the matrix

[Thomas]

[Cain]

Enemies can also be easily abused, as written. There's nothing preventing people from taking a bunch of 1/1 enemies, or even a 5/1 enemy, with a big mad on but little actual power to do anything.

[streetangelj]

Well, GM approval of characters can prevent ridiculous abuses and the cavalry may not always be available, especially if they're very effective (represented by higher connection ratings). I found the Contact system a little lacking if you wanted to build a gang lieutenant for example, unless you dumped inordinate amounts of points into contacts, thats why I converted the Allies Advantage from GURPS, basing it off the already written Hunted Quality. I can see the point about Hunted being a flaw for people who don't get BP for it, but a lot of Neg. Qualities are like that.

[Cain]

If you want to be a gang lieutenant, or a Mafia made man, or a Yakuza soldier, you can simply buy a Gang or Crime Boss at Loyalty 6. That way, you're strong within the organization, and can call upon its resources when necessary, by asking the Boss for what you need.

[Marwynn]

If it's not abused it can be a great little in-between-runs filler and advancement for roleplaying.

Though I didn't get any points for it my background has my ex-ganger/ex-PR corp guy/ex-wagemage making a lot of enemies along the way. Some of whom used to be friends and part of his extended guanxi network in Hong Kong.

Having some rank 1 nobodies come after you is trivial, sure. But if they all band together and get wise? Surely they have their own connections and people who owed them favours, so you can imagine my character's surprise when he made his way back to one of his low-lifestyle safehouses to find his hidden drones squealing warnings. This was right after a run too and he was low on ammo, patches, and a bit high up on stun damage from casting.

Took out one of the more powerful guys and now they're after him too, so it could snowball into something much more dangerous.

This of course has attracted the attention of those who also dislike my character's enemies.

However, as he says, "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy; no more, no less." Lots of backstabbing action and mistrust... all for the filler!

Think I can beg for more BP? We're still in the prelim stages after all...

[hyzmarca]

[kzt]

As the Evil Overlords handbook points out: "Shooting is not too good for my enemies.".

[kzt]

I have considered having a fairly ineffectual hunter modeled after Carie Fisher from the "Blues Brothers" chasing my character in a game.

[Cain]

[hyzmarca]

You mean that a Connections 1 character does not understand the concept of stores? You mean that a Connections 1 character cannot use the Yellow Pages? That he can't go to the mall? That he's never heard of things called Pawn Shops?
He can go into Wal-Mart and buy a sniper rifle and a combat drone, assuming that he has a SIN.

But, to be realistic, an enemy will have his own stats, including social stats, which he could use to make social tests, in addition to his connections.

[Bira]

You just have to define what Connection means for enemies. "Hatred", I guess, would be what the enemy wants to do to the character, and Connection is what resources he can spare for this.

Me, I'd say a Connection 1 enemy is just one guy, about equal to the character in personal power (or else he wouldn't be worth any points at all). Higher ratings mean it's either an organization or a more powerful guy with access to his own goons.

Hatred 1 means he's content with spreading bad rumors. Higher ratings go from "total humiliation", to "maim", "kill" and "kill his family while he watches, then kill him".

[WeaverMount]

The way I use enemies in my game is to let players exceed the BP cap for starting cash if they want to. However all the EQ over the first 50 is considered super hot. Someone wants it back and you dead. I abstract the amount of heat giving the amount they exceed the cap. One of my characters is a rigger with a stolen bull dog. That draws attention and he has to be real careful where he parts it, but thats about it. I also have 350,000 nuyen rouge cyborg and Man-O-Man does Proteus Subsystems want him back.

[Cain]

[Glyph]

[DireRadiant]

[PlatonicPimp]

My origional enemies rules existed with the context of some other house rules, notably a karma creation system where contacts cost loyalty X connections. In that instance, a pidly 1/1 enemy gave you a measly 1 Karma. And as the GM, I know that homeless bum who hates you for always stiffing him when he wipes your windsheild will be the one who finds you first when you are dumped bleeding in an alley.

[Cain]

[Cthulhudreams]

[Cain]

[hyzmarca]

[mfb]