GM looking for advice, One of my PCs has been captured... |
GM looking for advice, One of my PCs has been captured... |
Dec 14 2007, 02:40 AM
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#1
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CosaNostra Deliverator Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 346 Joined: 29-January 05 From: Philadelphia, PA Member No.: 7,034 |
One of the PCs in my game has just been captured by Aztechnology and I'm trying to figure out what to do next. This PC (Christine) has been hiding from Aztechnology after a run gone bad. Aztechnology thinks Christine kidnapped an important Aztech VIP. This is only partially true. The PCs tried to kidnap this VIP but they failed and the VIP ended up being abducted by a rival group of runners. Christine just had the bad luck of being the only person ID'ed by Aztechnology.
Naturally, Aztechnology sends a team to grab Christine. With the other PCs help, she manages to overpower the Aztech goon squad. But then against Christine's wishes, one of the other PCs proceeds to tie up, torture and execute all the surviving Aztech goons. The PCs are forced to flee, leaving the corpses behind for Aztechnology to find... Now absolutely convinced that Christine is a dangerous anti-Aztech terrorist, Aztechnology kidnaps a minor NPC Christine knows to use as blackmail. This NPC happens to be infatuated with Christine but the two have no meaningful relationship. However, Aztechnology wrongfully thinks the two are lovers... Aztechnology then threatens this NPC's life. I thought Christine might mount a rescue mission. Or maybe let him die and feel bad about it afterwards. Instead, Christine surrendered to Aztechnology so he could go free. I was really surprised by that... So now, Christine is a captive of Aztechnology. Before surrendering, I warned the player about all the possible negative consequences and she accepts them. My question now is what should I have Aztechnology do? I thought about having the bad guys torture her for information and if she doesn't get rescued in time by the other PCs, she'd be killed. Or maybe Aztech would implant a cortex bomb or use carcerands to compel her to cooperative. I also thought about them using magic (Alter Memory, Influence) to mess with her mind. Just wondering if anyone out there had any suggestions.. |
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Dec 14 2007, 02:51 AM
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#2
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
Erm, uh, well.. Crap.
Seriously, surrendering to Azzies? :? A noble gesture, but also about as conducive to continued existence as trespassing onto MCT property skyclad and armed with a Streetline Special. Okay, if you want the PC to live, the key here is Mind Probe and the possibility of recovering the VIP or visiting reprisal on whoever bankrolled the job. The Azzies are big on magic and they'll be sure to rip through her li'l mind (and they'd see no need to be gentle) until they find out the information they want. When they find out she doesn't have all the information they need, they may keep her alive for a while so they can keep sifting through her subconscious as they piece more info together on the rival runner team. Of course, they're still pissed at the team and would have information on them due to interrogating Christine, but hey, nobody ever said everyone would come out smelling of roses. |
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Dec 14 2007, 03:51 AM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 861 Joined: 27-November 07 Member No.: 14,397 |
I'd say mind probe, no info, cortex bomb, make her go get the exec back.
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Dec 14 2007, 04:23 AM
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#4
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Mr. Johnson Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,148 Joined: 27-February 06 From: UCAS Member No.: 8,314 |
Don't forget the criminal SIN and the tissue sample.
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Dec 14 2007, 04:43 AM
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#5
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
They put her in a room, the walls of which are covered with cameras, and there is a small crawler drone with a video camera on it scurrying across the room to get a good angle. On one of the walls is a pair of machetes, the blades of which have been dipped in gasoline and set on fire. She is instructed to take one flaming machette in each of her hands.
A door, on the opposite side of the room, opens. Through it steps a wageslave (Bod 2 Str 2 Agi 3 Rea 3 Log 3 Int 2 Wil 3 Cha 3, Skills: Accounting 4) wearing a bargain-basement business suit. Suddenly, sound comes from speakers mounted in the wall. An announcer reads off Christine's vital statistics, height, weight, bra size, augmentations, states that she hails from The Shattergraves of Chicago no matter where she actually comes from, and calles her "Machette Maria". The announcer goes on to give the wageslave's very unimpressive statistics, his place of birth, and his real name. He reminds everyone that this fight is to the death with a 10 minute time limit, at which point the room will be flooded with hydrocloric acid, killing both contestants horribly. Christine has the rather easy task of chopping a human wageslave who is defaulting to 3 Agility in place of Unarmed Combat to tiny pieces with dual flaming machetes. This will continue every day, several times a say, until one unarmed wageslave opponent gets lucky and either kills her or goes the distance (which I suppose isn't really lucky, but his estate will get some prize money). If she kills him too quickly she gets tortured with a pain inducer and told to make it more cinematic next time. |
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Dec 14 2007, 04:54 AM
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#6
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,288 Joined: 4-September 06 From: The Scandinavian Federation Member No.: 9,300 |
Hyzzie you're sick, you know that? :D But seriously, does Azzie actually profit from this? Wouldn't better opposing gladiators make for more exiting combats? The blood sport idea is pretty good though. I was going for forcing the CHristina's team to recover and deliver the Azzie hostage - which means tracking down the rival gang. That is after a mage has mindread Christina of course. I think the Azzies would keep C. as a hostage rather than just implanting some killswitch on her (less expensive), but that's probably no fun for the player in question to sit out, unless she has a backup character ready (something she should have after that!) |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:02 AM
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#7
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
Yeah, I consider the tissue sample to be pretty much de rigeur in such cases, especially with the Azzies. Hell, they could even have a Blood Mage take li'l bits of her to soak the drain from the Mind Probes with. I mean, hell, why should the mage risk a headache when they have someone they're likely to kill anyway? And I totally agree that Hyzmarca's idea was way off... They should give her a flaming macuahuitl :grinbig: |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:06 AM
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#8
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,288 Joined: 4-September 06 From: The Scandinavian Federation Member No.: 9,300 |
I'll raise that to flaming, VODOO macuahuitl! :D |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:06 AM
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#9
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,537 Joined: 27-August 06 From: Albuquerque NM Member No.: 9,234 |
I'd suggest mind probe followed by them being kind of annoyed. I'd expect they would go grab the fixer/Johnson or kill them it it's not easy to grab them, as they want to discourage this kind of thing. And nothing says "don't go there" then fixers who recruit runners against Aztechnolgies getting sent home in 47 seperate mason jars.
After that I can see several options. I'm assuming that you are playing the azzies as keeping their word, which makes bargaining with them useful. I tend to think that torturing and killing prisoners is way over the top and I will tend to have no mercy on anyone who does this. They made it personal with people at Aztechnologies. However I have a soft spot for players whose characters are willing to do self-sacrificing things because it's what the character would do. 1) Get her to get the other runners together and capture/kill them, assuming she isn't know to be captured. A trade for her going free. Those that they took alive they send after the other group with appropriate incentives. This is a PC win and a player loss, as it's time for Christine to be retired... 2) Kill her and use her knowledge to go after the rest of the characters and kill them. No fair fights, car gets hit by ATGM, sniper shoots them in the head walking out to get the mail, apartment gets pumped full of Seven-7 at night. Making personal enemies with huge powerful corps is bad, and they have to uphold their image too. 3) Don't kill her and use her commlink and senior adept with extended masking and physical mask to meet them and take them out. Then offer them a deal... (including Christine) a deal involving With samples and small pieces of cyberwear... They are now owned by aztechnologies. 4) Seeing how this worked so well, have the azzies go after people that all the other runners care about and offer a deal. 5) Get her to explain how their guys ended up dead, then turn her over to lone star for murder, as her group doesn't sound like the kind of guys who would remove all the trace evidence of the torture and execution, so they can tie her to the scene and have her confession. It gets her out their hands since she doesn't know anything useful. Then they put out large rewards for her teammates, dead or alive if they can't conveniently capture/kill them. And it makes the azzies look law abiding and all that. Lots of ways to go here. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:07 AM
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#10
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
Yeah, to me, the Azzies just aren't the Azzies until they change out of their business suits, throw on a head dress and give you a vivid reminder that you ain't in 2007 anymore. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:33 AM
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#11
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
The entire point of the show, as presented in Shadowbeat (a book which was way ahead of its time) is that it is a reality game show. Crappily-statted wageslaves with little or no fighting experience practically trample each other for a chance to fight hardened violent criminals in extremely lopsided death-matches for a chance to win a pitifully small amount of cash and prizes. Of course, other crappily-stated wageslaves with little or no fighting experience sit at home telling their friends and family how much better they'd do if they had the chance, and generally armchair gladiatoring. Like all reality game shows, it is cheap to produce. The contestants rarely live long enough to win anything, the criminal gladiators never have to be paid, all they need is a few cameras and a few cheap-ass melee weapons. |
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Dec 14 2007, 07:06 AM
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#12
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,328 Joined: 28-November 05 From: Zuerich Member No.: 8,014 |
A few more possibilities (with the goal to keep the character in game):
- Get all the info out of her using magic and technological means, dump her on some prison island, then go after her team mates. Prison Island could be some "We don't care what you do there, we may watch with cameras and tape it though" deal, or some forced labor in the Yucatan. - Put in a persona fix chip, maybe a sleeper persona, then release her or have her "rescued" by her team or other "runners", then have her attack her team once the persona goes active - or deliver information to capture the rest. - Alternatively, have her possessed by a spirit/ally spirit, best with masking power, and sent to track her team down, or accidentally/"accidentally" freed, then hooking up with her team. - Interrogation, trial, sentenced to life, then deployed as forced labor of what kind is needed by plot or NPC wishes, anywhere. - Used as guinea pig for experimental cyber/bio/gene/nanotech. Extracted by a runner team, or escapes accidentally when a runner team hits the lab. Maybe brainwashed too. - Sentenced to death, but the prison tasked with executing her has a (shady) side business going on, selling convicts to one or more groups and faking their deaths. Possible groups: Yakuza (for bunraku parlors). Ghoul Nation (for food). 3rd World Nation (for suicide missions). Various corps (for experiments). Vampire order (food). |
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Dec 14 2007, 08:07 AM
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#13
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,288 Joined: 4-September 06 From: The Scandinavian Federation Member No.: 9,300 |
Interesting. I haven't got Shadowbeat unfortunately. I didn't realize the wageslaves would be voulenteers, that changes things alot. I just generally hate overly evil organizations depicted in fiction, as they strain my sense of disbelief. Even the Nazi's didn't arbitrarily kill their citizens (which to be killed and which to be spared was often thought out) ;) |
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Dec 14 2007, 01:49 PM
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#14
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,706 Joined: 30-June 06 From: Fort Wayne, IN Member No.: 8,814 |
Yeah, I concur with all the mind probe suggestions...the facts are that her group didn't get the VIP and she didn't participate in the torturing of the goon squad. Does she know anything else that would help the Azzies get their VIP back?
Because of her sacrificing herself, I'd try and turn this into a hire...get the VIP back and they will "forget" the last couple encounters... |
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Dec 14 2007, 01:51 PM
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#15
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,711 Joined: 15-June 06 Member No.: 8,716 |
What type of character was christine?? Can she handle cyber/bio??
I say the Azzies capture the rest of the team by using Christine as bait. Then the team finds themselves in a room sitting in front of a table next to each other and as they are unblindfolded an Azzie comes into the room carrying whatever body parts of Christine, her eyeballs, an arm, and plops it down on the table followed by an assistant with a breifcase. Then he can give a speech about knowing that it was not them who really kidnapped the guy thanx to Christine talking. But unless they recapture the guy for the Azzies thats all they are going to get back of Christine. At that point he motions to his assistant who lays out a briefcase or whatever with all the info they have on who actually did do it. If they ask to see Christine they can be shown a video of her being raped or experimented on but essentially alive. Then the guy can be like "thats going to keep happening every day until we have our man back in our possesion. On one hand I dont like inflicting that kind of thing on a player but on the other Aztechnologies isnt going to be nice about it. On the third hand though you told her not to be stupid and surrender. Did the team of runners even offer to try and get the guy back in exchange for the guy Christine was trying to protect??? You know what would be great. Did the azzies release the guy yet. It would have been great if they killed the guy right in front of the entire team of runners or just Christine. Then when the runners actually get the guy back they will not want to give up the guy without getting christine back first since they know the azzies dont keep their word. This would give them a chance to backstab the azzies and rescue christine and even screw them over if they rescue the dude the azzies wanted!! If they successfully backstab aztec and rescue the dude they wanted then he can be super grateful and at the very least pay for Christine to get some killer cyber/bio replacements if not some really cool crap for the entire team. |
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Dec 14 2007, 02:55 PM
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#16
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
I dunno, I wouldn't necessarily get too elaborate with the maiming and torture; I've found that as a GM (admittedly, I'm more experienced as a player than a GM) that there's something to be said for portraying the corps as less sadistic and more impersonal, perfunctory and ruthless. I mean, why bother with all that messy and time consuming torture when they could just neglect to feed you and put you on a constant BTL simsense feed set for random painful biofeedback to keep you busy (and your voluntary motor functions turned off...) with no fuss? I mean they're the corps! Why do something elaborate when you can use Mind Probe, shoot the prisoner and then toss them in the company dumpster after (you know, the one that's quite safe from discovery by hobos because this facility practices the apparently legal Zero Zone policy).
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Dec 14 2007, 03:36 PM
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#17
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,838 Joined: 1-September 05 Member No.: 7,669 |
Have the player make a new character. Whatever happens to the old one remains a mystery unless/until the players try to discover it. Maybe they just give her a partial lobotomy and put her in a bunraku parlor in Tenochtitlan (good luck finding her), or perhaps they just kill her hand dispose of the body. Whatever - it's a hard world - don't go soft and give her back to the player in any usable form or the Azzies lose their mystique.
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Dec 14 2007, 03:52 PM
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#18
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,512 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 392 |
Three of my PCs just got captured by Aztechnology after an aborted bum rush of one of their secret labs where 2 other PCs got killed.
I implanted them with cranial bombs, tons of stealth tags, and then PAB programmed them so that they love all Azzie products. NERPS NERPS NERPS. Now they only purchase Azzie foodstuffs, Azzie clothes, Azzie toilet paper, etc. One player suspects that it had something to do with their recent reprogramming (they've all been to hospital and had stuff removed and doctors told them about altered brain chemistry) but another one is just convinced that Azzie stuff is better anyway and that he'd be buying it regardless of any brainwashing. Good stuff. |
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Dec 14 2007, 04:06 PM
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#19
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
One way to handle horrible brainwashing/torture without your game going to a very dark place, but also without the player saying, "Meh, and then I was tortured or something" is tell them that they're tortured and hit them with some kind of psychological negative quality. You don't want the torture to be a non-event, but you probably don't want to RP through it too heavily, either.
Anyway, she'll definitely have to recover the exec in exchange for the antidote to the carcinerands (or the code to the cortex bomb, or whatever) Don't be TOO mean, but if you're too nice you trivialize the sacrifice. |
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Dec 14 2007, 04:49 PM
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#20
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
I don't know, personaly I see this as the mundane answer to the Runner who asked the Bug for more power and got what he asked for in another thread. If you go soft and easy then you run the risk that the player will forget that this is a dark and scary world where being stupid will get you iced.
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Dec 14 2007, 05:02 PM
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#21
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Which is why there needs to be a non-trivial penalty, but killing the character? For RPing a situation where where someone they cared about was in danger, even if it was an NPC? You definitely want to punish stupidity, but you don't want to punish RPing. I think killing the character would be excessive. But again, if you let them off easy then their sacrifice is meaningless, so I'm certainly not advocating being too soft. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:09 PM
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#22
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Target Group: Members Posts: 28 Joined: 2-October 07 Member No.: 13,500 |
I've never been a big fan of the supervillian level of sadistic evil that a lot of people seem to like to portray the corps (especially the Azzies) behaving with.
Typically (when I was still GMing) if the runner was reasonably skilled and established and a corp caught them i'd have the corp mind probe them, get a few tissue samples, and let them go (keeping an eye on them is pretty easy once they've mind probed them to hell and back). There's no point in killing a shadowrunner when they might need someone with their talents and be able to force said runner to do pretty much whatever they want for free. It gave my players a nice, healthy dose of paranoia (especially if someone hired them to run against that corp again) and at the same time let them keep characters that they really liked. I didn't do this if they did crap like torturing or needlessly killing that corp's employees, but if they behaved in a civilized (for a shadowrunner) manner it made sense to me that a corp wouldn't want to waste talent that they could use gratis somewhere down the road. I also didn't buy into the whole corporate revenge thing. I figured once a run was over and the McGuffin device was out of the runners hands the corp pretty much washed their hands of the mess (as far as the runners were concerned). I'd even have the corp they ran against start hiring them for jobs. After all, if they're good enough to run against Ares, they're good enough to run FOR them. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:33 PM
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#23
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,311 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 2,062 |
Fill them with a personafix, alter them in any way you see fit, (cyber is popular, but I've always been a fan of tattoos anchoring cool spells), and blank out a year or two until some kind of injury or mishap shorts out the personafix and they find themselves in the most awkward situation you can come up with. Not knowing where you are, how long you've been out, what you've done, why you crave combat drugs, and why these people want to kill you should make for good fun all around.
If it were me, they'd wake up in a Rio de Jenario flop house with a bullet near their spine, blood all over their clothes, a half-full predator, and guts cramping up from Nitro withdrawl. They don't speak the language, they don't know anybody here, they have no legal identity, they have very little money, and someone wants to kill them. That's just if it were me. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:36 PM
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#24
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
Yeah, that's kind of business as usual for a certain subsection of the Pink Mohawk crowd. |
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Dec 14 2007, 05:38 PM
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#25
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 932 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Orlando, Florida Member No.: 1,042 |
Christine is valuable to another powerful entity, who, using their own covert assets inside Aztechnology, arrange to rescue her through a combination of Faces and Hackers instead of Shark shamans and street samurai.
Once this other organization - The CAS government, the Draco Foundation, a rival corporation, take you pick - has Christine, they will compel her to participate in their plot against Aztechnology. Maybe even without her knowledge. |
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