[X] My Assistant

[Fuchs]

I ran "Body Snatchers" last night.

[ Spoiler ]

The run went off without much of a hitch. The runners got a delivery to the clinic faked with some hacking, and could drive up right to the elvator that led down to the basement, where the storage rooms where - and where the morgue was, as well. As an added touch, I had a DocWagon Employee think he was playing a joke on the delivery crew, sending them down to the basement right when there was an autopsy starting there (since the elevator from the garage led directly into the morgue). Two runners went down, two others stayed up in the garage, distracting the guards and other employes if needed.
Contrary to the adventure layout, the doctor down there did not scream, of course, when he saw the runners, since they were disguised as deliverymen still. So, he was knocked out right when he was complaining about the interruption, and the runners got the body, then hooked up the hacker to the computer so he could wipe the information in the system while they grabbed the personal stuff of the dead journalist.
I added some "body" waking up in the morgue - a vampire victim that was not discovered in time rising from the dead - which was dealt with by the runners in no time by the gunbunny sending a few bullets through its head and splattering the adept the new vamp had tried to bite with brains and blood, pulp-fiction style.
A makeover from the mage later, the group was out of the clinic, no one the wiser. The delivery to the ghouls went as expected - since the adventure write up described it as if the runners did not know they were meeting ghouls, I did play it like that, but the ghouls really did not love the reaction they got from the runners, contrary to the adventure text - all ghouls were killed, then the runners searched for the people they were meant to meet, finally assuming they had been eaten by the ghouls, before dropping the body back at Kaz' feet, who then had it disposed o by other means.
hen the runners went for the bonus money, thanks to them working as covert ops for the mob they had no trouble finding Sinn, and the firefight between the ragers and the other gang was ended by the gratious application of heavy weaponry on both sides. Afterwards, Sinn spilled the beans in no time, and the information was delivered to Kaz - and to the runners' ral employer, the mob, of course.

All in all a nice run, the ghouls were a bit of a weak spot - Kaz should tell the runners what to expect, in my opinion, not let the ghouls surprise them, since I think many runners are likely to shoot ghouls, not deal with them, if surprised. Also, the information about the family of the dead journalist turned out to be rather useless, since the adventure writeup seems to assume a hostile infiltration from the bits there ("Screams as soon as he sees the runners"). More diverse reactions would be good.

[The Jake]

Keep it comin' Fuchs. Good reading.

- J.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Corrected stats will be in the first errata (hopefully right after the print release)

If possible, it would be great to re-check every stat for errata - concealed vehicle/drone armor is only rated up to 10. (p. 160), Nanosymbiontes only to 3 (p. 85, 155) and max augmented skill ratings are rounded down (p. 152, 158).(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Fuchs]

Last Night I ran "Dirty Pretty Money"

[ Spoiler ]

The runners met with Dae, and botched the negotiation roll, so didn't get more money initially. They set up a blackmail scneario for the financial consultant, since they were of the opinion that any faked blackmail material would not be enough since it would be easily disproven. So they sent his psychologist on a fool's errand, and placed two of their team members there, with an invisible mage as "camera" (and to feed them astral assensing info), and seduced the man.
The kidnapping went well, with two runners hiding in the car, invisible, and the classic "keep driving" line was delivered with the push of a pistol at the target's head. At the meeting with Dae, the runners did their own intimidating the consultant as well, and later kept him on surveillance through the hacker, who noticed the contact with the authorities.
The team piled into a van to intercept the consultant when his car was abducted by the yakuza hacker, and drove to the parking garage. The Grenades from the yakuzas there were weathered thanks to the car's armor and the runners' personal armor, with only the mage taking a light wound, and the two door guards were soon dispatched with spell, throwing knives, and Gauss Rifle.
Then the mage sent a fire elemental (force 6) inside, with the order to kill and burn the consultant, while the rest of the team set up to blockade the exit/entrance of the garage. The fire elemental took its time, and the Yakuza sent two comets out first, to "check the waters". The first ran into the ambush, and got destroyed by the gauss rifle, the other backed up and took cover behind a supporting pillar while the yakuza disembarked. Two more rounds from the gauss perforated both pillar and the car, and the return fire from the yaks was ineffective.
The gauss gunner then started to destroy more support pillars which caused the remaining yaks on the ground floor to face death by imploding building, or attack, and so they started a banzai charge, which ended in crossfire. Chikao meanwhile dropped his plan to escape in the thrid Comet, and sent that one out as a distraction while pulling the consultant along on foot. The comet pulled off a stunt, jumping out of the partially collapsed first floor, but was shot down in the air, and the team's adept made a very, very lucky perception check (9 hits out of 9), and spotted Chikao and the consultant right when they were heading(getting pulled to the emergency exit.
That data was passed on to the gauss gunner, who headshot the consultant (using edge), then shot Chikao. Using his high edge on all rolls now, the yakuza leader actually survived the first shot (taking 6 dmg), and evaded an attack from the redicreted fire elemental, but the next gauss round blew him away despite edge use, and the remaining pieces were fried by the elemental. The runners gathered the credstick, and the cyberarm with the built-in commlink from Chikao and escaped before the police arrived.
Handing over the credstick to Dae went without hitch, although her commentary that "she wasn't sure if she should be happy or distraught that the yakuza were on their trail, and not the mafia" (The game is set in Miami, not Seattle) made the runners laugh - they are working undercover for the mob, after all.

Critic:
Good set up for a fight scene, and decent social situation. The time frame seems a bit too short though - I'd expect such runs to use more time to set up the blackmail. Good NPCs with decent builds, able to challenge even advanced runners (especialy the high edge was very well done). What I did not like at all was the "The GM should tweak things so Chikao lives to fight another day" line. I hate that sort of railroading, and in the present situation, there was no way the yakuza would survive short of using some "you cannot kill him cause I say so" ruling, the runners made sure he died.
Also, there should be some "kill him if he tries to screw us" clause in the run writeup, so the runners know that their job covers wetwork/retrieval of the consultant during the surveillance.

[The Jake]

I've just bought Ghost Cartels and I'm reading it now.

So far I'm impressed but I'm finding reading it a very tough slog. I find the structure/layout very confusing and the material is very densely packed (not the writing itself, but the depth of written material).

- J.

[Tachi]

I finished reading it on christmas (nothing better to do). I'm gonna run it in a few weeks, once the players get more used to Shadowrun, and their characters have a better chance of surviving what I intend to do to them.

Fuchs.... Thanks for the write-ups. They'll probably help me adjust when my players screw the plan all to hell. Which seems to be their developing MO. (At least they're consistent and keep me on my toes.)
Keep 'em coming.

[Chrysalis]

The big project for today was to read Ghost Cartels, a Shadowrun campaign sourcebook. I have to admit that my initial thought was to actually finish reading it much earlier, such as yesterday. However, due to it being my birthday that day, I advocated instead to finish the book today.
First of all, I have to say that Ghost Cartels is a well written, well thought-out campaign sourcebook. While I have tried to shun reading other reviews on the book, nonetheless I must add my own dialogue on the matter of certain mistakes. Out of the 160 page I discovered 1 terrible mistake (which I suspect was a layout or editorial kerfuffle, 5 mistypes , and several minor vocabulary, stylistic or grammatical mistakes. In my own professional opinion as a proofreader it’s perfectly acceptable from a group that only uses editorial services.

The only negative comment about the writing is that of the opening story for chapter “the Source�. First of all I found it to be… poorly written by some man from South Hampton whose world somehow involves Japanese swords and Mexican rap. In truth, I found most of the forced Mexical drug pusher dialogue – well to be rubbish. I would have preferred that they actually spoke either real Spanish, or a smattering of Colombian Spanish vernacular equivalent to their station. The image on the right, a noticeable shift down from the rest of the high quality in the book does not assist in this assessment.

During the course of the reading of the preamble of Ghost Cartels, the impression received was that this is campaign sourcebook could have happily been published in the 1990s, during the great cocaine push. In truth, I suspect that at least one of the source material used was either the movie Traffic (a quasi-documentary on shipping of drugs into the United States during the 1990s) or the memoir of a DEA or FBI agent, which focused on the drug traffic during the 1970s to the 1980s, which I partially remember reading a few years ago. Nonetheless, it would be interesting for the contributors to respond in what were their primary inspirations and source material for this campaign book – outside of Shadowrun material and Howlin’ Mercy of course.

One aspect which I thought would have been described is BTLs. Unfortunately, the basic book of Shadowrun 4th edition does not go into much detail. In actuality Ghost Cartels is one of the only books to actually talk about “beetles� in any detail. My wish is that the upcoming Vice book, which I have to admit I have great expectations for, would give much more detail as well as game effects for BTL usage. Perhaps even an entire chapter on drug use and drug construction.

The Olaya Cartel, the cartel which Ghost Cartels primarily focuses and its linkages with Tempo give numerous ideas for development of adventures for Shadowrunners as they become further involved in the great upheavals in the underworld. During the course of the reading of the campaign I was constantly thinking of how as a player I would approach the adventures.

At this point I would wish to place an aside and say that everything forthcoming will be quite revealing about some of the metaplot of Ghost Cartels and if you do not wish to ruin your appetite then may I recommend that you stop reading here.

It is quite obvious that the team should demand a face, a mage, a hacker, and a street samurai. To be honest, what I was impressed with is how much of the campaign involves negotiation with different parties without having to devolve into actually shooting things. In addition, parts of the Seattle runs really do demand strong law enforcement connections and actually makes some of the adventures quite easy, especially if they do end up in Caracas. There are also many points that the PCs can decide to stop and get out while ahead.

The way in which the players become involved seems very plausible and not forced, as they become more involved with Kaz Yakamura and the Komun’go there is a reasonable expectation for them to accept the parting gift of Kaz Yakamura and be hired into Henry Uribe’s retinue. As the subsequent adventures unfold, I would expect a deepening emotional attachment with their handler Sacristán and her very charismatic boss Henry Uribe. The reason why I wished to bring this up is that when Sacristán is shot and killed by Aztechnology forces in the Baltimore Towers, their allegiance is more likely to shift from Riveros, someone is quite obviously possessed by a spirit to that of Henry Uribe. Even if they were to continue with Riveros, her consolidation of power (highly similar to the increasingly paranoid behavior of Kaz Yakamura) would be a clear indicator of a building up of a situation which will involve conflict with Henry Uribe and the Olaya Cartel.

It is far more likely, that the Shadowrunners will long before the events of Caracas will actually try to assassinate Riveros or try to discover a way to eradicate Yáje. This also clearly indicates that the last adventure in the group of delivering a sapling to Yáje/Riveros is not in anyones interests, especially as they will be switching over to the Davis Cartel/Aztechnology. At this point the Shadowrunners have ceased to be valuable and will probably involve either being killed by Aztechnology, Primeiro Vaga, the Spirit Cabal, Sirrurg, Ghost Cartels, IDEA, ARM, DISA or perhaps if they are lucky only have their beating hearts ripped out with an obsidian knife by the slightly over-zealous, but single-minded Aztechnology warrior Tachi. In short the GM really has to resist the urge of finishing off the campaign with "your all dead."

I believe this is what in modern parlance is called a plot “cock-up�.

Something which was not clear was that were the Shadowrunners informed about being the foreigners used in the creation of the PR scandal in Neo-Tokyo. If they are it turns into a very straight and quite frankly boring run, while if they are not, I could see the run ending with the team being killed or worse in prison, which would then involve also being killed.

As to the answer to the Tempus “mystery�: I think the developers, at least during the writing of Ghost Cartels, have yet decide how to continue this metaplot in future campaign books. However, they would love to keep their readers guessing in the hopes of future book sales, novels, or movie deals. I distinctly remember something from Street Magic that free spirits prey upon karma and seem to be draining Tempus users as part of the possession. Anyways, it all has something to do with a Spirit Cabal of Shadow Spirits bent on avenging mother-nature and a draconic version of Bill Oddie called Sirrurg. The mystery is somehow hidden in the rules of Free Spirits in Street Magic – and at that I shall leave that mystery for others to conjecture.

Overall, I have to say that Ghost Cartels does in part live up to its reputation as a solid book. However, the end of the campaign will demand much more work from the GM as their guardian angel in making sure the players characters do survive.

[The Jake]

Ok, I'll add my $0.02 worth in the form of a review.

The first thing that grabbed me about this book was the depth of detail. However, like anything, this can be a double edged sword. As I do with all modules I try to flick to the GM Behind the Scenes bit so I can get a plot overview. It actually took me awhile to find it amoungst the shadowtalk. I realised afterwards it is spelled out clearly in the index and I'm probably just a retard but coming from previous SR products the format did throw me a lot.

The book is effectively split into four sections - the first section was the beloved shadowtalk overview of the events of the campaign, the next was three sections for each story arc. I liked the structure used. My only criticism was that in an effort to link each story arc I felt there was an unnecessary degree of duplication as it read that the PCs get embroiled in a scenario at the end of the arc, which then reads almost exactly the same as the first story in the next arc. I think the end of the story arcs could have been summarised more succinctly and it would not have detracted from the book in anyway.

The first section I felt was quite clever as it showed the human element of the effects of tempo and the effects on the shadow community. The story of Haze and Fatima I thought really punctuated the point nicely.

In terms of the plot, it is definitely a street level campaign. No question there. You start off working for local street gangs and one of the Seoulpa Rings and from there, to the Ghost Cartels all the way to the private meet between Riveiros and Ramos. The PCs are not forced or railroaded at any point to continue the story arc and they can get off the train at anytime. This, to me, was probably one of the key attractions of the plot. It is easy weave into an existing campaign and the PCs can stop at any time. In each story arc I felt there is minimal railroading (some modules are horrificly guilty of this).

However, I do have two beefs with the plot:

Beef #1: Ghost Cartels assumes your players are utter callous bastards.

Now anyone reading the 'wetwork' thread here lately will probably know what I'm talking about, but my PCs - while they have killed - are somewhat squemish and do not like doing it (apart from one spy who doesn't really care and one trigger happy troll street samurai). This entire module relies on PCs basically kidnapping people, murdering them or otherwise supporting their death and torture. For PCs to make to the very last story arc, you have to be willing to continue working for the Ghost Cartels, knowing full well they are the ones pushing tempo and knowing that some of your friends and contacts are probably tempo junkies (and thus no longer your friends and contacts) but more importantly not caring. Infact, I'll go on one step further to say the plot actively rewards PCs for becoming more and more ruthless.

E.g. 1:
There are several scenes where if the PCs don't kill someone that it looks badly upon them. Such as with Uribe and Vilamoura and Riveiros and Calvo-Jurada. Off the top of my head.

E.g. 2:
When Sacristan is kidnapped the PCs do not have to rescue her (although by this point I do admit most PCs with even half a conscience would probably choose to). The module also makes a point of saying that a PC (presumably a Face) has the opportunity to tell Uribe he'll take her place and really step up in the Ghost Cartel world. In a way, I like the plot twist there however it does show that the game is rewarding evil actions over good I found.

E.g. 3:
This is punctuated again when at the end Yaje tells Ramos that the PCs have been useful. If the PCs really push the envelope here - proven their worth to Uribe, Salazar and Riveiros, I see no reason they couldn't be involved in Yaje/Riveiros/Ramos future plans and make mega nuyen getting in on the ground floor. After all, their loyalty has already been proven. All they have to do is sell their souls working for AZT. This isn't touched on much in the book but with Yaje telling Ramos to leave the PCs alone and that they are useful, I felt this is pretty much implicit, if not all but directly stated their intentions to include the PCs into their future plans.

If your players are the scrupuluous sort you'll probably find they want to jump ship half way through. If they don't take the bait to jump into the story however, the enterprising GMs solutions is to start using the Spin-Offs And Side-Jobs: Adventure Seeds to try and create a more humane series of adventures involving tempo and GC. To be fair to the authors, they did anticipate this and hence included these sections for that purpose. So the GM does have multiple methods of the PCs getting involved - the overarching message is that nobody is immune to the effects of the tempo craze.

I'm digressing but I'm trying to say that while the PCs can run through the story arc with as much scruples as possible, GC actively rewards evil PCs and evil behaviour. This is not necessarily a bad point but something a GM needs to be aware of.

Beef #2: Aztechnology become the bad guys... again...
This is a trivial point but an annoyance for me personally. Others may not feel the same way.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the Dragonheart Trilogy but given the Azzies involvement in the Yucatan struggle and then the blood mages gestalt and Mr. Darke before that, I thought that the Azzies have had more than a fair chunk of the limelight as "the bad guy". Once again they've risen to the surface. Granted you cannot have a struggle in South America that DOESN'T involve AZT but I would have liked to have seen another corporation or group involved that we haven't had exposure too.

Overall Ghost Cartels had just the right level of depth for a module. I felt that GC was the spiritual successor to Emergence and hit all the right notes they were trying to hit with Emergence but just fell short. There is more than enough material here useful to any GM, even if his PCs never run through the main story arc. In that respect, I think it is a worthy addition to any campaign in any city. I REALLY liked the fact that the authors actually statted the NPCs and provided maps. While many people here lauded the authors for statting out the NPCs and providing maps I must state that for the record, this is something I expect in a module rather than something to be pleasantly suprised at by its inclusion. This is what saves me prep time as a GM. I have not liked the lack of maps/stats at all with books like Emergence and felt it really forced additional work on me as a GM to flesh out the game. I did not get that feeling with Ghost Cartels and overall believe I will have an easy time running it.

I'd like to say that I know there's a lot of gripes about editing mistakes and oversights but overall I think I only picked up on one really obvious spelling mistake and kept on going. It wasn't a huge issue for me. I was trying to hammer through this book so quick I just missed it. That and I was probably willing to overlook a lot of faults due to the content.

I give this book a solid 4.5 stars out of 5 and two thumbs up to all the authors involved.

I do, however have several questions:
1) Is Rivieros Applied Mimetics still around or is it assumed destroyed after the events in the third arc? This is just a personal question.
2) When can we expect to see more information on Yaje/Ramos and their future plans? GMs need this information because anyone that reaches the end of GC and doesn't have the answers will have to make up their own answers which may force him/her to come up with non-canonical solutions.
3) What is the fall out on worldwide tempo supply/production after the events of GC? This isn't really touched on enough in my view.
4) WTF is royal jelly?

- J.

[Chrysalis]

I did the math on the loads of Tempo and they are shockingly small. As in I did the math and came out with one dose being between 1-3grams at street value of 50-150 nuyen. 200 keys gives you 106,666.67 doses, which as a street value of 8 million nuyen. To be honest I would expect it being shipped by the ton to meet demand. The amount of product feels a bit too small to have the effect Ghost Cartels should have.

[The Jake]

I did the math on the loads of Tempo and they are shockingly small. As in I did the math and came out with one dose being between 1-3grams at street value of 50-150 nuyen. 200 keys gives you 106,666.67 doses, which as a street value of 8 million nuyen. To be honest I would expect it being shipped by the ton to meet demand. The amount of product feels a bit too small to have the effect Ghost Cartels should have.

I too, felt the same way.

At the end of the day its an arbitrary figure anyway that the GM can modify to his/her whim, so I don't really care.

- J.

[Chrysalis]

The counterdrug community estimates that between 530 and 710 metric tons of cocaine departed South America toward the United States in 2006, similar to the range estimated in 2005. The eastern Pacific and western Caribbean routes to Mexico and Central America remained the primary channels for cocaine movement from South America toward the United States, accounting for about 90 percent of the flow.

Cocaine Smuggling in 2006

[Synner]

As to the answer to the Tempus “mystery�: I think the developers, at least during the writing of Ghost Cartels, have yet decide how to continue this metaplot in future campaign books. However, they would love to keep their readers guessing in the hopes of future book sales, novels, or movie deals. I distinctly remember something from Street Magic that free spirits prey upon karma and seem to be draining Tempus users as part of the possession. Anyways, it all has something to do with a Spirit Cabal of Shadow Spirits bent on avenging mother-nature and a draconic version of Bill Oddie called Sirrurg. The mystery is somehow hidden in the rules of Free Spirits in Street Magic – and at that I shall leave that mystery for others to conjecture.

For the record, I do have a very clear vision of where I want to take Primeira Vaga and how this mystery seeds a major ongoing plotline. The fact that César da Silva is a twisted avenger shaman and not a Toxic shaman is one of several clues... More will be revealed soon.

1) Is Rivieros Applied Mimetics still around or is it assumed destroyed after the events in the third arc? This is just a personal question.

RAM has been gutted and unlike KondOrchid cannot invoke extraterritorial privilege. I think you will find that it's assets will be picked up by a major megacorp in the not so distant future.

2) When can we expect to see more information on Yaje/Ramos and their future plans? GMs need this information because anyone that reaches the end of GC and doesn't have the answers will have to make up their own answers which may force him/her to come up with non-canonical solutions.

We will definitely be revisiting them in the future, though they'll be out of the spotlight for a while. I'd expect them to make cameos in upcoming books.

3) What is the fall out on worldwide tempo supply/production after the events of GC? This isn't really touched on enough in my view.

What happens when the flipsiders go into withdrawl and the tempo bubble pops will be addressed in Vice and future books.

4) WTF is royal jelly?

Feral Cities has a little more on this odd little entry into the Awakened compound market.

@ Jake - While you are very much correct in that Ghost Cartels is particularly violent and immoral in tone, and that it rewards such behavior in characters, it was very much conceived as a mature story, a dark and gritty underworld plot that would leave the players, as much as their characters, thinking about the dark side of the criminal underworld and the violence they so often casually wield. It was also intended to allow gamemasters to address a number of issues that are rarely touched upon in RPGs, like the human ramifications of drug use and the casual collateral damage that the drug trade generates. One thing you might want to try if the default approach to the campaign feels too dark, is running the campaign using the suggested alternative approach where the PCs are working as undercover operatives for law enforcement. I did, and it was pretty fascinating to see how they tried to circumvent the bloodshed and deaths, and how they faced the inevitable moral junctures.

[Prime Mover]

Still unclear on the royal jelly info. Been foreshadowed in two books now and seems to counteract the effects of background count? Seem to have seen a recent mention of the fact there wouldn't be any mechanics in anything but core books from now on. So that begs the question then, when would we be seeing a solid stat block on the variations of Royal Jelly?

[Demonseed Elite]

Yeah, the writers and devs had the future of the Ghost Cartels storyline roughly sketched out before we even started the GC first drafts. Which is part of what made it so fun to brainstorm and write; we were filling in characters and stories that we knew would be coming back later on. For example, we looked at the Universal Brotherhood/Bug City storyline and how it took years to really develop and realized that was part of what made it so awesome.

On the format of Ghost Cartels, I'm really pleased with the design decisions made with it and I really hope Catalyst continues to run with that format for campaign books. The maps and stats, the signature characters, and the flexible, enduring storyline really raised the bar, I think.

As for inspirations, I did watch Traffic twice before I sent in my proposal notes for Ghost Cartels. I also watched Clear and Present Danger again. And another major inspiration for me was Ian MacDonald's book Brasyl, which is excellent and I totally recommend. And there were some late, late nights listening to Deep Forest and reading about Afro-Caribbean religion and hallucinogens. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[The Jake]

For the record, I do have a very clear vision of where I want to take Primeira Vaga and how this mystery seeds a major ongoing plotline. The fact that C�sar da Silva is a twisted avenger shaman and not a Toxic shaman is one of several clues... More will be revealed soon.

I have to say - to me it sounded like Primeira Vaga did have a clear vision but someone was very careful not to leave any clue as to their true purpose (apart from being twisted, not toxic).

RAM has been gutted and unlike KondOrchid cannot invoke extraterritorial privilege. I think you will find that it's assets will be picked up by a major megacorp in the not so distant future.

Bugger. I liked the sound of RAM and visiting Caracas. I could see my character getting work done there.

We will definitely be revisiting them in the future, though they'll be out of the spotlight for a while. I'd expect them to make cameos in upcoming books.

What happens when the flipsiders go into withdrawl and the tempo bubble pops will be addressed in Vice and future books.

Awesome. Hurry already (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) .

Feral Cities has a little more on this odd little entry into the Awakened compound market.

Its on my buy list. I'm after Runner Havens next and I'm umming and ahhing on Emergence since I'd like to run a few scenarios from it before launching into Ghost Cartels.

@ Jake - While you are very much correct in that Ghost Cartels is particularly violent and immoral in tone, and that it rewards such behavior in characters, it was very much conceived as a mature story, a dark and gritty underworld plot that would leave the players, as much as their characters, thinking about the dark side of the criminal underworld and the violence they so often casually wield. It was also intended to allow gamemasters to address a number of issues that are rarely touched upon in RPGs, like the human ramifications of drug use and the casual collateral damage that the drug trade generates. One thing you might want to try if the default approach to the campaign feels too dark, is running the campaign using the suggested alternative approach where the PCs are working as undercover operatives for law enforcement. I did, and it was pretty fascinating to see how they tried to circumvent the bloodshed and deaths, and how they faced the inevitable moral junctures.

Oh I get that Synner (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . And for that I appreciate that.

However, so have the numerous other modules that have been done in nearly 20 years now of Shadowrun history - and while violence is a part of the game and in some cases, PCs murdering NPCs is implicit or inferred it has almost never been directly stated. GC however not only specified it directly, it encouraged that behaviour. That kind of shocked me as a veteran GM reading it.

We've gone from modules such as Harlequin's Back where PCs tried to save the world (and saving kids from being sacrificed) to murdering helpless human beings for drug syndicates in Ghost Cartels.

I do however appreciate the obvious human elements that have ben worked in and I ALWAYS love the dark elements and don't plan on changing it. My PCs are in for some interesting times. Of all the drug syndicates they are most likely to align with the Vory. They also have one Lone Star contact. So as it stands I'd love to run the module as is and watch them squirm (and see where their real loyalties lie).

To be honest, I don't think it will take much for my players to start wasting people. This is the first game system without alignments they've played in for years and its not like any of the characters being murdered/tortured are saints anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Since we started this campaign, I've just encouraged my PCs to think about what sort of jobs they're willing/wanting to do and think about morally, where they draw the line. Early in their preludes they were asked to murder a project manager just because they're employer told them to (I gave them a variety of jobs to see how they'd fare). It didn't sit well with any of them but they did it anyway.

- J.

[pbangarth]

I have to say - to me it sounded like Primeira Vaga did have a clear vision but someone was very careful not to leave any clue as to their true purpose (apart from being twisted, not toxic).

Ok, hasn't -anybody- translated the name of the secret group, Primeira Vaga, to see if it meant anything? Five minutes on the internet:

Literally: "the first vacancy" ... Eh? Eh?

Colloquially: "the first wave"

Pop Culture connection: 1998 movie, The First Wave, in which aliens as genetic clones are among us, studying for future invasion a la Nostradamus' prediction of three waves that will destroy the planet, unless a "twice blessed" man saves us.

Peter

[The Jake]

Ok, hasn't -anybody- translated the name of the secret group, Primeira Vaga, to see if it meant anything? Five minutes on the internet:

Literally: "the first vacancy" ... Eh? Eh?

Colloquially: "the first wave"

Pop Culture connection: 1998 movie, The First Wave, in which aliens as genetic clones are among us, studying for future invasion a la Nostradamus' prediction of three waves that will destroy the planet, unless a "twice blessed" man saves us.

Peter

You think they're using tempo to create an army to allow spirits to possess them? That descriptions sounds a LOT like the insect spirits.

Which reminds me, based on the ending of GC, I had much more insidious thoughts with re: to Aztechnology and their use of tempo.

I was wondering if Aztechnology would use tempo to allow blood spirits to possess people? Or worse yet, the Horrors...

- J.

[pbangarth]

They could be working the Horrors line, and Aztechnology's involvement now would seem to support that idea.

But then, creative minds could find things even worse, no? Maybe there are things that want to be here waiting for the Horrors when next they come. Waiting to feed....

Peter

PS. You wanna see some cool conspiracy theories, check out Nostradamus-related websites. Whoa.

[Prime Mover]

Just happen to be rereading posts here and noticed the mention above about runners blowing away the ghouls when they deliver the body. My players were paranoid as well even though one of them realized what was really going on right away.

It didn't help we'd already had an encounter with a group in the same area in an another recent game. In a past encounter they uncovered the leader of that group of ghouls had been a Banshee who escaped there assault on the ghoul stronghold. I decided at the last minute to use him in this encounter as well and when he asked for more money they assumed he was just pushing for a fight due to there past meeting. A hasty retreat and a round of messy combat later and the banshee was gone and the body looking for another means of disposal.

[Fuchs]

We ran the first part of "The Trouble with Tempo" last night.

[ Spoiler ]

I started to bring in the first cases of possession-related incidents. During a beach party, one student drowned while swimming at night. Authorities are puzzled by the recordings from the dead student's cybereyes - apparently, the student just kept diving, far longer than one usually could keep one's breath, then drowend. They don't know that he was possessed by a spirit, but they're looking into magical influence.
Then the run started, with another meeting in Tickler's. On the way from Tickler's to Kaz and Dae's appartment the runner encountered a pickup going the wrong way at high speed on the highway - a drug user possessed. The "chicken" game ended with the other driver getting control back and panicking, and causing his pick up to spectacularly crash while trying to evade the runners' van. The runners escaped injuries, but need a new roof for their van.
The hit on Caine was rather simple - again, the runner had access to the local mob's information, and therefore found Caine's den easily. Astral scouting added more information. The runners then split off - the physad went into a neighboring house, to cut off and possibly use the catwalk escape Caine has prepared, the rest drove to the den's door. The couple gangers outside the door, and the door itself were blown away with grenades and other assorted weaponry. The mage sent a fire elemental (force 6) up to the second floor, to clean those ganers out, then followed the heavy weapon specialist inside. All runners were in chemsuits - the weapon specialist carried an automatic grenade launcher and used a lot of contact-vectored Neurostun grenades, each floor was hit 2 of them first, then the runners went in, dispatching whatever ganger was left standing with pistols and SMGs.
The first floor was no problem at all, being one big room that was easily filled with gas. Second floor was already filled with smoke and burning furniture and gangers courtesy of the fire elemental, and the two runners taking this route ahd no trouble killing what was left standing, using White Phosphorous grenades for the smaller rooms. Third floor suffered the same fate - gas and elemental first, then mopping up. Again WP was used, and by the time the runners hit the door to the 4th floor, the building was starting to burn.
By this time the adept had spotted the booby trap on the catwalk, but mistook it for an alarms sensor, and broke the window from a distance, which set the claymore off. Thanks to distance, cover, body armor and good reflexes, the adept did not get hurt much, but the catwalk looked very fragile after the blast, so the adept shot a grapple hook over to the bathroom window, preparing to climb over. When the bathroom door opened, a thrown knife was enough to force Caine into his living room again, and the adept started to move on to the catwalk - which promptly fell to pieces, forcing the adept to climb along the rope leading to the grapple hook. Arriving at the bathroom window, the part of the wall the grapple hook was fixed to gave, and the adept just managed to catch the ledge and pull herself inside.
In the meantime two AP grenades had taken care of the door to Caine's loft, and, led by more neurostun grenades, the runners charged. Two called bursts into Caine's shoulders took the man down, and the mage healed him enough for transport.
Now the runners' deeds were sort of catching up - the building was on fire, and the catwalk gone. So they fired anpther grapple hook to the building the adept had come from, and started to climb over, while the mage levitated the unconscious Caine over.
The runners escaped with the van again, and dropped the gang Lt. off with Kaz.

Critic:
The Den of Caine seems a bit light on defenses. Not everyone will be liberally using neurostun, but most teams will send in spirits, and astral recon is a given. With a gang war at their hands, magical preparedness might have been useful, if this should be a challenge to the runners.
As it was, it was a nice opportunity for the runners to stomp some gangers and show off the differences between shadowrunners and gutterpunks.

[Prime Mover]

Am I the only one, doesn't "Flipside" (the Vilamoura job) seem out of place in the order of things. I realize the employers behind the scenes might be different but in the setup it mentions the job should be taking place earlier in the track as it were. Just feels like all the other jobs could certainly travel in the order written and Flipside should have been placed earlier.

[Ancient History]

There's a note to that effect in the book; they were divvied up to separate the plots into distinct arcs for the convenience of GMs.

[The Jake]

We ran the first part of "The Trouble with Tempo" last night.

Fuchs, given GC is meant to be a street level campaign I'd say that this was intentional to highlight the difference between ganger security and the level that professional shadowrunners are used to. I think it went off perfectly well from my reading.

If I were to up the difficulty, I'd throw in more gangers and perhaps, heavy weapons (there are references to the gangs dealing tempo having access to milspec gear).

Just my $0.02 worth.

- J.

[Fuchs]

Yes. As I said - it was a nice opportunity to show off the differences.

[Prime Mover]

We finally got back to the table last night and the team went after Goldman.

[ Spoiler ]

I added a bit of meat to the plot here. Goldman was squeaky clean but his partner liked to hire escorts who could cater to his "tastes". This allowed the team to threaten the likelihood of the Goldman firm. Also added an older Goldman who headed up the firm and set out to "retire" the younger partner Jerry Goldstein after the blackmail was discovered. Lots of side work here going after the escort and getting her involved. Having to save Jerry from a "cleaner" crew and keep him alive to keep the blackmail feasible. With the team being so busy younger Goldman through his wife and a disposable comm was able to contact the FBI. Goldman got a head start and was nearly to the parking garage before the team could get a handle on what was happening. The teams vehicle gets disabled after entering the garages street level by the two yaks waiting in ambush. After a short fight an invisible mage and the mono whip wielding adapt escort the riggers drone too the second floor. The adapt, mage and grenade launching drone drag out the fight for several rounds against Chikaos men. Chikao escapes in one of the Sedans and heads down to the ground level. The adapt hurt badly and the drone heading back downstairs leaves only our invisible mage to face the now approaching swat team coming down the ramp he chooses a retreat with the adept. The swat burst fire and spirits finishing off the last two yaks still barely in the fight. Time running short and in no shape to deal with the swat team. The Rigger uses his jury rig to get the van started one last time while the hacker uses the drones gernade launcher to deal with the now approaching chikao who also just wants out of the building. Chikao and Goldman both wounded Chikao makes a hasty retreat over the entrance barrier leaving Goldman in the car with his projectile spur in his neck. Teams rigger activates the polymers on his SRT giving the look of an Doc Wagon vehicle buying a few moments of confusion as the Swat team arrives and hacker gets a door open. Some pursuit and a vehicle switch later and the team escapes to move on. The rigger despondent over having to blow up the remains of his favorite vehicle to avoid leaveing evidence behind but his jury rig not enough to make a long term run from the scene. Leaveing out the details of the blackmail as Jerrys perversion was shocking and a scene were they contacted the escort at a sushi bar were her naked body was the table.