[X] My Assistant

[BishopMcQ]

Hey folks--

The stars have aligned, our shadow assets succeeded, and the most recent chapter of Missions was posted on time today. You can find it on Battlecorps and DriveThruRPG. Expect a post announcing it and the other two new releases for today to come up onto Shadowrun4.com some time soon.

[DireRadiant]

Some things you just need to do yourself.

BTW, I really enjoyed doing this Mission.

[LurkerOutThere]

Wow between this and 10 gangs it's like Christmas come early, this really gives me hope of a more regular release schedule going forward

[BishopMcQ]

I'm very hopeful! I've already seen some art pushing in for various Missions.

[Freejack]

Got it! Already assimilating it (and noting errors; you can't take the proofreader out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ).

Carl

[Axl]

I will be running "Knight at the Opera" soon. I have a couple of concerns. As soon as Ruby tells the player-characters the address of the safehouse, they will all want to go there and snoop around. In the case of some of the corp affiliates, they will also want to place cameras, and in one case, take a blood sample from the girl! However there is a strong chance of this infiltration being discovered before the opera.

[LurkerOutThere]

Yes, what's your question? *BIG EVIL GRIN*

[ Spoiler ]

Although in the case of the camera's our GM had the house already have them and that seemed reasonable to me so all that was necissary was subverting the houses systems. The blood sample would be tricky as all hell and I have no idea how you would get it without physically penetrating the site or doing something well beyond the scope of the module.

[Axl]

The PCs will attempt to hack into the house systems, any commlinks there, break in, search around, place their cameras, and in one case try to take a blood sample from the girl. There is nowhere near enough information about the house to go through these activities.

[LurkerOutThere]

Ok i think i see your concern

[ Spoiler ]

Looking at a few of the missions some of the affiliation side misisons are left up to a lot of GM judgement I remember in one of the missions I had to gather intel on 3V. GM kind of came up with a threshold for some data searches and we went from there. Now Knight of the Opera there is a fair amount of potential for the Affiliate actions to mess with the mission as a whole so I would suggest the following. As far as device ratings and the like for hacking the house I'd assume a System and Firewall of about 4 or 5 depending on the TN. Stats for the security staff are depicted. If the runners get caught you could compartmentalize it to just that runner is dealt with (by having NYPD inc called or otherwise) or it might lead to mission failure depending on how indiscrete they are. Maybe Blackjack will have some additional comments as he wrote it but those would be what i'd use for a baseline.

On the whole I would just roll with things, set some reasonable TN's and reward clever and smart play and punish stupidity. One of the only instances I've heard of the blood sample thing working was a PC surveyed the house and then bribed one of the nursing staff to get the sample for them, not something in the module sure, but it was clever enough for the GM and reasonable enough for the setting.

[LurkerOutThere]

Either way let us know how it goes.

[Axl]

Thanks, Lurker. I'm gonna have to put in some extra preparation before the game; statting the house wireless, guards, shift changes, etc. We'll see how it goes.

[SaintHax]

Great job!

[Axl]

Okay, I ran the Mission on Saturday. It went well in the end. Fortunately, none of the 'runners tried to break into the house (it would have violated the contract). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

I am a little disappointed by some of the requirements for corp affiliation offers. For many of them, there is no conceivable way that a player could pre-empt those tasks without knowing about them in advance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/indifferent.gif)

[LurkerOutThere]

I noticed that about Knight at the opera as well, on the other hand there are other modules where it is very easy to stumble into an affiliation. SRM00 for example I have yet to have a table where everyone didn't get at least an offer.

[BishopMcQ]

One thing to remember is that the Missions were written with the presumption that they will be played in order. While we understand that occasionally a Mission will be played out of order, the earlier Missions in the series are easier to "stumble into an affiliation," whereas the later ones do require a bit more effort to earn affiliation and get the reward.

[LurkerOutThere]

While it is certainly nice to hope that missions will be run in order I don't think it's safe to always assume that lets take my own intro to SRM I went to a big con and played what was getting ran, loved it and wanted more. While it's nice to hope that things will be played from start to finish and in order I don't think it wiill ever totally work out that way. I for example played in and out a module that builds off Burning Bridges a module I have yet to read or play (still holding out hope I can get it in). Such is kind of life. Actually one specific issue I wanted to raise about the module spoilers below.

[ Spoiler ]

One of the mission objectives involves mapping out a route through the underground and placing tags along it. I looked at this and can't figure out any way that it ties into the module itself (maybe it goes off a deleted scene?) The only way i could see it even being remotely tied in is if they tried to move the principle through the underground a plan that the module itself doesn't even plan for. In fact info on the underground is rather sparse if you don't have access to rotten apple. Having things that arn't directly related to the module doesn't bother me, but this one in particular seems like it goes way way off into left field so much that I thought i'd ask about it.

[BishopMcQ]

Lurker--

[ Spoiler ]

It presumes you get smuggled in or out of Manhattan through the Underground. (The most common way to get in.)

[LurkerOutThere]

Well if i might respectfully respond

[ Spoiler ]

The biggest problem with that is it's never even mentioned. I can't remember a single mention of the underground in any of the mods outside of Knight of the Opera and maybe Firestorm(which I havn't read yet) and even Knight's actual planned encounters imply you'll be taking either an overland out via car or otherwise or a boat trip neither of which should involve the underground. I'm all for using the underground in modules as I believe it is a cool aspect of Manhattan. However I really don't want to see this become Denver where every module included an arbitrary "Roll some dice to see if your messed with at the border crossing" It would be a hard balance to keep. Plus maybe my world vision is wrong but I figured getting into Manhattan is a bear, getting out should at least be somewhat easier.

[Axl]

Lurker & BishopMcQ, I had that problem in the game too. The NYPD affiliate wanted to contact a smuggler to obtain passage. I had to design an appropriate contact and make up some fees.

[DireRadiant]

Axl, this is where the catalyst demo team earns the big bucks.

Also, if the PC decide to follow a secondary objective in a manner that may explicitly preclude completing the initial mission offer, that's fine and entirely up to them. That kind of decision is just the same as any other one where they decide to do something other then what the Johnson asked. Life is about choices and some are mutually exclusive.

[Axl]

"Axl, this is where the catalyst demo team earns the big bucks." - DireRadiant

Um, okay. Although I'm unsure how that's relevant to the discussion above.

"Also, if the PC decide to follow a secondary objective in a manner that may explicitly preclude completing the initial mission offer, that's fine and entirely up to them. That kind of decision is just the same as any other one where they decide to do something other then what the Johnson asked. Life is about choices and some are mutually exclusive." - DireRadiant

Okay, your point is valid. On the other hand, an attempt to reach a secondary objective that leads to derailment of the main mission creates no fun for anyone. Several of the secondary objectives from that mission could have easily led to this. Ironically, the party hacker is a Renraku affiliate. He just made a couple of rolls to achieve his objective. He also picked up NeoNET affiliation.

[LurkerOutThere]

Well to be fair part of shadowrun is having people with conflicting goals and interests and potential ramifications of a job beyond just the job. At first I was very skeptical if the missions concept could pull that off but I feel the affiliations work beautifully for that. In addition to my advice elsewhere about not loosing site of the prize when it comes to accomplish other missions as a GM I would not have one character do something that might derail the mission without the other players have a chance to somehow intervene.

[DireRadiant]

"Axl, this is where the catalyst demo team earns the big bucks." - DireRadiant

Um, okay. Although I'm unsure how that's relevant to the discussion above.

You could script out everything you can possibly imagine in the Mission and the players will always come up with something you have to figure out on the fly. Always. Just have fun with it and don't let it get to you. It can be the funnest part of the mission, those out of script bits.