Full Location, Apartment Complex Options

[knasser]

I disagree with that : )

Consider this...
Seattle architecture is rarely how we (I) imagine it - it's low and sprawling. Imagine a two-level strip office space. Office furniture has been stolen and damaged. What remains has been cobbled together into privacy walls. You have 2-4 full families in each "room" competing for space, a common cooking area, a latrine area. There's a little drug den around behind. The top level belongs to the local gang, for meeting, fighting, storing goods for sale, and also LP/OPs. The whole place needs some sort of security - just gangers and 6-year-old spotters? Tin cans on a wire? Who are their neighbors? Dealers? Stuffer Shack? The Johnson's laundromat? What's the street access yet. Have they created a barrier out of something to protect their little fief? Do they charge a toll to use this road?

I look forward to seeing it when you're finished. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Excellent building, although if it were named for our Beloved Governor Kenneth Brackhaven... excuse me **walks off and various gagging noises can be heard before his return**. Sorry about that. Was saying that if it were named for Kenneth, then in our campaign it would have to be the Brackhaven Memorial Tower. Maybe it can be one of the structures built to replace the ones that have been destroyed in the last few days in our campaign (Seattle isn't a happy place at all right now in the Shadow Kingdom).

A suggestion for having the pool/bar/gym area on top would be to have the top two floors of the building to act as support and physical plant (water circulation, building A/C, etc.), as well as a place for the roof to be widened somewhat. Then have the pool situated around two of the building sides, the gym/bar along the third side, and the dome segregating them all from the helipad with the building's existing central lift column providing access to all. Having the pool and helipad situated above the building's primary roof air intakes would also provide a measure of physical security as it would be harder for someone to access them from topside (and the interior access can benefit from all the usual interior security).

All good suggestions. I really must get comments enabled on my site so that future downloaders can see all these suggestions. I've drawn a line under changes now, though as I'm in the midst of the next location - a Fire Draka lair. Thanks for the positive feedback. It keeps me writing this sort of stuff.

K.

[nemafow]

The location or the ongoing confessional about the state of our bathrooms?

K.

The location (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) I'm going to use the resource in a session very shortly

(apologies for the late message)

[knasser]

The location (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) I'm going to use the resource in a session very shortly

(apologies for the late message)

That's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. If it's not too much trouble, post back to say how it went, even if it's minor! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

K.

[FriendoftheDork]

I disagree with that : )

Consider this...
Seattle architecture is rarely how we (I) imagine it - it's low and sprawling. Imagine a two-level strip office space. Office furniture has been stolen and damaged. What remains has been cobbled together into privacy walls. You have 2-4 full families in each "room" competing for space, a common cooking area, a latrine area. There's a little drug den around behind. The top level belongs to the local gang, for meeting, fighting, storing goods for sale, and also LP/OPs. The whole place needs some sort of security - just gangers and 6-year-old spotters? Tin cans on a wire? Who are their neighbors? Dealers? Stuffer Shack? The Johnson's laundromat? What's the street access yet. Have they created a barrier out of something to protect their little fief? Do they charge a toll to use this road?

I always struggle over all these details. Every time I go in the barrens I come to hate Seattle more, because looking on the maps, everything is rolling, green hills, pleasant suburban homes and elementary schools. I definitely would enjoy your spin on the situation.

Yeah I addressing the issue in my "Urban vs Sprawl" thread. However, we came to the conclusion that Seattle has changed a lot in recent years (last 50 years), and population density means that in addition to sprawling the city also grows vertically - thus you have things like the Renraku/UCAS arcology, the Aztech Pyramid, and alot of highrises.

Even today Seattle's city centers have skyscrapers, and I'd think at least 5 story office buildings would be common even outside the most urban areas.
If you want to find low architecture I'd think what remains of housing in the Barrens would be appropriate - these houses are probably 60-70 years old, and features the old iconic suburban houses in cul-de-sacs. Of course the state of these houses would be very bad - probably similar to a warzone or Berlin 1945. Still some are intact and in use by gangers and squatters.

BTW Nasser - great work. If only I had the patience of making such detailed maps myself. I'll be sure to use this some day.

However the Matrix section is sorta staggering - do draw maps of matrix topology for all the systems the runners are likely to hack/interact with? I myself try to limit the time it takes (out of game) to hack systems as the other players have nothing to do meanwhile. Also while I understand the concept of security in depth, making the hacker hack 3 nodes just to get what he wants, with a small chance of failure seems excessive when he might just make one harder check instead. In other words, limit dicerolling as much as possible.

I also hate extended tests in the game and before the rule of "lose a die with every toss," I always used the quick extended test option.

[Warlordtheft]

That's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. If it's not too much trouble, post back to say how it went, even if it's minor! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

K.

I used it in the corprate downtown area of Calcutta. While it did not get used for tactical combat, the design did make for a great way to meet one of the NPCs (Top of a posh apartment complext in a bar over looking one of the temples across the river. Defnitely helped in giving atmosphere to the meeting between their Johnson and the NPC.

[knasser]

However the Matrix section is sorta staggering - do draw maps of matrix topology for all the systems the runners are likely to hack/interact with? I myself try to limit the time it takes (out of game) to hack systems as the other players have nothing to do meanwhile. Also while I understand the concept of security in depth, making the hacker hack 3 nodes just to get what he wants, with a small chance of failure seems excessive when he might just make one harder check instead. In other words, limit dicerolling as much as possible.

I also hate extended tests in the game and before the rule of "lose a die with every toss," I always used the quick extended test option.

I do tend to sketch out Matrix systems to roughly that level of detail in my game, although you have the presentation version in this PDF. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Sometimes I have to improvise, but if it's something I know will come up I'll ideally prep it like this.

As regards these networks in play, I try to cut them to fit. I can tell you how this one played out in game. Firstly, it was the player's first serious attempt at hacking (prior to this had just been a couple of vehicles). The group hadn't had a hacker before so there was some general interest from everyone. Additionally, the hacker player was narrating things to them over the commlink as she went along, reporting what she'd found and taking advice. It didn't take that long and it held interest. In this case it proceeded as follows:

Set-up: The players are seeking a particular target. They suspect she lives in this apartment builiding (she does, but it's under her husband's name which threw them earlier) and they want to check it out before they go in guns blazing. Two of them have set up a fake road works across the street and are keeping a watch on the place. The hacker connected up to the public reception node and hacked in at Security level. That only took a moment of real time (pointing the appropriate total (pre-calculated) on her character sheet and a few opposed rolls. The difficulty level of this system is not that high - it's just an apartment building. She got in and the other players started making suggestions what she should look for: "see if there's a record of who comes in, etc." There was but they wanted more info. The hacker had options of hacking further in to either the Building Management system or the Building Security system. This prompted some discussion amongst them or whether it was best to go for the juicy security node or make do with the management systems first. The group decided that tipping off their target was a serious risk as she might go to ground and they'd lose her and that the information from the management system might be enough for them, even if it wasn't perfect.So another hacking attempt was made with everyone watching. Again, this is just a few opposed rolls and only took a minute. From there, she was able to get a lot more information, identifying the apartment and that their target was out at the moment.She then decided to go for the security node in the end, the rolls were looking a bit chancy though so the other players started saying "Get out. Get out now." "We've got enough, we can use this." It was fun, people were participating with advice on exactly where the balance between risk and reward was best placed for them. Now if the hacker player had been a bit more selfish in monopolising the search and not listened to them, or had got involved in an intensive battle with IC, it would have been a bit different. But the former shouldn't happen in a good adventure - everyone should have a stake in the outcome and therefore an opinion on the process. And if she encounters IC, then her main aim would probably to get out of there. You only stick around if there are high stakes and if there are high stakes the rest of the team are probably on the edge of their seats rooting for her anyway. Combat flies when there's only one PC involved. This is also a smallish system. You'll find that when I design larger systems, they tend to have two qualities. Firstly, they tie into an active run quite closely. E.g. the hacker is cracking the doors open as the PCs sneak in, disabling motion sensors as they pass. Secondly, larger systems are often too hard to hack for a lone person (note I don't have TM's in my game), so the hacker is dependent on support from the team: infiltrate into area X, plug the wireless drone relay into Nexus Y, torture the security chief, you have fifteen minutes to get his passcode out of him, etc. The principle in both of these is of course team work.

I'd say if your group are individuals that basically sit there waiting for their chance to show off and gripe at other people getting too much time, then you're forced into the role of mother, making sure every player gets their share. That's inevitable anyway, but if the team is a bit more of a, well, team, then they should all be willing to get involved in one player's efforts on their behalf. And larger systems, as I say, are a team effort regardless of who is a hacker and who isn't. If you're designing Matrix systems as a solo-game for the hacker player, you're doing it wrong.

(Also, I know the Matrix rules backwards. That helps too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

K.

[nemafow]

That's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. If it's not too much trouble, post back to say how it went, even if it's minor! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

K.

Will do, you may have to wait a little bit though, I have a feeling the whole group is going to be dying next session (tomorrow night) so may have to try it with a new set of characters.

[FriendoftheDork]

I do tend to sketch out Matrix systems to roughly that level of detail in my game, although you have the presentation version in this PDF. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Sometimes I have to improvise, but if it's something I know will come up I'll ideally prep it like this.

SNIP!

I'd say if your group are individuals that basically sit there waiting for their chance to show off and gripe at other people getting too much time, then you're forced into the role of mother, making sure every player gets their share. That's inevitable anyway, but if the team is a bit more of a, well, team, then they should all be willing to get involved in one player's efforts on their behalf. And larger systems, as I say, are a team effort regardless of who is a hacker and who isn't. If you're designing Matrix systems as a solo-game for the hacker player, you're doing it wrong.

(Also, I know the Matrix rules backwards. That helps too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

K.

Woah long answer. I must admit I don't have the time or patience to write up those models. You sound like you have a nice group. In my old group (which was very nice as well), the hacker was more of a loner, and didn't trust the team completely and certainly didn't think they were competent enough to give hacking advice, thus he never gave them info they didn't need. Thus the team couldn't help out with tips unless metagaming (and he didn't really need tips anyway). So instead we got the the point where the other players started playing Magic the Gathering instead every time the hacker would hack a significant node. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) yeah I know I should have stopped it right away but there you have it.

Now I didn't design hacking as solo-games, it was just that the player in question kept asking questions, testing things and basically pushing everything to the limit whenever he hacked, and such things take time. The mage in the group went on similar "solo missions", but his were much shorter typically as he met unexptected resistance or was quickly done with his scouting.

Your group probably has a very different background and culture, while in my (old) group the basic mantra from D&D was "never split the party." Not because it was dangerous or foolish, but because it meant everyone else had to wait while a single player did everything.

In any case the issue with hacking was one of the main reasons the campaign ended in the first place. This time around I'm gonna try to prevent the same thing from happening. Also, this group seems to be much happier when the hacker is able to do the whole mission by himself and they can just chill it and get karma (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Well as long as they get some action once in awhile.