Dawn of the Artifacts questions, warning: possible spoilers Options

[Ghremdal]

Continued from this thread to avoid necromancy.

[ Spoiler ]

I've been planning on running a DotA:Dusk adventure for my players in a couple of weeks. The problem is that I really dislike the having Jane/Frosty tagging along with the players as a DMPC. I've been able to convert the module so it works without her, but I'm wondering how will the later part of the series will work if Jane/Frosty is out of the picture.

Can events in the latter part of the series be completed logically without Frosty? I prefer to keep the PCs in the spotlight, and not having NPCs lead them by the nose.

[Dr.Rockso]

Continued from this thread to avoid necromancy.

[ Spoiler ]

I've been planning on running a DotA:Dusk adventure for my players in a couple of weeks. The problem is that I really dislike the having Jane/Frosty tagging along with the players as a DMPC. I've been able to convert the module so it works without her, but I'm wondering how will the later part of the series will work if Jane/Frosty is out of the picture.

Can events in the latter part of the series be completed logically without Frosty? I prefer to keep the PCs in the spotlight, and not having NPCs lead them by the nose.

[ Spoiler ]

You might have trouble with midnight. Shes pretty important to the plot, but doesn't end up tagging along as much in the way i think you mean. Shes usually ends up in a static place while the runners do the dirty work

[Method]

[ Spoiler ]

If your group includes a mage you could handwave some of the rituals Frosty performs later on. Maybe make your Johnson a mysterious awakened archeologist (Harley is disguise?) who will "walk" your mage through the rituals remotely. Alternately, maybe by assensing the artifacts the mage gleans some knowledge of how to use them. Either way, ditching Frosty should not be a deal breaker.

[LurkerOutThere]

[ Spoiler ]

You might have trouble with midnight. Shes pretty important to the plot, but doesn't end up tagging along as much in the way i think you mean. Shes usually ends up in a static place while the runners do the dirty work

This is functionally not accurate, all Frosty is there for is to be a GMNPC/babysitter. THey've just gone the extra step now that in last adventure that she was shown to be "more powerfull then you could ever hope to be" of coming up with a reason to have her be depowered, which now you have to split forces and protect her in Midnight (or at least you'd be wise to).

There's nothing about either module that requires Frosty, there's nothing about Midnight that Frosty does in person that couldn't be better accomplished by an offsite NPC with a sat phone.

[Tiger Eyes]

The entire reason Frosty was included had to do with the overall plan for the Artifacts series - which originally included a tie-in trilogy of novels featuring Frosty and the runner team (I won't go into the plot too deeply here - let's say there were a lot of revisions and some horrendous ideas but Peter had it pretty well hammered out before Loren pulled the plug on it for various reasons - including wanting to blow Tir Na nOg up which Peter just wouldn't allow). Frosty's point in the adventures were to get players working with one of the main characters in the novels and to have an impact on course of events in the novel. Therefore, it was necessary to have Frosty in the adventures working directly with the runners.

Had the novels not been designed and plotted out before writing commenced on the first two adventures, Frosty would've stayed a Ms. Johnson (or potentially left out altogether - my first proposal had Elijah being the Mr. Johnson) and that would have likely been the end of it. Unfortunately both the first adventures were written before the whole novel debacle exploded, so we're left making lemonade out of lemons. I think the plot reasons developed primarily by Ancient History, Bishop McQ, and myself in the final campaign book would have tied it in nicely. The last two adventures, as written, have far less involvement of Frosty since they were written after the full plot was derailed.

Anyway. Yes, in the first and subsequent adventures, you can leave Frosty out - but you will need a PC or NPC magician. The adventures were designed for a team with magical support.

[LurkerOutThere]

Which to be honest is every single Shadowrunning team I've ever played with or ran for.

[Prime Mover]

Oh how much I'd pay to have an open subscription to a flyspy drone during some of these "meetings".

[Method]

No kidding. Blow up Tir-na-Og? Good thing Peter was there to stop that. Of course, Peter isn't there anymore... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Demonseed Elite]

My memory is fuzzy on the specifics (it has been a few years), but I remember when the whole Artifacts adventures line was being proposed. And some of the absurd ideas that were being attached to it (apparently from management) made me stay as far away as I could from it. I didn't want to touch the thing for fear it would come out horrible. Jen and Bobby were braver than I for even going near it. Fortunately, many of those lame suggestions imploded (I guess with the end of the novels idea and Peter's intervention) and so the end product was manageable.

[Ghremdal]

Thanks for the responses.

Another slight problem I have is with the auction for the map. Namely why should the PCs accept of the auction price for the retrieval of the map? Especially since they know their Johnson has offered 1 million nuyen for it. It offers a very real possibility for the steal the map, screw their Johnson and sell the map to the next highest bidder.


Since I won't include Frosty, the solution I came up with is that their Johnson flies in for the auction. He has the PCs waiting in the garage, while he is at the auction. When he loses he can call the PCs and offer them the 200k if they intercept and secure the map.

Do you think that is a smart way to handle it?

[LurkerOutThere]

[ Spoiler ]

It's certainly smarter then the planned roll out, I had some of the same issue. The team was hired to asist someone in recovering a piece of stolen property. THe property their tailing turned out to be a completely seperate item. Frosty then expects them to then steal an item worth milliions for their same payment they originally agreed on potentially hacking off a Great Dragon and a AAA megacorp. I have that section markin the module with the notation: This is where they will quit in disgust.

[sabs]

I would never take a run that potentially brings my notice to a Great Dragon as anything but a 1000+ karma character.
And even then, I probably wouldn't do it. Unless my character was dumb, or psychotic in some way.

[Ghremdal]

So my modified adventure is going to go like this:

[ Spoiler ]

One of the players cousin (a 5/5 fixer contact) sent a agent to Lagos to attend Oni's auction. This agent carried with him a valuable piece of art, which he wanted to present to Oni as a gift so he could attend the auction. The Fixer lost contact with his agent 3 days ago, and through his connections found out that the elf Samriel killed his agents and stole the art piece. Rumor has it Samriel will use the art piece as a gift to Oni so he can attend the auction.

The fixer calls up his cousin (the PC) with the job proposal: Go to Lagos, find Samriel, kill or capture him, and find a way to attend Oni's auction and act as the fixers agents. The finding Samriel part plays pretty much the same as in the adventure.

At Oni's palace when the PCs report to the fixer what items are on auction, the fixer decides the map is important enough to come to the auction himself. Securing a ticket to the auction plays pretty much the same.

The fixer arrives a few hours before the auction and meet with the PCs at the Global Sandstorm building. The PCs get hit with a ghoul ambush if they are stupid enough to trust the taxi drivers (though I'm not thinking endless supply of ghouls, but about 20. Note to self: run a encounter with ghouls before to see how deadly they are). If they don't trust the drivers they will get ambushed by the Apep consortium team (4 thugs, a rigger and the mage). Any thugs they kill won't be present in the chase scene.

Once the PCs get to the Global Sandstorm building, the fixer warns them that getting out of Lagos with any goods will be difficult, so he wants them to stay in the garage so they can swiftly leave when he is done. When Medjay wins the auction, the fixer contacts the PCs and offers them 200k for to stop Medjay and get the map. He will meet them at the airport. The chase scene goes as in the module.

Any suggestions?