GenCon adventures, my experiences Options

[SaintHax]

So, my partner and I were at GenCon, and brought our 160+ career karma to play some TR6 games. I'll review the actual mods later when I can read them, but here's our "GenCon Experience" side of things.


1. CMP 2010-07 "Congressional Conspiracies", we sat down at the table with only 3 other players who were all fresh out of the box, and the players themselves were new. I suggested going TR4, but someone (I'll not say who) decided to push for TR6... which we got. We got knocked unconscious, stripped, and told to leave town and not come back. I say we got out butt kicked, but there is some argument as to some of the things that happened: mainly, there was a grey/confusing area of magic that we (and several other GM's) thought worked one way, but this one (and he may be right) believes another. That ciritical mistake got us F10 stunballed.

I will say that I'd reverse time, b/c I believe strongly at this karma level the character is smarter than the player. Two mages with 160 karma would not misunderstand this power at this level. However, it's one adventure and a learning experience-- and we made 2 other critical errors. We had fun regardless, and it was nice to be reminded we could finally fail at a mission. We got 2 karma for role playing.


2.SRM03-10 "Spin Control", another young table, but this time I was heeded and we played at TR5. This time we had some experienced players, and our new hacker was awesome due to his player's expeirence. We breezed through this ... but got 3 karma (notice this is only one more than failing and stripped naked). We got one for beating the mod, one for one objective, and only one for role playing. Our GM wanted us to "vote" for someone that was an outstanding role player (for bonus karma). We all voted for everyone at the table, and thus got one. I believe this style of "bonus" went out in the 90's, and this was a big black eye on the whole event.

I can deal with missing 2 karma at this point, but I personally feel insulted. I even said out loud, "this is the least amount of karma I've ever gotten in a SRM mod", but the GM didn't take the hint. I'll actively avoid this GM in the future, and get up from his table if he's running my event. Also, if you are running a rough draft/unfinished mod for SRM, don't talk about how bad the mod is to the players. They paid to have fun, not to hear about your problems.


3. CMP 2010-04 Humanitarian Aid, to make up for the last mod, Ray was the best SRM GM I've had since SRM00 days. We sat down with the same hacker, and a full table and went TR6-- we beat it, but barely. While I believe reading the mod will prove it to be cheesy (my suspicions), we had a lot of fun. If it wasn't for my buddy's uber mage, we would have been toast. The adept and I (mystic adept) felt pretty neutered.

[Redjack]

CMP2010-05 Lost Islands Found
Full table and a GM pretty new to SR4. Had to bite my tongue several times as he improvised dice rolls, but to his credit the game was fun and he kept the pace moving. The plot was ok except the cheese factor plot device at the end.

SRM03-12 Elevator Ride to Hell
Had a great time with this one. From the very beginning our team turned the plot on its ear and our GM was good enough to run with it without either giving up the game nor putting the hammer to us. I enjoyed the plot devices even as they disadvantaged the team.

Tournament: PITO/PITA
Where to begin? The plot.. What plot? This was by far the worst run I can remember and I say this after my team COMPLETELY blew the tournament two years ago. We did not get anything that was even close to objectives till the last hour and a half of the second night. I also think that our following the motivations of the team lead's character actually played against us... Even though playing your character is one of the three primary objectives of a tournament. The redeeming part of the two nights? Getting to play with a great team of runners.

CMP2010-04 Humanitarian Aid
I almost feel like I'm echoing here. David was our GM and was amazing. He accepted 9 players on Sunday morning and ran the game like a champ. For our team the adept, the sam and our drone rigger saved our bacon. I liked the plot and loved the last combat scenes. I was pretty sure we were gonna run short of body bags for the team.

[Wasabi]

Would someone put (SPOILERS!) in the thread name please?

[BlueMax]

CMP2010-04 Humanitarian Aid

I thought this adventure was slated for Origins and would love to have Play by play PMs (not posts for spoilerage on others) from anyone who played.

BlueMax

[Redjack]

Would someone put (SPOILERS!) in the thread name please?

I think we both did a VERY good job of not posting any spoilers.

[sinthalix]

So, my partner and I were at GenCon, and brought our 160+ career karma to play some TR6 games. I'll review the actual mods later when I can read them, but here's our "GenCon Experience" side of things.


3. CMP 2010-04 Humanitarian Aid, to make up for the last mod, Ray was the best SRM GM I've had since SRM00 days. We sat down with the same hacker, and a full table and went TR6-- we beat it, but barely. While I believe reading the mod will prove it to be cheesy (my suspicions), we had a lot of fun. If it wasn't for my buddy's uber mage, we would have been toast. The adept and I (mystic adept) felt pretty neutered.

Thanks for the compliment! That was a really fun Mission to run and ya'll did a great job with it...even being neutered, ya'll did well.

[map]

I was said "uber mage" who played with SaintHax, and had a blast at GenCon this year. All three tables we played at were fun, and that is what counts most. Special thanks to Mystwalker and sinthalix you guys did a great job running! I don't remember the other GM's name, but I also enjoyed that game as well.

Lastly, I noticed the Rating 6 tables were actually beefed up now. Rock on! I welcome this change.

[DWC]

What I Did for My Late Summer (Mini) Vacation

CMP2010-05 Lost Islands Found
Played at the same table as Redjack and I have to agree that we had a really good group. It was a fun, if very easy module, even at TR6. Perhaps the GM wasn't prepared to make use of the tools in it to challenge us, or perhaps we were better than I thought, but either way we breezed through. Amusingly, the only time all weekend that I took my assault rifle out of Semiautomatic. Suppressive fire with APDS is pricey but oh so good for keeping people bunched up to get brutalized with manaballs.

Good start to the long weekend of gaming.

Scramble
I sat down at the first table I saw, hoping to wolf down my lunch before things got rolling. Six other guys sat down around me and then I found out that I'd just become the 7th man with the famous dwarves. Great guys all around, and the Scramble was a lot of fun. I'd have enjoyed it slightly more had I been dressed for the 98 degree weather, but the concept of running around town still rules. The suborbital part was interesting, but fairly predictable, and the tabletop portion at the end, despite turning into a complete clusterfuck when we failed our mission and decided to instead kidnap a 12 year old boy was hilarious.

SRM3-09 And Now for Something Completely Different
Fifteen minutes into the module, I was looking for a reason that my character didn't walk out of the setting of the module to go find a hooker and some blow.

[ Spoiler ]

The memory wiping is ridiculous, especially for a run with such a feeble payout. I stuck with it out of morbid curiousity and wound up spending most of the first hour trying to figure out who my former company man was going to try to help out of her dress in the coat room to kill time until the big "AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENS!" moment.

The Dweller was hilarious, partially because the character has deep self loathing issues, and partially because no one could hit my duplicate.

At the end, I was trying to find a reason not to hunt down and kill everyone involved with bringing my PC into the job.

SRM3-10 Spin Control
I'm seeing a trend here. Played this one with SaintHax and his buddy. Good table. The GM, not so much. And in retrospect, I think we could have easily handled TR6.

[ Spoiler ]

I'm pretty sure he was angry at us the entire round because a bunch of alpha male badass shadowrunners weren't impressed by a gang member and a few UCAS government black ops guys.

It was a tough infiltration, and cracking that nut was a fun puzzle, which is what I look for in a Missions module.

I thought he was kidding when he gave us 1 karma for threat after playing at TR5, but I guess he figured that since we managed to consistently find the right tool for the job to address the obstacles placed before us without resorting to what was probably some pretty brutal combat, we must not have been challenged.

CMP1-X Stormcrow Undone
Great judge, great table. Had a lot of fun with it and I heartily recommend it to everyone.

Medium machineguns and close air support are an awesome combination.

SRM3-12 Elevator Ride to Hell
Elevators are like railroads, except it's harder to get off of them. I played this one with Redjack also, and this four hours was the poster child for why Missions shouldn't be run with 8 player tables. There were eight of us, and I'm pretty sure only 3 (maybe 4) of us really enjoyed ourselves.

Whiskey
The first of my two nights off from gaming saw me and a friend going through the Claddagh's entire whiskey selection, along with trying all their house mixed drinks. Fun time talking to someone I don't see as often as I'd like to.

SRM3-06 Jackknifed
3 person table at 8am on a Saturday. I had a blast from beginning to end.

SRM3-07 Knight at the Opera
Again, I had a great judge and a great table and had a lot of fun. The risks were gigantic and this was one of the few Missions where the rewards felt appropriate for the difficulty of the task placed before us.

SRM3-08 Firestorm
I got my affiliate orders, looked around, and decided to skip on them rather than screw the entire table over in two seperate ways. Fortunately, someone else didn't have any such compunctions, which allowed me to complete one of my two with a clear conscience. I missed the argument that ensued as everyone was figuring out what happened because I was busy stablizing a dying PC, but people seemed particularly not happy.

Playing 90% of the module on a novacoke/eX speedball crash also made for interesting times.

Great GM who remembered something throwaway from my introduction and battered me over the head with it. It's so rare to see a Poor Self Control issue really come back to haunt me.

UFC117
Sonnen/Silva was an interesting fight. Silva joined Lesnar in the list of UFC champions who've won big fights this summer with a Rope-A-Dope, though it was a sloppy submission with a controversial tap. I think Sonnon backed off from tapping, because he was getting out but what do I know?

[Wesley Street]

Tournament: PITO/PITA
Where to begin? The plot.. What plot? This was by far the worst run I can remember and I say this after my team COMPLETELY blew the tournament two years ago. We did not get anything that was even close to objectives till the last hour and a half of the second night. I also think that our following the motivations of the team lead's character actually played against us... Even though playing your character is one of the three primary objectives of a tournament. The redeeming part of the two nights? Getting to play with a great team of runners.

My table actually did very well the first night. Night two, stuff seemed to fall apart. We were actually writing and re-writing everything we knew on a sheet of paper and trying to connect the dots in the last half hour. Nothing was making sense in the context of the game, even with heavy GM hinting (which shouldn't have been necessary but was). So I just said "screw it" and shot one of the NPCs in the face just to wrap stuff up. We had fun but I don't think anyone was disappointed by our less-than-ideal resolution either.

Our GMs were both patient and very funny and we all easily got into character so a good time was had. We had a table of three married couples. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[DireRadiant]

So I just said "screw it" and shot one of the NPCs in the face just to wrap stuff up. We had fun but I don't think anyone was disappointed by our less-than-ideal resolution either.

That got a lot of points from me. Optimal Shadowrunner solution. Who do I shoot in the face to get paid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

As for the rest, you guys were a lot of fun to run and you all did very well with the IC information you did have.

[LurkerOutThere]

Lost Islands Found:
This was a wierd little module, our GM did a great job livening up and working with us on what was basically a rather boring set of mandatory low level combat encounters. He also let us skip the final fight as we were both going to cream the opposition and were running low on time. The pay was more crappy then normal considering the pay for the "second" job was insufficient to cover our lifestyle while while we were on the actual job.

The scramble: I joined the scramble late due to having to run a module but had great fun. As always Aaaron outdid himself and I really liked the suborbital idea even though we'll not likely be able to use that one again. My one nitpicky complaint is the AI/monster hanging out in VR was rather bull especially when we assembled a strike force to try and deal with it and still all got an automatic unresistable 4 physical for our trouble. If it was that bad news why ever would we let it continue to hang out in the planes systems? Even saying "Ok you guys all jump in there and have a knock down drag out brawl with this thing, you come out bruised and bloody but victorious" would have had a bit more closure then random VR monster eats your face making the tech side of the house a bit underwhelming, but we did get to play with Legos.

Manhunt:
I really don't have much recollection on this. We had fun and accomplished our mission but the plot kind of went skidding over my head and we just kind of stumbled through things tossing the various investigative scenes in a timely matter. The fight at the end was brutal and satisfying though I didn't understand the reason for some of the nuances behind it. Our GM did a great job and fun was had. For the first time I actually got pushed into overflow in this fight which was kind of frightening and I am since banking to raise body.

[LurkerOutThere]

By the way, anyone else have any take on Deconstructing or Congressional? Their my babies so to speak and their a bit rougher then I'd like, especially the latter but I'd love the feedback.

[Lost Demiurge]

Heya! I brought my pixie mage with 50-some karma in, and had a general blast. Few rough spots, but overall it was a good time.

Scramble:

This was probably the worst of it, for various reasons. We ended up holding spots at our table for latecomers, one of which showed and another who didn't due to commitments. We also ended up going with threat rating 6... In retrospect, a huge mistake. In my defense, I was unfamiliar with the TR system as implemented after the Denver campaign.

The legwork phase was problematic. We were supposed to pick up a fake package, and find a courier, then swap out the package he was carrying with our fake one. We got the fake package, and realized that we had no way of recognizing tracking the courier, beyond the fact that he was carrying the real package. So we went looking, and could not find anyone holding a package like ours.

Then when boarding the suborbital, the GM took our package rep, and gave it to the courier. Turns out there was only one physical representation for the package! No WONDER we couldn't find the guy! Irritating.

The suborbital flight was decent RP, but there wasn't much for me to do mechanics-wise. I was heavy magic, and magic was down for most of the flight. So I RP'd with people, and plotted ways to get the package. After enlisting some help, we spent a solid half hour getting the courier drunk, slipping him painkillers in his booze, and getting him to go to sleep before nabbing the package and handing it off to a teammate. Then for whatever reason another team took exception to that, and undid all our hard work with five minutes of arguing. Fine, fine. It happens.

We finally get the damn package during the tabletop switchover, after the suborbital crash. Sans our biggest guns, we are sent out to the depths of Salish-Sidhe to go deliver it. And this is where things REALLY go wrong. The GM's dice are on fire, and our dice could barely light a candle. We come to an obstacle I should be able to circumvent without trouble, and my few efforts at elemental summoning nearly KO me. After giving up and letting the trolls brute force their way through it, we get thoroughly wasted by a special forces team. Four out of five of us get dropped, and we barely make it out of there. Mission failed.

That was a lot of crap to go through for 4 karma. Some of it could've been avoided maybe if we'd had a full team or better luck or chosen a lower TR, and I don't grudge the other teams for blocking us a bit, but... The fact there was only one package rep sucked, and killed our chances of getting much done in legwork.

I DID like the card mechanics though. And everyone I RP'd with was pretty cool, so no objections there.

We'll see how the Scramble goes next year... Might miss it if something else interesting is in that slot.

MP01-08: Stormcrow Undone

Fun mission! Got to play with the dwarves for the first time... They were a class act! The GM was nuts enough to accept several generic ticket folks, so we had a table of 10(!) Coulda been bad, except that we coordinated and took care to work with him. The mission itself was well-written, though we spent most of our timeslot going "off the map". It was a good refresher after my dismal time at the Scramble, and so I decided to pull in a few more missions this Con. And I'm glad I did, because the best was yet to come...

MP01-05: Lost Islands Found

This was a fun mission, and I got to show off a bit with stunballs flying left and right, taking groups of mooks! The GM forgot to include the table rating dice for the first part of it, so it seemed a little easy... But we were too busy RPing, beating up bad guys, and generally rocking to care. He kicked the dice in after noticing it later so things got tougher, but by then we'd gotten the rhythm and it worked well.

SRM03-12: Elevator Ride to Hell

This, THIS was where it all came together. Without going into spoilers, it was a mission that showed off the benefits of avoiding the trap of being a one-trick pony. It was an awe-inspiring season ender where failure resulted in horror, and it was a very real sense of satisfaction to end this one successfully. Our GM was spot on and rolled with the punches we threw his way, and now my character's got the mother of all war stories to tell, in later missions.

CMP 2010-06: Deconstructing Patriots

I thought Elevator Ride to hell would be the capstone of the con for me. I was happy to be wrong! THIS mission topped it. Simple objective, but we had to work our butts off and go through a lot of fuss to get there! It was a nail-biter all throughout, with tension on every significant roll, and the knowledge that even just a couple screwed up would blow the op... I love the fact that we had some real choices to make at the end, and ended up in a multi-character IC argument, that was RP'd out beautifully.

CMP 2010-04: Humanitarian Aid

This was a good one to end on, Sunday Morning. The mission itself was not so great, but the GM was a trooper, and the RP was excellent. I'm kinda sorry I took a magic character on this one, but oh well.

All in all, a solid B+ for the con... I will say that every GM I ran under worked their butts off, and were quite polite and pleasant to deal with. The player community was friendly, and I'd happily drink with anyone I played with/socialized with/antagonized in-character. I look forward to seeing you guys next year, and hope that the Pixie's attitude didn't grate too much!

Regards,
-A

[agustaaquila]

The legwork phase was problematic. We were supposed to pick up a fake package, and find a courier, then swap out the package he was carrying with our fake one. We got the fake package, and realized that we had no way of recognizing tracking the courier, beyond the fact that he was carrying the real package. So we went looking, and could not find anyone holding a package like ours.

Um, there was a second representation of the package. My team was responsible for finding the original package, and transporting it to somewhere in the Barrens in Seattle. We correctly guessed where our contact would be, and bought the package from him. (hurrah me throwing money down, not being concerned about getting paid.) The package then went in my satchel bag, where it did not leave until it was handed over to the contact. To make matters even more complicated, our group broke up and two of the groups went out to make noise. I paid the guy I was with a sizable amount of money to not shoot me in the face. We then took the docs out and I carried them in my folder, while my partner kept the package for the duration of the flight. (We lied to our teamates where the docs were as well. In addition, we wondered around Indy, got lost, navigated ourselves to Lucas Oil Stadium, considered climbing over some walls but decided not too, and eventually found our way back to the station and the room.

So the other package was out there. It was just kept concealed for the entirety of the time. The fake package caused concern for our group, but we were confident that we had the correct package. I was involved in other things on the suborbital, so was unaware of the argument.

Yes it sucks to an extent that teams were running against each other, and how hard some groups were willing to go to conceal stuff. I loved the scramble, and will consider doing it again next year. Thanks a lot Aaron for putting everything together.

[Lost Demiurge]

Oh, okay. That makes me feel better, then.

No harm, no foul.

[Sludig]

As the writer of Stormcrow Undone, damn, didn't think it would get as good of reviews as it is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Admittedly, when I sent it in to be printed/etc for the con, I suggested a map, unfortunately they weren't able to get a hold of one for the Con. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Aaron]

As the writer of Stormcrow Undone, damn, didn't think it would get as good of reviews as it is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Admittedly, when I sent it in to be printed/etc for the con, I suggested a map, unfortunately they weren't able to get a hold of one for the Con. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

It could use a bit of polish, sure, but for a convention adventure, it had plenty of detail. I had to scale it a bit for my egregiously populous table, and I had to make a bit up where they wandered away from town, but neither of those sorts of things are expected to be covered in an adventure. All in all, it was a blast to run.

[DocTaotsu]

Did anyone play the CMP's Manhunt or Ashes? If so, I'd love to hear any feedback you might have.

[Game2BHappy]

@LurkerOutThere

Sorry for the late reply - I don't check the boards often enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I played Congressional Conspiracies along with a couple other friends on that Saturday. We really enjoyed the story and that session's group. It was a full table but our GM (Galan) still rocked it. Here is an account from Happy (who has a much better memory than me):

[ Spoiler ]

"well, had a nice ability to balance talking through (scenario A with the voodoo chick), and shoot-em-up scenario B (the stuffer shack).

IT was kinda fun/nostalgic to revisit the familiar stuffer shack mini-adventure that was in the first main book back in '91.

Seemed like there was plenty of info on the two sites available, and on the related gangs, etc. to plan -- but not get bogged down in over-planning.

The beginning was a little contrived (CIA guy flys us in for a job that gets cancelled?) but in the con setting, it needed to mesh with the run before it, and integrate two sets of players -- those that were part of that run & those that weren't. (I didn't play the one before it, so not sure how that figured in…. it might also have put the players more at ease with the person they were dealing with if they'd just come off another run with him?)

Overall, I liked it.

And I thought the GM was the most knowledgeable one we've had, as far as his ability to understand and actively GM all the special stuff."

I should send some Street Cred to the other players too (besides the friends I came with - they get nothing but Notoriety from me!). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think the rest of the group was: the east-coast duo 1D6 & Ten, Billie, Jason, & Adam (at least a couple new characters/players in there that I hope keep playing!). A lot of teamwork and RP there.

I also played the Scramble, Tournament, Copycat Killer, Humanitarian Aid, & Stormcrow Undone. I'll post some more for the other authors & GMs if I get ambitious. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Bull]

Game: I'd love hear your feedback for Copycat Killer, as that was my first written adventure. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bull

[Game2BHappy]

@Bull
Forgive my hazy memory on this one, I really do appreciate all the work people like you put into creating these adventures - I know they are not easy! I have GM'ed 100+ SR session and never once written down any with such detail (which I guess I should change).

With that, I'll give info on the few details I have. At future Cons, I will make a point to take notes!

[ Spoiler ]

Heh. I'm a little fuzzy on the details on Copycat Killer, but I do remember bringing a new character and getting taken out by a spirit before we even knew we were in combat. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It wasn't the story's fault - just no hits seeing a spirit coming, followed by a surprise attack with great hits and no hits on my character's resistance ... even with edge. The rest of the team did much better thankfully!

This is a bit gut feel, but during the middle of the run I recall at our table we were a bit back and forth between being lost and being led. The illusion of control was not there. Not sure if it was the adventure or us?

We were definitely at a loss on how to approach the final area where the antagonists were hiding out. Our attempts at scouting airborne, astral, OPs were all a bust so we went in blind and we never got a feel for what the environment was that we were walking blindly into even when we were standing in it.

I can't remember the details of the beginning, but I remember the storyline started well at the job hire - i.e. characters were motivated to drive the story.

So that's my (barely) review. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

GM may have had an effect on it as well. Her adherence to the RAW may have somewhat stifled a couple of the player's creative ideas. I don't want to sound negative about my experience with her as a GM either - she was by far the most prepared and one of the most courteous and patient GMs at the Con. I would play one of her games again and think she would make a great player as well.

[Dantic]

Game: I'd love hear your feedback for Copycat Killer, as that was my first written adventure. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bull

Not Game. (obviously) I played Copycat Killer @ Dragon, with my (then) 12 karma TM.

[ Spoiler ]

I liked the mod. We had a good table, with experienced Shadowrunners. We had one or two high karma characters, which helped us feel safer, and so we ran at TR4. Most of the table was made up of those, like myself, with a lot of Shadowrun experience, but maybe new to Missions. We did bog down a little, during the investigation phase of the run, but once we got back on track, did not have difficulty with the final encounter. Unlike what Game described, we managed to scout the area effectively, through the combination of magic, drone/radar imaging, and my own scan for hidden nodes. I hacked the big bosses comm, and messed with his cyber, but truthfully, by that time, He was only one of two left standing, and was well doomed, though we were able to take him alive.

We had a well balanced team, with magic (adept and caster), guns, rigging, and hacking all covered.

My only objection, would be that I don't particularly care for slogging around in Seattle, as this has been done to death. I realize, that with the next season of Missions, we will return to the emerald city, and that there is a lot of source material available, so I can deal with it.

On a side note, I wish that I could have played some in Denver, I liked the setting.

[Toppro]

My table actually did very well the first night. Night two, stuff seemed to fall apart. We were actually writing and re-writing everything we knew on a sheet of paper and trying to connect the dots in the last half hour. Nothing was making sense in the context of the game, even with heavy GM hinting (which shouldn't have been necessary but was). So I just said "screw it" and shot one of the NPCs in the face just to wrap stuff up. We had fun but I don't think anyone was disappointed by our less-than-ideal resolution either.

Our GMs were both patient and very funny and we all easily got into character so a good time was had. We had a table of three married couples. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hehe, I was at that table. Shooting the Vory guy in the face worked just fine if you ask me. I just think we didn't know enough about the motivations of the various NPCs.