Cut off it's head!, It's the only way to be sure... Options

[pbangarth]

We once went so far out of the prepared run, the GM threw the module (RPGA) out and put us through a Lemmings (computer game) scenario she created on the spot. One player finally figured out what was going on.

[StealthSigma]

We once went so far out of the prepared run, the GM threw the module (RPGA) out and put us through a Lemmings (computer game) scenario she created on the spot. One player finally figured out what was going on.

Was it all the guys walking around with blue suits, green hair, and egg shaped heads that tipped the guy off?

[pbangarth]

It wasn't quite that obvious. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Details man, detail!

[StealthSigma]

Dbl Post

[StealthSigma]

It wasn't quite that obvious. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah! Details. Because when I think Lemmings. I'm seeing a bunch of guys following each other in a line. Maybe some are standing there with their hands held outward, looking from side to side saying, "NO! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Other dudes might be randomly laying bricks to make a stairway to heaven knows where. You see a guy here or there digging towards China. This other guy is punching a wall and making a tunnel. Then suddenly, everyone around you explodes leaving a bunch of craters and sparkledust.

[pbangarth]

It was a long time ago (close to 20 years now), and details are sketchy. I also didn't know the game, so the weird stuff was just weird, rather than sticking in my mind. There was a lot of jumping... off of things, trampolines (?); a cannon(?).

Sorry, I just don't remember the details.

[Snow_Fox]

Let them follow the fluff one or two times them OOC popinto ut they are wasting time on red herrings and need to do better on time management. Then run plots with a time line. if you don't do something right by time X then Y happens and oh, hey you guys:
a) don't get paid
b) find the police looking for you
c) get fatally dead.

[Sephiroth]

Let them follow the fluff one or two times them OOC popinto ut they are wasting time on red herrings and need to do better on time management. Then run plots with a time line. if you don't do something right by time X then Y happens and oh, hey you guys:
a) don't get paid
b) find the police looking for you
c) get fatally dead.

That seems quite extreme for cases where the players are just having fun and driving forward the plot on their own initiative, instead of you having to baby-feed them (even if the plot they're developing isn't your planned plot for the session).

[Snow_Fox]

The GM sees it as an issue so I give a response. If he didn't ask for a fix he wouldn't be here.
I didn't mean to do all 3 options but they are ideas to consider.

[Saint Sithney]

There are different types of min-maxing. Doing it wisely is good for the game and vice versa. I always encourage my players to put a catch-all/general knowledge type skill into their characters' skill lists.

Yeah, sometimes people forget that players are playing against the system as well as the opposition. If you want to be able to do certain things, then you've got to have the dice, and you don't get that by wasting a quarter of your build points on flavor.

As far as characters knowing things that they don't have direct knowledge skills for, that's the magic of defaulting. Anyone with an Intuition of 5 can buy one hit on a default street knowledge test. Logic, naturally, can be boosted to crazy levels.
Besides that, the idea of knowledge or information as a rare commodity died back in the middle 90s, and Internet is nothing compared to the Matrix.

[Blog]

Don't forget to have fun with vehicles! A very common activity (for both runner and normals) is to have your vehicle come meet them for a pickup.

Scene was a vehicle pulled up near the runners and sat there for over a min with no one getting out, there was obvious signs of movement of something in the vehicle. They decided it was best to handle with high explosives. The owners came out of the building right about the time the car exploded. I think the dog was a pure-breed too.

What happened to the NPCs : "ok, we are done here i'm calling the car around" [dog wakes up as the vehicle moves and gets excited]. People run into someone and they chat a few. Dog remains anxious. Time passes. Boom!

Also dont forget their are script kiddies out there. Have a random vending machine chuck something at one of the PCs when he walks by. Or heck stalk a PC. Its just some teenager pulling a prank.... well until the PCs raid their house (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


Sometimes the "fluf" becomes embarassing stories that follow the characters around. Its all part of the character.

[Omenowl]

Paranoia is only a bad thing if there arent people\things out to get you. Most PC's *do*. Hell, I prefer cut its head off\nuke it from orbit in RL, just to avoid unnecessary complications and people\situations coming back again and again and again. Play against enough devious GM's and shooting everyone who isnt you starts looking a tad awesome

From a GM standpoint when you leave nothing but bodies so do your opponents. Cuts down on the sadastic bloodshed. There is a difference between being a professional who is caught and a genocidal group who should be put down for the good of society.

[Teryon]

From a GM standpoint when you leave nothing but bodies so do your opponents. Cuts down on the sadastic bloodshed. There is a difference between being a professional who is caught and a genocidal group who should be put down for the good of society.

I actually *prefer* being bloodless, unseen and unknown when accomplishing a job. But when Murphy sticks his nose in and things mess up, sometimes people get hurt. Then they get all butt-hurt when its just business (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Revenge(IMO of course) is a sucker's game, but its damned annoying when some little security guard starts up his own team just because you got him fired or shot him in the knee or somesuch. It all depends on how devious and conniving the GM is being really

[Omenowl]

I actually *prefer* being bloodless, unseen and unknown when accomplishing a job. But when Murphy sticks his nose in and things mess up, sometimes people get hurt. Then they get all butt-hurt when its just business (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Revenge(IMO of course) is a sucker's game, but its damned annoying when some little security guard starts up his own team just because you got him fired or shot him in the knee or somesuch. It all depends on how devious and conniving the GM is being really

I have no problems with wasting guys shooting at me. I just don't like leaving a trail of corpses because you are afraid they may remember you. What I don't want is even a unethical corporation to be sickened by the carnage and public outrage. I really don't want notoriety to be higher than the reputation.

[Teryon]

Our group has a motto: 'Zero residual presence'. If we've actually had to bring out the explosive rounds, vindicator, mana bolts, compelling people to shoot their own heads off and have the hacker bring in his armed drones, then things have gone far, far south. Talking Plan Z level south. We have a stealth troll for a reason after all.

This is only working because our GM is specifically *not* out for our blood in a manner that'd make Dracula take notice. We screw up we screw up and pay the consequences, but its not intentially 'Im going to do my best to kill you'. I havent always been so lucky. One home-brew system I played ended up with my character being the only surviving member of the human race after a giant bug invasion. GM was shocked, had been trying to kill me(right down to nukes and orbital kill shots) the whole time. Figured Id make the honorable choice. heh.

[Stahlseele]

stealth troll

wat?

also:
honor is for teh dumb!

[Yerameyahu]

I think a stealth troll is all black and covered with faceted surfaces, right?

[jaellot]

No, a Stealth Troll is a troll in rollerskates that everybody refers to as the Jackrabbit. Maybe a larger model one, 4 door or something. Could even give them some mirrored shades to pass as the windshield.

[Teryon]

Stealth Troll: A massive cybered troll, with no ruthenium plating or chameleon suit or anything, that has managed to successfully make his stealth rolls in the following situations:

A. Hiding in a room from a mass of Yakuza...then shooting them and hiding again. In the same room.

B. Hidden from a bunch of bugs in Chicago, despite wearing full armor and toting a vindicator.

C. Climbed up the side of a building by hand and surprised sniper by taking his rifle from him. Two rounds total for those events.

Ive seen his sheet, his stealth is 'ok', he just keeps making *really* good rolls and going up against a GM that for some reason cant roll worth shit with checks like this.

[Yerameyahu]

Heh, don't ruin the joke with reality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Actually, I'm sure the GM is resolving things wrong if all that happened. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) At some point, things are Obvious.

[Stahlseele]

Stealth Troll: A massive cybered troll, with no ruthenium plating or chameleon suit or anything, that has managed to successfully make his stealth rolls in the following situations:

A. Hiding in a room from a mass of Yakuza...then shooting them and hiding again. In the same room.

B. Hidden from a bunch of bugs in Chicago, despite wearing full armor and toting a vindicator.

C. Climbed up the side of a building by hand and surprised sniper by taking his rifle from him. Two rounds total for those events.

Ive seen his sheet, his stealth is 'ok', he just keeps making *really* good rolls and going up against a GM that for some reason cant roll worth shit with checks like this.

that
is
awesome.

[Teryon]

Heh, don't ruin the joke with reality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Actually, I'm sure the GM is resolving things wrong if all that happened. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) At some point, things are Obvious.

Enh, the Yak thing is the only one I wondered about, but when its *new* guys coming in and they're dumb enough to not check the dark room again, who am I to say? The rest, honestly, I can imagine a sniper being so wrapped up in his job he just doesnt notice his surroundings, especially since this was a normal opposing runner team and not prime runners. The bugs? *shrug* frak would I know, bugs = big scary things, not much else in my head.

As for ruining the joke, i figure the reality is just as funny. Im thinking of buying him a giant neon sign saying 'I ROLLED A 4', see if that helps his checks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[StealthSigma]

Enh, the Yak thing is the only one I wondered about, but when its *new* guys coming in and they're dumb enough to not check the dark room again, who am I to say? The rest, honestly, I can imagine a sniper being so wrapped up in his job he just doesnt notice his surroundings, especially since this was a normal opposing runner team and not prime runners. The bugs? *shrug* frak would I know, bugs = big scary things, not much else in my head.

As for ruining the joke, i figure the reality is just as funny. Im thinking of buying him a giant neon sign saying 'I ROLLED A 4', see if that helps his checks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

It's still pretty awesome. It is why I would love to have certain members of my RPG group DM. He has terrible rolls. All the time.