The seventh session.., A lot of work for nothing. Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Standard Switch to: Linear+

[hyphz]

So, after the last session and the feedback received here I decided to get my homework done for the following session. Since the runners had already dropped the reporter's body off with the ghouls, I decided to proceed with the Dirty Pretty Money framework because it had some nice creative possibilities at the beginning and a good firefight in the parking garage at the end, against enemies who were sufficiently powerful to challenge the runners. I tweaked them a bit, sorting out some obvious skill errors in the text and giving them airburst grenades (because everyone's going to have them, aren't they) and prepared some tactics for the groups and for the mages and multiple spirits.

The runners missed the whole thing.

I also decided to enforce the limit of Armor 6 on the car. Zod's player then swapped the car for an Ares truck with Body 12 and Armor 12 as standard values. I also enforced - having forgotten about it before - the limit of only being able to activate a number of Foci equal to Logic. Dawg's player announced he intended to respec as a Hermetic to avoid MAD.

We started with the runners going to investigate the reporter to find out about what she had been doing before she was killed. The runners broke into her apartment and found a few handwritten notes about "disappearances" and her computer. Zod's player at this point announced his intent to chargen a hacker, saying he was frustrated at being unable to access data from computers. I pointed out that nobody had actually tried to hack the computer yet and that I could easily make it easy, or gloss over hacking bits, if the players weren't interested - but if he genuinely wanted to play a hacker that was an option to. So Mr. Happy Punch was duly retired and replaced with "a hacker" who I don't recall the name of. He managed to break into the computer and extract some notes on what the reporter was up to.

The runners head back to meet Dae, who gives them the next mission: obtaining blackmail material on Goldman and then bringing him in. Now, at this point the runners' plan became quite bizarre and even I'm not quite sure exactly what was going on. It went something like this: they tried to head over to Brackhaven Associates at night, but found the building locked up, so they dressed Faceman up in a business suit and sent him to Goldman's apartment where he met up with his wife (I decided he was working late that night - since that's a clue as to his weakness) and took tea in the house while he waited for Goldman to show up. (Since the "Death Car" - or "Death Truck" killers were known only by their vehicle at that time, she didn't freak when she saw him.) When Goldman arrived, Faceman witnessed an argument between him and his wife about "bringing his work home" and Goldman immediately went to speak to Faceman - who suddenly realised he had no idea what Goldman was working on, and thus no idea what to say.

So, he bluffs wildly by saying that he's heard from Lone Star that there's a plot afoot to blackmail him, and that they want him to go with them to meet the "drug dealers" who are blackmailing him and pretend to agree to work for them, and then they'll take him away safely. Meanwhile, "the hacker" is hacking his Commlink, and finds a few messages sent back and forth between him and his psychiatrist. Following this up to the psychiatrist's database he's able to get a recording of one of his sessions, and then use Edit to alter it to make it sound like he was searching for help with issues involving tampering with children. (I'm not sure if Edit is meant to be that easy to use, but he had Edit 5, so hey.) He also wanted to know if he could log into Goldman's bank through his commlink to transfer his money to the runner's fake accounts - does anyone know if this works or if t's even possible?

So, Faceman escorts Goldman out to the truck. At this point I suggest that Goldman might well freak out at seeing the "death truck" - but it's been chameleoned to have Lone Star colours and since it's now an off-the-peg truck the players argued there'd be quite a lot of them around. So, they bundle him into the truck and Kane messages Dae to let her know what's happening. Dae asks them to send her the blackmail material, and they reply that they can have it with her shortly. She points out that she can't just say "you will work for us or we'll do something bad we'll work out later" so they go ahead and send her the doctored recording.

They pull up to the abandoned warehouse and see another car parked outside. "Hacker" tries to hack into it and examine GridGuide to see where it came from - sure enough, it came from Tickler's, so they correctly reason it's Dae's. Then Dawg gets a great idea. Instead of taking Goldman himself into the warehouse, why not cast a Trid Phantasm of him? So he does so, and the runners leave the real Goldman locked in the truck while walking in with the Phantasm. Dae blows her Intuition roll and is fooled by the illusion, and proceeds to try her best bad-girl act in front of Goldman. The only runner who didn't go in with the team was Zod, who Dawg levitated onto the top of a nearby building to provide sniper cover, as the team have apparently decided that they want to kill Dae for "being a drug dealer" and sending them on a blackmail mission.

So, Dae hands over the 100,000ny credstick to "Goldman", which Dawg quickly intercepts to prevent it falling straight through the illusion's hand - Dae is rather surprised at him taking it, but wanting to put up a coherent show for Goldman, doesn't object right there. The runners tell "Goldman" they'll be watching him. Then they decide to try to get Dae to stand next to the window, by saying "Is there something outside on that rooftop?" Not being an idiot, she doesn't walk to the window herself, but instead tells the runners to go and pursue the figure and find out who it is. Dawg, the one who originally said this, went to the window himself and looked out of it, then said he couldn't see anything, and then the runners left "to chase them". Everyone except Zod then got back into the truck, drove Goldman back home and dropped him off (rather baffled at how he was asked to go with them just to sit in the truck).

Zod, on the other hand, remained hidden on the rooftop until several minutes later when Dae left, and shot her through the head. He bundled her body into her car, stole her weapons and commlink (getting her real identity and her contact for Kaz) and dumped both of them at the Ragers' chapterhouse, then headed back to meet the other runners who were considering how to spend their 100,000ny.

The next morning, the runners receive an enraged call from Kaz asking what happened to his girl, as he knows the runners were the last people to meet her. Kane - who he called - truthfully reports that they left with Goldman leaving her in the warehouse. Kaz points out that even if it was the Ragers who killed Dae, the runners are still on the hook because in that case this could very well be a revenge attack for their murder of Caine, which the runners did without his authorisation. He tells them to bring him any information they can find, and gives him a strong warning not to mess with him. The runners decide to track his commlink to his apartment and try to shoot him through his window, but it turns out Kaz has blacked-out windows. Zod fires a few shots through the window at roughly the place where the "hacker" thinks Kaz's commlink might be.

So. Yea. They completely missed the garage firefight, presumably leaving Goldman to freak out, call the real Lone Star, and get captured by the FBI and/or Yakuza. In 48 hours, Kaz will want to know where his laundered money is, and he's already on the warpath over Dae. Meanwhile, the runners are thinking they want to "kill more Ragers". My only plan to continue the arc is to have the runners arrive at a Rager stronghold and discover it already broken into - and inside they find Kaz, experiencing his first "Tempo moment". This will hopefully inspire their heroic streak to go and investigate Tempo further, leading to the remaining parts of the campaign - because anything more with the Komun'Go is completely out at this point.

[Paul]

The runners missed the whole thing.

When i write my games I tend to way over plan. I include weather details, events that occur simultaneous to the run-Easter eggs a perceptive player could capitalize on. At first when they ignored, circumvented or just plain missed this stuff I got a lot frustrated. Now I realize it's part of the gig. As the referee you sometimes don't have the same sort of fun as the players.

I've found communicating my players solved a lot of this. Telling them what things I planned, and why. Telling them what I expected, and why. Some of it they just said "No, we don't care" to. Some of it they adopted immediately. But overall we increased everyone's fun level.

So far in none of your reviews have I heard about whether any one is having fun. Are you having fun? If so, nothing's wrong!

[Stalag]

So, after the last session and the feedback received here I decided to get my homework done for the following session. Since the runners had already dropped the reporter's body off with the ghouls, I decided to proceed with the Dirty Pretty Money framework because it had some nice creative possibilities at the beginning and a good firefight in the parking garage at the end, against enemies who were sufficiently powerful to challenge the runners. I tweaked them a bit, sorting out some obvious skill errors in the text and giving them airburst grenades (because everyone's going to have them, aren't they) and prepared some tactics for the groups and for the mages and multiple spirits.

The runners missed the whole thing.

If there's a possibility the runners can avoid a scenario then the more detail and work you put into it the greater the chances they are going to find some way to avoid it. Except for the static scenes they won't be able to avoid just have general plans and stock NPC's you can use.

I also decided to enforce the limit of Armor 6 on the car. Zod's player then swapped the car for an Ares truck with Body 12 and Armor 12 as standard values. I also enforced - having forgotten about it before - the limit of only being able to activate a number of Foci equal to Logic. Dawg's player announced he intended to respec as a Hermetic to avoid MAD.

We started with the runners going to investigate the reporter to find out about what she had been doing before she was killed. The runners broke into her apartment and found a few handwritten notes about "disappearances" and her computer. Zod's player at this point announced his intent to chargen a hacker, saying he was frustrated at being unable to access data from computers. I pointed out that nobody had actually tried to hack the computer yet and that I could easily make it easy, or gloss over hacking bits, if the players weren't interested - but if he genuinely wanted to play a hacker that was an option to. So Mr. Happy Punch was duly retired and replaced with "a hacker" who I don't recall the name of. He managed to break into the computer and extract some notes on what the reporter was up to.

Respec? Chargen a hacker? Swap vehicles? I'm not totally familiar with your earlier runs but, just my opinion, you're giving your players way too much leeway. If a team doesn't have a hacker they would contact their fixer to hire one. I'm all for players playing the characters they want but altering things mid-run because you decide to enforce the rules or because they come across something that would be easier with a different character is going a bit far

Following this up to the psychiatrist's database he's able to get a recording of one of his sessions, and then use Edit to alter it to make it sound like he was searching for help with issues involving tampering with children. (I'm not sure if Edit is meant to be that easy to use, but he had Edit 5, so hey.)

I would think it would take more than just Edit to alter a voice recording in any believable way

He also wanted to know if he could log into Goldman's bank through his commlink to transfer his money to the runner's fake accounts - does anyone know if this works or if t's even possible?

In general principle this should be near impossible except for the most elite of the elite... otherwise your characters will end up with unlimited wealth

So, Faceman escorts Goldman out to the truck. At this point I suggest that Goldman might well freak out at seeing the "death truck" - but it's been chameleoned to have Lone Star colours and since it's now an off-the-peg truck the players argued there'd be quite a lot of them around. So, they bundle him into the truck and Kane messages Dae to let her know what's happening. Dae asks them to send her the blackmail material, and they reply that they can have it with her shortly. She points out that she can't just say "you will work for us or we'll do something bad we'll work out later" so they go ahead and send her the doctored recording.

They pull up to the abandoned warehouse and see another car parked outside. "Hacker" tries to hack into it and examine GridGuide to see where it came from - sure enough, it came from Tickler's, so they correctly reason it's Dae's. Then Dawg gets a great idea. Instead of taking Goldman himself into the warehouse, why not cast a Trid Phantasm of him? So he does so, and the runners leave the real Goldman locked in the truck while walking in with the Phantasm. Dae blows her Intuition roll and is fooled by the illusion, and proceeds to try her best bad-girl act in front of Goldman. The only runner who didn't go in with the team was Zod, who Dawg levitated onto the top of a nearby building to provide sniper cover, as the team have apparently decided that they want to kill Dae for "being a drug dealer" and sending them on a blackmail mission.

So, Dae hands over the 100,000ny credstick to "Goldman", which Dawg quickly intercepts to prevent it falling straight through the illusion's hand - Dae is rather surprised at him taking it, but wanting to put up a coherent show for Goldman, doesn't object right there. The runners tell "Goldman" they'll be watching him. Then they decide to try to get Dae to stand next to the window, by saying "Is there something outside on that rooftop?" Not being an idiot, she doesn't walk to the window herself, but instead tells the runners to go and pursue the figure and find out who it is. Dawg, the one who originally said this, went to the window himself and looked out of it, then said he couldn't see anything, and then the runners left "to chase them". Everyone except Zod then got back into the truck, drove Goldman back home and dropped him off (rather baffled at how he was asked to go with them just to sit in the truck).

Zod, on the other hand, remained hidden on the rooftop until several minutes later when Dae left, and shot her through the head. He bundled her body into her car, stole her weapons and commlink (getting her real identity and her contact for Kaz) and dumped both of them at the Ragers' chapterhouse, then headed back to meet the other runners who were considering how to spend their 100,000ny.

The next morning, the runners receive an enraged call from Kaz asking what happened to his girl, as he knows the runners were the last people to meet her. Kane - who he called - truthfully reports that they left with Goldman leaving her in the warehouse. Kaz points out that even if it was the Ragers who killed Dae, the runners are still on the hook because in that case this could very well be a revenge attack for their murder of Caine, which the runners did without his authorisation. He tells them to bring him any information they can find, and gives him a strong warning not to mess with him. The runners decide to track his commlink to his apartment and try to shoot him through his window, but it turns out Kaz has blacked-out windows. Zod fires a few shots through the window at roughly the place where the "hacker" thinks Kaz's commlink might be.

So. Yea. They completely missed the garage firefight, presumably leaving Goldman to freak out, call the real Lone Star, and get captured by the FBI and/or Yakuza. In 48 hours, Kaz will want to know where his laundered money is, and he's already on the warpath over Dae. Meanwhile, the runners are thinking they want to "kill more Ragers". My only plan to continue the arc is to have the runners arrive at a Rager stronghold and discover it already broken into - and inside they find Kaz, experiencing his first "Tempo moment". This will hopefully inspire their heroic streak to go and investigate Tempo further, leading to the remaining parts of the campaign - because anything more with the Komun'Go is completely out at this point.

I don't think that's the right course - if they want to go the rogue path that should be their choice and they will have to accept the consequences. It sounds like they've double-crossed their employer and made enemies of one or more powerful groups. They should find themselves pretty much blacklisted in the shadows with few to no job opportunities and enemies coming at them from every direction.

No offense, but what it seems like is the players realized they could push you around and are taking advantage of it at every turn and taking their enjoyment from purposely de-railing your runs instead of trying to enjoy and take part in the story you're crafting. Now's your opportunity to turn it around on them.

Also, add some color. Where'd the hacker get that sniper rifle? Perhaps the next time they want "F" gear like that then meeting the guy to buy the weapon (will he try to double cross them? what's that contacts loyalty rating?) should be part of the run. Your mage can summon Force 10 spirits? The higher the force rating of a spirit the more "sentient" it is and the less pleased it will be at being forced to do menial tasks. At that level there's always a chance the spirit will do what they can to "misinterpret" the summoners instructions if not come after the summoner once their tasks are complete. Hacker slicing his way through systems indiscriminately? Perhaps he should start encountering some counter-offensive security measures or maybe a rouge AI.

Remember, it's your world - you're just letting them run around in it.

[Manunancy]

I find it rather funny that the players are offendend enough by drugs dealers that they're willing to turn against them yet don't seem to figure that they're not exactly clean themselve : their vigilante impulses have led them to commit murder and mayhem on a rather grand scale and they're very happy to loot the bodies for anything valuable... Which seems to me quite worse than dealing drugs.

I have an impression they're reverting into D&D behavior : they're the good guys, so they kill evil things and peoples and grab their stuff.

[Seriously Mike]

Respec? Chargen a hacker? Swap vehicles? I'm not totally familiar with your earlier runs but, just my opinion, you're giving your players way too much leeway. If a team doesn't have a hacker they would contact their fixer to hire one. I'm all for players playing the characters they want but altering things mid-run because you decide to enforce the rules or because they come across something that would be easier with a different character is going a bit far

Aw, come on. It didn't help them one bit and they're on the way to TPK country with foot firmly on the gas. At least they start getting how bad one-trick-pony characters are.

[suoq]

they're on the way to TPK country

I got 5 karma that says the OP never kills a single character.

[Traul]

So, after the last session and the feedback received here I decided to get my homework done for the following session. Since the runners had already dropped the reporter's body off with the ghouls, I decided to proceed with the Dirty Pretty Money framework because it had some nice creative possibilities at the beginning and a good firefight in the parking garage at the end, against enemies who were sufficiently powerful to challenge the runners. I tweaked them a bit, sorting out some obvious skill errors in the text and giving them airburst grenades (because everyone's going to have them, aren't they) and prepared some tactics for the groups and for the mages and multiple spirits.

The runners missed the whole thing.

Don't panic: if they missed the encounter now, you can reuse it later. Nothing looks more like a parking lot than another parking lot.

The next morning, the runners receive an enraged call from Kaz asking what happened to his girl, as he knows the runners were the last people to meet her. Kane - who he called - truthfully reports that they left with Goldman leaving her in the warehouse. Kaz points out that even if it was the Ragers who killed Dae, the runners are still on the hook because in that case this could very well be a revenge attack for their murder of Caine, which the runners did without his authorisation. He tells them to bring him any information they can find, and gives him a strong warning not to mess with him. The runners decide to track his commlink to his apartment and try to shoot him through his window, but it turns out Kaz has blacked-out windows. Zod fires a few shots through the window at roughly the place where the "hacker" thinks Kaz's commlink might be.

So. Yea. They completely missed the garage firefight, presumably leaving Goldman to freak out, call the real Lone Star, and get captured by the FBI and/or Yakuza. In 48 hours, Kaz will want to know where his laundered money is, and he's already on the warpath over Dae. Meanwhile, the runners are thinking they want to "kill more Ragers". My only plan to continue the arc is to have the runners arrive at a Rager stronghold and discover it already broken into - and inside they find Kaz, experiencing his first "Tempo moment". This will hopefully inspire their heroic streak to go and investigate Tempo further, leading to the remaining parts of the campaign - because anything more with the Komun'Go is completely out at this point.

Kaz is not going to wait another 48 hours after they tried to kill him. By now his priorities have shifted and the first one is to see them dead. There is a contract on their heads and another one for any information to localize them. They stay in a building for more than 1 hour? There is a sniper waiting for them when they leave. They leave their truck unattended at night? There is a bomb in the morning. They escape wounded? Now Kaz has ritual samples. The only contacts still willing to talk to them are just trying to get them to say where they are. They crossed the line and messed with much bigger fish than them, you cannot go on as if nothing happened.

[Brainpiercing7.6...]

Well, all the other comments aside:

The good:
a) it seems that your players were having fun, which is good
b) you didn't seem frustrated as much, this time, which should also be good
c) your players took creative choices, and put their stamp on the campaign, I like this
d) I actually think you handled the NPCs well, from what I can read, and without knowing anything about the scenario itself. You can't just metagame the NPCs to suddenly know about the runners, as soon as they do some crap. If an NPC has no way of knowing, then he doesn't. Of course, it's possible to find such things out, so...



Remaining problems:
e) you overprepared, or prepared the wrong things. This effort is NOT wasted. Every statted bad guy can be reused! Every unused scene recycled for something else.
f) @respecing mid-run: I don't like it, but if you change rules or even just aspects of rules which the players had counted on to run differently, well... it's your choice, you made it, and likely as not, they will now be a better team
g) I disagree with heading your team towards a TPK! If they are stupid, then this is possible, but it should be possible to avoid it at most times. But I believe there should be repercussions, and your team is still in need of a really hard challenge

[HunterHerne]

Well, all the other comments aside:

The good:
a) it seems that your players were having fun, which is good
b) you didn't seem frustrated as much, this time, which should also be good
c) your players took creative choices, and put their stamp on the campaign, I like this
d) I actually think you handled the NPCs well, from what I can read, and without knowing anything about the scenario itself. You can't just metagame the NPCs to suddenly know about the runners, as soon as they do some crap. If an NPC has no way of knowing, then he doesn't. Of course, it's possible to find such things out, so...



Remaining problems:
e) you overprepared, or prepared the wrong things. This effort is NOT wasted. Every statted bad guy can be reused! Every unused scene recycled for something else.
f) @respecing mid-run: I don't like it, but if you change rules or even just aspects of rules which the players had counted on to run differently, well... it's your choice, you made it, and likely as not, they will now be a better team
g) I disagree with heading your team towards a TPK! If they are stupid, then this is possible, but it should be possible to avoid it at most times. But I believe there should be repercussions, and your team is still in need of a really hard challenge

I agree with all of this. If you allow re-specing, only allow it once and only when the run is over (the usual is ater the first run only, but this is beyond that already).

On the TPK and challenge, perhaps Kaz should be the challenge that may, or may not, lead to the TPK. It does make the most sense, and he should have a lot of resources to fight the runners.

[Stalag]

On the TPK and challenge, perhaps Kaz should be the challenge that may, or may not, lead to the TPK. It does make the most sense, and he should have a lot of resources to fight the runners.

Or... if they're really so against "evil-doers" like drug dealers perhaps the shadows aren't for them and they can find gainful employment with LoneStar or some other "law enforcement" organization. While shadow running is the general theme of the game nothing strictly prevents them from working directly for a corp or govt agency (other than their possible backgrounds). Admittedly it doesn't pay as well but at least it will pay.

[HunterHerne]

Or... if they're really so against "evil-doers" like drug dealers perhaps the shadows aren't for them and they can find gainful employment with LoneStar or some other "law enforcement" organization. While shadow running is the general theme of the game nothing strictly prevents them from working directly for a corp or govt agency (other than their possible backgrounds). Admittedly it doesn't pay as well but at least it will pay.

This is true. It is entirely possible they could be on retainer to a corp, even Lone Star (maybe the higher ups want a disposable team for the guys the rank and file can't quite reach, that isn't on the books. In this case, the rank and file may not even know the team is employed by the corp).

[Yerameyahu]

That's sort of half-shadows, then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Runners are fully deniable assets, but that'd be more 'partially'. There are many fun ways to play.

[HunterHerne]

That's sort of half-shadows, then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Runners are fully deniable assets, but that'd be more 'partially'. There are many fun ways to play.

Yes, there are. That is the beauty of tabletop RPG's in general, and SR in particular.

[hyphz]

Respec? Chargen a hacker? Swap vehicles? I'm not totally familiar with your earlier runs but, just my opinion, you're giving your players way too much leeway. If a team doesn't have a hacker they would contact their fixer to hire one. I'm all for players playing the characters they want but altering things mid-run because you decide to enforce the rules or because they come across something that would be easier with a different character is going a bit far

Well, if I made a rules error I'll usually let the players correct it - so in the case of the vehicle, I said that Zod could respend the nuyen he spent on buying Armor 20, or respend the BP he spent to get those Nuyen. As for generating the hacker, I wasn't sure about that either, but it turned out beneficial because it got Zod's player much more involved in sessions.

I would think it would take more than just Edit to alter a voice recording in any believable way

I agree, but the rules for this overall seem broken. It seems weird that if a character wants to draw a picture, they need an appropriate Artisan skill, but if they draw the picture on a computer they can use Computer skill with Editl. Is there a better way to do this?

In general principle this should be near impossible except for the most elite of the elite... otherwise your characters will end up with unlimited wealth

Sure, I agree. But that gets into another issue - it's kind of hard to argue where "the elite of the elite" actually are. The scaling seems way too small and the BP generation system seems to let it be violated very easily. Zod, as newly generated, was a better shot than any of the combat-themed Street Legends, and had better armor and reactions. When Zod's player was creating the hacker he practically could be heard reading off the checklist: Logic 7, Exceptional Attribute Logic, Hacking 7, Aptitude Hacking, Adept, Magic 6, Improved Non-Combat Ability Hacking 6. Wham. He's an idiot savant, but does that mean he can hack like FastJack? I don't like the idea, but I just don't see where FastJack could be getting any further bonuses from!

Based on the books I've read so far, any computer ratings above 6 are military only, which means a bank can only have Firewall 6. The main book says that Credsticks have Device from 5-6 which isn't that hard even for someone who isn't idiot savant. There's no possibility that I'm going to go around letting them hack themselves infinite money but it feels like I'm having to drive a wedge into the system to do so which isn't a good feeling.

No offense, but what it seems like is the players realized they could push you around and are taking advantage of it at every turn and taking their enjoyment from purposely de-railing your runs instead of trying to enjoy and take part in the story you're crafting. Now's your opportunity to turn it around on them.

If they are enjoying it, I'd rather adapt to it than penalize them for it.

Also, add some color. Where'd the hacker get that sniper rifle? Perhaps the next time they want "F" gear like that then meeting the guy to buy the weapon (will he try to double cross them? what's that contacts loyalty rating?) should be part of the run. Your mage can summon Force 10 spirits? The higher the force rating of a spirit the more "sentient" it is and the less pleased it will be at being forced to do menial tasks. At that level there's always a chance the spirit will do what they can to "misinterpret" the summoners instructions if not come after the summoner once their tasks are complete. Hacker slicing his way through systems indiscriminately? Perhaps he should start encountering some counter-offensive security measures or maybe a rouge AI.

All fair points, but I should point out that the hacker doesn't have a sniper rifle - it was Zod, not the hacker, who fired from the rooftops. And he did it with an assault rifle, not a sniper rifle, after observing that Vision Magnification works on any weapon.

[hyphz]

Kaz is not going to wait another 48 hours after they tried to kill him. By now his priorities have shifted and the first one is to see them dead. There is a contract on their heads and another one for any information to localize them. They stay in a building for more than 1 hour? There is a sniper waiting for them when they leave. They leave their truck unattended at night? There is a bomb in the morning. They escape wounded? Now Kaz has ritual samples. The only contacts still willing to talk to them are just trying to get them to say where they are. They crossed the line and messed with much bigger fish than them, you cannot go on as if nothing happened.

Kaz doesn't, yet, know it was them who tried to kill him. Blacked-out windows work both ways, after all. He _will_ notice after 48 hours, though, because a) he'll want his laundered credsticks, and b) he may well find out that the Yakuza ended up with Goldman.

But on the contract things you suggest, those seem a bit broken. They stay in a building for more than 1 hour and there is a sniper waiting - well, how were they found? They don't have great perception so I suppose they could miss a tail. As I recall, one of the books specifically says that the GM should not have bombs placed on PC's vehicles while they are unattended because it encourages the same syndrome that has D&D players repeating "I check for traps' before doing anything (although I might be remembering wrong).

Plus, there's that scaling problem I mention above. If Kaz's people can take out Zod, why wouldn't he have already arranged a hit on Chikao Inoue, who he knows is a problem and who is far weaker? "Because the Yakuza would come after him", but peh, their combat stats are puny compared to Zod and so barely noticeable compared to someone who could defeat Zod. This is the big problem I've had so far with the idea of having major assaults made on the runners - it seems to require their enemies to suddenly have access to incredibly powerful, skilled, and well-resourced combatants who for some reason have never been used before and disappear off the map once the runner team is dealt with.

[Loch]

Maybe I missed something in my reading of it, but is Zod's player playing two characters? Zod AND the hacker? Why does he get to control twice as many characters as everyone else?

[Faelan]

I also decided to enforce the limit of Armor 6 on the car. Zod's player then swapped the car for an Ares truck with Body 12 and Armor 12 as standard values. I also enforced - having forgotten about it before - the limit of only being able to activate a number of Foci equal to Logic. Dawg's player announced he intended to respec as a Hermetic to avoid MAD.

You know it really is not the armor that is the problem, it is the clearly illegal weapon system, and the fact that you won't respond in kind.

We started with the runners going to investigate the reporter to find out about what she had been doing before she was killed. The runners broke into her apartment and found a few handwritten notes about "disappearances" and her computer.

Her computer? That would be her commlink, and since she got offed she was probably sticking her nose into some nasty shit, which means she would not be leaving her commlink, her real commlink that is where it would be easily accessible. Try a hotel safe, a safety deposit box, or even just the newscorp offices she works out of.

Zod's player at this point announced his intent to chargen a hacker, saying he was frustrated at being unable to access data from computers. I pointed out that nobody had actually tried to hack the computer yet and that I could easily make it easy, or gloss over hacking bits, if the players weren't interested - but if he genuinely wanted to play a hacker that was an option to. So Mr. Happy Punch was duly retired and replaced with "a hacker" who I don't recall the name of. He managed to break into the computer and extract some notes on what the reporter was up to.

Zod should be frustrated with being a one trick pony, but I am going to assume you meant someone else since later in your post it is clear Zod is still in invincible mode and enjoying life.

The runners head back to meet Dae, who gives them the next mission: obtaining blackmail material on Goldman and then bringing him in. Now, at this point the runners' plan became quite bizarre and even I'm not quite sure exactly what was going on. It went something like this: they tried to head over to Brackhaven Associates at night, but found the building locked up, so they dressed Faceman up in a business suit and sent him to Goldman's apartment

Just out of curiosity how do they know where Goldman lives, I missed it. Most corporate types don't advertise their home address, and how did he get there since he probably does not live in the Barrens or Puyallup the Death Mobile by Mattel would be taking an AT missile in a heartbeat.

where he met up with his wife (I decided he was working late that night - since that's a clue as to his weakness) and took tea in the house while he waited for Goldman to show up. (Since the "Death Car" - or "Death Truck" killers were known only by their vehicle at that time, she didn't freak when she saw him.)

Right...in the Sixth World most people don't trust strangers enough to ask them directions, much less invite them into their home.

When Goldman arrived, Faceman witnessed an argument between him and his wife about "bringing his work home" and Goldman immediately went to speak to Faceman - who suddenly realised he had no idea what Goldman was working on, and thus no idea what to say.

Which is when Goldman should have just called the cops.

So, he bluffs wildly by saying that he's heard from Lone Star that there's a plot afoot to blackmail him, and that they want him to go with them to meet the "drug dealers" who are blackmailing him and pretend to agree to work for them, and then they'll take him away safely.

Without so much as a why would Lonestar tell you this? Why should I go with you? Why should I trust you?

Meanwhile, "the hacker" is hacking his Commlink, and finds a few messages sent back and forth between him and his psychiatrist.

Because Brackhaven Corporate types with secrets are in the habit of making life easy for a hacker. He probably has a fake commlink for everyday garbage and one for real business which is not always on or operating as anything other than a hidden PAN. I am guessing it was easy as pie though.

Following this up to the psychiatrist's database he's able to get a recording of one of his sessions, and then use Edit to alter it to make it sound like he was searching for help with issues involving tampering with children. (I'm not sure if Edit is meant to be that easy to use, but he had Edit 5, so hey.)

Only if you make it that easy to use. Most people would want more than an easily faked recording for something to be believed. Any crosschecking would blow this B.S. out of the water, which is why setting up Goldman is supposed be a whole adventure in itself not a roll or two to hack up something.

He also wanted to know if he could log into Goldman's bank through his commlink to transfer his money to the runner's fake accounts - does anyone know if this works or if t's even possible?

Sure if he wants to break into multiple nodes with SOTA software and hardware, along with enough Corp Hackers online looking for someone stupid enough to try to screw with a banks system. Not to mention since the cred system requires multiple verifications from different sources you would still only be likely to temporarily do it. After which the attempt, or whoever you screwed by giving fake cred too would be out to kill you.

[Faelan]

So, Faceman escorts Goldman out to the truck. At this point I suggest that Goldman might well freak out at seeing the "death truck" - but it's been chameleoned to have Lone Star colours and since it's now an off-the-peg truck the players argued there'd be quite a lot of them around.

With big nasty guns mounted on them, in a nice neighborhood, just to scare the idiot who did not ask for any form of ID and wants to get into a truck which in AR is certainly not showing as a Lonestar vehicle and would have been stopped by any real Lonestar vehicle on the way, but I am sure the Death Inc. though of all that or it was handwaved.

So, they bundle him into the truck and Kane messages Dae to let her know what's happening. Dae asks them to send her the blackmail material, and they reply that they can have it with her shortly. She points out that she can't just say "you will work for us or we'll do something bad we'll work out later" so they go ahead and send her the doctored recording.

Reasonable.

They pull up to the abandoned warehouse and see another car parked outside. "Hacker" tries to hack into it and examine GridGuide to see where it came from - sure enough, it came from Tickler's, so they correctly reason it's Dae's.

Because anybody can do the same to the players but never do.

Then Dawg gets a great idea. Instead of taking Goldman himself into the warehouse, why not cast a Trid Phantasm of him? So he does so, and the runners leave the real Goldman locked in the truck while walking in with the Phantasm. Dae blows her Intuition roll and is fooled by the illusion, and proceeds to try her best bad-girl act in front of Goldman. The only runner who didn't go in with the team was Zod, who Dawg levitated onto the top of a nearby building to provide sniper cover, as the team have apparently decided that they want to kill Dae for "being a drug dealer" and sending them on a blackmail mission.

Because drug dealers always go to places by themselves without any hired muscle, and no one has thermographic or low light vision. Also no police drones ever happen to be anywhere nearby and everyone conveniently hears nothing, or sees anything which could possibly be an inconvenience to Death Inc.

So, Dae hands over the 100,000ny credstick to "Goldman", which Dawg quickly intercepts to prevent it falling straight through the illusion's hand - Dae is rather surprised at him taking it, but wanting to put up a coherent show for Goldman, doesn't object right there. The runners tell "Goldman" they'll be watching him. Then they decide to try to get Dae to stand next to the window, by saying "Is there something outside on that rooftop?" Not being an idiot, she doesn't walk to the window herself, but instead tells the runners to go and pursue the figure and find out who it is.

Wow an NPC did not fall for something.

Dawg, the one who originally said this, went to the window himself and looked out of it, then said he couldn't see anything, and then the runners left "to chase them". Everyone except Zod then got back into the truck, drove Goldman back home and dropped him off (rather baffled at how he was asked to go with them just to sit in the truck).

aaaannnnd now she trusts them again and does not even wonder where Zod was during all of this.

Zod, on the other hand, remained hidden on the rooftop until several minutes later when Dae left, and shot her through the head. He bundled her body into her car, stole her weapons and commlink (getting her real identity and her contact for Kaz) and dumped both of them at the Ragers' chapterhouse, then headed back to meet the other runners who were considering how to spend their 100,000ny.

aaaannnnd being retarded after all she steps out and gets shot. Her car with no security system, and all her unencrypted non-booby trapped items, on a silver platter.

The next morning, the runners receive an enraged call from Kaz asking what happened to his girl, as he knows the runners were the last people to meet her. Kane - who he called - truthfully reports that they left with Goldman leaving her in the warehouse. Kaz points out that even if it was the Ragers who killed Dae, the runners are still on the hook because in that case this could very well be a revenge attack for their murder of Caine, which the runners did without his authorisation. He tells them to bring him any information they can find, and gives him a strong warning not to mess with him.

Right because Kaz is a retard also. The first thing they should have heard from Kaz was the bullet entering Zod's ear, followed by a call to the other players "Now that we are even you can play ball or wind up like your dead friend. I want my money back with interest by the way or...well you know we won't be friends anymore. Later."

[Faelan]

The runners decide to track his commlink to his apartment and try to shoot him through his window, but it turns out Kaz has blacked-out windows. Zod fires a few shots through the window at roughly the place where the "hacker" thinks Kaz's commlink might be.

Because nobody has any clue about keeping their commlink secure and nobody else knows a hacker, and Kaz is too stupid to set a trap.

So. Yea. They completely missed the garage firefight, presumably leaving Goldman to freak out, call the real Lone Star, and get captured by the FBI and/or Yakuza. In 48 hours, Kaz will want to know where his laundered money is, and he's already on the warpath over Dae.

and they already tried to kill him. It is no longer business it is personal now, but I am sure based on the fact that every hurdle is in fact merely a dice roll away from being resolved in the best possible manner for the players Kaz will soon be dead, and the players will go on unmolested.

Well sorry for the sarcastic tone, but once again the way the NPC's and the world reacts to your players is the reason they are walking all over you with impunity, until you change that you won't be getting what you seem to want out of it. Good luck.

[Traul]

Kaz doesn't, yet, know it was them who tried to kill him. Blacked-out windows work both ways, after all.

And he hasn't sent anyone on the roof to look for clues? You really want him to sit around and wait for the next bullet?

But on the contract things you suggest, those seem a bit broken. They stay in a building for more than 1 hour and there is a sniper waiting - well, how were they found? They don't have great perception so I suppose they could miss a tail.

They already made the news, so if anyone who sees the Death Truck in the street can make an easy 100Y with a simple phone call to Kaz, they can't go out unnoticed. Maybe it's time to get rid of the Death Truck and replace it with a lower profile vehicle...

Plus, there's that scaling problem I mention above. If Kaz's people can take out Zod, why wouldn't he have already arranged a hit on Chikao Inoue, who he knows is a problem and who is far weaker? "Because the Yakuza would come after him", but peh, their combat stats are puny compared to Zod and so barely noticeable compared to someone who could defeat Zod. This is the big problem I've had so far with the idea of having major assaults made on the runners - it seems to require their enemies to suddenly have access to incredibly powerful, skilled, and well-resourced combatants who for some reason have never been used before and disappear off the map once the runner team is dealt with.

It's not about availability, it's about price. Real pros are expensive. As a rule of thumb, anyone who can afford your players for regular business can afford better than them if his life depends on it. That's why trying to kill your Johnson is bad idea and failing is an even worse one.

[Rubic]

I might add that, no matter how much you as a GM do not want to kill characters, and that your players don't want their characters killed, there IS a threshold past which a purposeful and powerful TPK is not only recommended, but should be expected. Your players have long since crossed that threshold and kept going. Whatever delusions of honor and righteousness your players feel they have are no armor against the laws they've breached, the corps and government they've caused problems to, and the other runners out there who should have already felt the pressure. Pro runners who've been around longer than your players, high-grade corp hit squads, Lone Star's most elite officers and agents, Military snipers, and other assorted nasties find such blatant violations that your players commit regularly to be less conducive to business. If those aforementioned parties cannot conduct business relatively safely, they won't be able to make money. If people don't feel safe with security as it is, they won't pay for said security, and will look elsewhere. When you mess with business, you mess with money. When you mess with money, you earn more enemies much faster. When you do so for even a week in the shadows, the shadows themselves will rip you apart, and will offer no safe haven or resistance.

Lone Star, the FBI, Knight Errant, Saeder-Krupp, and the UCAS Military will want the criminals stopped and brought to justice. Your players are screwed on the legal side.
The corps want the impediment to 'good' business in the shadows removed. Your players are screwed on the corporate front.
The gangs can't safely practice business with these mad dogs causing more trouble than the Halloweeners strung out on Novacoke during Halloween. They're screwed, or at least left without help, with regards to gangs as well.
Organized crime has no doubt taken notice. Some will be out to kill the players with prejudice, others will wash their hands entirely and never help nor aid them.

You should take stock of everybody who has reason to kill, blame, or suspect the characters of being 'bad for business.' Kaz should already have put out warnings, considering his business has gone downhill since meeting them, after all. This is NOT DnD, and your players need to be reminded that THEY are, and have been all along by their actions, THE Bad Guys.

[hyphz]

Her computer? That would be her commlink, and since she got offed she was probably sticking her nose into some nasty shit, which means she would not be leaving her commlink, her real commlink that is where it would be easily accessible. Try a hotel safe, a safety deposit box, or even just the newscorp offices she works out of.

Fair enough - I was having to adlib that bit, as the adventure doesn't say anything about her own house (only her relatives).

Zod should be frustrated with being a one trick pony, but I am going to assume you meant someone else since later in your post it is clear Zod is still in invincible mode and enjoying life.

No, I do mean Zod. The character is still very powerful but since he has nothing to do when there isn't a fight the player was getting bored.

Just out of curiosity how do they know where Goldman lives, I missed it. Most corporate types don't advertise their home address, and how did he get there since he probably does not live in the Barrens or Puyallup the Death Mobile by Mattel would be taking an AT missile in a heartbeat.

The adventure states that the Johnson can tell them where Goldman lives. As for the Death Mobile, because it's now just a regular Ares truck (which is described in the book as "popular for transport of secure cargo") there's probably lots of them around. And there's no mounted weapon system, just gun ports which surely aren't that obvious if there aren't guns being put through them?

Right...in the Sixth World most people don't trust strangers enough to ask them directions, much less invite them into their home.

Fair point - not something I was aware of. I didn't think Joe or Jane Public were generally that paranoid.

Without so much as a why would Lonestar tell you this? Why should I go with you? Why should I trust you?

He aced his Con roll with 5+ net hits, and so was believed.

Only if you make it that easy to use. Most people would want more than an easily faked recording for something to be believed. Any crosschecking would blow this B.S. out of the water, which is why setting up Goldman is supposed be a whole adventure in itself not a roll or two to hack up something.

That's true, and I had doubts about this. It was just moot in the end because the real Goldman was never confronted with the blackmail material.

With big nasty guns mounted on them, in a nice neighborhood, just to scare the idiot who did not ask for any form of ID and wants to get into a truck which in AR is certainly not showing as a Lonestar vehicle and would have been stopped by any real Lonestar vehicle on the way, but I am sure the Death Inc. though of all that or it was handwaved.

There's no nasty guns mounted on it - as I said, it just has gun ports the team can use. He didn't ask for ID because of the incredibly successful Con. And as for AR, well, despite the corebook saying that "people are online all the time", hardly anyone in any of the books actually has the Commlink + Sim Module + DNI necessary for AR, not even the opposing runners (there are quite a few people with AR gloves and no DNI or visual link, so I guess they have a kind of active feely thing going on), so I figured that AR isn't actually as popular as applied.

Because drug dealers always go to places by themselves without any hired muscle, and no one has thermographic or low light vision. Also no police drones ever happen to be anywhere nearby and everyone conveniently hears nothing, or sees anything which could possibly be an inconvenience to Death Inc.

The book states that it's "Dae" who goes to blackmail Goldman in the warehouse, with no mention of anyone going with her - that seemed a bit odd to me, but it could make sense in some situations (Dae is their social hub, Goldman is a noncombatant, Dae's crimes are minor compared to other Komun'go so Lone Star have relatively little to pin on her, etc.) The warehouse was in the Verge which is described as having no police patrols. And in any case, these points don't matter because the chance of their being seen or heard by anyone powerful enough to not be bullet fodder for Zod is pretty much nil.

(quote)
aaaannnnd being retarded after all she steps out and gets shot. Her car with no security system, and all her unencrypted non-booby trapped items, on a silver platter.(/quote)

When the runner said "is there something on the rooftop?" the idea that it could be one of the runners wasn't high on her list - it could have been Yakuza or Lone Star, true, which is why she wouldn't go up there. But so far she has no reason to distrust the runners, as they've more or less done the missions successfully and been fairly respectful to her. Again, her sheet is provided and makes no mention of encryption software or booby traps on her items. And hey, she's a random stripper with a tenuous link to the Komun'Go who's being used as a Johnson because she's distant enough to be deniable, so that sort of makes sense that she wouldn't be super paranoid. (And she has Logic 3 and is defaulting on Computer. Run a complex decrypter? She probably can't find the power switch half the time.)

(quote)
Right because Kaz is a retard also. The first thing they should have heard from Kaz was the bullet entering Zod's ear, followed by a call to the other players "Now that we are even you can play ball or wind up like your dead friend. I want my money back with interest by the way or...well you know we won't be friends anymore. Later."(/quote)

Because Kaz has magically heard from somebody that Zod killed Dae? I don't see the chance of some random street scum or ghoul wandering around in the Verge being able to just contact Kaz and be believed, especially since at this point in the plot Kaz is becoming distrustful.

(quote)
and they already tried to kill him. It is no longer business it is personal now, but I am sure based on the fact that every hurdle is in fact merely a dice roll away from being resolved in the best possible manner for the players Kaz will soon be dead, and the players will go on unmolested.(/quote)

Well, um, hang on. I really want to slow down here because this is a pretty huge thing you've just said. Surely the whole point of the skill system is that a dice roll can solve the PC's problems? I mean, that's what it represents, right - what the PC does using their skill to solve the problem? If not, what is the granularity of a dice roll? I mean, my understanding is that it's unfair to have the PC make a super successful Con roll and then immediately have the target ask for evidence that invalidates that roll - but that's only a general principle from games like D&D which are generally more abstracted anyway - is Shadowrun built not assuming that? I can see that WOULD make a big difference.

[hyphz]

And he hasn't sent anyone on the roof to look for clues? You really want him to sit around and wait for the next bullet?

I ended the session right after the shot, basically, so it's not established that Kaz won't search for clues. Although searching every roof that could sight his window might be interesting.

They already made the news, so if anyone who sees the Death Truck in the street can make an easy 100Y with a simple phone call to Kaz, they can't go out unnoticed. Maybe it's time to get rid of the Death Truck and replace it with a lower profile vehicle...

Because if you see a truck owned by a group of known murderers while you're walking down the street, the number one thing you're going to do is to go and find the number of an almost as nasty local gang boss and call him out of the blue, for a trivial amount of money, at the cost of getting yourself "involved"? Normal people flee from any sort of criminal activity in the real world, and that's one where the criminals don't have heavy assault rifles and freakin' magic.

[Paul]

Normal people cal the cops, even in crappy neighborhoods.

[Traul]

Well, um, hang on. I really want to slow down here because this is a pretty huge thing you've just said. Surely the whole point of the skill system is that a dice roll can solve the PC's problems? I mean, that's what it represents, right - what the PC does using their skill to solve the problem? If not, what is the granularity of a dice roll? I mean, my understanding is that it's unfair to have the PC make a super successful Con roll and then immediately have the target ask for evidence that invalidates that roll - but that's only a general principle from games like D&D which are generally more abstracted anyway - is Shadowrun built not assuming that? I can see that WOULD make a big difference.

Skill tests are almost always modified. In that case Goodman could have asked for his ID first and failure to provide it would have incured a big penalty on the con roll. Add the penalty for not preparing the run and not having a plausible story ready, the suspicious time, Goodman not willing to go out that late,... then you can let your player roll if he still has dice.