Real Life Group Game Journal: Game 3, Death Becomes Them Options

[CanRay]

"The building was on fire. And it wasn't my fault." - Harry Dresden, Wizard

[Bigity]

I just started that book the other day.


Shadowrun needs awakened monkeys that fling flaming poo. Double points if they are also spirits.

[Paul]

Just some questions that interest me from a design perspective:

How did the gangers enter and leave the building with all the entrances barricaded and booby-trapped? Through the underground?

Yup. They had two underground entrances that basically came right in, unobstructed-and the main entry way was accessible from the inside if they needed it opened. (So if they had to unload the vans someone inside could disable the improvised trap on the front doors and open them)

How did they alert the ganger sniper?(Actually I'm guessing having him open fire is as much a present as a threat, but...) And how do you rationalize a ganger simply opening fire at anyone who approaches?

He was standing watch specifically on the avenue of approach the PC's ended up picking-this was predetermined-and made a pretty solid perception test. So imagine a guy sitting in a sandbag and debris sniper's nest, bored and literally staring down the alley the PC's are making their approach from smoking a cigarette. The PC's didn't do too well on their perception tests, and never really bothered to look up. (A pretty common mistake in Urban Close Quarter Combat scenarios.)

After that I made what I call a "smarts" role to determine what his reaction would be. (Basically a second perception test since he didn't have any kind of leadership skills.) He basically had two choices as I saw it-tell the others that several armed and armored opponents were approaching, or do something stupid like take a shot. He failed, so he took a middle route. He called one ganger up, but didn't tell him why and took a shot.

Since the neighborhood they were in was basically abandoned, and unpatrolled at night by Law Enforcement he felt okay with taking a shot. And since the PC's had weapons drawn, and were clearly not the UPS guy, and he felt confident he had the drop on them-and he did-he opened up. Had I not initially said that the PC"s could hear loud rock music from about two blocks off, the others gangers would have heard his shot.

And what about the spirit from the initial post? Or did you leave that out? A toxic F6 inside his domain could be really nasty - if he's got it aspected.

I decided not to put it in. As it was they were outgunned, and ended up pretty banged up. Had I added the spirit I'd have set them up for a TPK. And that wasn't my goal.

[Paul]

I also ended up short a PC as well. Our rigger was a no show.

[Brainpiercing7.6...]

armed and armored opponents

Ok, that explains it... apparently your group does not suffer from chronic invisibility and chameleon suit overload, or the group-APC problem. Without the rigger I'm guessing that they also weren't using spotter drones, which would normally be a standard tactic, right?

Since the neighborhood they were in was basically abandoned, and unpatrolled at night by Law Enforcement he felt okay with taking a shot. And since the PC's had weapons drawn, and were clearly not the UPS guy, and he felt confident he had the drop on them-and he did-he opened up. Had I not initially said that the PC"s could hear loud rock music from about two blocks off, the others gangers would have heard his shot.

It seems your runners were sort of careless or overconfident. Well... that should teach them a lesson (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

With my group it would have probably gone exactly the opposite: They would have spotted the perched sniper from a mile away, either by air or while projecting, but walked right into the booby-traps (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . Of course, they are also very underground-minded, so they might have also had a run in with the ghouls and devil rats in the sewers.

I asked about the spirit because when our current group started under a different GM he did just that: We found a hideout of blood-magic cultists, all of which were the worst kind of mooks and were just spattered all across the walls, but then he drops a toxic or blood spirit F6 in his aspected +1BC domain right on top of us. Suddenly we didn't look so hot - only the mage could really hurt it, and it clawed up my character at the time a good deal. As usually, however, he didn't play it smart, so we managed to get rid of it.

[Seriously Mike]

While we're at fighting spirits... How would a fight between a spirit and a physad look? Physad has Astral Sight and a weapon focus, so it seems he would be able to clock the spirit when it dematerializes (for example, to fall back on the Astral and then materialize somewhere else). Am I right?

[Paul]

Ok, that explains it... apparently your group does not suffer from chronic invisibility and chameleon suit overload, or the group-APC problem.

Not yet. They're way too broke. This is actually their biggest pay out so far, and I think all said they cleared about 7500 each.

Without the rigger I'm guessing that they also weren't using spotter drones, which would normally be a standard tactic, right?

Yeah, not having their rigger has hurt a little these last two games. But luckily I try to design the game around the PC's-so no game has to have a skil set they can't get access to in some way.

It seems your runners were sort of careless or overconfident. Well... that should teach them a lesson (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

Yeah, they were sold on another location as their target area. So they were totally oblivious to the actual target area. But yeah the surveillance after this particular incident was a lot more careful.

With my group it would have probably gone exactly the opposite: They would have spotted the perched sniper from a mile away, either by air or while projecting, but walked right into the booby-traps (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . Of course, they are also very underground-minded, so they might have also had a run in with the ghouls and devil rats in the sewers.

Yeah if my players had been some different characters this would have played out in a different fashion.

I asked about the spirit because when our current group started under a different GM he did just that: We found a hideout of blood-magic cultists, all of which were the worst kind of mooks and were just spattered all across the walls, but then he drops a toxic or blood spirit F6 in his aspected +1BC domain right on top of us. Suddenly we didn't look so hot - only the mage could really hurt it, and it clawed up my character at the time a good deal. As usually, however, he didn't play it smart, so we managed to get rid of it.

Yeah I want to throw a few magical threats at them, but I am trying to be careful about balance. The game is no fun if there's no way to win. Plus I want the story to make sense. Luckily I have some plot hooks from one of the PC's to explore that's going to take them out of the city! Threats abound!