If you had a small budget and needed to arm a lot of people, What would you do? (IE, what my players likely to do?) Options

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I can't believe after earlier editions people would knock the bow of the freaking bow. Troll Bow Adepts anyone?

- J.

While Troll Bow Adepts are very Nice (I had one), they are no more effective than a Sniper with a High Power Barret and some good ammunition choices. Now, an Ork (or Troll) throwing Adept... Look out. They can get Damage in the same category as either of them, and are never without a weapon. They may not have the range of the Bow or the Barrett, but My Oni Ninja is Deadly out to 100 Meters, even agaisnt Drones. With a Pen, a 16 penny nail, or a playing card. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

Deadeye the Ork. Great. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Frank Castle would be a Troll I guess. Or a Dwarf, maybe?

[Yerameyahu]

I dunno how likely it is that one of the farmers is a magic assassin, though.

[CanRay]

I dunno how likely it is that one of the farmers is a magic assassin, though.

It's always the people you never expect...

[Yerameyahu]

Probably a middle-aged or elderly man, who joined the community under mystery circumstances, wishing only to devote his remaining life to peace and simple labor… but damnit, they keep pulling him back in. Punks.

[Draco18s]

I dunno how likely it is that one of the farmers is a magic assassin, though.

He probably still has nothing on the Bear Town Incident.

[The Jake]

While Troll Bow Adepts are very Nice (I had one), they are no more effective than a Sniper with a High Power Barret and some good ammunition choices. Now, an Ork (or Troll) throwing Adept... Look out. They can get Damage in the same category as either of them, and are never without a weapon. They may not have the range of the Bow or the Barrett, but My Oni Ninja is Deadly out to 100 Meters, even agaisnt Drones. With a Pen, a 16 penny nail, or a playing card. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Not talking about effectiveness. Just saying that the bow deserves respect! Admittedly they're not as awesome as they once were - but they are still great.

- J.

[The Jake]

Deadeye the Ork. Great. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) Frank Castle would be a Troll I guess. Or a Dwarf, maybe?

I picture Frank as a troll but realistically, if I made him in SR, he'd probably be a helluva tough human with Guts, High Pain Tolerance and maxed out Edge, possibly Lucky.

- J.

[CanRay]

I picture Frank as a troll but realistically, if I made him in SR, he'd probably be a helluva tough human with Guts, High Pain Tolerance and maxed out Edge, possibly Lucky.

- J.

Well, with how much he likes the M-60, Troll would be more likely, but beefed up Human works as well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[The Jake]

Well, with how much he likes the M-60, Troll would be more likely, but beefed up Human works as well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

He makes use of tripods and fixed positions when firing HMGs in the comics. At least in Punisher MAX. I can't remember older ones.

- J.

[CanRay]

He makes use of tripods and fixed positions when firing HMGs in the comics. At least in Punisher MAX. I can't remember older ones.

- J.

HMGs, yes. GPMGs, like the M-60, he's used in his arms a few times. Including once when he only had one arm available (The other was broken) and Mouse feeding him the belt of ammo.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Man, you guys take off with my threads, don't you?


As far as the farmers go, they have some heavies among them - a troll Bow Adept and a human Street Samurai with a nodachi. The Troll grew up there, went off to become a Shadowrunner, and of course he came back when his family was in danger. The Sammie is on the troll's team, and owes the denizens of the Plastic Jungles a debt that in his words 'he can never repay.' I haven't thought of that yet. They probably saved the life of someone he cares about without once considering why they were in peril or whom might be after them or something.

Between them, they could probably wage a bloody guerrilla war on the gang, but the trick is that's explicitly not what the denizens of the Jungles want. They don't want to go to war, they don't want to wipe out the gangs. The territory the gang is occupying used to be ghoul territory until a Shadowrunner team enterprisingly decided to wipe them out (all of them) and claim the bounties. The ghouls left them alone - probably way back in the dark ages of SR3 or even SR2, they had trouble with them which was settled somehow.

So they don't want to wipe the gang out. They don't want to go to war. They'll accept the gang being wiped out if it's absolutely necessary (IE, they won't get the hint,) but they're hiring the 'runners (my players, that is, not the Bow Adept and his Samurai Buddy,) specifically as security consultants, not assassins or mercenaries. It's up to my players to push a good offense as the best defense or not, but the jungle denizens want the security more than the murdering.

This actually makes sense - Bom, the guy around whom the other players seem to have coalesced, is known for his well-secured home and the fact that he breeds critters and trains guard dogs. So, I'm expecting to see at least some of the not-paid-upfront money go to buying some of his dogs, and probably something with the players driving out to Puyallup to run guns back to Redmond. This may or may not involve the big rig they stole from the honest, hardworking thieves who stole it first, depending on how quickly they can get it operational.

[nezumi]

Whether the gang can be dissuaded without being wiped out depends on the gang. The farmers need to make themselves a hard target, though, so the question is, how hard of a target can they make themselves?

I think Neraph may be on the right path with having the farmers produce their own weapons. The major (mechanical) downside of bows is the farmers aren't likely to have any skill in it. The upside is they may possibly be easier to produce. Tied in with this, if the farmers are maintaining their own farm equipment, they likely have machine tools available. Can they also make guns? Even if you're just making pipe guns, a rifle in the hands of each farmer makes the group at least threatening, and the cost is negligible (8 rounds per farmer, plus the cost of materials, plus time). Mix in some radio-controlled pipe bombs, convert a tractor into a tank, and now you're cooking, with $10k still available for other things.

[Stahlseele]

Well, with how much he likes the M-60, Troll would be more likely, but beefed up Human works as well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Well, Frank'n'Castle is more Troll/Cyber-Zombie than anything else . .

[Cheops]

Fortifications. The great force multiplier. Makes them hard to hit with zero loss of life. Walls have been the rural peasant's friend for several millenia now.

The money would also be best spent as Stahl points out -- get them tool kits. The kits can be used to make crude weapons and reinforce the defenses and when not under threat they can be used to repair/improve assets and infrastructure.

Buying weapons is probably the worst thing you can do in these circumstances.

[Manunancy]

Another solution if the locals have a machine shop and at least one PC or NPC is skilled in weapon maintenance (or can chip it) would be to buy several crates of old crap and refurbish/canibalize to get the majority of them working.

I vaguely remember a scene from a film where the heroes were returning into Vietnam to free some US prisoners and got their hrdware and money held at teh frontier. So they scrapped their pockets, pooled the cash and bought a big crate of old crap from a weapon dealer, spent a few days sorting and refurbishing. It was mostly WWII vintage stuff, includign a recoilles riffle and a few tommy guns, some anti tank mines which were stripped of their explosives and used to cobble up makeshit claymores, and cetainly a lot of other craps that I've forgotten.

Handing the PCs a truckload of 'stuff' and handing the players a list before watching them trying to make most use of the oddbal items added to fill the crate can be a lot of fun, bordering on A-Team moments.

[Yerameyahu]

No, the worst thing you can do is agree to help a bunch of farmers in the first place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Given that mistake's already been made, though…

[Stahlseele]

Flamethrowers.
Dirty. Cheap. Effective.
Liquid based can be used to make fire barriers.

[Yerameyahu]

Cheap? Not the ones in the books.

[CanRay]

Cheap? Not the ones in the books.

Homemade ones! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Yerameyahu]

Psh. If we're including MacGuyvers, you need ¥0 to accomplish this mission. The farm contains enough rubber bands and toothpicks.

[CanRay]

Psh. If we're including MacGuyvers, you need ¥0 to accomplish this mission. The farm contains enough rubber bands and toothpicks.

*Shrugs* Kerosine, bug dope sprayer, and some matches.

[Stahlseele]

Alternatively: spray Kerosine.
Wait for enemy to step into it.
Flaming Arrows of Doom!
Don't even need to hit them.
Just hit the ground about there.

[CanRay]

Arrow launcher using a budget.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I dunno how likely it is that one of the farmers is a magic assassin, though.

You do have a point on that one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)