Fun with Glitches, tell your story (or make it up) Options

[Thanee]

Sparked by the discussion here, I thought it might be fun to hear about stories (made up or true) featuring the Glitch.

So, either if you have a story that actually happened, or one that you just made up and think is fun, post it.

Give us a situation, that is reasonably realistic (in the Shadowrun game world; i.e. it could actually come up in a game), give us the test that is being attempted, and the result of the Glitch or Critical Glitch that happened.

As said above, you can also make it up, and basically post an idea for a fun and entertaining Glitch or Critical Glitch.

This could be useful as a source of inspiration for other GMs about how one could handle Glitches in various situations.

Oh yeah, and since fun is largely relative, don't give that term too much weight (it doesn't has to be comedy). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[tsuyoshikentsu]

I'll be a spoilsport and say that as a player, I've never had a glitch I'd consider to be fun. (More fun than not having it would have been, anyway.)

[Dolanar]

This one time...at band camp...this girl totally critical glitched trying to put her flute in her case.....didn't end well

[Thanee]

Well, then hopefully someone will post something that allows you to see that it does not have to be that way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Raiden]

so a mage PC was summoning a flame spirit, needless to say, he got 5 hits, but glitched. so not wanting to be TOO mean I told him the spirit popped up (he got a net 3 hits) BUT he suddenly felt a searing sensation on his head as his hair had caught fire, needless to say he lost his hair and is now permanently eyebrow less due to singed skin. (i even rolled for that, unlucky fellow that night :/)

[Makki]

My Mr. Lucky char once rolled the following: Bug Spirit poison resistance test: Bod 3 + Edge 7 -> 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 4

I was so shocked, while the GM at first didn't recognize it. I was like "uhm, I'm out". My char then was puking up organs and sick for another few hours and gained a permanent mild addiction.

[FuelDrop]

I can name many, but only a few really good ones:
Number 1: The ninja without a clue: the group was staking out a night club from the inside (with the exception of my character, who was following another lead and spending the night infiltrating the enemy's pet gang's area. They spend the night in a night club while I'm stuck sneaking past gangers!) anyway, our ninja neglected to take any ranks in perception, so had a dice pool of about 2. First roll... critical glitch. So he stumbles down the stairs, rather embarrassing for a master of the night. His next check merely glitches, so he finds our rigger... by tripping and falling into her lap. In a private booth... with a male NPC she was wining and dining.

Number 2: Under fire from an enemy tank, our redneck Jesus glitched a check (I can't remember what, probably composure), which kicked in his buggy datajack and its burned-in personafix. So he drops to his knees and starts praying as APDS punches through the wall around him... and none of it hits him. none.

[DMiller]

On one of our more recent missions, we were jumping out of a moving aircraft (on the ground) to surprise some fellows that were chasing us (we had just landed, private plane & airfield). Each of the characters needed to make a gymnastics test to jump out and land safely beyond any of the moving parts of the plane. My character rolled successfully, but with a glitch. The GM decided that my brand new dart pistol (that I was very happy to have finally gotten) slipped from its holster and under the on-coming aircraft wheel… Flat pistol, sad hacker, but the whole team laughed for a while on that one (including me).

-D

*edit*
P.S.

My character regularly glitches and crit glitches on perception tests. When it happens The GM usually describes it as either "noise" in my vision or sometimes my cybereyes have freaked out and have turned on microscopic vision in one eye and some other random thing in the other causing me to completely miss what's going and making me reboot my cybereyes. Our team medic keeps telling me to upgrade away from the Microsoft OS on my cybereyes.

Laughs are had by all when it happens.

[Makki]

I once glitched at taking a blood sample from a freshly killed ghoul. (can't remember, whether it was a first aid or a blades test)
You can imagine, what the consequences would have been. I hesitated shouting "Edge", because a troll ghoul mage would have pretty awesome stats (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .

[Chance359]

Once while staking out Central Park for potential contacts to get into the underground, our group's Troll same crit glitched on a perception test. GM said that he was pick pocketed by one of the gang members working the park. The troll walked up to a mounted patrol man, looking the norn straight in the eye and reported his registered weapon stolen. Took the cops about an hour to find the ganger, but then the troll had to explain why he had a restricted modification on his legally owned gun.

[Midas]

Glitches are not very common in my game, at least for the PCs. They usually happen when a character has to make a test in a secondary/tertiary skill or is defaulting. Maybe I should try and buy them some of the cursed dice that other DSers seem to be using! A few memorable ones:

1) The adept hacker got spotted by a scary company man while doing an on-site prepatory hack for a run. The hacker needed to put some daylight between him and his pursuer, so gambled on a Running test with Athletics 1. He glitched, fell prone and then got pulled up by the scruff of his neck by the company man, who told him that attempting to escape was futile, and laughed to himself at the PC's ineptitude as he cuffed him.

2) The sammie has had a few glitches with equipment. After making a rare glitch with a newly purchased Predator (yes, afraid I sank to the old 'gun jams' chestnut), he threw the thing away, convinced that he had bought a defective piece. On another occasion, he glitched a Negotiation roll when trying to get some APDS ammo through his gun runner contact, only to find that wires had been crossed somewhere and it was Stealth tracer rounds that he had bought.

3) The mage (who doubles as the team face) once famously glitched an Ettiquette test at a black tie jolly. Laughing with the extraction target about the latest scream sheet sex scandal, he was surprised to find out that the politician at the centre of the scandal had been standing just behind him ... when the guy unexpectedly spun around and punched him in the face. The extraction target slipped away, the mage was escorted from the premises (the perks of power, the honourable councillor would never start a fight with ... well who is this guy anyway?), and the team had to hash out emergency plans to create another less easy opportunity for their extraction.

[StealthSigma]

I once glitched a climb test and nearly got squashed as a delivery truck was backing up into a loading dock.

Ever since then I have compulsively raised the shit out of my climb checks.

[Neraph]

A friend of mine build a B/E Specialist, fairly well min-maxed for all that entails, and went on a mission. It started going south so he was forced to rappel from an 8th story or somesuch. He set his grapple line, gets everything ready perfectly, and then crit glitches his actualy climb test. What happened was he went off the side of the building as if to rappel, but without the rope in his hands. The character actually did fairly well in that he didn't scream on the way down - a real covert ops guy to the last.

[Raiden]

A friend of mine build a B/E Specialist, fairly well min-maxed for all that entails, and went on a mission. It started going south so he was forced to rappel from an 8th story or somesuch. He set his grapple line, gets everything ready perfectly, and then crit glitches his actualy climb test. What happened was he went off the side of the building as if to rappel, but without the rope in his hands. The character actually did fairly well in that he didn't scream on the way down - a real covert ops guy to the last.

so he died due to a crit glitch on a climbing test? ouch kinda harsh O.o

[Crazy Ivan]

In a simply set-up run, the party I was GM'ing for was supposed to jack a semi with precious cargo, and had a strong-arm viewpoint of things. So they lit up the semi itself taking out the driver and the measly escorts he had (it wasn't meant to be anything too inherently valuable). But not one person that was there in the party actually knew how to properly drive a large truck (we just ruled that one rank in Pilot: ground would be sufficient, but no one had it...)

This is the Sixth World, everything is run electronically. No big deal...right? Under normal circumstances, correct. But that barrage of gunfire? The semi glitched it's damage resistance test, and at the time, I just simply ruled that all the fancy computer stuff was damaged beyond functionality, thinking SOMEONE in the party had a rank or two in the drive skill. But the hacker/rigger had to miss, and none of my other characters apparently ever bothered learning to drive (it's the sixth world, not unusual for the mass populace)...

So they decide "screw it, how hard can it be?" They start trying to drive the damage semi the good ol fashioned way. And they're out in the boonies, trying to get the cargo to their destination back in the city. I figure a extended test is called for, with a small number of successes needed (comparably). So on 6 dice or so (Defaulting on AGL 6-1=5, +1 for them being smart enough to pull up an AR program from the Matrix to try to help). And 2 glitches later, they're drudging along, the engine locking up, but moving along nonetheless.


So to their credit, they decide to spend a point of edge to try to get a break and quickly finish the test. The catch? the player with the most edge had the Unlucky quality...and crit. glitched. The truck breaks down. The engine is blown from their in ability to shift properly and handle the massive damaged vehicle. So they panicked, and after running through their lists of contacts, no contact was able to connect them with a semi or anyone able to fix it (they burned bridges with their original fixer, and didn't want to lose face with the new one by seeming inept). Eventually, they had to call their new fixer and explain what had happened.

Needless to say, the fixer was unamused by the partys sudden request for a semi, and wound up bailing them out, but not without significant derision to the party.

[FuelDrop]

@Ivan (crazy): It sounds like the incident in your signature might include an amusing (or painful) glitch or two. Care to elaborate?

[Neraph]

so he died due to a crit glitch on a climbing test? ouch kinda harsh O.o

He died on a crit glitch on a climbing test to get off of a building that was about eight stories tall. Yes, death is the result of a fall from that height (24P damage at -1/2 Impact armor).

[FuelDrop]

He died on a crit glitch on a climbing test to get off of a building that was about eight stories tall. Yes, death is the result of a fall from that height (24P damage at -1/2 Impact armor).

This is why my old character always carried a parachute when entering a multistory building.

[Neraph]

IIRC he actually reduced it to the point where he was at 1 box of overflow left or something and ended up bleeding out. When asked if he wanted to burn edge to survive, the player was basically like "Frag it, I'll just make a new one." Apparently starting the first 'run of the character by crit glitching his specialty resulting in the character's death puts a bad taste in your mouth...

[Raiden]

pft, totally wall run half the way down. lol

[Raiden]

He died on a crit glitch on a climbing test to get off of a building that was about eight stories tall. Yes, death is the result of a fall from that height (24P damage at -1/2 Impact armor).

not sure I would have done that with a crit gltich, somthing bad, but not insta death for a char. not form the crit glitch on climbing. crit glitch a damage res test from an assualt rifle? lawl you head explodes.

[taeksosin]

I have three favorites. Technically four if I break the first one up.

1) Running my group through On the Run. They're at the concert, and the technorigger (a SURGE3 fish looking thing nicknamed Fisheye) who's a total pacifist had parked his car by some troll size portapotties, it being the only parking available. The elf sniper/face managers to get up to Nabo's room, walks in, and flashes the occupants. Like, had stripped and walked up wearing his lined coat. While the orks were wondering what the hell the elf was doing, the stealth adept with the stealth suit managed to pop in, grab the commlink, and pop out. So far, so odd, but so good. As they're getting ready to walk to the car, a riot breaks out at the concert. Instead of walking through the crowd to the car, Fisheye decides to remotely drive it over to them. He critically glitched his driving test. His car plowed through the portapotties and mowed through the crowd while its guns popped up and started firing randomly into the crowd. A lot of the crowd didn't like this, obviously, and started chasing the car with intent to hurt. Fisheye manages to get control of his car, and attempts to back over the three large, cybered trolls chasing it. He hits one, another dodges, and the third jumps on top the car. The stealth adept, being an adrenaline junky, crit fails his willpower check and rushes at the car with an urgent, burning need to emulate the troll. He manages to also car surf, and in an act of oneupsmanship, jumps atop one of the mounted guns and rides it like a mechanical bull while having his suit flash kanji and giant arrows pointing at him. They managed to get out of there, but that car was disposed of in short order.

2) On the same run, they went to Fisheye's apartment to let the heat die down a bit after the concert incident. Red, the ex-Lonestar turned PI whose wife was killed by...someone, has some image pop his flashback roll. Crit glitch. He proceeds to start pulling out gas grenades and his Warhawks, shooting wildly at anyone he can see while popping grenades convinced that one of the other players in the room is in the process of killing his wife. Watching them try to subdue him, since they were dealing with pepperpunch and neurostun while he had his internal air tank, was fun.

3) Same player as Red, new set of characters. I decided that McConaughey the paraplegic ex-Lone Star lawyer is a latent mage since the current mojo's character just wasn't working for her, and she wanted to go with something completely different. McConaughey is modeled a bit after Archer, so he's crass, annoying, and extremely good at what he does. He'd been getting AR spam about Scientology, and decided to give the religion a shot. Problem is, he's got the equivalent of Incompetent: Pretty Much Every Knowledge Skill That Isn't The Law by choice, and he no so good at the readings. So, his view of Scientology revolves around evil lord Xanadu, shooting thetans from your eyes, and knowing the unknowable because the thetans told him. They were attempting to find a body at a morgue, and McConaughey tells the group that due to his thetan powers that "I got this" as the hacker is hacking into the computer system. I throw out a luck roll (single d6) and it pops up a 6, so the random locker/slidy thingie bodies are kept on that he points at turns out to be the right one, before he could have known. The rest of the run, whenever he wanted to do something, he had the opportunity of having me roll a thetan check as well. My reasoning for this is that its his magical powers starting to manifest themselves in hilarious ways, a la Harry Potter. So, as he's interrogating someone for the location of the body's potential killer, he decides he wants a thetan check to go with it. He's coming on hard, more intimidation than interrogation. I roll a 1 for him. The person's head explodes. Much laughter was had on mine and the rest of the group's part as he cleaned himself up (he'd been eye to eye with the man) and then started trying to track down another lead.

[ShadowDragon8685]

From my last game:

The players are interacting with an NPC whom they know to have a Latent Awakening as something on her, but they don't know what.

The mage is utter bollocks at Assensing (as in he has literally no skill at it,) so he conjures up a Spirit of Man to Assense her, and rolls the Spirit's dice pool.

The Spirit rolls one success, and a glitch.

I rule that the spirit screams "DRAGON! SHE'S A DRAGON!" at its summoner and cravenly flees to the metaplanes.

[Neraph]

From my last game:

The players are interacting with an NPC whom they know to have a Latent Awakening as something on her, but they don't know what.

The mage is utter bollocks at Assensing (as in he has literally no skill at it,) so he conjures up a Spirit of Man to Assense her, and rolls the Spirit's dice pool.

The Spirit rolls one success, and a glitch.

I rule that the spirit screams "DRAGON! SHE'S A DRAGON!" at its summoner and cravenly flees to the metaplanes.

Was that Latent Dracomorphosis instead?

I had a player roll a crit glitch on an Assense on another team-mate as the group met for the first time. He figured it was a free-spirit (the character was a mundane, if memory serves correctly). He immediately started trying to find out more about the "spirit," and attempted to find out about "its" Calling materials. He asked another mage in the group to check it out also and that character also crit glitched - perpetuating the mistaken identity. They questioned the guy (who had no idea Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was going on) extensively and excitedly about himself. One part of the process went something like: (they will be Player 1, Player 2, and Victim)
P1: "So, what is it that you do?"
V: "I'm a stock broker and financial consultant." (Day Job)
P2 to P1: "Oooh, so he's a modified Guidance Spirit."

[Miri]

Our team had a rush job of breaking into a Renraku small office to retrieve some Matrix Hardware. The hacker with some assists from my Crack Sprite tried twice to break into their computer system, and was detected both times on the first log in, but was able to pull a floor plan. Meanwhile I'm jumped in my chameleon skinned Dragonfly drone observing the facility to get an idea of outside guards and I decide to do a Detect Wireless Node roll to see what they have active on grounds. I glitch the roll and instead of listening for traffic I somehow dialed their commcode and got the operator.

Operator: "Applied Science, how may I direct your call?"
Me: "Umm.. I'm sorry, I think I dialed the wrong number. I was trying to reach Aperture Science."
Operator: "Have a nice day!" *click*

Given that my character had been born in 2009 and was a hacker in her missspent youth that was the first thing that sprang to mind to try and salvage the call.