[X] My Assistant

[FuelDrop]

While I would be very reluctant to play in this scenario (Modifying my character without a chance to resist is a big no-no), I can understand from a GM viewpoint if you were given a chance (IE the will check) then failed... though having everything rest on one roll is almost as bad as not letting me resist at all. Did you take precautions of any description that were ignored or overlooked by the GM when he did this?

My main problem would be that the effects seem to be poorly balanced: the rigger (In my group our rigger is also the group armourer, so that may colour my opinion) is taking a -2 penalty on all his matrix checks, his Armorer skill checks, and his checks to repair/modify his vehicles and drones. That is huge, and potentially character breaking.

The street sam is now a liability, as he basicall has to either get wetwork jobs on a daily basis or become a serial killer.

The face just needs a little nookie on a regular basis. find him a whore-house that gives regulars discounts and he's almost gotten off entirely.

The sniper will be out of the game soon. You can't lie on you belly for hours waiting for your target to come into your kill zone with a baby on board, let alone scaling buildings to get to a sniper roost or even general sneaking around. maybe not too bad now, but very soon she'll be unplayable.

[DamHawke]

a little crunch note: If you're rewarded with negative qualities (and that's what happened), but it's not your fault and nothing you did caused it, then crunch-wise you've actually been rewarded negative karma. You should demand some equal compensation. Just for the sake of character advancement.

if your GM keeps you going with his bad GMing (unless he can prove to you, that everything fits together in the end), then I would counterstrike. Buy loads of explosives, blow up everything he describes. no more face-to-face conversation, only VR.No more following the plot, but investing 24/7 in finding out what happened to me. Etc

You are absolutely right. We should badger him for something to compensate. Hopefully we'll find out more next game 'cause he ended it in a cliffhanger on purpose.

Your characters are trapped in some kind of BTL - VR simulation. Free your mind.
Relevant

I have to watch this now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

While I would be very reluctant to play in this scenario (Modifying my character without a chance to resist is a big no-no), I can understand from a GM viewpoint if you were given a chance (IE the will check) then failed... though having everything rest on one roll is almost as bad as not letting me resist at all. Did you take precautions of any description that were ignored or overlooked by the GM when he did this?

We couldn't have avoided it if we had wanted to.

Before the whole hospital thing, we had just come back from stealing a truckload of explosives from Ares (a ban on all splash weapons had been enacted by Lone Star, and Johnson wanted some before it became too hard to find) we had headed to the Sam's safehouse to dump it all temporarily when we saw his safehouse had been broken into and a large crate was in the middle of his floor. The crate had 3 things in it, a folded shot gun, a flashlight and a gold ring.

Some hilarity with the gold ring later (turns out it WAS the One Ring from LoTR infamy) with our Johnson on the line hearing us fight and stuff, he stops short and suddenly says that he needed to leave, cya guys later and all that with a shifty/scared tone. Then we got hit by the will save which we all failed and woke up all nekkids in that hospital room.

I still want to give the plot some time to unravel before we jump to conclusions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/indifferent.gif)

[phlapjack77]

I have to watch this now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

definitely (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

on-topic-wise, i truly do think your group is in some kind of virtual reality. seems to be the very thing that could explain such shifts in personality along with the new addition to the group

[All4BigGuns]

While I would be very reluctant to play in this scenario (Modifying my character without a chance to resist is a big no-no), I can understand from a GM viewpoint if you were given a chance (IE the will check) then failed... though having everything rest on one roll is almost as bad as not letting me resist at all. Did you take precautions of any description that were ignored or overlooked by the GM when he did this?

Caveat: The chance to resist needs to be acceptable (ie- If the party has at best a 3 Willpower, no Threshold 15s.)

The sniper will be out of the game soon. You can't lie on you belly for hours waiting for your target to come into your kill zone with a baby on board, let alone scaling buildings to get to a sniper roost or even general sneaking around. maybe not too bad now, but very soon she'll be unplayable.

Again, this one is the kicker. There is absolutely, positively no excuse for doing this to a character. ESPECIALLY when saying that you wouldn't do it if the gender of player and character matched. This can and should elicit a punch to the junk.

[Lionhearted]

Uhm, yeah the sniper has the least issues.
The Sammy is essentially dead
The face is dead in runs that takes more then a day

If this was some sort of shenanigans I would have hinted at it by now, in the VR example, surrounding displacing or an odd object glitching.
In the mindwash example, well I wouldn't do that, ever.

[KCKitsune]

My question is this: Why play Shadowrun if you're going to remove magic*? Magic is a part of the Shadowrun universe.



* == No, adepts don't count. They're just street sammies that don't need (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) for their augmentation

[_Pax._]

My question is this: Why play Shadowrun if you're going to remove magic*? Magic is a part of the Shadowrun universe.

Some people may want to play a Cyberpunk game, and like teh Shadowrun rules, but don't want the whole Shadowrun experience.

I don't happen to be one of them, but I can certainly grok teh idea in principle, at least.

[DamHawke]

Well, gamewise magic is present in the universe, just that in terms of mechanics the team doesn't encounter it much at all.

Though the real reason is that our GM hasn't gotten a hang of handling magic and matrix yet (he used to run D20 modern, Shadowrun is still fairly new to him) We do want it but we're willing to wait till he's ready.

I want my changeling shaman dammit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Shortstraw]

Roll SR chars properly use % dice and on a 00 you get to have magic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[StealthSigma]

We don't know if that's what really happened (we hope it isn't the case) but the player himself didn't care too much. Our GM did say he would have never done it if the player was female though.

Immaculate conception! Our saviour shall be reborn!

--

The sniper will be out of the game soon. You can't lie on you belly for hours waiting for your target to come into your kill zone with a baby on board, let alone scaling buildings to get to a sniper roost or even general sneaking around. maybe not too bad now, but very soon she'll be unplayable.

The sniper's is the easiest to fix.

[FuelDrop]

The sniper's is the easiest to fix.

*Shakes fist* Curse you, Occam's razor!

[StealthSigma]

*Shakes fist* Curse you, Occam's razor!

If I were to rate the penalties based on severity from most to least....

Serial Murderer
Sex Addict
Dumpshocker
Immaculate Conception

[mister__joshua]

It may be offtoic, but I'm really surprised by some of the reactions in the thread.
I mean, what has happened is a pretty slow day for me, as a player and as a game master. I mean, the party goes to sleep and wakes a bit messed up. They didn't have to live through the experimentation, the whole thing may probably be reversed... That's a bit amateurish move to my taste (by the very reason that player usually go 'wtf?!' don't know what to do), but nothing horrible. I had a daemon impersonate a player character and the player was playing him the whole session without knowing. The big surprise came only at the end of the game. And that's just the first example that comes to me, not the most complex thing I did or had experienced.

Until I read your post this is pretty much exactly what I was thinking and was going to post as such.

Not only surprised, but shocked and a little upset. It's like people consider their characters precious flowers that the naughty GM should leave alone. My Roleplaying experience must be very different to some. As an example, we've played through what was effectively the film The Thing, twice, and Aliens, all while supposedly playing Cyberpunk.

I once had my favourite character attacked by alien vampires. That was unexpected, but you roll with it. I ended up bargaining with the devil for a mansion and a chain of herbal tea shops. All the other PCs died. We've also done a mission where all the PCs have amnesia, and a mission where we all ended up in prizon, and while escaping it turned into a 28 days later style rage apocalypse.

My point being, and my advice to the OP, just get on with it. You said you normally enjoyed the GMs games. You'll probably enjoy this one too. Roleplaying is about storytelling and this may just be the most kick-ass story he's ever come up with. You try and find out what's going on while roleplaying your new ailment and laughing at all the hijinks it causes when your face tries to sleep with your sniper and she shoots him (inevitably). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[mister__joshua]

If I were to rate the penalties based on most fun to roleplay....

Serial Murderer
Sex Addict
Dumpshocker
Immaculate Conception

Fixed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Lionhearted]

Every 24h you must go wookiee or you do it on your mate does not make for fun roleplaying.

Also in 2070, the sniper could just extract the thing* and continue growing it in an artificial womb, if she wants to keep it for whatever reason

* It might be a chestburster for all we know...

[StealthSigma]

Every 24h you must go wookiee or you do it on your mate does not make for fun roleplaying.

Also in 2070, the sniper could just extract the thing* and continue growing it in an artificial womb, if she wants to keep it for whatever reason

* It might be a chestburster for all we know...

The GM is obviously aiming for Squick. Not to be confused with Squee which is definitely not Squee.

[Umidori]

Roll SR chars properly use % dice and on a 00 you get to have magic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Roll for sex, odds for male, evens for female...
Roll twice for a serious congenital medical condition, two 00's in a row and you have one...
Roll two d20s for eyesight...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

~Umi

[Lionhearted]

I thought d20 was a dirty word here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[_Pax._]

Roll for sex, odds for male, evens for female...

... no chance for sexual dimorphism? Some simulation THIS is ...! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Umidori]

Go play GURPS, Pax. Then you can be a non-gender identified spivak elf cyberninja assassin, rather than just the Shadowrun-standard lesbian variety! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

~Umi

[StealthSigma]

Go play GURPS, Pax. Then you can be a non-gender identified spivak elf cyberninja assassin, rather than just the Shadowrun-standard lesbian variety! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

~Umi

Yeah, but is he a pyjak?

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

How Rude... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Umidori]

Punch-Monkey says what?

~Umi

[DamHawke]

My point being, and my advice to the OP, just get on with it. You said you normally enjoyed the GMs games. You'll probably enjoy this one too. Roleplaying is about storytelling and this may just be the most kick-ass story he's ever come up with. You try and find out what's going on while roleplaying your new ailment and laughing at all the hijinks it causes when your face tries to sleep with your sniper and she shoots him (inevitably). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Oh dear ghost no. If our sniper shoots him, he'll really be 'cured' of his affliction permanently (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

I'm not sure with the rest of the team but I'm willing to roll with it (since its been determined long ago likely no magic is involved lul) sides, I got lots of countermeasures now if things DO really get ridiculous (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Next game is this Friday night.

Every 24h you must go wookiee or you do it on your mate does not make for fun roleplaying.

Also in 2070, the sniper could just extract the thing* and continue growing it in an artificial womb, if she wants to keep it for whatever reason

* It might be a chestburster for all we know...

Welp, I didn't think of that.

[Teulisch]

on that chestburster idea... it could be symbiont bioware. perhaps she gets to alpha-test the new research from Ares (you know, the corp that tends to work with bug spirits a bit too much). a genetically engineered parasite could do all sorts of crazy things. lets hope its not magically active.

in general, it sounds to me like the GM took things a bit too far, but having Very Bad Things happen to runners who get captured is sort of expected. the stuff in this case sounds very random and strange though. any Corp with 3 weeks access would make better use of PAB and cortex bombs, and either get themselves some sleeper agents, or a mission they cant refuse at very high risk with your lives as the payment.

the random seeming results though.... my best guess would be toxic shamans, perhaps a possession tradition. 3 weeks is a long time for ritual magic after all.