They Can't be Beholders! We're only 3rd Level!, Or When runs go really really wrong. Options

[Lionhearted]

I have to unfortunately inform people that I have no idea who Herr Brakhaus is.
Best I could come up with was the agent for a Great Dragon (or possibly the dragon himself).

Ze germans are coming!

[Draco18s]

Ze germans are coming!

Doesn't help narrow it down much.

[Kyrel]

D&D3.5 one-off game. The GM had an idea he wanted to try out. Basically we all made four different character classes. Each character was able to change form between these four different classes. We got four times the HP, and got to build four characters with their own feats etc. So far so good. Now this is basically supposed to be a very standard dungeoncrawl, where we'll be going from one encounter to the next. Still OK. Where the chain comes off, is at the very first encounter. The reason? Simple. Our GM had for some reason envisioned that because we had access to more classes, and had four times the normal Hit Points, we would also be able to take on monsters with a Challenge Rating 3-4 levels higher then we were. The end result? TPK from the very first monster. The encounter took a while, due to our inflated Hit Points, but none of us could do anything against the monster. The fighter classes couldn't hit the AC, and when they did they didn't do much damage due to the Damage Resistance on the monster. The characters with less than full BAB was only hitting on a natural 20, and the spells from the spellcasters didn't have a Save DC which was high enough to seriously challenge the monster. Personally I laughed my ass off, as did several of the other players. The GM was less entertained.

[Sendaz]

I have to unfortunately inform people that I have no idea who Herr Brakhaus is.
Best I could come up with was the agent for a Great Dragon (or possibly the dragon himself).

Brakaus is the name of a Johnson or Johnsons working for Saeder Krupp, and seems to answer to only Lofwyr himself.

He has appeared as different races and ages, leading to speculation as to is the name just used between a pool of Johnsons or that of one Johnson able to change his form.

Some even say it could be Lofwyr himself taking metahuman shape but nothing really solid to confirm this.

[Draco18s]

Brakaus is the name of a Johnson or Johnsons working for Saeder Krupp, and seems to answer to only Lofwyr himself.

He has appeared as different races and ages, leading to speculation as to is the name just used between a pool of Johnsons or that of one Johnson able to change his form.

Some even say it could be Lofwyr himself taking metahuman shape but nothing really solid to confirm this.

Ah ha. There we go. I was seeing some SK connections, but I wasn't able to pin down the context.

[Darquewing]

First game for a group with two SR vets and 4 new people.

After the meet, they were to head out into Puyallup Lava Fields to pick up an extractee's family from the smuggler who had gone to ground because being spotted running the S-S border.

While they thought they were "running silent" across the Fields, the hacker/rigger decides to throw up an aerial drone to scout around. Keeps it subscribed to his signal 6 commlink... In a matrix dead zone...

When they saw the Banshee parked, covered, and POWERED DOWN, which I made a lot of noise about. Made it seem real important, nobody blinked... even the vets... And noone bothered with "Common Sense" quality even after recommending it multiple times in character creation.

The drone missile on auto-pilot smashed his scout drone to pieces while the two face types were in the building rounding up the wife and two kids. The second missile destroyed the Banshee on the ground. The team driver took lead vehicle, but the infiltrator jumped behind the wheel of the second vehicle. Anyone wanna guess a horrible driver? Want to know how WAS a good driver in the second vehicle?

They couldn't lose the two attack helicopters, each with an MCT strike team in the back. (While the encounter was meant to go similar to this, they were also meant to get away. The Lava Fields can play havoc with sensors and the horrid air conditions, ash clouds, etc. made it hard for the choppers to fly.)

Ended up stuck under an old overpass thanks to the rigger who was with them. Had to fend off one of the teams while digging for the entrance to old sewer systems, which would lead to Carbonado...

Lots of wounded... one death... but the family was okay, if very shaken... Very exciting and even player who lost his character enjoyed it.

[Draco18s]

Very exciting and even player who lost his character enjoyed it.

Reminds me of the Space Opera (using SR rules) a friend of mine ran (oh Jim, where art thou?)--ignore the "magic doesn't work in space" issue and just go with it.

One of the PCs was a latent mage, never really came up. The plot was that when a civilization got to inter-stellar space travel level tech (which requires FTL communication) a virus infects the civilization's computers, turning them into rogue "out to destroy humanity" AIs (the virus is essentially an AI out in deep space broadcasting a wakeup call on the entire FTL spectrum; any civ that opens its computer systems up to that channel is eventually wiped out by the sudden appearance of hostile AIs).

Anyway.

In trying to gain access to a crashed military ship the not-a-mage character, through pure chance (as in slightly above average attack roll to bombed dodge roll after edge) takes a missile to the face. The player looks up and says, "I awaken." The GM says, "Yeah, now would pretty much be a good a time as any for that." (Jim is one of two GMs I know where the phrase "no campaign plan survives contact with the players" is NOT true). Maybe Jim suggested it, I don't recall exactly.

Anyway, blaze of firey death and the PC survives because, "Hey, magic. I can control the VERY FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE."

Later on in the game one of the PCs ends up having a conversation with the AI, learns what's going on, and says to the AI, "Wow, humanity is fucked. I'm going to just go kill myself now." and walks out. Jim--being Jim--allows the PC to escape the hostile AI's core and leave the ship unmolested due to this cunning bluff. Why? Because the AI reasoned that if the guy was going to off himself anyway, why bother taking the 150 milliseconds or so it to kill him?

[ShadowDragon8685]

I have to unfortunately inform people that I have no idea who Herr Brakhaus is.
Best I could come up with was the agent for a Great Dragon (or possibly the dragon himself).

Brakhaus is a name for Saeder-Krupp Johnsons who want you to know that you're working for Saeder-Krupp. They will deal straight, without trying to doublecross you, but if you cross them in any way, S-K comes down on you very unprofitably and makes an example out of you. And of course, you're dealing with a Dragon, which means that if you take a job from Herr Brakhaus, your future has pretty much narrowed down to "change my genes, face, name, continent, and ethnicity," "Saeder-Krupp pawn who is occasionally permitted to take jobs from others," or "dead."

And, of course, there's the very real possibility that Herr Brakhaus is the mother-fucking Great Dragon Lofwyr himself, in a human form. So you may be dealing with the dragon to the dragon's face.

If that doesn't make you pucker instantly, then you're a cyberzombie.

[CanRay]

Or you're Kane, in which case, it's more like: "Challenge accepted!"

[ShadowDragon8685]

Or you're Kane, in which case, it's more like: "Challenge accepted!"

Kane Vs. The Great Dragon Lofwyr. Only on Saeder-Krupp Heavy Entertainment Pay-Per-View.

[Lionhearted]

Kane Vs. The Great Dragon Lofwyr. Only on Saeder-Krupp Heavy Entertainment Pay-Per-View.

More like Dining with Lowfyr

[Sendaz]

Dragon humor:

Why do Dragons love Archers?

A: Because they come with their own floss (bows)


Why did the Dragon bring the empty suits of armor back to the castle?

A: To ask for a refill.


How do you stop a Dragon from charging?

A: Hack his account.

[FuelDrop]

The fact of the matter is that (at least in 4th) Dragons and even Great Dragons, while beyond anything any runner team should be able to handle, were screwed if they incurred the wrath of someone with MBTs or other top-of-the-line hardware on a megacorp/national level without similar assets of their own. They're good, but despite their claims to the contrary they're not gods.

[lorechaser]

Playing a low magic D&D game. One of the players was a high school friend of the DM and a player. Fine, sure.

His first character was a Paladin, focused on charging. He was an idiot (I said Paladin, right?). He walked in to a bar and asked the barkeep "anything shady going on?" Yeah.

We're in the forest. He's still on his horse in full armor with a lance. We're hunting werewolves. He sees one about 80' away, and wins init. "I charge it." It had friends lying in ambush. He was dead before we got there.

New character. Some sort of knight. Party is going scouting in Orc territory. We all get light riding horses (50' move). We gets a heavy warhorse in barding (40' move) Against our advice. See where this is going? We spy a party of mutated orcs. They move at 50'. He delayed them for 3 turns, which left us enough time to get out of bow shot range.

His third character started a live steel fight with my character as his introduction. To show his awesomeness I guess. I'm a minmaxer. He's an idiot. I didn't kill him, but with low magic and natural healing, he wasn't even able to join the party on the next adventure, ignoring the fact that we wouldn't have invited the psycho anyway. He eventually stopped coming to the games. Which was good because he had no social skills, smelled bad, and didn't get along with anyone now.

[White Buffalo]

The details are hazy with time but the run at SeaTac was so fouled up it resulted in TPK. The GM let us try again and we rewound to the point our con went bad with a little etoolin of the plan. This one resulted in 3 out of 5 players dieing with the troll and rigger getting away leaving the rest to their fate. We started a new campagn after that.

[Kincaid]

I'm assuming most people here know Karen's CLUE files, but if not these are worth your time:

http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gaming/...clue-files.html

[Sendaz]

I'm assuming most people here know Karen's CLUE files, but if not these are worth your time:

http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gaming/...clue-files.html

Never seen these before... will have to spend some time going through all this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Kincaid]

Never seen these before... will have to spend some time going through all this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If I have somehow introduced a new generation of Shadowrunners to the CLUE files, that's good karma indeed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Umidori]

If I have somehow introduced a new generation of Shadowrunners to the CLUE files, that's good karma indeed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

*Hands you his +1 Karma Voucher and goes back to reading.*

~Umi

[naga-nuyen]

These C.L.U.E files are amazing. Thank you, laughing so hard at the moment.

[Umidori]

"I’m just eating a muffin."

~Umi

[Teulisch]

ive seen one like this once. we were playing 3e D&D, and running through a version of against the giants. well, the party was alpha-striked by giants throwing rocks. aoe, reflex save, everyone without evasion died. the necromancer with a ring of evasion grabbed the bodies and teleported out. my rogue used his ring of invisibility to hide until the party returned. it was a gm-failure mostly, as the save-for-half damage from overlapping AOEs killed the paladin outright. most giants dies to the necromancers magic jar, long run- they never expect their children to fireball them after all.

another time, i was running shadowrun 4e, and the rigger did something..... unique. first of all, the hacker had it set up, he just needed to drive up and tack the package from the facility front gate. so he went and put on makeup so that computers couldn't recognize his face, and the disguise roll was terrible. next, while waiting for the package to be loaded (with the teqam a block away, and the hacker working to keep things on track), this funny-lookin driver offered the gate guard a drink from his hip flask, raising some eyebrows. the package loads, inquires start, and the hacker didnt get the camera footage (wired system to the security office). the team got followed, and lost the van to a firefight under a mall parking deck (they had a large deposit to borrow it, which they did not get back). so next, after the delivery to the Johnson, i ask the rigger: where did you park your van? your apartment, are you sure? really? your sure?

when i told him lone star was there, he was upset enough to start packing his bag to leave the table- he was really attached to that van and drones he put all his starting cash in. next game they got his ride back from the impound lot thanks to the face doing her job, and he was grouchy about needing cosmetic surgery with lone star knowing what he looked like. in retrospect, i should have just started the shootout at the facility when he offered the flask, but i was going easy on them.

now, another shadowrun i GMed (different characters, mostly the same players)- at the meet, a sniper shot mr. johnson in the head. they grabbed his obvious commlink, and ran to his listed contact information- aztechnology(who sent an assault helicopter to 'scare off' the helicopter that was following the team). they gave the azzies the girl-in-a-box they rescued, and then let the azzies implant them with beta-ware (and free cranial bombs!). as gm, the commlink (that they never hacked) was a decoy, the johnson had an implant model for his real business (right where the bullet hit too). it was an azzie sniper. the girl later used her technomancer mojo to ask them for help. snipers became a running joke, in part because the troll was a sniper and once picked the same vantage point as an enemy sniper.