Stories from my table Options

[ltwutze]

In lack of another place, I hope this thread is appreciated here. I didn't find any other thread to share experiences from offline rounds and neither a sticky asking not do this, so I will open this one not only for me, but everyone who has something to share.
To make it clear: we are a group of german players who play in an american setting, so our knowledge of the US and whole America consists of Google Maps and some prejudices build by TV and Internet. If we have something painstakingly wrong, we don't mean to upset, we just don't know better.

I'll start with our current setup: I lead a game set in Denver, originally meant to be a darker, grittier setting than our "usual" Seattle games. I share GM duty with another player, as we both like to be GM and player and we as a group like to try out/play different characters. The characters were build in 400 BP and got 50 Karma and 100k nuyen for starting, as we like to carry over our playtime karma. This was a bad idea because i horribly failed to build them opposition at first and every encounter on this level tends to get a hard roll-off between PC and NPC, which results in lots of countered rolls followed by an unlucky defense. But enough of that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Ryu - Swordsman, Biker, Orphanage-leading elf. A bit of a Marie Sue, but a nice PC to work with
Domingo - Sneaky Snuff-addict, contacts to Aztec, loves his cyberspurs so much, he is called "El Perforador"
Mack - Magical Prodigy grown up in the Warrens, at the beginning of the round he couldn't read, had no commlink and no lifestyle. Conveniently knows the Stench spell. 14 years old
Thera - Technomancer, 16 years old, only female. Lives with her parents and has to be at home at 22:00 unless otherwise negotiated with her dad.
Grizzly - Genetically engineered Superork, who fled his corp and has a bounty on his head and some bountyies on the heads of his genetical twins. He is played by my fellow GM and we tend to have a lot of rule talk about ideas, one of us have

Contract 1 - "It seemed like a good idea"

The group is called together by their individual fixers to meet in a hospital in the Warrens. The PCs arrive at different times at the hospital, which seems to be a local meeting hall/ market/ crime nexus. Everyone approaches the "guards" and asks if they're allowed which dont even look them in the eyes while mumbling "whatever". Inside they ran into a massive crowd looking at a closed-off bare-knuckle fight in a former operation room and are , after a short time, greated by Igor, the right hand of the building owner. He leads them one by one into a "VIP-Room", build for watching the fight from a bird view.

In this room, they meet each other for the first time knowing they'll work together. They don't react much towards each other, besides Domingo and Ryu, who start chatting. A few minutes in, they are greated by their host, and while the fight downstars with dogs instead of human opponents, they are asked to retrieve a girl from a local recreational facility. The girl is said to be the daughter of a local StufferShack owner, who is in a business relation with their employer.

After getting a few pictures of the girl and an adress, they go to a restaurant and exchange comms. Mack gets to live in Ryu's orphanage for sakes of availibility and connectivtiy. They plan to look at the facility the next day in teams, Grizzly is taking the youngsters through the main entrance, the two others want to take a look at the fence and cameras. While the fence doesn't prove too interesting, the main entrance shows a restaurant for every one with enough moneya and approprate clothing and a boat renting shop to go fishing on the lake.

A plan is quickly forged: Thera knocks out the security and gives the guard a looped camera feed, then moves with Mack and Grizzly on a boat towards the house their target is in. Ryu and Domingo cut through the fence and sneak towards the house from land. After the target is knocked out, she gets taken by the boat to the northern beach of the lake and Ryu and Domingo leave stage in the previously parked Car with a knocked out girl while the boat with the two youngsters gets returned by their "uncle" and they get driven home before Theras bedtime.

Execution went different: While the beginning went exactly as planned and the security was blind, the boat with three people gets steered by its Autopilot to a point 50 meters from the house and Mack throws out a fishing rod for deception. during Grizzlys nautical approach, Ryu and Domingo learn that security in upper-class facilities actually cares to send a car with guards along the street, they don't get caught and approach the house from the side, as the entrance has an annoying motion detector hooked to a light.
Speaking over comm, they arrange to approach the house from both sides. 4 Guards on the porch at the beach are seen and it is decided, that those 4 guys will hear them eventually, so they have to go.

While Domingo approaches, he steps on a twig and is heard by one suspicious guard. The guard, fooled by the chameleon suit can't see the stealthy orc, but the sword-swinging guy kneeling at the front of the house. Before he can even talk, a bullet from a silenced carbine and a narcoject bolt hit him without chance of retaliation and he falls down to let his overdamage do its work. Three guards are alarmed and try to put away their beers and grab their guns simultaneously. Two of them don't even manage to do that before more carbine rounds make them drop down, while the last one realizes he isn't up for this and tries to flee inside. After evading 2 bolts and 4 bullets, the sword of annoyed Ryu strikes him down and they can make their way inside.

Finding noone on ground level, they approach the open stairwell. Upstairs the remaining opposition gains the initiative and is able to fire some bullets through a door that was left open for a crack, while two nude japanese charge at them with spurs. As nudity is not considered good armor, one gets sliced in half by a sword, while the other nude spike fighter manages to dodge into a fist belonging to a supersoldier orc. A panicking last guard manages to destroy some more property before ending like a goon in Kill Bill.

The master bedroom is the hideout for two girls dressed with only slips, who are understandably panicked. While Ryu and Domingo look for other dangers, Grizzly starts interrogating the japanese girls, as he luckily speaks japanese. A few words into the conversation, the word "Yakuza" falls and the second, unknown girl gets shot in the face for offering money to get out of the situation. The target, now even more panicked, is told to put on some clothes and tastes knuckle-sandwich as her bathrobe touches her skin.

Mack and Thera are a little shocked, as three guys leave with one girl on their shoulder hop onto the boat, that was driven closer. Northern Beach had security measures in form of stoned students greeting the group and Ryu and Domingo drove off to the hospital to drop off their freight. Grizzly, besides losing his head erlier on, talks his way out of a failed SIN-check and drives the teenagers to their respective homes. Igor takes care of the unconscious girl and hands out 5 credsticks with the payment as well as a new offer to get in touch with his boss next friday evening.

Oh, I did leave out the good part. After hearing "Yakuza", Grizzly didn't go completely nuts, he took precautions. As in : writing a letter saying "We have your daughter. Signed Shotuzumi Hanzo". Yakuza Knowledge? No, first name coming up from googlin' "Yakuza boss". Because, yeah, that is how you conceal trails to your person.

That was the first contract and took about 3 sessions, as we aren't really playing offline, but over roll20.net, because we happen to live to far from each other.


Contract 2 - "The Roof! We take the roof!"

(Theras Player wasn't around for the most part, so her part got cut out)

Contract 2 was again issued in the old hospital building, this time in the former cafeteria. A picture, a name, a quick sorry for getting involved with the Yak and their host and employer was gone. Igor showed them on a map, in which building they believed he was being kept and warned them about a go-gang owning the area. Ryu, already sworn enemy of one motorbike gang, made the group talk to the gang, which consisted of a lot of trolls, chopping up stolen cars very literally. No need to say, the fine for using the troll's street wasn't much to speak of. After formalities were done, they went to the abandoned neighbourhood and took camp in a building behind the suspected one.
Mack, kid of the street, took off to take an unsuspicious closer look, while the other three looked for a flat in the building to use for observation.

While three grown men went through an "abandoned" building, which had every other flat barricaded by inofficial residents, Mack got stopped by a guard warning him about leaving, before the bus arrived. Eager to learn more, Mack hid in another building, were Grizzlys turretmounted Ares Alpha already waited on a balcony. A bus arrived, and with the bus also an expensive limousine. Bus spills out a few goons with lots of lunchboxes, the car transported 2 grim-looking orcs and an arrogant elf. All of them enter the building, and a few hours later, the car leaves again with the 3 better armed guys. Mack returns to find his 3 comrades holed up on the roof, watching the house and spills his informations. A plan to enter by the roof is brewed together and Grizzly calls his Spec-Ops guy armsdealer to get a UWB Radar, so they can look at the floors below them.
Told to wait for 2 days, they start to sleep on the stairwell and ate some MREs while Mack roasted himself a damn fine rat. Arrogant mundane guys, don't even wanted to try a bite.

Evening of day one, they just finished to take peek at the other house from every store the could find a window, Grizzly is called by his armsdealer who got hold of the item much earlier than expected. Grizzly drives off to get the Radar and Domingo plants the hook for the climbing rope perfectly on the opposite wall. Once Grizzly arrived, they move Mack over the 25 meter in a climbing harness and team up on the other building.

Professionality ensues: Thex check every single level to find guards and take one out until they encounter 6 guards on one level. Remembering their view from the other house, the level below contained a tv connected to the generator on their level, some camp beds close to nice, warm, burning barrels, they find all the guards, two sleeping, two watching late night operas, two "patrolling" to some a cigarette. Ryu and Domingo stab the patrolling ones silently, and only seconds before their demise, one guard in front of the tv even got a glimpse of them. Sadly, he still managed to get a "what the..." over his intercom before being shot down with his firend, while the two sleeping guys never got up again.

Counting in their mind, the group knew that they had recognizes 12 different guards, 5 of them still missing. Arriving on ground level they locate 3 of them in the basement and 2 of them running away and decide, not to follow, but get their extration target. While Domingo and Ryu looked for the side entrance, Grizzly had his gun aimed down the stairwell. Just as Domingo and Ryu entered the building silently from the side entrance to the bicycle basement ( you have something like that too, right?), Grizzly opened fire on a group of 3, carrying one other guy out. Luckily, he only hits the guy going first to him, who has no chance. Domingo and Ryu close up to Grizzly and Ryu screams the 2 remaining guards down, while Domingo tries to hit something with an incendiarya bolt.

Everyone handles panic differently. Some, like guy number one, try to flee, even if it means running through 3 armed invaders. Others try to sell themselves at the highest price and shoot for the ceiling until their gun jams. With now 2 hurt and disarmed guards in the room, the team looks through the room, just to find their target laying on the ground in a pool of fluids around a chair with some ropes. While Mack watches the street with his 14 years and no visible weapons, the three other suddenly realize the smell in the room: Gasoline, mixed with fluid human fear.

In a flash of wit, Domingo drags their target out of the room, in which petrol fuels and an incendiary bolt begin to mix. Ryu atleast manages to jump behind the door, while Grizzly hasn't got anything left than his armor roll against the following explosion. With just some fuel in a basement, the only thing the explosion manages to do is set the remaining guards on fire, while just putting some ashes on grizzly to make him look badass whan leaving the building.
Dragging their target and the last guard from the basement, both unconscious, they find a third person in that state: a somewhat familiar japanese looking guy, lying next to Grizzlys theftproof sandbuggy.

Back at the hospital, 3 persons are given to Igor and his goons and are being transported into the hospital, 2 stay in the basement parking lot, one is put into a bed and droven to the upper levels. Their employer thanks them for the good and fast work with well-filled credsticks, an invitation to a dinnerparty (connected to the offer to grant them appropriate suits) and another job offer as well as the remark about a business associate, who might have even more work for them. On their leave, Igor waves to them friendly, while watching his man putting two heavy bodybags into an unmarked black van.




So much for the first two contracts I had for the group. While underestimating them at the first one, the security on the secound was completely stunned by Infiltration and Surprise rolls.
Feel free to comment or give advice or critique, and as said, please post your own. I am going to reflect, to bring back the happenings of the contracts from there to our now still ongoing campaign.

P.S.: I hope, this is formatted well enough not to be a single wall of text. As I am a philosophy student I am used to that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[LordArcana]

Contract 1: You did a great job condensing it down to a few paragraphs for something that took 3 sessions. Don't worry about getting the scene wrong. Its YOUR game plus its a setting 50+ years in the future. Hell I used to play table top with people who lived in the area we were playing and they sucked at getting geography right (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Personally I really enjoyed game summary and look forward to more.

[ltwutze]

Thanks for the feedback (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I think I can write another episode before leaving for night shift. Advice: Never take night shift jobs. Just don't.


Contract 3 - "That is plain wrong"

After successfully bringing two persons to the clinic, my group of runners appears for a meeting with their Johnson. In the meantime, Domingos sources had told him what he already believed to know: Vory v zakone, russian mobsters, are their employers. Well, the group never made the effort to ask, so they can't really feel betrayed.
Igor already waits for them in the parking lot and greets them. As their contact person, they finally exchange comms and he leads them up to the man they rescued, who lies in a clinic bed being looked after. Their nameless Johnson meets up with them and lays out the cards: The man in front of them is Francis Grandle, member of a smuggler ring that denied working with the Vory. The girl is his girlfriend, who is held upstairs until favors are exchanged. After all, Francis was saved from Yak goons that put him in a basement and screamed at him about someones missing daughter that was seen with him. Who knew a note could make such waves?

Francis angrily agrees to get his crew to do the Johnsons bidding but needs the team to help them with day-to-day business that would get hurt by the new work. Johnson leaves after telling the group to come by at a time, so his tailor can make some suits and Francis gives them a number to call asap. Feeling pity for the guy they helped to blackmail, they step in to help him. Maybe it had something to do with "You will be paid of course", but I didn't check their actual motivations.
On the other end of the line, "Glib" answered. He introduced himself as the contact of the smugglers and told them about what job was to be done: While the smuggler team had to take the job, their other clients still wanted to get their stuff. As the smugglers were down to one member and they didn't want to go without security, the team had to jump in. Instead of subtle drones and the other usual measures, this time security would consist of waving big guns around and runners willing to stab anyone who looked funny. It was a spontaneus plan, mind you.

While Grizzly, Thera and Domingo left the place to drive home, Mack and Ryu remembered something about a business associate wholed up in an office in the building and paid him a visit. After knocking and finding the office open, they saw a heavily cybered dwarf sitting at a table, one hand working the old landline-comm, while his other bodyhalf was cutting a video in AR. Stopping the call but not his other work he welcomed the two visitors. Few minutes conversation later, they found out the following:
One, the dwarf is called Sleazy Sam. Not just by others, no, he uses that name himself.
Two, he is the local BTL dealer and works together tightly with the Vory.
Three, he is also making his own work with a crew he sends through every disco, party and event he can get tickets for.
And four, his last bodyguard quit, because he was fed up with running after drugged walking cameras and keeping them from getting shived by people they pissed off.
While Mack considers the job, Ryu is disgusted by the dwarf, whom he believes (rightfully) to even work with kids in shady videos, if the money is right. Ryu ends the talk abrupt and takes Mack with him, who still considers the job and gets the dwarfs number for his newly bought commlink.

The player of Thera had to take some sessions off, so her sporadic interaction is cut out here. Ryus player also was absent, which I only knew a few hours before, so his nemesis go-gang appeared in the game and it had no effect (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Few days later, they meet up with Glib in a warehouse. Inspecting the warehouse, Glib tells them about the customers: multiple gangers buying stuff from every end of the spectrum. A wiz-gang and a few cyber-heavy mooks are marked by the team as possible problems and Domingo hears about a single gang member of the Los Surenos, his homeboys. Next day, Grizzly sets up his turret across the street to have a camera and gun outside of the building. Domingo introduces a crossbow as big as Grizzlys back and Mack talks about "a few tricks up his sleeve". The sales start and with 30 minutes gap between the groups, gang after gang shows up. Trolls buying vans full of household items; weapons for some goons gearing up for the next turfwar; two big suitcases full of Novacoke for Domingos colleague, who wasn't suspecting a face here he knows. When selling "something magical", according to Mack, to the wiz-gang, they get ambushed by a group storming in through the back entrance.

After some bullets and a bolt change places without effect, Mack unleashes what is to be known in the group as " the no-go". A Stench spell takes out 5 gangers so badly, they break down puking, only a few managing to at least roll behind cover. The unlucky twitching victims lying in the open are riddled with holes from Grizzly, while Domingo puts a bolt through the storage shelf directly into the shoulder of the first guy daring to stick his head up. While the people in the pool of puke ("do they use rules for crossing dangerous terrain? - shut up!") get picked of by the shooters and one harsh manabolt, the turret sees two guys sneaking up to the front entrance. Unleashing the full wrath of fully compensated recoil on a narrow FA on the poor guy that was picked out by a thrown coin, the group inside is lucky not to catch the bullets flying through the thin wall. Last panicked ganger jumps into the warehouse to fall into Grizzlys hands and gets his neck broken.
While the mess is cleaned up, the wiz gang shows they have nothing to do with it by sending a raging orc to the last survivors in the pool of puke, who smashes theirs head and spills brainparts over the place.

Wholly cleaned up, the last sales, some 'ware for the cyberguys and 3 bikes for the Huns gang, went by with no trouble. Glib is happy he wasn't ambushed alone and pays them while telling them to call if they need to buy something. Sharing the income between the 3 of them, Grizzly leads the group to a hideout he rented for the posse. Mack quickly decides to move from the orphanage to living alone in a flat. Security drones are set up by Grizzly, who needs so much time that he is truly pissed when leaving the same drone system bought a second time at the orphanage. Oh did I mention they found the ambushers van? Yeah, parked it right in front of the orphanage.

As they managed the rescue mission of Francis, I never had to use the whole smuggler crew that I put multiple hours into creating a "Smokey and his Bandit"-named working smuggler group. Well, they are still some nice contacts.

I hope writing in present tense doesn't look too bad, I already had the first two contracts done when remembering my teachers talking about it being bad style to switch between tenses... didn't want to break with it now, though.

Player of Grizzly asked me to add, that in the basement where they found Francis, a great Flash-bang grenade was used without the knowledge of the two close combat expert. It is always nice to roll for friendly-fire stun damage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .

I should have one or two installments before I arrive at our current situation, and as the players are allowed to read here too, I can't really talk about what will happen next, so the pace of posting will slow down by then. Just for information, this contract also took 3 sessions, we tend to get lost in a lot of OoC discussion and laughing about dumb ideas and puns. You are still asked to share your stories, I bet everyone can tell something from his table, so this thread doesn't die down too quickly.


/edit: Edited a lot of mistakes because I am a damn bad writer shortly before rushing to work.

[ltwutze]

And another one, too much spare time this weekend (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Contract 4 - "Just a nice dinner"

After hearing about the new hideout, Ryu shows up there to tell he's back in town. With the group back up to 4 and no work in sight, they get ready for their dinner invitation by visiting their employers tailor. There, they finally hear his last name: Zacharev. A quick search tells them he is the local Tsar and not a guy that you deny a wish, so they play along. At the evening of the dinner, they ask Igor for a car as none of them has a drive that is big enough to hold all four or not secure enough, because the neighbourhood at the adress is not really good. Igor gives them a car as he somehow likes them by now.

At the adress they just find a suburb that, even for Warrens standards, has seen better days. Only thing they see on the street is the cigarette of a shady guy in front of a house. After a short time of helplessness, they decide to get out of the car in their fancy suits and ask the guy what this is about. Instead of an answer, he flicks his cigarette and tells them to follow him. They enter the basement of the house and are handed bright yellow rain coats and flashlights. With a complete lack of understanding on their faces, they put on the coats and follow through a broken wall into the sewers. Only few minutes later they have completely lost feeling of their position and are just blindly following an unknown person when they end up in front of a big metal door. Behind the door is a small corridor for hanging the coats and a pale butler. He introduces himself as the hosts servant, leading them to the study room. Startled from the circumstances, they thoroughly check their surroundings to find out that the butlers skin has room temperature. Not a least bit calmed, they follow the butler fully alarmed and completely unarmed. They are lead into a classical study room, where their russian employer and 2 unknown man already sit in old leather armchairs. One of them introduces himself as John Doe, a middle aged caucasian male with so few memorable features, he seems normal on an odd level. The other one is close to being his exact opposite: a bald pale man in 19th century style high fashion, introducing himself as Sebastian von Gotha, the groups host for this evening. Von Gotha leads them to the dining room, where they are served an opulent four-course-meal between the tacky interior, including but not limited to a knight armor statue, a painting of von Gotha himself in front of an unknown landscape and a massive marble statue of a man somewhat resembling their host. Between the courses, some business ideas are layed out: the three men from the study plan to start a collaboration that involves Zacharev covering the tracks by starting too much petty crime to see the big scheme, John Doe as the contact to an international supplier of unnamed goods and von Gotha as the recipient of said goods, who also pays most of the operation. Mack hardly hears anything of this while trying to eat his own weight on every single course and the other runners don't want to interrupt to ask questions.

Just when they are told that for establishing this collaboration their help would be needed, the door flies open, a ghoul standing in the door frame with a (now completely) dead butler by his side. In the seconds-short fight ensuing, Domingo tries to get in a defensive position, Grizzly, sitting with his back to the door, moves out of the way and Ryu rips the sword right from the armor statue. Macks Manabolt lets the ghoul howl in pain. Just before any of them can finish the badly hurt ghoul, von Gotha chains the invader with magical bonds and asks the marble statue to carry him "to his place".
Perplexed the runners accept the apology of von Gotha, while Zacharev nearly dies from a stress-induced stroke and John Doe picks bored on his plate. The whole group is led through a backdoor and some tunnels to an observation point, showing a cavern in the canalisation, where the golem just drops the ghoul and closes a big metal gate behind him. The characters are put on the players knowledge about HMHVV and along that conversation discover that their employer has a lot of similarities to a vampire. To the inevtiable question he answers them that he is in fact infected, but has control over himself on a completely different level.
He is trying to separate the ghouls from the uninfected metahumans to stop unwanted infection and minimalize casualties on both sides. For this, he plans to let Tamanous bring him bodies to feed the ghouls and Mr. Doe is his contact to them.

After John Doe and Zacharev leave (Doe is just not the guy for pleasantries, Zacharev still has to cope with the ghoul in his direct vicinity), von Gotha fills them in on their task: three people in the town need to be convinced to work with von Gotha to ensure a steady, hidden flow of bodies:

Arthur P. Douglas, a dwarf and owner of an old, family owned funeral service.
Larry Kessler, EO of a (made up) nearby SK arcology, having business connections to every part of the town.
Orlando Reed, Troll Shaman, Member of the Council of Denver, holds big influence in the better social spheres of Denver society.

As a personal business, he tells the runners that he offers a bounty on a local ghoul hunter team. Because the ghoul hunters are not in town at the moment, he can only provide them with their office and some pictures but still offers 25k for each of the ghoul hunters. Mack and von Gotha start a short chat about magic before leaving and Mack is given a book holding the formula of the spell used earlier. Back on the surface they leave rather fast.

The next morning, each of them receives a physical letter signed by John Doe, inviting them to a gala in two weeks, where all three targets will be present. After getting over the shock that the bland man got hold of their adresses, we stop the session with a call from Igor, asking for some help between friends.



That one evening took 2 sessions alone besides nothing really happening, although a lot of that time was wasted by me, describing their dinner for so long, everyone started getting something to eat. I basically went all out with this setup, as this will likely be an end to that campaign. As I said, we tend to play rather short campaigns and switch GM duty after each.

I don't think I actually portrayed Denvers political situation close to the books, but we never read a sourcebook about Denver, only some vague background and a few lines on wiki. Just playing in a private group, I don't think it matters that much, but I wanted to clarify this. The Nosferatu von Gotha is also a strict story device and hid need for blood is not meant to affect the team.

I had forgotten about a short intermezzo I had for the group, so I should still have 2 installments, eventually even a third by wednesday, if we get something done.