How bad can a run go?, A Game Options

[Cain]

Well, there's stupidity, and then there's ignorance.

I've had players pull stunts that were almost worthy of the CLUE files. I'm a liberal GM (now), so I usually ask them: "Are you sure you want to do that?". and if they ask, I'll offer an explanation as to why that stunt is a bonehead move. If they say they want to go through with it anyway, then they get to live with the consequences. This way, I can tell the difference between ignorance and stupidity-- ignorance goes away when you have correct information.

So the player fucked up. Whoop-dee-doo! You can either cowboy/girl up and figure it out, maybe make getting your goodies back through an adventure or something, or you can do what this player did and simply walk away without even trying to work with the GM to solve the problem. Now the GM might have been a complete prick, that happens, but the rigger part of the story wasn't an example of it, IMO. Sometimes players do stupid shit, it happens, but it's not the GM's job to give them reconciliatory blowjobs every time something bad happens because of said stupid shit.

All right, first of all I despise the stupid "cowboy up" phrase. What the hell is it supposed to mean, anyways? What do cowboys have to do with taking responsibility for your actions?

Second, while I don't agree with much of what Umi is saying, taking away key elements of a character is a really cruel move. If someone screws up badly enough, just kill the character and be done with it. Don't drag it out and make the player suffer, just kill them and take their stuff. I've dealt with douche GM's too; when he captured our mage and implanted him with 5.5 essence worth of synthlinks and datajacks, the player ragequit and I didn't blame him. The GM's excuse was: "You shouldn't have gotten caught, and at least I didn't kill him." Which is obviously BS; screw with a character that hard and you may as well have killed him.

[Shortstraw]

I assumed it meant to get back on the horse.

[mister__joshua]

Haha, funny that these things have come up since I started this...

Our Rigger recently had his van and all his drones exploded. He was sitting in it though so that all tied up nicely.

The rest of us are in lock-up awaiting being charged/tried by the police. I feel we're being stitched up as we're being put with unsavory types and not being allowed our usual rights - my lawyer arranged for me to be in solitary but that hasn't happened etc.
Should be interesting to see where it goes from here. As a chip-addicted hacker I'm less than useless in a prison fight!


Which brings me back to what originally happened and how we got here. As mentioned in the OP we were hired to retrieve a video file and a physical item that are being used to blackmail a client. They are kept on the airship of a rich media mogul.

We infiltrated the airship during a party under the guise of being a small independent film crew (the party was the after-event for an indie film). During our infiltration the airship was seized by a Sons of Sauron gang looking to ransom the mogul back to the corp. I found this out my hacking the comms of the lead troll and going through his communication. Once I had intercepted this I contacted the news corp to find out what the gang wanted, and said we were hostages inside. They offered a large sum of Y for a 'live inside story'. Being the hacker, I had a camera feed of the whole ship. We (the team) weren't actually doing anything wrong and this hiccup looked to have messed up our run so after discussion with the team (so they all knew what was going on) I sold a live camera feed to the newscorp. We were all still hostages (though the mage and rigger had invisibly snuck away). In hindsight, the camera feed was a wholly bad idea, but on it's own not a problem - an extra chunk of Y. The problems only arose when our Sams, after fighting off the guards covering the hostages, tried to stop the mogul escaping by shooting him in the leg, and then the head, live on television. Before the headshot he did warn that we would pay for this, and to the GM's credit the Johnson specifically said that while it wasn't 'mission failed' if we killed him, there would be serious consequences for doing so and we shouldn't do it under any circumstances if we wanted to live.

The mogul, predictably considering what had been said, had got a 'Dead Man's Switch' contract with a powerful team of Chimera assassins who we're now wanted by. Coupled with that, the Sams (having murdered on television) first had to participate in a city-wide manhunt as they tried to escape the law. The others (me, the mage and the rigger (now dead)) were later picked up for association.

Who know's where it'll go from here. It's turning into something of a courtroom drama but the GM seems happy to run it and we're all happy to be playing in it. I spent all the money we sold the videos for to get myself lawyered up.

Happy times (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[ltwutze]

Haha, funny that these things have come up since I started this...

Our Rigger recently had his van and all his drones exploded. He was sitting in it though so that all tied up nicely.

The rest of us are in lock-up awaiting being charged/tried by the police. I feel we're being stitched up as we're being put with unsavory types and not being allowed our usual rights - my lawyer arranged for me to be in solitary but that hasn't happened etc.
Should be interesting to see where it goes from here. As a chip-addicted hacker I'm less than useless in a prison fight!


Which brings me back to what originally happened and how we got here. As mentioned in the OP we were hired to retrieve a video file and a physical item that are being used to blackmail a client. They are kept on the airship of a rich media mogul.

We infiltrated the airship during a party under the guise of being a small independent film crew (the party was the after-event for an indie film). During our infiltration the airship was seized by a Sons of Sauron gang looking to ransom the mogul back to the corp. I found this out my hacking the comms of the lead troll and going through his communication. Once I had intercepted this I contacted the news corp to find out what the gang wanted, and said we were hostages inside. They offered a large sum of Y for a 'live inside story'. Being the hacker, I had a camera feed of the whole ship. We (the team) weren't actually doing anything wrong and this hiccup looked to have messed up our run so after discussion with the team (so they all knew what was going on) I sold a live camera feed to the newscorp. We were all still hostages (though the mage and rigger had invisibly snuck away). In hindsight, the camera feed was a wholly bad idea, but on it's own not a problem - an extra chunk of Y. The problems only arose when our Sams, after fighting off the guards covering the hostages, tried to stop the mogul escaping by shooting him in the leg, and then the head, live on television. Before the headshot he did warn that we would pay for this, and to the GM's credit the Johnson specifically said that while it wasn't 'mission failed' if we killed him, there would be serious consequences for doing so and we shouldn't do it under any circumstances if we wanted to live.

The mogul, predictably considering what had been said, had got a 'Dead Man's Switch' contract with a powerful team of Chimera assassins who we're now wanted by. Coupled with that, the Sams (having murdered on television) first had to participate in a city-wide manhunt as they tried to escape the law. The others (me, the mage and the rigger (now dead)) were later picked up for association.

Who know's where it'll go from here. It's turning into something of a courtroom drama but the GM seems happy to run it and we're all happy to be playing in it. I spent all the money we sold the videos for to get myself lawyered up.

Happy times (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Shooting a celebrity on live television against the Johnsons wish and with the knowledge of being broadcasted... sounds like losing control for a moment (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Worst thing that ever happened to me was a run that led us to Billings in the Sioux Nations. We needed infos from a ganger and after a mediocre interrogation, I mindcontrolled our victim so he'd tell us everything. After we knew what we had to knew, we weren't sure what to do with him, as we didn't want to shoot him and leave a body that might be traced back to us.
So, in a glorious moment of "I didn't think that thorugh", I looked up the latest gang member to die around these parts to a cop, renewed the control spell in front of a LoneStar office and let him run in with his peashooter, screaming This is for my buddy Willy!. Our GM ruled that he even managed to finish the sentence before being shot down by the whole department.

It wasn't until then that I realized what a mess I have brought myself in and hastily fled the scene. Luckily, we already had a SWAT-Team inbound for our next job ( unknowingly), so I didn't even fuck up that bad. We just had to flee the state by foot without outdoor knowledge.

[MortVent]

little elf girl TM played my me (yes my scarey lil one)
Human Face, troll sami, dwarf drone rigger, human weapon adept, orc combat mage

Job: Sneak into a research facility converted warehouse in the mudflats near mt Rainer, sabotage the contents. Optional, destroy the warehouse loudly and noisily (for less pay)

Problems cropped up early, lots of problems... seriously never seen that many 1s on footwork rolls ever, or acquisition rolls for gear..

Team wound up burning a favor to get some tools to do it (a quick check made it clear silent wasn't an option)

Now team goes in, my TM playing back seat driver in the hovercraft watching and jamming on the fly. Effectively the electronic warfare role while the face played babysitter/driver.
The rest go in hard and fast, do pretty good... till they find the contents.

God I loved this gm.. content of the warehouse: 1 Adult dragon, 2 squads of Aztechnology goons, and a handful of TM lab rats.

Well considering my tm was an ex labrat she didn't handle that well... And suddenly the level the place and go became get the tm's out extraction.

Lots of firepower tossed back and forth, tm taking control of the warehouse drones at one point. Finally cracks the firewall on the goon's network... suddenly lots of booms as she triggered any and all explosives (including smart firing a couple held rockets at the ground). At this point the UCAS and SSC got woke up at the discharge of heavy weapons... near seattle.

We get the tms into the van, still a few goons who go down quick. But still got a pissed feather duster chasing us... and we got no heavy weapons (as a side note we did get charges planted in the warehouse).

We're basically toast if the dragon catches us, so we wind up pulling into the warehouse for cover at one point.. And then the face gets an idea..

He waits for the dragon to enter after us, and blows the charges as we rush out the doors... effectively dropping the warehouse on the dragon.

Well that worked.. but as we get about half a klick away we get a couple UCAS scout t-birds flanking us asking for us to stop.. so we stop. Now we're in a bind.. we're so busted it hurts.

Well I did the only thing a psychotic teen tm could do to get out of it... I called in a distraction....

Now the distraction worked, but we had to lay low for a long time... Aztechnology was pissed, some dragons were upset at the death of one of theirs, and the UCAS is really pissed at having let us go..

The fun part, the distraction was simple... my lil blimp of doom went angry blimp and popped open all it's weapon systems over a populated legit area forcing the t-birds to scramble to deal with it. I miss that blimp, it had some of her favorite flatscreen videos on it.

And my tm had to find a new mobile home... Kane would be proud of her new boat, if he hadn't been still upset at her programming his sub's intercom to constantly play yellow submarine for being called a newbie brat

[Sternenwind]

Calling down a great storm spirit in the middle of Denver, for suppression fire.

[Umidori]

Worst thing that ever happened to me was a run that led us to Billings in the Sioux Nations. We needed infos from a ganger and after a mediocre interrogation, I mindcontrolled our victim so he'd tell us everything. After we knew what we had to knew, we weren't sure what to do with him, as we didn't want to shoot him and leave a body that might be traced back to us.
So, in a glorious moment of "I didn't think that thorugh", I looked up the latest gang member to die around these parts to a cop, renewed the control spell in front of a LoneStar office and let him run in with his peashooter, screaming This is for my buddy Willy!. Our GM ruled that he even managed to finish the sentence before being shot down by the whole department.

It wasn't until then that I realized what a mess I have brought myself in and hastily fled the scene. Luckily, we already had a SWAT-Team inbound for our next job ( unknowingly), so I didn't even fuck up that bad. We just had to flee the state by foot without outdoor knowledge.

Maybe I'm just being dense, but I'm not understanding how some punk committing suicide by cop gets any heat on the Runners secretly mind controlling him?

Punk runs at cops with a gun shouting "This is for my buddy Willy!" and gets blown away. What the frag happens next to link that back to you? Why would Lone Star even care? They have an obviously guilty perp - now conveniently dead - and an obvious, convenient motive. Why wouldn't they just chalk it up to yet another idiot gangbanger who went off the deep end? Goodness knows they're not that bright, and if his buddy got killed it makes sense he'd be stupid with grief and anger. Once the kid hits the dirt riddled with bullets, the Star just starts filling out paperwork and replanning their evening patrol route to compensate for the lost time, grumbling about having to skip their usual soy-donut run.

I mean, the only link that would be reasonably traceable would be the spell aura and signature, and why the frag would The Star bother calling in a mage to check for auras on some crazy punk ganger? And even then, the investigating police-mage would have to recognize the aura of the spellcaster to be able to determine who cast the spell. At worst you'd have an ongoing investigation with little to no leads, and even if you were stupid about leaving astral signatures everywhere, all that would do is link you to various crimes, not necessarily get you caught.

~Umi

[ltwutze]

Maybe I'm just being dense, but I'm not understanding how some punk committing suicide by cop gets any heat on the Runners secretly mind controlling him?

Punk runs at cops with a gun shouting "This is for my buddy Willy!" and gets blown away. What the frag happens next to link that back to you? Why would Lone Star even care? They have an obviously guilty perp - now conveniently dead - and an obvious, convenient motive. Why wouldn't they just chalk it up to yet another idiot gangbanger who went off the deep end? Goodness knows they're not that bright, and if his buddy got killed it makes sense he'd be stupid with grief and anger. Once the kid hits the dirt riddled with bullets, the Star just starts filling out paperwork and replanning their evening patrol route to compensate for the lost time, grumbling about having to skip their usual soy-donut run.

I mean, the only link that would be reasonably traceable would be the spell aura and signature, and why the frag would The Star bother calling in a mage to check for auras on some crazy punk ganger? And even then, the investigating police-mage would have to recognize the aura of the spellcaster to be able to determine who cast the spell. At worst you'd have an ongoing investigation with little to no leads, and even if you were stupid about leaving astral signatures everywhere, all that would do is link you to various crimes, not necessarily get you caught.

~Umi

I don't think I wrote that clearly enough, sorry:

The SWAT Team was inbound for our next mission because our Johnson got their attention with his numerous crimes. Our meeting with the Johnson was under surveillance, we had a shootout with the Johnson because... he set us up? I don't even remember at this point. After they heards shots, the SWAT Team went in, we dropped them while our sam took a big hit and the other mage hit himself pretty hard with drain. Everybody hops into the van (or is lifted) and we start fleeing the area over the course of 2 or so evenings.
Although ooC all players knew that the SWAT Team wasn't there for me, 2 of them blamed it on me in character, which was a perfectly fine thing to do as my character believed it himself. The 2 evenings where we had to leave for Seattle without being seen where real intense, because we all had to improvise.
So no, that shooting wasn't linked to the SWAT Team. Our characters just believed it to be.

But if I recall correctly, isn't there the possibility to find the aura responsible for a spell? As players, we argued pretty much about this and got ourselves rather hyped about it why the GM was just listening with a grin on his face.

[Cain]

But if I recall correctly, isn't there the possibility to find the aura responsible for a spell? As players, we argued pretty much about this and got ourselves rather hyped about it why the GM was just listening with a grin on his face.

In all editions, you can easily see the lingering aura of a spell, especially if it's assessensed soon after the spell was dropped. On a good roll, the viewer can even remember it for later, and maybe pick up some particulars about the caster. If a forensic mage sees the same aura enough times, he can even start drawing conclusions about the mage.

What an aura can't do is be used for Ritual Tracking. It doesn't work as a material component. If the forensic mage has some other way of tracking the team, he can assessense the team mage's aura and conclude it's the same as the one he's been following. But by itself, the aura is harmless.

[Umidori]

That also requires that a forensic mage be there to assense the signature before it fades. Unless you have a reason to suspect the involvement of magic, why would you call in a specialist? You only haul out the big guns for important things - not just a lone ganger going nuts.

~Umi

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

That also requires that a forensic mage be there to assense the signature before it fades. Unless you have a reason to suspect the involvement of magic, why would you call in a specialist? You only haul out the big guns for important things - not just a lone ganger going nuts.

~Umi

To be fair, if he rushed a police Station, the Magical Forensics Specialist is likely already there, and it costs him nothing to assense the corpse. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

[Umidori]

Not all stations are of the same size and importance. Police HQ surely has some mages, but some lesser neighborhood station surely would not - just like how a small corporate office isn't going to have major security, but their district headquarters is going to be a fortress.

Also, remember that cops get days off, and get called out on duty, et cetera. I'd make some sort of die roll to determine whether an awakened officer was even present at the time of the incident, or whether one will be available in the handful of hours before the astral signature fades away.

~Umi

[Sendaz]

Plus unless the perp really acted more unusual than most chipheads on a shooting spree, would they really waste resources like dragging the mage out to check?

Depends on the situation.

Against a few cops who quickly dispatch the perp anyway? probably not.

BUT, if in the normal course of their writing up the shooting incident they discover the guy didn't have any friends named Willy (just to see what might have spurred the event in the first place) then some more digging may occur. Of course by then, a lot of the traces will be gone.

Do it in the steps of City Hall when the Mayor is giving a speech? Yeah, they probably have a bit more reason to dot the i's and cross the t's then.

[Cain]

Not all stations are of the same size and importance. Police HQ surely has some mages, but some lesser neighborhood station surely would not - just like how a small corporate office isn't going to have major security, but their district headquarters is going to be a fortress.

Also, remember that cops get days off, and get called out on duty, et cetera. I'd make some sort of die roll to determine whether an awakened officer was even present at the time of the incident, or whether one will be available in the handful of hours before the astral signature fades away.

~Umi

There might not be a full mage on duty at right that second, but you can bet a police station will have spirits on defense. They also could have an adept or two capable of astral perception. In both cases, they could examine the aura and file the information for later.

[Umidori]

How do you file an aura reading? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

~Umi

[FuelDrop]

How do you file an aura reading? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

~Umi

Astral paper.

[Umidori]

Now you're just pulling things out of your astral.

~Umi

[Jaid]

it's been around for at least two editions now, actually (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

but then, you probably just wanted to use that pun =S