Do you sometimes wonder how your players survive?, Mistakes your group have made Options

[Kren Cooper]

So, most of my group of misfits have been playing for over a year now. I told them it was time to step things up, to a more high risk, high reward set of missions. Four of them volunteered for a special set of linked missions for "Fat Frank" one of the high power fixers they've bumped into. They were told in no uncertain terms that the gloves were off, there were consequences, they needed to think about what they were doing - or their characters would suffer the consequences. They did a mission, it was good, they moved on. Second one went well. Then we got to the third... they assembled their kit list, when shopping, and then got on a semiballistic to go to Australia.
Without hats, sunscreen, or shades. Or appropriate clothing. One of them insisted on taking his light Milspec armour. None of them have taken tents, sleeping bags, rations, water....
They've gone to the interior of Australia, NE of Uluru, into a desert in the middle of the Australian summer, in 45 degree heat, wearing heavy armour - and not one of them took water....

I may have to just kill them all.....


So what's the worst brain fart your players, or your team have done?

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Well... all the supplies you listed are obtainable in country, and are a signigicant impediment to taking a semiballistic... One that will obvisouly land in a populated area as opposed to the outback wilds.

Take minimal gear on flight, purchase the essentials once you have arrived in country. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Jaid]

Well... all the supplies you listed are obtainable in country, and are a signigicant impediment to taking a semiballistic... One that will obvisouly land in a populated area as opposed to the outback wilds.

Take minimal gear on flight, purchase the essentials once you have arrived in country. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

if you can light milspec armour onto a semiballistic, you can probably get most of those other things onto one as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[SpellBinder]

Nothing so spectacular as failed planning on that scale, but I did have a party that was on a rescue mission where a player really pulled a bonehead move. They had tracked the kidnappers to a somewhat run-down storage facility on the outskirts, and had managed to get to the target as he was being held in a storage unit when the team's magician did it.

The magician overcasted a Force 10 ball lightning spell on one of the kidnappers. The targeted kidnapper was standing right behind the chair holding the target, of which the magician was a few meters away from, and because of the close confines everyone was caught by the spell. If I didn't interpret elemental combat spells to deal damage based on their element (this was SR4a rules) then everyone would've been killed. As it happened the party's troll almost died anyway, having been brought to one Physical before Overflow.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

if you can light milspec armour onto a semiballistic, you can probably get most of those other things onto one as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

While true, it draws attention... better to leave the gear behind completely, or arrange to have it delivered by Coyote.
I tend to just pruchase that needed gear on the other end, negotiated as part of the compensation package for an out of country Op. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[Ed_209a]

When _I_ make preparation blunders that my _character_ should have known better, I usually ask my GM for a Logic or Willpower roll to see if the toon remembered, even though I forgot.

[Glyph]

I concur. If the characters mouth off to a syndicate boss or go into a heavily secured compound guns blazing without even doing any legwork beforehand, sure, let them reap the consequences. But don't be a dick and punish them for a simple brain fart, especially for things that are a quick remark or easily forgotten detail for the player, but a major oversight for the character. If they get reminded by the GM and still proceed on a dubious course of action, then the gloves can come off ("Um, is your character still openly carrying his claymore? He would know this is an AA neighborhood." "Yeah, and what are those rent-a-cops gonna do about it?").

[MortVent]

Well to be honest even real professionals screw up things they should know better about...

like not doing your homework on everyone at a target location (not that it helps when some might not have a file you can get)

things I've seen that made me go wtf...

Forgetting to consider mages on the security team (homework) and planning around it
Assuming you could simply step over the line into X company territory and not be at risk from Y (bullets don't care about borders...)

Mostly though I see a lot of brain farts in the way they want to play pink mowhawk in campaigns that were more brutal (considering why some play, not a surprise... when you deal with rl stuff playing the bad/good guy in a game is a release... and leads to pink mowhawk)

[MortVent]

delete - double post for some reason

[Stahlseele]

You might think the old one about stuffing enough plastic explosives into an electronic lock to make it short-circuit open is a joke . . but no, an all 1's roll on the explosives test did that to one character i was in a game with . .

Another time i almost killed my own troll character. Having just been fighting an elf with a sword who i simply could not touch with my unarmed combat skill, he finally stuck the sword into my character. and i responded by declaring use of electric conductivity by grasping the sword stuck firmly in my character and already having given me 6 boxes of damage(serious damage physical in SR3 terms), with a souped up shockglove . . cue OH F*CK! moment when the GM reminded me gently but firmly that the conductivity went both ways and i gave myself, in addition to the serious physical damage, also a deadly stun damage <.<

[Sn00py]

Our table is experimenting with being able to spend Edge to retcon a plan or mistake, a little bit like the system in anarchy. In terms of them heading off to the desert unequipped though, I'd just have their local contact remind them that is is hot and they need kit.

[Sengir]

There was that one time where the players had traced their mark to what appeared to be nothing more than a gang hideout, but in reality was a disguised safe house for the black ops department of some corp...the gangers were corpsec, the burnt car husks were actually vehicle barriers, et cetera. Characters' contacts told them there was something amiss and I dropped ever more obvious hints broad hints as the drama progressed, but somehow the players had gotten the idea that all these rumors were just planted to keep people away from the place and would not question their conviction.

The good news was that one player had joined only recently and expressed interest in rerolling his character, so I could create an appropriately deadly outcome...