What I learned tonight Options

[Abstruse]

Tonight was the first time since I feel I've gotten a good handle on the Shadowrun rules that I've GM'd a game. I learned a few very important things from this adventure I'd like to share with those newbies seeking advice and for the old hats to laugh at me about. For the record, I ran them through Food Fight, then through a little search and capture mission for the mob.

1) Most gunfights are over in 6 seconds or less.
2) Heavy pistol rounds may bounce off a troll tank, but a shotgun slug will cut him in half.
3) Static in Food Fight is a sitting duck.
4) When someone draws a gun, the PCs immediately want to roll inititive regardless of any sort of plot or planning.
5) Troll tank + mace from 2nd Ed that does (Str + 4)S + Clubs: 6 + Titanium Bone Lacing + Unarmed Combat: 6 = three skulls caved in, one KO'd gang chica, and one Coyote shaman shoved through a plexiglass door with several broken ribs.
6) It doesn't matter how much you twink out the Yakuza hitman with Betaware, he's going to die if the PCs use basic strategy, get surprise on him, and hit him with the afformentioned mace.
7) Going first in combat = staying alive.
8) Getting surprise in combat = killing everyone before they can draw their weapons.
9) Letting the face/Cat shaman get Bonus Attribute (Wil) = Shaman taking very little drain
10) The players really don't care what color the bottles they shoot when they miss are, they just want to know they did damage and broke things.
11) A Deadly powerball = lots of broke things.

The Abstruse One

[TinkerGnome]

Was the troll tank in armor? Because a real "tank" of a troll usually survives those ;)

Everyone in Food Fight is a sitting duck... it's half the fun. The other half being the exploding food packets.

[Abstruse]

The guy behind the counter got lucky and the troll got very unlucky. 15 dice and only 2 sucesses against a TN of 5. Any food only exploded twice. Everyone kept hitting their mark. It also brought up a good question for me. Influence lets you plant a suggestion. Can that suggestion be something like "Hand your gun to me"? I allowed it just because otherwise the Body 1 Cat Shaman/Face would've ended up with his brains all over the Chocolate Yum-Yum Bars, but I'm going into the serious adventures next game (Mercurial, then Harlequin, then Missing Blood) and I was curious.

The Abstruse One

[Luke Hardison]

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Unless they're hard-core trained in the classic combat tactic of "Geek the mage first!"

But hey, Food Fight was meant to be a basic encounter. More of a fist-fight than a gun fight. Having the runners turn up adorned in combat armour and packing milspec heat ain't going to be a challenge for them. Plus why'd they just nip out for munchies or to answer the call of nature like that. (Actually, having them ambushed when doing the latter is a great way to literally catch them with their pants down). Hmm, then again you could always even the odds by having a Lone Star SWAT team popping in for a chokky bar and tripple-thick slupple-soy slushie en route back to the station after a heavy threat response call out...

PS> Hope you have fun with those scenarios Abtruse, they're some of the best written.

[Smiley]

[Nikoli]

Trick is to never look like a mage. no matter the game.

[Kagetenshi]

Indeed. If you're going to dress in robes and symbols or wear antlers around, you'd better be a multiple initiate with many quickened spells on you.

~J

[sidartha]

How true. On the other hand, the difference between the Mage the Adapt and the Sam is sometimes the weaponry. My personal rule of thumb.
If you're in a tense situation and one of your opponents is not pointing or holding a weapon, They should be your first target.

[Nikoli]

Following that with if they are holding a shotgun

[Kagetenshi]

The question is, how would the gangers be able to identify that this person is an aggressor rather than a random bystander? Unless they have reason to suspect magery, it makes more sense to go after the armed people.

~J

[Nikoli]

Well, shaman are easy to spot during magic, hermetics a good bit different and the ones to really watch for are the psychics. they don't chant, they don't use crystals (usually) and they just sorta stand there while wierd shit happens around you.

[Wraithkin]

You also want to watch out for those super-fast ninja dudes with spurs. They get into melee with you, and watch out. Pistols and shotguns aren't really all that effective when someone's up in your face stabbing you in the eye.

[sidartha]

As I said. If in a throwdown situation you see someone with no weapon evident it means;
A: They are a magician of some sort.
B: They have mad HtH Skillz.
C: They are so confident in their ability to out Quick-Draw you that if you don't kill them they will get four actions this turn and nobody wants that ;)
The best camoflagued mage I ever saw was initated four times with masking, carried a Ruger Super Warhawk and had an obvious Datajack.

[Kagetenshi]

D: They weren't prepared for a fight, didn't want a fight, and had nothing to do with the fight. On most runs, a business suit and frightened expression usually indicates this one.

~J

[cutter07]

[Arethusa]

You shouldn't have, assuming it was close range.

[Kagetenshi]

Or any other range, thanks to the choke rules.

~J

[Abstruse]

The Cat Shaman/Face is just some really nice-looking Elf in a nicely-tailored suit flirting with the elf behind the counter with no initiative boosts. Therefore, he went off last. When gangers started getting dropped, the first people they went after were the ones with the guns and the big huge troll who just broke Zany's nose and knocked her clean out with one punch. They weren't worried about the guy standing right in front of him with his jaw wide open...until his cufflink started glowing blue and the gang leader got an overwhelming desire to hand over his gun.

BTW, buy all combat spells at Force 6. Anything less and you won't be geeking the mage with 7 Wil.

The Abstruse One

[Dax]

I remember Food Fight! Never had so much fun watching a buncha PC's wreck un-believable havock in a mini mart!

Course, when the Combat Decker splashed a full cup of scalding hot Soykafe into the face of the Gang Leader, I nearly bust a gut.

[kuroko]

[Arethusa]

Really, there's not much reason for mage to not simply pack the same armor and weaponry as all the other team members.

[Kagetenshi]

There's always the style inherent in having your Mage tote a LMG.

~J

[Arethusa]

Bah. There is no style in treating an LMG as a glorified assault rifle.

[John Campbell]