God, this game was fun Options

[CrystalBlue]

As I don't know if there's a strict forum just to post recent runs, I'm going to post this one here. It had to be the best run I could have hoped for. And I really planned it out well. ^.^ Please point me in the direction of where I should post this in case I'm doing it wrong.

Alright, the campaign's name is Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. It's to take place just before System Faliure so I can integrate my PC's better when 4th edition comes out. This run was A Little R&R&D. I have four PC's. A shapeshifter pistol adept, a full mage, a magician adept that uses a bow, and a combat/stealth decker.

They have a few choices for runs, but one interests them. Get flown out to an Ares compound and get some relaxation in before they are to test some new equipment and prototypes. So they take the 10,000:nuyen: job with glee. They're set down in the middle of a large forest with critters all over the place.

Now the twist is that these critteres are either scared out of their minds or just so docile that they won't move. The first one, I had two cerbruses appear. Of course, the PC's open fire on the first, which was the other one's mate. It jumps down from a tree, but gets blasted just as quickly. Notice that the PC's are getting this done with reletive ease and they think nothing of it.

Then a pack of four hell hounds approuch. Before they even let the hell hounds make a move, the pistol adept blasts one and the mage Flings his knife at another. The one dies and the other lays down and whimpers. The other two bolt and try to run away, but the magician adept fires and knocks one more down. Suffice to say, they kill two and let two go.

Obviously, this was too easy. Then the Johnson comes down and gives them their money, they're met with 4 Knight Errant guards and two mages. All ready to gun them down for their troubles. So they obviously open fire on the Johnson, right? Well, that's when their weapons all lock up Hehehe. ^.^ So they have no on-hand weapons and are being held at gun-point.

The magical adept makes a risky move and pumps a Deadly Flamethrower and a Deadly Acid Stream into the Johnson and one guard. Which gets him down to both D stun and S damage. Good thing he lucked out on the magic loss and stress test. ^.^ The pistol adept moves next and guns the two shamans before they can move. Then it's the guards turns. They fire and almost blow away the mage. He takes an S and fires back with a Deadly Ball Lightning. Lucky for him he hit with enough successes. Cause he goes down and takes some Reaction stress. ^.^

So they all run for the copter and make the rigger pilot them out of their. Which he does gladly at gunpoint. And the best quote of the game comes up.

Rigger NPC: "Ok, guys. I'll take you back. Just...just don't hurt me."
Combat Decker: "Ok. We won't hurt you. Don't worry."

God...he's stupid. Anyway, they get chased back to Seattle by two hornets. The rigger gets hit and the decker takes over driving, barely. The adept manages to man a turret and take one of the hornets out before the other one knocks the helicopter off course and the decker fails his pilot check. He makes a crash landing into the docks and manages to stash their two magical buddies before the Star comes in.

More hilarity ensues as the adept hi-jacks a guy for his car before the Star shows up. He throws the guy into the trunk and Lone Star shows up. They check out the adepts papers and lets him go, but they still have the decker and the two mages unconcious in a crate and hiding. So....he takes a forklift and tries to make a break for it, barely fast-talking the Star.

All in all, I feel it was a damn-good run. Best one I've ever ran. :D

[Velocity]

Just out of curiosity, why were the animals so docile?

[Dashifen]

Good question. All in all, sounds like a good time was had by all so it probably didn't matter at the time, but it sounds like there's a lot of room for a follow-up to this one :)

[CrystalBlue]

Because Ares was killing their land and there was nothing they could do about it. The island they were on was a small research facility for Ares. They used it for many purposes, but when they found that it was inhabited by so many paracritters, they decided that instead of just clearing them up, they could use them for free target practice and as magical havesting. After a while, the hell hounds and cerberus there were killed so many times that they just gave in. They run from anyone with a weapon, unless cornered. and when they're wounded, they usually just lay there and whimper untill they're killed or they have a chance to escape. I'm making more about this island, hopfully getting the runners to liberate the island. Though, that's going to take some doing.

[ShadowDragon8685]

What was with the Johnson? double-cross? Pissed off that the Runners shot up their good little doggies?

[CrystalBlue]

No. The runners were offered 10,000 :nuyen: to come to the island and shoot some guns. The Johnson knew the doggies wouldn't fight back much, so it was a cake-walk for 10,000 per person to get some good data on their guns, which they did. Do you think that Ares would let them leave alive? Silly you. :vegm:

[Herald of Verjig...]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Yet more fuel to the notion that Damian Knight == FastJack... :)

[Ryu]

The Johnson would need an ulterior motive to hire runners in the first place. Legal weapon testing in an area under control of his own corp could be counducted by his own personell, avoiding any damage the use of runners may cause.

If you want to use the island again, developing another motive for MrJ might help.

[Backgammon]

Yeah, why hire shadowrunner and then go to the trouble of killing them? You'd think also the J would hve found a way to kill the runners that didn't involve him getting killed in the process. Sure the guns don't work, but he really, really should have thought about the mages.

Plot full of holes, but fun nonetheless. Hey, I've had more than my share of those! ;)

[Nikoli]

Or better yet, geek the mages and leave the others to rot and help in future tests.

[CrystalBlue]

Ok. Here is why I did what I did to them in that game. This seems over the top and you might think I'm just doing this to be stupid, but I have my reasons.

I have two characters that have deep ties to Ares. The first used to be a wage-slave for Ares a long time ago before she got scarred by a run went bad. Now she's a runner, having been fired from Ares, yet she still respects Mr. Knight as a personal hero. Yay!

The second is a decker that wants to make the huge claim that his daddy was one of the surviving members of Echo Mirage. He also used to live in Denver before his mother and father were killed when their house exploded. And then he moved to Seattle. Can we smell where this is going?

Damian had a, shall we say, mistake. That mistake is the decker. So he wants the mistake rubbed out. He's been tailing these guys for some time and knows that the decker and gun-bunny run together. Couple that with the gun-bunny taking ANY job from Ares and you have a perfect trap. Lead them to an island maintained by Ares, have them run a simple run for money and free toys, then eliminate the runner team to get rid of the decker. The others are just fodder.

The thing is, they got out of the island, so Damian wants to make some threats. Now, mind you, he's been trying to kill these guys for a LONG time now, and he's getting mad. So he tries to reason with the decker and tell him not to go blabbing this to the public. And that's what I have so far.

[mmu1]

Mhmm... Still doesn't make sense, really, but if everyone had fun, that's a lot more important. ;)

It just breaks the suspension of disbelief that the head of a major corporation has direct knowledge of a runner and his whereabouts, wants him dead, and the runner somehow manages to walk out of the trap.

[Grinder]

Maybe Damien never read "The Top 100 Things I'd Do
If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord" - otherwise he'd send a much better & bigger hit team so finish the decker and his fellows off.

[CrystalBlue]

You guys don't know how evil geniuses work, do you? *sigh* Alright...I'll tell you. I just hope my players don't come onto this site.

The decker has some valuable information on Damien. It was placed in his head computer by his foster father as insurence, but the decker can't access it. Damien knows the information is very vital to his master plans.

Now, you're right. Damien could just blow him away. It'd take only a few seconds. By why? The decker needs to load up the info for him. The info contains start up procedures and vital lines of code for an AI that could rival Deus. Here's the bigger background.

My characters are close to 2065, the date of the System Faliur. I want them to experience it before 4th edition comes out. Now, none of us know how it will happen, but it's been hinted to. Well, I'm making a twist to that. The System Faliur, in my game, happens when an AI is made and sent to battle Deus, to try and open up the Archology and stop him from doing whatever he has planned.

Well...it doesn't work out very well, or as planned. The AI that's being made has been hidden within the Archology by small runs by Ares. Damien thinks that if he can get the Archology under control, he'll be hailed as a hero and recieve awesome power among the corps.

The bits of data are in storage units in the Archology that the runners just have to finally connect and place the last bit of code into. Once that happens, the Ares AI, Minos, starts up in the system and tries to attack Deus. That's what Damien wants to happen. But there are so many things going against him, it's not going to work.

Anyway, Damien knows that the only way to make this work is to get the decker in there. He has a cortex bomb embedded in his headware. The second he dies, the bomb goes off and erases the data (obviously). And that would be bad. So Damien needs to make sure the decker can handle a run in the Archology. He's pushing him hard, threatening him, challaging him. If he and his group can handle his hit teams, they can at least survive in the Archology long enough to upload the virus AI.

Any more on this may give away more of my story. That's why it initially doesn't make sense.

[Nikoli]

I'll admit that's actually not too unreasonable, given some of the metaplots in the past. I've used something similair to that in my brainscan campaign. (think D.A.R.Y.L. as an escape pod and host for Deus)

[mmu1]

I'm not sure how we were supposed to come up with that from being told he wants the decker "rubbed out" - but your rationalizations are getting better and more reasonable. Keep at it. :P

[Herald of Verjig...]

If you'd mentioned earlier that the decker has the 8 point version of the Hunted flaw (or borrowed time, or something lethal like that) and you decided to make Ares the implementation of that flaw, it would've avoided some of the confusion and questioning about your tale.
So, with that known, interesting, not how I'd set up a trap, but I've also read this repeatedly for entertainment.

[CrystalBlue]

Hehe...yeah. I'm getting this over-all idea fleshed out. Sorry about the confusion. Mr. Knight is just making sure his trump card is strong enough to not die in the Archology, because that's the last run these guys are doing. And he needs to survive. ^.^

And then 4th edition comes out! At most, I'm gonig to use the setting rules. I don't know about any of the other rules, though decking will be much better.