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FriendoftheDork
Ok, for those not aquainted with the story, I have set my campaign in the Redmond Barrens, not far away from Glow City. Characters are created with 320BPs (max 180 on phys/mental stats), and no magic except latent. They also recieved only 700:nuyen:, or 2d6*100 nuyen.gif

Party:
-Uzz, Elf face/gunslinger that grew up in Ares seattle, but had to flee after an illicit romantic affair with a high-up executive. An excelent first impression talker, but sometimes lose out in negotations because of otherwise low mental stats. SINless.
Weapon: Ares Predator IV

-Simon, human wannabe mage med student. Also grew up in Ares, and attended high school with Uzz. Not a true mage yet, but has researched magic alot (dropped out of medschool because of it, enraging his doctor father). Drifted to the redmond after being kicked out of the apartment to find easy money. SINner. Weapon: Colt America.

-Trog, troll go-ganger. Got his name from his previous human go-gang, and still doesen't realize what it means. Grew up travelling around on his bike, but was left behind when his bike fell apart and the rest of the gang had to evade Lone Star. Looking for work so he can fix his bike, and crack a few skulls in the process. Weapons: Remington 990 and survival knife.

-Jimmy, human thief/hacker. Come from a high class Renraku family, but was caught trying to hack their systems. His family denounced him, and he had to flee from Renraku corpsec as well as Lone Star. No one likes Jimmy (cha 1), and he is good at pissing people off, even beast spirits hate him!
Was picked up (literally) by Trog as he was trying to steal his bike after. After kicking his ass, Trog found out that his bike worked after Jimmy tampered with it, so he picked him up and has kept him since. Criminal Sin (actually SINer that is wanted). Weapon: None at first, gotten himself a colt america now.

Plot: The party met eachother in the Barrens, and decided to join up for protection as well as improved job opportunities. A street Urchin (Joe) got the party to talk to an Indian Stuffer Shack manager named Rajiv Singh (Street-level fixer connection 3). They showed up, and the SS security impressed them (LMG drones mounted on rails covering the whole store) enough that they accepted to work for him for 40-50:nuyen: for the day (after negotation).

They encountered a local gang wanting their cut (and avoided confrontation by excelent Etiquette), 7 humanis thugs (which the Troll almost single-handedly drove off by killing 1 and beating up 3 others!).

Later they was sent to collect debt from a BTL-head (and Jimmy stole his simmodule and BTLs for personal use (mild addiction).

They even had to prevent a small mob from stealing food supplies coming to the Stuffer Shack, which Uzz handled with an awesome leadership check (7 hits at -5!!)

Jimmy even got a few extra cred at the side for fixing a cigarette vending machine, while the mage got work making a Warding for the store (which he can't really do yet).

All in all, they got some nuyen, and impressed mr. Singh enough to get him as a connection3/loyalty 1 contact for free.

Behind the scenes: You might wonder why there is a Stuffer Shack in the Barrens, and how Singh can afford the security - well the store is more or less a front for his illegal dealings in BTLs, firearms, drugs and fencing all manner of stuff. He's also been here for 30 years and knows alot of what happens around, making his information valuable. Although his legal sales help finance the store somewhat, his illicit dealings more than makes up for it.

The local gang, Los Vatos Locos (human latino gang), has contacted the group and now demands tribute from them: 1000 nuyen.gif each or a favor.
Since they are poor as church mice, they opted for the latter.
Favors: Geek the mage, B&E or Hooding.

Geek the Mage: A weak rat shaman have been spying on the Vatos on behalf of their rival gang called the Blackrock clan (all orcs). He is currently in hiding, but the Vatos wants him dead before he can reveal the information to the orcs. The PCs needs to contact a talismonger in the blackrock's turf, or perhaps others knowing the shaman's wereabouts... all without being blasted apart by the orcs (who really hate elves). +1000 nuyen.gif

B&E: party needs to get into a low-level fence's apartment and steal his comlink. Complications include armed gorillas next door and some minor security (maglock, possibly cheap alarm etc. +500:nuyen: if they do it very discreetly

Hooding: Party needs to take on the Blackrock "tax collectors", take their money, and give it back to the poor in their turf, curtesy of Los Vatos Locos. The only "good" option, but of course this is only a PR stunt. no extra nuyen here... other than what the PCs can keep to themselves.

The party chose... all of them. They want to do #1 and #3 at the same time.

Well that's what what we managed the first session, we'll play again tomorrow so I can update this thread later. All in all, the players seemed to have a good time, despite (or because of)the grim setting and low power.

Any questions or comments just go ahead. Critique is gladly accepted.
sunnyside
well credit for having a leadership check.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (sunnyside)
well credit for having a leadership check.

Yeah he tried to calm down and talk to the crowd... I was thinking: "What skill/attribute check best simulates trying to appear as an authority figure the crowd should listen to? Ah, leadership! I was kinda suprised when I learned the face had the skill smile.gif He used edge on the roll as well I think.
Ravor
Well as I mentioned in the other thread, sounds like a fun campaign, although I do have a question, what was the reason for the gang being willing to pay the group for doing them a 'favor' in lue of tribute?

I was just wondering, meta-game wise it makes perfect sense, but I was wondering what the in-character justification was if any.

Still, keep up the good work and please keep updating.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Ravor)
Well as I mentioned in the other thread, sounds like a fun campaign, although I do have a question, what was the reason for the gang being willing to pay the group for doing them a 'favor' in lue of tribute?

I was just wondering, meta-game wise it makes perfect sense, but I was wondering what the in-character justification was if any.

Still, keep up the good work and please keep updating.

The gang wanted things done, and was originally going to send their boys. However, after talking to Mr. Singh and hearing about how they did work for him, they thought that they might be able to use them, as well as learning they had almost no money.

Especially considering that they believe the group has a tough Troll, someone good at fixing things

As for the tribute, well those that cannot afford it are usually beat up and/or robbed and left for dead in some neighbouring hood, or pressed into service of some kind.

The gang is willing to pay some as well for the jobs they REALLY want done, like the hit. And really, 1000 nuyen.gif for killing a magician is a bargain. If they wanted to do it themselves they would risk gangmebers with that amount in equipment alone, not to mention the value of a gangmember in itself...

On a metagame level I intencionally made this gang alot "nicer" than others so that the PCs had better reason to work for them. Not that they don't do some of the terrible stuff other gangs do, but they're less likely to kill you for fun or screw you over.
FriendoftheDork
OK, this is what happened tonight:

On their way to the Ork turf they encountered 3 devil rats, which hurt the party's mage alot as they more or less suprised the party. Trog and Uzz made short process of them afterwards though. After applying some first aid (helped by Jimmy and his 6 edge), they continued.

Time after time they spotted ork gangers, and evaded them all until they met with a contact of a contact. This one, an ork enforcer was willing to sell them the information of the Shaman's whereabouts for 50:nuyen:, but Uzz declined and offered him not having Trog beat the crap out of him for 100! Knowing he was outmatched, the ork (Tommy) agreed to give them the Shaman's whereabouts to avoid trouble. Afterwards Tommy called the Blackrocks and told them about these guys trying to find him, which made them sent a squad of 6 to guard his home.

After that they went to the Talismonger Janis for more info. They found her in her trailer ex-kebab stand turned Talisman shop, but after they knocked on it they started discussing what to do, and Trog mentioned that he could always beat her up if she didn't want to talk...

Janis heard everything, and started pretending like she was casting some major spell, and pointing her Browning maxpower out while asking them their biz. Uzz managed to calm her a little, but they made some stupid story about them wanted to contact Fritz the street Shaman in order to sell him a power focus (like he can afford that). She didn't agree on a meet, but she agreed to contact him and tell him they wanted to see him at a predetermined place in 2 hours.

After they went, she summoned a watcher spirit to shadow them, and called Fritz to warn him. Fritz stayed in his rat lair with a summoned Rat spirit ready to attack intruders, and after almost 2 hours projected astrally to the location of the meet. Meanwhile the PCs lay in ambush outside his lair, using a scoped shotgun to pinpoint the guards and ready to cap the Shaman as soon as they saw him (not that they knew his apparance).

After waiting for awhile, the group gave up and tried to take on the enforcers instead. As soon as a squad (5 grunts 1 liutenant) was done collecting some, the runner went straight at them and fired at 20m range. The orks were completely suprised (even bothced reaction rolls), and the liutenant was dropped almost right away (even when he used Edge). The other orks were fired upon repeatedly, so that all of them were wounded, two fallen before Trog told them to drop their guns and leave.

The standing orks ran away, but forgot to drop their guns so Trog dropped 2 of them instead with his shotgun.
The rest of the orks surrendered and got to live, knowing the Vatos was behind this assault.

After the party got safe and sound back to the Vatos' turf, they went to see the fence they were going to steal the comlink from. After contacting him and selling him some stuff (guns mostly), Jimmy managed to steal his comlink right out of his pocket! (10 hits on the Palming check!).

So it was back to the Vatos. El Rey was pleased of their success, and after validating the comlink they party got 1000 nuyen.gif to play with for doing the extra job (they got nothing for the Hooding). They also managed to get a place to live, an old flat which the Vatos persuaded the old tenants to leave. Of course they will still have to pay for the squatter lifestyle (mostly food, beer and bribes to the Vatos), but at least now they have a home.

The mage will need several days to heal, and in the meantime the Fence may want to get the guys that stole his commlink, the Blackrock clan is looking for revenge for taking their money and killing 3 of their members, and Fritz may want to know what this was all about.

Later I will be posting more behind the scenes... why the Vatos wants to mess with the Blackrock orks, what was on the comlink, and who it was for.
Fastball
A good story so far. You were pretty nice about the ambush, though. Was the shaman still off astrally projecting when his guards were attacked? It seems like once he arrived at the meet and didn't see anybody there, he would have flew back to his house, looked around the area, spotted the team, and sent his spirit after them.

Also, what happened to the watcher spirit?
ornot
I don't think that it was the Shaman the orks were guarding. Rather they were collecting protection money. The PCs had attempted to lure the Shaman out with an offer of a power focus, but rather than go to the meet in person, the Shaman went in the Astral plane. So now he can recognise the PCs from their auras... could get messy.
Fastball
Okay, I see that now. Thanks.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Fastball)
A good story so far. You were pretty nice about the ambush, though. Was the shaman still off astrally projecting when his guards were attacked? It seems like once he arrived at the meet and didn't see anybody there, he would have flew back to his house, looked around the area, spotted the team, and sent his spirit after them.

Also, what happened to the watcher spirit?

In this ambush, the guards were never attacked, they attacked another (identical) group of orks instead.

When the Shaman projected astrally he failed his astral perception check to see the PCs while travelling to the site. He stayed there for awhile, waiting for the PCs, then he went home. At this point the PCs had already left (and the Shaman failed his perception roll again as he passed them). Thus searching the area yielded nothing.

The Watcher spirit followed the PCs, saw them lying down to wait near the Fritz' home, but the duration ended before the party left so it went back to Janis to report the PCs action. Janis later called up Fritz who was AFB (away from body) at the time.

By the time Fritz knew about the PCs checking him out, the PCs attacked the collection squad and went home.

As for now, only the watcher spirit really knows the party's auras (and one of them is an astral chameleon and remains undetected). Not sure if it can "transmit" the aura to Janis or Fritz.

Janis is a contact of Fritz really (2/2), so she doesen't really owe him much and will probably sell him out if she can really benefit from it, but so far she doesen't want a paying customer to get geeked, not even a rat.

Ravor
Um, quick question, I thought that your characters were only allowed to start with Latent Awakening, have they Awakened yet or are you using a House Rule to allow someone with Latent Awakening to also have Magical Qualities such as Astral Chameleon?

Still, sounds like a great job...
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Ravor)
Um, quick question, I thought that your characters were only allowed to start with Latent Awakening, have they Awakened yet or are you using a House Rule to allow someone with Latent Awakening to also have Magical Qualities such as Astral Chameleon?

Still, sounds like a great job...

Yeah I allowed it without seeing it was awakened only. But as I see them as awakened in everything but skills and magic, it's not too bad.

And ty smile.gif Looking forward to next time (friday I think)
MaxHunter
I like it very much so far, keep us updated!

Cheers,

Max
FriendoftheDork
Ok, I'll give you some more info on the secret stuff.

Renraku CS has suffered a majot setback in Seattle with losing their arcology and all. In order to compensate, some executives have started certain black projects in the Barrens - secret factories and other facilities. Unfortunately some gangs are in the way. The Blackrock clan is one of them, and they have repeatedly raided the Renraku site in Glow city.

Renraku, or should I say "Mr. Johnson" has contacted Vatos for a specific goal: Drive the Blackrocks off the streets. Unfortunately the Vatos doesen't have the numbers or phyisical strength of the Orks, so they need something to compensate: Guns.

Mr Johnson has been meeting EL Rey in order to negotate a deal about these weapons, and what other means of payments they should recieve. Present at the meet was the Fence (can't recall name atm), who was going to help evaluate the guns, and organize the traficking. This particlar fence was known t Mr Johnson though, and had a reputation for selling information about even those he did biz with. Johnson belives he recorded the meet for later use, thus wanted the comlink so he could check it and destroy it.

Fritz was the shaman also present at the meet, only projecting astrally. El Rey is an adept though, and saw his astral signature clearly, recognizing it before from previous dealings.

Rey believe Fritz has told the Blackrocks already about the meet, but he wants to put an end to him anyway to make an example (no one spies on vatos!), and prevent him from spying on them in the future.

Of course, it's alot cheaper to send the PCs to do the dirty work than risking his own men.

Later on I will tell you about The Blackrock clan and their connections... someone is on to Renraku.

BTW I thought of the Renraku story because it fit with their desperate situation, and because i had a hard time thinking of why a corp would support a gang in the middle of the barrens.
Later on I found a 2nd ed module called Double Exposure that pretty much deals with the situation (although alot more complex than what I thought of). I think I want to play this as the party is not that familar with Shadowrun metaplot (thinking of Running Queen Euphoria as well).

As written however, this module is WAY too hard on my fledling milkrunners, but I plan on using it later. So far they'll only get hints and rumors of corporate presence, dissappearances, maye even throw in the name Renraku somewhere along the line.... The thief is even on the run from Renraku, so that fits very well with the storyline.

PS if you have any tips I don't mind at all smile.gif
FriendoftheDork
BUMB!

Guys, I'm playing again this friday so any input would be nice. Oh, and the Blackrock clan is approached by the feds... who are investigating these black facilities. Not decided how much the feds know though, or how the PCs can learn about their inquiries.
MaxHunter
The overall idea is great. I must warn you that when I ran Double exposure -a great module- I ended up having many more player casualties than expected...

Maybe you could have a Fed meet the players and start asking lots questions, being careful not to give away anything. That fed could become a nemesis, a contact... the players could become his undercover snitches or else he just disappears later on until the runners meet him again inside of Hope camp.

As I said: The overall idea is great

Cheers,

Max
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (MaxHunter)
The overall idea is great. I must warn you that when I ran Double exposure -a great module- I ended up having many more player casualties than expected...

Maybe you could have a Fed meet the players and start asking lots questions, being careful not to give away anything. That fed could become a nemesis, a contact... the players could become his undercover snitches or else he just disappears later on until the runners meet him again inside of Hope camp.

As I said: The overall idea is great

Cheers,

Max

Cool. ty for answering. I can see a problem with a fed asking questions is that the party might not want to answer them (unless bribed of course, the poor runners wink.gif ) A fed going to them alone acting all arrogant will probably be attacked, so he'd need some heavy backup (which might make even more resentment).

So, hmm yes bribery is the way to go smile.gif

As for casualties.... well my players are pretty smart, so if they got necessary karma and stuff I think they could do it (and probably in some genious way I didn't think of). But then I'd have to run alot of adventures before that. I just purchased On the Run. I'll play that before I play the main story in Double Exposure (but the phony jobs are perfect for starting runners).

Oh btw I plan to involve Ares as well, as a third party that wants to drive out the unknown corp out of the Barrens facilities in order to use them themselves for weapons research of the less legal kind.
FriendoftheDork
Ok, fresh from the game here is the update:

The mage (whos name is Simon, not John) was hurt pretty bad in a fight against Devil Rats last session, so he needed to rest. Despite good first aid skill, he basically blew it and it would take him 4 days to get all well.

After the hooding attack on the Orks, the team approached the Vatos and asked for someplace to live (with the 650 nuyen.gif to back it up). The vatos chased out the previous occupants of an old 2-story house, with a big hole in the roof going through the floor and down to the cellar. The party attempted varies methods to improve their home, trying to scrounge metal sheets, even paper to fill the wholes and block the front door. Unfortunately since the active players had no survival skill and WP 1, they were not successful (and even brought home fresh human excrements for burning), contaminating the home further.

It started raining heavy downpours of acid rain, enough for the local government to issue general warnings. Trog and Uzz bought some acid-resistant ponchos on their trip to the Stuffer Shack for food and beer.

While trying to find bigger chunks of concrete, Trog took a walk into Glow city without knowing it and was almost ambushed by 6 human mutants with clubs and daggers. Although he did take damage, he managed to down enough of them to chase them off.

The second day, in a few hours of respite from rain, a heavily muscled man with cyberware (a human-looking orc hitman named Jared ".44" Burns) knocked on their door, and came to speak with them. He said he was representing Blackrock, and wanted to hire the PCs to do some spying on the Vatos. He wanted info regarding their possible contacts and allies, and offered 3000 (negotated up to 4500) nuyen for the information.

The PCs pretended that they accepted, and later discussed at great length what to do. Betray the Vatos and appease Blackrock, or spill the guts to Vatos and possibly get a reward (and leaking falso info)? In the end they elected to inform the Vatos, but to wait for awhile in case Jared was waiting to see if they went straight to the Vatos to tell them.

Behind the scenes: Jared's mission is two-fold, to find out who's supporting the Vatos, and kill the upstarts that robbed the Ork enforcers and killed 3 of their clan. Jared wants to trick them into working for him though, as he can always kill them later. He wanted to check them out anyway, and is not really impressed with their Meta Link comlinks, no cyber and low firepower. He has given them 3 days to find out as much as he can, and when he gets the info he will either kill them right away if they seem unprepared. (he's got a Ruger Warhack with EX-EXammo and a Remington shotgun if needed.) Although his cyberware is rather cheap, he has an impressive skill with guns and blades and can easily outdo any PC there.

If they seem ready, he can pay them (he's got 5k from Blackrock) and then later use his Ruger 100 rifle to pick them off at a distance. cyber.gif

In the night after Jared visited, the PCs were attacked suddenly. Earlier, Uzz had detected a fault in the wall supported by rubble (and left the rubble). Now, this was pushed in, and the wall collapsed partially. Trog on guard noticed them, and actually suprised the Ghouls as they burst in the room. He smacked down the first one easily (but not killing them), and he got him again as he rose to move past him.
The remaining 3 ghouls poured into the small cellar and started attacking the until now sleeping PCs, damaging the Mage even further!
Although the ghouls were tough, the PCs manged to avoid casualties by liberal use of Edge.

After the combat, the PCs discovered a paralell (sp?) tunnel going past their cellar and into the sewers in one end. Near the cellar along this tunnel was a wooden door with a tumbler lock. After checking it out Uzz shot the lock out, and the PCs found a new door 1 meter inside. This time it was a heavily reinforced concrete that met them, with armor steel doors. Inside were also 2 cameras, a rating 6 Maglock (with rating 4 anti-tamper system), and a skeleton with old tattered rentacop uniform, a Fichetti Security 500 (not 600), a key to the door they just broke, and a 30 year old personal credstick.

After blocking the view of the cameras (Trog was seen though), Jimmy started working on the blast door. After carefully searching for traps, weapon platforms etc. he tried the Maglock. With his 8 dice he had no difficulty removing the case, disabling the Anti-tamper mechanism using edge, scoring a critical success which enabled him to deactivate instead of destroy it, as well as ensuring no alarm was raised, and cracking the keypad.

I didn't intend for them to get in there so easily (I though Maglock rating 6 were good at keeping people out), so I ended the session there.

Now the PCs want to explore the secret underground lair, and even make it their new home if they can. But what lurks within? Why is no corp controlling it? What kind of research took place? Stay tuned to - Rumble in the Redmond!
FriendoftheDork
Bump!

I'm playing again friday, so if anyone has a comment this is the time to make one.

If no one is interested though, I probably won't update this thread anymore.
Ravor
I'm interested, just don't really have anything to say yet, it seems l;ike you are running a fun campaign...
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Ravor)
I'm interested, just don't really have anything to say yet, it seems l;ike you are running a fun campaign...

Ok, didn't know anyone was reading it still. OK, I'll keep updating it then smile.gif
2bit
lots of people love reading about other peoples' campaigns smile.gif
Meriss
Tis true, I like reading campaign journals for the sheer fun of it. Also you never know when you might inspire someone to run their own campaign. More GMs = more love.gif and vegm.gif
FriendoftheDork
Cool I'll definetively be updating then. Now, time to prepare the adventure... damn why do I always wait until the last minute? All I got done yesterday was drawing the damn map of the first level, getting to NCR in Fallout 2, and watching 2 movies on TCM!
Meriss
Also FriendoftheDork, may I suggest www.roleplayingtips.com it's an excellent news letter and a great website.
FriendoftheDork
Alright, I've been busy because of a LAN party last weekend, but now I'm ready to continue.

Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

The team moved into the first room - white, serene plascreet-covered walls with several holes, devices etc. Although vary, they couldn't detect any automated sentry guns or similar "traps" in this room, although they did see that the northern wall was a large mirror (and Trog barely managed to contain himself from firing at the big, bad troll pointing a shotgun at him wink.gif ).

To the north and south were maglock-sealed security doors, while to the east was a huge blast door with no appareant lock or opening mechanism. Jimmy, with his extensive knowledge of general corp security, recognised the one-way armor glass window, the room-sized MAD-scanner, olfactory scanners, cameras and microphones. Her also realized that the blast door was probably opened from a nearby security terminal.

Getting by the maglock-sealed doors proved easy, as they were only protected against rapid forced entry rather than the time-consuming method of removing cases and manipulating the electronics. The party was suprised to find 4 security guards in armor jackets still at their security terminals and scanner screens - or at least what was left of them. Only the bones remained, but they they still were in almost the same position that living guards would be. By each of the two security terminals were 2 buttons - one green and one red. In the northern end of the room 8 Ak-97s were locked in an armor glass covered gun rack.

While Jimmy checked out the scanner screens, Uzz got impatient and pressed the green button. Everything turned to black just as they heared the sound of a large Door opening electronically - the blast door. Uzz tried the button again a few times, but although it opened and closed the blast door the lights remained out. Luckily, Simon had bought a flashlight at the local Stuffer Shack. Trog and Uzz left to get their own flashlight while Jimmy checked out the southern room - spartan living quarters to the 8 security guards on shift here. Very eerily the skeletons sat at the table, poker cards still in hand (as much as they could be considered "hands"). There could have been no violence here, and even poison gas etc. should have made the guards at least fall to the floor choking.....

After the others got back, Uzz got a nice shower here (2 days since last one the poor elf!), and they proceeded through the blast door into a long hall. All of them failed their perception checks to notice the mingun emplacement over the blast door, and was lulled into a sense of security since Jimmy disabled the laser tripwires from the security station (still logged in).
Everyone could hear the sound of the gun activating and barrels started spinning rapidly making a high-pitched hum - reaction checks!

Although none of them did it very well, they were relieved to hear the comforting click-click-click of a gun without any ammo - phew! (ps ty for the idea 2bit - worked as a charm).

In the corridor Jimmy opened 4 of the 5 doors (going noth adns south), and found a huge eating hall w/kitched freezer room and fridge room, computer lab with 20 workstations, an almost luxerious R&R hall with all manners of multimedia entertaintment, and a gym with kendo-space, treadmills and cycles, even a tinyl swimming pool with treadmill harness to simulate prolonged swimming

A few skeletons were found on the floor of the computer room, one having some electronic paper reporting a security breach in one of the public terminals, while the dining hall had several skeletons scattered over the place with obvious signs of violence (bullets) and miscoloration from dried-up pools of blood. A stark contrast to the peaceful almost alive skeletons seen before. Since some of the preserved food only expired a few years ago, they had some to eat while half the team checked out the eastmost door - leading into a main hall with lots of doors to apartments. Most of them were real easy to hack, but Jimmy failed to bypass the anti-tamper system in the door to one of the two foremen - triggering the alarm. This sealed the door in question, as well as closing and locking all doors while making all the doors harder to hack (-4). Jimmy tried a few doors and jammed a few more before going back to the comp. lab, checking out the terminal with a securtiy leak, connecting to the secure netrwork, and opening the doors while shutting off the alarm (phew).

Only two of the doors remained locked - the door to the project leader's office requiring eye-verification and the elevator door requiring access to the security computer not yet found as well as a certain passcode.

Uzz managed to find himself some nice corp. suites to put on, while Jimmy found an old set of Katana and Wakizashi - which he "forgot" to show to the others...

Going further east, the team was ambushed unexpectedly - a hail of fire from an AK-97 greeted them. Most of them took cover, but Uzz after succeeding a composure check remained standing and managed to wound the unknown enemy (although he took a few hits himself). After a short firefight they all withdrew, and Trog went back to grab some AK-action of his own, by smahing the armored glass monter of the gun rack with his sledgehammer (suprisingly easy!). After gearing up and firing at the enemy, they pursued him and finally took him down. Turns out he was a ghoul in armor jacket and security uniform - weird.

Exploring the rest of the level was easy, and they found out that the other entrance to the facility was permanently sealed by concrete. They also discovered a storage room with lots of tools, equipment and spare parts, including what may be parts for cyberware implants! Simon (the sorcerer) felt a particular attraction to this room, and finally awakened.

They also found the security room, but Jimmy knows he has to get the right hacker programs to get into the system - perhaps the can access the elevator from here?

Well, that's all folks! I've been giving out lots of BPs to the PCs and now they have a home. Although the place is part of a dead-zone - a commlink with a better Signal rating than 2 should be able to connect to the Matrix wirelessly, as the facilty doesen't have W-fi inhibiting material. One step closer to becoming runners.
Fastball
Just thought you should know I'm looking forward to the next edition.
2bit
cool.gif score! glad I got to help.
Fezig
Its interesting to see where this is going, especially to see the characters (and players) reactions to where this is going. Keep it comin, fun stuff smile.gif
FriendoftheDork
Thanks guys, nice to see that my effort is appriciated smile.gif Keep up the feedback.
FriendoftheDork
Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

Ok this time Uzz didn't play much part as a gunshot wound had become inefcted and the good doctor Simon put him to rest after giving him antibiotics. (yeah the player was AFG)

So therefore the team wanted to play it low, rest, heal and not leave the facility too much. Still, they knew that in only 2 days they'd have to get the info about los Vatos, or they'd have to make something up when Jared ".44" Burns returned.

On the way to the Stuffer Shack Trog got involved in a shootout between 7 Blackrock orks and 2 Vatos.. Trog managed to sneak up on most of them, suprising all but a single ork. Los Vatos was pinned down from heavy fire, and one of them was shot to pieces by the ork leader using an Uzi 3.

Trog managed to shoot their leader with his shotgun at 30 meters, and about half of the other orks started moving towards him, shooting. Their cheap streetlines didn't do much good at that range, but as they got nearer wounds started to accumulate despite the troll's tough hide and leather jacket.

The situation turned into a melee, and Trog managed to beat all 3 of them barely (kinda hard when 3 people are making called shots on you every turn).
Coming back to the others, he noticed that the remaining orks had moved away, but one of the Vatos they beat down with baseball bats had some life left in him, and the Vatos was pleased to see him alive when Trog dropped him by.

Did I tell you that the team found some cybertechological spare parts in a storage room in the facility? Well, Trog contacted his street doc working at the local Chop Shop, and if they trade in parts they can get something installed as well! Cyberware, here we go!

But first things first. Everyone but Uzz went over to the Vatos the next day, telling them about Burns and his deal. Instead, they got a deal with the Vatos to set up a false meet with Vatos people and a fake Mr. Johnson working Ares (played by Simon). They also got some false comlink information to trade to burns were this meet was described and the Johnson referred to as representing Ares.

They get measly 500 for this, but they accepted without haggling (yeah, Uzz was missing).

Anyway, that's pretty much were we left off. We spent some time going over rules, talking about BPs, etc. so we didn't play that much that evening.

Well well ,stay tuned for meeting mr. Burns. As you may remember, he's got a hit on the PCs, so he just wants to trick them into giving him info before killing them... this could get dangerous.
Konsaki
Sounds like you are running a great game there. Makes me wish I could be a part of it.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Konsaki)
Sounds like you are running a great game there. Makes me wish I could be a part of it.

Well that's always nice to hear smile.gif But I think it would be inconvenient to travel all the way from... South Korea to me. That's pretty much on the opposite side of the the globe!

FriendoftheDork
Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

The day after dealing with the Vatos, Jimmy (actually Vanessa, more to follow) mailed mr. Burns and told him they had the info.

In the evening they got a knock on the door, and Jared Burns entered. He got to check out the chip with hardcopy of a Vatos comlink, and got to read the impportant bit about the fake mr. Johnson meet (even the name Ares). Pleased, he took a look around and noticed they were all there ready to fight if he drew his gun (Trog even stood as his side). So instead, he payed them all - 4000 nuyen.gif in all!

Then one of them (Uzz or Trog I think) asked him about further employment, as if he had mentioned that earlier - he hadn't but he did say he could meet them tomorrow evening at the local church ruin to talk about it. Jimmy got suspicious when s(he) realized that this was the same place that they set up the ambush on Fritz the ork Shaman...

Simor stayed home as he didn't want to be seen by Blackrock members etc. prior to making his fake Mr. Johnson appearance.

Despite the general warnings of paranoia, they did show up (after getting a new armor jacket for Trog, and some programs for Jimmy). No one was there, and they all failed perception checks to notice Burns laying in wait in a ruin 500 meters away with a sporting rifle! Jimmy wanted to stay back hidden anyway, so Burns never saw him (5 hits on Infiltration).

Burns aimed and was about to shoot and suprise tests were made. Everyone was suprised except for Uzz, who also got better initative. He made a perception test, not enough to see Burns outright, but enough to get a feeling that he should dodge.

He took cover just as the bullet hot the exact place where his head used to be (called shot).

Still, being far away Burns was not easily seen. Only Jimmy managed to locate him from his hidden position, and started to make a matrix representation of the area with burns' location marked out.

Trog started to run in the general direction, trying to get partial cover along the way. Uzz kept his cover and waited. Burs starting to take delay to shoot Trog as moved with aimed shots, which started to slow him down.

A few rounds later, Jimmy had broadcast his tactical presentation to the other teammates, Trog had been shot up pretty badly (18 dice on body resistance test is just not enough!), and took full cover. Uzz got the location and decided to take a long walk around to flank the enemy.

Burs was out of targets, so he reloaded and moved trying to get behind Trog's cover - without realizing that Jimmy tracked his every move and relayed the info to the team. While he moved slowly, Uzz moved on an intercept course, then waited for him to fall into his trap. Trog simply moved around his cover to remain out if sight (successful infiltration roll).

As Burns moved, Uzz got a critical success on his infiltration roll, and managed to get just 1 meter away from Burns. He suprised him, blasting away with his Ares Predator. Trog came out of cover to blast as well, further making it harder for Burns to dodge.

Burns used all the edge he got, and was reduced to 1 wound box left (considering he was shot 2 times without dodge and 2 times with, this is very good!). Knowing he would be dead even if he ran away or tried to kill Uzz or Trog (and at -4 to all actions), he instead dropped his rifle and surrendered.

So the question came up... should they let him live or not? Burns was willing to go to great lenghts to keep his life, so in the end he agreed to give away most of his stuff, get 2500 nuyen.gif more for them, and assassinate Fritz the Shaman for them (giving them 2000 more effectively).

The next day a street urchin came around with a box (with no bomb!) to Uzz who was out gardening (yeah he's cleaning his old worthless garden trying to grow something there). In the package was a severed head (Fritz) and a credstick with 1000 additional nuyen. Now the head is on a pike in the Vatos turf, the team got some money to get more stuff, and everyone's happy (well except for Fritz of course biggrin.gif )

After a few days came the day of the false meet. El Rey had though it out pretty well, and sent over a whore/disguise specialist to give Simon a total corp makeover. Simon, with his new Vatos bodyguards (Hector and Carlos) met up at Aces, the local Scumpit, and the meet went well with no Blackrocks to come in shooting. They were observed though, and the Blackrock took the bait, meaning they will report back to the feds they're working for that Ares is involved.

Later that night El Rey had to throw a major party (as they got a false credstick at the meet), with lots of booze, drugs, women, violence and fun. A favored amusement was to throw molotov coctails over blackrock turf and shooting the bottles in midair scattering flames everywhere (and Trog/Uzz team won the prize for best team!).

In the downtime that follows, the team has managed to get hold of Trog's contact at the Body shop, and by trading in the (mostly alphaware) cyberequipment they found down in the facility they can get some choise cyberware smile.gif (technically they trade in build points for this). Perhaps alphaware didn't exist in 2030, but what the heck wink.gif None of the players objected (strangely enough).

They're gonna have almost a month of downtime before the next job, which will actually be a shadowrun involving a combat drug, a mezzed up Amerind street sammie and enraged Sasquatches! And I'll reveal something about Jimmy's real gender...

Stay tuned for "Life in the Barrens!"
DireRadiant
Lot of fun, and I like the sniper scene.

Great write up.
2bit
awesome, sounds like youre having a good time. great to see the characters come into their own, like mr. hacker wannabe who turned the sniper ambush around.
FriendoftheDork
I'm glad this story entertains you smile.gif It's been awhile as I've recently had a computer crash losing my entire harddrive.. oh well.

First of all, regarding Jimmy, aka VANISH
Vanessa Janice Van Creuff. Hacker, Thief. She uses a worn hoodie, and large red AR-glasses, and her dirty shoulder-lenght blond hair is hidden under a cap. She appears to be a boy about 16, as she is flat-chested with androgyneous features.

Masquerading as a boy was mostly to avoid unwanted notice from horny Barrenites, but also to better hide from the law, more specifically her Father, Renraku, and Lone Star. ATM her real gender is unknown to both the other characters and players (the player is male also).


Now, previously on "Life in the Barrens":


The first part of the evening was spent on downtime: The runners got themselves cyberware, programs, weapons and everything else they could get. However, the voice counting down every night at 12, followed by longer and longer periods of total power shutdown worried them, and Vanessa attempted to hack the system. She got in after jacking her comlink to the security terminal through wire, and then managed to get in by careful probing. However, her stealth program of 2 wasn't enough to avoid triggering an alert, and although she made a new admin account she was almost attacked by a black ICE while in hot sim!

She managed to log off before it engaged though, and after that got in by her backdoor and disabled certain security systems, and got access to the project leader's apartment.
She also learned that the cause of all the death around here was due to some anti-intrution measures involving some toxin/gas or something.

This was actually an gene-engineered virus causing extreme lethargy, making the affected gradually go into torpor without noticing any pain of discomfort. They simply cease to do anything, and die of thirst in a matter of days (luckily the PCs never found out the hard way).

What she did find out however, was that the periodic power shutdowns was a potential danger as if the power shutdown would last for too long, the virus would be released into the air. Van figured that they only had 14 days until this would happen. She also figured that this attack could not be controlled in any way on this level, but perhaps the lower ones? Unfortunately the elevator required a passkey to activate, and the only one who had that, project leader mr. Hidero Taneki had escaped the facility prior to the disaster that killed everyone else inside. Taneki-san was tracked down to the Arcology by data search, where he was M.I.A at the time of the Arcology shutdown.

They went to mr. Singh to get explosives, and had to wait 12 days to get the grade 10 foam they wanted! Although no one of them had used it before, they got the manuals they could and set up a blast using one kilo. They set it off a few rooms away, while half the party was outside the complex. The blast was just sufficient to make a sizable hole, however the explosion triggered an alarm, and a familar voice said: Warning! Releasing Lethargy-inducing toxin in 59, 58, 57... They ran for it and got out as soon as they could. Time to find a new home.

For the time being they are living in the old shanty building. Something good did come their way though: Mr. Singh called them about a job! A REAL job!

spoiler warning: The remainder of this post contains plot from the Scalp Hunter adventure idea from Runner Havens!


Scalp Hunter: The party met Mr Johnson in the local Aces bar, a place known for it's orkish and troll clientele, heavy drinking, loud music and fighting.

The Johnson (a skinny black man with an annoying voice and ghetto-style clothing) gave them an offer: To stalk a certain person he does business with until dawn, without interfering, and reporting everything he does afterwards.
Although the PCs had a healthy sceptisism to a job to stalk someone that cannot be named to described until the job starts, they accepted for 8000 nuyen.gif total, and 1k in advance.

After the meet, Vanessa left to buy a spy camera from mr. Singh (only Uzz had cybereyes with interal camera), Uzz took position outside to photograph everyone entering Aces, while Trog and Simon stayed inside trying to act normal (ok, Trog acted normally be starting to drink and hang out with his drinking buddies).

An indian street samurai entered, with tribal leathers, warpaint, two tomahawks and even 2 scalps in his belt. He went over to the bartender and Trog overheard him asking for Novacoke despite the loud music. He was directed to the Mr. Johnson, who Trog saw passed him some drugs under the table.
The Johnson then left, leaving a meaningful look to Trog and Simon.

The sammie was calm in the beginning, drinking some and flirting with the whores and then he went into the bathroom where he prepared the drugs and got high.
Coming back his behavior was more aggressive and confrontational, and Simon astral percieved him as becoming more and more angry.

At this time though an ork looking for trouble started pecking on Simon, and turning his attempt to offer him a drink into an insult ("What? You're trying to hit on me??!!"). The fight didn't last long, as Simon was beaten up and crawled out of the bar.

The amerindian, hereforth known as Red Hands, also had some fun by beating up 3 gangers and tossing them out.

After some time he left, and Uzz followed, in turn followed by Vanessa. Red Hands ignored the street whores and gangers (who wisely didn't confront him), and Uzz got by with a good Etiquette check as well while Vanessa just snuck around them.

Red Hands stopped for a piss, and then the punks from Aces returned on motorbikes, one carrying an Ares Predator. Red seemed oblivious for some time, but as the Predator was aimed at him, he spun around throwing his tomohawk blindingly fast and killing the punk in one shot. He then jumped on the next victim, throwing him off his bike and stabbing wildly with his spurs. The last one fled the scene as Red Hands scalped his victims, looted them quickly and chased after with one of the bikes.

Vanessa and Trog ran for the bikes and pursued as well on a safe distance. Both being good drivers, they managed to keep up the wild chase through the Barrens, even jumping into Bellevue. There Red caught up with the last ganger and made short work of him.

While he was scalping, a police cruiser rolls up, and out pops a lone star fresh from the academy thinking he's busted the Mayan Cutter... Red plants a tomahawk in his brow, and proceeds to shoot his female parter with the stolen Predator. Adding 2 new scalps to his belt, he gets into the cruiser and drives on.

Trog and Van, amazed, follows suit still, even as Red drives through the checkpoint at Council Island. Trog drives in as well, doding the bullets that come after him from the confused guards. Vanessa pulls a con about being a NSA agent as she drives through, and by making a Long Shot she avoid getting fired upon.

Now they're tracking Red through the woods - which is easy as hes' bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Trog then catches up and observes him beating up a large hairy thing - a sasquatch! After awhile 3 more Sasquatches comes by, and eventually Red Hands drops and his skull is caved in. The light of the dawn shines on his broken, lifeless bloody body. Mission accomplished.

Vanessa got some nice video of Red Hand's final hour, and together they managed to get over the wall to the water, although Trog get's shocked a bit from the electric fence. They swim over the dam (using edge), and get home safely.

Well that's it. They'll probably get 10k for this job as a bonus for getting inside Council Island and getting the nice footage.
FriendoftheDork
Ok guys, now we're played another run, this time the 4th ed On the Run module.

I could give you a summary of the events, but it would be spoiler heavy.. still if anyone wants to know how THIS team dealt with the mission, reply and I will post it smile.gif
Meriss
I'm guessing with lots of explosives wink.gif
Jaid
i'm interested. just spoiler tag the whole thing smile.gif
marghos
QUOTE (Jaid)
i'm interested. just spoiler tag the whole thing smile.gif

I'm interested too... So do your best wink.gif
FriendoftheDork
Ok then, previously in "Life in the Barrens"

Our poor barrenites have come a long way from their humble beginnings. Although they have lost their underground lair, they have done a few jobs including their first Shadowrun, and now they have been able to get some cyberware, bioware and commlinks.

Uzz has gotten in touch with some of his previous friends and contacts (of no little importance), and is now living in a nice condo in the Downtown district with adequate security, creature comforts, and lifestyle. Still, his expensive lifestyle costs alot, and now he needs a job soon to keep it up.

Simon has gotten away from the Barrens, and now rents a crappy apartment in Renton - not much but at least he doesen't need a troll to keep him safe from marauding gangs while he's astrally projecting. His magical powers are still mediocre at best, but he's got a lodge now and is usually busy studying.

Vanessa a.k.a Jimmy has moved from the worst parts of the Barrens to the "safe" part of Redmond where there are still corp and Lone Star presence, and where tourist go "slumming". She still keeps up the masquerade though, and lives a low lifestyle here protected by bribes both to Lone Star AND the local gangs. This gives her good access to various BTLs, but these combined costs are still pretty heavy and she's even behind on some payments - she's desperate for a job.

Trog... is Trog. He's still smack in the middle of the Barrens, a good buddy of Los Vatos Locos and few other than the Blackrock orks dare touch him (and they don't bother). Life is hard and poor, but if anyone can survive here it is a big, scary and heavily cybered troll. Booze is cheap, but he's bored and wants to get out to knock some heads together and make lots of nuyen in the process.

Luckily Uzz gets a call from his Fixer called Sarah, who has a real job for them, where they can expect a nice Mr. Johnson and good nuyen - and Uzz gathers the team and they all go to Infinity Bar after dressing up quite alot - they have to look the look as well....

[ Spoiler ]


We finished somewhat early that evening, but everyone had a great time and the group were pleased with themselves. The player playing Simon only was present the first part of the run (the briefing), so he didn't play any part in the adventure.

All in all I must say it was a fun game, as despite having to skip half the module it was quite successful. In hindsight I might have made the party easier to track down, and even launch an attack on them while they were in hiding, but what the heck.
FriendoftheDork
So... any feedback?
Konsaki
Ya got a good team running there. Now it's time to throw a 'bad' johnson or a run that has a high chance to go wrong on them. biggrin.gif
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Konsaki)
Ya got a good team running there. Now it's time to throw a 'bad' johnson or a run that has a high chance to go wrong on them. biggrin.gif

One word: Double Exposure!

Ok that's 2 words but still, this module is based on the PCs getting screwed. wink.gif

I've heard it has a pretty high mortality rate as well... although that was back in previous editions. Now they can save their asses with fate p.. erh, by burning Edge.
FriendoftheDork
Alright, the new module Double Exposure is under way. First part is called Digging Their Own Graves.

Although this module is 2nd edition, I'll spoiler hide it anyway, in case your GM is about to play it.

Previously on "Life in the Barrens:" (well 2 of them still lives in the Barrens at least)

The team earned some good money and karma on their last run (On the Run), but 2 weeks later they had recieved no new offerings and Uzz was starting to worry about his high lifestyle... would he be reduced to the gutter again?

Then, while watching a rerun of a show called "Guns and Ammo", he got a call from... Mr. Singh! It had been awhile since they worked for him, but for old times sake they came to meet him about a "real easy honey of a run", although they party feared the offer was just to work in his Stuffer Shack again... minimum wage sucks and Singh often paid less than that for work that might include enforcer activity or beating up Humanis.

The offer was this:
[ Spoiler ]


Well that's it. Next run will be the legendary 1st edition Queen Euphoria!

More next week I hope.
FriendoftheDork
Oh and yeah... please give me feedback so that at least I know someone read the whole thing before the thread ends up on page 3...
Crusufix
Hey, you've got a group that operates better than mine does, lol!

And yes.. the , 3 or 4 times I've run the Double Exposure module.. it's always had a pretty high casualty rate.

It's just damn tricky, and I found I had to fudge a lot of NPC reactions to bypass naive player mistakes.
FriendoftheDork
QUOTE (Crusufix)
Hey, you've got a group that operates better than mine does, lol!

And yes.. the , 3 or 4 times I've run the Double Exposure module.. it's always had a pretty high casualty rate.

It's just damn tricky, and I found I had to fudge a lot of NPC reactions to bypass naive player mistakes.

Well yeah they're pretty smart guys all of them, but they're not really that good to cooperate, but at least they don't work against one another (when it counts), and they do complement one another very well.

BTW crusufix, If you've run that module several times, I do have some questions for you.

[ Spoiler ]


BTW there were no wireless back then, and the computers in the camp seem to be off the matrix, so I guess I should prevent them from accessing the matrix wireless as well? I was thinking of having the whole area a dead zone - fits with the location. Except a sattelite link could probably circumvent it?
FriendoftheDork
Ok it's that time of the week again, and this time we started the module "Queen Euphoria". Once again I will spoiler tag most of the game just in case, even though it's a first edition module or something.

"Previously on Life in the Barrens!"

The team earned a few ks on the mission against Aztech, but hardly much. They got a Mr. Johnson only two days later, but as they speak to Mr. Singh (the Fixer) he informs them that this Johnson recently found out he had a cranial bomb - the wrong way.

Thus no job. 2 weeks pass, and Uzz has a hard time paying for his High lifestyle, and has to take up loans to get by. His credit is good though so it doesen't matter (and strangely the system allows him to do this without paying back).

This time though, when he gets the call it's from an unknown person saying he knows Mr- Singh:

[ Spoiler ]


Mission accomplished. Well, part one at least. Now for some complications....PS we started 5pm and finished the kidnapping 4 AM... man this was a long session!
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