Well, at a local Con this weekend, and ran my first Shadowrun game last night. 4th Ed as most people have noticed.

I hinted to my group that I was going to run an adventure based on this awhile ago. Well, it finally happened.

Players: Mostly pre-fab characters from BBB, with one of the member's of my group using his generated character that will be in my campaign (I already informed him this adventure won't be combined with that, so he won't have to deal with the issues later on.): Troll Enforcer, Ork Sprawl Ganger, Elven Combat Mage, and Dwarven Face, with "Captain Cuisinart" the Elven Swordmaster.

"Ironically" enough, the Johnsons for this job were using the same Fixer to get talent, so the Face of the group was given a choice of "Offence" or "Defence", he chose "Defence". So was sent to a bar in the Puyallup Barrens, Joe's Pool and Bar, to meet with the Johnson, where he also met the rest of the group for the first time. The Bartender, having been appraised of who was coming, directed them to the back room, and then pushed them in that direction when they were doing the "Meet and Greet". ("Yeah yeah yeah, everyone's happy to see each other. Get back there, you're disturbing the rest of my customers!" "BEER BEER BEER!").

Back room was typical for a bad bar in the Barrens, kegs and cases of beer all around the only furniture save for a rickety table, which had a Holoprojector on it. Mr. Johnson, your typical uncomfortable suit, greeted everyone, waited for the door to be closed, and kicked on the Holoprojector, which started displaying a Trid-PowerPoint Presentation.

Negotiation and so on, they were hired to defend the CrashCart Facility that's still in the midst of being renovated (Read: Being built in the first place.), to round out the on-site support.

So, after figuring out how to get there (And finding out that you can't have a Troll ride on the back of a Mirage Street Bike!), they see that a three-floor building is being built, with a garage on the bottom, two portables, a guard shack, and an ambulance with a tent beside it. The construction company was the one doing site security while the place was being built, and were mostly worried about equipment "Drifting away" and the employees getting drunk and not working the next day, so "On-Site Security" consisted of two security guards with 911-Panic Buttons and NarcoJet Pistols, and the CrashCart Responce Ambulance (With armed Paramedics, of course!). The site was secured by almost new Chainlink fence, with barbed wire on the top, with a single gate pointed towards a street, and a single guard shack with a guard watching a Trid of Star Wars Episode 12. ("Wow, George Lucas did his best work late in life!").

After confirming they were supposed to be on site, the group explored the area, finding out that the Clinic is nowhere near complete (No roof yet!), and that the Portables were sleeping quarters for part of the work crew.

So, setting up positions in a few places, the Combat Mage summoned a Air Elemental to do a patrol and keep watch on things, and they settled down to a long night of hopefully nothing.

Yeah, no.

First a deep mist started rolling in, and the Air Elemental noticed a fellow Air Elemental concealing a group of people rapidly approaching. The Mage dropped into Astral, banished the foreign elemental, and got rid of the mist. Suddenly, the roar of three motorcycles appeared, startling everyone. One lucky shot later with an Explosive round (To the Gastank of a Harley), one biker down (FIRST BLOOD!), and the other two peeled off down a side-street. Everyone waved good-bye, and started complaining of being bored.

Hours pass...

Suddenly, a sonic assault happened, affecting everyone! Luckily, it was just Funk Music as an Ork Pimp in a SUV Lowrider appeared, bouncing along, and dropped off some Girls. A quick bit of discussion, and he left.

More boredom. Noone suggested dallying with the JoyGirls.

The Elemental then spotted a magical someone on the roof of a building where there wasn't anyone else, appraised the Mage, who jumped out of his Shoes, and spotted an adept that was lying prone, looking at the site. However, the Adept had a Watcher with him, who spotted the Mage and Spirit, and the Adept took off. Being declaired a non-issue, the Mage returned.

Another hour. (Isn't defending fun?) More role playing complaining about boredom.

Everyone freaks out as alarms start ringing, and the ambulance takes off on a priority call, taking the tent with them, leaving the Troll Enforcer to stand in the rain.

Then, a few minutes later, the Mage gets another report, four Watcher Spirits are watching the area now. "Wait boss, one bit me... OK, I just kicked it, it's gone. Three Watchers. Annoying stupid things." Being considered "non-threatening", they were left alone.

Suddenly, an explosion came from just in front of the gate! Surprisingly, that didn't get anyone's attention. Then another explosion, this one inside the facility. People dove for cover. Another explosion, this one they tried to track where it came from, and saw the guard shack splinter in a blast of pressboard wood and security guard guts! Getting a rough direction of where the shots were coming from, the Mage dropped, again into Astral, and tried to find out where it was coming from. Unfortunetly, there was a massive Rave going, spilling powerful emotions into the Astral Plane, blocking out a lot for blocks around. The Mage returned to his body suffering from some serious Emotional Spillage.

More bad shots, as the Ganger and "Captain Cuisinart" ride off on motorcycles to investigate. Yeah, a Tenement Rave going on at the edge of the Barrens, they couldn't find anything. The explosions stopped.

Hours pass...

The Mage gasps as his Air Elemental is banished. He jumps into Astral, to see a Fire Elemental looking very confident, and then disappear.

The Pimp returns for his girls, and is upset that only three are there (One was busy in the guard shack!). The Troll Enforcer tried to deal with the situation in his typical calm manner. (Ares Predator IV shot to the head, explosive round. I described it as the car scene from Pulp Fiction, only to the side of the SUV instead of the back!). "HEY! I just got a new car!" the Troll proudly pronounced.

At this point, "Captain Cuisinart" gets a reminder from his CommLink that his favourite movie ("Super Death-Ninja 14! Jackie Chan III's best work!"). Thinking quickly, he realizes there's probably a Trid in the Pimp's SUV, and finds out it's a High-Definition Trid, and promptly watches his movie.

More complaining about boredom.

Super Death-Ninja 14 ended just in time for a Watcher to materialize, and loudly proclaim, "OK! YOU WIN! TOO EXPENSIVE FOR US NOW!!! WE OWES YOU BEER!!! And... Er... Ummm... Another part of the message... I FORGET!!!" It cries for a bit, then remembers, "Oh, yeah... PSYKE!" The Watcher dematerializes, and suddenly a massive grunt is heard from four blocks away, and bright headlights appear, revealing a massive Transport Truck (AKA: Big Rig) that started driving towards the facility. The Troll Enforcer moves the SUV out of the way of the Rig, while everyone else pours fire into it, causing the engine block to catch fire quite rapidly, slowly stopping the Truck, then the Truck just keeps rolling. (Metagaming: AR-Controlled Dump Truck full of Sand was thrown into Neutral after the engine no longer caused accelleration.).

The group got to arguing about moving the SUV to deflect the Truck as I announced where the truck was, "Three blocks away." "NO! I just got this car!" "We're not getting paid if the place gets flattened!" "Two blocks." "NO! My PimpMobile, get your own to deflect the truck." "NO TIME!" "One block." "COME ON! We need to move the SUV NOW!" "Forget it, I have the keys, you don't." "At the gates." "Too late now."

The Dump Truck hits the Garage portion of the facility, hitting the load-bearing wall, and turning into the easily destroyed roll-up door, twisting sideways, taking out another wall half-way through the building, before tipping over, and spilling sand everywhere.

"Ummm... Yeah... Great. Well, we fail, and now we bail." And thus they ran away.

Luckily, as the two portables blew up behind them.

Moral of this story: Defence is HARD!

Before people ask why the facility was so weakly defended, again, it was still under construction, and wasn't Officially a CrashCart site yet for anything save Parking, where the attendants are more than enough defence (Remember, budgetary concerns!). However, they were going to take control of the security in a few days, and had heard through the Shadows that an assault was possible that night.

I found out that I have a good concept of the rules and so on, so I feel I'm ready for the campaign, hopefully.

News Report on the "From The Shadows" blog at a later date and time!

Out of curiousity, what were they getting paid for this job? Did the troll come out ahead by failing the job and walking away with the truck?

15K if nothing happened, 20K if combat happened.

So, yeah, the Troll did come out ahead financially, but only by pissing everyone else off, and taking a hit to his Rep.

would they have gotten 15 to 20k as a group or each?
if it was each i would not have taken the car, if it was all together for the group? fuck yeah i'd taken the car too . .
shadowrun is a game of screwing people who fall under one category:"NOT YOU!"
and that's the main problem with GM's that was even worse in SR3 . . the pay was generally bad, the karma was mediocre to good so the magical guys start to pull ahead and when the samurai go and steal cars and make more in one night than the others do in one month of running it's bitching all around again . .

Total. There were five of them. 100K seemed a bit... Excessive on one night's security work, especially for "New" characters.

But, quite possibly, Mr. Johnson was bucking for a promotion by trying to get them on the cheap, and staying well within budget. Or the fact that the competition was really badly underexpected.

A good score for the Troll it seems. And a good start into a world of lousy paid jobs that turn havoc.

Damn. I want to join. My groups are way to restrained.

Well, that was just a Demo. Hopefully get a campaign going with real characters, aside from "Captain Cuisinart", in which the Player brough his own character that is complete.

No, that's not the character's name, that's just what I call him. Nasty with swords.

Well this is what happens when you try to go way under budget. Your place explodes and the people you were going to pay run off in a pimped out pimp mobile.

With the up front money. But that was only 1K each.

Damn, what a FUBAR'ed run! If it was a regular gaming group, their rep would slide bad and their next job would probably pay half what it was worth.

And as far as the troll screwing hte group over (which is what I would classify "Not using hte looted SUV to block the semi" as): I would send a badass go-gang on a drive-by, "mistaking" the new owner(s) for the pimp, who owes them some serious nuyen for a big load of novacoke he got on consignment and didn't pay them for. Even if the troll takes the time to re-paint and alter the vehicle transponder, I would still manage this. Perhaps have the coke sewed inside hte seat cushions with a tracker in the packaging, that the gang uses to track him down.

Rule #1: The mission gets done. Looting is fine, but hte mission always takes priority, even if it means by-passing personal loot.

Rule #2: A a guy on a shadow team that works regularly together NEVER screws over it's other members for something as piddly as an SUV.

Rule #3: If the mission doesn't get done and it's your fault, you do your best to make it up to the Johnson. Return your upfront money and offer to do another run in the future, more or less at cost. If you can't make that offer to the Johnson directly, go through your fixer. If your fixer can't recontact the Johnson, you offer the re-payment and cheap labor to the fixer for sullying his rep.

*Just shakes his head* Amateurs!

By the way, it sounds like you guys had a LOT of fun! Wish I could have played!

Vlad

This wasn't a regular group at all. Just a bunch of folks that were pulled together at almost the last minute.

But, yeah, all that and a can of beans, Vlad!

Wish you could have been there as well!

BTW, the Truck was a decoy. While it was moving and had everyone's attention, the Adept snuck in behind the portables full of workers and laid down some explosives. Even if the truck missed, the group still would have been screwed.

Mage: "We needed a Rigger with Surveilance drones." Was his after action report, which wasn't addressed to anyone in particular.

Well, if the payment for the run is so bad that aquiring a SUV is actually superior, you can not expect anyone working that cheap to not run away with it.

Say you have a sub-contracted job roofing some guy's house that you are gonna make a few hundred from. In the middle of roofing, from the rooftop, you notice his neighbor has a brand new convertible 'Vette with teh keys hanging in the ignition and he jsut left with his wife in the family sedan. You do not climb down from the roof and go boost the 'Vette and not finish the roofing job. Not if you ever want your roofing contractor company to ever employ you again, not to mention any of his other contracting buddies. Now, if you finish the job, knock off for the the day and that 'Vette is still setting there? All bets are off. So long as you don't get caught stealing the 'Vette, your roofing contractor isn't going to care.

The point is, roofing is your livelyhood, stealing 'Vettes isn't. Who knows if next week, your contractor might have construction job that's gonna net you a couple thousand over the next couple weeks. The wise choice is to do good work for him. Unless you are deciding to become a professional car thief.

Vlad

Not claiming it is professional or anything. It definatly wasn't.
But if you get the cheap guys, don't expect professionalism from them. If I pay for a punk, I get exactly that.
And if I pay the bum living two streets down for roofing I am pretty sure, he'd drive off with the car.

Well, I would have expected it more of the Sprawl Ganger, but the Troll Enforcer?

Maybe he needed to give a gift to Da Boss or sumptin'.

Definetly, if this was a Shadowteam, that would be right and out off. But, these were the rushes guys.

and we're back at square one of the old debate about black-ops army-style and cyber-punk . .
usually i play characters with a military background . . but they are running the shadows 'cause they don't like the usual military modus operandi

Yeah, I can bet the ability to tell a Mr. Johnson to go jam himself with a baseball bat, sideways, if you don't like the job (Politely, of course, as you don't want to piss off the Paymasters!) is superior to having a CO that just calls the MPs if you don't follow orders!

For one thing this Shadowrun team had never worked together... so that is one point against them.

The other argument is if the runners are being paid so poorly why don't they go out and steal two or three cars. Would have paid better then that run and put them in less danger.

Also it seemed like when the troll took the vehicle the operation was already a bust as most of the facility had pretty much exploded at that point. No offense, but I think the job they were put up to do is a little different then the roofing situation. I mean why not say someone is working on a roof, when suddenly the roof explodes. You know for a fact that the wife who left the keys in the convertible is dead, because you dropped an 80 lb. tool box on her head. So do you finish the job on the exploded roof, or just take the car and hide?

The facility hadn't exploded during the time the Troll took the SUV. Only the guard shack had.

Frankly, they were happy to get rid of the guard. The rest of the shells had only done some minor damage to the lot. Nothing hit anyone or anything. (I rolled very poorly!).

When the group was doing the Bug-Out Boogy, yeah, you got that right.

The flipside is, however, if nothing had happened, that's 3K each for doing sweet frag all. I wouldn't mind being bored for one night and get paid that much money...

This is Shadowrun though. The plan never goes off without some sort of snag.

I mean that is like running a D&D mission where they are expected to enter some graveyard or dungeon and get some sort of item. You are going to fight things, even if the person who hired you said there probably won't be any trouble. If you ran a defense of a facility, and nothing happened the players would probably smack you.

I meant that when the troll took the vehicle and bugged out there was nothing left to really defend was my point. He took the car, because he also killed the owner of it after some trouble was started.

I just mean lets not kid ourselves here. If you are going to do a run that is a "cakewalk" you always know that something is going to happen that will probably create a whole story arch, with the creation of some sort of person chasing you, and probably magic will be thrown in there or something, with some ghouls on top of that, and maybe a rabid squirrel that shoots it's teeth at the party.

We, as Players know that.

As Characters... "Damn, 3K for nothing. And 4K ain't chump change either. Pay for bullets easily at the very least, and beer afterwards!"

Then more profitable means present themselves.

Of course, how many PCs have "Chop Shop" as a Contact?

...

Damn, now I want to play!

At long last, the news report on what happened!

Nice report. The thing I would leave out in the news feed is the mention of Shadowrunners, or Technomancer. These things might not be all that public or widely known. State it as a terrorist or sabotage. Also in a nit picky sort of way, having the image of the woman with a number pad behind her is somewhat odd in a SR setting. That would be like putting a rotary phone in the background for "late breaking news".... although it would really be late breaking I guess.

Hmm. I disagree. Technomancers are the bogeymen of the early '70s after the events of Emergence. They can hack your commlink even if it's turned off, you know, then steal your identity to sleep with your squeeze. And there are TV shows about Shadowrunners.

The Technomancer Scare has started in the Blog awhile back, when it belonged to the first group that started it, so I'll be continuing on with that. So it's legit. Even had a report on the guy that was hung from a Lamppost that's a pic in Emergence. (My group will miss out on most of the Technomancer scare, but that's mostly in Hong Kong, so won't be as major an issue. It's just STARTING to get to where Shiloh is saying.)

The mention of Shadowrunners comes because of the "Elite Lone Star Team" that's doing the investigating. See the comment from "Money" in the blog about them.

As for the picture, it's a stock one for the Blog that was created by someone else. I can do no visual artistry in any way shape or form. I'm a writer only.

Indeed, and Shiloh's very correct. I mean, just look at the stuff they've got in the City of Angels; those P2.0 goons are actually paying 'runners extra on the side to not shoot down drones that catch them in action and sell it for a tidy profit to the sarariman trid gluttons! You could move down there and make a fortune doing cakewalk runs, screwin' 'em up on purpose, and getting the ensuing firefight that you'd win with one arm behind your goat-eating, subbridge-dwelling back on trid!

Yeah, there's lots of Trids and Sims about Shadowrunners. I'm sure the Organized Crime groups have a few 'Runners that are paying off debts by providing feeds for BTL chips, too.

Finally, BBB states there is a Shadowrun MMORPG (It's in the equipment chapter preface!), which will get even more folks interested in 'Runners. They're a cultural icon, especially in Seattle.

I meant that how would someone know it was a Technomancer? If your comlink gets hacked you don't suddenly say it's a technomancer you say it's a hacker. That was more what I meant to say.

Sure you do! If you blame Technomancers rather than let it just be regular Hackers, then there's less of a panic in stocks due to the fact that, "Well, if it was one of those MONSTERS that did it, there was no defence!" and so on.

Essentially, they don't know it was a Techie that did the DoS, they just pushed the button in the Media to try and save face.

Well you see for me that would scare the hell out of me to know that it was done by a monster and it lived near me. Can it truly hack my comlink when it is off and I'm sleeping? Time not to ever get anymore sleep ever again. No one likes knowing that the monster in their closet is real, and it is only a few feet away from you.

Exactly...

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