Since the GM crowd is getting their kicks out of the "Wait, you want us to WHAT?" and the Best Swerve threads, I figured I would ask for the rest of us:

What was the most amusing gm-ambush you ever pulled?

Most of mine seem to revolve around C-12 and trying to solve a problem (kill it with fire).

We had to get data from a chip inside a briefcase that was in a hotel room in Spain (we were in Seattle). It was the GM's first game as a GM so we went easy on him and explained to him the 3 ways we had to finish the run without leaving Seattle, or even the meet with Mr. J.:
1. Go there in astral with a spirit and have the spirit carry the briefcase back to us.
2. Create a fake order to the local police to get the briefcase for an investigation and have it sent somewhere we can pick it up.
3. (IMO the best one): hack the maintenance drone, have it open the briefcase, take the chip, put it in the telecom unit, download the data and have the drone put everything back where it was.

Edit: Ambushing the GM. Whoops.

Best one we ever did was when the GM built up this heavily fortified building, made it 8 stories tall, and put the item we needed on the 8th floor. He expected us to go from the ground up, fighting through dozens of guards. We levitated to the roof, killed a couple people, grabbed the stuff and ran. GM was very much "Ummm, damnit."

Edited away for redundancy.

Indeed. Edited to a Players ambushing GM story. Will repost that in the swerve thread maybe. It's early, I'm tired. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Our GM had designed a house with some guards in it, and a computer server in the top floor. The building had sturdy walls and mage somewhere in the middle. The building had a faraday cage. We were hired to steal stuff from the computer.

So we used Shapeshift to turn the scrawny adept into a rat, gave him a laser-transmitter tied to his tail. He snuck in through the toilet; a juicy spirit with Concealment helped him get past a thick door.

Meanwhile, my mage had shapeshifted into a magpie and was perched outside the window, looking into the server room. When I saw the adept was in, I stopped maintaining his Shapeshift. He installed the laser transmitter, our remote hacker did his job, and then I shapeshifted the adept back to rat again.

Lesson to the GM: windows => line of sight.

"I call my bound Force 6 Air spirit and ask it to Control Weather to cover our getaway."

I should note that "getaway" here involved sluggishly navigating an oil tanker up Puget Sound where there's only one exit to the ocean.

On the other hand, the hurricane did keep the GM from using helicopters to attack us.

for several editions now, tinted building windows have been fairly standard fare for just this reason. the people inside can see out fine, but the people outside don't get to see in, normally.

Not only that, first question that popped into my head was "why the hell are there windows in a server room?"

Usually it's a environment-sealed interior room with tons of cooling.




-karma

And in the basement.

That's just stereotyping, and stereotyping is wrong.

Let me preface this by saying I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I was not familiar with the setting enough to realize what was going on.

Mine are all from the same plot arc, with the same character: a hacker with an augmented logic of 9, edge of 3. We were using the optional rules from unwired for hacking rolls (skill + attribute, limited by program rating--except for when edge is used). After interacting with a weapons dealer who gave the team grenades (among other things) from the 1960s several times, I gave my character one rank in knowledge: archaic weaponry right before a game. All of the other players saw me do it. We just forgot to mention it to the GM. That session, the GM threw a suitcase nuke from the 1950s at the team.

Me: I can totally take care of this.
GM: You aren't even there.
Me: I'll overlay instructions on the street sam's cybereyes. It'll be like paint-by-numbers. But, with a nuke.
GM: So you're defaulting to logic for this?
Me: No, I'm using my knowledge: archaic weaponry skill.
GM: What.

Earlier in the story arc, the GM had my hacker unknowingly redirect a small nuke for a client. This is before I really understood the setting and knew that it was a good idea to check up on what exactly you're doing. The team found out later that the hacker had redirected one of Lofwyr's nukes. OOPS. After the suitcase nuke, we came across some missile launch codes that our Johnson (who had just preformed a triple-cross against us and his boss) had managed to trick us into acquiring for him. Uncool.

The hacker decided that this could not stand; this guy could not be the only one with these codes.

GM: So, what are you going to do about that?
Me: I'm going to send those codes to someone who will know much better than me what to do with them. And I owe him a nuke, anyway.
GM: Wait wait what.
Me: I attempt to hack my way as far up the command chain of Saeder-Krupp as possible. When I get as far as I can, I'm leaving the missile launch codes and an apology letter for my previous nuke-related behavior.
GM: Ok.
Me: And I'm using edge.
GM: Alri--
Me: ALL OF IT
Dice clatter for like...three minutes. Sixes exploded all up in the place. I rolled well that day.
Me: 26 successes.


And, more recently:

Me: Will you let me get an active skill in Rube Goldberg Machines?
GM: Sure, why not--wait. Why?
Me: 8D

That's what he got for accepting me as co-GM and me witnessing the roll. I honestly thought Knowledge: Archaic Weaponry wasn't going to be used that game!

Not everywhere. For example, the Chicago police department HQ has it's data center on the second floor with windows that look out at the street. (or did in 1998 or so when they moved into that building.)

Errr if your GM allows you to use archaic weapons, especially at rank 1, to cover suitcase nukes that's not GM ambushing that's picking on the retarded kid.

Classy.

Considering the character in question had a Logic of 9 and the weapon itself was built in the 1960's, we felt it applied.

I know that, but the GM didn't, so I had no choice but to exploit his ignorance...

The Freak Squad was chasing a guy carrying an Item of Interest; he was on a motorcycle, and we were riding on autoricks (motorcycle-driven rickshaws we'd acquired). He's got a big head start, but my watcher spirits are on him, relaying info as we try to catch up. Somewhere behind us, some Azzies are trying to get their van started while the TM's machine sprite dances a fandango on its systems. The watchers inform me that the quarry has hit a completely immobile traffic jam on a bridge, and has ditched his motorcycle to proceed. The other mage guesses that he has another bike stashed on the far side. If we leave our transport behind, we'll have to find something on the other side, losing considerable time.

I start weighing my options, specifically by asking the GM how much an autorick weighs. While he's researching, I double-check a spell description, add up my Sorcery dice pool, and do some math. When he gives me a figure (about 600kg), I suggest a reasonable figure for the total weight of the team in addition to the autorick, and he agrees. I tell everyone to hang on, I'm going to levitate our ride. I roll the dice (with Aid Sorcery and edge), scoring an amazing number of hits--more than enough successes to fly us along at about 55 mph. One of the other guys starts humming the E.T. theme, and off we go. We catch up with the quarry easily, grab the McGuffin, and fly off into the night. On our magic rickshaw.

Fortunately, our GM is a good sport, and rewards creative approaches, so he didn't upgrade all the ambushes and interceptions he had planned with helicopters. Then again, maybe he was just laughing too hard.

(I should probably post the rest of the story over in the Pink Mohawk thread. Our GM said he was going to, but I haven't seen it yet.)

I'm going to take knowledge skill weapons, and while i'm at it I'll take future weapons and archaic weapons. Suddenly I know every weapon ever created, see my point? The logic of 9 doesn't even enter into it.

You okay? You've been fairly kvetchy across more than a few threads. You're also blowing this waaaay out of proportion, so I'm a touch concerned.

Our GM invented a really cool set-piece for a run: a super-zeppelin based on a kind of advanced aerogel. Really neat idea: solid vaccuum-packed matrix that weighs almost nothing. "You can take a rocket launcher to it, and it will just take a little bite out of it." He boasted.

Some time later, I ask: "The availability on demolisher nanites is only about X --think we could scare some up during our prep time?" He says: "Sure."

We were all coming from 3rd ed DnD, so I think he was expecting the destructive capability of demolishers to be based on the volume of the thing you're trying to destroy --5' cubes and all that. It's actually based on the mass. In tons.

I'm fine and apologize if I came off as other wise. I've just seen similar threads and they always revolve around the same things, usually exploiting an overly permissive GM or exploiting a lack of GM knowledge. Neither of those situations are usually that entertaining to me at least.

Our party had a pretty good GM-Ambush recently, but our GM is adept at rolling with the punches and stabbing us with our successes later, so it works out karmically.

We had been hired to break into a building owned by one Rainbow corp, a subsidiary of Horizon. Long story short, we break in and find that this is a re-education center for Knight Errant that allows Rainbow corp to study the effects of personality rewrite using a super advanced PAB machine. The machine was the size of a shop in itself, and bigger than a normal facility when you take into account the rows and rows of clone tubes.

We rescued the current subject and skedaddled out when the clones all woke up and wiped out the Rainbow security forces. They were acting like a bio-drone swarm, and were being controlled by what we are guessing was an AI (we haven't found out yet). Well, my character thought the PAB machine was pretty cool, so he asked the party to steal it. Our mage hit the Object Resist threshold for a highly complex nano-manufactured machine and gave it feet. Presto, we now have a bleeding-edge PAB machine designed to rewrite personalities.

Our GM used it to screw us brilliantly a few runs later, but that's a different story.

I can understand that. Like I said, just a touch concerned.

This looks strongly like GM fiat to save your asses. Hard to take credit for ambushing him after that.

Unless they organized the traffic jam

Considering it was done on a flying rickshaw, I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The best GM ambush I get from my players is when they show up for the game.

Nice.

Reminds me of when we were tasked with destroying a BTL manufactory (because of turf encroachment) and we stole a whole crate worth of fresh of the press BTL chips (we totally sold them, and not to the gang that hired us).

The traffic jam was designed into the run to delay us, not the quarry. The quarry planned on the traffic jam delaying ground pursuit, and had another vehicle waiting on the far side. As I understand it, there were a series of ambushes and events planned along the way that could delay both the quarry and the team in various ways, but they were predicated on the assumption that the team would lose our ground transport, have to find replacements, and be traveling at speeds limited by traffic, street layout, and local color. Taking to the air enabled us to bypass a lot of obstacles designed into the run and travel much faster than expected. As a result, we caught up with him easily, got the McGuffin, and evaded the competition.

It also gave us lines like

"They're shooting at us? I take evasive maneuvers!"
"You just sitting in the driver's seat--she's flying the rickshaw."

"And on that special night, the Voodoo Queen flies through the air in her magic autorick, bringing joy to those below."
(Sister had just cast Orgy into the middle of a street brawl...and traffic.)

When the GM gets the giggles, and it isn't a sign of Impending Doom^TM, I call it a win.

Last night, actually.

My character, a former Carnetti family hitman, is in Seattle looking for a member of the Finnigan family who is responsible for organizing a hit on several members of his immediate family. I took the enemy NQ, given to me at 15 points by the GM, and the Vendetta NQ. So last night-- we found him. More like, he found us, actually.

While doing the legwork on a current job, a bunch of sedans pull up outside the warehouse my team is ruthlessly searching through for information. Seeing the cars through the window, I activate my chameleon suit and gecko tape gloves, sneaking out the window and up onto the roof. Since I'm the stealth operator in the group, I unpack my sniper rifle and wait. The group of thugs starts yelling out for me, so I snipe their getaway drivers with one shot kills.

Inside, my team wipes out the entire force of the Finnigan family in one turn. The GM was less than pleased. I climb back down the building, come up the stairs from behind, and shoot the bodyguard in the chest. My enemy, Christian Finnigan, uses the mook for cover and we have a brief firefight.

Now, none of this thus far smells of player ambush. But in a prior conversation, the GM had made it clear that he has the right to Hand of God an enemy who is a part of the Enemy NQ-- he can get away, and if he does for some reason die, it will always be a "thrown off a bridge" death, allowing for him to come back. However, my character has three initiative passes-- and it's hard for an injured man to run when I know the neighborhood. I chased him down, pounced on him, spent edge to keep him pinned down, and put a handblade through his throat. And then again. And then for good measure, one more time. Meanwhile, the GM is less than amused-- but confident that somehow, his enemy will survive. He mentions that we may want to get out of there, lest the police show up.

Our mage's response? "If (my character) couldn't hear the gun shots from the roof, no one else heard the gunshots either. I think we're safe." The GM made a few rolls, scowled to himself, and I spent the next hour in a room full of plastic sheeting, cutting up my enemy into very small pieces and feeding him into the ghoul ridden sewers below. The GM sadly proclaimed he had no way to Hand of God this one.

Wait... He planned to get stuck in a traffic jam whereas his bike is likely faster and more agile than your rickshow? I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time...

See, as a GM, my Hand of God for that would be that in killing him, someone else from the organization will step up to come after you. Either that or see if there was a different NQ of similar point value that I could assign you in trade for the enemy.

He expected someone (or, more likely, multiple groups) to be pursuing him. The location meant that escape routes were extremely limited; the bridge--which was inevitably going to be completely jammed when he had to make his run--was the best option. (There were other bridges, I think, but they would have been equally packed, and were more out of the way.) Since he was stuck dealing with the traffic jam, he did his best to turn it to his advantage by planning for it. By his reasoning, any pursuers who refused to abandon their vehicles would be stopped cold at the bridge, and any that did abandon them would be delayed while they tried to hire/steal/commandeer a new ride. While the pursuit was fighting traffic and/or taxi drivers, he'd be zipping away through a tangle of streets on his motorcycle. It was a reasonable plan for dealing with ground pursuit, and probably the fastest option available to him.

The guy's return as a Free Spirit. Now that's a whole new enchilada.

Actually, that's not Hand of God, that's RAW unless the PC spends 40 karma to buy the flaws back.

The best part about this is that the GM now has control over who and what is actually after you. It might wind up being someone/something completely unexpected by the player; the spirit idea mentioned earlier was a good suggestion, but by no means the only fun one. Since it sounds like the PC in question is tech based, something magical where he has to pull his allies into help him out would be a fun way to twist things up.

"OK, it took some tracking down, but I found out who put the price on your head." "And?" "The remainder of my fee?" "Fine fine, here. Brierfcase full of UCAS$1000 bills, old, nonsequential bills." "Good. It's Diageo." "Who?" "They own Guinness, Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, Silent Sam..." "A BOOZE COMPANY PUT A PRICE ON MY HEAD?"

Yeah, given that it's a Mafia based enemy, that's pretty much what we discussed. This is only our third session of the game with these characters, so I can't afford to buy it off yet. Besides, the idea of being hunted as a side campaign is cool, so he's going to create a new enemy for me, essentially flipping the tables from "I'm hunting the guy who killed my family" to "The guy who I killed has ____ who wants revenge." Makes it a tad less noble.




*shudders*

actually, in SR4 at least it does enter into it. there is no distinguishable difference between skill 1 attribute 9, skill 4 attribute 6, and skill 6 specialisation 2 attribute 2. in each case, you roll the same number of dice. logical? not especially. but that's how the rules work.

would the game be better or worse, if instead of stat+skill, you rolled, skill+modifiers, max hits stat?

hi hi

I've got a couple, but they're sort of me ambushing players and the GM at the same time..

1: The simplest one occurred when one of the other players wanted to play a different character, so he and the GM came up with a clever way to introduce the new character in the middle of a run. However, by the time we got to said character, the team was in bad shape. We see the new player character to be in the middle of a room surrounded by dead bodies. One of the other players says "eek! kill it!"

Me: "I shoot him in the head, full auto, narrow burst, preemptive edge."
GM: "wait, why?"
Me: *Rolls dice*

2: The other time was more the GM trying to take pity on our poor team. We were in the basement of a building being swarmed by devilrats and having a tough time of it. One of the other players says "drop a frag grenade at our feet, that'll take care of em." This was back in 3rd edition when armor was more effective... Not effective enough though. I cant say for sure, but I got the impression that the GM had to fudge a few things to prevent that from becoming a TPK.

Moral of the story: When I am playing a character with wired reflexes, be careful what you suggest I do, my character doesn't spend much time considering before acting.

Personally when players don't respect hand of god (that i've laid out in advance that their getting for their very hefty chunk of character points) the target in question would have had a cranial nuke or some other such nastiness.. Your GM is nice or just wasn't thinking. Hand of god takes whatever form it needs to take, you pounce the guy and try and use all three passes to kill him, your shot in the back by a rooftop sniper and left for ghoul chow, nice try, no banana. I have little patience when the players try and game the system. But I'm going to stop bringing hateraide to this thread.

Edit: Wooo i should proofread my posts or just not post when back from the bar.

I never got to do it myself, but I've been the GM that was ambushed many a times...

My favorite was when they were to bring in a corporate defector "dead or alive". The defector was very, very paranoid...took different routes home every day, crashed in different places every night from coffin motels to penthouse suites to condos in the Renraku Archology owned by a friend of a friend of someone that owed the guy's friend a favor. The only place they knew the guy would be at any time was in the office from 9 AM to 5 PM. I figured they'd scout the place, tail the guy, stick a tracker on him, nab him in the parking lot before/after work...

I completely forgot that the group's decker (whose normal combat strategy was "hide behind the most solid object around" which was usually the troll street sam with titanium bone lacing and milspec armor) bought so much CXII it would be more easily tracked in "tons" than kilos. Six story building, two basement levels, and over fifteen hundred civilian casualties...just to kill one paranoid middle manager that happened to work on an important project.

I also learned to leave the "dead or" part out of my future runs...

A basement you say? Mmmm... I would like some chunky salsa since you mention it...

Oooh, I forgot about this one.

I forget what we had to do (I think it was kill a rival gang slash break up their HQ), but this was the process that unfolded:

Step 1: summon an earth spirit and locate a gas main.
Step 2: have earth spirit dig a tunnel from said gas line to the basement of the target building's basement.
Step 3: call forth a bound air spirit
Step 4: tell air spirit to keep any gases in the tunnel in the tunnel and basement
Step 5: have earth spirit rupture gas main
Step 6: dismiss earth spirit and wait
Step 7: summon F1 fire spirit.
Step 8: Profit: Tell the fire spirit to "have fun."

We blew up a building. I believe this was the one where the GM told us it went up, came down, and fell over, leaning on another building and we all went, "Wait, but it was a two story building." GM said, "No, it was a 10 story building."

Players needed a distraction. One of them fired at a row of Port-A-Potty's (with a Panther) and blew them all up, one at a time...

All I could say was "you blow them up one after another... with the people inside... you made a distraction", the player said "Clyde make big boom".

Our GM never hands us the easy way out-- so we never hand him the easy way out. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and having him come up with a new angle on the problem is challenging for him and fun for us. Besides, I backed him into a corner he couldn't realistically Hand of God without seeming like he was throwing blue lightning.

In one of the few sessions I ever actually got to play in, the GM had this woman contact us over the Matrix to tell us how screwed we were. She was hired to assassinate us and was meant to be a primary antagonist for some time.

We met her in the meat once earlier and my character rather fancied her. When she told us the specifics of the ambush, I had my character interrupt and propose to her. We ended up with a neat ally.

From what you posted, it seems you considered it let you not only know it for what it is (fair game in my book) but also to know the proper disarming procedure for it. Which definitvely seems abusive to me for anything beyonf 'ok the detonator should be around there from the shcemtics I've seen of that thingie'.