Original Brief in spoiler tag:
[ Spoiler ]
[19:00 22 Aug 2070 – Deep Watch Briefing Post, Fort Lewis, Seattle]
“Listen up! Deep Watch is the best merc force reconnaissance unit on the planet and you will not let me down! We have staked our reputation on professionalism, stealth, technology and above all a ninety nine percent success rate…”
Having originally posted this at the beginning of the month I’ve revised some of the details to hopefully appeal to more potential players. The main focus of the game will be an operation by Deep Watch on the UCAS / Salish border with a couple of secondary targets if that interests anyone (otherwise they will be there as game background). There are several options for players (see below for the mission briefing):
• Deep Watch mercenary personnel
• Shadowrunnners hired by Deep Watch to make up numbers
• Members of the community that is the primary target of the mission
• The security detail of a politician who is a secondary target
• Members of the nearby Redmond gangs that might want to take advantage of the chaos
It is possible that having players on either side of the conflict may result in them acting against each other. Let me know if you are interested in PvP and I will arrange for you to face either NPCs or PCs (as far as possible) according to your preferences.
Each PC can choose to be accompanied by 1-3 NPCs. This way you have the option to post independently of other players without anyone needing to wait too long if someone is unable to post for a while. (It’s up to you whether you determine the actions of these NPCs or you leave it entirely to me…)
The IC thread will begin straight in to the action so any planning can be done here or on the fly as you approach your targets (to avoid the protracted planning stage and no action situation).
Most initial dice rolls will be dispensed with in favour of roleplay (I will probably get you to pregen some initiative and perception rolls which you can update periodically through the game). The roleplay aspect of the conflict will be the most important thing and I’m happy for PCs to pen the gory details of their actions without requiring damage resistance rolls (etc) from me…speed is the key, and not letting rules slow down the action too much. Don’t worry, I will ramp up the challenge as the game progresses and rolls will be required for those that like the ‘bucket full of dice’ effect! Any PvP will be RAW so that the dice decide.
Deep Watch hackers will be NPCs unless someone is desperate to play a field hacker (I’m still getting to grips with the matrix rules and given the background to Emergence I may let the NPCs do things not strictly in accordance with RAW so I don’t want to upset anyone). Hackers and TMs are possible on the opposing side but again given what I have in mind I would prefer these to be NPCs.
All PCs will be standard 400BPs (Deep Watch personnel may wish to use some/all of the following equipment package to give some uniformity - based on AH’s PACKS):
[ Spoiler ]
Deep Watch Covert Ops Package (0 Ess/7 BP)
Bioware (0 Ess): Bio-tattoo (“Dog tag” with blood type and SIN) [1,500¥]
Gear (7BP / 35,000¥): Clothing (military uniforms) [1,000¥], Chameleon Suit (thermal damping [R:4], chem. seal [R:4]) [11,000¥], Integral helmet (ruthenium coating, image link, thermo, smartlink, integrated Ares Golem Commlink + Iris Orb OS + Sim module + Pro User Suite + ECCM [R:6] + Firewall [R:6], backup micro transceiver [R:3]) [650 + 6,100 + 9,600 + 600¥], Ares Pred 4 [350¥], Ares Alpha (ruthenium coating, air burst grenade link) [3,200¥]
In addition for the Deep Watch team there will be a group requisitions budget for gear that would normally be outside the reach of most runners. Tacnets etc can come out of this and milspec equipment within reason (you will be operating on UCAS soil). I’m not going to set this budget but let you request things and then veto them or not as the whim takes me! Just please point out if any of the equipment you want has an availability over 20. This will be balanced by allowing Home Ground advantages to the opposition and similar in game bonuses.
IC posting conventions I’ll use: [Time/location stamp] in bold and orange, “speech” (cyan optional) and <<comms>> (yellow optional), first time your character’s name or key NPCs are mentioned in a post in bold please.
Rewards: In line with Unsound’s 2072 ‘persistent campaign’ thread I will give 1 karma and 2500¥ for the first post per week. This way, once the game is completed you will be able to join that thread if you want to (recruitment is always open!). I’m weaving the themes and events from this game in to that one but will try to keep time based spoilers to a minimum if you want to track that thread. You may be able to negotiate keeping some of the requisitioned items with this hard won cash…we’ll have to see how the game pans out.
Mission Brief
[ Spoiler ]
“Take your seats please, this won’t take long, I want you in the air in the next thirty minutes. You will no doubt have heard all about the Technomancer scare and the Sojourner incident aboard the Aztec station. Well I have to tell you that the wildest rumours are in fact true and that there are AIs in our shiny new matrix and they represent a clear danger to the national interest. The UCAS government has been monitoring their activities and identified a target on UCAS soil who have been in communication with the Sojourner and Pulsar entities and soft intel shows they are part of a terrorist organisation. The government cannot act without further clear intelligence, however, and that’s where we come in.
We have multiple targets in the Seattle Metroplex area that need to be dealt with more or less simultaneously.
The primary target is the Stillwater community on the edge of the Redmond Barrens. Secondary targets are associated groups; a runner team called Balefire who are based out of Renton, specifically their hacker who is believed to be one of these Technomancers, and a political figure, Jared Engles who has been publicly supporting these Technomancers and privately funding their terrorist activities.
On the face of it the Stillwater group are hippies and back to nature types living in a commune but analysis of their data traffic shows that there is much more going on beneath the surface. They have confirmed links to eco cells, anti government and corporate groups and the Seattle shadow community. We will infiltrate their central compound and access their offline servers and download the information. Force has been authorised and we anticipate reasonable resistance. Threat assessment is Beta Four. I can tell you that the UCAS authorities have provided us with the option of calling in a metroplex guard air strike if the intelligence proves to be accurate; this is a measure of the seriousness of this mission.
Balefire are assessed as threat level Alpha and Engles as Beta Eight.
Time is of the essence, we need to gather this information before the Sojourner incident escalates, wheels are up in twenty, any questions?”
To be continued…
Mission Targets:
[ Spoiler ]
Target Images: Stillwater Community
Target 1 Dr Simon Finney [Dwarf snake shaman, cybertechnologist, community leader, SINer] The driving force behind the Stillwater community. He was a reputed Transhumanist lecturer at Seattle U until he left to persue this ‘experiment.’ [Threat Lvl 2]
Target 2 “Desire” [Human shaman, community leader & head of the Stillwater Circle, SINless?] Less is known about her and her background and no SIN has been found. She is a European, possibly British and is reportedly responsible for the regrowth magics in the area. The Stillwater circle is believed to be a shamanic initiatory group. [Threat Lvl 3]
Target 3 Kate Franklin [Human geneticist, SINer] She followed Dr Finney from Seattle U and is now playing an active part in their transhuman agenda. [Threat Lvl 2]
Target 4 Lucy Holt [Dwarf Transhuman politician, SINer] An active matrix participant in Seattle politics it would be unfortunate if anything visibly happened to her. [Threat Lvl 1 / 5]
Target 5 “Ricardo” [Orc shadowrunner, spy / info gatherer, SINless] Having been employed by a third party he is the source of much of our soft intel on the Community and is believed to still be on site. [Threat Lvl 3]
Target 6 Yoshio Harada [Human cybertechnologist, SINer] Not much is known about him other than he is believed to have come from one of the Japanacorps specialising in cutting edge cyber and matrix research. [Threat Lvl 2]
Target 7 Geoffrey Dreen “Rush”? [Dwarf hacker, possible Technomancer, SINless] On the face of it an uninteresting individual, he is believed to be an active hacker on various pirate VPNs under the handle Rush. [Threat Lvl 4]
Target 8 Nathan King [Human theoretical thaumatergist, SINer] A leading scientific mind in research in to combining technology and magic he does not represent a significant threat, although his creations within the Community might. [Threat Lvl 1]
Target 9 Feral [Human adept, leader of the Wolf Pack, SINless] An enigma, there is little information on him other than wildly improbable tales of his martial prowess. He is the leader of the adept initiatory group, the Wolf Pack. [Threat Lvl 6?]
Target 10 Sasha Wilde [Elf talismonger, SINless] Working in Touristville she has links to the group and is known to deal with them for telisma farmed in the magic rich environment around the Community. [Threat Lvl 2]
Target 11 Monika Novac [Community decker & matrix researcher, SINer] An old school decker who lends her matrix skills to the already considerable matrix presence of the community. [Threat Lvl 4]
Target 12 Andrew Novac “Cypher” [Human adept, SINer] Monika’s son and an adept in the Wolf Pack, his recruitment was what led Monika to the community. [Threat Lvl 5]
Target 13 Justin Akiyama [Human Corp Sec Officer, Ares Arms, St. James Lake, Redmond, SINer] A number of the Stillwater community are employed at the facility and he is thought to supply them with equipment and intelligence. [Threat Lvl 4]
Target 14 Jared Engles [Human pro Technomancer politician, SINer] [Threat Lvl 3]
Target 15 Dinah Lane [Elf courtesan, shadowrunner “Whisp”?, SINer] [Threat Lvl 5]
Target 16-20 Balefire Runner Team [Bale, human combat mage, Mother, orc rigger, Escapade, human infiltrator, Silk, orc infiltrator, Aria, human Technomancer?] [Threat Lvl 9]
This will give you some idea of who you may be up against, at least the significant players.
There are approx. 8 mages/shamans in the Community, 12 adepts and rumours of 5 TMs. There are 40 or so CyWolves who form the security force for the area. Given the nature of the group a large number of the 'civillians' will have cyber modifications and be considered a minor threat to the task force.
Important Links
Combat Round Initiative: Here
Stillwater Map (Emerging)
Eco Tower Diagram (Emerging)
If it's cool with you, I'd like to play Dahlia--who's probably been hired to make up the numbers and/or provide support for actual Deep Watch members. Her character sheet is up on the 2072 master database.
...and that's really cheap whisky, you going to clean engines with it???!!!
1,000)?