Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Dawn of the Artifacts: Midnight
Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > Shadowrun
Redjack
To keep from thread necromancy on the original discussion, which really focused more on Dusk, I'm just starting a new thread.

So last night the team started going through Midnight. Playing Dusk took three nights and the module presented itself well to being broke up across three nights. Midnight appears the same way. The team made it from Seattle to Chicago and is climbing aboard the t-bird for Denver at the end of the first night.

The money definitely got their attention, despite what they knew the risks would be. My table size is a little large yielding a team of 7 PCs, 1 NPC and Frosty. The NPC is a dependent of one of the team mates and definitely the worthy subject of an entirely different thread. With one troll, two orks (one troll sized) a large human and rounding out with elves for all the others, the team is big. They were smart and checked weather conditions before leaving so they all bought snow camouflage suits with insultation.

With gear and an MMG for the troll, the team was packed into the jet like sardines. The 5 hour flight was neither pleasant, nor restful given the cramped conditions, but they made it through the first leg of travel. Having a map that actually showed all of the locations would have been nice... VERY NICE. So note: If you're going to run this, make a map for the chapter "On Arrival" for all the locations. Looking at Feral Cities and taking a re-read, we were able to deduce approximate locations, but my table likes precise. Side note: One of my former players retired his character to Chicago when he moved away, so when the team became aware of the bounty I added one for that player for flavor. I did really like having travel times in the chart; as a GM that was nice.

The "Stand Off" chapter was good. I brought out miniatures for the scene. Three hours into the hike to the spire they were ambushed by the bugs. Several members of the team were beginning to take stun/fatigue by this point. The mages were helpless, 2 characters succumb to fear.. Only by the grace of the troll's MMG and the fact that his dice were VERY hot against the fear power did it not result in a TPK.

We were running short on time in RL by the time they reached the end of that chapter. I was very annoyed that somehow, out in the Zone Frosty could reach them on coms, yet the Union could not reach their chummers several KM away. I explained this in that the Union members in the spire had a satellite uplink (That retired PC from earlier...? He was pinned down in the spire.). The other Union members did not and had a lot of interference from the dystopian terrain.

So the team, hearing the scene as they approached, all snuck in. The seven of them had matching camo suits and several gun bunnies. They had already decided to side with the defenders for personal reasons and launched an ambush that sent the siege crew running home short half a dozen men very quickly as it appeared a military assault team was engaging for some reason...

All in all, night #1 was enjoyable. Several little tweaks would have made it better, but I liked taking the runners out of the urban sprawl. I am looking forward to tonight's continuation.
Redjack
Night #2:
The night started with the team boarding the t-bird and heading out. I had planned to use 3 of the 4 optional encounters along the route, but ran out of time during the second. During the first one, the t-bird was hacked by a competing crew while most of the team slept. As it came in for a landing, the mage woke up noticing the change in the ride. He mentioned it to the troll street sam who realized they were landing well before any scheduled landings. The technomancer hacked the t-bird and engaged the opposing technomancer. The rigger joined and tried to wrestle control from the sprite landing it. Once the team's technomancer blasted the sprite driving, the rigger took over flying while the team's technomancer kept the opposing one busy. In the end, the other crew cut and ran.
In the second encounter, while refueling, the pilot was kidnapped by the father of a girl he got pregnant. In the end, the team offered to assist with convincing the pilot to an immediate wedding. One of the players married her love interest, the NPC dependent mentioned last night.

When the team arrived in Denver, they contacted a fixer of a character from Denver. Using that contact, they secured a safehouse for Frosty to work from. The team began legwork, eventually making their way to the information broker at the bar. The three trolls engaged the team's troll in a brawl, while the team's street sam ork convinced the four ork brothers to drink with him. After a handful of passes of back and forth between the trolls where the team's one troll held off all three (and I did honestly try to tackle and beat him... his dice were just hot), she told them to stop and talked to the team.
Once they had a lead, the team lit out after their target, arriving just as the t-bird was firing up. They were surprised by the ambush and survived the initial attack only by several of them spending edge. They then got heavily bogged down by the number of machine guns, holding their own only by the ork street sam raining a handful of grenades on the enemy. The troll street sam then got bogged down by cross-fire from the triad.
Eight of them on scene: The hacker and rigger were providing matrix support via VR from the car in the parking lot, the other six pinned down in the camping area. The newly married NPC was fatally wounded, hanging on at death's door only by the quick actions of the shinto priestess and her medkit. The other four falling one after another.
The t-bird got away, as did half the assault team. One of the triad talismongers and the lieutenant also got away, but the slaves were able to get free and the PCC security forces allowed the team to depart.

Frosty helped heal several of the team members, though the NPC was left with a street doc in intensive care.

The amount of detail and options at the final fight scene was perhaps a little too much, especially where the 3rd set of foes were concerned and the team that could pull the characters out of the fire. Frosty was in a very secure safe house, with the team steering clear so both of those groups were dismissed rather than presented. Play time was a little over 6 hours for these 3 chapters.
Redjack
Anyone else played Midnight?
Ryu
We did, it was fun. I want to run it again, but the GM seat is currently taken.
Redjack
Night #3: Conclusion
The team member from Denver is a former smuggler who operated in the PCC. She reached out and located a couple of friendly t-bird pilots and got the team transportation. By the time they were airborne, they were 4 hours behind Sonora. They shadowed her all the way, eventually getting hearsay that Winding Joe was headed to L.A.. They set down on the outskirts in an abandoned junk yard, most of the vehicles within rusted with years beyond must use after being picked clean of usable salvage. The Ancients were waiting for them with extra motorcycles, at Frosty's request, including an appropriated Honda Goldwing - Troll size.

The ork street sams made a detour to pick up some ammo while the rest of the team escorted Frosty to the safehouse. After settling in, the troll and elven mage were going to stay and the rest meet up with the orks to get food and start some leg work. Frosty went to a back bedroom to get some sleep.

As the team opened the front door: Ambush! The hacker went down during the surprise and the rigger was knocked off her feet. The Shinto resisted a stun bolt. A CS/tear gas grenade sailed over their head into the room. The troll and elf were sitting near the bay windows, where 4 of the Burning Angels knocked out the glass.

The troll sat up, swung his Ares Alpha around and shot one of the guys in the chest with an HE grenade, putting the hurt on two of the four while the mage ran for the cover of the hall. Around front, the attackers closed towards the door while the Shinto took a stun bolt in the chest taking her off her feet and nearly knocking her out. Gas was beginning to fill the room, each team member beginning to feel the burning, itching effects [I rule the gas builds over 3 seconds lightly effecting the first two till the rest of the effect hits at the end of one combat turn of exposure instead of no effect then all at the end of a turn] .

The Shinto mage kicked the door shut and everyone started pulling out respirators, the troll running for cover with the mage while taking several volleys of gel rounds.

The elven mage sniped the intruders with a blast spell, while troll took a few shots running to the Shinto mage for a stim patch. The first attacker made his way to where Frosty was; he didn't live to talk about it.

The rigger's respirator was pretty low quality and she succumbed to the gas as she dove into a closet for cover. The Shinto mage, nearly out herself, dragged the hacker in behind the rigger and closed the door. The elven mage tried going to the bathroom to snipe out the window only to find a combatant coming in who shot the mage with gel, sending him to the floor from the impact. The troll ran over to the elven mage airing the brains out of the attacker there. Frost took out another trying to get to her as well.

A pair of spirits that manifested in the kitchen moved behind the troll, one engulfing him, the other trying to confuse him. The mage began to throw mana at them, to no avail. Across the room one of the opposing mages was preparing to enter the house, putting shielding on both spirits. The second mage was following a pair of thugs through the front door.

The troll broke free, dropping (though not killing) the goon and mage in the corner. Two spirits closing in on him, 2 more goons coming around the corner with another mage it looked like his ticket was about to be punched... The door behind him opened and Frosty entered the room with a very big fire elemental... to discover that the room was filled with CS gas... and a wave of fire rolled through. The elven mage went crispy and the opposition inside the house were now on fire.

The fire elemental ended the bad day the fire enemy mage was having and the house was about to become an inferno. The troll grabbed the elven mage, ran across the room, picking up his MMG and out the window... right where the second mage was trying to get away. An MMG in the face stopped him from running. Frosty went out the window and caught another goon. The Shinto mage drug the unconscious hacker and rigger out from the safety of the large coat closet to the more safe outside of the house.

The orks arrived 2 minutes later, having raced back to the house at breakneck speeds just in time for the troll to finished interrogations. The Shinto mage started rolling out med kits, then magic healing and the orks joined in. The team was tired, beat to hell and itching for a fight. Less than 10 minutes later, location of the warehouse in hand they set out, picking up six Ancients along the way who were itching for payback on the hit and subsequent burning down of their safehouse. Frosty went with another group of Ancients to a different safehouse.

This time, the team rolling with the ambush. The four guards outside were on alert, but the team using flyspies to do surveillance and the hacker (technomancer) hacked into their teamnet while the team got into position learning the position of everyone inside. The team knocked out three of the four in a decisive strike... and as blind luck would have it, the one who tried to warn his buddies was the one who the technomancer hacker earlier. The team moved around to the side the troll opening a hole with his MMG into the main room, blind firing taking down the first defender. As the second turned to attack, he was also cut down, then as the other turned to move inward to defend the inner room, the techno opened the doors allowing the Ancients to roll in to the backs of the remaining defenders. The entire fight took 4 seconds. (only one defender was alive after 3 seconds).

When the made it to the final showdown, one Ancient came with them, armed with one of the Ares Alphas. The techno also passed out as his stim patch wore off. They also had a beast spirit using concealment and a plant spirit using magical guard. The defenders weapons were little match for the firepower of the team and funny enough, the Ancient dropped several of the defenders. Sacrifice complete, spirit called in and physical barrier created Itztli succumbed to the spirit's fear power before he could do much more running for the sub. The team finished the rest of the other defenders and Sonora dropped with one inside the area with her when he turned to see what happened to Itztli.

Inside the sub and still under fear, Itztli started the sub and dropped the barrier... then Sonora powerbolted the sub's propeller as pay back for her dead teammate. The team closing in, Sonora moved back toward the entrance, her and the team on an unspoken truce. The troll went up opened the sub, went to shoot Itztli... and got a stun bolt in the face, the fear having ran its course. The ork sam right behind him... his stick and shock sent Itztli dreaming electric dreams.

Back at the entrance, the Ancient told Sonora they needed to talk about the safe house. She told the Ancient she was just a contractor and that Itztli owned whatever went down at the safehouse. The Shinto mage then told Sonora that they needed to talk about the bounty. Thinking the Shinto with her two spirits meant to collect the 50k, Shinto stunbolted her, dodged the Ares used as a club by the Ancient and stun bolted him. By the time she reached the top, she using invisibility to slip past the other Ancients and back to LA.

The team meanwhile tranqed a blood mage, recovered the artifact and went about trying to revive the other team mates. Someone remembered the million nuyen bounty on blood mages by the draco foundation. They have located Itztli's secret and are not sure, but suspect what it is.

Looks like we have a follow up run for the Draco Foundation...

The first fight took WAY too long, but it was too much fun. Those who read the run will see that in the heat of the moment two groups never really came into play. I could not stomach the meta-GM'ing of that many people locating the team who had gone to such lengths not to be found when they had just chased the a team across the county never catching up until the third city. All in all, it was great fun.
Paul
I just finished Night 2, haven't played this-as we don't do any of the published modules but I am interested in reading more of this play report! I'll try to get to it later today or this weekend and get back with some feedback. (I have a few questions!)
Paul
Okay just finished reading all of this, and I have a few questions from one GM to another:

How does seven players work for you guy? Does everyone pretty much stay in line, or does that become an obstacle for as the GM? Or am I reading this wrong and there is 7 PC's played by fewer players? How much time do you guys spend on these sessions? I've found we drop about 4-6 hours per session-and I've worked really hard to keep that limited to one adventure. (Our cast rotates-as players schedules open and close.)

I'll start with this and then I may have, after I reread this a few times, a couple of questions about the game itself.
SincereAgape
Midnight is probably the best adventure/module written out of the four dawn of the artifacts series.

We just started a group here in Northern VA with 5 PCs. We were running "On the Run" and I was finding that without super experienced players and characters without 'optimal' builds, that 5 runners can be a low number for a Shadowrun team.

Redjack
QUOTE (Paul @ Dec 30 2011, 12:11 PM) *
How does seven players work for you guy? Does everyone pretty much stay in line, or does that become an obstacle for as the GM? Or am I reading this wrong and there is 7 PC's played by fewer players? How much time do you guys spend on these sessions? I've found we drop about 4-6 hours per session-and I've worked really hard to keep that limited to one adventure. (Our cast rotates-as players schedules open and close.)

Several games last summer I ended up having 12 players show up... I had to break them into two strike teams. Havings miniatures, a map and keeping a dry/wet erase handy for init (etc.) was the only way. I am blessed to have a considerable sized, reliable, mature gamer pool. The usual draw is 6-8 players. It is important to keep everyone from going off solo or try to resolve that fast as possible when it makes sense. As noted above, the two orks spent two hours missing the initial combat then the mage and hacker fell out of the latter. (The mage's player is a teen and went to join the youth [many of us are parents] in the basement media room while the hacker ran the Ancient ganger when his character went down.)

Most runs are not as devastating to the party as Midnight. So much of the opposition was initiate grade mages and others with 3 init passes!

Last night was 6pm to just after 1am. Scheduled to end between 10-11, but we wanted to finish it. We also made a big dinner and had snacks deserts. Gaming is a social event for us as much as anything. We usually schedule games 4-6 weeks out to match up to calenders as best as possible.
nightslasthero
I'm hopefully getting ready to start a new shadowrun campaign and I've been itching to run the Dawn of the Artifacts Arc. I'm just curious how much karma a group of players should have before starting Dawn of the artifacts. It appears the encounter in Midnight would definetely be difficult if the characters are toward the low-end and just starting out. Not to mention its looking like several potential players will be new to shadowrun.
Redjack
My group averaged a hundred karma with one player being over 150. The characters are mostly well rounded as apposed to one-trick ponies. Midnight was damn near a TPK 3-4 times... Two of the eight are in long term medical care right now, one having spent an edge for a hand of god.
Ryu
With a bunch of karmagen characters with somewhat less than 100 karma (old karmagen), well-rounded except for the mage specialising in counterspelling, my group could still have died at least twice.

Tone the stuff down for newbies, should be easy given that they face very varied opposition and the "strong" NPCs can often be hit with negative story-based mods.
ggodo
My players had ~30 karma going into it, and were min-maxed as all hell. If they hadn't made friends with Samriel they'd have all died real bad. For the finale I let the 1IP Doctor's player be Samriel, and the PCs became very happy they didn't just shoot him like they'd planned to. Of course, they did make enemies of the Vigilia Evangelica, so I figure it balance out nicely. I wish we'd had a chance to continue playing, I had big plans for the next time they ran into The Church.
nightslasthero
Yeah, so as I figured I'm going to have to build them up to the dawn of the artifacts arc. But should be fun. smile.gif
Brett
Good read. I just started 3 of my 6 players on Dusk, with the second session coming up this weekend witht he full 6 man crew.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Dumpshock Forums © 2001-2012