Um, I can't find anything like that in my rulebook. The descriptions for Full-Auto's various options make no mention of it, and refer to various "DV Modifiers", which would imply that they would count towards the "modified DV". You are correct about Burst-Fire mode, though, which explicitly states that Narrow Bursts increase the DV by +2, but it doesn't count when comparing the DV to the armor rating. But none of the Full-Auto options say that, and the descriptions for the Immunity and Hardened Armor Critter Powers don't mention it either.
Anyway, I've been meaning to return to this thread sooner to update everyone on the game. We had our first session after the "debacle" last night. It was a lot more "talky" than I had planned, but I think it went well and one of the players (who, oddly enough, was fairly quiet/unengaged) texted me after the game to say how awesome the roleplaying was. I've never been texted about the quality of one of my games before, and I've been GMing since college.
So anyway, I went with my previous plan of introducing the players to a Knight-Errant Detective/Mage who is hunting the child-eating Free Spirit. I chose not to have them arrested/humiliated first, because I hate that kind of contrivance as a player, so I don't want to use it as a GM. I'm fine with capture as an alternative to killing in a combat where the PCs have lost and it makes sense not to kill them, but not here. I'll freely admit that my style may seem a bit "soft" to some people here, but ultimately I find that I feel better about my games overall when I'm not fighting my players. I want to challenge them, hurt them, scare them, but overall I want them to have a good time.
Back to the matter at hand, I should probably introduce the cast before I explain what went down:
So Maccabee's hacker contact calls to warn him that someone has been asking about him on the down-low, and spreading around a photograph of Maccabee hanging out of a van firing a machinegun (it's from the dashcan of one of the cop cars). The guy isn't being subtle, and has left a contact number for anyone with info on the guy in the picture to call. Maccabee is intrigued, but has security concerns; I explain that he would probably think a disposable commlink would be a good first step (he'd since hung up from the call with the hacker, so she couldn't advise him further, and he's trying to keep her out of trouble).
So, he's got a custom lifestyle that I helped him put together: it's basically a flophouse run by a family of orks, some of whom sell stuff and/or operate a small bar on the ground floor. He asks one of them about getting his hands on a disposable commlink, but they were fresh out. They offer to grab one for him (for a price), but he decides to hoof it to the Crime Mall (he's in Puyallup). On the way over, he's jumped by four guys who recognize him from the photo that is floating around and decide to collect on what they assume is a bounty. He surprised me by not immediately spocking them; instead he used his foot anchors to enhance his vertical leap and jump up to a second-story window nearby (he got up about 4 meters; this seemed reasonable for getting his hand on a window ledge to pull himself up). They fired on him from below, but he took a full dodge and easily weathered the volley.
Around this time, X's player showed up. Eager to throw him into the game quickly, and remembering that X also lived in Puyallup, I had him drive by around this time. X actually has never met Maccabee, but he was in a runner group with Mr. Nobody, and was eager to link up with him again. He calls Nobody and explains this crazy thing he just saw (armored ork leaping up into a second-story window, while under fire) and Nobody puts two and two together, calls Maccabee to confirm, and asks X to provide a getaway.
Thus, the group was reunited. They eventually get their commlink and call the number, but they have Smith do the calling. This is an annoying thing they do: Smith's player is often rather quiet during the game, so I appreciate them getting him involved, but trying to roleplay a conversation with him while two other people tell him what to say (in their defense, he's awfully indecisive without advice) is super annoying. Anyway, the Detective asks them to meet him at a bar downtown that I make clear to them (two of them live in Downtown, and would likely know either from experience or looking on a map) that the bar is possibly a cop bar. They smell a trap, but are also intrigued, so they go, but decide to disguise Mr. Nobody and send him into the bar with X to broker communication remotely with Maccabee, who will be waiting in the van with Smith.
The detective was not having any of this nonsense. I didn't bother having him pierce the disguise, but he knows exactly who he's looking for, and has had enough of opportunists claiming to "know a guy". He demands to see Maccabee in person, even as Nobody is relaying their conversation to Maccabee remotely. The detective points out that wireless communication is fairly easy to intercept ("are you even a hacker, son? do you even know one? anyone in this room could have been listening this whole time..."). In fact, the detective had a hacker doing exactly that (for tracing purposes) the entire time they were in the bar; as they have no hacker backing them up, I didn't bother having them roll anything to notice.
Maccabee comes in, and tries to send X back to the van, but X sticks around and ends up learning exactly what kind of trouble these guys are in, and what they helped someone do. I played the detective cool, not rising to any of the jibes he was getting from Maccabee, who was still full of swagger and who did not appreciate what he saw as blackmail. The detective explains that he has Maccabee and his accomplices dead to rights, with plenty of photos and a "traitor" willing to tie them directly to the kidnapping. He then explains that he couldn't care less about arresting them now, because they're the closest he's ever gotten to the monster that is eating these children. He wants the monster so badly that he'd gladly make a deal with "garbage" like them to do it. He has some pleasantly intense staredowns with Maccabee, gives the runners a cheap commlink to stay in contact, and tells them that he'll be in touch when he gets his next lead; the "thing" will likely be inactive until the next New Moon grows closer.
He also tells them to feel free to skip town if they want; he has no doubt of his ability to track them if necessary (I suppose enough disguise could work, but knowing them they'd reach out to a contact sooner or later and he'd have them then; alternatively, I don't think it'd be hard at all for a team with no magic support to be tracked by magic detective).
Shortly after, Smith's smuggler contact calls him with a follow-up job from the "milk run" they did for him in exchange for an escape route during their disastrous kidnapping job. This job is longer, and doesn't pay in advance; they'll be paid for each delivery as it happens, and they'll be driving long-distance with as-yet unidentified contraband (they know it's not a person, isn't toxic to them, but is "something they shouldn't let near fire, and shouldn't let the cops see"). Four stops. The road trip begins next session.
Anyway, I've been meaning to return to this thread sooner to update everyone on the game. We had our first session after the "debacle" last night. It was a lot more "talky" than I had planned, but I think it went well and one of the players (who, oddly enough, was fairly quiet/unengaged) texted me after the game to say how awesome the roleplaying was. I've never been texted about the quality of one of my games before, and I've been GMing since college.
So anyway, I went with my previous plan of introducing the players to a Knight-Errant Detective/Mage who is hunting the child-eating Free Spirit. I chose not to have them arrested/humiliated first, because I hate that kind of contrivance as a player, so I don't want to use it as a GM. I'm fine with capture as an alternative to killing in a combat where the PCs have lost and it makes sense not to kill them, but not here. I'll freely admit that my style may seem a bit "soft" to some people here, but ultimately I find that I feel better about my games overall when I'm not fighting my players. I want to challenge them, hurt them, scare them, but overall I want them to have a good time.
Back to the matter at hand, I should probably introduce the cast before I explain what went down:
- "Machine-Gun" Maccabee, an Ork with some really expensive cyberlegs, complete with foot anchors, and some martial arts expertise (that weird gladiator one from Aztlan). As the name implies, he has a machinegun.
- Mr. Nobody, an Ork "vat job" with mostly bioware. A former bodyguard from L.A. whose last client perished during one of his off-shifts, he came to Seattle for a fresh start. He is kind of a generalist, and the closest thing they have to a face. Also does some sniping.
- Smith, a Dwarf rigger/outdoorsman.
- They were joined mid-way through this game by a player who had left the group due to scheduling problems; he came with his old rigger, X, but will likely be playing a different character in the future, as they already have a guy with a van. X's player is new to Shadowrun.
So Maccabee's hacker contact calls to warn him that someone has been asking about him on the down-low, and spreading around a photograph of Maccabee hanging out of a van firing a machinegun (it's from the dashcan of one of the cop cars). The guy isn't being subtle, and has left a contact number for anyone with info on the guy in the picture to call. Maccabee is intrigued, but has security concerns; I explain that he would probably think a disposable commlink would be a good first step (he'd since hung up from the call with the hacker, so she couldn't advise him further, and he's trying to keep her out of trouble).
So, he's got a custom lifestyle that I helped him put together: it's basically a flophouse run by a family of orks, some of whom sell stuff and/or operate a small bar on the ground floor. He asks one of them about getting his hands on a disposable commlink, but they were fresh out. They offer to grab one for him (for a price), but he decides to hoof it to the Crime Mall (he's in Puyallup). On the way over, he's jumped by four guys who recognize him from the photo that is floating around and decide to collect on what they assume is a bounty. He surprised me by not immediately spocking them; instead he used his foot anchors to enhance his vertical leap and jump up to a second-story window nearby (he got up about 4 meters; this seemed reasonable for getting his hand on a window ledge to pull himself up). They fired on him from below, but he took a full dodge and easily weathered the volley.
Around this time, X's player showed up. Eager to throw him into the game quickly, and remembering that X also lived in Puyallup, I had him drive by around this time. X actually has never met Maccabee, but he was in a runner group with Mr. Nobody, and was eager to link up with him again. He calls Nobody and explains this crazy thing he just saw (armored ork leaping up into a second-story window, while under fire) and Nobody puts two and two together, calls Maccabee to confirm, and asks X to provide a getaway.
Thus, the group was reunited. They eventually get their commlink and call the number, but they have Smith do the calling. This is an annoying thing they do: Smith's player is often rather quiet during the game, so I appreciate them getting him involved, but trying to roleplay a conversation with him while two other people tell him what to say (in their defense, he's awfully indecisive without advice) is super annoying. Anyway, the Detective asks them to meet him at a bar downtown that I make clear to them (two of them live in Downtown, and would likely know either from experience or looking on a map) that the bar is possibly a cop bar. They smell a trap, but are also intrigued, so they go, but decide to disguise Mr. Nobody and send him into the bar with X to broker communication remotely with Maccabee, who will be waiting in the van with Smith.
The detective was not having any of this nonsense. I didn't bother having him pierce the disguise, but he knows exactly who he's looking for, and has had enough of opportunists claiming to "know a guy". He demands to see Maccabee in person, even as Nobody is relaying their conversation to Maccabee remotely. The detective points out that wireless communication is fairly easy to intercept ("are you even a hacker, son? do you even know one? anyone in this room could have been listening this whole time..."). In fact, the detective had a hacker doing exactly that (for tracing purposes) the entire time they were in the bar; as they have no hacker backing them up, I didn't bother having them roll anything to notice.
Maccabee comes in, and tries to send X back to the van, but X sticks around and ends up learning exactly what kind of trouble these guys are in, and what they helped someone do. I played the detective cool, not rising to any of the jibes he was getting from Maccabee, who was still full of swagger and who did not appreciate what he saw as blackmail. The detective explains that he has Maccabee and his accomplices dead to rights, with plenty of photos and a "traitor" willing to tie them directly to the kidnapping. He then explains that he couldn't care less about arresting them now, because they're the closest he's ever gotten to the monster that is eating these children. He wants the monster so badly that he'd gladly make a deal with "garbage" like them to do it. He has some pleasantly intense staredowns with Maccabee, gives the runners a cheap commlink to stay in contact, and tells them that he'll be in touch when he gets his next lead; the "thing" will likely be inactive until the next New Moon grows closer.
He also tells them to feel free to skip town if they want; he has no doubt of his ability to track them if necessary (I suppose enough disguise could work, but knowing them they'd reach out to a contact sooner or later and he'd have them then; alternatively, I don't think it'd be hard at all for a team with no magic support to be tracked by magic detective).
Shortly after, Smith's smuggler contact calls him with a follow-up job from the "milk run" they did for him in exchange for an escape route during their disastrous kidnapping job. This job is longer, and doesn't pay in advance; they'll be paid for each delivery as it happens, and they'll be driving long-distance with as-yet unidentified contraband (they know it's not a person, isn't toxic to them, but is "something they shouldn't let near fire, and shouldn't let the cops see"). Four stops. The road trip begins next session.
Nice. Real nice. I love the idea of slipping mini-runs in the middle of the main story. Nice NPC play too, and I like how you got the new player in. A lot of nice tips in here that I will happily yoink