http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1007...liate_id=228694

Damage Control up on dtrpg but not announced yet?

So this the one where some guy with an HK rifle kills someone and an incredibly smart great dragon decides that this means that Lofwyr was behind it based on the fact that it was an HK gun? Naturally there isn't any possible way that a really smart great dragon might think that someone might just possibly obtain an HK rifle without Lofwyr personally handing it to him. ...

Are they using that cut-rate internet plot generator again?

Still no official release announcement.
Wish we had an updated and current product list.

IIRC it has been mentioned somewhere that the deliberate use of a HK gun (left at the scene) was a way for Lofwyr to make it clear he was behind it, without having to directly state it. The fact that it's said in a later book makes it look like actual damage control from the writers more than anything else, but at least it makes sense... For now.

May have been damage control, or it may have been intentional.

After all, with the gun left there is it 'too obvious' for it to be Lofwyr and it looks like a set-up - Hestaby's reaction would therefore look rash, emotional and illogic. This may just be Lofwyr's plan for making her lose face, making himself look innocent, and turning the world against her.

Sounds like him.

For all we know, he sent her a watcher spirit going 'naa-na-na-naaa-na!' right after the deed...

But I knew that you knew that I knew that... Ah, screw it. Lofwyr probably did, let's send some runners.

When did Hestaby do all of this stuff, anyway? I haven't picked up some of the recent plot books...I've got Ghost Cartels and Corporate Intrigue. Did this happen in one of the Artifact books?

Conspiracy Theories, State of the Art 2073, I think there's one related run in Corporate Intrigue, or maybe it was Jet Set (or both).

I thought it was definitely Lofwyr the first time I read it.


Think about it. Who's going to have the balls to frame Lofwyr for a personal attack on Hestaby?! Damian Knight and not a single other soul in the world, that's who.

For that matter, who'd take the job? "Kill <Hestaby's personal friend> and use and deliberately leave this <Saeder-Krupp manufactured rifle> to point the blame at Lofwyr?"

Most runners would shoot you in the face for making an offer like that. The rest enact their exit plans immediately and go to ground. Some of them probably also send word to Saeder-Krupp and Hestaby, because they don't want to get any of that on them and just looking like you might possibly have been in collusion with the guy when they catch him would get some on you.

It had to be someone fanatically loyal who did the shoot and planted the evidence, and no amount of money buys that kind of loyalty. Money ain't no good to you if you're too dead to spend it.


Nobody in the world would have the balls to frame-up Lofwyr, and they certainly wouldn't have the double-balls to do it by enraging Hestaby. It's bad enough when you piss in their business cheerios, but when you take out one of the few people they consider a true ally - or worse, a friend?

That's making it personal. That was Lofwyr making his displeasure with Hestaby absolutely and abundantly clear. He sent a message, and it came across loud and clear.

Hestaby's response was, I'd say, also loud and clear. And it served to discredit her; after all, Lofwyr got pissed because she broke the draconic code of silence and publicly excoriated Sirrug for his actions murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people, but what does she do when she gets personally aggrieved? She goes out and... Murders a whole shitload of innocent S-K citizens who had the bad luck to be stationed in Dubai.

Just as planned.

Hestaby's playing right into Lofywr's claws.

Mental Handicap
Bonus: 10 per level (max 3 levels)
The individual suffers from one of several forms of mental
handicap—natural or induced. This can be a result of brain injury,
genetic mental retardation, or any of several genetic anomalies.

Most of this is right, but if memory serves she didn't murder anyone (in that action/moment). She gave them a half hour or an hour to GTFO then took down the complex in Dubai. Didn't she? (( I'm ... 90% sure I'm right on that, that they evac'd the building then she took it down))

Ah. All I had to go on was what was up there.

If she did, indeed, give everyone time to evacuate before leveling it, then it was a beautiful piece of high-road retribution.

If I get 30 minutes of warning that a great dragon is going to attack that is going to be one VERY dead dragon. I'm going to have every orbital platform up and ready, plus whatever aircraft etc I can get onsite. Which at the speed of a suborbital strike aircraft is going to be quite a bit.

That's assuming she hasn't got plans in place to deal with it.

"There she is! Fire!" "We can't! Systems offline!" "What, which ones?" "All of them!"




-k

Or you get cameras on site and show the world lots and lots of screaming kids (there to visit their parents at work), crying mothers looking for their kids they got seperated from in the chaos and brave workers saving valuable company property (against their superiors' orders to GTFO already) just barely getting out alive while this completely lunatic wreaks havoc for absolutely no reason.
You of course release a press statement saying that you didn't fight because it would have been completely irresponsible to put the lives of innocent people in even more danger.
Having your hackers deduct your losses plus the cost of the media campaign against Hestaby from her accounts would be a nice touch, I think...

Get the PDF here.

It's just not that easy. SHE'S A great dragon. For all those things you've thought of. She's thought of, and thought of how to counter 51 ways, Just incase 50 weren't enough.

And in spite of us thinking such things happen at the push of a button, moving things in space is rather time consuming and difficult. You can't just move orbital platforms in 30 minutes. And .. what are you going to do with it? Shoot her from orbit? She's over your asset. She'll just move, and You'll just hit what you're trying to protect. lol

They've tried aircraft vs great dragons before. The Great dragons tend to go "Oh that tickles. CHOMP" Remember in Denver when Ghosty came a calling? He razzed an Az base to the ground and the fought back like cornered rats. Didn't much slow Ghosty down. Hestby has been active in the world for years. She knows about modern things that Ghosty didn't so she could plan for them.

I'm not saying they're unkillable and 'everything you try won't work'. I AM saying great dragons take things into account before they make big moves. If she went there to take out the base she planned for all those contingencies, and knew exactly how long she'd need to take it out. The book states that after the evac she used magic in ways that looked like a sculptor's blade. Making just the right amount of cuts and damage at the right places, so the destruction looked like it was the building folding up on it self and to prevent loss of life.

Great dragons aren't infallible, but "send in some jets to shoot her" aint gonna cut it. Her spirits would hit them before they got close. You CAN bet that great Dragons can plot out the top 500 ways to kill them at any point annd time and have 2500 ways to dodge them. They're not quite gods, but you're not going to kill one if your gm plays them like they're presented in the books. Heck one flew up and took out Teran. Just wiped the entire city. If you don't think that Iran threw every single thing they had including the kitchen sink and sand at that dragon, you're crazy. Didn't even slow him down.

As written, the only threat to Great Dragons, are other Great Dragons.

Your forgetting that they're Dragons, and you don't DO that to other dragons. You handle it yourself. Or in the shadows. That's part of the reason the gold wyrm is pissed. Hestaby took things out of the shadows and condemed one of their fellow dragons (( one that's killed thousands to tens of thousands of humans, in an active warzone, and they can't take out.. You think they're gong to be able to take H in a NON warzone? *G*))

But yeah, Hestaby KNOWS Dunk doesn't work like that, as that'd break their rules. She was using the rules against him.

I may buy the PDF just to see what he DOES do.

And Theran behemoths.

That cover bothers me.

This thread is not for discussing of "how to kill a dragon" or "how to defend a dragon's attack", just to make that clear. If you want to discuss that questions, start a new topic.

Yeah, it's really bad.

Note that contrary to a popular and widespread belief, it has never been stated anywhere Heckler & Koch is a Saeder-Krupp subsidiary.

Gun Heaven even mentions the Onotari Equalizer as "Saeder-Krupp’s attempt to enter the machine pistol market segment", which wouldn't be consistent with an HK ownership.

Yeah...worst I've seen in a long time...if not ever.

The only covers I've hated this much are Augmentation and Attitude. I'm actually going to spend real money to buy the hardcopy reprint of Augmentation so I can have a cover I can live with.

Yeah, I'm planning on doing the same with Augmentation. Attitude I'm fine with though - but that may be because I don't own it in print yet...

I'm one of the few people who actually likes the old Arsenal cover, though. It has a nice old-school Shadowrun feel to it.

The point is that leaving a certain brand of rifle says NOTHING. It is not a claim of responsibility, hence it does not frame anyone.
Think of the shootings in France last week, did anyone assign any significance to the fact that the guy used a handgun by an American manufacturer and a scooter built by a Japanese company? Do you remember reading anything about an American-Japanese conspiracy based on the choice of weapon and getaway vehicle, or claims that a third party was trying to implicate those two countries?

His Mini-Uzi jammed when he used it to shot at Jewish children. Isn't that a proof of... something?!

Well, the worst part is, there actually are conspiracy theories on the web that point out his choice of weapon as a proof the whole story is a setup. Real freedom fighters only use Kalashnikov I guess.

Reminds me of the satire video of Hitler getting mad at a NPD (German nationalist party) politician...ok, they found stolen goods and a weapon stash at your place, that happens. But a STEN SMG?! You goddamn Allies' friend, how could you!

Looking at the cover, all I have to ask is if Bull got Leonization, shaved his head, and went slumming with an M-23.

I hope for your sake you are talking about MacCallister...

add me to the list. The new one is bland in comparison.

So nobody has gotten Damage Control yet and has anything to say about it?

Oh, I have it, but I have yet to read it.

Alright - a quick look at Damage Control:

Warning, there may be some spoilers ahead!

Note: This adventure takes place shortly after Hestaby went nuts in Dubai, and as such is set before some of the stuff in the recent Campaign Books.

The PCs are hired to work for Saeder-Krupp, travelling to Dubai to help S-K in the aftermath of Hestaby's destruction.

Chapter 1: The adventure assumed that the PCs start out in Seattle, but that detail is easy to change. There's even a section with suggestions for starting in Bogotá, Denver or Manhattan

The 'Tell It To Them Straight' section starts with a dialogue between the PCs fixer and the one who gets the call - this may not suit many groups, and the discussion as written feels a bit off in my ears. The fixer alerts the PC to a job posting on ShadowSea, and explains the johnson will interview several teams for the job. The meet itself occurs at Fenris Nacht.

A lot of emphasis is put on this initial meet section, which stretches over 6 pages (the longest I've seen for a first meeting, I think) Mr. Johnson starts by asking a series of questions to the PCs, their answers giving dice pool modifiers for the negotiations test.

There are some good ideas for Pushing the Envelope and Debugging here.

Chapter 2: As written, the PCs are supposed to arrange for themselves and their gear to get to Dubai, and provide their own accomodations there. I know my players would balk at this, wanting more pay as compensation. There are suggested prices for accomodation, but no suggested prices for travel - only travel times.

Half a page is devoted to ideas on how to turm this scenario into a mini-campaign in the middle east, with adventure seeds.

The Job at hand (spoilers):


There are short descriptions on three places of interest for the run, and 3 pages of NPCs, plus half a page on Dubai law enforcement.

Next, it's time to deal with smaller threats to S-K:



Here, there are more suggestions on how to gather information: 2 pages of NPCs, brief notes on some runner hang-outs, and some suggestions for Subplots, Debugging and Pushing the Envelope.

After this, the runners has the option of ending their contract or stepping things up...

The next parts of the job, each of them optional:


There's a one-page Aftermath section with a long list of possible Karma awards (14 total for team karma, and 3 points for Survival, plus the usual bonuses for good roleplaying etc), some information on the consequences of the runners' actions, and suggestions for possible contacts and Notoriety.

3 pages of legwork, a reprint of Hans Brackhaus from Street Legends, and 1 page of info on Dubai plus a full page map with points of interest rounds out the adventure.

The intro fiction and epilogue are short, but to the point.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes after the attack in Dubai, and Damage Control is a good way to get the runners involved in some of it, and hint at the bigger picture.

The scenario has some rough patches, and the legwork may seem a bit railroaded at times given that the PCs are likely forced to rely on the presented NPCs. The book is quite text-heavy, with not much art and only two maps (both reprinted as full-page hand outs in B/W). In total, it's 54 pages long, containing 6 adventure scenes - add the plot hooks and adventure seeds for the suggested mini-campaign, and I'd say it's quite good value for your money.

The art is quite cartoonish, and doesn't have much at all in the way of Dubai-feel to it - the cover even less so.

There's a lot of opportunity for good roleplaying during the runners' legwork in Dubai, but more action-oriented groups may find that patr boring. There's several opportunities for action as well, but no 'big fight' really. As shadowruns go, it's varied, but caters mostly to faces, hackers and covert ops specialists. Pink mohawk razorguys will have a harder time being useful, but if the players like roleplaying and culture-clashing comedy there's much fun to be had with such characters as well.

The backstory gives some insight into the delicacies of the 'dragon civil war' metaplot, but the PCs won't learn much of that - if anything.

All in all, I think it's a solid product. About 3.9 out of 5 for the runs, text and info and value for money - but a 2 for the art (if that...it's only a two because of the higher quality of the reprinted Brackhaus image and the decent quality maps...).

Thanks for the review.

IIRC, rules for travel prices are actually in SR4, at the beginning of the gear section.

Those are for legal travel, but yea, pg 314 SR4a.

With a decent fake SIN you should be able to manage legal transport to Dubai. Assuming you wanted to take your guns with you though....I'd probably just double the rate and make them arrange it via a fixer.

DOTA: Darkest Hour also had a table with travel times and costs for smuggling--that was Seattle to Hamburg (8,000 km). It can be modified easily for the trip to Dubai and your starting city by figuring out the distance.

Reading through it I liked the adventure, needs some tweaking in some areas but over all is pretty solid. I loved the interview scene, the various fixer "factions" was interesting (I really like the Vor), getting involved with DIVE opens up some plot hooks. The art not so much, it's quite jarring considering how good the rest of the art has been lately.

I was surprised the characters didn't end up defacto company men afterwards.

Am I the only one who found the rewards a bit lacking?

There's like four or five objectives. The base pay is 10K per runner (negotiable up to 20K, or down to 7.5K) per objective completed.

And to emphasize the the stakes SK/NeoNET/Ares are playing for:



I'll say it plain: Throwing beginning characters into this is like throwing lambs covered in tasty sauce into a pit filled with starving lions. There are several cases where if the party makes a wrong choice, THEY DIE (I'm talking about Gygax-level "Party dies, no save allowed" stuff here) Including:



In short, this book is the first of a series, but is basically designed for "I'm the best at what I do" runners with a ton of experience and will kill an unwary party fairly quickly (I'd rate it at about a 9.6 on the Gygaxian probability for TPK), for rewards that seem pitiful considering the amount of money at play here.


Not sure this is a recommendation.. but there are groups out there that will want to play this just so they can brag they completed it.

Fixed that for you.

anyone has an idea, how much play time one can expect?

Longer than DotA or Horizon adventures, it really depends on how your group plays. Damage Control is a lot of tiptoeing around and there's little room for error or becoming known, so more planning tends to be necessary.

Yeah, this is one of those runs that could really drag on, depending on how meticulous your group is.

Of course, there's always opportunities to nudge them into action if things take too long...

Not that we usually need to be nudged to go into action mode...... Just have us good and tired and we do the brute force solution more or less everytime no matter how ill-advised it might be... Just sayin