Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 289 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We had one player off planned this week, and another cancelled at the last minute due to real life medical emergencies – normally I wouldn’t play with two down, but as we didn’t really find out until the last moment and everyone else was online, and given the nature of where we were and what we were doing, I advised that we should push on with the game.
The players having arrived in a very quiet, simple, out of the way village, set to with making lives better for people. One of the team pointed out that making it too obvious that things had improved would cause others to investigate, so they realised they’d potentially caused a great deal of risk to them – and immediately set to disguising their efforts, and applying cammo and concealment to what they had done.
Behind the scenes though, I was glad that they got Hunter out of the plane to come and investigate the “strange chemical smell” that had been hinted at in the village. With his gas-spectrometer and chemical sampler, he was able to narrow down things a lot more – and they could discover that “Mary Pat” was the source of the strange chemicals.
MP is a miner, going out hunting for gems – and she uses the chemicals for cleaning and treating her finds – mostly Rubies. Real life Afghanistan is loaded down with considerable mineral wealth, but sees very little income from the treasure trove due to corruption and inefficient mining techniques – something I’ve been reading up and researching on, and wanted to throw into the mix. When they do get to the smuggler market, they’ll find a gem dealer with a wide variety of gems – and a strange whiff of the same chemicals, and we’ll see if they link the two people together.
MP is also actually an intelligence agent, planted into the country to observe things and build up contacts – which she’s been working on for some years – so she’s not as innocent as she seems, and is actually a little concerned about Tads and the team turning up, but is trying to play it cool.
However, depending on how the team treat her, and how far they push, they could find a rich and lucrative source of gems – and more importantly, a possible source of talismongerable minerals – as MP mines by hand using an axe, rather than using explosives – so the gems aren’t “ruined” like they are in a commercial mine.
Otherwise, there wasn’t much to do at the village, and once we’d established things, we pressed on ahead through several days and had the team lift off, get close to the market, and then do the final push. I had them meet the art dealer and see the pictures at the end of the session, so the players would have time to think about things and come up with ideas.
I had the pieces of artwork laid out on a PowerPoint slide, showing the dimensions and types – and as soon as the screen-share went up, at least two of the players commented and noted that this was “Germaine’s painting” – so they clearly recognised it. That’s where we ended the session, as I wanted them to have a good think.
What I’m hoping they will think about is that they *know* that Kulkachev is a bit of an art ignoramus – they’ve seen his collection back in Batumi, and have already determined that he has fake pieces in his collection. And because they have 6 whole days to “drive” back with the pieces, but can do the journey in less than 6 hours by air – they have an opportunity to get a fake made up to supply to him, with him being potentially none the wiser, leaving them free to hand over the painting to Germaine – who would be ecstatic.
Of course, that means betraying the person who gave them the job – and if they get caught, it’s a world of hassle. But hey – that’s the murky grey world of Shadowrun, right… and the Johnson is often out to double cross the team, so it’s nice to be able to have the opportunity to “return the favour”…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 30/06/61, Location: 35.14575, 67.11577, Time 05:00
2. Tads replaces spirits, quick trip back to the tilt-wing. Hunter asked when the warlords come. Some info - local, constant changing, some from the kabul mafia. Traders are more reliable. Aswon - try to find out, maybe meet them at the smuggler market and get some sort of non-aggression pact, or do a deal?
3. Realise they can disguise the stuff from the bottom, make it look craggy. Tads does that and makes food, shapes larders, builds some facilities for the village as a whole.
4. Hunter comes to the village to try and track down the smell mentioned by the others. Does get watched/pursued by the kids. Hunter detects piranha solution, mentions it. Info provided to Aswon and Hunter. Hunter quarters the area, eventually tracks it down to MPs house. Wonders if it's something to do with the drugs trade - maybe throwing off sniffer dogs / sensors.
5. Tads and Hunter go to find MP. Explain they've found something that will hurt the villagers. Tads spots a brief look of anger/annoyance, she explains the peroxide is for dying her hair, maybe she spilt some other chemicals, she'll be more careful. Hunter explains the "danger". MP says she will go to check, hurries away.
6. Kai asks Hunter to check into the smuggler market for protocols. Oldest kid kicks Hunter in the bum. Hunter catches him and lifts him, he squeals, the other kids mock him, then lets him go and he runs away, still being mocked by the other kids. Tads advises him to check his pockets, just in case.
7. Kai doing more biotech stuff. Aswon doing Talismongering - bit of a bust. Then working out defensive strategy for the village. Talismongering is a bust, Sut, gets distracted by rolling boulders - but then more sensible ideas.
8. More of the same on Friday, ask locals about interesting rocks / samples. They find some from one of the villagers - 1 unit. Rock with quartz veins, tiny glimmer of yellow. Aswon wants to buy, umm, ah, agree to have Aswon teach him how to shoot / services his AK74. Aswon shows off his "find", Hunter and Tads spots a tiny citrine, quite pure, but very small. Tads - can we get the locals to go looking for more? Aswon, need to be careful though, or will encourage raiders, do some more thinking about the area, come up with list of possible gems based on the geology of the area.
9. Saturday, planning for the trip to the smuggler market. Results from the search - Kabul Mafia running the show, control the area, permissive for outsiders/cyber/female/magic. Tads planning on covering up anyway to disguise herself. Team leave on saturday, look for somewhere about 20km away to rest and stage from. Tads - worth contacting Anahita, seeing if she knows anything about this place? Aswon - I don't think so, likely she only knows about the local area to her.
10. Leave saturday night, head to a staging spot 20km west of Paghman
11. Head over sunday afternoon for the meetup. VTOL aircraft and offroad vehicles around the west end. Vehicle mask as some big tilt-wing. Call from Mr Kulkachev to Kai - let me know when you have arrived. . Kai responds, already here, looking around. Directed to the helipad, 2 mins. Meet mr sterotype, to show the artwork. Kai mentions they need to keep eyes on the artwork. Team spot the Jewel of Muscat in amongst the goods, but don't mention it.
12. Gems possible based on geology: Beryl, including Emeralds, Corundum including Rubies, Lapis Lazuli, Pegmatites, Tourmalines, Kunzite and other Spodumene, Aquamarine, Garnets, Sapphire, Topaz, Flourite and Quartz.
Full Version: 3rd edition smuggler campaign writeup
A question for any of you old timers / lore monkeys / knowledge ninjas...
Is anyone aware of any more lore, knowledge or information from splat books, adventures or fiction about "Yomi Island" - or more than is noted down at https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Yomi_Island ???
Upcoming plans will see my team staging a breakout of a few key prisoners from the island, and I'd rather make use of any existing lore or information, if there's anything out there.
Is anyone aware of any more lore, knowledge or information from splat books, adventures or fiction about "Yomi Island" - or more than is noted down at https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Yomi_Island ???
Upcoming plans will see my team staging a breakout of a few key prisoners from the island, and I'd rather make use of any existing lore or information, if there's anything out there.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 290 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the players having had the “dilemma” shown to them and being aware of the potential to get Germaine the painting, it was time to move on to the black market, and some shopping. The team are doing pretty well financially at the moment, with about 750K in the bank, so there’s some options open to them – though I know they’re looking at saving up for some new cyberware for Hunter.
I’ve planned out the market a few weeks back, and have been slowly refining and adding new details and vendors as I thought about things, or got inspiration from listening to the players and their plans. Some of the vendors are repeats from the Tehran market – I wanted to try and portray them as being part of the scene for the area, and it’s more than feasible for them to travel from Tehran to Kabul in the several months it’s been since the last market. Some are new, giving some fresh opportunities for gear and resources – including the local drug dealers.
My search history has no doubt flagged me with all kinds of agencies and systems again as I looked into the opium trade, the production of heroin, international smuggling and the costs involved and cross-referenced that with the gem smuggling that is rife in Afghanistan, as well as the black market prices on various organs. No doubt there’s a note on my file at various three letter agencies that says “harmless-wannabe writer. Pls ignore. Also searches for dragons…”
I’d put in a couple of drug vendors to give them some choice and options, as well as some potential RP interest, and added in the gem vendor to give some follow up to the discovery they made about Mary Pat, and to see if they wanted to follow up on that. They discussed this very, very briefly and they seem to have decided that they don’t care – which is more than fair enough!
Here’s a list of the current vendors I have at the market – those marked with a star were also present at the previous market in Tehran. The letters are used to show their location on a map – I snipped the area from Google maps and dropped it into PowerPoint, then added the tents over the tap and labelled them up, creating them in little clusters of like-kind products.
Stalls
A* Guns Norikito, Japanese Yakuza aligned - wants to know who Shimazu works for. Disgusted by Ronin. Sells Renraku VSP guns and other good Japanese gear, with scopes and accessories.
B* Electronics Repair gear, spare parts, wire, cases, replacement optics, low end security cameras, stuff needed by gangs to secure their bases, bulk discounts available. Run by Imran and Falooq
C Organs Pashtar and Son - organs to order, some "stock" kept. Blood matched and will supply on a large number of criteria
D Drugs Gulpari, Khost province, 85% Heroin, 5k per kg.
E Guns Khan, selling old Russian and American weapons in bulk, with crap ammo - functional but *very* basic, but low costs
F* Bio/nano Haramishas - good supply on muscle toner / augments, extended volume and adrenal pumps.
G* ID / Passes Manuel - info broker, fee based service for checking goods costs in area, monitors supply and demand, new service - bit of a pyramid scam, 1k pcm
H Drugs Abdul Ahad, Paktika region, 80% Heroin, 4k per kg
I Slavers Xi Pen - bunch of Vietmanese and Filipino slaves - industrially trained, not sexual.
J* Bio/nano Mr Cee - Shiawaise affilitiated, has a wide variety of reflex recorder cultured bioware for combat skills, and level 3-5 (but not 1-2) damage compensators
K Gems Paul Fowler, selling Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds, lapis lazuli, garnet, and tourmaline, spodumene, garnet, Kunzite.
L* Bio/nano Mr Rand, South African Bioware shipper - Superthyroid glands for executive protection
M White goods Maalek - selling goods made in far east at 20%
N Slavers Bunch of liberated Bunraku / P-fix slaves, mix of races and sexes, from Japan, being moved west towards Turkey and the Balkans.
O Drugs Daruka, local Afghan warlord, selling 90% pure heroin, 5K per kg, Helmand province
P* Guns Mr Wei, Chinese, Triad funded, will refuse to speak to Kai - dirty Mongol. Lots of cheap ammo, and cases of basic SMGs and machine pistols at .8 SI, but poor quality
Q* Electronics Viktor Pavel - Encryption. Sells chips and encoders / decoders using Russian algorithms (they are actually compromised by the FSB) but are much cheaper than usual
R Magic Curses, blood magic and voodoo
S* Cyber Bulgarian cyber systems - mostly dermal sheathing / body plating, or limb replacements. Unknown brand, but actually *extremely* good and massively under costed
T Vehicle Stolen supercars from Hong Kong.
Hopefully we’re back at the game tonight, and they can see the remaining shops, and we’ll get to move things along a little bit!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 17:00
2. Discussion - Aswon in favour of deliver the painting and telling Germaine, then going back in an hour. Hunter - can we magic track it. Tads, need a 2nd mage.
3. Kai mentions that he remembers spotting fakes in his art collection to the rest of the team. Got a moral obligation to Germain to say we've seen it, and it still exists. But we need to be careful in case it turns out it was us that told her, would damage our rep. High risk potentially. We do run the risk of it going out of sight / contact again.
4. A - best thing we can do is not sell that info to Germaine, just tell her, not selling it. doing it as a favour for a friend, keep it on the downlow.
5. T - possible alternative, we don't know anything about art, we don't know if we're we're being underpaid. Aswon - better to be straight with Germain, not about biz. KISS.
6. Tads - suggests taking a splinter of wood from the frame for a ritual link.
7. Kai - let's do the job, just be careful.
8. Kai - checks distances on the way back, fuel points. Hunter - we can go back to the ranch, then take it in the truck - he doesn't know we've got air transport, and doesn't NEED to know that. Rest of team nod.
9. Agree to go around the market - head down past the car place, 10 hypercars. Marius falters in his stride. Tads wants to study them later to be familiar with them for illusions in the future.
10. I first - industrial labour. Aswond - sweatshop labour then.
11. Then N - team also not interested.
12. D - Offers a sample. Gets a sliver for Hunter to check. Starting bid of 7k per kg. Hunter does good analysis. Aswon calls contact, advises. Low end of cost. Min kilo level.
13. H - Abdul will welcome them in, warn about D, he is a thief. Good roll from Hunter, 80% 6k, very touchy people. Finest quality in the region, offers coffee. So how many kilos? Kai says 6 - offers a price of 46k. Kai - it's lovely coffee - must negotiate more. Coffee is expensive, that's why the discount is not much. Bartering... 10kg for 45k, Kai - need a short while to speak to my contacts, offers a free sample.
14. O - Daruka, smoking a cigar, several guards, fatigues, scars, Tads suggest moving on. Aswon merc background test - not great. Might be soldiers or wannabes. Suspicious. Thows water bottle "that is to get the taste of prattle out of your mouth" Aswon - "you can hear him then" D "we can hear him in Kabul." Sliver for Hunter, good test. "Best quality so far". D - my people know better than to mess around with it. K - not going to insult you by haggling. We'll take it now. Hunter picks a random one, checks, they pay. I am Daruka, here is my number, you are good business people. You can buy more later if you wish. Asks to see Shimazu's blade. Drawn, shown, chatting in Pashtu, attempt to translate. "Could cut a person with that" Aswon translates subvocally, Shimazu shows off a little and sheathes. Abdul curses and spits at the team. Aswon shouts back that he should take lessons from D.
15. L - recognises Mr Rand. He doesn't really recognise the team, so they remind him about Tehran market. Reminds them he has the best superthyroid glands in all of asia...
16. J - Mr Cee, explains all the goods are in a reefer truck, pack in dry-ice, 24 hour timeslot.
17. F - quick check basic info.
18. C - Pashtars. Explain the business model. Aswon "good to know" takes a card, ushers team out.
19. S - Marius remembers, passes over details again. Comes from an independent cyberware manufacturer. Hunter appraises quality, at least alphaware. They can do cyber to order. Hunter takes details.
20. B - get replacement cred reader. 1K. Marius gets 20k worth of "random electronics" for repairs. Get contact details. They cover from Tehran > Kabul > Parkistan/India. Aswon/Hunter does a run back to the bird to drop off. Rest get in the food queue.
21. R - smell of incense, windchimes, hougan in wicker chair, top hat. No technology. Aswon goes to check the books. "This is not pigskin..." Aswon, want to learn about things, not how to do things. You want to learn about the loa, then. Be an apprentice. Nah - no talent. You can still learn the ways, do the things, just not do magic. Tads does a check - voodoo blood magic, curses, pain and suffering.
22. Q - recognise, get details. Marius looks for a PEM and rigger decryption module R7 decrypt module 126k, pem 56k - 180k bulk offer. 3 week lead time. Marius asks Kai, says it's a good deal. Kai says yes. Where to - azerbaijan, will you ship. Yes.
23. M - team find out that it has top end white goods. Team "joke" about getting a sound system for the bird for attack runs. Aswon suggests some goods for the farm.
24. K - Hunter detects whiff of pirhana juice. Aswon - where are they from. All mined in one of the provinces - are you looking for anything in particular. Explains about the juice and his security. Tads suggests getting a gem for Germaine - he thinks, she's been seen wearing a variety of gems, decides no - too expensive.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the players having had the “dilemma” shown to them and being aware of the potential to get Germaine the painting, it was time to move on to the black market, and some shopping. The team are doing pretty well financially at the moment, with about 750K in the bank, so there’s some options open to them – though I know they’re looking at saving up for some new cyberware for Hunter.
I’ve planned out the market a few weeks back, and have been slowly refining and adding new details and vendors as I thought about things, or got inspiration from listening to the players and their plans. Some of the vendors are repeats from the Tehran market – I wanted to try and portray them as being part of the scene for the area, and it’s more than feasible for them to travel from Tehran to Kabul in the several months it’s been since the last market. Some are new, giving some fresh opportunities for gear and resources – including the local drug dealers.
My search history has no doubt flagged me with all kinds of agencies and systems again as I looked into the opium trade, the production of heroin, international smuggling and the costs involved and cross-referenced that with the gem smuggling that is rife in Afghanistan, as well as the black market prices on various organs. No doubt there’s a note on my file at various three letter agencies that says “harmless-wannabe writer. Pls ignore. Also searches for dragons…”
I’d put in a couple of drug vendors to give them some choice and options, as well as some potential RP interest, and added in the gem vendor to give some follow up to the discovery they made about Mary Pat, and to see if they wanted to follow up on that. They discussed this very, very briefly and they seem to have decided that they don’t care – which is more than fair enough!
Here’s a list of the current vendors I have at the market – those marked with a star were also present at the previous market in Tehran. The letters are used to show their location on a map – I snipped the area from Google maps and dropped it into PowerPoint, then added the tents over the tap and labelled them up, creating them in little clusters of like-kind products.
Stalls
A* Guns Norikito, Japanese Yakuza aligned - wants to know who Shimazu works for. Disgusted by Ronin. Sells Renraku VSP guns and other good Japanese gear, with scopes and accessories.
B* Electronics Repair gear, spare parts, wire, cases, replacement optics, low end security cameras, stuff needed by gangs to secure their bases, bulk discounts available. Run by Imran and Falooq
C Organs Pashtar and Son - organs to order, some "stock" kept. Blood matched and will supply on a large number of criteria
D Drugs Gulpari, Khost province, 85% Heroin, 5k per kg.
E Guns Khan, selling old Russian and American weapons in bulk, with crap ammo - functional but *very* basic, but low costs
F* Bio/nano Haramishas - good supply on muscle toner / augments, extended volume and adrenal pumps.
G* ID / Passes Manuel - info broker, fee based service for checking goods costs in area, monitors supply and demand, new service - bit of a pyramid scam, 1k pcm
H Drugs Abdul Ahad, Paktika region, 80% Heroin, 4k per kg
I Slavers Xi Pen - bunch of Vietmanese and Filipino slaves - industrially trained, not sexual.
J* Bio/nano Mr Cee - Shiawaise affilitiated, has a wide variety of reflex recorder cultured bioware for combat skills, and level 3-5 (but not 1-2) damage compensators
K Gems Paul Fowler, selling Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds, lapis lazuli, garnet, and tourmaline, spodumene, garnet, Kunzite.
L* Bio/nano Mr Rand, South African Bioware shipper - Superthyroid glands for executive protection
M White goods Maalek - selling goods made in far east at 20%
N Slavers Bunch of liberated Bunraku / P-fix slaves, mix of races and sexes, from Japan, being moved west towards Turkey and the Balkans.
O Drugs Daruka, local Afghan warlord, selling 90% pure heroin, 5K per kg, Helmand province
P* Guns Mr Wei, Chinese, Triad funded, will refuse to speak to Kai - dirty Mongol. Lots of cheap ammo, and cases of basic SMGs and machine pistols at .8 SI, but poor quality
Q* Electronics Viktor Pavel - Encryption. Sells chips and encoders / decoders using Russian algorithms (they are actually compromised by the FSB) but are much cheaper than usual
R Magic Curses, blood magic and voodoo
S* Cyber Bulgarian cyber systems - mostly dermal sheathing / body plating, or limb replacements. Unknown brand, but actually *extremely* good and massively under costed
T Vehicle Stolen supercars from Hong Kong.
Hopefully we’re back at the game tonight, and they can see the remaining shops, and we’ll get to move things along a little bit!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 17:00
2. Discussion - Aswon in favour of deliver the painting and telling Germaine, then going back in an hour. Hunter - can we magic track it. Tads, need a 2nd mage.
3. Kai mentions that he remembers spotting fakes in his art collection to the rest of the team. Got a moral obligation to Germain to say we've seen it, and it still exists. But we need to be careful in case it turns out it was us that told her, would damage our rep. High risk potentially. We do run the risk of it going out of sight / contact again.
4. A - best thing we can do is not sell that info to Germaine, just tell her, not selling it. doing it as a favour for a friend, keep it on the downlow.
5. T - possible alternative, we don't know anything about art, we don't know if we're we're being underpaid. Aswon - better to be straight with Germain, not about biz. KISS.
6. Tads - suggests taking a splinter of wood from the frame for a ritual link.
7. Kai - let's do the job, just be careful.
8. Kai - checks distances on the way back, fuel points. Hunter - we can go back to the ranch, then take it in the truck - he doesn't know we've got air transport, and doesn't NEED to know that. Rest of team nod.
9. Agree to go around the market - head down past the car place, 10 hypercars. Marius falters in his stride. Tads wants to study them later to be familiar with them for illusions in the future.
10. I first - industrial labour. Aswond - sweatshop labour then.
11. Then N - team also not interested.
12. D - Offers a sample. Gets a sliver for Hunter to check. Starting bid of 7k per kg. Hunter does good analysis. Aswon calls contact, advises. Low end of cost. Min kilo level.
13. H - Abdul will welcome them in, warn about D, he is a thief. Good roll from Hunter, 80% 6k, very touchy people. Finest quality in the region, offers coffee. So how many kilos? Kai says 6 - offers a price of 46k. Kai - it's lovely coffee - must negotiate more. Coffee is expensive, that's why the discount is not much. Bartering... 10kg for 45k, Kai - need a short while to speak to my contacts, offers a free sample.
14. O - Daruka, smoking a cigar, several guards, fatigues, scars, Tads suggest moving on. Aswon merc background test - not great. Might be soldiers or wannabes. Suspicious. Thows water bottle "that is to get the taste of prattle out of your mouth" Aswon - "you can hear him then" D "we can hear him in Kabul." Sliver for Hunter, good test. "Best quality so far". D - my people know better than to mess around with it. K - not going to insult you by haggling. We'll take it now. Hunter picks a random one, checks, they pay. I am Daruka, here is my number, you are good business people. You can buy more later if you wish. Asks to see Shimazu's blade. Drawn, shown, chatting in Pashtu, attempt to translate. "Could cut a person with that" Aswon translates subvocally, Shimazu shows off a little and sheathes. Abdul curses and spits at the team. Aswon shouts back that he should take lessons from D.
15. L - recognises Mr Rand. He doesn't really recognise the team, so they remind him about Tehran market. Reminds them he has the best superthyroid glands in all of asia...
16. J - Mr Cee, explains all the goods are in a reefer truck, pack in dry-ice, 24 hour timeslot.
17. F - quick check basic info.
18. C - Pashtars. Explain the business model. Aswon "good to know" takes a card, ushers team out.
19. S - Marius remembers, passes over details again. Comes from an independent cyberware manufacturer. Hunter appraises quality, at least alphaware. They can do cyber to order. Hunter takes details.
20. B - get replacement cred reader. 1K. Marius gets 20k worth of "random electronics" for repairs. Get contact details. They cover from Tehran > Kabul > Parkistan/India. Aswon/Hunter does a run back to the bird to drop off. Rest get in the food queue.
21. R - smell of incense, windchimes, hougan in wicker chair, top hat. No technology. Aswon goes to check the books. "This is not pigskin..." Aswon, want to learn about things, not how to do things. You want to learn about the loa, then. Be an apprentice. Nah - no talent. You can still learn the ways, do the things, just not do magic. Tads does a check - voodoo blood magic, curses, pain and suffering.
22. Q - recognise, get details. Marius looks for a PEM and rigger decryption module R7 decrypt module 126k, pem 56k - 180k bulk offer. 3 week lead time. Marius asks Kai, says it's a good deal. Kai says yes. Where to - azerbaijan, will you ship. Yes.
23. M - team find out that it has top end white goods. Team "joke" about getting a sound system for the bird for attack runs. Aswon suggests some goods for the farm.
24. K - Hunter detects whiff of pirhana juice. Aswon - where are they from. All mined in one of the provinces - are you looking for anything in particular. Explains about the juice and his security. Tads suggests getting a gem for Germaine - he thinks, she's been seen wearing a variety of gems, decides no - too expensive.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 291 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, looking back at my plans for the session, I decided to change things around a little, and added one new vendor:
U Guns Bruce, Australian ex special forces, discerning weapons.
• Morrisey Elan+custom APDS - 20 rounds = 1000 Nuyen.
• Steyr TMP+RC3+30 rounds 6 mags, APDS=2500 Ny,
• Ares Trollstopper X-7 taser (Conceal 2, 1 shot, SS, 16S stun, Weight 3kg, Avail 14/2 weeks, Cost 5000, SI2, Legal 4P-F),
• Ares Anzio 20 Anti-material rifle (Conceal NA, 3 round mag (20 X 102mm), SA, 18S AV, Weight 27kg, Avail 20/1 month, Cost 10,000, SI 4, Legal 2-H No silencer!
• Rifle APDS, 100 rounds, 300 Ny per 10.
• Gyrojet rifle (Conceal 3, Ammo 12 ©, SA, 14M, Weight 4, Avail 8/1 week, Cost 2000, SI 3, Legal 5-K
With knowing what was coming, and the probably confusion and angst that might cause, I wanted to put in something that might end the session on an up, with them having the chance to get some new shiny toys.
But, that was for later.
First, we had to get that drama out of the way. We got the meeting with the ID broker out of the way, then I had the local girl arrive with the memorised message. Would he take the bait? Would he wander off on his own at the lure of a ‘special item’? Would the rest of the team stop him? The answer it seemed was that he was more than happy to head off into the darkness, while the rest of the team looked at cars.
I’m not a car person, but the place I work at does have several petrol-heads, so I’d “consulted” with them on a nice selection of cars to put in, equating our current hyper-cars to the ones on display in 2061. I could have changed the names, and made up fluff – but ultimately they’re just window dressing, and the team couldn’t afford one, even if they wanted to. But, for the car people in the game, they got a very strong idea of who and what they were dealing with, and even Tads did a quick browser search once she had the names to get an idea of what they were like. Not that Tads being a girl can’t be into cars, I’d just like to point out… but she’s not. She’s also not into fashion, or shoes, or handbags, or anything like that. She did admire the paint jobs on some of them or how pretty they were – comments that caused winces of pain to some of the others when she announced which one was her favourite based on the pearlescent colour shifting paint job…
But anyway! They were gawping at the cars, Shimazu was off on the dark on his own. I’d pre-rolled the stealth attempt for the courier, and got Shimazu to roll his perception – and he didn’t spot her at all. I’d again pre-rolled before the session, deciding on the damage level and number of dice to allocate to cast and drain, so it wasn’t a ‘fix’, and there was a chance for the attacker to take stun. As it turns out, she didn’t, and was free to carry on with her business without impediment.
So, Shimazu gets asked to make his Willpower test, and actually gets a couple of successes. I ask him if he wants to re-roll or buy any. He thinks for a moment, and then says no. I ask him “are you sure” and it goes very quiet – and then he says no again.
Ok.
So, down he goes with a deadly wound, blatted hard enough to start bleeding out. His spirit that was “on guard” is a F4 great form. I had it immediately flee back to Tads to report in, rather than trying to fight. It’s of above average intelligence, so I think it could get a sense of the power of the manabolt and didn’t fancy its chances, but did the best thing it could in the circumstances. Of course that throws a spanner in the works for the attacker, who knows now that reinforcements are probably soon going to be arriving – and they have to flee the scene. That gives the rest of the team time to turn up and save Shimazu before he goes too far into his overflow. He did lose a magic point – almost inevitable at this point, considering his grade, and was on a deadly wound even after first aid – which stabilised him.
Then Tads gets upset because she can’t fix him all the way, with only a F6 heal spell – so he’s down to a Moderate wound, and needs to rest for a few days – and Tads is now looking to up her spell to a F8 or maybe even a F10, so that doesn’t happen again! Of course that’s going to take time and karma, and has her plotting away trying to balance the two inbetween giving me evil glares.
But overall, they managed to save him, and get him back up. The team had a good old discussion about why it might have happened, and who they have upset (because that’s a short list…) and what they’re going to do about it. They’re feeling a lot more paranoid all of a sudden, and were very careful when they went gun shopping – but then managed to pick up their new toys.
The SMG is a standard book version, with some recoil compensation added, allowing at least one burst with no modifiers, and some APDS ammo. Nice, but nothing earth shaking.
The rifle ammo gets Hunter back into a good position for taking down armoured targets, and gives him options – while still keeping things like elementals/spirits as being a big threat thanks to their Immunity to Normal Weapons.
The taser was a custom design, something a little bit over the top and silly. I pushed the power up to a level that it would consistently affect even big trolls with their large dice pools – but made it a single shot weapon both in terms of mode, and with only enough power for that one shot and a hefty recharge time, making it a very tactical use item.
And of course – the big gun, for Aswon. Again, the size and weight of it becomes a major factor – this isn’t something you can just walk around with casually. But it’s an absolute beast in terms of power and range, and should let him perform a decent anti-material role. I’m also adding a special 3-round burst mechanic like the Lone Star Thunderbolt, and somewhat based on the G11. He can fire all three rounds, turning the gun into a 21D can of whoop-ass. But then he’ll have to soak an 11L hit from the recoil. Not that he knows this yet – but that’s going to be a fun description of a bruised shoulder and being pushed back half a metre from the incredible recoil!
Tuesday then, I expect them to go pick up the artwork, get it onboard the Broadsword and get back to the ranch, and then lay low for a few days while they heal up or practice with their new toys, before getting in the truck to go do the delivery.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 19:00
2. Aswon: So - guns and the ID seller left - do we need IDs?
3. Tads - does Marius jr have one? Stunned silence... no. Aswon - sinless bugger - we should sort that out. Does Nadia have one? Marius - yes, but she's not going to use it.. Some discussion about Nadia, her real ID, her dad, finding her.
4. Find Manuel at G. Team discuss -Aswon suggests trying to get a free spin, do a search on Yakut as the team "know the truth" and they can verify his info. Tads - or follow up on Nigeria and see what happened? Aswon - that was a temp thing though. Tads - or ask about King Arthur. Hunter - bog off!
5. Kai - do we need to do a freebie ask, what's the guys rep? It's not that expensive, go to speak to him.
6. Manuel - good evening, what can I do for you? K- met you before in Tehran, might need your services. Manuel - sales pitch, vague. K-what got you into the business. Manuel - just what I'm good at. Kai:we're in shipping, infiltrations, that kinds of things. How often do you update? M-oh, daily, always putting updates on. 1 year deal, 1k per month. K-1 month, M, smallest I normally do 3 months at 2k pcm. K - tries to negotiate. 2m for 2k. Manuel folds, and agrees. 4k for 2m, Kai - thought it was 1k? Manuel explains. Settle on 11k for 1 year. Hunter checks - seems slick and professional. All get sorted by the end of the night.
7. Slight woman in Burka approaching group. "I have a message for the gentlemen with the Sword." Looks around, Shimazu gives a nod. "Mr Patel, a seller of some repute is aware of your skill, and has an offer for you. He has a special item, that would be of interest to a discerning artist. If you would like to view the item, please come to the north side of the house in fifteen minutes where you will be given an opportunity to view the item one-to-one. Please come alone, as all the other potential bidders will do. There will be a sealed auction at 23:00 for the item." Shimazu - I'll be there.
8. Aswon - so who's Mr Patel? Shim - no idea. Aswon - maybe it's something weird like they have the pair to your sword? Marius - we're going to have to flee the country because Shimazu has chopped someone in half...
9. Go to the car showroom, sparkly floor, turntables, lots of viewers - nearly all with no hope of ever affording. Marius twitches a little at all the inaccurate things mentioned by the people watching / looking at the cars.
10. Shimazu heads over to Kai, how much cash do we have? Kai - you can have access to all the cash we have, don't lose it or spend it all. Aswon - keep a line open to Kai for auction/smuggling advice. Aswon - What about a mindlink. Marius - probably behind a ward if it's a magic doohickey.
11. Shimazu fails perception test, gets bolted, gets 2 successes, RR, still 2, doesn't want to buy any.
12. Falcon, cast Manabolt at S, F8, TN4, Casting 6+4 SP=10 dice, 5 successes. WP rolled = soaked.
13. Shimazu goes down, spirit warns Tads, rest of team run that way.
14. Aswon arrives at the scene, doesn't see anything, drops into astral, sees the spell sig - gets that locked down. Others arrive, Aswon dashes off to look for astral sig, with Hunter as well - don't spot anything. They continue to search.
15. Tads casts sterilise, then stabilise. Kai biotechs, stabilises on deadly. Aswon suggest to Marius to check the bird - all quiet. Tads starts to heal. Aswon spots the woman who delivered the message. Tells Kai - apprehend her please. A-you sure? K - yeah, make sure she doesn't get away. Marius - puts the bird on startup ready for an evac. Tads aces the heal spell, max of 6 boxes. Aswon looks for anyone from the organisers. Tads - does the woman in the burkha have the right signature.
16. Aswon talks to a guard, very quickly explains the situation. Told to go get her. Shimazu on moderate+1. Does psychometry on himself, gets 2 successes: Brief flash of insight, disjointed impressions, superficial. Mist, sword swing, go down, white hand, black hand taking something.
17. Messenger back to edge of car park, doing directions. A+H saddle up, hi. Steps back with recognition. My boss wants to speak to you, don't hurt me, reaches into burka, pulls out money. Get back to team before they get intercepted by security. Security is now on alert, looking for trouble.
18. Tads - marius, if the bird is in the air, can you look for people leaving / arriving. Marius does - gets a slight glimpse recorded, but not detected live
19. She spots the blood, falls to her knees and begs for mercy, she didn't know, it wasn't her fault. Shimazu - can we probe her mind? Tads - carrying a spell, would be better to do a mind link.
20. Shimazu, drops to one knee, we're going to read your thoughts, easy or hard, she is massively intimidated and gives in. Tads casts, Shimazu shares the psychometry image with everyone. Aswon tries to penetrate her masking - no magic. Kai tries to calm her,
21. Tall, male ork, wearing brown suit, yellow lining, brown trilby, paid in Japanese nuyen cash, bit unusual, thinking about it - female voice. Dick Tracy, film noir, good fieldcraft. She's been paid about 5,000 Nuyen, about 3 years salary. Shimazu tries to do psychometry on the money. 2 successes, money, cold, revenge, calculated.
22. Kai - Tads, can you go high and search for the mage based on the signature. Tads - not really, explains why. Team suspect the person or people (may not be a single) will have left, Tads - they had chance to follow up, but haven't.
23. Woman is terrified, get her to think about family, intimidate her, send her off. She was mid way through offering the money, but Aswon tells her to take it and run.
24. Aswon "ok, paranoid mode on, but still want to shop". Drop mindlink. Hunter - am I being paranoid, or is it meaningful that it's Japanese. Unusual to have that much in large denomination notes. Hunter - might be yakuza links? Tads thinks about the shoes - fit with the outfit.
25. Quick run down of A, E and P.
26. Spot U - empty tent, closed boxes, supping a beer. Who are you fellas, and you, shiela. Aswon got any rifles. What you after. Just said - but then gives description. Asks Aswon a test - gets an answer. Slaps the Anzio on the table. 10k+1k for the box of ammo. Team impressed and take it. Beers for Hunter and Aswon, fresh one for himself. Card - Bruce - "Guns". Kai asks about arrows - nah, no primitive stuff. Get 3k worth of rifle APDS.
27. What else have you got - weapons systems. Like what. give me a use case - ok, flexible, pulls out the steyr TMP, get marius over. MArius likes it - gets him a beer, 2.5k
28. Big handgun, hmm, pulls out the trollstopper. "It'll stop a rhino - or a troll, even on roids"... 5k. Team hum and har. Kai - this is a pressie to myself. Get it.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, looking back at my plans for the session, I decided to change things around a little, and added one new vendor:
U Guns Bruce, Australian ex special forces, discerning weapons.
• Morrisey Elan+custom APDS - 20 rounds = 1000 Nuyen.
• Steyr TMP+RC3+30 rounds 6 mags, APDS=2500 Ny,
• Ares Trollstopper X-7 taser (Conceal 2, 1 shot, SS, 16S stun, Weight 3kg, Avail 14/2 weeks, Cost 5000, SI2, Legal 4P-F),
• Ares Anzio 20 Anti-material rifle (Conceal NA, 3 round mag (20 X 102mm), SA, 18S AV, Weight 27kg, Avail 20/1 month, Cost 10,000, SI 4, Legal 2-H No silencer!
• Rifle APDS, 100 rounds, 300 Ny per 10.
• Gyrojet rifle (Conceal 3, Ammo 12 ©, SA, 14M, Weight 4, Avail 8/1 week, Cost 2000, SI 3, Legal 5-K
With knowing what was coming, and the probably confusion and angst that might cause, I wanted to put in something that might end the session on an up, with them having the chance to get some new shiny toys.
But, that was for later.
First, we had to get that drama out of the way. We got the meeting with the ID broker out of the way, then I had the local girl arrive with the memorised message. Would he take the bait? Would he wander off on his own at the lure of a ‘special item’? Would the rest of the team stop him? The answer it seemed was that he was more than happy to head off into the darkness, while the rest of the team looked at cars.
I’m not a car person, but the place I work at does have several petrol-heads, so I’d “consulted” with them on a nice selection of cars to put in, equating our current hyper-cars to the ones on display in 2061. I could have changed the names, and made up fluff – but ultimately they’re just window dressing, and the team couldn’t afford one, even if they wanted to. But, for the car people in the game, they got a very strong idea of who and what they were dealing with, and even Tads did a quick browser search once she had the names to get an idea of what they were like. Not that Tads being a girl can’t be into cars, I’d just like to point out… but she’s not. She’s also not into fashion, or shoes, or handbags, or anything like that. She did admire the paint jobs on some of them or how pretty they were – comments that caused winces of pain to some of the others when she announced which one was her favourite based on the pearlescent colour shifting paint job…
But anyway! They were gawping at the cars, Shimazu was off on the dark on his own. I’d pre-rolled the stealth attempt for the courier, and got Shimazu to roll his perception – and he didn’t spot her at all. I’d again pre-rolled before the session, deciding on the damage level and number of dice to allocate to cast and drain, so it wasn’t a ‘fix’, and there was a chance for the attacker to take stun. As it turns out, she didn’t, and was free to carry on with her business without impediment.
So, Shimazu gets asked to make his Willpower test, and actually gets a couple of successes. I ask him if he wants to re-roll or buy any. He thinks for a moment, and then says no. I ask him “are you sure” and it goes very quiet – and then he says no again.
Ok.
So, down he goes with a deadly wound, blatted hard enough to start bleeding out. His spirit that was “on guard” is a F4 great form. I had it immediately flee back to Tads to report in, rather than trying to fight. It’s of above average intelligence, so I think it could get a sense of the power of the manabolt and didn’t fancy its chances, but did the best thing it could in the circumstances. Of course that throws a spanner in the works for the attacker, who knows now that reinforcements are probably soon going to be arriving – and they have to flee the scene. That gives the rest of the team time to turn up and save Shimazu before he goes too far into his overflow. He did lose a magic point – almost inevitable at this point, considering his grade, and was on a deadly wound even after first aid – which stabilised him.
Then Tads gets upset because she can’t fix him all the way, with only a F6 heal spell – so he’s down to a Moderate wound, and needs to rest for a few days – and Tads is now looking to up her spell to a F8 or maybe even a F10, so that doesn’t happen again! Of course that’s going to take time and karma, and has her plotting away trying to balance the two inbetween giving me evil glares.
But overall, they managed to save him, and get him back up. The team had a good old discussion about why it might have happened, and who they have upset (because that’s a short list…) and what they’re going to do about it. They’re feeling a lot more paranoid all of a sudden, and were very careful when they went gun shopping – but then managed to pick up their new toys.
The SMG is a standard book version, with some recoil compensation added, allowing at least one burst with no modifiers, and some APDS ammo. Nice, but nothing earth shaking.
The rifle ammo gets Hunter back into a good position for taking down armoured targets, and gives him options – while still keeping things like elementals/spirits as being a big threat thanks to their Immunity to Normal Weapons.
The taser was a custom design, something a little bit over the top and silly. I pushed the power up to a level that it would consistently affect even big trolls with their large dice pools – but made it a single shot weapon both in terms of mode, and with only enough power for that one shot and a hefty recharge time, making it a very tactical use item.
And of course – the big gun, for Aswon. Again, the size and weight of it becomes a major factor – this isn’t something you can just walk around with casually. But it’s an absolute beast in terms of power and range, and should let him perform a decent anti-material role. I’m also adding a special 3-round burst mechanic like the Lone Star Thunderbolt, and somewhat based on the G11. He can fire all three rounds, turning the gun into a 21D can of whoop-ass. But then he’ll have to soak an 11L hit from the recoil. Not that he knows this yet – but that’s going to be a fun description of a bruised shoulder and being pushed back half a metre from the incredible recoil!
Tuesday then, I expect them to go pick up the artwork, get it onboard the Broadsword and get back to the ranch, and then lay low for a few days while they heal up or practice with their new toys, before getting in the truck to go do the delivery.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 19:00
2. Aswon: So - guns and the ID seller left - do we need IDs?
3. Tads - does Marius jr have one? Stunned silence... no. Aswon - sinless bugger - we should sort that out. Does Nadia have one? Marius - yes, but she's not going to use it.. Some discussion about Nadia, her real ID, her dad, finding her.
4. Find Manuel at G. Team discuss -Aswon suggests trying to get a free spin, do a search on Yakut as the team "know the truth" and they can verify his info. Tads - or follow up on Nigeria and see what happened? Aswon - that was a temp thing though. Tads - or ask about King Arthur. Hunter - bog off!
5. Kai - do we need to do a freebie ask, what's the guys rep? It's not that expensive, go to speak to him.
6. Manuel - good evening, what can I do for you? K- met you before in Tehran, might need your services. Manuel - sales pitch, vague. K-what got you into the business. Manuel - just what I'm good at. Kai:we're in shipping, infiltrations, that kinds of things. How often do you update? M-oh, daily, always putting updates on. 1 year deal, 1k per month. K-1 month, M, smallest I normally do 3 months at 2k pcm. K - tries to negotiate. 2m for 2k. Manuel folds, and agrees. 4k for 2m, Kai - thought it was 1k? Manuel explains. Settle on 11k for 1 year. Hunter checks - seems slick and professional. All get sorted by the end of the night.
7. Slight woman in Burka approaching group. "I have a message for the gentlemen with the Sword." Looks around, Shimazu gives a nod. "Mr Patel, a seller of some repute is aware of your skill, and has an offer for you. He has a special item, that would be of interest to a discerning artist. If you would like to view the item, please come to the north side of the house in fifteen minutes where you will be given an opportunity to view the item one-to-one. Please come alone, as all the other potential bidders will do. There will be a sealed auction at 23:00 for the item." Shimazu - I'll be there.
8. Aswon - so who's Mr Patel? Shim - no idea. Aswon - maybe it's something weird like they have the pair to your sword? Marius - we're going to have to flee the country because Shimazu has chopped someone in half...
9. Go to the car showroom, sparkly floor, turntables, lots of viewers - nearly all with no hope of ever affording. Marius twitches a little at all the inaccurate things mentioned by the people watching / looking at the cars.
10. Shimazu heads over to Kai, how much cash do we have? Kai - you can have access to all the cash we have, don't lose it or spend it all. Aswon - keep a line open to Kai for auction/smuggling advice. Aswon - What about a mindlink. Marius - probably behind a ward if it's a magic doohickey.
11. Shimazu fails perception test, gets bolted, gets 2 successes, RR, still 2, doesn't want to buy any.
12. Falcon, cast Manabolt at S, F8, TN4, Casting 6+4 SP=10 dice, 5 successes. WP rolled = soaked.
13. Shimazu goes down, spirit warns Tads, rest of team run that way.
14. Aswon arrives at the scene, doesn't see anything, drops into astral, sees the spell sig - gets that locked down. Others arrive, Aswon dashes off to look for astral sig, with Hunter as well - don't spot anything. They continue to search.
15. Tads casts sterilise, then stabilise. Kai biotechs, stabilises on deadly. Aswon suggest to Marius to check the bird - all quiet. Tads starts to heal. Aswon spots the woman who delivered the message. Tells Kai - apprehend her please. A-you sure? K - yeah, make sure she doesn't get away. Marius - puts the bird on startup ready for an evac. Tads aces the heal spell, max of 6 boxes. Aswon looks for anyone from the organisers. Tads - does the woman in the burkha have the right signature.
16. Aswon talks to a guard, very quickly explains the situation. Told to go get her. Shimazu on moderate+1. Does psychometry on himself, gets 2 successes: Brief flash of insight, disjointed impressions, superficial. Mist, sword swing, go down, white hand, black hand taking something.
17. Messenger back to edge of car park, doing directions. A+H saddle up, hi. Steps back with recognition. My boss wants to speak to you, don't hurt me, reaches into burka, pulls out money. Get back to team before they get intercepted by security. Security is now on alert, looking for trouble.
18. Tads - marius, if the bird is in the air, can you look for people leaving / arriving. Marius does - gets a slight glimpse recorded, but not detected live
19. She spots the blood, falls to her knees and begs for mercy, she didn't know, it wasn't her fault. Shimazu - can we probe her mind? Tads - carrying a spell, would be better to do a mind link.
20. Shimazu, drops to one knee, we're going to read your thoughts, easy or hard, she is massively intimidated and gives in. Tads casts, Shimazu shares the psychometry image with everyone. Aswon tries to penetrate her masking - no magic. Kai tries to calm her,
21. Tall, male ork, wearing brown suit, yellow lining, brown trilby, paid in Japanese nuyen cash, bit unusual, thinking about it - female voice. Dick Tracy, film noir, good fieldcraft. She's been paid about 5,000 Nuyen, about 3 years salary. Shimazu tries to do psychometry on the money. 2 successes, money, cold, revenge, calculated.
22. Kai - Tads, can you go high and search for the mage based on the signature. Tads - not really, explains why. Team suspect the person or people (may not be a single) will have left, Tads - they had chance to follow up, but haven't.
23. Woman is terrified, get her to think about family, intimidate her, send her off. She was mid way through offering the money, but Aswon tells her to take it and run.
24. Aswon "ok, paranoid mode on, but still want to shop". Drop mindlink. Hunter - am I being paranoid, or is it meaningful that it's Japanese. Unusual to have that much in large denomination notes. Hunter - might be yakuza links? Tads thinks about the shoes - fit with the outfit.
25. Quick run down of A, E and P.
26. Spot U - empty tent, closed boxes, supping a beer. Who are you fellas, and you, shiela. Aswon got any rifles. What you after. Just said - but then gives description. Asks Aswon a test - gets an answer. Slaps the Anzio on the table. 10k+1k for the box of ammo. Team impressed and take it. Beers for Hunter and Aswon, fresh one for himself. Card - Bruce - "Guns". Kai asks about arrows - nah, no primitive stuff. Get 3k worth of rifle APDS.
27. What else have you got - weapons systems. Like what. give me a use case - ok, flexible, pulls out the steyr TMP, get marius over. MArius likes it - gets him a beer, 2.5k
28. Big handgun, hmm, pulls out the trollstopper. "It'll stop a rhino - or a troll, even on roids"... 5k. Team hum and har. Kai - this is a pressie to myself. Get it.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 292 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
No major events this week really – we were dealing with the clear up from the previous week’s assassination attempt, and doing travelling and a bit of maintenance stuff. They decided to get a scope and bipod for the big gun – both legal items that that could easily get shipped to the ranch, so I made up a little bit of fluff on the spot, dug out some stock images from a quick Google search and then told them they would be along soon enough.
Just as they were about to leave, Aswon called the contact so I threw in a little extension, with him asking for an extra kilo, to see what they’d do. They wavered for a minute, then realised it really wasn’t going to take long (as long as nobody else tried to assassinate any of them!), and decided the risk was worth the reward – but also that nobody was going alone. With that done, they were up in the air and on the way.
Tads did a quick loop back and check for the astral signature on the way – as she said to me after “I wasn’t expecting to find anything, but it’s professional to check”. Falcon is of course long gone, having beaten a hasty retreat after the attack, so the search didn’t reveal anything, but it’s good that they seem properly incentivised to take the threat seriously!
As they closed in on Tashkent, I described the situation for them, reminding them that the restaurant is in the middle of town with no good places to land – and they quickly decided to brute-force the situation. Calling ahead they made sure the contact was ready, and then they went into a hover over the back of the building, relying on spirit concealment and invisibility to hide them, while Aswon levitated down, did the transaction then returned – mightily impressing his contact along the way! But, they have more than enough resources to make something like that work, so it seemed fair enough, and allowed us to move on nicely.
Their journey to Tashkent and from the city back to the ranch all went without a hitch as well. I rolled for the borders, but never got anywhere even close to detecting them – hardly surprising given the borders in question. But they also made sensible decisions like avoiding the oil fields or major population centres – so again they made the effort to be sensible, so I think it would have been churlish to throw anything in or at them.
Back at the ranch there was a little splash of flavour for Marius – and the player looked at me and asked if I was trying to trigger flashbacks to bringing up his own children, so that seemed to have hit the mark. This bit was probably where I was least confident in the corresponding narrative – I’ve got no kids, and no intention to having any, so dealing with the parental emotions to them is a little alien to me. Hopefully it’s not too wide of the mark…
After that it was time for a 3-day training montage really, with no major events or activities, so we quickly fast-forwarded through them and left it ready to go on the morning of travel, with the players able to mark off a number of hours of training time towards their next karma spends. They did investigate Aswon’s new rifle carefully and discovered the “hidden” fire mode, which let me throw some extra fun at them. The rifle does 18S (anti-vehicle) as standard, but in the 3 round burst mode, it rises to a 21D (AV), which is enough to put a serious crimp on anything that’s not an APC, MBT or Thunderbird probably. The downside of course being that it’s neither subtle nor light!
In the end they have decided not to take the bait and dupe or forge the artwork, and play it straight – so the delivery part coming up with also be pretty straight-forward. I’ve nothing planned for the journey over there. It’s 770 km, so a long drive for a single day over the types of road they will be using – but they’re also in a well armoured ex-military vehicle and very well armed, so it’s going to be some foolish and unlucky bandits that try to mess with them. Police checkpoints or the like are probably going to be the most serious impediment to their journey, but I’m sure they’ll handle that no problem.
Timeline wise, we’re coming up on the end of the probe race, with a few more Shadowrunner caused “natural accidents” to take out the rest of the first round of contenders, and the first Surge effects are two months away. In 3 months’ time the ring of fire will go crazy, and there’s going to be a major time of strife around the pac-rim area, which will give them some opportunities – but they’re also aware that the “old man” has a job for them towards the end of the year. This will see them needing to be down in the vicinity of Australia by then, so I’m going to start channelling them down that way with a lovely job for Masuru and something to get Shimazu his “hero following” for the main plot.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 20:30
2. Marius brings the bird back in to land
3. Hunter looks for scopes for Aswon, matrix search: Leupold X-10 Arrow scope, 5-15 magnification, 50mm optic, up to 100mm of eye-relief, large eye box, heavy construction, 5000 Nuyen+shipping. Optical mag 3, low light, thermo. GRS heavy duty bipod and adapter rail, 450Nuyen+shipping
4. Marius - can someone magic stay in astral and look for the signature? Aswon - Shimazu, you should do it as you're the most likely target. S-I have to keep my hand on my sword to do that- though that's not exactly a problem at the moment.
5. On the walk back - Tads talking about the psychometry image - coming out of the mist, probably Tehran? Or where they after the sword? Aswon - we did respond very quickly, and they saw the spirit go. It could be the iranian government, using what little knoweldge they have, and they know the sword was stolen. Or it could be sword thieves. Marius - if they're after the sword, then they have to eliminate Shimazu. Kai - I don't know, it wasn't the insta death? Aswon, oh it was... Kai but wouldn't they have doubled down. Aswon - it was a killing blast, they might not have gone for a 2nd due to drain, and the response time. Kai - but does that make it personal, if it was that focussed. Aswon - some people are just killers, professional assassins, some just like the sensation. Tads explains about how difficult it is to get to that high force. Aswon - if it is pro-mage-assassin, that's a small group, might be worth looking.
6. Back to Aaabdar and art dealers, they are ready. Marius - take loads of pics, all angles, make sure it's orignal and recorded. Kai asks for sterilise. Tads examines in astral, Hunter runs bugscanner over physical. Tads 6 successes. Virtuoso piece. Assenses - maybe it was an initiation / thesis piece.
7. Kai looking at the pic to try and assess it artistically (good) and check magic societies for the painter (nothing). Done in 2011, so on the cusp of the awakening.
8. Where are we delivering them to or are you carrying them? Marius - take to the ramp. Aswon, no - to the car park? Escort, they do a photo, then leave with the team after taking a photo and reporting in.
9. Now about 21:00, 800km to Tashkent, arrival around 23:00
10. Aswon calls, can you get me additional kg? Marius is just powering up. Call Daruka, additional 4kg for 20k. Deal - there soon. Tads - who's going too? Kai, shimazu. Hunter - no, me. Shimazu stays here. S-yeah, I want to rest. They go to tent, swift and businesslike exchange, then back, no fuss. Call Cyrok Borgein back. Aswon offers a deal to Cyrok.
11. Tads goes back for an overflight with lots of spirits to search for signature - no sign, gets back to body ok. Then tells Kai she needs cash for upping her heal spell. Commissioning from Toloya Popov cat shaman
12. Nowhere to land, thinking about hovering over the top, levitate Aswon down with the goods and the cred-reader.
13. Back to the ranch, 1700km, 03:30 back to the ranch. Leave the artwork in the Broadsword, behind a F14 ward. Hunter and Aswon staying up - paranoid. Rest to bed.
14. Nadia up because baby is being an arse with teething, Marius takes over, Nadia to go to sleep. Rest crash.
15. Monday 4, Aswon and Hunter up into the hills to test the gun. Hunter spots the burst fire mode. Changes mode - Aswon spots and splutters, what are you doing. Shooting at 1.5km. Stages to 21D, obliterates target. Then Aswon says "give it back to the grown up". Then practices. "race you back" but Aswon is carrying the gun.
16. Tads to call Popov to get quote for F8 heal. Kai happy in general with the cost. 5 rings, yes - lazy. Who is this. Tads. F8 heal please., Decent tradition. 15k - no 12.5, decent customer. Leather skin with healing crystals. Get it into a poster tube. Bring me some milk as well, yeah. Goat? Whatever, I like Milk. Only 260km from Batumu, so planning for a week.
17. Marius checks the truck over, otherwise family time. Shimazu heals up. Hunter doing sword work and maintenance. Tads spell design, food production, local healing. Aswon more martial training, Kai training.
18. Bow arrives - Aswon presents to Kai, traditional bow. then collapsible bow. Traditional bow is virgin telesma, tads spots it.
19. Shimazu calls Sato, how are you. Not good. Explains the assassination attempt. Keep your ears open, check the MO, think it's personal. Keep your ears open - interested in finding them. You're ok though, going to get better? Yeah, just a bit slower. Sato gets a 14 on walls have ears test...
20. FF to Thursday 7/7/61, setting off at first light, taking it steady.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
No major events this week really – we were dealing with the clear up from the previous week’s assassination attempt, and doing travelling and a bit of maintenance stuff. They decided to get a scope and bipod for the big gun – both legal items that that could easily get shipped to the ranch, so I made up a little bit of fluff on the spot, dug out some stock images from a quick Google search and then told them they would be along soon enough.
Just as they were about to leave, Aswon called the contact so I threw in a little extension, with him asking for an extra kilo, to see what they’d do. They wavered for a minute, then realised it really wasn’t going to take long (as long as nobody else tried to assassinate any of them!), and decided the risk was worth the reward – but also that nobody was going alone. With that done, they were up in the air and on the way.
Tads did a quick loop back and check for the astral signature on the way – as she said to me after “I wasn’t expecting to find anything, but it’s professional to check”. Falcon is of course long gone, having beaten a hasty retreat after the attack, so the search didn’t reveal anything, but it’s good that they seem properly incentivised to take the threat seriously!
As they closed in on Tashkent, I described the situation for them, reminding them that the restaurant is in the middle of town with no good places to land – and they quickly decided to brute-force the situation. Calling ahead they made sure the contact was ready, and then they went into a hover over the back of the building, relying on spirit concealment and invisibility to hide them, while Aswon levitated down, did the transaction then returned – mightily impressing his contact along the way! But, they have more than enough resources to make something like that work, so it seemed fair enough, and allowed us to move on nicely.
Their journey to Tashkent and from the city back to the ranch all went without a hitch as well. I rolled for the borders, but never got anywhere even close to detecting them – hardly surprising given the borders in question. But they also made sensible decisions like avoiding the oil fields or major population centres – so again they made the effort to be sensible, so I think it would have been churlish to throw anything in or at them.
Back at the ranch there was a little splash of flavour for Marius – and the player looked at me and asked if I was trying to trigger flashbacks to bringing up his own children, so that seemed to have hit the mark. This bit was probably where I was least confident in the corresponding narrative – I’ve got no kids, and no intention to having any, so dealing with the parental emotions to them is a little alien to me. Hopefully it’s not too wide of the mark…
After that it was time for a 3-day training montage really, with no major events or activities, so we quickly fast-forwarded through them and left it ready to go on the morning of travel, with the players able to mark off a number of hours of training time towards their next karma spends. They did investigate Aswon’s new rifle carefully and discovered the “hidden” fire mode, which let me throw some extra fun at them. The rifle does 18S (anti-vehicle) as standard, but in the 3 round burst mode, it rises to a 21D (AV), which is enough to put a serious crimp on anything that’s not an APC, MBT or Thunderbird probably. The downside of course being that it’s neither subtle nor light!
In the end they have decided not to take the bait and dupe or forge the artwork, and play it straight – so the delivery part coming up with also be pretty straight-forward. I’ve nothing planned for the journey over there. It’s 770 km, so a long drive for a single day over the types of road they will be using – but they’re also in a well armoured ex-military vehicle and very well armed, so it’s going to be some foolish and unlucky bandits that try to mess with them. Police checkpoints or the like are probably going to be the most serious impediment to their journey, but I’m sure they’ll handle that no problem.
Timeline wise, we’re coming up on the end of the probe race, with a few more Shadowrunner caused “natural accidents” to take out the rest of the first round of contenders, and the first Surge effects are two months away. In 3 months’ time the ring of fire will go crazy, and there’s going to be a major time of strife around the pac-rim area, which will give them some opportunities – but they’re also aware that the “old man” has a job for them towards the end of the year. This will see them needing to be down in the vicinity of Australia by then, so I’m going to start channelling them down that way with a lovely job for Masuru and something to get Shimazu his “hero following” for the main plot.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 03/07/61, Location: 34.58482, 68.97008, Time 20:30
2. Marius brings the bird back in to land
3. Hunter looks for scopes for Aswon, matrix search: Leupold X-10 Arrow scope, 5-15 magnification, 50mm optic, up to 100mm of eye-relief, large eye box, heavy construction, 5000 Nuyen+shipping. Optical mag 3, low light, thermo. GRS heavy duty bipod and adapter rail, 450Nuyen+shipping
4. Marius - can someone magic stay in astral and look for the signature? Aswon - Shimazu, you should do it as you're the most likely target. S-I have to keep my hand on my sword to do that- though that's not exactly a problem at the moment.
5. On the walk back - Tads talking about the psychometry image - coming out of the mist, probably Tehran? Or where they after the sword? Aswon - we did respond very quickly, and they saw the spirit go. It could be the iranian government, using what little knoweldge they have, and they know the sword was stolen. Or it could be sword thieves. Marius - if they're after the sword, then they have to eliminate Shimazu. Kai - I don't know, it wasn't the insta death? Aswon, oh it was... Kai but wouldn't they have doubled down. Aswon - it was a killing blast, they might not have gone for a 2nd due to drain, and the response time. Kai - but does that make it personal, if it was that focussed. Aswon - some people are just killers, professional assassins, some just like the sensation. Tads explains about how difficult it is to get to that high force. Aswon - if it is pro-mage-assassin, that's a small group, might be worth looking.
6. Back to Aaabdar and art dealers, they are ready. Marius - take loads of pics, all angles, make sure it's orignal and recorded. Kai asks for sterilise. Tads examines in astral, Hunter runs bugscanner over physical. Tads 6 successes. Virtuoso piece. Assenses - maybe it was an initiation / thesis piece.
7. Kai looking at the pic to try and assess it artistically (good) and check magic societies for the painter (nothing). Done in 2011, so on the cusp of the awakening.
8. Where are we delivering them to or are you carrying them? Marius - take to the ramp. Aswon, no - to the car park? Escort, they do a photo, then leave with the team after taking a photo and reporting in.
9. Now about 21:00, 800km to Tashkent, arrival around 23:00
10. Aswon calls, can you get me additional kg? Marius is just powering up. Call Daruka, additional 4kg for 20k. Deal - there soon. Tads - who's going too? Kai, shimazu. Hunter - no, me. Shimazu stays here. S-yeah, I want to rest. They go to tent, swift and businesslike exchange, then back, no fuss. Call Cyrok Borgein back. Aswon offers a deal to Cyrok.
11. Tads goes back for an overflight with lots of spirits to search for signature - no sign, gets back to body ok. Then tells Kai she needs cash for upping her heal spell. Commissioning from Toloya Popov cat shaman
12. Nowhere to land, thinking about hovering over the top, levitate Aswon down with the goods and the cred-reader.
13. Back to the ranch, 1700km, 03:30 back to the ranch. Leave the artwork in the Broadsword, behind a F14 ward. Hunter and Aswon staying up - paranoid. Rest to bed.
14. Nadia up because baby is being an arse with teething, Marius takes over, Nadia to go to sleep. Rest crash.
15. Monday 4, Aswon and Hunter up into the hills to test the gun. Hunter spots the burst fire mode. Changes mode - Aswon spots and splutters, what are you doing. Shooting at 1.5km. Stages to 21D, obliterates target. Then Aswon says "give it back to the grown up". Then practices. "race you back" but Aswon is carrying the gun.
16. Tads to call Popov to get quote for F8 heal. Kai happy in general with the cost. 5 rings, yes - lazy. Who is this. Tads. F8 heal please., Decent tradition. 15k - no 12.5, decent customer. Leather skin with healing crystals. Get it into a poster tube. Bring me some milk as well, yeah. Goat? Whatever, I like Milk. Only 260km from Batumu, so planning for a week.
17. Marius checks the truck over, otherwise family time. Shimazu heals up. Hunter doing sword work and maintenance. Tads spell design, food production, local healing. Aswon more martial training, Kai training.
18. Bow arrives - Aswon presents to Kai, traditional bow. then collapsible bow. Traditional bow is virgin telesma, tads spots it.
19. Shimazu calls Sato, how are you. Not good. Explains the assassination attempt. Keep your ears open, check the MO, think it's personal. Keep your ears open - interested in finding them. You're ok though, going to get better? Yeah, just a bit slower. Sato gets a 14 on walls have ears test...
20. FF to Thursday 7/7/61, setting off at first light, taking it steady.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 293 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Fairly straight-forward this week, with the delivery of the stolen artwork to the buyer. The team elected not to do any funny business with duping the artwork, and to deliver as requested, swapping into the truck to hide their true capabilities from Kulkachev.
I’d sort of hoped they would pull a fast one, getting the artwork forged and returning the original piece to Germaine as that would have opened some interesting doors – Germaine would have been ecstatic with them and arranged for it to be shipped by them to her final buyer, and that would have made an interesting plot reveal. But – no plan survives contact with the players, something I’m sure every GM knows all too well, and I certainly didn’t want to force them. Stuff will go on in the background, and I’ll find an alternative way to get things where I want them. <cue evil GM laughter and hand gestures>
I had nothing planned for the team, so there were a couple of rolls for random encounters on the journey, but it turned out to be nice and quiet in general terms, with the main thing of interest being the huge number of people travelling the same way as them and the massive difference to the last time they were here. I tried to get over the complete about-face from their winter visit to them, comparing the fully open and packed guest houses with the boarded up and run down atmosphere they’d previously encountered. None of them however wondered (at least not out loud) if they’d be able to find a room to stay in – unless they were just really happy that they could stay in the truck for at least one night.
The delivery itself went off without a hitch, though several of the team did get properly paranoid at the handover, watching the skies and expecting the ambush to hit at any moment – but it was all very benign and simple. Kai/Fozzy semi-botched his art roll, so I told him he wasn’t sure if Kulkachev was talking bollocks or was actually an art pundit with deep insights. The team suspect he’s a wannabe, but they aren’t 100% certain, and I’m happy to keep them guessing.
After that it was down to the hotel, and a bit of RP for taking on the room and deciding what to do, with the team getting to play tourist for a bit, while Tads went for a quick flap to the north. We’d previously established that creatures such as the Grey-headed albatross can maintain horizontal speeds of 100kph+, so covering the 250km to Sochi at a speed of 50kph seemed entirely reasonable.
Again, I rolled up for a random encounter to and from Sochi, and nothing came up – so I’m going to gloss over this and have her fly up and back while the team are out doing some tourist shopping, and we’ll pick up next week with them on the way back to the Ranch, and getting ready to kick off their next major job.
I think it’s time to bring another Great Dragon into the mix… have an NPC guest lined up already to come join us on the discord and play him, and give the team their briefing, so we can start to work towards that!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 07/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 06:00
2. Team ready to depart at dawn, gear in truck. Discuss north or south - near Warlord and through Tbilisi, or closer to Mt Ararat. Kai - go south. Marius - I'm driving, we're going north. Executive decision. Take the camping gear just in case, load all the paintings and statue into the truck rear.
3. Nadia asks Marius for a picture of the hotel. Innocent why? Then realises. Brown delivery truck PVPs.
4. Nice smooth 6-hour journey to Tbilisi. Stop in Tbilisi for rest, stretch legs, dinner. 2nd half of journey uneventful but slower traffic. Get to Batumi about 18:00. Decide not to deliver early. Aswon says he will sleep in the truck in his hammock, just in case. Kai agrees.
5. Pass the guest house, now open, where they formed the magic group.
6. Weather is dry/clear. All guest houses seem to be full. Hunter - I'll sleep on the roof. Team work on things - it might be a hassle, but they can do it for one night. Treat as hostile camp, keep watch.
7. Friday 8th, refresh spirits. Tads - he had spies all over town, should we drop the disguise early. Aswon - we might want to watch for tails.
8. Kai, Aswon, and Shimazu take the cable car up, rest head up the winding road. Guard "Egar", with cyber eye and cheek. "You can't park here" "what happened to your face". It's....I am Aswon. Ahh yes. Attack, Mr K paid for surgery. Let the guards know, truck go up, take the CC. Great view, lots of boats. Get to the top, spot the guards, guns are dirty now and poorly maintained.
9. Kids are coming down, 35kph, truck near miss, shout at M, he ignores and drives. One of the kids gets shoved and shouts more. Continues up.
10. Kai scopes out the security in case they have to come back for Germaine. Aswon - defences are still significant to the exterior. Marius arrives, has to lower suspension to avoid arch, but in ok.
11. Kulkachev comes out with guards, casual dress. Kai welcomes. You made good time, uneventful journey, ahh, that's why you were so quick. We've honed our skills a little since we last me. How have you been. The town is busy, good time of year. You have my things. Yes, in the truck, where do you want. By the front door. Aswon looks up at sky, team get defensive. Get stuff out, over to the door and start unboxing. Kulkachev examines, start talking. Kai not sure if he's talking BS or legit. Kai makes out he's knowledgeable and compliments. Is it for anywhere in particular, or to move on? Guards disarm, take paintings in. Into the gallery, makes as little sense as before. Kai goes back to the Constable, admires it again. Shows Kai the Mondoodlian. He likes the red.
12. Kai asks about the statue, one of the two davids, scale is well off. *Not actual size. Not my area - but beautiful piece. Now, this other painting, that looks interesting...
13. "Don't know much about it. Recommended by a friend, said it had interesting history, not too expensive.
14. Kai - is this the same person who recommend the statue. No, multiple people. I'm very well connected you know... Kai continues to chat, waiting for Mr K to get bored. Ask for reader, Pay is 75k
15. As we deal in the art world, know some dealers, would you be interested in pieces if we come across something. I have very discerning taste, but ok. I like the Mondoodlians. I'll take any more of those. Are you staying? Batumi is very busy. We were thinking about 1 night. Clicks fingers - I will get your suite like last time. Point at guard. Team leave as Mr K goes for a meeting.
16. Marius looks at the archway, can't get out now the truck is lighter. Can't get air out of tyres - run flats. Aswon - use the spirits? All manifest inside the truck. Just squeeze out, tiny scrapes.
17. Back down the hill and to the Plaza Hotel. Valet comes out and looks sceptical. Do you have a reservation. Mention Mr K. Valet runs in to get the duty manager. Arrange the "VIP" spot out the front of the hotel. No space underground. Manager apologies for other people being in the suite. Squirming.
18. Some of the team feel a bit bad, but Kai goes "frak it, Mr K has arranged this." Manager mugs at the valet to make the VIP spot.
19. Tads plans to go after lunch to start the flight to Sochi and back. Rest of team do tourist stuff, shopping, photos, gifts.
20. Saturday 9th, leaving Batumi
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Fairly straight-forward this week, with the delivery of the stolen artwork to the buyer. The team elected not to do any funny business with duping the artwork, and to deliver as requested, swapping into the truck to hide their true capabilities from Kulkachev.
I’d sort of hoped they would pull a fast one, getting the artwork forged and returning the original piece to Germaine as that would have opened some interesting doors – Germaine would have been ecstatic with them and arranged for it to be shipped by them to her final buyer, and that would have made an interesting plot reveal. But – no plan survives contact with the players, something I’m sure every GM knows all too well, and I certainly didn’t want to force them. Stuff will go on in the background, and I’ll find an alternative way to get things where I want them. <cue evil GM laughter and hand gestures>
I had nothing planned for the team, so there were a couple of rolls for random encounters on the journey, but it turned out to be nice and quiet in general terms, with the main thing of interest being the huge number of people travelling the same way as them and the massive difference to the last time they were here. I tried to get over the complete about-face from their winter visit to them, comparing the fully open and packed guest houses with the boarded up and run down atmosphere they’d previously encountered. None of them however wondered (at least not out loud) if they’d be able to find a room to stay in – unless they were just really happy that they could stay in the truck for at least one night.
The delivery itself went off without a hitch, though several of the team did get properly paranoid at the handover, watching the skies and expecting the ambush to hit at any moment – but it was all very benign and simple. Kai/Fozzy semi-botched his art roll, so I told him he wasn’t sure if Kulkachev was talking bollocks or was actually an art pundit with deep insights. The team suspect he’s a wannabe, but they aren’t 100% certain, and I’m happy to keep them guessing.
After that it was down to the hotel, and a bit of RP for taking on the room and deciding what to do, with the team getting to play tourist for a bit, while Tads went for a quick flap to the north. We’d previously established that creatures such as the Grey-headed albatross can maintain horizontal speeds of 100kph+, so covering the 250km to Sochi at a speed of 50kph seemed entirely reasonable.
Again, I rolled up for a random encounter to and from Sochi, and nothing came up – so I’m going to gloss over this and have her fly up and back while the team are out doing some tourist shopping, and we’ll pick up next week with them on the way back to the Ranch, and getting ready to kick off their next major job.
I think it’s time to bring another Great Dragon into the mix… have an NPC guest lined up already to come join us on the discord and play him, and give the team their briefing, so we can start to work towards that!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 07/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 06:00
2. Team ready to depart at dawn, gear in truck. Discuss north or south - near Warlord and through Tbilisi, or closer to Mt Ararat. Kai - go south. Marius - I'm driving, we're going north. Executive decision. Take the camping gear just in case, load all the paintings and statue into the truck rear.
3. Nadia asks Marius for a picture of the hotel. Innocent why? Then realises. Brown delivery truck PVPs.
4. Nice smooth 6-hour journey to Tbilisi. Stop in Tbilisi for rest, stretch legs, dinner. 2nd half of journey uneventful but slower traffic. Get to Batumi about 18:00. Decide not to deliver early. Aswon says he will sleep in the truck in his hammock, just in case. Kai agrees.
5. Pass the guest house, now open, where they formed the magic group.
6. Weather is dry/clear. All guest houses seem to be full. Hunter - I'll sleep on the roof. Team work on things - it might be a hassle, but they can do it for one night. Treat as hostile camp, keep watch.
7. Friday 8th, refresh spirits. Tads - he had spies all over town, should we drop the disguise early. Aswon - we might want to watch for tails.
8. Kai, Aswon, and Shimazu take the cable car up, rest head up the winding road. Guard "Egar", with cyber eye and cheek. "You can't park here" "what happened to your face". It's....I am Aswon. Ahh yes. Attack, Mr K paid for surgery. Let the guards know, truck go up, take the CC. Great view, lots of boats. Get to the top, spot the guards, guns are dirty now and poorly maintained.
9. Kids are coming down, 35kph, truck near miss, shout at M, he ignores and drives. One of the kids gets shoved and shouts more. Continues up.
10. Kai scopes out the security in case they have to come back for Germaine. Aswon - defences are still significant to the exterior. Marius arrives, has to lower suspension to avoid arch, but in ok.
11. Kulkachev comes out with guards, casual dress. Kai welcomes. You made good time, uneventful journey, ahh, that's why you were so quick. We've honed our skills a little since we last me. How have you been. The town is busy, good time of year. You have my things. Yes, in the truck, where do you want. By the front door. Aswon looks up at sky, team get defensive. Get stuff out, over to the door and start unboxing. Kulkachev examines, start talking. Kai not sure if he's talking BS or legit. Kai makes out he's knowledgeable and compliments. Is it for anywhere in particular, or to move on? Guards disarm, take paintings in. Into the gallery, makes as little sense as before. Kai goes back to the Constable, admires it again. Shows Kai the Mondoodlian. He likes the red.
12. Kai asks about the statue, one of the two davids, scale is well off. *Not actual size. Not my area - but beautiful piece. Now, this other painting, that looks interesting...
13. "Don't know much about it. Recommended by a friend, said it had interesting history, not too expensive.
14. Kai - is this the same person who recommend the statue. No, multiple people. I'm very well connected you know... Kai continues to chat, waiting for Mr K to get bored. Ask for reader, Pay is 75k
15. As we deal in the art world, know some dealers, would you be interested in pieces if we come across something. I have very discerning taste, but ok. I like the Mondoodlians. I'll take any more of those. Are you staying? Batumi is very busy. We were thinking about 1 night. Clicks fingers - I will get your suite like last time. Point at guard. Team leave as Mr K goes for a meeting.
16. Marius looks at the archway, can't get out now the truck is lighter. Can't get air out of tyres - run flats. Aswon - use the spirits? All manifest inside the truck. Just squeeze out, tiny scrapes.
17. Back down the hill and to the Plaza Hotel. Valet comes out and looks sceptical. Do you have a reservation. Mention Mr K. Valet runs in to get the duty manager. Arrange the "VIP" spot out the front of the hotel. No space underground. Manager apologies for other people being in the suite. Squirming.
18. Some of the team feel a bit bad, but Kai goes "frak it, Mr K has arranged this." Manager mugs at the valet to make the VIP spot.
19. Tads plans to go after lunch to start the flight to Sochi and back. Rest of team do tourist stuff, shopping, photos, gifts.
20. Saturday 9th, leaving Batumi
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 294 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Oh boy – a fun one for me this weekend, and I wonder if I’ve given one of my players a horrible nightmare… but I’m getting ahead of myself a little.
We started off in Batumi, handling a micro-downtime. Tads had shapechanged into a giant bird and was doing the 250km flight up to Sochi to go buy a high-force heal spell. I didn’t have anything particular planned, and a quick roll for random encounters didn’t bring anything up – not that I thought it would be an issue with a flock of spirits to protect her, so that was handled “off camera”, and to keep things moving we also abstracted the night of R&R in the coastal town. Other than Marius wanting to get Nadia some presents, they had nothing specific in mind, so we just moved on to the following morning, and the team heading back to the ranch.
And then I told Marius about the exam. “What exam?” he asked. Well, it was news to him, as he’d not been told – but now apparently there’s an exam. Of course, he hadn’t been studying for anything either. There was a bit of discussion amongst the players, and lots of very genuine head scratching. It looks like they were out of game, very confused. Marius of course has a perfect memory, so I gave him an intelligence check on a pretty low target number, and then reminded him that back in episode 277, a mysterious briefcase had turned up at the Ranch, keyed to his biometrics and containing books on “Nuclear Reactors: Engineering Operations Manual for S1B reactor, Columbia Class submarines” and “Pebble bed reactions: Design considerations for Ultra-High Temperature sealed reactor operations” along with chips on subjects like “Nuclear materials storage, Radiation Hazards and Mitigation factors, Nuclear medicine, High Pressure water exchange systems, Electrical generation techniques for high pressure turbines, Nuclear Epitaxy, Quantum diffusion bonding”…
Then there was the sudden flash of several people vaguely remembering, as I read back the bit of the writeup detailing this, and them suddenly recalling that someone had sent them a shit-ton of material on high level scientific principles.
That they then ignored and did nothing with.
Of course, the people at Ares had assumed that Marius, being an intelligent guy, knew that he was supposed to start studying this, and have left him for 3 months to assimilate the first lot of knowledge. And now there’s a test.
And I’m wondering if the player is going to get that weird nightmare where you turn up at school and there’s an exam, and you’ve done no revision, and everyone else knew about it, but you missed the memo, and oh god, oh god, oh god, the world is on fire. Because if he doesn’t, then Marius really should be!
As they dug into things further, I hinted that Ares would be disappointed with him. Not angry. But disappointed. He’d have let himself down, his friends down, the company down… oh, and they might not send through any more updates for his cyber-ware. That was the final nail I think, and suddenly this became and *important* thing that needed to be done!
Next up was coming back with some news from Sato, filling in a bit of information and adding to the suspicion that the hit in Kabul was organised by Falcon. There’s more to come, though I think the team are very strongly leaning in that direction now and are just covering bases.
And the last main thing in the session was the bit of washed out road on the way home, which was just a random encounter inspired by some of the weird weather stuff I’ve been seeing cropping up after the storms – but Marius managed to spot the hazard easily enough and they dealt with it fine.
Back at the ranch, with Hunter and Marius planning on doing some revision and study, and the others also planning on some training time, it seemed like a good point to do a karma award, with the team getting between 17 and 19 karma for the last 17 sessions of play, covering everything they’d done since leaving Nigeria – the Nenet tribal stuff, rescuing and helping the other crew when they were shot down, the journey to England, the King Arthur plotline, and then the job for Kulkachev. They could have gotten more – but decided not to play both side of the line…
When I set up the art heist, I deliberately set things up so that Kulkachev gave them enough time to do the job by truck, and allowed nearly a week for transit. They would need only a day to do the actual travel, giving them plenty of slack time. I’d checked their skills and contacts, and had worked out in my head a feasible plan using those skills – not that I expected them to do it exactly that way of course. But I knew there was a workable plan they *could* use! So if I was in their place, I would have…
Got the team to do a distraction when collecting the artwork, to cover Tads as she cast a trid phantasm over the Jewel of Muscat. The phantasm would have added a tiny inconsistency, such as a jumping dolphin in front of the prow of the ship – something that shouldn’t be there, but also wouldn’t look out of place in the context.
The team then took photos, as did the art dealers, to prove they were passing things over. I’d have given them a check to spot the illusion, but if it was small enough, and the team had distracted them well enough, it would have been very unlikely to get spotted. But it would have then established that the picture was in theory not the “original”, when the team took it on – and that the art dealers were shifting a copy.
The team then had 6 days to find a forger. I’d set up a contact via Kai’s art dealer in Tehran (which was on the way they had to go) who could do the job, and duplicate the real painting, adding in the dolphin. The team pay the forger, keep the actual original, and then deliver the copy to Kulkachev.
He gets a test to spot the forgery then. Chances are, because he’s incredibly uncultured that he won’t spot it. But even if he does, or someone who does know about art later spots it, and he checks the records he was provided with, he can see the team’s pickup photos have the mistake in – and more importantly, so does the art dealers copy. So as far as he’s concerned, *they* are the ones screwing him over. He’d probably even pay the team to go deal with them then, as he thinks he can trust them! Talk about double-dipping… <grin>
Meanwhile, the team take the original to Germaine, who would have been grateful. Very, very grateful indeed. And that would have triggered another job for them to deliver the painting to her client, and collect their big fat reward!
That was my thought process – and I think it’s relatively straightforward. Actually inspired by an episode of Hustle (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0608714/?ref_=ttep_ep4) that used this as a key plot point (though in a different way), I knew the team absolutely had the technical ability to pull this off.
Of course, they chose not to, so they lost out on the chance of a fat payout and a nice karma award (though being fair, they were unware of either!), and I try not to railroad the players like that. The painting will come up again later, for sure, and they’ll have their chance to get it to Germaine and her wealthy and important buyer – just later on.
At least they got some rep from Kolkachev for a job well done, with no hassle, and a reasonable payout too.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 09/07/61, Location: 41.65046, 41.63027, Time 11:00
2. Team check out, ready to head back. Changer colour scheme, head back on the same route.
3. 3/4 of the way back from Batumi to Tbilisi, email to Marius - confused. Pass to Hunter. He checks, it's come from an Ares subsidiary. Hunter call Julius to check, is it safe to talk. As safe as anything...Gives details. Might not be safe to talk, think it's black ops. Arrange to call back in an hour, on a secure / burner line. Set up a bounce call using the sat-phone, call the number on the email, asks for ID. Routes to "Enquiries", how can I help. About the exam. Explains needs a secure matrix connection and install anti-cheat system. Marius "recalls" it's been 3 months since chip delivery. Hunter calls Julius back. Cathedral type background. "What the frak are you involved with?" Hunter, chips, exam in nuclear physics. It's a bit like Bond special gear department. Have you got an in with them? Hunter puts on hold, asks Kai - do we tell him about meeting DK and the others. Yeah. Give him some details.
4. Just how high level. "Peak", where were you? "Why" Nahhh, couldn't be that... maybe we should meet up some time for dinner sometime. Somewhere quiet. Got an leave due? I know a ranch in the middle of nowhere, great for unwinding. You're in bumfukistan. Hunter to Kai - can we pay for his ticket? Kai, go on then. Send him a free ticket from the lottery. Take care, bye.
5. Aswon advises - don't bring him to the ranch, might be dangerous to him, make them think they have a leak, probably track him, if he intersects with us. We can work around that with a big jammer maybe but it still has risks. Maybe somewhere neutral.
6. Get to Tbilisi ok. onwards, about 19:30 Ludmilla calls Kai. Arranges to get stuff dropped down by courier, get address. Are you available to work, might have something soon. Kai - maybe, we have time but we can check the job.
7. Reaction check - random encounter, road subsidence. Excellent reaction check, stops in time. Farmland either side. Aswon pokes with spear, collapses into a sinkhole. Team fix with shape earth and some engineering knowledge.
8. Arrive back at the ranch about 23:00
9. Marius gives gifts to Nadia - photos, tourist tat, jewellery. Nadia is *very* happy, and whisks Marius away for some quiet time. Marius Jr is better and is sleeping.
10. Hunter gets a shadowland secure room sorted out that evening. Kai - I want to talk to Germaine about the painting. Aswon - but should make it clear we're not going to go fetch it as we were involved. Tads agrees.
11. Sato calls Shimazu - I'm still making enquiries, but I've found that someone in the middle east has been digging into a team, matching your general descriptions. Spreading some cash around for quiet info. Male, private detective types, building up a profile. Different descriptions from everyone I've spoken to though. Sounds like a pro. Shimazu - thanks, keep looking, will keep in touch.
12. Tads - sounds like an illusion, the same person who paid the woman to lure Shimazu off, likely to be the same person. Hunter to Shimazu - ask for a timeline when this was done, next time you speak to him.
13. Probe race news - Ares/Novatech/Yamatetsu, others are pretty much out, New Islamic Jihad kicking off, news of drugs bust in Jakata.
14. Sunday morning. Kai gets alert about delivery between 12:00-14:00. Hunter sends email to Julius. Comm code delivered via pizza box lid.
15. Delivery from Ludmilla
16. 3 X Heavy Machine Guns, Russian PKP Pecheng 7.62mm fully automatic units, either 100 round box magazines or belt fed using non-disintegrating belts
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gu...ny4thOTBr24.jpg
18. Can be mounted to a standard Russian light vehicle mount or infantry support tripod
19. Conceal NA, FA, 10S damage, RC2 (bipod deployed),
20. 4 X 100 round boxes of AV ammo in 7.62 X 54R
21. 1 X SVD-P Russian sniper rifle. 1.2m rifle, 10 round box magazine, Semi-Auto, 12S damage, optical scope zoom 2 with low-light. 4.68kg
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVD_(rifle)#/...RMY-2016_01.jpg
23. 50 rounds of APDS ammo
24. Sword: Monomolekulyarnyy razrushitel, Str+2M, +1Reach, Conceal 3, Weight 2.5kg, 1m long, 5cm wide blade, shaped like a Ninjato and finished in "vanta black"
25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjat%C5%8D#.../File:Ninto.png
26. Shield: Zashchitnik kreposti, Ballistic 2/3, Impact 2/3, Weight 5
27. https://kula-tactical.com/wp-content/upload...-5-680x680.webp
28. Plan to have a week of downtime.
29. Karma award. Aswon+Hunter 19, Marius, Shimazu and Tads 18, Kai 17
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Oh boy – a fun one for me this weekend, and I wonder if I’ve given one of my players a horrible nightmare… but I’m getting ahead of myself a little.
We started off in Batumi, handling a micro-downtime. Tads had shapechanged into a giant bird and was doing the 250km flight up to Sochi to go buy a high-force heal spell. I didn’t have anything particular planned, and a quick roll for random encounters didn’t bring anything up – not that I thought it would be an issue with a flock of spirits to protect her, so that was handled “off camera”, and to keep things moving we also abstracted the night of R&R in the coastal town. Other than Marius wanting to get Nadia some presents, they had nothing specific in mind, so we just moved on to the following morning, and the team heading back to the ranch.
And then I told Marius about the exam. “What exam?” he asked. Well, it was news to him, as he’d not been told – but now apparently there’s an exam. Of course, he hadn’t been studying for anything either. There was a bit of discussion amongst the players, and lots of very genuine head scratching. It looks like they were out of game, very confused. Marius of course has a perfect memory, so I gave him an intelligence check on a pretty low target number, and then reminded him that back in episode 277, a mysterious briefcase had turned up at the Ranch, keyed to his biometrics and containing books on “Nuclear Reactors: Engineering Operations Manual for S1B reactor, Columbia Class submarines” and “Pebble bed reactions: Design considerations for Ultra-High Temperature sealed reactor operations” along with chips on subjects like “Nuclear materials storage, Radiation Hazards and Mitigation factors, Nuclear medicine, High Pressure water exchange systems, Electrical generation techniques for high pressure turbines, Nuclear Epitaxy, Quantum diffusion bonding”…
Then there was the sudden flash of several people vaguely remembering, as I read back the bit of the writeup detailing this, and them suddenly recalling that someone had sent them a shit-ton of material on high level scientific principles.
That they then ignored and did nothing with.
Of course, the people at Ares had assumed that Marius, being an intelligent guy, knew that he was supposed to start studying this, and have left him for 3 months to assimilate the first lot of knowledge. And now there’s a test.
And I’m wondering if the player is going to get that weird nightmare where you turn up at school and there’s an exam, and you’ve done no revision, and everyone else knew about it, but you missed the memo, and oh god, oh god, oh god, the world is on fire. Because if he doesn’t, then Marius really should be!
As they dug into things further, I hinted that Ares would be disappointed with him. Not angry. But disappointed. He’d have let himself down, his friends down, the company down… oh, and they might not send through any more updates for his cyber-ware. That was the final nail I think, and suddenly this became and *important* thing that needed to be done!
Next up was coming back with some news from Sato, filling in a bit of information and adding to the suspicion that the hit in Kabul was organised by Falcon. There’s more to come, though I think the team are very strongly leaning in that direction now and are just covering bases.
And the last main thing in the session was the bit of washed out road on the way home, which was just a random encounter inspired by some of the weird weather stuff I’ve been seeing cropping up after the storms – but Marius managed to spot the hazard easily enough and they dealt with it fine.
Back at the ranch, with Hunter and Marius planning on doing some revision and study, and the others also planning on some training time, it seemed like a good point to do a karma award, with the team getting between 17 and 19 karma for the last 17 sessions of play, covering everything they’d done since leaving Nigeria – the Nenet tribal stuff, rescuing and helping the other crew when they were shot down, the journey to England, the King Arthur plotline, and then the job for Kulkachev. They could have gotten more – but decided not to play both side of the line…
When I set up the art heist, I deliberately set things up so that Kulkachev gave them enough time to do the job by truck, and allowed nearly a week for transit. They would need only a day to do the actual travel, giving them plenty of slack time. I’d checked their skills and contacts, and had worked out in my head a feasible plan using those skills – not that I expected them to do it exactly that way of course. But I knew there was a workable plan they *could* use! So if I was in their place, I would have…
Got the team to do a distraction when collecting the artwork, to cover Tads as she cast a trid phantasm over the Jewel of Muscat. The phantasm would have added a tiny inconsistency, such as a jumping dolphin in front of the prow of the ship – something that shouldn’t be there, but also wouldn’t look out of place in the context.
The team then took photos, as did the art dealers, to prove they were passing things over. I’d have given them a check to spot the illusion, but if it was small enough, and the team had distracted them well enough, it would have been very unlikely to get spotted. But it would have then established that the picture was in theory not the “original”, when the team took it on – and that the art dealers were shifting a copy.
The team then had 6 days to find a forger. I’d set up a contact via Kai’s art dealer in Tehran (which was on the way they had to go) who could do the job, and duplicate the real painting, adding in the dolphin. The team pay the forger, keep the actual original, and then deliver the copy to Kulkachev.
He gets a test to spot the forgery then. Chances are, because he’s incredibly uncultured that he won’t spot it. But even if he does, or someone who does know about art later spots it, and he checks the records he was provided with, he can see the team’s pickup photos have the mistake in – and more importantly, so does the art dealers copy. So as far as he’s concerned, *they* are the ones screwing him over. He’d probably even pay the team to go deal with them then, as he thinks he can trust them! Talk about double-dipping… <grin>
Meanwhile, the team take the original to Germaine, who would have been grateful. Very, very grateful indeed. And that would have triggered another job for them to deliver the painting to her client, and collect their big fat reward!
That was my thought process – and I think it’s relatively straightforward. Actually inspired by an episode of Hustle (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0608714/?ref_=ttep_ep4) that used this as a key plot point (though in a different way), I knew the team absolutely had the technical ability to pull this off.
Of course, they chose not to, so they lost out on the chance of a fat payout and a nice karma award (though being fair, they were unware of either!), and I try not to railroad the players like that. The painting will come up again later, for sure, and they’ll have their chance to get it to Germaine and her wealthy and important buyer – just later on.
At least they got some rep from Kolkachev for a job well done, with no hassle, and a reasonable payout too.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 09/07/61, Location: 41.65046, 41.63027, Time 11:00
2. Team check out, ready to head back. Changer colour scheme, head back on the same route.
3. 3/4 of the way back from Batumi to Tbilisi, email to Marius - confused. Pass to Hunter. He checks, it's come from an Ares subsidiary. Hunter call Julius to check, is it safe to talk. As safe as anything...Gives details. Might not be safe to talk, think it's black ops. Arrange to call back in an hour, on a secure / burner line. Set up a bounce call using the sat-phone, call the number on the email, asks for ID. Routes to "Enquiries", how can I help. About the exam. Explains needs a secure matrix connection and install anti-cheat system. Marius "recalls" it's been 3 months since chip delivery. Hunter calls Julius back. Cathedral type background. "What the frak are you involved with?" Hunter, chips, exam in nuclear physics. It's a bit like Bond special gear department. Have you got an in with them? Hunter puts on hold, asks Kai - do we tell him about meeting DK and the others. Yeah. Give him some details.
4. Just how high level. "Peak", where were you? "Why" Nahhh, couldn't be that... maybe we should meet up some time for dinner sometime. Somewhere quiet. Got an leave due? I know a ranch in the middle of nowhere, great for unwinding. You're in bumfukistan. Hunter to Kai - can we pay for his ticket? Kai, go on then. Send him a free ticket from the lottery. Take care, bye.
5. Aswon advises - don't bring him to the ranch, might be dangerous to him, make them think they have a leak, probably track him, if he intersects with us. We can work around that with a big jammer maybe but it still has risks. Maybe somewhere neutral.
6. Get to Tbilisi ok. onwards, about 19:30 Ludmilla calls Kai. Arranges to get stuff dropped down by courier, get address. Are you available to work, might have something soon. Kai - maybe, we have time but we can check the job.
7. Reaction check - random encounter, road subsidence. Excellent reaction check, stops in time. Farmland either side. Aswon pokes with spear, collapses into a sinkhole. Team fix with shape earth and some engineering knowledge.
8. Arrive back at the ranch about 23:00
9. Marius gives gifts to Nadia - photos, tourist tat, jewellery. Nadia is *very* happy, and whisks Marius away for some quiet time. Marius Jr is better and is sleeping.
10. Hunter gets a shadowland secure room sorted out that evening. Kai - I want to talk to Germaine about the painting. Aswon - but should make it clear we're not going to go fetch it as we were involved. Tads agrees.
11. Sato calls Shimazu - I'm still making enquiries, but I've found that someone in the middle east has been digging into a team, matching your general descriptions. Spreading some cash around for quiet info. Male, private detective types, building up a profile. Different descriptions from everyone I've spoken to though. Sounds like a pro. Shimazu - thanks, keep looking, will keep in touch.
12. Tads - sounds like an illusion, the same person who paid the woman to lure Shimazu off, likely to be the same person. Hunter to Shimazu - ask for a timeline when this was done, next time you speak to him.
13. Probe race news - Ares/Novatech/Yamatetsu, others are pretty much out, New Islamic Jihad kicking off, news of drugs bust in Jakata.
14. Sunday morning. Kai gets alert about delivery between 12:00-14:00. Hunter sends email to Julius. Comm code delivered via pizza box lid.
15. Delivery from Ludmilla
16. 3 X Heavy Machine Guns, Russian PKP Pecheng 7.62mm fully automatic units, either 100 round box magazines or belt fed using non-disintegrating belts
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gu...ny4thOTBr24.jpg
18. Can be mounted to a standard Russian light vehicle mount or infantry support tripod
19. Conceal NA, FA, 10S damage, RC2 (bipod deployed),
20. 4 X 100 round boxes of AV ammo in 7.62 X 54R
21. 1 X SVD-P Russian sniper rifle. 1.2m rifle, 10 round box magazine, Semi-Auto, 12S damage, optical scope zoom 2 with low-light. 4.68kg
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVD_(rifle)#/...RMY-2016_01.jpg
23. 50 rounds of APDS ammo
24. Sword: Monomolekulyarnyy razrushitel, Str+2M, +1Reach, Conceal 3, Weight 2.5kg, 1m long, 5cm wide blade, shaped like a Ninjato and finished in "vanta black"
25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjat%C5%8D#.../File:Ninto.png
26. Shield: Zashchitnik kreposti, Ballistic 2/3, Impact 2/3, Weight 5
27. https://kula-tactical.com/wp-content/upload...-5-680x680.webp
28. Plan to have a week of downtime.
29. Karma award. Aswon+Hunter 19, Marius, Shimazu and Tads 18, Kai 17
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 295 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/AADHEzIFHeBDR7PPTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, this week I sprang the exam on Marius. He’d started the ball rolling by calling to confirm he would be sitting it – and as anyone who’s had to deal with automated scheduling systems knows, sometimes they can be incredibly irritating and unreasonable to work with. He actually got a couple of success on his first exam, even though the target number was high due to him defaulting – so he didn’t get the complete failure I’d been expecting.
After the result was given out, I had a chat with the player about how Marius felt about this – it’s always been a strong theme running through how he played Marius that he was in the gifted and talented programmes and so on, and from experience of working in a school and seeing someone like that run into something hard, it can be a very rude awakening for someone used to being able to coast on by. We made a willpower roll, which he got a decent result on, and described how though initially shocked he was at the low mark and how tough the exam was, he’d come out of it with a steely determination not to be beaten.
There were a whole bunch of skills covered, but rather than trying to skill up in those, what I’ve done is given the player a “future tech” skill to invest in, that will cover all of the plot elements that come out later – and that can also be used when he comes across anything similarly advanced in his travel. That means it’s still a karma investment to get the skill up, but we’re not trying to juggle multiple skills and determine which ones are appropriate for a situation – and also that the karma investment can have some payback before the main plot requires it.
Kai wanted some customer injector arrows, and they managed to find some of those – though not any drugs to go in them, as the group has two separate weapons dealers as contacts, and that seemed an easy enough ask. Kai/Fozzy had found some mention online for these – not realising that they were from a later edition (5th edition Run and Gun I believe), so I did a quick search myself to find them, see that they weren’t some crazy crap and just back-converted them.
With that done, and the week of training and downtime “montage” coming to an end, it was time to throw the next job at them. Mr Daruka called, offering Kai a job to ship half a ton of high quality Afghan Heroin down towards China, feeding off the back of the drugs bust that had been reported in the news in the previous session. This led to an interaction that I found somewhat surprising (and just goes to show that sometimes you just don’t know how your players will react!) where Hunter seemed less than impressed about being drugs mules, but Aswon leapt to the defence pointing out that it was the very definition of smuggling. If anything, if I’d thought about it I would have swapped them over in their points of view. It wasn’t an issue here, and the job was taken up by the team for consideration, but I’m glad that I hadn’t keyed any further plot threads off of any of the teams personalities, as that might have backfired!
One of my goals here is to get them introduced to a few new smuggler stops to bridge them down towards south-east Asia, and make sure they have places to go to refuel to make later trips possible. I have a couple of stops already defined with NPCs waiting in eastern Afghanistan (Shergar - A large walled compound built overlooking a small section of farmland, about 10km north of the New Silk Road, primarily for tilt-wings, tbirds, choppers and road vehicles) in the southern part of Nepal about 1100km further on (Trafford - A very rough harbour and road-style landing strip, built as part of the village. The owner here has an obsession with Manchester United football club and the whole village is decorated with memorabilia), another on the coast of West Bengal another 1000km eastwards (Dharabala - A rough dirt strip and run down shacks and outhouses set in a river delta, on marshland. Everything is wet and humid and smelly.) and one more in Yunnan province another 1300km eastwards (Dragon Ridge - The stop sits on the edge of the Maobanqiao reservoir and has a small facility for maintenance of the pleasure craft, with amphibious planes and road vehicles being the main users. The stop is adjacent to a major toll highway). That gets them to within 1300km of Hong Kong, and gives them options.
I also have some stops further south, in the South China Sea itself which were seeded for the Pacific ring of fire job but never used, which lets them come back the ‘scenic’ way if they want to vary their route or go exploring, or to follow up on new opportunities.
Although they have taken onboard Tads suggestion of using some of the unused storage space to carry a triple fuel load instead of their normal double, I’m going to strongly encourage Kai to pursue the smuggler stops. He has the knowledge skill ‘smuggling routes’ so I think it’s easily going to occur to him that they have the option of using the cargo space for extra fuel now – but if they ever get a very heavy, or a very bulky load to move then they wouldn’t be able to do that – and if they don’t have the stops already visited and onboard, that might make a job impossible to do. Hopefully he’ll take the hint and push for them to visit! If they don’t – well, that’s their choice. Maybe they’ll do it later – but if not, then it’s going to impact their abilities down the line. The choice is theirs, but it will have consequences – and thankfully at least all of the players are decent and accept stuff like that without winging.
As for the actual run, I intend for this to be 90% milk run. The Broadsword has a signature of 7 naturally thanks to the stealth design and features baked in, which is pretty good for an aircraft that size. Add on the spirit concealment (normally a force 5) and the border forces are looking at a target number of 12 to spot them – and again thanks to the EDs present on the player craft, they need more than one of those. But – on top of that we have Marius who has a specialisation of ‘Stealth (Vehicles)’ at rating 6 – so statistically we’re looking at actually needing 18s to spot the team, making it a very remote chance that passive defences alone will find them.
It’s not an auto-pass of course. If there is an alert and there are interceptor jets up, or magical patrols, that massively affects things either due to the size of the dice pool spotting them, or the fact that their concealing spirit is very obvious in the astral plane! So they can’t afford to be too laid-back… but this should be relatively easy.
When they get to the destination, the contact there is going to push a little, and hint at trying to rob or extort the team, though I’m going to try and be *very* careful with the implementation here. The local drug warlord is capable, but the team should be able to wipe the floor with him in a fight, and if they show him the type of firepower they have, they’ll back down immediately. This run is mainly aimed at two objectives, and kicking off a major fight isn’t one of them!
First of all, this is a ‘proper’ smuggling run. It’s not tied in with the over-arching plot. There’s no ulterior motives. No major NPCs with hidden agendas pulling strings. It’s just a plain, simple, straight-forward job that is exactly on-brand for the team, just to let them do what it is they are ‘supposed’ to be doing from their point of view.
Secondly, it’s a way to get a chunk of cash into their pockets from a seized opportunity, to allow them to finance a major expansion. I don’t know what they’re going to choose – maybe to take Hunter for some major cyber-ware upgrades after he received his bonus essence points from his campaign special. Maybe to buy him a decent deck for all the searches and info-trawls he has to do. Maybe for Marius to finish upgrading his rigger deck with all the utilities they could ever need for him to be god-like in combat. But, I’m intending for them to be able to pretty much double their money on this deal, so they can afford to really push one of the team further down their personal goal track.
So of course, with that being the intention… this is the time when the team keep arguing for fiscal caution! Murphy’s law strikes again…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 10/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 10:00
2. Aswon calls Spook & tip her off that people are asking about us, we've had one murder attempt. If she hears anything call me, don't ask around keep her head down - unless she has a handy shortlist of mage assassins, in which case we're interested in that.
3. Marius sits exam - gets 2 successes with 1 reroll,
4. "Your test results have placed you in an unacceptable position. Based upon your current performance, further upgrades and enhancements will not be offered, and no further support will be available. It is essential that your grades are raised to an acceptable level to allow us to review this decision. You may resit this examination in five days."
5. 0>1, 4 hours, 1 Karma
6. 1>2, Test vs 3s, 1 Karma, Base time 15 days / 60 hours, spend 2 gk, 4 success 15 hours, takes to Tuesday morning.
7. Hunter also learning, gets 2, takes 30 hours to get to level 2
8. Marius 2>3, Test vs 4s, 2 Karma, Base time 30 days / 120 hours, rerolls+buy 2, total 5, 3.5 days
9. Hunter 2>3, Test vs 5s, 2 Karma, Base time 30 days / 120 hours,
10. Marius sits 2nd exam with Hunter "helping" over the shoulder, Hunter gives 1 success complimentary, Marius gets 3, buys 2, total of 6.
11. "Congratulation, You have passed Advanced Tech 101. Further course materials and upgrades will be provided."
12. Tads gets heal 8
13. Aswon SUT 5, Paracritters 4, Talismongering 4
14. Shimazu relaxing, doing training with the kids in the local town.
15. Kai: Archery, Pistols and Edged weapons. Antiques >3
16. Spook sends message back "Will keep ears open without poking head above parapet"
17. Aswon calls Mr Hu about injector arrows, Kai calls Mr Wu. Both have availability for "Silent Striker" arrowheads, Hu can get 1 dozen of R4, 40 per, post them out.
18. Silent Striker + Wu can get 3 dozen or R6 60ny per head, 36
19. 3k for both including shipping.
20. Both ask about drugs. Nothing from Hu, Wu will go looking. What do you want - neurostun style.
21. Towards end of the week - Sato and Spook both come back with fragments, both strongly leading in to it being the Courier from Tehran as a likely assassin.
22. Shimazu wonders if it's eye for an eye, or a death oath, needs more info on their psychology.
23. Daruka calls, how are you, depends, how are you. Having a break, are you available for work. Did you manage to sell the product. Yes, happy customers. Unusual line of business for us. I have a business opportunity for you, same lines. Towards the Philippines, about 500kg.
24. Kai - timescales? New op. South china sea. Check news
25. Aswon reminds team about the drugs bust. Tads - what are the fuel costs?
26. Hunter - are we drug dealers now? Aswon - yeah, smuggling. They're goods. Shimazu - could be a trap, might be to do with the courier. Hunter works out cost for 500kg, can't afford it. Kai - because we're new to this business. Work out they could buy 100k and still have 150kg.
27. Tads - what is the etiquette for discussing with him, and keeping it business? Kai- play it straight.
28. Shimazu - not a fan of the drug dealing side. Lucrative offer, sounds tempting, might lead us down the route to the courier.
29. Marius - however, agree with everything you just said, but if it's a trap, or they find out and look to get us, we're still expecting it, it could be a chance to reverse it. Shimazu, we can lay a trap in time, need more information.
30. Journey is approx 6.5k km, so just over 2 stops each way.
31. Tads - check my maths, if we do 100k cash, that's only 13kg. Team work out the maths, realise they need to ship big. Discussion over it being a sellers market. Aswon do, but take it super cautiously.
32. Marius - do we start turning down jobs because they can be a setup?
33. Kai, I think we can do it. Marius - approach it like everything is an ambush, super careful.
34. Shimazu, little unhappy but will go with team.
35. Tads - if everything is treated like an ambush, disguise is an active spell, need to bear in mind things like sustaining / shielding.
36. Aswon - never use the same tactic twice. Tads - but unusual vehicle. Marius, powerful magical attack, rely on the stealth for the bird, magic for defence.
37. Marius - hit the fuel stops at night in a dark bird, time it carefully,
38. Kai - we need to talk to the guy in a minute, recaps teams thoughts,
39. Tads - he may have a min price for his contact for future deals, worth bearing in mind.
40. Aswon - do you want to call Ludmilla about a job? Kai - deep sigh. No - let's deal with this guy first, Might be low duration.
41. Kai calls back. Ahh, Mr Kai. Sorry for delay, some financial discussion and availability. Latter we're available. Former we are constrained. Hmm, a deal. We're reliable and fast, but we have fuel costs, understand you want to establish a route, but we want to be honest about capabilities. We have 500k to invest. We want to make as much profit as possible. Hah! Don't we all!. I'll bow to your expertise on profit margins. Is that enough for your client. Not ideal, could you stretch to 750k. Kai checks bank. Hunter - how much weight? 500k for 100kg. What can we expect. Well, the area is dry, you can expect good money and to be very happy. Kai to team - shall we go to 600k? Hunter, that's a hard limit. Bit of haggling. 125kg for 600k, but they have to sell Daruka's contact details hard to the far end.
42. Kai checks smuggler routes - Shark tank, south china sea.
43. Delivery contact: Tse Chi Lop, GuanDong province.
44. Kai contacts - Jahnu Sidana, he can try to get the team an into to Trafford. Start working out routes. Tads suggests getting more fuel barrels and double stacking fuel. Nadia can get fuel barrels with a few hours’ notice.
45. Hunter: Get me a pump! High speed electric pump!
46. Pick up Sunday 17th
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/AADHEzIFHeBDR7PPTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, this week I sprang the exam on Marius. He’d started the ball rolling by calling to confirm he would be sitting it – and as anyone who’s had to deal with automated scheduling systems knows, sometimes they can be incredibly irritating and unreasonable to work with. He actually got a couple of success on his first exam, even though the target number was high due to him defaulting – so he didn’t get the complete failure I’d been expecting.
After the result was given out, I had a chat with the player about how Marius felt about this – it’s always been a strong theme running through how he played Marius that he was in the gifted and talented programmes and so on, and from experience of working in a school and seeing someone like that run into something hard, it can be a very rude awakening for someone used to being able to coast on by. We made a willpower roll, which he got a decent result on, and described how though initially shocked he was at the low mark and how tough the exam was, he’d come out of it with a steely determination not to be beaten.
There were a whole bunch of skills covered, but rather than trying to skill up in those, what I’ve done is given the player a “future tech” skill to invest in, that will cover all of the plot elements that come out later – and that can also be used when he comes across anything similarly advanced in his travel. That means it’s still a karma investment to get the skill up, but we’re not trying to juggle multiple skills and determine which ones are appropriate for a situation – and also that the karma investment can have some payback before the main plot requires it.
Kai wanted some customer injector arrows, and they managed to find some of those – though not any drugs to go in them, as the group has two separate weapons dealers as contacts, and that seemed an easy enough ask. Kai/Fozzy had found some mention online for these – not realising that they were from a later edition (5th edition Run and Gun I believe), so I did a quick search myself to find them, see that they weren’t some crazy crap and just back-converted them.
With that done, and the week of training and downtime “montage” coming to an end, it was time to throw the next job at them. Mr Daruka called, offering Kai a job to ship half a ton of high quality Afghan Heroin down towards China, feeding off the back of the drugs bust that had been reported in the news in the previous session. This led to an interaction that I found somewhat surprising (and just goes to show that sometimes you just don’t know how your players will react!) where Hunter seemed less than impressed about being drugs mules, but Aswon leapt to the defence pointing out that it was the very definition of smuggling. If anything, if I’d thought about it I would have swapped them over in their points of view. It wasn’t an issue here, and the job was taken up by the team for consideration, but I’m glad that I hadn’t keyed any further plot threads off of any of the teams personalities, as that might have backfired!
One of my goals here is to get them introduced to a few new smuggler stops to bridge them down towards south-east Asia, and make sure they have places to go to refuel to make later trips possible. I have a couple of stops already defined with NPCs waiting in eastern Afghanistan (Shergar - A large walled compound built overlooking a small section of farmland, about 10km north of the New Silk Road, primarily for tilt-wings, tbirds, choppers and road vehicles) in the southern part of Nepal about 1100km further on (Trafford - A very rough harbour and road-style landing strip, built as part of the village. The owner here has an obsession with Manchester United football club and the whole village is decorated with memorabilia), another on the coast of West Bengal another 1000km eastwards (Dharabala - A rough dirt strip and run down shacks and outhouses set in a river delta, on marshland. Everything is wet and humid and smelly.) and one more in Yunnan province another 1300km eastwards (Dragon Ridge - The stop sits on the edge of the Maobanqiao reservoir and has a small facility for maintenance of the pleasure craft, with amphibious planes and road vehicles being the main users. The stop is adjacent to a major toll highway). That gets them to within 1300km of Hong Kong, and gives them options.
I also have some stops further south, in the South China Sea itself which were seeded for the Pacific ring of fire job but never used, which lets them come back the ‘scenic’ way if they want to vary their route or go exploring, or to follow up on new opportunities.
Although they have taken onboard Tads suggestion of using some of the unused storage space to carry a triple fuel load instead of their normal double, I’m going to strongly encourage Kai to pursue the smuggler stops. He has the knowledge skill ‘smuggling routes’ so I think it’s easily going to occur to him that they have the option of using the cargo space for extra fuel now – but if they ever get a very heavy, or a very bulky load to move then they wouldn’t be able to do that – and if they don’t have the stops already visited and onboard, that might make a job impossible to do. Hopefully he’ll take the hint and push for them to visit! If they don’t – well, that’s their choice. Maybe they’ll do it later – but if not, then it’s going to impact their abilities down the line. The choice is theirs, but it will have consequences – and thankfully at least all of the players are decent and accept stuff like that without winging.
As for the actual run, I intend for this to be 90% milk run. The Broadsword has a signature of 7 naturally thanks to the stealth design and features baked in, which is pretty good for an aircraft that size. Add on the spirit concealment (normally a force 5) and the border forces are looking at a target number of 12 to spot them – and again thanks to the EDs present on the player craft, they need more than one of those. But – on top of that we have Marius who has a specialisation of ‘Stealth (Vehicles)’ at rating 6 – so statistically we’re looking at actually needing 18s to spot the team, making it a very remote chance that passive defences alone will find them.
It’s not an auto-pass of course. If there is an alert and there are interceptor jets up, or magical patrols, that massively affects things either due to the size of the dice pool spotting them, or the fact that their concealing spirit is very obvious in the astral plane! So they can’t afford to be too laid-back… but this should be relatively easy.
When they get to the destination, the contact there is going to push a little, and hint at trying to rob or extort the team, though I’m going to try and be *very* careful with the implementation here. The local drug warlord is capable, but the team should be able to wipe the floor with him in a fight, and if they show him the type of firepower they have, they’ll back down immediately. This run is mainly aimed at two objectives, and kicking off a major fight isn’t one of them!
First of all, this is a ‘proper’ smuggling run. It’s not tied in with the over-arching plot. There’s no ulterior motives. No major NPCs with hidden agendas pulling strings. It’s just a plain, simple, straight-forward job that is exactly on-brand for the team, just to let them do what it is they are ‘supposed’ to be doing from their point of view.
Secondly, it’s a way to get a chunk of cash into their pockets from a seized opportunity, to allow them to finance a major expansion. I don’t know what they’re going to choose – maybe to take Hunter for some major cyber-ware upgrades after he received his bonus essence points from his campaign special. Maybe to buy him a decent deck for all the searches and info-trawls he has to do. Maybe for Marius to finish upgrading his rigger deck with all the utilities they could ever need for him to be god-like in combat. But, I’m intending for them to be able to pretty much double their money on this deal, so they can afford to really push one of the team further down their personal goal track.
So of course, with that being the intention… this is the time when the team keep arguing for fiscal caution! Murphy’s law strikes again…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 10/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 10:00
2. Aswon calls Spook & tip her off that people are asking about us, we've had one murder attempt. If she hears anything call me, don't ask around keep her head down - unless she has a handy shortlist of mage assassins, in which case we're interested in that.
3. Marius sits exam - gets 2 successes with 1 reroll,
4. "Your test results have placed you in an unacceptable position. Based upon your current performance, further upgrades and enhancements will not be offered, and no further support will be available. It is essential that your grades are raised to an acceptable level to allow us to review this decision. You may resit this examination in five days."
5. 0>1, 4 hours, 1 Karma
6. 1>2, Test vs 3s, 1 Karma, Base time 15 days / 60 hours, spend 2 gk, 4 success 15 hours, takes to Tuesday morning.
7. Hunter also learning, gets 2, takes 30 hours to get to level 2
8. Marius 2>3, Test vs 4s, 2 Karma, Base time 30 days / 120 hours, rerolls+buy 2, total 5, 3.5 days
9. Hunter 2>3, Test vs 5s, 2 Karma, Base time 30 days / 120 hours,
10. Marius sits 2nd exam with Hunter "helping" over the shoulder, Hunter gives 1 success complimentary, Marius gets 3, buys 2, total of 6.
11. "Congratulation, You have passed Advanced Tech 101. Further course materials and upgrades will be provided."
12. Tads gets heal 8
13. Aswon SUT 5, Paracritters 4, Talismongering 4
14. Shimazu relaxing, doing training with the kids in the local town.
15. Kai: Archery, Pistols and Edged weapons. Antiques >3
16. Spook sends message back "Will keep ears open without poking head above parapet"
17. Aswon calls Mr Hu about injector arrows, Kai calls Mr Wu. Both have availability for "Silent Striker" arrowheads, Hu can get 1 dozen of R4, 40 per, post them out.
18. Silent Striker + Wu can get 3 dozen or R6 60ny per head, 36
19. 3k for both including shipping.
20. Both ask about drugs. Nothing from Hu, Wu will go looking. What do you want - neurostun style.
21. Towards end of the week - Sato and Spook both come back with fragments, both strongly leading in to it being the Courier from Tehran as a likely assassin.
22. Shimazu wonders if it's eye for an eye, or a death oath, needs more info on their psychology.
23. Daruka calls, how are you, depends, how are you. Having a break, are you available for work. Did you manage to sell the product. Yes, happy customers. Unusual line of business for us. I have a business opportunity for you, same lines. Towards the Philippines, about 500kg.
24. Kai - timescales? New op. South china sea. Check news
25. Aswon reminds team about the drugs bust. Tads - what are the fuel costs?
26. Hunter - are we drug dealers now? Aswon - yeah, smuggling. They're goods. Shimazu - could be a trap, might be to do with the courier. Hunter works out cost for 500kg, can't afford it. Kai - because we're new to this business. Work out they could buy 100k and still have 150kg.
27. Tads - what is the etiquette for discussing with him, and keeping it business? Kai- play it straight.
28. Shimazu - not a fan of the drug dealing side. Lucrative offer, sounds tempting, might lead us down the route to the courier.
29. Marius - however, agree with everything you just said, but if it's a trap, or they find out and look to get us, we're still expecting it, it could be a chance to reverse it. Shimazu, we can lay a trap in time, need more information.
30. Journey is approx 6.5k km, so just over 2 stops each way.
31. Tads - check my maths, if we do 100k cash, that's only 13kg. Team work out the maths, realise they need to ship big. Discussion over it being a sellers market. Aswon do, but take it super cautiously.
32. Marius - do we start turning down jobs because they can be a setup?
33. Kai, I think we can do it. Marius - approach it like everything is an ambush, super careful.
34. Shimazu, little unhappy but will go with team.
35. Tads - if everything is treated like an ambush, disguise is an active spell, need to bear in mind things like sustaining / shielding.
36. Aswon - never use the same tactic twice. Tads - but unusual vehicle. Marius, powerful magical attack, rely on the stealth for the bird, magic for defence.
37. Marius - hit the fuel stops at night in a dark bird, time it carefully,
38. Kai - we need to talk to the guy in a minute, recaps teams thoughts,
39. Tads - he may have a min price for his contact for future deals, worth bearing in mind.
40. Aswon - do you want to call Ludmilla about a job? Kai - deep sigh. No - let's deal with this guy first, Might be low duration.
41. Kai calls back. Ahh, Mr Kai. Sorry for delay, some financial discussion and availability. Latter we're available. Former we are constrained. Hmm, a deal. We're reliable and fast, but we have fuel costs, understand you want to establish a route, but we want to be honest about capabilities. We have 500k to invest. We want to make as much profit as possible. Hah! Don't we all!. I'll bow to your expertise on profit margins. Is that enough for your client. Not ideal, could you stretch to 750k. Kai checks bank. Hunter - how much weight? 500k for 100kg. What can we expect. Well, the area is dry, you can expect good money and to be very happy. Kai to team - shall we go to 600k? Hunter, that's a hard limit. Bit of haggling. 125kg for 600k, but they have to sell Daruka's contact details hard to the far end.
42. Kai checks smuggler routes - Shark tank, south china sea.
43. Delivery contact: Tse Chi Lop, GuanDong province.
44. Kai contacts - Jahnu Sidana, he can try to get the team an into to Trafford. Start working out routes. Tads suggests getting more fuel barrels and double stacking fuel. Nadia can get fuel barrels with a few hours’ notice.
45. Hunter: Get me a pump! High speed electric pump!
46. Pick up Sunday 17th
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 296 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A very simple session this week – that could almost have been a travelling montage. After some long term campaign stuff that they’ve been facing for a while now, as I’ve said previously I want them to get a “traditional” smuggling run in and feel like they can still get this kind of stuff done.
As such, I didn’t want to throw anything major at them, and it was mostly worldbuilding. So, the drug lord has moved into one of the old Forward Operating Bases used by the military during the Afghan peacekeeping era, and has made that his base. They were wary, but not too concerned – and with the various assensing and astral checks, as well as copious firepower, they got the deal done. The NPC (and me!) wanted to up the budget and really push them as far as possible, but they stuck to their guns pretty hard. Oh well – I’ve tried to hint that this is a prime time to strike, for maximum profit – but I’m not going to force their hand.
With the pickup sorted, they headed over to “Trafford”, a site I’ve been waiting to introduce to them for a while. Based on a 30 second clip I once saw on some discovery channel show about some bar in south-east asia that was stuffed full of football stuff – way more than a theme bar, this was taken to whole new levels of extreme. So, I figured the 2060s are still going to have those people around, and maybe one day they’ll do a break in somewhere and see a signed shirt in a frame on the wall and think “We know who’d pay very good money for that!”…
They avoided the “Tir Patrol”, my wacky bunch of fake elves, choosing not to get involved in their story, and headed off to the east, clocking up a few more timezones and then coming in to land at another new stop. Nothing particularly special here, other than meeting another team – again, no particular reason, and no agenda other than trying to flesh out the world, and remind them that there are other teams with other resources that are all still working away towards their goals in the background. This time as they got to see their craft, they got a bit more information on the kind of smugglers they are, and could put them in context against themselves.
Once they have the delivery done, and the Nuyen in pocket, I’m looking at giving them a couple of options in the area, with some jobs coming from Spook, and potentially a few others, depending on which way the players decide to go. But, having now established two more smuggler stops along the southern side of the Himalayan range, they’ve opened up a good chunk of India as being available for work, a whole bunch of the SE-Asian countries, and can get from their home base back down to the Pac-Rim much more easily now. So – jobs a good un!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 17/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 10:00
2. Tads stocks up the house with food. Nudges kai about calling germaine. Kai says no... on my list.
3. News update - a "meteorite" has struck the Gigas probe, damaging it and sending it off into a wild and uncontrolled orbit, corkscrewing out of control. This leaves only the Novatech and Yamatetsu probes still on course for the comet.
4. Kai - weapon details
5. Barbed heads - require a biotech (
test to remove from target without causing 1 additional box of physical damage
6. Explosive heads - explode on contact, raising power of attack by +1. Not silent...
7. Injector heads - can inject 1 dose of a chemical on impact, providing the target does not soak the attack. Make an archery (5) test on recovering the arrow to re-certify the injector for use again.
8. The new take-down bow has an accessory arm for a laser sight / laser rangefinder, good to 100m
9. Smuggling route knowledge - what you are doing at the moment "works" - but won't help you in the long run. If you get a cargo that is heavy (taking up most of your lift capacity) or large (taking up most of your room in cubic metres) when you *can't* pack extra fuel barrels - without additional smuggler stops, you will have to turn down jobs because you don't have logistics in place.
10. Kai - smuggling routes
11. Jahnu Sidana comes back to you with details about "Trafford", located at 28.76007, 81.29737, just over the border into Nepal. A smuggler stop catering for boats and aircraft from a rough strip.
12. When Kai signals they are ready, Daruka will tell them to head for 32.0761, 64.83217, the old forward operating base in Sangin, Helmand Province, 1688km from the Ranch. Kai gives a reasonable ETA for trip. Kai asks Daruka if he has fuel available - he says no. Team plan on filling from the barrels there. Fly over, south over the Caspian, avoid Espirit. Arrive at around 14:00
13. Kai covers the logistics during flight.
14. Tads - ask each stop about their neighbours too. Hunter - yeah, let's fill the map up. Aswon - if we do get hold of the courier - what are we going to do. Parley or kill. Shimazu - interesting question. I'd like to kill them personally. Aswon - fair enough. But we don't need a blood crazed myfic thing with a death pact chasing us. Shimazu - that's two enemies in one place from my POV. Aswon - ok, but they won't be expecting someone to talk - maybe there's a way to sort this out. Tads suggest land two valleys short and refuel there.
15. Beige landscape, public gallows some blood stains. Told to land near there. All cash on one credstick. Come in invisible, two jeeps with HMGs doing perimeter security, a dozen guards approach with hand truck. Daruka comes over. Greetings, offer a few extra kilos. Kai - sorry, over commitment.
16. Take the top layer of drugs off. 600k for 123kg of drugs. Daruka minions push drugs upinto the bird, bug scanned. Strap the goods down.
17. Daruka gives contact details. Kai - once we've dropped off, we'll contact you and let you know. Daruka goes for crushing handgrip
18. Takeoff, secure the load. Aswon calls Spook to ask current rates and about contact. Usual pleasantries. Good news, going to be in the area, got some biz, few questions. You can meet the team. That kai - he's crazy. Oh you're on speaker. So anyway, the crazy man has us in the area. New bird, barely hear it. Drugs run - oh, really. explains xenophobia. cover yourself up, pretend to be Chinese. Got anything lined up for the return journey? No, will put the feelers out. Get details of Dragon ridge from Spook. Open for journey west, or other places if they pay. Tell spook they have 7000 kg or 200CF,
19. Hunter plotting route - generally works, international airport, plan on diverting north.
20. Heading to Trafford, arrive 5pm, 3200km - 24000 Nuyen
21. Get to Trafford, STOL strip, only 7-800m long, Tads says they can firm up the strip as a service? Aswon - personally rather get closer. Tads- don't disagree, but worth point out. Monopoly prices, stop is in an old high school.
22. Nepalese man, wearing the strip, introduces as Ryan Giggs. Kai and Shimazu go in. Red football strips. Tries to take Kai inside - kai, we're busy. Anything you need? Come, let me show you... persuades them to go in. Shows them the massive fan collections. Kai takes notes of the things he is after in his collection.
23. Marius spots first, then Hunter, Marius and Shimazu do. Spot the "Tir Patrol" closing in. Marius starting the engine, everyone else wanting to go. Kai - WTF are they? I can't remember. Marius explains with scorn. Ignores Other teams: Greenbough and his box van of fake elves, searching for ancient cairns
24. 2000km to Dragon Ridge, 4 hours, Kai calls ahead. 9pm. Spot the tilt-wing zephyr coming in to land. Area looks closed from the highway. Tilt-wing lands, jet ski comes out, starts heading out. Hunter recognises crew from the Zephyr. 12500 in fuel
25. Liu Chen, owner, average height Chinese man, slightly portly, limp. Mid 40s. Aswon asks about name - it's the mountains. Ancient time, dragons mate, very good luck. Aswon asks if Lung lives there. Assured he does, has a lair up in the mountains, must have seen him.
26. There are bunks to rent, meeting rooms, local food.
27. Zephyr looking at them funny, do we know you. Kai introduces. What you doing, taking cargo east. Kai, same here. Kai compliments on their landing.
28. Hunter analyses, small high value couriers, Kai talks to them and finds the kind of business they do. What about you. Kai, not competing. Hakim impressed with your spirit. Kai - keeping a mix of jobs. Zephyr make excuses and leave. Hunter and Marius stay on the bird, rest of team get bunks.
29. Kai calls Germaine. Rings lots, drunken answer, hello, I'm a little merry. Just a bit of a courtesy call. Got some information, about the painting. What's that darling. say that again. Asthma inhaler, goes quiet, say that one more time. Explains again. We had a job, we delivered it to a certain client. Didn't know that it was part of the deal until we picked it up. Thought you ought to know. Interesting. So, Kai, where have you been recently. Kai explains the job from Kabul to Batumi. Goes quiet for 20 seconds, not sure if call has dropped. Kai - have courtesy for our clients, but this hit different, it was definitely the painting. Did you go boating in Batumi? Puts on speaker, say again. Did you go out on the water on a boat. No went up to a house on the hill. Ahh, a cable car, interesting. But you didn't go on a boat. Ok. It's been lovely to hear from you Kai, when can I expect to hear from you again. Checks team - maybe 1-2 weeks, we're over in the east at the moment. Maybe give me a call when you're back. Would love to, can tell you about our holidays.
30. Shimazu psychology - very distracted at the end. Kai think about it - fishing for which organisation. Means there is another player in Batumi, her first choice. Team posting watches.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A very simple session this week – that could almost have been a travelling montage. After some long term campaign stuff that they’ve been facing for a while now, as I’ve said previously I want them to get a “traditional” smuggling run in and feel like they can still get this kind of stuff done.
As such, I didn’t want to throw anything major at them, and it was mostly worldbuilding. So, the drug lord has moved into one of the old Forward Operating Bases used by the military during the Afghan peacekeeping era, and has made that his base. They were wary, but not too concerned – and with the various assensing and astral checks, as well as copious firepower, they got the deal done. The NPC (and me!) wanted to up the budget and really push them as far as possible, but they stuck to their guns pretty hard. Oh well – I’ve tried to hint that this is a prime time to strike, for maximum profit – but I’m not going to force their hand.
With the pickup sorted, they headed over to “Trafford”, a site I’ve been waiting to introduce to them for a while. Based on a 30 second clip I once saw on some discovery channel show about some bar in south-east asia that was stuffed full of football stuff – way more than a theme bar, this was taken to whole new levels of extreme. So, I figured the 2060s are still going to have those people around, and maybe one day they’ll do a break in somewhere and see a signed shirt in a frame on the wall and think “We know who’d pay very good money for that!”…
They avoided the “Tir Patrol”, my wacky bunch of fake elves, choosing not to get involved in their story, and headed off to the east, clocking up a few more timezones and then coming in to land at another new stop. Nothing particularly special here, other than meeting another team – again, no particular reason, and no agenda other than trying to flesh out the world, and remind them that there are other teams with other resources that are all still working away towards their goals in the background. This time as they got to see their craft, they got a bit more information on the kind of smugglers they are, and could put them in context against themselves.
Once they have the delivery done, and the Nuyen in pocket, I’m looking at giving them a couple of options in the area, with some jobs coming from Spook, and potentially a few others, depending on which way the players decide to go. But, having now established two more smuggler stops along the southern side of the Himalayan range, they’ve opened up a good chunk of India as being available for work, a whole bunch of the SE-Asian countries, and can get from their home base back down to the Pac-Rim much more easily now. So – jobs a good un!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 17/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 10:00
2. Tads stocks up the house with food. Nudges kai about calling germaine. Kai says no... on my list.
3. News update - a "meteorite" has struck the Gigas probe, damaging it and sending it off into a wild and uncontrolled orbit, corkscrewing out of control. This leaves only the Novatech and Yamatetsu probes still on course for the comet.
4. Kai - weapon details
5. Barbed heads - require a biotech (
test to remove from target without causing 1 additional box of physical damage6. Explosive heads - explode on contact, raising power of attack by +1. Not silent...
7. Injector heads - can inject 1 dose of a chemical on impact, providing the target does not soak the attack. Make an archery (5) test on recovering the arrow to re-certify the injector for use again.
8. The new take-down bow has an accessory arm for a laser sight / laser rangefinder, good to 100m
9. Smuggling route knowledge - what you are doing at the moment "works" - but won't help you in the long run. If you get a cargo that is heavy (taking up most of your lift capacity) or large (taking up most of your room in cubic metres) when you *can't* pack extra fuel barrels - without additional smuggler stops, you will have to turn down jobs because you don't have logistics in place.
10. Kai - smuggling routes
11. Jahnu Sidana comes back to you with details about "Trafford", located at 28.76007, 81.29737, just over the border into Nepal. A smuggler stop catering for boats and aircraft from a rough strip.
12. When Kai signals they are ready, Daruka will tell them to head for 32.0761, 64.83217, the old forward operating base in Sangin, Helmand Province, 1688km from the Ranch. Kai gives a reasonable ETA for trip. Kai asks Daruka if he has fuel available - he says no. Team plan on filling from the barrels there. Fly over, south over the Caspian, avoid Espirit. Arrive at around 14:00
13. Kai covers the logistics during flight.
14. Tads - ask each stop about their neighbours too. Hunter - yeah, let's fill the map up. Aswon - if we do get hold of the courier - what are we going to do. Parley or kill. Shimazu - interesting question. I'd like to kill them personally. Aswon - fair enough. But we don't need a blood crazed myfic thing with a death pact chasing us. Shimazu - that's two enemies in one place from my POV. Aswon - ok, but they won't be expecting someone to talk - maybe there's a way to sort this out. Tads suggest land two valleys short and refuel there.
15. Beige landscape, public gallows some blood stains. Told to land near there. All cash on one credstick. Come in invisible, two jeeps with HMGs doing perimeter security, a dozen guards approach with hand truck. Daruka comes over. Greetings, offer a few extra kilos. Kai - sorry, over commitment.
16. Take the top layer of drugs off. 600k for 123kg of drugs. Daruka minions push drugs upinto the bird, bug scanned. Strap the goods down.
17. Daruka gives contact details. Kai - once we've dropped off, we'll contact you and let you know. Daruka goes for crushing handgrip
18. Takeoff, secure the load. Aswon calls Spook to ask current rates and about contact. Usual pleasantries. Good news, going to be in the area, got some biz, few questions. You can meet the team. That kai - he's crazy. Oh you're on speaker. So anyway, the crazy man has us in the area. New bird, barely hear it. Drugs run - oh, really. explains xenophobia. cover yourself up, pretend to be Chinese. Got anything lined up for the return journey? No, will put the feelers out. Get details of Dragon ridge from Spook. Open for journey west, or other places if they pay. Tell spook they have 7000 kg or 200CF,
19. Hunter plotting route - generally works, international airport, plan on diverting north.
20. Heading to Trafford, arrive 5pm, 3200km - 24000 Nuyen
21. Get to Trafford, STOL strip, only 7-800m long, Tads says they can firm up the strip as a service? Aswon - personally rather get closer. Tads- don't disagree, but worth point out. Monopoly prices, stop is in an old high school.
22. Nepalese man, wearing the strip, introduces as Ryan Giggs. Kai and Shimazu go in. Red football strips. Tries to take Kai inside - kai, we're busy. Anything you need? Come, let me show you... persuades them to go in. Shows them the massive fan collections. Kai takes notes of the things he is after in his collection.
23. Marius spots first, then Hunter, Marius and Shimazu do. Spot the "Tir Patrol" closing in. Marius starting the engine, everyone else wanting to go. Kai - WTF are they? I can't remember. Marius explains with scorn. Ignores Other teams: Greenbough and his box van of fake elves, searching for ancient cairns
24. 2000km to Dragon Ridge, 4 hours, Kai calls ahead. 9pm. Spot the tilt-wing zephyr coming in to land. Area looks closed from the highway. Tilt-wing lands, jet ski comes out, starts heading out. Hunter recognises crew from the Zephyr. 12500 in fuel
25. Liu Chen, owner, average height Chinese man, slightly portly, limp. Mid 40s. Aswon asks about name - it's the mountains. Ancient time, dragons mate, very good luck. Aswon asks if Lung lives there. Assured he does, has a lair up in the mountains, must have seen him.
26. There are bunks to rent, meeting rooms, local food.
27. Zephyr looking at them funny, do we know you. Kai introduces. What you doing, taking cargo east. Kai, same here. Kai compliments on their landing.
28. Hunter analyses, small high value couriers, Kai talks to them and finds the kind of business they do. What about you. Kai, not competing. Hakim impressed with your spirit. Kai - keeping a mix of jobs. Zephyr make excuses and leave. Hunter and Marius stay on the bird, rest of team get bunks.
29. Kai calls Germaine. Rings lots, drunken answer, hello, I'm a little merry. Just a bit of a courtesy call. Got some information, about the painting. What's that darling. say that again. Asthma inhaler, goes quiet, say that one more time. Explains again. We had a job, we delivered it to a certain client. Didn't know that it was part of the deal until we picked it up. Thought you ought to know. Interesting. So, Kai, where have you been recently. Kai explains the job from Kabul to Batumi. Goes quiet for 20 seconds, not sure if call has dropped. Kai - have courtesy for our clients, but this hit different, it was definitely the painting. Did you go boating in Batumi? Puts on speaker, say again. Did you go out on the water on a boat. No went up to a house on the hill. Ahh, a cable car, interesting. But you didn't go on a boat. Ok. It's been lovely to hear from you Kai, when can I expect to hear from you again. Checks team - maybe 1-2 weeks, we're over in the east at the moment. Maybe give me a call when you're back. Would love to, can tell you about our holidays.
30. Shimazu psychology - very distracted at the end. Kai think about it - fishing for which organisation. Means there is another player in Batumi, her first choice. Team posting watches.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 297 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off with a bit of training / relaxation time – and throwing in the temptation of the boathouse by the smuggler stop. The players seemed curious, but not enough to risk upsetting the owner or setting off the wards, so they let that be.
After a bit of time for some RP and planning at the start of the session, the team was off crossing several of the Chinese provinces, discovering some of the differing levels of border security along the way, but coming in to land right on time.
In the tower was a police data gatherer, concealed with the best tech they had and with a shotgun mike and camera rig, tipped off about a ‘deal’ by an informant in Tse Chi Lop’s crew. I’d pre-rolled his stealth score, adding in environmental factors and modified for having a thermal blanket with anti-sensor night camo coverings, and the target number to spot him was pretty high – the players needing a 12. As they came in, Tads got a single 12 on her astral perception check, spotted a sliver of life and warned the rest.
I expected the observer to be made then – but Marius only managed to get a 9, even on a full sensor sweep, and that didn’t get any better with a reroll – so they knew *something* was there, but not exactly what. So, very cautiously, in they came, and met yet another asshole they had to deal with.
There was some back and forth amongst the team as they decided how to handle the negotiations, with Hunter pushing really hard to start at 20k per kg, while the others supported Kai at around the 15-16k mark.
The contact here was a thug, and a good example of the Peter Principle – or at least that’s how I tried to play him. Certainly he made rookie mistakes when told about the sniper, as well as during the negotiations and deal, and the players certainly took a dislike to him. Tads in particular was chuntering away about his rudeness, and wondering about demonstrating her power. As the team’s most pacifist player, I know I’ve managed to strike the right level of obnoxious when she’s contemplating violence against the NPCs, or is prepared to let them come to a very sticky end!
They got the drug deal done though, selling for 1.23 million against their purchase price and fuel costs so far of 0.6365, giving them a profit of 593.5K Nuyen. They’ve got a bit more fuel to buy, but that hopefully gives them a nice cash boost that they can consider using for their next major purchase – which I think is going to be more cyber-ware for Hunter.
Next week they’ve got a meeting with Spook, some social time, and then potentially a gun-run down to the Philippines to go meet the Huk once more, and possibly get another smuggler stop or two added to their list.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 18/07/61, Location: 25.23749, 101.15828, Time 10:00
2. Tads does spirits, herds through wards. Spot the boat-house. Check security, no visible ward on the outside. Building is old, but in good condition. Get back from morning run, mention to the team. Marius - not polite on first time visiting to poke the secret lair or base or getaway vehicle. Tads goes to check it out. Looks normal from the outside. Marius not planning on leaving until 8pm.
3. Kai asks Liu Chen what he wants shifting - he just facilitates the movement of smugglers, makes his money on the fuel.
4. Spend the day doing training / learning / reading.
5. 12ish, spook calls, job and a half. No time restrictions. Aswon asks, can you sort us out a landing pad, somewhere no questions asked.
6. Aswon - did we leave the Philippines on bad terms. Tads - no, that was PPNG, the guy with the hand. Philippines were ok. Dude with the machete on the beach. Marius - but the navy is a step up in detection. Tads - helping the people is always good. Spook knows about someone looking for us, she might being used to get to us. Aswon - it could, but second guess everything. Tads and Aswon back and forth, Aswon she's a people person, she knows who is giving her jobs. Marius - if we used the guy Spook knows, that's another contact. Tads - also possibly more smuggler stops
7. Team spends a few minutes discussing location of their 2 Chinese weapons dealers, type of guns, scale of arms. Aswon offers to give Kai Spooks number, or to meet up when they socialise in HK. Look at the map, the two stops are only 200km apart. Talk about likely Japanese blockades / smuggler stops. Marius remembers pottery and external tourists, might alter things. Marius favours delivery there, and if needed then hop south to the beach place. Discussion about landing, para-drops, alternate landing methods. Engineering roll for hunter - the bird does have reinforced landing struts, but they have no access to spares to fix / repair stuff.
8. Kai calls Harry Wu, not in, leave message, "need supplies to deliver"
9. Text from Sato to Shimazu - got a mission, free to talk? Shimazu, thanks for calling back, no more trouble with the courier thing. All ok so far.
10. Got a weird job, not the courier I'm as sure as I can be. But are you interested. To Paris, special sabotage, something unique. What's the timeframe? Weird, he just wants it done this year. Very precise, only one thing. Sending a message, full stop, underlined twice. Preliminary pay is 150k. Hunter "it's not the Mona Lisa" then. Kai - wash your mouth out, we're not doing that. Aswon - it's not that much, not for an international job. Kai - we can make this work...
11. Aswon, can we talk to the Johnson. Sato - absolutely not, he was very clear. Weird, unearthly...
12. Tads - as long as we're not stealing a painting of a ship. Aswon 200k, or 2m for a national treasure. Shimazu says 250k including fuel. Tads - can we get past security? Aswon, that's why we might need 2m to buy in gear and expertise. Shimazu revises to 250/500/2m for an artefact.
13. Aswon questions for spook
14. How much is "a shipment" in this instance? We need to work out weight/dimensions
15. how well does she know the contacts at either end? Worked for either before?
16. what kind of guns are we talking here: are they after volume or quality?
17. Would they pay for ammo?
18. can they sell us fuel to get back?
19. How far up the coast from Hong Kong is the arms dealer?
20. We do have a Huk contact in the area, is the drop off there or near there, as the ground is not all that suitable, we may need to arrange parachutes or plan some other kind of drop-based delivery .
21. Tads - shall I go for a quick scout of the drop off location? Leaves you all unprotected. Area is a 1-2, cement factory is a 2-3 with some few horrible black spots where people have been murdered. Hundreds of workers during the day, almost no lights, ghost town by night.
22. Fly in, Sichuan was tough but ok, rest were far easier. Smooth journey. Clear sensors coming in to the cement factory
23. Tads spots a life sign in the tower, just a sliver, lets the team know. Marius tests again, still nothing, trusts Tads, knows it's a very definite hiding attempt with good tech. Marius looks for electronic footprint specifically. Both come up zilch. Tads - could be a weird paracritter. Marius still comes in, but keeps engines idling, gun systems active. Marius keeps nose pointed at the tower. Kai calls goes straight to voice mail. Sends text, coming in to land. Few seconds later one emoticon, a Nuyen symbol. Kai thinks it's vaguely positive.
24. Marius - super sus, keeping the engines hot, ready for immediate dustoff. Tads - you wont' have a problem flying through mist will you? Kai checks he is looking as Chinese as possible. Hunter reminds everyone of the price they paid and the amount. Hunter thinks they should aim for 17-18k per brick.
25. Tse Lee gets out, covered by shielding, Tads checks - less powerful than her. Two dozen goons get out of the removal van and spread out. Kai goes out unarmed. Shimazu takes shield, life form has him on edge. The mooks are trying to intimidate, but are not doing a great job.
26. Kai greets, Ahh, you have arrived. Yes, I bring warmest welcomes from Daruka, deep bow, present card with deep bow, Japanese style "this guys spent too much time with the nips." Can we speak in English. Nah, that's their problem, if they'[re uncultured, not my fault. You have some product for me?
27. Yes, we have 123kg, 90% pure. Tadibya: Mutter very quietly - "If your shielding can't soak my spells, that's your lack of magic...!"
28. Kai, get one of your men to come select a brick at random. Hunter - not on the bird! Kai, he can point from the bottom of the ramp. You, go get the drugs, you and you, go get the wheelbarrows.
29. Kai - we noticed a magical anomaly on the tower - is that yours. Is this some kind of trick, are you trying to fool me? No, we want to keep this meeting safe and professional, and under your control. Both look, guards watchful, no spotting. Get a brik, backhander, go get me the analyser.
30. If this stuff is as good as you say it is, what is the price. Our supplier wants a relationship with you for the future. He's set a base price of 16k per kg. Tse Chop spits in rage. Rants, Kai just takes it. AFter the rage wears off, he lowballs at 8k. Kai, express delivery, start of a relationship, business is business, many overheads, more is coming. 12.5. We have other business to attend to tonight, so we want to just get the deal done, we can see you're passionate about your business.
31. Inconceivable, could only go to 10k. Intimidate goes off. Agree on 10k, start transferring the drugs.
32. Aswon spots the sniper and identified. Tells over the comms.
33. Kai - do you speak other languages, dismissive, no. What about your mage - only the language of the ancients. Kai moves to obscure face, we've spotted a sniper. Do you want us to deal with it. Tse turns, points, sends men. His mage spots - lightning bolt pretty much on hit. ASwon sidesteps, Shimazu covers Kai. Mooks start to open up. They call for Hunter to put a round down on the tower.
34. Hunter gets a 23 on his shot. Spots the guy tumbling out the tower with a wingsuit and puts a round through the x-ring.
35. Kai gives the mage a professional nod. Tads gets the signature of the mage. Assensed, G3, foci and ally spirit spotted.
36. Tse Chi gets a call from the other guys, get me all the stuff. Kai, everyone on the bird except me and Shimazu. Do you want us to stay while you examine the gear. No - you may go.
37. Takeoff, east out of the city, loop around and head to HK, get ready to call Swoop to arrange a landing spot.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off with a bit of training / relaxation time – and throwing in the temptation of the boathouse by the smuggler stop. The players seemed curious, but not enough to risk upsetting the owner or setting off the wards, so they let that be.
After a bit of time for some RP and planning at the start of the session, the team was off crossing several of the Chinese provinces, discovering some of the differing levels of border security along the way, but coming in to land right on time.
In the tower was a police data gatherer, concealed with the best tech they had and with a shotgun mike and camera rig, tipped off about a ‘deal’ by an informant in Tse Chi Lop’s crew. I’d pre-rolled his stealth score, adding in environmental factors and modified for having a thermal blanket with anti-sensor night camo coverings, and the target number to spot him was pretty high – the players needing a 12. As they came in, Tads got a single 12 on her astral perception check, spotted a sliver of life and warned the rest.
I expected the observer to be made then – but Marius only managed to get a 9, even on a full sensor sweep, and that didn’t get any better with a reroll – so they knew *something* was there, but not exactly what. So, very cautiously, in they came, and met yet another asshole they had to deal with.
There was some back and forth amongst the team as they decided how to handle the negotiations, with Hunter pushing really hard to start at 20k per kg, while the others supported Kai at around the 15-16k mark.
The contact here was a thug, and a good example of the Peter Principle – or at least that’s how I tried to play him. Certainly he made rookie mistakes when told about the sniper, as well as during the negotiations and deal, and the players certainly took a dislike to him. Tads in particular was chuntering away about his rudeness, and wondering about demonstrating her power. As the team’s most pacifist player, I know I’ve managed to strike the right level of obnoxious when she’s contemplating violence against the NPCs, or is prepared to let them come to a very sticky end!
They got the drug deal done though, selling for 1.23 million against their purchase price and fuel costs so far of 0.6365, giving them a profit of 593.5K Nuyen. They’ve got a bit more fuel to buy, but that hopefully gives them a nice cash boost that they can consider using for their next major purchase – which I think is going to be more cyber-ware for Hunter.
Next week they’ve got a meeting with Spook, some social time, and then potentially a gun-run down to the Philippines to go meet the Huk once more, and possibly get another smuggler stop or two added to their list.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 18/07/61, Location: 25.23749, 101.15828, Time 10:00
2. Tads does spirits, herds through wards. Spot the boat-house. Check security, no visible ward on the outside. Building is old, but in good condition. Get back from morning run, mention to the team. Marius - not polite on first time visiting to poke the secret lair or base or getaway vehicle. Tads goes to check it out. Looks normal from the outside. Marius not planning on leaving until 8pm.
3. Kai asks Liu Chen what he wants shifting - he just facilitates the movement of smugglers, makes his money on the fuel.
4. Spend the day doing training / learning / reading.
5. 12ish, spook calls, job and a half. No time restrictions. Aswon asks, can you sort us out a landing pad, somewhere no questions asked.
6. Aswon - did we leave the Philippines on bad terms. Tads - no, that was PPNG, the guy with the hand. Philippines were ok. Dude with the machete on the beach. Marius - but the navy is a step up in detection. Tads - helping the people is always good. Spook knows about someone looking for us, she might being used to get to us. Aswon - it could, but second guess everything. Tads and Aswon back and forth, Aswon she's a people person, she knows who is giving her jobs. Marius - if we used the guy Spook knows, that's another contact. Tads - also possibly more smuggler stops
7. Team spends a few minutes discussing location of their 2 Chinese weapons dealers, type of guns, scale of arms. Aswon offers to give Kai Spooks number, or to meet up when they socialise in HK. Look at the map, the two stops are only 200km apart. Talk about likely Japanese blockades / smuggler stops. Marius remembers pottery and external tourists, might alter things. Marius favours delivery there, and if needed then hop south to the beach place. Discussion about landing, para-drops, alternate landing methods. Engineering roll for hunter - the bird does have reinforced landing struts, but they have no access to spares to fix / repair stuff.
8. Kai calls Harry Wu, not in, leave message, "need supplies to deliver"
9. Text from Sato to Shimazu - got a mission, free to talk? Shimazu, thanks for calling back, no more trouble with the courier thing. All ok so far.
10. Got a weird job, not the courier I'm as sure as I can be. But are you interested. To Paris, special sabotage, something unique. What's the timeframe? Weird, he just wants it done this year. Very precise, only one thing. Sending a message, full stop, underlined twice. Preliminary pay is 150k. Hunter "it's not the Mona Lisa" then. Kai - wash your mouth out, we're not doing that. Aswon - it's not that much, not for an international job. Kai - we can make this work...
11. Aswon, can we talk to the Johnson. Sato - absolutely not, he was very clear. Weird, unearthly...
12. Tads - as long as we're not stealing a painting of a ship. Aswon 200k, or 2m for a national treasure. Shimazu says 250k including fuel. Tads - can we get past security? Aswon, that's why we might need 2m to buy in gear and expertise. Shimazu revises to 250/500/2m for an artefact.
13. Aswon questions for spook
14. How much is "a shipment" in this instance? We need to work out weight/dimensions
15. how well does she know the contacts at either end? Worked for either before?
16. what kind of guns are we talking here: are they after volume or quality?
17. Would they pay for ammo?
18. can they sell us fuel to get back?
19. How far up the coast from Hong Kong is the arms dealer?
20. We do have a Huk contact in the area, is the drop off there or near there, as the ground is not all that suitable, we may need to arrange parachutes or plan some other kind of drop-based delivery .
21. Tads - shall I go for a quick scout of the drop off location? Leaves you all unprotected. Area is a 1-2, cement factory is a 2-3 with some few horrible black spots where people have been murdered. Hundreds of workers during the day, almost no lights, ghost town by night.
22. Fly in, Sichuan was tough but ok, rest were far easier. Smooth journey. Clear sensors coming in to the cement factory
23. Tads spots a life sign in the tower, just a sliver, lets the team know. Marius tests again, still nothing, trusts Tads, knows it's a very definite hiding attempt with good tech. Marius looks for electronic footprint specifically. Both come up zilch. Tads - could be a weird paracritter. Marius still comes in, but keeps engines idling, gun systems active. Marius keeps nose pointed at the tower. Kai calls goes straight to voice mail. Sends text, coming in to land. Few seconds later one emoticon, a Nuyen symbol. Kai thinks it's vaguely positive.
24. Marius - super sus, keeping the engines hot, ready for immediate dustoff. Tads - you wont' have a problem flying through mist will you? Kai checks he is looking as Chinese as possible. Hunter reminds everyone of the price they paid and the amount. Hunter thinks they should aim for 17-18k per brick.
25. Tse Lee gets out, covered by shielding, Tads checks - less powerful than her. Two dozen goons get out of the removal van and spread out. Kai goes out unarmed. Shimazu takes shield, life form has him on edge. The mooks are trying to intimidate, but are not doing a great job.
26. Kai greets, Ahh, you have arrived. Yes, I bring warmest welcomes from Daruka, deep bow, present card with deep bow, Japanese style "this guys spent too much time with the nips." Can we speak in English. Nah, that's their problem, if they'[re uncultured, not my fault. You have some product for me?
27. Yes, we have 123kg, 90% pure. Tadibya: Mutter very quietly - "If your shielding can't soak my spells, that's your lack of magic...!"
28. Kai, get one of your men to come select a brick at random. Hunter - not on the bird! Kai, he can point from the bottom of the ramp. You, go get the drugs, you and you, go get the wheelbarrows.
29. Kai - we noticed a magical anomaly on the tower - is that yours. Is this some kind of trick, are you trying to fool me? No, we want to keep this meeting safe and professional, and under your control. Both look, guards watchful, no spotting. Get a brik, backhander, go get me the analyser.
30. If this stuff is as good as you say it is, what is the price. Our supplier wants a relationship with you for the future. He's set a base price of 16k per kg. Tse Chop spits in rage. Rants, Kai just takes it. AFter the rage wears off, he lowballs at 8k. Kai, express delivery, start of a relationship, business is business, many overheads, more is coming. 12.5. We have other business to attend to tonight, so we want to just get the deal done, we can see you're passionate about your business.
31. Inconceivable, could only go to 10k. Intimidate goes off. Agree on 10k, start transferring the drugs.
32. Aswon spots the sniper and identified. Tells over the comms.
33. Kai - do you speak other languages, dismissive, no. What about your mage - only the language of the ancients. Kai moves to obscure face, we've spotted a sniper. Do you want us to deal with it. Tse turns, points, sends men. His mage spots - lightning bolt pretty much on hit. ASwon sidesteps, Shimazu covers Kai. Mooks start to open up. They call for Hunter to put a round down on the tower.
34. Hunter gets a 23 on his shot. Spots the guy tumbling out the tower with a wingsuit and puts a round through the x-ring.
35. Kai gives the mage a professional nod. Tads gets the signature of the mage. Assensed, G3, foci and ally spirit spotted.
36. Tse Chi gets a call from the other guys, get me all the stuff. Kai, everyone on the bird except me and Shimazu. Do you want us to stay while you examine the gear. No - you may go.
37. Takeoff, east out of the city, loop around and head to HK, get ready to call Swoop to arrange a landing spot.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 298 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week the team were off to meet Spook, one of Aswon’s starting contacts, and the broker for their next job. After getting a landing spot sorted out, they met up with her and headed into the city. I’d originally planned for a little bit of RP, and then to push on with the story and the meeting with the Triad boss – however, the team seemed to really buy into the story time, with all of the players engaging and poking fun at each other IC, from the copious amount of stuff they’ve done.
I joked with the wife after the evening was done that we could have an alternate title for this weeks story of “The writers guild strike”, as it almost felt like a clip show / flashback episode, with minimal new content, which got a smirk from her…
Still, I’m more than happy for them to have some RP time, especially in this case as it wasn’t just one or two members of the team involved, but every single player having something to add in, defend or get mock-upset about, so I let that run, which meant it wasn’t a very action packed episode… I mean – land, go get noodles, sleep, go buy new suits. Bosh, job done.
I could have padded out the story a bit more from the 7k for this weeks episodes, but that felt a little unnecessary – I’m sure if people want to, they can go back and find the events referred to and re-read them if they need a reminder (and, honesty also compels me to admit that I’m somewhat tired, having just started a new job and spending time getting to grips with that!), so I think what was written works well enough.
Next week we’re down Shimazu, but I have a few instructions from him – and at this stage of things I’ve got a reasonable idea of how most of the characters *could* act, even if they do throw me the odd curveball from time to time. If nothing else though, I can be reasonably sure I can play them for a session without them being horribly out of character… The most important thing I needed to check was whether he’d give up his sword to security on entering the casino – which he said he would, though only after a lot of complaining and arguments.
But still – we’re off to the gambling hall next week. Who knows – this could be the end of the campaign! I certainly wouldn’t put it past Kai to walk in and put the credstick with 1.2m Nuyen, the teams’ entire funds, on black at the first roulette wheel and then give it a spin, just to see what happens. Even if it came up a winner, I think the rest of the team would shoot him on principle!!!
I guess we’ll have to see what kind of mood he’s in tomorrow night!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 19/07/61, Location: 23.18243, 113.74018, Time 00:10
2. Aswon contacts spook, gets directions to building site. has a quiet part of the site not yet being built upon: 22.32964, 114.23163 120m concrete pad, minibus arrives flashing lights, can't see the team.
3. Marius - why are we here. Aswon - not seen her for ages, want to meet the team. M are we leaving the bird here. A she says it'll be fine, and the bird has defences right? We can go for a drink, a meal, plot, plan, be social - for once. Not end up face down in a pool of vodka with the local crime boss - eh Marius. M - don't know what you mean, I don't remember that.
4. Kai gets out, spook flashes lights, then waits.
5. Kai - hello, Spook hands Kai a bottle. Aswon does introductions. Small and petite, modestly dressed. Marius - we're fine to leave the bird here? End of the week, should be fine. Check battery on the cloak. Drop cloak to let Spook see the bird. She asks, can I poke it? What do you mean? Explains. Offers to get a watchman. He arrives in 5 mins with external power. Tads puts an extra spirit on it, engage the cloak again.
6. 1am. Spook drives into HK, avoids main roads, driving with expert navigation.
7. To the sports ball place, flood lights on other side, recreational drugs. Noodle bar in the silverline bus, patio furniture.
8. They order, Spook looks at garden furniture and Hunter/Shimazu, moderate CCTV coverage, but not watching the team.
9. Talk with Spook about the guns, not using their own contacts too far away. Spook covers again what they want, the contact is ok, reasonable rates, not really gouging.
10. Kai - do they have the skill to use bullet presses, things like that? Hunter - probably not have the materials or the facilities. Kai - what are we like load wise? Team covers off load vs space. Cover off the deal again.
11. Spook - can get the stuff from the militia, get the huk on your side, but the japs will hate you - but they'll hate you anyway for being smugglers. Team generally not in favour of an attack, they have a stealth bird. Tad especially don't want to get into trouble. Some joking about being shot down, long walk back, Aswon being bitten, got onto cannon goats, regale Spook with the story. Poking fun at Aswon, then Hunter - defusing landmines with his face. More banter - but hey, I can throw a smoke grenade out of the window. More tales and mockery amongst the group. Spook relaxes a bit, gets table nibbles and some cheap wine. Aswon dobs in Marius "stealing" Nadia. Spook asks about Shimazu and why there aren't funny stories about him. Shimazu - ran into a tree once, oh and I died. Whoah, you can't leave that there. Kai covers the story about the horror, cavalry, shamans dying. Kai covers that Shimazu dived into the way for him. Marius covers throwing his sword out of the aircraft in Nigeria too. Spook looks at Tads, raises eyebrows. Tads makes weird bland statement. Aswon gets Hunter to find holders of the medal, send to spook. Spook ignores tads but plays the Russian national anthem quietly. Hunter mentions the video about the fight, they show Spook. Explain about the Russians in the hovercraft, and Hunter was put forward...
12. Shimazu - Not going back to Iran. Aswon - well not unless we get told. Marius - nope, with Shimazu.
13. Spook fills them in on the local scene and politics a bit, delicate balance of power, stolen high-tech goods and 1st gen knock offs, stuff liberated from think tanks or production sites. No obvious racial bias, normal mix of types.
14. Aswon queries again about the weapons deal, spook summarises again.
15. Spook sorts out a cheap hotel room. F1 ward on the lobby, basic but clean. Tads checks for tracking before everyone beds down.
16. In the morning Spook calls, grandfather fan, invite - not demand. Aswon, oh god Marius is going to give me such a hard time.
17. Ask Marius - he recalls they messed with the Blue Lotus, check with Spook - no, this is the Red Cranes. Kai - underworld politics. Tribal, control of local area. Aswon asks Spook - is the a job we could turn down? Yes, actually - he's asking not sending people round. Have you got tuxes? No, went up in the old tilt-wing. I can get you a tailor, we've got some good ones. Aswon - armoured suits? Sp - of course. 888 casino, 9pm tonight.
18. Team go for standard fashion - go and get suits for everyone. Aswon wants to get people back to the bird for ceremonial weapons.
19. Kai sends message to Ludmilla and Germaine to ask if they want anything bought back.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week the team were off to meet Spook, one of Aswon’s starting contacts, and the broker for their next job. After getting a landing spot sorted out, they met up with her and headed into the city. I’d originally planned for a little bit of RP, and then to push on with the story and the meeting with the Triad boss – however, the team seemed to really buy into the story time, with all of the players engaging and poking fun at each other IC, from the copious amount of stuff they’ve done.
I joked with the wife after the evening was done that we could have an alternate title for this weeks story of “The writers guild strike”, as it almost felt like a clip show / flashback episode, with minimal new content, which got a smirk from her…
Still, I’m more than happy for them to have some RP time, especially in this case as it wasn’t just one or two members of the team involved, but every single player having something to add in, defend or get mock-upset about, so I let that run, which meant it wasn’t a very action packed episode… I mean – land, go get noodles, sleep, go buy new suits. Bosh, job done.
I could have padded out the story a bit more from the 7k for this weeks episodes, but that felt a little unnecessary – I’m sure if people want to, they can go back and find the events referred to and re-read them if they need a reminder (and, honesty also compels me to admit that I’m somewhat tired, having just started a new job and spending time getting to grips with that!), so I think what was written works well enough.
Next week we’re down Shimazu, but I have a few instructions from him – and at this stage of things I’ve got a reasonable idea of how most of the characters *could* act, even if they do throw me the odd curveball from time to time. If nothing else though, I can be reasonably sure I can play them for a session without them being horribly out of character… The most important thing I needed to check was whether he’d give up his sword to security on entering the casino – which he said he would, though only after a lot of complaining and arguments.
But still – we’re off to the gambling hall next week. Who knows – this could be the end of the campaign! I certainly wouldn’t put it past Kai to walk in and put the credstick with 1.2m Nuyen, the teams’ entire funds, on black at the first roulette wheel and then give it a spin, just to see what happens. Even if it came up a winner, I think the rest of the team would shoot him on principle!!!
I guess we’ll have to see what kind of mood he’s in tomorrow night!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 19/07/61, Location: 23.18243, 113.74018, Time 00:10
2. Aswon contacts spook, gets directions to building site. has a quiet part of the site not yet being built upon: 22.32964, 114.23163 120m concrete pad, minibus arrives flashing lights, can't see the team.
3. Marius - why are we here. Aswon - not seen her for ages, want to meet the team. M are we leaving the bird here. A she says it'll be fine, and the bird has defences right? We can go for a drink, a meal, plot, plan, be social - for once. Not end up face down in a pool of vodka with the local crime boss - eh Marius. M - don't know what you mean, I don't remember that.
4. Kai gets out, spook flashes lights, then waits.
5. Kai - hello, Spook hands Kai a bottle. Aswon does introductions. Small and petite, modestly dressed. Marius - we're fine to leave the bird here? End of the week, should be fine. Check battery on the cloak. Drop cloak to let Spook see the bird. She asks, can I poke it? What do you mean? Explains. Offers to get a watchman. He arrives in 5 mins with external power. Tads puts an extra spirit on it, engage the cloak again.
6. 1am. Spook drives into HK, avoids main roads, driving with expert navigation.
7. To the sports ball place, flood lights on other side, recreational drugs. Noodle bar in the silverline bus, patio furniture.
8. They order, Spook looks at garden furniture and Hunter/Shimazu, moderate CCTV coverage, but not watching the team.
9. Talk with Spook about the guns, not using their own contacts too far away. Spook covers again what they want, the contact is ok, reasonable rates, not really gouging.
10. Kai - do they have the skill to use bullet presses, things like that? Hunter - probably not have the materials or the facilities. Kai - what are we like load wise? Team covers off load vs space. Cover off the deal again.
11. Spook - can get the stuff from the militia, get the huk on your side, but the japs will hate you - but they'll hate you anyway for being smugglers. Team generally not in favour of an attack, they have a stealth bird. Tad especially don't want to get into trouble. Some joking about being shot down, long walk back, Aswon being bitten, got onto cannon goats, regale Spook with the story. Poking fun at Aswon, then Hunter - defusing landmines with his face. More banter - but hey, I can throw a smoke grenade out of the window. More tales and mockery amongst the group. Spook relaxes a bit, gets table nibbles and some cheap wine. Aswon dobs in Marius "stealing" Nadia. Spook asks about Shimazu and why there aren't funny stories about him. Shimazu - ran into a tree once, oh and I died. Whoah, you can't leave that there. Kai covers the story about the horror, cavalry, shamans dying. Kai covers that Shimazu dived into the way for him. Marius covers throwing his sword out of the aircraft in Nigeria too. Spook looks at Tads, raises eyebrows. Tads makes weird bland statement. Aswon gets Hunter to find holders of the medal, send to spook. Spook ignores tads but plays the Russian national anthem quietly. Hunter mentions the video about the fight, they show Spook. Explain about the Russians in the hovercraft, and Hunter was put forward...
12. Shimazu - Not going back to Iran. Aswon - well not unless we get told. Marius - nope, with Shimazu.
13. Spook fills them in on the local scene and politics a bit, delicate balance of power, stolen high-tech goods and 1st gen knock offs, stuff liberated from think tanks or production sites. No obvious racial bias, normal mix of types.
14. Aswon queries again about the weapons deal, spook summarises again.
15. Spook sorts out a cheap hotel room. F1 ward on the lobby, basic but clean. Tads checks for tracking before everyone beds down.
16. In the morning Spook calls, grandfather fan, invite - not demand. Aswon, oh god Marius is going to give me such a hard time.
17. Ask Marius - he recalls they messed with the Blue Lotus, check with Spook - no, this is the Red Cranes. Kai - underworld politics. Tribal, control of local area. Aswon asks Spook - is the a job we could turn down? Yes, actually - he's asking not sending people round. Have you got tuxes? No, went up in the old tilt-wing. I can get you a tailor, we've got some good ones. Aswon - armoured suits? Sp - of course. 888 casino, 9pm tonight.
18. Team go for standard fashion - go and get suits for everyone. Aswon wants to get people back to the bird for ceremonial weapons.
19. Kai sends message to Ludmilla and Germaine to ask if they want anything bought back.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 299 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A bit of a change of style for this one – a very laid back, description heavy RP session with no action or real planning going on. The team were off to see “Grandfather Fan”, the head of the Red Crane Triad in central/downtown Hong Kong.
I wanted to make a really interesting location for this, hopefully something memorable, that would act as an anchor for the NPC (and be a massive pain in the butt for the art director when they try to film this episode of the tv-show!), something to really showcase an opulent and ostentatious show of wealth and over-the-top excess.
Trying to combine the level of theming that you can see at a modern park like Disney, along with the level of investment from the 5* resorts on the Las Vegas strip, crossed with a sense of scale and impressiveness that I remember getting the first time I entered the end section of the ‘Deadmines’ instance in World of Warcraft, itself riffing off the end sequence from the Goonies.
Along with that though, I also wanted to show them some high level security – buildings designed to make avoiding the weapons and cyber-ware scanners almost impossible, with nested wards, bound elementals on patrol, enough CCTV to watch the subtlest of gestures and motions, and enough visible security to make them think twice about funny games – and to wonder about the *non-visible* security that must surely be lurking in the background.
At the end of the last session, while out walking the dog with Tads, I joked that this week could very well be the end of the campaign. She looked at me confused, and I said to her “just think – what will you all do if Kai walks in and slaps down your entire team funds on one number on the roulette wheel and just hopes to get lucky?” She looked at me agog for a moment, and I followed up with “Tell me that he’s not that chaotic. I dare you…”
Sure enough, when we were getting into the casino, the player did indeed threaten to do just that – at which point we had to stop for a minute or two while all the other players threatened to do unspeakable things to him if he dared… fortunately he restrained himself, and kept his initial bet low!
The meeting with the triad boss when well though, with some gentle probing as to what the team would and would not do. The NPC also discussed the team in front of them, discussing with his protégé that sometimes you have to just cut people loose, and throw them to the wolves, while you should save others. The team didn’t massively respond to that – though they may have just been biting their tongues and being polite during the meeting. They didn’t pick up on it later though – so I’m not sure if they made as much of this as I thought they might.
Still – they’ve made an introduction to a very powerful crime boss, and even though they haven’t done much for him so far, Spook has solid rep with him, so her vouching for them carries them a fair way – and got them some new fuel spots that will be of use in the coming weeks.
Next week will be a quick weapons pick up, then time for a bit of stealth and fancy flying as Marius pits the Broadsword and his stealth skill versus some Shimakaze class destroyers maintaining the naval blockade around the Philippines! I think they should be fine, with the magical concealment as well, but we’ll have to see what the dice have to say about that.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 20/07/61, Location: 22.31128, 114.18135, Time 20:00
2. Spook is dressed up, made up and looking like a courtesan. Everyone good to go?
3. Kai - anything we should avoid doing? Spook - be polite, considerate. Tads - wards? Spook, yeah, plenty. Aswon - honorifics. Mr Fan, maybe grandfather if invited. Aswon - any sidekicks? Yeah, Mr Li. Spook calls in for the limo. Aswon - what about jammers / WNG. Spook - take them out/off, it's a live casino. Limo arrives, Aswon - was expecting the van. Spook - no, this is not the place you go to in a mini-van
4. Get close to waters edge, building all lit up, spots and lasers, leds up the core.
5. The 888 casino takes up the bottom 8 floors of the Harbourfront Landmark building, a glass and steel edifice right on the waterfront. To the front of the building is a large and impressive water-feature with three animatronic dolphins that leap in and out of the water, sending spouts of water up to 10m high, lit up by colour cycling lights.
6. Aswon - significance of 3, dolphins? Marius - featured heavy in history. 3, triads, good number, dolphins for good luck.
7. Limo arrives, bellhops not surprised by group / appearance. Sweeping path upward.
8. Going into the lobby, the area features a luxurious marble floor, columns and walls, all made with Florentine Ruin Marble, in an expansive lobby. The lobby rises up at least three floors, and overhead the "roof" is made up of a complex light show / hologram of a teeming ocean landscape.
9. Visitors are taken over raised bridges and through "natural rock" archways which conceal the R9 weapon scanners, with guests then ending up next to the cloakrooms where items can be discretely deposited. Aswons spears goes into hatstand, asks about security, F10 ward F6 air spirits under the water illusion. Shimazu *is* allowed to keep his sword if it's peace-bonded - corded into scabbard and heat-welded in place.
10. After passing through security, they are invited to climb aboard "coracles", seating 3-4 people in 2X2 formation, which rise up on lifting arms, through the ocean display. While climbing fish swarm around them, including sharks, rays and other predators, swimming near them and snapping at them - the bright and distracting holograms also cover the discrete photography, with the lights being timed to illuminate faces and draw attention to ensuire a good face shot.
11. Marius - you're pretty sure that for just a moment, in the middle of the light show, you saw a camera on a floating arm, aimed directly at your face when the lights were brightest.
12. Marius, Hunter and Tads in first vehicle. Marius leans over to tell Hunter about facial recognition cameras.
13. Finally, the guests are deposited at floor 4, and the actual casino entrance. Two large statues of Poseidon guard the entrance to a sparkling undersea palace,
14. with a virtual aquarium playing on the "windows" displaying blue ocean shallows and coral reefs teeming with life, with small crowds watching some of the displays. The roof soars 2-3 stories high, with stalactites illuminated by hidden lights. Clusters of slot machines radiate outwards in a loose spiral, separated with lush deep blue carpet, while frequent statues, sunken ships, treasure chests and other underwater themed decorations provide something to look at regardless of position. "Mermaids" circulate providing drinks to clients, while table bosses are dressed in a style that looks like 18th century naval ratings.
15. In the centre of the vast gaming space, the "lagoon" is a slightly sunken area, holding a large selection of tables for Blackjack, Poker, Roulette and Craps, all visible from the raised area that surrounds it, where people can drink, eat, relax and watch the mid-games.
16. Mermaids approach for drinks orders.
17. Higher stakes games are run in one of two caverns off to each side of the gaming floor, quieter areas that are screened from the general noise and activity of the main floor. Each has a "customer service agent" their armour disguised as aquatic-warrior style imagery standing near the doorway, keeping an eye on people entering and leaving.
18. Finally, at the back of the gaming area is "the shipwreck", Hunter engineering roll - built in place. an area with an apparently rotting gangplank rising up into the broken and twisted remains of a Spanish galleon.
19. Spook - we still have 30 mins, want to play a game or something. Rest of team - NO, Kai. You're not putting it all on Red. Kai - but we could double our money. Team - or lose it all. Spend a grand. Force 6 wards around the outside, and some more F6 air elementals amongst the stalactites.
20. Kai goes to get a 1K chip, to the roulette wheel and puts it on Red. D37 roll. Odds black, evens red, 37=0. Comes up 20(Red), 2k. Goes again, doubles up to 2k, 15(Black), 4k. Doubles up, 14 - loses. Takes out another 1k to tip to the table boss. Thanks him for his time. "Better luck in the next game". Orks working security, no trolls, few elves and dwarves, mostly human. Patriarchal society, neat, tuxes and evening dresses, gold bling.
21. Tads checks out the display. Brief narrative story, following a fish, simple tale. Tads active masking her foci, no problem against all wards.
22. Get a brief snack in the middle, surveillance and recon - spot the super heavy camera focus in the main area.
23. Inside there is an old-world nautical theme, but the area is accessible and comfortable, and as the team rise up several ramps to the upper decks, they can see private suites and gaming areas for the truly wealthy and powerful - and are led to the "Captains Quarters" at the rear of the ship, where there is an expansive view over the whole casino floor.
24. Mr Fan sitting behind a large table, Han Li off to one side. 6 large triad soldiers against the walls, parade rest - clearly wearing mid-grade armour, but with no obvious weapons or even the bulges for heavy pistols. 2 of them are Grade 2 phys-ads, with centering and improved martial arts skills, the other 4 are crack shots with their trank guns
25. Thanks for coming, excuse me for not standing, my legs are a little tired these days. Kai - deepest bow, respectful thanks for time. Most impressive establishment, enjoyed it greatly. Li puts Shimazu's chair down about a metre back from the chair line.
26. Waves, gets repeat drinks of the same as on the casino floor.
27. Thanks spook for arranging. Won't press for details of your current work, just wondered if you would be open to work in the future.
28. K - certainly interested in many ventures of a business variety. Take it you've been briefed on our capabilities and style.
29. Your capabilities yes, your business style -I prefer to hear from you.
30. Our main bread and butter is smuggling, without permits, shipments of goods. "always good to have relocation experts on the payroll". We have expanded into other lines of work, other things like recovery of items not in the correct hands. We shy away from things like people smuggling, kidnapping, wetwork. We have done these things, but we're generally against things like that, leave it to people better equipped and skilled people in those areas. We do lots of unusual tasks, magical or mundane things that will stretch our legs, mysterious or challenging, but always professional. "interesting, very interesting." We work as a team, I'm sure they will add anything that they feel I'm missing. Aswon - independent contractors. Not on the payroll - you can trust us to do the job. Kai - and discreet - we don't like to brag about business. We don't share information about jobs between employers.
31. "I see. Please bear with me one moment."
32. "Outsiders are something you should consider carefully young man. They do not know our ways perhaps, and there are many that dismiss them. But the waters in the China Sea - do we think they never saw the Atlantic Ocean? Or the Indian? All things flow and ebb, change over time. And just because they are from far away, does not make them less worthy. Just different."
33. "Yes Grandfather."
34. "Many will treat them poorly, or as inferiors. And truly some of them are. Those - like the dregs of our society, you should use and discard, tools that are unworthy of a craftsman. But some rocks shine bright, and are not to be used to make a path, but to be treated well. And the advantage to having someone from...elsewhere, is that your enemies find it much hard to plan and take account of their capabilities. Where conflict comes to the fore, they could be the difference between failure and success."
35. "Assuming we have suitable work, you're interested in some independent contracts in the future?" Yes, Spook here speaks very highly of your professionalism and calibre. Tads - we're not local though, so transport costs might be high. K - Tads brings a good point, we're not local, but as you mentioned that might be a good point. A - and we have been known to act as emissaries from time to time.
36. "I see. Well we should swap contacts. for the future. Mr Li broadcasts a vcc, team swap details. "Of course, such things are a two way street - is there anything you have need of?" K - we have had a long journey, do have some errands to run, we could always do with fuelling spots.
37. "Of course, the tank and the bay I think" Mr Li beams info over. Hunter can tell they're somewhere in the SCS from the co-ords.
38. "I'm sure you have more gambling to do, or things to see in the city, won't keep you." Kai very polite response and deep bow to Fan, and a slightly less deep bow to Mr Li. Grandfather nods, Li gives a respectful bow. Spook leads the way out.
39. Spook - subtle sigh of relief, "good job" to Kai. "yeah, was a little worried, but seemed to go well". Hunter - do you want to talk outside. Everything is monitored in here..." Finish the drinks. Spook - happy to go out for dinner.
40. Team decide that some of them are having one spin on the slot machines.
41. Tads - burns through 500, Aswon turns 1k into 800, Marius 200 on Blackjack, 7+ace, +4, +3, +2, Dealer busts, Marius gets 200 profit. Hunter takes 1k, doesn't play, claims he lost.
42. Spook - will get someone to come pick us up. Tads - don't have to go back to the bird, they had sufficient wards to throw off any tracking. Hunter - prefer to go back to the bird with a takeout, personally. Spook, if it's cool with you, I'd like to see the inside of the bird. We can do takeout.
43. Hunter asks Aswon- how is she going to feel about being cut out. Aswon asks spook if she's happy or wants to rep us.
44. "I see what you mean, but I'm happy. Grandfather will remember who brokered the intro. Your rep is my rep."
45. Marius - something to bear in mind, if we work for one OC for too long, we become less independent. Aswon - two words, Ryumyo and Lung, they trusted us to be neutral, so should you. Tads - we don't know for certain they were the dragons, Aswon and Hunter - yeah, we do.
46. Kai - anything for you Spook. No, all my pots are simmering. This meeting was the big worry. Aswon - anything for our young friend. Coded message - no, we're all good.
47. Team say they're heading off tomorrow to go pick up the guns - or at least check them over. Also - Hunter, get us bug scanned will you. especially the weapons - all looks fine.
48. Aswon hugs spook as she leaves, team bed down and get ready to leave.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A bit of a change of style for this one – a very laid back, description heavy RP session with no action or real planning going on. The team were off to see “Grandfather Fan”, the head of the Red Crane Triad in central/downtown Hong Kong.
I wanted to make a really interesting location for this, hopefully something memorable, that would act as an anchor for the NPC (and be a massive pain in the butt for the art director when they try to film this episode of the tv-show!), something to really showcase an opulent and ostentatious show of wealth and over-the-top excess.
Trying to combine the level of theming that you can see at a modern park like Disney, along with the level of investment from the 5* resorts on the Las Vegas strip, crossed with a sense of scale and impressiveness that I remember getting the first time I entered the end section of the ‘Deadmines’ instance in World of Warcraft, itself riffing off the end sequence from the Goonies.
Along with that though, I also wanted to show them some high level security – buildings designed to make avoiding the weapons and cyber-ware scanners almost impossible, with nested wards, bound elementals on patrol, enough CCTV to watch the subtlest of gestures and motions, and enough visible security to make them think twice about funny games – and to wonder about the *non-visible* security that must surely be lurking in the background.
At the end of the last session, while out walking the dog with Tads, I joked that this week could very well be the end of the campaign. She looked at me confused, and I said to her “just think – what will you all do if Kai walks in and slaps down your entire team funds on one number on the roulette wheel and just hopes to get lucky?” She looked at me agog for a moment, and I followed up with “Tell me that he’s not that chaotic. I dare you…”
Sure enough, when we were getting into the casino, the player did indeed threaten to do just that – at which point we had to stop for a minute or two while all the other players threatened to do unspeakable things to him if he dared… fortunately he restrained himself, and kept his initial bet low!
The meeting with the triad boss when well though, with some gentle probing as to what the team would and would not do. The NPC also discussed the team in front of them, discussing with his protégé that sometimes you have to just cut people loose, and throw them to the wolves, while you should save others. The team didn’t massively respond to that – though they may have just been biting their tongues and being polite during the meeting. They didn’t pick up on it later though – so I’m not sure if they made as much of this as I thought they might.
Still – they’ve made an introduction to a very powerful crime boss, and even though they haven’t done much for him so far, Spook has solid rep with him, so her vouching for them carries them a fair way – and got them some new fuel spots that will be of use in the coming weeks.
Next week will be a quick weapons pick up, then time for a bit of stealth and fancy flying as Marius pits the Broadsword and his stealth skill versus some Shimakaze class destroyers maintaining the naval blockade around the Philippines! I think they should be fine, with the magical concealment as well, but we’ll have to see what the dice have to say about that.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 20/07/61, Location: 22.31128, 114.18135, Time 20:00
2. Spook is dressed up, made up and looking like a courtesan. Everyone good to go?
3. Kai - anything we should avoid doing? Spook - be polite, considerate. Tads - wards? Spook, yeah, plenty. Aswon - honorifics. Mr Fan, maybe grandfather if invited. Aswon - any sidekicks? Yeah, Mr Li. Spook calls in for the limo. Aswon - what about jammers / WNG. Spook - take them out/off, it's a live casino. Limo arrives, Aswon - was expecting the van. Spook - no, this is not the place you go to in a mini-van
4. Get close to waters edge, building all lit up, spots and lasers, leds up the core.
5. The 888 casino takes up the bottom 8 floors of the Harbourfront Landmark building, a glass and steel edifice right on the waterfront. To the front of the building is a large and impressive water-feature with three animatronic dolphins that leap in and out of the water, sending spouts of water up to 10m high, lit up by colour cycling lights.
6. Aswon - significance of 3, dolphins? Marius - featured heavy in history. 3, triads, good number, dolphins for good luck.
7. Limo arrives, bellhops not surprised by group / appearance. Sweeping path upward.
8. Going into the lobby, the area features a luxurious marble floor, columns and walls, all made with Florentine Ruin Marble, in an expansive lobby. The lobby rises up at least three floors, and overhead the "roof" is made up of a complex light show / hologram of a teeming ocean landscape.
9. Visitors are taken over raised bridges and through "natural rock" archways which conceal the R9 weapon scanners, with guests then ending up next to the cloakrooms where items can be discretely deposited. Aswons spears goes into hatstand, asks about security, F10 ward F6 air spirits under the water illusion. Shimazu *is* allowed to keep his sword if it's peace-bonded - corded into scabbard and heat-welded in place.
10. After passing through security, they are invited to climb aboard "coracles", seating 3-4 people in 2X2 formation, which rise up on lifting arms, through the ocean display. While climbing fish swarm around them, including sharks, rays and other predators, swimming near them and snapping at them - the bright and distracting holograms also cover the discrete photography, with the lights being timed to illuminate faces and draw attention to ensuire a good face shot.
11. Marius - you're pretty sure that for just a moment, in the middle of the light show, you saw a camera on a floating arm, aimed directly at your face when the lights were brightest.
12. Marius, Hunter and Tads in first vehicle. Marius leans over to tell Hunter about facial recognition cameras.
13. Finally, the guests are deposited at floor 4, and the actual casino entrance. Two large statues of Poseidon guard the entrance to a sparkling undersea palace,
14. with a virtual aquarium playing on the "windows" displaying blue ocean shallows and coral reefs teeming with life, with small crowds watching some of the displays. The roof soars 2-3 stories high, with stalactites illuminated by hidden lights. Clusters of slot machines radiate outwards in a loose spiral, separated with lush deep blue carpet, while frequent statues, sunken ships, treasure chests and other underwater themed decorations provide something to look at regardless of position. "Mermaids" circulate providing drinks to clients, while table bosses are dressed in a style that looks like 18th century naval ratings.
15. In the centre of the vast gaming space, the "lagoon" is a slightly sunken area, holding a large selection of tables for Blackjack, Poker, Roulette and Craps, all visible from the raised area that surrounds it, where people can drink, eat, relax and watch the mid-games.
16. Mermaids approach for drinks orders.
17. Higher stakes games are run in one of two caverns off to each side of the gaming floor, quieter areas that are screened from the general noise and activity of the main floor. Each has a "customer service agent" their armour disguised as aquatic-warrior style imagery standing near the doorway, keeping an eye on people entering and leaving.
18. Finally, at the back of the gaming area is "the shipwreck", Hunter engineering roll - built in place. an area with an apparently rotting gangplank rising up into the broken and twisted remains of a Spanish galleon.
19. Spook - we still have 30 mins, want to play a game or something. Rest of team - NO, Kai. You're not putting it all on Red. Kai - but we could double our money. Team - or lose it all. Spend a grand. Force 6 wards around the outside, and some more F6 air elementals amongst the stalactites.
20. Kai goes to get a 1K chip, to the roulette wheel and puts it on Red. D37 roll. Odds black, evens red, 37=0. Comes up 20(Red), 2k. Goes again, doubles up to 2k, 15(Black), 4k. Doubles up, 14 - loses. Takes out another 1k to tip to the table boss. Thanks him for his time. "Better luck in the next game". Orks working security, no trolls, few elves and dwarves, mostly human. Patriarchal society, neat, tuxes and evening dresses, gold bling.
21. Tads checks out the display. Brief narrative story, following a fish, simple tale. Tads active masking her foci, no problem against all wards.
22. Get a brief snack in the middle, surveillance and recon - spot the super heavy camera focus in the main area.
23. Inside there is an old-world nautical theme, but the area is accessible and comfortable, and as the team rise up several ramps to the upper decks, they can see private suites and gaming areas for the truly wealthy and powerful - and are led to the "Captains Quarters" at the rear of the ship, where there is an expansive view over the whole casino floor.
24. Mr Fan sitting behind a large table, Han Li off to one side. 6 large triad soldiers against the walls, parade rest - clearly wearing mid-grade armour, but with no obvious weapons or even the bulges for heavy pistols. 2 of them are Grade 2 phys-ads, with centering and improved martial arts skills, the other 4 are crack shots with their trank guns
25. Thanks for coming, excuse me for not standing, my legs are a little tired these days. Kai - deepest bow, respectful thanks for time. Most impressive establishment, enjoyed it greatly. Li puts Shimazu's chair down about a metre back from the chair line.
26. Waves, gets repeat drinks of the same as on the casino floor.
27. Thanks spook for arranging. Won't press for details of your current work, just wondered if you would be open to work in the future.
28. K - certainly interested in many ventures of a business variety. Take it you've been briefed on our capabilities and style.
29. Your capabilities yes, your business style -I prefer to hear from you.
30. Our main bread and butter is smuggling, without permits, shipments of goods. "always good to have relocation experts on the payroll". We have expanded into other lines of work, other things like recovery of items not in the correct hands. We shy away from things like people smuggling, kidnapping, wetwork. We have done these things, but we're generally against things like that, leave it to people better equipped and skilled people in those areas. We do lots of unusual tasks, magical or mundane things that will stretch our legs, mysterious or challenging, but always professional. "interesting, very interesting." We work as a team, I'm sure they will add anything that they feel I'm missing. Aswon - independent contractors. Not on the payroll - you can trust us to do the job. Kai - and discreet - we don't like to brag about business. We don't share information about jobs between employers.
31. "I see. Please bear with me one moment."
32. "Outsiders are something you should consider carefully young man. They do not know our ways perhaps, and there are many that dismiss them. But the waters in the China Sea - do we think they never saw the Atlantic Ocean? Or the Indian? All things flow and ebb, change over time. And just because they are from far away, does not make them less worthy. Just different."
33. "Yes Grandfather."
34. "Many will treat them poorly, or as inferiors. And truly some of them are. Those - like the dregs of our society, you should use and discard, tools that are unworthy of a craftsman. But some rocks shine bright, and are not to be used to make a path, but to be treated well. And the advantage to having someone from...elsewhere, is that your enemies find it much hard to plan and take account of their capabilities. Where conflict comes to the fore, they could be the difference between failure and success."
35. "Assuming we have suitable work, you're interested in some independent contracts in the future?" Yes, Spook here speaks very highly of your professionalism and calibre. Tads - we're not local though, so transport costs might be high. K - Tads brings a good point, we're not local, but as you mentioned that might be a good point. A - and we have been known to act as emissaries from time to time.
36. "I see. Well we should swap contacts. for the future. Mr Li broadcasts a vcc, team swap details. "Of course, such things are a two way street - is there anything you have need of?" K - we have had a long journey, do have some errands to run, we could always do with fuelling spots.
37. "Of course, the tank and the bay I think" Mr Li beams info over. Hunter can tell they're somewhere in the SCS from the co-ords.
38. "I'm sure you have more gambling to do, or things to see in the city, won't keep you." Kai very polite response and deep bow to Fan, and a slightly less deep bow to Mr Li. Grandfather nods, Li gives a respectful bow. Spook leads the way out.
39. Spook - subtle sigh of relief, "good job" to Kai. "yeah, was a little worried, but seemed to go well". Hunter - do you want to talk outside. Everything is monitored in here..." Finish the drinks. Spook - happy to go out for dinner.
40. Team decide that some of them are having one spin on the slot machines.
41. Tads - burns through 500, Aswon turns 1k into 800, Marius 200 on Blackjack, 7+ace, +4, +3, +2, Dealer busts, Marius gets 200 profit. Hunter takes 1k, doesn't play, claims he lost.
42. Spook - will get someone to come pick us up. Tads - don't have to go back to the bird, they had sufficient wards to throw off any tracking. Hunter - prefer to go back to the bird with a takeout, personally. Spook, if it's cool with you, I'd like to see the inside of the bird. We can do takeout.
43. Hunter asks Aswon- how is she going to feel about being cut out. Aswon asks spook if she's happy or wants to rep us.
44. "I see what you mean, but I'm happy. Grandfather will remember who brokered the intro. Your rep is my rep."
45. Marius - something to bear in mind, if we work for one OC for too long, we become less independent. Aswon - two words, Ryumyo and Lung, they trusted us to be neutral, so should you. Tads - we don't know for certain they were the dragons, Aswon and Hunter - yeah, we do.
46. Kai - anything for you Spook. No, all my pots are simmering. This meeting was the big worry. Aswon - anything for our young friend. Coded message - no, we're all good.
47. Team say they're heading off tomorrow to go pick up the guns - or at least check them over. Also - Hunter, get us bug scanned will you. especially the weapons - all looks fine.
48. Aswon hugs spook as she leaves, team bed down and get ready to leave.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 300 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Apologies for the delay on this one – work has been a bit manic, and I’ve been preparing for our annual holiday to the Netherlands – speaking of which, this has been written while on holiday, and that means there’s no game this week, so it’s going to be another two weeks or so before the next update.
In terms of this session, it was a fairly straight-forward plan. Go to location A, pick up guns. Take to location B, a new place, to meet a new contact and drop off guns. Fairly straight-forward, though the chance for some betrayal at either side, and with the team still a little paranoid about Falcon, they were being somewhat cautious.
So, hugging the coast, they flew down to “The Mosaic”, a place I found while scanning around on Google Maps that looks really interesting. If you check 19.47113, 108.89276 out, you’ll probably see what I mean. The players had a little chat about this when they saw the picture, coming to the conclusion that the squares visible were used for drying out some kind of drug or product to be shipped on elsewhere. I certainly didn’t dissuade them of this opinion… Still, they cottoned on as to why this place was called “The Mosaic” fairly quickly, and it’s probably going to stick in their minds a little. They also discovered that the owner “Sandpit” isn’t exactly a great source for general goods – he might be ok for pre-arranged stuff, but otherwise sells cheap tat, and his fuel is pricy. It remains to be seen if they remember that when planning future missions. They decided not to buy fuel here, which means they did need to visit one of the other two locations I had ready for them, and get those on their map – which I see as a good thing.
The purchase deal went smoothly enough (though the rest of the team were watching Shimazu very carefully when Sandpit mentioned he had street drugs for sale – the player seems to enjoy playing Shimazu as easily tempted on this side, and after their experience with Ludmilla’s experimental “Combat-X” drugs, they’re trying to keep him on the straight and narrow), and they were soon on their way out of there.
En-route to the Spratley islands, I showed them the Japanese destroyers off in the distance – letting them get a bit of a look at very long range, showing them the kinds of systems present, but with no real details. I wanted to seed this for two planned encounters. First of all, they’re likely to encounter at least one of these on the way out of this mission, and have to evade contact and possibly get embroiled in a rigger-combat, and see Marius earn his pay, possibly with some help from Tads. Secondly, I want them to be generally aware that these ships are *bad news* for smugglers – in the evasion from the Huk gun drop off, I’m going to have the destroyer (or destroyers, depending on how mean I’m feeling) “go active”, ramping up the flux to max and blasting the sky with enough energy to start frying seagulls, and cutting through their stealth. I want the players to KNOW that these are very competent ships, with top-flight systems, that mean business. Ships with Mach 3 SAMs that have an 80km range and a nasty warhead. Ships that will chance their arm with the deck gun, because they might get lucky, and little Iro was the Golden Shell winner in last year’s naval exercises. I want them to get away, but realise that this is down to either good luck on their part, or very fancy flying and some good use of karma re-rolls, spirits and some crazy flying. So that later on – when they encounter an entire squadron of these in a later mission, they realise that they are in fact (and this is the technical term for it) ‘proper frakked’.
“Show don’t tell”, I believe is the phrase. I plan to go one further and add “demonstrations” to the list…
But, that’s planting seeds for the future.
Next up was the landing at Elune’s Bay, a tiny little bit of nothing island. No real natural resources, no land worth having… so why the hell would someone have a base there. I mean, it’s a handy place for smugglers – but why would someone want to set up shop? So, looking at the area, I decided that this is where there’s a nice big Merrow colony, deep underwater. While out walking the dog (where many of my schemes come to fruition as I wander about) I thought “Ok, so there’s Merrow, and they don’t generally like top-siders. But what if they found a little girl… drowning after a shipwreck. And they saved her. And did the whole Tarzan thing – but more as a pet and thing of interest, rather than their boss. And she grew up as a bit of a hippy chick, in tune with nature, and definitely a vegetarian because messing with the fish is forbidden, and you don’t see many cows underwater.
Great, so now there’s a person here. And then when the Merrow need an interface with the outside world, even if it’s just a translator to tell the topsiders to frak-off, that’s why she’s there. And they realise that the smugglers, or runners are not the worst (well of course, they are the worst in many ways, but not compared to the AAAs), so setting up a fuel supply here gives them a handy place to attract people who can supply them with all kinds of useful things.
Ok, now to flesh things out – what makes her stand out. Well, she needs to go talk to her Merrow buddies from time to time, and breathing underwater tends to be hard… so what if they enchanted something to let her breathe underwater? Cool, that makes sense… but let’s twist that a bit – what if they did a “repel water” spell, instead, not really thinking things through. Now we have someone who can wander into the water, have it be repelled away, and she can come down to Merrow High Street and chat with the locals. But she can’t ever wash. Or brush her teeth. Or drink water… all her needs have to come from sucking seaweed or something like that. Man, that’s got to make someone a little eccentric. And smelly… and this concept was in no way inspired by interacting with some people that can smell pretty ripe after 5 days in a field at a live role play event, that probably didn’t have the best hygiene to start off with!
So that gave us Allora, the hippy uneducated elf, a worshiper of certain nature deities, in service to the Merrow and acting as their liaison to the topsiders, and causer of making willpower tests not to lose your lunch if you get too close to her. Bonza.
The players got her on side though with a bit of food and service provision, and got a bit of nice magic loot as a reward, and now they’re off to the Philippines to go and do the drop off at the Huk Guerrilla meeting point – though as mentioned above, this will be happening in a week’s time or so, from when this gets posted.
This session was actually played on the 12th of March – on the 19th, we didn’t have a game. We had a discussion on the 12th, and I explained that on Weds 20th, we were flying out early in the morning – so I certainly didn’t want to have a late night. As we had also just finished session 300 as well, I asked that we log on and instead have a chat on the progress and status of the game.
We met up as normal, and there was a bit of chit chat, before we got down into the weeds, and had a poke around, working through the players to check on how they were enjoying the campaign, what they liked, what they didn’t, how they felt things were going and what they would want to change – if anything – or do differently.
On the whole things were pretty positive. Everyone seems to be enjoying the story and the direction things are going, and they seem happy enough out of game with the mix between smuggling missions and “main plot” missions where stuff is happening to or around them. It was good to get confirmation from the likes of Marius that even though he’s desperately trying to stay away from dragons and magic stuff from an in-game perspective, he’s actually curious to see where things are going from an out of game viewpoint. As he’s one of the two most experienced players with the world-setting, that’s nice, and means he’s somewhat intrigued to see where the meta-plot is going to take them all.
Another thing I wanted to check on was that they didn’t feel rail-roaded or forced down a certain direction of story/plot. This was again pretty positive with only one person raising a thing – when their perch got hit with a missile during the Baikonur mission. I struggled somewhat, with a part of me wanting to explain things (as the mission was done, and they can’t really affect the outcome any more) to justify that – but also not wanting to tell them as it was IC information they hadn’t discovered. If any of them had stayed on the surface, or used a watcher spirit or drone – they would have discovered what was going on, and it would have made sense. For you, my lovely readers – SK was lifting a missile armed platform into orbit, that they could use to screw over the other corps during the probe race. When the launch craft blew up, the platform was jettisoned, but was damaged, and as a result it fired off the missiles, with them going wild and heading off in random directions. If they’d witnessed that, it was *very* valuable paydata they could have fenced off for a fat profit to the other AAAs, and they would have given SK a much harder time than they currently are. As it is, they don’t know why anything happened, and SK is just carrying on as before. *shrug* Sometimes the players don’t get to see everything, and get confused about events – and in this case maybe feel a little railroaded. Ho hum. As it was the only instance raised though, I can cope with that.
One of the players (Shimazu) also mentioned that he doesn’t like the logistics planning that goes on, and that is a part of the game that really bores him – but he does like the tactical planning side, for when they’re going on a mission. That led to a fairly animated (but civil) discussion, where it turned out that 2-3 of the other players DO really like that part, as it makes the world feel much more real to them, and lived in, and they like the different smuggler bases and facilities, and working out what rep they need with who to keep using different places. So, I might throttle back on that just a little at times, or just have to accept that Shimazu’s player might be surfing on his phone for a few minutes while the rest of the team work out their routes.
But, overall, they players are happy to carry on, and have no issues. They’re happy with the team makeup, how everyone is playing and the level of progression. Tads asked when she’s going to get her campaign special as everyone else has theirs, and I told her again that it’s the price she has to pay for being the GM’s wife – she has to wait until it’s ready. She’s really going to like it though when it comes. *big grin*
One of the things they asked for was the opportunity to get more stuff. I took that onboard, and will be planning a couple of missions around this to slot into the list of stuff I have for them, but I also made it clear that if they want to go shopping – just to let me know. If the team decide to do a break in on a Chiba black-facility and steal some top end experimental bioware, I’m more than happy to facilitate that – they just need to let me know so I can plan it. It’s their sandbox, and if they want to do some B&E or robbery style stuff, that’s fine with me. So we may see some proactive stuff popping up in the future where they decide to go and get some AV ammo, cyber or bioware, or magical supplies from some facility somewhere and do a “traditional” shadowrun, rather than some smuggling – though they’ll probably end up having to a do a paying job soon after to pay the fuel bills!
But – things seem to be going well, players happy, GM happy. Plot is progressing nicely, a lot of the major parts of the campaign are on the board, they’ve met 4 dragons now and done jobs for them, have another one coming up soon, have met both Harlequin and Eirhan, along with Damian Knight, and its nearly time for the Comet to bring the joys of SURGE to the world.
Fun times!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 04:00
2. Takeoff from the building site. 675km, 90min journey time, 05:30
3. Tads summoning spirits, taking a bit of stun. Call ahead to the base. "The Mosaic is awaiting your presence"
4. Marius - what? Aswon - looks like a mosaic.
5. Concealed landing, Kai says hello, good morning. Points to sun, warmest wishes of the day to you. Kai - mosaic. Call me Sandpit, many do. Kai - very convenient, nice place, we've been to some shitholes. Sand - believe you've come to purchase some equipment. K - indeed. Do you have fuel. Ahh, we do - it's pricy though. Kai makes small talk while the guns are bought out. Kai - what else do you have, we might want some. Details street drugs, electronics, chips. Minions bring out guns and ammo crate. Investigate chips a little - looking for survival/tactics.
6. Opens one of each type of crate to show contents. Aswon queries about explosives and chemicals - we can get some, nahh...
7. Kai - how are we fixed for steaks? Tads - no, should have asked before we landed.
8. Sandpit - ok, let's discuss price. Kai - what? Ok, thought it was fixed. First deal, ok 60k. Handover of cargo. Kai checks - can we come back with the same com codes, here's my details.
9. Can I interest you in some trid-units? Commlinks? Radios? Takes Kai to a warehouse, shows him the cheap shit. Kai doesn't buy, back to the bird.
10. Take off, head to the Sprately isles, 2000km range, 1/3 tank left. Marius 9 on stealth check with RR,
11. Spot Shimakaze II destroyers steaming north east currently. Aswon - mariners 1 - def warships. Launch weapons
12. Spot the island, 5km long, 20m high. Very long but crap gravel strip - Marius, coming in VTOL. Checking out the "deserted" village,
13. Shimazu checking out the astral. Marius detects shielded electronics and buried equipment. Shimazu spots positive BGC 1 and 2 in the water.
14. Elf in loose clothing comes out as soon as the bird is down, wearing magic robes, but not active themselves. Gets to her knees, sickle, waving in the air. Marius staying on the bird, everyone else going.
15. Hunter - 35 on smell based perception test... matted. "Blessings of the sea to you travellers. Do you seek fish?"
16. "If that fish is jet fuel, then yes please." Shimazu spots her relax a little. "Transport team, need fuel and a brief rest, then move on."
17. Elunes blessing on you. Is that you - no, and yes. Maybe. Grandfather Fan sent us. Ahh, very well. Elune sees all.
18. Tads - perm transmute spell on the robes.
19. Marius, Aswon and Hunter spot the Merrow watching them from the sea.
20. Aswon - someone is watching us. No, someone is guarding us. From what. People in the tin boats. She goes off for a fuel hose, badly damaged - drags it out. Fuel is 15k.
21. Kai - thanks for the fuel. Allora - do you wish for anything else? Kai - always in the market for rare goods.
22. Sometimes we have things for trade - what do you have? Aswon goes to get knife sharpening kit. Makes WP test to come close, what is it? Explains. What do you seek, what do you have? Magical plants? Talks to the merrow - Aswon listens intently. Gets good roll. Merrow dives - they will return soon, do you have anything else to trade? Robes - repel water. Aswon - maybe food would do the job after all? Tads - maybe, get Marius to check their electronics. She complains about the cred-reader. Electronic B/R test - ten minutes of work, remove the sea-cucumber. Tads - food? Not-fish. Meat ok? NOT fish. Can you cook? What is cooking? Hot? Eugh. Fruit and veg. She goes off for 10 min
23. 4 units of "water based" enchanting materials - counts as virgin telesma. 1 does of deepweed.
24. Takes the big pile of fruit in her net bag. Aswon suggests to Hunter to post about encounter on magik-net
25. Takeoff and head east
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Apologies for the delay on this one – work has been a bit manic, and I’ve been preparing for our annual holiday to the Netherlands – speaking of which, this has been written while on holiday, and that means there’s no game this week, so it’s going to be another two weeks or so before the next update.
In terms of this session, it was a fairly straight-forward plan. Go to location A, pick up guns. Take to location B, a new place, to meet a new contact and drop off guns. Fairly straight-forward, though the chance for some betrayal at either side, and with the team still a little paranoid about Falcon, they were being somewhat cautious.
So, hugging the coast, they flew down to “The Mosaic”, a place I found while scanning around on Google Maps that looks really interesting. If you check 19.47113, 108.89276 out, you’ll probably see what I mean. The players had a little chat about this when they saw the picture, coming to the conclusion that the squares visible were used for drying out some kind of drug or product to be shipped on elsewhere. I certainly didn’t dissuade them of this opinion… Still, they cottoned on as to why this place was called “The Mosaic” fairly quickly, and it’s probably going to stick in their minds a little. They also discovered that the owner “Sandpit” isn’t exactly a great source for general goods – he might be ok for pre-arranged stuff, but otherwise sells cheap tat, and his fuel is pricy. It remains to be seen if they remember that when planning future missions. They decided not to buy fuel here, which means they did need to visit one of the other two locations I had ready for them, and get those on their map – which I see as a good thing.
The purchase deal went smoothly enough (though the rest of the team were watching Shimazu very carefully when Sandpit mentioned he had street drugs for sale – the player seems to enjoy playing Shimazu as easily tempted on this side, and after their experience with Ludmilla’s experimental “Combat-X” drugs, they’re trying to keep him on the straight and narrow), and they were soon on their way out of there.
En-route to the Spratley islands, I showed them the Japanese destroyers off in the distance – letting them get a bit of a look at very long range, showing them the kinds of systems present, but with no real details. I wanted to seed this for two planned encounters. First of all, they’re likely to encounter at least one of these on the way out of this mission, and have to evade contact and possibly get embroiled in a rigger-combat, and see Marius earn his pay, possibly with some help from Tads. Secondly, I want them to be generally aware that these ships are *bad news* for smugglers – in the evasion from the Huk gun drop off, I’m going to have the destroyer (or destroyers, depending on how mean I’m feeling) “go active”, ramping up the flux to max and blasting the sky with enough energy to start frying seagulls, and cutting through their stealth. I want the players to KNOW that these are very competent ships, with top-flight systems, that mean business. Ships with Mach 3 SAMs that have an 80km range and a nasty warhead. Ships that will chance their arm with the deck gun, because they might get lucky, and little Iro was the Golden Shell winner in last year’s naval exercises. I want them to get away, but realise that this is down to either good luck on their part, or very fancy flying and some good use of karma re-rolls, spirits and some crazy flying. So that later on – when they encounter an entire squadron of these in a later mission, they realise that they are in fact (and this is the technical term for it) ‘proper frakked’.
“Show don’t tell”, I believe is the phrase. I plan to go one further and add “demonstrations” to the list…
But, that’s planting seeds for the future.
Next up was the landing at Elune’s Bay, a tiny little bit of nothing island. No real natural resources, no land worth having… so why the hell would someone have a base there. I mean, it’s a handy place for smugglers – but why would someone want to set up shop? So, looking at the area, I decided that this is where there’s a nice big Merrow colony, deep underwater. While out walking the dog (where many of my schemes come to fruition as I wander about) I thought “Ok, so there’s Merrow, and they don’t generally like top-siders. But what if they found a little girl… drowning after a shipwreck. And they saved her. And did the whole Tarzan thing – but more as a pet and thing of interest, rather than their boss. And she grew up as a bit of a hippy chick, in tune with nature, and definitely a vegetarian because messing with the fish is forbidden, and you don’t see many cows underwater.
Great, so now there’s a person here. And then when the Merrow need an interface with the outside world, even if it’s just a translator to tell the topsiders to frak-off, that’s why she’s there. And they realise that the smugglers, or runners are not the worst (well of course, they are the worst in many ways, but not compared to the AAAs), so setting up a fuel supply here gives them a handy place to attract people who can supply them with all kinds of useful things.
Ok, now to flesh things out – what makes her stand out. Well, she needs to go talk to her Merrow buddies from time to time, and breathing underwater tends to be hard… so what if they enchanted something to let her breathe underwater? Cool, that makes sense… but let’s twist that a bit – what if they did a “repel water” spell, instead, not really thinking things through. Now we have someone who can wander into the water, have it be repelled away, and she can come down to Merrow High Street and chat with the locals. But she can’t ever wash. Or brush her teeth. Or drink water… all her needs have to come from sucking seaweed or something like that. Man, that’s got to make someone a little eccentric. And smelly… and this concept was in no way inspired by interacting with some people that can smell pretty ripe after 5 days in a field at a live role play event, that probably didn’t have the best hygiene to start off with!
So that gave us Allora, the hippy uneducated elf, a worshiper of certain nature deities, in service to the Merrow and acting as their liaison to the topsiders, and causer of making willpower tests not to lose your lunch if you get too close to her. Bonza.
The players got her on side though with a bit of food and service provision, and got a bit of nice magic loot as a reward, and now they’re off to the Philippines to go and do the drop off at the Huk Guerrilla meeting point – though as mentioned above, this will be happening in a week’s time or so, from when this gets posted.
This session was actually played on the 12th of March – on the 19th, we didn’t have a game. We had a discussion on the 12th, and I explained that on Weds 20th, we were flying out early in the morning – so I certainly didn’t want to have a late night. As we had also just finished session 300 as well, I asked that we log on and instead have a chat on the progress and status of the game.
We met up as normal, and there was a bit of chit chat, before we got down into the weeds, and had a poke around, working through the players to check on how they were enjoying the campaign, what they liked, what they didn’t, how they felt things were going and what they would want to change – if anything – or do differently.
On the whole things were pretty positive. Everyone seems to be enjoying the story and the direction things are going, and they seem happy enough out of game with the mix between smuggling missions and “main plot” missions where stuff is happening to or around them. It was good to get confirmation from the likes of Marius that even though he’s desperately trying to stay away from dragons and magic stuff from an in-game perspective, he’s actually curious to see where things are going from an out of game viewpoint. As he’s one of the two most experienced players with the world-setting, that’s nice, and means he’s somewhat intrigued to see where the meta-plot is going to take them all.
Another thing I wanted to check on was that they didn’t feel rail-roaded or forced down a certain direction of story/plot. This was again pretty positive with only one person raising a thing – when their perch got hit with a missile during the Baikonur mission. I struggled somewhat, with a part of me wanting to explain things (as the mission was done, and they can’t really affect the outcome any more) to justify that – but also not wanting to tell them as it was IC information they hadn’t discovered. If any of them had stayed on the surface, or used a watcher spirit or drone – they would have discovered what was going on, and it would have made sense. For you, my lovely readers – SK was lifting a missile armed platform into orbit, that they could use to screw over the other corps during the probe race. When the launch craft blew up, the platform was jettisoned, but was damaged, and as a result it fired off the missiles, with them going wild and heading off in random directions. If they’d witnessed that, it was *very* valuable paydata they could have fenced off for a fat profit to the other AAAs, and they would have given SK a much harder time than they currently are. As it is, they don’t know why anything happened, and SK is just carrying on as before. *shrug* Sometimes the players don’t get to see everything, and get confused about events – and in this case maybe feel a little railroaded. Ho hum. As it was the only instance raised though, I can cope with that.
One of the players (Shimazu) also mentioned that he doesn’t like the logistics planning that goes on, and that is a part of the game that really bores him – but he does like the tactical planning side, for when they’re going on a mission. That led to a fairly animated (but civil) discussion, where it turned out that 2-3 of the other players DO really like that part, as it makes the world feel much more real to them, and lived in, and they like the different smuggler bases and facilities, and working out what rep they need with who to keep using different places. So, I might throttle back on that just a little at times, or just have to accept that Shimazu’s player might be surfing on his phone for a few minutes while the rest of the team work out their routes.
But, overall, they players are happy to carry on, and have no issues. They’re happy with the team makeup, how everyone is playing and the level of progression. Tads asked when she’s going to get her campaign special as everyone else has theirs, and I told her again that it’s the price she has to pay for being the GM’s wife – she has to wait until it’s ready. She’s really going to like it though when it comes. *big grin*
One of the things they asked for was the opportunity to get more stuff. I took that onboard, and will be planning a couple of missions around this to slot into the list of stuff I have for them, but I also made it clear that if they want to go shopping – just to let me know. If the team decide to do a break in on a Chiba black-facility and steal some top end experimental bioware, I’m more than happy to facilitate that – they just need to let me know so I can plan it. It’s their sandbox, and if they want to do some B&E or robbery style stuff, that’s fine with me. So we may see some proactive stuff popping up in the future where they decide to go and get some AV ammo, cyber or bioware, or magical supplies from some facility somewhere and do a “traditional” shadowrun, rather than some smuggling – though they’ll probably end up having to a do a paying job soon after to pay the fuel bills!
But – things seem to be going well, players happy, GM happy. Plot is progressing nicely, a lot of the major parts of the campaign are on the board, they’ve met 4 dragons now and done jobs for them, have another one coming up soon, have met both Harlequin and Eirhan, along with Damian Knight, and its nearly time for the Comet to bring the joys of SURGE to the world.
Fun times!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 04:00
2. Takeoff from the building site. 675km, 90min journey time, 05:30
3. Tads summoning spirits, taking a bit of stun. Call ahead to the base. "The Mosaic is awaiting your presence"
4. Marius - what? Aswon - looks like a mosaic.
5. Concealed landing, Kai says hello, good morning. Points to sun, warmest wishes of the day to you. Kai - mosaic. Call me Sandpit, many do. Kai - very convenient, nice place, we've been to some shitholes. Sand - believe you've come to purchase some equipment. K - indeed. Do you have fuel. Ahh, we do - it's pricy though. Kai makes small talk while the guns are bought out. Kai - what else do you have, we might want some. Details street drugs, electronics, chips. Minions bring out guns and ammo crate. Investigate chips a little - looking for survival/tactics.
6. Opens one of each type of crate to show contents. Aswon queries about explosives and chemicals - we can get some, nahh...
7. Kai - how are we fixed for steaks? Tads - no, should have asked before we landed.
8. Sandpit - ok, let's discuss price. Kai - what? Ok, thought it was fixed. First deal, ok 60k. Handover of cargo. Kai checks - can we come back with the same com codes, here's my details.
9. Can I interest you in some trid-units? Commlinks? Radios? Takes Kai to a warehouse, shows him the cheap shit. Kai doesn't buy, back to the bird.
10. Take off, head to the Sprately isles, 2000km range, 1/3 tank left. Marius 9 on stealth check with RR,
11. Spot Shimakaze II destroyers steaming north east currently. Aswon - mariners 1 - def warships. Launch weapons
12. Spot the island, 5km long, 20m high. Very long but crap gravel strip - Marius, coming in VTOL. Checking out the "deserted" village,
13. Shimazu checking out the astral. Marius detects shielded electronics and buried equipment. Shimazu spots positive BGC 1 and 2 in the water.
14. Elf in loose clothing comes out as soon as the bird is down, wearing magic robes, but not active themselves. Gets to her knees, sickle, waving in the air. Marius staying on the bird, everyone else going.
15. Hunter - 35 on smell based perception test... matted. "Blessings of the sea to you travellers. Do you seek fish?"
16. "If that fish is jet fuel, then yes please." Shimazu spots her relax a little. "Transport team, need fuel and a brief rest, then move on."
17. Elunes blessing on you. Is that you - no, and yes. Maybe. Grandfather Fan sent us. Ahh, very well. Elune sees all.
18. Tads - perm transmute spell on the robes.
19. Marius, Aswon and Hunter spot the Merrow watching them from the sea.
20. Aswon - someone is watching us. No, someone is guarding us. From what. People in the tin boats. She goes off for a fuel hose, badly damaged - drags it out. Fuel is 15k.
21. Kai - thanks for the fuel. Allora - do you wish for anything else? Kai - always in the market for rare goods.
22. Sometimes we have things for trade - what do you have? Aswon goes to get knife sharpening kit. Makes WP test to come close, what is it? Explains. What do you seek, what do you have? Magical plants? Talks to the merrow - Aswon listens intently. Gets good roll. Merrow dives - they will return soon, do you have anything else to trade? Robes - repel water. Aswon - maybe food would do the job after all? Tads - maybe, get Marius to check their electronics. She complains about the cred-reader. Electronic B/R test - ten minutes of work, remove the sea-cucumber. Tads - food? Not-fish. Meat ok? NOT fish. Can you cook? What is cooking? Hot? Eugh. Fruit and veg. She goes off for 10 min
23. 4 units of "water based" enchanting materials - counts as virgin telesma. 1 does of deepweed.
24. Takes the big pile of fruit in her net bag. Aswon suggests to Hunter to post about encounter on magik-net
25. Takeoff and head east
Congratulations on Episode 300! 
What an epic!
What an epic!
Ditto! 
Thank you both - hope it's still being an entertaining read and the "behind the scenes" posts add some context or info that is worthwhile...
Tonight though - I got to have some fun.
Shadowrun smuggler team go to drop off a shipment of guns with Huk freedom fighters.
Sort out payment.
Find the guy also smuggles a rare type of silk known as vampire silk.
Then find out he has an overdue gathering party.
Offer to help - because Kai. Of course he does. Marius facepalms, but accepts the inevitable and warms up the combat drones.
Tads goes for an astral scout - gets mobbed by dual-natured butterflies "oooh - they're so pretty!".
One of them bites her - makes her WP test to avoid their mesmerising appearance.
When she comes back to her body, finds that it has physical bite marks...
"Oh... oh of course. Vampire silk is going to come from vampire butterflies. Of course it does. And they're 15cm across you say Kren? And swarm ins dozens or perhaps 100s? Fuck...." Says Aswon...
Tonight though - I got to have some fun.
Shadowrun smuggler team go to drop off a shipment of guns with Huk freedom fighters.
Sort out payment.
Find the guy also smuggles a rare type of silk known as vampire silk.
Then find out he has an overdue gathering party.
Offer to help - because Kai. Of course he does. Marius facepalms, but accepts the inevitable and warms up the combat drones.
Tads goes for an astral scout - gets mobbed by dual-natured butterflies "oooh - they're so pretty!".
One of them bites her - makes her WP test to avoid their mesmerising appearance.
When she comes back to her body, finds that it has physical bite marks...
"Oh... oh of course. Vampire silk is going to come from vampire butterflies. Of course it does. And they're 15cm across you say Kren? And swarm ins dozens or perhaps 100s? Fuck...." Says Aswon...
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 301 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And we're back to normal now, the holiday already a distant fading memory... bleugh. Back to work until we can get that lottery win sorted out...
Having left behind “stinky elf” they crossed over the islands, and had a fairly easy time to find their target and get to the landing point. They were more than a little paranoid, and were initially wanting to almost dump and go.
I gave Marius a quick intelligence check thanks to his “photographic memory”, which he easily passed, so I passed him the information about who he could see in the landing area – waiting for them. So, they descended thinking it was the same person they’d already done one weapons delivery to, though this was much further south of their current location (this was back in Episode / Chapter 166). What was surprising was the absolute monster perception roll from Ruby, with 4 sixes rolled out of 5 perception dice, and she managed to see straight through the concealing spirit and spot the Broadsword as they came in. Sometimes the dice just be crazy!
Of course, me being the evil scheming bugger that I am, this was of course “Ruby”, her twin sister. So when Kai came off the ramp and used the “wrong” code name, she immediately thought that it was a Japanese ploy, and got super defensive. Shimazu was not here this week, as he was in the middle of moving house, so I was playing him – so I could at least “diffuse” the situation a little by having him make a really good assensing check and then not kick off the fight any further.
They got that sorted out though, got Emerald to vouch for them and that got Ruby to relax, and they were able to sort out the deal, get paid and find out they’d made a decent profit. Of course Kai then went all ‘white knight’ and told her they had too much money, earning him a lot of respect from the Huk cell leader, and leading to further negotiations.
That led to the conversation about silk, and possible selling, further gun deals and the team coming back here again, and Aswon reaching out to Spook, while Hunter did some research – and I was reasonably happy that the team were going to be buying into this for their next bit of mission.
We ended up the night with some astral recon, and it seemed like a great little cliff-hanger style stopping point – though I’m pretty sure out of came that all the players had put two and two together on exactly what kind of thing they were going to be facing. But with Tads returning with astral bite marks, it removed all doubt and led to some interesting banter back and forth as we were signing off the night.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.423, 119.75851, Time 11:45
2. Heading east, 375km to go, just under an hour.
3. Kai asks Hunter to check on the matrix address for the recipient. Dodgy remailer, could be going to TTS or a pager. Send confirmation that the team are inbound.
4. Sensor check on the way in, poor coverage on the western side, dodgy power grids, explains the naval presence.
5. Cheap buildings on the shore, brick built school and 5 a side pitch. Marius spots "Emerald" good intelligence check - remembers meeting her. Lands with tail ramp facing the school.
6. Ruby gets a 17 on the perception check, spots the team coming in. Double take, puts out her cigarette, then heads over. Team drops back ramp, armoured up and descend. Marius keeps the engines idling.
7. "Mrs Emerald, how nice to see you again". Time dilation as reflexes kick in, Shimazu to bodyguard position. Jamal pointing
8. "Why do you call me that - that's not my name." You remind me of someone I met, not too long ago. Anyway, here for business. She gets phone "What's your name". Takes a photo, babbles away. Tads preps stunball, Marius brings autocannon online. Assensing - wary, suspicious, worried. Checks phone - "ahh, you met my sister - My name is Ruby." We have some business to conclude. Ruby calls for some guys to come out - cheap clothing. Covered in white stuff. Armed with machetes. Tads offers to help unload, but team is ok.
9. Ruby sparks up a new cigarette, is there instructions. I mean, it's a rifle - but anything weird. Aswon does an explanation in english. Does an excellent job.
10. Tads suggest getting ruby to record the demo. Aswon - can we not. These guys are terrorists, according to the Japanese. Tads suggests mind-link/translate to do the recording. Kai - can we sort out the money while the rest of the team help tutor your people - we want to be away. Opens a case with a 9 digit code, old credstick surrounded by "plasticine". Hunter smells - cheap and home brewed C4. Kai checks cred reader - 98,834 Nuyen.
11. Kai thinks they're a little over, asks to take 75. Ruby agrees, asks for a moment, then babbles to Emerald. Changes disposition. Why not keep the rest, bring us some more stuff. Aswon - hmmm, not enough to cover an extra trip. Kai - we'd need to come back, with some more stuff. Can we stay for a while, find out what you need. My friends can train your folks. "No problem, but you probably want to turn your engines off so they stop drinking fuel." Kai checks it was "Ruby", then introduces team. "We don't really have more Nuyen, but we have barter goods - what can you get?" Kai - ahh, we're smuggler, traders, maybe we can work something out. Aswon picking up a tiny bit of language "go and get some of the goods"
12. Guy comes out with a shoebox, gives to Ruby. "So - where are you guys going next?" We've got no particular plans to go anywhere. Open to offers - what do you have in mind. Smuggling is our usual, quick and efficient. "Maybe then, maybe we can help each other. Do you know anything about... textiles?" Personally, not much. Antiques and things... more a specialism though. Rub hand over that - carefully. Kai does - very soft and luxurious. We have to pay a lot to get this out. Maybe you can do this, cut out the middle man - bring us some more guns.
13. Kai - do you have a buyer? No, the smugglers take care of it, and probably gouge us. Aswon - you don't have a buyer. No - was hoping you would?
14. Aswon - wait, how is this harvested? By hand? Oh...
15. Team assense - magical aura. A good chunk is raw telesma.
16. Marius gets Aswon a signal via sat-link, to allow him to call Spook. "Potentially have a trade coming back, what do you know about the silk trade?" A little. "Say we had raw, high quality silk - value?" Hello, land of tailors - didn't you get a suit made up while here?"
17. Team continue to train up. Spook comes back with 100 nuyen per kg.
18. Hunter finds out that this area is well known for making "vampire silk". Hunter - what guns do you need? "Yes" - no. Guns are not all guns. Look. Shows panther cannon. Ohhhh!
19. Team start thinking about the guns needed for the jungle in the rainy season, simple, solid, reliable, basic.
20. Vampire silk can sell for 500 Ny per kg, they have 400kg
21. How much do you have? You'd best come with me. Shows them the funky smelling factory and hundreds of km of thread. Team start thinking that this is a go-er...
22. Worker comes up - Ruby-13 is overdue... they were due back this morning. Team of 8...
23. "Sorry, one of my teams is overdue, team of 8. " Aswon How far out? Tads - if I get a direction, I can go look. Aswon - more concerned about incoming Japanese. Marius - might be worth looking in case it's the japs - we might need to get out of here.
24. "So, are you looking for my men?" Maybe. "What about the guns / silk?" It sounds very doable. "In case you haven't noticed, we're fighting a war - we need more than doable" Kai - we're trying to be honest, want a longer term relationship. We're not getting stuff for you, this is an investment.
25. Marius preps the vector thrust drone. Asks if Tads wants to go scout. Tads - I need to go with them. Team preps for jungle combat while Tads scouts.
26. Tads gets bitten, comes back after making a WP test. Bite on the arm, dual natures. Eyes on the wings. Oh - "Vampire" silk...
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And we're back to normal now, the holiday already a distant fading memory... bleugh. Back to work until we can get that lottery win sorted out...
Having left behind “stinky elf” they crossed over the islands, and had a fairly easy time to find their target and get to the landing point. They were more than a little paranoid, and were initially wanting to almost dump and go.
I gave Marius a quick intelligence check thanks to his “photographic memory”, which he easily passed, so I passed him the information about who he could see in the landing area – waiting for them. So, they descended thinking it was the same person they’d already done one weapons delivery to, though this was much further south of their current location (this was back in Episode / Chapter 166). What was surprising was the absolute monster perception roll from Ruby, with 4 sixes rolled out of 5 perception dice, and she managed to see straight through the concealing spirit and spot the Broadsword as they came in. Sometimes the dice just be crazy!
Of course, me being the evil scheming bugger that I am, this was of course “Ruby”, her twin sister. So when Kai came off the ramp and used the “wrong” code name, she immediately thought that it was a Japanese ploy, and got super defensive. Shimazu was not here this week, as he was in the middle of moving house, so I was playing him – so I could at least “diffuse” the situation a little by having him make a really good assensing check and then not kick off the fight any further.
They got that sorted out though, got Emerald to vouch for them and that got Ruby to relax, and they were able to sort out the deal, get paid and find out they’d made a decent profit. Of course Kai then went all ‘white knight’ and told her they had too much money, earning him a lot of respect from the Huk cell leader, and leading to further negotiations.
That led to the conversation about silk, and possible selling, further gun deals and the team coming back here again, and Aswon reaching out to Spook, while Hunter did some research – and I was reasonably happy that the team were going to be buying into this for their next bit of mission.
We ended up the night with some astral recon, and it seemed like a great little cliff-hanger style stopping point – though I’m pretty sure out of came that all the players had put two and two together on exactly what kind of thing they were going to be facing. But with Tads returning with astral bite marks, it removed all doubt and led to some interesting banter back and forth as we were signing off the night.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.423, 119.75851, Time 11:45
2. Heading east, 375km to go, just under an hour.
3. Kai asks Hunter to check on the matrix address for the recipient. Dodgy remailer, could be going to TTS or a pager. Send confirmation that the team are inbound.
4. Sensor check on the way in, poor coverage on the western side, dodgy power grids, explains the naval presence.
5. Cheap buildings on the shore, brick built school and 5 a side pitch. Marius spots "Emerald" good intelligence check - remembers meeting her. Lands with tail ramp facing the school.
6. Ruby gets a 17 on the perception check, spots the team coming in. Double take, puts out her cigarette, then heads over. Team drops back ramp, armoured up and descend. Marius keeps the engines idling.
7. "Mrs Emerald, how nice to see you again". Time dilation as reflexes kick in, Shimazu to bodyguard position. Jamal pointing
8. "Why do you call me that - that's not my name." You remind me of someone I met, not too long ago. Anyway, here for business. She gets phone "What's your name". Takes a photo, babbles away. Tads preps stunball, Marius brings autocannon online. Assensing - wary, suspicious, worried. Checks phone - "ahh, you met my sister - My name is Ruby." We have some business to conclude. Ruby calls for some guys to come out - cheap clothing. Covered in white stuff. Armed with machetes. Tads offers to help unload, but team is ok.
9. Ruby sparks up a new cigarette, is there instructions. I mean, it's a rifle - but anything weird. Aswon does an explanation in english. Does an excellent job.
10. Tads suggest getting ruby to record the demo. Aswon - can we not. These guys are terrorists, according to the Japanese. Tads suggests mind-link/translate to do the recording. Kai - can we sort out the money while the rest of the team help tutor your people - we want to be away. Opens a case with a 9 digit code, old credstick surrounded by "plasticine". Hunter smells - cheap and home brewed C4. Kai checks cred reader - 98,834 Nuyen.
11. Kai thinks they're a little over, asks to take 75. Ruby agrees, asks for a moment, then babbles to Emerald. Changes disposition. Why not keep the rest, bring us some more stuff. Aswon - hmmm, not enough to cover an extra trip. Kai - we'd need to come back, with some more stuff. Can we stay for a while, find out what you need. My friends can train your folks. "No problem, but you probably want to turn your engines off so they stop drinking fuel." Kai checks it was "Ruby", then introduces team. "We don't really have more Nuyen, but we have barter goods - what can you get?" Kai - ahh, we're smuggler, traders, maybe we can work something out. Aswon picking up a tiny bit of language "go and get some of the goods"
12. Guy comes out with a shoebox, gives to Ruby. "So - where are you guys going next?" We've got no particular plans to go anywhere. Open to offers - what do you have in mind. Smuggling is our usual, quick and efficient. "Maybe then, maybe we can help each other. Do you know anything about... textiles?" Personally, not much. Antiques and things... more a specialism though. Rub hand over that - carefully. Kai does - very soft and luxurious. We have to pay a lot to get this out. Maybe you can do this, cut out the middle man - bring us some more guns.
13. Kai - do you have a buyer? No, the smugglers take care of it, and probably gouge us. Aswon - you don't have a buyer. No - was hoping you would?
14. Aswon - wait, how is this harvested? By hand? Oh...
15. Team assense - magical aura. A good chunk is raw telesma.
16. Marius gets Aswon a signal via sat-link, to allow him to call Spook. "Potentially have a trade coming back, what do you know about the silk trade?" A little. "Say we had raw, high quality silk - value?" Hello, land of tailors - didn't you get a suit made up while here?"
17. Team continue to train up. Spook comes back with 100 nuyen per kg.
18. Hunter finds out that this area is well known for making "vampire silk". Hunter - what guns do you need? "Yes" - no. Guns are not all guns. Look. Shows panther cannon. Ohhhh!
19. Team start thinking about the guns needed for the jungle in the rainy season, simple, solid, reliable, basic.
20. Vampire silk can sell for 500 Ny per kg, they have 400kg
21. How much do you have? You'd best come with me. Shows them the funky smelling factory and hundreds of km of thread. Team start thinking that this is a go-er...
22. Worker comes up - Ruby-13 is overdue... they were due back this morning. Team of 8...
23. "Sorry, one of my teams is overdue, team of 8. " Aswon How far out? Tads - if I get a direction, I can go look. Aswon - more concerned about incoming Japanese. Marius - might be worth looking in case it's the japs - we might need to get out of here.
24. "So, are you looking for my men?" Maybe. "What about the guns / silk?" It sounds very doable. "In case you haven't noticed, we're fighting a war - we need more than doable" Kai - we're trying to be honest, want a longer term relationship. We're not getting stuff for you, this is an investment.
25. Marius preps the vector thrust drone. Asks if Tads wants to go scout. Tads - I need to go with them. Team preps for jungle combat while Tads scouts.
26. Tads gets bitten, comes back after making a WP test. Bite on the arm, dual natures. Eyes on the wings. Oh - "Vampire" silk...
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 302 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the team having agreed to do the rescue mission, the next stage was for them to enter the jungle and make their way forward to look for the missing people. That time of year for the Philippines is the rainy season, so it seemed appropriate to have it suddenly start to lash it down with rain, and really ramp up the humidity for them as well, and make their characters feel *really* uncomfortable. As the team were going in, Aswon’s player had done a quick google/wiki search on the local wildlife and come up with a list of fairly nasty things, which of course had then made the rest of the players do the “shut up and stop giving him ideas!” line. I calmly explained that it was far too late for that, and then had Aswon give me a random D19 roll. “A D19 – what kind of nonsense is that??” So I then asked him to do a rough count of how many critters were on the list that he’d just read out to me, and that we were quite possibly looking at the same resources…
As it happens, I wasn’t intending to give them any random encounters on the way in, as I didn’t want to distract them from what was coming up, or derail the direction of things. But there was no way I was letting them know that, so I made a couple of wincing expressions or furious notes as I rolled fake stealth checks for my non-existent critters – just to keep them on their toes. I did have them make a couple of survival rolls though, to let the two team-members with that skill feel like they’d accomplished something, and described how they’d avoided some trouble.
They got far enough into the jungle to suit the encounter though, and then had them make real perception checks, feeding back elements to people based on their rolls. Some of the team noticed details about the trees and the swarm of butterflies, others noticed the Japanese marine dragging away one of the bodies. But it also then got quite chaotic with lots of things happening at once as the butterfly swarm descended to feed while they tried to take out the marine – using magic of course, which sent the butterflies into a frenzy.
Tads quickly realised that her static field was performing exactly as it was supposed to, but then just as quickly realised that she was slaying scores of natural creatures that were just following their instincts, and that her land based protector totem *probably* wouldn’t be that keen on her attempted mass murder! So, she shut down the spells, along with a bunch of other stuff she’d been holding up, and masked the rest – as did the rest of the team.
Taking away their usual toys made them think for a minute, and then come up with a plan, and had Aswon leading the flock about using his spear as a torch, drawing the moths in, and giving the rest of the team chance to do their stuff unmolested. Given his speed and agility, I was pretty happy with this solution and let it run – and Aswon was careful enough to stay clear of the swarm and their soporific gas so there was no problem with that.
Getting the info from the marine then gave them a choice of if they wanted to tell Ruby, and if so, if they wanted to help her. I was hoping they’d say yes, as that then really strengthens the introduction to Masaru, and further work for the Huk – and thankfully they did.
That was cool, and in turn gave Marius something to do in the session, setting up the ferry route after RPing the conversation with Ruby. I took time to show the level of activity and urgency amongst the Huk, trying to get over the fact that despite being dedicated to their cause, they’re all quite terrified of the Japanese marines and the occupation force, and with not having the same kind of resources that the players do, that this was a very serious threat for them to face. Ruby in particular I played as a competent and loyal commander, instantly offering whatever she could to get her troops out, not even pretending to haggle – it was too urgent and too important for her to quibble over.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the team do charge her for the fuel and transfer later, or if Kai is going to have one of his generous moments and just write off the costs – once they have the 400kg of silk sold, they should have a good chunk of cash to use for buying guns and equipment, so they might have enough to really turn the fortunes around for this Huk cell – which again will really help with the missions in the future!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.423, 119.75851, Time 12:51
2. Paracritters rolls - probably silk from the critters. Vampire like mechanics, name will have stuck.
3. Shimazu aura-reads - Tads is not infected by anything weird, but does have a wound. Wound is easily treated - proboscis for easy feeding. Kai sorts out.
4. Tads - I can control pack, or static aura - should dissuade them.
5. Tads asks Ruby how they avoid getting bitten - stay away from the butterflies, harvest the pupae before they hatch.
6. Marius - double/triple canopy, no air support from the Broadsword, maybe from the drone, but risky due to the density of the jungle. Marius staying back at the bird to control the drone. Tads to put static aura on Hunter and Aswon, on foci, then carry one on herself and one on Kai. Marius is probably immune due to the skin, but also he's staying at the Broadsword to pilot the drones. Ruby confirms they are looking for 8.
7. Aswon leads off, Hunter, Kai, Shimazu, Tads.
8. Team heads into the jungle, it starts to rain, humidity in the high percentages. Hunter and Marius in close communications. Riot of colour, smells, being watched, not huge sense of danger. Not attacked by anything.
9. Aswon tracking rolls - finds an adolescent snake, lets it go, spots foot prints.
10. Good survival rolls - Tads spots a nest of insects in old trees, gets the team back a different way.
11. Make good progress, team to go spotting,
12. Aswon spots muddled foot prints from the workers, and one boot print. Kai spots one person in a noddy suit heading away. Also in a swarm of butterflies. Some detach from the trees and start to head for Aswon and Hunter. Kai warns rest of team about the enemy. They look, spot him a bit better - metahuman size.
13. Tads stunballs from the front - drops the extra auras, stunball at F5, cast at S. Aswon and Hunter spread laterally. Tads gets 4 successes with a reroll, target gets 0, drops like a stone. Thump. Thump, thump, thump, thumb. Hunter detects gas - soporific. Tells everyone to move upwind. Aswon shallow breathing. More butterflies try to land, kill themselves on the static aura.
14. They drop the static auras to stop attracting butterflies. Aswon working to the side, rest of team towards the body. Gets somewhat mesmerised, activates spears to draw the butterflies, keeps it out of his LOS. then drops it once he's away.
15. Find the guy in the noddy suit, Japanese, dragging one local. Mind link and mind probe, but avoid the butterflies. Know about a Huk cell, don't know anything more. Informant. They are based on Nangalao Elementary school area
16. Team tear his suit and alter memory, make it so he hasn't found anything. They find the other 7, all stunned out. Name of the informant in Nangalo is Bulachi. Team start to extract the unconscious prisoners, Hunter > Marius > Ruby, passes on information about the informant.
17. Marius to ruby: I have an update from the team in the jungle. Sensitive. They go outside, Marius relays all. "How much room do you have in your bird?" One how far, two, how many bodies? Shit, we can lose the equipment, but I need to save all the people - about 25. Maybe 20-30 kilometres, just to the next island.
18. Tads - think we need to get out, and abandon any future silk based on this.
19. Ruby - can we split half and half guns, people and silk, and use the money left on the stick to cover the costs.
20. Rubies people set too with a purpose, hive of activity.
21. Marius takes first batch out before team gets back from the jungle, 19 on stealth, heading to 11.3253, 119.51768
22. Marius warns people to get off ASAP when he lands. They move very efficiently.
23. Get back to the island, Ruby has set up bonfires in the building, rest of her people are ready for evac. Tads suggest using shape earth to trash building instead of burning it out.
24. Rest of the stuff is being loaded on the broadsword. Team brief Ruby on Tads plan, then follow through with that. Building dropped first, then trashes the sports area while they hover over it. Tads cleanses the spells as best she can and then they head to the drop off.
25. Get put down, the first lot of gear has already been hidden, and they drop off the 2nd half of the Huk cell. Kai arranges an info dump to Ruby, everything they found out from the scout marine. Mostly recon work.
26. Ruby very grateful to team, still wants guns - or funds. Are the team still happy to do stuff. Ruby very pragmatic. Kai asks if they have outside contacts - but she says no, looks confused.
27. Team now have 400kg of raw silk, and Rubies trust. Hunter asks - do they need all those guns? Aswon contacts Spook to arrange to sell silk, and starts to put wheels in motion to get guns.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the team having agreed to do the rescue mission, the next stage was for them to enter the jungle and make their way forward to look for the missing people. That time of year for the Philippines is the rainy season, so it seemed appropriate to have it suddenly start to lash it down with rain, and really ramp up the humidity for them as well, and make their characters feel *really* uncomfortable. As the team were going in, Aswon’s player had done a quick google/wiki search on the local wildlife and come up with a list of fairly nasty things, which of course had then made the rest of the players do the “shut up and stop giving him ideas!” line. I calmly explained that it was far too late for that, and then had Aswon give me a random D19 roll. “A D19 – what kind of nonsense is that??” So I then asked him to do a rough count of how many critters were on the list that he’d just read out to me, and that we were quite possibly looking at the same resources…
As it happens, I wasn’t intending to give them any random encounters on the way in, as I didn’t want to distract them from what was coming up, or derail the direction of things. But there was no way I was letting them know that, so I made a couple of wincing expressions or furious notes as I rolled fake stealth checks for my non-existent critters – just to keep them on their toes. I did have them make a couple of survival rolls though, to let the two team-members with that skill feel like they’d accomplished something, and described how they’d avoided some trouble.
They got far enough into the jungle to suit the encounter though, and then had them make real perception checks, feeding back elements to people based on their rolls. Some of the team noticed details about the trees and the swarm of butterflies, others noticed the Japanese marine dragging away one of the bodies. But it also then got quite chaotic with lots of things happening at once as the butterfly swarm descended to feed while they tried to take out the marine – using magic of course, which sent the butterflies into a frenzy.
Tads quickly realised that her static field was performing exactly as it was supposed to, but then just as quickly realised that she was slaying scores of natural creatures that were just following their instincts, and that her land based protector totem *probably* wouldn’t be that keen on her attempted mass murder! So, she shut down the spells, along with a bunch of other stuff she’d been holding up, and masked the rest – as did the rest of the team.
Taking away their usual toys made them think for a minute, and then come up with a plan, and had Aswon leading the flock about using his spear as a torch, drawing the moths in, and giving the rest of the team chance to do their stuff unmolested. Given his speed and agility, I was pretty happy with this solution and let it run – and Aswon was careful enough to stay clear of the swarm and their soporific gas so there was no problem with that.
Getting the info from the marine then gave them a choice of if they wanted to tell Ruby, and if so, if they wanted to help her. I was hoping they’d say yes, as that then really strengthens the introduction to Masaru, and further work for the Huk – and thankfully they did.
That was cool, and in turn gave Marius something to do in the session, setting up the ferry route after RPing the conversation with Ruby. I took time to show the level of activity and urgency amongst the Huk, trying to get over the fact that despite being dedicated to their cause, they’re all quite terrified of the Japanese marines and the occupation force, and with not having the same kind of resources that the players do, that this was a very serious threat for them to face. Ruby in particular I played as a competent and loyal commander, instantly offering whatever she could to get her troops out, not even pretending to haggle – it was too urgent and too important for her to quibble over.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the team do charge her for the fuel and transfer later, or if Kai is going to have one of his generous moments and just write off the costs – once they have the 400kg of silk sold, they should have a good chunk of cash to use for buying guns and equipment, so they might have enough to really turn the fortunes around for this Huk cell – which again will really help with the missions in the future!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.423, 119.75851, Time 12:51
2. Paracritters rolls - probably silk from the critters. Vampire like mechanics, name will have stuck.
3. Shimazu aura-reads - Tads is not infected by anything weird, but does have a wound. Wound is easily treated - proboscis for easy feeding. Kai sorts out.
4. Tads - I can control pack, or static aura - should dissuade them.
5. Tads asks Ruby how they avoid getting bitten - stay away from the butterflies, harvest the pupae before they hatch.
6. Marius - double/triple canopy, no air support from the Broadsword, maybe from the drone, but risky due to the density of the jungle. Marius staying back at the bird to control the drone. Tads to put static aura on Hunter and Aswon, on foci, then carry one on herself and one on Kai. Marius is probably immune due to the skin, but also he's staying at the Broadsword to pilot the drones. Ruby confirms they are looking for 8.
7. Aswon leads off, Hunter, Kai, Shimazu, Tads.
8. Team heads into the jungle, it starts to rain, humidity in the high percentages. Hunter and Marius in close communications. Riot of colour, smells, being watched, not huge sense of danger. Not attacked by anything.
9. Aswon tracking rolls - finds an adolescent snake, lets it go, spots foot prints.
10. Good survival rolls - Tads spots a nest of insects in old trees, gets the team back a different way.
11. Make good progress, team to go spotting,
12. Aswon spots muddled foot prints from the workers, and one boot print. Kai spots one person in a noddy suit heading away. Also in a swarm of butterflies. Some detach from the trees and start to head for Aswon and Hunter. Kai warns rest of team about the enemy. They look, spot him a bit better - metahuman size.
13. Tads stunballs from the front - drops the extra auras, stunball at F5, cast at S. Aswon and Hunter spread laterally. Tads gets 4 successes with a reroll, target gets 0, drops like a stone. Thump. Thump, thump, thump, thumb. Hunter detects gas - soporific. Tells everyone to move upwind. Aswon shallow breathing. More butterflies try to land, kill themselves on the static aura.
14. They drop the static auras to stop attracting butterflies. Aswon working to the side, rest of team towards the body. Gets somewhat mesmerised, activates spears to draw the butterflies, keeps it out of his LOS. then drops it once he's away.
15. Find the guy in the noddy suit, Japanese, dragging one local. Mind link and mind probe, but avoid the butterflies. Know about a Huk cell, don't know anything more. Informant. They are based on Nangalao Elementary school area
16. Team tear his suit and alter memory, make it so he hasn't found anything. They find the other 7, all stunned out. Name of the informant in Nangalo is Bulachi. Team start to extract the unconscious prisoners, Hunter > Marius > Ruby, passes on information about the informant.
17. Marius to ruby: I have an update from the team in the jungle. Sensitive. They go outside, Marius relays all. "How much room do you have in your bird?" One how far, two, how many bodies? Shit, we can lose the equipment, but I need to save all the people - about 25. Maybe 20-30 kilometres, just to the next island.
18. Tads - think we need to get out, and abandon any future silk based on this.
19. Ruby - can we split half and half guns, people and silk, and use the money left on the stick to cover the costs.
20. Rubies people set too with a purpose, hive of activity.
21. Marius takes first batch out before team gets back from the jungle, 19 on stealth, heading to 11.3253, 119.51768
22. Marius warns people to get off ASAP when he lands. They move very efficiently.
23. Get back to the island, Ruby has set up bonfires in the building, rest of her people are ready for evac. Tads suggest using shape earth to trash building instead of burning it out.
24. Rest of the stuff is being loaded on the broadsword. Team brief Ruby on Tads plan, then follow through with that. Building dropped first, then trashes the sports area while they hover over it. Tads cleanses the spells as best she can and then they head to the drop off.
25. Get put down, the first lot of gear has already been hidden, and they drop off the 2nd half of the Huk cell. Kai arranges an info dump to Ruby, everything they found out from the scout marine. Mostly recon work.
26. Ruby very grateful to team, still wants guns - or funds. Are the team still happy to do stuff. Ruby very pragmatic. Kai asks if they have outside contacts - but she says no, looks confused.
27. Team now have 400kg of raw silk, and Rubies trust. Hunter asks - do they need all those guns? Aswon contacts Spook to arrange to sell silk, and starts to put wheels in motion to get guns.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 303 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, this week it was time to give Marius a bit of time in the spotlight, with an episode or series of events firmly focussed upon him. The rest of the team were going to be able to offer limited support here – with perhaps Tads being the most useful, while the rest of the folks got to hang on as the rollercoaster went a bit nuts, with their inputs mostly being RP based.
Marius got to do a perception test to spot the sub, which he failed – I’d rolled pretty well for the sub’s stealth score, and as it was doing exactly what the narrative should be for this situation – lying dogo in the water and waiting, that suited things fine. Then, when Marius was right overhead, it blasted him hard, locked him up nice and tight, and started to feed data out to the accompanying missile armed destroyers on either flank. Unsurprisingly they tried the “normal” stuff for breaking a sensor lock and getting away – but unfortunately with the modifiers for such close range and having mil-spec sensors, they were not going to get the target numbers required.
Moving onto the missile launch, I tried to give the impression that the enemy here were really not messing about, expending considerable money on the missile launch, in their willingness to take out the team. But, further to that I had them roll their EW and small unit tictacs, feeding them more info on the missile launch strategy, describing how they were being bracketed by the launch, with the enemy boxing them in and outflanking them. With each move they tried to escape the kill-box, I made sure to give them chance to do something, but then pointed out that moving away from one sensor or missile only bought them closer to another – especially with the missiles closing at Mach 4.
The Japanese SAMs were loosely modelled on the AMRAAM in terms of range, speed and destructive power, and also the potential cost of the incoming wave of missiles – letting the players know they were messing with a first tier Navy, someone who has their whole logistics chain behind them funded by a nation-state and tied with several mega-corps. They didn’t have to worry about launching a large wave of missiles and paying for them – they just needed results.
Hopefully it didn’t go too heavy – but the feel I was going for was that of trying to give a sense of hopelessness to most of the players, a sense of crushing inevitability. That weird sensation of things going from “ok” with a nice quiet flight, to “hell in a handbag”, in only a few seconds, of being in a car crash on ice, powerless to do anything to stop it.
Back when they’d been given the Broadsword, in episode 284, I’d asked Marius to stay behind on the chat at the end of the session, and made sure Tads was out of the room, then told him about the “extra engine”, giving him just information that there seemed to be some complex machinery, some form of auxiliary or special purpose engine system embedded in the craft. I asked him if he wanted to share that with the rest of the team, and he elected to keep it quiet, in his back pocket.
That’s one of the strange things about doing the write-up/narrative this way – sometimes there’s stuff that would probably make the story clearer, or provide context, that I have to skip due to the players’ imperfect knowledge of events. I try not to make it too obscure, but as they all get to read this, sometimes details have to be skipped.
So, while it might feel like a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, it’s been there since they got the aircraft – promise! As mentioned in a previous BTS, I have plans for them to come up against these Destroyers again in the future, and I also want them well aware of just how dangerous a foe they are – trained and experienced personnel, fighting with current generation hardware in a well-funded military. They are *very* dangerous, and represent a strong danger to the team. But to do that with “show not tell”, they need to come under fire from these things and experience being their punching bag – which was the main aim of this encounter.
I think that Marius had actually forgotten about the extra engine, but as his character has a perfect memory, I gave him a nudge via private message, just to remind the player of what his character would/should be recalling. After a moments contemplation, he reached the “well, I can’t see another way out of this” conclusion, and tried to engage the drive – then got the message about needing to be at a certain speed. By now the rest of the players were just listening in, not really sure what was going on, but knowing they were in trouble – and not knowing what was going on as they had no out of game knowledge about the 2nd engine.
Marius realised that he needed a stupidly steep dive to try and get that overspeed, and that gave me licence for a bit of narrative description of them screaming through the air, and then the Scramjet kicking in. I’m almost certainly playing fast and loose with the dividing lines between ramjets and scramjets, and the flight dynamics here – but I was certainly aiming for rule of cool. I’d done some reading on some rocket forums, checking for somewhat exotic fuel mixes, trying to get an edge of realism with a sprinkle of future tech in, without going all “just reverse the tachyon deflector dish and we’ll sort it by the end of the episode…” for the vibe.
With their sudden acceleration to Mach 6 it was now time to visit the effects of high g-forces on the team, without suits. Using the rules from Rigger 3, they made their tests at least a little – so there was no damage to them, but it gave them some hefty penalties to doing stuff while they were under acceleration and during the turn, so again the scene has been set for any future uses – and they should be well aware of what happens if they weren’t strapped in and try this!
With the Broadsword now high-tailing it out of the zone at more than 7000kph, the drama could be reined back in and they had a nice quiet flight back to Hong Kong to relax, and start thinking about what this meant for them.
Again, I’d done a little bit of looking at PBAN-APCP supplies and the costs of rocket motor used by amateurs, to get some base line pricing, as well as doing a good chunk of reading on the SRBs used on the Space Shuttle and other similar systems, trying to get something that wasn’t horribly out of whack, but that also fitted in with my campaign economics.
Scramjet supplies
• PBAN = 150 Ny/Kg, 150kg needed = 22,500
• APCP = 200 Ny/Kg, 150kg needed = 30,000
• Beryllium Fluoride = 5 Ny per g at 99.5% pure, 18 Ny/g at 99.99% pure, 49 Ny/g at 99.999% pure, 1kg needed = 5000-49000
• Max cost for raw fuel = 101,500. Engineering 8 test and base time of 4 days to craft the tubes of fuel.
• Heat sink materials = 5000 Ny, but also require and Engineering 8 test and a base time of 7 days to craft.
The scramjet gives them a “get out of jail free” kinda card for a situation they might find themselves in. It could completely solve a lot of situations and plots – so I wanted it to have a meaningful cost as well. It’s a one-shot item, that will require both resources and time to replace before it can be used again, so there’s a very strong tactical element to this – do they need to spend a 100k+ to avoid a situation, and then commit to 2 weeks of engineering time to replace the consumables – or do they risk the fight or situation they’re in. It’s going to be interesting to see if and how much they agonise over using their consumables like this in the future – though it’s going to be a key item towards the conclusion of the campaign when things slide towards a massive confrontation.
Next week we get to do a bit of trading, some social time with Spook, and then the players get to deal with a bit of organised crime warfare in HK and go get involved in a new kind of fight. I have no idea if this will work out or not practically, but I’m looking at a running battle with 100+ enemies facing off against the team, using an almost Anarchy style combat resolution – fingers crossed it works!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.3253, 119.51768, Time 17:12
2. North out over the water, sensor check - no successes.
3. Call from Spook - Mr Farooq, weaver, but short of ready cash. I can front a little - but he needs time to weave and sell, to then pay you for *that* much. He can only buy about 30kg up front, at 400 Nuyen per kg. Confirmed that he has a solid rep in the area, and she trusts him.
4. Aswon asks how much cloth to make suits for people - Spook, no idea, I'd have to check.
5. Marius - detects a ping from below and behind. Battle stations. Marius checks again, still no hit. Tads on the sensors - has a look - spots a "line"
6. Sub gets 2 X 14s on sensors - solid track, Marius. Aswon " will get back to you spook!" Pick up fire control radar from NE and SW, start making EW and SUT tests. Get an idea of line abreast, sub lying doggo, to catch people trying to thread the needle. Marius starts to do a loop, detects a triple launch from each side. Marius asks for mist, flies evasive. Sensor check vs 5s for missiles. Detects interlocking approach and tac net. Team hang on for dear life.
7. Marius considers the alternate engine...need to be at high trans-sonic speed to initiaite burn reaction, so you need to be in a steep dive to kick-start the engine ignition. Spirits to help with movement/guard. Marius climbs. Tads prepares an illusion of them exploding. Heading for 2k and then steep dive, Hunter "yee-haw!" Good rollover, into the dive. Rocket, G's, Kai and Tads bad, Shimazu, meh, others ok. Marius gentle bank and climb to clear the area. Leave the missiles behind. Marius discovers they can't turn off the scramjet, then power down after 60 seconds, Tads and Kai have bruises. Marius - "everyone ok"? Tads - maybe a net spell would be better next time.
8. Alternate engine - need to be at high trans-sonic speed to initiaite burn reaction, so you need to be in a steep dive to kick-start the engine ignition.
9. Scram-rock, fuelled by PBAN (Polybutadiene acrylonitrile)-APCP(Ammonium perchlorate) and Beryllium Fluoride in a tri-combustion scramjet that will push the vehicle to Mach 6 (7408km/h or 6173.33 m/turn) for about 60 seconds, during which time the Broadsword will cover 124km
10. Chemistry checks for BeF2, leaves detectable signature, Aswon and Hunter chemistry checks. Going to be rare and probably pricy. Tads suggests Ludmilla. Marius passes his mental addiction check, no speed addiction.
11. Crab sideways, then resume course to HK. Aswon calls Spook back. "sorry about that, but we're ok now." Is everything ok, what happened. "Bird go fast, missiles, Japanese unfriendly, don't want to talk about it... where were we, oh yes, if you can trust the guy... " land where you were before, but no facilities. "Ok, we can do a quick check",
12. Marius confirms fuel and range, all ok.
13. Arrive over HK around 19:15, head for the same landing zone.
14. Spook asks if they need a pickup. Arrange for a box van. Security guard doesn't spot them on landing. Spot the stains on the wing edge, do an analysis. Sacrificial ablative heat shield.
15. Spook turns up in the box van, checks that Aswon is in the same time zone.
16. Aswon "we need a hotel and a really good chemist..."
17. "Shall we check with Farooq, give him the first few kg, and then get you bedded down."
18. Hunter - are you staying with the bird Marius? No, I need some R&R. Aswon - it's got a guard, and an aggressive pilot. Marius - I'll prep one of the drones. Kai whispers to the bird "thank you".
19. Load into the van. Aswon in the front with Marius, everyone else in the back, Netted in place by Tads.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, this week it was time to give Marius a bit of time in the spotlight, with an episode or series of events firmly focussed upon him. The rest of the team were going to be able to offer limited support here – with perhaps Tads being the most useful, while the rest of the folks got to hang on as the rollercoaster went a bit nuts, with their inputs mostly being RP based.
Marius got to do a perception test to spot the sub, which he failed – I’d rolled pretty well for the sub’s stealth score, and as it was doing exactly what the narrative should be for this situation – lying dogo in the water and waiting, that suited things fine. Then, when Marius was right overhead, it blasted him hard, locked him up nice and tight, and started to feed data out to the accompanying missile armed destroyers on either flank. Unsurprisingly they tried the “normal” stuff for breaking a sensor lock and getting away – but unfortunately with the modifiers for such close range and having mil-spec sensors, they were not going to get the target numbers required.
Moving onto the missile launch, I tried to give the impression that the enemy here were really not messing about, expending considerable money on the missile launch, in their willingness to take out the team. But, further to that I had them roll their EW and small unit tictacs, feeding them more info on the missile launch strategy, describing how they were being bracketed by the launch, with the enemy boxing them in and outflanking them. With each move they tried to escape the kill-box, I made sure to give them chance to do something, but then pointed out that moving away from one sensor or missile only bought them closer to another – especially with the missiles closing at Mach 4.
The Japanese SAMs were loosely modelled on the AMRAAM in terms of range, speed and destructive power, and also the potential cost of the incoming wave of missiles – letting the players know they were messing with a first tier Navy, someone who has their whole logistics chain behind them funded by a nation-state and tied with several mega-corps. They didn’t have to worry about launching a large wave of missiles and paying for them – they just needed results.
Hopefully it didn’t go too heavy – but the feel I was going for was that of trying to give a sense of hopelessness to most of the players, a sense of crushing inevitability. That weird sensation of things going from “ok” with a nice quiet flight, to “hell in a handbag”, in only a few seconds, of being in a car crash on ice, powerless to do anything to stop it.
Back when they’d been given the Broadsword, in episode 284, I’d asked Marius to stay behind on the chat at the end of the session, and made sure Tads was out of the room, then told him about the “extra engine”, giving him just information that there seemed to be some complex machinery, some form of auxiliary or special purpose engine system embedded in the craft. I asked him if he wanted to share that with the rest of the team, and he elected to keep it quiet, in his back pocket.
That’s one of the strange things about doing the write-up/narrative this way – sometimes there’s stuff that would probably make the story clearer, or provide context, that I have to skip due to the players’ imperfect knowledge of events. I try not to make it too obscure, but as they all get to read this, sometimes details have to be skipped.
So, while it might feel like a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, it’s been there since they got the aircraft – promise! As mentioned in a previous BTS, I have plans for them to come up against these Destroyers again in the future, and I also want them well aware of just how dangerous a foe they are – trained and experienced personnel, fighting with current generation hardware in a well-funded military. They are *very* dangerous, and represent a strong danger to the team. But to do that with “show not tell”, they need to come under fire from these things and experience being their punching bag – which was the main aim of this encounter.
I think that Marius had actually forgotten about the extra engine, but as his character has a perfect memory, I gave him a nudge via private message, just to remind the player of what his character would/should be recalling. After a moments contemplation, he reached the “well, I can’t see another way out of this” conclusion, and tried to engage the drive – then got the message about needing to be at a certain speed. By now the rest of the players were just listening in, not really sure what was going on, but knowing they were in trouble – and not knowing what was going on as they had no out of game knowledge about the 2nd engine.
Marius realised that he needed a stupidly steep dive to try and get that overspeed, and that gave me licence for a bit of narrative description of them screaming through the air, and then the Scramjet kicking in. I’m almost certainly playing fast and loose with the dividing lines between ramjets and scramjets, and the flight dynamics here – but I was certainly aiming for rule of cool. I’d done some reading on some rocket forums, checking for somewhat exotic fuel mixes, trying to get an edge of realism with a sprinkle of future tech in, without going all “just reverse the tachyon deflector dish and we’ll sort it by the end of the episode…” for the vibe.
With their sudden acceleration to Mach 6 it was now time to visit the effects of high g-forces on the team, without suits. Using the rules from Rigger 3, they made their tests at least a little – so there was no damage to them, but it gave them some hefty penalties to doing stuff while they were under acceleration and during the turn, so again the scene has been set for any future uses – and they should be well aware of what happens if they weren’t strapped in and try this!
With the Broadsword now high-tailing it out of the zone at more than 7000kph, the drama could be reined back in and they had a nice quiet flight back to Hong Kong to relax, and start thinking about what this meant for them.
Again, I’d done a little bit of looking at PBAN-APCP supplies and the costs of rocket motor used by amateurs, to get some base line pricing, as well as doing a good chunk of reading on the SRBs used on the Space Shuttle and other similar systems, trying to get something that wasn’t horribly out of whack, but that also fitted in with my campaign economics.
Scramjet supplies
• PBAN = 150 Ny/Kg, 150kg needed = 22,500
• APCP = 200 Ny/Kg, 150kg needed = 30,000
• Beryllium Fluoride = 5 Ny per g at 99.5% pure, 18 Ny/g at 99.99% pure, 49 Ny/g at 99.999% pure, 1kg needed = 5000-49000
• Max cost for raw fuel = 101,500. Engineering 8 test and base time of 4 days to craft the tubes of fuel.
• Heat sink materials = 5000 Ny, but also require and Engineering 8 test and a base time of 7 days to craft.
The scramjet gives them a “get out of jail free” kinda card for a situation they might find themselves in. It could completely solve a lot of situations and plots – so I wanted it to have a meaningful cost as well. It’s a one-shot item, that will require both resources and time to replace before it can be used again, so there’s a very strong tactical element to this – do they need to spend a 100k+ to avoid a situation, and then commit to 2 weeks of engineering time to replace the consumables – or do they risk the fight or situation they’re in. It’s going to be interesting to see if and how much they agonise over using their consumables like this in the future – though it’s going to be a key item towards the conclusion of the campaign when things slide towards a massive confrontation.
Next week we get to do a bit of trading, some social time with Spook, and then the players get to deal with a bit of organised crime warfare in HK and go get involved in a new kind of fight. I have no idea if this will work out or not practically, but I’m looking at a running battle with 100+ enemies facing off against the team, using an almost Anarchy style combat resolution – fingers crossed it works!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 11.3253, 119.51768, Time 17:12
2. North out over the water, sensor check - no successes.
3. Call from Spook - Mr Farooq, weaver, but short of ready cash. I can front a little - but he needs time to weave and sell, to then pay you for *that* much. He can only buy about 30kg up front, at 400 Nuyen per kg. Confirmed that he has a solid rep in the area, and she trusts him.
4. Aswon asks how much cloth to make suits for people - Spook, no idea, I'd have to check.
5. Marius - detects a ping from below and behind. Battle stations. Marius checks again, still no hit. Tads on the sensors - has a look - spots a "line"
6. Sub gets 2 X 14s on sensors - solid track, Marius. Aswon " will get back to you spook!" Pick up fire control radar from NE and SW, start making EW and SUT tests. Get an idea of line abreast, sub lying doggo, to catch people trying to thread the needle. Marius starts to do a loop, detects a triple launch from each side. Marius asks for mist, flies evasive. Sensor check vs 5s for missiles. Detects interlocking approach and tac net. Team hang on for dear life.
7. Marius considers the alternate engine...need to be at high trans-sonic speed to initiaite burn reaction, so you need to be in a steep dive to kick-start the engine ignition. Spirits to help with movement/guard. Marius climbs. Tads prepares an illusion of them exploding. Heading for 2k and then steep dive, Hunter "yee-haw!" Good rollover, into the dive. Rocket, G's, Kai and Tads bad, Shimazu, meh, others ok. Marius gentle bank and climb to clear the area. Leave the missiles behind. Marius discovers they can't turn off the scramjet, then power down after 60 seconds, Tads and Kai have bruises. Marius - "everyone ok"? Tads - maybe a net spell would be better next time.
8. Alternate engine - need to be at high trans-sonic speed to initiaite burn reaction, so you need to be in a steep dive to kick-start the engine ignition.
9. Scram-rock, fuelled by PBAN (Polybutadiene acrylonitrile)-APCP(Ammonium perchlorate) and Beryllium Fluoride in a tri-combustion scramjet that will push the vehicle to Mach 6 (7408km/h or 6173.33 m/turn) for about 60 seconds, during which time the Broadsword will cover 124km
10. Chemistry checks for BeF2, leaves detectable signature, Aswon and Hunter chemistry checks. Going to be rare and probably pricy. Tads suggests Ludmilla. Marius passes his mental addiction check, no speed addiction.
11. Crab sideways, then resume course to HK. Aswon calls Spook back. "sorry about that, but we're ok now." Is everything ok, what happened. "Bird go fast, missiles, Japanese unfriendly, don't want to talk about it... where were we, oh yes, if you can trust the guy... " land where you were before, but no facilities. "Ok, we can do a quick check",
12. Marius confirms fuel and range, all ok.
13. Arrive over HK around 19:15, head for the same landing zone.
14. Spook asks if they need a pickup. Arrange for a box van. Security guard doesn't spot them on landing. Spot the stains on the wing edge, do an analysis. Sacrificial ablative heat shield.
15. Spook turns up in the box van, checks that Aswon is in the same time zone.
16. Aswon "we need a hotel and a really good chemist..."
17. "Shall we check with Farooq, give him the first few kg, and then get you bedded down."
18. Hunter - are you staying with the bird Marius? No, I need some R&R. Aswon - it's got a guard, and an aggressive pilot. Marius - I'll prep one of the drones. Kai whispers to the bird "thank you".
19. Load into the van. Aswon in the front with Marius, everyone else in the back, Netted in place by Tads.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 304 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Having made it back to HK, it was time to find a buyer for their silk, and for the team to decide how they wanted to handle it. Dump all the raw material at once, get paid and accept a lower value, spend time finding a decent buyer, or drip feed it into the market. In the end they seemed to decide to go with drip feeding, and agreeing to have Spook take a cut to manage the transfer, just to make it easier for them and not tie them down. They’ve got more than enough cash to not need this right now (1.4 million and change according to my notes!) so they can certainly cover the up-front costs of the guns and any fuel required to close out this deal and head home.
Of course, I knew they weren’t going home. So I was trying not to grin at them and keep my poker face in place while they were discussing what to do next, just waiting to upset the apple cart once more.
What I didn’t see coming was Kai doing “a Kai” moment, and getting a complete botch on his “Asian Greetings” skill. He asked if he could reroll, expecting a yes, and I had to remind him that when you get *all* the dice coming up as a fail, then no, you can’t have a reroll. It means something bad has happened. So yeah… konichiwa. *forehead slap*. Sometimes you just can’t write this stuff… the dice have a mind of their own.
That immediately put negotiations on thin ice as the very nice couple wondered if Kai is taking the piss, or threatening them, or playing some kind of very unfunny joke – and the team have some stern words with the player telling him to sort his shit out, spend some karma and raise the skill a bit to stop this happening again!
Still, after some good RP, the situation was salvaged, and a visit to the Farooqs was set up. I’d got a random mana storm planned in to remind them that astral space is a bit thin and frayed around Hong Kong, and having that hit as they were heading to the storeroom seemed like a good place to slot it in – and meant they could also then see the cleaned up landscape the following morning, showing no sign of any casualties from just a few hours before.
Then it was off to the business centre, and a vast industrial complex of a thousand businesses and probably some fake corporate fronts – which the players immediately picked up on, and may want to follow up on in the future.
While they were in getting the description of the company, and doing the meeting and negotiations, I was sending Aswon’s player a few DMs, letting him know how close he was to Spooks apartment.
8:45 PM]Kren: You are currently located in the large office building 3 streets SW of Spooks place - her home apartment. Just so you know. grin
[8:46 PM]Aswon: i dont thnk i understand what you're getting at!
[8:46 PM] Aswon: Unless, like, this is her mom and dad. In which case I'm suddenly terrified
[8:48 PM]Kren: No, not her parents. Just saying that you are actually close to where Spook lives.
[8:49 PM] Aswon: I mean I could drop in and surprise her but she definitely wouldn't appreciate it. Other than that i guess it's just handy if we need someone to check on our silk investment
[9:02 PM] Aswon: i SEE.
I think you can guess where he got the sudden pocket dial call from Spook, indicating that there were hostile people in her apartment…
I’d actually hoped we’d get a little further on tonight and get the chase following up Spook done – but with the botch in the negotiations, it didn’t feel right to get through the negotiations so quickly. So – tomorrow it’s time for another “follow the clues” adventure game to chase the people who’ve abducted Spook, and to see what the players are going to do about it. Hopefully it’s going to involve lots of death, violence and claustrophobic terror and a surprise encounter with a powerful enemy!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 20:23
2. Aswon - how about we get him to make the silk and we sell it to the tailors - to get the market value
3. Marius - we get him to do the stuff, get the cash, do the gun run, then go home!
4. Tads - do we have a route that avoids the wings melting and things? Aswon yes, we can't do that again anyway AFAIK...
5. Kai - lets see what his capabilities are. He may be open to just manufacturing, but he not have contacts, we just know he's got a good rep.
6. Spook takes the team to dinner, then to the hotel
7. Marius - great assessment of spooks driving skill. Aswon asks Marius to explain about the boats and the nature of the attack.
8. Spook - sounds like a Shimakaze II, don' t know much about them. Marius - they got really good sensors, I can tell you that.
9. Arrive at restaurant around 9:00, Tads resummons spirits.
10. Meet the Farooqs, Aswon biotech test - maybe environmental hazard, maybe osteoporosis. Kai botches Asian greetings "konichiwa!", rest of team face-palm. Hunter - ah, this man is a pig farmer...
11. Spook - apologies, stressful 24 hours, they have a funny sense of humour. Let me sort out dinner... glares at Kai. Hunter - checks menu, Kai will pay.
12. Kai - my apologies, it's been a very long time since we've been here, and I am very tired, my deepest apologies. Couple remain exquisitely polite.
13. Spook - team have rare materials, do the examination, he checks his wife and gets the nod.
14. Kai - we've been told you are very skilled, don't want to take the material too far, Europeans would be very rough.
15. Yes, we can show you our looms.
16. Kai - part of our dilemma is that we have capacity to supply considerable amounts of material, but don't want to saturate the market, looking for your expertise in handling and suppliers and distribution,
17. Alas we have little working capital, recent upgrades, limited cash flow. Kai - understandable, can't rush upgrades and cut corners on quality, especially with material like this. Willing to negotiate rolling process, to keep inside budget and cash flow. Don't want to pressure you or rush you, work with you. Kai impresses Farooq a little, he checks with Spook, she nods. Pancakes arrive. General chit chat.
18. Aswon asks if the silk is best suited for any kind of garment. Mostly the high fashion and beauty aspect.
19. Talk to him - weaver not tailor. Offers to show them the facility again. 10am appointment.
20. Farooqs leave, Spook gives Kai another dirty look. Aswon - he can make that mistake in 15 different languages - but it has been a long day. Kai - let's not spoil the day. Hunter - ask him about saying hello in Russian! Team snigger, Spook grins - detects the story, save for later.
21. Spook - let's get you squared away, suggest you offer the first shipment tomorrow up front, repair the damage done diplomatically.
22. Hunter - prefer to offload supplies first. Spook takes to a lockup in a basement of one of the tower blocks. Random mana storm inbound - tads detects. Shielding on the vehicle, warns spook. Spook - this has been happening more often recently, any idea what. Tads - no, I can go look. Aswon - don't do that!
23. Freak hailstorm seen, advancing down from the bay, salty caramel flavour. Maybe burnt critters.
24. Spook backs up to a "maintenance locker". COSHH symbols outside, spotlessly clean inside. Go bag tucked in the corner. Aswon offers to ward - though not in the middle of the mana storm. Aswon double checks - no cameras added. Team keep back about 12kg, 10kg +gesture of good faith of 2kg for the misunderstanding in the restaurant. No cameras covering the locker, but there is a pressure pad - That's spooks
25. Storm has passed, team heading to the hotel. One lightning bolted car, several injuries, but other people just carying on and ice is melting.
26. To the hotel, same floor, different rooms. Toilets sing to you. Team beds down.
27. Friday morning, breakfast locally and move on, then head to Farooqs. Aswon and Hunter moving tactically, just in case it's an ambush. Kai carrying the silk.
28. Come across a 12 story 300x300 building, brutalist architecture. "Godown Company" hundreds of small businesses, spaces from a few square metres to several hundred, available to rent. Industrial canopy. Kai checks - no megacorp political affiliation, probably red crane run or affiliated, almost certainly has some smuggler based activity in here.
29. Tads - this may be a good time to think about a gift for Grandfather Fan. Aswon - good call.
30. Check directory, Farooq on the 5th floor, east side, suite 5-32. Weapon scanners probably don't even have power, guards there as a response. Decent cameras, good security on most of the doors.
31. Cleanroom environment, new machines, good roll from hunter - good level of investment. Farooqs come to greet them, Shimazu spots trepidation in their body language as they close on Kai. Kai "please excuse me as I attempt to get the greeting wrong, but the more I practice, the better I get..." Gets a 5, it's a good greeting. Would you like some tea? Across the sticky strip. Look at the supplies as they get the tea sorted. Excited squees, take the stuff out to the machines, while Farooq talks price. Chitchat over tea.
32. so, we have 12.135kg of raw material there - let's talk business. K-obviously trying to establish amicable business relationship, regular contracts, for a regular client. We're looking to make a small profit, but not after the lions share, but we can help you expand and further your long term gains, we're facilitators, not the end customer. I...see... so what kind of price are you looking for?
33. Opening bid from the team - 200Ny per kg for the first 10 kg, then 300 for the rest, and one bolt of material as tribute to grandfather fan. Gets credstick and pays 2000.
34. Spook dials Aswon, he apologises, and moves to the corner, picks up, voice only "No, that's fine, there's no need for violence"
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Having made it back to HK, it was time to find a buyer for their silk, and for the team to decide how they wanted to handle it. Dump all the raw material at once, get paid and accept a lower value, spend time finding a decent buyer, or drip feed it into the market. In the end they seemed to decide to go with drip feeding, and agreeing to have Spook take a cut to manage the transfer, just to make it easier for them and not tie them down. They’ve got more than enough cash to not need this right now (1.4 million and change according to my notes!) so they can certainly cover the up-front costs of the guns and any fuel required to close out this deal and head home.
Of course, I knew they weren’t going home. So I was trying not to grin at them and keep my poker face in place while they were discussing what to do next, just waiting to upset the apple cart once more.
What I didn’t see coming was Kai doing “a Kai” moment, and getting a complete botch on his “Asian Greetings” skill. He asked if he could reroll, expecting a yes, and I had to remind him that when you get *all* the dice coming up as a fail, then no, you can’t have a reroll. It means something bad has happened. So yeah… konichiwa. *forehead slap*. Sometimes you just can’t write this stuff… the dice have a mind of their own.
That immediately put negotiations on thin ice as the very nice couple wondered if Kai is taking the piss, or threatening them, or playing some kind of very unfunny joke – and the team have some stern words with the player telling him to sort his shit out, spend some karma and raise the skill a bit to stop this happening again!
Still, after some good RP, the situation was salvaged, and a visit to the Farooqs was set up. I’d got a random mana storm planned in to remind them that astral space is a bit thin and frayed around Hong Kong, and having that hit as they were heading to the storeroom seemed like a good place to slot it in – and meant they could also then see the cleaned up landscape the following morning, showing no sign of any casualties from just a few hours before.
Then it was off to the business centre, and a vast industrial complex of a thousand businesses and probably some fake corporate fronts – which the players immediately picked up on, and may want to follow up on in the future.
While they were in getting the description of the company, and doing the meeting and negotiations, I was sending Aswon’s player a few DMs, letting him know how close he was to Spooks apartment.
8:45 PM]Kren: You are currently located in the large office building 3 streets SW of Spooks place - her home apartment. Just so you know. grin
[8:46 PM]Aswon: i dont thnk i understand what you're getting at!
[8:46 PM] Aswon: Unless, like, this is her mom and dad. In which case I'm suddenly terrified
[8:48 PM]Kren: No, not her parents. Just saying that you are actually close to where Spook lives.
[8:49 PM] Aswon: I mean I could drop in and surprise her but she definitely wouldn't appreciate it. Other than that i guess it's just handy if we need someone to check on our silk investment
[9:02 PM] Aswon: i SEE.
I think you can guess where he got the sudden pocket dial call from Spook, indicating that there were hostile people in her apartment…
I’d actually hoped we’d get a little further on tonight and get the chase following up Spook done – but with the botch in the negotiations, it didn’t feel right to get through the negotiations so quickly. So – tomorrow it’s time for another “follow the clues” adventure game to chase the people who’ve abducted Spook, and to see what the players are going to do about it. Hopefully it’s going to involve lots of death, violence and claustrophobic terror and a surprise encounter with a powerful enemy!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 21/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 20:23
2. Aswon - how about we get him to make the silk and we sell it to the tailors - to get the market value
3. Marius - we get him to do the stuff, get the cash, do the gun run, then go home!
4. Tads - do we have a route that avoids the wings melting and things? Aswon yes, we can't do that again anyway AFAIK...
5. Kai - lets see what his capabilities are. He may be open to just manufacturing, but he not have contacts, we just know he's got a good rep.
6. Spook takes the team to dinner, then to the hotel
7. Marius - great assessment of spooks driving skill. Aswon asks Marius to explain about the boats and the nature of the attack.
8. Spook - sounds like a Shimakaze II, don' t know much about them. Marius - they got really good sensors, I can tell you that.
9. Arrive at restaurant around 9:00, Tads resummons spirits.
10. Meet the Farooqs, Aswon biotech test - maybe environmental hazard, maybe osteoporosis. Kai botches Asian greetings "konichiwa!", rest of team face-palm. Hunter - ah, this man is a pig farmer...
11. Spook - apologies, stressful 24 hours, they have a funny sense of humour. Let me sort out dinner... glares at Kai. Hunter - checks menu, Kai will pay.
12. Kai - my apologies, it's been a very long time since we've been here, and I am very tired, my deepest apologies. Couple remain exquisitely polite.
13. Spook - team have rare materials, do the examination, he checks his wife and gets the nod.
14. Kai - we've been told you are very skilled, don't want to take the material too far, Europeans would be very rough.
15. Yes, we can show you our looms.
16. Kai - part of our dilemma is that we have capacity to supply considerable amounts of material, but don't want to saturate the market, looking for your expertise in handling and suppliers and distribution,
17. Alas we have little working capital, recent upgrades, limited cash flow. Kai - understandable, can't rush upgrades and cut corners on quality, especially with material like this. Willing to negotiate rolling process, to keep inside budget and cash flow. Don't want to pressure you or rush you, work with you. Kai impresses Farooq a little, he checks with Spook, she nods. Pancakes arrive. General chit chat.
18. Aswon asks if the silk is best suited for any kind of garment. Mostly the high fashion and beauty aspect.
19. Talk to him - weaver not tailor. Offers to show them the facility again. 10am appointment.
20. Farooqs leave, Spook gives Kai another dirty look. Aswon - he can make that mistake in 15 different languages - but it has been a long day. Kai - let's not spoil the day. Hunter - ask him about saying hello in Russian! Team snigger, Spook grins - detects the story, save for later.
21. Spook - let's get you squared away, suggest you offer the first shipment tomorrow up front, repair the damage done diplomatically.
22. Hunter - prefer to offload supplies first. Spook takes to a lockup in a basement of one of the tower blocks. Random mana storm inbound - tads detects. Shielding on the vehicle, warns spook. Spook - this has been happening more often recently, any idea what. Tads - no, I can go look. Aswon - don't do that!
23. Freak hailstorm seen, advancing down from the bay, salty caramel flavour. Maybe burnt critters.
24. Spook backs up to a "maintenance locker". COSHH symbols outside, spotlessly clean inside. Go bag tucked in the corner. Aswon offers to ward - though not in the middle of the mana storm. Aswon double checks - no cameras added. Team keep back about 12kg, 10kg +gesture of good faith of 2kg for the misunderstanding in the restaurant. No cameras covering the locker, but there is a pressure pad - That's spooks
25. Storm has passed, team heading to the hotel. One lightning bolted car, several injuries, but other people just carying on and ice is melting.
26. To the hotel, same floor, different rooms. Toilets sing to you. Team beds down.
27. Friday morning, breakfast locally and move on, then head to Farooqs. Aswon and Hunter moving tactically, just in case it's an ambush. Kai carrying the silk.
28. Come across a 12 story 300x300 building, brutalist architecture. "Godown Company" hundreds of small businesses, spaces from a few square metres to several hundred, available to rent. Industrial canopy. Kai checks - no megacorp political affiliation, probably red crane run or affiliated, almost certainly has some smuggler based activity in here.
29. Tads - this may be a good time to think about a gift for Grandfather Fan. Aswon - good call.
30. Check directory, Farooq on the 5th floor, east side, suite 5-32. Weapon scanners probably don't even have power, guards there as a response. Decent cameras, good security on most of the doors.
31. Cleanroom environment, new machines, good roll from hunter - good level of investment. Farooqs come to greet them, Shimazu spots trepidation in their body language as they close on Kai. Kai "please excuse me as I attempt to get the greeting wrong, but the more I practice, the better I get..." Gets a 5, it's a good greeting. Would you like some tea? Across the sticky strip. Look at the supplies as they get the tea sorted. Excited squees, take the stuff out to the machines, while Farooq talks price. Chitchat over tea.
32. so, we have 12.135kg of raw material there - let's talk business. K-obviously trying to establish amicable business relationship, regular contracts, for a regular client. We're looking to make a small profit, but not after the lions share, but we can help you expand and further your long term gains, we're facilitators, not the end customer. I...see... so what kind of price are you looking for?
33. Opening bid from the team - 200Ny per kg for the first 10 kg, then 300 for the rest, and one bolt of material as tribute to grandfather fan. Gets credstick and pays 2000.
34. Spook dials Aswon, he apologises, and moves to the corner, picks up, voice only "No, that's fine, there's no need for violence"
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 305 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from the ‘cliff-hanger’ ending of last week, the team started to head towards Spooks apartment. At first I thought that the team were going to head up to the roof and get the Broadsword to come and pick them up – but with a bit of hopefully subtle nudging they realised that while that would be good for chasing on the roads, if the kidnappers went underground / inside, they’d have to leave the jet outside and obvious, and that could cost them their ride.
So, they set off on foot, and I started to describe the story that Spook was narrating to keep her son quiet / not scared, and Hunter’s player very quickly caught on and bought up the map of the area and started to scout around, looking at the environment. As soon as he spotted the ‘adventure playground’ with some trees near it, things seemed to click into place and the rest of the players realised he was on to something. When we got to the “merry-go-round”, and they saw the highway entrance curving around, that confirmed the point of this little piece, and that they needed to do a join-the-clues kind of driving chase, and got straight on with that.
Shimazu finally got to use his driving practice he’d been working on, while Marius was busy with his rigger deck bringing the drone in, and got a bunch of really good driving checks, letting them go hammering along the highway, whilst I kept feeding clues and the team poured over the map. When we got to the ‘shiny salt flats’, someone immediately guess a bunch of solar panels, and when they found the large solar array at the end of Kowloon City Road I could see a bunch of happy nods from the players as they ‘solved’ the puzzle and got a little dopamine hit. So far so good – the clues were pitched at about the right level, and they were making the correct assumptions.
It didn’t take long to get to the Kowloon Walled city, and here I had to pause for a moment and advise the players that the in-game world now differed from what they could see on Google Maps, and that actually what they could see was X – then pasting in some pictures of the Walled City before it we demolished in the 90s. Along with that I read out my prepared description (#14 in the notes below) to scene set, along with the visuals I’d linked.
Along with that, they could see Spook being dragged out of the van at the far end of the block – far enough away that the only person who could interfere would be Tads. Fortunately for my plot, I didn’t have to stop her spellcasting with the enemy mage (who for the sake of the narrative and plot structure would *just* manage to get enough successes / shielding to stop whatever she tried) and instead she ordered a bunch of spirits to go engage. That gave the bad guys just enough time to get under cover.
I’d already written up the mages specialty and equipment, and in case Tads had gone astral to Spooks apartment as a fast response, I’d given him a bunch of high-force fire elementals to give him some very concentrated astral punch – enough to hopefully scare Tads off from a solo assault. These now gave him more than enough firepower to deal with the three spirits Tads had sent, and to allow the bad guys to move inside without further hinderance.
All of this happened ‘off-camera’, and all that Tads knew was that she lost three spirits in rapid succession. After pouting a little, she told the rest of the team they needed to be careful as either there was a powerful mage, or a good phys-ad with a weapon foci in there, which further warned the team of what kind of thing they were heading into.
Not wanting to give up their friend, they piled into the slums, and started to follow the trail of blood as it wound through the environment, and started to run into combat encounters.
Here was somewhere else I deviated from the standard rules, and instead sort of moved over to Anarchy. I didn’t make any skill checks, soaks or even rolled for initiative. I worked on the basis that with the mooks all getting 1d6+4 or so initiative, *every* single player was going to go before them. And chances are regardless of if they attacked from the front or rear, the combat characters would overwhelm them in the first initiative pass, regardless. So…why bother? Why not just describe how awesome the characters are, and go from there?
The team are all pretty experienced now, with karma pools in the double digits, decent skills and good combat stats. If they get attacked by 40 mooks at once, then sure – it could get dicey. But 40 individual fights one at a time? The team are going to win hands down, and it’s just a matter of book-keeping then.
So, I went with just descriptions of the fights, and how the team slaughter their way up the cramped confines of the Walled City, fighting through a 3d maze that makes no sense, chasing after blood splatters. I was trying to create a vibe that was a combo of the newer ‘Dredd’ film crossed with ‘The Raid’, with a smattering of ‘Rush Hour’ perhaps – lots of low level grunts throwing themselves at the players, slowing and distracting them while the end of level boss had time to prepare for the cinematic showdown in the set-piece location…
And it seemed to go down ok. Not something I’m going to do too often, but here and now it seemed to work, and everyone was happy with their characters having a few moments to shine as I narrated them casually defeating enemies and moving onwards.
Eventually they came across the straggler, left behind to try and fight a rear-action, and that let me do a plot-dump on Tads to prepare them for some parts of the fight to come, when they reach the top! She’s getting more than a little concerned about the rise in background count to 3, but that probably means she’s going to be even more determined to try and get ‘Filtering’ as a metamagic sometime soon!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.30639, 114.18294, Time 11:30
2. Recap for the team: Spook dials Aswon, he apologises, and moves to the corner, picks up, voice only "No, that's fine, there's no need for violence"
3. Kai asks Tads to go astral, Aswon describes the location, but difficult to find without reference points.
4. Hunter - don't have the deck to do a run on the telecom grid - and he'd have to stay still.
5. Marius - running into a very hostile situation with hardly any guns/armour
6. Team start to move down, apart from Tads going up. Marius prepping the Broadsword via remote. Looking for the fire exits - points to the lift, all team go down.
7. Disrupt the corridors, get shouted at, get down to street level, then out and towards the apartment, Aswon starts to move tactically,
8. Start hearing spook do the lullaby, then telling the adventure tale, Hunter trying to check for playground locations. Aswon u-turns. Marius concentrating on getting the Doberman powered up and in the air.
9. Aswon and Shimazu get to freeway, lots of vehicles, many are warded - too many to tell. Tads - we should grab Spooks vehicle; rest of team go for Spooks minivan. Get the van, get to Shimazu and Aswon.
10. Follow the trail along the highway, going as fast as possible
11. Tads suggest Kai to call the Farooqs and let them know. He sends message, team is driving, get the link to Argyle street.
12. Shimzau driving like a boss, pushing it to 70 through narrow streets. Narration changes to anthill, poison bites, scare the lion, could be overwhelmed.
13. Spook spots the van and makes her assault. Tads sends 3 spirits to guard/report. Shimazu closing. Tads sends a 4th spirit to be at the entrance. F4 great forms. Drone is here in 30-45 seconds. Arrive at the site about 11:45am
14. You can see the Kowloon Walled city rising up ahead of you - despite only being twenty stories tall, it seems to loom overhead with far more menace and presence than the tower blocks around it. While they soar thirty, forty or even fifty stories tall, they are slender and discrete - the walled city is a huge mass of buildings jumbled together, stacked with no formal planning or rational development. Buildings have been built on buildings, leaning against each other and built out of disparate materials, stained and crumbling and festooned with windows, cables running like a spider web all over the outside of the building. The roof looks like a hedgehog of antennas and dishes, and the bottom three layers can barely be seen past the vast array of signs and adverts.
15. Vehicle pulls up in a skid of rubber, Tads starts to pick up that her spirits are being attacked and popped.
16. Marching order
a. Aswon
b. Shimazu
c. Kai
d. Tads
e. Marius
f. Hunter
17. Start to lose contact with the outside world, Marius tells the drone to orbit and survey.
18. Marius - get a scent on the blood trail, in case we lose it, might be able to follow air-scent. Aswon gecko crawling up, Hunter does good sniffing.
19. Kai suddenly reveals he is unarmed... it was a friendly meeting...
20. First 3 goons attack...Shimazu from a side door. More from the rear, Hunter takes them out. Trail goes into a house, barrel in. Team run through, frying pan attacks Tads and is defeated. Through dentists, business, houses, steam of attackers with improvised weapons, Aswon checking biotech for the wound.
21. Molotov team attack Marius, responds with EX-EX, Molotov goes off. Mandarin tests, "bounty of 50k for any of the intruders heads". Attacks intensify. Entire families throw themselves at the team, kept away. BGC rises to 2. Poverty doesn't change. Continue to rise up. More desperation, more acid/flame attacks. 5 discrete fires, Keep moving, keep climbing, huge bodycount, BGC rises to 3.
22. Kai - can you do a trid-phantasm to show us going the other way. Tads - no, not really. BGC and have to have LOS, and only fools people following us.
23. Marius - drop the lights - we can mostly see in the dark. Hunter cuts through the power cables and sends the sector into darkness. Crazy torchlight.
24. Find one of the bleeders, takes a shot at Aswon and Shimazu, misses and they tase his ass. Kai facial sculpts to match one of the bad guys.
25. Aswon and Shimazu go ahead, Tads mind probes while Kai strips clothes, Marius and Hunter guard. Tads, 3 successes Mind Probe.
26. Black Chrysanthemum, taking to the top floor, to see the slave masters. Underworld politics from Kai - might not be under Grandfathers control. Mental image of the slave master, silk shirt, slaves on display. Route to the top. Some details of the mage, fire-elemental master, trid-phantasm agony.
27. Moving on from mind probe and catching up with the front runners, and stopping for the night.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from the ‘cliff-hanger’ ending of last week, the team started to head towards Spooks apartment. At first I thought that the team were going to head up to the roof and get the Broadsword to come and pick them up – but with a bit of hopefully subtle nudging they realised that while that would be good for chasing on the roads, if the kidnappers went underground / inside, they’d have to leave the jet outside and obvious, and that could cost them their ride.
So, they set off on foot, and I started to describe the story that Spook was narrating to keep her son quiet / not scared, and Hunter’s player very quickly caught on and bought up the map of the area and started to scout around, looking at the environment. As soon as he spotted the ‘adventure playground’ with some trees near it, things seemed to click into place and the rest of the players realised he was on to something. When we got to the “merry-go-round”, and they saw the highway entrance curving around, that confirmed the point of this little piece, and that they needed to do a join-the-clues kind of driving chase, and got straight on with that.
Shimazu finally got to use his driving practice he’d been working on, while Marius was busy with his rigger deck bringing the drone in, and got a bunch of really good driving checks, letting them go hammering along the highway, whilst I kept feeding clues and the team poured over the map. When we got to the ‘shiny salt flats’, someone immediately guess a bunch of solar panels, and when they found the large solar array at the end of Kowloon City Road I could see a bunch of happy nods from the players as they ‘solved’ the puzzle and got a little dopamine hit. So far so good – the clues were pitched at about the right level, and they were making the correct assumptions.
It didn’t take long to get to the Kowloon Walled city, and here I had to pause for a moment and advise the players that the in-game world now differed from what they could see on Google Maps, and that actually what they could see was X – then pasting in some pictures of the Walled City before it we demolished in the 90s. Along with that I read out my prepared description (#14 in the notes below) to scene set, along with the visuals I’d linked.
Along with that, they could see Spook being dragged out of the van at the far end of the block – far enough away that the only person who could interfere would be Tads. Fortunately for my plot, I didn’t have to stop her spellcasting with the enemy mage (who for the sake of the narrative and plot structure would *just* manage to get enough successes / shielding to stop whatever she tried) and instead she ordered a bunch of spirits to go engage. That gave the bad guys just enough time to get under cover.
I’d already written up the mages specialty and equipment, and in case Tads had gone astral to Spooks apartment as a fast response, I’d given him a bunch of high-force fire elementals to give him some very concentrated astral punch – enough to hopefully scare Tads off from a solo assault. These now gave him more than enough firepower to deal with the three spirits Tads had sent, and to allow the bad guys to move inside without further hinderance.
All of this happened ‘off-camera’, and all that Tads knew was that she lost three spirits in rapid succession. After pouting a little, she told the rest of the team they needed to be careful as either there was a powerful mage, or a good phys-ad with a weapon foci in there, which further warned the team of what kind of thing they were heading into.
Not wanting to give up their friend, they piled into the slums, and started to follow the trail of blood as it wound through the environment, and started to run into combat encounters.
Here was somewhere else I deviated from the standard rules, and instead sort of moved over to Anarchy. I didn’t make any skill checks, soaks or even rolled for initiative. I worked on the basis that with the mooks all getting 1d6+4 or so initiative, *every* single player was going to go before them. And chances are regardless of if they attacked from the front or rear, the combat characters would overwhelm them in the first initiative pass, regardless. So…why bother? Why not just describe how awesome the characters are, and go from there?
The team are all pretty experienced now, with karma pools in the double digits, decent skills and good combat stats. If they get attacked by 40 mooks at once, then sure – it could get dicey. But 40 individual fights one at a time? The team are going to win hands down, and it’s just a matter of book-keeping then.
So, I went with just descriptions of the fights, and how the team slaughter their way up the cramped confines of the Walled City, fighting through a 3d maze that makes no sense, chasing after blood splatters. I was trying to create a vibe that was a combo of the newer ‘Dredd’ film crossed with ‘The Raid’, with a smattering of ‘Rush Hour’ perhaps – lots of low level grunts throwing themselves at the players, slowing and distracting them while the end of level boss had time to prepare for the cinematic showdown in the set-piece location…
And it seemed to go down ok. Not something I’m going to do too often, but here and now it seemed to work, and everyone was happy with their characters having a few moments to shine as I narrated them casually defeating enemies and moving onwards.
Eventually they came across the straggler, left behind to try and fight a rear-action, and that let me do a plot-dump on Tads to prepare them for some parts of the fight to come, when they reach the top! She’s getting more than a little concerned about the rise in background count to 3, but that probably means she’s going to be even more determined to try and get ‘Filtering’ as a metamagic sometime soon!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.30639, 114.18294, Time 11:30
2. Recap for the team: Spook dials Aswon, he apologises, and moves to the corner, picks up, voice only "No, that's fine, there's no need for violence"
3. Kai asks Tads to go astral, Aswon describes the location, but difficult to find without reference points.
4. Hunter - don't have the deck to do a run on the telecom grid - and he'd have to stay still.
5. Marius - running into a very hostile situation with hardly any guns/armour
6. Team start to move down, apart from Tads going up. Marius prepping the Broadsword via remote. Looking for the fire exits - points to the lift, all team go down.
7. Disrupt the corridors, get shouted at, get down to street level, then out and towards the apartment, Aswon starts to move tactically,
8. Start hearing spook do the lullaby, then telling the adventure tale, Hunter trying to check for playground locations. Aswon u-turns. Marius concentrating on getting the Doberman powered up and in the air.
9. Aswon and Shimazu get to freeway, lots of vehicles, many are warded - too many to tell. Tads - we should grab Spooks vehicle; rest of team go for Spooks minivan. Get the van, get to Shimazu and Aswon.
10. Follow the trail along the highway, going as fast as possible
11. Tads suggest Kai to call the Farooqs and let them know. He sends message, team is driving, get the link to Argyle street.
12. Shimzau driving like a boss, pushing it to 70 through narrow streets. Narration changes to anthill, poison bites, scare the lion, could be overwhelmed.
13. Spook spots the van and makes her assault. Tads sends 3 spirits to guard/report. Shimazu closing. Tads sends a 4th spirit to be at the entrance. F4 great forms. Drone is here in 30-45 seconds. Arrive at the site about 11:45am
14. You can see the Kowloon Walled city rising up ahead of you - despite only being twenty stories tall, it seems to loom overhead with far more menace and presence than the tower blocks around it. While they soar thirty, forty or even fifty stories tall, they are slender and discrete - the walled city is a huge mass of buildings jumbled together, stacked with no formal planning or rational development. Buildings have been built on buildings, leaning against each other and built out of disparate materials, stained and crumbling and festooned with windows, cables running like a spider web all over the outside of the building. The roof looks like a hedgehog of antennas and dishes, and the bottom three layers can barely be seen past the vast array of signs and adverts.
15. Vehicle pulls up in a skid of rubber, Tads starts to pick up that her spirits are being attacked and popped.
16. Marching order
a. Aswon
b. Shimazu
c. Kai
d. Tads
e. Marius
f. Hunter
17. Start to lose contact with the outside world, Marius tells the drone to orbit and survey.
18. Marius - get a scent on the blood trail, in case we lose it, might be able to follow air-scent. Aswon gecko crawling up, Hunter does good sniffing.
19. Kai suddenly reveals he is unarmed... it was a friendly meeting...
20. First 3 goons attack...Shimazu from a side door. More from the rear, Hunter takes them out. Trail goes into a house, barrel in. Team run through, frying pan attacks Tads and is defeated. Through dentists, business, houses, steam of attackers with improvised weapons, Aswon checking biotech for the wound.
21. Molotov team attack Marius, responds with EX-EX, Molotov goes off. Mandarin tests, "bounty of 50k for any of the intruders heads". Attacks intensify. Entire families throw themselves at the team, kept away. BGC rises to 2. Poverty doesn't change. Continue to rise up. More desperation, more acid/flame attacks. 5 discrete fires, Keep moving, keep climbing, huge bodycount, BGC rises to 3.
22. Kai - can you do a trid-phantasm to show us going the other way. Tads - no, not really. BGC and have to have LOS, and only fools people following us.
23. Marius - drop the lights - we can mostly see in the dark. Hunter cuts through the power cables and sends the sector into darkness. Crazy torchlight.
24. Find one of the bleeders, takes a shot at Aswon and Shimazu, misses and they tase his ass. Kai facial sculpts to match one of the bad guys.
25. Aswon and Shimazu go ahead, Tads mind probes while Kai strips clothes, Marius and Hunter guard. Tads, 3 successes Mind Probe.
26. Black Chrysanthemum, taking to the top floor, to see the slave masters. Underworld politics from Kai - might not be under Grandfathers control. Mental image of the slave master, silk shirt, slaves on display. Route to the top. Some details of the mage, fire-elemental master, trid-phantasm agony.
27. Moving on from mind probe and catching up with the front runners, and stopping for the night.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 306 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Quite a short episode this time – only 5.5k words and 9 pages – the result of us having one combat and a bit of a discussion, and that was about it. Unfortunately we had a bit of a late start which ate into our game time – though that actually worked out well, as we left it at a good “cliffhanger” break point.
With the team continuing to make their way up to the top of the tower / particular set of buildings in the Kowloon walled city, the location and style was going to be exactly the same as the week before – all the scene setting had been done, and now it was time to turn it up, just a notch.
My notes for the session were pretty brief – going in it was:
1. Fire chasms+
2. Drug lab
3. Getting signal back
4. End boss / slave chamber - heat rising
5. Roof encounter around air-vents.
I’d got maps prepared for the drug lab and slave chamber, and some stats for the slave chamber encounter – as that has the triad leader and his mage in, so it’s a fight worth taking some time over. But for the drug lab, I had 8 mooks and a simple map, and it was for the players to work out how best to handle things.
So, we started off with more abstract climbing and battling through the level, and then moved on to “fire chasms”. I kept this simple enough with just a talk through of the building shaking, the concrete breaking, spotting the fire levels below, and starting to smell stuff cooking in the downstairs areas. None of this is a direct threat (yet), but it was to set the seeds for later – letting them know that there is likely to come a time where the environment could be an issue, and that they may face some time restrictions later. But, I also made it an Athletics (4) test to get over the hole, which was no threat to them and easily resolved.
Now having set that up, we moved on to the main event. I’d drawn one of my *excellent quality* maps in PowerPoint, to throw up on the screen share in Discord. That’s sarcasm by the way… My maps are normally functional, but they’re certainly not pretty – but I’ve found that PowerPoint is actually a pretty reasonable tool for doing this in. I’d got a big box, with no fill to mark the outer walls, then a bunch of smaller squares for the rows of support columns, some rectangles for desks and the a bunch of circles numbered 1-8 for my mooks, and more circles with the first letter of each of the teams names. Bosh – insta map, shows everyone exactly what’s going on and what the relative positions are. A quick scale along the bottom, and it’s now really easy to see how far you can go in a turn, and how far weapons will reach.
It never looks pretty – but it is functional, and makes sure everyone is on the same page. I’d love to have the artistic touch or flair to make pretty maps – but I know that’s beyond me (or at least beyond my ability in a reasonable time frame and level of effort for a game like this!) Doing it in PowerPoint makes it really easy to move stuff around in response to player and NPC actions, but also to recolour stuff – when the NPCs (or players) take wounds, rather than tracking them specifically, I normally colour code them – select the circle, then change the fill colour, cycling through two shades of green (for light wounds), three shades of yellow (moderate wounds) three reds (serious wounds) or black (dead/incapacitated) – meaning it’s really easy to look at a glance and see what state people are in.
It’s also then very easy to draw lines from players to NPCs or vice-versa to establish LOS and see how much of a target is visible, which can help resolve queries and inform people about how much cover they can claim, or how dangerous a position is.
Previously, before the COVID times when we used to run all of our games “at-table”, we used a whiteboard and dry-erase pens for ad-hoc maps, or I had a projector installed in the ceiling aiming down at the table to show maps that I’d pre-generated or downloaded. Since the “bad-times” and moving to online play over Discord, I’ve been using PowerPoint instead to quickly throw things together, and found that it works well enough to keep the games moving quickly. Sure it looks like it was drawn by a 5-year old… but it’s good enough.
So – with the room drawn out, we actually rolled initiative, and my 8 mooks with light pistols and 2 points of armour took on the team – with entirely predictable results. The players were not taking any chances and kept moving, using cover, bounding overwatch and taking care to minimise their exposure, meaning that on average the mooks only ever got 1 success on their shots, letting the team either dodge or soak the attacks without issue. In the whole fight only once did an opponent ever get 2 successes – enough to stage it up to a moderate wound, but that still wasn’t enough to tag the player who still had enough combat pool left to make a decent soak.
So, the bad guys go down, and now I give a better explanation of the room, and include the dust in the air, and get them to make some biotech tests – and realise they’re in the middle of a drug lab, and inhaling all kinds of nonsense.
So, on they push, and get up to the top of the tower, and we’re getting on for 9pm, which is our normal end time for the session, and they’ve got just before the “end of level boss” room – which made a nice place to stop.
That means we can go into the end fight or negotiations next week, and let that roll out over the whole session – and see if the team can take out the opposition (and work out who the opposition is!) before Spook gets her throat slit or something even worse happens – and of course, for the players to find out exactly WHY the top of this tower has a background count of 4…
See you all next week!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.33142, 114.18969, Time 12:00
2. Team just moving on from the mind-probe victim, working upstairs.
3. More fights, then building shaking, from below - gas main / molotovs hit something - Aswon and Hunter chit chat.
4. Fire chasms - in a small industrial room, black smoke rising
5. Continue working up through the building to floor 14. To drug lab
6. Aswon runs in first, mindlink "ambush", draws fire, Shimazu in and slashes one in hard, Hunter in next, medium on 3rd target, Aswon moves to north side of room, Marius closes in on Hunter, Mook 1 at Hunter, miss miss, 3 moves towards Aswon, 4 shoots at Shimazu miss miss, 3 shots at shimazu hits - all soaks, Aswon gets shot twice, soak soak. Tads runs into cover after Aswon, Kai follows. Hunter shoots at #1 again, does an S no soak, Aswon moves to 3 and stuns/herds, Marius moves up a touch, shoots at 6, hits twice serious wound. Shimazu vaults to 4 and destroys him. 6 returns fire at Marius, misses. 8 hits Shimazu twice, soak soak. 5 shoots Shimazu, miss, hit - soak. 7 shoots at Aswon misses twice, hits 3 - but both soaked. Hunter last action - shoots and kills 6, floor shot.
7. 2nd round, Shimazu distance strike 5, 9D, dead, Hunter moves up towards 7, kills him, then kills 3. Marius, Kai and Tads move up. #8 shoots at Hunter - but soaked. Aswon rabbit jumps and hits #8, tases him down.
8. Team recover 6L pistols and 75 rounds of ammo. Hunter gets one + full mag to pass to spook. Kai grabs one. Hunter checks #1, crawling for the door. Hunter thinks about offing him, but leaves him alive but very badly hurt. Tads gets one pistol as well.
9. Hunter 3 rounds, Marius 4 + 1 reload each
10. Biotech rolls for Kai Aswon and Shimazu, hearts are racing. Hunter - sniff chemicals, methamphetamine. Aswon checks door to the north, look for traps. Tads tries to fashion a mask from fabric
11. Aswon listens - hears fires in the distance. No sounds of ambush, moving on. Get down to last mags. Hunter > melee, Marius stays with pistol.
12. Marius down to 6 rounds on the next 4 floors of climbing
13. Near the top, concrete slab above them. BGC risen to 4.
14. Marius - do you want holes in the roof? ASwon - NO, spook and her kid are up there. Marius - getting GPS back, I should be able to blast holes tactically. Hunter checks phone - 1 bar, Suggests to Kai to call grandfather Fan to advise him. Kai calls, call waiting. Sends very brief message instead.
15. Team try to work out if they can get in underneath or around - confusing layout, not entirely sure. Marius can bring drone over to the light-well.
16. Plan - Marius drone to do a distraction run across the roof with a strafe, make the mooks look up while the rest of the team breach.
17. Team stack up on door and Marius does a strafe, then get ready to breach.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Quite a short episode this time – only 5.5k words and 9 pages – the result of us having one combat and a bit of a discussion, and that was about it. Unfortunately we had a bit of a late start which ate into our game time – though that actually worked out well, as we left it at a good “cliffhanger” break point.
With the team continuing to make their way up to the top of the tower / particular set of buildings in the Kowloon walled city, the location and style was going to be exactly the same as the week before – all the scene setting had been done, and now it was time to turn it up, just a notch.
My notes for the session were pretty brief – going in it was:
1. Fire chasms+
2. Drug lab
3. Getting signal back
4. End boss / slave chamber - heat rising
5. Roof encounter around air-vents.
I’d got maps prepared for the drug lab and slave chamber, and some stats for the slave chamber encounter – as that has the triad leader and his mage in, so it’s a fight worth taking some time over. But for the drug lab, I had 8 mooks and a simple map, and it was for the players to work out how best to handle things.
So, we started off with more abstract climbing and battling through the level, and then moved on to “fire chasms”. I kept this simple enough with just a talk through of the building shaking, the concrete breaking, spotting the fire levels below, and starting to smell stuff cooking in the downstairs areas. None of this is a direct threat (yet), but it was to set the seeds for later – letting them know that there is likely to come a time where the environment could be an issue, and that they may face some time restrictions later. But, I also made it an Athletics (4) test to get over the hole, which was no threat to them and easily resolved.
Now having set that up, we moved on to the main event. I’d drawn one of my *excellent quality* maps in PowerPoint, to throw up on the screen share in Discord. That’s sarcasm by the way… My maps are normally functional, but they’re certainly not pretty – but I’ve found that PowerPoint is actually a pretty reasonable tool for doing this in. I’d got a big box, with no fill to mark the outer walls, then a bunch of smaller squares for the rows of support columns, some rectangles for desks and the a bunch of circles numbered 1-8 for my mooks, and more circles with the first letter of each of the teams names. Bosh – insta map, shows everyone exactly what’s going on and what the relative positions are. A quick scale along the bottom, and it’s now really easy to see how far you can go in a turn, and how far weapons will reach.
It never looks pretty – but it is functional, and makes sure everyone is on the same page. I’d love to have the artistic touch or flair to make pretty maps – but I know that’s beyond me (or at least beyond my ability in a reasonable time frame and level of effort for a game like this!) Doing it in PowerPoint makes it really easy to move stuff around in response to player and NPC actions, but also to recolour stuff – when the NPCs (or players) take wounds, rather than tracking them specifically, I normally colour code them – select the circle, then change the fill colour, cycling through two shades of green (for light wounds), three shades of yellow (moderate wounds) three reds (serious wounds) or black (dead/incapacitated) – meaning it’s really easy to look at a glance and see what state people are in.
It’s also then very easy to draw lines from players to NPCs or vice-versa to establish LOS and see how much of a target is visible, which can help resolve queries and inform people about how much cover they can claim, or how dangerous a position is.
Previously, before the COVID times when we used to run all of our games “at-table”, we used a whiteboard and dry-erase pens for ad-hoc maps, or I had a projector installed in the ceiling aiming down at the table to show maps that I’d pre-generated or downloaded. Since the “bad-times” and moving to online play over Discord, I’ve been using PowerPoint instead to quickly throw things together, and found that it works well enough to keep the games moving quickly. Sure it looks like it was drawn by a 5-year old… but it’s good enough.
So – with the room drawn out, we actually rolled initiative, and my 8 mooks with light pistols and 2 points of armour took on the team – with entirely predictable results. The players were not taking any chances and kept moving, using cover, bounding overwatch and taking care to minimise their exposure, meaning that on average the mooks only ever got 1 success on their shots, letting the team either dodge or soak the attacks without issue. In the whole fight only once did an opponent ever get 2 successes – enough to stage it up to a moderate wound, but that still wasn’t enough to tag the player who still had enough combat pool left to make a decent soak.
So, the bad guys go down, and now I give a better explanation of the room, and include the dust in the air, and get them to make some biotech tests – and realise they’re in the middle of a drug lab, and inhaling all kinds of nonsense.
So, on they push, and get up to the top of the tower, and we’re getting on for 9pm, which is our normal end time for the session, and they’ve got just before the “end of level boss” room – which made a nice place to stop.
That means we can go into the end fight or negotiations next week, and let that roll out over the whole session – and see if the team can take out the opposition (and work out who the opposition is!) before Spook gets her throat slit or something even worse happens – and of course, for the players to find out exactly WHY the top of this tower has a background count of 4…
See you all next week!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.33142, 114.18969, Time 12:00
2. Team just moving on from the mind-probe victim, working upstairs.
3. More fights, then building shaking, from below - gas main / molotovs hit something - Aswon and Hunter chit chat.
4. Fire chasms - in a small industrial room, black smoke rising
5. Continue working up through the building to floor 14. To drug lab
6. Aswon runs in first, mindlink "ambush", draws fire, Shimazu in and slashes one in hard, Hunter in next, medium on 3rd target, Aswon moves to north side of room, Marius closes in on Hunter, Mook 1 at Hunter, miss miss, 3 moves towards Aswon, 4 shoots at Shimazu miss miss, 3 shots at shimazu hits - all soaks, Aswon gets shot twice, soak soak. Tads runs into cover after Aswon, Kai follows. Hunter shoots at #1 again, does an S no soak, Aswon moves to 3 and stuns/herds, Marius moves up a touch, shoots at 6, hits twice serious wound. Shimazu vaults to 4 and destroys him. 6 returns fire at Marius, misses. 8 hits Shimazu twice, soak soak. 5 shoots Shimazu, miss, hit - soak. 7 shoots at Aswon misses twice, hits 3 - but both soaked. Hunter last action - shoots and kills 6, floor shot.
7. 2nd round, Shimazu distance strike 5, 9D, dead, Hunter moves up towards 7, kills him, then kills 3. Marius, Kai and Tads move up. #8 shoots at Hunter - but soaked. Aswon rabbit jumps and hits #8, tases him down.
8. Team recover 6L pistols and 75 rounds of ammo. Hunter gets one + full mag to pass to spook. Kai grabs one. Hunter checks #1, crawling for the door. Hunter thinks about offing him, but leaves him alive but very badly hurt. Tads gets one pistol as well.
9. Hunter 3 rounds, Marius 4 + 1 reload each
10. Biotech rolls for Kai Aswon and Shimazu, hearts are racing. Hunter - sniff chemicals, methamphetamine. Aswon checks door to the north, look for traps. Tads tries to fashion a mask from fabric
11. Aswon listens - hears fires in the distance. No sounds of ambush, moving on. Get down to last mags. Hunter > melee, Marius stays with pistol.
12. Marius down to 6 rounds on the next 4 floors of climbing
13. Near the top, concrete slab above them. BGC risen to 4.
14. Marius - do you want holes in the roof? ASwon - NO, spook and her kid are up there. Marius - getting GPS back, I should be able to blast holes tactically. Hunter checks phone - 1 bar, Suggests to Kai to call grandfather Fan to advise him. Kai calls, call waiting. Sends very brief message instead.
15. Team try to work out if they can get in underneath or around - confusing layout, not entirely sure. Marius can bring drone over to the light-well.
16. Plan - Marius drone to do a distraction run across the roof with a strafe, make the mooks look up while the rest of the team breach.
17. Team stack up on door and Marius does a strafe, then get ready to breach.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 307 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, that was a satisfying session to GM. It didn’t go quite as I’d planned / hoped, but it went well enough, and that’s as good as I can reasonably hope for.
We started off straight into the action with the door breach, and the skidded to a halt for diplomacy, enforced for at least a short time by the anchoring foci powered physical barrier. That gave just enough time for Tads to get a moment of smugness as the enemy mage bounced off her shields, and for Marius to get the drone into position, as well as the complete control over the slaves by the bad guys to be established. Kai started off with good negotiations, and gave the bad guy plenty of time to back down – none of which were taken of course. And nobody paid much attention to the slaves, or one slave in particular, which was all well and good.
Combat kicked off, and the mage was geeked first, in accordance with the ancient wisdom. A few quick rolls to check on the F6 spirits, and only one went free and hostile. One stayed as a neutral, and the others went home, so that was a pretty good result for the party. They did split the party of course, with some of them going up to the roof to take out the boss, while others stayed downstairs to deal with the henchmen and rescue the kid, so there was a little bit of back and forth between the two maps.
In terms of the combat, nothing much surprising happened, other than Shimazu going on a rescue mission first, leaving Kai to do the shooting – which pulled him right out of his comfort zone (not a bad thing!) and having to soak some incoming damage. It wasn’t much though, and some re-rolls and karma sorted that out – though the players did note that they were firing armour piercing rounds and made a definite note to secure that after the fight.
Using the seeds of the building being on fire and shaking / collapsing that had been sowed earlier, I could then ramp up the pressure to make the team get out quickly, giving them just time to loot the bodies and get their various rewards – Tads got a sustaining foci (useful) and an anchoring foci (less so, but tradeable) along with some elemental summoning materials (no good for her, but very easy to trade on). Kai got the credstick with the slavers money (which more than covers the fuel bill home), and they also got a good magazine’s worth of APDS for a heavy pistol, which is nice.
They also managed of course to get Spook and her son back, and then get off the building before it collapsed, evading (thanks to a 17 on a stealth roll and a F8 nature spirit concealing them) pursuit or observation.
As they were heading back, I thew in the phone call from Nadia, not sure if Marius would ‘take’ the call at that time. She covered off some inconsequential stuff, and some stuff that is setting up some future events – the corporate visit. Hopefully it came across nice and casual, and just as background fluff. And then I also dropped in the secret underground base idea. There were immediately OOC comments about needing palm trees to make it proper “Tracy Island”, which I thought was too good to pass up, and have added into the writeup. Trying to get an AI drawing of this proved tricky, as most of the time it insisted of putting tennis courts at the bottom of the secret hanger, with retractable helipads over the top – no matter how I tweaked the prompt! Something very strange going on there, but we got there in the end!
With Spook and kid safe, they can arrange a meeting with Grandfather Fan and let him know what’s going on, and they can find out about the collapse / destruction of the Walled City and the enormous loss of life there – which they’re not responsible for, but are tied up in, and he’ll suggest they may want to leave the city sooner rather than later, and will hopefully send them either home, or via the Huk resistance to report in, and then home.
Having sent out the writeup to each of the team as I normally do at the end of each week, I also sent Shimazu’s player, Tom, an extra email to outline the details of his characters sudden realisation at the end of the session :-
*****************************
Back in session 210, after the Horror threw the purple "death bolt" at Kai and you jumped in the way to intercept, and found your soul pulled out of your body and being transported away to a different realm...
As the bolt hit, his consciousness is pulled from his body, ripped out of the mortal flesh and pulled up, out and away. Like a rocket blasting off into space, his soul vaulted from his body, but instead of the world behind him, it was feelings and memories, visions of things from his past. Instead of the world behind him, he just saw a 'land' a featureless plain that stretched out in either direction to the horizon.
Ahead and below him was a chasm, a massive void that was just full of nothingness. It wasn't black - his eyes just couldn't see anything at all, and it made him feel strange to even look at it. Ahead of him was darkness, a blackness that makes his soul shrivel. The horror was holding on to him with tentacles leeching cold into his skin, barbs piercing his flesh and drawing out his life force as he was carried aloft.
Ahead of him, beyond the chasm he could see another land, full of more creatures like the horror, hungry and reaching out towards him. He couldn't see any detail ahead, but he could feel the nature of the place - a place without hope, love, empathy, compassion. No joy or pride, no happiness, not even contentment. It was as if the entire place was built out of only the negative emotions of humanity - hatred, fear, desperation, loathing, jealousy and rage. As he pulled away from the land and closer to the place across the chasm, he could feel pain - looking behind him he could see his life force unravelling behind him, stretching out towards the land, anchored to his memories, forming a bridge or conduit behind him.
More and more of him was being consumed the further they went, and you know that if you're pulled all the way over to the other side, only a tiny fraction of your soul will remain, linking the place of horrors to where you've come from. Something catches your eye as you gain altitude though - the place where you have come from is a small promontory, sticking out from the land on your side. A way over there is a much larger slab of rock sticking out, with strange energies swirling around it, and a single golden figure that stands guard, looking towards the other side. Just looking at the figure gives you a burst of hope, a feeling of warmth. When you look back at the land where you came from, you can see a bunch of figures climbing the bridge you're creating, charging towards you, clawing their way up the link you created to reach you.
Tentacles lash at them, striking some of them, driving into their souls and forcing them to slow, you can see them mutating and changing before you, moving to strike at their comrades and distract them - but then they suddenly fall from the bridge, disappearing into the void below. They reach you, forming a human chain - drawing you back, away from the horror, away from the darkness, back towards the feelings of light, warmth and life. Then you awaken in the circle, surrounded by the shaman and the rest of the team, screaming in agony as the last hold of the horror is ripped away from you as it catapults back, unable to grip you anymore
As you're laying on the concrete in Hong Kong, staring up at the sky, that scene flashes back through your mind, and you work out where you've seen that thing that leapt out of the window. It's a Horror - one of the horrors in the void, one of the things that was directing the critters building the bridge, trying to get across the void to reach the world. Maybe your mind had tried to block out the details of it's inhuman form and nature, but you remember it now, staring at your world with covertous eyes.
Your guess is that it found some other way to cross the void and get its hooks into people - and that level of control and madness would certainly explain why such complete scum, civilians, old people and children were driven into such a blood-frenzy to attack you,when they quite clearly had no hope of winning.
You don't of course have to explain this to the rest of the team, or be 100% honest or accurate - how and what you do with the information is completely up to you.
**********************************
I guess we’ll see what it is that Tom/Shimazu want to do with that information. Maybe he’ll share it now, realising that it’s “more important” and not just background flavour. Maybe he’ll keep the rest of the team in the dark. Up to him, but he’ll have to live with the consequences!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.33142, 114.18969, Time 12:30
2. Team stacked up on the door, Aswon booting it in...
3. Cages - 2 per cage, between 12 and 20 years old. Bodyguards in stiff suits.
4. "Ahh - our visitors have arrived. Hold your fire - for now. We've got plenty to discuss..." Team check transmitter in hand - short range.
5. Aswon move off to the left, Hunter to the right, Shimazu drop back to Kai. U shaped barrier goes up, solid.
6. Aswon to people in cages - you should lie down. "Oh no, you misunderstand, they're happy to be here..." slaves move in to position to shield him.
7. Hunter - can we find the mage? Subvocal. Kai - so what can we discuss. You're interfering with my operation - what does it take for you to go away. I was about the say the same, you have one of our people, we're happy to leave with our compatriot unharmed, no interfere. This one - she's required for my plans. That doesn't seem like a good negotiation point. Are you willing to discuss, or should we move on. You're not from round here, you should just leave, move on. This IS our business, we're international, you're interfered with us, you're outside your area, so why should we not. If something happens to me, something happens to her - waves transmitter. It's a risk of the business, she will understand that, we don't want it to happen, but things do happen.
8. Marius tries to get radio frequency - good rolls, but it doesn't find anything - sure it's not radio based. Aswon checking the barrier. Shimazu and Kai checking the bad guy and guards. calm and in control, position of strength. Kai - look, you're a businessman, got something of ours. We're going to get it back, people may die. We're going to go about our business. Its up to you." Shimazu - slaves are high on drugs, unconcerned.
9. "But I could cause you agonising pain"... Kai rolls, Tads knows a spell has spanged off. "I can cause you pain!" looks concerned, Kai soaks again - no result.
10. Kai - yes, this is very painful... <droll voice> Perception test for all in the room. Hunter and Kai pick up the glance towards the mage on the left of the room.
11. Kai - nice place you have here, shame if something happened to it. Now, tell your mage to drop the spell, and let us get our friend. Last chance
12. Fire elementals spawn in, 2nd barrier. Kai "kill your master" on far left fire elemental.
13. Marius - gunnery check on attacking the mage blindfire. Red mist from 50 cal 8 round burst
14. Fire elementals 2-5 FO. 6th flamethrowers but bounces off. Dais rises up to roof, with spook,
15. Aswon calls for fire in the corridor to work around the barrier. Marius obliges, Team collapse back out of the room. Kai - I did warn you!
16. Up onto the roof, Aswon and Hunter up first, Marius controlling the drone. Triad hiding behind Spook from drone. Marius using the drone to herd him in a direction.
17. Tads spots the kid in the back of one of the cages. Shimazu gives his revolver to Kai. "Cover me" says Shimazu, "Ok". Shimazu - attribute boost, strength to 12. Takes the barrier down. Tads swaps to resistance. Guard 3 shoots at Shimazu, one miss, one hit, Shimazu takes a light. 2nd guard shoots through the slaves, killing 2, Shimazu soaks and soaks. Kai fires at guard 3, does and S with magna rounds, does not catch fire, swaps to 2, takes an S and catches fire.
18. Hunter rushes up after Aswon tackles the triad guy, takes the hand off. He shrieks, Hunter goes for the belt - to use on the hand. Body turned to mush as Marius puts a 6 round burst through him. Tads leans around the corner to keep an eye on the elemental
19. Number 3 shoots back at Kai, one hit. Dodges with last combat pool. 2nd shot hits does 9S, no CP left. gets 2 on the soak, buys 2, takes an L
20. Slave window dives, Kai and Shimazu can see him, turns into a horror and falls. Last guy takes a distance strike to the face and dies
21. Kai to tads "I could command him to go free?" Tads, bad idea, could go mental. How about back to homeplane? Kai - what do you want? To fire elemental BURN! GO HOME! poof.
22. BGC has dropped to 0. Broadsword arrives, Marius turns it and puts ramp over the roof.
23. Kai searches the body - get the credstick. Aswon - checking the collar/spook. Shimazu hands the kid over to Kai/Tads. Heads to roof
24. Tads checks mage body for loot - gets anchoring foci, sustaining foci, 45 units of fire elemental summoning materials
25. Kai gets 14 rounds of APDS heavy pistol from the guards. Kai asks Tads to sterilise. Tads - what about the slaves? Kai - tell them they're free. Team quick discuss - naked, who do we give them to? Kai - get spook to sort it, she's good people.
26. As Marius gets to the roof, the tower shakes again with another explosion. Marius - marines we are leaving! Aswon straps in spook and baby. Tads starts to herd the slaves. Hunter throws the triad boss into the cess pit. Hunter spots the tunnel into the detritus. Hunter onto the ramp, building drops half a metre. Marius FO. Tads does a net on people in the back. Marius sees the tower alight - broadcasts to the back. Firefighting rolls - Hunter, can tell the building is a loss. One engine on scene, nowhere near enough. Marius 17 on stealth heading away, spots news choppers and drones, police turning up etc.
27. Get back to the building site. Nadia calls Marius - internal pickup. Chit chatting about home life, Marius Jr making a mess. She explains the plan for the helipad, Marius approves. Are you coming home soon? Explains about corporate booking. Anything you need, or shall I get on with my project.
28. Team get first aid / medic upped. Tads Prophylaxsis, to de-drug them? Shimazu chilling out and soaking drain. Kai - the slaves will take addiction penalties probably. Barbiturates / date rape drugs, need to be weaned off. Aswon gets them into a partially built condo to get out of LOS / elements, get some flats delivered.
29. Hunter checks credstick and gets value.
30. Spook rocking, holding the child, staring at Aswon. Consoled by Aswon and Hunter. "More than just a friend, you're family" Scroll back through messages, "told you it was an investment".
31. Checking the collar - R5 with anti tamper, detcord shaped charge. Tads - static aura? Aswon - oh no! no electricity, isolate it first. Kai - can we blast barrier? No. How about chemical affects? Not without harming spook.
32. Marius - ok, let me get my tools to work... Aswon holds her hand, Kai - can we shapechange her to get the collar off. YES! Transform to snake. Aswon gets a 25cm long bit of det cord from the collar, now the neck is not in the way.
33. Marius casually mentions Nadia spending a bunch of cash while Kai is feeling smug.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, that was a satisfying session to GM. It didn’t go quite as I’d planned / hoped, but it went well enough, and that’s as good as I can reasonably hope for.
We started off straight into the action with the door breach, and the skidded to a halt for diplomacy, enforced for at least a short time by the anchoring foci powered physical barrier. That gave just enough time for Tads to get a moment of smugness as the enemy mage bounced off her shields, and for Marius to get the drone into position, as well as the complete control over the slaves by the bad guys to be established. Kai started off with good negotiations, and gave the bad guy plenty of time to back down – none of which were taken of course. And nobody paid much attention to the slaves, or one slave in particular, which was all well and good.
Combat kicked off, and the mage was geeked first, in accordance with the ancient wisdom. A few quick rolls to check on the F6 spirits, and only one went free and hostile. One stayed as a neutral, and the others went home, so that was a pretty good result for the party. They did split the party of course, with some of them going up to the roof to take out the boss, while others stayed downstairs to deal with the henchmen and rescue the kid, so there was a little bit of back and forth between the two maps.
In terms of the combat, nothing much surprising happened, other than Shimazu going on a rescue mission first, leaving Kai to do the shooting – which pulled him right out of his comfort zone (not a bad thing!) and having to soak some incoming damage. It wasn’t much though, and some re-rolls and karma sorted that out – though the players did note that they were firing armour piercing rounds and made a definite note to secure that after the fight.
Using the seeds of the building being on fire and shaking / collapsing that had been sowed earlier, I could then ramp up the pressure to make the team get out quickly, giving them just time to loot the bodies and get their various rewards – Tads got a sustaining foci (useful) and an anchoring foci (less so, but tradeable) along with some elemental summoning materials (no good for her, but very easy to trade on). Kai got the credstick with the slavers money (which more than covers the fuel bill home), and they also got a good magazine’s worth of APDS for a heavy pistol, which is nice.
They also managed of course to get Spook and her son back, and then get off the building before it collapsed, evading (thanks to a 17 on a stealth roll and a F8 nature spirit concealing them) pursuit or observation.
As they were heading back, I thew in the phone call from Nadia, not sure if Marius would ‘take’ the call at that time. She covered off some inconsequential stuff, and some stuff that is setting up some future events – the corporate visit. Hopefully it came across nice and casual, and just as background fluff. And then I also dropped in the secret underground base idea. There were immediately OOC comments about needing palm trees to make it proper “Tracy Island”, which I thought was too good to pass up, and have added into the writeup. Trying to get an AI drawing of this proved tricky, as most of the time it insisted of putting tennis courts at the bottom of the secret hanger, with retractable helipads over the top – no matter how I tweaked the prompt! Something very strange going on there, but we got there in the end!
With Spook and kid safe, they can arrange a meeting with Grandfather Fan and let him know what’s going on, and they can find out about the collapse / destruction of the Walled City and the enormous loss of life there – which they’re not responsible for, but are tied up in, and he’ll suggest they may want to leave the city sooner rather than later, and will hopefully send them either home, or via the Huk resistance to report in, and then home.
Having sent out the writeup to each of the team as I normally do at the end of each week, I also sent Shimazu’s player, Tom, an extra email to outline the details of his characters sudden realisation at the end of the session :-
*****************************
Back in session 210, after the Horror threw the purple "death bolt" at Kai and you jumped in the way to intercept, and found your soul pulled out of your body and being transported away to a different realm...
As the bolt hit, his consciousness is pulled from his body, ripped out of the mortal flesh and pulled up, out and away. Like a rocket blasting off into space, his soul vaulted from his body, but instead of the world behind him, it was feelings and memories, visions of things from his past. Instead of the world behind him, he just saw a 'land' a featureless plain that stretched out in either direction to the horizon.
Ahead and below him was a chasm, a massive void that was just full of nothingness. It wasn't black - his eyes just couldn't see anything at all, and it made him feel strange to even look at it. Ahead of him was darkness, a blackness that makes his soul shrivel. The horror was holding on to him with tentacles leeching cold into his skin, barbs piercing his flesh and drawing out his life force as he was carried aloft.
Ahead of him, beyond the chasm he could see another land, full of more creatures like the horror, hungry and reaching out towards him. He couldn't see any detail ahead, but he could feel the nature of the place - a place without hope, love, empathy, compassion. No joy or pride, no happiness, not even contentment. It was as if the entire place was built out of only the negative emotions of humanity - hatred, fear, desperation, loathing, jealousy and rage. As he pulled away from the land and closer to the place across the chasm, he could feel pain - looking behind him he could see his life force unravelling behind him, stretching out towards the land, anchored to his memories, forming a bridge or conduit behind him.
More and more of him was being consumed the further they went, and you know that if you're pulled all the way over to the other side, only a tiny fraction of your soul will remain, linking the place of horrors to where you've come from. Something catches your eye as you gain altitude though - the place where you have come from is a small promontory, sticking out from the land on your side. A way over there is a much larger slab of rock sticking out, with strange energies swirling around it, and a single golden figure that stands guard, looking towards the other side. Just looking at the figure gives you a burst of hope, a feeling of warmth. When you look back at the land where you came from, you can see a bunch of figures climbing the bridge you're creating, charging towards you, clawing their way up the link you created to reach you.
Tentacles lash at them, striking some of them, driving into their souls and forcing them to slow, you can see them mutating and changing before you, moving to strike at their comrades and distract them - but then they suddenly fall from the bridge, disappearing into the void below. They reach you, forming a human chain - drawing you back, away from the horror, away from the darkness, back towards the feelings of light, warmth and life. Then you awaken in the circle, surrounded by the shaman and the rest of the team, screaming in agony as the last hold of the horror is ripped away from you as it catapults back, unable to grip you anymore
As you're laying on the concrete in Hong Kong, staring up at the sky, that scene flashes back through your mind, and you work out where you've seen that thing that leapt out of the window. It's a Horror - one of the horrors in the void, one of the things that was directing the critters building the bridge, trying to get across the void to reach the world. Maybe your mind had tried to block out the details of it's inhuman form and nature, but you remember it now, staring at your world with covertous eyes.
Your guess is that it found some other way to cross the void and get its hooks into people - and that level of control and madness would certainly explain why such complete scum, civilians, old people and children were driven into such a blood-frenzy to attack you,when they quite clearly had no hope of winning.
You don't of course have to explain this to the rest of the team, or be 100% honest or accurate - how and what you do with the information is completely up to you.
**********************************
I guess we’ll see what it is that Tom/Shimazu want to do with that information. Maybe he’ll share it now, realising that it’s “more important” and not just background flavour. Maybe he’ll keep the rest of the team in the dark. Up to him, but he’ll have to live with the consequences!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.33142, 114.18969, Time 12:30
2. Team stacked up on the door, Aswon booting it in...
3. Cages - 2 per cage, between 12 and 20 years old. Bodyguards in stiff suits.
4. "Ahh - our visitors have arrived. Hold your fire - for now. We've got plenty to discuss..." Team check transmitter in hand - short range.
5. Aswon move off to the left, Hunter to the right, Shimazu drop back to Kai. U shaped barrier goes up, solid.
6. Aswon to people in cages - you should lie down. "Oh no, you misunderstand, they're happy to be here..." slaves move in to position to shield him.
7. Hunter - can we find the mage? Subvocal. Kai - so what can we discuss. You're interfering with my operation - what does it take for you to go away. I was about the say the same, you have one of our people, we're happy to leave with our compatriot unharmed, no interfere. This one - she's required for my plans. That doesn't seem like a good negotiation point. Are you willing to discuss, or should we move on. You're not from round here, you should just leave, move on. This IS our business, we're international, you're interfered with us, you're outside your area, so why should we not. If something happens to me, something happens to her - waves transmitter. It's a risk of the business, she will understand that, we don't want it to happen, but things do happen.
8. Marius tries to get radio frequency - good rolls, but it doesn't find anything - sure it's not radio based. Aswon checking the barrier. Shimazu and Kai checking the bad guy and guards. calm and in control, position of strength. Kai - look, you're a businessman, got something of ours. We're going to get it back, people may die. We're going to go about our business. Its up to you." Shimazu - slaves are high on drugs, unconcerned.
9. "But I could cause you agonising pain"... Kai rolls, Tads knows a spell has spanged off. "I can cause you pain!" looks concerned, Kai soaks again - no result.
10. Kai - yes, this is very painful... <droll voice> Perception test for all in the room. Hunter and Kai pick up the glance towards the mage on the left of the room.
11. Kai - nice place you have here, shame if something happened to it. Now, tell your mage to drop the spell, and let us get our friend. Last chance
12. Fire elementals spawn in, 2nd barrier. Kai "kill your master" on far left fire elemental.
13. Marius - gunnery check on attacking the mage blindfire. Red mist from 50 cal 8 round burst
14. Fire elementals 2-5 FO. 6th flamethrowers but bounces off. Dais rises up to roof, with spook,
15. Aswon calls for fire in the corridor to work around the barrier. Marius obliges, Team collapse back out of the room. Kai - I did warn you!
16. Up onto the roof, Aswon and Hunter up first, Marius controlling the drone. Triad hiding behind Spook from drone. Marius using the drone to herd him in a direction.
17. Tads spots the kid in the back of one of the cages. Shimazu gives his revolver to Kai. "Cover me" says Shimazu, "Ok". Shimazu - attribute boost, strength to 12. Takes the barrier down. Tads swaps to resistance. Guard 3 shoots at Shimazu, one miss, one hit, Shimazu takes a light. 2nd guard shoots through the slaves, killing 2, Shimazu soaks and soaks. Kai fires at guard 3, does and S with magna rounds, does not catch fire, swaps to 2, takes an S and catches fire.
18. Hunter rushes up after Aswon tackles the triad guy, takes the hand off. He shrieks, Hunter goes for the belt - to use on the hand. Body turned to mush as Marius puts a 6 round burst through him. Tads leans around the corner to keep an eye on the elemental
19. Number 3 shoots back at Kai, one hit. Dodges with last combat pool. 2nd shot hits does 9S, no CP left. gets 2 on the soak, buys 2, takes an L
20. Slave window dives, Kai and Shimazu can see him, turns into a horror and falls. Last guy takes a distance strike to the face and dies
21. Kai to tads "I could command him to go free?" Tads, bad idea, could go mental. How about back to homeplane? Kai - what do you want? To fire elemental BURN! GO HOME! poof.
22. BGC has dropped to 0. Broadsword arrives, Marius turns it and puts ramp over the roof.
23. Kai searches the body - get the credstick. Aswon - checking the collar/spook. Shimazu hands the kid over to Kai/Tads. Heads to roof
24. Tads checks mage body for loot - gets anchoring foci, sustaining foci, 45 units of fire elemental summoning materials
25. Kai gets 14 rounds of APDS heavy pistol from the guards. Kai asks Tads to sterilise. Tads - what about the slaves? Kai - tell them they're free. Team quick discuss - naked, who do we give them to? Kai - get spook to sort it, she's good people.
26. As Marius gets to the roof, the tower shakes again with another explosion. Marius - marines we are leaving! Aswon straps in spook and baby. Tads starts to herd the slaves. Hunter throws the triad boss into the cess pit. Hunter spots the tunnel into the detritus. Hunter onto the ramp, building drops half a metre. Marius FO. Tads does a net on people in the back. Marius sees the tower alight - broadcasts to the back. Firefighting rolls - Hunter, can tell the building is a loss. One engine on scene, nowhere near enough. Marius 17 on stealth heading away, spots news choppers and drones, police turning up etc.
27. Get back to the building site. Nadia calls Marius - internal pickup. Chit chatting about home life, Marius Jr making a mess. She explains the plan for the helipad, Marius approves. Are you coming home soon? Explains about corporate booking. Anything you need, or shall I get on with my project.
28. Team get first aid / medic upped. Tads Prophylaxsis, to de-drug them? Shimazu chilling out and soaking drain. Kai - the slaves will take addiction penalties probably. Barbiturates / date rape drugs, need to be weaned off. Aswon gets them into a partially built condo to get out of LOS / elements, get some flats delivered.
29. Hunter checks credstick and gets value.
30. Spook rocking, holding the child, staring at Aswon. Consoled by Aswon and Hunter. "More than just a friend, you're family" Scroll back through messages, "told you it was an investment".
31. Checking the collar - R5 with anti tamper, detcord shaped charge. Tads - static aura? Aswon - oh no! no electricity, isolate it first. Kai - can we blast barrier? No. How about chemical affects? Not without harming spook.
32. Marius - ok, let me get my tools to work... Aswon holds her hand, Kai - can we shapechange her to get the collar off. YES! Transform to snake. Aswon gets a 25cm long bit of det cord from the collar, now the neck is not in the way.
33. Marius casually mentions Nadia spending a bunch of cash while Kai is feeling smug.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 308 is now published, bringing book 10 to a close!
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q4xv3u62fl8p...i7ernl&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, here we are, at the end of another “book”. Technically there’s no specific reason why it’s here – but we’re 275k written in this arc, and this does seem like a fitting end for this part of the campaign. They’ve just temporarily at least driven off a second horror, completed some missions, made some new friends, rescued a contact and now they can make it back home, where it’s all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.
Right?
Riiiighhhttt… if you believe that, you’re probably new here. Have a cookie.
So, we started off the session with the team at the building site – in a safe place, able to take stock of the situation. There was some spirited discussion about what to do with the slaves, and what their fate would be – and how much the team was willing to be responsible for them and their safety. In the end practicality won out, and it was agreed that a life of forced servitude was probably the best they could hope for, and that seemed reasonable enough.
Getting them to see Grandfather Fan served two purposes – the first being to let them know that Hong Kong was likely to get far too busy and interesting for them to hang around in, and that they should get out. Based on the estimates of 50k people living in the Kowloon Walled City in our timeline, before it was demolished, I figured there would be just as many in the SR timeline, all of them SINless and probably tied in with a huge amount of crime and corruption in the city – but no doubt tied with enough city officials to make doing something about it a nightmare. But having an external factor come in and nuke the place would massively upset the status quo, and lead to all of those people looking for a scapegoat.
The second of course, was to get them their guns that they needed to go back to Ruby with. As I wanted them back at their base to trigger the next bit of plot, I certainly didn’t want to throw any roadblocks in their way for getting the gear. As they’d already agreed to front the money for the guns to give to Ruby, and take the vampire silk payments on drip as they were processed, there’s no reason to hang about – and with Fan being the leader of a powerful Triad, getting hold of guns would be relatively easy for him to do – even in bulk.
So, getting the team to him, served both those purposes, and also let the team know that the Triad valued Spook, and seemingly a lot more than she realised. Aswon certainly picked up on that as wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing (always good from my perspective), but he’s now reasonably happy that she’s going to be looked after.
With that sorted, it was a case of getting them home. I made some rolls for each of the “legs” of the journey to see if there was anything that *should* happen (not that anything should of course, as I’m not going to let some weird random numbers disrupt the campaign. But I rolled in the dice channel, so the players thought they *might* get an encounter, and weren’t sure if the whole thing was planned or just unfolding naturally…)
As it happened through, each of the legs went smoothly, and they arrived back to the ranch to see a corporate chopper on the pad, and the scaffolding up for Nadia’s new project.
It was only when I was doing the writeup and checking my timezones, distances, flight times etc that I realised I’d over-estimated their travel time, and had to rein things back a little – so there’s some inconsistencies between when the notes say they got back, and the story. I don’t think anyone in the team is going to remember that though – as there were far more important things to concentrate on.
I figured that after a full day of being awake, and then a 10,000km flight, Marius should be pretty exhausted, and even the rest of the team were likely to be fatigued, having only caught catnaps or snoozes on the way, so I was happy enough to just do their entrance back to the ranch as a narrative flow, and then call a hard stop to the night, before they got a chance to react.
As we’d reached the end of the plot arc, they got a karma pool reset and some karma, so they may have some downtime spends and a quick training montage to fit in soon – as soon as they’ve dealt with their visitors of course.
This Tuesday coming I have a guest joining the channel to play the “suited corporate type”, holding Marius Junior – someone I think is a fantastic roleplayer. I’ve done a few pages of briefing notes for Mr “Hans Brackhaus”, and again I’m hoping that having a live person to RP with rather than the GM will spice things up for the players. It should also confirm that they’re more than likely dealing with Lofwyr, as it follows the similar pattern I’ve tried to establish with other dragon interactions.
At the end of the session, without even name dropping – just from having Marius’s parents show up with a random person, Aswon told me that if he introduces himself as Mr Brackhaus, he’s going to do unspeakable things – so I’m pretty sure he knows what’s coming. The player for Marius was not able to make the session – that’s one of the reasons I went for a hard stop there, to make sure the actual reactions to the situation are his, and not mine – so it’s going to be very interesting to see what goes on.
The other really big thing from this session was getting Shimazu to finally reveal what happened to him all the way back in episode 210. He’d decided not to share with the group, and kept the details to himself – so as a consequence, the details never got put into the writeup, so the other players didn’t know – and neither did anyone else.
But now the story is out, they have confirmation that the Horrors are going for it again, and it makes more sense that their encounter took place where it did – the site of the first, “little” ghost dance. But for a couple of the players, they now have information that will be key – the golden figure on the ruined bridge piece is Thayla – singing her song and driving the Horrors back, the end scene from the old run “Harlequins Back” – Lee (Marius) GM’d this, and both Jez (Aswon) and myself were players – so I *know* this will have meaning for those two, and the others will probably infer what’s going on, and that it’s important from their reactions – or they’ll just be told.
Hopefully this will clue them in that they’re now involved in “world shaking” plot – in some minor way, currently – but also in a “we’ve being doing this for years, and been feeling that stuff is going on, but now we actually have confirmation, and that’s good – but at the same time really, REALLY bad…”
That’s what I’m hoping anyway. Time will tell.
So, this week, a lovely little chat with Lofwyr, then maybe some downtime – and then we’re off to start some new fun and games! Hope you’re all still enjoying reading at the team’s exploits!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 13:30
2. Spook (serious) and child (moderate) safe, team all gathered at Broadsword. Clothes have arrived for the slaves via drone.
3. Aswon - signal jammer? Can we check over the slaves? Then call Fan. Hunter checks - they look clean.
4. Kai - no, first, Spook - what was that about? No, actually - Shimazu, what's going on with you?
5. Shimazu - place felt odd. Not 2 and 2 together until looking up into the smog filled sky. Asks for Mindlink. Seen that before - shares image of the beast jumping out the window. Place - no light, Hard to describe, there were more horrors, and some golden figures, and some got me out. But they were building a bridge.
6. Kai - like that creature that transformed? S - yeah, but they weren't running away. A - so you think this is a lesser horror, smaller than the one before. S - yes, smaller - but how many might have gotten over already. K - golden figures? A - think those were the shaman that did the ritual to go fetch him. Hunter - like a pathfinder or recon group. A - maybe an officer, directing the construction. K - what was the bridge made of? S - no idea. T - first one had to be in a high magic area to be active, it was constrained to a particular area. A - ahh yeah, this one seemed to be generating power or area around it. H - so do we report this to anyone? Is there a horror hunting group? I saw a tunnel through the garbage. And do we need to tell Spook about this, it's in her home town. T - its influence is likely to spread.
7. K - to spook. So what was that all about.
8. Tads starts to work around with Fix and heal on the team
9. Spook. Push to Fan's territory, overestimates my important to fan using me as a bargaining chip. Aswon - nobody got out of there who saw Spook - or us, except the horror.
10. Kai - is this coincidence - higher magic areas draw in weird creatures, or did the creature cause the corrupted mana? Aswon - maybe it's like a nomad, feeding off of making other people do stuff.
11. K - we've got some "guests" here, who were in close contact, maybe they know something. Goes to talk to slaves to try and get info.
12. They notice the slaves have jacks in weird places - like the armpit, places out of sight, not to mar their appearance. Hunter checks - more like chipjacks, they've probably been programmed. The slaves try to "perform" for Kai, and follow their programming. Kai - think we need to mind probe them, source of data, they might have seen things they don't even understand. Aswon - but how do we keep Tads safe, seeing the things they will have seen, from a first-person perspective.
13. K - Tads, are you willing to sift through this and see what they've seen. It might be really important, might be clues. Tads drops the mindlink and starts the mind probe. WP test for her, none RR, gets 1 14, 2nd RR, now 3 successes. Some details about the damage transfer, expanding evil empire. Confirm details of fire mage. Tads does Alter memory on herself to get rid of the really grim stuff. None of the slaves were speaking, beaten out of them. All the slaves clean and pure, no markings or tattoos.
14. Tads - do we follow it down the tunnels? sounds like a bad idea, but... Hunter - no the place is on fire! Pulls up news feed. Towers well alight, people jumping from balconies, terror. Only half the engines are fighting the fires. Ask Spook - all sinless, politicians want to destroy the place for years but can't, probably wanted to let them burn.
15. Hunter - do we need to report this to the scaly beast? Or his little sweeper helper? Aswon - no - they'll just tell us to deal with it...
16. Hunter - the scribe? Maybe? Aswon - report on magik net and wait for bounty hunters to arrive.
17. Spook asks Aswon to hold the kid, then goes to call Fan and report in.
18. Tads - what about the stuff from the drug lab. Work out they should be pretty straight after the rigours of combat.
19. Kai - thinking about personafix, Hunter - can you look for a charity that could fix them? Aswon, can we not just drop them off at a hospital? Tads - what stops them being abused or just moved on from there. Hunter - they're non-people, won't get fixed or taken in. Shimazu - psych angle, drug dependency, need to get them fixed over a period of months. Kai - spook, will Fan look after them in a humane way. Aswon - can he pfix over-ride them as basic workers. Have a life and work off their debt to him. Better to be labourers, and not wandering around as victims. Harsh and brutal, but it's the most noble thing we can probably do.
20. Hunter - free labour that will be loyal to him for the rest of their lives.
21. Spook agrees - can't leave them in the city, that's signing their death warrants. I can call and ask. Aswon - or do we ask how much this is to reprogram them to be ranchers and take them home? I'm not sure that's a good idea, but that's the only other alternative I can think of. Look to Kai...
22. Kai - yeah, I don't like it, but ask Fan for lenience, and a better level of slavery. Best we can do. We don't have the time and resources to deal with them. Don't like it, but best of bad options.
23. Tads - what about lung, Chinese? Kai - I think we've been paid in full for that job. Aswon - don't want to involve him if he is a dragon. So no.
24. Spook comes back - Fan says he wants to see us. All of us.
25. Marius goes to start the bird. Fly over to the casino, land on the helipad sticking out of the higher floors.
26. Han li waiting with goons. Drop the ramp. Get the slaves off. Han li hand on spooks shoulder and checks she is ok. Team very suspicious and assense / checks. Her is serious / concerned. Smug look at Kai, Konichi Wa. Kai responds in bad German and a slightly deeper bow. Send the slaves over there, they're to be noodle workers *shrug* I'd ask you to leave your weapons behind. Hunter turns around and goes back inside, as do most of the team. Shimazu gets a bandage to peace-bond his sword. Aswon "forgets" his ceramic knives. Goons getting manhandled by the slaves.
27. Taken in the back way to see Fan, same cabin. In to see Fan, what's going on - towers even more alight, more fire crews have stopped work now.
28. Team give a description of the other triad, but don't go into detail about the horror. Not lying, but omissions of detail.
29. Looks to Han Li, these people are an affront to our honour, they must be obliterated! Team HUH? No, not you. The BC triad. Team - phew. Team confirm the triad leader and 2 lts are both very definitely dead, as is the mage. "You've rescued Sing for me, and you have my gratitude, so we will look after those people for you, as requested. But I'd recommend you leave HK, as that's attracting lots of media attention. If you have no other business?"
30. Kai - we actually have some other business, but it was interrupted. Only a couple of kilometres, can we do that?"
31. Can you not do this over the comm? The government will be looking, and it's not anything worth trying to hide - not at this scale.
32. Tads prompts Kai about guns. Kai asks Fan, Fan - what kind of guns. Hunter steps in and describes.
33. Han Li steps in. Police academy port details. Talks to Hunter. Shows basic weapon details to Hunter. Hunter approves. Aswon has private reservations about the guns being tracked. 100 of each for 90k, including ammo. Team agrees. Back out and Han gives details of the meet at the port. You can get there whenever you like - I'd advise sooner rather than later. Kai - we'll go now then, please let them know. Thanks. Aswon hugs Spook and kid, and says to catch up with him later. Hunter nods.
34. Team head to the docks. 3km journey, 4 pallets worth of guns waiting. 1300km of fuel gone from the reserve tanks. Go Elunes bay, refuel, then drop off and go up to Dragon Ridge, Tafford, Ski Lift, Home. 9500km journey.
35. To Elunes Bay - no issues, see the Merrow, get fuel
36. To Ruby, drop off guns and ammo.
37. To Dragon Ridge, no issues
38. To Trafford, no issues.
39. To ski lift, no issues,
40. About 20 hours flying time, getting back Saturday 23rd about 2pm.
41. See the marshalling area as they come in to land, and the Bouygues corporate chopper on the pad. Land on hard-standing, check out the construction site, basic details. Then head into the ranch.
42. Into the room and see Marius Jr in the corp mans arms, Nadia, parents - she drops her tea and break the cup. Marius - "mom? Dad?"
43. Karma awards - Aswon 6, Hunter 15, Kai 16, Marius 15, Shimazu 15, Tads 15
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q4xv3u62fl8p...i7ernl&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, here we are, at the end of another “book”. Technically there’s no specific reason why it’s here – but we’re 275k written in this arc, and this does seem like a fitting end for this part of the campaign. They’ve just temporarily at least driven off a second horror, completed some missions, made some new friends, rescued a contact and now they can make it back home, where it’s all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.
Right?
Riiiighhhttt… if you believe that, you’re probably new here. Have a cookie.
So, we started off the session with the team at the building site – in a safe place, able to take stock of the situation. There was some spirited discussion about what to do with the slaves, and what their fate would be – and how much the team was willing to be responsible for them and their safety. In the end practicality won out, and it was agreed that a life of forced servitude was probably the best they could hope for, and that seemed reasonable enough.
Getting them to see Grandfather Fan served two purposes – the first being to let them know that Hong Kong was likely to get far too busy and interesting for them to hang around in, and that they should get out. Based on the estimates of 50k people living in the Kowloon Walled City in our timeline, before it was demolished, I figured there would be just as many in the SR timeline, all of them SINless and probably tied in with a huge amount of crime and corruption in the city – but no doubt tied with enough city officials to make doing something about it a nightmare. But having an external factor come in and nuke the place would massively upset the status quo, and lead to all of those people looking for a scapegoat.
The second of course, was to get them their guns that they needed to go back to Ruby with. As I wanted them back at their base to trigger the next bit of plot, I certainly didn’t want to throw any roadblocks in their way for getting the gear. As they’d already agreed to front the money for the guns to give to Ruby, and take the vampire silk payments on drip as they were processed, there’s no reason to hang about – and with Fan being the leader of a powerful Triad, getting hold of guns would be relatively easy for him to do – even in bulk.
So, getting the team to him, served both those purposes, and also let the team know that the Triad valued Spook, and seemingly a lot more than she realised. Aswon certainly picked up on that as wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing (always good from my perspective), but he’s now reasonably happy that she’s going to be looked after.
With that sorted, it was a case of getting them home. I made some rolls for each of the “legs” of the journey to see if there was anything that *should* happen (not that anything should of course, as I’m not going to let some weird random numbers disrupt the campaign. But I rolled in the dice channel, so the players thought they *might* get an encounter, and weren’t sure if the whole thing was planned or just unfolding naturally…)
As it happened through, each of the legs went smoothly, and they arrived back to the ranch to see a corporate chopper on the pad, and the scaffolding up for Nadia’s new project.
It was only when I was doing the writeup and checking my timezones, distances, flight times etc that I realised I’d over-estimated their travel time, and had to rein things back a little – so there’s some inconsistencies between when the notes say they got back, and the story. I don’t think anyone in the team is going to remember that though – as there were far more important things to concentrate on.
I figured that after a full day of being awake, and then a 10,000km flight, Marius should be pretty exhausted, and even the rest of the team were likely to be fatigued, having only caught catnaps or snoozes on the way, so I was happy enough to just do their entrance back to the ranch as a narrative flow, and then call a hard stop to the night, before they got a chance to react.
As we’d reached the end of the plot arc, they got a karma pool reset and some karma, so they may have some downtime spends and a quick training montage to fit in soon – as soon as they’ve dealt with their visitors of course.
This Tuesday coming I have a guest joining the channel to play the “suited corporate type”, holding Marius Junior – someone I think is a fantastic roleplayer. I’ve done a few pages of briefing notes for Mr “Hans Brackhaus”, and again I’m hoping that having a live person to RP with rather than the GM will spice things up for the players. It should also confirm that they’re more than likely dealing with Lofwyr, as it follows the similar pattern I’ve tried to establish with other dragon interactions.
At the end of the session, without even name dropping – just from having Marius’s parents show up with a random person, Aswon told me that if he introduces himself as Mr Brackhaus, he’s going to do unspeakable things – so I’m pretty sure he knows what’s coming. The player for Marius was not able to make the session – that’s one of the reasons I went for a hard stop there, to make sure the actual reactions to the situation are his, and not mine – so it’s going to be very interesting to see what goes on.
The other really big thing from this session was getting Shimazu to finally reveal what happened to him all the way back in episode 210. He’d decided not to share with the group, and kept the details to himself – so as a consequence, the details never got put into the writeup, so the other players didn’t know – and neither did anyone else.
But now the story is out, they have confirmation that the Horrors are going for it again, and it makes more sense that their encounter took place where it did – the site of the first, “little” ghost dance. But for a couple of the players, they now have information that will be key – the golden figure on the ruined bridge piece is Thayla – singing her song and driving the Horrors back, the end scene from the old run “Harlequins Back” – Lee (Marius) GM’d this, and both Jez (Aswon) and myself were players – so I *know* this will have meaning for those two, and the others will probably infer what’s going on, and that it’s important from their reactions – or they’ll just be told.
Hopefully this will clue them in that they’re now involved in “world shaking” plot – in some minor way, currently – but also in a “we’ve being doing this for years, and been feeling that stuff is going on, but now we actually have confirmation, and that’s good – but at the same time really, REALLY bad…”
That’s what I’m hoping anyway. Time will tell.
So, this week, a lovely little chat with Lofwyr, then maybe some downtime – and then we’re off to start some new fun and games! Hope you’re all still enjoying reading at the team’s exploits!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.32964, 114.23163, Time 13:30
2. Spook (serious) and child (moderate) safe, team all gathered at Broadsword. Clothes have arrived for the slaves via drone.
3. Aswon - signal jammer? Can we check over the slaves? Then call Fan. Hunter checks - they look clean.
4. Kai - no, first, Spook - what was that about? No, actually - Shimazu, what's going on with you?
5. Shimazu - place felt odd. Not 2 and 2 together until looking up into the smog filled sky. Asks for Mindlink. Seen that before - shares image of the beast jumping out the window. Place - no light, Hard to describe, there were more horrors, and some golden figures, and some got me out. But they were building a bridge.
6. Kai - like that creature that transformed? S - yeah, but they weren't running away. A - so you think this is a lesser horror, smaller than the one before. S - yes, smaller - but how many might have gotten over already. K - golden figures? A - think those were the shaman that did the ritual to go fetch him. Hunter - like a pathfinder or recon group. A - maybe an officer, directing the construction. K - what was the bridge made of? S - no idea. T - first one had to be in a high magic area to be active, it was constrained to a particular area. A - ahh yeah, this one seemed to be generating power or area around it. H - so do we report this to anyone? Is there a horror hunting group? I saw a tunnel through the garbage. And do we need to tell Spook about this, it's in her home town. T - its influence is likely to spread.
7. K - to spook. So what was that all about.
8. Tads starts to work around with Fix and heal on the team
9. Spook. Push to Fan's territory, overestimates my important to fan using me as a bargaining chip. Aswon - nobody got out of there who saw Spook - or us, except the horror.
10. Kai - is this coincidence - higher magic areas draw in weird creatures, or did the creature cause the corrupted mana? Aswon - maybe it's like a nomad, feeding off of making other people do stuff.
11. K - we've got some "guests" here, who were in close contact, maybe they know something. Goes to talk to slaves to try and get info.
12. They notice the slaves have jacks in weird places - like the armpit, places out of sight, not to mar their appearance. Hunter checks - more like chipjacks, they've probably been programmed. The slaves try to "perform" for Kai, and follow their programming. Kai - think we need to mind probe them, source of data, they might have seen things they don't even understand. Aswon - but how do we keep Tads safe, seeing the things they will have seen, from a first-person perspective.
13. K - Tads, are you willing to sift through this and see what they've seen. It might be really important, might be clues. Tads drops the mindlink and starts the mind probe. WP test for her, none RR, gets 1 14, 2nd RR, now 3 successes. Some details about the damage transfer, expanding evil empire. Confirm details of fire mage. Tads does Alter memory on herself to get rid of the really grim stuff. None of the slaves were speaking, beaten out of them. All the slaves clean and pure, no markings or tattoos.
14. Tads - do we follow it down the tunnels? sounds like a bad idea, but... Hunter - no the place is on fire! Pulls up news feed. Towers well alight, people jumping from balconies, terror. Only half the engines are fighting the fires. Ask Spook - all sinless, politicians want to destroy the place for years but can't, probably wanted to let them burn.
15. Hunter - do we need to report this to the scaly beast? Or his little sweeper helper? Aswon - no - they'll just tell us to deal with it...
16. Hunter - the scribe? Maybe? Aswon - report on magik net and wait for bounty hunters to arrive.
17. Spook asks Aswon to hold the kid, then goes to call Fan and report in.
18. Tads - what about the stuff from the drug lab. Work out they should be pretty straight after the rigours of combat.
19. Kai - thinking about personafix, Hunter - can you look for a charity that could fix them? Aswon, can we not just drop them off at a hospital? Tads - what stops them being abused or just moved on from there. Hunter - they're non-people, won't get fixed or taken in. Shimazu - psych angle, drug dependency, need to get them fixed over a period of months. Kai - spook, will Fan look after them in a humane way. Aswon - can he pfix over-ride them as basic workers. Have a life and work off their debt to him. Better to be labourers, and not wandering around as victims. Harsh and brutal, but it's the most noble thing we can probably do.
20. Hunter - free labour that will be loyal to him for the rest of their lives.
21. Spook agrees - can't leave them in the city, that's signing their death warrants. I can call and ask. Aswon - or do we ask how much this is to reprogram them to be ranchers and take them home? I'm not sure that's a good idea, but that's the only other alternative I can think of. Look to Kai...
22. Kai - yeah, I don't like it, but ask Fan for lenience, and a better level of slavery. Best we can do. We don't have the time and resources to deal with them. Don't like it, but best of bad options.
23. Tads - what about lung, Chinese? Kai - I think we've been paid in full for that job. Aswon - don't want to involve him if he is a dragon. So no.
24. Spook comes back - Fan says he wants to see us. All of us.
25. Marius goes to start the bird. Fly over to the casino, land on the helipad sticking out of the higher floors.
26. Han li waiting with goons. Drop the ramp. Get the slaves off. Han li hand on spooks shoulder and checks she is ok. Team very suspicious and assense / checks. Her is serious / concerned. Smug look at Kai, Konichi Wa. Kai responds in bad German and a slightly deeper bow. Send the slaves over there, they're to be noodle workers *shrug* I'd ask you to leave your weapons behind. Hunter turns around and goes back inside, as do most of the team. Shimazu gets a bandage to peace-bond his sword. Aswon "forgets" his ceramic knives. Goons getting manhandled by the slaves.
27. Taken in the back way to see Fan, same cabin. In to see Fan, what's going on - towers even more alight, more fire crews have stopped work now.
28. Team give a description of the other triad, but don't go into detail about the horror. Not lying, but omissions of detail.
29. Looks to Han Li, these people are an affront to our honour, they must be obliterated! Team HUH? No, not you. The BC triad. Team - phew. Team confirm the triad leader and 2 lts are both very definitely dead, as is the mage. "You've rescued Sing for me, and you have my gratitude, so we will look after those people for you, as requested. But I'd recommend you leave HK, as that's attracting lots of media attention. If you have no other business?"
30. Kai - we actually have some other business, but it was interrupted. Only a couple of kilometres, can we do that?"
31. Can you not do this over the comm? The government will be looking, and it's not anything worth trying to hide - not at this scale.
32. Tads prompts Kai about guns. Kai asks Fan, Fan - what kind of guns. Hunter steps in and describes.
33. Han Li steps in. Police academy port details. Talks to Hunter. Shows basic weapon details to Hunter. Hunter approves. Aswon has private reservations about the guns being tracked. 100 of each for 90k, including ammo. Team agrees. Back out and Han gives details of the meet at the port. You can get there whenever you like - I'd advise sooner rather than later. Kai - we'll go now then, please let them know. Thanks. Aswon hugs Spook and kid, and says to catch up with him later. Hunter nods.
34. Team head to the docks. 3km journey, 4 pallets worth of guns waiting. 1300km of fuel gone from the reserve tanks. Go Elunes bay, refuel, then drop off and go up to Dragon Ridge, Tafford, Ski Lift, Home. 9500km journey.
35. To Elunes Bay - no issues, see the Merrow, get fuel
36. To Ruby, drop off guns and ammo.
37. To Dragon Ridge, no issues
38. To Trafford, no issues.
39. To ski lift, no issues,
40. About 20 hours flying time, getting back Saturday 23rd about 2pm.
41. See the marshalling area as they come in to land, and the Bouygues corporate chopper on the pad. Land on hard-standing, check out the construction site, basic details. Then head into the ranch.
42. Into the room and see Marius Jr in the corp mans arms, Nadia, parents - she drops her tea and break the cup. Marius - "mom? Dad?"
43. Karma awards - Aswon 6, Hunter 15, Kai 16, Marius 15, Shimazu 15, Tads 15
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 309 is now published, starting book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well hello there…
And here we are at the start of book 11, starting off with a new series of plot arcs and pushing the general plot line forward for the whole campaign.
As I was introducing a major NPC with this one, I once again reached out to one of my Live Roleplay friends, getting someone in to come and play them for me. I’d arranged this several weeks ago, and then tried my best to get us to a good stopping point at the end of last week – which might explain why their journey back from Hong Kong was so quick – and quiet! However, that meant we could stop on the “cliffhanger” ending of the strange man in a suit holding the baby, and then pick things up this week.
So, once we got everyone online, I could give my friend a quick ping on a side channel, and then he joined the Discord game channel – and bless him, he’d even gotten changed into a suit and tie to improve the ambience! I think most of my players at least know of the person I’d roped in, and several of them had role-played with him at some point in the past – so there was immediate recognition from most of them! But of course, they still have no firm idea of who it was. Well, mostly. Aswon I think had guessed, just based on the background and the way we were steering. I wonder if he wished he’d been wrong?
But anyway – off we went. I’d provided a briefing document for David the NPC, outlining the details of Hans Brackhaus / Lofwyr, what the players have been up to, where the campaign is going and the specific things I’d like him to cover. I didn’t however provide any more than that – that’s where the bonus of having lots of LARP buddies comes in, in that I was entirely happy to just trust him and let him just roll with things.
I’m sure I’ve covered this before – but it was a very long time ago, and some people may not have been around then, or have read it. So – why do this? Why give up the tight control over how the NPC reacts, and let someone in to come and play?
Well, for me, I’m hoping that it achieves something very specific with the players. It provides them with a live NPC, someone different from the normal GM, someone that will add interest to the gaming group by slightly disrupting the normal flow back and forth, making them sit up and pay attention. It brings in a new voice, a new style – a new twist on the RP, that’s different to what I bring to the table. It also, in the back of their minds, lets them know that because the NPC is *not* the GM, that they can’t rely on the GM just doing things the normal way, or relying on past events to shape the current situation. That they can’t rely on their knowledge of me and how I react to predict or control the flow of the conversation. It’s a real, live person, who is putting their own spin on the NPCs wants and needs, and they need to negotiate and discuss with them and make sure it’s effective – as the other person isn’t going to cut them any particular slack.
As it turns out, we had what felt to me like a great session. The conversation between the players and the NPC went on for pretty much the entire game session, with Dave taking a bit of time away from the screen halfway through to let the players strategise (I’m sure he was still listening in, and using what he heard to shape the second half of the conversation).
Did it go quite how I expected it to? No. But that’s also part of the fun – now the players *still* aren’t sure if this was Lofwyr or not, but even if it was, they’re on edge because of how he was portrayed, and are trying to work out exactly what it is that he wants, what’s the bigger picture – and in what way is he fucking them over. Because that’s about the only thing they are sure on – that someone’s getting the cock, there’s no lube, and they’ve just been told to bend over!
There’s probably a “training montage” coming next week for at least some of the session, as there are several players wanting to do initiations and skill improvements, or attribute raises, as well as the work on the Thunderbirds style secret base – but hopefully we’ll get that all done and dusted and crack on with the next mission.
They’ll get a reminder about the mission to Paris to do the sabotage (which is very definitely not what they think it is – but I want them to discover that on their own!) and there’s another Comet related mission to do – this time hunting down a team trying to sabotage a launch facility. And of course we’ve still got SURGE and the Comet stuff to come, as well as some really big world events later in the year!
As ever, if anyone has comments or feedback, thoughts or opinions, you’re welcome to post them and I’ll try to answer. And if you have awesome or particularly cruel and intriguing things to throw at the team – feel free to throw them over and we’ll see if we can fit them in!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 23/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 08:00
2. Discussion in the ranch
3. Welcome - but it your house. But quiet - Marius Jr is sleeping. M - and you are? Brackhaus, thank you for letting me in your wonderful home.
4. M - not sure I had anything to do with it. B - well, ranch, good place to rest, bring up the little one. Aswon - why don't you get everyone drinks? A - huh? Oh, ok.
5. B - holding the child carefully, they're so very fragile - offers to Marius, who takes it.
6. B - very proud of your son, made the ultimate sacrifice to serve the corp, you lost a son but he lost a whole family, but then got a new one. L - but you and your family are going to be very well rewarded. Parents look at Nadia, put two and two together. Marius explains, Nadia looks pissed
7. B - please forgive me, totally believe in family, wanted to reunite you all, make sure everyone understand the stakes, lives are on the line.
8. Marius makes sure everyone has a drink "Ok Mr B, cards on the table. B - pats pockets theatricaly. Sorry, no cards to play - more of a dice man. Rolling a dice coming here. You've been making quite a name for yourself. Wanted to come and check on things. You've made a beautiful family, and you've all banded together for whatever reason. But I've come here to find out if YOU need anything. Wanted to come and show my sincerity.
9. Tads - I'm willing to enter into discussions for resource, no idea how Id pay for it. Marius - deathstare at Tads.
10. B - but hero of the Russian federation? How could I say no?
11. Tads - can I share this info? Marius, you're out of your mind. B - I understand this is making some of you uncomfortable - though some of you are cool as cucumbers - I could leave the room if you want. Tads - nasty magical things. B - nasty magical things? Terrible...
12. Marius asks Brackhaus to talk a walk with him. There may be people out and about I'd ask them to keep back, they're somewhat skittish when I'm outside.
13. Kai checking Marius for signs to attack - none given, still holding Marius Jr. Leave to go for a walk.
14. Aswon - all the families are here, be careful, don't want to get anyone killed. Assense - he's just a dude.
15. Tads - is there something more here? Aswon - used to work for SK, Johnson for the corp, very dangerous.
16. Marius+B leave, Marius hands off Junior on the way out. "Say hello to my parents, back in a few". M - ok Mr B, why are you here, really, what do you want?
17. Marius - you must understand, this offer is a genuine one. Shall we go to the elemental grove, such a nice place, makes me feel alive. You're in a position right now to load the dice, choose when they roll. I'm in a position to help you. I'm here to help you understand, that you're valued, that what you do is something we try to make better. We can help, SK can be a good supporting ally, and you're not getting any younger. and you have mouths to feed. Nappy question.
18. I leave that to Nadia, I’m not here that often.
19. Is this in regards to certain vile entities that keep crossing our paths? Or is this relating to your boss?
20. You must understand the things coming from outside, trying to destabilise things, which my...our employer are trying to sort. Oh, you're not even off the payroll. But those things are concerning to SK. What you're doing is good for all, and that's good for business. Our business is humanity after all, and we're here to help.
21. Even if I believe for a minute that's a genuine offer, and remember I've seen some of the inner workings of SK, but you've also got a track record of cleaning house when things are no longer useful.
22. Let's talk about some projects you've destabilised - mountain in Nigeria, Internet sensation for abuse of testicles.
23. I'm just a pilot
24. But you're also a father, a husband, a son - they all have responsibilities. Don't you want to make this a better world - SK does.
25. I believe you and your boss want to do things good for business, and yes SK resources are incredible. But my concerns, tried to get out under your thumb once, but have to be confident I wont' get dragged back in kicking and screaming.
26. You have to understand you tried to leave, go getting spirit, we like that - initiative. But we're fine with that. But you're a corporate man - wife, child, parents - card carrying SK employees. But you have to understand if you get caught, it could get bad for the others - not a threat, just a statement of fact. Others may join the dots and threaten. But I'll protect them as best I can, as if they're my own family. But we're just here to support you - a friendly voice on the other end of the phone, able to help - probably.
27. So other than those entities, which seem to dog us, at every turn. What about your employers - peers...
28. We're here for the species, this whole jewel floating through space - only one we have, right now. Your heart is in the right place, right?
29. Aswon spots the guards, and the sniper up on the hill in astral with a 35. He and Hunter spot the obvious guards.
30. Marius - so, if I assume this is a legit offer of help from SK, dealing with the horrors, and we're other free to operate as free agents, and you will be a discrete eye on the family if something happens to me - is that the extent of what's on the table. There's no turning people into SK assets
31. We're more of a hands off operation right now. So you're as far into the corporate maze as we need - we don't want to put the SK logo on you in neon. We appreciate you have principles, and we also value that.
32. ok if you give me your solemn word that you're happy with what we do, and this is a genuine offer of help with no strings - I'll recommend it to the team. But if there's strings, you know I wont' take it and you're better just getting back on the chopper.
33. You have to understand I'll agree, and you won't trust me, but let's just shake hands on this and walk away.
34. Your wife trusted me to hold your child, you should trust me too... Marius face like lemons. Marius - fine, lots go drink coffee. Firm handshake - you won't regret this, it's great having you back in the family. My strudel may be burning - we should get back.
35. Aswon watches guards, checks on the family. Hunter gives Marius a "look".
36. Oh Kai - you've got clean hands, can you help me with the strudel?
37. Hunter to Marius -internal, you have a look on your face. Sigh, need to take it on face value
38. L - pulls out large knife. I appreciate you want to discuss this. Marius might be comeing back to a cubicle, we have dental.
39. T - if you think cubicle, you might not know Marius
40. L - depends on the cubicle - and at least it's not a gulag. But I'll step out to give you some privacy. Don't worry, I have my own guards, nothing will happen to me - so you don't need to worry about that Shimazu. And Marius has squeezed me almost as much as Hunter squeezed - other things. Marius - resigned, ok.
41. Aswon - so what have you signed us up for Marius? M - he's telling me he's on the level, and because of what we've been doing with the horrors, they'll leave us alone and support us. Hunter - are they jealous because Ares are helping us and they want to play too? Marius - I don't know all the ins and outs. He's implying - not saying - but implying, that they're happy with what we're doing, so they'll help rather than squashing us like bugs
42. A - other than turning up and showing they could
43. M - as to who he is, I don't know - he wanted to walk through the gardens, claims not to be a practitioner. A - tight aura, mundane - but that's not anything I trust. But can we not tell him to job on, we already have 2-4 scaly buggers we're regarded as pets for. Don't want to add any more.
44. Marius - but he knows about the wife, son, parents, leverage over sisters as well. A - do we have to ask for things.
45. M - it seems they're happy with deniable assets fighting the good fight. A - we've got a track record for running into weird shit, but we're smugglers!
46. M - just how bad are these things. A - we know several dragons are interested in these things. We know some dragons are interested, some weird elves. People more important than us think they're a big problem.
47. M - I thought so - that's what makes me thinks in this regard - he might be on the level. A - but what's the price. Family stuff.
48. H - most blatant veiled threat - bringing your parents here.
49. Marius - we're fucked in every single direction. So I'm on the hook. T if we're screwed every way, why not take them for whatever we can get? M - I suppose so. These people don't take no for an answer very well. Shimazu - feels he is very self-assured. Kai happy to go with Marius. But we're not gonna forget him coming in and swinging his balls around in our house. Maris - don't know who/what he is. Could be a man, expendable. or a drake. Or someone high up - or even Lofwyr. Tads - doesn't matter what he actually is, he has access to that level of power, treat him like he is. Kai - fine, but I don't like him, or his approach. But go with it for now.
50. Marius - I don't like it either. But he's here, now, and we can't tell him to frak off without risk. Tads - he'll have links for ritual tracking, by now - if they've been here for a while. Aswon - oh yeah.
51. Marius - if he wants to hurt us, details the capabilities of SK, could cruise missile Aswon's village to hurt him, instead of ritual tracking. Aswon - sure, but we have to have some rules.
52. Kai - we need a guarantee that they'll support us when we need it.
53. Mr Brackhaus comes back in. "Did you try the strudel." Ok, you've had your discussion, you don't want me here any longer than you need, what would you like? Anything?
54. Kai mutters under his breath and looks stressed. Marius will negotiate for us.
55. Marius - REALLY?> I'm frakking exhausted. Kai - I've told you what we need, what I want. When it's necessary. We're not greedy. But you can sort it.
56. B - we're not going to load you down with tech, you live on the edge, you'd not trust it. Going to give you a code for the net, a radio frequency, a cell number. You ask for something, if I can deliver it - we will. If we say no, it's not because of the cost, or you're in our bad books - it's because we can't get it to you.
57. 2nd thing - unless you want to hear from me - you won't. If you get an SK tail, it's not because of us - it's because you've messed up somehow. If you end up duking it out with SK employees, try not to kill them, please. Testicles - they're expensive to put back on? Shoot to wound? If you're going into one of our facilities, we're going to assume you're on a bigger picture mission - but leave my people alone when you can. I'm going NOT going to promise not to come back here, or the parent’s apartment - because I've done that in the past, not been able to stop wet work teams. Anything else?
58. Kai - I believe we're good. B - any questions? Tads - yes! Ok, we'll get some comms codes. Tads asks for a magical consultation. B - so what exactly do you want. Tads - info about the horrors. B - you want a dossier on external threats. I don't have one on me, but I'll get something over to you. Either over the matrix - or we can do something face to face, if you're comfortable with that. Tads - nods agreement. B - remember - you're on the cutting edge of this though, so we'll have to see.
59. B - anything else? No. Well, it's been great to meet you all face to face, and thanks for letting me in your house. Can I send a gift basket? No? Ok, goodbye!
60. Chopper leaves and heads towards Baku. Tads - how do the parents get home? M - well, we're not dodging SK it seems, so we could take them.
61. Marius finds his parents and Nadia having an awkward conversation. Tads "rescues" Nadia - who is very grateful. Goes outside to check digging.
62. Marius has heart to heart with his family and catch up with gossip. Marius gives them some details about flying and faking his death, and some dodgy stuff, being a POW and sticking with the team rather than go back to his old life, and not going back - as it would put them at risk. ASk him about the skin - it's just some upgrades. But does have some protective qualities.
63. Tads checks with Nadia and checks the equipment, and they find the link between Bouygues and SK.
64. General grumbling about SK and the megacorps, and having to scan the bird and the house and all the grounds, EVERYTHING...
65. Kai starts carving "Brackhaus" into a normal, plain arrow.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well hello there…
And here we are at the start of book 11, starting off with a new series of plot arcs and pushing the general plot line forward for the whole campaign.
As I was introducing a major NPC with this one, I once again reached out to one of my Live Roleplay friends, getting someone in to come and play them for me. I’d arranged this several weeks ago, and then tried my best to get us to a good stopping point at the end of last week – which might explain why their journey back from Hong Kong was so quick – and quiet! However, that meant we could stop on the “cliffhanger” ending of the strange man in a suit holding the baby, and then pick things up this week.
So, once we got everyone online, I could give my friend a quick ping on a side channel, and then he joined the Discord game channel – and bless him, he’d even gotten changed into a suit and tie to improve the ambience! I think most of my players at least know of the person I’d roped in, and several of them had role-played with him at some point in the past – so there was immediate recognition from most of them! But of course, they still have no firm idea of who it was. Well, mostly. Aswon I think had guessed, just based on the background and the way we were steering. I wonder if he wished he’d been wrong?
But anyway – off we went. I’d provided a briefing document for David the NPC, outlining the details of Hans Brackhaus / Lofwyr, what the players have been up to, where the campaign is going and the specific things I’d like him to cover. I didn’t however provide any more than that – that’s where the bonus of having lots of LARP buddies comes in, in that I was entirely happy to just trust him and let him just roll with things.
I’m sure I’ve covered this before – but it was a very long time ago, and some people may not have been around then, or have read it. So – why do this? Why give up the tight control over how the NPC reacts, and let someone in to come and play?
Well, for me, I’m hoping that it achieves something very specific with the players. It provides them with a live NPC, someone different from the normal GM, someone that will add interest to the gaming group by slightly disrupting the normal flow back and forth, making them sit up and pay attention. It brings in a new voice, a new style – a new twist on the RP, that’s different to what I bring to the table. It also, in the back of their minds, lets them know that because the NPC is *not* the GM, that they can’t rely on the GM just doing things the normal way, or relying on past events to shape the current situation. That they can’t rely on their knowledge of me and how I react to predict or control the flow of the conversation. It’s a real, live person, who is putting their own spin on the NPCs wants and needs, and they need to negotiate and discuss with them and make sure it’s effective – as the other person isn’t going to cut them any particular slack.
As it turns out, we had what felt to me like a great session. The conversation between the players and the NPC went on for pretty much the entire game session, with Dave taking a bit of time away from the screen halfway through to let the players strategise (I’m sure he was still listening in, and using what he heard to shape the second half of the conversation).
Did it go quite how I expected it to? No. But that’s also part of the fun – now the players *still* aren’t sure if this was Lofwyr or not, but even if it was, they’re on edge because of how he was portrayed, and are trying to work out exactly what it is that he wants, what’s the bigger picture – and in what way is he fucking them over. Because that’s about the only thing they are sure on – that someone’s getting the cock, there’s no lube, and they’ve just been told to bend over!
There’s probably a “training montage” coming next week for at least some of the session, as there are several players wanting to do initiations and skill improvements, or attribute raises, as well as the work on the Thunderbirds style secret base – but hopefully we’ll get that all done and dusted and crack on with the next mission.
They’ll get a reminder about the mission to Paris to do the sabotage (which is very definitely not what they think it is – but I want them to discover that on their own!) and there’s another Comet related mission to do – this time hunting down a team trying to sabotage a launch facility. And of course we’ve still got SURGE and the Comet stuff to come, as well as some really big world events later in the year!
As ever, if anyone has comments or feedback, thoughts or opinions, you’re welcome to post them and I’ll try to answer. And if you have awesome or particularly cruel and intriguing things to throw at the team – feel free to throw them over and we’ll see if we can fit them in!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 23/07/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 08:00
2. Discussion in the ranch
3. Welcome - but it your house. But quiet - Marius Jr is sleeping. M - and you are? Brackhaus, thank you for letting me in your wonderful home.
4. M - not sure I had anything to do with it. B - well, ranch, good place to rest, bring up the little one. Aswon - why don't you get everyone drinks? A - huh? Oh, ok.
5. B - holding the child carefully, they're so very fragile - offers to Marius, who takes it.
6. B - very proud of your son, made the ultimate sacrifice to serve the corp, you lost a son but he lost a whole family, but then got a new one. L - but you and your family are going to be very well rewarded. Parents look at Nadia, put two and two together. Marius explains, Nadia looks pissed
7. B - please forgive me, totally believe in family, wanted to reunite you all, make sure everyone understand the stakes, lives are on the line.
8. Marius makes sure everyone has a drink "Ok Mr B, cards on the table. B - pats pockets theatricaly. Sorry, no cards to play - more of a dice man. Rolling a dice coming here. You've been making quite a name for yourself. Wanted to come and check on things. You've made a beautiful family, and you've all banded together for whatever reason. But I've come here to find out if YOU need anything. Wanted to come and show my sincerity.
9. Tads - I'm willing to enter into discussions for resource, no idea how Id pay for it. Marius - deathstare at Tads.
10. B - but hero of the Russian federation? How could I say no?
11. Tads - can I share this info? Marius, you're out of your mind. B - I understand this is making some of you uncomfortable - though some of you are cool as cucumbers - I could leave the room if you want. Tads - nasty magical things. B - nasty magical things? Terrible...
12. Marius asks Brackhaus to talk a walk with him. There may be people out and about I'd ask them to keep back, they're somewhat skittish when I'm outside.
13. Kai checking Marius for signs to attack - none given, still holding Marius Jr. Leave to go for a walk.
14. Aswon - all the families are here, be careful, don't want to get anyone killed. Assense - he's just a dude.
15. Tads - is there something more here? Aswon - used to work for SK, Johnson for the corp, very dangerous.
16. Marius+B leave, Marius hands off Junior on the way out. "Say hello to my parents, back in a few". M - ok Mr B, why are you here, really, what do you want?
17. Marius - you must understand, this offer is a genuine one. Shall we go to the elemental grove, such a nice place, makes me feel alive. You're in a position right now to load the dice, choose when they roll. I'm in a position to help you. I'm here to help you understand, that you're valued, that what you do is something we try to make better. We can help, SK can be a good supporting ally, and you're not getting any younger. and you have mouths to feed. Nappy question.
18. I leave that to Nadia, I’m not here that often.
19. Is this in regards to certain vile entities that keep crossing our paths? Or is this relating to your boss?
20. You must understand the things coming from outside, trying to destabilise things, which my...our employer are trying to sort. Oh, you're not even off the payroll. But those things are concerning to SK. What you're doing is good for all, and that's good for business. Our business is humanity after all, and we're here to help.
21. Even if I believe for a minute that's a genuine offer, and remember I've seen some of the inner workings of SK, but you've also got a track record of cleaning house when things are no longer useful.
22. Let's talk about some projects you've destabilised - mountain in Nigeria, Internet sensation for abuse of testicles.
23. I'm just a pilot
24. But you're also a father, a husband, a son - they all have responsibilities. Don't you want to make this a better world - SK does.
25. I believe you and your boss want to do things good for business, and yes SK resources are incredible. But my concerns, tried to get out under your thumb once, but have to be confident I wont' get dragged back in kicking and screaming.
26. You have to understand you tried to leave, go getting spirit, we like that - initiative. But we're fine with that. But you're a corporate man - wife, child, parents - card carrying SK employees. But you have to understand if you get caught, it could get bad for the others - not a threat, just a statement of fact. Others may join the dots and threaten. But I'll protect them as best I can, as if they're my own family. But we're just here to support you - a friendly voice on the other end of the phone, able to help - probably.
27. So other than those entities, which seem to dog us, at every turn. What about your employers - peers...
28. We're here for the species, this whole jewel floating through space - only one we have, right now. Your heart is in the right place, right?
29. Aswon spots the guards, and the sniper up on the hill in astral with a 35. He and Hunter spot the obvious guards.
30. Marius - so, if I assume this is a legit offer of help from SK, dealing with the horrors, and we're other free to operate as free agents, and you will be a discrete eye on the family if something happens to me - is that the extent of what's on the table. There's no turning people into SK assets
31. We're more of a hands off operation right now. So you're as far into the corporate maze as we need - we don't want to put the SK logo on you in neon. We appreciate you have principles, and we also value that.
32. ok if you give me your solemn word that you're happy with what we do, and this is a genuine offer of help with no strings - I'll recommend it to the team. But if there's strings, you know I wont' take it and you're better just getting back on the chopper.
33. You have to understand I'll agree, and you won't trust me, but let's just shake hands on this and walk away.
34. Your wife trusted me to hold your child, you should trust me too... Marius face like lemons. Marius - fine, lots go drink coffee. Firm handshake - you won't regret this, it's great having you back in the family. My strudel may be burning - we should get back.
35. Aswon watches guards, checks on the family. Hunter gives Marius a "look".
36. Oh Kai - you've got clean hands, can you help me with the strudel?
37. Hunter to Marius -internal, you have a look on your face. Sigh, need to take it on face value
38. L - pulls out large knife. I appreciate you want to discuss this. Marius might be comeing back to a cubicle, we have dental.
39. T - if you think cubicle, you might not know Marius
40. L - depends on the cubicle - and at least it's not a gulag. But I'll step out to give you some privacy. Don't worry, I have my own guards, nothing will happen to me - so you don't need to worry about that Shimazu. And Marius has squeezed me almost as much as Hunter squeezed - other things. Marius - resigned, ok.
41. Aswon - so what have you signed us up for Marius? M - he's telling me he's on the level, and because of what we've been doing with the horrors, they'll leave us alone and support us. Hunter - are they jealous because Ares are helping us and they want to play too? Marius - I don't know all the ins and outs. He's implying - not saying - but implying, that they're happy with what we're doing, so they'll help rather than squashing us like bugs
42. A - other than turning up and showing they could
43. M - as to who he is, I don't know - he wanted to walk through the gardens, claims not to be a practitioner. A - tight aura, mundane - but that's not anything I trust. But can we not tell him to job on, we already have 2-4 scaly buggers we're regarded as pets for. Don't want to add any more.
44. Marius - but he knows about the wife, son, parents, leverage over sisters as well. A - do we have to ask for things.
45. M - it seems they're happy with deniable assets fighting the good fight. A - we've got a track record for running into weird shit, but we're smugglers!
46. M - just how bad are these things. A - we know several dragons are interested in these things. We know some dragons are interested, some weird elves. People more important than us think they're a big problem.
47. M - I thought so - that's what makes me thinks in this regard - he might be on the level. A - but what's the price. Family stuff.
48. H - most blatant veiled threat - bringing your parents here.
49. Marius - we're fucked in every single direction. So I'm on the hook. T if we're screwed every way, why not take them for whatever we can get? M - I suppose so. These people don't take no for an answer very well. Shimazu - feels he is very self-assured. Kai happy to go with Marius. But we're not gonna forget him coming in and swinging his balls around in our house. Maris - don't know who/what he is. Could be a man, expendable. or a drake. Or someone high up - or even Lofwyr. Tads - doesn't matter what he actually is, he has access to that level of power, treat him like he is. Kai - fine, but I don't like him, or his approach. But go with it for now.
50. Marius - I don't like it either. But he's here, now, and we can't tell him to frak off without risk. Tads - he'll have links for ritual tracking, by now - if they've been here for a while. Aswon - oh yeah.
51. Marius - if he wants to hurt us, details the capabilities of SK, could cruise missile Aswon's village to hurt him, instead of ritual tracking. Aswon - sure, but we have to have some rules.
52. Kai - we need a guarantee that they'll support us when we need it.
53. Mr Brackhaus comes back in. "Did you try the strudel." Ok, you've had your discussion, you don't want me here any longer than you need, what would you like? Anything?
54. Kai mutters under his breath and looks stressed. Marius will negotiate for us.
55. Marius - REALLY?> I'm frakking exhausted. Kai - I've told you what we need, what I want. When it's necessary. We're not greedy. But you can sort it.
56. B - we're not going to load you down with tech, you live on the edge, you'd not trust it. Going to give you a code for the net, a radio frequency, a cell number. You ask for something, if I can deliver it - we will. If we say no, it's not because of the cost, or you're in our bad books - it's because we can't get it to you.
57. 2nd thing - unless you want to hear from me - you won't. If you get an SK tail, it's not because of us - it's because you've messed up somehow. If you end up duking it out with SK employees, try not to kill them, please. Testicles - they're expensive to put back on? Shoot to wound? If you're going into one of our facilities, we're going to assume you're on a bigger picture mission - but leave my people alone when you can. I'm going NOT going to promise not to come back here, or the parent’s apartment - because I've done that in the past, not been able to stop wet work teams. Anything else?
58. Kai - I believe we're good. B - any questions? Tads - yes! Ok, we'll get some comms codes. Tads asks for a magical consultation. B - so what exactly do you want. Tads - info about the horrors. B - you want a dossier on external threats. I don't have one on me, but I'll get something over to you. Either over the matrix - or we can do something face to face, if you're comfortable with that. Tads - nods agreement. B - remember - you're on the cutting edge of this though, so we'll have to see.
59. B - anything else? No. Well, it's been great to meet you all face to face, and thanks for letting me in your house. Can I send a gift basket? No? Ok, goodbye!
60. Chopper leaves and heads towards Baku. Tads - how do the parents get home? M - well, we're not dodging SK it seems, so we could take them.
61. Marius finds his parents and Nadia having an awkward conversation. Tads "rescues" Nadia - who is very grateful. Goes outside to check digging.
62. Marius has heart to heart with his family and catch up with gossip. Marius gives them some details about flying and faking his death, and some dodgy stuff, being a POW and sticking with the team rather than go back to his old life, and not going back - as it would put them at risk. ASk him about the skin - it's just some upgrades. But does have some protective qualities.
63. Tads checks with Nadia and checks the equipment, and they find the link between Bouygues and SK.
64. General grumbling about SK and the megacorps, and having to scan the bird and the house and all the grounds, EVERYTHING...
65. Kai starts carving "Brackhaus" into a normal, plain arrow.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 310 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This one was a somewhat relaxed session – starting a few minutes later, but also with not much going on to start off with as we tided up the downtime results, checked that everyone was happy with their Karma spends and new skills, and that I’d gotten everyone’s character sheets up to date and correct.
With the upgrades done, here’s a summary of the main changes:
1. Kai / Fozzy has initiated twice, catching up somewhat with the grade for the other magic users in the team.
2. Aswon / Jez has been working on his homebrew martial art, which now has a name and some moves planned out, as well as raising his instructor skill
3. Shimazu / Tom has been working on his instructor skill too, as well as his edged weapon skill, and also working on gaining ‘multistrike’ to use with his edged weapon
4. Tads / Ali has initiated and learned cleansing, on a path towards filtering – so she can work in toxic areas or high background zones a little easier. She’s also been doing some research on magic and visiting other magic users to talk about Horror stuff and how to deal with them
5. Hunter / Justin has been pumping iron, raising his strength attribute and then pushing his sword skill up, as well as doing some matrix research on projects
6. Marius / Lee has continued to plug away at the “future tech” books, and also worked on his sidearms to give him a bit more utility in ground combat.
Everyone spent a good chunk of karma, but has left enough for the next runs, and we should be good to go!
I was a little surprised that they wanted to spend quite that much time “off” – but when Marius explained he wanted to spend his birthday at home, that made a lot more sense. It’s quite gratifying to see a player buying into their back story like this – it achieves nothing for them rules wise, and doesn’t gain them any in-game advantage, and does potentially mean they’re missing out on work – but it seems like a very human thing to do, and especially after the roller-coaster that poor Marius has had over the last few sessions!
The caller at the end of the night is from Ares, and is going to give them a very short notice job to infiltrate the Yamatetsu HQ and plant some code in there – essentially doing what Hunter described in the narrative, and letting them strike at the last probe currently active in the first pass of the probe race. They’re going to be offered a good chunk of cash, but given some very tight parameters – and I’m actually going to try and pitch it so that they refuse the job. A lot of money, but with little support from Ares, a huge amount of risk and a timescale that will give them no time to do their due diligence – before wandering right into the corps home turf.
If they do decide to go, well, we’ll roll with it – they’re all at around karma pool 15 now, and they are careful and do good planning generally – but it’s whether they have enough time to do that and get the job done safely. We’ll have to see. But hopefully they will turn it down, and we can move on to some less batshit crazy plans – either finding themselves a battletac, doing a bit of general purpose smuggling, or one of the other random missions I have lined up as possible, before they hit some main plot again.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 26/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 08:00
2. Month of downtime. Underground base finished, palm trees on order... Marius parents gooing over babies or drones/vehicles. Get on fine with Nadia.
3. Refuel and repair the RAMJET on the bird(best fuel), warehouse in baku for deliveries.
4. 11/8 Novatech's Whipple probe performs an erroneous attitude burn, taking it off course, leaving only Yamatetsu.
5. Warding the training school in the local town for Shimazu
6. Get an off-roader to go in the back of the Broadsword - light,
7. Friday morning, team mostly hungover apart from Tads.
8. Germaine call - would like to book in a few guests overnight. They'll need - entertaining. Team coming that night with chopper. Aswon agrees - room in the ranch.
9. Aswon checks - how many. 3 - they need a good story. Aswon proposes setting up tents away from the ranch for the meeting. Muses about who it could be - all wide of the mark. Kai correctly predicts. Nadia suggests windbreaks and sunken pits.
10. Chopper turns up at dusk, masked to look unarmed. Surak gets out - Kai says hello, ask for Aswon, team disembark.
11. Chip gets gun out, checks. Team ok, Aswon warns to shoot monkeys on sight, but avoid the civvies. Small talk on the way up. Team hand over business cards - Kai, how do you know Germaine - we've done contracting. Introduced, then they start asking about Batumi. Mindlink and Trid-phantasm. Team spill, Aswon says he's a bad guy, but treats the help well, though uncultured. Get team detail and walk-through. Play through the base as a storm mission.
12. Tads - we got invited to his party, local bigshot. Might get invited if noticed. Aswon - his men are loyal, well equiped, lots of guards. Be prepared for a big fight.
13. Hunter - don't stop in this hotel! Details guns. Kai covers social side, Tads mentions about people being thrown out of hotel. Surak starts to ask lots of social questions. Team still being very helpful.
14. Aswon checks over comms - do we tell them about the curse. Tads thinks yes, need a warded box. Kai agrees. Aswon then tells. Kai offers a warded box. Surak - thanks but no thanks. Aswon warns he thinks there is merit to the curse. Team spin to a Leverage style "Marseilles Job", posing as art buyers.
15. They go for about 4-5 hours, start to talk about bed. Tads offers spell exchange.
16. Into Saturday morning. Other team head off around 9am. Aswon extends offer - for R&R, not a staging post. "Off to the seaside soon, stick of rock." Aswon - do we need to mention to person in Batumi, the other person - big power. Team warn them about the "other power". Surak "G did say, stay away from the beach..."
17. Germaine messages Aswon, "Thanks", 5k fee attached. Team plan to take down tents, discuss leaving up, put in a box.
18. Team start to discuss possible ideas - like getting a battletac setup, maybe doing a raid job and claiming one set at payment.
19. Marius. Text, job offer, virtual meeting. Marius tells team. Hunter - work for the "other side", Aswon - at least we're not one sides bitch then... Marius preps for the meeting.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This one was a somewhat relaxed session – starting a few minutes later, but also with not much going on to start off with as we tided up the downtime results, checked that everyone was happy with their Karma spends and new skills, and that I’d gotten everyone’s character sheets up to date and correct.
With the upgrades done, here’s a summary of the main changes:
1. Kai / Fozzy has initiated twice, catching up somewhat with the grade for the other magic users in the team.
2. Aswon / Jez has been working on his homebrew martial art, which now has a name and some moves planned out, as well as raising his instructor skill
3. Shimazu / Tom has been working on his instructor skill too, as well as his edged weapon skill, and also working on gaining ‘multistrike’ to use with his edged weapon
4. Tads / Ali has initiated and learned cleansing, on a path towards filtering – so she can work in toxic areas or high background zones a little easier. She’s also been doing some research on magic and visiting other magic users to talk about Horror stuff and how to deal with them
5. Hunter / Justin has been pumping iron, raising his strength attribute and then pushing his sword skill up, as well as doing some matrix research on projects
6. Marius / Lee has continued to plug away at the “future tech” books, and also worked on his sidearms to give him a bit more utility in ground combat.
Everyone spent a good chunk of karma, but has left enough for the next runs, and we should be good to go!
I was a little surprised that they wanted to spend quite that much time “off” – but when Marius explained he wanted to spend his birthday at home, that made a lot more sense. It’s quite gratifying to see a player buying into their back story like this – it achieves nothing for them rules wise, and doesn’t gain them any in-game advantage, and does potentially mean they’re missing out on work – but it seems like a very human thing to do, and especially after the roller-coaster that poor Marius has had over the last few sessions!
The caller at the end of the night is from Ares, and is going to give them a very short notice job to infiltrate the Yamatetsu HQ and plant some code in there – essentially doing what Hunter described in the narrative, and letting them strike at the last probe currently active in the first pass of the probe race. They’re going to be offered a good chunk of cash, but given some very tight parameters – and I’m actually going to try and pitch it so that they refuse the job. A lot of money, but with little support from Ares, a huge amount of risk and a timescale that will give them no time to do their due diligence – before wandering right into the corps home turf.
If they do decide to go, well, we’ll roll with it – they’re all at around karma pool 15 now, and they are careful and do good planning generally – but it’s whether they have enough time to do that and get the job done safely. We’ll have to see. But hopefully they will turn it down, and we can move on to some less batshit crazy plans – either finding themselves a battletac, doing a bit of general purpose smuggling, or one of the other random missions I have lined up as possible, before they hit some main plot again.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 26/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 08:00
2. Month of downtime. Underground base finished, palm trees on order... Marius parents gooing over babies or drones/vehicles. Get on fine with Nadia.
3. Refuel and repair the RAMJET on the bird(best fuel), warehouse in baku for deliveries.
4. 11/8 Novatech's Whipple probe performs an erroneous attitude burn, taking it off course, leaving only Yamatetsu.
5. Warding the training school in the local town for Shimazu
6. Get an off-roader to go in the back of the Broadsword - light,
7. Friday morning, team mostly hungover apart from Tads.
8. Germaine call - would like to book in a few guests overnight. They'll need - entertaining. Team coming that night with chopper. Aswon agrees - room in the ranch.
9. Aswon checks - how many. 3 - they need a good story. Aswon proposes setting up tents away from the ranch for the meeting. Muses about who it could be - all wide of the mark. Kai correctly predicts. Nadia suggests windbreaks and sunken pits.
10. Chopper turns up at dusk, masked to look unarmed. Surak gets out - Kai says hello, ask for Aswon, team disembark.
11. Chip gets gun out, checks. Team ok, Aswon warns to shoot monkeys on sight, but avoid the civvies. Small talk on the way up. Team hand over business cards - Kai, how do you know Germaine - we've done contracting. Introduced, then they start asking about Batumi. Mindlink and Trid-phantasm. Team spill, Aswon says he's a bad guy, but treats the help well, though uncultured. Get team detail and walk-through. Play through the base as a storm mission.
12. Tads - we got invited to his party, local bigshot. Might get invited if noticed. Aswon - his men are loyal, well equiped, lots of guards. Be prepared for a big fight.
13. Hunter - don't stop in this hotel! Details guns. Kai covers social side, Tads mentions about people being thrown out of hotel. Surak starts to ask lots of social questions. Team still being very helpful.
14. Aswon checks over comms - do we tell them about the curse. Tads thinks yes, need a warded box. Kai agrees. Aswon then tells. Kai offers a warded box. Surak - thanks but no thanks. Aswon warns he thinks there is merit to the curse. Team spin to a Leverage style "Marseilles Job", posing as art buyers.
15. They go for about 4-5 hours, start to talk about bed. Tads offers spell exchange.
16. Into Saturday morning. Other team head off around 9am. Aswon extends offer - for R&R, not a staging post. "Off to the seaside soon, stick of rock." Aswon - do we need to mention to person in Batumi, the other person - big power. Team warn them about the "other power". Surak "G did say, stay away from the beach..."
17. Germaine messages Aswon, "Thanks", 5k fee attached. Team plan to take down tents, discuss leaving up, put in a box.
18. Team start to discuss possible ideas - like getting a battletac setup, maybe doing a raid job and claiming one set at payment.
19. Marius. Text, job offer, virtual meeting. Marius tells team. Hunter - work for the "other side", Aswon - at least we're not one sides bitch then... Marius preps for the meeting.
Hi folks! Quick poll time, while I finish writing up last weeks session....
The team have been hired to go to a max-security prison north of Karachi, extract a prisoner and return him across the Pakistan/India border to Hyderabad. It's not far - only about 150km, but will take them over a hot border, and the prison is only 30km away from a military airfield, so current gen fighters can be there in <60 seconds, on top of the base defences.
A quick astral scout has revealed bound elementals on patrol, and a veritable swarm of Condor style recon drones with suncells that maintain 24 X 7 surveillance. Of course the prison has lots of walls, fences and usual passive measures, as well as guard towers for manned defences and some turrets. They do have a method for getting very brief messages to the target to warn them of their arrival - though there's a 24 hour time lag. So they can, as far as they are aware, say "be in the main exercise yard at lunchtime"
So far the team have gone with a fairly KISS plan. Fly in at low level under spirit concealment, nice and fast. Go into a hover. Open the doors, and half the team lay down suppressive fire on the towers and turrets. Shimazu is on a rope, and jumps down, using Freefall to absorb the fall damage, wraps his arms around the target and puts a quick-attach harness on him, then they winch him back up to the bird. Then they fly away, as fast as they can and go max-stealth.
Seems reasonable.
What they don't know is that the "open topped" exercise yard has a mesh of monowire over the top, that is almost impossible to see / detect.
Is that too harsh? Or just right, given the campaign level they're at..?
The team have been hired to go to a max-security prison north of Karachi, extract a prisoner and return him across the Pakistan/India border to Hyderabad. It's not far - only about 150km, but will take them over a hot border, and the prison is only 30km away from a military airfield, so current gen fighters can be there in <60 seconds, on top of the base defences.
A quick astral scout has revealed bound elementals on patrol, and a veritable swarm of Condor style recon drones with suncells that maintain 24 X 7 surveillance. Of course the prison has lots of walls, fences and usual passive measures, as well as guard towers for manned defences and some turrets. They do have a method for getting very brief messages to the target to warn them of their arrival - though there's a 24 hour time lag. So they can, as far as they are aware, say "be in the main exercise yard at lunchtime"
So far the team have gone with a fairly KISS plan. Fly in at low level under spirit concealment, nice and fast. Go into a hover. Open the doors, and half the team lay down suppressive fire on the towers and turrets. Shimazu is on a rope, and jumps down, using Freefall to absorb the fall damage, wraps his arms around the target and puts a quick-attach harness on him, then they winch him back up to the bird. Then they fly away, as fast as they can and go max-stealth.
Seems reasonable.
What they don't know is that the "open topped" exercise yard has a mesh of monowire over the top, that is almost impossible to see / detect.
Is that too harsh? Or just right, given the campaign level they're at..?
Even today plans similar to theirs are being executed. Mesh of some form is already being considered. How high security will determine the nature of the mesh. Political prisoners dangerous to the regime? Go with the scariest stuff available.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 311 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started the session off in the matrix chat room, and I went through the description of how things looked – and within a few seconds one the players went “so we’re meeting with Max Headroom then?” – which was quite gratifying as that’s exactly the vibe I was going for.
I pitched the mission, and the players were initially interested, but became less so as the detail was revealed, and especially so when it got to slicing the off-grid red host. There was a little discussion, thoughts and wondering on if they could hire in a decker, and if they could trust someone they hadn’t worked with before – but in the end they turned down the job. I wheedled with them a little – but they remained firm, stuck to the guns and turned down a 500k job.
Excellent.
I gave them a few minutes to chat, and then hit them with the next call, one of Kai’s contacts in India, who “knew a man”, and explained that they needed an extraction. Again, the details were a little light to start off with, but the team seemed to warm to this a lot more, and when the actual contact got in touch, they were not fazed at all about breaking someone out of a max-security prison. I had the location chosen on Google Maps so that I could share with them a rough outline (25.26875, 67.14388 if you’re interested) and gave a rough description, and then they were off, coming up with a few plans, working out what they might do as decoy operations, how much it bothered them with the local airbase and so on.
I’ve got some homework to do this weekend then it seems in mapping out the prison and making sure I have all the defences listed and the local assets, as well as what’s going to happen near the border when they try to cross – as they may get themselves slap in the middle of a border conflict! I’ve been re-reading “Shadows of Asia” to check on the details of India and Pakistan, and just how far south the radiated zone might have spread from the limited nuclear exchange of the 30s, just to try and make sure everything is as close to canon as possible.
They’re already steering towards an overhead insertion into the prison grounds, and haven’t taken into account that there could be monowire – which there is – so this could get interesting for them. Another thing to add to the list, along with some possible tells that might give the game away – though for dramatic tension, having something like a bird fly under Shimazu and lose a wing just before he impacts it would be my favourite option so far – seeing him having to suddenly do a pike position and scream for Marius to go up not down would be most amusing!!
I also need to gen up some background information – I’m having the extraction target be a “famous” Indian merc, a legend in the community that got captured during an operation and has been languishing in prison for a while. I don’t know if Aswon or his player will want to play on the “hero worship” angle, but I’m going to pitch it in a way that gives him the option to do so – as well as making a good contact in the Indian merc community. And just as important perhaps, this lets me introduce a new smuggler stop just south of Karachi where the team can get fuel, opening up the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to being in range, and provides a “southern route” towards the far-east, giving them some options for the future and setting the stage for some more of the major plotline stuff I have coming up.
Now, I have to go load the Wikipedia pages on prisons and do a bit of reading, and examine our local prison in my home city from Google Maps to get some design ideas…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 27/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 09:00
2. All going to the meeting, trode up. Hunter analyses room - secure as it's likely to get. Team go with default icons.
3. Mr Johnson - appears in a room with gently scrolling neon blue purple and green bars, with a low-res image of a news anchor wearing a sharp suit. urgent mission. Need a team for a stealthy insert into a corporate site, very heavily defended and patrolled. Controlled airspace within 10km of the site, monitored out to 50km. Once inserted to site, infiltrate specific building and we need a decker to penetrate the sites Red host in a secure air-gapped grid, and modify some code on their servers. Infiltrate, plant, exfiltrate - without detection.
4. Aswon - doesn't sound like us! Not unless they front us a deck. Tads - subtlety is not always our strong suit. Marius - we have done some stealthy stuff - but it's the computer sized. Kai - can you loan us gear? J - hmm, might not be able to get it to you in time. Marius - where is it. J-Western Pacific coast,2 days time. Team start to grumble. Marius - we don't have a decker. He checks his old tech - got a computer expert? Marius - we have a computer researcher, but you need a slicer, or a decker - we don't have that. Would you have it if I offer 500k. Aswon have to outsource, can't do that in 2 days. Marius - too short a time frame for a job like this. Can't do the due diligence. Who recommended us - we're recover/transport specialists. Hmm - you're in the system as external contractors, gamma clearance level. Marius - we don't like to turn down well-paying jobs. Our computer guy is not a decker, if they need to work a red host, that's not going to work. We can take it if you can supply a decker. Or maybe a top of the line deck.
5. Kai internally - could they get someone internal that we could deliver? Marius - already tried that, if they had it I think they would have said. Aswon - maybe a gateway.
6. J - aww crap - well, do you know a team, maybe go to a finders fee for you? Team discuss internally, Marius - we have a guy in the UCAS. J - ahh, no - western pacific coast. More Japan kind of direction, not the Americas.
7. Team wonder about asking Germaine. Aswon - do we want to go on a job like this with a new untrusted person? Stick to our guns, this doesn't feel like it's for us.
8. Mr J - you kids take care, this isn't going to work - I need to bounce. He leaves, the team leaves.
9. Tads - sounds like a compliment for Hunter though, they think he's competent about computers.
10. Team disperse and do runs/other stuff. Hunter sends a message to Julius, call me when you can please?
11. Kai gets a call from an indian RTG, number concealed. Hi / hellos, how are you. Are you available for work - yes, we've just had a bit of a rest. Extraction, willing - Kai, ahh good, answers first question. Asks about area. How personal is this - for a FOAF. Kai - pause, checking with team. oh - timescale? Sooner rather than later. What kind of payment - fuel stops would help. Banded around a figure of 100k. Hunter - meh... Kai distance from pickup to dropoff - 150km, but over a border. Kai - ahh, our speciality. JS - that's what I thought. Puts him on hold.
12. Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal - won't be Tibet, those are the main borders. Ticks most of our boxes, what do you think. Aswon - I agree with Hunter, fuel costs are likely 20k each way, good chunk out of 100k pay. Tads - what about languages? Hunter has 2, so that's covered, and Aswon can learn quickly.
13. Back online, yes, in principle. We can handle this, somewhat intrigued. We need to chat with the customer. Can you get a room set up and pass the details. Kai - yes, will get back to you in a short while. Hunter sets up a meeting room - this time offers choice of avatars. Shimazu asks for a sword, Tads is offered a quoll. Kai has a think about borders
14. Meet with "Mr Singh" basic avatar. Blunt, curt. Kai - yes, extraction. Confirms voluntary. Singh confirms team is doing the job. Military base to the south, prison, secure. details about the job provided. Limited help - messages only to the target. Check distance to airbase - 35km.
15. Marius - plan, he's in the yard at x time. Come in concealed and hidden, high altitude, Tads invisibles and levitate him up - then bring him up to the side door, and FO. Aswon - as long as it's not warded... that could be hard for tads. T - if they have warded it, we could maybe tunnel him out and under, if I can see. Tads - if they're a mass murdered, I might have to kill them after we've delivered. Kai - as long as we get paid first, what you do in your own time, is up to you...
16. Aswon - to evaluate the job, we want to know why he's in jail, how much do they want him. Kai, off mute - is he a political prisoner. He's done direct action against Pakistan. Freedom fighter, Indian national. Messages have 24-hour lag, should be simple. Max security 1000 prisoners, some magic defences. Kai gives a tentative date 1 week for the job. Good - no pressure on the message pipeline. Let's discuss costs
17. Kai - we're 3000km from the target, so if you can provide fuel down, we can be flexible on the job then. S- there is somewhere SE of Karachi we can maybe get you fuelled there. Confirm 100k but open to trades. Ok, will discuss with my council. Arrange to leave messages in the matrix room, he disappears.
18. Team start looking at area - Ganesh in Nepal, exotic goods dealer. Hunter - Mary pat in Afghan. Praneeth in Abu Dhabi. Keiths in Qatar. Some concerns about the UAE from chasing Unsubtle and the blood trail - Aswon, nah, not linked to us. Tads goes for an astral flyby.
19. Area has a BGC of 3, depressing, abusive, devoid of life and hope. There are air spirits on guard, F4, patrolling the area.
20. Julius calls from a public commbooth. Usual hellos, we need some maps, and what is gamma clearance? What context. Job offer. Oh - well above A and B. Ok, what maps do you need. Gives location. Timeframe - within the week, is ok. Bye byes...
21. Tom does police procedures, gets some info on max security tactics and weaponry, likely police responses. Kai border security - hot alert on the fighters and patrols. Marius drones - solid perimeter of suncell monitoring drones.
22. Hunter sends 2k to Julius for maps. Aswon proposes big illusion of the top of the prison to confuse the drones, likely targets. Or do they drop half the team in to the wall to suppress the guards on the perimeter and just land the Broadsword in the yard.
23. Kai - distractions, the dam is a problem and a solution in theory. Aswon - maybe not actually break the dam, just set off the alarms. Need to evade the watcher spirits to stop them detecting your spells. Tads - they are on patrol around the outside, probably a trip-wire. Tads - they could counterspell a levitate, if they don't value the life. Aswon - need to do some recon to determine if they have a mage on site - based on the costs, they probably do.
24. Marius rethink plan - come in high enough to be above drone net, max stealth, vertical drop, get above the prison, someone out the side on a rope, wrap the guy in a ballistic blanket, then skyhook up and out and away. Several of the team in favour of the KISS principle.
25. Start discussing Shimazu free falling, wrap around harness, to grab the guy. SUT rolls, uses Shimazu as living armour, shield on the back.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started the session off in the matrix chat room, and I went through the description of how things looked – and within a few seconds one the players went “so we’re meeting with Max Headroom then?” – which was quite gratifying as that’s exactly the vibe I was going for.
I pitched the mission, and the players were initially interested, but became less so as the detail was revealed, and especially so when it got to slicing the off-grid red host. There was a little discussion, thoughts and wondering on if they could hire in a decker, and if they could trust someone they hadn’t worked with before – but in the end they turned down the job. I wheedled with them a little – but they remained firm, stuck to the guns and turned down a 500k job.
Excellent.
I gave them a few minutes to chat, and then hit them with the next call, one of Kai’s contacts in India, who “knew a man”, and explained that they needed an extraction. Again, the details were a little light to start off with, but the team seemed to warm to this a lot more, and when the actual contact got in touch, they were not fazed at all about breaking someone out of a max-security prison. I had the location chosen on Google Maps so that I could share with them a rough outline (25.26875, 67.14388 if you’re interested) and gave a rough description, and then they were off, coming up with a few plans, working out what they might do as decoy operations, how much it bothered them with the local airbase and so on.
I’ve got some homework to do this weekend then it seems in mapping out the prison and making sure I have all the defences listed and the local assets, as well as what’s going to happen near the border when they try to cross – as they may get themselves slap in the middle of a border conflict! I’ve been re-reading “Shadows of Asia” to check on the details of India and Pakistan, and just how far south the radiated zone might have spread from the limited nuclear exchange of the 30s, just to try and make sure everything is as close to canon as possible.
They’re already steering towards an overhead insertion into the prison grounds, and haven’t taken into account that there could be monowire – which there is – so this could get interesting for them. Another thing to add to the list, along with some possible tells that might give the game away – though for dramatic tension, having something like a bird fly under Shimazu and lose a wing just before he impacts it would be my favourite option so far – seeing him having to suddenly do a pike position and scream for Marius to go up not down would be most amusing!!
I also need to gen up some background information – I’m having the extraction target be a “famous” Indian merc, a legend in the community that got captured during an operation and has been languishing in prison for a while. I don’t know if Aswon or his player will want to play on the “hero worship” angle, but I’m going to pitch it in a way that gives him the option to do so – as well as making a good contact in the Indian merc community. And just as important perhaps, this lets me introduce a new smuggler stop just south of Karachi where the team can get fuel, opening up the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to being in range, and provides a “southern route” towards the far-east, giving them some options for the future and setting the stage for some more of the major plotline stuff I have coming up.
Now, I have to go load the Wikipedia pages on prisons and do a bit of reading, and examine our local prison in my home city from Google Maps to get some design ideas…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 27/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 09:00
2. All going to the meeting, trode up. Hunter analyses room - secure as it's likely to get. Team go with default icons.
3. Mr Johnson - appears in a room with gently scrolling neon blue purple and green bars, with a low-res image of a news anchor wearing a sharp suit. urgent mission. Need a team for a stealthy insert into a corporate site, very heavily defended and patrolled. Controlled airspace within 10km of the site, monitored out to 50km. Once inserted to site, infiltrate specific building and we need a decker to penetrate the sites Red host in a secure air-gapped grid, and modify some code on their servers. Infiltrate, plant, exfiltrate - without detection.
4. Aswon - doesn't sound like us! Not unless they front us a deck. Tads - subtlety is not always our strong suit. Marius - we have done some stealthy stuff - but it's the computer sized. Kai - can you loan us gear? J - hmm, might not be able to get it to you in time. Marius - where is it. J-Western Pacific coast,2 days time. Team start to grumble. Marius - we don't have a decker. He checks his old tech - got a computer expert? Marius - we have a computer researcher, but you need a slicer, or a decker - we don't have that. Would you have it if I offer 500k. Aswon have to outsource, can't do that in 2 days. Marius - too short a time frame for a job like this. Can't do the due diligence. Who recommended us - we're recover/transport specialists. Hmm - you're in the system as external contractors, gamma clearance level. Marius - we don't like to turn down well-paying jobs. Our computer guy is not a decker, if they need to work a red host, that's not going to work. We can take it if you can supply a decker. Or maybe a top of the line deck.
5. Kai internally - could they get someone internal that we could deliver? Marius - already tried that, if they had it I think they would have said. Aswon - maybe a gateway.
6. J - aww crap - well, do you know a team, maybe go to a finders fee for you? Team discuss internally, Marius - we have a guy in the UCAS. J - ahh, no - western pacific coast. More Japan kind of direction, not the Americas.
7. Team wonder about asking Germaine. Aswon - do we want to go on a job like this with a new untrusted person? Stick to our guns, this doesn't feel like it's for us.
8. Mr J - you kids take care, this isn't going to work - I need to bounce. He leaves, the team leaves.
9. Tads - sounds like a compliment for Hunter though, they think he's competent about computers.
10. Team disperse and do runs/other stuff. Hunter sends a message to Julius, call me when you can please?
11. Kai gets a call from an indian RTG, number concealed. Hi / hellos, how are you. Are you available for work - yes, we've just had a bit of a rest. Extraction, willing - Kai, ahh good, answers first question. Asks about area. How personal is this - for a FOAF. Kai - pause, checking with team. oh - timescale? Sooner rather than later. What kind of payment - fuel stops would help. Banded around a figure of 100k. Hunter - meh... Kai distance from pickup to dropoff - 150km, but over a border. Kai - ahh, our speciality. JS - that's what I thought. Puts him on hold.
12. Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal - won't be Tibet, those are the main borders. Ticks most of our boxes, what do you think. Aswon - I agree with Hunter, fuel costs are likely 20k each way, good chunk out of 100k pay. Tads - what about languages? Hunter has 2, so that's covered, and Aswon can learn quickly.
13. Back online, yes, in principle. We can handle this, somewhat intrigued. We need to chat with the customer. Can you get a room set up and pass the details. Kai - yes, will get back to you in a short while. Hunter sets up a meeting room - this time offers choice of avatars. Shimazu asks for a sword, Tads is offered a quoll. Kai has a think about borders
14. Meet with "Mr Singh" basic avatar. Blunt, curt. Kai - yes, extraction. Confirms voluntary. Singh confirms team is doing the job. Military base to the south, prison, secure. details about the job provided. Limited help - messages only to the target. Check distance to airbase - 35km.
15. Marius - plan, he's in the yard at x time. Come in concealed and hidden, high altitude, Tads invisibles and levitate him up - then bring him up to the side door, and FO. Aswon - as long as it's not warded... that could be hard for tads. T - if they have warded it, we could maybe tunnel him out and under, if I can see. Tads - if they're a mass murdered, I might have to kill them after we've delivered. Kai - as long as we get paid first, what you do in your own time, is up to you...
16. Aswon - to evaluate the job, we want to know why he's in jail, how much do they want him. Kai, off mute - is he a political prisoner. He's done direct action against Pakistan. Freedom fighter, Indian national. Messages have 24-hour lag, should be simple. Max security 1000 prisoners, some magic defences. Kai gives a tentative date 1 week for the job. Good - no pressure on the message pipeline. Let's discuss costs
17. Kai - we're 3000km from the target, so if you can provide fuel down, we can be flexible on the job then. S- there is somewhere SE of Karachi we can maybe get you fuelled there. Confirm 100k but open to trades. Ok, will discuss with my council. Arrange to leave messages in the matrix room, he disappears.
18. Team start looking at area - Ganesh in Nepal, exotic goods dealer. Hunter - Mary pat in Afghan. Praneeth in Abu Dhabi. Keiths in Qatar. Some concerns about the UAE from chasing Unsubtle and the blood trail - Aswon, nah, not linked to us. Tads goes for an astral flyby.
19. Area has a BGC of 3, depressing, abusive, devoid of life and hope. There are air spirits on guard, F4, patrolling the area.
20. Julius calls from a public commbooth. Usual hellos, we need some maps, and what is gamma clearance? What context. Job offer. Oh - well above A and B. Ok, what maps do you need. Gives location. Timeframe - within the week, is ok. Bye byes...
21. Tom does police procedures, gets some info on max security tactics and weaponry, likely police responses. Kai border security - hot alert on the fighters and patrols. Marius drones - solid perimeter of suncell monitoring drones.
22. Hunter sends 2k to Julius for maps. Aswon proposes big illusion of the top of the prison to confuse the drones, likely targets. Or do they drop half the team in to the wall to suppress the guards on the perimeter and just land the Broadsword in the yard.
23. Kai - distractions, the dam is a problem and a solution in theory. Aswon - maybe not actually break the dam, just set off the alarms. Need to evade the watcher spirits to stop them detecting your spells. Tads - they are on patrol around the outside, probably a trip-wire. Tads - they could counterspell a levitate, if they don't value the life. Aswon - need to do some recon to determine if they have a mage on site - based on the costs, they probably do.
24. Marius rethink plan - come in high enough to be above drone net, max stealth, vertical drop, get above the prison, someone out the side on a rope, wrap the guy in a ballistic blanket, then skyhook up and out and away. Several of the team in favour of the KISS principle.
25. Start discussing Shimazu free falling, wrap around harness, to grab the guy. SUT rolls, uses Shimazu as living armour, shield on the back.
I missed your poll, sorry. But I *would* have said that unless the players were somehow very blasé about the job, I'd give them a few ways to realize that there's a layer of security they haven't seen on the satellite images or something BEFORE you let them slice their mode of transportation (and themselves) into little pieces. That way, when they DO end up as French fries inside of a maximum security prison at the *ss end of the world, you can at least look them in the eye and say that they *could* have seen that coming.
As a player, I'd be rather miffed at losing my character over something I had no way of knowing was there.
As a player, I'd be rather miffed at losing my character over something I had no way of knowing was there.
Hmm. What would happen if the Hub Dam Canal were shut off by an 'accident', the water started rising, and the prison had to be evacuated? (or just gets abandoned!?)
New options would appear, no?
New options would appear, no?
Missed the poll too but I'd at least give them the opportunity to spot the danger. Perhaps they can't see the mesh itself, but they can see the contact points where it is held up on the perimeter. "Hmm, why are those there?" Or you could have them see a hapless bird fillet itself. The PCs might not immediately know why but it gives them an opportunity to adjust on the fly (literally). Given the importance of haste, even a momentary delay could achieve a dramatic effect.
If you want to be generous, you could have the suppressive fire tear up the mesh a bit so that it is no longer taut and thus less lethal. Damaging but not deadly.
Or you could pull your punch a bit and have it be an electrified mesh instead of monowire. That could be painful but not necessarily fatal.
If you want to be generous, you could have the suppressive fire tear up the mesh a bit so that it is no longer taut and thus less lethal. Damaging but not deadly.
Or you could pull your punch a bit and have it be an electrified mesh instead of monowire. That could be painful but not necessarily fatal.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 312 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
I’d prepared for this week’s run by doing a quick refresh on the skills for the characters, and working out a few plot points for each of them, writing up a variety of information that might be useful, interesting or flavourful. At the start of the session, I asked each of them to make some tests for their most appropriate skills, then based on the number of successes, sent each player none, some or all of the information.
Kai
Indian offensives during the 30s pushed their border west, advancing about 200km into Pakistan, and capturing Hyderabad and Nawabshah, and all the fertile / irrigated land between them, as well as a chunk to the south, and giving control of part of the new silk road to India. Pakistan have tried to push back several times without success, and after the last effort severely disrupted trade, the Corporate Court advised them to stop due to the damage that could be caused to the local economies.
A state of uneasy peace now exists between the two nations - Pakistan still claims the region, but India controls it. The border runs just west of the N55 highway, which is used by India to route forces up and down, and is defended by hundreds of miles of razorwire and signposted mine-fields. This also allowed India to interdict the southern branch of the New Silk Road, the section running from Tashkent down to Karachi port, with traffic entering and then leaving the Indian controlled zone 200km later. India have played this very carefully and allow all corporate traffic through without charge and only minimal inspection, ensuring the mega-corps support their position.
It should not be unexpected to spot APCs, tanks, IFVs and scout vehicles on the N55, troops deployed for exercises, engineers checking the border defences etc. The main highways have large checkpoints set up, and all vehicles except corporate convoys are subject to security checks and searches.
On the whole though, the cities and towns have adapted after 20+ years of occupation, and generally the Indian government has gone out of their way to treat people fairly and subsidise public works - often at the expense of other area of India, which has caused some resentment. But as a response, there is generally not much fuelling the rebellious attitudes needed for the "Free Pakistan Fighters" guerrilla groups - most of the farmers are just trying to survive and have come to rely on the government handouts, and those in the city working tech jobs just don't care.
India has fighter and chopper support, located east of Hyderabad, to call upon in support of ground forces if required. Generally speaking, both sides seem to try and keep about 10-15km back from the border to avoid direct confrontation, though this is shorter/closer near Hyderabad and can often lead to some high-speed games of chicken.
Aswon - Merc roll, SUT. 1/1
The Indian Merc organisation "Purbiyas" was one of the key strike forces that helped India invade and secure the occupation zone back in the 30s, and keep it secure until it was fortified. Named after medieval mercs from the Eastern Uttar Pradesh regions, they have played prominent role in Indian history, including the Indian Rebellion of 1857. They have a somewhat similar ethos to the French Foreign Legion, now taking in a significant number of foreign members into their ranks.
For a while, Merc organisations were banned in India under their penal code, but post crash this was repealed, and Purbiyas is now one of the larger merc operations in the country. They tend to work in the SE Asian area, and emphasise infantry operations, infiltration, intel gathering and small team operations rather than fixed-defence or major field engagements (though they can do these, they're not the best equipped for them.)
Shimazu, security, police procedures 1+2
Pakistan has a long history of human rights abuses, and is on several watch lists for international travel. From your bodyguard training, you remember mention of a higher than usual risk of suicide bombers and civilian atrocities being warned of.
The separation of India in 1947 into the Hindu Indian area and the Muslim Pakistan / Bangladesh area. It triggered widespread migrations with >20m people moving, caused massive loss of life (some records show over 1.3m people leaving India, but failing to arrive in Pakistan, and assumed to have been lost to deliberate genocidal attacks) and lead to increasingly oppressive clan-and-religious based communities that became antagonistic to outsiders and festered into nearly a hundred years of ongoing combat.
The double fences look to be connected with "slinky wire" - rolls of razor wire attached to each other to make a series of parallel runs, interconnected in a staggered pattern lengthwise. Anyone trying to climb over it finds their body weight makes it sag enough to spill them down into the "tunnel" below, and find it very difficult to climb back up - as well of course as ripping the flesh to pieces. The gap between fences looks to be about 5m - enough for a normal metahuman to struggle to jump over, especially on a prison diet, if they climbed the fence and couldn't have a running jump.
Hunter, Engineering and Geology 1/2
Karachi is located on the coastline of Sindh province in southern Pakistan, along the Karachi Harbour, a natural harbour on the Arabian Sea. Karachi is built on a coastal plain with scattered rocky outcroppings, hills and marshlands. Mangrove forests grow in the brackish waters around the Karachi Harbour, and farther southeast towards the expansive Indus River Delta. West of Karachi city is the Cape Monze, locally known as Ras Muari, which is an area characterised by sea cliffs, rocky sandstone promontories and beaches.
Pakistan geologically overlaps both with the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates where its Sindh and Punjab provinces lie on the north-western corner of the Indian plate while Balochistan and most of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa lie within the Eurasian plate which mainly comprises the Iranian plateau, some parts of the Middle East and Central Asia - though the area to the north of Karachi is "low risk"
The area you are in is mostly clay, limestone and sandstone, and the area around the prison is likely to be quite dense stone providing water resistance - and thus the reason the dam was built in that location. The prison buildings will have been built on concrete slabs / floating rafts on the local surface - so tunnelling in magically is *very* unlikely to work.
Karachi lies very close to a fault line, where the Indian tectonic plate meets the Arabian tectonic plate. Within the city of Karachi are two small ranges: the Khasa Hills and Mulri Hills, which lie in the northwest and act as a barrier between North Nazimabad and Orangi. Karachi's hills are barren and are part of the larger Kirthar Range, and have a maximum elevation of 528 metres
Tads Geology and Magic background. 0/3
The country is majority Muslim, meaning that animalistic or shamanistic practices are forbidden upon pain of death, and all magical activity is closely scrutinised and licenced by religious clerics, and must be in accordance with the holy texts of the Quran. Any magic you come across will almost certainly be hermetic, and may be quite rigidly defined - on the other hand, it will also be effectively state sponsored and endorsed, so may benefit from positive background count or extra resources.
Marius Intelligence / Espionage 1+2
The New Silk Road runs south from Tashkent to Karachi and the major port there. Karachi was a natural port, important since medieval times and has been conquered and fought over more times than could be recorded. It's now used by corporate convoys to carry goods from the Asian interior down to the port and onward around the world. Corporate control is going to be heavy, and has impacted the Pakistan-Indian conflict, requiring both sides to moderate their offensives and control collateral damage, or risk upsetting the corporate court. Renraku and SK are quite big in Pakistan, with research facilities out in the wilds, so wield considerable power in Pakistan - and are major supporters of the military dictatorship there, in exchange for trade permits and favourable terms.
Renraku drones and SK military hardware is likely to be encountered heavily in the Pakistani military forces, as a result of this, though both corporations appear to drip-feed spare parts and equipment to the nation to ensure they remain under control.
The government is a military dictatorship, compulsory Muslim worship with very harsh Sharia law.
Unfortunately, Kai was absent from the game, so I shared his information out to the full extent – I didn’t know if he would have wanted to use rerolls on the test, and in this case I was happier to share more than less, as it gave general background political and economic info rather than anything specific, so it also helped move the general planning along.
While some of the players did share most of their information, a couple didn’t – which is something I’m going to follow up on in the following sessions. I don’t know if they have particular reasons IC or OOC not to share it all, and I certainly don’t want to force them to share the information – their characters are theirs to play, as they see fit, and I try not to railroad them too often, or too obviously, unless that’s the specific point of the plot (such as kidnapping Spook while Aswon was only 2 blocks away – I was counting on his actions and history to drag the rest of the team along. So yes, he was absolutely being railroaded, but only because he chose to be… if that makes sense?)
But, they gathered a lot of intel, came up with good plans, made good rolls on the engineering tests to make the winch, did some practice and then ghosted over the borders to the target – so we’re all set to run the prison break this Tuesday coming and extract the target, hopefully without anyone catching up with them! None of them have mentioned any of the main ‘surprises’ I have set up for them, so we’ll have to see how those play out!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 27/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 12:00
2. Reveal map, Shimazu thinks he's in the high-security area last 3. Aswon not sure, think he's political rather than military. Marius agrees.
3. Aswon - might be better flying out west, Pakistan is now very narrow. Marius can just head out south-west, over the water and then loop around.
4. Marius - I agree. 125km east, or 50km west to the Arabian sea - coast is better. Once you hit the coast it's only 20km into international waters. Discussion of hiding under/behind a commercial flight.
5. Hunter - the buildings are all on concrete pads by the looks of things, so no tunnelling in directly. Only into the area. Tads - it would take a while due to the depth as well.
6. Shimazu - idea about grabbing the guy. Area uses lots of suicide bombers - can you create a trid-phantasm near the main gate of a suicide charge? Tads - if I have LOS, yes. But magic will leave a signature, Iran problem. But does open us up to the potential of tracking. Aswon - does tip off their mage as well, gives them an early warning. Marius - wasn't there bound elementals and watchers? Won't they spot that stuff, and we don't know what they will do? Aswon - think they were all inside, not sure they would go outside the perimeter. Marius - they could be told to attack anything magic in the area. Tads - and don't have a sick day and get a cover mage in! Aswon - I do like the idea of a distraction at the gates though. Tads - maybe try to trigger an earthquake or something, something set up in advance. Shimazu - tunnel under the gate and plant explosives? Marius - ponders about the dam triggering an evac, but it's on the wrong side.
7. Aswon - we can trigger a big distraction - set off some of the mines in-between the fences? Tads - won't that trigger a lockdown of the prisoners? Maybe do it after we got the guy, but not before. Aswon - how do we do it? Maybe shape earth, won't be the first thought looking at the crater. Maybe Hunter using the GL to air-burst over the minefield.
8. Shimazu - when I go down, I could drop a dozen guns out for the other prisoners? Not the most moral, but might work.
9. Marius - are we overthinking this. KISS principle. Aswon - just covering bases. Tads - argue that we can do it, but want to have backups.
10. Aswon - ok, fly in, one of three yards, grab the guy, flee. Tads - the guard towers? Aswon - lots of firepower. Guard towers are 2-3 stories high. Rooves create a dead spot directly overhead. Tads - could send a spirit in with a smoke grenade? Aswon - might want to hold the spirits for defence. Hunter - I need a HE round per tower, job done.
11. Aswon - want to check for explosive collars - Hunter can check, 24 hours each way. Aswon - they probably would have said though, too obvious. Marius - implanted tracking devices? Aswon, we have a jammer, and a surgeon... Tads - ritual samples. Though good luck getting through the ward. Need to find their weight, and size - make sure they're not a troll. Hunter - lift winch and cable for about 3-4k. Marius doesn't like the back ramp - big unarmoured hole. Would prefer a side door. Hunter knows he can make that using materials from Shimazu. Tads - and get some gas-masks - in case Shimazu gets hit with tear gas. The target can just live with it.
12. Marius - I think we base this all on speed, max speed entry, quick drop, grab and then get out ASAP. Drop, grab, wrap, then signal, then Marius ascends and flies off.
13. Engineering roll for Hunter to build the lift rig. Ok - not fast. Rest of team practice and make harness. Get helmet / oxygen / bail out bottle.
14. Metatype - human, <90kg, no explosive collars, think there are no trackers. In one of the three at the end, but not sure which. Can't find out. On the day, he is due to exercise at 13:45, for 30 mins - and will wear something that will mark him out as different to everyone else - all in green boiler suits. Target speaks English, Urdu, Guajarati, Nepalese, Punjabi...
15. Shimazu suggests keyword - to make sure nobody else grabs the opportunity.
16. Aswon - rip sleeves off, make a hat. Marius - white sheet perhaps.
17. Marius reveals that Renraku and SK supply arms and armour. Drip feed for control.
18. Marius plan to go to central Pakistan, refuel, then south, hit the target, loop around and drop at Hyderabad
19. Marius - condors are going to be unarmed. Other drones may not be. Aswon - but they are likely to be for against ground targets. Marius more worried about the military response. Aswon agrees with Shimazu's plan to take a stash of cheap guns to tip out if it all goes wrong. Tads - current plan for magic is defensive and spirits - not actively doing stuff.
20. Crossing into Iran - fine, Afghan - fine, Pakistan - fine.
21. Aswon - thinks for a moment about floating explosives in - but recon drones + spirits would spot it.
22. Surveillance for half a day. Shimazu aura reading, Hunter doing recon. Guards do 3 hour shifts, new guards come in before old ones leave. Shimazu reading - cold, brutal, mean, horrid. Random beatings, see them all lined up for evening prayers. Also detail the camo details. Rough count of about 4000-4100 prisoners
23. Drones are position on every kink / corner. Possibly 100 drones, so probably 2-4 riggers, 50-60m high. Discussion about trying to hack the drones - but probably a tripwire. Maybe best to hot mike jam. Marius - extraction time is probably prayer time - some discussion on non-Muslims
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
I’d prepared for this week’s run by doing a quick refresh on the skills for the characters, and working out a few plot points for each of them, writing up a variety of information that might be useful, interesting or flavourful. At the start of the session, I asked each of them to make some tests for their most appropriate skills, then based on the number of successes, sent each player none, some or all of the information.
Kai
Indian offensives during the 30s pushed their border west, advancing about 200km into Pakistan, and capturing Hyderabad and Nawabshah, and all the fertile / irrigated land between them, as well as a chunk to the south, and giving control of part of the new silk road to India. Pakistan have tried to push back several times without success, and after the last effort severely disrupted trade, the Corporate Court advised them to stop due to the damage that could be caused to the local economies.
A state of uneasy peace now exists between the two nations - Pakistan still claims the region, but India controls it. The border runs just west of the N55 highway, which is used by India to route forces up and down, and is defended by hundreds of miles of razorwire and signposted mine-fields. This also allowed India to interdict the southern branch of the New Silk Road, the section running from Tashkent down to Karachi port, with traffic entering and then leaving the Indian controlled zone 200km later. India have played this very carefully and allow all corporate traffic through without charge and only minimal inspection, ensuring the mega-corps support their position.
It should not be unexpected to spot APCs, tanks, IFVs and scout vehicles on the N55, troops deployed for exercises, engineers checking the border defences etc. The main highways have large checkpoints set up, and all vehicles except corporate convoys are subject to security checks and searches.
On the whole though, the cities and towns have adapted after 20+ years of occupation, and generally the Indian government has gone out of their way to treat people fairly and subsidise public works - often at the expense of other area of India, which has caused some resentment. But as a response, there is generally not much fuelling the rebellious attitudes needed for the "Free Pakistan Fighters" guerrilla groups - most of the farmers are just trying to survive and have come to rely on the government handouts, and those in the city working tech jobs just don't care.
India has fighter and chopper support, located east of Hyderabad, to call upon in support of ground forces if required. Generally speaking, both sides seem to try and keep about 10-15km back from the border to avoid direct confrontation, though this is shorter/closer near Hyderabad and can often lead to some high-speed games of chicken.
Aswon - Merc roll, SUT. 1/1
The Indian Merc organisation "Purbiyas" was one of the key strike forces that helped India invade and secure the occupation zone back in the 30s, and keep it secure until it was fortified. Named after medieval mercs from the Eastern Uttar Pradesh regions, they have played prominent role in Indian history, including the Indian Rebellion of 1857. They have a somewhat similar ethos to the French Foreign Legion, now taking in a significant number of foreign members into their ranks.
For a while, Merc organisations were banned in India under their penal code, but post crash this was repealed, and Purbiyas is now one of the larger merc operations in the country. They tend to work in the SE Asian area, and emphasise infantry operations, infiltration, intel gathering and small team operations rather than fixed-defence or major field engagements (though they can do these, they're not the best equipped for them.)
Shimazu, security, police procedures 1+2
Pakistan has a long history of human rights abuses, and is on several watch lists for international travel. From your bodyguard training, you remember mention of a higher than usual risk of suicide bombers and civilian atrocities being warned of.
The separation of India in 1947 into the Hindu Indian area and the Muslim Pakistan / Bangladesh area. It triggered widespread migrations with >20m people moving, caused massive loss of life (some records show over 1.3m people leaving India, but failing to arrive in Pakistan, and assumed to have been lost to deliberate genocidal attacks) and lead to increasingly oppressive clan-and-religious based communities that became antagonistic to outsiders and festered into nearly a hundred years of ongoing combat.
The double fences look to be connected with "slinky wire" - rolls of razor wire attached to each other to make a series of parallel runs, interconnected in a staggered pattern lengthwise. Anyone trying to climb over it finds their body weight makes it sag enough to spill them down into the "tunnel" below, and find it very difficult to climb back up - as well of course as ripping the flesh to pieces. The gap between fences looks to be about 5m - enough for a normal metahuman to struggle to jump over, especially on a prison diet, if they climbed the fence and couldn't have a running jump.
Hunter, Engineering and Geology 1/2
Karachi is located on the coastline of Sindh province in southern Pakistan, along the Karachi Harbour, a natural harbour on the Arabian Sea. Karachi is built on a coastal plain with scattered rocky outcroppings, hills and marshlands. Mangrove forests grow in the brackish waters around the Karachi Harbour, and farther southeast towards the expansive Indus River Delta. West of Karachi city is the Cape Monze, locally known as Ras Muari, which is an area characterised by sea cliffs, rocky sandstone promontories and beaches.
Pakistan geologically overlaps both with the Indian and the Eurasian tectonic plates where its Sindh and Punjab provinces lie on the north-western corner of the Indian plate while Balochistan and most of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa lie within the Eurasian plate which mainly comprises the Iranian plateau, some parts of the Middle East and Central Asia - though the area to the north of Karachi is "low risk"
The area you are in is mostly clay, limestone and sandstone, and the area around the prison is likely to be quite dense stone providing water resistance - and thus the reason the dam was built in that location. The prison buildings will have been built on concrete slabs / floating rafts on the local surface - so tunnelling in magically is *very* unlikely to work.
Karachi lies very close to a fault line, where the Indian tectonic plate meets the Arabian tectonic plate. Within the city of Karachi are two small ranges: the Khasa Hills and Mulri Hills, which lie in the northwest and act as a barrier between North Nazimabad and Orangi. Karachi's hills are barren and are part of the larger Kirthar Range, and have a maximum elevation of 528 metres
Tads Geology and Magic background. 0/3
The country is majority Muslim, meaning that animalistic or shamanistic practices are forbidden upon pain of death, and all magical activity is closely scrutinised and licenced by religious clerics, and must be in accordance with the holy texts of the Quran. Any magic you come across will almost certainly be hermetic, and may be quite rigidly defined - on the other hand, it will also be effectively state sponsored and endorsed, so may benefit from positive background count or extra resources.
Marius Intelligence / Espionage 1+2
The New Silk Road runs south from Tashkent to Karachi and the major port there. Karachi was a natural port, important since medieval times and has been conquered and fought over more times than could be recorded. It's now used by corporate convoys to carry goods from the Asian interior down to the port and onward around the world. Corporate control is going to be heavy, and has impacted the Pakistan-Indian conflict, requiring both sides to moderate their offensives and control collateral damage, or risk upsetting the corporate court. Renraku and SK are quite big in Pakistan, with research facilities out in the wilds, so wield considerable power in Pakistan - and are major supporters of the military dictatorship there, in exchange for trade permits and favourable terms.
Renraku drones and SK military hardware is likely to be encountered heavily in the Pakistani military forces, as a result of this, though both corporations appear to drip-feed spare parts and equipment to the nation to ensure they remain under control.
The government is a military dictatorship, compulsory Muslim worship with very harsh Sharia law.
Unfortunately, Kai was absent from the game, so I shared his information out to the full extent – I didn’t know if he would have wanted to use rerolls on the test, and in this case I was happier to share more than less, as it gave general background political and economic info rather than anything specific, so it also helped move the general planning along.
While some of the players did share most of their information, a couple didn’t – which is something I’m going to follow up on in the following sessions. I don’t know if they have particular reasons IC or OOC not to share it all, and I certainly don’t want to force them to share the information – their characters are theirs to play, as they see fit, and I try not to railroad them too often, or too obviously, unless that’s the specific point of the plot (such as kidnapping Spook while Aswon was only 2 blocks away – I was counting on his actions and history to drag the rest of the team along. So yes, he was absolutely being railroaded, but only because he chose to be… if that makes sense?)
But, they gathered a lot of intel, came up with good plans, made good rolls on the engineering tests to make the winch, did some practice and then ghosted over the borders to the target – so we’re all set to run the prison break this Tuesday coming and extract the target, hopefully without anyone catching up with them! None of them have mentioned any of the main ‘surprises’ I have set up for them, so we’ll have to see how those play out!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 27/08/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 12:00
2. Reveal map, Shimazu thinks he's in the high-security area last 3. Aswon not sure, think he's political rather than military. Marius agrees.
3. Aswon - might be better flying out west, Pakistan is now very narrow. Marius can just head out south-west, over the water and then loop around.
4. Marius - I agree. 125km east, or 50km west to the Arabian sea - coast is better. Once you hit the coast it's only 20km into international waters. Discussion of hiding under/behind a commercial flight.
5. Hunter - the buildings are all on concrete pads by the looks of things, so no tunnelling in directly. Only into the area. Tads - it would take a while due to the depth as well.
6. Shimazu - idea about grabbing the guy. Area uses lots of suicide bombers - can you create a trid-phantasm near the main gate of a suicide charge? Tads - if I have LOS, yes. But magic will leave a signature, Iran problem. But does open us up to the potential of tracking. Aswon - does tip off their mage as well, gives them an early warning. Marius - wasn't there bound elementals and watchers? Won't they spot that stuff, and we don't know what they will do? Aswon - think they were all inside, not sure they would go outside the perimeter. Marius - they could be told to attack anything magic in the area. Tads - and don't have a sick day and get a cover mage in! Aswon - I do like the idea of a distraction at the gates though. Tads - maybe try to trigger an earthquake or something, something set up in advance. Shimazu - tunnel under the gate and plant explosives? Marius - ponders about the dam triggering an evac, but it's on the wrong side.
7. Aswon - we can trigger a big distraction - set off some of the mines in-between the fences? Tads - won't that trigger a lockdown of the prisoners? Maybe do it after we got the guy, but not before. Aswon - how do we do it? Maybe shape earth, won't be the first thought looking at the crater. Maybe Hunter using the GL to air-burst over the minefield.
8. Shimazu - when I go down, I could drop a dozen guns out for the other prisoners? Not the most moral, but might work.
9. Marius - are we overthinking this. KISS principle. Aswon - just covering bases. Tads - argue that we can do it, but want to have backups.
10. Aswon - ok, fly in, one of three yards, grab the guy, flee. Tads - the guard towers? Aswon - lots of firepower. Guard towers are 2-3 stories high. Rooves create a dead spot directly overhead. Tads - could send a spirit in with a smoke grenade? Aswon - might want to hold the spirits for defence. Hunter - I need a HE round per tower, job done.
11. Aswon - want to check for explosive collars - Hunter can check, 24 hours each way. Aswon - they probably would have said though, too obvious. Marius - implanted tracking devices? Aswon, we have a jammer, and a surgeon... Tads - ritual samples. Though good luck getting through the ward. Need to find their weight, and size - make sure they're not a troll. Hunter - lift winch and cable for about 3-4k. Marius doesn't like the back ramp - big unarmoured hole. Would prefer a side door. Hunter knows he can make that using materials from Shimazu. Tads - and get some gas-masks - in case Shimazu gets hit with tear gas. The target can just live with it.
12. Marius - I think we base this all on speed, max speed entry, quick drop, grab and then get out ASAP. Drop, grab, wrap, then signal, then Marius ascends and flies off.
13. Engineering roll for Hunter to build the lift rig. Ok - not fast. Rest of team practice and make harness. Get helmet / oxygen / bail out bottle.
14. Metatype - human, <90kg, no explosive collars, think there are no trackers. In one of the three at the end, but not sure which. Can't find out. On the day, he is due to exercise at 13:45, for 30 mins - and will wear something that will mark him out as different to everyone else - all in green boiler suits. Target speaks English, Urdu, Guajarati, Nepalese, Punjabi...
15. Shimazu suggests keyword - to make sure nobody else grabs the opportunity.
16. Aswon - rip sleeves off, make a hat. Marius - white sheet perhaps.
17. Marius reveals that Renraku and SK supply arms and armour. Drip feed for control.
18. Marius plan to go to central Pakistan, refuel, then south, hit the target, loop around and drop at Hyderabad
19. Marius - condors are going to be unarmed. Other drones may not be. Aswon - but they are likely to be for against ground targets. Marius more worried about the military response. Aswon agrees with Shimazu's plan to take a stash of cheap guns to tip out if it all goes wrong. Tads - current plan for magic is defensive and spirits - not actively doing stuff.
20. Crossing into Iran - fine, Afghan - fine, Pakistan - fine.
21. Aswon - thinks for a moment about floating explosives in - but recon drones + spirits would spot it.
22. Surveillance for half a day. Shimazu aura reading, Hunter doing recon. Guards do 3 hour shifts, new guards come in before old ones leave. Shimazu reading - cold, brutal, mean, horrid. Random beatings, see them all lined up for evening prayers. Also detail the camo details. Rough count of about 4000-4100 prisoners
23. Drones are position on every kink / corner. Possibly 100 drones, so probably 2-4 riggers, 50-60m high. Discussion about trying to hack the drones - but probably a tripwire. Maybe best to hot mike jam. Marius - extraction time is probably prayer time - some discussion on non-Muslims
QUOTE (pbangarth @ Jun 24 2024, 04:13 PM) 
Hmm. What would happen if the Hub Dam Canal were shut off by an 'accident', the water started rising, and the prison had to be evacuated? (or just gets abandoned!?)
New options would appear, no?
New options would appear, no?
Yes indeed - something close occurred to one of the players, but they were thinking in terms of blowing the dam, and causing a flood, until they realised they were on the wrong side. I don't think it occurred to them to block it up and threaten to raise the water levels the other way!
QUOTE (Lionesque @ Jun 23 2024, 09:59 PM)
I missed your poll, sorry. But I *would* have said that unless the players were somehow very blasé about the job, I'd give them a few ways to realize that there's a layer of security they haven't seen on the satellite images or something BEFORE you let them slice their mode of transportation (and themselves) into little pieces. That way, when they DO end up as French fries inside of a maximum security prison at the *ss end of the world, you can at least look them in the eye and say that they *could* have seen that coming.
As a player, I'd be rather miffed at losing my character over something I had no way of knowing was there.
As a player, I'd be rather miffed at losing my character over something I had no way of knowing was there.
QUOTE (Tecumseh @ Jun 29 2024, 08:56 PM)
Missed the poll too but I'd at least give them the opportunity to spot the danger. Perhaps they can't see the mesh itself, but they can see the contact points where it is held up on the perimeter. "Hmm, why are those there?" Or you could have them see a hapless bird fillet itself. The PCs might not immediately know why but it gives them an opportunity to adjust on the fly (literally). Given the importance of haste, even a momentary delay could achieve a dramatic effect.
If you want to be generous, you could have the suppressive fire tear up the mesh a bit so that it is no longer taut and thus less lethal. Damaging but not deadly.
Or you could pull your punch a bit and have it be an electrified mesh instead of monowire. That could be painful but not necessarily fatal.
If you want to be generous, you could have the suppressive fire tear up the mesh a bit so that it is no longer taut and thus less lethal. Damaging but not deadly.
Or you could pull your punch a bit and have it be an electrified mesh instead of monowire. That could be painful but not necessarily fatal.
Hey both!
I'd agree - it would be a bit gash to lose a character to this - but I have a reasonable amount of faith in them to salvage this.
Monowire is going to base 8s to spot, and doing 11S damage to an impacting character with half impact armour. Shimazu and the team are certainly going to count as "distracted" giving them the +2 modifier to spot, for a base TN of 10s.
So I'll definitely make a passive test for all of them at the start of the drop, to see if they can spot it, and reveal a "strange glinting in the air above the yard" for anyone with a success, but nothing more. If anyone gets a couple, then I'll clue them in - and then I expect it to be a non-issue as someone opens up with the destruction of some kind.
If they don't make the TNs, then having a bird clip past and lose a feather is a nice touch - and something I'd also considered.
But failing that, if Shimazu gets hit with an 11S half impact, he'll be packing 10/10 armour on the job and accepting the quickness and combat pool penalties - so that will be 5 points of impact armour after halving, reducing the hit to a 6S. With Body 7, Combat Pool of 8 (after reduction) and 14 rerolls, as well as a bag of karma currently (think he's saving up for initiation again) - I don't think that will be too much of an issue. Even if he doesn't have a reroll, but goes in with the CP, he should get a pair of 6s on 15 dice, and drop the wound to an M and be fine with that, especially with Kai able to do biotech once they're back onboard and with Tads around to heal a phys-ad with essence 6 it should be no problem at all.
If anything, I'm thinking more in line of having the monowire damage slicing into the harness that they've fashioned and shredding that, rather than him - leaving him and the prisoner on the ground, unattached from the lift cable, and then ask them to solve that little challenge, and see what they come up with! <innocent grin>
Yes, those are some significant dice pools. When you get to a certain point you need to challenge players narratively rather than mechanically since their dice pools will bail them out of anything that requires a roll. (Or you throw so many rolls at them it eventually eats through their pool of rerolls, but that gets tiresome.) Having the monowire slash the harness could be a fun way to do that. Or it could slice off some other piece of prized gear, which then falls into the prison yard and into the eager hands of someone with nothing to lose who doesn't want to give it back.
Just finished the session - jailbreak complete. A whole bunch of rerolls used across most of the team...
Shimazu didn't notice the monowire as he leapt out - but Marius did, and then pulled off some crazy pilot shit and burnt/blasted some of the wire away using the engines before Shimazu impacted, creating a hole - so it only sliced open the harness a little. But Shimazu was more than confident to grab the guy and get out. There was explosions, and banishing, and full-auto cannon fire, and jamming - and they're away clear now, having trashed everything that was sent after them. So it's all good!
And now all I need to do is find some way to play the theme music from McGuyver on a sitar, and the theme music for the session is done as well... <grin>
Shimazu didn't notice the monowire as he leapt out - but Marius did, and then pulled off some crazy pilot shit and burnt/blasted some of the wire away using the engines before Shimazu impacted, creating a hole - so it only sliced open the harness a little. But Shimazu was more than confident to grab the guy and get out. There was explosions, and banishing, and full-auto cannon fire, and jamming - and they're away clear now, having trashed everything that was sent after them. So it's all good!
And now all I need to do is find some way to play the theme music from McGuyver on a sitar, and the theme music for the session is done as well... <grin>
The MacGyver theme song? Not Mission Impossible to go with the heist/jailbreak?
I confess I had to go look up the MacGyver music since it's been about 30 years since I last heard it.
I confess I had to go look up the MacGyver music since it's been about 30 years since I last heard it.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 313 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And it was time to launch the prison breakout – and a good bit of planning done the previous week, meant they were all comfortable and happy with launching the assault and knowing what to do. Just as they were getting into position over the prison, Gus / Hunter made an offhand comment that he was ‘glad there wasn’t any monowire’ and I had to work very hard on my poker face and try not to let anything slip.
I made hidden perception checks for the team, with none of them spotting the wire on their final approach, and then one more check as Shimazu jumped – and only Marius got a good enough roll to spot it – after Shimazu was already in the air. I thought that was way more dramatic, and it was going to be interesting to see what he did.
As it turned out, he came up with an interesting scenario, rolled, blew some re-rolls getting a couple of success, and then blew a couple of good karma buying some more – so I figured it would be churlish to not have it work.
So, bad luck for the other prisoners, some of whom got dismembered by the monowire as it whipped out from the blasted hole, and then a bit of alarm for Shimazu as it whips past his face – and the added fun of slicing off their carefully prepared harness to keep the target safe.
The team laid down plenty of firepower, both mundane and magical, and reacted really quickly, barely giving the defenders time to react. Even the follow up wave of drones was very quickly attacked with the vehicle mounted auto-cannon, and the mage reinforcement was also equally slapped in the face – and then the team were gone.
So, in a lot of ways, a perfect operation – in, just the right amount of violence, then out before they got bogged down, and there really wasn’t anything they did wrong (other than not anticipating the monowire, and they managed to work around that) – so they got the job done without any real trouble.
It wasn’t super high paying, but they’ve made a decent contact, and also added a new smuggler stop which opens up all of the Indian sub-continent to operations, which will help a lot going forward.
I’ve no idea what they’re going to want to do next – whether it’s back to the ranch for some reason, to look at the Paris job they’ve been offered, to do something proactive. I guess we’ll have to think on our feet next week!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 25.30392, 67.11201, Time 12:00
2. Tads has earth spirit to conceal the bird, 1.5 hours to soak stun. Summons a backup with a RR
3. Marius recon - flux 5-6, encryption 2. Shimazu going down with vibroknife, leaving sword on Broadsword.
4. Team takeoff at kicking out time, and head over, climbing fast. Aswon spots 1 with white halo. Spots the bedsheet under him.
5. Marius flying over on a climb, then abrupt drop down to 20m - good handling check. Tads spots the air elementals coming and watchers heading for the admin building.
6. Marius spots the monowire, tries to gun the engine to burn the wire. Gets an 11, buys 1, gets a 16, buys 3, blows a hole in some of the mesh. Shimazu dodging - no soak.
7. Hunter drops a grenade into the closest tower. Badaboom. Tads squishes first elemental.
8. VK - "BACON!", clip. Shimazu perception check - fails, offer RR, declined. Marius climbs. Tads sends her smaller spirit to mob the elementals. Shimazu str check on 3s, Marius taking off like a rocket, Hunter taking out 2nd tower - 8m deviation so no kill, but keeps heads down. Kai engages winch, Tads conceals Shimazu and tgt, Aswon spots the drone launchers popping out, grabs big rifle
9. Hunter shuts door to head for copilots seat to do gunnery. Spot the 5 drones launching, 1 spotter, 4 HKs. Tads squishes elementals 1 by 1. Tads asks Aswon to watch astral.
10. Kai looking for mages as well. Spot mage and 4 X F6 fire elementals rising out of admin block. BGC down to 1 for Tads. Aswon swaps back to the spear...
11. Shimazu gets himself and the target inside out of the airstream. Hunter takes a great shot - trashes the spotter and the explosion takes out one of the HKs too.
12. Tads starts to banish one of the Fire elementals. 3 vs 0. Kills it in 2 rounds. Enemy mage stops, throws a spirit bolt (but soaks) but fails.
13. Marius picks up huge surges in comms traffic, calling for help - Hunter looks for the comms array, gets a lock on. Marius jams the signal. Hunter takes out the corner of the building while taking out the comms array. Stealth check 13 - away clean. Jammer on for the bird. Kai checking the target.
14. Kai scanning - VK - it's here, left shoulder. Tinfoil over the shoulder revealed.
15. Aswon gets info on who he is. "What the fuck where you doing in there... colonel?" "Mission went south." Aswon moves small tools away from him, then moves out of earshot to report that he's a merc, not political. Sabotage and infiltration specialist, well skilled. Not a glorious leader, but really good at what he does. Tells Kai his name. Hunter gets his panther cannon and locks the door to the cockpit, Kai asks if he can check him over "sure, nothing worse than what they do to me". Kai gets status. Tads asks for magic - gets an ok. Fast+nutrition. Shimazu medicine check, signs of abuse
16. Kai - not going to tell you who hired us, but this is where we're taking you. "sure, you've got all the guns and you're in charge" Tell him. "not been watching the news recently, who's in charge" India. Now he relaxes. Hands back a scalpel blade to Kai.
17. "If you want to contact anyone, we can do that - we weren't told you couldn't speak to anyone." If you're taking me to whoever paid for this - that's fine."
18. Marius spots a chopper heading to the prison, but not flat out. Marius planning route - 50km out, then loop around about 700km total, 90min
19. Aswon talking with VK, gets some details about merc career. Tells them his op was burnt, recon mission, they have info - but he got locked up until he reveals. Shimazu psychology and aura reading, picks up on his cold/hard edge.
20. VK - are you happy to tell me where we are? And where we're going? Aswon - over the ocean, but happy to share. Hunter shares clean map, Kai says yes, get comm codes.
21. Team call, slow response. Who is this? Friends of a mutual friend, given in case we needed it. In the area. Friend says hello. "We've not heard from our friend for quite some time" Hopefully that should be fixed fairly soon. "We'd like to meet our friend sometime again, will stand by." Kai checks with VK, let's him know.
22. Hunter nav check - Indus River Delta, basic info, likely to be a smuggler stop.
23. Aswon and VK chat about merc operations. Aswon engages fully.
24. Arrive to eastern side of city, large factory near the river, manufacturing site. Team treat as a potential hot-zone.
25. Concrete factory, set down, ambulance waiting. Tads does prophylaxis, cure disease and heal, along with detect magic. Ambulance heads in, stops until ramp is dropped. 2 Purbiyas in casual combat gear, two ambulance techs. Team assense him - techs are a bit nervous but professional. Combat guys mixed feelings. "While you're here, here's my card" Kai hands over.
26. Kai gets a crisp salute. Profuse thanks, flowery language, hand over credstick. Kai and Shimazu biotech checks - pumping him full of good stuff. Kai offers the bio-info from their kit. They accept. They load up into the ambulance and head off - Kai says good bye.
27. Aswon reminds them about fuel, Kai checks - ahh yes, fuel truck is coming. 30 min wait, then ELF fuel tanker turns up and the team refuel.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And it was time to launch the prison breakout – and a good bit of planning done the previous week, meant they were all comfortable and happy with launching the assault and knowing what to do. Just as they were getting into position over the prison, Gus / Hunter made an offhand comment that he was ‘glad there wasn’t any monowire’ and I had to work very hard on my poker face and try not to let anything slip.
I made hidden perception checks for the team, with none of them spotting the wire on their final approach, and then one more check as Shimazu jumped – and only Marius got a good enough roll to spot it – after Shimazu was already in the air. I thought that was way more dramatic, and it was going to be interesting to see what he did.
As it turned out, he came up with an interesting scenario, rolled, blew some re-rolls getting a couple of success, and then blew a couple of good karma buying some more – so I figured it would be churlish to not have it work.
So, bad luck for the other prisoners, some of whom got dismembered by the monowire as it whipped out from the blasted hole, and then a bit of alarm for Shimazu as it whips past his face – and the added fun of slicing off their carefully prepared harness to keep the target safe.
The team laid down plenty of firepower, both mundane and magical, and reacted really quickly, barely giving the defenders time to react. Even the follow up wave of drones was very quickly attacked with the vehicle mounted auto-cannon, and the mage reinforcement was also equally slapped in the face – and then the team were gone.
So, in a lot of ways, a perfect operation – in, just the right amount of violence, then out before they got bogged down, and there really wasn’t anything they did wrong (other than not anticipating the monowire, and they managed to work around that) – so they got the job done without any real trouble.
It wasn’t super high paying, but they’ve made a decent contact, and also added a new smuggler stop which opens up all of the Indian sub-continent to operations, which will help a lot going forward.
I’ve no idea what they’re going to want to do next – whether it’s back to the ranch for some reason, to look at the Paris job they’ve been offered, to do something proactive. I guess we’ll have to think on our feet next week!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 25.30392, 67.11201, Time 12:00
2. Tads has earth spirit to conceal the bird, 1.5 hours to soak stun. Summons a backup with a RR
3. Marius recon - flux 5-6, encryption 2. Shimazu going down with vibroknife, leaving sword on Broadsword.
4. Team takeoff at kicking out time, and head over, climbing fast. Aswon spots 1 with white halo. Spots the bedsheet under him.
5. Marius flying over on a climb, then abrupt drop down to 20m - good handling check. Tads spots the air elementals coming and watchers heading for the admin building.
6. Marius spots the monowire, tries to gun the engine to burn the wire. Gets an 11, buys 1, gets a 16, buys 3, blows a hole in some of the mesh. Shimazu dodging - no soak.
7. Hunter drops a grenade into the closest tower. Badaboom. Tads squishes first elemental.
8. VK - "BACON!", clip. Shimazu perception check - fails, offer RR, declined. Marius climbs. Tads sends her smaller spirit to mob the elementals. Shimazu str check on 3s, Marius taking off like a rocket, Hunter taking out 2nd tower - 8m deviation so no kill, but keeps heads down. Kai engages winch, Tads conceals Shimazu and tgt, Aswon spots the drone launchers popping out, grabs big rifle
9. Hunter shuts door to head for copilots seat to do gunnery. Spot the 5 drones launching, 1 spotter, 4 HKs. Tads squishes elementals 1 by 1. Tads asks Aswon to watch astral.
10. Kai looking for mages as well. Spot mage and 4 X F6 fire elementals rising out of admin block. BGC down to 1 for Tads. Aswon swaps back to the spear...
11. Shimazu gets himself and the target inside out of the airstream. Hunter takes a great shot - trashes the spotter and the explosion takes out one of the HKs too.
12. Tads starts to banish one of the Fire elementals. 3 vs 0. Kills it in 2 rounds. Enemy mage stops, throws a spirit bolt (but soaks) but fails.
13. Marius picks up huge surges in comms traffic, calling for help - Hunter looks for the comms array, gets a lock on. Marius jams the signal. Hunter takes out the corner of the building while taking out the comms array. Stealth check 13 - away clean. Jammer on for the bird. Kai checking the target.
14. Kai scanning - VK - it's here, left shoulder. Tinfoil over the shoulder revealed.
15. Aswon gets info on who he is. "What the fuck where you doing in there... colonel?" "Mission went south." Aswon moves small tools away from him, then moves out of earshot to report that he's a merc, not political. Sabotage and infiltration specialist, well skilled. Not a glorious leader, but really good at what he does. Tells Kai his name. Hunter gets his panther cannon and locks the door to the cockpit, Kai asks if he can check him over "sure, nothing worse than what they do to me". Kai gets status. Tads asks for magic - gets an ok. Fast+nutrition. Shimazu medicine check, signs of abuse
16. Kai - not going to tell you who hired us, but this is where we're taking you. "sure, you've got all the guns and you're in charge" Tell him. "not been watching the news recently, who's in charge" India. Now he relaxes. Hands back a scalpel blade to Kai.
17. "If you want to contact anyone, we can do that - we weren't told you couldn't speak to anyone." If you're taking me to whoever paid for this - that's fine."
18. Marius spots a chopper heading to the prison, but not flat out. Marius planning route - 50km out, then loop around about 700km total, 90min
19. Aswon talking with VK, gets some details about merc career. Tells them his op was burnt, recon mission, they have info - but he got locked up until he reveals. Shimazu psychology and aura reading, picks up on his cold/hard edge.
20. VK - are you happy to tell me where we are? And where we're going? Aswon - over the ocean, but happy to share. Hunter shares clean map, Kai says yes, get comm codes.
21. Team call, slow response. Who is this? Friends of a mutual friend, given in case we needed it. In the area. Friend says hello. "We've not heard from our friend for quite some time" Hopefully that should be fixed fairly soon. "We'd like to meet our friend sometime again, will stand by." Kai checks with VK, let's him know.
22. Hunter nav check - Indus River Delta, basic info, likely to be a smuggler stop.
23. Aswon and VK chat about merc operations. Aswon engages fully.
24. Arrive to eastern side of city, large factory near the river, manufacturing site. Team treat as a potential hot-zone.
25. Concrete factory, set down, ambulance waiting. Tads does prophylaxis, cure disease and heal, along with detect magic. Ambulance heads in, stops until ramp is dropped. 2 Purbiyas in casual combat gear, two ambulance techs. Team assense him - techs are a bit nervous but professional. Combat guys mixed feelings. "While you're here, here's my card" Kai hands over.
26. Kai gets a crisp salute. Profuse thanks, flowery language, hand over credstick. Kai and Shimazu biotech checks - pumping him full of good stuff. Kai offers the bio-info from their kit. They accept. They load up into the ambulance and head off - Kai says good bye.
27. Aswon reminds them about fuel, Kai checks - ahh yes, fuel truck is coming. 30 min wait, then ELF fuel tanker turns up and the team refuel.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 314 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off this week with me throwing the floor open to the team, asking the players what they wanted to do – as there’s no clear decision from the end of last week. Always a fun thing when you have no firm clue as to where they’re going next and what they plan on doing – the perils of running a large open-world sandbox.
Still – I’d like to think that I’m *reasonably* good at thinking on my feet and trying to be responsive, and coming up with stuff on the fly. Here at least, some of the work I’ve done in the past really helps – the map built up over the last 7 years is covered in pins, notes and details about stops and NPCs, and my spreadsheet has a fair chunk of details on items, locations and people they’ve interacted with – as well as some they haven’t.
So, they decided to nip down to the new smuggler stop and find out what was going on, so that at least was something I had prepared already – they met the contact, but botched the perception checks (given how high the average intelligence is, they should have got this easily, but Dice Maiden (the dice roller we use on our Discord channel) was having none of it that night! So, they got a hint that he might, possibly be related… and of course, we all got a giggle about why we ‘can’t stream Shadowrun’ as the inevitable ‘they all look alike’ joke was trotted out.
Once they’d made their introductions though, they had another very brief chat, and decided that they were going to investigate the option of getting a nice masking chip and maybe a new deck for Hunter, and heading over to Shanghai to see what they can get. That made things a little simpler, as that means they have only a few options to reach the far east, based on their fuel capacity and known stops.
I had nothing specific planned, so the journey up around and past Delhi was smooth enough, but coming in to Trafford, the random encounter dice roll came up with a hit – but a positive encounter, instead of a negative. A quick check on the aforementioned spreadsheet, and I picked one of the other Smuggler teams I have on my list, that they’ve not encountered yet.
So, as they approached, they saw 5 news choppers waiting at the smuggler stop. This is a team that go by the name of “Swarm”.
The team – or at least Kai, did seem to take them at face value, though I’m sure by the end of the night the giggles and amusement they displayed let him know he wasn’t quite on the mark. Still – he didn’t put his foot in it, they’ve exchanged contact details and all is well.
Then it was time for a little bit of B plot – with Spook letting Aswon know about the magical mark on her kid. This is a horror mark, and there’s nothing they can really do about it – it’s mostly to remind them that they’re messing with some powerful critters, and that the one from Kowloon “escaped”. Of course, Aswon’s player will also take it as a personal thing, and be invested in “solving” this little predicament, so that might lead to a detour to Hong Kong.
The only wrinkle in the proceedings was Tads having some more pretty sucky rolls as she tried to get a new spirit – ending up failing her invoking test, and not getting the great form spirit she needed. She didn’t want to use a re-roll, not knowing what was coming up, so she decided to just take the drain, rest for 20 minutes and then try again. So, they ended up being unconcealed for a while, relying just on the polymers, waiting a chunk past dusk, and then trying again – getting it on the second attempt and taking a bit more stun.
But, next time we’ll be heading back to Dragon Ridge, and then heading east – so we’ll see how far we’ll get tomorrow night!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 25.37293, 68.40053, Time 15:58
2. Team start talking about what to do next - not really many local contacts, thinking about a deck or battle-tac, maybe stealing one or both.
3. Marius - do we rob a high end electronics store, or a distribution warehouse. Aswon - maybe a high tech enclave, somewhere like Ashgabat. Kai - I do have a border security manager in Delhi, maybe could try him for info? Kai tries Jahnu, but he's busy, Kai leaves a message. Marius - if we found a top end retailer, it's not going to have a masking chip - but we could get that on the black market. Marius recalls the guy in Shanghai Noodles, might be a good lead. Or we can head to Delhi, as the capital it's likely to have the best tech. Team agree to go to Patels at first - but then Marius thinks about route to Shanghai - via Trafford / Dragon Ridge. Good contact for high end tech.
4. Marius questions going to the stop in the edge of Pakistan, about Indian smuggling. Aswon - they might be the last stop though and better informed.
5. Tads raised concept of trapping mages inside the bird if they can deal with the elementals, Marius and Hunter not keen.
6. 18 minute flight - faster answer, arranges to be there in a few minutes. land in the slag heaps to the north of the jetty, port is bulk goods mainly.
7. Ranjit Patel. Jeans and t-shirt, baseball cap. Spots the Broadsword coming in with an AMAZING roll. Not surprised when Kai and Shimazu appear. Kai checks him out - looks Indian, but not familiar. Hey dude, I'm Ranjit. You look familiar, do I know you? No, don't think so. Are we ok to park here, yeah, no problem. Good spot on the bird. The dust wasn't flowing right. Rest of the team ok to come out? Yeah, no problem.
8. Kai - given details by new friend, recently made. Do you need anything doing. Discrete transport specialists. Anything you need moving?
9. So - you know Vikay? Yes, we do, just left him with some other friends. How was he? Rough, worse for wear, was being taken away in an ambulance with friends, seemed happy, wasn't in life threatening danger. He seemed a bit ill and run down, but had his wits about him. Was keen for us to make contact, but we had to drop him off urgently. The people who paid for his transport wanted him delivered ASAP. Shimazu picks up genuine relief. Asks "was he important to you", yeah, could say that. Team look, think he may be in extended family tree. Kai - professional obligations, can't give too much away, but he was more than happy for us to get in touch and let you know.
10. Cool, so what do you need? Fuel, goods, services? Kai, looking for some goods to take, probably north-west, non-perishables.
11. Ranjit - Local goods to shift - diamonds and other stones, some drugs, gold, silks
12. Asks for stuff like jeans - but mostly by boat thanks to quantity, or western drugs.
13. What about passengers - willing passengers. Nothing at the moment, mostly go on boats. Kai, what about warding. No - we're sorted, got a powerful ward. Come see. Battered portacabin, inside ward, F3 "See!"
14. Kai to team via internals - seems legit, happy about his friend. Shall was share footage to prove to him? Aswon - op-sec - no I don't think so. Tads - also we don't have his permission to share details about his condition. Quick discussion about cyber-surgeons between Aswon/Kai. Kai asks about Ranjits ware - paid for by the port authority, basic kit. Kai drops Jahnus name - not recognised. Kai asks about getting ware - Ranjit says no, it's employees only.
15. Ranjit - are you a ninja? To Shimazu. Yeah, of a kind. Show us a move. Quickdraw. Not that impressed. Gets a box. Shimazu distance strike, strikes it in mid-air. Blows his mind. Turns to Aswon, I know what you do, launches a ball at his face. Aswon catches instinctively. See basketball player! I am Aswon. Hmmm. Hard stare.
16. Looks at Hunter, Marius - finger guns. So oyu need anything. Girls? Boys? Looks at Tads. Or girls? Sniggers...
17. Kai - no, just wanted to make contact, curious. Swaps contact details. Gaudy, but not great.
18. Aswon - if we need to smuggle stuff into Pakistan, can we bring it in here? Ranjit, sure. Kai leaves "fuel deposit" of 1k. Head back to the bird.
19. 1500km to Trafford. 158m, arrive 19:30. Arrive to find "Swarm" landed. Marius picks up news chopper types. Aswon asks if they can disguise the vehicle. Tads - it's a bit too big for all my spells, can only just mask it. Kai tries Jahnu again - still not available.
20. Team discuss and think about leaving, could refuel from the barrels in the middle of nowhere, then move on. Discuss about spirit refresh times. Kai - they're here at a smuggler stop, probably not official either. Come in to land.
21. Marius engages the polymers, asks Kai to go get fuel sorted. Aswon checks for damage to the bottom from monofilament wire - none.
22. Aswon suggests selling most of the fuel from the barrels here due to high price, and use the rest to get to Dragon ridge. Kai - doesn't want to burn contact, or risk things.
23. Kai enters, spots Swarm. Says hello, they respond. Lovely day. I guess. They your choppers. Yeah. Look like news choppers - something going on? No, just chasing stories. Well, appreciate the work you do. They snigger a bit.
24. Aswon message from Spook. Kids arse, mark, been to see doc, doesn't know what it is. Aswon passes to Tads. Team think - possibly a curse or tracking ritual mark? Aswon advises probably magical, keep him in a warded place if you can. Tads offers to go over and check. Start to arrange a meet up.
25. Female troll looks out, can't spot the team vehicle. "where's your bird?" Kai - nearby. But it's got some special paint on it - got to be discrete. All go for a look, are impressed. "is there a convention going on? Anything you need, always happy to help fellow travellers..." Tacky - want to know where your RPs come from. Shimazu - cost a kings ransom... bdum tish. Kai - is that legal?
26. Polymers - gotta turn them on, and legality varies. Kai - nice set of vehicles. "We just go where the news takes us." Snigger again. Kai - import export. You interested. No - probably have it covered.
27. Trafford refuels, Marius supervises. Tads asks Kai to distract at dusk. Bit of info on the team. 11,250 for fuel. Kai - offers card. "Ace, we cover the news". Always nice to meet someone in another industry. Another snigger.
28. Tads tries to summon spirit - fails on invoke. Aswon feeling of being watched, Kai spots spirit reporting in. Shaman - "ahh, powerful juju!" Troll - if you're cheating, I'm not playing!
29. Aswon looking at the mark - like an incomplete slap/spank. Kai drops in Jahnus name into conversation with Swarm - no visible reaction.
30. Tads gets the spirit on the 2nd go, after 42 mins rest.
31. Pausing there for the night.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off this week with me throwing the floor open to the team, asking the players what they wanted to do – as there’s no clear decision from the end of last week. Always a fun thing when you have no firm clue as to where they’re going next and what they plan on doing – the perils of running a large open-world sandbox.
Still – I’d like to think that I’m *reasonably* good at thinking on my feet and trying to be responsive, and coming up with stuff on the fly. Here at least, some of the work I’ve done in the past really helps – the map built up over the last 7 years is covered in pins, notes and details about stops and NPCs, and my spreadsheet has a fair chunk of details on items, locations and people they’ve interacted with – as well as some they haven’t.
So, they decided to nip down to the new smuggler stop and find out what was going on, so that at least was something I had prepared already – they met the contact, but botched the perception checks (given how high the average intelligence is, they should have got this easily, but Dice Maiden (the dice roller we use on our Discord channel) was having none of it that night! So, they got a hint that he might, possibly be related… and of course, we all got a giggle about why we ‘can’t stream Shadowrun’ as the inevitable ‘they all look alike’ joke was trotted out.
Once they’d made their introductions though, they had another very brief chat, and decided that they were going to investigate the option of getting a nice masking chip and maybe a new deck for Hunter, and heading over to Shanghai to see what they can get. That made things a little simpler, as that means they have only a few options to reach the far east, based on their fuel capacity and known stops.
I had nothing specific planned, so the journey up around and past Delhi was smooth enough, but coming in to Trafford, the random encounter dice roll came up with a hit – but a positive encounter, instead of a negative. A quick check on the aforementioned spreadsheet, and I picked one of the other Smuggler teams I have on my list, that they’ve not encountered yet.
So, as they approached, they saw 5 news choppers waiting at the smuggler stop. This is a team that go by the name of “Swarm”.
- A group of 5 small choppers that operate as courier team, splitting appropriate cargos throughout their holds. They fly a collection of upgraded / converted news choppers, and frequently masquerade as the press to confuse customs / enforcement. No two craft are alike, but all are armed with lightweight missile systems disguised as "cameras". Rep 2, Threat 3
- Ace - female dwarf pilot, vcr1, team face/ captain, from France, Aerospatiale AS355N
- Loop - human female, vcr 1, ponytail, main team mechanic, Airbus H135
- Tacky - male orc, vcr 1, chief scrounger and fabricator, load master, Hughes WK-1a
- Dolly - male human voodoo shaman, from New Orleans, dresses for the role, but often breaks character when he doesn't think outsiders are listening. Sikorsky-Bell JetRanger Gold
- Fusion - troll female, the designated street sam, expert with chemicals and fuel systems but a massive pyromaniac, her chosen weapons are Shiawase Blazers. Two of em, strapped together. Because who doesn't like more fire? Agusta Westland AW-139
The team – or at least Kai, did seem to take them at face value, though I’m sure by the end of the night the giggles and amusement they displayed let him know he wasn’t quite on the mark. Still – he didn’t put his foot in it, they’ve exchanged contact details and all is well.
Then it was time for a little bit of B plot – with Spook letting Aswon know about the magical mark on her kid. This is a horror mark, and there’s nothing they can really do about it – it’s mostly to remind them that they’re messing with some powerful critters, and that the one from Kowloon “escaped”. Of course, Aswon’s player will also take it as a personal thing, and be invested in “solving” this little predicament, so that might lead to a detour to Hong Kong.
The only wrinkle in the proceedings was Tads having some more pretty sucky rolls as she tried to get a new spirit – ending up failing her invoking test, and not getting the great form spirit she needed. She didn’t want to use a re-roll, not knowing what was coming up, so she decided to just take the drain, rest for 20 minutes and then try again. So, they ended up being unconcealed for a while, relying just on the polymers, waiting a chunk past dusk, and then trying again – getting it on the second attempt and taking a bit more stun.
But, next time we’ll be heading back to Dragon Ridge, and then heading east – so we’ll see how far we’ll get tomorrow night!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 25.37293, 68.40053, Time 15:58
2. Team start talking about what to do next - not really many local contacts, thinking about a deck or battle-tac, maybe stealing one or both.
3. Marius - do we rob a high end electronics store, or a distribution warehouse. Aswon - maybe a high tech enclave, somewhere like Ashgabat. Kai - I do have a border security manager in Delhi, maybe could try him for info? Kai tries Jahnu, but he's busy, Kai leaves a message. Marius - if we found a top end retailer, it's not going to have a masking chip - but we could get that on the black market. Marius recalls the guy in Shanghai Noodles, might be a good lead. Or we can head to Delhi, as the capital it's likely to have the best tech. Team agree to go to Patels at first - but then Marius thinks about route to Shanghai - via Trafford / Dragon Ridge. Good contact for high end tech.
4. Marius questions going to the stop in the edge of Pakistan, about Indian smuggling. Aswon - they might be the last stop though and better informed.
5. Tads raised concept of trapping mages inside the bird if they can deal with the elementals, Marius and Hunter not keen.
6. 18 minute flight - faster answer, arranges to be there in a few minutes. land in the slag heaps to the north of the jetty, port is bulk goods mainly.
7. Ranjit Patel. Jeans and t-shirt, baseball cap. Spots the Broadsword coming in with an AMAZING roll. Not surprised when Kai and Shimazu appear. Kai checks him out - looks Indian, but not familiar. Hey dude, I'm Ranjit. You look familiar, do I know you? No, don't think so. Are we ok to park here, yeah, no problem. Good spot on the bird. The dust wasn't flowing right. Rest of the team ok to come out? Yeah, no problem.
8. Kai - given details by new friend, recently made. Do you need anything doing. Discrete transport specialists. Anything you need moving?
9. So - you know Vikay? Yes, we do, just left him with some other friends. How was he? Rough, worse for wear, was being taken away in an ambulance with friends, seemed happy, wasn't in life threatening danger. He seemed a bit ill and run down, but had his wits about him. Was keen for us to make contact, but we had to drop him off urgently. The people who paid for his transport wanted him delivered ASAP. Shimazu picks up genuine relief. Asks "was he important to you", yeah, could say that. Team look, think he may be in extended family tree. Kai - professional obligations, can't give too much away, but he was more than happy for us to get in touch and let you know.
10. Cool, so what do you need? Fuel, goods, services? Kai, looking for some goods to take, probably north-west, non-perishables.
11. Ranjit - Local goods to shift - diamonds and other stones, some drugs, gold, silks
12. Asks for stuff like jeans - but mostly by boat thanks to quantity, or western drugs.
13. What about passengers - willing passengers. Nothing at the moment, mostly go on boats. Kai, what about warding. No - we're sorted, got a powerful ward. Come see. Battered portacabin, inside ward, F3 "See!"
14. Kai to team via internals - seems legit, happy about his friend. Shall was share footage to prove to him? Aswon - op-sec - no I don't think so. Tads - also we don't have his permission to share details about his condition. Quick discussion about cyber-surgeons between Aswon/Kai. Kai asks about Ranjits ware - paid for by the port authority, basic kit. Kai drops Jahnus name - not recognised. Kai asks about getting ware - Ranjit says no, it's employees only.
15. Ranjit - are you a ninja? To Shimazu. Yeah, of a kind. Show us a move. Quickdraw. Not that impressed. Gets a box. Shimazu distance strike, strikes it in mid-air. Blows his mind. Turns to Aswon, I know what you do, launches a ball at his face. Aswon catches instinctively. See basketball player! I am Aswon. Hmmm. Hard stare.
16. Looks at Hunter, Marius - finger guns. So oyu need anything. Girls? Boys? Looks at Tads. Or girls? Sniggers...
17. Kai - no, just wanted to make contact, curious. Swaps contact details. Gaudy, but not great.
18. Aswon - if we need to smuggle stuff into Pakistan, can we bring it in here? Ranjit, sure. Kai leaves "fuel deposit" of 1k. Head back to the bird.
19. 1500km to Trafford. 158m, arrive 19:30. Arrive to find "Swarm" landed. Marius picks up news chopper types. Aswon asks if they can disguise the vehicle. Tads - it's a bit too big for all my spells, can only just mask it. Kai tries Jahnu again - still not available.
20. Team discuss and think about leaving, could refuel from the barrels in the middle of nowhere, then move on. Discuss about spirit refresh times. Kai - they're here at a smuggler stop, probably not official either. Come in to land.
21. Marius engages the polymers, asks Kai to go get fuel sorted. Aswon checks for damage to the bottom from monofilament wire - none.
22. Aswon suggests selling most of the fuel from the barrels here due to high price, and use the rest to get to Dragon ridge. Kai - doesn't want to burn contact, or risk things.
23. Kai enters, spots Swarm. Says hello, they respond. Lovely day. I guess. They your choppers. Yeah. Look like news choppers - something going on? No, just chasing stories. Well, appreciate the work you do. They snigger a bit.
24. Aswon message from Spook. Kids arse, mark, been to see doc, doesn't know what it is. Aswon passes to Tads. Team think - possibly a curse or tracking ritual mark? Aswon advises probably magical, keep him in a warded place if you can. Tads offers to go over and check. Start to arrange a meet up.
25. Female troll looks out, can't spot the team vehicle. "where's your bird?" Kai - nearby. But it's got some special paint on it - got to be discrete. All go for a look, are impressed. "is there a convention going on? Anything you need, always happy to help fellow travellers..." Tacky - want to know where your RPs come from. Shimazu - cost a kings ransom... bdum tish. Kai - is that legal?
26. Polymers - gotta turn them on, and legality varies. Kai - nice set of vehicles. "We just go where the news takes us." Snigger again. Kai - import export. You interested. No - probably have it covered.
27. Trafford refuels, Marius supervises. Tads asks Kai to distract at dusk. Bit of info on the team. 11,250 for fuel. Kai - offers card. "Ace, we cover the news". Always nice to meet someone in another industry. Another snigger.
28. Tads tries to summon spirit - fails on invoke. Aswon feeling of being watched, Kai spots spirit reporting in. Shaman - "ahh, powerful juju!" Troll - if you're cheating, I'm not playing!
29. Aswon looking at the mark - like an incomplete slap/spank. Kai drops in Jahnus name into conversation with Swarm - no visible reaction.
30. Tads gets the spirit on the 2nd go, after 42 mins rest.
31. Pausing there for the night.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 315 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week was technically very quiet for the team, with not much happening to them – but it was quite a busy time for the world at large. In essence, the team flew east one hop, from one smuggler stop to another, and nothing random happened to them – nice and easy.
We had an overnight stop, when they realised that in-game they’d been going all day and Marius really needed a break, so they settled into Dragon Ridge for some sleep.
Added in to their lives was the message from Spook, relating how her son is showing a strange mark – this is a Horror mark, seeded when they were both abducted and taken to the penthouse in Kowloon Walled City. At this stage, there’s nothing the players can do, and it was mostly to remind them that they’re up against some strange and eldritch horrors.
However, they really seemed to bite down hard on this, and Marius in particular – even going against his normal disdain for dragons to propose seeking out their help, to save the kid. We had some great RP between the team, and they seemed to be very gung-ho for getting this “fixed”, so it looks like this B-line plot is actually going to move more into the spotlight than I had originally thought it would – so I need to rework things in response to their actions a little, and give them a new quest perhaps! And they also seem quite keen on getting Lung involved, which is really interesting!
Then, we reached a key part of the timeline – with the canon assassination of Ibn-Eisa. In the published material, there’s no info on who the actual shooters were – it’s one of those things that are left for the individual GMs to fit into their world plot. With having Shimazu as an ex-professional Bodyguard, and Aswon being a very decent sniper, I decided to lean into this being a very-pro level strike, describing how the four rounds had hit almost at the same time.
That led to a number of theories from the team, whether it be multiple shooters, someone with a custom weapon, perhaps even someone with Move-By-Wire and taking the “extra” initiative passes. All good theories, and it seemed to intrigue them.
One of the things I did was explain to them as they watched and rewatched the assassination, the level of trauma and damage caused, making sure to explain from a meta-level that they could see the guy going past deadly-wound and WAY past his limit of over-damage. They were told in no uncertain terms that he was dead, Dave. Everyone’s dead Dave. Dave – they’re all dead. Dead Dave, they all are…
Marius and Aswon’s players were nodding, grinning and saying “uh-huh”, knowing full well what was to come, understanding the Shadowrun lore as well as they do – but I wanted the others to know that mechanically the guy was toast, and there was no way that even if they’d been on scene to do immediate first aid and then slap a force 10 heal on the guy that they could have saved him. He was as dead as a parrot pining for the fjords.
That’s going to make it fun when he miraculously comes back to life in 3 days of course… and then the team will know that strange things are afoot at the circle K.
And last of all, they spotted the cleric from way back in episode 125. He was planted back there just for this event (though I didn’t think it would take this many episodes to get there (episode 125 was played 24th March 2020, 3.3 years into the campaign, and we’re now 7.5 years in!) It’s also been a while in-game – we’re on day 635 now, and they met him on day 149, so I made sure to remind all the players about him – able to take advantage of Marius and his perfect memory to give them a quick refresher.
Otherwise, we’re on to Shanghai this coming week, to see if we can get some gear for Hunter – and discover that they can get a lovely new cyber-deck for him to use with some upgraded programs for a bargain price – if they’ll do just one small job for “The Noodles”, as payment…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 28.76007, 81.29737, Time 20:00
2. Team just taking off from Trafford. 2075km to Dragon Ridge. 230m flight time, arrive around midnight. Smooth journey - heading into heavy rain though. Rent a dorm, sleep overnight. Hunter checking the news - middle east unrest, new jihad. Aswon considers jihad and the previous euro wars - nothing to draw their attention. Tads - could we do defences to help the ranch, people with SUT think about.
3. Marius wants 8 hours kip, dawn spirits, runners go out round the lake. Aswon talismongering - super-roll. Finds a quartz rock dripping with mana, prime enchanting material. Tads 2 hours of drain to soak.
4. Aswon checks for gossip. Stop owner has heard rat packs and survival gear is short, Sichuan is launching another attack into Tibet.
5. Tads talks to Aswon, about doing an astral flyby to HK to check on the kid.
6. Gets there, magical curse, flag on his aura, more powerful than Tads, not something she's seen before but MAY be from the Horror. Tads reassures. Spook seems reassured that "someone competent" is looking into it. Gets back and reports, Marius doesn’t' like it - but heading into China, there are dragons, they know about this stuff... Aswon wonders if this is the opposite of a metaplane hiding quest. Kai - we need to check ourselves out, and also check Marius Jr. Very definite. How will Nadia handle it Marius - should we lie to her, or give her the truth? Tropical disease. Marius - will tell her the truth, it's just a precaution. Just being thorough. Aswon - yeah, check ourselves first. Kai - did a full medical breakdown a while back, gives us a good comparison point. Kai does physical check, Shimazu does aura check.
7. Hunter - if this is linked the horror, we really need to fix this ASAP. If it was the mage, he got dealt with, so that's not a problem is it? We know where he went - the trash pile. so we know where to start looking.
8. Marius - Spook and the kid were taken, ran into the creature - big misery aura. You've likened it to tracking device. Not seen it before, suspicion it's something to do with the creature, the only thing we can do is to tap up our magical resources that we've bumped into. You're pretty powerful, and if you're not aware of the answer, that's worrying. We've dealt with Lung - amicably. If it is something to do with the creature, he's likely to help - or as likely as anything else. Other dragons and CEOs seem to be helping us out - for some reason. Why won't dragons this side?
9. Tads - jumping to 2 conclusions. It's to do with the horror. And it's lung. Aswon - but we're pretty confident. Marius - it was spook that sorted that job out - can she try to get in touch.
10. Kai and Shimazu do checks - team are clear and normal. Tads does a ranch check - all clear there as well. Aswon - weight of evidence, that's a horror related thing, it's just him that's marked. Suggest I call spook to try and get hold of the dragons. Kai agrees. Marius - you put wards on stuff all the time, can you put a ward on a person. Aswon + Tads - no, too flexible. Tads - a cyberlimb, yes, but skin is too flexible. Discussion about wards / quickening / flexibility. Discussion about taking his intestines out to get enough square metres... Marius - what about a dermal sheath covering just that area? Implanted ware? Marius - really strong feelings, not liking magic - but it's a kid. An innocent kid. What if it was mine? Aswon - calls Spook to try and set something up. "I'll let you know", Aswon - how did you get the job. "Two mysterious matrix contacts". Aswon - don't let this get back to the Japanese side. Oh, and get some warding materials in - hook in with Fan.
11. Marius - stay here, or go to shanghai? Tads - do we have parking in Shanghai? Hunter - and do we need to have the kid with us? Marius - not necessarily, not to start with. Have the image and a magical look at it from Tads, and then go from there. Kai - think we should take the kid to the dragon, if we can - but the practicalities are a bit dodgy. But spook might not like that - not immediately life threatening. And don't we have a contact in Shanghai? Marius - just the otaku I think. Kai - ok, let's go to shanghai, and get that sorted and out of the way, and then go from there. Don't mind throwing money at Shadowland to see if we can get some info. Aswon - not a bad shout, just need to be subtle.
12. Marius - what Shimazu knows about the bridge, and how freaky that was - I'm not sure the kid is in immediate danger. They want to make a bridge between worlds, it seems. Need human assistance - I guess? Like shamans summoning insects and stuff. Probably going to be a slow process, and take a while. Could be something that takes decades - slowly influencing his growth and fate, building him up to use later?
13. Tads - 2 thoughts. It could be they are using him as an anchor for their bridge. Hunter nods in agreement. Tads - not a route I think to take, but if there's no body, there's no anchor. Aswon - yeah, we need to make it clear the boy can't be killed to "solve" the problem. He is precious to me.
14. Hunter thinking about magik-net, can do it, picks up on the news item, warning of graphic violence.
15. Marius - don't they have mages to prevent stuff like that happening? I remember as a news thing when I was a kid, someone tried to off an elf - nothing hit him. Aswon - magic bullets? Marius - isn't he massively powerful, one of the top preachers or something?
16. Tads - could that be a body double? Is he off somewhere? Aswon - could be. Or his mages have betrayed him? Or they've decided to replace him. Tads - and that's pretty close to him. Aswon - what's the religious side of this? KSAF reporter is there - gives Marius a sinking feeling.
17. Tads - is this something to do with those journalists? Are we going to get 4 more weird events?
18. Shimazu - could be a binding thing, bringing together the sects of Islam, polarising event.
19. Crowd wound up, view from 8-9 different cameras, not staged / faked. Marius spots the rescued guy from the radioactive crated back in Libya, now being a supporter/admin assistant to one of the priests. "Great, no good deed goes unpunished." Aswon - maybe he's a moderating influence, and it will be less bad now?
20. Aswon thinking about merc ops - who could do this, what level. Types of attack. Escape route etc. Hunter - reminds Aswon about the 3 round burst capability on his AMR, could be a specialist hit using a unique weapon. Tads - could be a couple of snipers, all with mindlinks, to co-ordinate the shots.
21. Trying to analyse footage, do SUT rolls. No blow-through on the targets, and that's weird.
22. Kai - looking for people that don't react "properly" Shimazu checking professional bodyguarding. All reactions seem normal. Conspiracy SIGs.
23. Aswon sends Topshot a message "did you see that shot"? Couple of minutes later. "Non - impressive, was it not."
24. Team take off, heading to Shanghai.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week was technically very quiet for the team, with not much happening to them – but it was quite a busy time for the world at large. In essence, the team flew east one hop, from one smuggler stop to another, and nothing random happened to them – nice and easy.
We had an overnight stop, when they realised that in-game they’d been going all day and Marius really needed a break, so they settled into Dragon Ridge for some sleep.
Added in to their lives was the message from Spook, relating how her son is showing a strange mark – this is a Horror mark, seeded when they were both abducted and taken to the penthouse in Kowloon Walled City. At this stage, there’s nothing the players can do, and it was mostly to remind them that they’re up against some strange and eldritch horrors.
However, they really seemed to bite down hard on this, and Marius in particular – even going against his normal disdain for dragons to propose seeking out their help, to save the kid. We had some great RP between the team, and they seemed to be very gung-ho for getting this “fixed”, so it looks like this B-line plot is actually going to move more into the spotlight than I had originally thought it would – so I need to rework things in response to their actions a little, and give them a new quest perhaps! And they also seem quite keen on getting Lung involved, which is really interesting!
Then, we reached a key part of the timeline – with the canon assassination of Ibn-Eisa. In the published material, there’s no info on who the actual shooters were – it’s one of those things that are left for the individual GMs to fit into their world plot. With having Shimazu as an ex-professional Bodyguard, and Aswon being a very decent sniper, I decided to lean into this being a very-pro level strike, describing how the four rounds had hit almost at the same time.
That led to a number of theories from the team, whether it be multiple shooters, someone with a custom weapon, perhaps even someone with Move-By-Wire and taking the “extra” initiative passes. All good theories, and it seemed to intrigue them.
One of the things I did was explain to them as they watched and rewatched the assassination, the level of trauma and damage caused, making sure to explain from a meta-level that they could see the guy going past deadly-wound and WAY past his limit of over-damage. They were told in no uncertain terms that he was dead, Dave. Everyone’s dead Dave. Dave – they’re all dead. Dead Dave, they all are…
Marius and Aswon’s players were nodding, grinning and saying “uh-huh”, knowing full well what was to come, understanding the Shadowrun lore as well as they do – but I wanted the others to know that mechanically the guy was toast, and there was no way that even if they’d been on scene to do immediate first aid and then slap a force 10 heal on the guy that they could have saved him. He was as dead as a parrot pining for the fjords.
That’s going to make it fun when he miraculously comes back to life in 3 days of course… and then the team will know that strange things are afoot at the circle K.
And last of all, they spotted the cleric from way back in episode 125. He was planted back there just for this event (though I didn’t think it would take this many episodes to get there (episode 125 was played 24th March 2020, 3.3 years into the campaign, and we’re now 7.5 years in!) It’s also been a while in-game – we’re on day 635 now, and they met him on day 149, so I made sure to remind all the players about him – able to take advantage of Marius and his perfect memory to give them a quick refresher.
Otherwise, we’re on to Shanghai this coming week, to see if we can get some gear for Hunter – and discover that they can get a lovely new cyber-deck for him to use with some upgraded programs for a bargain price – if they’ll do just one small job for “The Noodles”, as payment…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 03/09/61, Location: 28.76007, 81.29737, Time 20:00
2. Team just taking off from Trafford. 2075km to Dragon Ridge. 230m flight time, arrive around midnight. Smooth journey - heading into heavy rain though. Rent a dorm, sleep overnight. Hunter checking the news - middle east unrest, new jihad. Aswon considers jihad and the previous euro wars - nothing to draw their attention. Tads - could we do defences to help the ranch, people with SUT think about.
3. Marius wants 8 hours kip, dawn spirits, runners go out round the lake. Aswon talismongering - super-roll. Finds a quartz rock dripping with mana, prime enchanting material. Tads 2 hours of drain to soak.
4. Aswon checks for gossip. Stop owner has heard rat packs and survival gear is short, Sichuan is launching another attack into Tibet.
5. Tads talks to Aswon, about doing an astral flyby to HK to check on the kid.
6. Gets there, magical curse, flag on his aura, more powerful than Tads, not something she's seen before but MAY be from the Horror. Tads reassures. Spook seems reassured that "someone competent" is looking into it. Gets back and reports, Marius doesn’t' like it - but heading into China, there are dragons, they know about this stuff... Aswon wonders if this is the opposite of a metaplane hiding quest. Kai - we need to check ourselves out, and also check Marius Jr. Very definite. How will Nadia handle it Marius - should we lie to her, or give her the truth? Tropical disease. Marius - will tell her the truth, it's just a precaution. Just being thorough. Aswon - yeah, check ourselves first. Kai - did a full medical breakdown a while back, gives us a good comparison point. Kai does physical check, Shimazu does aura check.
7. Hunter - if this is linked the horror, we really need to fix this ASAP. If it was the mage, he got dealt with, so that's not a problem is it? We know where he went - the trash pile. so we know where to start looking.
8. Marius - Spook and the kid were taken, ran into the creature - big misery aura. You've likened it to tracking device. Not seen it before, suspicion it's something to do with the creature, the only thing we can do is to tap up our magical resources that we've bumped into. You're pretty powerful, and if you're not aware of the answer, that's worrying. We've dealt with Lung - amicably. If it is something to do with the creature, he's likely to help - or as likely as anything else. Other dragons and CEOs seem to be helping us out - for some reason. Why won't dragons this side?
9. Tads - jumping to 2 conclusions. It's to do with the horror. And it's lung. Aswon - but we're pretty confident. Marius - it was spook that sorted that job out - can she try to get in touch.
10. Kai and Shimazu do checks - team are clear and normal. Tads does a ranch check - all clear there as well. Aswon - weight of evidence, that's a horror related thing, it's just him that's marked. Suggest I call spook to try and get hold of the dragons. Kai agrees. Marius - you put wards on stuff all the time, can you put a ward on a person. Aswon + Tads - no, too flexible. Tads - a cyberlimb, yes, but skin is too flexible. Discussion about wards / quickening / flexibility. Discussion about taking his intestines out to get enough square metres... Marius - what about a dermal sheath covering just that area? Implanted ware? Marius - really strong feelings, not liking magic - but it's a kid. An innocent kid. What if it was mine? Aswon - calls Spook to try and set something up. "I'll let you know", Aswon - how did you get the job. "Two mysterious matrix contacts". Aswon - don't let this get back to the Japanese side. Oh, and get some warding materials in - hook in with Fan.
11. Marius - stay here, or go to shanghai? Tads - do we have parking in Shanghai? Hunter - and do we need to have the kid with us? Marius - not necessarily, not to start with. Have the image and a magical look at it from Tads, and then go from there. Kai - think we should take the kid to the dragon, if we can - but the practicalities are a bit dodgy. But spook might not like that - not immediately life threatening. And don't we have a contact in Shanghai? Marius - just the otaku I think. Kai - ok, let's go to shanghai, and get that sorted and out of the way, and then go from there. Don't mind throwing money at Shadowland to see if we can get some info. Aswon - not a bad shout, just need to be subtle.
12. Marius - what Shimazu knows about the bridge, and how freaky that was - I'm not sure the kid is in immediate danger. They want to make a bridge between worlds, it seems. Need human assistance - I guess? Like shamans summoning insects and stuff. Probably going to be a slow process, and take a while. Could be something that takes decades - slowly influencing his growth and fate, building him up to use later?
13. Tads - 2 thoughts. It could be they are using him as an anchor for their bridge. Hunter nods in agreement. Tads - not a route I think to take, but if there's no body, there's no anchor. Aswon - yeah, we need to make it clear the boy can't be killed to "solve" the problem. He is precious to me.
14. Hunter thinking about magik-net, can do it, picks up on the news item, warning of graphic violence.
15. Marius - don't they have mages to prevent stuff like that happening? I remember as a news thing when I was a kid, someone tried to off an elf - nothing hit him. Aswon - magic bullets? Marius - isn't he massively powerful, one of the top preachers or something?
16. Tads - could that be a body double? Is he off somewhere? Aswon - could be. Or his mages have betrayed him? Or they've decided to replace him. Tads - and that's pretty close to him. Aswon - what's the religious side of this? KSAF reporter is there - gives Marius a sinking feeling.
17. Tads - is this something to do with those journalists? Are we going to get 4 more weird events?
18. Shimazu - could be a binding thing, bringing together the sects of Islam, polarising event.
19. Crowd wound up, view from 8-9 different cameras, not staged / faked. Marius spots the rescued guy from the radioactive crated back in Libya, now being a supporter/admin assistant to one of the priests. "Great, no good deed goes unpunished." Aswon - maybe he's a moderating influence, and it will be less bad now?
20. Aswon thinking about merc ops - who could do this, what level. Types of attack. Escape route etc. Hunter - reminds Aswon about the 3 round burst capability on his AMR, could be a specialist hit using a unique weapon. Tads - could be a couple of snipers, all with mindlinks, to co-ordinate the shots.
21. Trying to analyse footage, do SUT rolls. No blow-through on the targets, and that's weird.
22. Kai - looking for people that don't react "properly" Shimazu checking professional bodyguarding. All reactions seem normal. Conspiracy SIGs.
23. Aswon sends Topshot a message "did you see that shot"? Couple of minutes later. "Non - impressive, was it not."
24. Team take off, heading to Shanghai.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 316 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A little late with this one, as we had a crazy busy weekend with lots of gaming – I managed to get into a Pink Mohawk game as a player on saturday, and then into a new system (at least for me) called Symbaroum for another player spot on the Sunday.
Still – we’re done now, and the writeup is sent out to the players and published, so let’s see what went on shall we?
The first order of business was working out the route – deciding on if they wanted to risk the straight line but slightly more border crossings, or take a slightly longer route that reduced the crossings. Given how stealthy they are now, and how quickly they can get away from most people, I think they’ll be more than fine against anything but elite borders now – but they decided to play it safe and keep a low-profile. The dice were very agreeable to them, and their journey over to Shanghai was uneventful
.
Landing at Shanghai I did a recap of the description from episode 184 when they were last here – especially as that was May 2021! I didn’t anticipate anything meaningful happening here, but I think it’s good to try and reinforce the flavour and setup, and to make sure the players have the same shared vision for the world as I do, to cut down on any misunderstandings… and just in case something does kick off, so there’s no weird surprises! As they had booked to land properly this time (having been ‘burnt’ by bad menu choices on the last visit, they made sure to make better ones this time) they had a landing area surrounded by shipping containers to give them some privacy, and soon enough “The Noodles” was waddling over to meet them and have a chat.
Kai handed over the conversational reins to Hunter, so I had him make a quick etiquette roll – but letting him use his matrix specialisation, which is actually a decent enough rating. Normally Hunter would be the last person on the team you want chatting to people (He does have the ‘ugly and doesn’t care’ flaw!) – but between his high computer skill and matrix etiquette – and his direct nature, in this case he was the right person to engage in negotiations.
Once they had a chat, I was fairly quickly able to present them with a job offer – a mission to Korea to do a two-tier mission. The teams seemed fairly interested in this, and were happy to take on the job in principle, asking for more details and the nature of the pay.
I’d found a nice factory location near Gwangju, (35.31812, 126.75657 if anyone wants to check on Google Maps) that I can use as the target – somewhat isolated and with a nice big perimeter, but a decent size and plenty of scope for some fun and games. I gave the players a basic description, and then we started with some rolls against various skills to evaluate the loot, position, defences etc – feeding them some basic information.
Interestingly enough, they decided NOT to do an astral flyby, to avoid risking tipping off their interest, but may instead scout some other facilities to see what they have and try to get a corporate baseline.
This week then, I think we’ll be travelling over to look at the factory and doing some on-site recon, getting a feel for the guards and trying to work out which building is which – and planning their assault.
I’ve been busy statting up the various guard forces, coming up with some custom vehicles for the players to see, some new critters to throw a magical spanner in the works, and especially some interesting mages to try and spot the no doubt invisible flying concealed armoured spider monkeys the players will be impersonating…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 04/09/61, Location: 25.23749, 101.15828, Time 16:00
2. Team just taken off, heading towards Shanghai - 2120km to Shanghai docks, another 4 hours travel.
3. Yunnan > Henan, avoid Canton confederation, increase journey by 200km. 19 on stealth. No detection. Once in Henan, Kai calls The Noodles. Team clean stuff, Hunter keeps an eye on the news. Kai calls Noodles, asks for landing slot, food, information, team loop around and fly in from the ocean side. Description for port, very busy, multiple landing boxes in the container park. Well concealed by the containers.
4. Marius suggests - use the cammo netting and go with physical cammo instead of the spirit, as we might be here several days? Tads - why not both. Marius, makes it easier on your. Aswon - and will help if we're here for days. Tads - is that the plan, do they have space?
5. Kai gets out, contacts noodles. Inquiry, landing successful? Kai - yes. Request to stay. Getting out now to chat. N-affirmative, enroute. Kai greets as MQCXC-RQTR3-6F98Y-7KTKF-TW82J, gets a happy nod. Please state the nature of the inquiries. Move the bird? No, best size selected. Agrees to cammo nets. Requested information on potential businesses. Kai - pass you on to my sub-terminal. Hunter matrix etiquette, two succeses. Blunt and direct.
6. Mission briefing
7. Kai - politics, ETC is not to be messed with.
8. Shimazu - top end, above SI, sellers market. Marius - this is going to be a hard job. Aswon - geared against shadowrunners - not us. Kai - what, not idiots? <grin>. Aswon - a noisy smash and grab might work - we're good at that. Mobile mercs. But we can also go very hard on the stealth / magic.
9. Hunter - great flying terrain, 700km. Marius - we need to go stealth, very hard - get the 2nd job done, then we can afford to get noisy, if we want. And I'll need to be on the ground...
10. Aswon - supplies / timescale? Noodles - supplies are negotiable, timescale is 8 weeks before codes rotate. Aswon - may need to split, and we cover Hunter while he does that thing. Lots of hiding places, huge amount of ground to cover, plenty of space for distractions. Marius - yeah, we can stage a noisy insertion to cover our actual extraction. Aswon - we can work on which building does what from on-site recon. Hunter - where is the secure server? Noodles- you need to find that. Shimazu - what is magic like? Tads, details about the spirit village.
11. Hunter - I need to learn Korean I think...
12. Kai - I expect this to be heavy on drones. Marius - bound to be licenced for heavy weapons to defend itself, with lethal firepower. Security guards will have ARs and decent armour, tactical comms. Probably magic, rigger and decker coverage. Probably partitioned workplaces, maglock doors, biometrics. 24/7 security riggers.
13. Tads - looks big, so probably not fully warded. Only high-security areas. M - bound elementals? T - gets expensive, with that size. M - but megacorp… effectively.
14. Noodles - details about the worm, 1-2 min run time, it will extract the required data.
15. Marius - so we need to get over, get close, do recon, find the military section. Air-gapped bit is probably in the mil-section?
16. Noodles - suspect its in with the civilian section. Aswon - not being made, or assembled. Marius - interesting, assuming it was high security aspects. Creating properly air-gapped systems is hard with so much wireless about. EM blocking walls etc.
17. Noodles - to do with the police cars, so on the civilian side probably.
18. Marius - so actually doing the hit on the military side being messy might help us here. Aswon - yeah, focus their attention that way.
19. Tads - how are they with metahumans. Aswon - Shimazu, what do the japs think of the Koreans. Shimazu - not a lot. Aswon - so probably fine then! Hunter checks - very tolerant. Details about awakening, goblinisation. Sort of conservative.
20. Aswon - me and Hunter might have problems. Hunter - why? Aswon - neither of us like authority figures... Hunter - poo poos.
21. Hunter and Marius - probably an electronic key for the cop systems.
22. Shimazu - 2 edged sword. use it too much and they will realise, and change it. Marius - or it could be a back door into the police systems perhaps. Hunter - decryption key for radios?
23. Noodles - this is what I'm offering. Hunter takes RR on computer, gets good evaluation on the deck value.
24. Marius - will you add in any intel on stuff in the shanghai area that might hold a battletac, IVIS. Noodles - I can investigate. Do the same as the current job. Marius agrees without waiting for anyone else to speak.
25. Aswon nearly botches SUT roll on the ETC facility. Some talk on getting arms - remember that Kai has a contact in Shanghai.
26. Aswon - Tads, can you do a flyby? Marius - agree with Tads might set off the alert, if we're going there anyway. But maybe identify sites to land, and Tads checks that out.
27. Tads - maybe find other ETC facilities and do recon on them, to find out what kind of stuff they have, might be the same? Marius agrees strongly - likes that idea
28. Aswon - get that, but getting some idea of what we're facing, better to do shopping here. And also remember we have the job to do for the old man?
29. Marius - don't Daewoo do stuff like destroyers as well? Good rolls, port city, Japanese visits, high tensions.
30. Shimazu - Shinto and clan society rolls, good info.
31. Tads takes serious stun getting new spirit. Team go out to get food from a street vendor.
32. Marius - it's only 700km, we can get back to Shanghai easily enough.
33. Team look at map, thinking landing to the west or south. Find a clearing.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A little late with this one, as we had a crazy busy weekend with lots of gaming – I managed to get into a Pink Mohawk game as a player on saturday, and then into a new system (at least for me) called Symbaroum for another player spot on the Sunday.
Still – we’re done now, and the writeup is sent out to the players and published, so let’s see what went on shall we?
The first order of business was working out the route – deciding on if they wanted to risk the straight line but slightly more border crossings, or take a slightly longer route that reduced the crossings. Given how stealthy they are now, and how quickly they can get away from most people, I think they’ll be more than fine against anything but elite borders now – but they decided to play it safe and keep a low-profile. The dice were very agreeable to them, and their journey over to Shanghai was uneventful
.
Landing at Shanghai I did a recap of the description from episode 184 when they were last here – especially as that was May 2021! I didn’t anticipate anything meaningful happening here, but I think it’s good to try and reinforce the flavour and setup, and to make sure the players have the same shared vision for the world as I do, to cut down on any misunderstandings… and just in case something does kick off, so there’s no weird surprises! As they had booked to land properly this time (having been ‘burnt’ by bad menu choices on the last visit, they made sure to make better ones this time) they had a landing area surrounded by shipping containers to give them some privacy, and soon enough “The Noodles” was waddling over to meet them and have a chat.
Kai handed over the conversational reins to Hunter, so I had him make a quick etiquette roll – but letting him use his matrix specialisation, which is actually a decent enough rating. Normally Hunter would be the last person on the team you want chatting to people (He does have the ‘ugly and doesn’t care’ flaw!) – but between his high computer skill and matrix etiquette – and his direct nature, in this case he was the right person to engage in negotiations.
Once they had a chat, I was fairly quickly able to present them with a job offer – a mission to Korea to do a two-tier mission. The teams seemed fairly interested in this, and were happy to take on the job in principle, asking for more details and the nature of the pay.
I’d found a nice factory location near Gwangju, (35.31812, 126.75657 if anyone wants to check on Google Maps) that I can use as the target – somewhat isolated and with a nice big perimeter, but a decent size and plenty of scope for some fun and games. I gave the players a basic description, and then we started with some rolls against various skills to evaluate the loot, position, defences etc – feeding them some basic information.
Interestingly enough, they decided NOT to do an astral flyby, to avoid risking tipping off their interest, but may instead scout some other facilities to see what they have and try to get a corporate baseline.
This week then, I think we’ll be travelling over to look at the factory and doing some on-site recon, getting a feel for the guards and trying to work out which building is which – and planning their assault.
I’ve been busy statting up the various guard forces, coming up with some custom vehicles for the players to see, some new critters to throw a magical spanner in the works, and especially some interesting mages to try and spot the no doubt invisible flying concealed armoured spider monkeys the players will be impersonating…
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 04/09/61, Location: 25.23749, 101.15828, Time 16:00
2. Team just taken off, heading towards Shanghai - 2120km to Shanghai docks, another 4 hours travel.
3. Yunnan > Henan, avoid Canton confederation, increase journey by 200km. 19 on stealth. No detection. Once in Henan, Kai calls The Noodles. Team clean stuff, Hunter keeps an eye on the news. Kai calls Noodles, asks for landing slot, food, information, team loop around and fly in from the ocean side. Description for port, very busy, multiple landing boxes in the container park. Well concealed by the containers.
4. Marius suggests - use the cammo netting and go with physical cammo instead of the spirit, as we might be here several days? Tads - why not both. Marius, makes it easier on your. Aswon - and will help if we're here for days. Tads - is that the plan, do they have space?
5. Kai gets out, contacts noodles. Inquiry, landing successful? Kai - yes. Request to stay. Getting out now to chat. N-affirmative, enroute. Kai greets as MQCXC-RQTR3-6F98Y-7KTKF-TW82J, gets a happy nod. Please state the nature of the inquiries. Move the bird? No, best size selected. Agrees to cammo nets. Requested information on potential businesses. Kai - pass you on to my sub-terminal. Hunter matrix etiquette, two succeses. Blunt and direct.
6. Mission briefing
7. Kai - politics, ETC is not to be messed with.
8. Shimazu - top end, above SI, sellers market. Marius - this is going to be a hard job. Aswon - geared against shadowrunners - not us. Kai - what, not idiots? <grin>. Aswon - a noisy smash and grab might work - we're good at that. Mobile mercs. But we can also go very hard on the stealth / magic.
9. Hunter - great flying terrain, 700km. Marius - we need to go stealth, very hard - get the 2nd job done, then we can afford to get noisy, if we want. And I'll need to be on the ground...
10. Aswon - supplies / timescale? Noodles - supplies are negotiable, timescale is 8 weeks before codes rotate. Aswon - may need to split, and we cover Hunter while he does that thing. Lots of hiding places, huge amount of ground to cover, plenty of space for distractions. Marius - yeah, we can stage a noisy insertion to cover our actual extraction. Aswon - we can work on which building does what from on-site recon. Hunter - where is the secure server? Noodles- you need to find that. Shimazu - what is magic like? Tads, details about the spirit village.
11. Hunter - I need to learn Korean I think...
12. Kai - I expect this to be heavy on drones. Marius - bound to be licenced for heavy weapons to defend itself, with lethal firepower. Security guards will have ARs and decent armour, tactical comms. Probably magic, rigger and decker coverage. Probably partitioned workplaces, maglock doors, biometrics. 24/7 security riggers.
13. Tads - looks big, so probably not fully warded. Only high-security areas. M - bound elementals? T - gets expensive, with that size. M - but megacorp… effectively.
14. Noodles - details about the worm, 1-2 min run time, it will extract the required data.
15. Marius - so we need to get over, get close, do recon, find the military section. Air-gapped bit is probably in the mil-section?
16. Noodles - suspect its in with the civilian section. Aswon - not being made, or assembled. Marius - interesting, assuming it was high security aspects. Creating properly air-gapped systems is hard with so much wireless about. EM blocking walls etc.
17. Noodles - to do with the police cars, so on the civilian side probably.
18. Marius - so actually doing the hit on the military side being messy might help us here. Aswon - yeah, focus their attention that way.
19. Tads - how are they with metahumans. Aswon - Shimazu, what do the japs think of the Koreans. Shimazu - not a lot. Aswon - so probably fine then! Hunter checks - very tolerant. Details about awakening, goblinisation. Sort of conservative.
20. Aswon - me and Hunter might have problems. Hunter - why? Aswon - neither of us like authority figures... Hunter - poo poos.
21. Hunter and Marius - probably an electronic key for the cop systems.
22. Shimazu - 2 edged sword. use it too much and they will realise, and change it. Marius - or it could be a back door into the police systems perhaps. Hunter - decryption key for radios?
23. Noodles - this is what I'm offering. Hunter takes RR on computer, gets good evaluation on the deck value.
24. Marius - will you add in any intel on stuff in the shanghai area that might hold a battletac, IVIS. Noodles - I can investigate. Do the same as the current job. Marius agrees without waiting for anyone else to speak.
25. Aswon nearly botches SUT roll on the ETC facility. Some talk on getting arms - remember that Kai has a contact in Shanghai.
26. Aswon - Tads, can you do a flyby? Marius - agree with Tads might set off the alert, if we're going there anyway. But maybe identify sites to land, and Tads checks that out.
27. Tads - maybe find other ETC facilities and do recon on them, to find out what kind of stuff they have, might be the same? Marius agrees strongly - likes that idea
28. Aswon - get that, but getting some idea of what we're facing, better to do shopping here. And also remember we have the job to do for the old man?
29. Marius - don't Daewoo do stuff like destroyers as well? Good rolls, port city, Japanese visits, high tensions.
30. Shimazu - Shinto and clan society rolls, good info.
31. Tads takes serious stun getting new spirit. Team go out to get food from a street vendor.
32. Marius - it's only 700km, we can get back to Shanghai easily enough.
33. Team look at map, thinking landing to the west or south. Find a clearing.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 317 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Kai’s player decided at the start of the session that he wanted to go meet his contact, so I made a roll for that, which hit the target number – and then adlibbed a location they could meet up, from a quick glance at Google Maps, looking for somewhere that would seem appropriate. Aswon also decided he wanted to go find a proper hotel, somewhere to ‘stretch out’ and that gave me a little flash of inspiration, and a place I could just throw down where there were some random tower blocks. The rest of the team stayed with the aircraft, and had a quiet night – so there was a bit of time focussed on just the three players who had headed out.
For Kai and Shimazu, they turned up at a nice posh venue, somewhere the upper class of Shanghai would go, but not the ultra-rich. Decent dress code, comfortable and with things like live music to hopefully impress on them the type of place they were at, and then a meeting with the contact – a Level 2 Weapons Dealer. I made an availability roll for Harry, to see what he currently had in stock, and got a max of a 10 – so nothing too spicy like APDS/AV ammo and the rarer and more esoteric weapons, but he did have some nice mid-range stuff, including the Arbalest MAWs. Sure they’re not anti-vehicle munitions, but doing 15D damage is not to be sniffed at, and they have a nice blast radius, so they’re pretty good for soft targets, and against civilian cars, they’re still going to do 7S – which your typical body 3 Ford Americar is not going to resist and get wrecked anyway, even on a base hit.
They arranged to get a good bunch of those – I’m not sure why they felt like they needed 20, but this may just be that we’re at the stage of the campaign where the upgrades they really want (like Battletac, Beta+ Cyberware and Power foci) are ridiculously expensive, but everything else is pretty much chump change, and they have more than enough to grab stuff that is offered to them when it comes up.
Aswon meanwhile found the “Travellers Rest”. When he said he wanted to stretch out, my internal monologue said “ha- fat chance mate!” – but then I thought, that his was the busiest port in the world, with all manner of people coming from all over the place – likely to attract the weird and wonderful as they pass through to other places. Trolls, Giants, Minotaurs, Wakayambi, Gnomes… all manner of people that a regular hotel might not cater too well for. So what if there was a place that specifically went out of their way to cater to that market – aiming to make the weird and the bizarre feel comfortable and welcome. And so that’s what the Travellers Rest is – beds for all sizes, and special conditions catered for. Got a creature that needs to be kept moist? They have hydroponics facilities to sort that out for you!
With that now taking form in my head, I had a quick check through my “other teams” list on my spreadsheet and found “The Bug Killers” – a team they’ve not run into before. With having a Naga in their group, this seemed like the ideal location to have them cross paths, and Aswon was immediately curious about who they were and what they did. So, we had a nice little bit of RP out of that, and some new friends made.
With that taken care of, we moved on to the flight over to Korea, where Marius got a very lucky roll not only on his stealth, but also on his flying – so I gave him a sensor dead spot corridor, that they can use to slip in and out of Korea almost unseen – provided they leave by the south-east corner. This also presents an opportunity to make some good money by selling info about it of course – though the more they tell people, and the more people use it, the higher the chance of somebody blubbing about it and alerting the authorities, or of provoking official interest. It did give them something to think about, at least.
And towards the end of the evening, we got them landed and to an observation point. We’d just slipped past our usual finish time, but Tads hadn’t quite turned into a pumpkin yet (she is most definitely not a late night person!) , so I pushed on for a few more minutes, wanting to get the description and basic information over to them, so they would have that to think about for the week in-between the game sessions.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 04/09/61, Location: 31.346, 121.63067, Time 23:00
2. Team have been out for dinner, chatted, and just back to the Broadsword. Tads trying new food - Aswon shows the quartz, nice chunk.
3. Kai - proposes calling Harry Wu, Lvl 2 weapons dealer from SK, propose staying overnight so Marius is all caught up on sleep. Call, Wu is about - up for a drink. Shanghai golf centre, half-hour
4. 4 block area, hotel and casino. Kai and Shimazu dress up a bit, Aswon heading to a hotel for a quiet night. "Travellers Rest" caters for exotic visitors. Caters for weird metatypes. Aswon claims he has sensitive hearing, wants a quiet room. Kai picks Marius memory about guns before he goes.
5. Aswon meets The Bug Killers - particularly Dr Funk and Thorgrim. Assense either way.
6. Casino, doorman, do you have reservations, Kai name drops, no, into the bar. Jazz quartet. 40-50 people, quiet, luxurious. Harry Wu. Greetings, head to a booth. Introduces to Shimazu.
7. Talking with weapons, recommends going to Japan for archery gear, or elves or monks, but can try. Availability check 10+9, Kai offers to do some transport. Ground or air. Air - Shimazu says both. Offers mostly European/UCAS weapons, oh - I do have some MAWs, Arbalest 2k each, up to a container worth.
8. <some mostly OOC chat about logistics of the bird, size of MAWS, how they would fit in the bird etc> Kai asks for about 20. 35k - when do you want delivery? Tomorrow if you want. Or tonight, take advantage of the darkness? Will get someone to bring some up in a minivan.
9. Rat comes over, I am Aswon, looks kempt. Business card - Bug killers, My own team is New Fish. Ares Dragon - something that size. Shot down. Ooh pricy. Then a tiltwing. Shot down. Very sad. Ooh pricy. But no we have a unique thing, can't go to civilian airports. Curious. But shot down twice - poor rigger? No, all alive. Asks to join them. Aswon does, but circumspect. Dr Funk polyglot. Thorgrim - talks to him about the assassination. Word salad+theories. Then told about the bug hive, Thorgrim back in. Aswon asks about tentacles - now they're curious, tell them about the temple - but not the Sioux lands. Aswon shares info on his charity ID, warns that Kai might call.
10. Harry's driver, back to Broadsword, Pay for the MAWs, tour of the bird. 5k to grease wheels for delivery to the HUK. Kai shows pic of the outside when not cloaked. Kai - anything you want personal wise? Scottish Whiskey, French Champagne - things internationally recognised for ice-breakers. Harry and Driver head home. Shimazu assenses both as they leave - all good.
11. Monday morning. 5th Sept, 9am, team all back together. Hunter has found two ETC buildings - Sejong and Busan - for Tads to do a flyby on. Small wards in key areas, high force, some ally/hearth spirit. Standard corp security, reasonably good threat level.
12. Aswon - wonder if ETC buy sites that have ancient spirits / locations? Some theory about. Still raining, but people getting on with life. Tads - Hunter, can you check for local festivals coming up?
13. Marius 14 on stealth, head over. Spots super-stealth canyon into Korea. Ponders selling/keeping info. 22nd / 12th century vibes, mend and make do.
14. Land in the clearing ok, nobody notices. Aswon - if I was in the facility, I'd not have my facility, just guarded around the facility. I'd have something in the woods - can we summon a spirit to search, then avoid them. Hunter - GPS, straight line. Aswon - no sign of burrows. Spots the bunnies being handled. Aswon wondering if it's a smart-minefield. Checking the vehicle over for transmitters etc - spots nothing, with a RR. Gets Hunter to get hi-res images. Aswon spots water/foam cannon.
15. Military vehicles on the north side of the train tracks, south side is civilian. Flow of vehicles from 8 > 6 > 7 > 1> 2> car park.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Kai’s player decided at the start of the session that he wanted to go meet his contact, so I made a roll for that, which hit the target number – and then adlibbed a location they could meet up, from a quick glance at Google Maps, looking for somewhere that would seem appropriate. Aswon also decided he wanted to go find a proper hotel, somewhere to ‘stretch out’ and that gave me a little flash of inspiration, and a place I could just throw down where there were some random tower blocks. The rest of the team stayed with the aircraft, and had a quiet night – so there was a bit of time focussed on just the three players who had headed out.
For Kai and Shimazu, they turned up at a nice posh venue, somewhere the upper class of Shanghai would go, but not the ultra-rich. Decent dress code, comfortable and with things like live music to hopefully impress on them the type of place they were at, and then a meeting with the contact – a Level 2 Weapons Dealer. I made an availability roll for Harry, to see what he currently had in stock, and got a max of a 10 – so nothing too spicy like APDS/AV ammo and the rarer and more esoteric weapons, but he did have some nice mid-range stuff, including the Arbalest MAWs. Sure they’re not anti-vehicle munitions, but doing 15D damage is not to be sniffed at, and they have a nice blast radius, so they’re pretty good for soft targets, and against civilian cars, they’re still going to do 7S – which your typical body 3 Ford Americar is not going to resist and get wrecked anyway, even on a base hit.
They arranged to get a good bunch of those – I’m not sure why they felt like they needed 20, but this may just be that we’re at the stage of the campaign where the upgrades they really want (like Battletac, Beta+ Cyberware and Power foci) are ridiculously expensive, but everything else is pretty much chump change, and they have more than enough to grab stuff that is offered to them when it comes up.
Aswon meanwhile found the “Travellers Rest”. When he said he wanted to stretch out, my internal monologue said “ha- fat chance mate!” – but then I thought, that his was the busiest port in the world, with all manner of people coming from all over the place – likely to attract the weird and wonderful as they pass through to other places. Trolls, Giants, Minotaurs, Wakayambi, Gnomes… all manner of people that a regular hotel might not cater too well for. So what if there was a place that specifically went out of their way to cater to that market – aiming to make the weird and the bizarre feel comfortable and welcome. And so that’s what the Travellers Rest is – beds for all sizes, and special conditions catered for. Got a creature that needs to be kept moist? They have hydroponics facilities to sort that out for you!
With that now taking form in my head, I had a quick check through my “other teams” list on my spreadsheet and found “The Bug Killers” – a team they’ve not run into before. With having a Naga in their group, this seemed like the ideal location to have them cross paths, and Aswon was immediately curious about who they were and what they did. So, we had a nice little bit of RP out of that, and some new friends made.
With that taken care of, we moved on to the flight over to Korea, where Marius got a very lucky roll not only on his stealth, but also on his flying – so I gave him a sensor dead spot corridor, that they can use to slip in and out of Korea almost unseen – provided they leave by the south-east corner. This also presents an opportunity to make some good money by selling info about it of course – though the more they tell people, and the more people use it, the higher the chance of somebody blubbing about it and alerting the authorities, or of provoking official interest. It did give them something to think about, at least.
And towards the end of the evening, we got them landed and to an observation point. We’d just slipped past our usual finish time, but Tads hadn’t quite turned into a pumpkin yet (she is most definitely not a late night person!) , so I pushed on for a few more minutes, wanting to get the description and basic information over to them, so they would have that to think about for the week in-between the game sessions.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 04/09/61, Location: 31.346, 121.63067, Time 23:00
2. Team have been out for dinner, chatted, and just back to the Broadsword. Tads trying new food - Aswon shows the quartz, nice chunk.
3. Kai - proposes calling Harry Wu, Lvl 2 weapons dealer from SK, propose staying overnight so Marius is all caught up on sleep. Call, Wu is about - up for a drink. Shanghai golf centre, half-hour
4. 4 block area, hotel and casino. Kai and Shimazu dress up a bit, Aswon heading to a hotel for a quiet night. "Travellers Rest" caters for exotic visitors. Caters for weird metatypes. Aswon claims he has sensitive hearing, wants a quiet room. Kai picks Marius memory about guns before he goes.
5. Aswon meets The Bug Killers - particularly Dr Funk and Thorgrim. Assense either way.
6. Casino, doorman, do you have reservations, Kai name drops, no, into the bar. Jazz quartet. 40-50 people, quiet, luxurious. Harry Wu. Greetings, head to a booth. Introduces to Shimazu.
7. Talking with weapons, recommends going to Japan for archery gear, or elves or monks, but can try. Availability check 10+9, Kai offers to do some transport. Ground or air. Air - Shimazu says both. Offers mostly European/UCAS weapons, oh - I do have some MAWs, Arbalest 2k each, up to a container worth.
8. <some mostly OOC chat about logistics of the bird, size of MAWS, how they would fit in the bird etc> Kai asks for about 20. 35k - when do you want delivery? Tomorrow if you want. Or tonight, take advantage of the darkness? Will get someone to bring some up in a minivan.
9. Rat comes over, I am Aswon, looks kempt. Business card - Bug killers, My own team is New Fish. Ares Dragon - something that size. Shot down. Ooh pricy. Then a tiltwing. Shot down. Very sad. Ooh pricy. But no we have a unique thing, can't go to civilian airports. Curious. But shot down twice - poor rigger? No, all alive. Asks to join them. Aswon does, but circumspect. Dr Funk polyglot. Thorgrim - talks to him about the assassination. Word salad+theories. Then told about the bug hive, Thorgrim back in. Aswon asks about tentacles - now they're curious, tell them about the temple - but not the Sioux lands. Aswon shares info on his charity ID, warns that Kai might call.
10. Harry's driver, back to Broadsword, Pay for the MAWs, tour of the bird. 5k to grease wheels for delivery to the HUK. Kai shows pic of the outside when not cloaked. Kai - anything you want personal wise? Scottish Whiskey, French Champagne - things internationally recognised for ice-breakers. Harry and Driver head home. Shimazu assenses both as they leave - all good.
11. Monday morning. 5th Sept, 9am, team all back together. Hunter has found two ETC buildings - Sejong and Busan - for Tads to do a flyby on. Small wards in key areas, high force, some ally/hearth spirit. Standard corp security, reasonably good threat level.
12. Aswon - wonder if ETC buy sites that have ancient spirits / locations? Some theory about. Still raining, but people getting on with life. Tads - Hunter, can you check for local festivals coming up?
13. Marius 14 on stealth, head over. Spots super-stealth canyon into Korea. Ponders selling/keeping info. 22nd / 12th century vibes, mend and make do.
14. Land in the clearing ok, nobody notices. Aswon - if I was in the facility, I'd not have my facility, just guarded around the facility. I'd have something in the woods - can we summon a spirit to search, then avoid them. Hunter - GPS, straight line. Aswon - no sign of burrows. Spots the bunnies being handled. Aswon wondering if it's a smart-minefield. Checking the vehicle over for transmitters etc - spots nothing, with a RR. Gets Hunter to get hi-res images. Aswon spots water/foam cannon.
15. Military vehicles on the north side of the train tracks, south side is civilian. Flow of vehicles from 8 > 6 > 7 > 1> 2> car park.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 318 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week was a good chunk of legwork as the team settled in to check out the facility and work out what was going on, and how hard it was going to be to get in. They didn’t “do” much, per se, but there was a lot of talking and planning, with some excursions to gather intel and check things out.
I had a map of the facility that was quite zoomed out, that I shared with the team first, letting them get an idea of the overall layout and position, which was replaced with a larger and higher resolution map showing more detail as they did their observations, revealing more facets of the local environment.
As is quite common in my Pink Mohawk games that I run, I didn’t have a “correct way” to crack this nut – I’d built something that seemed to be reasonable, a balance between expense and practical, that the corp might invest in to keep themselves safe. Then it’s a matter of listening to the players as they come up with theories and ideas, working out what might or might not work based on their own slants and perceptions. And, as long as the plan they have is sound – then that’s what we’ll go with.
I think being flexible like this is important – Shadowrun in particular has so many skills, so many options, that there’s no way you can forsee all the crazy plans that your players might come up with, and I think it’s important that you don’t try to box them into the “one true way” – the railroad tracks that lead to success. Sometimes you can – sometimes there really is only one way to skin a cat, but generally I like to let them work out a plan and have that work – provided they don’t do something really dumb.
Sometimes that means the players have an easy time of things, as they find a loophole or something you’ve overlooked, and that’s ok. I really do think that sometimes letting the players get that easy win, to feel that they’ve outsmarted the enemy security planner gives them a nice warm glow inside. And, it’s also a good thing from a game politics perspective I think – a reminder to the players that they’re not playing *against* the GM, but *with* the GM, to make a compelling story. Sometimes people get lucky. Sometimes the world conspires against you. But giving them these wins, these lucky breaks when they come up with a novel idea or crazy out of the box concept banks you trust – and means when you do hammer them flat with something, they accept that sometimes they’re just unlucky… or that you have a plan, and to trust the process.
One of my Pink Mohawk players that I used to run for had a great deal of distrust – whenever something bad happened he seemed to take it very personally, and there’d be all kinds of issues. Over time I got the impression that he’d played with a GM that was very much out to get him – someone who saw his role as being that of stopping the players from succeeding, someone who could through up road-block after road-block, unless the players were solving his plot in the exact specific way he had planned. That seems like an awful way to play, and I would hate playing in a game like that – way too prescriptive and formulaic, and all about the destination and not the journey. It took a good while for me to get him to trust me, and to accept that when bad stuff happens to a character, sometimes it’s just bad luck, or sometimes it’s so you as the player can react and work through that emotional low, that feeling of despair – before hopefully rising from the ashes and soaring back up high. You can’t have the exhilarating success, without the fear of failure or the risk of loss – at least in my opinion.
So yeah – this week the players discovered the phase 2 tunnels already in place, that will allow them to sneak into the factory, and provide a good way past a lot of the security. That lets them bypass a phase of the job, and concentrate on the next – and I’m ok with that. There’s still going to be plenty of risk for them, and they’re still almost certainly going to end up fleeing from the factory in a hail of gunfire…
It means they don’t get to work out what the bunnies do either – which is a shame in one way, but lets me save them for another place as well, and then they might have regrets about not working out what they were previously, when they find the next place doesn’t have handy dandy secret tunnels under the base!
I’ve got the base security mapped out – both standard patrol teams and their backup, and then the reinforcements coming from Gwangju:
Active security - Eastern Tiger Corporation "Tiger-Squad"
• 3 X security guards, 5s and 4s, 5/3 armour, 7M bullpup rifles with APDS, sidearms with gel rounds, tactical radio set R5, health monitor. Tactical helmets with IR/US goggles, wrist restraints, tranq patches (R6) Boosted reflexes, datajack to radio, Tiger-claw (cyberspur)
• 1 X security guard, as per the base guard, but with VCR1 instead of reflexes, carries medkit
• 1 X spirit warder, phys ad with 6s and 4s, 5/3 armour, Warded (F8) plasteel mace, Shotgun with AV rounds, frag and flash grenades, Astral vision, R2 init booster, senses (vision+hearing) - seen as elite / revered
• Drive a light van that is a combination security vehicle, fire truck and medical rescue - room for 1 stretcher, 1 high pressure hose, electric vehicle with the same armoured door system on all doors used for the new police cars.
• Daewoo Apex-2: Handle 5/5, Speed 60, Accel 10, Body 5, Armour 0/4, Sig 3, Auto 3, Pilot NA, Sensor 1, Cargo 20, Load 300, Seating 2+1b, Entry 4d, Electric, 100 PF, 1km/PF, SUV chassis, Avail 4/10 days, 85,000.
• Datajack, rigger adaption, spotlights X 2, lockable toolbox, Special equipment: Medical gurney (left side) , 50mm fire-fighting foam cannon, 500l foam tank (already factored into load), lockable toolbox
Backups security squads
• 10 man Tiger riders squad. 5 X bikes+sidecar. Stats as per security guards, but add under-barrel GL to rifle with improved IPE, and the sidecar riders have pintle mounted LMGs with EX-EX and 200 round boxes. Guards also have combat reflex inhalers.
Gwangju security response:
• Samsung Spymaster drone (Aztech Liebre RPV, P176, R3) Arrives at speed 1620 (1-2 mins after alarm) then brakes and goes into a high-altitude loiter to survey and report.
• Samsung Lightning drones X4 follow, CAS Wandijina RPV, P173 R3) Arrive at speed 500 (3-6 mins after alarm). Armed with a vigilant autocannon and a single AMRAAM
• IWS Aerobus up-armoured tilt-wing (armour 5) with backup troops (Fed-Boeing Commuter, P185 R3), arrives at speed 320, 5-8 mins after alarm) with 2 X 10 man tiger squads, armed in light-milspec and with HV rifles armed with APDS.
The onsite security is not to be sniffed at, and is a threat with their APDS ammo – but also a temptation to go harvest some ammo from fallen enemies for the team! Backup troops are more of the same, but in a bigger squad, giving them more arcs of fire and firepower, as well as better mobility. And finally the response troops are a mix of drones for very fast response times with some punch that could threaten the Broadsword, as well as even more troops, but this time upping the ante with some milspec armour to lower the chance of them being taken down so quickly.
Hopefully next week we’ll see the team piling into the tunnels and working their way into the factory, and grabbing the data and 4 pallets of goods they’re after, then heading back to Singapore to drop them off and get paid – and that gets Hunter a great new deck worth a million Nuyen on the street.
And there’s certainly nothing wrong with it at all. No hidden programs or features.
No sir. I’m offended that you could even think such a thing. It’s just a great little prize for a player, with no drawbacks.
Certainly won’t be used as a plot-point later.
Nope… <wink>
Oh – and as we’ve now reached that point in the timeline – we also got to make some SURGE checks! The target numbers for most of the players are ridiculously high thanks to their cyberware, magic ratings or other factors, so I really wasn’t expecting anyone to get any successes – but it was always possible. This time the dice came up empty – but I’m planning on having a few more checks as we hit some key parts of the timeline, just to keep things interesting!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 05/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 21:00
2. Early evening surveillance - 6 X Samsung Glidertron functionally the same as Condors. Drones on slow perimeter patrol, clockwise, evenly spaced. 2.75km perimeter. 460m between drones, moving at speed 10
3. Tads paracritters roll on the bunnies - don't match anything known, probably gene-modified. Aswon - maybe they spot unusual people and thump feet - sets of sensors? Shimazu - could a mage use them to view stuff? Tads - eyes of the pack, it's a known spell, but can view but not do anything. Shimazu - can't use it as a passive sense then. Aswon - best to stay away from the fences then, just avoid them. Tads assenses, gets good roll - like a phys-ad, not a caster, passive effects. Tads wonders if they have them at other facilities - neither of the ones checked are rural, both urban, no critters, single fence.
4. Aswon thinking about burrowing under the fence in the NW corner, Tads not so keen as it's in view of cameras and stuff. Aswon expands thoughts on various spots to tunnel in to, with cover. Or go in overhead. What's the distance between the buildings, what sensors do they have etc.
5. Kai - building 8 - maybe less secure, psychology it's "inside". Aswon moves around to South to check the far side of building 8 from long range. Aswon does weird stealth roll - 71s, rerolls to 6 1s, 13, 10,10. Finds couple in the woods, short her and tall him. Listens a bit for linguistics.
6. Tads asking for 2nd fac, Hunter - I'm busy, no deck. Ask Marius. Marius is looking for signal from the plant, starts using the new PEM gear
7. Observations - staff working 8-8-6, blue boiler suits or white (paint), yellow hard hats, orange/red/green on few. Hunter spots most of the crew leaving by car share / bus.
8. Tads assesses the trail out to the river on the east side, no human activity. Looks for ancestor spirits etc, and tech boxes. Very widely spaced tech, single fence, 3m high. Examine rail lines - check for tunnels west (no) and layout to the east. Engineering roll for Hunter, checking the NE corner. Phase 2, abandoned construction huts, maybe linked power and water, but not network. Marius - maybe, people are lazy - sewer and communications might be in there, might be blocked up - temporarily. Hunter and Marius think about stuff. Marius - probably some tunnels in for multiple services. Cheaper to build
9. Tads - Aswon can you check fence for "beware of guard dog" type signs on outer fence. "Private property, Keep out" bilingual.
10. Kai - thinking the tunnels is a good choice. Asks Tads is she can use a land spirit/elemental to find the tunnels. High force spirit summoned to recon, gets on with that for a few hours.
11. HVAC / engineering checks for server room. Non result, too much heat in rest of facility. Shimazu psychology - security probably ignore the phase 2 building area, pretty open but still "secure", too used to it being empty.
12. Aswon - preliminary plan, to flee south out of the facility into the farm, not out the main gate. Tads - and sharp corners will make their vehicles risk overturning. Aswon - that lets us disappear into the woods, before the inevitable t-bird responds from the city. Maybe we can steal military vehicles to drag our targets out. We should split into 2 - stealth team for the data, sensor team for the noisy steal. Tads - concern over splitting Marius attention. Aswon - have every faith in Marius. Hunter - it's a timing issue. Stealth first, then noisy option.
13. Tads goes to check manhole cover in phase 2. 2m manhole cover. padlocks and cross bars. down the tunnel, find cables. Relay info to team.
14. Kai - botanists - are those plants natural or planted. Natural regrowth after basic construction. Kai - gives us a timeline for the construction. Modern security in the tunnel. Aswon - should probably take cutting gear in case they've just put grilles or doors in down there. Tads checks - metallic door, rat size holes around the pipes
15. Tads/Aswon - repeat the nigerian plan, follow someone home on the bus, snatch them, mind probe for inside intel. Hunter research on corporate apparel. Clean room whites.
16. Yellow - works, green safety reps, orange first level supervisors, red 2nd level supervisors.
17. Team watching for 24 hours. 600 yellow hats, 50 orange, 15 red, 35 green, 80 white. All red hats and 1/3 green by car share, +1/3 orange. Rest by bus. All vehicles checked on arrival. Even split of people per building. Some tailgating going through doors.
18. Black boiler suits for gate guards, basic loadout description. Shimazu - bowing guards.
19. On the 6th - surge checks.
20. Aswon - none
21. Marius - none
22. Shimazu - none
23. Hunter - none
24. Tads - none
25. Kai - none
26. Ibn Eisa rises from the grave, news goes mental.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week was a good chunk of legwork as the team settled in to check out the facility and work out what was going on, and how hard it was going to be to get in. They didn’t “do” much, per se, but there was a lot of talking and planning, with some excursions to gather intel and check things out.
I had a map of the facility that was quite zoomed out, that I shared with the team first, letting them get an idea of the overall layout and position, which was replaced with a larger and higher resolution map showing more detail as they did their observations, revealing more facets of the local environment.
As is quite common in my Pink Mohawk games that I run, I didn’t have a “correct way” to crack this nut – I’d built something that seemed to be reasonable, a balance between expense and practical, that the corp might invest in to keep themselves safe. Then it’s a matter of listening to the players as they come up with theories and ideas, working out what might or might not work based on their own slants and perceptions. And, as long as the plan they have is sound – then that’s what we’ll go with.
I think being flexible like this is important – Shadowrun in particular has so many skills, so many options, that there’s no way you can forsee all the crazy plans that your players might come up with, and I think it’s important that you don’t try to box them into the “one true way” – the railroad tracks that lead to success. Sometimes you can – sometimes there really is only one way to skin a cat, but generally I like to let them work out a plan and have that work – provided they don’t do something really dumb.
Sometimes that means the players have an easy time of things, as they find a loophole or something you’ve overlooked, and that’s ok. I really do think that sometimes letting the players get that easy win, to feel that they’ve outsmarted the enemy security planner gives them a nice warm glow inside. And, it’s also a good thing from a game politics perspective I think – a reminder to the players that they’re not playing *against* the GM, but *with* the GM, to make a compelling story. Sometimes people get lucky. Sometimes the world conspires against you. But giving them these wins, these lucky breaks when they come up with a novel idea or crazy out of the box concept banks you trust – and means when you do hammer them flat with something, they accept that sometimes they’re just unlucky… or that you have a plan, and to trust the process.
One of my Pink Mohawk players that I used to run for had a great deal of distrust – whenever something bad happened he seemed to take it very personally, and there’d be all kinds of issues. Over time I got the impression that he’d played with a GM that was very much out to get him – someone who saw his role as being that of stopping the players from succeeding, someone who could through up road-block after road-block, unless the players were solving his plot in the exact specific way he had planned. That seems like an awful way to play, and I would hate playing in a game like that – way too prescriptive and formulaic, and all about the destination and not the journey. It took a good while for me to get him to trust me, and to accept that when bad stuff happens to a character, sometimes it’s just bad luck, or sometimes it’s so you as the player can react and work through that emotional low, that feeling of despair – before hopefully rising from the ashes and soaring back up high. You can’t have the exhilarating success, without the fear of failure or the risk of loss – at least in my opinion.
So yeah – this week the players discovered the phase 2 tunnels already in place, that will allow them to sneak into the factory, and provide a good way past a lot of the security. That lets them bypass a phase of the job, and concentrate on the next – and I’m ok with that. There’s still going to be plenty of risk for them, and they’re still almost certainly going to end up fleeing from the factory in a hail of gunfire…
It means they don’t get to work out what the bunnies do either – which is a shame in one way, but lets me save them for another place as well, and then they might have regrets about not working out what they were previously, when they find the next place doesn’t have handy dandy secret tunnels under the base!
I’ve got the base security mapped out – both standard patrol teams and their backup, and then the reinforcements coming from Gwangju:
Active security - Eastern Tiger Corporation "Tiger-Squad"
• 3 X security guards, 5s and 4s, 5/3 armour, 7M bullpup rifles with APDS, sidearms with gel rounds, tactical radio set R5, health monitor. Tactical helmets with IR/US goggles, wrist restraints, tranq patches (R6) Boosted reflexes, datajack to radio, Tiger-claw (cyberspur)
• 1 X security guard, as per the base guard, but with VCR1 instead of reflexes, carries medkit
• 1 X spirit warder, phys ad with 6s and 4s, 5/3 armour, Warded (F8) plasteel mace, Shotgun with AV rounds, frag and flash grenades, Astral vision, R2 init booster, senses (vision+hearing) - seen as elite / revered
• Drive a light van that is a combination security vehicle, fire truck and medical rescue - room for 1 stretcher, 1 high pressure hose, electric vehicle with the same armoured door system on all doors used for the new police cars.
• Daewoo Apex-2: Handle 5/5, Speed 60, Accel 10, Body 5, Armour 0/4, Sig 3, Auto 3, Pilot NA, Sensor 1, Cargo 20, Load 300, Seating 2+1b, Entry 4d, Electric, 100 PF, 1km/PF, SUV chassis, Avail 4/10 days, 85,000.
• Datajack, rigger adaption, spotlights X 2, lockable toolbox, Special equipment: Medical gurney (left side) , 50mm fire-fighting foam cannon, 500l foam tank (already factored into load), lockable toolbox
Backups security squads
• 10 man Tiger riders squad. 5 X bikes+sidecar. Stats as per security guards, but add under-barrel GL to rifle with improved IPE, and the sidecar riders have pintle mounted LMGs with EX-EX and 200 round boxes. Guards also have combat reflex inhalers.
Gwangju security response:
• Samsung Spymaster drone (Aztech Liebre RPV, P176, R3) Arrives at speed 1620 (1-2 mins after alarm) then brakes and goes into a high-altitude loiter to survey and report.
• Samsung Lightning drones X4 follow, CAS Wandijina RPV, P173 R3) Arrive at speed 500 (3-6 mins after alarm). Armed with a vigilant autocannon and a single AMRAAM
• IWS Aerobus up-armoured tilt-wing (armour 5) with backup troops (Fed-Boeing Commuter, P185 R3), arrives at speed 320, 5-8 mins after alarm) with 2 X 10 man tiger squads, armed in light-milspec and with HV rifles armed with APDS.
The onsite security is not to be sniffed at, and is a threat with their APDS ammo – but also a temptation to go harvest some ammo from fallen enemies for the team! Backup troops are more of the same, but in a bigger squad, giving them more arcs of fire and firepower, as well as better mobility. And finally the response troops are a mix of drones for very fast response times with some punch that could threaten the Broadsword, as well as even more troops, but this time upping the ante with some milspec armour to lower the chance of them being taken down so quickly.
Hopefully next week we’ll see the team piling into the tunnels and working their way into the factory, and grabbing the data and 4 pallets of goods they’re after, then heading back to Singapore to drop them off and get paid – and that gets Hunter a great new deck worth a million Nuyen on the street.
And there’s certainly nothing wrong with it at all. No hidden programs or features.
No sir. I’m offended that you could even think such a thing. It’s just a great little prize for a player, with no drawbacks.
Certainly won’t be used as a plot-point later.
Nope… <wink>
Oh – and as we’ve now reached that point in the timeline – we also got to make some SURGE checks! The target numbers for most of the players are ridiculously high thanks to their cyberware, magic ratings or other factors, so I really wasn’t expecting anyone to get any successes – but it was always possible. This time the dice came up empty – but I’m planning on having a few more checks as we hit some key parts of the timeline, just to keep things interesting!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 05/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 21:00
2. Early evening surveillance - 6 X Samsung Glidertron functionally the same as Condors. Drones on slow perimeter patrol, clockwise, evenly spaced. 2.75km perimeter. 460m between drones, moving at speed 10
3. Tads paracritters roll on the bunnies - don't match anything known, probably gene-modified. Aswon - maybe they spot unusual people and thump feet - sets of sensors? Shimazu - could a mage use them to view stuff? Tads - eyes of the pack, it's a known spell, but can view but not do anything. Shimazu - can't use it as a passive sense then. Aswon - best to stay away from the fences then, just avoid them. Tads assenses, gets good roll - like a phys-ad, not a caster, passive effects. Tads wonders if they have them at other facilities - neither of the ones checked are rural, both urban, no critters, single fence.
4. Aswon thinking about burrowing under the fence in the NW corner, Tads not so keen as it's in view of cameras and stuff. Aswon expands thoughts on various spots to tunnel in to, with cover. Or go in overhead. What's the distance between the buildings, what sensors do they have etc.
5. Kai - building 8 - maybe less secure, psychology it's "inside". Aswon moves around to South to check the far side of building 8 from long range. Aswon does weird stealth roll - 71s, rerolls to 6 1s, 13, 10,10. Finds couple in the woods, short her and tall him. Listens a bit for linguistics.
6. Tads asking for 2nd fac, Hunter - I'm busy, no deck. Ask Marius. Marius is looking for signal from the plant, starts using the new PEM gear
7. Observations - staff working 8-8-6, blue boiler suits or white (paint), yellow hard hats, orange/red/green on few. Hunter spots most of the crew leaving by car share / bus.
8. Tads assesses the trail out to the river on the east side, no human activity. Looks for ancestor spirits etc, and tech boxes. Very widely spaced tech, single fence, 3m high. Examine rail lines - check for tunnels west (no) and layout to the east. Engineering roll for Hunter, checking the NE corner. Phase 2, abandoned construction huts, maybe linked power and water, but not network. Marius - maybe, people are lazy - sewer and communications might be in there, might be blocked up - temporarily. Hunter and Marius think about stuff. Marius - probably some tunnels in for multiple services. Cheaper to build
9. Tads - Aswon can you check fence for "beware of guard dog" type signs on outer fence. "Private property, Keep out" bilingual.
10. Kai - thinking the tunnels is a good choice. Asks Tads is she can use a land spirit/elemental to find the tunnels. High force spirit summoned to recon, gets on with that for a few hours.
11. HVAC / engineering checks for server room. Non result, too much heat in rest of facility. Shimazu psychology - security probably ignore the phase 2 building area, pretty open but still "secure", too used to it being empty.
12. Aswon - preliminary plan, to flee south out of the facility into the farm, not out the main gate. Tads - and sharp corners will make their vehicles risk overturning. Aswon - that lets us disappear into the woods, before the inevitable t-bird responds from the city. Maybe we can steal military vehicles to drag our targets out. We should split into 2 - stealth team for the data, sensor team for the noisy steal. Tads - concern over splitting Marius attention. Aswon - have every faith in Marius. Hunter - it's a timing issue. Stealth first, then noisy option.
13. Tads goes to check manhole cover in phase 2. 2m manhole cover. padlocks and cross bars. down the tunnel, find cables. Relay info to team.
14. Kai - botanists - are those plants natural or planted. Natural regrowth after basic construction. Kai - gives us a timeline for the construction. Modern security in the tunnel. Aswon - should probably take cutting gear in case they've just put grilles or doors in down there. Tads checks - metallic door, rat size holes around the pipes
15. Tads/Aswon - repeat the nigerian plan, follow someone home on the bus, snatch them, mind probe for inside intel. Hunter research on corporate apparel. Clean room whites.
16. Yellow - works, green safety reps, orange first level supervisors, red 2nd level supervisors.
17. Team watching for 24 hours. 600 yellow hats, 50 orange, 15 red, 35 green, 80 white. All red hats and 1/3 green by car share, +1/3 orange. Rest by bus. All vehicles checked on arrival. Even split of people per building. Some tailgating going through doors.
18. Black boiler suits for gate guards, basic loadout description. Shimazu - bowing guards.
19. On the 6th - surge checks.
20. Aswon - none
21. Marius - none
22. Shimazu - none
23. Hunter - none
24. Tads - none
25. Kai - none
26. Ibn Eisa rises from the grave, news goes mental.
No game this week, so no writeup to come this weekend. One player down with sunstroke, and he's likely to be needed for what's coming up - so I'd rather not have them in the blanket box for this week. Hopefully normal service will be resumed next week.
So - that gives me some time to ask for some more thoughts from you lovely people.
First of all - the players will soon be heading over to the Philippines again, to meet another Great Dragon - this time Masaru - though they have no idea of this yet. Hopefully they won't know until they just turn up for a meet with a young but smartly dressed, very intense man who has an "offer they can't refuse". Well, not without the risk of some serious fireballs going off! As with the other Greats they've met so far (Lung, Ryumyo, Lofwyr) I'm looking to get a "guest npc" in to play the role, to give the players someone to bounce off. So - is there anyone out there interested in playing a Great, that could be available between 19:00-21:00 BST on a Tuesday, who could join our Discord channel? Notes on what the GD is after, and what he has to offer will be provided, along with a few very broad strokes for approach - but I try to be flexible on the specifics of character, mannerisms, style and any little RP twists that people throw in - it all adds to the tapestry of the game!
I can normally give 1-2 weeks notice at least of when we're going to get to the right "bit" to need the NPC, and I normally try to manoeuvre things so we end the previous session just as they're getting to the location - so we can start the session and go straight into the NPC meeting, so hopefully you wouldn't be waiting around (I'm sure we've all experienced, or been part of the strange vortex of player faff at some point or another!)
So, if anyone is interested, please feel free to put a shout down below, and we can work stuff out. And if there are a few people, and you're not picked for Masaru... well, there's still more great dragons out there! Just saying.
Next question then - the current job they're doing, for "The Noodles", to steal the data and the sensors from ETC... the reward for this is going to be a deck, a pretty decent bit of kit. It's a custom build, but equivalent to a 3rd edition "Renraku Kraftwerk-8", with all of the programs for it at rating 6 - a significant upgrade for Hunter from his Sony CTY-360-D, which has an MPCP of 5 and all his programs at 3. What they've not done is any research at all into The Noodles to see who or what they are, and what their goals are... so they're unaware that this particular bunch of Otaku are working for Deus. My plan is for this to be a thing for Hunter, with him monitoring his activity and building up a profile on him and the team from his searches, to see how useful these new "pawns" might be. My current thinking is to make secret computer checks for Hunter whenever he uses the deck for a new task, perhaps against a TN of 12 or so (it is Deus after all!) to detect that there might be "something" going on, and he'd have to investigate from there. Does that feel too harsh... or not harsh enough?
As ever, would love to hear thoughts and feedback on this silly project of mine, even if it's not related to those two questions!
So - that gives me some time to ask for some more thoughts from you lovely people.
First of all - the players will soon be heading over to the Philippines again, to meet another Great Dragon - this time Masaru - though they have no idea of this yet. Hopefully they won't know until they just turn up for a meet with a young but smartly dressed, very intense man who has an "offer they can't refuse". Well, not without the risk of some serious fireballs going off! As with the other Greats they've met so far (Lung, Ryumyo, Lofwyr) I'm looking to get a "guest npc" in to play the role, to give the players someone to bounce off. So - is there anyone out there interested in playing a Great, that could be available between 19:00-21:00 BST on a Tuesday, who could join our Discord channel? Notes on what the GD is after, and what he has to offer will be provided, along with a few very broad strokes for approach - but I try to be flexible on the specifics of character, mannerisms, style and any little RP twists that people throw in - it all adds to the tapestry of the game!
I can normally give 1-2 weeks notice at least of when we're going to get to the right "bit" to need the NPC, and I normally try to manoeuvre things so we end the previous session just as they're getting to the location - so we can start the session and go straight into the NPC meeting, so hopefully you wouldn't be waiting around (I'm sure we've all experienced, or been part of the strange vortex of player faff at some point or another!)
So, if anyone is interested, please feel free to put a shout down below, and we can work stuff out. And if there are a few people, and you're not picked for Masaru... well, there's still more great dragons out there! Just saying.
Next question then - the current job they're doing, for "The Noodles", to steal the data and the sensors from ETC... the reward for this is going to be a deck, a pretty decent bit of kit. It's a custom build, but equivalent to a 3rd edition "Renraku Kraftwerk-8", with all of the programs for it at rating 6 - a significant upgrade for Hunter from his Sony CTY-360-D, which has an MPCP of 5 and all his programs at 3. What they've not done is any research at all into The Noodles to see who or what they are, and what their goals are... so they're unaware that this particular bunch of Otaku are working for Deus. My plan is for this to be a thing for Hunter, with him monitoring his activity and building up a profile on him and the team from his searches, to see how useful these new "pawns" might be. My current thinking is to make secret computer checks for Hunter whenever he uses the deck for a new task, perhaps against a TN of 12 or so (it is Deus after all!) to detect that there might be "something" going on, and he'd have to investigate from there. Does that feel too harsh... or not harsh enough?
As ever, would love to hear thoughts and feedback on this silly project of mine, even if it's not related to those two questions!
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 319 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well – that didn’t go quite as I’d hoped and planned – I’d wanted the team to get into the base this session, and start scouting out the tunnels, examining the infrastructure and maybe even starting the job. The players however had other plans, wanting to do more research and observation, then a bit of shopping.
The shopping fair enough – boiler suits and hard hats would let them pass at a distance for factory staff at a casual glance, probably, and getting stuff like bolt croppers will help them out no end… but they’re being far more cautious than I was expecting, even for a team that likes to plan things out and cover as many of the bases as they can.
Still – it’s their game, and if they want to go slow, then we go slow. I lay out the rails through the long grass and try to keep them hidden well enough they don’t realise (or mind) that they’re being guided one way or another, but they get to pick the speed. They did poke the rabbits – but after a check of who was doing what, I realised that nobody with the right vision mods or any drones were in a position to actually see the rabbits “magical effect” going off, so they’re *still* no closer to working out what’s going on with them!
But, by the end of the night, we hopefully have gotten to a point that they’re now ready to go – it’s the end of the day, the base is at minimum staffing levels, they’ve got a weak point in the fence mapped out, have scouted the terrain out, and have the gear they need… SURELY they’re ready to go now?
We’ll have to wait another week to find out, unfortunately, as we have no game on Tuesday August 27th – one of the players is away on holiday, and it’s right after a live-roleplay event for 2 others, so they’re likely to be exhausted and in no fit state to play.
This next week, as well as the actual infiltration into the factory, the weather is going to finally clear over the eastern part of Asia, and they’ll suddenly be able to see the Comet, visible to the naked eye – and of course the number of reports of SURGE will start going up and up in the media, and the world will start going to hell in a handbag – again.
I had each of the players make a SURGE test 2 sessions ago, and unsurprisingly nobody got any hits at all. The way the SURGE test is presented, those with low essence, or high magic are very, very unlikely to get any effects, and that pretty much sums up the whole team. However I am wondering whether to hit them with another SURGE test again, to see how they react. I definitely don’t want the campaign thrown off course because someone develops gills and suddenly has to go live in the sea – I’d certainly not let any of the results “break” a character. Being more noticeable, having a strange effect or mild inconvenience is ok in my book, but suddenly having a character become effectively unplayable doesn’t strike me as fun at all – either for the players, or for myself in terms of where I’m trying to take the game.
But, I do think having something a little bit odd, a little unusual might be amusing – and I’m thinking that with the Pacific Ring of Fire due to go up soon, that might be another nice little dramatic moment to do a test.
What do you all think? Is the element of uncertainty worth it? Should I just decide to arbitrarily give them a SURGE effect – but keep it to something trivial or cosmetic? Was one roll of the dice enough, and we should go with that and just have SURGE being something that happens to other people? Or even, should I let them roll once on the positive effect tables to get something nice and unique – as they are the stars of the story?
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 06/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 13:00
2. Hunter learning written Korean.
3. Aswon - seem to be relying on automated security, not seen inside the vehicles, inside might be drones, what do we have to deal with small drones / armoured vehicles.
4. Tads - can Marius hack the vehicles and the factory to get them to deliver sensors to us then? Aswon - yeah, he probably can now. Tads checks security - basic reflexes, datajacks, eyes+ears in some, young, well trained, competent. Aswon - maybe we should order them a pizza, see how they react. Assense some of the staff, mostly light touch stuff, some very heavy though - arms and legs
5. Marius does not have frequency hopping pattern, but has broken their encryption, and can read/write all their traffic. Security vehicles are live - not drones, and a hot-mess of signals from inside the buildings. Multiple riggers inside - will have backup, but may need to co-ordinate. All eggs in one basket, one central control room probably. Marius thinks one control centre, one smaller backup. Aswon suspects security services live on site, maybe for month on/off.
6. Hunter and Aswon SUT roles - blowing the network to cover the escape phase. Marius explains that with multiple riggers, he's wary about exploring too much to avoid tipping them off. And jacked in physically will make that easier. Tads reminds them they have a job for the old man in 6.5 weeks and a potential dragon call coming - so they do have time limits. Team discuss following someone home again to mind-probe. Team settle down for more recon, Hunter learning Korean text.
7. At shift end follow a car with mix of people, follow them home. Team discuss - most of the people here are going to be urban based. Rural are possibly going to have hearth spirits based on age of house. Tads follows 2 cars and 1 bus, and all are urban. Marius and Hunter work on the freq-hopping, making progress.
8. Takes until about 10pm. One news story about a random guy in western Europe turning into a hedgehog - minor interest story.
9. Team planning on going to get boiler suits, cutting equipment, padlocks, other B&E tools.
10. Onto Wednesday 7th, still no call from Lung. Crack the frequency hop - Korean national anthem. Very occasional traffic to the drones for pattern matches, then gardener goes to remove rubbish. Aswon suggests trying a shapechange bird of prey to snatch a bunny and check it out - work out it's only Tads/Kai that they can make to a small enough native raptor. Kai goes hunting, Alarm goes off on the fence, drones get jumped into and watch, then security team head for the fence. Kai gets close to ridge, kills rabbit and drops it near the team. Shimazu and Tads assense - more power to whatever the aura is. Security team come to investigate calmly and professionally. Alert triggered at 10m above rabbits. Tads warns Kai to get clean properly in case they were toxic. Shimazu looking at security response. Professional, competent, co-ordinated, keen - but not excited. Follow the playbook properly - not just lip service. Shimazu does psychometry on the rabbit. Death was somewhat traumatic (lots of 1s) but happy life and used to being handled. Gets that it's lab grown/reared. Kai - can we get a snake to feed through the fence and see what happens? Hunter check - nothing snake wise that fits the bill.
11. Aswon - maybe send Kai back in as a bird to check on the building rooves, birds in the area now, test their response. Tads - control pack on actual bird rather than Kai, safer. Aswon - we need something big, near metahuman sized that would trigger a sensor. Few more surge cases pop up, matrix rumours starting to pop up.
12. Wednesday 8pm, more tracking of cars, go to the north urban development. Thursday morning, no call from Mr Kuro. Head up to port city of Gunsan for shopping. Get most of the basics, look for plasma torches - no, try for thermite materials - yes, Aswons R4 fake ID. Back to site ok, Aswon makes Thermite (just) into pipes.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well – that didn’t go quite as I’d hoped and planned – I’d wanted the team to get into the base this session, and start scouting out the tunnels, examining the infrastructure and maybe even starting the job. The players however had other plans, wanting to do more research and observation, then a bit of shopping.
The shopping fair enough – boiler suits and hard hats would let them pass at a distance for factory staff at a casual glance, probably, and getting stuff like bolt croppers will help them out no end… but they’re being far more cautious than I was expecting, even for a team that likes to plan things out and cover as many of the bases as they can.
Still – it’s their game, and if they want to go slow, then we go slow. I lay out the rails through the long grass and try to keep them hidden well enough they don’t realise (or mind) that they’re being guided one way or another, but they get to pick the speed. They did poke the rabbits – but after a check of who was doing what, I realised that nobody with the right vision mods or any drones were in a position to actually see the rabbits “magical effect” going off, so they’re *still* no closer to working out what’s going on with them!
But, by the end of the night, we hopefully have gotten to a point that they’re now ready to go – it’s the end of the day, the base is at minimum staffing levels, they’ve got a weak point in the fence mapped out, have scouted the terrain out, and have the gear they need… SURELY they’re ready to go now?
We’ll have to wait another week to find out, unfortunately, as we have no game on Tuesday August 27th – one of the players is away on holiday, and it’s right after a live-roleplay event for 2 others, so they’re likely to be exhausted and in no fit state to play.
This next week, as well as the actual infiltration into the factory, the weather is going to finally clear over the eastern part of Asia, and they’ll suddenly be able to see the Comet, visible to the naked eye – and of course the number of reports of SURGE will start going up and up in the media, and the world will start going to hell in a handbag – again.
I had each of the players make a SURGE test 2 sessions ago, and unsurprisingly nobody got any hits at all. The way the SURGE test is presented, those with low essence, or high magic are very, very unlikely to get any effects, and that pretty much sums up the whole team. However I am wondering whether to hit them with another SURGE test again, to see how they react. I definitely don’t want the campaign thrown off course because someone develops gills and suddenly has to go live in the sea – I’d certainly not let any of the results “break” a character. Being more noticeable, having a strange effect or mild inconvenience is ok in my book, but suddenly having a character become effectively unplayable doesn’t strike me as fun at all – either for the players, or for myself in terms of where I’m trying to take the game.
But, I do think having something a little bit odd, a little unusual might be amusing – and I’m thinking that with the Pacific Ring of Fire due to go up soon, that might be another nice little dramatic moment to do a test.
What do you all think? Is the element of uncertainty worth it? Should I just decide to arbitrarily give them a SURGE effect – but keep it to something trivial or cosmetic? Was one roll of the dice enough, and we should go with that and just have SURGE being something that happens to other people? Or even, should I let them roll once on the positive effect tables to get something nice and unique – as they are the stars of the story?
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 06/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 13:00
2. Hunter learning written Korean.
3. Aswon - seem to be relying on automated security, not seen inside the vehicles, inside might be drones, what do we have to deal with small drones / armoured vehicles.
4. Tads - can Marius hack the vehicles and the factory to get them to deliver sensors to us then? Aswon - yeah, he probably can now. Tads checks security - basic reflexes, datajacks, eyes+ears in some, young, well trained, competent. Aswon - maybe we should order them a pizza, see how they react. Assense some of the staff, mostly light touch stuff, some very heavy though - arms and legs
5. Marius does not have frequency hopping pattern, but has broken their encryption, and can read/write all their traffic. Security vehicles are live - not drones, and a hot-mess of signals from inside the buildings. Multiple riggers inside - will have backup, but may need to co-ordinate. All eggs in one basket, one central control room probably. Marius thinks one control centre, one smaller backup. Aswon suspects security services live on site, maybe for month on/off.
6. Hunter and Aswon SUT roles - blowing the network to cover the escape phase. Marius explains that with multiple riggers, he's wary about exploring too much to avoid tipping them off. And jacked in physically will make that easier. Tads reminds them they have a job for the old man in 6.5 weeks and a potential dragon call coming - so they do have time limits. Team discuss following someone home again to mind-probe. Team settle down for more recon, Hunter learning Korean text.
7. At shift end follow a car with mix of people, follow them home. Team discuss - most of the people here are going to be urban based. Rural are possibly going to have hearth spirits based on age of house. Tads follows 2 cars and 1 bus, and all are urban. Marius and Hunter work on the freq-hopping, making progress.
8. Takes until about 10pm. One news story about a random guy in western Europe turning into a hedgehog - minor interest story.
9. Team planning on going to get boiler suits, cutting equipment, padlocks, other B&E tools.
10. Onto Wednesday 7th, still no call from Lung. Crack the frequency hop - Korean national anthem. Very occasional traffic to the drones for pattern matches, then gardener goes to remove rubbish. Aswon suggests trying a shapechange bird of prey to snatch a bunny and check it out - work out it's only Tads/Kai that they can make to a small enough native raptor. Kai goes hunting, Alarm goes off on the fence, drones get jumped into and watch, then security team head for the fence. Kai gets close to ridge, kills rabbit and drops it near the team. Shimazu and Tads assense - more power to whatever the aura is. Security team come to investigate calmly and professionally. Alert triggered at 10m above rabbits. Tads warns Kai to get clean properly in case they were toxic. Shimazu looking at security response. Professional, competent, co-ordinated, keen - but not excited. Follow the playbook properly - not just lip service. Shimazu does psychometry on the rabbit. Death was somewhat traumatic (lots of 1s) but happy life and used to being handled. Gets that it's lab grown/reared. Kai - can we get a snake to feed through the fence and see what happens? Hunter check - nothing snake wise that fits the bill.
11. Aswon - maybe send Kai back in as a bird to check on the building rooves, birds in the area now, test their response. Tads - control pack on actual bird rather than Kai, safer. Aswon - we need something big, near metahuman sized that would trigger a sensor. Few more surge cases pop up, matrix rumours starting to pop up.
12. Wednesday 8pm, more tracking of cars, go to the north urban development. Thursday morning, no call from Mr Kuro. Head up to port city of Gunsan for shopping. Get most of the basics, look for plasma torches - no, try for thermite materials - yes, Aswons R4 fake ID. Back to site ok, Aswon makes Thermite (just) into pipes.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 320 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And we’re off into the job! Huzzah! The team thought they were doing just a quick recon scan, but I knew better…
The entry into the tunnels was nice and quiet, with no complications – they chose to sneak further into the base rather than cutting through the main portcullis, which I kind of expected – though if they’d decided to blow that open, I’m sure that would have been fine too! Still, they took reasonable precautions and had decent stealth and lockpick rolls, so no bother at all.
Once down into the tunnels they found the doorway, and spent some time doing recon on it, trying to work out how to get past it quietly and without detection. In the end with a bit of magical concealment and protection, along with a decent demo roll, they cut through the lock ok, and got inside, without being detected by the building riggers.
The place is defended, and is not a pushover in terms of their response if the team is found – but I’m definitely going with the “night shift is long, boring and slow” vibe for the system riggers, and tilting the odds in the players favour at the moment. If they set the alarm off, then the gloves WILL come off, and things will get rough very quickly… but for now it’s still relatively “easy” mode, not that they know that. I of course, have a nefarious plan, and WANTED them to be in the facility, and in a position they could strike and do the job on a sudden clock.
And as they get in, I feed them information on the base – very much in a theatre of the minds eye style, no maps, no hard details – just that they have a good idea of the layout and how the place works, that the drones on rails have elevated fields of fire that will give them lots of trouble if it goes loud, and that stealth is very much their friend here.
And why did I want them in the base? Well, it was so they could bump into the other team of Shadowrunners, doing their own job, with their own objectives, wanting to get their own score out of the situation – who are equally upset that the team is there and getting in the way and harshing their buzz.
In a way, this is *very* loosely based on the Leverage episode “The Two Live Crew Job” – S2, E7 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482638/?ref_=ttep_ep7) in that both crews want something, for both crews the main opposition is now the other team, but neither team can really afford to go loud and bring down security on their heads, though if they can find a way to drop the hammer on the other team, that might be a good way to cover their own escape.
The other team are not as skilled as the players, and have a different composition, but they’re also after a simpler objective – so I’m hoping it will somewhat balance out.
Next week I’ll try to ratchet up the time stakes a little, and poor Hunter will no doubt be burning through his re-rolls trying to hack the network and get the data he needs, while the enemy Rigger fights Marius for control of his network in a back and forth tussle.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 08/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 19:00
2. Team have made thermite, got their shopping and are back at the ETC facility
3. Broadsword buttoned up and ready to go, whole team going round to the south and to the easternmost access point.
4. Find amorous couple, same clearing as before. Aswon - R+J or Brother + sister - either way, cringe. Move around to NE corner of the double fence, cut through the 3m fence, Tads does astral recon - nothing.
5. Get to tunnel entrance, Shimazu lockpicks 1 min, Aswon down 1st 19 on stealth. Shimazu lands with a thump... find a portcullis over the tunnel in. Team decide to leave the grille intact, and move in via a different entrance. Marius checks likely sensor range, will be outside scan range. Shimazu gets next lock open. Aswon waves for Shimazu to go first, he gets an 8 on stealth this time. Taking south tunnel, heading towards 8. Aswon - dead air detection. Tads - oxygenation.
6. The block in the tunnel is directly under the fenceline. Team are cautious, can see emergency lighting on the far side, door protected by a flange. Check their part of tunnel, find the recess for emergency lighting, big conduit possible multiple cables. Fibre probe down and spot there is power and data on the bulkhead lights. Kai - can we block the sensors? Marius - hemisphere of trid-phantasm? Long tube to cover the roof, move with tads, 15m long. Marius - gets camera to check the door out, spot the lock and flange, check for astral taints or defences. Detect magic on the door- null. Oil the hinges. Thermite bar to burn through the lock bar. Wait for it to cool, then wave the rest forward. Check out the light, it is on the rigger network, dataline tap, in on the network. Marius surveillance techniques. Detects other team dataline tap watching the network. Marius "another intruder on this network!" Tads - I can go look. Marius - it's the same size as mine, you won't be able to find it... Kai - how come they haven't spotted it. Marius - single focus vs split over hundreds of different feeds. Kai - can you find it? Marius - if I hook everything up, if I can get on the network, I'm sure I could. But that would make me more obvious too, and more likely to be spotted.
7. Hunter, can you find out where the server room is now? Marius - I can probably find it now, but depends on how it works, active vs passive. Aswon - go passive then, no rush. Aswon and Shimazu split out a few metres to watch, Hunter hitcher jacks to Marius, rest guards them. Description of factory, drone rails with mostly FF drones. Marius - might have armed drone, but direct control only.
8. Find DCs in nw of 8 and nw of 1. Scouting out the facility, getting general info. Spot the loop in the footage on the dam side - team go to full intrigue mode... much discussion, Hunter SUT roll, on the clock now. ID a network port near the entrance to the main production floor, escort Hunter there, he hacks for the info under guard, Marius does rigger overwatch. Tads can we get the sensors out for deliver if we're hacking their network? Easier than stealing them. And I can do 2 invisibility at a push to hide you from the enemy riggers...
9. Aswon spots the F6 air elemental, makes eyes at him, then bolts.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And we’re off into the job! Huzzah! The team thought they were doing just a quick recon scan, but I knew better…
The entry into the tunnels was nice and quiet, with no complications – they chose to sneak further into the base rather than cutting through the main portcullis, which I kind of expected – though if they’d decided to blow that open, I’m sure that would have been fine too! Still, they took reasonable precautions and had decent stealth and lockpick rolls, so no bother at all.
Once down into the tunnels they found the doorway, and spent some time doing recon on it, trying to work out how to get past it quietly and without detection. In the end with a bit of magical concealment and protection, along with a decent demo roll, they cut through the lock ok, and got inside, without being detected by the building riggers.
The place is defended, and is not a pushover in terms of their response if the team is found – but I’m definitely going with the “night shift is long, boring and slow” vibe for the system riggers, and tilting the odds in the players favour at the moment. If they set the alarm off, then the gloves WILL come off, and things will get rough very quickly… but for now it’s still relatively “easy” mode, not that they know that. I of course, have a nefarious plan, and WANTED them to be in the facility, and in a position they could strike and do the job on a sudden clock.
And as they get in, I feed them information on the base – very much in a theatre of the minds eye style, no maps, no hard details – just that they have a good idea of the layout and how the place works, that the drones on rails have elevated fields of fire that will give them lots of trouble if it goes loud, and that stealth is very much their friend here.
And why did I want them in the base? Well, it was so they could bump into the other team of Shadowrunners, doing their own job, with their own objectives, wanting to get their own score out of the situation – who are equally upset that the team is there and getting in the way and harshing their buzz.
In a way, this is *very* loosely based on the Leverage episode “The Two Live Crew Job” – S2, E7 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482638/?ref_=ttep_ep7) in that both crews want something, for both crews the main opposition is now the other team, but neither team can really afford to go loud and bring down security on their heads, though if they can find a way to drop the hammer on the other team, that might be a good way to cover their own escape.
The other team are not as skilled as the players, and have a different composition, but they’re also after a simpler objective – so I’m hoping it will somewhat balance out.
Next week I’ll try to ratchet up the time stakes a little, and poor Hunter will no doubt be burning through his re-rolls trying to hack the network and get the data he needs, while the enemy Rigger fights Marius for control of his network in a back and forth tussle.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 08/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 19:00
2. Team have made thermite, got their shopping and are back at the ETC facility
3. Broadsword buttoned up and ready to go, whole team going round to the south and to the easternmost access point.
4. Find amorous couple, same clearing as before. Aswon - R+J or Brother + sister - either way, cringe. Move around to NE corner of the double fence, cut through the 3m fence, Tads does astral recon - nothing.
5. Get to tunnel entrance, Shimazu lockpicks 1 min, Aswon down 1st 19 on stealth. Shimazu lands with a thump... find a portcullis over the tunnel in. Team decide to leave the grille intact, and move in via a different entrance. Marius checks likely sensor range, will be outside scan range. Shimazu gets next lock open. Aswon waves for Shimazu to go first, he gets an 8 on stealth this time. Taking south tunnel, heading towards 8. Aswon - dead air detection. Tads - oxygenation.
6. The block in the tunnel is directly under the fenceline. Team are cautious, can see emergency lighting on the far side, door protected by a flange. Check their part of tunnel, find the recess for emergency lighting, big conduit possible multiple cables. Fibre probe down and spot there is power and data on the bulkhead lights. Kai - can we block the sensors? Marius - hemisphere of trid-phantasm? Long tube to cover the roof, move with tads, 15m long. Marius - gets camera to check the door out, spot the lock and flange, check for astral taints or defences. Detect magic on the door- null. Oil the hinges. Thermite bar to burn through the lock bar. Wait for it to cool, then wave the rest forward. Check out the light, it is on the rigger network, dataline tap, in on the network. Marius surveillance techniques. Detects other team dataline tap watching the network. Marius "another intruder on this network!" Tads - I can go look. Marius - it's the same size as mine, you won't be able to find it... Kai - how come they haven't spotted it. Marius - single focus vs split over hundreds of different feeds. Kai - can you find it? Marius - if I hook everything up, if I can get on the network, I'm sure I could. But that would make me more obvious too, and more likely to be spotted.
7. Hunter, can you find out where the server room is now? Marius - I can probably find it now, but depends on how it works, active vs passive. Aswon - go passive then, no rush. Aswon and Shimazu split out a few metres to watch, Hunter hitcher jacks to Marius, rest guards them. Description of factory, drone rails with mostly FF drones. Marius - might have armed drone, but direct control only.
8. Find DCs in nw of 8 and nw of 1. Scouting out the facility, getting general info. Spot the loop in the footage on the dam side - team go to full intrigue mode... much discussion, Hunter SUT roll, on the clock now. ID a network port near the entrance to the main production floor, escort Hunter there, he hacks for the info under guard, Marius does rigger overwatch. Tads can we get the sensors out for deliver if we're hacking their network? Easier than stealing them. And I can do 2 invisibility at a push to hide you from the enemy riggers...
9. Aswon spots the F6 air elemental, makes eyes at him, then bolts.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 321 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With their hand forced, the team had to swing into action and try to get their mission done, and cope with not only the base defences, but also the other team.
First of all, there was some fairly frantic discussion about what to do – all move up, pull out, go loud, stay quiet – I gave the team a few minutes to discuss, keeping a mental clock going while the other team got on with their own agenda. I had a list of mental “breakpoints” where things they did would affect the playing field.
The other team was a fairly standard Shadowrunner team, that I’d given loose descriptions to – enough that I could work out their probable stats and how effective they’d be, without having to go to town on their stats. They were supposed to be “inferior” compared to the players, though still broadly competent.
1) Doc/Demo/Sam: “Gunny”, ex UCAS Marine medic, orc, 6/6 armour, Colt water carbine APDS, Frenchi-spas dual mag with AV/Magna-Ex, wires 3, SL2, Dermal sheathing,
2) Decker/Sam: “Romeo”, Corp burnout (MCT), human, R5 deck+programs, silenced SMG Gel/Ex-ex
3) Face/Mage: “Fizz”, Elf, Hermetic, G3 (Masking, Anchoring, Improved Anchoring), Powerbolt 6, Stunball 5, Invisibility 6, Levitate 6, Heal 5, 3 X F6 Earth elementals, 3 X F6 Air elementals), Power foci 2 (Necklace) 3/3 armour, tactical headset
4) Rigger/Sam, “Brash” - Troll, R5 deck with R4 PEM/encrypt/decrypt, LWB extended hummer, skimmer with smoke launcher, High velocity LMG on recoil mount, light security armour+helmet.
What they're after - a shipment of APDS, AV, HESH and APFSDS bought in for testing a new armour composite, from building 2
Most of you will be familiar with ADPS and AV of course, those being in the core SR3 game mechanics. In the games I’ve run we’ve altered with a series of house rules, the ammo types to fix what I perceive as a “broken” bit of the SR damage system.
At our table, AV ammo is good against vehicles – as the name would suggest – but it does NOT halve the value of vehicle armour… armour counts at full value against it. This means that even lightly armoured vehicles which can otherwise bounce small arms fire, can take a bit of a beating from AV equipped guns, lasting a few rounds potentially, or only succumbing to persistent fire – rather than instantly exploding in a fiery ball because someone has a heavy pistol they’ve somehow managed to get some AV ammo for! But, we then added other types such as HESH and APFSDS as top end “military” versions that rip through armour, and do all sorts of nasty things. That gives a nicer damage progression, and more things to chase – and another way to get a nice reward with a small package of some super-rare milspec ammo in exchange for a job well done.
Once Hunter had managed to hack into the network (burning through a number of rerolls, as predicted, to make sure he got enough successes, he found the info about the ammo dump, and immediately
a) Understood why the other team were breaking in, and were focussed on building 2
b) Started to get a chubby, and wanted to encourage the rest of the team to get over there and steal it first….
The rest of the team made their willpower checks though, and resisted the urge, concentrating more on the job at hand.
It was interesting from a GM perspective as well, watching Marius being *very* restrained with what he was doing, trying to make sure that Hunter got the stealthy part of the job done. He didn’t know that I’d statted the night-shift riggers as the “b-team” of course, and didn’t know how many there were, so there’s a reasonable amount of caution – but he was also trying to help his tech-bro out, not jostle his arm, and give him the best chance he could to finish his part of the mission before alerting the base to their presence.
Once Hunter had the data though, it was like watching the Hulk transform – and just in (dramatic) time too – as he burnt through just as many re-rolls completely overwhelming the two riggers on duty, and giving the other team’s rigger a healthy slap of dumpshock too as he went to town.
With Hunter having sysadmin on the decker side, and Marius in total control of the rigger network, it was pretty much easy-mode then, to get the sensors delivered outside to their landing zone (an excellent suggestion from Tad’s player) and to call in the Broadsword for an extraction. With magical concealment and a trid-phantasm wrapped around the team there was practically no chance that any of the on-base security team were going to see them (they did manage to get *1* success several times – enough to make them look again, but not enough to actually confirm a sighting) – and with the other team going out in a very noisy and obvious fashion, the team could slide out of there nice and easily.
I also had the response drones assigned from the corporate airfield in Gwangju, renaming a couple of drones from Rigger 3 to make them more corp-appropriate, but without changing the stats at all. First of all was the recon/ control drone, arriving at speed 1620, then the follow up hunter drones at 500. Gwangju was close enough that there wasn’t that much difference in arrival time overall – but was the difference between the player team getting away, while the NPC team were still mired down on the base.
The journey back to Shanghai was glossed over quickly, and as we were running a little over the normal finishing time, I had the players arrive back and hand over the gear in a very narrative fashion – there wasn’t anything I was planning, they knew the NPC and could insert his mannerisms into their own internal monologues if they wanted, and it got us to a nice clean break point – stolen gear handed over, job done, payment received and with them free to go on their way next session.
There’s a couple of threads they are thinking about now, and a few things they don’t know are cooking.
One thing they have discussed is doing a pro-active job, looking for a battle-tac system, so they can hook up the team and the Broadsword and get the benefits for any tactical combats they may face in the future. They’re certainly at the point in their careers where it would be a reasonable bit of kit for them to have, and a fun addition – as well as another little incremental notch in their effectiveness. Getting hold of one would be another little B&E job, as some random corp holdings – though this one I’ll probably ramp up the difficulty on, especially on the magical side. The job they’ve just done I deliberately kept it magic light (the bunnies), to throw more attention on the rigger/decker angles, and to give the non-magic user / tech-bros some time in the spotlight.
The other thing they are discussing is chasing up one of the dragons, to try and get the horror-mark sorted on Spook’s kid. I’ve been doing rolls at the start of each game day to see if Lung was going to get in touch, and so far they’ve not been lucky – but that will come soon enough. He’ll have some interesting challenges for them to earn some brownie points so he’ll help out, which will no doubt infuriate Hunter and Marius – though I’m sure they’ll do it anyway…
I’m also keeping a very careful eye on the date, as we’re getting to the fun bit of Year of the Comet where all kinds of stuff is kicking off, and some world-changing events are taking place. At the very least, they will impact the news and the world around them, even if the players try to avoid direct contact.
They’re also due to meet their next Great Dragon soon, getting embroiled in Masaru’s plan – and I’m wondering if I can find someone on my LARP contact list to come and play him as a guest in the discord channel. I missed doing this with Hestaby in the limited interactions they had with her (but could possibly find someone to come in if they meet her again), but they’ve had someone to talk to for Lung, Ryumyo, and Lofwyr – and it might be nice to keep that going where eventually I can try to get *all* of those people back online when we get to the Conclave of Dragons, to let them know they’re *really* in the shit that night…. <grin>
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 08/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 19:00
2. Tads checks with Marius - do I need to keep the illusion up? Marius - yes. Marius - is that from the other team?
3. Tads - almost certainly, not an ancestor spirit, or a local spirit which would fit with the site defences.
4. Aswon - ok, shall I expand the perimeter out? Team generally agrees, he moves up, about 60m, under building 6.
5. Hunter logon to system - gets 4, RR to 6, system gets 2 defended. Gets on clean. Then validates super-user, gets 4, RR to 7, 2RR to 9.
6. Super user valid for hours, no defences, search roll for the data - 1 RR to 3, about 20-30 seconds.
7. Marius reminds Hunter about using his system access to move 4 X sensor pods to a location. Team start to discuss where to get the forklifts to drop off - then the lights come up in the main tunnel.
8. Aswon flattens himself against the wall to avoid being backlit.
9. Marius spots the enemy activity, considers and discards the direct combat option, would set off the general alarm and expose both.
10. Waits to see what the building riggers do. 4 X drones activate in 1,4,7,8, short startup sequence. - Marius reports
11. Tads runs to Hunter, tells rest to go back to the doorway, she will use the illusion to hide them both, rest of team pull back, Marius waiting for the stealth part to conclude. Marius detects drones at 1 and 4 doing a reboot from the enemy rigger, 7+8 still active.
12. Tads gets to Hunter as drone comes out of the wall, flamethrower+LMG armed, turns towards Hunter and Tads, but doesn't spot them. Hunter gets the download completed. Gets a standard user created to move the sensors.
13. Checks - there are sensors in building 1 and 8. Hunter orders components from 8 to be delivered south of the unit to a clear area, for pickup with the bird. Gets them coming to the wider gap between containers.
14. 2nd drone misses Hunter and Tads, 1st drone picks up on some kind of anomaly. Rigger jumps in, lots of electronic noise, full active alert. Hunter checks the sensors - they are on the way. Checks ammo - zero qty remaining. Hunter starts to jack out, after sending orders to move all the stock from building 8 to building 2.
15. Rigger in the drone opens up on the door. Marius engages in combat on the rigger network. 4 RR 7 rr 8 . Takes all 3 channels, in 2 combat rounds.
16. Gunfire stops as 2nd rigger jumps out of drone to go fight Marius.
17. Hunter and Tads see 2nd drone accelerate towards the rest of the team. Aswon gently pushes door back a bit. Drone gets a 16 to perceive Aswon.
18. Blindfires at Aswon and misses - but smashes the door partly open. Marius engages the rigger, enemy rigger takes an L. Marius strikes back, does him a D, he drops.
19. F6 air elemental arrives through the door but gets Shimzued. Marius gets control of the network - drones back to recharge point. Then open every single door.
20. Enemy team rigger engages Marius, gets bitch slapped, jacks out.
21. Work orders are live, shipping stuff to building 2. Marius then sets the system to a full reboot and dump all devices. Then jacks out and go!
22. "Nothing personal chummers!" multiple languages, sort of hot mike jamming, but from far side of the base.
23. Security team don't spot the team, following the army of drones taking stuff towards #2.
24. Sec team spot a "something" as the Broadsword comes over, but not enough to ID it.
25. Team start to load, Marius gets jacked in. Just finished loading, they see 1 sec vehicle coming back slowly. Tads Nets the team if needed. Aswon sends spirit to accident the vehicle.
26. Marius spots the LWB Hummer doing suppressive towards the security, and a blip coming from Gwangju at speed 1620. Marius stealth roll all good - no contact from the drone.
27. Team get a description of the other team as they overfly.
28. Hunter "I'm going to take the hummer out." Marius - no, they don't know there was two teams... Hunter wavers... the spotter drone follows them, while the team exit stage left. 90 mins to get back to Shanghai, using the deadspot route. Call the Noodles when about 30 mins out.
29. About 10pm, get the deck reward, Noodles is happy.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With their hand forced, the team had to swing into action and try to get their mission done, and cope with not only the base defences, but also the other team.
First of all, there was some fairly frantic discussion about what to do – all move up, pull out, go loud, stay quiet – I gave the team a few minutes to discuss, keeping a mental clock going while the other team got on with their own agenda. I had a list of mental “breakpoints” where things they did would affect the playing field.
The other team was a fairly standard Shadowrunner team, that I’d given loose descriptions to – enough that I could work out their probable stats and how effective they’d be, without having to go to town on their stats. They were supposed to be “inferior” compared to the players, though still broadly competent.
1) Doc/Demo/Sam: “Gunny”, ex UCAS Marine medic, orc, 6/6 armour, Colt water carbine APDS, Frenchi-spas dual mag with AV/Magna-Ex, wires 3, SL2, Dermal sheathing,
2) Decker/Sam: “Romeo”, Corp burnout (MCT), human, R5 deck+programs, silenced SMG Gel/Ex-ex
3) Face/Mage: “Fizz”, Elf, Hermetic, G3 (Masking, Anchoring, Improved Anchoring), Powerbolt 6, Stunball 5, Invisibility 6, Levitate 6, Heal 5, 3 X F6 Earth elementals, 3 X F6 Air elementals), Power foci 2 (Necklace) 3/3 armour, tactical headset
4) Rigger/Sam, “Brash” - Troll, R5 deck with R4 PEM/encrypt/decrypt, LWB extended hummer, skimmer with smoke launcher, High velocity LMG on recoil mount, light security armour+helmet.
What they're after - a shipment of APDS, AV, HESH and APFSDS bought in for testing a new armour composite, from building 2
Most of you will be familiar with ADPS and AV of course, those being in the core SR3 game mechanics. In the games I’ve run we’ve altered with a series of house rules, the ammo types to fix what I perceive as a “broken” bit of the SR damage system.
At our table, AV ammo is good against vehicles – as the name would suggest – but it does NOT halve the value of vehicle armour… armour counts at full value against it. This means that even lightly armoured vehicles which can otherwise bounce small arms fire, can take a bit of a beating from AV equipped guns, lasting a few rounds potentially, or only succumbing to persistent fire – rather than instantly exploding in a fiery ball because someone has a heavy pistol they’ve somehow managed to get some AV ammo for! But, we then added other types such as HESH and APFSDS as top end “military” versions that rip through armour, and do all sorts of nasty things. That gives a nicer damage progression, and more things to chase – and another way to get a nice reward with a small package of some super-rare milspec ammo in exchange for a job well done.
Once Hunter had managed to hack into the network (burning through a number of rerolls, as predicted, to make sure he got enough successes, he found the info about the ammo dump, and immediately
a) Understood why the other team were breaking in, and were focussed on building 2
b) Started to get a chubby, and wanted to encourage the rest of the team to get over there and steal it first….
The rest of the team made their willpower checks though, and resisted the urge, concentrating more on the job at hand.
It was interesting from a GM perspective as well, watching Marius being *very* restrained with what he was doing, trying to make sure that Hunter got the stealthy part of the job done. He didn’t know that I’d statted the night-shift riggers as the “b-team” of course, and didn’t know how many there were, so there’s a reasonable amount of caution – but he was also trying to help his tech-bro out, not jostle his arm, and give him the best chance he could to finish his part of the mission before alerting the base to their presence.
Once Hunter had the data though, it was like watching the Hulk transform – and just in (dramatic) time too – as he burnt through just as many re-rolls completely overwhelming the two riggers on duty, and giving the other team’s rigger a healthy slap of dumpshock too as he went to town.
With Hunter having sysadmin on the decker side, and Marius in total control of the rigger network, it was pretty much easy-mode then, to get the sensors delivered outside to their landing zone (an excellent suggestion from Tad’s player) and to call in the Broadsword for an extraction. With magical concealment and a trid-phantasm wrapped around the team there was practically no chance that any of the on-base security team were going to see them (they did manage to get *1* success several times – enough to make them look again, but not enough to actually confirm a sighting) – and with the other team going out in a very noisy and obvious fashion, the team could slide out of there nice and easily.
I also had the response drones assigned from the corporate airfield in Gwangju, renaming a couple of drones from Rigger 3 to make them more corp-appropriate, but without changing the stats at all. First of all was the recon/ control drone, arriving at speed 1620, then the follow up hunter drones at 500. Gwangju was close enough that there wasn’t that much difference in arrival time overall – but was the difference between the player team getting away, while the NPC team were still mired down on the base.
The journey back to Shanghai was glossed over quickly, and as we were running a little over the normal finishing time, I had the players arrive back and hand over the gear in a very narrative fashion – there wasn’t anything I was planning, they knew the NPC and could insert his mannerisms into their own internal monologues if they wanted, and it got us to a nice clean break point – stolen gear handed over, job done, payment received and with them free to go on their way next session.
There’s a couple of threads they are thinking about now, and a few things they don’t know are cooking.
One thing they have discussed is doing a pro-active job, looking for a battle-tac system, so they can hook up the team and the Broadsword and get the benefits for any tactical combats they may face in the future. They’re certainly at the point in their careers where it would be a reasonable bit of kit for them to have, and a fun addition – as well as another little incremental notch in their effectiveness. Getting hold of one would be another little B&E job, as some random corp holdings – though this one I’ll probably ramp up the difficulty on, especially on the magical side. The job they’ve just done I deliberately kept it magic light (the bunnies), to throw more attention on the rigger/decker angles, and to give the non-magic user / tech-bros some time in the spotlight.
The other thing they are discussing is chasing up one of the dragons, to try and get the horror-mark sorted on Spook’s kid. I’ve been doing rolls at the start of each game day to see if Lung was going to get in touch, and so far they’ve not been lucky – but that will come soon enough. He’ll have some interesting challenges for them to earn some brownie points so he’ll help out, which will no doubt infuriate Hunter and Marius – though I’m sure they’ll do it anyway…
I’m also keeping a very careful eye on the date, as we’re getting to the fun bit of Year of the Comet where all kinds of stuff is kicking off, and some world-changing events are taking place. At the very least, they will impact the news and the world around them, even if the players try to avoid direct contact.
They’re also due to meet their next Great Dragon soon, getting embroiled in Masaru’s plan – and I’m wondering if I can find someone on my LARP contact list to come and play him as a guest in the discord channel. I missed doing this with Hestaby in the limited interactions they had with her (but could possibly find someone to come in if they meet her again), but they’ve had someone to talk to for Lung, Ryumyo, and Lofwyr – and it might be nice to keep that going where eventually I can try to get *all* of those people back online when we get to the Conclave of Dragons, to let them know they’re *really* in the shit that night…. <grin>
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 08/09/61, Location: 35.32212, 126.74389, Time 19:00
2. Tads checks with Marius - do I need to keep the illusion up? Marius - yes. Marius - is that from the other team?
3. Tads - almost certainly, not an ancestor spirit, or a local spirit which would fit with the site defences.
4. Aswon - ok, shall I expand the perimeter out? Team generally agrees, he moves up, about 60m, under building 6.
5. Hunter logon to system - gets 4, RR to 6, system gets 2 defended. Gets on clean. Then validates super-user, gets 4, RR to 7, 2RR to 9.
6. Super user valid for hours, no defences, search roll for the data - 1 RR to 3, about 20-30 seconds.
7. Marius reminds Hunter about using his system access to move 4 X sensor pods to a location. Team start to discuss where to get the forklifts to drop off - then the lights come up in the main tunnel.
8. Aswon flattens himself against the wall to avoid being backlit.
9. Marius spots the enemy activity, considers and discards the direct combat option, would set off the general alarm and expose both.
10. Waits to see what the building riggers do. 4 X drones activate in 1,4,7,8, short startup sequence. - Marius reports
11. Tads runs to Hunter, tells rest to go back to the doorway, she will use the illusion to hide them both, rest of team pull back, Marius waiting for the stealth part to conclude. Marius detects drones at 1 and 4 doing a reboot from the enemy rigger, 7+8 still active.
12. Tads gets to Hunter as drone comes out of the wall, flamethrower+LMG armed, turns towards Hunter and Tads, but doesn't spot them. Hunter gets the download completed. Gets a standard user created to move the sensors.
13. Checks - there are sensors in building 1 and 8. Hunter orders components from 8 to be delivered south of the unit to a clear area, for pickup with the bird. Gets them coming to the wider gap between containers.
14. 2nd drone misses Hunter and Tads, 1st drone picks up on some kind of anomaly. Rigger jumps in, lots of electronic noise, full active alert. Hunter checks the sensors - they are on the way. Checks ammo - zero qty remaining. Hunter starts to jack out, after sending orders to move all the stock from building 8 to building 2.
15. Rigger in the drone opens up on the door. Marius engages in combat on the rigger network. 4 RR 7 rr 8 . Takes all 3 channels, in 2 combat rounds.
16. Gunfire stops as 2nd rigger jumps out of drone to go fight Marius.
17. Hunter and Tads see 2nd drone accelerate towards the rest of the team. Aswon gently pushes door back a bit. Drone gets a 16 to perceive Aswon.
18. Blindfires at Aswon and misses - but smashes the door partly open. Marius engages the rigger, enemy rigger takes an L. Marius strikes back, does him a D, he drops.
19. F6 air elemental arrives through the door but gets Shimzued. Marius gets control of the network - drones back to recharge point. Then open every single door.
20. Enemy team rigger engages Marius, gets bitch slapped, jacks out.
21. Work orders are live, shipping stuff to building 2. Marius then sets the system to a full reboot and dump all devices. Then jacks out and go!
22. "Nothing personal chummers!" multiple languages, sort of hot mike jamming, but from far side of the base.
23. Security team don't spot the team, following the army of drones taking stuff towards #2.
24. Sec team spot a "something" as the Broadsword comes over, but not enough to ID it.
25. Team start to load, Marius gets jacked in. Just finished loading, they see 1 sec vehicle coming back slowly. Tads Nets the team if needed. Aswon sends spirit to accident the vehicle.
26. Marius spots the LWB Hummer doing suppressive towards the security, and a blip coming from Gwangju at speed 1620. Marius stealth roll all good - no contact from the drone.
27. Team get a description of the other team as they overfly.
28. Hunter "I'm going to take the hummer out." Marius - no, they don't know there was two teams... Hunter wavers... the spotter drone follows them, while the team exit stage left. 90 mins to get back to Shanghai, using the deadspot route. Call the Noodles when about 30 mins out.
29. About 10pm, get the deck reward, Noodles is happy.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 322 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from the end of last weeks run and the slightly rushed ending, we had a quick recap of events, just to make sure everyone on the team was happy with how things had gone. Nobody had anything that they wanted to clarify or confirm though, so we flipped through to the next morning and started the session proper. With the usual stuff out of the way (Tads summoning her spirits – which we now generally do as a hand-wave, unless time is critical or I know that something is going to kick off…) I got onto my list of “shit that’s going to happen” – and was then promptly derailed by one of the players being all proactive.
Well, that’s fine – so he (Aswon) called Spook, to chase up on the contacts – and was told to leave it alone, it was in hand, but I could then feed back some info on the vampire silk from the Farooqs. Then Tads mentions she wants to go talismongering, so I tell her that in a city the size of Shanghai, there’s bound to be someone – but it might take a while to find. Before they could go too far down that rabbit hole, it was time to steer them back on track, and just as I was about to have the first contact call them…. Kai announces that he’s going to jump on the phone and call one of his contacts, to look for work.
*sigh*
A quick spin on the random neurons and I come up with a quick delivery run… frantic zoom out on the map… randomise, randomise, randomise… to the Javanese Republic! Somewhere we’ve not been too, so there’s some interest there. But also not too far, and reachable with their current fuel stops – though it would involve some careful navigation. Right – lay out the location. The team latch on, and look at the distance… and have a little chat amongst themselves. That gives me a few seconds to change tabs in my spreadsheet and punch in the information on the trip length into my fuel calculator, that in turn lets me know how much its going to cost them to do the job. So when they ask the contact 2 seconds later how much they’re going to get paid for the job, I can give them an offer that gives them a modest profit, without being over the top…
I could have just told them “no” of course. I have 3 runs planned out for them already – with a schedule to lead them from one to another. Why invite trouble for myself by effectively flying by the seat of my pants and trying to spin bullshit into gold by inventing a run on the spot?
Agency mostly.
One of the things I have tried to make clear to the players repeatedly is that there is a sandbox here. There’s a campaign, and I have stuff planned. Events will happen – some of them small, and easy. Some of them considerably more major and difficult. But… BUT – they are free to go wandering about and follow up the things they want to do, investigate the things they want to learn about, or do the jobs they are interested in.
They don’t often do something out of left-field. Normally I’ve got an idea that they want to follow up on something (like the battletac idea) with enough time to design a run and integrate it into the campaign.
But if they do reach out, and want to do something proactive – I want to encourage that. Even if it’s going to put me on the spot, and make me think of my feet, and try to spin out a story. It keeps me on my toes, which isn’t always a bad thing – much as I prefer to have plenty of stuff prepared, and a good idea of what we’re going to do in the session, being forced to improv isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
If they constantly try to go off route, and throw random stuff out, just for the hell of it – that’s a different matter. Then we’re straying towards “rocks fall, everyone dies” territory. But while they’re genuinely trying to be proactive and do their own things, I’m generally going to try and support that and make sure they have an option. In this case it’s an easy delivery run (given their speed/stealth/capability, the run *will* be a cinch) for a bit of money. Sometimes I’ll offer them something that’s just not a good deal, given their operating expenses, and sometimes they’ll get something that will push their boundaries – maybe some kidnapping or slave trading, that they won’t want to do for their own reasons, just to make it clear that not all jobs are created equal. But especially now, they’re in a position where they can pick and choose their jobs. They have enough cash and rep to be able to work on what they want, in-between the main plot beats – and sometimes what starts as a random run could develop into some hugely impactful character moment or I’ll find a way to integrate it into the main campaign arc… or they’ll bite on some random plot thread like a piranha, and it will get elevated into main plot, based on their feedback.
And if I do that well enough, they’ll never know it wasn’t meant to be like that anyway!
With that out of the way, there’s a chunk of the notes this week that I did have pre-prepared, the notes about the mountain. The “10,000 steps” bit is just randomly made up, but it sounds like something appropriate for a test of character to reach the top, even though it’s not actually that tough. And then adding in the bit about the place being tech free and some people trying to cheat and fly to the top, just adds to the aura of the place, and lets them know that it’s definitely a dragon dicking around with stuff that’s involved.
Once they’d decided to do a round trip though, I had to quickly come up with a new fuel stop for them, and plumped on an oil-rig. Rather than a sketchy small scale under the radar operation, this time I went with a major crime syndicate vibe – a place big enough to own chunks of the government and operate above and outside the law.
Before they got there of course, it was a check in with Alorra at Elune’s Bay, their friendly non-washing druid. The team decided to make nice with her, and took her some food, and Tads offered to teach her the “create food” spell, so she could make her own. That meant visiting her shamanic lodge. I wasn’t going to make a thing of this – the team meant well, and they’ve got no bad vibes either way – so it’s a positive interaction on both sides. That meant that Tads would disappear off camera for two-three hours, then return, so I told the player I would sort it out with her outside the game, and cut ahead to that time. So, that section of dialogue with her explaining what happened is purely speculative, and is also only a fraction of what actually happened to the character – but it’s what she chose to relay to them. Sometimes writing the story up the way that I do complicates things – the rest of the characters have only this imperfect, flawed and non-complete description of Tad’s journey – and the players know only what the characters do, rather than knowing OOC and having to pretend they don’t know IC….
But we rattled through that meeting, the flight down was uneventful, and as they came in to land, a roll revealed another team present at the smuggler stop – a quick roll on my random chart led to “Wolfpac”, a team provided several years ago when I put out a random shout on the Shadowrun reddits. I believe they are based on their own game crew, so need a tiny bit of tweaking to fit our game world – we don’t have any technomancers for instance in 3e, so that aspect needs to change – but crowd-sourcing a bunch of other teams gave me a fantastic menagerie of different characters and team motifs to use, and potentially included aspects I just would never have chosen.
Nothing wrong with a bit of respectful inspiration in my book – there are very few ‘original’ ideas had these days, and it’s getting harder and harder to find something that hasn’t been done somewhere, somehow, before. But we shouldn’t stop dressing it up in a fancy new hat and giving it a new lick of paint to make it seem fresh and new, or adding some delicious twists to keep people on their toes.
So, we’re at the oil rig, about to fill up the tank ready for the drop-off run, but going to meet the station manager before that. So, I need to get my thinking cap on before next weeks game and spin up an interesting new NPC, probably some local goods, maybe a couple of jobs to be on offer as a temptation, and work out the delivery spot for the guns – though that’s probably going to be a touch’n’go, before they are back in the air and heading north to go get Spook and head for the Mountain.
Then it’s going to be time to have some fun at Tad’s expense as the strong background count messes with her mojo for a bit, and the team get given a shopping list of weird and wonderful ingredients to go collect, to help remove the Horror Mark.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 09/09/61, Location: 31.346, 121.63067, Time 06:00
2. Aswon calls Spook, she is still worried about the kid, has been in touch with contacts, she's waiting to hear - she's not chasing up with "those" kinds of people. The clothing manufacturing is going well though, and is creating a bit of a buzz in the fashion market. Aswon mentions he'll take payment in tickets for fashion week...
3. Tads asks about going to find a local talismonger. Marius - two issues, Spooks kid, and following up on a Battletac or other serious electronic hardware. Aswon - Noodles did mention that he might be able to help with that.
4. Kai - would be good to keep getting some work in the local area, not travelling too far - as we have another job in 4-5 weeks. Try to get hold of Noodles - not available at this time of day...
5. Kai calls Harry Wu, he's in. Having breakfast. How are you. Hungry - what can I do for you. Just finished work, still in the area, any work? What kind of work are you available for? We have our bird, discrete transport. Open to most stuff. Javanese republic, 4.5k km, about 50k fuel costs. Offers a gun-run, 90k, avoid entanglements. Can you help with fuel locations. Nothing in the Javanese republic, but can help with the Dayak Council.
6. 7:20 on the dot - call to Kai. "Good morning" It's Mr Kuro / Black / Lung gets in touch.
7. "Ahh, the winds of fate have seen fit to blow two leaves together once more. I understand that you have a problem, and require assistance. If you wish, you may petition for aid. Travel to the Grand Temple of Mount Heng, then climb the ten thousand steps, and perhaps luck will be bestowed upon you."
8. Aswon - "sweet - an invitation".
9. Marius Dragon roll - one of the 5 sacred peaks, Lung - that's mine. Chinese warlords said "no you and whose army". Spirits. "Oh - THAT army"...
10. Hunter research - gets full dump.
11. Hengshan, also known as Mount Heng, is a mountain in southcentral China's Hunan Province known as the southern mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. Heng Shan is a mountain range 150 kilometres (93 mi) long with 72 peaks and lies at 27°18′6″N 112°41′5″E. The Huiyan Peak is the south end of the peaks, Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City is the north end, and the Zhurong Peak is the highest at 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) above sea level.
12. At the foot of the mountain stands the largest temple in southern China, the Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao), which is the largest group of ancient buildings in Hunan Province. Its founding year is unknown. The earliest documented records show that it was built in 725 CE during the Tang dynasty. The temple lived through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties despite suffering six fires and undergoing 16 large-scale renovations. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the temple was burnt down. In 1882 during the Qing dynasty, the temple was rebuilt following the layout of Forbidden City in Beijing, thus it was also called "Little Palace in South China". The majority of the buildings have been preserved till today. During the Cultural Revolution, all temples were regarded as engendering the values of the "Four Olds", and suffered devastating destruction. The valuable historical stone tablets, inscribed boards, Buddhist statues and scriptures were all destroyed. Starting in 1980s, continuous renovation projects have rehabilitated destroyed buildings and statues.
13. Three religions, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, co-exist in the Grand Temple of Mount Heng.
14. Grand Temple of Mount Heng, in the Nayue district of Canton Confederation. In an area of Natural Parkland, free of industrial development for 40-50km in all directions. Mountains are regarded as "sacred" and high-tech equipment is frowned upon and has a reputation for glitching out. Aircraft steer clear and there are advisories about "weather anomalies" along the ridge of the mountains.
15. Thousands of pilgrims travel to the area each year, climbing the 10,000 steps to reach the peak and give offerings to the ancient spirits and pray for guidance.
16. There have been reports sometimes of senior politicians or army personnel taking choppers to the top of the mountain to "pray" - and there seems to be an almost 1:1 correlation with terrible accidents, mishaps and mechanical difficulties that has killed, maimed or severely wounded people who took this route.
17. 1000km to the peak, from Shanghai
18. Tads - what would be an appropriate offering to give for guidance. Hunter - long way round, maybe get some orichalcum. Aswon - I do have this tasty rock? Kai- maybe some karmic goodness.
19. Aswon - what do we do first- run to the south, battletach, or mountain. Tads - if we've been invited, we should go there. Kai - what about some silk? Aswon - but that's in HK, that's to the south of the mountain, would double our trip. Some discussion about what to do first, keeping dragon waiting, dragon timescales.
20. Kai - think about personal things you can offer, important to you.
21. Aswon proposes doing the gun run, swing by HK on the way back, collect Spook and kid, then go to the mountain.
22. Look at fuel stops - can get to Elunes Bay, then down to somewhere in the Dayak Council, then Javanese republic, then back to HK for Spook.
23. 8am Harry Wu calls back. Got 8 crates of top end ARs and gear. Nothing particularly volatile. Aswon - anyone to worry about. Mr Wu - just the normal authorities. Will get them delivered in 2-3 hours. (10-11am). Hunter also orders 2 X stairmasters and insists they are for the weaker members of the team to practice on...
24. Out from Shanghai, over water, down past Taiwan. To Elunes bay, then south... Aswon calls Spook to arrange for her and the kid, walking shoes, need fuel, some silk. Bring some matrix work, just in case, might be a day or two.
25. Tads - can you get non-water cleaner for the woman at Elunes Bay. Marius - might not be taken in the right way. Hunter - no, she's myfic - your department. And Tengazon won't deliver out there. Marius - what about foods with really high water content. Tads goes out for food.
26. Noodles comes back to the team about 10:30, military base that could be vulnerable for a raid. Hunter delays for a few days. Advises team heading off in <1 hour.
27. Harry Wu arrives with 8 X containers from SK - team check for bugs. Loaded up just after 11am, ready to go.
28. 2600km for leg 1 to Elune's Bay. 20 on stealth check, no issues at all.
29. Aswon checks the news for politics in the area - mostly gets news about the surge effects happening worldwide. Aswon is curious about where - worldwide. Then has a thought - what about orbital habitats, gets Hunter to check and put tags on the news. 5 hours later, arrive at Elune's Bay.
30. Two hours into journey Harry Wu sends details of BP-12 -1.67738, 117.43858, team checks map, guess it's an arcology or rig of some kind.
31. Allora comes out to meet them - "coming to trade or just here for fuel". Kai - my friend has some gifts for you. Anything you need? Alorra, - I live a simple life. Get some fuel. 16,250 cost. She is very grateful for the food from Tads, Tads offers to teach her how to make stuff. Her lodge is underwater - Tads makes a good magical etiquette roll (15) Tads goes underwater with Allora and 2 naga. Returns after dusk, resummon spirit, all back aboard.
32. Sensor check as they go past the Dayak Council. Dark site, Marius echoes that. Very low tech, very small boats, lots of stuff. Lots of activity, very little signature.
33. 22:00 arrival at BP-12, queried about craft - landing pad 3 NE corner cleared for you. Multiple landing pads, different weights, up to t-bird, boat infrastructure below. Weird legal position based on distance, hard for brown water navy. Hunter - checks the rig over for ability to manufacture fuel. not enough room for that, need lots of heights / floor space for frac distillation. Kai - cushy runs, pay both ways. Probably powerful.
34. Spot "Wolfpac" on one of the other big pads. Having a bit of an argument with someone on the rig, possibly about money/fuel/rights or something. Sleek t-bird.
35. Their own fueller comes up, looks for the bird. Need to drop the spell or grab the hose, I can't see your bird. 8k fuel. Kai asks about the argument - possibly about fuel costs, cargo - who knows. Kai asks about need - fresh food. He goes off to go "get the gaffer".
36. Wolfpac: Wolfpack - small, fast and lightly armed Scout LAV
37. Maki (short for Makani, hawaiian for Wind), female Orc of Japanese origin, Streetsam. Her whole family was imprisoned for some minor incident and deported to Yomi. After being released she ended up on Hawaii und became a member of a special-ops team (Na Kui) and getting chromed af. Swore never to be pushed to the edge again. Came to Denver to keep her head low after an incident involving some Mistuhama Exces. Leader of the pack.
38. Orange, orc male, Streetsam. Orange grew up on the streets of Denver, dirt poor, scrawny and miserable. Joined a gang as a teen but had his epiphany in his 20ies. Does now run a house where he takes care of street kids with no home or food, showing them ways to survive this madness. It s his passion and he definitely runs the shadows to cover the costs. Loves spicy food
39. Ray, human male, Adept. Ray ran away from home after his own father tried to sell him to some shady Corp-Lab to study his magical abilities. He stole whatever he could get his dirty little hands on to make it in the streets. Now lives and runs with Orange and helps him out whenever help is needed around the house. Has a green thumb.
40. Monday, female elf, long blond hair, bum length, Technomancer/ Face. Today, Monday would be called an "Instagram rich kid" and in some ways, she truly is. Maybe she manipulated some teeny-weeny data streams to earn her fame, but well, how doesn t these days? As most elfs, she looks young and beautiful, but despite her adult styling, Monday just hit 16. If she s not on the job, she visits a nice private school. Plays tennis on her days off and has a weak spot for orcish boys. The grittier the better.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from the end of last weeks run and the slightly rushed ending, we had a quick recap of events, just to make sure everyone on the team was happy with how things had gone. Nobody had anything that they wanted to clarify or confirm though, so we flipped through to the next morning and started the session proper. With the usual stuff out of the way (Tads summoning her spirits – which we now generally do as a hand-wave, unless time is critical or I know that something is going to kick off…) I got onto my list of “shit that’s going to happen” – and was then promptly derailed by one of the players being all proactive.
Well, that’s fine – so he (Aswon) called Spook, to chase up on the contacts – and was told to leave it alone, it was in hand, but I could then feed back some info on the vampire silk from the Farooqs. Then Tads mentions she wants to go talismongering, so I tell her that in a city the size of Shanghai, there’s bound to be someone – but it might take a while to find. Before they could go too far down that rabbit hole, it was time to steer them back on track, and just as I was about to have the first contact call them…. Kai announces that he’s going to jump on the phone and call one of his contacts, to look for work.
*sigh*
A quick spin on the random neurons and I come up with a quick delivery run… frantic zoom out on the map… randomise, randomise, randomise… to the Javanese Republic! Somewhere we’ve not been too, so there’s some interest there. But also not too far, and reachable with their current fuel stops – though it would involve some careful navigation. Right – lay out the location. The team latch on, and look at the distance… and have a little chat amongst themselves. That gives me a few seconds to change tabs in my spreadsheet and punch in the information on the trip length into my fuel calculator, that in turn lets me know how much its going to cost them to do the job. So when they ask the contact 2 seconds later how much they’re going to get paid for the job, I can give them an offer that gives them a modest profit, without being over the top…
I could have just told them “no” of course. I have 3 runs planned out for them already – with a schedule to lead them from one to another. Why invite trouble for myself by effectively flying by the seat of my pants and trying to spin bullshit into gold by inventing a run on the spot?
Agency mostly.
One of the things I have tried to make clear to the players repeatedly is that there is a sandbox here. There’s a campaign, and I have stuff planned. Events will happen – some of them small, and easy. Some of them considerably more major and difficult. But… BUT – they are free to go wandering about and follow up the things they want to do, investigate the things they want to learn about, or do the jobs they are interested in.
They don’t often do something out of left-field. Normally I’ve got an idea that they want to follow up on something (like the battletac idea) with enough time to design a run and integrate it into the campaign.
But if they do reach out, and want to do something proactive – I want to encourage that. Even if it’s going to put me on the spot, and make me think of my feet, and try to spin out a story. It keeps me on my toes, which isn’t always a bad thing – much as I prefer to have plenty of stuff prepared, and a good idea of what we’re going to do in the session, being forced to improv isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
If they constantly try to go off route, and throw random stuff out, just for the hell of it – that’s a different matter. Then we’re straying towards “rocks fall, everyone dies” territory. But while they’re genuinely trying to be proactive and do their own things, I’m generally going to try and support that and make sure they have an option. In this case it’s an easy delivery run (given their speed/stealth/capability, the run *will* be a cinch) for a bit of money. Sometimes I’ll offer them something that’s just not a good deal, given their operating expenses, and sometimes they’ll get something that will push their boundaries – maybe some kidnapping or slave trading, that they won’t want to do for their own reasons, just to make it clear that not all jobs are created equal. But especially now, they’re in a position where they can pick and choose their jobs. They have enough cash and rep to be able to work on what they want, in-between the main plot beats – and sometimes what starts as a random run could develop into some hugely impactful character moment or I’ll find a way to integrate it into the main campaign arc… or they’ll bite on some random plot thread like a piranha, and it will get elevated into main plot, based on their feedback.
And if I do that well enough, they’ll never know it wasn’t meant to be like that anyway!
With that out of the way, there’s a chunk of the notes this week that I did have pre-prepared, the notes about the mountain. The “10,000 steps” bit is just randomly made up, but it sounds like something appropriate for a test of character to reach the top, even though it’s not actually that tough. And then adding in the bit about the place being tech free and some people trying to cheat and fly to the top, just adds to the aura of the place, and lets them know that it’s definitely a dragon dicking around with stuff that’s involved.
Once they’d decided to do a round trip though, I had to quickly come up with a new fuel stop for them, and plumped on an oil-rig. Rather than a sketchy small scale under the radar operation, this time I went with a major crime syndicate vibe – a place big enough to own chunks of the government and operate above and outside the law.
Before they got there of course, it was a check in with Alorra at Elune’s Bay, their friendly non-washing druid. The team decided to make nice with her, and took her some food, and Tads offered to teach her the “create food” spell, so she could make her own. That meant visiting her shamanic lodge. I wasn’t going to make a thing of this – the team meant well, and they’ve got no bad vibes either way – so it’s a positive interaction on both sides. That meant that Tads would disappear off camera for two-three hours, then return, so I told the player I would sort it out with her outside the game, and cut ahead to that time. So, that section of dialogue with her explaining what happened is purely speculative, and is also only a fraction of what actually happened to the character – but it’s what she chose to relay to them. Sometimes writing the story up the way that I do complicates things – the rest of the characters have only this imperfect, flawed and non-complete description of Tad’s journey – and the players know only what the characters do, rather than knowing OOC and having to pretend they don’t know IC….
But we rattled through that meeting, the flight down was uneventful, and as they came in to land, a roll revealed another team present at the smuggler stop – a quick roll on my random chart led to “Wolfpac”, a team provided several years ago when I put out a random shout on the Shadowrun reddits. I believe they are based on their own game crew, so need a tiny bit of tweaking to fit our game world – we don’t have any technomancers for instance in 3e, so that aspect needs to change – but crowd-sourcing a bunch of other teams gave me a fantastic menagerie of different characters and team motifs to use, and potentially included aspects I just would never have chosen.
Nothing wrong with a bit of respectful inspiration in my book – there are very few ‘original’ ideas had these days, and it’s getting harder and harder to find something that hasn’t been done somewhere, somehow, before. But we shouldn’t stop dressing it up in a fancy new hat and giving it a new lick of paint to make it seem fresh and new, or adding some delicious twists to keep people on their toes.
So, we’re at the oil rig, about to fill up the tank ready for the drop-off run, but going to meet the station manager before that. So, I need to get my thinking cap on before next weeks game and spin up an interesting new NPC, probably some local goods, maybe a couple of jobs to be on offer as a temptation, and work out the delivery spot for the guns – though that’s probably going to be a touch’n’go, before they are back in the air and heading north to go get Spook and head for the Mountain.
Then it’s going to be time to have some fun at Tad’s expense as the strong background count messes with her mojo for a bit, and the team get given a shopping list of weird and wonderful ingredients to go collect, to help remove the Horror Mark.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 09/09/61, Location: 31.346, 121.63067, Time 06:00
2. Aswon calls Spook, she is still worried about the kid, has been in touch with contacts, she's waiting to hear - she's not chasing up with "those" kinds of people. The clothing manufacturing is going well though, and is creating a bit of a buzz in the fashion market. Aswon mentions he'll take payment in tickets for fashion week...
3. Tads asks about going to find a local talismonger. Marius - two issues, Spooks kid, and following up on a Battletac or other serious electronic hardware. Aswon - Noodles did mention that he might be able to help with that.
4. Kai - would be good to keep getting some work in the local area, not travelling too far - as we have another job in 4-5 weeks. Try to get hold of Noodles - not available at this time of day...
5. Kai calls Harry Wu, he's in. Having breakfast. How are you. Hungry - what can I do for you. Just finished work, still in the area, any work? What kind of work are you available for? We have our bird, discrete transport. Open to most stuff. Javanese republic, 4.5k km, about 50k fuel costs. Offers a gun-run, 90k, avoid entanglements. Can you help with fuel locations. Nothing in the Javanese republic, but can help with the Dayak Council.
6. 7:20 on the dot - call to Kai. "Good morning" It's Mr Kuro / Black / Lung gets in touch.
7. "Ahh, the winds of fate have seen fit to blow two leaves together once more. I understand that you have a problem, and require assistance. If you wish, you may petition for aid. Travel to the Grand Temple of Mount Heng, then climb the ten thousand steps, and perhaps luck will be bestowed upon you."
8. Aswon - "sweet - an invitation".
9. Marius Dragon roll - one of the 5 sacred peaks, Lung - that's mine. Chinese warlords said "no you and whose army". Spirits. "Oh - THAT army"...
10. Hunter research - gets full dump.
11. Hengshan, also known as Mount Heng, is a mountain in southcentral China's Hunan Province known as the southern mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. Heng Shan is a mountain range 150 kilometres (93 mi) long with 72 peaks and lies at 27°18′6″N 112°41′5″E. The Huiyan Peak is the south end of the peaks, Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City is the north end, and the Zhurong Peak is the highest at 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) above sea level.
12. At the foot of the mountain stands the largest temple in southern China, the Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao), which is the largest group of ancient buildings in Hunan Province. Its founding year is unknown. The earliest documented records show that it was built in 725 CE during the Tang dynasty. The temple lived through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties despite suffering six fires and undergoing 16 large-scale renovations. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the temple was burnt down. In 1882 during the Qing dynasty, the temple was rebuilt following the layout of Forbidden City in Beijing, thus it was also called "Little Palace in South China". The majority of the buildings have been preserved till today. During the Cultural Revolution, all temples were regarded as engendering the values of the "Four Olds", and suffered devastating destruction. The valuable historical stone tablets, inscribed boards, Buddhist statues and scriptures were all destroyed. Starting in 1980s, continuous renovation projects have rehabilitated destroyed buildings and statues.
13. Three religions, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, co-exist in the Grand Temple of Mount Heng.
14. Grand Temple of Mount Heng, in the Nayue district of Canton Confederation. In an area of Natural Parkland, free of industrial development for 40-50km in all directions. Mountains are regarded as "sacred" and high-tech equipment is frowned upon and has a reputation for glitching out. Aircraft steer clear and there are advisories about "weather anomalies" along the ridge of the mountains.
15. Thousands of pilgrims travel to the area each year, climbing the 10,000 steps to reach the peak and give offerings to the ancient spirits and pray for guidance.
16. There have been reports sometimes of senior politicians or army personnel taking choppers to the top of the mountain to "pray" - and there seems to be an almost 1:1 correlation with terrible accidents, mishaps and mechanical difficulties that has killed, maimed or severely wounded people who took this route.
17. 1000km to the peak, from Shanghai
18. Tads - what would be an appropriate offering to give for guidance. Hunter - long way round, maybe get some orichalcum. Aswon - I do have this tasty rock? Kai- maybe some karmic goodness.
19. Aswon - what do we do first- run to the south, battletach, or mountain. Tads - if we've been invited, we should go there. Kai - what about some silk? Aswon - but that's in HK, that's to the south of the mountain, would double our trip. Some discussion about what to do first, keeping dragon waiting, dragon timescales.
20. Kai - think about personal things you can offer, important to you.
21. Aswon proposes doing the gun run, swing by HK on the way back, collect Spook and kid, then go to the mountain.
22. Look at fuel stops - can get to Elunes Bay, then down to somewhere in the Dayak Council, then Javanese republic, then back to HK for Spook.
23. 8am Harry Wu calls back. Got 8 crates of top end ARs and gear. Nothing particularly volatile. Aswon - anyone to worry about. Mr Wu - just the normal authorities. Will get them delivered in 2-3 hours. (10-11am). Hunter also orders 2 X stairmasters and insists they are for the weaker members of the team to practice on...
24. Out from Shanghai, over water, down past Taiwan. To Elunes bay, then south... Aswon calls Spook to arrange for her and the kid, walking shoes, need fuel, some silk. Bring some matrix work, just in case, might be a day or two.
25. Tads - can you get non-water cleaner for the woman at Elunes Bay. Marius - might not be taken in the right way. Hunter - no, she's myfic - your department. And Tengazon won't deliver out there. Marius - what about foods with really high water content. Tads goes out for food.
26. Noodles comes back to the team about 10:30, military base that could be vulnerable for a raid. Hunter delays for a few days. Advises team heading off in <1 hour.
27. Harry Wu arrives with 8 X containers from SK - team check for bugs. Loaded up just after 11am, ready to go.
28. 2600km for leg 1 to Elune's Bay. 20 on stealth check, no issues at all.
29. Aswon checks the news for politics in the area - mostly gets news about the surge effects happening worldwide. Aswon is curious about where - worldwide. Then has a thought - what about orbital habitats, gets Hunter to check and put tags on the news. 5 hours later, arrive at Elune's Bay.
30. Two hours into journey Harry Wu sends details of BP-12 -1.67738, 117.43858, team checks map, guess it's an arcology or rig of some kind.
31. Allora comes out to meet them - "coming to trade or just here for fuel". Kai - my friend has some gifts for you. Anything you need? Alorra, - I live a simple life. Get some fuel. 16,250 cost. She is very grateful for the food from Tads, Tads offers to teach her how to make stuff. Her lodge is underwater - Tads makes a good magical etiquette roll (15) Tads goes underwater with Allora and 2 naga. Returns after dusk, resummon spirit, all back aboard.
32. Sensor check as they go past the Dayak Council. Dark site, Marius echoes that. Very low tech, very small boats, lots of stuff. Lots of activity, very little signature.
33. 22:00 arrival at BP-12, queried about craft - landing pad 3 NE corner cleared for you. Multiple landing pads, different weights, up to t-bird, boat infrastructure below. Weird legal position based on distance, hard for brown water navy. Hunter - checks the rig over for ability to manufacture fuel. not enough room for that, need lots of heights / floor space for frac distillation. Kai - cushy runs, pay both ways. Probably powerful.
34. Spot "Wolfpac" on one of the other big pads. Having a bit of an argument with someone on the rig, possibly about money/fuel/rights or something. Sleek t-bird.
35. Their own fueller comes up, looks for the bird. Need to drop the spell or grab the hose, I can't see your bird. 8k fuel. Kai asks about the argument - possibly about fuel costs, cargo - who knows. Kai asks about need - fresh food. He goes off to go "get the gaffer".
36. Wolfpac: Wolfpack - small, fast and lightly armed Scout LAV
37. Maki (short for Makani, hawaiian for Wind), female Orc of Japanese origin, Streetsam. Her whole family was imprisoned for some minor incident and deported to Yomi. After being released she ended up on Hawaii und became a member of a special-ops team (Na Kui) and getting chromed af. Swore never to be pushed to the edge again. Came to Denver to keep her head low after an incident involving some Mistuhama Exces. Leader of the pack.
38. Orange, orc male, Streetsam. Orange grew up on the streets of Denver, dirt poor, scrawny and miserable. Joined a gang as a teen but had his epiphany in his 20ies. Does now run a house where he takes care of street kids with no home or food, showing them ways to survive this madness. It s his passion and he definitely runs the shadows to cover the costs. Loves spicy food
39. Ray, human male, Adept. Ray ran away from home after his own father tried to sell him to some shady Corp-Lab to study his magical abilities. He stole whatever he could get his dirty little hands on to make it in the streets. Now lives and runs with Orange and helps him out whenever help is needed around the house. Has a green thumb.
40. Monday, female elf, long blond hair, bum length, Technomancer/ Face. Today, Monday would be called an "Instagram rich kid" and in some ways, she truly is. Maybe she manipulated some teeny-weeny data streams to earn her fame, but well, how doesn t these days? As most elfs, she looks young and beautiful, but despite her adult styling, Monday just hit 16. If she s not on the job, she visits a nice private school. Plays tennis on her days off and has a weak spot for orcish boys. The grittier the better.
Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 323 is now published, continuing book 11.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Last week’s session ended just before a meeting with the boss of the BP-12 smuggler stop, so that’s where we picked up this week. Hunter’s player decided he was going to stay on the aircraft for unspecified reasons – and then Marius joined him, splitting the party.
Ahh – splitting the party. Probably one of the eternal banes of a GMs life. Having the player base split into two(or more) can wreak havoc with your plans and designs. It doesn’t matter if you were wanting to have a set of skills that one of the players possesses at a location, or their background knowledge, or even sometimes their RP style and response to a situation – it can really throw you for a loop. That of course doesn’t take into account player engagement and interaction.
In some ways, I potentially have it lucky – the team have their encrypted comms sets, so are able to stay in contact with each other over a reasonable distance, fairly securely. That means that they can pass information back and forth, and with that justification, there’s also less issue with out of character suggestions and discussions between the teams – things that might not be available in other genres or systems. But it was still something I would have *preferred* not to have to deal with, and led to some little changes in my plans for the night.
Splitting the party like this can be a real nightmare if you have certain obstacles or plot points planned – for instance if you as a GM *know* there’s a locked door in the underground tunnel that half the team are going down, but the locksmith in the team is heading off with the other part of the team to go and do some shopping – suddenly the thing you put in to allow the player to use their skills and ‘earn’ their keep, becomes an impediment or reason for resentment between the players! Do you just take out the locked door? Drop subtle hints to the team? Have them oh-so-conveniently suddenly find some intel telling them about the door (or whatever the challenge is, of course)? I’m not sure there’s ever a “right” answer, and it’s always going to be situational. Perhaps one of those things that comes with experience, or that you very much have to play by ear – but certainly worth bearing in mind, especially if you’re a newer GM.
I used to do LARP – live action role play – and a very similar thing has to be bourn in mind in that environment, of how do you do plot drops or reveal artefacts etc. It’s happened so many times that the “plot essential NPC” has been approaching the player party and accidently run into a bunch of bored murder-hobos that take them out and bury them in a ditch, just because – and if they were your only way of introducing vital information, that can scupper the plot for the whole weekend! Or, the “Cosmic Ring of Power” has been delivered, and it’s approaching the time to use it – and then the ring isn’t used to defeat the ultimate wizard of evil… and it’s only after a good bit of digging do you find out that the player currently holding the plot essential item is actually offsite at Asda buying some tea… or at the first aid point getting his sprained ankle looked at… or is sitting in their tent, watching the England game. Not that I’ve encountered all three of those situations, I hope you understand, and have learnt from bitter experience…
However, while the magical members of the team went to go meet Sultan, the rig-owner, get introduced to him and some facts about the area, the other two were waiting aboard the aircraft, with potentially nothing to do. So, I made a little more of the news reports about SURGE cases coming in, and rising tensions in the world, and also gave Marius some perception tests to discover some potentially interesting facts about the rig layout, and the details of the Wolfpac aircraft. None of those things are directly relevant per se, but they at least added some interactivity to those two players’ evenings, and meant they had something to do, and some impact on events.
While I much prefer not to have the party split, sometimes it’s inevitable – either because they simply need to do two different things in two different places, or using two different elements or skill sets – say magic stuff in one place, and rigger stuff in another. Or just because of how you’ve spun the story, and how individual elements will grab people, and hook them in.
I try not to write stuff that will deliberately pull a single or a pair of players off to go and do something – though it can be a nice reward for their RP or help progress their character development, I’m very aware that while I’m focussing on one or two players, I have five or six twiddling their thumbs not doing much, and that’s not ideal. If we were less busy in R/L with the demands of work and families, it might be possible to try and get the particular pair of players to meet up at a different time to run through some activity with just them – but in our particular player group, that’s not really feasible.
It’s always going to happen though – I think it’s very much a fact of GMing life, and I also don’t want to be in that habit of telling/demanding players that they don’t split the party. Generally I go with a fairly laid-back style, and try very much not to railroad or direct the players – or at least not too obviously.
But – it happens, and sometimes you just have to accept the players will scatter all over the place, and then it’s very much a case of being the person trying to keep multiple plates spinning, diving between them, keeping all the players engaged and interested, and making sure they have something to do!
With that in mind, I split my time, giving the four magic players a good amount of ‘screen time’ as they focussed on the negotiations, getting over the fact that BP-12 is heavily run on barter and trade, not on purchase and sale – something that will affect them later, and provides a different feel or style of negotiations needed, compared to some of the other smuggler stops they’ve already encountered. Interleaved with that was cutting back to the two mundane characters, feeding them bits of news and info on the rig – and then making sure Wolfpac turned up in the Cantina just before the other part of the team left
The position of BP-12 also gives them a whole bunch of new opportunities, creating a “fuel bubble” that stretches from north of Taiwan, covers most of southern China, Laos, Thailand, the edge of Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, The Philippines, most of Papua New Guinea, Java and the rest of the Indonesian Islands and a good chunk of Northern and Western Australia. This is going to be crucial for them later, when they get their first mission down in Oz. If they double up, using the fuel barrels they normally carry in part of their cargo hold, then they can get to Pakistan, all of China, Mongolia, the top of Japan, east as far as the Solomon Isle and New Caledonia, all of Australia and down as far as Tasmania – though they’d then HAVE to have a contact or location to refuel, as they’d be absolutely out of fuel.
As we got to the end of the evening, the team were closing in on the delivery location – an area east of Semarang. This area has a little bit of background fluff in “Shadows Of Asia”, mentioning the difference in corporate activity compared to normal, so that gave a nice bit of info for Sultan to pass on, as well as making the area more of a hotbed for corp activity, that would also justify the mission.
When I was planning the job, I was just scrolling around the map, looking for a location that was “interesting”. That’s a fairly common thing I do – look for a place that looks really interesting, and presents some nice challenges or memorable locations, and then write or shape the plots around that.
I’m very artistically challenged, and feel that I can’t really produce “nice” maps, but I do like having maps or pictures for the players to look at, to go along with my descriptions. Sometimes it’s good to hand over a map of the area, or the co-ordinates, and watch/listen as the players pull up the area, and start to analyse it themselves. Sometimes they’ll spot things you missed, or interpret data in a way you hadn’t anticipated, that you might need to reshape the plot to take into account. Sometimes they theorise something that sounds at least three times cooler than what you had planned, and that you can incorporate with just a stealthy change to improve things.
But, I also find having a map can really help those more geographically challenged players *get* the situation much more than your description. Some people are very visual learners, and if the whole team is looking at the map, and then the rigger is describing where they’re approaching from, and where they’re going to turn, and you can draw that onto the map – it’s very clear to everyone what is going on, and nobody has any excuse for suddenly running in the ‘wrong’ direction, or doing something really stupid.
So, the team approached through thick mist, and the lowered visibility made spotting the ambushers really tough – so of course Shimazu rolled a massive handful of 6s on his perception test and aced it – spotting the corp strike team and killing the element of surprise, forcing the ambushers to initiate early. Though the delivery team might get shot up a little, I actually expect the corp hit team to get wiped out now incredibly easily, between cannon fire from the Broadsword, massive AoE stunballs from Tads, and directed fire from the cargo ramp…
But hey – no plan survives first contact with the players, and now there’s an excuse to branch off in a slightly different direction and throw some distractions at the players to see if I can tempt them off on a nice little side quest. I suspect not – but you never know!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 09/09/61, Location: -1.67738, 117.43858, Time 22:09
2. Having landed at BP-12, seen the Wolfpac team in the distance, and asked for a meeting with "the boss". Hunter stays with Marius at the Broadsword.
3. Down into the cantina, magic perception check. Spot nothing.
4. Down into the bar, description, spot Joko and his 2 bodyguards. Fuel guy chats with KAi -call him "sultan". Team get drinks, wander over to Sultan. Tads reminds them she can do create alcohol.
5. Kai - are you sultan? Ah yes, you're new fish? Kai thanks and introduces, might have some skills and goods to pass on, particulary fresh food. Ahh - likes that, hard to get. Fruit, meat, depends what you got. Kai - pass you over to Tads, Tads creates a bit of fruit. He tests, shares with some of his crew. Kai asks for plates, sultan sends someone off for containers. Nice trick. Tads - yes, good in the wilds. Kai - useful in lots of situations. Kai - what else are you after? Deliveries. Sultan - we're a hub, that's easy, always want intel/info. Kai gets impression of barter economy. Kai offers intel about smuggler routes and stops - hot topic, what do you want, Kai says they are new to the area, want to know about SE asia. Get info on all the area, be civil to people, info about small corps getting extra-territorial. Kai asks about rivals. He smiles, explains neutrality. Asks Tads for fruits and basic meats. Kai pushes the create alcohol. Sultan is happy with this, gets a demo. 5l per cast. Kai asks for either discount on fuel, or leads on AP/AV ammo. Aswon asks about telesma, Sultan becomes a little guarded. Sultan tells them about the gene modified critters on the islands. Sultan offers to get them hooked up with some ammo vendors in exchange for the alcohol.
6. Hunter starts getting news reports as they tick over into Saturday. He warns Aswon, to pass on to the rest of the team, Aswon also tells Sultan, warns him he may want to get extra medical staff onboard. Aswon advises Marius to call home and warn the family to stay at the ranch while SURGE kicks off. Tads spots Sultans hair clip and recognises it.
7. Kai checks the chip, gets the location for the drop-off. Team poke the data about surge, Tads wonders if it tracks with population density. Not enough data. More reports from more civilised / matrix connected areas. Hunter looks at the data, seems to be predominantly more normal, humans. Humanis stoking the fires.
8. Wolfpac enter the bar, get drinks, settle into a booth. Orange starts eating spicy food - Kai flashback to the quarry. Monday checks out the team, looks a bit sad, goes back to her drink/crew.
9. Marius gets layout of the rig, and info on the Wolfpac t-bird. Team advises Kai to make the call to arrange drop-off. Asked if they can get a 6:30 drop off, to get cover from the sea-mist. Team crash, Marius lifts off at 4:30 for the 2 hour journey. Vectors around, then heads for target. At 6am we get Dawn, Tads tries for spirit.
10. Marius encounters sea-mist, spider outcrops from the land. Team wonder - Aswon suggests seaweed farm, Hunter - that's likely, or maybe kelp farm, or some kind of animal.
11. Approach site, spot the pilings, sensor readings, 110m visibility.
12. Marius spots the power lines, the mini-van and the luton. Shimazu spots some concealed forms, does aura reading. Watchful, waiting, hostile - but not to the team. Shimazu tells team, Kai asks if there any magic - nothing. As we get to 6:30, FF get out of the minivan. Kai calls the contact, warns him, Patches in the other people. Kai recounts. FF call out "ambush", array to the north. Tads advises to use the spirits. Kai, tells them spirits are going to highlight. Team except Shimazu send spirits to go highlight/accident the ambushers. Marius opens up with the autocannon, aiming to take out / shake up the targets. Kills 1, Serious on the 2nd. He detects drone network N and S. Shimazu spots 2nd group moving in from the south to flank the FF. North group speculative fire against the bird, spark off. Shimazu looks at the jump, Aswon shouts NO, Shimazu pouts, but starts moving cargo.
13. Team move to full engage the enemy. Stopping for the night.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cl9rcfa9fukm...xvm9p5&dl=0
Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Last week’s session ended just before a meeting with the boss of the BP-12 smuggler stop, so that’s where we picked up this week. Hunter’s player decided he was going to stay on the aircraft for unspecified reasons – and then Marius joined him, splitting the party.
Ahh – splitting the party. Probably one of the eternal banes of a GMs life. Having the player base split into two(or more) can wreak havoc with your plans and designs. It doesn’t matter if you were wanting to have a set of skills that one of the players possesses at a location, or their background knowledge, or even sometimes their RP style and response to a situation – it can really throw you for a loop. That of course doesn’t take into account player engagement and interaction.
In some ways, I potentially have it lucky – the team have their encrypted comms sets, so are able to stay in contact with each other over a reasonable distance, fairly securely. That means that they can pass information back and forth, and with that justification, there’s also less issue with out of character suggestions and discussions between the teams – things that might not be available in other genres or systems. But it was still something I would have *preferred* not to have to deal with, and led to some little changes in my plans for the night.
Splitting the party like this can be a real nightmare if you have certain obstacles or plot points planned – for instance if you as a GM *know* there’s a locked door in the underground tunnel that half the team are going down, but the locksmith in the team is heading off with the other part of the team to go and do some shopping – suddenly the thing you put in to allow the player to use their skills and ‘earn’ their keep, becomes an impediment or reason for resentment between the players! Do you just take out the locked door? Drop subtle hints to the team? Have them oh-so-conveniently suddenly find some intel telling them about the door (or whatever the challenge is, of course)? I’m not sure there’s ever a “right” answer, and it’s always going to be situational. Perhaps one of those things that comes with experience, or that you very much have to play by ear – but certainly worth bearing in mind, especially if you’re a newer GM.
I used to do LARP – live action role play – and a very similar thing has to be bourn in mind in that environment, of how do you do plot drops or reveal artefacts etc. It’s happened so many times that the “plot essential NPC” has been approaching the player party and accidently run into a bunch of bored murder-hobos that take them out and bury them in a ditch, just because – and if they were your only way of introducing vital information, that can scupper the plot for the whole weekend! Or, the “Cosmic Ring of Power” has been delivered, and it’s approaching the time to use it – and then the ring isn’t used to defeat the ultimate wizard of evil… and it’s only after a good bit of digging do you find out that the player currently holding the plot essential item is actually offsite at Asda buying some tea… or at the first aid point getting his sprained ankle looked at… or is sitting in their tent, watching the England game. Not that I’ve encountered all three of those situations, I hope you understand, and have learnt from bitter experience…
However, while the magical members of the team went to go meet Sultan, the rig-owner, get introduced to him and some facts about the area, the other two were waiting aboard the aircraft, with potentially nothing to do. So, I made a little more of the news reports about SURGE cases coming in, and rising tensions in the world, and also gave Marius some perception tests to discover some potentially interesting facts about the rig layout, and the details of the Wolfpac aircraft. None of those things are directly relevant per se, but they at least added some interactivity to those two players’ evenings, and meant they had something to do, and some impact on events.
While I much prefer not to have the party split, sometimes it’s inevitable – either because they simply need to do two different things in two different places, or using two different elements or skill sets – say magic stuff in one place, and rigger stuff in another. Or just because of how you’ve spun the story, and how individual elements will grab people, and hook them in.
I try not to write stuff that will deliberately pull a single or a pair of players off to go and do something – though it can be a nice reward for their RP or help progress their character development, I’m very aware that while I’m focussing on one or two players, I have five or six twiddling their thumbs not doing much, and that’s not ideal. If we were less busy in R/L with the demands of work and families, it might be possible to try and get the particular pair of players to meet up at a different time to run through some activity with just them – but in our particular player group, that’s not really feasible.
It’s always going to happen though – I think it’s very much a fact of GMing life, and I also don’t want to be in that habit of telling/demanding players that they don’t split the party. Generally I go with a fairly laid-back style, and try very much not to railroad or direct the players – or at least not too obviously.
But – it happens, and sometimes you just have to accept the players will scatter all over the place, and then it’s very much a case of being the person trying to keep multiple plates spinning, diving between them, keeping all the players engaged and interested, and making sure they have something to do!
With that in mind, I split my time, giving the four magic players a good amount of ‘screen time’ as they focussed on the negotiations, getting over the fact that BP-12 is heavily run on barter and trade, not on purchase and sale – something that will affect them later, and provides a different feel or style of negotiations needed, compared to some of the other smuggler stops they’ve already encountered. Interleaved with that was cutting back to the two mundane characters, feeding them bits of news and info on the rig – and then making sure Wolfpac turned up in the Cantina just before the other part of the team left
The position of BP-12 also gives them a whole bunch of new opportunities, creating a “fuel bubble” that stretches from north of Taiwan, covers most of southern China, Laos, Thailand, the edge of Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, The Philippines, most of Papua New Guinea, Java and the rest of the Indonesian Islands and a good chunk of Northern and Western Australia. This is going to be crucial for them later, when they get their first mission down in Oz. If they double up, using the fuel barrels they normally carry in part of their cargo hold, then they can get to Pakistan, all of China, Mongolia, the top of Japan, east as far as the Solomon Isle and New Caledonia, all of Australia and down as far as Tasmania – though they’d then HAVE to have a contact or location to refuel, as they’d be absolutely out of fuel.
As we got to the end of the evening, the team were closing in on the delivery location – an area east of Semarang. This area has a little bit of background fluff in “Shadows Of Asia”, mentioning the difference in corporate activity compared to normal, so that gave a nice bit of info for Sultan to pass on, as well as making the area more of a hotbed for corp activity, that would also justify the mission.
When I was planning the job, I was just scrolling around the map, looking for a location that was “interesting”. That’s a fairly common thing I do – look for a place that looks really interesting, and presents some nice challenges or memorable locations, and then write or shape the plots around that.
I’m very artistically challenged, and feel that I can’t really produce “nice” maps, but I do like having maps or pictures for the players to look at, to go along with my descriptions. Sometimes it’s good to hand over a map of the area, or the co-ordinates, and watch/listen as the players pull up the area, and start to analyse it themselves. Sometimes they’ll spot things you missed, or interpret data in a way you hadn’t anticipated, that you might need to reshape the plot to take into account. Sometimes they theorise something that sounds at least three times cooler than what you had planned, and that you can incorporate with just a stealthy change to improve things.
But, I also find having a map can really help those more geographically challenged players *get* the situation much more than your description. Some people are very visual learners, and if the whole team is looking at the map, and then the rigger is describing where they’re approaching from, and where they’re going to turn, and you can draw that onto the map – it’s very clear to everyone what is going on, and nobody has any excuse for suddenly running in the ‘wrong’ direction, or doing something really stupid.
So, the team approached through thick mist, and the lowered visibility made spotting the ambushers really tough – so of course Shimazu rolled a massive handful of 6s on his perception test and aced it – spotting the corp strike team and killing the element of surprise, forcing the ambushers to initiate early. Though the delivery team might get shot up a little, I actually expect the corp hit team to get wiped out now incredibly easily, between cannon fire from the Broadsword, massive AoE stunballs from Tads, and directed fire from the cargo ramp…
But hey – no plan survives first contact with the players, and now there’s an excuse to branch off in a slightly different direction and throw some distractions at the players to see if I can tempt them off on a nice little side quest. I suspect not – but you never know!
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 09/09/61, Location: -1.67738, 117.43858, Time 22:09
2. Having landed at BP-12, seen the Wolfpac team in the distance, and asked for a meeting with "the boss". Hunter stays with Marius at the Broadsword.
3. Down into the cantina, magic perception check. Spot nothing.
4. Down into the bar, description, spot Joko and his 2 bodyguards. Fuel guy chats with KAi -call him "sultan". Team get drinks, wander over to Sultan. Tads reminds them she can do create alcohol.
5. Kai - are you sultan? Ah yes, you're new fish? Kai thanks and introduces, might have some skills and goods to pass on, particulary fresh food. Ahh - likes that, hard to get. Fruit, meat, depends what you got. Kai - pass you over to Tads, Tads creates a bit of fruit. He tests, shares with some of his crew. Kai asks for plates, sultan sends someone off for containers. Nice trick. Tads - yes, good in the wilds. Kai - useful in lots of situations. Kai - what else are you after? Deliveries. Sultan - we're a hub, that's easy, always want intel/info. Kai gets impression of barter economy. Kai offers intel about smuggler routes and stops - hot topic, what do you want, Kai says they are new to the area, want to know about SE asia. Get info on all the area, be civil to people, info about small corps getting extra-territorial. Kai asks about rivals. He smiles, explains neutrality. Asks Tads for fruits and basic meats. Kai pushes the create alcohol. Sultan is happy with this, gets a demo. 5l per cast. Kai asks for either discount on fuel, or leads on AP/AV ammo. Aswon asks about telesma, Sultan becomes a little guarded. Sultan tells them about the gene modified critters on the islands. Sultan offers to get them hooked up with some ammo vendors in exchange for the alcohol.
6. Hunter starts getting news reports as they tick over into Saturday. He warns Aswon, to pass on to the rest of the team, Aswon also tells Sultan, warns him he may want to get extra medical staff onboard. Aswon advises Marius to call home and warn the family to stay at the ranch while SURGE kicks off. Tads spots Sultans hair clip and recognises it.
7. Kai checks the chip, gets the location for the drop-off. Team poke the data about surge, Tads wonders if it tracks with population density. Not enough data. More reports from more civilised / matrix connected areas. Hunter looks at the data, seems to be predominantly more normal, humans. Humanis stoking the fires.
8. Wolfpac enter the bar, get drinks, settle into a booth. Orange starts eating spicy food - Kai flashback to the quarry. Monday checks out the team, looks a bit sad, goes back to her drink/crew.
9. Marius gets layout of the rig, and info on the Wolfpac t-bird. Team advises Kai to make the call to arrange drop-off. Asked if they can get a 6:30 drop off, to get cover from the sea-mist. Team crash, Marius lifts off at 4:30 for the 2 hour journey. Vectors around, then heads for target. At 6am we get Dawn, Tads tries for spirit.
10. Marius encounters sea-mist, spider outcrops from the land. Team wonder - Aswon suggests seaweed farm, Hunter - that's likely, or maybe kelp farm, or some kind of animal.
11. Approach site, spot the pilings, sensor readings, 110m visibility.
12. Marius spots the power lines, the mini-van and the luton. Shimazu spots some concealed forms, does aura reading. Watchful, waiting, hostile - but not to the team. Shimazu tells team, Kai asks if there any magic - nothing. As we get to 6:30, FF get out of the minivan. Kai calls the contact, warns him, Patches in the other people. Kai recounts. FF call out "ambush", array to the north. Tads advises to use the spirits. Kai, tells them spirits are going to highlight. Team except Shimazu send spirits to go highlight/accident the ambushers. Marius opens up with the autocannon, aiming to take out / shake up the targets. Kills 1, Serious on the 2nd. He detects drone network N and S. Shimazu spots 2nd group moving in from the south to flank the FF. North group speculative fire against the bird, spark off. Shimazu looks at the jump, Aswon shouts NO, Shimazu pouts, but starts moving cargo.
13. Team move to full engage the enemy. Stopping for the night.
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