Just had the most fun I have had in a long time.
Run report and questions.

I just finished a session where we started a run into the renraku arcology (stupid computer can’t spell these words and I have no books with me)

The GM is using the rescue an ex-resident’s wife plot suggestion. No spoilers pleas I was just having a lot of fun with it. All I knew about the arcolojy was what I read here and the drone designs where a lot of fun. (ok the character was week in the knees but I was having a ball) it is rare for a GM to actually manage to scare my characters (without resorting to magical fear effects).

I suffered my first rule of one incident (stupid 1 dice in computing) it wasn’t anything serious I just considered the idea of an expert system that could run the entire arcology to be bordering on the ludicrous. About as likely as an AI spontaneously evolving. This is so much fun.

What however do you do when you asses the emotional state of your fellow runners (using astral observation) and realise your the only one on the teem with butterflies in his stomach on entering the most secure living structure in the city if not the world.

a) Be reassured you have such stable backup
b) Worry about your ability to do your job on the mission
c) Worry that you are running with a pare of psychos that out gun you by about 300 rounds to 1 (being a mage with only 6 clips of ammunition and ally being a rigger with 6 drones)
d) Take some other action (pleas specify)

when faced with a room containing between 600 and 2000 enemy drones (the type with limbs and 5 tails) do you.

a) Charge in and initiate melee
b) Have a drone stand in the doorway and block there advance engaging with all manner of attacks (guns, grenades)
c) Close and lock the door
d) As c but have a spirit scrag the lock so it will not open for anybody (ruled possible)
e) Try to disable some of them hoping the destruct charges will set up a wave of sympathetic explosions, while your near by.
f) Try to sneak past them.

Well thanks for reading my ramble. SR is great fun.

Edward

Holy Hell, 600-2000 drones?
Retreat, quietly put C12 on the structural supports and collapse the fsking floor on them.

1:D
Your running with a pair of cold, emotionless and hollow runners. Give them a lecture in letting their feelings flow, or something equally fluffy.

2:C, D if you have the ability. 600-2000 drones is a challenge for an army.

First question: C.

Second question, D, D, D, D, D again, and then D some more. When you're sick and tired of it, D for a change.

~J

Or, you could run. RUN!!

The best option would be to evade them altogether, how is it possible to stumble into 2000 drones?

I don’t think we where ever expected to fight the large room of drones. (it may only have been 400-1000, I am a little iffy on the exact range I was making coffee at the time)

Options PCs actually considered included b, e and we finally settled on c then d because I had the spirit scrag the lock and then told the Johnson (ex red samury wanted to come with and knew the terrain) to recommend another method of entry.

I was a little concerned about the GM PC issue but the Johnson is good. He doesn’t take attention away from the players or overshadow our abilities but doesn’t require mollycoddling for his safety. And there is somebody that knows the way around

Edward

If this is a normal runner team, and those are really Medusae, running ought to be SOP when encountering more than four. Also when encountering more than two and not having the drop on them.

~J

Why? They just want to be your friend. Deus has your best interest at heart. Deus cares. Long live overlord Deus!

The Computer is your friend, citizen. You aren't cleared for knowledge of drugs.

~J

"Oh computer, I, your faithful servant, have rooted out the Commie Mutie traitors that are discussing forbidden subjects. As such, I, Deadeyeblue123, faithful and loving servant of the all-knowing Computer, will dispatch these awful traitors by shooting such trouble the moment spot it, which happens to be now!
Prepare to be atomized, commie mutie secret society traitors to the glorious computer!

Um, where did they go?"

God, I miss Paranoia . Haven't played that game in over a decade, but nothing made for a better one-shot break from a regular campaign than finding trouble and shooting it.

How much armor does medusae have? I dont even think a weapon you can realistically carry in there can hurt them.

There is no option C...


The only option is to toss in a pair of thermal nuclear grenades and run like hell. Then have the airforce Carpet bomb the whole area. It's the only way to be sure. <shrug>

Trouble is, this is the Renraku Arcology.
Carpet bombs tickle.

We had previously met a single medusa and proved able to despatch it. 2 of the drones where the GM’s SC series design (ripped of the short cirket movies) and have mechanical arms and the melee contest became a mater of medusa cant hurt the SC and the SC will occasionally scratch the medusa. Then another PC went into melee with hand blades and finished it off. (duel hand blades are useful).

We also managed to secure 1000 rounds of AV assault rifle rounds. Unfortunately only the drones and the Johnson use assault rifles.

When the Johnson was later in melee with a different drone and needed rescuing I decided the best I could do was cast armour on him. Shooting is not really my thing.

Edward

You know, it would have served the GM right if you guys picked a fight with 400 drones...make him roll 400 initiatives in battle. *cackle*

Of course, you wouldn't last one initiative pass, so it may be moot.

Gah, what floor were you on? I know the arcology fairly well, and can't even imagine what floor you'd be on.

A lot of floors have that kind of space. The implication is that this is their entrance, though, so probably the basement or first floor.

~J

I can imagine 30-50 in any particular place on the first couple of floors, and even in the basement levels (certain areas). But not 400-1000 in one room. Even the parking garages should have max 100 wandering around. Besides, I always felt the medusae were not the common drone wandering around - that would be the spiders. The medusae were the shock troops, so there shouldn't be that many wandering around.

Eh...but that's my fertile imagination. Each GM to his own, I suppose...I know I wouldn't mess around with a room with that many medusae...that's a sign I need to go on vacation to Hawai'i or something.

In general it would be very strange to encounter that many at once, yes. I'd peg the total number of medusae in the Arc at under 2,000, possibly under 1,500.

~J

query, which module contains all the info on the arcology?

DS

Renraku Arcology: Shutdown.

~J

Floor B1: says it is "crawling" with Medusae P.S. am the Gm for this campaign. quick Q should I run this same group through brainscan in a year and a half game time?

Depends. What date in-game?

~J

current day/time is 10pm Feb 1 2060

bah the thing is out of print..
fasa7328
.. anyone have an idea where it might still be found?
and a question: is it really good? <I want to know before I go through all that trouble trying to find it

DS

Please do not forget the option to use The Holy Handgrenade of Antioch!

lol

Actually I would like to base my responses off of my two characters Quickdraw and Howls at Moon (from two vastly different campaign)

First Question:
Quickdraw: Look at two samurai and make some comment about call them Cannon Fodder and Sacrificial lamb

Howls at Moon: C


Second Question:
Quickdraw: Activate Stealth suit (rutheium and infrared masking suit) sneak to center of room, place EMP device, sneak out out blast radius. Set off EMP then take out stragglers with my Automatic shotgun loaded with AV rounds and quickened stealth spell.

Howls at moon: Almost drek in pants, shut door, call forth my rating 7 ally spirit, send it into room with instructions to destroy all the drones. get dirty look from GM as the immuntiy to normal weapons totally messes with his day.

First group just got out of hand with powergaming, but is still fun once in a while

Second group, we each got something we each do really well. Mine happens to be spirits.

Walls might be full of FAB-3 but the doors aren't unless the are hollow. Besides the spirit can materialize open the door and walk in. All the medusae will try to kill the woman in coyote headress and find out real fast she invulnerable, and casting force 6 Ball lightnings with no drain.

With your stealth suit and thermal masking you probably won't get your Signature higher than 10. I don't remember what the Sensor rating of a medusa is, but even a hundred rolls of 1d6 are almost guaranteed to see you at least once, probably several times.

The ally spirit also would be vulnerable, as a lot of medusae can unleash an electrical attack.

~J

Actually if your really good you can make your signature really high, add in Stealth 10 and we are talking making the ninja's seem like elephants. Besides that crowded a room would run the TN for sensors into the hundreds as the distraction from the multitude of data is processed. Even with 2000 drones odds are I will not be seen unless I want to be.

As for the electric shock medusae that is still a normal weapon. Even if it wasn't the quickened Electricity barrier 6 on her will keep the shocking to a minimum.

Umm, nope. The electrical charge is an elemental based attack. Bad news for sprits.

Electric shock does count as elemental damage.

No probelm that is what Electrical Armor or Barrier is for.

Electrical armor is not for ally spirits, however, unless you brought a complete spare suit.

Also keep in mind that these drones are Deus-controlled. Not only will they not be confused by each others' presence, if they can't kill a spirit they'll open the door and come and kill the person who summoned it. I'd like to see a canon basis for them being distracted in the first place, too; keep in mind that your stealth is irrelevant against active sensors. Hell, it's almost guaranteed that they'll be bumping into you if you try to get into the room to any significant degree.

~J

Aaaah. I see, I thought he meant electrically insulated physical armor. It isn't hardened, though, so there's still a sizable risk being taken.

And entering through the opposite side only works if the team's location isn't verifiable through other means, which it usually will be.

~J

First of Electrical Armor a version of Armor that protects against Electricty only.

Second yes they are Deus constructs but he can't control them all at once. That many large metallic critters moving around is gonna scrag with any processor especially when it constantly has to check if IFF to see if it should attack. that is just so common sense that they didn't bother writing it down

Third while the she is a spirit while manifested she looks human. Medusae see a human as they attack. Nasty surprise.


Forth: I might and I might not bump into anything but as the medusae were described as having optical sensors all over their body I think they are still mostly visula with some motion detection. The later would be useless in a room with that many sulking around. Beside I never said it was fool proof only doable.


Of course if Kale was bored and the rest of us wanted to go for pizza. We'd just tell balrog that there was a fun game of smash the ugly cat in the other room. I guarantee the result would 2000 dead medusae and one hugely grinning (if wounded) troll.

It certainly isn't foolproof, few things are. I'm arguing that it isn't even reasonably doable.

With regard to sneaking, I just looked up the sensor rating. With all due respect, you're screwed. They have Sensors 5. This means that the range of their sensors is twenty kilometers in good conditions. Toss in an electrical storm and an urban environment, and then subtract another two flux just because you're feeling mean, and you still get four kilometers. Then account for the -2 TN mod for direct LOS…

They are not mostly visible with some motion detection, they're visible, ultrasound, low-light, thermographic, radar, millimeter-wave radar, and a few doses of extra-sensory perception (well, maybe not that) all rolled into one.

Can this Balrog really deal with 9M/Reach 1 with between 8 and 12 dice behind the attack, the ability to ignore up to six boxes of wound penalties, the option of using a 10S Stun attack with 1/2 impact (and disorientation effects, mind you) with the same number of dice, and Friends in Melee bonuses out orifices you didn't know existed? Keep in mind that the opposition has either four or eight points of hardened armor, and the Power of his attack is halved while the DL is dropped by one right off the bat.

~J

lorthazar: I think you are badly underestimating both Deus and his drones.