If my memory serves me correctly, the UCAS still has the US' and Canada's weapons laws - whcih means, especially in such a violent environment (thrill gangs with SMGs galore) that every civilian is gonna have some sort of weapon ready, and some armour too, I guess.
And I wouldn't count on people not wanting to play hero and take a shot at a runner from behind - at least unless we're talking about wage slaves in some corp enclave who'll just run away screaming for security.
And please, which newbie runner carries only lights with nothing to fall back on (like magic, a hand grenade, a taser or a remote deck and a van-turned-tank just outside)?
Full Version: Really Bad Decisions
| QUOTE (Critias) |
| Or, alternately, lock it up inside your Box Of Hatred and dwell on it every time CD is brought up. That works too. |
Box of Hatred...
good band name
or a name for a lesbian porn.
or a new goth candy.
or...
| QUOTE (Frenzy) |
| So while running for our lives, spells and shots going off all around him, our drone rigger, stops, pulls out his pistol, concentrates, and shoots himself in the shoulder. |
[QUOTE]
Ok, I don't see how this is a problem. Instead of pointing the pistol at himself with the Bee inbetween himself and the gun, he could have placed the side of the barrel of the pistol aganst his arm and pointed the mussle at the Bee. At most he would have recieved some burns form the musel flash.
Besides, how much unarmed combat skill does it take to swat at a drone that is clinging to you? If it is stuck to you, and you don't dodge your self, it does not dodge.
The bad thing about bumblebees isn't to get rid of them after it stings you; then, it's too late. The thing is to dispose of them BEFORE they get to sting you.
By all rationale, your rigger should be dead. Either he was exceptionally lucky, or your GM really is your friend.
By all rationale, your rigger should be dead. Either he was exceptionally lucky, or your GM really is your friend.
Despite the lure of the glittering prizes within, the Arcology is NOT WORTH IT.
Of course, if you're already stuck in it, then you might as well nick some booty while looking for escape routes.
The escape routes take definite precedence.
| QUOTE (Smiley @ Apr 27 2005, 11:40 PM) |
| Despite the lure of the glittering prizes within, the Arcology is NOT WORTH IT. |
8 million nuyen not worth it? That's a retirement run right there (one way or the other
)
Retirement, death... good luck.
pretty much
another of my favorite quotes, don't recall who here said it, but I loved it
"one of two things must run like water in the arc: AV ammo, or PC blood."
another of my favorite quotes, don't recall who here said it, but I loved it
"one of two things must run like water in the arc: AV ammo, or PC blood."
| QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0) |
| pretty much another of my favorite quotes, don't recall who here said it, but I loved it "one of two things must run like water in the arc: AV ammo, or PC blood." |
Both is a real possibility.
Edward
*chuckle* Speaking about really bad decisions and the Arcology - I just trapped my runners in the Arc right at shutdown. They were congregating on the 6th floor club quarters when one guy named Twitch (a 14 yr old son of a yak lawyer) decided "Ya know, I really want my bike." The rest of the group tried to talk him out of it, but he was undeterred.
He then proceeded to leave the rest of the group and head down to the basement garages which were currently being secured by many medusas and dervishes...he now is a guest in one of the zombie rooms currently under construction by the new "owners". Alive, yes. The rest of the group is currently deciding whether they want to look for Twitch or abandon him to his fate...
He then proceeded to leave the rest of the group and head down to the basement garages which were currently being secured by many medusas and dervishes...he now is a guest in one of the zombie rooms currently under construction by the new "owners". Alive, yes. The rest of the group is currently deciding whether they want to look for Twitch or abandon him to his fate...
If I had a vote I'd say abamdon him.
Nothing says bad decision like a chemical lobotomy and being experimented on by an utterly alien intellect.
Nothing says bad decision like a chemical lobotomy and being experimented on by an utterly alien intellect.
| QUOTE (hermit) |
| EDIT: The bumble bee stung him and he didn't die some hours after? thoght they always carry this heat inducing shit ... |
Generally, they carry nanite cutters which which are survivable, but you have to get lucky on the duration roll and have a high body score. But at any rate, the character ended up Hand-of-god-ing it to survive.
| QUOTE (DocMortand) |
| And I dunno about the whole 6 and 1 thing - that strikes me as making things harder than it already is. |
I usually whip up some house rule when players have friends in their line-of-fire, because SR really doesn't have any rules for what happens if you miss a target. In this case I didn't think it was that hard on the player because, honestly, he can roll sixes all day long. Due to the situation, it made some sense that the player could possibly shoot himself in the arm trying to do what he was trying to do and I though that any 1's counting as successes against hitting himself modelled that chance fairly well. It seemed to make sense for that particular situation. Was sure funny when he rolled like four 1's and no 6's.
I don't know if it's realistic or not, but this is how I do it.
I treat having a friendly in the line of fire as cover.
If you successfully hit the target, your friend is fine.
If you missed, there's a 50% chance you hit him instead.
I treat having a friendly in the line of fire as cover.
If you successfully hit the target, your friend is fine.
If you missed, there's a 50% chance you hit him instead.
Cover.
If you hit outright, all's fine.
If you'd hit, except for the cover (ie/miss by value of cover) then you hit your buddy.
If you hit outright, all's fine.
If you'd hit, except for the cover (ie/miss by value of cover) then you hit your buddy.
Yeah, that's something like what I do. This situation was different though because he was trying to shoot a bee-sized drone that's basically sitting on his arm.
I wonder, why didn't he slap it and stomp on it? I mean, you don't shoot real bees either, do you?
Anyway, HoG is what most characters will need to get out of the Arc alive. There's just too much horrible stuff in there. *Sighs* Too bad my most developed char is tied up in 'Brainscan' now. And even worse, I have a good idea of what's coming. I just can't do anything about it. It's not like my char has any idea.
Anyway, HoG is what most characters will need to get out of the Arc alive. There's just too much horrible stuff in there. *Sighs* Too bad my most developed char is tied up in 'Brainscan' now. And even worse, I have a good idea of what's coming. I just can't do anything about it. It's not like my char has any idea.
| QUOTE (SuperSpy) |
| Generally, they carry nanite cutters which which are survivable, but you have to get lucky on the duration roll and have a high body score. But at any rate, the character ended up Hand-of-god-ing it to survive. |
Huh - you modified the bees then.
That's fine, makes 'em more survivable. The bees straight out of RA:S make ebola look pathetic.And you didn't mention the HoG. That explains how the rigger survived. *grin*
I'm already doing some modifications myself, so I completely understand.
| QUOTE (DocMortand) |
| Huh - you modified the bees then. That's fine, makes 'em more survivable. The bees straight out of RA:S make ebola look pathetic. |
I used the stats out of Brainscan - but even there it mentions they can be packing pretty much any chemical the GM wants in place of the nanites.
Good luck on your run. The arcology can be almost as hard on the GM as it is on the players.
| QUOTE (hermit) |
| I wonder, why didn't he slap it and stomp on it? I mean, you don't shoot real bees either, do you? Anyway, HoG is what most characters will need to get out of the Arc alive. There's just too much horrible stuff in there. *Sighs* Too bad my most developed char is tied up in 'Brainscan' now. And even worse, I have a good idea of what's coming. I just can't do anything about it. It's not like my char has any idea. |
When we ran the arcology, we didn't need the HOG - but it came close. Getting out we ended up in the Barrens.... normally a bad thing.... but we didn't mind.... the party Troll even got down on his knees and kissed the ground
Our group had managed to survive a trek through the drainage system of Seattle (approx. a week underground on some crazy mission) and one of the others had the bright idea to take a "special box" we had stumbled across - it contained uranium - and hid it in the vehicle we were using at the time. The owner of said vehicle, an elven ki-ad (I'll call him "Mud" to make things easier), found this little present and attempted to sell it without the knowledge of the rest of the party.
The first offer he got was from a terrorist group that remains unnamed. Mud is happy, until he starts thinking. Maybe it's not a good idea to get involved with terrorists, he thinks, and is contacted by an other interested party. He then tries to stop the transaction with the terrorists, but they are most insistent. Mud phones a Lone Star contact and the meeting of various contacts, Lone Star and Mud results in his contact getting fried.
Mud panics a little and escapes on a bike. Not motorbike, a bicycle. He Searches and finds a magical group (our GM had a good day) that will help him disappear - the price for this being, the "special box" and he has to join this magical group.
meanwhile, we others have found out that Mud is causing havoc - because various interested parties have contacted us. My char in particular spends one evening in a bar meeting five different people interested in finding Mud.
GM: A person enters the bar. He seems to be looking for someone.
Me: I wave and buy him a drink before telling hi I have no idea where Mud is.
Lone Star has managed to find Jessy, an NPC Mud has tried to get friendly with (and a good friend of a NPC of mine) and she needs to be collected. I and my contact drive over to Lone Star (hey, I've got a SIN, I should be safe), get questioned on the whereabouts of Mud (I tell them, if he shows his face, I'll blow it to smithereens and it seems to convince them, that I'm no friend of his). I offer Jessy to stay at my high-security Bellevue apartment for a few days.
A day later, I'm out getting food and a change of clothes for Jessy, when the terrorists kidnap Jessy and blow up my apartment. The group, minus Mud, but plus a few important NPCs go to rescue Jessy.
You'd think things couldn't get any worse, but Mud is a little unhappy about what he has to do to become a member of the magical group and manages to cock things up. Result: Magical group of not nice people are "a little" angry.
He manages to activate an old, old contact in Tir Tangire.. and you'd think for once he'd play it cool and relaxed, but he decides he wants to take Jessy with him and behaves a little prissy when meeting up with the TT representative.
By this time, everyone is fed up with the players antiques and we don't play together for over a year. The GM who was in charge for most of Mud's adventure and Mud's player have left for good. The rest of us have decided, that TT either killed the troublemaker or took him in - either way, I don't think he'll show up anymore and if he does, I don't think he'll live for long..
The first offer he got was from a terrorist group that remains unnamed. Mud is happy, until he starts thinking. Maybe it's not a good idea to get involved with terrorists, he thinks, and is contacted by an other interested party. He then tries to stop the transaction with the terrorists, but they are most insistent. Mud phones a Lone Star contact and the meeting of various contacts, Lone Star and Mud results in his contact getting fried.
Mud panics a little and escapes on a bike. Not motorbike, a bicycle. He Searches and finds a magical group (our GM had a good day) that will help him disappear - the price for this being, the "special box" and he has to join this magical group.
meanwhile, we others have found out that Mud is causing havoc - because various interested parties have contacted us. My char in particular spends one evening in a bar meeting five different people interested in finding Mud.
GM: A person enters the bar. He seems to be looking for someone.
Me: I wave and buy him a drink before telling hi I have no idea where Mud is.
Lone Star has managed to find Jessy, an NPC Mud has tried to get friendly with (and a good friend of a NPC of mine) and she needs to be collected. I and my contact drive over to Lone Star (hey, I've got a SIN, I should be safe), get questioned on the whereabouts of Mud (I tell them, if he shows his face, I'll blow it to smithereens and it seems to convince them, that I'm no friend of his). I offer Jessy to stay at my high-security Bellevue apartment for a few days.
A day later, I'm out getting food and a change of clothes for Jessy, when the terrorists kidnap Jessy and blow up my apartment. The group, minus Mud, but plus a few important NPCs go to rescue Jessy.
You'd think things couldn't get any worse, but Mud is a little unhappy about what he has to do to become a member of the magical group and manages to cock things up. Result: Magical group of not nice people are "a little" angry.
He manages to activate an old, old contact in Tir Tangire.. and you'd think for once he'd play it cool and relaxed, but he decides he wants to take Jessy with him and behaves a little prissy when meeting up with the TT representative.
By this time, everyone is fed up with the players antiques and we don't play together for over a year. The GM who was in charge for most of Mud's adventure and Mud's player have left for good. The rest of us have decided, that TT either killed the troublemaker or took him in - either way, I don't think he'll show up anymore and if he does, I don't think he'll live for long..
| QUOTE (SuperSpy) | ||
I used the stats out of Brainscan - but even there it mentions they can be packing pretty much any chemical the GM wants in place of the nanites. |
Heh I finally got my hands on Brainscan a couple weeks back, just in time for the fun to start. I see they've really lobotomized the bees, tho...and probably a good thing - the bees in RA:S are horrendously nasty and I probably wasn't going to use 'em. Now...
The cutter nanites just do 9M continuously...the bees in RA:S do an ebola-style damage, only worse. I'm not THAT evil. Yet.
I'm currently playing a game where we are in the Arc... and the bees have become almost comical.
I would worry about introducing spoilers, but everyone else has pretty much said everything about bees. I just wanted to add a few comments about how not-scarey they have seemed thus far.
Funny things about the bees are:
1) With a gun adept, some mages, a shaman, a rigger, and two NPC deckers, we pretty much have 8 INt 6 or higher characters on the team... that means that when the bees show up, SOMEONE is going to notice them.
2) IF you notice them, when they go to sting you, you get to counter-attack. They don't have that many dice to throw around, so unless you get swarmed by bees, you can probably jsut slap them away from you. (You probably won't deal real damage to them, but you can keep them from stinging you)
2) Shooting bees isn't really any tougher than shooting humans (other than the running modifiers because they are flying)... they kind of suck at dodging, and any hit destroys them. We were all a little surprised to realize that Shadowrun doesn't have any size modifiers for ranged combat. (We all had a good laugh when the non-gun adept started shooting bees out of the air from like 10 feet away)
3) A force 2 fireball cast at light can clear out a room of bees, and will at most singe our clothing.
4) With high quickness (which we all know almost all characters have), you can pretty much outrun the bees - although I do not advice running around in a panic in the arcology... there isn't usually as much harm in backing up to buy some time to take out the entire swarm.
I would worry about introducing spoilers, but everyone else has pretty much said everything about bees. I just wanted to add a few comments about how not-scarey they have seemed thus far.
Funny things about the bees are:
1) With a gun adept, some mages, a shaman, a rigger, and two NPC deckers, we pretty much have 8 INt 6 or higher characters on the team... that means that when the bees show up, SOMEONE is going to notice them.
2) IF you notice them, when they go to sting you, you get to counter-attack. They don't have that many dice to throw around, so unless you get swarmed by bees, you can probably jsut slap them away from you. (You probably won't deal real damage to them, but you can keep them from stinging you)
2) Shooting bees isn't really any tougher than shooting humans (other than the running modifiers because they are flying)... they kind of suck at dodging, and any hit destroys them. We were all a little surprised to realize that Shadowrun doesn't have any size modifiers for ranged combat. (We all had a good laugh when the non-gun adept started shooting bees out of the air from like 10 feet away)
3) A force 2 fireball cast at light can clear out a room of bees, and will at most singe our clothing.
4) With high quickness (which we all know almost all characters have), you can pretty much outrun the bees - although I do not advice running around in a panic in the arcology... there isn't usually as much harm in backing up to buy some time to take out the entire swarm.
On Sunday it looks like I will be agreeing to enter the arcology for a second time. that alone qualifies as stupid. If my GM dangles something worth the risk in front of my nose I will post the specifics.
The bees don’t scare me however, saw a couple last time so now I have power ball and for a drone that light casting at force 4 light damage will easily destroy them, and I can take the drain from that all day. Between the riggers sensors and everybody being on high level paranoia they are not likely to get surprise.
Edward
The bees don’t scare me however, saw a couple last time so now I have power ball and for a drone that light casting at force 4 light damage will easily destroy them, and I can take the drain from that all day. Between the riggers sensors and everybody being on high level paranoia they are not likely to get surprise.
Edward
| QUOTE (BlackHat @ Apr 29 2005, 08:53 AM) |
| 1) With a gun adept, some mages, a shaman, a rigger, and two NPC deckers, we pretty much have 8 INt 6 or higher characters on the team... that means that when the bees show up, SOMEONE is going to notice them. |
I always figure it's pretty easy to notice them...with the buzzing rotor blades. I figured the perception test was to see if you could see them as more than a blur and thus aquire a target.
| QUOTE (BlackHat) |
| 2) IF you notice them, when they go to sting you, you get to counter-attack. They don't have that many dice to throw around, so unless you get swarmed by bees, you can probably jsut slap them away from you. (You probably won't deal real damage to them, but you can keep them from stinging you) |
That's great if your runners have any melee combat skill. A bunch of mine didn't and had to default to strength with +4 modifiers.
| QUOTE (BlackHat) |
| 2) Shooting bees isn't really any tougher than shooting humans (other than the running modifiers because they are flying)... they kind of suck at dodging, and any hit destroys them. We were all a little surprised to realize that Shadowrun doesn't have any size modifiers for ranged combat. (We all had a good laugh when the non-gun adept started shooting bees out of the air from like 10 feet away) |
There are size modifiers under the Vehicle gunnery rules, so I borrowed those and gave everyone an additional +1 to their TN's.
| QUOTE (BlackHat) |
| 3) A force 2 fireball cast at light can clear out a room of bees, and will at most singe our clothing. |
Good point, I'm trying to remember why my mage didn't try this one. Probably because it wouldn't hurt the medusas he was fighting earlier and gave up on the spell.
| QUOTE (BlackHat) |
| 4) With high quickness (which we all know almost all characters have), you can pretty much outrun the bees - although I do not advice running around in a panic in the arcology... there isn't usually as much harm in backing up to buy some time to take out the entire swarm. |
Bees can accelerate up to a speed which, if I recall, can out run most QUI 9 characters.
Bees < Physical Barrier spell. I had the image of Wiley Coyote smacking into a cliff face in my mind when the shaman in my group cast the spell.
Shaman: Run!
Team: Hell yeah!
Bees: bzzzz!
Shaman casts spell.
Bees splat.
Shaman: Run!
Team: Hell yeah!
Bees: bzzzz!
Shaman casts spell.
Bees splat.
Also I noticed I had two #2's. I'm retarded.
Umm, force 2 spell won't affect them, I'm pretty sure they count as highly processed material. that's what an OR of 8 or higher.
| QUOTE (Nikoli) |
| Umm, force 2 spell won't affect them, I'm pretty sure they count as highly processed material. that's what an OR of 8 or higher. |
That's only for the purposes of targeting. Force 2 Barriers still would affect them.
A force 2 fireball would work fine - because it's an elemental manipulation. A powerball would have that problem though.
A good weapon for taking out the bees is a shotgun, with a cyber choke, and shot rounds, especially if there's a swarm of them. They all become valid targets if they're in the line of fire, rather than just one if you're firing slugs.
| QUOTE (ShadowGhost) |
| A good weapon for taking out the bees is a shotgun, with a cyber choke, and shot rounds, especially if there's a swarm of them. They all become valid targets if they're in the line of fire, rather than just one if you're firing slugs. |
Yup, and they are Body 0, which means any weapon hit destroys them. Bravo!
| QUOTE (DocMortand) |
| *chuckle* Speaking about really bad decisions and the Arcology - I just trapped my runners in the Arc right at shutdown. They were congregating on the 6th floor club quarters when one guy named Twitch (a 14 yr old son of a yak lawyer) decided "Ya know, I really want my bike." The rest of the group tried to talk him out of it, but he was undeterred. He then proceeded to leave the rest of the group and head down to the basement garages which were currently being secured by many medusas and dervishes...he now is a guest in one of the zombie rooms currently under construction by the new "owners". Alive, yes. The rest of the group is currently deciding whether they want to look for Twitch or abandon him to his fate... |
Speaking as one of the runners in this setup; the really bad thing about this is that this char didn't even need it. Not long ago, our chars (including Twitch) successfully pulled off our largest haul up to this point (stealing a Renraku cargo ship). So this isn't some newbie char who's perpetually broke and scrounging for Lifestyle money. This char had (emphasis on "had") easily 600-700K nuyen in personal liquid assets. His bike, for all his in-character whining, was basically a stock Aurora racing bike, which costs, what, 19K or so? Given the situation Docmortand was describing, just buy a new damned bike.
Oh well; the group discussion at this point is to leave him, unless we specifically find recon intelligence on his status and location that suggests he's retrievable w/o loss of life.
the irony of Doc getting operated on......
hell I'd leave 'em too!
Good luck!
hell I'd leave 'em too!
Good luck!
Followup on this poor decision making...
Apparently Doc had a softy moment; in our last gaming session, our group found said foolish decision maker (Twitch) and rescued him before he could be "fixed". So much for looting his nuyen account...
Apparently Doc had a softy moment; in our last gaming session, our group found said foolish decision maker (Twitch) and rescued him before he could be "fixed". So much for looting his nuyen account...
| QUOTE (Endgame50) |
| For my bit of stupidity, I was playing a human street sam named Legion. He was basically built to live. Survival was his overriding goal in life, which makes the following lapse of judgement all the more puzzling. We were playing through a module in Corporate Punishment. It's the one where you go to Portland then get framed by the Tir as Saeder-Krupp agents. |
Actually, taking the run is what killed your character.
Even if you didn't ask why they wanted an out of town group when it would have been much cheaper to hire a Portland runner team, that deal stank on multiple levels.
Probably the worst of which was the requirement that you give full ID information to the Corp that hired you. Is the run really worth getting a new ID, new face and fingerprints, and losing all Lifestyle tied to your old ID?
In the spirit of followups...
Remember the dwarf rigger who shot himself whilst getting attacked by bees and then burned HoG to survive?
Well after was everyone was mending up and the team realized they weren't going to get the dwarf conscious anytime soon, Frenzy goes and puts two bullets in the back of his head.
I guess he didn't want to drag the dwarf around and didn't want him coming back as a blue.
Remember the dwarf rigger who shot himself whilst getting attacked by bees and then burned HoG to survive?
Well after was everyone was mending up and the team realized they weren't going to get the dwarf conscious anytime soon, Frenzy goes and puts two bullets in the back of his head.
I guess he didn't want to drag the dwarf around and didn't want him coming back as a blue.
All this talk of bees, reminds me of when my Sami was attacked by 10 or so giant bees (was from some very cool, yet wierd meetings, when us runners were in the Earthdawn world for a short time.. or thought we were, i never was sure)
GM: so Gambit (me) has ten, two foot bees swarming round him, who hes trying to fend off with his Tae Quon Do skills. Atari (my mates sami) you are next what do you do?
Atari: Ummm.. i crank out the choke on my Mossberg CMDT shotgun an fire at him
( i took a double take, not sure i heard him right)
GM: (visibly smiling joyfully) Ok, so do u want to aim first, then pop off a round?
Atari: No, i cant aim as im firing a burst, and spending 6 combat pool on the roll.
Gambit: (well he makes a strange noise at this point that i dont know how you would spell it)
(all the other players lean over to watch atari roll his 12 dice......)
GM: so Gambit (me) has ten, two foot bees swarming round him, who hes trying to fend off with his Tae Quon Do skills. Atari (my mates sami) you are next what do you do?
Atari: Ummm.. i crank out the choke on my Mossberg CMDT shotgun an fire at him
( i took a double take, not sure i heard him right)
GM: (visibly smiling joyfully) Ok, so do u want to aim first, then pop off a round?
Atari: No, i cant aim as im firing a burst, and spending 6 combat pool on the roll.
Gambit: (well he makes a strange noise at this point that i dont know how you would spell it)
(all the other players lean over to watch atari roll his 12 dice......)
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