Yes, finally! A party of newbies! Mwa ha ha ha!!!

Some of the party members are having their first RPG experience and they are in love with SR. The others had been playing other games (*cough* D&D *cough*).


-Female Pueblo Eagle Shaman. Navajo blood, a Medicine doctorate and a pacifist demeanor. Frowns on excessive technology.
-Male Ork Investigator, former Seattle Lone Star member. The guy just loved the concept art.
-Female Elven Street Mage. Tir exile, but retaining that snotty attitude.
-Male CalFree Dwarf Techie. Worked for Renraku, has a massive inferiority complex that he tries to hide by being showy and gun-toting. Also, was fired from RCS after having an affair with a Japanese Secretary (transferred to the Arcology, now I have a hook for the Shutdown! ) Fun character.
-Male Boston Elven Face. Rich family of Irish blood. For those of you who've seen Smallville, his relationship with his father (L2 contact) is similar to that of the Luthors. Another of his cotnacts is her mother, a socialite who took away HALF of his father's money during the divorce.
-Male elf, Former Aztechnology Civilian Engineer (or so he says) - A mix between the Weapon Specialist and a Covert Operative.

I've run them through the first Harlequin run, which they did quite decently (some flops, but overall Ok, I made their lives easier since they took a fair amount of time and brains to plan their operation).

I have Eye Witness, Ivy & Chrome and Double Exposure further down the line (along with some home-cooked runs and the PC's private affairs). However, I'm facing a problem:

One of the players (ork) is moving to Spain in a few weeks, with his girlfriend (Streetmage) shortly after. They are the newbies among newbies, and they've asked me if I had a really good adventure that could be ran in 2 sessions (more or less). Consider it a way to permanently hook them into the game.

Now, I've been looking at this Universal Brotherhood that a friend has...

In as much as I'd love to wait a couple more runs to establish the game unvierse and possibly tempt one of the characters with the UB, I think I'll be running it on Friday night. So, if somebody has any ideas and suggestions, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

if you are talking about UB Missing Blood, that thing is one of the most lethal published runs (in my opinion). your characters will need some serious bang-bang and major mojo to compete with the buggies. Although i guess it depends how knowledgable and dangerous you are as a gm.

i ran Missing Blood for dr.pain and some others about a year or so ago and like all new experiences in sr we got to see how nastly insect spirits were. the true forms are the really nasty ones. between hoping back and forth to astral and just being flat out faster/stronger/better than the players they took the team apart rather quickly.

it is not an easy run in any means.

Queen Euphoria is a good module if you want to add the bug angle, but don't want a massive body count. I found the module to be a little under powered, but you should be able to easily adjust it. I tweaked it some when I ran, and my party had a blast.

If you want a good "ender", you should do the classic "You wake up in the middle of a field. You're unarmed and don't remember how you got there." There are several published modules that can give you some ideas on how to pull that off.

That lethal? I thought it was scary, but not *that* lethal, from what I've been reading.

Well, it helps if the crew is of an aggressive mindset and come loaded for bear.

An investigative or thinking crew might be more easily overwhelmed.

Ya don't send a supply unit into a combat zone kind of logic.

-Siege

(Looks at party)

Well... the Azzie engineer and the Dwarf would love to use all those explosives they bought, and since the first run was very stealthy...

The ork would be great for street smarts. And two magicians would provide nice firepower.

you missed the force 10 fly spirit right? cuz that thing don't take no shit.

Damn, you're right!

Maybe if they get a hint to rig with explosives the building... kinda like "EVERYBODY LEAVE NOW!!! (sound of building collapsing over bugs)"

What about some help, like Man of many names?

man of many names? isn't that guy way whacked out of his mind? i know he's a bitchin shaman and all but i doubt if i would go to him.

He knows a lot of "metaplot" for a runner, and he is powerful enough to give them an effective hand.

in my honest opinion this run should not be a easy run for any group. i wish the old forums worked because i would search for the old writeup for this run. if i remember correctly...the team conisisted of (ironicly enough) our most famous characters.

joe average, streetsam with gyromount + panther
kinjo, supaninja
slugg, troll organlegger
dr.pain's physical sun shaman (can't remember name...)
leather heather (i think. she got captured)
Utah, physad (go snakeface!)
iceman x (npc rigger)
mad dog (npc ork streetsam)

remember that true forms get the immunity to normal weapons power also. therefore panther assault cannon WILL NOT kill it, nor will MMG which the team also had. with the advent of one of the team getting captured, i set the UB on higher alert (i think), because i remember true forms upstairs after they had wiped out the UB security. kinjo gets dropped in one hit upstairs, and Utah (snakeface) takes a big toll as well as the bugs are just assaulting his weapon focus from astral when he turns it on (no astral perception). dr.pain finally takes them down but i remember him being in not tip top shape after that (drain maybe). Slugg in typical slugg fashion decides to organleg someone and ends up getting knocked out by Utah (snakeface), and they leave him behind.
downstairs, with a mostly wounded team:
the force 10 comes out all drippy and spooky and rips most of mad dog off. Joe average fires panther at it after seeing his mentor hit the ground only to watch the assault cannon slug bounce off. in a desparate attempt, he tosses a belt of grenades, next to mad dogs grenades and shoots one. the damage calutales to something like 120S after rebound.... and for a happy ending someone came up with a good idea on how to kill the queen.

we don't like bugs no more.

oh forgot to say, if you want to put other npc's in it, thats your choice. my team was quite prepared, but apparently not as prepared as they should have been. if you feel they are going to get annilated then give them many-names. but at the same time he may choose to not go along because he knows the danger.

Hi all, I'm reviving the thread with an update.

Team:

Human Eagle Shaman, Elven Street Mage, Elven Face, Elven Weapon Specialist, Elven Covert-Ops (yes, there seems to be an outbreak of dandelion eaters ), Dwarf Tech/Sammie.


Run 1: Harlequin Part 1
Run 2: Eye Witness
Run 3: Harlequin Part 2 (now in theaters everywhere)

It's been very funny GMing them so far, I mean, how many times have you seen a group of runners rushing to a Seattle Public Library to learn about "Ancient Elven History & Society" (a.k.a. The Silmarillion) to inflitrate the Para-Nobilis???

The Eagle Shaman posed as an elven-fan to join the Para-Nobilis. They are planning to have a "Rite of Passage & Naming" for her (yeah, I'm "liberally editing" the TT sourcebook, elven poser-style ), and the team is gearing up to break in right then, when the Council is present.

The Navajo Shaman is *very* determined to wipe them out, having gone from pacifist healer to take-no-prisoners after hearing Xerix speak about "solutions" for other races (reminded her of the NAN concentration camps, dontcha see... good way to motivate a pacifist into geeking a policlub).

Black Eagle (the Shaman) got an "Initation mentor" (an elven poser who knows Tolkien from memory). He's helping her to "purify" her mind and "meditate". He'll also help her find an "elven" name. she's playing along, hoping to convince them she's for real.


Now, it just happens that next time, Arwennor (the poser) will show up with some "elven" literature, and a "culture chip"...

A BTL Persona-fix

And it just happens the character doesn't know drek about technology (she being Computer Illiterate and all that ), and wants to "play along"...

Has anybody tried building a P-fix BTL with the chip rules? I'm seriously hoping thatthe shaman will go MIA until the party breaks in and finds her posing as Galadriel or some other fictional "elven lady".

Unhooking the good doctor from her BTL addiction is potentially a really good plot. Especially because this same player & character was handed an ad in a Monorail station.

The UB ad.

SHE: "What are these guys?"
ME: "They are like the Church, except they aren't a religion, but a worldwide social charity that also helps you develop your potential."
SHE: "Cool! Can I join, please?"
ME: "Of course, you just have to go to any of the chapterhouses in Seattle."
SHE: "Great." (leaves to get a drink in the pub we were playing)
I look to a nearby friend who's also a SR GM and had heard the conversation. We wait until she's far away, and start laughing like the evil bastards we are.

Now I know which organization she could get in for rehabilitation...