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So apparently I shouldn't post about elfgames before I've had my medication regimen, because off his meds Uncle Kwyndig is a jerk. What I was trying to say this morning was that Tolkien appropriated all sorts of cultural myths and legends when he made his 'generic' elves and dwarves and orcs. Since Shadowrun ascribes to the theory that legends and myths were once true events distorted by the passage of time then the idea of metahumanity as something already so familiar is fine, to me anyway.
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Aug 6, 2013 23:10
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You're good, man. I probably could have just overlooked your tone and responded to what you were saying instead. I get your point, I guess it's just a matter of opinion really.
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Aug 6, 2013 23:41
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(Crossposting this in both threads, because it's not really an edition-specific question:) I'm really interested in Aztechnology/Aztlan, is there a sourcebook, site, or novel I should pick up to learn more about them? I know the basics, in that they're sort of like Monsanto if Monsanto also owned most of central america and tended to sacrifice unsatisfactory employees to blood spirits, but not much beyond that. I'd like something that goes as deep as possible into the lore behind them and current events around them -- for example, I have no idea what's going on in the Yucatan (can you still tan there?) or who provides security on Aztech corporate ground.
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Aug 7, 2013 10:47
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There are probably older edition material, but for 4E you want Shadows of Aztlan - thing is, it was never published, so the dude who started writing it put his draft up for free download. Unless someone here has it (I believe it's been posted in this thread before, for example), ask on Dumpshock and people will drop a DL.
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Aug 7, 2013 13:18
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Yeah Shadows of Aztlan was intended to be an update to the 2e book titled simply Aztlan. As for more current events, yeah, hit up Dumpshock. edit: Correction, the book was actually Shadows of Latin America, and is available by following download links here Kwyndig fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 13:51
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I really liked the 3e "Shadows Of" series and I wish they'd done the same for 4th edition. Seattle 2072, Montreal 2073, and a few other sourcebooks (Feral Cities, Corporate Enclaves, etc) are cool but I loved the big-picture summaries of each continent. Also seconding whoever keeps pimping Vice. It's pretty much the best 4e sourcebook and is the basis for both campaigns I've run - irl around a table and the one I'm running here in the Game Room. Kwyndig, thanks for that link. I skimmed through the Carib League file and didn't see anything on Barbados, which is unfortunate. I'm going there for my honeymoon in September and it would have been cool to read the Shadowrun take on the island before setting foot there myself.
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Aug 7, 2013 15:38
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Is it that unfortunate? Go hog wild! We know there's a lot of shedim and pirates infecting the area! 
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Aug 7, 2013 17:30
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So, after playing/beating Shadowrun Returns I'm suddenly interested in trying out Shadowrun. Fancy that. Except, I've never played a tabletop RPG before, outside of some tangential MtG playing back in High School. I've never tried Play by Post, either. So, how do you play by post, what do I need/need to do, and is there anything going on?
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Aug 8, 2013 00:53
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Step 1). Wait until someone posts a recruit for a Shadowrun game, checking the Open Recruitment thread for updates. Step 1.1 - 1.9999etc). Get pissed/sad that nobody's recruiting for the game you want to play. Start pestering/begging/threatening someone to run a game so that you can apply for it. Then it's basically like a TRPG, only instead of doing it around the table you do it over a forum. You'll make a character like normal (for which you will need a copy of the core rulebook, supplements are optional, most all are available in .pdf format so you don't need to juggle an actual book), the GM will make posts telling you what's going on and describing the scene and giving you NPC dialogue and reactions and then you post back, replying to NPCs and telling the GM what you're doing in response to various situations, then the GM fills the computer room with deadly gas and a drone shoots your goddamn cybereye. Rolling dice, when necessary, is usually handled with a dice-rolling website like Orokos where you can link to your results in order to keep everything honest. Here are some current Shadowrun games going on the the Game Room to give you an idea of what it looks like/something fun to read. The Startup GM'd by children overboard. A group of 'runners are hired on retainer by a Matrix/telecom company looking to set up shop on the island of Lagu Lagu, formerly Yomi Island, to provide security against local insurgents and handle "delicate matters" that his own employees are poorly suited for. I am completely unbiased when I tell you that this is the best Shadowrun game being run by the handsomest GM. Rotten Applesauce, Crew 1 and Crew 2 GM'd by Martello. Shadowrun on the mean streets of New York City, involving lots of gangs and organized crime. Some GMs run multiple games off of the same recruitment at once. This is because they are crazy. Sort of like Saint's Run, Room Alpha, Room Beta, and Room Gamma GM'd by Super Rad. Take Saint's Row, then take Shadowrun, and you can sort of figure out where this is going from there. Warning: may contain Juggalos. An Unconventional Johnson, The Mowhawks and The Trenchcoats GM'd by Elfface. Our first, I do believe, PbP using the 5th Edition rules. Follow the adventures of two groups of 'runners as they brave bad editing and unfamiliar rules changes in search of either a cause to rebel over or a fat payday. Kai Tave fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 01:27
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I've been kicking around an idea for a kind of LP-PBP hybrid and I need some feedback. My idea is to run an LP of a group being run through the Missions modules. I will start by having a vote on the composition of the group (more on that below). After that I'll drop the group into a Missions module. The characters will just be talking heads that give suggestions; all real decision-making power will rest in the goon hivemind. If the hivemind votes to shoot the Johnson and go home, I'll roll it out, tell 'em what happened, and take the group on to the next run. So a really rough example of what an update might look like: --- Dust settles in the tunnel and the only noises you hear are echoes far away. Even if those gangers hadn’t shot large holes in your limo, the barrier it crashed through did a thorough job. On the walks above the side barriers are a few doors placed roughly 100 meters apart. They’re metal and a bit rusty but seem solid enough from here. So, getting out means a klick and a half walk back the way you came or a two klick walk south. That is, if the devil rats around here aren’t too big. Nearby, someone clears their throat. The driver of the tractor-trailer steps forward, his empty hands held low and away from his body. He clears his throat once again for good measure, or maybe he’s just nervous. The driver's a tall, hefty, middle-aged dark-haired (except for a few flecks of grey) man with an Eastern European accent. He's clean-shaved and wearing modest but tasteful and properly pressed clothing. "I was just driving when my truck gone haywire and crashed! I late already but I cannot lose cargo too! I have little to offer you now, but my boss will make good on my promises, I promise! But you won't get paid unless my cargo make it to its destination. Shouldn't take very long, easy job, easy money." "I work for NRA and my boss - Oh, apologies, Nutritional Research Associates - my boss name is Vlastimil. Ah, I don't know his last name, I'm new hire. I don't know what cargo is, probably food because nutrition, you know. The problem, why my truck won't move? Grid guide for sure! I know New York very well and the best route would never go through this tunnel. But what really matter is that my truck gets to 21505 41st Avenue in Queens!" "If truck gets in accident like this, it reports accident and waits for response. This is to stop people from stealing truck. But the truck is in Matrix dead zone, so it can't report accident. Truck has strong Matrix defenses, so please do not try to hack or it will lock down and I will be stuck here." "Look, I'll even give you this certified credstick, right now! 487 nuyen. Ah, it had 500, but I spent some..." After some negotiation with Natasha, Louis offers the group 9000 nuyen in exchange for getting his truck moving and getting it to its destination. [I will actually roll out Natasha's negotiation roll vs Louis; in this case, it would have been their pay for her rolling 5 net hits]  Bitch please, I can hack the truck and have it hauling rear end to queens in five minutes tops. We should carefully raconteur the area for enemies and allies before proceeding further. This here ain't too complicated a problem. Why, all we gotta do is get us another truck to tow this here truck to a signal. We could rent one with the money he fronted us. That truck's worth money and whatever's in it truck is worth more than the chickenshit he's offering us. Let's frag him, smash open the truck, call our fences, and make real money.----- If they choose , I'll roll out how his attempt to hack the truck goes and report back hs on success or failure and ask what now, etc. It's rough but hopefully you get the idea. Whatever the hivemind opts to try to do, I will roll it out, briefly describe what happened (1-3 paragraphs would be my general goal, cribbed as much as possible from the module), and off to the next decision we go. I would be going for the feel of a well-made gamebook, not trying to weave some grand narrative of love and war.The first decision I need to make is how to make the group. 3-5 PCs, leaning towards 4. I'm torn between two options for generating the group. In either case I would present a whole bunch of 1-3 sentence summaries of different characters, whip up sheets for their selections, and come up with some scheme to replace characters (like "VOTE KEEP OR BOOT FOR ALL FOUR, MAJORITY RULES!") after every run. A. Free for all! Whatever gets the most votes is our group. The Missions modules are supposed to be playable even if four dudes with troll's named Tiny show up at the table, so gently caress it, we'll do it live! Even if the group is TPK'd, no big deal, we'll just make a new one! We are likely to get a pink mohawk as gently caress group. B. Category voting. Maybe something like a selection of mages, a selection of deckers, a selection of , and a wildcard category of face's, riggers, and all the other archetypes or out-there ideas. The group would be composed of the top mage, decker, , and the top 1 or 2 wildcards. The benefit of this approach is it would allow the hivemind to run with whatever approach to a problem seems coolest, but it's kinda controlling and might be off-putting.I would be running it as closely as possible to RAW with the exception of the changes in the Missions FAQ. If the rules are totally insane, I'll probably just run with the insanity but pull back the curtain and explain to the people who don't know the system why that insane, stupid poo poo happened and really is how it works according to the rules.
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Aug 8, 2013 23:46
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I'll say that putting a bunch of goons in charge can only lead to good things. Actually CYOAs seem fairly popular and they don't usually descend into "lol name him dongs, then stab the king" so who knows, it might work. Here is my suggestion as far as choosing a group goes; let people pick and choose who they want, even if it winds up with four trolls named Tiny. If the game gets enough attention and feedback chances are there'll be enough votes going out for hackers and mages and whatnot that you probably shouldn't wind up with a totally lopsided crew. BUT! Rather than summarizing the characters by just telling people what they are like it's a personals ad, I would pitch each character in shadowtalk format, as though various other 'runners were discussing them, different rumors they'd heard about them or experiences working with them (good and bad) or various "witty" comments. Then let people decide based on those.
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Aug 9, 2013 00:03
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Sounds cool. I was going to suggest basically one of each archetype, if you were going to play up the LP side of things, give the players a full variety of the different options. I like how you do also get to dodge the usual hacker problem of sitting around doing nothing in a fight or making everyone else sit around during a hack, because you play everyone. Edit: Alternatively, just play Jake Armitage, shaman hacker street samurai!
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Aug 9, 2013 04:03
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Sounds really cool. Also, I have something to share with you goons: Since 4E is soon to be a thing of the past, I think I'll just release a little thing I've been working on. This is a (work-in-progress) players guide to the MET 20000, written from the perspective of my old 4E character who used to be a merc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12duZLjx5zj2zAjyr8j8YuN871ES3PpyeDeynVaB7KDs/edit?usp=sharing E: You're very welcome to suggest changes or write it with me, just make changes in another colour and don't poo poo all over it 
Tias fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 09:08
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I'm dicking around with making a character in Chummer, and suddenly it costs 15 BP to up an attribute one point? I'm pretty sure that's not in the rules(away from books) and certainly not how the program has always done it. What am I doing wrong?
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Aug 23, 2013 09:40
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What score is the attribute and what are you trying to raise it to?
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Aug 23, 2013 11:25
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1 to 2 on a starting character. It should be 10 BP..
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Aug 23, 2013 11:49
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I dunno I just tried that and it cost 10 BP. Have you updated Chummer recently? Maybe try restarting the program.
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Aug 23, 2013 11:51
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Haven't updated it. Turns out you can set all values in options though, and for some reason it said "Attribute Costs: 15". Pressed it down to 10 again and it works fine?!
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Aug 23, 2013 12:33
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Welp, now that people can get the DNA from your chewing gum and cigarette butt to reconstruct your face, now Betal gum and cigarette addiction is a little more fair compare to real drug addiction.  Better start swallowing that betal on a corp raid. 
Nyaa fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 03:26
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Nyaa posted:Welp, now that people can get the DNA from your chewing gum and cigarette butt to reconstruct your face, now Betal gum and cigarette addiction is a little more fair compare to real drug addiction. ...I can't loving believe I never used DNA from cigarette butts as a GM to screw with my players. I am not the GM I thought I was. 
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Sep 5, 2013 04:20
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Geekkake posted:...I can't loving believe I never used DNA from cigarette butts as a GM to screw with my players. This is why you have a magic-user have Sterilize or something similar. Magic CSI is a rarity and unless they're familiar with your aura, all they know is that a magic-user did the clean-up.
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Sep 5, 2013 08:55
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So could an Archer themed game of Shadowrun work? Like you're your own private company, dedicated to shadowrunning. More spy stuff along with the usual stuff and a bit higher class of pay and accommodations. Until some rival agency turns it against us.
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Sep 9, 2013 20:59
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:So could an Archer themed game of Shadowrun work? Like you're your own private company, dedicated to shadowrunning. More spy stuff along with the usual stuff and a bit higher class of pay and accommodations. Until some rival agency turns it against us. This is absolutely doable. Just set yourself as a "private security contracting" company.
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Sep 9, 2013 22:47
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Young Freud posted:This is why you have a magic-user have Sterilize or something similar. Magic CSI is a rarity and unless they're familiar with your aura, all they know is that a magic-user did the clean-up.
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Sep 9, 2013 22:49
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I'm wholly clueless with online SR4 resources, so: Is there somewhere one can download all the missions in one tidy bundle?
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Sep 20, 2013 06:55
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I've run a previous game of shadowrun and am currently running one but does anyone else find the combat incredibly slow and clunky? That so much can happen in 3 seconds (1 combat turn) is fair enough but the amount of real time it takes is ridiculous. Perhaps it's merely because the players are unfamiliar with the system (and I am not exactly perfect with my memory of the rules) but with the concept of initiative passes it means that the idea of compound encounters can be incredibly difficult because if for instance people are alerted to gunfire and quickly zip over there to help out but it'll take them 10 or so seconds to do that combat's usually already over. Does anyone have any advice for making the combat flow better?
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Oct 10, 2013 04:35
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Thailander posted:I've run a previous game of shadowrun and am currently running one but does anyone else find the combat incredibly slow and clunky? Yeah, Shadowrun's combination of 3-second combat turns and incredible lethality make reactive defense systems pretty difficult to run. When they've listed response times of Lone Star/Knight Errant in AAA or similar areas, they tended to be like 1d6+2 combat turns for just this reason. Make sure you understand how far 10 meters really is; a lot of American GMs lack an intuitive grasp of how long a meter is and end up making crazy huge buildings. The base running rate of a human or elf is 25 meters/turn which comes out to be 18.6 miles per hour - an excellent example of what happens when unfamiliar Americans write rules using the metric system. Combat speeds up mostly with experience. For your typical combat monkey, the answer to "It's my turn what do I do  " will almost always be some variation on "okay I do a short narrow burst called shot on that guy and if that doesn't kill him I short burst him again otherwise I short burst someone else". So you can often just immediately roll the defense test and soak test without even waiting for them to count hits. Mages figure out that they just need to decide which target to stunbolt and roll it.Offload as much work onto your PCs as possible. They should count their own hits and report them to you while you do something else (e.g. roll the defense pool). If you have a mage, tell them to pre-gen stats for spirits and to be familiar with spirit Powers; randomly conjuring a force 5 Fire spirit, picking out powers, and then assigning the attributes will bring a game to a screeching halt. Same goes for technomancers and sprites. Gobbeldygook fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 05:39
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Thailander posted:That so much can happen in 3 seconds (1 combat turn) is fair enough but the amount of real time it takes is ridiculous. Perhaps it's merely because the players are unfamiliar with the system (and I am not exactly perfect with my memory of the rules) but with the concept of initiative passes it means that the idea of compound encounters can be incredibly difficult because if for instance people are alerted to gunfire and quickly zip over there to help out but it'll take them 10 or so seconds to do that combat's usually already over. I think you're right. Compound encounters and reinforcements bringing in the big guns is a staple of the fiction (I'm pretty sure every edition has at least one story of weaker forces pinning down runners until the serious mofos can show up) and I absolutely agree with you that it's difficult to actually come across those circumstances in the rules as they stand, especially going by the strict 3-second turn. There are some ways to do it, here's some that I've tried recently in my two games: -I usually wouldn't worry if the initial combat's over: The reinforcements shouldn't just be another couple of mooks with 6 dice in their shooting pools. Make the reinforcements either a) plentiful, or b) severe badasses that'll really test the players. That way it doesn't matter if the mooks are dead when the reinforcements show up: They're a threat all on their own. I've tried both ways recently (using plentiful reinforcements vs highly skilled reinforcements) and I prefer the plentiful option. Players seem to have more fun blasting away mooks en masse than getting frustrated trying to land a hit on a high defence enemy that then only takes a couple P damage. -Put the reinforcements closer to the action if it makes sense. Don't put them five minutes away. Have your regular guards on patrol with their 6 dice pools, and your serious mofos chilling in a nearby breakroom. They're just sitting there, sharpening their knives and checking and rechecking their magazines, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice, because they're just bastards like that. If the PCs kill off the guards silently, fine, the mofos don't show up. If they kill someone loudly or trip an alarm, they can expect the cavalry incoming in just a few turns. Tell them how many actions they have to prepare/reload/get spells up, and then roll init. -If the initial combat with the scrubs is over and you think reinforcements would make the scene more fun, give the PCs something to do that would take time: opening maglocks, disabling alarms, cutting up enemies for cyberware, things that have a time interval of a minute or something. But make it possible to get away before the reinforcements get there: If they do it extremely quick due to being super lucky, super skilled, taking risks or spending edge, then they might just get away before the big guns show up. If they do it the slow and safe way, well, isn't that the sound of choppers over the rooftop? It is actually pretty hard to have mooks delay the PCs in any reasonable sense. Sure, a few hapless guards can: -deploy flashpaks -take cover -pop smoke -lay down suppressive fire And yeah all those things will impose stiff dice penalties, but I've always found players can get around it (smoke everywhere? Flood 'em with grenades, summon a spirit behind their lines, or use mob mind and just trivialise everything instantly). So accept that the first wave of mooks will probably die pretty quick and that the PCs will have fun killing 'em. Then give the team a tough choice between speed and getting out of there before the cavalry arrives, or going it slow, looting every last body, copying every paydata file, and then having to deal with the overwhelming reinforcements.
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Oct 10, 2013 05:54
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Thailander posted:Does anyone have any advice for making the combat flow better? This advice isn't Shadowrun specific but does work for Shadowrun: Remind everyone to have their actions ready on their turn, and when you say, "Joe, it's your turn," also say, "Mitch, you're next up." Then Mitch remembers he's about to go and chooses an action real quick. Honestly, the phrase, "<Name> on deck," speeds combat up tremendously.
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Oct 10, 2013 06:20
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quote:Offload as much work onto your PCs as possible. quote:Players seem to have more fun blasting away mooks en masse than getting frustrated trying to land a hit on a high defence enemy that then only takes a couple P damage. quote:Remind everyone to have their actions ready on their turn, and when you say, "Joe, it's your turn," also say, "Mitch, you're next up." Then Mitch remembers he's about to go and chooses an action real quick
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Oct 10, 2013 14:01
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Interest check: My group's next session is going to be a Halloween-themed one-shot. My idea was to throw them into the Shadowrun version of a Scooby-Doo episode. The team will be hired to investigate a creepy old haunted mansion. Along the way they will encounter, hopefully not kill, and eventually team up with the Scooby-Doo gang who just happen to be another team of runners working for a different, non-conflicting employer. I have most of my ideas for this one-shot written out in a Google Drive doc. It's 4 pages long. Does anyone care enough to read the whole thing and give me some feedback or is that the stupidest thing you've ever heard? edit: Hopefully it is understood that this run will be for drunken good times and not serious-business at all. I don't normally do stuff that's this silly. Elephant Ambush fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 21:45
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Elephant Ambush posted:Interest check: My group's next session is going to be a Halloween-themed one-shot. My idea was to throw them into the Shadowrun version of a Scooby-Doo episode. The team will be hired to investigate a creepy old haunted mansion. Along the way they will encounter, hopefully not kill, and eventually team up with the Scooby-Doo gang who just happen to be another team of runners working for a different, non-conflicting employer. That sounds loving awesome. 
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Oct 18, 2013 22:17
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So, Shaggy will be a Dog Shaman? EDIT: Daphne is the face, Fred the brawns and Velma the decker.
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Oct 19, 2013 13:40
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OK here it is, copy/pasted straight out of my notes: This is going to be a one-shot. The overall idea is to pull the party into the Shadowrun version of a Scooby-Doo episode. It’s supposed to be light-hearted and fun except for the ending. Here’s what I have planned out so far: The face of the party is a former high-class brothel madame (don’t ask). She still owns the brothel and receives a small income from it while she’s off running the shadows for a personal purpose that’s not important here. The plot hook is that one of her brothel employees had to quit suddenly. She put in her 2 week notice a couple days ago but then ended up coming to brothel and getting her stuff and quitting the very next day. The employee has requested an “exit interview” with the party face. This is to explain her situation and to ask for help. When the face gets together with her employee, the employee tells her the following: She had to quit because she fears for her personal safety. Her grandfather, her only living relative, died recently. She never talked to him because he was a creepy weirdo. She cut off communications with him a long time ago. Apparently her grandfather bequeathed her his mansion and a large sum of money in his will. The money is great because she doesn’t have to work anymore but she doesn’t want the mansion. It’s outside of town in the hills and is creepy and weird and she doesn’t even want to see it much less live there. Since her grandfather’s death she’s been getting constantly harassed by total strangers via her commlink and e-mail. Most of these messages are offers to buy the mansion from her. At first she was happy to be getting the messages from people because she thought it would make selling the mansion easier. But soon people started leaving messages with her that were WAY too enthusiastic and is started to creep her out so she stopped taking calls and messages about it until she could talk to a realtor to broker a deal. The final straw was someone coming to her front door uninvited and asking her if she’d sell the mansion. She slammed the door, called Lone Star, and moved out the next day. She’s currently staying in a hotel but she’s still getting commlink messages and e-mails and is afraid that people will track her to the hotel. She didn’t ask to stay at the brothel because she respects the party face and didn’t want to put her business in danger. The party face/madame runs a very safe and clean brothel and the employee was happy to work there. She respects the party face very much and that’s why she didn’t want to involve her but now she needs help badly. Recently, her harassment has not been strictly limited to people wanting to buy the mansion. She is now getting angry messages and even threats from people about things that were bequeathed to them in her grandfather’s will but have not been received yet. Since the employee is the only living relative, people are contacting her trying to figure out where their stuff is. This is odd because she has also received thank you messages from people who have also received money from her grandfather’s will. This leads her to believe that bequests of only nuyen went through due to account triggers based on her grandfather’s death. However physical items are another thing entirely. Someone has to send those out from the mansion itself and a lot of people haven’t received them yet. Those people are apparently just as creepy and weird and anxious as the people offering to buy the mansion. The employee will ask the face if she can get her a fake SIN. The employee wants a new life free from harassment and just wants to hide for a while until she can put together a plan for selling the mansion and washing her hands of this whole situation. The employee has never done anything illegal in her whole life, not even stealing soy-candy from Stuffer Shack, so she has no idea how to get a fake SIN herself. Also, prostitution is legal as long as the brothel has a license in my version of Seattle. It is a regulated and relatively safe industry, at least the licensed brothels are. The employee will also ask the face if she knows of anyone who can investigate the mansion for her and see what’s going on over there. She wants all of this harassment by weirdos to stop forever and wants to get back to a normal life. When the party starts calling contacts during the legwork phase they can find out the following: - The grandfather was non-magical but was heavily into the occult. He collected lots of old magical items. - The people who want their bequeathed items are getting desperate and/or pissed, because now, less than a week after the grandfather’s death, they are hiring teams of runners to go to the mansion and get their stuff. Previous attempts at approaching the mansion by normal have been resulted in nobody coming back. These bequestees (is that a word?) are now hiring professionals. - Only one team of professional runners has made it to the mansion and they are all dead except for a lone survivor who is now in a psychiatric ward. The team can go visit the survivor if they want to but it will be faster to just have a hacker get the data from the ward’s database. The team has an NPC hacker on call. - The grandfather had a butler that nobody has heard from since the funeral. So the basic idea of the story is very Scooby-Doo. The butler did it. He killed the grandfather because he was tired of waiting for him to die naturally. The butler got a huge sum of money from the will but not enough to buy the mansion for himself, which is his goal. He kept all the most powerful and evil magical artifacts from the grandfather’s collection. The less powerful and less expensive ones got sent out the right people because he only wants powerful things. He wants unpowerful things away from him. He’s not a magic user himself but he’s using a lot of these items to artificially summon and control spirits. The spirits protect the mansion and its grounds while also lowering the value of the property low enough that he can buy afford to buy it with the bequest money he got from grandpa. The butler’s motive is just power for power’s sake. He’s an old man who’s been a butler most of his life and has grown tired of serving people and now wants to have power and control over others. He hates himself for having been subservient most of his life and is now basically outwardly projecting his own self-loathing. His short-term goal is to own the mansion so that he can have it all to himself, and then he’s probably going to kill everyone who tries to take the magic items that were bequeathed to them. Then he eventually wants to build an army of spirits that he controls and invade Seattle. And he’s going to get away with it too if not for our meddling shadowrunners. OK so next I want the party to run into the original Scooby-Doo cast, but in the form of runners. Ideally I’d like to have the runners park their vehicles outside the mansion grounds and walk their way up the hill(s) to the mansion proper, while investigating the grounds along the way. If the party drives their vehicles too close to the mansion they should get divebombed by a spirit that somehow magically shuts down the van and then flies away. Also, it will begin raining and storming as they approach the mansion. In the process of getting to the mansion I want them to come across a blue van with a picture of a sunflower on the back. This is the Mystery Machine but I will not refer to it that way, nor will it actually say “Mystery Machine” on the side. I want all of these Scooby-Doo references to be subtle to the party. I want to see how long it takes them to figure out that they’re in a Scooby-Doo episode. Anyway, the van is locked and they cannot get in without doing severe damage to the van itself. The party probably won’t try to do this. They’re not loot-hungry hack-n-slash types. Next, I want them to come across Fred and Daphne somewhere on the grounds. Fred is actually a Japanese human street sam named Furedo. He has bleach blonde hair and wears loose fitting blue jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with a small red scarf around his neck. He has one of those big wide hats on like those dudes in Big Trouble in Little China and I can never remember the name of. When the party finds Furedo and Daphne he is openly carrying a katana on his back and has a pistol in a holster on his hip. Daphne is a magical adept who wear form-fitting dark purple tights underneath a black cloak. She is a tall elf woman with long red hair and a barrette in it. Although her real name is Daphne, she will introduce herself as her street name, Daylight. If asked why she calls herself Daylight when she always wears dark clothes, she’ll reply with something like “because most of Seattle never sees me”, hinting that she’s stealthy. She is. Because she’s basically a ninja/phys-ad, but also with small concealable guns that she hides under her cloak. She has edged weapons too but they’re small and concealable as well. Whenever she gets involved in a fight she pulls whatever weapons she needs from the cloak instantly and then flings the cloak into the air anime style. The party will learn from Furedo and Daylight that their van broke down while they were driving through the area. They were on a road trip to Seattle from Canada and got lost because the storm messed up their GPS or something. This is part of what I need help on. Do I try and explain away that they got lost and broke down, or do I just make them a rival runner team that’s also trying to investigate the mansion for another interested party? After teaming up with Furedo and Daylight, F & D will contact the other members of their team to join up with them. Originally they had split up to secure the area before heading to the mansion to investigate. The first member to rejoin the group is someone that Furedo and Daylight will refer to as “Val”. This is basically Velma but “Val” will be short for “Valkyrie” which is her street name. Val will be a dwarf woman with short black hair and some high-tech goggles she never takes off. The goggles are rectangularly shaped. She is wearing visible dark orange body armor and has a huge rectangular metal backpack on her back. This is where her guns are stored. Essentially I made her a Gunzerker from Borderlands. In the event of a fight she will reach into her backpack and pull out a pair of SMGs or pistols or shotguns or whatever, depending on the situation. She also has a ton of extra ammo in the backpack. She’ll have Ambidexterity and Firearms 5 or 6. Sometime during the run I want to have her involved in a fight and have a spirit or something knock her down. I’ll make her goggles fall off if the fall and then she’ll yell out “MY GOGGLES! I CAN’T SEE WITHOUT MY GOGGLES!” Val, Furedo, and Daylight will refer to their mechanic, who could not figure out how to fix the van after it broke down (if I use the breakdown scenario), or after it got attacked by spirits. This is Shaggy. He’s going to be the team’s rigger. Right now I have his street name/nickname as Shivers because the party will say that while he’s an excellent rigger, he’s always scared of everything. He also shakes a lot because he does a LOT of mind-altering drugs. Shivers has a guard-dog drone named Shroom. This is Scooby-Doo. He is called Shroom because on the back of the dog drone is a mushroom-shaped sensor (much like those on the backs of modern radar planes) that he uses to sense threats around him. I’m not sure how Shivers should be dressed yet, or what weapons he’ll carry, if any. Probably a shotgun since that’s kind of the standard for riggers. Shroom is sort of a bronze or copper color with a black nose and big black spots on his shoulders. Shivers’ main method of fighting is hiding, diving into Shroom, and fighting that way. He also has other combat drones in the van that he can control remotely if he’s within range (and not dived into Shroom). Anyway, the two parties will team up to get into the mansion, explore it, find magical items that can hurt spirits, use those to kill some spirits, then find evidence that the butler did it, then find and confront the butler, who will have a bodyguard of spirits. Ideally the party will defeat the butler, subdue him alive, tie him up, then call Lone Star before leaving the premises. The Scooby-Doo gang will then go into the usual spiel about how they figured everything out and what the butler’s plan was all along. Of course if the butler is still alive and conscious he will spout out the classic line about how he would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t you meddling little shits. Also I want to have a Scrappy-Doo analogue in there somewhere. Maybe it can be a summoned familiar for the butler. I want whatever the Scrappy analogue is to suck and be easily defeated by the party. Basically it can be like an ugly annoying minor demon or some lovely little spirit that goes “Tata tuh TAT ta taaaaaaaaaa!” and then gets killed immediately. ------------------------------------------------------- If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading all that! OK so hit me with feedback of any kind. Names, places, things, possible enemies, suggestions for how to do the mansion portion, any enemy encounters I could have of the grounds before getting into the mansion, magical items to hurt spirits I the party could find, any other Scooby-Doo-ish things I could do.
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Oct 20, 2013 03:00
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Seems to make more sense for Scrappy to be on "their" side, like he usually is. Like, say... One of Shivers' smaller drones that he uses in combat situations should be obviously-patched-up, repaired by hand many times after getting into situations it was too small to handle. It has some sort of propulsion malfunction, so it's fast but constantly makes annoying noises. He calls it Scraps and everyone should hate it.  ETA: Also, since this is a one-shot, are you making the characters for your players to choose from? Because in that case it should be fairly easy to make it so they are relatively non-lethal and can keep the butler alive.
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Oct 20, 2013 03:42
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Everything Counts posted:Seems to make more sense for Scrappy to be on "their" side, like he usually is. Like, say... One of Shivers' smaller drones that he uses in combat situations should be obviously-patched-up, repaired by hand many times after getting into situations it was too small to handle. It has some sort of propulsion malfunction, so it's fast but constantly makes annoying noises. He calls it Scraps and everyone should hate it. The party will hate it if Scrappy is on their side but that might be a good way to troll them. I'll think about it. Thanks for the funny suggestion! This is a one-shot in the middle of an ongoing campaign. We're just putting the campaign on hold for A Very Special Shadowrun Halloween. The characters being played will be the same ones the players have been using this whole time. They're low on magical support and the players are not stupid violent aggressive assholes so they should be OK.
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Oct 20, 2013 04:20
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Edit: Just notice this is not 5e, my bad.
Nyaa fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Oct 20, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 05:19
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So I've been conned into gamemastering a game of 4E efter new years. What are the do's and donts, so I don't become bogged down or out-fought by minmaxing? I have terrible flashbacks of reading through the rules for half hours on end in the middle of gameplay  Some thoughts of my own: - I intend to turn hackers and mages into more dramatic and narrative systems than pure rules. Mages get to pick spells at preselected levels of force and drain (I supply a high and low force edition) and don't get to cast control group and stunbolt and silly poo poo like that. - Some sort of brute force revamp of the hacking rules so you only have to roll a few times to do things unless it's a cybercombat. - I intend to run 300BP characters, cap money at 30bp and Availability at 10 for a more fun build-up style game for the new players. - No abusing stick'n'shock, bound spells or possession traditions.
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Dec 5, 2013 11:47
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Don't do 300 points its not fun. If you want to cut down the level of massive overspecialization do karmagen. Make Stick and Shock shotguns only, to give them a reason to exist. Make melee a simple action.
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Dec 5, 2013 17:09
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I've never actually tried Karmagen, going to give it a whirl. I don't know, 400BP seems overpowered, but it could just be my aversion to having too many different skills, gizmos and talents in play at once, on account of the constant rule-checking,
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Dec 6, 2013 18:30
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