Black Rain in the Shadows of Seattle, 2060 (Inactive)

Game Master Tilnar

Do we have a better idea than Raptor charging against a machinegun? I don't really have a better idea...

Jay's got some grenades in his pockets.

No worries, Treppa. Cross my fingers it's nothing too serious. Hope you're back on top of the world soon.

Happens to us all Tilnar. I think we're all just glad that Raptor didn't have his top popped when he peaked over the edge.

You mean popping into a readied action from a Rotary Autocannon? :) Not on your first run.

That's some martial arts roll, CH!

And Tilnar, that's pretty much what I was thinking.

How are we doing guys?

Sorry, still waiting on Onyx. I didn't state anything about pushing/botting -- and hate to do that in the first run, especially.

Suppose I could force-delay to the next person, though.

I’m sure she wouldn’t mind my saying - Treppa has been dealing with some stuff. She had to cancel our last two weekly VTT games. So that’s probably why she hasn’t been able to check in.

Sorry to hear that. I hope she pulls through okay.

Thanks, CH.

Happy Holidays, Chummers.

Santa Troll hereby gives you each one non-permanent Karma Pool point - that is to say, it's a one-and-done point and not part of your pool -- but it might just be enough to save your soypork when the drek hits the rotator and the ammo's flyin'.

Just don't call him a jolly elf, or you'll get a live grenade in your stocking.

----

That said, I'm putting the game on hiatus for a bit for the holidays -- just making it official, really, since we've been stuck waiting on Treppa and I kept thinking she'd be back, hopefully the pause will let her do just that.

I'm going to the giant Florida mousetrap in early January, so I'm thinking this'll be a full month pause -- picking things back up on 1/23/23.

Works for me.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Enjoy the swamp air Tilnar!

Sorry I'm a couple of days late. But here we go....

Oooo! Happy New Year!

Hey guys. It's been a blizzard of trouble here, but I think we're digging out. If I can jump back in, I'd love to. If not, I understand.

Treppa

Treppa!!!!! Glad you're back.

I think we're all happy to have you back.

Absolutely! :)

This seems like we are doing a lot of speculation. Do any of us have the knowledge skills to get a sense of what is worth taking? This is outside Raptor’s expertise.

2 points in cybertech and 1 in legendary deckers. Might teach us something, although our dead rigger probably isn't legendary.

Figment seemed to think stuff was worth taking.

And we coud all try intelligence checks.

I'm sure you're all pretty aware that drones are valuable. The remote control deck, too, though how valuable depends how good it is.

For the most part, your loot's going to be mostly weapons, armour and gear that folks are wearing/using - though you can try to harvest cyberware. Doing so in a rush isn't the best in terms of it not getting mangled, and it's way easier to tear off something like an arm or leg (or pop out an eye) than it is to try to remove someone's dermal plating.

So, for the same reason, tearing out the dude's Vehicle Control Rig (the thing he spent all his money and essence on) is possible, but would take time --- it's a high-essence implant that goes everywhere to allow the proper game bal -- er, neurofeedback for riggers -- and the chances are removing it would damage it.

I've been reading along and this is a nail-biter :)

Tilnar's running a tense game. I am very aware that ambush tactics have worked out very well for us and someday when we're on the receiving end it's gonna hurt.

Meanwhile as a newbie, I am clueless. We can't just pop all the loot into a handy haversack(TM) and sort it out later. Transportation is a bigger issue than I'd have imagined. Most of this stuff seems heavier than we'd like to carry. And where do we store it?

What's everyone think? Call Danny's friend a hook a ride?

Would our client come and pick the goods up, at least?

Tilnar's running a tense game. I am very aware that ambush tactics have worked out very well for us and someday when we're on the receiving end it's gonna hurt.

Meanwhile as a newbie, I am clueless. We can't just pop all the loot into a handy haversack(TM) and sort it out later. Transportation is a bigger issue than I'd have imagined. Most of this stuff seems heavier than we'd like to carry. And where do we store it?

What's everyone think? Call Danny's friend a hook a ride?

I'm in one of Tilnar's PF games, and one of the recurring challenges for us is that the problems we're facing are complex, with no evident solutions, and as PCs we spend a lot of time just talking over our options and trying to figure out what we agree as our way forward. There are some similarities with the SR game here: There are plenty of locals who don't like our PCs, we seem to lack the ability to deal with our current problems, and there are large gaps in our information that we don't have any way to fill. It's kind of a toss-up between "just try something really risky and see what happens" vs. "keep chipping around the edges of the problem and see if something gives way." (This does mean we sometimes spend a few days just twiddling our thumbs, unable to make up our minds about what to do next.) So you're not alone! Complex problems without obvious solutions seem to be the challenge of the day!

If it helps, one thing I often do in modern and postmodern game settings is think "What would I do, myself, if I found myself in this problem?" Like in Vampire, lots of people want to go to their super powers first, but sometimes you can just solve a problem in a mundane way without having to get flashy. Similarly in Shadowrun, at the end of the day a lot of the world is still functioning (albeit as a dystopia) in ways that we can recognize. If you have access to salvaged tech, sell it to scrappers. If you have to way to move it, call up a contact (a fixer or the like) and ask if they have a way to do so, and they can take a cut of the profits. Or, if it's just slowing down your movement toward your eventual goal, ignore it. Nuyen is nice but you have a job to do!

Well, in this case, the paralysis seems to be more about what to do with loot and less with where to go next - as, I believe, unless the thread's been lost, the intent is to go talk to the leader of the gang they just helped out (once he's done fighting - which, incidentally, gives them time to process the loot). In terms of hauling gear, the options are either to abandon it (and the nuyen), find someone that can help you carry it, or do your best to hide it and hope it's still there when you come back.

In the other campaign, it's meant to be a mystery (or two) to solve and an attempt to generate a positive outcome -- so it's a lot more sandbox-y at the moment. I tend to think of it as a little more like a Bethesda game (at the moment) and less like an old Gold Box SSI game, as it were. (To be fair, that was also what people said they wanted at the beginning back when they were keen and energetic and posting a lot...) There, however, I've generally tried to present a decent list of potential next steps at each remove (of course, like a Bethesda game, some of those lead to side-quests and other stuff). [In the case of the big door issue, well, it is the sort of thing that a Wand of Knock or a Chime of Opening would fix -- or even just figuring out a way to slow down the reset mechanism so that the two of you who can pick locks can get the third one before they all reset.]

Oh for sure, just sayin' "We have these problems and we can't seem to figure out the approach" seems to be the order of the day. :)

These all become "lesson learned" moments for the characters anyway! "Lesson learned: have some means of stashing loot figured out in advance."

Last time I ran Shadowrun, the team was really bad about vehicles, nobody wanted to spend money on a vehicle so everyone was using motorcycles and in one case even a Dodge scoot. This meant they had no way to carry extra people or haul off hardware, a lesson that they learned the hard way!

Of course - making decisions like this in a PbP is especially difficult, because bouncing ideas off each other takes a long time. (At a table, it could be resolved in 15-20 minutes of conversation.)

To the point at hand - I'm inclined to take what we can carry easily and call that good enough.

Of course - making decisions like this in a PbP is especially difficult, because bouncing ideas off each other takes a long time. (At a table, it could be resolved in 15-20 minutes of conversation.)

To the point at hand - I'm inclined to take what we can carry easily and call that good enough.

I had just kind of talked myself around to enriching Danny's friend, but I'm fine with taking what we can walk with. It'll eliminate the problem of how to store a lot of bulky loot.

Oh for sure, just sayin' "We have these problems and we can't seem to figure out the approach" seems to be the order of the day. :)

These all become "lesson learned" moments for the characters anyway! "Lesson learned: have some means of stashing loot figured out in advance."

Last time I ran Shadowrun, the team was really bad about vehicles, nobody wanted to spend money on a vehicle so everyone was using motorcycles and in one case even a Dodge scoot. This meant they had no way to carry extra people or haul off hardware, a lesson that they learned the hard way!

Yeah. From the minute we left the club and had to walk across town, I was thinking I should have bought a car.

Let's just grab what we can and go, then, and make getting some wheels our top priority once we have enough cash.

OK, NOW I'm back.

I love the idea of Neerly Reel Ryce (TM), but apparently it leaves Jay cold.

Makes sense that in the dystopian future, they found a way to make money from the microplastics in rice!

Limey, you better patent the idea now before a big corp does.

Oh, it's already a thing!

Next up: “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rice!”

Limey, you better patent the idea now before a big corp does.

I'm not sure that's how I want to be remembered...

You guys are too funny.

Um, is Onyx actually going to make her phone call? I've been waiting on that to move on.

I can ping her out of game.

Splitting is fine by me.

I didn't keep a loot sheet this game - did anyone? What we recovered for Mr. Johnson can't be sold, but I did get a couple of fetishes that I don't think anyone else can use. Did you guys rifle the pockets of the Triad nerds?

Pretty sure some nice GM provided a list of what was on them - and other stuff in the garage, too.

Man, what a nice, kind GM. We are so lucky. :)

Also on page 21.

Figment nods, "Remote deck's still workin' and has a ride-along port I can plug inta. Since he was tryin' to kill us with the drones, it's still active on the network - won't need to hack it. I can just issue a recall order to everything as if I were him."

Ok, so, from the bodyguard, you can opt to take his cyberarm - it'll take some checks. He's got both a blade and a monowhip built into the limb. In terms of gear:

Bodyguard: Secure Ultra-Vest, Lined Coat, Ares Predator III (4 clips regular, 1 clip Explosive), Colt M-23 (with smartlink II adapter and 3 clips), Defiance 250 (with smartlink adpater and 36 incendiary slugs), micro-transceiver (rating 4 w/ subvocal mic), 3 concussion grenades, 2 trauma patches, 840 in Ares Corp Scrip, 200¥ in bills.

Rigger: [ooc]Remote Control Deck (Rating 5, Hitcher Jack, ECCM: 4), Ares Predator III (3 clips regular), Armoured Jacket, 4 defensive grenades (HE), micro-transceiver (rating 4), 1 trauma patch, 1,800 in Ares Corp Scrip, Credstick with 1,800¥.

I'm skipping the 4 combat drones.

Generally, selling fun stuff like that takes a fixer. Though, historically, many Shadowrunners have been known to hold on to weapons along the way.

Who do we want watching Figment - Danny or Raptor?

Also, back when we got all that stuff, I put a group loot section on Raptor’s sheet and copied it all there. It is admittedly a low-effort solution, but I was trying to make sure it didn’t get lost!

That loot looks like a shopping list for Sharper Image, except nothing is ionized.

Should we keep the grenades and trauma patches? We might need the patches (if someone is really attached to their character) and grenades are always handy.

Should drones be checked for gang markings? I can't remember if these were official Triad mooks, or contractors.

They were probably Triad. And you certainly could check. Or paint 'em. Or just sell 'em to a fixer and let them worry about it - though that then leans into how much you trust them to not spill about who sold it, and/or cuts into profits if there's a lot of rebranding to be done.