Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Namikaze on <05-31-14/1834:08>
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Hey guys,
So generally I don't want to delve into published adventures too much for my team, as I can't always remember everything, the pacing is sometimes not quite right, etc. Plus, the writing for the published adventures is so much better than mine, I'm afraid my players will get spoiled. However, I decided to start running Splintered States with these guys today. I wanted to post a bit of a log of events, not for posterity's sake, but to give kudos to the mission designers. I'm running a slow-paced, weekly game session, and so I just wanted to say how grateful I was that Splintered States takes place over a longer period of time (not just one day, for instance) and gives the team a little bit of an opportunity to take a break. For example, we finished up today after Scene 3 because my guys spent a lot of time taking the story in unique directions (much to the chagrin of my impatient wife).
Scene 1 went pretty much as expected in the book. They soaked in the full grime of the Barrens, with one player actually whipping out some hand sanitizer. In Scene 2, my players were already so paranoid that they completely convinced themselves that going into Oxycode's room was going to be a trap of some sort. I reminded them that they don't have any enemies and they are too small-time for anyone to set up such an elaborate ambush. They shrugged that off and figured I was trying to get them to let their guards down. So they took note of the three prostitutes standing out in front of the hotel, and hired two of them to go up to Oxycode's room. I played the elf as a transgender pro, and that caught them off-guard. So now they're not sure what to expect, and they're not taking anything at face value. Anyway, the face makes up this story about wanting to hire the hookers to go up to their buddy's room and bring down his commlink, so that they can play a prank on their friend. It was this elaborate story involving his future wife, a bachelor party, etc. 15 minutes later, the hookers (the elf was named Strawberry, the dwarf was named Shortcake) come down and say that they'll need another 500¥ to keep their mouths shut about the dead body in the room. One of my players decides he's going to pull a gun and intimidate the prostitutes. They cow under the gun, and when he demands the commlink, they say that it's upstairs in Oxycode's room. They didn't want to touch anything.
The players go up to the room and search the place thoroughly, expecting to find explosives or something. Instead, they find Oxycode's stash of coke, bliss, and zen. At this point, the mage begins to astrally perceive to see if there is any extra clues they may be missing. I told him that the 8 auras in the lobby area (the Crimson Crush) are getting irate, and that they had just interacted with three weak auras. They correctly surmised the prostitutes had decided to tell the gang about the threat they had received, and where to find the person who made the threat. The team decided to get out of dodge and head back to Mr. Johnson via a side door. When they got back to Mr. Johnson everything went exactly according to plan. It went very well, in fact.
Scene 3 was the legwork scene. Normally I wouldn't want to end on a legwork scene, as the players might forget what they learned in the previous session. But I didn't want to go through all the Scene 4 material because we simply didn't have time left. Our hacker (the one who pulled a gun on the prostitute) saw the first couple of lines of the first fragmented file handout and put it down. He said he didn't want to read any more about this, and the team should ditch the commlink ASAP before the feds came knocking on their door. If only he had triggered an alert with the file, that would have been the best time to move right into Scene 4. Alas, he's pretty good at what he does. Still, getting to the file was fun. I really amped up the paranoia factor, and he brought a ton of defensive programs with him, he snooped every single file and contact for bombs, etc. But he stuck to Sleaze actions when possible, and never failed his tests. So he did really well.
Next week, we'll hit Scenes 4-6. I want to turn Scene 7 (if they get it) into a longer run than just a scene, so that'll be a thing for the week afterward. Still, these guys know they've stumbled onto something incredibly valuable, and that what they have could result in a lot of people getting hurt. Interestingly enough, the first contact they reached out to was a law enforcement contact. I was half expecting the contact to be Mafia or Vory with their backgrounds, but they went a completely different route than expected. It'll make this whole thing a lot more fun, because getting hit by Tosh and his crew will make them have some sort of personal vendetta against Dana Oaks and her hit squad. It'll definitely make them think twice about selling to her. The second contact they reached out to was a corporate headhunter, so I'm thinking MCT will make a counter-offer to them.
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Just wanted to say I started running splintered state last Friday for my group and we had a similar experience. I made the elf prostitute transgendered; but otherwise set up is the same. Team walked up to the room and kicked the door in. Paranoid all the way that this was too easy. After getting the comm back to the Johnson and several rolls by our technomancer that alerted MCT they had the files.
As soon as they read the word "Federal" half the team was out. They wanted to drop it and run. I made it to scene 4 though when the players decided to all their lawyer.
Enter Annie Goldsmith meeting the group at another Soybucks when the Yakuza attacks.
We had to end in the middle of combat, but the Mystic Adept is down - having run outside waving the comlink in the ninja's faces. But our rigger just jumped in and activated all 6 of her drones while the face and street sam are taking pot shots.
Having a ton of fun with this so far!
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My group ran through splintered state over the course of abotu six months, meetign monthly or so. The adventure was solid, and generated a few memoriable moments, especially when our weapons specialist did a two handed throw of a fireaxe into a Yakuza ninja's chest. But we managed to go through the whole thing with a minimal use of force, no real big gunbattles or whatnot.
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My group just finished the module, and it was a lot of fun. I think the dice pools on some of the stuff they faced were insane, but otherwise they got through it all without too much issue.
Now MY issue is that the adventure gives an INSANE amount of nuyen for this adventure. So much that the players are going to be massively dissapointed in any rewards that follow the rules in the core book for run rewards. Any ideas why A) Splintered State gives such a huge amount of nuyen? B) What to do about unrealistic expectations?