Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Icarus on <10-08-11/1844:42>
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So I did finally GM my first game of Shadowrun (doing On the Run as was suggested). It went pretty well overall, though I had a couple of issues.
For those of you familiar with the adventure guide, the combat where they are chasing after Loomis in the junkyard is supposed to be moderately difficult. Instead, the players took no damage and managed to kill all the opposition in 2 rounds of combat. While it wasn't supposed to be super challenging, they weren't supposed to be pushovers either. Do you have any suggestions as to how I might up the difficulty of future combat encounters so the party doesn't just breeze right through?
Another issue encountered with combat is that it is a pain to track initiative, with it constantly changing between and during rounds of combat. How do you more experienced GMs keep track of the player's and NPC's initiative?
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Actually, I just finished putting together a GM screen with separate IP and Combat Turn trackers along the top (and cut-out pieces from index cards to slide left-right). As for the individual Initiative Scores, I use index cards (one per participant), but some people will use small magnetic white boards and wet-erase magnets
As for the difficulty, the actual combat session take advantage of good tactics? Tactics, more than stats, is what increases difficulty.
For example:
- Ganger with an assault rifle: Full-Auto, regardless of recoil and mostly regardless of his allies
- Security Guard with the same assault rifle: Assuming the assault rifle has the recoil comp for it, two Burst Fire Wide to eat up the Dodge quickly
- Assassin with the same assault rifle: Called Shot (Bypass Armor), Take Aim (negate range penalties), Semi-Automatic Fire (and taking advantage of the Surprise IP since he is ambushing)
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Tips for increasing challenge / excitement of encounters:
More bad guys. More then anything else, having the party outnumbered slows combat down. A handful of people with machine pistols and cram can be an exciting and dangerous encounter without being overpowering, as the machine pistols low base damage means they will pretty much never crack the player's armor. Have the bad guys try to use cover and fire at the party with a lot of ammo.
In Shadowrun, one elite target is a really bad challenge for a group. Always have the opposition have equal or greater numbers. Giving the bad guys machine pistols allows you to get an exciting amount of lead in the air but most of the time do stun damage that won't take long to heal or result in a lot of funerals after a run.
As to your second question, make several cards, simple ones with the name of each PC in an easily readable color, along with cards for opposition. When you do initiative, put the cards in order on the table, flipping the cards face down next to the pile when someone's turn ends. Flip the whole deck back over for the next initiative pass, and reorder the cards when you roll initiative again.
You can use multi colored index cards for this and fill in the player character's basic summery for GM quick reference as well. If that is too Arts and Crafts for you, cutting a bit of cardboard and writing on it in a high visibility color can work too.
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Must agree with the others vis a vis combat - Tactics, tactics, tactics. Play the NPCs like they were your PCs, and act accordingly.
As for the Initiative thing, I've always just used a scrap of paper. Been GMing for over 20 years and it's worked for me. ;)
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Keep in mind however that if you are the player at the table that comes up with the ideas that everyone finds unique and often stumps the GMs of other games, it will be easy to stump your group even without meaning to.
My group absolutely hates my tactics, even more so than most groups hate the GM.
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Keep in mind however that if you are the player at the table that comes up with the ideas that everyone finds unique and often stumps the GMs of other games, it will be easy to stump your group even without meaning to.
My group absolutely hates my tactics, even more so than most groups hate the GM.
I'd love to hear about some of those tactics!
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Agreed. Any thoughts on tactics appropriate to their professional rating is good for new GMs.
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Agreed. Any thoughts on tactics appropriate to their professional rating is good for new GMs.
Well, I always play it organically. Which I know doesn't help, but let's have a Q & A, and we can show the kiddies how it's done?
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Alright...
Question 1: What do you arm your goons with (sorted by type)?
For me, I try to make sure the goons I use are noticeably different for each group. The gear they have directly affects their tactics.
Knight Errant Beat Cop
- Armor: Armor Jacket (8/6)
- Weapons: AZ-150 Stun Baton, Ares Predator IV w/ 2 clips Reg
- Commlink: Basic Novatech Airware w/ Iris Orb (F: 3 R: 3 Si: 3 Sy: 3) w/ Basic User+, Encryption 3, Scan 3,
- Peripherals: AR Gloves, Skinlink, Subvocal Mic, Earbuds (Rat: 1), Glasses (4) w/ Image Link, Smartlink, Flare Comp & Visual Magnification
- Gear: 6 doses of Jazz, Flashlight, Gas Mask, 1 Trauma Patch, 1 Stim Patch (Rat: 4), 2 Plassteel Handcuffs, 1 iBall roller drone, Biomonitor, Handscanner (Cyberware 6, MAD 3, Geiger), Separate Trideo-Camera w/ Low-Light, Thermo, Flare Comp, Visual Magnification, Audio & Visual Enhancer 3
- Vehicle: 2 beats cops share a Chrysler-Nisson Patrol 1 w/ 1 Medkit, 1 Survival Kit and 2 Defiance T-250 Shotguns (w/ 2 mags Regular, Shock-Lock & Gel each)
Since Ares got the Seattle Contract largely on the idea that Lone Star was sloppy and unprofessional, they wanted Knight Errant to visibly well-trained and well-equipped, take a no-nonsense approach. Each beat cop has at least 1 rank in the Electronic Warfare group to be on guard for illegal or hidden commlinks. The separate Trideo-Camera is constantly recording what is in their field of view and the feed is link-able to the Glasses in case the specific beat cop doesn't have Low-Light or Thermo naturally.
As for tactics, the beat cops always patrol in pairs, watching the crowd and scanning commlinks. If they spot trouble, their first plan is draw the Predator and intimidate the suspect into submission. If they encounter 'soft' resistance, they switch to AZ Batons to stun and arrest. If they encounter 'hard' resistance, they pop a dose of Jazz, alert dispatch and find cover to return fire. In riot or warrant support, they break out the shotguns to pacify people (Gel rounds) or open doors (Shock-Lock).
However, what they have in equipment and training, they lack in area knowledge. The average beat cop is still working off of a street map overlay and doesn't have as many street contacts as their Lone Star predecessors had. This results in the players realizing that while KE beat cops are not to be screwed with, they don't know how to follow them once they slip into the bad areas of town and the local SINless aren't likely to point out where they went.
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I personally feel that the automatic would be a common issue for the Knight Errant officer. If in light duty without expected trouble then a SMG maybe starting with stick-n-shock rounds. Their opponents will have auto-fire weapons if they are going to survive they need them too.
In trouble areas an assault rifle instead of SMG. Maybe when a pair of officers one with an assault rifle and one with a shotgun.
As far as tactics. If they am trying to hold out until reinforcements arrive with heavier armor/armaments then suppression fire works wonders if you have a decent amount of recoil compensation. Even if they don't and the players/characters aren't aware of it the characters can be pinned down by the fear of the lead in the air. (My last run a gun turret in a tunnel pinned down the team for two combat turns while they figured out how to deal with it.)
Cover and cover fire are two very good tactics. That and if the players are using grenades then have the opposition use grenades. If want non-lethal then use gas grenades with nuro-stun and the characters can quickly find themselves in trouble.
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Ah.... that's not the point of this build..
These are beat cops that patrol low-crime neighbor hoods... The kind of KE cops you're describing are the next step up from these guys...
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I would think they might still have an automatic in the trunk for emergencies (heck many cops today do), but it all depends on your point of view on it and the Shadowrun universe in general.
From what I've read and seen it seems that SMGs are fairly common especially in gangs and such and assault rifles aren't unusual. If KE is trying to prove that they aren't "soft" since that is part of the reason they won the contract from Lone Star that they would err on the side of having more firepower available. Again it all depends on how you look at the world.
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I'd love to hear about some of those tactics!
Well in one situation (back in SR3), the group was hired to protect a retired runner (a sammie) from his old team. They knew pretty much all the details (including the drones the rigger had access to until about a week before, the mage's known spells, and most of the face's connections). They realized fairly quickly that the old face had the connections to find them eventually, so instead of going into hiding they bunkered up in a top floor penthouse with armored windows, thinking that the old team had nothing to penetrate them with (the mage didn't know fly/levitate or whatever it was called then). They just focused on guarding the elevator, stairs, and the window cleaning units.
Well three supply drones strapped to the world's smallest troll mage later, a mage was blasting those windows apart with high force powerballs and a small army of attack roto-drones were penetrating their defenses. It quickly turned into a die hard style scenarior where the group was running down floor to floor trying to avoid getting caught by the roto-drones all the while knowing the police were on their way and that half their gear was highly illegal.
More recently, they were trying to "extract" a little girl that had a hired 24/7 bodyguard. The bodyguard was overly cautious (as they should be) and always kept a rucksack of supplies on hand (nothing extreme, but a chameleon cloak (Thermal Dampened of course), a high rating medkit, a tranquilizer pistol, a few smoke grenades and a gas mask for him and the girl). The group decided to ambush him on a bridge to cut off his escape. So he popped a smoke grenade in the car so that mages wouldn't be able to see him or the girl. The next action he tossed one out the window. At that point the whole bridge (it was a small bridge over a stream running through a culvert) was getting smokey. Knowing they'd keep looking for them, he tranqued the girl and left her wrapped in the cloak on the roof of the car and dove into the stream. Of course the group thought he had the girl with him and took off after him when they heard the splash. Before they caught up to him, he managed to put a call in to both Knight Errant and the girl's parent's private security. He then proceeded to suppressive fire at them until the police arrived.
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For sure the best option to make some combat harder is tactics.
We should be able to help you better if you describe us how the combat went. Who did what, ....
Regarding how to speed up combats, the first thing is that with combat sessions, both your players and you will know the rules better which should accelerate the combats. There are some other things I do which you may find useful :
- I only roll initiative for "groups" of foes. For example, if they are attacked by 3 gangers + 1 gang lieutenant. I roll initiative twice, once for the lieutenant and once for the gangers, then all gangers act at the same time
- for most opponent (i.e. all except elite) I do not roll damage soaking, only dodge (or reaction). For damage soaking I use the average (i.e. 1 success for 3 dices) in order ot accelerate (and this average value is already written down, I do not need to compute it in game)
@tzizimine: I strongly believe that most KE beat cops are former Lone Star beat cops. The number of cops needed for a city as big as Seattle is huge and I really believe that when winning the contract KE hired most of Lone Star guys, especially on the lower levels.
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While KE did hire a lot of Lone Star, they are having to go through KE training all over again. I figured that would take 2+ years.
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Which either means they temporarily brought in alot of officers from other regions, or they are dreadfully undermanned while those new hires are spun up.
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Probably an accelerated brainwash... Er... Intensive Training Course for former Lone Star officers. Just teaching them the Knight Errant Way after all.
*Blam-Blam* "Stop or..." *Blam* "I'll shoot!" *Blam-Blam* doesn't cut it any longer. :P
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Two years is kind of a lot.. in real life, basic police training is done in about 2 months, (8 to 10 weeks) with a long sort of apprenticeship period after that while a new officer works with an experienced one on the job.
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Well Knight Errant is not supposed to be your average law enforcement program. That would be closer to Hard Corps Inc. (The lower cost Ares security corp) Knight Errant has been elite since they started (Damien Knight spent the first year and a half that he owned Ares solely working on Knight Errant and personally making sure that it got that reputation), that's been their main selling point ever since.
Knight Errant also seems to train more rounded personnel. Sure their officers will have a designated area to be skilled in, but they generally make sure that their officers are trained at least minimally in several areas. Hard Corps generally gets the people that couldn't hack it as KE officers.
With the emergence of AR and general advancements in technology, I would imagine that the training would have to take longer than it does today. I would wager that between the advancements and KE's more expanded curriculum and stricter pass requirements at least 6-8 months and closer to a year before the officers graduate the academy. To further complicate matters, you have the standard post-academy on the job training which usually takes 3-5 months now (I think 16 weeks is most common). I could see KE pushing this up as well just to insure that they manage to keep their reputation as the best of the best.
After all, with Seattle being a major corp (and deniable asset heavy) city, it is highly in the best interest of Ares to keep their subsidiary in a position to uphold the law (or fail to do so if their competitors are getting hit).
That said, KE was a private security force beforehand and they did have to juggle around a lot of personnel. I believe one of the books mentioned them letting the LS officers requalify in waves to relieve the low man power. In addition I know I read somewhere that they've been hiring temporary workers as well until they get everyone trained up to their liking. Also keep in mind that a lot of LS officers just up and quit when asked to retrain, especially the veteran officers that felt insulted by it.
While any given officer probably wouldn't spend 2+ years in retraining, I could see the whole process of retraining/dropping the unworthy taking that long. Especially when you add in that they are still having to maintain all of their private contracts around the city and most likely shifting around (and possibly training/promoting) Hard Corps Inc. agents to assist with things as well.
Here's my standard Knight Errant officer template (Using the previous one as a base).
Knight Errant Patrol Officer
* Armor: Patrol Armor (Includes Armored Patrol Jacket, Patrol Helmet, and Armored Skin Lining) (9/9)- Treated as 8/8 for encumbrance
* Weapons: Ares Predator IV [Electronic Firing, Biometric Safety], 2 Clips Stick-n-Shock, 2 Clips Takedown* (+0DV/-2AP)
* Commlink: Novatech Airware with Emerald City OS^ (F: 3 R: 3 Si: 3 Sy: 5) with Basic User+, Encryption 5, Scan 5, Noise Analysis 3, Weapon Watcher 3. ^Custom KE Operating System
* Peripherals: Patrol Glasses [Image Link, Smartlink, Flare Comp., Visual Enhancement 3], Patrol Earbuds [Spatial Recognizer, Audio Enhancement 3],
AR Gloves,
* Gear: 2 doses of Jazz, Flashlight, Gas Mask, 1 Trauma Patch, 1 Stim Patch (Rat: 4), 1 iBall , Biomonitor, Handscanner (Cyberware 6, MAD 3, Olfactory 6), 2 metal restraints, 10 plastic restraints, Chisel, Maglock Passkey Rating 3.
* Vehicle: 2 beats cops share a GMC Calvary^ w/ 1 Medkit, built in Commlink (same model), 1 MGL-12 (24 CS/Tear Gas Grenades), 1 Enfield AS-7 (2 Drums shells, 1 Drum APDS slugs), 1 HK-227X (3 clips of Stick-n-shock), 1 Parashield Dart Rifle (10 Darts of Narcojet)
^GMC Calvary is a a slightly slower but more heavily armored patrol car when compared to the Patrol 1.
Stats (All at 3 exc. Agi 4, Int 4, and Wil 4)
Skills:
Firearms 3, Unarmed 2, Running 2, Climbing 2, Dodge 3, Heavy Weapons 1 (Grenade Launcher +2), Exotic Ranged Weapon: Dart Rifle: 2, Negotiation: 2, Intimidate: 2, Leadership: 2, Pilot Ground Vehicle: 2 (Patrol Car +2), Perception 3 (Visual +2), Computer 1, Data Search 2, First Aid 2 (Gun Shot Wounds +2), Electronic Warfare 1, Hardware 1.
Their general tactics are to use the shotgun, tear gas, or SMG to suppress and area until a RRT (Rapid Response Team) can arrive to provide back up.
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Probably an accelerated brainwash... Er... Intensive Training Course for former Lone Star officers. Just teaching them the Knight Errant Way after all.
*Blam-Blam* "Stop or..." *Blam* "I'll shoot!" *Blam-Blam* doesn't cut it any longer. :P
Speaking from RL experience, pretty much yeah, Crash and CanRay hit it on the head. There has to be a clause in the contract that allows for the transition. It takes time to set up shop, do the re-training, etc. Likely was over the course of a few months. And as for training time, its very common for officers today to laterally transfer from one city/state to another with only a few weeks to learn new policy, procedure, law, and then re-qualify with firearms.
But anyway....
As to keep track of initiative, I use a specialy made chart that I slip into a dry-erase plastic sleeve and use dry-erase markers to keep track of when everyone goes. PC/NPC names on the side with their initiative number and colums to check how many IPs they have.
For quick reference, I will either use my notebook or if I have extra time to prepare, index cards with relevent info. This works well for generic NPC types that I can use over and over again or need to pull out a quick encounter. If they need to be tougher, I simply make them better equipped or bump key status up a bit.
As for difficulity, sometimes it's as simple as giving NPCs slightly better stats or gear and or increasing their numbers. As for tactics, I dispel the notion with my PCs that security guards are idiots, that gangers are pushovers, and that a single screw-up can hose them.
I force them to pay attention to details, especially if they are trying something complex. For example, group had a great idea of posting as, yeah, KE guards to gain access to a prisoner as part of an extraction run. Got nice fake orders both on "paper" and implanted in the system. They even got KE uniforms. Problem was, they used their own personal sidearms. A guard realized that standard KE issue is currently a Pred IV, not a Warhawk or a Manhunter. That didn't blow their cover immediately, but was enough for the guard to ask questions, double check things, and to alert the rest of the facility's detail. Long story short, it took them a little while, but they figured out something was wrong and the run got a lot harder.
Tactics are good, but so are details and even NPCs will follow their guts on occasions.
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where is it in the books when it describes Knight Errant winning the law-enforsement bid for seattle? Does Lone star do any law enforsement in the nearby area?
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where is it in the books when it describes Knight Errant winning the law-enforsement bid for seattle?
Seattle 2072.
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I finished preparing the second part of On The Run (we'll do it next month, half the group couldn't make it this month), and I didn't even bother changing any of the enemy difficulties. When I was doing it, I was actually thinking through the characters, their tactics, things like that, and I'm really seeing ways to make it challenging without sending an army of tanks or something after them. We'll see how it goes, but I think it'll be a lot more interesting.
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I've used the same stat set for my opposition before. Only difference is packaging. Why go through the hassle if creating a generic low-level Halloweener from scratch when I have a low-level First Nation with damn near the same stat-set? I have notebooks full of generic stats where all i have to do is change one or two minor details, like say a weapon or add/subtract some 'ware, adjust a stat, and BOOM.
Most people say Im a bit lazy in that regard. I like to think of myself as being more...resource efficient.
8)
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I've used the same stat set for my opposition before. Only difference is packaging. Why go through the hassle if creating a generic low-level Halloweener from scratch when I have a low-level First Nation with damn near the same stat-set? I have notebooks full of generic stats where all i have to do is change one or two minor details, like say a weapon or add/subtract some 'ware, adjust a stat, and BOOM.
Most people say Im a bit lazy in that regard. I like to think of myself as being more...resource efficient.
8)
If it's good enough for CGL, it ought to be good enough for us! ;)