Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Icarus on <02-11-12/1848:13>
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So after several months, I found more players for the group so that we could finally continue their first mission (On The Run, which they had previously gotten half way through). However... things didn't go as planned.
The three returning players were in the junkyard with Loomis trying to get the disc. However, being weirdly nice for a group of Shadowrunners, they decided that taking it from him by any sort of force would not be polite. Instead, the slut of the group (of which there are two, both try to act as slutty as possible to sway people) decided to seduce Loomis. After having gratuitous amounts of sex, they now have a disposable plot character following them around.
What's more interesting is what the other two were doing in the meantime.
The first had a low lifestyle, and they decided to meet up in his apartment building to play Go Fish (while the whole Loomis thing was going on, since they weren't there). The second got upset during the game, and decided to set the deck of cards on fire. He did this by using A FLAMETHROWER INSIDE THE APARTMENT. Needless to say, the entire apartment complex burned down. Lonestar investigation determined that the fire was intentional, and that the fire came from his apartment, so now the first player (or rather the fake SIN he got the apartment under) is now wanted for arson. As a result, both players are now living together in the second player's moderate lifestyle home.
They all work together for awhile trying to decrypt the disc, but realize they can't make any progress for awhile. While the group's hacker spends some time with it, the first player (who has the paranoid quality) decides that the bartender is stalking him. He sneaks in the back of the building (completely unseen) and stabs him when no one's looking. This is, of course, neglecting the security systems in place.
He, along with the second player go back to the house, and invite a third player to join them to play cards... yet again. Lonestar tracked them there in conjunction with the stabbing of a bartender, and they had surrounded the building. Fortunately for them, the third player happened to have 49 kilos of plastic explosives set to detonate in her truck outside. She taunts the police while the other two escape, and then detonates the truck.
It produces a 21 meter radius explosion, killing the third player and all the cops, while blowing up player two's home and car. It also happened to blow up several neighboring homes. Due to how quickly it happened, they don't know who was involved. However, since they know player one was there (who is a known criminal at this point), clearly he's the main suspect for this blatant act of domestic terror.
Theoretically, if both drop all related SINs and change their appearances, they should be fine. Investigation will most likely indicate that they died in the explosion. I don't expect Lonestar is particularly careful...
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So the two new players pretty much went on a rampage, with the assistance of a returning player who wanted to die anyway. They made almost no progress, but it was so funny. I don't mind at all, as long as everyone is enjoying it... which they were. The new players should hopefully get the idea that this isn't D&D, so stuff they do has legal consequences in game.
Has any completely derailing nonsense like this ever happened in any of your games?
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What the hell? It might be a good idea to un-invite the new ones from your group. Geez, that's fraggin nuts.
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Yep, all the damned time.
As for new players... Bah. Just gotta teach 'em right, is all. Ed-yew-mah-kate-shun! That's the answer. :)
For one thing, just how big a bang all those kilos of explosives is going to be. Hell, how big 49 Kilos of said explosive is might also be something, that's not a small number!
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49 Kilos??
the tech in me screams "why not 3 full cases of C4?!?"
then starts doing the math on actual distances
49Kg = 67+Kg TNT
blast over pressure dist 264+ ft (min safe dist for accidental explosion)
hazardous frag dist 717+ ft (max frag flight being 5500ft)
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The part of me that grew up in a mining town is going, "Pretty 'plosion!"
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needless to say, not much glass is still in place anywhere near that boom. hehehehe
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What the hell? It might be a good idea to un-invite the new ones from your group. Geez, that's fraggin nuts.
It was quite hilarious, so I'm not upset at all. But next time we should try to tone it down.
Yep, all the damned time.
As for new players... Bah. Just gotta teach 'em right, is all. Ed-yew-mah-kate-shun! That's the answer. :)
For one thing, just how big a bang all those kilos of explosives is going to be. Hell, how big 49 Kilos of said explosive is might also be something, that's not a small number!
According to the only person in the group with a moderate amount of game experience, the blast radius should be 21 meters. I wouldn't be surprised if that was low though. We're all pretty new to the game, so we're still very much so feeling it out. Hence why I don't manage to stop things like this ahead of time. Learning experience I guess :)
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around 21m is probably pretty close for the actual blast radius, way too close.
basically the only people that would survive at 21 meters are all wearing bomb suits (not "normal" armor) and they'd all be hating life.
in fact, the vehicle where the explosive is stored became more frag and would shred most of anything within 720 feet.
personally, i'd use the "still looking for all suspects and victims" to keep the other players on their toes for a while.
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Yeah, if cops are dead, Lone Star is not likely to just write it off as "all parties involved were killed in the explosion" right off the hop. Even the managers, they'll want it to at least look like it was thoroughly investigated first.
The investigators themselves will be hunting for someone they can blame and have them "Shot while resisting arrest" or "Committed suicide by falling down fifty flights of stairs. Boot-shaped stairs." but would have to give up the investigation after the management pulls the plug on it.
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Yeah, if cops are dead, Lone Star is not likely to just write it off as "all parties involved were killed in the explosion" right off the hop. Even the managers, they'll want it to at least look like it was thoroughly investigated first.
The investigators themselves will be hunting for someone they can blame and have them "Shot while resisting arrest" or "Committed suicide by falling down fifty flights of stairs. Boot-shaped stairs." but would have to give up the investigation after the management pulls the plug on it.
And even then, there's that one guy who will probably dog you until the end of your days because you killed his wife or something in the blast.
You know, basically a Shadowrun version of Frank Castle.
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Does remind me of the troll I built once though. Game was only a one-shot, but he kept like 15 kilos of C-12 placed under his armor plates just in case he ever got tased. He didn't want to be taken alive at any cost. 8)
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would only truly work if he also had a few electric blasting caps strewn throughout, with the wires taped to the surface of the armor.
and then any little electrical spark would mean BOOM!!
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Idea's still there ;)
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in this case, any little spark includes dragging your feel on the carpet, taser, wearing anything that build static in dry weather, that damn thunderbird, the radio, yeah just about anything.
that character would have lasted half a session with me. maybe,,,
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Well, I have a question. What if you DON'T want your players to act like this? Just.... tell them to stop, punish them in the game or just say "screw this" and stop playing?
Not from Shadowrun, but from another game called Alternity. The character sheets have the movement options "walk, run, sprint, swim, fly" since some of the alien races available for players have wings. So what does my ALL-HUMAN group do periodically approximately every five minutes in the game? They throw the die to see if they succeed in a flying test, without any ability of doing so. At first it was *kinda* funny, the second to twentieth times it was annoying, and even when I started giving minor negative effects (you flap your arms like a fool and trip, and the "helpful" person who helps you get up pickpockets you) but they still kept doing it.
Sure, the players (or atleast some of them) were having a blast, but as a GM, I was finding it annoying to see how they didn't take the game seriously at all (this was combined with some minor messing about, like trying to take some rations, pound them to dust with a deck of cards and then injecting them straight to the character's own blood vein because... There were rations, but the characters couldn't eat due to having to wear respirators or die from poisoning. Nobody was hungry, there was no need to eat, but hey, there ARE rations. They MUST be eaten).
Finally, I got pissed off enough to tell that the character attempting to fly fell down a flight of stairs and went into a critical condition. Then nobody had fun anymore. So would there have been a better option for that?
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In my experience, new players to a system (and tabletops especially) feel the need to test the system and the GM. They want to know what they can do, can't do, can do but SHOULDN'T do, and how the GM is likely to react to the actions they take.
I think you handled it pretty well. You didn't tell them they CAN'T do these things, but made it pretty clear to them that they SHOULDN'T and that there were in game consequences for their in game actions.
Naturally it can be a bit of a pain for more experienced players and GMs to have to put up with this. My suggestion is to play a little side quest or two with just the new players, let them be a little ridiculous and show them how bad decisions will come back to bite them in the ass. Maybe even have them roll up new characters just for this little adventure so you don't feel bad killing them. Let them get the nonsense out of their systems.
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Well, I have a question. What if you DON'T want your players to act like this? Just.... tell them to stop, punish them in the game or just say "screw this" and stop playing?
Just talk to 'em. The group's got to be on the same page about more than house rules and game system; the agreed-upon mood of the game, the reason for playing, the notion of how seriously to take it, to attempt for drama instead of comedy...talk to 'em. If they're on board with your desire for a more serious game, just ask them to change the tone and play it straight. If they're all having fun playing around and being goofy, look into a light-hearted game that encourages/allows that...if you're on board, too.
It all comes down to a group consensus, with this sort of thing. You don't want half of the group showing up for Grand Theft Auto's bleak shades-of-grey morality and angst, and the rest of the group showing up to play Saints Row The Third, with it's crazy over-the-top hijinks and open amorality; they're both games that can fit pretty well into Shadowrun (for instance), but the two campaigns would have very different feels, right? Sometimes you've just got to talk to your players, and find out what mood folks are in.
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Yeah, are you aiming for A-Team, Leverage, or Burn Notice?
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Mad Max beyond Thunderdome two players enter on player leaves.
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in this case, any little spark includes dragging your feel on the carpet, taser, wearing anything that build static in dry weather, that damn thunderbird, the radio, yeah just about anything.
that character would have lasted half a session with me. maybe,,,
oh one more thing, explosive rounds hitting or grenades exploding on the troll covered in C#, troll go bahBOOM.
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in this case, any little spark includes dragging your feel on the carpet, taser, wearing anything that build static in dry weather, that damn thunderbird, the radio, yeah just about anything.
that character would have lasted half a session with me. maybe,,,
oh one more thing, explosive rounds hitting or grenades exploding on the troll covered in C#, troll go bahBOOM.
Yeah, that's kinda the point. Just imagine the size of the area he takes with him with 15 kilos of C-12 on him. ;D
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chunky salsa is a lie. there's not even red mist on the nearest standing structure!!
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chunky salsa is a lie. there's not even red mist on the nearest standing structure!!
Probably a nice big crater sitting next to it though :)
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large crater in urban setting is the definition of NOT a nice hole: water mains, sewers, gas lines, power, telecomm, so many ways to make life hell for anyone investigating the hole, otherwise known as a steamy shithole with high voltage, surrounded by all the pissed off neighbors you can find within a few blocks.
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large crater in urban setting is the definition of NOT a nice hole: water mains, sewers, gas lines, power, telecomm, so many ways to make life hell for anyone investigating the hole, otherwise known as a steamy shithole with high voltage, surrounded by all the pissed off neighbors you can find within a few blocks.
Emphasis mine
Okay, that right there says the 15kg of C12 is only the START of people's problems. I've seen stories of entire city blocks getting leveled because of a major gas line exploding.
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yup,,,
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large crater in urban setting is the definition of NOT a nice hole: water mains, sewers, gas lines, power, telecomm, so many ways to make life hell for anyone investigating the hole, otherwise known as a steamy shithole with high voltage, surrounded by all the pissed off neighbors you can find within a few blocks.
Emphasis mine
Okay, that right there says the 15kg of C12 is only the START of people's problems. I've seen stories of entire city blocks getting leveled because of a major gas line exploding.
Or you could just look at Chicago, in game. Alamos 20K blew up the Sears Tower, which was bad enough, but the fires set off the gas lines, which turned the area into the Shattergraves.
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large crater in urban setting is the definition of NOT a nice hole: water mains, sewers, gas lines, power, telecomm, so many ways to make life hell for anyone investigating the hole, otherwise known as a steamy shithole with high voltage, surrounded by all the pissed off neighbors you can find within a few blocks.
Emphasis mine
Okay, that right there says the 15kg of C12 is only the START of people's problems. I've seen stories of entire city blocks getting leveled because of a major gas line exploding.
Welcome to my mage named Scythe who was nick named by the Media as "Black Demon" because I was wearing an urban expleror's jumpsuit all in black complete with a black helmet. Think Rinzler from the newer Tron movie. xD
I only blew up 3 city blocks near the docks in downtown Seattle....
I had to stage an assassination of myself, paid them pretty damn good too. I had a cult following apparently, they thought Black Demon was some sort of super hero fighting against corruption of gangs since I blew up a few gang hideouts. xD Ah those are the fun sessions.... xD
Anyways, I'm not going around dressed like that for a good while, and thank god I never took off my helmet, erased my signature, and am in Singapore... xD
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large crater in urban setting is the definition of NOT a nice hole: water mains, sewers, gas lines, power, telecomm, so many ways to make life hell for anyone investigating the hole, otherwise known as a steamy shithole with high voltage, surrounded by all the pissed off neighbors you can find within a few blocks.
Emphasis mine
Okay, that right there says the 15kg of C12 is only the START of people's problems. I've seen stories of entire city blocks getting leveled because of a major gas line exploding.
My group had a bus. ;D
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bus? explosions?
speed or swordfish? speed or swordfish? speed or swordfish? speed or swordfish?
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Neither. Me with too much time on my hands and getting into the head of an IRAiE (IRA in Exile) elf who plays with explosives as a hobby.
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i think my fave scene in swordfish is the nasty slowmo roundabout camera shot of the hostage going boom, and all the havok it wreaks.
though after one of my courses, speed is now a comedy, as are most movies about folks dealing with bombs. red wire or blue wire? umm, it's a 40pin printer cable, all lines are grey and they each go to something different.
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i think my fave scene in swordfish is the nasty slowmo roundabout camera shot of the hostage going boom, and all the havok it wreaks.
though after one of my courses, speed is now a comedy, as are most movies about folks dealing with bombs. red wire or blue wire? umm, it's a 40pin printer cable, all lines are grey and they each go to something different.
Agreed;
Or, better yet, use wires all the same color, but with little paper tags telling you what they are that you tear off once you're done... then wrap the thing in a couple dozen strands of the same exact wire that do nothing.
Oh, yes, and have a big LED-display timer, then a small device you're molded into the interior of the charge that's another timer.
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so many dirty tactics that i shall not mention, under the assumption that "they" might try it.