Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Ryo on <02-13-12/1910:22>
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Shadowrun is a fantastically lethal game, where one false move can lead to a world of pain for a player that has not yet learned the importance of common sense in the shadows. So I was thinking it'd be really helpful, for old GMs and newbies looking to run a game alike, to construct a list of things that they can use to really put the fear into their players, and make them actually think before they act.
To start us off, I can't help but go straight to the Sympathetic Detonation rules in Arsenal, which cover a set of guidelines for having a set of explosives triggered by an unrelated explosion, resulting in a chain reaction of DV bonuses and chunky salsa. Got a trigger happy street sam walking around with a bandoleer of high explosives strapped to his chest? Well put one well placed shot with an Explosive round, or toss a grenade anywhere in his general direction, and laugh maniacally as he paints the walls with his gooey innards.
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Knockdown, Falling, and Good Cover.
One of my favorite Sec. Force Tactics non-lethal tactics is to have the three armed with SMGs wide burst gel rounds at a target followed by the one with a shotgun putting a narrow burst of gel rounds into them (I rarely use SnS on my NPCs just because I don't like the fun factor of it). Combined with a +4 DV called shot and possibly some edge, this will usually eat enough reaction or dodge out of the players pool to send them on their ass. Being on your ass is a bad thing in a firefight, unless you're on your ass behind cover.
Falling. Being on your ass is bad, but getting knocked down somewhere treacherously high is even worse. I don't even try to get characters while their in unbalanced situations, but its amazing how many times they decide to botch a job while hanging from that fire-escape or free climbing the ferris wheel. One ten meter fall will turn that frown further down.
Good Cover. A +4 to Reaction for defending against attacks is enough to put a normal brute into Why Won't He Just Die territory. To top this off, when players see a group moving in tactically sticking to good cover, they know its going to be a better trained group of hostiles as well meaning there's one hell of a fight brewing.
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Suppressive Fire.
How do you even the odds between a tweaked out Street Sam sporting 4 passes and the gangers with their measly 1? Get them behind cover with their full auto SMGs laying down some suppressive fire. Anyone caught moving through the field gets to roll Reaction+Edge or catch some bullets, and the field stays suppressed until the shooter's next action phase. So your one IP ganger can keep an area protected until the next combat turn, for only 20 bullets, while your fully wired players have to hug cover until its over.
And while we're at it, Monofilament Trip Wires, for the shadowrunner who doesn't look before he leaps. Remember kids, Perception Checks save lives!
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Suppressive Fire.
How do you even the odds between a tweaked out Street Sam sporting 4 passes and the gangers with their measly 1? Get them behind cover with their full auto SMGs laying down some suppressive fire. Anyone caught moving through the field gets to roll Reaction+Edge or catch some bullets, and the field stays suppressed until the shooter's next action phase. So your one IP ganger can keep an area protected until the next combat turn, for only 20 bullets, while your fully wired players have to hug cover until its over.
And while we're at it, Monofilament Trip Wires, for the shadowrunner who doesn't look before he leaps. Remember kids, Perception Checks save lives!
Of course, that 4-IP Street Sam, given that he's bought a Rank 3 IP Booster, is probably going to have enough Reaction + Edge to dance through that hail of bullets without a care in the world and plant one in the face of the guy holding down the trigger.
No, what you have to do is use many Gangers with overlapping fields of suppressive fire.
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Suppressive Fire.
How do you even the odds between a tweaked out Street Sam sporting 4 passes and the gangers with their measly 1? Get them behind cover with their full auto SMGs laying down some suppressive fire. Anyone caught moving through the field gets to roll Reaction+Edge or catch some bullets, and the field stays suppressed until the shooter's next action phase. So your one IP ganger can keep an area protected until the next combat turn, for only 20 bullets, while your fully wired players have to hug cover until its over.
And while we're at it, Monofilament Trip Wires, for the shadowrunner who doesn't look before he leaps. Remember kids, Perception Checks save lives!
Of course, that 4-IP Street Sam, given that he's bought a Rank 3 IP Booster, is probably going to have enough Reaction + Edge to dance through that hail of bullets without a care in the world and plant one in the face of the guy holding down the trigger.
No, what you have to do is use many Gangers with overlapping fields of suppressive fire.
It isn't that easy to avoid suppressive fire, but yes, if your wired sam is so slick that he can dance around bullets, that's what the overlapping suppressive fire fields in War! are for.
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their own caffeine fueled idiocy, combined with the tired/bored/frustrated GM, which leads to halls full of monowire grids, firelance turrets in mirror halls, dragons on crack in the barrens, and cthulhu in a tea cup.
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1. If they don't work clean, let the police have a profile about them.
2. If at any point they are too obvious in their doings, let a profile specialized SWAT unit arrive that is able to take them out.
3. Use fire attacks and let their ammo clips explode, if they carry too much stuff with them.
4. Have MAD detectors at every corner.
5. Let the sammie get used to cyber-safety and the mage to mage masks.
6. Let the enemies be very stealthy if appropriate: ambushs!
7. If they step out of line at any point, send in the SWAT team again.
At the end of the day, they will be afraid to leave their safe houses at all. Wait, they don't have any.....
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Flyspy drones that spray a mist of stealth RFID tags.
Bugs
Fights in a chemical plant over large vats of suspicious goo
Bugs
Toxic mages
Bugs
Aztech Reprisals
Bugs
Blood mages
Bugs
Dragons
Bugs
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Flyspy drones that spray a mist of stealth RFID tags.
Bugs
Fights in a chemical plant over large vats of suspicious goo
Bugs
Toxic mages
Bugs
Aztech Reprisals
Bugs
Blood mages
Bugs
Dragons
Bugs
I think you forgot "Bugs". ;D
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My wrath.
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I think you forgot "Bugs".
Na, they're there. He just didn't put enough emphasis on them is all. I think there should have been two bugs per other listing. That definitely would have put them closer to how fearful players should be of them.
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hell, we've all forgotten the most feared item in the world of Shadowrun.
NERPS!!!!!!!!
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You're all wrong. What players should fear is a GM with an overactive imagination. :)
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There are so many ways to turn environment into hazard.
Weather. Slopes. Trees. Ice. Botanical warfare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_mantegazzianum).
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You're all wrong. What players should fear is a GM with an overactive imagination. :)
A bored GM with...
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Come on, lets hear some actual examples rather than single word responses! GM's with overactive imaginations is the entire idea, here.
How about a mad halloweener lieutenant armed with incendiary grenades in gecko casings who has a tendency to make Called Shots to the back? Nothing quite says "GETTTHISTHINGOFFAME" like sticking a grenade in a place you can't reach it. You better hope your fellow runners like you enough to risk that Body+Strength (2) test to get it off you before it goes boom.
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The well connected friend or loved one of someone that they kill/screw over/hurt etc.
Imagine the company man getting getting bent out of shape because one of his contacts got killed.
Or Mr Johnson's mistress gets caught in the crossfire.
Or if the group is into carnage, imagine that one of their own contacts is caught in the crossfire.
The possiblilities are endless, and its 6 degrees of seperation.
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Personally, I like the NPC that they never actually see...
I use "Mr. Oshimida" as a yakuza troubleshooter... one in every city that there is a strong Yakuza presence. But the big thing is that no one has ever seen him, no one has his Access ID or any other method of getting a hold of him, no one is known to work directly for him or directly with him and yet everyone knows that if "Mr. Oshimida" wants something, no one is going to survive standing in his way.
Paranoia is one of the best methods to make your players use up valuable resources. The catch is to infrequently actually threaten them so that "Mr. Oshimida" isn't just an urban legend.
Oh... and water balloons filled with Aisa (hallucigenic drug) and DMSO.
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Another favorite is contacts letting them know that "people" have been asking about them. Particularly matrix based contacts who can indicate that there are matrix searches ongoing.
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A bounty coming from people they haven't even heard of... and rumors of said bounty being taken upon by other people... THAT usually sends them spiraling into paranoia not even wanting to go take a dump without an armed escort :D
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How about walking into a den of dragons..... as if one wasn't bad enough.... oh god i just had the image of my group walking in on two dragon's having you know what.
xD Cockblock! xD
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You're all wrong. What players should fear is a GM with an overactive imagination. :)
You rang? ;)
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My players have had a run in with a troll adept with a chameleon suit who is a stealth/throwing specialist. He also has astral perception that he uses to track characters who are invisible, using a chameleon suit etc.
He was part of a runner group that the characters had a few run ins with. Now he is the only surviving member and the players want his blood since he has almost killed almost all of the characters at one time or another. A couple times more than one in the same encounter.
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Nice WTW. Its always good to have a reoccuring enemy. One who always some how comes back. I have a few of these. Some who are sometimes allies (but never very loyal :) ) and some who are Mr Johnson masterminds, and some who are just rival runners...
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To fear:
How about the return of the Enemy?
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You're all wrong. What players should fear is a GM with an overactive imagination. :)
And this is why I hear from friends and regular customers about how my players fill their workspace conversations about how worried they are about our next session whenever I've gotten into a particular 'mental state.' It's like I'm helping to spice every pizza they make with a dash of terror and just a whiff of crushed hopes. 8)
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my players refuse to take runs against Aztecknology. So what i'm doing is making them do so without them knowing it
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One of my players is the party's worst enemy because he gets his vampire essence fix via Tamanous, so every run has to take in account how it affects their ties to the Vory and Tamanous. Especially with the whole party kinda being do-gooders, the vamp actually more than the rest.
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Nice WTW. Its always good to have a reoccuring enemy. One who always some how comes back. I have a few of these. Some who are sometimes allies (but never very loyal :) ) and some who are Mr Johnson masterminds, and some who are just rival runners...
I love putting recurring opponents in my games. Problems come up when players don't believe in the concept, or when the PCs turn out to be just too damn effective. I think the worst time was when a source turned out to have had some extra info the PCs didn't get on first pass, and they went back and tortured the source to death. Short-lived game.
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I love putting recurring opponents in my games. Problems come up when players don't believe in the concept, or when the PCs turn out to be just too damn effective. I think the worst time was when a source turned out to have had some extra info the PCs didn't get on first pass, and they went back and tortured the source to death. Short-lived game.
The phrase "overzealous" comes to mind, there. Or possibly "sloppy and kinda psychotic".
Personally, I have all my NPCs tagged "disposable until proven otherwise" in my mind. Like, for example, there were two Orks and a Dwarf (Big Tony, Larry, and Shep... guess which one was the dwarf. ;D) who were the guys in charge of the crew of Halloweeners standing between my players and their goal. Two survived. Now I'm going to keep bringing them back until they're killed off or... and I highly, highly doubt this one... they* somehow manage to TPK a group of PCs that are on S-K Prime's "full-time employee" payroll.
I'd go into details, but at least one member of my table is on the board, so I don't want to spoil it for him.
*I'm a firm believer of the "I just narrate the thing" school of GMing. Once I have an NPC created they're gonna do what they're gonna do, and I just tell the players what's happening... with the occasional thumb on the scales to make sure "plot" happens, and things stay fun, of course.