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.
