[James McMurray]

Anyone know what this three-parter is like? I've been thinking of running Ghost Cartels, but DotA is an option as well.

[nakano]

Well I know its a four part series from what I have read.  I have the first three parts and am holding off on running them until I have the last part.  Dragonlance modules from years back scarred me to running stuff until I have the fully storyline in hand.   

[James McMurray]

Ah, thanks! I thought it was only 3 parts. Yeah, I'll definitely hold off until they've all been printed.

[Valashar]

Yep, still needing DotA: Dawn to complete the adventure series, and then there's a campaign-style book similar to Emergence/Ghost Cartels coming afterwards called Artifacts Unbound.

I'm also waiting until at least Dawn is released to start my crew on these runs.

[Denver Doc]

I have been on the playing end the DotA.  Without spoiling it the first module the party made some financially sound but street rep killing decisions.  I believe the GM had to entirely adapt the next module from a different angle.  I mention this because no matter what you do the PCs will find a way to frag it up.  If you have module one in a series and they screw it up you can always go on to something else if you want.  If you invested in 4 modules then your hoop has to modify all the remaining ones to make sure you didn't just flush your cash down the can.  So far, and of course without knowing the meat of the module, they have been a lot of fun.   

[nakano]

Having read through all three(Dawn, Dusk, and Midnight) extensively, the most important thing is the runner's rapport with Frosty.  If that is not totally fragged up then running the series should be fine.  Like any other bought adventure though, the GM will have to tweak it for party strengths/weakness/style.  Personally I want all four in hand as I want to run the in rapid succesion.

[CanRay]

OK, so the most important part is for a bunch of non-official existent, semi-sociopathic, neo-anarchistic, anti-social nutcases that shoot people in the face for money to get along with an immortal elf that's been raised and trained by the most chaotic and rebellious member of the Immortal Elves?

...

I can see that.

[nakano]

Like any other Johnson, if the players drop the ball, chances are Frosty won't deal with them again.  Its up to the GM to give the players the incentive, but up to them to make the decisions.  Over the years I have run SR I have had many groups walk away from job offers for a variety of reasons.

[Nath]

The problem in Dawn of the Artifacts regarding the runners relationship with Jane is mostly down to the two following excerpts. The first is when Jane recruits the runners. The second is when Jane and team leave the hotel after arriving in Lagos.

Dawn of the Artifacts 1 - Dusk, page 9
"[...] Now, normally, I work alone, but Lagos … well, it’s not exactly a safe city for a single woman. If you’re amenable, I’d like to hire you to accompany me as security, and you can also help out in my investigation."

Dawn of the Artifacts 1 - Dusk, page 16
While they’re exploring the city with Jane, read the following:
Traffic ahead of you has been stopped as a group of men harass an old yellow bus. Only a half-dozen vehicles separate you from the bus. Jane shifts beside you as she watches the men force the bus riders out into the street, looking them over. The people—mostly young men and women—shake in fear and cower down as the men push AK-97s against them. You see Jane bite her lip as she sees the men grab several teenagers and force them into the back of a pickup truck. The youths are crying, and one young girl struggles away. She runs through the traffic, towards you, followed by several of the armed men. She’s only a meter away from you when one man catches up to her, grabbing her by the hair, and slams a fist into her face.
“That’s it,” Jane mutters, then steps out into the road, her pistol aimed directly at the man’s face.
You see three of the other men step past the vehicles, their AKs raised and aimed directly at Jane …

[James McMurray]

I'm not seeing what's so problematic with those two scenes. In the first she hires herself some bodyguards and gets the adventure rolling. In the second her morality pulls her into trouble and forces her security guards to respond. While certainly inconvenient, I don't see where it's grounds for breaking off relations with her, especially if she's paying well.

[Nath]

Your Mileage May Vary.

As a PC (and as a GM), I see a difference between a "bodyguard work for someone investigating in Lagos" and "bodyguard work for someone jumping out of the car to attack anybody she thinks needs to be taken down". Still, the runners probably won't quit and break off relations with her, or even ask for a higher pay. No.

My group just becomes convinced Frosty is an idealistic daredevil unable to focus on her mission. At first, they believed she was a threat to herself. Kinda fitting for a bodyguard work. Later, as they saw her displaying her magical abilities (I was the only player with enough SR knowledge to know who she was, even if my character didn't), they realized she was only a threat to them.
It became some sort of a running gag to try to have Frosty locked in the hotel so that she won't get another opportunity to start a war with any local faction.

[Denver Doc]

<Spoilers>

So needless to say our relationship with Frosty broke down.  While we were pissed when she jumped out and started fragging with local business, she paid us well and we jumped in to protect our Ms. J.  She went down under a barrage of gun fire from the boyz... who all moved just a little faster then the runners.  She didn't die, but she was hurt bad.  We kept her safe from that point on but she had to recover until the end of the scenario. 

Where we screwed it up was at the end. I haven't read the module so I don't know how much of this was GM setup and how much was in the booklet.  MedJay has the map in hand with his pimp ride lying sideways covered in an earth elemental.  He hits our links and offers big money if we let him skate.  BIG MONEY! So I call Frosty over to me to "talk" and unload my assault rifle in her face.  No witnesses, who's to say how things went down.  Of course being who she is she magically disappears instead of dying, even though she went down like a punk in the first battle.  Damn tricky magic elves.

MedJay pays up, we let him go.  We find our own way out of Lagos, adventure over big payday.  My guess is this totally screws up the remaining adventures.  When adventure two roles around our GM slaps us with a few extra negative qualities (we screwed up big time) enemy and bad rep, which seems slightly unfair because the bitch is protected by box text when really she should have been a fine red mist.  But sometimes weird drek happens in the shadows. 

This time however MedJay calls us and wants us to help him with the second leg of the story.  I assume it is supposed to be Frosty but I think the GM adapted it well so far.   Of course mid adventure we have one of our mages heads explode from a sniper and the other mage severely wounded.  We finally manage to take out the bad guy and its a mysterious elf not a shred of identification with milspec gear and is an adept.  Right now I think that was Frosty saying hello because of how the GM had it in there.  The GM is handling it well, IMO, and it is adding a lot more depth to our game, but its got to be a lot of extra work for him.

[James McMurray]

Not dying to a headshot isn't necessarily "protected by box text."  Prime NPCs have Edge just like PCs. They can burn it to survive death.

[Crimsondude]

One of these days she's going to touch the hot stove.

[CanRay]

Not dying to a headshot isn't necessarily "protected by box text."  Prime NPCs have Edge just like PCs. They can burn it to survive death.

One of my Prime NPCs had a building fall on him.