[Bull]

Our latest Mission is out (Battleshop, DriveThruRPG), and it's got some awfully fun secrets to uncover, as long as you think possibly fatal situations are fun! And if you don't, why are you playing Shadowrun? Anyway, here's the summary:


FATES WORSE THAN DEATH

A girl is missing. Finding her would be a nobler mission than most shadowrunners normally pursue, which means there must be a catch. And there is. The runners’ job starts at a talismongers and then brings them to a Barrens orphanage. If they’re observant enough, they’ll be launched on a journey that will take them through dark tunnels, past dangerous entities, and, eventually, to a supposedly abandoned building that holds at least two dark secrets. If they’re lucky, they’ll find Ruth alive. If they’re unlucky, they’ll find her alive and transformed.

In SRM 04-08: Brothers United, runners have some difficult obstacles and tough opponents to face if they want to reach their final goal. Along the way, they may discover that there are indeed some fates worse than death, but they’ll also get a reminder that death is bad enough.

SRM 04-08: Brothers United is the latest in the Shadowrun Missions living campaign, giving players the chance to be involved in pivotal events shaping the Sixth World. It is for use with Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition.

[KarmaInferno]

Having just played it, I give it two thumbs up!

Not my thumbs, grant you, but the previous owners didn't need them anymore.

Warning for prospective GMs, your players are likely to either panic or break out heavy weaponry. Or both.



-k

[CanRay]

Oh, my group is so going to hate me...

The Player that our magician PC runs has to leave early every game. 

[UmaroVI]

Having run it:


This mission is balls hard. I ran it at Origins and had a table with 6 players from 60-250 karma, probably around 125 or so on average. I also warned them up front that the mission was really dangerous and to play smart. By the end of the mission, one character had burned permanent edge, several were near death, and about half the party was held up by sustained Heal spells and drugs.

The major problem is that if your players don't realize how bug spirits actually fight, and they don't ask a contact for advice (or don't get the right advice), they are enormously screwed. I'm specifically referring to Fear - if the runners don't have a good counter to being Feared, most teams won't have a chance in the final fight unless the bugs fight very stupidly. Willy really, really should advise them to carry some Guts; supposedly he knows about how to fight bug spirits, and it's surprising he knows about KE-IV (which is nifty, but not vital) but not the importance of having a counter to Fear.

Even with Guts, the last fight is no joke - a pile of spirits (with 6 edge each, since they don't use group edge, and counterspelling 6 which they can teamwork for spell defense) can really mess a team up, but the runners have a fair chance.

On the whole, I thought the mission was good. I really noticed a difference in quality, presentation, and editing from S2-S3 missions (this is the first S4 one I ran). The art, too.

My complaints:
-Willy really should warn the PCs to prepare for Fear (if they hadn't called MacCallister for better advice, the final fight would have been a really anticlimactic event in which everyone gets chain-Feared).

-The timer on the queen is far too long. Shadowrun fights don't last 6 combat turns. If she gets summoned, it's going to be because the PCs ran away, got chain-feared away, or lost. I'd rather see the timer be much shorter (maybe 2 combat turns), have some rules to allow the PCs to figure out how little time they have, and make the frenzy on the insect spirits weaker (maybe give them +2 to attacks and -2 defense) so that the queen actually has a chance of appearing and getting away or being killed by the PCs.

[UmaroVI]

Also, the mission says you cannot magically locate Ruth because she's behind a ward. This isn't how it works. It subtracts Force from Search. The mission should specify the force there (it is 10) and get the rule right

[Hermes]

Oh, my group is so going to hate me...

The Player that our magician PC runs has to leave early every game. 

Ah, I see a Total Player KILL in the future.

[wylie]

Oh, my group is so going to hate me...

The Player that our magician PC runs has to leave early every game. 

Ah, I see a Total Player KILL in the future.

SEE? I did see one. I was the GM. Really only the goodness in my heart they lived to say they won, but they know I let them walk away alive. First combat phase the ants attacked, short bursts, 12 - 15 successes per roll.

[Windshare]

How can you prepare them for Fear effect ?
I have to GM this in a few weeks and it will be free kill for the bug ! Seriously, 8 to 12 dices versus average Runner Willpower, they are as good as dead. 
I wonder how other GM play this ?

[UmaroVI]

Windshare: See my first post in this thread. The one meaningful counter to Fear that I'm aware of is the drug Guts. In my opinion, Willy should warn the PCs of how insect spirits fight and advise them to buy Guts.

[Windshare]

Thank's my friend ! You're my players guardian angel !

[KarmaInferno]

Also, drones with heavy weaponry works very well.

Then again, they work very well in most combat situations.



-k

[Tarislar]

Just played this recently & had a few questions.

Has Fear been changed since 4E?   I skipped 4E but now its Wil+Log to resist where above it mentions just Will. 
We've been playing Season-4 Seattle with 5E rules for the last year.

What is Guts?  Is there a 5E version of it somewhere?

Overall, I'm not sure how most groups could handle this mission, we ran out of time & didn't see the final boss but just the 2 batches of Spirits we had fought at that point so far were taking forever to take down.
I get the impression that there is probably 20+ total in this Mission but we skipped a lot of them so I don't know the exact figure.
I'm not sure how any group could be expected to handle that many spirits, I mentioned in another thread that just one of them standing outside the van at the orphanage gave a backhand to a F5-Beast Spirit & disrupted it in 1 shot.  I think it was lucky rolls but still, it made us sit up & take notice & we switched over to massed FA & Grenades in a hurry & they still were not going down.

Anyone else think dozens if insect spirits might be overkill for a 4 hour Mission?