Dude, All4, I will PayPal each of you $3 to go buy a novella and read it, if it means you'll both just take a day or two off of sniping at each other on the forums, in like every other thread. For realsies.
If you send me $6.00, I'll quit posting for a week. Send me a copy of Neat and I'll personally troll them both for you.
Kat9, internet racketeering at its best.
ANYHOW, that joke aside, I'll both get serious and get on topic.
Last Wednesday we were sent on a run.
A Johnson that owned a ranch that mid-level corporates were sent to relax had an extraction happen on his property. A ransom note was sent and he wanted this handled quietly and off the books. Enter <Team Name to be Determined™>. We investigated the guy's room, found a few clues and hit the legwork. We discovered that he had mob connections and one of the clues lead to a runner team (daamn yooouuu Signature negative qualityyyyyyy). So our team split into pairs. Street Sam and Shaman/Face went to talk to the mob Sniper and Face went to try to track down the runner team.
The Sam and Shaman got the information that the extraction target has been working with the mob letting them test out experimental arms and armor and thus giving them an advantage over their rivals. They had nothing to do with the guy's kidnapping and would be very interested in seeing him returned safe and sound. Job well done for team A. Shaman handled the talking, Street Sam's 'quirks' didn't cause any trouble.
On to the B team. The runner team that extracted the target was an all Amerind team and they were known to be seen in a bar the Souix sector. The two rolled into the bar and you could almost hear the classic record scratch sound as they were the only non-Natives in a anti-anglo biased bar. All eyes were on them, and the tension could be cut with a knife. However the sniper ever the cool hand wasn't phased by the hostility and the Face didn't really notice. She went to the bartender and despite the hefty odds against her managed to make a meeting with the runner team. Good job B Team!
The two teams met up where they were supposed to meet the representative for the runner team. When the representative arrived, she didn't even bother speaking English she was so hostile. However, the Shaman being a Amerind managed to calm things down. Turns out that they were not involved in a kidnapping, the guy's company wanted him held to test his loyalty. At midnight he'd be set free.
The team waited and went to do a pickup at the Coffin Hotel/U-Stor-It the guy was held in. Upon entering the area the manager wanted to extract a 500 nuyen EACH bribe from the runners to prevent damages on the property. The Street Sam sort of bubbled over with the idea if she was going to be charged 500 nuyen she felt obligated to do some damage. The none too subtle implication would have been she'd start with the manager's knees and move on to structure once that was done. He waved the bribe and let the runners pass, knees intact, trousers not so much.
A tense meeting with the team that performed the extraction, the players all running on wired time a fight could break out with just the wrong twitch. Tension broke when the Sam asked the target, "So you want to ride in the car, or be my bitch," as she was riding a motorcycle and thought the target was 'kinda cute'.
And thus an entire run was done without a single shot fired, grenade thrown or anyone beat with a baseball bat. However at several points it had the option of going the other way. The Sam could have offended a mobster and gotten into a brawl at a mob owned club. The non-anglos could have sparked a fight with a group of Wildcats. The opposing team's hostility and initial refusal to speak in English could have turned into a fight. Could have been a beating in the U-Store-It, or even a straight out two way fight between two runner teams.
In closing, its all on how you and your players handle a session..
