Oracle_Hunter
2012-04-23, 10:10 AM
WARNING: Doc, Naga and Artemis stay out!
Having started up a SR3 campaign/playtest I thought I'd bring some of the mishaps I produce to the forum for the entertainment and edification of all.
Mostly, these will be situations that I felt I handled badly with an eye to getting advice on how to handle them in the future. In particularly:
(1) Did I use the rules incorrectly?
(2) Did I make unreasonable assumptions?
(3) Did I make a storytelling mistake?
Situation #1 -- Drive By Bait
The Run in question was a smash & grab in which a Fixer's speculative stash of datacubes that had been seized by an upstart lieutenant in a Ork Gang. The full scoop is that the lieutenant had been sitting on the Fixer's cache as a side deal with the Fixer but when the Fixer added a nice set of modded AK-97's he reneged on the deal and decided to use the arms to set a coup of his own in motion. Since the protection deal had been done without cutting in the Gang Boss (to save nuyen), the Fixer was loathe to report the lieutenant's breach of contract and hired some no-name runners instead -- the PCs, of course.
This was the PCs' first run so I made it pretty easy. The cache was guarded by 4 Ork Gangers and the territory (in the Redmond Barrens) was lightly patrolled by pairs of Orks who were mostly to serve as a visible reminder to the Squatters who controlled that chunk of the Barrens. The patrol pairs were uncybered and consisted of a Melee Ork (Club + Synthleather Jacket) and a Ranged Ork (Ares Predator + Synthleather jacket). The cache was guarded by 2 Ranged Orks and 2 Heavy Orks (uncybered, but with Armored Jackets and AK-97s with Laser Sights, GV IIs, and Shock Pads).
Checking with their contacts (which involved a homebrew expansion of mine) revealed that the Lieutenant (Donner) was agitating against his Boss but not that he had already gathered arms to that end (the PCs didn't roll well enough). The Fixer also failed to tell the PCs much of anything -- what was in the cache (i.e. the AKs) or even the details of the deal with Donner mainly because he didn't think it was the Runners' business. The Runners didn't ask too many questions about the run either, but since the Fixer wanted his cache of datacubes (stored in a sealed lockbox) unopened perhaps they didn't think there was much to ask.
Anyhoo, things went OK during the initial scouting (the PC Cat Shaman stealthed into the territory and took an astral head count -- couldn't Project 'cause she was an Aspected Shaman) but she didn't check to see how well armed the defenders were. I did tell her that in the 15 minutes she watched for patrols she didn't see any -- they were scattered and not focused on the cache anyhow. She made her way back to the team's mobile HQ (a Ford-Canada Bison) and this is the plan they hatched:
(1) Send a Dwarven Sniper (Doc) out on his Yamaha Rapier into the Barrens to cause a distraction. He'd find a position overlooking the building the cache was in (a partially-collapsed apartment building -- 1 intact story) and shoot around. After getting their attention, he'd hop down onto his Rapier and buzz away, drawing away the gangers watching the cache. He could take Route 202 up most of the way but when he went into the Barrens itself I ruled it would be Off-Road and Restricted or Tight. I did not mention the Red Hot Nukes because I didn't even think of them at the time, so he wasn't planning on pretending to be one of their members. Doc would be under the influence of a Stealth Spell (sustained by the Shaman's Sustaining Foci) so he couldn't hear anything over his non-cyber transceiver but could still talk over his sub-vocal mike.
(2) The rest of the team (the Cat Shaman and a Face) would then cruise in from Bellevue (I figured it'd take about 5 minutes) and hit the cache while the gang was disorganized. I did ask them if they wanted to park on a stretch of 202 so that they could ride in from somewhere closer (say, to take advantage of being nearby while Doc was joyriding) but they decided that the risk of being spotted was too great. I told them that a random vehicle (particularly a nice-looking one like the Bison) in the Barrens would likely raise the interest of the gang since most folks in the Barrens walk (due to the poor streets and poor people).
Personally, I thought this wasn't a great plan, but 3 Runners should have been able to overpower 4 (maybe 6) uncybered and unAwakened Orks when they had the element of surprise. If I had been doing the run I would have driven the team up in the Bison right off 202 and sent Doc the Sniper out with a Sustaining Invisibility and Stealth Foci so that he could get into a good position undetected while the Shaman and the Face made their way on foot to draw the Orks out of the building so that the Sniper could take them down. But I wasn't and I didn't see any obvious mistakes that the Runners were unaware of when making the plan (e.g. Doc knew that his un-Rigged Rapier would have terrible Handling in the Barrens and that he'd need to take Driving Checks if he was on his bike while in combat) so I didn't say anything.
Here's how it went down:
Doc buzzed on in (silently, thanks to Stealth) and began looking for Sniper perches. It was 5 am in the Barrens so I called it Minimal Light and had him make a TN 4 + Visibility Perception Test to find a good spot. He failed, but did not botch so I had him stumble upon one of those Ork Patrols I had mentioned within a few blocks of the cache. We figured Doc had been tooling around at 20 mph to avoid potholes and I set the encounter in an alleyway with the Orks blocking the side he was going out. Doc was wired so he was able to inflict Medium Wounds on both of them causing them to run (Professional Rating 2) and shout that some drekhead was attacking their territory. Doc then put his Sustaining Foci in his saddlebags (to disable the Stealth Spell) and got into contact with his team. I started the clock on his back-up arriving and dropped out of initiative.
Since things were doing OK, he figured he would buzz the cache since he couldn't have time to set up a sniping position. So he blows out of the alley and finds an Ork with an AK-97 standing in front of the Cache looking at the alley where the sound of a Rapier was coming from (and his fellow gangers running and bleeding). We rolled up initiative and Doc got to go first.
Here's Where Things Went Bad
In my head, I had a map of this place. Doc sped out of an alley 20 meters from the Ork using his acceleration to go at roughly 19 m/Turn (he was doing 9 beforehand). He got initiative and, hearing that an Ork with an AK-97 was 20 meters away he decided to take evasive maneuvers. Instead of bothering with the Hiding rules in Rigger (were they even applicable?) I said that he could make a Driving Test to get Partial Cover (+4 TN) from the fire to come and that while he could use Combat Pool on this Driving Test he wouldn't be able to use it to dodge while on his bike. He was unrigged and that was my reading of the Vehicle Rules at the time, but now I'm not so sure.
Anyhoo, he blows all his Combat Pool in making this Driving Test (which is tough: Base TN of 6 + 1 (Restricted) + 2 (Combat)) and passes. Then the Ork pastes him with a Burst (I didn't use any power reduction for firing into a vehicle because the motorcycle is open-topped) and Doc takes a Serious Wound and only gets 2 Successes on his Knockback Check. This would mean he gets knocked 1 meter opposite of the direction of fire -- that is to say, off his bike. I allow him another Driving Test to remain on the Bike (he fails) and so I have him knocked off the bike into a trash pile for no additional damage. I also let his bike crash a few meters away without taking a Crash Test (so, no damage) because I'm feeling generous. I rule this takes place roughly 30 seconds after Doc placed his distress call -- which means the backup is still really far away.
So, Doc is looking hosed and I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. Aside from the stuff I asked at the beginning of the post, here's some specific questions:
(1) Did I use the wrong rules to adjudicate shooting at motorcycles? I'm not great with the rigger rules and, to be honest, I'd prefer an old hand to give me some easy guidance instead of wrestling with the damn system.
(2) Should I have called the Barrens "on road" instead of off? While it was Doc's decision to go off-roading in a Rapier perhaps I had the wrong mental picture when thinking of the Barrens as a Fallout 3-style cityscape.
Oh yeah, and any other suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated. Thanks! :smallsmile:
Having started up a SR3 campaign/playtest I thought I'd bring some of the mishaps I produce to the forum for the entertainment and edification of all.
Mostly, these will be situations that I felt I handled badly with an eye to getting advice on how to handle them in the future. In particularly:
(1) Did I use the rules incorrectly?
(2) Did I make unreasonable assumptions?
(3) Did I make a storytelling mistake?
Situation #1 -- Drive By Bait
The Run in question was a smash & grab in which a Fixer's speculative stash of datacubes that had been seized by an upstart lieutenant in a Ork Gang. The full scoop is that the lieutenant had been sitting on the Fixer's cache as a side deal with the Fixer but when the Fixer added a nice set of modded AK-97's he reneged on the deal and decided to use the arms to set a coup of his own in motion. Since the protection deal had been done without cutting in the Gang Boss (to save nuyen), the Fixer was loathe to report the lieutenant's breach of contract and hired some no-name runners instead -- the PCs, of course.
This was the PCs' first run so I made it pretty easy. The cache was guarded by 4 Ork Gangers and the territory (in the Redmond Barrens) was lightly patrolled by pairs of Orks who were mostly to serve as a visible reminder to the Squatters who controlled that chunk of the Barrens. The patrol pairs were uncybered and consisted of a Melee Ork (Club + Synthleather Jacket) and a Ranged Ork (Ares Predator + Synthleather jacket). The cache was guarded by 2 Ranged Orks and 2 Heavy Orks (uncybered, but with Armored Jackets and AK-97s with Laser Sights, GV IIs, and Shock Pads).
Checking with their contacts (which involved a homebrew expansion of mine) revealed that the Lieutenant (Donner) was agitating against his Boss but not that he had already gathered arms to that end (the PCs didn't roll well enough). The Fixer also failed to tell the PCs much of anything -- what was in the cache (i.e. the AKs) or even the details of the deal with Donner mainly because he didn't think it was the Runners' business. The Runners didn't ask too many questions about the run either, but since the Fixer wanted his cache of datacubes (stored in a sealed lockbox) unopened perhaps they didn't think there was much to ask.
Anyhoo, things went OK during the initial scouting (the PC Cat Shaman stealthed into the territory and took an astral head count -- couldn't Project 'cause she was an Aspected Shaman) but she didn't check to see how well armed the defenders were. I did tell her that in the 15 minutes she watched for patrols she didn't see any -- they were scattered and not focused on the cache anyhow. She made her way back to the team's mobile HQ (a Ford-Canada Bison) and this is the plan they hatched:
(1) Send a Dwarven Sniper (Doc) out on his Yamaha Rapier into the Barrens to cause a distraction. He'd find a position overlooking the building the cache was in (a partially-collapsed apartment building -- 1 intact story) and shoot around. After getting their attention, he'd hop down onto his Rapier and buzz away, drawing away the gangers watching the cache. He could take Route 202 up most of the way but when he went into the Barrens itself I ruled it would be Off-Road and Restricted or Tight. I did not mention the Red Hot Nukes because I didn't even think of them at the time, so he wasn't planning on pretending to be one of their members. Doc would be under the influence of a Stealth Spell (sustained by the Shaman's Sustaining Foci) so he couldn't hear anything over his non-cyber transceiver but could still talk over his sub-vocal mike.
(2) The rest of the team (the Cat Shaman and a Face) would then cruise in from Bellevue (I figured it'd take about 5 minutes) and hit the cache while the gang was disorganized. I did ask them if they wanted to park on a stretch of 202 so that they could ride in from somewhere closer (say, to take advantage of being nearby while Doc was joyriding) but they decided that the risk of being spotted was too great. I told them that a random vehicle (particularly a nice-looking one like the Bison) in the Barrens would likely raise the interest of the gang since most folks in the Barrens walk (due to the poor streets and poor people).
Personally, I thought this wasn't a great plan, but 3 Runners should have been able to overpower 4 (maybe 6) uncybered and unAwakened Orks when they had the element of surprise. If I had been doing the run I would have driven the team up in the Bison right off 202 and sent Doc the Sniper out with a Sustaining Invisibility and Stealth Foci so that he could get into a good position undetected while the Shaman and the Face made their way on foot to draw the Orks out of the building so that the Sniper could take them down. But I wasn't and I didn't see any obvious mistakes that the Runners were unaware of when making the plan (e.g. Doc knew that his un-Rigged Rapier would have terrible Handling in the Barrens and that he'd need to take Driving Checks if he was on his bike while in combat) so I didn't say anything.
Here's how it went down:
Doc buzzed on in (silently, thanks to Stealth) and began looking for Sniper perches. It was 5 am in the Barrens so I called it Minimal Light and had him make a TN 4 + Visibility Perception Test to find a good spot. He failed, but did not botch so I had him stumble upon one of those Ork Patrols I had mentioned within a few blocks of the cache. We figured Doc had been tooling around at 20 mph to avoid potholes and I set the encounter in an alleyway with the Orks blocking the side he was going out. Doc was wired so he was able to inflict Medium Wounds on both of them causing them to run (Professional Rating 2) and shout that some drekhead was attacking their territory. Doc then put his Sustaining Foci in his saddlebags (to disable the Stealth Spell) and got into contact with his team. I started the clock on his back-up arriving and dropped out of initiative.
Since things were doing OK, he figured he would buzz the cache since he couldn't have time to set up a sniping position. So he blows out of the alley and finds an Ork with an AK-97 standing in front of the Cache looking at the alley where the sound of a Rapier was coming from (and his fellow gangers running and bleeding). We rolled up initiative and Doc got to go first.
Here's Where Things Went Bad
In my head, I had a map of this place. Doc sped out of an alley 20 meters from the Ork using his acceleration to go at roughly 19 m/Turn (he was doing 9 beforehand). He got initiative and, hearing that an Ork with an AK-97 was 20 meters away he decided to take evasive maneuvers. Instead of bothering with the Hiding rules in Rigger (were they even applicable?) I said that he could make a Driving Test to get Partial Cover (+4 TN) from the fire to come and that while he could use Combat Pool on this Driving Test he wouldn't be able to use it to dodge while on his bike. He was unrigged and that was my reading of the Vehicle Rules at the time, but now I'm not so sure.
Anyhoo, he blows all his Combat Pool in making this Driving Test (which is tough: Base TN of 6 + 1 (Restricted) + 2 (Combat)) and passes. Then the Ork pastes him with a Burst (I didn't use any power reduction for firing into a vehicle because the motorcycle is open-topped) and Doc takes a Serious Wound and only gets 2 Successes on his Knockback Check. This would mean he gets knocked 1 meter opposite of the direction of fire -- that is to say, off his bike. I allow him another Driving Test to remain on the Bike (he fails) and so I have him knocked off the bike into a trash pile for no additional damage. I also let his bike crash a few meters away without taking a Crash Test (so, no damage) because I'm feeling generous. I rule this takes place roughly 30 seconds after Doc placed his distress call -- which means the backup is still really far away.
So, Doc is looking hosed and I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. Aside from the stuff I asked at the beginning of the post, here's some specific questions:
(1) Did I use the wrong rules to adjudicate shooting at motorcycles? I'm not great with the rigger rules and, to be honest, I'd prefer an old hand to give me some easy guidance instead of wrestling with the damn system.
(2) Should I have called the Barrens "on road" instead of off? While it was Doc's decision to go off-roading in a Rapier perhaps I had the wrong mental picture when thinking of the Barrens as a Fallout 3-style cityscape.
Oh yeah, and any other suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated. Thanks! :smallsmile: