Category: Gaming

Playing games.

  • Job – Bunraku Bust Out

    Extract from Job – Bunraku Bust Out:

    “Hoi omae, got a job lined up for you. Some Italian J in a shiny suit needs a body brought back breathing and unharmed. You want the gig hit me back.”


    (Out of character notes: This will be the first time Dimestore and I have actually played in the same RPG in probably a year or more. That was Pathfinder and we kinda broke things a bit. This should be a fun session.)

    A drizzly Friday Morning in Seattle. The meeting takes place in an A zone. The meet is taking place in a nice restaurant. The J is an Italian, as promised in the message from the fixer.

    Fork shows up in his usual actioneer and greatcoat combo. Splice shows up on his bike, changing into his actioneer suit. Our Face is a well dressed woman, who hasn’t been introduced yet. There’s also another woman there.

    The J wants us to recover a woman who has somehow shown up in a Bunraku Parlour, with a strange fullback phoenix tattoo. We get a copy of the tattoo, and the location of the parlour. We’re getting 60K for bringing her back safe, after our negotiation.

    We queried our contacts, Fork asked Ross about the tattoo, he knew a chain that still used the tattoo machine. We filed that away for later.

    We found a local bar to hang out in, while doing some basic scouting. Fork did the astral search, found a pair of wards, a force 2 over the place and a force 4 under it. Slipping through the ward, he scanned the area inside, getting a read on the people inside. Then he headed back outside.

    Flowerchild went in, and used the old school throwback touchscreen system to rent his girl for the hour. Failing to find a girl of interest, he decided to ask the gangers if they had special order options.

    After flirting with them for a bit, she wandered in, the facility was mostly automated. The lights pointed the direction to the right room, which was the only open door. Entering the room, a jammer kicked in.

    Forked went in via Clairvoyance, and did a survey, but couldn’t penetrate through the secondary ward under the building, though the elevator will take it downstairs.  Did get a decent understanding of the building though.

    Reaching out to our contacts, the downstairs area is pretty high level.

    Without much information, Fork decided to slip through the wards into the basement is a big open room, with around 30 people in it. He found a tunnel that lead down into a more industrial part of town. The tattoo parlour happened to be 5 blocks away.

    Fork went to the tattoo parlour, and used his magic carelessly, probing into the guy’s mind, then holding him with a spell while he erased the memory of what he’d done. Not exactly subtle.

    We planted cameras at the tunnel entrance, found out that cars drive into the tunnels. Splice decided to trail one of the cars that left the tunnel. His first attempt to tail them, didn’t succeed, but he didn’t arouse suspicion either. His second attempt was much more successful.

    Someone was in the van, and they went into a house in a swanky part of town. The van may or may not be empty, and it’s the best way back into the facility.

    We splashed the guard with a combination of stick and shock and a stunbolt, knocking him out in the first round. They popped into the van, I proceeded to clean up my signature.

    They’ve tied the guard up, proceeded to tailor his pants and vest into something more revealing. An Assless Zoe Suit and a Vest combination. With a strange symbol carved into his ass cheeks.

    Hacking into the van’s computer, we looked up our target on the van’s reservation. So, we went to visit that guard. We tried to talk to him, but in the end, it was better to put him down. A couple of stunbolts, one of which he resisted rather well. The sneaker used the heavy machine pistol on him, which put him down hard, non-lethally.

    With the guard unconscious, it was a simple matter to pick her up, and deliver her to the destination. The face gave her to the J, we took the payday and left.

     

  • Job – Final Notice.

    Extract from Job – Final Notice:

    “J needs some uncooperative tenants evicted from his property without them raising too much of a fuss. Think you can handle things?”

    So, he showed up at the meeting, at a Soybucks wearing the Actioneer business suit. Carrying the greatcoat with the biker helmet. Forked Tongue, Delivery Boy, trying to climb the ladder down into the shadows.

    The J wanted a DNI call in a Soybucks. Unfortunately, the trodes were installed in his helmet. So, since the fellow was insisting on a DNI, he had to put on the helmet to take the call, which was inappropriate. The Johnson was not impressed, and didn’t consider us to be professionals. (Different styles, I suppose. I’m used to runs where mages are not  assumed to have trode nets. But that might be because I’m used to mages who take Gremlins.)
    Apparently on Runner Hub, DNI is de rigueur for public meetings.

    The gunbunny suggested a bar, provided a map to it. On the edge of the Barrens. Not my favorite place in the world, but not a bad place for a planning session. When we got inside, he decided to pull out his piece and slap it on the table. Given that it was a sniper rifle, this seemed in rather poor taste. Then again, given his attire, that wasn’t a surprise. Also, the gunbunny may not be stable, as the J took a lollipop on his way out, and he decided to sing a lollipop song.

    The datachip contains some details on the job. 6 apartments to clear out. 4 of them in one location. An old lady with her cats, 2 orc families, and a young male troll, chromed up and possibly gang affiliated. In the other two locations, both in Touristville, an old orc groundskeeper and a young female elf, who is being spied on, apparently.

    Forked Tongue is having some doubts about this career path. He stops at little electronic shop to grab some extra gear. A trode and a bandanna to cover it, and a micro-tranceiver.

    Then we headed into the projects. The gunbunny is going to play the body guard for the fellow who seems a little stuffy. The other guy, the face, he’s the driver, showing off the area, I suppose.

    Forked checks in with the locals, wanting to pay his respects to the local mojo-slingers, getting a name. Maya, who may or may not be the cat lady he’s been hired to evict. He proceeds to head up into the apartment block to meet her.

    The suit is surveying the neighbourhood, looking at it as a business proposition. The building is old style soviet block concrete building. One entrance, one exit, on either side.

    Well, Forked managed to learn the layout of the building, that visitors get escorted in and out, and that Mia is the lady he was asked to evict. He also gained a free reagent from the whole process.

    Forked goes for the summon spirits, deliver messages plan. The first apartment he visits, the spirit gets disrupted violently after delivering the message. That fits with the young male troll being dangerous. The other two message deliveries work reasonably well, though he takes some drain in the process. Then it’s a two hour nap to recover. And then a new spirit to try to check on the results.

    While I was taking my nap, the face headed over to the elf’s place, and used the still frames from the camera to get into her apartment. He used his P.I. credentials and his bug scanner to locate the camera and remove it. Then he tried to put the fear into her. This was rather successful, she decided to pack her stuff and move out.

    The spirits visited the 5th floor, where he’d requested people leave. They hadn’t left. Using fear, they didn’t leave either. They fought back.

    Forked quickly checked out the older ork gardener, who fortunately wasn’t awakened, though he did have cybereyes and bone lacing. They decided to visit him and intimidate him.

    So they’re knocking on the door of the ork under the stairs, since he’s in a basement apartment with the entrance under the staircase to the main building. And trying to get him to come out.

    Dimestore, reading this feed, suggested that we provide some goats to the ork, a la the billy goats of grim. I passed this along to the chat, they were amused but confused, and decided to force the door open anyways, with a halligan tool. The resulting explosion was pretty massive, reflected in the small space.

    This resulted in the delicious aroma of roasting edge, on both the individuals in the doorway. The suit in the car, he heard, ran in with the medikit, stabilized them, brought them to Fork in a non-aspected place to heal them up a bit.

    Took them a couple of days to recover. Forked sent in a spirit, but the place had been warded. I went in astrally, to check out her wards. I pre-edged my roll, then critically glitched on it. So now I’m terrified of the old cat lady, and her doom wards.

    Forked manages to convince the old lady to move out, going to a retirement community with a magical bent, but he has to take her place as the protector of these projects. So he’s buying a low lifestyle in the projects.

    The process requires him to go apologize to the tenants of the apartments, which he does, sincerely. And then he applies for a new apartment, in the building.

    We still have a young male troll to remove from the building, but the gunbunny managed to convince his fixer to hire the guy, as an up-and-coming runner.

    We called in the J, got paid.

    Forked Tongue will now live in the Avondale projects and has a public awareness, since he admitted to being hired to clear a building.

    Mr. White and Dart have a new contact, the elven girl who may lean on them in a pinch.

    The gunbunny made friends with YMT, who his fixer hired.

    Overall, an interesting way to spend a Saturday Morning.

  • Final Version Arthur

    Arthur
    METATYPE: HUMAN
    B 3, A 3, R 4, S 3, W 5, L 6/8, I 3, C 3, ESS 6, EDG 4, M 6
    Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 11
    Armor: 8
    Limits: Physical 5, Mental 10, Social 6
    Physical Initiative: 7+1D6
    Astral Initiative: 6+3D6
    Active Skills: Alchemy 1, Arcana 1, Assensing 4, Astral Combat 1, Banishing 2, Binding 1, Computer 1, Con 2, Counterspelling 4, Etiquette 1, Perception 3, Spellcasting 6, Summoning 5
    Knowledge Skills: Gambling 2, Grey Markets 2, Magical Bounties 3, Magical Security 4, Magical Theory 4, Seattle Gangs 3
    Languages: English N
    Qualities: Allergy, Common (Mild): Soy, Creature of Comfort (Middle Lifestyle), Hermetic Magician, Prototype Transhuman: Allergy, Common (Mild): Soy, Uncanny Healer
    Spells: Fireball, Improved Invisibility, Increase Reflexes, Influence, Lightning Bolt, Magic Fingers, Mana Barrier, Manabolt, Mind Probe, Mob Mind, Physical Barrier, Stunball
    Augmentations:
    Cerebral Booster (Prototype) (2) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Damage Compensators (Prototype) (4) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Mnemonic Enhancer (Prototype) (2) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Gear:
    Actioneer Business Clothes w/ Fire Resistance (4), Nonconductivity (2), White Noise Generator (4)
    Astral Space Preservation Society (ASPS) x3
    FTL Quark w/ Modify the Firewall Attribute: Data Processing
    James Sanderson w/ Fake License: Mage (4), Fake SIN (4), (1 month) Middle Lifestyle
    Micro-Tranceiver
    Percival w/ Fake SIN (1)
    Reagents, Raw (dram): Hermetic x10
    Sustaining Focus: Health Spells (4)
    Telescoping Mirror on a Stick
    Trodes
    Contacts:
    Dimestore (Connection 5, Loyalty 2)
    Henry (Connection 2, Loyalty 1)
    Starting ¥: 70 + (4D6 × 100)¥

    Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com Shadowrun © 2005-2015 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.

  • Hobo with a shotgun – James


    James – created with Hero Lab®



    James
    METATYPE: HUMAN
    B 3, A 5, R 6/11, S 3, W 4, L 4, I 4, C 5, ESS 0.02, EDG 4
    Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 10
    Armor: 9
    Limits: Physical 7, Mental 6, Social 5
    Physical Initiative: 10/15+4D6
    Active Skills: Acting Group 5, Athletics Group 1, Blades 1, Computer 1, Demolitions 1, Escape Artist 1, Influence Group 1, Locksmith 2, Longarms 2, Outdoors Group 1, Perception 3, Pistols 3, Stealth Group 3, Unarmed Combat 2
    Languages: Aztlaner Spanish 3, Chinese 3, English N, German 3, Japanese 3, Russian 4
    Qualities: Big Regret, Hobo with a Shotgun, Incomplete Deprogramming, Restricted Gear: Wired Reflexes (Alphaware)
    Augmentations:
       Cyberears (Alphaware) (1) w/ Audio Analyzer (Alphaware), Sound Link (Alphaware)
       Data Lock (Alphaware) (1)
       False Face
       Reaction Enhancers (Alphaware) (2)
       Skin Toner (Alphaware)
       Smuggling Compartment (Alphaware)
       Voice Modulator (4)
       Wired Reflexes (Alphaware) (3)
    Gear:
       Identity: Specify Name w/ Fake SIN (1), (1 month) Squatter Lifestyle
       Identity: Specify Name w/ Fake SIN (4), (2 months) Street Lifestyle
       Lined Coat w/ Lightly Worn
          Meta Link
       Lockpick Set
       Meta Link
       Sequencer (5)
    Weapons:
       Remington 990 [Shotgun, Acc 5, DV 11S, AP –, SA, 8 (c)] w/ (20x) Gel Rounds, Personalized Grip
          Bayonet [Blade, Reach 2, Acc 4, DV 4P, AP -1]
       Bayonet [Blade, Reach 2, Acc 4, DV 4P, AP -1]
       Combat Axe [Blade, Reach 2, Acc 4, DV 8P, AP -4]
    Contacts:
    Bartender (Connection 1, Loyalty 3)
    Church Pastor (Connection 2, Loyalty 2)
    Fixer (Connection 5, Loyalty 2)
    Starting ¥: 775 + (2D6 × 40)¥

    Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
    Shadowrun © 2005-2015 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.


  • Arthur – Hobo Mage

    Arthur – created with Hero Lab®

    Arthur
    METATYPE: HUMAN
    B 2, A 4, R 4, S 2, W 5, L 6/8, I 4, C 3, ESS 6, EDG 4, M 6
    Condition Monitor (P/S): 9 / 11
    Armor: 8
    Limits: Physical 4, Mental 11, Social 6
    Physical Initiative: 8+1D6
    Astral Initiative: 8+3D6
    Active Skills: Acting Group 1, Arcana 1, Assensing 3, Astral Combat 1, Athletics Group 1, Conjuring Group 3, Counterspelling 4, Enchanting Group 1, Influence Group 1, Perception 3, Pistols 1, Ritual Spellcasting 2, Spellcasting 6, Stealth Group 1
    Knowledge Skills: Classical Music 2, Gambling 2, Grey Markets 2, Magical Bounties 3, Magical Security 4, Magical Theory 4, Seattle Gangs 3
    Languages: English N
    Qualities: Allergy, Common (Mild): Soy, Hawk Eye, Hermetic Magician, Prototype Transhuman: Allergy, Common (Mild): Soy, Uncanny Healer
    Spells: Control Thoughts, Detect Enemies, Extended, Improved Invisibility, Increase Reflexes, Lightning Bolt, Mind Probe, Mindnet Extended
    Rituals: Watcher
    Augmentations:
    Cerebral Booster (Prototype) (2) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Damage Compensators (Prototype) (4) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Mnemonic Enhancer (Prototype) (2) w/ Prototype Transhuman
    Gear:
    Actioneer Business Clothes
    Astral Space Preservation Society (ASPS) x12
    FTL Quark w/ Modify the Firewall Attribute: Data Processing
    Stun Dongle w/ Internal Battery
    James Sanderson w/ Fake License: Mage (4), Fake SIN (4), (1 month) Middle Lifestyle
    Percival w/ Fake SIN (1)
    Weapons:
    Stun Dongle [Club, Reach 1, Acc 4, DV 9S(e), AP -5] w/ Internal Battery
    Contacts:
    Dimestore (Connection 5, Loyalty 2)
    Henry (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
    Jason (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
    Starting ¥: 1,500 + (4D6 × 100)¥

    Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
    Shadowrun © 2005-2015 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.

     

     

  • Shadowrun character building

    Well, we’ve got Fluffles the Troll, being built for Ian. We’ve got a black mage for Lori. Kylie has an elf killer, and Chris has a second story man.

    My character feels a little unfinished. I feel like I need to rebuild him. Right now, he’s a powerful mage, but it feels like he’s lacking motives.

  • FMV / QTV

    So, next time I have a lack of motivation to learn a new game, rather than looking on Netflix, we’ll put on Until Dawn or Contradiction or Her Story. Video driven games that work well with an audience.

  • Shadowrun character ideas.

    We’ve got our DM back and we are looking at starting a new campaign. I’m a little unsure about what to play, since the characters seem to have a lack of cohesion at this point. We’ve got Katsu, a corporation-raised infiltration man, a mage who is very focused on avoiding conflict, and someone who is considering building a wookie in a winnebago. The latter fellow probably needs a smack upside the head, but the character concepts could work, potentially. Shadowrun is a rich system, and there are many routes to many end results. The same character concept can be made through magic or machinery with roughly equal success. I normally put together a face character, someone who can keep the game moving forward, since I tend to be pretty comfortable with improvising. For the secondary role, I go with either a hacker, or a mage. The problem is, because there are so many build options, I need to have a good concept, or I’ll get lost in different build ideas.

  • Empathy Training tools.

    My copy of …and then, we held hands. has arrived.
    It’s a strange board game, and the writings about it have mentioned this. It can be played in silence, with both players showing what they have, attempting to work together to reach a common goal, for if one of you can’t use their cards to move, you both lose.
    I think Reive and Moondancer would be interested in it.

  • Blood Rage!

    So, we played our first game of Blood Rage today.
    It was pretty enjoyable. The drafting mechanics were interesting, especially since nobody knew too much about what to expect.

    We found a few combos that felt a bit broken, like the leader who could travel after battle, pillaging around the board during the first age.

    In the third age, I managed to get the lovely combination of Eternal Dragons and Friga’s Domain, allowing my flaming ships to return if they were destroyed.

    We ended the game with myself at 144 points, Dimestore at 106, and the others not far behind.

    I suspect this will hit the table again shortly. It has some elements in common with Cthulhu Wars, specifically the Power/Rage system, but I think Cthulhu Wars might be a slightly stronger game still, though certainly less played by the majority.