Welcome to the Data Haven

Hello chummers.  😉

My name is J, but I also answer to Insomniac.  This blog will soon be the home of all my Shadowrun stuff that I have scattered around the Net.  Primarily a place to grab run notes, I plan on reviewing sourcebooks, posting fan fiction and perhaps even commenting on the game itself.

If you’re not familiar with Shadowrun (in the P&P RPG style, rather than the video games), it is a near-future, dystopian, cybernetic future game where fantasy elements have been re-introduced to the world causing an interesting blend of magic and machine.  The storyline is in-depth and there are so many things going on at once that Game Masters should have no shortage of material.  However, if you find yourself short on material, hopefully some of the future posts on this blog will help with that.  🙂

While I will occasionally pipe up like this, the bulk of my posts will likely be “in-character” as my grumpy, sleep-deprived sysop alter-ego, Insomniac.  He runs a board in the Seattle Matrix where shadowrunners can look for work.  He’s a no nonsense kind of guy, but he does welcome some discussion.  So if you’d like to comment on run notes, feel free to do so in character and become part of the dialogue.

Well, I think that’s it for now.  Hopefully, you’ll check back from time to time.

J.

>>Oi!  Who’s grumpy?  Anyways, I figured I’d step up and introduce myself.  The handle’s Insomniac and I run my own little corner of ShadowSea.  If you need work, I’m your guy…assuming legality ain’t a scruple you tend to have.  If you think the shadows might be the place for you, then loiter for a bit and see what’s around.  Who knows…maybe you’ll be the next best thing round here.  Or maybe you’ll end up as the next red stain on the asphalt.  Either way, these should be interestin’ times, omae.  Perhaps I’ll see ya round.
>> Insomniac
“The shadows never sleep, so why should I?”

Diary of a Hero – Week 1

So, during the pandemic I downloaded a bunch of solo RPGs to help kill time while we were all in lockdown. Turns out, I didn’t actually use half of them, as I started running RPGs online instead and they have just been kinda sitting here… waiting. I went through them the other day and decided that not only would I try one of them out, but I’d post it here for everyone to laugh at as I did so. Many solo RPGs are kind of like an exercise in creative writing from a first person perspective, so I figure a blog was conducive to that sort of thing.

So, the game I’m going to try out first is a game called Beyond Super: Life Behind the Mask. It is a journaling game, detailing the life and struggles of a super hero. The mechanics are vastly card-driven, where each card in a playing card deck correlates with an event. 52 cards in a deck, 52 weeks in a year… you get it… I’ll be posting a post a week (hopefully) to chronicle one year in the life of my hero. The hero was similarly created using a deck of cards.

So, with the introduction out of the way, here is the introductory post for what I hope will become a regular project.

---

So, on the recommendation of my therapist, I’m creating a journal, I guess.  So, in case my luck runs out and someone finds this, my name is Dr. Henry Lumen.  I’m a urologist at Mercy Hospital, when I’m not forced into doing emergency triage and such.  In case you’re somehow new to this world, crime is rampant and I rarely actually get to use my trained speciality, due to the level of violence in the streets.

Honestly, if you’re finding this, you’re likely more familiar with my alter ego: Halogen.  Like many others in the world, when the rogue comet detonated in the upper atmosphere a few years ago, I was one of those who seem to have gained some extra abilities.  Being in the medical sector, I think the government severely underestimates how many people were changed by the horribly-named Cometonium.  The changes are vastly minor, but occasionally you see some truly gifted individuals.  I am not one of those.  As much as I would like to say that using my powers is a natural thing, my road to where I am is not exactly clear.

My power is controlling light.  I only learned that control with a lot of practice and I was a government plaything for a while after my initial exposure… kinda hard to go unnoticed when you’re the brightest source of light in a three block radius.  They tested the effects of this new substance on me and when they saw my abilities diminish, they started to think that me and others like me would see power fade over time.  While mine did fade, they aren’t gone.  Some others didn’t fade at all.  I was deemed to be not a threat and released.  I discovered that I could push my powers back to full power with a new shot of Cometonium.

There’s a problem with that though… it doesn’t occur naturally on Earth, so it is a heavily controlled substance, given what it can do.  I don’t need much, but it’s terribly hard to acquire.  Luckily for me, I know a guy.

This week, my supply was starting to get low so I reached out to my friend.  Let’s call him Kyle.  I don’t ask him where he gets the stuff, and I make it a point to not look too deeply into it.  He provides it as a powder, which as a doctor, no one thinks twice if they see me doing what they think is coke.  I placed an order with Kyle and while I was waiting, I caught wind of some supervillain that was looking to attack the local bank after another hero ended up hurt and in the ER.

I had to use the last of my supply after my shift and headed to the bank.  One of the abilities I’ve learned to control is absorbing the photons I would give off, rendering me invisible to anyone who isn’t paying too close of attention.  I’ve been told it’s like a floating shadow, which works fine at night, except in well-lit areas.  I searched the area and found the would-be perp on the roof of the bank.  The criminal was a lop-sided person who had strapped so much technology to their body, it was a wonder they could even reach the roof.  However, the rumor about them being a supervillain was vastly overstated.  Dangerous, sure.  Nothing super about carrying a flamethrower, guns and assorted tools in some kind of demented swiss army knife…

So, I bent the local light into a laser and carved up his gear to keep it from functioning and gave him a flash of white light to blind him before tossing him off the roof.  He would live, but would likely see me in my civilian life before my alter ego soon enough.

The whole thing was kind of lackluster and I used the last of my magic dust on some random pyro.  It did free me up, though.  When Kyle got back to me, it was his birthday, so rather than just meeting up to buy more Cometonium, I took him out to the bar and we had a night of drinking and mediocre wings.  It had been a long time since I’d had a night out as a regular guy and it definitely seemed to make Kyle’s night.  I promised it wouldn’t be a year before we hung out again.  I hope I can keep my word, but I’ve been doing this whole hero-thing for a few years now.  Odds aren’t great.  But my therapist says I need to spend more time as a regular person and not work myself to death, so this was my first try.  Overall, not bad, in my opinion.  Anyways, that’s enough for this week.  Hopefully, this will get less awkward the more I do it.

Storymaker #2

I laid out another spread of the Storymaker deck and opted to try and create stories again. I chose to mix things up a little and instead of Blades in the Dark, I went for Action Potential, a Forged in the Dark game set in the far future that I ran for a little while before my Catalyst writing project began. Either way, here we go again!

Hook – Desolation
Shadowrun – The lore of Shadowrun has all sorts of desolate places, but I opted for something relatively “close to home” for this one and went with Glow City, out in the Redmond Barrens.
7th Sea – One of the most desolate and unforgiving places I can think of in the 7th Sea setting would be in the Ussuran wilderness…
Action Potential – There is a lot of desolation in deep space, but I went for something that most would choose to ignore. I named a solar system the Kerguelen System (named after desolate Antarctic Islands on Earth), also known as Dark Rock 642. A former mining colony whose planet was destroyed from over-extraction by the Dark Rock company.

Subject – Politics
Shadowrun – While there isn’t a whole lot of politics going on in Redmond, Sonya Scholl has been the mayor of the city for a long time, so she was an obvious choice.
7th Sea – Civilization is spread pretty thin throughout Ussura, so the closest thing to a politician in the middle of nowhere would be a Boyar (land owner) for a local village.
Action Potential – The sole remaining planetary body in DR 642 (the locals call it simply Kerguelen) is tired of the corporation exploiting their lands and treating them as disposable labor and a revolution has begun to try to overthrow the local President.

Action – Free
Shadowrun – Sonya is not as young as she once was and her guard detail has gotten complacent. Someone has kidnapped the mayor and the city council is worried about the missing politician (likely because no one else wants to manage the mess that is Redmond).
7th Sea – The local Boyar has gone missing and the people of his village are worried. The time of the annual blood tribute to Matushka is only days away. If the leader of their community does not pay tribute to their protector, misfortune might befall the entire village.
Action Potential – The Dark Rock Corporation is none too thrilled by the employees rising up and trying to become independent. The leader of the uprising was captured and imprisoned and the locals want them broken out of the local prison.

Allies – Witness
Shadowrun – Finding people willing to talk in Redmond is often a hard sell at the best of times. If the runners play their cards right, they can find help in an unlikely source: the Rusted Stilettos. This increasingly unstable group was none too amused to see others attempting to hide within the glow of the old reactor.
7th Sea – No one knows the Ussuran wilds better than the Woodsmen and Hunters of the area. One or more of them heard the cries of someone being dragged off into the deep wilds.
Action Potential – Outside of the corporate complexes, the scoundrels can find allies in the settlement leaders and the laborers of the planet.

Threats – Authorities
Shadowrun – The powers that are behind the abduction are the local crazies: The Halloweeners. While they don’t have a bone to pick with Mayor Scholl, per se, they are interested in causing carnage to mask the pyromania they wish to inflict.
7th Sea – The local Douma (Senate) officials are interested in snatching up more prime hunting grounds (even though Matushka provides, no matter how much land you control). The Boyar was content with his small hunting hamlet and refused to give up his pocket of land.
Action Potential – The threat here is the “rightful owner” of DR 642: the Dark Rock Corporation. They have soldiers all over the planet and run the local prison.

Bonus – Blood
Shadowrun – (Threats) The Halloweeners want to generate more virulent strife between Scholl and the dragon Urubia. They kidnapped the mayor to steal small amounts of her blood in order to leave her DNA at various sites of sabotage around the Funhouse.
7th Sea – (Subject) The Boyar’s blood is needed to avoid bad harvests and potential starvation of the village.
Action Potential – (Allies) the corporation made an example of the workforce (even those who didn’t participate in the attempted liberation) and killed several personae in a display of intimidation.

Shadowrun
The team is contacted through their usual channels to speak with their fixer as a proxy for a Mr. Johnson (the local politicians would likely be recognized). The mayor of Redmond, Sonya Scholl has been kidnapped and carried off into Redmond. The Johnson requires the runners to pursue the kidnappers and bring back the mayor alive. The team is forced to deal with the violent, gang-laden culture of Redmond in pursuit of a lead, eventually heading to the edge of Glow City, where the mayor is a pawn in a local gang’s scheme to sow anarchy.

7th Sea
The Heroes are exploring the wilds of Ussura when they encounter a small hamlet. The locals welcome the foreigners into their homes and share the bounty of the hunt, but after a night of merriment and alcohol, the locals express their fears about the coming of the tribute. Every man, woman and child is to donate a drop of blood to Matushka, but the local Boyar was recently set upon by creatures in the night and dragged into the wilds. If the tribute is not completed, misfortune will come for the entire village. As Heroes venture out to find the missing man, they must battle the elements, endure Matushka’s tests and ultimately confront a local tyrant bent on claiming the village after Matushka’s Will is exacted.

Action Potential
The scoundrels are contacted their one of their associates, who tells them of a distant Dark Rock world where the laborers witnessed one of the planets shattered in the company’s greed and wish to throw off the corporate shackles to save their world. They need their recently-captured leader freed from the local prison to help re-invigorate the revolution. In return, the people of Kerguelen would be indebted to the crew and offer them safe haven whenever they needed a place to lay low after a score.

…And Now for Something a Little Different

So, I backed a Kickstarter back in early 2023 that was for something I don’t normally back. All of my Kickstarters historically have been for board games and RPGs (shocking, I know). This time, I wanted something that would be a sort of mental exercise for myself, especially in times when I’m in a bit of a time crunch. It’s a deck of cards that will provide random elements of a plot for you to work with. The project is called RPG Storymaker and the Kickstarter was to make an English version of the product (the creator lives in France, as you might ascertain from the linked page). The deck has six card types: Hook (the point of entry into the adventure), the Subject (what’s the focal point), the Action (What will the players need to accomplish), Allies (who will help them), Threats (who/what will oppose them) and Bonus (pair it up with another card to add an extra element). Being system agnostic, I thought it would be a fun little tool.

I got my copy on Thursday. So, my thought was this: deal out a spread of 6 cards and apply the same draw to three different systems to see what the same cards might generate in different systems. First time out, I figured I’d stay close to home and choose three systems I’m quite familiar with: Shadowrun, 7th Sea and Blades in the Dark. So, since I always want to play with my new toys as soon as possible, here we go…

So, the first card is the Hook. I drew Encounter, which talks about something unexpected and/or significant.
For Shadowrun, I took that phrase “middle of nowhere” and ran with it, choosing the middle of a desert.
For 7th Sea, I went with the idea of a discovery, and thought about the Heroes locating an old Syrneth shrine or temple.
For Blades, I looked for a feature that I had never used in the setting and chose the Radiant Energy Farm in Barrowcleft. One doesn’t often think of farms when it comes to heists…

The second card was the Subject. Since it was someone Notable, I was thinking of named, canonical characters from the different settings.
Shadowrun: I went with Simon Andrews, the Saeder-Krupp fixer and Lofwyr fanboy.
7th Sea: I went for Prince Caligari of Vodacce. If I’m already thinking Syrneth, he is an easy choice.
Blades: I looked at named characters and chose Hester Vale. She has a lot at stake in the farms of Duskvol.

The third card is the Action. Destruction is a straightforward mission type, for the most part. Lord knows, a lot of GMs have one or more players who love to wreck the joint, so this one’s for them.
Shadowrun: I was thinking “if Simon Andrews is stuck in a desert, it’d be a good opportunity to put him down… so I opted for the opposite. Rather than trying to kill Andrews, the team is hired to wipe out the crew that is responsible for Simon being there.
7th Sea: Syrneth artifacts are alien in purpose half the time, but what if the Heroes figure out that this temple was designed to strip the land bare, so the land could be recultivated for miles around…useful, except there are towns and villages that would be exterminated in the process. So, the Heroes have to discover how to destroy this ancient temple before Caligari activates it.
Blades: What does a farmer want that they would hire scoundrels for? More land! Vale needs to gobble up more land and to do that, her neighbour’s crops have to fail and the land deemed worthless.

Next up is Allies. I didn’t go for the obvious choice, seeing as the card is called Shapeshifters and Shapeshifters are definitely a thing in Shadowrun…
Shadowrun: Rather than a shapeshifter, I decided on a being whose form can take on anything… a free spirit that has seen its home disturbed by everything that’s going on and is willing to help the runners out, if they just leave it in peace.
7th Sea: The spirit of an ancestor, trapped long ago in the temple walls has been here long enough to see what happens when the temple is activated and never wishes to witness it again.
Blades: The ghost of a labourer on the neighbour’s farm can aid the scoundrels in their mission, as the crops being harvested were toxic to them in life and ultimately killed them.

Then we have Threats… nothing says cannon fodder better than a bunch of crazy zealot types, right?
Shadowrun: On top of the Kill Team the runners have been tasked with taking down, a local band of Bedouin nomads (it was here I settled on which desert to use), who were sick of trespassers opt to drive the outsiders from their lands.
7th Sea: A local collection of the disenfranchised have taken to worshipping the old Syrneth as Gods and see that the next reaping is their judgement on the unworthy. They will not stand idly by and allow the Heroes stop the divine project…
Blades: The crops that Ms. Vale wants destroyed can be distilled to create a potent hallucinogenic that is popular among a local sect of the Forgotten Gods cult. Without their drug of choice, they believe they will be unable to commune with their deity and will stop at nothing to protect their ‘holy elixir’.

Finally, we have the Bonus card. Initially, I had a good laugh at the notion that both Creation and Destruction came up in the same draw, but I ran with it.
Shadowrun: I combined Creation with the Subject for Shadowrun. In coming to Simon Andrew’s rescue, not only does the team earn a solid paycheck, but they also create a powerful new connection in Simon.
7th Sea: I combined Creation with the Ally on this one. Upon destroying the temple, the trapped ancestor is now free of his prison. In thanks, he leads the Heroes to an undisturbed hillside, where an ancient artifact lies buried.
Blades: I combined the Creation with the original Hook/Action. By destroying the farm of the neighbour, Hester Vale can stop the field being used for drugs and puts it to work for growing food, which is of much better use to the people of Duskvol.

So, with all of this hammered out, this is what I came up with as summaries for each game:

Shadowrun
The runners are called in for a time sensitive job by their fixer. Mr. Johnson doesn’t even try to obscure his affiliation to Saeder-Krupp when they meet up with the potential employer. A well-known associate of the company, Simon Andrews was returning to Essen after concluding business in Cape Town, Azania when a hijacked drone left over from the Desert Wars shot down his private plane over western Egypt. Isolated in the irradiated desert of what was Libya, Mr. Johnson has discovered that a team has been hired to head to the crash site and ensure Andrews is dead. The team is to be flown into Tripoli and eliminate the kill team before they reach Andrews (his biomonitor is active, so he survived the crash) and get the fixer to safety. Between the hot desert climate, undetonated ordinance from the Desert Wars, pockets of fallout and roving raiders, the runners have plenty of obstacles in their way.

7th Sea
After overhearing a drunken member of the Explorer’s Society ramble about a tiny island discovered in the Widow’s Sea, the Heroes are lured by the siren song of buried treasure at a religious temple. Close to the shores of Eastern Castille, it’s a small wonder no one had found it until now. Unfortunately, world of this site has reached the ears of Prince Caligari as well and he has dispatched an archaeological team to discover the building’s secrets. As the Heroes on on their way, old Mariners on the ship tell them the tale of this island and how the temple on the island is designed to erase all life for miles in all directions, should it be awakened. Knowing that Caligari will not be careful in his search, now it is a race to reach the temple first, to ensure the power in the Syrneth site remains dormant, so not to wipe out whole miles of Castillian coastline.

Blades in the Dark
The scoundrels have started making a name for themselves, sure. It came as a little bit of a shock when they were contacted by Hester Vale, the matriarch of the oldest family working the fields at the Radiant Energy Farm. She makes a tidy sum from the seats of power in Duskvol, supplying food for the masses, but demand is always on the rise and there is only so much viable land. To that end, she has set her sights on Narcus Dalmore, her immediate neighbour. Dalmore grows some food for the city, but his real money comes from the sale of Psilocyde mushrooms. Of no nutritional value, they provide the city with escapism in the form of hallucinogenics. She requires the group to destroy the crops (whether they keep any of it is none of her business), but also indicates that Narcus has a stash of cash that he uses for bribing the Bluecoats that they are more than welcome to abscond with, as thanks. (Could also be used as the group’s expansion options, such as a surplus cache or turf).

Anyways, that was this little experiment. Ultimately, I’m pretty happy with the end result. I may do more of these down the line as well. I may change up the system from time to time, just to add some variety. Hope this was interesting for everyone…

Shadows Over Las Vegas – Wayward Flock (#Shadowrun)

This job was centered on one of the characters who was called “Father”, as he moonlighted as a local priest.

Scene 1 – Church on Sunday

The Father is in his Church, preaching to his congregation as is his Sunday tradition.  However, at the end of his sermon, one of his congregation approaches him, his eyes downcast and sad.  When the Father approaches him, he speaks low and almost too quiet to hear.

“Forgive me Father, if I overstep my bounds, but there are rumours that you actively protect your flock from the dangers of the real world using more than just your faith.  I… I don’t know where else to turn…”

Assuming Father is willing to hear from the man, he continues, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed that several members of your congregation have gone missing.  It’s not too unusual for people to miss Church on Sunday, so I wasn’t sure if you’d notice… but several people in our neighbourhood have gone missing.  They aren’t just missing Church… no one has seen them in days or weeks.  People are starting to get scared.  I just wanted you to know, in case there was something you could do about it…”

If asked, the man (Declan Griffin) tells them that at least three people are missing:  Ashton Turner, Rosie Morgan and Sarah Bryant.  He knows where they all live and can give the team the addresses for the people, if required.

Scene 2 – Lost Souls

The homes of the missing people all tell a similar story.  The homes may differ and the lifestyles may vary, but there are similarities in every home that the runners visit.  Their immediate neighbours don’t recall seeing anything unusual.  There’s no sign of a struggle, or abduction… in fact in every home, it looks like the residents packed a day trip bag and just left.  Each house also has a pamphlet displayed prominently in their kitchen, where most other residences simply threw it out.

The pamphlet talks about a new Church that is starting up in the area called The Church of the Risen Martyr.  Calling the number on the pamphlet goes to a message system that provides an address for the new Church.

Scene 3 – New Faith

The address turns out to be a vacant lot where a gang is currently squatting.  If the runners approach, the gang outnumbers them 2 to 1 and they approach with smiling faces and open posture.  If the runners ask about the Church they are eager to ask them if they’d like to join and if one of the runners expresses interest, the lead ganger offers a handshake.  His aura gives off strong vibes of duplicity and if someone does take the offered handshake, an injection tip will pierce the runner’s hand and pump them full of a drug that makes them very suggestible.

The ganger will suggest they head home, pack a bag and come for their initiation camp.  The runners can choose to play along or opt to fight their way through the gang.  If they play along, when they return for the initiation camp, the gang will knock them out with a tranq patch and move them while they’re unconscious (unless the runners resist).

If the runners fight, it is out in the open and likely in broad daylight, so it won’t be long before PuebSec comes to investigate.  But one of the defeated gangers will quickly spill the beans under the spotlight of professional runners.  He tells the runners that the Church is set up in an old derelict community center.

Gangers

Scene 4 – False Prophet

The old Community Center looks abandoned, unless you know what to look for.  While there are several gutted vehicles in the parking lot, there is no loose debris in the lot.  The windows are boarded up, but the doors aren’t chained.  Despite city records showing the building having been decommissioned years ago, the building is heated and has limited power.

Rooms have been set up with cots and the congregation seems to live in this compound that has been set up.  In the largest conference hall is the main Church… where a man in an expensive suit stands behind a pulpit, preaching to rousing cheers of “Amen” from his congregation.  The scripture is directly from the Bible without any seeming insidious extra interpretations being woven within it, yet the congregation seems to be almost chomping at the bit with energy.

If Father enters the Church, one of his former sheep points him out as a “false prophet” and that he doesn’t truly know the word of God.  Any other runners are welcomed into the Church and invited to come down to the prayer rail, where they will be introduced to the priest and the archangel that has blessed the Church.

The priest is a Christian Theurgist mage, but looking at him shows him to be gaunt and malnourished, despite the nice suit.  The congregation is also showing signs of malnourishment. On the astral plane is a powerful spirit that has adopted the visage of an angelic form made of pure white light.  When the runners look on it, they will need to make a Composure roll to resist the enthralling draw of the Muse Spirit.  If they can breach the appearance of the spirit, they see a thin, dark humanoid form who feeds off the fervor of those it inspires.  Ultimately, the only evil one in the room is the Muse.

The Mob

Priest … Make it up… name is Mason Harris.

The Muse is powerful from feeding and is Force 7.

If the Muse is destroyed, those it has enraptured are free from their obsessions and are appalled by their actions.  Many are empty without their inspiration, but some will offer thanks for freeing their minds.  If the runners seek payment, they will be given a couple grand in thanks, but if they don’t seek any monetary gain, Father will gain more loyalty from the locals and more Karma can be rewarded.

>> Hiring runners because people changed congregations? What is this world coming to?
>> Skeptik

>> It’s more than that. Others went missing too, who aren’t attending Church. Not even religious. It’s only because popular congregates went missing that this popped up on radar.
>> Leviticus

>> There’s definitely something weird going on in Vegas… and not the usual weird. Something tells me you’re going to need a mage on this one. The astral plane feels off…
>> Revenge

Thing Have Been Busy…

So, there hasn’t been a lot of activity on here for the past several months. It isn’t necessarily about my not running games (though there was certainly a dip for a time there). My main focus has been on writing for the last few months of 2023. I have been writing some of the convention adventures for the 2024 Convention circuit for Catalyst (these will be the games you’ll play if you attend larger conventions, like GenCon, this year). Due to the format and the sheer amount of information that needs to be included in these modules, it has taken a lot of my time developing this material to what I feel is a high standard.

I have my home campaigns back up and running again, which has taken the remainder of my free time in keeping things moving and detailing the constantly evolving plot. I’m also running Shadowrun Missions (think Adventurer’s League for Shadowrun) at a local shop in my city, just to keep myself occupied. So, I have plenty of gaming going on, just not a lot getting posted.

This is post 300 on my site here… which is depressingly low, given how long this site has been up and running. I hope to resume posting material here soon, now that the Catalyst material is in the playtesting phase, rather than the planning and writing stage. Still not 100% sure what all to post here, but I still have older stuff to post until I figure that out. 😉

If you have thoughts as to the sorts of things you’d like to see posted (character builds, short plot hooks centered on locations/ideas/threats, etc), let me know and I can sprinkle some extras here.

Shadows Over Las Vegas – Cash Crop (#Shadowrun)

Scene 1 – Unorthodox Protocol

Method contacts Brimstone about a new job.  He tells them that the job is bodyguarding and the pay will be in merchandise.  However, Mr. Johnson would like to meet with them personally along with Method to handle the finer details at the Clark County Wetlands Park at 8AM.  Mr. Johnson is skittish and wants an isolated, daylight meeting.

The Clark County Wetlands Park is a series of old boardwalks and paths through a marsh that is fed from an underground aquifer under the Mojave.  The park has seen better days, as the red rain that falls on Vegas has killed or twisted a lot of the flora here and only the most desperate of fauna call this place home.

In one of the outer viewing areas, the runners find Method and Mr. Johnson… a thin woman of mixed Native heritage, who seems nervous about even being around the runners.

Method begins the introductions between them and Victoria Monroe, their employer.  She seems a little wild-eyed and skittish and seems to be focusing on meditating in the early morning sun.  Method tells them that Victoria is a snake shaman and alchemist, who has a crop of magical reagents that are in high demand, but her competitors have learned that she’s selling to other parties and they’ve made threats to her and her merchandise.  She’s offering a sample of her goods to each of you for your services in keeping her and her merchandise from harm.

Before the team can clarify the terms the wetlands explode with a massive Afanc and its children looking desperately for food. (Use Afanc Stats from Howling Shadows)

Once the starving creatures have been driven off or killed, the meeting can progress.  The team can learn that Victoria is growing Immortal Flower, which is hard to cultivate and worth quite a bit in the market as an alchemical prep.  Her opponents are the Koshari.

Scene 2 – Gaining Access

Victoria tells the team a little bit about growing Immortal Flower and why it only normally grows in the Mojave… it requires a latent and constant background count to nurture the plant, like the one in the Mojave.  She however, has found a more potent latent background count and it is allowing her to grow the plant in the city limits.

The problem is that the location is within Nellis… inside one of the Re-Education centers used on the Native Americans back in the dying days of America.  The constant exposure to the negative energy there is starting to show cracks in Victoria’s psyche.  To get to her stash, they will need to enter Nellis and slip past patrols to get inside the Re-Education Center.

Scene 3 – Air Force on the Ground

Nellis is well guarded, as the old air force base makes up the main portion of the district.  The police presence here is thick, so the team is going to need either stealth, charisma or force (or a combination thereof) to get through the police blockade.  The Nellis troopers won’t hesitate to apply deadly force if they suspect that the group are runners.

The patrols drop off as they enter the “historical district” (which is a nice way of saying “former internment camp”).  The sewers also have periodic patrols, primarily by drones throughout the district.

Scene 4 – Camp Warfare

The old re-education center is a sad structure that has fallen into disrepair over the decades since the Great Ghost Dance.  The old courtyard that housed the tent cities is now overgrown, save for the cultivated area in the middle, where Victoria grows her plants.  The structural stability of some of the outer walls (especially around the gate) has been severely weakened.

The entire complex has a background count of -4, though there are areas that have been cleansed of the background count (centered on where Victoria has been squatting).

The runners have a few hours to establish a defense before the Koshari bribe the members of PuebSec to walk away and move in through the front gates.

Several Koshari are on foot, while a couple others ride motorcycles.  Victoria has her “guard dogs”… a nest of Deathrattles that she has tamed and controls with her magic.

Koshari Opponents:

Use the Organized Crime NPCs from the Core book. Replace the Black Scorpions with HK-227 (SMG, Acc 5(7), 7P, SA/BF/FA, RC (1), 28c, Smartlink, Sound Suppressor, Folding Stock, Contacts 2 (Image Link and Smartlink)).

When the Koshari are dead and/or fleeing Victoria is ecstatic (especially if her crops survive) and as promised, she gives each runner 2 doses of refined Immortal Flower in payment.

>> Immortal Flower! That stuff is really hard to grow and extremely useful. You couldn’t pay me to go anywhere near one of those camps though.
>> Wanderer

>> Sure the background count is pretty wacky there, but it’s not like they’re still punishing people there. It’s ancient history.
>> Kilo

>> Uh, Kilo… you realize that Wanderer’s grandparents were killed in that particular camp, right? She’s of Zuni descent.
>> Boz

>> I… uh…
>> Kilo
<< Kilo has disconnected from the server>>

Shadows Over Las Vegas – Echoes (#Shadowrun)

Scene 1 – Getting the Details

The team is contacted through Brimstone’s fixer, Method.  He tells them to meet with him at Planet Horizon on the Strip at 10PM.  He has a private dining room booked toward the rear of the main casino floor.

Planet Horizon is a bustling and busy place, but security is definitely ramped up since Parallel was last here.  It has been increased enough that casino security would like to speak with him in regards to past events (run #3).  Ultimately, they don’t have enough evidence to hold him on anything, but they want to see if he will volunteer information under pressure.

In the time leading up to 10PM, the team can do whatever they like, but the meeting room is on a timed lock and will only open at 9:59 (unless hacked).

Scene 2 – Meeting Method

The dining room has seating for 50, but Method is the only one here when the runners walk in.  He welcomes them and tells them to grab a chair anywhere while saluting to the camera in the room.  The light on the camera switches off, as he turns to face the group.

He tells them that Mr. Johnson has approached him about a job that has a short timeline, but shouldn’t have too much risk.  They’ve been tracking shipments bustling around the PCC and their big brains have started noticing a few disturbing trends that they want the runners to investigate.

Civilian trucks have been making several trips to old American military bases, both defunct and active.  While this isn’t wholly unusual, a few of the destinations of some of these trucks are raising eyebrows… Los Alamos, Yucca Mountain, San Diego and Trinity Valley… (if the runners don’t know the significance of these places, the first three are places to acquire nuclear waste and a crazy cult lives in Trinity Valley).

Two trucks that were being monitored by Mr. Johnson have dropped off the radar and that’s never good news.  So, Mr. Johnson is willing to pay 6,000¥ apiece to knock on some doors harder than they’re allowed to and find those trucks.  If there are any complications or need of further aid, Mr. Johnson is willing to double the payment.

If the runners agree, Method provides the runners with the transponder codes of the trucks in hopes of being able to pin them down.  The downside is that if a decker does a search on those transponders, they are attacked by a group of Agent programs, bent on stopping the investigation.

Scene 3 – Acts of Terror

Following up on the truck transponders, they track both trucks to a local carrier in Sunrise, called Sterling Transport.  The offices are a small standalone office with only a handful of workers there.  Making a Judge Intentions check will show that the employees here are terrified and trying to hide it.

The man behind the front desk is a member of Atomic Kiva, a nuclear cult run by toxic mages and a perceptive runner can see the radiation burns around his ill-fitting suit.  If the runners inquire about the trucks, the cultists will attack, while the legitimate workers will drop prone.  The cultists will not hesitate to take hostages.

With the cultists subdued the workers, while still rattled, will search for the trucks, which were being actively being suppressed by the members of AK.  One truck is off the grid, in Henderson, but another is still on the highway, heading for Vegas.

Scene 4 – Further Work

With reporting on the missing trucks, Method goes off to secure their payment.  Moments later, he returns and wires them the agreed upon 6,000¥ for the job to this point.  However, it becomes clear that Atomic Kiva has nuclear waste stashed in Henderson with a means to distribute it around Vegas on route.  Mr. Johnson is offering the doubling of their payday if they stop the inbound truck and secure the second truck’s payload.

Mr. Johnson will be unimpressed but not surprised if the runners demand more cash.

Armed with the transponder codes of the inbound truck, the runners know exactly where to go to intercept it, where the truck in Henderson will take more effort.

The Truck – Mack Hellhound (Rigger 5)

Escort Cars – Mercury Comet (Rigger 5)

Has extra Armor behind the door panels for +3 Armor

The Outriders – Yamaha Nodachi (Rigger 5)

However the runners stop the truck, once the truck has been stopped, the runners can head to Henderson to locate the second truck.

Scene 5 – Toxic Trouble

On their way to Henderson, Method calls up the team, telling them that they have an incoming call from a different party, who is interested in the events unfolding.  If the runners agree to take the call, the voice on the other side introduces themselves as Eagle.  They are a member of the Kachina Society and are willing to match whatever offer Horizon is paying them if they tell PuebSec where the nuclear material is, rather than telling their employer.  It will be up to the runners whether they honour their original agreement or aim to screw the Corp in favour of the nation’s spiritual leaders.  

Whether they use the truck’s transponder, word of mouth rumours or Geiger counters, the runners should eventually track down the truck, pulled over in an alleyway.  The truck is missing several barrels from the back.

In the neighbouring apartment building, several barrels have been pulled into one of the apartments and one of the barrels punctured to create a toxic environment to fuel the mage’s magic (level 3 toxic background count)

Half-Life

Toxic Mage

B4  A5  R4  S3  W5  L3  I5  C5  Edge 3 Magic 5

Init 9+1D6, Astral Init 10+2D6, PL 5, ML 7, SL 7, AL 7

Qualities:  Low Light Vision, Chosen Follower, Poor Link, Wanted, Borrowed Time

Skills:  Clubs 4, Unarmed 4, Blades 6, Conjuring Group 5, Sorcery Group 6, Stealth Group 3, Astral Combat 4, Assensing 5, Perception 4, Negotiation 3, Intimidation 3, Con 3

Knowledge Skills: English (Native), Spirits 5, Magical Theory 5, Talismonger Shops 4, Mojave Hot Spots 2

Spells:  Manabolt, Clairvoyance, Combat Sense, Demolish Gun, Melt Armour, Increase Reflexes, Resist Pain, Armour, Sight Removal, Decontamination, Radiation Beam (no armor bonus unless it has radiation protection, inflicts P damage, continues to burn and causes Nausea), Radiation Aura

Metamagic:  Masking, Shielding, Absorption (each success reduces the force by 1 and provides a charge that reduces the drain of other spells)

Gear:  Armored Jacket (12), Bonded Sustaining Focus 3, Commlink Rating 4

Weapons: Unarmed (Acc 7(10), 6(9)S, Reach 0, AP 0)

Use stats for Nuclear Spirit in Street Grimoire.

Once the runners have defeated the cultists and their toxic leader, they can send the location of the radioactive waste to their employer of choice in order to get paid.

>> There’s some pretty bad mojo in the are around Trinity Valley. Whatever is going on there can’t be good
>> Reaper

>> Wait, if I’m reading between the lines correctly here, someone is delivering nuclear material to Trinity Valley. There is no way that’s a good thing.
>> Havik

>> Note to self: stay out of the Mojave for a while…
>> Cristiano

Adulting is for Chumps (#RPGs)

So, for those that still read this blog from time to time, how often do you still play? As I’ve gotten older, and have had increasing responsibilities in life, I find I get to play less and less. In recent months, I’ve been able to pick up the pace in my gaming, but by being pulled in so many directions in my interests, it still ends up feeling infrequent, if that makes sense.

I am at the point where I can run campaign sessions once a month. I read all these stories about people who can run a campaign weekly… I don’t think I’ve ever been at that stage, even when I was in my 20s. Now, a lot of the tales I’ve read come in the form of Reddit posts and various internet forums, so take it with a healthy helping of salt… but there a lot of people out there that are like “If a game can’t play weekly, or at worst bi-weekly then I’m not interested…”

Is this the general consensus?

I mean, maybe a lot of people don’t deal with the game system ADHD that I do. I love Shadowrun, but could I run Shadowrun every week for a year without going nuts? It’s hard to say. I like mixing it up… Shadowrun, 7th Sea, indie systems, board games… I want some variety. If I impulsively want to run a game of Action Potential or Ten Candles why not?

So, what’s the consensus? Do people demand consistency when it comes to playing a campaign? Would my chaotic style of GMing push you away as a player? Let me know. I find the online consensus that my games are too far apart a little surprising, given how busy people’s lives tend to be. So, I’m conducting my own poll, I suppose.

A Quick Review – Bounty Hunter (#RPG #Diceless)

I’m a GM that doesn’t like to rest on his laurels. I’m constantly looking at ways to improve my games and be a stronger GM. One of the ways I’ve done that is taking a few tips from How to Be a Great GM. A great many of Guy’s videos look at things from a vastly D&D/Fantasy-centric point of view, but regardless of game genre, the lessons there are solid. Most of what I’ve taken from his channel has helped me to create better and more believable NPCs, rather than two-dimensional baddies who exist to absorb spells/bullets.

One of the many things Guy does, beyond putting his GMing lessons on screen, is that he also puts them in print. I picked up his “Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns” and it has helped me to compartmentalize and develop each part of a campaign, and not leaving major plot points to chance. Giving my Nemesis and Villains motivations to do what they do, rather than be bad for badness sake. Most recently though, out of pure curiousity, I picked up his diceless RPG, Bounty Hunter.

The Game

The premise is pretty simple. You and your crew are a team of bounty hunters, out to pull off jobs of daring-do to bring people in dead or alive for credits. It has the feel of some Boba Fett/Din Djarin style action, with some Firefly frontier feel with technology I compare to The Expanse. As a sci-fi junkie, this hits pretty well with me. A little less pew pew and instead it is advanced sidearm, railgun-style accelerated slug, chasing your mark through citadel-type worlds or frontier fringe worlds that border on lawlessness. Don’t want to be a gunslinging bounty hunter? First of all, why not? Secondly, there are plenty of other roles you can fill. A down-on-his-luck medic? Maybe she’s an on-the-run hacker… take your pick. The system is classless and instead, your character is created by a culmination of their life experiences, from the alien species you were born as, to their education, to their life before bounty hunting.

If you are a GM that is looking for an in-depth setting and a universe draped in unique worlds for you to explore, this may not be the system for you. At a mere 43 pages, this book provides you the tools to run the game, but there is no real setting to speak of. A list of alien species are available, as well as some predesigned equipment for GMs to use, but there are no worlds laid out for use in advance. The impetus to populate the universe with worlds, bounties and organizations falls to the GM. So, if you are looking for a complete setting, this is not the game. However, if you’re looking for the skeleton to run a Mandolorian style campaign without that luck-driven element that dice provide, then this may fit the bill quite well.

Mechanics

Yes, you read that right. Playing an RPG without dice. What is the world coming to? It was the curiousity that pushed me to check out the book in the first place. How does a diceless system work? Well, this one uses an action economy. Every character has a pool of Action Points (AP) and whenever you do something, it spends AP. Hacking a terminal? Spend AP. Shooting the mark that’s running away? Drop some AP on them. Perform a Crazy Ivan and unload the torpedo bays? You bet that takes AP. However, stress and damage also consume your AP. Get knocked over a railing to take fall damage, get shot or wandering the surface of Hoth… all of these consume your precious AP. Learning when to spend your AP and leaving yourself enough to do what needs doing is the main focus here. Luck has been removed and replaced with an economy that is all too thin.

So, what happens when you run out of AP? You fall unconscious and if you get hit again, you’re one dead Bounty Hunter. So, how do you replenish AP? Rest, medicine and other restorative actions are the ticket. Medicine can give you a little bit of AP back, but a long rest can get you more. Can you afford to get a full night’s rest without the mark getting too far away? That’s up to you and weighing those choices will be the thing that allow you to take down the mark, have them slip away, or leave you adrift in the blackness of space.

The Book

With only 43 pages, the book is a relatively quick read, compared to most sourcebooks you’ll find. Unfortunately, there isn’t a print-on-demand option for the book, but the PDF is full colour, dotted with art, tips for both players and GMs and is well marked as to what you’ll find within. The layout is straightforward, explaining the mechanics in chapters noted by scenario (battle, healing, skills, etc) with the character building section at the back, so if you’ve read the book, the concepts behind character creation now make sense. Overall, the book is solid and easy to use.

Characters

As a mentioned earlier, characters are done in a step-by-step process, where you go through your character’s life and build up their amassed skills based on how they’ve lived. It feels like a hybrid of 7th Sea’s backgrounds and the Life Module character creation in Shadowrun. But it means that unless your characters lived the same life all the way along, they are going to have a unique mix of skills and abilities from other characters. Personally, I like the storied approach to character building, as it curbs the notion of maxxing out specific skills “because I wanna be the best sniper” and makes for well-rounded back stories that can be explored through play.

Final Thoughts

On paper, I really like the system. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but I hope to get to take it for a spin one day to see how it feels to not have a story take a hard left due to an extremely poor die roll. The action economy of the game feels interesting and I definitely want to see how it works in a full game of Bounty Hunter. I know the lack of dice will put some people off (“You can have my click-clack rocks when you pull them from my cold, dead hands…”), but I’m curious how the strategic players would see their strategies play out without luck having a hand in them.

If this intrigues you, definitely check out GreatGamemaster.com for Guy’s other books, or watch some of his YouTube stuff… he has plenty of material out there at this point. Also, if sci-fi isn’t your thing, he will be crowdfunding Mage Hunter, the fantasy version of these rules later this year, so that’s a thing that’s on the way as well.

Look at me me all babbling… still, there are bounties out there, Hunter. Go and get them!

RPGaDay 31 – Favourite RPG of All Time (#RPGaDAY2023)

Hey, I hit all 31 days on time! Whooda thunk it?

I’ve expanded my repertoire of games in the last couple years, getting a broader sense of the games out there and finding a system that mirrors my preferred style of play. Truth being what it is, I’m not sure I’ve found that perfect fit yet. As an improv-driven GM, I do find that narrative play is more my speed overall. Roll with the punches the players toss at me and try to tell a fun story.

All that being said, the reigning champion remains unchanged. Shadowrun, in any form or Edition, is still my all-time favourite RPG. I have been telling stories in the Shadowrun universe for over 20 years and still love the world and telling stories in that space. It is still the heaviest system I run and you know what? I’m OK with that. The world that is far-fetched and yet so relatable in our modern day lives, in a world where the capitalistic hellscape that our lives are in the midst of becoming (IMHO) has gone unchecked. Being heroes the only way one can… existing outside the system. The greyscale morality, the magic system I don’t hate and in later editions, the increased accessibility of the Matrix…

There are so many ways to solve any given problem in the world of Shadowrun and I love that. The number of times, I have planned a combat encounter only to have the players come up with some scheme to defuse, distract or outright deny enemies and slip through the net always impresses me. A well-coordinated team can come with some serious Ocean’s 11, Jason Bourne level schemes and I am here for it.

So, that shocks nobody, I’m sure, but what can I say? I know what I like.