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Message no. 1
From: What ? <MCM@***.BRIGHTON.AC.UK>
Subject: Aren't players wonderful things ?
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 14:48:00 BST
Spoiler Alert ************** Universal Brotherhood link *********
















Hmmm, I thought I share this with my fellow ref out there groping around
the Internet.

Never, ever Let Players get hold of a working nuke - Ref proverb.

Last night my high skilled and well tune players threw a loopy. They where
having some "bug" problems (due to one of the player's sad attempts at team
manipulation) when the shaman decided to summon a greater spirit. Things went a
bit wrong and it turned into to a Greater free Spirit (oops :-)). Due to the
team being heavy out numbered they cut a deal where the free spirit opened
an astral gateway (a sort of magical escape plan) During the summoning, one of
the chromed indivduals believe he found himself a small tac Nuke. (hmmm)
The intrepted party leaped into the portal and found themselves confront with
thousands of doorways. They let the Raven Shaman pick the way.(sigh)
To cut a long tragidy of errors short they end up appearing in an 8 sided
building in Seattle. For some reason they decide to go downstairs, knowing full
well what was down there. It didn't matter, they where going to put an end to
the Royal lady. Shame they didn't know five of them resided there. (big Oops)
The party had a few problems (two of them dropped dead) and started to run away

THEN - "Hey lets use the bomb - its only a tac Nuke !"- Man with no demolitions
skill, "The blast doors are bound to contain it !" -Stupidly blind optmist.
For some reason the Party agreed ( Yep even the dead shaman thought the plan
had its merits.

In short they set a one minute fuse, drop it and ran. They all made the
quickness tests and reached the streets outside

Player quote " That'll teach 'em to mess with us" Unfortunately the 2megaton
bomb exploding cut off the rest of the converstation. As was Seattle.
Large Oops.

Several seconds of white faced players staring at me doing fish impressions.
Then - "Did my trama dampers help ?"
Me - "Nope. Yer all dead."

Converstation after the game wavered between: how many people actually died,
did they get any Karma for the run? I'm sorry, but who's idea was that anyway?
If Doc Wagon would be of any use ?

When they calm down I'll point out they fail they fail on the astral quest
(Yep it was the Place of I-made-it-up).

The moral of this tale. If players get there hands on BIG toys, the sure make
a heck of a mess.

After I've stopped grinning I better write up next week's Screw-Up, er,
Shadowrun. must find a world atlas and blind pick a spot of them to be in.


-WHAT, mindlessly bored, working in a hot stuffy building, wondering
if anyone notice he's bunking off around the Internet ...
Message no. 2
From: Bryan Prince <WALAB@******.HH.VANDERBILT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things...
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 09:57:08 -0600
IN REPLY TO WHAT's POST OF 01 JUL 1994:
****SPOILER ALERT****THIS RESPONSE WILL TAKE ISSUE WITH THE UB****








ONE:How in the H*** did a cybersammie 'just happen to find a small tac
Nuke'???? NO-ONE ever leaves these things 'just laying around'....
Part of the reason for the Navy SEAL's and 22nd SAS is to guard these
things...


TWO:Two megatons of Tac nuke should destroy several blocks, but definately
not all of Seattle-though I will agree that the fallout will render
sections inhabitable for years to come....

THREE:Please explain the following--
WHAT>When they calm down I'll point out they fail they fail on the astral
WHAT>quest (yep it was the Place of I-made-it-up)

FOUR:I don't remember FIVE queens in the UB supplement....


Well, I tried to phrase those as constructive comments, not flames, but
I'm not sure I succeded....One thing for sure, My characters still have
nightmares about the UB, and they still sleep lightly and avoid certain
parts of town...I'm not sure, however, that I'd enjoy your game....It
appears to me that your players can't avoid dying, no matter what they do..
Though the tac nuke _was_ a _very_stupid_manouver_ :)...Oh well...
Just my opinion--
Bryan Prince
Message no. 3
From: What ? <MCM@***.BRIGHTON.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things...
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 16:31:00 BST
Spoiler Alert Again - After the *** Of UB game

Bryan - the Players were on a Meta Plane at the time. The Shaman failed to
properly sumon a greater spirit and end up ripping a hole in astral space.
The resulting adventure was a role-play on the Place of Desinty, rather than
a couple of dice rolling moments.

It was a nice little moral tale proving revenge isn't such a good thing, since
it effects others, most likely innocents, which get caught in the cross fire.
(One of the PC's has this unholy terror of Insects and tries his upmost
to rid the world of their "evil")

The Tac Nuke was a symbol of ultimate destruction ( and didn't exist. No way
would I make something like that available) - something the PC's missed
(as they do :-)) Had they thought about things it would have been very
different. But, hey it made a dramatic evening. Oh and No-one died, they just
need a change of underwear :-)

It was a very different evening - for us all. :-)










*********************** Player Noses Out UB Spoiler **********









And as for the five Queens, a bit extreme but if I remember rightly the Octigon
has at least Fly and Ant queens in it possibly more. See the Book when
Hangfire and Co break in, they mention it there. Many of Many Names nearly wets
himself when told. That should make most PC's break out in a cold sweat.




-WHAT - still very bored and getting out of here soon.
Message no. 4
From: Bryan Prince <WALAB@******.HH.VANDERBILT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things...
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 11:38:50 -0600
See the last couple o' posts for the details....

Now I see what happened, and your right--the players definately needed a
wake-up call...Nicely done...

Bryan Prince
Message no. 5
From: Tyger09@***.COM
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things ?
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 14:08:37 EDT
*** WARNING! NO SPOILERS INTAILED!!! ***

Players can be boneheads. I recall one time that I sicked them against
flesh-form spirits (when they first came out way back when). They came up
with a plan to get 'insect costumes', make clicking noises, and look like one
of the crowd.

To quote a cartoon, "It didn't work, Maw!"

Lemme see... How to assasinate a doctor living in a nice suburb outside the
city. (These are some of the plans they came up with...) Hijack a food
delivery van, dress up like the employees, knock on the door with groceries
in hand, blow the guy away. (They didn't get past stage one...)

Got to bar for backup guns. backup gunslinger takes the job. Gunslinger
picks up a cute babe and walks out with her. Backup gunslinger gets leg
blown off in corporate hijack that the party had NOTHING to do with!

Hire newbie decker to find the good doctor's wherabouts. Newbie decker
screws up, and hacks into Renraku the wrong way. Players are amazed to see
'Raku cops ALL OVER THE APARTMENT COMPLEX!

(Gosh! There was so much of this going on that I can't recall ALL of
them...)

And, my favorite. Cyberpunk game (almost typed 'cyberhound'...) Character
is looking for a convicted criminal ("Psychotic maniacal coldhearted killer"
the police say...) by holding her photo up and asking 'have you seen her?'
That's ok. He finds her. He walks up to her, shoves the photo in her face
and asks "Is this you?"

(I was mentally screaming "YOU IDIOT!", because it wasn't his CHARACTER being
boneheaded!)

Anyhow, one more question. If they nuked Seattle, then why not start a new
game and tell them that all their old characters are dead, sick with rad
poisioning, or in the ICU with 3rd degree burns?

(wow. What a background count...)

-Tyger

******************************************************************
! |\ /| ! Tyger (Available on "Tyger09@***.com", and a !
! (I)_(I) ! few other locations as well.) !
! --- \ / --- ! Paintball, Pinball, and driving around the state !
! --- | --- ! of confusion without a licence. !
! \___/ \___/ !***************************************************
! V V "Never say 'Bite me!' to a carnivore." -Catt !
******************************************************************
Message no. 6
From: Ivy Ryan <ivyryan@***.EFN.ORG>
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things ?
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 14:21:47 -0700
Yep, What,

Give em an inch and they blow up Seattle. Actually, pretty neat save you
came up with though.

Ivy
Message no. 7
From: Ivy Ryan <ivyryan@***.EFN.ORG>
Subject: Re: Aren't players wonderful things ?
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 09:36:11 -0700
Yeah, Tyger!

They can come up with some real goodies.

Rat Shaman throws spell, doesn't take out PC party. Shapechanges and
hides down rat-hole. Mage to Sammi;

"Have you got a grenade?"

"Uhhh, nope."

"No Grenades? WHat kind of Samurai *are* you?"

"Uhhh, Street."

"What *good* are you?"

Mage stalks away in disgust. Sammi calls local samurai bar, orders two
hand grenades to go. Wonders why they deliver two drinks.

Woooo!

Ivy

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