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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Lone Eagle)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 08:00:01 2002
I seem to remember one of the SR sourcebooks covered some of the rules for
being "out of place", you know, you're running around in Miami in your
Seattle duds...etc.
Which book is that in?
secondly, is there a nice simple, quick and dirty rule to cover the effects
of being out of place? preferably one that can be sent over the list (or
direct to me) without causing copywrite problems?
The reason I ask is that the other GM has just set us up on a run in Dee Cee
sprawl (the campaign being based in Seattle) and I expect others to follow.

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Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 08:20:01 2002
Lone Eagle writes:

> I seem to remember one of the SR sourcebooks covered some of the rules for
> being "out of place", you know, you're running around in Miami in your
> Seattle duds...etc.

I've read every book except SONA and T:W, and I don't recall any such rule.
But then again, in order to have read every book, I'd probably have to been
playing the game for a fair while, which might mean that I'm rather old and
crusty, which might mean that I've got senile dementia (as evidenced by my
endless, rather pointless, very long winded rambling for no apparent purpose
whatsoever at all ... did I ever tell you about the time ... ;-)).

I do rather think that "being out of place" is more of a roleplaying thing
than a rule thing, though. You're "out of place" when you don't know the
local area. eg all your knowledge skills are things like "Seattle Streets",
"Seattle Chop Shops", "Seattle Prostitution Parlours", "Seattle
Seahawks
Players Hangout" - no smark quips about the last two being the same ;-). You
don't have any contacts in town. You don't know the local scene (Etiquette
penalties?). If you're dressed inappropriately, or behave oddly, then you'll
be remembered. You'll be noticed more easily.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (shadowrn@*********.com)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 10:15:01 2002
In a message dated 7/16/2002 8:24:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
dam01@***.edu.au writes:

> If you're dressed inappropriately, or behave oddly, then you'll
> be remembered. You'll be noticed more easily.

It also depends on how far out of place you are. Somebody from West Virginia
in, say, Pennsylvania for an example would blend in fairly easily.
However...somebody from Canada in the deep south like Georgia - the accent
alone, even if they did dress according to the temperature, would probably
stand out like a sore thumb. It also depends on how well a person adapts. I'm
from West Virginia myself (which is why I chose that example) and once
visited San Diego and didn't fit out of place at all. Of course I've worked
all my life on having a neutral accent so maybe that's something you could
work into your character. Have them maybe have a naturally strong local
accent and that be something they struggle with to overcome?
Message no. 4
From: shadowrn@*********.com (-Â¥-Zeb-Â¥-)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 10:20:01 2002
<KiltedJamesman@***.com> wrote:

> In a message dated 7/16/2002 8:24:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> dam01@***.edu.au writes:
>
> > If you're dressed inappropriately, or behave oddly, then you'll
> > be remembered. You'll be noticed more easily.
>
> It also depends on how far out of place you are. Somebody from West
Virginia
> in, say, Pennsylvania for an example would blend in fairly easily.
> However...somebody from Canada in the deep south like Georgia - the
accent
> alone, even if they did dress according to the temperature, would
probably
> stand out like a sore thumb. It also depends on how well a person adapts.
I'm
> from West Virginia myself (which is why I chose that example) and once
> visited San Diego and didn't fit out of place at all. Of course I've
worked
> all my life on having a neutral accent so maybe that's something you
could
> work into your character. Have them maybe have a naturally strong local
> accent and that be something they struggle with to overcome?
>

I'm reminded of the movie "My Cousin Vinny" where VInny and his girlfriend
(Marissa Tomei) get out of their car dressed in black and leather and have
an exchange about the clothese they're both wearing and Marissa Tomei
retorts, "Yeah, and you blend." (or something like that).

zebulin
Message no. 5
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Gurth)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 13:30:02 2002
According to Damion Milliken, on Tue, 16 Jul 2002 the word on the street was...

> I've read every book except SONA and T:W, and I don't recall any such
> rule. But then again, in order to have read every book, I'd probably have
> to been playing the game for a fair while, which might mean that I'm
> rather old and crusty, which might mean that I've got senile dementia (as
> evidenced by my endless, rather pointless, very long winded rambling for
> no apparent purpose whatsoever at all ... did I ever tell you about the
> time ... ;-)).

You're forgetting your tendency to not press Enter quite enough :) (Yeah,
that joke dates me about as much as Damion's own claims do :)

> I do rather think that "being out of place" is more of a roleplaying
> thing than a rule thing, though.

My idea, too. I think the main factor will be being out of touch with your
regular contacts, so you'll either have to do most stuff by yourself, or try
and find other people. That brings me to a question of my own: how do other
groups do this? My players tend to work on their own whenever they're out of
Seattle, as I don't think they know how you would go about meeting the local
shadowrunner community -- and, to tell the truth, neither do I. Does anyone
have any ideas for how to play this kind of thing out?

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Little ever changes, if anything at all
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++@ UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--) O
V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t@ 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 6
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Tue Jul 16 22:15:01 2002
Gurth writes:

> My idea, too. I think the main factor will be being out of touch with your
> regular contacts, so you'll either have to do most stuff by yourself, or
> try and find other people. That brings me to a question of my own: how do
> other groups do this? My players tend to work on their own whenever they're
> out of Seattle, as I don't think they know how you would go about meeting
> the local shadowrunner community -- and, to tell the truth, neither do I.
> Does anyone have any ideas for how to play this kind of thing out?

I usually give them a hook initially. Either the Johnson has a contact in
town (or, heck, _is_ the contact in town), or one of the runners existing
contacts 'just happens to know someone down there'.

Failing that, runners can do their own legwork, that's what Etiquette skills
are for. My team once spent a day of game time canvassing bars is shady
parts of town searching for something-or-other. I improvised a couple of the
encounters (about one per runner), and then just got them to roll their
Etiquette dice after that. If they flubbed it badly, then they either got
picked up by (a) the law (b) competition (c) an ugly Troll or (d) the local
kneebraking mafia (or equivalent). If they made it, then they got some sort
of lead to what they were looking for, or actually got the thing/info/etc.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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Message no. 7
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Lone Eagle)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Wed Jul 17 05:15:01 2002
>From: Gurth <Gurth@******.nl>
<Snip>
> > I do rather think that "being out of place" is more of a roleplaying
> > thing than a rule thing, though.
>
>My idea, too. I think the main factor will be being out of touch with your
>regular contacts, so you'll either have to do most stuff by yourself, or
>try
>and find other people. That brings me to a question of my own: how do other
>groups do this? My players tend to work on their own whenever they're out
>of
>Seattle, as I don't think they know how you would go about meeting the
>local
>shadowrunner community -- and, to tell the truth, neither do I. Does anyone
>have any ideas for how to play this kind of thing out?

Some of the character's know skills may help, I'd allow those who have
skills like Yakuza Hangouts at four or five or more to roll with reduced
dice to work out a bit of the layout of the new sprawl's underbelly, that
gives them a start. IOC one of the team's fixers specialises in smuggling
and similar ops and has a network of contacts across the world (mostly in
the US and Canada but...) She's an expensive person to deal with and
difficult to get contact with but worth her weight in oricalcum if you're
running in a new sprawl.
Another PC has the know skill Shadowrunner Hangouts, influenced by BKK and
the Greasy Scorpion and similar places, they know that a certain type of bar
is probably frequented by 'runners, in a bad area of town, difficult to find
yet reasonably full and offering real alcohol as well as synth, and a place
where trouble rarely kicks off.
This could get the team into a place where they could find the right people
but still doesn't solve the first contact problem... that you just have to
play out according to characters (but using a lot of obscure shadowslang if
you can.)

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Message no. 8
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Gurth)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Wed Jul 17 05:50:39 2002
According to Damion Milliken, on Wed, 17 Jul 2002 the word on the street was...

> I usually give them a hook initially. Either the Johnson has a contact in
> town (or, heck, _is_ the contact in town), or one of the runners existing
> contacts 'just happens to know someone down there'.

That's pretty much the approach I took last adventure, when my players found
themselves in Victoria, S-SC. The only snag was that it depended on the PCs
phoning someone back in Seattle, who'd see if he could arrange something for
them and leave a message somewhere. Unfortunately the PCs had to flee the city
before they even got a chance to listen to the message, but other than that it
would have worked. I guess my main problem is that the players hardly ever
think of asking their contacts back home if they know someone in the city they
are currently in...

> Failing that, runners can do their own legwork, that's what Etiquette
> skills are for. My team once spent a day of game time canvassing bars is
> shady parts of town searching for something-or-other.

And that's what they never do at all... They just go around pursuing obvious
leads, and when all of those dry up, or lead to dead ends, they don't seem to
know what to do next.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Little ever changes, if anything at all
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++@ UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--) O
V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t@ 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 9
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Wed Jul 17 20:50:01 2002
Gurth writes:

> And that's what they never do at all... They just go around pursuing
> obvious leads, and when all of those dry up, or lead to dead ends, they
> don't seem to know what to do next.

Have you ever thought that perhaps they just think to themselves, "hey, it's
a 1 million population town. We're looking for a very small subset of the
population. What chance do we have that the GM is going to 'just let us
happen across them'?"? They also, of course, may never think of trying (or,
hey, think at all ;-)). Perhaps (which ever way it is ;-)) you might
consider giving them a hint?

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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Message no. 10
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Gurth)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Thu Jul 18 06:55:05 2002
According to Damion Milliken, on Thu, 18 Jul 2002 the word on the street was...

> Have you ever thought that perhaps they just think to themselves, "hey,
> it's a 1 million population town. We're looking for a very small subset
> of the population. What chance do we have that the GM is going to 'just
> let us happen across them'?"? They also, of course, may never think of
> trying (or, hey, think at all ;-)). Perhaps (which ever way it is ;-))
> you might consider giving them a hint?

Nah... ;) Part of the problem is, as I said earlier, that I _also_ don't
really have any idea of how you'd go about meeting shadow/underworld figures.
But I don't want to say "Roll Etiquette (Street). Yeah, in the fifth bar you
visit, you get into a conversation with a guy who says he's a street samurai
and knows the people you're looking for."

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Little ever changes, if anything at all
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++@ UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--) O
V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t@ 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 11
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Downtym)
Subject: Book/rule query
Date: Fri Jul 19 23:15:01 2002
On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Gurth wrote:

> Nah... ;) Part of the problem is, as I said earlier, that I _also_ don't
> really have any idea of how you'd go about meeting shadow/underworld figures.
> But I don't want to say "Roll Etiquette (Street). Yeah, in the fifth bar you
> visit, you get into a conversation with a guy who says he's a street samurai
> and knows the people you're looking for."

Honestly, I find Etiquette rolls to be the bane and the boon of a
Shadowrunner's existence. I use them as a GM when I don't feel like
RP'ing out a particular social encounter:

GM: You're looking for a gun? Um...make an etiquette roll.

Also, I use etiquette rolls when a PC wants to get into contact with
an individual and the player would rather not do all the roleplaying
that is involved in talking to the middlemen:

GM: You're looking for the local Mafia underboss? Make an etiquette
roll.

I find both of these situations acceptable because what the GM is
cutting out by using these rolls is all of the useless name dropping
and cred waving that goes into getting into contact with certain
people in certain places. While I enjoy a good roleplaying game and
social encounter as much as anyone else, the last thing I want is to
have to pretend like I'm every little NPC between the character and
Kevin Bacon. =)

Downtym |
Email: gte138j@*****.gatech.edu | Post no bills

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