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Message no. 1
From: "Ubiratan P. Alberton" <ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
Subject: Comment
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 23:59:07 -0300
I watched the World Cup finals... Those on this list who wanted France
to win
the Cup are probably jumping and dancing 'till now... :)
Tough the opposite result was what I was hoping for, I won't ramble or
rant on
this message... After all it was one hellluva tourtment, and I enjoyed most
of the games, as well as the parties that came after them :) .
Losing a game with honor is something most people are forgetting now...

And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
to be a
hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where they end
with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a run... :) ).


Bira
Message no. 2
From: Geoff Skellams <geoff.skellams@*********.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:17:34 +1000
On Shadowrun Discussion, Ubiratan P.
Alberton[SMTP:ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR] wrote:
> And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was
DESIGNED
> to be a
> hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where
they end
> with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a
run... :) ).

Yep. My Virtual Seattle tournament "A Late Night's Shopping" was
like that. I can't say too much about it because the RPGA is still able
to send it out to conventions. I will say that the surprise comes a BIT
before the end though :)

cheers
G

--
Geoff Skellams R&D - Tower Software
Email Address: geoff.skellams@*********.com.au
Homepage: http://www.towersoft.com.au/staff/geoff/
ICQ Number: 2815165

"That rates about a 9.5 on my weird-shit-o-meter"
- Will Smith in "Men in Black"
Message no. 3
From: K is the Symbol <Ereskanti@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 05:08:50 EDT
In a message dated 7/13/98 8:14:19 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR writes:

> And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
> to be a
> hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where they end
> with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a run... :)
)
> .
>
That sounds like the current situation at hand. Our little plan to hose down
Lofwyr (or at the very least LOTS of his assets), has gotten a turn for the
worse. Our old friends from the past have started popping up again, and it's
becoming a rather dangerous place for -ALL- parties involved.

But in all seriousness, yes, it does happen from time to time. It's what Mike
and I have dubbed "the Humility Experiments". From time to time when everyone
believes they are invulnerable, something shows up and redefines the rules for
'em all to live by. Once a great many years ago, it was always the same
villain over and over again. Now a days, it's whomever is more probable to do
the notch knocking. Longer playing groups often go through this cycle of
actions. It happens a lot more often when the people (not the characters)
begin to get the feeling of invulnerability and it goes beyond obstructing the
fun for the other players.

=K (who has learned from his mistakes of Skylight and Olaf both)
Message no. 4
From: Spike <u5a77@*****.CS.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 13:58:42 +0100
And verily, did Ubiratan P. Alberton hastily scribble thusly...
| And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
|to be a
|hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where they end
|with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a run... :) ).

Well, here's a little story about one of my characters "Running Horse", a
street sam...

Our group was hired to cause some disruption at a hotel where one of the Tir
princes was attending a conference. Pretty simple job, cause a bit of noise,
injure the prince leaving a small "calling" card from someone as a
warning...

So, we concoct a little plan that involves a drunken troll in the crowd who
barges through the barriers, and all jump on him to try to "protect" the
prince, during which time, the prince would take a few bruises or a broken
bone, but we'd all be vindicated, 'cos we tried to help...

What we didn't know was that someone in the building opposite had also been
hired by the same person to assasinate the prince, and we were the patsies.

We escaped, but a price of 50,000 was put on each of our heads, so we
decided to lay low for a while...

Another job came up. Simple. Break into a low security warehouse and
retrieve something. Good pay. We accepted, but also smelled a rat, so WE
became the Mr Johnsons for the night, hired some obviously crap,
inexperienced shadowrunner wannabes for a 10th of the price, and hung back
to watch the fireworks.....

I haven't played with that GM for over 3 years, and I miss it....
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|u5a77@*****.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a |
| | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit |
| Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit |
| Finalist in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that|
| Computer Science | can't stand 1 bit of competition. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ |
|5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |
Message no. 5
From: Alfredo B Alves <dghost@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 09:03:03 -0500
On Tue, 14 Jul 1998 05:08:50 EDT K is the Symbol <Ereskanti@***.COM>
writes:
>In a message dated 7/13/98 8:14:19 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
>ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR writes:
>>And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
to be
>>a hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where
they end
>>with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a
run... :)).

<SNIP PBeM Ref>
>But in all seriousness, yes, it does happen from time to time. It's
what Mike
>and I have dubbed "the Humility Experiments". From time to time when
everyone
>believes they are invulnerable, something shows up and redefines the
rules for
>'em all to live by. Once a great many years ago, it was always the same
>villain over and over again. Now a days, it's whomever is more probable
to do
>the notch knocking. Longer playing groups often go through this cycle
of
>actions. It happens a lot more often when the people (not the
characters)
>begin to get the feeling of invulnerability and it goes beyond
obstructing the
>fun for the other players.
>
>=K (who has learned from his mistakes of Skylight and Olaf both)

I thought that my players were a bit cocky about the chars they created
so I decided to make their first run a double cross and build into it
various levels of hosedness :)

First, they meet a "Fixer" (not one per se but someone who will become
one later on) who fled from a corp and sets the runners up with a Johnson
in order to secure some data she'll need to set up shop basically. Thing
is the J is more loyal to the corp than she thinks and so wants to snag
the runners to get the "fixer" back ... :)

First at the meet the players have 3 options for the run
1) They can use a decker provided by the Johnson. (Who is actually a
security decker for the corp and is in on the double cross)
2) They can track down their own decker.
3) They can see if anyone has a decker contact.

The group went with option 1. They didn't even discuss any other
options. So a little while later, the decker gets building plans for the
group (With the sewer access deleted).

The runners also receive a mild run down of the security for the building
designed not to seem too imposing ...

Now all that was going to happen was as soon as they step into the room
with the "disks" they needed, Security arrives in force and we'd go from
there ... remember that post on sniper gear? that was to designed to
allow a sniper char to reduce the penalties for shooting through a wall
or two ... The sniper would be a friend of one of the chars and if they
tell the decker about him, all that gear suddenly becomes useless because
the security rigger jams the transmissions ... Then the chars are on
their own ...

Then we get to the planning part ... after 3 hours of going over the
crude map I drew on the chalkboard and going through all sorts of various
scenarios, We (I stayed out of it mostly except when they seemed to get
stuck into a "can't be done" rut) came up with a plan that did not
involve anyone stepping one foot inside the building and additionally
everyone in the group did something important to achieve the end result.
Plus, they didn't shoot at any guards or anything. :) Two shots fired
in the run. One at window, and another at a door.

All in all, I thought they deserved not to get hosed. :) I still had fun
with them though. When they handed the data over to the "fixer" I
described her actions veeeery slowly ... She turns around... reaches into
her car ... gets something from the glovebox ... turns back around ...
and ... hands over some credsticks. Boy did THAT make the player nervous
... :)

D.Ghost
(aka Pixel, Tantrum, and RuPixel)
"Let he who is without SIN cast the first stone"

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Message no. 6
From: Nexx Many-Scars <Nexx3@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:34:40 EDT
In a message dated 98-07-14 08:59:05 EDT, you write:

> Another job came up. Simple. Break into a low security warehouse and
> retrieve something. Good pay. We accepted, but also smelled a rat, so WE
> became the Mr Johnsons for the night, hired some obviously crap,
> inexperienced shadowrunner wannabes for a 10th of the price, and hung back
> to watch the fireworks.....

God damnit Spike, put a warning on these things! I damn near wet myself
reading that one...

Nexx
Message no. 7
From: "Droopy ." <mmanhardt@*****.NET>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 17:44:04 -0400
From: "Ubiratan P. Alberton"
<ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
Subject: Comment

> And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
> to be a
> hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where they end
> with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a run... :) ).

You mean like DNA/DOA? :)


--Droopy
Message no. 8
From: Spike <u5a77@*****.CS.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 12:52:00 +0100
And verily, did Nexx Many-Scars hastily scribble thusly...
|
|In a message dated 98-07-14 08:59:05 EDT, you write:
|
|> Another job came up. Simple. Break into a low security warehouse and
|> retrieve something. Good pay. We accepted, but also smelled a rat, so WE
|> became the Mr Johnsons for the night, hired some obviously crap,
|> inexperienced shadowrunner wannabes for a 10th of the price, and hung back
|> to watch the fireworks.....
|
|God damnit Spike, put a warning on these things! I damn near wet myself
|reading that one...

Glad you liked it....
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|u5a77@*****.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a |
| | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit |
| Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit |
| Finalist in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that|
| Computer Science | can't stand 1 bit of competition. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ |
|5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |
Message no. 9
From: Martin Steffens <chimerae@***.IE>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 07:32:23 +0000
and thus did Ubiratan P. Alberton speak on 12 Jul 98 at 23:59:

> And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was
> DESIGNED to be a hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the
> very end, where they end with little more than their lives?
> (Anything gives me ideas for a run... :) ).

Yep, every once and a while, keeps em on their toes.

Best one took three months of RL-time and half a year of SR-time. The
runners were hired to recover a programmable cyber zombie, who was a
captured very experienced runner pumped full with delta-cyber and a
control unit which made him follow the Corps orders (this was
pre-cybertechnology, so I made up some rules). Well the control unit
went zap, the zombie took back control and disappeared.
In came the runners who went on a wild goose chase leading from CAS
through Europe and Africa untill they finally caught up with him in
the Trans-Polars. There were four more teams set to recover that guy,
so occasionally they brushed into eachother and did some damage. When
they had him (he needed to be undamaged) they discovered that he was
a missing friend (ex-PC) from one of the players, and that the Corps'
reprogramming and control unit were forcing him to do things he
didn't want to. The guy also became more and more paranoid and manic
as a result of the failing control unit.
The PC's were a bit lost there. they didn't want to take him back to
Aztech (oh didn't I tell that :> ), the other teams were hot on their
tails (plus assorted security forces), and the guy himself wasn't
going to make it without some help.
In the end they blocked the signal he was sending out to Aztech and
escape via Alaska and take a boat back to Seattle. Their street doc
removed the control unit from his head and was killed shortly
afterwards by an interrogating team, and the cyberguy wasn't getting
much better, so everywhere they went he would blow their hideouts by
suddenly pumping a couch full of lead because he thought it was a
target.
Eventually they had to sedate him 24 hours a day and sold him to the
corp which they thought would harm him the least.

End result: They never saw him again and later discovered that he
died screaming totally insane.
The payment they recieved from the corp barely covered their
expenses.
Aztech send a hit team after them which caused them a lot of trouble.
A runner from one of the other teams which was wiped out by
them became an enemy and dedicated her remaining live to hurt them as
much as possible (it took them three weeks to track her down and kill
her for good).

All in all the players thought it was a very good campaign, but a bit
painfull :>
Although their little private war with Aztech for messing up one
of their friends hurt them much more, but at least it was more
profitable in some ways.

Karina & Martin Steffens
chimerae@***.ie
Message no. 10
From: "Ubiratan P. Alberton" <ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
Subject: Re: Comment
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 20:16:26 -0300
At 17:44 14/07/98 -0400, you wrote:
>From: "Ubiratan P. Alberton"
<ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
>Subject: Comment
>
>> And, to put this on-topic, has anybody created a run wich was DESIGNED
>> to be a
>> hoser? Like, the players go all confident till the very end, where they end
>> with little more than their lives? (Anything gives me ideas for a run...
:) ).
>
>You mean like DNA/DOA? :)
>
>
>--Droopy
>
>



In that one, they still can get paid if they're smart... I was talking
about something were there's no
such option.

Bira

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