Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: tom Cone <Brother-1@*****.NET>
Subject: Mob War!!
Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 03:08:24 -1000
I'm fairly new to running games, and I was wondering if anybody has any
advice for running this one ("Mob War"). I know that it's a recent
release, but maybe some of you have already given it a shot, and I was
interested in what problems were experienced as well as what was thought
of the design of the adventure pack.

Brother-1. Decker for hire.
"Black IC!! You eeediot!! You bloated code!!
You sick little program!! I will DELETE YOU!!!!"
Message no. 2
From: James Paulsen <lowfyr@***********.COM>
Subject: Mob War!
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 23:00:54 -0500
Hey All,

If I am correct in assuming Mob War is out now, I was wondering what the
opinions of GM's out there who've read/run it are?

Normally I'm not a huge fan of prefab adventures and almost always stick
to my own maniacal ideas, but from what I can gather about the plotline
in Mob War it fits almost perfectly with my "syndicate heavy" story
line.

I just want to be sure I want/need it before I go and drop the cash on
it--not that I won't buy it anyway because I am such a sucker for FASA
:)

Also, a brief summary (with spoilers please :)) would be real cool,
though not enough to infringe on FASA's copyright stuff.

Thanks in Advance,

Jim
Message no. 3
From: "Steven A. Tinner" <bluewizard@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 00:35:57 -0400
> If I am correct in assuming Mob War is out now, I was wondering what the
> opinions of GM's out there who've read/run it are?

Personally, I could live without it.
The storyline is well thought out, and makes for a decent run, but seems a
little slim for my tastes.
Also, the need to allow for a LOT of different starting backgrounds for the
characters adds a lot of ... fluff to the book that IMO isn't needed.

> Normally I'm not a huge fan of prefab adventures and almost always stick
> to my own maniacal ideas, but from what I can gather about the plotline
> in Mob War it fits almost perfectly with my "syndicate heavy" story
> line.
> I just want to be sure I want/need it before I go and drop the cash on
> it--not that I won't buy it anyway because I am such a sucker for FASA

If you're running something "Syndicate Heavy" it would probably be a good
investment.

> Also, a brief summary (with spoilers please :)) would be real cool,
> though not enough to infringe on FASA's copyright stuff.

OK

!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!
Pay
attention
here
those
of
you
who
haven't
figured
out
how
to
leave
spoiler
space
this
is
how
it's
done!!

OK, this is gonna be real short.
The current leader of the Seatlle Mafia get's assassinated by his rivals
for the Capo position.
The runners, or made men have to find who dunnit.
Very simple.
Lots of legwork.
Also, there's some decent sideplots here.
The Capo's daughter is gunning for the position.
The Yakuza are taking advantage of the lack of leadership, as are the
Triads.

IMO - the book seems to be designed to show off all the new stuff in
Shadows of the Underworld.
Nice, but not great for me.
The characters are well done.
I'd expect no less from Steve Kenson! ;-) (And AFAIK he didn't recycle
ANYTHING from SFTS!) ;-)

Hope this helps.

Steven A. Tinner
bluewizard@*****.com
http://www.ncweb.com/users/bluewizard
"My mind isn't always in the gutter - sometimes it comes out to feed"
Message no. 4
From: Mark Steedman <M.J.Steedman@***.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:30:11 GMT
James Paulsen writes
> Hey All,
>
> If I am correct in assuming Mob War is out now, I was wondering what the
> opinions of GM's out there who've read/run it are?
>
Been out for a while now.

> Normally I'm not a huge fan of prefab adventures and almost always stick
> to my own maniacal ideas, but from what I can gather about the plotline
> in Mob War it fits almost perfectly with my "syndicate heavy" story
> line.
>
Ok 'Mob war' is not a 'standard prewritten adventure'. I'll comment
ok actual contents below.

> I just want to be sure I want/need it before I go and drop the cash on
> it--not that I won't buy it anyway because I am such a sucker for FASA
> :)
>
> Also, a brief summary (with spoilers please :)) would be real cool,
> though not enough to infringe on FASA's copyright stuff.
>
Ok. Spoiler space commences here. The first sections not too bad, the
later sections are off limits.











i said no players !


















Ok.


Mob war is more a campain plot, background infromation and run ideas
etc all rolled into one than anything else. If you want a whole pile
of useful stuff for underworld activities in SR this plus the
underworld sourcebook it complements are supurb.

Basically someone killed 'Don James O'malley' Capo of the Seattle
Mob, the book tells you who did it etc. and proceeds to discus the
various players in some detail. The main dirt on Seattle is split
into 4 sections, Mafia, Yakuza, Triad and Sepoul Rings. An
organisation chart for the top folks in each for Seattle is given,
along with paragraphs about them. No attributes are given but it does
comment using the inferior, equals superior etc. system from the SR
companion on some of them. You could set up your whoole Seattle
underworld as far as Don's worth the name are concerned from this but
likewise there is plenty of space to add a few more mob families you
designed yourself.
The aims of each organisation, and a list of suggested runs for
characters involving themselves in each of the four organisations are
given. Most ideas are barely developed to 'sprawl site' standard but
the whole book just shouts adventure ideas in all directions.
There is a lot of stuff covering all sorts of angles the players
might get involved from, Mob members, runners frelancing for the
Yaks, etc etc. If you manage to use half of it your players will
never want to see a mobster again but likewise due to the diversity
of information provided there is almost bound to be quite a bit of
useful information to be found.

There is more stuff to go with the stuff in the compainion and
underworld sourcebooks on
alternate campains, in this case discussed from the point of view of
playing members of one of the four criminal organisations. I can no
longer remeber what gets discussed in which of these 3 sources but by
the time its finished the ammount of overlap in basic information
gets crazy, though i admit presenting the information as clearly as
it is done would be nearly impossible otherwise, leading to the old
'The Gm's leafing through books trying to find the one he needs
syndrome' :)

Ok now any remaining players GET OUT OR ELSE !!!!!!














yes a spoiler space below a spoiler space.












GM's that have 'Mob war' and/or into 'big happenings' ONLY!!!













For right at the back is a little 'shadowland' posting on the Dragon
Crimelords! plus a suggestion of how Rymo and another fit in with the
Triads and Yaks and the Pacific rim. There is also a suggestion about
the pacific in general thats staggering. Read the book to find out
but it makes the Great Ghost Dance and 'the bridge' look irrelevant
if theres any truth to it. I banned this section of the post. Anyone
got any comments on it?

Mark
Message no. 5
From: Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@******.COM>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:22:37 -0700
>Normally I'm not a huge fan of prefab adventures and almost always stick
>to my own maniacal ideas, but from what I can gather about the plotline
>in Mob War it fits almost perfectly with my "syndicate heavy" story
>line.

It has a completely different format than any other FASA published
adventure. Nothing is completely fleshed out; no stats, no information
tables, no Tell It To 'em Straights, etc.

For each one of the tracks (Mafia, Yakuza, Triads, Seolpa Rings), there
is detailed background information on the current situation and bios of
the folks involved. Then there are a couple of bare bones plotlines for
each.

I haven't run it yet (my players are still in 2052 - just finished Ivy &
Chrome), so I can't say how it works. It won't be a simple read it and
run it situation however, it will require significant work to flesh out.

I was interested in what people thought of this new format. It's sort of
halfway between a sourcebook and an adventure. Due to time limitations,
I run Shadowrun using published adventures exclusively. Although I
create custom stats for the NPCs to tune them to my players, a lot of the
information I do use is missing in Mob War!.


Buck (Mike Buckalew)
Test Manager, FileMaker Pro
Email: buck@******.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d- s-: a C++ !U !P !L !E W+ N o? K? $w--- !O $M+(++)
!V PS+(+++) PE++ Y+ PGP- t+ 5+ !X R++ tv+>(+++) b++ DI+++
D---- G e++ h--- r+++ y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Message no. 6
From: Steve Kenson <TalonMail@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:09:51 -0400
Just out of curiosity, what did people think of the track format in Mob War?
Was it more useful to have a complete background and lots of adventure
outlines and hooks to develop or do you prefer a fully fleshed-out adventure
with individual encounters like the traditional Shadowrun adventures have
been?

I like to think that a format like Mob War provides more bang for the buck in
terms of providing some long-term source material along with the adventure
stuff, whereas the traditional adventure tends to be use it once, then
discard. I'm interested in hearing what people think about the format.

Steve K.
Message no. 7
From: "Fisher, Victor" <Victor-Fisher@******.COM>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:17:45 -0400
Steve Says:
Just out of curiosity, what did people think of the track format in Mob
War? Was it more useful to have a complete background and lots of
>adventure outlines and hooks to develop or do you prefer a fully fleshed-out
>adventure with individual encounters like the traditional Shadowrun
>adventures have been?

I liked the format of the whole thing. I usually just tear thru a
module, ripping what plot ideas and characters I like from it, crunching
stats for whatever characters are presented to suit my game. This gave
me a little bit more to chew on, thought I know some GM's might prefer
to have things more laid out, not haveing the time to flesh out
character stats, etc.
Also like the Underworld sourcebook, but I think you sold the
Russian Mafia FAR TOO short. The rest, expecially about the Triads, were
cool, though.
My two cents.

>Victor
Message no. 8
From: Mark Steedman <M.J.Steedman@***.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 15:51:03 GMT
Steve Kenson writes

> Just out of curiosity, what did people think of the track format in Mob War?
Yes, very good.

> Was it more useful to have a complete background and lots of adventure
> outlines and hooks to develop or do you prefer a fully fleshed-out adventure
> with individual encounters like the traditional Shadowrun adventures have
> been?
I find both pretty good. The nice thing about 'ordinary' published
adventures is all you have to do (in theory) is read it and run it.
Some of the recent ones this actually works but in general the NPC's
in published adventures are not up to scratch (in FASA's case usually
chronically low armour values and deadfully slow initiatvie mages,
the mundanes aren't so bad) [i would note some published adventures
including yours are better than others i could mention] however they
last a few sessions at most and often cannot be reused. Reading Mob
war tebds to cause adventure ideas to leap out of the page 10 times
faster than i can ever run adventures.

> I like to think that a format like Mob War provides more bang for the buck in
> terms of providing some long-term source material along with the adventure
> stuff, whereas the traditional adventure tends to be use it once, then
> discard. I'm interested in hearing what people think about the format.
Very much so. I actually had to ease off on this as between stuff
inspired by Mob War and problems with a Triad group i built based on
the stuff in 'Underworld' the politics got too much for some of my
players who wanted a few more things to shoot at (tey were a bit
scared of the Triads after a couple of skirmishes demonstarted that
whan i said 'equal and superior NPC's' i meant it.

My lastest tack thats working well is to take FASA adventures and
hack them up for my own uses.

Example is a spoiler for missions.























One that worked well was the 'Futuremen' run from Missions, i had
Raku hire the PC's to 'disrupt the lonestar investigation'. While the
lonestar guys who were NPC's i designed tried to do the missions
adventure. I also added in my own very powerful triad group. Well
stopping the Cops by kidnapping the lot worked fine but it took them
quite a while to work out what was really going on by which time
although they had done the job they were asked to do the Triads had
the futuremen.
I am presently busy hacking up 'Celtic Double Cross' and although i
intend having the PC's hired to do the FASA run basically intact i am
having to do nearly as much prep as for a full blown GM written run.

The advantage of hacking up Mob War type stuff is that you get a LOT
more ideas for your .......(pounds in my case) and a lot of useful
background. I have borrowed several NPC's from Mob War to be 'the Mob
Capo pestering the PC's' the guy they pay protection to etc. And i
get all thier relationships to the underworld, background plots and
description for free without having to do it all myself.

Mark
Message no. 9
From: Joshua T Brown <spamquat@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Mob War!
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 13:44:13 -0500
My comments on Mob War.... Good job. Last year I ran a rather large
Mafia-focused SR campaign, and until the group broke up, I was planning
to run an adventure very similar to Mob War, with slightly different
motivations, NPCs, etc... If I ever do run the adventure, the format is
especially useful in my situation, as I had many NPCs and PCs already in
the power structure. For example, in my game world, James O'Malley has 2
sons and a daughter. One of his sons will likely be killed along with
him, and the other happens to be a now-retired PC. The lack of encounters
that hinge completely on assumed circumstances is great. In many previous
adventures, I would have to take only certain aspects of the plot,
scenarios, etc, making the module 80% fluff for me. Mob War seems to be
designed specifically to be taken apart and used like this.

And Steve, here's a bit of an ego boost for ya. <smirk> IMHO, The
Underworld Sourcebook is one of the best damn SR books ever printed. It
gives a lot of background on how the SR world as a whole works, and gives
the world a much meaner, and slightly deadlier edge that seemed to be
understated or nonexistent in previous supplements. One of the selling
points for this game is the idea that most PC's are on the "wrong" side
of the law, and a book about crime in 205X was sorely needed. There's a
good balance between game information and entertainment value, so the
sourcebook is neither too dry nor 80% SR fiction. Hell, the art's even
better than in many previous supplements.

Congrats. This is the kind of thing we need more of.

==============================================================
The Kumquat -- Josh Brown -- Kumquat@*****.com -- Spamquat@****.com --
Shadowrun Page Still Under Development -- Coming Soon!
"Support Whirled Peas" -- <smirk> -- "Whatever, Man" --
"Woo Hoo!" --
....Don't hate me Because I'm... ahh, screw it, hate me. <smirk>
Message no. 10
From: Stefan <casanova@******.PASSAGEN.SE>
Subject: Mob War
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 19:37:59 +0000
Andy Gardner wrote:
/
/ All of the other notes on this subject assume on big thing.
/ Once you've had your data wiped and your hardware burned you just buy
/ some replacement hardware parts and recover the back-ups.
/
/ Even assuming that your backups are OK, whose going to pay for the
/ replacement parts ? The moneys in the bank. So is the virus, say
/ bye-bye to your current bank balance.
/ I know, I'll pay by credit card. So you use their card machine,
/ which sends the data via th matrix. Say hello to th virus again.
/ Even if you get the order through you'll find that the hardware
/ company can't supply you. Their stock catalogue and their records of
/ whether you've paid or not are gone.
/ Oh yes, then there's the delivery companies route planner.....
/
/ With a crash that big even the most basic tasks can become very
/ difficult.

Bingo! We have a Winner! (IMHO)

And I could easily see corporations and businesses fucked up by the
virus losing their backups as they went under during the economic
chaos that ensued.

-David
--
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep."
--
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 12:13:25 -0600
Reply-To: SHADOWRN@********.ITRIBE.NET
Sender: Shad
Message no. 11
From: Ashlocke <woneal@*******.NET>
Subject: Re: Mob War
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:12:02 -0005
On 3 Jan 98 at 19:37, Stefan wrote:

> Who drew that cover ? The credits say that Baxa did it but frankly I must
> say it ain't Baxas style at all so unless he has been possessed by some
> spirit there is an error ...
>
> The Tag on the cover says MZ or MN or MJZ or somthing like that
> depending on how you flip the picture ...
>
> Who is that ? Mike Jackson ? Mike Nielsen ? or somebody else ?

I got curious, he's right, Mob War does list the cover artist as Tom
Baxa, which isn't right. So I checked my copy of HT&LL, which also has a
copy of the artwork. There the artist is listed as Mark Zug.
--

Ashlocke

"... for this man can say it happened, cause this child has been
condemned. And I'm the only witness to the nature of my crime.
Don't damn me." -- G'N'R
Message no. 12
From: "Ratinac, Rand (NSW)" <RRatinac@*****.REDCROSS.ORG.AU>
Subject: Mob War
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 08:28:06 +1000
Guys,

A quick question. From what I remember, I think Maurice 'the Butcher'
Bigio has been officially named as the new Capo of Seattle following the
events of the mob war - but I can't remember where I read that. Can
anyone anyone confirm or deny this for me?

*Doc' pays homage to the wrong Don and gets shot in the back for his
trouble.*

Doc'

.sig Sauer
Message no. 13
From: Steadfast <laughingman@*******.DE>
Subject: Re: Mob War
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 23:44:03 +0100
And so it came to happen that Ratinac, Rand (NSW) wrote:

> Guys,
>
> A quick question. From what I remember, I think Maurice 'the Butcher'
> Bigio has been officially named as the new Capo of Seattle following the
> events of the mob war - but I can't remember where I read that. Can
> anyone anyone confirm or deny this for me?

Confirmed. Stated in Target: Smuggler Havens, Page 5, in the NEWS section (just right
on the bottom of the page).


--
---> Steadfast
Surfin' through the 'trix is
not like dustin crops boy!
Message no. 14
From: Michael Horstmanshof michaelh@******.com
Subject: Mob War!
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 11:20:40 -0700
Couple of things... First off, I'm new to the list, so "Hello world!".

There, now that that's out of the way, on to my question:

I'm an experience RPG'er and an old timer game master, but I've never GM'd
Shadowrun and have never even played SR3 (last time I played it was still
SR2). Anyway, I'm looking to start a small group and play through the Mob
War! scenario book and I'm curious if anybody here has used the book, what
the did, and how they liked it? Not having really read through it
completely yet I'm thinking that I'd like to use the storylines laid out in
the book as a kind of backdrop to a different campaign/storyline because
there doesn't seem to be enough there to really support a complete campaign
on just the published material.

Anyway, I'd love to hear from other people who've played the scenario and
their experiences with it.

Thanks!

-Mike
Message no. 15
From: Hunter griffinhq@****.com
Subject: Mob War!
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 20:05:45 -0400
On Thu, 13 Apr 2000 11:20:40 -0700 Michael Horstmanshof
<michaelh@******.com> writes:
>
> Anyway, I'd love to hear from other people who've played the
> scenario and their experiences with it.
>
I've not used the scenario, but I've just finished a module where the
characters find themselves between opposing factions of the mafia.
It can fit into a campaign, be the beginning of a campaign, or a stand
alone.

*************************************************************************
********************
Griffin Industries
"A Shadowrunner's Corp."

http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/Griffin/index.html

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
Message no. 16
From: Manolis Skoulikas great_worm@*****.com
Subject: Mob War!
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 15:41:14 +0300
Michael Horstmanshof wrote:
>
> Couple of things... First off, I'm new to the list, so "Hello world!".

World to Mike: ''Hello Mike''
(big round of applause)
:)

Anyway, I'm looking to start a small group and play through the Mob
> War! scenario book and I'm curious if anybody here has used the book, what
> the did, and how they liked it?

as it happens, I have used this brilliant stuff in my cyberpirates
campaign.
I transferred the war in New Orleans (''Target: smuggler havens''is
a must for that campaign though) and changed the personas there with
the ''Mob War'' personas as I thought fit.

I camouflged a bid for power from the zobop organleggers in a seemingly
small scale mafia civil war that escalated when the mob's chief queen
Miriam Koslowski went 'all out' on the Mossino family. My players,
who were protecting the mob princess Amanda at the time, got wind
of the awkwardness of this decision and discovered that the war was
in fact being prolonged by the 'Dona' herself, who turned out to be
possesed by a free loa spirit (with aura masking to boot) controled
by the zobop. After making a quest to learn the name of the spirit
and banish it, they went on to turn on the zobop and fight the war
on a disadvantage since most mafia resourses have been squandered
in the war on their own. They eventually prevailed by enlisting some
krewes and some hard earned support from the 'Black light' posse.

So, for some analogies:

Mafia-Mafia
Yakuza-Zobop
Seoulpa rings-krewes
Triads-posses

Hope that helps

The Wiz

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Mob War!, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!