| From: | Joel Agee and Jae Hyland <joel.jae@********.ATT.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: More Stupid Runner Stories & PC vs. PC |
| Date: | Mon, 16 Feb 1998 20:39:59 -0800 |
an extremely powerful magical artifact. If any magically-active
characters try to use the artifact, however, it can possess _them_.
In my game, one of the mages, a Cat shaman, was examining the artifact.
Making a stellar Sorcery roll and an adequate Magical Theory roll, he
was told that the artifact was a focus of some kind. Knowing that it
was extremely powerful, and that powerful generally equals bad, he was
able to resist the temptation to play with his new toy for about, oh, 15
ns.
PC: I use the bottle to cast Heal on Stone [one of the sammies].
GM: It gives you up to 12 extra dice. How many do you use?
PC: Uh... All of them, I guess.
GM: OK, roll.
(Rolling ensues, during which the shaman successfully cures the moderate
wound on a sammie with ~1 essence and ~4 pts of bioware, and resists
drain handily).
GM: Now roll a magic 12 test.
(None of his 4 dice come anywhere near 12)
PC: Uh oh. What happens?
GM: You feel the power from the artifact flow through you as you cast
the spell. At first it feels cold, but then all you feel is the power.
Stone's wounds heal almost instantly, and you don't feel even a twinge
of drain. In fact, it feels good...
PC (raising arms over head): The POWER!!
At this point, one of the other sammies says...
Stryker: Drek. He's possessed. I shoot him.
GM: Excuse me?
Stryker: I have gel rounds in my gun. I fire 2 bursts.
To truly feel the impact of this, you must realize two things:
A: The gun is a Ruger Thunderbolt. As it is a heavy pistol, bursts from
this do 12S. With gel rounds, this is reduced to 10S stun.
B: Stryker is standing behind the shaman, and _easily_ has suprise;
i.e., no combat pool.
GM: OK. Roll.
Stryker: I'm not using any combat pool. I get...4 successes on the
first burst and...3 successes on the second.
GM (to shaman): By the way, your body is currently 3 thanks to the
effect of the artifact. Your character doesn't realize this, however.
The shaman gets 1 success on the first burst. He therefore takes deadly
stun. He then gets 1 success vs. the second burst, taking deadly stun
again. He burns his one remaining point of Karma Pool to buy the second
success, keeping him alive.
But wait, it gets worse.
After the game, the shaman's player takes me aside and says, "I want to
buy a Panther Cannon." "Excuse me?" I replied, fresh out of good
responses. "I took the flaw 'Vengeful.'" he replied. "I have to kill
Stryker, and the Panther is the only way I have a chance." "Ah," I
said, "but cats _play_ with their prey. You can't just go off and kill
him. It's not sporting."
So far, Stryker's bed has been wired with a flash-bang grenade wrapped
in silly putty. His car was blown up, with the detonator linked to his
remote ignition switch, leaving him _just_ outside the blast radius. I
think the next plan is to seduce his niece, then dump her. _Then_ he
might consider going for the kill.
An unthinking response has bought a whole drekload of trouble. More as
it unfolds...
Joel
