Message no. 1

From:	Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk>
Subject:	Oh Dear
Date:	Sat, 21 Sep 1996 17:26:08 +0100

It had to happen sooner or later I suppose.

Some of you here may remember me posting a little trick I'd played on
one of my players, concerning a Medical ACPA he had purchased (I play
Shadowrun and liking the ACPA's converted them over - sorry), anyway,
he bought the unit for a small fortune, but was unaware that the power
pack was an optional extra (I seem to recall I got some boohs and hisses
for that one from you guys).

Well.....

The team ran into a tiny problem down on some deserted docks in Tacoma,
and one of the derelict buildings collapsed around them. Doc, the
character who owned the ACPA, avoided the problem - he was supposed to
have been on look out, but in his usual manner fell asleep.

The collapsing buildings made enough noise to waken him, and he
immediately sprang into action (hehe) dropped the converted rear of his
RV, climbed into the ACPA, locked the cockpit down, hit the auxiliaries,
pressed the power stud, and - nothing.....
Hit it again - nothing
and again - nothing

The light dawns, the player looked at me and asked about the power unit,
should he have had it on charge..... <evil grin> "What power unit" I
asked in as mild a tone as I could manage.

Players screams, hurls abuse, bounces up and down in seat, produces
copious quantities of steam from various orifices, and questions my
natural habits and parentage (can't understand why :-)

Other players follow a combination of slapping foreheads and "Burn -
damn you" glares at me. Eventually, thanks to a combination of good
luck, and old wood, they were able to dig, burrow, crawl and blast their
way off the dock, out of the rubble, and into Puget Sound. Climbing out
of the sound, the team were somewhat unimpressed that they had had to
ditch most of their larger items (assault rifles, body armour, long
coats, etc) in order to be able to swim.

All in all, the run netted them 12,000 each, and cost them in excess of
75,000 - 100,000 each to replace vehicles and equipment. I was quite
pleased with the result, but for some strange reason I've been getting
hate mail ever since.

Anyone got any ideas why????

Pete
--
Pete Sims
Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we
can perform without thinking about them.