Gaming Stories, Video and Tabletop

[shadowdice]

Trauma Team? Aren't those the heavily armed guys who rescue people using any means necessary?

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yes

 

[mrttao]

Medtech: I am totally okay with Snowflame being my nemesis.

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I too would be ok with this.

So they ended up being late enough that I did a roll on if they had enough time to try to get on and try to defuse the bomb. That background roll lol-noped the possibility of the city not getting blanketed in hydrochloric acid.

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Hilarious.

 

[shadowdice]

I too would be ok with this.

Hilarious.

Click to shrink...

In a continuation of that story, Medtech did very stupid shit.

*Start of the game*

Me: Okay, so we are retconning it so Fixer was in the bar at this point. What are you guys going to do?

Medtech: Can we tell anything about the mist?

Me: You don't have chemical analyzer cyberware so not really. All you see is green death mist, a burning ship, and stuff in the water.

Cop: We should leave

Rocker: Agreed

Medtech: Can I try to touch it?

Me:...You want to touch the death mist?

Medtech: Yes.

Me:...*going through the document on what happens if someone actually touches the shit* Okay, you can dip your hand in the horrifying water that is dyed green and looks like something from the hellscape of a Disney movie villain's lair.

Medtech: I'm doing that.

Me: Okay, roll me 1d6

Medtech: wait what?

Me: You just touched concentrated acid, roll me 1d6

Medtech: You mean a 1d10+

Me: No, 1d6. This stuff ignores armor

Medtech: *6*

Me: So, you see your bulletproof artificial skin melt off and the green stuff is starting to eat through your cybernetics.

Medtech: What the fuck?

Me: Be incredibly happy that you have Hydraulic Ram cyber arms, otherwise you'd quickly lose that arm. Now, you will keep getting 1d6 damage on that limb until you manage to clean it. I will allow there to be a medkit and lots of water on the boat.

Rocker: You can leave it, you'll get a nice scar.

Medtech: This is a cyberarm.

And so, Fixer and I facepalmed as the one person who has formal training in piloting boats had to focus on saving her cybernetic arm from melting off while a guy with no boating skill, and a guy with a chip did their best to sail.

Rocker got a crit, but the narrative got fucked up due to him constantly cutting out and having to reconnect.

Medtech: I guess we just go in our cars once we get here.

Me: Rocker doesn't have a car, you were dropped off while sloppy drunk, Fixer is driven everywhere, and I'm not entirely sure how Cop got here.

Medtech: Well, we can leave right.

Me: Right now you are running for your goddamn lives as the death mist follows you, and the sea is currently rife with dead fish and the pale partially melted bodies of anyone who was unfortunate enough to be swimming in there when the cloud got released.

Cop: Nope!

Medtech: Our best bet is to just run for our lives.

Me: The bar is right there, with Fixer in it.

After a good while of explaining to them that they are trying to run away from an ever encroaching cloud of death mist that has no sign of stopping, and the fact that the most any of them put into endurance is 2, they ended up in the bar and started doing their best to close and lock everything after telling the NPCs that there was death mist outside.

So, it was the four of them, their robot dog, the AI in Rocker's head, a waitress, a bouncer, a bartender, a drunk homeless man, another patron, a guy on the phone (Simon), and a borderline cyberpsycho

Fixer: What happened out there?

Medtech: That boat blew up and now there is green mist of doom everywhere.

This then led to a mess involving them arguing with each other along with the guy who had hired them, confusion due to Fixer not knowing everything from earlier (we tried our best to fill him in), and the group remembering that Medtech was recording what was happening.

So they got to review the tape and make awareness rolls. They all succeeded

Me: You can see canisters that seem to have come from the ship that are expelling the green mist

Medtech: So it was on the ship

Rocker: Oh so it's all fake?

Us:...

Fixer: Why didn't you defuse it?

Medtech: I would have if we had been on the boat.

A few more awareness rolls resulted in Fixer hearing one of the patrons on the phone mention the name Elizabeth and being told to "take care of it."

Fixer: So we should look into this Elizabeth person, she's probably in danger.

Me: *looks at module, it is anything but*

Next came a long discussion in which the group tried to get the AI in Rocker's head to tell them what the gas is. Well, kinda. Rocker is the only one that can directly communicate with it. Others need to be texted.

Me: You don't have any method to test what it is, and any system around that could do that would require he hack into a government database. He looks at you with glee, asking if that is what you want.

Rocker: No. Just tell us what it is, aren't you a super genius? You should be able to do this.

Me: He stares at you dully. "I was made by mad scientists specializing in cybernetics and electronics, not a fucking chemist."

Fixer: Shouldn't you be able to put it against a database?

Me: "My only search criteria would be green and corrosive. There are tons of different kinds of stuff that it could be, you humans make more ways to kill each other every day."

That and Fixer trying to figure out who Elizabeth is with only a name was enough time that the countermeasures to stop the spread of information took effect. Soon, only the Cop and Fixer could call people on their phones.

Cop: *Calls partner* I need help, why aren't you doing anything?

Me: "Dude, I am doing shit right now. The entire marina is covered in goddamn death gas and people are dying all over the place. Not to mention the riots in the rest of the city."

Cop: Ah fuck.

Fixer tried calling authorities, but they weren't answering. Cop managed to learn what kind of acid and what it could do over time from his partner. Including that the glass would eventually start to frost over and possibly break after a few hours.

Me: You hear your Employer Shark try to call someone and get the message that it is no longer in service. He crushes it, has the bartender crush it with a hammer, put it in a blender, and then down the disposal.

Rocker: Why'd he do that?

Me: He looks at you guys. "Whoever gave me that job fucking burned us, so I do not want anyone able to trace that phone. I do not want to wake up with a bunch of guys in black kidnapping me and selling me for organs."

Rocker: Oh

Fixer; Or you could give it to someone you don't like.

Me: "That too."

There was a bit of a mess afterwards as Fixer asked Cop to go to the guy who he had listened in on and ask for his phone.

Cop: I want your phone

Me: He looks at you up and down and says, "No."

Cop: You can't do that.

Me: "why not?"

Cop: Because I'm a cop

Me: "I don't think it works like that."

Cop: I'll make you.

Me: "I don't think that is legal."

Cop: I don't care, I'm a dirty cop.

Me: He just looks at you for a moment. "Thank you sir, I have cybereyes and audio, so now that is recorded."

Cop: Wait what?

Me: "Well you just admitted to being a criminal, and North California is not a state that requires two party authorization of recording for that to be put into evidence."

Cop: Oh, I didn't mean to say that.

there was thing a discussion about what he said and in-character vs out of character statements. Eventually we ruled that he had said that in character, and would need to remember that those kinds of things can cause problems.

They tried to have the AI do a netrun, but he noted that there are active attempts to prevent netrunners from doing stuff on the net, and even if he managed to do one thing, continued runs would increase the chance of them shutting him out.

once their phones stopped working they ended up threatening a drunk homeless person for his phone.

Me; He says he doesn't have one *rolls* and he actually doesn't

Fixer: Wait, maybe we can use radio

Me: Do any of you have radios?

Fixer: No but phones can be altered to work like them

Me: What is Medtech's electronics and basic tech?

Fixer: This is why actual Techies are good.

Medtech: I have 3, but my Tech is high.

Me: Roll

Medtech: *manages to succeed a DC 20 check*

Me: Okay, so who are you trying to contact?

Fixer: My Netsec friend

Me: Wouldn't that require her to be on the radio or have a method of contacting you on one>

Fixer:...Fuck

Me: How about you roll luck?

Fixer: 12

Me: You hear a child on the other end as you scan through frequencies.

Everyone; Shit

Me: "Hello, who are you?"

Fixer: I'm sorry, could you put your parents on?

Me: *rolls a d100 on the social status of the family they got into contact with, 91* Medtech, roll luck.

Medtech: Oh god no. *15*

Me: You hear your older brother's voice on the other end.

Medtech: NOOOOOOOOhohohoho.

Me: He sighs and asks "Medtech, I can see the burning ships and cloud of death killing off the people of the city from here. What did you do and who did you piss off?"

Medtech: It wasn't me.

Me: "Do you really expect me to do that."

Fixer: We were all miles and miles away.

Me: Roll me bullshit.

Fixer: I'm not lying, technically.

Me; you watched video evidence of your friends being mere feet away and Medtech dipping her hands inside of the sea of death by ground zero

Fixer: Medtech,. why did you have me watch that? *Fails Fasttalk*

Me: "So, it seems to me that you were either set up, or someone tried to kill you. And now the dregs of the city and anyone unlucky enough to be outside down there is dying horrible deaths."

Fixer: "Oh yeah, you are rich. You must be pretty high up."

Me: "I am a Trauma Team executive. It has its perks."

Fixer: "Could you send a helicopter to save us?"

Me: "If someone went to the trouble to create devastation on this scale, I doubt they wouldn't be in the middle of sending their own people to prevent rescue attempts. Additionally, the acid can cause problems for air vehicles. So no."

Fixer: "Could you send a tank?"

Me: He just laughs.

Fixer: "Medtech, why can't your brother help us more?"

Me: Medtech rolled Neutral on how her brother felt, and he already helped you this month and sent a trauma team squad into a situation where all of them died helping you.

Fixer: Point. Medtech, can you figure out if there is a way to prevent the glass from breaking?

Medtech: I have pharmacy not chemistry

Me: I will let you roll that at half bonus.

Medtech: *over 15*

Me; you are pretty sure you could make something with stuff from the supply closet.

Fixer: *gets people to let Medtech do that and work to help make the solution*

Things slowly got worse, with repeated news reports causing more panic, the knowledge that if they get found they will probably be pinned as the people who made the bombs, paranoia, arguments, debates on if it is best to just run and try to find somewhere else to hide, and more all got passed around. Also, a lot of the reporters on the air died. The Bartender gave Fixer a note telling him that the phone guy's name was Simon

Me: You hear the door rattle and them thumps and wheezes as someone with malfunctioning cyber limbs begs you guys to open the door.

Medtech: Why should we let you in.

Me: *rolls* I have booze.

Fixer; We are in the bar

Me; "Please, I'm dying."

Fixer; We're gangsters, we aren't exactly the people you go looking for help from.

Me: The guy with the phone groans and says "Please, all of you. Keep admitting to crimes in front of me."

Fixer: Are you threatening me?

Me: "No, but you people keep admitting to being criminals in front of me."

It turned out that Fixer didn't realize they were in the city proper, not the combat zone.

Fixer; "Wait, outside guy. How cybered are you?"

Me: "Very."

Fixer: "And you were out there how long?"

Me: "An hour, I have anti-toxin binders"

Fixer: "Maybe running would be a good idea?"

Me: Do any of you have anti poison or drug cyberware?

They don't. After a lot more of the guy outside begging and their refusal, I rolled, the guy was punching the door. Then I rolled on his stats, which the combat ones were excellent. Along with what kind of cyberarm he had.

Me: So, he does over 18 damage to the door, and it has only ten more points of health.

This resulted in a lot more panic as they tried to figure out how to make sure the door didn't break. Eventually resulting in Fixer having to open the door himself and take 6 points of damage.

Medtech: HEALING TIME *rolls over 30*

Me: Okay, fixer. You take the damage, but are no longer in pain, and won't be dying next turn.

Fixer: This is why I keep you Medtech.

Me: Also, the guy from outside does have booze on him.

Medtech: *over 30 on check* I heal him and take some of the booze.

More news came from the TV, in which the previously mentioned Elizabeth talked about how there were saboteurs brought onto the boat by a Petrochem employee who had engaged in corporate sabotage.

Medtech: You bastard *Throws self at Shark*

Me: Shark screams. "Do you think I work with a corp while having a fucking cyberjaw and biomods?" (While the original module doesn't have him be weird, I decided to make Shark look like King Shark from Arkham Asylum)

Me: The news report continues. "I don't feel that I need to hide his name given what happened, his name is Simon-"

Medtech: I throw myself at Simon

Me: *Rolls Simon's stats, laughs. He ended up with high reflex along with cyberware that increases that, and high level martial arts*

Medtech: Why is everyone OP

me: My random number generator apparently hates you guys. So he managed to dodge and screams. "It wasn't me. I didn't know. It must have been that bitch on the news. Why would I be here if I knew this would happen?"

Fixer: You're a Martyr

Me: "I'm a scapegoat like you"

Medtech: I try to punch him again

Me: Everyone roll initiative, the Cyberpsycho is going to try to shoot everyone.

Medtech: Oh no

Fixer: And he gets a bonus from combat sense doesn't he?

Me: Yes *Rolls* And he is going to blast wildly around the room.

Rocker and Fixer got shot but had enough armor to not get hurt, one of the employees got gut-shot and nearly died, and Simon's leg was blown clean off.

Me: Everyone is screaming.

Fixer: I'm going to move to make sure I don't shoot any of the windows, aim to shoot at his hands, and fire twice. *Takes penalties and succeeds. Does over 30 armor piercing damage to each*

Medtech: That is not a handgun

Me: We've got over how it is a hand cannon that could make Arnold Schwarzenneger in his prime break his wrist

Medtech: I know, but still.

Me: *rolls* Okay, so the cyberpsycho fails his death save, and he falls to the floor, bleeding out from the holes where his hands uses to be. Fixer, you get two armalight 44s. *rolls more* Simon succeeded his death save, and the other guy is still bleeding but not dead.

Medtech succeeded the rolls to stabilize them, and Fixer woke Simon up by stepping on his stump.

A short interrogation made it so they learned that Petrochem was shipping dangerous chemicals in with their cargo to maximize profit. Simon is unsure if Elizabeth knew about the bomb plot or not as he is usually sent to make sure the cargo arrives and he didn't know about what was going on. If it wasn't done by Elizabeth, it is likely that the perpetrators are a smaller company called DuPree that they were trying to buy out. Elizabeth might have been working for them, and even if she isn't they'll want him dead.

And even though there is a bounty on his head now, turning him in is likely to lead to Petrochem killing everybody else to make sure no one learns about the truth.

Fixer; So we need you alive.

Me: He will remind you that he has a brain and neural processor full of information about Petrochem.

Fixer: Definitely alive.

Then came a lot more arguing about how to escape, eventually resulting in them making streetwise checks.

Fixer: To get through the acid we'd probably need something like a tank.

Me: All of you remember that Cop is friends with a Militech executive. They buy, use, and sell tanks.

Everyone:...*Facepalm*

Me: So, how are you going to get into contact?

Fixer: Well my street deal *remembers the phone issue*

Then, everyone turned to cop and looked at the token for his robot dog.

Medtech: He doesn't have organic parts. How smart is he?

Me: His intelligence is 8. That is about the average intelligence of your group *Is higher than Rocker, even with Cop and Fixer*

Medtech: Oh.

Cop: Could he go find my friend.

Me: I assume he knows where his apartment is, and your friend would recognize him. So when he gets a call about a robot dog at the hotel or office building, he'd know to let him in.

Fixer: How would they know to come for us though.

Me: It is a robot dog. he has memory banks.

This led to a touching moment as Cop eventually relented in letting them use his dog to save themselves.

me: So, who is going to open the door?

Fixer: Not it.

No one wanted to do it.

Fixer: We could draw straws.

The hobo got two nat 1s

Medtech: We could give you alcohol if you do it.

Me: He runs and does it *gets 7 damage to the face*, as he opens the door a gust of acid sprays him all over the face and he falls to the ground screaming, but manages to close the door behind him.

As such, the hobo got cleaned by medtech and essentially got an IV drip of alcohol into his mouth for the rest of the time they were there. In the middle of that there was another heartwarming scene of the cyborg dog putting one paw up to the glass while Cop argued with Fixer about the risks, and the unnamed robohound went running out of view.

Medtech: Wait, how fast is the dog?

Me: His movement stat is 20

Medtech:...that is faster than the cyber ninja who kept speed blitzing us.

Me: To be fair, his reflex is lower than that guy, and the ninja could run on walls.

Medtech: Still, that is ridiculously fast.

Me: he also doesn't have those weak fleshy limitations that the rest of you have. *Rolls on if the dog will make it in time to help. he does*

Me: After another hour you hear an AV descend.

DuPree chemical sent goons in armor that used experimental force field technology to make a path to their AV wide enough for people to come through. The team decided that they'd let them have Simon if they agreed to take everyone else with them as well.

The goons agreed, and the firefight that normally would have happened from Petrochem trying to kill everyone got averted due to the dog.

Me: Okay, you see a Petrochem AV flying around.

Everyone: Fuck

Me: But there is also a Militech one exchanging gunfire with it.

Everyone: YES!

As such, through the power of friendship, guns, and Lassie the Robohound, Almost everyone in the bar ended up surviving.

 

[mrttao]

As such, through the power of friendship, guns, and Lassie the Robohound, Almost everyone in the bar ended up surviving.

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Lassie the Robohound is best.

 

[shadowdice]

Lassie the Robohound is best.

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That dog is a fairly good method of making up ways for the team to survive *Aimed armor piercing machine-gun burst fire at a guy's head, micro missiles, nets, being able to run ridiculously fast*

 

[Scalehome]

The squad playing SMITE, some years ago. For those not in the know, Ares' ultimate back then was something to be feared, as many characters had to spend a good chunk of gold to even cleanse the amazing powerful aoe displacement+stun (he pulls all enemies in range and stuns for 2s or so).

So, we're sitting there, fully aware that only one character on the enemy team has a cleanse, and our Ares, after having been bulli'd for a good 5 minutes for his garbage aim, tells us to "watch this". So we do.

He uses his 160s cooldown instant blink and lands smackdab in the middle of the enemy team. And then he promptly dies. "Uh, guys I just crashed."

As you can imagine, he's never heard the end of it.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

Ah yeah, Ares ult is a pain to deal with if you don't have a cleanse... Even the invincibility relic cannot save you always if you get pulled in there because everyone will start spamming out Crow Control and ruin your day...

It is also hilarious when combo-ed with various other AoE ultimates like Poseidon's Release the Kraken or Kukulkan's giant Stormdragon attack...

 

[cross_grave]

Medtech: I am going to stick my hand in fucking death acid.

...Is he for fucking real?

 

[shadowdice]

Medtech: I am going to stick my hand in fucking death acid.

...Is he for fucking real?

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Yes

I repeatedly stressed that was a bad idea, but eventually just let him do it because having to roll to keep his hand from burning off sounds like the one way to make him learn.

And that did not stop the guys from trying to just run around in the death cloud.

 

[Dakkaface]

Yes

I repeatedly stressed that was a bad idea, but eventually just let him do it because having to roll to keep his hand from burning off sounds like the one way to make him learn.

And that did not stop the guys from trying to just run around in the death cloud.

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If you weren't already this deep in the game I'd say it sounds like fantasy superhuman syndrome. After all, when your barbarian can take a dip in lava and be fine, clearly stuff that is lethal to normal humans is going to be nothing to the party, right? There's often a rude awakening when when to play a more realistically scaled system, even action heroes don't have the kind of durability players expect.

Of course, they're absolute dumbasses for not grokking how fragile they are by this point.

 

[shadowdice]

If you weren't already this deep in the game I'd say it sounds like fantasy superhuman syndrome. After all, when your barbarian can take a dip in lava and be fine, clearly stuff that is lethal to normal humans is going to be nothing to the party, right? There's often a rude awakening when when to play a more realistically scaled system, even action heroes don't have the kind of durability players expect.

Of course, they're absolute dumbasses for not grokking how fragile they are by this point.

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If it were literally any other character who dipped their hand in concentrated acid they'd instantly lose the limb. Medtech had both arms removed and replaced with incredibly durable hydraulic enhanced cyber arms with even bigger fists of death, then put bulletproof artificial skin over it. So it would have been something like 50+ damage or so for the limb to be completely destroyed.

But that is around a minute and a half of acid burning through until it is destroyed, assuming average damage.

 

[shadowdice]

I've considered having my players roll on the Psychic Phenomenon tables when they keep fumbling while making their situation worse.

Such as when they fumble after trying to tell absolutely atrocious lies.

It isn't that out of the way in setting as we are using the version of cyberpunk where there is really fucking weird stuff in the background to find (actual vampires, possible psychic entities spawned in the net, psychics)

 

[shadowdice]

How normal is it for players to intentionally start World War 3 as a survival tactic/spiteful revenge against their enemies?

Because that is what has happened in my cyberpunk campaign.

 

[Valette-Serafina]

How normal is it for players to intentionally start World War 3 as a survival tactic/spiteful revenge against their enemies?

Because that is what has happened in my cyberpunk campaign.

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One would question World War 3 being an effective survival tactic in any setting with nukes.

 

[LurkingInTheDeceit]

How normal is it for players to intentionally start World War 3 as a survival tactic/spiteful revenge against their enemies?

Because that is what has happened in my cyberpunk campaign.

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I'd expect it to be 50/50 when given the option tbh, but that's not based on any actual role playing experience.

 

[shadowdice]

One would question World War 3 being an effective survival tactic in any setting with nukes.

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I made it clear to them that the person they were giving the story to would write it in a way that would cause massive conflict, what with horrifying bioweapons being made in the USA by a foreign company and testing it out on the streets while also licensing the stuff most of the world's fuel, how it would piss off one of the organizations with the largest militaries due to one of the bioweapons being used to kill several of their higher ranking people, and Trauma Team having lost people to it, and the scion of two highly respected scientists that work for the corporations out in space having gotten tortured within an inch of his life.

Their focus was causing enough trouble that the megacorps they've pissed off would be too busy to try to murder them.

This also came after blackmailing people to get a EMP able to shut down everything in a large section of the city in part of a plot to discredit a mayor while also crippling a several hundred strong gang of murderous cyborgs.

My players go straight for escalation rather than anything else.

Which is part of how they got into a situation where they could cause this.

 

[G.A. Kyoki]

Theta Squad continues to survive the Clone Wars, against all odds. Our group memes are getting better by the day as well, even managed to make a Star Wars title crawl for the latest session.

Spoiler: Title Crawl

Geonosis is going well, currently, we've been tasked with infiltrating a Geonosian spire that's being assaulted. Our main objective is to disable their shield generator and AA so that they whole thing can get pummeled via bombardment however actually getting there has proven a bit difficult since our LAAT got shot down and our pilots were turned into chunky salsa due to an impromptu meeting with the ground and their cockpit. Luckily we managed to survive the crash without taking any wounds, instead suffering strain due to us failing athletics checks to not go tumbling.

After the crash we decided to rig the LAAT to blow incase Geonosians or Droids came to check the wreck while we ran off to find cover and think of a way to get into the Spire. Cue about 12 armoured Geonosians flying over our heads to inspect our LAAT, four of them getting turned into scorched jam and the other eight panicking while we more or less run while no one's looking. Took us a wee bit to find an entrance since it's Geonosian architecture and they don't actually use doors like we do since they have wings, since we all know that Red Bull is an integral part of a Geonosians upbringing and heavily affected their evolution as a species.

With extensive use of the Mark 1 Eyeball we eventually come across a Droid Loading area which is guarded by two more squads of armoured Geonosians. We briefly discuss the merits of trying to sneak under them and into the Spire but eventually agree we can't do that it'd be downright impossible and they'd be deliberately looking down, where we would be. So we decide "Fuck it" and open fire, getting us all a Surprise Round. When I roll for my initiative I end up getting a Triumph, a critical success, and since it was rolled in initiative I was granted a free round.

With that free round plus my surprise round I managed to completely obliterate the Geonosian guards, save for one, while my leader, Thorne, runs over to the second squad like a madman to shoot his two beloved pistols at them, doing almost as much damage as me because of-fucking-course he does, those pistols of his can take on Tanks somehow, the min-maxing bastard. Rest of the Squad manages to pick off what's left, leaving us free to do what we want without taking any damage or alerting anyone else to our presence.

Cue a lot of looking around and a mini-heart attack when we find droid deployment tanks, we eventually manage to find our way to a barracks-like area since we're more-or-less winging it since we have no idea where the shield generator is. We end up prepping some explosives to breach the barracks Rainbow Six-style and pretty much wipe the place clean of any presence of Geonosians plus a couple of squads of B1's that get trashed immediately. Once the barracks is empty we end up looking through it for information which is rather difficult since Geonosians are a bunch of insectile savages who don't use Galactic Basic and instead use their own backwards language however we still manage to get some information...like a security feed that shows us a figure in robes that look strangely like Jedi robes, causing all of us to get very fucking worried that either on of ours got captured or if Ventress is back for round 2 although the panicking gets worse when we remember that Dooku was also on-planet for the Second Battle of Geonosis.

Unfortunately we end up having to leave it there due to Tabletop Simulator having a fucking seizure and making it damn near impossible to do anything without getting disconnected however we managed to get bonus XP out of pity for Tabletop Sim having a shit-fit which was nice. However I have not talked about our vacation to Coruscant, which I may do at some point because it was fun to mess around on the Republics capital and do questionable things despite being Clone Commando's.

Edit: Oh yes, I also managed to stitch together images for all of Theta Squad using the Clone Commando template I used for my Medic, Scalps.

Spoiler: Theta Squad

Theta-Actual, Thorne (Pistol fetishist)

Theta-2, Sevens (Potentially suicidal)

Theta-3, Scalps (Angry boi)

Theta-4, Hops (Brain-dead wall of flesh)

 

[Megaolix]

My players go straight for escalation rather than anything else.

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Well, you know what they say. When you give them enough rope...

 

[shadowdice]

Well, you know what they say. When you give them enough rope...

Click to shrink...

They do a lot of things which they forget about, which I later use to get back at them.

Such as keeping the bodies of about four full body conversion cyborgs and two complete cyber psychos so they can look at the advanced technology in them, then never do anything with it, entirely forget that they have them, and only remember about it after I have an NPC hunt one of them down asking about what happened to the body that has the mind-upload of a mad scientist inside the body of a former biker gang leader that has enough body and strength feat to throw cars at people.

They think that another copy of the mad scientist (there were three, they killed two) did it, but it's actually because I rolled that the biker became a vampire after death.

*rules for vampires and such are in the extra supplements for Cyberpunk 2020 and I told the players that those are going to be things*

So right now there are:

A borderline insane cop with experimental nano machines capable of regenerating limbs and the like through horrifying tentacles and cannibalistic urges to get the material to replace what he loses.

A rockerboy with an AI in his brain capable of net running wirelessly and without any extra equipment (something which the players have learned is abnormal and could lead to him getting his brain cut open). he also antagonizes the AI by assuming it can do anything despite its very creation involving cutting its normal capabilities, and then complaining that the AI doesn't know things outside of the specialized knowledge it was programmed with.

A genetically engineered Brazilian Supersoldier who is being crushed by family problems whilst also being a mad scientist/druglord

An elderly Chinese Triad Leader who has been put above the prime of his life through biotech implanted into him. As a note. Triad head traditional titles include: Mountain Master and Dragon Head (He is essentially Ras Al-Ghul). He is also involved in a plot to discredit the mayor to get an allied Yakuza member into the Mayoral seat. Also he accidentally contacted an alien entity after rolling double ones while trying to comprehend psychic powers being used in front of him.
​

I honestly believe this campaign might end in the last one becoming Cthugha's emissary.

 

[mrttao]

I made it clear to them that the person they were giving the story to would write it in a way that would cause massive conflict, what with horrifying bioweapons being made in the USA by a foreign company and testing it out on the streets while also licensing the stuff most of the world's fuel, how it would piss off one of the organizations with the largest militaries due to one of the bioweapons being used to kill several of their higher ranking people, and Trauma Team having lost people to it, and the scion of two highly respected scientists that work for the corporations out in space having gotten tortured within an inch of his life.

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Here is the thing. This megacorp is an entity that is:
1. evil
2. inimical to humanity
3. specifically hunting down the MCs

War is simply organized violence on a large scale. It is only called world war 3 because
a. so many different factions are angry to evil-mcbadguycorp to join in on fighting them.
b. evil-mcbadguycorp is so powerful that it is not instantly destroyed by being ganged up on.

It being that powerful means that logically the MC's would never have been able to take it out themselves. So getting a whole bunch of different factions to gang up on them is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate tactic. And one that is a net good to the world at large.

And the fact they are testing bioweapons in USA cities mean they are already doing the worse parts of war anyways.

Your players did nothing wrong.
If it was just a few rogue elements within the megacorp and they intentionally twisted things such that it would lead to war with another megacorp instead of the normal negotiations ending in extradiction of the criminal parties. Then you would have cause to complain that they are escalating like crazy. But from what I heard from you thus far it sounded like there really wasn't a better solution.

 

[shadowdice]

Here is the thing. This megacorp is an entity that is:
1. evil
2. inimical to humanity
3. specifically hunting down the MCs

War is simply organized violence on a large scale. It is only called world war 3 because
a. so many different factions are angry to evil-mcbadguycorp to join in on fighting them.
b. evil-mcbadguycorp is so powerful that it is not instantly destroyed by being ganged up on.

It being that powerful means that logically the MC's would never have been able to take it out themselves. So getting a whole bunch of different factions to gang up on them is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate tactic. And one that is a net good to the world at large.

And the fact they are testing bioweapons in USA cities mean they are already doing the worse parts of war anyways.

Your players did nothing wrong.
If it was just a few rogue elements within the megacorp and they intentionally twisted things such that it would lead to war with another megacorp instead of the normal negotiations ending in extradiction of the criminal parties. Then you would have cause to complain that they are escalating like crazy. But from what I heard from you thus far it sounded like there really wasn't a better solution.

Click to shrink...

I don't necessarily believe that they did something wrong when it comes to the majority of this.

It is more like, megacorp has something that makes it so war is an excuse for everyone else to try to take what they have (legal rights to the setting's super fuel).

The PCs also don't know if it is rogue part of the biotech megacorp or not, got a good portion of their information from a sadistic psychopath gang leader that was dying die tp the,, the two operations (the genetically engineered assassin and the fungus of doom) are by two different departments in the biotech megacorp, both corporations did send them messages about what to do to cease hostilities (one wants their genetically engineered assassin, the other wants the assassin who killed a bunch of them)

And part of why things have escalated to this point is that the MCs kept going "I want to shoot the person." and "I want arrest this person while being shady as fuck with all of these other shady people while surrounded by an army of carnies with guns." (that last part is the main thing which makes me look at my players wondering what they are thinking)

It is incredibly entertaining to me, and part of my longterm plans was that a global conflict would get started.

Plus they also went to one of the other PC's enemies and gave them the information, which is definitely going to be used to bite them at some point.

The EMP bombing and gang war plan is also something that they had made after previously making a plan that would rather easily fake the death of the genetically engineered assassin, and make it so the players got their kidnapped friends back.

Essentially what happened was.

Session a: Make a nonlethal plan that makes everyone either happy or neutral.

Session b: Side adventure

Session c: How about we drop a bomb on part of the city?

 

[mrttao]

It is more like, megacorp has something that makes it so war is an excuse for everyone else to try to take what they have (legal rights to the setting's super fuel).

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Ah ok. from your previous post I got the impression that the reason for the war was that the evil corp was so evil and unwilling to capitulate on that regards (like doing an internal investigation when the news breaks and arresting the involved).

But now it sounds like the other corps were just looking for a casus belli to declare war on them to take their stuff... hmm in that case its still not really the players fault. If they were looking to manufacture a CB they would have eventually anyways

And part of why things have escalated to this point is that the MCs kept going "I want to shoot the person." and "I want arrest this person while being shady as fuck with all of these other shady people while surrounded by an army of carnies with guns." (that last part is the main thing which makes me look at my players wondering what they are thinking)

Click to shrink...

Your players are craycray

 

[shadowdice]

Ah ok. from your previous post I got the impression that the reason for the war was that the evil corp was so evil and unwilling to capitulate on that regards (like doing an internal investigation when the news breaks and arresting the involved).

But now it sounds like the other corps were just looking for a casus belli to declare war on them to take their stuff... hmm in that case its still not really the players fault. If they were looking to manufacture a CB they would have eventually anyways

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Okay. there are multiple things going on

the corporation that kidnapped one of the npcs and made bioweapons is Biotechnica, which has ownership over GMO plants that generate the world's major fuel source. Other companies may grow and harvest it, but only by paying biotechnica, which finances their mad science.

As such, EVERY government and corporation would love to burn it to the ground while getting their research on that crop and the rights to it. Which makes it so the EEC (Cyberpunk's EU equivalent with genetically engineered totalitarian weirdness) would oppose anyone outside of them getting at it.

So, revealing the two pieces of information, both of which were done by different parts of Biotechnica (the assassin project and mold drug project), makes things go pear shaped as it gives the USA reason to seize everything on Biotechnica they can and attack the non-US holdings by declaring the latter project a plot against them. The former project (assassin which they made it so it had to survive by eating people, and hardcoded a list of Arasaka executives on its eat list) was something they lost control of as they just wanted 1 person dead, but the assassin ran away from them. The deaths of multiple Arasaka execs (they intended on just one, but Arasaka doesn't know that) pissed off Arasaka, making them want blood. But now they have perfectly good excuses to declare war on Biotechnica and unleash their massive private army.

Your players are craycray

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Yes on this.

Their original plan was. "We have both corporations come to the same place which will confuse them, then we blow off one of the assassin's limbs, make it look like she died, and put her in a cryotank for a bit before helping her disappear in the nomad nation"

Then they went. "Lets set off an EMP that will black out and fry large sections in a city filled with cyborgs and flying vehicles"

 

[shadowdice]

My players in cyberpunk have learned to both love and hate my dice

For 2 sessions we had an extended fight scene which started with their minion NPCs which I rolled because the players weren't sure which account the doc file had been sent to.

I proceeded to get multiple crits on the d10 roll that resulted in a fifty for their shootout against other npcs

Medtech: Why are you the opposite of my strings of ones?

Later I had to do the rolls for the fixer since he was online through his phone.

I got four tens in a row when he said he wanted to use leadership. Something which used some of his lowest stats.

Us:....

Me: Apparently the ancient Chinese man who seconds ago was flying and breathing fire like a wuxia wizard is giving the sermon on the mount.

At this point, the fixer is the head of a local triad which gives him the title dragon's head or Mountain master. And he has willingly contacted lovecraftian abominations who have explained themselves as being chinese gods.

So we have Ra's Al-Ghul trying to bring Hastur to Earth so they can rule the world.

 

[Prince Chrom]

5e D&D party of fifth level characters with no healer, a Rouge, my Monk, a Fighter, a Fighter/Warlock, a Sorcerer, and a Bloodhunter, who were nearly murdered by flying Reindeer, after being attacked by snowmen. We've been hired to shut down Santa Claus.

 

[shadowdice]

5e D&D party of fifth level characters with no healer, a Rouge, my Monk, a Fighter, a Fighter/Warlock, a Sorcerer, and a Bloodhunter, who were nearly murdered by flying Reindeer, after being attacked by snowmen. We've been hired to shut down Santa Claus.

Click to shrink...

Oh, my group did a similar thing for a one shot.

We flanked Santa from all sides while slashing out his eyes and shooting him in the face.

 

[Prince Chrom]

Oh, my group did a similar thing for a one shot.

We flanked Santa from all sides while slashing out his eyes and shooting him in the face.

Click to shrink...

We haven't reached Santa yet.

 

[shadowdice]

In my Cyberpunk campaign, I have a system due to our inclusion of the Lovecraftian mythos. During a fumble in an incredibly dramatic situation, the player can have an out by rolling on the Psychic Phenomena table and then rolling on a special patron table I made.

The phenomena can still lead to bad things, and their interaction with the "Patron" will determine if that goes poorly or not, but it can save their attempt.

In the case of this Sunday. After a series of actions including Rocker writing a speech of Medtech, Cop helping out, and Medtech trying to rally her forces to go on the mission to kill off the first boss villain of the campaign, Medtech rolled a 1.

Me: Do you want an out.

Medtech: Yes *keeps getting multiple nat 1s on the leadership, martial arts, and medtech rolls at various points in the campaign*

he ended up rolling near maximum on the amount of area that would get permafrost over it in the psychic phenomena, and for the random Patron, he got Crom Cruach (God of Conan, also a Great Old One in the Lovecraft mythos).

Me:...*looks at the piles of dead bodies Medtech and Cop have made in the campaign* This is highly appropriate.

Thus, whilst I described the god as being incredibly associated with war and death, Medtech and Cop happily offered up their respective monstrous kill counts and servitude up to a Great Old One.

Medtech: This is highly appropriate given how much of a murderhobo the two of us are.

Cop: My character is happy to offer himself to an Irish god of war.

This was followed up with Cop rolling really well on his main bonuses (Psi stat, Psion skill, and Psychic Focus (it boosts physical abilities). They were 8 9 and 8 respectively) and Medtech...not doing so well.

During the combat portion of the game Cop rolled multiple nat 10s while gunning down a bunch of kidnappers, chasing down the last survivor, and brutally destroying his head with a baton.

Me: Night City's perpetually overcast and acid rain clears up as you see the bright sun shining down upon you with Crom smiling within it. You feel like there is a father figure who you dearly love patting you on the back after you won a sports game.

At this point in time, Fixer is in an agreeable contract with his Great Old One while pining for another one, Medtech has gained the favor of her Great Old One by murdering hundreds of people, and Cop apparently has the unconditional love of his Irish Murderhobo God.

Though, part of why they accepted these contracts is because Fixer knows Nyarlathotep is fucking with them and the Mi-Gou are either invading or got experimented by a corporation (which has been influenced by Nyarlathotep) on to make weird drugs.

I think Medtech has finally admitted the fact that his character is an incredibly black-hat PC.

 

[shadowdice]

I introduced my friends to Chronicles of Darkness while walking them through the character creation process for Vampire. The one making the character made a Military Police officer who was a Physical/Social/Mental build

The results were glorious

Strength 3 Dex 2 Stamina 3
Presence 3 Manipulation 1 Composure 3
Mental: Wits 2 Int 1 Resolve 3
Virtue: Competitive
Vice: Believer (doomsday prepping and conspiracy theories)
Aspiration: Prove Cthulhu is real

Brawl 4 Specialty Grappling, Athletics 3, Firearms 2, Stealth 1, Survival 1
Intimidate 2, Empathy 1, Streetwise 3 Specialty Under Cover, Persuasion 1
Politics 2 Investigation 1 Occult 1 Specialty Under Cover
Merits Giant (3 points) Iron Stamina (3 points) Relentless (1 point)

So we have a giant man of incredible strength and endurance who has great charisma and the ability to speak with absolute certainty whilst believing that Cthulhu is out there, and that he has to prove it to the world, all the whilst navigating the bureaucratic process, intimidating people into signing his petitions, and infiltrating cults. Plus, he is a giant capable of running endlessly in pursuit of his beliefs and can suplex people into telling them what he wants.

All while being almost incapable of actually investigating and having no clue about the occult (He has like 2 dice for those)

Me: The horrifying thing is, when you turn into a vampire a lot of your theories would turn out to be true

Friend: YES, but he'll be a terrible vampire

Me: No, a lot of the clans have powers that help them physically. *gives him a link to the clans*

Friend: I am going to be a Daeva, because strength, speed, and charisma. Also SUCC

Me: They are called the succubi

Friend: *Reads the page again and starts laughing*

Me: The worst part is that your bane is that you guys ALWAYS have to indulge in your vice. So there is probably this giant vampire dude who walks into all of the conspiracy theorist conventions, or starts telling all the other vampires about how aliens are secretly trying to control them.

Friend: I love this

Me: Some of them would probably humor you so they can use your strength and grappling for their purposes.

So we now have a character that will likely go for Vigor 2 Celerity 1 so he can be a speeding tank that uses wrestling moves to grapple people through walls

edit

We also came to the conclusion that the Summoner in DnD could be used to make a character who has Oda Nobunaga as a Persona

 

[cross_grave]

We also came to the conclusion that the Summoner in DnD could be used to make a character who has Oda Nobunaga as a Persona

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Details?