Back to the Seattle Sprawl
Tonight I GMed my first Shadowrun game since leaving Salem. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed doing that! Using second edition worked well, I was able to make several correct rules calls without touching the rulebook. I did find out that I need another little box of six-siders – they go fast in SR, where a combat roll can easily take 8-12 dice at once.
Tonight, we assembled a motley crew to babysit an up-and-coming rock star who needed to break her contract with a crooked agent. I used the old “Mercurial at Underworld 93” module to get myself back into practice. The first half of the evening mostly set the scene of a mid-21st-century club with an angry rockergirl performing, and the second half involved our heroes protecting her from attack by hired goons.
Starr’s physical adept proved insanely quick on the draw, plugging one of the goons as he was finishing his opening threat. ptownhiker‘s mage threw up a force field which blocked fixitup‘s shots, but deflected a flechette blast from the second goon. The force field absorbed lewisw‘s shots as well, at which point Starr got Dave to drop the field, allowing her to perforate the second thug. Dwight’s shaman cast a confusion spell on the last enemy, allowing Dave to telekinetically rip the gun from his hands as Starr tackled him.
Combat and spellcasting went smoothly once we found the rhythm, and the scene stopped at a perfect break point. I’m feeling good about this, and I’ve got plans to integrate our geographically challenged decker and Jesse’s runner into next session. Thanks everyone, for making it so much fun!
Crikey, that’s more action than I’ve seen in…at least half a dozen, probably more like 10 sessions of the SR game I’m in.
Of course, we’d probably have seen some action right now, if not for one member who REGULARLY does not show up.
Hmm… could this be the lustrious BlueRacer that you speak of? I did manage to locate my mondo bag – o – dice. Just I have no idea where my char sheets are. 🙁
But I would love to come to one!
Shrew
BlueRacer was a rigger, remember? Queen of the robot drones? Amy’s our decker, she’s going to join the group by webcam since she’s moved away.
But I have to say, the group doesn’t actually have a rigger…
Doh!
You are absolutely correct! But I like the webcam idea! I have a pretty decent one also if you guys game on a night other than the weekend. Something to consider…. hmm… yes, very interesting…..
That’s annoying. I’m building a portfolio of transparently lame but acceptable reasons why character X is off doing their own thing this week, for nights when people can’t make it.
The worst part is when you have to do that the session right after a cliffhanger, though. That’s when you take your most mentally-flexible player and give then two characters until such time as one of the two can justifiably disappear to powder their nose for several hours.
But yeah, I try to work in one combat scene per session. Not always easy, but most Shadowrun players seem to want excuses to shoot things as often as the plot will let them 🙂
I sure as hell do! My character’s a lightly-modified ex-PMC soldier, all kitted out for the shooting of things, and all we’ve done is recon and all that. Man, I’m itchin’ to shoot something.
And cut off some ears. There’s a bounty on ears…
shoot things and people up….blow things up….mass carnage is an EXCELLENT form of stress relief. Far better than my usual kicking ass on Bar Trivia games. Though tonight is Tuesday night….invasion of the other bar mob. Me against a dozen. Always a challenge!!!!!!
I had a blast. Anytime when I can pull off a Darth Vader TK trick is a good one. fixitup told me she had fun, too. She even took notes during the session. She enjoys the games that are nearer to our own times, like the WWII Marvel game and the Shadowrun future. She relates to them better than medieval fantasy games.