Shadowrun

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"Chromey don't play dat!"

Submitted by Rob "Chromey" Davis

This happened years ago when myself and friends in Lakeland, FL regularly played Shadowrun. We were in our usual haunt when we were contacted with the proposition of a nice run. We followed the instructions given to us, which led us across Seatle to the Redmond Barrens, and a little dive we were supposed to meet our next contact in.

Our group was a real mixed bag, nicely mixed races and archetypes. A couple samurais, a decker, two mages, a rigger, and my custom-designed archtype "The CyberJunkie" (think of a street ganger whose sole goal in life is the aquisition of custom-made cutting-edge cybernetic systems), who went by the moniker Chromey D. Runner. Having arrived at our next info-stop, we go in to get a drink and wait for our meet.

As always seems to happen, after our info exchange and the departure of 'Mr. Johnson', someone takes offense at one of the party members. Now, I know that any gang-banger or hopped-up patron is no match for battle-hardened samurais or mages, so I hang back keep slurpin' my beer while the insulted parties begin pressin' the flesh. AND, as always, someone gets cute and pulls a gun, changing it from brawl to a shootout.

Big man with a gun, gonna teach these strangers a lesson. Well, they're hunkered down behind a couple of overturned tables between the bar and the door, when the dwarven bartender decides he "aint takin' this no more" and pulls his big, menacing shotgun from under the bar and levels it at my buddies. Still sitting at the back of the room, Chromey notices and says, "You think you're gonna bust a cap into one of my chummers while I'm sittin' here drinkin' my beer? I don't think so," Out comes the Predator II pistol with reactive trigger refit, gas vent II, and loaded with Firepower brand ammo. BOOM!!BOOM!! Fired a double-tap that landed both rounds into the dwarf's cranium, dropping him like a sack of wet cement. "Chromey don't play dat!" Goes back to beer...

After that, the double-tap became my favorite initial attack, and enjoys a high rate of success even now.

Freeze Dried for Freshness

Submitted by DanieL

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away... no, no, just about fifty years into the future, our Shadowrun characters were trapped in a submarine research station somewhere about 3.000 meters beneath the surface. One player, Frank, had managed to trash his previous character by assaulting about 15 soldiers armed with automatic rifles when only carrying a revolver and no armor, relying on his Invisibility spell instead, one session ago, so his new character was about to introduced at this meeting. We were all wondering how this was going to take place in this apparently empty station.

While exploring the complex, we quickly noticed that it was abandoned for a few years, and that there was no power left in the circuits. Then we happened on a room for cryogenic experiments. One cryo-capsule contained a human body, but - there being no lifesigns on the monitor - we decided to smash the capsule to have a look at the guy's uniform. We broke open the capsule, the body shriveled up and turned to dust immediately.

Our GM looked at Frank and said: "Well, so much for that character. Do you want to create another one, or should this one appear at a later date again?" The human in the capsule was the PC who was supposed to join us! Checking the displays again, we realized that they were only switched off to conserve energy - there was a backup generator for the cryogenic chamber. Oops... that was the shortest played character I ever saw - about zero minutes.

"Meeting My Match"

Submitted by Miguel Valdespino

A few of our characters were making some small talk as we were preparing to go into Japanese-held San Francisco. I was playing D'artagnan, a swashbuckling Ork physad who plays against all of the Ork sterotypes. The other character was Hessian, a mildly cybered mercenary soldier type.

D'artagnan: "Well, looks like another fun-filled vacation in the works."
Hessian: "I don't know, perhaps we might even meet someone who can match your level of talents."
D'Artagnan: "No, we would have definitely heard about that by now."
Hessian (confused): "Oh?"
D'artagnan: "Nobody could keep that much of a population explosion under wraps."

Our Solo Needs To Be Oiled...

Submitted by Kiz

In Shadowrun 3rd Edition, our intrepid (and highly paid) Shadowrunners were trying to track down a squatter who might be able to tell us where some much-contested equipment was found.

I was playing Sphynx, a professional bodyguard and cybersolo. He was the only obviously combat capable character in our team, the others being a mage, adept, and decker.

We headed into the slum district, based on a tip from a nearby bartender.

Bartender: "You'd pay me 200 nuyen, just for that kind of info? What kind of suckers are you?"
Me: "Suckers with funding."

Naturally, our well-equipped and well-dressed team of 4 stood out like a sore thumb. We were rapidly approached by the local toughs (14 in all, equipped with a variety of small arms and melee weapons).

They demanded 500 nuyen for safe passage. I just smiled and pulled out twice that much. I explained who we were looking for.

Me: Show us where to find her, and I'll double your fee.
Troll punk: Why're you carryin' so much cash?
Me: The reason that I can shell out a thousand nuyen to you and not even blink is that I get paid 12 thousand a week to kill people. This time, I've been hired to see that someone gets out alive.
Malaki: It's kind of a new experience.
Me: Most people would be scared by 14 people with firearms. I'm not.
Troll punk (stepping up to me scowling): So I guess you could take ME, huh?

I rolled initiative: Sphynx is fast- his initiative is 3d6+10. I rolled the dice and got a MISERABLY low total of 15... Luckily, that's still faster than an unwired human can move, much less a troll. I whipped a submachine gun out of my bag and leveled it in the troll's face.

Troll punk (blinking): That was fast.
Me (with feeling): No, that was _damn_ slow.

The GM ruled that that line was worth an intimidation roll with several extra dice. :-)

"Sometimes You Wonder Why You Get Up in the Morning"

Submitted by Ivar

Well, it all started with some of my friends going on about really wanting to play Shadowrun (This was back when 2nd ed. just came out) but none of them wanted to run it, so being the schmoe I was about to discover myself to be, I volunteered. This was the first of my many mistakes.

While I had never even played Shadowrun before, I had GM'd quite a bit so I was confident I wouldn't make a mangle of things. Not completely anyway. I thusly absconded with their books back to my place and came out a week later with a game in hand, with what I was convinced were all the possibilities already written down. Oh, what a fool I was!

My first warnings should have been when they put up such a fight over having to make new characters instead of letting them bring in their characters from whatever previous games they had played in before, but being the obstinate cuss that I am (a quality which has kept me going as a GM before and since) I stood my ground and won out. My second warning should have been their reaction to the firefight that brought them together.

I always like to get a group that has never really played together before introduced by making them have to fight for their lives. It may be cliched, but it is nonetheless very effective. Most of the time.

Things were going okay except for their surprise at the efficiency of the NPC's ("HEY! They're not supposed to actually HIT us when they shoot!!!") when Timmy the mage decided to actually get into the fight and throw a bolt at one of the goons. This one action shut down the game for the night. Timmy's player, also named Timmy, became rather irate at the concept of return fire. It seems that Timmy was under the understanding that the only people in the entire Shadowrun universe who knew what magic was were the PC's and their allies. When I explained to him that the natural reaction to anybody seeing a guy stand up and start waving his hands in the air at them in this game was the following, "AHHH!! MAGE!!! KILL IT!!!" Needless to say he didn't agree and after several more exchanges ending with me saying something to the effect that although he may be used to something different, in MY game the NPC's are at least as intelligent as the PC's, and in some cases more. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he left and didn't come back. Oh well, it's all smooth sailing from here, ain't it? Ain't it??

The thing that finally killed the game was when I tried to get them started on the actual storyline. I had come up with a truly intricate plot that I was damn proud of. All that was required to start it all off was for the Players meet with the informant and it was Go from there.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten who I was playing with. The first three times, I hadn't even armed them because this was so obvious I didn't think even THEY could screw it up. Little did I know that even the females in the party had more testosterone than the East German Gymnastic team. All three of these unsung heroes were dead before they could even say their names. The fourth time I thought I had planned ahead and gave him armour and a hold-out pistol. Little did I know that when they shot him down from behind and searched him, they would take that as proof that he was a "bad guy". The fifth and final time, I had it all planned out. The NPC was behind a sheet of impervious glass and was speaking to them through 3 different electronic connections a la jail visiting room. But I have to give it to them, the PC's proved even more resourceful then I had ever imagined. After completing the transaction, they left the building, threw away the info, and blew up the building.

About a week later in real time, I figured out the aftermath on my own time and swung by one of the players' house to say hello. After a bit I informed him that the game was being called off because due to their actions, they and most of the Western Hemisphere and Asia had been completely wiped out due to the virus that they had allowed to spread and in fact had introduced themselves by throwing the sample they were given into the gutter letting it flow into the water system.

By the way, I have never played Shadowrun since this incident.

"Trolls can read philosophy, Otto. They just don't understand it!"

Submitted by Cyclone Ranger

In a Shadowrun campaign, I created a troll character who an unheard of intelligence (4). He had a penchant for philosophy, but unfortunately gott is slightly wrong. With this aptitude, I had no choice but to call him Plato.

I actually had a situation to use this skill when he had to get through a bodyguard. The GM gave him initiative when Plato stated, "Confucious says that we should all get along. We'll be able to get along better with you unconscious."