[bigity]

So, in effect, the wifi on gear rules are pointless?  I mean, that's kinda the hot topic.

[Michael Chandra]

No they're not. Outside the CZ they work fine, and in Noise 2 or less they work fine as well. But in Noise 3+ the wireless bonuses are gone.

Normally this doesn't matter, since you normally don't encounter Noise much. But in Season 5 the CZ with an average noise of 2 and excesses from time to time means wireless bonuses don't always work.

[martinchaen]

It's worth pointing out that with a Datajack most of your wireless gear would get Device Rating 2 (or higher, in the case of alphaware and high-end electronics) + Noise Reduction 1, making them viable in a Noise Rating 3 and lower environment. It would take Noise Rating 4+ to disable them, as the Noise Rating has to exceed the Device Rating.

[Kincaid]

Just posted a review over at DriveThru.  Yes, the plot doesn't make a ton of sense at some points, but for open play, I'm not all that worried about a cohesive narrative--that's something I pay much closer attention to in home campaigns.  The wireless thing (and enemies having wireless off), I took as a reminder of the Noise mechanic.  Your fancy new smartlink won't save you in the CZ, chummer!

The biggest problem with the run was the optional sniper.  Partly from a "hey, Jane's head just exploded!  Don't you love playing Shadowrun?" point of view, but really from a, "We have absolutely no way of returning fire" point of view.  At 750m, he is literally beyond the reach of everyone who doesn't also have a sniper rifle (starting PCs will absolutely lose a sniper duel with Quaid) or happens to be carrying a MMG through the forest.  Magic options are limited because of his MR, which is more than a little odd since MR precludes the possibility of having a Magic rating.

By way of example, Quaid's opening shot (when he still has his Agility boost) rolls 19 dice to attack.  The text says he ignores range penalties, but that's not how his power works(!)  Improved Sense works just like the device (in this case, vision mag), which reduces the range penalty one category and requires a Take Aim action to use.  Even facing moderate wind (-3) and moderate rain/snow (-3; they bump to -6) penalties, he's rolling 13 dice.  Let's say he's shooting at someone with a Body 4 who's wearing an armored jacket.  I'll be a gracious GM and allow her to roll her 7 dice of Intuition+Initiative.  With no Edge involved by either party (Edging Quaid's roll borders on sadistic), she's taking a minimum of 10 boxes of damage 60+% of the time.  For an encounter that doesn't forward the plot and doesn't come with some sort of warning to the GM, that's not good encounter design.

EDIT: Toss in another -2 to account for the cover from the trees and Jane is still taking 10 boxes 54.36% of the time.

[Marzhin]

The biggest problem with the run was the optional sniper. 

I've been thinking about that and I have an idea how to play that scene a little differently. I'll tell you how it turns out

[Michael Chandra]

I got a question for this one, regarding, ahem, 'alternative ways of getting paid'.

[spoiler]The mission supports the option to betray Simon Andrews and sell the data (and ownership info) to another corp. What corp would this be, if any? Just Shiawase, or any others? Shiawase has no Missions contact, so you would have to get in touch through Networking. Also, is payment simply a matching of the offer or a re-negotiation?[/spoiler]

[KarlR]

When is the next Missions coming out?

We should be finishing this one soon.

[Dr. Meatgrinder]

I got a question for this one, regarding, ahem, 'alternative ways of getting paid'.

I'd run it as another Negotiation test with the same guidelines for payment (same base offer and same increment for net hits).

[spoiler]I'd imagine the runners could sell this to almost any megacorp.  S-K just happened to be the one that found out first about the existence of the facility.  I'd give the runners a generic Mr. Johnson contact (give him/her a name and Connection rating based on the networking) for the megacorp in question instead of Simon.  I suppose the runners could try to sell it to Juan Xihuitl (they might expect Aztechnology to be interesting in this kind of weirdness or even surprised they're not the mastermind of it); if successful, I might give them a second point of Loyalty with Xihuitl while they betray Simon.[/spoiler]

[Marzhin]

So I had the opportunity to GM this Mission with my new group of players.

I felt it was a pretty good introductory scenario to SR5, as it contains a bit of everything: combat, matrix, magic, legwork, and creepiness. It took us two evenings (something like 5 hours in total) to go through it, but that's mostly because we spent a lot of time checking the rules. Several of my players were familiar with SR (mostly SR3 and 4) and they felt SR5 was an improvement over previous versions. The limit system was especially praised, as was the overall brutality of fights.

Below are some comments on how the Mission was played.

[spoiler]It was a home game so I took the liberty to make a couple of modifications to the scenario, mostly to manage the flow and rhythm since it was cut in two separate sessions: for instance I only put the two mundane guards in the airport scene, and used the mage later (during the second session), as a crazy homeless dwarf squatting the Janus building.

I was hoping to use the sniper scene as well, but I decided to keep it for a future adventure. My plan was for the runners to actually run into a Lone Star operation in Garfield Park, as the cops were basically trying to end Quaid's killing spree. It would have been more a question of sneaking/negotiating past the Star to reach the hidden module than actually engaging Quaid himself. But I felt adding this encounter would have been too much for this particular adventure and ultimately bad for the flow, so I didn't use it in the end.

By the end of the story, my players had a lot of questions and they sure hope to get some answers in future Missions. They also didn't discover that it was actually Shiawase that owned the Janus labs. All they found in the host was the fact Janus was a subsidiary of "Hephaestus Technologies". They do suspect S-K was never the legitimate owner of the labs, but to them that's the usual foul play between corps.

One interesting theory they had, after finding the footage of Sam's evasion, was that it was actually the gestalt of clones that had staged her escape and blocked the cranial bomb's signal.

One player was not too keen on letting Nick Ryder get Samantha. His first reaction was "if the girl is on run, no way I'm giving her to a damn cop." Which struck me as a reaction a lot of shadowrunners would probably have. He changed his mind, although reluctantly, when he realized Sam had been taken from her parents as a child and that Ryder was probably her best bet to be reunited with her family.[/spoiler]

[Michael Chandra]

I (well, my backup GM) noticed a few contradictions in rewards:

Scene 1: 4000 said, behind the scenes is 4000 + 500 per nh (max 4).
Scene 3: 3000 said, behind the scenes is 4000 + 500 per nh (max 4).
Scene 5: 4000 said, behind the scenes is 3000 + 500 per nh (max 4).
Picking Up The Pieces: 4/3/3, same net-hit descriptions.
GM Reward: 13.000.

Given the GM Reward, I think Picking Up The Pieces is correct here (4+2nh=5, 3+2nh=4, 3+2nh=4, 5+4+4=13), so in scene 3 and 5 the 4k numbers should read 3k.

[Chance]

Our group just finished this up and really enjoyed it. We're looking forward to SA-02. I don't suppose there's any word on when it's  coming out? And is there going to be a results page like for Season 4?

[Marzhin]

Our group just finished this up and really enjoyed it. We're looking forward to SA-02. I don't suppose there's any word on when it's  coming out? And is there going to be a results page like for Season 4?

Same questions here. My group really enjoyed playing the first mission and was looking forward to playing the next one.

[Ghoulfodder]

And same question here, although we're about to start Mish 1 rather than just finished it.

We may as well abandon the idea of playing missions entirely if the release schedule isn't going to seriously pick up soon. Which would be a real shame given the effort my players have put into making their characters. There is no way I'm going to be able to write my own adventures.

[Michael Chandra]

Have you already finished Sprawl Wilds and Firing Line? Those make for excellent filler Missions.

[Marzhin]

I'm thinking of getting my players through Splintered State while we wait for 5A-02. I only need to figure out a good way of taking them from Chicago to Seattle and connecting with the beginning of the adventure. I think a good old smuggling trip might do the trick.