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Killing a cyberzombie [5th Ed.]

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PiXeL01

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« Reply #15 on: <12-05-14/2126:17> »
Put it in heavy military armor so they can't just blow it away ^^
That plus all the armor on its cyberbody should make it impossible even to dent.
Make it highly intelligent and maybe ex-special forces.
I think spells & chrome has a story about a group trying to hunt down a Seal suffering from cyberpsychosis. The Seal is bringing the fight to him so maybe you can grow inspiration from that to keep him alive until that moment.
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cantrip

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« Reply #16 on: <12-18-14/1430:52> »
If you really want to mess with their heads, have them hired for a series of runs from Corp 'XYZ' with the requirement that they work with a special operative. Special Operative is of course the Cyber Zombie.

Give your team specific tasks that require their specialized skills, contacts or experience and the Cyberzombie has it's own objectives (perhaps the Corp is conducting field tests with expendable team members .... shhhhh! Don't tell your players! ;)).

Here is the twist, the Cyberzombie becomes attached to the team (or perhaps a member of the team that shows interest, compassion, comradery etc.) -- perhaps it get lost in the details and begins to think it is human/metahuman again, perhaps a system glitch that identifies them as an asset to protect for the corp at all costs, or just fragging pychosis - it's a cyberzombie!

Next twist - it begins to track, stalk follow them after breaking out of it's facility/fragging it's controller or what have you --- perhaps this would be more fun if you are in an isolated location, like an island where you can't just runaway.  :)

Instead of wanting to kill them, it wants to protect them - this could play out okay for a bit, but is always going to go south eventually. If it is focused on one character it may start disposing of threats (you know, contacts, other runners, that pesky KE officer that's been helping the team out on occasion) so think "Fatal Attraction" with a Cyberzombie. Yikes!

Another spin would be that at some point it begins to feel that the team is controlling it and since it got rid of it's last controllers, begins to take them out one by one --- or the whole team. Don't kill them, but have them disappear until they all wake up at the abandoned soy-meat packing plant. They have to escape and bring an end to the madness once and for all!  ;D

Okay, a little melodramatic, but you get the idea - I don't really see cyberzombie focused games as being light-hearted. Although one based on Cyborg would be a blast!  8)

I just would want have one scene where a player walks into their apartment after a hard day of running, turns on the light and there is the cyberzombie sitting in their favorite chair, silent, unmoving, just - looking at them. MWAHAHAHA! Ahem - I've been reading Girl Genius too much recently; though that would make it a steampunk cyberzombie....hmmmm....off to the drawing board.

MijRai

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« Reply #17 on: <12-18-14/1530:58> »
Cantrip...  I love the way you think. 
Would you want to go into a place where the resident had a drum-fed shotgun and can see in the dark?

DigitalZombie

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« Reply #18 on: <12-18-14/1640:09> »
+1 interwebz karma for that idea :)

just image the looks on the party face when he discovers a blood soaked cyberzombie in hi living room holding  the mangled head of a puny ganger that said some mean words to the character the day before.

CZ: Dont worry friend... he wont be bothering you no more, noone bothers my friend , right? (smiles while his cybereyes looks rather unfocused and bewildered), no one must hurt any of MY FRIENDS!! *crushes head* I.. I did good right?.. right??
party face: *gulp* ye..yeah s...sure eeh , whoops I forgot something somewhere else far away from here *backs away*

Kincaid

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« Reply #19 on: <12-18-14/1656:31> »
I ran a plot that was very similar ages ago, although the NPC had the mental/emotional capacity of a 12-year old (and the physical capacity of Captain America meets Universal Soldier), so he fell into a distinctly unhealthy parent/child relationship with the runners.  Good times.
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Redman

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« Reply #20 on: <12-19-14/0630:46> »
To show of though the CyberZombie is I would give immunity to normal weapons like spirits have when converting it to SR5

cantrip

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« Reply #21 on: <12-19-14/1345:04> »
 ;D

Thanks guys!

Yeah, my players love me. ;)

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #22 on: <12-20-14/0129:56> »
Ick.

People seem to forget that cyberzombies are - or, you know, were - people first.  Moreover, anyone who earned or was selected for such a high level of implantation was likely to already be a highly competent, high-functioning individual in one capacity or another.  Any psychological issues they may suffer after implantation are either going to be the standard ones (getting lost in the details, that sort of thing) or especially come from whatever psychological keys or issues they had prior to this heavy implanting.  Captain America is going to be even more gung-ho 'America, Right Or Wrong!' and might take to slapping around deadbeats who decry the government; Slade the Sniper Assassin is going to become even more obsessive/compulsive about the things he does.

Personality tics become amplified; minor issues become major.  But really, cramming 9 points of cyberware into Sherlock Holmes isn't going to turn the magnificent bastard infantile, or any other such issue; it's just going to make him more of a bastard.
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Kincaid

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« Reply #23 on: <12-20-14/0942:15> »
I'm sure we all regret trying to tell interesting stories at our tables.
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The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #24 on: <12-20-14/1049:29> »
Mmm-hmmm.  Please don't try to passive-aggressive me; it's irritating.

Interesting stories are good; interesting stories are great.  But behind an interesting story should be another interesting story - and, psychologically, a relatively reasonable (or at least internally consistent!!) one.  The players don't need to know what the story is, but if you're the GM, you should IMO have a pretty darn firm grasp of why your heavily-recurring NPC does stuff, if only to remain consistent.  Your juvenile parent/child-attachment-to-the-PCs cyberzombie sounds great - and if you're the GM and you plan (or planned) to have this guy coming back again and again and hanging around with your PCs, you should have (or develop) the character's backstory and psychology at least as well as any other you use.  Maybe this gung-ho Captain America / Dethlok guy originally went into the Marines to live up to his parent's expectations, and that drive to 'make Mom proud / live up to Dad's legacy / get Uncle Bud's approval' was behind every major decision, was the central force behind his drive to succeed.  Knowing that enables you to better pilot the parent/child relationship with the PCs - and who knows, maybe results in tension when Dethlok has some adolescent 'why don't you ever say I did good?!?' existential angst.  Having that sort of 'rage against the machine' while being able to tear holes in titanium plate armor makes players walk around on eggshells ... and could make for an even more interesting story.
Pananagutan & End/Line

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"Oh, gee - it's Go-Frag-Yourself-O'Clock."
New Wyrm!! Now with Twice the Bastard!!

Laés is ... I forget. -PiXeL01
Play the game. Don't try to win it.

DigitalZombie

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« Reply #25 on: <12-20-14/1431:06> »
@Wyrm
Many had some good ideas here, your contribution can be just as good without belittling theirs.

There are many "right" ways for a GM to play a cyberzombie wrong, but there are also wrong ways to play him right.
And OP should go with what fits his and his gaming groups style - thats the right one.

MannyAc58

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« Reply #26 on: <12-28-14/2249:55> »
two things
1. MijRai -"Would you want to go into a place where the resident had a drum-fed shotgun and can see in the dark?" The answer is no, I wouldn't. BUT I wouldn't mind BEIng the resident.

2. Playing in 4th edition now. Literally had it out with a cyberzombie today.
Lots of shooting, Spirits using physical attacks. Direct magical attacks totally useless. Took a long while but finally put it down. Our Runner group (5 experienced runner) was down to the last few rounds and had maybe 10-12 health left between us...loads of fun

ScytheKnight

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« Reply #27 on: <12-30-14/1636:28> »
Another possible alternate to the Mcguffin is rather than a 'convenient' weakness, have the team do some runs to call in some *big* favors to borrow some really big guns and 'dangerous as all heck' munitions... Ares Thunderstrucks, Ares Archon Heavy MP Lasers, Thermite loaded Rockets/Grenades, reinforced capsule rounds filled with the most messed up powerful acids 2075 can think up.... if the team doesn't have the skills to use this kind of firepower perhaps they might be using themselves to bait the Cyberzombie into a giant cluster**** of them.

Another possible idea is the reinforced pit filled with explosives, find some way of sealing it and that's gonna be some truly vicious damage there.

Lead it into a transformer station and destabilize the equipment... that amount of electricity should play all kinds of havok with its 'ware.
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psycho835

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« Reply #28 on: <12-30-14/1717:52> »
Instead of wanting to kill them, it wants to protect them - this could play out okay for a bit, but is always going to go south eventually. If it is focused on one character it may start disposing of threats (you know, contacts, other runners, that pesky KE officer that's been helping the team out on occasion) so think "Fatal Attraction" with a Cyberzombie. Yikes!

Another spin would be that at some point it begins to feel that the team is controlling it and since it got rid of it's last controllers, begins to take them out one by one --- or the whole team. Don't kill them, but have them disappear until they all wake up at the abandoned soy-meat packing plant. They have to escape and bring an end to the madness once and for all!  ;D

You, sir, possess a sick and twisted mind.

I salute you. 8)


And back to killing cyberzombies - there aren't any rules for this (that I know of), but the way I see it, a cyberzombie's brain chemistry is probably extremely unstable and vulnerable to tampering - drench it in laes and DMSO solution. Whether or not it passes out, it should reduce it to a vegetable. Or, it might just make it go berserk on your hoop. Of course, if that was a viable option, the cyberzombie would be probably outfited with a chem resistant suit of armor with full body coverage and possibly hardened, so you would need some serious firepower to breach THAT first.

ScytheKnight

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« Reply #29 on: <12-30-14/1821:42> »
In regards for making it more than just a savage brute rampaging aimlessly, build on the fact that this person was likely a Professional Rating 9-10 combatant *before* being turned into a Cyberzombie... They've almost certainly seen a lot of conflicts, set him up in one of those areas and have them mentally trapped in that conflict, between Cyberpsychosis and possibly malfunctioning 'ware they're unable to comprehend that the conflict is over, for an extra kick have what's left of their humanity wanting to stop fighting but haywire programming is forcing them to continue.

Makes it as much about putting a warrior to rest as stopping some random killing spree, especially if the Cyberzombie manages to communicate this to the players, but the programming means that he must fight back to full potential... this brings in the possibility of trying to reach the remaining humanity to try and get them to stop themselves so the players can put them to rest.
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