[Geewaagh]

Okay Cummers, looking for some ideas from you vets out there.
Here is the set-up:
Group has be hired to get a package out of town and to an undisclosed location. Miss Johnson is actually making the run with them because she s carring the package.  The group is down in shed water tunnels under Seattle following a Ghoul coyote named "Lefty" (body rejected Aug right arm after infection) who they hire to get them under a border. I made the tunnels controlled by a series of "locks" to control water shed as needed.  This means I have nodes the decker gets to hack to open doors and the tunnels are full of Devil rats and Feral Ghouls. 

Act 1 - Rats from the floor OR open the door already! - This is already done by PCs.  The way is blocked by a closed "lock".  "Dang it" yelled Lefty. "It was scheduled to be open.  I guess we go around." Decker says he will get door open and heads back to a small control room they passed earlier.  While his is working on control room door and then hacking the "Lock" control. Devil rats pour from the floor out of a broken grate. 
I threw 6 Devil rats at them.  The rats never hit, nor had a chance.  However, they were dang hard to hit when you interrupt with dodge for them.  Ideas on how to use devil rats and rats to PC ratios?

Act 2 - Feral Cousins
As you descend down a Maintenance tube to a lower level, it becomes clear that without a guide, this place could easily be someone's final resting place.  And what I mean by resting place, I mean your bones picked clean and scattered by the local HMHVV (the human-metahuman vampiric virus)  population.  Lefty side steps a small group of wanders, shambling shadows of their former selves. He gets the group to double back, least the walkers smell the group. 

Act 3 - Going for a Swim? After enough turns and level changes to make the dwarf get lost on his map, the group finds itself heading down one of the more narrow, more rank, shed water tubes.  As the group passes by one of the many rusted valve pipes, there is a distinct metallic clank.  Lefty stops in his tracks. The AR above the pipe fades from CLOSE to OPEN. The Maintenance lights turn from YELLOW to RED.  Lefty yells "RUN!!!".
Ideas on how to run this?  I was thinking Running+Agility[Physical](12,1 Turn) extended test.  At start of turn 4 the water is rushing at their feet and have to make a gymastics(2) to stay on feet to make last chance for test. At start of turn 5, anyone not completed extended can make a gymnastic(4) to grab a pipe or rail to avoid being send down the pipe.  Those who fail, net difference x 15 meters down pipe.  They are soggy, might be missing gear (just have to look for it) and 2 Stun from Fatigue.


Scene 4 - Coming your way...
You decide to take a much needed break, try to eat a little snack while trying not to gag.  The are you are in has about 8 inches of muck and water moving at a brisk pace towards the west.  You are all relaxing on an elevated metal floored platform.  The dwarf has found another terminal, (if interested).  The area has two large seal Locks, to the east and to the west.  Both are open to accommodate the water.

Perception Hearing (3) - sound of gunfire in distance.  (4) Hard to tell with tunnels, but seems pretty distant.  (5) 3 rnd burst fire, mechanically spaced(could set your watch by the pauses)  a few secs apart. apart.

Lefty comes running through the west Lock, trying to stay out of the water in center of pipe, with 1d12 friends (Feral Ghouls close behind him)  Perception (3) They are not after him or following him.  They are spooked from something behind them. Lefty is yelling" Close the dang Lock!"

- Ghouls make perception to notice group (3). Astral are +2 dice. Otherwise the keep running. When they succeed, the go after group.

- Lock- Not running Silent.  Get a Mark, Control Device. Brute Force or Hack on Fly vs. Device Rtg + Firewall (3+3) to get mark. Any hit by device creates OS score. Control Device (free action?) 1 Mark Required -  EW+INT vs. 3 + 3. Any hit by device creates OS score.  Lock will cycle closed by end of two turns after action completed.  Every turn the Lock is open, 1d12 ghouls get through.

Idea behind this encounter is unknown to the PC's, Seattle Water Works has hire KE to clear tunnels.  KE has sent in sweepers.  Sweepers are armed roto-drones with shoot on sight for bio-life in the tunnels.  The ghouls get shot at by drones and are spooked to stampeding down the tunnel.  They only stop when they notice there is a food source (aka PCs)

Last act would be encounter with drones.

Ideas, comments?  Encounter numbers to large to small?  I was trying to get players to have have a few combats, hack a few terminals, astral combat the mage with the ghouls (cuz he is fast in astal and they can get hit in astral) and make some skill rolls. On the otherside of this run is going to be another Coyote that will take them on the "Long Run" via a van. They are heading to New Orleans for the real campaign, just thought I would have some fun getting them there.


 

[Namikaze]

Nice setup.  Thanks for sharing the details, and I hope that I can help.

Act 1 - Rats from the floor OR open the door already! - This is already done by PCs.  The way is blocked by a closed "lock".  "Dang it" yelled Lefty. "It was scheduled to be open.  I guess we go around." Decker says he will get door open and heads back to a small control room they passed earlier.  While his is working on control room door and then hacking the "Lock" control. Devil rats pour from the floor out of a broken grate. 
I threw 6 Devil rats at them.  The rats never hit, nor had a chance.  However, they were dang hard to hit when you interrupt with dodge for them.  Ideas on how to use devil rats and rats to PC ratios?

I find that about 4 devil rats + 1 demon rat is a good ratio for my average group.  The acid damage from the demon rat can really ruin people's days.  If the demon rat is smart about it, he'll try to melt the PCs armor and such, then send in a swarm of rats to pick the weakened players to pieces.

Act 3 - Going for a Swim? After enough turns and level changes to make the dwarf get lost on his map, the group finds itself heading down one of the more narrow, more rank, shed water tubes.  As the group passes by one of the many rusted valve pipes, there is a distinct metallic clank.  Lefty stops in his tracks. The AR above the pipe fades from CLOSE to OPEN. The Maintenance lights turn from YELLOW to RED.  Left yells "RUN!!!".
Ideas on how to run this?  I was thinking Running+Agility[Physical](12,1 Turn) extended test.  At start of turn 4 the water is rushing at their feet and have to make a gymastics(2) to stay on feet to make last chance for test. At start of turn 5, anyone not completed extended can make a gymnastic(4) to grab a pipe or rail to avoid being send down the pipe.  Those who fail, net difference x 15 meters down pipe.  They are soggy, might be missing gear (just have to look for it) and 2 Stun from Fatigue.

I would probably have them do some tests to outrun the water, with the decker needing to open the lock in front while closing the lock in back.  Obviously make things challenging - maybe the door doesn't close all the way or something.  Maybe the hydraulics that control the lock are broken after the lock is opened.  Either way, they start to get really wet.  The whole time, the team is trying to find ways to open and seal the doors, getting soaked, etc.  You may not need too many tests in this type of situation, which could probably be done entirely cinematically.

Scene 4 - Coming your way...
You decide to take a much needed break, try to eat a little snack while trying not to gag.  The are you are in has about 8 inches of muck and water moving at a brisk pace towards the west.  You are all relaxing on an elevated metal floored platform.  The dwarf has found another terminal, (if interested).  The area has two large seal Locks, to the east and to the west.  Both are open to accommodate the water.

Perception Hearing (3) - sound of gunfire in distance.  (4) Hard to tell with tunnels, but seems pretty distant.  (5) 3 rnd burst fire, mechanically spaced(could set your watch by the pauses)  a few secs apart. apart.

Lefty comes running through the west Lock, trying to stay out of the water in center of pipe, with 1d12 friends (Feral Ghouls close behind him)  Perception (3) They are not after him or following him.  They are spooked from something behind them. Lefty is yelling" Close the dang Lock!"

- Ghouls make perception to notice group (3). Astral are +2 dice. Otherwise the keep running. When they succeed, the go after group.

- Lock- Not running Silent.  Get a Mark, Control Device. Brute Force or Hack on Fly vs. Device Rtg + Firewall (3+3) to get mark. Any hit by device creates OS score. Control Device (free action?) 1 Mark Required -  EW+INT vs. 3 + 3. Any hit by device creates OS score.  Lock will cycle closed by end of two turns after action completed.  Every turn the Lock is open, 1d12 ghouls get through.

Idea behind this encounter is unknown to the PC's, Seattle Water Works has hire KE to clear tunnels.  KE has sent in sweepers.  Sweepers are armed roto-drones with shoot on sight for bio-life in the tunnels.  The ghouls get shot at by drones and are spooked to stampeding down the tunnel.  They only stop when they notice there is a food source (aka PCs)

Last act would be encounter with drones.

Ideas, comments?  Encounter numbers to large to small?  I was trying to get players to have have a few combats, hack a few terminals, astral combat the mage with the ghouls (cuz he is fast in astal and they can get hit in astral) and make some skill rolls. On the otherside of this run is going to be another Coyote that will take them on the "Long Run" via a van. They are heading to New Orleans for the real campaign, jsu thought I would have some fun getting them there.
[/quote]

I especially love this last scene.  Definitely digging this whole thing - let me know how it works for your group. 

[Michael Chandra]

The best way to use the rats, by the way, is having a bunch of Devil Rats pile attacks on one person and then having the Demon Rat attack that person, given the Animal Control that's quite realistic. With Rats+DevilRats, well, devil rats will never do proper damage so even dogpiling won't be much off a threat.

[Geewaagh]

I am running SR5, but I saw that SR4 had something about muliple opponents getting bonuses.  Does anyone use this as a house rule? Sure would help with the whole rat dogpile thing

[Kanly]

There's melee teamwork and then there's the normal stacking defense penalty.

Try to portion the ghouls out. D12 is too random. Make it d6+6; 2d6 get thru every turn the gate isn't open (or 2+d10).

Drones: if they're autonomous they're not that big a threat unless: the player's don't have anyone with high Ini (drones have 6+4d6 likely). Or if they outnumber the PCs by a lot.

[Michael Chandra]

The defense penalty Kanly is talking about is in both SR4 and SR5, basically you lose 1 defense die for every attack you received since your last turn. So if 6 rats attack you, then a Devil Rat, you have 6 dice less to defend against the Devil Rate.

Now imagine that with 6 Devil Rats and 2 Demon Rats. And the Demon Rats scoring like 1 hit each. ;_;

[Geewaagh]

Okay, so maybe I am just discovery the defense penalty and teamwork in the rules....
Question: Do mundanes count for this?  CHA (5) x 5 for animal control seems like a lot of rats (25).  I was reading in Running Wild where 25 mundane rats would be considered mischief template rank 4, but also swarms dont count towards Teamwork Tests.  So, I am thinking you at least get the mundane mischeif template counting as a prior attack before a devil rat attacks (so -1 dice to defense).  The other choice would be 25 attacks, which seems extreme.  If a PC was rolling a pool of 10 dice, then he would get no defense against 15 mundane attacks plus the devil rat.

[Namikaze]

If you're using a devil rat with a swarm of regular rats, your scenario makes sense.  This is one of the reasons to carry AoE weapons/spells.  Personally, I'd give the team a flamethrower from Gun H(e)aven 3 and let them go at it Alien-style. 

But swarms are something I hate dealing with in Shadowrun - I like the rules that World of Darkness used: basically the swarm counts as a single entity for Initiative, attacks, etc.  They get a bonus to hit based on the size of the swarm, but the damage is pretty negligible.

So for a swarm of 25 rats, I'd probably give them a +5 to hit, 0 AP change, a -1 Reach, and maybe 5P damage.  25 rats is a LOT of rats.  But I'd treat it as one entity for most tests, just to make your bookkeeping easier if nothing else.