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Is Shadowrun really this brutal?

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Mirikon

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« Reply #255 on: <02-05-16/1641:58> »
And a couple EBRs as a backup, just in case. You can never have too many contingency plans.

"I dislike the term 'Plan B'. It implies I only have 26 of them."

I don't see what the problem is. Hit it with an 18-wheeler filled with explosives.

:)


-k
I've never gone past plan D, myself. Plan D involves positively obscene amounts of explosions, enough to make a Michael Bay film look like a kid playing with sparklers.
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Reaver

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« Reply #256 on: <02-05-16/1922:45> »
And a couple EBRs as a backup, just in case. You can never have too many contingency plans.

"I dislike the term 'Plan B'. It implies I only have 26 of them."
I've never gone past plan D, myself. Plan D involves positively obscene amounts of explosions, enough to make a Michael Bay film look like a kid playing with sparklers.

My Pink Mohawk game only has plans A, B, C.
A: lead poisoning
B: Explosives
C: Look at Mage, expect HIM to deal with it.
Where am I going? And why am I in a hand basket ???

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The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #257 on: <02-06-16/0015:11> »
Or, y'know, you could charge the HMG in a bunker at the end of a narrow hallway. I'm sure that it will be 'fair' and you won't die horribly. </sarcasm>

I did that.  Or rather, Hawatari did that.  12m hallway, sandbags not a bunker, but an HMG, and her unarmored, with only a katana.  Not only did she survive, but she had the guy's weapon offline and her sword at his throat.  "I said," she repeated to the ork, "I only wanted to talk to your superiors ..."
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MijRai

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« Reply #258 on: <02-06-16/0146:23> »
Yeah, it takes some long hallways to be a problem to dedicated combat adepts and street sams. 
Would you want to go into a place where the resident had a drum-fed shotgun and can see in the dark?

Rift_0f_Bladz

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« Reply #259 on: <02-06-16/0207:13> »
And a couple EBRs as a backup, just in case. You can never have too many contingency plans.

"I dislike the term 'Plan B'. It implies I only have 26 of them."
I've never gone past plan D, myself. Plan D involves positively obscene amounts of explosions, enough to make a Michael Bay film look like a kid playing with sparklers.

My Pink Mohawk game only has plans A, B, C.
A: lead poisoning
B: Explosives
C: Look at Mage, expect HIM to deal with it.

For my pink combat adept the list is
A) Weapon Foci (katana) if magical or Nadochi (aka claymore) if raw a damage and ap is needed.
B) lead poisoning
C) mages (my party has 2) deal with it
D) hit it with our riggers Roadmaster (actually happened in game, the Yakuza drug dealer, his building, and their decker didn't survive).
Quote- Mirikon on 7/30/2019 at 08:26:51
Agreed. This looks like a 'training wheels' edition, that you can use to introduce someone to the setting, and then shift over to something like 5E or 4E. Like how D&D 5E is best used as training wheels for D&D 3.X.

Turned in Toxshaman for ¥1 million/4 once.

CitizenJoe

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« Reply #260 on: <02-06-16/0746:55> »
Again, its not about just crushing everything you run up against, that's more D&D style.  Shadowrun is more tactics. What can I do in this situation to improve my odds.

Maybe I just got one bad Missions, but the one I saw had you getting ambushed left and right by OP goons constantly with no option to avoid them.  So, Shadowrun may not be like DND in the literature, but the Missions are totally DND.

Mirikon

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« Reply #261 on: <02-06-16/1148:10> »
Well, there are a couple 'gauntlet' type missions, no doubt. But there are plenty of missions and published modules where there are plenty of noncombat options. For instance, I was in a group doing On the Run where we barely touched gunmetal the whole run. Granted, we were more the 'do the job, get paid, go home' type, rather than 'investigate everything about the job, the johnson, and every single person involved' type, so we didn't run into any double-crosses or vampires. The only time in a Mission I read that had something like charging into a bug's nest was one time where you were literally bug hunting, and you had the option to grab some KE IV rounds and grenades first. Granted, I haven't really read the 5E Missions that closely.
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schenn

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« Reply #262 on: <02-06-16/2355:00> »
While a Mage might be able to summon a force whatever spirit, Binding it so it doesn't release at sunrise/set (then potentially go free and attack the mage that summoned it) is a different story. 12 dice become 24 and if the spirit wins its released and will typically fight the mage that tried to bind it. Not to mention the physical drain the mage will be taking from both tests.

Also, most spirits have only 2-3 services, less so for the higher force ones. So all a mage needs is 1-3 net hits on however many banishing tests it takes. The mage has edge.
« Last Edit: <02-06-16/2357:43> by schenn »

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #263 on: <02-07-16/0309:19> »
You must have very angry, very anti-player GMs.  Most spirits - and by 'most' I mean 'the overwhelming majority, 99.99999%' - return to their metaplane when they get released, whether that's due to the day/night shift or to the end of their services.  Unlike an AD&D djinn, your last service does not have to be 'go away and never bother me again'.
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MijRai

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« Reply #264 on: <02-07-16/1132:14> »
Yeah, unless you actively pissed the spirit off (or have Spirit Bane), they generally leave instead of sticking around. 
Would you want to go into a place where the resident had a drum-fed shotgun and can see in the dark?

KarmaInferno

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« Reply #265 on: <02-07-16/2348:48> »
Again, its not about just crushing everything you run up against, that's more D&D style.  Shadowrun is more tactics. What can I do in this situation to improve my odds.

Maybe I just got one bad Missions, but the one I saw had you getting ambushed left and right by OP goons constantly with no option to avoid them.  So, Shadowrun may not be like DND in the literature, but the Missions are totally DND.

Depends on the mission, the GM, and the players.

I had a blast in one Missions game where to pull off the job the team decided to pose as a corporate film crew putting together a PR piece highlighting the achievements of the facility we were tasked to infiltrate. Got high end cameras, film crew, appropriate gear trucks, hacked the local system to make us look legit, the whole nine yards. Whole team got to participate in various ways. Zero combat. By the end the facility manager was thanking us and looking forward to the finished film. Had no clue we'd... done things, to his facility, til a few days later.

While having a Mission that was well suited to this kinda thing helped, it was more having an enthusiastic and willing team of players, and a good GM that was able to roll with the craziness, that was most important.

I've played about half a dozen other Missions that similarly had little to no combat. Every single time it was really more the players coming together to pull off a perfect crazy plan, alongside a GM capable of adjusting to it. Every one was a blast to play.

This is not to say that combat isn't fun, far from it. But the game is what you make of it.


-k

CitizenJoe

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« Reply #266 on: <02-08-16/0626:05> »
Ok, looks like it was just a bad draw then on the specific Missions.  I think it was called Smuggler's Blues.

Mirikon

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« Reply #267 on: <02-08-16/2300:52> »
Yeah, that was one that was pretty straight up combat. Sometimes there are just runs where slugging it out is the only option. Those runs aren't the rule, typically, unless your team gets a rep for the Pink Mohawk Way.
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kyoto kid

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« Reply #268 on: <02-08-16/2350:21> »
Even with missions, adps is still an option. But yes, it was not a kick-in-the-door style scene. But, even with mission rules it could be done. Just takes prepping for a bug hunt (which honestly, its Chicago, so you should prep for a bug hunt).
...oh I agree, however the one character who would have been the "spirit slayer" in this particular situation was not present.
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kyoto kid

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« Reply #269 on: <02-09-16/0006:53> »
Incorrect.

Bring a Mage/Mystic Adept/Summoner with you wherever you go.
...unless you are in the Shattergrqves. Then the Barrett is your best friend as all awakened characters are at a -6 penalty to anything they do regarding use of magic..
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