Right now I am GM'ing a game with a fun bunch of players:
Played
by Jennie, Dingo is a impish
young girl with a gun. A couple of them, actually. Part of Jumpstart
Solutions, a personal security service hoping to become both profitable and
famous. For the moment however, Jumpstart Solutions consists of the three
t-shirts being worn by the partners who created the name. BTW, Jennie is
quite a good artist. Visit her pages for more thoughts and artwork.
Haven is played by Captain Decker. An elf and member of Jumpstart Solutions. When not being put-upon by Dingo, he is being his impulsive self.
Jumpstart is played by Jon. A physical adept and leader of Jumpstart Solutions.
Greta is played by Julia.
She is a vivacious young elf who really knows how to "work it". She
should, considering she was a stage magician's assistant. The ironic part
is she has more magic in her than he ever did. Greta is called the
"skinny ork" by...
Grunt, a real ork. Considered slow by some, he can be picked out of the crowd by the Radio Shack™ XL-100 cyberdeck he wears as a necklace. "I are decker" is one of his favorite sayings. In fact, any decking he does inside the Shatterzone's decker's bar is phenomenally successful, even if he doesn't have a datajack (or a net connection, for that matter). Grunt is played by Christopher, Julia's husband.
TREBKRO, played by Andrew. A secretive ork, not very bright, but rich. Formerly a security guard for a Seattle mall. Fired while on duty at a Barnes & Noble store. He accidentally offed an "innocent" bystander (are there ever any in Seattle?) and a politician signing books. The Mafia mistakenly believed he was their hired assassin and paid big Euro for the "hit." Too bad for the bystander.... Currently enjoys large firearms and motorcycles.
Eagle, played by yours truly, is an human Amarind. Sometimes quiet, sometimes sarcastic, definately more than he appears...
To-do... The rest of the party... (some help would be good here, folks!)
And others...
So who is this Nigel guy who owns the Shatterzone? Is there a limit to his connections? And what are his intentions, anyway?
And Roamer, with his custom Nightsky limousine. What exactly is he hiding?
The following is an archive of "The Daily SCREAM", a simulated email-based newspaper the characters receive. With my schedule, it's more like a weekly rag, but I manage to hit the highlights. Of course, not every article directly affects my players. The fun part for them is figuring out what pieces to pay attention to. Interspersed between issues will be a short summary of what actually happened in the gaming sessions. Of course, what actually happened and what is reported can be two different things. Exactly why that happens can be much more important than the inaccuracies themselves.
Daily SCREAM back issues (by date):
Daily Scream -- 2050-06-24 -- The inaugural paper, which came out just prior to the start of the campaign.
* * *
During the first night of gaming the characters all decided to go to the bar (I know, I know. Cliché...). The Shatterzone turned out to be an amazing place with a floorshow not to be missed! After the ballistic audience participation show (featuring a group of Yakuza with REAL bad intelligence), Trebkro (points to anyone who can email me what's up with that name) finds a mysterious book. He also hands the credstick he appropriated from the same Yakuza to Smedley, the Ork bouncer at the club.
The group decides to start working together, and through new-found contacts sets up their first meeting with a "Mr. Johnson". {Okay, I know it was too easy. Don't worry, the learning curve gets steeper and deadlier right quick!}
Quotes:
"And this is Dorkwad" -- Dingo's introduction of her partner-in-crime to Grunt.
"Hiah, Dorkwad! Can I shoot with you?" -- Shouted across the bar by Grunt just before the floorshow.
* * *
The next day our runners met up with Mr. Johnson, who asked them to retrieve a painting stolen by a rival corporation. The runner's job -- steal it back.
During the mission, the team discovers the need for better communications and planning. Also, one of the team discovers that having backup when "running" into security guards is a good thing, or would have been if he'd thought of it.
The picture was in pieces when they finally found it. In fact, three monofiliment strands, all with random patterns of dark and light sections, had been removed from the canvas. The runners were confused by this, and more by the 10,000 newyen bonus they got for never mentioning the strands again...
* * *
The very next day Trebkro had a nasty run-in with a truck, a sports car and a *lot* of highway pavement (can you say "Ow?"). The Yakuza had caught up with him, and wanted their book back.
Our intrepid party began the search and thanks to some phenomenal decking from (you guessed it) Grunt they found the right building quickly. Jumpstart got some vital-yet-confusing intel from Reverend Jim and saved the day. (although the airfoil grenade in the elevator should have nuked ya, Jumpstart...)
Having saved the now-recovering Trebkro, the intrepid trio of Jumpstart solutions decided to accept the Obayun invitation to end the dispute over the book. The meet went well, the book having been exchanged for a very expensive sake set. Jumpstart Solutions just better hope the Obayun doesn't find out they sold it to the bar...
Quote of the day: "Ummm... Excuse me, Mr. Security Guard. I forgot my key..." (yelled by Jumpstart when confronted with a handprint-activated maglock and a security guard)
* * *
With the rent paid and no jobs to do the party thought they could relax a bit. But we all know what happens when a ShadowRunner relaxes...
Today, the runners noticed a large number of the locals in Auburn were down with colds. Then they noticed the black helicopter that appeared to be spraying a substance over the general area.
And then, the real disease began to spread...
The team split up into two groups for phase one of the op. The mission for the evening involved going to the bar's principal rivals to see if they were involved in the bio-terrorist attack. They found no evidence of this, but they did run into a few interesting things. One, Dingo ran into an old friend -- namely the owner of the company they pulled a run off of. He recognized her. He died (amazing, huh?). The second were a pair of Orcs Haven managed to befriend (an elf drinking slime is tough 'nuff for an ork). The last were a group of very uncommunicative pros from outta town. Gee, I wonder if the team will run into them again...
Watch this space for Haven's meeting with the Obayun... And a trip to the airport.