My cyberpunk campaign finally started! The start wasn't as well as I hoped, as only two of the six players could make it to the session. Nevertheless, the session was fun and lethalness of the system was well seen.
My cyberpunk campaign finally started! The start wasn't as well as I hoped, as only two of the six players could make it to the session. Nevertheless, the session was fun and lethalness of the system was well seen. The system wasn't as fast as I has hoped, although I think it will get faster as I and the players will get more into it and the gaming mentality. One issue that came through was that cars were almost impossible to harm - I used compact car for normal cars and mid-sized car for a van, and any attempts to make them crash or shooting at them made absolutely no damage to cars; The chased car got stopped finally when passengers got enough damage to incapacitate them all but the car was still unharmed. I don't know if I want to change this somehow. I might also add a new Benny use option to allow people to do things that would be (at least cinematically) realistic but still impossible to do using the rules - a couple of examples came up this session, where either penalties were too high even if the thing to be done would have been pretty easy, or there just isn't rule for weak spot in cars. I'm already thinking to allow use of bennies to small story edits (For example, stunning entry scene like Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean) and damage rerolls. Despite my hopes characters became very optimized - which fired back a few times. 'Notice, what's that?' 'What do you mean it might not be a good idea to throw a grenade from the window on the opposite side?' - there was -2 MAP and -2 from having no skill in throwing! Ok, I agree, it would have been cool thing, but the penalties were just too huge that I could have recommended the action. Cyber does not play very high part in the game - There's lots of high tech, though, including 3D web that is located exatly on the reality. Maybe the main thing about the cyberpunk is dark feel, and large contrast between powerful corporates and numerous street punks. #### The game session PC's are in a small company doing various tasks - mainly guard tasks - and hoping to get into good circles - profitable high-class missions from large corporations. The game started as two of the PC's arrived to their HQ and prepared to take of to patrol tour. Characters are Joker, a hottie driver ace and Tony Li, a parcour/sniper that had belonged to Triads but is now enemy of them. Joker and Tony take their red car and start the round, going around warehouse areas that are part of their guard duty. They watch a local MC gang for a while, and then decide that they aren't trouble - at least this time. They continue until they see a black van parked in the front of the gate of a warehouse yard that is part of their guarding area. They drive past the van, see someone sitting in it and drive off to approach from another direction. They get confirmation from their HQ that the car is registered to a carpet import company from Hong Kong. Tony gets suspicious. 
The patrol drives their car next to one of the storyhouse buildings and Tony jumps to the roof from the top of the car. He sneaks to peek to the other side and sees a guard standing right below him. He gets on the drop on the mook and jumps down. The guy in the van doesn't spot anything. Tony checks for the guys possessions, finds a wallet with just money in it - and a too familiar tattoo. In the meantime Joker checks his wrist computer with mission info and checks the security cameras. There's nothing suspicious in the cameras - not even Tony in the spot he is standing at the moment. Joker informs HQ that the cameras have been tampered and there's intruders in the area. 
Suddenly the door opens and he sees a large box carried by Red Jin and Slow Kong - two thugs from the local Triad section he would have wished to avoid. He surprises them, kicks one to the head and pushes box on the other. Both get shaken, and next round Tony manages to knock one of them out while the other poor extra stays shaken for a long time with his spirit d4. 
Joker sees that the situation is under control and starts to approach the van carefully with his car. At this time, the Triad driver opens fire with his SMG towards Tony but manages only to scratch his own pal who lies down stunned. Manchu iron arm - a wild card familiar to Tony - walks out of the warehouse, sees hunted man and shouts 'MONKEY BOY!' - and charges him, missing. Joker tries to disable the van by crashing it to the weak spot - I ruled that if he managed to cause any damage it would succeed, and increased the damage by d6 due to raise from the driving roll. Any damage didn't get through. The driver opens full autofire towards Joker's car from point blank range - missing. Manchu hits with a raise this time, and his d10 extra damage cyberhand also explodes - dealing 26 damage to the poor guy. Luckily it was still fist, rendering him only unconscious. Police sirens start to approach. 
Joker sees that the situation is under control and starts to approach the van carefully with his car. At this time, the Triad driver opens fire with his SMG towards Tony but manages only to scratch his own pal who lies down stunned. Manchu iron arm - a wild card familiar to Tony - walks out of the warehouse, sees hunted man and shouts 'MONKEY BOY!' - and charges him, missing. Joker tries to disable the van by crashing it to the weak spot - I ruled that if he managed to cause any damage it would succeed, and increased the damage by d6 due to raise from the driving roll. Any damage didn't get through. The driver opens full autofire towards Joker's car from point blank range - missing. Manchu hits with a raise this time, and his d10 extra damage cyberhand also explodes - dealing 26 damage to the poor guy. Luckily it was still fist, rendering him only unconscious. Police sirens start to approach. The van drives through the gate, which wasn't locked - and Joker follows, crashing to the van again, stunning the driver and Manchu Iron hand. 
After a while she can't find anything she could do and she backed off for a while; She didn't see that the villains are jumped on the van, and picked their unconscious enemy in there too. 
They drove off at the same time when a police car arrived to the scene. Joker went for Tony and saw he was missing. She also saw that the box the thugs had carried was broken, and a stunned Elvis was walking on the yard. He turns on reverse and the chase starts. The escaping van has a good lead and gets a very good roll in the beginning; It also gets a joker, but still manages to advance only one increment. Joker then approaches fast, and soon also the police car - driven by a hotshot driver controlled by Tony's player. 
Joker tried to force the van, but it's driver aced his driving roll. 
Next round, both players drow Jokers! (Did I leave the table unattended for a while? Hmmmm...). Another crash attempt, van gets a raise, so soft collison and no damage. Next round, Joker got joker again, and forced the van towards a kiosk - no damage but all inside incapacitated; Tony made an exceptional vigor roll and survived. 
Tony and surviving thugs were taken to hospital, Tony waked up weak and heard what had happened. Joker had persuaded a detective that had come to question her to tell about Elvis - genetic tests tell that he really WAS Elvis, but then some kind of self destruct system activated, and he just decomposed. 'Elvis' had been asking 'Lady Sue?', who's a celebrity in the city with questionable reputations, being in the middle of scandal after another. Also, company owning the guarded warehouse had disappeared, and police had found all kind of different items from the warehouse. Here ends the first session. 