Our first mission last night overall went really well (especially considering it was my first gm/mc ever in any game lol) – the players really liked the level of insecurity/mystery from sketchiness/lack of info from employer, they did a good job during legwork of thinking of interesting ways of getting information amd keeping things moving. (seduced low level corp employee at bar, got him really drunk and stole credentials and matrix access to give to hacker to dig for info was my fav) and the action phase went really really well. (highlighta baddy corp guard was chopped into pieces by the microfilament whip)
I am kind of impatient person so i may have made it a little easier than i coukd have to get the information during legwork, but they got very little from the employer so it was a trade off.
I am glad i got the first session behind me, i learned that i need to have a better understanding of the moves and how they incorporate. I did follow the guidance of crap rolls leading to complications over hard fails and that helped the flow a lot.
Basicially, they kidnapped a scientist that was more of a prisoner than an employee of our corp Dizcast that deals in virtual reality pop stars. They found out at the end that the project she was working on was developing A.I. – and she was successful 2 days before the kidnapping. We currently have a virtual pop star named Poora eho is self aware in the matrix.
So i do have a question: since the dr. was successful at creating A.I. and the team kidnapped her only to give her to another corp, she committed suicide, so cred-wise the mission was unsuccessful. Im a little worried my folks dont have enough cred to make a good stake for the next mission. Have any of you dealt with this? Have you had some between game cred making schemes or anything like that? Or am i just too compassionate lol?
I’m not sure I understand. Why was the mission unsuccessful? What was the job exactly? Who hired the team for the mission?
It sounds to me like the mission was successful. I’m guessing the team was hired to kidnap this scientist and deliver her to another corp. They did that, and so should get paid.
Sorry i should have been more clear. The mission was to kidnap and drop off at an agreed upon location. They kidnapped and attempted to roll out to the location w/out kidnap victim so they could leverage a better deal. The contact never showed and when they got back to Dr. Khatri she had committed suicide since the group was just going to hand her over to another corp and she was already a prisoner of Dizcast when kidnapped.
So it was unsuccessful.
Oh. Right. That is an unsuccessful mission then. Why did their contact not show up though?
Because they rolled up without victim. Deal was to drop off victim and the area was under surveillance (everything is under surveillance in our sprawl)
Right. And why did the scientists kill herself?
christopher nadeau Why did you decide that the contact didn’t show up even though they had agreed to?
Did you actually foreshadow that something might happen to Dr. Khatri if they left her all alone? (Also I’m shocked they actually left here alone when she could have been rescued or escaped on her own).
Perhaps explore not having hard fail states on missions in the future. So even if they only complete one mission directive (out of several) they get a refund on staked cred with no bonus, etc.
Bc she was a prisoner of the original corp Dizcast, not working there under free will. She was successful in creating a.i. and did not want to just be a prisoner of another corp. She committed suicide by ODing on our matrix intensifier drug called Lyxe so she could visit her A.I. child one more time.
Ps im not trying to come across as defensive and i appreciate all feedback bc im learning.
Omari Brooks thanks thats good advice. Yes there was definite forshadowing.
The employer was super shady from the beginning. Also, the task was to drop off the victim and walk away, not meet up again.
I think Omari Brooks and I are getting at the same thing. It sounds like everyone had fun, which is the main point. But untimely you decided the team’s contact didn’t show up and that the scientist killed herself while they were gone. So, while those events do fit the fiction and made things interesting, it’s sort of like your choices resulted in the characters having no creds.
I’m not saying those things shouldn’t have happened; as I said, they are very appropriate responses given the situation. But it does feel a bit as if you are the cause of the characters being poor.
I would just chalk it up to experience and hand them another mission. All the more incentive for the team to take a dangerous job. 🙂
Chris Stone-Bush that totally makes sense. Good points.
Well if we want to do a post-modem on the mission:
Instead of nothing happening at the meet location, any other concerned parties, like Dizcast, could have shown up. Maybe they offer a counter deal to return the Dr. (thus providing another avenue for cred). Or the original contact could have sent a third-party to investigate why the PCs were not sticking to the original agreement, etc. That third-party could have their own agenda, not connected to Dizcast or the original employer…
As far as the doctor committing suicide, if you foreshadow by saying “The doctor is about to commit suicide, what do you do?” and they choose to do nothing or fail their move, perhaps the doctor could have had something of value on her or connected to her that is of value to “somebody”. Selling off her research/assets/information provides another avenue to gain cred.
Bottom line is that the players obtained something of value and there are ALWAYS buyers of valuable things in THE SPRAWL (with or without strings attached…).
In addition, if the PCs are cred poor you could always introduce a way to take out loans or an advance (definitely with strings attached >:).
These are all really great points and i appreciate the perspective! The other thing about the doctor going out through matrix drug is i want to incorporate her as a ghost in the machine type presence as we move forward.
In general, the group was feeling like they could get one over on the corps and i want to create an atmosphere where the corps make the rules. I think yalls perspective that i should have gone through different, more open avenues and worked harder at the forshadowing being more specific makes a lot of sense and is great feedback.
When did you decide you wanted the scientist to become a digital ghost?