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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JediSoth" data-source="post: 4941601" data-attributes="member: 13882">I added an encounter with a Mr. Johnson at the beginning of the adventure to serve as a framework. The group was comprised of two human street samurai (SS1 & SS2), an elf covert ops (CO), an elf street magician (SM), an orc hacker (HK), and a troll bounty hunter (BH). Down on their luck, short on cash, and with empty bellies, the Runners all met in the office of Mr. Johnson, an oily, greasy-looking man with a slightly Mexican accent. He explained the mission to them: it was a simple babysitting job. A friend of his, Inga Schmidt from Denmark, was at a safehouse nearby. She decided to defect, as it were, from her employer due to ethical differences and the sensitive nature of her work made it difficult to simply quit. In fact, it was very likely her previous employer might send a hit squad to rub her out before they'd be able to move her in the morning. One man, such as Mr. Johnson's associate, Bob, might not be discouraging to a 2-3 man hit squad, but 7 people could be. He would pay the Runner 1000 Nuyen each to go to the safehouse and make sure Inga survived the night. They readily agreed and Mr. Johnson had his associate Bob join them. Bob, a hulking, gruff troll, would take them to the safehouse and help watch Inga. When the group arrived at the safehouse, the found a blonde, pig-tailed female troll waiting for them; Inga Schmidt. It turns out, she and Bob attended NYU together, so the evening was a reunion of sorts. HK did some clandestine research and discovered a female troll named Inga Schmidt did, in fact, attend NYU around the same time as a troll named Bob Cavanaugh, and afterwards went to work for Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries, a AAA megacorp run by the Great Dragon, Lofwyr. After taking a survey of the apartment building and surrounding environs, the Runners concluded only the windows and front door were weak points in the safehouse. HK hacked into the areas' security cameras while BH started to walk the perimeter. SS2 went to the roof while SS1 took Inga's laundry and checked out the laundromat across the street. Meanwhile, Bob and Inga started making out on the coach and Bob told the rest of the team to take a walk down to the Stuffer Shack a few blocks away to get food for all of them (Twinkies, specifically). Inga replied that she liked Twinkies (bow-chicka-chicka-wow-wow, cue disturbing troll-on-troll action) and she and Bob started to make out again. Everyone except for SM refused to leave the safehouse, believing Bob might be trying to get rid of them in order to kill Inga. After a brief argument, Bob gave up and led Inga into the bedroom for some privacy while SM headed down the block to the Stuffer Shack. The Stuffer Shack, home to all the nutritionally-bereft junk food a hungry Shadowrunner could want, was fairly deserted. The clerk was behind the counter reading a magazine while his dwarven girlfriend babbled about her day. There were two punks browsing the cat food, and a nervous-looking man digging through the ice cream case. SM collected some junk food and headed for the counter to pay when an elf woman carrying a wailing baby entered the Stuffer Shack. Just then, an explosion blew out the front windows of the shack, throwing SM back and burying him under a pile of paper towels and facial tissues. As two thugs carrying weapons entered the Stuffer Shack, SM began to look for the elf woman and no-longer crying baby. He found them in the personal hygiene aisle. She asked for SMs help, confirming that the hitmen were after her and her baby. Using some magic as a distraction, SM fled with the elf woman and her baby, running down the street while SS2 headed across the rooftops towards the Stuffer Shack. SM caught a bullet in the back and did a faceplant on the sidewalk as the elf woman continued running. SS2 leapt towards the adjacent power line (confident he'd be safe as long as he didn't ground himself), slashing through the wire with his combat knife and swinging down to the street, letting go just before touching ground. He tumbled forward in front of an explosion of sparks from the cut power line. Seeing this, the two goons re-evaluated their chances and turned tail, fleeing the scene. It turns out the elf woman and her kid were targets for a hit by her ex-lover, a man not appreciative of her attempts to blackmail him over their illegitimate child. SS2 set about finding a safe place for her to stay the night (deciding the junkie's apartment upstairs was good after the BH and SS1 scared the guy off) and they eventually just called a cab for her. Bob dealt with the Lone Stars (the cops) investigating the explosion at the Stuffer Shack (and loss of power from SS2 swashbuckling heroics). In the morning, a car came carrying Mr. Johnson and thanking the team for a job well-done, he took Inga away to her debriefing at his employer's corporate HQ (some quick hacking revealed Mr. Johnson's car was registered to Aztechnology). They took their 1,000 Nuyen and went their separate ways. Play went pretty well. No one was familiar with the 4th edition of Shadowrun, beyond what they'd read in the Quick Start rules (I was the only one with the core book). Combat was resolved very quickly and everyone appreciated not having to add-up the results of a 10d6 roll (in SR4, you just count how many 5s and 6s you roll and make a note of whether or not 1/2 of your rolls came up 1s). With a threshold of most rolls being 2 (i.e. you have to roll 2 or more 5s and 6s to be successful), I was surprised how often they failed their rolls. You'd think if you rolled 8+ d6, it'd be easy to get at least two 5s and 6s, but in practice, crappy rolling still occurred a LOT. The Quick Start rules didn't delve into magic, or the Matrix very deeply, so they weren't used much. Still, everyone enjoyed the game and actually requested to play it again at the next gaming session. Hopefully, I can get a few of them to buy a book; I'm not thrilled at the prospect of passing my 4th edition 20th anniversary book around constantly (the purchase of a second book may be forthcoming).</blockquote>

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