X-treme Measures OOC

All out of character posts.
(I finally figured out I had this thread in the wrong forum)

Drugged Dwarf
Make a Negotiations Test with a +2 for the two others in the group with the Negotiation skill.

(Zoroastre, your character has the same attribute and skill ratings, but since you came late I had to go with the other character.)

Man... on one hand I feel like I'm being a stubborn jerk with Trask and derailing the run. But on the other, a no info run is something that would be either 'we are desperate and HAVE to take it' or 'insane amounts of cash' and as things stand, neither really applies, so I just can't see him saying yes with no qualifiers blindly. Sorry if I'm screwing with you game Suspect, really not my intent, just trying to stay in character!

Azonalanthious
Staying in character? Trask has no Negotiation skill. His Charisma is 2, which means even if he used Edge, with a -1 for Defaulting and additional negative modifiers for the Johnson already being in an Unfriendly mood, it is unlikely that he would be able to Con/Etiquette/Negotiate the situation to his, and the team's, advantage.

No offense intended, just going by your character sheet and the rules.

Ok, it looks like I've hit my first 'hurdle,' so to speak. I am new to running a Shadowrun game as I said in the want ad, so I'm sure the problem is with me.

Are you all just bucking for more info/pay/goodies as a roleplaying effort to gain more of an edge in the game?
Or am I truly not giving you enough info for a Johnson hiring a team?

It is not my intention to make the Johnson seem like a hardcase; I threw in the 'Unfriendly' attitude just as a plot element in an effort to add some color to the negotiations roleplay. It's looking like a mistake to me at this point.

So now I am asking: aside from the name of the corp involved and the actual mission details (ie facility name and location, target's name and type of research), what info am I leaving out? At this point, all the Johnson is asking is for the runners to acknowledge that they will take the job. Am I mistaken in that regard?

I don't want to 'cheat' my players, but I also don't feel its necessary to just hand out every scrap of information about the game at the very start either.

I'd really like to continue on with the game. I certainly want you all to get as much fun out of it as I do. If I'm going about this all wrong, I'm willing to try and make repairs so we can get past the meet and on to the good stuff.

The question is basically:

Will we extract some relatively unimportant researcher from a low security facility, which would mean easy in easy out without too much of preparation required.

Or will we extract the CEO of a megacorp who is surrounded by a dozen bodyguards and constant surveilance, which would require huge amounts of preparation and probably much more experienced runners.

The runners want to know if they are asked to do a doable and reasonable job, or if they are asked to lift an elephant up a ladder made of spaghetti.

The fault is not necessarily on your side. It is more of an misunderstanding. Also the Johnson seems to be in a bad mood. *wink*

Suspect wrote:

Azonalanthious
Staying in character? Trask has no Negotiation skill. His Charisma is 2, which means even if he used Edge, with a -1 for Defaulting and additional negative modifiers for the Johnson already being in an Unfriendly mood, it is unlikely that he would be able to Con/Etiquette/Negotiate the situation to his, and the team's, advantage.

No offense intended, just going by your character sheet and the rules.

Note that he is not being particularly friendly about things or trying to talk the Johnson into it -- he is being fairly rude and confrontational and is mostly managing to piss the J off. That is very in character for low charisma, no skill. But he has made his concerns clear, and the rest of the team may (seems to) agree with him, and potentially have the skills to actually negotiate.

As for what the team wants, I don't think anyone is quibbling money at this point. But they agree with Trask's point about wanting information before agreeing. When it comes down to it, the Johnson HAS to tell us that information for us to do the job -- unless he wants us to just grab a random researcher, we need the information to do what he wants. Once we have the information, he has nothing but our word that it won't get out and that we will do the job we agreed to -- he has to trust that we are being straight with him. Its not like he can sue us for breach of contract -- at best he could send another team after us, and if it comes to that the information he is so concerned about will already be out.

Right now, he pretty much has our word that if we agree that the job is do-able/reasonable once we get the rest of the info, we'll take it, but we won't go on if its a suicide mission. If he doesn't want us for a suicide mission and our word is good, then that should be enough -- all he has to go on is our word one way or another and he isn't having to trust it any more for that then he would if we just said yes. If he does want us for a suicide mission, then things are pretty much a bust. And if our word was bad and we couldn't be trusted, we wouldn't still be arguing -- we would have just said yes, he would have had to tell us the information to do the job, and then we could have gone on our merry way and back stabbed him.

Edit: Oh, and also, yeah, what Darkon said while I was posting this. And yes, my low charisma, no negotiate character isn't doing much to help with the J's bad mood.

ok, I get you now. my apologies for my part in the misunderstanding. let's see if we can salvage the situation and get on with the 'excrutiatingly intense excitement and fun' of playing Shadowrun

Just to toss a couple of ideas out there for how you might get the ball rolling again:

First, the fixer came in with the Johnson, didn't he? You could have him step in as the voice of reason and try to get both sides back to the table -- after all, interfacing between Johnsons and runners is a large part of a fixer's job.

Alternately, just because the meet is a bust, doesn't mean the run is. You could always have the J actually walk out. Then a few days later, the runners get a new call from the fixer for another meet, either with a new Johnson, or the old one after he has calmed down. In fact, you could use it as a way to add some extra spice to the run -- make the new Johnson a competitor of the old one, both going after the same individual. If the old Johnson managed to hire a different team, we'll now have to not just grab the researcher, but make sure we pull it off before the other team of runners does.

Maybe Lenilielle could do something fundamentally dumb and try to hex the J into calming down.

oh, well, I didn't expect your responses so quickly, lol

well, tell me what you think of my resolution then

hey, the gang's all here

no one is posting though

so, is it a washout? does my last post stink? does anybody have any thoughts? questions? dreams? hypotheses? conundrums?

in other words, is there any chance I could get some feedback here?

My apologies. I simply did not notice. The forum did not indicate any new posts. I will make one immediately.

no apology necessary. it was doing the same to me.

I think part of my difficulty is play-by-post. I am used to tabletop rpg-ing with a group and playing for hours at a time; sometimes all through a night until the break of dawn.
This method of making a post and then waiting perhaps days in some cases, even more in others, seems almost unbearably slow sometimes.

It is sometimes. But as we are all living in different timezones, sitting together through a night would be quite complicated. Forum RPGs have their advantages.

yeah, the cost of plane tickets alone would be far beyond the scope of my humble budget


ok, I will get to work on filling in the intel for all of you. it will take a bit to compose, but I promise to get it done asap

OH SH**!

Sorry man, I had a VERY long weekend involving lazers and non stop work... I only just finally got to a computer, So I'm on this.

*EDIT* Wait.. that bit with the Johnson getting up to leave WASN'T PLANNED? I was checking it out from my phone at work and was like "Whoa. Serious GM is Serious". I especially loved the part of the bodyguard/person calming him down.

Anyway, Post time! ALRIGHT! Just everyone pretend I'm not negotiating.

Drugged Dwarf
Thanks, it was the first thing I thought of to defuse the confrontation, though I liked both Azonalanthious' and Darkon's ideas also. I just didn't see their suggestions until after I posted.

Zoroastre
I forgot to address your question about the mission time frame, but we can hash that out during the planning phase.

Sorry iv not been posting lol but im going to make it a point to make you all laugh this week. lata

I haven't noticed you 'not posting' Ghostmaker, but I will look forward to Digit's antics as always.

The last IC post was made to answer Zoroastre's last post. I am working on another that will cover the interim between the end of the meet and the start of the mission. Should be up no later than tomorrow.

ill have something in by tonight k

oups I just discovered this place, reed all, I'm up to date... is there anything else I should know? also it hasn't come up yet but how do you make a dice roll? I didn't find the info on that...

and just for my info what does OOC stands for? is it "other object of concern" or something like that (just so you don't laugh at me too hard, let me remind you that my natural language is french (french canadian to be precise))

thx,
JP

Jean Pierre, not to worry, any laughing here is meant to be 'with' not 'at' someone. And OOC stands for 'out of character' and IC stands for 'in character.'

To All
Sorry I have not posted as of yet, but my 20-year old son is planning on proposing to his girlfriend of four years tomorrow and has been taking up most of my time with advice and fatherly support.

I will get back in the game as soon as I have enough time to get my mind back into focus. Thanks for your patience.

So your boy found someone to share his life with for what its worth suspect tell him congrats on that. I have a son although he's 11 so ill cross that bridge when i get to it enjoy your time with your fam lata