Introduction thru Episode 3

 

Well, its December 2024 in our campaign and the Fourth Corporate War is starting for us. I am GMing and the Party has actually started with a group of mostly new or almost new characters. They are working for an NPC Night City fixer, ‘Smiling Sid’, who is contracting with CINO/Arasaka. Sid actually has a successful high caliber team he represents (in this case, the ‘Shadowed Ones’), and business is so good he needs a group of ….well….others to do those jobs that are beneath his top group’s talents. Enter the PCs or as they have been dubbed “the B Team”. They have been good sports and wear the label proudly. Especially the character whose name is Beatrice or Bea for short; she likes to call them, “Bea’s Team”.

But I digress. They have rented a building just inside the edge of the combat zone near San Morro in South Night City, where they lost their first PC. While checking the building out they got in a fight with one of the current ‘tenants’. I don’t know what possessed them to break down THAT door, especially after the guy rolled grenades out a small hatch over his armored door.

“Hey, attention, people, this guy has military grade hardware!”

Well, two of the Group kicked the door in (a great roll actually), and were greeted with a blast of a full auto assault rifle. A blown “melon” for one of the kickers and an unconscious state for the other and the battle was over. The only other person who was not wounded or had not broken (yes, Willpower rolls are always called for in this game when you get your heads handed to you, so those who skimp on that stat run away alot ) pulled the unconscious party member away. Then the opponents pulled the headless corpse (and all his gear) back into their room.

The next day they discovered last night’s opponents had fled (with all their and the late PC’s gear). The Party had been recently in the employ of an Arasaka associated merc unit so their gear screamed “Arasaka Team”. The squatters fled what they thought would be corporate vengeance. The Party found one other apartment occupied with a large armored door and fairly sophisticated defenses. The owner was singularly surly and doesn’t seem to come out, so they have decided to let “sleeping dogs lie”.

The Group got hired to blow up an OTEC Kelp Farm. Now this is the beginning of the war and this sort of thing had not been done yet so security there was pretty lax. Still, it was a comedy of errors as they team stormed the place, shooting wrench wielding techies and the couple of lightly armed solos. Both sides then started playing with explosives and it degenerated from there. The PCs learned about ‘Shockwaves’…..the hard way. They can break your regulators (three of the five as a matter of fact). Oh yes, sharing a regulator at 80 meters down when you are not the best Nuscuba people around will probably end up injuring someone (or two). Still, despite the problems (the confusion, the lack of command structure of “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”), they managed to get the job done, and not get anybody killed. Takashi, the party netrunner did meet his first Hellhound. It wasn’t pretty, but at least it wasn’t fatal.

Back at their building in the Combat Zone, one of the PCs who had eaten a little too much ‘grenade’ on the first day there couldn’t go on the mission so was holding down their apartment. Some boosters tried to break down their ‘surly’ neighbor’s door. All the wounded PC heard was screaming boosters and multiple rapid firing “gatling” style weapons…..then silence. The neighbor is still there. The boosters are a stain in the hall, stairs, downstairs reception room….you get the picture. They are all happy with their choice not to have bothered him.

Well, the Group is next going to attend a party thrown by their agent. The unwounded have bought new clothes and are ready to try to schmooze with some of the city’s A list Edgerunners (OK maybe most are B list, but at least they are on a list!)

Stay tuned for more!