Re: [BNW] The Ripper:NO PLAYERS! - long

["Mike Williams" <mwilliam@ttnweb.1000trails.com>]

> from...
>
> GAry m, minor epot
>    aka "Sneezy the Squid"
>
> Ok you pesky players: OUT! Guides only from here on in.
> 
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> I
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> L
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> Ok, bar the door. And someone get that Sneak outta here! (Scuffle, bang, 
> OW!)Good.
> 
> Now, to continue. I have a few questions about the Ripper adventure
that's 
> with the Power Shield.
>

Personally, I used some of the information and characters from the Ripper
as the basis for an adventure that was more suited to my campaign. I'll
make some comments, and answer some questions, as I've handled them for the
game I'm running. In other people's games... eh... they may or may not be
useful.
 
> 1) The man bad guy is a reg who uses a modified Armourgeddon suit to
walk, 
> fly and kill. If gadgets must be maintained at least one hour a day to 
> continue functioning, and this guy does not have a partner, how's he
keeping 
> this thing running? 

This gets into how I treat Armorgeddon suits. The first thing that I assume
was that, in the beginning of this suit's history, there was the Primer
Gadgeteer called Armorgeddon. Now, Armorgeddon was not just a delta, but an
alpha. He designed a suit that, once maintained by a gadgeteer, had a
twenty four hour operation time. This operation time could be taken in
whatever smaller slices its operator so desired, and would require a
maintenance upkeep once a year regardless. Another nifty trick that
Armorgeddon built into the design of his suit was that a delta gadgeteer
could maintain multiple Armorgeddon suits per day.

What this means in practical terms is a single gadgeteer, in an eight hour
workday, can maintain eight Armorgeddon suits. If armorgeddon suits appear
in numbers "equal to half of the members of the PC group", this means that
by canon, there are scads of gadgeteers per city upkeeping the suits. I
didn't like that. 

So, the suit that the Ripper is using probably had a full 24 hour charge
when he started his killing spree. If he's out for an hour per killing,
he's already gotten two kids, and gets a third during the module. That
means he's got enough juice for 21 more killings before he needs to have
his Armorgeddon suit worked on again.

> DP, I'm sure, takes a dim view of personal appropriation 
> of its resources. 

I agree. But weapons systems go missing. Audits of the military have found
that they've misplaced everything from missiles to helicopters. It's not
TOO hard to imagine that if the military occasionally misplaces a
helicopter, then DP occasionally misplaces an Armorgeddon Suit.

If you want to take a slightly darker view, go into how he got his suit.
Did he get it through Evil Unlimited, who is trying to destabilize both the
Defiance, which the actions of the Ripper is doing, and Delta Prime, who
might very well catch some flak when it is realized that it is an
Armorgeddon Suit that is doing the killings. Does he have accomplices
within Delta Prime? Is there a gadgeteer that did the modifications to make
the suit aloow him to walk, and a normal Armorgeddon pilot who looks the
other way when the Ripper uses the suit? Does it go higher up the chain
than that? 

> And what's the damage of the clawed crowbar? It's not 
> listed where I can find it.
> 

Alot. I added 1D to the damage of a large club. 

> 2) Truth is fighting to make a better world. Yet, she has no problem 
> offering the players extra money to KILL the Ripper. Why not just hire an

> assassin? And some players, esp of the Heroic bent, will probbably be a 
> little disturbed to see this "Kill 'em All" attitude from the Defiance. 
> While I like the moral grey and conflicts from the "Kill/No Kill"
debates, 
> I've seen it cripple/break teams as well, and I'm not sure that's a can
of 
> worms to open the first game with. Add to that players with Pacifist or 
> Heroic may take this to mean that Delta Prime's partly correct in saying
the 
> Defiance is full of rebelious, murderous criminals, or take this as just 
> cause to not work with the Defiance at all if they're willing to cross
that 
> line easily. The list goes on, something to ponder.
> 

I dropped the concept of a monetary reward entirely. Granted, I'm using a
contact between Truth and the PCs. In the game I'm running, there's an
underlying theme. There are already people out there doing it wrong, the
Defiance is trying to do it right. It's hard to be a hero in Brave New
World. It's hard to do the right thing when the government wants to put you
behind bars. Being a hero means you do it anyway.

> 3)Tonya Shapiro. She's a Pyrokenetic by discription. Not a Hot Shot, she 
> creates the fire from her hands, not by spiting. This could make her a 
> Blaster, but I just want to use this as leverage to get a "real" Pyro 
> package. :)
> 

Creating fire from the hands instead of from the mouth is just a little
twist. It's seeable that different hot shots create fire from different
locations. What I don't plan on okaying for Hot Shots is what I consider a
real pyrokinetic... which is to say a character that can start fires at
range rather than projecting them from his person. (The indirect advantage,
for those of you who've played champions)

> 4) Fat Tony and the Blood Angels. The scenario stresses that the players 
> should not start a fight in the bar, and talk to Fat Tony. This gives
them 
> the chance to get a favor from him, and possibly keep him as a contact. 
> Having a contact in the underworld is a good thing, and can lead to lots
of 
> fun adventures/subplots.

Myself, I liked this alot. I dropped the entirely too Mafioso sounding Fat
Tony and made him a little more gangsta, Phat Tony.

> When the players talk with Marco, a point is made that he talks openly
and 
> loudly with the PCs to avoiding looking like a rat. I'd have a PC know
this 
> on a successful Streetwise roll.
> 

Yep. Did the same.

> Then, the players are practically forced to fight a few of the gang
outside 
> the bar! "It's time to break out the dice and start fighting!" and
"They're 
> itching for a brawl, so only a Persuasion or Intimidate roll with 3 
> successes or more can avoid the fight." The results of the fight are "Fat

> Tony...lokks at the team, shakes his head, then turns around and walks
back 
> into the bar. (snip)...let the heroes know they now have a new enemy. No 
> further information can be gleaned from the Blood Angels, and they refuse
to 
> help...this source of information is now closed." Excuse me?! Don't
fight, 
> gain a contact. But wait! Fight and loose it anyway! This kind of 
> railroading would tick me off as a player.
> 

Me too. Which, is why I dropped it entirely. Actually, it was about this
point in the adventure that I took a sharp turn from the published
material, and introduced a second gang, the 99s. One of these days I plan
on getting a web page up about the campaign I'm running, and the break from
the published "The Ripper" will be detailed there...

> 5) Tara Gallagher: Good NPC with nice Red Herring potential and future
plot 
> use. I hope we see more of her in the future. As long as she's not Truth.
> 
> 6) Samantha and the Mob: A bit heavy handed, if you do the "One in every 
> Crowd" bit, but a good example of what the Defiance is up against in the 
> "Hearts and Minds" catagory. But did she have to be a plot device? And
her 
> having been disguised at Fat Tony's mol is a bit to heavy on the Deaus Ex

> Mechina for me. Why didn't she just follow and hook up with the PCs after

> they left the Blood Angels? She's "eager to ask for a little help in
getting 
> back in the building." But she's another of the good NPCs with future 
> campagin potental. The number of these is one of the plusses of this 
> scenario, IMHO.
>

On Tara, I didn't use her, and I don't plan on using her. Who knows, an
adventure in the future might have a reporter pop up, and it might be her,
but... then again, maybe not. If she's Truth, then... gah. You'd think
Truth might have come up with a plan that didn't involve having a young
delta acting like a worm on a hook.

As for Samantha and her nature as a plot device, well, Bargainers aren't
terribly well detailed, and allowing them to use one of their fetishes to
give them the ability of Clairvoyance didn't seem to overbalancing. And...
there's already been mention of somebody being able to shapeshift, so even
if it isn't a yet published package, it's again not hard to accept that it
could be one of her fetishes.

As for Samantha being disguised as one of the girls on Tony's arm, well,
she was investigating the Ripper killings. The characters presumably did it
by going to the Blood Angel's bar and asking around. Samantha did that,
too.. but with a bit more subtlety. She went to the Blood Angels bar, and
was getting on the good side of some of the Blood Angels. She just happened
to get the information that she needed by being there when the PCs talked
with Tony. Not really Deus Ex Machina, more of a plot convenience.
 
> 7) Bob Bell: Another good NPC for the future. It's good to have a "face"
for 
> Delta Prime for the PCs to hate. And good NPCs are fun.
> 

Oh, you know it. Bob awakened me to a whole different area within Delta
Prime. The MIB-looking reg agents who end up doing the bulk of the
investigative work. Sure, the red-suited deltas may be the Primers who the
PCs end up fighting, but it's the MIBs who'll be the ones that will slowly
piece together secret identities and things like that. 

> That's all for now. And remember to keep those Players out of here. =]
> 

Or respect the Player's ability to keep OOC knowledge from dicating their
IC actions.

			Mike "Woodchuck" Williams