Anyone up for a GURPS CYBERPUNK style campaign?

Just curious...

Would anyone be interested in a GURPS CYBERPUNK campaign set in the year 2048, in a mythical Chrome City (think Night City from CP 2020 but with the serial numbers filed off). Elements of BIOTECH will be involved, as would be Ultra-Tech (largely from GURPS CLASSIC ULTRA-TECH).

Characters would be built using GURPS CHARACTER ASSITANT
Anyone who wants to run a net runner for solo campaigns would find that FG in conjunction with GCA works just fine.

Just as GURPS CLASSIC CYBERPUNK suggested using 150 point characters, for GURPS 4e, the new point total would be 225 points instead.

This is basically a question to see if anyone would be interested, and find out what times would be best for game play. I'm located near Western New York, and would be deemed as GMT-5 if that helps.

For those interested, the classic version of Net Running would be viable for FG, and I've tested both the older version of Netrunning with the newer Pyramid net running. Net result of the testing was that the older version from GURPS CYBERPUNK was more preferred over the newer.

This is to be a Sandbox environment in which as GM, I would present multiple possible threads, and what you choose will determine the course of the adventure. In some cases, it would require improvisational GM'ing (ie, thinking fast on my feet and going with the flow".

There will be no Skype or audio aspects to the game, as I was born hard of hearing and have a hard time with Skype. Having been a computer operator for over 20 years, my typing speeds are rather fast.

Feel free to ask questions or send email messages or private messages as you desire.

As ever, without Ronke's efforts, none of this would be possible, and a major thanks should be directed his way for his efforts - and the efforts of those who preceded him in this. Were it not for those individuals, I'd never have purchased Fantasy Grounds. :)

I would so love to get in on this, but I already play 6 sessions a week. There are too few hours in a week...needz more for gaming. :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ronnke

I would so love to get in on this, but I already play 6 sessions a week. There are too few hours in a week...needz more for gaming. :P

---

What an amateur - you need to go pro bro.


*teasing grin*

Ran my second session tonight - and had fun. :)

Disclaimer: This is set in Night City of CP2020 fame, but uses a timeline entirely different than that of CP2020. The year is 2048, a space orbital is being built to house the rich, and life just gets grittier and harder for everyone else on Earth. TL is 9 with some elements of BIOTECH involved as well as quite a bit of CYBERPUNK from ULTRATECH involved.

Cast:
Anthony Reeves (nickname Alpha Romeo) as an NPC. He works for Continental Investigations Agency.

Sean McGuinness (no nick name as yet) as PC. He's a recent hire of Continental Investigations Agency.

William Green (nicknamed Whiskey Golf) as PC. He's recently separated from Service as an experienced NCO who ran the gun range on base on a regular basis. A Crack shot.

Chapter 1:
Our three heroes are placed on a mission to investigate the death of a private detective who had been hired by Fiona Hayes to track down information regarding the Tolliver's DIsease Vaccines that were seemingly ineffective despite them being approved as valid vaccines. All our heroes know, is that the death of Felix Mason (the Dead CIA investigator) was somehow tied in with something big. The killer of Felix was their initial target. But, as sometimes happens, they ran into Fiona instead, who in turn, is the target of a hit team known as "The Odd Couple". Half of the couple is a man named Billy Jackson with a reflex booster that makes time slow down for him in a big way. His claim to fame is that if you give him a weapon, he'll shoot it with deadly accuracy - and FAST. The other half of the Odd Couple is a hacker who is very skilled, and knows his way around the net and what it can do for him.

By the time the first chapter ends - the heroes find themselves in a dark converted warehouse that is known now as the shooting range called THE MARKSMAN. The Odd couple hacked into the computer system at THE MARKSMAN, and control the lighting and everything else of value. Sowing confusion and fear, the hacker gets the players to believe they're going to die in the darkness once the attack begins in earnest. Instead - the players hunker down, and poor Fiona rushes out the door (having left our heroes in the dark) and meets a date with destiny called a LAW. Just as she enters into the van, the law slams into the vehicle, throwing her yards away in the resultant explosion. Had it not been for the Trauma Team contract she had, Fiona would be just another corpse in the ground. Instead, she survives long enough to offer the three heroes blood money. "Find who did this and you get 500,000 to split amongst yourselves".

Chapter 2:
Having spent time investigating leads and trying to find out how everything they know fits together, our investigators are finally on track to finding the Odd Couple. Unfortunately, the person they got the lead from, was told "if anyone asks about someone who purchased a LAW or anything like that, tell him to go to the Diner (Joe's Diner) at the end of your shift. We'll meet with them once you tell us. Here's the money - half now, half later plus a reward, if you do as we ask.

Sure enough, she did (aw Sheila, they LIKED you!) and our heroes were sent to meet with her at 3 AM when she got off her shift at the Afterlife. Sadly, the players got to Joe's diner at 1:30 AM and decided to case the place in case it was a set up. Even more sadly, the Odd Couple didn't spot the three characters in the diner with the idea those where the one's they would be expecting to meet at 3 AM.

3 AM comes and goes. Our three heroes are down to two because the third one got up as soon as the Odd couple came in, and went to act as a backstop in case the Odd Couple fled out the front door. The two in the diner decide to make certain that the Odd Couple aren't innocent hicks, but the ones they think will try to kill them at 3 am had they done as told.

In the start of a blink of an eye, Sean decides that he's going to dive for cover and deal with the fallout that way. Unaware that Billy Jackson (the crew haircut guy) had augmented reflexes - finds out the hard way, that boy is Billy fast. Unfortunately for Billy, his off the cuff shot misses his intended target. So, he tries to reacquire his target - only to discover not one, but two pistol barrels pointing his way (both Sean and William have fast draw). Now it becomes a deadly two on one scenario - and one that Billy was sadly about to discover - it matters not whose gun clears the holster first, what matters is accuracy. Billy's first shot missed his target by a bit. Billy and Sean's next shots rang out as one practically - with Billy's shot barely missing (as one might say "Missed by THAT much" but Sean's hitting him in the torso. Enough to stun an ordinary man, Sean was about to discover that Billy was no ordinary man! But, before either of Sean or Billy would renew their shots - it was Williams shot dead to center on Billy's heart with a 10mm round, that put an end to it all. The man has no heart as some might say, and "Billy the Jack"son lie on the floor dying. Billy's only saving grace that night? REO MEATWAGON, which showed up on site 2 minutes after the signal went out that Billy was dead.

That's when "poor geekboy" was seemingly lost. He fainted, he begged for them to not hurt him. As they restrained him (ie cuffed him), dragged him out of the now deserted diner (would you stay in a diner when shots were fired?!!!) and stuffed his lanky buttocks in the trunk of a sports car. Then the three fled the diner with the intent to call the police, advise them of the shoot out at the Diner, and then let the Night City Police know they had the man in custody that would shed light on the LAW attack against Fiona Hayes. It didn't quite end up that way alas. See, our hacker's real name was Frank Martin Lawson. His Hacker handle was TheRatPack. He was good, VERY good. Good enough that he had undergone plastic surgery to alter his face and apparent age and all that goes with that. He was also armed with a trusty cyberdeck implant that was worth a LOT more money than people could ever dream of. He had what was known as a mobile cyberdeck.

As was his habit, TheRatPack always did battlefield preparation. Using his hack into the mobile phone system, he determined what cell phones were within 50 feet of his own, and changed their accounts to read as "unpaid, shut down pending reactivation". This would keep them from calling out. He also disabled their automatic 911 ability to call through a hack of his own devising. A good hacker controls communications is one axiom he lives by. So, cell phones out of the way, he then made certain that if anything went bad - that he'd be able to shut the power grid down in the local area. He - always has an ace in the hole due to the fact that he has multiple identities he can call upon in an emergency, including a false Federal Agent Id if necessary.

Tonight, it proved necessary. The players bungled him unceremoniously into the trunk of a sports car, then took off. Frank activated his Federal Agent personae, and contacted the police to let them know that a federal agent was in serious danger, transmitted a photo of the two who he had when he entered the diner saying "these are wanted terrorists with access to a nuclear trigger assembly for a bomb hidden in Night City. Send only your best anti-terrorist snipers and await termination orders if necessary.

I wont' bore you with the dialog that happened in the car as the heroes realized they'd been SWATTED by their prisoner. All that matters is how the heroes handled themselves. Stripping himself of any clothing, Sean raised his hands out the window of the car, slowly opened the door, and walked (some might say padded about in his bare feet) to the back of the sports car, opened the trunk, and lifted out Frank Martin Lawson. Seemingly defeated, our heroes watched as the villain they knew as TheRatPack walked back to the Snipers and left in a borrowed police vehicle. They went through central booking and were processed as terrorists - only to be released within 24 hours of their incarceration. Since that was the actions of lawyers doing lawyering things - we'll avoid talking about that. What we will talk about is the fact that when Sean lifted Frank out of the trunk of the sports car, he also planted a tracking device on Frank. Sadly, Frank is unaware of the tracking device...

Which brings us to Poor Billy. Yup. Arrives at the emergency room with a destroyed heart, there is no way he's going to live without it. Remember how Billy was picked up in record time? The EMT on duty did his best to stabilize the man and cool down his body so as to buy the surgeons more time in case the heart wound was not fatal. Instead, it bought Billy time to have a cybernetic heart emplaced, and permit Billy a new lease on life. Now "Bill Jack" son has a new nick. His name is now Billy the Undead. And as everyone knows, the recently dead want vengeance upon their killers.

Will our heroes find TheRatPack in his lair? Will they capture him and interrogate him as to paid to have Fiona killed? Will they find out what is really going on with Night City and Tolliver's Disease vaccine manufacturing? For now, Tolliver's Disease is not a world wide epidemic. For now.

Hi Folks,
Sometimes when a GM sets up a "Mystery" - what seems like "Obvious Clues" end up not being so obvious. So, with that thought in mind, I largely have to wonder just how "cute" I'm aiming to be, only to fall short of my goal. To that end, for those who might read this and wonder "hmm, if I were playing in that campaign, this is what I'd do...

First, setting the stage:
Felix Mason, employee of Continental Investigations Agency (Private detective outfit that runs almost like a Pinkerton style organization of old) - hires out its investigators to those willing to pay the coin/credit. Killed in such a manner as to cause doubt as to how he died but for one person's video footage, and a coroner's report indicating that the situation is being ruled a murder (I used a PDF file of a coroner's report that I got from the CP2020 FORTRESS site).

Coronor's report:
Description of Corpse: Subject was seemingly gnawed upon by feral Dogs. Injuries were inflicted post-mortem. See Notes.

External Injuries: First Injury of note: cranial damage inconsistent with force that can be applied by living animal. Multiple lacerations consistent with gnawing produced by feral dogs. Salivia samples
indicate multiple dogs by DNA samples taken.

Internal Injuries: All internal injuries consistent with gnawing by feral dog activity applied post-mortem.

Medical Diagnosis: Subject’s wounds were all applied post-mortem with the possible exception of the wound to the head. Victim’s death seems consistent with a a high velocity round to the head, but no such bullet was recovered.

Notes: tests indicate that multiple dogs participated in gnawing upon the victim, but bite marks are
consistent with only one dog. Force required to crack the human cranium is not consistent with known samples of modern dogs. Suggest possible attempt to disguise wounds to appear natural. Someone got too cute.

Coroner: Dr. Janet Pittman-Zimmer
Received by: Chief Detective Elaine N. Skaggs
Date: 20481031092331
Routed By Homocide.

See next post.

When the group investigated the robotic dog hairs discovered at the crime scene, they determined based on the video and the hair sample - the make and model of the robot. It was initially intended to work as a "Coroner's Fetch" - where the forensics program on the dog allows it to spot clues, and through manipulators, pick up the clues and bag/tag them per standard police procedure. The model was discontinued after less than a year's production and discontinued due to it contaminating the crime scenes. Faulty programming perhaps, or poor design - either way, robots were discontinued and sold at discount to Arasaka Corporation.

Next item or clue if you will. Fiona Hayes, ace reporter investigating corruption, approaches the intrepid investigators working for CIA (Continental Investigations Agency!) and lets them know she was the employer whose case Felix was working on. He was to find out why vaccines for a retrovirus, the only known functional vaccine - was no longer 100% effective. Detective Felix Mason was investigating a Logistics company who handles both autonomous driver delivery vans as well as live trucking driver vehicles - to the extent that perhaps they were involved in diluting the vaccines or switching them or something else. She shows up days after the Murder of Felix to aid them in their investigation. Little did anyone know, a team was waiting to assassinate poor Fiona Hayes with the use of a LAW munition. They (A two man team it appears) almost succeeded. Fiona Hayes was airlifted to a nearby medical facility and survived her ordeal.

Next Clue: Fragments of the law rocket were found, and one of the serial numbers involved in its manufacture was discovered.

Next Clue: The Company that manufactures the Vaccines is a struggling corporation that owns patent rights to a manufacturing process that is unique to the production of the Vaccine. Unfortunately, Petrochem either stole the process, or managed to arrive at the same process independently, but filed their patent claims days after it was filed by the Medical company. As a consequence, the patent infringement cost Petrochem 500,000 to pay off (not including lawyers and courts fees).

Next clue: while spending time to investigate things, it was discovered that the team who attacked Fiona Hayes, included one hacker by the handle of TheRatPack. His MO is such that when he hacks any organization, he uses both a Text file along with a photographic file (both with the same name). The text file is filled with what appears to be gibberish. The Photograph contains five men in them, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. This TheRatPack hacker, also penetrated the computer security of Continental Investigations Agency, the personal computer of Felix Mason at his home, and his work station at his job. Tying this all together is the fact that when Fiona Hayes was attacked, a hacker had penetrated the computer system at where a memorial was being held for Felix Mason by fellow employees, police etc at THE MARKSMAN shooting range (the calling card of TheRatPack was found there as well.

When the investigators showed up at THE AFTERLIFE club, one of the investigators was nosing about trying to discover if anyone had purchased a LAW munition recently or if anyone had information relating to the method of attack used in the murder and attempted murder of Fiona Hayes. A certain woman named Sheila, told the one investigator, that she knew who sold the LAW and that she got off her shift at 3 AM. Meet her at Joe's Diner and she'll show up. What the investigators later discovered was that She simply told someone of who was asking questions, and failed to show up. They however (a guy with a crew cut hairstyle and more brawn than anything along with a nerdy guy with half his head shaved bald to accentuate his Direct Neural Interface plug) showed up at 2 AM. Had it not been for the investigators showing up at 1:30 discussing other issues, the party would have walked into an ambush. Instead...

The ambushers were themselves, ambushed. Without going into too much detail, the hacker battlefield prepped the diner by hacking its Local Wifi network. He had already penetrated the Cell Phone company's mainframe, and could do pretty much anything he wanted with Cell phone data that resides on the Telecom's computers. He also activated a prior hack into the power company when things had started to look bad for him and his team. In short, TheRatPack hacker, doesn't just hack into things, he prepares for emergencies. Using a back up false identity, he "SWATTED" the heroes when things were really bad for him. Using a false identity as a Federal Agent, he then began to issue orders...

But throughout all of this, no one realized that TheRatPack had one vital edge - that of a mobile Cyberdeck with the ability to connect via telecommunications. Up until now, all of this was happening without him seemingly doing a thing. When he "Fainted" and lay seemingly unconscious on the floor, he was a very busy individual.

Then one of the team made it a point (via email) to try and determine whether Fiona Hayes has a hit on her (which she does). What the team forgot was this when she was attacked:

1) She received a phone call telling her that a hit team was about to hit her location.
2) hackers penetrated the computer system of THE MARKSMAN gun range
3) in her haste to leave, she ran directly to the closest exit that would take her to her van that was driven by her co-worker camera man.
4) she was barely in the vehicle when the LAW attack was launched

No one questioned "Who gave her the phone call that set this in motion"

Another clue that the group has - is one in which Fiona Hayes gave the investigators, a list of personnel who are employed by Arasaka Corporation for various "tasks" that would be termed as "Black ops". She specifically tells the players to ask the Night City Police Department for a passenger manifest involving those individuals in case they are instigators of any events. Of that list, ONE name will be found on the passenger manifest of a privately owned corporation jet in from Japan. The owner of the jet is also a listed subsidiary of Arasaka Corporation, that would require digging to make the relationship known. As fate would have it...

Another clue that was unearthed was an in depth research into the question "who benefits if the original company manufacturing the Retrovirus vaccines were to go bankrupt". The following was sent to the one player:

Background information on Arasaka Corporation is such that it is also a holding company of extensive holdings in addition to its manufacturing concerns. Kaneko Financial Group is based in Kyoto Japan, currently #23 in the world's largest financial institutions. It has fallen under scrutiny recently due to allegations of money laundering - but such allegations were found to be unrealized. The initial investigation came to a halt temporarily, but was resumed by a subordinate when the lead investigator died of natural causes.

Many of Arasaka's holdings do not advertise their link with Arasaka, such as Matsuda Aeronautical Incorporated, which is used to manufacture the AV-4 VTOL aircraft in Japan, or the Ogura Pharmaceutical Corporation based in Osaka. But every single one of the Arasaka Holdings have significant shareholder status or are outright divisions of the Arasaka Corporation. It has its own small arm manufacturing firm, its own Police Training division, its own security personnel training division, as well as a corporate Security division.

Due to the tight focus of your search parameters and the fact you cross referenced data here and there, your research in the financial database came up with the following:

Arasaka Corporation owns 12% stock in BTI.
George Valdez recently acquired 18% of BTI stock.
Zai Pu owns 10% of BTI stock as an original investor in the company.

Cross referencing Zai Pu's marriage to Roger Fleet last year, brought up the interesting fact that Roger Fleet is Chief Financial Officer for Kaneko Financial Group
Cross referencing George Valdez with known associations, you discover that he is a member of the Board for Arasaka Corporation. Those three hits in your database research brings up a possible link to nearly 40% of BTI's outstanding stock. All that would be necessary for Arasaka Corporation to grab controlling shares is the need for 11% total. Should BTI's stock take a downward turn, more of its stock would become available on the open market for a fraction of their nominal value in today's market.


The private jet is registered to Matsuda Aeronautical Incorporated - carried one passenger by the name of Don Cassidy.

Last but not least...

Passenger Manifests: Due to the FBI coordinating the investigation, all records of flights in and out of Night City are available. An estimated 80% of all privately owned aircraft flight records are also available to the FBI. To find specific data from all of these logs would require either a Computer Operations search roll, or an Intelligence Analysis roll, with heavy modifiers for not knowing what it is you're looking for. (GM note: Unfortunately, Fiona's overall skills in computer research is usually handled by her now dead partner. She can recognize only specific names. If you ask her what names she's looking for, she will inform you "anyone working for Arasaka's upper management team, Anyone working for Petrochem's upper management, or a handful of "specialty" teams that's personally aware of. Knowing that a load is lighter with more hands, she gives you the following list below. These are individuals who have worked with or for major corporations in the last 10 years - specializing in covert operations.

Benny L. Reynolds
Ruben Mueller
Joe Douglas Lawson
Jose Thomas Mcknight
B. Elmer Lehman-Smith
Charles Jordan
Tracy Proctor
Frank Jones
David N. Richardson
Joseph Christian
Ricky C. Lilly
Colby Matthew Garcia
David Chan
Charles Vernon Sanchez
Kenneth Howell
Billie King
Joe Hester
John John Mireles
Joe Gustavo Conley
Kenneth Shanks
John Morrison
Howard Roberts
Gilberto Lund
James Michael Fitzgerald
William Abbott
James Edward Burris
Benjamin Ruiz
James Steven Moreno
Mohamed Stubbs
Buddy Keith Moreno-Osborn
John Donahue
Kenneth Rowell
Floyd Thompson
E. Fred Gray
Paul Mattingly
N. Walter Bowens
James Oscar Page
Robert Smith
Carl Barajas
Larry Michael Randolph
Rafael Ruiz-Miles
Christopher Dixon-Williams
William Kenneth Wright
Donald Hunter
Charles Gill
Francis Marcus
I. John Jones
Donald Jackson-Barry
Sergio Laughlin
Benjamin S. Adams
Aron Griffin
Jeffrey A. Smith-Mcgee
Thomas F. Steele
Marty Barrera-Elkins
Jason Thomas Raines
Douglas Jones-Kimball
James Hayward
James Burris-Howard
Jacob Gant
James Morris
Frank Abbott
Alfred Turner
John Edward Mason
Paul Mcwilliams
Donald Cassidy
Charles Robbins
Stanley Terrence Greene-Barlow
Gregory Smith
Elmer J. Brown
Robert Schroeder
Curtis Al Johnson
Michael William Haney
Gerald Paul Valencia
Fernando M. Smith
Q. James Casey
Bryan Ronald Davis
Marty R. Hilton
Janice Taylor
Carole Rivas
Marissa Johnson
Theresa Margaret Brown
C. Carol Cook
Charlotte Jessica Smith
Evelyn Howell
John Walker-Ford
Betty Castillo-Sylvester
Christine Theresa Stoner
Beulah Sarah Pratt
Barbara Bush
Luz Hill
Kelly Julie Burt
Eva Rice
Kimberly Garrett
Jo Nicole Lane
Edna Jones
Dawn Yvette Blair
Anita C. Chapman
Elizabeth Ross
Irma Glenda Shaffer
D. Justine Hunter
Stacy Cruz
Nadine M. Kuhn

so, if you were seeing all of this data - what would you want to investigate, and why? BTI is the small corporation that manufactures the Retrovirus Vaccines. Its ability to meet demand is exceedingly limited and it was in the process of expanding its production capabilities when rumors surfaced that its vaccines were not as effective as advertised. Each Vaccine has a wholesale value of about $500 per dose, and has been sold for as high as $1,000 per dose under normal market conditions. No one has asked "is there a black market value for these vaccines". If they were to ask, perhaps some of this would come into focus. As GM however, I've largely tried not to lead them through the nose, and this campaign after all, has only had two game runs plus a few emails.

Thoughts? Comments? Observations? Advice? :)

This all seem very interesing but at what time and date do you play in which time zone?

And most important do you will made a stream for it?
say yes say yes!

The time frame in which this is being played is 9 PM Eastern Standard time, which I believe is 2 AM Greenwich Mean time. As for Streaming it? We're playing via chat only - as I am hard of hearing and that could present an issue if this were being played over Skype. So - the best I could do is largely dust off my creative writing skills and try to novelize the sessions. Since my creative writing skills are a bit atrophied over time, I'd not subject anyone to the horrible prose I'd write. ;)

Oh, almost forgot...

Games are run Friday Nights, roughly every 2 weeks, for approximately 4 hours per session. Each time we meet, the next session is agreed upon before we finalize the game outright. As it is, I have a tendency to forget to award character points after the end of each game run and try to get that out to the players.

One rule that I use in my games is what I call the "learning moments" - where any critical success or failure can contribute to raising a skill on the spot. Skills must be less than 15 for them to take effect (ie once you hit 15, you can't benefit from it). I also use the house rule that On the Job Training can not increase any skill past 14. Other than that, it is largely rules as written.

But, the whole reason I placed this here is for people who feel inclined to say "hey Hal, the clues you're leaving do not really make sense" or "Hey Hal, if I were playing in your campaign, I'd want to know what Tolliver's Disease has to do with all of this (that's the Retorvirus that I spoke of earlier). Or perhaps someone might point out "Hey, why do we have two murders going on here - what could possibly be the motivation?" Technically, although Fiona Hayes survived her attempted assassination, her camera man died in the blast, making it the second fatality involved.

At first, I was thinking I should insure that the one player I know frequents this forum not read this - but then I got to thinking. The Continental Investigations Agency is comprised of multiple people. William Green has a woman he's pursuing as a potential love interest (she runs Bogie's Bar - a local Cop hangout) The place is a themed bar in which Humphrey Bogart in all of his "Detective Glory" smacks of the 1930's and 1940's era memorabilia - sort of gives the off duty police a place to enjoy and call their own. Anthony Reeves (NPC) is William's buddy and served in the US military with him on various missions even though not within the same command structure. At present, he works for Continental Investigations Agency in order that he might put his varied skills learned in the Military to good use. Sean McGuiness, also former military, served in the Night City's Finest (Police force) for a time - but grew jaded at how little real justice was being served. He is making the jump into Continental's ranks with the expectation that he might do more with his time than he did as a police officer.

So, with Anthony being involved with a high society type girlfriend, William pursuing a potential relationship, and Sean getting himself established as the Lead detective on the case to find out who Killed Felix Mason (well respected and liked Continental Investigations Agency employee!) - the whole thing becomes a contest between the "Shadow Villain(s)" and what ever it is that involved Felix that led to his death.

So why did a flashy "team" try to assassinate Fiona Hayes, whose only link to Felix Mason was that she hired him to investigate what he was investigating when he died. Why did the first assassination use quiet methods while the second assassination used "Flashy" high public profile methods (can't get any higher than the use of a LAW rocket on American Soil!) - and who benefits from all of this?

For those who own NIGHT CITY from of Cyberpunk 2020 fame, Fiona Hayes is an investigative reporter who works freelance. If she's investigating someone, her intent is to create an expose that will cause many a criminal some major embarrassment, if not outright exposure as a criminal to be prosecuted by the Law. So, she already has a bounty on her head. But why now? Why was she targeted for extermination by a professional hit team that is comprised of a Hacker who uses the Cell Phone technology like a spider web with him as the spider, and a man trained to use military weapons - with little or no qualms about committing an act of terrorism?

If this were a criminal investigation, and someone were to set up a white board and list all of the clues and then try to figure out a pattern, certain "things" should emerge. I guess that is why I'm worried that my clues may be TOO cryptic and not sufficiently accessible for someone who would want to solve the mystery.

I must say, I was impressed with the player running Sean McGuiness when he whispered in text to me "We're about to be Swatted aren't we" before the police began to hunt the player characters. He's got an eye for detail and tactical situations for sure! After they've seen just how effective the Trauma Team can be in making saves for those customers who end up dead or dying, the two players now want that service for themselves. The one player is making a "Struggling" income at the moment and can not sustain himself on his current wages. Having to pay medical insurance costs (ie CIA is willing to front him half the monthly cost of Trauma Team contract - but he has to pay the other half) is hurting him badly. So, he may have to turn to gambling just to make ends meet, or perhaps take on "missions' in a Cyberpunk world...

You can stream and use chat, this is different I know, but the different is good :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yako2020

You can stream and use chat, this is different I know, but the different is good :D

---

So, what "Streaming" software is anyone using? I'm not aware of such software out there...

Saddly I'm DM of campaign on friday night :-(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SirGraystone

Saddly I'm DM of campaign on friday night :-(

---

Sadly? Hardly! There are some guys out there who are VERY happy you GM on that night. *teasing grin*

That having been said? Feel free to kibbitz here, ask questions, etc. The way I figure it? If people want to take a stab at trying to figure out what is happening and why, who the players are, etc. - all the better. If someone says "Hey Hal, your clues are too cryptic, they can't get anywhere with this!" then that is a valid criticism and I should take heed of it. If on the other hand, someone here says "Mr. Plum, In the Library, with the Wrench" (so to speak) - and that someone happens to be right, then I will know that if you can do it, the players should also be able to do it. And, if someone here figures it out, they should say "Hey Hal, if I were the drinking buddy for one of the guys at the Detective Agency, who in turn talks to the player characters, I might ask "hey, did you check the cell phone call records for Felix Mason?" Then someone else might say "Hey, remember, TheRatPack hacker has infiltrated the cell phone telecoms to where he can modify, erase, or set triggers for anyone accessing the data - is this really the way to go?" But then someone might point out that backups stored offsite are supposed to be immune to that level of tampering.

In short? Have fun with the mystery if that would make your day. ;)

I use obs studio HalC

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yako2020

I use obs studio HalC

---

Thank you! :) I'll give that a look see.

Right now, I'm talking to the one player in the game - with two weeks down time between adventures (it mirrors the down time in real life). William Green is smitten with a Bar owner and he is texting her via his phone and calling her on a regular basis. I sent him a message "Make an IQ-5 roll" to which he failed.

What he should have remembered is that TheRatPack can do nasty stuff with cell phones, and he's professing his interest in a woman via text? This is going to bite him in the buttocks eventually - as TheRatPack is going to want insurance coming up...

The Odd couple didn't have on any armor of any kind when they went to ambush the "snoopers'. This time, TheRatPack won't make that mistake...

Some days, things just don't go to plan...

It all started that day, with a meeting to share information on what the investigations from various people discovered. Matsuda Aeronautical Incorporated, along with an individual by the name of Don Cassidy was discovered and after some other discussion about trying to scope out the actual crime scene in which Felix was murdered, our intrepid investigators looked like they were back on track to investigating the key to everything. Why was Felix murdered? That's when they discovered that Matsuda Aeronautical owns a warehouse on the docks - coincidentally adjacent to the warehouse that the vaccines were being sent prior to being shipped to Africa. Why 500 or 1000 vaccines could not be sent via Air (would have been quicker) was something that the investigators never sought answers to, and for now, that lingering question will have to remain in the background.

So, the investigators discovered more clues. Amongst the clues discovered was the fact that like many of the investigators at Continental Investigations, Felix kept an online site at a data haven - containing all of the information of his prior investigations in the event that he should die on the job. Using a variation of the trick of hiding things on the underside of a drawer - Felix had carefully hidden an envelope not on the underside of a drawer - but on the underside of the TOP of the desk itself for the top most drawer. In other words, the one place almost NO one would ever look. Taped there, was a single slip of paper that contained a URL along with a 24 character long string of seemingly random generation. Talk about being anal retentive where it came to password generation! In any event, finding this clue gave the players a vital clue as to what Felix was looking to find - and why he had his camera at the ready the night he died. It all had to do with the the Autonomous Driving Delivery system used by the Logistics company. So now, they had a direction to investigate...

Probably the best way to describe the Autonomous driving system was that it allowed for vehicles to drive without a driver. Problem is - if there is no driver, how does one give the truck a package, and how does one get it back out when at the delivery site? The answer was to reuse old technology of sorts. It has often been said that these trucks are simply moving vending machines, and there might be some truth to that statement. By law, these trucks may not connect to the internet in order to avoid the possibility of hackers tampering with the on board computer system. Some states require that the programming for the on board computer be hard wired into the driving system so as to avoid having the vehicle become a lethal weapon of a hacker. In South California, the laws are less strict - but that's a story for another day. What is important to this discussion is that in order to get a package scheduled for pickup or a series of packages - the logistics company gets a call. The truck arrives at its scheduled time, and picks up the package - in a sense. That is when the Vending Machine technology comes into play. The shipper enters into the vehicle's computer, the assigned shipping code obtained when they make their call. They then have their package scanned in via both a scanner. All of this activity is recorded on a camera. They are asked for a pass code for the shipment. This code is required to be entered by the receiver at the package destination. So, the receiving mechanism takes the package, and stores it within the cargo bay of the vehicle. Upon request by the receiver, who punches in both the shipment code (identifying what) and the pass code, he now gets his package. No driver required to handle the package, no driver required to drive the vehicle, and one more person on welfare who can't work at a traditional job.

In any event, Felix had a theory that somehow, the shipment was being intercepted in a way that would not show up as the Autonomous truck being off its assigned route necessary to deliver the goods. What he wondered was - could someone be getting their hands on the shipment package information, pulling up the shipment, swapping the original vaccine shipment with a doctored vaccine - with no one being the wiser? Unfortunately, that last bit wasn't in his final report, and he died before he could get the final key piece of evidence. Little did he or anyone else know, Matsuda was key.

So, Matsuda was key - but what the intrepid heroes did not realize is that time stands still for no one. Still fuming over the loss of his partner - TheRatPack was still professional enough to put the needs of his mission over the personal needs of revenge. His spider web spun with the invasion of the Cell phone service providers via hacking, was paying off handsome dividends, as always. By force of habit, using his ability to enter the net via a mobile cyberdeck, he had entered into the Cell phone servers to find out what cell phones were within 50 feet of him at Joe's Diner in Night City. Normal battlefield preparation as it were. By rendering all cell phones inoperable for the expected time he and Billy Jack (the guy the players describe as "Crew cut guy" of the Odd Couple comprised of Billy "Jack" Jackson and TheRatPack) were expected to have a "Discussion" with the player characters - he'd make it such that frantic calls to the police would not be answered.

So, cross referencing the cell phone data with who owned the phones, TheRatPack was able to discern that one set of phone numbers matched an employee of Continental Investigations Agency (a prior hack performed upon the death of Felix to see what incriminating information Felix had dug up). one plus one equals two - and now TheRatPack knew who to target. He penetrated the text messages being sent, developed a web of contacts between the key individuals, and discovered that two of the three investigators on his tail were involved with girlfriends. So - a simple plan was hatched. Send text messages to the two women from the boyfriends - have them meet where they could be abducted easily, and then send a message to his pursuers from their phone accounts "We have your woman, meet us under the Gibson Memorial Bridge in Night City.

Now, the stage was set. Up to that point, Sean's old buddy from the Military was willing to help provide him with a secure phone (by now, Sean had a sneaking suspicion that cellphones were bad medicine, and he didn't want TheRatPack to guess that he was getting his hands on a military spec surveillance drone. To do that, he'd need secure communications. So when his buddies received their message that their women had been taken, he immediately called back his buddy by the name of Sgt Spencer, and instead of a simply delivery of a secure communications device, up the schedule to include mil-spec armor (illegal for Civilians to own and use in South California!) along with a few extra if possible, munitions. Sgt Spencer - unbeknownst to the intrepid crew, had orders - VERY specific orders given by people whose agency name was always abbreviated by letters, thereby making their organization a proud member of the Alphabet Soup club. So, their requests for the encrypted SatPhone was expedited, as were the armor and munitions that included practice (hence dummy) grenades, teargas grenades, and smoke grenades. A few extra rounds for an M4A1 rounded out the care package - all to be delivered by an armed AV-8 equipped not only with a chain gun turret, a nose sensor package, and guided anti-vehicular missiles (along with simple HE missiles) - but also with a couple of highly trained military personnel used in covert insertions.

Thus, we enter into the phase where nothing goes according to plan...

See, what no one realized was that TheRatPack was ordered to start cleaning up the mess that had been started when Felix Mason was assassinated. On hand were two unlucky mercenaries - decent people as far as Mercenaries go, plus the assassin tentatively tagged as "The Aces of Spades'. Her half million dollar computerized sniper system mounted on an accurized sniper rifle using the very latest in material science with respect to the bullets themselves - was to be on hand to provide flank security. At 300 yards atop a boat in the bay - she'd be perfectly positioned to use her rifle is things went badly. And badly they would go!

Now, imagine if you will, heading to the underside of that magnificent bridge. Strewn about is a "temporary" cardboard city filled with a huge throng of unwashed homeless people. Further imagine that there are few tracks through this cardboard city, further complicating any attempts to bring food to the needy. Enter the evil genius plan right? Simply have Four people out there, one - a leader in charge named Bill, one a person named Guy, and one used by the Sniper (whose name has not yet been discerned). But the fourth? Somehow, they never twigged to the fourth - and in the ensuing situation, totally lost sight of the fact that there were FOUR motorcycles present at the scene.
Doing the math - one used by Billy, One used by Guy, one used by the Sniper - who rode the fourth? Oh well, that last one is lucky he escaped with his life...

So, our intrepid adventurers (keep using intrepid, I almost expect some guy named Mandy to say "you keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means") - as usual, find themselves with the uncanny ability to sneak up on their targets without them being aware that they are in trouble (they being the bad guys naturally).

As fate would have it, Sean arrives at the meeting point early. With almost supernatural skill (or is that luck?) Sean sneaks up on the one guy tasked with watching over the parked motorcycles. Turns out, the bad guys have a tac net of their own and are in communication with each other - as he overhears the leader giving his crew instructions to look alive. With the barrel of his A4A1, pressed hard against the back of the skull of Billy, he informs Billy to drop his gun. This action coincides with Anthony's message over the investigator's tac net, that he has arrived on site. PERFECT coordination right?

Billy - armed with a submachinegun, reaches carefully into his holster and pulls out his pistol by its grip, drops it to the ground. Slowly, still armed with the submachinegun, but not threatening with it, talks with Sean and eventually tries to reason with Sean that it isn't Sean who holds all of the cards right now, but that Billy's employer holds them. Billy even points out that this meet is only intended to deliver a message and to get the group to leave his employer alone for one week. The one woman would be released right now, and after one week, the second would be released unharmed. Mess with the plan, and the boss would be very angry.

Well, seems Sean had a plan, and was even planning to try and intimidate Billy into total and complete surrender. Unfortunately, Sean didn't know that some 300 yards away was a woman whom Billy suspected was a psychopath armed with the world's most sophisticated sniper system. He even gave orders to his team via his own tac net to stand down for the moment while they hashed things out. Heck, he even offered himself to Sean as a hostage to ensure that the second woman would be released unharmed after a week of hands off activity. But, Sean was not having it. So, Billy turned off his tac mike in order to tell Sean "Look, I'll give you the name of the woman who assassinated Felix Mason, she's annoyed the boss sufficiently that I can do that for you." But - unfortunately for everyone involved, that was precisely the one thing - turning off his microphone, that was his undoing. The assassin? She let fly one shot directly into Billy's head, and then started to target other targets of opportunity. Had not events unfolded as they did, she would have made it out alive, but...

Who is who:

NPC list:
Spencer: Sgt working in the Military off site in communication via a Satphone. He is a friend of Sean
Anthony: Friend of William Green, and an employee who works for Continental Investigations
Mary: Anthony's live in girlfriend whom William has met. Abduction victim #1. Seen at meeting site.
Cathy: William's girlfriend, Abduction victim #2. No where to be seen
Billy: now in the process of reaching room temperature.
Guy: Billy's co-worker, assigned to hand Cathy over to the heroes.
Unsub (Sniper): currently shooting at the homeless to create a diversion for those on the shore of her team.



Spencer: Ok, you know North South, etc right?
Sean McGuiness: Hey man, I can't help it if you have bad taste
Spencer: on your position, can you maybe give me coordinates based on you as Zero, North as Ninety degrees etc?
Sean McGuiness: Yep the target is in the open on a boat
Spencer: Open boat?
Spencer: Ok, I spot 18 boats
Sean McGuiness: e/ gives him azimuth and distance
Spencer: ah, three nearest to your position.
William John Green: [SKILL] Forward Observer/TL9 (12):[ Success! ] by 7 [3d6 = 5]
Spencer: YEAH!!!!!
Spencer: good pointing dog my man
Sean McGuiness: She is lying prone on the prow
Spencer: Vectoring in AV8 with Mallory.
Sean McGuiness: The sniper is killing homeless people under the bridge
Sean McGuiness: she shot a couple before I popped smoke
Spencer: Alfa Victor One Two Niner Eight. You have a fire support mission, I repeat, you have fire support mission. Authenticate order Alpha Whiskey Niner Niner. Repeat Authenticate Alpha WHiskey Niner Niner. Shoot to obliterate boat at these coordinates.
Spencer continues to tonelessly guide the fire mission...
Rob (Sean McGuiness): Ohhh this could get messy
Hal: As the sniper continues her rampage with her gun, she becomes aware too late, of the AV8 that is moving in for the kill with a missile attack.
Hal: All it takes is a quick moving flash, almost too fast to register in your eyes... and the boat explodes in a massive fireball...
William John Green: Cathy might be on the boat!!
Spencer: Birdog, I have fire mission launched, care to tell me what happened?
Anthony Reeves groans
Sean McGuiness: **** - lets pray that isnt the case
Anthony Reeves: praying after the fact is always a painful experience. Sorry Whiskey.
Spencer: Birdog, do we have target silenced?
Sean McGuiness: Look for the other guys who were with the kidnappers. Grab one of them if we can!
Hal: Search -4 roll people.
Hal: make it and you have contact
Sean McGuiness: Spence - BDA, target down
William John Green: [SKILL] Search (13):[ Success! ] by 2 [3d6 = 11]
William John Green: -4
Spencer: Good to hear. Spy in the Sky worked a miracle for you.
Sean McGuiness: That was a good strike - tell Mallory thanks
Hal: Not at -4 Randy
William John Green: I failed my search roll
Spencer: Mallory was aboard - but the pilot got the kill.
Sean McGuiness: [SKILL] [-4] Search (14-4)=(10):[ Failure! ] by 4 [3d6 = 14]
Spencer: Ok, do you need further assistance?
Sean McGuiness: Can you see anyone fleeing our area?
Anthony Reeves pretends to look, but is in reality, seeing to Mary instead.
Spencer checks with the pilot
Spencer responds after a suitable pause
Spencer: pilot says many many people fleeing the site.
Spencer: can you be more specific?
Sean McGuiness gives spencer physical description of the guys
Spencer talks over his radio link "That is negative - do not enage armed individuals
Spencer: Sorry guy, but I can't do that kind of magic
Sean McGuiness: Hey, you have been a lifesaver - litterally
Spencer: pilot says sensors report weapons on one individual heading along river side west of you.
Spencer: range is about 150 yds
William John Green: Can you look for a blonde haired woman in the Water?
Sean McGuiness: Will - heading west on the riverside about 150 yards.
Sean McGuiness: Gonna grab my bike and give chase
-> William John Green: tactics roll...
William John Green: [SKILL] [-4] Tactics (Infantry) (12-4)=(8):[ Success! ] by 2 [3d6 = 6]
-> William John Green: Before, he was not trying to shoot at you guys, he's armed with a submachinegun, do you really want to engage? If he is to be of value - you need him alive, he has no such restrictions
Anthony Reeves: Ok, as you start to get your bike and head out, or you can simply head back to where THEIR bikes are...
Anthony Reeves: be aware he's armed.
Anthony Reeves: I think we should take this as a win and not tempt fate.
Anthony Reeves: your call Sean
Anthony Reeves chuckles softly
Sean McGuiness: Going after the guy

So - the game run ends. The last surviving member of the "bad guy team" the players were aware of (remember, they never saw person #4!) named Guy, survives, and has a short chat with Sean. Upshot is, the sniper was someone Guy hates for killing his friend. Because Sean was the agent of her demise, Guy tells Sean "I owe you one, for now, I intend to find the sniper's boss and have a chat with him. I have to bury a friend, and...

But, it doesn't end there. It ends with...

Hal: William, your phone is ringing again...
Hal smiles helpfully as the phone continues to ring
William John Green answers phone
Male Voice: Right or left
William John Green: I don't understand the question
Male Voice: Right or left, or both
Male Voice: your call
William John Green: Let me put you on speaker
Male Voice: ok
Male Voice: both it is
Male Voice: you'll get a delivery in a few days
William John Green puts phone on speaker.
Male Voice hangs up.

shortly after that interaction, two days later...

Hal: William
Hal: hate to be mean to you...
William John Green: yes?
Hal: but William gets a package from a delivery service.
Hal: in it are two hands
Rob (Sean McGuiness): Ugh
Hal: severed cleanly as if with a saw of some kind.
William John Green: We need to have these examined..
Hal: the note in the box reads "Next time, do as you're told. Waste time and someone suffers. Want more parts of her delivered? "

The group discovers that the hands are from Cathy via DNA recovered from her home and a test of the hands themselves. Certain enzymes present in the hands indicate that her body was feeling extreme pain at the time her hands were severed. That both hands contain high levels of this enzyme is indicative (but not in the report) that she had been in considerable pain prior to both hands being separated.

In short? Cathy will not be delivered whole and hearty when this is done, if she is delivered alive at all. One can only imagine what awaits the poor woman. Helpless, frightened, in pain - with every breath she takes totally dependent upon her perceived value as leverage against Sean, William and Anthony.

At least now, the trio know that they have one week before the villain's plan is safe enough from their interference. Win or lose, whatever it is involving the vaccines will come to a head in 168 hours. The question is now...

Will they win?

Or

Will they lose?

Fun read. How are you handling Cyberware in your GURPS game, Hal?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paladiusdarkhelm

Fun read. How are you handling Cyberware in your GURPS game, Hal?

---

There is the long answer to your question, and the short. So here's the short...

I'm of a mind as GM, to have two pricing schemes for cybernetics in any campaign I run. The first is that cybernetics cost character points during character construction - but no money costs. This represents the efforts that the character went through to finance their cybernetics, along with the fact that the item was installed properly (ie, no surgical rolls required to have the item at the start of the game) etc.

Once game play starts however, cybernetics can only be gained by down time for the operation itself, the recovery times mandated (although to be honest, some of those recovery times are WAY too short!) and the fact that the player has to pay for the procedure itself to be done, and then suffer the results of any bad die rolls to install the gizmos in question.

Take the last game session. Having both purchased sub-dermal armor, our players were warned "This is a radical procedure that is EXTREMELY painful. Subjects have been known to become addicted to pain killers as a consequence of it." The players characters both, with High Pain Threshold, decided "what's a little pain". Well, despite having high Will values, and a bonus due to their HPT, the one player rolled the mark of the beast (666) and found out how hard it is to shake an addiction from a powerful pain killer! I had described the whole process as basically being flayed alive where the skin is peeled back, connective tissue destroyed, armor material put into place and merged, then replacing the connective tissue with a product that acts like connective tissue (a sort of glue matrix that mixes stem cells, nanites, and other materials) which in turn, required that they reknit the severed nerve connections (which is what causes the whole process to feel like you're in a burning hell!) - all just so they can have sub-dermal armor.

One of the players in this has been gaming with me since 1980 - and he LOVES the cyberpunk genre. He could tell you horror stories of when he had a character who had brain surgery to install skill chips. The surgeon failed to install the augmentation properly and his character was pretty much brain damaged. The last game session just added one more event where the dice were unkind to his hopes. But then again - that's the CYBERPUNK way (Courtesy of PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS book from R. Talsorian).

So - that's the short answer. They didn't start with enhancements, so worrying about point costs was minimal. Buying the products post game start - THAT is always up to the dice where surgeries are concerned. Getting your hands on a competent surgeon who has an opening in his busy schedule is also going to be something of a problem. ;)

Now for the Long answer...

I've been using GURPS as a GM since 1986. When GURPS CYBERPUNK first came out, then GURPS VEHICLES, and GURPS ULTRATECH and ULTRATECH 2 - I was largely in heaven where the Cyberpunk genre was concerned. Once FG came out, I even found a way to simulate Net running via FG for both the original netrunning rules from GURPS CYBERPUNK and the Pyramid rules for Netrunning in 4e. The trick? When you use GURPS CHARACTER ASSISTANT to define your software skill values - treat them as "spells". Thus, it gets recorded as a spell and when transferred over to FG, can be accessed as if it were a spell. Since (unless you're running a Shadowrun based game) magic and Cybernetics aren't usually in the same genre, it tends to be a safe bet that the spells section is unused.

When it comes to cyberware in GURPS 4e - I am NOT a happy camper. Being able to price a cybernetic device based on character points, advantages, etc is one thing. Throwing in a mitigator discount to me, is bogus. If your biological eye is sprayed with tear gas, you end up blinded. If your cybernetic eye gets an electrical jolt or suffers an EMP event, you are temporarily blinded. No real difference right? If your biological eye is damaged at a level of 2 points or higher, you lose your eye. If your cybernetic eye gets damaged, you lose your eye. Either way - it works the same. So why is it that a person with one cybernetic eye has to pay positive points for his one eye replacement, but having two cybernetic eyes is a net penalty to the character?

Ditto with how the "requires monthly maintenance" rules. Taken to extremes - a freshly installed item fresh off the assembly line - has as much chance of breaking down as an item that has been in operation for years. In addition, the mindset I have as a GM is "A implies B". If each item requires maintenance, who provides that maintenance? Can I go to a Dentist and get FREE teeth cleaning, or do I have to pay for the service? If you reason "But your insurance pays for the cost of it - so to you it is free" the correct answer is "You or someone else pays the cost of the insurance, and the cleaner still gets paid". Now, multiply that "fee" for maintenance by the number of items being maintained, and the costs associated with maintaining your cybernetics can become substantial.

Then there is this issue...

What is the difference between a cybernetic eye that grants you night vision at a given level, and wearing "ultratech glasses" that give a similar benefit, or Goggles that grant a closer benefit, etc?

To that extent, I think GURPS ULTRATECH for 4e missed the mark in a disappointing fashion. All that means is...

I have to do my own work. Now, if that sounds bad, don't fret. Back when GURPS was new, and GURPS HIGH TECH 1st edition had yet to hit the shelves, I stole concepts from AFTERMATH on building guns, found a GURPS analog of an M-16, compared it against the AFTERMATH analog, and built my own high tech weapons rules (aka damages, accuracy etc) and had a grand old time as my players engaged in an Aftermath like campaign set in the year 1989. So - doing my own work isn't a problem.

If you or anyone else would like to explore creating your own point costs for cybernetic items, or what have you, feel free to contact me and I'll give you my email address. Alternatively, we can always chat in an FG environment.

For my next "trick" if you will, I'm going through GURPS BIOTECH for 4e and looking stuff like bone marrow transplants that grant Disease Resistance +8 vs Panimunity 1 that only grants +3. Why would anyone opt for a +3 when they can get a +8? That means I have to nerf some of those things in GURPS BIOTECH so that it has some level of internal self-consistency. Some things are just too outlandish for me to consider. And while one could genetically alter adult bone marrow cells, grow it in vitro using scaffolding techniques and stem cell wizardry - installing living bone marrow tissue that has been altered may very well run into tissue rejection issues or, might not take (ie die on the vine so to speak) or simply, be an exceedingly painful process to install. So, yes, I'll allow for it in the 2049 era, but it has to be nerfed somewhat from what is presented in the book, otherwise - we're looking at BIOPUNK - not Cyberpunk. ;)

Very in-depth answers! And it sounds like you are doing all your item management over in GCA with the tech sups and importing them and any tweaks you make over and into FG. I'll have to consider trying to use my GCA more for this GURPS ruleset in ways like this. I was sort of holding out and being hopefule the ruleset would get official with official GURPS book/table built-ins and automation that could be purchased :-P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paladiusdarkhelm

Very in-depth answers! And it sounds like you are doing all your item management over in GCA with the tech sups and importing them and any tweaks you make over and into FG. I'll have to consider trying to use my GCA more for this GURPS ruleset in ways like this. I was sort of holding out and being hopefule the ruleset would get official with official GURPS book/table built-ins and automation that could be purchased :-P

---

How good are you with programming? At the present, I'm working on ways to create a means of importing Items into Fantasy Grounds from the GDF files. Problem is - there is no "template" on how the GDF files were established - there are multiple methods for describing equipment, and no real means to differentiate them by "category".

Thus, I'm having to take all of the GDF files, put all of the equipment data into one text files, and standardizing them before I try to output them into a standard XML schema.

But - the good news is, if you know coding in any language - you should be able to open a text file, and export into a xml schema format that you can lift directly into the db.xml file that you have as a GM running a game.

Other than Notepad++ word-search and then minor edits or transplants, I don't code in XML or know how to build an import scheme, unfortunately.

Ah. Well, if you have Excel - you can get it to where Excel will do it for you. If you want help with that, let me know, and I'll show you how you can do it. Then of course, you need to make what you do, be importable to an excel spreadsheet. A fair bit of labor to be sure!

For those who might be interested - here is Sean McGuinnes. The reason I'm posting him here is because the player who played Sean (one of the Best I'd ever had the pleasure to GM for), left the campaign unexpectedly. Fortunately, it was AFTER we hit a natural end point of the story, but just before we were to begin chapter two of it all. The characters were primed to take on TheRatPack in his home territory in Hong Kong. In any event, the other character may still be used in a pending Cyberpunk campaign at some point in time, but Sean McGuiness listed below was one tough hombre.

Name: Sean McGuiness
Race: Human

Attributes [180]
ST 10
DX 14 [80]
IQ 15 [100]
HT 10

HP 10
Will 15
Per 15
FP 10

Basic Lift 20
Damage 1d-2/1d

Basic Speed 6
Basic Move 6

Ground Move 6
Water Move 1

Social Background
TL: 9 [0]
Cultural Familiarities:
Languages:

Advantages [131]
Boosted Reflexes [18]
Charisma (1) [5]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Contact Group (Police force) (Effective Skill 12) (9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [5]
Contact Group (Spec War community) (Effective Skill 12) (12 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [10]
Contact Group (Street) (Effective Skill 12) (9 or less; Somewhat Reliable) [5]
Damage Resistance (Subdermal Armor; Piercing & Cutting) (8) (Limited; Tough Skin) [16]
Damage Resistance (Subdermal Armor; Skin) (4) (Tough Skin) [12]
Danger Sense [15]
Direct Neural Interface (military) [15]
Eidetic Memory [5]
Extra Basic Speed (Boosted Reflexes) (+1) (Costs Fatigue (+2); Gives conditional Basic Speed bonus) [18]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Pan-immunity shot [0]
Subdermal Armor [0]

Perks [1]
Honest Face [1]

Disadvantages [-50]
Addiction (Drinking when stressed) (Cheap) [-5]
Code of Honor (Professional) [-5]
Curious (12 or less) [-5]
Light Sleeper [-5]
Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]
Phobia (Arachnophobia) (12 or less) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Friends and comrades) (Small Group) [-5]
Wealth (Struggling) [-10]
Workaholic [-5]

Quirks [-2]
Sucker for a dame in stockings - more easily infuenced by attractive women in stockings [-1]
Sucker for a pretty face - more easily influenced by pretty women in distress [-1]

Skills [41]
Acting IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Computer Hacking/TL9 IQ/VH - IQ-3 12 [1]
Computer Operation/TL9 IQ/E - IQ+0 15 [1]
Computer Programming/TL9 IQ/H - IQ-2 13 [1]
Criminology/TL9 IQ/A - IQ+0 15 [2]
Detect Lies Per/H - Per-1 14 [2]
Disguise/TL9 (Human) IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Driving/TL9 (Automobile) DX/A - DX-1 13 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL9 (Electronic Warfare) IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL9 (Security) IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL9 (Surveillance) IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Escape DX/H - DX-2 12 [1]
Fast-Draw (Pistol) DX/E - DX+2 16 [2]
includes: +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'
Fast-Talk IQ/A - IQ+0 15 [2]
First Aid/TL9 (Human) IQ/E - IQ+0 15 [1]
Forced Entry DX/E - DX+0 14 [1]
Forensics/TL9 IQ/H - IQ-1 14 [2]
Guns/TL9 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+1 15 [2]
Guns/TL9 (Rifle) DX/E - DX+0 14 [1]
Intelligence Analysis/TL9 IQ/H - IQ-2 13 [1]
Interrogation IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Intimidation Will/A - Will-1 14 [1]
Judo DX/H - DX-1 13 [2]
Knife DX/E - DX+0 14 [1]
Lockpicking/TL9 IQ/A - IQ+0 15 [2]
Observation Per/A - Per-1 14 [1]
Psychology (Human) IQ/H - IQ-2 13 [1]
Research/TL9 IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Search Per/A - Per-1 14 [1]
Shadowing IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]
Sleight of Hand DX/H - DX-2 12 [1]
Stealth DX/A - DX-1 13 [1]
Streetwise IQ/A - IQ-1 14 [1]

Stats [180] Ads [131] Disads [-50] Quirks [-2] Skills [41] = Total [301]

Hand Weapons
1 Blackjack LC:4 $20 Wgt:1
Dam:1d-2 cr Reach:C Parry:11 ST:7 Skill:SK:Brawling, ST:DX
1 Small Knife LC:4 $30 Wgt:.5
Swing Dam:1d-3 cut Reach:C,1 Parry:10 ST:5 Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Knife, ST:DX-4, SK:Force Sword-3, SK:Main-Gauche-3, SK:Shortsword-3
Thrust Dam:1d-3 imp Reach:C Parry:10 ST:5 Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Knife, ST:DX-4, SK:Force Sword-3, SK:Main-Gauche-3, SK:Shortsword-3 Notes:[1]
1 Tactical Flashlight LC:4 $100 Wgt:1
Swing Dam:1d cr Reach:1 Parry:9 ST:6 Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Shortsword, ST:DX-5, SK:Broadsword-2, SK:Force Sword-4, SK:Jitte/Sai-3, SK:Knife-4, SK:Saber-4, SK:Smallsword-4, SK:Tonfa-3
Thrust Dam:1d-2 cr Reach:1 Parry:9 ST:6 Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Shortsword, ST:DX-5, SK:Broadsword-2, SK:Force Sword-4, SK:Jitte/Sai-3, SK:Knife-4, SK:Saber-4, SK:Smallsword-4, SK:Tonfa-3

Ranged Weapons
1 Auto Pistol, 9mm (TL 9) LC:3 Dam:2d+2 pi Acc:2 Range:150 / 1900
RoF:3 Shots:18+1(3) ST:9 Bulk:-2 Rcl:2 $800 Wgt:2 Notes:[1]
1 Small Knife LC:4 Dam:1d-3 imp Acc:0 Range:5 / 10
RoF:1 Shots:T(1) ST:5 Bulk:-1 Rcl: $30 Wgt:.5

Armor & Possessions
4 Auto Pistol, 9mm (TL 9, Ammunition) $56 Wgt:2.8 Location:
1 Concealable Vest $1000 Wgt:2 Location:torso
1 Heavy Bike (TL 7) $8000 Wgt:0 Location:
1 Tactical Vest Trauma Plates $600 Wgt:9 Location:torso

Notes
Sean grew up a military brat, moving every few years as the Marine Corps posted his father here and there. His father seemed both enamored with, and at odds with the life of a Marine. His initial MOS of Field Image Analyst lead to his later specialty of Military Journalist where he processed and edited production pieces. At night he spent his time restoring film noir classics... He was a mystery to Sean, consistently stern and angry when interrupted. His mother was a prim, pretty woman who was encouraging but always seemed to be preoccupied, lost in thought. The marriage grew colder and eventually his parents announced they would be divorcing as Seann's senior year in highschool drew to a close.

He had done well in his classes, though smarter than many of his teachers he struggled with boredom, and was offered a full scholarship for college on-line and partial scholarship to attend. Instead, he went to a recruiting station by himself early on a Saturday morning and enlisted in the Navy. His aptitude scores gave him the option of Intel and his performance in training landed him in Special Warfare. His career had its hiccups, particularly when he served under officers or NCO's who he saw as incompetent, still he was successful and gained a reputation as a solid performer in the field. Eventually he was slotted to support covert operations for Tier 1 units and saw several ungodly deployments in the worst shitholes in the world. He gained experience working with electronic systems and drones and frequently worked on task-organized teams with intelligence officers and SOCOM personal from different branches and agencies. Being involved in intelligence gathering and analysis, including interrogations took a toll and he developed a shell of cynicism as well as a few scars. After being evacuated to recover from minor wounds sustained when his FOB was overrun for the third time, he was offered an early out with a RIF(Reduction in Force). From the front line of the special ops war you could see there was no end in sight. Every group picture from his early years in the service had at least one of the now missing or dead. The military was pushing to do more with less and less and the toll payed by the men and women on the ground was growing. He took his walking papers.

The bleak desolation of those far off places and the human cruelty he had witnessed - and engaged in - left an impression on him. Over the years there had been women but they came and went. Faithful, unfaithful, the operational tempo that ruled his life eventually drove them away. He could not blame them and held no animosity... that's the way it was for most of the guys he knew. Unless you were willing to date within the SOCOM community long term relationships were hard to come by.

At 28 he joined the NCPD, and excelled as a rookie cop. The first two years on the force were rough but he learned at a tremendous rate. He caught some flak from fellow officers for going out of his way to make acquaintances on the streets but the payoff in information was significant and he began to make a name for himself. But it was apparent from his start on the force that the police were underfunded and the department did not have the backing it needed from the government. His cynicism and disillusionment grew as he watched good officers fail to make promotions or get reprimanded for administrative reasons, while the mediocre got ahead. He left the force in his third year having been decorated for valor under fire and threatened with demotion for failing to file the proper requisition paperwork on the same day. He struggled for a while, unsure what to do. He called his mom several times and found she had warmed up over the years. He wondered about his old man who he had not heard from in years. Drifting for a time, he contacted old friends from his Navy days, kept in touch with the cops he respected, worked out, read the news and watched the old movies he had watched as a kid, the ones his dad had been fond of restoring.

Slowly it came to him... maybe PI would actually be an interesting career. He knew enough people who had left the force and ended up at one or two of the big firms. He wanted to try being his own boss though. Why not freelance? He started looking into office space.

Join us in a GURPS Cyberpunk game!
In "The Medusa Sanction," a canister containing a deadly nanotech virus has been stolen from a Yakuza courrier. She calls on the PCs to help her get it back. What they don't know is that a deranged, rogue android has purchased the canister and plans to release it over Houston, TX. Can they find her and stop her from carrying out her plan?

Paolo's GURPS Cyberpunk Game:
www.Roll20.net
Games/Join a Game
Search for GURPS
Join "GURPS Space: Raid on Sterling"

We play at 5:00 pm Pacific on Tuesdays

Discord Server: (for voice)
https://discord.gg/ea67nuQ