Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session six

 

Actual play session number six recap with "the squad that can't catch a break" (first session is here). Using straight up Cyberpunk 2020 rules and running the game in the private game room Tuesday nights at Aesop's Treasury. Currently we are starting the first part of the Land of the Free boxed campaign. Now I must say this campaign is a lot better than I thought it would be and it's pretty fast paced. I highly recommend it. Now... where were we...

The players decide to contact the fixer from New Orleans who has been trying to get in contact with them. Having the Lefty make the call untraceable they dial him up. Turns out it's an old friend of their previous fixer who set the entire job up. Things are looking bad, Eliot is probably deceased at this point and his friend has picked up his contract since he owed him his life from a few years back. But the characters need to make it down river to New Orleans where he can set them up with a proper way back to Night City. Cookie and Sara head down to the docks to see if they can find some trustworthy folks to sail them down.

While they are away Lefty decides to do a deep dive in Adrianna's tricked out cyber/clone brain to find out what else Norcross has stuffed in there. After some painful searching around they find out some very bad news. Norcross is a front, the lab is actually owned by Biotechnica. The reason her dad had her extracted was the upper executives had decided to vivisector her body and do a deep study on her various parts before starting up the next generation of clones. So they are running her from one of the most nastiest corporations in 2020. 

Brick and Bradley finally manage to get to a doc in the box to get their injuries looked at. Brick had some broken ribs and internal injuries from the airship dropping on top of him, a good tape job and some fun drugs and he was feeling better. Bradley got that cyberdog bite from back in session three looked on. In that wound was discovered a dog tooth, more specifically a tracking device shaped like a dog tooth. Well that's one way they were being followed so well.

Sara and Cookie get back. They got a boat ride... with one hitch. In order to bring the costs down they agreed to do a little "job" on the way down the river. One that involved blowing up a chemical plant down near Mississippi. Bradley just shakes his head and says "Oh so just some drive by terrorism, great", Cookie was quick to correct him it isn't terrorism, it's ecoterrorism so therefore a good thing. So everyone climbs aboard for a three day trip down the mighty muddy. 

First day, while dealing with a rough storm and some flooding the squad thinks things are going to be fine. Well besides hitting some rocks, taking some damage, Bradley accidently turning off the boats power and then a group of pirates deciding to take advantage of the situation and try running up on the boat. While some bullets are exchanged as Sara lays down some cover fire Brick decides to pull out the oh so wonderfully safe weapon to use on a boat... the fucking flame thrower. I sit back and wait for their only form of transportation to become a floating bonfire of the dead. But then the unthinkable happens.

Brick pulls that trigger and lights the other boat up without a single problem in the world. Turning the pirate boat into a barbecue on the waves. 

They breath a sigh of relief and get some rest after the storm passes. Until the next night when it's time to do some black op shit in order to pay for their passage. They meet up with another ships crew who have are part of some sort of resistance group of ecoterrorist types. The mission is simple, the heavies will do a false attack on the main entrance to the plant as a distraction, meanwhile Lefty will open a set of flood gates on the drainage ditches so the others can go inside and plant explosives on the chemical tanks. 

Brick is happy to be with his kind, solo's with big guns and even a rocket launcher. They're happy to have him and his flame thrower aboard. Sara is with the assault team wondering what kind of insanity she has dropped into. Cookie, who actually knows how to set explosives, is going in with the infiltration group, Bradley is allowed to film while going in with her as long as everyone is masked up and he doesn't reveal anyone's identities. 

The frontal assault goes off so well that they very well could have just walked in through there and set the explosives. People are on fire, a jeep is on fire, the gates are blown open, lots of lead is being thrown down into the guards who are taken completely by surprise. The infiltration goes without a hitch and everyone pulls back as they watch the chemical tanks reach to the heavens in a wonderful series of fireballs. 

The squad that can't catch a break... caught a break.

Of course Bradley immediately sells the footage just as soon as he gets back on the boat. But a few others point out that he seemed to get a lot of shots of Cookies ass in his footage. Maybe the fancy ass reporter has a thing for dirty, uncouth, kleptomaniac nomad girls. 

Only a few more bumps along the road, like hitting a mud bar, and the squad can finally see New Orleans in the distance as they can't wait to get the hell off that boat.  

Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session five

 

Actual play session number five recap with "the squad that can't catch a break" (first session is here). Using straight up Cyberpunk 2020 rules and running the game in the private game room Tuesday nights at Aesop's Treasury. Currently we are starting the first part of the Land of the Free boxed campaign. Now I must say this campaign is a lot better than I thought it would be and it's pretty fast paced. I highly recommend it. Now... where were we...

The players quickly hook up with Perry Garcia and head back to his place (which should probably be condemned) to rethink their next step. Based on what they know heading out of Nashville ASAP is the best idea so they agree to pay Perry for a ride to Memphis via the underground highway. It's expensive but it's the safest and quickest route and the PC's are willing to pay. So they do some quick shopping for supplies and head across the city to the highways entrance. But Perry gets spotted the Citizens for Decency who decide to give chase as they hate the rockerboy. These CfD folks aren't to bright though and are quickly spotted behind them.

Now, fellow GMs and players, what do you think is the best way for the PC's to handle this situation? Maybe lose them in traffic, cut down some back alley's here and there, or even pull into a parking lot and have a face to face? Those are all good. Did the squad that can't catch a break do any of that? Oh no... not by a long shot.

They let the CfD get up behind them then Sara and Cookie pop the back doors open and Brick sprays down the front of their vehicle with his flamethrower. (Why the hell did I let him have a flamethrower?) Not a great shot but it caught them on fire a bit and the drive makes a successful roll and doesn't wreck, just slows down and stops letting the PC's get away. Until the second vehicle they didn't spot brushes up against them and open fire on Perry's van taking out the back glass.

By the way they are on a city highway that is pretty busy with traffic.

Gunfire is exchanged and the PC's get the great idea of "Let's pop them with the flamethrower again". Yeah. So they maneuver a bit get the bad guys behind them. This time Cookie is also opening fire with her assault rifle on their windshield and it goes like this... by initiative rolls.

Brick rolls really damn good and gets a good solid spray on the front of their vehicle. 

The driver of said vehicle makes a really damn good roll and holds it together without freaking out.

Cookie opens fire and makes a really damn good roll shattering the windshield (allowing all that wonderful flamer thrower goodness inside) and hitting the driver. 

No more rolls needed as the now on fire bad guys go veering wildly off to the left straight into other motorists on the road causing a massive pile-up with a few resulting explosions afterwards.

Meanwhile, Bradley has been recording all of this from the inside of the van and decides this is some top notch footage he can make a bunch of money off of if he sells quick. He calls up some networks, makes a quick negotiation and then has Lefty send them the footage... unedited. The van pulls over, puts some cardboard over the broken windows and then gets onto the underground road to Memphis for a several hours long drive. 

The footage hits the airwaves, along with footage from many other viewpoints (I warned them many times this was a media heavy city with cameras everywhere). We get clear shots of the PC's and their actions and the resulting massive accident that claimed not only the lives of the CfD folks but the lives of four others as well and many injuries. Yeah rub that into your reputation.

Eventually hitting Memphis and holding up at a Best Western they watch as Perry gets the hell out of there after stealing new plates for his van. After failing to make contact with the fixer who hired them in the first place the players think about their next move forward and start with renting a SUV using a fake ID and then heading out of the city. But not before stopping off at the Church of Elvis to do some tourist stuff. Which quickly turns into a altercation with the Elvis clad security who want to take them to see 'The King'. Strangely enough the players decided they didn't want to fight this one out.

To make things quick the King informs the PC's that he wants them out of his city with a quickness. That somebody is offering massive amounts of money for Adrianna, which he suspects a double cross would happen if he tried to collect. But he doesn't want anything big going down where he lives. Handing over some info he's gathered about her along with some information that another Fixer in New Orleans has a reward out for anyone who can establish contact with the group. The players are then led out of the Kings castle. So the squad, finally, caught a break. 

After looking at the new info and discovering that the Doctor who hired him to extract his daughter has lied. His daughter died a few years ago leaving him with no other family. They look at Adrianna for answers and she finally reveals that she is actually a fully self aware clone of his daughter. She is still a rather brilliant scientist complete with implanted memories that she knows are fake, but accepts them anyways. But she doesn't know why he had her extracted from the lab just that he told her had to be done and there was no other choice.

Also leaving the players wondering just how powerful is Norcross Laboratories is since they have so much money to throw around. 

There will be a break with no game next week due to unexpected temporary schedule changes. But should start back up shortly after that.

Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session four

 

Actual play session number four recap with "the squad that can't catch a break" (first session is here). Using straight up Cyberpunk 2020 rules and running the game in the private game room Tuesday nights at Aesop's Treasury. Currently we are starting the first part of the Land of the Free boxed campaign. Now I must say this campaign is a lot better than I thought it would be and it's pretty fast paced. I highly recommend it. Now... where were we...

Ah yes our intrepid team had successfully extracted the young lady Adrianna from the Norcross laboratory with minimal complications. After laying low for a few hours they made their way onto the aerozep to head across country to Night City. All was well and bright for their future. Yeah right.

One little fact before this begins. All their weapons are stowed in crates in the cargo area.

The team makes a plan, always has somebody with the package at all times and hopes to wait out the ride. Six or so hours into the flight Cookie is sneaking around stealing anything small that she can hide in her coat. Why she's by herself she is assaulted by a man in a suit who quickly pins her to the ground. Showing her his pop up gun built into his arm he threatens to kill her unless she tells him where 'she' is. When she refuses to answer he starts to choke her saying he decided to give her a quiet death.

Thankfully Lefty shows up and catches his attention. That's when bullets start to fly, tables start getting flipped for cover and Cookie gets lose and grabs a kitchen knife and starts flailing at the guy in the suit over the tipped table that he is behind. Catching some blood and hair from the guys scalp in the process. That's when the wrecking ball known as Brick plows through the area and tackles the guy through the hasty cover he has. Beefcake Brick is all ready to fight until he discovers the guy has speedware and can dodge nearly all of his moves. It's gun to the Solo's face when Lefty finally manages to remotely disable the popup gun. 

Retreating as he is now getting hacked our bad guy vanishes into the hallways and rooms for passengers. An air marshal and the ships security get involved. Fortunately they have it on video so they side with the PC's since Cookie was attacked, the other guy had a gun and everyone else showed up just trying to stop the fight. A brief break from the excitement to recollect their thoughts and are later informed they think the guy has jumped from the craft using one of the emergency parachutes, but that he also threw all the other chutes out as well.

Just a few hours later, that's when shit really hits then fan. Okay more like missiles hit the operations deck and engines of the craft. Followed up by chaingun fire that starts ripping through the hull turning many an innocent passenger into red mists with extra chunks. The ships automated defenses kick in and the attackers are taken out of the air. But now they are in for a slow crash landing into the wooded area below. 

Most make it out with only scrapes and bruises. Except for the prized package who suffers a broken arm and Brick who had been down in the cargo area trying to get their weapons. He suffers multiple injuries and is trapped in the wreckage as everything around him starts to catch fire. Thankfully the PC's and the air marshal help him out. As the group sees vehicles approaching they think it best to flee the scene through the woods. Their destination is Nashville with is around thirty miles away.

After a trudge through the night the band finally finds a truck to 'liberate', manage to make Cookie get even angrier than usual and patch themselves up a little as they hit the road. Making it to the outskirts of the city where they get a couple cheap motel rooms, gas up their truck and make contact with the fixer who got them the job. Elliot is shocked by the sudden turn of events and gets to talking to some of his contacts and arranges for them to meet an old friend and Rockerboy named Perry Garcia at a club. But also warns them that Nashville is going to get hot real quick because whoever is after them is going to figure out they aren't dead and that's the next logical place to look. 

Side note: After this session one of my players will not be able to make it due to schedule changes at his job. So he said for me to NPC his character, the Netrunner 'Lefty' for the group. May have a new player and thus a new NPC arriving next session. 

Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session three

 

Actual play session number two recap with the squad that can't catch a break (first session is here). Using straight up Cyberpunk 2020 rules and running the game in the private game room Tuesday nights at Aesop's Treasury. Currently we are starting the first part of the Land of the Free boxed campaign.  

After getting stuck in New York by one of Bradley's least favorite people the crew is looking for either a ride back to Night City or for a job to help pay for tickets back to Night City. What they managed to find was both.

One of Bricks contacts back on the west coast hooked him up with one of his fellow fixers here on the east coast. Just so happened he had a job drop in his lap that he needed runners for. One that paid well AND got them back to Night City. A scientist needed his daughter extracted from a lab and then put on board an airship so she could be delivered into safe hands on the other side of the country. Could be very dangerous, could be deadly... did I mention it paid well.

So the team gets some money up front and picks up the necessary gear for the mission. Some extra power with some new firearms, a little bit of body armor and a flame thrower. Yeah, you read that right. Somebody in the squad that can't catch a break decided to pick up a flame thrower. That person would solo known as Brick. He thought it would be a great thing to have. All I saw behind the GM screen was a structure fire with a dead girl they were supposed to extract and a completely failed mission... but rolls to acquire were made and I let them have it. Brick got his flame thrower. 

Amazingly enough entry into the building went without a flaw. First guard they run into Brick just hits with the flame thrower and knocked him out. If he wanted a melee weapon that would have been much easier to get but oh well. Now going through the lab had a bit more excitement of the expected level that I've come to expect from this group.

That would be two, yes TWO, ones were rolled by Brick with the flame thrower. First when he tried to actually fire it off, instead of blowing up or something really Michael Bayesque I simply had it malfunction and the tip fell off rendering it useless. The second time he decided to use it as a melee weapon once again and it didn't work out at all. The hose pulled off the fuel cannister and dumped a full tank of napalm onto him and the floor. Brandon reminded everyone not to light up a cigarette. 

Later we had Lefty just mowing down guards one after another with his shotgun. Cookie rolling into a room only to get shot by a guard who had taken up a different position than she thought. Brick getting into hand to hand combat with a cyberdog that had already chewed on Bradley a little bit. Then Bradley shooting said cyberdog WHILE Brick was grappling with him.

But they did it. They got the girl out and managed to get her on the airship. However they have a four day slow flight across the country and are separated from their weapon which are in the cargo hold. I mean what could go wrong? Guess we'll find out next week.

Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session two

 

Actual play session number two recap with the squad that can't catch a break (first session is here). Using straight up Cyberpunk 2020 rules and running the game in the private game room Tuesday nights at Aesop's Treasury. 

While barreling down the road south of Night City the PC Basura sadly succumbs to his injuries in the back of the truck bed. The others discuss what they should do with his body as the player starts rolling dice on a new character. Eventually they decide to just cover him with a tarp for the time being.

After passing the border into SoCal the crew stops at a gas station in a very remote town that is mostly made up of abandoned buildings. While there the crew decides the best thing to do is loot the former squad mates pockets and then cover him back up. Cookie steals some food from the gas station and Brick buys some beer for the road. Then they continue down the road for many more uneventful hours.

Eventually after going off the main road, down a side road and then down a dirt road they meet their destination. A toxic waste disposal facility, it's then that they discover they've been hauling slightly radioactive toxic waste this entire time. Guess that explains the Geiger counters in the trucks. The "disposal" consists of parking the trailer next to hundreds of other trailers just wasting away out in the desert it is here they make a final decision for what to do with Basura.... and unceremoniously dump his body there among the trailers. Before getting back on the road they pick up a lost white boy who has no place out in the desert and take him with them.

Basically arrival by GM parachute is the new PC: Lefty - Netrunner

On the way back they discover the small town they passed through earlier is now merrily burning. While trying to get around a roadblock set up, apparently, by whoever sat the fires they come under fire from the rooftops. Brick and Bradley lay down covering fire as they attempt to flee but the driver of the semi is shot in the head and dies instantly. Lefty then manages to get in the truck and link up to it using Hotwire and drives it out of there. Eventually they make it back to Night City collect their payment and await their next mission.

Only a day or so later Bradley gets a tip on a plane that will be landing at an automated landing strip that is on the outskirts of Night City. Probably hauling illegal goods and the studio will pay for footage of the load being opened up before it takes off again.

Amazingly this crew scopes out the landing field, creates a distraction and sneaks in without notice or any sort of violence. Then they find where the pilotless Tesla aircraft is being refueled by an automated fuel truck and Lefty gets the loading bay door open so they can get inside. Going through the crates things seem to be going fine until the last one which is sealed and requires being hacked via cyberdeck to be opened. At which point the trap is sprung and the cargo area is flooded with gas and the loading hatch closes.

Waking up mid-flight the crew starts to figure out what happened. Mainly via a video disc left in the last crate with Bradley's name on it. Apparently an old enemy wants him out of the city and has set this up to get the job done. She advises that he doesn't try to return. The party really dislikes Bradley for getting them into this mess.

Eventually the plane sits down at another automated airfield and once outside they get their bearings. Welcome to New York, well at least just outside of the city. After a discussion with a security detail and local police (who they decided not to get in a shoot out with) they are released when the evidence in the plane back up their claims, not to mention the video disc as well. Making their way to a nicer than normal coffin motel the crew makes camp and starts hitting up their contacts on an attempt to find a way back across the country. Cookie grumbling that she doesn't want to fly anymore.

Next session will be October 3rd as some players can't make it next week. It is then that I start running them through the "Land of the Free" campaign which will eventually (more like hopefully with these guys) bring them back to the bright lights of Night City. 

Cyberpunk 2020 new campaign session one

 

First session recap for my new Cyberpunk 2020 campaign. Right now it doesn't have a name yet and the first couple of sessions will be just letting everyone get settled into the game. So let's start with the five PCs shall we?

Cookie - Nomad

Brick - Solo 

Sara - Nomad 

Basura - Techie 

Bradley Schultz - Media

On a tip from a news agency Bradley hears about a planned raid by a gang on a warehouse near the combat zone of Night City. He'll get paid for the footage, he'll get paid more if the footage contains a lot of action and carnage. So he agrees and grabs his friends to help insure that said carnage does occur.

The crew see's a group of vehicles and a stolen garbage truck run through the gate of the poorly guarded building and then they move in. Most of those raiding the place run inside while a couple stay outside with guns. It turns into a one sided ass whooping with the PC's coming out on top even taking out (as in killing) those who exit the warehouse after the shooting starts. Many of those exiting are carrying containers of food, some drop it and pull their cheap pistols out, other keep running trying to get away.

Brick discovers that with cyberarms enhanced with hydraulic rams while wearing battle gloves can do a great deal of damage to the chests and other body parts of unarmored opponents. Cookie, being to poor to own a gun, hops on people like a rabid spider monkey stabbing away with her knife. Both of them later become memes on social media when the footage is released (#FuckedAroundFoundOut and #SpiderMonkey). 

Only Basura is injured with a grazing head wound from a throw away pistol.

After the mayhem is done they leave before NCPD can show up and Bradley sends the footage in. They get paid rather well. Then within the hour it hits the television screens. But, it turns out, those breaking in weren't gang members after all. Instead they just fought, and killed, several people from a homeless camp who are trying to keep themselves from starving and only wanted the food.

Not a good reputation to have, especially for the Nomads. 

They lay low for a few days and look for another job. Brick gets a call from an low ranking corpo who has a job for him and his small crew, if they can drive. With the two nomads on board that isn't a problem. It's a simple escort mission, drive two pick up trucks in support of a semi running a trailer full of... well something not good, out to a site ten hours outside of Night City. The trucks have a large machine gun mounted in the back of each and a Geiger counter mounted on the dashboard. Nothing to shady right?

Well a few hours into the drive out there was an attempted road block that they ran through with quite a bit of ease. Then Cookie decided to go off roading onto a side road to try and get somebody who had been tailing them. The resulting bounce of the truck tossed her gunner, the already injured Basura, out of the back and onto the ground. 

After they figure out they lost him and that the person tailing them was going to get away they went back and picked him up. Then hauled ass to catch back up to the semi.

And that's where we had to end it. Pretty standard stuff, it'll get more into the actual meat of the campaign soon.