These days I am rarely a game master for RPGs. Currently I am creating a run for #shadowrun which is called “The Humanis Policlub Took My Baby Away”. And I just noticed that this is the third run in a row where the objective is to free someone or something. I really need to change this for the next run.

All runs are one-shots created like half a year apart, so it didn´t really occur to me that I am always doing some kind of the same objective.

Run 1 - Free the Girl

The first run in that “series” was that the runners shall free a teenage-girl from a villa where she was hold against her will. In the end it turned out that it was a divorce-case where the mother tried to flee with her daughter from her husband. The runners were hired by the father who turned out to be a blood mage for Aztlan and they had to decide if they delivered the girl or not.
I know that the title is crap but I didn´t need to come up with something. That title is how it is in my notes-files.

Run 2 - Bloody Asphalt

This one was about a robbed rigger. The robbed rigger (an NPC who was hospitalized for the run) was a part of the team the characters played. He was robbed and his car was stolen in front of a stuffers shack. The runners had to find it and bring it back.

Run 3 - The Humanis Policlub Took My Baby Away

Well, the title says all I guess. The girlfriend of the brother of one of the runners got snatched by the Humanis Policlub. And now he asks his brother and his team for help to free her. I won´t share any details here since I will play it next week and still working out the details. But each time I think more about it, it becomes a bit more interesting I think. Just the question: why did the Humanis Policlub kidnapped her and why doesn´t the brother recruit his own gang for example to free her (the original idea was that he is a ganger) changed it yesterday quite a bit. And I could soften up the last scene which was pretty heavy in the beginning and could have made players kinda uncomfortable. Now the evil is still there but the last scene will happen someplace else.

I wanted to note something for other shadowrun-game masters. If you are doing one-shots, it is really helpful to skip the “Meet the Johnson”-phase. That one costs only time, and you can directly skip to the part where the team established that they are working together and will do the run. No “I won´t get paid, so I don´t do it” or long haggle-sessions for the price. In a normal campaign, you can do that as well but this is a real time saver and saves you from the awkward situation that a player might decide that they think that their character won´t do something or has to do it another way which only disturbs the session.

I am also currently reading “So You want to be a Game Master” by Justin Alexander and it is quite interesting and helpful in creating that third run. And even though I do a lot of things already in that book, it is worth a read for inexperienced and experienced game masters alike. Inexperienced game masters will of course get more out of it.

The last thing I want to mention is that I asked for fun ChatGPT to change the lyrics for “The KKK Took My Baby Away” by the Ramones to fit “The Humanis Policlub Took My Baby Away”. And I was surprised how good it turned out:

(Verse 1)
Late at night, in the neon glow,
My baby’s gone, lost to the shadows.
In the sprawl where danger’s the law,
The Humanis came, left me in awe.

(Pre-Chorus)
Runners of the shadows, hear my plea,
Bring her back, set my baby free.
In the darkness where secrets play,
I’m calling out to you, find a way.

(Chorus)
The Humanis took my love away,
Down in the shadows where the runners stray.
Mercenaries, heart of the night,
Bring her back, make it right.

(Verse 2)
Chrome and magic, the city’s heartbeat,
Whispers in the darkness, secrets they keep.
She’s out there, caught in the vice,
Runners, I need you, roll the dice.

(Pre-Chorus)
Runners of the shadows, heed my cry,
In the underworld, where shadows lie.
Through the sprawl, where danger’s rife,
Bring her back, save my life.

(Chorus)
The Humanis took my love away,
Down in the shadows where the runners stray.
Mercenaries, heart of the night,
Bring her back, make it right.

(Bridge)
Through the matrix, in the back alleys,
Follow the trail, where darkness rallies.
Runners, hunters, seekers of fate,
Rescue my love, don’t hesitate.

(Verse 3)
In the city of sin, where the streets are mean,
She’s a pawn in a game, a part of the scene.
To the shadows, where the runners tread,
Bring her back, or I’ll be dead.

(Pre-Chorus)
Runners of the shadows, don’t delay,
In the web of intrigue, find a way.
Through the chaos, where the secrets breed,
Bring her back, fulfill this need.

(Chorus)
The Humanis took my love away,
Down in the shadows where the runners stray.
Mercenaries, heart of the night,
Bring her back, make it right.

I ran Saturday my first half-marathon and now I am in bed probably with Corona (someone close has it and developed symptoms a couple of days before me).

If the symptoms would have started a day earlier I wouldn’t have been able to run. Lucky me I guess.

#caturday

#caturday

I just finished The Lost Cause, the newest book by @pluralistic@mamot.fr an d it is great. A book of hope playing in a dystopian near future that could be really our future. Interesting characters and as always interesting ideas.

Good morning #caturday

If you are playing #ttrpg related to #cyberpunk, you might want to listen to the episode about a tragic fire in Johannesburg to get some material. The part about “hijacked buildings” is something how for example people in the Redmond Barrens in #Shadowrun probably live.

Gerade habe ich einen schönen Aufkleber gesehen: Lebe so, dass die AfD was dagegen hätte

😁

Day 31 of #RPGaDay

I forgot to post yesterday.

Favorite RPG of all time: Shadowrun!

I don’t care about the edition. The world is awesome and I love the dice pools (big trolls == big dice pools) and you have a reason why strangers run together. Sometimes I don’t like the crunchiness.

I ❤️ #Shadowrun

Day 30 of #RPGaDay

Obscure RPG you played: Plüsch, Power and Plunder

You bring your character to the table (a stuffed toy); you play how it comes to life. In the session I played plastic toys enslaved teddy bears and we had to fight the BBEGs: action figures of Gandalf, Sauron and a plastic unicorn…

Day 29 of #RPGaDay

Most memorable encounter: a session of Shadowrun. A plan to do something in a gang HQ. First runner sneaks into the HQ, second character critically glitches his roll, activates the alarm. Big shootout ensues, the headquarter didn’t exist anymore after that. Best laid plans…

Day 29 of #RPGaDay:

Most memorable encounter:

The one were we played DnD with higher level characters and the game master designed an encounter with skeletons - scaled to our level. So we fought like a hundred or two hundred skeletons. Took a while and was more fun than expected.

Day 28 of #RPGaDay

Scariest game you played:

That was a session of a self-designed game from a game master at a convention set in a Ravenloft-style setting.

We were in a neon-lit crafts room but the GM was so good that it was still very scary. One of the best sessions I was ever part of.

Day 27 of #RPGaDay

Game you’d like a new edition of:

A new edition of “Mutant Chronicles” would be neat. New full-colored books, more modern mechanics but leave the character creation more or less alone. I had so much fun generating characters together with friends because of the life-path system.

Day 26 of #RPGaDay

Favorite Character Sheet: I really like the character sheets of the World of Darkness (Vampire, Werewolf etc). 1 page, all information you need, styled for the game.

I hate glueing together tabletop minis. Warhammer 40k-minis are even worse than Star Wars-Minis (except those battle droids maybe).

And all for the kids…

Day 25 of #RPGaDay

Unplayed RPG you own: 🤣 so so many…. 🤣

Tenra Bansho Zero, Shinobigami, Ryuutama, Blade Runner, Coyote & Crow, Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse, KULT (the new one), Sigmata – just to name a few of those I really want to play at some point.

Day 24 of #RPGaDay

Most complex/simple RPG you play

Complex: Shadowrun - 6th edition got less crunchier than previous editions but not necessarily less complex.

Simple: I cheat here because I don’t actually play it anymore. But I played for a while “Hero Kids” with my sons but they grew out of it.

Desktop #Linux-distributions that block mDNS (UDP/5353) by default are something that I don’t understand.

Day 23 of #RPGaDay

Coolest Looking RPG product: when I look at the whole product, I think it is something like modern game master screens with the art over the whole width and sometimes great art on the inside. Especially the ones from DnD and the SR-GM screen.

Day 22 of #RPGaDay

Best secondhand purchase: That would be “The Security Handbook” for Shadowrun.

This book really helped me out back then to flesh out my runs and how to think about securing those corporation-buildings.

Day 21 of #RPGaDay

Favorite licensed RPG: Alien RPG is just awesome.

One of the best RPGs I’ve ever played.

Beware: When you buy books from HumbleBundle it can happen that those are only keys for Kobo. And those books are protected by Adobe DRM.

It just happened to me and now I need to figure out how I can get them onto my devices (please don´t try to help me; I will find a way). #fuckDRM

Day 20 of #RPGaDay:

Will still play in 20 years time:

Whatever my regular group plays. And I hope Shadowrun.

Insects might feel pain or joy. Very interesting article about it and it’s implications: Do Insects Feel Joy and Pain?