Autore Topic: [Actual Play] Tactical Ops #04  (Letto 6156 volte)

Alessandro Piroddi (Hasimir)

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[Actual Play] Tactical Ops #04
« il: 2012-06-15 00:11:14 »
This is the chronicle of a 2 Players game between me and Claudia.

Starting the game I asked her if she had any preference regarding the setting, and she told me how she was a bit fed up with fantasy and remembered fondly that one time years ago when she participated in one session of CP2020 where she ripped apart 7 ninjas with her implanted claws and acted as an all-around badass.
So we decided to play in a cyberpunk setting.

[Note01: she knows almost NOTHING about cyberpunk ... she saw some movie a lot of years ago, and that is pretty much all of it]
[Note02: likewise it was her first time playing Tactical Ops]

To this end we helped ourselves to the "Cyberpunk World" appendix at the end of the rulebook and in about 1h (at is seems customary) our character were ready to play.

We are playing in the futuristic sprawl of the Granada Metroplex, in Spain.
Her PC is called Vanessa and is a very beautiful & very badass girl skilled in Martial Arts, equipped with implanted cyberclaws and a multy-functional cyber-eye, and armored with a layer of protective ortho-skin ... also her right leg is a prosthetic cyber-limb.
My PC is called Montoia and is a skillfull "rigger" ... a hacker specialized in the use of remotely controlled vehicles and drones; he has a prosthetic cyber-skull with an implanted computer and a pair of cyber-eyes with a bucketload of options; he also drives an armpored mini-van and controls a little spy-drone "model Firefly".

The game starts with the INTEL phase.
Apparently we are home and we are being hired by an anonimous individual that is contacting us through an encripted web-communication.

Our mission is to steal some data from the Alpha Bio-Tech corporation (Primary Objective).
We must cover up the theft for as long as possible (Condition 1) and we are to also make sure that no digital or physical copy is left behind (Condition 2).
We are told to expect only a minimum of security ... an easy job adequately payed.
We then set the Length at Quick (5vp) and the Difficulty at Easy (5hit).

The ACTION phase then began.
Claudia wanted to see an example of scene framing, so I had to do the first scene ... thus takeing the Lead card for me.

Scene 1: we are on "El Mirador" a plaza in the Albaicin district of Granada, looking down at the "carmen" (a walled garden) where the corp building was located.
We decide that we need more intelligence so we split up... she is to scout the area around the target while I follow her with the Firefly and perform an electronic-probe of the target's systems.

Scene 2: bach from the scouting we are planning our moves in my van.
She found out that the walls are quite something (Obstacle) and I add that the video-surveillance is also not to be fucked with (Obstacle).
After some planning we decide to go stealthy and try to infiltrate the building using a disguise.
After some web research and some well executed hacking (no Obstacle was produces so the actions just succeded) we find out that the next morning a supply of chemicals from a local establishment was expecter.
We then settle to hijack the delivery-vehicle.

Scene 3: we are inside the "carmen" dressed like delivery-personnel, unloading the chemical supplies.
We boss around one of the few guards, just to make a point, and we head to the storage area inside the building.

Scene 4: the Chief of Labs escorts us all the way to the storage area, through corridors and laboratories.
We determine that there are many places to hide, but we are uncertain about the degree of internal security surrounding us ... some details don't fit with the "minimal resistence" we were expecting, but nothing obvious appears as of yet.
After the delivery has been done Untitled documentwe try to loose the unwanted company of the Chief, but he is more scrupolous than expected (Obstacle) albeit some smooth-talking on my part sends the problem on a well deserved coffe break.

Scene 5: we are hidden in a closet and are planning our next move.
We decide that we need to know WHERE is the file located, so I access the wireless network and start snooping around.
But, to our astonishment, the internal network is damn secure! (Obstacle)
All data-nodes are encripted, some servers are physically isolated from the wireless, and there is even a Spider in the system!!! (a Spider is a hacker that oversees the system's security, both digital and physical).

I tackle the system head on with brute force hacking, but to avoid detection I fail in locating the files and need to keep looking.
At this point Vanessa moves to help me by going out the closet and back into a previously seen storage room (in Scene 4) charming her way past some personnell and reaching a power-switch ... BLACK OUT!
Her action provides the distraction I needed ... the Spider starts going crazy to determine what the problem might be, and in doing so I sniff his data-trail and steal the access codes he is using ... and I get access to the internal network!

At this point we obtain detailed info: we have a  map of the whole facility, we know in which isolated server are the files located, and in which archive are the paper copies stored.

- - -

END OF SESSION 01

It was late at night so we decided to stop.
All of this took about 1h to be played out... producing 2vp out of the 5 we need to end the Mission.
9 points of opposition were produced, taking us very close to triggering some kind of nefarious consequence.

Team support showed to be a HUGE boon, and when I had to act alone it's absence was dearly felt.

We both had a lot of fun during the planning stages where our PCs were analyzing the situation at hand and trying to come up with a scheme that may have a chance to work ... it felt "realistic" and "solid" and also a genuine challenge to come up with good plans.
It also felt awesome becouse we ended up doing the things we usually see in spy-movies and that for some reasons seldom work out when you try them in Traditional game systems! :D
www.unPlayableGames.TK ...where game ideas come to die

Alessandro Piroddi (Hasimir)

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Re:[Actual Play] Tactical Ops #04
« Risposta #1 il: 2012-06-22 00:22:49 »
Actual Play ... part 2!
This time with less fiction and more table events.
What we loved was:

- - - planning your future actions, A-Team style ... and feeling that such plan IS worth something (not just for show).
Claudia told me how in other games every plan ended up being more or less a moment of useless roleplaying.
The group concocted a veeeery basic plan of action, but then what mattered were just the attack die rolls or something like that.
Not to mention all the times that some member of the group "just charged the enemy" because the game system didn't really made any sort of strategy worthwile or even viable.

- - - being able to have the fictional reality of the game "just make sense"
We had just resumed the game and our Characters were hidden in the service closed, hacking the security system (the last scene of the previous session).
Claudia made her character say "We have to get out ... NOW!"
I was perplexed and asked through my PC "Why?"
She simply reminded me that our disguise gave us easy access, but we had a van parked in the Corp's courtyard with lots of guards expecting to see us go away at any moment.
My reply was "Oh Fuck!" ... and from that moment we felt a strong sense of urgency ... so much that the next scene was framed when our PC were already away from the Corps building and were disposing of the disguise.

- - - just DOING things!
as a diehard fan of cyberpunk games I long wished to play a character that did this or that.
somehow I never managed to do it properly... not in CP2020, nor in Shadowrun.
this time I did it all, right out from the start.
I was a "Rigger" ... a hacker specialized in piloting cyber'ed vehicles and remote drones.
I had an armored van full of gadgets.
I had a handy Firefly drone.
I had a prosthetic skull full of cyber-equipment: from an advanced hacking computer to a pair of cyber-eyes with many different optical augmentations.
And I used it all... I hacked systems, I manouvered drones, I had the van drive itself to rescue us in the nick of time!
And it was damn simple, with no volumes of special rules for vehicles or cyberware ... amazing! :D

. . .

Everything worked fine.
The mission ended with our PCs running away from Corp security under a rain of bullets.
We managed to succesfully complete the mission, but the "not so easy" resistance we encountered both in digital and physical form left us full of doubts regarding the info our contact gave us ... and we still don't know exactly WHAT kind of information we have stolen! :P

Only problem... the final conflict ended too soon & too easy ... turns out I forgot to apply one simple rule (Obstacle Complexity) that would have made out final conflict a veritable epic final showdown :P
Well... next time.

PS:
using real dice is DAMN important!
I have no dice here in Granada, so we used a (few) diceroller(s) ... but it's not the same, and it's a very poor substitute.
I need a dedicated dice-roller app :P
www.unPlayableGames.TK ...where game ideas come to die

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