It’s been three months but the Cape Cod Wargame Commission was back together last night rolling dice, munching snacks, pushing miniatures, and having a blast.
One member shy, six of us sat down to test drive Pinnacle Entertainment’s latest iteration of their Savage Worlds RPG, the Adventure Edition. As big fans of cyberpunk, we journeyed to New Kowloon using the most excellent Interface Zero 2.0 Source book from Gun Metal Games. While we enjoy Hardwired for Chrome-and-Drone skirmishes, SW/IZ 2.0 is our go-to for role playing sessions. (We hear there’s a new edition/IZ 3.0 coming too.)
To re-acquaint ourselves with the system and the latest changes, we used pre-gen characters and a heavily modified one-shot sourced from PEG’s site. (Best way to learn is to take it for a spin, right?)
The mean streets of New Kowloon were waiting.
And so having finished a run for their Triad boss, five choombas had just sat down to a well-deserved meal when a call came in: one of the player’s cousin was frantic: her boyfriend had gone missing. According to her, there’d been a rash of killings in their district and he was last seen two nights ago heading an illegal bio-form fight club. Could the player and his friends go look for him?
There was no money in it for them, but the cousin knows the guy who supplies weapons to a local street gang. She could make an introduction and put in a good word. That was good enough. (a chance to upgrade firepower is always welcome) The crew set out.
First, a visit to the cousin for more info. After, a run-in with a nervous neighborhood watch, (nothing like a rash of serial killings in your neighborhood to bring the vigilante out in everybody) the crew learned the location of this underground fight club: a vehicle and drone repair shop deeper in the district, (and you guessed it) right in the area where the killings were.
Traveling on foot through eerily deserted streets, our Heroes run afoul of a NKPD patrol. Are they looking for the murderer? Nope. They’re searching for our crew, hoping to squeeze a few more credits from them to look their other way regarding their Triad-associated activities.
A few more blocks and the crew stood outside the repair shop, Ball and Chain. Lights are out, the only sign of life are the security cameras are sweeping their sectors. Some quick hacking by Max, and the numbered keypad locks are bypassed. (and the claymore mines in the over-size housings)
Following the reek of blood and excrement, they find the arena down in the basement. Two freshly decapitated bodies lay on the floor and the shop owner is crawling frantically away from the biggest, ugliest thing the crew has ever seen. (sort of a cross between a gorilla and a octopus)
Good activation cards puts out heroes at the advantage. Good rolls mean they start dealing damage. But dear God, how can something that big move so fast? Shooting turns to Melee too damn fast.
Gunshots, knife wounds, but it’s Max’s Hacking skills that bring the beast down. (He hacked the creature’s VR Control Unit and overloaded it.)
With that over, the grateful shop owner fessed up: his illegal fight club doubles as a testing ground for a mega-corp’s prototype combat bioforms. This one slipped its VR leash and killed several patrons before escaping into the neighborhood. (the cousin’s boyfriend was among them) The thing has been hunting and killing citizens ever since.
The two bodies on the floor are company men, come to tie up loose ends and sweep the mess under the carpet before anyone too important notices. (THAT didn’t work out, did it?)
AFTERMATH
There are the usual rewards and loot in the aftermath, and despite bringing bad news to the cousin, she’ll still put in a good word with the gun runner. The district is grateful the murders have stopped, our heroes are a few credits richer, have a couple pieces of new gear from the two company men, there’s a gear upgrade on the horizon.. life is good, no?
The only real question is: what are they going to do about the encrypted data chip they found in one of the company men’s pocket?
***
That’s all for now. Stay well.
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