| NEW MEXICO COPS, SESSION THREE a Cyberpunk 2020 game run by Gary Astleford |  |
NEW MEXICO STATE POLICE OUTLINE #3 Ok, outline for this evening's festivities... last game, the players encountered members of the "Wasteland Warriors", a group of nomadic smugglers. All but one of the nomads was killed, and the stash of goodies that they were transporting was confiscated (most of which was sent upstate). We were also introduced to military testing practices, which included a far-away napalm strike, and a pseudo strafing run on the other players. That evening, they found a crashed UFO and it's inhabitant, but were shooed away by the army. Tonight, a week or two will have passed without incident. This game... what should we do? 1) Lights In The Western Sky. Same shit as usual. Starts around 9pm, ends around 5 am the next morning. One of these days, the lights won't go on, and then the "War Of The Worlds" thing will start. He He He. Maybe next game, depending on how this one goes. I'd like to go for a little sci-fi/horror element. We'll see. 2) Mrs. Jessica Combs. She's caught her husband's eyes wandering in the direction of Katrina's character, Fiona. She's finally made up her mind, taken his gun, and is threatening to blow him away. He's hiding behind the counter of his store, trying to talk her out of it. She's already shot at him twice, missing both times. The general store reeks with the smell of dill pickles (one of her shots hit a shelf of them, knocking the jars (crashing) to the ground). This situation can be defused very easily (I figure) by Katrina (though part of Mrs. Combs' anger will be at her character in particular, so a failed roll might induce a shooting). This encounter took place a few weeks after we'd settled into the station, and since everybody'd been working like dogs to get the place up to speed, Maitland gave all the PC's the night off. That left her to run the station all by her l'il old self, and she got a frantic call regarding the trouble at the general store. Fiona and Burke (Joe) were eating dinner across the street at the Tumbleweed, and we converged on the store. This was a humorous situation which could quickly have turned ugly if we'd reacted differently (i.e., charged in like gangbusters and blown Mrs. Combs away). Instead, we threw ourselves into the roleplaying, and had a vastly amusing "talkdown" with Mrs. Combs... "Put the gun down, Jessica! No, I can't arrest your husband for adultery for looking at Officer Grayson... No, I'm really sorry, but we can't fire her, either... " We eventually got her calmed down and confiscated Mr. Combs' gun. Unfortunately, we had to give it back. Mrs. Combs went to stay with her sister in Alberquerque. 3) Smugglers An AV lands in an empty field near Louis Rogers' house. He calls the cops to inform them that there are possible trouble makers out and about. In reality, the smugglers have just landed after making their way out of Texas. They aren't carrying any contraband (right now), except for their weapons. All they want is to get back to Alberquerque. There are three of them: the pilot (Joshua Ames, "Twitch", but his friends call him "Josh"), the muscleman (Wilhelm Stein, lovingly known as "Frank" or "Frankenstein" because of his enhancements), and the co-pilot/navigator (David Darwin, "DD"). Ames is 5'8", 145 lbs, with shoulder-length red hair and blue eyes, with neural interface jacks at his temple. Stein is 6'4", musclebound, with two cybernetic arms, a shaved head, and red eyes. He wears a tank top that threatens to tear at the seams. Darwin is 5'10", a little chubby, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a neural interface jack in his left wrist. All men are armed (Ames and Darwin with pistols in shoulder rigs, and Stein with an FN-FAL slung over his shoulder). They don't want any trouble, they're just taking it easy. They'll try to talk their way out of a fight (or arrest). The story behind Twitch dates back to our very first Night City Cops game, in which he was my character's best friend (till an apartment bombing sent her to Cop Heaven, anyway). Again, another situation which could have turned ugly if handled poorly. We drove up and played the hick-country-sheriff role to the hilt. We harassed, searched, dressed down, inspected, and hollered, but couldn't find anything to hold them on, so they left. In truth, we didn't want to arrest them; we were just getting a kick out of abusing our power. 4) The Cowboys The Cowboys ride in on their hogs. Actually, three neo-cowboys on Harley Darkwing motorcycles ride into town. They're dressed like cowboys, talk like cowboys, and drink like cowboys. Each of them wears a black sash tied around his/her waist, below their gunbelts. Cowboy #1 - "Strawberry," Nomad "Cowboy"
Awareness +5 Hide/Evade +4 History +2 Spanish +4 Track +5 Athletics +3 Brawling +5 Handgun +6 Melee +4 Motorcycle +5 Rifle +5 Stealth +4
Cowboy #2 - Mary Ann, Nomad Cowboy (Cowgirl?)
Fast Talk +4 Awareness +5 Spanish +4 Track +4 Wilderness Survival +5 Archery +3 Athletics +3 Brawling +4 Driving +3 Handgun +5 Melee +2 Motorcycle +4 Stealth +3 Basic Tech +2
Cowboy #3 - Cagney, Nomad Cowboy/Leader Type
Intimidate +5
The Cowboys don't want any trouble with the locals, or the cops. They're part of a scouting group that is looking for any Wasteland Warriors in the area. They won't tell anyone this, though; they'll just say they're passing through. They'll arrive one night, stay at the Hotel, and probably stick around a couple days to watch the cars rust. Being small-town cops, we had all the prejudices against Nomads that small-town cops usually do. We rode herd on these guys about wearing weapons on the street, but they proved to be remarkably quiet visitors, and the trouble which happened next made them a secondary concern. 5) R&R. Two NCO's from the military base ride into town in a HumVee. They park at the Tumbleweed and get to drinking. This lasts a couple hours. When they get really drunk, they start grabbing at Rebecca and Mel (the waitresses). When Sneed pipes up that they should leave the girls alone, one of them draws his service pistol and tells Sneed he'd better take a walk. Sneed takes a walk -- into the kitchen, where he promptly calls the police. NCO #1 - SSGT. Trevor Cobb, Military Bad Guy
Handgun at +5 Melee and Brawling both at +3 Equipment: Uniform, combat webbing and Colt AMT 2000 pistol (4d6+2, 8/1) with three clips. Description: Tall, about 22 years old, with short blond hair and hazel eyes. Has acne scars on his cheeks. NCO #2 - SGT. Phillip MacKenzie, Military Bad Guy
Rifle at +5 Melee and Brawling both at +3 Drive +4.
These guys will be ready to shoot the resisting girls when the police show up to spoil their fun. Gunfight or peaceful? Suppose it depends on the boys and if they make their cool rolls or not. Hoo, boy. Here's the firefight that cost Maitland her arm. We got a call from Sneed about nine o'clock on a Saturday evening, screeching about a pair of Army men who'd collared Rebecca and Mel (as you may recall, two fifteen- and sixteen-year old girls who worked as waitresses at the Tumbleweed). We scrambled to the Tumbleweed, sirens blaring. Grayson (Katrina) and Maitland went around the back, and Burke (Joe) and Ingles (Brant) slammed in through the saloon-style doors. This scared the Army boys so badly that they panicked, and shots were fired. One of the Army men was too slow in dropping his pistol, and Burke nailed him in the leg, whereupon both Burke and Ingles jumped on him and did that cop "beat-about-the-head-and-shoulders" thing that they do so well. The other Army man hightailed it straight through the kitchen and out the back door, where he ran into Grayson and Maitland... except when WE yelled, "Police! Put down your weapon!" he freaked out and blew Maitland's left arm right off. Yikes. Grayson responded by shooting HIM in the arm, and at that point the combat was over. Maitland was medevacced to Santa Fe, and was in hospital for a week or so, getting her arm replaced. More about this in a bit. 6) Hope it doesn't come to this. Wasteland Warrior patrol comes into town looking for their buddies from last game. Of course, they'll only find the Cowboys sitting around, waiting, not to mention the cops. I'll just use the stats from the old ones... Wasteland Waste #1 - "Kilroy"
Wasteland Waste #2 - "Franz"
These guys did come into town, but what with the hullaballo at the Tumbleweed, both we and the Cowboys kinda missed them. Wish we hadn't, because they reported back and mustered the rest of their group. On To Session Four |