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Old 11-09-2018, 11:33 PM   #1
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default After Action report using Fantasy Grounds and GURPS

I figured that I'd a moment to give a very brief after action report that transpired in the game tonight. This way - people who can't game regularly with a face to face group might consider using gurps with Fantasy Grounds...

The prelude to the game:
"Fear has a way of doing that to a man." thought the private detective as he waited. The middle aged man, aware that his senses were hyper alert, stood absolutely still in the shadows, praying that no
one could hear his heart beating at its current rapid pace. Every sense heightened as if his very life depended upon him hearing some sound, seeing some motion, no matter how insignificant.

He peered onto the causeway, littered with stacks upon stacks of large shipping containers, dividing the water and wharf from the dockside warehousing. There was no movement at this hour, even
the rats seemed aware that it was unhealthy to be about this night. There was a faint lingering odor mixed in with the tangy smell of ocean salt. Vaguely similiar to raw sewage, the detective didn't pay any further attention to the smell. For him, it was his eyes and ears that would be important. That - and the camera he was carrying with him.

Finally - motion. An autonomously driven truck was arriving near the dockside site. On its side was the logo of some obscure company with what might have been a dog of some sort as its primary logo point of interest. In any event, its arrival set in motion two things. The man's movement to pull his camera up and out, and the shifting of a long barreled rifle with an
obscenely large scope mounted atop it. The slight form holding the rifle steady, could have been a young boy or a fully grown woman. The odd thing was, but for the movement of the rifle, one
would never have realized that there was a human being sitting in that position. The material formed like a blanket, was such that it gave the shooter almost perfect invisibility. Perhaps
the shooter was using one of those famed "optical Invisibility blankets". It worked on the principle that sensors would take in the light closest to it, and a computer processor would analyze on which portion of the blanket opposite of its received image, and portray it there - effectively making it appear as if no one was there under the blanket. The shooter did little
more than aim their rifle at a target - the unsuspecting private detective.

As the private detective surveyed the seemingly abandoned work area, the man scanned the area yet again, certain that someone was out there watching him. He knew that he had risked a lot showing up
this night - especially after he had slipped up earlier yesterday in tailing his target of investigation. As such, tonight, unknown to him, was his last night on earth. For despite the seemingly simple task of finding out what was happening to the Tolliver's Disease Vaccines being shipped to Africa, the people he was tailing were anything but simple thieves or con men.
Tonight, they would tie up a loose end and set a trap for whomever had set the private detective after them. To do that however, they would need to bait the trap carefully.

The sniper from her vantage point, breathed out slowly and held it. She had zeroed in her rifle after the rangefinder determined the precise distance of her shot. These days, it was almost
absurdedly simple to take a sniper rifle and determine all of the variables inherent in taking the shot. Wind distance was factored in by the instrumentation on her rifle. The built in computer
handled all of the calculations involving temperature, air pressure, humidity, and wind speed. The automated scope adjuster was dialed in and all she had to do was slowly ease back on trigger. Almost by surprise, the gun bucked. Its 55 grain high tensile strength bullet was sent wafting down range towards the unsuspecting target's medulla. Suddenly, like a marionette
puppet with its strings cut, the man's body crumpled to the ground. The woman, a trained assassin using the newest up to date technological toys signalled through her DNI to the waiting robodog at her disposal to approach the target. To anyone who might have been watching, a doberman slipped out from where it had been hiding, and loped towards the now unmoving man with his camera scant inches away from his outstretched hand. The robodog was a specialized one actually. Normally, it would have been what was called a Forensics Fetch - a robot whose task was
solely to find DNA and other evidence at a crime scene, scoop it up, bag and tag, and keep inside itself for evidence handling procedures. Instead, it was modified so it could clean up after a crime scene. In addition, the robotic simulation of a dog would be able to mimic the action of an animal chewing through flesh - which it did in an effort to find the slug inside of the
now dead man's head. Gnawing on the head, the robotic dog finally got what it was after, and began to chew elsewhere on the body as well, ripping out flesh from the more tender areas of the
man's body. Even dog saliva would be found deposited upon the body so as to insure that the coroner who examined this body would have little reason to suspect that it was anything but a feral dog feasting on the man's body.

When the work of the robodog was done, the woman, waiting near her car, watched as the robodog approached the car, leapt into the waiting open trunk, and laid down. It would enter into power saving mode until the command was given to where it would leap out and go to where she wanted it. The cold eyed woman, short of height as far as most American women were, smiled a short smile, and connected her DNI to the car system's remote steering processor and fired up the engine. She had a destination to reach, a man to talk to about claiming her reward, and a chance to unwind,
perhaps, to find a suitable distraction for the night. As far as she was concerned, it didn't matter if her distraction was a man or a woman - all that mattered was that she could feel wanted and alive, instead of cold and dead inside.
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Old 11-10-2018, 12:19 AM   #2
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: After Action report using Fantasy Grounds and GURPS

As the three characters got together, one worked for a shooting range in Night City known as THE MARKSMAN. Situated near a police precinct, the range saw a lot of activity at all hours of the day. As the Private Detective named Felix Mason was mourned, members of the police community as well as local community members gathered together for a benefit to be paid to the family. At $500 per entry ticket, members could contest for a prize at the competition, but that the rest of the money gathered would benefit the family. There, two coworkers of the slain man would gather together along with the range employee - to meet with Fiona Hayes, ace Reporter who , as fate might have it, was present at the time Felix Mason was killed. Her footage taken at a site would include everything pertinent to the investigation into his death, and she would provide information on why Felix was murdered. Just not who did it, or why specifically he was taken down. She didn't have all the clues herself.

What she did have - was sources telling her that BTI (Biological Technological Innovators) Inc the only company with a patented manufacturing process to make a working Vaccine for Tolliver's disease - was making vaccines that were ineffective.

As the group gathered around to try to share information, including a coroner's report on the autopsy of Felix Mason, the group discovered the hard way, that when a megacorporation sends out a hit team, they are NOT going to play it in an obvious fashion. The group had gone towards the underground basement level of the Marksman shooting range, to be able to talk in private once the benefit event was concluded.

That is when the corporate strike team hit. First, the hacker infiltrated the shooting range's computer system. Since the shooting range records all activity on its ranges, the hackers knew where their target was. Then the hacker triggered a false "Terrorist attack warning" - and then shut down not only the power to the entire building, but also the back up emergency power generators (keeping the heroes literally in the dark in an underground level f a warehouse). Their real goal? Was to flush out Fiona Hayes with a report that a hit time was on its way to taking her out. Sadly for Fiona, the hit time, consisted precisely of three individuals, a hacker, a mercenary with a LAW, and a second mercenary providing security while the LAW operator set up atop of the building with a clear line of sight to where Fiona had to go if she left the building quickly.

So now, our investigators know that if BTI gets a bad reputation of providing vaccines that don't work, it will go under because right now, that is its only claim to fame. Its patent on the process for making the only effective vaccine will be up for sale for a fraction of its value if BTI goes bankrupt. Who ever is doing this, is substituting bad vaccines for the real vaccine, and has been doing this for months. Being only able to manufacture (for now) 1,000 doses of vaccine per month, should the Tolliver's Disease epidemic spread more widely, those vaccines are going to be worth a fortune.

So, who is behind this? Why does it look as though our bad guys already have a patsy planned to shoulder the blame for what is happening? Why do the bad guys always play so unfair as to force the heroes to fight in total darkness in a basement building?

Yes, now our heroes know that they'd best get their hands on night vision gear, body armor that will let them withstand high velocity rounds, and of course, deal with technology in used in a manner they can't easily anticipate.

"nice doggie, what's his name?"

Little do they know that the dog has been implanted with a video recording system that stores all video captured via the dog's eyes. Toss in a behavioral modification chip, and poor Fido makes for the perfect spy...

so, yes, the game run was fun both as gm who got to visualize their actions, and the players who had no clue what they were walking into for the first game session.

Now, as gm, if the players want to communicate via email those questions their characters would be asking during the down time, spend time researching things on the net, and do secondary things out of the spot light, I can easily handle that during down time.

Who is buying up shares in BTI? Who stands to benefit if BTI folds? What rocket was used in the attack? Can it be traced back to its original source? Did any of the cameras nearby catch a glimpse of the attackers before the attack? Will Fiona recover from her near death experience after the Trauma Team showed up, and did a dust off - saving her from an untimely demise? Can the heroes convince their employer that a group plan for Trauma Team services is a must have benefit for the employees? Where can they find more armor.

And last but least...

can the JV team take on a varsity team and win?

Truth be told, being able to a picture from the internet and say "This is what Fiona Hayes looks like" was nice. Being able to have instant access to player character sheets at the click of a button - also nice. Being able to "whisper" information to a player whose character is the only one who should be privy to information. Nice. Having the program roll the dice for me - VERY Nice.

Ronke really deserves praise for he work he did to make GURPS playable over the net.

On that note, that concludes this after action report.
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