Netrunner vs The Triad

     

Where to begin on my solo RPG playing journey? There is thousands of options available from the undead west of Deadlands, Space faring ala Star Wars or Star Trek, or maybe something a little different like playing a mouse warrior in Mouse Guard. I have recently been catching up on some of my sci-fi novels and I really enjoyed the entire sprawl trilogy that started with Neuromancer. As it just so happens I won a killer deal on a box of GURPS Sci-Fi books at a convention a few years back that included Cyberpunk, Cyberworld, and Cthulhupunk. At the moment my time to play games comes and goes but I have been wanting to break these out for a while so I felt rolling up a netrunner would be a blast to start.

Not wanting to try and milk too many extra points by taking a lot of disadventages  I took the recommended 150 points plus the quirk nosy for 1 extra. Thankfully GURPS character sheet is an amazing program and made putting my character together pretty simple however since many of my books are from the 3rd edition of the game I had to sort of tweak things to make em fit, as well as I decided I wanted to move things far enough along that technology level 9 gear is starting to become the norm. Below is a quick rundown on my character:

Name: Jack Diamond

Age: 23

Location: USA, Nebraska District(North Central Region)

Stats: ST 10, DX 11, IN 14, HT 10

Adv/Dis: 

Contact (The Gutter Rat - Fence) Skill(Streetwise) 15, Appears on 12, usually reliable

Neural Interface - Environmental

Quirk - Nosy

Signature Gear 3 - used mostly to get a basic cyberdeck and misc gear

Skills

Comp hacking - 12

Guns(pistol) - 11

Comp Programming - 12

Electronics Repair - 13

Cyber Deck Operation - 12

Expert Skill(computer security) - 12

Computer Operation - 14

Background: 

Jack started off in his early teens as a gifted student with great skill in computing. One of the Korps was recruiting for bright young talent and he was given a "private scholarship" where he would be given room, board and training for a future as a highly skilled computer professional for the RMG(Raven Media Group). In reality he was being trained to be a netrunner for the korp to be used as a gun for hire to be loaned out as they saw fit. Shortly after his 21st birthday he was let go in lew of younger more talented apprentices and nothing to his name except for the skills he acquired and a reminder that RMG systems are not to be trespassed upon in the future and that he could be conscripted back into service at any time. 

As chance would have it he would meet up with a willy but paranoid older man in his 40s who called himself the Gutter rat who was in need of a runner to handle some low level jobs for him. In exchange for a few simple runs gutter rat provided him with a basic cyberdeck and the location of a relatively safe apartment complex to work out of. 

Now Jack works as a freelance netrunner looking for small jobs here and there and occasionally working his way into hopefully that one big score that will set him up for the rest of his life.

I opted for my first go around with using an oracle to go with the much recommended CRGE or Conjectural Roleplaying GM Emulator by Zach Best of Conjecture Games. I used this mostly to flesh out the world as I went along and to handle the majority of the in the moment questions. For characters encountered and to setup the initial scene I used the Apocalypse oracle. The Apocalypse oracle handles things with both dice and draws from a standard 52 card deck of cards which I found to be an enjoyable change of pace then just pure dice rolls. 

This all worked out quite well I figured Jack here would be looking for work and decided to see if he was near a night club. Turns out he was, a rocking place called the jungle which plays everything from the latest techno to esoteric throat singing. It's a ritzy place where the movers and shakers come to play. I asked if there was a bouncer at the door and sure enough there was. A large hulking figure but dressed in a professional manner. I ask if he will just let me into the club in which I got a no. Now this entire time for those of you who are not familiar with the CRGE, every time you roll for an answer and get a hard yes or no you collect tallies called "surge" which for each subsequent roll you add or subtract 2 from the roll so that the universe is pushing you further and further towards chaos or at-least something interesting happening. Once you hit a yes or no with a but or an and or on the very rare occasion an unexpectedly roll your tallies are cleared and you roll as normal. In this particular case I wanted to know if I could bribe the bouncer to let me in with a 100 credits. I got a no and he warned me that if I don't leave now he will pound my face into the back of my skull. I took that as my moment to leave and the scene. 

I next assumed if Jack wasn't able to score some work at the club perhaps getting a quick bite to eat at a local eatery might turn up something interesting. Turns out he is a regular at a little deli place called Sally's which serves amazing sandwiches. I look through the window to see if any one is inside. Turns out besides Sally herself there is one other. Rolling and drawing on the Apocalypse oracle I find this is a bad person with a unique weapon. Turns out a Mid level triad gang member is shaking the place down for protection but Sally doesn't have the money while holding a fine machete with a saw tooth blade across the top. I check to see if he noticed me outside looking in and he doesn't. Perfect, I pulled out the 9mm and roll a default stealth check to see if I can quietly sneak in and get the drop on him. Critical Success!! I was able to  silently open the door as there was no bell and while he was demanding the money he soon felt the barrel on the back of his head. I gave him an ultimatum to leave now, forget the money and don't return or he won't get to live to regret it. Checking to see if my threat persuaded him to mosey along and got a flat no. He tells me that he will not be leaving and that at this point no matter what I do I am now a man marked for death. He takes 3 to the back of the head and I am now the owner of a spiffy new machete but now I cannot return to Sally's and as a matter of fact will now have to go on the run. I check to see if any of his crew was waiting for him outside and thankfully he came alone so I checked his carcass in the dumpster and headed off into the night to bug out as assuredly word will find a way to get out and Jack will want to be laying low some where a bit more safe.