A roleplay session in the world of Cyberpunk Red
This session was written up by our Gamesmaster Matt and formatted for my blog by me.
Our players were all started at Rank 4
Garreth as Avery Hicks, Exec
and his Crew Member 'Jasmine'
Phil as 'Holliday' Nomad
Martyn as 'Klink', Medtech
Gamesmaster
Matt as everyone else.
Scene introductions are written in Blue to distinguish them from the roleplayed parts of the scene
Session One: Big Trouble in Little China
Screamsheets
Sometimes the previous sessions activities make the Night City News or even point to possible future jobs...
Handouts - Avery Hicks
GM's Note - Avery's player was the only one whose character stated they were doing anything specific between sessions.
The data that Jasmine copied from Spydar’s terminal concerned the location of a depot bunker belonging to Militech. It seems that Garvey was telling you the truth when he said you had third partied someone else’s score. It is therefore likely that you made more enemies that you might have considered. The bunk is located in the hot zone. Judging by the location, it probably survived the worst of the Arasaka bombing. The bunker contained both materials and data and could be a big score in the right circumstances. The raw materials could fetch a tidy sum alone without whatever else is stored there.
Jasmine
You took Jasmine out for the evening to thank her for a job well done. She was very receptive of your compliments and in fact your advances. You enjoy a very pleasant evening together and breakfast the next morning.
Jasmines Loyalty stat is now 8
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| Anya Metalik Preston's P.A. |
This very evening, you met with Anya Metalik. Obviously, Anya, in her position is used to the finer things in life and you do not disappoint.
Through careful conversation and you have found that your name had been floated around Garvey’s office before. Anya is aware that Preston used to have a friend in sales so perhaps you came recommended.
Apparently you had been on his radar since you had signed on with the Corporation. He was doubtful about your abilities to begin with but couldn’t deny that you had proven yourself over time. Anya had heard your name in conversations between Garvey and Kilo but she doesn’t speak Portuguese and couldn’t tell you any particular details. It was notable that those conversations could get quite heated at times.
You left Anya resting in your room tonight before meeting with the others.
Introduction
Your mission to apprehend the netrunner, Spydar was a resounding success. Not only did you accomplish your objectives but you also acquired some salvage along the way in the form of a few weapons and some cyberware that Klink has spent the last couple of days extracting. Through Holliday’s Aldecaldo background, a local fixer has informed you that there is a night market happening tonight and the three of you have arranged to meet there, to fence the spoils and divide up the score between you. It is also an opportunity to invest in new requirement, weapons and cyberware.
Session Zero of this campaign can be found HERE.
The Night Market
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| 'Nico' Fixer and Arms Dealer |
Navigating through the stalls, Avery Holliday and Klink looked for a suitable vendor to offload the rippers and handguns they liberated from the unfortunate Red Mandible gang. Eventually they came across a well-stocked marquee manned by a tall and handsome black man wearing a long leather duster.
“Evenin’ gents” he said ”I’m Nico, what are you looking for?”
“We’ve got some items we are looking to offload. The reward for a recent outing.” Said Avery.
Nico looked over the weapons, checking the wear and condition and then inspected rippers for any damage. “The guns aren’t great but they’re not in bad nick, the rippers look good, they’ve been well cared for” He paused, seemingly calculating in his head. “Ok, for the two sets of rippers and the guns, I can do 940eb”
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| Eurodollars |
“Fine, I guess I can take a look” drawled Avery trying to look unconcerned about the offer. He could tell that Holliday was already keen to explore what was available.
Nico selected an SMG from one of the racks.
“Here we have a Beretta 1010 SMG. This is excellent quality, 30 round mage, nice and compact great for keeping any “home invaders” head down.” He eyed the pistol on Holliday’s hip. “Of course, If you fancy yourself more of a gunslinger, how about a heavy pistol? I have a couple you might be interested in.”
He walked over to a rack of pistols and picked out an impressive looking revolver.
He picked out another revolver. “This is a Federate Arms Super Chief. Generally these aren’t great but this one has been worked on and improved a fair amount it’s in excellent condition, 6 cylinder, well maintained. 500 bucks to you.” Holliday hefted the pistol, feeling it in his grip. “Colour me intrigued. It’s gotta’ be the right fit though. This is nice, but what else you got?” Nico’s eyes lit up as he reached for another pistol. “I think this is exactly what you’re looking for. Armalite 44, nice and clean excellent quality and completely standard ready for you to customise it to your own spec. 500 eddies and she’s all yours.”
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| Smart-Link Weapon Mod |
“You got any incendiary shells?” Said Holliday. Nico took a box off one of the shells. “Yeah, these are 10 bucks a pop though and there’s no movement on that.”
“Slugs?”
“Yeah” said Nico, “I’ve got some solids too.”
“Can you do the 50 slugs for 45?” said Avery. Nico worked out the deal in his head. “You know, I think we’ve both done well out of this. I can do that.” As they were finalising the deal, Avery had a thought.
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| DX-12 - Shotgun Pistol |
With the deal done, the three of them browsed the market, picking out some other stuff they thought might be useful if they worked together again. They sourced some radio communicators at an electronics vendor and eventually found an appropriate carryall for Klink. He had worryingly specified it must be “About man-sized.”
As they milled around, Avery’s agent began to ring. He recognised the number as belonging to Harper Bascott, a client who had made an order recently on behalf of a wind power corporation called PowerNetic. It seemed odd to the exec that Bascott would call so late. “Mr Bascott, I can only assume this is a misdial, to call so late.”
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| Cyberpunk - Smart Glasses |
“I have had no indication that there was a problem with the shipment.” Said Avery. He frankly couldn’t care about Bascott or PowerNetic but a deal was a deal and he felt he could at least look at what had happened. “Obviously, you’re a valued client to us so I’ll investigate this and work out what went wrong. Don’t cancel the order just yet. I will try and fix it.”
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| Harper Bascott - PowerNetic Exec. |
The phone went dead. ‘Well’ thought Avery, ‘I lose nothing if he dies, but what’s the harm in trying?’ He dialled through to Budget Arms logistics. The call was picked up by a surprised and tired sounding overnight security officer. “Hello”
“This is Avery Hicks, who am I speaking to?”
“Kennedy, Finnby Kennedy sir. This is a late night call isn’t it?”
“Mr Kennedy, I have a upset customer who is missing a delivery. As this is down to logistics, this is your problem. This needs to be sorted, do you understand?” The officer gibbered “I’m s-sorry! What shipment? We haven’t had any problems recorded here sir.”
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| Armoured Delivery Vehicle - Budget Arms |
“That shipment went off without a hitch according to the records. The trucks are back here, no complications were recorded or nothing.” Avery sighed in exasperation. He turned to Holliday “The officer in logistics says that there was no problem. There’s something else here going on.” “Yeah something ain’t right.” Said Holliday “We gonna go look into it?”
Clearly, there was something under the surface. Although Avery considered his job done, he couldn’t shake the feeling of intrigue. He reflected that a problem was often an opportunity in disguise and if opportunity knocked, he was damned sure he would open the door to it. “Mr Kennedy, I’m coming in to find out what has gone on. Please be ready for me.”
The Logistics Centre
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| Corpo Zone - The Glen |
Kennedy turned out to be a harried figure standing outside the distribution yard. His pale complexion spoke of a man who barely saw daylight and Avery concluded he must work permanent nights. He looked tense as the three men approached. “What can you tell me Mr Kennedy” began Avery. “What can I tell the customer about his missing delivery?”
“I don’t know what to tell you Mr Hicks. The trucks went out, they came back in on time. The drivers didn’t report anything.” Said Kennedy.“Look Finnby” he said “someone will get shot for this and I’m sure you understand that may be literally as well as figuratively. It is in your best interest to gather up all the information about this shipment now to control the narrative.” The luckless logistics officer hurried away. Avery had suspicions about a set up. He spoke to the others “This could be an inside job, we need to know where the trucks went.”
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| Map of Night City - 2045 |
“Wasn’t there some big trouble in Little China last night” asked Avery dryly. "Oh yeah!" Said Kennedy “We didn’t think anything of it because our trucks came back.” He looked over at the others. “Do you wanna see the trucks?”
“Holliday is an expert in transporting goods. I shall leave that to him.” Said Avery “I also want to see the manifests though.”
Holliday and Klink went to check out the trucks. They were squat armoured vehicles with the company logo branded on the sides. The nomad hauled himself up to look over the wear and tear. “Klink, there’s a lot of scratches and scars on this piece of shit, most looks old but I reckon some is recent.” He dropped back to the ground and headed for the cab.
“If these were involved in a shootout, someone might have got hurt.” said Klink. He activated the medscanner in his arm and scanned the cab. “Yeah, looks like we got some blood here, its mixed with some shit though. I reckon someone tried to clean it.” He looked the cab over, it was a worn and scuffed mess “I don’t know why they bothered, I don’t think a shootout could make this look any worse than it already does.” Holliday tapped on the windshield, “This glass has been replaced too.” He looked at Klink. “What do you reckon?”
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| EMP Grenade |
Avery looked up from the manifests. “These signatures are literally identical, like they could have been pasted in.” He checked the security footage from the terminal. “These drivers aren’t the same people coming in as that went out.” He followed the four figures through the building. “They just logged the trucks in an left. There’s definitely more to this.”
Avery put an arm around Kennedy and led him back towards the depot. “You should get a couple of drivers you trust, duplicate the order and get it out right now. You don’t want your name attached to losing a client, even a minor one. Make sure any evidence points to the other shift.” He stopped and looked the luckless officer in the eye. “We never spoke and I will deny all knowledge of this, especially if you get caught. Anyway, professional curiosity has grabbed my interest so I’m going to look into this for you. Don’t make me regret this.”
He turned back to the others. “I believe we have an ambush location to see in Little China then.” Stopping on their way out to retrieve Avery’s new pistol from the armoury, they set out for the combat zone.
Little China
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| Little China - Night City |
Holliday walked the path of the trucks. “There are tyre marks here. Looks like the EMP locked the wheels up on the trucks.” He walked a bit further into the junction. “They stopped here.” He visualised the ambush site. “I reckon our raiders were coming in from the north. Had vehicles of their own, stopped them over there.” He pointed to the other side of the highway. He looked about at the ground near the skid marks. “There are more tracks here. After the ambush they moved the trucks further into the combat zone.”
Klink also checked over the area. “There was blood here.” He indicated around the trucks. “Quite a bit. I think the drivers were killed quickly and the guys riding shotgun put up a fight to try and outlast the EMP.” He knelt down and looked more closely at the ground. “They didn’t make it. You can see where the bodies were dragged away.”
Jasmine - Netrunner - Avery Hick's Team Member
Avery pulled up a search on his agent. “There’s a small NCPD station nearby. If the camera footage is anywhere, it’s going to be there. I’ll get Jasmine to meet us.”
The NCPD Station
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| Night City Police Department |
The precinct in Little China was a squat building on a street corner. There was a high chain link fence that surrounded it, with a paddock to the rear for parking a couple of battered police cruisers. Graffiti covered the walls and the heavy metal shutters that covered most of the windows. Dimly, lights could be seen from inside. The edgerunners got the impression that at night, the officers on shift would rather not draw attention to themselves.
The precinct was very small, with only a couple of officers around on each shift. A desk officer looked up as the three men entered. He definitely wasn’t expecting people this time of night, especially not well dressed corpo types like Avery. He looked at them suspiciously. “What can I do for you gentlemen?” he said warily.
“Well officer Kold. I’m sure you saw the Screamsheets. It turns out that the vehicles in question belonged to us. I’m trying to find the details for insurance purposes of course. We have been directed here from the precinct in the Glen. It’s all official. Could my assistant here...” he indicated Jasmine, “...please be shown the footage?”
The Officer was overwhelmed by Avery’s sincerity and confidence. “Yeah, yeah sure, I’ll get someone to take you down. The local CCTV isn’t our responsibility but it gets routed through here anyway. It helps to see what we’re going to walk into sometimes. In this case, we got nothing though.” While Jasmine got to work, Avery asked Kold about the case. “Who was the investigating officer?”
“Did he review the footage?” Asked Avery. “Yeah but like I said the footage was missing.” was the reply
A message from Jasmine flashed up on Avery’s smartglasses. “The precinct camera shows Ross accessing the computer to check the camera feeds. The file of the record is empty as Kold said, however it seems that efforts were made to hide Ross’s presence in the system.”
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| Detective Ross - Night City PD |
“Ross? He’s been here for a while. Local guy I think, he’s got an apartment nearby. He keeps himself to himself mostly. Walks his beat. Likes to gamble.” He laughed “it’s got him into trouble once or twice.” Kold stopped himself “Don’t get me wrong, he always finds a way to settle his scores, pays what he owes. He’s straight up you know?”
“Of course” said Avery, seeing an opportunity. “Would he be up now? Where is the apartment?”
Kold gave him the address. “It’s a block a couple of blocks down. Very close. He’s back on shift today though, it might be as easy to just come back in a few hours.”
“Indeed, I suppose we can come back during his shift. Thank you for your time.”
Avery once again thanked Jasmine for her excellent work especially at short notice and made a mental note to pay her a bonus. It was time to leave.
GM's Note - Avery's player rolled disgustingly high for his persuasion rolls in this and now Officer Kold seems like a goofball who couldn’t spill his guts quickly enough.
Detective Ross
Holliday parked up just around the corner from the apartment, reasoning he didn’t want to risk having his car being recognised by local gangs. The three of them walked back to recon the building. The abundance of gangs in Little China meant that stumbling into one faction or another’s territory was too easy and that would almost certainly lead to violence. The building itself was run down but there was no indication that any gangs had claimed it. “Maybe they leave it alone because he’s a badge.” He said.
They found the apartment without any trouble. “Stand either side of the door” Avery whispered to the others. “When he opens up, grab him.” Holliday and Klink nodded in agreement and took up position. Avery started to knock on the door. Eventually he heard movement from inside. “Who’s there?” came a gruff voice from inside.“Avery Hicks, I work for Budget Arms, I’m investigating a missing shipment that I’m told you are the investigating officer for.”
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| Detective Ross - Night City PD "Can't this fucking wait?" |
“Stand back from the door.” Ross commanded. Avery stood backwards in view of the peephole. “You armed?” said Ross. Avery lifted his jacket to show he was not openly carrying a weapon. He heard the lock click as Ross opened the door.
Braydn Ross was average height in his mid-40’s. Clearly the knocking had woken him up and he had come to the door holding a pistol. As the door opened, Holliday rushed and grappled Ross’ gun from him then twisted his arm up behind his back. “Shut the fuck up or I’ll tear your arm off and beat you to death with it.” He said. Avery drew his concealed pistol and gestured with it. “Well Mr Ross, you clearly have some explaining to do and I am in no mood to ask unnecessary questions.”
“You’re making a big mistake.” Said Ross “Get the fuck out before I call on my buddies down at the station to see you off, I'll have half of them here in ten minutes” Klink laughed, then replied to the threat scornfully. “We've just come from the station. Half of them would amount to exactly one and a half cops...”
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| Klink's 'Surgical' Tools |
“Tell us everything” said Avery “and you will survive the night. Clearly you’re not a man of great moral fibre and if word of this gets out, surely, you will be ruined. Maybe you’ll find that some people who might draw the line at killing a detective are less concerned with killing a disgraced nobody.” Avery smiled “Of course, you’re corruption doesn’t need to become common knowledge. You help us and I won’t forget it.” He stopped smiling. “But you belong to us now.”
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| Tripp Muldoon - Exec. Federated Arms |
“And you know where those guns are now?” Said Avery. He ignored Klink who in his boredom had started investigating Ross’s kitchen. “The trucks were unloaded at a warehouse off the main highways. It’s a bit out of the way. Away from the cameras. I don’t know who he’s got there but it’s not going to unguarded.”
“How many people does this Muldoon have there?” asked Holliday “I don’t know! Last time I was there, maybe ten or so and Kam, she’s one of his specials. She is bad news.”
“Holliday, release him and have a look round.” Said Avery. “See if there’s anything we can use.”
Avery kept watch over the sheepish looking Ross. He was concerned. They were outnumbered at least three to one. Klink reappeared eating a sandwich he had found in the fridge. “He doesn’t have much. Well, he has basically nothing now. We have got some cuffs, a flashlight, road flares or something and a radio.” Holliday walked back in with an assault rifle. “This registered?” he asked Ross. “Yeah, it’s mine”
“Ooh, best behaviour then” said Holliday checking the ammo. “We off?”
“Yes, we need to talk strategy.” Said Avery. “Don’t wait up!” The nomad called back to Ross as they left.
The Warehouse
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| Little China - Warehouse District |
“It’s an option” said the nomad, “but if it goes bad, you’ll be right in the middle of it.” Avery chuckled to himself “That has been the case in every deal I’ve ever been in.”
“Why do you even do what you do?” asked Holliday “Why do you do what you do?” Replied Avery “I’m just very good at it.”
GM's Note - This was some excellent roleplay in character that I think really got across Avery’s self-assured confidence and Holliday’s no nonsense stoicism.
The warehouse was situated in the Little China combat zone. It was tucked away and inconspicuous. It wasn’t a large building, Holliday estimated that it was about 25m by 40m. There were lights on inside despite it now being past midnight.
“We will kill the sentry and then try and get eye inside the warehouse.” Said Avery. “Take us past them please Holliday.” He checked his phone to find that the replacement shipment had been dispatched to PowerNetic. He forwarded the message to Bascott with an apology and an assurance that PowerNetic were a valued customer. At least that was one problem solved tonight.
He drew his heavy pistol, he had had some intensive work completed on it, including an advanced silencer. As the car passed by the warehouse. He expertly shot the guard through the head, toppling him over the wall. Quickly, they parked the car up and checked over the body, finding a radio communicator amongst his weapons. Holliday patched into the frequency so they could listen in.
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| Very Heavy Pistol, Silenced - Avery's |
Inside the warehouse he saw a variety of different items in storage. “It’s not a specialised unit. They have all sorts of shit in there. It’s pretty packed in, there’s some machinery, crates and boxes and a couple of vans.” He radioed back. “I can see uniformed guards stacking Budget Arms branded boxes into different piles and loading them onto the vans and some more keeping guard.“
“Can you see this solo we need to watch out for?” Asked Avery.
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| Kam - Federated Arms, Solo |
“Ok, get back down here. We need a plan.”
Once Klink was back on the ground. The three of them sketched out a quick plan. “I think if we fight them on two fronts we can split their fire a bit.” Said Holliday. “I’ll go around back and come in through the other door.” He started to load his shotgun with incendiary shells.“So we'll come from the other side and cause a distraction. They won’t know what's hit them. If we try and neutralise Kam first, the rest might give up.” Said Avery.
“If I lay down some suppressive fire, we can keep their heads down.” Said Klink doubting his aim.“There is a small office at the front of the building. Could be good cover. What do you think?”
“That’s smart” Said Avery, he turned to Holliday. “We will give you some time to skirt round the back and then start the show. Go on the sound of gunfire.” As Holliday crept quietly around the building, Avery and Klink snorted some synthcoke and started to sneak through the door at the front of the warehouse into the small reception office inside.
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| Klink's SMG |
At the other end of the building Holliday kicked the door in and blasted the two closest guards with his shotgun setting them both alight. He could hear Klink opening fire and spraying hot lead all across the warehouse and sending almost all of the Federated Arms soldiers diving for cover. Only one kept his cool, carefully shooting back at the Medtech. Klink fell back into cover clutching his bruised chest.
Elsewhere the defenders tried to rally and return fire. Kam, slipped viperously fast into the cover of a set of shelves and fired back at Avery clipping him but failing to crack his armour. In return, Avery got off an aimed shot, striking her helmet and badly cutting her head.
Holliday charged into the two men trying to extinguish their clothes and threw thunderous punches into them, beating them to the ground. The guards in cover around the vans however, took aim and started trying to bring him down. Rifle rounds bit into him one after another but he refused to fall.
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| Holliday - Nomad "Good try buddy..." |
“Good try buddy” he said slapping the unconscious man on the cheek and dropping him to the ground. He turned to the cluster of men taking cover behind the trucks and prepared himself for another fight when suddenly he heard a voice.
“Parley?” said Kam. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m sure you can work it out.” Said Avery, somewhat smugly.
“Budget Arms?”
“Yep”
“You should speak to my boss” said Kam. “This doesn’t need to cost any more lives.”
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| Kam - Federated Arms, Solo "We have hit a snag..." |
“Are you alright.” Asked the voice. “I’ll survive” said Kam, “More than some will anyway. You’re on speaker. I called a ceasefire.” The voice sighed. “Who am I speaking to?”
“Avery Hicks.” Said Avery. “Mr Muldoon I presume.” There was a pause. “Indeed. I know of you Mr Hicks. Tell me, what are your terms?”
“The way I see it,” began Avery “You stole a shipment and killed my employees. I’m taking it back. This is just business. Your agent here seemed to realise the odds weren’t in her favour and offered a ceasefire.”
“Just business? I’m sure you appreciate that the initial incident was also, just business. You undercut me. I couldn’t let that slide.”
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| Avery Hicks - Budget Arms Exec. "Until we meet again..." |
“It doesn’t do either of us any favours to squabble over contracts. Perhaps we could come to a mutually beneficially arrangement that prevents these sorts of… misunderstandings, happening in future.” Muldoon went quiet, seemingly thinking it over. “Today, you have won the battle, but you haven’t won the war. I will think about your offer nevertheless. Let my people leave, take your merchandise and we will call it a truce for now. Is that agreeable?”
“That will do for now.” Said Avery “Until we meet again.” The phone went dead. Nervously, Kam gathered her survivors and bundled them into one of the vans. “I doubt this is over.” She said.
“I’m sure. Hopefully our next meeting will be of a more social nature” Said Avery. They had made a big impact in a short amount of time but he wasn’t entirely convinced that their luck would have held. Still, image was everything. “I’m afraid I have much to do tonight, so please. We will talk another time.” He finished.
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| Klink - Medtech "You appear to have been shot a lot..." |
While quickly recovering the left over weapons from the casualties Klink gruesomely dismembered a dead guards head containing an audiosuite. The three edgerunners left with most of the missing guns recovered. Avery made a mental note to tell Nico about the status of the Auto 3’s he had for sale. It never hurt to have people owe you a favour after all. That went double now that he knew he had made an enemy within the munitions sector.
He was thankful for the help that the other men had given him but now he knew he owed them a favour too. Still, he thought as he drove the van, they weren’t the worst people to throw his lot in with and at least none of them had tried to kill him yet.
GM's Round-up
This session was designed to be more of an investigation than a straight up adventure and the players threw themselves into it admirably. I had predicted that they would end up with a dirty cop in their pocket but I hadn't expected them to make off with a van.
Still, now they know they have a powerful enemy that they might be the focus of in future... or they might not be... best not get too paranoid.
Overall I think the session went really well and I was really happy with the level of roleplay and strategy they employed.
Acknowledgement's
I've used pictures of real people to represent some of the characters and art for others so in no particular order Avery Hicks is Tom Ellis, Jasmine is Dichen Lachman, 'Holliday' is Wes Chatham, 'Klink' is Mackenzie Crook, Anya Metalik is Gillian Anderson, 'Nico' is Idris Elba, Harper Bascott is Robert Redford, Detective Ross is Michael Madsen, Tripp Muldoon is Martin Wallstrom and 'Kam' is Lucy Liu.
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