"Where's the decker?"

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/82851

I thought I'd share this funny story as it's easier to write than the Cutting Black review (coming soon).

It was the first session for a bunch of new players. I did the run I normally do for chummers: kill a gang leader called Chumkicker, frame another gang by copying their signature style. So, they decide to frame the Leather Devils as they have a bike fancy enough to make it work.

Their plan isn't bad, but I spot a pretty obvious hole in it and keep it to myself. They have the decker set up on the street corner to mess with smartlink systems and stuff, they have the mage make a big enough distraction to pull them out of the building, and they have the street sam & rigger do the actual drive-by.

The mage does the distraction (trid phantasm) from inside his car, and drives off as soon as the gang members start coming outside to investigate.

The street sam & rigger come roaring down the street, and while the decker is data spiking all the smartgun systems, they get the mark and roar off.

The decker is now alone, on a street corner, with no exit plan and the entire gang looking around for anybody associated with the hit.

What follows is a looney tunes escape, where he gets shot twice while summoning his scooter (yes, scooter. He blew all his starting nuyen on the best cyberdeck money could buy), and hops on and tries to drive away. Unfortunately, he doesn't have pilot ground vehicle trained, so he's rolling like 2 dice each combat round trying to gain speed. He eventually critically glitches and abandons the broken scooter, and tries to run on foot. He also does not have Running trained, btw.

While all of this is going on, the rest of the party has met up, starts high-fiving (the players knew what was going on, kudos to them for staying in character and not metagaming), and one of them asks "Where's the decker?". They all turn pale as they realize what happened, and get back on their respective vehicles trying to rescue him.

By the time they get there, the decker's been shot a few more times, managed to lose them for a few combat rounds in a crowd but is bleeding profusely, and another shot finally knocks him out cold (burned edge permanently to not die). As he's laying there, with the gang members coming to finish him off, the rest of the party roars in, starts a short gunfight and rescues him.

Moral of the story: have an exit plan for everyone.