Balticon 51 Battle Report (part 3)

The mission I ran the most during the Balticon convention was Operation: Flash Strike, which you can download for free at RPGnow, or directly from my dropbox, here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rz093jqqf7f430i/AACAM64n8TPtFgzIzR9XI7C2a?dl=0

It was exciting to see how each group handled the situation differently. A few moments across all those games stick out in my mind, though—many times, people decided to use the overhead air ducts for recon before attacking the smugglers in the warehouse. This allowed them to get a view of part of the warehouse and help the rest of the team waiting outside to prepare for breach. However, once the signal was given and everyone attacked, the air-duct operatives all tried to open the air vent and jump down from the 15' drop. Only one out of the 5 people that tried this actually made the athletics check and landed safely. One dropped right in front of someone with an assault rifle, and three others fell and hurt themselves when they landed. One character was shot and immediately threw up a nanite wall to protect himself (see photo: the nanite hedge was represented by a red rubber-band). Another incident that sticks in memory is when two smugglers jumped into a car, preparing to speed away, but a female Reln character managed to run up to the car, open the door, and shoot the passenger. As he shot back at her, she dove for cover and avoided being hit while the passenger died from his wounds. There was some pretty amazing stuff that went on, including exciting car chases, aggressive interrogations of prisoners, and clever wordplay.

One of my very favorite moments was during an interrogation with the arms dealer: Each team member tried, using diplomacy, bluff, and intimidate, but the arms dealer managed to resist and shut down their attempts. After everyone had failed with him, the Omul character finally decided to try, and using his only Influence die, he actually rolled well each time! He managed to improve the dealer's posture enough that the group could extract the information they needed. The only failure of the Omul was near the end, when he failed his Discern Motive check and heartily agreed to the arms dealer's demands, promising him witness protection, a million credits, and his very own starship.