Oz response

There is considerable data missing from this AAR that I have gathered from the players. This leaves me disappointed. Nay, annoyed. Annoyed that i had to spend multiple hours last night doing an investigation. Annoyed enough that I had to get clearance from the rest of Thematics to retcon this entire drekstorm. Annoyed enough that I have to sit down here and reiterate what was told to you in private and on GM chat, because it is painfully clear that you did not absorb a single word that was said. With that out of the way, let us get started.

First. You take four characters whose karma do not breach twenty combined on a high threat run. Why did you do this?

    I did not have time to look over and analyse each runner's or player's former experience or capabilities

Mistake number one. You as GM have the final say in which characters are picked. You are expected to do the research on your team to ensure that they can complete the job.

    expected that if they had applied to the run, they knew what they were getting into.

Mistake number two. Of the four taken, one plainly stated it was their first run, one plainly stated they hadn't run in four months, andthree of them plainly stated their career karma was under twenty. You specifically chose the four characters with the lowest karma totals of everyone who applied, and you proceed to blame them for failing the run?

I really need you to understand this: Players do not look at the difficulty level when putting in an app. They look at the time it's held. Schedule first, and foremost. That means it is up to you, as the person who knows what the opposition is, to select a team that has a credible chance of completing the job you have put together.

I'm 1600 characters in and we haven't even started the run yet. Let's keep going.

    Along the way, Basics and Fleur leave to meet with Lanky Jack, though nothing really comes of this besides funny RP as...

What was the point of going to Lanky Jack? Especially as the runtime was

    8 hours (sigh)

I'm also surprised to see this run continue when HTR arrives, given your target is

    an international fugitive wanted for crimes against meta-humanity

That a Horizon news team and a KE captain don't want the massive PR boost for capturing an internationally wanted criminal?

You proceed with an HTR team to roll up and park nearby Toy, then penalize Toy for being there.

I want to make something exceedingly clear, so I will ensure I use small words, bolded, so everyone understands them.

When HTR falls, everybody dies.

Moving on.

    Without a plan, they call their Johnson who is as surprised as them at the turn of events. Using his own considerable resources he manages to find that the target is being held at a small KE station in Auburn, out of sight so that no questions are asked beyond the prepared press conference that is happening in Redmond.

If the Johnson has that kind of resources, then he has the kind of resources to tell the team what they're up against. Keep in mind, their job is done the second that HTR arrives. Having spoken to three of the four players, I know that they were going to walk, especially as the Johnson put them on hold for half an hour, skipping over the part of the job they could have accomplished, to give them an assault on a precinct that has an onsite SWAT element and apparently a DemiGOD spider for a 20% increase in pay.

Most runners would have walked at minute three, and told their fixer if James Bonehead calls again to set up a physical meet so they could beat the shit out of his lying ass.

    Seeing the station mostly undefended besides its token defence and on-site SWAT team, the runners decide that a quick extraction is still possible.

I am patently aware this is a lie. Eight officers and multiple Dobermans, along with a security spider, is not undefended. This is before the SWAT element is taken into account.

You also left out the fact that the rigger lost all of her drones in this assault from having to reboot multiple times during combat because the security spider was apparently in four places at once.

I will also note that intrusion countermeasures are not Agents. THEY DO NOT ATTACK DEVICES.

A HOST IS NOT A PHYSICAL LOCATION. You do not 'enter the host' by walking into the front door of the precinct. That is not how the Matrix works. I am told that IC was attacking runner devices the entire fight. This is patently wrong.

You seem to have capitalized on the mistakes that newbie runners, who told you they were new, were making, instead of helping them understand the system. We very nearly lost a player on the Hub over this subpar farce of a performance.

It is your job, as a GM, to ensure that the job is, in fact, surmountable with the characters brought. If it cannot be completed, you adjust the job. Simply removing two additional fire spirits to this arsenal you call 'undefended' does not cut it. Misreading the rules and using it as an exploit to attack the players, intentional or not, does not cut it.

Nickle and diming the players, particularily brand new ones, vandalizing and stealing their transportation, and forcing them to shell out several thousand nuyen to get to the job you are posting does not cut it.

Forcing me and members of EB to step in to yank back this outright bullshit that you have created does not cut it.

So here's what we're going to do.

This job never happened. It was a shared, four person, sweat-soaked nightmare of a shitstorm attack on a KE facility that left them without sleep and thereby they did not regain that last point of Edge (if they spent it), but their gear and cash levels remain the same as before the run started.

Each of them receives 10GMP on top of the pity karma you gave them (which also doesn't cut it, if you're going to be that cheap with players I'll just revoke your GM privvies now) to use as they see fit. It is comparable to the reward they would have received were it a completable run, and it is just compensation for losing eight hours of their time because you are patently unaware of how to adjust a plan.

I have three quarters of a mind to revoke your GMP for this run for subjecting three newbies to this, and still may unless I am overruled by EB or the senior Thematics division staff.

It is a fine thing that you are taking a break. I am considering requiring a reapplication process to ensure that you are aware and capable of adjusting your plan so success is possible. Setting the scene is not the only part of GMing a game.