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HERONET Written by Scott Corum and Victor Gipson Editing: Scott Corum Graphic Design and Layout: Scott Corum Cover Art: Scott Corum Interior Art: Scott Corum and Victor Gipson Concept Design: Scott Corum and Victor Gipson Playtesters: David Dalton, Amanda Shouse, Allen Stafford, Wayne Ziegelmeyer

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Dedication: As always, we need to thank our families and friends who put up with the endless hours we put into doing this thing for a living. In particular, Scott’s son Andrew who willingly gave up his dad for a few weeks. Also, we need to thank the friends and homies who managed to listen to us continue to prattle on about this stuff ad nauseum. Oh... and all of you people at ComicCon 2008. All of them. Seriously. It’s complicated.

Thanks To Adobe, E-Frontier, Microsoft, and Alienware, without whom this would have taken a hell of a lot longer. And an additional big thanks to the strong and independent women of the world, without whom we’d have no idea what we were doing. Disclaimer Heronet, this supplement to Hot Chicks: The Roleplaying Game is part of a game, written for entertainment purposes. It makes no claim to be a textbook of the modern world or near future - the events and people represented in this book are works of fiction. We claim no affiliation with any members of the Norse Pantheon, much less an association with the god Loki. This book contains supernatural elements in its background, storylines, and themes. These elements are fiction, and intended soley for entertainment purposes. This book contains mature content - strong language and mature themes. Reader discretion is advised.

©2008, Dakkar Unlimited, All Rights Reserved. All Characters, Names, Places and text herein are copyrighted by Dakkar Unlimited. First Electronic Publication ©2008, Dakkar Unlimited 3

CONTENTS 2

Credits

3

Contents

4

Introduction

5

How to Use this Book

6

Finding Heronet

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Using Heronet

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Title Page

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Mission Generation Charts

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Bosses

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Henchmen, Minions, Monsters, and Zombies

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Bonus Magic Spells

90

Bonus Cyberware

94

Game Master’s Section

97

Sample Missions

100

Index

106

Heronet Mission Form

108

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“Are you sure about this?”

Becky nodded, and hefted her heavy revolver. “That, we can handle.”

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Introduction

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INTRODUCTION

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Becky’s eyes moved over the ruined landscape of the abandoned factory as Paul checked his flank. “As sure as we ever are,” he said, hefting his laser rifle. “Heronet reports that there are aliens abducting people around here somewhere and turning them into undead soldiers.” “Heronet is only right about half the time,” said Becky, as she unholstered her pistol. “What if this is a wild goose chase?” Paul held up his hand for silence and cocked his head to one side. In the distance, he could hear a plaintive, suffering moan. It was almost lost in the light wind that blew across the factory grounds, but it was there. He looked over at Becky, who was looking at him questioningly. “Zombie,” he said, quietly. “You never forget the sound. We’re in the right place.” “What kind of numbers are we talking about, here?” She asked, mentally counting her bullets. “Heronet says it’s a relatively new operation – they’ve only gotten a few zombies made, and it’s a small alien enclave. Ten, maybe fifteen total.”

Paul nodded, and then listened again as the first moan was joined by a second, and then a third. The sound of booted feet dragging across asphalt started up, and a fourth, fifth and sixth moaning voice joined the zombie chorus. When the chorus reached ten, he nodded, and lifted his laser rifle to his shoulder. When the chorus reached twenty, he slowly lowered it. When he and Becky could hear the dragging of boots in a full circle around the factory building, and the moaning sounded like a large convention of wounded porn stars, Paul and Becky looked at one another with wide eyes. “Ten or fifteen?” She asked. “Um… Maybe fifty,” said Paul. “Or sixty. Can’t be more than... maybe ninety?” Becky’s fingers ran along the bullets on her gun belt. There weren’t ninety of them. “So, we’re basically… You know…” “Boned,” said Paul. “Save a couple of bullets, ok?” Becky closed her eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and opened them again.

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“Next time I say that you never take me anyplace interesting,” she said, gritting her teeth, “kindly slap the shit out of me.”

Not every group that follows Heronet leads comes back from their Heronet adventure. It’s considered a good idea to have one’s life insurance paid up before venturing out… If your life insurance covers being eviscerated by demons and/or disintegration.

“You have entered Heronet. God Help You.”

How To Use This Book

The Earth of 2015 has a never-ending supply of people in trouble. Humanity is a food source, and monsters of all kinds are lining up for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

It can be difficult for starting adventurers to find the people who need to be saved. It can be impossible for people who need to be saved to find adventurers.

HERONET is a service that provides adventures for adventurers. This book allows you to roll up random adventures, and includes a large variety of adversaries that will be encountered in these random adventures. The information in this book is primarily useful for the Game Master, and will allow the GM to roll up a quick scenario in just a few minutes. Players may find parts of this book interesting as well.

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Bridging this gap is a bizarre internet-based entity that gathers information from a vast array of unknown sources and distributes it to people clever enough to find it.

This book is a supplement for HOT CHICKS: The Roleplaying Game. You will need HOT CHICKS to use this supplement.

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There are heroes out there… People who desperately want to help those who are in trouble. Men and women who are looking to use their hard core weapons, martial arts skills, magical spells, and what have you to make a difference in the war for the future and destiny of humanity.

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If you are looking for people in trouble, you can find them on Heronet.

There are rumors that Heronet’s information may not always be accurate. There are also rumors that Heronet’s information is always accurate. When someone finds an assignment on Heronet, they will find something like what Heronet describes. The only real problem with accuracy is a problem of magnitude… Problems reported as very large may turn out to be very small, which can be inconvenient. On the other hand, problems reported as very small may turn out to be vast planetary distress situations, which can be worse than inconvenient. Heronet is responsible for any number of adventurers re-defining the term “boned.”

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As with just about everything in the world of Hot Chicks, there are dark secrets behind HERONET. These are contained in the “GM’S Section” towards the back of the book. Players may want to avoid that section as it contains “Spoilers” for the game world. HERONET adventures can be played as “Beer and Pretzels” dungeon-hunts that are there simply for the purpose of beating up bad guys and taking their stuff, or they can be woven into larger, deeper campaigns. It’s entirely up to the GM and Players how these adventures affect their over-all game. Included in the back of this book is an “Adventure Form,” which can be filled out as the GM rolls up the adventure. This keeps track of the various random adventure elements, and helps the GM to monitor the bad guys (mostly ticking them off as the Player Characters whack them without let or hindrance). These can also be kept as a record of the party’s experience and progress. Also included are a few Adventure Forms that have already been filled out as examples. So, let’s begin the process of finding the bad guys, seeing what they’re doing, beating them up, and taking their stuff.

Finding Heronet

looking for it.

A quick search for “something to do” or “someone to help” can easily end in someone passing over a card with the word “Heronet” scrawled on it. The name “Heronet” has been whispered in ears, drawn in lipstick on bar napkins, and passed around in hundreds of different codes. The word is enough to start the search. Looking for Heronet requires a computer with an internet connection. A roll on the Perception Stat plus the Computer skill at a penalty of -5, and six hours of effort, will bring up a blue screen with bright yellow letters reading “You have entered Heronet. God help you.”

Once Heronet has been found, it will do one thing and only one thing. It will point in the direction of someone who needs help. It can not be hacked, it is immune to “Denial of Service” attacks, there are no ways to delve any information out of Heronet that it does not want to divulge. Contrary to the rules that govern computer science, it is also not possible to locate the servers upon which Heronet operates. It never appears to use the same servers twice, and attempts to track its location gives a large selection of impossible responses. It’s almost as if Heronet is everywhere, and nowhere, at the same time. Once Heronet has been found, it is ready and willing to connect the lucky adventurer with people in peril.

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The first step in finding Heronet is knowing that it’s there. There are whispers across internet chat boards and in the back rooms of rough-and-tumble bars that speak of bridge between the helpless and the heroes they need. Adventurers that are looking for something to do may easily come across this mysterious possibility.

Using Heronet

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You’ve found Heronet. You have read “You have entered Heronet. God help you.” The software portal goes black for a moment, and your browser software produces a small window.

Heronet is almost a living, breathing entity; it is never accessed the same way twice. Every time that someone tries to access it, regardless of how many times they have accessed it before, it takes just as long, and is just as difficult. Some groups spend days or weeks just trying to find Heronet. Skilled researchers and computer technicians could swear that Heronet is actively trying not to be found, and that it seems to adapt to new techniques and new technology faster than they can be produced. The harder one looks, the harder it is to find. On the other hand, sometimes it almost seems like Heronet seeks people out. A hacker looking into a completely unrelated issue may find the Heronet portal, or someone investigating an abandoned apartment may find a laptop already logged into Heronet. There’s no telling when one of these “free” portals to Heronet may pop up, but it’s never, ever, when someone is

“Please enter a zip code,” it requests. Some people believe it is asking for their own zip code, others believe it is asking for the zip code they would like to find a problem in. The second is actually the case – entering your own zip code will locate a problem in your own back yard. If you’d like to travel a little, enter the zip code of someplace you’d like to visit. Generally, Heronet will try to locate a problem within fifty miles of the zip code entered. Heronet will accept U.S. Postal zip codes, as well as Postal codes for other countries. Once a zip or postal code has been entered, Heronet will ask “What is your desired level of difficulty?” It offers the choices of “Routine Mission,” “Difficult Mission,” “Very Difficult Mission,” or “Most High Peril.” After that decision is made, the process is out of the user’s hands. From here on, the GM will randomly roll up the various factors that make up a Heronet mission. The GM may allow the player’s to make some of the rolls to keep them involved. To avoid having problems with repeating adventure elements too often, and to give the GM a little control over the process, the GM is free to ignore the result of

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