When I ran Chain Reaction I didn't have problems. They found the pills pretty easily with the aid of an x-ray scanner and a sense-augmented swarmanoid. They also didn't have a lot of trouble tracking down the person they were after, thanks to a g-rep favor called in the area (which also justified the warning JJ received). I didn't run into problems with the Smoke Lions, as one of the party members was an actual Shui Fong member, and part of Firewall.

Hi! I wrote this. Thanks for the feedback. Love to hear someone has read my adventure :D Let me try and address your specific concerns (hopefully I don't come across as defensive):

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There is a good chance that the players will neither find the stash of pills in the chair leg or be able to convince his colleague to divulge his drug habit, as both are exceptionally difficult rolls. Since this is the only real lead to go on, this presents a problem to continuity.

This is different. Most of the time people complain that it is too easy to find David's trail :) 1) There are actually three paths that lead to HLS: if the characters know about the wig, the goggles, and/or the boots they can search the spime footage for him, get his fake ID, and track him to HLS. 2) The tests may be difficult but they are not impossible, especially if the characters use teamwork, use moxie, take extra time, or have appropriate complementary skills. Most groups should be able to succeed on one of the three paths.

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While players might track him to the red light district, and might even hit up some brothels or clubs, thats kind of a crapshoot. (The players, for instance, might assume that he is gay and start checking boystown instead of hitting up brothels)

Hitting up the brothels and clubs is one approach but as you said that’s not going to work well. What is better (as mentioned in the "Talking to people on the street" section on pg. 7) is talking to the people on the street everyday who have mnemonic augmentation. If the players are not pursuing the drug angle then they probably know when and where David got off the train and what disguise he was wearing so they can find him using a process similar to the following: 1) find a pleasure pod selling food or standing in a window or maybe risk talking to a beat cop and ask that person if they saw David/Victor. 2) If that person saw him they can then tell/show the characters exactly where he went while he was in their field of vision thanks to mnemonic augmentation. 3) The characters can also see other pleasure pods/people with mnemonic augmentation who might have a better view than the one they are talking to. 4) They can then repeat the process with that new person until David is found.

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Even if they find Julia, the story isn't really very clear on what constitutes a "warning". If the characters just drop in on her without warning, the players have no way of validating the cover story she gives. The fact that nobody saw him leaving isn't really all that suspicious, since nobody seemed to be paying attention at the time, and he could have taken a back door.

1) By warning I meant the type of warning that the core book talks about on pg. 288 and 289 in the "Keeping Quiet" section: sort of one of her contacts saying to her something like "hey some (university students/martian rangers/gangsters/whatever the PCs are) are look into some pills you sold, were real specific about the composition, just giving you a heads up." Sorry if this wasn't very clear. 2) I intended for her cover story to be an obvious lie, something she just thinks up on the fly. Sorry if I didn't make it obvious enough. 3) Remember that lots of people in the district have mnemonic augmentation. Even if they aren't paying attention, they should still remember him leaving the place.

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Also, why do the Smoke Lions simply assume they are members of Shui Fong? There is nothing to identify them as such and no reason to assume they are anything other than random passerby's. Is Julia supposed to have tipped them off? What if she is unable to do so, or if the characters convince her they are not with Shui Fong?

Julia is not supposed to have tipped off the Smoke Lions. When I wrote this I tried to think like transhuman gangsters who: 1) believe they are infected with a secret bioweapon and 2) are holed up in a lab that the secret bioweapon makers (who they believe are the Shui Fong) know the location of. Under those circumstances it seemed to me that assuming anyone coming into the building is a member of the Shui Fong come to finish the job of destroying the lab/getting rid of the evidence is a reasonable assumption. Hope this helps. I am still working on Right Round BTW. Anxiety is causing serious delays but I hope to finish it eventually.

Lalande21185, you're doing a fantastic job with the scenarios! The NPCs and setting are very well structured and it's really rewarding to read through and play the material. Extra kudos for providing maps without the keys - take note, Posthuman writers! ;) I've just finished narrating Chain Reaction to my players and the only "problem" was that Chimera easily defeated the group. It was a Total Party Kill. The mercenaries arrived shortly after the group defeated the Smoke Lions at Mike's Custom Morphs and, even with a decent defensive strategy, the group was no match for their firepower. Chimera's gear is simply too good for a group that isn't armed to the teeth, which was the case as they were expecting a bit of trouble but didn't want to carry too many weapons and attract unwanted attention from the OIA police (they were still undercover). Anyway - keep up the good work! :)