If we grenade suppressors will be pointless anyway

Nearest neighbours appear to be about half a mile away across water. Automatic fire may well result in a response from the Swedish authorities.... :/
What if we take a few crossbows and the like?
Or, and this might be a REALLY crazy idea, actually contact the Swedish police ourselves and offer our professional services?

Police often take a dim view of civilian interfering, especially when they go on to kill people

What's our list we present to the company?

Are we planning this operation in OOC or IC? Same with kit requisition?

Speaking for myself, I'm good with essentially replicating what's on my character sheet and adding some scuba gear, armour and maybe breaching charges.

Handcuffs, plastic x5
Personal Defence Aerosol, CS gas
Noise Suppressor, Pistol
Flashlight, Mini Mag-Light
Gloves, Light
Shoulder Holster x2      bulk 2
Survival Kit, Special Operations
Watch, Military
Small Arms Cleaning Kit
Swiss Army Knife
Basic Tool Kit
Individual Tactical Radio
Glock 17C
MP-7A1 (Silenced)
Sap gloves
3 mags 17rd 9mmP (Glock 17C)
5 mags 40rd 4.6mm (MP-7A1)

Hmm, may need to upgrade the MP-7 to something with more than a 14 metre range though....

What if we go with non-lethal weaponry? If we get into trouble and the police nab us, that should help our case I'd think...

I'd think they'd throw us in a deep dark hole as nut-case vigilantes with military weapons :)

It's best if we do what we do and go before anyone knows anything has happened in my mind.

We are only 1800m from a hotel and can assume pretty brisk police/military presence once we start banging away. If they see us in black-gear toting mil-spec you can assume it'll be the anti-terrorist squad from both army and police with rather liberal rules of engagement.

However, I'm not sure if I should go into this further if we are going to plan it IC.

I'm happy for you to plan it in or out of IC. Whatever you, the players prefer.
Some people like to just get in and start the shooting, so an OOC planning session would probably suit them better, while others like the roleplaying aspects and so IC would be appropriate.
Or a mix of both if you like - do the equipment here and play through the recon and planning stages. Remember too that you've got access to anything and everything you, the players can find online. It's Merc, not Twilight so google earth, etc is available to you and while perhaps not as good as a real time drone flight, it's still VERY useful.

I'd also like to get some input into which direction you'd all like to see the game head in. What sort of "mission" would you be interested in next? Another investigation/hostage type scenario, or a more typical military one, or something else entirely?

Something else I've been toying with is tailoring scenarios to fit the characters and their skills a bit more. Is there any particular things you'd like your character to be involved with, any skills you're looking to use and improve?

In reply to GM Mk II (msg # 934):

I don't mind having missions where we can go hot, but I like the idea of the boat as a mobile base of operations. It is more realistic than lugging our gear unless someone has a 6x6 truck or similar. Ex-soviet style full or armed soldier may not be so popular driving into Western Europe though.

I'm not sure what the mechanics are like for silencers, but IRL silenced 9mm or anything subsonic will sound innocuous at half a mile away. Certainly speaks for avoiding intermediate calibers (unless subsonic); 5.56 would still sound like a gun at that range, even silenced. 300BLK subsonic (silenced) sounds like a car door slamming even standing right next to it, it would also have the advantage of having better range than a submachinegun. And I don't think anyone suggested belt fed machine guns at all.

Going fully non-lethal does have some merit; most of that stuff is pretty quiet (except bean-bags/rubber balls). Also, if police did get called in their reaction might be slightly less lethal/extreme. But it also severely limits effective range.

Something Karl mentioned reminded me; another potentially useful thing to have would be a gas mask each; especially if we're planning to pop smoke or CS. And, of course, implied by the GM, a "drone" (or as we civilians like to call them, RC quad-copter) could be pretty useful for recce.

As far as actual mission planning goes,I'm ok planning IC or OOC, whatever group consensus (or individual strong opinion) is.

I think the boy scout approach may work here...better to have and not need then need and not have.  By that, we should definitely carry some sort of small arm turnout but we should plan to attempt a non-lethal or low-key approach.  No noise, no extra noses in the picture.  Saps, bats, batons work well but could also go for blades.  I guess it really depends on how well (if at all) they may be entrenched or what counter measures they may have.  Hopefully, the drone can give us some idea of that.

If security on the island is the same people who snatched her from the hotel in the first place, they will have Uzi SMG's and no problem in killing a dozen people who just happen to be in the way....

Single shots are likely to be ignored by neighbours for the most part - hunting is quiet accepted in the area, if a little unusual. Automatic weapons are technically legal in Sweden, but uncommon, and who hunts with bursts anyway?

Overall, if you could keep the rate of fire low (dozen shots total per minute) it's highly likely that somebody would notice, but not bother to report it to police. Given the opposition has SMGs though...

Of course it may be in their best interests not to attract attention either.

The kidnap group was outsourced by the lawyer or the guy in Cuba.  I forget which.

The client engaged his lawyer, Smith, to arrange a "long term visit". Smith got in touch with McClan in Cuba who organised the kidnapping.

Desperate people do desperate things. We have to expect rock and roll.

In reply to Melissa Messervy (msg # 941):

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

How about everyone just makes up their own equipment list for their character, and we'll go from there, filling in any blanks and removing anything that seems a bit....excessive?
Remember Lindrgren does have some limitations, and you do need to either hand the stuff back later, or account for it's absence. Yes, that means ammo expended too! ;)

Were we supposed to have any personal equipment. I think I missed that step or something.

Either way I guess we just put our loaner equipment on our character sheet and let you review it?

Yes, you should have your own gear minus the more "fun" weaponry, but also have to keep in mind those currently in the US have to fly commercial and they don't have a lot of the good stuff on them at the moment.

Can put it on your sheet, sure, or put the list up here and we can all discuss it? Somebody might spot a critical item not on the list the rest of us missed. Up to you, the players, how you want to proceed of course.

In reply to GM Mk II (msg # 945):

Well at this stage I am still sitting under the sunny Swedish sun (which looks and feels much like the moon to Australians) waiting to be called...

Feel free to keep doing what you've been doing and adding your five cents to the planning here in OOC. The more people who get involved, the less likely we'll miss something and screw it up.

I'll start things off then with my personal list.

Handcuffs, plastic x5
Personal Defence Aerosol, CS gas
Noise Suppressor, Pistol
Flashlight, Mini Mag-Light
Gloves, Light
Shoulder Holster x2      bulk 2
Survival Kit, Special Operations
Watch, Military
Small Arms Cleaning Kit
Swiss Army Knife
Basic Tool Kit
Individual Tactical Radio
Glock 17C - some other similar pistol
MP-7A1 (Silenced) - or whatever SMG is available
Sap gloves
3 mags 17rd 9mmP (Glock 17C)
5 mags 40rd 4.6mm (MP-7A1)
Scuba tanks, etc
Kevlar vest + helmet
A couple of kgs of det cord plus fuses, etc to make up frame charges and/or diversionary noise makers
Underwater Carrier
Combat webbing or vest
Night vision gear (either weapon mounted or goggles)

The man has obviously never seen my dice rolls XD

Haven't I? ;)

So nobody got any suggestions for my list, or putting their own up?

In reply to Karl Braende (msg # 950):

Like I mentioned, I kind of already have my kitchen sink. Unless you see non-weapon holes in my list (Weapons are not there, because they are hidden, but do include a taser, AK 47 (Hey, he is Russian...it goes with the passport) and a Heyr Magnum Express.)

Pretty complete.  I don't see an IFAK/tourniquet though.