Acid trip, totem-inspired if you have one, underlying belief-system inspired otherwise.  Beyond that, have fun.  There might even be karma if it's really entertaining :)

Sorry, I'm not entirely certain of how to describe a disturbing hallucination when I'm supposed to be feeling relaxed...I just tried to describe it based on the dice rolls.

I will be away from my main computer for up to a month, which means most of my posts might be from my phone.  I will try to keep up with posting regularly, but they might not be as thorough as they usually are, and I may try to avoid quite as many dice rolls since they are difficult to post from a phone.

I'm sorry to say that I'm in a similar situation since I am on a business trip in Japan, except I will be away from my computer for 2 weeks.  I will also be having limited internet connection throughout the day.  I will try to post as regularly as I can from my phone, but I can't make any promises.  So please fill in and roleplay my character if you guys are waiting on me.

This isn't a super-snappy game, so I'm sure we'll manage just fine.  And things slowing down a tad over the summer is pretty common too.  Enjoy your trips everyone :)

Wow, Japan?? What are you doing there? How long?

Just a friendly poke to WD and Hairy.  (Understand that things get busy during the summer, so no worries about slow posting.)

Yeah, sorry boss. Have not forgotten, just had to abruptly move out from what I thought was a secure home and stay with a friend. Needless to say it’s been a rough week. No computer access. Will try tonget one in within the next 48 hours :/

You've been leading a life that seems way too exciting...

Hope things settle down for you soon.  And no worries about the post - when you have time and life resumes semi-sanity.

Hey, sorry for taking so long.  I only just got back from Japan.

@Hairy: It was a goodwill exchange of sorts between the department at my university and another department at Saitama University.  We were also looking for other labs and industries that might wish to collaborate with us on our project.  That, and we also went around sightseeing.  ;)  It was a lot of fun.  I got to visit quite a few places around Tokyo as well as Tsukuba.

So long as you left the Yakuza alone... :)

Glad you had fun!

(I'm going to give WD another couple of days.  If he doesn't respond, I'm going to presume that he's going to save his magazines - and himself - rather than trying to stick Hairy full of cards.  There'll be time enough for that afterward...)

Strangely enough, I never saw anyone even remotely resembling a hoodlum or yakuza during my time there.  No slick or strangely coloured hair.  No suits or ridiculously weird outfits....(unless you count the cosplay girls in Akihabara or the maids for maid cafes.)  No full body tattoos, or even a sleeve ink.  (I did see this pretty lady with a musical symbol on her ankle, but that was it.)

I did, however, encounter some really annoying guys at a highway rest station revving up their weird looking motorcycles.  It was loud as heck, and annoying as hell.  If they had continued on with their obnoxiously noisy revving, there was a high chance I probably would have had words with them.

But overall, it was quite an eye-opening experience.  The majority of the people I met, saw, or encountered all looked like they put quite an emphasis on maintaining a great outward appearance.  They were either very clean and tidy, and or very well dressed.

A little disappointing, that.

Well I hope when I visit Australia, it still has men in gimp suits chasing guzzoline in monster trucks.

Sorry for the delay everyone- safe and sound in a new place.

@Hairy: Hahahaha, that would be a sight to see!  Please be sure to take some photos if you do ever happen upon such a thing!

@WD: Welcome back!  I hope all is well with you.

I have a question and I don't have access to my source book at the moment, so I can't look it up right now. Can Caduceus's use his Physical Mask spell on his manifested image?  I want to boost up his scary ghost potential.

tldr: No, Physical Mask won't work

According to the book, manifestation is entirely psychic.  It's not machine-detectable.  Physical Mask is purely physical.  I think I'd allow a regular Mask spell to work as it operates on the mind of the target.  But with physical mask, there's nothing there to actually mask.  And the difference between a Mask and a Phantasm spell (that produces the lower drain) is that with Mask you're just altering the base perception of something that's already there, while with Phantasm you're constructing the full reality.

Technically, Physical Mask says that it affects physical sensors "as well", but I think physical mask would be purely physical effect.  If you can fool physical sensors and physical perception, why mess with the mind too?  Trying to do both would be much harder than the +1 in drain would account for.  So my ruling is that regular mask affects only mental perception.  Physical mask affects physical perception.  Only mental perception is relevant for manifestation.

I'll say that you do have some degree of control over what you look like/sound like when you manifest.  You're not bound by the same physical laws your body is and your manifestation is an act of will.  But it's still a manifestation of "you".  You can't manifest as a dragon or cyber zombie or suddenly be 20 feet tall.  Similarly, you can't get the equivalent of a Fear power just because you can manifest.  You can however manifest "less".  Rather than a full form, you could just be a subtle glow.  Or you could manifest your voice without your image.

How about can he manifest with aspects of his shamanic mask showing, as if he is casting a strong spell?  I believe that doesn't show up on sensors either.  His goal isn't so much to provide an actual fear effect as it is to merely appear more unsettling than his normal charming human self.  A person with subtle snake-like features would achieve that goal.  I think it would fit nicely with the theme of his tea-fever hallucinations as well.

Shamanic mask sounds good to me :)  I wonder how Hairy feels about snakes?

He is a city boy. I'm sure he is not keen on them.

Hmm, how is this fire spreading so quickly in Shadowrun combat time? Each combat turn takes about three seconds real-time, and I’m not sure how having a successful throw at Hairy puts the POI of the blast only a foot away from the door, as Duck himself was only a foot away from the door, so he’d have had to throw the molotov at his own feet to have the flames already putting him at risk. Either the entire area is covered in gasoline or I’m misreading something here. Maybe it’s Some GM controlled fire spirit guiding it or something? Help me out here as my mind’s eye is having a bit of trouble. Duck succeeded on his rolls to catch and return the molotov to its origin point, so that should at least give him a couple of rounds of time to react, and I’m not sure how he’s got fire to run through before he gets inside... so yeah. I’d like a review of this apparently magical molotov.

Hairy was about a foot away from the building (he'd just punched the window) and was about 2 meters away from the door.

I'm treating the molotov as an incindiary grenade with reduced scatter and range.  Specifically, scatter is 1-3 meters, 1.5 meter 'blast' radius.  Hairy dodged, which cancelled out some of your successes and resulted in 1 meter of scatter back towards you and the building.  So technically the molotov went off 1 meter from the open door with a 1.5 meter radius.

However, it didn't make sense for him dodging to turn your point-blank hit into you hitting closer to the door than intended, so I'm instead treating it as the gas flowing in your direction.  Also, the blast radius of a regular grenade is essentially instantaneous, while the radius of a molotov isn't quite as instantaneous.  I could have simply declared that the open door was inside the radius of the molotov and that therefore the inside of your shop caught on fire.  However, it seemed more realistic (and more fun) to give you a split second to react and possibly save your shop.

Note that the spread we're talking about isn't the natural spread of the flames after ignition, it's the initial spilling of a couple of litres of flaming gasoline out over the ground

Hopefully that paints a clearer picture.

  (                    )
 (   /              H   )
 (  /             x     )
---- WD  -------=======-------

If it helps, that's a rough diagram of things.  Brackets show "effective" blast radius of the molotov, spilling out from the x.

I think we're waiting on WD to decide his action?

Sorry boss, just got home internet set up so I should be good to go from this point. Also, thanks for the visual! I was confused.

Hooray for internet :)