This message was deleted by the player at 12:51, Thu 14 July 2016.

At worst, they'll all take one action before you.  If the limo is armed, it can't fire on you because it'll need to ready weapon (simple action) before it can fire the first time (complex action).  And the other body guard will need to either open a window or door (guessing a simple action) so the best they can do is an un-aimed burst at you while you've got your armor and full combat pool available.  And I should be able to take out whoever goes first.  If the driver goes first, there's a chance that my taking out the vehicle will take out (or at least injure) the bodyguard.

In any event, yes, we're waiting for the other side to act.  CH is holding action, which means I get to see what the first goon starts to do before I act.

I don't know about everybody else, but I'm kinda regretting not spending karma and money on getting chip slots.  I'd like to try and slot all three chips in and see what kinda skills I'd get.

Lol, you'd probably turn into David Bowie or Satan or something. Well, who knows, maybe one of these chips is already a Bowie chip.

But imagine that!  You could be the next ultimate president or something!  You can defend yourself as well as command armies and also negotiate deals!

Sounds like a winning plan to me.

So it sounds like Caduceus and White Duck are going in, and the ugly people will be hanging out outside, perhaps letting Noruas do some hacking from a safe location? Are we ready to move to the next scene?

Lol, the ugly people huh?

Well, I'll have you know, my dwarf is only average looking, NOT ugly. ;)


Dunno, what about Caduceus and Copperhead?  Do they have any last inputs?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:36, Fri 02 Sept 2016.

I'm good to go. Not much prep in playing a physad.

I'm good to go....but where?

Think you can bluff yourself in as staff?

If by bluffing my way in, you mean speaking in net speak, sure.  Otherwise, I'd probably be better off trying to sneak in.  Unfortunately, the security level is a tad higher than I expected it to be, and without sufficient information on how to approach the place, I'm afraid that route is a no go as well.  My best form of entry is probably to go in with you and Caduceus as well, then try and sneak off from there.  But that's still a lot of risk especially since my body would need someone to watch over it.

I doubt I can bluff myself in as staff - and wouldn't really want to.  I'm more effective (and protected) inside the van.  If I'm needed inside, I'll figure out how to get in.  Ideally Caduceus would use a service from a spirit to hide Noruas, myself, the van, my Lonestar drone and perhaps my Scorpion drone when we're on the street and would provide similar instructions to a spirit to conceal us when we're inside to help boost our existing sneaking capabilities.  (Force 5 would let you do all of us with one service). I don't remember if he's got physical mask or not - if he wants to cast those on us before we go in and sustain them, he could.  How useful that would be would depend on what sort of wards exist and where they are.

Given Noruas' recent negative experiences with matrix security, my leaning would be to only have him jack in if we have something specific we need to do.  No point in him building tally or drawing attention until then.  If he wants to sneak in before the party gets up and going and stay somewhere out of the way, he could take my briefcase to help watch his body, or I could even send a smaller drone, though that could be harder to get out if he needs to run in a hurry.

Question: What's the nature of the location?  Is this a floor in a skyscraper (in which case, getting access to an adjacent floor may not be so hard) or is it in some stand-alone mansion (where even getting onto the grounds could be tricky)?

Looks to me like we are just about ready.

CH, you know the party isn't anywhere near Junior's offices or living space, right?

I don't recall the specific indication that they weren't close, but I had no presumption they were anywhere close.  My proposal is to spend some time at the party and see if it's a decent use of time.  If so, we can stay a bit longer.  If not, we move on to Junior's office.  Noruas can case an office in Hong Kong while we're sitting a couple-hundred meters from your party if he wants.  Physical proximity not required :>

The building is a condominium. Large lobby and grounds open to residents and guests. The party occupies the entire floor, but there are condos on the floor below. You don't know if they're occupied or not. Consider it like a weird apartment complex/party-grounds hybrid.

I'll go ahead and start posting the next section :)

Question: What's the effect of a concussion grenade on someone who's running hot-sim and whose senses are, effectively, elsewhere?  Presumably they would have a physical effect on the body - i.e. the eyes would see a burned in after-image and the ears would still be ringing if you jacked out, but presumably these effects wouldn't impact you if you were still jacked in and not trying to use those senses.  Is that correct?

You would still suffer the stun (in fact, probably worse, because you can't dodge or dedicate combat pool to soak). And it would impact you in the Matrix as well. So probably bad.

So the disorientation from a loud sound and bright lights occur even if you can't see and hear them?  I can live with that, it just seems odd to me.

Please don't drop a concussion grenade in there with me.  I would understand if its a flashpak, but a concussion grenade would be too much.

I wasn't planning to do anything right now, just checking on contingencies.  I've got a flashpack, thermal smoke and neurostun as well.  I was just thinking and wondered what the impact would be on someone whose senses were "turned off" given that my understanding is that such devices have their primary impact through the senses rather than more physical effects such as shock waves on the brain (which would presumably be considerably more dangerous).

A flashbang would have no effect (assuming it doesn't go off in his lap). Flashpaks are even safer. A concussion grenade causes physical trauma (stun damage). So that would apply.

(Things that don't cause physical trauma don't usually have lasting effects. Concussion grenades, like stun spells, do cause bruises and brain rattling.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:57, Mon 12 Sept 2016.

Ok.  I thought a concussion grenade and a flashbang were synonyms.  So essentially a concussion grenade gives you blast wave without or with reduced fire/heat and fragmentation (or at least softer/less sharp fragments)?

Basically, yes.