While I was researching Amsterdam for the start of this game, I read that there are a couple of diamond factories there that offer free guided tours.  I imagine that every dad who ever goes through asks if they give out free samples.

And on that note, let's get going with this deadly serious game!

So, with only 4 Health, that would seem to indicate (if I understand the rules correctly) that we really shouldn't get into combat very often.

Also, Tyr has 1 in his Streetwise Pool and 1 in his Tradecraft Pool? Is that right, or have I screwed up my character sheet already?

You start with 4 Health, but you can add more when you buy general abilities (a later step in char gen).  Same with Stability.  Even so, the book does recommend being very careful with combat, and doing whatever you can to stack the deck in your favor.

You start with points in Streetwise and Tradecraft for free, so I put that on the character sheet template.  You can put more points into those if you want, but that's up to you.

So, we’re in Amsterdam at the start? What year? it could help to build my background. :)

Somewhere in the region of 2012-2015.  Basically present day, but without all the extra garbage we've been dealing with the last couple years.

Hello all!

I am driving a lot today, so will post later on or, probably, tomorrow.

Hope to join the fray soon.

The idea is that we all know one another, and have been working together for a bit, correct?

My idea of Rob is that he is a Dutch guy.
Probably in his '60's, an ex-Hippy dude (born in the 50's, late 60's & 70's as a young man) maybe (ex-)pot head. Who then ended up in the Dutch FBI, the AIVD--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...and_Security_Service
--I'll flesh all this out when I have some time soon.

I am fine going with whatever is lacking in the group if people have specific roles they want.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:33, Mon 17 Aug 2020.

In general, NBA doesn't really deal with roles per se. You have 39 Investigation skills that are supposed to be covered by the team so that something doesn't slip through the cracks. The other assumption seems to be that everyone is law enforcement or espionage trained.

However, if there are roles (sometimes makes it easier to grasp your character), I'd think the Leverage roles might fit better than classic fantasy roles.

So, Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief and Mastermind would work.

My character is a Swedish insurance investigator specializing in recovering art and antiquities thefts.

Yes.  It's up to you how you know each other, and it doesn't even have to ever be defined, we just assume that as the game begins you have all been working together for a bit.

Like Tyr said, there are no "official" roles.  You will probably develop roles within the team based on what skills you bring to the table.  Some of that might come out with figuring out who covers which investigative abilities, or if you choose any of the templates I listed in the char gen thread (which, again, are optional).  But there will definitely be some overlap, and there's no problem with saying something like Rob would usually be the go-to person for breaking into a secure location, but he's busy with another task right now so Tyr is going to do it instead.

Having now had the time to read everything in detail, here are some remarks/questions.

I am fine w. all our Director stated re. Mature ; w. warning if away etc..

Personally I dislike PvP/PK games (where PCs/players attack/cheat/steal from/lie vs. other PCs/players). Since we are a united group, I imagine that is not the case here, but I just wanted to say that I just do not like those types of situations myself.
Also, though I am not against seeing people RPing prejudiced remarks, I would prefer, if possible, not to see such things in PC/Player vs. PC/Player dialog.

Since we do not know one another, and it is hard to know what might hurt someone, or what might be not seen as said in jest etc., please tell me if anything I post makes someone/you uncomfortable. It very most probably was not intended, and can surely be worked out to not happen again.

Please use colored text for dialogue.
I'll go with goldenrod for my Rob Zwartnacht.

There is no mandatory posting rate
What is the desired posting rate, dear Director, or at least the one aimed for?
Personally I prefer faster rhythms (1 post / day).

Well said, Rob.

Ideal posting rate would be something close to 1/day, but I have a busy life outside of gaming, and I assume that most (or all) of you do as well, and sometimes it's just not possible, what with time constraints or just plain running out of steam for the moment.  So all I really ask is post when you can, and say something if you know you're going to be away for a bit, or to confirm that you're still around if you haven't said anything recently.

Fine by me!
__________
re. Rob, here is what I came up w. so far (can change the stuff here to fit w. others)
__________
Rob Zwartnacht
A 60 year old Dutchman, Rob started med school in the 1970's, at the same time as being a Hippy.
Though he obtained his MD, specializing in forensics, it took him some time, as he also traveled the world (Goa, India ; Chile...), loving to learn languages, and delve into the local lore and legends - financing his travels by making pharmaceutical drugs.
Having encountered elements that made him feel there were threats out there, he soon turned to helping his country, and was able to join the AIVD, the "Dutch FBI" (The General Intelligence and Security Service ; Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst) in the late 1980's.
He worked there mainly as an analyst and medic (pathologist), not much in the field.
After 30 years of service, during which he rose in the ranks, finally running the research & analysis service, Rob retired from the AIVD a few years ago.
Mainly to not be bored, he became part of the team (offering "security consulting" work on the gray markets of Amsterdam).

1 Bullshit Detector (Interpersonal)
1 Bureaucracy (Interpersonal)
1 Chemistry (Technical)
1 Cop Talk (Interpersonal)
1 Criminology (Academic)
1 Cryptography (Technical)
2 Diagnosis (Technical) he is an MD
2 Forensic Pathology (Technical) Degree
1 History (Academic)
3 Languages (Academic) Dutch, English, +9 languages
(don't know if it best to choose some now, or leave all open for as we go?)
Was imagining some old ones (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit...) some current (Spanish, German, Russian...)? No idea which we might be using.
1 Law (Academic)
1 Notice (Technical)
1 Occult Studies (Academic)
1 Pharmacy (Technical)
1 Photography (Technical)
1 Reassurance (Interpersonal)
1 Research (Academic)
1 Vampirology (Academic)

Name: Rob Zwartnacht
Background: Analyst-pathologist w. the Dutch FBI
Drive: discovering the Mystery (he guesses there are Vampires, something Occult?)
Sources of stability

Vehicle training: none
Special weapons training: none
Noteworthy gear: a pencil stuck over his ear

This is pretty much what I saw Tyr as needing. Obviously there's some room for flexibility.


This message was last edited by the player at 18:55, Wed 19 Aug 2020.

You can definitely pick a couple of these now if you want, but the rules explicitly recommend leaving most of your slots open and then picking when it's relevant in the game ("we need to follow up on this clue in an isolated village in Papua New Guinea?  Well of course I speak Sisibna!")

Okay!
Thanks.

BTW: I speak Sisibna IRL!
(joking: I believe never even heard of that language...)

Working Antoine's crunch up.

I do know that he's a Mule and Wheel Artist at least. :)

Former member of la Surete, and the DGSE (French CIA)...

One thing of note, I planned on one of his covers having been involved in the art world.

Thoughts?

Vive Antoine Lecœur !

Very nice.

Here is what those templates look like (and keep in mind that these are just suggestions for how to spend your points):

Mule
Investigative abilities - Bureaucracy 1, Forgery 1, Negotiation 2, Outdoor Survival
or Urban Survival 1, Streetwise 1
Alternates: Archaeology, Art History
General abilities - Conceal 8, Driving 4, Piloting 2, Surveillance 4
Alternates: Cover

Wheel Artist
Investigative abilities - Cop Talk 2, Streetwise 2, Urban Survival 2
Alternates: Electronic Surveillance
General abilities - Driving 10, Mechanics 4, Piloting 4
Alternates: Sense Trouble, Surveillance

As for covers, it looks like you might have already glanced a the rules for how they work, but I'll put a quick summary in the Rules thread shortly.

Here's a table showing what each character has (so far). Note that these can still be changed. I don't know what templates would fill in the 'blanks', though. Looks like we need a Con Artist and an Outdoorsy type.

Hi all, last minute addition here!

My initial thought had been to go down the medical doctor route but it looks like that niche might already have been filled. From descriptions seems like the team might be lacking some muscle so might have a think about what I can do around that. Ex-military background might also tick some of the outdoorsy skills too.

Or how about a conspiracy survivalist! You just KNOW the Zombie Apocalypse is coming!

Ooh I like that idea!

But how is a conspiracy survivalist involved with the intelligence community?

Btw, Tyr, thanks for that table!

You're welcome.


If he believes in zombies, he probably believes in vampires, too! He's our vampire expert! He's got the wooden stakes, silver bullets, garlic, crosses, holy water, etc.

Wonderful...

Fair point. Maybe conspiracy survival prepping is a side issue for him. He's a former black ops type who saw too much (maybe something he killed just didn't stay dead) which drove him into conspiracy theories and the like. He works with the group because you've got to fund your  supply of holy water somehow!

Sure, I'm sold.

How is everybody doing on char gen by the way?  Think we might be ready to start the action this weekend?  It's okay if you're not 100% done by then, as long as you've got things mostly figured out.

Okay, I will finish the character today then.
I just thought that we were supposed to organize covering all the different abilities so was waiting for that (but since I am not even on the table I will just move on).

Rob, you can talk about which abilities you want and copy the table to add your ideas into it (or exact numbers if you have them figured out).  As long as you take at least a few of the ones that are currently blank we should be fine.  If, at the end of this, there are any Investigative abilities that all four of you have skipped, then we can talk about either someone rearranging some points to cover the gap, or all of you as a group choosing to neglect that one and then hoping you won't need it any time soon (someone can always buy it with xp later in the game).

And if you feel like you're really not going to be ready in the next couple days then that's okay.  I'm excited about the game but I can wait if you guys need more time.

I already listed all that.

Sorry - it looks like Rob and Antoine got switched in the original table, so looking at it with insufficient memory and caffeine I got confused about whose stats were up and who is still working on theirs.  I think this version is more accurate for what we've discussed so far?

Oops! How the hell did that happen? ;-)

We got infilitrated.
There is a mole.

Thanks!

(I forgot to add in the 1 Streetwise and 1 Tradecraft).
__________________________
General Abilities

4 - Athletics
0 - Conceal
7 - Cover
4 - Digital Intrusion
0 - Disguise
0 - Driving
0 - Explosive Devices
4 - Filch
0 - Gambling
1 - Hand-to-Hand
0 - Infiltration
4 - Mechanics
8 - Medic (MOS)
8 - Network
0 - Piloting
4 - Preparedness
8 - Sense Trouble
8 - Shooting
4 - Shrink
4 - Surveillance
1 - Weapons
8 - Health
8 - Stability

You can also put these points into raising Health and Stability if you'd like (and you probably should).
So that is +8 Health & +8 Stability

There is no limit to how many points you can spend in any one ability, except that it cannot be more than twice as high as your second-highest.
That works for Cover and Network too? (so, in my case, I can only have 8 max' in one of the two?).

Then I assign points to various Covers and Networks, correct?
Like:
Cover @4 = John Bubba, traveling medical salesman who yadda, yadda...
Network @1 = a friend who is reporter for the BBC...

Sources of stability:
• Mia Zwartnacht ; the daughter of my GF, that Rob adopted (works for a car rental service-- abroad?)
• Bart Zwarnacht ; younger brother (a plumber/electrician)
• Jenny Sorman ; used to be my secretary at AIVD, for the last 12 years

Symbol - a small gold caduceus on a neck chain (given to Rob by his mom when he graduated and became an MD)

Solace - Mona Mooi ; my girlfriend (runs a food delivery service)

Safety - family beach cabin (the place Rob went to w. his parents & his brother as a kid. He co-owns it w. his brother Bart) a small cabin in the dunes

Drive - I had discovering the Mystery before (he traveled a lot, studied history, languages, and maybe guesses there are Vampires, or something Occult?)

Gear - a pencil stuck over his ear, a handgun in his jacket pocket, and his medical bag in hand...

Tell me if anything is stupid, or if I am missing a key thing to survive...
This message was last edited by the player at 18:05, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

This is what I've got thus far:

Name: Galen Ives
Background: Wet Work
Drive: Slayer (what killed his old team is unnatural and must be destroyed!)
Sources of stability
-Symbol: A crumpled photo of his old black-ops team; he is the only survivor.
-Solace: Joanna Ives, his niece who lives in Birmingham, UK.
-Safety: Cottage in the countryside outside Paris. Where he keeps his eclectic supply of guns and survivalist paraphernalia.

MoS - Shooting

Health: 10/10         Stability: 8/8

Investigative Abilities:
Accounting __/__           Bullshit Detector __/__     Astronomy __/__
Archaeology  __/__         Bureaucracy __/__           Chemistry _1_/_1_
Architecture _1_/_1_       Cop Talk __/__              Cryptography __/__
Art History __/__          Flattery __/__              Data Recovery __/__
Criminology __/__          Flirting __/__              Electronic Surveillance __/__
Diagnosis __/__            High Society __/__          Forensic Pathology __/__
History __/__              Interrogation _1_/_1_       Forgery __/__
Human Terrain _2_/_2_      Intimidation _2_/_2_        Notice _2_/_2_
Languages _1_/_1_          Negotiation __/__           Outdoor Survival _2_/_2_
Law __/__                  Reassurance __/__           Pharmacy __/__
Military Science _2_/_2_   Streetwise _2_/_2_          Photography __/__
Occult Studies _1_/_1_     Tradecraft _3_/_3_          Traffic Analysis _1_/_1_
Research _1_/_1_                                       Urban Survival _1_/_1_
Vampirology _1_/_1_

General Abilities:
Athletics 10/10            Filch __/__                 Piloting __/__
Conceal 2/2                Gambling __/__              Preparedness 5/5
Cover 15/15                Hand-to-Hand 8/8            Sense Trouble __/__
Digital Intrusion __/__    Infiltration 5/5            Shooting 10/10
Disguise 3/3               Mechanics 2/2               Shrink __/__
Driving 3/3                Medic __/__                 Surveillance 5/5
Explosive Devices 5/5      Networking 15/15            Weapons __/__

I should have my stats up tomorrow. I think Antoine will have Cleaner, Mule and Wheelman as his background... (although still a toss-up between Cleaner and Wet Work... (if can’t tell, am basing Antoine on the Jason Statham’s Transporter :) )

Here's Tyr's Abilities. I adjusted his Investigative Abilities a bit. I was thinking of making his MOS Preparedness.

I see I did not read well enough: it is 15 in each of Cover/Networking (so have to have 8 min' in the other for the max' level being double to the 2nd highest?).

Everyone - I just realized I made a mistake in the Char Gen thread.  I said that Cover and Network each start with 15 points for free (and I might have said it in an unclear way), but Cover actually only starts at 10.  Network does indeed start at 15.  I've corrected it now in that thread.  Sorry about that.

Also, for those of you who have worked out your General abilities, I will add the associated cherries into your character sheets in a little bit.

Also also, since a couple of you have written in some past experience with the supernatural (at least suspected, if not verified), I'm going to declare for now that none of you have shared that information with each other up to this point - maybe dropped vague hints, but not openly discussed it.  But that only applies to life before the start of the game.

Rob - If I'm understanding this correctly, you've split the 15 points between Cover and Network, and then spent another 70 on top of that.  You can bump Cover and Network up to 10 and 15, respectively.  And no, those do not count toward the rule about your highest score being twice your second highest.
You do have the right idea about how Cover and Network work, but you don't have to spend those points now.  If you have ideas that you want to establish already then go ahead, but you are also free to save those points until the right moment comes up for you to call your friend at the BBC.
Sources of stability - the Symbol, Solace, and Safety are the sources, as far as game mechanics go.  You are welcome to have defined other people as well, they just won't have a game mechanics effect.  Also, for your Solace and Safety, please specify where they are located.

Galen - unless I missed something, you still have 2 more General points to spend

Antoine - see upthread for the Mule and Wheel Artist templates.  For the others that you're considering...
Cleaner:
Investigative - Bureaucracy 2, Cop Talk 1, Criminology 2, Urban Survival 1
alternates - Chemistry, Data Recovery, Electronic Surveillance, Notice, Streetwise
General - Conceal 6, Disguise 2, Driving 4, Explosive Devices 2, Infiltration 2, Stability 2
alternates - Digital Intrusion
Wet Worker:
Investigative - Intimidation 2, Streetwise 2, Urban Survival 2
alternates - Criminology, Electronic Surveillance, Photography
General - (Shooting or Weapons) 10, Hand-to-Hand 4, Surveillance 4
alternates - Disguise, Explosive Devices, Infiltration

Tyr - it looks like you have 8 General points unspent, unless you put them into Health or Stability and didn't include that in your table there.  Also, where did Notice 4 come from in your Investigative abilities?  I see where you shuffled a couple points around but not that much.


And here is the updated table for what we have so far:

...so that leaves Accounting, Flattery, Flirting, and Astronomy vacant.  Antoine, feel like taking any of those?  Or does anyone else feel like shuffling their points to cover them?

Here's my updated list. For some reason, I thought we could use some of the General Points to boost Investigation Abilities. Plus, I may have added things up wrong.

I could always swap Cop Talk for Accounting or Astronomy.

Health: 8/8       Stability: 5/5

CHANGES MADE
My full updated info' is in my character description

Drive: discovering the Mystery ; he traveled a lot, studied history, languages, and has the feeling there is some Occult force at play (he does not know of Vampires, but has spotted signs of their existence)

Solace - Mona Mooi ; my girlfriend (she runs a “food barge” in Amsterdam), Rob lives with her on that barge (on the canals of Amsterdam) when he is in town

Safety - beach pavilion in Schiermonnikoog (West Frisian Islands, up North, close to Germany). His vacation/retreat place

3 Languages (Academic) Dutch, English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew
+5 languages left open

10 - Cover
• Samuel Stritham (4 Cover) ; British citizen, works for Williams Medical Supplies as an international sales rep’ (thus traveling a lot, with medical samples)
+6 left open

15 - Network
• Jenny Boorstil (4 Network) ; curator at the Tropenmuseum, the Amsterdam ethnographic museum
+11 left open

___________________

that leaves Accounting, Flattery, Flirting, and Astronomy vacant
Tyr said he could take Accounting (giving up Cop Talk).
I would be up to dropping Law and taking Astronomy. Tell me if I should do that?
Leaving: Flattery & Flirting-- which go well together!

Thank you for your flexibility guys.  Let's wait and see what Antoine picks, and then if there are still gaps to cover and you are willing to make those changes you can do that.

Fair point, my maths is terrible! I'll probably drop them in 'conceal' to bump that up.

Happy to shuffle points around if it balances out the team. I could probably drop a point in Tradecraft for Astronomy?

Ok, I think This is Antoine's stats... still working on appropriate Drives, etc based o timeline...


This message was last updated by the player at 19:46, Sat 22 Aug 2020.

So that just leaves Flattery and Astronomy unclaimed.  A couple of you mentioned being willing to move a point from somewhere else into Astronomy, and no one has said anything about Flattery.  My hunch, from reading the game but not having tested it out yet, is that this takes away one method of pumping people for information but you still have enough others that we are probably okay without it.  That said, I will leave the final decision with you fine folks as far as whether or not you want to let that one slide.

I will drop Law and take Astronomy.
Updating now in my description.

If someone wants to take Flattery (Tyr? Instead of Cop Talk...).
This message was last edited by the player at 12:32, Mon 24 Aug 2020.

Sure, I'll take Flattery in place of Cop Talk. If I can't understand what a cop is saying, I'll just flattery him until he spells it out in plain English... or Swedish... or German... or whatever.


By the way, nice job, Rob, on putting your character sheet in your Description!
This message was last edited by the player at 17:28, Mon 24 Aug 2020.

By the way, nice job, Rob, on putting your character sheet in your Description!
Thanks. I'll see how to make that in tables once I it is finalized (I'm not rpol expert).

Cop Talk flattery: "That donut suits your eyes so well, detective!"

xD )))

Game is on!  Time to act serious, or at least something close to it.

By the way, since we're all still learning, you will have some leeway to adjust your characters once we get a better feel for how things actually work.

As I understand it, if you use the Quote function for a table, it'll preserve the formatting.

Here's the revised and updated table of everyone's Abilities. Everyone double check the table, though, to make sure I got it right. Don't know Galen's languages...


This message was last edited by the player at 20:04, Tue 25 Aug 2020.

Thanks a lot for all this!

I have 1 in Streetwise and Tradecraft too (the free points).
I will check all this (and use your table - quote works to copy the format, THANKS! - use your table to put up my finalized character) tomorrow I think (or later tonight).

I am well impressed with that table - wouldn't know where to start doing something like that!

Only corrections to Galen's stats that I can see are that his Cover should be 10 and his Conceal should be 4.

Languages I was going to throw in as they came up in play but his native is English and lets have Dutch and German given where we're based. Actually that pretty much fills up his slots...

Also hats off to Welsh as an impressively niche language choice! I so want that to come up in play!

*starts rewriting significant sections of villain plans to now be in Wales*

Other than that, I'm enjoying the preliminary planning so far.  You guys can keep that up as long as you'd like, I'm just going to put this out now that when you move from talking to doing you should include an OOC line about which Investigative ability you're using.  Even if you're not spending anything, that helps me keep track of what kind of info you're going to get, as well as how to set the scene and all that.  And what sort of bonuses you might get if you do decide to spend.

the city called Dikke Rups
Oh?! Wow...
I was even "worse" than you.
I though it was in a city called Dikke Rups!
The south side of that city.

The table was made using the Quick Table rules. There's a more extended version for doing more complicated tables.


Don't know if the Director came up with it the same way, but Google translate says Dikke Rups means 'Fat Caterpillar'.

I was going to comment that it seemed odd that no one chose any languages from the Far East, but then it did seem as if the game was going to be Euro-centric.

Yes, Google Translate is exactly how I came up with that :)  That, plus me trying to think of a name that might appeal to potheads.

And I apologize for the confusion about what exactly carries that name.  Having gone back and reread the sentence, I see now how it could have been ambiguous.  But don't worry, it's just the coffeeshop, not the whole neighborhood or the notorious suburb.

One of the vagaries of the English language.

Like the Churchill quote: "This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put."

Or the Pennsylvania Dutch line: "Throw the cow over the fence some hay."

I've never heard this one before, but I'm imagining the alternate version being spoken by a Canadian as "throw the cow over the fence some, eh?"

Yes, writing sentences that not only can be understood the way you want them to be... but actually can only be understood that way! A daily chore.

Here is my updated character sheet, pillaged and hopefully not too messed up:



This message was last edited by the player at 18:30, Wed 26 Aug 2020.

Looks reasonable to me.  Health and Stability both start at 4 for free, so it looks like you've bumped them both up to 12?

Correct (had +8 in each).
I'll see if that is enough!

Updated my sheet for those two scores.

Then I'll stand behind you!

OOC: I was imagining using Research.

Tyr and Antoine, are you doing any investigating at this point or just hanging out at the office until it's your time to shine?  If you have something you want to accomplish but you're not sure how to go about it, we can certainly talk about that.

Everyone - I forgot to mention this before, but this mission is happening in the midst of the Amsterdam Tulip Festival.  Feel free to work that into your descriptions as you go about your business, but you're also safe to ignore it as long as you're staying out of the major parks, tourist areas, and city center.

- When you offer that possibility, that means that the spent point will yield something, correct?
- I have Research 1 ; so if I spent that point it means that I remain at Research 1, but have currently 0 points to spend (for later Research spends)
This message was last edited by the player at 12:29, Sat 29 Aug 2020.

Sorry for the double posting:
I had not seen the Cherries you put at the bottom of the character sheet.

Cool re. Initiative (I'll try to remember)
re. Shooting: I will wait and see if I spend XP for that

re. Medical School of Hard Knocks (Medic) - you get 1 free point in Diagnosis
So, that means I add 1 point to Diagnosis now, correct?

Yes to all of these.  To clarify with regard to Research, even though your pool is down to 0 you can still use this skill as much as you want to acquire any information that it could get for "free," you just can't lean on it for extra info or other bonuses anymore until it refreshes.

By the way, any time you are using an Investigative ability, you are welcome to ask for a spend without waiting for me to tell you there is something there.  You can even suggest what sort of info it might find, though I reserve the right to veto your suggestion.  If you want to spend but neither of us can think of something for you to get from it, then the spend is canceled and you keep the point(s).

Thanks!

Antoine has withdrawn from the game due to real life stuff.

At the same time, we should have another player joining, and it's early enough in the game that I think we can easily just retcon them in from the start.

Okay!

Sorry to cut you off here, although I'm kind of amused by the mental image of Rob figuring out the entire vampire conspiracy from just a solid 24-48 hours of Googling and occasionally checking the library's microfiche collection.

Ha ha!
Then I would check out if they have a book called Night's Black Agents?

I imagine we have a computer from which to use Digital Intrusion?

Is it a laptop Rob can take out to some public place to use, so as not to link the IP and such to our place?

And, when I roll for that, I must declare how many points I spend before the roll? (so lost if there was nothing to find etc.?).

Galen - I just realized some things I had left out from my description of the shop, so I edited that post to add them in.  If you already read it before I posted this right now, you might want to go back and reread.



You definitely have a computer with some countermeasures already set up.  If you want to say that it's a laptop that you use from various outside locations then sure, it can be that.

And yes, you declare point spending before you roll.  I will tell you difficulty beforehand so you know how much you actually need to spend.  4 is default but some places will be more or less secure than that, so we should first establish clearly where you are trying to get access and what you are looking for.

As I said, Rob will just check the local newspapers and such to see if anything in the news seems like it might be related, before leaving the library.

Then, back at the base, he will work on our computer w. our countermeasures on it. I will not say it is a laptop or not, leaving that open to be decided by others if needed. He does not think he is looking for anything super crucial so this would be good enough for him.

we should first establish clearly where you are trying to get access and what you are looking for
• Where - Rob finds it intriguing that the company is mentioned nowhere, thus wants to see what he can find. I do not know where one would look for such information. I imagine trying to get into some of the Emirates' databases (company registries etc.) is a possibility? Trying to find where they are located and looking into who owns/rents the place etc.? Who invests in the company? If he finds some names, to try and track those down.
• What - right now the idea is mainly to see who might be involved in the company, names of people running it or working there ; then seeing what kind of investments they do etc.. Basically getting some idea of who is behind this and what they do.

Okay, so we have two separate targets here - the company itself, and relevant branches of the Emirati government.  Government databases will most likely give you information like any names or addresses which are legally attached to the company, regulatory actions that have not been released to the public, tax records, that sort of thing - if you're not specifically familiar with business law in the UAE then you can't predict exactly what you'll get, but it should be something in that realm.  Hacking the company itself can get you any sort of business records they haven't shared with the government, and potentially anything else that is being stored on their computers.  In both cases, it doesn't even have to all be info that you can interpret yourself - you could always just save everything on your end and then have one of your friends read through and make sense of it later.

As far as difficulty numbers, an initial probe will show you that ECG is fairly serious about network security, as you would expect from most financial institutions - difficulty 5.  Government databases that you would be interested in here are difficulty 6 - they do have tougher security, what with being official government sites, but not as serious as you would expect for something more sensitive like military or intelligence branches.

Oh, and you should be aware that failing a roll to get into a government database will definitely get you some Heat.  A successful intrusion might still draw a bit of Heat, but I will say that spending an extra 2 points will cover your tracks well enough for us not to worry about it (this won't always be an option, but it is here).
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:07, Sun 06 Sept 2020.

Rob has 4 Digital Intrusion, meaning I can only spend +4 points for the whole gaming session (or for the full adventure), correct?
And then I recover those 4 points whenever this "refreshs".

So, I will skip the Gov' databases (2 points to cover tracks, leaves only 2 points to get to 6 ; and then nothing left for ECG).
Rob will mention this lead to the others, when we meet up, if any wish to look into it.

And I will spend 2 points for ECG.
That means I roll 1d6, add 2, and hope to reach 5, correct?

Yes, this is correct.

This is probably a good time to clarify that the timeline has gotten pretty skewed - Rob's time in the library was probably 4-5 hours given all the things he was looking for, but there was no need to stretch out the time in detail.  On the other hand, Tyr and Galen are doing more fine-grained kind of work, so (depending on how long they spend watching the door before Galen decided to go in) they've covered maybe 2 hours at most.  It's of course possible that they will still be out when Rob returns to the office, but I want to make sure we're all clear for the moment about how things have gone asynchronous.

Fine by me.

We can just wait and see if they come back before Rob returns-- or come back and leave or whatever.

Just wait till the time catches up and see then.

Hello, all! I will be joining up. I want to come up with a character that fills a niche that hasn’t been filled yet, so I’m thinking my character will be female and not-European. Leaning towards American, but considering other things.

Welcome aboard!

Hello and welcome!

Thanks! :)

Currently thinking I'm going to go with a sort of target analyst/watcher style background for her.

Two background packages from the book could be relevant for this:

Watcher
Investigative abilities: Electronic Surveillance 2*, Notice 1, Photography 2, Tradecraft 1, Urban Survival 1
-alternates: Architecture, Human Terrain, Streetwise, Traffic Analysis
General abilities: Disguise 2, Infiltration 2, Driving 4, Surveillance 10
-alternates: Athletics, Conceal, Digital Intrusion
*includes the free 1 point from 8+ in Surveillance.

Asset Handler
Investigative abilities - Bullshit Detector 2, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 1, Reassurance 1
-alternates -  Flattery, Flirting, Human Terrain, Tradecraft
General abilities - Cover 3, Sense Trouble 5, Shrink 4, Surveillance 6
-alternates - Conceal, Disguise

These backgrounds are just suggestions for ways to spend some of your points.  You can take one or both of them, or just pieces from either of them, or none at all.



Potentially yes, although it might take some lateral thinking to figure out a way to get at it.  You can think of a tactic first and then we'll figure out which ability would cover it, or you can look at the abilities you have available and then try to find a way to make them useful, even if it takes a little flexibility (not too much flexibility, but a little is fine).  And of course there are more direct methods like hacking, which can work from anywhere - Rob wasn't successful with his Digital Intrusion roll, but that doesn't mean someone else couldn't give it a try.

In reply to Director (msg # 87):

Thanks, I'll prob draw from those builds.

For a name, you can put me in as Evelyn Shepard.

Done.

Now that you have a name, you can start posting in the IC thread if you'd like, at least for dialogue with the others.  We'll hold off on having you do anything that requires game mechanics until you're done with your stats.

In reply to Director (msg # 89):

Alright, sounds good! What should I say I've been up to/where I've been in the time that's already been played?

Without getting too deep into the mechanics yet, what do you see as your role on the team?  If you're a "watcher" type then it sounds to me like your strong point might be surveillance, one there is a target identified.  So maybe what you've been doing is waiting for the others to gather initial intel on possible targets, and then you have a better idea of who you're watching and what precautions you might want to take, or what specifically you might want to be watching for.

With that in mind, there are a number of potential subjects for you to watch:
-Grecocitto, your employer
-Brinkerhoff, the other person you know will be at the meeting
-potential attackers - you haven't identified anyone definite yet, so you can take some guesses based on the info that Rob dug up so far, or you (or anyone else in the group) can try to dig up more info first to get a more solid lead

Alternately, you might have just had personal business to attend to today, which is why you're not getting into the action until tonight or tomorrow.

----------

On a somewhat related note, this is reminding me of the one game I played previously on this site.  We were using pregens who were all written with different specialties, so what that came down to was that not everyone was equally active at all times.  Info gathering before the mission was where a couple of people shone and the rest of us hung back and offered suggestions; when we were out in the field, different players were more active.  So my point is that you don't all have to feel like you have to be on at all times.  If you have less to contribute in one segment, you'll make up for it in another.

But do at least chime in once in a while, even if it's just an OOC comment to let the rest of us know you're following along and biding your time.

In reply to Director (msg # 91):

Yeah, I was conceptualizing her as being surveillance oriented.

Maybe she's been out of the office for the day attending to other business, and now she's back and will start looking into Grecoccitto and Brinkerhoff.

----------

Gotcha, makes sense! Yeah, not everyone needs to be doing stuff at the same time, I agree. People shine in different contexts.

A quick Google search tells me that not only are chemical sniffers easily available if you want one, but even as early as 2009 someone had built a "proof of concept" model of a sniffer that plugs into a smart phone (not clear if that ever became publicly available, but "proof of concept" is good enough for me to say you could have already done this yourselves if you want).

As a side note, while I'm happy to have chunks of time where you're all just roleplaying with each other, I want to make sure that this isn't also a cover for getting stuck with the investigation.  If at any time you guys are feeling stuck, let me know and we'll work out a solution.

Thanks! Personally I just tend to be rp oriented and like to do planning in character, not feeling stuck. :)

Yeah, me, too, but the Director may be right... time to quit the palavering and get down to the nitty-gritty!

I mean, it can be both...

There are two ways to go about this, by my understanding of the book:
1) Electronic Surveillance (Investigative) could trace the location if you have him on the phone at that time.  I will assume that you guys have the right equipment in your office.
2) Digital Intrusion (General) to hack into the phone company's system and retrieve location information without having to call him.  I would set the difficulty for this at 3.

You have both of these skills Evelyn, so you can take either option.  Even with a low score in Digital Intrusion the odds are still pretty strongly in your favor; on the other hand, Electronic Surveillance would be an auto success, at the cost of momentarily getting Grecocitto's attention (if you consider that to be a problem).

Nice, thanks! Edited my post.

I am dropping out of the game.
Posting is way too slow for my taste, and to retain interest & believe this will move along to the end.
I hope you have fun!
Good gaming to all.

Sorry to see you go Rob, but it's understandable.  Thank you for letting us know.

Same here. Sorry to see you go.

Sometimes, a slower posting rate works better for me, so I'm not bothered by it.

Anyway, does that mean we're down to three players? Time to recruit a few more?

I actually just got a message from an interested player so we'll see where that goes.  We could still fit a couple more people after that, so if any of you know someone who might be interested, feel free to send them along.

We have a new Rob!

I'm also going to leave the asterisk on for now in case one or two more people get interested.

Hello, all. I'll be taking over this character. I've read through the IC thread so I'm up to speed. I'm on mobile right now but I'll jump in there when I get to my laptop.

Hey, welcome! Glad someone's taking over Rob, I think it's a fun character premise!

And we can assume that Rob joined the rest of the group in IJburg, if you would have wanted to do that.  Up to you of course.

Tyr - you can roll Surveillance, difficulty 4, to determine if anyone else is watching the building.

As for the other info you're looking for, I'm a little unclear - are you staying in the car and watching the people around you, or are you getting out and mingling?

Tyr is pretty much staying in the car. He's only going to get out that one time.

Side question as I think about what might come next, to try to minimize OOC confusion - do you all live in places where the ground floor is 1, or do some of you live in places where the ground floor is G (or something else) and then "first floor" is the level above that?

I'm British so it's Ground Floor, then 1st Floor, then 2nd Floor etc. for me.

Though I consume enough American media that I'll muddle through if you just stick to the wrong other way :)

In reply to Galen Ives (msg # 110):

I'm the opposite. I'm in the US, though I've spent enough time in Europe to function either way so long as we have a convention.

It's funny, I went to London a couple years ago and I think I remember our hotel numbering the floors the American way, but I could be making that up.  We took plenty of photos there, but none of them were of the buttons in the hotel elevator.  I guess I should have spent more on my Preparation roll.

Also, Galen, please add a Surveillance roll into your last IC post.  Difficulty number is secret - if there are bad guys for you to compete with here, you don't know how good they are (or aren't) at their job.

I'm an advanced life form and while I live in the USA, I'm perfectly aware that England uses the Ground Floor terminology and the 1st floor is the first floor after the ground floor. So go ahead and use whatever terminology works best for you, Director. We'll figure it out.

I hope no hotel in our fair capital would commit such a sin! If the Queen finds out there'll be hell to pay!



Done. With a less than inspiring 3...

Evelyn - let me know if you want to spend a point of Accounting to pull some more information out of the files you're working on.

Everyone - and what's your next move?

Watching over Grecocitto - give me a general plan, i.e. who's covering what times, whether you're just watching the building or something else besides that, etc.  It doesn't need to be in excruciating detail.  Everyone who is taking part should give me one Surveillance roll, which will stand until either something interesting happens or you decide to call off the watch.  Other rolls may be needed if you want to do anything that isn't covered by Surveillance, such as tapping the phones or breaking into a neighboring apartment.

Tracking the money - this will require another Digital Intrusion, unless you want to try gaining the information a different way.

In reply to Director (msg # 116):

Rob will do the digital intrusion (hopefully the last one because I'm burning the last points I have).

01:41, Today: Rob Zwartnacht rolled 5 using 1d6+2 ((3)).

Galen is happy to do some physical watching of the apartment, plays more to his strengths than all that technical mumbo jumbo! So he would just lurk around the area keeping one eye on the apartments and the other out for shifty characters!

0:01, Today: Galen Ives rolled 4 using 1d6+2.  Surveillance (spend 2).

Rob - sorry, I may have misunderstood what info you were going for.  Could you clarify please?  If I have a better idea I can edit my IC post accordingly.

In reply to Director (msg # 119):

I was under the impression we had identified the account(s) for the Netherlands operator, so what we were doing was digging for the identity of that operation. I didn't expect a name, necessarily, but enough activity outside of the money laundering to dig into and narrow things down considerably. Possibly open some new avenues for investigation.

Okay, so I might have been unclear on what information you uncovered previously.  I was imagining that you had IP addresses, or something of the sort (I'm really not enough of a computer guy to even pretend I can do this accurately), which told you what country each transaction was coming from, but nothing more specific than that.  Then this new effort was to get more specific information about one of the users, and what that got you was a specific bank account.  You still don't have a name, exact location, or anything like that, but you do have enough information that you could go to any ING branch (or their corporate headquarters, if you want - that is in Amsterdam after all) and use it to extract more.  And there are potentially ways to do that without further computer hacking.

Does that seem more reasonable or do we need to tweak this further?

(not trying to sound snarky, I don't know how clearly that is or isn't coming through with this just being text, I just want to make sure we're all on the same page and in agreement about what's a reasonable amount of information for this series of die rolls)

In reply to Director (msg # 121):

I think that's an OK place to be, but just not what what I was expecting or thought I was rolling to get. The reason I had that impression is that we got the information we had from Rachel's Accounting expertise, not Rob's tech work, and the writeup repeatedly referred to accounts, rather than addresses. I have no problem with needing legwork (though Rob's instinct would be that hacking the bank is probably safer than penetrating a physical location...) to get more information, but I wanted to be clear where I was coming from.

It's a good thing that we can discuss it :).

Hacking the bank is a perfectly cromulent option, but there are other ways to go about it without forcible entry.  For example, you could use Networking to have a buddy inside the bank, or use Forgery to make a fake search warrant or other document authorizing them to give you the info, or talk them into it with your choice of Bureaucracy, Flattery, Flirting, or even potentially Reassurance, depending on how you spin it (though forged documents or other such props might still help there).

Evelyn, Tyr - will you be joining Galen on surveillance duty, or do you have something else in mind for the next day or two?

Can everyone please put in at least a brief description and background for your character, if not make your whole character sheet visible. I don't know who is good at what, so it's hard to direct a request and it feels wrong to just throw out a "who's up for X" when we're supposed to be a team of experts who has worked together for a while.

Fair point - 'tis done.

It occurs to me that some of you might be considering the Networking option to get into ING but are unclear on how to do so; my summary in the Rules thread definitely lacked in concrete information.  What you would do if you go this route is to choose however many points you want to from your Networking ability and put them into a friendly NPC who you create at that moment.  This is now their pool of points, which can be spent on rolls to have them do favors for you (e.g. locating some particular equipment or a safe house, pulling strings to get the cops off your back, etc).  You can also spend points to have them provide information for you, similarly to an Investigative ability; for example, once you have established a contact inside the bank, you could spend 1 point from their pool to tell you who owns a specific account.  The thing to remember is that once one of your contacts has run out of their own points, they are at greatly increased risk of something bad happening to them; put more of your points into their pool to keep them (relatively) safe.

Hopefully that clears things up.  And if this isn't how you want to solve the current problem after all, then at least it will be useful information sometime in the future.

Hey, hope everyone's doing well and is having a peaceful December! Just checking in because we haven't had replies in a while.

Happy holidays <3

Just a little pre-holiday slowdown on my part, still very much about.

Was going to rustle up a contact at ING but looks like Rob has beaten me to it!

Happy holidays all!

You as well, thanks!

I'm very much still here and eager to keep moving.  If you guys are feeling stuck I'll do what I can to help with that, I just need to know what's getting in the way.

Rob - if you're using Networking here, tell us a little bit about who your contact is, and how many points you're giving them out of your Networking pool.  You can do that here, or work it into your IC post where you give your old friend a call, whatever you prefer.

In reply to Director (msg # 129):

I'm thinking the guy is a long time auditor at ING, the kind who looks out for suspicious activity and acts to keep the bank out of trouble with the authorities. Rob has a mostly professional relationship with him, not a real personal one. In his official role he won't raise suspicion for looking at any accounts, especially those with frequent offshore dealings.

Let's call it three points from the pool and Rob would provide him with the account number and that it may be of professional interest to him, in return Rob gets to know about who the account is and what other activity is on it (Rob's got both reassurance and Cop Talk to smooth that over.) If there's a spend available in Accounting, that would be easily worth one of the pool points.

Hello everyone! I bring you the new girl in the op, Lia the posh disguise expert. Give her a minute to get changed and I'll get into anywhere &#128515; Hyped to be here with y'all

Not to clog the Amsterdam thread with OOC, I've updated my sheet with some covers:

* Sophie van der Hout, Dutch art dealer (my usual identity in Amsterdam, Cover 4)
* Yelena Igorovna Sidorova, Russian Aeroflot stewardess (as per the plan in-game, Cover 3)

Anyone can give me an idea of whether those numbers are too low/too high?

I can't speak from game experience (this is essentially my first time as well), but the examples given in the book suggest that 3-4 points is fine, at least to start.  The way it works is that when you need to use your cover to do something you normally couldn't (e.g. get access to a restricted area), you roll against their security (usually difficulty 4, though it could be higher for some targets or situations), and you can add points (before rolling) that you have put into that cover.  Failing the roll or running out of points means that the cover has been red-flagged, which might be bad for you right at that moment or just later on.  If you have unspent points in your Cover pool then you can move them into an established cover, or use them to create a new one at any time, and you can also replenish an existing cover with xp that you get after a mission.

I see. Sounds like the smart thing is to wait and don't assign toomany points in one go, lest we need them for another cover later on. Can we replenish a Cover that has been redflagged/gone to zero points?

Good question.  There's nothing in the book that says you can't, but I might want some kind of in-game explanation for how you are making this identity safe again (after you have determined that it isn't), as well as why you're doing that rather than pouring resources into a new one.  I guess we can handle it case by case.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you are having a great 2021 so far :)

Thanks, you too!  So far so good, let's see if it holds up...

In reply to Director (msg # 137):

Indeed! Best wishes for a happy and healthy year to all!

Lia - I had a feeling this might come up, so I asked on another forum and this was the consensus - while it is technically game-legal for your Solace to also be one of your contacts, it is something to consider very carefully before you make it official.  The rules for Networking state that if a contact ever runs out of points in their pool they are at very high risk for something bad happening to them.  However, while keeping them stocked up does reduce this risk, there is still no absolute guarantee of safety once you've gotten them involved in this mess - after all, even once you become aware that there is a vampire conspiracy, you don't know exactly where it does or doesn't reach.  With a random NPC contact this is tragic but could still be compartmentalized as collateral damage for the greater good, or whatever your character would tell themselves to get past it and keep moving.    If you get your Solace killed, the psychological consequences for your character are much more serious; in addition to the roleplay itself, there's a pretty big hit to your Stability right away and you've just lost one of your ways of recovering it.  Even just thinking about it narratively, typical PCs in this genre might think twice about putting a professional contact at risk but they would still do it if it seems necessary, but it would be a much harder sell to involve someone who means that much to you on a personal level in an unfathomably dangerous situation.

So where does this leave things for right now?  You can still make Saskia your contact, spend a point out of the pool you give her, and get some information about the club, but be aware that this will greatly increase the risk of terrible consequences later on.  Or you can choose to have a different contact who can provide the same information, and who you don't care about in the same way (maybe a mutual friend, or someone else in "the scene" that Saskia introduced you to once?).  Or you can always choose to go a different route altogether.

Let me know if any of this isn't quite making sense, or if you have any other questions about it.

It does make a lot of sense, and I appreciate the fair warning before I made that massive strategic mistake :) I'm going to do as you suggest and edit that post so that my Network in the Amsterdam scene isn't Saskia herself but some other nightbird. Thanks!

And while I'm touching up things, let's talk languages:

Hebrew, English, Arab, Farsi, Dutch, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, +2

I have a feeling I got a bit overenthusiastic picking so many languages at character creation. Hebrew and English obviously make sense; Arab and Farsi are part of Lia's operational experience for the Mossad in the Middle East; Dutch is necesary for her usual normal life in Amsterdam, and Russian is part of the Lena cover.

French, Spanish and Chinese are sorta random here, could I drop them or should I stick to them? Apologies for not thinking this through earlier on.

Go ahead and drop them.  Blank slots can be filled in at any time during the game, because of course one of you experienced spy types is fluent in Basque or Kinyarwanda or whatever, it just didn't come up before.

As for Networking, once you've established that you have a contact you don't need to use more Abilities on them.  They already owe you a favor or two, or want to get on your good side, or whatever the relationship is; that's part of what those points represent.  Calling in the favor just uses one or two of the points that you've allocated to that contact, if even that.

IC update coming shortly...

Evelyn, do you have any points in DJing? ;)

Anything else you guys want to do during the day today, or should we skip ahead to tonight's definitely very professional visit to the nightclub?

Btw, this seems like a good time to skim over how Preparedness works.  Basically, this skill replaces the obligatory shopping trip at the beginning of every mission in games like, say, Shadowrun.  The game assumes by default that you are always packing basic equipment that you would need to use your particular abilities, as well as basic gear such as flashlights, writing implements, and zip ties (that's explicitly one of the things the book lists as "PCs always have this stuff when they're on a mission").  For any other item that you might need on a mission, and which you could conceivably have on you or in your pack at that moment, you roll Preparedness against a difficulty based on how feasible I think it is under the circumstances - something simple like a sturdy rope would be a 3, whereas a gas mask (example from the book, don't read too much into it) might be a 6.  And if I think it's really unrealistic, it's just not going to happen - you don't get to roll to just happen to have a piece of the True Cross in your pocket.

So the point for now is that, while you are planning for the upcoming operation, you don't need to stress about figuring out exactly what gear to bring with you.  If you have an idea of how you're going to start it then that's good enough for game purposes - there's room to adjust on the fly with Preparedness rolls and OOC discussions (oh yeah, side note about that - I don't mind some metagame discussion in the middle of a mission to figure out how you would have already planned for whatever just happened; the PCs are all much more experienced with this stuff than I assume any of us in real life are).

Lia always carries two pieces of the Holy Cross. She found them once in the desert while serving in the IDF :P

On a more serious note, I'm only waiting for the call from Geubel's contact, the person who might know more about Vokopola/Bliksem's Russian business associates. Other than that, just waiting for the night.

No specific actions from Galen for the rest of the day.

Evelyn doesn't need to do anything before the club mission. :)

Rob needs wardrobe for the evening, but that's not something that needs to be played through.

Alright, we're all on the same page there, cool.  Next IC posts should give an idea of your positioning as the next scene opens, whether you're entering the club or staying somewhere outside, and how you plan to start off your part of the operation.

Rob - if you're being obvious about recording then I think a Disguise or Cover roll will be needed to reduce suspicion (or another Ability if you can make an argument for it).  Let's call it difficulty 4 for the basic public areas, more if you try to get to anywhere or anyone sensitive.

If someone wants to assist Rob on this, that person can spend as many points as they want from their pool for the same Ability that Rob is using.  1 point is a tax for assisting, and the rest will add to the roll.  This has to be declared before Rob rolls.

If you find yourself in a tight spot, maybe Yelena can casually find you amongst the crowd and go "oh, a paparazzo, takes some pictures!" and give you some cover. Unless that's the case, I think I'll keep the pretense of only knowing Evelyn.

On the Preparedness thing, can we assume we all have some discreet method of communicating, like a mini microphone or something like that? Or do we need to find a discreet spot to send a text?

I think it makes sense for us to have spy movie style earpieces.

Something like this, easily concealable, perfectly reliable until things get scary.  But yeah, communication equipment definitely goes on that list of stuff you are always assumed to have, no need to establish it beforehand.

In reply to Director (msg # 151):

The plan is to pose as the kind of nuisance photographer that hangs around at nightspots looking for the celebs or just hot people. Maybe it's because I live in Los Angeles that I think they're an automatic part of any hip night spot and that isn't as true elsewhere...

In reply to Rob Zwartnacht (msg # 155):

If he disguises himself he looks like a cop trying to look like a paparazzi.

23:18, Today: Rob Zwartnacht rolled 1 using 1d6 ((1)).

I live in Birmingham (in the UK) and we're largely untroubled by paparazzi of an evening. Though we're also untroubled by anything that could be considered 'hip'... :)

And only now, of course, I realise we haven't scouted the place... or have any maps of it... fun times.

My thought was that Radium is popular enough among people who like that kind of environment but is not "hip" - that would be reserved for the clubs in the more central part of the city, where most of them are.  The odds of seeing a celebrity here are not great, though not zero either.  And this is something Rob would have figured out from his earlier research (I just didn't think to mention it before).  That said, you could probably still concoct an excuse to be here even if it's not the place paparazzi normally hang out (Reassurance would probably be the ability to use for that, though as always I'm open to something else if you can make a case for it).



But I also do need to thank you for blowing the roll the first time you guys are going into a situation that might actually be dangerous >:)

So what's the plan? My first idea would be to use Flirting on Bliksem and see what info/access that gets me, but I don't want to jump the gun in case we have something else in mind. Ideas?

In reply to Lia Mizrahi (msg # 160):

Rob's primarily on overwatch. If the opportunity to get info using cop talk, notice or photography arises, he'll take it, otherwise he's playing off Lia and Evelyn.

Is there some sort of equivalent to a Perception roll I could do? I want to try and figure out if this guy talking to Evelyn is what he seems to be or if he might be up to something more suspicious.

No roll needed.  Instead, describe interacting with him (1-2 sentences is fine) with a focus one of these abilities:
-Bullshit Detector - read his body language for signs that he might be lying (note that this doesn't work on expert liars or on people who don't know that they're lying)
-Flattery or Flirting - talk to him in a way that might put him at ease and/or get him interested in opening up to you more
-Streetwise - talk to him like he's a drug dealer and you know it, whether to negotiate on the price of his merchandise, see what else he might have to offer, or whatever else you might be looking for

Whichever ability you pick, as long as you have invested any points at all into it (including the freebie in Streetwise) you'll get some very basic info for free.  If you spend a point from the chosen ability you can get some extra info on top of it.  For example, BSD tells you for free that he's probably lying, and spending a point will give you a decent guess about his motivation.  If there is no extra info to obtain then I will tell you to keep the point you're trying to spend.

What do we do, Evelyn? You follow the drug lead* and I try Bliksem, or should we avoid splitting?

* I wonder if it's a red herring - we already know the Radium was known to be known for drugs, no idea if this has any bearing on our suspected Bears vs Grecocitto conflict.

I think Evelyn would want to avoid splitting up! She's gonna talk to this guy who approached her for now, but I think if either of them goes to a secondary location it would be best to go together.

I don't think Bliksem would try to stop you right now ;)

Lia - я тоже говорю по русски, but maybe let's keep everything open for general audiences?

Yeah, Bliksem doesn't look like he'd mind double the company, and it's probably not a good idea for Lia and him to be alone. For his sake, Lia knows krav maga.

Sorry if I'm overdoing the Russian, I'll drop it, it was just for flavor :)

Nice. I did laugh when I read "Lia knows krav maga" :') Love it.

Realized I accidentally switched to purple dialogue at some point btw oops. I use purple in literally all my other games so it was just auto-pilot.

I definitely appreciate the flavor, I just want to make sure we're not cutting everyone else out of it.  And that there won't be a problem the next time you want to chat with an NPC who speaks a language I don't know in real life ;)

(Google Translate, what's that?)

In reply to Director (msg # 169):

I must come clean, I have been using Google Translate for those Russian bits, I don't actually speak it :P

In reply to Evelyn Shepard (msg # 168):

I almost always use purple too, I think Lia is my only character in DarkBlue. Goodness knows why I do this to myself. So, shall we go together with Bliksem? We can draw straws to see how knocks him out.

What do you think, Evelyn? Do we knock him out?

Not Evelyn, but I think that's probably premature. You've got plenty of interpersonal skills to use and they won't work with him unconscious. It also could create more attention...

Knocking him out and leaving him there might not have any consequences apart from the satisfaction of doing it, and the lost opportunity for interrogation.  Although if he's as connected as you suspect he is then that could create extra complications.

Knocking him out and then taking him with you could be construed as kidnapping, which has the mechanical effect of adding Heat.  You don't want Heat if you can avoid it.

That said, it sounds like you're really looking forward to beating the crap out of him at some point.  The opportunity may come up sooner or later ;)

Yeah I'd say at least first we should try to get some info, but maybe we can knock him out after! ;)

Roger that. I still can't decide how much does he actually know, as opposed to just being a willingly ignorant front for the Russian op.

Well he's not setting off your Bullshit Detector, for what that's worth.

Are we waiting for me? If so, I'm just waiting to see what effect Evelyn's smooth talking has on Bliksem (or do you want me to go snoop around the place while you keep him busy, Evelyn?)

Hey, sorry, just been busy the last couple days. Ran my  Urban Shadows skype/roll20 game yesterday so was preoccupied with prep and stuff. I'll make sure to respond today.

In reply to Evelyn Shepard (msg # 179):

No worries :)

Hope so, I'm down to my last point now, and then I'd be Flirted out :P


That would be Albanian? It would look suspicious if Lena knew Albanian but hadn't bothered to mention it yet? Also, if I got it right, that (hopefully incoming) Vanya is Russian?

Running out of points for an Investigative ability just means that you can't get extras from it - you can still use it to get information that I think is more or less essential (as opposed to info that is a helpful add-on but you can still work without it).

OOC I can tell you that yes, the language that you guys keep running into is Albanian.  You could decide that you understand it but don't want to give yourself away to the opposition.  If it's more a matter of your team would have planned differently if they knew you could speak it, I guess that's up to you to figure out how you would want to handle it.  But if it comes down to it, "suddenly adding it to my character sheet creates too many retroactive complications so I'm not going to do that" is a perfectly valid choice.

And yes, I think by this point you've all heard Vanya's name mentioned enough times to know that he is one of Bliksem's Russian business partners.  I wouldn't think it's too surprising if he turns out to also speak Albanian.

Right, can I bite finally and magically learn Albanian? :P

Sure, put it in one of the empty language slots on your sheet.  I'll edit my last IC post; we'll say that before that you were focused on something else so you missed the dialogue.

And done. Thanks!

Rob - I want to be sure, are you staying out in the open, or trying to watch from the shadows?

In reply to Director (msg # 186):

Ready to run, but out in the open still keeping up the charade. Fading into the shadows at this point raises new problems.

Kinda same here tbh, maybe I'm losing a bit of perspective, are we fishing for something more here or are we done? It feels like we didn't get loads of info, but on the other hand I don't know what other info to pump Bliksem for, particularly that Vanya is gone/alerted.

I feel like we probably don't have much more to learn from him, now that the guy in the know is gone.

You guys are free to ditch him at any time, I just need to know roughly how.

Evelyn - fully understood about school.  I spent more years than I care to admit as a professional student myself.

Aside from blatant metagaming, is there anything I can be doing right now that will help you all decide on the next course of action?  I don't mind if you want to spend time thinking and debating, I just want to make sure that the slowdown in the past week or so isn't a result of being completely stuck.

Sorry, I've been a bit absent, but that's due to life things and not to any shortcomings on your side, Director.

Let's see what the others say, but my two cents would be: we need to decide what we do and propel the story forward, whether we're right or wrong. Right now it seems the next step is informing Grecocitto and trying to convince him to change date/venue. Then deciding if there's anything else we can do or prepare before the big day.

I'm good with moving on those priorities. PbP has the problem that there's no body language to see that everyone's ready to move on and unless someone says something clear, it often floats (on the flip side, it also has people jumping to start another scene before one's really done to try to solve that.)

Definitely not your fault, Director.

My postings been a little sluggish because of school. Also, I'm still newish to the system so I can be tentative to use the mechanics sometimes.

My assumption is that since we weren't hired for real time security in advance of the meet, we have some kind of asynchronous secure communication with Grecoccito. We do have his phone number but it was easy to trace so I wouldn't think it's secure either, so unless real time is necessary we use the secure protocol.

Rob - I hadn't thought of that actually, but it makes sense so let's assume that you did set something up.  And since it would have been wrapped up in the game into, I won't even charge you Preparedness points for it.

Evelyn - no worries, I'm new to the system as well.  Having a copy of the rulebook is helpful, but I'm finding gaps here and there where clearer guidance would have been nice.  Oh well.

What would cover using, and more importantly interpreting, an airport scanning setup?

Mechanics, maybe? Or an avant garde use of Photography?

There isn't an obvious home for it in the skills is there?

Trying to keep it simple, maybe Lena just happens to know one of the security guards that mans the scanner at the airport, and he'd do her a little favour if she smiles and winks?

That would certainly simplify things from the rules perspective.  I think one point of Cover spent from Lena's pool, since personal use of the scanner isn't usually something a flight attendant would do (as far as I know) but a smile and wink are totally enough to get away with it this time.

A separate logistical question - it sounds like the team that's planting cameras is going to do that while picking up the package, is that right?  And are you letting Grecocitto know about it?

In reply to Director (msg # 200):

Wasn't my plan to. We haven't even let him know we know where he's staying.

OK then, as soon as we're handed that parcel, Lia/Lena will go to Schiphol and spend that Cover point.

Don't forget that you still need to choose a place to collect the package...

Oops, true.

Guys, I believe the least Grecocitto moves around, the better - and if we all believe we haven't been made, why not go to his place to collect the parcel? Safer for everyone, no?

Sounds sensible to me. Also might give us a chance to check out inside in case we need to know the layout later.

In reply to Galen Ives (msg # 205):

Somewhere near his place perhaps. Not at his place that we're not supposed to know about.

Is it a problem if he knows that we know? If anything, that proves a) that we are competent, b) that he really needs security.

In reply to Lia Mizrahi (msg # 207):

Might spook him, but might work in our favor. Just wanted to be clear that we know things he hadn't told us and he might react to that.

Ok, the nearest bar/cafe then? So he has to move/expose himself the absolute minimum to attend the rendezvous?

In reply to Lia Mizrahi (msg # 209):

Works for me. Or we can use a dead drop need his place.

Sounds good to me too

Sorry, work and life have been taking up most of my brainpower the past week.  Give me a bit to recap the current plan for myself and then I can move forward with an IC update, almost definitely within the next 24 hours.

I don't suppse asking Grecocitto what's in there will do any good?

I mean, it's probably not going to do any more harm than going blind...

Given the outcome of the swabs Galen is happy to run the package over to the consulate, or at least provide muscle for someone else doing it. At the risk of tempting fate what harm can come from one little envelope!

It can still be a Trojan or whatever, but let's do it and find out.

In reply to Lia Mizrahi (msg # 216):

Makes sense to me. We just going to walk up and ask for the guy or use a little subterfuge to protect ourselves?

Before I ask something dumb IC, who is "my people" for Grecocitto? The Malta gov?

Yes, it should be clear to the characters that he's talking about Malta.

I don't suppose any of you can help me figure out why this image isn't showing up correctly?  As far as I can tell I'm putting in the right code, and the URL is right, but it's not showing up in my IC post.

<img src="the URL goes here" align=right9>

but without the 9?

In reply to Lia Mizrahi (msg # 221):

No, that didn't do it unfortunately.  Worst case, you can always quote the post and copy the image URL from there, but that would be less satisfying.

Rob, Lia - anything you want to do inside the consulate, or just quietly drop off the package and get out?

In reply to Director (msg # 223):

Sorry was waiting on the results of the rolls. Will post something.

I'll give it until Monday or Tuesday, whenever is the next time I sign in.  If someone posts by then confirming more shenanigans at the consulate then we'll go with that, if not then I will assume you're driving off and saving the other stuff for after.

Yeah I think we're back at the home base! :)

Yes, sorry, I should have said: nothing to add, let's crack on :)

If I'm ready it right, only Evelyn has noticed the white car tailing Rob and Lia, correct?

That's correct (but mitigated easily enough, as you see).
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:53, Fri 11 June 2021.

Maybe we want to get our hands on that camera, before all our next covers become more difficult...

Yeah sounds like a good idea.

Maybe there's a way we can lure one out of the car.

On the other hand, my bet is they're German intel. We just dropped something hot in their Embassy, so naturally they want to know who we are.

Any pictures they take now are trying to find out where we're going and if we're meeting with any known operators. They already have our faces from the Embassy.