Thank you for the concern and support, all.  Current status appears to be reaction to the chemo, a particularly virulent sinus infection, and some dehyrdation.  He's being kept on IV fluids and antibiotics and isn't in much shape to talk, so all my info is secondhand, but I'm not hearing anything that leads me to expect an additional downturn at this time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:52, Tue 11 Nov 2014.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 38):

Good to hear!

Feeling better, Keys? I've had walking pneumonia a couple of times and it ain't no picnic.

@Teg: Our PCs are currently totally unarmed, correct? Would they have been allowed to keep a carry piece with them?

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For this assignment, sidearms are authorized unless otherwise stated. They would have been locked down on your flights in due to safety regs but returned upon disembarkation. Jimmy, specifically, would have his issued sidearm and any issued BUG, as his jurisdiction is pretty much any US soil anywhere on the planet.

In reply to James Choi (msg # 40):

Getting there, thanks!  Antibiotics are my friends right now.  Hopefully I can get back to work by Sunday.

Dcoda has located a character sheet typo.  Tac Missile should be under Agility, not Strength.  Oops.

It's not an easy fix on the sheet either.  I'm probably going to go with a straight column replacement similar to this.

STR: 9
-Armed Martial Arts: 0
-Autogun: 5
-Grenade Launcher: 0
-Heavy Gun: 8
-Mechanic: 4
-Small Arms (Rifle): 2
-Thrown Weapons: 1
-Unarmed Martial Arts: 3

CON: 7
-Riding: 2
-Small Watercraft: 2
-Swimming: 1

AGL: 4
-Ground Vehicle (Tracked): 2
-Ground Vehicle (Wheeled): 2
-Stealth: 1
-Tac Missile: 2

EDU: 4
Electronics: 1
Medical (Trauma Aid): 1

CHA: 2
-Instruction: 3
-Language (English): 10
-Language (Spanish): 10
-Leadership: 1
-Persuasion: 1

INT: 4
-Navigation: 1
-Observation: 1
-Scrounging: 1
-Survival: 2

If it's awkward to fix couldn't we just leave it where it is but adjust our skill level to the correct value? And make a note in case anyone wants to use XP to boost it later?

Yeah, it shouldnt be a big deal

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
until you guys develop blaster bomb technology

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.

”Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?”


”An error in my character sheet?”


"Do you know what OCD is?"

Yes... yes, I do.

Honestly, I was looking up Swimming (Hannah is from Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes) and well, I had to ask Tegyrius about Tac Missiles since it was the entry right below it.

EDIT:  Oh, and here is the updated skill area of the sheet.  Figured that I caused the issue.  So, I might as well see if I could help with the solution as well.  Obviously, the individual values for each person are not filled in...

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======================================++ ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS ++=====================================

Strength :  XX                     Constitution :  XX                 Agility :  XX

Aircraft Mechanic    :  -/-        Climbing             :  -/-        Acrobatics           :  -/-
Archery              :  -/-        Combat Engineer      :  -/-        Forgery              :  -/-
Armed Martial Arts   :  -/-        Damage Control       :  -/-        Grnd Veh(Motorcycle) :  -/-
Autogun              :  -/-        Parachute            :  -/-        Grnd Veh(Tracked)    :  -/-
Grenade Launcher     :  -/-        Riding               :  -/-        Grnd Veh(Wheeled)    :  -/-
Heavy Artillery      :  -/-        Scuba                :  -/-        Gunsmith             :  -/-
Heavy Gun            :  -/-        Small Watercraft     :  -/-        Hovercraft           :  -/-
Mechanic             :  -/-        Swimming             :  -/-        Intrusion            :  -/-
Small Arms (Pistol)  :  -/-                                           Machinist            :  -/-
Small Arms (Rifle)   :  -/-        Charisma : XX                      Pilot (Fixed-Wing)   :  -/-
Thrown Weapon        :  -/-                                           Pilot (Rotary-Wing)  :  -/-
Unarmed Martial Arts :  -/-        Disguise             :  -/-        Snow Skiing          :  -/-
                                   Instruction          :  -/-        Stealth              :  -/-
Education :  XX                    Interrogation        :  -/-        Tactical Missile     :  -/-
                                   Language (English)   : Native      Warhead              :  -/-
Biology              :  -/-        Language (-)         :  -/-
Chemistry            :  -/-        Language (-)         :  -/-        Intelligence :  XX
Civil Engineer       :  -/-        Language (-)         :
Computer             :  -/-        Language (-)         :             Farming              :  -/-
Electronics          :  -/-        Leadership           :  -/-        Forward Observer     :  -/-
Excavation           :  -/-        Persuasion           :  -/-        Navigation           :  -/-
Geology              :  -/-                                           Observation          :  -/-
Medical (Diagnosis)  :  -/-                                           Scrounging           :  -/-
Medical (Trauma Aid) :  -/-                                           Survival             :  -/-
Medical (Surgery)    :  -/-                                           Tracking             :  -/-
Metallurgy           :  -/-
Meteorology          :  -/-
Physics              :  -/-

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This message was last edited by the player at 18:51, Sun 16 Nov 2014.

ZOMG so much entertainment.  Both of you, take a bonus XP for making me literally laugh out loud (and I mean "literally" in the correct sense, not like kids these days who use "literally" for "figuratively..." get off my language lawn, ya damn punks...).

If I'm reading various sites correctly the AN94 has a unique* system that's designed to reduce recoil on the second shot when firing a two shot burst. Would that allow a two shot burst to both count as aimed shots in game terms?

(* Allegedly)

I'd say so.  Paul Mulcahy's stats give it a ROF of 2/5, which seems the best way to model it in this system.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:59, Sun 16 Nov 2014.

In the interest of speed, once Durand has indicated his readiness to step up, I'll make a set of Small Arms and other skill checks for each of you and notify you of the general outcome via PM.  You can narrate your character's shoothouse run however you want, subject to that set of rolls.  Does that work for everyone?  I think this will go faster than actually playing it out as six sequential full combats.

ETA: The setup here is that everyone goes into the shoothouse blind for the first run, so you won't be with Bannon in the control booth until you've completed your own run.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:18, Tue 18 Nov 2014.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 52):

Works for me...

I am on the final episode of Season One of Strike Back tonight and I have to say, it's pretty awesome.  I had to Google where it was filmed (mostly Cape Town it seems), because, having lived in South Africa, India, and the Caucasus, all of the sets were really believable.  I owned a Lada Niva for two years, so when I saw a pair of them in 'Chechnya' episodes, I was really stoked.  Production wise, these guys are spot on.  Thanks for turning me on to this!

Happy to share the addiction.  :)  I check iTunes about once a week, waiting for the third season to drop.  That show is a lot of my visual inspiration for this game... TF47's forward support team definitely deploys with a version of the Crib.

Cinemax has a bunch of "making of" clips on YouTube.  They're pretty awesome for several reasons, including the actors using their native accents instead of their character voices.

Okay, here's the shoothouse setup:



Some explanation: there are five hostile targets (T1-T5) and two no-shoots (NS1/NS2).

When the buzzer sounds, T1 and T2 will move as indicated by their red arrows.  T1 comes into view first.

Upon audible gunfire, NS1 begins moving as indicated by its green arrow.  It represents a fleeing civilian.

T3 is in motion in a circular patrol route as indicated by its yellow arrows.  It checks its starting room at the end of each cycle.

T4 will move into the hallway upon audible gunfire.  It will patrol the hallway back-and-forth until neutralized.

T5 and NS2 remain in the final room.  NS2 is being used as a meat-shield for T5.

Further individual details will be inbound in PMs shortly.

That was some very nice writing, as I've come to expect from this group.  :)

Bannon's plan for the night is solo runs, then paired runs, and finally a full-team evolution with all six of you in the shoothouse at once.  In the interest of narrative speed, I don't think we need to post out all of those.

If you want to play the final six-person run as a test combat, we can do a shooting montage for the paired runs and segue into that.  The combat turns will probably take us a couple of weeks to get through, as I need to slow down my own posting pace and devote some time to another project and some family stuff.

Alternately, we can montage through the non-shooting roleplaying parts of the rest of the night's work (yes, I did just verb "montage") and move into the briefing for Grey Cell's first mission before Thanksgiving.  That'll give us the long weekend for people to post briefing questions as their family commitments allow.

I'm good either way.  Tell me which would be more fun for you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Fri 21 Nov 2014.

I'll roll with whatever y'all want to do. I enjoy writing with you all. You folks make me want to be sharp.

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In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 57):

I'm good with either option - as Rae said it's a pleasure to be part of this and I'm sure whatever we go with it'll work out well.

My preference would be to move into the first mission.  I really like way the shoot house is done and what we’ve got so far.  I think if we are going to put a few weeks’ worth of RPOL work into something, perhaps the stakes should be higher.  Plus the change of scenery may allow us to stretch our writing a bit more than a repeat scene in the shoot house will.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:06, Fri 21 Nov 2014.

Tegyrius already knows of my admiration for the writer William Gibson. In July, after finishing Neuromancer for probably the 10th time, I wrote a brief review of the novel on Amazon. It joined the hundreds already there and I thought nothing of it (the book was originally published in 1984). Well, last week, out of the blue, I received an e-mail notification that someone had commented on my review. It turned out to be a producer for the BBC's book club radio program asking me if I'd like to contribute a question pertaining to Neuromancer to be put to Mr. Gibson during an upcoming interview for their radio show. To make a long story short, I will be asking Mr. Gibson a question or two directly, over the phone, bright and early Wednesday morning. The show will be broadcast worldwide in February. Hopefully, my Q&A will make the cut.

I've always fantasized that something like this would happen, usually with a band asking me to go on the road with them after reading one of my album reviews, but this is pretty darn cool in itself. If you haven't read Neuromancer, I highly recommend it. It's widely credited with inventing the cyberpunk genre.

I'll let y'all know if and when my international broadcast debut goes down.

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Congratulations, Raellus.  That is awesome news.  All your hard work reading sci-fi and fantasy paid off!

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With respect to group shoot or moving on ... I am not strongly in favor of either option.  As the others have said, I am sure that the RP will be fun no matter what.

I would agree with Lina though that we may want push on in the interest of pacing.

On the other hand, if we (and by that I mean Hannah and her player, really) need to get more of the crap rolls out of the Dice Roller so we can get to the good ones, then perhaps we should do some additional training exercises...:D