Nicely done, Rae!

I'm good for a montage then moving forward to a mission.  Of course I'm fine the other way, too!

Kick ass, Rae!  Any idea yet what you're going to ask him?

-----

Game-wise, it sounds like the consensus is to spend the weekend montaging and move forward with the mission briefing for your first op.  I have the briefing mostly written and ready to go but I need to do a little more research before I pull the trigger on it.  Feel free to jump scenes and times as you desire.  I'll put up the briefing on Sunday night.  In game time, it will occur on 17 March, immediately following the final integration exercise that establishes your readiness for field work.

I will award one bonus XP to each of you if you establish each other's team nicknames during this narrative.  :)

I wrote up and submitted five multi-part questions. The producer is supposed to call me Monday morning to discuss logistics. I suspect I'll know for sure after that conversation. I'll let you know as soon as I do.

-

Very awesome.  Neuromancer was great, but I think Burning Chrome and the Gernsback Continuum are actually my favorite things by Gibson.  Whenever I fly into Dulles and take one of those Plane Mates/People Mover things, I always think of Parker and the future that never quite was.

Kick some Devo on low in the background when you chat with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8OmnRIBvA  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Sat 22 Nov 2014.

Rae, that's awesome. I live here and I don't know anyone that has ever been on the BBC - well done!

Teg, for nicknames, are you looking for something like this:

Grandpa
Too Fast
Pimp Hand
The OC
Lefty
Splinters

or XCOM counterparts?

Lights Out, Omega, Nightmare
Blitz, Fast Lane
Mr. Clean, Spitfire, Strobe
Freestyle, Doc
Kitty, Sheriff
Collateral, Double Down

I think we definitely need to coordinate a bit in OOC for this.  No should get stuck with a name the absolutely hate.

The former is perhaps more accurate with regards to how callsigns or team nicknames are usually assigned IRL, but I do agree that you should have some veto rights over your own characters' nicknames.  :)

(Context for those of you who haven't played XCOM: the game assigns each trooper a random nickname [from a gender- and class-specific list] once they hit a certain rank.)

Further research pre-empted by a full day hammering on my current freelance assignment.  Briefing will go up Monday night.

Honestly, Hannah would be fine with any of the suggested ones for her (she deserves them, pretty much) - as long as 'Collateral' isn't shortened to 'Coco'.  I actually think that 'Double Down' is pretty good (though a bit of a mouthful).

I've been trying to come up with more suggestions for additional call signs, but have pretty much drawn a blank...

Couple of suggestions...am presuming Karolina's nationality and Hannah's Norwegian ancestry would come out in conversation.

Crewe
Painter
Leo / Leonardo

(Both on account of the fact that his parent unit is the Artists' Rifles).

Kowalska
Dancer.
As in Pole Dancer. Because she's Polish.
And quite nimble
And Durand thinks she looks hot enough to be a pole dancer
Granted, may not be appropriate for the team leader...

KK

Keke

Hannah
Valkyrie
Because of her Norwegian ancestry
And the fact she flies a helicopter. Reminds Durand of Apocalypse Now.

Sif / Lady Sif
Again ancestry related. There may be other Norse Goddesses that are more appropriate, but Durand wouldn't be looking this up on wiki - all he knows about Norse mythology he learned watching Thor movies and Sif was the character that created the most lasting...impression...on him

Drawn a blank on Mike and Jim so far...

Edit: And of course, the move reference should have been Apocalypse Now. Not Apocalypse Down. Or Blackhawk Now. Mind you, Durand probably saw the French version. Yep, that's my excuse...he saw the French version.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:05, Mon 24 Nov 2014.

@Dave - I like "Painter" for Crewe, both for the unit reference and for the fact that he's not all that elegant with his CQB marksmanship...

Also, PC nicknames are not my decision, but I will admit I literally LOL'd at "Dancer" for Lina.

@All - I have failed to specify how I wanted to use contacts in this game.  Allow me to rectify that.  During a mission brief, if you want to declare that you "know a guy" in the target area, simply state that ICly or OOCly and give me a brief description of that individual.  Then adjust the appropriate section of your character sheet, marking off one undefined contact and noting the newly-committed individual's name and concept/type.

If you want to activate a contact during an op, the same applies, but I may require an appropriate skill check for you to make contact with them.  If the skill check fails, that contact remains undefined (e.g., "1 U.S. military" instead of "Staff Sergeant Snuffy, USAF Security Forces").

Either way, only one contact activation per PC per mission unless otherwise stated.

I also like Painter for Crewe.  I'm actually ok with Dancer for Lina as well.  I figure she's been called a lot worse given her profession.

Tangentially relevant to this game:

http://vonaether.tumblr.com/po...-welcometohornyville

I'll get a decent post up tomorrow, but I had a few thoughts on call signs.

For Dacovetti, Dealer might work.  Michael looks like he has OCD, Howie Mandel is notorious for it and he was the host of Deal or No Deal.

For Seb, Bullfrog might work.  Given the American fascination with hating the French (yet loving Paris, weird...), I have no problem seeing Bannon dubbing a Frenchman a Frog, but given that Seb is a rather bad ass Frenchman worthy of fear, he wouldn't just call him any frog, but a "Bull Frog."

I'm a flexible on any and all suggestions.  If people want to post ahead, Michael will easily give up the media angle and move forward with the oil plan.  He can educate up quickly when necessary.

In totally unrelated news, I cashed my first pay check from the FASA Game Company as a freelance writer this weekend.  Woo-hoo!  You can see some of my work on the Demonworld page on their site.  I've written the three developer posts up so far.  And some stuff for the rulebooks when they come out.  A lot of credit goes to all of you guys here for helping me sharpen my chops so to speak.  Thanks!

I've penciled in Bullfrog and Dealer for now.  Let me know if those need to change.

Congrats on writing job!

Congratulations on being published!

I'm cool with Bullfrog...Durand wouldn't have any hang ups with it and would take it in the spirit intended.


How about shortening Double Down to either DD or Double D?

In every organization I have been a part of, that quote is exactly how one would end up with the nickname Coco.  :)

I might suggest "Square" as an option.  It is a shortening of "D-Squared" as an option to "Double D" and it still rolls off the tongue.

GM interjection for the planning:

I'm good with whichever insertion option you choose.  Splitting the team will give me the opportunity to a bit more of a slow burn with borderline-paranormal events.  Getting everyone in-country together will get us into the main op (and its revelations of alien involvement - which should come as an OOC surprise to no one) quicker.  Let me know which way you'd rather take the story.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:31, Mon 01 Dec 2014.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 80):

OOC I'm good either way.

IC Seb's obviously advocating the split team option - although he would rather not fly in without some sort of firearm in his possession - but wont have any major objections if final decision is a single insertion.

Congrats, Keys! That's awesome.

-

Yup.  Revel in it, man.  That first check is pretty awesome.  The only thing better is the first UPS box of contributor comp copies.  :)

And you never know where all your hard work will end up.  So keep plugging away!


This message was last edited by the player at 01:22, Tue 02 Dec 2014.

Damn!  What's the story behind that one?

A few years back, one of the guys on the board, maybe paganone if I recall correctly, was running a 2k13 game set in the Gulf with survivors escaping on a Dhow from Manama.  Manama was a routine destination for me at the time (the Radisson had a nice pool and a great Irish bar), so I stopped on the causeway and got a few shots for the game on the way over.  Of course the RPOL game didn't last half as long as the Arab Spring.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/a...0828_zpsada77ae0.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/a...0832_zpsda861ded.jpg

That does my cold, shriveled little heart good.

And speaking of cold, shriveled little hearts, the Kickstarter for my current project is now live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...h-anniversary-editio

Gonna try not to let it slow down our pace here, but if I have to reprioritize for a couple of weekends, y'all know why.