This thread is intended for Out of Character discussion.

I guess I should start by saying hi folks. Despite appearances, I'm not going to be playing a decker with an odd name. I'm in fact intending to be a mage named FreeMason. (If the boss could sort that, it'd be much appreciated)

Hey there chummers.

I'm your big bad Physical Adept in the service of Malie, and former pirate.

Looking forward to the game!

Howdy guys, I'm the gun guy, not an adept, just a gun guy.

Hello everyone. I'm still feeling out the new rules, but I think I will go for a magical thief of some kind. Aspected mage (sorcery) maybe?

Hello everyone! Going with Decker/Face here. AR fashion designer whose line is based on the whimsy of Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, she needs Nuyen to get the business going thus she is at your service.

Howdy.  I'm not 100% on the new system, so I'm not sure completely where my role will fall, but definitely a cybered fighter, razor-girl/gunbunny type.  Gonna be fun, I hope.

Sweet, looks like we'll have every base covered except rigging. From past experience I'd say it's possible to survive without a trigger.

I had the option of Decker or rigger and I’ve been a rigger on a team without a Decker and basically a quick draw match between my character and the opposing Decker. One will either end up dead or my RCC bricked. A team can do without a rigger if they don’t go pink Mohawk imo.

Hello all. Charismatic and CQB here.

@Ele- Face or no face? Just asking since you said charismatic.

Close quarter B?

I looked at doing a Troll with maxed out strength, titanium bone lacing, and Rating 4 Muscle Replacement augmentation. Totaled 10P with bare Fists and completely legal, but went with Decker. What is people’s opinion on Technomancer?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:54, Mon 18 Nov 2019.

I didn't used to be that keen, from a players point of view. Not having the ability to protect yours and the teams PAN always seemed like a glaring weakness when compared to deckers. Now that there's a complex form that alters that, I'm ready to change my opinion.

I like them from a fluff and RPing perspective. But I don't have enough experience with 6e to comment on them mechanically.

@Cheshire- Some face. Haggler + leadership. Rest maybe later.
Technomancer is the physad of deckers. Start less potent than a standard decker, but have higher potential.

@Leiomano- Close Quarter Battle.

Hmm, 6th edition has left me slightly squishier than mages I've played in previous editions. Any volunteers to be my meat shield?
This message was last edited by the player at 10:36, Tue 19 Nov 2019.

Definitely not me. With the changes to how armor works, is it even possible to build a character that can just shrug off damage?

Well not shrug off damage, but at least ignore some of the pain:)
This message was last edited by the player at 11:43, Tue 19 Nov 2019.

I could change to be more Tanky. My DR is already 10 without focusing on it at all.

Tank: Troll with 8 body+ titanium bone lacing + dermal Plating Rating 4 + armor Jacket= DR 31

@Ele- Wanna tag team some haggling or you good to handle it on your own?

I'm not going mega tank.  Probably leaning toward a bruiser/brawler build though.  Gonna have respectable DR

Okay, all. Looks like you guys are hitting it off nicely! Very good!
I had another player lined up that had to drop out. Would you guys like to have one more in the party, or are we good with seven?

Oh! Also: Everybody that has filled out the Character Questionnaire gains 15 Karma (so 65 total) for giving the GM extra amm--er. Player information. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:29, Wed 20 Nov 2019.

I'm good with seven on the crew.

So, I got a question for you guys. Leiomano is a character I just made for funsies because I've been kicking around in my head for a while, but nothing serious. However, since people mentioned a need for a Tank character, I made a full character to fill that role. Double-however, I also notice we don't have a dedicated ultra-Face, so I also made a full character for that option as well if we need it.

So I'll ask the group, what do you guys think we need more, Tank (/medic/driver) or Face?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:48, Wed 20 Nov 2019.

Eh, I'd say just play whatever you prefer. Btw, what kind of a game are we playing? Is it more of a shooting people in the face type or sneaking around type of game?

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 21):

Tag team is always good, go for it!

I've tried to go for a "utility" mage, rather than straight up combat, stealth or whatnot. Admittedly my dice pools aren't great, but it fits with my back story & with a bit of luck I'll survive long enough to change that.

I'm still struggling with the differences in this new system.  If anyone wants to take a peak at my build so far, I'm open to feed back.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vz3...e9jonq/Redd.pdf?dl=0

Holy crap dude, my highest dice pool is 9. Some alterations may be in order if I'm gonna pull my weight.

LOL, I gotta change my build abit, I'm almost a cut and paste. LOL Do we have a B&E guy yet?

I like to keep problems open to multiple approaches: my favorite video games are those like Deus Ex and Dishonored, where you get to choose your own approach. As a GM, my M.O. is: Wherever you want your characters to shine is the place I want the focus.
Now, that being said, combat is a pretty unavoidable part of the Shadowrun paradigm. So try not to make your character worthless in a fight, neh? And armor. Buy and wear armor. And use cover. Just--in general, fight smarter to stay alive. I believe bold actions deserve dangerous consequences, particularly during combat. I don't like having to kill characters, but I'm not gonna GM away a shotgun to the face. Savvy?

Hmm, I better use that bonus karma for some firearms skills. At least until I manage to pick up more spells. Unless we can use that bonus to buy spells as well? It looks like customization karma usually can't be used for that.

@Cowboy

I'm kind of doing that, with a focus on spells useful for a sneaking and getting into places, and just enough engineering skill to deal with an occasional lock. If you wish to focus on that area, go ahead. Having more than one sneaky type on the team is a bonus as far as I'm concerned.

Woop! Bonus karma means I can get a 10 pool. I don't think I'm gonna be useless in a scrap, just don't be expecting anything John Wick-esque.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 33):

lol Awesome!
In this system, don't obsess overmuch about the size of your pools at the beginning. Focus more on your ability to generate Edge (either through special abilities or through situational awareness and/or nifty narrative approaches) and it'll serve you better. Having an extra die or two in your pool to start out with is always a plus, but Edge is going to get you up to insane dice pools regardless of where you start out.

I’ve got 12 dice and 6 edge for social rolls. 18 dice if I’m close enough for my pheromones to kick in. I have the face part covered especially if Ele backs me up. I think rigger/driver is what we’re missing.

I took 1 rank in Biotech which gives me 10 dice and 5 edge for the roll for mundane healing

OK cool, Rigger it is.

In reply to GM (msg # 34):

My highest pool is in sorcery, so at least its sensible. I think the number crunching is done. There might be errors due to my using my phone for a lot of it and having fat thumbs. I've checked the numbers and cant find any, but that doesn't mean they're not there. Also, not sure about the Ingram XI as an "oh shit, it's gone wrong" weapon, but I'll run with it & see what happens.

You guys willing to share which contacts you have? I'm wondering if some of us should have contacts in common, or if we should keep them separate and spread our net as wide as possible.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 35):

Well, my Face character is only a bit better than that, so you've convinced me to go Tank/Medic/Driver.

That said, I have to question your earlier math:



Having made a Troll character to be the tank, my math shakes out thusly:

Body 8 (10) + Dermal Deposits 1 + Titanium Bone Lacing 2 + Orthoskin 4 + Full Body Armor with Helmet 7 = DR 24.

Where'd you get the extra 7 DR?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:19, Wed 20 Nov 2019.

Sorry. That was my 5e brain giving 12 for armored jacket

Ah. Makes sense.

Anyway, I'll be rocking 24/26 DR plus Toughness, 13 dice for healing, and only 11 dice for driving, but I own a GMC Bulldog, so, not the best, but it's not my main focus.

Tank + some healing and driving is successful I think.

Well, if you're going tank mode, I think I might rebuild for speed instead.  I really wish I could figure out why this generator I'm using won't work on my laptop...  I'll look at it tonight after work.

Contacts for Cheshire:
1) Lawyer: Connection 7/Loyalty 5
2) Paydata Fence/Broker: Connection 7/ Loyalty 5
3) Media Mogul/Influencer: Connection 7/Loylaty 5
4) Self-Employed public driver/Former Go-gang member (Uber/Lyft driver): Connection 3/Loyalty 3

My contacts are a fixer, talismonger & beat cop. All ratings at 2.

My contacts:

Contacts
Eleonora Loewe    (Female Elf, Fixer)        3/3
Hector Gallo      (Male Troll, Arms Dealer)  3/3
Doctor Ptaysanwee (Female Dwarf, Street Doc) 3/3

Contacts
Fixer 3/2 5. Carefully selected from her fathers list of potential assets, 'Tag' is a mid-range fixer with a good rep.
Talismonger 1/3 4. Ele is good biz for 'Ducktail', and he will happily let her take the risk of gathering reagents for him to factor (for 10% off the top natch, biz is biz).
Evo 'loss adjuster' 6/1 7. Mr Green was actually on the opposite side to her father, but unlike his collegues he is not willing to simply write off a potentially useful magical asset. It didn't take much to gain her trust, a little warning (timed too late to be useful to her father), the news that her mother is still alive, the offer of minor assistance and he has an in.
Knight Errant detective 3/2 5. Detective Baily owes J'ton'ethiel, and he pays his debts. Not enough to stick his neck out against a AAA, but enough to help out his daughter in ways that won't hurt him.

Fixer, talismonger and a fence, all ratings 2. The limit on max rating is kind of annoying. If you don't have high charisma you just can't have contacts that you are on good terms with.

We could have the fixer & talismonger in common if you like.

Question about preparations. Do we need a separate formula for them, or can they be done with any spell you know? The book doesn't seem clear on that part.

I'm ok with us having the same fixer and/or talismonger contacts. You have some ideas on who you want them to be? I still have not got around to flesh them out.

For the fixer I named him "Dox" and I'm imagining him as a retired CAS Marine sniper who hides behind a southern hick stereotype. I imagine that his time in the military would have given him the contacts etc. to get started as a fixer.

I haven't got around to figuring out the talismonger yet.

I've gone through some changes.

https://youtu.be/TSWPOp7mQxM

Sorry, couldn't resist :D

At least post the full song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi49yirJiEA

I considered it, but figured a 30 second or so cut down version would do the trick.

I may be tempting fate here, but I think I'm good to go.

Same here. I'm all set.

Just about, almost done the rework on the Rigger

I should be ready to go by Saturday.  I've decided not to do the rebuild for speed.  I've never really liked wires builds anyway and my pools are pretty solid as is.  Just got to finalize some fine points and figure out how to get my character set up on the sheet here.

Done just gotta put it on the sheet.

If you are reworking to Rigger, I'll tweak my sheet to focus less on driving, and enhance my healing even more.

Fine by me. Let me know when you work out the talismonger. It makes sense to consolidate our contacts.

Anyway, I think I'm more or less done with my character.

In reply to Winter (msg # 59):

So far, I've got a former talislegger turned talismonger. Figuring she decided there's less risk on the selling side that the transportation side. No idea of a name, metatype or anything like that.

Edit: However, it's just occurred to me that she might operate out of the back of a van or even an Aztech Nightrunner and make deliveries by drone whenever possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:32, Sat 23 Nov 2019.

I'm running late to my podcast today, so I don't have time to look at all this. I'll try to do that and, hopefully, post an intro scene (if I'm a little lucky and I have enough time) tomorrow.

Cheshire is locked and loaded now.

Computer crashed on me, have my character done today.

In reply to Cowboy (msg # 63):

Okay. Just realized I haven't asked it yet: How do you all know each other? You don't have to be a 'team' yet if you'd rather not, but you have to be familiar enough to each other and/or match up well enough with each other that it makes sense for you to stick together after a Johnson puts all of you on the same job. At least for the length of our story.
I can't stand starting out in a bar. I'd rather just have you guys do the work of making connections. lol

I think it's easier to be acquainted before the game starts.

However, without knowing each other's history, coming up with plausible connections might be a bit difficult.

I already posted mine in the Cast section, but I'll post it here too.


I'd suggest everyone do so, so we can craft a shared backstory together.

I think me & Winter are looking at having contacts in common. So we could be familiar with each other through them. Anyone with a fixer-esque contact could be brought in on for the first job, then we build the team from there.

The bits that his contacts would be familiar with are: He's a Brit, struggled to get work or make contacts due to suspicion surrounding him being obviously corporate. Convincing people he doesn't work for corps anymore has been a problem. However, being a mage has gotten him some leeway.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 66):

Was just about to propose the same, FreeMason and Winter can know each other (or at least, of each other) through a shared contact. Maybe they get sent to the meet by their shared fixer? Or something like that. FreeMason, any idea on the name of that talismonger contact?

Anyway, here's the relevant part of Winter's backstory, she is a local gal back in Seattle after spending several years studying abroad somewhere in Europe. She is an elvish looking human, or maybe a human looking elf? In any case, she is a mage, she's sneaky, dislikes corps, and likes sticking her nose where it does not belong.

Brick, perhaps we attended the same school (St Mary's school for Girls)?

Freemason and Winter, how do you like the idea of being in the same magical group as Ele?

Posted my stuff in the Cast section as well:

Cheshire’s parents were originally low level wage slaves of a subsidiary of Horizon editing contents
for various trideo shows. The company they worked for got downsized which resulted in them being
fired. With no money and a little girl to raise, they sold their SINs including the daughter’s to the
shadows.

Sprawl life is hard on young kids trying to keep themselves and their sanity safe with all the violence
and corrupt things going on. To escape this world that seemed so cruel, Cheshire dived into the
Matrix where she could be whoever and whether she wanted for the most part. This is where she fell
in love with the classic narrative and world of Alice in Wonderland. In a lot of ways she felt a kinship
with the Cheshire character who was able to come and go as he pleased and was quite mischievous.

She loved the intangible world of the Matrix and AROs so much that she felt it should be part of her
meat world to which led her to AR fashion. She wanted to design her own programs and fashion line
to express herself even more to the world and pronounce that she was a product of herself and not
the world around her. Unfortunately, such things required money which she didn’t have.

One day, she was in the wrong place, or some might say the right place, at the wrong time. A group
of shadowrunners were fleeing from a job gone sideways against a go-gang and one of them got
shot dead as he was fleeing down the alleyway Cheshire was in. As the violence made its way
farther down the street, she scavenged the body for any of value like Credsticks and weapons.
That’s when she came across what would become her first cyberdeck. Making sure nobody was
looking, she took everything and dragged the body to the local street doc. She used the money she
found on the Credsticks to pay for the operation that would take the cyberjack out of the dead Decker
and implant it into her. After recovering, she plugged into her deck and dove into the Matrix with her
newfound power. Thus the Decker Cheshire was born.

She had finally found the means to achieve her goals and gladly stepped into the shadows. She went
on several runs and worked for several people over the years gaining some influential contacts. A lot
of her money went to more augmentations and better decks. Gathering paydata and disabling
security systems when she was teamed up with other runners was her specialty. Some of them had
become teammates several times over the years. Now she was looking for the big score that would
allow her to invest fully into her AR fashion line. One can’t run the shadows their whole life and expect
to live for long anyways.

It is quite possible that Cheshire has already teamed up with several of the PCs previously as a way of having that prior connection.

In reply to Ele (msg # 68):

I like the idea of us forming a group in play, not sure about from the get go as Mason is fairly new in town. Also, I have no idea how they'll work in 6e.

An online name gen tell me that my Talismonger's name is Tessa Bartlett. Possibly known as Teebee? Any suggestions for a better name are welcome.

That's fine by me, I'm terrible with names. I'll add those two to my sheet and make up a third contact myself.

In reply to Ele (msg # 68):

Like FreeMason, Winter is a new face on the Seattle shadowrunning scene. It made sense to make a connection between us through our shared contacts, but Ele has different contacts, right?

Anyway, we can always form a group in play if we don't think of anything else.

GM is trying to avoid the 'so this old man walks up to you in a bar' cliche. Have to say that I agree with him/her/it. If us being in the same group stretches coincidence, it is still better.

Generally I'd agree, the whole "you meet in a tavern for the first time when something happens" is more than a bit cliched. But I feel the Shadowrun equivalent of everyone just being invited to a meeting with Mr. Johnson through their contacts is not quite that bad.

I’m fine with just being told to meet with the Johnson without meeting the other runners prior. Runners are supposed to be professionals right? It should be understood that working together is in the best interest of everyone to get paid.

Yes, yes. My preferred pronouns are 'it/its/its'. But only when I'm GMing. :-b lol

And as for not having connections, I don't mind if some players want to just meet up for the first time at the contact site, with my only stipulation being that it has to be plausible for you to stick together after.
Since none of you are ghouls nor vampires nor shapeshifters nor rockerboys, though, I think the primary impediments to that have been avoided.

So with that, I'll try to get the introductory post up either today or later in the week. With it being American Thanksgiving this week, I can't promise how soon that'll actually happen. I don't know about you guys, but holiday weeks are a whole other level of crazy for me...

Still having some issues with my computer, doing my sheet up on the phone. lol

In reply to GM (msg # 75):

I'm in work every day for the next eight days. But apart from that & the gym, I have nothing but time until the week before Christmas.

That’s not a bad idea.

If some people are new to Seattle, deep connections will be a little difficult of course. But since some of us share contacts, and background elements, let’s say at the very least that we are aware of each other, just so we can skip the getting to know you phase. We may not be a team yet, but they have all rolled in the same circles, or maybe even worked a Run or two as pairs in the past.

Just skipping the meeting in a bar, and getting to know you phase, would really help the flow of the game I think.

In reply to Brick (msg # 78):

Yeah, I'm happy to go straight to meeting Mistah J in whatever form that might take. Assuming that fits with the start to the game that the boss has in mind.

I’m fine with going straight to the meet. Maybe like one IC post for everyone to describe themselves before being taken back to see the Johnson.

For everybody so inclined, Happy American Thanksgiving! and if you're on the road like me, safe travels.
...or if you're not, Happy Thursday!

And in the spirit of thanks, I offer you a holiday boon: 10,000¥. Try not to spend it all in one place. :)

I expect to get the first post up tomorrow or Saturday. In the meantime, grace and peace to you and yours!

Yip yip yippee!

Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks Turkey Santa!

Happy 1st Turkey Day to whoever celebrates it. I'm off to have my disgustingly healthy dinner then see if I can blow this 10k...erm, I mean make meaningful purchases with this 10k.

Hmmm, looking through the gear listing & I'm having a bit of trouble, so thought I'd see what you guys think.

Not a combat specialist and have a Pred VI for when a bit of pew-pew is needed. My usual go to "oh shit" gun is an Ingram but I'm not seeing much difference between the two in this edition. Do you guys think it's worth grabbing an Ares Alpha or similar with our windfall?

Huh, maybe I should reconsider my choice of a taser and a gel-rounds loaded revolver as my only weapons, and actually buy something more serious as well.


Nah. I'll burn all 10k on a pimped out drone. A non-combat drone.

Well, that's a great way to start a game.

*Shakes fist at Dice Roller.

In reply to Brick (msg # 88):

Great start, guys! :-D Except you, Brick. You see Dunzelkahn's Ghost hiding in the corner!!!--no, wait. That's just Harlequinn in a tutu and a smile. Nevermind. :-b
I'm gonna give it some time to let everybody post, but I doubt I'll get to it tomorrow so it'll probably be Monday.

I know what I'm gonna post, just need time to do it when I get home from work tonight. Done the rolls & made notes on the scratchpad from my phone. Nothing worse than writing a post, then having to edit big chunks of it when the dice bot sticks it to you.

I'll get myself into'd to the thread late tonight or tomorrow.  Holidays are crazy, yo. :p

Amen.

Yesterday was insane for me.

Seeing as how it's the Thanksgiving-Cyber Week haze, I'll give Moira and Cowboy one more day to see if they can get in. I'll make a post tomorrow.
And to clarify, the thread currently runs at nighttime about an hour past midnight in mid- to late-October. I'll have to pull up a calendar to give you an exact date.

Sorry for the disappearance, avalanche in my hometown knocked out power and cell tower. Just got back online today. Will get caught up tonight. Again sorry for the drop off.

In reply to GM (msg # 93):

Right, I noticed the time in the thread title after I posted.

In reply to Cowboy (msg # 94):

No worries! Stay warm. ;)

Sorry, but I don't think this is going to work out for me.  A) I'm really hating character creation in this system.  B) I just don't think the holidays are going to work out as a good time to start a new game.  Every time I sit try to sit down and read and catch up, something comes up.  I'm working a double tonight, for example.

Shoot straight.
Conserve Ammo.
And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.

Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Stay safe Chummer!

Sorry to see you go.

May all your Runs be high paying Milk Runs.

In reply to Moira (msg # 97):

:) Happy holidays!

Sorry, a wee bit confused here. Is box-man looking like he's one of Johnson's minions, while the guy on foot is just a passing barrens-dweller?

From what I gather, the box-man was definitely spying on us, and has heard pretty much everything Mr. Johnson has told us. We don't know who the passer-by was, but quite likely he was also spying on us.

I think it is safe to assume that by now everyone and their mama knows where we are going, when we are going there and why we are going there. Why Mr. Johnson is so blase about that I have no idea. Maybe this whole thing is some kind of a test? Or we are just a distraction for something else?

Yeah I should have thrown up that white noise generator right out the gate. It would have saved us a lot of trouble. Sorry guys. At least I found the guy lol.

Nah, nothing to be sorry about. This is just Mr. Johnson up to something.

Sorry for this guys, something in real life has come up, I won't be able to continue in this game. My apologies to everyone, best of luck chummers.

Awww. Good luck Winter!

Many, two down.

:(

Since you guys have never played with me, I'll let you in on four significant secrets:

1. I usually like to have at least two layers of plot going on in any given scene. I've been playing Shadowrun for more than twenty years now, so I'm even worse than usual when I'm GMing Shadowrun. In this intro scene, for example, there are about five separate threads going. (Six, depending on how you look at it.) Depending on what your perceptions are, each of you will be more or less aware of different elements in the scene.
   These threads may or may not have anything to do with you, and you're welcome to ignore or engage them as you see fit. The story will adapt based on your focus. Cheshire has already found and interacted with the corporate spy, for example. That changes the way this Johnson perceives her.
   
2. On a related note, my NPCs tend to have other things going on in their lives when you meet them. Said corporate spy, for example. Again, you can engage or not as a particular NPC strikes your fancy. Most of them aren't going to trouble you with their business unless you're all up in it.
   
3. Some Johnsons are more or less on the level. Some are scumbags. Every single one of them has hir own agenda. The fact that this particular Johnson seems very confident amidst what looks like chaotic world should probably tell you that he's got a lot more controls in play than are readily apparent from ground level...
   I will let you know that scuttlebutt on the street says Ares Johnsons tend to shoot straight, while Mitsuhama boys will double-cross you faster than a dragon.
   
4. Come to think of it, the fourth secret is none of your business.

Hey Mason, how do you wish to proceed here? Do you wish to proceed with healing the guy? If not, Winter can try it herself, if only to keep him alive. Got enough edge to use that it should not be a problem.

Er, didn't actually shank the guy. 'knife-hand' (its a martial arts term) not 'knife'. Was doing stun damage. Sure, it rolls over, but he should not be dying.

Even though it looks like there's been a misunderstanding, I think we should roll with it to avoid lengthy rewrites.

In reply to Ele (msg # 109):

Ah! Fair point. A broken jaw and crushed hands would still be painful, but the guy wouldn't be in danger of bleeding out.

Group Vote! Is it more interesting to
A) Go back and correct the misunderstanding, or
B) Play it forward and just say the nobby corpnut had a stupidly weak constitution.

B) His appendix burst from the hand jab

In reply to GM (msg # 111):

B, a bit of internal bleeding never hurt anyone, right?

A.

Unless Ele is strongly opposed to this, I'm going with B to keep things moving. Broken jaw & crushed hands, that has to be some major physical damage anyway.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:32, Fri 13 Dec 2019.

Going to recuse myself here.

Not that strongly opposed. It does change the meaning of what she did, it was supposed to show her as 'selfish and ruthless', but instead comes across as more 'psycho'. Still, not all bad.

I'd say it still comes off as ruthless. The main reason I'm trying to fix him is to stop DocWagon charging into our clandestine meeting. Winter & I might be up to a bit of mischief as well :D

I like the idea that the guy was weaker than Ele expected and she just managed to hit the wrong side of his appendix or something. One of those Oops! I got a critical! moments.
Glory would've done worse to the man. Mr. J would've let his superiors handle the guy, which probably would have wound up being worse. So, all in all, I'd say the effects are about the same either way. lol :)

Holidays burgling everybody's time?

I bet that's how Santa does it in one night you know, steals time from PbP-ers. We don't get chance to post in our games but presents get delivered.

Pretty much. I'll try to post something tomorrow to keep things moving.

I'm still around, but I have been busy. I too hope to post soon.

Been busy working overtime for last minute orders. Will get a post up tonight.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 122):

ROFL! you guys, too? Glad to know I'm not the only one.

Hey all, I'll be joining you in the relatively near future.

I'm just working on transferring my character from note-form to sheet.  Would you guys mind sharing your contacts so I can try and pick a few to share with the group?  At the very least it would ease introductions (if you don't want some direct backstory with a slacker wage-mage turned UCAS Combat Shaman turned shadowrunner).

Male Elf Lawyer “Mr. Laidig”: Connection 7/Loyalty 4
Female Dwarf Paydata Fence/Broker “Terrabyte”: Connection 7/Loyalty 4
Female Human Media Mogul/Influencer: Connection 5/Loyalty 4
Male Elf Ancients Go-gang Leader “Lt. Briarshield”: Connection 6/ Loyalty 5

Contacts
Eleonora Loewe    (Female Elf, Fixer)        5/3
Hector Gallo      (Male Troll, Arms Dealer)  5/3
Doctor Ptaysanwee (Female Dwarf, Street Doc) 5/3

I have Dox (Fixer), Delilah (Talismonger) & Buck the beat cop. All rated at 2/2, at least until I can figure out how & play their being improved.

Contacts
Tag             (Fixer)                   3/3
Ducktail        (Talismonger)             2/3
Mr. Green       (Evo 'Loss Adjuster')     6/2
Detective Baily (Knight Errant Detective) 3/2

You are a shaman, right? You might well know Ducktail.

@Cheshire
Sorry, I was meaning to follow up yesterday and got distracted by the fam.

You made a good roll and then brought the price down faster than I expected. Now, we can backrev and haggle some more, or you can go with your current offer. Or we can just let the RP stand as flavor and then conclude on a price based on your roll. Whichever way works for me. Up to you.

Settled on my contacts, and my sheet's set except filling out full details of choices made (like spell info from the book).

Since you all posted your contacts, here are mine.  I took 1 shared with almost everyone.

Yo Yo Yo - Human UCAS Military Decker (Fixer) -  9C/6L
Cloyster - Human Corp Research Mage/Moonlighting Talismonger  -  7C/4L
Mr. Laidig - Elf Lawyer - 7C/4L
Doctor Ptaysanwee - Female Dwarf Street Doc - 5C/3L
Brian O'Brien - Human Bartender (and current employer) - 3C/3L
Ducktail - Talismonger - 2C/1L

Happy Christmas and/or Holidays, everyone!
Hope you and yours are happy and healthy this season. :)

As for your characters, take 4 points in contacts. You can use this for new contact(s) or apply them to existing ones.
Also, you can take your choice of any one focus, enhancement, drone, or vehicle enhancement with a value not to exceed 10,000 nuyen.

Merry Christmas, Chummers!



This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Fri 27 Dec 2019.

Hope you all had a good couple of days. I know going to the gym later isn't gonna be fun for me.

Just letting you know I'm still here, but you really don't want Mason trying to help with negotiations.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 133):

ROFL. You could make magicky fireworks to punctuate the negotiations, I suppose? ;)

Just did my counteroffer and put a little “outside the box” thought into it. Might turn out well for us in the long run.

:)

Happy new year, everybody!
This week is a little rough for me, so I probably won't be able to get a post in until next week. Hope everyone's year is starting off on a good foot.

Happy new year to everyone.

Mason, since the two of us share some contacts, do you wish to upgrade any of them with the bonus points GM gave us? Their Loyalty rating can be different for the two of us, but Connection should probably be the same. I have two points to spend on them, so let me know what your plans are.

Also, a question for GM, cash bonus can be spent only on the items listed, or on any single item of our choice?

In reply to Winter (msg # 137):

Happy new year folks.

Good plan, I was thinking of increasing the Fixer's connection rating by 1 or 2 points.

Well, if we're switching to "aggressive negotiations", I'll spend all of the Edge and show up with a Big Spirit to help.  Nothing could go wrong.

Please just wait until he responds to my counter offer.

<Python Jokes>Got it.  We come in guns blazing, then we hear the counter offer.

No, wait.  We wait for the offer, then come in guns blazing.</Python Jokes>

Alright, I'm fine with upgrading the fixer connection rating by 2 points.

In reply to Winter (msg # 142):

Dox is now well connected (4), with my other contacts having small loyalty or connection boosts.

Anyone bumping the connection of a contact we have in common? (Post 130 above)

I mean, you guys can have different levels for the same contact if you want. They don't have to stay in sync. I know for a fact that I'm much more helpful as a rule to beautiful women than I am to admittedly useful sweaty mage guys. :-b

@Winter: You can spend the cash on one other item if you prefer. My list was intended in the spirit of for-instance, not as a hard limit.

Thanks for being patient, chummers. Hope your new year is starting off right. :)

*Sniffs his own armpits* "Hmmm, fair comment."

I was only planning to stay in sync for connection level - how much access the contact has to things (double connection rolled to determine), regardless of whether they'd share it with Mason (which I thought would be loyalty and is affected by charisma).

ROFL!



Fair. I leave that entirely up to you guys.

So can I get a role call of who all is left to divvy up the stipend with and who we will actually be running with? I know we lost a couple of people and the holidays have had some held up.

Not introduced yet, but ready and waiting for intro for most of a month.  Not disappointed that you used the time to up the money and get 'us' some contacts.  :)

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 149):

Present.

Still here.

I make that five, including me. Any advances on five? Going once...

In reply to Drifter (msg # 150):

Hey, Drifter! Which contact did you have in common with the others, again? I'm thinking that would probably be the easiest way to get you connected with the team, yeah?
Unless you'd rather be in the Dunkin Donuts. That would work, too, I suppose. lol :)

I have:

Laidig (7C/4L elf lawyer) in common with Cheshire
Ptaysanwee (5/3 doctor) in common with Brick
Ductail (2/1 talismonger) in common with Ele

Perhaps I'm having a SoyCaf and a donut with one of them when the group walks in?  We'd be having a discussion about how I could currently use a job.  Finances aren't awful, but I could *definitely* use the money.  I'm thinking to be the doc or the lawyer for the level of trust it would take to introduce a pair of shadow runners, even with Drifter's shamanic pheromones (which are the opposite of mage BO).

Drifter, the problem with splitting the party in RP is that the split players tend to get very bored.

You guys are doing perfect. Keep doing exactly what you're doing. :)

Good to know, cheers. Before I post, does Johnson's intel show what we'd need to get in and out? E.g keys, codes, biometrics or whatever for doors and windows.

I'm assuming we're going through or over the fence, unless we find a few thousand volts running through it or monofilament wire on top?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:37, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

Yes. I don’t think we’ve actually been told yet what is on the Commlink given to us when Elle said she was looking it over when Drifter came to the table.

Edit: Nvm

In other news, just got my hands on Cutting Black. From what I can tell, there's a shit-tonne of cats among the pigeons. Well, assuming our game follows those events as they play out.

Brick, you still around?

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 162):

I suspect not, their last login was a couple of weeks ago and last post in here was around Christmas. I wouldn't mind being wrong though.

Sorry, guys, this past week has been brutal on my schedule and I'm not gonna get to make a post today. I do love what you guys are doing, though! I'll try to get a post up tomorrow or Friday.

@Freemason: Once we get on site, then adding details might require some negotiations. At this planning stage, though, I'm cool with pretty much anything short of Dunzelkahn on a Firebird. Especially when RL has me so freaking spotty on my posting...
@Cheshire: !'77 M@N@93 2 43@D U4 T3XT 50M3#0W, 8UT T#@NK5 4 T#3 0FF34. ;-)  :-B
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Wed 29 Jan 2020.

On an unrelated note, I am now thinking about taking an illusion spell.

Site Map Posted. Finally.

Woo hoo, a map helps hugely.

On the subject of vehicles though, I think all our stipend will get us is a Honda Spirit & a bad case of cramp.

I have 655 nuyen I can contribute to the vehicle fund (155 of which I can spend without worrying that the leg breakers will come to my apartment at the end of the month).

Cheshire’s got $2,500 in spare cash, but the cheapest vehicle with more than 4 seats is a Bulldog at 35,000. Too bad we can’t do some kind of extra seating mod.

She does have a go-gang leader as a contact that may be able to spare a van or something.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:57, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

I have a beat cop contact... but I don't think we want to use his extra seats.

I haven’t spent my 10k nuyen that the GM gave each of for something. That + stipend + selling her motorcycle is enough to straight up buy the van. That of course may take some in game time if we really need transportation that can fit everyone in one vehicle. Who all even has a vehicle besides Cheshire?

Only if Spirits or shoes count.

What he said.

Nope.

Got a moped that no runner would be caught dead on (exactly the point of using it). Not much help here, I'm afraid.

If we need a new ride, I can put my bonus cash for one item for it as well, if GM permits that. Or we could try to find a used one? No idea what used van prices are in Shadowrun.

The Gopher is the cheapest at 25k, and that's without having the rules for James Bond/Fast & Furious-ing our wheels yet.

Am I the only one imagining things going noisy, then us trying to make a speedy escape two up on the 6th world equivalent of mopeds? :D

I remember that we were hired to trash the servers, just couldn't remember if there was a bonus on offer for recovering the stolen chip. I'm thinking we wreck the cooling systems or something like that. If it looks like equipment failure rather than sabotage we're less likely to be hunted down like the dogs we are.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:06, Wed 05 Feb 2020.

Yeah, that's the one thing that worries me (well, that and that the GM has not logged in for a while). Mopeds are inconspicuous and will get us there, but if when we start blowing things up and need a quick getaway they will just not cut it.

And if we spend what cash we have on mopeds, how are we going to get anything else? I'm still in favour of putting my 10k bonus to a good set of wheels, if that's possible. Maybe a van of some kind that we can all pile in and make a run for it if needed.

How many people haven’t spent their 10k yet and willing to put it towards a fast ride for all of us? Or if everyone pools their 10k plus stipend, everyone will have a Suzuki Mirage (the fastest vehicle you can get at our price point) and a Rating 6 pilot Autosoft for those who more than likely don’t have the pilot skill. If the GM is ok with it, Cheshire could montage go to the dealership and come back with the Mirages with the story of ‘it’s very convincing when you hack the dealer’s comm and find out he was cheating on his wife and have her comm number. Got the friends and family discount.’ That way we don’t have to have an extended conversation where everyone reveals the 10k nest egg they’ve been hiding.

Spent mine I am afraid.

I haven't spent mine, but I don't have the drive skill. I'm more than happy to fling lightning bolts from the bitch seat though.

I'd prefer to buy a van that someone with some actual skill could drive (not sure how good Autosoft alone, even rating 6, is going to be in a chase). I would not be opposed to just buying bikes for everyone (with autosoft that comes to 15k a bike, right?) as as I have not spent the bonus on anything important, but as Ele pointed out some of us might have counted on that cash.

Does anyone here even have a Piloting skill? The rules for driving in the new edition do not look very forgiving.

I don’t have the pilot skill and Reaction 3. That’s why I got a motorcycle with an Autosoft for basic get from point A to Point B. Since nobody else has a vehicle, I doubt anyone has the pilot skill. We knew going into it that there was a rigger and a troll with a Jeep which influenced our decision to not invest in transportation. The two who could drive dropped out. TBH I have never seen this problem before lol. My thoughts are one of three things:

1) We get a van with an autosoft with our cash and pray we don’t have an extended chase.
2) Somebody can ask the GM to quickly change their character’s stats to be a rigger with a ride
3) the GM puts up a request for a rigger in the request player thread (potentially best option)
4) the GM allows someone to run their character and a rigger

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 183):

I mean, you guys can always hire a getaway car. In Seattle, that's not really an issue. :-J But if you actually want to switch to a rigger, I don't have a problem with that, either.

Okay. SO. Sorry, guys, I'm looking for work IRL at the moment and my schedule has been batshit insane. I'm trying to inject a bit of structure, just for the sake of my own sanity, so hopefully that will translate into me being a bit more regular (if not reliably more frequent... one step at a time) in posting in the future. Thanks for being patient while I get RL crap sorted out. You guys are doing great. :)

Now, you're getting ready for some legwork in prep for the run. Which I love.
I'm gonna spitball an idea here. Feel free to offer amendments or alternatives as you see fit.

1. Everybody doing stuff will PM me regarding what you're doing.
   
2. We'll hash out which rolls are necessary, prices, details, whatnot, over PM. Hopefully quickly--the object is to get this done with Celerity, if RL doesn't decide to lay me out on my back again. (fingers crossed)
   
3. I'll let you guys narrate your legwork in post, and we can get on with the game.

How does that sound to everybody?

GM: That all sounds good to me.

Everyone: I just had a great idea that can solve our problem. IC post coming.

Not bad at all. We can pay for the help from the advance and later from the payoff if needed.

Has Cheshire received any answer from her friend on if the target is hiring / has already hired on additional security (at least I think that was the question)?

I have piloting 1, reaction 3.  And as someone who took E priority money and only had 1 karma for a little bit of debt for gear in his concept, my bonus is spent and gone getting me my only item (other than my lodge and fake SIN) worth more than 750 nuyen.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 186):

Brilliant idea. I actually face palmed for not thinking of it myself, its classic Shadowrun.

In reply to GM (msg # 185):

Btw GM, sorry to hear about your work situation. Hope you find something good soon.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 186):

The NPC is available and willing to help. Would you like to run him, or shall I?

For expediency sake, you can run him. I gave a quick description of their history and relation to each other.

I'd be happy to run the rigger to save the GM effort if none of the other PC's mind.

Assuming no one minds, could you send me what you've written on him/her, Cheshire?

It’s  nothing too specific:
Lt. Briarshield, First Name: Marc
Marc is a lieutenant with the Ancients go-gang. You can google the Ancients to see their hierarchy.
Him and Cheshire grew up as best friends watching each other’s back. They’ve done favors for each other when the job calls for it (Her looping the camera feeds when he does a drive-by, he provides rides in areas that are especially dangerous.
He has a couple of squads under his authority scattered in the area.

I thought the GM was talking about running the NPC rigger Briarshield hooks us up with, not Briarshield himself.

I thought it was about the conversation with Briarshield but either way works. We got a quality ride which is what matters.

Yup yup. Am I right thinking we're ready to move on to legwork?

BTW, good luck with the job hunting GM. Just jumped through all the hoops to start a new one, so I feel your pain.

I'm out of town without internet for the weekend, unless I come down with the Influenza A my son has.

Working on the rigger.  Here's where I am on him:

To do: Name, Drones, and overall finished sheet.  (Anyone is welcome to give him a name - I'm generally awful at it, and just hit a random name generator until it gives me something that sucks less than whatever I've thought up.)

At the very least he'll have a decent drive pool and Roadmaster, or a Range Rover 2080 if you guys would prefer.

For ease of things if Brick comes back or someone wants to play a Troll, he won't be a current member of the Ancients - in a skirmish he was beaten into the ground by some remnants of the Halloweeners.  He survived but due to the aftermath of his injuries (which makes physically riding a bike dangerous) he's no longer actively in the gang. That said, he continues to run odd jobs for them - mostly of the pick-up guys with damaged/bricked/wrecked bikes variety.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:36, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

If I may suggest:
1) Ares Roadmaster w/Rating 6 Pilot Autosoft $71,000
1a) three RPK HMG equipped w/Internal Smartgun System, Smart Firing platform, Imaging Scope, Silencer, and Rating 6 RPK HMG Targeting Autosoft $33,550 total
1b) two of the turrets mounted on the back roof corners and one mounted on the front roof

2) Two Steel Lynx Combat drones w/Rating 6 Pilot and RPK HMG Targeting Autosofts $74,000
2a) each is equipped with a RPK HMG w/Gas Vent System, Internal Smartgun System, Bipod, Shock Pad, and Imaging Scope $19,200 total

Plus 500 rounds of HMG Stick and Shock

Total expense is $200,750 for everything plus everything is legal as long as you buy the licenses.

The Fake SIN and cover for the rigger could be DocWagon with the Ares Roadmaster painted and tricked out to look like a DocWagon HTR vehicle.

These are just suggestions. Idk what you slotted his Priorities to be.

Thanks, Freemason. :)

Legwork commences forthwith.
For a getaway car I'd expect a standard charge to be 1-2K, plus gas and possibly damages, (gas and damages seem like they would be typical negotiating points) so you can either call in a favor with a contact or pay for services outright. Your choice.

Some people have already gotten with me about legwork. If anybody else needs to make preparations before the run, PM me. :)

Nice!  I'll include these in the build.  I'll probably shave off a bit by putting those pilot and weapon autosofts on the rig (and thus just pay for 2 instead of 6).

Name: That guy!

Race C Attributes B Magic E Skills D Resources A

Attributes (Max)

Body: 2 ( 2 )
Agility: 2 ( 2 )
Reaction: 4 ( 4 )
Strength: 2 ( 2 )
Willpower: 3 ( 3 )
Logic: 5 ( 7 )
Intuition: 7 ( 7 )
Charisma: 4 ( 4 )
Edge: 5
Magic/Resonance: 0
Essence: 3.60
Initiative: 11+1D6
Matrix VR Initiative: 8+2D6 +1D6 HotSIM

Astral Initiative: 14+2D6

Phys CM: 9
Stun CM: 10

Surprise: 11
Composure: 7
Judge Intentions: 10
Memory: 10
Lift/Carry: 40kgs

Defence Rating 3
Bonus D Damage Res 0

Qualities / Racial Bonuses

Candle in the Darkness 5
Honorbound: Rigger's Pride (WIP) -10
Exceptional: Intuition 12
Impaired: Body -24
Low-light Vision [Meta] 0
Networker 5
Stolen Gear -8

Skills rank (pool)

Astral 0 ( / )
Athletics 0 ( 1 )
Biotech 3 ( 10 ) S: Medicine
Close Combat 0 ( 1 )
Con 0 ( 3 )
Conjuring 0 ( / )
Cracking 0 ( / )
Electronics 1 ( 8 )
Enchanting 0 ( / )
Engineering 5 ( 12 ) S: Automotive
  -AR/VR  Wpn Targetting  (14)
Exotic Weapons 0 ( / )
Firearms 1 ( 3 )
Influence 1 ( 5 ) S: Negotiation
Outdoors 0 ( 6 )
Perception 4 ( 11 ) S: Visual
Piloting 7 ( 11 ) S: Ground Craft
  -AR      (13)
  -VR      (16)
Sorcery 0 ( / )
Stealth 0 ( 1 )
Tasking 0 ( / )

Knowledge / Language Skills
Cityspeak
Seattle Street Gangs
Biology
English
Sprawl Life
Vehicles
Weapon Systems

Cyber & Bioware

Cerebral booster  rtg 3
Control rig rtg 2

Gear

Vulcan Liegelord
-Datachip x5
-Satellite Link
-Software
 -Browse
 -Mapsoft
 -Shopsoft
 -Signal Scrubber
 -Toolbox
 -Autosofts (all rank 6)
  -Clearsight
  -Electronic Warfare
  -Evasion
  -Maneuvering
  -Stealth
  -HMG targetting

Vehicle Shop

Lockpick set
Monofilament Chainsaw
Biomonitor
Medkit w/ 10 extra supplies
Slap Patch x2

Bug Scanner
Tag Eraser
Glasses (4) - Image link, Smart link, Thermo, Vision Enh
Earbuds (3) - Sound link, Audio Enh, Sound Filter 1
Credsticks: 2 standard, 1 silver

Lifestyle

2 Months Medium
2 Months Doc Wagon Gold

Fake Sin w/ Lic (Doc Wagon HTR) 6
Fake Sin w/ Lic (for doing illegal HTR) 3
Fake Sin w/ Lic (burner) 1

Vehicles
(as Cheshire suggested, but no weapon autosofts for a savings of 9k)

Plus:
1  Microskimmer
10 Gnats
1  Inu (Realistic)
1  Flying eye (with Flash Pack)
1  Flip-Flop
1  Hornet

Weapons
Ares Predator (Quickdraw Holster, Smartlink, Silencer, Variable Ammo Selector)
  2 clips gel
  2 clips standard

Contacts

Lt. Briarshield [Ancients Lieutenant] Connection: 6 Loyalty: 4
Bim [A. Squad Leader - Wpns] Connection: 3 Loyalty: 2
Officer O'Keefe [Beat Cop] Connection: 2 Loyalty: 2
Geric [Bartender/Fixer] Connection: 3 Loyalty: 3
Marshall [Ancients Ganger] Connection: 1 Loyalty: 3
Fredrik [Undercover Cop] Connection: 2 Loyalty: 2
Daemon [A. Squad Leader - Techie] Connection: 3 Loyalty: 2
Jaymie [DocWagon Manager] Connection: 4 Loyalty: 4
Stick [Fence] Connection: 2 Loyalty: 2

Karma Expenditure

Starting Karma 50

Qualities 22
Negative Qualities -42
Attributes 0
Skills 70

Remaining 0

Nuyen
492

Just to let you folks no, I've explained my probably terrible plan for astral recon to GM. If anyone's wanting to tag along you should probably let then know.

Had an idea, since we all seem to be going our own ways for legwork. How about doing it via discord to speed things along & avoid some of us having long waits?

I'm not able to discord, so I will sit out on the out-of-body scouting to speed things up for everyone.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 204):

Discord works okay for me if it works for everybody else, or we could do Roll20. Either way. I have no problem--just. You know. For Roll20, wed have to find a time. Discord makes that a little easier.

Shrug. I just posted mine as a PM, ST has replied, all done.

Ditto.

I might struggle to post for the next couple of days. Gotta work away from home & jump through more hoops for the new job I'm trying for.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 209):

My son's birthday was this week and we're having his party tomorrow, so I'm just lucky I managed to sneak a few minutes to check RPoL today. :)

In reply to GM (msg # 210):

Got the new job I was after. Got the usual admin crap to square away before I start next month. Hope yours has gone a similar way GM.

Congrats!

https://www.businessinsider.de...amp;utm_source=upday

Something for the budding riggers among us.

Hi, all.
So, explanation. I got into a professional 3-month Boot Camp program kind of at the last minute at the beginning of March that basically took 80 hours a week--lol. After that, I spent a month and a half publishing a couple of short stories and a novella and an RPG book.
Long and short? I've been so busy I haven't even had time to log in until my email reminded me about the site this week.
So... Hope all you guys are doing well and winning at life!

I'm still very busy right now, so I don't have a lot of time for RPOL. I also don't know how many of you guys remain invested in this game after six-odd months. I guess I'm polling for player interest.
What do you guys think? I can turn over ownership of the game, if anyone else has more time. I may be able to keep running it on a slow schedule, (once a week or so?) depending on how my other games go. I won't know until I get replies.

So. Missed you guys? Hope COVID didn't get you? Blessings and good health and all that jazz?

Thanks,
Jonathan

I was/am interested in the game, but I would wait until ownership is exchanged or you can post twice a week. In the world of pbp, there is little difference between 6 months and a year as far as restarting a game.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 215):

lol I'm glad your brain works better than mine does. :-b
But yeah, I hear you.

I'm happy to play whatever the posting schedule is. Work frequently kicks my ass depending on what refresher training I've got to complete.

Hey, blast from the past!

Hiya Boss!

I'd still be interested in playing. Might want to fiddle with my character, but otherwise, yeah.

Likewise, I'm still around. If you find the time to run it, I'll be here.

I'll be here whenever we pick back up.

I'd rather we pick up asap and just play it as slow as necessary until you're freed up, but I'm happy to go along with whatever.

Still around. I play a few once-a-week games on rpol. Takes a bit of adjustment but it can be done.

In reply to [[everybody]]:

Wow! That's more interest than I expected. :) Yay!
Um. So, Cheshire. If I try for once-and-a-half to twice a week for replies on this, will that work for you? I'll still be knocked out some weeks--this past week I was running a couple of games in the UK Games Virtual Expo (which was a blast), for example. But, based on the response from my other games, it looks like I can **shoot** for twice a week most weeks if that would help.

Other than that, where does it make sense to pick up the story? Since we hadn't actually started in on the run, I guess we could wrap up preparations and go ahead with it, if you like. Or we can tweak the timeline, as necessary. As long as everybody is having fun, I have no strong opinions on the storyline.
Incidentally, I'm happy with you guys retooling your characters as needed. My standard GMing policy is to allow unrestricted character revision through the end of the first mission. I don't know about you guys, but my stats seldom seem to perform exactly the way I expect them to on paper. Especially in a new edition.

So... how would you guys like to proceed?

ps -- Humble Bundle had a HUGE batch of 5E books the other month. I was happy! lol

I’m in then :) . If it drops to once a week, that’s fine with me.

I say just move on with the run.

Whatever works for you GM, I'm fine with.

I don't think I need to make any changes to my character at this point. Unless we are retooling for 5E or something.

Going to 5e might not be a bad idea. 6e hasn't really...gotten off the ground it seems. I only have like three books, compared to the 11 5e books I have.

Either way of staying 6e or switching to 5e is fine with me. We could continue IC while retooling if necessary. I think everyone is familiar enough most likely with 5e to switch fairly quickly while we build up to the actual job.

I would prefer 5E if that is on the table, I have actual rules for that.

I'm fine with staying with 6E or going with 5E instead. I do admit some design choices in 6E baffle me, though the same could be said for 5E as well. 5E does have karmagen at least...

I'm good either way. Familiar with 5e but fancy testing out 6e so as long as I get my 6th world fix I'm happy.

So what all archetypes do we have of people continuing? Just wondering if I’m still need to be the partial face or if there is someone else who is gonna handle the social skills.

Winter will still be the same magical thief infiltration specialist, regardless of what edition we go with. No social skills to speak of, not really focused on magical offence, and no spirits either.

Now that I have actual books for 5E, I don't have a problem running the game in that, instead, if everyone prefers. Zero preference unless there's some kind of strange tie going on.

So... votes?

I vote 5e.

As much as I am interested in 6e, I vote 5e. Simply because it will be less figuring out mechanics for most people and more focus on the plot of the game itself.

I am not the biggest fan of 6E, so I'm fine with going back to 5E. If we are going back, I'd be particularly interested in using karmagen, as I already have this character built with it.

We would also need to know what lvl of runners we’re building (street, normal, prime runner)

5e.

5E it is, then.
Personally, I'm used to generating normal-level Shadowrun charcters with Priorities, Sum-to-Ten, or Point Buy, but I've never tried Karmagen. It kinda sounds like a pain. Is it worth the extra math?

PS - <u>I'm</iu> used to normal-level runners, but I'm not necessarily against running street-level or prime runners. How does everybody else feel about the power level?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:27, Fri 04 Sept 2020.

Not street. Normal or Prime please.

Not really. If winter wants to do it tho, let him.

I say normal runners, the game is written for that.

Karmagen is what is called Point Buy in 5E. As for if it's worth it, I like designing every detail of my character that I can. Extra math is not much of an issue with a spreadsheet, and despite what the book claims, the real drawback of this method is that it kind of sucks in creating very specialized characters. You just don't have enough karma for very high stats.

I would prefer Normal or Prime, please.

I've never played a Prime Runner game, so that might be fun to try out.

In reply to Brick (msg # 243):

Aw! I missed the Life Modules chargen method. That looks fun and Cyberpunk-y; I'll have to try that one out. lol

Okay, so it looks like Brick may be interested in running at the Prime level and Ele votes for Normal.
Fight!

:) lol
Also waiting to see if FreeMason has any preference.

PS -- Since we're back to an edition that has books, I'm totally fine if you'd prefer to play a metavariant or metasapient instead of one of the base races. Although, if you just have to play a centaur, be warned: it's hell finding seating on city busses for centaurs. Even giants have it easier.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:21, Fri 04 Sept 2020.

Hey, I said Normal was fine! No fighting!

I'm fine with playing at normal level. Part of the fun is building up to prime runner.

Ditto.

Normal 5e it is!

Sorry for going MIA - I'm good with normal/5e.

In reply to Drifter (msg # 249):

Yay! Okay, so if you haven't already, rebuild/rekit using the 5e chargen method of your choosing on Normal mode. Make changes as necessary to reflect the expanded options.
If you're planning on making extensive use of rules in a supplement, please warn me so I can make sure to read the pertinent section ahead of time. I've read the core book and some of the Matrix guide for 5e and bits and smatterings of other supplements, but otherwise I have a ton of rulebooks and not so much with the time to read them.
You know. Except cyber. I expect you to use the cyber- / bio- / nano- / picoware expansion. That goes for spells, powers, guns, and drones, too. Mainly it's just, if you're gonna be pulling out the meaconing and signal intrusion rules on the regular, I'm gonna want to brush up on them.

Once you're ready or if you have questions, lemme know!

Brick is going to have to change. Can't build the same thing in 5e. Might even need to change to Ork or something...

Are you happy for us to use Chummer5 to try and speed things along a little?

Done!

I am starting in on Drifter.  Hadn't done 5e before - I have some books now and am reading through the general mechanics and magic.  Any recommendations on best books to get for a mage (other than the explicitly magic ones, which I have already gotten).

Aetherology, Forbidden Arcana, Street Grimoire, and Run Faster.

I'm more or less done, just need to select a couple of spells.

Easy peasy, just went back to the old sheet. Base book only.

Still working on mine, RL is being inconsiderate & demand I spend time on it rather than my make believe stuff.

@Brick - Cool cool. Looks good. :) It'd help me out if you separated your Armor Value for when I'm comparing recoilless rifle and LAW rocket damage against your mechsuit. :-b

@FreeMason - I have no bias against character creation tools. As long as it works, use it! Just don't forget to doublecheck any settings or options it provides; it's always frustrating as heck when I come up with nonspec characters because I forgot to uncheck some-odd switch or whistle.

@Drifter - I don't have Aetherology or Forbidden Arcana, so lemme know if those are worth picking up (soon).

@Winter & Ele - Looks brilliant. :)

Okay, so, remind me. Were we gonna progress the game timeline to the next morning? You guys can PM me here or on the Discord to handle any legwork you wanna run in the meantime.

The Discord, Shadows in Chrome, is still available at discord.gg/yc7WFYq if you like that sort of thing.

Aetherology has a bunch of stuff on metaplanes, and a couple of new spirit powers. (not planning to use it)

Forbidden Arcana is amazing.  It's got a dozen pages of qualities (with built-in disadvantages and prerequisites) to specialize mages, then an entirely new class of spirits (wild spirits - not out in the metaplanes but in objects/locations here), plus new traditions, spells, and mentor spirits.  Not sure I'll use much from it other than qualities, any of which I'd be happy to type up for you before taking.  If you get the book I'll probably want to talk to or use wild spirits at times.

Okey dokey, think I'm done with my changes. One ex-corp douchebag ready & waiting.

I'm getting there.  I have a couple of things put to the GM, am working on formatting and then spending money.

Just finishing up spending. Made a Technomancer and a separate decker build to see which one I liked better for the character.

Ooh. Sounds like I'll have to pick up Forbidden Arcana next time I get a chance. :)

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 263):

Decker, for protecting our shiny, delicate electronics :D

Will do.

Was only messing Cheshire, go with whatever you like best. No use having a character you're not happy playing

So, quick recap, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Graff Micro Designs swiped some sort of info off our Mr J or his company. We're to get into the GMD facility & trash the storage with a possible bonus if we retrieve said info?

Pretty much. Though why Mr. Johnson thinks nobody there ever heard of the concept of data backups is a bit of a mystery. This alleged mission is so pointless Winter is just going along out of curiosity for what Mr. Johnson is really up to.

IRRC, Johnson claimed they have sniffer agents out hunting down copies of the info. We're going after the offline storage.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 270):

That's correct. Your Johnson is already handling any off-site backups; he only needs you to take care of the data they have on-site.

Crap. I lost my wheels in the transition to 5e.

Can't give anyone a ride to the site, sorry!

I snagged public transport with my lifestyle. Not having wheels might hinder us if we need a quick escape. Ah well.

I’ve respec’d Cheshire into a Decker/Rigger Hybrid. Will have wheels for everyone. Don’t worry about that.

Cool beans. I can't remember, did we get as far as having a workable plan? If so, can someone jog my memory? If not, I'd like to suggest we take it to Discord to try to avoid getting bogged down & killing the game.

Figured I'd post out here as we've been running custom stuff and exceptions by one another:

I was planning to run Drifter as a non-spellcasting full mage Shinto Shaman, who focuses on spirits but doesn't bind them.  However, 5e doesn't really allow that, as it has *very* different rules for unbound summons:

                 6e                                   5e
Max Summoned     (Cha)                                1
Time Available   Sunrise and Sunset                   Sunrise or Sunset
                 (12-24 hours)                        (0-12 hours)


Would you guys be up for allowing a 5-10 point mastery quality that trades off ability to bind for using 6e summoning limits?  Or even half of it?  Maybe something like:

Spirit Friend (Master Quality)
5-10 KARMA
You are an ally to clean spirits of all kinds as you never use the Binding skill except as a knowledge skill.  Your reputation among spirits is such that spirits desire to spend time near you.  You may have a maximum number of unbound spirits equal to Charisma/2, and if a spirit has been with you 6 or fewer hours when the sun crosses the horizon it remains willing to serve you until it crosses the horizon a second time.  If you ever bind a spirit or destroy a clean (non-insect, non-toxic) spirit on its home metaplane, this becomes a negative quality which can be bought of for twice the original cost after atonement has been made.


As a side note, if you guys are okay with this, I would not double-dip by taking the Shaman disadvantage.

I don't mind myself. I guess that's something that should be worked out with the DM? I'm afraid I don't have much experience with rules for spirits, and my character is pretty much the opposite, all spellcasting and no summoning.

@Freemason:
No plan as far as I know. Ele was arguing for a brusque assault (to avoid giving the target time to recruit after Jhonson's obvious display) but we have now moved on to the next day.

@Drifter:
Um, the 'only one spirit per domain' is a long-standing game balance for shamans being able to summon 'for free'. You would probably have to up that to a 20-pointer and make it 'one extra spirit' rather than half-cha. Or, if you want lots of spirits, play a Hermetic. But yeah, up to the ST.

In reply to Ele (msg # 278):

Regarding spirits: Yeah, I was surprised when they changed the number of unbound spirits in 6E. I don't necessarily have a problem with it, given the restrictions Drifter added--it kinda makes sense to me. My thought was that the quality should deal with either one restriction or the other (the number of spirits or the sunrise/sunset limitation) but not both, and that the cost should be 10 KP instead of 5.

Also, if you guys would rather assault immediately instead of having time for legwork, I can accommodate that.

In reply to GM (msg # 279):

That would be my preference, not sure if the other players disagree or just don't care.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:51, Mon 28 Sept 2020.

I kind of fear that we should have done that right away after the meeting with Mr. Johnson. But even if we are going in without a plan, it would be nice to first at least narrow the target to a building, instead of randomly wandering around the complex. I do have a tentative plan on how to learn that or possibly more, just waiting for feedback from the GM before I post. Unless someone else already had more luck doing the legwork?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:28, Mon 28 Sept 2020.

Assault is fine in the sense we are actively going to be heading in once we find what building it’s in.

@Winter - see my reply.

@all - Unless I'm missing something, I feel like you spent maybe two hours planning offsite after the meet. So, 0400-ish is the earliest you could make your move. If you want to move at 0400, that's wiz by me...

I have no formal training in ritual sorcery, but can muddle through fairly ok-ish.

Excellent, we can boost the range of the spell even more then. If we are going through with this, of course.

Er, sorry, I admit Shadowrun is not the system I'm most familiar, not by a long shot, so I may be missing something vital. Here is how I see the situation, we cast the ritual far, far away from the target. Unless someone is already watching us, they are none the wiser about it. Then we use the spell to take a look inside the barriers right from there, kilometres away. By spell description, whoever casted the barrier gets no warning about the probing.

It could be argued that the point from which the spell gives sight is still visible in astral, but keeping it low force and using reagents instead to get enough hits to pass through the barrier could then hopefully make it less obvious to detect. I think.

What am I missing?

Also, if there is some other way for us to learn where the server is, I'd really like for us to do so. Going in without even knowing which building we are supposed to hit strikes me as suicidal. I guess we could abduct an employee or two and mind probe / interrogate them? Or do something from cyberspace (I know next to nothing about that part of the game)?

They have a mage on watch. He/she/it will notice the spell building (takes hours) and astral track it.

As I said, I'm not 100% sure how this will work out, but I don't think detection is very likely. Ritual has to be completed first for the spell to be even able to come anywhere near the target, so we can't be traced back through a spell while the ritual is in progress. Assuming that tracing back a clairvoyance-type spell back to its source is even possible.

So the only way for them to catch us while we are doing the ritual is if they actually notice it being cast. But why would they? Why would that mage keep astral watch on a room in a building 2 kilometers away in the city? I don't think that rituals are inherently more noticeable in astral space than normal spellcasting, or at least I did not find anything about that in the book. And keep in mind that this will be a low force ritual (it will have to be, as Winter is not really an expert here), yet with Mason helping even Force 2 is likely to give enough range to the spell to keep that mage 2 kilometres away. And the ritual is cast behind a barrier anyway.

To be clear, I don't mind at all if we try something else instead to get some info on the target, as long as we try something. Going there, kicking in the doors of the first building, trashing the place, realizing the server is not there, then going back outside to try the same with the next building, all while we are being shot at is something I would like to avoid if possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Fri 02 Oct 2020.

I can pilot a microdrone in on silent and peek around. Then if I find a room of computers, cyber stealth in to find the right one.

For clarification on the Detection spell ruling, here's the definition of the 'Passive' quality from the rulebook:



If anyone in the target area gets line of sight on the subject, physical or Astral, they can detect the spell. Otherwise, it's undetectable.

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 289):

That sounds like a plan, assuming it doesn't get spotted.

I'll post tonight or tomorrow.

So, a bit of ritual surveillance (scrying  if you like) and a good ol' drone snooping? I'm not well clued up on drone rules, but I'm assuming its got all the necessary sensor gubbins to get what we need?

No reason we can't try both, right? Or any other ideas?

And thinking ahead, how would we proceed with the actual mission? Try to sneak in or go fast and loud right from the start? Through the gate or cut through the fence? We have lot of magic at our disposal, so we could even try levitating the whole team over the fence and up on the building with the servers.

I take it we have enough reagents of the correct type to pull off the ritual? I have 10 for use by hermetic nerdy types.

I have plenty. Those things are crazy good for a dedicated spellcaster. Anyway, let's do this then.

I, uh...meant today...<.< >.>

I'll try to clear some things up, if I can. First, teamwork:



Ok, the limit goes up by 1 for each successful assistant, but leader can only get extra dice up to his skill rating, which was already covered by Drifter. Winter's actual skill is not that great, I'm afraid. As for the drain:



So, since defense only rolled 1 success, we each need to soak the minimum 2 drain. I think.

Also, I've mistakenly written that I needed only one success on my ritual spellcasting roll, I needed 2 to beat the defense roll. Fortunately that worked out alright.

In reply to Winter (msg # 298):

Yeah, all that seems fine. I'll put the results up sometime tomorrow.
:)

GM, Drifter and Mason participated in the ritual, so they should be receiving the same info from the spell Winter is, I think. Would it be ok if I shared it with them then?

Guard patrol routes & numbers? Fence construction? Regular staff numbers & where they tend to go? Car parks/pool areas? (I case we need an IEDistraction), area rating? That's all I can think of on 5hrs sleep.

In reply to Winter (msg # 300):

Of course. I wasn't sure who the target of the ritual was, so I left it up to you. :)

Alright, I'll share the info directly with Drifter and Mason. Not sure about the rest of the team, there's a lot of info here (great post by you btw, obviously you've put a lot of effort into this). We can summarize it for them, I guess? Not sure if is possible to record the data from the spell. Maybe with a simrig, assuming someone has one?

Wow, that is a lot of info. The only thing missing is the area rating, but thats me not being clear in what I meant. I was asking if the one not involved in the ritual might be able to find if its in a Z zone, or if its more elite the barrels. Im thinking for KE response times if when it goes noisy.

In reply to FreeMason (msg # 304):

Oh, of course. Right. The area in question is a small corporate base / testing ground, so it's 100% corpsec. If they do bring anybody in, it'll be from their main HQ in Seattle proper.

Plan A: Sneaky sneaky ninja.
Summon spirit. Use Concealment power. Cross fence/ward.
Summon new spirit. Use Concealment power. Move to spiders. Sneaky bash spiders.
Armed with the spiders codes, sneaky bash mage.
(order of these two may be reversed if desireable)
Using override codes from spiders, move sneaky to server. Apply magnet.
Leave.

Cheshire can send a drone down the vent along with her hand (think Thing from the Addams family) to attempt to get the paydata. Can also send some microdrones down the wiring at the base of the fountain to fry wires connection and disable security. Cheshire can meanwhile lie in wait to brick the spiders when it gets loud. We can sneak in probably, but it will most likely get loud before we leave. She has an Ares Roadmaster with a ram plate...to drive through the fence for us to get on and leave.

Ok, since I'm out of question, I guess we can wrap the ritual up? Wait, here's one more, is there anyone present in those servers when Winter looks inside?


Anyway, about our plans... we need to "destroy the servers where the data is located". First problem, there are two of them in two buildings, both similarly fortified. Which one do we hit? The bigger one? Both of them to make sure?

Second problem, watcher spirits guarding the perimeter. If we try to sneak in, would stealth or even invisibility help at all against them? Would concealment power?

Third problem, if we are going in loud, in worst case scenario we could be facing 40+ guards just on site, judging by the number of bunks for security personnel in the facility. Admittedly they are probably not all of them there all the time, but a good part is likely to be. And while they are not full on special forces, they are reasonably well equipped and seem to know what they are doing.


The spell gave quite a lot of info that I'm not sure how to present, whether to just post for everyone to read or try to summarise it. I guess I could just post it openly and we could handwave it as a recording of the scouting, if someone has a simrig Winter could borrow? Or handwave it as just a very detailed debrief later to the team members that did not participate in the ritual?

Cheshire could have the host to see where the physical location of the right server is. The guard house can be rigged to lock people in. The Watcher spirit is a big concern. We would basically need a distraction to pull them away from a specific spot.

Maybe hack the armoury too, to stop anyone coming after us in armed/armoured vehicles. As for getting through the fence and distractions, does anyone have any gang type contacts?

Although this creates problems, I'd say hit both sets of servers to be sure of success. There must be access for meta humans somewhere for maintenance, upgrades and whatnot. Do any of you hacker types know if shutting the cooling systems off (& any backups) would do the job? Might be those systems are less heavily protected than the actual servers.

If we can keep the security rigger occupied elsewhere, do we have the means to break into the relevant buildings quietly? Or are we making our own "doorway"?

*facepalm* I'm an idiot. Even more so because it might have already been mentioned. With all the magicians we have, getting an eart spirit to tunnel under the fence in the right place shouldn't be a problem, right?

“I was thinking about my “Thing” cyberhand get a ride over to the ventilation ducts on my Lockheed Optix. The hand can crawl down the ducts and open the vent cover releasing the shock hand equipped microdrones in the fingertip compartments to get in and fry the servers. That should take out one of the servers which will alert security while the main team goes after the other server.“

In reply to Cheshire (msg # 312):

Like it. Is that something that can be programmed or would you need to be directly controlling the hand?

It could be programmed, but if it runs into anything out of the ordinary like some kind of fan or trap it might have issues figuring it out. My plan is to jump into the Lockheed to get it down there then jump into the hand for the opening of the vent.

The server room in the support building did not have anyone inside it when you checked, but there was a guard checking the room and a technician fiddling with one of the server racks in the admin building server room. (shh! That was private so nobody else could hear it!)
Regarding the Concealment power, it would reduce the ability of watcher spirits to see you, same as anybody else. How well it works depends on your spirit's Force versus the Watcher's Force. Watchers are crap at combat, but they tend to be pretty good at spotting.
Also, it won't offend me if you post my whole description and call it a debriefing, as long as you all get together and spend 15 minutes or so doing it. The only reason I hand out information selectively is so your character can decide what to do with it.


It's a good plan, but the Astral Barriers might present an obstacle to your spirits.


It'd be a tight fit, but you're fairly sure you could get that to work.

Great, I'll post the info later then, when the team gets someplace safe to plan this thing out. In the meantime I will wrap the ritual up before we get even more company.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:11, Mon 02 Nov 2020.

So far, I'm thinking cut the fence, sneak to the buildings in question using our various skills, spells/powers & gear (maybe whack the security spider upside the head? ), a bit of old fashioned b&e, kill the servers (by knocking out the cooling? ), get the hell out of dodge, get screwed over by Mr Johnson paid. Have I missed anything?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:39, Tue 10 Nov 2020.

There will be another Runner team there to protect the facility. That’s the wildcard in play.

True. How do we want to deal with them? My preference would be to avoid them if at all possible. They won't like their rep taking a hit like that but tough poop.

There will probably be the standard mage, Decker, rigger, arsenal, and adept to deal with. One will most likely be hanging out in the server room.

It feels to me like we're almost done with the legwork portion of the run. Plan away, of course, and if you have any last-minute gear changes or need to make use of any contacts before the run, let me know.
Alternatively, if you guys prefer the action-first, plan-later approach of Blades in the Dark, I'm not against using Flashbacks as a planning alternative, either. I'm down for either, but I'll leave it up to you guys which style you prefer.

October was a little rough for me, and we just had a short family vacation last weekend. I'm hoping to be a little more on point for the rest of the year, but... well. Holidays. We'll see how it goes! :)
Hope you guys all have a safe and happy holiday season.

Damn, I didn't bring my silencer...

If anybody's interested, I just released a TTRPG on itch.io as a cheap ($2), no-art 300-page A5 (tablet-size) PDF.
Hi, Fantasy! is a Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset that offers loads of customization and guidelines for plugging in whatever setting you like. You can check it out at:
https://ionathas78.itch.io/hi-fantasy.

Hope everyone had a safe and healthy Christmas. Here's to a happy New Year! :)

I take it this Pennman is working for our target? Not sure if that's been said somewhere already and just I missed it. If he is, then he's likely the mage the ritual team has seen at the compound. Knowing when he is not there would be useful.

Hi, everybody.
We lost water as a result of the freeze here in Texas, so I've been dealing with that IRL. It could've been a lot worse, but it has been very time-consuming.

Sorry I've been out of commission for so long. Thanks for your patience!

No worries. Sorry to hear that happened to you. Hope things are better now.

No problem. Take as long as you need to sort things out, hope you've not been too badly affected.

In reply to Cheshire & FreeMason (msg # 327-328):

It was definitely all kinds of unpleasant, but it could've been a lot worse and it was worse for a bunch of other people, so I have no room to complain. It totally wrecked my schedule, though, and I'm still struggling to recover some semblance of working order.
At any rate, thanks for the good wishes! :)

Hey, guys. I'm sorry; I've been dreading having to write this post...
So, my bout with unemployment has not been going well and it's coming to a head, which is... you know. Stressful. Suffice it to say, I need to refocus. I think I'm leaving RPoL for good for now, so I'm wrapping up all my games.

What that means for you guys is this: I can delete the game or I can transfer ownership, and I'm willing to go with whatever you guys decide. I'll give it a week or two so you'll have a chance to reply, and then we'll go with the consensus.

I've had a drek-ton of fun playing with each of you, and I wish RL did not, at times, suck. I wish and hope the best for each of you and thank you all for playing with (slash-putting-up-with) me.

Jonathan

Sorry to hear that. Hope things get better for you. I’m ok with continuing on if somebody wants to take up the mantle.

Damn. Curses. Etc.

Likewise, sorry to hear that. I wish you the best of luck and hope everything works out for you.


On the continuing the game or not, I'm fine with continuing as well if somebody else takes over.

Thanks for the positive thoughts. :)

That only leaves access. Transferring ownership would be the most straightforward way to handle it; but if it's easier, I could just assign one or more people as GMs and leave the game under my account. I believe that would work, too.

What do you guys think?

Think I'm gonna delete this game, so I'm posting notification here. If anybody has anything to say, do it now.

Farewell. Better luck in the future.