I'm good with proceeding to the main story.

Just shoveled the driveway after 5" of snow, so my tiny Tyrannosaurus arms are very tired.  Don't want to type a lot today.

Cool.

Did Whisper scrape the, let’s call it 300eb, necessary to become a member of Conrad’s?

Much as he'd like to put his money where his mouth is (heh), he doesn't have the remaining funds for it after his starting equipment purchases.

Fair enough.

Literally, I mean.  140eb remaining.

Couple more questions, in a addition to the outstanding ones re vehicles and residences: Assuming Armorjack can be incorporated into civilian clothing (like a jacket)? Or is CP body armor much like contemporary stuff?

Also, been thinking a bit more about Kerenzikov v. Sandevistan for Kenji. Although it makes sense that a SOF soldier would be "on" all the time, I imagine being overly twitchy could be a major detriment to a combat medic. For that reason, I think something that was default "off" (i.e. Sandevistan) would be a better fit. Make sense, or am I wrong?

-
This message was last edited by the player at 22:14, Sat 02 Jan 2021.

Based on what we see in the CP2020 Chromebooks, I think so - and to a certain extent, certain fashion branches have evolved to blur the line between "armored" and "looks armored."  My take is that anything up to SP11 armor (the max for no penalties) can be incorporated into street clothing.  Above that, it becomes obvious - which, in a setting where the ol' ultraviolence is closer to the surface, is not always the same as socially unacceptable.



I interpret the higher HL of Kerenzikov as having more severe in-universe warning labels about the dangers of cyberpsychosis.  It's going to generate a greater divergence from what we would consider "neurotypical."  However, Sandevistan's big limitation for a soldier is the one-minute activation time with the subsequent one-hour cooldown.  That feels like a liability in the sustained firefights that would be more common for a military user than for a Night City street user.

Ultimately, despite Sandevistan seeming more appropriate for a street user, I went with Kerenzikov for Martin because of the always-on effect.  Having to spin up Sandevistan with an inhaler or subvocal command is appropriate for someone who plans to be the one initiating combat a lot, but he doesn't have that luxury.  This viewpoint was influenced by his mentor, who, as an executive protection specialist, usually operated in defensive/reactive mode.

In reply to K. Takanori (msg # 120):

FWIW, if you want to try one and switch to the other if it doesn’t work, I’m cool with that.  We’re all kinda experimenting here.

In reply to Data Source (msg # 122):

I trust you guys' CPU knowledge. I was just imagining someone with live reflex boosters trying to close off an artery and it wasn't pretty.

In another uncanny case of synchronicity, I'd never seen/heard "Charcutiere" until last night, when Michelle produced one for dinner.

Me: "Ooh. This looks good. Tapas?"

Her: "It's called Charcutiere."

-

This message was deleted by the player at 05:24, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

Sunday's are my Monday's, so I'll try to work something up today, but no promises.  We are crashing on an interagency 'let's close the gate now that all the horses are out,' initiative.

In the spirit of keeping you guys informed and not spending time on a false lead, I pulled the salary amount from Pg 381, typical job 1,000eb.  I agree that this amount seems a little low for the style of gig you're looking at, so we can negotiate the amount higher if you would like.

In summary to the last few posts you have:

-A possible Maelstrom grab in a New Inquisition controlled area.  Daphne disappeared off the grid leaving behind a dead boyfriend
-Father a VP with Militech
-No contact with the father from the kidnappers
-Reasonable cyberware on the victim, but nothing reported as outlandish
-A netrunner working to obtain better surveillance footage + profile of the boyfriend
-Flesh peddlers not working in the vicinity of the grab

Additional pieces you would know as residents of NC:
-While this area is New Inquisition, the area several blocks south is Maelstrom territory
-Maelstrom and New Inquisition members have been increasing the ferocity of their "interactions" lately

Let me know if you need anything else.

Makes sense. I wasn't read up on salaries/fees. 3k does seem a bit low, though, all things considered. Would you rather just retcon it to a slightly higher number and I can edit out Kenji's pay question, or would you rather play it out IC? Either way is cool with me.

-

Let’s handle IC with the tacit agreement that Jasper will not be pissed off about the situation as you all approach it professionally.  That way you have some freedom to be cool.

Which I guess begs the question, what do you guys think the going rate for kidnap recovery is in world?

For me, the disconnect was between the gig's pay and our starting living conditions:



That's 1,800eb/month, implying that we semi-regularly have been pulling in enough to meet that and our other expenses.

However, I just dove a little deeper.  In the absence of fixer gigs, our weekly income is in the tables on pp. 382-385.  With our Rank 5 role abilities, our average would be 217eb/week for Kentucky and Whisper and 200eb/week for Lube.  Monthly (assuming a four-week month), that comes out to 868eb and 800eb, respectively.  So each month, each of us would need to be picking up one typical job (1keb) or two easy jobs (500eb each) just to make ends meet - more in months with bad rolls.

With that in mind, 1k each doesn't actually seem entirely off-base.  One of the tenets of the fiction is that edgerunners (indeed, most people) exist perpetually on the edge of financial disaster.  What we might want to do, however, is negotiate for expenses.

And loot the bodies.

(ETA: Also, we are getting netrunner support for this, which is probably coming out of the total outlay.)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:03, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

I guess Kenji's argument for a slightly higher fee (1500-2000 each) would be that this is not just a simple extraction mission, being that we have to find the target first.  Extraction + investigation = higher fee.

-

Have I mentioned that this is the reason I like gaming with you guys?

Collaborative problem solving!!

Jasper will agree to 1500eb with reimbursement for reasonable expenses related to the job (medical, bribes, etc...).

If Spartan doesn’t want to cover that in his post, I’ll get an IC up tomorrow with the relevant info.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 22:32, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

I'm not sure what to do next, so I just threw something out there. There's most likely a better way to start, so don't feel obligated to go along with Kenji's suggestion.

-

Just a short one to keep momentum up.  I'm almost done with this A/DCM stuff, so hopefully more and better posting this weekend!

No worries.  This gives me enough to plan ahead a bit.  I’ll aim for a new post tomorrow.

Quick question: do you guys want to designate a point of contact character that handles the comms with your support team or do you want to assume that comms go to the group at large?

In reply to Data Source (msg # 137):

In this format, I think feeding coms to all PCs is preferable, so that all of us have the opportunity to engage directly. It eliminates the need for a middleman, which speeds things up (especially in PbP).

-
This message was last edited by the player at 21:10, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

In reply to K. Takanori (msg # 138):

Cool by me.