Let's get this party started

Skraa, cerris!

Hope to have fun, and remember, we've got 4 years IC till Seattle Independence Day! :3

Hello! It's nice to meet everyone. I'll be getting character creation done sometime in the next couple of days.

Greetings, everyone. Looking forward to playing with you all. My character is work in progress, but she is going to be a magical thief of some kind. Likely mystic adept, though I will not be focusing on outright combat powers, so hopefully there will not be too much of an overlap with Chop.

Cool beans, sounds good.  And bit of trivia, Chop's street name comes from an actual boxer.

Seems like we got some muscle in here. =)

Character creation is mostly done for Reyna. I'm mostly fiddling with the exact allocation of skills now, but it looks like she's going to be a complex-form focused technomancer with a tiny bit of social engineering added on.

Sounds good!  Chop Chop is going to be a UAC/melee focused Physad with some street-level etiqutte skills so he'll be a face of sorts in the Barrens.

Huh. The type of combat isn't similar but a slightly socially inclined muscle is...lol

Anyone else have a vehicle?

Reyna doesn't.

Might be able to scrape together for a scoot, we will see.

And having backups in social is always good, it allows for specialization and in case we have to split up there's no worries that a gaffe will be made.

SLIGHTLY social. Like...a not-bad Intimidation (Pool 8), and a couple others like 1 lower. So not a social 'monster' by any means.

Brannigan has a sedan (mostly due to other reasons, not ferrying around the team lol).

Also mostly done with my character, still fiddling with gear. As for vehicles, I think I'll be able to start with a scooter... and a loan shark on my back.

How are we standing with fake SINs? That's the most expensive item on my list.

Reyna has a rating one fake SIN. I figure that she’ll disguise herself to match the person on the SIN rather than figuring out a source of more nuyen for now, or she’ll use technomancy to tell things they don’t need to look at her SIN.

...I bought a Rating 3 Fake Sin. Is that too high for where we are at? lol

It's not too high.

I went with Rating 2. From what I understand, anything below 4 is basically a burner SIN, good as long as nobody bothers to check it.

Hmm, 3 is pretty good. The rating sets the threshold when it's checked. I'd say anything less than 3 is a burner. If a 3 is a burner, then it's not worth it. Brannigan has to have a high enough one to have his driver's license under, just in case, as he uses his car in a non-illegal fashion mostly.

I should probably actually say this somewhere, but some of Reyna's buffs depend on characters being able to see augmented reality objects, so please consider buying eyewear with an image link if you haven't already.

And I did invest a couple Karma into a beat to drek Thundercloud Morgan so there's room for one other person if they can deal with a nutjob Ork using the 4x4 as a shortcut driving over Puyallup ashfields or Barrens rubble.

Image link, no problem.

Sedan that seats 3 comfortably and an ork uncomfortably (sorry, buddy, it's not me, it's the car), no problem. =)

All right. With people discussing contacts, it seems character creation is winding down. Let's get going.

Y'all have plans for how your characters know each other. You're welcome to fill that out in character.

The initial scenario will be a bit railroady so the game actually kicks off. I expect to introduce other story hooks as part of that initial scenario, so other choices will be available next.

Screech is getting desperate, so he's spamming the area trying to find a spot. Brannigan got the message directly.

Others of you might have a contact connect you. Many other options exist for how a character could hear of this story hook. Other than Brannigan, please post how you hear about this....if you do.

Not sure how Winter would hear of this. But she has been scavenging abandoned (or not so abandoned) buildings in Puyallup (among other places), and also has the Architecture knowledge skill. So, maybe someone can call on her for an idea on where to look for a suitable location that won't fall down? She could even perform some structural repairs with her Shape Steel spell.

I suppose that brings up a question - what skill(s) might be used for knowing about a good place for a party like is being asked? Survival? Sprawl Life knowledge skill? Area Knowledge: Seattle knowledge skill? Something else?

Would interest knowledge street drugs be useful in this situation?

In any case, I was going to have Reyna’s contact mention it to her as a way to make rent. I’ll try to get a post out today.

Area Knowledge certainly. Street Knowledge less so. Safehouses or BTL dens might get you somewhere.

Reyna's contact would certainly bring it up.

If you don't already know, you can always go look around. Do you actually have something else to do?

Maybe I do. You don't know! lol

Also, I *THINK* the Shadowrun 4th Edition option in the dice roller works for 5th Ed as well?

It does, but there is one small difference that we would need to pay attention to. In 4th Edition a glitch happens when half or more dice come up as 1. In 5e, it's when more than half dice come up as 1, so it's actually a bit harder to glitch in 5e.

In that case it might be useful to use the " Record Each Die " feature.

Oop I was about to reply when I realized Screech only contacted Brannigan heh

No, he also said that Screech is kind of spamming out to anyone.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:26, Fri 09 Dec 2022.

GM suggested having a contact contact characters if you need some way to get into the scene. Alternatively, Reyna could send Chop Chop a message if you wanted.

Nah I can work things, just didn't want to shove way in if the GM had a plan.

If Screech is spamming everyone, I guess I'll have Winter hear the message directly as well. Makes the most sense, unless one of you contacts her instead.

Should Reyna roll anything for the matrix searching, or is this a situation where Reyna needs to start running around the barrens looking for abandoned houses and stuff?

I did also make an Area Knowledge roll in my last post, but I'm happy to drive around. Will post in a bit.

The sort of information will be hard to find on the Matrix. It might find a place to start. Besides, I know you want to, so be my guest.

Thank you. it's one success, so she probably needs to leave her apartment. Does a low lifestyle come with a bus pass?

GM, can you set up a default dice for the dice roller (Shadowrun 4th, Record each die)? I think that should be possible to do, right?

Ah, I missed that. Amazing how that orange text just faded into the background. :b Thanks for the reminder.

Brannigan knows :

Yeah. You don't get that back. I posted in character what Screech replies. A professional Fixer he's not.



However, with that roll you get a lot of information about Puyallup in Seattle. It'll take me some time to write it up. He's a little bit. I'll post more later.

Those 6 hits gets you a lot. I'm not going to type up pages and pages. If you ask questions later on about the area, remind me of these hits 'cause you should know a bunch about places in Pulyallup.

Additional information for Winter :
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:47, Sun 11 Dec 2022.

No problem, I just wanted to confirm that he did send that reply (message #6 in the thread) to all of us, and not only to Brannigan. I should have put that more clearly.

I guess we better figure out a way for all of us to get together now and decide on where we should try to look first. Winter does know of some options thanks to her lucky roll.

If transit to the junkyard is uneventful, then just tell me, and I'll write a post with Reyna waiting there or meeting Chop Chop there.

Transit to the junkyard is uneventful, so you're welcome to post to that effect.

One additional thing to think about here is your character's Standard Operating Procedure for going into the Barrens. How heavily armed are they walking the streets? How cautious are they? Do they stay on their ARO?

Sometime later, you may be in a similar situation and need a gun. The SOP that you establish here will be considered later.

Here's what Chop Chop know about the Barrens:

As it might be clear from the other OOC messages. Screech is not going to get back to you with details. He's expecting you to find it for him.

What if Brannigan were driving past the Black Junk Yards and noticed an acquaintance?

She's very lightly armed. She only really has a shock glove and gumption at this point, so running and hiding from physical threats if she doesn't have someone she can empower to take out the other person is her general plan of action. Since she really doesn't want to get into a situation where not being great at murder is a problem, she has to be more cautious by necessity. Fortunately, watching the matrix and reality for hidden stuff are two things she's decent at, and it'd feel weird to not live in AR as a technomancer.

Brannigan, should we head for the same place and meet them? If you want, you could call on Winter for her knowledge of abandoned buildings in the barrens. Or she could call on you because you know Screech better and would have a better idea on what he really wants. This all assuming we know (of) each other in some way. If you would prefer this not being the case, maybe she could do this with someone else? It would be more likely then us individually ending up at the same place (though that's a possibility as well).

Regarding her SOP, Winter usually just carries a taser, but she definitely brings a real gun (concealed, though) when she heads out in the barrens. Also a bunch of tools on her bike, an old beat-up Dodge Scoot. When actually walking the place, she prefers to keep as low a profile as possible, and keeps her gear running in silent mode.

Winter - yeah I guess we'll have to do something like that since Screech is being super unhelpful and yet demanding.

I'm fine with people knowing one another or at least some knowing Brannigan.

SOP:

Benefit of being a PhysAd is he doesn't worry too much about having to carry any weapons...

Normally I would try to post an IC thread, but y'all are trying to connect together, so I'm going to skip it for the moment in favor of a post on Friday.

Nicely done y'all. Sometimes gathering together takes a lot of time. You're now together in a dilapidated....convoy.

The key question is where to now?

I would be grateful if you could give me the noise from distance to Screech and the noise from the static zone that we're in since it seems like hacking screech is something that people are going to be okay with. I'd also be grateful to know if you want to roll a sprite's anti-compiling test, or if I should roll that since I will always know the dice pool. The plan for hacking Screech, if we get one more affirmative, is for Reyna to compile a L5 companion sprite with the Navi optional power, enter hot-sim, burn a task to boost the matrix perception by 3 dice, perceive him, burn a task to thread search history with 5 extra dice, clean up her resonance signatures, then keep the sprite with her for half an hour before releasing it to the resonance. Pretty quickly after the signatures are erased, Reyna will reboot her living persona to shed her overwatch score.

I wanted to poll people out of character and ask if everyone feels good with the proposed plan of leaving the junkyard and checking out Hell's Kitchen.

We might be able to handle this hack in parallel. Does what y'all do in Hell's Kitchen depend on what you find on Screech's link?

I don't think so. It sounds like we're going to check out Hell's Kitchen because we've got to start somewhere and it's the most likely to be in Screech's price range. If something major comes up from Screech's commlink, then that might impact it. Otherwise, anything we get from the commlink is mostly going to help us pick a place in Hell's Kitchen, figure out how long we'll need the space, and what he needs it for. Mostly stuff that'll be relevant once we need to negotiate usage.

The Matrix is fragged in Puyallup. Given the missing nodes and general bad coverage it counts as a rating one static zone. The distance to your target is 1000m-10000m which gives you 3 more points of Noise.

For the rest of the ideas, let's handle them in the Matrix Run thread. It's been a while since I've done Matrix runs, and that was before technomancers, so bear with me.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:57, Tue 20 Dec 2022.

My understanding of this is that you compiled a Level 5 sprite gaining two services from it. You resisted Fading, but not completely resulting with 1 box of Stun damage. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Regardless, do you want to describe the sprite or shall I?

Compiling a sprite is a test opposed by it's level, so 5 dice in this case. The number of net hits that Reyna rolls is how many tasks she gets from the sprite while the number of hits (Not just net hits) that the sprite rolls, times 2 is how much fading she needs to resist. If the sprite rolls more than 1 success at this point, then she fails and resists only 3 points of fading.

I'm fine with you describing the sprite. Reyna has an eye theme, but sprites are weird.

I see now. Thanks for clarifying that. I rolled nothing on the resistance test, so there's no Fading to resist.

OOC: 21:12, Today: GM failed (no successes) using 5d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5.  Sprite Resistance test.

Sounds good, should I have Reyna roll her matrix perception now?

Go for it.

This will probably be relevant in a couple steps, but would you accept the usage of resonance veil to convince a device that it's owner has invited marks from Reyna, or would she need to puppeteer it into inviting marks. In either case, threading Search History at level 4 is her next move if she spots Screech's commlink, so if she does successfully spot Screech's commlink, then I'd be grateful if you rolled the device rating x 2 resistance test.

Ah, thanks for correcting me on that too. Alas, it's worse than that. You have 3 Noise from distance and 2 Noise based on the Grid type. That reduced the dice pool by 5. I bolded those in the quoted text above. That reduces your hits to 3.

<edit> Confused. Did you already apply 3 points of noise? I guess, how much did you reduce you dice pool by for Noise?</edit>
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:34, Thu 22 Dec 2022.

Ah, I applied four points of noise. The 3 for distance and 1 for the static zone. Her dice pool was 11 (computers + INT) + 2 (Specialization) + 2 (Technomancer) +2 (Hot Sim) +3 (Navi) -4 (Distance and static). Subtracting 3 dice (1 point of static noise and the -2 public grid penalty) would still bring her down to three successes.

I should have included the breakdown in the dice roller since it's not that much effort.

Screech's commlink does not have a databomb attached.

It's Firewall is 3

Would a Street Knowledge: Street Gangs or Profession Knowledge: Police Procedure check give Reyna any information about what "Strong788" means?

Hey everybody. Where are the IC posts for the non-decker characters.

Are y'all going to visit the chopshop? Do you just want a wrap up post for that chore?

Hmm, if Chop is going to take a ride with Brannigan, then Branningan likely also has to head to the chopshop, right? And Winter would then follow on her bike.

As for where next after that, not sure. Someplace in Hell's Kitchen where we can look for promising buildings?

Well, my current understanding is that Winter and Chop Chop have bikes. Brannigan has a car which Reyna got into.

Chop Chop was looking for a place to drop his bike so everyone could be together in Brannigan's car. So I provided a place.

How do y'all want to interact with it?

Sorry, my silence was mostly work. Busiest time of the year for me for another month or so.

But yeah if Chop Chop wants to leave his bike, I can make my next post heading to that shop and waiting while he does that before heading back out.

Well it's technically an ATV, but I'd mentioned something about locking it up, so he's fine with leaving it behind as long as he gets back to the yard later.

Reyna, I don't understand what action you are doing. I understand in general what you plan, but I don't understand how you got there.

I see a Matrix action to edit a file. That requires 1 mark on the target. As far as I am aware, you have found Screech's commlink, but have not attempted to mark your target.

I did look into Technomancer Threading to get this data. However, I didn't find anything like " Threading Search History "

Can you please clarify?

Added three potential destinations in Hell's Kitchen.

Which would y'all like to start with?

Search History is one of the complex forms from Kill Code which Reyna's trying to thread. I've attached its text below for you.

Got it. Thanks. Matrix post in a few minutes.

Please recall that Reyna's Matrix run is happening in parallel and should be finished by the time the group gets to the Regulus. Reyna will be in the physical by that time.

I'm going to need you to confirm that you want this data. My concern is that you are getting who Screech is talking to without breaching his Firewall, fig leaf that it is.

I can give it to you, but I will be frustrated if you complain when I bypass your much more robust Firewall to compromise your contacts.

Have you had Screech roll his device rating x 2 test to resist the complex form?

To answer your question, I don't know. I feel like I should ask for the information because it's relevant, but I also feel like you would rather I not. The second is the more important consideration of the two. I would be grateful if you ruled what information Reyna got in the way that you prefer.

Is the main issue the call/text metadata? If it's just that, then would an acceptable solution be for her to compile a courier sprite to use Cookie on the commlink to get that information instead, and have her get the matrix search history from the complex form?

Yeah, it didn't get any successes



Ah, thank you for the reminder. Yes, I will define what I prefer it to be. See below.



You do not require any marks to perform this action. I reread the section on Complex Forms to uncover this tidbit.

You are able to pull all the commcode he's called. Only six repeat. Most of the rest are spams going out. Additional Matrix Searches may clarify who these commcodes belong to. Also, he's been spamming for more than four days...about 10 days. Your crew just had not heard about it or he spread himself more widely since he hasn't found success yet.

Sorry about lack of reply, got a bit busy post-vacay

Nah. It's heavy machinery and industrial robotics.

I will endeavor to get a map up for the entry way.

Interesting. I updated the main game map with the layout of the entranceway. Y'all entered in the doorway at the top left.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:10, Tue 03 Jan 2023.

Reyna, go ahead an roll the Matrix Perception for inside the facility. Apply 2 points of static zone penalty since this is the Barrens.

Also what does Reyna want to do next in trying to investigate Screech's commlink?

Reyna doesn't really have the dicepool to work through 5 noise and the public grid penalties for a mundane hack. She'll probably just keep an eye on his icon and try to follow him into a host if she gets the chance. Maybe try again with the matrix search to try and get information on the last 2 numbers?

Reyna also has a fairly decent dice pool for perception even with the -2 for being in AR, so if that becomes relevant, then I would be grateful for the information.

21:25, Today: Reyna rolled 5 successes using 13d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 1,1,4,5,2,3,4,6,5,2,5,2,6.  Matrix Perception, +6 Skill +2 spec +5 Intuition +2 techno -2 Noise.

You have only investigated 4 out the 6 repeating commcodes. I'm not sure if you want to continue with those.

Ah, yes I'd like her to continue searching. I thought that she just hadn't made the threshold for the last two numbers. I'll get a post out to that effect.

Yes, but in this case she can try again.

Please do roll another Matrix Search roll.

Can Reyna try defaulting on the knowledge check to identify the symbol? She has 4 dice, which might give her a decent not terrible chance.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Tue 10 Jan 2023.

That's a good question. If none of us have the appropriate skill, can knowledge skills be rolled at default?

Or can we take a picture of the symbol and run the shadowrun equivalent of reverse image search?

In reply to Winter (msg # 92):

Matrix Search'ing is a thing, but you'd have to stand around for a minute while Reyna tries that.

Barrigan didn't slow down. He just walked up to it. So you got more description in the IC thread. Please take a look there.

I'm happy for you to try Knowledge checks or Matrix searches. I'll need you to define the question you're asking when you do.

Also, I'd like to use Roll20 for mapping. Otherwise, my descriptions are going to confuse us all. Any objections?

Roll 20 sounds good. Is there anything that I need to do on my end for that? As for the knowledge and matrix search, it seems like Winter might have relevant skills. If she doesn't, then I'll have Reyna try something.

Really sorry that I've still been sick, it's been off and on since October.  I am feeling better though and I should be cought up by Friday.

I mean, feel free to tell him to slow down if you want him to. He'll accomodate.

Sorry you've been so sick, Chop Chop! I hope you feel better soon!

I am glad that you're on the mend.

I hope things get better from here.

Yeah, take it easy. Hope you get better soon.

Okay. Not sure what happened. I made a post yesterday but now it's gone. Sigh. Very annoying.

I consider whether or not it would be night. However, night in the Barrens is very dark and my descriptions have not included that obvious effect. Also, traveling in the Barrens at night would be much more dangerous. I guess y'all could be that fool-hardy, but I thought it was more reasonable for it to just be daylight.

That said, inside a large building without power would be dim light unless you're near opening to the outside.

So you're saying the stakes are high but the light is low? lol

All right, I've definitely gotten better now, and I've had Chop in the background but will pipe up more now. :3

Hmm, any idea on what's our next move? Follow the movement? Or try another path?

Yup, my thoughts as well.

Thank you very much for the attempt, GM.  I completely understand situations going as they are, and I hope things clear up for you in the future.

Sigh. I understand. I'm sorry things have gone this way, of course, and I hope things improve for you regardless, GM.

Thank you for giving running the game a shot, and giving us a heads-up that you needed to bow out. I hope things improve for you.

Ah, well. Thanks for giving it a go, and maybe we'll see each other in some other game, eh?

I appreciate all the sentiment. Thanks for understanding.