Hope all goes well for you Toombs and hope you do make it back some time.

If we do need a magic user on the team, I wouldn't mind so much making a new character and switching to one.  I do like St. V and he is fun to play, but I have found out that there isn't a whole ton he is able to contribute unless they are in a combat situation.  And combat situations are probably more avoidable if there are people on the team with more to contribute...

All in all, I wouldn't mind switching to a magic user, but I wouldn't mind sticking with St. V either.  Whatever you guys think is best.

Well, if Zomborobo is coming in with a Phys-Ad, then we're probably covered reasonably well for close combat.  So switching to a mage might be useful.  (Papa will probably let you transfer your karma).  That said, St. V is a lot of fun.  So if you do come up with a new character, feel free to give it lots of character :>

Only downside of losing St. V is I'd been looking forward to making a harness for him to wear one of my drones on.  It would have looked awesome . . . ;>

Wait...so you're planning to give St. V a makeshift jetpack!  Whoa, now that would be something to see!

BTW St. V, if you do happen to make a mage, please be sure to have him learn some sort of healing spell, like 'Heal' or 'Treat'.  I think we might need some medical help of some sort, what with this team's track record.  Or if people dislike having me as the decker, I'm more than willing to take up the role of the 'mage'.  I feel so lonely in the matrix, with only IC and data to keep me warm...

As a head's up, I'm choosing between Dreamchipper and Maria Mercurial for the next adventure. I would LIKE to get the first post up on Thursday, but I may be late.

Right now is a great time to work on your character updates, spending cash and karma, etc.

Noruas, do I recommend you stick with the decker, for a number of reasons. For one, pretty much all of the adventures have a decking component, although rarely do they pull the decker away as much as this one did. You can expect to get 'in the mud' more in future ones. Secondly, you have no problem posting a LOT in a short while, which is great. Tabletop or pbp, there's usually a gap (called 'pizza time') where the decker is doing something and everyone else has to wait. Even though you did a TON of stuff, I don't think anyone noticed any delays due to decking. Third, you were really good at it. You hit all of your goals without major issues. Next time you just need to see if you can score some paydata in the process ;)

For what it's worth guys, I did take Astral Perception with my build, though it won't be as good as actually being able to project, I can at least help look out for magical threats.

So should I go ahead and make that Full Magician character then?  And if so, how should I go about switching from one character to the other?  And what, if anything, transfers?  I have been looking into a potential character build over the last few days so I have a good start.

Okiedokie.  Staying a decker then!  ;)

I transfer karma. If cash is a big deal, we can discuss. I need to review Zomborobo's character, so not sure if he'll fill the combat role, but really... I'm not too worried about you lot dealing with combat :P

Cool.  I'll work on it some more as soon as possible.  I don't think the money should be a big deal, so Saint Velveteen will go invest a bunch of it at the nearest casino!

Oh, I can definitely take the combat role. Put 5 into Pistols and my Kung-fu is at 7... then there's the matter of improved reflexes 2. I should be good to go when things go south. Well, as good as one can be, considering things will have gone south.

So I'm looking at two separate adventures and I'm tied on which one, so I'll open it to the players.

One is a bodyguard adventure (although it promises to be much more). A few famous characters and some proper intrigue and backstabbings. It does have heavy rocker components (sorry Toombs).

The second is more of an investigation. Tailing people, asking questions.

Preferences?

Mercurial is a classic that I've never had the pleasure of playing through. I'd go for that one. Dreamchipper is also really highly regarded.

Another quick head's up; I do NOT track your karma!!! (I know I should, but I'm already tracking all the rest of the adventure, and we're all adults.) I see a number of character sheets don't have karma listed, so you probably want to do that.

In general, I prefer people keep logs of when they received and spent karma (that makes both your and my life easier), and that you alert me when you're spending karma in a PM.

I think I ran Mercurial 20 years ago or so.  I don't remember any of it though.  If I do have flashbacks, I'll do my best not to take advantage or give any spoilers.  I'm happy to play either, though the whole "asking questions" bit is up my personal alley.  If the intention is to play both, maybe we do the non-rocker one now and the rocker one later (when Toombs might be back to partial sanity?)

Zomborobo - you'll be helpful for fighting elementals.  At least the ones that choose to get close enough to hit.  :>

How long do we have "game time" for training and such (plus lifestyle costs) before the next mission?  Do you have any rules about how much a given stat can be boosted between games?

You have about a month (rounding is okay). I don't have any rules on how much to boost a stat, although I probably should :P

I used the training rules from Shadowrun Companion - 7 days per karma point spent, adjusted by success test.  So 37 days and 5 karma to get to Biotech (First Aid) 1(4).  Presume that 37 days fits within "about a month (rounding is okay)".

Do we presume that our "covers expenses" will replenish ammo expended?

Yes. In general, I don't ever plan to track bullets unless you're using something VERY expensive (like APDS or rockets) or you're using a tremendous amount of them (like more than 500).

Thoughts on what to do with the car?  2 armor isn't totally useless.  It'll stop light and medium pistols.  And pretty decent odds of staging down a heavy pistol shot to nothing unless it's made by a very good shot.  So in places where heavy weapons aren't expected, it could be useful.  And if we're wanting to travel somewhere where riding in style (or traveling very fast) is appropriate and showing up with an off-road RV would be frowned upon, it could come in handy.

Unfortunately, we probably don't know each other well enough for it to be considered a "team" asset.  (Particularly given that two of our four characters won't be getting back together for the next run.)

My proposal then is to offer $10k to each of you ($30k less for me).  That's a bit less than it's probably worth on the street, but if you complain, Copperhead will probably just lock it and tell you to go ahead and drive it home.  She'd also argue that it's hot and only she has the tools necessary to change the serial numbers, id tags, etc.  So until that's done, it's not worth nearly market value (which, is about $62k - assuming it's the base model and not turbo).  A 50% discount on a stolen, used corp vehicle is a pretty good deal :>

Question - is it concealed armor?  By the book, that would drop the cargo to zero, but I'm going to assume there's at least a little bit of trunk space left?

St. V would be happy with that plan for the car, especially since they wouldn't have it to fight over in the first place if it wasn't for Copperhead.  Especially not in such great condition.

As for which adventure to do next, I am also leaning toward the "asking questions" one.  I think the snake shaman character I am building would be more suited for that.  I'm not too picky though.

I'm cool with whatever you guys decide to do with the sports car.  But I would like to know if Copperhead or anyone she knows and is willing to introduce can help me upgrade my ride.  After seeing the sports car we just courteously accepted has armor, I would like to add some on mine too. And maybe a couple other features as well.

So, BB, I'm guessing we will no longer get any after-action reviews on our mission performance, right?

Oh, good thoughts on the after action report. Not a whole lot to say on this one, but I'll draft something up.

Yes, the car armor is concealed. Yes, you do still have some trunk space. This car won't be able to hold most of your drones (tiny crawlers will fit). But if you need to fit in a suitcase or two that won't be an issue.

So during this period of 'rest' where we can upgrade and all that....how should we go about elaborating our upgrade in skills?  Do we more or less just say what we are upgrading without needing to role play it out?

Yup! Just a quick note of "I'm spending X karma bumping X stat to Y." You can add color text if you want; it's totally up to you.

So it sounds like we'll move forward with Dreamchipper. Funny, this is the first written scenario I ever played in, back as a junior runner in 1998. Reading through, I come to appreciate my old GM a little more :)

I know the beginning and end of adventures can be a little slow, so I plan to overlap them. People are still welcome to spend karma, etc., etc. But for the sake of getting people playing, we'll start the mission 'simultaneously'. I'll also update Zomborobo's character name, and he can jump in, even though he has some character details he's still hammering out. St. V, you can decide if you're changing characters or not. As long as you do it before the actual investigating portion of the run starts, it won't be an issue. I can say, this particular mission does not have a particularly strong magic component, so the group running sans mage won't be an issue.

So without further ado, Dreamchipper, by James D. Long, 1989.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:21, Thu 01 Oct 2015.