I like the spirit appearing in the car with him and using its power as Grease pits the car and Overkill tries to brick the guy's deck.

I guess I'll be there for moral support and dakka in case none of this works.

To answer Chrome's question the windows are not tinted.

Just need to pick a specific spot to ambush him.

Amy's summoning test is already done.

Grease will have to make a couple of tests to catch up to him - Stinger is driving quite quickly.

Once you give the signal I can have Overkill start hacking his deck - well, at least try and find it first, and then hack it.

Here's how I see the sequence:

1) get close to Stinger
2) Try to Influence him in thinking that he needs to immediately turn wireless off on all his electronics
3) If 2 didn't work, try to hack
4) Regardless of how 3 turns out, it's time to immediately have the spirit appear in the car (surprise!)
5) Just after 4, have Grease maneuver, the spirit will know to use the accident power at the right moment
6) Jack goes immediately after Stinger to try to overcome/stun him, and put Overkill's head jammer on his head.
7) Get away from the scene as fast as possible, and off to [location]

Hopefully we achieve our two objectives: get our hands on Stinger for interrogation, and no message is sent to his allies.

Edit this as needed, and we really need to think of a location to bring him to.

So, even if 2 works, while a good idea, doesn't really help mechanically.

If he is alerted before he is unconscious, he still gets his actions, and it is a free action to turn the wireless back on his deck, and another free action to send a message with his DNI.

So, for instance, you influence him to turn them off, and then the spirit manifests - and the spirit can't do anything when it manifests, that is its whole first action - at which point even if he turned his wireless off, he can still just turn it back on and send a message.

Just trying to avoid any rules mechanics surprises.

A lot of it depends on whether Stinger would immediately call his buddies if he got in a car wreck. I guess it's possible, but it doesn't seem like the immediate first thing someone would do outside of a game world. Now, if we were shooting at him and/or a spirit is in the car with him, maybe (although self-preservation seems like it would be the name of the game in that instance). I think Overkill just has to hopefully get lucky enough to jack his stuff.

One issue with Influence is that it's a (P) duration spell, so you have to maintain it for (F) CTs before it takes effect. For a reasonable Force spell, that's going to be something like 12 seconds (for Force 4) that we have to maintain speed with him. I think that is likely to give away our play since he is probably going to notice another car illegally maintaining speed with him for 12 seconds. I would honestly just skip the Influence deal for now.

There don't seem like a lot of guarantees here, but since we already took Truck out, we don't have much time to act.

ETA: While I think the spirit manifesting in the car is cool, it probably makes more sense if Amy had it manifest a few blocks ahead of us on top of a building and wait in ambush. Then it won't have any wasted actions as it can target Stinger through the front windshield of the car.

EATA: OK, for the full deal, here's what I am suggesting:

1) We follow Stinger (preferably discreetly) until he chooses a route running north. He presently has several options; until he makes a choice, we can't really setup an ambush.
2) Once he picks a north route, we check to see if he is going to obey street lights. When he gets stopped at a red, Amy sends the spirit to setup at the next intersection and we do the ambush there. If he doesn't stop at street lights, we send the spirit ahead three blocks and do the ambush there, hopefully allowing us to catch-up and force a crash test.
3) Overkill attempts to brick/Grease attempts to wreck/the spirit attempts to force a glitch/Jack and Amy in reserve to hopefully direct Stinger to la-la-land.

Hmm good point. Although, I believe the effect of the spell is immediate, even before the suggestion has become permanently inserted in his brain. It'll just stop very suddenly if interrupted (I think).

Anyway, maybe we should give him no reason to believe that any kind of foul play is involved. If he's thinking that he's just getting into a normal accident, at worse he'll message his buddies to tell them he's in an accident. By the time we're on him, just after that, we might be able to knock him out fast enough.

Going that route would be more straightforward: no manifesting in the car, no spell, no hacking (he might very well notice that). Just go for the maneuver, helped out by the accident power from the spirit. Once the crash happens, then start trying to hack his stuff, try to influence him not to send messages to anyone, etc.

Would that be a better plan?

ETA: Seems similar to what you just edited in.

Given the rate of speed he is driving at, I'm not sure if we're going to be able to make it look like an accident. Only way I can see us pulling that off is if Overkill tried to follow and Grease worked out an alternate route to try and cut him off and we force an accident at a four way intersection with Stinger driving N-S and Grease driving E-W (sort of like a t-bone without the collision).

I'm also not entirely sure if he wouldn't notice the spirit power. The rules seem quiet on whether you notice offensive uses of critter powers.

Let me know if you need any of my input on the plan; I'm on board so far. I'd prefer to preserve the cab as much as possible, but am willing to try and cause an accident since Grease thinks talking to Stinger is very important. He had to sit in a drug den for over 30 minutes for this! Good thing he's not a cat shaman.

-DrZ

You should be able to theoretically force a wreck without damaging the cab, at least using the vehicle combat rules.

Theory and practice being what they are, my fingers are still crossed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

So:

1) I believe spirit powers should be like spells, you should be able to notice them being used on you.

2) With regards to when permanent spells take effect, that is interesting. Stabilize comes out and says that the person isn't stabilized until after the spell becomes permanent, and I've always played that when you cast Heal, the person isn't healed until after the spell becomes permanent, I'm thinking that all permanent spells work that way.

3) I want to fast forward a little, Overkill follows him as he makes a left on East Orchard and a right on S. Buckley. It will take you at least until he hits E. Smokey Hill to catch up to him.

How far back are you driving? Are you following him directly, or are you trying to parallel him?

Do I have the Fly-spy on him still? If so, parallel. otherwise, I will have to keep eyes on him.

EDIT: Unless overkill has eyes on him from his bike.

At the speed he is going, he will outdistance your Fly Spy quickly. Overkill, however, has his eyes on him. That may be an issue depending on what he does at the light at Orchard and Buckley.

Since we have some clues as to where he might be going, I would suggest Overkill stay a little ways back. I'm trying to keep my RL surveillance experience out of this, since Jack wouldn't have a clue about it, but I think common sense would state that Overkill could probably follow him to Buckley, but shouldn't follow if he turns. He could always slow roll to the intersection and just visually track Stinger while Grease parallels and tries to pick him up (probably at Smoky Hill, at which point Overkill could rejoin the chase from further back.

Buckley and Chambers are the most direct routes back to LM territory, Chambers being the most direct route. Orchard doesn't hit Chambers, so it is most likely he'll turn north on Buckley and take it all the way before turning west or he'll turn north on Buckley, west on Smoky Hill, and north on Chambers, which will take him directly to LM territory.

ETA: Are we already past Tower? We might be able to blast down Tower at high speed and pick up Smoky Hill to try to catch up to him, judging by the map.

You are just passing Tower when he turns on to Buckley.

If he wants, Grease can make a Vehicle test to make the REALLY sharp turn necessary to make the right.

Ok, that's fine, good to know. That's why it was important to discuss all this before we actually do it, just so the mechanics are clear.

Regarding 1), when you use accident on some dude, does he automatically know or is it a test?

Good question. The rules are quiet on it - I think the way to do it is treat it like a spell.

If the power is used ON a person, then they know it.

If the power is used in line of sight of a person, then detect it like a spell - threshold is equal to 6 minus the force of the spirit.

I should be able to post a little OOC tomorrow and possibly Thursday, then I am out of cell coverage (the horror.. the horror!) until the 19th.

-DrZ

It seems to me if we are guessing correctly about his path, there should just be a few rolls to make to see if we keep up, intercept, and pull off the attack. Hope we can get it knocked out tomorrow!

Ok - Overkill starts his search:

Comp+Int=8 dice, his datajack and Signal Scrub negate all noise penalty
8d6.hits(5)=2

Stinger's silent Deck resists:
10d6.hits(5)=3

No joy finding his deck (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Well, that didn't start out well.

Then again, Overkill could take a shot at MARKing Stinger's car (if the wireless is turned on) and see what comes of it. He also presumably knows that Stinger has a firearm or Grease could tell him that he does and what type of weapon it is and try to mark that if the wireless is turned on. If it's slaved to the deck, then he would get a MARK on the deck and it wouldn't matter if he had spotted it or not.

I'm not sure if Overkill would go ahead and do that on his own as he knows its an option. I'm going to wait to post if you want to make a few more rolls for him. The character is smart as hell, so I would think he would exhaust all of his options first.

Sure - that all makes sense.

Trying to spot his weapon:
8d6.hits(5)=2

Stinger resists
10d6.hits(5)=3

Trying to spot his car
8d6.hits(5)=0

No need to roll the resistance (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

I tried... IC post incoming.

OOC - Overkill is on board to try it - but Jack and Amy are talking out loud rather than sending messages, so he is unaware of their conversation. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I will be around until Wednesday, and then will be gone until Sunday night (which coincidentally is when Grease will be back). I still think there is planning to do, i.e. where are you bringing if when you are successful,
whether or not Grease is going to ram him or just cut him off (I think it is just the cut off maneuver, but I'm just double checking), and where exactly you are going to perform the ambush.

Also, can I confirm that while Stinger and Overkill are traveling up Buckley toward Smokey Hill, Grease made the turn onto Tower and attempting to parallel him up to Smoky Hill?

I figured we (the players) would try to hash it out IC since Overkill is currently GMPC and focused on keeping Stinger in sight.

- I don't think we really have a plan for bringing him anywhere and I could actually easily see that potential bit of planning being missed. I'm okay with us trying to figure out what to do with him afterward. All of this was so rushed, it's an operational detail that could easily be missed.

- DrZ said he doesn't want to damage the taxi (since he's jacked in, doubly so), so I think he wants to attempt a cut-off maneuver, which should force the opponent into a crash test.

- Once we get to Smoky Hill Road, we should have a better idea of where we can perform the ambush. Given driving distances, etc... if he stays on Buckley, it looks like Buckley and Mansfield might be a good spot. It's about halfway between Quincy and Hampden.

- Yes, I believe the intention was to take Tower to parallel, otherwise he would see us flying up in his rearview from several thousands of meters back.