Greenhorns in Seattle, The Out of Character Thread Options

[imperialus]

Ouch! 5 hits on a perception test, and I still did not see the missile! Oh well. (What would it have taken?)
The big risk for me is that Mack is going to come out of the Van with two flash-bangs and an LMG. There are no licenses for LMGs.
I'll post the damage roll IC.

Joel / Mack

It was a long shot. Here's my math for it.

Base of 3. Obscured, by the cover provided by the roof. You rolled: 1d6=1, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=5, 1d6=4, 1d6=5

-2 to your pool (removing dice from the right) "Object is not the the immediate vicinity" (the roof of a building is tough to see from the ground) 1d6=1, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=5, 1d6=4, 1d6=5

-2 to your pool "Perceiver is distracted" a pair of cops just passed you sirens blaring. 1d6=1, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=2, 1d6=6, 1d6=5, 1d6=4, 1d6=5

If you look at how your rolls came up that means you only actually ended up with 2 hits.

[JoelHalpern]

On the perception rolls, your original post said "No joy across the board on perception rolls ... that hurts." With those modifiers, and that threshold, the result is not surprising. But your tone seemed surprised by the outcome.
I am not objecting. I figured you had your reasons. Given that my actual roll was only 5 dice, instead of 9, It would have taken quite an impressive result to actually see anything. And even if I had, given the circumstances it is not clear it would have done any good.

In some ways the sequence of:
The Yaks are attacking our client
your note that this is likely to be a tough fight
we start responding to that
and then dragging the cops unexpectedly across our path that quickly
while all reasonable,
causes me rather more problems. It is really hard to have a tough fire-fight while the cops are standing around.
But I presume the scene will take shape, and we will manage.

Yours,
Joel

[Intro]

Hey, for the damage test, are we using our impact or ballistic armor? It looks like half of us used one, and half the other. I assume it would be impact from p.146 of the BBB (if I remember it right, don't have the book handy), but if it's ballistic I'd like to add some dice to my rolls.

Alex

[Dusty Ghost]

Yay! Finally a good roll from Sweeps and I still have 1 point of edge left to spend!! 3P aint to bad, let's hope I don't need it later.

@Joel:
Hey it was all confussion and BOOM! But what the hell it was still fun to be in a crash. LOL.

@Intro:
I think I rolled Ballistic. Without my BBB it's hard to tell. IMP If I'm wrong let me know.

[Nigel]

I used Impact from p.146 BBB, the Rockets and Missiles section - states that all Rocket/Missile fire uses Impact armor, not Ballistic. If that's different for this one, I'd like to also add 2d to my roll.

[JoelHalpern]

I used ballistic because that seemed sensible, although as it turns out I get the same result if I don't have the last two dice.
(A bit far from my books to check.)
Joel

[imperialus]

It's impact. Sorry. I should have clarified that.

Add the extra two dice Nigel. We'll run with Ballistic this time around.

Also keep in mind two things

1) the cops would likely appreciate it if you help them out. However this means that you'd likely be taken downtown afterwards. Even if you do have an illegal gun you can still walk though, after all if it wasn't for you and your illegal gun they might be burying a few cops. It will put you behind though, but might also bring Lonestar on board on your side.

2) If you choose to make an escape the real threat might be at Ice's shop. No cops there (they'll be responding to the officers getting shot at first) but you also might be able to get some information.

It's up to you guys. Either choice will still advance the plot.

*edit*If you want my advice... I'd honestly suggest splitting the party. Have anyone who's badly wounded (6P or worse) or good at talking (Loki/Padre) stick around the van while the gunbunnies go on foot to Ice's shop. Sybercat's going to stay with the van, just because someone has to. If you split up though you get the best of both worlds. I'm not going to require Infiltration checks to make your escape. Everything is too chaotic. Unless you do something to deliberately draw attention to yourself like firing a gun assume you can make it into an alley which will eventually take you to Ice's shop without being noticed.

[Nigel]

Yeah, I need to stick by the van in any case most likely. I'm bad at combat, and am just a detriment to the party.

I'll roll 2d6; if one or both fail, I'll reroll them (due to having spent Edge).

[Dusty Ghost]

REALLY sorry about using ballistic and not Impact. Forgot my BBB and had to guess.

The cops will hopefully keep most of the baddies here busy, but the shop is going to need firepower to sort. Sweeps ain't the best street fighter, but he can offer all the assistance he can to Joel and Intro if they want to go there.

Besides, no doubt the cops want to talk to Sweeps about various B&E jobs. So best stay clear.

[JoelHalpern]

Sorry if I messed with the initiative order. I did not see that part of the note, and read the rest as a request for what we planned to do.

Joel / Mack

[Dusty Ghost]

Are we now in combat? Or are we in combat when we get there (to the shop)?

Would you want us to make initiative roles again?

[imperialus]

We'll have combat start now. Getting to the shop is only going to take a single initiative pass (since everyone is running at the speed of plot) so that means that everyone will still be acting at the same time. At the beginning of the next IP I'll post what Mack, Takashi, and Sweeps see at Ice's shop while Sybercat, Loki and Padre get to act in this round of combat against the gangers. This is largely to keep things simple and make sure that everyone gets to act, even if they are in different physical locations.

For those running to the shop I wouldn't worry about editing your posts or re-rolling initiative. You aren't taking any aggressive action so we'll do the rolls for Loki et all this pass then you guys will be free to act next pass...

In other words your 'sort of' in combat, but it's more just a timing thing than anything else.

[Dusty Ghost]

Sorry to be a pain but can we see the init pass order for clarity? Thanks

EDIT: Nice reference link BTW (speed of plot).

[imperialus]

Sorry to be a pain but can we see the init pass order for clarity? Thanks

EDIT: Nice reference link BTW (speed of plot).

No Problem. I'll just keep editing this and italicize whoever's turn it is. Oh, and anyone at the Van. If you're shooting a pistol the gangers are at medium range, anything heavier is at short. I'm assuming you are all in -2 cover right now. This means you take a further -1 off your dice pool for shooting at them. If for some strange reason you want to shoot the cops in the back then they are at short range for everything.

Initiative Pass I
Loki: Init 15, 2 IP (17-2wounds)
Sweeps: Init. 14, 3 IP (15-1wounds) Down and out.
Takashi: Init. 13, 3 IP (14-1wounds)
Katana man: Init. 12, 3 IP's
Ice Gangers: Init. 11, 1 IP.
Cops(2): Init. 11, 1 IP
Sybercat: Init. 10, 2 IP (12-2wounds)
[i]Padre: Init. 10, 2 IP no damage[i]
Ork: Init. 10, 2 IP's.
Mack: Init. 9, 3 IP (10-1wounds)
Van Gangers (5): Init. 9, 1 IP.
Crull: Init. 7, 2 IP's

[Intro]

I added the dice for using ballistic instead of impact armor, and that changed the soak to -3P instead of -4P, so I'm at -1 for wounds. I had edited the post where it happened, but I had yet to declare it anywhere else. Sorry 'bout that.

[imperialus]

fixed

[Mickle5125]

Almost back. Damage roll: [[6, 5],4,[6, 4],[6, 2],[6, 2],5,2,2,4,1,[6, 6, 2],5,3,[6, 3],2,[6, 3],4,1,2,3,[6, 2],1,[6, 1],4,4] = (13)

No pain for Padre. The Lord protects the believers well. Oh, I forgot to add edge to the list of applied numbers on the bottom of the page.

I'll post it in a IIC post sometime tomorrow (hopefully)

[imperialus]

Hey all. I have a favor to ask if you have a few minutes.

I had an idea this morning to try and balance out the advancement rates between 'cash hogs' (sams, riggers ect.) and 'karma hogs' (mages, physads). I ended up with a system I'm calling ShadowCash. I detailed it here.

I'd love to hear your feedback on it, and perhaps more importantly if you'd be interested it being my guinea pigs. My tabletop group isn't playing Shadowrun right now so I have no one to play mad scientist on.

[JoelHalpern]

Hey all. I have a favor to ask if you have a few minutes.

I had an idea this morning to try and balance out the advancement rates between 'cash hogs' (sams, riggers ect.) and 'karma hogs' (mages, physads). I ended up with a system I'm calling ShadowCash. I detailed it here.

I'd love to hear your feedback on it, and perhaps more importantly if you'd be interested it being my guinea pigs. My tabletop group isn't playing Shadowrun right now so I have no one to play mad scientist on.

I suspect I am missing some of how this would work, and why it helps.
If the goal is to make it hard for the players (us) to afford lifestyle, ammo replacement, ordinary weapons, etc. then I don't see how it would be good thing. (I can imagine really gritty campaigns where it would actually make sense. It is just that I would prefer not to be forced down to that level of life style and ammo planning.) I may be over-reacting to the sample campaign level given. If we were using the 20K:1 ration, and getting 3/4 of our money as shadowcash, then we would be getting plenty of cash. So it probably depends upon the target level.
The other question is only relevant in the longer term. And probably doesn't even affect Mack. If using Shadow-Cash, what the heck happens to someone who does not have large purchases they want to make? A pure mage would, relatively quickly accumulate the Shadow Cash for their longer term focus purchases. After that, the restriction against using it for small purchases means that they are cash-strapped for bindings and life style, but can not get any value out of incremental ShadowCash?

Joel

[imperialus]

yeah. I listed the problem of "what would mages do" among the weaknesses. I'm not sure how to tackle that one, maybe a solution will present itself though. Also, I just detailed the 'struggle to make ends meet' as an example, and not as the format I would want to use for this campaign. Given that your payday for Dark Angel is likely going to end up topping 40K and 15 or so Karma each the game has already moved beyond 'street' and I wouldn't try to retcon it back to that.

If we were to experiment with this I would also set the ratio lower, probably 10,000:1 (or even 5000) since that would be less likely to screw with the math that is already there. It gives us room to grow as well, after all there would be nothing preventing us from raising the ratio after the fact. Say we went with the 10,000 it means that at the end of the adventure I would likely award about 110,000 in ShadowCash.

This also might be a good group to try this experiment with because we really only have one PC who's going to be a cash hog in Takashi. It would let us tailor it more specifically to him and figure out what the effects would be on the more magic heavy characters.

My concerns about trying it with you guys however is that by and large you are still relatively inexperienced. In the end the final call is entirely yours. I won't have my feelings hurt if you'd rather not take the risk.

[JoelHalpern]

At around 10,000:1, and 30% cash, 70% Shadowcash, I can live with it. I can also live without it.
I'll leave it to the rest whether we try it.

Joel

[imperialus]

Ok. Nigel seems to be awol. We'll assume he's just going to take cover and try to keep out of sight at the van. Sweeps you're up.

[imperialus]

Sweeps is quiet too. I guess I'll do the description of your arrival at Ice's shop now. Go ahead and act on it when we get to your IP.

Go ahead Takashi (Sweeps, you too if you get this)...

Well as soon as the IC is up, which will be shortly.

OH, and to keep things easier to follow I'm arbitrarily declaring Sweeps, Takashi and Mack to be group Ice and Sybercat, Padre, and Loki to be group Van. I'll refer to that at the beginning of each post when it applies to everyone in the group.

Oh, and if you're looking for priority targets, Crull and the Ork are not big threats. Crull's a mage, but he's basically a wage mage. No combat ability to speak of. The Ork is a little occupied but if you shoot at him you run the risk of hitting Ice. The gangers are a threat, but not a huge one. The big challange is gonna be the guy with the Katana. He's a prime runner. Oh, that reminds me. I'll need to roll them all into the initiative order.

Ok. I think everything is organized. Either Sweeps or Takashi, go ahead and post.

[Dusty Ghost]

Sweeps is quiet too. I guess I'll do the description of your arrival at Ice's shop now. Go ahead and act on it when we get to your IP.

eh??? No I'm here I was last to post in the IC, I said I was going to follow Tak and Mack?

Sweeps looked around and grinned.

They can't even blow us up with a fucking rocket

When he saw Takashi and Mack running off he turned to the others:
You guys be ok here? urm.. these cops... well they ain't no firends with old Sweeps if ya know what I mean. If your all ok to stay here, I'll head over to the shop to help Tak and Mack.

Confussed now, where you waiting on me? I was waiting for the next IC from you or Nigel. LOL

Anyway, I'll post my IC in a moment, just need to finish up some paperwork and I'm right there.

EDIT:

I'm such an idiot!! I read the rules for a Jazz hit as lasting 10x1d6.

So I roll 1D6 and X 10! right?
But I was rolling 10d6! Sorry guys..... agian!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

EDIT EDIT:

Woops! Missed my second shot there, roll added to IC

[imperialus]

Ok. We got that sorted. Takashi, you're up.