Greenhorns in Seattle, The Out of Character Thread Options

[Dusty Ghost]

WAYHAY!!! I'm back and happily rested!! Woo hoo!.... ahem....

Thanks guys for looking out for Sweeps. I think it's time to get him back on the rails again ASAP. And hopefully actually doing some good.... at somepoint.... maybe....

Anyhow.... I think it best for him to pay quick recovery so we can deal with all the kidnapped people... urm.... ok getting my head around this....

OK... confused now... has anyone already rolled for Sweeps. Can anyone recommend what I should be doing? Sorry I have no BBB with me again.

BTW he'll pay anyone back for upfront care.

[Mickle5125]

ahh... waiting for rolls? Padre's unhurt. ^_~

Sorry I haven't been posting recently... I'm dealing with a pile of crap once again. Class has started... I'll get padre's post up eventually.

[imperialus]

OK... confused now... has anyone already rolled for Sweeps. Can anyone recommend what I should be doing? Sorry I have no BBB with me again.

No one has rolled anything for Sweeps yet.

Ok. For 1000 nuyen Sweeps can pay for immediate trauma care. The Street Doc has a dicepool of 14 to patch you back together. Each success lowers your physical damage track by 1. Sweeps must pay for this trauma care.

Sweeps will likely still have some damage after that roll. A day of bedrest lets you roll your body x2. Again each success lowers your physical damage track by 1. If you want, you can pay an additional 1000 nuyen to get a bonus of +4 to account for 'professional' medical care.

Keep repeating that second roll until you are either fully recovered or you are happy with any remaining damage and feel you're good to go.

[imperialus]

ahh... waiting for rolls? Padre's unhurt. ^_~

Sorry I haven't been posting recently... I'm dealing with a pile of crap once again. Class has started... I'll get padre's post up eventually.

Headsmack, sorry. Padre's good to go... still might want to wait around for the others though, unless you're big on the idea of taking on Kat by yourself.

[imperialus]

ahh... waiting for rolls? Padre's unhurt. ^_~

Sorry I haven't been posting recently... I'm dealing with a pile of crap once again. Class has started... I'll get padre's post up eventually.

Headsmack, sorry. Padre's good to go... still might want to wait around for the others though, unless you're big on the idea of taking on Kat by yourself.

[Nigel]

I'm good to go. I don't really see that a post is necessary; Loki would, in that situation, merely brush himself off and leave.

[imperialus]

Ok, so the next step would be planning how you're going to hit the boat.

Just as an aside on my GMing style when it comes to 'impossible' tasks. I'll never set you guys up to fail, you could if you want, take the direct approach and rent/buy a speedboat and rush the Yacht full speed and still have a reasonable chance of success. However the more creative/amusing a plan you come up with, the easier the actual assault will be. Check through your contacts for anyone who might prove useful, smugglers, drug dealers, even Mack's merc company might be able to help. Try and be as specific as possible.

Just as an example (and feel free to use this) Mack might get in touch with his merc company and see if you can't borrow a chopper and do an airborne assault. Hell, if you can explain how a contact might have access to a mini sub that's an option too, the sky's (or the bottom of the sound) the limit. Get creative, and don't worry too much if it's a bit off the wall. Try and picture how you'd see this playing out in a movie if that helps.

Oh, and Nigel, at least knock your damage down to 5P Mack and Takashi are both taking a day to rest up, and Sweeps is going to need at least 1. You have a body of 3, which when doubled will let you buy one success. That's 1 die difference when you're making your upcoming rolls.

[JoelHalpern]

A number of questions, in order to get some ideas:

Is the boat docked, or is it anchored out a bit?
-- If docked, is it by shore, or at the end of a pier? Facing which way?
-- If out, how far from shore?

Have they arranged things so that there are no other boats near by?
-- Do we have any information as to how they did that? (Renting the nearby slips / mooring points?)

What kind of boat? How big? How sloped are the sides? What material is it? (Metal, Fiberglass, Wood?)
-- Can we get plans for the standard model of that boat? (I presume that there is no way to get the current plans, but can Sybercat check?)
-- I would guess we need to presume that they have equipped the boat with radar, sonar, and some fixed (concealed) heavy weaponry?

How deep is the water where the boat is, and in the immediate vicinity thereof?

Also, what sort of shoreline has visibility to the boat within 700 or so meters?

Thanks,
Joel / Mack

[imperialus]

A number of questions, in order to get some ideas:

Is the boat docked, or is it anchored out a bit?
-- If docked, is it by shore, or at the end of a pier? Facing which way?
-- If out, how far from shore?

Have they arranged things so that there are no other boats near by?
-- Do we have any information as to how they did that? (Renting the nearby slips / mooring points?)

What kind of boat? How big? How sloped are the sides? What material is it? (Metal, Fiberglass, Wood?)
-- Can we get plans for the standard model of that boat? (I presume that there is no way to get the current plans, but can Sybercat check?)
-- I would guess we need to presume that they have equipped the boat with radar, sonar, and some fixed (concealed) heavy weaponry?

How deep is the water where the boat is, and in the immediate vicinity thereof?

Also, what sort of shoreline has visibility to the boat within 700 or so meters?

Thanks,
Joel / Mack

As far as the first question goes, that depends on what you guys want. It could be docked, it would make the process easier. If you're up for the challenge though, the adventure has it written assuming it is out in (or just outside of) Puget Sound. To figure out the more specific questions would require a recon run of some sort, either getting a rigger to do a flyby with a spy drone, Sybercat has a rotodrone that might work, but it's not the stealthiest thing out there, or a stakeout (or even just a driveby) if it's docked/close enough to shore.

It would be impossible for them to arrange too much privacy. Puget Sound is pretty busy. There's everything from massive automated container ships sailed by pilot programs and riggers secure in come corp enclave, to pleasure craft, to independent shippers, to smugglers running cigarette boats. Of course the Coast Guard is a pretty common sight too. Even outside of the Sound things are pretty busy.

IDing the make and model of the boat might take a bit of legwork. For now, it's safe to assume that it is (or at least began as) a fairly stock pleasure yacht. It would be safe to assume that it has 1, maybe 2 decks dedicated to Amakura and those close to her, assume luxury accommodations. It would also have a steerage deck where the servants keep their quarters and there's stuff like the engine room, and other 'junk' not all of which is legal.

Something sort of like this: http://a1aadventures.com/large%20yacht.jpg

As far as defenses go, anything Amakura has modified it with (never mind the procedures of her guards) would be privileged information, not to mention after market. Not something you'd be likely to find out just by asking a few questions. It's safe to assume that the Yacht is fairly well protected however, don't expect anything too heavy, the Coast Guard doesn't like the idea of pocket battleships taking up residence on their 'turf'. Everything on board will probably 'legally' constitute 'small arms', but that's a fairly broad category. A most guns seem a lot smaller in the hands of a troll.

As far as the shoreline goes, again I'd leave this up to you guys. Would you rather it be anchored offshore of the 'wilderness' of Sonomish or sitting tied up at an exclusive Downtown dock? Want to catch it pulling into a shady pier in Tacoma?

As an aside: If it hasn't been obvious by now I'm trying to introduce the idea of radical transparency to my GMing. This is a bit of an experiment for me, largely from my experience as a player in Burning Wheel where transparency, being able to peak behind the screen and adaptability to the desires of the PC's is one of the fundamental concepts. It's quite different than the traditional GM/Player roll and I think it might suit a PBP well because of the time lag which enables me to come up with stuff 'off the cuff' without hemming and hawing in front of a table full of people.

At it's core what this means it Kat's Yacht doesn't exist yet. Sure I have the goons and a couple more significant NPC's statted up, and a bit of brainstorming done, but how exactly everything falls into place is completely up to you guys. If you guys want, you could even turn this whole thing into a social challenge, you have more than enough evidence to go to the Star about this, or at least threaten to. That opens up the opportunity for blackmail.

Now, there is a part 2 to this. Reward. When you post your ideas for how you want the run on the boat to take shape let me know what kind of reward you feel is worth your time. At a bare minimum this will include the 20,000 nuyen you'll be getting as a payout but let me know if there is anything else you want to 'acquire' too. Hell if you go all out on this and make things as tough as possible for yourselves you could walk away in a position to fence the yacht. Smaller risk you might be able to make off with some hot ware, weapon foci, or valuable paydata that can be fenced, or even used yourself if you want.

Right now I'll plan on getting the boat run started sometime early next week. If we can have it gelled out by then that'd be great.

Of course you could also just decide you'd rather go along for the ride. I can always run the boat as written in the adventure (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Dusty Ghost]

Hi guys,

I've got some bad news, I'm going to have to pull out of this for now.

I've got a major crisis on my hands and I'll have to deal with that for at least the next few weeks. Can't go into details for personnal reasons, but know that I'm truly sorry.

To be honest, Sweeps has been pretty useless anyway, so when this is all over I'll probably come back with a new character. That's if there is room for me of course. I'll understand if you replace me with someone else.

I'm really sorry, I know it does not take long to post IC's up, so I would not do this if it wasn't for serious reasons. And I've really enjoyed playing this game and i'm really frustrated to pull out. But life is really throwing me a curve ball and I have to deal with it NOW!

It's such a shame, but it's only fair that you guys don't keep waiting on me while I sort this stupid mess out.

Sorry again I mean that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[JoelHalpern]

Good luck Dusty. It sounds like you have a mess on your hands.
Joel

[imperialus]

Yeah... best of luck. Hopefully you can rejoin us at some point.

[Dusty Ghost]

Cheers guys, as long as there's a place for me in a couple of weeks, maybe a month, then I'll be back.

Again sorry about this, but I just don't think it's fair you have to wait on me while I deal with this shit.

Laters (at least for now.)

Mark

[JoelHalpern]

Quasi-bookkeeping question, while I let other folks comment on which setting they prefer for the boat...

In the case in the van I had a number of grenades of various types.
I also had my medikit sitting in the van.

Just wondering whether I should write that stuff off as lost?

Thanks,
Joel / Mack

[Intro]

Dusty, add me to the well-wishers. Best of luck.

@imperialus

I had assumed that the boat was off in the sound somewhere from Takashi's little remembered moment, and his message to his contact (and the response, too) suggests that. So maybe I could edit that post and make it a bit more generic, just getting information about the boat? But otherwise, I think the whole transparency thing is quite cool, though unfamiliar. Now I just have to figure out what would be most interesting.

Out in the open water is trickier. Getting close wouldn't be a problem, but closing the last hundred meters would be hard, what with radar, sonar, and probably some sort of magical surveillance, too, and a small boat is quite vulnerable, which explains Takashi's sentiments in my last IC post. Something close to land just seems like there'd be a lot more options on approaches and more potential for trickery, which is always fun. I'm curious what everybody else thinks.

[Mickle5125]

fyi: Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I'm having a bit of a crisis IRL, and it's seriously tainting my outlook on everything right now, so anything I would post for Padre would be horribly ooc. for now, assume that he's off mourning the needless deaths caused by the lonestar people and waiting for you guys to heal up. Hopefully in a week or so I'll be back to stable and able to post IC again.

Oh, good luck with whatever's troubling you, Dusty.

[Nigel]

I hope everything will be okay, Mick. Thank you for posting why you haven't been posting, though.

[Dusty Ghost]

Wow Sorry to hear your having issues Mick. Good luck in resolving them.

[imperialus]

Quasi-bookkeeping question, while I let other folks comment on which setting they prefer for the boat...

In the case in the van I had a number of grenades of various types.
I also had my medikit sitting in the van.

Just wondering whether I should write that stuff off as lost?

Thanks,
Joel / Mack

Yeah, with the expensive lawyer there's no way that the star is going to look inside the van without a warrant. Your medkit and grenades are safe.

Also I got a PM from Dumori asking if he could join in for the assault as a replacement for Sweeps. What's everyone's thoughts on this? He's obviously been following the thread.

[Mickle5125]

I'd have to see the character he wants to bring in, but another gun and/or stealth person would be quite helpful, I suspect.

in other news, things are clearing up a bit faster than expected. I should be back in Padre mentality by labor day. I'll post as soon as I have something wrote up.

Also, Imperialus, did you get my response to your PM?

[Dumori]

Well I don't want to hijack but it seams better than PMing imperialus. I am willing to play any type you need for your plan. I was thinking a rigger/stealth person air, land and sea a smuggler with some nice contacts but as I said I'm willing to fit any needed role. On a related side will some qualitys/contacts from RC be ok with the GM.

[JoelHalpern]

Sounds like a reasonable resolution to me.
Joel / Mack

[Dusty Ghost]

Hey guys I just wanted to put a final input in.

Dumori sounds like a good choice for replacement for me.
I think his suggested character types would also fit well, but that would be Imps call.

Things at this end have just gone from bad to worse. Illness it seems, hits all of us off guard and the person I'm looking after is totally undeserving of it.

So I'll definitely say farewell for now and I also want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Imperialus for being a spectacular PM. I also wanted to say thanks to Joel, Mickle, Nigel for being so much fun to play with from the start. And a massive thanks and good luck to Intro, I think your character is really working out well.

It's been so much fun playing this and I'm grateful that I finally got to play the game with VERY professional and fun players.

Thanks again. I hope to see you all again.... soon!

EDIT:
One other thing, if a player drops out later on, can someone PM me? I'll still follow the threads when I can and you never know, I might be able to join in again.

Laters for now, Mark (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Dumori]

When you get to be able to post you can have my slot back (plot allowing).

[Dusty Ghost]

I wouldn't to that to you man. But thanks for the offer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)