Deep Water Blackout, Out of Character Thread Options

[crizh]

Yeah, actually I married her... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Clean up on aisle six, clean up on aisle six, monitor sprayed with coke on aisle six....

Didn't we all?

[TheOneRonin]

Yeah, actually I married her... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Yeah...so did I. Sorta. Mine just got like that AFTER the wedding.

I suppose it's a good thing that I built in a relationship for Des that EVERYONE can relate to. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[DireRadiant]

bart's Contacts

[ Spoiler ]

Name - "DropShip" Mary L3 C5
Concept - International Art Fence
Relationship - Bart's never met Mary in person, but someday she may actually accept one of his long standing invites. Bart doesn't often know what he's stolen, but as far as he can tell Mary's always been straight and given him good prices on the random objects he's acquired. And when she's given him tips on what to look for on some targets he's asked her about ahead of time, he's always made out well. Every now and then she's even cut him a deal on some technical items, not as much as he might get normally as she needs to cut in some other contacts of hers. Bart was introduced to her as part of some long broken up team, but he's maintained contact with her separately. She claims to have tasted the chocolates he sent her, but you never be sure in this business.
Specialty - Objects d'Art, cultural artifacts, occult data
Contact - It's all virtual through matrix cutouts. With the right codes you post a query about a package size, content description and shipping requirements, and get a quote on the contents value. In return you get a drop ship point, a ship to address, and after dropping the package off, a little bit later you get the insurance payout for the "lost" package. Bart checked the ship to addresses out once, and they are real, so it's something else that triggers the system. The carrier changes too, so he hasn't figured out the exact way it works. But the principle is sound, and the insurance payouts are clean nuyen. Once the package is "lost" he hasn't been able to track it himself either, and from past experience he knows so em kick ass Hackers who have actually freaked out in trying to find the goods in the carriers systems.

Name - "Waldo" Jones L2 C4
Concept - Street Doc/Cyberneticist
Relationship - Waldo has a good bedside manner. Someone who is ripping you apart while sitting in their hot tub 5000 kilometers away better have the manners to make things comfortable for the poor person sitting in a room facing a remotely operated medical drone upgraded with the latest nano bone cutting technology. Bart hasn't developed much of a rapport with him, getting past the immediacy of surgical attachments has been a struggle.
Specialty - Cyber/Nano/Bio implants, remote operations
Contact - Matrix Travel Agency, using a special lexicon for converting special phrases you pick your "package" and when you actually go to the "Resort" it often is a dingy motel room filled with glossy pallets of gear you unpack, turn on, and then set loose to operate on yourself with "Waldo" running it all remotely. If he's not otherwise occupied, "Waldo" can provide remote advice to your standard field medkit, but he has a surcharge for this as it's often not that interesting to him, at least not till afterwards when he's repairing or replacing a missing part.

Name - "Toolman" L2 C3
Concept - Mechanic
Relationship - You never know when you suddenly need a concrete cutting torch, and Toolman is the person to get it from. Bart knows he has a good shot of getting any kind of standard gear out of Toolman's inventory. Some of the more exotic stuff takes a bit longer. Toolman even had some nano supplies for bart's forge. Toolman prefers nuyen, but will trade in stock, in effect acting as a tool rental shop. Though if you break it, you have already paid for it. Occasionally Bart has been asked to repair or do maintenance on some of the trickier high end equipment for Toolman's inventory. "Maintenance" often meaning switching out all the hard embedded tags.
Specialty - Electronics and Hardware gear and tools
Contact - Toolman has a "Tools for Fools" store in Oklohoma City from where he can overnight deliver equipment to anywhere in continental North and Central America. He can also arrange for local equipment supplies through deals with local hardware stores.


Name - "Layout" L2 C3
Concept - Hacker
Relationship - An invaluable virtual Service, getting the layout of places before you go in. That way you can look like you know your way around when wandering around checking those wall cavities for safes. Bart isn't even sure this is a real person yet, it's all kept professional and remote. The old fashioned query interface doesn't help either.
Specialty - Architectural and Industrial Blue prints and Build plans, Patent, Registration and licensing.
Contact - Through an account on a special virtual query service.


Name - Peter Johnson L2 C4
Concept - Johnson
Relationship - Bart figures he's still in good with Johnson because when asked to pick up that brown envelope, and not look inside before placing it into someone's safe, he doesn't look inside. Half the jobs he gets from "Peter" involve planting things instead of stealing. But that's okay, he gets paid, and Bart figures he couldn't collect on the short or long plays on the stocks since he'd need to know what was in the envelopes, and even then, who knows which way it would play out. It's pretty easy to figure out that planting something on the Ares Division Executive secretary is going to end up influencing something. Unfortunately he hasn't figured out the pattern yet, so he's not sure which corp "Peter" is running plays for.
Specialty - B & E jobs
Contact - When not on a job already, "Peter" calls Bart, through a typical encrypted personal matrixvert commcode Bart makes sure to leave up when Bart is looking for work. Whenever bart meets, it's always face to face in a high class jazz and fern club that inevitably features fedoras and a live piano player. Bart's met a few new relatively reliable former team mates through these meets, though it's hard to stay in touch with some people because of the inevitable turnover in the biz.


Name - Twinkle Tops L3 C4
Concept - Sim Sense Starlet
Relationship - There's nothing like being thought of as part of the a Sim Sense starlets entourage to get you into places. And what starlet doesn't need the occasional mystery or scandal engendered by appearing in public with exotic jewelry or occult items du jour. All replicas of course when there's an actual investigation... And what starlet doesn't need someone NOT part of her entourage who she can confide in, or at least talk to secure in the knowledge nothing will be made public. Bart doesn't really like the spoiled brat, but she's very useful, and harmless, and the payoff makes up for the 5 to ten minutes a day of teen angst drivel. Besides, it's better then slotting any of her sims.
Specialty - Being Famous, Partying, social calendar
Contact - Bart has her commcodes, and she has his, she chats with him every day, mostly to relieve her stress.

[DireRadiant]

Bart has a Desk Top Forge, which may be useful for helping fix or make things.

[pragma]

Finishing up the last drops of chargen -- I'm dropping my last 2 BP into gear and pulling the point of edge that had me 10 BP over 400 (whoops!)

ECM 6 (6000)
Directional Jammer 6 (3000)
200 ink grenades (1000)

And I'm spent. I'll probably change the 200 ink grenades to something else, but having a crate of those around is kind of fun.

[Method]

pragma- do you mean 450? If you built to 400 you are 50 BP short. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[pragma]

I do mean 450 -- It works just fine.

[BlackHat]

Oh I did forget to roll for starting cash! Probably important if we're already looking at repairs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

4d6x100 = 18x100 = 1800

Link: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1624451/ (let me know if I did that wrong. First time using it)

[Method]

Ok, sorry again for my delays. I'm up to my eye balls in USMLE... bleck!!!

Blackhat: That looks good.

I'm going to hand wave the ship repairs- that was mostly to give you guys a context for pulling the crew together and looking for work. Besides, with a weekend to kill these guys should have no problem getting the ship in order. I'll give the team another day or so to hammer out where the hell everyone is (Pee-Pee?) and then I'll jump to the meet with Kurita. Feel free to post any legwork, etc...

[DireRadiant]

Has everyone been told IC about the meet with Kurita at the Strip House monday 8 pm?

[BlackHat]

Given that its been about 2 days since we got the news, I would say probably. Its the first good news our crew has heard in a bit, I think.

[crizh]

Ok, sorry again for my delays. I'm up to my eye balls in USMLE... bleck!!!

Blackhat: That looks good.

I'm going to hand wave the ship repairs- that was mostly to give you guys a context for pulling the crew together and looking for work. Besides, with a weekend to kill these guys should have no problem getting the ship in order. I'll give the team another day or so to hammer out where the hell everyone is (Pee-Pee?) and then I'll jump to the meet with Kurita. Feel free to post any legwork, etc...

I'll be below decks setting up.

I'm running numbers at the moment with regards to wards. Trying to find the right balance between coverage, security and resource management.

I don't think it's going to be feasible to ward any significant percentage of the whole ship, it's just much, much too big.

I'm thinking about targeting selected areas, Bridge, Engine Room, Moonpool etc. I think I can probably manage a rolling program of maintenance sufficient to keep 6300 cubic meters of the ship covered with Wards of Rating 6. That would have to cover all the Drones and Vehicles as well.

I think I'll set his lodge up in the Moonpool area which will add another 288 cubic meters of coverage that won't have to be constantly renewed.

Without deckplans I can't be very specific, I'll just Ward all the areas the Captain tells me are most vital.

So, Captain? What do you want warded?

[BlackHat]

Well, I think the moonpool is rather exposed to the elements - so I would actually advise against warding it or putting lodge materials there (also, its not a closed area, so I'm not sure how well it could be done).

I think if we focus on warding the areas we'll spend the most time in, or don't want anyone else peeking at. I would say, prioritize in this order: Barracks, Storage (including smuggling storage compartments), and crew stations. After that, conference/war room, and whereever else you like (bathroom?)

Does that seem reasonable to everyone else? Any other ideas?

Nothing we do is going to keep a spirit or an astral mage from taking a tour of the place... we just don't want him to be able to peek at our secrets, or attack us when our defenses are down (asleep, total VR, focused on repairs, etc).

Meanwhile, conjuring up a number of weak spirits for patrol purposes might serve us better given the large area we want to search, and how quickly they can move about the ship compared to us - especially if you can get a smaller number of good spirits, with some power that would let them easily detect if anyone is around (astrally, or otherwise).

When we're out at sea, we're probably generally, the only people around for miles. Anyone else in the area is bad news, unlike in the city, where telling a spirit to alert you if it notices anyone within a mile would mean it was constantly annoying you.

[Method]

I can whip up some floor plans for the ship, but its unlikely that I will have much time until the first week of July. That might work out okay though because at the rate we're going we probably won't need detailed floor plans until then anyway. If you want to post IC that Pee-Pee is warding the ship and setting up a lodge we can just retcon all the details later.

[crizh]

I kinda imagined that the Moonpool would be below decks. Is that not the idea?

I also would have said particularly the smuggling compartments....

The crane is also something I would recommend putting a serious ward on.

Can you imagine the havoc a possessed crane could wreak?

Watchers on Patrol? Good plan, I hadn't thought of that but I like it. I had also forgotten about the 'Plast-Eel' which is my mini Homonculus designed specifically for Watchers. It's useless in combat but tough and strong, should make a useful little dogsbody and errand boy.

[Method]

Can you imagine the havoc a possessed crane could wreak?

Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif) (J/K)

I envision the moon pool being open air- mini subs and larger drones would be difficult to store below decks. It would basically be like a shaft that passes all the way through the hull. If we are using this image as a model for the Odyssey it would probably be located in that large open area aft of the crane. See below.

[crizh]

I was looking at the other image you posted. What are the dimensions of the one you linked above?

[Method]

I think BlackHat was using this one to estimate the Mage Sight measurements, but we could use either.

For the image linked above:
- The overall length is approximately 75 meters.
- At 75 meters length the ship is 16 meters wide.
- That would make the forward part (where most of the crew spaces are located) about 35 meters in length.
- It looks to me like there are at least 3 floors and a bridge above deck and there is probably a cargo hold and engine room below deck.

Does that help at all?

[edit]
Here are some images of a ship that is similar to the drawing (with a helipad up front): 1 2 3 4
And here is an image showing a moon pool at midship (maybe that square area on the drawing is a moon pool): A
[/edit]

[crizh]

So the square on the deck next to the crane would be a cover for the Moonpool, which is just a straight shaft leading all the way down through the hull?

And we keep the drones and other sub-marine vehicles on deck and lower them down the shaft using the crane?

Looking at those numbers and bearing in mind that the ship tapers towards both the prow and the keel we may be able to Ward almost all of that forward section.

[Method]

So the square on the deck next to the crane would be a cover for the Moonpool, which is just a straight shaft leading all the way down through the hull?

Yes

And we keep the drones and other sub-marine vehicles on deck and lower them down the shaft using the crane?

Yes, probably. Really only the largest drones would require the crane.

The moon pool would allow access to the water that is protected from surface conditions (waves, etc). It could be used to launch and recover drones, hoist wreckage up from the bottom or deploy divers.

I'm thinking the forward area at deck level could be an open-bay shop- almost like a garage that opens onto to deck. Drones and equipment could be stored there and wheeled out to the moon pool for deployment.

Also that open area aft of the crane is probably routinely used to launch and recover flying drones and could probably be used to land a small VTOL craft in an emergency.

[Method]

Here is a summary of how I see the ship being organized (from bottom up):

Below Deck:
- Forward: Cargo Hold
- Aft: Engine Room

Deck:
- Forward: Open-bay Shop Area (for big jobs and drone storage)
- Aft: Open Deck and Moon Pool

Level 1:
- Smaller Work Areas (for small jobs) and Storage

Level 2:
- Crew Cabins

Level 3:
- Galley, War Room

Bridge

Can anyone think of anything else that should be included?

[BlackHat]

Some sort of cabin. Maybe a security room (where all these optical cables run, ad where security rigging would be done). Not sure of what else.

[Method]

You mean besides the Bridge? A panic room or something?

[BlackHat]

ha, didn't see the bridge on the previous post. That makes for a cabin. For the security room, I was thinking something along the lines of a panic room - but security could also just be stationed in the bridge. (which would probably make thingsmore convenient 99% of the time.

[Method]

Sorry folks. I was hoping to post this weekend, but I was slammed. I will bump things forward (to the meet) tomorrow.

Last call for posting pre-meet stuff (Des lunch with Tabitha?)...