Looking to play...or GM... Options

[Penta]

Sorry I haven't gotten my character sent in yet....work's been a bit busy. But after an open to close tommorrow I should be off for the rest of the week (in theory). So plenty of time to get to work on a character then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Perfectly okay. Just PM me when you're done, and I'll send my email address.

[MusicMan]

Alot of good stuff has been considered today. I agree, the Classique looks good. I've been looking over mods and I have a few thoughts.

We've been talking about boarding other vessels, this is going to be very difficult to do. Zodiac boats might have the ability to get us in close, but actually getting up the level deck of any real vessel is going to be a serious problem, especially if we are taking enemy fire. As such, here is my proposal for general boarding/defeating of opponents:

1) Have our Classique yacht standing as if stranded out in the ocean near where we know our target is going to be. From here we can either
a) send out an SOS and hope that our fake permits and heir of legitimacy with our classy yacht will get the other ship come to us or
b) we actually have everybody who will be boarding the enemy craft in a zodiac boat some distance away with a fair forced tri-d phantasm
2) get in close to the enemy vessel using STEALTH. We won't be able to get into a real dog fight with pretty much anything we run into. We need to get in close and finish off hostiles quickly. This involves NOT rushing them with jetskis, we want to keep alarms low.
3) As we prepare to hit the deck, fire off every jamming device known to man. Ideally we have spotted this craft far enough away that our resident hacker will already be in their system and could help us a great deal with this.
4) Eliminate hostiles above decks, capture bridge. The capture bridge part may actually be obsolete, if we already have our hacker in place as admin, he should be able to re-route commands through himself.
5) Be damn sure of exactly what it is we are going to find downstairs: how many hostiles, what floorplan, what cargo.
6) Take lower decks quickly, systematically, and with as little bloodshed as possible. Perhaps even give the crew one last time to surrender and get dumped on a life boat.

In my mind, to pull this off well we need a number of things:
- Our yacht needs to look legitimate from a long distance (proper paperwork and the like that we can hopefully shift around after every job)
- Our yacht needs to look legitimate from a short distance (no obvious gun mounts, gun ports, or armor stapled onto our classy yacht)
- Our boarding vessel needs to be small enough to fit in a tri-D phantasm
- We need a mage with tri-D phantasm
- Our boarding vessel needs to be really fast
- We need to have a wide variety of jamming capabilities (likely we can find all sorts of wonderful jammers and buy them up from our group funds)
- We need to be good enough in boat driving and combat to get to where we need to be and down our hostiles

On top of this it would be nice to:
- Have a yacht that can make a good get away
- Have a boarding vessel that is stealthy without the aid of magic
- Have a land vehicle for when we go ashore (mule a la Firefly anyone?)
- Ultrasound is a good vision mode to consider, perhaps even radar domes, it could give us an edge while below decks

With these things in mind I am trying to work up a yacht at a reasonable cost, and even squeeze in another vehicle or two. Does anyone disagree or have an alternative to how we want to get things done? This is just my concept, I'm definitely open to other ideas.

It is VERY noisy out on a ship, and RIBs are not all that loud. If we play our cards right, they should not hear us coming. I know that RIBs are used as boarding ships by SF soldiers and pirates. You just need some rope and a little elbow grease.

The way I figure it, most ships will be pretty much run by pilot following a GPS rout and the human element will be rather low. As long as we can fool the pilot program, we should be okay. Bringing in our ship gives us a good chance of being identified and/or sunk.

I think our best plan of attack is to get our rigger/hacker onboard so he can take over the ship and lock down any security below-decks and out of our way. If we are getting shot at before we make it abord our target, then we need to consider aborting...

I know the SOS signal trick works both IRL and in movies... but I've never liked it. I think, if we are going to do it, we should wait until we have access to a second ship and use a ship we don't mind losing...

[MusicMan]

As a little inspiration, I found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9hYlTOEKkU

[Marwynn]

Also, I do have Trid Phantasm as well as Vehicle Mask. Plenty of possibilities there.

My first payday will hafta go to getting some Foci because I'm tapped out at the start.

[BaronKen]

As a little inspiration, I found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9hYlTOEKkU

Thanks for the link. However, it would have been more inspirational if they had to board while being fired upon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Penta]

An update: Milk ducks has been approved.

As an aside, I just got Street Magic today. First FanPro printing, so if there's Errata, I'd like to know.

[MusicMan]

Thanks for the link. However, it would have been more inspirational if they had to board while being fired upon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

It is my understanding that if you are being shot at, you don't try boarding actions; it's too casualty intensive.

[milk ducks]

As an aside, I just got Street Magic today. First FanPro printing, so if there's Errata, I'd like to know.

There is an erratta, I believe. I might have one on file I could toss you.

-milk.

[MusicMan]

Milk Ducks, I see your character has a SPAS... approval, I has it.

[Penta]

And MusicMan wins 2 karma for later expenditure.

Why? Because he went out and statted up a Zodiac for me.
---
Zodiac International Hurricane VI RHIB

With over 80 years of history and development, Zodiac's Hurricane line of rigid hull inflateable boats is the best selling and most well-known RIB in the 6th world. The Hurricane is fast, small, manuverable, and easy to transport. They are commonly used by militaries and law enforment officials who need a quick an power craft that can be easily deployed from a larger ship or helicopter. Over the years the Hurricane base model has been kept highly streamlined, boasting only simple manual controls and only the most basic of sensors. These options can be added-on in more advanced models.
Std. Upgrade: Assembly Time Improvement

Handling +3
Accel 15/35
Speed 90
Pilot 0
Body 10
Armor 4
Sensor 1
Avail 9
Cost 30,000Y
---
Rulings I'm making: Each Zodiac holds 16 people, including the 1 operator.

Disassembled, your typical Zodiac fits in about a cubic foot, excluding the engine. Assembly takes Body minutes, and uses one tank of compressed air - which costs 1Y at your local gas station and .5Y for refills.

This is only your 'stock' version. Zodiac sells numerous modified versions, all made in the UCAS.

[Marwynn]

Contacts are bought as standard right? Just clarifying as I put the final touches.

[CollateralDynamo]

Yes, we never managed to sell Penta on the "free contacts based on stats" thing. Which pained me as I spent somewhere in the ballpark of 30 pts on contacts. But I guess he did give us free 20 BPs, and I can't stay mad at that face!

[Penta]

Heyyyy, I feel like I'm being mocked here...

Your only free contact is Kevin Roberts.

[CollateralDynamo]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif) Eway are not orthyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif) Just messing with you, I got no problems with how you did it so far.

I'm still playing with boat plans and will probably have a few proposals for you based primarily off of Arsenal things by tonight.

[Penta]

Right.

FYI, my aim is demon penta 2 without the spaces.

If you want to chatter, that or gchat is a good way to get ahold of me.

[Marwynn]

Ahh just clearing that up, I knew I had those free points for a reason.

[Penta]

Okay, I was going to post a listing of who's finished and posted, but my brain is melted from school.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Who wants to take 5 minutes and do that?(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[milk ducks]

Who wants to take 5 minutes and do that?(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'll take care of it; gimme a few minutes to change and feed my son, and I'll get right on it.

-milk.

[CollateralDynamo]

I already have a list running of people who want to play up thread Milk Ducks, should make your job easier for updating and re-posting.

[milk ducks]

I already have a list running of people who want to play up thread Milk Ducks, should make your job easier for updating and re-posting.

Yep, yours was exactly the post I was looking for. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Approved and posted in OOC thread:
MusicMan: Alexander "George" Andreou
milk ducks: Alan "Albatross" Brass
CollateralDynamo: Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo
Budoka05: Approved!

Currently unfinished characters:
Knight Saber - posted character on page 8, instructed to email the packet to Penta
Marwynn - Seems to be almost finished, perhaps awaiting final approval
Whizbang
BaronKen
Ears

-milk.

[Penta]

many thanks guys.

Budoka is actually approved, he just has yet to post.

[CollateralDynamo]

So, I'm thinking about more options for boats, and trying to go a little off the beaten path here, but I would like a ruling from the GM before I start going over board on concepts:

- The rule of thumb of 2 body per occupant for transportation makes sense. But what should our rule of thumb be when it comes to living? We are doing more then simple travel on this boat. It looks like we already have 9 people, assume we might need to transport an extra one or two at some point, throw in cargo on top of that, and we are looking at a very large vessel. Even if we keep quarters small and double up, if we want any sort of cargo capacity at all I think we'd require at least a body 30 vessel to hold us. Agree? Disagree?

- There is a rule for converting the costs of things not covered in core books based upon real world costs. (I believe it is 1 usd = 25 nuyen), since we are going so off the beaten path here, can I get a nod on using this to try to find an appropriate vessel type? Obviously you would have final say if a certain type of vessel was obtainable.

- Costs for ships in the books assume top of the line and new, second-hand I would imagine that it would be cheaper, if in a state of disrepair. In SR3 I know they had rules for buying crummier versions of the norm, does Penta want to make a judgement call on modifying some base stats to save a percentage? (Modifying one ship stat down a notch saves 10% or somesuch)

Thats all I can come up with for now. But I would like to reiterate that we are going to need a BIG vessel if we go by standard rules, and we might want to recheck how price ranges are being figured.

[milk ducks]

I do think we're going to need a fairly large ship; larger than a minor surface combatant (like a missile boat) at the very least. In my opinion, anything smaller than, say, a Cutter, is going to be pretty cramped for nine guys ... especially if the nine guys involved are a rag-tag group of semi-suicidal black-ops specialists with less-than-standard moral values and itchy trigger-fingers.

And especially especially if some of them are trolls.

We should probably be looking for something big and sturdy that we can pick up at a discount, like Dynamo said.

-milk.

[Penta]

I'm going to presume 1 body per person for living....Only, however, if the vehicle is body 12 or higher, though, and only for ships. (IOW, aircraft and other things you wouldn't expect to live on for months have no living space). This presumes, at middle lifestyle, you have roommates. The H&W classique III, for reference, I'm presuming can hold about 20 people. RW yachts do at least that well. Cargo we will abstract severely.

I remember that rule re costs, thought it was 1 usd=1 nuyen. However, yes, go out and seek.

No, I don't really want to have to restat stuff.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[MusicMan]

Ooh, can I modify my HK to have an internal magazine and be clip fed? That should make reloading easier... I can bring back the en bloc clip from the M1 Garand...