Blood in the Water OOC Thread, Cyberpirates: Chatter here! Options

[CollateralDynamo]

I'd OOCly like to keep our shore leave to only 24 hours. ICly I would probably do some hand waiving and say I'd like to actually get to work. But it would really be the Captain who would tell you how long you have if you really want to go to New York.

Thanks for the update on NJ Penta. Ok crew, it sounds like these are our options:
1. Go to local Amusement Parks and Old Timey Bars. Could be fun, but doesn't seem very shadowy to me. The juxtaposition of our runners eating cotton candy and playing on a Ferris Wheel does make me laugh, however...
2. Drive all the way into New York to do something. Seems out of the way, but Iago is apparently a NY native and Zalermo does have a few connections in NY who might want to say "hi".
3. Go to Atlantic City and gamble until our faces fall off! Zalermo only has about Forty nuyen to his name...so unfortunately I think I'm going to have to down vote that option.

However, an idea I just started kicking around now, Zalermo has smuggling contacts in this region, should we ask if people here need any goods shipped? If they need stuff transported in the direction we are going it seems like a good way to make some money on the side. Is anyone opposed to me reaching out to my contacts and asking if they need some assistance?

[Penta]

I have no objections to side jobs, OOCly, but warn you: A. You do not have much of a cargo hold. B. Your missions for the Navy come first - they're the plot of the campaign (insofar as there really is one; there isn't much of one I have planned. I really do plan on playing plot developments by ear). When you're released to independent duties between when I come up with missions, that ICly means the Navy expects you to be intel-gathering, commerce raiding, and so forth. They don't -mind- if you do smuggling and stuff, so long as it ain't the flesh trade, but they expect what they have you doing to come first. ICly, if asked, Roberts and Walker don't object either, subject to the same conditions. They just ask that you not smuggle against UCAS interests, as a courtesy to the folks providing you your ship.

[Whizbang]

Hmm....the possibility of connecting contacts....Zalermo's in NY and Melisandre's in the gulf....

[CollateralDynamo]

Zalermo's contacts range all over, but are focused in Havana, Miami, New York, and New Orleans. Setting up an intricate web and knowing which ports of harbor we can go to in a storm (so to speak) is always good in my book.

Edit: OH and Caracas, knows people there too...weeeird people.

[Karoline]

3. Go to Atlantic City and gamble until our faces fall off! Zalermo only has about Forty nuyen to his name...so unfortunately I think I'm going to have to down vote that option.

Hmmm... I wonder how much a little genius like Jane could make by learning how to play the odds...

Shame she doesn't have much of any starting capital.

[Penta]

Double shame that, even though the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement does a good job of keeping the mob away from the casinos, they still employ Large Men to deal with cheaters.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Karoline]

Double shame that, even though the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement does a good job of keeping the mob away from the casinos, they still employ Large Men to deal with cheaters.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Counting cards isn't technically cheating if you can do it in your head. And besides, if I had the capital I'd bring my own Large Men to make sure I didn't get dragged off. Ears comes to mind...

Hmm... we're a few people short to pull an oceans eleven on one of the casinos (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[budoka05]

I'm going to roll for Knowledge about the Ship or Shell company. Should I use Commodities by itself or with Black Market Specialization?

[Penta]

Commodities by itself.

[budoka05]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2280302/

6d6 → [4,2,6,6,6,4], 3 hits

[Penta]

The company appears to be your average freight shipper - it works off goods consigned to it by shippers. There's nothing really derogatory out there about them, but nothing really positive, either. The only thing that stands out is the financials - insofar as any are released, they show a company with a high debt load against limited revenues.

[Penta]

Just a quick booboo correction re rules.

I just reread SR4A and consulted with multiple people....I made a tiny booboo re wards.

Rooms on a ship, etc. can in fact be warded. I had misread the rule for mana barriers (they can't) and thought it applied to wards.

Oops.

[Karoline]

I guess they changed it then, because street magic is where I was reading my ward info from (And yes, I was actually reading wards and not mana barriers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

[Penta]

I basically asked around...Have not checked Street Magic. In any case, the newer book wins.

[MusicMan]

Sorry I haven't posted, I am alive... just really busy. I should be able to get back in there now though.

[MusicMan]

Penta, are the shematics available for the ship we are supposed to be hunting?

[Penta]

ICly, yes. OOCly, I can't draw, don't expect schematics to look at.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Penta]

Since we're now on shore leave, I figure I'll take this moment to do some housekeeping.

Activity - Really, it's been covered. "Pull your weight" is basic courtesy in a PBP/PBEM/online gaming of any stripe.

Karma - You're responsible for tracking your own karma. I do keep rough track of how much you've earned; trying to pull one over on me will be met with extremely harsh consequences; fittingly, as it's essentially cheating.

And enough sternness. How Karma gets Spent:

The below is a preliminary rule
Only on declared leaves. Rationale: While you're at sea, you're likely too busy to do the thinking that takes everything you've learned and processes it into skill raises. Generally, that takes shore leaves. It also lets me neatly divide run from run in a campaign that otherwise can see things blur into each other.
The above is a preliminary rule

SR4A, to my sadness, does not include much on training time. Training time is an essential concept in a campaign like this.

Skills you don't use will not degrade - I'm not that cruel, and don't have the inclination for that sort of bookkeeping. But to improve a skill, you must train it.

Watchstanding: Every 30 minutes on watch counts as 1 hour training the associated skill. (Helm: Pilot Watercraft. Engineering: Nautical Mechanic. Gunnery: Gunnery. Other watches to be determined by you guys, I'll determine the skill then.) Watches are typically between 4-8 hours. Not all watches need to be stood at all times. The only essential watches are Helm (driving the boat, or at least monitoring the autopilot, sensors, etc.) and Engineering (maintaining and monitoring the ships' systems and components), which must be maintained at all times while underway (you can leave a watch uinmanned for short periods such as combat, but the pilot on-board is not designed for hard maneuvering or much more than very basic navigation).

Other training: 1 hour counts as one hour.

Tutorsoft training or other instruction counts as one hour for each hour trained, with all other bonuses for instruction working as normal.

For our purposes, I am declaring that a week time interval for the extended test necessary to improve skills is 7 8-hour days. Time may be reduced by such training as is undertaken in the past month (30 days).

If people see fit to do them, I will accept Time Use Sheets declaring how a character spends a given 24 hour period. You don't have to do these, however. Submit them by PM so as not to clutter the OOC board - and coordinate with your fellow players so that all necessary watches are covered.

Initiation

Done as normal, this is an experience that should be extensively RPed. When it becomes time, magic-users, that you wish to undergo initiation, sit and talk with me for a time OOCly (chat or IRC is preferred; Email next, PMs last) and we'll go over the RP to come that will make up your initiation experience. Only after the RP do you spend karma and gain the initiate grade.

Sheet changes

When you change your sheet due to, say, Karma expenditure, you do it like this:

Pull up your old sheet.
Make the changes.
Email me the new sheet, and ask about the changes on the OOC thread.
I'll look it over. Email gives me a bit more time to do so. If I approve, I will email and post such.
You then EDIT your sheet on page 1 of the OOC thread. Make the changes, and after the sheet summarize them in a dated note.

A note on house rules

Because I am cautious, and because this is not a normal campaign, we'll playtest most house rules before I affix them in stone. Rules will start as preliminary rules. This is the time to check them for consistency with official rules (where the two conflict, official will prevail in most cases - I mean to use house rules to expand upon, not override, the official rules), logical issues, bugs that work for or against you (if you hide a bug that works for you, and I figure out you knew, I will hurt you - so it's better to help me, and be honest, by pointing out bugs might work in your favor but are still bugs. I might keep it and declare it not a bug; I might give you karma for catching it, whether or not I fix it, precisely because you went against self-interest), and just plain playability issues.

After a while, a house rule will move from preliminary to final. As things get more complex, I may use the first post of the OOC thread - or start a new thread - to compile house rules.

My dream with all house rules is that they become obsoleted by official rules from CGL. Not that I expect this to happen - CGL's tastes are different from mine in places, and they'll never cover everything - but for some rules it might well happen.

A note on official rules

I use Dumpshock and similar resources extensively to query on official rules, rule intent, etc, like anyone else. As a courtesy, if you think I'm trying to resolve a situation for this campaign, try not to note whatever I might tip my hand on in terms of future stuff (or current stuff). Basically, try not to metagame on such points, hard though that is at times. At least *appear* surprised, even if I tipped my hand in a thread elsewhere. If I tip my hand in a Blood In The Water thread, then, that's my fault and you can use it for what it's worth.

Where official rules seem to contradict themselves, this is the priority system I use:

Advanced books (Augmentation, Arsenal, Unwired, Street Magic, Runners Companion, etc) as errata'd when (re)published after SR4A; SR4A as errata'd; Advanced books NOT corrected for SR4A as errata'd.

I will endeavor to hold to the SR metaplot and timeline as it catches up with and then outpaces us. I may not use everything, but I will try not to contradict it; letting the writers do the heavy lifting for me is not a bad thing.

New Players: Are in fact welcome. The open sign will be up whenever the ship is in port, the game will remain open for reserves while the ship is at sea, and if you guys find a player who sticks around, I'm willing to consider karma for the referring player as a finder's fee. If you get a bigger ship, you might find a need for NPC crew or new players, too.

New characters, consistent with lessons ICly learned, will ICly go through a much more extensive training process then the training week the current crew underwent, in an on-shore environment. I have not decided what this will consist of, no - it will likely be something I discuss with the player behind each new character. Any such training will more-than-likely occur "off-camera", before the newbie is introduced to the crew by Lt. Commander Roberts.

Off-thread RP: I encourage this. Heavily. If you want to do it by email, cc me on any messages. IRC or chat? Make sure I'm there. We'll then post the log to the IC thread, appropriately timestamped and formatted. It might help the story move along a bit more.

[Karoline]

Sorry I haven't posted in forever people. I've managed to catch just about everything that exists (Except H1N1, or if I did I fought it off valiantly) and so have been on and off sick since school started, but this last week has been particularly bad, and when I wasn't sick I was busy trying to catch up on classwork.

That said I finally seem to be on the mend, just a small pained spot in my throat which I'm going to see the doctors about tomorrow when I head into class. I'm working up an IC post, which might end up being fairly long to help catch Jane up properly. Especially since I never went through and did an official training schedule.

At any rate, should finally have a post up at some point today.

Also if anyone wanted to talk to Jane at any of the parties or anything, feel free to send me a PM and we can RP it some if you'd like.

[budoka05]

To finish up some business here is my starting Nuyen:

3d6 → [3,2,6] = (11)

11 * 50 = 550

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2282227/

[budoka05]

Gear Purchases during Shore Leave:

1 x Gun Sling/Lanyard = 10￥
3 x FN Praetor Spare Clips = 15￥
2 x Gun Skin Link = 100￥

Total Spent = 125￥

[Penta]

*ding* Thank you for shopping at Weapons World.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Marwynn]

Ooh, I forgot to roll starting money. Starting Money x 50 nuyen (4d6=11) That's 550 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , enough to do some light shopping.

Sorry, I wasn't tracking my karma. Can I get my total, if any, to this point?

[Penta]

If you don't know your karma, it's 0.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Don't I make bookkeeping easy?(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Marwynn]

Aww. Well it does make things a lot easier to track!