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

[SleepIncarnate]

Quit kissing pigs and get back to saving people. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[budoka05]

@Penta, perhaps this would be a good time to go back to pursuing the circumstances of my char's father's murder? Might be some fun to rough up some underbelly scum.

[Penta]

You'll get no argument from me - you do the RP, I'll figure out some result.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Knight Saber]

I'm back. Thank you for your good wishes and patience everyone.

[Ears]

Okay. I'm getting this vibe from both groups that seems best described as ennui.

I can't tell whether people are bored with the campaign, don't like the pace, are busy with RL, or what. (I'm presuming, maybe wrongly, you all know the situation ICly.)
...
Original group: Guys, the next steps are up to you. At least give me clues as to how your character is going to be spending the week heading to NYC, I'm begging you.

Well, I'm just waiting for the virtual meet to end so that I can post my IC piece on what Simon's doing in that week. Essentially it'll be spending as much time with the slaves as other duties allow.

@all: If any you who interrogations feel like having him stand around and glare menacingly, feel free to narrate Simon in.

[Karoline]

The virtual meeting ended a couple posts ago I think.

Jane for one won't be interrogating anyone. Doesn't really have the stomach for it, and isn't exactly personally that scary, though walking in with her lynx and a LMG pointed at the person could help loosen tongues.

[SleepIncarnate]

Had to redo rolls as I realized I did my pool wrong and was shorting myself 2 dice per summoning and binding roll (was only rolling magic and not adding the 2 dice from my summoning group). So....

First summon, failed, took 3 levels drain
Summoning (proper dice pool) (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=1)

Rest, 1 box healed, enough to remove the penalty
Rest (7d6.hits(5)=1)

Second attempt at summoning, 2 net success, earth spirit summoned that owes 2 tasks. Took 2 levels drain for a total of 4 boxes.
Summoning (7d6.hits(5)=4, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Binding, burning edge (-1 die wound penalties), 3 net successes, 4 more levels of drain taken for a total of 8
Binding, burning edge (9d6.hits(5)=6, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Rest/Sleep, after 3 hours sleep she's fine
Rest, hour 1 (7d6.hits(5)=3)
Rest, hour 2 (7d6.hits(5)=4)
Rest, hour 3 (7d6.hits(5)=2)

Second night, first attempt failed, 1 level drain taken
Summoning (storm spirit) (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=3)

Second attempt, 4 levels drain taken, for a total of 5
Summoning (storm spirit), 2nd attempt (7d6.hits(5)=3, 5d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=4)

Rest, 4 levels healed, 1 left
rest (7d6.hits(5)=4)

Third attempt, failed, resisted all drain
summoning 3rd attempt (7d6.hits(5)=0, 5d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=6)

Fourth attempt, 3 levels drain taken (4 total)
summoning 4th attempt (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=1)

Rest, 2 levels healed (2 remain)
rest (7d6.hits(5)=2)

5th attempt succeeded with 1 net hit, took 8 levels of drain for total of 10 (1 more and she'd have been knocked out)
summoning 5th attempt, burning edge (10d6.hits(5)=6, 5d6.hits(5)=5, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Rest 3 hours, healed 6 levels, 4 remain
rest (7d6.hits(5)=4)
rest 2nd hour (7d6.hits(5)=0)
rest 3rd hour (7d6.hits(5)=2)

Binding burning edge, spirit goes poof, take 2 more levels drain for total of 6
binding, burning edge (9d6.hits(5)=2, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=4)

So in the end, Yinglong failed to get her air spirit, but she now has a Force 5 earth spirit with 5 tasks owed and Concealment as it's optional power.

[Penta]

Okay, newbies: Your day 14 scene is up on your thread. Feel free to post any day(s), up to day 14 during PT. This could be convos with Roberts, your customized intel collection/analysis classes, or so forth. Just try not to stop things during day 14.

Fedallah folks: Jane's point seems like a good point to close out the virtual meet. Please to move things along and describe the next week-11 days.

If you post nothing re the interrogations, particularly, I'm going to assume you just guard the captives and care for the ex-slaves and don't interrogate the captives.

The Krull, I figure, can make 1 delivery a day at this range, but that basically has it moving continuously, which means probably someone watching it continuously so it doesn't fly into birds and the like. Please note that to launch/recover the Krull? Ya gotta be stopped.

Otherwise, off we go. I'll give some time for people to post re the trip North, then (if nobody posts) I'll post re the approach to New York Harbor and the docking.

[budoka05]

@Penta:Although we're being conservative with the Karma, can I least give my char Nautical Engineering for the skill requirement?

@Everyone: In regards to our next run, I would suggest diving into the underworld of illicit goods. Specifically, this would be to search for the organization that killed my char's father. Otherwise, I would next like to hit an Aztlan facility and find out which groups within Aztlan are doing the human sacrifices. Thoughts?

[Penta]

Let's wait on karmahandling til you're ashore, budoka.

So far as the human sacrifices...Well. Those of you who have the old Aztlan sourcebook know the answer to this already.

For those who don't, I'll spell it out: It's common knowledge that the Aztlan government, through the state Aztec religion, conducts human sacrifices. It's been known in the shadows since the Aztlan Sourcebook, which was released around 2054 IIRC - almost 20 years ago, ICly.

It's so commonly known that they hold the sacrifices at the top of their big temples and broadcast it on the Trid. Now, what's also known (or at least believed) is that the Aztlaners generally use prisoners condemned to death for sacrifices.

[budoka05]

If I recall correctly, not all divisions of the Aztlan gov perform human sacrifices. Plus, there was room in the source book that there can be forces at work to stop said sacrifices (ex. Amazonia). That could make some interesting stuff.

[Penta]

Possibly.

Okay guys, I hate to do this, but...

Where is everybody?

I've not seen most of the main crew post in a while. Same goes for the newbie set.

I as GM am entirely willing to keep going with this campaign, but it seems lame if there's only 3-4 people besides me.

If RL is the issue, okay. If a lot of people are busy with RL, okay. I can put the campaign in stasis and come back to it in a mutually-agreed upon timeframe.

If it's that some people have lost interest, okay, but I wish you would tell me.

If the campaign idea sucks, tell me that.

But knowing nothing about what's going on, I can only presume I fucked up somewhere, and that's kind of dispiriting.

I'd go name by name and ask who's still playing, but with 12 people, I'm afraid I'd miss some people.

[Whizbang]

Finally back to my own computer. Went from a video card the size of an inch square chip to one the size of a paperback book. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Karoline]

Still around. I think my post is one of the last couple in the main IC thread, so waiting for a little something to happen before I post again. If nothing does by... thrusday, I'll post something else to see if I can't spark something.

Whizbang is ready to be distracted by all kinds of new games now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[zzyxzs]

I'm here. I was waiting for the newbie group to arrive at BWI before I posted, but I guess I'll follow Karoline's lead and post regardless if there are no posts there by Thursday.

[ntwi]

I'm still here. Real life kept me with rather less contact to the outside world than normal for the past week but I should be good now. I'll drop my update into the newbies thread and then await the arrival of the ship.

[Penta]

Zz: You're in a funky spot, as ICly you're training separately from the group of newbies.

You can still send stuff to me, or post em to the newbie thread.

Who that post was directed at:

1. The original Fedallah crew - Karoline, I see your posts and appreciate them. Whizbang, I get your hardware issues. It's everybody else's silence that worries me - less so in some cases (Knight Saber, I presume you're still getting back up to speed, for example), more in others (CD, MusicMan?). Like I said, I get if RL has popped up, but I (personally) don't think it would take too long to send me an OOC note via PM, email, or whatever, just letting me know what's going on. You don't need to post, just throw me a note. I don't mean to sound like a dick, but that's really just polite, guys - when you've not posted to any of the threads for a week, at least gimme a sign you're still interested. I have no other way to figure out whether people are busy, have abandoned the game, have given up the net for Lent, or what. My (admittedly narcissistic) first guess when people do that and go disappear without warning is that the problem is with me; it's a bad habit I try to train myself out of, to no avail yet. Whether me specifically, the game, or what, I can't know, but it makes sudden mass disappearances very confusing and demoralizing. There is, as a GM, no worse feeling than what you get when the reaction to your plot advancement is to get cricket sounds in return.

2. The newbie group of 4 - group 2. Ntwi, SleepIncarnate, I've been in contact with both of you. BetaFlame, Inane Imp, I'll not repeat what I said a paragraph above, but the same really does apply. If you're busy with RL or something, okay. Tell me. Whether publicly, privately, by email, by PM, by IM...your choice. If you're just confused re posting, tell me know that too. But please, I beg you, don't leave me hanging.

As you can see, Zz, this doesn't include you - your character being off by himself made a lot of sense from an IC point of view, but I get how it'd be frustrating and confusing OOCly.

I'll admit fully, everybody: I've made more than my share of boneheaded moves running this campaign. I will no doubt continue to. To err is human, especially when you're frankly not used to running the system you're playing under - I've always said my expertise is more in doing the story, but a lot of the little things of being a GM, whether that be keeping track of time or handling system matters, aren't amongst my strong suits.

[MusicMan]

I've talked with Penta about things... I've been really busy with wedding stuff and warhammer tournys. I am giving Penta permission to kill off Alexander.

Best of luck to the rest of the crew...

Errr...

Arrrrrrrrr?

[Penta]

In accordance with MusicMan's request, I'll try to devise a good way to die.

It'll happen on shore after you guys dock.

Problem this leaves me with - I'm not a fan of WoW or MUD-style corpse looting.

So you guys'll get to decide what to do with his personal effects like gear and stuff.

I'll make sure he goes in such a way that the body isn't your problem.

Edit: Further commentary.

MusicMan provides an ideal example of how I would prefer player exits be handled. There's seriously no hard feelings from me if you exit - whatever the reason. Just make sure that you *tell* me you're leaving, all I ask. We can then work out whether the character should exit temporarily or permanently.

For transparency, I asked MM to post up what he did generally. I never want it to seem like I'm "forcing someone out". I didn't in this case - I asked if he was still interested cuz things were quiet, he said he was but was too busy, we figured out what to do with his character. I don't force people out, period.

That does not mean that I am not, as you've seen, insensitive to activity. I do pay attention to activity. My rules of thumb:

Keep an eye on the threads. Reading them daily is really preferred, but you can get by without being too confused if it's only every few days. Once a week is almost definitely pushing it - you're almost certain to get confused.

Posting? Depends on the IC situation. If you can't get the inspiration for a post or something, that's cool. Let me know somehow, just so we can keep things flowing.

If you need to go byebye temporarily (I'm not talking a few days, I'm talking a week or more), let me know. If it's a really long time (month or more) where you won't be able to even read the forums or something, I can come up with ways a character can temporarily be moved off-camera, and then be moved back into the group. We don't always need to kill a character off.

So far as newbies go: Yes, I know this puts us at 11/12. However, I'm not really interested in trying to figure out how yet another newbie wasn't with the big group of 4. Hence, we'll go with 11 people for now. If we drop to 10 out of 12 (or less), I'll reconsider. Otherwise, I'd like some time to lapse ICly before more newbies come aboard.

[Penta]

Okay guys.

Now that we're all in dock, together, yay, I figure you've got some shore leave ahead -

really, because the Navy doesn't have a mission for you at the moment beyond "Go out,
be a privateer, raid ships, collect intelligence, yadda yadda", otherwise known more
succinctly as "independent duties" - this can take as long as you like so far as

they're concerned. Unlike last shore leave, though, while they'll resupply you with
food and water - this time with the quantities meant for 11 people - they won't pay for
your shore leave. In IC time, though, let's try to get the ship underway by July 5th,
2072 - So 6 days. In OOC time, I'm not adverse to spending time RPing the shore leave,
but I understand if the newbies especially want to get to sea. So what I'm going to say
is: RP your hearts out, but be expeditious about it: I'll move things along in one week
OOC time if nothing's happened or people seem to be getting bored. By the way, the newbies thread is now for backdated stuff only.
---

Oh, before I forget:

This means karma awards, too.

Above and beyond any I gave previously:

Fedallah Group:

2 karma per person for surviving.
1 karma per person for putting up with a scatterbrained GM (this is a one-time bonus,
don't get used to it.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )
1 karma per person for freeing the slaves and capturing the crew with no KIAs on either
side.

That was for the group. Everybody got those. Now, individual karma:

CollateralDynamo and Ears stood out to me as the best RPers - amongst a very good
group, you two stood out as going above and beyond. Hence, 1 karma. (There was
exceptional RP, but not truly legendary stuff. When there is, that'll get 2 karma.)

Karoline gets 1 karma for not only showing up the GM, but doing it with class and style
through the Krull resupply idea - I'm not sure what you call it when the GM forgets a
character has a piece of gear like that, but it was a heck of a thing to remember, more
or less short-circuiting the drama of the supply issue.
---

So, I'm going to pause here and make a suggestion: For auditing and sanity purposes,
we dhoulf all try to keep karmalogs. You keep em for your own character, I'll keep one
per character. Formatting is up to you, but they need to include the OOC date the karma
was awarded, the stated reason in brief, and the amount of karma. When you go to raise
skills, I'll compare your karma log against my memory (at first) or my karma log
(later). As of this writing, I have karmalogs set up for those remaining of the
Fedallah group; newbies, as I find your character sheets as posted, I'll draw up the
similar karmalogs.

Training time, I've been over plenty of times in the OOC thread.
---

Moving on to the newbies:

SleepIncarnate gets 1 karma for her conversation scene with Roberts. Good show, SI.
Zzyxzs (Zz or Doc for short) gets 2 karma for putting up with a boneheaded idea by the
GM run amok - I will figure out a better way of handling the problem it was meant to
solve, but that wasn't it.
Everybody in the newbie group (plus Doc) gets 2 karma for surviving training with their

OOC sanity intact - or at least not appreciably worse than it was before.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
---

And finally: How to spend karma.

Basically, PM me with the change you're making to your sheet. I'll approve or deny it based in large part upon training or use, and partly based upon simple whim. More based upon the former - the latter will only apply where for some reason there are factors militating against my approving a particular change. That should be pretty rare.

I reserve the right to require RP before approving a particular change.
---
With this post, by the way, we should really move to a new OOC thread. (26-27 pages,
with sheets scattered around it, is a bit hard to navigate.) I'll start it off - I then
would like everybody to post their character sheets and bios and stuff in spoiler
codes, just like you did initially (such as on page 1 of this thread). Ideally, these
should be up-to-date sheets, edited to reflect karma expenditure. If you want, you can
also (but don't have to) include your karmalog, and keep the post edited to stay up to
date.

I will then post the ship stuff after everybody's posted up their characters.
No need to post a new IC thread, though, that's still quite manageable.

[budoka05]

Hey Penta, let me know what your decision is regarding increasing nautical engineering to 1 without Karma.

Also, before we had the ship over to the feds, I'm going to raid the arms and ammo locker! Tell me what I find.

For Whizbang, are you still interested in pursuing the father subplot?

[Karoline]

Likely won't have time for a post before Saturday. I have two tests to study for tomorrow and a report due and a science article I have to read (and comprehend).

[Penta]

Budoka: Okay, sure, raise it with the karma you got this time. I forget how much that is, just woke from a nap.

Ammo locker: Well, when you look, you find a lot of taser ammo - and tasers, duh. A few thousand rounds of stick'n'shock ammo (still in their boxes, see), too, for rifles and heavy pistols. You also find a box of Aztechnology knock-offs of the AK-97. (Same stats, but not made by the AK-97's manufacturer.)

Though it does raise the question of how you intend to get it all off without the feds noticing when they take custody.

Karoline: Thanks for the heads up.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Penta]

Since SI just pointed it out to me - there's rule re Arcana on page 31, Street Magic. We'll be using the optional rule presented there. Or at least, we'll be testing it out. If I spot problems with it, I reserve the right to go back to the standard rule.

[budoka05]

Though it does raise the question of how you intend to get it all off without the feds noticing when they take custody.

No worries, during the voyage to NY, I'll transfer the guns over to the Fedallah by zodiac, or set up a zip line, what ever is more convenient and safer.