Skype IM players wanted, Shadows of the valley 2073. Options

[Tecumseh]

Just a quick update to let everyone know where we're at:

pbangarth - traveling
phlapjack77 - almost done
Faranji - done
Aerospider - MIA
AtroposReborn - done

I'm facing a fierce week ahead of me at work so I don't have a precise date in mind of when to kick this off. I have the plot outline in my head; I'll try to start writing out some of the opening scenes for when we finally launch.

Tec

[pbangarth]

OK, I'm back in Toronto but out of town tomorrow till Sunday. On Monday I will push to get the shepherd (Stogie) and his dog (Jake) finished and posted.

[pbangarth]

Alright, here's Stogie and Jake. I still have to buy some equipment, but everything else is fleshed out. A detailed background is to follow, but in short, Stogie was a shepherd and farmer in the Cascades. His land had a fair bit of meadowland high up, and he cleared a bit more land to feed his sheep. The old story, a mining company uses its money and influence to take the land for mining. Some rough stuff happens and Stogie loses all of his dogs but Jake. Stogie is pissed off and has a chip on his shoulder for all corps, not just the one mining corp. He has made connections with TerraFirst and has learned some terrorist tactics and skills. And picked up a cool shotgun from his TerraFirst contact.

Stogie is an adept, and has channeled his magic into abilities that aid farming/herding/hunting, some of which are transferable to terrorism against the corps and running in the shadows. He had in the past made some money on the side doing some reagent assaying and smuggling and likely will continue to do so.

[ Spoiler ]

Stogie – disgruntled shepherd, and his dog, Jake

Human {0}

Qualities {0}

Adept 10
Outdoorsman 20
Animal Empathy 20
Restricted Gear (shotgun) 10
Prejudiced (specific/active: corps) – 30
SINner (1) -10
Signature -20

Attributes {285}

BOD 1 + 3 = 4
AGI 1 + 2 = 3
REA 1 + 2 = 3
STR 1 + 2 = 3
CHA 1 + 2 = 3
INT 1 + 4 = 5
LOG 1 + 2 = 3
WIL 1 + 3 = 4

Initiative 8 (1 IP)

Special Attributes {170}

ESS 6
MAG 1 + 6 = 7
EDG 2 + 2 = 4

Adept Powers ( 7 pts.)

Astral Perception 1.0
Enhanced Perception (4) 1.0
Animal Empathy (4) 1.0
Attribute Boost 1.0
[STR(1), AGI(1), BOD(1), REA(1)]
Natural Immunity (3) 1.0
Sustenance 0.25
Pain Relief 1.0
Improved Sense (direction) 0.25
Rapid Healing (3) 0.75

Binding Foci {3}

Weapon Focus (1) cougar fineblade knife

Initiation {29}

Attunement (dog)
Empower Animal

Attunement {6}

Jake <see below>

Active Skills {171}

Outdoors GRP 2(3)
(navigation INT,
survival WIL,
tracking INT)
(mountain-for all) (+2)
Animal Husbandry GRP 3
(animal handling INT (+6),
animal training INT (+6),
riding REA (+2),
vet tech LOG)
Longarms AGI 2
(shotguns) (+2)
Etiquette CHA 2
Perception INT 2 (+4)
(visual) (+2)
Artisan INT 1
(whistling) (+2)
Blades AGI 2
(knives) (+2)
First Aid LOG 1
Infiltration AGI 2
(wilderness) (+2)
Pilot Groundcraft REA 1
Dodge REA 2
(ranged) (+2)
Demolitions LOG 1
(improvised explosives) (+2)
Enchanting MAG 1
(alchemy) (+2)
Automotive Mechanic LOG 1
Industrial Mechanic LOG 1
Assensing INT 2 (+4)
(aura reading) (+2)
Astral Combat WIL 1
(weapon foci) (+2)

Contacts (10 free pts) { 18}

Fixer C4/L1 Smart Willie
TerraFirst operative C3/L2 Rosie the Riveter
Talismonger C2/L2 Olga Semanova

Knowledge Skills (48 free karma) {33}

English N
Salish 2
Or’Zet 1
Sheep Herding 4
Farm Management 4
Hunting 3
Weather Prediction 2
Cascade Area Geography 2
Dog Agility Competition Course Design 1
Seattle Smuggling Routes 2
Seattle Talismongers 2
Corporate Structure 1
Corporate Security Procedures 1
Mining Practices 1
TerraFirst organization 1
Zoology 2
Botany 2
Metallurgy 2
Geology 2
Parazoology 1
Parabotany 1

Jake – Border Collie – Training level: Against Instinct

BOD 2
AGI 4
REA 4
STR 1
CHA 3
INT 4
LOG 2
WIL 3
EDG 3
ESS 6
Init 8 (1 IP)
Movement 10/45
Skills: Intimidation(mental: “border collie stare”) 2(4), Perception 2, Tracking 2, Unarmed Combat 1, Dodge 1
Powers: Enhanced Sense(smell), Natural Weapon (claw/bite: DV 2P, AP 0), <see Empowerment>

Empowerment {13} (Jake)

Rapid Healing (3)
Animal Empathy (4)
Enhanced Perception (4)
Attribute Boost-BOD (1)
Attribute Boost-AGI (1)
Attribute Boost-REA (1)
Attribute Boost-STR (1)

Gear 55,000 nuyen {22}

“Jake” border collie <20,000>

Weapon Focus (1) cougar fineblade knife <10,000>

fake SIN
second fake SIN?
shotguns
- Remington 990 <550>
- Enfield AS 7 (Restricted Gear Quality) <1100>
Knife (cougar fineblade) <900>
Armour
- camo jacket (6/4) <1000>
- armor jacket (8/6) <900>
- urban explorer jumpsuit (6/6) <500>
- helmet (-/+2) <50>
- FFBA full (6/2) <1600>
- Securetech PPP (+2/+4) all but helmet <900>

Assaying Kit <500>
Automotive Toolkit <500>
Industrial Toolkit <500>
Commlink
Goggles
Earbuds
Ammunition
Lifestyle
First Aid Kit
Vehicle?

More stuff

STATS EDITED: 24 Oct 2011

[Tecumseh]

Goodness, such an environmentally conscious group. Maybe that was inevitable, given the campaign setting.

Let me go through this and I'll PM you with some of my thoughts later on. Just browsing through it I can see that some of our karma totals don't match for certain areas but I have to make sure I'm calculating it all correctly.

Just to update the status:
pbangarth - in progress
phlapjack77 - done
Faranji - done
Aerospider - MIA
AtroposReborn - done

I'm still busy at work and might be that way for a while, but my goal is to get this off the ground next week.

[Faranji]

We've still got the open question of the platform we're going to use for this game.

[Tecumseh]

Quite. My original idea was to have a hybrid game, with weekly sessions via Skype for the dice-heavy components of the game and then play-by-post role playing the rest of the week for the slower sections between the action sequences.

Given the geographical disparity of the group, I don't think anything live is going to work. Here's my understanding of everyone's approximate location:

pbangarth - Toronto
phlapjack77 - China
Faranji - Germany
Aerospider - UK
AtroposReborn - East Coast U.S.
myself - Seattle proper

While remarkable from a standpoint of internationality, we span approximately 16 time zones, from +8 to -8 UTC. As such, the only practical game format I can think of is play-by-post, although I'm certainly open to ideas or suggestions. I would suggest Dumpshock as a venue, but again I'm open to other thoughts on the matter.

[phlapjack77]

As for me, the time zone thing works out pretty well if a North American timezone is chosen. I'm about 12 hours ahead of NA, so if we play at 8pm, then for me it's 8am, which is fine if it's a weekend.

[Faranji]

I'm 9 hours ahead (and UK probably (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) from GM-timezone so that's where things start getting tricky. We could give skyping a try but I won't get up at 6 a.m. on a sunday to play Shadowrun (and I just hope the American side doesn't want to play saturday evening either (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ).

Another thread suggested Facebook pbp. But I guess as long as you play pbp it doesn't really matter which platform you use (as long as you keep getting notifications and updates for which fb is great).
We could also play pbp Skype since chatmessages will be saved if offline but I use Skype rarely.

So long,
T

[pbangarth]

pbangarth - Toronto
phlapjack77 - China
Faranji - Germany
Aerospider - UK
AtroposReborn - East Coast U.S.
myself - Seattle proper

Cool, or what?

So, from my perspective, AtroposReborn and I are in the same time zone, Aerospider is 5 hours ahead, Faranji is 6 hours ahead, phlapjack77 is 12 hours ahead, and Tecumseh is 3 hours behind. As an example for a weekend game:

Tecumseh (GM) at 8 am
pbangarth and AtroposReborn at 11 am
Aerospider at 4 pm
Faranji at 5 pm
phlapjack at 11 pm.

Oops. I don't see how we wouldn't have at least one person playing in the middle of the night. Maybe doable on a weekend, but not much fun for him or her.

[Tecumseh]

Indeed, the math is against us. If we have a 4-hour session and 16 hours between players then a game would cover 20 hours of the clock. We can pick which four hours we don't want to play during but that still leaves someone with an extreme morning or a late night.

If I were a morning person then it might be possible to start between 5 and 6am my time (-8 GMT) so that the game could end between 1am and 2am in China (+8 GMT), but I'll tell it to you straight that I couldn't keep it up. (And, even if I could, I'd be burning serious capital at home.) As for play-by-post platforms, I rarely use Facebook (only for work) and I'm only on Skype once per week. I'm open to using them if that's what the group prefers.

[pbangarth]

If we are going play-by-post, what do we have against using Dumpshock?

[Faranji]

Nothing really. I was just thinking about platforms that include a IM-system but as said there's no real chance we will be online at the same time so I guess dumpshock is just fine.

[phlapjack77]

I'm ok with an extreme morning or late night, IF it's the weekend. I don't want my timezone issues to keep everyone else from playing in real time...

[AtroposReborn]

The problem is more likely my schedule. Unfortunately if we were to play a real time game then I would only be able to play bi-weekly and at different times depending on if I am currently on day shift or night shift since it changes every six weeks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) sorry

[Faranji]

How about this: We start playing pbp at first just to get started.
Then we will use some kind of online calendar/poll/timetable system to figure out if and when people have matching time windows in which we can play realtime and if we find time to play realtime even better if not... well then it won't happen.

/edit: your schedule could even turn out to be an advantage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[pbangarth]

How about this: We start playing pbp at first just to get started.
Then we will use some kind of online calendar/poll/timetable system to figure out if and when people have matching time windows in which we can play realtime and if we find time to play realtime even better if not... well then it won't happen.

/edit: your schedule could even turn out to be an advantage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Sounds good to me.

[AtroposReborn]

Works for me. Speaking of which I just got off of a 12hr shift and it's time to get some sleep.

[Tecumseh]

Sounds like a good way to start to me too. The initial steps will mostly be RP and legwork, which lend themselves to play-by-post anyway. Maybe by the time we have the groundwork in place and are ready for an action sequence we'll be able to coordinate something on Skype.

I have a project at work that's monopolizing my mental resources right now. I'm hoping to wrap it up this week, after which there should be some downtime with a good opportunity to get this started. Aerospider is no longer MIA but he's getting married this week (congratulations) and is on his honeymoon next week. Luckily, due to the nature of his character there's a reasonably good hook to get him tied into the adventure after the opening scene.

[pbangarth]

Yay! After only three attempts at basic, grade school arithmetic I got the 750 karma allocated correctly. Pretty good, eh? See post #28.

This week I will spend the nuyen allocated to gear fully. This coming weekend, I am moving. Internet connection may be spotty after that for a few days until I get my hookup in. I will do what I can... library, whatever.

[Faranji]

Any news? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Tecumseh]

Yes! I think we're ready to go!

I've created a new OOC forum for the game, which I've named "The Sun Never Sets". This refers to the geographic dispersion of our players, plus it sounds like the title of a James Bond film. You can find the thread here:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=36160

I have not created an IC thread yet mostly because I haven't quite figured out how to begin. Most of the characters don't have frequent contact with the outside world and I'm not sure how to inform everyone of the initial meet. I'm wary of forcing anything, but there might not be a great way to do this in an IC manner so forgive me if I teleport you there.

Again, I don't want to mandate anything, but it would be my preference if most of the characters had at least heard of each other and knew the others' reputations. Nobody has to be BFFs but it will be easier if you're not total strangers either. This is roughly how I imagine it:

- The metahumans: Faranji (dwarven rigger), pbangarth (human shepherd adept), and AtroposReborn (elven survivalist) know each other from living in the same region and having similar isolationist lifestyles.
- The non-metahumans: Aerospider (free spirit) and phlapjack77 (eagle-shifter mage) know each other through some astral connection they share as sentient non-metas in the same neighborhood.
- pbangarth is the link between the two groups, as he is Awakened and has the ability to identify the eagle-shifter and the free spirit for what they really are.

As I've mentioned before, this is my first play-by-post experience. If anyone has suggestions or best practices, I am very welcoming of advice. I don't have a clear idea of how much time this will take, both in the sense of hours-per-day and months-to-conclusion. I'll be happy if people can post every weekday but I know that I'll miss that mark myself. I'll do my best to respond to OOC inquires and to write IC posts in a timely manner. I'll let you know if I'll be away from the computer for a weekday or two but currently I don't have any extensive travel planned.

Please visit the OOC thread and post your character's sheet, plus background and equipment. Questions or comments? Please let me know.

[phlapjack77]

As I've mentioned before, this is my first play-by-post experience. If anyone has suggestions or best practices, I am very welcoming of advice.

Initially, maybe a set of posting guidelines for the IC thread? No signatures, colored text for different actions, etc.

An example of OOC guidelines is here.

Invisible Castle works really well for online dice rolling.

[Tecumseh]

Thanks for that post; it's very helpful.

Do people find it generally useful to have the color coding? I get a little dizzy looking at a multi-colored post, personally. I'm happy with quotation marks for speech and <brackets> for coms, with the method of communication (speech, subvocal, or text) clarified by the writing. But if people like color and find it helpful then we can try that too.

I was planning on using Invisible Castle. I haven't used it before but I set up an account for it on Sunday. Does everyone else have an account? If not, please look into it.

[klinktastic]

I would recommend, pbp and then jump on skype for battles....combat via pbp is painful...way to slow. the RP, the matrix, etc, that stuff is great as pbp because it's allows everyone time to think about what they want to say.

[phlapjack77]

I'm ok either way with the colored speech. I think formatting of the text for readability is probably more important.

Color coding sometimes slows me down a bit when I have to search for the proper color, but it can also be an easy trigger for what type of communication is going on.