OOC: The Sun Never Sets, OOC Thread for The Sun Never Sets Options

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar's Initiative: REA (4) + Lightning Reflexes (2) + INT (4) = 10 Dice >>> 3 Hits; Initiative 13

Wonderful, he's as quick as a dog.

A quick question; would Ellesar have time to blast one of the men in his sights after hearing the gunshot or would he need to wait?

[pbangarth]

Or maybe get a surprise roll, since he has them lined up?

[Tecumseh]

Five years in and I still don't have a complete grasp of the surprise rules. I'm going to say "no" to a strict surprise scenario, since the same sound that gives Ellesar the green light (Stogie's gunshot) is a sound that would potentially alert and warn the target.

What I'm going to do is have everyone roll initiative. Ellesar will go in his proper order, which may or may not be before the target in question.

If the target goes first
If the target is properly trained, he'll hear the gunfire at the same time as Ellesar (actually, a bit before, since it has to cross the valley to get to Ellesar). If the target has a military background / proper training, he may go prone at the sound of gunfire. If the target is not properly trained, he will turn and gawk, at which point Ellesar will shoot him in the back.

If Ellesar goes first
Ellesar gets to shoot at someone mid-nose-pick.

Atropos, which target did you want, location-wise?

[pbangarth]

mid-nose-pick.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[AtroposReborn]

The forum was down yesterday and part of the previous day. At least it was on my end. Were either of you able to access it?

And to answer your question, Tecumseh, Ellesar will be firing at the man closest to him. I'll get a general IC post up shortly.

[pbangarth]

It was down for me, too.

[Tecumseh]

It was down for everyone. I sat down on Friday all ready to do rolling and adjudicating and then the site wasn't even up.

Atropos, while looking over Ellesar's sheet I was reminded of his Pacifist quality:

The Pacifist quality makes a character unusually principled and humane for the dark streets forests of 2070. If the quality is taken at 5 BP, the character actively avoids needless violence and will not kill unless in self-defense (and even then, she will do so as humanely as possible). Such characters cannot participate in premeditated murders or wetwork and are compelled to dissuade their fellow shadowrunners from embarking on such operations.

Given that an ambush is obviously not self-defense, I will say that the quality is in jeopardy of being infringed. You can roll Willpower+Charisma (3) to overcome it, but otherwise I'm going to rule that Ellesar has to attempt a non-lethal shot. If you still plan to shoot, go ahead and roll (9 base + 1 red dot sight) and I'll add and subtract dice as needed.

[AtroposReborn]

Ah, but of course. Ellesar's more of a leg kind of guy anyway. I can't remember him shooting anyone in this campaign other than Toothy. Well, there was the drone but I'm hoping there wasn't some sort of small pixie creature inside it.

The real question comes down to is shooting someone in the leg a called shot?

Ellesar's shot: AGI (4) + Longarms (3) + Specialization in Sporting Rifles (2) + Red Dot Sight (1) = 10 Dice >>> 3 Hits

[pbangarth]

Yeah, I've played several Pacifist characters. Fun for character interaction. Not so much fun when the guy you took out humanely comes back next week with friends. It is a very believable Quality, though. A common human trait that I suspect gets beaten out of people in many places.

The reality is, if I were to put myself in SR terms, I would probably have that Quality. Part of the reason I work for Greenpeace.


In my old age I'm working on it, though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tecumseh]

Look at that front-loaded dice roll. I can take six dice and not touch any hits. So much for el señor's kneecap.

[Tecumseh]

Give me a bit to resolve this. I'm plotting out things in my head about how the opposition will react, but it will take me a while to do all the rolling and write it all up. I'm also debating whether I want to use a map to plot out relative positions, especially since the battlefield is so large. Does anyone have experience doing something large-scale via PbP?

[AtroposReborn]

Take all the time you need. This is the first pbp game I've been in that lasted more than two months without the group splitting up so I don't have much experience outside what we've already done.

[Tecumseh]

Why... why do I do this to myself. Why do I put myself in a position where there are effectively 15 NPCs that need thoughts in their heads and dice rolled. Anyway, we continue. Here's the initiative order, with a certain degree of coding to mask who is Mr. Quick and who is Mr. Dead:

#6 - 17
#1 - 13
#3 - 13
ELLESAR - 13
JAKE - 13
Air spirit - 12
Troll Sister - 11
Fire spirit - 11
#2 - 11
STOGIE - 10
#4 - 10
#8 - 10
#9 - 10
Water spirit - 9
Ork Sister - 8
#5 - 8
#7 - 8
Ellie - 7

[Tecumseh]

Atropos managed to pick a target below Ellesar in the initiative order. As such, he shoots before the man can act.

Even subtracting dice, Ellesar gets to keep all three of his hits. Base damage is 7P, -1 AP. Our amigo here gets to soak 10P. He soaks... 2 boxes, and nearly glitches. Knockdown! His leg gives and he's sucking dirt too.

I'll get an IC post up soon, sometime when it is not 12:30 AM. Pbangarth, since Jake is fairly high in the order, what would he be doing next? As a reminder, the man Stogie just shot had a spirit on the astral somewhere. It is not currently materialized.

[pbangarth]

Jake has the top level training that would allow him to overcome the typical reaction to gunfire. Nevertheless, Stogie has trained him to find deep cover when bullets start flying. So Jake will find a good log to hide under and keep alert. He's a lover, not a fighter, if he can help it.

[Tecumseh]

Jake can help it.

Action is happening elsewhere that the PCs are not immediately a part of so that will happen off-screen. Stogie is up again!

[pbangarth]

Can Stogie still see the magician?

[Tecumseh]

I'll let Stogie continue to coast on his 9 hit Perception roll for the moment: Stogie can still see the magician. Because the magician is now prone and Stogie is further than 20 meters away (currently 50 meters) the magician gets the benefit of "good cover" (p. 160, SR4A). If Stogie fires again the magician will have +4 to dodge the attack.

[pbangarth]

Awesome! If I don't use Stgie's last point of Edge, he gets a whole 2 dice. Oh, wait, with the laser sight that is 3 dice.

Hmmm.... with an aim action he could get 4! But with Edge that would be 8, with exploding 6s.

Let me think a bit.

EDIT: So, shit for brains late at night again. This is all wrong.

[pbangarth]

Brain is flushed now.

One can only hope the wound the mage received counters to some degree the bonus he gets for dodging. He will probably get 2 more dice. Dodging a second shot would take one of those away.

So, AGI 6 + Longarms (shotgun) 5 + laser sight 1 - shooting from cover 2 - long range 3 = 7 dice. I could Aim to get one more die or take a second shot with 6 dice.

Since he is so badly injured, I'm going to try two shots this time. If even one gets through, he should be out of the picture. Let's see after the first shot if Edge needs to be spent.

7 dice ==> 5 HITS!!!

Uhhh... OK. Give me a moment to adjust the horseshoe up my ass. It's a bit uncomfortable.

5 Hits, DV is 7P, Ap -1.

Second shot, 6 dice ==> 2 HITS

2 Hits, DV is 7P, AP -1.

[Tecumseh]

5 hits is going to be tough to evade. Let's see if Karl Kombatmage here can do it! 3 hits = nope.

That stages the damage to 9P, -1 AP. Can Karl mount a dramatic come-from-behind victory? Soak roll = 4 hits = nope.

That's 5P on top of 8P = 13P = critically wounded, bleed-out imminent.

The target does not get to actively dodge the second shot but he does get his 4 "good cover" dice. Survey says... 1 hit = nope.

1 more box of damage and he's going to the shadowrunner bar in the sky. Can he soak 8P, -1 AP??? 3 hits = nope.

Bad day for Karl Kombatmage here, who expires with 18P damage. Chalk one up for Stogie.

Back into pause mode as I separately resolve the lower half of the order.

[Tecumseh]

When will it be enough to make up for farm and livestock, and Molly and Mungo, Heidie and Jimbo?

Stogie, Bessie. Evidently Jake is the only member of the family whose name does not end with a long vowel.

[pbangarth]

It's a good idea for a dog name to have at least one long vowel in it. Easier to recognize and elicit response.

[Tecumseh]

Latest post is up. This concludes the first Combat Turn. Roll for initiative again and give me a clue to your general intentions for the round. Let me know if you have questions about the general situation, although - combat being inherently chaotic - you won't know everything that's happening. Observe in Detail (as a Simple Action) may be required to make sense of some things.

[pbangarth]

Initiative roll for Stogie 8 dice ==> 5 HITS ==> Initiative 13, 1 IP

Initiative roll for Jake 8 dice ==> 5 HITS ==> Initiative 13, 1 IP

Huh. They seem to be really Attuned!

Stogie's general intentions:

1) Mentally instruct Jake to stay hidden.

2) Set up an ambush, with cover, for the approaching noise maker. He will set up where he can clearly see the body of the magician (he assumes that is where the source of the noise is headed) and where he is not in between the magician and the approaching noise maker.

######

I don't know if Stogie had time to notice anything like this, but while astrally perceiving the magician, did he see any sign of a focus of any kind? This may be part of the reason an 'ally' is coming.

Here's a perception test if you want to use it: 2 HITS. New I'd pay for those 5s sooner or later. Still, I hope that's enough to see something is there.

I'll wait till it is Stogie/Jake's turn to post IC.