The Found Arcana - Ninth Interlude [OOC] Options

[Tecumseh]

He tries to modify a Persona Firmware onto a stealth tag

Sure, why not? Sounds fun. I had to dust of Data Trails but the mechanics look good.

Data taps and stealth tags are Restricted. For story purposes, I would suggest that Bobby get them from Livewire, his neo-anarchist hacker contact, rather than a "well known electronics wholesaler".

I don't see a Hardware Kit on Bobby's sheet. Mato has one that he can borrow. Alternatively, now that we have a garage we can start buying things collectively.

[Jack_Spade]

Yeah, that's why Bobby bought the stuff - just haven't updated my sheet yet.

Restricted gear just needs licenses - for which our company certainly qualifies.

[Tecumseh]

Generally I would agree, but buying them with a license also means that they'll be tied to our organization. So if they're used for not-entirely-legal purposes then that's a potential source of blowback. Buying them from a hacker seems like it would add an additional layer of insulation.

[Jack_Spade]

Fair enough, I'll change it then

[Tecumseh]

Floor plan #1 is the winner. Images have been added to the SIS Bellevue wiki page:

https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...rvices-bellevue

If the table format of the wiki page is a headache to read, here is what it says:

Comforts: Your home has enough comfortable furniture to fill it. It’s probably mass-produced, but it won’t break when someone sits on it. You probably have three or more household drones and a multi-function soy processing unit. Your walls are fully covered with AR paint or wallpaper. You may even have a collection of knick-knacks. Your CHN is secure enough that you could telecommute. This is the lifestyle of typical wageslaves. You have three or four useful drones, such as the BusyBuddy, including drone or virtual pets.

Entertainment: Your home is well equipped, and you can afford subscriptions to multiple entertainment sites. You have an assortment of shows to watch at home, either on the trid or in AR. Date nights are more frequent, and you can go to the occasional large event (e.g. sporting event, rock concert). You can keep up pampering treatments and can budget for a modest vacation annually, like a five-day cruise or a week camping in the NAN.

Necessities: Your home is beyond cozy, with enough space for a few guests or entertaining visitors at home. All your basic needs have been met, and you are working on indulgences. Only exceptional situations interrupt your utilities. You have a 200 square meter single family home with a large yard and nice garden or magical lodge. You have a two-car garage. You eat real food prepared by drones or metahuman staff and indulge in high-priced real chocolate and milk. Your appliances have all the bells and whistles. You wear current trendy styles of clothing and
jewelry or tailored Berwick suits and a few Zoé business suits.

Neighborhood: The Middle lifestyle neighborhood is a pleasant, well-kept community. It may be a mix of high-density housing and shops, or it could be a suburban neighborhood. The public utilities, such as electricity and water, are reliable, the wireless coverage is up 24/7, and the neighborhood has a standing contract with a reputable police corporation or well-respected criminal syndicate (response times of less than five minutes). Drones patrol the streets, and you can go out at night without body armor. There are probably several popular chain restaurants to choose from, the grocery delivery services are well-stocked, and there might even be a park or green space. Your neighbors are middle management, white-collar wage slaves, entrepreneurs, and successful criminals. Neighborhood watches are common, and street crime is not. On the down side, most Middle neighborhoods will require all metahumans to broadcast a SIN and ID at all times.

Security: Your building’s security keeps out unwanted visitors and casual thieves. Determined thieves will have to work to get access to your place. Locks and in-home security are above average. Your neighbors are likely to notice any suspicious characters or loud noises and call security. Smoke detectors and fire suppression systems are standard in all apartments and homes at this level. Your Matrix system has an average firewall and will at least monitor itself for intrusions. This represents upgrades that we would make.

Qualities
Homegrown Farming: Part of the home has been set up with a garden to provide fresh, non-soy food (raising the food aspect of Necessities by two levels).

Inconspicuous Housing: This home looks like any other one in the neighborhood, or some information is wrong or missing on the Matrix, making the place hard to find. Increase the threshold to find the place by two. (This is to convey some of the soulless, cookie-cutter nature of the neighborhood.)

Quiet Neighborhood: The home is on a quiet little street, where people feel safe enough to walk at night. Gangs are passive or apathetic to the area. Crime around here is half what is expected for the given type of neighborhood purchased.

Workplace: The home has an attached garage or an available large space, secure from the elements, to work in, operate a small business, or house a magical lodge. This raises the space aspect of Necessities by two levels. (The place already has a two-car garage, per Necessities. This is to double-down on that and to ensure that we have space for a magical lodge.)

Living by Committee: Your Home Owners Association is great and keeps costs down, except for the endless rules and regulations you must follow, and the mandatory meetings you must attend (if you miss a meeting, a new inconvenient rule will be passed just to annoy you). Chores must be done (like mowing the lawn) and rules followed, otherwise the character risks eviction.

Nosy Neighbors: Whether friendly and well-meaning or just plain busybodies, your neighbors are constantly poking into the comings and goings from you home and meddling in your business. Depending on the context, the neighbors may not be too happy to find out about your “alternative means of employment” (and may even report you to law enforcement). Characters with Nosy Neighbors should be particularly careful about their activities since potential antagonists will find it easy to find useful informants (possibly misguided rather than malicious) in the neighborhood. Information gathering attempts against you around your neighborhood benefit from a +3 dice pool modifier.

[Tecumseh]

We can push this as far as people want to go. I've accomplished the introduction to suburban life in Bellevue that was my goal.

We can explore the house, talk about cars, or RP anything else that people want to do that might not fit within a guided chapter.

[Beta]

Not that it is too important, but just for narration can we figure out how we are packing five SIS members into the four bedrooms? Tamarind is entirely comfortable with sharing a room (she's never really lived with much privacy), but I'm fine with however we break it out. (potentially we pack five people into three bedrooms, to make an extra lodge for Rachel?)

[Thanee]

Or just make one of the rooms a bedroom and a lodge. That should work, right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Tecumseh]

I see no problem with making Raven's bedroom into a lodge. In fact, it seems like a logical thing to do. Who wouldn't want to sleep in a mana barrier?

The house has the "Workspace" quality that I figured could be flexible until we decided how to apply it. This is separate from the garage, which the house already has. I got it specifically so we could cover either a magical lodge or a dedicated workspace for hardware/electronic/drone projects. Maybe a nice utility shed in the backyard? Could be something like this: https://www.studio-shed.com/home-office-spaces/

Or we could say that the garage is extra-large, not big enough for 3 cars but maybe 2 cars plus a work area.

As for the bedrooms, Mato is fine sharing too. He only sleeps 3 hours a day so I figure he doesn't spend much time in a bedroom anyway.

Good IC post, Beta.

[Jack_Spade]

Yeah, Bobby now also only sleeps if he can't get his meditation time, so he sharing with Mato would be a natural fit, giving the ladies their space.

(Naturally, Bobby prefers to meditate while in the body of a house cat, quietly purring to himself)

[Jack_Spade]

Since we are talking about cars:

The GMC Phoenix (Rigger5 p. 51) would fit our budget, look expensive and has good base stats to work with

PHOENIX (GROUNDCRAFT)
HANDL 4/2 (5/1 with the right tires)
SPEED 6
ACCEL 3
BODY 10
ARM 6
PILOT 2
SENS 3
SEATS 4
AVAIL —
COST 32,000¥

[Tecumseh]

(Naturally, Bobby prefers to meditate while in the body of a house cat, quietly purring to himself)

Hahaha this is great. Maybe Trouble can snuggle in there.

The Phoenix looks like a good option. It says 4 seats - and the Trans Am it is based on also had 4 seats - but only 2 doors. That means we have to shoehorn people into the backseat, which probably means Tamarind and Raven if we're being realistic (since AM is now Mato-sized). Or we take two vehicles.

AM and Tamarind are about even in terms of driving skill. Mato is a reasonable backup. I suppose Tamarind could drive from the backseat (via rigging) if AM suddenly needs to go limp to do some hacking.

[Gilga]

I avoided doing a lodge room because some activities in the lodge take a lot of time, e.g., studying spells or potentially crafting foci, rituals that take hours. It does not feel like a good place for a shared lodge, but there is a shared space on the second floor which I thought would help.

[Beta]

I liked that post Gilga, with the conversation with Trouble (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Tecumseh]

"I fucking hate changes,"
"Have you looked in the mirror recently?"

lol what a perfect retort

Agreed, great post!

[Gilga]

@Beta, Tecumseh - thanks for sharing. I like that post too.

[Tecumseh]

Anyone else want to chime in or should we wrap this up and put a bow on it?

[Jack_Spade]

Fine by me. I'll try to set up the next chapter over the Easter weekend

[Tecumseh]

Hmm, I miss the goofy flavor-based awards I used to do for Interludes. I'm going to bring those back.

Everyone gets TWO (2) free specializations for knowledge skills.

The goal is to have them be more narrative than mechanical, but if you wanna juice Arcana I'm not going to stop you. Just a little something to round out parts of the character sheet that often get neglected.

Mato will take his in Classical Music (Baroque) and Economics (Macroeconomics).

For his Chapter 9 spending he's going to max out Charisma and Logic, convert some to nuyen, and have a chunk leftover for skills. I haven't decided on the skills yet.

@Thanee The rest of us know Sioux Sign Language. This lets us communicate silently and visually in case someone isn't available via commlink. You're welcome to learn a bit of it if you think Raven would be interested.

[Thanee]

Raven actually has that, already (only low Rank, so far, I believe).

Yep, Rank 2

Sioux Sign Language 2

Bye
Thanee

[Thanee]

I think Rachel will just specialize Fashion into "Fashion Consulting" and "Fashion Design". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

She will also add some new Knowledge skills, like Golfing and Bellevue Shopping Spots. Still got a number of Knowledge Karma points left over.

Bye
Thanee

[Tecumseh]

What would "Fashion Consulting" encompass or represent? Helping others?

[Thanee]

Yeah, a fashion consultant is someone who helps others pick out suitable fashion for them. I think, it is almost the same as a stylist.

A fashion consultant helps their clients work towards their fashion goals. They do this by picking out outfits for them, which match their preferences, style, body type, and budget. A fashion consultant will also spend some of their time updating their portfolio and studying the latest trends in the industry.

Seemed fitting, considering Mato's request (current and earlier).

Bye
Thanee

[Tecumseh]

Mato broke the piggy bank for some fancy new cybereyes. It just seemed like something he would do.

These are now available if anyone can make use of them:

Contacts R3
+ Image Link
+ Smartlink
+ Flare Compensation

Glasses R4
+ Vision Enhancement R3
+ Thermographic Vision

Earbuds R3
+ Sound Link
+ Audio Enhancement R2

He also upgraded Etiquette and Intimidation to 3. That's it for his karma. He still has some knowledge karma that I'll probably put into some capital-C Contacts.

[Thanee]

Alright, Raven will do some summoning/binding then... I guess there will be about a week of time to spend.

Increase Charisma 6 (4 hits) active (not rolling for that, it will succeed at some point). Also assuming, that Edge regenerates 1/day.

Day 1

Summoning F8 Spirit of Air 1 hit (with Edge! Starting out great... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )
Spirit's Resistance 3 hits
Drain Resistance 3 hits + Edge Re-Roll 6 hits (there are all the 6s that were hiding earlier)

Day 2

Summoning F8 Spirit of Air 10 hits (with Edge! Now we are talking!)
Spirit's Resistance 1 hit (he wants to be my friend!)
Drain Resistance 7 hits

That's one F9 Spirit of Air with 10 services (thanks to Spirit Affinity and Spirit Whisperer)

Now I could use some luck...

Binding F9 Spirit of Air 7 hits (with Edge!)
Spirit's Resistance 8 hits (Noooo! I thought you wanted to be my friend... he tricked me!)
Drain Resistance 5 hits + Edge Re-Roll 2 hits

Too bad, the summoning roll was so nice... a non-above average roll on the resistance would have done it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Now, we need some rest...

Healing 2 hits

Day 3

Healing 3 hits

Day 4

Healing 4 hits

Day 5

Alright, then something smaller, I guess. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Summoning F6 Spirit of Air 3 hits (with Edge! Seriously, what is this?)
Spirit's Resistance 4 hits
Drain Resistance 2 hits + Edge Re-Roll 5 hits (actually, that Edge point is unnecessary, it's just stun damage)

The dice surely are not my friends! New day...

Day 6

Summoning F6 Spirit of Air 13 hits (with Edge! Ok, I guess they heard that... but too early to celebrate)
Spirit's Resistance 3 hits
Drain Resistance 6 hits

Binding F7 Spirit of Air 10 hits (with Edge!)
Spirit's Resistance 6 hits
Drain Resistance 5 hits + Edge Re-Roll 2 hits

At least, that one worked.

One F7 Spirit of Air with 13 Services.

Some rest...

Healing 2 hits

Day 7

Healing 1 hit

Day 8

Good enough for now... so, one last try for a normal one...

Summoning F5 Spirit of Air 10 hits (with Edge!)
Spirit's Resistance 1 hit
Drain Resistance 4 hits

Binding F6 Spirit of Air 11 hits (with Edge!)
Spirit's Resistance 7 hits
Drain Resistance 7 hits

One F6 Spirit of Air with 12 Services.


For the preparations, I will just assume, that I will manage Force 6 Potency 5 (6 would be max, but getting 0 hits on the resistance test is asking a bit too much) after a couple tries. There should be plenty time to do those.

Bye
Thanee