Charm City [OOC] Options

[Koekepan]

Nah, he got it back when he packed out. However, he's ready and waiting for people to show up, and is ready and waiting to let his drone control system act as a jumping-off point from above where the paint is peeled off.

[sunnyside]

Advancing a bit more. Other folks would have had hours to get in line between your last actions and now when you could get in. Folks getting inside should also get Angel into the mix.

[Thanee]

As I see it, we either have to have Angel with us inside the club, or Tubesnake has to offer a way to get through the wifi-repelling paint, so she can get access from the outside. Right?

Bye
Thanee

[sunnyside]

If it happens that anyone in the club can get a line out than Angel would be able to trace it back to the passive/hidden node that connects to the outside.

[Koekepan]

I have three ways lined up:

Park a node on top of the worn area of paint. Instant stepping-stone.

Whack open one of the grilles and send in a drone carrying a node, trailing a wire.

Dismantle a part of the roof on the pretext of chasing Jauchekaefer and use that as a point of entry. Depending on how the eaves are structured, this could be simply ripping anti-pest wiring off an attic space ventilation gap and going in.

[Thanee]

Yeah, I definitely think it is better to do it in such a way that Angel can stay outside. With her being so young, that would otherwise just draw more attention inside the club.

So, if one of those ways can work, I am all for it! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[sunnyside]

So the shankworm performed shockingly well on its own. However in future consider that throwing a pair of dice that many times is much more likely to generate critical glitches than any sort of success.

What occurs to me increasingly is that Tubesnake and Angel are incredibly synergistic. Machine Sprites could get around some of the typical limitations on Tubesnakes creativity (per the rule book on how much you can do with novel design) due to their ability to generate their own autosofts. In the short term they seem like they could make drones much more functional.

Their stability ability seems to mitigate a lot of potential issues and tubesnakes bad luck.

Maybe you guys could do some RP later, or just get some experience together in all this to sort some of that out.

[pbangarth]

"Tubie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

On my way tonight on the red-eye to Dublin. Staying near Belfast. Probably will have WIFI. Then a few days later staying in Belfast. Same likelihood. Day after I arrive, I will meet the sire of my border collie bitch. He is competing with his handler in the 2023 World Sheepdog Trials. Woohoo!

In the game, I'm looking forward to the night out in Gatsby's.


I hope Willie gets some action, too.

[Koekepan]

Sunnyside, I'm deducing from your posts that you didn't notice that I'd specified that Paul parked a block away, and used the scaffolding to traverse up top. His van is at least 100 yards away from the club, and while his drone may have fallen into the alley, he's not there himself. I kind of retconned his presence at ground level for consistency's sake, but really he'd have been at scaffolding level. He'll retrieve the drone mechanically.

[sunnyside]

I did get it in my head the drones were using the scaffolding not Tubesnake himself.

[pbangarth]

Awesome show of talent and cooperation between human and dog at the World Sheepdog Trials. Every once in a while, there is a performance in which surely Bongo's Adept Power is in force. The boisterous crowd hushes and it is like the Magic is called up.

If only I had stumbled upon this sport a lifetime ago.

[Seth]

Sorry for going quiet. Change of job plus daughter in law giving birth. All in all a hectic week and a half.

[sunnyside]

It seems a lot of us are parents and busy at the moment. Though, I suppose that might be part of why we're RPing here instead o in person. Though I seem to recall some thread where pbangarth was trying to find some Canadians to play with.

Anyway in addition to text colors there are details of how to play. One is I'd encourage people to be open to being drug places by others. Bongo and Seline have seemed to be ready for quite some time, but just haven't worked out moving. Again I'm new to RPing on dumpshock, but that has worked well elsewhere. Usually with a measure of openness to the players being drug around starting their next post with something like "before following <their character> to <where they're leading>, <my character> grabbed their new heavy pistol and concealed holster and sent an agent out to keep looking for info on the cult we're investigating".

The club is now open and they're trying to get people in quicker than usual to avoid any talk about bugs.

I'd also encourage utilizing your ability to generally communicate wherever you are to each other subvocally, even in a crowd.

[pbangarth]

Sorry about the colour. I'm on my phone in Ireland. The colour selections look all wrong. I'll fix it when I get home.

[pbangarth]

Well, OK. I moved us along a bit.

[sunnyside]

So a point of clarity. Is it safe to assume that matrix chat is shared among the group?

I find that speeds things up and keeps people in the loop without metagaming. But it sounds a little like you're going back and forth. I'm not sure Seth thinks Angel knows what's up.

Seth may also be seriously playing their characters disadvantage regarding the real world. So Angel might not be able to figure out what bugs and paint have to do with not having access to internal systems.

[pbangarth]

Hey, you didn't think this bunch would work like well oiled machinery right out of the gate, did you, sunnyside? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[pbangarth]

I thought Brewster had given us a communal communication system? Is that not so?

[sunnyside]

I thought Brewster had given us a communal communication system? Is that not so?

In this edition there's no need for anything special except your commlink, which players really need anyway, and accessories as needed such as maybe a subvocal mic for some situations. Commlinks have no problem doing group calls. Anyone can also stream any other senses or infostreams you want to the group if you want to keep them in the loop. That's exactly how group tacnets work. Members of the team sharing a bunch of senses from cybereyes to drones and bodycams and then the tacnet expert system processes the information and passes it onto the team so they know where enemies they can't see are and so on.

[sunnyside]

So some stuff on the matrix in 4a for Seth. (Direct communication with them would help here. )

In 4a you hack to the source of a datastream. So whatever chokepoints or toasters the signals are going through if Bongo and Selina can get a signal out to Angel, which they can, Angel can hack into or move into their comlinks if given access.

Actually, as this is the figuring things out phase, I'll just lay the architecture out this one time.

There's a DR3 node on each of the three aboveground floors and the basement with wireless enabled and analyze 3 and "bouncer" IC with attack 3. The speaker systems, lights, cameras, entertainment systems, etc on the floor are slaved to their floor's node. They have someone generally watching over the club to make sure people are having a good time, spending money, taking pictures, and things like that from these nodes. They also take advantage of the patron's datastreams going through the node to snoop in and see what they're saying or sharing from time to time.

These are connected via fiber to a DR4 chokepoint node in the basement that connects to the outside world via a fiber optic link to a streetlight with a wireless connection. It has analyze 4, and an IC with attack and armor 4. While other nodes are thematically sculpted, the chokepoint is just plain default sculpting, since it's trying to be nondescript for anyone that doesn't know that it's the node for the club. There's one guy who is managing club security who has been working on his matrix skills but he's no prime runner. He often hangs out in this node, but does have to keep an eye on the cameras and everything, which is a lot for one guy. If he comes to believe he's being hacked form the outside and he can't stop it, he can shut down this node to knock out external access. But that's a real pain for the club.

The 3rd floor node is connected via fiber to the business node on the 3rd floor, which is identical to the nodes for the floors. The business node has wireless enabled for convenience, and relies on paint to keep anyone not in the offices from accessing it wirelessly.

Due to limited device ratings, convenience, and cost they aren't using encryption or passkeys.


In a run, in 4a a hacker can usually just say they want to hack anything or anyone they can see or generally know the location of in signal range. This might take a detect hidden node complex action if the thing is operating in hidden mode. If something is slaved they end up hacking the master node, but then you likely end up controlling more than just the one thing. You can also just spoof commands if you're in a hurry. I have found in practice this blends hacking with everything else that might be going on. Since usually all a hacker needs is user level access often all it takes is a single roll, maybe two, and they're in. If hacking is more central you might need to move around a network. Making good matrix perception tests can be key to doing this quickly, and technomancers get a bonus to that.

So in terms of Angel:

1. they could have hacked other systems of comlinks to get the access ID of the chokepoint and hacked it directly.

2. Now that people are inside, they could attempt to hack most anything which would result in them hacking that floor's node, and they could move around the system from there. They'd have to go through the chokepoint and then the 3rd floor node to get to the business node, unless Bongo or Selina was physically on the 3rd floor, at which point they could go straight from the 3rd floor node to the business node.

3. Use tubesnake's drone to hack the dr1 coffee machine on the other side of the damaged paint, and then go directly after the business node.

4. Aside from that they could help out tubesnake with the bugs, besides angel herself, a machine sprite could really really improve their performance. His drones are a little weird, but that doesn't especially bother technomancers and especially sprites who often pull programs out of their tail anyway.



Anybody see anything off with that? I am rusty. I guess it seems like a lot, but in play you don't need to know about all the details.
And I always put it out to deckers (now hackers and technomancers) to handle some of the fidly stuff and rolls if they'd rather.

[sunnyside]

Ok, I was hoping to get Seth back into the mix. But I think folks have been waiting enough. I'll start replying to your posts. I sent an PM to Seth about managing their character.

A game concept we hadn't discussed but that I've used in other games is called "the training takes over" which is to say that a seemingly abandoned character, or just someone on vacation or a temporary hiatus, continues to do what they're designed to do, just in a cautious way and with virtually no initative, requiring the other players to move the action and story. However they'll act in an appropriate manner as needed until a reasonable completion point where they could exit stage left and the team could get someone else.

[pbangarth]

(Ooc: No "expenses paid" clause for expensive booze. Though maybe if you have a good enough time I might count it towards lifestyle, but you have options.

On that note is there any etiquette here on how long I should give Seth from my last PM until I allow his char to do some hacking NPC style?

I played in, and eventually took over GMing a campaign called "Post or Die". A player had a week between posts, or their PC would die, usually in a way that amused the GM and horrified the other players. Oddly enough, there was a waiting list of players to fill in the vacancy.

Your idea of temporarily taking over in a minimalist way seems appropriate to me.

[pbangarth]

Yeah, and Willie is getting antsy. An antsy man with a submachine gun and wired reflexes is not a good thing.

[Koekepan]

Sorry, you're right. Two initiative passes for Tubesnake when jumped in; he didn't shell out for hotsim.

[sunnyside]

Sorry, you're right. Two initiative passes for Tubesnake when jumped in; he didn't shell out for hotsim.

Ok. You have a lower initiative by 2 but still can go next. You jist don't have the extra 2 die and don't have a third pass after this one.