Charm City [OOC] Options

[sunnyside]

I'm going to hide behind the fact that there should really be a roll with Bongo's pitch to excuse my lack of time for a proper reply tonight. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

Huh. Is one of you a mod or is someone else reading all this and curating the threads? Somehow that post from the IC thread got moved to the OOC thread.

[Thanee]

Must be some AI going rampant! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[sunnyside]

Technically Bongo could make a dodge roll. In the spirit of moving forward I may take what are hopefully minor liberties. But I don't intend to god mod your characters, and the option to walk things back is usually there in such cases.

[pbangarth]

It'll be a sad day when Bongo tries to dodge a hug.

[Thanee]

I'm assuming, we will be getting the money from Brewster?

Bye
Thanee

[pbangarth]

I think the Blackwater timeline is out of synch with the Frank job. How far are they out?

[sunnyside]

Right now Blackwater is still in the afternoon whereas the main thread is getting towards dawn on the following day. However I think your plan is to sit tight until nightfall, and you'll have a trip back by boat at some point, so that should go a long ways towards catching things up.

In terms of the main game now might be a good time for feedback. This might not be my first game, but it's my first on dumpshock. Post length, level of detail, etc.

What I will say is that it's interesting how your team managed things quite differently than I expected. I figured the most likely scenario was a less flashy version of what I wrote as Angels expectations. Much faster and most aggressive. You also hit a very different level of engagement with Nari. The character was always there, otherwise the players wouldn't get what was going on. But I figured either they rush in right then, or wait because they were simply callous. You guys actually spoke with her ahead of time, and then waited but weren't callous.

Also particularly noteworthy is actually getting through a run without having to resort to combat at some point (well, barring a drone fight with some bugs). Not sure that's happened before with me. I'm curious how that hits you guys. On the one hand you put in a lot of thought and effort to make it happen...but maybe you wanted combat anyway.

[Thanee]

Feedback: I do not have anything negative to say. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Some things are a little hard to visualize, like that strange architecture (I am still not 100% sure, I got that right), but that is hardly your fault, but lies in the nature of this. A picture would be awesome, but I don't think it exists, so... All in all you are doing great! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

No Combat: With our current characters, it seems pretty likely that we would rather avoid any combat situations than go looking for them. So, not surprising at all to me. And this was a job, where a stealthy approach clearly was the best option. There are multiple layers of security in the building (the building security and Frank's own people), and then maybe even the official security (i.e. the police), which we would have to deal with, if we just go in and kick in the door (not to mention, that two of us where pretty much unarmored). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Koekepan]

The best run, in my view, is where nobody knows that anything happened - except that you got paid.

I mean, we totally could have gone in guns blazing and converted that side of the building to burning swiss cheese, but would that have done the job any better or cheaper?

[pbangarth]

Certainly the group of PCs that sought Sophie is tailored for quiet infiltration more than firepower. I think this was a typical run for such a crew. Causing a firefight in the middle of a residential district would have been very troublesome. Amazing how we gelled on the very first run. Our skills and gear worked together seamlessly. I look forward to great things in the future.

I had a great time with Bongo and feel he was in his element. With Bongo, combat is way down on his list of preferred behaviours. There are a couple of surprises in his skill list if push comes to throw, though. For him (me?) the best reward was getting Nari out, too.

Now, Willie ... If you really want fireworks, slot him in with the mage and the rigger! And he's still hoping to get his hands on a couple of grenades in that storehouse under the church.

I agree with Koekepan, "The best run, in my view, is where nobody knows that anything happened - except that you got paid."

But, Frank knows. And he will know it even better, soon. I fear the other enthralled people may 'disappear' soon.

[pbangarth]

Can I assume that the 24,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) mentioned means each of the three involved gets 8000?

[Thanee]

Technically, there is Angel as well... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[sunnyside]

Technically, there is Angel as well... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Bye
Thanee

Yup.

[pbangarth]

Oh, yeah. Sorry .... er ... Angel.

[sunnyside]

By they way Willie can always try to throw dice for social stuff. Generally I try and remember the hits you can buy and feed in extra details for folks like Selina and Bongo. Willie just gets stuff they're trying to deliberately emote.



One thing about the city that might almost be a retcon, is that the shadow city area should really be going all night. And much of the rest of the city too. Night and day aren't really that meaningful there anyway underneath the Ares HQ. Although there could still be liquor laws with varying degrees of enforcement, and Gatsbys might have a more playful arrangement with the police about getting "busted" to shut down late at night. There's also the flavor of very distinct areas, especially downtown, but maybe takes some local knowledge, or more of a matrix search to ferret it all out. So maybe it all can stand as written, but appreciate there should be more after dusk in Baltimore than there is now.

Also the metahumans out in the butterfly aren't going to be nearly as bothered about the dark as we are. Same with anybody who can afford basic cyber or even glasses/contacts with some low light or thermal mods...or that wants to pretend like it isn't a problem around everybody else.

[pbangarth]

By they way Willie can always try to throw dice for social stuff. Generally I try and remember the hits you can buy and feed in extra details for folks like Selina and Bongo. Willie just gets stuff they're trying to deliberately emote.

Sure, you'd like to see Willie try social interaction, wouldn't you, GM? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[sunnyside]

On the note of hard bread in Blackwater, I wonder if any of you have actually had something like that. I got some for the novelty from a Polish market recently. It was sort of like a pumpernickel, but was so dense you could have dropped it in a shopping bag and used it as flail and the other person would get the worst of it rather than the bread.

The family tried it, but it was too much work and I wound up having all of it. The key was using a knife to take of pieces you could bite through.

[pbangarth]

Years ago I visited the historical site Lunenburg in Nova Scotia. People in costume demonstrated life back when it was a French fortress against the British. We got the chance to buy and eat a.loaf of the bread that was the soldiers' daily ration. Cannon ball size and almost as hard.

[Thanee]

(OOC: If you don't want to put down a mound of text you could just indicate going along with that, and mostly if it's a matter of sharing everything you have versus trying to keep anything back. At most you have the drones and any recording stuff on your persons.)

Yep! Already mentioned giving Brewster the details of what went down there in my last IC post. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Don't see why we would need to hold anything back here.

Bye
Thanee

[pbangarth]

No. Lay it all out.

[Koekepan]

Why would Angel be tagging the full video when Paul already cut it down?

[sunnyside]

Why would Angel be tagging the full video when Paul already cut it down?

Because they/I thought the group wanted her to show Brewster the whole thing not the cut down version. But you're right, Toubesnake already picked a cut. Probably best to just remind her IC.

[sunnyside]

We should talk about Karma expectations. I seem to recall reading something here about karma being related to number of posts. Any etiquette about that around here?

I'm inclined towards a "normal" award. However with an addition of Brewster deciding to support the team with some training. He's got some reasons for that. This might be more geared towards Angel, so they could in principle actually go out into the world. But Tubesnake could use some help with that too. Basically getting a boost in skill groups, probably of the athletics/stealth sorts. Training montage optional, but I'll point out cyberpunk and Shadowrun are entities of the 80s. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Thanee]

In general, rewards are a little more generous, typically, because of the nature of PBF taking quite long.

This run would probably be one or two session(s) in RL, and it took us a whole year (Wow, time flies! Wouldn't have thought it was that long, actually!) to finish it.

But I don't think there is any special etiquette or guideline for that.

Bye
Thanee

[pbangarth]

Heh, karma by number of posts would reward posters like me unduly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Thanee's point makes sense. I've played in campaigns here that lasted for years (real time) with hardly any advancement.

Karma plus training sounds good to me. I suspect Bongo will be looking for Initiation or something weird like that.