Living in the Shadows: OOC, never relax... Options

[Sedna]

I understand now first-hand what you mean, WinterRat, when you suggest that it is sometimes hard to find a way to answer my posts!

[WinterRat1]

Ha! Well I'm definitely glad to hear that. Seriously, sometimes I've just sat and stared at your posts, the equivalent of a 'duh...' on my face, because I'm just not sure where to take it from there.

Hopefully Grendel will provide you many more of these moments of difficulty responding, so you can know even better what it's like! :D

Although when I think about it, I think it's in large part because sometimes you're so creative, I never would even have considered certain things you post, so I have to take time to let my mind catch up to think how you're thinking, so I can understand how to respond to the post in a way that makes sense. Unless you just want me to post nonsense, that is. ;)

[WinterRat1]

Important SR 4 General Announcement

OK everyone, your much beloved and adored GM staff has
been working very hard to come to a resolution on an
issue I know has been on the back of all your minds
lately: what is LitS going to do about SR4?

After long discussions and negotiations, we have
managed to come to a consensus on how we will be
addressing this issue. The answer to the million
dollar question is that yes, we will be switching
systems over to SR4.

The reason for this essentially boils down to the
reality that Shadowrun, as a world and as a game
(mechanic-wise) is changing. As a living world, LITS
must change with it, not only for the current
characters' sake, but also so that we can continually
grow with new characters to populate and bring it to
life. In order to stay up to date on all the new
developments, LITS must change or become obsolete.

Yet at the same time, we had to acknowledge that many
of the changes within SR4 are much more closely tied
to timeline events than in any other previous system
change. Timeline jump was not an option. We believe
we have found a system of LitS conversion which will
allow maximum flexibility and eventually full
adaptation of the new rules, bending the canon ever so
slightly in order to remain faithful to the spirit of
SR4.

In order to make the transition as smooth as possible,
we will be implementing the following timeline for
conversion:

From now until the end of October: Players
should obtain a copy of SR4 and consider how they
might want to remake their PC as a starting character
under the SR4 rules, but using their existing
technology wherever SR4 technology does not overrule
it. One special case: commlinks and technomancers are
not available to these starting PCs. (SR3
communications and rigging equipment does not suddenly
cease to function; and the world event triggering the
birth of technomancers has not yet occurred.)

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 31: Players should
remake their characters under SR4 rules, working with
their GMs throughout the process. The exact procedure
for doing this will be explained in complete detail in
the Living in the Shadows: Guidelines
thread. By Dec. 31, all current characters should have
been remade to conform to SR4 rules in accordance with
the procedure laid out in the Guidelines thread. As
characters complete their conversion and are approved,
they will then begin using SR4 rules.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact
us, and hopefully we'll be able to provide you with
timely answers. Thanks to everyone so far for your
support of LITS and helping it grow and develop, and
we, the GM staff, look forward to playing with you all
for a long time to come! See you in SR4!

All the best,

The LITS GM staff

[WinterRat1]

And yes, I know the Guidelines do not yet contain the Conversion Guidelines. I'm giving the GMs a few more hours to look it over and comment if they choose or deem it necessary.

The revised draft is out there and polished for them to look at, and unless someone finds a problem with it, the Conversion Guidelines will be up later today or early tomorrow.

[WinterRat1]

Eyes- Let me know or post if you're going into the restaurant, I already PMed you back with what you see outside.

[Scrapheap]

Well, I had a nice new post written, and I'd like to say that my computer ate it, but it was lost through human error. I'll have something up later today.

-S

[The_Eyes]

Sorry 'bout that. Got called away for a sec.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception (if needed): 05 04 04 02 02 01 01

If nothing interesting is going on, Assensing Nervous Stan: 08 05 05 04 03 03 01

[grendel]

Perception for Vedic:

Base is Intuition+Perception: 6

Perceiver is not distracted.
Perceiver is actively looking/listening for something, but does not know specifically what. No bonus.
Object/sound not in immediate vicinity: -2
Object/sound is not far away.
Object/sound does not stand out.
No interfering sight/sound/odor. The club environment is distracting, but Vedic has both low-light, thermographic, and flare compensation. This acts to filter out the vision modifiers. Sound, on the other hand, is a lost cause given the ambient acoustic level.
Perceiver has active vision enhancements: +3
Perceiver is not using virtual reality.
Visibility modifiers discussed above.

Final pool: 7
Roll: 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 2, 1 (4 hits)

[WinterRat1]

Eyes- Give me a perception test.

[WinterRat1]

Scrap- Give me a torture test again.

[Scrapheap]

Here you go-

07 05 05 01

[The_Eyes]

Another? Okay.

[ Spoiler ]

08 07 04 03 03 02 02

[Sedna]

Here is where I learn about the SR4 system. This would be a surprise check.

Also:

[grendel]

Surprise tests are made using an Initiative test for all those involved. Characters that have been alerted somehow gain a +3 dice pool modifier, while characters that are ambushing receive a +6 dice pool modifier. Since it doesn't seem that Vedic is either:

Initiative (9): 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 (3 hits)

Vedic still has his long coat.

[WinterRat1]

Important Announcement

Guidelines are up for conversion. If you have any questions, post them here in the OOC thread. DO NOT PM me, since I'm sure others may have the same question as well, so we may as well get the questions and answers out for all to see. Plus, I may have to consult with the GMs from time to time, so may as well put it where they all can see it too.

Happy converting! :)

[Sedna]

[quick stop-in, will follow up in more detail in a few hours]

Which means almost all of my NPCs would be rolling straight initiative tests as well. How does one read outcome?

Also, forgot to add a couple of things about the place, might or might not be of use.

First, side-to-side and front-to-back, it's very small for a club, only 30' x 60' (+ possibly another 10 or so feet of hidden space in the back) : hence the heavy use of vertical space.

The bar area itself is tucked in under stage #1. The rest of the bottom floor has scattered pedestal-style tables. Although also metal(lic?) they look light -- maybe in comparison to the iron mesh used everywhere else -- but their bases are bolted to the floor.

Forgot yesterday to add the 5' wide mezzanine that runs against the back wall and along 20' of the side walls on both sides. Height: on a level with the highest stage. It's accessed by staircases at both ends from the main floor, and by a railed catwalk leading from the highest stage.

[Slipshade]

Man that SR4 Contact stuff really hurt, but I think I managed to get it close.

40BP spent in contacts...ouch!

Slip

[The_Eyes]

400BP. Scaling back to street-level then, alrighty.

Can I convert this guy to a shaman, or make up a new tradition? I'm about 70% certain that the shamanic tradition won't really fit this guy anymore. Oh, and how much leeway do I have in playing with some of the softer abilities in the book? Say I want to change the bonuses for a certain mentor spirit, whose personality in no way matches the mentor advantages; can I do that or is it set in stone?

Oh, and how many points is a database contact worth (anyone with my charsheet knows which I'm talking about)? I'm baselining it as 6; that sound all right?

And I feel your pain Slip; I just had to ditch my Solitaire contact to spend her 4BP on Conjuring skill, so I could actually pull off that bit of summoning I did... what was it, Wednesday in-game? I'm seriously considering Combat Paralysis as a Flaw to scrounge for BP (*wince*). :)

(Edit): Oh, and what do we do about 'ware that doesn't exist in the main book yet? (Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the Math SPU :P)

[Slipshade]

WR1 - Eyes brings up a good question about Traditions. While Max is a shaman I was he is more of an Urban Shaman with a Hunter Totem.

Would it be possible for my to keep most of the Shaman Tradition but switch:

Detection: Water
Manipulation: Man

to

Detection: Man
Manipulation: Water

Detection: Man and Manipulation: Water, just seems to make the most sense for Max and it goes along with his mentor spirit's affinity for Detection Spells and Spirits of Man.

Slip

[WinterRat1]

Eyes- Work it out with me and Grendel. Send us a baseline template that you feel is the closest you can get to Eyes, and a list of any changes/adaptations/suggestions/duct taped solutions you can think of.

Don't worry, we'll be going over all your characters with a fine-toothed comb, so if we see something we don't like, rest assured we'll mention it. :wink:

Seriously though, we don't want to screw or depower anyone just because we switched systems. We're about as open as we'll get to 'thinking outside the box' during the conversion, so if you have ideas or thoughts that you think would help keep your character true to their original intent, by all means, come up with something and show it to us.

Does that about cover it?

[WinterRat1]

Slip - Uh, apparently I need to go read the magic section some more, because I did NOT follow that at all. Let me get back to you on that.

EDIT: Yours truly has focused on the combat and the cyber/bio sections of the book to date. No prizes for guessing why. :)

[Slipshade]

WR1 - Every Tradition links a spirit to a spell type.

So if I am using just the straight Shaman Tradition and I want a bound spirit to use its Aid Sorcery ability to help me cast a detection spell I would have to use a bound Water Spirit. Since in the Shamanic tradition detection spells are linked to Water Spirits.

For Max I was thinking his version of Shaman would be:

Combat = Beast Spirits (Obviously with the type of Shaman he is.)
Detection = Spirits of Man
Health = Earth Spirits
Illusion = Air Spirits
Manipulation = Water Spirits

Resist Drain = Willpower + Charisma

I have to admit I like the way Max turned out. Though it took a lot of tweaking, Max went from being a decent Shaman to a decent Shaman with a good amount of Face skills, now that the influence skills are linked to Charisma.

[The_Eyes]

[The_Eyes]

Oh, and how the heck did your post about the white-eyed kid get above mine? I swear I didn't see it there when I looked yesterday.

That's almost as creepy as the kid itself. :D So is the fact that Eyes turned his attention away from the kid before even seeing him (timestamps) :)

Allrighty, let's see what I can have up before going to bed. Nothing is ever easy, is it? :wobble: :grinbig:

[Slipshade]

Scrap - LOL! Your last post with the Doc reminded me of my favorite Shadowrun saying.

"Parts is Parts."

:D