I'll go the Intimidation route. I'll pre-Edge.

There are lots of possible modifiers to apply. I'll pick the obvious ones and let gilga add or subtract as appropriate.

Charisma 4 + Intimidation 2 + Edge 6 + Imposing 1 - Outnumbered 2: 11d6t5 4 hits, but I forgot the Infrasonic Generators like a gonk
Infrasonic Generator 4: 4d6t5 0 hits, well that didn't work, but I have 2 sixes to reroll
Exploding 6s: 2d6t5 0 hits, that's too bad

So 4 hits total.

Mato used a point of Edge earlier in the day with Big Stank. I don't know if that has refreshed or not but I'll presume it hasn't. Mato has 4 of 6 Edge remaining and will use Blitz if the gangers don't back down.

Raven's spirit has one service left.

Bye
Thanee

@Tecumseh IC-ly I had it that the Flying Eye that had helped NATO earlier had not managed to keep up with him when he took off at high speed, but that Tamarind has it closing in on Mato now that she has his position. She has three more Flying Eyes with her that she'll launch as needed. They each have a taser. ( The wired kind, with limited range).

And that is it for now for firepower. No real combat drones. She has a couple of other tricks if things go certain ways, but nothing really for a fight ( other than getting involved herself).

She had to cross two international borders as close to a refugee on the way to Seattle, so i figured she wouldn't have risked arming her drones with anything that was apt to draw more attention.

A new call sign!

Whatever's available is totally fine. I actually built Mato with a scenario like this in mind. As I said in the IC, maybe he can't go 1:1 with a trained cybermonster like Katya, but I built Mato/NATO so that he could handle a group of gangers solo. I was thinking 5:1, but 7:1 is within the realm of possibility. If, you know, Orokos cooperates.

Alright, it is combat. Let's see how it plays out; it has been a few years since we flexed some muscles.
Initiative: 8+3d6 20 --- fixed to 18.

??? Mato: Burn card.
18: seven Haloweeners: Fire + Aim: They are armed with Ares Light fire 70 light pistols (6P no AP) + Laser sights.
Firing squad: 7#11d6t5 2 2 7 3 1 5 4
They don't have burst fire, but I think it is -1 for each additional shot. (correct me if I am wrong).

I rolled initiative for all seven at once to keep it simple.
Raven:
Spirit:

The stats for the gangers are from page: 382 in the core - feel free to roll them. They have 1 group edge.
Important stuff: they have: 4 pistols + 4 agility, augmented to 5 by Kamikaze, and +1 for laser sight for 10 dice attack, 11 with a take aim action.
They dodge with 6 dice - reaction 3 intuition 3.
4 body augmented to 5 by the kamikaze, and 12 armor (armor jacket), so a total of 17 dice to resist damage.

...and 1 group edge to keep the challenge.


Tamarind: I'll let you make a ram attack with the delivery drone, possibly damaging the drone and the gangers. Suppose you wish to take an active part in combat. I also left the scooter in the scene, which can be potentially hacked/used for some chaos.

Gah, dangers of posting from my phone, with its over-zealous autocorrect!

Gah, dangers of posting from my phone, with its over-zealous autocorrect!

It's fine the Intimidation didn't work. The dice will have their say.

Yes, Mato will lose a die from each dodge roll. That 7 will be tough to dodge, although it might be limited to 6 hits by Accuracy.

Are they firing the Browning Ultra-Power from p. 382?

Acc 5 (6)
DV 8P
AP -1
SA

That presumes regular ammo. If that's accurate then they would need to spend a Complex Action on a Semi-Auto Burst, which they can't if they burned a Simple Action on Take Aim. Maybe they'll switch during the second initiative pass.

There weren't any modifiers so I'm going to guess that the environmental modifiers (visibility, light, wind, range) are all zero. Short range for heavy pistols is 5m so that implies they are all pretty close.

Mato will spend a point of Edge on Blitz. He has 3 of 6 Edge remaining.

Blitz (Edge) Initiative: 5d6+15 32

Running out the door right now but I'll try to resolve the dodge/soak rolls later this afternoon. He'll declare Full Defense to boost his dodge pool.

Does Mato have to spend his first initiative pass burning the card or does that happen before combat starts? If so, is that a Simple Action to Use Simple Device or something else?

No, I gave them the Ares Light fire 70 light pistols (6P no AP) + Laser sights.

I'd say this is what Mato does because this is the trigger for combat. When I thought, why now and not exchange a few more threats - Mato has made stopping him urgent when he tried to burn the card in front of their eyes. I'd say that they opened fire once they realized what was going on. E.g., in initiative time. They want to protect the card, and they must be very quick about it.

I'll let you cancel the action to pull out a weapon if you prefer a more practical approach - because I want you to spend a full combat round to truly destroy the card. It is flammable but you need a bit of time for the flame to catch to the card. Being faster to respond sadly does not make the card burn faster. Since they only have two initiative passes you can of course burn it while dodging their bullets but in that case, I am not sure you need the Blitz for the first round.

@Thanee, wrong thread.

Bye
Thanee

Oh, you did say earlier that they had Ares Light Fire 70s. I missed that. Thanks for the reminder.

Alright, if he needs a full combat turn to destroy the card (and not just an initiative pass) then, yes, Mato will address the threat first and then burn the card second.

Let's get to the crunch. I'm going to say that the gangers are all 5m away.

Move: Walk backward 5m. Walking doesn't cost an action. (Mato's walking movement rate is Agility 10 x 2 = 20 meters per combat turn, divided into four IPs = 5m per IP.)
Free Action: drop lighter
Simple Action: Ready Weapon (grab flash-bang grenade)
Simple Action: Throw Weapon (toss flash-bang grenade)
Free Action (from Perfect Time): say something witty

Now grenades are a bit complicated because the three detonation types (built-in timer, motion sensor, wireless command) are so very different and the rules don't make you specify which mode(s) a given grenade has, or what the default setting is. Plus it's a bookkeeping headache if one of them is on any sort of time delay.

Mato wouldn't really be walking around with wireless grenades (or, at least, not ones that were "on") so I'll go with motion sensor. The book says that it takes about a second to activate/explode, which I'll punt to gilga for interpretation. Maybe gangers on Kamikaze don't notice or don't care, or it just goes off between the first and second initiative passes, which would be fair.

I'll go with a flash-bang since it's effect doesn't decrease over a given area (a separate issue which I dislike) but it makes the math/crunch easier since the 10m radius presumably captures all the gangers.

Tossing it in the middle: Agility 10 + Thrown Weapons 5: 15d6t5 7 hits, great, I get 7 hits when I only need to meet a Threshold 3 test

The rules on "dodging" a grenade are goofy and generally come down to "you can't" even though that's not terribly logical. I'll let gilga decide if any of them hit the deck or take off running. (Although the way flash-bangs work means they running is only effective if you can get out of the 10m bubble, which might be hard in one initiative pass.) If they're all busy firing right now then presumably it will go off before their second initaitive pass.

Here are their tentative soak rolls vs 10S -4AP: Body 4 (5) + Armor 12 - AP 4: 7#13d6t5 5 6 3 5 3 5 7

So that's 5S, 4S, 7S, 5S, 7S, 5S, and 3S respectively. Fairly generous rolling from Orokos, as that's about 13% more hits than expected.

Now for Mato's dodging, which I'll do sequentially to take into account the decreasing dice pool and the possibility that he could be hurt and have his dice pool affected along the way. He has the Agile Defender quality so he'll be adding AGI via Full Defense:
Dodge 2 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10: 25d6t5 10 hits, dodged
Dodge 2 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Second Defense 1: 24d6t5 7 hits, dodged
Dodge 7 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Third Defense 2: 23d6t5 8 hits, dodged
Dodge 3 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Fourth Defense 3: 22d6t5 8 hits, dodged
Dodge 1 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Fifth Defense 4: 21d6t5 8 hits, why did I roll this one
Dodge 5 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Sixth Defense 5: 20d6t5 7 hits, dodged
Dodge 4 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Seventh Defense 6: 19d6t5 9 hits, finishing strong

Suck it, Halloweeners.

Once Mato finishes weaving back and forth like Neo in The Matrix, he'll resume toying with them during IP2. But first I'll let Beta and Thanee declare their actions, unless they just want to watch.

Following Full Defense, Mato's new initiative is 22, which will drop to 12 for the second initiative pass. That should still be before the gangers.

@Tecumesh - okay for grenade they would normally "run for their life" but on Kamikaze they just don't care per the drug's description.

Very slick fighting,

Wow, Mato looking VERY pro!

Also, for sure Tamarind is going after both other groups, but with 2 actions ... but to roll anyway: Tamarind initiative: 13+1d6 15

Thanee, is Raven going to sit things out? I just wanted to confirm before moving along with the next initiative pass.

The gangers have High Pain Tolerance 3 from their Kamikaze so most of them aren't even phased yet.

Ganger 1: 5S (no modifier)
Ganger 2: 4S (no modifier)
Ganger 3: 7S (-1)
Ganger 4: 5S (no modifier)
Ganger 5: 7S (-1)
Ganger 6: 5S (no modifier)
Ganger 7: 3S (no modifier)

"Kamikaze users are near-crazed, filled with a feeling of imperviousness and invincibility, exhibiting almost no regard for their own well-being." This should be fun.

2 going for the Drone:
Drone attack: 2#10d6t5 4 3

5 going for Mato:
Fire: 5#11d6t5 3 2 4 2 4

How far away are Bobby and Rachel's body from the firefight right now?

CT1 IP2
Mato is going to charge the pack. He'll be using the Knockdown called shot in conjunction with Sweep, which is a martial art technique. Here are the relevant passages:


The gangers have a base Physical Limit of 5 that's modified to 7 by the Kamikaze. Mato should exceed that automatically given the Strength in his cyberarms. So all he has to do is land a hit, which should fairly straightforward since it's a big dice pool vs. a little dice pool.

Free Action: Run (as part of a charging attack) to close the 10m to the nearest target (without using skimmers, Mato can run 10 * 4 = 40 meters per combat turn, or ~13m per Initiative pass)
Free Action (from Perfect Time): Called Shot, Knockdown
Complex Action: Melee Attack

I'm going to say that Gangers 1-5 are shooting at Mato while Gangers 6-7 shoot at the drone. Mato will go after Ganger #1.

Mato's attack: Agility 10 + Unarmed Combat 5 + Specialization 2 + Charging Attack 2: 19d6t5 6 hits, I forgot to drop dice for the Called Shot, but the last 7 dice in the sequence are all misses so it shouldn't affect anything
Ganger #1 dodge: Reaction 3 + Intuition 3: 6d6t5 3 hits

Mato's default unarmed damage is 12P due to his cyberarms, but Sweep makes that Stun. So the damage is staged up to 15S, which can then be soaked.

Ganger #1 soak: Body 4 (5) + Armor 12: 17d6t5 6 hits

That leaves them with 9S. Combined with their previous 5S makes for 14S. That maxes out the Condition Monitor at 10 boxes and leaves 2P on the Physical track. Ganger #1 is down.

Upon further review, the gangers all have the Toughness quality. That gives them +1 to soak and should have applied to the flash-bang. It won't help Ganger #1 either way but let's roll and see how Gangers 2-7 are doing.

Toughness 1: 6#1d6t5 0 0 0 0 1 0

Ganger #6 now has 4S instead of 5S. Everyone else stays the same.

Now for Mato's dodging. Full Defense still applies, and now he's running too.

Dodge 3: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 + Running 2: 27d6t5 11 hits, dodged
Dodge 2: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 + Running 2 - Second Defense 1: 26d6t5 7 hits, dodged
Dodge 4: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 + Running 2 - Third Defense 2: 25d6t5 6 hits, dodged
Dodge 2: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 + Running 2 - Fourth Defense 3: 24d6t5 9 hits, dodged
Dodge 4: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 + Running 2 - Fifth Defense 4: 23d6t5 5 hits, slacking a little bit, but still dodged

Long story short, Mato plants one into the ground and remains unscathed for the moment.

Since the gangers only have 6 dice to defend I would consider splitting the dicepool you can reliably get at least two of them each action.

I'm thinking about it but I didn't have the action economy this pass. I needed the Free Actions for the running and the called shot. Now that I'm in the thick of things and don't need to run, I have the available Free Action for Multiple Attacks.

That said, it's not a slam dunk. I might have 17 dice to attack now that I'm not charging, split into pools of 9 and 8. That's not a sure thing versus dodge pools of 6.

You also have two prone gangers that would receive further negatives vs melee by the way.

Edit - Mato has 2 more turns the gangers are finished for now. I think they still get a free action but nothing meaningful for combat.

Oh, you're right, they're done for Combat Turn 1 (CT1) aren't they?

Mato used Full Defense so he gets three initiative passes instead of four. I'll do IP3 when I get a break at work.

OOCly, Mato is counting coup. He wants to KO and terrify the gangers. He wants scared enemies, not dead ones. He also wants a (conscious) audience for when he torches the card, although that might be a moot point if there are astral observers who know what the card is/isn't.

It is not obvious that the card is fake from a casual glance, but once studying it for a little while, an observer would know it is fake.
Yet, do notice that the observer does not give the card much attention at all.

Well Mato can't notice that but I'm guessing it has occurred to Raven.

Let's figure out who is prone. I'll roll for it.

Who is prone: 3#1d6+1 6 5 5

#5 got duplicated so we'll try again:

Who is prone?: 1d6+1 4

Shooting at Mato
Ganger 2: 4S (0 modifier)
Ganger 3: 7S (-1)
Ganger 4: 5S (0), prone
Ganger 5: 7S (-1), prone

Shooting at Drone
Ganger 6: 5S (0), prone
Ganger 7: 3S (0)

Alright, we'll try the multi-attack to see if it works.

Free Action: Multiple Attacks
Free Action (from Perfect Time): Called Shot, Knock Down / Sweep
Complex Action: Melee Attack vs #2 and 3

Attack pool is Agility 10 + Unarmed 5 + Specialization 2 (since Sweep comes from Okichitaw) = 17 dice, split in 9 and 8.

Attack vs. #2: 9d6t5 4 hits
Attack vs. #3: 8d6t5 6 hits, well that went well

Now for their Defense. #3 is at -1 due to Stun from the flash-bang.

#2 Dodge: Reaction 3 + Intuition 3: 6d6t5 2 hits
#3 Dodge: Reaction 3 + Intuition 3 - Stun 1: 5d6t5 2 hits

That's 2 net hits and 4 net hits, respectively. Damage starts at 12P and is staged up to 14S and 16S via Sweep.

Soaking: Body 4 (5) + Armor 12: 2#17d6t5 7 hits 9 hits

Admirable soak rolls. That drops both attacks to 7S. That fills up both Stun condition monitors and KOs both of them.

Three down, four to go, of which three are prone. Mato will use Edge to Blitz again in CT2 so that he has enough Initiative to go on Full Defense if necessary.

Initiative CT2: 5d6+15 33

That will win the initiative battle for CT2 but this post is long enough so I'll pause here and see if the others have actions. Here's the current lineup:

Shooting at Mato
Ganger 4: 5S (0), prone
Ganger 5: 7S (-1), prone

Shooting at Drone
Ganger 6: 5S (0), prone
Ganger 7: 3S (0)

Actually, I screwed that up. I didn't subtract the 4 for the called shot, which would drop 1 hit from the attack against #2, and 2 hits from the attack against #3. That makes their damage 6S and 5S, respectively. That's still enough to drop them.

(Kamikaze raises their Willpower from 3 to 4, but still leaves them with only 10 boxes on their Stun condition monitor.)

Okay, good, I don't have to redo everything.

Okay, I think these would be their last actions:

Firing squad: 2#11d6t5 5 0
I'll use their one-group edge in their desperate attempt to deter Mato from smashing them.
reroll failures: 11d6t5 5

Once you KO the two gangers firing at you, the one firing at the drone would realize that they are alone and drop their weapons, hoping to be spared.

initiative: 8+3d6 15

the last two attacks on the drone.
fire on drone: 2#11d6t5 4 4

edit: one of the gangers shooting at Mao has -1 stun modifier, which lowers the second attack to 4 hits.

Total Tamarind has to get the drone to dodge 4 shots, with 4, 3, and then 4, 4 successes. She took her first action controlling the drone, which I should have rolled:
control device: fly drone: 15d6t5 5

She goes to full defense now (giving up her second action in the process)

drone dodge #1: 13d6t5 5 (forgot to add the dice for full defense, but didn't need them) -- miss
drone dodge #2: 17d6t5 6 -- miss

Dodges the shots in the first pass

drone dodge #3: 16d6t5 3 -- hit, 1 net success
drone dodge #4: 15d6t5 6 -- miss

The Lightfire does 6p damage, goes to 7 with 1 net hit. No AP. The Pellican devliery drone soaks with, let's see ..... 2 body and 0 armour. Yah, really not made for combat.
drone soak: 2d6t5 2
Woohoo, perfect roll! So it takes 5 damage, and given its condition monitor of 7 it is still in action!

Note: I'm assuming that as she is directly controlling the drone, she can use her dodge pool as the driver. But also that this does not count as a Control Device matrix action (she wouldn't have the actions available for dodging), and so her +2 from Codeslinger: Control Devices applies only to the pilot test, not the dodge test.

Okay, let's wrap this up.

Technically Mato acts first and can probably KO these guys before they get any shots off, but I always kind of liked it when the action resolved simultaneously. Seems less fragmented that way. So I'll have Mato do the Full Defense thing again to take care of the dodging.

Dodging 5 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10: 25d6t5 11 hits, dodged
Dodging 4 hits: Reaction 9 + Intuition 6 + Full Defense 10 - Second Defense 1: 24d6t5 8 hits, dodged

Back in one of Aria's games I once rolled 2 hits on 22 soak dice not once but twice in a row, so I don't take these easy dodges for granted.

Now to put these two down. The problem is that Mato's cyberlimbs do Physical damage by default, which is part of the reason he's been using Sweep. It's actually easier for them to stay awake vs Physical damage (since their Physical damage tracks are empty) so let's see if the shock hand can finish them off.

I'll do the multi attack again because I'll have an advantage since both of these targets are prone. Agility 10 + Unarmed 5 + Specialization 2 + Opponent Prone 1 = 18 dice, so 9 each. They also get -2 to dodge for being prone.

Free Action: Multiple Attacks
Free Action (from Perfect Time): Comm the team
Complex Action: Shock Hand vs #4 and #5

First Attack: Attack vs. #4: 9d6t5 4 hits
Second Attack: Attack vs. #5: 9d6t5 2 hits

First Dodge: Reaction 3 + Intuition 3 - Prone 2: 4d6t5 1 hit
Second Dodge: Reaction 3 + Intuition 3 - Prone 2 - Stun 1: 3d6t5 0, critical glitch!

That's 9S(e) -5 AP to each, staged up to 12S and 11S respectively.

First Soak: Body 4 (5) + Armor 12 - AP 5: 12d6t5 5 hits, leaves 7S, taking him to 10S 1P so he's out
Second Soak: Body 4 (5) + Armor 12 - AP 5: 12d6t5 5 hits, leaves 6S, taking him to 10S 1P, so he's out

Then, per Gilga, the others will toss their weapons down. Combat complete.

Alright, you are off the hook for now. Feel free to free-form RP, and the last scene I had in mind was the aftermath with Vala and the spirits.

How are things where you are, Gilga? I know that things are tense over there.

it is the biggest social protest we ever had. With an unprecedented level of involvement including from organizations that stayed out of the political game until now. The conservative right has convinced the vast majority of Israelis that we need a judicial reform to the point where all parties agree to the principle but not to the actually proposed reform. That one has very few supporters. (either it does not go far enough, or it goes too far - but nobody likes it).

One would have expected that in such a case, the entire thing could be resolved in a few days - but no. The current political culture of winning rather than understanding and reaching a consensus does not encourage a meaningful debate. That debate happened for over a decade before this reform.

So things are insane, which is perhaps refreshing and scary, and if we survive this as a society, we'll come out stronger on the other side.

That's honestly more optimistic than what I was expecting. I'll take that.

By the way, we are almost done. Only thing left planned the briefing closing the gig, asking to be paid.

I have an Interlude planned after we wrap up Chapter 9.

After that, I think I have another story ready - real detective work 😉

As an aside, Mato's spa story is autobiographical. Although in reality it was an old lady instead of a young elf, and it was doubly-surreal because my boss's boss's boss was there at the same time, wandering around with nothing but a towel and a smile.

To speed things up, inspecting the link would verify that Sandy has contacted you (and not some fancy matrix attack) but I appreciate the paranoia.

@Tercumesh , that is a cool post, making the casino feel real. Haven't been to a spa before, so it is also fun to imagine. I totally get the choice fatigue at the many options though.

Depending on how one defines "spa" I've been maybe four times in my life. I will say that I didn't quite "get" it. I understand the appeal of a serene environment, but none of the treatments seemed particularly worthwhile. But, I do confess a certain degree of ignorance about such matters, which may have led to suboptimal decision-making. I will admit that the shower with four or five showerheads was pretty boss. Probably an environmental disaster, but it felt awesome.

My wife is getting increasingly knowledgeable about it, and I prefer not to be touched by strangers.

We try to get her something along these lines every vacation. As for water, they are a renewable resource and can be used infinitely many times, e.g., most of our agriculture comes from recycling civilian wastewater.

Personally, I am able to water my vegetable garden only from reused water most of the year. It is an abundant resource if you are smart about it.

I'm presuming SIS HQ was torched, but I'll leave the final say to Gilga.

Alright, as for rewards.

Contacts:
Bobby and Mato can also add (if they wish):
Frisson C4, L1 - shadowrunner.
Mato can add
Rat C1, L1 - rookie hacker/hardware guy.
Tom, C2, L1 - Haloweener recruit.

All can add:
Melpomene: C5, L2 - a muse.
Johnson Goldberg and associates C6, L1 - consultant/lawyer firm.
Crimson Crush C4, L1 - group contact. - can expect them to be less hostile.
Tony Finnigan - C6, L1 - chief of security.

Relation change:
Bau Chou -1 loyalty.
Mato can expect Halloweeners to be more hostile toward Mato.


Knowledge skills:
15 knowledge karma.

Karma:
70 karma (does it seems reasonable?)

As for SIS HQ - no problem in torching it down. Let's make it free to play for now.

I'm always forgetting the formula we set up, but wasn't it something like 1 Karma every 10 posts?
In that case yes, 68 to 70 karma sounds reasonable

I cannot find it... how did that work with the Karma for Tamarind and Raven again?

Bye
Thanee

I'm actually not quite sure what this means.

And Jack has it right. Our average karma reward is between .10 and .11 karma per IC post. Since we're at 677 IC posts, that could be worth anywhere from 67 to 75 karma. I think 70 is great; let's go with that.

@Thanee What's the question about karma for Raven and Tamarind? Did we discuss doing accelerated awards for them to catch up?

@All Does anyone have the ¥ figures from Vala and Big Stank handy? If not, I can go back and look them up.

I recall having read something like that, but can't remember where.

Ah, it was in the Interlude...

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...p;#entry1360136

Bye
Thanee

In total, we made 110k - 60k from Big Stank and 50k from Vala

- I love getting paid twice

@Thanee
Would Rachel be interested in joining the Magical Group of SIS?
10% discount on initiation Karma cost.
Very moderate stipulations


Karma wise I'm going for the third initiation when it's my turn to GM again. Ordeal + Group Initiation for 15 Karma

I'll also buy the Cracking Group to 2 for 15 Karma
Raise Electronics to 2 for 10 Karma
Raise Armorer from 1 to 3 for 10 Karma

Thanks, Jack. 110K five ways = 22K each. Mato has to pay taxes so that will take a bite out of his.

Back during the last Interlude we did say double karma rewards for Raven and Tamarind until they catch up with the rest of us.

Thanee, we aren't strictly following the advancement times tables. We are making a nod toward the rigors of initiation, often happening off-screen during the GM's chapter, but there's no formal policy around it.