I'm baaaaack.
Catching up on the posts as I type this. One thing I noticed was Dire suggested Johnson use image-linked glasses to relay the scene to the team. Image link only lets him display images on the lenses of his glasses for him to see, its not a tiny camera. Other than that, it looks like things went well. Glad to see I didn't miss the whole party.

Okay, the first hour of waiting - until 19:07 is now history.

You may all post up to 20:07 if you are so inclined. No movement from the restaurant in that time. At least another hour until dark.

FYI, I lost internet in my room a couple of days ago and this is the first time I've been able to post from work.
I think I can get a workaround this evening or the next to post up an IC, but it seems the world is against me...

PS: 16-19 days before I'm back in the states! WooHoo!

Thanks for the update, Konsaki.

Not like there's a big rush.

Just giving people a day or so to do anything they want with each hour as it goes by. Posts during this time will please me much, keeping momentum going until the 19th or so when Dire and pragma should be back with us.

Okay - next time-bump - people are free to post anything they'd like to do up until 20:45. Nothing from me will happen until then.

If anyone does do an IC post - maybe a mention of how the last hour or so have passed in silence in the van - four people in there, but with Fort astral and Angel probably in VR, no one has been talking at all...

Nothing wrong with that, just makes for good mood material if it gets mentioned.

Question. Its currently light enough outside, but will be dark within an hour. In this part of town, would streetlights/neon lights/whatever illuminate the street pretty well, or do I believe that when darkness falls, they'll get a great look into the well-lit coffee shop, and Adam won't be able to see out very well?

Yes yes and yes.

It will be dark sometime shortly after nine. The street is well lit. But the cafe is much more well lit.
In other words, if you are still staking the place out after nine, you will be able to see the street just fine, and anyone on the street interested in the Seattle's Best coffee bar will be able to see the people in the window seats.

Have fun folks! I will be.

Never know, I might get time to crank out some introspective mood setting scenes. There is a long car ride involved somewhere on this trip.

Once again you brazenly risk a 5,000-karma point penalty for rubbing my nose in the fact that for yet another year I am NOT going to GenCon.

yeah. I saw stuff on the web yesterday saying WotC was announcing a 4th edition of D&D at GenCon (and their website seemed to suggest that as well). Today their website is down. Pooey.

'Working' on Saturday would suck 'cept for the fact that I have internet here and I'm the only one working, so no boss to catch me working on my post.

Note: I'm working without my charactersheet and SR4 book right now because they wiped my work computer last week and forgot my thumbdrive.

Compile Check

I'm going to have Shadow scan continuously for any signals from the Rudolpho's area and Caittie is going to combine a listing and map them out on a streetmap for location of the signals' origin.

I'm basicly wanting to see any signals, mainly 'hidden' ones, moving as a group at one time. This should help identify which one might be Louie and his minions. Plus we can guess how many people are in the resturant at the moment.

Konsaki

Cool. Since you have hours to get this ready, and if we broke it down into a thousand die rolls you'd get it (it's not that hard, based on the gear and the sprite you have at your disposal), and since the action is totally passive, no reason to make it harder than it has to be.

Naturally there are jillions of signals coming from the area, but your parameters of looking for a group leaving Rudolpho's are clear.

I will let you know if you catch any such set of signals (and you'll probably have eyes-on confirmation from BlackHat too).

Now, dude, help me out with the computer stuff -
I definitely grant that since you know where the restaurant is you can catch the signals from there. But is there a way for you to track their meat world movements remotely?

Also for seeing how many people are in Rudolpho's, how do you know exactly that they are in there?
I know you very patiently tried to explain this to me when you were here, but you know, that is the sort of stuff my brain just has a real hard time holding onto.

I saw pragma do this stuff in another game, but not sure how it's done.

And speaking of pragma - he should be back online in a couple of days, and GenCon will end on Sunday, so Dire will be back.

Look for things to pick up on this thread very soon.

Well, I think I phrased my question wrong, cuz I don't know all the right words. What I was getting at was the concept that if you are in a very tech-heavy area, then even a Signal 1 or 2 can call anywhere cuz the signal just goes from one open node to another - distributed matrix, is that what it's called? So if all the commlinks in the place are doing that, wouldn't they all be receivable/scannable by you? And wouldn't that make it impossible to tell their signal ratings (withoug analyzing their node)?

Anyway, I am just still trying to learn this stuff. NOT trying to gimp you or avoid answering your question.

Based on my theory that you can get all the signals, and assuming you can focus in on the vicinity of the Rudolpho's public node, then you pick up a dozen signals or so, some hidden, some not. I said "or so" cuz there is going to be some street traffic of utility drones flying over at any given time, and so on.

You would guess 10+ people in or around the restaurant.

"Mesh system" - is that the term I was trying to think of?

The real problem with what I'm trying to do would be the fact that Caittie would be ignoring the signals coming from other nodes. To get a physical position on a node you dont even know is there, you need to 'see' the node for itself. Counting on any other signal paths other than line of site can be suspect to tampering and misleading activies.

Basicly IMO unless you know what you are looking for in the first place, which Caittie doesnt actually know all the 'Current' commcodes of every Pasta boy in Rudolpho's, you cant really track through leap-frogging signals. You would have to get a direct 'line of sight' first. A transmittion directly from the device you wish to find/track.
Once you have that signal/code/address though, you could try and track it's physical location through other devices based off of telemetry.

How do you distinguish between the 10+ pasta boys and the hundreds or thousands of wireless devices like the pasta maker, the refridgerator, the cash register and what not.

Welcome back Konsaki.

* I dont like how hidden nodes arent really hidden and if you give somebody enough time they can spot them. Especially when it takes only seconds or minutes. We might as well walk around with our comms active for all the good walking around in hidden mode does.

Hey all, just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and around.

Things have just been weird the last few weeks and the waiting, self observation IC posts are really tough for me to do. But I'll try to get something up sooner than later and keep a closer eye on stuff so I don't slow things down when action from Rocky is needed.

JD

Okay, as long as I'm talking about hating the way the Matrix rules are written...

The BIGGEST among many weaknesses of that chapter is the total insufficiency of the descriptions of Matrix topology. Half a lousy column. Typical "writer understands it clearly and so assumes everyone else sees as clearly as he does" syndrome." It's not just me - a great many of the nonillion discussion threads trying to make heads or tails of the Matrix rules end up coming down to questions of "how does the matrix function" "where is my icon?" "what is a node?" and all that. And then software functions are totally intermixed with electronic warfare hardware functions in a very confusing way.

But this rant is not productive.

What is productive and relevant follows - as it will be applicable to future times when Konsaki or anyone else wants to do what Angel/Caittie is doing right now.

I already said that we would hand-wave this stuff this time, because I thought and still think that it would, in this case, be just a matter of millions of die rolls which, based on her capabilities and resources, she would inevitably succeed with. In the future, that will probably not be the case. So, the following is the nuts and bolts of exactly what we are hand-waving.

* Caittie or her sprite "go" in the Matrix to the vicinity of the Rudolpho's node. They can probably see the physical locations of lots of local nodes.

* She or it scans for nodes, including looking for hidden ones, around the Rudolpho's node. (p. 225 Detecting Wireless Nodes).

* Starting with the original location, and singling out a few choice nodes that she thinks are likely targets, she basically performs the reverse of the Track function detailed on p. 219, which lets her follow the nodes she is watching remotely, to an accuracy of 50 meters.

* As Konsaki declared, she overlays that onto a map (publicly available) to follow their movement to within a block of wherever they go.

* If the nodes she is tracking get their commcodes Spoofed, her plan will be in big trouble. We'll cross that bridge if an when we come to it.

* By virtue of this system - which I am pretty sure matches my own intuition and RAW - Caittie can track the movements of what she guesses (or confirms via Smith/Fort) is Louie's entourage, based on their commlinks constantly logging onto stationary nodes in the mesh network. Once they are mobile, she will no longer be able to do the rough headcount I allowed while they were all at the restaurant. And without going closer and doing actual Analyze actions on all the nodes there, she doesn't have much idea whose is whose. Since she can't Track all at once, she is tracking a random selection of guys, assuming that if her sample is still all together, the rest are as well.

That is what we are looking at right now. Konsaki - feel free to let me know if you want to fine-tune or modify this basic scheme (of course, the more complicated you make it, the more likely it will get tricky enough to require die rolls instead of the current auto-success handwaving.

Did I hear something about the matrix? Sounds like time for "Unasked for Clarification Hour" with pragma.

(as a note, adamu's word is still law, I just felt like tossing 2 at the problem.)

1) Electronic Warfare and Mesh Functionality.

pragma

Glad to have you back.

I am ALWAYS glad for any help I can get with Matrix stuff.

For now, since I have already made a ruling in favor of the player, I am not going to change it. Everything I said Angel achieved stands.

That said, for purposes of me learning and doing it better next time -
I have read your advice and it helps me a lot. But my brain remains resistant to technology or any understanding thereof.
So if you were to summarize what you sent into - "Exactly how it would or would not change adamu's previous ruling on Konsaki's actions"....


I will have to get back to you tonight on the astral security - notes at home, me at Internet cafe.

RE: Matrix Rolls/Rules I have one general piece of advice.

First, I have no idea how guns work or what they do, nor do I have an idea how magic works, nor what spells do. But if I play a gun bunny or a mage, then resolving things are amazingly simple! I say "I shoot my <insert favorite gun here> at the Bad Guy!" , I roll some dice, someone else may or may not roll some dice, and we describe the effects! (What are DV or boxes of damage really anyway???)

Just like some people on the forums can go into firearms details to an an indescribable degree of detail, we could do the same for current computer technology, and trust me I can go down into detail on the principle models of memory management at the lowest layer of network communication protocols (more incomprehensible computer gobbledy gook speak!), it is not necessary.

For matrix rolls all you need to know is what the intended effect, and match the appropriate roll to make. The details are all fluff after that.

Angel scans for Louie's and his men's commlinks = Scan + Electronic Warfare (Or whatever pair of skills and programs you think appropriate), that's it, roll the dice. Determine whether or not it works, describe the results.

Just like I don't need to know the grain, weight, composition, shape, aerodynamics, muzzle velocity, coefficient of gas expansion, and all the myriad details of modern ballistic sciences to know whether or not my bullet hits the target, you do not need to know how the computers in SR4 work to determine if the intended Matrix action is reasonable in game.

I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that matrix rolls should just be rolls, but I think falling back on what we know about computers is the best way to clarify insufficient rules.

@adamu

The changes I'd recommend are mostly minor things.

• Angel and the sprite don't need to go anywhere on the matrix. They just scan for nodes.
• Only the nodes whose signal range includes Angel will show up on the scan even though this area has dense wireless coverage.
• She doesn't necessarily get the physical location of the nodes that she scans for. what the scan does tell her is, at the moment, largely up to the GM.

Dire - thanks to you too for chiming in on the Matrix issue. In principle, I agree 100% with your gaming philosophy (Rules first, reality considerations mostly just as a backup). But pragma's point really hits the reason I am so interested in the nuts and bolts - the rules for SR4 matrix stuff, in my opinion, are well-nigh hopeless.

I obviously know nothing about using magic in real life, but whatever my players want to do with magic I can handle in at most a couple of minutes with the books (granted, the magic book is out, Unwired is not). And in previous editions, cumbersome and unplayable as they were, the Matrix rules were comprehensible and internally consistent. That has not been my experience with SR 4, even after a year of struggle with them.

Which is why I absolutely invite and carefully read and appreciate everyone's comments on the issue.

As noted, for now Angel can do everything I earlier said she could do (for THIS adventure).

pragma

You see no astral security on or around the building's exterior...

Everyone

I am getting the feeling that everyone has done all the preparationizing they want - with the possible exception of Fort - so tonight is last call. Without saying exactly when it will be, I plan on posting an event tomorrow night unless you all do something first.

Let me know of any last minute prep or info-gathering you want to do, and we'll get it resolved before anything else happens.

Admittedly the "Game/Story World" part of the Matrix is somewhat fuzzy at the detailed level. In the end I go with "Does what is being attempted sound reasonable?", followed by "Is it game breaking?" and "Is it cool?" criteria.

Great minds think alike.

ready and willing.

At Sundown, Fort's beast spirit departed. At which point he would have returned to the van and cooked up another spirit to keep it concealed until the hit.

Force 4 air: optional power noxious breath
summoning # dice 9 :: 1 4 5 3 3 5 4 3 6 -- 3 hits
drain # dice 12 :: 5 3 1 4 5 1 5 2 4 1 3 2 -- 3 hits
resist # dice 4 :: 5 6 1 2 -- 2 hits
- 1 box stun and 1 service, spent on concealing the van

I'll return to my body to refresh the watchers as needed (every 2 hrs or so)
Other than that just trying to maintain a low astral profile around Rudolpho's. Spell defense up.
Please let me know if you want me to make the disguise rolls that seem to have happened.

pragma

Already made the disguise rolls in your absence. The results are summarized in an earlier OOC post.

As I have said before, anyone driving a "Concealed" vehicle can expect to be asked to make multiple crash tests, since other drivers won't notice them - but I am not going to worry about that for the duration of THIS ADVENTURE ONLY, since I screwed up your Concealment benefits a couple of times.

Everyone

Can I get a quick roll call including how much stun or physical damage anyone might still be carrying?

Sledge = None

But the emotional trauma is off the scale!

Caittie = Fully healed

She's pretty damn nervous and anxious right now though and on the astral her aura has to be going nuts.

No damage, yet.

Cerb has 1P 0S damage

5p, 1s on Fort

Okay, first of all, I left out an important detail in the IC post, which I just edited in - the part about the astral lizard - it's a watcher, pragma.

The Departure

Angel's tracking shows all the signals she was tracking are now on the move.

BH and pragma can do anything they want at this point. May or may not include Perceptions tests or whatever of your own, but I would like each of you to make one "particular" visual perception test for me, just to see if you notice one thing. Anything else you might want to know is for you to look for.

The Tail

It will very quickly become apparent to Angel, Fort, and maybe even Smith, that they are headed straight for I-405, on which they will head south. Once on the freeway, the vans will be rolling at about 100 kph, or about 70 mph (if my math is right).

I need to know who is following, from how far, direct or parallel, so on and so on. Include any rolls you feel necessary. The more detail the better - I'll assume the rest.
Need this from pretty much everyone but the trolls - Angel driving van, Sledge and Smith each on bikes, and Fort astral (unless he goes back to his body). What isn't up in 24 hours from now I will decide myself - I'll do my best, but I might not be as clever as you.

The Arrival

So far, the plan I have seen from you guys is that you will hit Louie when he makes a "stop" to do his business, and that you planned on doing a quck eval at each one to decide if the time was right.

Naturally you are free to change that plan at any time, but that is what I know of your intentions right now.
Thus, unless some sort of complication arises, I plan for MY next IC post to be a description of the caravan's arrival at its first destination.
So if you start considering a hit while the caravan is still in motion, and therefore need ongoing updates on road conditions, traffic, stoplights, or whatever, you need to let me know. It will slow things down considerably, but if you decide it is to your advantage, I will provide those sorts of updates, probably every 12 to 24 hours if that is what you decide to do.

Before I do any of that - I will make sure and answer all questions that come up in the intervening time and make sure you have time to act on information earned. And of course I may never even make such a "destination" post, if you guys do something aggressive earlier than planned.

Rereading this, it sounds terse and pushy. Certainly don't mean it to be. Just trying to get all the relevant info out there so we all know how this will work, and make sure things get back up to speed now that our three hiatuses are over (and Konsaki, I know that now YOU are facing a very busy time - feel free to keep me posted on your situation, and I will be happy to make allowances for your move).

Yummy. Lots of firepower....

Okay, edited OOC post up as promised, right above Dire's comment.

Intuition 4 + Perception 1 + Vision Enhancement (Contacts) 3 = 8
#D=8 : 53352564 n1=0 n6=1 nHit=4

In terms of anything else I would be intersted in perceiving... I would be interested to see if any of the guys look over at the cafe, suspiciously. Like, I figure, the thugs are probably the most likely to look conspicious if they think they're being watched - reguardless of how smooth and sneaky their bosses are. Anwyays, here's a roll.
#D=8 : 24641133 n1=2 n6=1 nHit=1

And, I assume that as the cars drive away, Smith can see that some of them stayed behind (since the SUVs no longer block his view). So he saw something like 8 guys come out, load up with weapons, then I saw 4 of them get into SUVs (three drivers and one riding shotgun?), but might have missed the other 4 due to my angle. Unbeknownst to Smith (or was it?), there was apparantly a second wave of men that also exited Rudolphos and got in the SUVs, and when the SUVs pulled away, there was some sort of entourage left behind.

Are those mobsters the four thugs that grabbed guns out of the SUVs? or different guys, like that came with the second wave (and not holding fancy automatic shotguns)?
#D=8 : 32335222 n1=0 n6=0 nHit=1

I'll probably message something to the team before heading out, but what I say might change if I saw anythign intersting with those perception checks (and any clarification if I got anything wrong).

BlackHat

For the test I requested, you notice a dog-sized vector thrust drone with an obvious weapon take off vertically from the roof and follow the caravan.

You don't see anyone pay any particular attention to the cafe. They look around a lot, sort of playing the bodyguard role, but it seems pretty casual. The way they are throwing those big-ass guns around on this well-lit upscale street with lots of people around screams "we have no reason to care who sees us."

They do get momentarily distracted by a pair of hotties walking down the opposite side of the street wearing the latest almost-see-through smart-fabric.

The guys that stayed behind are not wearing suits. They are either wearing aprons, or track suits. But all eight guys with the guns were wearing nice suits, probably armored. Unless they went back inside, all eight are in the caravan.