Good roll.

Let me answer carefully, giving you the information your attributes/roll entitle you to without getting into the realm of advice about what you should do. It is just too complex a question - anything I might say would only scratch the surface of all that is going on - and thus in its incompleteness be misleading.
But I am sure that you can see the myriad ramifications to your choices here, and I am also sure you are thinking not only in terms of "best" move but also in terms of Adam as a character.

So - you ask about your impression of Deerwalker and Cal's relationship - they are always together, so much everyone assumes they are a couple. But actually, you are not sure you have ever seen any actual action to confirm or deny that assumption.

Judge Intentions - it is obvious she wants to have sex. It is obvious she is attracted to Adam at this moment. It is obvious she has been in the past. Now may have some touches of boredom and loneliness, but she genuinely wants to. In the past - certainly there was, as you suspect, some manipulation - but was that only for you, or does she just naturally do that with all people?

One thing that stands out to Adam is that this is a woman who pegs a huge portion of her self-esteem on being found sexually attractive by people, and this is to such a degree that mere words are generally insufficient to scratch that affirmation itch.

Heist Planning

It looking like I'm going to be on my own for this one, so here goes nothing. (Abandon or Konsaki, if you have ideas please feel free to share, I really would prefer not to do this all by myself.)


To start with we will pick up Angel as quickly as we can get there, hopefully we may even be waiting for her.

From their we will head for the closest location that has some of the equipment we need. Making at least 1 drive by allowing to scan & record as much data as possible for review at a safe distance. Also see if Angel can do a matrix security sweep and possibly verify if the equipment we need is there. (Possibly checking for RFID's or computer records of site inventory.) Specifically we will be looking for on site security as well as trying to get an idea of how heavy the Star or other security service is like. Check how far the local patrol stations are and what kinda response time we could expect if an alarm is set off. Check to make sure all the roads are open (no middle of the night construction, etc) and be aware of all the escape routes that would be possible.

Once that is done we will continue the same process till we have located at least 1 of each piece of needed heavy equipment, if we have two sites close to each other we will check those as well to provide as many options as possible. (I don't want to spend all night driving around)

Once the equipment has been located and we have determined what our primary targets are going to be we will head back for where we found the trucks. Using the same process to scope out the sites we will asses both options and make a choice on which one to grab.

The plan for the grabs will be based on the information we get from the above scouting and if additional team members are available by that time.

@ALL - any ideas suggestions or huge holes, please point them out. I'm going to give this a 24 hour wait before I submit it to Adamu for an official response.

JD

Still listening, plan sounds good to me. We need the truck before we get the concrete cutter. GPR might be a better place to start except that its more expensive.

@adamu
Though Fort won't think of this, how do you feel about Faraday cages and SR4 hacking. A Faraday cage is a metal enclosure that prevents any radio frequency radiation from passing through it. What does that do to tags etc.

The plan is to get all the intel and then start the heists with the truck. I don't want to grab the truck and not know where we are going from there and end up driving around waiting for Star to pinch us. Sorry if I did not make that clear.



Pragma - FYI they actually have the SR version of Faraday cages in Arsenal. They are listed as Electromagnetic Shielding. In the description it specifically mentions it stops ALL electrical signals and no wireless connectivity can be maintained while its in use.

Of coarse us getting access to that kinda technology, if it exists is Adamu's call. I just wanted to let you know they have rules for it now.

JD

Yeah - not just Konsaki, but Abbandon has been pretty scarce of late.

I haven't been as worried cuz unlike the burnout issues Konsaki mentioned, Abbandon recently listed off a whole bunch of video games he was spending a lot of his free time with, so I hoped it would run its course...

Abbandon, you out there, buddy?

And here I was all ready to respond - but I will wait for your "official" submission of this stage of your plan.

Thanks for keeping things moving.

PS - how do I do that thing where you quote a post (or several) but in multiple separate pieces. I suspect it has something to do with the Multiquote button, but that doesn't seem to get me anywhere.

(I can't even figure this out and you're asking me about Faraday Cages?)

Faraday Cage stuff

BBB has references to wifi negating paint and wallpaper. Says how to resolve its use but not how to apply or get it.

JD - searched all through Arsenal but can't find your Electromagnetic Shielding. I certainly could have missed it - do you have a page number for me?

The concept is certainly canon-supported, and it's great lateral thinking on you guys' part. Be great if we could find JD's reference before I think about it too deeply.

NP - That would be on Page 135 in the Gear & Vehicle Modifications Chapter - starts at the bottom of the left hand column.

JD

Thanks JD. Coulda sworn I'd looked through those vehicle mods....

Anyway, at 2,000 per rating point and a facility to install, you might not be getting it for the Love Machine tomorrow.

But that doesn't invalidate the idea for a smaller scale.

The cement cutter is a big beast, and both it and the truck you steal will likely have a lot of tags. But if you guys want to explore more modest measures like applying wifi negating paint to some sort of storage unit, then it is probably worth exploring.

A next step, once the idea is broached IC, might be for (1) someone with the appropriate skills to make a test on how they might get/install such stuff or (2) talk to a fixer or other contact or (3) whatever other means I haven't thought of.

The plan looks pretty good to me too. It might help to keep eyes on the other targets while stealing the truck, to make sure they don't move - or security doesn't increase or something. Angel might be able to tap into security cam feeds, or you guys might put up some 10-nuyen camera sensor tags nearby.

From your explanation, it sounds like the last sort of complication you want is, after stealing the truck, to return to see the other items have moved (or the situation has changed) and have to idle somewhere in a stolen truck.

Another alternative to wifi-negating stuff would be to get a rating 1 area jammer (or set another area jammer to rating 1). Normally, the illegal jammer might be detected because of its huge output of garbage wifi... but since this one only goes out about 3 meters, that chance is significantly reduced... and rating 1 is strong enough (stronger than necessary, even) to keep any tags from connecting to any nearby nodes - effectively disabling any of the common tags.

That's not to say someone didn't put some sort of signal 5 tracking beacon chip on one of those things - but if they did, it isn't your mass-produced security-tag, and is more like a commlink that Angel could detect/hack.

In a meeting most of the day, but hope to have my IC response up tonight.

Ok, almost been 24 hours so I'm going to say GO on the first part of the planning, (from post above) with the following additions.

If Angel can get a good feed from local cameras, use those to "Keep Eyes" on the sites as suggested. (Good idea)

Also check to see if we have any sensor RFID's in the van or if we could pick them up on the way to provide an option less likely to give us away.

Once we have that I will see about getting some input from the team for dealing with the tags that will be on the equipment.

JD

I dont WANT to do this but I'm gonna have to pull out of the game. I just can not make the time anymore and I dont really wanna lead anybody on by saying I might come back if things ligthen up, but I dont know when that could happen. Good Luck with the run and I hope you guys keep the game active.

You can autopilot cerberus or have him disappear, I dont really want him killed off =P

Sorry guys.

Abbandon - its been fun playing with you. I was looking forward to Cerberus and Rocky tearing a few more guys up.

Take care and drop in and say hi if you get the chance.

JD

Abbandon - I won't say this isn't a huge huge downer - but of course it's your decision. You have made consistent and excellent contributions to this game in a variety of ways. And you have certainly kept things interesting.

It is sad to see you go for a number of reasons. But I do appreciate your letting us know.

I will be PMing you with a few details, including karma and reentry options - don't know if you'll be watching the boards or not - hopefully you'll get it.

Team - since Abbandon has let us know he is definitely leaving the game, I think it would be inappropriate to puppet his character around. I will handle his departure in an upcoming IC post. Since this is an extraordinary circumstance, I may take the liberty of putting some words into other characters' mouths as necessary to wrap some points up, but I'll try to keep it minimal.

I am considering a number of ideas about whether and how to fill the empty slot (slots?) in the roster. If people have their own thoughts on that, let me know. But if we do such a thing, it won't be until next June or July.

On another note, there are no problems I can see with your initial plan for scouting the several locations. Rather than spit all the info you gain out in OOC and then recapitulate it IC, I will just write a big IC post containing all your findings. It'll be the same post as Cerb's departure.

Hopefully get it up this evening.

Yeah, sucks to see you go, Abbandon, but I know how it is when things get busy.



I always wondered about how (or if) we were going to handle that.
My suggestion (but it might not flow with the way you wanted to run the game) would be to start a recruitment (unless people know someone they want to suggest) and a "fourth wave" thread. The fourth-wave thing, I think would be pretty critical - because one of the things that I think made this game what it is is the fact that we made relatively normal people, and played out a bit of their previous lives, and the events that led up to them being a shadowrunner. Ideally, if someone else was to join, we could get the ball rolling ahead of time, and (in a separate thread?) play our a prelude like that, as well - so that by the time they become a Shadowrunner, and enter the game, they're as invested in their character as we where, off the bat - and I think it just makes for really well-developed characters.

I wouldn't mind if the newcomer (if there is to be one) didn't go through that process (as it would be extra work for them, and for Adamu), but I think it would be sad if the team was eventually composed of a majority of characters that did not (if, say, more people drop out, and we keep the game going with new ones) - because that did seem to be the main theme of the campaign.

Of course, that is more work for Adamu - and I don't know if the June/July timeframe was because that was when he thought we would be at a good place for them to enter, or if he just didn't want to deal with recruitment issues until then. If it is the former, this idea would allow us to start that process earlier (getting in a month or two of life-before-the-shadows, if it is the later there is no reason we couldn't do it this summer.

Of course, I've never been in a DumpShock game that survived to the point that it needed a recruitment of one person. I imagine, given that the way regular recruitment works, that it's like throwing a steak into a pit full of hungry dogs. Especially for a game that has been going on as long as this one has. At least, in my opinion, if I wasn't already a player in it, that would give it a lot of credit.

Also, after strugglign with my IC response for a couple of days, I think I will have the time to finish it.

Thanks for your thoughts, BH.

The June/July thing is indeed when I expect to have a lot more free time than I do now. Maybe June. Maybe not till July.

I agree that it would be ideal to have new players "hit bottom." If I have time, extra work not too bad. But if we are recruiting, it's cuz you guys want to fill holes in the team (nothing wrong, by the way, with a dedicated team of four or five...), and then you'd be stuck waiting for the new person to finish having wreck their character's life.

Assuming we skip the "hitting bottom," I was thinking of this.

I put out a recruitment call for X number of slots in the campaign.

I cull the applicants down to about three.

Then Smith and whoever else can meet them IC and decide which one they want to deal with.

Naturally all the applicants would know the way we would handle it going in.

Just a wacky thought.

Still not sure if we are going to bring more people in.

Ooo, I like that idea. I was always hoping to handle the original introductions as job interviews. Although, that is probably the sort of decision we would want to make as a team OOC if not IC - it will probably depend on where we're all at physically when we need to recruit.

It does seem like, in order to make that fair to the people making characters, we (as a team, rather than Adamu) would need to identify what we're looking for in a new partner. Say, we lost our ranged expert, and our cybered-up guy, so that might be the criteria, that way, we don't end up with another mage, face, or martial artists on our doorstep asking for interviews. We might have some other set of desired capabilities, though. I can't really think of any, but maybe we're looking for somebody with medical experience - that seems reasonable. I suppose when we get to the point that we are shorthanded enough to go recruiting, we'll hopefully have a good sense of what we'll need.

Okay - my IC post covers Cerb's departure and the first leg of the scouting thing.

The whole rest of the plan has already been ruled a success, but I realized I wanted to stop you guys at 10:00.

That is what time Fort will be done warding and ready to rejoin the team, and that is what time I believe Dire intends to have Sledge go to Karnivore Karl's.

So seems like a good opportunity to get everyone synced up, especially now that there will likely be more activity than just Johnson meeting contacts.

On that note, BlackHat - your sex-or-not-sex post is what I need to set the tone for future interactions with Deerwalker. Once that is up, OOC me with a quick rundown of your remaining goals for the meet, and we will look at fast-forwarding you to also be in sync with everyone else timewise. From which point you can go talk to the mechanic or join the others or whatever you have on your agenda.

Arsenal has a Vehicle Size tag eraser system.

Thats for any tags physically on the outside of the vehicle by the way I read it.


RE - Abbandon Leaving - I like the interview idea if/when we decide to pick up another team member.

JD

Alright, pretty happy with what I came up with IC, and had been putting it off long enough.

OOC, the things I'd still like to accomplish would be either being put in touch with someone who sells magical goods or (ideally) going out shopping with Deerwalker, and being introduced in person. Depending on when that wraps up, and/or if the team needs me, I'm tentatively planning to meet the mechanic, after that.

I don't know if we came up with a firm time that we would arrive at the job (does this sort of construction take place during the day, usually? or is night more common for this sort of job?). In any case, we should have some time in the morning to prepare.

Also, RE: Cerberus's exit post:

So much for him paying back the 7K difference on the gun. Remind me to remind NPC-Cerberus that he owes me one at some point in the future.

Oh yeah, the other thing that I would be looking for an opportunity to bring up would be the possibility of either sending some work "their" way, or if "they" need any help with the work they already have - where "they" is any combination of Cal, Deerwalker, or the EcoSquad grunts.

Probably, when we get around to talking about magical goods. I'm thinking since we're talking about work - if she asks what he needs, or seems curious as to why he needs it at all, that's a good opportunity to bring up the team, and mention that Adam'sbeen doing some Johnson work, in addition to my occasional Face gig - started leading his own team, rather than doing oddjobs for people (which was probably where she got that mercenary impression). This new job put Adam in the position to help some of his friends out, either by doing work for them, or sending work their way - as an example, he'll bring up Sledge, who Deerwalker might remember.

In any case, he's not asking for any commitment yet - he doesn't have anything in mind... but he'd be interested to know if they want him to keep an eye open for anything that might be up their alley... or if they are just looking for another way to fund the Revolution. It sounds like Cal's networking as hard as Adam is, so he'll certainly mention meeting up with him when he gets back, and see what kind of overlapping interests they might have. ()

Okay -

BlackHat - feel free to IC yourself up to ten-ish. Deerwalker will be happy to take you to some ideal talismongers for Fort's needs, either now or later, with or without Fort.
If you don't go to the talismongers, feel free to head back to town for the mechanic meet, have more sex, or whatever else until you catch up with everyone else's timeline.
Your other stuff about arranging future working relationships, just IC whatever you want to say to her. Her responses will be largely disinterested and non-commital - "Right on," and "That's cool." She's not rude, just less talkative and forthcoming now that she's in her post-coital torpor. In any case, she will certainly have heard what you have to say.

pragma - free to post whatever you want to do.

DireRadiant - also free to post. If you go to the meet, as I mentioned, IC to the location, but I will IC a description on entry.

JDragon and Konsaki - you guys are free to role-play and/or respond to any IC commcalls you get. If you want to scrap the current plan, let me know. Otherwise, just stick with RP for now and once everyone catches up I will continue the IC account of your scouting operation.

Ok, I'll get an IC post in about Cerb taking off up sometime tomorrow.

BTW can Rocky drive the van or are we just using the pilot SW at this point?

Also are the live feeds from the first site still coming in?

JD

JD - you can choose whether you are driving or using the autopilot. Note that the drivers' seat is not troll-modified, so you face the RAW modifiers.

Cerberus sometimes drove via AR, but you don't really have the matrix connectivity for that.

For now it really doesn't matter to me, but feel free to let me know. And of course if things get weird I will need to know.

As for the feeds from the cemetery, they will continue as long as you want them to, BUT - she can only have one unregistered sprite on remote service at a time. So she won't be able to do the same trick in exactly the same way next time without calling the cemetery sprite off first.
There are other ways she can do the same thing at other sites, but they are harder and riskier. And she won't want to waste a registered sprite on a basic task like that.
So you might want to think about the best way to use her once you get to the next site.
There are a number of options - I leave the general direction to you, then I will handle the details.

Then I'll have the Auto pilot take care of the driving till we need to make some kind of change.

Would she be able to have the sprite bounce back and forth? (sorry I have not done the technomancer stuff before)

Beyond that we will wait and see whats going on when we get to the next location.

JD

Okay, 10 was when Fort was expected to finish, right?
I'll IC up until then (about the time I get the message about Cerb, since that seems like a great event to synch up around.

That's only 20 minutes from when I left off the last IC, so I figure, we'll be en-route somewhere when 10 hits (or maybe just recently arriving somewhere) - probably won't have time to handle the sale, yet, but depending on how things go down at 10, Fort might meet up with us (Adam will offer, once he's finished with his warding, and if he's interested, he can show up, otherwise I can handle it without him).

Get the IC together this afternoon or tonight, I hope.

Whew! Thesis sent to the printer and I'm back in action. Hope to have an IC up by the end of the night. If not, before the end of tomorrow.

Having Johnson pick up Fort would be fine.

As if I have??? I've been relying on Konsaki for all that computer stuff all along. Hell, half my understanding of the SR4 matrix comes from conversations with him when he visited me here.

But no, that particular idea won't work - hacking and rehacking into multiple nodes would have to be ruled as separate services, and there can be only one service on remote service.

Dude, congratulations for real. Finishing my master's thesis was one of the happiest days of my life.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Okay, this is about two weeks earlier than I'd planned, but events overtake me, and in any case I have been hinting that this is coming...

I am hereby on "erratic posting" status.

Make no mistake, I will continue to GM. Indeed, I am not quitting any of the games I am involved with. I may even continue to post daily a lot of the time. But there may also be unpredictable absences of up to a week. Things will be crazy.

So if you don't hear from me, not to worry. I'll always be back.

I guess this comes at a weird time for this game, when half of you are working to keep it going, and the other half are at various levels of non-participation.

I will endeavor to keep things going as best I can, and hang onto everyone's interest as much as possible without violating preset story elements or otherwise just cheating (in other words, I'll try to keep the game fun without resorting to sudden ninja attacks).

The good news is that in a month or two I will have time to vigorously address keeping this game alive and thriving for all those interested.
Until, then, we shall proceed, just a bit more slowly.

Thank you for your patience.

Thanks for the heads up.

JD

I had hoped to get an IC up before I left for the weekend - but did not, and now my internet will be intermittent until Tuesday. Don't have time to finish now, but might have time at night. In any case, it's coming. I should just shut my mouth about when to expect them.

Not sure if there are not high-security zones on the island - or where exactly "spring" has set up shop... but assuming she isn't also a rich brat rebelling against her parents... she probably won't be where we are, which will give Smith the chance to check in with the team.

EDIT: Also, took some liberty coming up with the name for the contact - if you had something in particular in mind, let me know, but since you let me name Nym, I figured I could name spring too.

Okay - BlackHat and pragma, looks like you guys want to meet up - pragma was talking about getting picked up, BlackHat is talking about sending directions (three on a bike would be weird). You guys probably need to work that out.

Basically, I am poised to continue to results of JDragon's scouting and also to greenlight pragma and BlackHat meeting and going to the talismonger's place.

But really hate to move the IC forward without hearing from Dire. I do believe he was planning on having Sledge show up at Karnivore Karl's...

Yikes, I can keep this thing going with Abbandon (officially) and Konsaki (unofficially???) absent, but the run pretty much revolves around Sledge...

I guess I'll PM Dire....

I got roped into interviewing and reviewing resumes at work. I'll try and get something in IC to keep it going

Personnel crap - been there still doing that - actually, I think it's a nice break from the usual routine.

Thanks for the post - it would come right as I am writing you a pestering PM...minus ten points to my 007-factor.

3 on a bike would be weird.

I think he just thought being picked up would be easiest. I assume he has no real problem getting himself there other than his usual paranoia. If Fort can't afford cab fare, he has no business buying telesma.

If there is some other issue I didn't catch, I'm sure we can work it out.

When you said "greenlight" our arrival, did you want us to go ahead an IC the arrival at the place (and fill in the details as we like), or did you just want us to detangle the commuting logistics, OOC? Either way is fine by me - as we're sort of making this contact up as we go.

Fort's planning to grab a cab given the change in circumstance. I was planning to IC up to meeting spring unless there were other plans in mind.

That's fine. Dire says he'll post soon, so you guys can go ahead and post yourselves to the next meet - spring has a small shop in the first floor of a house in a residential section of Capital Hill.

Once you all get there, I will IC something for meeting her and seeing her shop.

Want to move as quickly as possible on all this prep stuff, but need some IC for any new potential contact. So once we establish a sort of relationship basis IC, we'll try to move to a quick OOC resolution as quickly as possible.

I plan to keep waiting for Dire's IC before moving through the rest of the scouting results.

Works for me.

JD

Dire - thanks for the post.

I was outlining my next IC post for you, but realized I was fast approaching the critical mass of "too many assumptions being made about the PC."

I see your PAN is active, which is an important point downtown and in this yuppie mall, so if you would just answer two more questions for me, I can IC you into a description of your arrival at Karnivore Karl's:

1. Where do you park?
There is a little street parking, lots of parking garages - ranging from right next to Pacific Place to as far away as you like, and Pacific Place itself has five levels of underground parking.

(Five stories of commercial space above ground, one restaurant level below - that's where KK's is - the center all totally open from top to bottom, shops around the edges - wide terraces encircling the open center of the structure - you know the design.)

2. The mall itself and KK's in particular are well covered by MAD scanners at least, chem sniffers maybe. Could you let me know the disposition of your weapons?

What's the security level of the Capital Hill area? In an ideal situation, Adam would go back to hiding his identity - or at the very least, making his Smith ID passive and his Adam ID hidden or offline, but if the area between here and there is all high security that might look suspicious, and not be worth the effort.

Security in (on) Capital Hill is aveage-ish. It's an upscale artsy/magickey neighborhood. Not a lot of crime just cuz it's not the sort of population that lends itself to too much street violence. Star is around, but the nature of the locals prevents an open-PAN requirement.

Okay, I'll attempt to IC our arrival this morning then, unless Fort beats me to it (was going to let him do it, but its been a few days).

Busy couple of days -- no rest for the wicked. For reference, Fort is going to be running hidden, he'll flash the CIA Fake SIN if he abolutely has to but will refrain otherwise.

Okay, well, I posted Smith's arrival, anyways. I figure, Fortunato can be as shortly behind him as you like (since I don't have a real great picture of what Seattle looks like, but Smith was certainly coming from farther away than Fort was). Feel free to add his arrival wherever you like - I can even do a little editing if necessary.

Street parking and walking, garage will have too much coverage, and the bike sitting there a while might provide a bit too much data to track with and chances someone will run checks. Sledge is running with a very light fake SIN after all, the main thing is to avoid being checked in the first place.

Only bringing the Defiance Shocker, anything else is left in some public locker somewhere not in downtown.