There - that took about five minutes.

A bit vanilla, but flavor about characters is for characters to write. Anyone that wants to embellish please feel free to toss on a post of your own impressions.

So, per the post two above this one: you now have 24 to decide if you want to make any changes to the current Site 2 Plan. If not I will resolve as per Site 1.

BlackHat - I forget when I said you could rendezvous, but now seems like a reasonable time, if you are so inclined.

*huge grin*

You realize, of course, that bottling him up in that bus will only cause Smith to explode onto the scene like mentos and coke! I hope somebody is on damage control...



I'll put together an IC about his arrival tonight. I think the plan was actually for him to arrive near one of the sites, and find an innocuous place to chill until the jobs are done (since, you know, they were going to be cakewalks) and then they'd pick him up on the way out.

So, his arrival might be a little more like flat coke.

Actually, reviewed the IC to remind myself what the plan was, and saw that Smith was headed to site 1. Any objections to him meeting up with the love machine, en route to site 2?

For ease of use here is the plan for site two from the post Adamu mentioned...

-- Site 2 --
* Everyone moves on to the next site
* Site two, security is low, and Sledge knows the location of the hut where everything should be kept
* Truck drives nearby, but not on site
* Angel hacks the cutter, which should be self-propelled and hopefully drone-outfitted (sensors and everything).
* Angel uses the sensors to look around, and see if the cutter can leave the site on its own (cutting through the fence if necessary?)
* Angel drives the cutter off-site and meets up with the truck, where it attaches to the trialer hitch (or Rocky loads it on). She does this under the concealment of the spirit.
* Team drives away.

-- Notes --
* If the drone-cutter is restrained, or offline, Fortunato creates more disguises, and either Sledge or Rocky moves on site to turn on or unrestrain the cutter.
* Another option would be to send a spirit, who could go there invisibly, then physically manifest to either flip the switch, or break the chain or whatever. Only problem here is that the spirit will have a hard time understanding the technology, and knowing what it needs to do.
* Spirit concealment could be used to expedite the retreat from any of the sites.

* * * * * * * * * *

BTW - the GPR is in the Van.

I think it would be a good idea to use the spirit for distraction / cover for our escape vs trying to get it deal with the tech we one of us should be able to do that easily.

I think we will need to get the truck as close as possible to making loading easier and faster. It sounds like it will need to be loaded on the truck and then driven away.


Any other thoughts gang?

JD

IC post up. Didn't advance anything.

Brief comments on Rocky's plan -- I believe the plan was for Angel to get access to the cutter then have Sledge do all of the looking and the driving through it (what with her experience with construction equipment).

IC up to put Smith in the van. Not sure what the dirving arrangmenets were (Fort's post suggests he and Angel were in the van). So, either Rocky and Sledge are taking the truck, or the back-seat area of hte van is even more cramped than I thought.

Either way, I figured the van would come pick him up, since driving a big construction truck into a residential area to pick a dude up might be overly suspicious.

Sledge has the skill to drive construction equipment, so I think we want to do this swap.

Okay - this is indeed the easier one, and there is nothing here that can stand up to a full team of runners.

The plan goes without a hitch, with Angel opening the gate of the fence, and Sledge handling the driving - no test necessary - she actually has a skill dedicated to driving construction equipment, so I reckon that oughtta count for something. Onto the back of the truck and off you go, with no one apparently the wiser.

Someone needs to do an IC of all this happening. I will give it a day or two to see if one or more people wants to, and if not, I will do it.
The thing I am most interested in is how you handle this giant piece of stolen gear - I think Smith made some arrangements - I'm sure BH will speak up.

Which is to say that all this bullet point stuff (which, long as it took, I think was faster than normal play - the lag was mostly my recently low activity), ahem, which is to say that all this bullet point stuff for the prelim runs is now over and we are on normal mode, i.e. all significant movements and interactions need to be played.

We are also near the point where Angel goes bye-bye. One or two pieces of unfinished business with her, and off she goes. If anyone has anything they want to resolve with her, let me know.

Trouble is, I had Divine Virus all up for being the replacement, but now I have been unable to reach him in the last few days as we approach the transition. Hopefully will hear from him soon.

So IC away if you are inclined.

I'll post something IC about this too, but Smith made some arrangements for a large warehouse where we can store the truck (with attached gear) overnight. We'll probably want to go over the radar, at least, wit ha tag eraser .The cutter has security tags embedded, so there mgith not be a lot we can do there.

When we arrive, we pay peopel in cash, we can ask them if its a wifi deadspot, or potentially set up a jammer to run there overnight to keep those pesky tags from phoneing home.

DEAD spots are hard to come by in Seattle outside the Barrens, but spots isolated enough that RFIDs won't necessarily catch a signal are not that rare, and the place you paid Eddie for certainly fits that description.
Now, how you want to handle moving the beast from the safe-garage, that is your problem...

Sorry guys, I'm here. I am just really busy at the moment
I am studying in Belgium this year (currently in Canada) and I leave this Saturday. So I have a bit of a backlist as far as emails go. Adam, I did get you email, and promptly forgot about it in the rush to worry about the details of my departure. I have the finally draft of my character ready, I will mail it to you today. This is my main packing day so (with the exception of the next couple of hours) I should be home all day and checking mail/forums periodically. Cheers!
DV

Good to hear you're still with us.

Working on the requested IC, but wasn't sure where you wanted me to stop. At the arrival at the garage? Or since those arrangements were made in bullet-point-time, do they stand as part of the blanket success? If so, I'll stop once we're there, paid up, truck stowed, and discussing whether or not to take any further precautions with the gear before disbanding for the night.

Well, posted the first half anyway. If you want me to speed through the garage-scene, I've got that queued up over here. If you'd rather we play that out since its after the second site, feel free to bump the IC to there.

BlackHat - since the price has already been negotiated on the garage, there is no reason you can't move forward with whatever IC seems coolest. If you are seeking anything additional from Eddie, then let me know and I will step in.

So basically, we are on regular play mode now, people. Proceed with the run in whatever manner you wish.

At this point, one thing that some of you may wish to do is sleep or otherwise let some time pass.
So what I would appreciate in the next 24 or so is if people (A) post actions/role-play AND/OR (B) indicate that you are ready for time to pass, and where you are while it does.
The big pre-game hurdles are done - let's wade through some quick formalities and get this show on the road!

Rocky will help with any set up that needs to be done when they get to the warehouse and then he will want to crash out for as long as we have till its time to take the next step on the job.

Unless their is something better he will just sleep on the flatbed of the truck or on the ground if the saw takes up to much room.

JD

All cool - that's fluff, so do what seems best to you.

And dammit, now that we have made some progress, I have GOT to get you the last map...hell, I can't even remember which ones I've already sent...in one of these boxes around here somewhere....

Sounds like a plan.

I have the outside map, 1st floor and Subbasement (where we will be working), not sure what else we will need.

Which means I need to get them finished for use sooner than later.

JD

Ah hah - no wonder I back-burnered it - nearly done. No need to say anything further here - once I get my head together I will PM you with more details, my faithful minion (since I pre-paid you for the map work in the last karma outlay, you are doomed to indentured servitude!!!! Bhah ha ha - er, sorry, getting very late...).

LOL!

Depends on how she exits, probably - but I'd prefer to keep contact with her as a potential B-squad asset (or hacker contact) in the future, at least. If I somehow manage to find out she as planning to enroll soon, that might change things too.

Otherwise, since we said we'd put in a good word for Cerb with the feds, we can offer Angel the same courtesy. We wouldn't have gotten as far as we have if she hadn't helped. If the reward helps her get back on her feet, it isn't really costing the rest of us anything to pretend like she saw it the whole way through.

Fort was going to spend some time binding spirits -- I think the rolls are in the OOC backlogs somewhere. I'll pull them shortly.

EDIT: A brief search reveals nothing of interest, though I could have sworn I'd at least laid out plans for this somewhere.

Any rate, rough plan for the next 24 hours:

Fort is planning to go home, sleep until ~10 AM, then try to bind an air spirit. After that, he'll try to bind a beast spirit. Then he'll sleep until it gets near time for the run and he'll summon up an unbound spirit, then project to the team.

Rolls and IC up tomorrow.

pragma - yeah, I definitely recall you getting all your binding materials together, and I could have sworn you actually bound some spirits. I'll try a quick search as well.
Even if it wasn't actually done, you certainly have the materials, and time.
Just handle it in the thread again if we can't delve up the past posts.

Currently ironing out some fine points with Divine Virus before Angel takes off.

pragma - a thorough review of both threads and all has become clear.
You have purchased materials for Force 4 Air and Beast spirits, and also done a lot of IC preparation.
But after that, when you went back to your apartment it was only for the astral scout on the main target.
Then you went straight to help the team with the mini-heists.
So you are all ready to go but have not yet done the bindings.

For the force 4 air spirit:
summoning # dice 11 :: 6 4 5 3 1 2 4 3 2 5 3 -- 3 hits
spirit resist # dice 4 :: 6 2 4 6 -- 2 hits
summoning drain # dice 12 :: 2 5 6 5 3 2 6 6 2 4 2 4 -- 5 hits
binding # dice 10 :: 1 4 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 4 -- 0 hits
spirit resist # dice 8 :: 6 3 2 4 3 3 1 3 -- 1 hit
binding drain # dice 12 :: 1 4 4 2 2 1 2 3 5 5 5 2 -- 3 hits

-- A somewhat uninspiring single service, unbound, air spirit with no drain.

For the force 4 beast spirit:
summoning # dice 11 :: 5 4 1 2 5 1 3 6 3 3 1 -- 3 hits
spirit resist # dice 4 :: 2 4 3 6 -- 1 hit
summoning drain # dice 12 :: 5 1 3 5 2 3 6 1 3 4 5 5 -- 5 hits
binding # dice 10 :: 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 3 6 6 -- 2 hits, glitch
spirit resist # dice 8 :: 1 6 6 4 3 5 4 1 -- 3 hits
binding drain # dice 12 :: 2 5 1 2 2 6 1 2 3 4 6 4 -- 3 hits
-- For a unbound beast with 2 services and no binding. Also, 3 boxes of drain.

Well, at least the results were in keeping with Fort's long standing fear of binding. No luck from 10AM to 6PM. Sleeping off the drain:
stun healing # dice 8 :: 2 3 2 5 2 6 5 1 -- 3 hits

At 7 PM (after sunset) trying to summon an unbound beast spirit for the inevitable getaway. Force 6, optional powers concealment, confusion.
summon # dice 11 :: 1 2 5 4 2 6 2 4 3 4 4 -- 2 hits
resist # dice 6 :: 6 5 2 4 5 1 -- 3 hits
drain # dice 12 :: 6 4 2 3 5 3 3 3 1 6 1 1 -- 3 hits
-- Hits me with 4 boxes of drain, no services

Sleeping
stun healing # dice 8 :: 6 6 3 2 1 4 6 1 -- 3 hits

At 8 PM, trying one more time: summoning a beast spirit, force 4, optional power concealment
summon # dice 11 :: 4 6 3 3 4 6 5 4 2 2 5 -- 4 hits
resist # dice 4 :: 5 2 5 3 -- 2 hits
drain # dice 12 :: 4 3 6 4 5 4 2 3 3 6 4 1 -- 3 hits
-- At last. 2 services and one box of drain.

Sleeping
stun healing # dice 8 :: 4 4 3 3 1 2 3 2 -- 0 hits
stun healing # dice 8 :: 4 4 3 6 2 4 1 2 -- 1 hit
-- At 10 PM, Fort's ready to go. with one box of stun remaining.

pragma, dude, there is no justice in the world when a brilliant fluff post is accompanied by rolls like that. Hopefully the Law of Averages will grant you a string of 6s next time you are fighting for your life in combat.

Okay, I have Fort busy till 2200, and Rocky sacking out in the garage for an indeterminate period.

No word from Dire yet, but that's cool cuz I actually still have a few details to iron out to do justice to the Angel transition.

Once I'm ready to go, then anyone that has not used the intervening hours to their satisfaction will be fast-forwarded to your jump-off point willy nilly.

I think I'm good to jump ahead whenever. Hanging back IC in case any decisions need ot be made, or anyone wants to discuss anything before we break up - but the plan is just to get a ride back home (doing the usual lame round-abouts) and get some shut-eye.

I'm going to try and get an IC post done sooner than later that has Rocky securring his truck and then sacking out.

He's going to sleep till needed or awakened by an issue, since their is no telling how long it will till he will get to sleep again.

JD

I'm in Beligum right now, studying here for the year, getting settled but I think I now have all the needed paperwork into adam, so hopefully joining you all real soon. Cheers!

Okay, just so it's clear, I intentionally initiated the last IC bit with Sledge and Rocky still in earshot. That way any of the three PCs present can feel free to participate in the following scene, or not, as they are inclined.

I want to make a roll to help put her at ease, since my character is probably better at it than I will be.
Apparently, that falls under etiquette.

Charisma (6) + Etiquette (5) = 11 dice
#D=11 : 41155113245 n1=4 n6=0 nHit=3

Modify as necessary, although I'm not sure any of the social modifiers make sense in this situation (nor does her opposing the roll, but feel free, anyway).

Ok, if this test works, the first 3 maps are up and online.

Their will be a link to the page in my signature of all my OOC posts.

I'll try to get them on the Wiki when I get a chance.



JD

EDIT - well it looks like the signature option is not working for me at this point, I'm looking in to it and will update when I know.

Update - the completed images are on the wiki. (sorry they are so big)

Also, here is a link to the page with the images www.intotheshadows.net/uftbmaps.html

Looks good. Do you still have the legend for what those numbers mean? (or was that never given to the PCs)?
It would be nice if that were included on that page, for reference. I think we had a good idea of what other buildings were around, but I don't think we had seen a legend for the interiors yet. Probably full of surprises.

Well we have one for the outside building in this thread back when I originally posted it, I was planning on looking it up and adding it.

As for the others I need to get what we will know from the boss man so I can add those to the site as well.

My main focus was to get the maps up before we ended up not needing them any more.

JD

JD - as noted in my PM - sig works great and maps are awesome as usual.

Very late tonight - I will put off map questions for the weekend, but I will keep the RP going right now.

I've got the details on locations added to the outside map and have the site ready to add the additional info to the other maps when we get it.

JD

I think I'm just going to start calling you Superman.

I think that's a bit much. Also if it wasn't for the help from a friend at work I would not have the site up at all.

He walked me through coding it and then adding the additional code for the details that I added. He's been doing some coding for me and I've been doing graphics stuff for him, been a good set up so far.

Plus this way I don't feel like I'm wasting my domain name, since I'm actually using the web site for something now.

Also, random thing if anyone would like an email address ????@intotheshadows.net (my domain) let me know. Its effectively a GMail account, as far as space and the user interface, just with a better address. (and its free BTW)

JD

Update - got some IC up, not sure if I'm going to add more to it or not, but don't wait for me.

I'm getting back into the habit of page-long speeches!
My post was twice as long, originally, so I spared everyone some pain.

But what will Fort make fun of Sugar Lips for if he's not constantly having verbal projectile diarhhea?

Crying the first time he gets shot?

God, I am finally almost in.
Adam, a few notes about any data searches to find me.

Okay - here we have one of the perrenial (perennial?) headaches with SR - introducing a new player to a team of justifiably paranoid people, and asking them to trust him with their lives.

The existing PCs' suspicion and caution is absolutely justified in an RP sense. And equally so are the legitimate measures the new PC has taken to make himself anonymous and untraceable.

Now I know in RL we all want DV in the game. But if we have to break character to do it, it does devalue and de-fun the game.

So if this was table-top, we could play out elaborate precautions and research and meets until a handshake of some sort could be made. But here in forum play that could literally take three months.

So far both sides have been perfectly well in character, which I think is great.
Now is the time for all three sides - team and DV and GM - to think of some clever ways to BOTH stay in character AND effect a meeting and agreement.

DV - much of the burden lies on you for this - after two years, I know LOTS about the existing characters. But although you have dutifully turned in all the materials I asked for, I still know precious little about your character's history as a runner, and thus have not had Caittie volunteer anything useful that meatworld inquiries might have come up with - since I don't know what they would be.

Oh, and here is one helpful clue - anyone following the other thread knows that DV guest-starred as a bad guy - and that I didn't tell those players ahead of time that he was playing the opposition. So if that history has you understandably jittery, rest assured that that is not the case here - DV really is joining the game as a regular PC (though of course I would not ever go so far as to place any guarantees on his behavior as such - that'll be up to you all).

One solution jumps immediately to mind. One security measure I was planning of regularily taking was registering (or compiling, if short of time) a sleuth sprite to watch for anyone trying to trace me, or research me in general. Its possible that Cat (I hope you don't mind the abbreviation) got spotted by the Sleuth sprite, who promptly notified Error. He then watched himself, got a sense that she was at least semi-pro, and started digging into her own background. He is a pretty competent at finding information (or, at least, his sprites are) so he digs up information on the run. He then makes first contact, already knowing the kind of information where you either need to bring him in all the way or kill him. Of course, since said first contact would be made digitally, it would be hard to find his meat body and kill him. Of course, paranoia indicates that you could just pretend to bring him in, and be ready to kill, which is why you agree to first meet in person in a public place were murder would be really hard (Error can run his empathy CF and get a sense then if you actually intend to kill him).

That is the first senerio that comes to mind. How would your crew react?

Badly.

I agree with everything Adamu said - and despite Smith being cautious about the situation, I've every intention of accepting whatever PC comes our way. I trust his judgment with however he wants to introduce Error - I have confidence it will work out in the end.

I have several issues with the scenario DV put forth, but in short, the whole premise of this team (and this game) is that we're all pretty well-developed "real" characters who aren't really Shadowrunners (or wouldn't be, if they didn't have to be). They were trust together, because they had to depend on one another, and there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity for anonymity then, and its a little late now (we also didn't have access to any of the books we would need to have attained it, at launch). At this point, everyone can trust each other because they have some history together, but also because of what is basically an unspoken truce, and (maybe) respect for one-anothers' personal shit. Some people on the team might know enough about Smith to ruin what's left of his life, but the same goes for pretty much everyone else on the team - or could, if any of us bothered to do a little bit of digging. We all were real people as of a couple of months ago, so our secrets are pretty hard to hide. I like that about this game - and that was pretty much what I was reaching for when I first asked Angel to look into the new guy.

So, if we're throwing in a guy who we don't have any reason to trust, and who not only gives us no reason to trust him, but proceeds to demonstrate exactly why we shouldn't trust him in the first place - the problems Adamu brought up have gotten worse, not better. The fact that even DV thinks his suggestion ends with the team wanting his character dead (or out of the picture) seems like it would already be off to a bad start. The best-case scenario would be us letting him help us with this mission, but never offering to work with him again - and having him stalk us on every mission. I think we can do better than that.

Also, if our plan to break into this building is laying around on the Matrix for anyone who happens to see Angel to find... that means it is time to abort the mission. That pretty much solves our problem about "needing" a hacker this weekend, too. We'd miss out on some sweet favors, but it doesn't actually affect our bottom-line at all, so it definately wouldn't be worth the risk if random strangers start showing up asking about the details of our plan.

-------------------------------------

I have a scenario in mind, too, but mine is probably just as "non-ideal" for Error, as his was for Smith. I'm working towards it IC, in any case, because Smith believes he still has a choice in the matter (although we all know, OOC, that he's going to end up offering DV a place on the team). The basic gist of is meeting Error online, asap, and running the conversation like a job interview (because that is exactly what it is) - and that will give him the opportunity to lay down the ground rules, feel out the guy for what sort of a person he is, and see if he thinks Error would be a good fit, and to make sure Error thinks this team would be a good fit for him.

Chances are, neither of us will be completely happy with what the other person wants from us - but I'm sure we can make it work.

Added a quick addition to the top of my last IC post - seemed like an opportunity to reuse some of hte stuff I had previously written up.

Sledge's life can't be made any worse ATM, no matter who knows about it.

MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction.

The team works together because after the initial issues we've worked through, we all know we can't possibly screw a team mate over without destroying yourself as well.

In order to join the team and gain their trust, Error will need to do the same. Or at least appear to do the same.

Both Sledge and Adam have been through a run with a crazy hacker only coming along virtually, and it got really messed up. And there was no chance of teaching that darn hacker a lesson... but someday!!!, that hacker is on Sledge's list of people to have a conversation expressing her feelings with.

So, in practical terms, if despite Error's attempts to keep it all virtual, we can get a hold of him physically, then at that point I am confident it will work IC. Then Error needs to help the run to get the team on his side, and the team deals with a new teammate that is going to share the consequences of a run gone bad.

Fundamentally the team works together because we all share the consequences of failure.

Error would not attempt to keep it all virtual, in fact he would actually prefere the first business meeting (ie interview) to be face to face. But he is rather protective of his meat body and would try keep it as safe as possible-on the run iyself he would want a damn safe place to immerse, as far away from the action as possible without compromising performance. The interview is Error's personal version of hell , but he has come to accept such things.
So that plan works fine by me.

Smith is also going to prefer a in-person interview. He's no great hacker, but a good people-person, so he's a lot more comfortable dealing with his contacts face-to-face. I just figured we would start the process by meeting up online, because its like 3am, and he has no idea who or where you are, right now. At some point, before going into much detail about the job, I expect he would want ot meet somewhere - and eventually introduce you to the team.

The major problem with the whole interview thing, is that I think the back-and-forth could take a while, and that seemed ot be something Adamu was worried about. Everyone else would have to wait longer for that to play out - like when Smith was talking to Angel about it in the first place.

Another option would be to real-quick post some bullet-points about what we would both like to accomplish through such a thing - and not acutalyl play it out, but wrap it up in a IC post (or one from both of us) and just say it happened. If any thing required further resolving, it could probably be done OOC afterwards. One way or another, Error's gonna join the team, and its probably better done sooner than later so everyone else can come back into the scene.