Also, Pragma... and I don't know if we're using them, or if they even matter here because I don't have a copy yet... but in the new 20th anniversary edition of SR4, they apparently made some changes to how drain is calculated (so hopefully those show up in errata soon).

Might save you some of that drain, if you (or Adamu, or someone else in this game) happens to have a copy handy - assuming we would be using those new rules (which is up to Adamu).

I'd wait till SR4a actually goes to print before committing to using the new rules. Since we only have the PDF, and it hasn't gone to the printers, it's possible there may be some last minute changes to that edition before it goes to print.

I want to make it clear I don't actually know of any, and that anyone who did know of any, they would not be able to say anything about it because of NDAs etc...

It's just that in this situation it is possible for changes to occur between the release of the pdf, and the book going to print, we should be aware of that.

So are we looking for a new hacker?

All good points. I knew at this point that it was only available in PDF, but didn't know it had not been marked "ready for print", or not.

Oh well. Enjoy the Headache, Fort!

After how that went last time? o_O

In the event that DV is idle for too long, and Adamu wants to keep things moving, my vote is to press on without matrix support on this one (since its way too late to find a new hacker IC) - maybe say he's doing stuff in the background if need be, so he can pick it back up if he returns before we're done.

If we get through the mission without hearing from him, we can worry about it then.

Shit, sorry guys. I am here. I feel like a royal ass and I don't have a good excuse.
And I just remembered that I forgot to pay my internet and phone bill, and will have both cut off if I don't go and pay them tonight (long story short, I don't dare to online banking because I KNOW I have a keylogger virus I haven't been able to remove, but a nearby branch of my bank has a twenty-four hour banking terminal for this kind of thing).
Its almost 1am here....
This kind of thing has been happening every time I try to post for this game. Something else important happens at the same time and I forget to post...
Okay. Anyway, time is ticking and i need to pay those bills and sleep, but the moral of the story is that unfortunatelly I am only here for another week, then gone for three weeks on a trip around Europe.
I don't know what the odds are I can get all the required hacking done by then. I asked if you guys had any intel for ERROR or any information other then the general instruction "make everything go smooth" and I haven't heard a reply so I will presume not.
Okay. I will really try to get all the hacking done ASAP, now, I am off to pay bills.

I need sleep again so I am not sure if I am being a bit loose with formatting. I am also making some assumptions. Like that I will be able to find the node for the target building. I didn't bother with a data search.
I will start with the node for the target building.


R6 Sleuth sprite w/ 2 tasked owed will decrypt node if required.

Threading Stealth [stealth]
Software 4+Res 6+HotVR 2= 12 dice
4, 2, 1, 4, 5, 4, 6, 2, 4, 2, 3, 2= 2 hits

Soak
2, 4, 6, 2, 6, 6, 4, 5, 5, 6, 4, 5,
5

All fading soaked.
[/stealth]

Stealth currently at R8

Attempting to crack node going for security access. I will stop taking actions when I get security access. Let me know if I didn't roll enough hits, but I am pretty sure I did.

No fading, Expoilt at 9

first Complex Action
Hacking 6+expoit 9+Full VR2-Sustaining 2=15 dice
4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 6, 5, = 3 hits

2nd Complex Action: Same
1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6, 6, 5, 3, 3, 5, 6, 2, 4, 1,= 6 hits
Total 9 hits

3rd Complex Action: Same
1, 3, 6, 4, 1, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 6,= 4 hits
Total 13 hits

Divine Virus - you are in after two complex actions. No indication you have been detected. Yes, there are IC.

Since you are going to be gone in a week, here is what we will do:
First, I will tell you what it could take us a few back & forths to figure out - this is a fairly high-rated system, but it is actually a total pushover for you at this time - they have not yet loaded the full complement of IC, and are not dedicating much processing power or a spider to it, per the general parameters of the security briefing you got from your Johnson. So basically the building system is a gimmie provided you don't do anything that is very noticeable to the meat world outside the system.

Second, this gives us time for us to try to get a meaningful start on whatever other hacking you may choose to do in preparation for the run - you said, "I will start with the node for the target building," so I am assuming you have other things you want to get done.

Third, we will do what we can next week, and base how we handle your absence on that.

Okay, I guess the next step will just be to see what systems I have access to.
Can I find security cameras suscribed to this node?
Schematics of the buildings?
Other nodes in network with node which do deal with security?
Patrol routes?
Comm frequency for Security guard?
Schedules?
Proceedures for crews arriving?
Policy and procedure manuel for security?
Anything relating to the security of the building, or how it deals with work crews, is what it boils down to. Or security of its nodes.
I guess I need a bunch of data search tests for this.

God I need sleep
Total 10 hits over 5 turns for browse

Okay.
I am going to forward all the security information to Smith, and let him know I should be able to control cameras and lights at the very least. Ask him for further instructions. Also, for the sake of impressing Smith and proving ERROR a good hacker, I did acquire all this in less then thirty seconds.
I am going to compile a map of the building overlayed with the cameras fields of view. So people can know where any blind spots in camera security are, how many cameras are watching them at any given time, and what is the ID of the cameras watching them. Give a copy to Smith as well.
Note that I am not leaving the node, just existing in two nodes at once. (My home node of my commlink and the building node)
You said climate and security nodes are currently active: am I in one of those two nodes or am I in an "entrace" node?
Sorry I don't have time for an IC post.
I will also roll now for erasing security logs, though I will not do so until I am all done tampering for now. I will let you know when I will be doing the erasing.

I am going to drop my threading on stealth

Just a reminder that there will be the minor issue of driving a stolen truck and goods through the saturday night downtown traffic.

After my meeting today, I will try to capture some of this in an IC post.
Major comments:
* We probably can't avoid being on camera, but we will want to make sure Error is doing either real-time editinig (if no one is looking) or an after-action cleanup (or both).
* We expect one guard, tracking his movements using their own cameras seems like a good idea.
* What Sledge said

Blah. Okay. I only have a few days left. Could you please clarify what needs to be done about the truck electronically? Spoof a gridlink? Erase it from cameras? Reprogram its RFIDS?
How many hours left until the run?
Smith, would it be okay if the camera footage with you guys on it simply removed, or would you want it edited out no matter what?

We've already wiped it clean wit han RFID eraser, and purchased morphing plates and spoof chips for the truck (and the van). So that should be okay. However, there was a truck mathcing this description stolen a day or two ago, so I think people might be on the lookout, and someone might notice if we're driving it through a busy downtown area (also, its big, so it might cause some traffic jams that get investigated).

I don't think its reasonable to hack every camera and drone in the area to make us get by unseen, though. I'm not sure what, if anything, we can really do. It might help if we could divert traffic away from our location at the critical times (coming in and going out) just to reduce the number of people/drones who spot us, and hte number of traffic problems we cause.


2ish?

I'm not sure what the difference is. Ideally, the footage is never recorded (maybe command the cameras to watch, so you can see what is going on, but insure that no records are actually kept). If that is a problem, see if you can edit the feeds, like they do in just about every movie, so that the cameras are watching a recorded loop of nothing going on (and so don't see us). Lastly, if they must see us, we either need our faces blurred out, or the records destroyed.

I'm not sure how much you can get away with without alerting the node and the R1 agent that something is amiss. I assume it would notice, and flag someone if all of the cameras started recording static (as part of maintenence, or something).

Dealing with IC is my specialty. With my spoof, I can give them basically any instruction.
So I could tell the IC no to watch the cameras within a certain window of time. I could order it to erase any footage with a metahuman in it instead of sending an alert. I have a few options.

Diverting traffic... if I had a day to prepare I would say no worries. Now, I am not sure.
Adam, could I spoof a command to a traffic light?

All the spoofing IC stuff sounds perfect. On site, I'm only worried about the matrix side of things if an alarm goes off... and its looking like either the physical guard would have ot trigger it, or the dumb IC on the node.

Getting from the site I am also not as worried about, since (other than a desire to keep the job nice and tidy) we don't HAVE to bring the cutter or truck or radar back with us. We could just take the Love Machine home, if we're worried about being spotted.

Getting THERE seems like the most likely source of complications, since we have to bring our heavy machinery in - and the local security for the area is a lot better than the on-site security (we hope). You might be able to coordinate some sort of system crash of the local traffic grid (almost as a distraction to let us get by unrecorded and unobserved) except that if GridGuide went down in an area, and the traffic cams/lights stopped working, we would almost certainly be stranded in a parking lot - and when the authorities arrived to help resolve the chaos, we would have a greater chance of being seen than before.

if we can carefully arrange for there to be less traffic in the area, it seems like that could only help us get in quickly. Anything we do to disrupt, redirect, or otherwise mess with the cloud of everpresent drones in the area will only draw attention to that area as soon as somebody notices.

Even if it was possible, you would need to (quickly) locate the ID of a legitimate node to do such a thing (like a cop car, ambulance, or similar emergency vehicle). Also, in 2070, they may not leave that sort of decision up to each individual driver, and probably control the traffic situation from some central command hub (where they can provide overwatch for whatever team is on the ground).

You could spoof them, I suppose, but you would need to figure out who "they" are, in the next few hours - and if we knew that, we could get a lot better control of the situation if we could get you inside their system too (although it would probably be very difficult).

In either case, they would almost certainly use an encrypted signal to keep bored script-kiddies from causing massive car crashes that kill hundreds of people. Luckily, signal encryption cannot be made "strong" - so assuming even mediocre rolls, you should be able to decrypt any traffic going between the two in a matter of seconds.

To travel through a high security area such as AAA rated downtown you must have an open PAN. Items moving through that don't have a PAN are investigated. The truck is big. It will be noticed and checked. Not a huge deal if the spoofing chips and morphing plates work. Obviously there is a lot of stuff in downtown that might track and check things, so hacking them all is unrealistic. I would focus on how to identify when and how we get "buzzed" or scanned and checking if we get a response. At that point we might be able to actively Hack. But the goal is to avoid anything active if possible.

We need to drive the stolen truck and equipment through downtown, and then we need to work at the building for up to 24 hours after having driven a stolen truck and equipment through downtown. The building itself isn't a real Matrix challenge.

Figure out what might get us caught, avoid that. Figure out a route that avoids the most queries against the truck. Figure out how to tell when we are checked, and there will be some that we can't tell if we have been checked since we must actively broadcast.

At the end we'll probably try and return most of the stolen stuff just so there is less incentive to investigate what happened other then the property damage. But we probably don't care that much about that.

....in two hours? This would be a lot easier with an few registered sprites, time to build backdoor, not be hacking on the fly, etc
Alright. ERROR cannot crash the GridGuide. He MIGHT be able to pull it off in two hours, but that kind of brute force is not his specialty. He doesn't even have sprites who can really pull that kind of thing.

Spoofing a traffic light is easy. You use Sniffer to find out who is sending it signals. You use Track to trace the signal to the user and get their Access ID, and then you just spoof away.
Spoofing any camera or sensor or remote device is easy that way.
I need to run now. I will wait to hear back from Adam on traffic lights, and also time to brainstorm more about how to get you guys through traffic.

Don't underestimate the simple option of simply being in VR and doing Computer + Analyze to see what's going on and responding to it. That actually may be all we need. Plus a Sprite with Suppression.

Thing is I am gone in about two days max. So me doing overwatch isn't very practicle. I could set up a large network of trafficlights spoofed to change at a certain time. The orders would all be given ahead of time, so I could do all the rolling here and now. The network of changes would be designed to cause widespread distraction while still allowing you a safe route to the building.
Does that sound like a workable idea?

I'm pretty sure Adamu will accept the concept of an overall plan, and be willing to roll dice for you if needed, which may very well be not required.

Okay. I am leaving tomorrow, so this is my last post for the next couple of weeks.
That is my overall plan. Adam has my email, and can reach me through that- I will check it when I can.
Now goodnight.

Sorry - Internet crashed AGAIN. This is getting very frustrating, but it is a good object lesson in socialism.

Have staked out a big block of time 24 from now in which to get caught up.

Well, here I am five days past the promised bump, and no more time than before.

People, I don't have to tell you all what a half-assed job I've been doing as GM for basically the last year.
Some issues with the boards here, but none with you all - you are all aces, and I have appreciated both your enthusiasm and your patience.

The main thing is that the Time Taking Trinity of Work/Family/Church have got me just crazy crazy busy. I am doing too many things, and the result is that I am doing none of them well. Either something has to give, or I have to reorganize things to be more efficient.

It has gotten to a point where I still love SR, but don't love playing because I am always under time pressure.

But there is so much that seems like it is ABOUT to happen in both the games I GM (not to mention my long-term schemes), that I am not yet beaten - I do not want to quit GMing these games.

So, if you will be patient, my current plan is as follows.
Through the end of May, my posting will happen when it happens, which may be some but certainly not much.
My target is to try to get the Trinity into some sort of a controllable system and catch up on some big projects, and hopefully be able to resume reliably posting twice a week from the beginning of June.

This might cost us some momentum, but then my scant posting has already pretty much done that anyway. This is the only plan I can think of to avoid just scrapping the campaign, which I really don't want to do.

Works for me.

Maybe DV will be done with his trip by then too.

JD

Works for me too. Glad to hear that you don't want to scrap the campaign, yet, but the "Trinity" are all probably more important than keeping up with Shadowrun forums, and I would hate to hear that the pressure turned you off to Shadowrun altogether.


Just keep us posted. I'm sure we'll all be here when you get more free time.

We're still here

I'm not going anywhere.

Also, it's worth mentioning that these are, hands down, the best games on this board and I've got nothing but enthusiasm and patience as a result.

And I am mostly back, but not fully. Full functionality resumes early next week.

Just checking in to make sure we are all still here.

JD

Still here. None of the games I am in seem to be moving, though. :-/

Still In.

Not going anywhere am I.

I am still here, but I am not checking dumpshock very frequently, maybe once a week. This in the only game I am taking part in on this site. Adamu has my email though, and I check that daily if he needs to get in touch with me. Of course, I will be checking this site daily once I get work Adam is back and ready.

Okay - just to let everyone know that I was serious about returning to twice-weekly activity from June.

Was going to sign on and ask for a roll-call of who was still with me, but reviewing the last few pages, seems we are in good shape.

I see that the only outstanding query to me involves traffic lights.
Of course there is nothing intrinsic to the nature of traffic lights that makes them any different from any other machine.
Key questions would involve mechanical vs. digital control, and who has access to that control, and how they communicate with the light.

The answer is yes, but it's the same qualified yes I would give if you asked me if you could spoof a command to UCAS nuclear launch facilities (do any of those still exist after that first trilogy of SR novels?).
Yes, you can. But can you?

I would tell you some things about the lights in Seattle, but how can I since you still have not provided your knowledge skills.

In any case, to jumpstart this thing I will basically restate what I had said and confirm some of the points made by DR ahd BH - who have been with this scenario from the start - the building's nodes are essentially yours, but one of the challenges of the run is indeed that it is in a AAA area....

Good things said regarding how to handle that. Again, it depends on details of how such things are run in my world - some you would all know, other knowledge is more specialized - which brings us back to Error's knowledge skills, or those of anyone is asks IC.

One key point is that now that you have access to the cameras, the maps JD and I made are no longer "based on what Sledge remembers" but can be real time - and you can look at what you like. So you have confirmation that the maps posted are accurate, and if you have questions on the view let me know.

Speaking of maps, I finally did the last one and will be sending to JD soon.

So to get started from here, I think it is a matter of:

1) DV's knowledge skills
2) Anything Error or anyone else wants to do in the couple of hours till jump-off (including RP)
3) Link up however you wish with Fort.
4) Move into play by play as you do the run.

Again, I may or may not be posting for rest of May, but will really really really be TRYING to keep up twice-weekly come June.
Thank you all for your patience.

Happy to edit my post if anyone has any major interactions with Smith in the two-hour wait (or if I made some mistakes about what other people were up to), otherwise I'm happy to move along once we're all ready.

... begin the waiting montage.

Auto-successing two two-hour watchers. I'm fairly sure all of the information about his status on the Wiki is correct.

Fort plans to fly to the building (where he's been before astrally, so navigation shouldn't be too tough), do a quick check for new outstanding astral of physical security measures, and then sit outside waiting for any trucks full of shadowrunners to pull up.

It strikes me that a particularly cruel twist for Adamu to put in the plot would be some other team of shadowrunners arriving while we worked. Brace yourselves.

Okay - June is here and I am tentatively back to two bumps a week.

pragma - quick check for astral security turns up the same as last time = none.

Everyone - now that you've jumped off IC, my next task is to do an IC post setting the scene downtown.
Have not heard from DV lately, though.
And I am the first to admit I am in absolutely no position to demand players to snap to attention and post. So to be fair in light of my hiatus, I am going to hold off till next week in hopes we hear from DV - he knows we were shooting to get back into action from this date.

If I don't hear from him by sometime next week, we will go into classic NPC-hacker mode and move forward.

Dropping him a quick email might get him to check up - but otherwise I am sure he will within the next week.

Yes, given my hiatus, I suppose it is incumbent upon me to mail him.

But in any case, here I was, ready for this week's second bump.

Heard from DV - he's got exams right now but says he will be with us shortly.

awesome.

Well - hopefully those exams will end soon!

Me - my Internet has been down for the past week.

Anyway, I have finally relayed all details on the latest map to JD. At such time as that is complete, we move forward come hell or high water.

So now I'm the one holding up the game. :grinbig:

I'll get it done as quickly as I can gang.

JD

Considering it took me about a year to get that last map to you - I'd hardly call you a hold-up!

We're right about to slip off of page 2, so... bump.

Are we still waiting on a map? Is Error back with us?

I'm still working on the final map of the building.

I'm over half way done but do need some feedback from Adamu at some point.

I'll keep you all up to date.

JD

abject apologies to all
computer went totally belly-up
getting repaired now...but I am in the UK
FULLY intended to live up to my commitments from June, and then this
as soon as i have computer i will be back online as promised for those that have not given up on me
adamu