The format you used definitely fed into the cutscene feel. It was really evocative in a way that is missing in some games. Lots of sound cues and scene color. Very nice.

One thing that you didn't do that I enjoy as a player is when GMs feed my PC the job through my fixer. Mostly because it gives me a sense that the GM knows what my character is about.

Like, for instance, Nathan isn't a shadowrunner. Not in any real sense. He's got goals that push him in that direction, but by the same token, he could end up entirely legit. He does what he does (drive people around) because he likes it. A lot. SO, my point is, he wasn't angling for any job that would make him as a shadowrunner (as is hinted at in your opening text), but he wouldn't be opposed to it. Follow?

Anyway, I have absolutely no complaints. And nothing but praise for players and GMs alike. I discovered after a dozen messages or so had been posted to the thread that I wasn't subscribed to the IC thread. Duh. Problem solved. Post rate should improve. Though I haven't quite found a voice for Nathan yet though. So expect him to vary for a while.

@Cedric - Harley or Chopper? Did I misread something somewhere? Or do we have a Harley and a Chopper?

constructive critisim:

I think the only way the intro could have been better is if you had described the bar and then provided the intial observation of the johnson and his intial greeting as the runners enter the room. Leaving it open ended so the runners could do their intro's and give their greetings and then the johnson could have started the meet.

the end of a cutscene should try to anticipate what the beginning or end of the characters cutscene will be so it flows flawlessly.

Is it bad etiquette to post on peoples OOC threads?? What if they ask questions ? hehe. My apologies if it is im new to the forums. I know better than to chat IC.

One thing that you didn't do that I enjoy as a player is when GMs feed my PC the job through my fixer. Mostly because it gives me a sense that the GM knows what my character is about

I had it played out as everyone got wind of the job (or your fixer in this case, and worked their way into the meet)[meaning behind the scenes your fixer convinced you]

I also did the cut scenes to lower the amount of posts needed to just arrive at the meet and all pc's would arrive within moments of each other and try to be on time for the meet.(This was to give a feeling of alienation to each other....as they are strangers to each other) (As well as to it being the GM...thats me, to set the tone and the scene...noticed you were rushed to the back? notice the room was dark with a table and chairs and one lone light? that's the atmosphere i was relaying)

It's hard to see by a post, but i'm not being defensive (i read this and it looks that way) i just want to relay my attempts so that everyone gets the geist of why i did it, and not just that its the GM doing his thing. (Besides its your world homes, I'm just GMing it)

I will take the above mentioned critism and blend it to create a "better" game for us all. I do believe to keep the ability of setting the atmosphere, i'll be using the cut scene route, with some open endedness...is that even a word?

Abbandon: I dont think its bad etiquette, as long as you respect the people in the thread, and it may help if you have good ideas...of course some might not like it.

I thought the meet was handled fine. I really liked the way you gave us the solid referent for the Johnson - everyone has seen that film, or if they hadn't, they were a DVD rental away from a full representation.
Likewise, although I am not technicallz savvy enough yet to do so myself, I really love the way Shadow and Ankle Biter have sent us links to key images. Very slick. Definitely adds something.

I've figured out rough OOC prices/availabilities for a few built to spec comm systems. Note that they include a commision for building the things, negotiate IC if you want to get around that.

Again note, there is no softare with these systems. As a free part of building the things I will move the softare accross from your current comm, but that's it. Include 2 weeks estimated build time in the availability, 3 weeks for "the Joygasm"

Kustom "Fairlight caliban"... Boy do they mark this one up a lot...
3000Y Availabillity 6/10. (Jackripper, all commlinks are availaility rating "-" as far as I can tell, the availabilities mentioned are for the hardware upgrade cost / availabilities table, using "build yer own" prices/availabilities on page 240)
Response 4 Signal 5

Kustom "Numba Kruncha"
5000Y Availability 10/10
Response 5 signal 5

Kustom Comdian-special, "The Joygasm"
11000Y Availability 14/14
Response 6 Signal 6

JackRipper

Ankle biter:

For all, Harley is my character's real name, Chopper is his street name. I'm still working out how he'd think of himself and stuff, I'm sorry for the confusion. He thinks of himself as Harley but his street name is Chopper and I'm trying to make use of those cues for better internal monologe etc. to add dramatic effect to the posts. Sorry.

Sorry to bug people again, but a question about the datatrail thingie.

In the book it talks about all wireless devices leaving trail, so I've got them all slaved to my POS commlink for protection (for what good that'll do) but my commlink still leaves a data trail.

If I want to buy a program or have one of the more technically competent persons in our crew (*pokes Comedian*) set up a system that spoofs my commlink's data trail with a simple command but, is that possible? Is it grossly illegal?

If someone would be kind enough to aim me at the right section of the book I'll read up on it but I'm coming up empty. I read page 218 which talks about spoofing but I'm not sure if I can have my commlink do that automatically or if it's illegal or what? It sounds illegal as hell since it says that Hackers do this all the time and I'd rather not get arrest for simply walking down the street.

Being in hidden mode should preven any other data trail being given right?

That's kind of how Dave and James works, but now I get it.

Dude, Ankle Biter, you're a riot.

Does that 'made the whole group laugh' karma award exist still? Because that's like the second spit-take I've made now.

Jack - character sheet errata -



I will be ready to go to the safehouse (i.e. ready for your safehouse cut-scene) just as soon as Shadow gives the word he's done everything he needs to do first.

Adamu thats fine with me as I missed it too.

I was thinking of adding a "player of the week" vote for an extra karma point. This would solely be from the players and not from me. (To include this is totally up to players)

Dude, anything that both gives an opportunity to score more karma and encourages posting sounds like a genius plan. Win-win.

Ankle biter

Do I need to break into any systems to find out more about the house/the J?

Ankle biter

Ok, I'll start a slow interrogation once I get some results on what the bug has seen.

Okay, looks like Asp and Sahara are ready for the "safehouse scene."

On the way there, it occurs to Asp that you can't really count on the J's security, and we could have been tailed from the meet. So he will be checking for tails on the way to the safehouse - not just looking, but taking a few side streets, quick turns, etc.



One more thing - once Asp has some time, he plans on doing some data searches. I am wondering about exactly what dice to use. What I mean is, the book says use data search skill + browse rating. By "data search skill," is it simply assumed that, like all skill tests, you add your linked attribute to that? Making it logic + data search + browse?
If not, then anyone with a logic at least two points higher than their data search skill is screwed for having the skill. In my case, 3 Logic minus one die equals 2 dice, double my data search skill of 1. But the same would be true of someone with 5 Logic and data search 3.
Wondering how you want to handle this.

Is Whizbang still posting to this group? I'm wondering about our magical muscle here.

I agree that that is the way it reads. The reason why is obviously piss-poor playtesting. This sort of question has come up on the boards before, though not in the exact same form.

I guess what I am looking for is a GM ruling.
Perhaps -
1) Allow logic+data search+browse
or
2) Allow highest of the two (logic or data search) + browse
or
3) Anti-spirit of rules as it seems, allow players to default even if they have the skill, so at least having the skill does not HURT them.

But I will go with whatever the GM rules.

I just got back home. Sorry I was unable to find an internet connection long enough to post at all. Am I still in the game?

Yes Blitz you still are...just having you meet up with them at safehouse.

I'm going to PM Whizbang.

If you have the browse program youre using that, if you dont you use your attribute (and it takes a lot longer...as the browse sifts through keywords on its own to piece together info)

Hey everyone give me a yay or nay on being readsy to continue. (Roll Call)

I will be posting the cut scene tommorrow so, you still have time to post

And to spoof for me and Chopper? What's that? (n00b to all things matrix going back to SR1)

Not quite sure I understand...are we going to move ahead as if I was there the whole time, or did you have a different intro for me to explain my absence from the meeting?

You Blitz were to meet them at the safehouse as you were elsewhere.

I'm ready assuming I've picked up my other, grossly illegal gear such as my grenades, Ingram, exta ammo etc.

Jack

Ced

Blitz, in the meet you were mentioned as arriving latter after you completed something for the "J"

So - for data search, your ruling is
data search + browse
or
data search + attribute?

As for my looking for tails, I reckon no news is good news.

I think Shadow and I are ready for the safehouse. I know I already said that, but you asked for a roll call since then, so there it is.

Looking forward to our own little episode of Big Brother! Cheers.

no tails......yet

As far as the data search you're right on the money. It just takes a long time to search without a browse program

I'm a ready bunny, was off upgrading my puter... In related news I now have a total Joygasm of a PC.

3ghz Pentium 4 processor
X1900 XTX Graphics
2GB DDR2 Ram
SATA 250GB HD

I've broken the next cut scene into two parts.

let me when you are ready to enter the actual building.

let me get my post up right quick

Ok this weekend (by the end of it) I will be giving out karma.

Any nominee's for the player's award should be posted and i'll tally and award the point.

Safely out of the running, I'm really torn about who to nominate - the players here are top notch - and the characters are all really interesting. So I guess I'll go with my previous comments and say 'Ankle Biter' for general amusement.

I second Sparky's nomination of Ankle Biter for player of the week, although that was a smokin' first post by Blitz - welcome aboard, Blitz.

I guess my last IC post makes Asp and Sahara ready to go inside.

Finally, was your description of the open space on the first floor meant to imply garage space? As we pull up, where does it appear we should park?

I'll cover it more in depth but yes, it is garage space on the first floor.

Thanks! Now it's going to seem like the result of ego bribery, but my vote goes to adamu, Im so intrigued by your little subplot storyline

Edit-
Thanks for the nominaitons, all, glad to hear you like my stuff. My vote is for the whole Chopper/Sahara thing going on.


Hey, Blitz,

Quick note, I arrived on scene straight after the meet, so I had probably already scoped the place and gone in by the time you turned up. Feel free to find me hangin' around inside, though.

JackRipper

Ok..the only problem is that since your header never shows time or location, there's no way for me to mesh my timeline with yours. Since the earliest arrival with a time was Adamu at 20:40 and that was too late for me to realistically have spent that much time breaking into a low security place and visiting the hosp, I assumed there wasn't anyone else there.

In order to avoid future mixups with timing, can you please include that info in the header when we're all off doing seperate things? I like the humor, but that information is really important for avoiding issues like this. To be honest, I get a bit confused with your dialogue posts (since you have so much going on) and it wasn't clear to me that you were at the actual safe house.

Edit, text on screen is too impersonal, please set tone of message to concilliatory, not confrontational.

Those bits had no time secitons as I asked how long it would take me to get there and didn't get an answer. I also asked what my spy fly saw when it was scoping the place too, and was waiting a response before posting my actual entry to the place, but then cutscene stuff happened. I'll edit in the times once I got the journey length.

The seperate sections were on the journey there, wonders of a machine sprite as a chauffer. They took about 15 minutes realtime. I just dunno how long the journey was supposed to take.

I PM'ed you Ankle and said that I'd prefer not to double post the same information twice, I also further stated that I would let you know what extra bits of info you'd get from your drone. While I understand you are anxious to play your character there were other considerations i thought i had made clear, specifically the point on another PC being on vacation and the need for every PC to caught up. So yes I left you hanging on the time so you wouldnt jump ahead of the rest.

Time from Capital Hill to Interbay is 1 hour 30 minutes at that time of day.

That you did, I was responding to Blitz mentioning my lack of time in my posts, I understand why I did not have that info, sorry, I was explaining to blitz, not accusing to you.

Alrighty..so if you left directly from Cafe Noir to the safe house, the earliest you would have made it was 18:30 (since you left the cafe at just after 1700) Since you stopped at your house and that club, Im not sure what time you got to the safe house. Not really sure how my post needs to be modified.

Okay I dont think everyone has posted a nominee or voted so, i'll dole out that point later.

would you all prefer karma awards public or private?

Either way is fine by me. Both have their advantages. But that's wishy washy, so... um... Private.

I'm sorry, I vote for Ankle, cause his posts are hilarious. Adamu, don't think I wasn't torn because you're posts are creating an extremely real view and depth of a very conflicted person.

Public is fine with me for karma awards, I care not.