I can do Engineering, Intelligence, Quartermaster, Medical Officer, Communications Officer to various extents.

I'm already taking care of finances/ship equipment so it makes sense that I take over Quartermaster as well. No one else seems to be offering up for Medical Officer so I'll handle that as well (Reasonably competent). I (think) I have the highest mechanic skills, so I'll throw my hat in for that as well (I'm running out of hats!).

I think Meli can do the hacking thing better than me, so I'll leave communications to her (Though I have a bit of encrypting and EW skill, so might be able to assist a bit). Not really sure what is required of Intelligence officer (skill wise), but could likely do that reasonably well with a bit of training.

Know I can only take three, but figured I'd throw out everything I/Jane would be good at. Like I said, the one she has the most actual skill for is engineering, the rest are just that she has some relevant skill in and/or I'd be somewhat interested in.

Ckass ended early, so I'm logging on from school given that my bus home won't come for another hour+.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned what I just noticed: I laid out more positions then there are people.

Given that, I'm combining Quartermaster and Chief Mate into the Quartermaster position, Basically, if it has to do with the cargo holds, this person handles it.

For Gunnery officer: You'll, logically, be responsible for shooting any shipmounted weaponry. Hence, have Gunnery skill.

For Intel officer: None of you have the skills, but then I do not see too many rolls (I have no idea what skills in SR4 would even apply!) associated with this post. It's RP, mostly.


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Going by player, these are the nominations I see:

Marwynn: Thaumaturgical Officer (Which I am hence abbreviating as MAG), possibly Intel

CD: Navigation and Intel

Ears: Eng or Gunnery

Whizbang: Gunnery, Nav, or Comms

MusicMan: Marine CO, Quartermaster

Budoka: Marine CO, Quartermaster

Karoline: Seemingly everything.
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Some meditations on the matter:

Every role will, to a greater or lesser degree, get its due over the course of a campaign. Some roles are OOCly hard to make exciting - but ICly, each of them needs filling.

If you guys decide a role ICly probably would not take up someone's time, it can be combined - Quartermaster and Chief Mate worry about largely the same stuff, so I combined them into the Quatyermaster role, for example. The goal is to make sure that both in and out combat, everyone is doing -something-.

Also, some quick rationale:

While everybody will, to a degree, cross-train, the roles you get appointed to/elected to will determine your training in this initial phase - the Captain will arguably get different training than the XO.

I kinda figure that purser, quartermaster, and Chief mate are all similar enough that they should likely be done by the same person, since the finances will largely affect what the quartermaster has, the cargo will largely affect the finances and possibly what the quartermaster has and so on. We can totally split it ICly, but I figure it will be easier if one person OOCly does the whole 'bookkeeping' thing.

Good idea. QM and Chief Mate are already the same person and count as one post, so...

I'd like to toss in Alan's name for the position of Gunnery Officer; he's got a higher degree of proficiency operating mounted (ballistic) weaponry than anyone else on the crew, except for Melissa, who's Gunnery skill is strictly better. But I also feel like I'd have a lot of fun looking up ship schematics and working with the rest of the officers to develop tactics and plan assaults. The only other position I feel like he'd be any good at (when compared to the rest of the party) would be Chief Mate; Al strikes me as the type of character that's not interested in the broad responsibilities granted to other positions -- just give him an objective, like "guard this cargo", and I think he'll do great.

-milk.

We could totally create a 'guard' position for you, but be warned, it lowers your body to 1, you lose your name, and your weapon skill drops to 0

Also, do we really need a gunnery officer when we have no mounted weapons? Oh, I guess the White Knights on the smart platforms count.

The Gunnery officer, to be fair, is for the day if you eventually GET mounted weapons.

I suppose so. Too bad the ship can't -fit- any mounted weapons, but I suppose we can get to that as well

One of my early goals would be to see us snag a back-up vessel...one that can be rigged ideally, and left unmanned. That we could always put guns on

We shall name it the UCASS (or whatever) Floating Gun Platform.

Oh I hope Penta's open for some Over Modification on the Fedallah. It's gonna cost us a pretty penny, or somebody's penny anyway. 13k for a non-main gun hidden turret, or 23k for a main gun turret concealed turret. 8-9 slots.

Maybe we can get a loaner Main Gun from our bosses. A free GE Heavy Vanquisher Autocannon (11P/-6 FA) is 20k. A cheap alternative is the Ares Vigorous Assault Cannon (10P/-5 SS), with the mount it's 17k total.

Whoever ends up being our Gunnery officer might like that.

Actually, I was thinking that since my character is, arguably, going to end up in the "fire support" role more often than most anyone else (being that he is an advanced marksman). I think he could DNI the the smart-platforms through his datajack to give them up-to-date orders and let the pilot progam handle the actual aiming while he was operating his sniper rifle. If we drop enough money for "automated" turrets, he could do the same thing there as well.

Alexander can take Gunnery, Budoka's char can do Marine, and Ear can do engineering?

No, guys, from when the game started you have to get everything yourselves. Sorry.

I wouldn't allow over-modding anyway.
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Annnnyhow.

I'll move things on tomorrow before school - you get free chatter til then.

I expect, I hope that by the time I do move things along, at least one person has confirmedly nominated themselves for CO, XO, and Purser.
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Next up: I'm pondering the internal layout of the Fedallah. As you all know OOCly, it underwent "extensive modifications" at the yards by the UCAS Navy.

Here's my dilemma: Do I organize the ship a la a warship (with at most a mess hall and a wardroom, but with a crew this small, more likely a single mess hall for the crew, with perhaps a second mess hall for any "guests"), or do I organize the ship as a yacht (with admittedly lesser amenities)?

I already figure you each get your own quarters. The bridge remains basically naval (since no "outsiders" should ever be there) - for safety and security reasons, any features which would allow control of the ship outside certain designated areas are disabled.

But why I vacillate:

While on the one hand, it'd be simpler to just keep things according to the plans...On the other hand, it *really* helps RP, in my experience, if characters have central gathering places. A central mess hall is a good example. A fitness area. The bridge. Places where everybody generally has reason and opportunity to be, places to gather the crew all in one place, etc.

The yacht at present, because real yachts don't worry about such things, doesn't have that.

Secondly: I've been considering general atmosphere.

Yes, the corridors will be somewhat wider and taller than naval standard. They will still feel cramped. (For Ears, they'll probably feel claustrophobic.)

The doors will still in fact be watertight hatches (with thresholds you basically have to step *over*).

The ship will basically be a commercial build...Yet militarized to an extent in safety features and general design.

But otherwise, should I be thinking 'yacht' or thinking 'warship'?

Waryacht.

That's not helpful.

Thank you, I try.

*sighs*

You've made me do it.
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From the sky comes a resounding "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......................."

Then, there's a great THUD as a cow lands on MusicMan.
---

This ThorCow brought to you by blatant stupidity.

Next time it'll be a misaimed thorshot, not merely a cow.

I'll throw up an IC self nomination post for purser in a bit.

In the mean time, to address the waryacht

In my experience, people with millions and millions of dollars to throw away on boats don't like them having cramped conditions, so I'd imagine that the yacht would actually have fairly spacious corridors, and generally be easy to move around in. The plans (http://www.yachtphoenix.com/megayacht/) support this by showing the main corridors being roughly a meter and a half wide. Remember, yachts are built as mobile vacation locations, people who are going to spend time in them want it to be as comfortable as possible.

Now, it is possible that UCAS could have gone out of their way to make the yacht more uncomfortable, but given that it did in fact start life as a pleasure yacht, I'd imagine they would really have to specifically go "Okay, we need to narrow these corridors so the crew doesn't feel too comfortable." I'd imagine even our big troll friend would be able to move around without a great deal of trouble. Now, I can very much see the military adding watertight doors every so often for security and safety and such, and those would give some problems, but for the most part the plans seem to indicate a fairly roomy place.

The plans also show very specifically several meeting areas. If anything the ship has -too many- of them as opposed to not enough. There is a gym on the sun deck (Looks to be roughly 6m x 4m), two lounges on the upper deck (One inside and about 12x18 and one outside and about 6x10) as well an outdoor table on the upper deck. There is a formal dinning room/salon on the main deck which is about 10x20, along with another outdoor table for sitting/eating. There is also a crew messhall on the lower deck.

Now, I admit we might be missing a couple pianos, a bar or two, and even a handful of chairs, but for the most part this space is still going to exist, and will be more or less for the original purpose. We can use the dining room/salon on the main deck as our war room, as well as for designated meals. I'm guessing most of us will congregate in the indoor lounge when we want to be social, the outdoor when we want the fresh air, and use one of the half dozen other spots when we want to be more alone. I think this allows for a good level of 'meet-n-greet' as well as that level of 'me-time' that everyone requires. Honestly we have enough locations that everyone could be basically on their own at different parts of the ship without relying on our rooms (Oh, and don't forget the owner's study), but at the same time we have enough -central- locations that we'll get together fairly often.

I say for the most part just leave the plans as they are on the blueprints. Obviously we won't have the pianos, and our beds will be smaller and less comfortable, and the chandelier will be gone and so on, but otherwise the ship's basic form is likely to remain roughly the same. If you completely re-tool it to be a warship, then you are ignoring the ship's background as a pleasure craft, and really bringing into question why the government would have bought an already built and outfitted ship and taken some stuff out, as opposed to buying a bare bones ship and adding stuff in (Which would have been cheaper, they can only get it for so little at an auction, especially if it had all kinds of 'extra luxury upgrades' like it mentioned in the background, other big business execs and stuff would still want it.)

In short my advice is leave the plans as they are, throw in some port door things for added military feel and security, make it feel somewhat bare bones (All the expensive ritzy stuff was replaced with stuff that doesn't break (The personal armor type things)), and it should work out quite well.

Welcome to the Waryacht

Making the layout "un-yachtly" will make us very suspicious if we ever got hardcore scanned or boarded by any government. Its hard to explain the purpose for a war-room in your luxury yacht.

However, if I recall, we still plan on using the "We are helping rich kids play shadowrun" excuse, so shouldn't our ship layout be set up to facilitate that? Clearly we have a cargo space, a large mess, a "control room" where we can manage our SR games from, perhaps some sort of briefing room that is set up to look like a Mr. J's office. On top of this, with all the physical types running about, we most likely will have to include some sort of fitness area, I'm not sure how big our deck space is, but a court out there to play murderball or something, maybe a cheap mechanism off of the rear to play target practice (LXG anyone?). All of these provide pretty excellent places to meet and socialize, IMO, and they also don't breach our cover, nor are they particularly un-yachtly.

I say, make it like a yacht, but with a few oddball rooms to facilitate having wealthy corp kids play at being runners.

The owner's study would likely make a good J's office for our cover. We do have a small gym which likely still has a walker, stair stepper, and a handful of other workout devices (One thing the government would want to keep so we can stay in shape). more than that... I think we have enough room to run laps around the ship on the main/upper deck if you don't mind some stairs. We had planned on using that rear area of the sun deck as a landing pad for our air based drones, so that is a decent 10x10 meter area that could be used for some 'quarter court' murderball or whatever (Though it'll be fun when you guys have to go diving to get the ball from out of bounds )

It is a very good point that as this is supposed to be an undercover thing, and decking the ship out as a warship will make it very hard to keep that cover if anyone actually looks at us at all.

Thoughts on the yacht issue:

1. How tall are trolls? And how high are the ceilings on the yacht?

2. LXG, CD? Huh?

3. You guys need space for stuff like, say, your aeronautics shop, etc, etc.

1. Trolls are upwards of 2.5m tall, the ship seems to have normal house heights for its rooms, which makes them somewhere close to 3m in height. So Troll doesn't even have to duck except for getting through doors (And even then only a little).

2. LXG = ... something to do with target practice? CD = ... where did you see that? edit: Oh, you said CD, as in Collateral Dynamo

3. The aeronatuics shop is replacing the space for the second tender boat, with the space for the first one being used for our Zodiac. The rooms are huge, so we won't have any problems with personal affects. I'd imagine the smuggling compartment is hidden somewhere under the plans (Like the fule/water tanks are). The only thing we'll really have any problems with is the stuff we steal from other ships. I figure we can close off that aft swim platform on the lower deck and convert it into a storage area for things like that. For big things there is also a fairly decently sized clear area on the lower aft deck where we could maybe keep a shipping crate, though we'd have a job hiding it, so would likely want to rummage it and get rid of it as soon as we can, or go into an allied/secret port real quick.

About the Intelligence Officer, do we have any one who is any knowledge skills in surveillance? In my humble understanding, field intelligence work generally comes in three parts: eaves dropping, surveillance, and assets. With our Face, it would seem that we have enough people skills to develop assets and make turncoats.

General note about intelligence work: it can take a lot of time. Collecting information about someone or something can take long periods of performing surveillance for the very rare occurrence that something useful will happen or working people to give up the goods willing and without alarm. I'm sure we can do it, but it might really slow the pace down.

I don't think we do, so it is basically just whoever wants it the most and/or who has good relevant stats (Int or Log I would think)

I think he means data analysis when he says intelligence officer. Alexander can do that if no one else wants to.

The only thing that's popping in my head with LXG is "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

Hmm, I think I overlooked that part about surveillance. Though Iago wouldn't have a background in analysis, I think he would know how to set up that. Hmm Knowledge Skills... don't know what you don't got since you don't have it.

I'd be willing to do the Intelligence Analysis. OOC, I have plenty of knowledge about real-world intel analysis. However, that is not IC. If the GM is alright with this, I will nominate myself for Field Intel Analyst.

Alexander wouldn't touch Intelligence Analysis if he had the choice. Gathering intel is one thing, he does not have the skills really needed to do a proper analysis the was meant for anything more than tactical planning.

Intel officer seems to me to be the guy that collates all the data and prepares to send the intel packet to our Jay. Using surveillance, interrogation, and negotiations would just be methods for getting the data that goes in our report. As XO, and therefore the guy primarily involved in day to day affairs, intelligence reports seem to be things that either Zalermo should be writing directly, or getting on his desk regularly before they are sent out. Zalermo has volunteered for the job, but if someone else wants to do the grunt work, thats fine with him.

Also, yes, LXG was a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen referrence...maybe I am too old. None of you remember the long heart warming scene with Sean Connery and that American Ponce guy out on the deck of their submarine shooting ceramic balls? C'mon!

After discussing this with CD, in the interest of moving you guys from your fugue of trying to figure out who does what, I'm going to OOCly appoint people, since it wouldn't do for Walker to go back on his word about the CO appointing to posts.

I tried to take preferences into account. At the end of the day, though, skills won out. The list is done by player name, not character.

Engineering Officer: Karoline
Gunnery Officer: Budoka05
Marine CO: MusicMan
Thaumaturgical Officer: Marwynn
Intelligence Officer: *CollateralDynamo
Quartermaster: Budoka (no skills required)
Medical Officer: Karoline
Navigation Officer: Ears
Communications Officer: Whizbang

Intel officer really requires no skills, but will get a crash course towards the Intelligence Analysis knowledge skill.

Expect an IC post later today.

Aww, only two posts and no quartermaster for me. Should make some fun IC play as Budoka has to get his budget approved by me

Edit: Also, I hope ears knows enough English to provide "Left" or "Right" directions

Ohh, a crash course in "Intelligence Analysis"!? I'm sure I'll stay awake! Sounds sooooooo exciting. (Quit my desk job for a reason)

What is this left and right you talk about? It's starbord or port.

Don't forget "fore" and "aft". But whatever, while you kids do cargo, I'll be in the "head".

I figure with an English skill of 2, it is left and right, front and back.

Perhaps Melisandre needs to get to work coding a translator program for him.....

To ease communication I'll now give you the definitive guide to Troll <-> English concerning this topic:

left <-> *GRUNT*
right <-> *GRUNT*
No, you dipshit, the other left/right! <-> *SMACK OVER THE HEAD*

I hope this answers all questions.

She'd need to know Hausa first.

Anyway, to describe in-processing.

Before breakfast, you left your weapons and other gear bags with a Petty Officer, who brought them to your quarters. Or led a drone carrying them to your quarters. (Jane, this includes your drones. No drones at the table.)

After breakfast, each of you is taken aside by Roberts, to meet a Petty Officer who's running the computer setup.

You're asked to provide a palmprint and a voice print. Roberts explains that the ship has extensive AR features; some added by the Navy, some from the original ship. Most important while you're new to the ship is the "guidance lights" on the wall - they'll guide you to any specified destination aboard ship, and are activated by voice command specifying the location, followed by a palm applied to a nearby pad on the wall. You then follow your assigned color code, which lights up for only your AR view to reduce confusion.

OOCly and ICly, the idea is a direct rip-off of an idea seen in "Ender's Game" for the kids, and being the Ender's game geek that I am, I'll be assigning color codes accordingly.

The phrase for the voice configuration is "My voice is my passport. I am <name you wish to be known by the ship's computer as. Make sure it's one you'll recognize automatically!>. Verify me." Movie geeks, you win no karma for recognizing where that's from, but if you do without looking it up, you win a cookie. It's a very shadowrunny movie, to me.

The color codes, by player name.

Knight Saber: Orange, gray, orange.
CD: Cyan, cyan, cyan.
MusicMan: Blue, red, blue.
Karoline: Red, purple, gray.
Ears: Green, green, brown
Budoka: Blue, cyan, white
Whizbang: Purple, white, purple
Marwynn: Red, white, red
Milk ducks: Blue, Green, Gray

There are other features to the ship's computer, but I need to think them up, first. You'll also learn how to navigate the ship without it (for emergencies), but I thought this feature up last night.

Other than that feature (if anybody protests to giving a palmprint, or voice print, or name...Roberts stares at you and asks why you don't think the UCAS doesn't already have all that info already...And besides, it gets stored in the ship's computer, nowhere else), in-processing is pretty standard. You're measured for and issued uniforms, of a sort - custom-sized fatigues for shipboard wear, including deck shoes, also custom-sized. If there are objections, Chief Ramirez patiently explains why they issue uniforms in the navy - it's not for camoflauge, like in the army or marines; it's for sanitation and hygiene reasons, as well as protection. You don't have to wear them, but they cut down significantly on laundry duty and water use. And, oh yes, expenses. He explains that there's a store of extra fabric, and a desktop thing that'll create new uniforms as needed. (They're not flats; they're more expensive and more durable...Plus they include limited fire protection. But they can be made automaticallly, and while they aren't disposable, they're more designed for practicality than style.) These aren't naval-issue uniforms. They're specific to you guys, without identifying markings. (One extra reason why they're custom-sized: You know instantly if you have the wrong uniform.) In feel, they're sort of like the jumpsuits NASA astronauts wear IRL, except they're two-piece. They're sized to fit comfortably, to an extent they're baggy though, and they have *tons* of pockets. If asked about the expense, Roberts shrugs. The auditors approved it.

You're also issued survival gear in the event you need to abandon ship, which Roberts explains the use of. If you've ever seen "Deadliest Catch", think of their survival gear, except more high-tech. (I...doubt we'll ever need to use it.)

You're given back some of your weapons, the smaller ones (really, nothing bigger than a pistol) - they've been immaculately cleaned while you ate and talked - and told that the rest are in your quarters. Captain Walker earnestly advises establishing an armory/arms room to securely and safely store weapons and ammunition, and has ordered space be alloted for that aboard ship, but will not insist upon it.

Finally, you're advised of where your quarters are, and shown to them by Lt. Roberts. You can change them after everybody leaves, but until that point, the ship's kinda full, so quarters assignments are fixed during training.

Everybody gets roughly the same quarters:

Not exactly the *biggest* quarters you could think of, these are still the size of a middle-class hotel room. They feature private heads with showers (no bathtubs), and also feature private trids hooked up to the satcom. Comms occur from the bridge only, to maximize security, but the ship has wifi, and you can access a fair supply of games and the like on the ship's computer system. Roberts advises, though, that in his experience, shipboard life is isolating enough without becoming a recluse in your quarters when you're off-duty. Better to watch the trid as a group when you can, but you can get some alone time.

Cooking occurs *only* in the galley - and until training is finished, only at mealtimes (roughly: Breakfast at 0700, Lunch at 1300, Dinner at 1800, "Midrats" at 0000) - this is a safety measure; fire aboard ships is even worse than on land. (The limitation on cooking to mealtimes is because the mess crew is configured like that, not for 24-hour service.)

After that, you're informed that (it's now about 0945) "you have 15 minutes to get unpacked and ready for what comes next". Those are Roberts's exact words. What comes next? He has no idea, he was told to tell you that by the Captain. In those words.

At 1000, you're called to the aft sun deck, now cleared off to serve as a flight deck, by the Captain over the ship's intercom/PA.

(And now an admission of your GM's thundering RL stupidity. Today, I had stupidly scheduled my ride to school to pick me up...When it should have picked me up tomorrow. And bring me home...about when class was supposed to start today. Naturally, John isn't going to class today. John feels very, very stupid at the moment. I post this to publicly admit my stupidity, to warn that I won't be the best person to argue with or annoy for a bit...And so that whenever I check this page, I'm reminded of my breathtaking stupidity. Aren't I lucky this school doesn't really take attendance (and that I've not missed a class before this semester)? )

So I can do gunnery without the gunnery skill?

You still need the skill, but you're going to get a crash course in it to bring you up to a 1, dependent on the expenditure of karma as you get it. Gunnery applies only to weapons mounted on the vehicle (fixed, in a pintle mount, in a ring mount...In a weapon mount). Otherwise, you take a -3 modifier for firing from a moving vehicle.

THATS SNEAKERS!!!! "MY" "voice" "is" "my passport?" Good reference!

Also good post.

Alright, I'll count on adding Nautical Engineer and Gunnery to my skill list.

If possible, we should do shadowing exercises. Given our skills set, we have surveillance and infiltration fairly well handled. However, shadowing is a much more difficult art. When following a target, a CIA team makes coordinated maneuvers to switch off between different individuals. Before the target begins to have the inkling that someone is following him/her, the someone goes off into a different direction and no longer follows the target. Someone else on the team take the shadowing over, and the target is none the wiser.

However, you said 48 hours right? Those exercises can take a whole day in of themselves to do. So maybe another time?

I actually screwed up on my estimation of the time it'd take you guys to get to your destination.

At 12 knots (which is what I recall the cruising speed of the Phoenix yacht to be), it would take you about 83.3 hours to get where I intend you guys to head next.

So it's actually closer to 4 days. Most of this time will be handled at the speed of plot - covered not quite via training montages, but close.

Yay speed of plot!

I LOVE how fast that makes boats...and planes....and plantains.

And I also LOVE how slow it makes bombs...speeches...and government intervention.

To answer MM's OOC question: No, no rolls needed. I figure if you've served in any military, you at some point learned to identify rank insignia on the old US system, because of how common it'd be among friendly (or enemy) militaries.

Yeah... you can get from UCAS to Japan in three words ("and you arrive"), but it takes seventeen paragraphs before you can shoot the BBG in the face.

If you're really good you can do it in two words "You've arrived."

By the way guys, Iago has Braggart and Compulsive (Vain), so he comes off as a little touchy and arrogant. Feel free to needle him! He'll just remind you who's casting the Heal spell around these parts.

Hmm... I was under the impression we didn't get the new duds until after breakfast.

And don't worry, I'll just remind him who is casting the "Ouch, lost a hand, huh?" fix

Edit: Sorry if that sounded nitpicky, was a good post, and likely doesn't matter much when exactly we get the new threads.