Entering: Simon, Troll ambassador.
And the dice are with him: cha 3 + infl(etiquette? leadership? same rating *shrug* ) 1 = 4 dice that yield 2 hits

@Penta: Hope the description is OK. If not I'll change accordingly

@Karoline: Didn't know wether Jane would be going in with Simon. If she does, just post your stuff and I'll edit my post a bit.

@all: So, how are we going to organise the People's Republic of Bountavia?

Desc is fine - you actually did some of the work for me.

Quick notes for anybody who does medical exams:

Virtually everybody is emaciated, gaunt. Apparently they've gotten rations - they've been meager, hardly enough, but they've been something. Same with water - not enough, but everybody's gotten something.

On...touchier matters. If you somehow manage to do full physicals, people are free of abuse - of any sort that might leave marks, internally or externally. Apparently, the threat of extreme violence was used to maintain order.

More when I get home from school.

Penta, my character is up top keeping an eye out for unwanted guests or incoming trouble. Is there anything that I should be aware of on my end?

Nope. I'll just say that you guys made a clean capture...At least, I don't plan on throwing anything more at you, OOCly.

This is a brief thing, but: I'd like to see *everybody* involved, in some way, in either ex-slave-care or interrogations. Or if you really don't think your character can do either, then drive one of the ships.

Is this supposed to be a what-we-do-right-now post or one for the entire time (a week? two?) to wherever we are to hand over the ship and passengers?

Right now. The timeskipping will come after you guys contact Roberts.

My father passed away today. It was gentle and painless and he was surrounded by his family. I've been his caregiver for 14 years and it's very tough on me. It'll be a bit before I can resume. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

*hugs* Take your time, KS.

Looks like no one is having a good time this week, here's to hoping next week is better for all of us.

I'm going to be a bit annoying and hold off on replying to the comm to Roberts in CD's post for a bit.

It's going to be another cutscene post, which means I'm going to (after class) spend a while drafting the thing.

Unlike the last chat, there will not be time for questions, I do not envision - it'll come as it comes, it'll end, and *then* you submit questions via the matrix dropbox of the day.
---

With that said: Guys, I will admit something. I have no earthly idea what to do next with you guys. It's noted down in my head as an "independent duties" period, where you pick the targets - however, after a while new missions will come up - I'm just hunting for ideas.

Yes, you read that right: You pick the targets. You do legwork to find them, you pick your target...Exactly like it says in Cyberpirates, you do everything yourself.
---

Which reminds me: At home, I'm in a bit of a funky setup, as I've noted to people.

I have my old computer back - it's a bit more annoying setup with a USB keyboard and USB mouse, and it ain't really portable anymore, but it's back in action.

What this means for you guys? I have my collection of digitized books back on the comp in regular use. All of em. Including really freakin' old ones.

I still don't have my old notes for this, including the stats for the Zodiac, but that's fine.

Again, the one of you who loaned me the SR4 core set - thank you greatly. You know who you are.

As I've noted to SI and others: Okay, this week has sucked for a lot of us IRL. Let's hope next week is better...At best, it'll be a do-over and not suck so much.

Knight Saber, take your time - there's reasons we have an XO for the ship, and OOC issues are a big reason why. Come back when you're ready - there's zero pressure from me.

Everybody else: We're not in combat, so we can take this slow.

Original group: Slow does not mean, however, take forever. React to the discovery of the slaves, gather around for the comm with Roberts.

Newbies: Guys, I know the screwup here has been mine. Okay, mea culpa. That said, please move on through the rest of week 1 - If needed, I can post montages of Day 6 and 7, but 3-5 have been set out at length.

You will be going through a second week - not of classes, I don't think, but something different. If you have ideas what that should be, talk to me.

Picking our own targets sounds like alot of fun. Zalermo has connections up and down the coast. This was part of why I wanted to know general sphere's of influence. Wherever we have the most support is likely where we want to strike. What sort of vessels do we want to hit? My contacts are likely capable of tracking down gun runners, drug smugglers, or possibly even more slavers...

Hey everyone, still alive here, just been buried in snow lately is all. Staying at friends so I could get to classes combined with finally sending in my computer to get fixed has left me without alot of personal time + computer time to check the boards and such, but it finally is returning to normal around here, so I should be posting regularly again. May not post tonight if I have alot to catch up on (And it sounds like I do from a quick scan).

Okay, folks.

Some quick OOC notes on that cutscene:

Yes, the numbers are a bit low. I initially tried to apply the Maerk-Jorgensen freighter's price from Rigger 3, but that was 140 Million nuyen, and my brain melted trying to depreciate a ship. Turns out it's even more complex math than depreciation for a car.

So I ass-pulled a number: Three million for a thirty-year-old freighter with heavy astral pollution may actually be a bit high. Point is, I can change it (and hence what you guys get) if you can convincingly point out how it's off.

If you remember the formula Zalermo ICly proposed off Cape May: One-quarter goes to the government for the loan payoff, one-qyarter goes into a ship fund and to pay off expenses. Any expenses over the one-quarter gets taken out of the 50% that goes to you guys individually, split evenly.

This works out to about 18750 per the 8 persons involved - of course, one share of that goes to Iago, but that can't be helped, ICly.

The interrogation bonuses add between 54 and 108 thousand nuyen to the ten percent of ship's value, depending on how many qualify for which bonus. This could add a not-insignifcant number to your individual takes.

(Before anyone makes the complaint "I could get more stealing cars" - no, by SR rules, you couldn't. "I could make more working legally" - perhaps. Unlikely. You certainly wouldn't get it tax-free.)

Okay, so. New stuff on both IC threads.

Newbies - My draft plan for week 2 is posted. I grant that posting the rest of week 1 is hard - feel free to skip past days where you aren't up for chats with Roberts. (Yinglong is done - hence I'm waiting on BetaFlame, and after the chat with Drest is done will do Molo and Nemo in either order. We had some success doing it over IM, but I can do it over email or PM too.)

Main group - Okay guys. I opened the floor for IC questions. If there are none by Wednesday, we'll exit the scene. Obviously, any OOC questions sparked should go here.

Doc (Zz) - I dun want to call you out, but you got a PM. Once you're all settled in ICly, we can skim where need be to get you caught up with everybody else, since the time for off-camera stuff is soon to end.

Sorry, I wasn't exactly sure what came next.

No problem, I recognized the issue this morning. I'll PM you with details on week 1.

Edit: PM sent.

I've had a few people comment re the stop-start nature of things with the game. Either it's slow as a turtle or running at warp speed, as one of you put it.

So.

To update everybody:

Fedallah's crew has found slaves on the Chantico's Bounty and contacted Roberts for further orders, which were given: Proceed to New York, there to have the Chantico's Bounty condemned as a slaver and claimed by the Navy, and for payments to be made to the crew.

It should take about a week for Fedallah and Chantico's Bounty to get there, meaning they arrive in New York on the 25th. Because your GM can occasionally have issues with the calendar, this comes amidst the newbies' week 2. The initial idea was that they'd match up smoothly. Um, fuck, that's pretty essential but not to happen if things go smoothly for Fedallah, so...they won't. I'm going to arbitrarily say that you can't go a direct route, you must instead navigate around a forming tropical storm alerted to you by the handy weather subscription I suggested you buy, adding 3 days to the trip (you've got sick people on the Bounty, going straight through would be mean and cruel and heartless. And would probably not be good for either ship, too.). This means there's only 1 day's delay between docking and meeting up with the newbies the next morning. In the interests of story, I'm going to say that a kraken sighting off NY Harbor delays traffic a further day. (I know it seems improable, but roll with it, okay?)
---

At the same time, over in the Newbies thread, people are getting pulled aside by Roberts to chat during week 1 (ntwi, you got a reply to your PM waiting), and week 2's activities have been outlined by me over there. Since nobody responded to the draft, we'll just use that.
---

This makes it so that group 2 plus Doc and Roberts flies from BWI to...Ehhh, La Guardia seems like the best airport...on the same day Fedallah and the Bounty dock.

Once at least some of the original group posts what they're doing during the week (actually, hopefully you all can), I'll cutscene the arrival into New York for both groups.

For the record: Our New York City? Canon NYC. I could totally see Manhattan turning out like canon, in particular. I'll decide where in current-day NYC you dock when I do the cutscene.

Only possible problem I see with it taking us an extra 4 days is food. You haven't made comment yet about how much was onboard the captured ship. Our own ship only has about enough for a day's worth of meals. I presume the other ship has enough to make it to harbor and a bit extra, but that is likely with keeping the slaves at near starvation.

Should we assume they have enough to keep everyone (reasonably) well fed? Same question with medical supplies. Our own boat doesn't have much and I'd imagine our captured one isn't exactly bristling with spare anti-biotics.

`Because nobody had yet ICly broken open hold #1, I'd never decided. However, since you're asking:

There's easily enough water for everybody. Food - the trip was, prior to capture, probably going to take another....*handwaves* week. However, there's another 3 weeks of food on-board. It won't get the slaves back to health, but it'll keep everybody stabl for 2 weeks. As it happens, even with 4 days added on, you still come in at 11 days.

Alright, just wanted to make sure they delay wasn't going to have us starving out. I suppose Jane will have to make the medicine last. She does take great care to keep her mouth covered with something at all times when she is on the captured boat or dealing with any of the freed slaves on our own boat. Her weak immune system means she really can't afford to catch anything from them.

I knew I was forgetting something - it's not like you could stop a cholera outbreak, but the previous owners of Chantico's Bounty did want to at least keep their merchandise alive. Ergo, though the onboard medical facilities are slim, they do have a fairly well-stocked pharmacy. What you're missing on both ships though are things which are more specialized - oral rehydration stuff for kids with diarrhea (no active cases but always a possibility), etc.

Okay. I'm getting this vibe from both groups that seems best described as ennui.

I can't tell whether people are bored with the campaign, don't like the pace, are busy with RL, or what. (I'm presuming, maybe wrongly, you all know the situation ICly.)

So, I've posted on the newbie thread how I'm going to manage stuff for the newbie group.

Original group: Guys, the next steps are up to you. At least give me clues as to how your character is going to be spending the week heading to NYC, I'm begging you.
---

About NYC in this campaign:

Use the canon NYC. I'll try to write more, especially as Corp Enclaves doesn't describe the outer boroughs of NYC like Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island at all, just focusing on Manhattan. Funnily enough, I think all the marine terminals serving NYC are either in New Jersey or the outer boroughs.

Anyhow, Corp Enclaves applies, where it describes things. Of course, it isn't even 3 full pages, so we go back through the hierarchy of SR books...All the way back to NAGNA if anybody besides me has got it. Don't worry, I freely share my copies of these old books, long ago put on PDF.

All I'm declaring non-canon for my game is the descriptions of New Jersey as a toxic zone, we've been over why I hate those.

I'll write more as inspiration strikes me.

Yo! I've been just recovering from the Swine flu, but I'm back now! (And alive thankfully!)

BTW, I wanted to give my deepest condolences to Knight Saber for her dad. I hope her and her family the best.

The swine flu? Jeez.

Okay, good to know you're still with us, Budoka.

Blood in the Water campaign info: New York metro area.

Okay, I'm not up to writing this as an IC document, but this is a compilation of what should be ICly known to the common person.
----

Include what's set out in Corp Enclaves.

Manhattan is separate from the QuadCities of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Like what was before 1898's consolidation, sort of.

The Earthquake of 2005 as depicted in SR still happened (never mind that IRL it's unlikely as hell that an earthquake would ever hit this area with a magnitude sufficient to cause damage); however, it mostly affected Manhattan, due to magnitude and epicenter. The brutal reality of earthquake preparedness in the NY metro area is that Manhattan contains the oldest structures - it's been known for at least the last 30 years IRL that Manhattan sits on a minor earthquake fault. However, building codes didn't really update to accommodate this until the 1990s.

What this means:

Manhattan works as stated in canon SR. The outer boroughs by contrast were more on their feet, but not by much. Figure any structure built pre-1980 or so is probably doomed. Exception, weirdly, for many of the major skyscrapers - those could withstand a pretty good quake, being built more with steel than brick.

New Jersey actually would have gotten through the quake unscathed - the geology's totally different on this side of the Hudson. Newark, Jersey City, etc? Are fucked by politics and corruption, not geology.

There's nowhere for a ship to dock in Manhattan, so you'll be split up barely.

Chantico's Bounty will dock at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Sandy Hook Bay. This enables the Navy to keep it under closer custody.

The area around NWS Earle is where I live: It's mostly honest-to-god Suburbia. There are a bunch of military bases, including some closed IRL that I fully see as being reopened after the Ghost Dance War; I doubt you'll all stick around there, so I won't describe it in detail unless asked.

Fedallah can hide as a civilian ship, so...Well, in Real Life there are few marinas on the whole Eastern Seaboard that can accommodate a 60-meter megayacht, but I'll presume there's one in Rumson (nearby Earle's piers, where people like Bruce Springsteen and the like have houses IRL - a real-life A-zone if I ever saw one - the houses regularly run in the million+ range even in our down economy) you can dock at.
---

Zooming back up the NJ Turnpike to NYC, though:

Trying to describe each borough in SR terms would take forever - to be quite honest, to do NYC justice in SR would take a 100+ page sourcebook of its own.

I'm not up for writing that, so I'll just outline pertinent facts not mentioned by SR. If you'd like more detail on something I don't mention here, just ask.

---
The Manhattan Grid:

No, not the Matrix. Manhattan, as most people know, was built (partly by the Dutch, partly by the English, but it was really set in in 1811) with a neat grid. Makes Manhattan a very walkable bit of cityscape.

In my view of Manhattan, this was one of the few really good things the Corps (who otherwise massacred the skyline) did after the 2005 Earthquake: they kept the grid, rigidly enforcing it in their rebuilding, restoring it in places.

Structures that survived the quake were built out of two things: Stone or steel. Unfortunately, most of Manhattan was built out of brick, and worse than that, had foundations sitting on exposed bedrock. It actually should not have been that bad a quake, though - even for hitting Manhattan - had NYC not cut corners for decades on many building inspections over decades.

---
Manhattan sociologically:

A wider gap between rich and poor you will not see in the UCAS. In Manhattan, two types of people live on the island: The very rich or the very poor. The poor are clustered on the North of Manhattan Island, the rich (and their appendages) have the rest of it. Most people don't actually *live* on Manhattan - they just commute in from Jersey, what are still called "the outer boroughs", Westchester County, and elsewhere, as far out as Southeastern Connecticut and a good portion of Jersey.

The former UN precincts (used as the Headquarters before the destruction of the 2005 quake) are still used by the UN as office space, especially since the Corporate Court has their terrestrial staff and landside headquarters in Manhattan - in the old Fuchi towers.

---
Some isolated other thoughts:

Despite the love of the Shadowrun authors for massive 200+-story skyscrapers, I don't see more than the former Fuchi towers being *that* tall. Even the tallest buildings besides the Corp Court HQ will top out at 70 stories or so. Why?

A. The cool factor is over-blown.
B. Buildings much bigger than 100 stories are not impossible to build, but very very hard. Especially someplace like Manhattan - the geology puts limits on the weight any building can be, for one thing, and a building that's too tall has the nasty habit of swaying in the winds aloft.
C. 9/11. Even if you don't think it happened in SR, the first bombing in 1993 did. You simply cannot evacuate a building of 100-stories or greater in full, making them really unpopular with workers - even executive types.
D. The costs would be eye-popping even for a megacorp. Not merely for building, but for maintenance.
E. 9/11, part 2. Even fires would be terrifying in a building that huge. Just stop and imagine if a building like that collapsed. You thought the amount of dust and debris kicked up by the Twin Towers was impressive(ly scary)? Go to 150 stories, let alone 200...Never mind 250...And it gets so much worse. You would actually take out a good portion of Lower Manhattan, I suspect.

I assure you, even if Manhattan Island were corportate-owned as it is in SR, the folks who'd keep all the corps playing nicely would notice such safety issues...And they would never allow more than 1 cluster of buildings that big to go up. You might do it once, as a set...But they'd never let anybody do that again.

Hence, I'm going to posit that the skyline is dominated by the sheer bulk of the now-Corporate-Court Towers, but then there are a sprinkling of 70-80 story skyscrapers.

---
Miscellaneous stuff:

The UCAS military has bases sprinkled throughout New Jersey - mostly for R&D (research parks, basically), but among other things, the UCAS Navy homeports one of its two carrier battlegroups out of Brooklyn, at the reactivated Navy Yard.

Quit kissing pigs and get back to saving people.

@Penta, perhaps this would be a good time to go back to pursuing the circumstances of my char's father's murder? Might be some fun to rough up some underbelly scum.

You'll get no argument from me - you do the RP, I'll figure out some result.

I'm back. Thank you for your good wishes and patience everyone.

Well, I'm just waiting for the virtual meet to end so that I can post my IC piece on what Simon's doing in that week. Essentially it'll be spending as much time with the slaves as other duties allow.

@all: If any you who interrogations feel like having him stand around and glare menacingly, feel free to narrate Simon in.

The virtual meeting ended a couple posts ago I think.

Jane for one won't be interrogating anyone. Doesn't really have the stomach for it, and isn't exactly personally that scary, though walking in with her lynx and a LMG pointed at the person could help loosen tongues.

Had to redo rolls as I realized I did my pool wrong and was shorting myself 2 dice per summoning and binding roll (was only rolling magic and not adding the 2 dice from my summoning group). So....

First summon, failed, took 3 levels drain
Summoning (proper dice pool) (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=1)

Rest, 1 box healed, enough to remove the penalty
Rest (7d6.hits(5)=1)

Second attempt at summoning, 2 net success, earth spirit summoned that owes 2 tasks. Took 2 levels drain for a total of 4 boxes.
Summoning (7d6.hits(5)=4, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Binding, burning edge (-1 die wound penalties), 3 net successes, 4 more levels of drain taken for a total of 8
Binding, burning edge (9d6.hits(5)=6, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Rest/Sleep, after 3 hours sleep she's fine
Rest, hour 1 (7d6.hits(5)=3)
Rest, hour 2 (7d6.hits(5)=4)
Rest, hour 3 (7d6.hits(5)=2)

Second night, first attempt failed, 1 level drain taken
Summoning (storm spirit) (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=3)

Second attempt, 4 levels drain taken, for a total of 5
Summoning (storm spirit), 2nd attempt (7d6.hits(5)=3, 5d6.hits(5)=4, 9d6.hits(5)=4)

Rest, 4 levels healed, 1 left
rest (7d6.hits(5)=4)

Third attempt, failed, resisted all drain
summoning 3rd attempt (7d6.hits(5)=0, 5d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=6)

Fourth attempt, 3 levels drain taken (4 total)
summoning 4th attempt (7d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=1)

Rest, 2 levels healed (2 remain)
rest (7d6.hits(5)=2)

5th attempt succeeded with 1 net hit, took 8 levels of drain for total of 10 (1 more and she'd have been knocked out)
summoning 5th attempt, burning edge (10d6.hits(5)=6, 5d6.hits(5)=5, 9d6.hits(5)=2)

Rest 3 hours, healed 6 levels, 4 remain
rest (7d6.hits(5)=4)
rest 2nd hour (7d6.hits(5)=0)
rest 3rd hour (7d6.hits(5)=2)

Binding burning edge, spirit goes poof, take 2 more levels drain for total of 6
binding, burning edge (9d6.hits(5)=2, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=4)

So in the end, Yinglong failed to get her air spirit, but she now has a Force 5 earth spirit with 5 tasks owed and Concealment as it's optional power.

Okay, newbies: Your day 14 scene is up on your thread. Feel free to post any day(s), up to day 14 during PT. This could be convos with Roberts, your customized intel collection/analysis classes, or so forth. Just try not to stop things during day 14.

Fedallah folks: Jane's point seems like a good point to close out the virtual meet. Please to move things along and describe the next week-11 days.

If you post nothing re the interrogations, particularly, I'm going to assume you just guard the captives and care for the ex-slaves and don't interrogate the captives.

The Krull, I figure, can make 1 delivery a day at this range, but that basically has it moving continuously, which means probably someone watching it continuously so it doesn't fly into birds and the like. Please note that to launch/recover the Krull? Ya gotta be stopped.

Otherwise, off we go. I'll give some time for people to post re the trip North, then (if nobody posts) I'll post re the approach to New York Harbor and the docking.

@Penta:Although we're being conservative with the Karma, can I least give my char Nautical Engineering for the skill requirement?

@Everyone: In regards to our next run, I would suggest diving into the underworld of illicit goods. Specifically, this would be to search for the organization that killed my char's father. Otherwise, I would next like to hit an Aztlan facility and find out which groups within Aztlan are doing the human sacrifices. Thoughts?

Let's wait on karmahandling til you're ashore, budoka.

So far as the human sacrifices...Well. Those of you who have the old Aztlan sourcebook know the answer to this already.

For those who don't, I'll spell it out: It's common knowledge that the Aztlan government, through the state Aztec religion, conducts human sacrifices. It's been known in the shadows since the Aztlan Sourcebook, which was released around 2054 IIRC - almost 20 years ago, ICly.

It's so commonly known that they hold the sacrifices at the top of their big temples and broadcast it on the Trid. Now, what's also known (or at least believed) is that the Aztlaners generally use prisoners condemned to death for sacrifices.

If I recall correctly, not all divisions of the Aztlan gov perform human sacrifices. Plus, there was room in the source book that there can be forces at work to stop said sacrifices (ex. Amazonia). That could make some interesting stuff.

Possibly.

Okay guys, I hate to do this, but...

Where is everybody?

I've not seen most of the main crew post in a while. Same goes for the newbie set.

I as GM am entirely willing to keep going with this campaign, but it seems lame if there's only 3-4 people besides me.

If RL is the issue, okay. If a lot of people are busy with RL, okay. I can put the campaign in stasis and come back to it in a mutually-agreed upon timeframe.

If it's that some people have lost interest, okay, but I wish you would tell me.

If the campaign idea sucks, tell me that.

But knowing nothing about what's going on, I can only presume I fucked up somewhere, and that's kind of dispiriting.

I'd go name by name and ask who's still playing, but with 12 people, I'm afraid I'd miss some people.

Finally back to my own computer. Went from a video card the size of an inch square chip to one the size of a paperback book.

Still around. I think my post is one of the last couple in the main IC thread, so waiting for a little something to happen before I post again. If nothing does by... thrusday, I'll post something else to see if I can't spark something.

Whizbang is ready to be distracted by all kinds of new games now

I'm here. I was waiting for the newbie group to arrive at BWI before I posted, but I guess I'll follow Karoline's lead and post regardless if there are no posts there by Thursday.

I'm still here. Real life kept me with rather less contact to the outside world than normal for the past week but I should be good now. I'll drop my update into the newbies thread and then await the arrival of the ship.

Zz: You're in a funky spot, as ICly you're training separately from the group of newbies.

You can still send stuff to me, or post em to the newbie thread.

Who that post was directed at:

1. The original Fedallah crew - Karoline, I see your posts and appreciate them. Whizbang, I get your hardware issues. It's everybody else's silence that worries me - less so in some cases (Knight Saber, I presume you're still getting back up to speed, for example), more in others (CD, MusicMan?). Like I said, I get if RL has popped up, but I (personally) don't think it would take too long to send me an OOC note via PM, email, or whatever, just letting me know what's going on. You don't need to post, just throw me a note. I don't mean to sound like a dick, but that's really just polite, guys - when you've not posted to any of the threads for a week, at least gimme a sign you're still interested. I have no other way to figure out whether people are busy, have abandoned the game, have given up the net for Lent, or what. My (admittedly narcissistic) first guess when people do that and go disappear without warning is that the problem is with me; it's a bad habit I try to train myself out of, to no avail yet. Whether me specifically, the game, or what, I can't know, but it makes sudden mass disappearances very confusing and demoralizing. There is, as a GM, no worse feeling than what you get when the reaction to your plot advancement is to get cricket sounds in return.

2. The newbie group of 4 - group 2. Ntwi, SleepIncarnate, I've been in contact with both of you. BetaFlame, Inane Imp, I'll not repeat what I said a paragraph above, but the same really does apply. If you're busy with RL or something, okay. Tell me. Whether publicly, privately, by email, by PM, by IM...your choice. If you're just confused re posting, tell me know that too. But please, I beg you, don't leave me hanging.

As you can see, Zz, this doesn't include you - your character being off by himself made a lot of sense from an IC point of view, but I get how it'd be frustrating and confusing OOCly.

I'll admit fully, everybody: I've made more than my share of boneheaded moves running this campaign. I will no doubt continue to. To err is human, especially when you're frankly not used to running the system you're playing under - I've always said my expertise is more in doing the story, but a lot of the little things of being a GM, whether that be keeping track of time or handling system matters, aren't amongst my strong suits.

I've talked with Penta about things... I've been really busy with wedding stuff and warhammer tournys. I am giving Penta permission to kill off Alexander.

Best of luck to the rest of the crew...

Errr...

Arrrrrrrrr?

In accordance with MusicMan's request, I'll try to devise a good way to die.

It'll happen on shore after you guys dock.

Problem this leaves me with - I'm not a fan of WoW or MUD-style corpse looting.

So you guys'll get to decide what to do with his personal effects like gear and stuff.

I'll make sure he goes in such a way that the body isn't your problem.

Edit: Further commentary.

MusicMan provides an ideal example of how I would prefer player exits be handled. There's seriously no hard feelings from me if you exit - whatever the reason. Just make sure that you *tell* me you're leaving, all I ask. We can then work out whether the character should exit temporarily or permanently.

For transparency, I asked MM to post up what he did generally. I never want it to seem like I'm "forcing someone out". I didn't in this case - I asked if he was still interested cuz things were quiet, he said he was but was too busy, we figured out what to do with his character. I don't force people out, period.

That does not mean that I am not, as you've seen, insensitive to activity. I do pay attention to activity. My rules of thumb:

Keep an eye on the threads. Reading them daily is really preferred, but you can get by without being too confused if it's only every few days. Once a week is almost definitely pushing it - you're almost certain to get confused.

Posting? Depends on the IC situation. If you can't get the inspiration for a post or something, that's cool. Let me know somehow, just so we can keep things flowing.

If you need to go byebye temporarily (I'm not talking a few days, I'm talking a week or more), let me know. If it's a really long time (month or more) where you won't be able to even read the forums or something, I can come up with ways a character can temporarily be moved off-camera, and then be moved back into the group. We don't always need to kill a character off.

So far as newbies go: Yes, I know this puts us at 11/12. However, I'm not really interested in trying to figure out how yet another newbie wasn't with the big group of 4. Hence, we'll go with 11 people for now. If we drop to 10 out of 12 (or less), I'll reconsider. Otherwise, I'd like some time to lapse ICly before more newbies come aboard.

Okay guys.

Now that we're all in dock, together, yay, I figure you've got some shore leave ahead -

really, because the Navy doesn't have a mission for you at the moment beyond "Go out,
be a privateer, raid ships, collect intelligence, yadda yadda", otherwise known more
succinctly as "independent duties" - this can take as long as you like so far as

they're concerned. Unlike last shore leave, though, while they'll resupply you with
food and water - this time with the quantities meant for 11 people - they won't pay for
your shore leave. In IC time, though, let's try to get the ship underway by July 5th,
2072 - So 6 days. In OOC time, I'm not adverse to spending time RPing the shore leave,
but I understand if the newbies especially want to get to sea. So what I'm going to say
is: RP your hearts out, but be expeditious about it: I'll move things along in one week
OOC time if nothing's happened or people seem to be getting bored. By the way, the newbies thread is now for backdated stuff only.
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Oh, before I forget:

This means karma awards, too.

Above and beyond any I gave previously:

Fedallah Group:

2 karma per person for surviving.
1 karma per person for putting up with a scatterbrained GM (this is a one-time bonus,
don't get used to it.)
1 karma per person for freeing the slaves and capturing the crew with no KIAs on either
side.

That was for the group. Everybody got those. Now, individual karma:

CollateralDynamo and Ears stood out to me as the best RPers - amongst a very good
group, you two stood out as going above and beyond. Hence, 1 karma. (There was
exceptional RP, but not truly legendary stuff. When there is, that'll get 2 karma.)

Karoline gets 1 karma for not only showing up the GM, but doing it with class and style
through the Krull resupply idea - I'm not sure what you call it when the GM forgets a
character has a piece of gear like that, but it was a heck of a thing to remember, more
or less short-circuiting the drama of the supply issue.
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So, I'm going to pause here and make a suggestion: For auditing and sanity purposes,
we dhoulf all try to keep karmalogs. You keep em for your own character, I'll keep one
per character. Formatting is up to you, but they need to include the OOC date the karma
was awarded, the stated reason in brief, and the amount of karma. When you go to raise
skills, I'll compare your karma log against my memory (at first) or my karma log
(later). As of this writing, I have karmalogs set up for those remaining of the
Fedallah group; newbies, as I find your character sheets as posted, I'll draw up the
similar karmalogs.

Training time, I've been over plenty of times in the OOC thread.
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Moving on to the newbies:

SleepIncarnate gets 1 karma for her conversation scene with Roberts. Good show, SI.
Zzyxzs (Zz or Doc for short) gets 2 karma for putting up with a boneheaded idea by the
GM run amok - I will figure out a better way of handling the problem it was meant to
solve, but that wasn't it.
Everybody in the newbie group (plus Doc) gets 2 karma for surviving training with their

OOC sanity intact - or at least not appreciably worse than it was before.
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And finally: How to spend karma.

Basically, PM me with the change you're making to your sheet. I'll approve or deny it based in large part upon training or use, and partly based upon simple whim. More based upon the former - the latter will only apply where for some reason there are factors militating against my approving a particular change. That should be pretty rare.

I reserve the right to require RP before approving a particular change.
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With this post, by the way, we should really move to a new OOC thread. (26-27 pages,
with sheets scattered around it, is a bit hard to navigate.) I'll start it off - I then
would like everybody to post their character sheets and bios and stuff in spoiler
codes, just like you did initially (such as on page 1 of this thread). Ideally, these
should be up-to-date sheets, edited to reflect karma expenditure. If you want, you can
also (but don't have to) include your karmalog, and keep the post edited to stay up to
date.

I will then post the ship stuff after everybody's posted up their characters.
No need to post a new IC thread, though, that's still quite manageable.

Hey Penta, let me know what your decision is regarding increasing nautical engineering to 1 without Karma.

Also, before we had the ship over to the feds, I'm going to raid the arms and ammo locker! Tell me what I find.

For Whizbang, are you still interested in pursuing the father subplot?

Likely won't have time for a post before Saturday. I have two tests to study for tomorrow and a report due and a science article I have to read (and comprehend).

Budoka: Okay, sure, raise it with the karma you got this time. I forget how much that is, just woke from a nap.

Ammo locker: Well, when you look, you find a lot of taser ammo - and tasers, duh. A few thousand rounds of stick'n'shock ammo (still in their boxes, see), too, for rifles and heavy pistols. You also find a box of Aztechnology knock-offs of the AK-97. (Same stats, but not made by the AK-97's manufacturer.)

Though it does raise the question of how you intend to get it all off without the feds noticing when they take custody.

Karoline: Thanks for the heads up.

Since SI just pointed it out to me - there's rule re Arcana on page 31, Street Magic. We'll be using the optional rule presented there. Or at least, we'll be testing it out. If I spot problems with it, I reserve the right to go back to the standard rule.

No worries, during the voyage to NY, I'll transfer the guns over to the Fedallah by zodiac, or set up a zip line, what ever is more convenient and safer.