I read it when it first came out, several months ago, but just once. I don't really remember much from the book, except for some especially odd details about the virus. And a bit about the section on New York.

@TLG: Do you want to give me a list of questions for Silk? I'll start you off with some...and get back to you with the answers

• Facility purpose
• No. of staff / known shift patterns (including security)
• Known security deterrents
• In house or external security consultants? HTR response?
• Any runners broken in before and lived to tell the tale...?
• Location of 'archive' terminal

You probably also need to at least consider how you are going to infiltrate/exfiltrate the facility so that my initial posts make sense!

@Tribes: We have some answers, we just going to go for it? Come up with a meaningful plan?!?

That list looks GREAT!

As for making a plan, eTher said we'd be given guard shifts and access codes. I think it might be best to build a plan around those, once we know exactly what they are…

@as for Tribes, either way okay with me.
Make a plan - and ask more OOC questions if you want - I won't torture you anymore with Nana's ravings (Silkie senses they are truthful, although they likely require some parsing).
OR
If you want to just show up and wing it based on what you see via direct observation, that is cool too!

I am moving house.

Will try to post when I can, but given the evils of the local broadband providers, if at any time over the next couple of weeks it seems I've dropped off the face of the earth, that's why.

Do we need to do the job immediately/this week/within a month etc?

Just to give an idea of the level of legwork, spying and infiltration and possibly surgery we can get in

A timeframe hasn't been stipulated but if you plan for more than a week without good reason eTher is likely to think you are taking the p*ss

I hate to be a contrarian, but I also went with a question of my own. ^_^ Basically, what are we knocking over? Is it an actual office or arcology type setup, or just a profusely well guarded shack?

All right, Thanksgiving madness has finally ended. I'll try to get caught up on TLG and Tribes, but it might take me a bit.

Sorry if I inconvenienced anyone with my absence.

I want to post IC, but don't really know what we're doing or whether to move it along?

Sorry, my fault, last week was insane. Hopefully Silk's answers will give you something to build a plan around OoC or IC. That will probably raise more questions that she may or may not be able to respond to...

@Tribes: I'm all for just 'winging it' now to keep things moving

@Adamu: Seems unlikely that the Tribe would send us in without sufficient muscle...I don't want to give up play Silkie but would it be sensible for me to bring Cam along too, even if he takes a back seat role from an IC perspective? I can do rolls for him etc so you don't need to worry, or you could take him over as a pure NPC? Or we can just rely on Pendulum and Phantom to get our hoops out of the inevitable fire I certainly don't want to monopolise the action but four of us, one of whom is a little girl, seems a bit under gunned

@All - only ten days after they promised, my good friends BT finally got around to turning on my broadband!

@Tribes - yeah, now that my house move is done it is time to make this happen.

I will work up an appropriate vehicle and wheel man in a near future post.

Everyone gets respirators. If you want any other basic gear/supplies, let me know ASAP, cuz after we jump off it'll be too late.

Bus will leave at 2300, and cots/chow will be provided. If anyone needs to deal with stun damage or do anything else that requires time, that is your window.

Also shoot me any final OOC questions. You think Nana has been truthful, but also a bit difficult to decipher. So getting more info basically depends on deciphering what she has said so far…

Most important, can I get a roll call of players that are still in this?

@Aria, I have no problem at all, given our currently limited roster, with you playing both Silkie and Cam.

Computer help!!!!

Before when I clicked this, I was somehow able to get the image on full screen and check out the surroundings, plus get a much bigger image.

Now I can't get the image out of the little window on the Obsidian Portal page….

Am I doing something wrong now???

Need the big beautiful detailed image from before...

@Aria - for TLG, I know you plan on a jump at some point from the meet to "in the action."

When do you want to do that?

How much of a plan do you want us to have? Just a bare outline, I would assume with roles and possibly starting positions?
Or something much more detailed?

For a plan, can we assume a certain amount of legwork? Basic matrix info searches, contact crawls, and recon from a safe distance?

Basically, what do you need from us to get things where you want them to be?

Not sure I can help exactly...you could try just looking for the building on 'birds eye' on Bing Maps...Google Earth might achieve a similar sort of thing but I've not used it in a while...

I'm happy to go with what suits everyone best...from my point of view I need some vague idea about your plan(s) so that I can do some prep. Bare outlines plus winging it will be fine.

Yes, assume a few days legwork before kick off.

After that we can jump ahead to either your insertion into the facility or do a side scene where you start becoming hostage takers of some poor schleb's family*

*Silk probably won't be too happy about that, she's too ethical for her own good...will try and compose a suitable IC.

A quick 'heads up' just as things are getting exciting

Christmas is likely to be difficult for many of us to post so no problems there. In the not too distant future we are having another baby so I may disappear off the grid for a while until I get acclimatised to massive sleep deprivation again. I will try and let you know what's going on when I can but no promises!

I will be back though, have no fear! Games will continue, there may just be an unavoidable gap. I might try and twist adamu's arm to keep things trotting along (as he has done so well on Tribes!)

Cheers, A

Sadly, all the PbP games stlow to a crawl in December (just when I finally get some time off work!). No worries on that front.

But congratulations!!! Family is the only thing better than SR, and by a wide margin.

Been there on the sleepless thing, so you can count on me for whatever you need. You're being generous about Tribes - it's barely on life support - but I will do what you ask for CT and/or TLG.

I can easily come up with some sort of support role or amusing thing for Al to be doing in the background that will allow me to keep ICing him without posing a conflict of interest if you need me to run the baddies or something for a bit.

Congratulations Aria!

Apologies for the personal question, but I could never figure out from here whether you're male or female? I've seen you referred to as both, and you play exclusively female characters. It's puzzled me so I thought I'd ask

Well it seems that idea isn't too popular

Jan might be tempted to take certain 'assurances' himself though. You don't have to kidnap people, just do enough to let them know you have power over them and could do anything you wanted at any time.


As a tangent, we did something similar in a pnp game we played. Had little options, needed someone on an escort duty to be compliant I think. We burnt his house so that he'd have to come home from work and be replaced by one of us. That one went wrong when the person we were dealing with shot him as a 'loose end' at the end of the run. As a guard, that was his likely fate anyway though

I'm male, for some reason my alter-egos tend to be female (although I do have one or two male ones knocking about)

I'm sure it's some Freudian thing

...although it may just be that I prefer drawing females and I try to have a character sketch for every PC so...

Congrats Aria on the mini-gamer-to-be!

I had planned/expected my December to be a lot quieter than it's turning out to be (good for my wallet with all the work, bad for my sanity and gaming addictions)!

I'm working my way through the threads now and trying to play catchup and post.


@Tribes - I'm thinking Maus is just going to be waiting around for the transport to the school as there isn't anything else I can think of her wanting or needing (besides a meal) between now and then and Silkie and Pendulum seem to have the "interrogation" of the woman under control.

I was thinking you might have some stun damage from drain you might like to sleep off…but I haven't kept track myself, so maybe I'm wrong.

Ahh yes, that pesky side effect of trying to be a badass . Yes, sleep would be a good thing for the little blonde.

@CT: Got a plan yet? Vague notions of a plan? I'll reply to the IC as soon as I can but would be good to know where we are heading...?

@Tribes: Let's just go for it...if we haven't got it now it's too late

I think you mean TLG on the first point!

I'll try to put up some sort of rough outline as soon as I have five minutes to think properly.

It would just be a starting point for discussion with the other players, of course.

Trick is, as with Tribes, not really sure who even is still with us….


@Tribes: Well, so much for my request for a roll call.

Near as I can tell, all that is left is Aria and Vegas, which makes Cam, Silkie and Maus.
If there is anyone else still in, please let me know!

But assuming three twp players/three PCs, I am (again, when I get five minutes to post properly) going to jump ahead to a point where you are approaching the school, but awaiting a larger but less skilled contingent of Mechanicals to start shooting the place up in a fake full frontal assualt.
Then it will be up to the PCs to sneak in amid the confusion and see if they can find their guy…
Sound okay?

Sounds good!

This is a super-bare-bones plan, which Aria needs to plot things going forward, and which indeed I think is really ALL we need given that the plan is for us to be in the middle of its execution when things take a turn and get, um, exciting.

Basic plan incorporates Ali Moneaux, Al Guthrie, Jan, and Morgan, as they have posted in the past few weeks.

Basic legwork we’d like to have in place prior to start, with GM approval.
Multiple escape routes (quick surface streets --> freeways --> pre-set rally points in Puyallup Barrens Z-zones)
Name of security head and photos of his kids at school and home (promised by Silk in IC post; just something to have as a last resort bluff/stall if things go truly south)
Basic schematics of the data farm on all of our links, and showing water and electrical mains
Knowledge of infrastructure service providers (plumbing, etc.)

Basic prep
Morgan has hacked the plumber or whatever, gets us on work roster for given day/time
Ali Moneaux and Al Guthrie have appropriated one of their vehicles

Basic plan
Ali Moneaux and Morgan use the non-secure office access to walk straight in and, using their formidable Con and Hacking powers, somehow parlay that into entry to the data farm (inspection, parcel delivery, work reassignment, whatever).
Once inside, (A) Morgan does whatever computer types do and starts locating our target area - if she can get the goods, sweet - but more likely she’ll just learn where in this gigantic place we need to be in order to find/secure the data - while (B) Ali Moneaux places a small charge Al Guthrie has prepared for her or otherwise sabotages as Al Guthrie has instructed a water main in the vicinity of target area designated by Morgan, causing the beginnings of a flood that threatens the data farm itself (they probably have a remote cutout for the water inflow, but they’ll need to get it fixed and back online soon since they likely need it as a coolant).
Jan and Al Guthrie are naturally standing by in the plumbing van. They will come in, clearing an access path to the target area and get to work. This will hopefully create enough distraction for the women to get the data, and have them close at hand to lend combat back-up when (I mean, if) things go crazy.
Is there really any point to planning beyond that???

Of course some of our other players may be around, simply waiting for us to get off the ground with a plan. Depending on skills, they may be better suited to going in with the con team, or coming in with plumber back-up team.
Or, Rodeo could do astral overwatch and also possibly remote service a fire spirit or something to cause a huge distraction at other side of plant, drawing off attention and sec forces.
And Haze could be standing by as secondary exfil, and also if he had his heavy firepower drones at one end of that long alleyway between the office buildings and the data farm, suppressive fire on that lane could effectively delay reinforcements from the office areas (where most of the sec force probably is) crossing over to our target area, the data farm.
And Phantom, with infil skills, could also go in at a secondary point to do something interesting…???…or go in with first team and add hands to the finding of the package we are looking for.

And the MOST important thing about this plan is that it is merely meant as a starting point for planning.
All ideas for additions, changes, and deletions most welcomed.

That sounds good to me. While you guys are appropriating a vehicle I'll 'follow up a lead' on the Security Chief's family

I won't tell the rest of the group about this unless it becomes necessary, but I like my last resorts to be a sure thing

Well, I can't deny that this IS Shadowrun!

I was personally sort of looking forward to an RP scene between Al and Jan after the meet with Silk, in which they might discuss the pros and cons of such a course, since Jan did tell us he was wanting to do that.

Such a scene would not of course necessarily mean Jan was convinced, and abandoned his plan - just thought it would be a fun scene to play out.

But if you think it would complicate or slow things, I will concede that we are supposed to be speeding things along here.

The plan I've outlined assumes, of course, that we all have at least one planning meeting, and as long as Jan we also go on the assumption that in that meeting Jan never mentions his extra credit work, I don't suppose we'll be any the wiser.

I don't mind either way. That could be a fun scene indeed although I agree not moving us forward much.

I though Jan sensed the negative reaction to it, and it's something he's going to do anyway even if he does it alone, so if we are skipping to mid-run then I wanted it done.

What level of firepower are we taking in?

Yeah, cool a scene as it would be, given Aria's current time constraints, I suppose we should call the prep good based on the planning post, so he is free to launch us at whatever point he has a moment.

(We can always have some fun melodrama if whatever Jan gets up to on his own ever comes out, especially if it happens amidst a crisis…!!!)

As for firepower, hmm.
Al only has low-tech, civilian-type weapons. Nothing that breaks down or is really at all concealable. But I was thinking about some sort of portable pump apparatus that we have to wheel in by hand or on a sort of dolly-drone. We could empty out the innards and put a couple of rifles inside, plus whatever personal weapons the con-crew would like us to bring in for them. If the housing was metal it might confuse scanners…

What does everyone think?

@RdMarquis…

have been using the illustration you linked to your character sheet for reference on LeFey's appearance.

How is it different with the disguise gone?

Except for the red contacts (her eyes are blue), that's actually her normal appearance. I only noted it way back during the original Looking Glass, but when she was posing as a member of the repair crew, she was wearing a black wig and some disguise makeup from her kit.

Bonus points for you, RD, picking a spot out of the REAL Seattle Sourcebook!

@Tribes - sorry about the delay.

Cam, Silkie, Maus, and whoever else wants to join are hiding somewhere to the rear of the school.

I suck at links at all that, but just Google Wilkeson Elementary School on Railroad Avenue in Washington and it's not hard to find pictures of the main building.

Just add fifty years of ashfall and myriad other Sixth World calamity, board up the windows, and voila!

If I didn't, I'd be forced to make one up myself.

Seriously though, it just seemed appropriate.

Ok guys, I haven’t had as much time as I wanted to get things to a point pre-Christmas and whilst I may manage to get some IC up in the next couple of days I’m making no promises…so sorry…

In the meantime there are a couple of housekeeping items to try and keep the various games moving while I’m away from my computer:

• For everyone who makes 2 IC posts between now and 5th Jan there are is a bonus 5 karma and 10,000¥ (in addition to the rewards earned from posting anyway). Given that it might not be possible to do an IC for the current story there’s the General IC thread on DS which is always open, or a suitable flashback scene could be posted in the story ICs that has some vague connection…anything goes really! Merry Christmas!
• For anyone who ports their character sheet over to our nascent Obsidian Portal Campaign page there is a bonus 1 karma and 5,000¥. I think this should be as simple as signing up to OP (free) and going to the campaign page <<here>> I don’t think you need a specific invite from myself or Jayde Moon (who set it up for us in the first place). If someone could give it a go and see if that works then if it doesn’t I can see what I can do about invites then that would be great…copy and paste the character template text into a new character (the + at the top of that page). Some of you will have the bare bones of a character already set up by Jayde! Adjust the template as you like to best suit your character.
• Anyone who makes a contribution to the OP in terms of filling in contact or location data in the wiki section will be up for additional rewards of karma and cash!
• To keep you all busy there are potential rewards for helping out with my excel character generator. There’s a download link on the resources part of the OP. Shout if you fancy doing any of this and credit will go where credit’s due! I’m working on version 5.07 now that Run Faster has been released but there are still blanks in the spells section and various details that need tidying on various tabs of the generator.

@CT: I’m hoping adamu will take on the running of the current encounter with the foe. I will PM him separately. It’s by no means the last encounter planned for this thread so I’m happy for him to keep it moving and possibly even resolve it.

@TLG: Rather than overburden adamu can I suggest that you do some IC planning and perhaps the confrontation between Al and Jan to keep the thread ticking over until I can pick up the reins again? The OoC plan looks good so that would be a good use of IC time without needing too much intervention from me. Feel free to make up details and I will work them into the future plotline!

@Tribes: Hopefully you can limp on without Silkie and Cam. If there aren’t enough players I guess we can pick up a new recruitment drive when I get back into the swing of things…flashbacks or posting in the general IC are also possibilities!

@RD & Vegas

Not sure how much you know anyway (were you on an earlier run in this campaign?), RD, but no need to get too detailed in any case.

Mostly just RP, plus most of us including Al still had barely heard of Sybill by the time of the TLG meet...

Well, since it is now basically just you and Vegas on that "run", and no active players in the "campaign" side of tribes…
And since Vegas has her hand in a few other games…

What I am saying is, I can see doing a recruitment if there was a stuggling game to revive, but in this case it would be more like just starting from scratch, in which case why not just start a new game?

Still not saying what I want…since it is now just you and Vegas, why not just leave it on hold until you are back from your holiday/family event hiatus? I don't want to speak out of turn, but I am guessing Vegas would be fine with that course.

When you are back, we can start it up again, and recruit more bodies if you want, though I just got done reworking it for the three of you...

Yeah, cool, I think Mr. J and I both were interested in doing that scene but held off for the sake of keeping the larger run moving.
But in view of this post…

Should we just post as if the meeting was wound up (and any unanswered questions can get picked up OOC)?
Any objections to that from anyone?

And Mr. J, you still up for that "chat"?
And does anyone else want to be there as we go out for the drink that will lead to that chat?

@Tribes

I'm cool for putting things on pause until after the holidays/Aria's mini-gamer comes into the world.

@TLG

I'm in for a voice of "reason" in the great Al vs. Jan faceoff... Or Ali's just along for the beer

I'm up for anything. I won't be in often but I'll be checking occasionally

On pause it is then...I don't want to loose track of Tribes as I've invested lots into the background with the help of Machine Ghost and others...we'll pick things up as and when

That sounds perfect!

Hey all. Much as I wanted to make it work this time, PbP just isn't for me. after the excitement of getting a character together, the game itself just moves too slowly for my taste.

That said, I have tried to help put together a bit of a project for Aria, by getting this up onto Obsidian Portal.

So when you get a chance, poke on over to https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com and check it out. If you don't already have one, make an account at OP and then PM me the account name you made and I will happily get you added.

Once you are added, use the forums on the Portal to ask any questions about how to post stuff up or whatever.

I'll stay along and admin the Portal for a bit tip it looks like everyone has things in hand, then hand it over 100% to Aria.

Hope you guys enjoy, I always wish I could get into PbP and I keep trying every few years.

That's a shame. While pbp is slow moving is only as fast as the players make it/want it to be. If you want to speed the game up you just post more often. I think our current slow pace is partly due to Christmas.

There are also games like Post or Die where your characters is killed off if you don't post every 3 days. Maybe that's your sort of thing?

Second Mr. J that it is a bummer to see you go. I loved Rodeo, especially after seeing her character sketch and the way you mixed goth with cowboy.

Totally understand your frustration with the pace, but it is true that Christmas slows things down. The flip, side, though, is that the RP tends to be soooo much better over here.

And, again to echo Mr. J, you can always just post MORE yourself! (I am really good at following my own advice on that!)

Anyway, thanks so much for your work on OP. My own contributions there have been modest so far, but I plan more, and REALLY appreciate your patience in helping me get started.

Sorry to see you go Jayde, but thanks for your help on the OP, that has been a real eye opener and a great way to consolidate background stuff...or it will be!

Wow, I bought myself Stolen Souls for Christmas - only about 20 pages in and loving it!

(@Aria - Silk mentioned the file on Jackpoint - does she get us access to that? would love to have Al read it during the current "downtime" as we do RP/legwork!!! Please can I can I can I?)

I think I have really been shortchanging my SR experience having missed out on the last few years of fluffbooks.
I have really enjoyed Aria's campaign so far, but think I will even more so now…this is cool stuff!

Definitely looking forward to carrying on the "earlier" conversation with LeFey and Ali in the General IC thread, and equally anticipating playing out the scene "going for drinks" with (so far) Jan and Ali…


Hope this holiday dry patch ends soon!!!

Go for it! But be prepared to be afraid! Very afraid!

Worth checking out the secret history sub forum on SG too for more wild speculation