It's interesting that the Jam Signals Matrix action would actually work better here. It includes hindering attempts to hack devices within 100 meters, regardless of where the attempt originates. I feel like a jammer is probably supposed to do that as well, but the rules don't seem back that up.

So is it just bad editing, or is it deliberate? A question that comes up too often

I can see an argument for both.

Argument A: They should be the same.

1) It makes things easier, and more streamlined, one less rule exception to remember
2) It says it "turns your device into a jammer

Argument B: They should be different.

1) The capability of the jammer to jam signals degrades over distance, while your hits on the Jam Signals test affect everything equally out to 100 meters.
2) The whole "everything has a price" - a jammer has no real cost, i.e. you turn it on, and it works, and you can get on with doing something else. To Jam Signals, you have to have someone doing nothing else but jamming signals, and since it is an Attack action, it requires someone with a deck, which is a whole lot more expensive than a jammer.
3) You could argue that the jammer is messing with local meat-space, sending out signals to interfere with devices within the area of the jamming. Jam Signals is an action that can only be taken within the Matrix itself, so you could say that it is messing with VR-space, and thus affects everything. (Although this whole line of reasoning isn't actually supported anywhere).

Regardless:

1) Unfortunately, Jam Signals isn't an option until you unbrick Mel's deck.
2) I think that unless everyone wants to change how either Jammers or Jam Signals works, do we want another house rule? If the group is ok with it, I am.

I don't think we really need one. I don't see Jam Signals really coming up too often. I'd just play it that they are different, for whatever reason the Devs never bothered to figure out.

Just poor editing, par for the course. Like the questions about when a device only uses its DR to roll and when it gets to use the owner/master ratings. It's not at all clear when that really comes into play. Personally, to streamline things, I would remove all device protections unless the device icon is slaved in a PAN. I think the text before Matrix Actions just confuses things unnecessarily.

@PG,

So, where is Sisco going?

At this point in the IC, is the jammer operational?

I would say yes - assuming PG isn't delaying it for some reason.

I haven't the foggiest where we are going...didn't Huiquing say something about meeting with certain people?
And I wouldn't have delayed turning on the area jammer

He did, but then Jack talked about going somewhere out of the way.

Ok - so here is how I see it (a sort of sum up before the weekend)

1) The jammer is active and none of you are in AR or VR (We can assume you've told Huiquing and Bai to shut down their commlinks/any other item connected to the Matrix.
2) You assume (a good assumption) that the RFID tag has been disabled as long as the jammer is on and within 5 meters of Bai.
3) You are currently heading north toward the more populated area of the CAS. If there is somewhere else you want to be, Sisco knows the area well, if PG describes what he is looking for, I'm happy to provide a specific area where you would be heading to. (others are free to make knowledge tests to see if they know somewhere to go.
4) You can certainly ask Huiquing where he was planning on going next.
5) You have to figure out what, if anything, to do about Bai's RFID tag in the long run.

Chrome,
I know that you will have limited access for the next few days, anything you want to add before you go?
Will you be healing Mel?

Count me out until June 1st inclusively, I'm not even bringing my laptop with me.

Of course Snap will offer to heal Mel, but she knows that it's better to try first aid first (I think that's the right order?). Apart from that, she'll contribute relevant knowledge, such as Sprawl Life, for when it can be helpful, and generally try to assist, focusing on the team's safety. I think there's a spirit with a couple services remaining. She might eventually ask it to Guard or perform surveillance duty when it becomes useful.

See you in 10 days, I'm off to New Zealand!

Nice! Have a great time!

Sorry about the delay in posting - had a very busy holiday weekend with the family and friends.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

So, just throwing this out to keep the group heading in the right direction, a checklist (not necessarily in chronological order)

1) First Aid and then Heal on Mel's wounds
2) Repair Mel's deck
3) Purchase new clothes for Bai
4) Determine how to handle either Hung Lao or Li Guang

I'd go 1,3,2, then 4. With that said, I'm unsure about whether we have the necessary gear to repair Mel's deck.

Mel does have her Electronics kit, which is all she will need to fix the deck - as far as I can tell there is no difference between repairing something that has 1 box, 3 boxes, 8 boxes or Matrix Condition Monitor full (except for the fact that something that has its condition monitor full cant access the matrix), so Mel should be all set to take care of it (after her dumpshock disorientation and healing happens).

In that case, I'd put the deck fixing before the clothes dumping, depending on how long it all takes.

Just as an FYI, PG's mother passed away this week, and he is travelling, so I'm not sure how much access he has to the forum.

I believe that Mel is (once a couple minutes pass and she loses the -2 modifier for dump shock) still the best at first aid (with 7 dice (normally 8, but -1 due to wounds).

Jack can certainly help out and add his 6 dice as a teamwork test.

Sorry to hear that about PG's mom.

I'll help Mel with her First Aid test. I can add up to two dice to her roll (although, recall that she will only be able to heal a max of two boxes of damage, whereas Jack could heal three with a good roll).

Good point about the limit - let me walk through this:

If Mel rolls, she will roll 7 dice base, + up to 3 more dice from Jack (maximum added dice=skill), and if she rolls 4 or more hits, will heal 2 boxes.

Or if Jack rolls, he will roll 6 dice base, + up to 2 more from Mel, and if he rolls 5 hits or more, will heal 3 boxes (4 hits still heals 2)

We have to add into that a -1 penalty for Average Conditions. (you could add an additional +4 for Mel's medkit, but then you run the risk of having a Matrix presence to track).

I think that Jack rolling is the way to go (since Mel is more likely to generate 2 hits on her teamwork test than Jack is to generate 3 on his).

Let me know if you want to turn the Medkit on or not.

Mel's First Aid is 2, so I can only add 2 dice to her test since it is capped at the leader's skill level. She could add 3 to mine if she rolls well. I feel like PG has a R6 medkit in the van. So, we could arrange to drop off Bai, the jammer, and one of us (maybe Snap) for a minute, drive away, turn the Medkit on, do the first aid, head back, pick them up, and have Snap do her Heal Spell. Also, Snap could cast her Resist Pain spell to possible eliminate Mel's wound modifier.

This sounds like a plan - Chrome is away, but I don't think he will have an issue casting those spells, and PG does have a Rating 6 Medkit.

Let's do the die rolls now and then some IC posts can go up for various people:

Snap casts Resist Pain on Mel - at Force 6 (Drain 2DV)
14 dice (including +2 from Mentor)
14d6: 49 [14d6=5, 3, 1, 4, 5, 4, 1, 6, 3, 2, 3, 6, 5, 1] = 5 hits, so Mel has no target modifiers

Snap resists Drain
13d6: 52 [13d6=1, 4, 6, 2, 2, 5, 6, 6, 6, 3, 3, 4, 4]= 4 hits

Next is Mel's teamwork test, which is 8 dice:
8d6: 33 [8d6=5, 2, 6, 4, 2, 6, 2, 6] = 4 hits, reduced to 3

Jack's First Aid test:
6 dice, +6 from Medkit, +3 from Mel, -2 for conditions = 13 dice
13d6: 55 [13d6=5, 4, 2, 3, 5, 5, 4, 5, 2, 4, 6, 4, 6] = 6 hits, which beats the threshold by 4, reduced to 3 by Jack's skill

So Mel heals 3 boxes of damage.

Last, Snap casts Heal (Force 2, since that's all she needs)
13d6: 48 [13d6=6, 1, 2, 6, 4, 2, 3, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 1] - more than enough hits to heal Mel

And she resists drain
13d6: 37 [13d6=4, 2, 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 1, 3, 1] - taking 1 box of Stun Damage.

That worked out pretty well. Do you want to update the IC with that or should I? Next step would be Mel trying to repair the matrix damage on her deck to at least get it serviceable. I need to go back and check the repair houserules to figure out how long this is going to take.

ETA: Never mind, we don't have repair house rules for Matrix Damage. So, it's going to depend on how much Mel wants to repair her deck and how many hits she gets on the test.

EATA: Although I don't see Mel having logged in in almost a week. So he might be busy.

If you can update the IC, that would be fantastic.

As far as fixing the deck, Sisco can help:
6d6: 22 [6d6=1, 3, 5, 5, 4, 4]

Meaning that Mel would roll 11 dice:
11d6: 41 [11d6=1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 1, 5, 5, 6, 5, 2] 0 so with 6 hits, she can either heal 6 boxes in an hour, or 5 in 30 minutes, or 4 in 15, or 3 in 7.5, etc. Will have to leave it up to her.

Sorry, guys...it's been a little crazy.

Let's go with half of the damage fixed. 5 boxes in 30 minutes.

So tomorrow morning I leave for vacation, most of it spent at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH. I should have occasional internet, but not as much as now. So I should still be posting, but a bit more sporadically (but hopefully better than the past week).

Will be back home after the 8th of June.

Enjoy your vacation

Ok, I believe that PG should be back home tomorrow, and Chrome in two more days, and the next step of the game should have everyone involved, so it looks like a temporary break while vacations get taken care of.

Of course, if anyone wants to post, please feel free, and if anyone has any questions, ask away

Cool. Just to note, I'll be going on vacation at the end of the month/beginning of next month.

So, we've got the deck functional. We would need to kill the jammer and have Mel try to brick the tag again to get rid of it. When we kill the jammer, our opposition would easily be able to get an exact lock on our location, so we probably should do it somewhere we would have a lot of options for high-speed flight, like a traffic clover... like where 30 and 45 87 and I225 meet (sorry, mixing up my games). Looks like the best we can do, depending on traffic, although it is unfortunately rather close to Chinatown. Alternately, we could do something closer to downtown where we have a lot of directions we could go. We definitely don't want to do it until we get closer to the city because there are a lot fewer streets where we currently are, so setting an ambush would be much easier.

Hey guys! I'm back. I had a good vacation, and I feel great even if jet lagged. I hope everyone else is going well.

How many boxes of damage does everyone have now?

Surprisingly, mostly fewer than when you left... except for you, I think you picked up a box of stun healing Mel.

Mel's deck is repaired now, so she can make an attempt to brick the tag and all of our dreams will come true.

We're on a bit of a hiatus at the moment as Mel just left for vacation and PG's mother passed.

Welcome back Chrome!

Hope you had a great time in NZ - never been myself, closest I got was Fiji, where I ran into the NZ Air Force at one of the local bars. There were about 30 men and women there, so I can only assume that it was their entire air force

You did pick up 1 box of Stun Damage while healing Mel - 13 dice and only got 1 hit

Currently it is:
Jack - healed
Mel - healed
Sisco - 5 boxes Stun
Snap - 1 box Stun

Jack - you plan sounds good to me, we'll wait till Mel logs back in to start it

I am now back..well, i was back two days ago but was so tired basically slept most of it.

Totally understandable man, sorry for your loss.

Absolutely no worries.

Once you get caught up to speed, if you have any questions or ideas, please let me know.

Hey guys, I am back online (still in Columbus though). When everyone's ready, Mel will give that tracker another piece of her mind.

Hey guys, I am back online (still in Columbus though). When everyone's ready, Mel will give that tracker another piece of her mind.

Ok - hope everyone had a great weekend

With Mel back online, I'll put up an IC post this morning with the team heading to the intersection listed by Jack, and then shutting the jammer off, and then Mel attempting to locate and then brick the tag again.

Mel, bear in mind that you will need to deal with the other decker once the tag comes back up - please list your ASDF and programs.

I'll roll initiative - but should I assume you are ignoring the decker in favor of going after the tag? - you would have to find him first anyway. Should I assume you are running silent as well? (A good idea, since it will then force the other decker to have to get a fix on you before he can do anything to you).

Is there a reason that the jammer has to be off to brick the tag?
If the jammer is turned on wirelessly it can be set to not intefere with mel's cyberdeck.

It has to be off because with the jammer on, it cuts the tag's link to the Matrix, which means that although Mel's deck works, it can't find the tag to actually brick it

Silent.

ASDF = 6,5,3,5

Signal Scrub
Stealth

Okay then

So, first things first, you Hack onto the local grid

Hacking+Logic, Signal Scrub+Datajack cancel Noise, +2 for Hot Sim, -2 for Running silent = 12 dice
12d6: 44 [12d6=6, 6, 1, 5, 6, 1, 2, 2, 5, 4, 2, 4] = 5 hits

Local Grid resists
4d6: 18 [4d6=5, 6, 5, 2] = 3 hits

So you jump onto the local grid. That would happen before you shut the jammer off, so now initiative:

Mel 4d6+8
4d6+8: 24 [4d6=3, 4, 4, 5] = 24

Next up is spotting the tag again:
13d6: 37 [13d6=5, 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 3, 6, 3, 5]=3 hits

10d6: 29 [10d6=5, 1, 4, 1, 1, 3, 4, 2, 2, 6] =2 hits

So you spot it on 24

Next, on 14, you attempt to Data Spike it:

9d6: 31 [9d6=2, 6, 5, 2, 1, 5, 5, 3, 2] = 4 hits

It resists

8d6: 24 [8d6=1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 1, 4, 6] =1 hit

So, your base DV is 6, +3 for 3 net hits is 9DV.

It resists damage:
8d6: 27 [8d6=1, 5, 6, 3, 2, 5, 3, 2] = 2 hits, so it takes 7 more boxes of Matrix Damage and is bricked (since no one had repaired the Matrix Damage you did to it earlier.

I'm assuming at that point you switch to AR and jack out?

What's next?

Well, that went better than expected.

First requirement is to get the frag out of here with alacrity. I would say head toward CAS downtown for right now. Maybe a roundabout route so it isn't a straight shot from where we turned the jammer off. For the next few minutes, everyone probably needs to look out the windows and look for any pursuit.

Next order of business is to figure out somewhere safe for Bai to stay. We can't really be lugging him around with us. Then figure out a way to setup a meet with the guy that Huiquing had mentioned.

i seriously doubt that in one combat turn they could spot mel and instantaneously get goons to our location...
but like Sisco's Uncle Morty always says: better safe then sorry.
Sounds like a plan Jack.

Once the tag came online, since they're the owner, they don't have to spot it. They can run Trace Icon on the tag immediately.

Jack is correct - in addition, while if this were, lets say a commlink, or a gun, or something like that, they would need to run the Trace Icon - but with something like a tracking tag, I'm pretty sure that as soon as it comes online it starts broadcasting its physical location to its owner (that's its sole function, afterall).

Regardless, I think Jack's plan is the safest one

I think you need to discuss your next move - will give Mel and Chrome time to chime in. I will probably put up an IC post covering what just happened this afternoon.

See? Now that's how it's done. Yes, Mel will immediately shift to AR and jack out. She is also completely in line with Jack's thoughts, especially GTFO'ing with all speed.

My point wasn't that they couldn't locate us... it was that I'd seriously doubt they'd show up in one turn.
So while we have to move- we don't have to peel out like it's a race

Good job!

We're in a much better situation now. What comes next is going to be interesting!

well, there's interesting and then there's INTERESTING... we'll see which one pops up

Just a thought - did anyone consider Valkyrie?

ETA - when I say "anyone" I realize that means Jack or Snap, since neither Mel nor Sisco have met her.

ETTA - please do not feel that I am steering the game in that direction - you have full discretion to use Valkyrie or not, totally up to you, I just figured you might have forgotten about her

Considering the challenges we had getting into the CAS, I'm not sure if any of us would think the CAS would be part of her area of operations. The only time we've run into her or her people was in the UCAS sector. But I'm sure if Huiquing doesn't really think he knows anyone, we could try to reach out to the two fixers we met on this side.