@Volker: bnc's Social Limit should be 4. It's rounded up.

Bye
Thanee

Oh, indeed! I always thought that essence will always be rounded down (as in magic). Jeez, that raises my social limit to unseen heights!

4 hits are enough for most cases IMO especially when you can get to 5 with clothing and teamwork.

For..?

Social tests.

Bye
Thanee

Two threads, two fails. I feel a bit stupid today

As a sidenote... my mental image of the facility was waaaay smaller than it probably is (housing so many people). It's probably closer to a small underground town.

Bye
Thanee

Well, talk always was of sustaining a population so I thought it must be larger than a village, I suppose.

I imagine it as an underground hospital for perceiving scale, but you have seen very little of it.

It is quite funny, that the hacker of all people has trouble with the concept of being in a virtual place at the same time as a physical place.

Bye
Thanee

Isn't it?
On the other hand, virtual reality never really feels that real. I guess, she's betriebsblind (I dunno if there's a good English word for that concept)

So she can return to reality without a hitch despite her critical glitch?

I figured we made enough of a fuss due to that glitch.

All rightey

So what is the plan for resting? How long are you planning to stay in the safehouse?

Nova has a sleep regulator (I think, bnc does, too). So 3h sleep is enough. If Fox needs more rest, we can alternate keeping watch.

So, about 6h?

Bye
Thanee

Yup, she does

Just for interest (and you don't have to answer if you want to keep the mechanics to yourself).

At which point comes the scale of a modification into play. I realized that in both cases (the face swap and a microscopic change in a very simple part of the lock) both bnc and the AI rolled the same number of dice.

I keep a secret overwatch score which is affected by the scale of modifications you do. I go with 0.25 factor for very small modifications up to 1 factor for large changes. (whereas I did not formally define small or large). I tend to be conservative here and allow for a relatively larger leeway because you cannot disconnect and remove your overwatch score. So right now there is a lot of credit to burn on hacking but bnc has already acquired a bit of overwatch and it would gradually accumulate. regardless of success or failure.

sorry, very important question:

Is Nova using the voice channel to talk or is she using her "real" voice?

No, we are not sneaking outside, we already are outside, when Nova says that stuff. She is not saying anything in there, where drones and whatnot might listen in.

@Volker: Yeah, she is just speaking.

Bye
Thanee

Ohh... okay. I totally read that the other way around.

Adjusted my post accordingly.

Bye
Thanee

Can't do much but wait for the truck to appear, currently.

Bye
Thanee

@Volker is there anything bnc would like to do or are you down to laying an ambush for the track.


Also, I'll need a few more details to resolve an ambush for the track.

What are your general intentions for an ambush: Most important where do you want to ambush the track? In the base under the cover of fog, or outside of the base on the road. How are you going to stop the car? would you do it outside the bunker inside the fence or somewhere in the woods for example?

I was thinking, we wait at the base in the fog until the truck stops there.

The drones were only inside the bunker, right?

If we have the means to stop the truck somewhere before reaching the bunker, that might also be an option. Nova does have a clip with zapper rounds, but only a heavy pistol as weapon, not sure that is gonna be enough.

Bye
Thanee

Firstly, I'm terribly sorry for my posting morale recently. I returned from a meeting finding myself having covid, then spent most of my recovery time alternating between the couch to rest and the desktop to work because currently there's a shitload of work. In between I'm supporting a friend who's about to have a mental breakdown. This all leaves little time for shadowrun. Just to let you know I haven't lost interest. I expect this to go on similarly for another three weeks or so, then it should gradually get better. Or so I really, really hope.

---

As for the ambush. Maybe it's just me losing track but I still didn't quite get why we would lay ambush on a truck. Even if we simply ignore that the reason for our break-in might not be given anymore, wasn't it the original plan to sneak into the bunker to get to the central computer system where we could shut down the shield? Where is ambushing a truck full of weapons going to support us in this?

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Zappers damage is resisted only with device rating + Firewall, so unless the van is slaved to gear, the damage resistance shouldn't be too high. And even if it is, it would rise to 12 or so - that's still not a high value for damage resistance. With her skill, two rounds would certainly do to take out the van. Problem is: If we kill the van than there's no hiding our ambush, and raising an alarm will only be a matter of time even if the guards don't do it right when we hit.
Do you think it's too dangerous to do it right where we stand now? They have to leave the van anyway, and when we attack while the haul crates they won't even have their hands free. We strike quickly and silently, and it's over before they realize what just happened.

You wanted to get gear for the raid. b&e armors weapons etc to improve your chances. But the avatar you saw claimed that it is a predictible move and a trap so he suggested you ambush a track rather than raid the bunker.

Ah, thanks for the reminder. Then let's get some good gear.

How many guards were there to guard the truck? Were those the sames who carried the cargo?

Sorry to hear that, Volker, especially about your friend. Hope he gets better and hope you will find some rest as well.

Bye
Thanee

As for ambushing the truck, I still think our chances will be best, if we wait for them to get out. But that will be in vincinity to the bunker, of course.

Bye
Thanee

Take into account that you heard numerous guards at the bunker whereas the truck only has two people in it, but it is essentially your call.

@Thanee

I agree in all regards.

@Gilga

How many guards were there to guard the truck? Were those the sames who carried the cargo?

There were two people on the last truck.

All good things come in threes: Were those the sames who carried the cargo?

Yes, exactly.

@Thanee

I guess we agree then. While they are carrying crates, they can't wield weapons. bnc first subdues their communication and then we hit fast and silent before they can react.
Agree?

So you are ambushing thetruck at the bunker despite the additional guards there?

Do we have another reasonable choice?

Stopping the truck and getting inside without much in terms of gear seems rather difficult to accomplish.

Bye
Thanee

On the road seems less dangerous but as you wish. Are you going to try and snatch a create or two or to fight? What is the general plan.

The problem with the road is that if we cannot stop the truck, it simply drives away (we are on foot).

And even if we can stop it, we still have to somehow get inside.

If it is a truck like today, that would be easy, but in shadowrun vehicles are all armored and not quite so easy to open.


At the bunker we have to deal with additional guards at some point, if we do not manage to defeat the two that are with the truck quickly, but that still seems to be a way more controllable situation for us.

Bye
Thanee

@Gilga: I'm pretty sure that would fall under Sneaking not Disguise.

Disguise is basically making yourself look different.

Sneaking is hiding and moving unnoticed.


An option here could also be to roll Sneaking based on Willpower instead of Agility, to express the long duration of staying hidden.

Bye
Thanee

I was under the impression that you need disguise to hide in the terrain well and sneak to move silently but I don't mind your interpretation.

Yeah, that's mostly my reasoning as well. The goal is not to rouse the additional guards. Speaking of, it would be awesome if you could give us a rough outline of where they and the drones roughly are and stuff. Like, are there twenty guards with direct line of sight or is there one lazy fella watching porn in some hut? Just to get a general gist.


As for the skill in use, it's unfortunately rather ambiguous. Content-wise, only Sneaking makes sense to me. "Disguise covers non-magical forms of masking your identity, including makeup and enhancement" (CRB 132) whereas Sneaking "allows you to remain inconspicuous in various situations." On the other hand, camouflage is a specialization of disguise. I'd interpret it as "painting the camouflage is Disguise, actually hiding is Sneaking".

If we roll on WIL, it's WIL + Sneaking +6: 15d6t5 3
If it's AGI instead, I'd have 3 dice less, making it only two scores.
Should we be allowed to roll on INT, however, I'd be able to roll two more dice. INT + Sneaking: 2d6t5 2
That would be a whopping 5 hits.

The thing is, you do not know the outline because of the fog. You roughly know that there is a road, a gate and a paved yard where the truck stopped, and a bunker. You hardly saw any guards, you just heard some people talking which gives you the estimates.

Yeah, the "camouflage" specialization is weird, since they probably mean the application and not the actual hiding there, but why would you roll for that.

Maybe, if you camouflage yourself and "hide in plain sight", so it is not your skill of remaining unseen (Sneaking), but rather your skilll of making you look like the terrain (Disguise).

I guess "camouflage" specialization could also be seen as hiding something else, which makes a lot more sense to me. Like, you know, use camouflage nets to hide your vehicles and stuff like that.

But here, I just don't see it as being applicable. since we do absolutely nothing to disguise ourselves, but rely on the terrain and our skill to remain unnoticed.

Anyways... let's hide!

Sneaking: 6 hits (Willpower would be -4 dice, but same result)

Bye
Thanee

Right, but I can look around, I can look for matrix icons, and so forth.


Just watch The Hunger Games and you will see, how camouflage is a worthy specialization
“Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying.“ LMAO

You aren't waiting for me to roll, are you?

Nope, RL is crazy. I'll try to move along tomorrow.

Those guards are very perceptive.

Well, guess we have to see where this gets us then...

Bye
Thanee

@gilga Didn't want to hurry you. I was just unclear whether you missed the roll.


Could you kindly make a sketch of the surroundings and the positions of the guards, as far as we can tell?