Despite spending thirteen years as a computer programmer, I have never felt the desire to play a hacker. Part of the reason has been the mechanical issues to which you allude, sunnyside. On top of that, I think I just wanted to leave that world behind.

And then ended up using those skills in archaeological research.

I really don't know how to make that PC skill set attractive.

I don't think you can (or need to) make playing hackers more attractive. Players either like playing hackers, or they don't. There is not a whole lot of middle ground, I believe.

In SR4A you do not need a whole lot of resources during character generation to make a decent hacker (technomancers probably being a bit different there), so you can totally make a character that is not just good at that one thing and has a bit more versatility.

Bye
Thanee

I think they're looking for Bongo to make the decisive action. Don't worry about Koekepan's world building if that was the issue. We might discuss later, maybe integrating some of that in a more worked out manner. But getting clothes wasn't meant to be an epic challenge.

OK.

By the way, your last post in Blackwater places Bongo there, not Willie. I will reply for Willie. Remember, teleportation doesn't exist in SR.

Switched. I think I'll do better if they're together, and as I get more used to Willie.

Though I'm pretty good at keeping their stat sheets straight. Hurm. I suppose I'm a bit like that in real life as well with being better at knowing about people than remembering their names.

Selina will also heal Sophie, once First Aid has been done.

And, yeah, I know Fashion could be used, but the material is a little weird for clothes, no?

Figured, that getting some very simple clothes and then use them to do something a bit nicer, should work better.

Bye
Thanee

So a concept I had for charm city, which I think I didn't elaborate on when I wrote it up as I thought everyone would be brining in out of town characters, was the people could have areas in a similar way to how they can have contacts. I don't know if there are proper rules for that.


To elaborate, I, like I think most GMs, let people custom design the contacts they pay BP/karma for within reason and allow the PCs to RP such a contact's part of a conversation. I would step in if you have them do something outside of the RAW of what contacts are willing to do and how they work (like having your 6/6 contact give you a million nuyen birthday present or something). But I generally wouldn't. They're also reliable. If someone did put the squeeze on them I'd work it out with you OOC.

Contacts gained during play that you didn't pay karma or BP for, however....

Anyway back on topic the point is you might have an area with it's own local flavor your character is familiar with. I might sort something out with Koekepan, and the rest of you if you're interested at some point, between adventures. For now I'm fine with him writing up some 24/7 arcade.

Once the ladies are taken care of, I figure since we all have the benefit of the "Heroism" Quality sunnyside gifted us, our PCs need to talk about how to end Frank's predatory scheme.

He might cut his losses and clear out his place in short order, but a discreet note to the authorities might be the least we can do.

I believe we have visual evidence.

Didn't I mention that at some point? I thought I did, or wanted to, at least.

An anonymous tip towards the authorities would be easy enough to do.

Bye
Thanee

Works for me. We have the technical knowhow!

I suppose we didn't discuss whether you guys are saving your feeds or not. You certainly could have been recording everything. Franks lower force magic didn't look like much in the physical realm though, especially behind his outfit.

You should see the sudden change in behaviour, though...

Bye
Thanee

Then there is the small.matter of the people behind bars.

Fiona will be in her astral form and linger somewhat close to the van to keep an eye out from there.

Bye
Thanee

Awwright! Awwright! Awwrigghhht! Willie gets some action!


Audio Perception test (2): Perception 3 + INT 5 + earbuds audio enhancement 3 + active listen 3 = 14 dice: 5 hits

Visual Perception (2): Perception 3 + INT 5 + vision enhancement 3 - modifier 1 = 10 dice: 3 hits

Surprise test: REA 9 + INT 5 + perception 3 = 17 dice: 3 hits Well, that's disappointing.
EDGE reroll of misses: 14 dice: 5 hits That's better. Total Surprise roll = 8.

remaining Edge = 3

Initiative 14 : 4 hits: Total Initiative = 18.

So I figured I'd be able to decipher what is probably a typo. But help me out here.

Not sure, where you stumble over, but I thought it is pretty clear.



Bye
Thanee

Might have been clearer if I had said 'girls' rather than 'women'.

I thought that at first pass, than wondered if it was something else. Anyway don't let it hold things up. Either Selina or Bongo could have returned to respond to the last thing Nari said.

Or you can figure you arrived a bit after. Either way I can have Nari react to drinks in my next post. You'd have to carefully pour the drink down Sophie, although, FYI, that's usually considered a very bad idea with unconscious people.

That's what I would try.

Pretty busy at the moment, though, I will post tomorrow.

Bye
Thanee

I'm fine sorting out particulars like if anybody got a cheap comlink or anything "off screen", if Tubesnake wants to get rolling.

FYI post with the marina

"As the van pulls away and gets some distance it seems to Fiona that the spirit from the Tourmaline isn't following them. She isn't alone in the astral, but still, it isn't crowded like a city. Even with concealment powers, a glowing form is tricky to hide when it has to keep up with a moving van. The van wouldn't even be all that easy to track. The bulges from the boxes and such make it a little distinctive. But color is lacking, and you can't even read the license plate properly in the astral.

Even though he said he'd be staying up, it takes a little while for Brewster to reply, but after a minute he does. << Excellent news! The family should still be at my marina. I should have been notified if anything changed with that. Should I tell them to expect you imminently? If you could share a recording of the girl, I could get on handling some matters for you involving escrow accounts. Obviously you'll have to get there for payment. >>

Without mentioning he'd brought this up before he share the location of the parking garage for the marina he has an arrangement with, where Bongo and Willie arrived.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/yh28jD6EekCuGVwo8

The van's pilot software indicates it should take a little over forty minutes to get there, or twenty if you don't follow its default programming to travel along streets in the "L" when possible and avoid the more direct, less congested, and higher speed limit streets in the butterfly."

Extra description from earlier in the thread when Bongo and Willie arrived:

"
His preferred port is off the old Canton Waterfront Park. Like a lot of parks it's still there, some of the plants are even surviving in the artificial lighting of the uptown building above it. The various docks have been extended. You could almost freerun across the inner harbor. If you have a ship Brewster can make arrangments to park it here for now. He's got connections with the local mafia to keep an eye on it, but don't leave anything too valuable out. As you arrive you see nice boats pulling up to the uptown buildings. Arms swing out and lower ropes, like the rigs for lifeboats on cruise ships. The boats are then hauled up the sides of the building, and then swung in and rested on a frame, turning them from boat into a fancy deck. Cars, trucks and motorcycles disembark the ship and roll down the docks into the city."


Any shoes for the girls? Comlinks? Clothing can be pretty negligable. Links for PCs start at 300. Though I could see 200 burner links without any firewall and a bunch of ads and trial versions of rating 1 programs. Which would seem the sort of thing they might sell there.

When I mentioned clothing, that should include shoes, of course (just something simple; I assume, those can be made fit properly with Fashion as well).



Did we ever assense Nari, BTW?

Maybe there is more to it than her just liking foxes.

Fiona can easily check on that, of course (just buying 3 hits).

Bye
Thanee

Flesh that out in IC.

And you'll want to make a proper roll.

So, I might be on to something there...

Proper roll was properly good.

Bye
Thanee

Just for the record...



With 100 meters per Combat Turn (that is 120 km/h) "Walking rate", keeping up with the van should be no problem at all. Just strolling along.





Does that even work, then? Without direct line of sight or a spotter, targeting is not possible, AFAIK.
I don't think familiarity with the target plays any role here, but I don't know ritual magic very well.

On the plus side, it also takes really long, like several hours, until something happens.


Can you do anything against that? Counterspelling to protect Sophie would probably help a little bit, at least.

Would Dispelling do anything here?

Other than that... just go to Frank's place and mess with him, I guess.

Bye
Thanee

Well, yes, that was just flavor, I didn't assign the -2 penalty (and I think I'd assign much more than that for perception checks if you're flying through an area!)






Oh. Wow. Well, good that you asked. With your initiate karmagen build and a few other things on your char sheet that came from expansion books I figured you'd have that background.

I'll consider your character to know though, because it's something that I'm pretty sure has been around since the second edition of Shadowrun when I started playing, and has been a plot point in some short stories and video games. I think occasionally non awakened characters knew about.

He would be using a material link.

Well, in this edition there are some other shenanigans initiates can get up to, but you suspect Frank isn't an initiate, and that wouldn't be such common knowledge.

Anyway using a material link, for living targets, requires a tissue sample instead of a spotter. Otherwise it works the same.

However there's a secondary reason to use a ritual magic with a material sample, which this editions rulebook elaborates on. Since a link is established between the ritual casting and the target, astral forms originating from the ritual can follow the thread to find the location of a target. That is an extended test with a duration of an hour. Mana barriers help with that. But that's mostly a delaying thing.

For all that the rules are a bit unclear on how countering it would work. It isn't exactly sustained, it's just taking a long time to cast. However dispelling still seems appropriate. Due to the odd nature of the ritual I'm not sure everyone would agree on other things that can disrupt a sustained spell, like driving through a mana barrier, but I'd allow it if I'm allowing dispelling. I'd consider it disrupted if someone entered an area with sufficiently high background count, and, while I don't think I've posted that bit yet, in this setting there are such areas nearby at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds (void) and Columbia planned community (storm). Franks magic rating isn't so high, so there are probably many more areas sufficient for these purposes, but you'd need a contact to point the way.

In theory he could try again, but the sample is destroyed after any attempt. Unless he has one of her kidneys on ice or something he's going to have limited opportunities, and a somewhat limited timeframe in which to use them.

Oh, okay. I do know about material links in general. Just didn't see anything else than the line of sight or spotter in the ritual targeting part. Probably missed it, I only skimmed over the parts.

Ah, that explains it... it's in Street Magic. Didn't look into that.




Yeah, that makes sense. Gives you a way to find her. Since Frank has to do the ritual (assuming), he could still send a spirit, though.

Bye
Thanee

Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things I checked my 2nd edition core rulebook, and material links were right there, and written as if that were more common. I'm not sure why they moved it out, other than the 4a core book already being thick, dense, and crunchy.

Anyway force 4 control thoughts.

Good thing, Sophie is still unconscious.

I guess, in a few hours, she won't be anymore, though.

Bye
Thanee

I suppose that's up to you. You could always give her another thwack.

Well, I'll post even though PB hasn't yet. The ball is a bit in others courts, though he's got some social rolls.

Also, to be clear, I'm allowing dispelling attempts.

Sorry. I got tied up with playing with my puppy and preparing for a party. Whose social rolls do you need, Bongo or Willie, and how many? I'm not sure what situations they are in that require that.

null sweat chummer. No social rolls. Just that it's in Bongo's wheelhouse and he might have wanted to do something.

Brewster requested telemetry. But I'm thinking this sounds like a lot more. Could you elaborate on what you want to send?

Hmm. Unfortunately, I did not specifically use the term "Three Dimensional Memory" to describe Bongo's memorization, but he does have Eidetic Sense Memory as well, which includes "perfect photographic visual memory" along with any other sensory input he might have gleaned, so I believe he can relate the above. He might have seen things not visible from drone POVs or nuances his contact lenses failed to record.

If that last bit requires a Perception Test, here it is: 12 dice (Damn! I don't think Hawkeye works if he has his contact lenses in.) :4 hits

Might use that roll later.

Hope Thanee is OK, but I'll post.

Sorry! I am just busy. Will head over to the IC in a bit.

Bye
Thanee

For social rolls something I sometimes do is use a little creativity and maybe create openings someone could work with. If it's in person sometimes I'll feed a player some info about something like a picture on the NPCs desk they can work with.

But, as an aside, when I was young I was a GM for some friends out in my rural house and yard for what I guess might be considered LARPing. However we didn't know any of those terms back then. We just wanted to play games but had been exposed to video games and so we wanted a little structure beyond just the whole cops and robbers "I shot you! No you missed!"

Anyway we didn't use dice, but instead you might have to hit a target with a BB gun or something like that instead.

The point being that in Shadowrun we don't make players actually shoot straight to have characters that shoot straight, so same deal a bit with social skills.

Also it's sometimes unfair when someone who personally has high social skills tries to use that to cover up their dump stat.

Heads up, I'm quite sick, so I'll be scarce for a few days.

Get better then!

Bye
Thanee

Ditto.

I hope you get better soon!

I actually tend to do stuff like RP more when I'm sick, since I have the time. It's scary to think you're "don't want to RP" sick!

Yeah, it really depends. If you are coughing all day or can't concentrate well, or something like that, even fun stuff is not very fun.

Bye
Thanee

I'm on my way back. Less fever, but still easily tired. Let's do this.

Glad you're getting better!

So Bongo knows about the townhomes under the Tourmaline offering cheap (but violently not free) spots to stay. There's also the completely free chiphead flophouse next to the safe house (except as Ruby noted it's crowded and dangerous). Sounds like Bongo doesn't like those particular options.

But Tubesnake would know of places like those all over.


The aren't nearly enough unskilled jobs to go around in Baltimore. However Nari has a SIN, must have at least graduated high school, and Tubesnake has something of an in with contacts in the plumber's union and property maintenance.

Sorry, I dropped the ball as the 'face' with Sophie's parents. I'll pay closer attention.

Wow. I actually care about what happens to Nari. I've been thinking about her since I wrote Bongo's request.

I'm getting mushy in my old age.

I'm going to hide behind the fact that there should really be a roll with Bongo's pitch to excuse my lack of time for a proper reply tonight.

Bongo's pitch roll:

CHA 6 + (con, etiquette, leadership, negotiation all ) 4 = 10 dice

Fuck it, Bongo cares about Nari, so add edge: 10 + 6 = 16 dice, exploding (leaving 3 edge points unused): 4 hits

Wow. Actually needed the edge.