I missed a lot of work today due to sitting in a Dr's office for hours, and I have Arnis class tonight, so I won't be able to post until tomorrow. If you guys want to fill in the time by talking to each other in the IC post on the way to "Vegas", feel free. Just don't go so far as to have you all showing up there just yet. Keep things "in transit".

Cmdr. Haney does have a briefing for you, but I figured I give you all some time to talk or RP out your arrival before I move on.

I was considering it, but really don't know what we would (or even could over the open airwaves) discuss right now.

I think the same question is on everyones mind!

TOR says that the June weather is quite warm ... not cool.

It's cool ... well, er ... you know what I mean.

TOR = TheOneRonin

Y'know, in HINDSIGHT, maybe it WAS a bad idea to go walking off...

Just so's everyone knows, I tend to be a stupid poster. What I mean by that is I tend to type things up as I think of them, meaning I try stuff that won't work when you remember that one detail I didn't, or I do things that my character, IN HINDSIGHT, wouldn't do, as it would make him look like a pompous ass.

It's you guys' job to prevent that from happening. If you see Ivan doing something stupid, whack him in the head and sit him down. I'll go with it; we'll just have to assume he's a bit absent minded from time to time, 'k?

Graci!

If I know where we are planning on staying (even if thats anywhere) you can ignore my second question.

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days... I'm extremely busy with work. But I'm following along.

I'll try to have something up by tomorrow.

Yeah...same here. I know several of you have been plotting my demise since it's been almost a week without me posting anything. I blame work...and the lemmings.

Anyway, new post is up.

To answer Cthulhudreams, no, you do not know where you will be staying. You'll have to find your own places once you arrive. With the money and Fake IDs you have, it shouldn't be much of a problem, unless you plan on trying to buy a 3000 square foot home on the upper east side of town.

Speaking of such things, I'm probably going to handle Lifestyle™ costs a little different from the main book. I'll be breaking it up into things like rent, food, entertainment, etc. If it ends up being too complicated, I'll just fold it back into one cost. However, me doing it this way will make things like Safehouses™ much mor affordable for the team.

So, do we hash everything out IC before we leave, or do we discuss it OOC?

And do we have all the gear outlined by Fortune/Doc/Myself? ;P

Discussing it OOC might be a bit quicker.

I think the only thing missing was the real heavy stuff.... like maybe a few LAWs.

Beside that, I believe we had everything taken care of.

So, about the first meet.... do we really ALL show up?
Do we get some people to do the talking, some to cover them, and others to do perimeter overwatch?

I think we all have to show up as the dude wants to met us, but my nerves are screaming 'potential trap', so I was thinking something like:

we ditch all our vans at a carpark nearby, taking two bikes and one van.

Group A: John/Nick/Sam/Byrne

Byrne does the talking as he knows the most about the sort of situation, and while the money is not that relevant the being impressively knowledgeable is.

Mosby does close personal protection for Byrne.

Nick and Samantha hang back near the van unless required with magical and rigged assistance on hand. Nick sends a UAV to give first up recon for the advance party.

Group B: Ivan/Ashley - The advance party.

Ivan and Ashley ride the bikes like hell and try and get there 30 minutes early, scout out the place for traps and set up our perimeter with spy drones so we can see them coming, and maybe lay some thermal smoke and CS gas grenades for a 'shit falls through' situation -> this could be overkill.
For the actual meet they'll fade out of the woodwork - preferably remaining sitting on their bikes in case a getaway is needed.

When we leave, Group A leaves first, then Group B leaves after the marks to make sure we arn't followed, then we regroup somewhere else.


Weaponary escalates the further back you are standing - John and Byrne just have pistols, but Sam and nick should have assault rifles ready to go in the van and Ivan and Ash have whatever they can get away withriding on the bikes (probably SMGs inside their jackets.

Same with body armour (John and Byrne in securatech clothing only, everyone else with a vest on)

If we think we can get away without everyone being physically present, I'd think Ashley and Ivan should take sniper rifle(s) and chillout on overwatch.

If shit goes down, we blow the grenades, Byrne and myself run for the van and nick puts his foot to the floor while Sam covers us, and the perimeter crew bail as soon as we are in the van.

if nothing happens, group A retreats and group B cleans the crime scene.

Feedback and stabbination warmly requested

That seems like a good split. Ivan can pepper the area with Watchers and possibly a high force summoned spirit as well, to get some astral heads up.

Then again, if he was to, say, fly up to the top of a nice tall building, set up a sniping position, and keep overwatch up there, he could go astral, manifest down at the meet so the guy can recognize him and he can participate in the dialogue, or just get a good view for the meeting, and be back at his meat body in less than a second to pull the trigger, if need be. Add in a small cloud of watcher spirits, that spirit he summoned just for the meet, and he's pretty much set to interfere while drifting away in the clouds, if he has to.

With Ivan and Sam both doing Astral Surveillance, plus a spirit or two, I think the odds of an opposing astrally active NPC getting by their watch is slim, though possible. That means most likely, we'll know which to geek first.

Of course, everything MIGHT go swimmingly. But you can never be too cautious.

Thats probably a pretty sweet alternative, ideally you'll still get there early, run an astral sweep, then manifest for the talking part. allows you to be there virtually

Alternately, we could just go to the meet like the professionals we are supposed to be. This guy has nothing to gain by doing us harm before we have done anything either for or against anyone.

I requested and was approved to add some IIA rounds, as TOR mentioned that he's

Okay, some updates:

Pretty much all of the gear requested is there. Weapons and other items requested with customizations are instead only available in the base model. Though Supply did include the parts and pieces for you guys to perform the customizations yourselves.

The vehicles in the lot are a little different from what was requested. I'll put the RL equivalent names in parenthesis so you guys know what I'm talking about. Oh, and the vehicles are all stock...no mods on them beyond what is noted here.

Vehicle List:

'63 Ford Americar (Dodge Intrepid)
'66 Ares Denali (GMC Yukon)
'58 Ares Courier (GMC Savannah cargo Van)
'59 Toyota Monolith (Ford F-350 Super Duty)
'63 Ares Spartan (Honda Evo motorcycle)
'67 Yamaha Ballistic (Suzuki Hayabusa)
'70 Eurocar Blackwind (BMW HP2)

Also, there are two equipment trailers (one hitched to the Denali, and one to the Monolith) loaded with gear, clothing, and drones.


On the subject of your fake identities...there are two different ways your characters can treat them in-game.

1.) You ARE the people who your commlinks say you are. You really do come from where your idents say you come from. The backgrounds are accurate and reflect what you've really done.

2.) You are NOT the people who your commlinks say you are. Like any other high-end shadow team, you've paid good money for fake identities, and they are a cover for who you REALLY are.

There are pros and cons for going either way...and you all don't have to immediately decide how you are going to play it...you can try to get a feel for the people you deal with, and then see how you want to handle it.

Let me know when you are all ready to get on the road (in this thread), and I'll advance the timeline to try and get you guys to Baton Rouge. I probably won't be able to post the actual meet with Bourgeois until Monday morning, however.

Time and effort wasted on requests that were just ignored aside, why vehicles without any stats? I can handle crappy gear, I can handle house rules, but not knowing what you're capable of doing because your stat block is "you have a car, and it's sort of like a model 60-70 years old" pretty much stinks. Especially when, comparitively, it'd be like driving around in a 1937-1947 Dodge while we're supposed to be trying to fit in with everyone else today.

Was wondering that as well.

I think the point is that they are 'like' those representative cars in looks and function. The lack of stats is interesting though.

D'oh! Sorry I wasn't more clear. It was just fluff...go ahead and use the canon stats for vehicles you requested. And like Fortune said, I was mainly aiming at giving you guys a visual by using the (2007 model) vehicle names. Of course, your actual vehicles will be visually representative of their SR-world equivalent...they won't actually look like 2007 model cars/trucks.

Since SR, (4th ed in particular) does do very well with giving visual representations of things like vehicles, I like to use some real world models to give people ideas of things like general ground clearance, relative size, # of doors/seating, etc. Since I haven't been able to find any really good images of what I think the 2070 models of these vehicles should look like, I figured the modern equivalents would work well enough.

I do the same thing with guns, though they do tend to age better than cars.

Speaking of hostility towards my gaming style, how many of you would be interested in field-testing a hit location system that I am working on? If I get a majority vote, I'll post it here in the OOC thread for discussion before using it. If the dissenters can poke enough holes in it before we use it, then I'll drop it. Likewise, if we use it and the results are sub-optimal, I'll be more than happy to junk it. I just figure that a "PBP" game is the best environment to test new rules since the pace of the game is VERY slow to begin with. Having to roll extra dice and consult extra charts don't really slow down this type of game.

As an alternative, if you would all like to see what I have in mind before voting, I'd be happy to do that instead.

I'm all for it!
I've always found it rather sad that SR never had a real hit location system, especially since firearms can do very localized damage (which can affect cyber n such).

And concerning the meet, I liked Cthulhudreams' approach very much. The way I see it, Shadowrunners are usually very paranoid individuals, and so, behaving in a very paranoid way isn't too out of characters Also, the fact that we know there is a mole in ConOps could mean that we're already exposed.

Metagaming wise, I doubt it very much, but IC wise, I believe it would be normal to react this way and prepare ourselves to the worst case senario.

And also, unless someone calls agaisnt it, Vincent will drive the 63 Ford Americar... since he more comfortable with cars than with vans.

Well, I'm fine with running the show in any ways.
I just liked Cthulhudreams' initial plan.

Yeah well, he's the boss. Ash doesn't have to approve of his decisions in order to follow his orders.

Fortune, you're just like your character, haha. You see something a certain way, and everything else just doesn't seem to strike your fancy at all.

I'm the opposite. If I think something is evenly vaguely cool or fun, I tend to overdo it. Good thing the team is balanced out, or I'd likely have us flying everywhere, giving Ivan a bit of a headache.

Seriously, though, either way can make us look just as intimidating/impressive/stupid. It all depends on style.

Showing up and going crazy hardcore securing the place gives up one type of reputation; very rarely do criminals complain about overdoing detection-prevention. It might not be necessary, but we are supposed to be the cream of the crop, so going the extra little bit all the time would make a certain kind of sense. We have a lot to lose.

On that same note, your way makes just as much sense. We're calm, confident, and know what to look for, so we don't necessarily lock the place down as much, because we know how to get out if things go bad. Instead of preventative, we're just confident that we can work the situation how we want it.

My point is, either way can work, in game and out of game. Out of game, double checking the place might not be needed, but it will give us a chance to run around, set up a perimeter, play with our new toys and capabilities a little bit, and it will be interesting. So I say we go for it. I don't think being OVERLY cautious means you are NEW to the shadows; quite the opposite, in fact. Running the shadows for very long OUGHT to make you paranoid. If not, you aren't running the same shadows as I am.

On a vehicular note, Ivan calls a bike. On a backgroundish note, I'd vote we play the identities as clever cover, which explains why we rarely if ever do any construction work.

I tend to agree with Fortune.

The tactic presented earlier is just overboard. There's a big difference between being cautious, flat-out paranoid, and ridiculously insane... and that plan is leaning somewhere between the latter two. Assensing things as we go and maybe having one or two long-distance surveillance drones in the sky watching over us is more than sufficient. A bound spirit or two and a more combat drone available for launch is more than enough back-up as well.

The emphasis of this game is supposed to be individual skill and improvisation as far as I can tell, and those are the strengths we should cling to and embrace. Not an over-reliance on gizmos and gadgets, or overusing them simply because we can.

I mean the proposal is not unlike refusing to go to a supermarket without a heavy pistol in your jacket, a pair of throwing knives tucked into the back of your pants, six watcher spirits patrolling the store, and a fleet of heavily armed drones ready to burst through the front door. Could we do that? Of course. But c'mon.

It's all a style thing. I'm not an SR4 vet, but when I used to play CP2020 we where paranoid going into meets as SOP because we were hardened crims, they were hardened crims, lots of money and goods where in play, very high tension. Possibly the most dangerous part of the gig.

Here there is no 'goods' in play but our identities, and I'm showing nerves because of the mole I/John also want(ed) to put more effort in than a meet might warrant because there are TWO ways of finding out mark for this gig, one is him asking to meet us, the other is our (very cautious!) sniffing around finding him. John also doesn't like having to show his hand, and would much prefer to only have one guy on point.

However with hindsight Fortune and Doc have mostly won me over. Everyone turning up with a quick electronic and assessing once over to make sure no third party is listening in should be more than enough. Lets run with that?

I'd still like to make a proactive effort to find the mark though - what do you guys think? (and TOR for that matter)

As for the boss thing - it's a cooperative story telling game, while IC it might be 'IC' to issue an order, you are all senior people with brainz (sic) I don't want to run roughshod over anyone

It's cool. I'm pretty sure that you know by now that I'll bitch if I think it's necessary (or sometimes even if it isn't ).

I'm with Doc on this. The mission's time frame is two years for a reason.

Agreed on that last point. We've got the time.

I still think it would be fun to go all "Huphuphup! Get to your positions! Alpha team, Bravo team, GO!" before the meet, but like I said, I tend to lean towards the unnecessary things I think would be amusing, so since I'm outvoted, no worries.

Still, my initial point remains. Just because it's unneeded, doesn't mean it wouldn't give the guy a certain impression, and you can never have TOO much caution. That's all I'm sayin'.

That's mah story, and I'm stickin' to it!

There's also the possibility that the dude we are meeting will himself have had the place staked out hours beforehand (even astrally), and too much 'huphuphup' would not really be in character for most of our IDs.

But that goes directly back into how we play our ID's. I think it's a little silly that we'd all be construction worker ex-cons that just happen to be badass shadowrunners. More likely, we're shadowrunners that established those identities over time, and use them as Alias'. For all he knows, we have no documented Identity anywhere, which fits our shadowrunning status.

Do we have a different way of playing it that anyone prefers? That just seemed reasonable to me.

Mhm, I didn't mean hunt him down so much as say 'we know he's an associate of this guy, so why not have a gecko at this guys associates' But that said your right the risk of screw up is high. I'm with you on that then.

As for the ids thing, I'm figuring the guy knows we are all badass shadowrunners, and that the the other guy knows it, because he's bothering to trust us for a reasonably high profile mission. So I figure however we paint the ids several things are a given.

A) We are an established team.
B) We are expected to have (and have!) a high skill level across a broad variety of fields.
C) That said we are more hardcore than our identities and rep would have you to belive.

I'm with Galedeep concerning how we should deal with our IDs. They should be what they really are: covers.

So, I guess we're going with the "we all show up" route after all?
Sounds all good by me.

How about we get this show on the road now

<puts his foot down> I'm not playing a real ex-serial rapist. That's Dragos's (yes, Dragos!) fake SIN, and that's all it is. <folds arms and nods curtly> Well, unless Samantha is into that sort of thing, then maybe I could be convinced.

Wait, what?

Okay, are you guys ready for me to fast-forward to your arrival at meet, or do you still want to do some recon, or what?

Just let me know how you all want to proceed and I'll take it from there. Also, if any of you guys split off from the rest of the group, I'll handle that stuff with you via PM.

Well, beside gearing up, I'm all good to go with whatever plan we decided to use.

I have been fighting with freewebs to get the sat images uploaded and displayed properly.

The results have been less than satisfactory.

However, if you go here:

http://www.freewebs.com/theonerronin/satel...liteimagery.htm

...you will find links to sat imagery of the parking lot where you all will be meeting with Bourgeois.

What can I say? Ash already had the guns, so ...

I've gone for a slight compromise ;P

I think turning up to the meet with trailers full of gear would be plain weird. So lets ditch those somewhere, and turn up with a car, a van and two bikes and everyone with a quick once over to eliminate 3rd parties.

Ready when everyone else is, I don;t see anything we cannot do enroute, but if we can/do want to ue movement, i can see benifts in arriving early, specifically vis a visa sleeping somewhere with 4 vans full of weapons.