This is the OOC thread for the Dumpshock Forums campaign Singularity. The campaign will be run using SR4 rules, with all current rule books in play. Specific optional rules in effect are as follows: dice pools limit success test attempts, expanded combat modifiers, advanced cover rules, lose a limb option, all weapons are assumed caseless unless stated otherwise. When formatting posts in the IC thread please use orange for the header. The date time group should be as follows: NN:NN:NN Monday, NN October 2070 – (location). Be as precise in the location as possible. PC and NPC names should be bold. Special formatting is detailed below:

This is your character thinking to themselves.

�Use this example for spoken communications via electronic means.�

[Use this example for mental communications via technological or magical means.]

<<@receiver: use this example for electronic text messages.>>

Please disable signatures when posting in the IC thread.

The soundtrack for the campaign is as follows:

Opening Theme: Beneath the Rubble (Combichrist Remix), Front Line Assembly
Track 1: Get Your Body Beat, Combichrist
Track 2: Xfixiation (Hellfire Remix by SITD), Tactical Sekt
Track 3: Fahrenheit, E-Craft
Track 4: Destillat (VNV Nation Mix), Das Ich
Track 5: Forseen, God Module
Track 6: Forgotten Tears (Suicide Commando Remix), Hocico
Track 7: Saints and Sinners, Informatik
Track 8: In Love with the Night (pearls of dew remix), Lights of Euphoria
Track 9: Battlefield, Panzer AG
Track 10: This S'it Will Fcuk You Up, Combichrist
Credits: Extreme Ways, Moby

In keeping with Dumpshock Forums policy, this campaign will be rated R for violence but rated PG-13 for sex and adult situations. Keep in mind not all of us who read are adults.

The posting is open, gentlemen, feel free to jump in. The clothes that de Medici has in your cabins are a full set of actioneer business clothes, done in a muted slate gray, a full body suit of form-fitting body armor, black 5.11 ATAC boots, plus ESS ballistic sunglasses. There are also toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as an electric razor.

Hola, I am Errand I will be playing your Team Leader, planner, and main trigger puller.

Love the first couple of posts Grendel. Awesome stuff as always.

In the private cabin, the main one, and of our friend Mako, Errand is going to observe in detail.

Roll 1 Hits: 2
Roll 2 Hits: 1
Roll 3 Hits: 2

Source - Dashifens online roller

Out of curiosity, is this game similar to Eyes of Long Knives in which Shadow is playing our ‘main’ character much like Blitz played the ‘main’ character in that game?

It doesn’t matter to me either way, I just want to know if I should get my ‘equal team member’ or my ‘supporting cast member’ game face on.

I will get an IC post up later tonight.

EDIT: Actually, for what it’s worth (since I don’t know how Grendel set this game up originally), I wouldn’t mind having Shadow’s character be the ‘main’ character in this game, a la Eyes of Long Knives.

Mako doesn’t have the background depth most of my other characters have, so he doesn’t need a lot of ‘face’ time to be played well or enjoyably by me.

And it’s obvious just from Shadow’s first post there’s a lot of history to draw upon from the earlier campaign, in terms of people, events, and emotions.

So I for one would not mind focusing on his character and finding out how the past ties back into the present (as it inevitably seems to do), which is less likely to happen in a ‘team game’ and more likely to happen in a ‘main character’ game. Regardless, I’m in, so whatever has been decided by Grendel is fine with me. This is just my .02

Hey Rat! Glad to see you on board! This is similiar to 'eyes in that it is a continuation of our table top game from last year. I had to move away and never really got to finish playig Errand. Sadly some events right before I left ended our team and we made new characters. I begged Grendel to do a game featuring Errand and Tron the two surviving characters from our table top game. He asked if it was ok if he brought in another player, I told him only if it was the worst player he could think of....

hehe, j/k

Errand is surely a team player but he is also a leader. So the usual dickering about what to do didn't really happen in our table game. The op was assigned, people laid out this crappy plan or that one. Then Errand came up with a plan, Tron made it better, and we went ahead with it. Usually with varrying degrees of success. The thing I really loved about playing in Gren's game for so long was that it was the first time I got to play a character over a perod of time. And after each run I learned something new for next time, it was always great fun.

So back to your original question, play the character the way you like. If for ease of play you would like to be in the background by all means. Just remember what Grendel says,

"If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms on life, you must accept the terms it offers you."

Actually, T.S. Eliot said it first, but he said it much better than I ever could so I just quote him. I definitely think people should play their characters as much as possible and contribute as much as possible. It's what makes a good game.

Shadow - You didn't know I was the 'other player'? I would have posted a cool IC post to intro myself before saying anything OOC if I knew that was the case! Hopefully my opening post makes up for the lack of surprise.

Don't worry, I'm sure I can play Mako in the 'foreground', I just wasn't sure if this was set up like Eyes, where we were supposed to be following you and letting your story unfold more so than playing our PCs as more 'independent actors'. Since you and Grendel said play freely, I will do so.

Grendel - I realize my post might not sync up with yours so well, you might want to change the time stamp or fluff on your post to match. If you would rather have me edit, let me know and I'll do so.

I really wanted to get that post up to set the tone for Mako. He's very different from Shade, Julian, and Dragon, and I wanted to get into his mentality early, since it's a big change from what I'm used to playing in my PCs.

I prefer to leave my post as it stands because it achieves that quite well in my head and establishes his character's tone quite well, and it might be rather odd (not to mention somewhat embarrassing!) if a short fifteen minutes later Melissa shows up perfectly groomed as if nothing happened!

Nonetheless, you're the boss, so let me know what you want to do to make sure our posts sync up appropriately.

Glad to be on board guys!

Well like I said, it is like Eyes as in these are tabletop characters continuing on the board. But it isn't as in there is no unresolved story line with Errand. The friend that betrayed him is dead, along with his stooges. He killed two of them, the other met his end in the gutter and was probably eaten by ghoulls.

So this is more of, "I loved this character prettty please run aa game with him Grendel!"

Last but not least...I am up and running. Grendel...good stuff.

Woot, gang's all here. Look out L.A.!!

Excellent. Remember header for all posts in orange.

Ok lets formulate the list here in OOC. Just re-edit your gear request post. Instead of adding a new post.

Errand is going to focus on the infiltration/ex-filtration aspect of the run. Tron is going to put a list together for the collecting the data and Intel. Makko why don't you put together a list for what you need to defend us from magic and counter any magical security they have.

Added 3/17 - Don't forget to ask for personal equipment, weapons, armor, etc. As well as mission specific gear.

Ok I think my gear list is just about done. Any suggestions?

List in progress.

Errands list - Mission Specific
---------------------------------
Cutting torch x3 (underwater capable)
6 Oxycill masks.
Dive fins.
3 Water proof duffle bags. 12 cubic feet ea.
Diving Armor x3 5,250 Nuyen
- w/ non conductive mod r5
x3 Rating 6 Resperators 1,800 Nuyen
Grapple gun w/magnetic grapple
-50 meter line
x10 Light Stick
Standard Tactical Gear (harness, tape, boots, etc)

Proteus Lamprey (Sea Sled) 14k
-Extended Fuel tank


Errands List - Weapons
-------------------------
Cougar Fine Blade, Long Str/2+2P 900nuyen

AZ-150 Stun Baton Reach: 1 7Se (armor, -half) 800nuyen

x2 Colt Manhunter 5p AP-1 16© 600nuyen
X4 Mags AV 720nuyen
-Electronic Firing
-Smartgun
-Flashlight (external, LL)

Colt M-23 6p Ap-1 50(D) 1k nuyen
x6 Mags AV 3,600nuyen
-Electronic Firing
-Smartgun
-Extended Magazine (50D)
-Foregrip
-Heavy Barrel
-Shock Pad
-GV 2 (external)

x10 Flash Bang

x5 EMP grenades

Tron's List
------------------
3 comlinks - 2 off the shelf, 1 custom
--2x Transys Avalon with 4 OS, 6 FW
--Response 6, Signal 4, 6 OS, 6 FW (Sim Mod)
(Grendel, if I get access to the matrix, can I upload the files and programs I hid?)
3x Trodes
Simrig
2x Fly Spy
2x Dragon fly (AV model)
=34.75k

Special Cases that are hardened for the harddrives and info
Drone upgrades (Response 5, Pilot 5, ECCM 5, Sensors 5) per drone = (24000)
Personal Gear
------------------------
Electonics Kit (1500)
Goggles (Thermo, Vision Enhance 3, Vision Mag) (550)
Contacts (Image Link, Flare Comp, Smartlink) (625)
Plastic Restraints (1)
Maglock Passkey 6 (12000)
Miniwelder (250)
Sequencer 6 (1200)
Wireclippers (25)
Thermite (500)
Pre-made breaching charges (?)
Ares Predator IV (with silencer, QD holster and 3 clips gel, 1 clip reg) (775)

Assuming that the node is still online, hasn't been hacked, or crashed, hasn't been gutted, or the directories archived, or erased in a periodic cleaning, or simply deleted, sure, you can upload them.

As soon as Rat posts Gren, I think were about ready to move on to the next phase. We will be working on our gear I think till the op starts

In the interests of moving things along then...

Mako's List
-----------------------

- Actioneer Business Clothes
- Binding Materials (Force Ratings and amounts TBD within the scope of our budget; obviously the more the better, up to a limit of about 4 or 5 sets)

- On the long term side, it would be extremely helpful if I could get a sustaining focus or two, but those cost lots of money and are obviously only to be obtained within budgetary constraints. A guy can dream though.

I'm still working on whether or not I have enough points to actually buy a gun skill, so I may not need a firearm. I'm trying to get the CS done ASAP, it's mostly there, it's down to the tweaking.

On the plus side, if I don't have a gun, it means I can sling lots of very powerful spells for a very long time. At least that's the plan.

Ok the basic outline of the plan as I see it....

Step 1 Insertion.

Ocean insertion by Helo at maximum distance from Corvette radar range.

Use Lampray to move along the bottom of the ocean, using ground clutter to conceal us.

Step 2 - infiltration

Hit the loading dock, burn/force the door. Move to the elevator, burn/force the door. Move up shaft swim/clim to the floor we want. Burn/force the door, move down hallway to lab. Gather protoytpe in bags, get the hard drives, return rout.

Step 3 - Exfiltration

Load the gear onto the Lampray, move away from Corvette, keeping the building between us and them to some point at least 5 klicks away, extract by Helo.

----

So bearing that in mind think about the gear we will need to get that done.

From the magic point of view were gonna want at least 3 elementals, 2 of wich should be water, the third should be air/fire. Were gonna want conceal and movement from the water elementals for sure. And the Air/fire is combat support in the building.

From the friendly tech-e: We need surveillance outside and in. Also, think drone threats inside. Have a plan with H/K drones. Also, working secure comms.

Yeah, all my ammo is AV, that was my nod to Drones, that and the EMP grenades.

No problem on the spirits, I can easily have at least three, given the proper binding materials and time. I don't have access to fire, but I can do Air. Will Beast suffice instead?

as long as they can operate under water and conceal/move us it should be good to go. As for the combat, whatever you need to do the job is fine.

Water can handle the conceal/movement, I figured on having a beast for close quarters combat if necessary in the building, an air for air support if we need it, and then one of whatever, probably an earth if possible to help me with a sustaining spell.

Sounds good. I like to let everyone do their specialty. Tron is the hacker, your the mage. So whatever you do is fine as along the results achieved are what we want.

Tiger sharks? *shudder*

Yeah, I know. It's still going to be another six to eight months before Ares can field the Series Five biodrones: megalodons.

Hey OOC, when was the quake in relation to our time?

Happened in March of 2069, about eighteen months ago.

... So they have been sitting on this facility for 2 years? Are they waiting for the water to recede or something?

Well Ares still has a business to run, they had to move quickly to setup new headquarters and administration buildings, as well as replace the equipment and supplies lost in the flood, not to mention reconstitute the work and security force which were killed and injured. Then they surveyed the damage to see what would be salvageable, and drafted proposals on the best way to get it done. Now there's a bunch of corporate infighting going on because there's no way that one project manager wants another one getting his hands on data that he shouldn't. Not to mention that there was research going on in the tower that only a select few are cleared for. The logistics of the recovery are taking much longer to sort out.

I think we will just bypass the paper work then

There are some bonuses to working outside the normal regulations.

Tron is observing the room in detail:

1 roll: 3
2 roll: 3
3 roll: 1

Utilized Online die roller like Shadow.

Grendel - Is it possible for either an Air or Water Spirit to enable someone to breathe underwater? Like by providing a pocket of breathable air or something like that?

Similarly, say we run into a situation described in the briefing, where we open a room and water rushes in. Can either of those two spirits hold the water back?

Both air and water spirits can engulf a willing victim and allow them to survive immersion for a number of minutes equal to the force of the spirit. A great form spirit will allow one person to survive force x 10 minutes of immersion. Similarly, a water spirit could lessen the force of the water flooding into the building through a breach in the walls, but not stop it.

@ Grendel

The room is bland and unremarkable. The kitchenette is fully stocked with food, although of a medium quality, mostly soy. There are clean clothes, again plain and neutral in color, in each of the rooms. Also included in each room is a small travel toiletries kit with a comb, tooth brush and toothpaste, bodywash/shampoo, and electric razor. Towels are in the bathroom. There are no obvious signs of surveillance.

Grendel - If we jumped into the water, could an air spirit slow our descent? Not necessarily Levitation style, but enough to avoid us going SPLAT! A slower descent at least, if not necessarily a controlled one could be an important difference depending on what Shadow has up his sleeve. Is that possible?

Yes, the air spirit can use its movement power to slow the rate at which you fall.

I didn't think you guys needed too much longer to talk so I pushed ahead. You still have three hours if you need to plan. Gear details are as follows:

Colt Manhunter (smartgun)
Colt M-23 (smartgun, gas vent II, shock pad, fore grip)

Goggles (low-light, thermographic, vision enhancement III, vision magnification)
Contacts (image link, smartlink, low-light, flare compensation)

Conjuring materials (earth, air, water, beast) Force 4

Hey, are the commlinks standard? What programs, if any?

If i have matrix access, do I have access to my stash of programs?

Sequencer, Mag lock pass key rating?

Are the drones stock?

COTS?

Comercial, Off The Shelf

Standard. Programs provided are all rating 4: Analyze, Browse, Edit, Scan, Armor, Attack, Decrypt, Defuse, ECCM, Exploit, Spoof, Stealth.



Yes.



Rating 5.



Yes, the Dragonflies are the AV model requested, though.

OS? Firewall?


Going to reload FW 6 from cracked programs for each com link

Novatech Navi for the OS.

Do I need to send you a list of the programs, ratings, and if I cracked them?

Yes.

Grendel –

I assume those materials are for binding spirits, not summoning them, since we no longer need materials to summon. Correct?

Should I make all my rolls for summoning and binding continuously, or will I have time to rest and recover any Drain between each summoning/binding?

WR1

Binding takes a number of hours equal to the force of the spirit. Given the mission timetable, you have about five hours before you'll be in the water headed to the building. Divide that how you see fit for bound spirits. And yes, that's what the materials are for.

Programs:
Analyze, Attack*, Browse, Command, Decrypt, Edit, Defuse, Exploit, Medic, Scan, Spoof, Stealth, Track at 6
Armor* 5
Stealth* 4
Decrypt, Defuse, ECCM*, Encrypt, Exploit, Sniffer, Spoof at 3

*are cracked

Grendel - Question. Is it possible to use the Binding materials for a lower level spirit than their maximum force?

E.g. You said all the materials were Force 4. Could I summon a Force 3 Beast Spirit and use the Force 4 materials to Bind the spirit?

Shadow - OK boss, how do you want me to do this? I can bring in 1 spirit that's unbound at a higher force than 4, and I can have a total of 5 Force Points worth of Bound spirits, but capped at Force 4 for any single spirit. Do you have any preferences or just want me to decide per our earlier planning?

All - Sorry for my terrible posting rate in this game, tax season and other responsibilities are absolutely burying me right now. Once April 15th has come and gone I'll be back up to my usual standards. Until then though, rest assured I am monitoring every day and will post when necessary, but I do not have time for 'fluff' posts right now, as much as I'd like to.