I apologize for my complete lack of activity in recent times. I've been hit pretty hard by recent personal issues. However, as my recent IC post demonstrates, I am back, as is Padre, and we're ready to save the world one poor soul at a time. So who's ready to repent of their sins and enter the service of the Lord?! WOOO!

Just to let everyone know my boot sector just got corrupted. I might be AWOL for a couple days (I'm posting this in safe mode right now).

I'm back.

Turns out a power surge cooked my motherboard and HD. BLAH! That'll teach me to buy a cheap surge protector.

With any luck I'll have an IC post ready for tomorrow.

Hope it went as painlessly as that sort of event can get. Now you've got me worried about my cheap surge protector...

Ok, next IC is up. If someone wants to make a etiquette roll to try and track down Relic that would be handy.

Takashi's not really set up to make Etiquette rolls, so he'll leave that to somebody else.

I note that Sweeps is with us, so can I ask what the status on him is? Is he just sort of there in the background, or will he be interacting and so forth?

hmpf... Dropkick Murphys, Imp? Next time go for some Flogging Molly!

Do we still have our Face, or is Padre filling that role now?

Well, as a former resident of southern California and a current inhabitant of Boston who has seen both groups assorted times, I feel I must support the kids from Quincy at this moment. So, good choice imperialus!

LOL I actually agonized over the choice quite a bit. DKM and Flogging Molly are two of my favorite bands and generally I prefer Molly myself. I narrowed it down to either that or Black Friday Rule I ended up picking Murphies just because Shipping up to Boston was the more aggressive of the two. Flogging Molly seemed a bit to 'folky' for Shadowrun.

If Padre wants to make the roll that's fine. It's not an overly high threshold. Basically if you glitch you'll get hassled by the gangers. Otherwise things go smooth.

I feel bad about this, but I think I may have to step out of this game. I've enjoyed it, but I am having less and less time to do anything, and I wouldn't be able to properly honor this game with the attention that it needs. So again, I'm sorry, but Loki is no longer with you.

well, that answers that question...

Good luck with everything that's going on, and I hope things get less busy for you soon! It's been fun!

Ok, next IC is up. If you guys want to negotiate feel free. Otherwise I'll just move onto the boat itself. I would encourage negotiations... At least to clarify exactly what it is you're hiring him for. Relic is the first NPC you've met who is honest to god out to screw you over.

Sorry my posting schedule has slowed down. I'm in my last semester for my degree and juggling 6 classes. I'm not dropping the game though, it just might move a bit slower than it did at first.

I guess I was ssuming Padre would do some negotiating. Cause otherwise I expect we are going to find ourselves wanting something extra, and being held up for a lot more money in the middle of the bay.

At the very least we have to make it clear that it is transportation out to the boat, help getting on the target boat, and transportation back along with cargo and any extra people we choose to bring back.

Mack / Joel

sorry mates... I'll get right to the rolling of negotiation. What do we want to aim for?

Sorry all, short post. I'll do a longer one tomorrow or the next day. Just got off a plane about an hour ago. It was Thanksgiving weekend round these parts so I skipped town.

aww... you mean you missed Dumpshock dying for an entire weekend?

Ok, so we've finally made it to the Yacht. If everyone doesn't mind rolling initiative in the OOC thread when you post your actions that will give me a chance to do a headcount and we'll be good to go from there. Feel free to start posting how you get up on the yacht too. You can assume that Relic has gotten you there without being noticed.

Mack is going up the side of the boat with Gecko gloves.
Initiative total 10 (7 base + 3 hits [cpoiler]Initiative Roll (7d6.hits(5)=3)[/spoiler]
He doesn't have stealth, but is going at a reasonable speed, so I would claim one hit on 4 dice default infiltrate for not making too much noise.
Unless there is some surprise as he nears the top he will climb over rather than anything fancy (that would thump loudly.)

Joel / Mack

Initiative (10d6.hits(5)=5) Initiative 15

Takashi'll wait for Mack to head up, and then use the line. (Probably a little quieter than the grapple gun.)

So what's the plan? I don't know that we have enough quiet firepower to move through stealthily (if we don't take whoever we come across down in one round, we'll probably get a bunch more people headed our way, and Takashi only has a silenced pistol for that sort of thing), but we seem pretty likely to be outnumbered in a straight fight using something more obvious.

Also, start at one elevation and move through (probably top to bottom) to try and avoid having people come up from behind us - though we'll probably come up against more enemies that way - or just head to the middle of the ship - where we're probably going to find who we're looking for - and hope to get them and get out before too much unpleasantness happens to us?

Initiative: [3,5,6,2,6,1,2,4] = (3) Final Initiative: 11

What happened to our sneaky-dude, I mean, infiltration specialist?

Padre'll wait for the rope, since he doesn't really have anything else conveniently available to make climbing easy. He'll also do what he can to cover those climbing the rope with his silenced fichetti security w/ S&S ammo...

It looks like it might just be the three of you. I'll adjust the opposition accordingly.

I'll hopefully have the next IC post up by tomorrow.

right, well... *ponders* we can still keep going. we'll just need to readjust our roles a little, which is fine... I can cover face... just need to raise my magic by a couple levels and boost a couple skills. And pick up some important gear... hmm... church may have to go without a donation this month... or maybe... *ponders*

I'd like to try to keep this going, one way or another.
If that means 3 players, then so be it. (Assuming Imperialus can see a way to make it possible.)
I realize we are diving into a rescue with insufficient prep and probably insufficient forces. But if we tried to discuss it more, we were going to conclude it was impossible

I'm open to tactical suggestions for Mack. My basic theory was that he would get up there, and get you folks up.
Then he would cover the top while you worked your way in to find the prisoners.

Joel / Mack

well, we can go in guns a blazin and go down in a blaze o' glory... ^_^

Next IC is up. Short one though.

Mack: You have a single simple action that you can use before the guard notices you and alerts the rest of the ship. In lieu of the stealth skill (since I don't think you have it) you take a -2 penalty to any attack rolls against him (but he can't dodge).

And if you're concerned about the size of the group, I wouldn't be. My tabletop group rarely has more than 3 players so I'm used to tweaking things for small groups. You also have Sybercat, who can be pretty handy in a straight up firefight if she needs to be. I've dropped the Yachts magic support already and generally made the opposition better suited to a straight up fight. That's why it took a few days to get the post up, I needed to do a bit more tweaking.

Also remember, even if you do sound an alarm, the assorted guards aren't all combat ready, it is late after all and really, who's going to have the balls to do a direct assault on a Yakuza Oyuban in the middle of the night? When a firefight does break out, you should (if you work quickly) be able to hit them before they get organized and take them out in more manageable chunks.

Couple of quick questions:
1) I had asked about getting a quick-release arm sheath for a throwing knife. I don't think I actually got one, so quick-draw to throw would still need 5 hits?
2) So how far am I from the guy?
3) I presume that even if I surprise him, if I pick him up and throw him overboard he will scream on the way down?

Joel / Mack

Yes, your shopping list is all available. That includes the quickdraw holster.

He's at the opposite end of a small helicopter landing pad, so about 15 meters.

Yeah, if he has a chance to scream, he will.

Well, then it is clear what I have to do.
However, I am going to wait until tomorrow when I am awake, in case I think of something I missed (taking advantage of our modality) before I quick-draw and throw one knife.

Which reminds me of an additional urgent question:
I have seen varying interpretations: Can I call the shot for extra damage without taking an aim action?
(15 meters is just barely short range for Mack throwing.)

Thanks,
Joel

I've always interpreted RAW as saying that you need an aim action to precede a called shot.

Well, I got lucky on the rolls. I look forward to finding out what sort of stew we are actually in.
If the guy falls to the deck, Mack will probably take the rifle away and throw the guy over the tail (a splash in the wake is, as I understand it, almost inaudible.)
Assuming things continue, Mack will make sure there is another knife up the arm, and then drop the rope for the others, tieing the rope to the stanions on the deck. He will then turn to watch for more trouble.

Joel / Mack

PS: I just realized I forgot 2 dice on each roll from the Adept power. No point in changing anything. I have got to get better at remembering all the pieces.

I did briefly consider tyring to use gymnastics to swing arond the ship railing and out of sight. However, I concluded that the sound when the 700 pount Troll hit the side of the ship was going to be MUCH worse than whatever happened with my throws.

Joel

Probably . Especially when he stops his swing with a pair of combat boots.

Sorry for the delay everyone, it's that time of semester, midterms, essays, all that fun stuff.

Who are we waiting for? (I hope it is not me. I am figuring that a Troll running up into the pilot house will make too much noise for any surprise entry, so I have been assuming someone else would enter first. Are we playing "after you Alphonse" by accident?)

Thanks,
Joel / Mack

Hey guys,

What's up? I see this game has died, shame really!

I feel partly responsible, because I left. When things calm down in my life, I'll see if I can get this started again.

That's if imperialus is willing to take it on.

Would anyone else be interested?

*shrugs* if we can revive it, let's do so.

I'd be up for getting it going again.

Unfortunately, at the moment I am trying to juggle.

1) finishing the last of my classes
2) getting a house built
3) taking possession of said house at the end of February
4) selling the condo
5) starting a new job.

The instant my schedule clears up a bit though I'll PM/email everyone and we can see about getting this off the ground again.

I would still be interested. Keep us posted please.
Thanks,
Joel