I'm game.

ready.

Alright, let me summarize the plan so we're all clear:

-- Plan is to ambush the gang at the warehouse.
-- Guy and Des will gear down and wait in the blind diving gear just off the peir.
-- Petwo will sneak in (astrally?).
-- Carter will pilot the Lamprey to the pier underwater.
-- Once everyone is in place you'll wait for the meet to go down, then attack after the smugglers leave (to avoid conflict with them if possible).
-- Petwo will attempt the possession of Chan and makes him attack his lackeys, Guy and Des lay down some cover fire and everyone escapes via the Lamprey.

Does that about cover it?

Sounds like it. Carter might as well rig the Lamprey from VR (aboard the boat) - and keep it submerged (and out of sight) for as long as possible. The team's plan will be to rush to the water, dive in, and the lamprey will be waiting - they can grab on, and it can hydrofoil on the surface of the water to get them out of there at top-speed. Otherwise, if people want to go in wearing diving gear (and bring some for Chan) we could have the lamprey get away underwater (harder to follow, or track).

Okay, lets bump forward to Wed. 19 Feb 2070. Post IC with any preparations you want to make before hand and then place your character at the warehouse. Also, everybody post a few Perception Rolls and an Initiative (for when the ambush goes down).

crizh: please post the relevant enchanting, summoning and possession rolls.

My initial plan was for Guy and Des to be waiting in low depth diving gear in the water. Getting to the blind would likely draw attention to the heavily armed men in dive armor.

Guy has spare diving gear for Chan if we want to go with that.

Now that I think of it, aren't we supposed to also grab the drugs?

pragma: okay. I assumed you meant the trees, but dive gear will put you closer to the action. And yes, there is the drug shipment to take into account as well.

EDIT: posting map links here so we don't have to dig back through the thread to find em.

Warehouse Aerial
Warehouse Area
Roof
Level 1
Level 2 (catwalks)
Cameras

OK.

Summoning

Force 6 Spirit of Man (Innate Spell: Stunbolt, Shapechange.)

Summoning (4) + Magic (5) + Edge (5) + Power Focus (2) = 16 Dice = 8 Hits.


Spirit Resistance

Force (6) = 6 Dice = 1 Hit.

Services: 7

Drain: 2P

Resist Drain

Charisma (6) + Willpower (6) = 12 Dice = 6 Hits.


Possessing Chan

Force (6) x2 = 12 Dice = 4 Hits.

Chan resists with Intuition + Willpower.

Do we know how big a shipement of drugs we're talking about? Having zombie Chan grab it on the way out isn't a horrible idea unless we're talking about crates of the stuff.

If it's the latter case (and surveillance will let us know) we should have a second boat waiting to pick up the cargo. Des and Guy can wait underwater then loop back around to grab the stuff during the aftermath of the first ambush.

The Spirit also has Influence. It could use that to have the gangers load the stuff up for us if you like.

Agreed. The only second boat we have is the Odyssey, but we could bring that in once the coast is clear to load hte cargo if it is more than what you guys can carry out (and secure onto the lamprey).

Hey guys...I'd like to sincerely apologize for dropping off the face of the earth. I am alive and well and interested in getting back into this game. Method and I spoke earlier today, and he gave me the greenlight to jumb back in. I'll be reading along and trying to catch up and should be able to put a post up by Monday (Nov 24th).

Hope I don't screw up anyone's plans by coming back.

Not at all, welcome back.

Things to get done:
* IC a conversation with Kurita to figure out the dropoff point for Chan -- I assume Carter would be calling
* Write and IC that puts us on site. Method, do you want me (or another player) to write something?

Good call. I forgot about this. IIRC, he wasn't too willing to make those details up-front, but I'm down for giving the conversation a shot.

Method, why don't you start us off - since if I started it, it would basically be "ring ring, does he answer?"

Okay, I think I'm mostly caught up. Again, sorry I missed everything the last few of months.

I'm happy with the plan so far, but there are a couple of things I'll like to put out there.

If the ambush comes from the sea (mostly), Chan and his gang can simply choose to run. We need to make sure that the is at least something stopping them from hauling ass. Explosives are bad in this case because they run the risk of possibly injuring Chan. Of course, I suppose if we get Chan AND the drugs, we can let the Killers run.

Also, Chan will probably be in a hurry to leave as soon as he has the drugs (20 kilos = ~44lbs...easy enough for one person to carry), so we might have to strike BEFORE the smugglers get clear. If that happens, it's possible they may end up getting involved. If so, we need to be ready.

If at all possible, Des would like to find a way to pre-wire parts of the warehouse with some light demo. Nothing that will kill or seriously damage the place, but some well timed/placed flash-bangs and/or smoke grenades could give us a SERIOUS edge. Sleep/Knockout gas would be fantastically effective too.

Ambushes are my personal specialty, so I'll work on a plan that will let everyone know where they need to be and what their fire lanes should be.

Hopefully, I can have an IC post up on Monday.

Hope you guys have a great weekend...and I'm excited about being back in the game!

crizh: rolls all look good. I may ask for further possession rolls, depending on how well Chan resists. I don't anticipate that this will be an issue, but we can do that when we get to that point.

pragma: each of you can post for your own character about their preparation and arrival at the warehouse. That way I won't make silly assumptions (like Guy is hiding in the trees when you want him in the water ).

BlackHat: Sounds good. I don't know if I will have time today, but I will try. If not look for a prompt tomorrow.

OneRonin: if you want Des to attempt an infiltration before the meet, there is basically only one night (game time) left to do so. That may not leave you enough time. If you want to try it leave a place holder in the IC thread in case others want to post this weekend to describe their arrival at the meet.

Eh...Des isn't really optimized for stealth (9 DP), and I really don't want to risk blowing the op. What I probably need to do is hit my contacts and try to get some 40mm Neuro Stun or CS gas grenades. That should probably significantly impair their movement, plus they aren't nearly as destructive as other explosive rounds.

I'll try to get some rolls up soon.

BTW, can our payoff advance help cover the cost of the grenades? Des = poor.

So I was just about to post IC for Kurita, and I decided to read back through the initial negotiation (man was that a long time ago). I had forgotten a few of the details, but:



You are to call Kurita once you have the goods and he'll meet you there. Are there other questions the group needs answered?

Does anyone remember (its been a while) how much we were given, up front, and if we spent any of it on anything?

I can't think of anything we bought, but it wouldn't surprise me if I just forgot.

If anyone's still watching stay tuned for more...

Oh, hi, is this thing on?

Woohoo, it lives!

Wow. I thought this was down for the count.

My enthusiasm is unbridled.

Yeah, it took me a bit to catch up on what happened.

Glad to see we won, lol. If Method is down for starting this game up again, I'm down for playing.

Alright, I might have been a little ambitious in choosing this month to try to resurrect this game. I've been doing a surgery internship that has been kicking my ass (~5 AM to ~7 PM every day ), but I only have one week left to go!

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few months about what to do with this game. I've thought about just letting it die, but I really love these characters and we haven't even begun to play out the adventure I was hoping for. Plus, it seems unfair to the three of you who are still here and have been putting in the effort the whole time.

That brings me to my current dilemma. What to do? What to do? Well, back when I started this game my goal was to have 3-4 dedicated players- specifically to minimize the risk that the game would stall when people inevitably disappeared. But I was overly sympathetic to the plight of all the people who were dying to get into a PbP game. I let the game bloat to accommodate twice as many people and we wound up with exactly the problem I was trying to avoid. But it seems that by a process of attrition we have basically what I envisioned to begin with. Since you have all indicated that you are down, I say we forge ahead.

So here is the plan:
-- Carter, Petwo and Guy get +5 karma for the smuggler job. If my calculations are correct that makes 7 karma total since the start of the game. Let me know if/how you would like to spend it so I can adjust your sheets accordingly.
-- You each get 15,000 from the recent job. Thats the 60K Kurita paid split 4 ways (with Des)
-- We will quickly move into the original adventure without further ado. This my take some retconing, since I was building the timeline to accommodate parallel story lines, but I'll make it work.
-- OneRonin: If you're still following, I apologize but we will be moving forward without you. I will quickly write Des out of the story.
-- I will make an effort to keep things moving forward on a biweekly basis. If things are stalled I will push them forward with a summary post like the one I just posted to put the smuggler job out of it's (my?) misery.
-- Anyone who posts IC within a one week period will get one point of karma that week, so long as your post has some substance. Posting a line of IC dialogue won't count. Your characters may advance rather quickly as a result, but I'd rather that then they not develop at all. This will start today (Saturday) and will be reassessed every Saturday from here on out. The karma drip will happen even if I cannot write any GM post in a given week.
-- I don't want to do any open recruiting, but if any of you know a Dumpshock poster who you are *certain* would post reliably and make a nice addition to the game I would consider adding just one more player, but then only if we unanimously agree to do so. If this becomes the case I would allow you all to redesign your characters with access to books like RC, which were not yet published when we set out.
-- Alternately, if you guys would prefer, and if you unanimously agree, I would allow you all to redesign your characters without adding a new PC.

Anyone have any questions or suggestions?

I need to spend some time thinking about about how to unfuck the timeline. I'm on call tomorrow (30 hours straight in the ol' hospital) but things should be slow, so I might be able to post a little something. Can't make any promises tho.

I think we had already talked about reworking characters with books like RC/Unwired/etc available, at some point in the past. At least, in Carter's case, I think my impression was that not much needs to change (although, if the option was there, he might be interested in something like black market pipeline, made man (with a smuggling syndicate), group contacts, etc ). Unwired added enough rules that, if they are going to be sued, Guy may need a chance to add some things.

The addition of the SR4A rules, though, might be a better reason to remake things. It was basically a big errata, which we may not be all in compliance with. Another good reason might be just to refamiliarize ourselves with these characters. It has been a while since I have looked at Carter's sheet. Figuring out how/if to spend the 7 karma will probably help with this, but a remake would probably have us look at every part of the character again, with fresher eyes.

Summary: I'm cool with it, either way.

I'm not terribly enthusiastic about rebuilding Guy both because I haven't yet given unwired a page-by-page scouring (though my immediate impression was that my build wouldn't need to change a ton) and because my schedule at the moment permits participation on Dumpshock but not any huge projects. (My dream of running a lightning fast game on Dumpshock has yet to materialize.)

That said, there are a few holes in the team's skillset that have developed in the absence of Des and Bart. I wouldn't mind Guy having some points in industrial mechanic or demolitions or both. 7 karma won't go a long way towards filling those holes, but a remake would let me address them with greater precision.

Like BH, I'm good either way.

Well we haven't heard anything from crizh which is a little unusual but I believe he said before that he wouldn't mind redesigning Petwo with some of the newer options. Plus I think BlackHat makes a good point about the changes in SR4A.

pragma, if you aren't passionate either way I'd say the floor is open for redesign. You can change as much or as little of Guys sheet as you like. In terms of time - I definitely feel your pain so I'm not going to push for this to be done urgently. We can continue with a lot of IC stuff and just use Guy's current sheet if need be.

So, being as the three characters may change to widely varying degrees, lets use the same guidelines as posted previously in the Recruiting Thread, plus the 7 Karma earned. All books published to date are in play. You'll each get +15,000 after character generation but that money, if spent, will need to be handled in-game (legwork, shwag rules, fencing, etc).

[edit]: Oh, and I have an IC post cooking...

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I don't mind doing a slight tweak although I was going to say that such things often lead to further delay. I'll have quick look at Petwo and see what might be changed...

Hmm, after looking at the original house rules and my character sheet (which I assume is up to date), it looks like Carter only spent 440 of 450 build points, so he might not require much of a change at all. I might collapse some contacts into group contacts, and his gear might need a little shuffling, since I pulled the ol' "gut a Metalink and build your own Caliban" trick, but should remain mostly identical.

I assume the team still gets the free boat?

Alright folks, its been two weeks so I'm going to push forward to the meet with Kurita's friend Kenji Tomiki. Cursory legwork will have revealed most of the information you (players) already know about Tomiki- he's a mid-level exec at Mitsuhama, a Section Head in the Internal Investigations Division, his unit specializes in investigations of a magical nature, he previously worked for Mitsuhama's Thermaturgical Research Division where he developed magical forensic techniques, and he's known to be a straight shooter.

BlackHat: Sorry I didn't see your question earlier. My DS account has a funny way of not emailing me when people post to my subscribed threads. To answer your question: Yes, the Odyssey is still a freebie. Also, you are the lucky winner of 1 Karma for your IC post 2 weeks back.

IC post will be forthcoming. If there's anything specific you want to do or know before the meet, this is you last chance to let me know...

Well, I know its been a bit more than 2 weeks (looks more like 5) but I'm going to push ahead. I promise this will get more interesting if we can get to the actual job.

Partly my bad -- had a bad case of RL in September. It's mostly better now and I hope to resume posting more regularly soon.