No biggie. Would have probably saved us both a box of damage, is all - and getting back a use of edge will probably save us more than that. I'll take your deal.

Both of you toss me an audio perception roll. Ordinarily I would roll for you but I want to give you guys the option of using your newly refreshed Edge on this if you don't like what you see (hint hint!) Modifiers: distracted + any applicable wounds.

Perception roll, saving Edge for re-rolling failures, if necessary. No wound modifiers (barely), and no distraction modifiers due to her multi-tasking power. Intuition: 3 and Perception: 4 for 7 dice:

7d6.hits(5) → [5,3,5,4,3,3,1] = (2)

Re-rolling failures:

5d6.hits(5) → [4,4,6,5,5] = (3)

Yes! 5 successes. So Zee can save her Edge - she'll probably need it.

Perception = Sensors (4) + Clearsight (4) + Audio Enhancement (3) + Distracted (-2) +Wounds (-3) = 6
#D=6 : 132154 n1=2 n6=0 nHit=1

1 hit - but, yeah, I do think the edge will be more important keeping me alive when whatever I don't hear tries to kill me.
Plus, Tasha can shout if its important.

Incoming for Tasha: 5P (-1 AP) (-5 Dodge) with 6 hits.

Is this in the same IP1 for the fight we were just in, or is this the surprise round of a new fight? What's the new initiative order?

EDIT: Buying hits, but at -3 from wounds Zee goes to 21 initiative. I suspect that she's surprised by the gunfire, even if we're in normal combat rounds.

New round. Initiative order:

Zee
Elf
Tasha
Peyton

Zee does not get to act this pass because she failed her perception roll.

Well, she can ACT, she just can't react to that guy shooting, right?
I'm thinking, she'll continue her run to the bikes, opting to use gymnastics for a full-defense this round (expecting fire from the doorway, so leaping over obstacles, sliding under the van, etc).

Next round, when she's able to react to the new threat from the 3rd floor, she'll probably stop and return fire.

Also, Glyph, keep in mind running adds 2 dice to defense rolls.

Yeah, that.

Also, if necessary, Glyph can declare full-defense in response to being attack (if she'd rather not die). Based on how she needed two points of edge the last time she got sprayed, I'm guessing she could use a few extra dice.

Tempted as I am to return fire, I'd better call for full defense. Peyton can return fire, and then Zee goes first next initiative pass, so that's two people on our side who get to shoot at him before he goes again. If I don't use full defense, I'll be looking at trying to soak 10 or 11 damage, and that will leave her either seriously wounded or dead. So gymnastics dodge, and I'm really glad for those two dice of improved ability in it right now.

Continuing to run (+2) and full gymnastics dodge/ranged:

9d6.hits(5) → [6,5,3,1,2,1,6,5,4] = (4)

Now to soak, Body: 4, Ballistic: 10-1=9, for 13 dice:

13d6.hits(5) → [3,4,3,5,4,3,5,4,4,2,1,1,2] = (2)

5 points of damage.

Will wait to see what Peyton does before declaring Zee's next round of actions. I'm hoping he goes funn defense, too, jsut in case.
The whole trip will be a waste of time if he gets shot on the way out.

Second initiative pass.

Buying hits on the jump test, mostly as flavor for my movement. Taking cover behind the van, and returning fire. Assumed Tasha fell, because she took 5P damage, and has a body lower than 5.

I have no idea how much of the recoil is compensated, on the alpha - but I'm going to assume at least 5, since that's the mode that the gangers were using against us, and you can modify as necessary. Note that Zee's strength should contribute 1 to recoil compensation (pg 168, Arsenal).

One thing Peyton did accomplish was forcing the elf to defend against an attack, so he'll be at -1 against my attacks.

First simple action to "Change Gun Mode" (making sure the safety is off, and setting it to long burst if it is not already so). Probably a wasted action, but it would be bad if Zee didn't take a moment to make sure her shot was going to count.

Second Simple action, long wide burst at the elf.
Response (9) + Handling (1) + Automatics (4) + Lighting (-1) + Wounds (-3) + Running (-2) + Cover (-1) = 7 dice
#D=7 : 5231623 n1=1 n6=1 nHit=2

So, 2 hits, base DV 7P(-2AP) and the elf should be at a total of -6 to dodge (-5 from long burst, -1 from previous defense)

I think, dispite what I said earlier, this would be the time for me to use edge. Saving it for defense is great, but if the elf gets to go again, he's going to kill someone, so I'll reroll my failures
#D=5 : 22165 n1=1 n6=1 nHit=2

So, total of 4 hits, base DV 7P(-2AP) and the elf should be at a total of -6 to dodge (-5 from long burst, -1 from previous defense)

At the very least, if the edge makes the difference between hitting him, or not, he'll hopefully be damaged enough to take a penalty on his next attack (and maybe fall down).

Free action to text message.

Elf takes 5P damage.

Incoming for Zee: 5P (-1 AP) (-5 Dodge) with 2 hits.

Wait, how did you get a base DV of 7P? I calculated 6P from base rifle damage +1 for explosive ammo. If it's 7, then the elf has 6P damage.

You just said it. 6+1 =7P (I meant "base" as in, before hits are added, not base for the weapon, sorry)

Haha, whoops, I thought the Alpha had a weapon DV of 5. Okay, elf is at 6P and the DV of the incoming attack for you is raised by 1.

Don't suppose it matters, but going to 6P damage would increase his wound modifiers by one (which may or may not have cost him a hit).

I don't think it matters, because I've been waiting a while for someone to do low enough damage (and with few enough hits) for a certain rule to come into play.

Defense test:
Response(9) + Handling (1) + Running (2) +Wounds (-3) + Long wide Burst (-5) = 4 dice
#D=4 : 2236 n1=0 n6=1 nHit=1

So, yes, his attack hits, with a modified DV of 7P, and Zee's modified ballistic armor rating is 7. Since his attack does not exceed her armor rating, it turns to Stun damage, and as a drone, Zee does not suffer from stun damage - so no damage.

Which is good, because, had that not been the case, she would have 10 dice to soak 7 damage, or else drop (and would very likely become destroyed).

I had rolled this up when I thought it was 5P base, then fixed it when I saw you upped his damage code. Turns out, had she not gotten the one hit on her defense roll, it would be 8P physical, and she would certainly be dead.

Also, did he take -4 for my cover? Again, looks like it won't change the outcome, but he might miss entirely.

Yup.

You forgot the -1 modifier from getting shot in the leg, which means you get no hits on your defense roll.

I advise invoking full defense and letting your teammates kill him.

Poooooooooooooooooop.

Okay, I suppose that is a better option than being destroyed forever.
Full defense adds 4 more dice from gymnasitcs
#D=4 : 1336 n1=1 n6=1 nHit=1

Damn, that almost didn't save her. However, if that gets my hit back, then the rest of my previous post should hold true.

Okay, assuming Tasha is behind the van, too, she suffers no penalties from partial light due to low-light vision, so the only penalties that I think she has are -2 from wounds, and -1 for firing from cover. Plus another -1 for her second shot. Her normal dice pool with smartlink is 16, making these two shots 13 dice, and 12 dice.

Shot#1:
13d6.hits(5) → [4,6,2,1,5,4,6,2,2,1,6,6,1] = (5)
Base damage of 6P, AP -2 for a heavy pistol firing EX Explosive ammo. No penalty to his Dodge, other than wounds.

Shot#2:
12d6.hits(5) → [3,2,2,3,3,4,5,5,3,1,4,3] = (2)
Again a Base damage of 6P, AP -2. -1 penalty to his dodge for defending against a second shot, plus wound modifiers (including any from the first shot, if it hit).

Don't know if Peyton gets an action this IP (if he gets more than one) or if the elf has 3, but I think, otherwise, we're done with this round. (Zee's action was pulled forward into a full-defense, and Tasha only has 2 IPs, I think).

If Peyton and/or the elf don't go again before the new round starts, let me know, and I'll figure out what Zee will do, but otherwise, it is very likely to depend on what Peyton and the Elf do.

Edit: Also, if the elf even lives through Tasha's round. That first shot looks pretty likely to finish things.

Congratulations, guys. Mission accomplished.

Booyah! ... and by the skin of our teeth.

Yeah, that was pretty intense. Both of us barely got through that one alive.
But any one that you can walk away from...

Hah, I wasn't actually expecting you guys to try to fight the gangers head on, and I'm impressed you managed to pull it off. There are gonna be some pissed off people in the Barrens tonight.

Karma awards will be posted tomorrow. For now, do any endgame IC stuff you need to do before we wrap this one up. I can't believe it's only been a month since we started. I wonder if this breaks the Dumpshock record for fastest game completed ever?

I think I'll let that last post stand instead of doing any anticlimactic nuts-and-bolts stuff. Obviously, Tasha will contact Biggs, then drop off Peyton and get her wounds seen to, probably getting debriefed by Biggs then. She will offer her place if Zee needs somewhere to crash, since she can see that Zee is in bad shape.

Yeah, we were posting like crazy for this game - there was more than one night where the three of us topped the top twenty posters list.

From an IC perspective, it was pretty fast, too. Despite all the events that happened, basically they found out that Peyton was abducted, found out where he was being held, and rescued him in the course of one day.

And with enough time to make it to that guy's party... if they weren't both half-dead. Zee will make sure he gets called with an apology (which he'll probably take as being blown off).

If you don't mind our asking, how did you expect things to play out after we got the Thomas Osborne clue, if not for us to pursue the barrens lead?

I'm half in agreement with Glyph about posting something anticlimactic IC- but it's gonna have to happen sooner or later. I'll certainly post a list of things Zee needs to accomplish, but chief among them is getting herself repaired.

Also, it doesn't matter to me, because the dice pool is the same eitehr way, but regarding our repair rules, what do you think about using Cybertechnology instead of automotive repair? Automotive repair makes sense for a shot-up bike or car, but since Zee's body mostly consists of cybernetic parts, it seems like Cybertechnology might make as much sense, if not more. If that's the case, I'd prefer if her kit matched that - but am mostly asking, because in the future, she might invest in an actual repair skill, and maybe a shop.

And, yes, Zee will need a place to crash, and will appreciate the gesture. I'm sure I'll IC some stuff together soon. Did you have any particular time frame you wanted us to stick to? I know you said our wounds would be healed, automagicly, between runs, but it seems like it would still take a little time for the repairs to be done, and for Tasha's wounds to be patched up (although, if Biggs knows a mage, she might be fine in time for the party).

Also, were you looking for IC wrap up for the scene/mission (in which case, I think you did a great job, and anything we post would, as Glyph said, be anticlimactic), or IC wrap up for the downtime between this mission and the next (assuming you had a good enough time running this one that you're willing for there to be a next)?

I think if we're going to go about any character-tweeks, a downtime post would be a good time to work those in, as well (Zee and Tasha training in self-defense at some Gym, ordering new parts since she has to make extensive replacements anyway, getting a new fake SIN, etc etc). You had mentioned tweeking the KarmaGen system, at the onset of this, but I did not know if that was still the plan, or not.

As far as things moving along quickly, I also think the fact that there were only two PCs contributed to that. I'm not saying we should necessarily keep it that way (because it left us a little short handed, and with some glaring holes in our capabilities, but we met contacts who could help when we needed them patched up). In other PbP games I've been in, there was usually a tendency to over-recruit, expecting some players would drop out, but it meant everyone needed a chance to post to a scene, or something said by an NPC, before the scene could really move forward. Combat would slow to a crawl, etc. It helped that the three of us were online pretty often (occasionally at the same time), and posted heavily, but I think having two PCs, especially when we tended to split up (someone has to watch the bikes!) meant we could move forward a lot faster, because it was usually either the two PCs intereacting about some plan or another, or a PC and an NPC interacting somewhere. Combat seemed to go much faster than I have ever seen in a PBP game, too - but I think that had more to do with the fact that we all check in on the game multiple times a day, than the number of participants, necessarily.

I said at the beginning that this game may or may not evolve into a campaign depending on how things go, and as far as I'm concerned, things went awesome, and I really enjoyed playing with you guys. Unfortunately, I'll be moving to another city in a couple of weeks and there's gonna be mad stuff for me to do, so it's probably a bad idea to start round 2 right now, cuz I would hate for the game to die in the middle because I can't post on a regular basis. That means that this game is going to be put on hold - if I'm ever up for restarting it in the future, I'll definitely contact you guys to see if you're game. For now, feel free to use Zee and Tasha in some of the other games going on here.

Karma awards work as follows. Base karma is equal to one point for every week of consistent posting, and since this game lasted 5 weeks, that's 5 karma. Bonus karma is gained through overcoming unique challenges in game and doing stuff that impressed your GM Everybody gets the same karma, so if you do something cool, you benefit the whole team. Bonus karma for this game:

+1 for the most consistent and fastest posting I've ever seen in a Dumpshock game
+1 for space spirits
+2 for figuring out about the cat
+1 for defeating Brock
+1 for blowing up the gangers' weapon cache

Total: 11 karma.

Also, for successfully completing a game (yay!), you guys get 3 points of OOC karma that you can add to all new characters you create if you join another game I start up in the future.


Honestly? I have no idea. I've learned that a good way to keep myself motivated as a GM for PbP games is to not try too hard to guess what the players will do. That keeps things suspenseful for me and makes it easier for me to be surprised. I just try to set up the situation and see where things go from there.

I understand the need to put the game on ice for a while. I'll just say that I had a great time playing with both of you, so if you get settled in and want to pick this game back up, I will totally be down for jumping right back in, or even starting up something new.

Likewise. And I have no problem waiting a month or so to start up a new game.

Did you ever decide how you were going to work the revised char-gen? I know you're going to be too busy to run a game for a while, but if you have that figured out, then Blackhat and I could work on the revised versions of the characters and have them ready for whenever.

Nope, that's still a work in progress. Right now it's basically the Runner's Companion karma system except with a different way of handling metatype costs, free knowledge skills, and free contacts. I'm still working out some kinks, and it looks like that'll be put on hold for awhile too.