Anyone got a verdict on the new edition? Is it actually worth the money?

I'm tempted to maybe get it in dead tree format. Then give my old BBB to one of my players for a cheap birthday present....

I'm reading the PDF right now, and with the exception of cover being a bonus for the defender rather than a penalty for the attacker, I like the changes I'm seeing. The new weapon art is an abortion, but I like the rest of it and vastly prefer the new layout. Unfortunately, the page references in the PDF are wrong all over the place, but I'd expect that they'll sort that out before the physical book ships.

I pre-ordered the limited edition since I'm a fanboy who's been there since the beginning, but for those who're not so obsessive, or have spouses who object to them arbitrarily spending 75 bucks on gaming stuff, just get the PDF or wait for the erratta.

Honestly... I am not as confident on that front. Shadowrun editing seems to vary immensely from one chapter of a book to the next. :/

I'll be waiting on print myself, I'm sort of a bibliophile (my wife says pack rat). It however couldnt have come at a worse time since they're redoing the Imperial Guard codex for warhammer 40k, along with some new miniatures as well.

I want to wait for the 2nd or 3rd printing because errata drives me crazy. but what to do until then?! also I just started a RL game like a month ago, and I don't feel like changing up on them.

Yeah but Gamesworkshop re-do the codex's every other year. It's like a license to print themselves money...

Been 4 or 5 years since they re-did IG and its supposed to be really good this time. More expensive as you need more models though.

How could they possibly increase the headcount in an Imperial Guard army?

They reduce the point cost for each squad. Which means to make the usual gaming amount you need even more of them?

Edit - Out of interest is the table actually bolted down? Or is it something which could be flipped over if we needed to? (I really hope that's an unimportant question. But it never hurts to check just incase.)

Weren't they already like 200 points per infantry platoon of 3 squads and a command squad? If they get any cheaper, they'll be snotlings.

Not a clue. I gave up playing a while back.

I briefly tried getting back into 40k with a Necron army but they're so bland it put me off. Oh and I tried Tyranids which were cool but the army ended up too fragile to transport anywhere I'd get a game in with it.

Rumor is 4 or 5 points per Infantryman (40 to 50 pts per squad)

Does anyone want SnowFlowers assistance with a teamwork test in the Negotiation Test?

Rossi is packing an 18 DP (I think, don't have the sheet to hand) for social tests, but any extra's would be appreciated.

(Providing no-one else has better and would rather roll it?)

Cha 5 + Neg 2 + Mentor 2 + Kinesics 3 + First Impression 2 = 14 for Assisting Rossi Teamwork Test (14d6.hits(5)=7)

BTW, Rossi's sheet is posted in this thread, so you can use that for reference.

As a side note, Snow Flower would get a couple more dice if she did the negotiation herself if it was an opposed test with her as the target. However, it's perfectly IC for her to let Rossi do it.

So it is... Doh. Also checking the sheet his DP is 20 not 18 as I didn't add in first impressions to the score.

Charisma 5 + Negotiation 4 + Tailored Pheromones 3 + First Impression 2 + Empathy Software 6 + 7 Teamwork Bonus = 27DP Total.
27d6.hits(5) → [6,3,3,3,4,1,2,6,1,1,2,1,3,6,3,4,4,1,2,4,6,3,4,2,1,1,1] = (4)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1981598/

Well.... That was so damn aweful I'm tempted to throw edge at it. Would leave me with a single point left, but hopefully this'll be a fairly combat/danger light run and there'll be chance enough to regain it before we're being shot at.

Re-rolling 23 failed dice.

23d6.hits(5) → [2,4,1,6,4,2,4,6,3,6,4,6,3,3,5,1,6,2,3,2,1,6,3] = (7)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1981602/

And rule of 6'ing the six sixes.

6d6.hits(5) → [2,1,2,3,5,4] = (1)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1981604/

Giving a grand total of 12 hits.

so i figured you could sniff for radio signals randomly, especialy in such a contained wireless area. but the rules aren't very clear. do I have to scan for nodes first? this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Okay sorry about the absence I've been pulling extra hours so that I can be considered for full time during summer break. No woprk or school tommorrow so I will post a major advance.

hey, anybody want me to help negotiate ? I have no skill, so I'd default to my Charisma, which is 2. so 1d6

We could change our tactic to intimidation by threatening to leave you and Mrs J locked in the club chatting for a while!

You get 4 hits over her (I rolled here on my desk)

ok, info so far:

we have 2 weeks to watch these guys(1 week a piece?or a week to prepare and a week to tail? unclear)

need contacts, hideouts, and business dealings

Alec Littletree, Lieutenant in 1st Nations gang, address near border

Xa Firebird, lieutenant in 1st nations gang, address near border


thoughts?
I guess we need to get to know each other with a quickness and start planning.we'll need to know where these addresses are? are they close together? what border are they on?

I got the impression that it was to spend a week getting set up, then spend a week tailing both of them, and we get paid for both weeks.

I thought we had 2 weeks for the job, setting up time included. The johnson wants the information about the two, not a certain fixed time of observation.

That's my impression, too - it's a deadline, not a schedule.

Yeah, I also feel like the two weeks can be spent however we see fit. Which is what we should determine, actually. Shall we discuss plans OOC or IC?

I would say OOC.

Couple suggestions that have occurred to me:

1. We clearly have enough runners to field 2 teams, so probably assign a team to each of the two marks

2. Keep 1 or 2 people at a central HQ somewhere, coordinating results from the two teams. I would set it as a hacker type and maybe one other person, either some muscle to keep them safe in case we get traced, or a face type acting as a central coordinator.

I like that idea.

I'd propose some general surveillance using astral and matrix means to track the movements of the two, with others standing by to provide on-site surveillance if needed - like when they enter a club, or another interesting building.

So mage-and-hacker-inna-bunker, and then two spot teams with some muscle & some charm working the pavement, right? Do we need extra protection for the unconscious duo in the bunker in case they get tracked?

Pack them in a van, with some or all of the rest, so the hacker and mages are protected, and are close to the action in case they are needed as backup?

Even better. Love it.

Works fine for me, and having a few days to get up and running means time to go server shopping, since handling coordinating a group this size through a commlink would take up way too many subscriptions.

And the Team is...

Oenone - Rossi, Male Human Face Sam
Fuchs - Stray, Female Human Physad Sam
Red-ROM - Jasper, Male Human Rigger
DireRadiant - Snow Flower, Female Human Mystic Adept Face Mage
Dionysus - Tes, Male Orc Street Sam
Gobogen - Flash, Female Elf Cov Ops Sammy
Blackhat - Discharge, Male Human Power Generator... aka Combat Mage Adept
DWC - Nuke, Male Human Hacker Sniper

I suggest, OOC, that we find the targets, then do an assessment of what it may take to surveille each one.

Jasper, Nuke and Snow Flower will need to cover both targets as they handle the Electronic, Matrix, and Magical component. They are going to be seriously taxed in certain scenarios.

Rossi, Stray, Tes, and Flash can form a rotating physical surveillance team switching between the targets in sequence. This is actually our strongest capability as a team.

Discharge is the heavy artillery and combat backup for everyone.

Does anyone besides Snow Flower have Astral Sight? There's a workaround for the fact Snow Flower doesn't have assensing skill, but it is a limitation.

Do we have enough transportation? I know there is a step van, Tata Hotspur and a few personal vehicles, I think we should have at least three vehicles, one for each target, and another for the response team.

Disguise would be very useful for the physical surveillance team, and for the rest of the team at some point if they are needed.

It might be worthwhile to invest in some spy micro drones and surveillance gear if we don't have that already between us.

IC we need to have a quick Get to know each other meet, then go to work.

Question re. spydrones & other gear, was any of that money up front? It doesn't look like it to me - Tes is really hard up for cash right now, so any initial capital is going to have to be w/o him.

So do a meet & greet somewhere with a little less naked, and then everyone gets some rest and starts bright & early with some initial recon, then another huddle to finalize the long-term surveillance.

So long as we have someone good at it I think we could manage with just disguise rolls for the physical team rather than spending nuyen on latex face masks or nanopaste disguise. We've got enough people to switch and swap quite frequently.

Are we going to hit up contacts for info on where the targets hang out? It might give us some advance hints about the sort of clothing we'll need to blend in but we risk word getting out we're interested in them. I guess we could just follow from a distance for a day to scope out the kind of locations they're commonly in and then pick clothing accordingly.

Starting Money 4d6 + 8 to roll (4d6 + 8=19)

Yuch, 9500 nuyen starting cash

Re disguises, Flash is quite talented at it and it is a huge hobby of hers. She loves to disguise herself and would volunteer to go out and try to infiltrate, when and where appropriate, if there's a good chance that it works.

I think she's got 13 dice on disguise and she has a small container of nanopaste.

The thing is.. she couldn't possibly pretend to be a native american, since she doesn't have the knowledge to go along. My opinion is that we might want to invest in knowsoft in order for disguise to work better??

Again, disguise should be a last resort in a key situation, because it is a bit risky. We don't want to be detected.

I like the ideas that include being very mobile. 3 teams seems like the way to go.
1) Target A
2) Target B
3) additional support for focusing on one or the other, or helping in case of an emergency.

Short-term priority should be to locate and assess the targets, including information retrieval about them as much as possible.

Actually disguise should be used all the time for this sort of thing. just maybe not in the ways you're thinking of.

You don't have to totally diguise yourself as another person to use it. Changes in hairstyle, make-up and clothing can make a person look different enough that someone seeing them from a distance wouldn't recognize them even if they'd walked past the same person in another style of clothing etc earlier in the day.

So what kind of horrible dive is the team going to end up in to plan this out IC? How are going to travel there? All mysteries!

Mysteries rule. I'm also curious to see who's going to end up with the mantle of being in charge.

I was going to have Yukika suggest a Bathhouse, but... some people might take it wrong.

Compared to getting hired in the back of a strip club, by a stripper who's between sets on the pole, how much more awkward could sitting down to talk at a bathhouse be? Once everyone gets over having to see Jasper naked, I'm sure everything would be fine.

I'd be more worried about the toaster in the bathtub effect from when Discharge gets in.....

That would be an awesome TPK.

Hehe.

That would be quite classy, though it does look like no one's got a preferred meeting spot that doesn't involve a mix of awkwardly staring at the ceiling and potentially being flash fried. Maybe we should have kicked the Johnson out of the champagne room and had the "Meet and Greet" there.

You also recieve 25% of the total up front, if that helps in preperations

Also, I need to post before you guys leave the club. You will not be leaving via the way you came in BTW.

So 3125 then?

wow, a lots goin on! Jasper doesn't have spy drones, just he doberman and the nissan roto. he's also broke. but 25% up front...? the van has chameleon paint and I have some skill at tailing people. the pick up holds two or three and goes reel fast. the van holds what? seven or eight? sounds like Nuke and snowflower in the van? we might have to stay pretty mobile. anyone worried about border crossing?

I'll wait for Chip before I post IC again