It's cold...it's wet...and you're on a roof. Why, the frag, is anyone parked on a roof in Seattle when a drone could the same bloody thing and not bitch about getting wet?

Your spook is on the roof, maintaining a tight surveillance on target.

He's got a high end digital telescope hooked to a recording module. Also hooked to the recording module is a listening book: laser/shotgun mic to provide audio to the recorded video.

The plan -- to download the recorded video and analyze the show, frame by frame with the best analyzing package your decker could muster.

The adept is wired to the sensor suite with a trode rig to monitor the feed.

He's outfitted with a thermal damper cloak and water-resistant tights and a transceiver to growl over.

What else would you schlump along and why?

-Siege

Ruthenium, a Sandwich, something silent to do while waiting, a bottle to whizz into.

A pair of HUD glasses, a battery for them, and a nice collection of DVDs. As well as some burned optidisks of music.

Water bottle, Snickers bar, cushion (stakeouts are long and hungry).

Radio and cell phone taps?

A pair of street clothes in case you need to disappear.

A backup camera to take pictures of license plates (or whatever) without needing to take your camera off the 'main event'.

Van Eck device (to read what on the monitor/TV/etc).

Plan of the room/building you are watching, so you know how people are going to move around the apartment/house/wahtever.

If you can manage it, running some mikes into the plumbing of the building to help increase your chances of catching what it being said while to toilet is flushed (via sound subtraction). (at least, it sounds good)

Linguasofts in likely languages.

Local flight schedule (jumbo jets make windows rattle, reduces sound pickup).

an AOD tracker on the adept, with the tracking system linked into an orientation system (cyber or non, as you prefer). this allows you to help the adept keep track of the situation, and the tracker doubles as a backup means of locating the adept in case of Bad Things Happening.

A datajack, a transducer, and a music player.

~J

A Great Dragon ATGM or too, if things get really out of hand (are they still conceal 4?, or did they fix that)

@ Bob: Dang, you're better at this than I am...

@ Kagetenshi: Never thought of using a transducer with a CD player. Rock on.

@ Bob again: ROFLMFAO!!!

i thought a Van Eck's device depends on reading the field changes on a CRT?

ie: not LCDs or LEDs or any derivative technology... and what if it's a weird LE-Polymer display or something?

---
a panicbutton for when your energy emitting Laser Mic get's detected on the las-aware glass the paranoid fragger installed? (if it's good for the auto, it's good for the home, omae.) ok, actual suggestion, a "quick exit" plan. even if it's "run like frag-all."

just in case Mr Targét gets wise.

I say a sniper rifle in that option, Kenji.

How do you guys get past the fact that using a person on a roof is impossible to keep magically invisible and is about as innocuous as a sign that says "We're Watching You?" If the opposition is even remotely competent, you will detected rather easily. Which is one of many reasons astral perception is one of the worst things to ever happen to the game.

..................................*facepalm*

Dammit, you're right!

By putting the person inside the building somewhere, or by having the person on the roof be good at hiding (even astral perception won't spot someone if they have a small enough profile).

~J

Caffeine and nicotine! Don't leave your squat without 'em.

Aye!...'cept in my case no nicotine. <.<

Desperately trying to avoid the "grassy knoll" jokes, couldn't a character use plant matter as an astral cover?

Although that would probably draw more attention than simply hunkering down and minimizing an existing profile.

Although living things do end up on rooftops from time to time -- teenagers drinking and making out if nothing else.

-Siege

Easy then, bring a teammate to make out with. Solve both your 'what are you doing there?' and 'how are you going to pass the boring hours of the stakeout?' at the same time!

...and if aforementioned teammate is an attractive troll in a catholic schoolgirl outfit, even better!

Best part of the CD player/transducer combo is that since there's no actual sound vibrating your eardrums, you ought to be able to hear your surroundings just fine.
Though making out with a partner is more fun, usually

~J

well, you're still distracted by the 'sounds' in your head.

Oh yes, of course, but IMO it beats A) having headphones or B) zoning out from boredom.

~J

I'd bring my skateboard, the ultimate surveillance tool!

Kong

Until it gets out from under you on a failed kickflip, and sails into your target's window. Oh man that would rule.

I'd just as soon my overwatcher wasn't listening to "Darwin's Bastards" (or whatever) on the CD when he's supposed to be spying/watchin' my ass. Headsets were always a major no-no whenever I pulled sec-watch for my Uncle Sam. I never had a problem with it cuz it made sense. Whoever's coverin' me better be sober and attentive.

I'm pretty sure I could talk my way out of my skateboard flying through their window =)

Other than the fact my deck just doesn't do things like "go where I don't want it to" I've found the best cover for surveillance is everyday street life, such as say, a streetkid skateboarding nearby, I don't have to hide, there's nothing terribly conspicuous about it. Unless of course we happen to be conducting said surveillance in a AAA rated area at which point, I'd have the Star crawling up my butt with termal scanners looking for evidence of my involvement with Alamos 20k.

But for standard city surveillance, they send me, a street kid, on his skateboard. Snuggly behind my masking which is pourdly exclaiming "regular kid here! no magic for miles!"

Works for me at least.

Sometimes it's good not to be a 7' monster with more cyberware than bones.

Kong

I think you'd rather your overwatcher was listening to Darwin's Bastards than starting to nod off because they've been watching absolutely nothing happen for the last six hours.

~J

A few porno mags and some lube is all I'd need. I'd never suffer from boredom, that's for sure.

...But for 6 fragging hours, Zazen?!...Ummmmm...

That's some impressive stamina. You'd think it'd hurt after six hours, much less the kind of surveillance I run.

Anyway, the issue of astral perception has yet to be solved. You can't really surveil in the middle of making out (it's more a cover tactic when you're on the street than something that works for astral). And hell, if you get assensed and your overriding emotion is, say, calm, that's bad. A lot of plants just gives your position away. In fact, all you can do is put someone inside the building, as there is absolutely no way to reliably avoid detection on a rooftop when all the mage has to do is sit down and project, at which oint he can check rooftops up close. Again, perception and porjection are probably the two single worst things to ever happen to Shadowrun; they made stealth obsolete.

As far as I know, there's no way to hide in the astral, and the only stealth that's available on the astral is stuff that hides what you really are, not stuff that makes you actually invisible. As far as I knew (and played), everyone was a shining beacon of life, and all you could do to hide was blend in with more life.

Anyway, six hours is going to begin to get sore no matter how slow. Maybe not five, but six? Come on.

Maybe stealthy character are actively suppressing their aura just by being sneaky. Like what happens to certain parts of anatomy after a cold swim, only for the whole aura. It's there, the mage is just going to have to look harder.

Game mechanics wise, I'd just make the mage have to hit the same TN as a standard person would to perceive the stealthing character.

Six hours is nothing, I was figuring multiple days here. It's just a matter of variety.

Sounds to me like you need an ally spirit. You can use Karma to teach them skills you know and like. Some thermaturgical experts believe that an ally is made from a piece of yourself, and is just an extension of your own mind, body, and desires.

Haha, Skillwires chipped with Makeout - 4.

Meanwhile you're rigging a camera.

Tell her it's for trips when you're thinking about her and you just can't wait to get home.

~J

The truth is too strange to be believable?

~J

ha. like any of the losers who post here ever actually talked to a girl.

wait, caught myself in that one...

If I didn't talk to girls, I wouldn't have to deal with my girlfriend stealing my copy of Harlequin's Back to run it in her game.

~J