Right.

Buddha72, is Sully an amateur or are you playing her that way for any reason in particular? Don't get me wrong I don't mean to be insulting, it is not my intent. But everyone has something to offer in a planning meeting, and it is important that everyone is involved. Leaving the way you did sent a very negative message to the rest of the group. I don't know if you realize that or not but I wanted to point it out.

"When I do have assignments, they will be assigned a bonus. Upon completion of those missions, you will receive that bonus. You are always welcome to decline a mission since, as assets loyal to me, I can trust you to forget the job you were offered. Let me add this last warning however, I deal with traitors very harshly. If you are ever discovered to be working the shadows outside of my knowledge, the repercussions will be severe."

:: She glances to Sully a moment and quietly adds, ::

"We'll speak later."

SNIP

:: Sully grabs a chair, flipping it around and straddles it. ::

"So let's get a plan in the works for this. It seems that going at night is easier, less security. Do any of you boys have any skill getting through maglocks and the like? If someone can get me in, I can find the on-site security and make them a non-issue. I wouldn't mind some back up."

:: Sully waits for peanut gallery to respond. ::

SNIP

"I can get myself a "stealth suit", been meaning to and now I have a reason. I should have it pretty quick. I will be honest I don't have much too offer in the planning stages, especially with high tech security. But I take orders real well so let me know when you need something."

SNIP

:: Sully listens and the group begins to take shape around her. Her expression seems neutral. ::

"Well, give me a ring when we get to the actual run. Just give me my instructions and I will my part done. Shoot me a plan when we have one, just in case I have something to add. Have fun boys."

SNIP

"Thats fine, like I said, that's PD's call to make. He has a head cam so he can take pics without it being obvious." Trace hears the idea about going on site to install a dataline. "Didn't you just tell me PD shouldn't? If you got caught the whole gig would be blown." Before Sully leaves he gets her contact information.

So to recap, I have put in my opinions, you have a way to to reach me, and I have asked to have the plan shot past me in case I have something to add or input to it. As establishd I have to iron a minor detail before I can official take the run from Crimson, who has stated that if things can't be worked out we can't walk away until sensitive information has been taken care of. Hearing the plan in every detail would give Sully sensitive info and she still needs to make sure she can work out the minor details.

Any questions?

Not that it's really any of my business, but since you have appointed yourself leader, I feel compelled to bring it up.

If you're going to berate Sully because she left the planning meeting, shouldn't you say something to Kyle, who's wandered off without providing an address or a contact number, and who's stated quite clearly that he has no driving motivation to get either a cell phone or any kind of comm gear?

And Blitz, I don't want to step on any GM type toes, so it's Jack's intention to pick up a hitcher jack (the decks come with plenty of ports) and a glass of real JD on the way home. Any issues?

Down everyone! I think Sully acted pretty well, as was posted above, and Blitz has dropped a few hints that Kyle needs to smooth out a few rough edges. I'm really liking the way we've all been playing so far and I'd hate to see the group fall apart already. Let's agree that our characters might dislike each other or think poorly of each other, but let's try to keep it to that.

Anyway, Blitz: If no one needs PD for anything, he's going to head out the Vixen to thank Niere for her help and then back to his place to start making a few phone calls. Just giving you a 'heads up' on my plans.

I wasn't berating anyone, ok? Sully left before I got to the chance to ask her a few questions, I wanted to rectify that, that is all.

And I didn't apoint myself leader. I simply made the calls that needed to be made, anyone is welcome to do the same.

I was not offended for the record. I for one am fine with you being the leader, every team needs one and Sully doesn't have the skills to back it up. I think it's great that he/she (Shadow) was following up, that what a leader does. So big group hug for everyone and back to the game.

Fenris: First, Kyle didn't wander off. Yet, anyway. Second, he didn't say he wasn't going to get comm gear. Just that he didn't think it was necessary to rig a cell phone normally used for everyday conversation with state-of-the-art encryption technology. And third, he doesn't have an address until PD tells him where his old apartment is.

Dash: I don't know about Blitz dropping hints. Crimson seemed to have concealed her disapproval of Kyle's behavior very well. Unless those hints were for me. In which case they're useless, because Kyle is an amateur, and I intend to play him that way. I'm fairly sure Blitz understood the sort of character he is before the game started.

Great. now to the biz at hand, I say we Nuke the site from Orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Why bother? If you have the skills to procure an orbital nuke from the GM, then you've already won the Shadowrun.

Just an FYI for you guys. Wraith's phone doesn't receive calls unless the line is encrypted to at least rating 4.

Ok...Point 1. Jack...it's cool...standard equipment that Im sure you could get at any corner radio shed.

Point 2...PD...fine by me, just let me know if you want Vixen stuff in public or private.

Point 3...Sully is playing true to her character and true to the game.

Point 4...Kyle is skating on thin ice. I never asked for amateurs and if that's how you intended his character to be it was not clear enough in your history. Just fair warning in advance that if Kyle doesn't show the ability to step up to the plate and learn some professionalism, then he'll be cut from the team. everything crimson has shown you and everything the gm has shown you indicates that crimson runs a PROFESSIONAL group and while you may not have a ton of exp going in, if you dont show the capacity to learn from your betters, she wont waste time beating a dead horse. if you are a newbie, listen to those who are experienced, dont discount what they tell you. If you are incompetent, you wont survive.

Loki Spirit: Please don't take how Wraith is treating your character as personal. Its just the Role Play, ok?

Grey: I've always assumed that that was a given. It's my character that's questioning your suggestion, not me. I would probably act the same way you're acting now if I were playing someone else.

Blitz: I would've thought having no prior experience in shadow work or crime would indicate that Kyle was new at this. But perhaps I was unclear. If that is the case, then I apologize.

Kyle will not do anything to endanger the survival of the group, period. I can tell you that right now. While he may not be familiar with all the ropes, he's not an idiot. He has a great deal of potential - it's just not fully developed yet. The only thing he's done that might warrant such an accusation is refusing to encrypt his cell phone. As much as I hate rationalizing IC actions OOC, I feel that I might as well get this cleared up, because apparently my post was ambiguous and poorly written.

The way he sees it, he's in a new city with only the clothes he's wearing with him, no money, no place to live, and no SIN. He doesn't see a point in buying expensive encryption for a cell phone when there are so many other essentials that require his attention and resources. Especially when there is, at this point in time, no need whatsoever for a secure line, no sensitive information that can't be discussed in person, and no prospective enemies who would want to tap his communications. Filling up a security hole that has little potential at the moment to develop into a problem is the last thing on his mind when there are so many much larger holes that are certain to make trouble if he doesn't attend to them immediately. Like I've said earlier, he's not incompetent, despite his deameanor. And he is certainly not adverse to learning provided that he thinks the given thing is worthy enough to learn.

So far, I think this is a great game, and you've probably invested a lot of time, energy, and creativity into it. However, I respect you as a GM more than I respect the game. If you decide that Kyle is not fit for it, then I'll bow out immediately. It's as simple as that. I wouldn't enjoy playing in a game with a character not suitable for it, especially if said character would infringe upon the fun of others as well.

You're not being booted...just a fair warning that this game requires a bit more professionalism and team work.

I know I'm not being booted. However, I would gladly boot myself if your assessment is that my character is not compatible with your game. I've explained his motives, his personality, his outlook, the way he thinks. He has no problems with acting professional or working with a team...his definition of professionalism is just different than that of most people. In his mind, it's talent and the ability to get things done that is important, not superficialities like attitude and etiquette.

What do you say?

Can we get some more incoherent ranting and illogical, emotion filled arguements here? This is a little too calm and rational...somebody should be cussing by now, and it'd be really cool if somebody would throw a chair.

That said, if anyone specifically brought the encryption thing up in character, Jack would have mentioned that he doesn't bother encrypting his cell phone either. I was talking about comm gear...I could give a fig less about a cell phone, and I drop entirely too many of them in trashcan's on a street corner to bother paying for encryption. Long and short of it, I agree with Loki.

Hey Blitz did you catch my question about how buddy-buddy we can get outside of work?

whoops...nope

Shadow...I dont have my magic book handy, can you post the availability, street index and base cost of those items?

Anyone with better rules-fu than me at the moment: is it possible to get encryption added to a comms gear that's part of PD's cyberarm?

Yes....regardless of the rules.

GM-fu -- outranks rules-fu

Though, in this case, GM-fu and Rules-fu are both correct.

Feel free to handle the information search however you like, Blitz. I'm going to be doing a general search, starting on Shadowland, for anything on Fast Five Apparel. Prime targets would be information on what company provided their security, invoices or manifests of security equipment, information regarding requests for magical security (paranormal animals, or bio fiber, or whatever.) but I'm not being too picky. I'm trusting Wraith to sift through whatever I find.

You know my strong areas do NOT include decking, so if you could give me a run down of what skills you have and how they relate including any knowledge skills that might assist you. Also, let me know how you would allocate your decking pools.

Also...let me know what programs the hound and the revolver symbolize

You forgot availibility...

Summoning Materials = Force/24 hrs
Expendable Spell Foci = 3/26 hrs

@ Blitz,

I am going to cast Mindlink, and forge a link with Sully.

Split my pool dice half & half.

@ Buddha,

It is only a communication tool, like speaking to eachother through a transducer, it in no way allows me to read your mind or anything else.

Shadow...clever..the only problem is that without knowing what magic is being thrown at her, I assume she'd be fully protecting herself...ie...she'd resist and Mindlink cannot be cast on a resistant member. I could be wrong, but I believe it's voluntary only. You'd have to get her permission before making the connection.

SNIP

Trace heads over to Sully at the bar, as he makes his way there he switches his perception to the astral, taking a good long look at her as walks up.

I assumed by his stare he was going to do something magical and left myself open. Have to build the trust somehow and thought it would be a good place to start. Also if he was going to fry me I am pretty confident that Crimson's defenses would react pretty quick to hostile magic.

Blitz:

The list was as follows:

-Camouflage Full Suit, Urban
-Microtransceiver, Rt. 6
-Survival Knife
-Stimulant Patch, Rt. 6

Assuming street index is in full effect, that should carve 13800 off the 20k in his account.

To save time, assume that Kyle had already checked out Factor Five Apparel. He is cloaked in an invisibility spell, cast with 11 dice. Drain is a non-issue because he'd cast it a couple of hours before the present point in time. These were the things he was looking for:

a) Whether the security cameras are cable-linked or communicate through broadcasts.
b) Any visible watcher spirits at or near the front entrance.
c) Possibility of entry/exit through the roof of the building.
d) Whether or not there is a guard at the front desk.
e) Wards.

He's going to make his move when the guards on the night shift begin to leave. As soon as the first one heads out the exit, he will retreat farther back into the alley and drop his invisibility spell. Then he's going to levitate* himself to the roof of a nearby building to continue to remain undetected as well as extend his LOS. As the guards leave one by one, he will note the time they leave, count how many there are, and take pictures of their faces with the lowlight camera (flash off).

He will also bounce a force 6 influence** off each departing guard to gauge their resistance to magic. If successful, the suggestions will be simple things like "scratch your head" or "look at your watch"...in short, nothing that will make them suspect they're being manipulated.

*Cast at force 2 with 6 casting dice and 13 drain resistance dice.
**Cast with 5 sorcery and 6 spell pool dice, with the remaining sorcery die allocated to drain resistance, making it 8 dice to resist 3S drain. All drain modifiers up to moderate stun are fully compensated.

Blitz - going to let you speed time when needed, I only need to know what Mynce says in response to my message. Going to be at Trace's place or at least the address I was given to guard while he does the magic thing.

Alright. Once more for posterity. This game is handled CINEMATICALLY. I do NOT want rule players, I want roll players. Im not rolling all your rolls because I don't trust you, it's because I want players to feel free in their roles to be creative and think outside the box. It also makes it easier to control events to prevent an impossibly bad/good roll turn what's designed to be a crucial plot point into a game breaker.

If you want to do each of those things, ROLEPLAY THEM. Don't just throw a paragraph of story post out there carelessly and make me sit and spend 20 minutes going over a long boring rules post about everything you want to do. I would like to have fun too, and that fun comes in reading your IC posts.

FYI...Influence is a spell that you have to do face to face. They have to HEAR your voice speak the command. Just because they will follow through and scratch their nose, or ruffle their hair on command, it's STILL going to peak their curiosity as to who you are and WHY you just said it to them.

LOL...yes..I meant Role players.

And flashy is exactly what Im going for. I look at online playing as collective story telling and I want my stories to be ultra cool. Wraith is Mr. Stealth. That's what he's good and so you WILL be good at that. But there's always someone better, and occasionally I like to remind my players of this. (hence why Crimson and her experienced assets are downright scary)

The first couple of runs, while being testing grounds IC, are also a way for us to loosen up and get a feel for how everyone likes to play. If you make this killer post with QUALITY details and clever ideas, I'll probably let you get away with a lot more than your mere dice would allow.

What I dont want to happen, is what just happened. A short IC post with minor details as nothing more than an opening for a GM post, with a huge OOC post describing all the action and the rolls associated with it. Just post IC what you do, and I'll post what happens. If you are unsure if you CAN do something, you can always ask OOC, but as long as you dont turn munchkin on me, Im pretty flexible.

Sometimes you WILL make a bad choice, and there will be consequences. Trust that Im NOT going to screw you. The best stories are those that have very dark hopless points and it's the triumph of overcoming those moments that make for good stories. If you are a player who is really attached to the numbers on your character sheet, this game is NOT for you.

Ideally, I should rarely if ever have to pull out your character sheet and the rule books and spend 30 min researching and rolling dice. Make your post describing your actions (describe name dropping the right gang names to get your team out of a tense situation in the barrens) and, if you feel necessary, throw a quick OOC post saying. (Neg 4 specializing in fast talk 6 with a background skill of gang identification 4) Quick and dirty in OOC just telling me how good you are at doing what you posted you did. I can either make a mental assessment on how I think it should go down, or roll some dice if I want a random outcome.

So to wrap up...IC = Detailed, interesting and action filled. OOC = bare bones on related stats and skills. Well...plus the usual ramblings. When id doubt...a happy GM is a GM that isn't over worked. And a happy GM makes for long lived characters. Dont make me hit you with a bus.

In light of the most recent rant post by the GM, here's how I'm handling it. I posted IC with everything I figured I could get away with

Actions: Linked up with NewsNetSat satellites for a connection, went from there into the Denver RTG and LTG as appropriate, and then onto Shadowland. I'll be searching the Shadowland database for information first, because a specific database is much faster then a general search over the Matrix, and I'm hoping to at least turn up some leads to specific databases.

Skills and stuff to keep in mind: Computer[6], Cracker Edge/Access, Hacking pool of 10, task pool of 1, System Familiarity:Satellite Systems[4], Datahavans[4], Computer Background[4], running with Masking kicked up to 9, bod dropped to 2 on the deck, Running Sleaze[6], Satellite Link [6], Decrypt [3], Browse[4].

The dog is my browse program, pistol is my attack program. Obviously I run a few more at a time, but those are the most obvious. The horse for me is basically my deck, and digging through the saddlebags usually indicates uploading or downloading programs. The Rubic's cube was my Decrypt, as Matrix mentioned that datahavens frequently scramble the SAN.

If you want to handle the search like a decking run, we can do that, or you can use the search table in Matrix. if you're using the search table, it's one roll based on computer with some modifiers. I can post a list of them here for easy reference if you want.

Fenris..that would be great...you know how little I know about decking. Also, if you'd like, we can go over your rolls and things on wednesdays before or after the game, if you're doing anything huge.

All:
I've just received an email from Loki saying that he had some events crop up and will not be able to continue. I hope it wasn't because of the recent discussions, but I can only go by his email which stated it was a personal matter. I wanted to tell you all this before I post his departure in the IC post. The IC post will be a little eye opening, but I wanted you all to know Im just using this event as a way to introduce you to the not-so-nice side of Crimson and let you know it's not actually directed at Loki the player.

Also...an explaination on the Cut Scenes...since Im going for a movie type feel, there will occasionally be cut scenes to give you all a better idea of what's going on behind the scenes but PLEASE dont use that in your own posts...you are NOT to know about these events unless I indicate it.

Blitz, I sent you a PM about the game, let me know what you think.

RE: cut scenese -- sounds good to me.
RE: loki -- understood

Blitz: sorry for a long post filled with a lot of actions. I've been having trouble getting onto the board to post with the errors that are cropping up for me. So, while I'm having good luck this morning, I figured I'd get a lot of stuff done all at once.

Blitz: Just a gracefull log-off.

I wasn't thinking I'd get anything decent directly, but I was hoping for some potential leads? If not, I've got datahavens[4], so I'll probably end up hunting around and trying to check a few more.

I'll post the chart tonight when I get home, my access to DS was sporadic with all the errors that have been going down.

Wraith has knowledge skills of Security Systems and Security Devices both at 5. I've also got Electronics of 6 (with B/R of 4). I'll leave it to you to let me know what I can dig out of the data Jack found so far.

No problems with the big posts...as long as their IC, I dont mind one bit

Fenris...the search was just in an area that wouldn't have much data...you need to either use a broad search, or pick a smarter specific search.

BTW Blitz, I love cut scenes, so feel free.

Shadow: FYI...tell her to make a history that includes magic...a magical enemy, a event that happened...negative if possible. It's the perfect type of hook to get her in.

Will do.

Shadow...FYI..to summon elementals, you need to have a significant amount of the element they represent.

Just to give you an idea, this is an example of the force to element ratio I use.

Force 1 Fire Elemental - A bunch of candles (like romantic evening level )
Force 2 Fire Elemental - Small fireplace fire
Force 3 Fire Elemental - Large fireplace fire
Force 4 Fire Elemental - Small Bonfire
Force 5 Fire Elemental - Large Bonfire
Force 6 Fire Elemental - HUGE Bonfire
Force 7 and up - Burning building sized fire.

Blitz: I recognize that the broadcast encryption rating 6 is a lot more than 7500 nuyen, but I don't think PD would have a clue about the average cost of such equipment. I figure Mac would probably be aware that PD's is woefully inept when it comes to guessing the price of elecronic and cyberware type gear and wouldn't be to surprised/offended by the low bid.

Search Test Table

Simple Search: TN 4, Base Time 1D6 hours, Base Cost(per hour) 0:nuyen:
Standard Search: TN 5, Base Time 2D6 hours, Base Cost(per hour) 10:nuyen:
Detailed Search: TN 8, Base Time 1D6/2 days, Base Cost(per hour) 25:nuyen:

Situation Taget Number Modifer
Character has appropriate Knowledge skill of 3-5 -1
Character has appropriate Knowledge skill of 6+ -2
Character keeps a low profile while searching +2
Character conducting more then 1 search at a time +1 per extra search
Computer Used
Character using terminal mode +2(base time x2)
Character using cold ASSIST +1
Character has Matrix Initiative of +4D6 or higher -1
Search Area
Specific +database's search modifier
General Matrix +0
Specific Search Area
Character has a browse rating of 6+ -1
General Matrix Search
Character has appropriate database/data haven contact -2
Character has Etiquette(Matrix) of 5+ -1
Search confined to one grid +0
Search requires use of more then one grid +1 per grid
Search Assistance
Dumb Frame -1
Smart Frame -2
Agent -3
Frame or agent equipped with browse rating of 6+ -1
Smart frame or agent has core rating 6+ -1

Sucessess Search Results
1 General info (not quite what the character was looking for, but at least a lead in another search)
2 The basic data the character wanted
3 More details, perhaps including a new lead
4 The full details, plus another lead or two
5+ All the juicy bits the character wanted to know, plus some that he didn't

What level contact is Mac?