I'm not sure how much further we can go with this without Dashifen's input. ANyone know when he's due back?

Ask and ye shall recieve. I was hoping to post while I was in Vermont with my Fiancee's family, but their computer had the Sasser worm as well as some nasty browser hijack that made every link redirect to something like nkvd.us or whatnot. Had to fix all that before I could even check my email and just couldn't stand the modem time after I got spoiled by the broadband at school.

Well -- that didn't work. Note to self -- when confronted with guard ... scratch that ... slightly jealouse guard, don't make penis jokes

Lol.

Ok, plan B. Nuke them.

Stealth: 10 05 05 04 03 03 03 (+12 Ruthenium, +1 Skill Aptitude)

Stealth (sp: sneaking)

17 16 11 05 05 04 02 01 (+12 ruth./+4 Traceless walk) Used a point of Karma to reroll, the 1st one had nothing above a 3.

Trace is casting Mana bolt (6M) @ The Rent-a-Cop on the passenger side of the Van (he should be able to see him from where he is) if he can't then the one on the driver side.

Sorcery 6 dice, 4 Astral Pool.

10 09 08 08 05 04 03 03 03 01

Drain 3M 6 Dice + 2 Spell Pool Dice

11 10 05 02 02 02 01 01

Use 1 point of karma pool to reroll failures

10 07 04 04 03 01

No drain.

Keep in mind Shadow, that when calculating drain, you half the force of the spell you cast. So actually you were only resisting 3M drain, not 6M. Didn't really make a difference on this roll, but just keep it in mind for future referance.

Dammit Ecc. I wanted to use Karma

Yeah yeah I always forget that.

Attack on the guard

Clubs (sp:batons) - TN 3 (taking the point of reach for myself)
06 06 06 05 05 05 04 04 04 04 03 02 01 01 01 01 01 01

Base damage 9M stun staged up to 12 D stun.

Default to intel to do a first aid check on the guard I hit. I just want to know if he is still alive and some what ok.

14 05 05 03 02 01

He is very much dead.

Dead as in his brain exploded or dead as in if I very quickly slapped a treat spell on him I could bring him back.

Perception (to see if the guard has a heartbeat or sound of breathing)
10 08 04 04 01 plus

10 09 09 04 03 (+3 from cyber) sound based

08 04 04 01 01 01 (+4 from cyber) scent based

Nope...as in dead.

What happened Shadow? I thought we were going for non-lethal? Why the mana-bolt?

Which guard is dead? The one PD was talking to or the other one that was not at the window?

In truth what happened is thay I misread the spell description. I thought it was a stun spell not a physical spell.

Oops.

Role-playing, I am going to say Trace was to much on edge because of the crap Crimson is pulling and that he made a mistake. It happens.

Thats cool. One thing though. Trace would know that he should take a second to clean his signature from the area, otherwise another mage could trace the spell back to you.

I am at work and without the aid of my library, anyone want to explain to me how to do that? I don't recall seeing it in SR3.

I'm at work too, so I can't look it up. I just know it can be done.

The guard's body has the signature and you use your Sorcery skill (TN = force of the spell). Each success reduces the time it lasts by one hour. It will last normally 1 hour per point of force in the spell or spirit (for Conjuring). After making the Sorcery test, you must resist (Force) L Drain. Erasing a signature takes a number of Complex Actions equal to the force of the effect and requires astral perception.

Hope that helps.

Okay, in worried about the death and what not of the guard, I guess my question got lost. I know the guard that was at the driver's side window would definately be able to ID me and probably Ember, if he was looking at her face. However, if that's the dead one we should be okay, because the other guard was not talking to either of us.

Perception Test: 05 05 01 01
Stealth(Alertness): 11 07 04 01 01

Karma Pool Reroll of Perception Test: 11 04 03 02

Hrm. Just in case but aparently I'm not that perceptive right now

No tails Dash.

Shadow...no drain for erasing signature...and you had enough successes to clear 2 hours off however, if you spend a minute or so, we can assume that you were able to erase the astral signature entirely.

Oh, you don't just get one shot? You can just keep trying till its all gone?

You can re-attempt the TN just goes up by 2 each time.

OK assume we spent a minute.

You're good then

Just waiting on Crimson's response?

Any objection to a bump to the meet with Crimson?

Nope

Please do.

Well that wasn't a bad game. I know you were hoping to have a chance to explain Crimsons actions to everyone, but honestly, Trace wouldn't care.

As a player I despise movies and tv shows where at the end you find out it didn't really matter 'cause it was all a test. To me, it is not professional. If Crimson could so easily infiltrate the corp and set up a camera, then she could have just as easily gotten the armor herself.

So, nothing against you personally, I just don't like Crimson.

So, I hope everyone else continues to have fun, Trace has a plane to catch.

Well this game was intended to be a long series of runs...this was simply the test run to make sure everyone was up to snuff.

It's your call though...that's just one of the reason's why she doesn't send new assets out on anything critical for their first run. If they can't hack it, at least they leave with a minimum of knowledge relating to Crimson's activities.

Then again, Crimson has a habit of making sure no one talks about her organization. Secrecy is so hard to come by these days.

That's a matter of opinion Creche. I took his actions to be very tantrum-esque. He threw the armor at her feet, told her, in effect, to bugger off, then "briskly walks out". Sounds like someone acting in a fit of bad temper. A perfect defination of a tantrum.

As you will.
I was just mentioning something I observed, in the off chance you were interested.

Ok. Let me clear a few issues up before things get out of hand.

#1, Shadow, I apologize. After re-reading my posts, I realize my OOC post reflected a bit too much of Crimson's personality. It wasn't intentional and I'm sorry it gave that feel. I was just a bit taken aback at Trace's reaction to the events and was responding reactively.

#2. I think it's very important that I clear up any misconceptions with my view of the Shadowrun world. I think that may be what's contributed to some of the misunderstandings that have occured.

2063 is NOT a happy place. You are not paladins, clerics, warriors or enchanters looking for fame, fortune and adventure. You are not out to rescue the damsel in distress, nor are you here to wipe out the orc invasion before it destroys the peaceful countryside.

You are Mercenaries living as criminals in the shadows of society. You steal and kill to make your living and the majority of the time you are nothing but cogs in the machine that you despise. You rail against the evil's of the corps while you turn around and take their dirtiest jobs against their rivals.

There are machinations going on in the upper echelons of power that you could never hope to understand, and those power players see you as nothing but pawns in their chess game. A chess game that you have to constantly strive to stay ahead of in the hopes of surviving for another week.

Now...with that said, (and this is all STRICTLY OOC!) Crimson runs a section of an organization that strives to balance the equation a bit. An organization that is so dangerous to the worlds power players that it must maintain ABSOLUTE descretion.

She has to run you through a series of tests to ensure that you can be trusted to be brought into the folds as full members. Think of any of the big spy shows that show recruitment. You never know what's a test and what isn't a test and there's no telling when the tests will end. If you've ever seen Alias, La Femme Nikita (TV or Movie), the Recruit etc. that's the environment that this game is striving for.

One of the GM's I most admire likens the 6th world as a "face eternally stepped upon by a giant boot". I understand that outlook and I think the majority of the world is like that, but I like a little more dynamic in my world. Crimson's Assets is that dynamic. You aren't cute fuzzy heroes. You have to do sometimes despicable things, but all in the hopes of balancing that eternal equation between what is right and what is power.

If this is not the kind of environment you want to play in, IC is at an easy point for additional members to back off.

#3 It's important for you to all realize that Crimson is the head of one of the most sophisticated intelligence networks on the planet. That is the premise of this game. You're characters aren't up to that level, but my hope is that you WILL be as we progress through the game. As such, you can assume that the bio's you submitted to me as character histories are your prospective dossiers that Crimson used to base her judgement on to bring you into the organization.

#4 I have some VERY ambitious ideas for this game and how it will play out. As I said during the recruitment, I plan on this game being a long term one. It's VERY story driven. I know that has a much different feel than a co-operative table top game. This will be unusually handled in that there will be NPCs that will direct the game in many avenues. There is a huge story arc here that you have barely begun. If each of you isn't invested in it fully, then let's deal with it now before it creates an issue.

wow. that's huge.
I definitely like the idea of an ongoing story arc, especially one that strives to be dynamic in an otherwise unchangeable world. my only complaint with playing shadowrun is that it occasionally smacks of futility.

fetch this, steal that. destroy the evidence. woohoo.

I think a rundown of your "view" of the Shadowrun world and the general direction you wished the game to go may have been helpful in the beginning, as we would have known (without sharing OOC information with our characters.. I can safely say everyone here seems to be a bit more skilled and experienced than that) how to help you create the story you were going after.

it has always been my feeling that a roleplaying game is a story with many authors, not one.

as for us not being fuzzy heroes.. I don't think our characters have that misconception about ourselves.. but at the same time, I doubt any of us consider ourselves cogs, or petty, despicable criminals. there are a million ways to rationalize one's own life and line of work.

so far, the characters have responded predictably to being handled as children and insignificant "pawns" as you put it. obviously, anyone with a backbone, regardless how coglike (s)he truly is, is going to react negatively when faced with the arrogance Crimson has demonstrated. It doesn't matter how important she is, or how high above us she truly is. any free thinking, self respecting individual is going to demand to be treated, if not respectfully, professionally. call it the American way.

having said that, I think as a player, I can temper my character's reactions so they don't elevate to a game disrupting level, as long as it doesn't become so unbelievable that I can no longer suspend my disbelief for the sake of the game.

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but at the end of your post, you made it sound like you don't intend this game to be collaborative at all. unfortunately, that's the reason I roleplay. If I simply want to enjoy a story that I can't affect, I go out and read a book.

Is it your intent?
I'm hoping that I (via my character) can have a hand in what is obviously a grand storytelling effort. Otherwise, I see little point in my playing. I'll most likely read the IC anyway, simply because it's probably a great story. But the pretense of my involving myself as a player wouldn't make sense, if I won't make a shred of difference either way.

*sighs*

I thought I was very clear in my last post. In this game, you are assets. Crimson's assets. You are nothing more than the tools Crimson is using to wage her little information war.

This isn't America and you aren't even citizens. You are are the SINless society who is constantly looking over their shoulder. Crimson is hard and devious because she has to establish dominance over the pack she is creating. She is running you through tests to weed out those who cannot to loyal and trusted.

I am REALLY getting the idea that you just don't understand the game environment that I've created and that you will not enjoy it in the future any more than you are enjoying it now. The style of game WILL NOT CHANGE. This is they way I want it to work and I want players that will enjoy this style.

Im not going to tell your character what to think, or what to feel or what to do, but this early in the game, you have very little say in how the story will develop. I don't feel like this should be a great shock. The dark nature that I assume for my world is quite common as far as SR goes and the name of the game is Crimson's Assets. I thought that was a pretty obvious indicator of how the game was going to be run.

No problem. I've run games the same way and others were character driven. On the forum, I actually prefer a GM driven game anyhow.

I find it interesting how you can write so much, and yet still almost manage to avoid answering my very clear question.

I wasn't challenging Crimson's motives or justifications.
Just yours.

This may not be America, but what I said still stands. Unless you can awe your entire team into submission by your velvet curtains, stylish clothes, and offers of cocktails, they will demand to be treated with some respect and dignity.

Crimson is looking for loyalty and trust, but that is best gained by loyalty and trustworthiness... she has demonstrated neither. I understand exactly what you're going for with your (N?)PC, but you don't seem to understand human nature enough to realize that you're going about it the most difficult way possible.

You say you won't dictate our thoughts or actions, but you have come down on Shadow and myself in public and private for our characters reacting to Crimson in the most natural, predictable, and human way possible. It's odd you didn't foresee that.

When you treated a very willful and independent adult woman (Ember) like a child, and, being a stranger, tried to dominate her, she resisted. When you took a man (Trace) who, odd though it is in this environment, sees himself as an essentially honorable man, and deceived him, he was affronted.

I never understood the game environment you were shooting for, because you never extended yourself to explain it until now. And no, I don't enjoy it, as I have already stated before. I just didn't realize it was deliberate. I'm sure you can find others who do enjoy this gaming style (Ecclesiastes for one), but to prevent your games from imploding in the future, perhaps you should let us all in on the secret a bit earlier.

Of course I'm surprised that my part in a roleplaying game has no bearing on anything. It's like picking up a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, only to find that you're only offered one choice, or playing a game of chance, only to find that the dice have all been weighted.

I don't demand that the story goes wherever the characters do. Those sorts of games are usually shapeless, without focus, and quickly tire. However, I do insist on having some effect on my environment. And I'm not satisfied with "Oh, you will.. eventually."

This is my game and I will run it as I choose. If you feel you can do better, *indicates the main forum* be my guest. However, I appreciate you pulling yourself from the game as the distruptions you have caused have been the main cause of this stall.

My apologies for my misunderstanding. I must have misread the initial game information. While I fully accepted and endorsed the cinematic style, the only style of gaming I enjoy is co-operative. That said, I will write myself out of the game at this point to avoid causing further problems.

Thank you for an enjoyable game up to this point, Blitz.

Blitz are you still looking for more assets? I have a few I wouldn't mind submitting. I got some time it seems to do some online RPing and spotted this one.

To make you feel better, in case you need it, I'm enjoying myself!! Now that I'm back from a job interview, I'll catch myself up IC and get back to posting.

I'm having fun too... is there a reason things aren't moving foward?