Dual will help Snapp look for a good place to watch from - using an AR map of the area to highlight buildings and query their public nodes for their function and occupation.

Does Ida's apartment have a window facing the street that the motel is across from?
IE, from a 3rd or 4th story window in the motel, would we have a clear shot into her apartment, either for a rifle, or a laser mic or something of the sort? or is she positions on another side of the building?

And is her room any more accessable from the Hotel down the street?

No, you can't see Ida's window from either stakeout location.

Here is a crude, completely out of scale map. You'll have to excuse my ASCII art skills for the moment:

Looks clear to me.

anyways, something i'm wondering about now... what exactly are we gonna do to for codger's actions and such... it's now been quite a while since toptomcat posted... do you by any chance have an e-mail or anything like that to contact him through, see if he's still gonna be around at all?

Toptomcat only contacted me through the forums. For private messages and character sheets he used dumpshock's message system. It looks like he has an e-mail accessible through the board; I've gone ahead and sent him a message using that. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if he comes back.

In the meantime, or if he doesn't come back, how would you like his character handled? I could try to play him as an NPC, or he could just sort of cease to exist (I had originally only planned on four runners anyway.) Up to you guys.

Edit with update
Whatever e-mail address Toptomcat gave to dumpshock now returns undeliverable.

Well, if you want to continue with 4, that's cool by me. As Dual noted earlier, the Johnson wasn't offering to pay us "by the man" so we would each get more money for having to do it "shorthanded".

If you would want to replace Codger with a 5th runner, I'm sure it wouldn't be tough to find someone else interested (two of my RL friends have been trolling this game, just because I'm in it - and there tends to be a lot of people watching the WttS board looking for new games to join).

All right, we'll leave it up to a vote. Here's the options I've got so far, we'll take a couple of days to discuss them or add to them, then we'll vote.

• A) NPC Codger. I'll play Codger's character as best I can, and if Toptomcat returns, he can pick up where the NPC'ing leaves off. In order to keep GM meddling down, this probably means Codger will spend a lot of time out with his contacts.
• B) Fade out Codger. Codger will "cease to exist" or "wander off" or be gunned down or something, and we'll continue the run with 4. If toptomcat returns, Codger can once again take material form, wander back, or recover from the hospital, as appropriate.
• C) Fade Codger and replace him. Codger will vanish as above, and one of you will call your contacts to get a replacement -- preferably of some runner type that you need (e.g. a rigger with a van, so you aren't all taking the bus.) I'll open the recruitment thread again and we'll ask for one more, or give the slot to someone you guys might know that wants it.

Feel free to list the pros and cons of each choice, and discuss amongst yourselves. As GM, I'll abstain unless there is a tie.

By friday, send me a ballot by whatever clandestine communication you choose (preferably e-mail, not "brick through the window delivered by large italian man.)

1. Pros: Easy to reinsert Toptomcat when/if we hear from him again.
Cons: For all fairness, Codger won't be very useful asside from handing us DM hints (Gms NPCing players at least tend to be that way- the GM doesn't want to get the PC killed, or give out too much info) - but will still take a share of our reward. Granted, that reward was probably determined based on the number of runners, but that's OOC.

2. Pros: IF Codger doesn't come back, we get to keep his share of the loot - which is only fair, since we'd be picking up his slack.
Cons: We have to pick up his slack. He's really our only street-sam type, and when the drek goes down, I was counting on Codger to take a few bullets.

3. Pros: game stays about the same (number of players, reward at the end, etc) but we get more interaction from the new player, and potentially someone with a skill we're lacking.
Cons: explaining it in game might be a little tricky, especially debriefing them on the mission so far. If Codger had a good reason why he had to bolt, though, and one of us called a well-known contact to pick up some slack, it might work out well. Also, if Toptomcat comes back, its either "so sorry" or the group takes a pay hit since we're now up one person - and the GM has to juggle an extra PC.

This is just what i feel goes in addition to the above:

A) i've never been a big fan of GMPCs unless the GM is just doing it because he wants to play a PC. generally speaking, there are things the GM PC won't notice because the GM doesn't want to hand the solution to the players (or vice versa if the GM gets tired of waiting for the players to figure something out). if you are taking over a player you don't know how to roleplay, that takes even further from the experience.

B) a slight problem with reality, but as long as we just make sure the other characters don't ask any awkward questions, we have no problems =D

C) i kinda like this. best way to solve the problems mentioned above, IMO, are to have codger called away to something else, thus removing him from this run without getting him killed or anything irreplaceable, while at the same time allowing potential for the character to come back in future runs. this also means that he could have called in one of his contacts to take his place while he takes care of some "personal business" (and considering he's been in the shadows for a while, i'm sure he has lots of things that could come up). the new PC could either collect TopTomCat's share, including the down payment, or could pick up the share minus the downpayment, considering they missed out on the legwork and such =P also, codger does deserve a finder's fee i think, especially if the replacement is new to the shadows and codger is basically doing him a favor by handing him a run =P

I just miss Codger... Bubbles soooo needs a kindly Father Figure.

Maybe the new character will have a thing for loud female trolls. Not exactly a father figure, but you could call him "Daddy" if it helped.

I like the third option the best. Although if we were to get help through one of our contacts, we would probably request someone with the skills we feel we are lacking. So if we choose this option we should put together a list of must haves and wants and put that up in the recruitment thread or where ever we get the new player.

Dell Axim?

Yeah, that would work well, too.

Might be hesitant to trust the friend of the guy who ditched us not to ditch us, too... but oh well.

OK... by friday's deadline, I got exactly zero votes. But it seems the general consensus is to recruit another player. I'll post a recruitment thread on monday, since weekdays tend to work better for that sort of thing around here.

What type of runner do you guys want to recruit?

(Oh, and btw, the game doesn't need to be on hold while we do this... the IC thread hasn't been updated in quite a while . . .)

Well, it'd be good to recruit someone who can stand up in a fight... I get the impression that most of us can hold our own, but that Codger was our Street-Sam, so he would have been sweet if the drek had hit the fan.

Other than that... whatever. I would even be fine if the new guy wasnt' a street-sam. Might let Dual shine more once bullets start flying.

not necessarily combat based... just someone with lots of random skills and such would be nice. to fill in all those holes the rest of us don't cover.

It might be better to figure out what we DO have covered... Like, having two hackers would be redundant I think... Dual is covering it as is. So Hacker archtype is out.

All right, lots of skills, won't die in a firefight, not a hacker. Any other requests?

Human female with a things for guys who are into AR? Nah, that's probably asking too much...

Okay, I've posted a new recruitment thread, so hopefully we'll have a replacement player soon.

In the meantime, we really don't need to wait for a fifth player to show up. The IC thread has already fallen off the front page, so it would be good to get some posts going. If the IC thread don't get some posts soon, I'll start to make things happen, and that's never good

yeah, it is kinda interesting finding out some background about one another =P

oh, btw feshy, i'm not 100% sure on this, but as the first line in that spoiler is "you scoot across...." and that's where i stopped, because i'm pretty sure it's actually for dual and snapp =P who actually are scooting.

unless of course you have chosen to give me teleportation magic with no drain, in which case i won't be needing to buy any sort of transportation after all =P

Blast!

Fixed that, sorry. I'm easily confused by four people with 8 names.

Oh sure, as soon as I ask who's paying, everyone clams up. Remind me not to go to lunch with you guys!

well, you never asked me or bubbles as far as i can tell...

is this in the spoiler, or am i just blind?

personally, i'm just trying to avoid temporal paradox (wherein Bubbles and I show up before they've got an actual room, in spite of the fact that they were in the process of getting one when we left from the stuffer shack...) =P

Yea, I mean to say "you two" not "you guys" -- I just meant Dual and Snapp. Bubbles and Spook are still en-route; but thanks to the poor english skills of the hotel manager, will get to the hotel shorlty after the other two make it to the room. Wich will be shortly after they pay for it, which is the request in the spoiler. I mainly posted because it (edit: "it" being the IC spoiler) is the last post before a new page, and I know *I* have missed those last posts before, and thought I ought to make sure neither of them had missed it.

Sorry for any confusion, as always.

Sorry real life has been kicking my but lately. I probably won't be able to post until monday or so.

Okay, for the spoiler labled "The Room" -- Dual and Snapp can head up right away (after reading their spoiler), and as soon as they send the room information to Bubbles and Spook, the two of you can read it as well. This will give Dual and Snapp time to do anything they like before the others arive -- though they have less than half an hour before Bubble's growler reaches the area (the man downstairs was really, really slow.)

As a bit of trivia, parts of this room are patterned after one my parents tried to stay in when they came to visit me a few weeks ago for the birth of my daughter. Yes, it really was that bad, and they quickly changed hotels.

Dual will start creating AROs and other AR overlays for the room to make it a little nicer. For those with more immersive ware available, he'll cover all the senses. Snapp will immediatly get a connection request from Dual's comm, but as the other arrive they will too.

well, hey, i'm bringing some air freshener (or at least i indicated i was going to bring some, a while back). I presume Feshy has no problem with that, though i'm not sure if i have to pay, or if it's part of the lifestyle =P

Looks like two players veing for position in the recruitment thread?

Are we going to have one or two extras? Or could we get some notion of who they are in character, and have the option to call in whichever one we think would help us the most? That would be pretty cool.

Potentially more work for you, though, if we lied about how much we were being paid and instead gave both of them half that amount. =D

Actualyl, come to think of it.. .Codger took his "up front" cash and bolted. *grr* +1 notoriety, here he comes!

Jaid
Sorry, forgot to mention that specifically. Yes, we'll count air freshener as part of lifestyle. Unless, that is, you want to buy some abnormally large amount in bulk somewhere.

Blackhat
Definitely only one replacement, "we*" will pick wich one of any applicants we get. Right now, that's potentially two. I've already gotten a character sheet and background from Gretik. I figure this time we'll pick, rather than go with first come, first serve ('cause that got me stuck with you guys! Just kidding, you guys are great.) Mostly I figure doing it this way will let us pick the person most likely to be hired by Codger as his replacement.

*As for wether that "we" is me and you guys, or simply the royal "we" applying only to me, I haven't decided. The in-character idea is unlikely, however cool it is. The background I'm going with is that Codger hired this person to replace him, after being unavoidably called off elsewhere. As much as I'm sure Codger respects the opinion of a bunch of newbie runners (hahaha), it's his rep that is on the line if his replacement screws up. If his replacement does well, he may not suffer much of a notoriety hit (using his money to pay for a replacement rather than sub-contracting it out for profit -- that only works with the .gov!). But if things go to pot, well, Codger's rep is going to suffer. So it's unlikely he would leave such a decision to you guys. More likely, he'll use his "shadowrunning experience" to pick out what he thinks you need most. Other than a swift kick in the pants every time you suggest something unprofessional

Blackhat
Feel free to re-describe the room to anyone that subscribes to your simsense feed, within the parameters I've listed in the IC thread's description.

I didn't put it in a spoiler, because there's not really any "privilaged" information there -- and much of the time, I feel like I'm writing four seperate shadowruns with all the spoilers

well, if you had 20 PCs in this capaign, i'm sure the thread would be huge too. it's kinda like that crazy drop bears thread... you know, the one that probably has like 60 pages by now. except, whereas that one is pretty much about nothing at all now, the ganger thread is just gonna keep on growing (on account of it doesn't have to wait on a GM, and it has 20 different people all building onto it)

Yeah, I'm trying to participate in that game, but every time I step away from the computer, 4 more pages crop up! Its kind of annoying. I think the pace this game has been going is good. Speaking of which, I'm gonna go post in our IC thread.

Just a head's up, I'll be leaving town on Thurdsay, and won't be back until the following Thursday. I will have internet access sporadically during this time, but most likely will not have access to my notes. This means that if I can make a post from memory, and have time, I will -- but I can't make any garuntees about how often that will be.

Since you'll all be in the single room together, it'd be a great time for inter-character dialog.

Snapp is just going home, picking up all of his gear and heading back to the motel. The time it will take (30 min.) is a total guess. I will edit my post if I grossly misjudged the distance back to his place.

And yipes does Dual have some cojones. He just pulled his guns on a guy, from the shadows, that he just met today. He did it with no warning no less. Good thing Snapp likes him.

Lol, well, I meant pull them OUT, not pull them out and point them at you. But, yeah, after reading your post I suppose if anyone so mcuh as reached for a gun, your average shadowrunner would roll initiative.

So, it was unintentional, but I like it, so I stand by Dual's bold move!