Memorizing the man's face: Logic 6 + Willpower 3 = 9d6 = 2 hits =/

Red-ROM, are Rusty and Viper 5 still where they're supposed to be? And did anything come of Jovan's trying to contact Zayne via watcher, and his questions thereof?

EDIT: Also, can I do a Literature roll for Jovan to see if he recognizes the word 'mome?' Would he be the kind of person who'd be familiar with something like this where Amber was not?

Casting Physical Chamouflage(me)


Current state:
Spirits: Air spirit force 5, 0 service left, currently using movement / concealment / search, Optional Powers: Elemental Attack and Energy Aura
Spells: Increase Reflexes F7/4 successes, Combat senses F7/7 successes, Increase Reactions 7/7 successes Physical Chamouflage F7/5 successes
-2 sustain penatly...but very defensive!

ok, I am back in Virginia, and next to my trusty library.

@ Sephiroth: I am looking into the Zayn thing now, I wanted to check on watchers and remote tasks, seems they don't need to stay near you, bu they "may get lost" (which goes to show what the competence level of a watcher is suposed to be)
in responce to the mome, I'd say yes, roll a skill check

@ Seth: did you spend edge? and also resisting drain is a stressfull situation and I'd prefer not using the 4:1 in future. It negates the risk taken when casting spells.

Edit: @sephiroth: Zayn is a hard person for your watcher to find, it may take some time

I'm fine with that. That's actually why I sent both of the watchers in and around the gas station, to help mitigate their solo incompetence.

Logic 6 + Literature 2 (3) = 9d6 = 4 hits!

No. OK I will do so.

Professor looking astrally along the trail to the darkened store.

INT 11 + Perception/Assensing 5 + (nothing specific, so no extra bonus) = 16 dice ==> 9 HITS

Holy shit! Professor sees the growth pattern in the bacteria on the store wall!

Mome has been used to mean a dull person or blockhead. As far as a literary reference;

Roll initiaive !!

2d6 = lol you're funny = 2 Init

I dunno where Jovan would be at 11:11. His Astral Initiative score is 19.

Zo and ferret come upon the remains of Professor, Oz and Jade.

I am such an optimist.

Its OK we are still posting. No remains yet. And the ghouls would eat the remains anyway!

How tough do I think that spirit is: Assensing 5 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3032106/

I drop the physical chamouflage

Surprise: 10 hits => 25. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3032111/

I blast with a Force 7 stun bolt: 7 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3032114/.
I don't think it will get to act against me this IP, so if it is not disrupted I will blast it again for a much less impressive 3 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3032115/
Drain from first and second: 3 hits each, so no stun. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3032117/

@ Notso: I know your in a boring spot right now, but your times up man. I need a post tonight!!

I'm away for a few days (holiday weekend here in Canada) and out of touch with the internet, almost certainly. Try not to kill Professor, please???

Professor's Initiative: INT 11 + REA 5 = 16

16 dice ==> 4 hits

Initiative = 20

If the spirit were materialized, Professor would shoot it. But it is likely purely astral, so he can't hurt it, so he will try to Assense it as he has never seen anything like this before and wants to know as much as possible.

Assense the spirit: INT 11 + Assensing 5 + particular thing 3 = 19 dice ==> 8 HITS

Aside from this, he will take a defensive position in cover and keep an eye out for other trouble. Pistol still drawn. Not likely to be surprised, anyway. If he has to take a potshot at something, AGI 5 + Pistol 3 = 8 dice.

Surprise and Init:
9d6.hits(5) → [4,4,3,2,6,1,2,5,4] = (2)
9d6.hits(5) → [3,2,1,5,1,2,3,3,5] = (2)


Non-Action: keep walking forward.
Free action: speak.
Holding other actions

I'm still alive, honest! I was just a little out the loop for a couple of days there with a bad cold but am back, more or less intact and just in time for Ferret and Zo to catch up to the team and the nasty insect spirit.

Meat-space initiative should Ferret need it: 8 + 8d6.hits(5)=4 = 12, 1 pass

Running test to keep up with Zo (defaulting to strength): 2d6.hits(5)=1

ok, 16 DP ... 6 magic, 6 spellcasting...ah, power foci 4 .. (-1 for background count).. sutaining 3 spells? -6.. heightened concentration requires a complex action for the "task at hand" (i.e. casting a spell) which you haven't taken (it seems) also, would cancel out 1 distraction modifier (i.e. -2 for spell)

so 9 DP = 4 hits vs spirit : 0 hits= 4S
second one still does him in as I roll 0 hits again...

Spirit is gone

I has calculating it differently. To be fair I hadn't taken into account the background count: I seem to have a mental block about that, although I don't think I know what the count is here
The die pool is 6 magic + 6 spellcasting + 4 foci. With the background count, it will drop to 12, as my magic goes down and the foci goes down.

I was using the heightened concentration to deal with sustaining spells ( I am sustaining 4 at the moment, hence the nett -2 modifier)

As I understand it Heightened concentration isn't adept centering (although it stacks with adept centering): You activate it once (taking a complex action), then you have the "pain" sorted out. Adept centering (IIRC - I am Away from books at the moment) needs a free action to use, then just affects the action your are concentrating on).

If I'm wrong, and you want me to play it differently, just give me an example and I will play it your way.

I don't understand how 4 spells = "net -2 modifier" when "For each sustained spell the magician maintains, she suffers a -2 dice penalty on all other tests"(sr4a p184)

Heightened concentration:
The adept is capable of tuning out a single distraction to her task at hand. When using this power, the adept can ignore a single situational modifier of a value up to her magical attribute. This power requires a complex action to activate and maybe be combined with the Adept centering metamagic.

- you activate it for the "task at hand". so it should last as long as the task, be it casting some spells, or kicking in a door, it's one task, and you have to focus for 3 seconds to do it. I don't understand your interpretation, when are you activating it, and for what purpose? you seem to be implying that you activated it once in the past, and now it's just "on".
-I personally don't see 4 spells as a single distraction when you consider that you have to concentrate on each spell to keep it going.

I would love input from the group, as I am no authority on the matter

I'll let my inner rules lawyer come out for second.

From my read on it it would only apply to one of the spells at most. I am assuming your quoting from the source book it is from-(It's not in War, Street Magic or SR4a--so I don't have that reference). As, per RAW each spell causes a mage to suffer a -2 dice penalty to all other tests, as the caster must concentrate on the sustained spell. I'm not sure something you need to concentrate on can be considered a distraction you can ignore (GM call on that one). Also the problem here is what do you define as a task at hand. In general terms to me that means a single test.

IMHO- that if you don't take the -2 your not concentrating on the spell, your not concentrating on the spell, therefore the spell is no longer being sustained. Another way of putting it is that it is not a distraction, but something that you must concentrate on. Even if allowed, at most though you would be able ignore one sustained spell, or other distraction after spending a complex action to do the task at hand. So in order to cast a stunbolt ignoring the the sustaining a spell modifier you'd have to use two complex actions for the task at hand. You cannot activate and save for later. It is not written clearly but unless this Adept power cost 3 magic, I can't see it overpowering a susatining foci (which costs karma or BP and Nuyen) or living focus (which costs 1 magic point)

There are very few ways to ignore sustaining spells:One is sustaining spell foci, another is bonded spirits. The living focus adept power is another way for a mage to not have to sustain a spell as well, but then the adept ends up sustaining it.

Hmm...

EDIT: nevermind about this.


This is a good point. I think the need for the Complex Action was getting overlooked. It seems to me that it would be balanced to require a Complex Action each time he wishes to use Heightened Concentration; this keeps the power from mimicking most of the latent power of Adept Centering, which is much more expensive than Heightened Concentration and should be worth the Karma cost.

They are the same type of distraction though, and their effect is identical. Consider a target that is stricken with [Sight] Removal (from SM) and then placed in a dark room. These two distractions are technically separate, but they are roughly the same type (visibility modifier, essentially) and give the same effect (making the target near-blind). I think it would come down to individual interpretation of what constitutes two separate kinds of distractions.


It costs 1 power point, so it is up there in terms of pp cost.

Adept Centering also works, as mentioned above.

Seth: you should probably go with the interpretation that only your Adept Magic counts for HC. That is how you're doing it in Shadow's Dawn, after all.

OK so my character concept is hosed. My reading of heightened concentration is different to all of yours, but I realise that I am in the minority to I bow the majority rule. I have no idea how to play the character effectively now, but I will see what I can do.

Note: in shadow's dawn, as far as I know it's RAW, and its pretty clear in SR4a that the magic attribute applies to the adepts powers. Its really really clear. I know some people talk about the FAQ, but for me the FAQ was a poorly edited cut and paste job.

Up to Red-Rom, but as a GM I do not mind tweaking of characters after creation because of a rules misunderstanding. It happens (losts of rules to keep track of!!). As a player I also don't mind it-cause were all here to have fun.

I am not one to squash someone's character idea. I've been pretty accepting of crazy stuff in this game. In real life, I swore I'd never allow shifters again (thanks to an abusive weretiger coincidentaly). I think Jade is far from hosed. SHe's just not completely broken (another side note. the dice pool is capped at 20). I'm probably going to kill one of the others in the group just trying to make it challenging for her. The spirit possessed, Immune to natural weapons, regenerating war machine seems to be functioning just fine. You killed a force five Shadow spirit on its own turf, with a background count aspected in it's favor, in one initiative pass.
I haven't used heightened concentration, and the wording is terrible on it. For one power point (i would say 5 builed points in value roughly) you get to ignore, what -2 on average? maybe more? there's more fore your money, but there's worse deals for sure.

edit: I am willing to let you tweak your character in light of this mess too

ok, I just wrote a huge post and when I tried to post it, the web page didn't display, and now it's gone

I'm not writing it again tonight

My understanding of Heightened Concentration for Professor is that it took an action to activate in order to counteract the -2 modifier for the task of sustaining the spell cast on him by Jade, using his Living Focus power. As long as he sustains that particular spell he doesn't need to reactivate the HC. If he wishes to switch the application of the HC power to something else, say a damage modifier, he needs to spend another action.

Is this not correct?

Professor aiding Oswald through teamwork in a First Aid test.

LOG 5 + First Aid 1 = 6 dice ==> 3 HITS

So Oswald has 3 more dice for the First Aid test.

I know I asked this somewhere else, but I don't remember where. Can someone explain the 'Mind Over Matter' adept power from War? It sounds like something that Professor would be interested in. Is this available to PCs in Post or Die?

As I understand it Mind over Matter allows you to replace one attribute with another for all tests on that attribute. The attributes are the astral equivalents, so you could replace strength with charisma for example. One problem is that I am not quite sure what a "test" is. So for example the charisma would not add to the base damage, but it would add to jump skill uses.

Cool cool. I'm gonna use Jade's medkit, since Oz doesn't actually have one. (yay oversight)

Just buying the hits for diagnosis. If this is late stage pre-ghoulification Kriegers, I suppose I'll have to be more careful and ditch my gloves afterward. Not too worried about infection though, since the hands are synthetic anyway.

Logic 8 +4 skill +6 kit +3 nanites +3 assistance -3 conditions = 21d6.hits(5) → [2,4,1,6,2,4,4,1,5,2,4,6,5,3,1,2,1,2,1,3,2] = (4) WOOOO two boxes healed (at least the last 8 dice could be chopped by penalties and it wouldn't matter.) You're welcome, stranger.







As to the Heightened Concentration power, my understanding is that it reduces situational penalties, and those only last as long as a situation persists. So, since sustaining a spell doesn't matter when you're just walking around (since no dice are involved,) I'd think you have to re-up the concentration at the beginning of a conflagration to get it's benefits (ala attribute boost.) That's what I remember Ancient History saying about the power when he was asked.

Seems like it's best use would be for something like blindfire to start a fight. Negating a -6 penalty to shoot through a wall sounds pretty cool for 1 PP. Being an infinity-level permenant sustaining focus for 1 PP sounds way suspect.

Professor has a medkit, too.

Actually, the permanent sustaining focus 'function' needs 2 PP, 1 for the Living Focus power and 1 for the Heightened Concentration power. That's at least a third of what an adept has.

The Living Focus allows one to sustain any spell on himself, and the spell can be of Force up to the adepts Magic, so it can go up to Force 6 in Professor's case. Pretty cool, but it still has the -2 modifier. Your point about the sustaining not mattering while you're just walking around is interesting. You still actually have to work at the sustaining, though, else the spell would drop. If you have to work at the sustaining, then you are doing something that is affecting everything else you do. It would affect surprise tests, too for example, which don't give you the chance to 'concentrate again'.

Red-ROM, how do you want to work it?

Just popping in for the moment, I'm still preoccupied with finals right now.


You actually indirectly bring up a good point. 2PP worth of powers costs 20 BP at a minimum. 20 BP also happens to be the cost of a Force 5 sustaining focus (5 for restricted gear, 5 for bonding, and 10 for the nuyen). So it seems like it would be worth (a little more than) the BP you put into it to treat Living Focus + HC like a F6 Sustaining Focus.

Yeah, interesting. As a matter of fact, to get the Magic up to 6, you would have to pay an extra 15 BP for hard maxing that Attribute. So in your schema, to function better than a Force 5 sustaining focus, the adept would have to pay an extra 15 BP for a total of 35 BP.

Moronic me, Professor's Augmented Maximum for INT is only 9. I don't know how I figured he could go higher. I'm surprised no one called me on this. Sorry.

Professor looking for anything useful in the cab of the vehicle:

Perception test: INT 9 + Perception 5 = 14 dice ==> 3 HITS

@ Sephiroth: are you going to speed up the stragglers? I might just flash foreward a little

Yeah sorry, I can do that.

I am pleased we are waiting for the others, although its always amusing to be part of a gung-ho group.

Red-ROM could I get the results of my spirits search...or maybe the result of the search is that "the spirit isn't coming back...muhaha".

Its fair. I forgot we had just left you.

Going for the sympathy vote, I have just had to sack everyone at work (including myself) today, so I am perhaps not on best form, which perhaps explains also my social incompetence a few posts ago. Please put up with me if I am a bit rubbish for the next couple of weeks.

Ouch. To be fair, Jade never actually met Ferret, so don't worry about it too much. Also, Oswald is a racist senile old coot, so take everything Sithney says IC with a grain of salt.

OK I am testing the gun. I am relying on it not killing me (I have a fair bit of armor) and I have regen so physical mundane damage if its doesn't kill me is unimportant. I am standing in the cab doorway mostly outside the cab, so the chunky salsa effect doesn't happen. (I need the padding of the chair to be a silencer).

As it happens I don't think its booby trapped other than with perhaps a taser, but I might be wrong...

I thought it was IC thing.
Roleplaying 1 logic and everything.

Sorry about your work, by the way.

Wow. Well, you have my sympathy, that's for sure.

But then, are you free to spend more time on Shadowrun now?

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Is the jammer rigged / trapped?
Intuition 4 + Perception 4 - AIPS 1 = 7d6.hits(5)=2

What can he find out about the jammer?
Logic 6 + Electronics 4 = 10d6.hits(5)=2 - not much apparently!

Oz will try to back you up.

Int 5 + 2 perception +3 attn coprocessor +3 vis enh = 13d6.hits(5) → [6,6,4,1,4,4,4,6,1,5,4,1,6] = (5) forgot actively looking bonus and possible teamwork. Doubt it matters much.

Log 8 +4 hardware +3 nanites = 15d6.hits(5) → [4,3,1,6,5,5,3,4,6,1,2,5,3,5,3] = (6) Sweet action. Oz knows ware.

Nice to be with people who are good at what they do

Well my previous spirit has either come back with a report or is never coming back

Summoning a new spirit as the old one has no services left. Not my best summoning every: 1 service, 2 physical drain. Optional powers First aid and Infiltration


I'll post the summoning IC tonight: just got visitors

I wouldn't worry about first aid. That's a schtick Oz has pretty well covered.

Any chance of a first aid Oz? I am down 2 physical damage.

Sure thing.

log 8 + skill 4 +6 kit +3 nans -2 awakened -3 conditions +1 skilled assistant = 17d6.hits(5) → [1,5,6,5,6,4,5,6,1,1,4,1,4,4,6,6,1] = (

Maximum healage.

By the way, I'm getting confused now, are we in the mall or the tower, or is the mall the tower?