I'd prefer to have some downtime to spend my karma on stuff (initiation and skills) and have my talismonger hunt down a few items like a new sustaining focus so I can spend some money.

A little down time would be good to give Eklipse some time to splash some cash and spend some karma (btw what's the current total - I've been a little lax in keeping my char sheet updated).

Fat Man would like to sleep off that drain, get back to the Hengeyokai, probably initiations, and possibly go shopping.

Would folks be comfortable taking a month? Do you want more time, less?

Whatever it'll take for Rev. Hannibal to get me my magical gear.

Alright boys and girls, I think that the fact that we have more gun people in the group now means that Ayo ian't quite as necessary. In fact, I do believe Emilio's gun is bigger

That being said, I thought it would be helpful to bring in our own driver/rigger type so that we don't have to keep depending on NPCs for extractions and that sort of thing. That being said, I'm going to be bringing in Fleet, a hobgoblin rigger. I'll be able to handle transportation for the group, as well as drone over watch.

I'm still tweaking a few of the details while we're writing Ayo out and bringing in the new char, so if you've got specific questions or specific things you'd like to have available, it's a lot easier to handle it during char gen

I want a pony, a vindicator minigun, and extra surliness, but mostly a pony.

Hey, several months in a German prison and then an abrupt rehabilitation by a mega-corp, Fleet's not nearly so uncouth any more. I probably won't completely wreck the run this time

Happy Monday (later than usual)!

So 1 point of karma to your character sheets for the new week. Sounds like everyone is down for some downtime in the thread - I just need a block of time. A month, two or longer? Sound off please.

BishopMcQ no need for rolls at this point to collect the bounties. It does take about a week for the smaller rewards to trickle in from various sources and three weeks to collect for the price on the doctor's head.

All if you're using getting gear as a way to set the amount of downtime then let's throw out the gear you're looking for. Please include the availability and cost please plus whatever contact you're using to get said gear. Throw your rolls if you're getting the gear using your own skills or let me know if you're using the contact to do so. Include loyalty/connected ratings please.

Buddha, I have a question about how you rule the Weaves from Attitude work. The rules don't say anything about having more than one weave, ie, what happens if you have delta-amyloid weave pants and a carbon-boron weave shirt. How do you want to run it?

(FWIW, I think the answer is that you can have at most one of each weave per character, regardless of what weave is on what armor, so delta-amyloid stacks with carbon-boron, but you can't stack carbon-boron with itself).

UmaroVI I would say one infusion per piece. The infusions suffer armor layering penalties. They can only be applied to clothing or armored clothing.

All ok with no clear answer from the group I was going to go with two months of downtime. If you are getting gear please throw up the information I asked for before. Make sure to pay your upkeep on lifestyles. I will throw out a post later moving things along with events during the downtime.

Oh, I definitely agree they suffer armor layering penalties and add encumbrance - anything else would be crazy

First up, Fat Man is going to burn off 2 street cred from karma and 1 of his starting notoriety.

He's paying for 2 more months of lifestyle in the same place above James's talismonger shop.

Okay, shopping time! Fat Man is heading down to the Big and Short for some armor that doesn't give him -1 to all physical tests! That shield is a bit too much of a nuisance to keep using.

BTW, anyone else who's not got the 8 sensor channels should think about a Simrig.

2 sets of SWAT Armor (8000x2)
-Chemical Seal (5000) (only one) Availability 25R, 8000
-YNT Softweave (800) (only one)
[6] Fire Resistance 6 (600) (only one) Availability 4, 600

(other one)
[6] Nonconductivity 6 (1200) Availability 6, 1200

SWAT Helmet (1200) Availability -
[1] Simrig Availability 12, 1000

SWAT Helmet (1200)

Moonsilver Line Scarf (matching the cloak, below) Availability 10, 500+400
[1] Delta-Amyloid Threading

Ramirez Linked Cloak Availability -, 2000

SecureTech PPP Systems Helmet, Vitals Protector, Leg and Arm Casings (650) Availability 4,4,6, 100/200/350

Holoprojector Availability -, 200

Ruhrmetall SF20 Availability 15F, 6500

Gyrostabilization Harness Availability 7, 3000

Laser Sight Availability 2, 100.

3 belts of Antitank HMG ammunition with Tracer rounds as every 3rd round (so 200 AT, 100 Tracer), Availability 22F, 170 and Availability 5R/75 (total cost 4150)

Poncho (20)
[1] Ruthenium Polymer Coating (7500, 12R)
[1] Thermal Damping 6 (3000, 10F)

Gecko Grip Weapon Modification (100, 6)

Personalized Grip Weapon Modification (100, 2)

Fat Man is using Ancient Chinese Bargain Hunting Secrets (ie, Increase Charisma) to help with the finding stuff. His roll is going to be 9 (Charisma modified by spell) -2 (Sustaining) +(10-1) (Street Cred - Notoriety)+1 Negotiation.

The SWAT armor: Interval 2 days, 25R. I'm including the -1 for repeating on extended tests rule.
4 hits 4 hits 7 hits 5 hits4 hits 3 hits

FR modification: Interval 1 day, 4. 9 hits, first try

Nonconductivity modification: Interval 1 day, 6. 8 hits, first try

14 days so far.

SWAT Helmet has no availability, oddly enough. I guess it comes with the suit.

Scarf is availability 10, 1 day interval. 9 hits 3 hits

That's 16 days.

The Ramirez Linked Cloak has no availability because Attitude has stellar editing.

The SecureTech PPP Systems are each 1 day 8,9,7, all three found in a day a piece

That's 19 days.

Holoprojectors are no availability.

The Ruhrmetall is 15F, 2 days. First 3 are 8,5,4 (dropping the last 0/1/2 dice), 6 days.

The Gyrostabilizer is 7, 2 days. 6 hits, 9 hits, 4 days

That's 29 days.

Laser sight is 2, 1 day. 3 hits, 1 day.

30 days.

The AT Ammo is 22F, 1 day. 3,3,2,45,3,5 7 days. It's almost like they don't want people to get their hands on it!

Tracer is 5R/12 hours 7 on the first try I'll round up to a day.

38 days.

The Poncho is no availability, being a poncho.

Ruthenium is 1 day, 12R. 4,6 3 3 days.

Thermal damping is 1 day, 10F. 5,6 2 days

43 days.

The Gecko Grip and Personalized Grip modifications are both 1 day, 6 and 2. 7 hits on each for the first try. 2 days.

(Fat Man is getting a Task Spirit to install them on his weapon; both are low threshold and only require a kit).

45 days.

Phew!

Okay, adding all that up, it's 51,070ny, plus 4000 for lifestyle.

I'm also marking off 80ny for Fat Man's betel habit.

After thinking on it, Fat Man should probably go ahead and upgrade that commlink. Terrible matrix security is going to bite him at some point.

Upgrading to Firewall 6 (3000, no availability)
Rating 3 Agent (3000, 9 Avail)
Analyze 6, Optimization 2 (800, 1 Avail)
Encrypt 6, Optimization 2 (800, 1 Avail)
Home Ground Autosoft 3 (1500, 6 Avail)

Rolls: 7,8,8,10 for the first rolls on each, the Agent needs another roll3 hits finds the agent
9100 nuyen total.

Last but not least:

GAZ P-179 (12000, no availability)

21100 nuyen total.

Sorry for being distant, guys. I just flew home across the Pacific last week, had an interview two days after I got home, and am still unpacking, and have another interview to prep for this upcoming Thursday. Basically, just bear with me for a few days.

Right now, I think the biggest thing I might have Zerone buy is a R4 or R5 sustaining focus, learn Increase Willpower, up his Logic score by 1, and maybe bump up his spellcasting. Anyone have a ballpark estimate as to how much training time that might take?

Eyeballing:
Finding that sustaining focus will be the longest time spent; it's got an interval of a week. IIRC Zerone has a high-rating Talisomonger contact who can probably find it, but it will likely take that guy a month or so.

Leaning Spellcasting might be a nuisance. It's Intuition+[current rating], threshold 2x new rating, interval 1 week extended. Unlike spells, you can't just hire an instructor, and you can only be instructed by someone with skill higher than you and also the Instruction skill (and no tutorsofts either). I'm not sure how current the sheet in your signature is. You might be able to get an instructor through your contact. Alternatively, if you can't get the dice pool together, Fat Man does know Increase Intuition. He'd be able to help you learn it if you can free him up enough time by helping with his shopping spree.

Learning a spell is not hard and is a day or two. It's Intuition+Spellcasting (5) extended. Since it's Health, a tutor for it is cheap (you can hire someone with Instruction 6 for only 1500ny) if you have trouble with the test. It also only takes 8 hours per day so you can spend time doing other stuff too. The formula itself is 4R/500 so Zerone can probably just find it himself in a day, two at most.

Upping stats takes no time.

Huh, actually, you can default on Instruction. Too bad our traditions are fairly incompatible or Fat Man could just lend you a Spirit of Man for Instruction. A Mr. Miyagi spirit would have been hilarious.

Happy Monday All!! Hope you all had a great weekend - still slowly unpacking here but making progress.

Posting to move things along as I said I would several day ago (shhhhh don't look) so things can move. Thanks Fat Man for the posts and it seems Eklipse is going to do some shopping - anyone else?

Sound off!

I just wanted to remind you about the Hengeyokai thing (I wanted to wait on that before spending karma).

Buddha--Going through Widget to Management, can I break in their new cyberclinic and get Alpha-grade Wired Reflexes 2 (Avail 12R, 64,000 after grade)?

Team--I have a safehouse that we can use for the job, cost is 3,800/week but can support all of us. If we divide the cost among everyone, it should be fairly reasonable. Any takers?

Fat Man sorry about that. How were you going to contact them? Feel freeze to throw up an IC post to get that rolling.

Cypher Management will give you the green light.

Oops. I took "We meet in two weeks time, we'll have your answer then" to mean "don't call us, we'll call you " I gather it meant "Come back in two weeks." I'll put up an IC post.

UmaroVI just a gentle nudge to throw up your IC post to move the Hengeyokai storyline forward.

All was there any other rolls/posts people wanted to get out there for gear etc? Get em up so we can move forward.

Buddha-I'll get the rolls up soon.

Bishop-Is that 3.8k/month per person or total?

JxJxA--It was total per week. Over 8 people, it'd be 1900 per month per person. My thought was that we would get it for a week or two at a go for each job. Comes out to less than 500 per week per person, and keeps the Yaks off your back at your real home.

Bishop: I'm fine with that.

Down with that as well, although obviously I'm not technically there yet. I will be fine with it, when I get there.

@Bishop: Sounds good. Now that Eklipse has some cash to splash, you can count him in.

@Buddha: Eklipse's shopping list - probably forgot something, availability and prices based on Chummer.

3 months medium lifestyle, 15000 yen - paid to Mr Bobo
Chameleon outfit with non-conductivity 5 and thermal damping 4 - 10R, 11000 nuyen, via Widget
If it's going to take a while to get the chameleon outfit then an urban explorer jumpsuit, 8, 500 yen as interim runner outfit - any sport store
Form fitting shirt, 6, 500 yen - from clothing outlet
Replacement HK227X with smartlink chameleon coating, personalized grip, ceramic components 1 (optional) - 8R, 3800 yen, via Widget (existing one links him back to S-K)
2 Novatech Airware commlinks with Novatech Navi OS, Firewall 4, Analyze and Browse 5, 0, 5750 yen each - from electronics store or Cypher
Tag eraser 6F, 150 yen - just realised this is avail F, will need to get it via Widget or Cypher

Total: ~43k nuyen

His existing form-fitting armor and gun will go for a swim in a brick filled tote bag once he gets the new stuff. Will post when approved.

Notsoevildm it will be 6 days for the Chameleon Suit, 4 days for the replacement HK227X, and 2 days for the Tag Eraser. Just throw something out IC giving over the requests - she would be using Aideen and dropping things to you direct at the Looking Glass.

UmaroVI the magical group has the following strictures: Attendance (1 every 3 months/they have monthly gatherings), Belief (the tenets of Bushido), Fraternity, Limited Membership (shapeshifters) and Oath (as outlined in the IC post). With the downtime you should be able to squeeze in a night to join the group. There are currently 9 members including you. Any other questions?

That covers it. Fat Man's roll to join:
Arcana(1)+Logic(5)=6d6, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3637471/ 4 hits. It would be threshold 2 or 3 with 8 other members (depending on if you round up or down) but either way Fat Man makes it.

Fat Man is paying 5 karma (to join), and also using the Oath to initiate and paying that karma cost.

I'm also interested in doing a Metaplanar Quest at some point, but I know that takes time to set up/run/etc, so I'm not going to put you on the spot now

Fat Man is also going to be doing some Meditation and initiating in the time left. He does need some, uh, "incense" to help him meditate, in the classical shamanic tradition so I'm going to sort out the details/cost and put up a post in a bit.

Okay, Fat Man needs to buy some Zen and some Red Mescaline. The meditation rules may be strange but the drugs you take to make it doable are at least appropriate. Both of them are 4R, so I'm assuming James (Connection 2 Talismonger) can just sell Fat Man some.

Fat Man is going to attempt some Meditation initiatory ordeals. He's got a fairly large amount of karma banked so it's time for some religious experiences.

First round, going for Grade 2, he has 8 days to make a Body+Willpower(Charisma*Strength, 1 day) test. He's using Red Mescaline aftereffects.

Body(11)+Willpower(1) versus Charisma(1)*Strength(7) means 12 dice, threshold 7. 4 hits, 3 hits, 2 days taken.

That leaves 6 days to make a Logic+Agility(Intuition*Reaction, 1 day) test. Now he just needs some Zen.

Logic(5)+Agility(1) versus Intuition(3)*Reaction(1) means 6 dice versus a 3. 2 hits then 1 hit (subtracting the last die on the second roll for extended test), 2 days.

I'm going to take assume you'd like an addiction roll for all them drugs Hallucinogens are threshold 1, and I'm also assuming it is mental addiction since I don't think hallucinogens are physically addictive. 2 hits, Fat Man is OK.

Next meditation attempt (I'm going to assume Fat Man is spreading these out through his downtime, not going on back-to-back benders), as above.4 then 3, 2 days. 1,2,2, 3 days. 2 hits and ignore the second two rolls, I forgot to turn off the multi-roll I was using for extended tests.

And: 5,3, 2 days.. 0,1,1 and then 0,1, just barely and that took 5 days. 4 hits, passed the check. Fat Man is now out of downtime. I'm going to write up some IC posts, this should be fun

Okay, with that covered, Fat Man really shouldn't sit on a pile of karma. He's also going to buy a point each of Willpower and Magic, since he has no time left for training skills; those will have to wait until the next downtime period.

Also, Buddha, one minor note should it come up: Fat Man is going to start leaving his Power Focus off when he's just hanging out/doing ordinary things and not expecting trouble, and use Extended Masking to hide himself and his other foci, so he will finally stop lighting the Astral up like a christmas tree.

Ok to clarify - Fat Man did the Oath ordeal and went to Grade 1 then did the Meditation ordeal then went to Grade 2 and then did another Meditation ordeal? Would he be going to Grade 3 then? The group only meets once a month so you get get the group discount on the grades for two of them but not three and the only ordeal you can bank for a later Grade is Deed.

Oh, right, I totally overlooked that. Actually, is it OK if Fat Man meditates on his own (ie, Ordeal but no group discount) for the first two, and then joins up?

Ok, so this is what I'm planning on doing with Zerone:

1-Spending 20 karma to increase Logic from 3 to 4
2-Asking my talismonger (L:5/C:6) to find a F4 Sustaining(Health) focus and eventually paying for it (40k?) and binding it with 16 karma
3-Learn Increase(Willpower) and Powerbolt spells for 10 karma and nuyen as necessary

And Zerone is more than happy to quid pro quo with Fat Man for spellcasting help in exchange for helping with shopping. ^_^

During the down time, Cypher is also moving out of the Commune. Setting up a new life in a middle lifestyle in the International District.

Was Breeze's file on the Dr's commlink either?

BishopMcQ Got it - can you give me an Edit test then extended Data Search to hide it (to set the threshold if other come looking) and Software + Exploit to program the drop to avoid tampering. Thanks!

Notaoevildm sorry I missed/forgot/buried in a hole in the back of my mind the whole blood work thing.

JxJxA Correct 40k for the Sustaining Focus. The spell formulae cost 500 and 2000. If learning it by yourself I will need Spellcasting + Intuition (5, 1 day) Extended Test please for each spell. It will take 6 weeks for the foci, 8 days for the combat spell and 2 days for the health spell.

BishopMcQ you can find no trace of it there either.

Edit Test: 15d6.hits(5)=7

Data Search:
15d6.hits(5)=3 - Edge 12d6.hits(5)=6
14d6.hits(5)=2
13d6.hits(5)=5
12d6.hits(5)=2
11d6.hits(5)=4
10d6.hits(5)=3
9d6.hits(5)=4
8d6.hits(5)=2
7d6.hits(5)=2
6d6.hits(5)=1 - 34 Total Hits

Software + Exploit: 13d6.hits(5)=7

Happy Monday all!

As usual add your weekly drip of 1 karma to your character sheet. I also wanted to get some feedback about the game so far/ I am looking for feedback from both a story perspective and a mechanics one as well. Things that you love about it and things that you hate or dislike. The only way I get better is with this feedback so help me help you have a better experience.

Emilio is going to raise stats and learn skills.

Edge 2 -> 3 for 15 karma
Willpower 3 -> 4 for 20 karma
Perception 2 -> 3 for 6 karma

As for comments, I just joined so I don't have much to say. Other than I'm very glad to be here!

The one place I'm feeling pinched is I should have spoken up sooner about the time off. My lifestyle is on the more-expensive side as I have a gun shop. So two months down with no cash coming in is tight. Buddha is letting me keep the ¥ I had from previous runs for Emilio, so I'm covered for now.

Well, I know I, for one, am thoroughly enjoying the game. It's been a good mix of combat and some RP, which has been between characters and between characters and contacts, which is an aspect I feel like you almost inevitably lose in a tabletop session.

I know it runs a little slow compared to table top, but I really appreciate the consistency. Keep letting us know what's going on, and keep coming back - I've GM'd here before, I know it's not always easy to find time to hop on.

Thanks for doing it, and here's hoping the game keeps going for another 2 years!

First off, I can't believe we've been going for close on two years. I was trying to work out how much karma Eklipse had and looked back through this post to see we kicked off in September 2010. Frag me! Pacing has been good with enough action and downtime. Occasionally it's been a little quiet due to RL issues (myself included) but we always got going again, which is not always the case in these threads.

I think you have managed to keep on top of things pretty well and you don't mind us reminding you on the rare occasion when you don't. I also think you do a great job on handling combat. I sometimes get confused in the other threads but never here, and you kick us when we are the ones holding things up.

Now onto some serious business: spending karma.

I have to admit that I am a poor bookkeeper. Looking back we seem to have been running for 102 weeks and have received 28 points of karma in additional rewards for a total of 130 as of this week, week 33, 2012. If that's not correct let me know and I will update my sheet in Chummer and try to keep it more up-to-date in the future.

Based on that number even the following raises should leave plenty over:
Spent to date: 66
Raise Agi from 5 to 6: 30 karma
Raise Leadership from 1 to 2: 4 karma
Total karma spent: 100

I have 127, but it's quite possible I missed something.

Okay, I am fairly sure 127 is right:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=1104051 has us at 71 on September 7 2011, which is a Wednesday. The prior Monday is September 5, 2011. There are exactly 48 weeks from then to yesterday, so that's 119, and we got 8 bonus karma for the last mission completion, which is 127.

Minor bookkeeping: Fat Man is also going to burn off another 2 street cred and his other point of starting Notoriety.

Feedback: I think the game's been great so far and I'm impressed it's still running! PBPs are hard to keep going.

The only suggestion I have is positioning in combat: SR isn't a boardgame or anything so it's fine to have abstract positioning, but I kept finding myself confused as to who was where in that last mission. Probably the PBP format exacerbates that a bit; it might be good to keep the map updated with dots or something for approximate locations of people so it's easier to follow.

That said it's not a big issue and it might just be me.

Your maths is probably better than mine so unless Buddha says different, I'll go with 127.

I've been enjoying the pace, and appreciate that you're flexible when we want to do things that aren't laid out specifically in the rules. Looking forward to seeing how the data plays into the next job, or if I'm playing with fire.