I will be bumping the thread tomorrow morning/afternoon with the results of the data searches and setting up the meet with all the runners at the new "office" provided by your employer. If anyone else is asking around, hitting up contacts, etc now is the time to put those actions here so I can respond to them.

The only thing Zerone needs is the respirator:
R6 Respirator (600 Nuyen) Not sure on availability because my nifty spreadsheet says it's 12, but the 20th Anniversary book gives it no value. I'm happy to go with 12, though. ^_^

Buddha72

Breeze will be sending message to both his contacts see what they know about Zuzane or the recent trouble the Bodybag club has had.

Do I roll their availability? or are we assuming that "eventually" they would get back to me? Do you just need to know Connection/Loyalty Rating and who they are?

I just need to know Connection/Loyalty since you are not under a time constraint they will get back to you eventually.

Matt (Ork, Drug Dealer) - Connection 3 / Loyalty 2
Joan (Elf, Fixer) - Connection 5 / Loyalty 3

Eklipse will follow up on Zuzanne / Madame Yin with Thomas O'Malley (only 1/1 but he is a cop so might at least be aware of the incident).

As far as gear goes:
'Spiffy' ammo for SMG - APDS and Gel
An assault rifle for squad support - underbarrel GL, smartlink, plenty of RC, ideally chameleon coated
A machine pistol backup piece - smartlink, FA capable, big clip
Ammo, spiffy or not, for AR and MP
Some SW upgrades for commlinks (encrypt, decrypt, anything else Cypher recommends).
Rotating number plates (or equivalent) for motorbike
Parts for fitting the Type 84B SMG in a concealed mount to motorbike (will have to talk nice to Fleet to get it installed)

Bloody mages. Getting out of bed in the morning costs me ¥600.

Yes, well, in order to dish out a similar level of damage as with street sams, grenade tossing psychos, etc., I might cause my brain to melt...so, I think we're even.

Emilio's shopping list:

Better comm link (Battle Buddy Basic?)
Weapon & Armor plans & materials
More demo chemicals

$$

Oh, and a Form Fit Full Body made out of Soft Weave.

Okay, basic stuff on the recon -

Staying at 500m as mentioned, used the 50x zoom to reduce that to 10m. Running surveillance for as long as it seems like I can get away with it. I'll pretend to be reading and watching shows in the coffee shop, and I can just cruise around on my bike later if the shop closes or I've been there too long.

Using the Stormcloud to start with - its got chameleon, so pretty hard to spot (Perception is at a -4 before roll).
Pilot (6)+ Covert Ops (4) (10d6.hits(5)=1)

Knowledge skill rolls to back things up -
Logic (7) + Electronic Tech (4) / Logic (7) + Vehicle Tech (4) (11d6.hits(5)=2, 11d6.hits(5)=4)

Logic (7) + Rigged Security (3) (10d6.hits(5)=4)

My intent is to follow up a little more closely when I know what the regs are and what I can already see.

Also, scanning for Active and Passive nodes in the area of the building. And apparently calling Maroon Dream (Loyalty 1/Connection 5) for a Rating 6 Sniffer, Ergonomic.

Forgive my ignorance Umaro and Fenris, what is the downside of higher signals? I know that people can also use the signal to find the source, but isn't that incredibly difficult to do? And if it's threshold 4 I guess it's less of a problem for people of Fenris's skill, which answers my question.

Feel free to backseat cast for me if I end up trying to throw Magic around in space or something.

And Emilio, can Softweave be put on any and everything? I'd thought it went on the major piece of armor.

Signal actually doesn't make it harder to find nodes: you find things within Signal of your own commlink, ie, if I have 1 km Signal, and I search for hidden nodes, I'll find everything within 1 km (or within a smaller area if I don't actually want to check everywhere, but not outside 1 km), even if that stuff is low-rating.

The reason to set stuff to low signal is to make it harder for people to hack. You can't ever hack something that has no path from it to you over the matrix (so, for example, a signal 0 flying drone that's at least 3m away from anything else wireless is "offline" and thus not hackable, although in theory it could be Spoofed if someone knows your AccessID), and if you aren't in mutual signal range (ie, if one or the other of you has to use routing to communicate to the other), you need to already have an account of some kind in order to hack.

I'd like to bring Emilio on our magical journey as well, if that's OK - it would be good to have someone with First Aid skill around.

Fat Man is asking James Wang, Talismonger/Magical Goods Smuggler/Importer (C2/L4) if he knows anything about Zuzane.

I think it's worth being careful about the astral scouting this time. I'm going to suggest our first order of business should be putting up a ward on the inside of our vehicle, then one of us does a quick long-distance flyby to see if the whole place is warded or not. If there's a ward around the whole place (so we can't get in), we should astrally track the magician who made it and determine where they are, then plan from there. If it's not warded or only partly warded, Fat Man can summon a Task Spirit with Concealment and Infiltration to sneak around and check it out, then we astrally track the creators of any internal wards.

Sound good?

Thanks for the heads up Umaro.

Morning all!

So I got the chance to take a quick trip out of town (typing this from a friend's dining room in Santa Cruz) which I took. I should have some time this afternoon around 4-5 pmish to post up the intro post to the new office space and to introduce the new characters to the thread. I should also have some time on Monday to bump the thread as normal and respond to the recon stuff that has been posted so far in IC. The times may shift but it should happen. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

And more specifically, Copper, since it's all equipment that I keep within about of a foot of my person, it has the potential to make things harder for others without impeding my use.

Is there a way to bookmark the "most recent" page of the thread, as opposed to page 55 or whatever?
Can someone suggest a good character generator? The excel spreadsheet only includes BP, not karma. Bonus points for Mac compatibility, but Windows software is fine.

Umaro: Woudln't your zero signal 3m drone be offline as to the owner as well?
Or are there greater limitations on communications when hacking than when communicating using a valid account?

Strangeglove--The Chummer system (PC) does pretty well. It's possible to track karma in the Excel sheet by using the next column over from where you entered values in CharGen. I would just bookmark the Welcome to the Shadows page, and then click on the last number.

Strangeglove - Here's the issue - If you're out of direct signal range, you have to have an AccessID that the drone (or node or commlink or gun or whatever) knows about to find you on the Mesh. It can't just send signals back to nowhere and have them find the hacker's commlink. Therefore, if you have a valid account, there's an AccessID attached to that account that the drone could use to find you over the Mesh.

Essentially, you have to have an AccessID to use the Mesh if you're out of direct signal range.

We should tag Zazane's vehicle, or even her/her gear, so we can keep track of her movements. This job will be much easier if we hit her place while she's not home.

I was thinking it might make more sense to take her out as well, so nobody is looking for us.

Happy Monday all!

I am going to throw up an OOC post review some of the stuff from when I first started this thread and some new posting guidelines I would like to follow going forward. It will be a good refresher for people here and a good place to start for the new folks. I will be throwing up posts through the morning and afternoon with a break for a lunch meeting with some friends here in town. As usual don't forget your weekly drip of 1 karma to your character bringing the current total to 149.

Ok here the list of characters for the thread (format is character name/board name):

Eklipse/Notsoevildm
Fat Man/UmaroVI
Zerone/JxJxA
Fleet/Fenris
Cypher/BishopMcQ
Emilio/Emilio
Breeze/Hamagen
Strangeglove/Strangeglove
Jon/Lain
Q/Copperheed

Posting Conventions (IC):
I'd like to follow something akin to a normal literary template for posts. I realize that we have a riot of color, fonts, etc. available to us, but if I have to stop and think about what a particular format means I lose some of the enjoyment of the reading. So here goes:

Please pick and use a single font (except as listed below) throughout the life of your posts in the IC thread.

"Speech should be set off like this, in double quotes. Please make sure to end paragraphs before lines of spoken dialogue, and to start new paragraphs after the dialogue. Just like a book. Please use this color - the code is #00FFFF"

Any internalized comments or monologues should be italicized, like so.

Dialogue or information passed in a digital format should use the font=Times New Roman and Color=Light Yellow tags, as I've done here. This includes texts, files, maps, etc. The color code is #FFFACD.

If it's in a language other than English, please set it off in orange. That's the easiest way to distinguish, since otherwise it should look like any other dialogue or internal conversation. The color code is #FF8C00.

Please bold the names of characters or NPCs to make it easier for me to find elements within the posts. Feel free to bold proper nouns if you want such corporations or locations like the Looking Glass etc but its not a requirement - I just need the names.

Posting Conventions (OOC):
I would like everyone to please use Invisible Castle which can be found here. Then copy and paste your dice rolls to the OCC thread please.

Optional Rules Being Used
Learning Metagmagics (Street Magic pg 52)
Learning Echoes (Unwired pg 145)

Whenever you're changing the gear your character is wearing or carrying, please post it here. I will check for the last "Gear Worn/Carried" entry for your character and assume that's what you're wearing / carrying. Same for PAN settings and False ID's. Astral and AR/VR states I'll take from IC posts, unless you explicitly state something here.

In this thread I would like you to answer any of the above questions/concerns. Also feel free to ask questions here or if you prefer more privacy then PM me.

You will get 1 karma a week every Monday starting next week plus additional points rewarded (roleplaying, pushing the story forward, completing a major goal, etc) by me in this thread. Please PM me with any karma expenditures you make. I will ask for updated character sheets from time to time so make sure you have a current copy.

I noticed "speech is blue", and <data is grey,> no?
I assume we link our rolls? 5d6=14

Is it possible to add mouseover text or any sort of inline commentary?

To verify, this layout is no good?:

Strangeglove shouts, "My head is on fire!" then dives into the pool. Surfacing, he scowls at Fenris, "That wasn't funny."

The blue highlighting is bleed over from I assume other threads and their posting guidelines. Are people wanting to color code the spoken words as well?

OK all bumping the thread to the next locale to get the new players introduced then I will follow up with posts about the recon and people reaching out to their contacts after that.

I picked up the blue speech from a few different games because it makes it a lot easier to pick out from text. Also, which color box/color number is it for the commlink gray? Every time I try to find it, it doesn't look quite right. x_x

I like blue speech. It's much easier to differentiate than plain white. Also neon text on dark backgrounds is retro-futuristic.
Mildly prefer grey data over yellow.

If only I could get the blinking cursor...

I will edit the post to include the blue text for speech - I would prefer to keep the tech stuff in the pale yellow.

Here's the layout of the house.

New people - feel free to post your arrival at the location.

All i will be adding to the guidelines and posting structures. I will be adding a section going over what optional rules are being used in my game so please everyone read it over and ask any questions about it - I would like to adopt these guidelines going forward please. Please let me know if I missed any optional rules I missed since most were brought to me by individual players.

Thanks!

I missed something. What is this house we're at?

It's the new "office" your employer provided to the team for your use.

I'm playing Q, a Surged Orc Mystic Adept.

This'll be my first time playing like this so let me know if I need to change anything when I post. For example, when I get to the new safehouse, I'm going to try to astrally perceive; if there are any spirits there I will interact with as an edit after finishing the going inside post.

And is anyone's character going to be there before 8am?

Copperheed--Nope, Cypher will get in around 1 or 2p.

Buddha--I've got a NLJD and tag eraser, and Cypher will scan the area for signals. Any rolls you want tossed out for sweeping the house for bugs? I'll post the IC arrival after Copperheed since his character is getting there early.

Sorry it took so long. I'm getting used to rolling and posting at the same time. I also deleted my original post here by accident.

And I'm having trouble linking to the dice roller at Invis Castle.

Test: link to Invisible Castle

Copperheed--Below the roll, if you copy the BBCode line, it will link correctly. From the first bracketed URL to the end bracketed /URL

Q is waking up at 4 and taking roughly 3 hours, 1 by bus 2 by walking to get to the site. He'll arrive at roughly 8am.

Improved Invisibility (Force 4) roll: Spellcast using power focus 3: 13d6.hits(5)=3 Drain of 3P: 14d6.hits(5)=3 = 0 damage

drop Improved Invisibility spell and retry (Force 4) Spellcast using power focus 3: 13d6.hits(5)=4 Drain of 3P: 14d6.hits(5)=6 = 0 damage

drop Physical Mask of Jason Smith and use Heightened Concentration to negate the concentration penalty of Improved Invisibility.

Q Phys Mask roll (Force 4) roll: Spellcast using power focus 3: 13d6.hits(5)=4 Drain of 3P: 14d6.hits(5)=3 = 0 damage

use Heightened Concentration to negate the concentration penalty of Physical Mask:Q. Still suffering from concentration penalty of Improved Invisibility.

Change latex mask to preset Q appearance.

Astral Sensing: 5d6.hits(5)=2
Is this a glitch: two 1s out of 5 dice?

Normal Perception outside: 10d6.hits(5)=1

Normal Perception inside: 10d6.hits(5)=4

And for people finding Q, roll an Intuition+Counterspell(Illusion) test of threshold 4 for Improved Invisibility first and then an Intuition+Counterspell(Illusion) test of threshold 4 for Physical Mask:Q.

From the Astral, Q reads as a mundane orc. Over coming his Manascape Spell is a Willpower+Counterspell(Illusion) test of threshold 4.

If Counterspelling is used against an unseen spell, the gamemaster, or player if Budda allows it, should make a secret Magic + Intuition (3) Test to determine if (and to what extent) the magician noticed the defense. Comes from SR4 pg176.

Thanks Bishop.

Breeze will be arriving sometimes in the evening, around 6 pm, so I"ll wait a bit for others to post, anyone gonna be arriving after me?

Worn/Carried Gear:

• Armored Vest
• Half-Suit of Form Fit
• SecureTech arm, leg, upper arm, and upper leg casings.
• SecureTech Vitals Protector
• SecureTech Shin Guards
• Forearm Guards
• Smart Area Jammer - Rating 4
• Public Commlink - Novatech Airware with Iris Orb, Hardening 6, Firewall 6 (only connected to vehicle, and then only when I'm riding in public.)
• Public Commlink - Thomas Ferris
• Public Commlink - Scan 4, Edit 4, Browse 4, Encrypt (Ergo) 4
• Public Commlink - Sim module
• Public Commlink - Satellite link
• Non-Public Commlink - Modified Fairlight Caliban
• Non Public Commlink - Muhammd Sal-ileel
• Non Pulbic Commlink - all above at 6, and Armor, ECCM, Command, Edit, Biofeedback Filter, Attack
• Non Public Commlink - Skinlink
• Contact Lenses, Rating 3
• In contacts - Image Enhancement, Rating 3
• In contacts - Image Magnification
• In contacts - Directional Microphone
• AR gloves (full set of finger rings)
• StimPatch, Rating 6
• Earbuds, Rating 3
• In earbuds - Spatial Recognizer
• In earbuds - Audio Enhancements, Rating 3

Just out of curiosity, what would I have to do to get my DNA sequenced/digitized here? Would a medkit work?

Buddha, would you mind editing the updated info into the first post of this thread? It will make it easier to find later on down the road.

Not sure if we the rest of the information is useful but just in case I grab my duffel or hop on the vehicle this is standard for Jon

Worn/Carried
Armored Jacket (fire Resistant, concealed holsters, NonCond)
Fake Sin
Smartlink
2 Medkits
Ammo
explosive rounds

2 Ares Light Fire 70 Silenced
Erika Elite Comlink

Duffel bag
Ares Alpha w/Underbarrel Grenade Launcher/SMartgun Integral Recoil Comp2
HE Grenades

Vehicle
Suzuki Mirage w/ Spoof Chip & Morphing License Plate

UmaroVI done and done - excellent suggestion.

Copperheed great first posting IC and OOC - I just have a few questions and tweaks to make. First when casting spells make sure to throw out what Force you are casting at please since that limits the number of hits that can be applied to that casting. If you are using any foci (power, sustaining, spell, etc) please include a note about that as well. For the thresholds on the spells you have the number of hits set to 5 but only have 4 hits from the casting. Resistance tests vs spell are meet or beat to resist - where is the extra +1 coming from?. As to the glitch question - half or more need to be ones for a glitch - with odd numbers I round up.

JxJxA you would need to see a street doc or stop by a clinic of some sort to get your DNA read. I would allow someone to modify a medkit to get the reading when being used by someone with the Medicine skill.

Lain feel free to post Perception Tests here for the look around at the house.

All Please review the posting guidelines at the beginning of this thread. I would like to adopt them going forward from this week please. Thanks to the players who have already thrown out their gear carried/worn lists for me to see. I will be throwing up posts throughout the day of information trickling in from contacts. I think the physical recon may need to be put off slightly to maintain the timeline since warding the car will take several hours. Are people just going to stay awake, ward the car and start the recon then go to the meeting? Let me know since you may rack up some penalties due to fatigue and lack of sleep.

I think we would ward the car, get some sleep, go to the meeting, possibly get some more sleep, and then do the recon. It lasts for a week minimum, so there's no reason to rush the recon.

BishopMcQ sorry missed your post in the rush of posts. Go ahead and roll to locate nodes and Cypher will find the area extremely clear of RFID tags. If you have any security knowledge skills or surveillance related ones - feel free to roll them as well. Any skill that might intersect with bugging and its counter measures.

Fenris I will use your rolls for the recon - just remind me if I forgot about them when we get to that part of the timeline.

All Did I miss any other questions and/or contacts? Let me know.

Visual Perception
6d6 → [6,3,5,1,1,1] (2succ)

Audio (extra dice from enhanced senses)
8d6 → [1,6,1,4,5,5,3,2] (3 succ)

Smell (extra dice from enhanced senses)
8d6 → [5,5,4,1,4,6,6,5] (5 succ)

Sorry maybe a dumb question do you want us to link to the Invisible castle or just paste the lines?

Lain nope not dumb at all - I would like the actual link please.

@Buddha: Actually, this would be a good time for me to get Zerone's street doc, Dr. Rebecca Huxtable (C:3/L:4), involved. I wrote in her background that she often volunteers at church free clinics, so maybe it could be close to the homeless shelter Zerone is volunteering at right now?

PS-Yes, I watched too much of the Cosby Show...

Budda, I was using threshold +1 to net hits from the entry under Illusions in SR4 pg201, "The observer must generate more hits than the spellcaster to determine that the illusion is not real. If the spell is not completely resisted, the character is fully affected by the illusion."

Then, leading to my error, it counters this in two specific spells: Improved Invisibility, Physical Mask, and Stealth (which I haven't used yet) and seems to counter the general rule with the specific.

Improved Invisibility (SR4 pg201): "Anyone who might perceive the subject must first successfully resist the spell. Simply make one Spellcasting Test and use the hits scored as the threshold for anyone that resists at a later point."

Physical Mask (SR4 pg202): "Anyone who might see through the disguise must first successfully resist the spell. Simply make one Spellcasting Test
and use the hits scored as the threshold for anyone that resists at a later point."

Stealth (SR4 pg202): "Anyone who might hear the subject must first successfully resist the spell. Simply make one Spellcasting Test and use the hits scored as the threshold for anyone that resists at a later point."

There doesn't appear to be a specific counter in Manascape from Digital Grimoire pg17:

False Impression (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Type: M • Range: LOS • Duration: S • DV: (F ÷ 2) – 1
Manascape (Realistic, Multi-Sense, Area)
Type: M • Range: LOS (A) • Duration: S • DV: (F ÷ 2) + 1
These spells create illusions designed to feed false information to the magical senses of passers-by. While it cannot create auras or astral forms where there are none, it can change the impressions gained from Assensing, the Psychometry or Sensing metamagic, the Astral Window spell, the Magic Sense adept power, and other magical senses. False Impression affects a single sustained or quickened spell, aura, astral form, or the like, while Manascape
can affect an entire area, changing the impression of background count, multiple auras, astral forms, etc.

And if an Illusion spell like Camouflage from Street Magic, pg 170, doesn't say it can be resisted, can it be resisted? I figure yes, but its always good to check.

I edited the previous post with both Force ratings and Focus use. I'll put the Sustaining Focus use in with the gear. And am I using Manascape correctly when I modify my existing auras to appear nonexistent or am I not able to nix them and I have to change them to someone or something else's?

Time for me to update my gear list. The last one at the beginning of the OOC thread is pretty old. x_x

Also, I totally forgot to buy a backpack (ARGH!!!). Any chance I can just duck into a store and buy one?

Day-to-Day:
Street clothes
Leather Jacket (Custom look)
Comlink w/ sim module and trodes-Novatech Airwave running Novatech Navi (Response:3, Signal:3, Firewall:4, System:4)
Linguasoft (Rating 4, if in non-English, non-Sperethiel speaking area)
Fake SIN (Rating 4-Zerone Rhomicron)
Pocket Mage Library (Rating 3, written in Sperethiel if possible)
Modified Yamaha Pulsar in concealed holster and 4 loaded spare clips (Extended clip, additional clip, advanced safety electro-shocker, smartgun system, gecko grip)

Running Gear:
(Includes Day-to-Day gear, except Fake SIN)
[Backpack -250 nuyen]
Modified Form-Fitting Full Body Suit Armor (Skinlink, Biomonitor, Fire Resistant 2, Insulation 2, Nonconductivity 2)
Power Focus Force 3 (wicked-looking elven pendant carved with Sperethiel chants, looks like something inspired by the Path of the Wheel)
Sustaining Focus(Health) Force 4 (small prayer box pendant)
Sustaining Focus(Health) Force 3 ( Jesus fish pendant with the Greek letters Iota, Chi, Theta, Upsilion, Sigma)
Counterspelling Focus Force 3 (silver crucifix pendant)
Goggles Rating 6 (Smartlink, Vis Enh 3, Ultrasound, Thermographic)
Earbuds Rating 3 (Audio Enh 2, Spatial Recognizer)
Medkit Rating 6 and spare medkit supplies
Survival Kit
Flashlight

Copperheed My first question is what version of the main book are you using - when I looked at the most updated and recent (SR4 20th Anniversary)
the page you referenced was talking about Mentor Spirits so I suspect that might be the 1st problem. Page 183 (I am putting this here so you can look it up not to beat you down with it - I am not wanting to come across as that type of GM) has the important line : The caster must generate at least 1 net hit on the Opposed Test for the spell to succeed. Even if a spell doesn't include a line about being resisted or the exact effects of being resisted this mechanic is in play. Manascape changes the impressions or information gained from magical senses but it does not remove them. So you could make your high Force Health spell give the false read it was a Detection spell cast at a low Force assuming the one reading the aura did not successfully resist the spell. Does that make sense?

Lain I just noticed you had non-conductive applied to your concealed holsters - could you explain that please? I am only checking - I haven't read every book cover to cover so want to make sure what piece of gear it is and how it works in the context of the game. Thanks!

JxJxA Sounds reasonable to me - post away.