Hi. Is there any space for another player? In real life I am Seth's son.

If there is space, what sort of character would you like me to play?

Sucks to be Captain Hacker

Yeah, Captain Hacker is having a BAD day.

Always room for more! You could easily play one of the hard shell soldiers with Gash if you wanted (you could rename one or use the one i've given them already) ...it would be easy enough to fit more or less any character on the plane with him though so what are your favourite character types?...

Do we have space for Big Fella? I think Captain Hacker would be ... challenging ... to play. Any ideas for what we need?

Check above

I know it's frustrating to not be able to 'cure' him but I kinda want you lot in charge of the mission. The online data Dahlia finds suggests he might well need long term psychological treatment! Don't worry, there will be plenty more for her to do in the next few seconds

I'm in the process of working up a 3D model of the tower to help you lot visualise where everything is...will upload it some time during next week hopefully...

We must be in the same time zone...time stamps so close

Thank you for invite . can I be a hard shell sniper?

What is the max availability on my weapons and armour?

Yes you can but just bear in mind that most of the action will be indoors from now on (although it's an indoors with fairly large spaces...), things could get messy if you face off against Ice , will try and minimise PvP I think otherwise PCs could end up needing a new character very quickly...there are plenty of NPC targets that it shouldn't be a problem until near the end of the mission

Character gen is normal 400BPs with normal availabilities so you'll need restricted gear quality for the milspec armour etc (and I'd prefer light or med rather than heavy otherwise the opposition might need to call out some really big guns themselves...). You get access to TacNet 4 for 'free' and if I'm feeling very nice I might give you some wizzy ammo for whatever weapon you choose (and possibly some other kit)...will have to see, don't want to unbalance things for everyone else

Any more questions let me know...

OK thanks I will post a character soon.

lol.

"Room clearing plan alpha 7" I propose means: "invisible assassins in every room. Start with a grenade or two. and fill the room with suppressing fire even if you cannot see anything". Structurally speaking its not likely to do the tower much good, but its not very good for those invisible assassins either .

Its interesting that I haven't played much with background count, and hadn't realised how bad it is for magicians: I will have to make more use of it future For example that level 2 power focus isn't working.

When I join the heavy squad:

• Are the spirits of the same aspect as the background count IMO (i.e. toxic/radiation spirits etc would probably be, while elements and sprits of X probably wouldn't be
• How many spirits are there, and how clumped are the troops?
• Are any of the troops dead or downed?

So if I make it Rt 4 then it'll cancel the effect on the background count?!? That's what I was aiming fr...and yes, it is aspected so expect NASTY opposition

At the Heavies:

There are 7-8 toxic spirits dragging Dozer back towards the river
Dozer has the Astral Hazing flaw so your magic will be further reduced near him...the toxic spirits seem to be enjoying it although they are also weakened as per usual rules
They don't appear to have noticed the other 3 who are firing at them (to little effect)

@Sabs, not that I want to contradict your IC post too much but the Nimrod will be naff all use against spirits! It might be more use against the minigun emplacements before they demolish your rotadrones...

Thanks for the power focus upgrade: it offsets about 1/4 of the pain which is probably what you are after. (By the way that wasn't a whine about background count, I think its an excellent game mechanism, and provides a good reason why this game isn't called magic-run. I think more GMs should use it).

I'm just checking the situation is as follows.

I am assuming the toxic spirits are crazy unpleasant, so rating 6..8. If they are more than rating 8 I am going to go into a fetal ball for a few minutes!

The toxic stuff buffs them, but not when near dozer. When near dozer their force (and hence stats and powers, but not skills) are reduced by 4. Critically for Dozer's well being, their immunity to normal weapons is reduced to 4..10

I am assuming that dozer isn't on the point of death and is still struggling (my search fu on this thread failed me...) With a name like that in the heavy squad, he's probably in crazy hard armour.

This is the rational behind my plan therefore is to instruct one member of the heavy squad to throw a single grenade at dozer. The rest to fire narrow bursts at the spirits. By my best guess, the spirits will have a body of around 4..6, immunity to normal weapons 4..10. I predict the spirits are about to be toasted. If they move away from dozer ( I guess he hasn't got much essence, so the radius of hazing will be around two metres or less) then the heavy squad is in trouble again.

I hope you can see my face of delight through the internet.

Its nice to see a GM who take a pleasure in his work

Plan noted...will try and get an IC post up beginning of next week

I think "friend Dozer" might be a bit off though, with astral hazing even mundanes will find it difficult to like him! It's why the toxic spirits are having a party!!!

No problem I will tweak it a bit.

Well, and I just sent one of the Nimrods to come help. Never under estimate aerial firepower

Spirits are grim. But once you get very heavy guns in there they melt away as though they had never been there. I once had a force 7 spirits summoned (I normally only do 4s and 5s as force 7 can kill you if it goes wrong). It got hit by a troll with an panther assault cannon. 9P AP -5, 5 nett successes. It died on the first bullet, never mind once you start doing bursts.

Here is my first draft of a hard shell archer. Archer = spirits no more

I still have some equipment to buy (mostly grenades, military backpack, smartpouches and stuff), but I though I would put this draft up for comment to see if its the kind of hard shell you are happy with.

If you want to reduce the value of armour or weapons, I can always tweak it a bit.

Joshua the spirit suppressor

Hi Big Fella, concept is fine (although you are a long way from the bogs of Ireland and a bow, in a spec ops unit?!?!)

Couple of concerns though:
1. Logic 1 (from SR4A)

Might be worth dropping will a point and at least getting logic 2? Otherwise a TacNet 4 will certainly count as 'confusing' !
2. Lack of any firearms skill at all...you a very specialised!
3. Lack of any sort of infiltration skill...they are going to know you're coming...!
4. Is it heavy milspec armour (which would have higher ballistic / impact rts) or light?
5. I think 'day job' is a bit of a given...perhaps you'd swap it for a mild addiction or something?

Anyway, a few things to think about, other than that, welcome on board the flight!

1. Logic: Dropped a point of body, took a point of logic
2. Lack of any firearms skill: I hope this works: I have blades for up close, and a hideous bow for ranged
3. Lack of any sort of infiltration skill...they are going to know you're coming... Its fair. But thats why I am with the assault squad!
4. Is it heavy milspec armour (which would have higher ballistic / impact rts) or light? Its Heavy milspec armour
5. I think 'day job' is a bit of a given...perhaps you'd swap it for a mild addiction or something? Done.

Now we just need to make sure we can fit you and that damn big bow on the plane

Well just don't be surprised if lots of people shoot at you...you're a damn big target! Rules check, does knockdown work on Agi these days (away from books)? You'd better hope 1 Agi doesn't come back to bite you

Could we have a bit of basic background please? Couple of paragraphs would be great

Ok, awards so far (up to post 107 - 24th Jan):

Sabs 9 karma & 22500¥
Klink 8 karma & 10000¥
AStar 4 karma & 10000¥
J. 4 karma & 10000¥
Seth 1 karma & 2500¥
Big Fella 0 karma (yet)

Retired:
Branmac 1 karma & 2500¥

Karma and cash can be spent mid mission! This can be rationalised so don't worry about getting new/better skills on the go

As a reward for everyone's dedicated posting I'm considering an amendment to the reward scheme (although this would take you out of sync with the 2072 thread which was part of my original pitch...the only person this is likely to dramatically affect is AStar and Dahlia so PM me if you want to arrange it differently). Provided you are happy with it I will give an award for each two posts per week to a max of 3 (ie, 1 karma for post 1-2, 2 for 3-4...etc)

Karma good. Enjoying the game though: so the karma is just the icing on the cake.

Aria: I want to retroactively have spent some of that 22k

I want, built into my horseman a personalized Nexus.

Sticks Pimped Nexus
Response: 6
Signal: 6
System: 6
Firewall: 6 (no rules for buying higher than that, or I would)

Processor Limit: 15
Persona Limit: 5

Cost: 13500

I want to spent 2 karma to pick up: Hacking on the Fly as a specialty for my Electronic Warfare.

This effects my post, so if you can get back to me asap ) I'll put up my IC post.

Ice'll be spending his 4 karma to specialize his perception to visual and his infiltration to urban

Can I spend some of my money to have one of my associates toss me a magazine or two of AV or APDS ammunition?

You probably can

Bastard

OK I am eating drain here, but its looking a scary situation:

• Mana static raises the background count, 1 point a round for 2 rounds. This makes this place just as unpleasant to them as it does to me
• A spirit zapper (force 4..the best I can do sadly due to the background count) is a barrier ( just inside the mana static if I can wing it) that keep spirits and spirit powers out. They can attack it but...I hope that they are weakened by the second spell which is just outside it.

Legundo and I are back to back on the astral inside the two defensive spells, tempting the spirits to come and play. If they come into the mana static area I will blast them with slay spirits. If they break the spirit zapper, then Legundo and I will move to astral combat. Legundo is under orders to retreat if he gets hurt badly.

Two requests:

• I would hope that my biomonitor back on the incoming transport is registering problems and some nice first aider is going to help out! Normally I would like to hooked into a remotely operating medikit...but perhaps not in this mission: those technomancers are scary!
• Could you tell me how high I would have to go for the background count to diminish or vanish?

That's all fine, I assume the nexus will fit in the vehicle (no real rules for size as far as I'm aware?!?). Karma's fine too

Karma is fine...I'm not so sure on the ammo...your AP is already -5 with EX!!! Let me have a think about it...

It should fit.
nexus aren't that big.

It doesn't change my course of action either way, so if it's too much, I'll hold off and hope we find some ammo caches later when the drek's hit the fan.

Here is my first stab at Joshua's life story:

Joshua started life in the mountains of Tir Na Nog, when at the tender age of 8 he was kidnapped by Aztechnology corporate goons, taken to the depths of the Amazonian jungle and experimented on as part of their Anti-Thaumaturgical Division.

Joshua's high willpower (for a Fomori) and mental stability lead them to beleive that he was an ideal candidate for a cyber-zombie. As the long and complicated rituals began an operation of the elite mercenary unit known as Deep Watch interupted it with extreme prejudice. Two of the blood mages in Dunkelzahn's were present for the ritual, and Deep Watch wanted to claim the bounty! Unfortunately for them, the blood mages got away, although in all other ways the operation was a sucess.

Joshua was unemployed, and mostly unemployable. Deep Watch recruited him, and haven't regretted the decision. Joshua finds it hard to make friends, but the intense camaradrie caused by fighting makes Deep Watch the only family he can remember.

Ok, the fun really starts here

We will be bouncing between combat and non combat time from now on but to save on rolls can I have an initiative roll from each of you that we will keep for the remainder of the game. You may re-roll at the beginning of a new encounter if you really want to but otherwise we can keep book keeping to a minimum.

Sticks Initiative: 12d6=2 5 5 1 6 6 2 3 5 2 2 3 (5 hits) = 17 with 4 IP

Armored: 13d6.hits(5) → [1,3,2,6,6,1,1,1,3,3,1,3,2] = (2) successes = 15 initiative, 3 IPs

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2857568/

This is full VR initiative? I guess you're operating your drones from inside VR still even though you'll be out and about?!?

Yup
I can drive my horseman from VR
AND it has a pilot.
Besides, I'm inside a fully armored cocoon that's attached to my horseman.

I can control it just like any other drone, I just happened to be hardwired to it.

remember, paraplegic with asthma

12d6.hits(5)=5: Initiative 17, 3 IPs

First initiative pass:
Targeting the machinegunner if possible, if not, the first troop that makes his helmet available to me.

6 agility + 8 long arms +2 improved ability +1 aim + 2 smartlink - 2 for called shot (head) = 17 dice

17d6.hits(5)=7

7 hits, the EX-Explosive round is -5 AP including the rifle, and has a base damage of 10P + 2 for the called shot = 12P

sigh, I wish you were on our side.

Thank god I'm in a rigger cocoon (enhanced)

Why do you think I wanted the sabot or HEAT rounds for this rifle?

Yeah, 24 hardened armor is tough to beat.

Does that include the drone, or just the cocoon?

4 from the horseman, 20 from the cocoon

and the cocoon counts as a barrier so you get -6 to hit.

But there's max armour on a drone based on its body...(I think), can you check?