I can probably see you then can you describe your icon for an ic post? I'm a drackoform made up of stellar matter, galaxies etc...

Will post my actions for ip3 (or should that be 4 ifwe get in on 3?!?) once I've checked some rules...

@Ghost

Think Bene Geserit from dune with the voice. Happy to let you have the gag removed quickly with nimble fingers: To be honest the mind control was the main mechanism they had to control you.

The good news for you is that the guards actually fear and hate Spirit Bane, so the situational modifier is +3 to their defence because they are terrified of him, and -3 because they hate him. They also have the willpower of a wet paper bag: 1 and 2 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3061717/ That will be good enough for them to take one or two potshots before they work out what is going on. As they only have 1 IP at the moment (they have just taken their combat drugs, but they don't kick in until next round) they will shoot next round.

@Mandala

Correct. You can hear the sound of automatic fire and Lean'drea's magical voice (which you recognise). Spirit Bane is well named. Of all the people that should face him...it isn't you. He will have you for breakfast (literally). Angel is in the sensory deprivation tank at the moment. The drone that was shooting you has stopped (it's run out of ammo after 3 burst)

@Sephiroth
The Major is meant to be deadly and I advertised the minigun early, and also announced that it was unlikely that you would survive him. Your knocking him over has made a noticeable difference. I expected you to run away from the Major, but as long as you survive I think this will work out better for you.

He is very arrogant however, and is somewhat foolishly using a narrow burst (if you dodge this he will change his mind next go). This means that you get your dodge (the -14 is coming next go). I note with your seven successes you get the hell out of there. The concealment is unlikely to help unless you can break line of sight (the Major has mucho cyberware for optimising his perception skill: eyes, attention co-processors, genetics...). However if you can break line of sight it will help a lot.

The cadarvarmen are arriving next combat round, and will be going berserk on the guard's in the doorway.
The major is firing from the ground (and took a load of minus's - more than in the book because I think the gyro mount will be less helpful)

@Edana
Yes. It adds 2 to all Fading, compiling, use of complex forms as stated in the page you reference. Make the most of it!

@General
I am sorry this round has taken a long time, but a lot happened: The Major arrived, Angel and Lean'drea arrived, Angel and Ryl are successfully hacking the Major, Spike is engaging the Major in cybercombat, Alyena is dealing with their spirits, Fearghas has dealt a truely impressive shock and awe attack, and survived the initial counter attack. Bjeorn had made the escape tunnel so was in the wrong place for the fight, but has joined in now.

Many people are up to the end of the round, but for others we are only up to the start of IP3. The following is my understanding:
Players

• Alyena: Is dealing with the spirits, is up to IP 2, her pet spirit is dealing with the Stealthy Master Sergeant
• Bjeorn: Jumped down into the room on IP 2, and will be charging on 3
• Fearghas: Dodged and summoned on IP 2, gets to go before the Major on IP3.
• Mandala: Has distracted Spirit Bane with his ex-friend Sanguine, is in the room with Angel, and is mostly free to do whatever he wants
• Lean'drea: Has freed herself, and has commanded the troops with her to attack Spirit Bane. Can do what she wants on IP 3
• Marduk: Is in room 27a, but astrally projecting via magical tac net into the store room, and is mana bolting the Major. Can do what he wants on IP 3
• Angel: Is busy hacking into the Major, and will have access on IP 5
• Ryl: Is busy hacking into the Major, and will have access on IP 3

Allies

• Jonathan: Is fighting the Major in cybercombat, has nuked the tacnet on IP 2, so on IP 3 it will give -4 bonus, and will be ignored after this round
• Spike: Is fighting the Major in cybercombat, has activated Castelling on Ryl
• Zero: Is being mysteriously stealthy and doing something to the Surface to Air missile system
• Gremlin: Is shooting bullets at the guards, and Tasers at Lean'drea's guards

Bad guys

• Cadarver men arrive next round and will attack anything they see. The Major's guards are in the doorway to the storeroom
• The Major is flat on his ass, and will be shooting at Fearghas again on IP 3
• The Major's guards have all got up to their knees (simple action), and are shooting at Gremlin's drones.
• Spirit Bane on IP 1 killed Sanguine, on IP 2 put him into a spirit prison, and has an action on IP 3.

I am not quite sure of the initiatives that people have, and its hard work scanning previous posts. I think it is this important order, so if I am wrong tell me:
Store room: Fearghas, Major, Alyena, Bjeorn, Marduk
Upstairs: Spirit bane, Lean'drea

@ Fearghas
IP 3 shot from the Major
Well the Major is not so impressive with the tacnet causing him problems, and sitting and shooting. I'm assuming you dived behind the shelfs, and giving you a pretty good cover bonus (he can still see you through the shelves, but you have concealment, so I think -4 is fair). He is doing a wide burst now, so you get the -14 to your dodge. I'll also give you 2 points of armour from the shelves.

2 successes. Base damage is 6P AP -1. Assuming you don't get any successes, that's 8P AP-1.

Can you write this up IC?

Your spirit only gets two IPs this round, but I am happy for it to be in charge of the forklift. Is is narratively necessary, the forklift can go from zero to full power at the press of a switch.

@Lean'drea
I made an error, and you and gremlin are the only ones moving on IP 3 (Spirit Bane is one of those 2 IPs a round kind of people).
Gremlin: Tasers at the guard's: 2 successes, one of the guard's goes down spasming, the other one sees the Taser darts spang of his armour

Can you write this up IC as you do whatever you want to do on IP 3

@Alyena
The remaining spirit is very cross with you and smacks you for 5 successes in astral combat, Base damage 3P

@General
Those of you watching with astral vision will realise that the counterspelling for half the guards has gone down. The Major's spell defence is still up, as is the defence on those guarding and shooting out of the door.

I already did my roll for IP3 manabolt on Major Pain in ze ass.

Thanks Sabs: thats why I posted my summary, its quite challenging keeping track of 8.

I'll finish this round in the next couple of days.

Yeah, I know the pickle into which I put Mandala. Fortunately, Sanguine delayed him a bit, Angel is at least awake now, and Mandala can hear gunfire and Lean'drea's voice. So Spirit Bane is now being occupied. Self-sacrifice is no longer needed! Yay!

I'll wait till Lean'drea acts IC before Mandala reacts to hearing her voice.

Re-edited my IC post to put the command back in since the gag got removed quickly. Sadly that'll be her only action this combat turn as she relies on spells for multiple IP, not ware or adept powers, and I doubt she ever got a chance to cast an improved reflexes spell while hanging out in the mind control pillory. Next turn may be spent doing that along with running to some cover so as not to get hit by 1) guards 2) Spirit Bane 3) drone crossfire. She has no idea who's side the drones are even on after all. I mean, not the guards' as they're firing at each other, but that doesn't make them on her side, and friendly fire still hurts just like the unfriendly kind.

In the glorious internet tradition, I shall just steal a picture from DeviantArt to save typing .
Small version
Original

(Generally, youngish angel. She also currently would have her knight templar sprite following her around, and that doesn't even have stealth at all.)


Oh, very nice. Do you mind if I go back and add the extra dice to a couple rolls? The only one that's really likely to make any difference is the hacking, since a single extra success on either of the first 2 rolls would have meant getting into the system in 2 IP's instead of 3. Also means that I can thread shield to 9 for 'free' on login instead of 8.


Shouldn't that be IP 4 for Angel? (IP 1 = Compile sprite, IP 2-4 Hacking, though if you let me add the resonance well dice, it might shave an IP off that). I'm assuming you're listing the pass on which we complete the hacking, which we won't actually have an action on since hacking takes the complex action for the pass.

Also, I'm assuming that as part of 'Guard me', Angel's paladin sprite would be using Castling on her.

Laying the smack down on the Major. With some luck he will be too busy to shoot other people

IP3 and IP4. 8 and 6 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3061989/. I forgot the prone and charging modifierhttp://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3061994/
Base damage 11P

wait? you jumped back down through the hole into the room being sprayed by a minigun?

*blinks*

Ok, Ryl logs on in IP3 and in IP4 (assuming I live that long!) I will take a -1 response hit (initiative down to 28!) to load my agent Garyn who will hopefully help me from getting stomped...I'll still do this even if Angel appears in IP3 too as I can guess but don't know whether she's a friend or foe without some sort of analyze which I haven't got time for!

Rt6
+Attack (Targetting, Armour Piercing 3)
+Analyze
+Armour
+Cascading 3 (I suspect this is more useful than expert offense as I'm guessing the IC is a higher rt than all my programs )

Then I wait for round 2 as I don't have a 5th IP Fearghas, try and live that long and we'll nail that sucker!

@Bjeorn
You lucky person. Without that charge and prone bonus you would have missed. With it you hit both times
The Major's defence: 7 and 5 successes
His soak 11 and 5 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3061999/

He sneers at the love tap from your first, but the second is much more respectable

@Edana

Go back and tweak the results, and let me know if there is any difference (just roll the 2 die, don't reroll the whole lot).
You are correct that you have IP 5 busy (I had mentally marked it off, but I note that you were cancelling the alert, and I have advised you not to do that.)
Yes the sprite will be castelling for you.

@Aria
OK Cybercombat with the black IC.
They see you on IP3, and the good news for you is that they only have 1 attack this round. The even better news is that only one guard saw you, so he will attack. The others are aware of you next round.
Blackhammer on IP3: 4 successes. Obviously the guard was taken by surprise If you get hit at all you are jammed in that node, otherwise if you want you can jump into the next node (the whipping yard), or stay and deal with the IC: your choice.

Bjeorn stretchs. I need a good shower.

Pain is the natures way of telling you you are alive

Besides better me than Fearghas

Course now Bjeorn is at point blank with a minigun

Speaking of point blank with a minigun.
Taka taka taka, narrow burst, 3 successes so thats 23P AP -1

Ouch

Dodge dodge dodge!
Invisible castle is not working for me...grr I'll post when it is

One interesting thing here is how the minus's are adding up. If the Major was standing, his tacnet was working, and he wasn't in melee combat, it would be a different experience (15 more die). I cannot remember the last time I was that crippled.


OK Dodging: 5 successes Bjeorn is fast for a such a big man!

I may regret this but I'm not going full defense so response+firewall (not yet reduced by Agent) = 12D = 3 hits so I may as well roll edge finally = 4 more hits so he/it misses by a mile

Edge 2/3

Ok, I got that 1 Hit on IP 2. So that should put me in the node on IP3, with actions on IP 4 & 5. I'll wait to declare those until I see how the IC react to my very-not-stealthy self .

I'm just going to leave the rest of the rolls as-is, since I don't think any of them can have a meaningful change with 2 dice added, but I'll definitely remember it from this point on. I'll edit my previous post to reflect this change so it's all in one place.

Did you remember the Magic reduction from the Astral Hazing, as well as the fact that the max level in any adept power = your Magic (aka Combat Sense and Critical Strike would be at 6, not 7)? That goes for your melee attack as well as dodge.

Look, I just found a double agent!

Doh, yet again I forgot the hot SIM bonus D Does PuSHed and encephalon count too (I would think not but yo never know...?!?). If they are then I should save my edge (again) and roll those instead

PuSHeD and Encephalon II totally count

PuSHeD and Encephalon shouldn't count, since Response+Firewall isn't a Logic-linked or Cracking/Electronics test. You could maybe argue it would apply to a full defense, since that adds the Hacking skill.

oh, I wass thinking it should add cybercombat skill. But yeah, Response+firewall should be just that.

Yeah, matrix defense is kind of lame that way.

@Aria: So I rolled Matrix perception to see if I'd notice you when I logged on, since you're running stealth. Normally it'd be an opposed test, but: LOL 11 hits, I don't think it really matters if you roll, unless you really really don't want Angel to see you . (Figures that the roll I care the least about has a nearly 2/3 success rate.)

Will stick with my roll as is...will teach me to remember what I'm doing - best way to learn the hacking stuff is by making plenty of mistakes

Is matrix stealth an opposed roll or is it simply against my stealth rt of 7?!? I got some good stealth rolls but I'm not sure they were better than 11! The point is moot as I really don't want to fight 4 IC with just my agent and myself so welcome you seeing me

it's an opposed roll

hacking+stealth vs computer+analyze

Yeah, I was just commenting that with 11 hits on perception it'd be extraordinarily unlikely I wouldn't see Ryl.

You don't know! He could have 33dice

Hacking(6)+specstealth(2)+Stealth(7)+ci(1)+pushed(1)+encephalon(2)+optimizations
tealth(1).. okay thats' only 20 dice.

They would apply if you did a full defense though

Also, this is why it is a good idea to have a list of common DPs on your character sheet that you can reference, especially for things that have lots of small modifiers such as matrix (pushed, enchephelon, VR, math SPU, analytical mind, etc)

So, no RAW -14 minigun modifier for me, then? Really, you needn't worry about the Major having a small amount of dice to hit. All he needs to do is get a lucky roll and get more successes than I do, and Fearghas will crumple like paper.


My original intention for the spirit was to drive them berserk while they were still on the 2nd or at least 1st floor, so that they would go ballistic on the Aztech troops on those floors and alleviate some of the pressure on us.





My agent will be the one driving the forklift, I don't have enough services to do what I wanted with the spirit.

I must say, I am enjoying this high-risk chess game of sorts with you/Nopaltzin. I hope I'm not coming across as a powergamer or anything, I'm just trying to put a lot of thought into and consider all of my options as much as possible so I can outwit the Major and actually survive. Here's another tactical thought of mine for you: the way I understand a wide machine gun burst to work in real life is that you're spraying bullets in basically a pie slice sort of shape extending from the barrel, with the rough depth of that slice extending from the waist to about head level. This sort of burst would be incredibly difficult to avoid simply because you're in such a large area that's being filled with bullets, of course. However, it seems like that would only hold true for normal ground-bound people, who are largely limited to fighting in 2 dimensions. It seems to me like someone with the ability to levitate/fly would go far in avoiding the burst fire by just propelling themselves up to the ceiling or whatever to get themselves out of that torso-level pie slice area. The shooter himself could of course try to turn the pie slice area of his wide burst into a 3D cone to counteract this, but it seems to me like that would still make avoiding the bullets somewhat easier just because the bullets are now spread out over a larger volume. I don't exactly explain things clearly sometimes; do you get what I'm trying to say? What are your thoughts on this?

I will post for the entire combat turn once we get everything figured out.

?
Hey, if we're going to kill that guy I'd prefer we did it without conveniently forgetting the thing that makes CZ's so terrifying for Awakened in particular. That wouldn't be nearly as impressive a victory.

Should be a cone anyway since people would just drop to the ground otherwise. That said, I'm sure most bursts don't consider the ability to move up very much.

Isn't that one of the safest things to do when under fire and out in the open anyway (other than find cover, obviously)?

Yeah, but that is more by virtue of being better than standing in the middle of the cone than the floor being exceptionally safe.

@Aria

• Good time to spend edge: you are not locked into the node, so can move if you want.
• PuShEd and encephalon add to skills. For some reason best known to the game designers, cybercombat defense is not a skill.
• Matrix stealth has two uses. When you log in with an illicit hack (probing or hacking on the fly) the value of stealth is the target for the computer system you are hacking to see you. In all other circumstances (I think) its an opposed roll

@Edana
The IC went for Ryl, so feel free to act on IP 4

@Sephiroth

• Thanks for the reminder about astral hazing. Bjeorn forgot: I'll go through with him tonight the impact. A quick scan of his sheet says that he can get 4 pts without changing much. The Melee attack won't change, but the the dodge and damage will be down 1 die / 1pt.
• No minigun for you. And the Major's arrogance got him again. Never mind, next shot on Bjeorn will not be so wusy. It is a very scary weapon.
• I didn't appreciate your plan for the Cadarvermen, but there are hardly any troops left on the 1st and 2nd floor: they are almost all in the basement. The only ones left are in the machine gun nests. If the Cadarvermen charge the nests they will be cut down like dogs (miniguns do that). I'd suggest the flank the guards next round.
• I note its your agent driving the forklift: is this a Matrix agent, if so it needs to hack on the fly. The device rating is 3.
• I'm enjoying the chess game too. Usually when a deploy an NPC (needlessly powerful character) with stats, the NPC gets wiped so fast I can hardly blink. I am pleased with his resiliance
• 3D I feel would give you a big advantage for things like suppressing fire when there are a load of people being suppressed. Sadly I feel 3D makes hardly any difference if you are the only target. I'd give you 3 more die for the surprise of the thing, but that would only count for one attack. If this seems mean, I'm happy for the other rules experts to chip in.

@General
If you are waiting for information on anything ask it again, I think I am up to date. This is quite a difficult and dangerous fight, so I am trying to make sure that its fair and everyone gets their goes. I believe Alyena, Fearghas and Edana still have options in the fight and the Major has a matrix action on IP5. Everyone else I think is up to date.

Major Nopaltzin now has his go in Cybercombat. Choices choices. Jonathan and Spike or Ryl and Angel.

Well he is an emotion processing engine, and his main emotion is hatred so I guess its Jonathan.

Blackhammer with hideous madness causing psychotropic unpleasantness: No!!!!!!!!! 2 successes. I'm not going to bother rolling to dodge that

Well maybe he's distracted.

2 more actions for Jonathan (ignore the last roll) 5 and 7 successes
The Major's defence 2 and 6
Nett successes 3 and 1, so damage 11 and 9
The Major's soak 7 and 5
4 damage from each...Sparks are starting to fly and there is static around his Icon

While we wait for Angel to kill all four pieces of IC in IP5 can I check something:

I am assuming that an Agent can't be preloaded with a 'defend me' order so I will have to spend a precious action in IP1 otherwise he'll sit there like a lemon?!?

Given that matrix actions mostly seem to be complex ones I'll just have to hope I can live through another round of attacks

...oh, and I miscounted my programs so Garyn can be running another one, I'll make that Expert Offense for now

I don't see why it couldn't be pre-loaded with a defend me order. At the very least it should automatically start defending you if you are attacked or you attack something.

Also, expert offense is a program option and so is always active on whatever program it is a part of and doesn't take up any processing speed or agent load or anything like that.

Well I'd be happy with that interpretation...Seth?!?

Expert offense is an agent autosoft so I assume it is a program 'slot' like anything else?!?

Oops, sorry, you're right, they are autosofts and so would count against the program load. It's in the same section as all the program options, so forgot it wasn't one as well.

Agents can be configured to respond to message inputs since they have their own 'brain'. As long as you keep it short, messaging in the matrix is a free action, so I don't see why you couldn't have a preconfigured response to something like "Save me, save me. Hurt them, hurt them." .



I'll try to get a response done here shortly for my actions, but I have a couple things I need to take care of at work, and then the joy of usability lab in less than an hour, so I might not be able to get to it until later today.

*ahem* There's the small matter of Spirit Bane and his buddies still on the first floor, where the cadavermen were last mapped. (see map pyramidstartround17)

Whee, 20 minutes, then back to the lab. Going to get the plan and rolls out of the way, IC post will probably have to wait.

Angel IP 4:

1. Drop Threading on Shield
2. Thread Attack (7 Hits) to Attack 11 (Area 4, Targeting)
3. Resist Fading 7P (7 Hits) = No damage
4. Attack all 4 IC (4 Hits), 11 base damage (Meh on that attack roll)
5. Thread Shield to 8 (16, +2 Resonance Well, -4 Sustaining, buy 3 hits).
6. 3S Fading (20d6 buys 5 hits) = No damage

So, all 4 of the IC get to make separate defense rolls vs 4 hits. If they don't avoid the damage is 11 + net hits.

Notes

@General
Very hectic day today: we were striping work of all its assetts, so I had to shift 170 monitors, and around 50 computers. Who needs the Gym!

@Aria

It will auto defend you I think. At the very worst I think its a free action to yell help, and you have multi-tasking
Expert Offense...help...what is that... If its an autosoft it uses up a program slot

@Pbangarth / Fearghas
At the start of round 15see here the Cadarver men passed spirit bane. They are now opposite the barracks on the ground floor. Your point is fully correct, it would be possible to drag them upstairs and attack spirit bane, or it would be possible to drag them downstairs to attack the main body of troops. I don't mind which so let me know and at the start of round 18 they will be there!

@Edana
Look into this if you are interested in Usability. Its the best I've seen since "The Inmates are Running the Asylum", which I also recommend strongly.

I am still new to GMing Technomancer's so you are likely to get more rules hassle than anyone else. Don't worry about it, I suspect I will be wrong about half the time.

• Complex forms can only be given options up to half their rating. So the most you can start with is three options.(i.e. Area 2, Targetting). You can increase options with threading. but they count against your 7 hits.
• Don't forget as well that with Area you need to subtract one die for each defender after the first
• When in one IP of combat you have to decide what is threaded for that IP of combat (combat doesn't actually take place as "I hit you...then you hit me" what happens is that there is a flurry of fighting, and the initiative rules determine who hits first). So if you want to thread for attack and for shield, you will have to sustain them both (because of a subtlety in the rules you don't get penalised for the rolls involving the skill being used. If you want both then you are at -2 for the attack and the defence (but not fading).

I suspect I made some mistakes in that...so I would appreciate some help for the other rules gurus.

Anyway don't bother adjusting your die rolls: these black IC are not wussy and you miss them all! Mu ha ha http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3063746/ They cannot respond until IP 1 next round

About that parry I saw in my future!

Actually have 12 dice to parry (I forgot I have 2 extra for dealing with icky spirits), so here goes

5 successes! Just exactly what was needed.

Hopefully that spirit is going down next round and with it some more of the guard's spirit protection.
Sadly I'm betting the Major's protection is from a different source, but I can still hope

I'm only peripherally interested in usability as a 'thing', it's useful for certain, but it's definitely not my area of expertise. I'm actually just in the observation group for a redesign that's being worked on. Seeing how people use stuff is both interesting and frustrating sometimes .

As far as game stuff: My understanding of program options is that the number of options is limited by the program, not the rating of those options. So (Area 3, Targeting) is 2 options not 4, which is all I can put on a CF of rating 5. I did count off a success on threading to move the Area 3 to Area 4, and included a -3 for having 4 targets.

The bit about threading everything per pass at the start is fine, I'll do it that way from now on, I wasn't certain how you wanted that handled. In this case, even with keeping the Shield threaded, I shorted myself a die, since I forgot to add the bonuses from PuSHeD and Encephalon to the attack, so it's all good. I'm assuming I'm still ok with 'drop shield', 'thread attack', 'thread shield' sequence as long as I do the whole block of threads before rolling any attacks or other actions? (Essentially getting me a favorable position to thread the CF I want most, at the expense of the subsequent CFs, since I'll lose dice rethreading that. It's moot for this combat turn since I doubt I'll be dropping or threading anything else anyway until the 4 IC are taken care of.) Let me know if you want me to go ahead and do IP 5 as well, or if the Major goes before me on that pass.

I will say it's sort of painful having no prep time to register sprites or build widgets, since I could offset sustaining penalties with either of them .

I am afraid that it's the sum of the ratings, not the count of the programs. I may be wrong, but that's how I am running it. I agree with your comment about sprites is valid, but that's why its costs BP to start the game with them.

'drop shield', 'thread attack', 'thread shield' sounds like a faff, but as long as you do it before the attack sequence (any exchange of blows) I am happy. Go do IP 5. The Major tried and failed (he's not having a good day)

Alyena reminded me that I haven't rolled for Master Sergeatnt Huicton's resistance to the stun ball her spirit threw at it. He was not very very impressive: 0 successes

This is where the Master Sergeant starts making ZZZZ noises.