Atropos, you don't have to take -2 for firing from cover. In my mind, that's more about firing from a contorted position behind a corner or something else that would obstruct your movement or range of vision. Plus, there's a +1 bonus for Toothy being a large (Body 8+) target.

Ellesar: 3 original hits + 1 HIT from extra dice = 4 HITS
Toothy dodge: 4 HITS, a grazing hit, no damage

Atropos, I assume that you're using your other Simple Action to Ready Weapon for the next turn. Toothy is narrowing the gap between the two of you, but you have the wind (so to speak) so you can set your distance.
Pbangarth, you'll be within 30 meters this coming turn (#10), so Medium range.
Phlapjack, let us know when you're back.

Astral proceedings:

Turn #10. Tell me what's what.

OK, before I forget, turn 10 is the last turn of Stogie's AGI Boost to 8. At the end of this turn I will have to roll his Drain resistance. And if necessary, next turn re-Boost his Agility.

Seeing as the troll has decided to go for Ellesar who is off to the other side, I think it will be running across Stogie's line of fire. Eeeexxxcccelllentttt!

Stogie will pull up to reduce the effect of his running, take aim in the first simple action and fire a narrow burst into the troll.

AGI 8 + shotgun 4 + laser sight 1 + aim 1 - medium range 1 - double recoil 4 = 9 dice. *sigh*

==> 5 HITS !! Beats me, but I ain't complainin'!

DV 7 + 2 (burst) = 9P + 5 hits, -1 AP

************
Drain from Attribute Boost = 1S

Drain resistance for Attribute Boost : WIL 4 + BOD 4 = 8 dice ==> 3 HITS No Drain.

Pb, you'll only be within Medium range during turn #10 if you continue running. You're about 45 meters away during turn #9, with limited visibility. Here are the options for turn #10:

1) Stop running, Toothy continues to run and gets further away and even harder to see = big penalties (maybe even Blind Fire);
2) Slowing down to a walking pace (even an increased one due to the Spirit's movement power) will still allow Toothy to extend the gap (Long range, -1 to the shot for walking, but not Blind Fire);
3) Continue running, closing the distance to 30 meters (Medium range) but incurring the -3 penalty; or,
4) I'll let you choose a jogging middle ground, one that will get you close enough for Medium range but with only a -2 movement penalty instead of -3. That will leave you about 40 meters away.

The good news is that you left off your +1 Large Target bonus. That won't benefit you under option #3, because you'd be saving a non-hit, but under option #4 that would allow you to save one of those 6s.

OK, I'll go with option #4. With some luck, Ellesar and Stogie can get a disoriented and furious troll to yo-yo between the two of them, repeatedly drawn to the most recent source of pain.

back! posting up now...

*edit* wow, was not expecting that! I have Smohalla has some decisions to make

*edit again* Turn 10, Smohalla is dealing with the enemy watcher spirit

Welcome back phlapjack.

Tec, where is Toothy in relation to Ellesar? I know he's still to the side but is he ahead or behind of him now? If Toothy is still ahead then Ellesar will continue running for this turn so that he can take the lead and keep his prey inside of the trap. On the other hand, if Toothy is further behind then Ellesar will keep him at a safe distance but continue to fire at him.

Toothy is about 10 meters to the left of Ellesar, with the two being roughly parallel. Stogie is behind Toothy by 40 meters, so the three of you form a right triangle. Ellesar is moving faster than Toothy and so can set his distance, +/- 15 meters per turn, if he continues running.

It will be easiest to shoot at Toothy if he's slightly ahead of you. If he's behind you then you're shooting over your shoulder. The air spirit's Guard power will keep Ellesar from smashing face-first into a tree but he won't be able to maintain the same running speed if he's twisted around backwards. Maybe not a big deal, unless Toothy tracks the gunshot and uses the opportunity to catch up to Ellesar and smite him.

While there are obvious advantages to staying out of Toothy's reach, there is the added benefit of not being in Stogie's line-of-fire when the dice finally catch up to Pbangarth and he crit glitches with eight 1s.

Thanks Atropos

Tecumseh, you ok with rolling for the air spirit or do you want me to do that?

True, but if Toothy was ahead of Ellesar then it would be harder to run around him than just run straight away from him. Ellesar wasn't planning on sprinting forward and then attempting to contort his body around so that he could shoot directly behind him. With the current conditions he's just going to begin trailing off to the right, keeping about 20 meters between himself and the troll, remaining around the same speed, and waiting for Stogie to catch up from behind.

Yeah, I've been worrying about that myself.

Phlapjack, go ahead and roll your spirit. If things continue on as before (i.e. unless you command it otherwise), it will need three attack rolls and three defense rolls, 10 dice each.

I'll adjudicate on Stogie's shots tonight.

Turn #10
Stogie attack: 5 hits - 1 hit (adjustment) = 4 HITS
Toothy dodge: 3 HITS (so close)
Toothy soak: 7 HITS
Base damage 7 + 2 burst + 1 net hit - 7 soak = 3 boxes of damage

Toothy's rolls:
I'll wait for Phlapjack to get some rolls up before I do the Earth Spirit. Then I'll post an IC update.

For the non-astral lads, what's the plan for turn #11?

Air spirit defense:
1st IP: 3 hits
2nd IP: 4 hits
3rd IP: 4 hits

Air spirit attacks: Rolls (used the option to roll 3 times at the same time)
1st IP: 2 hits
2nd IP: 4 hits
3rd IP: 3 hits

Unless something changes dramatically, Stogie will continue with the plan he and Ellesar have been following: blow holes in the troll.

I will be away from a computer till Tuesday evening. Tecumseh, feel free to carry Stogie on if things move ahead in that time.

Turn #10 Astral
Quite the scrap!

Ellesar, do you intend to shoot during turn #11? If so, please roll it.

Pb, you rolled 5 hits on your Attribute Boost roll back in Turn #5 (OOC post #222). Attribute boost "lasts for a number of Combat Turns equal to the twice the number of hits generated," so Stogie is boosted until the end of turn #15. If we hear back from Atropos then I'll repeat pbangarth's action from the last turn.

Man! I'm def. going to try to get Smohalla some astral combat ability, as soon as possible! Sucks having to be on the sidelines for something like this.

*edit*

Smohalla is trying to reason with persuade the enemy watcher spirit - would that be Negotiation? He's not trying to intimidate.

Rolls for turn #11 astral combat (taking into account -2 dice for wound penalties):

Air spirit attacks: 3 rolls in one
1st IP: 0 hits
2nd IP: 3 hits
3rd IP: 3 hits

Air spirit defends: 3 rolls in one
1st IP: 3 hits
2nd IP: 2 hits
3rd IP: 1 hit

Ah. I thought it was the first turn. OK.

Yes, Ellesar will be firing at Toothy. Unfortunately I'm at work so I can't get a roll up right now.

Let's keep things moving! In case anyone missed the anniversary over the weekend, the IC game has now been live for 6 months!

Turn #11

Initiative (may be relevant)
Ellesar: 14
Earth Spirit: 11
Air Spirit: 10
Stogie: 10
Then everyone else.

1st IP
Ellesar shooting: 4 HITS (4 AGI + 3 Longarms + 2 specialization + 1 red-dot sight + 1 large target - 3 running = 8 dice)
Toothy dodging: 4 HITS, psshaw

Astral, Part 1
Stogie shooting: 4 HITS (AGI 8 + 4 Longarms + 1 laser sight + 1 aim - medium range 1 - double recoil 4 = 9 dice)
Toothy dodging: 3 HITS (so close again)
Toothy soak: 4 HITS
Base damage 7 + 2 burst + 1 net hit - 4 soak = 6 boxes of damage

Toothy's action:
Astral, part 2
IC post coming! On to turn #12!

Happy anniversary! What a wonderful time for things to take a turn for the worse.

Now that the wind has left Ellesar he will more than likely try making a stand against the troll so that Stogie can catch up and help finish him off. This was certainly an unexpected turn of events. Just what I would expect from Shadowrun.

I'm back.

Turn 12 Initiative: 8 dice ==> 3 HITS = 11.

I'm not sure of the topography at the moment, but with the rush on Ellesar and given the last post by Tecumseh, it looks like the troll has put Stogie behind him. Shooting him in the back is no problem for Stogie!

If Stogie is at medium range now, and the movement power has been lost, I think he will hold his ground and take another shot at the troll (thank goodness for that drum!)

AGI 8 + 4 Longarms + 1 Laser sight + 1 Large target + 1 aim -1 medium range - 4 recoil (this really bugs me -- I should have dealt with this at chargen!) = 10 dice ==> 2 HITS

Fuck this. Ellesar is about to be turned into hamburger. Stogie uses Edge to reroll misses: 8 dice ==> 2 HITS

Total 4 hits.

1 Edge left.

To clarify, Toothy is not running at Ellesar specifically. Ellesar is now reasonably visible (he's wearing a camo suit, but that won't conceal him if he's firing rifle rounds from 20 meters out) but, as yet, Toothy has not changed course to intercept him. He is currently running the same direction as he was before, which is to say away from Stogie. No promises what he'll do in turn #12 though.

If Toothy charges at Ellesar and if Ellesar holds his ground, Toothy could reach him this turn (#12). If Ellesar runs in the opposite direction, it would take Toothy until turn #13 to overtake him. Alternatively, Ellesar could rush at Toothy with his bayonet, eh, eh?

Pb, if you want to specifically target something - like Toothy's spine - that will be a called shot with a modifier. Also, since Toothy is still running, Stogie will technically have to walk this turn to keep the range at Medium. (Stogie would actually be about 42 meters out at the time of the shot even if he kept walking, but we'll call it Medium for this turn still. Such precision, forgive me, but one of the advantages of play-by-post is I can keep track of these things.) There's a -1 modifier for firing while walking, and another -1 modifier for moving over broken ground without the Guard power. Or, same result, stop running and let range go to Long. It's hard, I know!

Atropos and Phlapjack, let me know what your plan for the turn is.

Smohalla is reeling from the disruption of yet another spirit - that's 5 total spirits of his disrupted inside of like 1 minute. He's having trouble concentrating. He'll summon a watcher, but instead of fighting this watcher will have a message for his teammates. I'll post something IC.

Is switching weapons considered a simple action or a complex action? It won't affect anything this turn, more for future use. I would look it up but I don't have my book with me at work.

Ellesar is going to get the bright idea of running away from the troll, circling back around to get to Stogie. Strength in numbers, and all that. For now his main focus is making sure that the troll isn't following him.

Yes, the spine bit was more for story than a called shot. I have few enough dice as it is!


Seeing as Ellesar is running back the way we came, I figure the infected troll, if it follows, will come closer again. So I'll stick with what I posted, and make the shot a long one.

Good plan.

Stogie shooting: 2 hits + 2 Edge hits - 1 hit (adjustment)= 3 HITS
Toothy dodge: 3 HITS

Atropos, switching weapons is usually a Free Action (drop object) + Simple Action (ready weapon). If you want to put the original weapon away in an orderly fashion instead of just dropping it, then it's Simple + Simple.

Ellesar will be able to rejoin Stogie on turn #13, but right now I don't see any actions that need to be divided into passes or a specific order, so let's drop out of combat!!

Ellesar and Stogie are about 275 meters from where they left Smohalla, who has eaten Jake in Stogie's absence, and who has in turn been eaten by the shifter. Sorry.

Back to open RP!

Halftime!

So as to not deprive anyone of my favorite part of the game - earning and spending karma - I will be sending each of you a PM shortly with the amount of karma you have accrued thus far. The figure is largely based on IC participation, plus arcane calculations of my own. Everyone is allowed to spend karma on one improvement, or you can bank it for a later time.

I'm also going to open the OOC floor for a debriefing of the last encounter. As expected, it didn't go as expected. First off, Toothy was more formidable than I thought he would be. His Regeneration power was especially insane. I know I asked everyone to create characters with only 1 IP, but the accidental consequence is that you didn't have enough time to do damage before Toothy got a roll (every Combat Turn) to heal it back. And with his high Body anchoring his Regeneration rolls, he recovered very quickly. I'm not sure that I ever explicitly condoned or forbid it, but it's fine if anyone wants to spend a point of Edge to gain an extra initiative pass.

(Before I forget, Edge refreshes now.)

Second, I didn't expect Stogie and Ellesar to chase Toothy into the woods. It's perfectly fine that you did - this is an open-ended game - but it resolving it took another three weeks. It was originally suggested (six months ago) that maybe we could find an agreeable time to Skype to quickly resolve a combat scenario. The scheduling challenges of that still remain, but it might be worth it if we can compress five weeks of play-by-post into a couple hours of chatting and rolling.

On a separate note, I am getting married (!) next weekend. I'll be leaving for my honeymoon on Monday the 21st, returning Saturday, June 2nd. We'll be traveling to Italy and France. The good news is that we should have Internet access the whole time, and I should have availability to check in and post occasionally. (My fiancée and I both prefer to travel at a relaxed pace.) I won't have my books with me so I might need some help with dice rolling, but I expect my trip to cover a stretch of roleplaying, with a minimal number of regenerating trolls. I'll remind everyone again when the time comes.

Until then, feel free to respond with any OOC thoughts you have - let me know what you enjoyed and didn't enjoy, or if you have thoughts about how things might go in the future - and keep the IC posts coming!

Thanks! Smohalla will plan on learning Astral Combat as soon as possible, using a summoned spirit as a teacher. I'm not sure how quickly this can happen, how long he has in game to be taught etc. Just letting you know the plan. He also will be planning on trying to initiate in the future, mainly so he has access to the metaplanes (gotta go apologize to all those spirit wives about the state of their husbands!)


I'm like this idea, as long as it could be done on a weekend I'm happy to meet everyone else's schedules. Morning for N.America, afternoon for Europe, evening for China?


Congratulations! Best wishes to you and your soon-to-be wife


I'm having a good time, and like the pace of the game. Hopefully we can keep it up. There's another thread here on DS about the problems of rolling dice in a Pbp game and how long it takes, but I think our method has worked really well to keep things moving smoothly.

Congratulations on your future marriage! Hopefully everything goes well.

Thanks for the karma. Ellesar will stick with banking it for now since I can't think yet think of anything that he would be seeking improvement in.

As for the skype idea, I'd be fine with being on a weekend as long as I'm not working that day. Unfortunately my weekends change every few weeks and so do my hours so it's a bit difficult to find a happy "this time on this day" medium. I should be fine as long as we work it out a couple days ahead of doing so.

Being relatively new to Shadowrun and this being my first pbp game I honestly have no negative comments. The campaign is running smoothly, the posts are staying constant, and the plot is quite interesting. I've learned, and am still learning a great deal about the game mechanics, how certain aspects affect gameplay, and roleplaying in general. This is certainly a very enlightening experience for me and I'd like to thank you all for providing it and helping me through it.

The game is working well for me, Tecumseh. Yes, the combat took a few weeks, but we did have a lot of fun and side IC while we went through it. I too can block out some time for Skype, as long as we can schedule it ahead of time. Which of course could negate some of the time benefit.

I think Toothy was just fine. Yeah, he almost killed us.... but he didn't. It doesn't get much more exciting than that! And we all got to test out some of our abilities before we face something even worse. We will be better the next time. Yeah, like spending Edge to get another IP.

It's kind of you to allow spending karma in the middle of it all. Given the stretch of real-time a campaign might take, this is a gift to the players as much as the PCs. I'll think about Stogie. Any chance there's a place out in the woods that sells recoil compensation?

OK, there's no way I want to interfere with a honeymoon! We can take a hiatus while you enjoy the bonding time and the far away places. Or have a great time talking amongst ourselves. And if you insist on keeping up with the game, and survive your wife's response to that, of course I'll play along.

Alright, that was a big group hug. Everyone's a winner, everyone gets a trophy.

If you spend any karma, just let me know and make the change on your original sheet posted on the first page of the OOC forum. I'm not expecting any character improvements to happen in an IC manner. Nobody has to grab a tree limb and do a whole bunch of chinups to justify their increase to Strength. If you want to do so for roleplay reasons, fantastic, but it's not necessary. Smohalla doesn't need to summon a spirit to aid him, which I'm not even sure falls under the services that unbound spirits offer. Besides, given what Smohalla knows about Astral Combat, he could probably just summon a watcher to teach him. Hey-O!

(As a side note, I briefly flirted with the idea of having Toothy's watcher attack Smohalla, not with the expectation of doing any real damage but just for the indignity of it all.)

Pb, there's no recoil compensation available in the woods. Probably your best bet is to keep the shotgun on semi-automatic. I know you wanted the narrow bursts for the +2 DV - especially for a large, hard-to-damage target - but I think taking two separate shots might have served you better. To wit:

Semi-Automatic
Shot #1: Agility 3 + Agility Boost 3 + Longarms 2 + Shotguns 2 + Laser-sight 1 = 11 dice @ 7 DV
Shot #2: Agility 3 + Agility Boost 3 + Longarms 2 + Shotguns 2 + Laser-sight 1 - 2 recoil = 9 dice @ 7 DV

Burst
Shot #1: Agility 3 + Agility Boost 3 + Longarms 2 + Shotguns 2 + Laser-sight 1 + Aim 1 - 4 recoil = 8 dice @ 9 DV
Shot #2: forget it

On semi-auto, the first shot is effectively only 1 DV weaker than the burst, based on the additional dice you have to roll. Giving up 1 DV on shot #1 to get the second shot, and all the damage it might do, is probably a good trade.

And see, this right here, is why I'm so eager to get him some Astral Combat skill! A watcher spirit could beat him to death.

Oh, yeah, you are quite right. This Enfield shotgun is a gift to Stogie from his TerraFirst contact, and this is the first time he used it. Me too, so my learning curve matches his. Happy coincidence!

Well, since both Stogie and I learned a lot about the shotgun in this last fight, I'll raise his Longarms from Rating 2 to Rating 3. Stogie's stats on page 1 are altered to reflect this.

Ok, I'll have Smohalla spend 4 karma and learn Astral Combat 1.

Woohoo! Watch out, now ...er... Watchers!

Smohalla can now terrorize smaller astral beings, pushing them off the swingset and taking their lunch money. Say, isn't Jake counted as dual-natured sometimes?

First aid roll for pushing broken ribs back into place: 2 hits

Nope. Jake is safe from that shit!

Here's a roll to Boost Stogie's STR so he can do Smohalla right:

MAG 7 + Power 1 = 8 dice ==> 4 HITS

STR = 3 + 4 = 7

Drain 1S; Resistance: WIL 4 + BOD 4 = 8dice ==> 3 HITS

No drain.

EDIT: First Aid roll to know where to put the ribs:

LOG 3 + Skill 1 + Medkit 6 -3 conditions (at least) = 7 dice ==> 0 HITS (CRITICAL GLITCH)

...oh fuck.

Uhhh.... I'll spend a point of Edge to counter that glitch, and hope phlapjack's 2 hits are good enough.

Ellesar is actually the best at First Aid. I think for this predicament Smohalla would have a hard time working on himself. The ribs need to be re-broken (eek) so that they can set properly. Here's the pool:

Ellesar's Logic 4 + Ellesar's First Aid 3 + Skilled Assistant 1 (Stogie) + Medkit 2 (Smohalla's) - Outdoors 2 - Patient is Magician 2 = 6 dice

Which, conveniently, is the number of dice that Phlapjack already rolled. That's two hits, which is enough to 1) successfully re-break the ribs, and 2) align them so that they heal smoothly. Nice work.

The process is going to hurt a lot, although presumably not more than getting clawed in the back by Toothy. Pbangarth, Stogie's Pain Relief ability would make a lot of sense here for RP purposes.

Pain relief only works on Stun damage. See my previous post for the edited attempt at Stogie's First Aid. It had to happen to Stogie sooner or later. Sorry, phlapjack, that it had to be on you.

Oh, Hey. It wasn't a Critical Glitch! I counted incorrectly. 3 out of 7, not 6. Damn, I have to go to bed.

No worries - turns out no glitch at all...this was a good time for the dice to abandon you. Everyone's happy!

PB, I said Pain Relief for RP purposes. Smohalla doesn't have any boxes of damage, technically, but that's not to say that this procedure doesn't hurt like crazy. I can give him some boxes of damage for you to heal, if you prefer. (I'm pretty sure you just did STR/2 Stun with your jacked-up shepherd strength.) Or if you just don't want to give another dude a massage, that's cool, that's cool. I understand. He's an old friend; I'm sure he'll understand too, once he regains consciousness.

IRL, I hadn't had many massages, but when I did get them, I was always "no dudes" about it.

Now, we tend to get massages about once a week, it's cheap and feels great. The guys tend to give better massages, so a "no dudes" massage policy means you're missing out. Oh yeah, and if they're blind? Even better

You guys really get going while I'm sleeping.

Ellesar will gladly assist in some first aid. Just like the good ole days.

Tec, are you going to need me to roll for First Aid? I noticed you laid out the dice pool but I wasn't sure if Smohalla's skills would be sufficient. Just in case:

LOG 4 + First Aid 3 + Skilled Assistant 1 + Medkit 2 - Outdoors 2 - Magician 2 = 6 dice >>> 2 Hits

The dice pool I laid out was for Ellesar, but since Phlapjack had already rolled the correct number of dice I was just going to use that result. I figured, hey, we've gotten to the point where we're giving each other massages, I'm sure everyone's comfortable rolling the other guy's dice too.

In any case, the attempt succeeds. Smohalla will be good as new shortly, except for the psychological damage.




Comic gold, guys. Great scene!

I've added a new IC post moving things along. Go ahead and post (ICly) what you're doing. Feel free to make any related rolls (Perception, Whistling, etc.) for what you would like to do.

I'll post this evening when I have more time, but it sounds as if the team could actually use a bit of Stogie's Pain Relief power. And we are all hungry for sure.

Pbangarth, just to clarify, it is only the shifter who is escorting you. You haven't seen any other wolves all day. Good post though.

Atropos, your character sheet lists Rations under the Gear section. (They're pretty substantial. See the description on page 53 in Arsenal.) Those are available, unless Ellesar is holding out on the others.

Ellesar was more or less waiting for the group to stop before breaking out the goodies but with Stogie's abrupt halt he didn't have much time to react. I'll have to check the book when I get off work but I'm assuming they are similar to modern day MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). He will gladly share.