Hope you're having a good wedding / honeymoon Tecumseh!

So...idle table chatter...

Pbangarth, I've recently met many people from Toronto. One thing they always ask, is how I pronounce it. I saw "Toronto", and they all say native-Torontoites (?) pronounce it "Toron-o", dropping the "t".

Atropos, are you in Columbia, SC? Had a friend move there, he loved it. He was sad when he had to move to SanFrancisco, which to me speaks well of Columbia

The very same. Born and raised here for a good chunk of my childhood. That is not to say that I haven’t been a good deal of places, just spent most of my time here. Columbia is a pretty nice place if you know where everything is. A lot of the people I work with complain about being here and how much they hate the south but they are oblivious to all of the great opportunities here. Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Augusta are all within two hours by car.

I’ve never been overseas, just to the nearby countries of Canada and Mexico and most of the states. Are you from Beijing or did you move there?

I'm from Baton Rouge, lived there almost all of my life. It's an ok place, mostly recommended if you like college football or because it's close to New Orleans. I would definitely love living in the SC area, the Smokey Mountains are awesome. Is Columbia a nice place because it's so close to other great places, or does it truly have it's own special-ness to recommend it?

I moved to Bejing with my gf because, why not? It's lucky that she's Chinese-American, life has been much easier than it could have been...

Wow, I just moved from Biloxi Mississippi (which isn’t far from New Orleans) about a year ago. Certainly not the best town, unless you like gambling all the time. It was hit even worse than Lousiana by Katrina and it hasn’t exactly recovered.

Columbia is a pretty great place on its own, it just happens to be in the center of some even better cities. We have a lot of great local restaurants and there’s almost as much history here as in Charleston, just less well known buildings.

Where's that boy Pbangarth? He hasn't posted in a week.

Wedding was yesterday; it was a smashing success. Leaving for the airport in an hour to fly to Italy. Just dropping a quick note before finishing packing.

What??? a Week? Holy shit!

Yeah, native Torontonians usually drop the second "t" and some even drag things out: "Tahraahhnna". Me, I moved here a few years ago and still mark myself as an outsider by pronouncing the second "t".

I've been to Biloxi a few times, nice enough place except I really don't like gambling. Last time was a few years ago, it seemed to have somewhat recovered from Katrina, although I'd imagine it's like New Orleans, in that there are areas that aren't so visible that may never recover.

Heh, "Tahraahhnaa'ians" sound a lot like native New Orleanians (?), who pronounce it "Nawwwlins". Wonder if that's a universal thing, to drop letters from the name of the place you're from. Something along the lines of how my signature is pretty much illegible now, after having to sign 1.25 zillion things in my life. Atropos, do people from Columbia say "Cullllmba" or similar?

Tecumseh, you remind me of a professor I had in college. Small, senior level class of about 10 people, we all had become pretty well acquainted with each other and the teacher. One day, we're sitting there waiting for class to start, the professor isn't there yet, he's never been late before. Suddenly he comes in all flustered, starts scribbling stuff on the blackboard for us. He finishes and turns to look at us and says apologetically, "Here's some reading for you to do today, I'm sorry we can't have class today but my wife just went into labor". Guy's wife goes into labor, and he still makes the effort to come teach our class. So anyway, go have fun and don't worry about us here

Oddly enough people from Columbia don't have any quirky way of saying it. Most just call it Columbia. A lot of people from South Carolina however seem to call it "South Cackalacki". I honestly have no idea why.

Assensing the nature of the mana here, to see if there is any info in it, and to be able to recognize this signature elsewhere:

INT 5 + Assensing 6 = 11 dice ==> 3 HITS

Good idea - I'll make the roll also so Tecumseh doesn't have to.

Assensing 3 + Int 5 = 4 hits

Good call on the greeting, phlapjack.

Thanks. I was worried I was "rushing things", but then figured it was time to get the ball rolling...

Not only that, but I think you were bang on for the Etiquette.

Well, it finally happened. I wrote a long, detailed post about what happens next and the Italian Internet ate it. I'm not terribly surprised, although neither am I eager to rewrite it all.

I'm not sure if I'll have web access for the remainder of my trip. I'll try to repost, but what I might do is make a series of smaller posts so that I don't lose as much if my connection or hardware fails again.

EDIT: F*CKING-A IT HAPPENED AGAIN.

There's a new post up. It's the first half of what was supposed to be posted a couple days ago before my previous essay vanished into the Resonance.

I haven't rewritten the second half yet. I may have a chance to do so tomorrow, but if not then it will have to wait to Sunday. (I fly back to the States on Saturday.) At this point you are welcome to post something scenic or atmospheric, but nobody throw down yet. As I said, there's a second half coming, after which you're free to open fire, or pee your pants, or do whatever else would be in-character.

Write your posts up on notepad or something, then copy-paste them in to Dumpshock?

Now to have a look at the IC post you wrote...great, now my nerves will be on end until your second post

New IC post is up. I am back in the States, although still on European time. For example, I just went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 12:30am. I'm hoping I can slip in another hour or two of sleep because work's going to be a real challenge otherwise.

Great post! I've heard that jet lag takes one day to get over for every hour of time difference you had. Not sure it's accurate but anyway...

Pbangarth, I ran into yet another Torontonian this weekend. Ya'll are everywhere, almost moreso than the Germans. Almost.

*edit*
IC, Smohalla will try to make sure that the ladies are served before him. Like if he is handed a cup of tea, he will pass it to Selene or Hester first.

Good to have you back Tec. Hopefully the lag isn't too harsh on you.

Eleanor's Artisan (Tea Party) roll: 5 SUCCESSES. A good time had by all!

You can scratch this off your list of "Things I Never Thought I Would Do in Shadowrun".

As guests we should probably tell our 'stories' first. I'll be able to do that this evening.

Things are getting good - I'm nervous when writing Smohalla's responses, a good sign

Btw, I noticed that Faranji hasn't logged in to DS since last December. Wonder what happened to him...

I figured he just dropped out and let Tec know. I did find it a bit strange that he just suddenly stopped posting.

No, he never let me know. I kept an eye on his profile to see if he was active elsewhere on the site but, as phlapjack notes, he's been gone for a while.

I hope Smohalla isn't getting too overblown or wordy - trying to walk a tightrope of not insulting them is hard work! I don't have a good Etiquette skill I think

No problem, man. We have to find out whether what we have been told is true or not. Keep pressing. Stogie will shut up and listen. Maybe prod a bit here and there.

Cool - I'll keep replying then, hoping not to step on anyone's toes.

Hehe, just reviewing the first page of the IC thread:



Intentional?

He posted HERE a couple of days ago.

Aerospider has been active on the boards since the game began. He simply withdrew before the game started due to uncertain time commitments following his recent marriage. Instead, we were discussing the sudden disappearance of Faranji.

Bonus points to phlapjack. There have been seeds and hints and foreshadowing from the beginning. I've sprinkled in the occasional literary allusion too. Liberal arts degree, you understand.

So my workplace has finally updated their blocks and unfortunately it is now affecting my ability to view this forum. Fortunately I am in transition for moving in with my coworker who has internet, ergo I will be quite able to post just as frequently.

Alright, Pb, it's been another week since your last IC post. Time to pony up some RP.

Everyone please respond to the most recent IC post. While doing so, perhaps include what your character is thinking to themselves, or what the Sisters and shifter might be able to see on the astral (mood, truthiness, so on).

There. That'll get some response, I bet.

Way to go, phlapjack.

Pb, Atropos, I know that Phlapjack is on point in this conversation but feel free to continue posting about what your character is doing, thinking, etc. Shaving with your tomahawk, playing your banjo, popping combat drugs, and so on.

Yeah, sorry. I was just enjoying the back and forth of this interesting conversation.

Well, we've come to a decision point here. I'm thinking Stogie may come out with something about that old "slippery slope." His response will come soon, but I want to think a bit about his own personality, and what he is willing to do to hurt corporations. At least one tack he could take would probably instigate hostilities. So, I've been hanging back a bit more than I usually do. Sorry.

Twasn't criticizin'. Just invitin', all friendly-like.

There, hows that for getting things moving?

Jake uses Stogie's Attribute Boost [BOD] and [REA]:

Magic 7 + Boost 1 = 8 dice ==> 4, 3 HITS ... wow. You rock, Jake.

Jake's new BOD is 6, new REA is 7.

Man, this is good stuff. I should give myself karma.

Ellie addressed the others, so I'll wait my turn.

Whew, trying to tread the line to keep away from a TPK...

TPK avoided for the moment. People have an opportunity to break the silence either by ask The Sisters a question or talking amongst yourselves. Feel free to make a general pose about what you're doing during dinner. After this little scene I'll create some space for you guys to be able to discuss the situation and what you'd like to do next.

Good stuff, btw. Enjoying it immensely - this is a fun group

Good, good. Glad to hear it. I liked the back-and-forth a lot too. Anyone else want to butter me up?

I'll try to keep things moving forward steadily. This conversation started a month ago, which is a long time for one roleplaying scene.

My buttering up was aimed at everybody

In my (very limited) PbP experience, this scene has happened very quickly. This is a good thing, to me. It's interesting to think about time differences between PbP and actual tabletop gaming. This scene, played at a table, would've taken like what, an hour at most? So a month of PbP is equal to one hour of tabletop time? But no, that's probably not enough data to draw conclusions on...

I think the scene would have happened very quickly at a tabletop game, but it would also have happened very differently. Perhaps my favorite part of play-by-post is to make things a little more cinematic in the sense of providing detail, color, and flavor. These are elements that are more difficult for me to add on the fly while GMing in person. Writing allows me more time to think things through and craft careful responses. I don't think I could have sustained the dramatic tension nearly as well in person. Playing in person, I think that entire exchange would have been five minutes, with far fewer adjectives.

True dat. I'm not a quick think-on-your-feet person, so this allows me to make (I think) better responses...

Hey guys. I'm away this long weekend (in Canada), off to the cottage. I'll be away from a computer till Monday night. Carry on the good fun and I'll catch up then.

Canada Day, eh? I had to look it up. I will also be out of town this weekend, back on Monday.

I have to retcon a minor detail from a few posts back. A third-quarter moon does not rise until midnight, so it would not be visible at the time of your meal. Apologies to any astronomy aficionados.

I checked the IC thread two hours ago and there were no new posts. I just checked again and there were five new posts! Great back-and-forth... keep it up!

Let me know if you have any clarifying questions, want more detail on something, are thinking about using a knowledge skill, etc.