You know, this is my first Play-by-Post SR game, so my pacing may very well be off. One thing I've been trying to do is not run over any of you guys. This game is about roleplaying, and I don't want to push the story ahead at the expense of you guys getting in the RPing that you want.

I suppose a little help from your end would give me the guidence I need. What I try to do is throw up some storyline and let everyone comment or talk or whatever, and then once everyone has said their piece, I move on. However, if that is making the game too slow for your liking, please let me know. There are numerous ways I can speed things up...but like I said, I don't want to deny anyone an opportunity to roleplay something out.

I guess the bottom line is I feel funny about advancing the story until everyone has posted at least once since my last IC post. If you guys are okay with me doing that, let me know. Feedback would be very helpful.

I'm okay with you fast forwarding before I post..... I try to post once a day but sometimes it's a bit tricky managing to sneak posts in when we're busy at work *8-> and oooooh Ophelia's gonna be having fun unpacking *8-> I'll try to get a post up this evening so she's not just shivering in the car *8->

Ronin,

I am fine with you advancing the story. If you give everyone a day to post and no one does, advance it.

Yeas, please do keep it moving. I just wasn't posting because I didn't feel it necesary to say "Kenjiro grabs his stuff." I will often not post if I have nothing to say.

Oh in case you want the rolls here's the various Clean(Air) spells Ophelia'll be dropping centered on her while she's wandering around the Ares site.... Hey Unicorn hates pollution *8-> The spells force 1 and is +1S drain. No of success is the determining factor for whether I even affect the smog *8-> (page 146 MitS)

Spellcasting Dice (8 Sorcery, 6 Spell Pool) TN6: 1,5,2,8,10,1,2,7,4,5,4,3,1,8 (4 successes)
Drain Resist Dice (7 Willpower, 1 Spell Pool) TN2: 7,13,8,5,3,2,2,1 (No drain)

Spellcasting Dice (8 Sorcery, 6 Spell Pool) TN6: 1,1,4,3,2,4,3,1,17,10,3,1,5,3 (2 successes)
Drain Resist Dice (7 Willpower, 1 Spell Pool) TN2: 4,5,4,7,1,3,4,4 (No drain)

Spellcasting Dice (8 Sorcery, 6 Spell Pool) TN6: 3,11,5,10,10,3,8,5,4,3,9,1,5,2 (5 successes)
Drain Resist Dice (7 Willpower, 1 Spell Pool) TN2: 5,9,9,1,4,5,8,2 (No drain)

Just gimme a yell if you don't want me to roll this kinda thing, basically at least while she's on site she gonna try to reduce the pollution as much as is feasible using Clean(Air), Clean(Earth) or Clean(Water) whichever is applicable.

Er, is Pavlov a cybered-up dog, or a robot that just looks like a dog? And why isn't Michael eating, is it Ramadan?

He's a robotic drone on crack. Fully synthetic.

What Shadow said.

Is it Lent? Anyone else thinking of the movie 40 days and 40 nights?

Might just be a character thing.

Its just a thing that Michael does before any mission starts. Fasting is a way for Christians to let God know that he is more important to them than their own physical needs. Michael does it to let God know that he puts aside all things to do the will of God, even while going to war.

A Marine at my chruch told me he and a few other Christians in his unit do just before they left for Iraq, so I did it on with Michael as well.

It's also a way to purify your body, and bring yourself closer to god. When you don't have such trivial things as food and water to think about you can bring your self to a higher level of enlightenment.

Exactly.

Well cripes. I thought he was just trying to lose a few pounds. He's been getting a little chunky since we went freelance...

Screw you hippy. He's likely in better shape than you. Oh wait, you're an Orc. Bleh, nevermind.

<just flexes like the bad mo'fo he is> Booyah!

Fasting actually has been shown to be healthy. If you fast, then make up for it by eating more afterwards, you can gain many of the benefits of dieting, even though you eat the same amount of food as you normally would.

I think it lessens your need for food intake, too. Teaches your body to get by with less.

Guess Yoko needs some of that, even if she isn't your steroetypical decker lardass.

Okay, first I call up Yvgeny, my smuggler contact in Georgia. He's a level 1 contact. Here's an ettiquette roll to see if I can get ahold of him: 1 4 5 10

I have never heard deckers stereotyped as fat. Deckers can fast inadvertently by simply staying jacked in with the RAS overide for a long time. Should make it pretty easy.

You're right, Panzer. It would explain her immense appetite yet slim figure.

Hey hey, I just finally got my hands of the Tir Taringaire sourcebook (talk about being way behind the SOTA) and all I gotta say is this.

Telestrian Industries? Damnit, I'm not looking forward to the prospects of swimming up that river of ice if it comes to it. Course, the info the sourcebook is dated...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that, in a violent fit of mindless randomness, I decided to change my username. Again. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Sincerely,
The Artist Formerlly Known as A Clockwork Lime

@ Panzer: Your contact doesn't answer your call, but you leave him a message and contact number for him to call you back.

@ Cardboard: Yup, THAT Telestrian Industries.
Oh, and give me two Computer skill tests, each one can use half your hacking pool.

@ ROUS: <bows before your masterful choice of names> Where's Wesley?

@All: Has anyone heard from Digital Heroin?

Digital Heroin has pretty much dropped from the face of the earth. I got a note from him a few weeks ago that he has lost inspiration for playing and was dropping from his games. It looks like I was the only GM he contacted though.

That's fine. I liked his character concept, but he was sort of redundant when it comes to skill sets. Sad to see him go, but I think we will do okay without him.

@All: Since DH is out of the picture, I'd like to take a vote. Do we

A) Drive on as is, with 7 instead of 8 players, or
B) Contact one of the people who originally petitioned to be in the game, and try to fill DH's spot?

All input is welcome.

I forgot... who was DH's character? And what did he do?

I am all for both... I say we drive on without him and contact one of the original posters to see if they are interested. If not, no lose as we are moving forward anyways. If yes, they can join us in country.

Let's get to the CQB!

Let's just go with 7 players for now. If we lose more, then we can consider calling in the backup characters.

I'm with Shadow. I'm cool either way.

I'm good with either, extra people are useful but he/she's probably not going to be part of the 'core' group though..... hehe friction *8->

How about this...let's move on with 7. I wouldn't mind getting another person in on things, but it would probably slow the game down for a good bit while we get his/her charcter created and then up to speed.

However, it might be really neat for somone to play a native of AZ or the surrounding area. That would probably come in a lot more handy than anything else. Later on today I'm going to post a new thread for those who might be interested in filling the slot. I'm going to make the requirements pretty stringent, so that should keep out the casual players. What do you guys think?

I wonder what's that newcomer's actually going to do, but I leave that part to you. If you feel it could be interesting, then I'm for it of course.

Our local 'Guide'.

Sounds good

I'll try to get you those rolls now. My connection's been on and off all month but should firm up around the first week of June.

(EDIT)

And here are the rolls, for backup purposes.

Computer + Half Decking pool (8 skill dice + 5 Decking = 13 dice a roll).

Computer roll one: 13d6.open(6) -> (6, 3),(6, 2),5,(6, 4),2,4,5,4,2,5,1,4,(6, 1)

Computer roll two: 13d6.open(6) -> 2,5,(6, 6, 4),4,2,5,1,4,2,5,4,(6, 6, 1),4

I'm calling up Josef, a level 2 contact. He's a smuggler who operates out of Ukraine. Ettiquette: 4 5 5 17

@Panzergeist: You get your contact on the phone. However, you need to PM me what sort of questions you are going to ask him and what kind of info you are looking for. You also need to let me know how much you are going to tell him about where you are/what you are doing. PM that to me, and I'll try to PM the results to you today.

@ALL: with the exception of Panzer, I should have given everyone else all their contact/legwork info. At least it should be enough to begin the next team briefing, which should kick off at about 1300 hours local (0900 Zulu, 0100 Seattle time). Keep in mind that when the briefing starts, your bodies will feel like it's 1:00 am. However, if should only take you a couple of days to acclimate.

Basically, I made the conversion easy. Seattle is 12 hours behind Baku. That should help give you an idea of what time it feels like to your characters.

Cool. Any chance we can get to the briefing now?

Still waiting on word from Yoko that her matrix data search is done.

Yeah, that's my fault. I didn't send Cardboard the info on the hospital until this morning. He should be ready with that info this afternoon or tomorrow.

No problem.

Err, is Yoko in the SUV with Nikolai and Danny? Or was her response to Danny just a continuity blurp?

So Mike is going to call Deke and ask about what sort of vehicles he can get his hands on, especially if he can get some air transportation for the trip to Iran.


Nikolai and Danny are going to recon the hospital from some point out in the wilderness.


That leaves, Maxwell, Yoko, Ophelia, and Kenjiro back at HQ. Anything you guys and girls want to do while everyone else is busy?

Well, I imagined she'd talk to you guys either before you got in the car or with a window down and before you drove off. I'm staying back at base unless you need me.

Cool. I was just checking.

No problem. We're all on the same page now, which is cool.

Perception check: (6 dice)

1: 5
2: 3
3: 1
4: 4
5: 5
6: 4

Complimentry stealth check (11 dice)

1: 3
2: 5
3: 6 + 6 + 3 = 15.
4: 4
5: 4
6: 4
7: 2
8: 6 + 4 = 10.
9: 6 + 2 = 8.
10: 4
11: 5

*bump*

I know I'm waiting on Danny and Nik to finish their scouting of the hospitol...

And were waiting on Ronin to tell us what we see.