Security 2
16d6.hits(5)=4 KO with 6 boxes of Physical Damage and 10 boxes of Stun Danage

Eklipse one burst will take her down so you still have a Simple Action left - feel free to do something with it if you want.

Strangeglove not all wards behave the same way - they are variants used by magical security types.

All there is an additional -1 modifier to visual test or tasks involving vision due to the blinking/strobing lights - those with Flare Compensation can ignore it.

Surprise Pass
Adeodatus 9 hits
Zero 8 hits
Shen 7 hits
Fleet 6 hits
Cypher 6 hits
Eklipse 5 hits
Jon 5 hits <<<
Emilio 5 hits
Ninja Sex Kitten 5 hits
Fat Man 4 hits
Strangeglove 4 hits
Q 4 hits
Security 2 4 hits
Security 2 3 hits

Jon is up!

Eklipse uses the extra simple action to activate his adept abilities.

Not sure if Tacnet is applicable to perception rolls so didnt count it

Perception 2+4 Visual (has low light if applicable)
6d6.hits(5) → [5,2,6,3,1,6] = (3)

Perception 2+4+2 Hearing
8d6.hits(5) → [6,1,1,6,6,6,4,4] = (4)

Perception 2+4+2 Smell
8d6.hits(5) → [6,6,1,6,3,3,5,5] = (5)

My intention is to ensure the room is clear move to the next door and secure the next room if necessary. However, if the room isn't clear I will remove any hostiles.

Emilio: Security is down. It might be wise to zip-tie them, or leave them unconscious, at least until they're in the car, as they're likely to be uncooperative. Be aware the ward gets a little devil-face, so probably wait for a mage to chime in.

Possible lies:
We had to take out the kids because:
(a) We had reason to believe boyfriend had been turned. (Downside: Will offend boyfriend. Maybe say magic brain-control? Upside: Boyfriend is already offended because we shot him in the face.)
(b) We had reason to believe the guards had been ordered to kill the kids rather than let them be captured. (Doesn't explain why we shot the boyfriend.)

Grenade Troll: no, I think your understanding of the ward gets a devil-face. Emilio will run in after Jon anyway, unless the ward physically blocks him.

Emilio has no intention of waking anyone. He plans on making sure no one we care about dies. Also, after this, having fixed Julio (male Juliette, the bf) up BEFORE he wakes hopefully will make things easier. Maybe not easy, but easier.

What car? Last I heard, we were taking everyone out together at the end. Yes, there's a program that's been triggered, but that wasn't discussed w/ the group.

Emilio wouldn't be excited about medkitting in a car on the move. Sounds like that would be good for a situational -2 or so, on top of a -1 or -2 for being in a car. If we keep the combat in other rooms, we should be looking at a -1 in this room.

As a player, I'm not so excited about my character being whisked off scene.

Why lie? Just say Julio didn't seem to expect us, and someone worried he'd hit the panic button.

Wards are great against magic types, but shouldn't do anything against Emilio, Strangeglove, Fleet or Cypher. Everyone else by my understanding has foci, spells or what not to cause issues. (Jon rolled masking earlier, so I'm guessing that he's an adept--it's hit or miss on that one. Eklipse has the sword)

I suppose we could go with the truth. That's pretty radical though.

I was thinking you'd patch them up here, then we'd put them in Q's care. He can operate a medkit, and is the most convincing of us. SG, not aware of Cypher's hacked vehicle, but was expecting Fleet to bring a car around ASAP. IMO we want the teens out of the line of fire, because it's going to get really ugly really fast.

Notsoevildm action noted - so I think all that is still powered down is your weapon focus.

Lain did you remember the -1 die modifier for the strobing lights? I'm away from my desktop at the moment so I am going to assume you don't have Flare Compensation and will knock off the last die from the Perception Test. It's a Simple Action to Perceive in Detail so you still have a Simple Action left.

All anyone who was astral perception active at this time will see the ward change as described in the IC post.

Surprise Pass
Adeodatus 9 hits
Zero 8 hits
Shen 7 hits
Fleet 6 hits
Cypher 6 hits
Eklipse 5 hits
Jon 5 hits
Emilio 5 hits <<<
Ninja Sex Kitten 5 hits
Fat Man 4 hits
Strangeglove 4 hits
Q 4 hits
Security 2 4 hits
Security 2 3 hits

Emilio is up!

Hooray for Trap Wards! Time to shut everything down again or pound our way through it.

Correct. Although given what's going on that is likely to be his next action.

I think at this point, Fat Man is just going to blow a hole in the ward. It was worth being careful about not setting off wards earlier, but at this point the cat is out of the bag. Luckily, it's not too hard to powerbolt your way through even pretty high force wards, it just isn't very subtle.

Emilio's actions:

Free action to drop the alpha

Simple to pull out the med kit

Simple to perceive the kids' injuries: 3 + 4 + 3 = 10d6 = 10d6.hits(5)=2

With Jon setting off this ward, it's possible he triggered the alarm on his way in. I don't recall him being with the mages when they went and assensed the creator.

Lain?

Umaro: If you blow a hole in the ward, is it local, or does it take down the whole ward? I was originally planning on moving to the next security station via outside the building. But if the ward will be a problem, you can blow a hole here and we can go room to room.

We could always try to blow up the wall around the ward. If whatever is warded breaks, so does the ward.

Popping the ward doesn't cause a loud boom to be heard for several blocks. Blowing up walls might, which would mean attracting attention from the neighbors. If the ward is contained in just the room, why not go around it? Jon likely rushed in with a plan of knowing how to get back out. If not, he can just turn off his stuff and go. Q and FatMan don't have that option...

Agreed about not raising the neighbors.

Did the ward actually do anything to Jon? Yes, we saw the ward and were going to try to avoid the ward. But is this a case of worrying about a trip wire after it's tripped? Maybe have a spirit check out the extent of the ward?

Also, if I paid for Magical Security, I'd want it all around. AFAIK the kids aren't magical, so it's not for keeping them in this room. So I'd be surprised if the rest of the building's NOT warded.

Or there's some good shit in here.

All to clarify only people with astral perception or are dual natured saw what happened with the ward. For the non-Awakened members, at most you might feel a tingle as you pass through the ward - there's nothing there for you to see.

Emilio You know the current track levels for the two teens as I posted here in the OOC thread.

Surprise Pass
Adeodatus 9 hits
Zero 8 hits
Shen 7 hits
Fleet 6 hits
Cypher 6 hits
Eklipse 5 hits
Jon 5 hits
Emilio 5 hits
Ninja Sex Kitten 5 hits (hidden movement)
Fat Man 4 hits <<<
Strangeglove 4 hits
Q 4 hits
Security 2 4 hits
Security 2 3 hits

Fat Man is up!

To answer the questions:
1) We most definitely just triggered the astral alarm and Gothic Mage got a "someone just tripped your alarm ward!" alert.

2) It's a huge pain in the ass to destroy a ward entirely - you blow a hole and it regenerates. But Fat Man can blow a hole, we go through, then it regens. I expect it is not just the door, but rather anchored to the outer wall of the whole compound, and honestly, given that we've already tripped it, it's faster and simpler to just poke an entrance. We will need to poke it again on the way out.

Fat Man's action:

Fat Man multicasts two Force 5 Powerbolts at the ward across the door.

Both are with a base pool of Spellcasting 6 + Magic 6, split evenly to 6/6.

So (Spellcasting + Magic)/2 (6) + Power Focus (4) + Mentor (2) + Specialization (2) = 14d6 [you apply modifiers after splitting] http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3823631/, 3 hits and 4 hits. Wards count as barriers with armor and structure equal to force, but Powerbolt goes against OR and it has none, so it just takes 17P with no resistance roll. If it has Force 17 or less, that should blow a 1 square meter hole in it.

Drain on both is 3 (base) + 1 (extra spell modifier) = 4, resisted with Intuition (6) + Willpower (6) + Centering (4) = 16d6 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3823637/ no drain.

If Fat Man did blow a hole, he is moving through and so is the shen. I'm going to wait to describe that part/the shen's delayed action until I know if it did get a hole or not.

UmaroVI Powerbolt will not affect the ward though since only mana spells can affect astral forms (SR Main pg 203) and the spell is a physical one.

P 183 has some clarification--spells targeting an astral body must be Mana spells (Targeting). Spells cast on Mana Barriers are resisted with Force (Determine Effect).

Does Fat Man know Mana Bolt? That should slam through it. Likewise Shattershield (ward specific manabolt) would be doubly useful.

Opps. Why did I think Powerbolt would work? Sorry, I'll repost.

As it's not Eklipse's action, I refrained from ordering people around and just stuck to a brief message.

OK, on review, Fat Man cannot break that barrier in any reasonable amount of time on his own. He could maybe eventually destroy it by casting Increase Charisma on the shen and having the shen astral combat it, but it would take a really long time. There's definitely going to be some spell learning during next downtime.

Also, Bishop, thanks for pointing that out - I didn't notice that magical astral objects resist with Force instead of working off of OR.

I edited Fat Man's action.

Fat Man is still delaying. The shen is going to take it's action and spend a Free Action removing Concealment from Jon.

If the glow wand doesn't detect any magic on the kids, I'll continue by scooping them up and taking them outside.

Eklipse: If we had to wait for our turn to speak, we'd never get any RP done. IMO go wild.

Agreed - RPing is key for me at least.

I need Perception Tests from everyone please don't forget the -2 Distracted modifier, add another -1 if in the room without Flare Compensation, Astral Perception would add another -2 (unless Dual Natured) and Jon you will be at an additional -14 due to the ward which I think you can see squat for the moment in the room. Same for Fat Man to see anything inside the warded room now.

Surprise Pass
Adeodatus 9 hits
Zero 8 hits
Shen 7 hits
Fleet 6 hits
Cypher 6 hits
Eklipse 5 hits
Jon 5 hits
Emilio 5 hits
Ninja Sex Kitten 5 hits
Fat Man 4 hits (delaying)
Strangeglove 4 hits <<<
Q 4 hits
Security 2 4 hits
Security 2 3 hits

Strangeglove is up!

Is it correct I can see inside the room fine but not outside (through the ward)
-14.. so how do I roll negative dice

Lain LOL! The only penalty for looking around inside is -2 Distracted and -1 from the strobing. At this point you automatically fail at a Perception Test for anything outside of the ward unless you go a Long Shot - spend a point of Edge and then just roll Edge in dice.

If the reduction from the ward brings you exactly to 0 I would give blurry but obvious (there are two people, one large table, etc) but if in the negative then its a brick wall to your astral senses.

Emilio points to Shin while asking Strangeglove what he wanted to do. The question was directed to SG but sent as a group message, so everyone'd know what his answer is and thus what's up.

Perception: 3 + 4 + 3 (visual mods) + 2 tacnet - 2 distracted = 10d6 = 10d6.hits(5)=1

Let's edge that. Re-rolling 9d6 = 9d6.hits(5)=1

Wow. Total of 2 hits.

Fat Man Physical perception: Intuition (6+1 for Psyche)+Perception(1)+Visual specialization (2)+Vision Enhancement (3)-Distracted(2)=11d6. Fat Man does have flare compensation (contacts). http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3824587/ 3 hits.
Fat Man Astral perception: Intuition (6+1)+Assensing(4)-Distracted 2 = 9d6 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3824590/ 2 hits for anything outside the room, automatic failure for anything inside the room.
Shen Astral perception: Intuition (6) + Assensing (6) - Distracted (2) = 10d6 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3824593/ 5 hits for anything outside the room, automatic failure for anything inside the room.

Perception, Visual: Intuition(5)+Perception(2)+Visual Specialty(2)+Vision Enhancement(3)+Astral Interferance(-2)+Distraction(-2) = 8d6.hits(5) = (2)

Assensing: Intuition(5)+Assensing(2)+Distraction(-2) = 5d6.hits(5) = (2)

if it involves Metahumans that is Q's specialty for +2

Perception 4 + Intuition 4 + Visual Enhancement 3 - 1 AIPS
10d6.hits(5)=5

Forgot about distracted, becomes 3 hits.

Perception for Zero:
Int(3) + Perc(2) + Vis Enh(3) - Dist(2) - Strobe(1) = 5d6 for 1 hit.

Perception for Adeodatus:
Int(7) + Perc(7) - Dist(2) - Strobe(1) = 11d6 for 4 hits.

Perception test for Eklipse:
Int 4 + Per 3 + Enhanced Per 2 + Audio/Visual Enhancements 3 + Tacnet 2 - distracted 2 + Keen ears 1 = 13d6.hits(5)=4 - knocking of last die for keen ears takes visual down to 3.

Leadership test for ordering people around (increase initiative):
Leadership(tactics/strategy) 3 + Cha 3 = 6d6.hits(5)=2 - not enough to make a game mechanic difference.

Perception: 12D -2D for distracted. Has flare compensation. 10d6.hits(5)=1
Bother.

Buddha: Do the kids have any magical effects on them that would trigger SG's glo-wand?
Also, I'm going to wait to see what we're rolling perception checks on before taking my actions, if that's ok with you.

Fleet - Perception: Perception(4) + Intuition(3) + Reakt(1) + Distracted(-2) + Visual Enh (+3) (9d6.hits(5)=3)

Vehicles and drones: Vehicles and Drones (Rotodrone, Jackrabbit(dr), Hyundaix2, Kull, Hyundai) (10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=2)

Ok want to throw out some rules clarifications to make sure everyone is on the same page. First the Heal spell has to be sustained for a number of Combat Turns equal to the Drain value of the spell so while the healing would be instant at the casting it would need to be sustained (taking the associated penalty for doing so) and if the spell was dropped before that time - all the damage would return. In addition, Power Foci add to the dice pool in my games so the extra dice added would be divided up between tests not added to each test in full - the same with Weapon Foci. The rules are not terribly clear on this but I feel the other way it is too overpowered in my opinion.

I have a question for the players - I was recently asked about how I handle situations in the game with characters not telling each other the whole story or truth. In the past I have only required rolls when it was a high tension/dramatic moment or if they were flat out lying. I can see it also being done more rigorously with me calling for rolls at any attempt at evasion or shading of the facts. I wanted to get your feedback on what approach you all would like - I can do either.

Let me know!

Strangeglove it's your action!

Buddha I feel that testing every time someone is shading the truth such as not telling something if no one asked is unnecessary unless there is reason someone would suspect it. For example the first time you meet someone and they dont say they are a dragon doesnt really merit a test, unless they are breathing fire or some other reason to be suspicious.
On the other hand, if asked " are you a dragon" and they say no.. I just like to warm people up like marshmallows.. that might require a bit of a test..
I like to see a little shading and allowing people to become naturally suspicious and roleplay it out.. this game is sorta based on criminals and I think lying and suspicion comes along with it.. making it mechanical every time someone says anything would take a bit away from the game

just my thoughts

My opinion is that if the question doesn't come up, it doesn't merit a test. That said, if someone says something which is not true, even if no one calls them on it, there should be some kind of test.

"I am the head of security at Renraku." (I'm not really.) this should be done as an Opposed Con test, or have a Judge Intentions--do I really believe that I am the head of security?

So, if Cypher tried to tell everyone he was a stable and well-adjusted member of society, there would be a test even if people didn't ask the question. If he says "I'm a great hacker" there wouldn't be a test since it is true. Though others could make checks to see if it was true.

I can see that and my biggest concern is not slowing the game down any more than needed since this medium can move very slowly but I don't want to short change players with social characters or have people feel like they have no way to discern what's going on with other characters in the game.

I could see the "psi-ops" reference in Cypher's post trigger a roll. As far as I know, we weren't assembled by a special forces group.

I can see that, it definitely drags sometimes, I think it ends up being up to the players.. if your character is not a well adjusted member of society, make sure you either give hints away or make an opposed test..
I like that people can or can't figure out my character and role play it.. For example my character appears mundane due to masking.. but he can see the ward. if he attacks the ward or gives signs that he sees it, I think characters should be able to pick up something isn't right.. and could play it out.. but if the minute he appears mundane a roll is made, that would defeat the role playing aspect to it..
With that said im good with whatever you choose

Oh, thanks, SG was going to ask about that, but I got distracted by everything going all to hell.

Buddha: Before SG carries Shin out the door, he's waving his magic detection glo-wand over the kids, because my understanding is carrying someone with a magic effect out through a mana trap is unpleasant? Does the glo-wand indicate the presence of magic on the kids?

Re: Lying.
I'm torn on this one.
I like passive checks for several reasons:
(a) Lairs, especially bad liars, can give themselves away even when you're not suspicious. Passive checks are sort of that "this guy seems like a douchebag" gut feeling humans are so good at.
(b) From a mechanical standpoint, it saves me the trouble of sending Buddha a message every day saying "here are SG's 7 sense motive checks against the other party members, what do I get?" There are in fact people out to get Strangeglove, and he's accordingly paranoid. As a player I find being paranoid tiresome, so I avoid it unless it's explicitly necessary. (SR is not a game for the lazy.)

The only argument against passive checks I can think of is it can make it hard to play a liar. If every time you lie, seven checks are made against you, the odds are against you, even if you're good. I appreciate the joys of skullduggery, and think it should be a valid tactic, and if passive checks make that impossible, then passive checks should be reconsidered. But then maybe that's realistic, I think most liars get found out over a long enough time frame. Lincoln, Barnum, et. al.

I think my preference is actually an explicit assumption that, while we're all psychotic thieves, we're working together unless someone says otherwise. If someone wants to skulldug, then an OOC "I'm skulldugging, act accordingly," so I know I need to explicitly state e.g. "I check my doorways for tripwires before stepping through." I'm fine RPing paranoia, but I don't want to do so unnecessarily because it takes a lot of time and energy.

Either way, I'm flexible.

The Psi-Ops comment would be a perfect example of the Judge Intentions (in my opinion) since Cypher truly and deeply believes it at the moment. I hope that by reading the posts, it has come across as him being crazy. There was a tea ceremony, the reverse seduction, humming an action decker song, a flash to an Information Liberation group etc. most of the time, his crazy has been very minor. This time his crazy was triggered by a vengeful Sprite it to melt his brain, which made it a bit more on the psycho side instead of the eccentric side.

Noted I will post the results IC. So Simple to pull it out and a Simple to pick him up. The moss is dual natured and when forced through the ward was destroyed - sorry.

Surprise Pass
Adeodatus 9 hits
Zero 8 hits
Shen 7 hits
Fleet 6 hits
Cypher 6 hits
Eklipse 5 hits
Jon 5 hits
Emilio 5 hits
Ninja Sex Kitten 5 hits
Fat Man 4 hits (delaying)
Strangeglove 4 hits
Q 4 hits <<<
Security 2 4 hits
Security 2 3 hits

Q is up!

I agree liars get found out over time, but what about people who aren't actively lying just withholding information that was not requested? Understand not wanting to roleplay paranoia all the time because its exhausting but essentially being paranoid is exhausting.. so it sort of should be.. Could make it so people who are actively lying have to roll, but people not saying their entire life story dont unless asked..
For example Jon was assensed and came back mundane.. he wasnt asked, no one told him the results.. should he have just randomly said it? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of masking if you had to roll on top of it for lying?
I think its case by case up to the GM of course (love passing the buck)

Buddha: FYI, Strangeglove doesn't have a glo-wand proper, he's just got a small bubble of glo-moss glued in one of the crevices of his cyberhand. The idea is that it'll glow before he goes to touch magic things, or give him warning if someone casts magic on him. So he just waves his hand over the kids, jedi style.

Lain: You'd really have to blow away a sense motive check to get "Lain is secretly a dragon." But during conversation I might give something like, "There's something different about him," or "He seems totally relaxed and in command" or even "you believe him, but there's something missing."
I'm fine with secret-dragons, but it also seems like someone with a good sense of things might get the hint there's something not-quite-right about a three thousand year old magic reptile disguised as a 12 year old girl or what-have-you. Not Strangeglove, he'd be totally surprised, but Aideen might have a certain itch.

Noted and changed.

Stupid wards. Now I need to buy more glomoss. Nice update tho.