Right, I'm up to date on events and ready to go, but I'm a bit confused now as to where I am since Aria moved me to avoid a gassing

From where I was my plan at least would have been to try and exit through the way the invasion force entered, once they'd cleared that corridor. If I could have pinned them back into a room they were breaching to give me time to make a break for it. That should be closer I think that trying to head back to the others?

@Tribes

Seems like we've temporarily come to a halt, so I guess some OOC planning is in order.

First point we have to consider is do we trust this "Nana", if that's her real name? For all we know, she could have been a really good con artist and be leading us into a trap. Everything she's done seems genuine, so I'm inclined to believe her, but we should still maintain some healthy paranoia.

Let's assume we trust her for now. Based off of my knowledge of the area, respirators are a must. There's also no real security surveillance that we can utilize to gather information from afar. If anyone doesn't have a respirator, they're going to need one. Even better would be Gas Masks, which aren't necessarily rare, but would attract attention. However, to be on the safe side, a chemsuit might be useful; but that might be going too far. Any thoughts?

Since Nana is going to lead us to this school, perhaps we need to get some more information from her. Such as an approximate number of thugs/guards that may be there. Even if we catch them by surprise, that will be gone as soon as we start shooting, and it would probably be better if we could sneak in, get Steamer, then get out. However, if we have to fight, it would be extremely useful to know what sort of opposition we will be facing. I suggest we ask her about how many there are, what kind of weapons they might have, and how paranoid would they be. The first question I've covered, the second question will help us determine if they have heavy resources (unlikely, but still useful), and the third one will help us know if they will be alert, or if we can catch them off-guard. If this paper is that important to her, I'm sure she will have some answers for us.

We're planning to do this mission with 4 people, including Nana, so far? That means we probably need to be extra careful, as I don't think we have the firepower to brute force our way in. Hopefully Nana can help us get in through the back door or something. We should probably think about how we are going to get out as well. Assuming that Steamer is wounded or has no ability to fend for himself, then he's going to slow us down a bit. Do we have some way to make a quick getaway; such as a bike or car?

Speaking of Steamer; we should plan to bring supplies for him as well. I think a Gas Mask and a Medkit, I think Silkie has one, would probably suffice to keep him healthy enough to get out of the complex. Perhaps we should consider getting a Rating 3+ Stim Patch as well, in case he's unconscious? I'm not sure if a Trauma Patch is necessary if we have a Medkit.

Anyway, this is a first draft/OOC musings and thoughts. Any suggestions for refinement are highly appreciated.

It's about to become TLG
I moved you back the way you'd all come to bring people together - you would have had to fight through the rear echelons (the TM you were supposed to snatch etc) to go out the 'front'

@LeFey et al: a minute might be a bit longer than you have in the ducts, gas is incoming! You could leave the matrix tether in place to maintain access to the host from above and then destroy it as you leave?

Silkie's persuasive reasoning probably inclines her to trust Nana with the info they've been given...of course that's only going to be true of the questions we've asked not the ones we haven't! Other than that I don't think we should trust her much and shouldn't trust her not to give us away. I'd prefer her to be in the hands of the Tribe rather than tagging along (she was a bit too eager to offer to lead us there for my liking!). We do need some more intel from her about the opposition though, if Maus waves that paper at her we'll see. Oh, and I want a photo of the contents of the paper for future reference!

I think I have the med stuff for Steamer but we'll need a spare respirator. Gas masks and chem suits are probably a bit OTT (although we can probably find some in the crime mall if we look hard enough!)

@Tribes



Agreed on the spare respirator. The chemsuit I think is over the top, but Gas Mask is certainly worth thinking about. Both Gas Masks and Respirators have an Availability of -, so they are fairly common. A Gas Mask is actually cheaper than a rating 5 or 6 Respirator, and it's a little more effective. The only problem is that it is super suspicious looking IMO. Gunner has some funds he can shell out to get a Respirator or Gas Mask, but he's not super rich so that's probably the farthest he can go in terms of buying gear.

@Tribes - no point in slowing PbP down further for "easy stuff."
I think you have all gotten the message that you'll need respirators, and if you are going back to the compound first anyway, you can be provided with those there, along with any other BASIC gear requests, and probably basic transport as well (perks of being part of an organization).

The paper remains a roleplaying issue - everyone seems to want it, but Maus is the only one who has it.
Sounds like there is still a bit of IC work to do there.

More info from the woman: if you just have questions, tell me what they are - she will spill under Silkie's tender ministrations. I'll IC her response once I know what you want - partially dependent on what she thinks she may get out of it vis a vis things that are of value to her - and then you can make of her words what you will.

So get paper and woman resolved.

That done, give me a final word on any preparations or further legwork you're happy to have done OOC, and we will go forward from there.

@Tribes

If I wasn't clear enough in my IC posts, Maus has no plans on giving up the piece of paper to Nana until she leads them safely to Steamer. She's all for the deal Silkie made her for access to the Mechanicals kitchen and cash but she won't hand over the paper but would let Silkie look at it, photograph it or whatever it takes to seal and finalize that deal.

@Tribes



Sorry about that. I know people are busy, but I figured it would be good to try and stimulate the game with some OOC planning. Didn't mean to slow anything down.

Also still curious on whether we should bring a Stim Patch along. Steamer may be unconscious when we get to him, and that ought to perk him up long enough to get out and back to the Mechanical's compound. For adamu, would that be Basic gear, or something specialized to seek out? Silkie could probably get a rating 4 one in 6 hours max, likely less; whereas a higher rated one would be more. Unless the Mechanicals would provide that, but it does get up there in Availability.

Aaand I realize I'm probably slowing stuff down again. I just like to stick with rules and that makes me probably way too detail oriented. Damn.

As for Nana, I think I'm with Aria/Silkie. It would be best if she was with the Mechanicals rather than leading us; seems too easy to lead us into a trap. As for questions, here are the only ones I can think of at the moment, although I'm sure there are more we can figure out. 1. How many people (approximately, she probably doesn't know the exact number) are there in the school; 2. What are they armed with and what kind of armor are they wearing; 3. Have they set up some juryrigged surveillance system; and 4. Does she know where in the building Steamer is? That list isn't in any particular order of importance.

Dude, you are not slowing anything down.
If anything, you are giving this game a shot in the arm, and I appreciate it.

I wasn't implying that you were getting ahead of things at all - just reiterating a laundry list of things to get done in order to move forward.

All this planning is no problem at all.


R3 stim patches will be no problem - the Mechanicals will supply a few of those.

Questions for Nana noted - we'll see if you all come up with more by the time we resolve the piece of paper issue/get back to compound, then I'll do the IC post where she lays it all out (in her own way).

Would the gas mask buy her any time? Otherwise, that would have to be her only option.

It will if it isn't a contact neurotoxin...how evil do you think I'm feeling?

Heh, point taken. Those gunmen are probably dressed that way for a reason. She'll have to make a run for it before continuing to cover their tracks.

@LG: Where's this fire escape that's been mentioned? I think I missed something. Have we got people upstairs still?

Oh, and I'm in for TLG

Glad you are in.
Hey, it occurs to me if Jan is pissed at Al for going and helping the girls right as we were about to spring our ambush (I would be!), and if they are both going on to the next run, that would be a great scene to do…just a thought for the future.

Anyway, as i understand it, we have to go up a freight elevator out of the sub-levels and into the surface buildings, then there is a fire escape out of those buildings.
As I understand it.

@Aria
Can Jan/vent people/Al link up anytime, or should we wait for something?

Likewise, can we post gathering and leaving, or keep posting in baby steps?

Post yourselves out now, no need to baby step it...although feel free to play up the Starwars slamming of blast doors behind you!

Link up at your transport outside...the bad guys are all busy inside... you'll need to lose their spotter drone as you exit but I don't anticipate that being a problem for you!

I will copy links to existing characters and start links for the new ones for TLG today hopefully! IC on the way too as a starting point

Hello!

I'd like to put forward two characters for Tribes:

1) Sam Stone "Weird Sam" - Transgender, Human, Rigger and a BTL junkie. She dreams of hitting the jackpot wih a nice run and leaving the barrens to live the high life ad get all the gene-mods and biosculpting she wants. In the meantime, she lives by running a salvage and junk shop called "Sam's Junk". She's a bit paranoid, so the place is fortified like a bunker. Member of the Mechanicals.

2) Faye Wilkins "Deputy Wilkins" - burned out veteran soldier from Tir Tairngire, discharged from the Ghosts with a diagnosis of PTSD after her panicking on a mission caused the death of her squadmates, or at least she blames herself for it. Since then, she's been wandering aimlessly around North America trying to drown her shame in synthcohol. She settled in the Barrens a few months ago and started acting as a sort of pacifier and protector for both tribes, without being part of either. That earned her the nickname of "deputy". She's almost always both broke and drunk.

Suitably dystopian sounding characters welcome on board!

@All: I've posted up the beginnings of TLG despite the fact that you still have the opportunity to close out LG...I thought it would be useful to use it as a piece of advertising for 2075. And yes, the text is very similar to the last post of CoP

I may edit in more detail into the second post depending on how vague I'm feeling. Also feel free to post IC in the gap between eTher turning up and the spiel about the run...

@Adamu/Al: sorry about making you meet in VR, but it's the only way

Heh, more's the fun!

Have to ask, where is our meat during this?
Are we altogether jacked in somewhere, or were we to arrange our own entry to matrix (from wherever) and then be taken there?

These are way cool.

Were you going to have one join the ongoing "run" looking for Steamer?
Post a sheet at least just for that one and we will work you in.

Sweet!

Looks like the GM has rolled out the red carpet for us to fluff post our way out of here!

I just posted the non-wounded five (3 PCs, 2 NPCs) linking up, so I'll leave it to others to post the exit from the building.

Just talking, but it would be fun to have the story rounded out with a wiping the cameras post, and maybe Haze or anyone with a big gun could take care of the spotter drone Aria said we needed to nuke.

After that it is just linking up with transport. For that, Overdrive and the Bulldog are gone.
But Nikki's Bentley is down by the front gate somewhere, which is southeast of the building (bit of a hike), and Al's truck is on a street just a bit north of the fenceline (which has a hole in it). Anyone that wants can ride with me (though past three people you will have to ride in the truck bed).
Ericen, did Haze also bring wheels...

@TLG

I assume Silk is a free contact? I'll finish up backgrounds of contacts and character tonight; sorry I haven't gotten to it sooner.

Yep bulldog Van and I will write yo a exit post as well.

@Tribes

What are we planning to do, going forward? I think the general consensus is to take Nana back to the Mechanical's complex and get more information out of her from there?

Not sure how we're going to handle the paper, but that's not really up to Gunner. That's mostly between Silkie and Maus.

@TLG

I'll try and get a post up tomorrow; how, if at all, do we know any of our fellow runners?

Also, just for curiosity's sake, does Al have Simsense Vertigo? Seems like a bad combination to have Alcohol, party food, and Simsense Vertigo.

This is the main point i have been allowing time to get resolved IC, as it seems important to the players.

But if there is no movement by early next week I will probably make some executive decisions and move things back to the compound to expedite final prep.

@ Aria: I'm interested in Deep Rising if and when it's going to be played.

@ adamu: would it be OK for me to write a post in the general ICE consisting of a little vignette between my two tribes characters?

Absolutely.

The General IC thread is open to anyone in Aria's campaign to post their own fluff stories (me personally, I get Aria's okay before I post anything that will impact my character in game terms).

In fact, if you scroll through you'll see that various other players have posted their own stories.

Any limitations in terms of timelines? Does it all have to be set in the 2072-2075 era? Just curious, as the thread is fascinating to me.

Not at all, I'm sure there are at least a couple of posts in there that go back several years...

@TLG: Thanks for getting the ball rolling! Not sure about the dark blue font, makes my eyes ache on my phone lol. Before moving things on we'll let anyone else pipe up, in the meantime feel free to do some OoC plotting and I will try and answer questions. Adamu recently queried whether a group conflab to get to know each other was in order and I agree that would be quite good to do IC. Once the main meet is over Aria will let you continue to use the game world or you can assume a safe(ish) physical meet if you prefer (once Al has cleaned himself up, wouldn't make for a good first impression in his current state!)

@TLG

Yeah, the Dark Blue font is annoying, but I can't find any other colors I like. Sorry about your eyes

I think I trust Silk (our common contact), but not so sure about our employer. Now for some conspiracy theories!

This Dragon icon mentioned that the recent run was on his facility in Bellevue. He also mentioned that their servers, which he looked through, have apparently been wiped clean. Beyond even his, what seems to be considerable, power and resources to recover. Phantom wouldn't know, but OOC, it seems a little concerning that Silk had sent the previous runners on a run against our new employer, and now we are working for him? I know that after a run, the security footage is basically a resume for runners, but the only way I can think that this would come back is if our current employer (who is hiding behind the dragon icon) was dishonored/disqualified due to the run against him. That's why he doesn't have clearance or the ability to recover data that he needs to take back his position.

Anyway, I can understand the need for proxies and deniability, but the whole "For reasons that do not concern you, I cannot access the information" seems like a good way to get us killed. I know it's still early, so not everyone has checked in yet, but we really need some negotiation going on for more information. Just because Shadowrunners may be deniable assets does not mean they will just take a job that can get them killed without some more information. If this person who has considerable power (and likely resources with that hint of a generous reward and the dragon's superior icon) is unable to get something; we need to know at least why. Is it politics? Inner-Corporate feuds? Or is it just that his "enemy", whoever that may be, is simply more powerful and resourceful? If it's the latter, that is something we absolutely need to know, because that can easily get us killed.

Because Al is all about the first impressions.

Anyway, just to confirm - we are all jacking into this meet individually from our own locations, then.
No meat meeting as of yet.
Is that correct?

I assumed so, yes... Some of you might be together for mutual support, although again, hopefully nobody is with Al right now

Actually, that might have been fun.

But no, if we are jacking in from our own locations then Al would be at home, and alone as always.

Anyway, in the IC thread, many of us have posted our impressions of the situation.

But are we now waiting for eTher to continue its speech/explanation, or are we supposed to ask questions, get the location/guard schedules, etc?

Probably worth composing an OoC list of questions, assume you can confer without eTher hearing you. Silk will also offer a rare face to face meeting with herself in a secure location if anyone wants to discuss that way

Cool cool cool.
That is a quick way to get it done.

Teammates - anyone want to start tossing out questions?
I'll be happy to compile them into one list if that is helpful, once we have a few.

And once we have a list, do we want to get into it here with eTher, or just say "Yes Master" at this point, then hash out details in the meat with Silk?

Either way is good with me...

@TTLG - Yes, please anything but the dark blue... I don't want to end up like Al over here. need to get my post up (tomorrow most likely) and add to the list of questions.

@Tribes - I'm waiting on a Silkie post to resolve the paper issue so we can keep moving. I suppose I can push forward too if Adamu or Aria don't beat me to it first.

@TLG



Well, I don't know if we want to start in on questions with eTher or wait for some of our companions to chime in. I think we're supposed to have 7 or 8 of us, and I've only seen 4 so far.

Anyway, questions. Why is it unnecessary for us to know why he can't obtain the information? Sure, it's a standard reason for hiring Shadowrunners, but if it's because that information is shielded by something (or someone) with more power than our seemingly resourceful employer, then that is something we need to know. Because it can get us killed.

Any access codes and/or prints, biometrics etc. would be good to get.

Any information on how far we can go (as long as we don't track back to our employer) would be good. (S)he wants us to find out who subverted the original purpose of the facility and why they did it. We might end up stepping on toes or uncovering information that other's don't want us to have, so we might need to defend ourselves or something. It's just good to know how much we can destroy if necessary, or how much we have to leave intact.

Those are the only questions I can think of at the moment.

-----------------

For color, how about Red? Still kind of harsh on the eyes. Lime? I think I like Lime, I'll go with that.

You ask me, four of seven is GREAT for PbP!

Anyway, thanks for the questions.
If anyone else chimes in, I'll compile and streamline.
If not, we can just go with those.

And if you are into using colors, the lime green si much easier to read!

Okay, based on Aria's last post, looks like Silkie has been shown the paper. I wasn't clear on whether that would happen, and didn't want to railroad, but with that out of the way.

As I mentioned earlier, the paper looks a lot different to educated Silkie than it did at first glance to Maus.

It seems an awful lot like some sort of family tree/geneaology thing.

No names or patterns pop out at first glance, but anyone that has seen the paper can make a test using Logic + Intuition (+ any relevant skill if you think you have one).

@TLG



Four of seven is great; I'm sadly starting to realize that.

I started on ShadowGrid, and almost everyone uses colors there. I also kind of like it because I can differentiate things with color, and not have to be confused between thoughts and speech, or speech and Astral.

I've become lazy, used to colour at least speech and comms, now I just tend to colour the time stamp and have done (just bold on SG ), I'm happy for anyone to use whatever convention they like as long as I can read it

I confess I made a bit of a reach there too but hopefully Vegas doesn't mind...

I too am getting freaked out by the cultish sounding ramblings of Nana

Roll...HOLY SHIT!!! 6d6.hits(5) → [6,5,5,6,6,5] = (6) ...you can check the link in my sig for proof!!!

Wow... a 1/729 chance of getting that. That is impressive.

Hey, sometimes you get a great roll!

Back when I was seriously GMing here, I just had people roll regular dice and list them in the sequence they rolled them (so I could take off dice for mods).

Never was a problem, never doubted them, and no accursed links!

Okay, I paid up on that amazing roll in the IC.

And just to be fair, resurrected another clue. Seemed only fair since the player that received the clue is no longer active in the game.

@Tribes, sorry for the rush and the rather blatant clue bashing but I didn't want to hold anyone else up from posting, including Adamu for expanding on the hint

@Through the Looking Glass

No one has chimed in for several days, though of course additions always welcome, but as requested by GM - the Question List

Players - we are planning a bit of pre-run IC RP, but to speed things along, shall we assume that people on previous runs in this series have shared what they know? Have the LG vets spoken to new faces about the last run?
And RD, were you on a related run back before LG? If so, any cool infobits that Morgan might have shared?

OOC questions (bookkeeping junk that we will need to know but may or may not make it into IC; also things that are basically just universally known or findable on a quick public search)

- Location - can we assume that we are given an address/grid coordinates for this data farm?

- Once we have that, what sort of location is it? Being Fort Lewis, is it on a military base? In one of the many large wilderness areas? Is it in he open-to-the-public areas around the zoo?

- Can we assume we are provided with the access codes and guard schedules that were mentioned?
If so, do they also come with some sort of layout of the site (neither access codes or guard schedules are much use without that…)?

- Can we assume that information is given at some point on where/when this secondary briefing iwth Silk is to take place?

IC questions -

- What data is sought (already asked IC by LeFey)?

Next questions - these could be with eTher or later with Silk.
What do you think, 8-bit, they are mostly from you?

- Why can't eTher get it himself? What is so powerful it prevents him?
- (if he won't answer that) why won't he tell us?
- Are there any limits on our methods or how much mayhem we cause?

@Tribes

I've been rather busy the last few days, so I've just been checking in a bit. It seems like Gunner is likely just going to sit back and wait for their transport, as Silkie seems to have figured something out with Nana.

@TLG

Like I said, I've been rather busy. Sorry about that.

OOC questions look good. I don't see anything wrong with them.

For IC questions, I'm having trouble deciding. I'm not sure whether asking some of those questions would be poking our noses into business we have no reason to look into (especially since he already told us it is of no concern), but on the hand, if (s)he is withholding information from us, that could get us all killed. I think the third question (What limits do we have on how to get the job done) can be asked directly to eTher, while the others might be better suited for Silk. Silk might actually give us answers to the first two, I have the feeling eTher isn't going to open up a line of discussion he specifically closed because (s)he doesn't want to talk about it.

Then again, I might be overthinking it. It probably can't hurt to try and ask eTher for more information.

@TLG

Well considering a "bait and switch" run or lack of information almost got the original runners killed on the first run, I can say Ali isn't going to take eTher's dismissal of us not needing to know/our concern lightly and will either team up with LeFey after the meeting to try to carefully dig a bit or try to push for more info at the meeting.

@TLG: Do you want me to handle a scene from here or do you want to ask some questions of eTher IC? Happy either way. I will bump you along to the meet up with Silk and we can always flashback if anything needs resolving...eTher doesn't seem that communicative, Silk on the other hand is renowned for answering questions where she can (she was a successful runner herself less than a year ago!), the cloak and dagger sh*t is best kept to the run itself rather than the planning stage!