Shoot it! SHOOT IT!!!

You got Al's tree right!

I had thought Overdrive and the Bulldog were at the base of my tree…but he and you would know best, so if I am misremembering, so be it.

How do things look regarding an alternate entrance to the therapy building that is doable quickly but bypasses the bad guys' position?
Asking a lot, but might as well look for one…


So, if the guy that walked into the security hut is a hacker, maybe that is the only reason the alarms haven't gone off - maybe they don't have an inside man…?

I was never quite clear on my own location.

I expect, though, that the distance too them wouldn't be TOO much, for the sake of Al's evac not being too far away, and so that Al could deal with, let's say. "curious" people who decide to check out the van.

Also, would the drone tasked to find the inside man find the hacker?

@LG

Just had a family emergency come up and I am off to the States for a week.

Will still have Internet access, but posting may just be a bit more sporadic.

I'll check in as often as I can - don't let me be an impediment!

Sorry, no time for a full IC, just going to try and answer some questions...

If the drone is tasked to go to the security building it will find the hacker, one other guard standing and four unconscious (LeFey can see the same thing through internal cameras if she thinks to look )

There are other entrances to the therapy building. Large scale bi-fold doors / glass panels lead to several of the day rooms on the west side (away from the entrance) looking out over the lake...

You should be able to move Overdrive's marker pin on the map to wherever you want, anyone with the link has edit rights!

@Aria: Does Collot even have a weapon?

Just looking through the crew's gear, if/when Jan and Lany take off; Ali, Lefey, and Collot collectively have a Pistol and a Taser left to defend themselves...

I suppose Bolo is still technically there, and he has a big bag full of guns he brought we could really use in a pinch.

Considering Rambo here (Jan) only has like 2 Mags (currently loaded) and 2 bullets on him... one for each of us should things going really fraking pear-shaped and the patients turn cannibal to anyone with bio or cybernetic augmentations.

So I guess the better question would be, are Bolos guns still with the HVAC equipment?

In all, he has an Assault Rifle, SMG, and Light Pistol in addition the Heavy Pistol he carries in a quick draw holster. Jan and Lany could use the AR, particularly the ammo, while leaving the rest with the team staying behind.

That's a good call. Also, if allowed, I planned on using starting cash to buy some extra ammo pre-mission

I'm not sure what's gained by the rest of the inside team staying up there. Isn't the plan to hit the interopers in the basement with a pincer attack?

I don't mind. I thought as they aren't combatants it'd be better to come back for them once we've seen if the area is clear/cleared the area for us to get down.

On the comms-off plan: It wasn't to prevent us getting hacked. My thinking was that this place is full of technos who've been cut off from the matrix for a while. If we go down there with active wireless we're going to shine like a beacon, and also might make them all go crazy. The idea is to not move too far in and keep a path clear back to the vent so we can relay communications that way. We can always turn them back on again once is seems like it won't be a problem.

When the drone I sent down there has its wireless on, they were interested in it, but not going crazy. Would make sense to keep up our RFID trail down there, though, both to give them something else to focus on and to ensure that our connections are maintained.

And I'm not sure it's a great idea to leave non-combatants alone with the guys with guns, plus you may well need their skills down there (plus, I suspect they can hold their own well enough to be pretty useful to have around). The frustration, though, is an in-character thing - Overdrive's all rough edges, doesn't really know how to say something nicely.

Quick ditto on that. Al's unsolicited kibbitzing aside, I heartily applaud Mr. J for ROLLING>

Comms on, comms off...
Attack or let pass...
Sneak or go in hard...

Merits to both sides of all of those, but right now I am glad we are in motion.

Besides, I think the GM designed this to be balls out from the start, and i afraid that - pro Shadowrun players all - we have reverted to careful planning mode even from a point mid-run.

Let the action begin!!!

Yeah, it's all good. Character disagreements are all part of the roleplay! At least no-one is overly hot-headed like 90% of my tabletop group. I was the ONLY character who broke from the group and disagreed with the plan to, effectively, murder 30 odd civilians to cover our escape...

@RHat: The comms/drone thing I was taking from page 1 of the IC. Collot suggested that you run the drone dark and then you did from that point, so I was taking that as a cue. I don't think the drone wireless was actually active long enough to know how they're really react to it as they detected it instantly. As an aside, if the other team comes in wireless-hot and we're wireless-dark then the technos are only going to notice one thing. It'll be like stealth-mode

@LG: Lany still has her commlink on, she is ready to roll; I was just waiting for LeFey and Ali to have a chance to respond.

Being responsible for Security on the inside team, Lany is reluctant to leave this lightly armed group so close to the assault team. The whole reason they might not be going is that LeFey and the Mole, Collot, are Technomancers, if they go into that basement and are cut of from the Matrix and the Resonance, they could wind up just like the patients we have been watching on the feed from below.

Perhaps there is another option... we could try and extend our RFID trail to give them a lifeline, the tags are cheap and we probably would have brought plenty of extras in with us. If not, we may have to start working on a plan to get them OUT of the facility.

@Always Overkill

Your idea sounds good to me.
We are not really here to fight, we are here to swap Collot/rescue other people. It seems pretty clear that will be the basement, so leaving them topside is not only dangerous, it is useless. They need to go down.

So if you can extend that trail, problem solved.
And who knows - the captive technos down there might jump onto the signal and all hell could break loose in the matrix.

And if Jan, Al and whoever else want to protect themselves personally by staying dark as individuals, they still can.

Yeah as I said me running dark wasn't for personal protection (I have very little worth protecting), it was just to keep me from shining like a matrix beacon while down there. I don't mind either plan, but I'd suggest leaving bringing the others down until we've at least secured a small area at the front of the vent.

As to the original plan - we need to make a call as to what we're doing here. If we're getting everyone out then there's very little point in bringing Collot in. If we're still trying to insert a mole then getting everyone out doesn't work. Do you think that perhaps we're supposed to get Collot in so this other team can extract him? Just a thought...

@Aria: If you could give me a brief description (IC or OOC) of what I can see from the vent then I can carry on IC. Thanks

Reminds me of my own tabletop group, though not quite as bad as 90%, more like 40%; but sadly the GM seems to reward the hotheads more often than not.

I think you are dead on with having to run wireless dark when we get down there, we would probably be hacked by every TM in range fiending for a hit of the Matrix.

I think getting everyone out is a bit too altruistic and a lot too impractical. What would be even do with them?

The job is to insert Collot, and I think that is still doable. We asked him, and he is still up for it. If a huge firefight is involved, that just masks it, since he wasn't even part of the incoming assault force. So mayhem actually will help us.

There are a couple of other people here we are supposed to find and take out if we can, and that too is probably still doable.

I definitely think we should stick with the original objectives.

And on the altruistic front, I can't help but think the mass breakout would actually be worse...

Yeah, Lany actually mentioned breaking them all out IC, but OoC, I realized it was a bad idea. Lany just had to say it.

As she was a former guinea pig in a Megacorp experimentation facility herself, Lany wishes she could help these people. But she knows that the team has little means to pull something like that off as we are currently deployed for the infiltration job.

Adamu has a point though, most of our objectives at this point are still viable. Aside from dealing with the change of venue and the new threat posed by the assault team, our mission hasn't changed, and we should concentrate on finishing the job.

We can take the whole team with us into the vents, if Collot is still game, and get into position to penetrate the basement. Worst case scenario; LeFey can't go down there without being zombified and has to remain hidden in the Vents when we go down, which isn't that terrible an idea as she will be well hidden and should still be in range and able to support us with her hacking abilities.

I think for the meantime, we can afford to keep comms open while we are making our way down. Once we are down in the basement, we should all go wireless dark (there goes my Reaction Enhancers...), if we don't want to be like a bucket of chum dropped into a tank filled with sharks that haven't been feed in a month.


AFTER the job is done, Lany just might start planning on busting this place wide open... but I think we are going to be here a while, so we'll worry about all that later.

This may be a disconnect error on my part then. I thought the vents were just one shaft straight down into the basement and I was effectively in the basement now, behind a duct. This seems to be incorrect though. Still, no harm in me having mine off now if yours are still on til we get there.

We don't have an exact layout, but I believe the shafts connecting to the basement are further in; as we were set up at the Main Access Vent for the rest of the building's ventilation system. We have already walked through much of it to set up the RFID network, and didn't discover the basement until after we ran our HVAC Diagnostic software.

If the shafts leading down had been right at the entrance to the vents, we would have found the basement even sooner.

Don't worry about it, though; getting your bearings in PbP can be very challenging.

We don't have an exact layout, but I believe the shafts connecting to the basement are further in; as we were set up at the Main Access Vent for the rest of the building's ventilation system. We have already walked through much of it to set up the RFID network, and didn't discover the basement until after we ran our HVAC Diagnostic software.

If the shafts leading down had been right at the entrance to the vents, we would have found the basement even sooner.

Don't worry about it, though; getting your bearings in PbP can be very challenging.

I think I'd rather assume that these are 'there but not there' ...to balance the books... if any of you want to spend your post allowance on guns / ammo then these can be a rationalisation of where this stuff sprung from, or just handwavium them into existance!

You've dropped down onto a mezzanine overlooking an airy chamber...as you can't see it I won't bother describing the carefully detailed AR overlays . As noted a little while back, look at Whedon's Dollshouse for visual inspiration, perhaps The Island too... As I don't have time to IC until at least tomorrow assume there aren't any people staring at you just yet...plenty moving about below though...

I wasn't too specific and I'm inclined not to worry about it too much ...you're there now, that's the important thing

Well that's good enough
Even better I suppose, now that we don't have to strip an absent character of his gear.

Time to do a little shopping; Jan this means YOU!!!
(No offense to Jan's skills, I just don't want us to run out of ammo during the upcoming firefight...)

Hehe. I'm more than happy to spend some. I wanted more anyway but couldn't afford. What is the post allowance?

2,000 nuyen per 2 posts.

And one Karma every 2 posts, as I recall.

Oooo yes, can we spend that too?

lol... I sound like a kid going to the candy store.

@adamu: Brilliant sir. Sending Nikki the Knife to take out their Hacker? I dare say that is brilliant!

Done shopping: 12 posts netting 12k nuyen

Yamaha Raiden w- Gas Vent 3 (2600+600)
-180 Rounds of Explosive Ammunition (1,440) 3 Mags... good Lord ammo is expensive
-180 Rounds of APDS Ammunition (2,160)
-100 Rounds of Stick & Shock (800)
&
-100 Rounds of APDS Ammunition SMG (1,200)
-50 Rounds of APDS Ammunition Pistol (600)

9,400

EDIT: Ooops, can't believe I forgot grenades

2 Frag Grenades (200)
2 Flashbangs (200)
2 Smoke Grenades (80)
2 High Explosive Grenades (200)

9,400+680= 10,080 Nuyen

Well, IF - and only IF - initiating an attack on these guys with the outside crew is a good play - THEN, yeah, hitting their decker is a good move.

Have to see how it goes.

At very least, it denies them Matrix superiority, and keeps them from seeing us on their cameras.

Also, if this hacker has a deck that's not implanted, and chance I could get ahold of it?

Being able to get Sleaze for drones would actually be really handy.

Careful with that. In general, no transferring programs, and using the deck would lose the capabilities of the RCC, if you have one. Can only have a single persona, which means only getting the 'features' from one main device at a time. That said, as long as you reboot your persona, you could use a deck to hack something, and use a control rig to jump into it. Hacking with the deck, then rebooting to the RCC to use it has a problem. All of the hacked marks go away during the reboot. I have a way to get past that, but I'll let you work it out yourself

Nice. I have 2 posts! Easiest 2k I've ever made

In that case I'll buy:
200 AR rounds (400Y)
100 MP rounds (200Y)
30 EX-AR rounds (240Y)
3 Spare Clips for each (30Y)
2 Concussion Grenades (200Y)
2 HE Grenades (200Y)
2 Frag Grenades (200Y)
Rating 2 Med-kit (500Y)

Total: 1970Y subject to grenade availability

@LG: With all that ammo expenditure just bear in mind where you are hiding all those crates of rounds

Spend karma as and when you like...if it needs some IC justification we can manage that, otherwise just assume it was 'always like that'...

@LG: Its not nearly as much as it sounds; for example the roughly 7 mags of AR ammo (60 per mag) could easily be carried in a single tac vest (with room for grenades,) I will do actual count on how many mags she has, but it would all fit in a large duffel, though it would weigh a lot.

Damn ate my Edit.. try 2...

Edit: Final count of 40 Mags (-5 already loaded). With the all the slots in the tac vest, hip, and leg holsters Lany has on under her coveralls, she could probably carry around 16-24 mags on her person. (I will aim lower end here, as Lany is not exactly a full grown male.) I will do the math on exactly how much she brought in with her in the HVAC supplies (the aforementioned large duffel,) and what she would leave behind if she has to ditch the bag. (Which seems completely possible at this point.)

Yeah, I know those rules; there's more issues, too, in terms of not getting things like Sharing anymore, or the rapid switching of jumped in devices. Have to work through control device, jump in while accepting the appropriate limitations, or run the autosofts on the drone.

And I'm guessing you're referring to the "run an Agent on it" trick? Do wonder if you can use Control Device to make a deck do things, though...

The reboot would restart the agent too, so it would loose any marks as well. An agent running on a deck could potentially do the hack on its own after reboot, but any marks it acquired would not be 'owned' by the persona associated with the RCC. Can not use those marks to get access to drones any more than you can have a buddy pass you a mark he acquired. An agent running on an RCC (if that is even valid) does not have any sleaze or attack attributes to do the hacking with. Need a bit more to make it work

Yes control device can get a deck to 'do things' (with enough access), but again the deck would own any marks acquired, not the persona doing the commanding. Maybe. If you own the deck, then you might get the marks that way. I'll have to reread some of the related RAW.

Oh course, all this is precisely what Spoof Command is good for - find the device's owner, get a mark on THAT, and then spoof the device to invite marks from the rigger.

@Lock and Load:

Haven't heard from two of the players in a little over week. Was going to wait for word back before starting the initial Ic posts, but it's been a little while and framework is done. Going to be posting the initial IC this week.

@LG: Hope Lany didn't come across too bossy there, just trying to help move things along. The inside crew has nothing else to do up here, and at the very least they can take cover in the vents for the time being.

Grabbing all the gear people need, and once inside I am planning on giving one of my guns to Collot, just in case we get into trouble before we can insert him.

Also, I have a fun idea to insert my new weapon into the next scene (creative handwavium); it involves something between Lany and Jan during the planning phase, which we of course skipped. I figured it would be interesting to do some backstories about how the crew met and what we did the planning part of the job.

Inquiry to the crew on my karma expenditure: I am torn between three options: raising my Thrown Weapons skill to 2(or picking up Specialization: Grenade), picking up Specialization: Assault Rifle, and raising my Edge.

@LG: I'm thinking, by the way, that if you keep the RFID trail going and run your gear on silent, you should be pretty safe down there - they'll beeline to the first available MAtrix anything, after all, rather than looking to see what else is there.

@Always Overkill: Your Edge is at what, 1? I'd definitely improve that first if so; Edge is pretty critical in SR5. Also:



You might notice that adamu and I already have something going in that vein.

Seems like a good idea to get more of that running - and it's even incentivised, what with the Karma/nuyen rewards.

Yep, that is what I was looking at. Just set the limits so that the offer stays valid long enough to do the reboot. Should be good as along as nothing is rushing things along at that moment, since reboot does take a little time. As a bonus, that mark on the owner goes away during the reboot, but the invite does not.

If you have the Agent doing that, you don't actually have to reboot because you didn't need to run your persona through the deck in the first place. The limitation there, of course, is that the Agent's dice pool is gonna be pretty small.

I thought similarly to this, it's fun to look back before the mission and give a bit of background into the characters. Are people doing this in the Looking Glass thread or the General IC?

On Karma: How much Karma do you have? From the number of posts you mentioned you'd only be able to get Thrown Weapons 2 (4 Karma). Everything else would be over the 6 Karma earned.

For any topic that you are subscribed to, you can see the number of posts made by each participant by clicking the "My Controls" link at the top of the page, then "View Topics" under "Subscriptions" on the left hand sidebar. That shows the current subscriptions on the right side, with columns of Topic, Replies, Views, Last Post. Clicking the replies number for a topic opens a popup window with poster and number of posts for everyone that has posted in that topic.

Alternatively, you can click the number of replies from the subforum view.

Nice, didn't know that. That's handy. I was going from what Always Overkill said, which was 12 posts (now 13), which matches those statistics. My point being that that is 6 Karma, and a Spec is 7, and raising Edge at least 10...

unless Lany has karma left over from character gen

Add about 17 posts from Lock and Load; your total is across all of the IC threads.

Ah, cool. I didn't know these characters had been a part of another game. In that case my original question is valid. How much Karma does Lany have?