Just an FYI,

Since both of those actions would have given you +1 Firewall, which would have been used on your defense test, I rolled another die.

1d6.hits(5)=0

Unfortunately it didn't help you.

option 1 first

Ok, so Full Matrix Defense adds your Willpower

3d6.hits(5)=1

So it is a tie, so the IC fails to hit you.

Now you act at 6.

What would you like to do? Don't forget your free action.

Totally off-topic but Overkill: Do you have Shadowrun Returns? I was a Kickstarter backer and the new Campaign they released last night is set in 2050s Berlin. One of the characters uses the liebling term, made me think of you. I'm an hour or two into it and it is waaaaaaaaay better than the original campaign (obviously they learned a lot from the initial release and some of the tricks the mod community figured out).

I have it too - I'm not that far (just finished the first mission and am tooling around the first area) but it does seem like they took the advice they got from the initial release

Right now between this campaign and my PnP campaign, the Shadowrun Returns is taking a back seat. Then of course there is work and family I have to shoe-horn in there

Honest assessment, do I have time to crack this file before this IC tears my brain asunder?

Haven't tried SR Returns yet, but I heard a lot of good things about it. I heard they were doing Berlin in the 50's with the next expansion, which I love and hate as I was largely getting to describe the Seige of Berlin in whatever context I wanted, now this new material is going to tear mine away from following with SR canon. I was hoping to avoid that.

Kinda funny that a character in there is using the same term as Drave.

I may have fibbed a bit. I didn't actually get to sleep this AM until 4 or so, so I guess I am probably a little more than 2 hours in. They really did a great job from what I have seen so far in interweaving the NPCs and stuff. I just finished a mission against the Berlin Humanis Policlub where I was essentially working for about four different Johnsons at the same time, each having something they wanted related to the mission. I'm very impressed (also the expansion in the cyberware and equipment offerings is nice).

ETA: Overkill, the game seems to be mostly set when the Berlin Flux-State is fairly stable.

Woah Spoiler Alert!!! I'm playing too, don't tell us too much.

Edit: It's all set during SR1 time, in the 50s

I will present facts, and let you form the opinion (since I'm not sure as a GM I should be influencing you decisions directly).

You have this last action before initiative. If you stay, and manage to successfully crack the file, you still need to copy it.

So best case scenario, you will be here until after the first pass of the next combat turn.

That means that the IC will attack you again in IP3 of this combat turn, and then, since it is much faster than you, will probably attack you again next combat turn in IP 1 before you get to go. (and that second attack will see you at a -1 dice pool penalty.)

Sorry, I was trying to limit the identities of the actors. I probably shouldn't have mentioned the Policlub. Hell, I'm not even sure if you can get the run if you aren't a metahuman.

ETA: I would also be interested to see how many different ways one can handle the second mission. I figured out one little Easter Egg in that joint. I was kind of proud of myself.

I don't know if you want my uninformed opinion, but you should probably get out while you can since the camera footage is not that important at this point. You can always come back later too.

Quite unoriginally, I play a (male this time!) elf shaman in dragonfall

I ran through the very first mission as an elf decker (Two-Timer, who I was going to play in this campaign, LOL). But I usually play parallel characters, so I also created my Ork Street Sam (5.56 Frankie) and burned through several missions with him.

SPOILER: Several hours in and I still want to slap the shit out of Eiger.

EATA: I am also impressed with the significant expansion of cyberware/bioware options.

Frak, pull out... too much risk, too little reward.

One day I will get my hands on the IC gods, who continue to spit in my face, and then there will be vengeance.

In all fairness, I think you were operating at a dicepool disadvantage on nearly every single roll in this Host.

Yeah those were some big dice pools the Host was rolling

Overkill, that was not an easy host to mess around with - so no slam on you at all.

In the meantime, the IC post is up, what is next on the agenda?

Was thinking of going after the Tasty Burger footage, but its not overly important since we IDed the shooter already.

If I were working with the DA I would go after it; but that's not our job.

I think the main reason the footage of the Wright murder isn't all that important is because the killers are reportedly dead. If our ultimate goal is getting the remaining (living) killers arrested by the ZDF, we might need to have some evidence (particularly since witnesses seem to have a habit of not wanting to talk/not being able to talk because they're missing/probably dead).

If I might make a suggestion, you might want to take a break for about two hours in game.

Amy should go check on Sam.

Overkill can use the time to research stuff.

Not sure what Grease would do - maybe grab dinner?

At around 4:50 or so, Jack will have finished reading the files from Manuel's house, and be able to communicate that with you.

And then Jack will have a dinner meet with Honeypot (which shouldn't take too long in back and forth posts, depending) - but I imagine he will be done within an hour, and then have some goodies to hand out.

Sounds good to me... not sure how many posts I will be able to get in before I head down to New Orleans. Leaving around 4PM CST. With that said, my afternoon is pretty clear from anything other than analyzing operational reports.

Ok - so just to throw a monkey wrench into things, major flare up at work, someone in billing screwed up, and I have to fix a whole bunch of invoices where we inadvertently billed our customer's the wrong price - what fun

I will probably be unable to post until this evening - Jack, have a great time at Mardi Gras

In the meantime, post up any questions and IC posts that you may want, I'll check back later

It worked?

Success!!!

Overkill strikes again!!!

Grease will have something else he wants to get done in that time frame; otherwise I am fine with moving the storage forward a few hours.
-DrZ

ETA: Btw, Grease (and by extension Overkill & Amy) are in his BMW; I think he loaned the cab to Jack to go to his meet.

I don't remember when it was supposed to arrive, but we had gear coming in soon no?

Yeah, Jack is currently hanging out in the backseat of Grease's cab going over Manuel's notes. At my meeting, I should be picking up a few sets of armor vests as well as Amy's AR Contacts.

@Lobo: Thanks, it's always fun when you're riding (except when it is pouring down rain, even then it's fun).

Ok - so, just to keep everyone on track, please put up IC posts of what you will do for the next 45 minutes or so.

Once everyone has posted that, I'll post the message that Jack sends to you, at which point you can then post what you are doing for the next hour. At that point, Jack will be done with his dinner, and we'll all be on the same time again

If anyone is doing Matrix Searches or something that requires a die roll, go ahead and do so in the OOC.

I'll wait for a post from Overkill before posting more IC stuff when Amy's back to her home.

@Lobo
Is it okay with you if I work up an agreement with some other family in the same building as Amy (same people whose kids Sam's playing with) to take care of the kid during the day until her run is complete? 5-10 /day makes sense? She didn't realize she would be gone from the house for so long, possibly over the course of a week or so, and now she needs help for the 7-year-old girl without a mom.

It is a good question.

Ok, let's look at it from a story perspective, and then from a gaming perspective. From a story perspective, you have this 7 year old child who you've been caring for the last couple of years. At 7, she isn't really capable of taking care of herself, and beyond that, would be desperate for attention from a mother figure, especially since she lost at least her mother to disease (there is no mention of her father in your background, not sure if he is dead or just out of the picture - in fact, decide what the case with that is and let me know ).

So, while you can leave her with a babysitter for a few days, she will probably act out, and not be happy with you if it is a regular occurrence. She needs to be cared for, and with school not in session now (since it is summer), that problem gets exacerbated. (especially since with your lifestyle you can't really sit her down in front of the trid all day - you probably don't even get trideo service).

Now - from a gaming perspective - it is a 9 point negative quality, so there should be a negative consequence to it. The increase in your lifestyle of 30% takes care of her food and schooling, and basic services, but extra babysitting time would come out of your own pocket. 5-10 a day for babysitting seems pretty cheap, not only from the perspective of circumventing the problem, but also from a perspective of how much babysitters get paid in real life. Even cheap babysitters are like $7-$10 dollars an hour.

So, I totally appreciate you not wanting to be left out of the game because your character has to go take care of your kid (especially in a game like this, where missing 3 hours in game could mean missing several days of posting), and I'll support that you can arrange for babysitting just to avoid that negative, but I think that the price has to be more expensive. I'm thinking 50 a day, and Amy would probably not want to spend more than 48 hours away from her if she can help it.

Your thoughts?

First, yeah the dad's out of the picture.

So I understand what you're saying. The game has taken a turn that was unexpected in a way, in which we spend like 12 hours a day on the job, and it will likely go on for a while, which is why I'm trying to address the issue in a more lasting or repeatable way. Amy would like to spend more time with her adoptive daughter and this wouldn't normally be an issue. Most runs are done within 48 hours, but this one goes on and on and taking care of the girl needs to be addressed (which is the whole point of the quality, I know). I think the first two days were handled in way that was logical given the circumstances. But she has to figure something out for more than one day with Kevin and one day at the neighbors'. Something more solid needs to be organized for when the run keeps on going. What I was thinking of was asking a neighbor who has kids to look over her as well. But it's not a contact and I have no quality to account for that, which makes your proposed cost absolutely okay, in my mind, both from a roleplaying/realism and a gaming standpoint. The reason why I had suggested a relatively low amount is because we live in a very poor neighborhood, and I'm just asking someone I know who also has kids, I would do the same for him.

Anyway, the whole situation is obviously not ideal for Sam, and I do intend to take care of the girl. But this isn't kindergarden RPG. I think for the enjoyment of the game we need to keep a balance between discussing all those details and actually playing and having fun. So I suggest that for now we go ahead with the 50 nuyen a day to some guy who has kids of his own, and something better will be set up for next run. I haven't shared this btw, but I have made recently a wish list of all the things I'd like to buy and spend karma on, and at the very top is getting a better lifestyle for Amy and Sam, at least low, and maybe even medium eventually. She'd also understand better what the shadowrunning life is about, and know that she needs to find a trusty sitter asap, unless Kevin agrees to do it responsibly. With the better lifestyle, Sam will also get access to better commodities and entertainment.

Sorry if this is a bit disorganized, but anyway, I feel like we're pretty much on the same page, I just wanted to explain how I see this panning out now but also in the future. Do you agree with this overall?

I'm on board

Ok, so here is how I see it.

During this two hour break in game, why don't you write up a scene where you talk with your neighbor and arrange the care at the proposed 50 a day rate.

Who knows, he could develop into a contact, and potentially be used for a plot hook in later adventures (he has a problem, or his kid has a problem, etc).

In addition, another thing you could do is during the frequent driving around you guys do, write up a brief conversation between Amy and Sam over the commlink. It can be done in one post, covering a 10 minute phone call, where you get to check in, see what's going on in her day, etc. Even if you did this once or twice per in-game day, that would be a good way to keep the two connected at a minimal impact on everything else.

As for your list of future purposes, looks like Amy's non-nuclear family will be following in the Jefferson's footsteps and movin' on up

Will look forward to see how you spend your cash & karma.

Yes I regret not having done this already. This will definitely come in more often. I'd like to play better the part where I worry for her, that kind of thing. It's not really in my nature irl (I don't have kids.. yet at least) and it's a part of the character that I absolutely had in mind when I created her, so will try to improve on that. Thanks for the coaching


Yeah, I see her wanting to offer better things for her kid then she had in her own life. Yet she'll never be able to get away from the fact that her roots are the streets and that she doesn't trust any form of government/corporation. Oh and of course she'll invest a portion of the money gained into becoming a better runner, of course, as she hasn't hesitated to do with buying some gear with first few nuyens she put her hands on.

Drave needs to start a search on Lynx and his crew and see what he can discover.

@Team: Sorry for not checking in again last night. To be perfectly straight with you all, I am having some serious relationship problems with the Mother of my daughter, and it is requiring a lot of my attention. I am still around, but my posting may slow down for a bit, at least until I can get things stabilized here. I am sorry for any difficulties this may cause, I had no intention of letting my personal life interfere with this.

@Overkill, no worries - and sorry to hear about your relationship troubles

That is certainly more important that a game - You check in when you can, and I'll make sure the story moves on as necessary.

Hope it gets better soon.

I'm sorry, this is a busy weekend for me, it turns out. My next IC post will be either tomorrow or Monday morning.

Happy Monday morning

So, here is where we are:

1) We are going to fast forward until 5:00.

2) Overkill will drop Amy off at home, and then head back to his own place to grab a meal. Information on Lynx is considered Hidden - so a base time of 12 hours. If you run your Browse program, that cuts it to 6 hours base, do you want to try this later, or perhaps get your Agent to do it? The downside is that it is a threshold of 6 - so the odds of you being able to find it are slim, given the number of dice you roll (Computer 5, Intuition 3, Hot Sim 2). Up to you - hopefully things are going better than the other day. Just let us know when you can.

3) Amy, go ahead and post your IC post including Overkill dropping you off, not sure how quickly he'll be able to post, and no need for you to wait on just him dropping you off.

4) Grease, your message to Murphy will be sent on schedule, he will not respond before 5:00 - so just post something indicating what you do until then.

5) Jack, in a little while I'll post your arrival at Mccormick's, and your message to the group.

At that point, you can then discuss Jack's findings IC over the 'links, should you wish, Jack and I can finish his meeting with Honeypot, and then the team can decide which route to go.

As always, any questions, please ask

Sorry for falling off the radar; I am visiting family this weekend with limited connectivity. I will get an IC post up sometime this morning.
-DrZ

Sounds good to me. I should be on for most of the day. Have an issue with one of my dogs that I am going to have to run to the vet for a bit, but other than that should be free. Today and tomorrow are usually dead down here since most people are off/vacationing.

No kidding, Threshold 6 on ten dice is a dubious proposition at best, even with a retry from Edge. Any other methods of bumping up my Search pool (aside from karma investment?)

Nothing that I'm aware of, sadly. Some stuff is just tough to find on the matrix. Although a specialization in Matrix Search would probably be the cheapest pickup, karma-for-dice wise.

Odds-wise, you would hit around 5-6 successes if you used Edge for a second chance. Might not be a bad expenditure, but it depends on what else you have planned for this evening.

The Lynx search was the primary goal, so if it will take 6 hours minimum I will do it tonight,

Thought on the meantime, any penalty for hacking the Tasty Burger Host from the Warrens? I do still need to grab that footage.

As long as you're running signal scrub and hop to the local grid, I don't think you should have an issue since it's a Host.

You ignore noise penalties for distance to a Host - so you would only have environmental penalties.

The warrens is Noise 2
Commerce city is Noise 1

Signal Scrub and running your Datajack wirelessly would reduce all 3 points of Noise to 0.

Btw, with regards to environmental penalties, I think I'm going to make it so that you take both, unless you are in the same location as the target.

So, if you bother were in the Warrens, you wouldn't take -2 for you being there and -2 for it being there. I think it keeps in the theme of having the decker with the group more often and not sitting at home all the time.

ETA - This also should not take you very long in game to do - a matter of minutes.

@Jack,

I forgot that you were buying the dinner tonight - I didn't do that to spite you or anything

Not at all, Jack is semi-chivalrous enough that he would have tried to figure out a way to pay for it himself even if she insisted on paying for it.

ETA: I'll be out in about 15 minutes probably until at least 1200 or 1300 CST. I have to run around and do some vet stuff.

Ok - good luck with your dog

In the meantime, let's flesh out Honeypot for a bit. (it will help me frame her answers).

I know she is an ex-pro turned fixer. Given her former profession, she probably has ties to one of the Mafia families since they control the prostitution business in the Sector.

My thought was that she has contacts in the computer industry (given her specialty), and shies away from the gangs since they handle most of the weapons dealing - and she has a penalty for firearms.

Any thoughts?

Sounds good to me. My main hope in speaking with her was that I was hoping there might be some commonalities in smuggling across all of the different types of contraband. Maybe not necessarily knowing the movers and shakers in the gangs/drug-dealers, but more of an overview on smuggling operations from her perspective. I imagine she has to get some of her product moved in/through/around the sectors.

Oh, quick correction. She's supposed to be a fence rather than a fixer. She trades in goods only, probably a psychological thing given her past profession.

A-3, S-6, D-5, F-5

Programs: Signal Scrub, Browse, Virtual Machine: Baby Monitor, Stealth

Full VR, Hack onto the local grid, find the host, find the file, make sure file is not databombed, crack the file, get the file, GTFO...

That's kind of standard, we will ditch Browse as soon as I find the footage, and put in Sneak.