Shit... that's pretty close.

Also:

Is that guy standing or sitting? Now that I think about it, I don't think we ever assensed these dudes, did we?

Scoundrels.
It's pretty clear you need to buy an autosoft for each type of vehicle (i.e. doberman, fly-spy, etc.). I bought the extra autosofts because I wanted them to be able to run them without having to run them through my RCC.


Tactics wise, I will point out the Doberman is a rolling, barking suppressive fire machine. If need be I can pin people down while the rest of the group retreats/flanks, depending on your preference.

I imagine the rest of the park denizens who aren't direct allies will adopt a "none of my fraking business" attitude to the sound of suppressed automatic fire.

He is sitting down, leaning back.

I assumed that Amy would have assensed them - all are mundane as far as she can tell.

Cool, I know that was her default stance, just didn't notice anything to that effect stated one way or the other.

@Lobo: What does the area to the south look like? If we had to boogie, could we exit the park that way? The map makes it look like houses of some kind.

Per my IC post, Grease is targeting the ones approaching us. If we need to know specifics, it'll be the one Jack isn't.

-DrZ

It is a series of houses - some literally falling apart - some seemingly occupied (although there are no lights on at this time.)

You could certainly move south through the backyards and then out onto the street if you needed.

Yes, thanks.

I've been thinking about what illusion to create. I'm considering to use Phantasm to make a psychotic homeless man appear away from us. He'll be talking to himself and gesticulating. If they walk towards him he'll move away in such a way that they will follow him in a path going around us and away. He'll appear like a lost insane dude to them, so I assume they want to get him out of the park. I'd make him run fast as soon as they approach too much, to avoid interactions that could give away the illusion. He'd just look completely scared of them, and he'd run just fast enough so they couldn't catch him.

Does that sound reasonable Lobo?

Thanks, good to know. Any fences that we would have to kick down so that RHex could get through?

No - this is the Warrens, the fencing has all rotted away at this point.

It does.

Now, before we do anything:

1) Goons A and B are the ones walking perimeter, Goon C is by the firepit.
2) Right now A&B are about 50 meters away. At what point do you cast the spell?
3) Jack is targeting Goon A, Rhex B, I guess I will have Overkill double up on Goon A?

If they resist the spell, then we will move to surprise tests (and all of you will get the +6 Ambush bonus)

That makes sense. The AK has the highest chance of dropping someone with one shot. Hopefully Jack and Overkill's combined fire can take down Goon B.

To reiterate, I just need to know how far away Goons A and B are when Amy casts her spell - then we can get this show on the road

Although, potentially, the show could just be them leaving you alone as they chase the illusion of an insane homeless person.

:crossing fingers:

Let's hope so, combat will happen soon enough so I'm not worried for the combat oriented character(s)

Well it's hard for me to define but 50m might be the right distance. I'll have the illusion begin a fair distance away, something like this:


G: Goons
I: Illusion
X: us and the digging site

The homeless guy would be on his knees invoking something or someone at first. I'll time it to be somewhere they're not looking at the time, roughly as shown above.

Now for some rolls.

Casting Phantasm F5
14d6.hits(5)=4

Hopefully 4 hits will be good enough.

Drain 4S
13d6.hits(5)=8

She even rolled 6 6's!

And they fail the resistance test.

6d6.hits(5)=2, 6d6.hits(5)=2, 6d6.hits(5)=1

IC post up shortly.

I'll let you post the interaction, otherwise there would be too much back and forth. Let me know what you need from me, I think I've described what I have in mind pretty well 2 posts ago in OOC.

Nice one!

Any reaction to what is going on so far?

Holding my position.

Same.

So if I get this straight they are following him around our position, is that right?

If they're well past us, I'll have the illusion run much faster and away from the scene to the edge of my vision, hoping that when they resume their patrol, they don't come back near us to resume.

ETA: I might want to bring the illusion back later though, will that require a new spell?

Yes, if you make the illusion go away now and then appear later, it will require a new spell.

Bear in mind, if all of a sudden the man vanishes, or starts moving at 40 mph, the guards are going to figure out something is rotten.

P.S. I've updated the map and loaded it to the dropbox to show where they are.

How close to the illusion are they, and is there a place for him to hide?

I'm thinking that I can make him run really fast and for them to lose visibility on him, at which point I'll have the illusion stop. If they go about looking for him, that buys us some time.

ETA: Also about the running fast, it'll just be surprising to see a lunatic run fast for an extended period of time. It will be as though he's sprinting relentlessly without having to stop to take a breath. That should let him outpace them easily.

One of them appears to be about to shoot him. If he fires his weapon, it's probably going to alert everyone.

I personally don't think that's a big deal, even if the bullet goes through him (very hard to spot that). And well, I bet there are shots fired in that park at night every so often, not much we can do about it.

So I guess I'll ask the question that now seems kind of obvious to me. Amy tasked the spirit to recover the commlinks. I thought we were going to exhume the bodies, but no big deal. But it does seem like it might change our tactics.

Understanding we're only waiting for relatively small items, is there any reason why where hanging around here? As long as Amy stays within the appropriate distance, she can communicate with the spirit and tell it we've moved locations. Grease and the car can meet us on the street directly south of us and we can cut through someone's backyard and get to the car without being exposed in the park any further.

That's true. But there are pros and cons of doing this. We could be detected as we're leaving, especially without having the concealment power to help us out anymore. Normally we'd just get the heck out, but this will leave the spirit vulnerable to detection. And the spirit itself might be detected as it is leaving to find us... and followed.

At this point, I consider rhex there as fire support. I understand why you may want your meat bodies out of there though.

Wow, a lot to catch up on.

At this point I think we just wait for the spirit to get the commlinks and go, better to leave in one group as opposed to us and the spirit leaving separately, increasing the time for our exposure.

Can I do a Matrix perception check to see if any of their guns are smartlinked?

@ Overkill

First Matrix Perception test to find their guns (they are running silent)

8d6.hits(5)=0

You have no idea where their icons are.

Jack, if it makes you feel any better, IC hates Overkill more that it hates you.

No kidding...

Think I should switch from Stick and Shock to Explosive rounds for my MP? Not sure how well lethal and stun damage stack, and it seems like everyone else is using live rounds.

If Lobo is playing them as mooks, they may only have one condition monitor.

ETA: I'm going to post IC my suggestion we vamoose. Jack would definitely do it IC.

Off-topic: Working on an NPC Rigger for a game I am co-GMing, and I cannot for the life of me find the price of the Autosofts for my drones. Any clues on where to find it?

It is in the hot patch errata. Availability is Ratingx2.
Price is ratingx500

Thanks for the help, I was going to pull my hair out if you told me a page number.

I understand that making a Core Rulebook like this is a dauntingly massive undertaking, but it still makes you wonder how they could leave something like that out; its a major bump on the road in Rigger chargen. Seem like someone would had to have bumped into it and asked where the frag they were...

Back to the situation at hand, are any of the other group of bums drawing the guards attention as they flee?

Perhaps we could wait until the see the other groups take off, then slip off on the route Jack suggested?

Basically, the guards are going to figure out any second that they've been dealing with an illusion.

The groups are running away from the gunfire (as would most people). None of the groups are really near you, (if you look at the map) - and to get closer to you would be to get closer to the gunfire.

Right now, the guards are busy with the illusion. Shortly, they are going to start searching for the person behind the illusion.

As an aside - I believe interpreted the Phantasm spell a little too liberally.

I believe the way that the spell is supposed to work is this:

The caster picks a spot within his LOS.
The caster causes the illusion to appear at that spot, or within the normal area of effect for spells (which is Magic Attribute in meters)
The caster cannot cause the illusion to move from that spot.

Otherwise, the Phantasm spell starts to become very overpowered - allowing a freeflowing illusion to be whatever you want, and travel with you wherever you go - or move from one spot to the other makes the spell too powerful.

No harm, no foul on this one, Chrome gave a suggestion as to what he wanted to do, asked if it was okay, and I said yes - so it is all good here, I was just thinking of the potential ramifications going down the line.

There are still a million uses for the spell - but allowing it to move freely anywhere within LOS of the caster makes it enormously powerful.

What kind of fences are we looking at to the South of our position?

Got it. I think you're right, I didn't really think through it, it just seemed like what I needed at the time. I think we both misinterpreted what the range of an illusion means.

Anyway, I can still go for a last attempt at something sneaky here. Does only one guard seem to be figuring out it was an illusion?

@Overkill,

The are no fences to the south - you basically can just cross into the back yards of the houses. Any fencing that was once there has long since rotted away/been knocked down.

@Chrome

Goons A&B are close enough to figure it out. Goon C (the one by the firepit) won't know until they tell him.

Do any of the houses look abandoned? Just want to minimize the risk of being spotted fleeing the scene by the neighbors who have already likely been awoken due to the automatic gun fire.

Off-topic: Man those Autosofts add up fast, I am spending as much on them as I am on the drones.

I may need to cut my combat drones down to 4, I have 3 Rotodrones and 2 Dobermans. Do you think I should drop down to 2 Rotos or 1 Doberman? He is the Support Rigger, mainly the chopper pilot doing overwatch and providing fire support. I am leaning towards dropping down to 1 Doberman and keeping 3 Rotos as they are easier for me to maneuver them where they need to be.

It depends on what kind of game you are playing.

My games don't tend to allow for too many situations where you are running around with a small army of drones with automatic weapons fire.

What kind of game is it?

Also, if you want to save on Autosofts, get the same kind of drone, and buy one copy and share it across the board with the RCC.

The houses are a mixture - some abandoned, some not. As far as being spotted, in general, people don't tend to stick their heads out the window when people are shooting.

Actually, at this point, I'm going to treat this as a combat - just to get things moving along.

Jack
2d6+7=12
Grease
4d6+7=23
Amy
4d6+11=22
Overkill
2d6+9=16

Goons, A, B, and C (in order)
1d6+7=8, 1d6+7=9, 1d6+7=13

So, Combat turn 1:

IP 1:
Grease 23
Amy 22
Overkill 16
Goon C 13
Jack 12
Goon B 9
Goon A 8

Everyone declare your actions

ETA - this does not mean that they are attacking you - but just so this way we get an idea of how we are proceeding. You can say "Hold" if you want to do nothing.

Its a Mercenary game, so I imagine there will be a lot of action.

Then rotodrones with long range weapons are probably a good idea. Keep them out of harms way, because they are extremely fragile.

A question you should ask the GM immediately is how much he is going to charge you to fix the drones, as I don't believe that is covered anywhere in the rules, and it might be cripplingly expensive depending on how he house rules it.

Drave is holding his action until they are spotted or the group decides its booking.

Can I do another Matrix Perception check to see if I can find their Smartlink Icons?

Jack is keeping his aim trained on whichever Goon he had previously designated, vaguely wondering how staying here makes any kind of sense.