I think Chomsky will probably stop it and go with the cops if he thinks y'all are going to cause a riot, TBH (If I had to put money on it...)

Can Amy hear anything that was said between the other two and the other officer?

Also, any feedback from the crowd at this point?

Edited my IC post to include the details.

How far above the crowd are the drones, and how far apart from each other are they?

They basically have the field split into quarters - with one drone per quarter.

I would say they are each easily 50 meters away from the nearest drone, and are probably 20-30 meters above the crowd.

Double post

This is intense! I don't want to post anything directly related to the action, as we should keep that to IC to prevent any meta-gaming, but man am I nervous about this!!

What's there to be nervous about?


Should I start rolling surprise tests for everyone?

FYI - neither side will gain the +6 ambush advantage.

There's no action yet

We're still just communicating!

Oh - I am sorry - I took the whole "wait until he turns his back" to mean THAT is when you start taking down the drones.

If that is not the case, my next post is going to be them walking off the stage, putting them in the car and driving away
If you want to stop them at some point now is the time.

At what point do you mak!e your move - which then necessitates a surprise test.!

I waited for them to turn their backs before I subvocalize to my team.

I figured I'd give a few moments for Overkill to do his thing if he wants (since hacking can be pretty fast and every second counts). If we don't have a few moments, and the police cars aren't very far and it's easy for them to get away, then Amy will act immediately.

Gotcha

I would say you've got maybe 30 seconds to a minute before they get in their cars.

After roughly 15 seconds, or if they get too close to half way between the stage and the cars, Amy will immediately jump into action (let me know).

Meanwhile, she'll walk along with the policemen, while instructing her spirits in advance, and sending another quick message to the team.

If I am going to disable their comms; what is involved? Should I reset my Deck in preparation, or jump on the local grid to minimize noise? (Frak, I wish their was someplace I could go into full VR...)

Edit: Wait... how far are those port-a-potties?

Um... you'd need to spot their commlinks, then MARK them a few times (optional). You could then brick them, spoof them, snoop them, format & reboot them...

Farther than 10-15 seconds away, especially with the crowds.

Best way to disable their communication is to brick their commlinks.

Which of course requires finding them first.

Can Drave manage to find, MARK, and, Brick the commlinks on 2 to 4 Lone Star officers in 30 to 60 seconds?

It looks like we may just find out.

Deck setting suggestion? I think I am going to need a serious reconfiguration to have chance to pull it off. I know I need to up my Attack, and change out a few programs. But I am not sure what I should drop... seems like a lot of different rolls I am going to need to make for this.

Finding them is priority 1, If I have time to start MARKing them I will. But I think I need a little more time. I am going to ask them to stall for ANY extra time they can, for either the Johnson to reply if the warrant is legit; and to let me find all the commlinks I need to take out.

Not sure. Get them spotted first, then hope you beat their initiative by a margin. You could try to brute force MARKS on them rather than Hack on the Fly so you wouldn't really need to reconfigure. Problem being that Brute Forcing the MARKs usually alerts them.

ETA: Granted, if they waste actions to shut down their commlinks to avoid the hack, that can be valuable in and of itself.

Are you sure about not having to reconfigure?

This was my current setup. If my Attack isn't raised; I won't be able to cause enough damage fast enough to take them all out.

A-3, S-6, D-5, F-5
Programs: Signal Scrub, Encryption, Virtual Machine: Toolbox, Stealth

Edit: I should have found and MARKed the fragging things from the start... too many Newb mistakes...

Sorry, I meant you wouldn't really have to reconfigure from Sleaze to Attack, I forgot you were setup for Sleaze right now. Assuming you can spot them reasonably well, then you could just go on attack and get your MARKs (if you need them) from Brute Force rather than Hack on the Fly.

They problem with pre-MARKing them is if you failed a check. They would know they were being messed with prior to everything else going down.

Without the Configurator program, you're kind of screwed. You could swap your S and A as a free action, but your programs are definitely not set for attacking someone.

A little used option that you might also consider would be the Jam Signals action to screw with the rigger controlling those drones.

Fragging hell... all this buildup and time to prepare and I'm too dense and inexperienced to put Drave in a position to do any good at all.

Well, at this point, think of it this way. You've got 10 seconds till Amy attacks.

That is 3 combat turns, during which you average IPs per turn.

That gives you 6 action phases to do something with - start planning them now.

Well maybe up to 15 seconds, as I said earlier. I'm going on Lobo's assessment that it takes 30-60 seconds to reach the cars and I can't let them get too close.

She will try to delay them a bit if she can think of something. Every 3 seconds of delay might become meaningful, so it's worth a shot. But I just don't know what I could possibly say or do that would delay them without starting a fight at this point. And I'm really afraid that the drones will start shooting people.

Other option would be to knock them out cold, really fast, or just prevent them from reaching their commlinks. Also, calling the office might not be their first reflex in the midst of a fight, but they probably have trodes in their helmet, so meh. Ideally, we'd have a signal jammer, but that'd be a lot to ask right now

Quick question: given the rules on initiative, is there a chance that my spirits would both attack the same drone at the same time and thus waste an attack? Or that Amy would attack the same drone as they do?

ETA: Won't be able to post until midday (PST) tomorrow.

He may have up to 15 seconds, but he doesn't know that IC

IC, Amy told him he has 10 (this is where the situation is moving rapidly enough where I think we should be doing all actions IC.)

You can try and delay them, but as you say, you might just start the fight immediately. (With you potentially being one of the first shot, if a fight starts).

The way it is going to work is Amy is that on Amy's first IP, she will have to spend a Simple Action to Command her spirits to attack.

The spirits would then spend their first IP to materialize.

Then on the 2nd IP, all of you would attack. (I suppose Amy could Recklessly Spellcast on her first IP, but assuming you don't, you all be attacking on your 2nd IP).

As far as who is attacking who, they aren't going to communicate with each other, and you can't control them during the combat like drones, so yes, they very well may attack the same drone as each other or you (although it isn't like they are automatically going to attack the same drone). I don't think it is in the spirit of the rules that you can lay down a command like "Ok, spirit number one, attack the drones in this order: A,B,C,D, spirit number two, attack in the reverse order."

But, OF COURSE, I didn't bring my Jammers, either... pathetic...

So I have to start by swapping Sleaze and Attack, then dropping Virtual Machine: Stealth and Toolbox for Hammer; then try to find their commlinks, then try and Data Spike them, as I won't have any time to MARK them. Don't worry, by the time I take out their links, their backup will already be well on their way...

Swapping programs is a free action, so you can swap Sleaze/Attack at the same time you do a Matrix Perception test to spot their commlinks. Then swap VM with Hammer before you try to dataspike them. If you had space, you could load Fork and hit both the commlinks at once.

Is it common knowledge that Police Cruisers have radios in them?

I just don't want OK to spend an hour figuring out how to brick their commlinks if he knows they can just call for backup by running to their car

Good thought Grease

Yes, the police cruiser would have an onboard computer - which would also include the ability to communicate with dispatch.

The device rating on their commlinks probably isn't that high, but I imagine the device rating of a security vehicle is a decent threshold.
-DrZ

Of course, they'd have to reach the cars first...

I'd actually guess their commlinks were fairly high DR. It doesn't cost a bunch to get a Transys Avalon. The other question is whether they have decker support or are slaved to a Host.

I had considered the vehicles radios too.

I would also like to contest that Drave started doing this little while ago; I even mentioned it in an IC before Amy's last post; when I asked the group OoC what an experienced Combat Decker would be doing right now (as I am becoming more convinced that I have no sense of what that really is at all.) I think he would have had time to reconfigure his Deck, and at least started to find and Mark their commlinks.

I think jumping on the local grid would also be on the list, as I need every dice I can get.

I have no problem with you reconfiguring your deck before this 10 second time frame we are talking about.

1) Are you running silent?

2) Once you have reconfigured your deck, your actions are to search for and mark their commlinks. We'll take it one step at a time, since you may not find them.

ETA - I am assuming you are jumping to the local grid.

IMO, a combat decker would have started running Matrix Perception checks to spot all of the devices heading their way, this would include the drones, the cars, and the commlinks/weapons of the officers when they approached the stage. Once spotted, they would probably perform a matrix perception check against one drone, one car, and one commlink to determine matrix attributes to help inform their load-out. Then they would reconfigure their deck for optimum effect.

It's possible that they would have attempted to get MARKs on devices if it seemed like a reasonably good chance to work. Since there are not insignificant consequences to screwing up (or succeeding in some case) MARKing a device, I'm not sure if I would take that one lightly. They might not think that someone trying to screw with their commlinks is that big of a deal, but someone trying to MARK a drone, vehicle, or weapon probably would escalate things significantly.

So, I will follow Jack's advice on procedure; (as well as I can can in the time given. Perception checks looking for the links then the vehicles; didn't I already do one on one of the Drones?) I need a couple of quick tips:

1) Is their a point to me taking the penalty running silent, with them sure to know they are under attack once Amy's spirits strike.?
2) ASDF settings and programs: I think going Hammer, Fork, Signal Scrub for programs to take them out quickly, but ASDF is stumping me, As I still need to roll for finding (Data Processing sets a limit for Matrix Perception?), and MARKing (Sleaze, Unless I go straight Brute Force,) What can I actually afford to drop? Firewall? Or can I plan on changing those settings as we go along?

Sidenote- I hate breaking up tense moments like this; but my lack of working knowledge of how a Decker needs to operate is posing a very serious risk to the entire group at this point. I am only getting to learn it at PbP pace, and otherwise never get to apply what I am trying to learn in SR.

1) No point in taking the penalty when all you are doing is looking for their icons. (You did spot 3 of the 4 drone icons before). No point in running silent, in fact, until right before you do an attack action. Remember that if they are under attack by Amy's spirits, they still don't know about you. If you attack them, and are not running silent, then a single hit on Matrix perception test tells them where you are in the Matrix, whereas if you are running silent, then it becomes an opposed test. Depends if you think they will have decker support.

2) You can, as a free action, swap any two stats. So you can have a high Data processing, do a Matrix search, then swap for Stealth, do a Hack on the Fly, swap for Attack, do a Data Spike. Just remember that those free actions also would be used to swap around programs, so if you are swapping ASDF stats, you aren't changing programs around.

I wouldn't be concerned about your lack of knowledge, I've read the matrix section at least a dozen times and there are still things that I mess up (as evidenced already in this campaign). Best thing to do is just read it and re-read it till you you almost memorize it.

@Everyone: I apologize for my outward frustration; I have been gaming tabletop RPGs for 18 years, but it has been mostly the d20 system and slew of other simpler game-systems, most not having as nearly as intricate and well-nuanced technical systems as SR that I needed to learn along the way. Feeling like this much of a newb is kind of new to me, and I don't like leaving my teammates vulnerable because of my ignorance to what I SHOULD be doing.

Honestly, it entirely depends on whether their commlinks are slaved to a Host or not. There are two completely different approaches depending on that answer.

ETA: I had a much longer post, but then determined that it really depends on whether they have Host support or not.

EATA: Honestly man, don't worry about not having a iron-firm grip on things. Not only is the system intricate, but I wouldn't necessarily classify the technical writing aspect of it as particularly strong. There are a lot of inconsistencies and straight-up contradictions. I also don't think a freeform PbP format necessarily helps here. A lot of action can fly-by without someone being able to get a post in edge-wise if they're unavailable. Finally, to be perfectly honest, about the only thing you would have probably done up to this point would have been to make a metric-tonne of Matrix Perception rolls to figure out everything you could about their drones/vehicles/commlinks/weapons/etc and be prepared to act. Hack on the Fly could have consequences that could escalate if it fails, which would probably not be a good idea. Now, in this window, you might want to risk hacking a few MARKS if y'all are committed to combat. If you get discovered, no big deal, the spirits just attack early.

Then I will wait to run silent while I find them, and leave ASDF to swap as I go, waiting until I find them and mark them and just change my program loadout to Hammer, Fork, and Signal Scrub.

Ok, so:

Matrix Perception test#1 - looking for the other drone:
8d6-2 for noise (already decreased by 3 from programs)

6d6.hits(5)=1

Found it.

Matrix Perception test#2 looking for the vehicles:
8d6-1 (The cars are within 100 meters, so you don't take the extra 1 penalty from range.

7d6.hits(5)=2

You spot both vehicle Icons

Matrix Perception#3 looking for the commlinks:
8d6-1 (The guys are within 100 meters, so you don't take the extra 1 penalty from range.
7d6.hits(5)=4

You spot one of the officers' commlinks but not the other.

Frak... it does us no good at all unless I take out every single commlink... what are my chances of even finding it at all on a re-test at -2 dice, when I couldn't find it with 4 successes on 7 dice?

Ok.. maybe not. She will wait, but not very long. She doesn't want them to have a chance to escape once the attack starts.


Got it. Makes sense to me, I was just checking about the rules as these things are more or less GM calls. I hope giving an order sort of in advance, like I did IC, is okay with you. Let me know if the instructions I gave are not okay in your mind for a single service about Combat.

Lol... or I could tell Amy to take out the one with the working commlink first...

We are all going to die...

Giving instructions ahead of time is ok, but you still have to actually tell them to attack, which will take an action.

I would say that attacking the drones/officers is one service. Having them actively protect the crowd is another, depending on what you meant by that.

Yeah that makes sense. What I meant was simply that attacking the drones and guards should be done in a safe way. I.e. those are hostiles, the rest is friendly. Hit the hostiles, don't hurt the friendlies.

Gotcha. I wasn't sure if you meant them to break off an attack against one drone if another drone was actively targeting the crowd. Just wanted them not to cast area effect spells into the crowd is fine.

Do I need 5 successes on 5 dice to find the other cops Commlink on a retest?

No, it would be another test, if you roll more successes than he does, you find him.

Want me to roll it?

ETA: Doesn't hurt to try:

5d6.hits(5)=1

You did not succeed.

Given the above, are you actually going to try and do something before Amy attacks, or should I just move on IC until that happens?

Also - what is Grease doing? (Besides hiding in his car filming?)

Other than warn Amy that if she makes her move and they call for back up, I wont be able to stop them?