I think I edited while you posted your last. I agree on the mana-based Invisibility spell. I'm not exactly sure about the physical-based Improved Invisibility (for simplicity, I would rule as a GM that it's either allowed for both or disallowed for both, leaning toward allowed).

I kind of figured your spirit would have given you a head's up one way or the other, to be honest.

I don't have a problem with handheld objects being picked up and turned invisible. Clothes, guns, grenades, basically everything that can be within your personal space, so to speak. You can't just touch something and make it invisible, and something larger, supposing you would were strong enough to pick it up, would not. (Jack could probably pick a sofa up, but the sofa isn't going to become invisible.)

As far as the Spirit - the spirit is under orders to attack anyone in the apartment. If it found someone, it is doing so - it is under no obligation to be spending free actions to update Amy on its progress.

I will agree that if she told it to attack the people in the apartment and there was no one there, it would tell her that there was no one to attack. (and if it was a spirit who was pissed at her, you could argue it would consider one of its services used, since she told it to attack everyone in the apartment, and it did, just that everyone was in fact no one.) Not saying that this spirit is like that - just sort of one of the consequences of misusing spirits (not that Amy has done that so far).

Jut a note, I edited everything after considering my options.

Action: Jack is going to use this IP to put on his Armor Jacket. If nothing changes before now and then, he will use his final IP to pick up his rifle, ready it, and head inside, pausing to clear the presumed kitchen leading from the archway on the right.

This IP, Amy puts on her gas mask and delays a simple action. She uses a free action to use subvocal comms: I'll go in with Jack as support.

You can't delay a simple action. So, effectively what happens is this.

Spirit of Air 15
Amy 13 Free Action - "I'll go in with Jack" - delay her Action Phase
Jack 11 - Put on Armor Jacket
At this point, Amy realizes that Jack isn't going in yet, and so she puts on her gas mask as a simple action, and either does nothing with her other simple action (or you can pick another simple action to do)
Overkill 8 - Puts his Armor Jacket on.
Grease 4 - You can see the same thing Jack sees, for now, except that you got the Fly Spy far enough in that you can see the left half of the apartment. There are two closed doors off of the living room, one closer to the hallway, and one further away. What do you do?

IP 3
Spirit 5
Amy 3
Jack 1

Jack picks up his rifle, readies it, and moves in stopping at the archway to clear the kitchen.

ETA: What are the light levels in the apartment? Ambient lighting from outside?

Basically in the short hallway I would consider it Partial light, as you have the light from the hallway leaking inside. Further inside the apartment it drops to Dim Light

Thanks, works for me!

How many actions does it take to pull my pistol and ready it to fire? I'd like to start with that. if I have extra actions, I would command the drone to approach any open areas (in my mind's eye, there's 2 closed doors on the left, and open area to the front, and a kitchen to the right. My guess would be to enter the living room area. The drone would use sensors to quickly try to map the area as best possible (it's got an ultrasound and motion sensor on it).


-DrZ

Readying a weapon involves drawing it from a holster if it's in one, so it should only require a single Simple Action.

Ok, so ready pistol, then remote-control the drone forward. Since it's movement, I'm not positive if it takes up an action; if it doesn't I'd want to have the drone make a perception test.

Dammit- we take so much OOC time between times I use my drones, I forget how they work. I probably need to load program / have loaded on my RCC, don't I? I'd want the drone running stealth, manuvering, and clearsight. I'm not sure if I have room to do all that on my RCC.

-DrZ

Your RCC can have at most 3 programs running, assuming a Noise reduction of 0. That allows all three of those to be running.

Flying the drone requires it to have either its Pilot Program (assuming you hare sending it commands rather than using Control Device) or you to make a Drive Action, which means it is a Complex action to use Control Device to drive it.

Would be better, I think, to use a simple action and Send a Message to it to move to where you want it to go. Sure it is more vulnerable, but do you imagine someone shooting at your Fly Spy with all the other stuff going on

I'm still waiting on Amy's action on the last IP before we can move forward.

Sounds good. I also learned my lesson about jumping into things that could get blown up- that damage from Rhex hurt!

Spirit of Air 15
Amy 13 Free Action - "I'll go in with Jack" - delay her Action Phase
Jack 11 - Put on Armor Jacket
At this point, Amy realizes that Jack isn't going in yet, and so she puts on her gas mask as a simple action, and either does nothing with her other simple action (or you can pick another simple action to do)
Overkill 8 - Puts his Armor Jacket on.
Grease 4 - Ready Pistol and Send Message to Drone

IP 3
Spirit 5
Amy 3
Jack 1 Jack picks up his rifle, readies it, and moves in stopping at the archway to clear the kitchen.

Ok I keep forgetting this somehow, and I apologize for it.

ETA: On IP 3, Amy delays action to see where Jack is going. She then follows a few steps behind the ork, and casts a F5 Detect Life (12 dice to cast, 13 to resist 2S drain) on herself, to maybe get some valuable intel. She will likely drop it later, when she won't want the penalty for sustaining (and once she's found who she's looking for...).

No worries

Ok, so:
12d6.hits(5)=4

Resist 2DV Drain
13d6.hits(5)=2

The CS gas is no on Amy and Jack, but they will not have to resist any damage until the end of the next Combat Turn

IC post up shortly, followed by the next initiative roll

Spirit of Air
2d6+16=25
Amy
4d6+11=23
Overkill
2d6+9=16
Grease
1d6+10=15
Jack
2d6+7=13

Not that I want to give us a disadvantage and you may have already rolled it, but Detect Life it is a resisted test (at the same time, it also gives varying levels of information based on net successes that could be useful to us).

Being at the ass-end of initiative, I'm just going to wait to see what everyone else does.

I did roll the resistance test yes - and you got all the information that your number of net hits allowed

Sincerely, I do appreciate the reminder, as it is something I could have missed.

ETA - I suppose I should have specified that the life forms she is detecting are metahumans, as opposed to the various insect life that the spell detects as well - so to be clear, the two life forms she sees in the bedroom are metahuman.

Great. Yeah, I hope it didn't come off as sounding like I was sharpshooting or anything. I brought it up because I always forget that part with Detection spells.

Not at all

Without more explanation, Amy will tell Jack (and the team through subvocal comms) that there's at least two of them in the room on the right.

I wish I had had enough net hits to learn more than that, but it's better than nothing. I hope they wasted counterspelling on that lol

Then she will delay her action (probably until right after Jack acts). I think I'm doing it the right way this time

Yup, what you described is correct, I believe. I think the sub-vocal bit, as long as it is short, would count as a Free Action. I kind of assume in this situation, our comms are set to a Party Line type setup.

Spirit of Air 25
Amy 23 - speak "Two on the right" delay action
Overkill 16 Transmit "What is the plan?" delay action
Grease 15
Jack 13

Overkill will send a message saying "What is the plan?" and delay.

Grease?

Jack?

ETA - you are doing it right (Free Action can be declared at any time) once your Initiative Score comes up, and your Action Phase is then delayed - and Jack explained it right

LOL, all sorts of editing going on there, but I think we got it ironed out.

Jack will use a Free Action to respond to Overkill (which I believe I can do at IP 16 since we aren't surprised).

<<@Team [JustJack] Open door, shoot them, eyes up>>

At his IP, he's going to Take Cover (Simple Action) at the side of the door and then open it (Simple Action)

ETA: Just for clarification, Jack's Skillsoft complement should currently be: Automatics (4), Sneaking (4), Unarmed Combat (4). I don't remember if I articulated that before. I got a little confused when I wasn't sure if I my rifle was going to stay invisible.

Is the intention to be able to see inside the room? Or are you positioning yourself in such a way as to just turn the knob and push it open, exposing only (at most) your hand/fingers for the fraction of a second it takes to bring them back (and not being able to see inside).

Just the Take Cover action, I presume that means partial or good cover as opposed to total so I should be able to see inside. IIRC, Amy still has Invisibility sustained on me. (I just checked her Detect Life spell and the penalty wouldn't have mattered, in case it wasn't applied).

ETA: Entertainingly, it seems the CS is going to do more harm than good for us. I'm not sure how many CTs it has left in existence. The book says the clouds produced from grenades only last +/- 4 CTs or so.

Ok - You are correct, Invisibility is still on you (and she doesn't take a penalty since she has Focused Concentration 3)

Since you go last, I just need to have Grease's action before I post the results.

I will cover the door we are assaulting with my pistol. I will ready an action to fire on any target I can see.

If the angles don't work out let me know, and I can respond accordingly. I think this makes more sense than remote controlling the fly-spy, since covering the door seems pretty important.

-DrZ

Here's hoping our DMPC keeps his eyes on the Fly-Spy's video feed for our third target.

To be clear, the idea would be to enter the room, take cover behind a piece of furniture such that you can see into the room when Jack opens the door. Check.

Spirit of Air 25
Amy 23 - speak "Two on the right" delay action
Overkill 16 Transmit "What is the plan?" delay action
Grease 15 - enter the room, take cover
Jack 13, walk to door, take cover, open door

Amy still has a delayed action, as does Overkill.

IC post up soon.

Just to check on rules, dropping a sustained spell is a Free Action, correct? So she will only be able to do that on the next pass, or this pass using one of her simple actions?

I just searched the book and can't find what kind of an action it is. I would assume dropping a sustained spell would be a Free Action. Other than that, I believe you are correct.

ETA: Poor Grease. RIP (Kidding, I hope!)

P.S. I'm assuming that Amy was not in line of sight of the door when I do this - otherwise Lynx shoots her (since she hasn't taken cover).

Semi auto burst, Pistols 6, SM link +2, Agility 7, no visibility modifiers (lowlight), no recoil (strength), no range,
15d6.hits(5)=2

He will use Edge to reroll (only 2 hits is way to pathetic for 15 dice, he rightly fears for his life and knows a first shot is really important)
13d6.hits(5)=6

8 hits, reduced to 7 since Second Chance does not affect limits.

Grease Dodges
Int 3 +Reaction 7 , +4 for Good Cover, -2 for Semi-auto Burst
12d6.hits(5)=4

Does Grease want to Edge the Dodge?

I know his WIL sucks terribly, but he should also be able to go on Full Defense, giving him two more dice on the initial roll and maybe more on the Edged reroll.

With the quick math calculation, going Full Defense and doing a second chance with Edge lands on the odds being in your favor of tying/beating Lynx's roll (although with the way cover works, you might still take some damage with a tie).

Since it is material, I recently discovered a link on the SRT forums that gave an interpretation of the rules for shooting through barriers that made a lot more sense than most interpretations. It basically works like this:

1) Compare total DV to the adjusted armor rating (Armor - AP), if DV is higher, the attack penetrates. Otherwise, no damage is applied, penetrating weapon or not.
2) Barrier rolls resistance (Armor + Structure - AP). Successes stage damage down.
a) If non-penetrating weapon, modified damage is applied to the barrier.
b) If penetrating weapon, the barrier takes one box of damage and the remaining modified, staged-down damage carries through to the target.

That is a pretty good idea - that is up to him though - didn't want to do it for him without him asking - especially as it means he won't get to go again this Combat Turn.

Oh yeah, I put it up for DrZ's benefit. I just noticed it wasn't listed as an option, so I wanted to remind him.

When you get a chance, take a look at the Shooting Through Barriers bit I edited in above. What do you think? It makes sense to me.

1) Compare total DV to the adjusted armor rating (Armor - AP), if DV is higher, the attack penetrates. Otherwise, no damage is applied, penetrating weapon or not.
2) Barrier rolls resistance (Armor + Structure - AP). Successes stage damage down.
a) If non-penetrating weapon, modified damage is applied to the barrier.
b) If penetrating weapon (for the sake of this example, assume SS), the barrier takes one box of damage and the remaining damage can carry through to the target.

That makes sense to me.

It doesn't apply to Grease as he isn't completely behind the sofa - Grease can shoot at his exposed parts - thus the +4 dice bonus for Grease.

ETA: on the other hand, are you saying that Lynx could have instead simply shot through the sofa, negating the +4 bonus to Grease's defense roll?

Instead it would be, 7 successes - its explosive Ammo so the damage is 16P, AP 2, so well above the sofa's armor of 6, the sofa would then roll 8 dice (Body of 4 + modified armor of 4) - lets say 2 successes, reducing the damage down to 14, then the sofa takes 1 point of damage, so down to 13, and then those 13 are transferred to Grease, minus the number of successes that he rolls on his now 8 dice? (which according to the roll above, would be 3)?

Interesting.

I was looking at the rules on cover where it says

Hell, it's actually worse to tie when using cover than when out in the open (barring electric weapons and touch spells), but I guess that could be chalked up to a false sense of security.

No, my reading shows the cover bonus comes partially from the material and partially from the fact that you can't see the full target. They mention brush, foliage, and curtains as providing partial (+2) cover and I doubt the latter has an armor or structure rating at all. So I don't think you can avoid the person taking cover from getting the +4/+2 benefit.

Here's how I think it works. Let's say Grease ties Lynx. That means the round will hit Grease if it gets past the barrier in question. Since the Attack and Defense rolls were tied, the round does normal damage, modified for ammo. Grease is still trying to dodge the attack so his defense roll shouldn't be penalized (otherwise it results in weird cases where it would be better to not tie and take the damage if it only results in it being staged up by 1). If one wanted to intentionally damage the barrier itself, you would target the barrier and use the Damaging Barriers rules that allows staging up of damage against he barrier. Anyway, base damage with ammo is 9P. With -2 AP and the couch's armor of 6, the barrier is getting damaged. The couch rolls (4 Structure + 6 Armor - 2 AP = 8 Dice) and gets 3 successes. The damage is now staged down to 6P. Since it is a penetrating weapon, one box of damage is done to the couch and the remaining 5P passes through to hit Grease, who then uses his Body+Armor-AP to resist.

Basically, if Grease beats Lynx's attack, he takes no damage. If he ties, he has to resist 5P. If he fails by 1, he has to resist 10P. That made for a nice linear progression, I think.

Understood, and that makes sense

Let's hope he at least ties

Am I unable to fire first, or at the same time? Or does moving into position constitute my entire action? I guess I was thinking of it as a held action.

If not, I think rolling willpower sounds like a good idea.

Could I have pushed the limit with my full defense test? 7 hits against 14 dice of defense seems like I'd want the best chance of having it miss me. If not, I'm cool just tacking the willpower onto the back end, and seeing if I want to reroll failures from there. Let's presume if he's going to hole me I'll want to do it that way.

Either way, Dr. Grizz Jacoby might be getting a night call tonight!

-DrZ

For Jack or Lobo: I'd prefer whichever dice combination gives me the highest chance for successes. If that's rerolling failures on 14 dice, or rule of 6 on 15 dice, that's the one I wanna do

I'm assuming Lynx was also delaying and probably has a much higher initiative.

It's hard to tell with which way is better, you're skating on the edge of probability.

Adding the two dice from Full Defense and the 1 die from Edge (if you had been able to pre-Edge) would probably have added one hit. Lobo rolled 3 sixes on the first 12 dice, so that's probably at least one more success using the Rule of Six. That would have left you with (4 + 1 from Full Defense/Edge + 1 from Rule of Six) 6 successes. Meaning you would be resisting 10P.

If you Full Defense and Second Chance, you might get a hit off the Full Defense, but even if you don't the two dice go back into the pool of rerolls, so your second chance would consist of (14 original dice - 4 successes) 10 dice, which should get you at least 3 successes, enough to tie Lynx's attack and requiring you to resist 5P.

By my calculations.

ETA: I'll be indisposed this evening, but I have to work tomorrow. Since we're always dead on Saturdays, if anyone is interested in attempting to continue this riveting part of the campaign, I'm game. Or just around to shoot the shit.

Oh, if my turn comes up, I'm taking aim and 3 round bursting Falcon as planned (if he's still conscious, otherwise Lynx, in which case I'm not taking aim and just doing a 6 round burst). S&S is loaded.

Either way, with Lobo rolling I'll start working on my hacker

Kidding! Kidding! I'll go with the full defense, 2nd chance.

-DrZ

So, remember, you can't hold part of an Action Phase.

You walking is part of your Action phase. You taking cover is a Simple Action (which is part of your action phase) - meaning you had no action to take.

Lynx actually had a held action. Now mind you, even assuming you were standing there, having held your action, ties are broken in ERIC order (Edge, Reaction, Intuition - and honestly he doesn't have to go past Edge to win tie breakers with you )

So, adding 2 dice from full defense:

2d6.hits(5)=0

And then 2nd Chance, which allows you to reroll not only those 2 misses but also the 8 misses from your first roll:
10d6.hits(5)=4

Meaning you have 8 total hits, beating his by 1, so he misses you Whew!

Spirit of Air 25
Amy 23 - speak "Two on the right" delay action
Overkill 16 Transmit "What is the plan?" delay action
Grease 15 - enter the room, take cover
Jack 13, walk to door, take cover, open door

Hearing gunfire, Overkill will use his action to move forward and take cover next to Grease (simple action) and Short burst at Lynx, simple action.

Agility 5, Automatics 4, SM 2 Short Burst
11d6.hits(5)=3

Lynx Dodges
Reaction 8, Intuition 4, +4 for full cover -2 for Burst
14d6.hits(5)=5

Amy still has a delayed Action (and yes, dropping a sustained spell is a Free Action, and since you've used your free action, it would use up a Simple Action to do so.

Once Amy tells me her action, I'll put up the next IC post, and the next IP will be:

Spirit of Air 15
Lynx 14
Amy 13
Overkill 6
Falcon 5
Jack 3
Grease 5 (-10 for full defense)=-5, so no action this turn.

I will check in tomorrow that isn't a problem. It won't be as often as during the weekday, but I'll be around.

Amy will take cover (and see what is inside the room), and drop her detection spell, during this first IP.

Second IP: Amy will cast some spell, we'll see which one after Lynx's actions.

Now I wonder where the other person is, and what my spirit is doing to him.

Also, we get a free action on each pass, I believe, so Grease could decide to drop prone, getting full cover?

Ok - one other thing, please confirm you are still Astrally Perceiving, correct? (as you haven't said you stopped, but I'm checking).


This also goes back to Jack's question as to his Free action being able to be taken at 16.

During the IP, you have an Action Phase, (this is where you move, and take your two simple or one complex action). This occurs at your initiative score. You may ALSO declare a Free action at this time. At any point in the turn AFTER your Initiative Score, if you have already taken your Action Phase, you can still declare a Free Action. (To be honest, re-reading it I think I am actually being too liberal letting you take your Free Action and THEN later your Action Phase - the actual reading of the rules says you can take your Action Phase and THEN your Free Action, but not the other way around.)

Then there is this:

A character with an Initiative Score of 0 or less can
only take one Free Action during an Initiative Pass. However,
a character with 0 or less Initiative is allowed one
Free Action.

I'm not sure how the second sentence is different from the first? It seems to indicate that he CAN, but when? I can only assume he can do so once everyone else has gone that pass.

There are, unfortunately, a number of contradictory rules here. I don't envy you having to hash this deal out.

For instance, under Free Actions (p. 163):

The second sentence makes no sense if Free Actions are disallowed prior to a character's Action Phase. I checked and didn't see where Aaron opined on that issue anywhere. Honestly, given that the exact same sentence (with the word Interrupt replacing the word Free) appears in the Interrupt Actions section on p. 167 (where it actually makes sense), I wouldn't be surprised if it was some terrible cut & paste job that still hasn't been fixed.

I also just noticed that any character who Delays is supposed to take a -1 penalty to their dice pool for any actions taken when delayed for some stupid reason (p. 161, second to last sentence of the second paragraph under Delaying Actions).

As to Grease's dilemma, I believe he could still take a Free Action to fall prone (whether that would place him entirely behind the couch is up to you). As I understand it, Grease went on IP 15, walked in and took cover (basically "wasting" a Simple Action). Then on IP 13, Lynx shot at Grease when Jack opened the door. Grease used a Full Defense interrupt action, which dropped his initiative to 5. While Lynx was the last character to act, Grease should have still been able to declare a Free Action prior to the start of the next IP turn to drop prone if he wanted to do so.

I'm cool with whatever you come up with for how Free Actions work. If we have to wait until our Action Phase to use a Free Action, that's fine. We're just going to have to adapt to that when we put plans together, making sure if someone does have to delay, any actions they take don't require dice rolls (or at least they are tests where they have dice pools that won't miss one die).