I gather that my 190cm 200kg frame will be climbing over the wall...is that correct.

If so, I can sit on the wall (after we get rid of the monowire of course) and pull up the girls, lower them on the other side...that way you don't use up a service having the spirit carry you over.

Alternately, if we were to use the spirit, we might not have to cut the wire. Jack and Sisco could just attempt to avoid the monowire, the threshold is (3). That way, Mel would just need to monitor it during the period the two of us are traversing it in case an alarm is attached to the wire. Once we get through, she just puts it back to normal. It would reduce the chances someone might notice the alarm was turned off entirely.

Granted, I'm not comfortable with slightly better than 50% odds to make it through (I'll be going Agility + Edge, rather than skillwire), but it can happen.

@PG 200kg? You sure about that? I mean that is 6'3" and a hair over 450lbs - even at your height that is pretty freaking heavy - do you picture yourself as morbidly obese?

Vince Wilfork of the Patriots, for example, is 6'2 and 325 lbs, and that is a fat, albeit strong, dude. Your character would be 1 inch taller and 125 lbs heavier.

Even considering you are an ork, I'm thinking that 150kg would be more realistic, and still make you a BIG boy.

@Snap,

Summoning a Force 4 Earth Spirit - 4 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4761614/

Spirit Resists - 1 hit
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4761616/

Resist 2DV drain - 3 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4761619/

So, you summoned a Force 4 Earth Spirit with Concealment with 3 services, and took no drain.

Ok - so the plan to get over the wall seems to be:

Step 1) Mel hacks into the system to see whether or not there is an alarm or not. If not, then proceed to step 3, if there is, then step 2.
Step 2) Mel prepares to use Edit File to make it look like there is no alarm assuming Jack and Sisco fail in their climb attempt.
Step 3) Jack and Sisco climb over the wall and try to avoid the monowire. If they succeed, then Step 5, if not, Step 4)
Step 4) One of the orks triggers the alarm by increasing the tension on the wire, but no signal is sent out because Mel is Editing the information that is going to the sensor.
Step 5) Earth Spirit carries Mel and Snap over the wall

That sound about right?

If so, Mel, I need ASDF and programs please.

That was basically what I was thinking.

Yeah that's how I picture it so far.

I was really shot from dialysis yeaterday when I looked at my sheet...if you go to the google doc I shared you, it has 120kg listed as Sisco's weight, not the 200 I quoted here for some reason. I guess I should not write things while dizzy and the head is pounding. I'm cool with trying to go over the fence/wire as soon as Mel does her thing.

Ok - if I don't see a post from Mel by tonight I'll go ahead and pick the ASDF and programs for her and push forward a little.

I've posted all of my Matrix stuff under "Matrix [spoilers]" on post #263 of the IC thread.

Whoops!

Sorry about that! My fault Sorry guys

I will have something up later tonight.

Ok - one further thing - what drone are you putting over the wall? The Fly Spy or Microskimmer (which would be controlled by Mel or Jack) or Sisco's eye?

Or some combination of the above?

Sorry-just spent the last hour undoing the damage done by the shadowrun wiki...evidently someone hacked malware onto the site...so I'd suggest not going on it for a few days so that the administrators can get rid of it. I don't see a need to use my ocular drone when we have the other two.

So Mel doesn't have Pilot Aircraft (for the Fly-spy) or Pilot Ground (for the Microskimmer)...can I even control either? I assume that these are the skills needed in concert with the Control Device roll...

Both drones should have their own piloting software... it won't be a great rating, but it'll be better than you defaulting. It's not like we need them to do anything fancy.

So Mel (or Jack) would be controlling the drones using the "Send Message" Action. You tell the drone what you want it to do, and it does it to the best of its abilities. Checking Grease's character sheet, the drones have the following autosofts:

Clearsight 2
Electronic Warfare 2
Maneuvering 1
Stealth 2

So you tell the drone what to do, and it would roll:

Pilot Rating (which is always 3) + Clearsight (2) for Perception
Pilot Rating + EW 2 for EW
Pilot Rating + Maneuvering 1 for flying/driving
Pilot Rating + Stealth 2 for, well, being stealthy
Pilot Rating alone for any other test.

Note that each drone can only have 2 Autosofts loaded at any time, and it is a Complex Matrix Action on your part to switch. I'm going to assume that each has Clearsight and Stealth loaded for now, you can switch it up if you wish.

First things first:

Mel automatically gains a Mark on the Host due to having the codes

Next, Mel has to find the Sensor: Matrix Search
Int 5+Comp 6+4 bonus-2 running silent, +2 for Hot Sim=15dice=3 hits, so he is able to find it in about 20 seconds.

Next, an Edit file Action to make it appear all is normal for when Jack goes over:
Comp 6 + Logic 6 + 4 bonus,-2 running silent, +2 for Hot Sim=16dice - 7 hits (Limit is 7 due to Edit Program being run)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762256/

It resists with 9 dice (Int+Firewall) - 3 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762258/

Jack is first up - he announced he was going to use Edge, and so he rolls Agility 5 + Edge 5, rerolling 6s
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762247/

Unfortunately he only got 2 hits, which means he hits the monowire, and has to resist 8P.

His armor is 16, meaning that the damage will be Stun, and he rolls a massive 16+6+1 (for Toughness) to resist the 8 points of damage:
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762260/ - 11 hits! Nicely done

Next up is Sisco - first Mel has to do her magic again:
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762261/ - again 7 hits

It resists
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762262/ - 4 hits - so he is all good.

Now Sisco climbs - Agility 8, Gymnastics 1 - 3 hits, so he is good to go
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4762265/

IC post up shortly.

Sisco will make a perception test, visually scanning the surrounding area.
Perception 2/Intuition 5, 7dice +/- any modifiers
He has vision magnification if anything seems to need a a closer look.

Just FYI, my getting over the fence roll should have been 9 dice since I was defaulting (not that it matters). Also, I have 16 Armor? I was thinking it was only 15 (12 Armor Jacket, +1 Forearm Guards, +2 Helmet), also not that it matters. It's weird monowire doesn't have AP, but I'm happy with that...

Ah - my bad on both counts. For the Climbing test, I didn't deduct the die for defaulting (which, as you say, didn't matter, since the last die rolled was a miss anyway), and I gave you +3 dice for the helmet instead of +2.

I do agree monowire doesn't have AP - but according to the rules it is only 8P with no AP listed. I'm not sure it is worth coming up with a house rule (and even if we did, I wouldn't apply it to this case, it would be going forward).

Once Mel is secure across the fence, she'll concentrate on nearby sounds...hearing Perception checks.

The fog dampens the sound around you, but your enhanced senses are able to cut through it. The only noises that you hear however are a slight hum of the Microskimmer's engine and the rustling sounds that your team makes as you cross the property.

I stopped the IC where I did to allow you to post any actions or observations. My assumption is that Mel is going to attempt to spoof the camera on the sensor the way she did the monowire sensor? She will of course have to do it in AR rather than VR, unless someone carries her.

Is it just a single camera or is it an array with multiple sensors? I mean, it is one device, so I guess it still should only require one edit file action to keep us in the clear in any event.

It is an array with the following:

Motion Sensor
Ultrasound
Camera w/lowlight and thermo
MAD Scanner
Omni-directional Microphone

That is actually an interesting question about the Edit File Action. I mean, if you wanted to turn it off, then you are shutting down the entire device, and I can see that as one Control Device action. But to edit the sensors, you are looking at 5 separate inputs.

Now, the range of the MAD and Motion Sensor are only 5 and 25 meters respectively, so you can go around them, even the Ultrasound is only 50, so you only have to worry about the Microphone and the Camera, assuming you detour around the scanner (and since you know its exact location due to Mel's earlier Matrix scouting, that isn't hard to do.)

I would say, however, that the microphone and the camera are probably linked, and so I'll give you one Edit file action for both of those, but the others would be separate tests if you were to come within range.

OK.

Can we also talk about Combat Maneuvers? I'd like to possibly try out one of the Overwatch options, but I'm not sure exactly how it's going to work. Some of the presented maneuvers (the Overwatch ones, primarily) sound like they are supposed to last for some time, but the basic rules seem to assume they only last a single CT. Honestly, it seems pretty insane to roll every 3 or whatever seconds of travel to sustain a maneuver. Can we just roll and then apply whatever bonus or penalty results at the time we actually would have to apply it?

I was thinking of trying out Diamond Formation, which seems like it would be appropriate for our particular travel. It requires 4 successes, so it might be something I would need to spend Edge to achieve, even after the Teamwork tests.

Absolutely. I would say you if you successfully complete the test, you now have that bonus until you use it (i.e. if you are forced to make a surprise test, or when you roll initiative.). If the combat lasts more than one CT, and you wanted to gain another +2 Initiative to the 2nd CT's Initiative roll, then I think you would need to test again.

That being said, do you want me to make the rolls? If so, which characters should participate in the teamwork test? All of them have a 5 Intuition but not the skill, so they would be rolling 4 dice each.

I think the rules state that everyone who is going to participate in the maneuver needs to test. With that said, there are some tough consequences to failure. I think it may need to be hashed out OOC to see if everyone wants to do this or not, I don't want to unilaterally make a decision that imposes a penalty on someone.

All: Diamond Formation, if successfully pulled off, provides a +1 bonus to Surprise/Ambush checks and a +2 bonus to Initiative. In order for us to pull it off correctly, we would do a teamwork test. Each of you would roll (INT + Small Unit Tactics) or default to Intuition since no one has the skill besides Jack. That would be four dice for everyone except Amy, who would have three due to her wound modifier. Each success you generate adds a die to Jack's roll as the leader. Each character that succeeds at any degree raises my limit (albeit unnecessary for this test since my limit equals the threshold needed). From there, I roll my pool (6 dice) plus the extra dice from your successes and hope to hit four successes total.

Here are the problems: if we fail, we get a penalty. With that said, I'm not sure how this works given the continually stellar rules explanations CGL has developed. The text seems to have been written with the assumption that all of the maneuvers would provide a bonus to Defense tests, but that isn't the case with many of them. How are you reading it, Lobo? Basically just reverse the bonuses to penalties? So, in this case, a -1 penalty to Surprise/Ambush and a -2 penalty to Initiative for a penalty? Anyway, the penalties apply if a) we fail the test (applies to everyone), b) someone glitches on their teamwork test (applies only to that person), c) someone critically glitches (applies to everyone). Given that we're talking about dice pools of 3 and 4 dice, glitching is a very real possibility.

Reading the rules again, it says that they can perform a Small Unit Tactics test (or default). So I don't think any of them are under any obligation to take the teamwork test.

Apart from that, you have the same understanding I do.

If you fail, everyone takes a penalty ( -1 penalty to Surprise/Ambush and a -2 penalty to Initiative)
If you succeed, but anyone else glitches, that person takes the penalty, but everyone else gets the bonus ( +1 bonus to Surprise/Ambush and a +2 bonus to Initiative)
If you succeed but anyone else critical glitches, then the whole team takes the penalty.

Cool, so it may make more sense for Snap to not even attempt the test. I just may definitely have to use Edge to pull it off.

Correct. I'll wait a little while for PG and Chrome to sign on and post, and then, assuming no changes to the plane, will have Mel Edit the sensors and you guys move around it? Then you can explain IC what you want the team to do, and then we can make the rolls for that?

I have no objection with tying the diamond formation.

Ok - btw, since there is the threat of glitching, I will assume that only Sisco is making the teamwork test unless Chrome or Mel say otherwise.

Since Mel would have 4 dice (and I need all the help I can get with a starting pool of 6 dice), can we wait for Mel to have a chance to respond?

Sure - no problem - I was just letting everyone know (in a perhaps badly worded way) that they would have to tell me they were participating rather than me just assume.

I've got 3 Edge left in case of a critical, so I'll give it a try.

Cool. Lobo, just a note, but I'll be using Edge to do the re-roll failures thing only if I don't hit the 4 success minimum. I'd rather not be blowing through this Edge if I don't have to

Sisco - 2 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763112/

Mel - 1 hit
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763113/

Jack now rolls 9 dice (6 base +3 from the teamwork test) - 3 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763114/

Hmm - you guys will need to decide whether or not Snap should try and assist or Jack will use his Edge.

I don't mind either way (whether Snap makes the attempt or not). She's focusing on her role from this point forward, and agreeing to what Jack says in character. Whatever happens, she is not spending edge to save glitches, or get a success. Btw, 3 dice is way safer to roll than 4 dice, in terms of odds of getting glitches.

Ok then - I'll have her roll, she might add a die which could be what Jack needs for the 4th hit.

Snap 3 dice - 0 hits - but at least no glitch
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763145/

Jack uses his Edge - getting the 1 hit necessary
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763147/

So, if there are no further actions (I'm going to be busy for the next several hours), then I'll come on line tonight and push forward with Mel's attempt to spoof the sensors, and the team moving forward.

Jack, if you want to write up you describing diamond formation to the team and getting in to it and either post it here or message me, I can include it in my post.

Yeah, I should be able to do that. I'll edit this post in a bit for you to incorporate.

I thought we were going with the RAW 50%+ rule, in which case 3 dice is way dicier than 4 dice. Am I forgetting that again?

I originally had a house rule that said it had to be more than 50%, but we decided during the first run that it wasn't necessary, and so we went to RAW which is 50%+.

So with 3 or 4 dice, you still glitch with two 1's.

50%+ means more than 50% (or as the book literally says "more than half the dice"), so that would mean you would need three 1s on 4 dice to glitch, which is RAW. I must have forgotten that we decided to go with 4e rules. My bad.

Ack! This is what I get for rushing my post.

RAW in 5e, more than 50% is a glitch.

So, for 3 dice, two 1s is a glitch.
For 4 dice, three 1s is a glitch.

Originally I decided to go with 4e rules and then it was pointed out quite correctly that this just makes the breakpoint weird in other ways. So, in an effort to avoid too many house rules and rules exceptions, we went back to 5e rules.

Sorry again for the confusion

No problem, I just wanted to make sure my head was on right about that. It definitely makes glitches less likely to occur in general, but as I have been playing 5e for a little while now, it feels like that's probably a good thing since success tends to be pretty elusive.

I updated my post up there with Jack's IC.

Ok - so the team will detour about 60 meters (just to be on the safe side) around the sensor array. This will put them out of range of all but the camera/microphone.

Mel will have to cover that:

Since she has the codes to the host, she enters it with ease (basically counts as having a Mark on it).

She has already found this sensor before, so no real need to search for it again.

Now she edits the footage. Given the terrain it will probably take the four of you about 9 seconds to cross the ground that the camera covers.

She rolls the following dice (she will need to be in AR now, so no bonus for hot sim).
Comp 6 + Logic 6 + 4 bonus,-2 running silent, =14dice - 5 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763427/

It resists with 9 dice (Int+Firewall) - 1 hit
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763428/

Comp 6 + Logic 6 + 4 bonus,-2 running silent, =14dice - 8 hits (reduced to 7 by limit)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763430/


It resists with 9 dice (Int+Firewall) - 4 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763431/


Comp 6 + Logic 6 + 4 bonus,-2 running silent, =14dice - 3 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763432/

It resists with 9 dice (Int+Firewall) - 2 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4763433/

Nicely done Mel!

IC post up soon

I've stopped there, do you guys continue towards the house? Or something else?

Hey Lobo, just as a note...Melpomene is Human, not an Elf.

Fixed. I guess I'm still used to the girl in the group being an elf

I think we keep going, we still have a job to do. The idea is to circle around to the north side of the house to get to the wall we need to climb. Hopefully we can avoid the road and guards that way. I think it requires deviating from our route, so we're going to need to probably make more matrix perception checks to pick up new sensor arrays along the way. Jack is also going to turn his Ultrasound sensor on and passive, which detects other ultrasound fields.

Ok - as long as everyone else is ok with that, just say so (along with any actions you are taking, if any) and then I can make any appropriate rolls for Mel and put up the net IC.

Mel will follow Jack's lead, and will be prepared to search for other devices along the way.