FYI: If anyone has an alternate plan, please feel free to voice them. I'm just kind of playing it by ear until the inevitable shoe drops, it's Shadowrun after all.

I'm shocked. You mean you've found that runs don't go according to plan when playing this game?

Well, I was actually pretty confident until a limo showed up at 5AM. LOL

I'm not sure what you are worried about. It is probably some local businessmen out for a pleasure drive at night, through ghoul-infested fog...

I'm good with what we're doing. Snap is pretty injured and is following along until the house, trusting that Jack can take the right decision for the group.

She will regularly peek into astral space, making sure there are still no surprises there, and generally tries to pay attention to her surroundings, as you'd expect.

My character speaks Mandarin and I assume that is what was yelled. If so, what the heck did he just yell...

"Run!"

My Initiative is 11 +2d6.

I plan to move toward the guy running at us and execute a touch attack with my shock hand.

8 (AGI)+ 4 (Unarmed) + 2 (Jeet Kune do) + 2(Touch attack)= 16 +/-modifiers

Shock Hand Reach 0 Damage 9s (e) ACC 8 AP -5

Ok - so two things :

1) don't let me forget that all of you gain a +2 Inituative because of the formation
2) he is still about 100 meters from you - are you still going to do that?

I thought he was much closer...so I guess we still have a shot of being unseen by him. So no...I think it best we try and duck out of his sight.

It is probably worth giving a little more description of the situation in relative distances so that the picture is clear.

The four of you are in a diamond formation as Jack described. The closest wall is still the one you came over, about 400 meters away to the south. The wall to the east is about 450 meters, with the northern and eastern walls all about 1000 meters away.

The courtyard itself is about 150 meters away to the west/northwest, while Huiquing is about 100 meters away from you heading in your direction.

The terrain is slightly rolling, mostly open, but with copses of trees dotting the property.

Lobo, once all this shit goes down, Mel is going to hit the deck. She's also going to try her best to listen for dialogue between the attackers. She doesn't know Mandarin, but she's going to internally record anything they say.

Ok at this point it is probably useful to roll initiative, just so you have an idea:

I have added +2 to all of your initiatives due to the Diamond Formation (not the Spirits') initiatives, however.

Amy - an impressive 31!, but minus one for wounds is 30.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764844/
Jack - 18
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764845/
Mel - 12
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764846/
Sisco - 18
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764847/

Bound Spirit of Man (Force 4) - 12
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764849/
Spirit of Earth (Force 4) - 15
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4764850/


So:

Amy 30 - Free Action, send Message to Jack, delay AP
Jack 18
Sisco 18 - delay Free Action and AP
Spirit of Earth 15 - waiting on Amy's command
Mel 12 - hit dirt (Free Action), Perception test to overhear anything being said (simple action)
Spirit of Man 12 - waiting on Amy's command

Looking forward to having 4 initiative passes during combat one day

Snap will use the first pass to send a message to the team, using her trodes, and delay a simple action unless you think that message takes a whole complex to send.

<<@Team [Snap] We should capture Huiqing. Tell me what you want from me, Jack. >>

Yeah sorry about that - you almost had 4 this time, but with the wound it actually reduced your init to 30, so only 3 passes this time

You spend your simple action to send a message, and now you have your Action Phase, which you are delaying.

Ditto on the delay, I'll take my cue from Jack.

PG - you weren't here for last run, and there was some confusion, so I figured I would reiterate it now just for clarity (Mel you weren't either, so this is for you too).

A fight is broken up into Combat Turns (CT), each one lasting 3 seconds.

Within each CT are multiple Initiative Passes (IP).

During Each IP you have a Free Action and an Action Phase (AP). During an AP you have either two Simple or one Complex Action.

During an IP, you cannot trigger your Free Action or your AP until your Initiative. So for instance, during IP 1, Jack (who goes at 18) cannot do either his Free Action or Action Phase until 18. He can do an Interrupt Action (such as Blocking) at any point during the IP, so long as he has sufficient Initiative to do so.

You are allowed to trigger your Free Action and your AP or one or the other, either way, at any point during the IP after your initiative. So for instance, in this case, Amy is using her Free Action at 30 to send a message, and delaying her AP until later on in the IP. She could have done the opposite had she wanted, or triggered both, or delayed both.

The one thing you are not allowed to do is take a partial AP and then delay the rest of it. For example, if Jack wanted to trigger his AP at 18 and fire a single shot (a Simple Action), he MUST use his other Simple Action at 18 as well or lose it. He cannot delay it until later.

I hope that is clear (and if you guys knew all that, I apologize for the long winded explanation).

Ponder, ponder, ponder.

@PG: Not sure if you read the IC posts before Sisco officially signed on, but we were offered basically double our pay if we managed to steal the stuff and ice Huiquing. He makes a very tempting target at the moment.

OK, Jack is going to message the team, swap his Unarmed skillsoft for Running, and then load the Mandarin linguasoft. I think that's three free actions, which I think we agreed we could do (using Simple Action slots to do Free Actions).

Message: <<@Team [JustJack] Hit the dirt, but try to get in position to nab the guy. Could be a useful hostage>>

Amy 30 - Free Action, send Message to Jack, delay AP
Jack 18 Free Action - send message to team, AP put Running in instead of Unarmed, load Mandarin
Sisco 18 - delay Free Action and AP
Spirit of Earth 15 - waiting on Amy's command
Mel 12 - hit dirt (Free Action), Perception test to overhear anything being said (simple action)
Spirit of Man 12 - waiting on Amy's command

Amy and Sisco, what are your actions?

Other way around. Swapping OUT Unarmed for Running. I currently have Unarmed loaded. I may swap Unarmed with SMG if Huiquing gets closer.

Ah - sorry - Fixed it.

Snap delays to go last, watching what everyone else is doing first, including Huiqing.

Ok - Sisco?

@Jack, I read the entire ICP so I know about the extra nuyen but Sisco on the other hand wasn't informed.

Sisco hits the dirt like the man asked.

Oh good, I just wanted you to know what was going on OOC in case we decided to light him up. IC, on the other hand, would probably be pretty hilarious with the response.

Amy 30 - Free Action, send Message to Jack, delay AP
Jack 18 Free Action - send message to team, AP put Running in instead of Unarmed, load Mandarin
Sisco 18 - hit dirt (Free Action) and AP
Spirit of Earth 15 - waiting on Amy's command

Mel 12 - hit dirt (Free Action), Perception test to overhear anything being said (simple action)
Spirit of Man 12 - waiting on Amy's command

So Huiquing continues to run toward you, covering another 16 meters or so.

Hao Fe dispatches the other goon.

Mel, you hear nothing further, Sisco and Amy are you taking any actions in the 1st IP or should I move to the 2nd IP?

I suppose if there's a better hiding place within crawling distance, I'll crawl to it, otherwise no action on my first IP.

I can have you make a Sneaking test to get a better position if you want, no problem.

Chrome - any action for you?

Just lie down as low as possible and stop moving. If she can, she'll assense the man running.

Next round, she will delay again.

Amy 20 - delay AP
Jack 8
Sisco 8
Spirit of Earth 5 - waiting on Amy's command

Mel 2 - hit dirt
Spirit of Man 2 - waiting on Amy's command

IP 2 - ready when you are

While we don't/shouldn't have a long conversation about this OOC, from my perspective, we're pretty much fucked.

If we do nothing, the very first thing they're going to do (actually, are probably already doing) is to put all of their defenses on high alert (drones, spirits, matrix, guards, etc) to make sure the grounds are secure. That means we're probably going to get caught.

If we capture Huiquing, we have a small bit of leverage, but there's nothing stopping his people from calling in the rest of the White Lotus Triad to come kill us either there or when we leave.

Other than the fact it would mess up Lobo's game, I would honestly abort the run given these developments. The whole plan was predicated on not being seen (or at least, not being seen until we were much closer to our target) and that's pretty much an impossibility now. The only way to accomplish it, realistically, is to do a smash and grab: kill/knock out Huiquing and anyone else at the estate who gets in our way. So, I guess that's what Jack is going to advocate.

So Jack's action is to send another text to the team and swap his REG clip with one loaded with GEL. Should be a free action and two simples, IIRC.

<<@Team [JustJack] Well, even though we didn't do it, our cover is pretty much blown. When el jefe is attacked at home, the whole place is going to be on high alert. If anyone has non-lethal and a silenced weapon, take Huiquing out. It may draw Hao Fe to us so we can gang up on him.>>

Our best bet is really to just take Huiqing out and bug out, I think.

Probably the smartest decision, given our information. Same pay as we were expecting, although our rep might take a hit. Then again, there are extenuating circumstances.

Amy 20 - Command Earth Spirit, Assense Huiquing
Jack 8 - Free Action send message, AP swap regular ammo with Gel
Sisco 8
Spirit of Earth 5 - Conceal Party

Mel 2 -
Spirit of Man 2 - waiting on Amy's command

@Jack - I believe ejecting the clip is a free since you have a smartlink, and putting the new one in is a simple. Either way, you are all good.

I wasn't sure if it required Wireless or not.

Sorry - that was a kneejerk reaction to SR3, where having a smartlink allowed you to eject a clip as a free action.

You are of course correct that in 5e, since your gun is not running wireless right now, you have to spend a simple action to do so. However, since you have two Simple Actions, there are no problems.

Sisco, Mel - actions?

For my Last IP,
As a free action, since I am pluged into the gun, turn on wireless in silent mode (though what I'm about to do probably makes silent mode redundant).
As a simple action, Take Aim, Magnification-making extreme range down to Long plus +2 Dice pool from Smartgun.
As a simple action shoot El Jefe.
FA 5(Firearms)+8(AGI)+2(Smartgun)-3(Long Range)-1(Recoil)=11+-any other modifiers
ACC 6 Stick-n-Shock Ammo DV 6(e)
El Jefe-5Def
Don't know if he has cybernetic implants but the stick-n-shock causes secondary Matrix damage equal to half the Physical damage rounded down.
Assuming I hit of course.

I changed my mind actually.. Snap will use two simple actions:
1) order her spirit to Conceal us while remaining unseen (it can conceal all four of us, and it can do so with LOS range, which means it can materialize quite far away and still be able to do this for us, I think).
2) aura reading on Huiqing use astral perception

Ok so:
11 Dice - 5 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4767423/

Huiquing Dodges
Int+React, +2 for running, -2 for Burst Fire is 11 dice - 3 hits
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4767424/

Damage of 6+2 for net hits, resisted by Body+Armor -5, is 11 dice - 1 hit Yikes
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4767425/

So he takes 7points of stun damage and takes a -1 die penalty, and an immediate -5 to his initiative. In addition, since the damage of the attack exceeded his physical limit, he is knocked down.

Ok - just for clarity, I'm assuming you are using the non-bound Force of Earth Spirit (leaving it with 1 service left), and yes you are correct, it can materialize several a couple hundred yards to the east and still see you.

Astral Perception on Huiquing:
Int 5, Assensing 2, +2 from Adept Power, 9 dice

You determine that he is mundane, in good health, frightened, and has some cyberware implants, mostly in his head but one or two bodyware implants.

It was full auto, that's why there was a -1 recoil (RC 3 plus 2 for STR 5, 6 recoil FA= 1)
So his defense should be -5 dice, not -2.
I don't know if this negates any of his successes as I'm at dialysis and i keeps giving me 'unable to open' error on the dice links.

How far away is Huiquing from us now? Like 34 meters?

As an aside, in the interest of not getting overly complicated, can we ignore the Electrical rider effect about Matrix Damage unless we're specifically shooting something for that effect (i.e. Called shot to someone's cyberarm) or if the target is wholly electronic (like a drone)? It seems like a lot of extra damage monitors to keep track of otherwise.

@PG - Ah, ok, I see that you did a 6 round Full Auto Burst.

That actually takes away 2 of his successes, meaning he takes 9 boxes of damage. Apart from that, the effects are the same.

@Jack,

Agreed - too much paperwork otherwise.

ETA - Huiquing is approximately 84 meters from you right now.

In most instances, you don't have to keep track of it.
However, take smartlink for example.
To get the +2 pool bonus it has to be on.
By extension that means Mel could brick the smartgun system or the cybernetic eye it's built into.
The matrix damage from the stick-n-shock adds onto the damage Mel could cause.
And a bricked cybernetic eye means a blind opponent...I'm all for blind opponents.
You really don't have to actually track it...if it becomes pertinent, you just go back to the posts that caused electrical damage and add it up.

Fair enough - since it is all documented if I needed to go back and find it, I could.

I'm just not going to keep a condition monitor for each cybersystem that's all

I don't think it's intended, but that's up to y'all. The matrix damage is a secondary effect. By my reading, if we're introducing that, we also need to introduce the primary effect, which is that (e) damage is treated as physical damage by electronic equipment and drones. In other words, all of Huiquing's cyberware would have just suffered 9 boxes of physical damage and 4 (or 5, can't remember if you round up) boxes of Matrix Damage. Remember that this applies to PCs as well.

Yes, not the bound spirit, of course.

Yikes - If for no other reason than to avoid screwing over player characters then I would say we don't use the primary or secondary effects on cyberware, otherwise any schmuck with a taser and you are going to be spending most of your earnings repairing all your cyberware