Okay guys, here is the OOC thread we discussed, which will make coordinating this little exercise much easier than with PMs.

Reviewing our plans -

Game basics: SR5, within Aria's Stormy Waters persistent world campaign, set in Seattle.

Concept: Since 88s after some of us, we go after them. No carefully thought out endgame as yet - but who needs that?

Format: Collaborative storytelling, but with one of us stepping out to GM serious combats/assassination attempts (anyone encouraged to jump in with the latter - they're already after some of us, and will doubtless be making attempts on all of us as soon as they figure who we are, which will take them not long at all).

Players: mister__joshua playing Jan

...who reaches out to Al (adamu) and John (Jack_Spade)...

...and then we also cross path's with Aria's character Glo.

Meanwhile Lady Tanya AKA Ai (very confusing typography unless you are reading in giant font), played by Mercy, is climbing the ranks of the 88s in a solo story, and does not know any of the other characters, but we plan to dovetail the stories somehow.

Timeline: In RL, mister__joshua to launch the IC after New Year (so anytime now).
In game time, we can start from Saturday 23 November, but for Mercy it is better if we don't hit them directly in Chinatown until at least the following Tuesday (26th).

So post away once Jan launches it - go wild with it and/or coordinate storyline here!

Thank you for setting this up and I am very sorry for the typography issue. At the time I started the adventure there, I had no idea anyone was going in to hit these guys. And I had no idea that Al was going to be involved.

It would indeed serve my story line a bit better if the main attack does not start until Tuesday or even a day or so later. I am fully willing to have Ai get involved with this as it will suit her overall goal. Thanks for the chance to include me in the game play and I hope we can make this go well for all of us.

I'm ready - but I have not read any of the other games where I wasn't involved. So don't hesitate to correct me if I establish facts incorrectly.

I don't think that'll be an issue.

None of our characters knows what Tanya is up to, and John wouldn't know anything about Jan and Al's previous involvement with the 88s. So unlikely you can create any contradiction with an IC post by John.

OK, I think my last post does something to help set this up. I am thinking there is a division within the 88s that you can make use of. Of course, others will be trying to make use of Jan, Al, and John as well, but I think we can get it to all work together and meld into a nice story line.

By the way, I have looked but not found any background on why Jan has a hard on for the 88s. I looked at the OP for Jan, but it does not say anything about this. Is it somewhere else?

Haha. I just sent 2 PMs about this thread before I saw it existed

I'll catch up on it now...

@Mercy: It happened at the end of the TLG game, where Al, Jan and (I believe) Le Fey were effectively 'bait' on a job that was taken by the 88s. We drew them out at the casino, killed a bunch of them and in retaliation they took out contracts on Jan and Al. Not sure about Le Fey as she was the technomancer (and the target) and didn't kill any triads.

Not really sure who took out the hit on us. The TLG game seems like ages ago and I can't even fully remember what we were bait for

@Adamu: On your opening post, while Jan is reaching out to Revenant as he seems a useful character, I think Al's involvement is a lot less optional. I see it less as 'reaching out for help' and more as 'how are we going to deal with this shit we got ourselves into'

Likewise, please ignore my PM... 86 is as good a tag as we need isn't it?!

Hope to have Glo up on OP shortly with a brief intro/background write-up that I may expand in time!

@Mr J - absolutely agree. When I say Jan will "reach out" to Al, I don't mean hat-in-hand looking for help. More like reminding Al that they ought to do something about their problem...Al sometimes takes things like vendettas from powerful criminal organizations a bit less seriously than he should....

Our little fracas with the Triads went down on 5 October. Jan didn't hear they wanted him dead until 19 November - chalk it up to Jan keeping a low profile, and them taking a while to figure out who he was, maybe.
Meanwhile, Al's been keeping a low profile, having just convinced the Gianelli Family (yeah, they're after him, too) that he's dead back in early September. So he may not even have heard the Triads are after him, since he's laying pretty low out in the worst parts of Hell's Kitchen, Puyallup.
Just tip him to what's going on and he'll step right up.

I hope that I have not missed anything, because it sounds like you guys are already into the IC posts. Or is that just planning the first IC posts?

Don't think you've missed anything!

Ok, WIP version of Glo here: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/glo would welcome your thoughts! I've made the assumption that the cyberhand Agi boost would be effective for lock picking and the monowhip... but if the consensus is that it's not I may need to shuffle some stuff around!

Thanks

Yeah, as Aria said, not missed anything. I haven't put the first IC post up yet. I wanted to establish a bit of direction first. To my mind there are a list of things that need to be accomplished:
- Contact John and Al
- Determine who set up the hit
- Find out more about the structure of the 88's
- Deduce how to take down/out the relevant parties (or failing that as much of the organisation as possible)

Now Jan (as you know) isn't very technical so most of his research/legwork/probing is either in-person or, more likely, through contacts. A brief glance at Glo tells me that she's an infiltrator possibly? I don't know Tanya's current ties to the 88's? Is she friendly to them and thus likely to be opposed to our actions? Or will we find a way where we're working together?

@Aria I would say that the hand AGI boost is definitely used for the whip if it is in that hand. Lock picking might be an issue if it takes both hands, but then would you not average the two AGI scores?

@All Tanya's current connection to the 88s is pretty strong, but I have set this up so that she will support your actions as long as you leave her part of the Triad alone. If you are directed to Ni Ni Xiaolu of the Octagon, she will put you in touch with Tanya, who can give you some intel on the 88s that you can use.

Cheers Mercy

As you probably know a lot more than me, could you give us a bit of OOC information about the Triads in Seattle? I don't know who or what the Octagon is

There's some info in the various Seattle source books or Vice... will see if there are some useful bits to copy paste tomorrow

From what I can tell, there are three Triads in Seattle: Yellow Lotus, 88s, and the Octagon. The Yellow Lotus and Octagon are formed around old fashioned lodges, each with a boss and four lieutenants, each covering a different portion of the business of the Triad. Each lodge has an Incense Master, who is the main adviser to the boss and manages the oaths and initiation rituals. These two Triads are more traditional and rely on a bit of sorcery and plain old thug tactics to keep people in line. The 88s are a tech Triad and have moved from the traditional inhibitions against 'ware to actually embrace implants. They still have a boss and four lieutenants, but the Incense Master is a TM, rather than a mage.

All of the Triads deal in the normal vices of drugs, slaves, prostitution, and the ever popular protection rackets. Stuff from all over the Pacific Rim is smuggled into Seattle through Triad pipelines. There used to be an umbrella organization controlling all of this action called the Red Dragon Association and it is based out of Hong Kong. The Yellow Lotus broke away from the Red Dragons some time ago and paid the price for that when the Red Dragons pretty much destroyed their Hong Kong operations. The Seattle Triad, however, proved resilient and actually beat off the assassins sent for them. The Red Dragons then tried to get the Octagon to be their proxy in the war, but they lost, too, and are now much weaker than they had been as the Yellow Lotus moved in on some of their turf that they were no longer able to protect. The 88s were left in the middle of this and have pretty much stayed that way.

I am using some poetic license to create a situation where the Red Dragons are trying to find a way to unite the 88s and the Octagon into a power base from which the Yellow Lotus will eventually be destroyed. We, as the PCs can play a role in this unless everyone else feels the story is too far off. Most of the names I am using in the story line are completely made up, but some are from the canon and fanon materials I have seen. I am comfortable with anyone willing to step in and add to what I have created or changing stuff.

Found this by Googling Rick Wu + Shadowrun. Mostly jives with all the Mercy has written IC and OOC, and adds some extra color. (Apologies if this is already in the sourcebooks - I don't have anything much between SR2 and SR5).

okay - so we're looking at Rick Wu on top of the 88s, with four lieutenants and their organizations below him.

Have we or shall we detail the other three lieutenants besides Fu Shing?

I suppose the idea is that all our ops are against the other three, at least until such time as we can coordinate something with Mercy?

Hey, just caught up on the last of the Lady Tanya thread.

I must say, Mercy, you have set things up very very nicely, in my estimation.

So, everyone, just throwing out ideas, but would suggest something very roughly along the lines of:

* form our little band

* do some random violence on any old 88s just to shake them up a bit - if that coincides with a raid by Glo, then we've got all the PCs together

* then do a bit of legwork, get more organized in our approach

* have some wild fun slaughtering baddies and/or surviving their attacks

* finally hook up with Ni Ni, which would set us up on a path toward an endgame and our true goal - 88s off our backs. Coincidentally changing the face of the Seattle triads.

Like I said, just a very rough idea.
Main points are (1) hook up with Glo as soon as possible, and (2) hold off on action just until Monday just so we don't conflict with Mercy's cool stuff.

Once we do get rolling, I actually think action against Fu Shing's faction would be something the story could survive, and add extra tension should we look at allying with them against Rick Wu & co.

Thank you for your comments. I will continue to post as Tanya and hope to get through Monday, but I can adapt if you need to jump earlier.

Adam: Silk knows that Glo is after the 88s...if you happened to ask for some intel on them she may put two and two together and team you up?!? Or we could RP the slightly risky situation of meeting each other mid run and hope the lead doesn't start flying before we can talk

One is easy.

One is fun.

But I am cool with either.

Let's see how things shake out once the IC actually gets rolling. Ultimately, my vote is for whichever gets the four of us together soonest.

I'll endeavour to kick off the IC thread early this week. There's still a lot I don't know/understand but we can always work it out as we go.

I'm not really clear on how to achieve our goal, or how that plays into Mercy's story. So pretty much all the key points I'm hazy on

LOL We can make it work no matter what happens. I have already just about accomplished all that Tanya needs to do here, but it would be nice for her if Fu Shing is left alive and in control of the 88s when the smoke clears. But that is not truly necessary if you really need to kill off all of the Triad leadership. I think that we can work out that it is the big boss, Rick Wu, and two of his other lieutenants that screwed up and now want you and Al dead. It works well into Tanya's plan if these guys die. I am also sure that we can have it that Rick and his current Incense Master are up to their eyeballs in Glo's thing, having just bought the information that she needs to keep secret.

With a bit of planning and coordination, you can link up with Glo and then go through Ni Ni and the Octagon to meet Ai/Tanya to work out how to solve everyone's problems.

Yeah, I think it's been set up nicely.

Tanya is not part of the faction of one of the four 88 lieutenants that wants Rick Wu (head of the 88s) dead.

And Rick/two other lieutenants are the ones that want us dead.

So, if we can get ourselves all on the same page (probably not a smooth process), our purposes should dovetail nicely.

...or, in classic TV style, we could definitely waste Fu Shing so that Tanya can be free of this whole marriage thing...

I think you have a typo there. Tanya IS part of a faction of the 88s that want's Rick Wu's head.

And, yes, killing Fu Shing would make that part of Tanya's life cleaner, but I am not sure that I don't want her to have some important contacts in the 88s and the Red Dragon Association. Could play hell with her social life, though. Decisions, decisions.

Who's Fu Shing then? I've not read anything about him outside this thread. I'm figuring from what I've picked up he's an 88s lieutenant that's not supporting Rick. Is Fu a canon character of just part of Mercy's story? I also don't know who Ni Ni is. I though that was the dance move between whip and stanky leg?

Ni Ni Xiaolu is one of the lieutenants of the Octagon Triad and is one of Tanya's very best friends. She runs an antique store as a front for some rather illegal smuggling operations. She also acts as a fence for much of what Tanya steals. This is very definitely one person whose death will cause real problems between Tanya and whoever kills her. She is pretty much fanon in a different campaign and I lifted her and expanded a lot on her character for Tanya's stories.

Fu Shing is entirely my creation for Tanya's story. He is a lieutenant in the 88s and is not supporting Rick Wu. He would support a change in leadership of the 88s, likely seeing himself as a good candidate for the job. Tanya likes him a lot and would not mind putting him on that throne so she can have a good contact in that Triad. A side bit is that by doing so, she will also make friends with the Red Dragon Association, a very powerful Triad based out of Hong Kong. He openly supports Rick Wu while plotting behind his back in true Triad fashion. You would probably not have any idea that he is against Rick Wu unless you have a real good ear or meet Tanya.

And already I'm incapable of keeping the names straight, never mind who they are.

So when it's time just tell John who you want to see dead and who not

Haha. I feel there's a large gap in knowledge between the people who know Mercy's story and those who don't
Nevermind though. I'll stick an IC up tomorrow and get us rolling. I think I know enough to know how to play it.

Are we ok in the 2075 world to kill canon characters like Rick then?

It is our story so I do not see why not. We can create and destroy.

And they can always burn edge to somehow survive the nasty PC depredations... or be replaced by dopplegangers... or a host of other GM tricks if they need to reappear in the future!

Put up the opening IC post. Wasn't sure about the location so made one up but I can change it if someone has something better

Metroplex has thousands of eateries. Never hurts to make up a new one!

A good start to the IC.

Doh - sorry about that. Don't know how that silly "not" slipped in there....thanks for pointing it out!

Yeah, I don't need an overzealous PC killing Tanya by "mistake".

I don't mind which colour scheme we use, but can we please have coloured speech and matrix comms in the 86ing thread. Pretty please! It makes it flow a lot better in my mind, and when reading back I can pick out the interactions between characters better. If people don't like the turquoise I can change that.

Doh! Sorry man, I totally intended to do that last night. Will edit the color in tonight!

Phfft, I'm too lazy to colour stuff anymore ...will see what I can do as this is your baby

Just be aware that some colors show up nice against the white background when you are typing, but suck against the gray background when we are looking at it.

@Jack_Spade: Wanted to ask a question about John. I want to try and bring the IC's together as soon as possible, but I'm not really sure of John's motivations? Does he work for good ol' Nuyen like everyone else? I always have this problem with AIs. I was trying to find motivations outside of nuyen as currently we don't have a lot to offer, but I still need to figure out how we'll get 'paid.'

How much is our bounty worth? Maybe we can claim that as part of the job?

John is more robot than AI and he actually needs a lot of nuyen to keep going (nothing below high lifestyle or his system begins to decay)

So yes, Nuyen are a great motivator for him.

For him the real world is quite similar to a MMORPG: People aren't really real for him - hence why he has not many compunctions about killing "NPCs" - but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have affection for people he subconsciously considers as "PCs" or that he isn't interested in their lives.
But first and foremost he enjoys his powers and likes challenges as much as any "gamer". He has no problem with being paid in loot, interesting contacts or just gaining valuable work experience - as long as it doesn't turn him insolvent.

At heart he is still a boy in his early twenties that isn't tired yet of playing his video games.

Quick question: are we using the TC rules for ‘free’ 40 points of contacts for the 86ing? Glo is going to be rather lonely if not! I’ve begun writing up her initial IC but I won’t post it until I’ve at least finalised her contact list

John has his 40 points so I don't see why not you too

Yeah, more contacts the better.

In what world to people live their lives to adulthood and then wake up and find out they know only three people?
Maybe the devs are even more game-nerdy than me....

Great, will decide who they are and add them to Glo's sheet

Making a wild assumption that a data tap linked to a cheap commlink could do what I just described... it might be a bit of a reach so yell if it sounds bogus and I'll cook something else up