I'm waiting for Torley to reply (and Clem).

Me too, kind of at a loss.

Have you attempted to email them?

Okay, I said I would keep doing this as long as I had players.

Necro, make a post as best you can for Torley, we will wrap this scene quick as we can and get Sammy and Con back together and go from there.

Hey, sorry for not checking in sooner. Life got in the way.

Necro, thanks for stepping in for me; I can take over again now.

No prop, Thvor. RL takes presence, so it's all good. If you'd like me to edit my posts to better reflect Torley, just send me your version.

Unless Hydroraven pops up again soon you can act for Clem for the rest of the scene Necrogigas.

And I know that Mercy is currently having a bunch of courses of Chemotherapy, followed by more surgery. So don't expect him to show up regularly (if at all).

Well, that got interesting really fast.

Does Sam have any clue who the AF might be?

The only AF you would know is the Atlantean Foundation.

This might be one of those cases where your adept abilities work against you. I have got to hope this guy is good enough to be able to read you behind your mask since you are still keeping your cards hidden.

I'm not sure I understand. As far as I'm aware, Sam has no cards (having not researched Viktor prior to making contact, a point you've made a couple of times). As far as he knows, his team doesn't even know which room he's in; he believes he's performing without a net. He's got lots of questions, of course, but no answers.
- Who are Viktor and his dad? Clearly moneyed & powerful, but beyond that?
- Who are the AF?
- Mr. Englebrecht clearly doesn't like the AF, but I'm not clear on whether it's animosity or fear. If Sam can pick up on that distinction, it could help him steer the conversation; since it isn't clear yet, I decided to take a middle road of offering Daddy the choice. If he wants to hurt them/take them down, then helping us would be in his interests; if he's afraid of their coming after him, then Sam's offer to keep quiet should be attractive. Unless Daddy's a kinesthetic as well, there should be subtle reactions as Sam's talking.
- It's not clear yet if the elf is part of the AF, or just someone that the AF is interested in (perhaps because he took something from them? Hmmm...)
- On that note, I'm not even sure we know who our primary Johnson works for; she might even be part of this AF group. Which could be useful information to have... Should we have researched our J before leaving Seattle? I'm starting to wonder if I'm paranoid enough to play this game. <sigh>

All of which to say, Sam's bluffing. He came into this conversation practically empty-handed, and has to rely on picking up tidbits from Daddy to guide his improvisations. He's trying to probe, see which buttons draw a reaction, without crossing any lines (made harder by not knowing where those lines are). Daddy seemed to respond well to Sam being a Runner, rather than just a hopeful wannabe informant, so he's continued to rely on that; in his latest play, he's trying to probe to figure out Daddy's relationship with the AF, as noted above, and also lightly brushing up against intimidation. And, yeah, it's a little weird for the guy with a goon holding him down to be intimidating, but the fact that Sam's been so calm and controlled throughout the conversation--while Daddy's starting to get agitated--should help convince Daddy that Sam's got aces up his sleeve. I hope.

So, yeah, I'm not sure why you think it'd be good for Daddy to see through Sam's mask. If he realizes that Sam's flying blind, things could go really bad really fast. Or is your read on the situation different from mine?

--
Also, side note: reading through the elevator frisking, you only mentioned the goon taking Sam's roomsweeper. Did they miss the self-defender?

I was hoping for something like this.



You guys have a bad habit of not doing background on people beyond what you know personally Him being able to read that you are full of shit would actually be a good thing at this point




Yep, that would be good to know before.



I mentioned before that the Atlantean Foundation is the only one you know of, if you need background on them, let me know. Otherwise I am assuming you have read the literature on them.



Torley can easily read that part, Mr. E is annoyed, like they are an inconvenience, like a competitor. He seemed to be buying your story, until you showed him the elf, now he feels a bit foolish that he was buying it and he is back to being convinced you know him and there is something more going on, involving him.



It should be clear, Mr E considers the elf to be AF.



There are times...



If he thinks AF is competition, and you are looking for them, then you are likely competition.



Apparently, or they just didn't think it was a threat,

So, just so it is clear, I am waiting on the goahead from Thvor

Sorry, didn't realize.

I'm still not clear why you think "Him being able to read that you are full of shit would actually be a good thing at this point". As far as I can tell, him picking up on that means that Sam would get nothing, other than the AF lead.

But thanks for the additional info on what Sam's able to read of his emotional state; I've modified my post slightly based on that.

Thvor? You around?

Check in? anyone? First to answer gets to NPC Torley and post, if it ain't Thvor.

I'm still here. Sorry for the silence, but it's hard if deadlines at work and writer's block hit at the same time.

No problem, still here. You want to post for Torley?

I am here as well. Only been checking infrequently since O'Connor is paused until Torley's scene ia done.

Any word from the others by other means?

I know that Mercy still has chemotherapy ongoing, so we won't be seeing him around for a while.

Well, if either of you feels up to it feel free to take over Torley. Hopefully he will be back.

Sammy is already a part of the scene, so I'll take over for the moment. Might be a bit before I post however.

Just a heads up that I will be away on holiday from the 28th of June until the 14th of July. I will be without internet access while traveling (28 and 29 of June and 13 and 14 of July). The other days I should have internet access, but it will be tropical island internet of a satelite connection, so it might be spotty. I'll try to reply, but it will be slower and I could drop out a few days as well. In case my character is needed to push the story line, the GM can take care of that (just don't kill her off please).

Have a good vacation Faro.



Crossbow, way back when, I posted this after the firefight with the Area Boys.



This was about the time that Mercy left for medical reasons, so no follow up happened. In the Torley scene, has Snow's message about Jane and O'Connor starting a war with the Area Boys reached the other group yet?

Now seems a good time for them to get that, sure.

Okay, I now have my two active players (given spotty internet) back in one place. Would really like to get the others back, but I am going to push on. If the two of you can cover any player actions and try to handle communications for the others to keep you from having conversations with yourself that would be great. I don't know what to do after this, but I am finishing this adventure for you guys, if you are with me.


Thvor, Hydroraven and Mercy, hope to see you back, jump in when you get here. I am not going to try and replace anyone again, unless you guys want me to.

We're zero for two on replacements, so I'm not eager to redo that drek-show.

So I'll keep control of Torley. Faro, you want control of Snow and/or Clem?

I would prefer no one get 'claimed', just make sure no one ends up talking to themselves.

How would you like to handle this? There's five PCs and two players. We could rearrange the current teams for contrived reasons and shunt Clem, Snow, and Torley off screen, but then they'd be solely your problem.

not to mention the fact that Sammy and Con are not the ones most logically put together. We'll have to think this one throug and hope some people come back. Maybe try sending an email if you have their email addresses. They might answer that and not check here.

I don't plan to let you guys get separated again. Just concentrate on your character, do what you would do normally. I will move the others while they are gone. Feel free to interject for them if you think I am missing something important they will do.


If I address the team as an NPC, jump into whoever would probably answer (likely Torley), and push on. Inside the team I can go back and forth with you or the two of you can handle it, there should be no reason for Torley Clem or Snow to both sides of a conversation, that will just be off panel.



You guys will probably need to speak to Jane about everything that you just learned, so we can continue with that. I will assume that SOMEONE will want to investigate Engelbrecht at this point, that will be Snow's job for the moment.

I will start posting after Sunday, when I get back from holiday. Now there is only spotty internet and a lot of other things to do.

Welcome back Thvor. Hope my stand-in posts for Torley are adequate.

FYI, I’m traveling this weekend, so have very limited access.

Are you really sure about that Crossbow? The initial meet ended with even the two personable members of the crew outright disliking her, and she's done nothing to improve that negative first impression.

I have no control over your reactions to her, but I have been trying to play her as a friendly the whole time.

Crossbow: How much do we know about Ife and this king?

Is Snow aware enough of the meatspace conversation that we can ask her to gather info on them, or do we need to send her a matrix message?

You have the info provided to you by Jane and the Feral Cities files on Shadowland.

Where did we do the rolling again? It's been quite a while since I rolled dice here.

Just to be sure: a make-over on me, Sam and Clem (just to be sure) and masking Con, Snow and Jane?

EDIT: anything on difficulties (as they depend on the changes I want to do)? What do you get for 2 or 3 successes?

orokos.com is the site I use, I had to look it up myself.

I will have to look up stuff when I get home. I know there is a background count to deal with, and for levels of success, but I don't have it off the top of my head.

Just checking in to see if you guys would be open to adding a new player/character in when the opportunity arises. This is quite possibly the longest running game I've ever seen on here, and I'm coming back after a few years break after getting frustrated with everything falling apart so quickly. Some of my previous attempts at games to get going include (but aren't limited to):

Doc Wagon Code Black
Blood In the Water
We Be Moving
Puyallups IV

Yeah, I tend to lean more toward the magical/matrix side of things with characters, but not always.

SleepIncarnate, I have been running this game since January of '13, over on the SRtabletop forums. That has much more to do with the players than any skill on my part, they have kept me on the grind when I would get lost in the weeds of RL, and I promised in the beginning that I would be here until they weren't, and not before. I can't speak for consistency, but we are still here.


I certainly don't mind you playing, but we are in the middle of an adventure, so a new character dropping in is not happening. We have had limited success with people taking over characters, but we are also trying to push forward with 2 players who have been fairly inactive. I leave it to the players on that part, if you would like to message me, we can get a character squared away offline and we will try to get you in after, if there is an after.

Crossbow—you didn’t answer about whether Snow can hear our conversation. I looked at Feral Cities, and it didn’t give much info about where we’re headed, so Sam would like to find out more, but he’s already given her a lot to look up...

She wasn't privy to the conversation, but I was going to do a post with her results, so hold what you got.

Okay, so the new person is interested in subbing in for Snow, if Mercy comes back they will move to handle Clem. If Mercy and Hydro show up again I will be very happy and won't care for the problem it creates. Does anyone have a serious objection to this?

Did you vet the replacement this time around?

No problem for me.

On another note: any news on the thresholds I need to have for the make-overs and physical mask spells?

How am I supposed to do that exactly? I looked through some of his old games, I didn't see an issue.


On another note: any news on the thresholds I need to have for the make-overs and physical mask spells?

You set the threshold for others, so roll well. The Background count is +1

Fixed it. In all seriousness though, as I told Crossbow, I'd rather not take over another person's character, but that was put forth as the only likely solution of getting me into game sometime within the next year or two. After being told that the crew needs someone matrix knowledgeable (both character and player), I offered the compromise of playing Snow until such time as the character could believably bow out of the story (such as getting a job assigned by the Vory while the crew is moving to a different city), but that would also allow for Snow to come back into play if/when Mercy comes back.

That being said, feel free to look through the games I listed and more. The only times I've ever been the one to disappear on the crew were ones where I told them in OOC why I was so skow to respond. Specifically when I was nearing my last month or two in Afghanistan during my last tour there and was simply swamped with stuff. I can promise that I won't be a repeat of Titan.