Initative: 18+2d6 21

INT+REA: 2#9d6t5 3 2
Initiative: 4d6+13 25

So I passed the surprise check but failed the defense roll. Question is: With the higher initiative, do I get an action before he coms to ram me?

You could use defensive driving to add your Int again to your defense -or, you know, one of the guys with higher ini could shoot the car with the special ammo to stop it

Jack, would you say the illusion help there?

I think that Nova/Shark has the ammo right? There is no version of that ammo for pistols.

Nope, he only had assault rifle and shotgun.

My Initiative is not very high.

Initiative 12

Bye
Thanee

Surprise: 13d6t5 2
Initiative: 3d6+11 22

As for who has the ammo. Definitely not shark seeing as he doesn't carry a gun (mostly because he can't use them).

Anyhow: Initiative Order

bnc 25
Sharkboy 22
Anna 21
Wraith TBA
Driver 16 - acted
Passenger 16
Nova 12

Question: Are most vans in the setting FWD or RWD? I'm not asking which this one is, just what they generally are. I'm going to have Sharkboy try to blow up a tire on the left front or left rear wheel, whichever is likely to be a driving wheel. It should at least lose some speed or control, and hopefully careen in the direction of the destroyed tire.

I just realize that I cannot do either:
I already declared that I am delaying an action - this would eat up my first pass.
Evasive Driving (which is, I believe, what you meant) cannot be used against against ramming attacks. (CRB 205) Unless you just used the word "ram" to describe the action and it is not, technically, a Ram attack as listed unter the Chase Actions on p. 205. In this case, I would very much like to use evasive driving, lower my init to 15 und roll an additional 6 dice: Evasive Driving: 6d6t5 1
That would be just enough to make it a tie.

Please clarify if I am allowed to take the Evasive Driving action even though I'm not driving and this could be considered a Ram attack.

Initiative Wraith: 9+1d6 12

@Volker
Interesting, it's indeed a real ram attack and I never noticed that you can't use evasive driving against that.

Well, that leaves the option of spending Edge: Nova could use Blitz to act first, or bnc could reroll her failures.

@gilga
Sorry, but that doesn't work for two reasons:
You would have to have readied an action to cast the spell that quickly and the driver would have to actually look at the street when he is already focused on the obstacle in his way.

@SquirrelDude
By the rules it doesn't make a difference, but you'd risk the transporter crashing and taking quite a bit of damage.

Considering it's already speeding towards another vehicle on an icy road, it taking damage already seems extremely likely.

True.
Still, that makes using Edge all the more a good option.

So, if I go first, I would just fire a burst of Zappers into the engine block and hope for the best?

Bye
Thanee

Basically, yes. I think it'd make more sense of you spend edge because the best I can hope for is that he can escape. You can actually kill the van.

@Jack how far did he stop before our van? We intended to force him to brake hard lest he crashes into our van. Reason I ask is: doesn't he need to take up speed before he can perform a Chase action? IC, he's only got a fracture of a split-second of time (if a CR is three second, every pass is about a tenth of a second. That would mean he's got roughly 50 ms before it's the spirit's turn). Maybe that's not how you can count combat time but still it's a question of split-seconds to accelerate the van one a snowy road in a bend with (in my imagination) only two or three meters before he meets the obstacle. How much speed van he possibly gather?

Since I assume you didn't want to get rammed inadvertently you included probably some safety distance for the barricade (5 to 10 meter). But even if it's just 1m he does BOD/2 DV AP -6 +Net successes.
The road isn't snowy (as per my description, it was salted well enough)

M... alright. Shall we call it a loss action - or should I shoot tires as well?

Okay, thx for clarification!

Alright, so Nova will use Edge to act fast and shoot the engine block, then... I will make rolls and such when I get home.

Bye
Thanee

Do I have to make a called shot? The Zapper Rounds rules say you have to, in order to select where the damage is going to be applied.

Or is there only "one device" to be hit, anyways?

Bye
Thanee

In the current situation, I'd rule that there is only one device around, but as soon as you are dealing with tricked out cars of police or military quality, you'll find quite a lot of devices that you could hit on the outside of a car.

Alright, then... let's see.

Nova will fire a 3-round burst at the van. According to those Zapper rules, there is no penalty for the defense test (if any), but the device will be hit twice instead, which might come in handy. We want the engine to die fast, after all.

Assuming medium range (11-40m). Aim once and fire.

Longarms 7 hits (DV 13P AP-1 (if AP is even used for anything)).

Bye
Thanee

Yeah, no chance to evade and no chance to soak, the car dies before it gets farther than a few meters.

Who's Shark talking to? There's no one left in the car (unless I got something wrong)

.

I believe the driver who initially resisted the spirit and tried the ramming attempt is still in his vehicle, and his partner is the one stepping out of the car to play in the snow.

I'm pretty sure the snowballer is the driver who originally resisted Anna's spirit, but then complied after his failed escape.
His partner (the one who stepped out first and got targeted by Wraith's spirit) only dropped his gun and didn't play with the snow.

Security 1 didn't notice Wraith's spirit, got hexed right away, dropped his gun.
Security 2 noticed Anna's spirit, attempted to flee, got stopped by Nova, then got hexed and just left the driver's cabin to play with the snow

(if I'm not wrong)

Nope, you are correct.

Tomorrow morning I'll edit the post to reflect the error, or someone can delete it and the rest of the group can act appropriately.

No reason to delete it... just edit it accordingly, when you get to it.

In the meantime, we can assume, that Sharkboy goes directly to the driver instead of the door.

Bye
Thanee

Changes made

So, what do we want to know here?

- anything about the van and the procedure when they make their delivery
- whether they are just some external delivery or know more about what is going on in the warehouse (apart from it being not exactly legit, which they can guess on their own given the way the deliveries are being made in the middle of the night with radio silence and changing number plates).

Anything else?

Bye
Thanee

Sounds good.
I'd add their destination and to whom they bring the chips.
Abdecker might be happy about further intel on his enemies.

You mean the finished chips that are being created in the warehouse?

I doubt they are delivering them at all.

But that past is, essentially, included above, already.

Bye
Thanee

Isn't our car toppled over? I fear we have to scratch the "drive around here on autopilot" part.

EDIT: Nevermind, no idea how I got that impression think my brain just turned "have it topple over the edge of the road" into "have the van topple over".
Sorry, brainfart on my end.

@SquirrelDude: I don't know how you want to do that quietly.

We are five people in the van, one or two in the front, the rest in the back with the cargo.

As soon as they open the doors to retrieve the box with the chips, the "quietly" is at an end.

Bye
Thanee

It's less an expectation that anything go quietly and more that animals aren't fond of the shark-man (Critter-spook)

I see, I see.

Bye
Thanee

I indistinctively remember something about sensors we should be careful with. What sensors were they again?

Complete sensor suites above the doors.
Including cameras, radar, ultrasound, lasermicrophones, MAD, Cyberware scanners

Yeah, those would surely tip them off, if they run a scan over the van. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. It is a routine delivery, after all.

But, if bnc can hack into those from the outside, and prevent them from picking up anything unusual, that would help.

We could also try making everyone in the back invisible... and let them unload the box and then try to sneak in.

Bye
Thanee

They are entirely offline, aren't they? And I guess there's also no cable or anything on which you could attach a datatip on a moment's notice, I assume.

Correct, they do not show up on the matrix. But the only real danger to you is radar/milimeter wave - and that can be jammed with matrix noise.

neat! I didn't know you could block a radar with a jammer!

@luckace/gilge tell us when you're ready for action

Wraith would command his spirit to stay hidden but engage the hellhounds on command or when they attack.

The kennels are outside of the ward, right? Then I'll probably command it to attack them should they leave their kennels, AlthoughI might specify this command further tomorrow (just awfully busy atm).

Apart from the details of the command, Wraith is ready to rumble.

Speaking of spirits and wards... AFAIK, you can simply send the spirit to the metaplanes (i.e. "on hold"), move through the mana barrier, then call the spirit to your side.

Also, spirits can use the same method as magicians to get through astral barriers, I think.

Bye
Thanee

A bit overwhelmed, give Luckace control of Anna if you need to move faster.

@Thanee

That is correct. Still, having someone to deal with the hell hounds is not a bad idea.

Just saying, that they could come inside... so even both is possible.

Bye
Thanee

How are we distributed inside the van? bnc is in the driver's seat, obviously, but who sits in the passenger's and who's in the back?
I'd say, Wraith is in the front, the others in the back. Is that okay with everyone, especially Jack?

Yup, same. Those three have the best sneaking skills, too.

BTW, I think you have to wait with the spells until we are past the Mana Barrier... and then have to cast them.

Bye
Thanee

Past the barrier, but before the door opens hopefully. So what happens:

1. bnc does some matrix magic on the scanners.
2. spirits goe harass the hounds
3. Van enters the warehouse.
4. invisibility spells.
5. guards open the van.

Did I understand correctly?