That was the weirdest run of hot/cold dice I've had in a long time! The idea was that Jawsey's spirit would levitate Igor, letting Mato not have to stop him and thereby adding one more level of separation for Igor to break through if he does come looking for revenge. Instead it would seem that the spirit is just adding some comic relief.

I should have gone with movement, and just super slowed Igor to give more time for us to scramble the powers that be to intercept him, but levitate had sounded more sure.

Resist: 8d6t5 3
Resist: 8d6t5 4
Resist: 8d6t5 1

Yeah, he might feel a bit light on his feet, but he certainly doesn't go up in the air.

@Beta the funny stuff for me was how optimistic you sounded initially with the summon/drain rolls.

PS it is amazing that you found a vaccine it does feel great.

I'm actually getting my second dose in two hours. I blocked off my calendar tomorrow in case it hits me hard. I've heard everything on the spectrum to "didn't even notice it at all" to "I slept for four days, only getting up to go to the bathroom."

My posting rate might be slow for a bit. Or, if I'm stuck in bed with a lucid brain and a baked body then maybe I'll post a lot!

Well, good luck to all of you.
I expect that I won't get a chance for more than a month, being a low priority case (damn my general good health)

Here they have been doing a mix of priorities based on exposure, health risks, and age group. My age cohort finally came up as more vaccine flows in. Like with the EU we are gated by vaccine availability for EU based factories .(normally Canada buys vaccines from American factories, but the US blocked all exports of vaccine right at the start of things, so we are dependent on the European factories). For my sake I'm glad the EU hasn't done the same, but from your side it must be frustrating to see it going off shore.

Jack, can you help explain the second part of this:


I presume you means "too" instead of "two", but in what way did the Duchess lose her "soon to be husband"? They're obviously there together and planning their continued travels, so it certainly doesn't sound like they've lost each other.

Sorry, that was a bit ambigous: The Duchess lost Katya and Pike lost Igor and Invictus

Ah! That makes much more sense. Thank you for the clarification.

Alright, I'll conclude the Chapter here.

I'm sorry, this whole story kinda got away from me - I've never tried to tell such a whodunnit before in a pbp format. I'll certainly take the lesson to heart not to introduce so many NPCs in so short a time again.

As for the rewards:

50000 Nuyen for the agency and 5000 Nuyen for the participating characters in addition for a total of 65k
In addition you can keep your gear: armored suits for all and Mato is allowed to keep the handgun as well.

You gained new contacts:

Mato:
Brad (Security Specialist) C4/L2
Chan Wu (Wuxing heir ) C7/L1

Jawsey
Mc Elroy (Academic Mage) C6/L2

AM
Van der Bloom (Security Decker) C3/L1

You all have the contact for the armorer “Thatcher, Techné, Suman and Kuchenmeister” C4/L1


As for Karma: The last gig from March to July gave us 42 Karma. This one took from August to May (though with some slow stretches due to Covid) So I think you all earned yourself the 80 Karma

In addition you can raise directly

– 10 knowledge karma to be spent on Academic / Professional knowledge skills, or contacts related to those (Everything you learned about security systems)

– 10 knowledge karma to be spent on Language / Street knowledge skills, or contacts related to those (Everything you learned about the world of the rich and famous)

– 10 knowledge karma to be spent on Interest knowledge skills, or contacts related to those (Everything you learned about how rich people spend their time and money)


If you have different suggestions, please tell me. I don't want to overpower our character growth, but it seems in order after we've been playing for so long on this one story.

We're at exactly 700 (!) IC posts right now. I'll add at least one more for Mato.

Here's what the awards have been for prior chapters:

Chapter 1 – 157 posts – 25 karma – 0.16 karma per post
Chapter 2 – 292 posts – 30 karma – 0.10 karma per post
Chapter 3 – 326 posts – 25 karma – 0.08 karma per post
Chapter 4 – 292 posts – 20 karma – 0.07 karma per post
Chapter 5 - 420 posts - 42 karma - 0.10 karma per post

80 karma would put us at about 0.11 karma per post, which is by no means outlandish. I had personally been estimating ~70 karma but I'm certainly not going to turn down anything extra.

We've been playing for three years now; I wouldn't say that overpowering our character growth is a primary concern of mine at this point.

Additional questions about the rewards:

1) What happens to the drone?
1a) What happens to the custom gun on the drone?
2) Cunningham had originally said that we'd be paid on a daily basis for our services. This came out to an additional 800 nuyen for the days contracted. Is this paid too?
3) Is this clothing suitable in any other situation other than as livery for the staff of an aristocrat European household?

Some accounting:

- We made 65,000 collectively (or 67,400 if the daily wages are included).
- Collective lifestyle costs are 7,400. (Some of this may be recouped by the usual Teamwork rolls we make at the beginning of chapters.)
- That leaves us 60,000.
- We've been dividing things up evenly. That would leave 15,000 for each of us.

As for the next steps, I have two different interludes in mind. Which one I run depends on who is GMing next. One is an interlude + chapter combo that has Mato gone for the chapter, so I would GM. The other interlude is the usual stand-alone where it doesn't matter who GMs next (other than me).

1) If no-one asks for it, the Duchess would have taken it and likely had it destroyed
1a) likewise
2) That would be included in the 5000 nuyen bonus
3) It is if you remove a few cosmetic modificiations (or someone invests in the the Fashion spell - which is incredibly useful in general) they can be used in formal situations, but they are far from high fashion (especially since fashion changes every season. Would be socialites are tripped up easily that way)

I'll have to reread what Bobby was doing during that time - I've totally forgotten.


If you are interested in its stats:

It's a
Lockheed Optic-X2
H 5
SP 5
Acc 2
Body 2
Arm 0
Pilot 6
Sen 4

Mods:
Small Weapon Mount (Heavy Pistol) -2 MP
Pilot Upgrade 6 -2 MP
Body 2 (2 MP)
Armor -3 (1 MP)
Acceleration -1 (1 MP)

Mounted Weapon is a Savalette Guardian

Savalette Guardian ACC 6( DV 8P AP–1 SA/BF RC 2 Ammo 12 ©
Mods:
Additional clip (side)
Electronic firing (barrel)
Trigger removal (-)
Extended clip 2 (only 18 shots due to additional clip)

The drone has further been modded with an added Stealth attribute, increased to 2 for 2 permanent Matrix Damage
There is also a valuable Attack Dongle R5 added, for a total of A5 S2 D6 F6
On the drone itself a virtual machine runs for a total of 4 program slots.
Programms included are:
Agent R6
Smoke & Mirrors
Electronic Warfare 6 (doubles for Clearsight and Hacking Duty)
Smartsoft
Piloting 6
Wrapper
Stealth
Sneak
Browse
Edit
Encryption
Signal Scrub
Toolbox
Decryption
Defuse
Exploit

Jawsey was making some effort to keep the drone away from the attention of the people in power, in hopes that nobody would think to ask for it. IC he hadn't hid it or anything, but there was at least IC efforts to let "out of sight, out of mind" hopefully do work.

I was understanding the same thing as Beta in terms of the drone. As in, we were holding it and not actively hiding it but not actively giving it back either. If it's ours for the asking, we'll ask for it. Mato already asked for a trip to Hawaii; he won't hesitate to ask for the drone.

Someone named AM should buy a point of Pilot Aircraft to make use of the drone.

Bobby is the only one with Pistols so the Savalette would be for him. That would be a nice Christmas present.

If the daily income is rolled into the bonus then it changes our final pay a bit. Let's just keep the 15,000 per person now and then do the rolling to figure out how much of the lifestyle costs we cover with our Teamwork rolls. Mato and Bobby have income taxes to pay out of their shares.

We've been doing a Charisma + Etiquette test to help pay the bills. Here’s Mato’s contribution: Charisma 4 + Etiquette 1 + Corporate 2: 7d6t5 2 hits, same as last time

In that case, no-one is stopping you from taking it with you. You'll have to figure out how to sell or change ownership though.

1. Well, this is a hook for an interlude or a run.
2. @Tec I am cool with both options. I did not have anything planned (covid and stuff) but I am trying to come up with a compelling story. Jack and you really push that bar very high I feel.


3. Aside from Fashion spell and some pilot aircraft - any other tips for interesting spells/skills RP-wise?
I was looking into the Incubus spell for doing errands discreetly but the examples in the description feel a bit too pink mohawk for this game.

4. Cha+Ettiquete: 9d6t5 4 hot dice

I'd be fine with a slice-of-life run, or something more modest in scope. The last two chapters have been much longer than the first four. We had been averaging 300 posts for Chapters 2-4 and I think that's still a reasonable guideline. Not all of the chapters need to be sprawling epics. In fact, it's probably best for GM fatigue if they aren't.

I'll echo Jack that Fashion is shockingly useful. I took it twice (well, same character, two different games) and it was one of my most-used spells. It also pairs nicely with Makeover, which AM already has.

Some of this comes down to some of AM's personality. Given her trickster mentor spirit, it seems that Illusion and Manipulation spells are good choices.

Illusion
- Any of the various debuffs, like Bugs/Swarm (for Spider/Iktomi), Confusion/Mass Confusion, Chaos/Chaotic World, Euphoria/Opium Den, all of these seem right up Iktomi's alley
- The classic illusion spells: Trid Phantasm, Manascape, Physical Mask, Vehicle Mask

Manipulation
- Magic Fingers (telekinetics, a personal favorite)
- Compel Truth (good for investigators, or Analyze Truth if you want to be more passive)
- Control Emotions / Mob Mood (less overt than Control Thoughts or Control Actions)
- Ice Sheet (good for car chases and lolz)
- Petrify (horribly written and thus super-powerful as a result)
- Animate / Mass Animate / Poltergeist (very trickster-y)
- Gravity / Gravity Well (like the opposite of Levitate)

I'm a bit jammed up at the moment. Busy week at work, taxes are due next Monday, and somehow three of the games that I'm GMing are all in combat/initiative all at once. Two of those should conclude soon but the third is just starting.

Just to set expectations, it's going to be a few days before the interlude kicks off. This weekend at the latest. Game time will be New Year's Day, so about a week will have passed from the ending of Chapter VI.

In the meantime, still considering karma expenditures. Rough draft:

30 karma - Reaction 6 or Edge 6
25 karma - Willpower 5 (boosts Social Limit)
18 - six Charisma-linked skill at rating 2 (cost decreased via Jack of All Trades)
7 - leftover

Knowledge karma: no clue yet

I would be entirely grateful for a week before anything picked up. I need to put another game out of its misery and coax another one through to its end and then my brain will hopefully be less overloaded with SR related things. I can't even wrap my head around what I'd do with all this karma on Jawsey right now.

While online GM-ing has not gone as well as I would have liked, I do have a 4th edition fan made adventure sitting on my computer that I think would suit the team well, and should be comparatively quick and light in tone. It should require fairly minimal tweaking (obviously to move to 5ed, but also to keep one key scene from being too easy to solve with turtles). It might make a bit more sense in March/April than in January/February but the earlier date could be covered by bulking up one scene a bit.

I'm willing to run this at any point, but am in no rush. If everyone could use a low complexity run into Salish-Sidhe territory, then I could do it after the interlude. If Gilga is inspired and wants to run something or Tecumseh is feeling the interlude leading into an adventure that is fine too. I'm offering, but not pushing -- the adventure will sit there quietly for a while still before the group totally outclasses it. (Whenever I do run it, Jawsey will take a long overdue trip back to Tsimshian lands to try and find himself, or at least learn how to survive without a good mattress)

I'll run the Interlude where it doesn't matter who GMs after.

If I end up GMing after that, the Interlude + Chapter combo also makes sense as a slightly larger Chapter. The Interlude just acts the introduction / prelude. It's fairly open-ended and sandbox-y so I'm curious what people will decide to do.

As for Jawsey, in the name of PbP let's not get too caught up on advancement times. The advancement time rules aren't designed for earning 80 karma in a week. If we anchor ourselves to the progression times then we'll end up with huge backlogs of karma that we don't have time to spend because of our IC calendar progression. Let's get Jawsey to Magic 4 and not worry that it's only been 8 days or 15 days or whatever. Mato certainly isn't.

Other than that... how does Jawsey want to progress? An hoop full of spells? More spirit types? Crazy qualities?

Jawsey has already banked 8 days of magic training, and frankly I'd claim the time in this adventure working with McElroy too, so he'd not be too far off on hitting four (well, 17 more days. First time through I used 5 day work weeks -- I really am not with it at the moment)

I don't have progression mapped out for Jawsey to be honest, and am not quite ready to try and figure it out. (The last while I've been involved in four online games and juggling three different campaigns at home with my son (somehow the 'not a shadowrunner for the 30 Nights canpaign' character, as a break from the serious characters has become its own ongoing story), and it has just given me something like SR jitters, where I can't seem to stay focused on one story or character for a useful amount of time. I'm staunchly denying that it could be a sign of burn-out, but we'll see). The last time I tried I just wasn't seeing anything that particularly excited me. Perhaps with this much karma it can add up to something a bit deeper that engages me more.

Are the parts in parentheses suggestions or limitations? Can we use this knowledge karma for anything, or is it intended to be for things related to our time at Pike Hall?

Mainly suggestions, but of course it would make most sense if the new knowledge had something to do with your time at Pike Hall.

@Jack (and anyone else knowledgable of the rules).

AM does not have cyber combat skill - how much of an issue is that? I try to figure out if I am missing out on anything.

For the basic actions in the CRB it is fine -- obviously you can't fight usefully, but 5e hacking is usually played as being mostly about not being spotted, and running quickly if you are spotted. ( I think there is a viable combat build, but of course that always sets off alarms, so not usually what a runner team wants). That said, having a point or two in the skill so that you have the potential to brick a low grade link door lock or something might be a reasonable investment?

Also I'm not positive that there isn't something cool to do with cybercombat from one of the supplements. Nothing jumps to mind, but I've not reviewed them in a while.

Cybercombat is used for crash program, data spike and brute force. It's pretty neglible for someone not out to linklock or cause massive matrix damage.

Doesn't hurt to have one or two points for a non-dedicated decker like you.

Alright, I spent my knowledge skill points. I boosted like 14 different things so I won't list them all out here.

As for the last chapter, I will say that I thought the large cast of characters was more invigorating than overwhelming. From a whodunit perspective, I felt like it could have been anyone so we didn't know who to trust.

I'm very much impressed with all the detail that Jack put together on the other guests (summarized here). I found myself referring to it often. I also find myself wanting to incorporate some of them into my own stories, like Jenny Marshall and Harabia.

Feel free to do so

I'll be glad if someone else takes the glove this time. As if Covid was not enough, it feels like a new war. We had a difficult night with tens of rockets exploding over our heads and trying to keep two little kids happy and secure. It drains all kinds of energy and no idea when it'll stop. The closest explosion was like 200 meters from us, luckily intercepted. Needless to say no school or anything, we'll try to fix playdates in the security of homes and such to keep some sense of normality within this mess.
A trip to the grocery store is now planned like a military operation, studying the building and its safe places in case of another attack. Reality just sometimes feels as dystopian as fantasy.

That says, thank you for granting me the best escapism

Yeah, I had to think of you when I saw the video of the Iron Dome defense system in action.

Keep safe.

The Iron Dome is amazing and saves a lot of lives. It does not prevent hearing the explosion and feeling the shockwaves on your windows. The house was ready and we have an armored room for rocket attacks. I did not feel that handling these things was difficult until I had children to take care of. Then I see the effects on them, and so my main concern is to try and maintain some routine that would be safe and enjoyable and would keep their emotional well-being. I hope it will be over soon, but the plan is to find something that works for us even if it drags for over a month. Covid made us closely knit so it was good preparation for war, but it is draining a lot of energy.

As for physical danger between shelters, and Iron Dome not many people are hurt, but as the number of rockets is very large few of them hit, no system is 100%, and there is the question of capacity can they put enough rockets in parallel so that the dome is saturated. The good news is that the lessons from this conflict would probably make new technology and solutions, but the bad news is that we are unwilling participants in a big weapon test.

I was thinking of you and your family when I was listening to the news this morning Gilga. Wishing you the best under the circumstances. The stress of the everyday there/now is hard for me to imagine, but happy to help provide some escapism.

Gilga, that's intense! I was reading the BBC this morning and it was saying all the same things you were about the experience. (In fact, if you want to get interviewed, the BBC put an open call out for people in the affected areas to contact them.)

I thought about you a couple days ago when the attacks first started. But I was under the impression that your home was more rural than urban and thus wouldn't be in the line of fire. Looks like I was wrong about that.

I have a 5-year-old and so I've been reflecting a lot on the challenges of the last year. In a way, the masks weren't that tough because a 5-year-old hardly knows any better. Their frame of reference is too short to know how odd this is.

(Separate but related, when I was 2 years old my parents adopted my sister. My recollection of it was, "Ok cool, this is fine." For all I knew at age 2, parents showed up with new kids all the time. There wasn't enough context to know that it was uncommon.)

What's been more challenging have been the race and policing discussions in the United States. We live in a highly progressive, highly urban area, and tensions last summer were very high. We live three blocks from a police station that was the focal point of the local protests, with weeks of helicopters hovering over us and flashbang grenades going off at midnight and 1 in the morning. Those are tricky, slippery discussions to have, how to be fair and accurate and balanced and respectful.

But of course all that pales in comparison to being targeted with rockets and hearing them explode overhead. That must slash at your psyche every time it happens.

In any case, all the best to all of you.
It's Father's Day here in Germany today, so I wish all of you a great day of rest and relaxation

As you have likely seen, the next Interlude is up.

Hope you're staying safe, Gilga.

Hi Thanx, insane day. Had an alarm like every 30 min until 4 am. Very difficult night, hopefully, tomorrow is better. Kids slept the entire time but I feel difficult to fall asleep like that.

@jack thanks.

Before I go on a spendin spree with Bobby:

How much debt does AM still have? Bobby would help her pay off another chunk, so she'll get her financial freedom a bit quicker again.

----AM has 11K of debt to leg-breakers left.--

Edit: AM has 12k of debts, 4k to Jhonney, and 8k to Mafia.

Cool, so Bobby can lend her 10k in addition to the 4000 he lent her already.

With her own share, she should be able to pay the debt off completely then.

Oh wow. In that case, I will edit the post. Finishing debt requires a whole new post.

I updated AM's sheet to reflect the loss of debt, I gave up the vehicle mask to have the karma to reduce the negative quality to 0. She now owes Bobby 12k, an 8k increase from the previous chapter. No more debt to Mafia!