Here’s what you currently know about your neighborhood: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...is/touristville

Here’s our shared lifestyle: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.c...gative-services

Game calendar so far, all dates 2078 except for the currently interlude, which takes place on New Years' Day.

Chapter 1: Sunday, September 18
Chapter 2: Monday, September 26
First Interlude: Saturday, October 1
Chapter 3: Monday, October 10
Second Interlude: Sunday, October 16
Chapter 4: Sunday, November 6
Third Interlude: Wednesday, November 23
Chapter 5: Thursday, November 24
Fourth Interlude: Sunday, November 27
Chapter 6: Thursday, December 22
Fifth Interlude: Sunday, January 1, 2079

I presume Beta and Gilga are still maintaining their character sheets on Obsidian Portal. Those are what I'm using.

@Jack Go ahead and post your character sheet so we can see what Bobby looks like these days.

I've finally uploaded Bobby to a Google Doc

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/107f...dit?usp=sharing

Haven't spend all of the Karma yet (depends on how much money AM needs), but I'd strongly suggest, AM, Jawsey and Bobby finally get around to create a circle, so our initation costs go down.

A Google Sheet! Exciting!

@Jack
Would you be alright moving the karma expenditures on a second tab so that it's easier to access your stats without scrolling?

Not sure if it's a typo on row 84, but boosting Reaction from 2 to 3 would be 15 karma instead of 10.

Hint / Minor Spoiler: You might want to hold off on Randori (Vitals), as martial arts are a potential reward from this Interlude. If there are more martial arts you want, then carry on.

I don't have any issues with group initiation; forming the group is something we might be able to handle at the end of this Interlude. That said, are there rules for forming the group itself? I think there were in 4E but if there are in 5E then they are eluding me.

Still need Charisma + Etiquette rolls for Jawsey for the monthly lifestyle/expenses. Bobby can roll (or not) as Jack sees fit. Bobby could have earned a little bit on his own while he was gone.

I updated AM's sheet.

Most notably: Edge 2->3 and Body 2->3

Some more spells including the vehicle mask, Fashion, and petrify.
The outdoors skill group 0-->1 (should have had some basic knowledge of it from background)
I took that point in pilot aircraft, as well as the overclocker and perfect time qualities reflected as some tricks she may have developed over time to make her Erika sufficient.

Knowledge about matrix security and fashion, as well as popular culture, and sports, and whatever else she heard the guests talk about.

Thanks, I deducted the right amount of Karma, but kopied the wrong number to the stats.

Understood - Removing Randori for now.

There are rules in Street Grimoire p.129 for a Group Bond Ritual - each of us has to buy it for 5 Karma and spend 5 Karma to seal the ritual

I also just decided to invest a bit in Etiquette, so Bobby can help with the upkeep:

Etiquette: 4d6t5 2

Not bad, considering his Superhuman Psychosis gives a -2 penalty to his check. Depending on the interlude, I'll consider buying it off, since his colleagues are slowly helping him to overcome his isolation.

@Beta
Let us know how you're coming along. Karma expenditure isn't really necessary for the Interlude, if you need more time for that.

A Charisma + Etiquette roll would be helpful but that could wait until after the Interlude too.

We will need an IC post at some point.

@Gilga
I know the debt payoff will be a significant moment for AM. Did you want to do that in a flashback post, or did you want to cover it separately at the end of the Interlude? Like AM shows up to make her monthly payment (since it's the 1st) and she pays everything off?

Sorry, I'd taken a few days away from SR games (when I'd said I'd been hoping we would start for a week, I'd not been kidding). I haven't read the IC yet, but here is your roll:

Char+Etiq: 13d6t5 6

I already wrote her as paying the entire amount. It is a significant moment, but it needn't be a dramatic or tense scene. She pays extra every month since she joined Sis.

Perhaps Jimmy can buy her dinner after the interlude as she made him a lot of profit. He can inquire about her recent fortune and about Sis.

Cool, cool, let's figure something out for the end of the Interlude.

Anyone remember how we actually apply the hits from our Cha/Etiquette tests? Are they a teamwork test? Cumulative hits? What's a hit worth?

Teamwork for the one with the highest skill.
Every hit shaves 1000 Nuyen of our cost of living, potentially even turning cost into gain.

Largest dice pool is definitely Jawsey's. We have 8 Teamwork dice to add to his test (4 from AM, 2 each from Bobby and Mato):

Teamwork Dice 8: 8d6t5 3 hits

Added to Jawsey's 6 hits and that's 9 hits for 9,000 nuyen. That's enough to cover the 7,400 of monthly expenses with a little left over.

1,600 leftover split four ways is an additional 400 nuyen each.

Bobby and Mato owe taxes due to SINs. I'm open to converting this to 6E's rule on SINs/taxes, where the % is based on your lifestyle costs rather than your gross income. It was always silly to calculate it on shadow income and 6E's approach makes much more sense.

@Beta
Looks like you should have enough nuyen to finish off Jawsey's debt payments too. Is that your plan for the Chapter 6 karma/nuyen?

Jawsey paid his December debt before going on the last job, in case they were there through New Year's. He'll hold off on closing out his debt until the end of January (I'll put the karma and Nguyen aside, however). He doesn't want to give the Vory the idea that he is too flush or too eager to get away from them -- both seem like ways to attract attention and they are not the sort of people he wants attention from.

Jack some clarification of what Bobby is suggesting - is it group initiation (in that case shouldn't we initiate to the same field? --> perhaps masking or flexible signature?)

I'm talking about founding a magical group - including tenets - which is necessary for group initiations. (As per the rules in Street Grimoire p. 129)

So we do need to agree on the same initiation for all?

I thought that the group initiation was just the 10% discount on the cost of initiation for belonging to an initiatory group?

We don't have to initiate at the same time, but once we have founded the group we can help each other with initiations so we save 10% each time.
Of course that comes with an initial investment of 10 karma, so we get the dividend only after about the sixth initiation.
But a house rule, I have used in the past, is that the benefit also extends to learning other magical skills and qualities. (Otherwise it's pretty pointless - not even my highest ranked character, Isaint managed to get to more than five initiations)

I'm looking at the Group Bond rules and the ritual seems fairly suicidal.

Force starts at 12 and would probably end up around there (+2 for each tradition, minus a few for limited membership and individual strictures). The ritual would roll 24 dice (Force * 2) to oppose you, and then you'd soak 2 * the hits of that the ritual rolled to resist you. So, you'd be soaking 16ish boxes of damage (but, in all likelihood, could be anywhere from 10 to 24), which could end up as Physical if the dice go wild on you.

The Force could be somewhat reduced by individual strictures, and some of these could potentially be interesting for RP purposes. Deeds/Dues/Service could all tie into SIS activities with minimal shoehorning. Attendance and Exclusive Membership wouldn't be that hard to include either. Fraternity is an interesting one that could be discussed.

I think Street Grimoire is a little extreme so I'd probably reduce the default Force of the ritual to something less homicidal.

Jack makes a good point about how long it takes the karma investment to pay off in terms of the number of initiations necessary. A house rule about reducing the price of magical skills seems reasonable. Reducing the price of magical qualities might be a bit more of a case-by-case basis, but not out of the question.

@Gilga
AM can have her soykaf any way she wants. I was just adding some color/flavor about how Mato likes his.

The drain on rituals isn't a big deal--can be reduced by reagents. But the resistance to overcome could be a real issue.

I've always wondered if that initial 10 karma is needed? You are taking on strictures and the savings are small. Perhaps there was supposed to be some mechanical benefits on how easy/hard it is to initiate, but it there were I don't think anything saw publication.

I looked up 4E's rules and they're a lot easier / more sensible overall:

FOUNDING A GROUP
This ritual requires that all participants make an Arcana +
Logic (number of members) Test using teamwork (p. 59, SR4).
If the character is already an initiate, his initiate grade adds to
the dice pool. Apply dice pool modifiers as noted on the Group
Founding Table.
If all participants succeed in this test, the group bond is
established. They must now pay 5 Karma per character to make
the bond permanent, granting members all the benefits of a
full-fledged magical group.

Here are the dice pool modifiers:

If courting a mentor spirit avatar for the group: –4
For each additional tradition the group admits: –2
For each member previously initiated in a magical group: –2
For each stricture the group adopts: +1
For each additional 2 points of Karma spent: +1
For each month of dedicated work by all members:* +2

I'd say let's go with these. 5 karma means that the costs are paid back much faster.

The individual strictures are largely the same between editions. If anything, the 4E descriptions are cleaner. I might recommend Exclusive Membership and Fraternity. Perhaps Attendance and Deed (both easily addressed ICly, given the nature of the game) if you want to boost the dice pool.

As for the dice pool for ritual spellcasting, AM has 12 dice arcana +logic and can receive 7 more from teamwork. This brings us to 19 dice, and we can boost her logic to get to 23.
As for tradition aren't we all the same tradition?

I never defined Bobby's tradition since its mainly fluff for adepts anyway, so yeah, I always assumed he hailed from the same belief system as AM and Jawsey.

And yes, 4e rules are much saner.

I was able to get the Force down to 9 and would have just thrown Edge and Reagents at it until it worked.
Bobby's Arcana is good enough with 9 dice to contribute at least 3 to the test - with edge I can bring that up to 5 on average.

For some reason I had it in my head that AM was of the Sioux tradition, but now I see on her sheet that's plainly not the case.

Also, I mentally assign adepts to their own tradition (one with Body as the drain stat), but again that's not really how the book considers things. Given the shared background, it seems reasonable that everyone is the same tradition.

Having the modifiers affect the dice pool instead of the threshold is far less punitive. A threshold of 3 (for three group members) is highly achievable, especially with Edge.

For Logic + Arcana, AM would have 12 dice, Bobby 9, and Jawsey 8.

Beta could potentially boost Jawsey's pool since it doesn't look like he's spent Chapter 6 karma yet. Adding strictures would also help. These are the easy ones, which would each add +1 die:

- Exclusive Membership (don't belong to other magical groups)
- Fraternity (help out other members of the magical group)
- Attendance (attend meetings, either once a month or once a quarter, easy enough while living together)
- Deed (support the group)
- Support/Dues (don't miss lifestyle payments)

Or AM could just boost Logic as needed. Either way, the rolling is mostly a formality. 4E didn't include any mention of drain, so that part would be left up to RP.

Bumping this.

Even if we don't finalize the strictures, let's get a simple yay or nay in the IC thread and then move along so that we don't derail the interlude with details that can be decided later.

The solution is fine by me - just wanted to wait what Beta has to add

I was also waiting on Beta after the words Jack placed in Bobby's mouth. I don't think they can settle all the details while walking a 5 minutes walk to a run, and they probably shouldn't start any deep conversations before a possible negotiation situation.

sorry you were waiting on me. Yes, it is fine by me. (we can 'work that out' IC later, or just let it happen off-screen, either is fine with me.

I hadn't really had a response to Bobbie's words, but I'll put something up to close that off.

Good post.

This is a rich vein of RP so I'll see if Bobby or AM want to respond. The Interlude isn't particularly urgent - Captain Reznak would have called instead of leaving a message if it were - so I'm fine prioritizing the character building.

The building is going to be a large one-story building, sort of a cross between a warehouse and a large, empty retail store. It doesn't look particularly interesting from the outside. It might have been nice 50 years ago, but it's been a long time since then.

Great RP, folks. Warms a GM's heart, even if I can't take credit for anything other than making you walk/drive down the block together.

Post is up. I've represented what's immediately obvious but you're welcome to investigate further.

I'll have Cutty respond to Bobby a bit later, perhaps tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'll give AM and Jawsey a chance to introduce themselves, look around, ask questions, etc.

What an improbable series of rolls!

As for the tasks, it might make more sense if Jawsey levitates the crates and then Bobby lifts things out of them with his trunk. Elephant trunks are very strong but they're only 2m long and thus might have a hard time wrapping around larger boxes and crates.

This is an Interlude so I'm fine buying hits if Jawsey wants to automatically succeed at casting or summoning. If people prefer to roll for RP purposes then that's fine too.

You shouldn't underestimate an elephant's trunk. That thing can lift 300kg - and with its tusks its a bit like a forklift - but yeah, once it's about fine manipulation, Bobby will change to something smaller. Like a Kodiak.

It's not the strength I'm questioning at all: my research was suggesting an elephant could lift 350kg. I was thinking more about "can an elephant trunk wrap around a large box or a crate". But even if it couldn't then I'm guessing an elephant probably could lift heavy hand weights out of a crate.

In truth I hadn't thought of the tusks. Those could be a forklift of sorts if they could scoop under things.

Eh, whatever. This is a narrative sequence, not a mechanical one. I'm just curious to see how people go about things and to let them shine in a non-Initiative scenario.

Great stuff, gilga.

Great stuff too, Beta. I'm enjoying everyone's introspection and development.

By the way, I finally had the muse for a chapter. War ended, things started getting back to normal and creativity is back with them.

Cool, Gilga

Jawsey's bit about twisting his back to the right is just fluff (related to his infirm quality), not adding in a new mechanical negative quality.

@gilga

Great to hear

@all
I'll use this as an excuse to buy off the superhuman psychosis and also invest into a point of Instruction.

Interesting story of how Bobby stabilizes a bit due to his interactions with us. Perhaps the military was pushing him in the wrong direction.

I had been curious how Bobby's Superhuman Psychosis would be addressed over the course of the interlude.

I've accomplished what I've set out to do. We can keep this going for as long as people want.

Rewards
1) A martial art of your choice from Run & Gun. Per the rules, this includes one technique. If you already have the martial art you want, you may just take an additional technique instead.
2) You get 6 or 7 karma to spend on a skill or specialization related to Blades/Clubs/Unarmed (or Melee, as that was part of our original house rules, see below).

For example, Bobby could get an Unarmed Combat specialization (7 karma) for his human form. AM could get Unarmed Combat 2 (6 karma). Jawsey could advance Melee to 3 (6 karma) or pick up a new specialization (like for Clubs, should he use the cane on its own).

#1 and #2 don't have to be related to each other. You can bank the karma if you need to, but it is specific to these skills.

As a reminder, part of our original house rules (Lorebane's rules) were streamlined skill groups. To wit:

Close Quarters Combat Skill Group
- Unarmed Combat (By martial arts style, Cyber-implants, Blocking, Subdual)
- Melee Weapons (By weapon type [swords, clubs, staves, etc...], Parrying]
- Throwing Weapons (Blades, Aerodynamic, Non-Aerodynamic)

Both Mato and Jawsey have the Melee Weapons skill. I'm willing to honor the house rules if anyone needs them, as they were an important component of Mato's chargen.

Forgot to add:

Everyone also gets Cutty as a C1 L3 contact. He is an SDF veteran / martial arts instructor and can teach any reasonable martial art or technique. (Carromeleg isn't available. Professional Wrestling might be beneath him)

His Connection rating may grow over time depending on the success of his gym.

double post

The bit about studying Cutty is just laying ground work for picking up the "too pretty to hit" quality (using charisma instead of willpower on total defence). With fluff-overlay of it being appearing to be in total control of the situation.

Thanks Mato. I have to do all of Jawsey's advancement so I'll do this part too. Time to dig out the Google sheet.

@Tecumseh Any recommendation for a martial art for AM? IC Cutty mentioned something that would be useful with the weapon? Alternatively, can I just spend all the karma on unarmed combat (which would bring it to 3) narrated as focusing on the fundamentals?

P.S Who runs the next chapter?

Cutty was going to teach you Firefight if you wanted to focus on firearms instead of fists. Close Quarter Firearms (reduces the penalty for using a firearm while being melee'd) was a thought. Or Multiple Opponent Defense (Friends in Melee) helps to avoid getting swarmed.

Does AM already have a rank of Unarmed? I didn't see one. Six karma would take her up to rank 2 unless you have something to discount karma costs that I don't know about.

I think Gilga or Beta will run the next chapter; I'm not sure if it make more sense for one or the other OOCly.

@Beta Are you wrapping up your other games or do you need more time?

(As an aside, I'm wrapping up a campaign that will have its third anniversary in a few weeks. It's approaching 6,000 posts. That's been a labor, as I was GM for that.)

Okay, I updated AM with Firefight and Close Quarter Firearms and two points of unarmed combat.

I put a specialization in Vitals shots, to emphasize the new technique. Next I'll likely have Bobby train a bit of Parkour for some more style tricks (Kip-up especially)
Super Human Psychosis is gone too.

I'm pretty sure I had Mato doing some parkour during an earlier interlude. Although one wonders if hydraulic jacks takes some of the fun out of falling (because the jacks just absorb the shock). Or maybe that just means that Mato has to jump off 3-story buildings to have fun.

Anyway, Mato would interested in that, and he has Kip-Up on his To Do list as well. That could be a way for he and Bobby to bond. I'm wondering if Mato will feel left out by the magical group. Maybe, maybe not. He's not super-sensitive about such things, but he'll still need a way to integrate with the team.

I'll save Parkour until Bobby does it. In the meantime, I'll have Mato take Okichitaw because it seems like an easy entry point, given Cutty and Bobby's expertise and Bobby's desire to practice teaching. I'll take Counterstrike, explaining that he was impressed when Katya did it. Plus Bobby can work with Mato on that too. (Sweep is also on the To Do list but I'll need some more karma first.)

@Jack
The core rulebook lists "specific Martial Art" as an acceptable specialization. What do you think about having Bobby (and Mato) take Okichitaw as a specialization and having the specialization apply to any martial art technique from Okichitaw? (But not for general purposes, as many martial arts are so broad as to apply to almost any situation.)

@Tecumesh Can't Mato be part of the magical group? I mean Mundanes can participate in Ritual magic (although the mechanical benefit is very small). However, I assume these rituals also play a cultural role. I understand that the benefits for him would be small (only magical knowledge skills) but I do not see a reason for him to be left out.

Cool, I'll go with that.
And yes, Bobby would be very willing to take Mato with him in that experience

@gilga
good point. From the cultural perspective it would absolutely make sense to include Mato as well.

Speaking of learning theory: Bobby will also try to understand what AM is doing with computers a bit more, so he can at least describe the problem to AM for remote support