We ran our real national SINs coming in (to smooth over the visa issue, as we decided that NAN SINs had some benefit) so we'll be doing the same going out.

Seattle is ridiculously beautiful, surrounded on all sides as it is by water and snowy mountains. The one thing I hear most often from visitors is that they didn't realize how hilly it is. The terrain was carved by glaciers and is almost never flat (unless developers and city planners flattened it). The Seattle Metroplex is also hugely varied, with everything from dense urban environments to rural areas that are basically horse farms and orchards.

Is RPG Playroom pretty much inert right now? I just went on to brush up on prior chapters/interludes and it looks like nobody has posted in 5 months. Have all the game migrated elsewhere?

Pretty much - Aria has switched over to a forum with an active SR 6 community. I haven't heard from Obidancer in over a year.

I don't think anyone is running anything there anymore, after it had a few down times and Aria migrated.

I think we're ready to advance.

I don't know how long Beta wants to keep this going or if there are additional plot points he wants to hit. I think having a visitor at SIS / a slumber party is potentially interesting, as we see how the outside world reacts to our world, but I'm also fine wrapping things up.

Next week is US Thanksgiving so I'll have some additional time to post if we're on to the Interlude by then.

What's the Sioux attitude toward thanksgiving? Do they mention it as a day of sadness or something?

Sorry, I kind of went off-line the past few days. Not a deliberate decision, just didn't seem to have it in me to deal with the world. Feeling better for it, but sorry for the unplanned downtime.

I don't really have plot left. There may be some character issues on what they do to set Brent up with security, and it could be interesting to see the different viewpoints of the team members. Plus there is squaring things between Brent and the hacker's club so that the team does get paid eventually.

And my apology again for losing track of the negotiation rules and letting AM push through the huge compensation package. Not sure how I forgot that the system is employer offer +/- based on negotiate roll, NOT PCs set the offer. Does change the feel of things when the team has some reasonably secure income, which isn't necessarily bad, but wasn't discussed.

@Gilga
I can't speak for the Canadians, but in the United States it's fair to say that Native Americans have a complicated relationship with Thanksgiving. Some (especially on the east coast) recognize it as a Day of Mourning. Some (especially on the west coast) call it Un-Thanksgiving Day. Others will still have a family gathering and a feast, but it will be much more somber than the festivities at a non-Native household. If I may offer an imperfect comparison, for Natives the tone of the day is like Yom Kippur while for non-Natives it is more like Rosh Hashanah.

The events of Chapter 5 took place on Thanksgiving in the UCAS. I actually had a post about Jawsey finding Green Toes on Council Island during a Day of Mourning ritual. See the post from March 16, 2020:

https://www.rpgplayroom.net/rooms/the-found...er-5-ic/page/3/

--------------------------------

@Beta
Now that we're out of debt, we're ready for bigger paydays. If it makes you feel any better, it's possible that the team won't make anything during Chapter 8. That's not the plan, but it's one potential outcome, so don't worry if Chapter 7 feels overly generous.

Actually, I don't even remember what we negotiated for.

Canadian Thanksgiving doesn't have as much association with a particular event and is more of a generic celebration of harvest/family (Also a three day weekend instead of effectively four, so not quite as much travel). In turn I don't think it draws as strong negative feelings (at least I see a lot more native narrative around feelings about Canada Day, the national birthday, than about Thanksgiving)

Oo, oo, I have the Security Design (Home) knowledge skill. Let's see if Orokos is still out to get me:

Logic 3 + Security Design 3 + Home specialization 2: 8d6t5 3 hits

I'll take it.

I'll roll Architecture (Residential) too for giggles:

Logic 3 + Architecture 1 + Residential specialization 2: 6d6t5 1 hit

Almost a glitch, but dodged it.

Thanks, for the reference I remember. I must admit that I never actually watched Thanksgiving aside from some TV shows with a family dinner and a Turkey.

I always found it fascinating that Thanksgiving in the US is so late in the year. In Germany, we have Erntedank (Thanks for the harvest) in early October and it has much less importance as a family holiday. But of course, considering the occassion it remembers, it's not the same at all.

In any case I wish you all the best with spending time with your families - no matter the reason

We have something similar in October, Sukkot. We live in a sort of a tent (suka) and host as many guests as possible. My kids love it, and they kept sleeping outdoors until we disassembled the suka. I never drew the parallel to thanksgiving/Erntedank until now. It is the same holiday nevertheless.

Canadian Thanksgiving is also early August. I always just assumed that warmer parts of the US have a late growing season, but I have no idea if that is actually the case.

+++++++++

Quick phone posts tonight -- we are actually at a live concert for the first time since covid started. It feels strange, and I forgot how loud they are 😂. But fun all the same.

If there are particulars anyone wants to address with Brent, let me know. I'm willing for some of the consulting to happen off screen.

Nice. I miss concerts

I guess the team will do its best to help Brent set up for the future without him having to sell half his belongings.

Bobby knows his way around safe houses and security procedures - and a little bit of marketing by now
Contact wise he could set up Brent with Clive Clark the Shoeseller - forgive the man the remaining debt for saving his son and ask him to sublet a room to Brent.

Gosh, I haven't done anything like it since Covid. My wife went to a standup show once but that's as much as happened since the pandemic.

I like the thinking about the shoeseller.

Well let's figure out what Brent wants/needs.

If the fake autocab trick got him, then perhaps Brent still feels safe at home. If so, moving might be more disruptive than helpful. He still needs to graduate after all.

Seraphina mentioned that Brent's parents traveled a bit for work, but mostly worked from home. Mato would actually raise the possibility of SIS relocating, i.e. we could move in with Brent. That gives Brent some cash flow - or a way to work down his debt - while providing him physical security. That would get SIS out of Touristville. We'd be sacrificing walk-up traffic but removing ourselves from the Crimson Crush and Halloweeners. Perhaps our reputation is established enough now that we can work on referrals.

I expect AM would object, given that Brent's home "pains her existentially" and "is a toxic environment for her". Given that, I would say let's table the discussion for now but no eliminate any possibilities because we may wean to revisit the question after Chapter 8 (minor foreshadowing).

This could be some interesting back-and-forth to have ICly.

Hm, moving in with Brent seems a step to far - after all we only have known him for a day
Let's wait with that until we have established more of a rapport with the boy and establish that he is safe.

But yes, since we have established ourselves now somewhat, we could look for nicer lodgings. Certainly one of the topics of the coming interlude.
Maybe a car upgrade is also in order, if one of his parents cars is nice enough and would cover our fees. Not the first time we took one as payment.

Well, as I said, I'm expecting people to say no. I just think the process of saying no could be interesting. Or we can just leave it in this OOC exchange.

Mato, detached as he is with his Essence-loss, doesn't always have a solid sense of what's socially appropriate.

Just a thought that longer term Brent issues could be the subject of a future run or interlude, so it may make sense to leave some stones unturned for now. (He may not get access to his mother's art collection yet, nor be able to fund an investigation into what happened to them)

It's certainly a fascinating story with lots of potential.

I just reread the terms we agreed on with the other kids: Since we already have a payment plan established, Brent won't have to decide anything right now anyway.

Also, the tranfering ownership of one of the cars is still an option.

I'd say we end this mission with a briefing for Brent's friends and transition over to the Interlude (After beta tells us what we get in Karma )

That works for me.

What was the payment plan? 10K from the club, 10K from Brent, 80K in the future (May?) when his finances are in order? Cars, safehouses, and "services rendered" could chip away at that.

Basically 10 months payment plan with 10k each month and instead of interest they can do jobs for us - or if we need it, we can hire them for jobs to reduce their debt to us.

She would object due to being SINless, and due to their living arrangement attracting a lot of attention. At least I'd imagine this perhaps you would see it wrong. In Redmond, it sort of makes sense as many people live in gangs and share spaces. So four adults living together sort of makes sense I'd say. But on the good side of town with all the rich and powerful? A teenager deciding to live with four adults in the same house and the parents are out of the picture would not go unnoticed.

The existential crisis is just by seeing how better off some people are compared to her, and how little security and comforts she actually has despite all their recent successes she is just beginning to lift her head above the water. I'd imagine it is different knowing that some people live like that, and actually seeing it firsthand.

but indeed - the story is interesting and opens up many future directions. I liked the art angel.

At least for art you do have a contact to sell it through a gallery

Information gathered from Brent prior to meeting with the hacker club

- He has sent their cars out for drives periodically, and continued the existing tradition of an autocab taking him to/from school, to help conceal his parents' absence.

- they mostly have worked from home when not meeting lets (those are at the client site or they rent a temporary office or meeting room)

- they advise clients on financial planning, but Brent admits a lot of that is how to avoid taxes, or to hide excess funds from corporate sight. He doesn't know a lot because his parents tried to hide this side from him, but he picked up on some clues even before he became a technomancer and then he found more.

- one of the dodges they used was setting up private companies in other countries, with themselves as the officers but owned by the client, which could bill corps to drain slush funds. That is likely why they were in Morocco

- another dodge was using client cash to buy a valuable via some third party, who then officially sold it to the client at a bargain price, and the client could then re-sell it later for a legitimate profit (apparently often but not always done in retirement). This was how his mother first got into art. The official sale to the client was sometimes done during a trip ("I bought this kind of ugly little painting at a roadside stand" being the cover story, although there was actually a provenance trail to help ensure the value of the lesser work by some lesser known but still recognized artist). This could have been another reason they had gone to Morocco.

-he assumes that there are clients looking for them, but none have shown up at the house (he wonders if they know his parents' real names?) he doesn't even know all the accounts that his parents used with clients so hasn't cracked most of them, so hasn't sein what they may be saying. The couple that he has cracked, one seems to have moved on after getting no response, one other was more insistent until Brent sent a message saying that they were indisposed and that this channel could be compromised.

-he suspects that getting them declared dead should set in motion events that some clients won't like as it may make the company dodge more obvious

Cool, thanks for the write-up. It's fun to see some of the behind-the-scenes details.

If Brent sends his parents' cars out for drives periodically, why is taking he taking autocabs? Why wouldn't one of his parents' cars chauffer him to/from school?

It seems like the autocab might have been a tradition, but if his parents were working from home most of the time then why was there a tradition of autocabs rather than the parents' cars on autopilot? Even if they were traveling for work, it seems like the cars would stay at home and be available for commuting after dropping them off at the airport.

Anyway, yes, seems like there there are a lot of possibilities for future stories.

Per the calendar at the beginning of the OOC thread, Chapter 7 started on Friday, January 17, 2079. Sounds like the training will take place on Friday, January 24th.

The Interlude will be about a week after that, probably on Saturday, February 1st. Depending on the events of the Interlude, Chapter 8 will kick off a few days after, still in early February.

Cool

@beta
could you do a write up of the important persons of the hacker club (what they look like and how old they are)? Would make it easier to incorporate them in future stories

I had been going to post that the club (and Brent) are up for grabs after this. I've told you all that I'd determined about Brent and his parents, so if someone wants to take that up they are welcome, else maybe at some point I'll pick it up again. (I've told you all that I'd decided: specifically not decided, but obviously a possibility, is that Brent's Mom's pursuit of art had eventually led her to get entangled with the Tarot).

I'll work on the hacker club write up in the next day or so. And we need to determine karma, and assigned stuff. For that latter:

1 point assigned increase in a skill from the outdoor skill group (the outdoors part were a bit of a mess, but they learned at least something from the experience)
Relationship Brent , L3, C1
Relationship Hacker Club, L1, C2
And +1 loyalty with Bau Chou (renegade Triad)

Bau Chou was the wayward son from one of the early chapters. Did we somehow benefit him here without realizing it to earn a point of Loyalty?

Is the karma award TBD? We've been averaging in the neighborhood of 0.10 to 0.11 karma per IC post. Given that we're just shy of 400 IC posts, that would put us in the neighborhood of 40 to 44 karma, but of course it's up to Beta's discretion.

Mato will take the skill point in Survival.

IC explaining the Bau Chou link is up now.

If anyone is interested in the adventure I based this on, find it here: https://pavao.org/shadowrun/adventures/

Wow, that was surprising.

The original adventure had Seraphina being related to "the team's fixer." Lacking that I chose someone who might be willing to let a teenager take on a role like that and sink or swim with just a bit of guidance (a bit of tough love from her cousin). This was who Seraphina was consulting during the initial negotiation. Will define that relationship in the hacker club write up.

=======================================

This run ended up being more lucrative on the nuyen side, so I feel like a little bit lower karma feels right.

So to pull it all into one place:
- 35 karma
- 1 point assigned increase in a skill from the outdoor skill group (the outdoors part were a bit of a mess, but they learned at least something from the experience)
- Relationship Brent , L3, C1
- Relationship Hacker Club, L1, C2
- And +1 loyalty with Bau Chou (renegade Triad)

==================================

How much are people caring about training time? On Jawsey I'm literally falling behind on spending karma at this point due to that. I guess I could go buy some qualities for quick spending, but not much is jumping out at me as being a karma priority for him currently. His next major step after what he did during January would likely to go get initiated and learn channeling, as the quick way to be more capable when physical activities are required, but I'm still looking at swapping to a new character before he gets that far.

35 karma it is then. Mato's rough draft:

Reaction 6 (30 karma)
Pilot Watercraft 1 (1 karma, for that damn raft)
Navigation 1 (1 karma)

I'll bank the rest for the moment.

For nuyen, I believe we have ¥20,000 / 4 = ¥5,000 each, minus taxes for the SINners. That will leave Mato with ¥3,500.

For progression times, this is what I said at the end of Chapter 6 (...six months ago...) and I still stand by it 100%:


Mato has been abiding by some very high-level rules - like not advancing a skill or attribute more than one rank per chapter/interval - but even that's loose because the rules would technically let you go from Rank 0 to Rank 3 in a skill within a week (1 day + 2 days + 3 days) if you wanted to. I did make an exception for spending our knowledge karma, which sometimes bought skills a couple ranks at a time.

Speaking of which, are we doing knowledge karma this time around or no?

I wouldn't stress too much about training times. A 1 point increase in a given skill/attribute between two chapters should be always possible.

I hadn't really thought about it, but why not. Add in 10 karma towards knowledge skills of your choice.

AM's expenses: (including interlude)

1. Sorcery skill group 5-->6 30 karma.
2. Illusionist mastery quality (sustain 1 illusion spell) 10 karma.
3. Con skill 4-->5 10 karma.

With the knowledge Karma, I got her interested in literature due to her fascination with Carn-evil.
and with business management reflecting her growing understanding of how SIS works, and some of it is general 'how to run a business.

Oh, and I changed also the link to match the character:
https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/am