The drone is sized as "large" but not overly heavily build. So say 600 pounds. About the weight of a cruiser motorcycle.

Yeah, that is quite large and heavy.

Bye
Thanee

I've been recapping things IC, and the nice thing with the new thread is a lot of the info is in the first post.

But a couple other posts that might be helpful.

Monifa answering some questions:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?act=...amp;pid=1370238


Selina starting to wonder about things:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1370447

Also I've learned that if there's going to be combat in multiple places, I need to have distinct names for each of them. Mind you, I didn't expect the party to split up.

Yeah, after I posted that last missive, I realized what Willie said could be construed exactly as Selina took it. I'll be more careful.

No worries!

Bye
Thanee

Not sure what's up with Koekepan. He hasn't posted in his own game either.

But to keep moving, I'd be willing to let him do some catch up once he's back. It must means he isn't able to interrupt other people doing things.

However while the rest of you are up to stuff, Paul could have been helping provide medical treatment, working on the repairs Bello seems very worried about getting done, or helping Angel try and find the team behind the drones. Maybe even getting Lenny back in the action. He's currently sitting next to Paul physically as they had both been in the matrix. However he's not up to anything particularly useful as he recovering emotionally and physically from dumpshock. He's also got drones that in some sense have an easier time with recon. Junkies are known to view them as flying moneybags once trashed and taken to a pawnshop, the last two drones that dropped below exploded rather dramatically.

Forum access has been very spotty as of late.

Bye
Thanee

Oh. It's been good for me for a bit now. I was hoping we'd gotten some stability.

The usual pattern has been either: can't reach the site, or can reach the site, try to post, then the site refuses to load the post. Crossing fingers that this one gets through.

It was good for a while, but around the weekend, it got worse again.

Right now it seems fine, though.

Bye
Thanee

Alright! We work this right, and the team will be split into three! You're welcome, sunnyside.

Just don't start messing around in two cemeteries or hundred story buildings at the same time!

Why? What could possibly go wrong?

Looks like Paul doesn't own a Jammer. So, he'd have to be relying on doing whatever he does before the other group. Once he's inside the thing, he'd be able to cut power.

Anything Fiona can do to short out the system? Minor electrical jolt or something?

No.

I can have a spirit with electrical attack destroy it, but that kinda defeats the purpose why Paul is there.

Maybe he is able to seperate any means to remotely connect with it. Like, cut its radio power or something like that.

Bye
Thanee

Also an option, but it also requires getting under the cowling. I suppose very high-strength radios could require large external structures. But runners with high signal commlinks aren't running around with an antenna whip, so I'm assuming antennas are conformal. Which is also what they generally show in the art, as I recall.

So .... there are ghouls in the neighbourhood, eh? Maybe Selina and Fiona are better utilized keeping those dual-natured guys at bay.

Paul isn't planning on doing a detailed dismantling unsupported in a cemetary. Either ghouls or scavenger gangs if there were no ghouls are exactly why he wanted support. He only intends to be outside his van long enough to equip some working drones, send them slithering up the tree, and then lock down in his van. If the ghouls show up, that's what the sniperdrones are for. Even ghouls are vulnerable to the good ol' .308.

Well, taking a shot to see if the nex level down knows anything.

For expedience you could have Selina get back to her body and spend a bit catching up on all her messages.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Bye
Thanee

Come back refreshed and full of ideas. Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas!



For clarity, is Paul going back to the tower or to the team's safehouse? That might be a place to be able to mess with a drone without worrying about prying eyes or looking over one's shoulder. Well, if he doesn't take it inside the Boyz would probably come around for a look. But they're already paid off by Brewster and do a good job of keeping trouble under control regardless.

A fairly straightforward drive, it just takes time.

Sometimes people get hung up on moving around areas. I have a feeling if Bongo and Willie are in motion, Selina will follow (though you could split up. The 100th is friendly territory.

At last Dumpshock lets me post again ...

He's going to the safehouse. No way he's taking that downed drone back to the tower. He wants (relative) peace and quiet to do a proper disassembly and salvage job.

That's no problem then. It just puts him a bit distant from the group in terms of time and location. Did he leave a drone back at the tower?

No, he took all his drones along to watch his back while he was more isolated.

Well, it might work out. Assuming Bongo, Willie, and Selina don't do something stupid, they should be getting into legwork extended rolls at some point, which could synch up things.

So PBangarth could get down to the 98th and you could describe getting to the safehouse and getting into things.

Happy New years!

Is the forum working for everybody? Sometimes it has a hiccup, but a minute later I've been able to get in for a while now.

The worst it has been for me in the last couple of weeks is being required to try a few times to get past the error message, and then waiting for the slow system.

I wonder if any of the slowdown is from browsers getting increasingly hostile towards websites that don't use HTTPS?

I feel like it's moved from it not being a problem, to a little alert in the address bar, to there now there being an automatic list of blocked functions and much more prominent warnings.

I think certificates always used to cost, but looking it up it seems like there are cheap and free options.

Anyway I wonder if the site would be much faster if you installed a browser and set it to the internet equivalent of running around with your pants down, but then you just know to only use it for Dumpshock.

This all has to really hurt new member signs ups too.

I suggested switching to HTTPS with Let's Encrypt free certificate a long time ago, already. But it is not that simple, apparantly.

I also don't think it is an issue with modern browsers, but something on the server side.

Bye
Thanee

Do we need to pay more for the service?

I don't think it is a cost problem, but a technical one. This forum is, essentially, running on "life support".

That's my best guess, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

So I poked around a little bit. How, in this edition, would you handle characters essentially doing their own legwork.

Seems like a sort of extended etiquette test. Maybe rolling as if they themselves are connection zero contacts or are interfacing with loyalty zero contacts.

Obviously, leveraging appropriate contacts to it fits nicely within RAW, as might data search type efforts. These aren't the most savvy bunch and there's lots of poverty around, but cheap comlinks still abound. Though currently your matrix assets are either resting or investigating the building the trace led to.

Well, and Paul is about to start cracking into that drone I think.

I suppose an etiquette test to stay out of trouble long enough to find someone relevant to talk to and then manage that interaction roughly as normal might be the way a GM would handle it.

In any case, a key thing is what questions are the characters wanting to get answered.

Alright. Bongo is the de facto Face here, so I'll post an answer to the queries from below.

I'll do some First Aid rolls later today.

For folks who still don't have contacts for some of their interests, or that are looking to swap out ones they no longer have access to in seattle, the 98th presents something of an opportunity as they tend to literally wear their interests on their sleeves with their T-shirts and other items.

Since they bigtime hustlers, they fit with the relatively low points of free contacts. Of course in Shadowrun you can just make new friends and contacts during play without expending any sort points. But using them could expedite things.

The DB errors have been getting bad for me again.

Yeah, it often takes me 3 or 4 refreshes to get past the white page of doom.

Usually just one refresh for me. Though with annoying frequency.

I think what I read from Thanee is that she's looking to try and take the last two boxes off the Ork that Bongo already worked on, but isn't about to touch the woman with a dozen.

She does have the social awareness to realize they would ask, especially since they wouldn't be expected to understand what they're asking.

Yeah, there is no way she can cast that on someone with their monitor filled out (or close to that), unless we have a couple hours to rest afterwards.
Drain would be brutal, as it is based on the wounds of the target.

She can explain to them, though, that her spell is not strong enough to help the heavily wounded ork. But she can help the others, at least.

Bye
Thanee

I'd been trying to make that post for days. But today the forum is really smooth. I'm always hoping it lasts and things can get back the way they were.

I'm assuming as a mod Thanee doesn't want to bail. So either things will get better, or I guess we turn out the lights.

Forum has been very spotty. Doing driveby posts where I can just to keep the pot simmering. Sorry, but it's been bad.

Surprisingly, it's been smooth all day. I'll be guardedly optimistic.

Paul is a cautious guy with a security background. I kinda want to retcon some stuff with him and tags.

He certainly thinks about them sometime.

Maybe retcon in a jammer for the van? Tags don't have a great signal.

He's more inclined to look for tags and then do mischievous things with them like flick them onto municipal buses or garbage trucks. So an always-on tag reader is more his style, but I'm open to discussion.

That sounds reasonable. But with security tags and stealth tags around, I think the only way to be sure is an area jammer. However you'd only need a rating 2 jammer. That would only disrupt weaker signal devices like tags within a five meter radius. So unlike heavier jammers you aren't creating a pocket of cars getting knocked off of grid guide.

Checking over a large drone thoroughly is going to require disassembly and time, which he presumably wouldn't want to spend next to the ghouls in the spot where the other team presumably knows the drone should have landed.

A tag eraser would also be a reasonable thing to have. Though he could also peel off tags and put them somewhere else.

These would be reasonable things for Paul to have already acquired and having them would make his plans up to this point all make sense.

I'm happy to retcon a Jammer 2 and a tag eraser.

Paul did drive away, so he's not doing disassembly in the graveyard, but neither did he pull right up to the safehouse.

Ok, assuming you have the cash we're set. You can go ahead and post about disassembly, or getting to hacking anything etc.