Dammit, sunnyside! Made Willie be charitable, didn't you?

I'm back. I'll be working some overtime for a while, but this could be a nice break.

Anyway as a spoiler the bit with the nutri pack isn't a main plot arc thing. Just the ecology of dystopia. Kinda like having a lake full of fish at the bottom of a dungeon to explain how the creatures are living down there.

You could keep RPing with folks. But perhaps having the group feel they need to call Brewster could be an excuse to disengage if that's what you'd rather do.

Seth, could you post your character in this thread somewhere so I can link it?

I think I'll do the thing where Willie is split off in case Flatline arrives.

It actually makes a lot of sense if you think of the economics of it.

Societies with starvation are deeply unstable. The wheels come off because the people suffering are running very short on reasons to respect any kind of rule of law. Any kind of authority in the area with the wherewithal to feed them, however basically, has strong incentives to do so.

Way cheaper than what you need to prevent unrest.

Bye
Thanee

Just letting people know I am still around if asleep.

Can I ask how long the sleep will be for? (Game time not real time)

I don't understand. Have I missed something?

More I don't understand. Help ...

Not enough time for natural stun healing, but as far as I can tell first aid can be used on fading stun. Tubesnake has the skill. If you decide your char needs to get fixed up maybe they can whip up their special soycaf brew and a massage from a large brisket.

What time is it when Brewster calls?

Bye
Thanee

Oh. OK. I didn't realize Willie had gone off with Flatline. I think I am in the loop now.

Willie hadn't gone off as of the beginning of that call, but that's the direction of things.

It's around noon.

So colour me 'not played SR4 for a very long time'. What should I do to 'find stuff out'

Hacking is far and away my weakest skill in this game, so, yeah.

You could look for video feeds showing a vehicle with visible license plate bringing these people, or check payment info for names, if you can get a timestamp for something bought at the table.

Well, hacking depends a lot on how the GM is handling it.

"By the book", you do that probing for a couple hours, so you will only get a single roll against you from the system, to see if you can get in undetected.

You want security access at least (which needs +3 hits), or admin (+6 hits), but those only add time, when you do the probing approach.

And then you go looking for stuff that happened around the time the picture was taken...

- security footage from cameras
- registration logs
- payments for drinks and whatnot

And anything else that can help putting names to faces.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. No clue how your Sprites and other Technomancer talents can help you with that, I only ever played regular hackers in SR4. And even that has been a while.

Well the GM told me that Technomancer >>>> Decker. But I have to admit I am not feeling that at the moment. Perhaps if you know how to find the uber uber combination and get precisely the correct build it is. At the moment I feel about 1/2 as good as a decker.

Thank you two for that advice. Hmm... I don't think I know how to do this. I will wait for advice from the GM or someone. Because posting 'I do something but don't know what it is' doesn't feel very good

First off with Hacking in particular I'm actually relatively open to stating what you want your character to do and I can advise or just take it from there. My last hacker really didn't want to get into all the details and would just say what they wanted to achieve and I'd take it from there unless they hit a decision point like whether they wanted to jack out or get into cybercombat.

Either way you're often free to throw a bunch of dice towards what you want to do.

For example if you wanted to hack into the hidden node of some guard you know you need to sniff for it, and then would need to hack in at a certain security level. You could do multiple rolls for both instead of doing them one at a time and waiting to see if you get in.

For browsing you could dust of your knowledge of factorials from high school math.

You could also indicate how high priority something is. Technomancers are more complicated in that regard. Hackers are relatively quick, dirty, and straightforward, especially if they use skill groups and programs of the same rating.

Technomancers have access to abilities hackers simply do not, and can generate dice pools and stealth ratings far in excess of anything in the rules for non-technomancers. However doing so tends to require threading, sprite services, and registered sprites. All of which make for fading.

On the other hand with things like boosted stealth or alert suppression, you might not have to deal with alters and cybercombat the way a hacker would, or at least not for a while.


The main issue is that increasingly you need to be onsite to get at anything particularly juicy. Well, I suppose getting the decker to a cyberterminal deep in some facility has been a staple since the beginning.

Hey, sunnyside. I have a few questions about Bongo’s Adept Power Enthralling Performance.

Bongo’s strongest Skill (most dice thrown) is Artisan, with a specialization in percussion. For a regular performance he has Artisan 12 + percussion 2 + INT 5 for 19 dice. Basically, one of the best drummers that ever existed. As I had pointed out earlier, Artisan is a ridiculously broad Skill, encompassing specializations from carpentry to painting (SR4A p. 126). With Artisan 12 and INT 5, Bongo is still one of the best in the world at all those things! I guess he really is this age’s Renaissance Man. Only his contrarian dislike of authority and rules keeps him from getting into the highest circles of society.

I added a note to Bongo’s Enthralling Performance Power that it only works with his specialization of percussion. I believe you go along with that sensible restriction. I’m trying to figure out how this Power works in conjunction with actions of Bongo’s teammates.

The description of the Power (Street Magic p. 176) says hits on a Skill + Magic Test (20 dice) “serve as a threshold modifier for any Perception Test his audience might make during the performance.” So, even using the 4 dice = one hit quicky, Bongo gets 5 hits to add to a threshold. With a dice roll it could be more. Add EDG into the mix and it could easily be 10!

Perception Tests (SR4A p. 135-6) are given some sample thresholds to which this number could be added. The other way a Perception Test might be influenced is when there is an Opposed test between a Stealth Skill and a Perception + INT test to notice.

So here are my questions:

1) Are the hits made on a Stealth Skill attempt to be considered the ‘threshold’ to which Bongo’s hits are to be added? For example, fellow runners are trying to sneak past a guard, and Bongo is over on stage drawing the attention of the guard with an Enthralling Performance. I think this is how it works, but am checking.

2) Are fellow teammates considered part of the ‘audience’? Will Bongo have to remind them, “Do all your looking before I start drumming, because once I do you won’t notice shit.” I fear this is the case.

3) Are there ways the team members can insulate themselves from the effect of this Power? For example, could they wear noise cancelling earplugs during the Performance?

More questions might come up after these questions are answered.

I think it would be fair to have it work to a high degree with other sorts of music.

Throwing in some singing would seem very reasonable. And maybe some applicability if working through something with AR, but yeah, the skill....well I still hold they just never really thought about it.

In terms of enthralling performance I think RAW you could rig them to have some sort of appropriate distraction should they get enthralled. But I think with a plan they could have an option to opt out of being an audience by actively not paying attention in the first place.

Though it occurs to me perhaps a better question is how does enthralling performance work on spirits on astral patrol.

I think I'll take at least the position that it's relatively hard magic to notice, even harder to tell from your more typical skill boost adept abilities, and doesn't count something cast on the audience but rather something that affects the performance itself.

In terms of other things, Selina could cast fashion at a lower force, but probably can't bring herself too. Still, she has plenty of time to rest.

Angel could attempt to hack any of the people who have been using the public website as they have their comcodes from the logs. Though I think what they might like better is to register a sprite. Maybe not too big a one so it doesn't take to long or hit them with much fading, but it's a nice thing to have in pocket for a technomancer. Heh, I guess they could also put Bongo down as the headliner, but that would cause a lot of chaos.

If Angel shared the pictures they've located that would help out Tubesnake if they wanted to do something with drones. Though, being on the list, the team ought to be able to just walk inside.

OK. He'll be a generally enchanting musician. Pick up a guitar at the folk festival and wow them all. Thanks.



Oh. Yeah. Just ignore Bongo. He'da never thunk of that!

Maybe just pinch each other if they hear him playing.

Weeeelll, we happen to have a spirit in our midst on whom Bongo could experiment! Waddaya think, Thanee?

She would use F5, which has a DV of 2S. That should be fine.

Bye
Thanee

Bongo would have commented on the fashion mod, but I don't think we know how well Selina did, do we?

Angel hasn't seen anything on weapon policies at the club, which might strike some folks as odd.

Th eclub doesn't open until 9, and while you can get a table, it's mostly about drinks, though they sell some appetizer and dessert type foods (comments talk up the speakeasy spinach dip).

However there are a lot of places around. Many of what used to be homes are now a bar of some kind.

I can certainly make some rolls for Fashion.

F5 Fashion for Bongo Slade: 7(5) hits (no Drain)
F5 Fashion for Selina 3 hits (no Drain)
We can do better than that... 3 hits (no Drain)
... 6(5) hits (1S Drain) -- finally, she can be happy with the result!

In hindsight, I probably do not even need to roll here, since I can buy 5 hits with Spellcasting (Manipulation) (and some help from Fiona), and 2 hits on Drain Resistance.

Bye
Thanee

I'm a little confused. Doesn't Angel have administrator privileges at the club?

Or, is it administrator privileges, but at some public level but not at some isolated internal level?

I was thinking that she would not need to be there in person as she can do what hackers/technomancers do from where she is.

Yep, that.

At least, that is how I understand it.

Bye
Thanee

It varies, but often there seperate internal systems. These may be entirely off the general matrix or operate via a hidden node/commode.
Angel might be able to get in via hacking some of the comlinks she found registered in the public system. However Tubesnake is largely built around getting access to internal networks.


Mostly what I popped in to say was I'm not interested in pricing out every pretzel or drink. So long as you have a lifestyle roughly in line with the sort of place you're at you can consider things like a trip to a club covered.

Alright! Drinks are on Bongo!

Is it reasonable to assume that anything a team member finds is shared with the others? That would save a lot of IC posts repeating what comes out in an OOC post. (Though some might want the fun of sharing in their own, inimitable style. )

This way, we could address Selina's concern about getting a signal out by making use of the RF hole in the roof, perhaps widened with the help of Tubesnake's critters.

Seems reasonable to me.

Bye
Thanee

In case you haven't guessed the idea is this is meant to feel out play in this forum, before we're in an argument about Bongo's head getting blown up or a data bomb eating Angel's file.

It would read better if folks expressed they were sharing information, but if you'd like to establish a general expectation you're big on sharing that could be OK.

Answering the OOC comment in the IC thread here:


Yeah, but while Tubesnake could do that, that's not what he's doing. This is simple passive information gathering, with the intent of, when others catch up to him, being able to give them the lay of the land so that they can quickly and effectively act in whichever direction they choose. It's a form of legwork, and the reason that he's keeping it quiet is that he wants to absolutely minimise the chance of raising suspicions. An electrician fiddling with drones up the scaffolding? Must be a Tuesday. Someone probing for hidden nodes? Might attract attention.



True, but a mere catalogue is already highly suggestive, especially if the identified worn patch in the shielding is useful for additional access.



Not in the gameplan. Let the rough, tough, meat-eating thugs of the Matrix make it spew hot steam and frothed soymilk everywhere. Tubesnake is just collecting names and numbers for later use.



He could do that, but depending on developments it might be easier and stealthier just to have an annelid crawler wriggle through the debris.

I certainly intend to RP information sharing as and when it can; you'll notice that Tubesnake isn't waving his datadick around, and just playing it very cool for now.

OK. Good thing I asked in OOC before acting in IC. Sharing in IC looks to be the way, then.

Well, it sure sounds like you're waiting around Koekepan, you could give them a clue. Not sure if Angel wants to travel, but either she might be comfortable if she got to be in the van or she'd need a remote link.

On that note, again again part of the idea here is to figure out this stuff before it's in a more dangerous setting, but wireless blocking paint is cheap. Like doing the whole building is something over a thousand nuyen, and that cost is only because they wanted a better looking paint over it in most places save the roof. If you wanted Tubesnake to make an RF blocking room in the house, the wallpaper is even cheaper than the paint.

Paint doesn't have to interfere with using the matrix in a way most people would notice, it can just mean that once you're inside your signal is going through the building's nodes, allowing it to be sniffed and the building to isolate if need be. So I have the impression it is a fairly common and cheap security measure.

A club like Dante's Inferno, with their larger building and budget is, as I read it, painted up inside and out and has separate nodes on each floor with wired connections between them. They have the budget for some higher security nodes with passkey systems, a boatload of mid rated IC, and two spiders on at all times, and a bunch of gateways for a hacker from the outside to jump through, so they keep their link to the outside for the first of 11 nodes.

Gatsby's people just deleted the gateways between their public and internal networks relying on the connection to the outside being passive for security through obscurity. That mostly just makes them more of a hassle to hack at the cost of some convenience on their part, and doesn't help at all if someone is inside, but there isn't any cost to do that. Still, that is a little odd for a small club.

In Hacking things like most buildings official blueprints are likely online and public facing, and one could browse for rumors and hack those who might know something if a target warrants further legwork.

Anyway I thought Koekepan also thought paint was common, and hence the build of their character, allowing them to bypass it in many cases.

Or folks could just head out. Maybe let some time slide by.

Yup, similar measures are actually available RL today.

I know of a company (I used to work for them) in the cellular industry (names removed to protect the guilty) who shielded a building including a variety of factors, so that any salespeople who came to see them, whose phones were on different carriers, suddenly lost signal to embarrass them.

The windows were the hardest part, but everything else was pretty much off-the-shelf choices in stuff like sheathing.

Bear in mind that you don't technically have to totally block all signals like a faraday cage, just attenuate them to the point of uselessness, and a suitably formulated paint can do that for any radio band within reason.

I didn't know they were already doing that kind of thing Koekepan!


On the note of communicating, the requirement for subvocal coms is to make it easy to communicate in the group. It's also easy to do group calls, or jist open a line to ehatever is going on with you, which can occasionally save your bacon if the whole teams knows you got jumped. Players can get somewhat nervous about being hacked, which can happen, but often the team hacker can help with that. Basic encryption and short messages is pretty secure.

I'm dancing around the colour scheme for messages. Could someone define a set of colours, please? We need, I think, at least the following. I have used the colours below in the past, but if others feel more comfortable with something else, I'm happy to follow whatever is decided. :

Conversation

Whisper

Matrix/comms

Astral

Thoughts

One of you had a theme in their sig. I've been using brown for conversation.

Oh, yeah. Crossbow has a set of colours. Your colour for speech is fine, especially since we've already used it.

I'll change my suggestion above to reflect that.

We are slowly coming together to a consensus! It's exciting!

I typically use "orange for speech" and thoughts, << lime for matrix >>, and "violet for astral".

Bye
Thanee

I use my voice colour for voice . Orange for me is OOC comments, so that's very confusing. Only confusing...

I find it's generally better to us things like italic, bold, marks for other types of speech rather than colours. I've gotten used to colours being the persons voice, and different colours for different people

Other good things are markers

"speech" . I do thoughts as text . <<matix>> ~astral~

I agree it's good to have this sorted

Hmmm. You haven't gotten into things with a bunch of people talking at once, and with you guys it's fairly clear. But I could see where having a few people talking in the same post I write up would be helped by color. Though remembering a color for everybody might be a little challenging.

From my perspective probably the most important thing is knowing when you're speaking, whispering, subvocalizing, or using DNI, to the extent things can be overheard. Also those would typically all be in quotes so color might be a tiny bit faster.

For now I'll stick with the orangish color for regular speech. I like <<matix>> and ~astral~

In terms of moving forward if Seth wants to hack or search for something but doesn't feel like rolling the dice I could do that, maybe just indicate how cautious you wish to be. If you want to register a sprite you might want to do that on your own. You character could head there, but doesn't have to.

I think Bongo and Selina are ready to roll out, either to get a meal or just be on hand when the club opens.

Unless he wants to do something different than described or communicate somethign else with the group I'll advance time with Tubesnake.

I'm fine with that. Let the mighty wheel turn.

I think, we are going to the club, when it is open. Take a look around and see, if we can find anything suspicious, or some more information about any internal network.

Bye
Thanee

As i understand it I can't hack anything.

Have I missed something? I was told 'there is no connectivity' and 'there's nothing to find' last time I asked

I'm happy to do some searching if now there is something

Just ran across this video. I guess if Bongo had a Mentor Spirit, it might be this guy.

Link

Well, aside from hacking, you could reply to Bongo that the place doesn't have a proper dinner, though they could make one of appetizers and drinks or they could go to Walbert's next door, where they could watch the place.

Also I think you still have the drone Tubesnake let you borrow? You might get a sprite in there and have Bongo and Selina get it into the area to interact yourself.

Also nothing says Angel can't head out, though don't take an obvious firearm underneath those Ares drones.


In terms of hacking the fun thing would be hacking Tubesnake in order to exploit the roof or just for fun.

You could also use browse actions to try and run down any suspicions about the club. You could follow up hacking comlinks that are relevant. You also got the list of people accessing the public sight. The implication was some of them are probably in charge of the club and might also utilize their on site networks, which would give you the information to start going after those nodes.