Well, actually ....

Ok, I'm back from my (mis)adventures in the Auto Train, Florida, and ridiculous roadside attractions.

Let's get these threads rolling again. I guess Willie gets some solo play. I don't really have permission to use Lenny, but I have a general "training takes over" policy for inactive players mid run, where characters get quite and do what they're good at, but with little initiative.

I have a whole thing I wanted to post on the whole "the rules for powers are slapdash but they're just guidelines" approach in that section. Now, just a couple points in general for the fleshed out rules for spells. They can be quite sneaky when low force. At high force there is an increasing volume element (mentioned in the paragraph, and I bet nobody even questioned that in every SR videogame the spells make noise).

Powers are not so clear, and looking into them more I appreciate how, with certain interpretations, you can get things like Pbangarth killing an in person group when he had his free spirit character demonstrate to the rest of the team that they were now sidekicks.

However to keep things moving, and since the other players seem cool with it, let's just go with the stealth roll option. The wording of the effects of the influence power isn't as strong nor the link continual. I propose the general flavor is the suggestions are more "influence" than the control spells, so this thing isn't a deathnote. And if what they're doing is obviously at odds with that they would do they'll get regularly prodded with the wrongness of the thing, making it more in line with the spells (which wear off pretty quickly, depending on the willpower).

What the means is, assuming a good stealth role, is the rest of the team will want to be ready to go and move pretty fast. However with a maglock passkey ready and the locations of the girls known there's some potential for speed.

I guess, that also depends a bit on the spell, and also whether it is physical or mana.

Also... this happens in astral space, not in the physical world.



Yeah, I think it's fair, that the spirit will get to break free after a while (I suppose, in this case substituting Magic for Force, as the power, technically, has no Force; so, every 6 combat turns, he gets to roll his Willpower again and accumulate successes until he figures that there was something more important to do ).


IC post is updated.

Was hoping to not need Edge on the Stealth, but 2 hits was too low for sure. 4 hits isn't amazing either (considering that was 22 dice in total), but at least decent.

Bye
Thanee

Ugh. Colors may just be off until I get back to my laptop. The interface does not work well on the phone with my big thumbs.

Huh. I've been kinda happy with Willie's stats so far.

When I built Willie with the cerebral booster to make him actually smart, I didn't plan for the current situation in which he has ideas but absolutely no Skill to impress them on others. He has no Leadership Skill and his Uncouth Negative Quality prevents him from defaulting to his towering Charisma of 2.

Intimidation is a bad idea.

Maybe he can Con or Negotiate something with the boys.

Of course, if at the moment I am the only player giving input, it might be hard on the GM. So, for now, maybe Willie will be a bit of a leader.

You might need to lean in to the uncouth thing a little. Also perhaps you could request flatline to do most of the talking. Though there isn't a face in the entire group. Might need to rely more on your hacker to get information.

EDIT: I see you are leaning in already!

The count of errors and omissions keeps rising, and my opinion of my own ability to create viable characters keeps falling. Bongo, the musical infiltrator, has 22 -- count 'em -- 22 grenades of various descriptions. (Granted, he has a good Throwing Weapons ability.)

Willie, the combat specialist has -- none. Bullets through water suck. Literally.

I have to think.

OK. I've thought.

Are those boxes inside Frank's apartment?

Selina could levitate Sophie, while Fiona levitates Nari.

Bongo will have to watch them, and keep them calm, in case they wake up (it would not exactly help us, if they start to scream, I suppose ).

Bye
Thanee

Yes the boxes are inside. We can assemble them and place them on the drones before inserting our two charges.

We should, indeed, have them ready, so we can move the two of them right in there.

But we will also have to make sure, that they are staying silent.

With Nari, hopefully, it will be enough if she sees Bongo and realizes, that she is being rescued.

Bye
Thanee

As we entered, were there small items, bottles, glasses, ash trays, etc., lying around in the living room?

Good point about the concealment. I added that in (that the targets can see each other).

Also added that Fiona will extend it to Sophie and Nari as soon as we are starting to move them, which in turn will make them see us without the penalty, if they are not too exhausted to notice anything.

Maybe it helps, if something happens. Outside of the apartment, she will probably have to drop it, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

OK, Thanee, how do you want to do this? Levitate to the living room? Put them in the boxes here in the bedroom? Wake them up and hope to walk them to the boxes?

I don't know how the two will react. Nari probably better than Sophie. You might need to 'put them to sleep' for a while.

Bongo is not all that familiar with spellcasting, so Selena should take the lead here.

I thought, levitation would cause the least amount of stirring in the bedroom. Then drop them in the boxes, and see how we make sure they keep quiet.

I suppose, we could use Influence on Sophie to hide in the box and stay silent. Nari, I would assume, will be happy to go along, once she sees that Bongo wants to help her.

Bye
Thanee

You have subvocal mics, so you could shift that to IC.

In regards to powers, I may just lean into the whole guidelines things to keep interaction with powers flowing with the whole "the players should never be absolutely certain of the capabilities of a critter" thing.

But I will say, because I think our ages might be close enough, that the path to danger with influence is through conjunction junction.

I doubt, we have any tranq patches... we need to keep her from making a ruckus somehow.

Bye
Thanee

Willie et al are about 80 meters from the critter. How close are they to the dock to which they were headed?

Heh. Bongo has stimulant patches. Will that do?

Actually, he has an assortment of drugs, some that would be calming. He has Laes-laced cigarettes that would actually knock a person out, but they have to be smoked. In passing, Bongo had been considering giving Nari one once they are out. It would help her forget most of the night.

So, levitate one at a time onto the drones, which I believe have to stay out in the living room, or both at once?

Sorry. Actually reaching the church should be a longer posting tonight's been taxes and wife drama. 😅

I don't think you're waiting on me in the other thread, but maybe you're stuck on how to move forward.

As for options for subduing there are spells like sunbolt and control thoughts in your lists. But even with conceal I advise against force 6, have at least some threshold I can work with. .

If you think Naru might respond positively Bongo might just wake her up, maybe with a hand over her mouth until she calms down. Levitating for a time first might be a roll to wake up as pillows and pressures shift and change. Though they are pretty bushed, especially Nari who was apparently unconscious before being brought into the room.

Melee rules would seem to support choking someone into unconsciousness. (Such as with an appropriate headlock). Also he has that packaging tape.

I just realized I need to look up if targets need to be willing for conceal.

Yeah, I think we are still a little unclear about the specifics. Also thought about Stun Bolt to knock her out, even though that seems a little drastic. But I don't see much of an alternative. We cannot have her conscious, too much of a wild card.

Concealment does not require a voluntary target.

Bye
Thanee

Well, let me know if you need any more specifics out of me at this point. Your characters could also try and gain answers to things.

But you've got a fair number of eyes and info as it is.

Also if you think you could keep Nari quiet there isn't any reason you need to coordinate and do everything at once.

We probably can't waste too much time, but good point, we could just start with her.

Bye
Thanee

Well, OK, then, let's get something going.

Should Bongo wake Nari and try to keep her quiet? I think she is not yet completely under Frank's domination, so I vote yes. That way Selina doesn't need to cast as much magic.

does that "Rod and Gun Club" down the road from the church show up on Lenny's feed to the team?

Not the longest reply. But sometimes it's a very good thing when the GM doesn't write a lot.

Also I gotta admit that when I read Bongo's character sheet I figured those powers would just be sitting around, but he's actually been getting some real use out of them.

Since this is a system game you kinda have to let the dice fall where they will, but stunbolt has the issue of either not doing enough or doing heavy overflow damage, and Sophie doesn't seem to have a history of doing well against mental manipulations. Although control thoughts as a spell gives the target frequent rolls to shake it off. It can feel like it lasts an eternity in combat, but when you aren't counting out time one second's worth of actions at a time it goes pretty fast.

Yeah, Stun Bolt is a bit strange, that it can actually kill someone, if you overdo it.

But since hits are limited to the Force of the spell, things shouldn't be too bad. Probably should just hit her with two mid-Force spells (like 3). That should be pretty safe. It will hurt her, but that seems a small price to pay compared to what she has been enduring, already. I expect her Willpower to be really low, so there won't be much in terms of resistance, probably.

As a side note, with the Concealment, they should make less of a sound (even when screaming ), which hopefully helps getting them out of the room without waking anybody else up.

Anyways, seems like it's time to do some levitation.

Bye
Thanee

I figure it's time to start figuring out next steps or having Tubesnake get on it.

Assuming you aren't going to try and go viral with one heck of an unboxing video on the sidewalk.

The idea with the drones is that, given that the annelid in the vents as well as the Flyspy should have access to the external opening through which the Flyspy arrived. Taking advantage of that way out means not trying to navigate the main dwelling space, and risking an alert. They can fly, or slither out safely. It doesn't have to be instant, because Paul can cruise around and pick them up in a few minutes.

A drone remaining in the plumbing can similarly slither out to a retrieval point with a minimum of drama.

To put it in project management terms, picking up the boxes with the women inside is the critical path element here, while picking up drones that don't have to attempt conflict with residents can happen as time permits.

I just want to avoid the feeling of a "gotcha." It could go either way, but I want it to be your choice.

I feel like I can talk about at least what your characters expect. And that might be useful to put down for everyone. So to their thinking,what's going to happen is that in not a great deal of time that spirit is going to roll enough hits to negate the influence power, at which point it should go back to following it's orders at which point it will discover people are missing.

There ought to be some hullaballoo about that. Which is partly why Angel is planning to run some matrix interference and Tubesnake is trying to lock doors. But those are only delaying measures.

You might not know exactly what they would do. But a drone might get noticed if it's still around, particularly if there's a hacker about.

Much more likely, things might progress at a faster pace than drones could be recalled, requiring them perhaps hiding or going on a little adventure of their own. Thanks to the nature of the wireless matrix you can keep in touch at quite a distance.

So Tubesnake's thinking would probably be a choice between:

A. The drones making a break for it as soon as the cardboard boxes are loaded. Due to the route out the vents having required the one annelid to slowly go around the buildings, the fastest route back is getting the annelids back through the sewers, with gravity working in their favor the whole way while reeling them in on the optical line like a bass. The flyspy would do pretty well with the vent route once let back in by an annelid.

Once the flatworker that opened the pipe and the two annelids are back in the van, tubesnake could get in motion and pick up the flyspy as he gets to the building.

B. He could keep eyes on to see the hullaballoo, but again, that might create time issues, especially if both annelids are using the vents.

C. What I think you're actually describing, which is the flatworker sealing the access to the sewer line, and perhaps already having returned to the van. The fiber optic cable (cheap) would get flushed out in the sewer as both annelids and the flyspy go for the vent and work their way around on the outside of the building, with Tubesnake picking them up as a secondary objective, time permitting.

I think, you should retreat your drones as soon as possible. We could also take some with us, I guess?

Bye
Thanee

The cables are reeled up and tucked away on their reels as stated previously. The flatworker goes along for the ride, and ends up in the van as well, and the reeling can happen at the same time as he puts the sewer fan away.

That leaves the drones in the building.

Until the team is clear, they can keep eyes on the apartment. That has utility for all the team.

The Flyspy can get out the way it came, by the ventilation path. Easy as pie, and it's a gap on the outside of the building so from there it could even fly to him as long as he's in range. Given that he's headed to the building's service entrance, no big deal.

The annelid left as a relay in the sewer can be picked up later, at leisure. There's absolutely no urgency about moving it out. It's not undesirable, but it's the least urgent.

The annelid in the vents is the one that would be hardest to walk out of the building - except that it has access to the same exterior vent that the Flyspy does. Given that the annelid's body form is basically a supersized earthworm, and made of highly flexible material, it can slither through a hole that the Flyspy could fly throug, and a ventilation vent is bound to be much larger than that. So what happens if it's on the exterior of the building? It either climbs down, or falls down. If it falls, again no big deal especially if Paul can drive by and snag it in a minute or less - which he could. If it climbs down the same applies on a slightly longer timeline.

Given that both drones are only barely in view to someone who knows to look for them, their risk of discovery prior to the team leaving the apartment is effectively nil. The moment that they retreat further into the vents they are out of sight completely, so once the team leaves they will be the next best thing to out of there in two seconds. Then it's just a matter of hitting the region of the exit hole and picking them up.

If loading the boxes takes long enough, the annelid in the sewer could reach a nearby manhole, at which point Paul would simply key it open, retrieve it, close the cover and leave.

I think our posts are a little out of synch. Bongo and Selina and their cargo are at or near the service elevators I believe.

Sorry for the delay. Hopefully through some family/personal stuff and should get back on regular posts. Also I don't think your posts are out of sych, it was just a matter of sorting out what was going on with the drones.

The key bit there is that he wants the ones inside to stick around until the rest of the group is clear.

Probably overthinking things but I actually looked up typical elevator wait times, elevator speeds, and talked through the guards dialog to see how much they could manage. Spirit didn't roll very well. I kinda expected it to have a better chance at getting you in the hall.

Also I'll point out this is where my one house rules about getting rid of the spirit's search power helps the runners a lot, and all around makes for better adventures. I think most GMs just treat it as an unofficial house rule that they won't use it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inb1NxdoKNc



Bye
Thanee

Oh, I forgot to mention Fiona got through the ward on that second try.

On the note of rolls, some social ones would be appropriate. I'll do them myself once I get to where I have time for a post, but I wanted to give you the option first. It does work better when players do it as you can react to your own roll, such as using edge.

Yeah, figured as much, since you did not mention it not working.



Con, I suppose? I will add it to the IC post.

Bye
Thanee

I figure, if I don't have Willie be uncouth, the GM will do it worse.

Edited Bongo to comply.

So the drones are out of eyesight. If Tubesnake get driving swiftly and gets away from the building they aren't making a rendezvous. If he turns right and drives past the park with the homeless underneath Frank's apartment he could probably get the flyspy. The annelid can do some falling to get down floors quicker, but it's still a slow crawler and the vent puts it out over somebodies house, with their backyard between the vent and the road, and the road on that side of the building now has people in boxes and tents around. It'll be a fair while before it could make it somewhere to be picked up. I suppose not all that long in absolute time, but it would be a lot in combat turns.

It can flop and crawl. The flyer flies. Tubesnake still has to strap the boxes to the side of the van - in practical terms, a pickup shouldn't be hard especially if he drives the long way around the building.

It crawls at acceleration 1/1 and speed 2. But I think your plan in the IC thread works out. Even with those stats it would take less than two minutes for it to be positioned at the curb and ready to cross the street onto the van if Tubesnake parks briefly. While an eternity in combat turns, it doesn't take long to burn that much time driving around to get the position I think you're asking for.

Yeah, I figured with loading and securing the boxes, they are busy for a moment.

A parked van should offer enough cover.

Bye
Thanee

Maybe make at least a little post in IC Koekepan. You might just want me to keep moving forward with the plan, but it's good to get something to indicate you aren't adjusting anything based on other people's posts. Even a little one liner or a sip of soycaf (Or I guess you busted out the real stuff).

Concealment is physical. It wouldn't work in astral space, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

I suppose it does say that it protects dual natured critters from astral detection, not purely astral creatures. Hadn't caught that nuance, but I'll run with it.

About the cameras, I think the main issue here is leaving a trail that could be followed up on.

Bye
Thanee

I still think this is the best edition for hackers. However I'm appreciating again that their little subgame is rife with risk and actually a fair number of rolls. I can appreciate it being hard on a player if they want to fully manage all the hacking. Though unless cybercombat occurs they could throw down a bunch of dice all at once that would be sufficient to complete their activity so long as things go reasonably well.

For play by post I could see encouraging players to make use of the freebies to get programs and complex forms of the same level. This would, to a large degree, allow them to just drop a whole bunch of rolls all at once to be used as needed for their objectives.

In the past players have not known the rules so well, but like the idea of hacking, and so they'd just say what they wanted their character to do and I handled the mechanics, stopping to give them choices if something came up. Such as fighting IC, logging out, or just do the thing you came for and take the punishment.



You folks seem to have being in a bunch of other games here. Any best practices to not lose a third hacker player character if I get one?