Wingdings is a completely made up location, meant just to be a transition to whatever scene we go for next. No great significance here.

Good questions from Raven. Those are all potentially relevant.

As for the question of "do the Awakened need to register" the answer is "it depends". For example, here's a piece from p. 277:

"Some corporations and governments take their regulation of magic to extreme levels, requiring the Awakened not only to register but also to provide a tissue sample. This means magicians and adepts can be tracked down if they step out of line, or do anything that pisses off the authorities."

I don't think the UCAS would go that far. But p. 363 does give these examples for licenses: "License to practice magic, registered Awakened Individual"

There is a section in the old Sprawl Sites book (one of my very favorites) that addresses licenses and permits, but it only references weapons, ammunition, armor, and cyberware. There's no mention of magic.

I'm not sure there's a canon answer for Seattle, so let's say that, yes, the expectation is for practicing magicians to register. Those practicing professionally must obtain a license. It is a matter of degrees as well. The expectation is higher for summoners and spellcasters than it is for adepts. Explorers or the Aware (the new aspected types from Forbidden Arcana) might be completely ignored. A low-Magic homemaker using Fashion to mend clothes in the privacy of their own home won't generate much outrage, for example.

(If anyone does know of a canon answer for Seattle, feel free to point me toward it.)

Doesn't that part imply that registration (at least) is the norm?


@gilga:


Don't you mean that the other way around? Talk to the receptionist about Potter?

Bye
Thanee

Yes, whenever I think I can write something quickly, I regret it.

It should say: I did talk about Potter with the receptionist.

Easily corrected and no reason to regret.

Bye
Thanee

Yes, perhaps it is the norm, but it's also difficult to generalize. For example, I can't imagine either Yakut or the Salish-Shidhe Council requiring registration. Yakut because it's an Awakened nation, and Salish-Shidhe because they have such a weak central government. (I imagine things like this are largely left up to the individual tribes.) So I'm not sure there are any blanket statements that would apply universally.

That said, I plugged the question into one of the AI engines and here's the seemingly-reasonable response. I am going to add a significant asterisk that I haven't been able to verify any of this, but... it sounds realistic? Part of the problem is that I'm not up-to-speed on what lore 6E might have added.

~~~

The UCAS does require Awakened individuals to register with the federal government under the National Awakened Control Act (NACA). Here's a breakdown of how it works:

Registration Process:
* All Awakened individuals, regardless of magical or technomantic abilities, must register with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) within 30 days of their Awakening.
* Registration involves biometric scans, DNA samples, and psychological evaluations.

Restrictions and Obligations:
* Awakened individuals are prohibited from using their abilities in a way that harms others or disrupts public order.
* They are subject to background checks and potential restrictions on employment, travel, and firearm ownership depending on their magical discipline and past activities.
* Certain magical traditions, like dark magic, are heavily monitored and may face additional restrictions.

Enforcement:
* The DSI is responsible for enforcing the NACA and monitoring Awakened activity.
* They have the authority to detain and question Awakened individuals suspected of violating the law.

Controversy and Resistance:
* The NACA is a controversial law, with many Awakened individuals viewing it as discriminatory and a violation of their civil liberties.
* Several Shadowrun groups, including the Awakened Council and the Free Spirits, actively oppose the NACA and advocate for the rights of Awakened individuals.
* The existence of illegal magic undergrounds and black markets for unregistered Awakened services highlights the tensions surrounding the NACA's implementation.

Additional Notes:
* The specific details of the NACA and its enforcement may vary depending on the Shadowrun source material and timeline you're referencing.
* The consequences of non-compliance with the NACA can range from fines and community service to imprisonment, depending on the severity of the offense.
* The Awakened community in the UCAS is a complex and nuanced one, with diverse opinions on the NACA and its impact on their lives.

~~~

Thoughts on the above?

Sounds very nice;) LLMs can surely make up interesting things.

Being the norm does not mean it does apply everywhere. There can still be exceptions.



It does sound pretty reasonable for sure.

Bye
Thanee

Okay, it's currently Sunday night ICly.

Here's the possible agenda for Monday:

1) printing office
2) response from Potter's campaign manager, Shir
3) DNA results

Other possibilities;

4) Contacting 'Lucky' Duck Phillips is entirely possible. As a councilor, his contact information will be publicly available. He'll have a small staff of 2-3 people who you can expect to review every communication before he sees it. A hint: politicians are notoriously busy (or at least pretend to be), and so an incentive may get them to respond to your inquiry sooner.

(Aside: my ex worked for a Seattle city councilmember who later became mayor, so I have a tiny bit more insight on city politics than, say, firearms or explosives.)

5) Raven trying to astrally access Potter's apartment is not impossible but will be one of those approaches where we'll need to go through the sequence step-by-step, as there are both significant risks and consequences.

6) The assassin. A couple weeks ago, when Thanee wasn't available, I made the executive GM decision to send out one of her air spirits to look for Saiki Kiku (in this post). I'll give Thanee the opportunity to retroactively veto that decision, as the results of the search are not IC yet. If Thanee gives the go-ahead, those results will be available soon.

Raven knows the Astral Mirror spell, she can explore there from a safe distance.

If Bobby can describe the interior to her, she can probably get the spell there in a place that is not easily observed.

It shouldn't take long to assense the outer and inner ward for a signature, and that is, pretty much, all she wants to do there.



That's totally okay.

Bye
Thanee

LG is showing off a transparent OLED TV at CES. The screen is about an inch thick and, through some trickery, can basically give a free-floating quasi-3D image. This is basically my understanding of what trideo is in Shadowrun.

https://www.lg.com/us/ces2024/lg-signature-...sparent-oled-tv

Looks pretty wiz.

I always think about it as "The Matrix" (as in the movie), an ultra-realistic world used mainly for entertainment. Perhaps this is AR? or would VR also be unrealistic?

Trideo is basically 3-D holovision TV. It's like a box that you watch.

AR provides overlays to the real world. VR is simsense, like The Matrix (although VR can be as realistic or unrealistic as it wants).

Trideo is from the early editions. I suppose it's a fair question if it's still relevant in the 2070s or if it's been displaced by AR or VR.

I see I see, just never heard the term.

Gilga (or anyone else), feel free to roll Computer (Matrix Search).

Matrix search on looking for ex-staffers (or even current staffers) who might be more approachable than Phillips himself.

matrix search: 9d6t5 7

Wow, would have loved that role on something more key, but I'll take it!

That's a 99th percentile roll. Nice.

I think Tam's Limit is 5 due to the Data Processing of the Vulcan Liegelord. Off the top of my head, Toolbox is the only program that raises this limit and I don't see that on Tam's sheet. Let me know if I overlooked anything.

Five hits will be enough to conduct a good search.

buying 4 hits - on improve intuition.
drain: 12d6t5 1 - 2 stun damage for intuition spell.

Computer search (augmented): 18d6t5 5

You are correct, Data processing limits that to 5 hits -- I'm not used to hitting limits on her computer skills!

Just to check something, Lucky Duck's latest aide has been with him for only a few months -- that includes the time that Potter was chosen as the candidate? Or was the change over just after that time?

Hmm, I wrote a response to this but it seems to have disappeared into a black hole: The new assistant started just after Potter's nomination. The timing is suspiciously close.

Not to steer things, but - with Improved Intuition running - AM would realize that Phillips seems fairly shameless. He appears to appreciate scandal, including the attention it generates and the aura it creates. (Snohomish is pretty rural and, among the richer districts, would be considered a backwater populated by hicks and racists. But among the Snohomish hayseeds, Phillips is good entertainment, not embarrassing.)

Separately, I don't imagine home addresses being publicly available information in the Sixth World. Let me know if AM has a specific strategy in mind for finding it. Alternatively, you could just show up at Phillips' office tomorrow, since it's a working day and presumably someone will be there.

So, either Phillips role in this is to distract from Potter, or the assistant is there to keep him in line / keep tabs on him.

Bye
Thanee

My (admittedly limited) political experience would say that whatever Phillips does reflects on Potter as well which leads me to believe that the Duck should behave at least until Potter is elected.

Yeah, that is the "keep him in line" part. Seems like a reasonable assumption.

Bye
Thanee

Apparently I never posted the reply I wrote yesterday, but it still works for today. Tamarind is suggesting a team-worked matrix search, but up to Gilga on that front.

matrix search (teamwork): 9d6t5 0

Oof, I guess that averages out with the improbably good roll last time? No successes, but at least not a glitch.

Not a glitch but awfully close!

Okay, here's the updated To Do list:

1) printing office
2) response from Potter's campaign manager, Shir
3) DNA results
4) Looking into 'Lucky' Duck Phillips and his assistant(s)
5) Raven using Astral Mirror to assense Potter's apartment
6) The assassin, TBD

You can't identify the assistant's commlink at the moment, but you could if you stake out Phillips' office in the morning. In the meantime, you can look for background info on the assistant. If that's your plan, let me know what you're looking for.

Raven will look for a time, where Ms. Potter is out and busy with something a little more important, so her security is mostly focused on that to take a quick peek behind the astral curtain.

Bye
Thanee

Matrix Search: 8d6t5 2

Only adding 2 dice to the test.

Is Bobby looking to go to Phillips office right now? It's 10pm on a Sunday so there won't be anyone there. Which might be to Bobby's advantage if his goal is to just case the joint.

Yes, exactly - and Bobby is pretty patient when he can meditate (replaces the need for sleep quite efficiently, without preventing him from watching)

What were we looking for at the printing office? I've quite forgotten by this point!

Evidence of Potter's diploma, to see if she really graduated from the University of Washington.

The electronic records were wiped out during Crash 2.0, but the theory is that the printing office (which prints diplomas) had some systems offline that might not have been affected by the crash. To your knowledge, nobody's bothered to sift through them yet.

But the printing office was closed for the weekend, so the options were to 1) break in, or 2) wait until it opens.

Although having a cover story will help. Or a good bribe. Otherwise they may not let randos in to sort through their records.

Spatial sense is a bit limited, I think because it does not discover living things and is wiped from your memory(?!) after it ends. So I took some liberties with AM's detection spells. AM would not get out of the car to avoid being seen by the cameras, but we can move the car to bring things to the range of her senses at need.

Don't forget that your range is Force x Magic rating x 10 with extended range spells - for Bobby that's about 270m at the moment

Oh, that is way better than I thought, (force *10) so we have a 200-meter radius. Not sure we'll even need to move the car.

Spatial sense is not wiped from your memory when it ends, any more so than anything else you've seen. A memory test can be made to later recall details. I imagine there are simple drafting programs that would let you sketch the basics fairly quickly. Or, if you have an extended period of time, you could do a more elaborate drafting.

Good use of the spells. AM has some time to get a good look around. Let me know if there's anything specific she's looking for that wasn't addressed in the IC post.

Let me know if there's anything else you want to do Sunday night. If not, we'll fast-forward to the Monday agenda.

Bobby wants to stake out Phillips' office for when the assistant arrives in the morning?

Yes, Bobby will wait there for the assistant.

Do we know anything about Potter's schedule? i.e. anything official/public, where she is going to be?

Bye
Thanee

I think this is what you've picked up over the course of your investigation:

- She works a lot, campaigning through the evening. She basically only uses her apartment overnight.
- She volunteers Sunday evenings after dinner, as you know.
- She jogs in the morning. You're not sure what time, but presumably it's not crazy early or the old dwarf woman wouldn't have seen Potter while walking her dog.

IC post is up for Bobby.

Does the rest of the crew want to go to the printing office, or do you have other priorities?

printing office is fine

Tag definitely seems to have been written with the intention of "visual tag", but I don't see why it wouldn't work for this. Plus I'm not aware of any other Matrix actions to achieve the same thing, so Tag seems like the best available option.

AM (or Tamarind) can hack if they like. Let's try to do that in parallel with the Printing Office. That will keep things moving and the two probably won't interfere with each other narratively. I'll put the visit to the Printing Office shortly after Bobby's message, so it can be done before in the IC timeline.

I like the TAG action - its versatile, can be used by non-dedicated hackers and fills the gap between searching for individual personas and looking at every device in the vicinity.

Mechanically, AM will be better than Tamarind on any computer system. (bigger dice pool). The old equipment just seemed like a chance to have Tamarind say something. (I've been following along, but haven't felt that there was a need to push her into what was happening). And assuming that the army was some years behind in equipment.

I think Tamarind could do well with older systems.

(Folks are able to spend any stored Knowledge Karma if they want a mechanical benefit to go along with the narrative one.)

Interesting question about how advanced the various armies would be. The UCAS only has half the population as the US currently does, and I have to think that extraterritoriality deprived it of a lot of tax revenue. So I imagine that spending there is considerably lower than what we experience today.

As for the Sioux Nation though... it's much smaller, but they devote a much higher share of their GDP to defense. I think some of the writers acknowledged that they used Israel as a baseline for writing about the Sioux Nation's military structure, spending, compulsory service, etc.

Gilga, is AM interested in hacking the assistant's commlink? If so, we can do it in parallel with the printer's office.

Yes, she plans but in VR. Transys Avalon is a difficult target.

Well the IC timing is that the the Tag is available before AM arrives at the printing office, so we don't need to wait to finish one to do the other.

Lets start

Hacking in VR (persona): 20d6t5 9 Her Sleaze does not go that high it's just 8, it can be 9 if there is no noise (she has a vectored signal processor for -2 noise reudction) so unless the trix is good enough we'll leave reduction aside.
for hacking.
Deck high stat 4 + over locker 1 + exploit + stealth =8


14 dice hacking personas + 4 augmented stat + 2 hot sim bonus.

Preps: buying 4 hits on improving logic and intuition - and letting Trouble sustain one of them while she is working the link.
Drain: 11d6t5 3
Drain: 11d6t5 4
no drain.

Edit file
Edit file: 20d6t5 4 heh,
She'll buy 5 hits on the second try. It is a DP action so less risk.

let me know if I need anything else.

A valiant defense by the commlink but AM gets her mark:

Firewall 6 + Intuition 4: 10d6t5 4 hits

What is AM going to do with her Edit File action? What's she looking for?