That's three

Ok, well I've PM'd everybody to alert them that the thread is active again.

If we can't get a GM does anyone know if another Dumpshocker knew anything about Emerald City?

We'll give it the week or so, see who is still interested.

If there's enough interest but we still haven't tracked down our previous GM, I might turn Kai into a supporting NPC -- can do the grunt work such as staking out the place, but won't be directly involved unless PCs deliberately pull him in -- and find an appropriate scenario to run from here.

Well, as sort of an informal roll call:

Digital Heroin was last seen on Feb. 15, posting in the “Ties That Bind� game. He had complained of a cough in an earlier post.

Slipshade was last seen on July 6, posting on the “Living in the Shadows: SR 4 OOC� thread.

Bastard was last seen on Jun. 20, posting on the “The Matrix?� thread.

thomas

I am having trouble keeping up with LiTS, so I don't think adding another game at this time will work for me. Sorry guys.

Slip

Well, I don't know where this run was heading, but I'm going to have a go at GMing a PbP. I'd love to have you all if you're interested:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=18315

thomas

wow... long hiatus Havent been keeping up on this site for a while. Usually just checking in for game questions. However, I would definitely want to rejoin this one.

Friends:

We’ve been away from this game for so long. I certainly enjoyed playing it and would like to again if we can get enough interest.
Slip has other commitments; however Sedna has ran that character before.
Bastard, weren’t you GMing in DH’s absence?
If we have enough PCs and NPC assistants I see no reason we can’t pretty much pick up where we left off.

What say you?

I guess I can continue to gm... if no one else wants to. Scanning back, I found my shitty map!

I'm in if it starts up again.

Does everyone still have a copy of their characters? Send me a PM with your character sheet if you do.

Viper has been sent.

I will read over the game, and start working on it. I will start posting in the IC this week sometime.

Got 2 characters so far.

Well... I have been going over the OOC and IC and am almost 3/4 through, so maybe I will be able to post tomorrow or wednesday. I no longer use the email that I have posted in the OOC, so post questions here or pm me.

I got Glyph's and Thomas' characters, Viper and Steve.

I just sent Sedna a PM... and I will send one to Slipshade, just incase.



Everyone up and ready?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Edit: July 31st at 1250 am)

Ok... I stayed up really late and finished rereading our game. We had some great character exchanges. I have posted IC feel free to start. Hope we can pick up where we left off!

I apologise for my last-week silence -- been sick, still sick and headachy, and was focusing the only spare energy I had so as not to delay others in the LitS thread.

I'm in, but I might be slow starting up, this week.

(Though as I was re-reading I found myself laughing so hard it hurt, especially when I reached Thomas' tirade on p.7! ... and you're the one who first actively helped bring this back to life? eep ...)

<blush>
Well, I am still looking to add “incontinence-causing� to my repertoire of comedic devices.

<sarcasm mode: ON> <sarcasm intensity: turn knob to right til it snaps off>
Two days! TWO DAYS!! – Steve stumbles off to a coffin hotel to recover from an apoplectic fit, shaky from adrenaline (his doctor has prescribed medicine for those panic attacks) and suddenly TWO DAYS have passed. Where’s the release – all the tension of the buildup – a dramatic pause, then, two days later… I’m gonna go take a cold shower.
<sarcasm mode: OFF> <looks up cost of getting sarcasm intensity knob fixed>

So, uhh, what’s up wid dat?

I figured I would jump ahead a bit.

Think of it as two days of surveillance and legwork ... and keeping Kai somewhere out of trouble's reach (more or less) ...

Edit:

And thank you, Bastard, for being willing to run this; and to everyone for willingly joining in to bring it back. I'd have said it earlier, but Steve's choleric incoherence completely shoved it out of my mind.

I second that – Hurrah for Bastard!

Now, before we read more into this than intended:
Allow me to say something about Steve, but if you tell him I said it I’ll call you a liar.

Steve isn’t the most well-adjusted person. He has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, a fixation on things elvish and a displaced persecution complex. The least of his problems is some random, lustful thought. He’s not the guy to pursue a relationship as those cause too much chaos in his ordered little world.

As for being a ‘runner – he’s not. He’s an out-of-work security guard – successful at that only because he notices things out-of-place in environments he is familiar with. He has average attributes, no augmentations or magic, and a sec-guards “shoots-twice-a-month-at-the-range, qualifies-twice-a-year� weapon skills.

He only took the courier job at EC because the company he used to work for as an armed security guard was bought out, and he was ‘right-sized’ out of a job. His comfortable world is crumbling around him and his only defense is being methodical with the things he can control.

By the way everyone... I got a big promo at my job which provided me the money to build a new computer... one that should not crash every few weeks.

Then I quit cause I got a better job, and I now work shift work. So I work 4 on 4 off, thus giving me lots of time to post. Once, maybe twice a day on my working days, and many times a day on my days off.

After this mission is complete... are we going to continue? I dont mind being gm... except I would like to play Johnson again. Do we want to invite one or two more after mission is complete?

So, uhh Bastard, What do we really know about the warehouse? I was kinda hoping that J could give us a run-down on what we had managed to find out.

By my count, we know 4 things:

• location and exterior layout, ala shittymap,
• thugs with unnatural bulges in their pants,
• jack
• squat

…little help here, omae?

I was going to wait for some IC responses then add... but I can edit my last post and add on if you all want.

It'd be nice to continue, but let's see how this one plays out first. We're still in the counter-inertial re-startup stage.

Aren't you glad Kai isn't a Prairie Dog shaman?

Very.

Steve has a Security Procedures background but I don’t.
Help me out if the IC post is stupid.

It is totally IC for Steve, he only knows magic as portrayed on the trid and briefed during security training. Maybe Viper has explained some of Kai’s talents and some of her own – otherwise he’s mostly clueless.

Viper wasn't exactly clear when she "explained" Liddy, although you can assume she at least told you that Kai's buddies are spirits, by now, although it's unlikely she's gone into any more detail. She has described some of her own capabilities a few times, although you have not seen her actually cast any spells yet.

It would be a fair IC guess by anyone who's known Kai even a week that even at his most exasperating, Kai may run things on a very thin line, but he wouldn't deliberately cause a friend of his to be hurt by those jokes. Knowing this about Kai, you'd guess the same is likely to hold true about his magic. Viper should be able to confirm easily that Kai's is under his control, and now it's within his conscious awareness as well.

From the past two days talking, Viper knows that Kai's got a strong affinity with city spirits particularly, which is why "street kids" tend to pop up around him so often.

Viper probably also has a good idea that the "dead rat" is actually Kai's way of slinging a particular spell. (Take a guess which!) Near as she's been able to confirm, Kai does have a bunch of fairly potent spells which he mostly associates with similar physicality and/or fast-talking.

Viper has assensed the scene, and maybe even gone in astrally? How do the vagrants scan?

Do any of us have contacts which could let us know where the crates originally came from?

In playing that ringtone, I'm assuming that the IC time when Kai wasn't present wasn't the only time that Steve's gone choleric.

Actually the IC episode is quite uncharacteristic for Steve, who is usually very reserved. It should be easy to see that such pranks affect Steve more than most – what others might take as annoying makes Steve very uneasy and anxious. Unless Kai is intentionally trying to torture Steve? As for the ring tone, perhaps Kai got into Hermes’ bugs?

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about crashing your thread here. Sedna asked me to tell you all she'll be away from DSF for the next two days or so, so she won't be able to post or reply to anything. She'll be back and on track in about two days. If anyone has anything really urgent they need to tell her that can't wait, feel free to let me know and I'll pass it along to her for you.

Thanks for the heads up, WinterRat1.

Sorry about that.

SR3 rules, could someone check -- were spirits totally resistant to bullets, or only when they were not materialised?

I think the bugs may have been a special case, due to the merge.

For spirits in SR3, immunity to normal weapons is like hardened armor equal to double their Essense. So a Force: 3 spirit, for example, would shrug off Force: 6 or less damage.

Do you want me to push the story ahead? I was leaving control of the story to you all. I am just going to fill in when you need descriptions, tests, and bumps.

I usually feel uncomfortable doing "scene transition" posts - it feels like stepping on the GM's turf. Other than waiting for a potential objection to the plan from Kai, I am done contributing to the planning, so I wouldn't mind if you fast-forwarded to the warehouse.

Well, any opinions on doing a pre-run test on the goons reaction – or I guess a more important question – How much longer do we have to accomplish the mission (or fail trying, I guess)

You still have 4 or 5 days I believe. Bump to dry run if you want, or tomorrow night I can bump to real deal.

Sorry about the extended absence without warning. After the initial banning, other issues came up. Until now, I was not sure if Sedna would survive. Turns out that the price of her survival on these boards is that Talia Invierno won't.

Back to regular game later today -- but wanted to let you know what was happening as soon as I knew.

OK- I bumped you up... got you ready to go, either as a dry run or the real deal.

Status Update -

An apology for through this weekend and the previous weeks and change -- apart from the whole administrative snafu (which happened in the first place because I was posting tired), been sleeping an average of 4 hours a night for far too long now, literally too tired to sleep just now: but a bit of a break after I finish packing up the apartment. (Twenty years worth of books, for a writer/editor/researcher. I have no wall space. )

So finishing up tomorrow, planning on keeling over for Sunday, and should be at least semi-conscious by Monday.

Although -- I have no idea what you want just now, from Kai. Near as I can tell, it's Steve that's actively testing reactions, with Viper and Kai giving support only.

Speaking for myself (though I’m sure the others feel the same;) bringing this thread back after two years says something, (again, special thanks to Bastard for going the extra mile and taking the mantle of GM) – so I’m sure that a couple of weeks to deal with those real-life issues isn’t too much of a stretch.

As to the game; My thoughts were that for the dry run Kai would use spirits to ‘stir-up’ the squatters while all of us could observe the reactions of both the guards and the squatters – in case some of them weren’t what they seemed to be.

oh....people are still here?

People are still here -- just.

Finished the first part of the move as of midnight yesterday. It's been complicated because it's been a bit of a domino effect over the past year: first had to shut down two separate offices (stuff moved into the other office, and then when that building shut down everything moved into the one-bedroom apartment), then took over an estate house (packed basement to garage to rafters with *things*), the apartment just got shut down, and last week I got told that to sell the house I have to completely de-clutter it within three weeks, and at some point I have to find time to replace floors and do a paint job, along with several miscellaneous repair and cleaning jobs. Plus I am self-employed: workdays average twelve hours.

But today is scheduled for hot and cold running sleep.

SpiritS are only possible for a shaman in SR4. SR3: one domain, one spirit. Still, can create quite a ruckus if needed!

Did you want something like a stinkball thrown in? That's one spell Kai does have.

Method doesn’t matter to Steve, just effect. Hopefully enough to cause the goons and any ‘sleeper’ agents in the squatters to react, but not enough that they think it’s a full-scale assault which might cause them to change their pattern of response.

Sympathies on the moving…

Yeah, moving can be a pain even without a bunch of unforeseen complications.

Viper isn't involved in the dry run as far as I know, although I will try and post something flavor-wise for her, maybe her getting a disposable camera for Kai.

Are you all waiting on me?

I'm not sure there's anything I could contribute, just now ...? It sounds like everything has been set up for the test run. I suppose maybe I should have Kai roll a spirit summoning roll (Force 4)? but then we might have other spell rolls to make as well?

As far as I understand it, Kai's contribution to this part is the spirit only, yes?

(I continue to be in mortgage/offer/counteroffer/quadruple move hell, and I've now learned that things need to look absolutely immaculate in two-three weeks. Hence the non-Kai level of board activity. )