@ Aria: Argh, I keep forgetting to post. I'm guessing we're moving out, and I'll order my bound spirit to scout our path for mines and/or enemies.

Having the Force 4 spirit roll it's perception:
Int(4) + Perc(4) = 8d6 for 0 hits. Edge rerolling for 3 hits. 3 hits total.

Have I killed another game?

Lol, no, I'm still here. And I'll stay here, dammit, until I've sated my thirst for wicked cool Cthulhu Tech-like action!

Sorry, I'm still here too but work keeps burying me (and the dog ate my homework ). Now my son is ill so I don't anticpate getting anything significant done until after the weekend - I promise a concerted effort then though!

busy busy Aria. Good luck with all of that!

I'm just in a postpostpost mood. Keeping busy, and all that.

On a side note, I'm sorry my IC posts have been short and boring. SquirrelSpirit is going to be annoying as hell for the Azzies once he gets near, but the whole "ride-on-his-shoulder" thing limits the crazyfun.

Lol, no worries. I also summoned the watcher for you just in case you need to get in touch with me and we get separated. I'm I can use the mental link with it as a makeshift commlink between Tris and Mal.

Wooo, update in all the games! I think Mal and Tris are ready to rock, so let's start the fireworks!

Can you give me some idea of how you are approaching / from where / to where? It's fairly open ground so at a dead run might be the best bet but I'll give you a chance to come up with something inventive first

As an aside, Sticks will be tagging along on auto pilot for now...

Well, if Tris is about to catch a shell, I am letting the squirrel take one for the team while I get out of there. Meat sacks aren't worth dying over!

I figured I'd boot up the stealth suit and stay a healthy distance away from the mecha. I'm open to other suggestions, though.

walk through the front gate, leveling everything in your path with overcast fireballs?

Lol, not that kind of mage, but I guess I could run through and toss stunballs...

So how about a plan of making a stealthed dead run behind the vanguard (i.e. meatshields) and throwing stunballs at any Azzie personnel that get in the way. The fire spirits can fly about 100 meters at an angle from me and offer aerial support by shooting firebolts.

Sorry for being a little behind in posting. I've been sick all week, and so I've been a little forgetful about what threads are waiting on me. x_x

sounds good to me. I'll be using you to get me close, then I'll scurry off to see how much chaos I can cause amongst the Azzies using all of the tricks in my bag. Confusion + accident + Influence + guard + possession = fun, right? ^_^

With your permission, I will recycle some characters I made previously for games that never got off the ground. They will serve as my "out of node", and I will only have to create the "in node".


Hmmm... one of the characters I wish to submit has Surge II. It was just a way to create an aquatic elf for a character concept I had in a game where all PCs were required to have at least Surge I. The Surge qualities are Blubber, Gills, Underwater Vision, Webbed Hands and Toes, Symbiosis. Additional qualities (flaws) included Bioluminescence (hair) and Extravagant Eyes. This character also had SINner, Day Job, and Records on File. These made sense for the PC, but I can eliminate them if you don't like them. His remaining qualities are Adept, Chatty, First Impression, Surge II, and Incompetent: First Aid.

This first PC is a Social Adept who goes by the names Duke and Spitz. In fact, he is a Duke in Tir Tairngire, due to his surprisingly high score in that nation's Rite of Progression. I would prefer to tell that story in character at an appropriate time. Hint: He swept all the swimming events; scored high in the language tests, especially Sperethiel; and his high Intuition and multi-tasking ability mitigated his otherwise average Intelligence. Where he really shined was in the ensuing competition for land grants. In a performance reminiscent of B'rer Rabbit, and good enough to win at Survivor, he ended up with a collection of neglected, decaying, or abandoned waterfront properties along the Columbia river in Astoria including docks, warehouses, a small residential complex, and a strip mall. Even more valuable at the moment is the right to travel abroad unrestricted by bureaucracy that Tir subjects enjoy at Ducal rank and above. That's why he has a SIN and his records are on file.

The other side of the coin - the first side being achieving Ducal rank by merit rather than inheritance - is that Duke Spitz does not have the funds to rehabilitate his "duchy". Previously employed as a freelance collector of raw reagents - specializing in aquatic plant and animal reagents; he decided to take advantage of his new found travel freedom, travel to Seattle, and seek employment as a translator on Council Island. He soon learned that he could earn even more money in the Shadows. He was reluctant to enter that field because of his unique appearance, until he learned about the otherside of shadowrunning and became a part-time Johnson. Due to unfortunate circumstances, he needs to lay low for a while. That's why this "excursion" into an UV world sounds tailor-made for him.

The second and third PCs are a rather generic Shaman and Technomancer. I'll need to come up with new stories for them. Basically, the shaman will want to learn about using Magic in Virtual Reality, and the TM will see this as the ultimate challenge.

Anyhow, if you approve Duke's character concept, then I will adjust for the free contacts, extra nuyen, 20 karma, etc.; then think of some in-node concepts. My first guess is that the Duke's fantasy is to be a full mage, the shaman's fantasy is to be a Technomancer, and the Technomancer would be happy remaining a Technomancer, or perhaps a Physical Adept. On the other hand, I have to figure out how to make their static mental stats fit into new roles. For instance, Duke has Logic 2.

What else do you need to know? I spent 160 BP on Duke's Mental Attributes, another 15 BP on mental Qualities, gained 5 BP from a negative mental quality, and 90% of his Adept powers are mental.

One thing that was not clear to me:


I think I may have misunderstood this when I read it the first time and wrote the above. My current understanding is that my PC's in-node mental stats can be different from his out-of-node stats, but they can not go over 200 BP without permission, and remain static. Also, Magic is excluded from the fixed stats. Is that correct?

Anyhow, I made the mistake of scanning this OoC thread first. I think maybe I should have scanned the IC thread instead. I'm off to do that now. I have more questions, but perhaps some of them will be answered when I read the IC thread.

Again, thanks for letting me join this campaign.

The "ic " aspect of the character is the more important. Make someone who can actually kill stuff! Welcome to the madness!

What Mickle said. Especially those last two lines!

As the others have pointed out I may have overegged the character gen stuff at the beginning and should have asked people to skip straight to their 'in node' character - I now don't anticipate the 'out of node' experience playing a huge part of this game . The chance to change your character mid game has never come up and may or may not in the future...I'm inclined not to worry about it at the moment.

Killing stuff is good but it's not the be-all and end-all of this game (I hope!). Although there's not much sign of it so far, sneaking would be a useful skill! I would urge you to take some good armour if you can, milspec is certainly worth it and isn't restricted.

The Duke sounds fine to me, nice change of background pace there . The magic angle is fairly well covered by Tris and Mal but that's not to say you can't also create a magic user if that's what you want.

That's sad!

Having skimmed the IC thread, the only time I ever played in anything similar was twenty years ago in a Ravenloft game at a gaming convention. This is like Night of the Living Dead or such, isn't it? I can do that; rather, I can learn to do that. I am not well versed in military matters, but I am a slow learner

When I read the initial post, I was intrigued by the game-within-a-game nature the in-node / out-of-node duality suggested. I imagined that Spitz would be an ideal PC in this scenario due to his multi-tasking adept power. He could be fully immersed in the simulation using only part of his brain while engaging in an out-of-node sub-plot with another part (if you, the GM, were okay with that). I immediately thought of three possibilities:

1) Gaming the system similar to Kirk's solution to the Kobayashi Maru;
2) Co-opting the system and using it to resolve his real world problems; and
3) Figuring out a way to steal one of these systems for himself.

Actually, 3 is something my other characters would be interested in as well, and that suggests a fourth possibility:

4) Seducing the other players into helping him steal these systems - for personal use or profit.

From what I gather, the other players are not interested in the out-of-node aspect of this campaign. When I read your initial posts for the third time, I noticed that the out-of-node character is optional (I did mention that I was skimming, didn't I?). Therefore, I won't contaminate the IC thread with any of this. On the other hand, if you the GM or any other players are interested, perhaps we could start a seperate out-of-node IC thread. Up to you, really. I'll just say that I invested some time and effort into creating Duke and never got to play him. I'd like to.

So much for that digression!

As for the in-node character: I can use all the help I can get, so more suggestions would be appreciated. I get it that you have enough mages already. Duke is a natural manipulator, but I don't see much need for a Face in the in-node scenario, so perhaps he could be a drone rigger. Duke is also an amphibian, so amphibian drones are a possibility. I haven't looked at the maps yet, but I remember reading several references to water and an island.... Perhaps, he could be a sorta SEAL type, leading a team of drone SEALS. I'll scan the Mil Spec book, but if anyone can point me in the right direction.

RIGHT! I look back and see that the "Puppet Master" package is "<<UNDER CONSTRUCTION>>". Scratch that - they all are! Guess I will be making it up as I go along, with your help.

Feeback, anyone?

EDIT: The more I think about it, Duke the social adept has had two fantasies, being a full mage and being a physical adept. Since the group has enough mages, I think Duke will be some kind of combination Physical Adept / Drone manipulator - if I can figure out a way to make that work. I also understand that this group desires more DPS, so I will incorporate that into this PC as well

Hi DBA

Although there are shedim on the march “Night of the Living Dead” is probably only the precursor to the true horror that I have in store for you all The idea is that the Stillwater group would hire military types to test their system but they wouldn’t be able to complete the test with solely milspec personnel and they’d have used all sorts…it’s got to have that post-apocalyptic feel after all

If you want to explore more of the ‘out of node’ experience that would be ok! Some of the original players on the thread had already done some of that in a previous game Emerging:Conflict (there’s a link via my sig if you want to have a look…) so it hasn’t come up until now. Do bear in mind though that as a UV node this is realer than real™ and more immersive than standard VR. I would say that with multi-tasking and focused concentration you could view some of the real world whilst in the node but you would have severe mods!

I do like the idea of you trying to steal the tech though! You would need some assistance to do this I would think…time to recruit Feel free to do this in this IC, there’s no need for another one. Mal (although not statted out of node I don’t think) has an interesting background that might be worth exploring, and I’m sure Tris does too!

Back to the in-node stuff I have to apologise for the lack of original packages, they weren’t required by anyone else so I got lazy and didn’t develop them any more An adept / drone user is more than possible. As inspiration I offer up <<Opium>> my pixie rigger…but there are plenty of other suitable powers, drones etc for you to choose to your heart’s content!

A couple of expensive drones that you’ve worked up in detail may be easier to handle than a swarm of cheaper ones but it’ll be you rolling the D and remembering to use them all so I’m happy either way!!!

Just wanted to give this a bump and let you know I‘m still here. I figured it would be a good idea to let DBA jump into the mix before making my attack run.

No problem...if we don't hear from him by the end of the week I'll try and us moving again after the Easter weekend...

suppose I should point out that the squirrel is still ready to cause havoc

Ok, not heard from DBA yet, let's keep things moving.

Where are you targetting in the complex? The control tower is the obvious answer but you might also want to go for the security control or the secondary security station.

Of course you have enough NPCs with you that (provided the PCs stick together) you could target all three in teams of 3-4...that doesn't sound many but given you have the surprise and the foe seem to be concentrating on the main gates you should be ok...

...

Maybe hit secondary security and work our way up the ladder of stations? What's you're take, Mickle?

I'd say send npc teams at the two security stations while the heavy guns (Not-Explodey-Mage and SuperSquirrel) take out the control tower. Hit 'em fast and hard, you know? Depending on our numbers, we might want to also have some heavy-units strike at the front gate guards to weaken their position... *shrugs* Or have SuperSquirrel sew discord and chaos amongst their forces... ^_^

Sounds good to me, we'll do something like that plan that keeps the PCs together. As Drake Mallard always says:

LET'S. GET. DANGEROUS!

initiative? or can I start throwing around spirit powers like they're going out of style?

You have auto surprise this round but if you want to roll initiative (or point me to where you rolled it previously) that'd be good!

The guard is an Azzie in medium milspec combat armour, weird glyphs and a combat rifle with grenade launcher...I point you again at the weird glyphs

I'll try a knowledge roll on those glyphs:

Log(5) + Magical Knowledge(3) = 8d6 for 3 hits.

initiative: 14



And the baddie is getting hit with the critter power confusion - magic+willpower vs willpower; net hits are a negative dicepool modifier on the target; duration is sustained, LOS to cast, not necessary to sustain.

Magic(6) + will(4) = 3 hits, edge reroll : 3 more hits = 6 hits total

Counter spelling doesn't apply to critter powers, does it?

Making initiative rolls for Tris, the Force 7 fire spirit, and the Force 4 fire spirit:

Tris:
React(3) + Int(3) + Incr Ref(3) = 10d6 for 3 hits 9d6 for 3 hits (made a mistake on the dice). Init 12/4 IP

Force 7 Fire Spirit:
Force(7)x2 + 3 = 17d6 for 7 hits. Init 24/2 IP

Force 4 Fire Spirit:
Force(4)x2 + 3 = 11d6 for 6 hits. Init 17/2 IP

That 'baddie' is looking seriously confused! He probably was without the power but still...

The glyphs are Azzie in nature...blood sacrifice and perhaps warding are what they remind you of.

Damn those fire spirits are fast!!! I suspect he'll be toasted before anyone else blinks but we'll keep Mal's confusion in place anyway, just in case

Haha, they're my saving grace. I‘m a slow mage...

While you're being slow can you give me some rolls for those fire spirits? I'm not going to do it for you, got enough on my plate

Crap, sorry, I'll get it done tonight. x_x

lol

Okay, well, Tris told the fire spirits to either incapacitate or incinerate, so here go a few attempts with the latter...

Force 7 Fire Spirit: Elemental(Fire) Attack
Agi(9) + Ex R Weap(7) = 16d6 for 5 hits. Base damage is 7 DV (fire).

Force 4 Fire Spirit: Elemental(Fire) Attack
Agi(6) + Ed R Weap(4) = 10d6 for 2 hits. Base damage is 4 DV (fire).

I feel I need to apologise about the lack of pace with this game! It's my own fault and only having two players doesn't help. Perhaps pbp isn't best suited to high octane milspec action . I'm not going to abandon the game but I think I will accelerate towards the endgame a bit faster than I'd intended - hopefully that's ok with you two?!? There will be more Emerging games in the pipeline, although I'm not sure the current characters will fit in with the metaplot with the one I have planned for the immediate future, don't screw them up, they may be dusted off for the grand finale

No worries, and I understand. It's kind of crazy how hard it has been to find people to join up in the game. I think the concept freaking ROCKS, especially since I've had trouble finding (and figuring out) a CthulhuTech game. x_x

I suppose that means I should dust off the half-finished "ooc" character I started and get him to you, neh?

I wouldn't worry about it too much - unless you wanted to create a version for the 2072 thread and be included in one of my Emerging sub plots there?!? You'd be very welcome as there has been a drop off in players there too!

So, the way ahead is clear...you can proceed into the compound - if you dare?!?

Well crap. Spirit boy has NO clue what's going on astrally...

3 hits perception, 0 hits assensing.

Okay, Tris will move ahead making visual perception checks with the stealth suit on.

Visual Perception:
Int(3) + Perc(3) + Vis Enh(3) - Sustain(2) = 7d6 for 0 hits and a crit glitch. Oh dear...

Stairs or lift? Nobody seems to be home...you just hear the hum of machinery...

I vote stairs. I'd hate to get stuck in the lift.

I'll agree. However, I'm out of town all week, so I dunno if I'll get a post up. I'll try to get something up tonight, but if I don't, I dunno when I'll have time to get something posted until Monday.

Sorry for being quiet on my end, I'll get something up soon. x_x

Okay, so the way I see it, we have two options:
1-Shock and awe
2-Stealth and stunball

What's you're preference, Mickle?

We'll wait to see if Mickle wants to add anything and then I'll just pitch you both in there