Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Play-by-Post => Topic started by: mtfeeney = Baron on <05-25-13/2301:44>
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This is a PbP for use by my online group to handle between-session transactions, encounters, etc. This thread will be used for both IC and OOC. Anything within quotation marks will be considered IC. Anything not within is considered OOC discussion.
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Members of this game/Character names:
Reiper / Trioxin & GM
Henzington / Clover & GM
mtfeeney / Walker & GM
vinnmun / Dataminer & Mr. Lucky
Bookworm / Quark
Madwand / Raven
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The Bunker - Permanent Ownership of 3 apartments in Building C. 2 on the 1st floor, 1 on the 5th floor.
Comforts: Low - Cheap, used furniture came with the apartments. No included drones, no wallspace access.
Entertainment: Squatter - The only thing to do around here is go to Sam's Bar & Grill. You know, seafood, bingo... old people.
Necessities: Middle - The apartments themselves are a decent size, and the utilities(other than Matrix access) are surprisingly stable. There is an adjacent warehouse that has space for parking and storage.
Neighborhood: Middle - While smaller and slightly out of place, the buildings themselves are pleasant enough to look at. The neighbors all greet you, and the surrounding area will most likely continue to be vacant due to the rumors that ghosts wiped out a gang that tried to take this area as turf. You are the protection for the area. Don't count on backup from anyone, police or gang.
Security: Low - It would be even lower, but you bring it up to low. Lock your doors if you want. You can trust your neighbors. Seriously.
Qualities: Concerned Neighbors [2LP] They adore you.
Easy-Going Landlord [1LP] He'll never ask you for money, the place is yours as far as he is concerned.
Escape Tunnel [3LP] Heads down to the bunker, a completely unknown location behind a (mostly) hidden panel.
Friendly Neighbors [1LP] Seriously, they love you.
Inconspicuous Housing, Matrix [2LP] It's hard to find out anything about this place, and that includes you now.
Quiet Neighborhood [1LP] It doesn't get quieter.
Workplace [1LP] The Bunker is large enough for anything you could want to do, assuming what you want to do is possible 150+ feet below ground.
Crash Pad [-1LP] You have no control over who comes and goes. There are many people that live here, and they might even feel free to let someone use your place if you haven't been around for a while.
Haunted [-4LP] That's what the rumors say, at least.
Network Bottleneck [-1LP] Seriously... there's almost no Matrix availability here. If you want to use it, you'll need to set up some sort of repeater or what have you.
Poor Condition [-1LP] While the heating is adequate, the cooling in the summer is almost non-existant. It's sweltering inside with no a/c.
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"Quark is going to take residence in one of the apartments in building C, probably the one of the 5th floor, unless Reiper wants that one for a sniper position. As soon as he moves in he is going to ask around and see if any of the residents are, are related to, or know anyone who can do basic repairs, renovation, painting, and fixing and whatnot and is going to start seeing if he can work on making this place an even nicer place to live. Maybe add in some better security and whatnot."
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I should've said it more clearly. Just use quotation marks if you're trying to speak in-character. Anywho, let's see, so far:
Well I don't know about anyone else but I am going to be dropping some nuyen into making this entire complex a nice place to live, see if I can't hire some of the resident's kids or grandkids or something to help paint, repair, replace, rewire, and whatnot. Maybe pick up some cheap electronic and make a lounge area for activities.
I'll try to draw up some floorplans for the complex in the next day or two. You're more than welcome to build up the area. I'm pretty sure Walter would be especially appreciative.
Quark is going to take residence in one of the apartments in building C, probably the one of the 5th floor, unless Reiper wants that one for a sniper position. As soon as he moves in he is going to ask around and see if any of the residents are, are related to, or know anyone who can do basic repairs, renovation, painting, and fixing and whatnot and is going to start seeing if he can work on making this place an even nicer place to live. Maybe add in some better security and whatnot.
I'll mark you down for the 5th, unless Trioxin chimes in. After checking with the other residents in the neighborhood, you find that one of them is actually the local 'handyman'. An elderly man, he has trouble keeping up with the minimum repairs, so he has no time or effort to spare for upgrading and beautification. He suggests that if you're serious, you could hire an outsider to come do that sort of work. If you have a specific upgrade or renovation in mind, a contractor could come out and give you an estimate.
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I should've said it more clearly. Just use quotation marks if you're trying to speak in-character. Anywho, let's see, so far:
Well I don't know about anyone else but I am going to be dropping some nuyen into making this entire complex a nice place to live, see if I can't hire some of the resident's kids or grandkids or something to help paint, repair, replace, rewire, and whatnot. Maybe pick up some cheap electronic and make a lounge area for activities.
I'll try to draw up some floorplans for the complex in the next day or two. You're more than welcome to build up the area. I'm pretty sure Walter would be especially appreciative.
Quark is going to take residence in one of the apartments in building C, probably the one of the 5th floor, unless Reiper wants that one for a sniper position. As soon as he moves in he is going to ask around and see if any of the residents are, are related to, or know anyone who can do basic repairs, renovation, painting, and fixing and whatnot and is going to start seeing if he can work on making this place an even nicer place to live. Maybe add in some better security and whatnot.
I'll mark you down for the 5th, unless Trioxin chimes in. After checking with the other residents in the neighborhood, you find that one of them is actually the local 'handyman'. An elderly man, he has trouble keeping up with the minimum repairs, so he has no time or effort to spare for upgrading and beautification. He suggests that if you're serious, you could hire an outsider to come do that sort of work. If you have a specific upgrade or renovation in mind, a contractor could come out and give you an estimate.
What I figured was, since the complex is full of old people like Walter, that means that there should be some rather large extended families out there, I was hoping to see if I could ask around and find out if any of those extended family members did any stuff like construction or renovation, at least before going outside for a contractor, this way the people like us even more for getting their kids or grandkids employed. And if not I would start looking around for some trustworthy contractors (and would gladly accept some help in the search from my more social/matrix oriented teammates.)
As for specifics I want to get that central courtyard beautified, clean it up, bring in some flowers, maybe some benches around the well, an old person porch swing or two. I also want to set up like a general recreation area inside one of the buildings that is not building C, put in some cheap electronics, maybe some couches, the works, make it big enough to hold a good amount of people, might need to knock out some walls or whatnot to get it big enough.
I also want to do some security, but for that I think I will need some rigger and/or hacker help, maybe get some Dobermen set up or something.
Finally I was wondering if someone could look into who, if anyone, owns the surrounding area, like the buildings and whatnot, see if I can't start doing some stuff with those buildings as well for future use.
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Thanks for the game! A few post-game notes:
The MMGs we could consider leaving attached to the roof, as possible discouragement to marauders. We can optionally see if there are any volunteers among the residents that want to actually learn how to use them. If not, we could leave them unloaded.
Setting up a PbP thread is a good idea. It could actually take the place of all these messages we send to each other, a thread would add features like editing, the ability to see our own posts, and an archive for future players.
Raven will be binding two new F6 air spirits. I'll use the edge from this game, but make the actual rolls next game. He will also move in to one of the apartments and begin studying the Bunker, and invite Walker to join him. With three initiated mages, it shouldn't be too long before we figure something out about it. If even more help is needed, Raven's magical group is based at the University, and has a lot of research mages who would probably be very interested in studying the Bunker themselves.
If Walker is interested in the place, Raven suggests he place a high-force masking ward around Building C. Optionally, he might like to assign a high-force spirit to guard the place. If not, Raven will put up an F6 masking ward himself.
If Dataminer is interested in tracking down the person behind the commcode we have, Raven is happy to assist him in doing so. I think it should be possible, but I suppose that's up to the GM. Otherwise, Raven has already given it his best effort so will drop it until a new lead turns up.
The guns aren't attached to the roof, they're just mounted to the tripods that automatically come with them. You can leave them up there if you want, but it'll probably draw the wrong sorts of attention. They're a beacon that scream out 'Hey, there's something here with killing for'.
Go ahead and bind the spirits. I actually regret dis..dis...what's the word? Killing your spirits. I thought they just came back after 24 hours. Here's the rolls for the spirits resisting summoning and binding.
2x Force 6 Air Spirits resisting summoning (6d6.hits(5)=4, 6d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4063205/)
Spirit 1: 4 hits to resist summoning. You need to resist 8 drain, physical damage.
Spirit 2: 2 hits to resist summoning. You need to resist 4 drain, physical damage.
2x Force 6 Air Spirits resisting binding (12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4063210/)
Spirit 1: 4 hits to resist binding. You need to resist 8 drain, physical damage.
Spirit 2: 1 hit to resist binding. You need to resist 2 drain, physical damage.
Wow, lucky binding rolls.
Ok, so Raven moves into one of the 1st floor apartments. Walker won't be moving in at the moment. He's pretty fond of his awesome current home, although that might change if this neighborhood is improved or necessity dictates it.
As for the Bunker, how do you intend to study it? What specifically are you going to do? I think this part would be best done IC.
Where specifically do you want a ward placed? The Bunker and the stairwell leading to it? The neighborhood up top?
Tracking a commcode is generally simple. You just check the MSPs for the current device linked to the commcode. Unfortunately, the commcode you got from Pakka isn't registered with any MSP. As the secondary Matrix specialist in the group, Raven suspects this means there is a system in place that watches for this commcode. When spotted, the system will intercept the communications attempt and route it to wherever it is supposed to go.
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Spread throughout the 4 buildings, there are approximately 120-150 old people living here. The families of most of them moved on without looking back, abandoning their parents/grandparents to the fates. A few have maintained communication with their relatives, though. You finally find one elder couple, the Jenners, that have a grandson whom works in construction. Well, worked. Times are tough, and he is currently unemployed. That is fortunate for you, perhaps, because he is available to come out and look at the place immediately.
Building/Renovating: When Renly gets there, he first goes to visit his grandparents. He seems to be a normal, mostly good kid(if you can call a 28-year-old a kid) that loves his family. After that, he follows Quark around the complex. As Quark tells his ideas to Renly, Renly nods and offers suggestions here and there. He mentions that it'd be possible to put connecting bridge between the quad's buildings. This would give extra room for improvements and provide a roof for the area beneath. It might also offer some security benefits or drawbacks, depending on how it's used.
Planting/Beautifying: The Carmichael family owns a greenhouse. They would be more than happy to provide both plants and gardening/planting assistance.
Recreation Area: There are many empty apartments spread throughout the 4 buildings. Walter tells you that you're more than welcome to use one on the first floor of building A for a communal rec. area. The one he suggested has an adjacent vacant apartment, so you can knock out a wall if you want. He then goes on to tell you how much of a godsend you and your fellows are, and how good you boys are, ad infinitum. He likes to ramble.
You realize, even without the aid of a Matrix expert, that setting up any sort of electronic security will probably be hindered by the complex's belief-defying lack of wireless signals.
Whatever is down in the Bunker, it creates a field of jamming. It gives ECM 4 and is immune to ECCM. Only signal 5+ devices can use any wireless functionality. You'll have to get some high Signal hotspots or something setup outside of the ECM field before you can use anything like this.
The surrounding buildings are all officially property of the government. The area was marked as condemned decades ago. Meanwhile, tenants have come and gone. Most recently, a gang war drove away all of the people brave enough to live in them. Even more recently, rumors of a major haunting event that slaughtered the invading gang has put an even stronger stigma on the area. People don't want to even come near it, let alone live there.
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Spread throughout the 4 buildings, there are approximately 120-150 old people living here. The families of most of them moved on without looking back, abandoning their parents/grandparents to the fates. A few have maintained communication with their relatives, though. You finally find one elder couple, the Jenners, that have a grandson whom works in construction. Well, worked. Times are tough, and he is currently unemployed. That is fortunate for you, perhaps, because he is available to come out and look at the place immediately.
Building/Renovating: When Renly gets there, he first goes to visit his grandparents. He seems to be a normal, mostly good kid(if you can call a 28-year-old a kid) that loves his family. After that, he follows Quark around the complex. As Quark tells his ideas to Renly, Renly nods and offers suggestions here and there. He mentions that it'd be possible to put connecting bridge between the quad's buildings. This would give extra room for improvements and provide a roof for the area beneath. It might also offer some security benefits or drawbacks, depending on how it's used.
Planting/Beautifying: The Carmichael family owns a greenhouse. They would be more than happy to provide both plants and gardening/planting assistance.
Recreation Area: There are many empty apartments spread throughout the 4 buildings. Walter tells you that you're more than welcome to use one on the first floor of building A for a communal rec. area. The one he suggested has an adjacent vacant apartment, so you can knock out a wall if you want. He then goes on to tell you how much of a godsend you and your fellows are, and how good you boys are, ad infinitum. He likes to ramble.
You realize, even without the aid of a Matrix expert, that setting up any sort of electronic security will probably be hindered by the complex's belief-defying lack of wireless signals.
Whatever is down in the Bunker, it creates a field of jamming. It gives ECM 4 and is immune to ECCM. Only signal 5+ devices can use any wireless functionality. You'll have to get some high Signal hotspots or something setup outside of the ECM field before you can use anything like this.
First Quark will tell Renly that he wants to get started on the basic cleanup and renovations as soon as possible, and if he has some friends, or co-workers from his old job they would be perfect to help. Also Quark is going to start setting up the rec room (buy tools to knock the wall out, make sure that knocking the wall out will not bring the place down, Quark has 11 dice for commercial architecture, 9 for just architecture, so he should be able to do that, and buying some cheap rec room things once that is done, he'll ask around for what people want and whatnot.)
Next Quark will get in touch with the Carmichael's to get this place setup, and see if we can't start a communal garden somewhere around here, get some actual fruits and vegetables.
Since wireless is out of the question, would it be possible to like get this place wired? like with actual wires?
As for the bridges to connect the buildings Quark is going to use his architecture knowledge to draw up some plans for it and pass them around to the rest of the group and see what they think in terms of security.
Finally Quark is going to start securitizing his own room, without any help from Renly or his friends, more secure that way. He is going to buy a reinforced door, probably a nice wood paneled metal door, with a wood paneled metal frame set nice and securely into the walls. by the way what are the walls made out of? He is going to replace the window with a security window, one which is as difficult to break as is financially feasible.
((I realize this is going to take a while but I wanted to get started as early as possible and get an idea of how much all of this is going to cost.))
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((Should I build my own tachimon for combat situations? Dataminer never that useful in combat...except maybe wheelman. I only ask because I can easily make a badass mesh network with 170k in my pocket as well as put smartgun platforms and additional clip to the MGs. Dual belt fed guns that fire remotely.))
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Renly knows a few guys, and they know even more people. He could get a crew here within 2 days. If you'd like, they can also help with taking down the wall in building A. They own their own tools, so you won't need to purchase them separately. Quark's knowledge of architecture is more than sufficient to give him confidence that the wall being removed is not a load-bearing wall.
Consulting the residents, Quark makes a short list of items they would enjoy. They would love to have a trid set that could actually show something, but that will require fixing the wireless problem. A few of them also mentioned enjoying games, so an assortment of tables and chairs would be the biggest help for that, along with decks of cards and dominoes. A shuffleboard setup in the outside area might be good, too.
Renly says, after a quick call to his contacts, that the cleanup and basic maintenance of the grounds would probably start around 10,000 Nuyen. Doing the rec. room isn't included in this, nor is any actual construction or modification. It would mostly involve cleaning and repairing problems with the property, including basic doors and old-fashioned non-electronic locks.
The Carmichaels offer up a few suggestions for designing a garden, the best idea involving a walking garden surrounding the fountain. They're concerned that the fountain will ruin any ascetic appeal, so they hope you hire someone to fix the fountain while you're doing everything else. They are even willing to cover the costs of an initial planting, but future replacements/upgrades/additions will need to be purchased accordingly.
Wireless isn't an impossibility here, it's just a bit costly to do the initial setup. Among the many possible solutions, the easiest might be to place high-Signal devices in some of the surrounding buildings and use them as connection spots for a few high-Signal devices within the complex. You could then run wired connections from those devices. For any device that needs to stay wireless, it just needs to have the 5+ Signal rating.
For his part, Walker doesn't have much to say about the bridges. The others haven't weighed in on the subject yet.
The walls are made of ferroconcrete.
I honestly have no idea how to price most of this day-to-day stuff... Any idea which book would help with this?
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((Should I build my own tachimon for combat situations? Dataminer never that useful in combat...except maybe wheelman. I only ask because I can easily make a badass mesh network with 170k in my pocket as well as put smartgun platforms and additional clip to the MGs. Dual belt fed guns that fire remotely.))
What's a tachimon and a mesh network? As for should you build something for combat...sure, if you want to do that.
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((I can make a wireless grid system hooked up to a cluster hooked up to a satcomm and give give everyone slaved to my cluster matrix access that is completely secure from outsiders
And the tachimon was that walker drone raven was piloting))
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Quark will gladly shell out the 10k to start the maintenance and the repair.
Quark will buy some tables/chairs/games/whatnot from some bulk store, nothing expensive, but cheap and comfortable, the guys can do the rec room, Quark will spend his time personally repairing the fountain while the Carmichaels do the planting and whatnot, he trusts their judgement for the garden.
As for the shuffleboard, if they can explain what the heck it is and what kind of area it needs Quark is sure he can set something up.
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Oooh, good call. A satellite link has signal 8. The problem is that you have to continuously aim it, and it can only connect to the same satellite for a half hour, then you have to aim at the next one. That's if you use the low-earth orbit sats. If you use the geostationary sats, the response of anything using the connection is halved. Would you just set up a geostationary satellite link and then have a wired connection going out to the rest of the devices? Or everything has 5+ signal to connect to it?
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Speaking of the drones, I'd like to see how you guys put them together.
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A rating 5 jammer in the basement? Incredible... that's far more notice-grabbing than anything else I can imagine doing to the place, especially as most jamming fields dissipate at 1 rating/10 meters. I think an immediate priority will be to surround the Bunker in faraday-cage mesh wiring. This will cut off the jamming field quite nicely I expect.
I'm not too worried about the dead spirits. I knew what could happen (though perhaps initiative should have been rolled after they manifested). Raven finally got the karma to get to 6 magic this session, so was going to summon new ones anyway and will be taking Stun only. He won't be too concerned about drain, only how many successes he gets on the binding test. Those rolls can happen next session.
For investigating the Bunker, I kind of need to be told what rolls to make. 13 dice in Magic Theory or 10 dice in Arcana might be suitable for determining what it is, but ultimately it's up to you. If you wanted to make an entire adventure out of it, a trip to the metaplanes with the whole group might be suitable (though I am sure they would want some assurance that doing so would not be instantly fatal).
The ward should probably be placed around Building C.
A system to intercept commcodes has to be limited in scope: you can't put an agent into every node in existence. Thus, if it exists, it must exist in the first mesh node that Pakka's call out would contact, a local cell tower or whatever. Raven would start by hacking that node (perhaps with Dataminers help, if he wants to get involved) and copy the agent, if it's there. Once the agent has been copied into local storage, it can be ripped apart until it's commands are discovered, i.e., which mesh signal is it really sending the call onto?
A Tachikoma is a small robot tank capable of carrying one person. This video demonstrates what they are capable of in part, but I really recommend you watch Ghost in the Shell: SAC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOEUt4TjCwQ
Raven's version is smaller and has slightly different capabilities, but is really quite similar in functionality.
Raven's Tachikoma uses a Wuxing Hussar as a base, modified with a walker mode, chameleon coating, gecko tips, rigger cocoon, an enhanced sensor package, an F6 masking ward, and a few other minor mods. For weapons, I again tried to emulate GiTS, so it carries a GE vigilant light autocannon with an underbarrel ITS Gonryu. i.e., ridiculous firepower.
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Not a rating 5 jammer, a magical field that has an ECM-like effect.
There was no initiative rolled because they took their action to manifest.
I need to know how you plan to investigate. It's more than just a simple knowledge test, because this isn't something you or almost anyone else has any familiarity with, so a 13 dice magic theory test wouldn't give you anything from your memories.
You find no agent in any node you attempt hacking into, other than those that would be expected for normal functionality in said node.
You have a 32F combat drone? That's awesome. I don't see it saying anything about being able to carry a person, unless you mean someone riding on top of it. There's no room for a rigger cocoon inside of this combat drone. It's kind of a shame that you removed both the tank treads and the hover ability just to make it a walker. You're using more mods than the drone can support. Even without the rigger cocoon that doesn't fit, you've gone over the slot limit by 3. It has 4 slots, you used 1 for improved sensor array, 1 for chameleon coating, 2 for walker mode, 1 for gecko tips, and at least 2 for the weapon mount. Which weapon mount did you add? Reinforced external fixed remote control? I'm glad to see it has 5 Signal, I was a bit embarassed that I didn't consider whether you could communicate with your drones yesterday. I assume your commlink has signal 5+. You'll need to drop some of the mods from the drone. I'd suggest using a reinforced/external/flexible/remote weapon mount and keep the chameleon coating. If you need to keep the walker mod, then the best mount you can use is a reinforced/external/fixed/remote like I mentioned. That takes 2 slots, leaving 2 for walker mode and nothing else. Why do you use the light autocannon instead of the heavy autocannon? That underbarrel grenade launcher is badass. You're not worried about the heat from the autocannon detonating your grenades?
You need to show your character to the group, as it's hard to see what a person can and can't do without it. That's why everyone else has shared theirs.
Warding Building C is way beyond our capabilities. The maximum area you can ward is your Magic attribute x 50 cubic meters. The most a Magic 6 magician can do is 300 cu.m. The first floor of building C is 1402.1 cu.m. It would take 5 of us to ward 1 floor. 25 of us to ward all 5. The building is 21.336 meters wide and deep, 15.24 meters tall(70 ft. x 70 ft. x 50 ft.). Walker setting a spirit to patrol would be largely ineffective, unless he bought an inanimate vessel for the spirit to possess if it detected an intruder.
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((Probably has a rigger cacoon hooked up to it. Also to make a network for the old people top use, it will cast well over 100k and it will be a big cluster. I can make 3 nexi at 51.5k each. That's response 4, system 4, firewall 6, signal 7, persona and processor is at 50 each. That is before we put in any agents and Ic))
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That's a hefty chunk of cash to sink into this. Do you plan to go with the geosynch satlink and suck up the halved response, or just put a repeater with 5+ signal outside of the magic field?
Hooking up a rigger cocoon externally to make a combat drone into a passenger vehicle would definitely be up to gm approval, along with possibly requiring special considerations of circumstances. The drone would be somewhere between the size of a motorcycle and a small car initially, and then you're talking about adding a contained seating compartment on top of it. Speed and maneuverability would definitely be affected, as would the space required for it to squeeze into a place. It wouldn't fit in most buildings, and it certainly wouldn't be able to go down a stairwell.
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((Signal is not going to cut the cost. It is how many personas interacting with the nexi and processing limit. Processing limit I will have to look a bit deeper in))
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Wow, that's quite a lot of questions. I'll try to answer as many as I can. Strangely enough, I've already considered the answer to most of them.
I'm aware that the spirits need an action to materialize. In combat, this may make them vulnerable for an instant. Out of combat, though, it might still be possible for a suddenly-manifesting spirit to surprise you. Thus, an initiative roll. It's a GMs call, though. What I should have done is asked for things to remain in combat time, then had the spirits manifest on their third action phase. Then, again, it would have been down to pre-rolled initiative values on the next Action Turn. I didn't think I'd need to do this, though, due to my first point, above. As I mentioned though, it doesn't matter. I didn't actually care.
A magical jammer may still be inhibited by a Faraday cage or wifi-inhibiting paint.
Note that a rating 5 jammer would also have normally cut off communication between Raven, the group, and the drones. Only Raven himself has a R6 signal. This problem would have been rapidly solved, however, as Raven distributes R6 ECCM (optimized) to the group, and the drones start up their own copy. If for whatever reason a Faraday cage doesn't work, this same strategy can be used to overcome the magic ECM, by distributing pirated copies of this software to anyone who needs it, and running a copy on the satellite dishes.
You are asking someone with no actual knowledge of how to investigate magic how he's going to investigate magic. I can't do that. Raven is the expert, only he knows how to do something like that. All I can do is tell you some of the options. Magic Theory should help, as it is more than just a list of "these are the kinds of things you know magic can do". Rather, it is a fundamental (and genius-level) understanding of the fundamentals of how magic works. Beyond, that, it's up to you. What does raven think it is necessary to do? I'm not going to pixelbitch here. I've already named one particularly dramatic way of finding out, a groupwide metaplanar quest. It's up to you, though.
It sounds like this "commcode" is magic. I don't have any ability to deal with that, there just aren't any rules in Shadowrun or the real world to explain how something like that could possibly work.
The rigger cocoon is attached to the rear of the drone, exactly as you see in the Tachikoma (please do watch the linked video if you are not already familiar with GitS).
The tracked and hover modes have not been removed, they are in fact the primary mode of locomotion. Legs fold down for use only when needed.
I am aware that I am overmodding the drone, by exactly 2 slots. I have paid the standard double cost for those two slots. I have not sought GM permission because 1) We have 3 and climbing GMs, and it's already a cluster****. 2) We're already playing ridiculously fast and loose with rules, with binding F12 sprits when the rules specifically mention that spirits use Edge to resist summoning and binding when they are much more powerful than the summoner (p. 95, Street Magic) and 3) If someone else gets a ridiculous toy, I am too. However, feel free to ban the drone when you are GMing. It's not needed when Walker isn't in the group anyway.
I did not take "Improved sensor array" mod. I just paid to upgrade the existing sensors to R6 plus extra goodies. The Hussar also already comes with a reinforced turret mount.
I do not use the heavy autocannon because a gun that big would be larger than the entire drone: it's a main tank cannon.
I'm no more worried about heat from the gun affecting the grenade launcher than I would be worried about the heat from the gun on an Ares Alpha detonating the grenades in the underbarrel clip.
I'll stick with just warding Raven's apartment, in that case. I may later also ward the Bunker, but not yet.
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@Vinn: I wasn't referring to the price. I was talking about the response halving effect of using a geosynchronous satellite with a satellite link.
@Mad: Yeah, I realized afterward that it would've caused a lot more trouble than I actually enforced during the session. It should've disconnected most of you from each other, unless you're all running signal 5 commlinks. Like I told Bookworm, ECCM doesn't counter the effect, so that isn't going to work as a solution here and wouldn't have helped during the game. I'm just glad that you guys benefited from my being unprepared rather than got screwed because of it.
A faraday cage or wifi-inhibiting paint may work. Who knows? It's an unknown phenomenon, so your guess is as good as anyone else's.
I wasn't asking you to be an expert on magical theory. I was asking for a general idea of how you might go about it. That's why I suggested roleplaying it instead of just going for a boring dice roll to come up with answers, but it's fine to do it that way too. Go ahead and give me a magical theory roll on invisiblecastle. I'll tell you what Raven's training on magical theory tells him.
The commcode isn't magic, but it makes sense that it would seem way. Things not understood often seem like magic. It fully follows the rules of Shadowrun, but honestly? Even if it didn't, I'd probably still do it this way. As with the 'magical ECM field', it's just me coming up with a good story.
Walker mode either removes all other modes of transportation or mods them. You could say the tracks have been separated into semi-leg like sections, if you want. Rigger cocoons were not designed to add an external seat to non-personnel carrying drones, and drones aren't designed to have their balance shifted by an additional weight on the back.
Overmodding a drone isn't a given, it's up to gm approval. I'll talk to Reiper and Henzington about if they want to ok this, but I'm disinclined to turn drones into passenger vehicles. Did you consider using a car as the base vehicle? It would give you a lot more mod slots, along with being a lot closer in size to the thing in the video.
I didn't notice that the heavy autocannon was that big. Thanks for pointing it out. That's also where the comment about heat came from, since it mentions heat in the heavy autocannon entry.
For the ward, don't worry about rolling. As long as you keep it down to F6, we'll just say you renew the barrier whenever it nears the end of its duration. Raven now has a warded apartment.
Ok, now here's the problem. We're about 1 step away from me asking you politely to leave the group. You know what I'm talking about.
1) We have 3 and climbing GMs, and it's already a cluster****.
2) We're already playing ridiculously fast and loose with rules, with binding F12 sprits when the rules specifically mention that spirits use Edge to resist summoning and binding when they are much more powerful than the summoner (p. 95, Street Magic) and
3) If someone else gets a ridiculous toy, I am too. However, feel free to ban the drone when you are GMing. It's not needed when Walker isn't in the group anyway.
The snide remarks, the attacks, they all need to stop. I'm not just talking about your posts on this site. I mean the comments during the game, too. It's time to behave like an adult.
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Ah, I missed the "ECCM doesn't help" comment. Well, that makes things a problem. If the Faraday cage or wifi paint doesn't help (something that is easy to test) then it means Raven won't be spending much time there. A mesh-dead area just isn't useful for anything but brief visits.
I'd love to roleplay investigating the Bunker, but I honestly don't know how. "Raven sits and stares at the thing for hours. He thinks REALLY hard back to those days when he self-educated himself on the secrets of magic...". I don't know what to say. It feels to me you are looking for something specific, and I'd read your mind to find out what it was if I could, but sadly that is beyond my abilities. All I know how to do right now is roll some dice. That will have to wait, though, unless figuring the Bunker out is an extended test, in which case it's a matter of figuring out how many successes are needed, multiplying by 4, and dividing by 13 (plus whatever Teamwork bonus Pakka can provide).
That's interesting about Walker mode removing existing movement modes. I didn't interpret it that way when I first read it, but I can see how you could, pretty easily. I suggest that the tracks are replaced with a legs+smartwheel system, but the air cushion stays, as a separately added mod.
An alternate frame for the vehicle is a motorcycle (mobility is an absolute requirement), but I prefer the drone frame. It just makes more sense to me. I have no problem imagining how it works, but then, I've watched all the GitS series.
I am no longer trying to get rid of your spirit. I get that no one else cares. That's cool. It does change the game, though. Now, it's all about survival. I'm trying to make sure Raven can survive in a game that has attacks that can threaten Walker. I don't want to be instantly splatted by all those attacks that can do 25+ damage I expect must eventually be coming. That's not really an achievable goal without a possessing F12 spirit, but at least a robot suit gets me closer.
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Sorry, I wasn't trying to put you on the spot about the investigating. I was just looking for general ideas like "I'd go down and assense, see if I can find where the source is" or "I go down and see if there are any arcane runes or whatnot". I'm just waiting on a roll for you, and then I can do an overview of what you probably tried and discovered. I will assume you're actively down there trying to figure it out, not just sitting in your new room racking your brain for a hint.
It's not an interpretation. Walker mode says explicitly, "The transport mechanism of the drone or vehicle is completely swapped out for one that turns it into a walker, or at least provides it with multiple independent wheels or tracks so that it can handle most obstacles with the same ease as a human." Having the treads replaced with wheeled legs is fine, but don't you think it's a bit cheesy to turn a tracked drone into a conveniently wheeled leg setup so you can stack smart tire handling bonus on top of the walker handling bonus? There's no rule against this, so it's fine. Walker+Smart tires puts your movement speed at 3/11. It'll be painfully slow.
We need to come to a consensus about the size of this drone. As the rules are woefully unhelpful about large drone sizes(anywhere from motorcycle size to small car size), it defaults to the drone's description. This drone's description gives absolutely no hint as to its size, so as far as I'm concerned you can choose. Do you want it to be the size of a motorcycle or a small car? Keep in mind that if it's the size of a motorcycle, there's no way in hell you can have a rigger cocoon attached to it in any way shape or form. If it's car sized, it won't be able to go inside buildings, down stairwells, etc., but you're probably fine with slapping a rigger cocoon on top of it. I definitely wouldn't allow having the rigger cocoon somehow hanging from the back of the drone, as that isn't how the cocoon works. It's an enclosed seat.
The only way I can see you getting a rigger cocoon in a small setup would be an actual motorcycle. It's still not exactly right, but I could see just considering it an enclosure around the bike's seat. The problem with this is that no bike can even come close to matching the specs of that drone. 4 body but 18 armor, DR5, comes with that amazing turret. Anywho, it's your choice, lots of options, none of them perfect. It's never been an issue of imagination. It's an issue of bringing something into Shadowrun that doesn't fit the setting. As for the tv series, I tried a few episodes and stopped. It doesn't hold a candle to the manga or even the original movie.
I didn't realize you were ever trying to get rid of Walker's spirit. How did you think you would do that? Attack him or banish it or something? This drone would probably be destroyed instantly if it was hit for 25+ damage. With 4 body and 18 armor, you're rolling 22 dice. That's an average of 7 hits, so you soak 18 damage. If you edge it, you can resist an additional 5, so you're down to 13 damage. That's a disabled drone.
Just a final note of caution: This is a large military combat drone. It's 32F. All Lone Star will hunt you down the second they find out you have it, which won't take long. Same for KE and possibly even the UCAS military. As far as they're concerned, you possess goods stolen from them. That chameleon coating doesn't actually make it all that stealthy. With concealment, it's a lot more feasible, but you're still only talking about a -10(assuming your F6 air spirits) to perception tests with a threshold of 1. It won't be too hard for a security team to get that 1 hit. Of course, then they have to somehow stop it... but that's a completely separate topic. ;D
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Trioxin will probably take a bunk on one of the first floor. He's not going to be living there permanently because he has a high/high/high/high/high lifestyle already that he loves. So he loves his posh stuff.
I am going to end up making the following drone for security purposes for the bunker though. Although feel free to make some suggestions on the change.
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Vehicle MCT Hachiman (Medium) System 8
Name Firewall 6
Category Drones: Medium Response 4
Source TOD5 Signal 3
Body 4 Clearsight
Armor 10 Defense
Pilot 6 Electronic Warfare
Sensor 2 Maneuver
Sensor Signal 4 Targeting 4
Device Rating 2 Analyze
Acceleration 2/5 Encrypt
Speed 9 Scan
Handling 0 Armor
Vehicle Worth 81220 ECCM
Applicable Active Skills
MODS
Armor, Normal Rating 10
Chameleon Coating
Firewall 6
Obsolescent
Pilot Program Rating 6
Response 4
System 8
Walker Mode
Weapon Mount (Reinforced, External, Turret, Remote)
GEAR
Medium Drone Sensor (Camera Rating 1, Directional Microphone, Microphone Rating 1, Thermometric, Ultrawideband Radar Rating 4)
Targeting (LGM) Rating 4 (Copy Protection Rating 1, Registration)
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WEAPON DAMAGE AP MODE RC AMMO
GE Vindicator Minigun 6P -1 FA 0 50(c) orbelt AR 29
Chameleon Coating
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Going to take a while to build it, but it's going to be our little ED-209 for security.
I also have a rating 8 (or is it 6, I'll check when I get home) keypad maglock for our door, I'm assuming we can max maglock everything we have, including adding one for the bunker hold itself too.
Machine Gun on the roof might be good to keep too.
Also if Trioxin does start spending some time there, and after we have our security level of the apartment really high, how much is it going to cost to up the comforts some more, and buy the WellStocked and Ultra Modern qualities for our room. What can I say, he won't be able to stand living in squallor, especially now that he has bright electric blue hair.
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That drone is a hot mess. For starters, you spent 32k on upgrading the system to 8... but you left the response at 4? This drops your system to 4. Then you're running 10 programs, dropping the response down to 2. You upgraded the stock armor from 8 to 10. Is 2 points of armor worth halving your speed? If you're going to upgrade the armor, you might as well go all out with 12 armor, but is 4 armor worth it? Is walker mode really that great in your eyes? Because it also halves your speed. Your drone moves at a whopping 2/5 as configured(compared to a human moving 10/25 or the stock drone moving at 5/15). That signal 3 means it's unable to use wireless at the moment. If they figure out a way around that, then it won't be an issue. That system 8 is 32F and would take even trioxin 5+ weeks to locate.
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That drone is a hot mess. For starters, you spent 32k on upgrading the system to 8... but you left the response at 4? This drops your system to 4. Then you're running 10 programs, dropping the response down to 2. You upgraded the stock armor from 8 to 10. Is 2 points of armor worth halving your speed? If you're going to upgrade the armor, you might as well go all out with 12 armor, but is 4 armor worth it? Is walker mode really that great in your eyes? Because it also halves your speed. Your drone moves at a whopping 2/5 as configured(compared to a human moving 10/25 or the stock drone moving at 5/15). That signal 3 means it's unable to use wireless at the moment. If they figure out a way around that, then it won't be an issue. That system 8 is 32F and would take even trioxin 5+ weeks to locate.
I still have a lot of tweaking to do on it, and I probably misclicked on a few ratings. And it was put together while I was doing about 10 tickets at work at once.
Speed isn't a major issue for me since its for internal security, and not using wireless is actually perfectly fine for me keeping it on autopilot as a sentry. Will rebuild it probably Friday when I have time to sit down and figure out all of the fine details.
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While waiting for the crew to come in and finish the basic maintenance and such, and while working on beautifying the fountain Quark is gonna shoot a message to his friend/co-worker Dataminer.
"Hey Dataminer, don't know how in the know you are keeping yourself, knowing you you know everything, but just in case not, me and the rest of the group have found this nice area right outside of town and a few of us have taken a shine to it. I personally am running/funding a beautification/upgrade of the one complex we are in now. The information we have on the surrounding area is a bit limited though, I was wondering if you would be willing to look into what's going on with the surrounding area though, like starting with our little complex and going outward, you know little things like who owns what, who is actually using what, what has been abandoned, what has not, what gangs/groups control each area? I would be willing to compensate you for your time and effort (at a reasonable price of course), but I have some plans for this area, and as we have learned in the past, plans usually go over better when we know as much as we can about as much as we can. Think it over and hen shoot me a message, you know where to find me."
Q
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Reiper: High speeds may not be a major issue, but a "running" speed of 5 means that a normal walking human is going twice as fast. As in, it can't chase down people. It can't even maintain firing range. If they walk around a corner 20 meters away, it takes the drone 4 CT just to get there. Meanwhile, that guy ran all the way around the building and starts firing on a surprised drone.
It would be very easy to add those maglocks to the doors physically, but don't maglocks require wifi to connect to a server that verifies the card? I'm fuzzy on this, maybe it's not mandatory. Or do you have the push button type? Proximity cards would definitely not work here.
BW: It's been a few days, and the crew has done some good work. The courtyard has been cleaned thoroughly, as have the buildings. They have gone through all 4 buildings and made minor repairs wherever necessary. One guy even offered up the name of a fellow that he believes could do something about the fountain, if you're interested.
Upgrading the neighborhood(everyone): I'll break it down section by section.
Comforts - You can easily purchase more/better furniture. You'll have a problem with trying to maintain a CHN until you figure out something for the signal killing field. You could solve this buy increasing the signal of all of your home drones and appliances and everything.
Entertainment - Nothing you do is going to bring more entertainment venues to the area. On top of that, this actually reflects the entertainment level for the neighborhood, not for you personally. We each have our own homes elsewhere. The best you can do is what BW already did: make a rec room for the old folks.
Necessities - Short of tearing down the complex and the surrounding complexes, too, this isn't going to improve. You have the space you have. It is what it is.
Neighborhood - Similar to Necessities. The only way this is going to improve is if you tear down the complex and the surrounding area, build it up nicer, then tear down the further area and keep expanding until you've reclaimed the whole district and rewritting its reputation.
Security - You would need to hire a security company to start covering your area, for starters. It would take a lot to get this rating actually increased.
What is well stocked? I see ultramodern in Safehouses. It would cost a MONUMENTAL amount of nuyen to upgrade the electronics in these apartments from "non-existent/barely functional" to "bleeding edge of tech". Your only real shot at getting this is to just individually purchase the components you want in your apartment. You won't get the ultramodern lifestyle mod, but you'll have whatever devices you purchase at whatever their DR is.
Short of dropping millions to billions of nuyen, this place isn't going to suddenly become the Ritz.
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Reiper: High speeds may not be a major issue, but a "running" speed of 5 means that a normal walking human is going twice as fast. As in, it can't chase down people. It can't even maintain firing range. If they walk around a corner 20 meters away, it takes the drone 4 CT just to get there. Meanwhile, that guy ran all the way around the building and starts firing on a surprised drone.
Combat movement is one of the things I hope they fix in SR5. I'm still not too worried about the speed as I see it as almost a turret drone waiting inside a room covering the door than anything else, but may make some adjustments to it. May also go for a newer version instead of using a TOD obsescent model.
It would be very easy to add those maglocks to the doors physically, but don't maglocks require wifi to connect to a server that verifies the card? I'm fuzzy on this, maybe it's not mandatory. Or do you have the push button type? Proximity cards would definitely not work here.
Its push button, although I think for our specific security system I think we should have everything hardwired and inside. Or maybe create our own wireless network that isn't connected to the matrix (really shouldn't be hard to do, just need a nice little commlink server).
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Hardwired is a pretty good idea, I think. People are too obsessed with wireless this and that. The only weakness of a wired system is the wires.
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Ah, I understand now what you mean by investigation. Yes, there's probably a lot of assensing going on. Raven would start with using Astral Window to minimize exposure. Beyond that, there are endless possibilities. I have lots of ideas of things he could try, but not actually having any Magic Theory myself, I can't say which would be most likely to work.
I don't generally roll via online post. It's too easy to cheat. If I roll low, I feel bad because I rolled low. If I roll high, I feel bad because someone could suspect I cheated. So rolls can either use bought successes and an extended test, wait for a game, or the GM can make the roll themself.
I'm not suggesting using actual smart tire mechanics, just that added smartwheels are cool way of visualizing how this particular type of walker system might work.
The drone is motorcycle-sized. It is critical that it can fit through normal doorways, etc. Now that I think about it, I think a Honda Viking might make a better chassis. I'll try that instead.
Raven is not trying to get rid of Walker's spirit. I'm not even sure he knows about it, and if he did, he wouldn't care. That's because he's not aware of the fact that Shadowrun is a game, with metagame factors to consider. Primarily, that it is the GM's responsibility to provide players with a suitable challenge. Most GMs interpret this to mean that there should be some possible danger to the PCs. Unfortunately, something that is "dangerous" to someone with 24 hardened armor is instantly fatal to lesser beings. THAT is what I am concerned about. I am aware that the drone would not survive any attack that could really threaten Walker, but it might protect Raven from such an attack. Once. And that is it's metagame purpose.
I also know that getting caught with the drone by authorities would be bad. I'm not overly concerned about the drone itself, though, because the weapons it carries are just as illegal, as is pretty much everything else Raven is and does. There's nothing I can do about it if the GM wants to catch me, the drone at least gives an additional chance to run away. If there was a way I could protect myself from Walker-level threats without it, I would.
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Here goes:
[spoiler=Raven's knowledge test during investigation]Raven's magical theory test. (10d6.hits(5)=4) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4065832/)[/spoiler]
Raven cleverly uses mana and astral window spells to do the initial investigation. This is fortunate, as he finds that any lengthy observance of the mana field in the basement goes beyond blinding. Over the course of a week, Raven concludes that... it is nothing he is familiar with. He does, however, notice that the mana abundance in the basement is receding. He deduces from some simple measurements that the source should actually be beneath the basement, as the field is spherical. His best estimate is that the center of the disturbance is somewhere between 50 and 100 feet further down.
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(Note: I edited my above post a bit too late I think. Considering using the Honda Viking as a base for the drone instead.)
(Also note, Raven's Magic Theory pool is 13D+whatever teamwork dice Pakka can give me, though I suppose there might be a penalty involved. It might not matter yet, though)
Nice information! Raven continues looking for the source using Mana and Astral windows, looking underground. I'm not sure what he can do when he finds it... learn a Dig spell of some kind later, I suppose.
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It's actually pretty hard to cheat the invisiblecastle site. It records all rolls, so if you rerolled to cheat, it'd be obvious.
Sure, there's no problem calling it motorcycle sized. Like I said, all we need is an official agreement on size, since the materials don't specify to any satisfactory degree. And I'm glad we're not slapping smart tires on it, as that makes it only a bit slower than a metahuman(5/18 vs 10/25). Since you can't attach a rigger cocoon to it, you've not overmodified it. I haven't had a chance to talk to Henzington about it yet, but Reiper concurs that slapping a rigger cocoon onto a non-personnel vehicle isn't kosher.
This brings up a question, though. As a mage, wouldn't Rave have found it slightly less than useful to be stuck in a box with no ability to cast? Or was this more of a "something big is coming, hide and make my drone fight" kind of thing?
I seriously think we're playing 2 different games. The Shadowrun I play isn't all about throwing huge damage at players/NPCs. You seem caught up on this one factor, which ironically you yourself could easily utilize for yourself. Nothing is stopping Raven from using F12 spirits, since he has Mag 6.
I'm not sure I follow your logic on not worrying about the legality of the drone. You're saying that, since every aspect of it is more or less equally illegal, as is everything else you carry(what are you carrying? seriously, it's time for you to show your character to the group), it's up to the GM to either handwave it constantly to make your character not get hassled like it should be or waste lots of time/devote entire sessions to you being arrested and resisting arrest or busting you out of jail? Picture this for a moment. 2013. San Francisco. It's 8:30AM, the birds are chirping, hot soccer moms are out jogging... and there's a tank rolling down the street. A small tank, but still a tank with huge guns of obviously military grade. What will the reaction be? Military response immediately, with the police doing whatever they can to stall before the National Guard can get on site. That's what every second of any day would be like when that drone is around. Now, obviously the Barrens is somewhat of an exception. As Lone Star doesn't patrol here, there's a small chance that they haven't heard about it yet. If they do, they will absolutely, without a doubt, no-questions-asked,100% guaranteed deploy absolutely all available forces to capture/disable you. If you leave the Barrens, then there's no chance they won't know instantly. If you stay in the Barrens, then you just have to worry about the fact that every gang will either want to kill you for the threat you pose or kill you to steal this amazing tank you possess. Or worse, they report you to Lone Star's tip line for some easy, no-risk-of-death cred. Every second that that thing is in public that you're not being hounded by someone is a second that the GM is bending the world and setting to make your life easier. It's not a 32F pistol that you can tuck in a pocket. It's not a 32F foci(there's only 1 forbidden focus type, the symbolic link focus). It's not something you can hide. It's big, it's loud, it's in your face. A sound piece of advice would to go the typical rigger route and get a bus to cart this thing around until you absolutely have to get it out. That is, if you plan to take it out of the complex. If you're just using it to patrol the neighborhood... that's one effective theft/gang deterrent.
edit: Wah, you changed your post. Well, I'll keep the above advice here, as it's sound advice for the future. BTW, Honda Vikings can't take the walker mod. It's limited to Body 10 or less. Pakka isn't working with you guys yet. He's mostly healed up after a week, and he'll be pretty agreeable once we apply Trioxin's amazing 13 hit leadership test. There still remains the matter of negotiating terms with him.
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After taking a look at the bikes, I think the BMW Blitzen 2050 is probably the best choice. With 9 mod slots, you could throw on chameleon, rigger cocoon(encloses the bike's seat), walker mode(maybe a cool effect where you when you turn on walker mode, the front and rear wheels actually separate into 4 wheeled legs), chameleon coating, and a reinforced/external/turret/remote weapon mount. That would run you 38.5k nuyen, with the turret being the only illegal component at 18F(plus the gun, obviously).
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Pakka should be healed up pretty fast. He had 10 boxes of damage, Raven used first aid to heal 5, then would have been easily able to use magic to heal the last 5.
I've been struggling, going back and forth between the Honda Viking and BMW Blizen. Both make a great chassis. I think I'll have to go with smart tires instead of walker mode, though. Smart tires are just as good as walker mode for going anywhere, or for aiming the guns. Currently considering reinforced, concealed, remote turret, chameleon coating, gecko tips, and a rigger cocoon. The bike essentially becomes an even cooler version of the one from Snow Crash, and visually, it doesn't look illegal at all. It also does the required job of going almost anywhere with a rider.
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You can't put gecko tips on a bike. They're drone only. The Honda Viking has troll metahuman customization. I'm actually not sure how that would interact with a non-troll rider or how much it'd affect the overall size of the bike. With smart tires and no walker mode, the viking is at 8/24 accel which is good. The blitzen has 16/40. On the other hand, the mount you picked takes 8 slots and the blitzen has 9 total. You'd have to overmod it by 2 to get the cocoon, chameleon, concealed turret, and armor 18. This drops the speed down to 12/30. The viking has 3 more slots, so you can get all those mods, including 20 armor, but it brings you down to 6/18 speed.
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You are totally right about the Gecko tips, I hadn't realized they didn't work on larger vehicles. How annoying, there go my dreams of riding Ultraviolet-style up the sides of buildings. Guess I'll just have to levitate instead.
A reinforced, concealed, remote turret only cost 5 mod slots. Armor is replacing the existing armor slot, so won't take any additional slots. I think I'll put in a ram plate instead of the gecko tips. This is all on the Blitzen.
As to the whole "how do I cast spells" thing, I'm using windows. Except instead of armored glass, it's a series of fiber optic cables.
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Reinforced size is 2 slots, concealed visibility is +3, turret flexibility is +3, remote control is +0. 8 slots for a reinforced, concealed, remote, turret. Armor modification does take slots. Arsenal 133 for armor slots and 145 for weapon mounts.
There aren't any windows in a rigger cocoon. You can't see through it, you might not even be able to hear through it. There is no series of fiber optic cables or armored glass. Anyone inside a rigger cocoon is "entirely dependent on sensors and the information that he receives through his commlink". If you want the ability to cast, I would suggest the personal armor modification instead.
Serious talk time. Are you just not reading the book carefully, or are you intentionally ignoring the rules in the books? If it's just reading mistakes or missing things repeatedly, I suggest you slow down.. As I don't think you have any problems with reading, it seems most likely that you're just intent on fighting the setting instead of working with it. It's Shadowrun. It isn't any anime you've ever watched. The closest we've had to a Shadowrun-compliant movie is 'Johnny Mnemonic'. Please try to game within the system instead of defying it. It seems unlikely that it's a reading mistake, since you're actually refuting what I said previously. I can't speak for the other GMs, but I have a pretty low tolerance for players trying to stretch or break the rules for personal gain.
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Apologies about the use of the word "turret". I meant "weapon mount". It is actually a fixed weapon.
I'm aware that a rigger cocoon does not normally have windows. This one does. I can pay extra for them if needed. As windows are an ancient, well-understood technology, adding them is not difficult. In the case of fibre optic cables, it doesn't take anything more than a drill. I am definitely not trying to deliberately misunderstand the rules. Any mistakes I've made have been honest ones, as I believe so are the ones you have made.
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((Top 3 bikes for walkers are blitzen, dodge guardian and contrail. Also response, firewall and pilot are important for all vehicles and drones. I also figured I can cut the cost on those nexi. If someone can reread this part about persona limits. I think it does not count towards slaved devices. If that is the case we are golden.))
Dataminer stares down his AR display as it scrolls down reuters and his miner Icon mining away info. A sleeve of cookies on his lap, eating away as he pushes away useless info. In mid push a txt message link appears. Miner blinks a moment as he stares at the incomming Quark message. He taps it on his display and reads. He replies..
<<You are now running Mr. Rogers neighborhood? What's the name of the plex and who owns it. Anything you guys need?>>
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<You are now running Mr. Rogers neighborhood now? What's the name of the plexus and who owns it. Anything you guys need?>>
(encrypted message) "If you can track down this commcode without anyone on the other end finding out, that would be very helpful! Whoever is at the other end has an unusual interest in this site." (commcode attached)
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I am definitely not trying to deliberately misunderstand the rules.
Good to hear.
The more I think about the rigger cocoon on a bike, the more sketchy I am. I think to have the cocoon, you're going to need gyrostabilization, too. Bikes can't drive themselves without it. To be able to ride a non-gyrostabilized bike, you'd need to remove the bottom portion of the cocoon to allow your legs to go down to the ground. This defeats the purpose of the cocoon. So do windows and holes drilled in them for fiber optic cables. I wouldn't allow either of those modifications. At best, you can say it's a rigger cocoon with windows and mechanically it'll be personal armor R10. The massive armor boost from the rigger cocoon comes from it's all-encompassing, no-way-to-bypass protection. Any deviation from this goes against both the spirit and mechanics of the game's rules. I really don't understand how you would even plan to use tons of fiber optic cables. Mage sight goggles only attach to 1 cable at a time.
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I have looked for a rule that suggests that bikes need gyrostabilization to drive themselves, and have not found it. It can be added easily if needed, though. I think smart tires also help, essentially being a thousand tiny kickstands.
I think it is a mistake to think of a cocoon as literally cocoon-shaped. As far as I know, there is nothing preventing it being any shape it needs to be. In this case, looking at the picture of the BMW Blitzen, it is easy to imagine a fully enclosed cockpit which makes up the shell. Now, trying to argue whether physics supports a particular game mechanic case-by-case is an endless task. I'm not going to try. I have a pretty good picture in my own head how it works, and that's good enough.
If you want to argue about the spirit and letter of the rules, look to thineself first. I've already given you the page reference in Street Magic. This is not a good road to go down.
To further explain the fiber optic cables, it's a pretty simple technology that is well-explained both in the entry under mage sight goggles (which you have found), and elsewhere in Arsenal. All you need are a pair of lenses, and a length of cable for each "window". The cable only needs to be an inch or two long to get through the cockpit. Essentially, there are lens "eyes" all around the cockpit providing a view in all directions. The tiny holes needed for the cable will not impact structural integrity.
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Nobody said anything about the cocoon's shape. The problem is that to use a bike, you need to get your feet to the ground. Arsenal, page 103 shows that you need gyro stabilization for a motorcycle's pilot to be able to drive the motorcycle by itself. Smart tires account for changes in the road surface, they don't do anything to balance the vehicle.
Mage sight goggles connect to a single cable, not a myriad of cables providing you with 360 vision. Buildings with fiber optic cables run for a mage have a mage sitting at a control panel that switches the lines connected to his headset. Having an extra eye installed gives you a penalty to everything, imagine having 10+ hooked up to you at once if you managed to somehow get a setup for it that worked.
Structural integrity isn't as much of an issue with the idea of putting cables through it. The problem is that the rigger cocoon was designed for riggers to be completely shut off from the world, for better or worse. Bypassing that goes against the spirit and letter of the rules, as I said.
Now, final warning. Drop the attitude or find a new group to play with. You've had more than enough warnings.
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Oh, good, you found the reference for gyro stabilization, I was looking for that. Added. Note that I disagree about smart tires not helping with balance, as that is exactly what +2 handling can mean.
Raven does not have any extra eyes installed. The bike does have "windows" though.
You keep talking about attitude and warnings. We are both players in this game, with no more authority over each other than any other. I appreciate the help you've given reviewing and finding rules, but this heavy-handed repeated warning thing has to stop. I appreciate that you've GMed a game for us, maybe I'll feel comfortable doing that for everyone in the future, but it certainly doesn't give any additional authority except during the games that you (or I, eventually) run.
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Actually, we aren't even. I'm an original member of the group, while you're a person we added in case some of us needed to miss a week.
This has nothing to do with GMing. It's about a new player coming in and being disrespectful and rude to the point of being belligerent. You've had more than enough chances to make peace, as I've tried over and over. That's ended. It's time to say your goodbyes.
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Uh... no. Get the GM to do that stuff. Players don't have authority over other players. Seniority does not exist as a concept between players. Everyone is equal at the gaming table. Seriously. man, if there's anything making the game toxic, it's this authority stuff.
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Whatever you say, Mad. You're not playing in any sessions with me from now on. Get out of this thread. I don't need your antagonizing polluting my games.
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He does not respond...he just begins searching.
Data search commcode (19d6.hits(5)=9, 19d6.hits(5)=5, 19d6.hits(5)=6, 19d6.hits(5)=4) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4068864/) 25hits on the commcode
19d6.hits(5)=5, 19d6.hits(5)=5, 19d6.hits(5)=8, 19d6.hits(5)=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4068891/) 22hits on the complex
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Dataminer goes at it like a wolverine, tearing up the Matrix in an all-out manhunt for information concerning the commcode and complex. After a grueling search, he comes up with absolutely nothing on the commcode. The complex is a different matter, though. He finds that the last registered owner of the complex is Withmere Copperbottom, who died in 2047. The government took legal possession of the property rights but has never seen fit to exert possession or control over the area. Official statements say it's "in the works", but this is a well-known euphemism for "it's out in the Barrens, Chummer. We ain't goin' out there."
Anything else you want to search for more specifically?
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Dataminer rumages through the info saving it in encrypted folders an sending text to the team informing them the shared folders are available. He searches further, after which he begins to make subscriptions to various social media websites under false IDs. He begins making proxy servers out of them...7 of them to be exact and would call the commcode and begin a trace.
I counted wrong prior (20d6.hits(5)=5, 20d6.hits(5)=8, 20d6.hits(5)=8, 20d6.hits(5)=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4068984/) 28 hits on withmere copperbottom
Trace Icon I am calling. (16d6.hits(5)=7, 16d6.hits(5)=5, 16d6.hits(5)=4, 16d6.hits(5)=7, 16d6.hits(5)=6) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4069052/) 5 rolls 29 hits
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You're bouncing a single call through 7 proxies, or you're making 7 calls? Are you using the commlink that Pakka had or your own? Make an edge roll to see if you happen to use the same MSP as Pakka of you're using your own.
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((Cancel that idea, I'll do one better. I know with what I just did will be issues, also my tracking rolls are off. The amount of proxy servers i use equals the # of minuses for all matrix actions. So I will slow hack it. I will take on facebook equivalent, than random porn sites that are hosted around the world, we'll go with 4 to be exact. slow hacking admin accounts. I will first hack facebook, slowly, it gets to roll one analyze test once i am in to meet or beat a 6. hot sim 2 + hacking 6 + Spec 2 + nanos 3 + improved hacking 3 + exploit 6 + commlink optimazation 1 (23d6.hits(5)=8, 23d6.hits(5)=5, 23d6.hits(5)=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4069739/) So I got in with in an hour or two with an admin account. I'll go into each porn sites with buying hits. Takes me 2-3 hours for each one..I'm going to over estimate an say it takes me a total of 14 hours, admin access for all of them. Buying hits, it takes me 50 seconds at the most to turn all of them into my proxy server. I will than make the call and do an icon trace at -5 dice for the amount of proxies. Track 5 + Computer 6 + Improved compute 3 + neocortical 3 + hot sim 19 - 5 proxies = 14 I need to hit 10 success for each node until i hit the 50 meter jackpot. (14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=9, 14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=4, 14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=5, 14d6.hits(5)=2, 14d6.hits(5)=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4069750/) & Track 5 + Computer 6 + Improved compute 3 + neocortical 3 + hot sim 19 - 5 proxies = 14 I need to hit 10 success for each node until i hit the 50 meter jackpot. (14d6.hits(5)=6, 14d6.hits(5)=6) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4069751/) I would track equivalent of 4 nodes in 3 turns, assuming someone picks up.))
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Are you using the commlink that Pakka had or your own? Make an edge roll to see if you happen to use the same MSP as Pakka of you're using your own.
I still need to know this stuff.
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((I am using the commcode quark gave to dataminer.I am no where in the sight to get the commlink at this point.))
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Ok, I need an edge roll to see if you use the same MSP as him. Or just tell me your edge, I can roll.
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Edge (3d6.hits(5)=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4070424/)
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(I'm going to omni a bit of this for you. Let me know if you want to undo something.)
Dataminer works up a very secure series of proxies and sends the commcode. As he watches, the commcode reaches the MSP listing servers, but it is rejected instantly as an invalid commcode. As soon as the connection request is rejected, an agent enters the node and captures it. Quickly scanning for confirmation, it reroutes the communication to a preprogrammed destination node and deletes itself. The connection attempt bounces through a few nodes before finally hitting a commlink. The commlink automatically rejects the 'call' and then disappears from the Matrix. 'Not fast enough...', Dataminer mutters as he works his mojo, quickly locating the destination commlink. It was somewhere in Neonet's Seattle HQ. He has no luck trying to find the commlink again, and placing a second call has no effect. Dataminer's best guess is that it was a burner preprogrammed to reject any attempts at communication and then disable itself.
A sense of foreboding overcomes Dataminer. He sets an agent(I assume you have at least 1 agent) to keep a digital eye out for any new communique concerning the Bunker. The agent doesn't find anything, but Dataminer isn't soothed.
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((I got multi-task, so I can analyze that and do other things.))
Dataminer will report back, <<call bounced through NeoNet local HQ. Burner comm of sorts. But I'll keep an eye.>>
((I just wanna make sure i understand things, it's still an active phone. I would have seen the node in the tracking right.? If not I will do a data search + scan to look for it's node. ))
SEARCH FOR NODE ON THE TRIX. HOT SIM (21d6.hits(5)=10, 21d6.hits(5)=7, 21d6.hits(5)=7, 21d6.hits(5)=6) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4070984/) 30 HITS IN 4 TRIES
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You saw the nose before it disappeared. It's not there now. It was either shutdown, wireless disabled, or somehow destroyed.