[Koshnek]

Just going by the only information that I'm aware of pertaining to what you're asking, skill rating four is listed as "proficient." Which is good enough to be considered professional (which, confusingly, isn't at the Professional level. Professional is rating 6. I think the difference between 4 5 and 6 is experience. Level 4 you have the ability to professionally operate with your skill. However, you're entry level. Rank 5 is the been in the biz and know a few things level. Rank 6 is a full on professional. If you want to you could go out and start up your own business and be sucessful, or you would be skilled enough to get on at any business you wanted to join.

No one's really seeking you out, but you are far from a noob. Rank 7 and above are when you start getting into the people who look to you for advice and seek your skill for their needs. Rank 7 people in your field start asking you how things are done. You already know what will work or won't work before you try it. Rank 8-12/13 you're approaching the best of the best. Corporations begin to seek you out and extract you, and you eventually become the face of that skill. Eventually you even become one of the best to ever have practiced that skill .

With regard to your dice pool, I think you are skilled enough to be at the professional or veteran level even though you are at the proficient skill level. Thank goodness for natural ability and good old fashioned 'ware :p. That's just my, non-GM interpretation of the rules, what you're asking, and my connection between the two.

Edit: The table on p 131 CRB had the information I'm referring to.

[Zweiblumen]

Literally just got in front of a computer. I tried posting from my tablet this weekend but the hotel wifi sucked with so many tech heads using it. I will get something up soon but truthfully I am so exhausted and am afraid it may be incoherent.

EDIT: With a dice pool of 15 with a 4 rating in Forensics, how much of an expert would Detective be?

Edit #2: I forgot to add that Analytical Mind may also play a role at time with the skill making it 17 Dice pool.

Welcome back Don't fret, RL happens to everyone.
@Ryo would have to confirm, but I'd say a 17DP total would make you pretty damn good.

[Koshnek]

Guess that's why I'm not a GM . I was mainly going by the skill level descriptions in the book. I didn't know how the Attributes + Augmentations played into the equation.

[Zweiblumen]

Guess that's why I'm not a GM . I was mainly going by the skill level descriptions in the book. I didn't know how the Attributes + Augmentations played into the equation.

I'd guess you're more correct than I am.  I'm just impressed with 17 dice!

* Zweiblumen is a newb

[Ryo]

With 17 dice, Detective is pretty damn good at Forensics, yes.

[Ravensoracle]

I'm working on a plan at the moment so an IC post should be coming up later tonight.

Overall I was thinking we play a dual identity role once we reach Seattle.

Role #1: Ares assets called in to deal with the problem. Basically with a cover like "The Operative" from Serenity. We don't have any rank or name. We don't exist to KE. No one sees our faces.

Role #2:  This role actually plays into Detective's undercover backstory. (Thanks Ryo)  The rest of the group are Jester's (Detectives Alias) new teammates of Runner's. I'm thinking we pick a corpse that we can identify somewhat. We're hired by an unknown to find the team responsible for the attack so we can get the story on why our ID'd victim died. We aren't hired to look for blood. Just answers. That way we may get a face to face with the extraction team.

[Zweiblumen]

Sounds like a good plan to me.  Gunter may want to leverage KE a little more since he's got the connections there to make life a little easier.  Could probably be talked out of it though.  For now, he's got them just keeping the area clear so you guys can do your work.

[Ravensoracle]

I want to roll Forensics on what I see so far in the drone feed. I think -4 should be good to represent the poor quality of the feeds compared to being on site. If it should be higher feel free to remove more dice.

Forensics -4 for drone feed: 13d6t5 6

[Ryo]

I want to roll Forensics on what I see so far in the drone feed. I think -4 should be good to represent the poor quality of the feeds compared to being on site. If it should be higher feel free to remove more dice.

Forensics -4 for drone feed: 13d6t5 6

That was a pretty fantastic roll.

The camera on the drone isn't the best, and its hard to make out the fine details, however you are able to see some things on a large scale with ease. Starting with the first room, you see evidence of two separate attacks. The inside of the room is burned and destroyed, filling with smoke, and is consistent with what you know of white phosphorus grenades. You would guess at least two, if not three grenades were used, judging by the spread of the burning and how certain localized areas look more thoroughly destroyed than others. You also note a strange discrepancy between the two bodies in the room. One of them is frozen in a position that suggests a painful death, writhing on the floor in pain, hands up near the face. It is likely this one was alive, and then set on fire. The other one, however, is laying flat, arms at his or her sides, looking like they simply fell to the ground and were burned post-mortem. You're unsure of the actual cause of death from the video feed alone.

Another thing that stands out to you is the edges of the wall that appears to have been removed from the building. Something looks strange about it, inconsistent with blast damage, which suggests to you that the wall was not removed by the force of an explosion. You can't tell what exactly did remove it from the drone feed alone.

Moving on to the next room, you're able to easily conclude from the grouping of the shots and the size of the bullet holes in the wall that this was an amazingly focused, high velocity burst of machine gun fire. You suspect it was either high power or anti-tank rounds, and probably something even bigger than an HMG,  possibly a drone or vehicle mounted weapon. You also see evidence that the angle of attack was not from the direction of the other room. It's hard to tell from the drone feed, but you suspect the Troll never got off a shot. He took cover expecting an attack from the smoke filled room, and was ventilated from the side in a surprise attack.

Finally, getting to the ork that was cut apart, you suspect he was killed with a monofilament edged weapon, most likely a monofilament whip. You'd need a clearer image of the wounds to confirm, but the way the walls are cut apart suggest that the room was sliced apart in every swing, along with the ork himself.

[Zweiblumen]

@Ryo
Will Gunter have the space to take both sets of armor with him?  Looks like the firepower is heavy enough, he's gonna want that.
He'd actually probably wear that on site to look the part of an Ares FW/special devision mission, but want to keep the Transit with him for moving around town.

[Ravensoracle]

Since I have a basic idea of the MO of the group that attacked I am thinking a roll to recognize any group or individuals that the evidence may point to.

Shadow Community Roll with Edge spent to Push the Limit:
Shadow Community to identify the MO (Limit Break): 13d6h5 7

Wow, I need to hit Vegas this weekend.

[Ryo]

Since I have a basic idea of the MO of the group that attacked I am thinking a roll to recognize any group or individuals that the evidence may point to.

Shadow Community Roll with Edge spent to Push the Limit:
Shadow Community to identify the MO (Limit Break): 13d6h5 7

Wow, I need to hit Vegas this weekend.

The first group you can think of off the top of your head is actually only one man, a Rigger who goes by the name Manticore, and is known to use a trio of drones to perform contract killings on runners, mercenaries, corporate executives and anyone else expected to be heavily armed and able to fight off a would-be assassin. This looks similar to his MO, since you've heard at least one of his drones is armed with a monofilament whip, and one of the other two could easily have a large machine gun. You don't know him to have a reputation for extractions, however, and typically works alone.

The use of white phosphorus is also pretty unique, and not exactly easy to come by. Last group of runners you've heard of that used the grenades extensively was a former mercenary group that turned to the shadows after the end of the war in Bogota. The grenades and the high caliber machine guns would both be right up their alley, but they're a strictly ranged group that would never get close enough to use a monofilament weapon. An extraction does make more sense for them, however.

The only other group well known enough to have a reputation that comes to mind call themselves the Royals. They are, however, magic heavy, and you don't currently have any evidence that magic was used.

[Koshnek]

Blargh. Accidentally deleted my post before I sent it. Anyhow, can you easily remove gear which is using capacity in armor? I thought that after mods, capacity just represented the amount of room left in the armor for convenient storage. Can I remove my disguise kit from my ares industrious and bring it with me? If there's room I'd like to actually bring the outfit, but it's not necessary.

I didn't mention it in IC but in addition to his weaponry and armor, Thorn's also carrying his chemical goodness. 12 tabs of Cram and Psyche and an inhaler with 3 capsules of jazz and kamikaze, and 3 slap patches (band aids, eh?) should fit into a small pouch or even sandwich baggy, right? He also has his 2 hits of long haul stashed somewhere, but I'm not familiar enough to know if the syringes would also fit into the baggy.

I'd like to take two cans of spray glue and a can of solvent. They only contain enough glue for a 1 meter square, so I was thinking the sprayers weren't very large. If that's too much, then just 1 can of spray glue and no solvent. He has his gecko gloves, but no other climbing gear. He also has his chisel, miniwelder and a spare fuel can tucked away in his pack. He has his cred sticks stowed away too.

Do comm accessories attach to the comm in some way? Sattelite link, biometric reader, etc. I thought of them as comm upgrades that didn't need to be carried with you, but I don't know.

Thorn also has his small low-light flashlight and telescoping mirror. I figure his plastic restraints (zip ties?) shoudln't take up much space, so they're in his pack too. I'd like to take the gas mask, but if I'm pushing for space then I won't. The contacts are worn, as is his power focus. It's not always active, but he never takes it off. If Elden is awakened, then he will take his mystic cuffs and mask. If not he will take a pair of plasteel cuffs. (Thorn will inquire in my next IC post before leaving the birefing). He also brought an old fashioned drawing pad and pencils with him to pass time.

Finally, his biomonitor is around his wrist, and he does have his forearm guards on. He keeps his comm in there so he doesn't misplace it on accident. Speaking of which, for flavor I was hoping his forearm guards could have a little flap that popped up and allowed him to use his commlink and trid player directly without having to remove his comm when he doesn't have access to trodes. Um...Buzz Lightyear was the best example I could find :p. I think the flap is necessary because of the nature of forearm guards. Sometimes they're going to take a beating.



Edit: Assensing isn't something you can default on. I could show you what I see, but you wouldn't understand any of it whatsoever. You would probably be able to recognize the difference between an astral form and an aura for example, but you wouldn't be able to get any clues about what kind of preparation I'm looking at. Do you want to retcon at least a point into assensing for John if Ryo will allow it? I think it actually makes a lot of sense that I would spend time training you in the basics of assensing so that we could discuss our different interpretations of what I see through the active link. It could lead to more accurate results (assensing teamwork rolls). Your and Ryo answers will reflect on Thorn's reaction in my next IC.

Edit 2: Assensing is a magic skill, and mundane character's cannot learn magic skills. So that's another ruling Ryo will have to make. If he says no the retcon, I won't be able to help you learn assensing in the future if he says no to this. I looked through the book, and there don't seem to be any Assensing tests which require a magic stat, so it should work fine. I imagine assensing isn't a learnable skill only because mundanes (and all adepts) do not have natural access to astral perception. Once they have the power, adepts can learn assensing, so in effect I suppose the active mental link can work the same for you as it does an adept.

[Ryo]

Blargh. Accidentally deleted my post before I sent it. Anyhow, can you easily remove gear which is using capacity in armor? I thought that after mods, capacity just represented the amount of room left in the armor for convenient storage. Can I remove my disguise kit from my ares industrious and bring it with me? If there's room I'd like to actually bring the outfit, but it's not necessary.

you can remove the disguise kit in that you can remove all the different tools included in a disguise kit, but by having it built into your armor, your armor is essentially the tool box you carry it in. You can move all the tools to a different box or bag, but it won't be as convenient to carry it around, essentially. For other examples of things that take up capacity, if it's been built into a piece of gear, you'd have to disassemble the gear to take it back out again.

I didn't mention it in IC but in addition to his weaponry and armor, Thorn's also carrying his chemical goodness. 12 tabs of Cram and Psyche and an inhaler with 3 capsules of jazz and kamikaze, and 3 slap patches (band aids, eh?) should fit into a small pouch or even sandwich baggy, right? He also has his 2 hits of long haul stashed somewhere, but I'm not familiar enough to know if the syringes would also fit into the baggy.

I'd like to take two cans of spray glue and a can of solvent. They only contain enough glue for a 1 meter square, so I was thinking the sprayers weren't very large. If that's too much, then just 1 can of spray glue and no solvent. He has his gecko gloves, but no other climbing gear. He also has his chisel, miniwelder and a spare fuel can tucked away in his pack. He has his cred sticks stowed away too.

You can carry what you need with you, within reason. If all of it can fit in a duffel bag or two, along with your pockets and pouches on your person, you're fine.

Do comm accessories attach to the comm in some way? Sattelite link, biometric reader, etc. I thought of them as comm upgrades that didn't need to be carried with you, but I don't know.

Yes, they attach to the comm in some manner. The biometric reader is definitely built right in, and at worst I think the satellite link would be a large antenna add-on or something.

Finally, his biomonitor is around his wrist, and he does have his forearm guards on. He keeps his comm in there so he doesn't misplace it on accident. Speaking of which, for flavor I was hoping his forearm guards could have a little flap that popped up and allowed him to use his commlink and trid player directly without having to remove his comm when he doesn't have access to trodes. Um...Buzz Lightyear was the best example I could find :p. I think the flap is necessary because of the nature of forearm guards. Sometimes they're going to take a beating.

Buzz Lightyear arm sounds fine to me.

Edit: Assensing isn't something you can default on. I could show you what I see, but you wouldn't understand any of it whatsoever. You would probably be able to recognize the difference between an astral form and an aura for example, but you wouldn't be able to get any clues about what kind of preparation I'm looking at. Do you want to retcon at least a point into assensing for John if Ryo will allow it? I think it actually makes a lot of sense that I would spend time training you in the basics of assensing so that we could discuss our different interpretations of what I see through the active link. It could lead to more accurate results (assensing teamwork rolls). Your and Ryo answers will reflect on Thorn's reaction in my next IC.

Edit 2: Assensing is a magic skill, and mundane character's cannot learn magic skills. So that's another ruling Ryo will have to make. If he says no the retcon, I won't be able to help you learn assensing in the future if he says no to this. I looked through the book, and there don't seem to be any Assensing tests which require a magic stat, so it should work fine. I imagine assensing isn't a learnable skill only because mundanes (and all adepts) do not have natural access to astral perception. Once they have the power, adepts can learn assensing, so in effect I suppose the active mental link can work the same for you as it does an adept.

Detective cannot learn Assensing. However, he doesn't have to. Since you need an Active Link anyway to share your Astral Perception with him, he can also borrow your Assensing skill. He would roll Intuition-1 + the hits you roll on an Assensing Teamwork test.

[Ryo]

@Ryo
Will Gunter have the space to take both sets of armor with him?  Looks like the firepower is heavy enough, he's gonna want that.
He'd actually probably wear that on site to look the part of an Ares FW/special devision mission, but want to keep the Transit with him for moving around town.

Your normal armor, the disguise armor you requisitioned for the investigation, plus a full set of hardened armor is kind of pushing it for your storage capacity on the vehicle you'll be using. You'd probably have to wear the hardened armor during the flight, since otherwise it would take up the same amount of space as an additional passenger. The other types of armor can at least be folded up, since they're made of armored fibers and what have you.