The Unseen Servant forums

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:18 am I had the nuyen for you until I dove deeper into the B&E part for my character.
Currently able to deal with cardreader maglocks.
Keypads are going to require a bit of karma so I can learn how to safely remove the casing.
Only problem is that both maglock readers and sequencers have a street index of 3. So I can't purchase them yet. Without those I do not know how to get past maglocks. I could get the permits in advance and worry about purchasing them later. Maybe get a B&E vendor contact and deal with it at the start of the game.

I'm not going to give you answers on how to handle that. How would you do it in RL?

As far as getting B&E gear later, if you are a SINner, you could always get bonded as a locksmith, all legal-like.

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:18 am Print scanners are going to be a lot more difficult, but I'm sure someone with security access will be willing to lend a 'hand'.
Voice recognition is doable as well if Chary allows us to use Shadowrun: State of the Art: 2063. That pdf has the professional audio recorders in it.

I like that pdf in general. It even has regular lockpicking skills in it:

I think with State of the Art: 2063, I am going to cherry-pick the rules, gear, etc. from there. The date at start of game is June 7, 2059, so you cannot assume you have access to gear from 4 years later. If you want something from State of the Art: 2063, please ask and give me a page number. The skills from the list you posted are all fine.

My 8k R4 SINN is a security consultant, so getting them is going to be all legal. Need to show the client how weak their current locks are right?
Already paid the 1.5k for the magreader permit and 400 nuyen for the sequencer permit. (assuming the 10% for carry only counts for firearms?)
The problem is not being able to purchase them now despite having the nuyen for it. Even level 1 versions wouldn't be possible due to SI 3.
That nuyen must be spend before the game starts because only 10% carries over.
38k becomes 3.8k nuyen. So that means getting them later means waiting until I gained 38k nuyen through jobs to be able to bypass locks.

Unless there is a way to lower the street index during char creation, but haven't found a way to do that.
Guess unless I missed something playing a B&E char isn't possible until later in the game. Then again, multiple roles struggle to get started.
So why would it be any easier for team burglarize.

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Charybdis Richelle wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:15 pm I think with State of the Art: 2063, I am going to cherry-pick the rules, gear, etc. from there. The date at start of game is June 7, 2059, so you cannot assume you have access to gear from 4 years later. If you want something from State of the Art: 2063, please ask and give me a page number.

Classcutter page 97
Lockpick Set page 100
Audio recorder page 102

And for skills:
Want to use the new skills or scrap regular lockpicking skill (it has no equivalent in the main book) and put security systems back with Electronics?

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:28 am @ Chary

Are you happy for me to take the Vehicle Empathy edge?

Sure, as long as you have the Build Points for it.

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:28 am Thinking of another flaw how would you handle 'adrenaline junkie', e. g. He needs to ride his bike very fast every few days (or something else dangerous to meet the need). Is that an addiction, or a compulsion? It feels like a addiction, e. g. Mild effect, every 72 hrs, not sure of the legality.

Addictive vs Compulsive really depends on the consequences. For Addiction, you have game-play penalties if you don't indulge. For Compulsive, if you come into a situation where your compulsion applies, I will expect you to role-play it. I also may have you make a Willpower check to avoid giving into it in a situation where the temptation is strong.

Legality would depend on how he satisfies that adrenaline addiction. If he only gives in by speeding, well, speeding does have legal consequences. They are fairly mild to start, but build the more often you get caught, so I could see making it illegal. And, of course, getting pulled over when you are SINless is a crap-shoot.

However, if he deals with it by going skydiving, wind-surfing, bungee-jumping, etc., then it could be legal.

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:28 am I was also wondering what languages are prevalent in the area.

English remains the primary language in Seattle. In Tukwila, the locals most often use the Cityspeak lingo. Japanese is very common, especially in the corporate sector. Spanish is still widely spoken in Seattle. The Mafia speak Italian. The Tongs speak either Cantonese or Mandarin. The Seoulpa Rings speak Korean. After that, you can feel free to pick from most world languages. Seattle has long been an international trade location. Sperethiel remains very rare. I will require a good reason in your background if you know it. Few Elves in Seattle know it. Heck, few lower-class elves in Tir Tairgire know it; gentry and above, yes, but not the average Elf on the street. Humans (and other metahumans) who speak Sperethiel are almost unheard of.

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:28 am For his second free contact how about someone who works in the police department, such as a dispatcher or similar (i. e. not a cop)?

That would be cool. A lot of dispatchers handle police, ambulance, and fire, so I would have no problem if you want your contact to do that. But a dedicated Lone Star dispatcher would be fine, too.

Thanks.

In some ways swapping 'adrenaline junkie' for a mild, 48 hr, caffeine addition would get 4 points and easier, if not as interesting, to play

I'll have a think.

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:44 pm My 8k R4 SINN is a security consultant, so getting them is going to be all legal. Need to show the client how weak their current locks are right?
Already paid the 1.5k for the magreader permit and 400 nuyen for the sequencer permit. (assuming the 10% for carry only counts for firearms?)
The problem is not being able to purchase them now despite having the nuyen for it. Even level 1 versions wouldn't be possible due to SI 3.
That nuyen must be spend before the game starts because only 10% carries over.
38k becomes 3.8k nuyen. So that means getting them later means waiting until I gained 38k nuyen through jobs to be able to bypass locks.

I don't mind you having the licenses. That's fine. and the pricing makes sense. But I will tell you upfront, if you try to legally buy locksmith's gear, I am going to roll to see whether or not your Rating 4 fake SIN holds up. Those checks are pretty thorough.

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:44 pm Unless there is a way to lower the street index during char creation, but haven't found a way to do that.
Guess unless I missed something playing a B&E char isn't possible until later in the game. Then again, multiple roles struggle to get started.
So why would it be any easier for team burglarize.

No, I am not lowering the street index. Yes, it would be hard to be a high-class, high-level burglar at this level. You may have the knowledge and desire. Maybe you've run as an understudy or apprentice to someone and used their gear on such occasions, but no, you don't have the gear. If you legally work as a security consultant (and have the Day Job Flaw), then you can use the company gear while at work. That's would make sense as to how you came by the licenses. But no, you cannot buy all the cool toys for yourself, yet.

Charybdis Richelle wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:15 pm I think with State of the Art: 2063, I am going to cherry-pick the rules, gear, etc. from there. The date at start of game is June 7, 2059, so you cannot assume you have access to gear from 4 years later. If you want something from State of the Art: 2063, please ask and give me a page number.

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:44 pm Classcutter page 97
Lockpick Set page 100
Audio recorder page 102

All three of those are fine, as is the Autopicker on p. 97. Ratings for everything, of course, remain at the FAQ max of 4

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:44 pm And for skills:
Want to use the new skills or scrap regular lockpicking skill (it has no equivalent in the main book) and put security systems back with Electronics?

We can use these skills. I think I house-ruled much of this before the SOTA book came out. But Security Systems are still with Electronics in SOTA. It is not a separate Skill. It is a Concentration.

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 2:00 pm Thanks.

In some ways swapping 'adrenaline junkie' for a mild, 48 hr, caffeine addition would get 4 points and easier, if not as interesting, to play

I'll have a think.

Either is fine...

archolewa wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 12:48 pm By the way, how much ammo is a reasonable amount of ammo for an Ares pistol? Most fights in say early DnD last 2-3 rounds, and we're going to be mostly avoiding fights (and probably running if things get really heated). So if fights are as quick as DnD, seems to me that 40 bullets should be *fine*. If they're longer, maybe not. I want to make sure I have enough bullets, but it looks like their concealability goes down by 1 with every 10 you own, and I want my character to look relatively non-threatening.

Honestly, that depends on what kind of ammo you are carrying. If you are carrying a huge amount of APDS, for example, and you get busted, that is nasty biz. (Not that one of my PCs ever got caught with over 2000 rounds of the stuff or anything. Not that the charges for that were way more extreme than for the Colt M22a2 he was toting... No, nothing like that.)

shaidar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 12:58 pm I wouldn't expect to be carrying more than one or two spare clips around at most, unless I was expecting trouble. The rest would be at home.

Most players give me a three-part list of gear:
1. What they are carrying
2. What's in their vehicle (if they have one)
3. What's at home

Some give me a couple of different "kits:" what I carry around all the time, what I take to meets with the J, what I take on biz. But that's not necessary. I will often ask in game for what PCs are wearing and carrying when they go to different locations.

Another question for the group, do you want to do in-character posts in first-person (I, me, my, mine, we, our, ours, etc.) or third-person (he, she, it, they, him, her, them, etc)? I personally swing back and forth on this one. First-person, for me personally as a player, helps me better "be" my character. However, as a GM, it is easier to have the conversation in third person because the poster's character name comes up in the text more often. That makes it easier to keep logs that sound logical. So, I can go either way.

Either way works for me.
Think I usually write third person, but first works fine for me as well.
As long as you don't ask me to write in 2nd.

I usually do third person as well.

Juramenta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 2:48 pm Either way works for me.
Think I usually write third person, but first works fine for me as well.
As long as you don't ask me to write in 2nd.

Heh! Funny story about that... Mrs. Keblinger, my English teacher during my high school senior year, was teaching us about point of view, and she introduced first and third person. I asked about 2nd person. She said that there wasn't one. So I pointed out that, yes, there was. (I had taken Spanish in middle school and Latin in high school, so I knew that.) So Mrs. Keblinger grudgingly admitted that, but she said that you can't write in 2nd-person. So, because I really hated Mrs. Keblinger and because I was a smart-hoop 16-year-old, I went home and wrote a 3-page story in 2nd person and turned it in to her. Then she grumbled something about not being considered a proper literary work and being unpublishable. When I came home after my freshman year of college, I went back to visit some of my high school teachers. I brought with me a choose-your-own-adventure book, just to prove that last part wrong as well. Mrs. Keblinger retired the following year. I like to think I had something to do with that.

When I became a teacher, whenever a situation arose and I was uncertain what to do about it, I would think to myself, "What would Mrs. Keblinger have done?" and then do the opposite.

I don't really have an opinion, though 3rd person flows a bit more naturally for me, mostly because I GM more than I play, and I write my GM posts in 3rd person (though when I run face-to-face, I speak in 2nd).

Ah yes, gotta love the stiff-necked English teachers who don't seem to understand that the "rules" of literature exist to be broken in creative ways. Fortunately, I don't think I ever had an English teacher quite like that. The closest I came was Sophomore year when we were reading poems by ee cummings. Our teacher said something along the lines of "Yes, ee cummings twists punctuation into pretzels. No, that doesn't mean you get to as well. ee cummings understood punctuation and broke the rules very deliberately as a part of his poems. You don't understand punctuation well enough to do that yet."

archolewa wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 3:09 pm I don't really have an opinion, though 3rd person flows a bit more naturally for me, mostly because I GM more than I play, and I write my GM posts in 3rd person (though when I run face-to-face, I speak in 2nd).

Okay, that's 2 for I don't care (but 1 leaning 3rd), and 1 3rd...

archolewa wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 3:09 pm Ah yes, gotta love the stiff-necked English teachers who don't seem to understand that the "rules" of literature exist to be broken in creative ways. Fortunately, I don't think I ever had an English teacher quite like that. The closest I came was Sophomore year when we were reading poems by ee cummings. Our teacher said something along the lines of "Yes, ee cummings twists punctuation into pretzels. No, that doesn't mean you get to as well. ee cummings understood punctuation and broke the rules very deliberately as a part of his poems. You don't understand punctuation well enough to do that yet."

Yeah, Mrs. Keblinger said much the same. Her words were, "You have not yet earned your poetic license."

I usually default to 3rd person but I have no objections to 1st.

Gremlin wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 3:45 pm I usually default to 3rd person but I have no objections to 1st.

Okay, that is the majority for 3rd... or at least I don't care and third, so we will go with 3rd...

Okay, also for group consideration. I know you have decided to all know each other, which is cool. Do you want to say that you are an established (if not very well-known) team? In other words, do the fixers and Johnsons know to call you as a team rather than trying to hire you individually? If so, how do you want to handle that? Is one of you (the face, probably) the designated contact point? Or do you take business calls as a conference call? What's your SOP?

I'd propose they call us as a team. Simplifies the logistics, and means we can get up and *running* that much quicker.

I think it makes sense to have the whole team together for calls. At the bare minimum, I want my character to be there (though she probably won't say anything). Her photographic memory would be a tremendous asset to the team (recording without electronics!). I don't know what the rules for reading body language and voice tone is. She might be good at that (if it's some sort of perception style thing) or absolute rubbish if it's more charisma based.

I'm tempted to suggest we hide how the fixers contact us in our band somehow. Maybe fixers we have a relationship with request a gig with the band, and ask for a couple of specific songs.

Also, proposed band name: Big Bad Evil Guys.

Contacted as a team sounds good to me. I also like the idea of us all being there for calls, even if we have a spokesperson who usually does the talking.

Communicating via gigs could be a little complicated and time consuming. But it could be fine via the bands site on the matrix!

Speaking of the band, I was thinking of taking songwriting (rock) as my second hobby skill, unless someone else wants that job.

As for the bands style, anyone familiar with a Scottish band called Biffy Clyro?

What about this suggestion?
Instead of all having an apartment in the same building. The rule book explained that you can have a higher lifestyle and still live in a shitty neighborhood/ rundown area while having all the luxuries of a high lifestyle.
What if I pay for a high lifestyle and add you guys as guests. With 6 players, that comes down to 16k for the first month. After that, everyone would have to pay, 2667 nuyen each per month. That's even cheaper than a medium lifestyle. Provided Chary allows this of course.

We own the upper floor and took most of the walls out. The floor looks like those 90's movie gang hideouts. Well secured defensively. Filled with graffiti everywhere. Skateramp in the corner. A stage where the band plays during weekend parties. Different lighting depending on our mood. Large kitchen where we can eat actual food. Good facilities. Just a place where we can start making a name in the neighborhood. Keep the regulars who live there safe in exchange for them warning us if something bad is coming our way.
Just a random idea.

That way, we also come across better towards a fixer as we will be working hard to become an established name.
We might not be actual shadowrunners, but let's fake it until we make it.