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[Ruski]

Offically official: use edge to reroll failures.

[kv]

Netted you two extra successes, reducing the amount of stun damage Sly took to just two boxes.

  - kv

[bull30548]

Okay four still not fabulous and I blame my 3rd edition days for not having any patches because they were supposed to screw up our magic ratings.  Still I don't think things are looking good.

[Bullet Sponge]

Grenades? What's your point? They're no big deal. The Red Sams however......they scare me. They keep dumping that Professional Pool into their rolls. Somebody get me some of that for X-mas, pretty please.

Oh, and was that the entire pass for the Reds? Our turns again? Or is that Red in my face gonna' try gettin' rid of my face first?

[bull30548]

So I don't FUBAR this roll completely I have a few questions:

One: Can I actually see at all or with mage sight right now?
Two: What is my current penalty for die rolls?
Three: Do I even have the state of mind to see somebody writing Tank?

Now let me state what I am going to do so I don't screw up further.

My plan is still to over cast a manaball into the group at Rating 8 which is only one point over my casting ability.  Now based on my math I have 5 magic and 7 Spellcasting (5 from the skill +2 for specialization) so my total dice is 12.  I am at -2 for the stun damage I am suffering if I am correct because I took 4 boxes of damage there so 8

My drain is Willpower + Logic + 2 for the spellcasting focus for a total of 7.   My drain is not affected by damage taken so total is still 7.

Am I right in all of this or did I miss something?

[Ruski]

KV is the GM and rule guru, so I'll leave the dice to him. As for meta-gaming; It's up to you. It's your PC. Is he wacked out of his mind? Is "tank" a good enough clue that he could figure out whats up even without the stress and stun damage? Either answer is fine. You can RP "OMG! That dude is ditching me! WTF?!" And I won't take it personal. My PC would try to explain his actions to his team members. But if it works or not... thats for the rest of the party to figure out.
Hopefully: if they do think him a coward, they'll forgive him in 20 seconds when the enemy rigger gets two in the datajack and the static wall falls. If his plan dosen't work.... then maybe my next PC will try harder to communicate. LOL.

[bull30548]

Sorry I am not trying to meta I am just unsure how screwed up my sight is because I don't have anything to protect my eyes like you guys do.  This is why i am asking questions so I don't screw up as badly as I did last turn.  I may not be able to see at all so that would affect my actions from here.  What you are doing has very little impact on what I am planning regardless.  Sorry to sound so dismissive about it but that his mindset right now.

[Bullet Sponge]

Bull,
It actually sounds like a pretty solid idea that he would keep going with what he had planned. You were originally holding your action to have him cast that, so that is what the character was focused on. The almost complete stranger next to you playing with his food/tagging next to you may not even register after the shock & awe of the flash-bang. It did what it was supposed to do.....jack him up and try to prevent him from focusing on anything other than the pain and misery he is currrently feeling much less the Reds. Now, how much he could focus and is it enough to still cast the spell is on the rules and the GM. But, I support the single minded need to try to finish what he started (a.k.a. do what ever he can to try to get out of this alive.)

Just my opinion....

[bull30548]

Yeah it just bugs me that this is the only solution I can keep coming up with.  This is the exact same approach I had with the Stuffer Shack which ended badly.  This time I am doing a little better because up until the flashbang I did not observe a spellcaster around.  This could of all changed in this turn though.

Though I think that if I get fragged again I am just going to make a whole new character.  This time with Chummer first and make him a Mystic Adept because of what I just wrote up in SR4 thread.  That way I can have a few more combat skills and I can develop the magic part.  I still kind of like this approach because it seems better for RP development.  Kinsey I am not all that connected with still so to speak as a character.  Maybe if I was I wouldn't keep screwing up the rounds.

Edit: There is also a chance I just plain old suck at magic characters in SR universe.  I will admit my experience is limited in this regard I might only be good at tech oriented characters.  Maybe my next character should be a drone rigger.

[kv]

Just for comparison, stun damage can be slept off pretty easily- so if you drink until you pass out, that's the full amount of stun damage- the headache you wake up with five hours later is about half of your full damage, and what you have by the end of that day (last vestiges of the hangover) is about one or two boxes.

I'm not thrilled with the idea of people jumping character concepts every mission- because every character has weaknesses and flaws, and no concept is bullet proof (pun intended). I've been a Shadowrun player and GM for a long long time now, and I know plenty of tricks to get even the most well-balanced characters, and most characters made by starting players are not that well-balanced. No offense meant.

PBP has some struggles in and of itself, as it's a medium that moves much slower than a face-to-face game. Since Back to the Shack (a.k.a. Food Fight) took six months of game time on here, and usually only takes about the first twenty minutes of a face-to-face session (assuming everyone has a character and is ready to go), you see what I mean. Twenty minutes of game time = six months of PBP.

I understand wanting to try out character concepts and ideas- I rarely get to play, and I have a million concepts bouncing around in my head. Sometimes I'll just write up a character for the fun of writing it up and getting it out on paper. A few of those characters are waiting in the wings as stock characters, if someone comes to one of my games and says "oh, I want to play, but I don't have a character," but mostly they'll never get used. I'm okay with that, sometimes I just need the creative process. I also do that same thing with games concepts- which is equally frustrating when the only outlet is a PBP, and I know the game will lose steam (or players will lose interest) before it ever gets finished.

All of that being said, I'm not going to force everyone to keep the same characters, but I will be a little bit harsher on new characters than I am going to be on familiar ones. So Sly and Eric Dubois might be able to talk their way past the velvet ropes at the club to see Mr Johnson, because they've been here before, while the new guys will get the standards (or above standard) hassle requiring bribes and etiquette.

That's just my way of balancing out the new versus the established party members. If you're okay with that, feel free to jump to a new character, but if I see a repeated character-jumping, it's going to cause problems. Problems of the 'nobody likes you, why should they trust you, you just got here five minutes ago' variety.

  - kv

[kv]

Also, I owe you guys a post- I need to look up the rules for kicking down doors, and get some target numbers for Ruski. I think I still need a couple of actions.

Remember, this is a "doesn't count" scenario, so feel free to go nuts.

  - kv

[bull30548]

I am just making the observation that maybe it isn't the character concept that is the problem but me the player that is.  Similar scenario and I come back to the same conclusion.  Is that a regression to the mean or just the player not being able to think outside the box.  I think what I need to do is not pick my skills and spells then try to get a background to fit but the other way around.  KV I might need to rejigger him again and just take Doc (an old character) out of the equation.  It's not a new character concept really it i an old one.  Perhaps it is a dead horse that I am beating to death with the glass cannon concept.  Also I think I am making the error of thinking Combat Caster only uses combat spells.  Or maybe I should take the term combat out of the equation with spells. 

[bull30548]

Oh drat I just realized I lost LOS on part of the group.  Blast!  Ok well I am going to post as soon as I get answer on probably the most relevant question the number of dice I am rolling for attack and drain is correct.

[kv]

Ruski, I'll need a roll from you to break down the security door into the food prep room/ manager's office.
According to the Barrier Rating Table (SR4A, pg 166), we'll say the 'very hardy security door at the fast food place' is Average, meaning it has an armor of 4 and a structure rating of 5. You'll need to bypass its armor (either with a weapon or shoulder), and get at least 2 successes to bust the door down and keep moving. That means your Ares Redine will burn a chunk out of it if you want, and/or put a shoulder to it, we'll say you get +1 dice for running toward it.

Ingo, I'm okay with you continuing the hack, I just didn't want to attack you suddenly out of left field without at least telling you it was coming.

Bull, Kinsey has taken 4 stun damage at the moment(1 from casting sustained Improved Reflexes, 3 from the flashbang), which is -2 dice to all actions (except drain and soak damage rolls). Your spellcasting pool is Magic (5) + Spellcasting (Spec: Combat Spells) 5 (7), and a Spellcasting Focus (Combat), which you can use now or save for later.

Magic (5) + Spellcasting (Spec: Combat Spells) 5 (7) - Damage (2) = 10 dice.

  - kv

[Ruski]

I think the problem with mages is this: they got nerfed.
In 2nd or 3rd edition, making one into a glass cannon was no problem. But they balanced them out in 4th.
So: if you want to do heavy pistol damage with them every round and never run out of ammo: go on ahead.
If you want to do full-auto damage once: you can probably do that too although you'll regret it later.
If you want a glass cannon in 4th, you really just need a chemical weapon, or RPG, or drone loaded up with simtex.
If you want a mage glass cannon: give your guy some explosive skills, and work on a blast shield spell.
I think you'll like the results more than trying to go karl the kombat mage: all mental.