Never Deal with a Shoggoth: A CthulhuPunk Shadowrun Story

Game Master Loup Blanc

Hey FNF, planning on updating the CoD thread soon?

I'd imagine we'll get that update today or tomorrow; it's a long damn post, after all. I know Loup will be busy with family for a while, but I forget when exactly he said he'd be heading out for that trip.

Heh, speak of the devilish post and it shall appear. I've been working on it almost since you posted the question, Sylvie. As far as trips go, the big one isn't until early/mid January, although I have a shorter one the 27th to 30th--I know that's a busy time of year for a lot of people, so hopefully it won't be a problem, and I don't necessarily expect it to be. Probably won't have time to spend an hour or two working on posts, though, so hopefully by then that isn't happening every time around with some of my games.

It's a labor of love, and I do enjoy it, enough that I'm considering running ever more in my neverending quest to do myself in with too much RPG stuff... Although actually recruiting for and starting any new games will probably be a little ways down the line. Almost certainly not before the big trip in January and the subsequent start of my final semester.

I'm going to throw Assensing tests in a spoiler to save the game thread from clutter. This doesn't mean people aren't allowed to read them, I just didn't want a continuous stream of d6's filling up the thread as Phineas goes about checking people out. ;)

For assensing, I should point out that I'm not *that* worried about the information I get back from the other characters at the table. It's more for establishing Phineas' standard practice. With that said, I certainly do appreciate the personal write-ups of the auras. And, as long as he gets all the information he's supposed to, you're welcome to describe them any way you like. :)

To anyone interested, I've just opened up a Recruitment thread for my Kingmaker game here on the boards. Both our GM and Victoria are involved in the game already, figured I'd extend the offer to potentially join if any of you are interested. You won't get a free spot or anything, but you get the Friends and Family discount, so to speak.

I'm guessing that FNF is on his Big Damn January Trip now, yeah?

Yeah, if I remember correctly he's on his family trip at the moment. He has a running recruitment for a Star Wars SAGA game at the moment and we're in... a lot of games together, he hasn't done much posting in a few days. I don't remember exactly how long the trip is for him (I think he told me like a week or so at one point) so we'll probably see his ugly mug around here pretty shortly.

He popped into his recruitment thread to mention his laptop had a bit of an issue so it's probably a combination of traveling and that.

Yep, sorry all, a quick check-in here to confirm that I am on a family trip right now. Disney World! Very fun, especially seeing my two-year-old cousins (twins) enjoying themselves. On Saturday we'll be heading home, although I'm once again taking the driving route so I likely won't be settled back in until the 17th. At that point there's a couple days before I head back for the semester start, though, so I'm hopeful for things picking up by then if not sooner.

There might be a bit of slowness for a couple days when I first get back to school, too, but if you can bear through that I'm very excited to get this going at speed again. I've been cooking up ideas for (hopefully) fun missions and arcs down the line, so I'm definitely looking forward to this moving forward!

Personally, I'm ready for you to get back so we can really get into the swing of things. I'm excited to see what you have in store and now that I've firmly ironed out all of the nebulous thoughts about Nathaniel that I've been mulling over forever I'm raring to go. I'm also excited to shoot things and maybe hack a computer or five, just to speak for myself.

A few of you have already checked in, but I wanted to mention I've got a Shadowrun 4E recruitment of my own up at the moment if any of you are interested.

As a note that I'd like to put in the open, the Boston Sprawl I'm presenting here is very much a fictionalized place. Shadowrun doesn't seem to have much of any information on the city until 5E, and even the little 5E stuff I've found doesn't have much. I grew up in Massachusetts, but not Boston itself, and while I'm decently familiar with the city I'm by no means an expert. The long and short of it is, I'm looking things up, I'm making gut calls, and I'll probably get some stuff a bit wrong in the eyes of a native Bostonian.

I don't expect that any of you would have a problem with that--I don't know if any of you are from that area--but I wanted to put it out there, because I'm starting to draw a little more on real-life info on the neighborhoods and such. For our game it's safe to say that, like most cities, Boston has expanded well beyond its current size to form an urban sprawl, but the densest population and the meat of the sprawl are still within its modern borders.

I'm from the area (and have quite a bit of family from Boston), but have no issues with there being a good deal of difference. :)

I seriously just went out and got some peanuts because of this game. ^_^

In the interest of not derailing things because of character misunderstandings: I'd like to note that the current track of trying to convince Phineas is *way* off base. While he's inexperienced, he's not lacking in bravery, so insulting him on that count is probably not the way to go. He's also highly intelligent, so being condescending is, again, probably not the way to go. He clearly hasn't objected to killing. Though that should, by the way, be a red flag for people thinking that he's an average person who, I would certainly hope, would object to *any* killing regardless of how "bad" the people are claimed to be. So, again, pushing him on whether it's murder or killing is probably not the way to go. Lastly, he could easily just walk out on this at any time. He needs money, but not so bad that he's willing to randomly murder people. (He's also a college drop-out, not a professor, but that could have been an in-character misunderstanding.)

Keep in mind that we were explicitly asked to make characters that were inexperienced runners. I'm happy to rough off the edges of the character to suit the party (that's part of the buy-in for any rp group.) But at the moment the track seems to be "Well, you took the job, so you should be willing to do whatever it takes to get it done." That's not actually a thing expected of normal people.

And my last point: So far Phineas' objections have been about two things: The first, and the one he's far more concerned about, is that we have two goals. Ignoring one to solve the other is worthless. The second, and far less of a problem, is murdering people. I've only had him point out that he's "new" to this because he probably shouldn't be the one that comes up with the specifics of how to get information from a bunch of random thugs given that he's never done that before.

But, with that said, *my* suggestion would be to use Nick and Nate to get as much information as possible. Send those of us that don't go with Nick to do some recon on the Chrome Boys. We can watch them, see what they do and what they're involved in, and just gather more information. If we're lucky, we'll get an idea of where they like to hide out and where they might hide some friends. We can do all that without ever even talking to a Chrome Boy.

Didn't want to sound condescending or insulting, Phin. Well, I did want to... But not, at least, for the mere sake of it. Lemme explain myself.

Nick's a rugged cop and last post was his half-assed attempt to support Phin opinion while still giving him a 'grow some balls' talk as he would do to a green recruit.

I mean, I would oppose to cold blood murder. But as I said, killing goons isn't that bad to him. Not if it's for a cause at least slightly just*.

*Getting payed so he can afford rent counts as just, doesn't it?

Right, I get it. That's why I brought it here. There's zero chance that a person like Phineas (or really anyone) would take that in a way that's going to produce a team. But, since that's the buy-in for an rp group, there needs to be *some* middle ground that we can find.

You do know that's what people say when they don't know what they're talking about...right?

I get it, you're not the idea gal, you're the action gal. And talking about plans isn't your shtick.

Your belittling and misogynistic insults are neither sought nor accepted. Stop it.

Everybody, please cool off. This is a game, and we all got in here hoping to have fun. If anybody is offended, they have the right to be, but please take it up with the GM and try to talk it out with the other party, and identify any points of issue and resolve them. It's probably just an accident. Remember that it's extremely difficult to communicate tone over the internet as well. If you really think that this issue can't be resolved and the other player was intentionally malicious, take it up with the mods, but try to resolve everything peacefully beforehand. Educating people is always the first, and best, solution, and only after that fails you should turn to other options.

I have to admit that I am, beyond words, insulted. To the point that I've been trying to figure out how to respond to that comment without validating it and without hostility. In the end, it seems like asking for an apology and working from there is the way to go.

So, Atlas2112, I'd appreciate an apology.

Okay all, I think it's about time we get this going again. So that I don't make a mistake with a Gameplay post to bring us to the next scene, I want to double check what the plan is for this moment. I think Nick and Sylvie are heading to talk with Nick's contact; Nathaniel is going to spend a few hours on the Matrix digging up what he can find. (Where is he doing that, by the way--at the bar, or is he returning home or going somewhere else?) What exactly are the others doing? I know there was discussion of heading straight to the bar in Roxbury, but there was also talk of wanting muscle backup for that.

Anya has been cooled on heading right to the bar, and will tag along with Nick.

I would be down for scouting out the bar, but we should wait until we know more to actually go after our target. We might accidentally spook him if we start poking around blind. If we'd rather not, I'll just stick with the group.

Hi, I'm JDPhipps's girlfriend. He's in the hospital right now and has no access to a computer, but he will be out sometime tomorrow and can post then.

Awwww. Get well soon, Paladin!

Yeesh, get well! And, by the way, thank you, JDPhipps' girlfriend, for thinking to post here and let us know what happened.. That's appreciated.

I asked her to when she came to visit me, but she was sweet enough to run around to the ~13 some games I play in and get our wonderful GM to send a message to someone running a recruitment that I ran out of time for so I could finish my submission afterward. She's pretty great. Also, thanks for the concern everyone, I'm doing just fine. I had some issues with my psychotropic medications and ended up being checked into the hospital for a few days. They just neglected to inform me I wouldn't have any access to the outside world besides an old wall phone...

Either way, Nate is waiting on the results of his hacker escapades before doing anything. I'm assuming that 14 hits beats the Threshold I'm going for, if not Nate will keep going at it.

Also, to more or less address the elephant in the room... what happened with Phineas? He still with us, and if not what's becoming of the character?

Considering that the GM's last post had him decide he didn't like the job and walk out, I think he quit the game.

Oh, I missed that. Whoops. I guess that solves that, then.

Yes, Phineas is no longer part of the game. We're moving forward.

Just a random note: normally, in PF and D&D, my obsessive penny-pinching to get survival and crawling gear never gets rewarded. In SR, thought, that behavior is a necessity, and I love it :P

Short note here, hopefully I'll have time to update later tonight or tomorrow, but wanted to say: the only member of the team not present at the meeting with the Snitch is Nathaniel, who's busy with the Matrix end of things. Time is also a little wonky here--Nathaniel needs 4 hours of work to get into the database, and the meeting with the Snitch, including travel, probably didn't take more than an hour at most.

After the Snitch meeting it's probably around 4:15 (you spent roughly 15-20 minutes at the Green Rhythm once the meeting started, I figure), and Nathaniel won't be done cracking until 7. I suppose that in theory he could put the hacking on hold (although long delays would cause setbacks to the tune of losing hits on the test), but right now you're still separated and working on different things.

PbP is a little wonky for time things like this, and hacking takes more time in Shadowrun than most RPG activities, but that's the situation as of right now. The big group may want to just head to the Steak Well, or do something else! I'm always open to surprises from players, as long as they make sense and do move the game forward.

Anya is, frankly, always open to "Hey, you guys wanna eat?" Hand-waving the time away with a meal and adult beverages is gonna be quite okay.

Also, I don't even recall the last time we ate. There were peanuts at the meeting, but was that it?

Yeah, actually, I'm fine with handwaving and having a Group Bonding Scene (TM) while Nathaniel finishes hacking.

I'm willing to assume you guys got something to eat between waking up ~11 AM and the meeting at 3. After all, I'm guessing even Anya doesn't take four hours getting ready for a meet ;)

If you guys want to have the Group Bonding Scene, though, go for it! Like I said, I'll probably be able to post a real update with the info he found later on tonight or tomorrow.

Nathaniel lives the only hacker life, no Group Bonding Scene (©) for me. Ah well, I'm find some information somewhere hopefully.

Are we waiting on something?

Just me--I've been working on writing the next post up and I've been kind of busy. I'm hoping to have it up tonight, but it might wait until tomorrow.

And possibly me, because I missed the Bonding Meal (tm) plan -which I totally dig-

I will post later today!

Knock knock?

Sorry to double post, but I have a question for you guys. We're now, by my understanding, missing our "face" for the party and I'm curious what we want to do about that moving forward. Anya has the Influence group at 1 (giving her 8 dice total to those skills), and Nick has a fairly sizable roll for Intimidation. Nathaniel could pick up an Empathy program and a rank or two in the Influence group (or even just like Negotiation on its own) to act as an auxiliary charismatic character with his naturally decent Charisma attribute. I intend for him to gain some Intimidation as time goes on as well. However, given that I'm already built as a combat hacker, spreading Karma out too much more to be the main user of those skills is going to make Nathaniel kind of... s#~*ty. Here are my thoughts.

Out of character, I think that having the social option is probably a useful thing that we want to have. Given that I'm new to Shadowrun and not terribly good at character creation, I defer to anyone else on the solution to this problem.

In character, Victoria is vaguely sociopathic and more than likely to just suggest discreetly eliminating everyone who even remotely gets in our way. Being a living weapon doesn't make her particularly disposed to diplomatic solutions to problems. She'd much rather just deal with things directly.

Oh, yeah, I was planning on buffing my social skills first off anyway, so, yes, that definitely sounds good. I was thinking getting those to at least rank 4, karma permitting, and then seeing how things were shaping up.

Will keep it as short as possible so you don't have to read my newest drama -not until it hits cinemas, of course- but I'm leaving at my sister's because my parents kicked me out and as such this last week has been a hell of a busy ride.

I'm fine, tho, just hard to come up with a nice post with all the job searching and moving stuff from one place to the other.

I will post in the couple hours, but sorry for not telling y'all at least a couple days ago.

Take care of yourself. RL comes before games.

Oof, that's rough. Definitely take your time and get settled in, we'll be around. Let me know if you'd like to me to bot you for a while in Kingmaker or XCOM; is so it's no problem, but if you think you'll be back on your feet soon I'm fine with waiting for you too. Just take your time and get your affairs in order.

*chuckle* It's probably a good thing we got cut-scened to the hallway.

If we would've paused outside the building, I'd be 50/50 to just climb up it and unlock a window. ;)

Fun fact, Wyrm Talk is the name of the TV show Monika in the video game Shadowrun:Dragonfall says she wants to make sure to watch when she gets back from the run.

Spoiler alert: Things don't go as planned. ;)

Yeah, I caught that. Dunkelzahn ran it originally before he got killed, some other dragon does it now.

Also, the funny part is that the first time I played Nathaniel in a game he was built for pure Charisma. I had something like 15d6 for the Influence skill group, and was inadvertently good at combat. He was an arms dealer and Cuervo--who was actually played by our GM--was his muscle. We played one session and sadly never touched that game again.