The Twilight Chamber: A Shadowrun Story (Inactive)

Game Master JDPhipps

I am still here. Blue just has little to say. I will get a post up with some kind of activity though.

I'm still here as well, work has just slammed me with an Office 365 company migration so I've been unable to make an update post. I'll see about getting something up soon.

Same here! I wwas in the middle of a really busy couple of week, but I'm back and ready for a post a day, if need be! Hope everything's alright on your end, GM.

I've been having some trouble with my hands, which is part of why my posting is very sporadic. My doctor said I have an extreme amount of joint laxity in my fingers, which basically means my ligaments are too loose which causes a lot of intermittent pain. Some days it's fine, other days trying to type is incredibly painful. This, as you imagine, sucks for someone who's two main hobbies are video games and PbP gaming. Right now I'm just taking some painkillers, but it's likely that I will eventually need surgery.

So, sorry my posts are intermittent, but I hope you can understand. It's been feeling better slowly in recent weeks until a few days ago, now it's better again.

Jeez, sorry to hear that, GM.

I wish there were cyber replacements available to assist you!

Feel better.

I'm sorry I didn't reply to that at the time, but I completely understand.

I am very much enjoying this game, and the crew. I understand, of course, that RL takes priority, and I hope everything turns out well for you.

And besides, I would like to see Bogatir's story to its conclusion, at the very least. I've grown quite attached to the old bastard.

Hey everybody, just wanted to give you a heads up that Michael will be back with us shortly with a new account. He's getting a fresh start on the forums but he'll be keeping the same character with a new alias and I imagine he'll be back in the game within a few days. Just wanted everyone to have a heads up since it'll be a different account he's coming in with.

Also, thanks for the well wishes with my joint problems. Someone else recommended some compression gloves which really helped, so I've been using those a lot and I'm feeling quite a bit better.

I am sorry for the delay. Between a 60 hr/wk schedule at work and a family emergency, most of this week has blurred by. I will update with a post tonight after work.

I am glad the compression gloves are helping, Jon. Speaking from experience, joint problems are pretty terrible.

Thanks again!

Jon, will this be a good opportunity to earn (and hopefully spend) some karma?

Yeah, you're right. Thanks for the reminder; I'm so used to not giving out XP in games like Pathfinder that occasionally I forget that some games that require it...

Everyone gets... we'll say 10 karma. I'm going to wait to push us forward until Michael rejoins us, as he's got the next few days off so he should be getting a post up. I figure that'll be easier.

Hey all! I hope all is going good for you all. Sorry for not posting, but the game is in a state of hiatus regardless.

For Purchases, I got the following, assuming that I can do the usual Nuyen:Karma trade:
10,000 nuyen for 5 Karma (I imagine an animal clinic getting a silver credstick in the mail. I still got my stealth!)
Negotiation 3->4
Dodge 1-2, specialising in Ranged Combat.

For gear, I'll try and get the following:

Fake SIN, Rating 6 (Some EVO security honcho straight from Vladivostok)
Fake License, Rating 6 (All of Bogatir's cyberware and his pistol, which comes out at 10 licenses all together.) Should take 6 days, according to my rolls.

I'll probably add more stuff over the next couple of days, and summarise it when (if?) we start again.

It's definitely a 'when', not an 'if'. I was hoping Michael would be back shortly, but it seems he may underestimated how long it would take him to get into the swing of things again.

If everyone has spent their karma/money as they wish to, we'll just get started and Michael can come back in on his own terms. If I don't hear from everyone by tomorrow I'll just start us up again with a couple jobs you all can choose from.

I will get the Karma Money stuff sorted tonight. is the Nuyen/Karma trade thing actually a thing?!

It was originally intended for the use of Shadowrun games at conventions, but yes. The trade can also be inversed to gain extra cash if you so choose.

Okay, this is taking longer than I expected .. sorry. I am working on it but I need to go to sleep. I will finish it tomorrow.

How much downtime will there be between runs?

That's really up to you guys for the most part. You can choose when to look for runs and what you want to do as well; I'm almost never going to give you all one option for jobs so a lot of this will be your own decision making. If you all want to take another month off before the next run, you could. Or, you could do one tomorrow. Whatever you decide.

And holy hell .. I had forgotten how much of a black hole Mages are for Karma. Like every single thing sucks up Karma; spells, skills, attributes, foci, even some metamagic.

If possible I would like to do an initiation with my group using the oath ordeal. With the reductions this will be 8 Karma.

Then, using the money for Karma rule (donating some time and supplies to help victims of abuse) to trade 10k for 5 Karma, leaving me with 7.

Then I would like to find a Force 3 Sustaining Focus and bond it. Bonding the focus will take six karma, leaving me with 1.

The interval for the focus is 1 week (30000), so it might take a while to find. Can you use edge to reroll dice on the availability test?

I don't think I've ever played a mage in Shadowrun, but it sure looks everything is expensive at our levels of experience.

Speaking of: I kind of like the last mission, the one about talent re-acquisition. Sounds simple enough, and to Bogatir, at least doesn't appear to have any moral ambiguity.

I'm still quite fine to wait for Michael - we've waited for quite some time, I don't mind waiting a little more!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, busy with baby and work, and switching gears to SR 4E mindset takes a lot of mental effort.

Should have some time to drop cash and karma tomorrow, and Bronze is keen on any mission, especially a stealthy grabby one.

No worries. I haven't exactly been the best about updating in a timely and reliable fashion, so I can't blame you. I'm trying my best to change that across all the games I run here on the forums, though.

Blue, I'm not positive on whether you can use Edge for that purpose, but I'm going to say yes.

I'm going to get in contact with Michael again and see what's up. Last time I talked to him he'd gotten sick, but I'm hoping he'll be back with us soon enough.

@Jon - I could not find any reference to using edge in an extended test either, so I will treat my edge as a single edge pool for the entire test.

If I did it right, it will take three weeks to find my focus. Are you guys okay with waiting that long? Otherwise we can do the next run without it.

I would also like to get some spirit binding materials and prep a few spirits, if that is okay.

@Jon, are you okay with the initiation? I can put it off if you would prefer to wait a bit longer on stuff like that.

Sure am glad Alter isn't in Hikari mode right now, because its time for some cyberware!

I'm going to purchase an Encephalon Rating 2 and a Math SPU. Also spending 10 karma increasing Cybercombat to rating 5. This represents a pretty significant jump in cyberpower for Alter so I'm certainly keen on getting to stretch those muscles a bit more on the next mission.

Update to the character sheet will happen shortly.

Come to think of it - I'd probably quite like the casino mission, too, since that would involve a bit more of a social stealth, and a bit more RP, I imagine. Not that any of us are decent at it, though...

And since Alter would like to stretch those VR muscles a bit more, I feel like it's a good opportunity for everyone to do so!

Besides, casinos are among the top 3 places for a shadowrun, according to Bogatir's personal grading system.

Blue, go ahead and do the Initiation. I don't mind it right now, just that during character creation the BP to Karma conversion isn't easy to do so I preferred to leave it for in-game. I do ask that you give me a little snippet of what goes on in the initiation though (even if it's just in a spoiler).

I'm seeing one for the casino and/or target extraction, and one who's fine with whatever. Anyone else want to plug something they're interested in? I will add that the casino mission will more heavily involve VR, but all of them would include it to a degree. The third mission actually involves it the most but there's a fair bit at the casino as well.

I'm game for a casino, sneaking and intimidating seem fun to me.

On a side note, not sure what to spend money on. Bronze has very little essence left, and pretty much all the bases covered from a combat standpoint.

Maybe fancy duds or specialty gear?

Lots and lots of explosives?

You got it. I think a spoiler is best given that it happens entirely out of sight of the others.

I am going to take the invoking metamagic. That fits Blue well, I think.

Sounds good!

Bronze, those are both decent ideas. However, do remember you could also upgrade your cyberware to a higher grade in order to gain more space in which you can get some new upgrades. However, specialty gear is never a bad idea. You can feel free to make some decisions after you choose your mission if you want something specific.

Also, seems like we're interested in the casino as a party. I'll get us moving shortly.

Okay, we'll do corporate espionage instead. Everyone who voted seemed to vote for casino or the corporate extraction other than Alter, who voted directly for the corporate job. So, seems like that's the option that everyone's on board with.

Here's the final list of purchases below:

Glasses: Ultrasound, Thermographic, Image Link, Image Magnification
Weapon Accessory: Hidden Gun Arm Slide, Concealable Holster
Commlink: Erika Elite
Armour: Mortimer of London Greatcoat; Berwick Suit (Ensemble), Form-Fitting Full Body-suit, RhineGold Suit.
Total Cost: 12,000 nuyen. (In addition to whatever I bought previously)

Espionage works for me!

I'll post what Bogatir was doing as soon as I have time. I'll be travelling today, and I've got ideas for the post.

Final list of purchases (and times) for supplies:

Blue will be on his way to pick up the binding materials and then on to his personal lodge for the summoning and binding.

I will get those rolls settled tonight or tomorrow.

So I want to re-bind and invoke my earth and man spirits, and summon, bind, and invoke an air and a beast spirit.

That is a bunch of drain. I will try re-binding my spirit of Man next since it will not go uncontrolled if I pass out.

And with 10S drain and 10 hours spent binding spirits, he will sleep and return to the warehouse in the morning.

After a good night's sleep, Blue is refreshed and ready for the day.

Finally got some time with the PDFs and my computer, and looks like Bronze is getting some surgery done.

Upgrading Ceramic Bone Lacing from Standard rating to Alpha: Gain a .22 essence hole, cost of ¥22,500 (by the book pricing).

Not sure what kind of rolls I'll need for that, but my fixer and black market connections should hopefully be able to pull it off.

Also going to the paintball & airsoft range (maybe somewhere lets you do "airsoft" with gel rounds?) and getting some pistol & dodge training in.

Tests for the skill increases:

Pistols 1>2: 5d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 2, 3, 3) = 15, Week 2: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 6, 1) = 16
Dodge 0>1: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 6, 4) = 16

After 2 weeks, Bronze is ready to roll, having paid for rent for 3 months, gotten some new 'ware upgraded, and done a bit of "run & gun" at the range.

Karma spent: 8
Cash Spent: Ware (-¥22,500), Range time & ammo (-¥500), Rent x3 (¥6,000)

I forgot to mention here that I'm out of commission for the next week for the most part; I had seven days of work in a row and now I'm on my way to Memphis for a week. I'll try to post when I can, but we'll try to resume a normal schedule when I get back. Michael's player is moving pretty soon, so I think he'll probably be back after he gets settled in. I may leave him out of this run for the time being.

Just an FYI: I will be busy this weekend celebrating my son's first birthday. I'll try to post tomorrow night or Sunday, but no guarantee. Please bot as needed, thanks.

Sorry for my continued absence. I've been feeling pretty fatigued lately and I just haven't felt up to posting. I think I might be sick and I just can't really put anything together. If it doesn't go away soon I already have a doctor's appointment scheduled so I'll talk to him then.

I hope you feel better soon, Jon! Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.

Hey all, I'm finally back in business. I'm sorry I haven't been posting, but I just haven't had the mental energy. Between picking up extra shifts at work and what I thought was me being sick, I was just too tired to formulate something like this. My doctor upped one of my medications and I've been feeling better, so I should be back to my normal posting rate now. Sorry I was gone for so long.

I'll have a post up here tomorrow. Trying to get all my games moving again in one night is still a little too much for me right now, but I'll be getting an update schedule rolling here shortly.

Sorry folks, someone called out of work and I had to come in on... not a ton of sleep. I know I've kept you waiting a while, but something will be up soon.

So, I think it's time I officially shut this down. I feel like I've lost steam repeatedly and we've lost a few people and it's just... never felt like we had a full group for the game. I'm sure I killed plenty of excitement over this game with my inconsistent posting and I apologize. It's rough but it happened. All of the games I played in have died off and I've just gotten burnt out on running games; I was never the kind of person who could be the 'Forever DM', unfortunately. I've got one game still running and another game over Discord trying to get started but I'm just not able to focus on keeping games running.

I hate to disappoint, but I don't feel like I can reasonably keep this running. I would put it on hiatus but since I've stalled us out so long it feels disingenuous to do so and pretend I'll come back and get running at a regular pace. I would love to but it's not really fair.