Brotherhood of the Machine (OOC Thread) {02}

[Tapewolf]

The place is all cleaned up.  Tidy little zealots...

He didn't do a good enough job of putting the crate back on the shelf, I guess...

[techmaster-glitch]

Just a notice: Once again, I am going to be MIA for a little bit, this time due to a serious misunderstanding. Bad news, unlike last time, you probably won't see a peep of me unless I get really lucky. Good news, unlike last time, I will be back much sooner, Friday absolutely.

Sorry

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Is that a silenced rifle, Ryudo? I ask, because, well...

while it'd be neat and all to take him out, surely a non-silenced rifle would kinda mess up the whole "sneaking about" theme... ;-]

(plus it being plasma means there's going to be neat frying sounds as the guys head melts... ;-] )

[Ryudo Lee]

That's a good question.  In general sci-fi terms, can a plasma rifle be silenced?

[Tapewolf]

That's a good question.  In general sci-fi terms, can a plasma rifle be silenced?

Depends what you're doing.  llearch seems to be thinking of a huge, powerful beam.  Realistically, all you'd need to do is burn a fairly small hole in a vital area to kill someone.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Depends what you're doing.  llearch seems to be thinking of a huge, powerful beam.  Realistically, all you'd need to do is burn a fairly small hole in a vital area to kill someone.

Am I? That's good to know.

Surely even a small beam is going to be fairly hot, and, as such, it's going to heat the surrounding areas. Hence the frying head - assuming you're going to plink through the faceplate, so the target doesn't get a chance to tell anyone about you coming in.

If you manage a critical failure, you miss. Slightly less critical, say rolling a 2 or a 3, and you manage to kill him, but short his radio into an -on- position... and everyone else on his team hears his head explode/boil/fry/whatever.

Critical hit, you burn through his head and the door and the head of the commander, who is coming out to remonstrate him on not checking properly... ;-]

*cough* slightly more applicably, the armour that the zealots are wearing would suggest a fairly heavy shot is required to put them down. I spose it's possible that you use the plasma as a carrier for a short-circuit type effect, but that's going to be noisy, as well. At the very least, he's going to fall down - and if you crit fail, he's going to fall back -into- the shack, handily alerting everyone else. :-/

[Ryudo Lee]

Well these are more like the plasma rifles from Doom than anything else, except that they have a nice little charge feature, as I just demonstrated.  So no, plasma rifles are not silenced.  Silenced rifles would be more conventional, using actual bullets instead of plasma shots.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

ah, so like a BFG. ;-]

*cough* I'll shush now. (although I do wonder if any of them got a message off to the Tower...)

[Tapewolf]

I'm taking Ryudo's description to mean that the shed is now safe to enter.

[Ryudo Lee]

*cough* I'll shush now. (although I do wonder if any of them got a message off to the Tower...)

We have a term for that... FOIP "Find Out In Play".

I'm taking Ryudo's description to mean that the shed is now safe to enter.

Yep.  When someone with a gun that just stopped shooting shouts "clear" that usually means "the bad guys are dead now". 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

We have a term for that... FOIP "Find Out In Play".

I expected that. I was merely expressing interest - since I'm not playing, etc etc. ;-] (and -now- I'll shush, at least until next time...)

[Tapewolf]

I'm taking Ryudo's description to mean that the shed is now safe to enter.

Yep.  When someone with a gun that just stopped shooting shouts "clear" that usually means "the bad guys are dead now". 

What's less obvious is whether he was talking to the other soldiers or the party as a whole.
A separate issue is whether Dorcan should have gone in or cleared it with Morgan first.

[Ryudo Lee]

He was talking to the whole party.  They are a part of your group for the time being.

[Arcalane]

That's a good question.  In general sci-fi terms, can a plasma rifle be silenced?

Depends what sort, I expect. I mean assuming it fires it's projectiles at a relatively decent speed, perhaps above the sound barrier, then no, since the shots will obviously make some kind of noise as they break aforementioned barrier, plus there's all the heat and deforming air involved.

On the other hand, it could be a muffled sound if the shots are subsonic, or no sound at all if you rule it - it's your  gaming system after all. Or it could even be an ominous hum, followed by a stream of plasma, in the style of a mercenary some of our readers may be familiar with.

[techmaster-glitch]

It seemed that Jexx and Morgan were stationing themselves on the roof, and Dorcan didn't like what that implied.  If he were flesh, his mouth would have been be unusually dry.  The doberman checked the scope yet again, trying to ignore the obvious conclusion, pretend it wasn't happening. 
Morgan isn't going to lead us, he's covering us.  Jexx is covering us and so is Josh.  The others are under our command, and that means... I'm... in charge. Blinking rapidly he composed himself and looked the soldier straight in the eye.

Um, Tape? Jexx isn't on any roof. He's in the shed with you and the soldiers.

   Jexx hopped two more roofs, then scaled down to the ground, entering the shed from the backdoor. He met up with the small group inside. "Aw, none for me?" He complained.

[Tapewolf]

Um, Tape? Jexx isn't on any roof. He's in the shed with you and the soldiers.

Somehow I didn't parse that bit.  In my mind he was still on the roof.  I'll have to see if I can repair it.  Pity, it was a damn good piece of writing IMHO.

**EDIT**

Sorted.

[techmaster-glitch]

It was, which is why you should try to keep as much of it as possible. Dorcan, for purposes of keeping the text mostly the same, instead of thinking that jexx is on a roof, merely think that Jexx is very unfit for command, therefore, Dorcan is still the only one in charge, as it were.

EDIT: Oh, you did that exactly as I was thinking before I posted. Cool.

[Tapewolf]

instead of thinking that jexx is on a roof, merely think that Jexx is very unfit for command, therefore, Dorcan is still the only one in charge, as it were.

I didn't know how you were going to take it, but that's basically what I decided to do

[techmaster-glitch]

I know. Made a slight edit to above post.

[Tapewolf]

I'm thinking we should ideally send the most expendable person first, i.e. one of the NPC troops.  That way  , if their head suddenly falls off because they've walked into Sinclair wire, Dorcan and Jexx will be able to avoid it.  I can't really express that in-game though.

[techmaster-glitch]

I'm thinking we should ideally send the most expendable person first, i.e. one of the NPC troops.  That way, if their head suddenly falls off because they've walked into Sinclair wire, Dorcan and Jexx will be able to avoid it.  I can't really express that in-game though.

Hmm, true, but I don't think (or at least really hope not) we will run into that sort of thing. But, hypothetically speaking, we do, we wouldn't be dealing with it if you guys hadn't unwittingly given Ryudo so much idea cannon fodder about twenty OOC pages back >:(

[Azlan]

I have become extremely busy and really did not want to tie up the RP waiting for me to move scenes along or issue orders.

Hmm, true, but I don't think (or at least really hope not) we will run into that sort of thing. But, hypothetically speaking, we do, we wouldn't be dealing with it if you guys hadn't unwittingly given Ryudo so much idea cannon fodder about twenty OOC pages back >

Give it a rest.

[Arcalane]

Hmm, true, but I don't think (or at least really hope not) we will run into that sort of thing. But, hypothetically speaking, we do, we wouldn't be dealing with it if you guys hadn't unwittingly given Ryudo so much idea cannon fodder about twenty OOC pages back

Giving the DM ideas is half the fun!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

...particularly if you can come up with workarounds for said ideas. ;-]


Like ablative meat-shields.

[Ryudo Lee]

Sometimes there are no workarounds.  Those little gems are called "plot devices".

[techmaster-glitch]

Ok, in case anyone's worrying, Jexx's handcannons will not collapse the tunnel. As I've said before, their damage is mostly in thermal, with little penetration and no explosion. He'll probably fry a bunch, if not all, of the lines and cables lining the tunnel. He doesn't care about collateral damage, even if it is important. That's up to Ryudo.
I'm also leaving it up to Ryudo just exactly how many of the turrets Jexx hit, because I didn't actually say so.

[Tapewolf]

He'll probably fry a bunch, if not all, of the lines and cables lining the tunnel. He doesn't care about collateral damage, even if it is important. That's up to Ryudo.

Let me see if I've got this lined up, assuming he goes for it all:

* He'll have killed the power to whatever lighting is in the tunnel (I'm assuming there is some since the tunnel seems to be accessed by the Brotherhood fairly regularly).  This will cause Dorcan problems.

* He'll have broken the link to the relay transmitters, cutting off the cables that Dorcan was studying and setting up a fault condition that the Brotherhood will immediately detect, even if the turret hasn't reported them already

* We don't yet know if cutting the power/signal to the transmitters is fatal.  If he ends up killing half the town, he'll have a large number of very angry rebels after his blood as well as the Brotherhood.  I can see Morgan trying to execute him.

[techmaster-glitch]

Ok, he probably won't actually blow away many cables. He actually does have fairly good aim, he just likes over-kill.

But if an edit is needed, I'll do it.

EDIT: Actually, I don't think it would even do that much damage anyway.

First off, i was assuming there was no lighting in the tunnel, hence the constant reference to his handcaccons lighting the weay. That's not a problem.

If one of the rebel guys stepped on a remoted activator plate, stealth be dammed, I see absolutely no reason why that alone would not make a blip on a Tower comp screen.

Finally, I thought that the signal has already been cut off to that Chad guy, and he seemed fine last we saw. I am baffled that we didn't get a straight answer before we left the camp.
Also, I don't where the idea popped up that the tunnel is what was relaying the signal. I thought we were in agreement that it must be some sort of radio transmitter from the top of the tower, and that these tunnels are just some sort od maintenance accessways.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... he'll also raise the temperature of the tunnel a marked amount, which the number of bodies are going to do anyway. So everyone is going to get hot and humid and grumpy and nasty to deal with - and that's the guys on your -own- team.

... And he's going to miss some of the turrets, anyway.


Care to reconsider, tech? ;-] (you're welcome not to, btw. This is in no way an admin comment- just an interested bystander making smart remarks...)

[techmaster-glitch]

His plasma balls won't raise the ambient temperature. They don't work that way. they are far to focused to do something like that.

And yes, I will reconsider, if needed. But not until someone actually says, "you f***ed up". However, when that does happen, I will own up to my mistake and correct it. But only if someone actually says it's a mistake.