Heist the Colours (OOC)

no preference, don't mind splitting up either. I'm evenly happy reading your story as making my own. :)

If we want an in-game reason to all go together (even if it is just to sit in the car with Abby (allowing for intervention if needed)) I can easily introduce a complication with the first meeting that means you have to move now.

Trading subgame
Maybe I have e different version of the book(but I think it is the newest one) but on page 188, there is nothing about repairing ships. Only about building ships. But maybe I have misread something? Besides: It makes sense that you can not build spaceship without Shipyard and star port. But repairing it should be possible in many more situations.

Instead on page: 159, we have a section about repairing ships. And there is also a price for 1 ton of spare parts, and that is... Cr100 000 :) Way beyond Raf budget right now.

So:
- the way I understand it - ship parts are very tradable, wherever any ships are operating. And that's logical to me. Especially considering this sentence from rulebook: "Spare parts can be purchased at the cost of Cr100000 per ton and capable captains will always ensure they carry some in reserve."
- still they are too expansive for what we are talking here about, for Raf, for now:)

So let's leave this option out for now.
Fully true:) So if our aim is to try this subsystem(I think it is?) and make some money for the team, let's leave out all the expensive/RP items like ship parts or cybernetics(as you also suggested). Let's assume that Raf knowing that running a ship is costly, wanted to secure some basic income for the team. So what are the best good to buy on this planet? :) You were talking about something made from sand??

Additionaly: let's remember, that for now we are restricted by Gig's 8.6 cargo hold - or we are not?
After some consideration: Let's not complicate things too much for now.
Yeah, generally I agree, but one detail: I think there will be always some market for replacement limbs - nothing fancy, just getting back to full capability after some unfortunate accident. And if the technology is so rare - the better for us:D
Exactly. Let's do it that way.
Yes, end goal it is - for me.
Yes, Raf wants to get to some power. Without money for fuel it may be quite hard... :) So I think the training will be not a one thing.
Let's start with mechanics, and we will check what dice will tell us, then add the RP.
I'm for it.
You read in my mind. Are you Psionic? :)
Sounds like adventure :D Two geeks, their friends and some... Weird Science... ;)

And all of this brings us to funny thing: because as far as I remember we already established that the ship already has Medical Bay installed in it - in the ship thread, don't we?
I also thought at first that depot is a building/space station and that is were we will be building the medical thing. But now that we all know that it is not...

It means that we are pretending to build a medical bay in the ship... that already have one... :) What is really interesting twist(that we unconsciously brought on ourselves:D ) . It could mean that:
- we already did, or will have to mess with the records about that ship - to it look in the databases as it not having a mad bay. Maybe it was what Cat was fixing for us?
- we could... pretend... that we have finished our work and installed med bay(even though it was there already) in it after some time, and maybe take it for a "test run" with... a ship? Or something like that? That could made it easier for us to leave with a ship without someone instantly fallowing us:D

To make it clear: I think we established that ship has med bay, but the cybernetics lab was planed to come much later.

I think I said we didn't need one because it was too much of a coincidence.
Than vague replied with: a cybernetics lab is even more 'special'

But feel free to prove me wrong 😁 so much has been said

If need be we change the installation to 'a new bathroom, mess,... Whatever. It's just an excuse anyway.

I will check it later. And have no problem if you are right:) But it could bring another twist:

Maybe we are really installing the Medical Bay in the ship? For real? If we wanted it from the start? Now... it won't be a "coincidence"? :D

"Spending money ?!? When did you last check the prices for ship parts Ronny?!? We have to check every penny now." ;) ;) ;)

I'm not entirely against black market deal, but I thought we do it for hacking software for Abby? If yes, I would prefer to get the computer in other way. To not repeat if that will be the another aspect of our heist within the heist. Or you mean: we just spend money and thats all?

We can split if you want, if you think that would be more "Ronny way", no problem with me. Raf will find something to do and I'm busy IRL so can wait with my posting for the end of Ronnys action at the building too - no problem.

You are right. There are specific rules for repairing ships, presumably in the field. Though a Shipyard might still be needed for more serious stuff than you can do by hand.

They call out damaged weapons as being a thing you need to get replaced, which is probably a Shipyard job. Not all Shipyards are official, so getting clandestine upgrades installed is an option.
Quite possibly, but I don't see them listed in the lists of goods, and they have a flat rate, so you will need to RP most attempts at profit. When someone really needs a catalyser, they will pay in blood.

But that might not be all that common, 'capable captains' make sure they already have the spares they need, and can't risk the vicissitudes of the open market (hence the fixed price).
Yeah, though only slightly more expensive than those Advanced Machine Parts (it did not quite feel like that category covered Ship Parts).
In a city called Fiberville? I assumed they specialised in fiber-optic cables (nice and resistant to electromagnetic interference and crucial for spaceships?). Here they might be Common Electronics, elsewhere --especially after supply-chain disruption-- they might be Advanced Electronics. You probably won't get better profits than buying things in one category and selling them as another.

We can say this planet has the tags Industrial, and High-Tech. And you guys can propose any other tags you think it might have. Most goods that fit those tags will be fair game.
Nothing else has been loaded onto your actual ship, so you will need to have arranged for it to be in Bob's Gig's hold.

If you planned ahead (dice will tell how well) you might have sent all the Tons you can afford to a place where you can pick them up after you leave.

Let's maybe say you still need to rendezvous with your contacts to get the Ship Ident/Registry changed before you leave the local systems? So maybe you stashed your stash with them? (Trustworthy, are they?:)
Yes. Your cybernetic replacements will be much better than the prosthetic ones easily available. Once you can make them you will have a regular demand. Enough demand that these skills might often be the reason you and your team are called to go somewhere.

After we have dealt with settling into the ship, I can bring in some medical need for you to look into which can get you started on the Lab and and Medbay before you know it.
Fuel leads to Power, Power leads to...
Can do. Do you want to wait till we are done with the Heist RP so we can know how much money you have to spend?
It's my job. Anticipating players' needs. Fulfilling players desires...

And you already have Medic 4, so adding +1 (or whatever a Medbay does) to that is less important if you are around to do the medical. I think we agreed you might find you want one later after someone else has to do medicals on you.
I don't think you had one.

"Install? Upgrade? Repair? ... the medical bay" are all valid excuses. But the details of what you are saying you are doing is not all that important, since you don't actually know how to install anything. :)
That might be above your Skills. And would take more money than you have. A DIY Medbay will cost a fair bit less than the MCr2 (2 million), but still cost a lot.

Is there no way of doing the same without a complication? I feel like everything is already way too complicated and we've only just begun.
Hehe, understood ;)

---

@vagueGM, I don't see the benefit (story wise) of playing out getting this computer. In an in person game it would be fine, you can do it pretty quickly, but in PbP I feel like it's just going to slow things down unnecessarily without adding much of value. Unless you plan for us to get valuable extra information from that 'side-quest'. But it also risks getting us way off track.

If I'm seeing this wrong, feel free to say so.

As a halfway solution, we could split up into 2 paths.
1) Abby + some people go do the black market trade that we still need to do. (There still is that to do, right?)
2) Ronny + the other(s) get the computer
We could have a thread each and then come back together at (or on the way to) the depot.

That way at least everyone is playing.

Sure. Though the 'complication' is an in-story justification for your all going there together. It is there to make things easier. If we don't want it, we don't need it.

It could be anything from: "You are chased and can't take the time to split up or plan, you have to act now with everyone in tow or abandon the computer." To: "The software dealers recognise you as someone who has access to Cryogen or one of their associates and demand a prototype of their own as 'payment', so you now have to get two."
That is why I left it as a player decision as to how much we play this out.

If we play it, it is a real heist and we would play it as a real mission. We are actually playing the game already.

But you guys get to decide what sorts of scenes we play, and in how much detail.
The 'benefit' is that you get to play with the mechanics of the game in a small, safish, heist scene. If we don't want to play that scene, we can montage it with a single roll. Single-Roll-Montages give you very little scope to fix things when they go wrong, though.
Is there a reason we don't want to take our time, treat it like a real scene, and play it out for as long as it needs? We don't have to if no one wants to.
The 'value' of the scene is the scene. It is the journey not the destination, and all that.

I had not planned for any 'information', just the computer which will make Abby happy (and improve her rolls whenever she is helping you guys in the future, but there are other ways to improve those rolls).
Why split up? That always runs the risk of good rolls resulting in one scene being over quickly with no drama while bad rolls turn the other scene in an exciting life-or-death showdown, and then the former team has to wait.

If we are in an OOC hurry, we can hurry the scenes along.

I don't see any reason OOC to split up. Ronny might not initially want to take the others with him, but we can arrange in-game reasons for him to need to if we want. But we can also have Ronny do it alone if that fits the fiction better.

@TheGenerator, you are the fastest poster in this game, so you could sneak in another, solo, scene while the everyone is playing the 'main' thread. If you want, we can run them in parallel and Ronny could be in both, that actually works quite well at times, even if one scene happened after the other in game-time.

---

This has come up before. I am starting to think we may have to accelerate this part to the point after we get the ship so that the players start to take the events seriously.

I really don't mind doing that. I know that it can be hard to play out events when we know that the ultimate outcome is that you end up with the ship and that you succeed at the heist. I have no 'plans' that I need us to play out, or that I would feel bad about not getting to see, I am literally making this up as we go along and can just as easily make up other stuff elsewhere.

Let me know if --and how much-- we want to speed this along.

That is true, but I trust the GM's judgement on those rolls :) . A bad roll doesn't have to be crippling.
I may have taken something the wrong way. Going to post something in general chat.

No. It should add interest to the story. 'Bad' rolls should be more 'fun' than good ones, to the point where players might even be 'disappointed' when they get good results. I know I am always something-like-disappointed when we get middling results.
It's all good.

Totally agree. As long as it doesn't turn into a frustrating streak😬

I like those suggestions. So I would like to assume that Raf bought "local speciality" of fiber-optic cables like 2 months ago in anticipation of our current departure from the planet in our ship - in order to make some money on it, initially to keep the ship running.

How we do it in practice? New thread? Or doing it later?

Anyone likes to join Raf with this?
I like this idea. Raf would sent it there. If they are trustworthy - we will see... but I'm quite sure they still have those fibre optics there in their stash, that are so common in this system. Maybe they will try to lie about it or something... but I'm sure Raf will find the way to "convince" them that truth is very valuable commodity... too. But maybe they will be ok:) (mostly in order not to prolong - in story terms - our departure from the system...)
:D
Raf naturally would not spend more than half mony he have. He like to diverse his investments:) So if we want to wait - that is not the reason.
Thanks:)

Cool. We can see if anyone else thinks they would be putting money into this endeavour and then work out how/when to play it.

Unless... Cat or someone had really fabricated us such job - installing the med bay - and the components would be already delivered to the depot. So we would not have to pay for it... :)


But let's, leave it the way it is. Only pretending to do it.
My preferences: I liked the prospect of scene with the hacking software dealer. Perspective of doing another heist for the computer was... not bad, quite liked it too. And it would be very interesting if that would be the main/only thing to do.

BUT... let's not add things/branches/parallels of the story indefinitely... because it seems we are getting further away - not closer - to the aim of this "tutorial mission": getting the ship. And I have a feeling that there will be a LOT to do at the star port, then depot, then at ship... and so on. And it may be hard to keep our - players - focus on the main - current - action when everyone will have something parallel to do.

Maybe that is what @TheGenerator also mean? Or something similar?

Yeah. I am nervous about splitting into parallel jobs at this stage of the learning process. If we decide to spend time on the computer heist we can do it after the meeting with the software dealers. The outcome of the one might affect the tone of the other.