Jay Dugger wrote:

...if you can't tell this story from memory, then I feel old. ...The final line of the story was the first line of the bedtime story he read to her--the first line of Neuromancer.

The thing that makes me feel old is that there's now an entire generation that misreads the first line of Neuromancer: "The sky was the color of a television set tuned to a dead channel." (or something like that) My generation: black-and-white static Everyone since: Oh, what a pretty blue!

"Trash" episode from Firefly immediately comes to mind. The "Lassiter" pistol has historic value and is one-of-a-kind. Plus you've got every type of character all doing something. If they had a hacker, it would have been a very different episode though... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash_(Firefly)

Quincey Forder wrote:

you want Heist with EP paradigm concept? watch Inception.

Exactly. it has all the stages in a heist movie (a crime in progress, the offer of the mission, temporary decline of the mission, gathering the team, planning in a warehouse, the execution of the heist, the complication/twist, scattering of the team, reassembling of the team/closure). Every character has a function in the team (or will get it through the plot).

Our GM has written up some material for our upcoming bank heist. Take a look: The Erato Heist The Oversight agent known only has Manjappa has engineered governmental collapses and extinguished hundreds of lives in pursuit of his aims. Despite Firewall’s best efforts and an increasing number of dedicated resources, the opposition’s ultimate goal remains a mystery, and Manjappa has begun bloody retribution on those agents he has managed to identify. However, in an attempt to betray before being betrayed, the reclusive triad master Yuon has revealed Majappa’s purpose on Luna to Team Kraken: the robbery of a prominent LLA bank. Proxy Clean and his erasure squad used the team’s intel to find the cat’s paws in the mines beneath the city. The residents of the Erato address turned out to be The Haunted Stars, the inner system’s most notorious bank robbers. Now, the team must interrogate these master criminals, find out what they were after, and figure a way to snatch their only chance at catching the prey before it is too late. How a group of battered, exhausted, and rushed spies plan to manage such a feat in the face of the most sophisticated security systems ever devised remains to be seen…. Heist Mechanic Success or failure in the job will be determined by how effectively the robbers can co-opt, bypass, or otherwise eliminate bank security. As no bank in the history of the LLA has ever been successfully robbed, this will be no easy task. All attempts to subvert the system start out at a -30 modifier, and additional difficulty modifiers can still be applied. However, researching the system, accessing security terminals, bribing guards, using sousveillance devices, and other actions designed to avoid security measures hinder security as a whole. For instance, the system’s limited AI will delay an alarm when an unregistered person shows up in a secure area if it can’t figure out how she got in the building in the first place. Response will be severely hampered if the system is, say, turned off entirely. Each piece of intel learned and subversive action taken will have a token payment/cost associated with it. The more token’s accrued, the easier it is to get by undetected. Security is divided up into four major sections. Access entails security hardpoints like vault doors, mantraps, passkeys, firewalls, and security checkpoints. Surveillance covers all the cameras, spimes, chem-sniffers, nano-detectors, and back-hacks used to identify and respond to threats. Defenses covers automated and manned martial response to physical or cyberwarfare attacks, as well as coordination with LLA law enforcement for the pursuit of any targets that manage to escape the immediate grounds. Finally, Forensics entails the combined weight of the previous components; it represents the sad fact that getting away is not the same as getting away with it. Robbers wanting to avoid identification should worry about this score. Security Measure -20 -10 Base +10 +20 MOXIE POINT Access Surveillance Defenses Forensics INTEL REPORT Below is the intel The Haunted Stars gathered for each component of the security system. More countermeasures undoubtedly exist on the Operations Level, but while their employer provided them with considerable scouting reports on the job, the exact specs for equipment protecting the vault was not available. The layout and some entry points are known, but the endgame of the heist will have to remain a surprise. The Stiverson Building The Stiverson Building is monolithic “domescraper” located near the northern edge of Erato in the banking district. The building is backed on two sides by the underground city’s protective dome, the roof coming within inches of the curvature of the dome. The accessible sides of the building are surrounded by a garish industrial park hundreds of yards long. This courtyard exterior is shared by many LLA banks and considered a huge waste of space, but the lines of sight provide additional security. The windows are all made of shatter-resistant, “diamond” glass. Two skywalks connect the building to other domescrapers in the area. In addition to pedestrian transport, both skyways are crammed with businesses. The bank-level skywalk contains a number of high-end specialty morph and technology firms. This walkway connects to Mikoto Tower, a for-rent office space building containing many smaller banking interests. Linking Stiverson to the fashion complex Bounding Grace is the Market walkway. This path contains an open air farmer’s market and connects to Vital Victuals, the Stiverson Buildings primary leaser. Vital Victuals Specializing in high-end, actual-grown produce, Vital Victuals production facilities take up nearly 40 floors of the Stiverson building. Victuals caters to the elitist, neoprimative class of society that finds fabricated foodstuff unhealthy or dangerous. They’ve turned Stiverson into a vertical greenhouse, carefully maintaining and harvesting genetically engineered foodstuffs along story after story of lattice work. The majority of Victuals production is done by indentures sleeved in dragonfly morphs, but they do bring in outside executives to manage advertisements and sales. As such they have an employee entrance. While taking up the majority of the building, Victuals has almost no control of its operation and infrastructure beyond climate control and irrigation. Cleary and Dutch are quite happy to share the building with this microcorp; they provide nearly 400 feet of buffer zone between them and potential intruders. Cleary and Dutch The same bank that the PC used to house their black budget for Oversight houses Manjappa’s prize; essentially, the man’s plan all along was to rob his own bank. Clearly and Dutch occupies the 43rd to 47th floors of the building. Manjappa wants whatever is inside security deposit box 5683-7243, risk be damned. OPPOSITION Players will have to make research checks to get the stats on all the active threats they might face in the bank. The Haunted Stars were content to know which opponents were sleeved in biomorphs and which were not; they relied on their async powers for the rest. The Firewall agents may want to be more cautious. BLUEPRINTS AND CASING A. Security Planters (Surveillance +1 or -1/ Forensics +1 or -1) Semi-organic smart flora decorate the industrial park surrounding the approach to the building. The plants are low to the ground to prevent obscuring the line of sight extending for 100 yards around the structures base. Each “flower bed” is equipped with quantum dots, lidar, T-ray emitters, nano-detectors, and chem-sniffers. The surveillance equipment is disguised but not shielded from crazers or EMP. While unable to trigger an alarm autonomously, destruction of the input will put TOFAS on high alert. Skills: Perception 60 (all spectrums and senses) B. Void Statuary (Surveillance +1/Forensics +2/ Defenses -2) “The Frontier of Void” is a piece of corporate art commissioned from famed sculptor Vasily Tilday. Meant visually and kinetically to emulate the appeal of continued space exploration, the statue looks like a tuning fork of black obsidian roughly 40 meters high. The gap between columns projects a holographic display of shifting galactic vistas whilst a complex software manipulates the habitats air processors into sending a subtle breeze towards the projection, as if the viewer is being drawn in. In reality, the purpose of the sculpture is more utilitarian than artistic. The fork doubles as a communications array for TOFAS, snatching terabytes of communication from the local mesh and processing them for statistical anomalies. More insidiously, the sculpture also doubles as a kill switch for mesh inserts. Any morph manufactured in LLA territory is automatically installed with these DRM’s inserts. In the range of the statue, all mesh profiles active are forced out of privacy mode. Since it is rare for privacy advocates or anti-capitalists to find themselves in the heart of LLA finance, many are completely unaware of this security measure. Any attempt to disable this feature that looks the least bit suspicious will put guards on high alert. Skills: Interfacing 70 C. Sensor and Sniper Banks (Defenses +1) These tiny elevators can move vertically on two sides of the domescraper and contain sniper bot. The defenses are automated and must be triggered by a TOFAS command, so they are incapable of raising alarm by themselves. However, the sniper rifles contained within have access to a massive field of fire by transhuman standards of space. D. Banking Skywalk (Surveillance +1/Defenses +2 / Forensics +1) A modular skywalk typical amongst domescrapers in Erato, this particular walkway serves as an employee entrance for Cleary and Dutch bank. The skywalk seems not different from other, but it is covered by visual surviellance of all types, patrolled by Guardian Angel bots, and contains nested “rubber” bots capable of hunter/killer action. E. Market Skywalk (Surveillance +1/ Forensics +1) Much like the banking skywalk, this walkway serves as a traffic-relieving path between domescrapers. However, the west walkway serves as employee entrance to Vital Victuals Hanging Gardens. As such, while surveillance equipment abound and entrance into the building is still monitored, less automated defenses are present. This skywalk has the added benefit of doubling as a (very) open air farmer’s market catering to glitterati and hyper-elite customers too cool for fabricated food. In the climate controlled perfection of Erato, the market is open and bustling with business 24/7. F. Entrance/ Evacufall (Access +2/ Surveillance -3) This is a standard, revolving-door entrance for any high-traffic business office. The glass is reinforced and immune to all by HEAP and plasma fire. The door themselves can serve as a mantrap if trigger by TOFAS or the security station in plain sight, but it has no sensors embedded. The room doubles as an evacufall landing site in an emergency; both floor and ceiling retract as high-pressure metal sheets drop over the glass, pressurizing the mile-high tube. This function can be triggered via a security panel in the foyar if it is hacked, providing access to upper floor but also alerting the system of a definite incursion. G. Security Desk (Access +1/ Defenses +2) A number of standard building guards are stationed here. While primarily tasked with assisting visitors, these men are armed and trained. Any agent seeking to impersonate a bank customer must first check-in with these guards and receive permission to move to the lobby. Any agent seeking to impersonate a Hanging Garden’s employee or approved visitor must have their identity confirmed before given access to the elevators H. Hanging Gardens Elevator Bank (Access +1/ Surveillance -2) The Vital Victuals Hanging Gardens take up the bulk of the Stiverson Buildings office space. Specializing in actually grown, organic food, vertically terracing and low gravity irrigation allow the company to produce a massive amount of vegetation in a condensed space. These elevators serve all levels of the Hanging Gardens. While the Gardens are not slaved to TOFAS security, the elevators are. Any transhuman inside will be under careful scrutiny. Explosive bolts can be triggered to access the top of the elevator in an emergency, but blowing off the panel will do a lot to alert the system. Then there is the problem of elevators moving at nearly 75 miles per hour…. There is no direct access to the bank via the Hanging Gardens, but as Manjappa’s plan fell apart, The Haunted Stars entertained it as an option. The crew determined that the irrigation pipes might be used to infiltrate the bank’s Operations level, but seeing as aquatic morphs of small stature weren’t readily available and quite noticeable, the idea was scrapped. I. Upper Mantrap Entrances (Access +1 or -4/ Defenses +2) The Mantrap entrances are nearly identical. The only difference is that one require confirmation as a Cleary and Dutch employee, while the other requires confirmation as a Hanging Gardens employee. The outer door will admit anyone, merely issuing a warning about needing to present identification. However, the inner door require a biometric scan, a key code, and a physical pass key (in the form of a ring). Furthermore, no one may enter alone; at least two employees must go through verification simultaneously before the inner door will open. Any anomalies will lock the mantrap and alert the authorities. The trap is of a diamond-lattice alloy and cannot be broken by conventional means. J. Bank Lobby (Access +1 or none/ Forensics +2) The bank lobby is more for appeal than security. Fine woods and designer furniture adorn the room meant to resemble a fine old-earth financial institution. The lobby is primarily used as an interview facility for new customers. Cleary and Dutch is often more selective than their customers about transactions and requires an in-depth interview process before opening accounts. If agents manage to fool the interviewer and open an account, they can gain an access point to use on the upper levels (they are a welcomed guess) at the cost of revealing tons of traceable information. If the agents already convinced the bank they were clients, the lobby is merely passed through on the way to the elevator. K. Brainscan Checkpoint (All +1 or -3) All clients must submit brainscans upon opening accounts. These scans must be confirmed via the 5 minute rescanning procedure every time a client wishes to access his or her holdings. If passed, the confirmed identity will do wonders to lessen the TOFAS system’s alert level. If failed, immediate action will be taken by the guards and system. L. Bank Elevator (Access +1/ Surveillance -3) This dedicated elevator heads straight to the Operations Level. It is monitored by the system and only engaged at the behest of authorized personnel. Maintenance subroutines can be hacked to make the car operate, but unscheduled maintenance will place the system on high alert. Explosive bolts protect the maintenance hatch here as well. M. Evacufall Exit (Access +1/ Surveillance +1 or -2/Forensics +1) Considering the low gravity of Luna and the potential devastation in any disaster that might occurred in a pressurized habitat, stairs simply do not cut it for evacuation of a domescraper. As such, the Stiverson building is equipped with tubes that provide a 50 story drop to ground level. A fall from this height would still be deadly, but powerful fans at the base of the tube kick on and sufficiently slow the fall of any morph in lunar gravity. The walls of this tube are smooth down to the micrometer to avoid damaging any evacuees. Furthermore, in the events of an actual emergency, embedded artificial glands coat the walls in a film of Slip. As such, the Evacufall can only be ascended using specially modified spindle climbers, and even then only if not in an emergency. However, required smoothness of the walls and the typically sealed nature, the Evacufall’s are some of the few places in the facility not under surveillance. Exiting the Evacufall requires hacking an emergency door under control of TOFAS. N. Emergency Exit (Access +1/ Surveillance -2) The actual door used to escape the building after using the Evacufall. These are sealed from the outside and have no handles. LLA security keeps an override control panel nearby just in case of emergencies. It can be hacked, but the panel is in the middle of an open area full view of the Cleary and Dutch barracks. O. Barracks Elevator (Access +1/ Defenses +2 or -4) This elevator connects the guard barracks to the bank’s ground level and operations level interior. Unlike the other elevators, it is not monitored by cameras, but accessing the elevator is only possible from secured areas. Disabling the elevator will hamper Defense mobility greatly, but alarming anyone as to the elevator’s compromise will put the P. Elevated Barracks (Defenses +4 or -5) The Barracks where bank guards live has no access from the ground. Quick-drop spindle ladders descend in case guards need to be deployed on the ground. Otherwise, security personnel is 100% indenture and does not leave the building. Guards remain on a randomized schedule and rotate between a numbers of various postings. As hours are difficult and freedom limited, the barracks are rather nice as a form of compensation. Sleeved in fancy Exalt morphs, Cleary and Dutch guards are psychologically screened and manipulated for maximum loyalty and morale. Q. Basement Hatch (Access+1) In case of Service Elevator malfunction, this hatch was installed to provide access to the maintenance basement. There is no ladder; the purpose is only to send someone down to fix the problem. Coming up through the hatch would require some damn fancy climbing, but as the maintenance level already has its own security measures, the hatch is not considered a security priority and goes unmonitored. R. Industrial Airlock (Access +2 or -4) This airlock connects the building’s basement to the series of underground tunnels used for infrastructure maintenance all over the city. If access is gained to the tunnels, the airlock can be hacked. However, an industrial airlock is extremely secure and hacking will be a difficult task action. Worse yet, hacking the door will merely open it; a forced entry won’t feed disable codes to the security corridor that follows. S. Security Corridor (Access +1/ Defenses +1 or -4) If not disabled by a combination of LLA and bank security codes, this corridor is crosshatched with a dizzying number of laser tripwires in constant, randomized pattern shifts. Every surface of the 100 yard long hallway is pressure sensitive. If pressure is detected, or if the lasers are tripped, the irrigation pipes feeding water to the Hanging Gardens dump and flood the corridor, in addition to the alarm sounding. But if someone can manage to get through the minefield, the door on the other side is unprotected; I mean, why would it be? T. Underground Maintenance and Fabrication (Defenses +1 or +2) Much like the rest of the building, this section of the building is covered in visual and aucustic surveillance of all types. However, chem-sniffers and nano-dectors are not used due to the volatile matter often under manipulation on the factory floor. The surveillance is also fed through a security substation to avoid signal interference and promote redundant systems. The factory floor is dominated by dormant nanomanipulator’s used to manufacture tooles and parts for building maintenance. These glowing-blue, fractal fronds serve as high-speed fabricators for the all the building’s needs. However, if an alarm is triggered, security will identify any unauthorized persons in the maintenance bay as matter in need of recycling. If the fractal fronds manage to catch an intruder, they will latch on and begin speed disassembly. Criminals unlucky enough to survive the first round can make a SOM x 2 to escape, but suffer 1d10 SV regardless. Nanomanipulator’s take damage like swarms, but these factory versions are not EMP shielded. Taking control of the nanomanipulator’s would enable the on-site construction of any number of nasty security countermeasures. U. Service Elevator (Access +2/ Forensics -2) The Service Elevator goes to all levels of the building. It is unmonitored by cameras, but a passcode is needed to make it operational. The keypad can be hacked, but all service elevator use is recorded by the system. Using it to infiltrate will give investigators a very clear idea how intrusion occurred after the fact. V. Security Substation (Defenses +2/ Surviellance +2/Forensics +2) The Security Substation is manned. It is typically covered by two very bored guards pissed they caught the worst shift. The basement security substation is one of the few input stations for TOFAS. It has no programming capability, but this hardpoint is capable of sending information requests to the system and disabling minor systems like the seismic detectors W. Evac-Ladders (Access +1) Maintenance and security personell would have to go up to escape the building, so ladders leading to the evacufall are available. As only security is allowed on this level of the building, the ladders are unmonitored. X. Seismic Detectors (Surveillance +1) Seismic Detectors prevent any drilling into the building from below. They are not wireless though, and their output is run through the security substation. Y. Abandoned HE-3 Mine (Access +1) The Haunted Stars identified an abandoned HE-3 prospecting vein from the early days of Erato. It runs directly under the building. A dissembler swarm and explosion could easily be used to dig towards the exterior and breech it. The only problem is the ultra-sensitive seismic detectors surrounding the basement. Each is easily capable of detected a transhuman’s footsteps, and there aren’t exactly moles on Luna. Z. Power Station and Climate Control (Varies) This room has the direct conduit to Erato’s fusion power plant. Power distribution is controlled by TOFAS, but the actual juice enters the basement. Cutting off electricity, while extremely noticeable and alarming, will wreak havoc on security’s ability to organize response to threats. TOFAS will remain functional on battery power, but safety protocols will institute an automatic, draconian lockdown of the building as damaging to the mobility of employees as it is to intruders. The Climate Controls for the building—everything ranging from Vital Victuals soil PH to the air conditioning system—can be hacked and controlled from this location. As climate is really more the concern of Victuals, TOFAS is not allowed control of the system. The security program can detect changes and assign investigators, but the AI is powerless to stop environmental changes remotely.