We're kicking this thing off. Slacker, phlapjack77, Thanee, Dakka Fiend and Mach_Ten are our players.

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/ dice room history: http://invisiblecastle.com/campaign/rolls/31077/
/ All rolls must be made in the room, and must be clearly identified as to who the roll is for and what task it is for.
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This thread is for character discussion and building. Welcome to a democracy. I want each of you to post with one or more ideas (preferably two or three) about what role or concept you want to play. Also if there is a role that you are /not/ interested in, feel free to mention that as well.

I would like for everyone to use the Chummer for their character. Max avail is 12. No “F” class gear. Use Karma build, 750 points. I will /probably/ allocate some additional Karma points/cash to spend during “training”. I will have each of you save your character and email it to me: blackbox543@gmail.com

Here’s what we do not need: Hacker. Rigger.

Here is what we do need: Infantry types, a mage (combat or diverse), and a hybrid (if possible)

I also need a team leader. Any of you leader types in RL or want to play one?

Here is a very important note: Your characters are not just all randomly selected to be part of a shadowrun team, as is typical with most games. In this game, the recruiters have been looking for specific types of people, so they have looked at hundreds of individuals, rejected most, and taken a few. You are those few.

Characters will need to have some overlapping expertise.

I need two characters who have at least 2 skill in Pilot Ground Craft.
I need two medics, whether magical or not.

Everyone should have one or two points in each of the following: First Aid, Climbing, Infiltration, Navigation, Survival, Swimming, Unarmed Combat, Etiquette, Perception, Pistols, Dodge, Automatics (if you come up short, don't fret. I'll probably throw a few extra karma in for PMC training)

It will be useful if one or two have points in: Longarms, Locksmith, Leadership, Instruction, Shadowing, Heavy Weapons, Tracking, Demolitions, Negotiation, Gunnery

I do not want any pure melee characters. Its fine to be awesome at melee, as long as you can also shoot a rifle or pistol (or cast spells)

You may take positive and negative qualities, but I will be a nazi about this, and will reject those that do not seem appropriate or do not fit with the game. Remember that your character has been recruited and tested for suitability by a company. So they’ll be weeding out most of the nut jobs, addicts, pacifists and so forth.

Will absolutely be using Composure and such from the War! book. (WIL + CHA)

I do not want to see weapons generated from scratch - I’ve seen this abused in the past. Use weaponry in the books. Accessories and such are fine, but if it seems to get out of hand I will have to lock it down.

Items, weapons, spells generally allowed from: SR4 main book, of course, Arsenal, War!, Runner’s Companion, Street Magic, Augmentation. (I may nix things from the expansion books if they don’t work for my game)

Don't worry about contacts. You don't need any. Also don't buy any vehicles.

I strongly encourage you to take Spanish as a knowledge skill.

edit: In the chummer under Tools > Options > House Rules, there is an option for "Karma Build: Free Knowledge Skills Like BP Build" Check it. Enjoy.

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So go for it. Talk about what you /want/ to play, but try to be flexible, in case we end up with 3 physical adepts or something. Ask questions if you got 'em.

My first idea is a mystic adept that is mainly geared towards avoiding injury and protecting those around him. He's good on his own defense, but he also has significant counterspelling abilities to protect the team from magic.
I noticed that nobody mentioned in the original thread that they wanted to play a full on mage. Do we think the team needs a robust mage character? As it stands not I wasn't planning on taking a whole bunch of spells so that I could let most of my Magic points go to adept powers to let him maintain a significant combat ability.

Since we're all part of some kind of paramilitary organization, is there going to be some kind of standard equipment loadout we should take? For instance, should we bother buying weapons / armor, or will they be supplied?

I nominate Mach_Ten as team lead, since he's the one who mentioned he has actual military experience. Apologies if others also have military exp...

First concept: Infantry/Comms. Can always keep a signal between the team, provide battlefield visibility, possibly deny the enemy visibility and comms.
Second concept: Infantry/Hardware/Computer. Not a hacker, more like he can get doors open and knows enough about computers to operate a facility's systems. Like Hudson from Aliens.
Third concept: Infiltrator/Demolitions. The first guy in to a hot zone, with sneakiness and silent options for close-up missions.

buy gear normally. There will be additional opportunity - of course - to purchase more stuff, but do go ahead and get some weapons/armor etc.

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Another one - will there be much (any?) of the game that takes place when the characters aren't on a mission? If the game is mostly mission-oriented, many qualites wouldn't really make sense. For instance, having something like the Negative Quality: Dependent.

The characters will be transported to an exotic land for their contracting work.

Like I wrote in the other other thread, first concept would be Heavy Weapons/Demolitions/Mechanic guy. Was thinking HW primary, Demo and Mechanic second.

Second: Survivalist, Geography geek, Linguist; Basically your local guide to everywhere if you don't have a local you can trust. Secondary could be anything left over, say hot-shot driver/pilot/captain. Might wanna go Adept for a few points, depending on how much Magic we already got in the group.

Third: Generalist. Karmagen's pretty kind to that sort of characters and a universal back up can't hurt. Could work as leader who assigns his specialists the important jobs and then takes whatever's left over. Hey, it's not a democracy if there's just one candidate. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Thanks for the vote (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

just to expand, my military career went as far as making the tea from a big urn in the armoury.

the closest I came to actual combat was trying to bargain with my Alsatian guard dog while patrolling the fence in Kosovo (he wanted to chase down a particularly nasty looking hedgehog ! who he spotted half a klick away, and I thought he was chasing down a local ... Loved that dog)

so I'm fine to play leader .. as long as you expect to be making lots of tea .... and scones ! and foot massages

That aside .. Characters. (All non-Magical) options:

I need to think more .. seems my ideas are similar in concept to Phlapjack (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I like this idea! Take adept and the Linguist quality...

If you don't use it, maybe I'll steal it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

@phlapjack77: Sure, why not. Melanin Control and a point in Facial Sculpt would be nice too, should be enough to blend in almost everywhere (when you're the only human among trolls, you're SOL).

@Mach_Ten: Wish I had had a dog. All I got was my weekly allotment of half a day's worth of paperwork. So i see your tea and raise you one set of hand-carved duty rosters. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yeah you got me ... 6 months in a hell hole and nothing but admin and paperwork ... I think I'd have gone slightly crazy ...
but it did remind me of the game I played to death out there (yes, I shipped my PC in my luxury package instead of any other home comforts) .. can you guess from the lyrics ?

War!
Never been so much fun!
War!
Never been so much fuuuun!
War!
Never been so much fun!
War!
Never been so much fuuuun!

Go to your brother
Kill him with your gun
Leave him dying in his uniform
Dying in the sun

Bah I hate you. Now I'll have to try and get it to run in Wine or some other emulator! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Seconded! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


As mentioned in the other thread, my character concept would be awakened scout/sniper.

I think Slacker mentioned Mystic Adept.

So, we are still lacking a full Mage... I could certainly fill that role (i.e. Mage (more the diverse type) / Sniper). A Mystic Adept (with emphasis on the Mage side) could also work, of course.


Oh, and what do you mean with "hybrid"? A mage with cyberware?

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Never used Chummer, as I prefer to do things by hand... but I will take a look.

Let's see...

Pilot Ground Craft - Probably (if points suffice, but it is something I generally like to have; it's pretty weird not to be able to drive a car, after all)
Magical Medic - Check
Basic Training - Check (glad we are using Karma Generation, which makes it much easier to pick up a bunch of low-level skills) -- not a big fan of Dodge, tho, as it's fairly useless as a skill
Longarms - Check
Shadowing - Check
Heavy Weapons - Probably (for those Anti-Material Rifles, aka Assault Cannon - the reaaally big sniper rifles (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )
Tracking - Check

Planning on taking... at least 1-2 Ranks, key skills higher, of course.

Athletics Group
Conjuring Group
Firearms Group (with extra Ranks in Longarms) -- and there's a question here, already. Can we break up Skill Groups during character generation (i.e. take Firearms Group to 3 and raise Longarms to 5)?
Outdoors Group
Sorcery Group
Stealth Group

Heavy Weapons
Unarmed Combat
Diving
Parachuting
Pilot Groundcraft
Pilot Aircraft (maybe just a Rank to know the basics)
Etiquette
Leadership (maybe, depends a bit on our rank structure, but I was thinking about having some military rank from a military past, like Lieutenant, so I could make a fine second-in-command -- I do not have actual RL military experience, though, but should know enough about it still)
Assensing
Perception
Armorer
First Aid

We'll see how much of this I can actually afford. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Bye
Thanee

Restricted Gear Quality for higher AV Ratings ok?

And no "F" rules out a lot of stuff that is extremely fitting... like sniper rifles, silencers, a number of assault rifles, many ammo types, standard grenades, grenade launchers, heavy weapons, many explosives, military-grade armor (though that is probably ok, as it is AV 16+ also).

You might want to rethink that restriction (maybe a case-by-case decision is better here)! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

At the time I wanted to have two spellcasters on the team, but I think one should suffice. By hybrid I meant someone who tried to cover spells and other skill groups.

I think we should be fine with one mage.

I'm going this route because your characters will be 'fresh off the boat' in the respect that they've just been recruited. So the gear that you're choosing during chargen is exactly the same as any other SR game, because this is the gear that they're picking up in Seattle or wherever they're from. There will be plenty of chance to pick up heavier equipment.

You can buy F gear in normal chargen, though.

Huh, I thought I read that you couldn't. Very well! F rated stuff is available (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, Shadowrunners like forbidden stuff a lot, too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

What you cannot do, is get it licensed... so it is nothing you should carry around in the city.

Bye
Thanee

If Slacker is going the Mystic Adept route, he will also have some minor spellcasting for sure.

Bye
Thanee

My current thoughts for background are like this, please let me know if that is ok/fitting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Tatjana Ivanova, call sign "Nova", is an ex-military with a couple years of experience. Being awakened, her talents were quite valuable and so she was quickly drawn into an officer career.
Her unit didn't like being led by the "witch woman" and therefore took every opportunity to make her look bad.
One such incident escalated quite badly and evolved into a firefight between her and her squad. She turned herself invisible and killed two in the resulting shooting before security forces bravely broke them up and thus probably saved her life.
Everyone involved was thrown into a cell for a month while investigations were run. Since the guys from her unit testified (falsely) against her, she was discharged dishonorably. She wasn't accused for murder, though, since that couldn't be proven and was written off as an accident.
As a trained killer, she could have taken a good job in the corporate world, but that wasn't what she wanted.
In the coming year, she ended up with some rather shady contacts who got her into the mercenary business. This way, she also gained some information that she had been looking for.
A good year after her discharge, the remaining members of her squad were all killed in action. Her involvement in these killings was suspected but could never be proven.
A few months later, Tatjana signed up with a private military contractor, hoping for a bit more stability in her life.

Qualities:

Magician or Mystic Adept 10-15 BP
Mentor Spirit (maybe) 0-5 BP
Black Market Pipeline (weapons) 10 BP
Hawk Eye 5 BP
Restricted Gear (maybe getting a light military-grade armor, if that is acceptable, and/or possibly a heavy weapon) 0-10 BP

SINner 5 BP
Bad Rep 5 BP
Poor Self Control (Compulsive; constantly checks her equipment and cleans her weapons) 5 BP
Poor Self Control (Vindictive) 10 BP
Records on File (UCAS Military) 10 BP

Bye
Thanee

This all looks fine to me.

In the chummer under Tools > Options > House Rules, there is an option for "Karma Build: Free Knowledge Skills Like BP Build"

Check that, it'll give you free knowledge skills. You're welcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Okay so far my ideas are :

1) "pointy Eared Bastard" Former Quarter Master Sergeant, Elf,
"you want all the best toys ? I can get them, for a price!. "
"you think you can take me ? you ain't getting paid to THINK sunshine, now frag off!"
Bio engineered to be Agile and highly proficient in dual SMG's

2) Orc-gineer .. slightly deaf from overuse of explosives, Orc Cyber SAM former Grunt.
"Can you put an under barrel grenade launcher on a grenade launcher ?! ... if you need to ask then you is a pussy boy!"
What's the worst that can happen ? I lost an arm in the last explosion, but I gots dis shiny new one right here !

I'm leaning in favour of (1) but anything can be fun