 Recruitment: The Last Stand, A walk into the light... |
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 Aug 7 2008, 02:25 AM
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#26
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Running Target  Group: Members Posts: 1,210 Joined: 5-September 05 From: Texas Member No.: 7,685  |
After checking out the other PC that have been thrown up, I'm leaning towards either:
Ithaca - Hermetic combat and detection Mage. An expert in spells but lacking on the summoning. Or Easy (Physical Adept Face/Detective/Good shot with a pistol). I GM mostly so I don't have any ready to go. I'll start fleshing them out. |
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Aug 7 2008, 04:28 AM
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#27
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,973 Joined: 3-October 07 From: Fairfax, VA Member No.: 13,526 |
Updated my prospects, including backgrounds. I'm leaning towards the street sam/face type, since the game he was created for went up in smoke in kind of a lurch.
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Aug 7 2008, 05:11 AM
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#28
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449 |
I have Dancer, from the previous game I was in that fizzled out. She is a combat adept who is also a very good dancer with some face abilities. The good thing about her is that with three areas of focus, it is easier to customize her (more face, less combat, etc.) and still not need to re-write a lot of her background.
Other concepts: Adept detective with mental/perception boosting powers and 'ware . Not very combat-oriented, secondary face abilities. Celtic druid eco-activist combat mage. Dwarven sorcerer who is both a magical and a mundane healer. Gothy chick black magician. Two sammie close-combat specialists. One with secondary face abilities, one with a well-rounded company-man type skillset. |
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Aug 7 2008, 01:32 PM
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#29
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
Gremish, I would be interested to verify if/that you're using the software degradation and piracy rules from Unwired, and see if you would be using the optional open source or freeware rules, also. In either case, I would also like your opinion as to whether any of those are options at character generation - given that no hacker worth his salt is going to register his illegal programs with his SIN, and all three other options cost quite a bit less, than usual.
Spending 50-100K on programs that will dry up in a few months seems bad, but looking back, it seems unlikely that any given character will ever see month 2 - so I'm not worried about it if you're not. |
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Aug 7 2008, 01:53 PM
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#30
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
QUOTE (Blackhat @ Aug 7 2008, 01:11 AM)  Gremish, I would be interested to verify if/that you're using the software degradation and piracy rules from Unwired, and see if you would be using the optional open source or freeware rules, also. In either case, I would also like your opinion as to whether any of those are options at character generation - given that no hacker worth his salt is going to register his illegal programs with his SIN, and all three other options cost quite a bit less, than usual. Spending 50-100K on programs that will dry up in a few months seems bad, but looking back, it seems unlikely that any given character will ever see month 2 - so I'm not worried about it if you're not. I will be blunt, I dont have unwired with me right now, its across the state and I cannot get it for a bit. I have not read the book much so I dont know all the little things about it, so I cant really give you a good run down. I dont really see a need to have degration of the programs though, thats a bit harsh. Once I have the book with me again (which may be a bit) I will happily give you the run down, however for now I leave it to your best judgment, and if worse come to worse we can just not use it for now. Sorry this wasnt much help! |
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Aug 7 2008, 02:07 PM
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#31
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
OK We have 9 players, and thats where I am closing it. From the top here is what everyone has said thus far:
Ears : Street Doc - I think this is a good fit. DWC: Streetsam/Face Type character CNDBlank: Mage/Adapt Glyph: Combat Adapt/Mage Scope_47: Covert Ops / Military Ork / Investigator / Ex-Cop / Stunt Woman - Tough call, all great character types, I would love to see the stunt woman type character played but they are all able to fit into my ideas, let me know what you/the group want to do! Intro: Wilderness guy - Great for this campaign in my opinion. Crizh: Mage / OAP-TM - Matrix is ok... to deal with, I'm not a HUGE fan of it still, and I do the matrix a bit different than normal game play or anyone else I have heard of, I think my way is a bit more fun and interesting. I am not against matrix things at all though, so either character is fine with me. Blackhat - AI / Data Courier - Same deal as Crizh with the matrix, I dont like to use normal rules for it, I will explain that later, but I am also not trying to push people away from it. Data Courier idea is extremely neat to me. Oenone: Techno / Renta-cop - Both ideas are good! I will put up abit more later today as long as I have time, but flesh out what you all are thinking is best for group compision ect. Just as a FYI I am planning this campaign to fit every character type in some way shape and form, so there is NO bad character concepts. Everything works, period. Its just a matter of how WELL it works. Play what you guys want though because I want you to ENJOY the game, dont play something just because it might be a little better than a different character, I would rather you play something you really like so it keeps you more interested! |
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Aug 7 2008, 02:21 PM
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#32
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
Its fine, I'm not against using it, since by default, it is RAW. You can revisit the decision when you get your book back (and I apologize if bringing this up screwed anyone else, but since I'm planning to play a hacker, it probably hurts me the most). I think the main reason they introduced software degradation was because without it, your team hacker just cracks the copy-protection on something, and shares it with the whole team for free - which raises the question why he doesn't share it with the world, for free - which, if it will always function at rating 6, raises the question why anyone would ever pay for any program, ever. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) As soon as one person cracks a copy of a rating 6 firewall, and starts giving it away for free, every device would become awesomely protected, forever.
The degradation rules say that, by default, all legal programs work and cost, as they say in the BBB, but require registration to a specific SIN, and carry copy protection. You get regular updates from whoever you bought it from, so you're always patched and in working shape. However, if you ever use legal programs during illegal activities (such as hacking) there is a data trail leading back to you (so reduce the threshold for tracking programs by 1 for every such program used). That's pretty much a deal breaker for hackers. The alternative is to use pirated code, which has the copy protection taken off, and is no longer registered to a SIN (if it ever was). Buying these from pirate group involves some trivial rolls to make contact with them, but then they cost 10% as much. However, because they're not patched up, they lose one rating point every month or two months depending on the kind of program. You can also buy cracked patches for 10% of the usual cost (the difference between the cost of the current and max ratings), but they don't stop the degradation, they just return the program to its full rating. You can also pirate your own programs following the rules in the BBB, but once you do, it starts to degrade - basically, if you leak a free version of MaxFirewallPlus into the wild, people start to develop exploits that target this newly common firewall, and in a few months, a better version rolls out that people need to use if they want to stay protected. All in all, I like the concept behind these rules, and it does (help) address the issue of why people would occasionally pay upkeep on their programs to keep them up to date (or just register them with a SIN, which is the logical thing for non Shadowrunners to do), but there is no explicit rule stating that one can have searched for a piracy group at character creation (perhaps with a contact?) and buy these cracked programs at their discounted price - so I'll just continue with the assumption that I can start with pirated software, but that I will pay full price for it. Once play begins, I could use some downtime to contact various pirate groups to get discounts on the maintenance of the software. |
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Aug 7 2008, 02:26 PM
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#33
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
QUOTE (Gremish @ Aug 7 2008, 10:07 AM) Matrix is ok... to deal with, I'm not a HUGE fan of it still, and I do the matrix a bit different than normal game play or anyone else I have heard of, I think my way is a bit more fun and interesting. ... I dont like to use normal rules for it, I will explain that later, but I am also not trying to push people away from it. I'd be interested to hear the details about this, whenever you get to it, before committing to one character or another. Having some idea what to expect of the matrix, and what you can and can't do in it, will be pretty critical to anyone considering playing a hacker/type, I think. |
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Aug 7 2008, 02:28 PM
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#34
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,973 Joined: 3-October 07 From: Fairfax, VA Member No.: 13,526 |
What can you tell us about a starting location, so we can finalize character backgrounds?
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Aug 7 2008, 03:04 PM
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#35
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,210 Joined: 5-September 05 From: Texas Member No.: 7,685 |
So... We know each other enough to be willing to commit felonies together. We might want to be an established team (or two teams that have worked together and are joining forces due to turn over) moving to a new city with new IDs. Of course some of us would already be familiar with the city (and have contacts there). Do we want to have a common enemy (someone we all agree will be after us or should be a prime target?) Not everyone needs to be in on this, but having some common enemies will make the team building easier. Location would be helpful on background. Gremish, do you plan to use the double your Charisma in free Contacts house rule? Also are we going to move this to a email distribution list or stay up on the dumpshock boards? |
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Aug 7 2008, 03:22 PM
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#36
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Aug 7 2008, 10:21 AM) I dont like to use normal rules for it, I will explain that later, but I am also not trying to push people away from it. I hate the number crunch of the matrix, I like more Role play involved. Meaning your not going to be making as many "checks" against programs and such as often, its going to be allot more role play intensive. I prefer to build a matrix "world" and let you travel in it just like the real world, but instead of the normal things you do as feats ect, you do checks against programs and such. its almost more complicated but it allowed me to choose when you should be making checks based on what i feel is nessecary rather than a "ok i do data jacking" roll... " ok you pas, you find this file". I prefer more like: Wuu Approaches the doorway cautiously, he can see the ice blanketing the outside of the data building preparing to attack anything that becomes a threat. Wuu carefully places a disguise program to trick the system and then moves slowly closer. The system notices him "Wuu: Shit! Dice roll time!" Wuu rolls to crack the ice and enter the building without getting squished and you do your normal stuff from there on. I am just not a fan of pure data stream and to be blunt the matrix is my WEAKEST part of GMing Shadowrun, I love the concept of it and doing it ect, however no players I have EVER had wanted to run in the realm, so I lack the knowledge and perfection of actual play in the matrix realm. I have only begun recently to table top it with a new group because one of my oldest players decided to start a hacker. Before that point we merely used very simple rules whenever the matrix came up. I will read everything and get caught up on it though easily enough im sure and you are welcome to help me where i make little mistakes on it. |
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Aug 7 2008, 03:24 PM
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#37
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Aug 7 2008, 10:26 AM) I'd be interested to hear the details about this, whenever you get to it, before committing to one character or another. Having some idea what to expect of the matrix, and what you can and can't do in it, will be pretty critical to anyone considering playing a hacker/type, I think. You all have a choice, we can have a vote on it: Hong Kong Seattle Detroit or Tokyo Which place would you all like to start in, any are fine with me and all work fine for the campaign ideas i have! |
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Aug 7 2008, 03:25 PM
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#38
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
Okay, I see what you meant by more fun, and I agree, that does sound like fun. I'm game, so long as the actual rolls (dice pools, threshholds, etc) are still based on the same things they were before, for the most part.
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Aug 7 2008, 03:28 PM
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#39
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
QUOTE (cndblank @ Aug 7 2008, 11:04 AM) So... We know each other enough to be willing to commit felonies together. Thats not clear yet We might want to be an established team (or two teams that have worked together and are joining forces due to turn over) moving to a new city with new IDs. If you want to be established I can work that in, if you all want to be separate thats just as easy for me Of course some of us would already be familiar with the city (and have contacts there). Most likly you would all be familiar but there seems to be a few people, like the wilderness character, who might not be Do we want to have a common enemy (someone we all agree will be after us or should be a prime target?) Not everyone needs to be in on this, but having some common enemies will make the team building easier. I will take care of this part =) Location would be helpful on background. Gremish, do you plan to use the double your Charisma in free Contacts house rule? Yep, thats fine, but I want the contacts in all 4 cities, not just one. Detroit, Seattle, Tokyo and Hong Kong. you dont ahve to have them all but spreading out is a good idea... Also are we going to move this to a email distribution list or stay up on the dumpshock boards? Either way is fine by me, I like Dumpshock but if people prefer email thats works also. |
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Aug 7 2008, 03:30 PM
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#40
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Aug 7 2008, 11:25 AM) Okay, I see what you meant by more fun, and I agree, that does sound like fun. I'm game, so long as the actual rolls (dice pools, threshholds, etc) are still based on the same things they were before, for the most part. It is, and the dice rolls ect are all the exact same. I just dont use them as often as normal matrix rules require. |
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Aug 7 2008, 03:32 PM
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#41
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
QUOTE (Gremish @ Aug 7 2008, 11:24 AM) Hong Kong Seattle Detroit or Tokyo I would be up for any of those. Seattle is the one I know best, just because it is the default setting. I live near Detroit IRL, and shudder to think what it would be like in 2070. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Still might be fun to roll there. Another option, if your idea is flexible where travel is concerned - is to have some of the team have safehouses in each of these places, and have the initial missions take us to all of them. The out-of-town team could crash at whatever pad the townies' have there. Based on your comment about having contacts spread out, that might be what you have in mind, anyway - but having 2 or so characters local to each location might make the jobs there easier. |
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Aug 7 2008, 04:12 PM
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#42
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,973 Joined: 3-October 07 From: Fairfax, VA Member No.: 13,526 |
QUOTE (Gremish @ Aug 7 2008, 10:24 AM) You all have a choice, we can have a vote on it: Hong Kong Seattle Detroit or Tokyo Which place would you all like to start in, any are fine with me and all work fine for the campaign ideas i have! Oddly, I've got a weird retro craving for Seattle, though I'm fine with all four. Edit My first choice is Hong Kong. Seattle is second, followed by either Neo-Tokyo or Detroit. On the other subjects, I'm comfortable with all the options. I love the comedy of seeing groups thrown together, but at the same time I really like being several small crews that get thrown together for something big. The cliquishness and paranoia could be great. |
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Aug 7 2008, 05:46 PM
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#43
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 27-July 08 From: England Member No.: 16,167 |
I don't mind playing either character, so I'll go with whichever choice helps the group most. So if we're short on muscle I'll play the cop and if not the TM.
With the TM her contacts are likely to end up matrix based if you don't have a problem with that, so location might not be as much of an issue. (Mainly as BP are scarce by that stage of TM chargen). The Stream she'd be using gives quite nice Sprite powers like Traceroute and Info Sortilege which are good for helping with legwork. The cop idea needs the main local police force hired for the area establishing before I send it in, but aside from that it's done. He's geared up for Shotguns, Pistols and close combat. With reasonable cyberware and armour. I suspect he falls under the muscle catagory Location wise I know Seattle a bit better, but I have the setting books for Hong Kong and Tokyo too. I know the least about Detroit, aside from it being a city with many borders and factions. So Seattle gets my vote, with Hong Kong in second place as the book made it seem pretty cool. One thing I should note is I'm in the GMT timezone, so while I'll check the forum as often as I can if the majority of players are US based and posting in the evening I might not be able to reply as fast as I'd like. Below should be the Spoiler Tagged Character sheets. I'll do more detail on contacts after I know which character to expand upon. Hopefully the spoiler tag thing will work.... As I haven't used them before. Vincent 'Fornax' Ryder [ Spoiler ] Cassandra 'Weaver' Jones. [ Spoiler ] Hopefully the math is right on both of them. If not let me know where I've made any errors and I'll sort them asap! Edited because I fouled up the Spoiler tags. |
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Aug 7 2008, 05:49 PM
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#44
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,486 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Michigan Member No.: 7,180 |
to do a spoiler tag, wrap the characterlike this
CODE [spoiler]
character [/spoiler] |
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Aug 7 2008, 05:52 PM
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#45
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 368 Joined: 11-December 04 From: Michigan Member No.: 6,879 |
Yeah i cant read a damn bit of that right now, its black text on black background because there isnt a spoiler =P
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Aug 7 2008, 05:53 PM
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#46
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 27-July 08 From: England Member No.: 16,167 |
Heh cheers. I managed to figure it out before I spotted your post, just took me forever to find the /hide in all that spam. :/
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Aug 7 2008, 06:11 PM
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#47
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,210 Joined: 5-September 05 From: Texas Member No.: 7,685 |
Here is the Magic Roster so far
CNDBlank: Easy, a Utility Mage/Mystic Adept - not much of a summoner. Glyph: Combat Adapt/Mage Crizh: Mage / OAP-TM Grizh, Let us know if you are going Magic or Matrix. |
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Aug 7 2008, 06:18 PM
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#48
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,210 Joined: 5-September 05 From: Texas Member No.: 7,685 |
Do we have a dedicated Face yet?
I'm leaning towards Easy, a Utility Mage/Mystic Adept (has Imp Mask, Heal, Imp Invisiblity, some Detects and the like with a stunball to round it out) Easy is not a summoner (Skill Rating 1) but can be either a primary or secondary face. I could also do a face with a latent Awaking, but a PBEM games moves fairly slowly. Maybe if Easy is the primary Face then he has just awakened (knows a couple of spells and is a natural with Counter Spelling.) |
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Aug 7 2008, 06:39 PM
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#49
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 321 Joined: 7-March 07 From: Hapeville, GA Member No.: 11,175 |
My vote is for either Seattle or Hong Kong...
Hong Kong has more of an exotic feel, and I know Seattle better. I like the idea of every character knowing at least one other character beforehand, but as a whole the group being thrown together - it makes it less likely for anyone to be ganked by the others due to paranoia (or justifiable prejudice) while keeping the character development from people being curious about each other. BTW, guys, I've narrowed it down to either playing Sarge (the heavy combat Ork Ghoul) or Jane Reaction (the stunt-woman)... but I just can't decide which. Sarge would be a heavy-hitter/tank in combat, Jane would be basically a get-away driver and mostly a face... so-so in combat, but fairly squishy (style over substance, so she'd be just wearing a bomber jacket for armor, giving her 3/3... 4/5 with her aviator's helmet)... she could fly aircraft and stuff too, but given availability and cost she wouldn't actually have such a vehicle. I'd appreciate it if people could tell me which character they'd rather have on the team (I know our illustrious GM likes Jane better, but she seems to overlap a lot with a lot of other proposed characters, so I'm not sure how useful she'd be... and her big thing would be her vehicles, which if we go globe-trotting would likely get left behind) - Scope |
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Aug 7 2008, 06:56 PM
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#50
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 27-July 08 From: England Member No.: 16,167 |
Both sound like interesting ideas. From a first read I would have to agree with our GM, Jane has the cool factor going for her.
Depending on the skill of the matrix support we could possibly get the vehicle moved with us or simply hijack ourselves something locally. Or maybe the 5 point quality from RC which lets you have an item up to availability 20 would help? (Although I guess finding suitable boat/planes for starting character cash is tricky) |
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