Hello all. I will be starting to run Ghost Cartels soon, but I had a few questions for those who may have already ran it, or are currently running it.

We only have 3 PC’s on the team with no Magician or hacker type. Is it possible to run Ghost Cartel’s without at least one of these types of characters? Two of my players might be making new characters and was wondering if I should gently persuade one of them to make a hacker or a magician.

But then I was also thinking, if they need a hacker, I could create an NPC AI character that claimed their commlink as their home node. Does anyone have an opinion on a NPC AI character?

I can't say anything to the Ghost Cartel question (I haven't gotten a chance to run it yet), but regarding the AI NPC idea: It sounds like an interesting idea that could be fun and useful as long as you are very careful to avoid the various pitfalls associated with having a GM-NPC in constant contact with your players.

GM-NPCs can be a very useful and fun addition to a group, but they can also very easily ruin the game if they overshadow the PCs or do too much for them leaving them nothing to do.

I suspect that if you had to GM-NPC one of the two character types, the hacker would be the better option. A magician is likely to be much more involved in ongoing events and while the hacker could fall back on the old style routine of being largely off-screen.

I was thinking the AI would just be around for hacking, and the PC's would ask it to do certain tasks. I'll throw in some tidbits to make it more real. I guess I'm thinking of it as R2-D2 in Star Wars, but in AI form.

I guess another thing I could do is just have one character play both. Then I wouldn't have to worry about giving ruining them game.

In our group we have found that playing a dual charter is best for small groups.

My charter is an Elf Shaman / FACE. With a high CHA, I can resist spells drain easy and I'm also good at negotiations. (find/selling our stuff)

Another one of our members is a Human Jack-of-Trades charter. With an high Edge. He hacks into the networks and then uses an AGENT (page 227 - SR4) to run the matrix for the rest of the game and then he joins us on rest of the run. I do believe that GM go easy on the Agent..

I actually suspect that the AI idea could work pretty well, even being GM controlled. Most of the SR games I've run over the years have not had a serious decker/hacker in them and I've handled the lack by having the PCs develop working relationships with a handful of decker NPCs. That basically boils down to a very similar situation and it generally worked well.

The players do have a hacker friend, but what happens when the PC's leave Seattle and need a hack in LA or Neo Tokyo. That's why I was thinking of an AI NPC (or 2nd PC to be ran by a player).

I do have a question about AIs. Do they use their System and Firewall, or the System and Firewall of the node they are hacking from. For example, my NPC AI's home node is going to be a commlink. The AI's firewall is 5, but its home node is a 4. Which does it use to defend in cybercombat?

This is where getting the characters to make their characters together at the same time.
If they are severely weak in one respect then make it obvious to them when they are out and about.
Eg: no mage = no counterspelling. That means a security wage-mage with a crappy manaball spell could take out the party.

They only ever use their own System and Firewall; their System limits the rating of programs they can use, for example.

As far as Ghost Cartels itself is concerned, the group will be pretty hamstrung by not having a Magician of some kind. While not having a Hacker will be inconvenient in many cases it won't be crippling. In SR4 it's fairly easy to make a "hybrid" Hacker character that is still good at other things (even being a Magician), so I would recommend that you give your "gentle hints" that the group should have all its bases covered. This is true for SR in general, not just the Ghost Cartels campaign. If you don't have all of the specialty "sub-types" then your options for resolving difficulties become much more limited.

I think one of the players is going to make a Magician. He's new to SR and feels more comfortable running a Magician than a hacker. I will strongly encourage him to make one. Thanks for the heads up Malachi. I just finished reading the first chapter and want my players to be ready, so I want to give them enough time to come up with a character.

Out our curriosity, does anyone have a sameple PC AI character?

To be honest, Ghost Cartels struck me as a game where they could potentially function just fine without a mage or hacker.

There's no uber hosts they need to hack, no super spirits or ghosts they need to slay. They can get through the book fine without both.

Having said that, they will miss out a lot of the juicier parts of the game. E.g. the true nature of tempo, seeing Yaje in action, etc.

Craygo was spot on - I suggest everyone create characters to support two roles. I've used GM NPCs and I generally don't like it.

- J.

I dunno, a mage will be VERY handy in the HK Forbidden City, with those shadow spirits joining the fray and all.

Absolutely, it would be useful. But its not essential.

However, the OP didn't ask about useful. He asked could it be done without hacking and magic. By the book, yes its possible. They may miss out on details, even potential rewards. But nothing stipulates they need either.

It's not like Brainscan in that regard.

- J.

Well from the sounds of things, I think I will encourage a magician. I'd hate for them to miss out on a great story. Thanks everyone for their input.

But from what I am understanding, if there was a choice between having a Magician in the party, or having a hacker, it would be best to have the magician for Ghost Cartels.