Emo Samurai's dedicated character page. Options

[Glyph]

If you are transplanting the rule, as it is in SR3, into SR4, then it is active, not bonded. They currently don't have rules for focus addiction in SR4.

[Dranem]

[Glyph]

In SR3, the only limits to bonding foci were acquiring them and spending the Karma, but you could only have a number equal to your Intelligence active at once.

But the foci addiction rules weren't about the number of foci, but the total Force of foci active at once. In other words, a mage with a Magic of 6 who has a Force: 5 manabolt focus and a Force: 4 healing focus active would risk focus addiction if he also activated his Force: 5 power focus (which would take the total points to 14, over twice the Magic Attribute).

Focus addiction would be less likely in SR4, though. According to SR4 rules, only one focus can add its dice to any one dice pool, so there is less reason to keep a lot of foci active at once. The only way you could really potentially get in trouble would be if you had a lot of sustaining foci.

Currently, SR4 has no foci addiction rules - Emo is apparently using the SR3 rules as a house rule for his SR4 campaign.

[emo samurai]

It won't be a problem before Street Magic comes out. Vranton can't come anywhere near being addicted to foci without being paid a lot more than the other players, which I won't do.

Dude, I just had an insane-idea-gasm. Remember Zero Wing? The first line is AD 2023 War was beginning. I want to incorporate All Your Base into my game somehow.

Edit: I just saw the video again. War was beginning AD 2101, not AD 2023. I'll just make a random cult of CATS, and they'll pool money for cryogenics so that they may live until the day they see CATS destroy the Earth Federated Space Navy of Zigs.

[emo samurai]

I was wondering, should I or shouldn't I kill off the mantis shaman after he confesses everything to his beloved mantid? I'll make it so that he freed her when he fled Bug City so that she could escape more easily rather than simply falling unconscious and losing control. Maybe Ares will just knock him out and clap him in irons after Invae in a Mall is over. A future run will be where they raid the Ares facility and free the shaman for her.

[Dissonance]

They should do it.

And then she should eat his head. Out of love.

[Dranem]

[Kremlin KOA]

Hey they all cooperated on a joint ventureto use WMDs on ONE MAN because he was using his economic muscle against ONE CORP

Emo's ideas are tame in comparison

[emo samurai]

So that makes HOW many canon smack-downs by Kremlin?

And Kremlin, thanks for the fire support. A very belated thanks.

[Kremlin KOA]

No problemo
:cyber:

just keep a seat open for me in ya games if i am ever over in the states

[emo samurai]

You better have a character concept that's suitably crazy. No unironic ninjas or posers obessessed with honor. :D

I have to think up a new character idea; a lot of my character ideas involve people leaving their megacorporate jobs and running off with awesome shit.

[emo samurai]

Speaking of how miserable my character is, how do your characters do, happiness-wise? I think my dude's problem is that he cares too much.

[Glyph]

I have played lots of happy runners, but most runners would probably tend towards angst. They are all people with exceptional skills, yet instead of comfortable corporate positions, they are risking their lives in an extremely dangerous and treacherous profession.

You could probably break most of them down to three major reasons for this:

One, they have the skills, but not the credentials or familiarity with corporate culture. Maybe they were born into a professional crime family such as the mafia, or grew up on the mean streets. These people would not be that unhappy as a rule, since shadowrunning is "normal" to them.

Two, they are corporate burnouts, victims of betrayal, or people who have otherwise become embittered against the corporations that they used to work for. These people would tend to be less happy. They have had their world view and security beliefs torn upside down, and they have been tossed into a far more savage and unforgiving environment than the insular corporate one they are used to. Even the ones who deal with it and move on will still have that darkness in their past.

And finally three, you have the people who do it because of their idealism, which most closely describes your character.. They range from neoanarchist philosophers to deranged extremists. They can have an inner core of contentment, because they are doing what they feel is right, but they still have to deal with a distopian world where their efforts often don't show much in the way of tangible results. They also have to deal with trying to do the right thing when they often have to settle for the lesser of two evils.


Remember, though, happiness doesn't always mean well-adjusted. A happy runner could be too callous or cynical to be affected by the nastiness that runners encounter. Or he could be a psychopath who likes blowing stuff up. Or she could be a sanctimonious eco-terrorist who is absolutely certain that she is right.

[emo samurai]

I don't know why my dude would even shadowrun; if he's running a good business helping people with their problems, why would he steal things?

[James McMurray]

No idea. Maybe because he's a character in a game about stealing things? ;)

[emo samurai]

Yeah, but if he's living all right and he's an idealist, why would he steal?

[stevebugge]

I've run one (now dead) adrenalin junky character, he basically didn't care much about the money, he was in it for the thrills. Of course he died earlier in his career than the average character because he routinely took extra risks. He died in a car wreck/gun fight during a high value courier run of all things, trying to out run and hold off another team of runners until his reinforcements could catch up, they were the decoy team, he volunteered to be the carrier using speed and misdirection to keep the package safe.

[Glyph]

[Dranem]

[Kanada Ten]

Some ideas about high power magical "runners"

[emo samurai]

Yeah, you're right; and if the people GMing the games I play in follow my lead, then they'll probably find ways for my character to be involved.

[emo samurai]

I thought up of a way for my character to make his clients tell the truth about themselves and get their heads out of their asses. If it's in a private place, he'll Phantasm a one-inch sheet of ice out of a cooler and break it over his head, leaving illusory but utterly convincing blood in its place. Short of shooting himself in the face, there is nothing more that he could do to make their problems seem utterly trivial.

I also have a new line for him to pull out if someone is shitting him: "Don't lie to me. You know it won't work."

[James McMurray]

Yeah, because getting hit in the head is the quick route to enlightenment. :please:

[emo samurai]

He's not actually hitting himself over the head; notice how I said "Phantasmed." And seeing such horror taken so glibly will pull their heads out of their asses pretty quickly. It'll also teach them to be calm in strange situations.

[Geekkake]