Project Neuromancer, Recruitment for a Campaign Options

[skyekicker]

Hey guys, its Skyekicker here and I would like to try my hand in running a game of Shadowrun.

First I guess I should announce what kind of GM I will be. First off I think moral characters are more interesting than immoral characters and I'm not talking about lawful stupid pallys either. I'm talking about characters who balance their needs with the needs of others. A morally ambigous desicion here and there won't hurt but acting like a sociopath will get yourself killed like the dog you are. Second I prefer role-playing to roll-playing. Because of this I will being the dice myself, firstly so I can keep secrets from you like when you are about to be ambushed and secondly so I can modify a die rolls if need be. Third I don't want to control your fate. If you can build a character with an interesting history, I will use that character's history. Hell if you can give some interesting ideas on a plot twist that will make the game interesting PM me. This not only makes the job easier for me, it makes it more fun for you.

When you guys create a set of characters, one being your shadowrunner, several being contacts, and any other characters you would like to show me, give me a background. The NPC's only need a two to three paragraph description while your shadowrunners need to have at least a page describing them. A general set of guidlines are down at the web pages below.

http://shadowrun.dnaco.net/thirtytwo.shtml
http://shadowrun.dnaco.net/bgexample.shtml

Now for the campaign idea. The Neuromancer campaign revolves arround a girl named Leonard Thomas who is the focus of project Neuromancer. Leonard was given a special piece of Bioware that gives her the abilities of a Technomancer and she is the first to survive the installation. Here is the problem. Leo never signed up for the operation. Leo came into the hospitol just to have a commlink installed and would rather return home to her family than anything else. The problem if Leo did return home is she not only would be captured, the corporation who did this to her would be forced to kill her parents to keep secrecy. The only way Leo can return home is to expose project neuromancer.

I would like one of the player's to take on the part of Leo while the other players will play the shadowrunners she accidently meets up with after she escapes. At first the shadowrun team will just think Leo is a a young Technomancer in over her head until they learn about project Neuromancer. By then the group should of accepted her as one of their own and will try to help her as much as they can afford to. Does this sound like an interesting campaign?

Game Time

Starting January 17th I would like to have this group play on every Tuesday and Thursday at arround 5pm Arizona \ Mountian time. Hopefully we can get ourselves into gear by then.

Character Build

Increasing Physical and Mental attributes costs 6 bp
Maxing out Physical and Mental attributes costs 15 bp
The maximum you can spend on Physical and Mental attributes is 120 bp
Special Attribute bp costs are unmodified.

A character must have at least a number of contact equal to their charisma rating.
A single contact's connections and loyalty ratings cannot total over seven.
Each contact must have at least a connection rating of two and a loyalty rating of 1.

Contact Build

Each contact will be built on a number of bp equal to his connection rating * 100
Set at least 5 bp aside for each point of charisma the contact has.
The bp set aside will be spent by the gm to buy additional contacts.

House Rules

The total hits on any test are limited to no more then the characters Skill rating.
Edge can only be used on skills you have or skills that you can default on.
When edge is used, increase the total hits you can acquire by the edge's rating.
The character may only default on an action if they spend a point of edge.
Specialization is not allowed.

A contacts loyalty rating works like the tasks owed to by a spirit or sprite.
Each time you ask a contact for a favor his loyalty rating will decrease by one.
Each time you do a favor for the contact increase his loyalty by one.
When a contact's loyalty rating reachs one, he owes you nothing.
Also the higher the connection rating of your contact the harder the contact is to get a hold of.
Whenever you try to contact this character roll a dice.
If the value of the roll is higher then or equal to the contacts Connection rating you get a hold of him.



P.S. Any comments or suggestions.

[Cold-Dragon]

This was definitely tempting, until I read the BP edits and the house rules, lol.
Still, I do like the idea, so maybe I'll keep considering...otherwise I wish you luck in this project.

[Jaid]

it occurs to me that:

1) you say you don't want to control the character's destiny... in the same sentence as you told them you don't let them roll so that you can fudge anything you don't approve of.

2) you say you don't want to control the character's destiny... yet you have essentially informed them that one of the players will be fulfilling a role that really oughtta be played by an NPC. the history of which player you have already decided.

3) you have divulged some rather important plot information that makes it kinda hard not to metagame in your head at least, yet you expect an emphasis of roleplaying... and there's nothing like metagame information to make that harder.

if nothing else, it might be good to remove the plot information and try again.

[FrostyNSO]

...or just write a screenplay.

But seriously, my GMing is piss-poor, so I can't say anything. Meh.

[Cold-Dragon]

I don't think it's that severe in details = spoiler, lol. It's a general idea, yes, but he's leaving it up to you how to make the gal do it (preferably in a moral fashion, but sometimes the immoral will probably get in the way).

And hey, maybe one of the runners she runs into goes turncoat? There's a lot that could happen...

although the gal player may end up having divine luck in certain situations, dunno.

[skyekicker]

Hey Cold dragon what would you like me to change about the house rules?

[Cold-Dragon]

It's not change so much as how I feel about them that might explain why I don't care much.

I'll go one by one

[ Spoiler ]

1)The total hits on any test are limited to no more then the characters Skill rating.
-I can't argue this one really, except I would prefer 'net hits' over regular hits perhaps. That way two people, even if one is more skilled, can have a little more chance at survival or good moments. The only other problem I can see with this is that it makes 'sneaking up on them' pointless if you know you can't do a lethal attack by simple lack of power.

2)Edge can only be used on skills you have or skills that you can default on.
-that is perfectly sensible, except I think it already applies. ;) you can't default when it's not available in the first place.

3)When edge is used, increase the total hits you can acquire by the edge's rating.
-does the rule of six still apply with edge? in which case, not much to say except refer to what I said in 1.

4)The character may only default on an action if they spend a point of edge.
-a bit absurd in my opinion - what would make you suddenly incapable of pulling the trigger on a shotgun when it works like any other gun, if not in practice? It would also make it impossible to use edge to better your chances, since you used it to use it in the first place (but that is less relevant).


5)Specialization is not allowed.
-*shrugs* no issue with that, just a change.

6)A contacts loyalty rating works like the tasks owed to by a spirit or sprite.
Each time you ask a contact for a favor his loyalty rating will decrease by one.
Each time you do a favor for the contact increase his loyalty by one.
When a contact's loyalty rating reachs one, he owes you nothing.
Also the higher the connection rating of your contact the harder the contact is to get a hold of.
Whenever you try to contact this character roll a dice.
If the value of the roll is higher then or equal to the contacts Connection rating you get a hold of him.
-I find this amusing actually, and not a bad house rule per se. so I have no issues with it.

Beyond those, I just don't like dinking with the character creation (BP) because it just confuses me to what is actually possible. adding or subtracting points is one thing, altering costs is another.

as per contacts having such details....that's just new to me, so I can't complain about it, lol. A little confusing maybe, otherwise nothing to complain.

[skyekicker]

Spending a point of edge while defualting allows you to roll the Attribute + edge dice. Sorry about the confusion.

[Cold-Dragon]

Understood. the rest of what I said stands, lol.

and more good luck or whatever you need.