New York Noir, game thread Options

[Backgammon]

I'm interested in starting up an MSN/OpenRPG/whatever game. I would GM. I'm looking for a very small group - 1 to 3 players max. Games would be 1-2 times a month, perhaps even less, most likely on Friday nights, as that's just about all my schedule can handle.

Setting and campaign style would be decided together. I'm sorta aiming for a fairly 'traditionnal' shadowrun campaign, set perhaps in Hong Kong, but I'm open to any suggestions. Using SR4 rules.

Any takers?

[Tarantula]

I'd definately be interested. Would need to know a more specific time window so as to see if I can ensure that I get that time on that day off from work.

[Backgammon]

Awesome, glad to have you aboard!

[Backgammon]

Ok, I think that's all the interest we're going to get for now. We can intergrate new players later if ever anyone else wants to join. One player is fine by me, anyway. Tarantula, can you let me know what your email is?

[Karaden]

Hey, I'd like to join as well if that's still an option.

[Backgammon]

Yeah, sure is. PM me with your email.

[Backgammon]

Well I was going to move detail-deciding to email, but hey, this is a discussion board, so may as well do it here for now.

First off, to try to answer Tarantula, I plan on having games Friday nights, which to me means from like 8 to 11-12. As I said, there'd be no real patern to what days exactly we end up playing, but we would always schedule games, meaning at least 1 week's notice. If you can't make it, no sweat, this is meant to be a no hassle game. If we end up with games too infrequent for everyone's taste, we'll look at that then.

Second, setting. I'd like to hear your ideas, what you'd like to play. How much magic, what city, what type of characters, any plot focus you'd like to explore, etc.

I'm envisionning an urban game, fairly low-powered, mostly story-driven. I'd like to have the focus not be on combat, since I find MSN games aren't really that great for big combat scenes. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be shootouts or anything. I like my shadowrun perfectly violent.

[Tarantula]

Well, I'm changing positions starting the week of christmas, which should leave me with the evenings off from now on, so that should work out just fine for me. Low power urban can be fun, just gotta figure out who what etc i'd wanna play.

[Karaden]

Lets see, most fridays should generally be open with me, especially if I have plenty of warning in advance like that, so any days are fine.

Low powered urban sounds good to me. Seattle is the only city I really know anything about, and even that is limited, but wherever is fine.

I'd likely make a hacker type, to that end are we going with the basic matrix rules or one of the boards rules? Or would you just prefer no hackers?

[Backgammon]

I'd prefer Hong Kong or New-York over Seattle. If you don't have Runner's Haven, you could play a foreigner in HK, so your character's knowledge is on par with yours. As for New-York, as SR info is limited, I would, er, how to say, always explain things before they happen to your character... not kind of pull shit out of nowhere and penalize you for it, if you see what I mean.

Hacking is definately good. Depending on what Tarantula feels like, from you wanting to play a Hacker, we can either make a pure-hecking campaign (information liberators, trid pirates, etc) where hacking is really the focus, or if Tarantula wants to go in another direction, then it might be best if you both make fairly generalist characters, with a certain degree of specialization in a certain field, without losing a general roundness for the character. I want to take this approach because, as this is a few-player game, having 2 widely different characters might not work well (i.e. 1 stay at home hacker and 1 kill everything sammy).

[Karaden]

Either of those sounds locations sounds good to me, and I honestly wouldn't know much about seattle other then the gangs and the very general location of things. Hong Kong would be kinda fun, no idea about New York.

I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work actually. If the place we're going into is accessable from a distance then I can talk to him through commlink, hack cammeras for him, provide tactical info about the building etc etc. And if I have to go into the place for whatever reason, well, then he has to do a bit of guard work and I have to learn to plop myself down behind cover before I dive into the Matrix.

Now, a hacker/mage combo may be a bit more difficult, and we'd definetly both have to be fairly generalized with just a focus in our areas, or I the hacker would have to be.

Of course if you use FrankTroll's or FrankieTroll's or whatever his name is exactly, rules for the matrix, hackers can actually use the matrix for combat, kinda cool stuff but alot to go over, makes hackers work alot like mages with the matrix being their astral plane.

But all that aside I'll wait and see what he has to say for now.

*edit*

P.S.

How many BP are we looking at useing, since you said a low powered game. Also, would you be adverse to using my nanohive rework? You can find it in the general discussion section or whatever it is called. Short story of it is that it costs a smaller amount of essence then what the book has, and makes it more capasity intensive to use in cyberlimbs.

[Tarantula]

New York or Hong Kong would be fun, I don't have too much knowledge of either, so the tourist idea works well for that.

I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work. I mean, thats only one character (if hacking via AR) :P

Hacker/mage could be extremely good for surveillance and the like, but not so much for duking it out straight up. I could definately go for a hacker/mage (Since it seems Karaden is interesting in a hacker) as a detective style investigatory team.

[Karaden]

Heh, I ment hacker/sammi combo as in one person is the hacker and the other is the sammi, with the hacker acting as support for the sammi, giving tactical info and such.

Hmm, detective stuff, would be kinda interesting. Hacker could look up info, hack cameras, trace accounts and plenty of other things, while the mage could locate people via magic, read thoughts, and do other magey things. Mage would likely have to act as the face too since a decent Cha is needed for magic type stuff anyway.

[Backgammon]

A detective campaign would work really well, so if you guys are up for that, works for me. One Hacker and one Mage would work well, like Karaden said.

No house rules for now. We can implement some if the need arises, but I see no reason as of yet. The only one I generally use is limiting Extended Tests to 4 rolls (4 rolls being mathematially optimal for allowing you to succeed while making some tests actually impossible, instead of just taking longer, such as decrypting).

The standard 400 BPs is fine. In my mind "lower power" is going to come from the play style and plot, not the characters so much.

I think I'm leaning more towards New-York, so as not to have to worry too much about cultural differences so much. There isn't much to know about NY, anyway. I'll be making most of it up, combined with what little has actually been written on the city. It sums up to: big city, lots of shadows, intricate layers of security, shiny on the outside, rotten in the inside.

The intricate layers of security part is because NYC is run by a consortium of corporations instead of civil governement, so all they care about is business. There is a manhattan-wide system of ID checks than scan citizen's "passports", allowing them into some sections and disallowing them from others. Get the workers in, keep the rabble out. A (few) good fake SINs are therefore mandatory if you want to be able to get around.

As for your actual detective status, here's a few ideas I can think of:
* Shadowrunners working for fixers and such as usual, but you guys happen to specialise in fiding out stuff
* Special FBI/CIA/Whatever Governement agents snooping around NYC looking for evidence that would allow the governement to take down the Consortium and replace a civil governement
* Draco/Atlantean detectives looking for something shiny and magical in NYC, trying to keep it quiet so as to not attract the Consortium's attention
* Local NYC detectives working from the bright side of the light, looking down into the darkness

Anything else you guys can think of?

[Karaden]

Funny how being on the right side of the law seems like a highly odd concept, I suppose it is in shadowrun. Anyway, the first and last ideas pieq my intrest the most. Good old classic style (sorta) or a rather odd for shadowrun but litiraily classic setup.

If this is what we're going to go with I can start fleshing out my character. I'll post what I have when I have it.

Oh, I really would like to know about the nanohive though, as it'll affect me since I plan on getting some nanites at start.

Could have sworn there was something else I wanted to say, but can't remember it right now, maybe I'll remember as I'm working on my character.

[Backgammon]

Unfortunately I don't have Augmentations, so I don't really know what the problem is. Reading the thread over, it seems you have a point, but I don't know to what point the Hive was perhaps meant to be installed in a cyberlimb. Still, I think I'll allow it, so you can go ahead and use it.

[Redjack]

Have you guys decided on a date/time for this game?

[Backgammon]

[Karaden]

Ah you don't have it? I'll be sure to include related bits about anything I get from there then. As far as I can tell there isn't anything in the falvour text that suggest that it is 'supposed' to be used in a cyberlimb, and was mearly an oversight and lack of clarification. Looks like we might have a thrid person interested? Well, we'll see, time to work on that stuff (was sleeping for a while, long night.)

[Karaden]

Ok, got my character together. I can make changes as needed, but here is what I have (Spoilered for eaiser viewing of the thread)

Oh, and I added basic info on stuff that appears in Augmented for your convienince.

[ Spoiler ]

Name: Karadan (Ya, I'm bad at coming up with new names)
Metatype: Human.
Attributes:
Bod: 1 (1) 0
Agi: 3 (3) 20
Rea: 4 (4) 30
Str: 1 (1) 0
Cha: 1 (1) 0
Int: 4 (4) 30
Log: 5 (5) 40
Wil: 5 (5) 40
Ini: 8 (matrix 10 (cold) 11 (hot))
Edg: 6 (6) 40
Ess: 3.725

Qualities:
Codeslinger (Breaking-in) - 10
Combat Paralysis + 20
Mild Sunlight Allergy + 10
SINner (legal) +5

Skills:
Dodge(melee) 4(6) 18
Pistols(SA) 4(6) 18
Electronics Group: 4 40
Cracking Group: 4 40
Aeronautics Mechanic 1 4
Automotive Mechanic 1 4
Perception(visual) 4(6) 18
Tracking(urban) 2(4) 10
Shadowing(Tailing) 2(4) 10

Knowladges:
Safe Houses 2
Security Systems 2
Nanotech 2
Bioware 1
Cyberware 1
Genetic Engineering 1
Hideouts 2
Security Procedures 2
Recent Medical Advances 2
Lonestar Procedures 2
Crook Hangouts 2
Gang Turf 2
Mafia Politics 1
Yakuza Politics 2
Japanese Customs 3

Contacts:
'Legitimate' Doctor (Jake Able) 5/3
Lonestar beat cop (Drew Hasforth) 2/1
Novatech wageslave (Bob Jones) 1/1

Equipment:
Cyberware:
Implanted Commlink
Datajack
Attention Coprocessor 3 (+3 bonus on perception tests)
Math SPU (+2 bonus on math related tests, as well as encryption and decryption)
Cybereyes (Eye Recording Unit, Image Link, Smartlink, Vision Enhancement 3, Thermographic Vision)
Cyberears (Ear Recording Unit, Sound Link, Audio Enhancement 3, Damper)
Nanocybernetics:
Nanohive: System REplacement (Required for Nanohive, slows degrading of nanocolonies)
Nanohive 2 (Keeps 2 nanocolonies from degrading)
Nanoware:
Neural Amplifiers, Neocortical 3 (soft) (Gives +3 to logic based tests)
Neural Amplifiers, Learning Stimuli 3 (soft) (Improving skills costs 3 less karam)
Geneware:
PuSHeD (Gives +1 to logic based tests)
Bioware:
Sleep Regulator
Reflex Recorder (pistols)
Reflex Recorder (perception)
Mnemonic Enhancer 2

Weapons:
Ares Preditor IV (Internal Smartgun, Gas-vent 2, concealable Holster, Image Scope (usually seperate), 4 clips EX Rounds, 8 clips Stick-n-Shock, 20 clips Regular)
Raccor Sting (Internal Smartgun, Concealable Holster, 4 clips Flechette)
Streetline SPecial (Internal Smartgun, Concealable Holster, 5 clips Stick-n-Shock)
Flash-Bang x2
Flash-Pak x2
Smoke Grenade

Armor:
Armor Jacket

Other:
Subvocal Microphone
Virtual Surround Music
Wall Space
Virtual Weather
Tool Kit, Commlinks
Tool Kit, Drones
Autopicker 6
Flashlight
Medkit 6
Stealth Tag x 200
RFID tag x 200
Security Tag x 20


Commlink: Responce 6, Signal 6, System 6, Firewall 6.

Programs:
Rating 6: Analyze, Browse, Command, Edit, Encrypt, Reality Filter, Scan, Biofeedback Filters, Decrypt, Defuse, ECCM, Exploit, Stealth.
Rating 3: Armor, Attack, Blackout, Medic, Sniffer, Spoof, Track.

Linguasofts:
Rating 5:Latin, Sperethiel, Japanese, French, Ferman, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic.

Low Lifestyle.
Starting Money 3D6+7x50 :nuyen:

Notes:
Usual commlink pool:
4 skill +3/6 program +3 Neocortical +1 PuSHeD +2 VR = 13/16 pool (+2 for breaking-in tests)
Perception(visual)
6 skill +4 Attribute + 3 Vision Enhancement +3 Attention Coprocessor +1 Reflex Recorder = 17 pool
Perception(hearing)
4 skill +4 Attribute + 3 Vision Enhancement +3 Attention Coprocessor +1 Reflex Recorder = 15 pool
Perception(other)
4 skill +4 Attribute +3 Attention Coprocessor +1 Reflex Recorder = 12 pool
Attack (Ares)
6 skill +3 Attribute + 1 Reflex Recoreder + 2Smartgun = 12 pool
Attack (holdouts)
4 skill +3 Attribute +1 Reflex Recorder +2 Smartgun = 10 pool
Other Notes:
+2 to knowladge, language, and memory tests and +1 to learning tests(Mneonic Enhancer)
-3 Karma cost to improve skills
+4 to all logic based tests
+2 to all math related tests

Whew, that was kind of long, but there you have it. I'm going to work on a better name as well as add in all the SINs (about 6 fake and his real one) another time.

*edit* Considiering adjusting BP a bit so that he doesn't have so many 1s, may drop a point or two of edge or lower some skills a bit... we'll see, curious what the GM thinks.

[Backgammon]

Ok, hold it. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

First I'd like to hear from Tarantula on what setting he prefers, as that will have a huge impact on what kind of stats/personalities your characters are going to have.

Second, I'd like to see basic character concepts before stats - a small paragraph of general background, basic outline of personality, how you intend to play him. Then stats, then the rest of the background (of big importance to me is how you got your cyber and experience).

Finally, from a purely numbers background, for this game I think a well-rounded character is going to work much better, as there will be much more roleplaying than roll-playing. Going with 6s and 1s probably won't work well. I'd like to see much less specialisation and more generalisation - 3 to 5s over a wider range of capabilities than needle sharp at doing one thing really well.

I do appreciate the Augmentations notes. FYI Catalyst owes me some Battlecorps money, which I plan to use to get Aug, but it's taking a while. I will pick it up ASAP though.

[Tarantula]

I'm definately up for the mage/hacker detective team. New york sounds like fun (and watch out for those new york devil rats). So, I'll get brainstorming while I'm at work today, and I'll throw up a basic concept tonight before I go to bed.

[Scope_47]

Any chance you're still accepting players?
One of my other games died, and I'd love to join in on a smaller scale game if scheduling would work out - what time zone are you in Backgammon?

[Redjack]

I've been thinking about a human adept. Part face, part martial artist, part infiltrator. Lots of broad skills and half a dozen contacts. No min/maxing. Geared towards a low/moderate street level game.

[Backgammon]

@Tarantula: Awesome. Get back to me on what kind of detective game you'd like, as per the choices I mentionned. Karaden mentionned either normal shadowrunners with an investigative bent, or actual police detective.

Thinking about it now, I think I'd prefer shadowrunners, so if you're all ok with that, that will set it for the campaign then.

@Redjack: Very good. Looking forward to that.

@Scope: I am EST. I guess I can take one more. I'm relunctant to take many players because 1) scheduling becomes exponentially harder and 2) it's easy to get bored when nothing is happening with your character over MSN. But if you're interested, I'll take you.

Note to anyone else, though - no more players at this point. Thank you.