Recruiting: Witch Hunt, the anti-Awakened game Options

[2bit]

Hello.

This is a concept game I've been mulling over for a few months. I've got enough of the details worked out now that I'd like to get it started on DSF as a forum game. The setting is slightly off-canon, so it may not appeal to everyone. Here's the scoop:

In this SR4 setting, Winternight was a terrorist mage cult and received nearly all the blame for the attack in 2065. In the wake of the second Crash, anti-Awakened sentiment experiences a strong resurgence. In 2066, the Magician Registration Act is passed, requiring awakened citizens of the UCAS to register their status with the government. Public spellcasting of any kind is prohibited. Licensed magic use is limited to the areas of Security, Health Services, and Entertainment, and even these endure heavy overwatch. Although magical education programs continue, they are effectively neutered.

Vaults of magical knowledge are lost during the Crash, and by the time the new Matrix comes online, very little of it returns to the public domain. What is left remains mostly in corporate, shadow, government, and foreign hands. Although information is still attainable, most of it is illegal to use, as are the methods ultimately used to acquire it.

Feeding into this paranoia is an anti-awakened policlub called the Sons of Apollo. The policlub preaches materialism and faith in physical things. Its members cherish wealth, physical and mental health, and skilled workmanship. Despite its male-centric language, it boasts a diverse membership. It has a political lobby wing, community outreach programs, a robust propaganda machine, . . . and the Alphas, policlub members skilled in shadow ops and dealing with awakened opposition. Their work is completely freelance. Alphas may be hired by the policlub to do work that furthers its goals; but just as often, the policlub is hired by other organizations to do their dirty work in exchange for favors and influence.

The player characters will play as Alphas. In many ways they will be identical to shadowrunners, with the policlub acting as a fixer or johnson.

If you're interested in being an Alpha, sign up below. Send character concepts to me via PM. I'm not interested in stats at this point, so please don't let chargen delay your submission. Build restrictions may influence your concepts, so I'll go ahead and say that chargen will be totally standard SR4 rules, except that your character must be a mundane, and you may not start the game with an essence lower than 2.

House rules:
Characters will receive Alfred Ancient as a free Mr. J contact, Connection 4, Loyalty 2. He is the covert ops contact with the Sons of Apollo.
Characters receive an additional amount of free Contact BP's equal to their unaugmented Charisma score.
Cyberlimbs: Cyberlimbs Come with rating 3 Body, Agility, and Strength as normal, but attribute increases do not cost capacity until it exceeds your body's natural unaugmented rating. If your natural rating increases during the course of the game, see your local street doc for an adjustment and you'll get that capacity back. Armor costs capacity as normal.


Questions and comments about the setting, like additional details, wtf's, etc are welcome. Please post below.

[2bit]

almost forgot - no technomancer concepts either, please, though not because I'm afraid to use them.

[Trigger]

I was just thinking about running a game along this line as well. It sounds very interestign and you can count me in. Though, 1 question....will you allow the quality of Latent Awakening?

[2bit]

Yes.

[Trigger]

Sweet...consider my concept very highly in the works and almost on its way to you....after I spend the rest of the day doing as I usually do and browsing the comic book store.

[yoippari]

I'm assuming this will be in seattle.

No physads screwing with the bell curve and no magical healing might make things interesting.

I think I'll try making a weapon specialist. That or a detective/tracker guy. I'll start writing and see what comes up.

[2bit]

Yep, Seattle.

One of the goals of this game is to challenge you to come up with ways of dealing with magic when you yourself have none. It's a situation that NPCs come up against all the time when they deal with your typical shadowrunner team. Now you get to be in their shoes! :)

[yoippari]

So this is the chance to play as the policlub that comes up against the runners. Basicly we are the stormtroopers, the nameless minions, the... NPCs?

Sounds like fun.

[Trigger]

Concept PMed.

[Trigger]

Any idea on the BP build and any house rules and such.....

[2bit]

Standard SR4 character gen. The only additional restrictions are, like I said, you must be mundane at the start of the game and your essence can be no less than 2.

So . . . so far there's been little interest; I wonder, is the big turnoff no awakened characters?

[Trigger]

Has anyone else even sent in a concept yet....my sheet is almost done, I am just wondering if anyone else is going to be in on this game or are we going to be running a 1 on 1 game? 'Cause if that is the way it is going to be I don't mind in the slightest :D

[Trigger]

Also, any rules for Contacts? Any free BP (Cha x 2 or 3) for contacts? My sheet is all done except for that right now.

[2bit]

No one else has submitted a concept yet >_< . I'm disappointed. I haven't seen a game proposal generate so little interest before. I'm going to drag my feet a bit getting the game started because I would like to hear from others. I'll play as a one-on-one if need be, and that could be a nice change of pace, but I know you're stretched between many games as is.

Trigger, take Alfred Ancient as a free, but mandatory Mr. J contact, Connection 4, Loyalty 2. He's your ops contact in the Sons of Apollo. He's a caucasian human and as the name would imply, he's really, really old.

Edit: In addition to Alfred, I'll give your your CHA in free contact BPs.

[Cakeman]

Oh I'm interested, if it's still open. I'll send you a concept...

[2bit]

Got Cakeman's concept, looks promising. It's not a character type I've played with before.

Also, after hearing from him, I think I need to make the policlub's party line clear. Because I used the term policlub, and they're a hatemonger group, there's an instant association with Humanis. I just want to make it clear that the Sons of Apollo aren't prejudiced against any metatype, culture, or nationality.

[Cakeman]

I'm *this* close to put on a pair of pointy ears for another 5BP... :D

[2bit]

I just thought of a character creation house rule regarding cyberlimbs. Original post edited to reflect it.

[2bit]

Ok - we've got two characters in; I'd like at least one more before starting a game. Please post here if you're interested.

[Trigger]

I for one am ready for this game to start...I really like the concept and I can't wait to hunt some awakened scum :D

[yoippari]

I've been dragging my feet with a concept because the concepts apart from this game inparticular all involve awakened (I have 3 active mundanes). Out of curiosity are the current concepts dependant on specific archtypes? Basicly, what hole needs to be filled.

[Glyph]

I have been dragging my feet on sending anything, too. It usually takes me awhile to make a character, and sometimes I get writer's block. So I wanted to get most of the character done before I put in for a slot in the game. My guy is basically muscle.

[2bit]

I have two character sheets in hand so far:

Trigger as Tyler - human, sneak & shoot type
Cakeman as (unnamed) - human, Animal handler

All concepts at this point are still welcome, but what we really lack is a tech man (hacker/rigger). No one can do any real legwork or recon. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how useful drones can be against spell slingers in combat :). Plus, a well hidden drone is pretty much invisible on the astral.

[Glyph]

Null's character sheet has been sent.

[2bit]

OOC has been posted, you can begin posting there. Recruiting for this game is still open.