I am the Law (ooc/recruting), And the Law won Options

[imperialus]

Welcome to Firewatch Maggots! Captain Holstine here. You're here because you are the meanest, smartest, nastiest sons of bitches this side of an Aztechnology blood ritual. Some of you might even survive your first mission, but only time will tell that.

Recruting is currently Closed Toivoton and ES Sparky you'll be the last two in.

Character Creation Rules.
Characters are members of Knight Errant Firewatch. Firewatch is a paramilitary organization within KE skilled in everything from police procedure to counter terrorism operations.

Basic rules:
Create standard 400 BP characters using the standard rules, then add 300 karma. Karma can be exchanged for cash at a rate of 1 for 1500¥. I’m looking for versatility over one trick ponies here. Characters should be capable of doing anything from holding their own in a firefight, to tailing a suspect, to intimidating (beating?) information out of a suspected terrorist, to performing a HALO drop on an insect spirit hive. You are however green troopers (at least for Firewatch) I'll be sure to let you know of any skills that you'll need to pick up as we go along.

Any dice rolls will be with Invisible Castle. Please use the user name Firewatch:[your character name]. When posting a roll break down the number of dice by bonus’. For example:
Negotiation roll:
Cha: 5 + Neg 3+ Tailored Pheromones 1 = 9
Negotiation Roll (1d6=1, 1d6=3, 1d6=4, 1d6=4, 1d6=6, 1d6=1, 1d6=2, 1d6=1, 1d6=2) One Sucess (heh crappy roll)

Background rules:
Remember that your characters have all been accepted into a highly competitive and extremely professional Special Forces unit. Assume that your character has passed a very stringent psychological examination and that anyone who wasn’t a team player and willing to work within the confines of the law would have washed out.

Required Skills:
Each character must have a minimum body of 4 (five is highly recommended) and a minimum automatics skill of 5. If you want to swap automatics for something else like longarms then PM me. Everyone must also possess the knowledge skill “Police Procedures” at 4.

Beanies:
Each individual Firewatch officer is issued with a certain basic amount of equipment.

Ares Alpha Combat Rifle
Ares Predator IV Pistol
Combat Webbing
Combat Knife
Dress Uniform
Helmet with chem. seal, Smart link, low light, thermographic, vision mag x 4
Armored Jacket
Full Body Armour (if body is 5 or above)
Fatigues
Collapsible Club
Heavy Impact Gloves
Combat Boots
A comlink with System 5, Signal 5, Firewall 5, OS 5 and rating 6 black hammer IC. This can only connect to the teams secure net however so its use is limited, a personal comlink is nessesary.

The team also has a City Master dedicated to their use and an Ares MR-55 SO tilt wing (Stats will be posted below). Your wages include a middle lifestyle in KE corporate housing with 700¥ remaining at the end of each month. The Ares Alphas must be checked in each evening, you keep the same gun from day to day but you aren’t permitted to take it home. You have a concealed carry permit for your Predators though.
When it comes to purchasing your own equipment and cyberware you can largely ignore availability. Keep it reasonable and we’ll all be happier. Anything that isn’t outright illegal or mil-spec is available, and I highly recommend purchasing a permit to go with any restricted items you might want. Keep in mind, this isn’t a ban on military weaponry, this is a ban on personal ownership of military weaponry. Each mission will have a budget that you can work with to requisition necessary supplies, that’s when you’ll get access to the mini-guns and assault cannons.

As far as cyberware goes, alpha and betaware are available with a max availability of 16.

Everyone also starts with Captain Holstine as a free Connection 4, Loyalty 2 contact. He's your immidiate superior and the commanding officer of Firewatch in Seattle. You are one of three teams stationed in Seattle

Karma:
Karma will be awarded once per "scene". I plan on each scene taking between a week to two weeks. Awards will be on a case by case basis, mostly for taking actions that move the plot forward. Everyone who posts at least once over the course of the scene will recive two karma just for posting, even if it is just your character saying "I agree". Karma can be spent during any downtime that comes up which will usually coincide with new scenes. Karma can also only be spent on skills you've actually been studying. This is mostly just to encourage a greater connection with your characters, "studying" can be as simple as "Bang sets his gun on the fireing platform and walks away from the range when the com-call comes in so he can hear over the other officers fireing." or "After getting home Merric starts pouring over the hacking program he's writing." Naturally skills that you acutally use during the course of the game count too.

Initiation: Characters can initiate up to two times. You must spend the full Karma to do so however, no group initiation, quests or anything else that lowers the Karma cost.

Final Note:
Remember you are Police Officers first and formost, you wear a uniform, carry a gun, have a badge and are expected to act as representatives of Knight Errant. KE is currently attempting to get the policing contract for Seattle away from Lone Star so they expect good impressions from all their officers, including you.

Also I forgot to mention, everyone must have a legal SIN, you don't get the bonus BP's for it though. Ares simply wouldn't hire SINless for a job like this.

Current Characters approved: Please post their stats here under (spoiler) tags to keep the thread from getting too long.
Merris: playing Bang. A troll unarmed combat physad.
Fastball: playing Eleanor Hartford(Owl Eyes). A counjuring/Counterspelling magician.
SyberCat: Playing Casey. A Former undercover operative
Toivoton: Playing (wires). A combat Mage.
ES Sparky: Playing Raleigh Alice Haeffner. An Assult Rigger.

Characters pending approval: Please PM your characters to me before posting them here.
APDS: Paranormal hunter

@ES Sparky

[ Spoiler ]

if you could email her or PM her actual stats to me she'll be approved, the wiki page just seems to be down

If anyone else has any final character changes they wish to make please just email them to me first. Otherwise we're just waiting on APDS to get started here. Expect the first IC post sometime this weekend.

If there are any questions please feel free to either PM me or email me at imperialus1@hotmail.com

[Meriss]

Here comes the.....

Name: Bang
Assigned Name: Ben Grim
Race: Troll

Appearance:
A truly massive troll standing eight feet, ten inches tall. Tipping the scale at eight hundred and twenty pounds. He would be a monster if not for the somewhat snaggle toothed grin on his face. His relatively short horns reveal his young age. He often can be seen in the corp. enclave's park munching his way through a four-gallon tub of Rocky road. He almost always wears his faded Firewatch fatigues.

Background
Born in 2061 the infant who would be Bang was happy and cheerful. But this would change. In 2062 almost immediately after his first birthday, the normal infant began to change. Horrified his mother went to doctor after doctor desperately searching for a cure. In the end however there was no help as the healthy human infant became a healthy troll infant. Saddened and terrified by the change in her beautiful baby Bang's mother abandoned him in a metahuman orphanage. The newly goblinized troll was confused and frightened by his new surroundings, he lashed out with anger and fear. He got his name from his favorite word "bang". When he turned twelve the now adult Bang realized that no one could stop him and simply walked out of the orphanage. He spent the next few years living on the streets. Eventually he found a small park in the down town core. Bang quickly made a lair under the small foot bridge and became a troll under a bridge, mugging passerby for whatever cash and valuables they had. Eventually he met Pops and used the pawnshop to get cash for food and toys. The ork decker Slaughter met the Bang and offered him work as a meat guard. The Elven mage May Summermoon would often encourage Bang to better himself. Soon however the corperate operative Smith noticed Bang and offered him a job as a corpsec. When the corpsec directors noticed the troll's obvious magical physical powers they promoted him to Firewatch as a damage sponge. Bang now lives in an Ares enclave and works for Firewatch.

[ Spoiler ]

Attributes [260 BP]
Body: 9 [40 BP] 10 [30 Karma]
Agility: 4 [30 BP] 5 [15 Karma]
Reaction: 4 [30 BP] 6 [15+18 Karma]
Strength: 9 [40 BP]
Charisma: 2 [10 BP] 3 [9 Karma]
Intuition: 3 [20 BP] 4 [12 Karma]
Logic: 1 [0 BP] 3 [6+9 Karma]
Willpower: 4 [30 BP] 6 [15+18 Karma]
Edge: 3 [20 BP] 4 [12 Karma]
Magic: 5 [40 BP] 6 [18 Karma]

Active Skills [126 BP]
Close Combat Group (Unarmed Combat): 4 [40 BP] (+2) 6 [25+30 Karma]
Automatics: 4 [16 BP]
Pistols (Semi-Automatics): 2(+2) [10 BP]
Heavy Weapons: 4 [16 BP] 6 [10+12 Karma]
Athletics Group: 1 [10 BP] 2 [10 Karma]
Perception: 4 [16 BP]
Intimidation (Physical): 4(+2) [18 BP] 6(+2) [10+12 Karma]

Knowledge Skills
Megacorp Operations: 3
Small Unit Tactics: 3
Weightlifting: 3
Ice Cream: 3
Police Procedures: 4 [2 Karma for new skill] {the rest to improve it}

Languages
English (Natural)

Adept Powers
Improved Reflexes 1 [2 PP] (Improved Reflexes 2 [1 PP])
Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat) 2 [1 PP]
Critical Strike 4 [1 PP]
Killing Hands [0.5 PP]
Inertia Strike [0.5 PP]

Positive Qualities [25 BP]

Adept [5 BP]
Guts [5 BP]
High Pain Tolerance 3 [15 BP]

Negative Qualities [-35 BP]

SINer [0* BP]
Iatrophobia [0 BP]
Sensitive System [-15 BP]
Uneducated [-20 BP]

Contacts [19 BP]

Pops (Pawn Shop/Fence) C: 3 L: 1
"Pops" may or may not be the oldest living person in the 6th world. It may just be that his "pawn shop" has been around the downtown core forever. He deals in anything resalable but prefers not to take commlinks or other traceable items.

<<<< Bull-drek the dude is just some creepy old breeder >>>>
OrkTastic
<<<< Not so my cranially challenged friend the gentleman in question emits an unusual aura very similar to a free spirit >>>>
MageMania

May Summermoon (Mage) C: 3 L: 3
May is a quiet Elven Wicca Maiden, she does some freelance consulting work for various single A corps and small time owner operators. One night she needed an extra mana boost and decided to use a small park to moon gaze while sky clad. Unfortunately she had also attracted some Humanis thugs. The thugs grabbed her and were prepared to rape and murder her. Unfortunately, all this was taking place in Bang's park. Bang saw the Humanis and decided that he could use the extra cash so he jandered over. Two minutes later he jandered back to his lair with all the Humanis thug's clothes and May under his arms. May woke to the sight of a troll smiling at her. After she woke up again she realized that the troll had saved her life and her honor. The two have been fast friends ever since.

Slaughter (Decker) C: 3 L: 2
Slaughter is a off and on Ork shadowrunner, he usually looks for paydata anywhere he can find it. He often uses Pops Pawn shop to clear out his old and spamy data and goods. One night while looking for cheap chips or BTLs he saw a large troll enter with a pillowcase. Amused he watched the unusual transaction. Slaughter knowing that trolls often get ripped off interceded. Pop explained that every week or so the troll came in, dumped a pillowcase on the Table and waited for the tally. Struck by the human�s apparent honesty Slaughter cheerfully offered the troll work as a meat guard. Bang happily accepted and joins the Ork for the hairier jobs.

Mr. Smith (Corp) C: 3 L: 1
Mr. Smith first noticed Bang while playing Mr. Johnson for an Ares subcorp. Bang was working with Slaughter at the time. Struck by the troll�s enormous frame he realized that the monster would be perfect for a corpsec bodyguard. With a little finesse the canny Smith brought Bang aboard.

Capt. Holstine C: 4 L: 2
Bangs immediate superior and the commanding officer of Firewatch in Seattle. He's divorced with 3 children one of whom has goblinized. He seems to be quite accepting of his metahuman daughter however; apparently she works as an unarmed combat instructor for Knight Errant. He served with distinction during the Euro-War and was awarded an Iron Cross second class by the German government. He moved to Detroit after the war and joined Knight Errant shortly afterwards. He was still on KE's SWAT team during the Chicago crisis but he quickly volunteered to join the new Firewatch force soon afterwards. Since then he's simply be rising though the ranks, until 8 years ago he commanded a team in Wasp (the Detroit company) before he was promoted to command of Mantis company.

Resources [5 BP]

Ares Alpha Combat Rifle
Remington 990 �Masterkey� sub-weapon conversion
Basic Kit 5P -1 SS* 0** 2+1(m) 4R 90
Ares Predator IV Pistol
Combat Webbing
Dress Uniform
Helmet with chem. seal, Smart link
Armored Vest
Fatigues (Troll Sized)
Collapsible Club
Heavy Impact Gloves
Combat Boots
Renraku Sensei, Iris Orb O/S, Trodes, Ear Buds w/ Sound link, Damper, Subvocal mic.
Stats: Response 2, Signal 4, Firewall 3, System 3,
Loaded w/ Tiny Rating 3 Agent, Browse 3
Firewatch Commlink, System 5, Signal 5, Firewall 5, OS 5,
Loaded w/ Analyze 5, Encrypt 5, ECCM 5,
IC rating 5 w/ Analyze 5 Armor 5, Black Hammer 5
Century Ferret (Bob) [1 BP]
Known Tricks: Fetch, Track, Attack
20,000 nuyen [4 BP]
300 Karma spent
10 Karma earned

[imperialus]

@ Merris:
Looks good, consider him approved. Do you mind putting the stats in spoiler tags though? It'll help keep the thread from getting too long.

To pique everyones intrest here is a shadowland posting on Firewatch.

<<This is from a flyer that went out to companies that employed KE security trying to get them to upgrade their contracts. I edited the file down since most of it was your typical corporate chest thumping but this bit seemed pertinent. It’s always worth while to keep tabs on who we’re up against and if Firewatch really is out there trying to catch us it’ll at least help to know that they are out there.
Fast-Jack>>

Knight Errant Firewatch:

Forget what you thought you knew about elite corporate security! The heroes of Knight Errant Firewatch are here to protect you and your business from all the threats that the modern world has to offer. By enrolling in our super platinum security package the power of FIREWATCH, Knight Errant’s super elite unit, will be at your disposal. When all else fails our elite Firewatch teams will undertake whatever steps are necessary to recover your property and ensure that criminals or industrial spies will think twice before targeting you again. After receiving their trial by fire during the crisis in Chicago, Knight Errant Firewatch has expanded their portfolio and transformed into an ELITE crime fighting force! [23.6 mp deleted]

<<This may seem like your typical crime fighting propaganda but let me assure you it’s deadly serious. After Chicago settled down KE found themselves with a whole boatload of damn good soldiers. They couldn’t justify keeping them on their payroll so they collected some of their best detectives, cross trained them with the goon squads and morphed firewatch into a more general purpose anti-terrorism force. Scary bastards, try not to get in their way.
Sec-Watcher>>>

<<Tell me about it. A buddy of mine told me about run against a midsized R&D cybernetics firm that had KE security. Managed to get in and out without causing too much of a stink, sold the goods hid out for a week and figured he was off scott free. Day after he told me the story he disappeared. Turned up on the news a few days later being escorted into court. Serving 5 life sentences plus 20 years for theft and murder. Sent me an email telling me it was Firewatch that busted him. I hear they even got the Johnson that hired him in the first place.
Cyberbaby>>

[imperialus]

Posting Instructions

"Speech" [cyan]
<Coms (spoken)> [yellow]
<Coms (subvocal)> [violet]
<Text Message> [black]
Thoughts [darkkhaki] [italics]
Memories [lightgrey] [italics]

No sigs in the IC thread, please!

Assume that your characters at least know of each other. Firewatch is a relatively small force and although you're a newly formed team you'll probably have met each other at least a few times.

Please be liberal in the use of bold text. Names in praticular, but any time you want to draw attention to something..

Post a Place, Time [orange] only if your scene is different from the one in the post above yours.

Please post your Character Name in bold at the begining of each post. With 6 players this'll help everyone keep who's who streight.

[imperialus]

What a Firewatch Officer Looks Like:

Firewatch officers are immediately distinguishable from their average counterparts by their uniforms. Forgoing the blue that has been ubiquitous among police officers since the 19th century Firewatch officers wear dark red fatigues with black bulletproof vests, epaulettes, piping, and belts. They wear photo reactive sunglasses that can have AR displays piped into them if necessary. Rather than a hat they wear black berets or helmets with their unit insignia on them. The uniform is completed with silver accents and unlike most police they wear jackboots with their cuffs tucked into them in the style of parachute infantry.

Unit badges are black triangles with red piping and the unit logo, which is a stylized rendition of the unit name in the center. Each side of the triangle represents one of the specialties of Firewatch. Protecting civilization from unknown magical threats such as insect spirits and blood magic, serving the population as police, and combating direct threats to Ares and Knight Errant.

When combat is expected or inevitable Firewatch teams will go into battle wearing full suits of military grade combat armour. The armour is painted with black paint that serves to confuse most sensor systems and it is edged and detailed in red. When wearing armour full gas masks are always worn providing those without cybernetic enhancement with a link to the units tactical net as well as vision and hearing enhancement, this also gives the team members a degree of anonymity and facelessness that can be very intimidating to those who come up against them. The armour is also environmentally sealed to provide protection from most chemical and biological weapons and carries an onboard air supply, good for 30 minutes in the event that the air filters prove insufficient or the individual is required to operate underwater.

Firewatch officers carry the ubiquitous Ares Predator IV as a standard sidearm and also oftentimes are seen with Ares Alpha combat rifles. They are trained with a wide variety of weapons however and will oftentimes change their load as the situation demands. Particularly in the case of sidearms many officers prefer to use their own personal weapons rather than the Predators. Even if a Firewatch officer carries a Predator it is quite likely personally owned and modified to suit the individual. The Captain of Wasp for example, who is one of the last serving veterans who served during the Chicago incident carries an original Ares Predator mk I with a pearl handle and a hand made frame that shows bugs being consumed by fire worked in gold over a matte black background.

Individual Firewatch units are named after the insects that they were initially created to combat. The Seattle unit for example is called Mantis, while Detroit is named Wasp. Spider, Scorpion, Ant, and Hornet are the names of several other units scattered across the world. New recruits are called maggots, finally making official something that Drill Sergeants have already known for centuries.

Firewatch is arguably one of the most demanding units to gain entry too. Not only are it’s members expected to perform as special operations soldiers on a par with elite units such as the Seals, Red Samurai, Jaguar Warriors and Rangers, they must have substantial investigative skills and know police procedure and the law like the bible. It is entirely possible for a Firewatch team to spend one week investigating a high profile murder before being shuttled off and airdropped into a remote location in the Andes mountains the next week to investigate a possible bug spirit infestation.

[Meriss]

There yah go boss

[imperialus]

And here is your ride:

[Fastball]

Handle: Owl Eyes
Name: Eleanor Hartford
Race: Human

Appearance:
Eleanor’s radiant smile; big, brown eyes; light make-up; and long black hair is usually enough to warrant a second glance. Those that start from the ground will see a well-dressed woman with an athletic figure, a confident posture, and a graceful walk. A necklace with a small owl charm adorns her neck, usually matched with a variety of simple earrings. Careful observers may spot an occasional look of distraction accompanied by a slight broadening of her smile.

For those who try to make small talk with Owl Eyes:

[ Spoiler ]

Eleanor has stayed busy with magical research and security training since graduating last year. Most of her free time has been spent relaxing at home, but her friend Neil and she still try to make it to a West Coast Swing or Ballroom Dance at least once month. She also catches an occasional film or Cougar game.

She doesn't have much to say about her childhood. She had a fairly normal life, including all the luxuries and education of the Ares enclave. Her parents were always too busy trying to leading a normal corporate life to pay much attention to her, so Ellie spent most of her time chatting with her friend and mentor spirit, Feathers. Since the other children wanted little to do with a girl who talked to herself, she had few playmates and fewer friends.

Ask about her teen years and Eleanor becomes even more closemouthed, mentioning little more than the fact that she manifested a magic talent strong enough to win a full-tuition scholarship from Ares for study at Washington State University.

At that point in the conversation, her face lights up like the sun in mid-July, she flashes that killer smile, and starts chattering about what were clearly the best years of her life. Any topic becomes fair game, as she seems to recall every stupid thing her professors and classmates said (or did), every spirit she ever summoned, and how much she had to drink before every Cougar game. She danced and dated and engaged in exciting magical research. She even studied abroad in Sydney, Australia for a year, including two trips into the Outback, where her life was saved by her wilderness guide no less than eight times and where she met a koradji shaman.

Eleanor finally graduated magna cum laude and began fulfilling her ten year contract with Ares, which came with the scholarship. While many would have been hesitant to accept such terms, Eleanor speaks as if she is generally pleased that she has the opportunity to repay Ares. After an intensive training course in security procedures, Eleanor found her experience in the Outback gave her the edge she needed to be the top of her class, and was appointed directly to Firewatch team. She feels the promotion shows a tremendous amount of confidence in her abilities and appears determined not to disappoint.

Matrix stalkers may find the following interview with Eleanor published in the Cougar Spirit, a Washington State University Student Publication.

[ Spoiler ]

Q: I understand you’ve recently returned from a year-long study abroad at the University of Sydney. What made you decide to enroll in that program?

A: After my first term I hadn’t learned to cast a single spell. I just didn’t understand magic in the same way as my hermetic and shamanistic professors. Fortunately, my conjuring professor had studied abroad for a year in Australia. He heard me debating the nature of spirits with a fellow student and called me into his office. He said he had encountered theories similar to mine while studying the aboriginals, and mentioned that I might do better studying in Australia.

Q: And were your studies successful?

A: Mostly. I took two week-long trips into the Outback while studying at Sydney. On the second trip I managed to encounter a koradji shaman. At first, he wasn’t interested in anything but making me leave; but after I explained why I was there, he turned out to be surprisingly willing to share his opinions on spirits and magic.

Q: So what’s it like to be an American - Aboriginal Magician?

A: <chuckles> I’m afraid I’m not. The aboriginals and I have similar theories on spirits. We both believe they come from the metaplanes, which the koradji call the dreamworld. The koradji, however, revere spirits as the immortal creators of the world, I just think they are the natural inhabitants of that world. Since magic also spills over from the metaplanes, spirits are more familiar with its usage and are a great source of wisdom. I could probably work with the aboriginals if given the opportunity, but it wouldn’t be a perfect mesh. In the meantime, I just learn from Feathers.

Q: Feathers?

A: Feathers is what Shamans would call a “mentor spirit.” He’s been my friend since I was a child, and I’ve called him Feathers ever since my first grade teacher taught me that owls were “wise birds who know all the secrets of the world.” He isn’t really an owl, and he doesn’t really know all the secrets of the world, but you won’t hear him admit that.

Q: What would you say is the most valuable lesson Feathers has taught you?

A: Always be mindful of your surroundings, whether in the physical or astral world. If you don’t know where you are, how can you know which way to go? He also said it’s okay to ask for help when you’re lost. I get lost a lot, so I’m pretty good at asking for help.

Q: So if your mentor spirit is owl, what other forms do spirits take for you?

A: Well, the first association I ever made was between combat spirits and beasts. That happened when Feathers told me that an owl kills with his claws, not with magic. Once I found out the aboriginals did the same thing, I adopted the rest of their views for my studies.


Q: It sounds like you did learn at least a few things from your study. Do you have any plans for a return trip?

A: Not in this lifetime. The Outback was hell. My advisor at Sydney made me take a training course with automatics before I was allowed to go. He said magic wasn’t enough. I thought he was being overprotective, but when my wilderness guide saved my life four times on that first trip, I started to realize exactly how dangerous it was. Besides, the koradji shaman I met made it pretty clear I wouldn’t be receiving an invitation to return.

Q: Well, if you don’t plan on becoming the first Aboriginal-American, where are you headed from here?

A: When I graduate, I’ll be under contract with Knight Errant for 10 years. I’d like to pay them back for the opportunity they gave me, so I’ve tendered an application to the Magical Security department. I’m also considering applying for an Astral Research Position.

Q: Magical Security, huh? You don’t seem like the type to fry somebody. Any chance you’ll tell me what spells you learned in the Outback?

A: Sure, but only if you let me test them on you. <wink>

Q: I think I’ll pass, and that concludes our interview. Thank you for your insights and good luck with your continued studies.

<End Transcript>

[Meriss]

Hey Fastball, welcome to the team.
@imperialus when might we be starting?

[HeySparky]

Nice interview, Fastball... cool way to introduce the character.

[imperialus]

We're just waiting on APDS to give me his final draft and Toivoton wants to re-do his character as a combat mage. As soon as they are in I'll start within a day or two. I'm aiming for Monday midafternoonish EST at the latest. Toivoton and Sybercat also need to wait for their accounts to activate, so that's the only real bottleneck there.

[SyberCat]

The 'Cat is now post-capable! I should have some additional background info for Imperialus to peruse shortly, and if he's okay with it, I'll post a similar version to the forum...

More in a little bit,
-Syber'

[Toivoton]

WOOTness? I can finally post too! :)

Still fiddling with the char, but I'll prolly mail it in a few hours and then get started on the introduction post.

And Sparky - hopefully you can hack too since I'm doing tricks now... Glow was actually more of a rigger then a hacker and I thought one of those is enough for a team. Tho it might have been fun fighting over who gets to pilot what.. ;)

BTW now that I can, I'd like to complain a bit about the communication comlink:

As I said, I'm new here so don't trust anything without checking the rules, but I thought a few things were odd:
-No analyze. When something tries to break into something, the target gets to throw firewall+analyze. This is why I think analyze is THE most important anti-intrusion program. Besides it's even common use so it's cheap!
-Rating 6 IC in system 5. Programs only work at system rating. Then again Ares prolly makes those so it's free for them to just copy the biggest meanest IC..
-Nothing to protect the signals! No encryption! No ECCM!

So here is my version of the programs:
-Analyze 5
-Encrypt 5
-ECCM 5
-IC rating 5 with
-Analyze 5
-Armor 5
-Black Hammer 5

If you need the decrypt program to decrypt things even with the key, just program it so that it only uses ECCM when it's having trouble getting a signal and takes the IC out when that happens.

Comments?

[imperialus]

makes sense. Sorry about that. I put the communication comlink up without putting a whole lot of thought into it. It was kinda last minute when I realized "Damn! They'll need a way to talk to each other! Quick Dave, pull some numbers out of your ass and edit the post before someone notices!"

Everyone consider Toivoton's Comlink to be the "Official" team comlink

[Toivoton]

No worries. :)

BTW I took a couple of flaws from http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...opic=15633&st=0 . I can replace them with the usual mild allergy (books) and spirit bane (plant spirits) if you want, but I think these are better. (still 40 karma and 30BP over so I can't mail it yet. Man it's HARD to make a mage that can do everything...)

Oh and btw can you get geas to keep magic while losing essence like you could in 3rd?

[HeySparky]

Actually, I'm focused on rigging, don't have the cracking group at all, just Electronic Warfare. Though I wouldn't mind a hand getting sorted out on what'd make me a good rigger... as I've never played one in SR4. (or SR3 for that matter)

[Meriss]

Well Sparky the dumpshock comunity seems to think that riggers are now the drone masters. (go my loyal drone army!) But maybe you wanna ask in the main forum. Although Drone master might be fun to play. And I'm going to need non squishy help bustin' doors down. (Hmmm... drone backup)

[HeySparky]

Drones are what my PC is about. Drones and a solid backing of athleticism and general butt-kicking skills. I was just wondering if Toivoton (as our prior Hacker) had any sage advice for me. :)

[imperialus]

If an archtype is missing it's not a huge deal. Hacker especially would be easy to have NPC support for. Basically he'll just be the nerdy guy who sits in the MR-55 and runs things from the matrix node in the plane. He'd be able to piggy back in and out of your comlinks to do any on the fly hacking nessesary and run the communications system too.

[Toivoton]

[Toivoton]

Real name: John Walker
Nickname: Wires (tho he won't normally tell you that, asking to be called Walker)

Appearance (first impression): Walker is tall (around 2m), slender (70kg or so), short haired, pointy eared and obviously not happy about it, having a perpetual frown on his tanned face. He moves efficiently and briskly. He seems to always be in uniform or at least in army/firewatch gear, always carrying a pistol openly if possible. He tends to have a quite big bald eagle on his shoulder (It's a BIG bird - 60-70cm high when sitting - so it looks a wee bit comical) or flying around when outside. His hands and wrists have several slashing scars.

Sharp (for the ones who didn't buy him drinks): Sharp looks like a soldier who's just come from the jungle, dirty, but not smelling too bad. He's in old field gear, without a helmet, a huge cigar in his mouth and a flamethrower on his back. He is always alert, looking around and sneaking keeping the flamethrower at the ready.

Behavior (something you know if you have trained with him for a while):

[ Spoiler ]

Walker is a perfectionist - he'll insist that every exercise is done again and again until it is done perfectly. He's also silent except when he has something to say about the job at hand. When he does speak, he speaks in short efficient sentences with a clear, deep voice a bit at odds with his slight frame. If he thinks someone isn't concentrating or motivated enough, he tells them that, very loudly and in great detail. That said, he doesn't yell at people when they are trying. You can find him training when everyone else has gone home and training on the weekends. Also now that he has finished training, he has a habit of coming to work on Mondays obviously hung over.

Something you get if you buy him enough drinks:

[ Spoiler ]

His expression softens as the drinks keep coming and after a while he becomes quite friendly and talkative, telling all sorts of warstories (mainly from the Middle East and Africa) and if prodded the right way, you can direct him so that you can find out:

That his childhood was lousy due to his father's drinking and the lousy area. He was also bullied and beaten quite regularly and he had to join a gang quite young for protection, but was never really accepted nor included and therefore managed to concentrate to get trough school (tho just barely). After that he'll tell you excitedly about his awakening at 15, his teacher (who, if you believe him, is the strongest magician ever to grace the world with his presence) and his mait-tete, Cross (a spirit of a superhero or something apparently during the second world war).

He joined the military at 17 and got into special forces. He got promoted fast and got quite a few medals too. Apparently he had been promoted pretty fast to master sergeant and had even been recommended for officer training, but he had turned it down for the time being. Then he'll tell you more warstories. You can really see he really enjoyed being a soldier - every story he tells, his face lights up and he seems to forget to drink.

You can also find out that he's called wires among his friends (and enemies). It comes from the fact that he hasn't really had time to train properly and hence has to rely on skillwires for things. Way too many things for his liking and he's constantly trying to train things he needs, but it seems as though he never has the time.

If you ask why he left the military, you can sense you stepped into a mine - the smile on his face vanishes and he'll signal for his eagle to come to him (yeah it's with him even there tho not on his shoulder when he drinks) and it shapeshifts into a soldier in old field gear, without a helmet, a huge cigar in his mouth and a flamethrower on his back. "Meet Sharp, he's a real hardass - bought it in the Vietnam war in the 1960'ies. Wanna tell us about the beach thing?" And he does. A bit after Sharp starts, Walker tells you he has to go take a leak and he doesn't come back. Sharp prevents you from following Walker. To the point of physically preventing you from following him for a few minutes telling you to "give the man some space". After Sharp is done with his story, he'll tell you that he's going too and promptly vanishes.

[Toivoton]

[Fastball]

If Bang isn't willing to bet on the outcome, Eleanor might place a bet on him.

Also, Eleanor is quite happy to go by Eleanor, Ellie, or anything else you can think of (she'll let you know if you step on her toes). Her best friend calls her Owl Eyes, so when Captain Holstine asked if she has a preferred handle or nick name, that's what she said.

[Toivoton]

Whaa? No trust on the fellow mage's ability to take on the meatbrain in combat? ;)

[Fastball]

It's not a lack of faith, it's just easier to fix the outcome if the bet is on Bang.

By the way, what information does Eleanor get what she assenses Sharp? Because that's the first thing she would do upon meeting Walker, and if Sharp turns out to be what she thinks he is, Walker would be certain to have an invitation to get drunk on her tab.