Run! Recruitment, 2075/6 Persistent Game World Thread Options

[Aria]

Google Map Overlay: <<here>>

A fight for survival in a semi post-apocalyptic setting; inspired by films like the Hunger Games and Maze Runner and TV like The 100; a group of children and young adults will strive to stay alive long enough to find out why they are here and just what the hell is going on! Blame will no doubt fall on the corps, or technos, or dragons…just about anyone could be behind it, are you brave enough to pitch in and find out?

As part of my ongoing 2075/6 game world, I’m looking for players to take on the role of children dragged from their normal lives (as normal as things get in the SR universe anyway) and thrust into a strange and lethal environment by forces unknown. Initially I want this to be a short game, about three to four months real time, if it seems to be going really well I could extend this of course. It will be fairly freeform so people may well drop in and out and I will be deliberately vague about where everyone is so that there’s scope for that and for new people to pitch in whenever they want to.

The protagonists will be children between 12 and 21, from all walks of life, who wake up with no real idea of where they are or how they got here. The environment is hot and desolate, there’s no world spanning matrix to connect to and no sign of civilisation to appeal to for help. Terrain is similar to the Calfree State, a mix of mountains, forest and desert. The group is about 40-50 strong, about two thirds male, with roughly a bell curve in the age distribution, the majority being 15-16 years old.

It will be fairly RP heavy and I will dodge as many dice rolls as I can. You will have a fairly free rein to post IC events provided it doesn’t contradict what someone has already posted.

Character Gen:
Sum to 8, runner build

Race:
Metahumans and metahuman variants only, so no pixies, shifters, infected or AIs.

Attributes:
Minimum Willpower of 4 please (there are reasons!)

Qualities:
All positives are fine (apart from possibly Restricted Gear), I will have a veto on negative qualities that won’t affect the game in any way, eg. Day Jobs. SIN qualities are fine because it will be representative of how others in the group view you and what inevitable cliques you might end up in (or shit list you end up on!). Amnesia is a particularly prominent negative quality among the group but only level 1, I don’t have the brain capacity to deal with lvl 2!

Gear:
You’ll start with no equipment at all other than some flats, there will be a broken open crate of basic food rations and sterilisation tabs. The only gear you can carry with you are implants, gene mods and tattoo qi foci (Given the notes below I might be persuaded to allow other foci to be taken as tattoos). Bear in mind that you’ll need to justify where any mods came from, particularly for one of the younger children.

Magic:
Be warned, there will be a permanent background count of 2 at all times (possibly higher in really bad places), so that’s -2D to all actions aided by magic. That should be a hefty disadvantage so you’ll need to be smart about spells / powers and their use.

Matrix:
No gear so no matrix access. No wifi bonuses for installed gear. Implanted commlinks will be able to talk to each other and any TMs, any technos will be able to communicate amongst themselves freely within a certain range (no mesh to project the signal through). That’s not to say that you won’t encounter matrix tech, but certainly not to begin with.

Contacts:
Don’t worry about these for now, they will represent a pool of points that can be allocated during the game as and when needed.

Advancement / Rewards:
As this is part of my 2075 campaign any rewards can be used on any game, although as this one is a little different any cash rewards won’t be applied to this one and gear will be acquired through the game IC.

***

Character concepts can either be posted here or in the master OoC thread which will be used for all the OoC once the game kicks off. All players need an Obsidian Portal account (it’s free to get one!) and maintain their character there. Bonus karma is awarded for good background, character images etc as per the OoC outlines.

[Digital Heroin]

What better way to celebrate my triumphant return to come- the forums than to try something new and experimental, eh?

The first concept that came mind was a parkour adept/urban exploring street urchin. Very in tune with life interstitial city life, but has never once seen anything of nature outside of a park or that one night slept in the zoo. I'm torn between going full on athlete's way get anywhere style or more invisible, or whether to go Bat or Raven.

[Beta]

(Posted in the equivalent thread in ShadowGrid as Beta).

I think that I'm going to blend my babysitter idea with Rusty, the character that I almost played in Tangled Currents. An adept with Adept Spell: Shapechange, Dog as both mentor and favored form using shapechange. Grew up on the lower margins of the Sin-holding society she was a veteran baby-sitter (i.e. moderate social skills) at an early age since she had to help contribute to the family budget. Then her magic showed up last year -- she's been spending increased time on the streets in critter form as she totally freaks out about people trying to 'recruit' her for magical training (she believes it amounts to selling yourself into comfortable slavery).

Has astral perception and empathetic healing for certain. Still trying to decide if I invest in improved reflexes or not (if ever there was a game where one could possibly go without, this could be it?). I have this character almost fully put together except for figuring out the last of the negative qualities.

On the other hand, if we end up with a good quorum of adepts already, I also have something resembling a face mostly built.

Trivia notes:
- for an adept with resources E, the most sensible thing to buy normally would be a 2 point Qi focus .... which will be inactive pretty much the whole time. So worth buying, but possibly not worth putting the karma into at start.
- Much more interesting to play with the Shapechange spell now that Howling Shadows is out!

[Raiderj]

(Posted in the equivalent thread in ShadowGrid as Beta).

I think that I'm going to blend my babysitter idea with Rusty, the character that I almost played in Tangled Currents. An adept with Adept Spell: Shapechange, Dog as both mentor and favored form using shapechange. Grew up on the lower margins of the Sin-holding society she was a veteran baby-sitter (i.e. moderate social skills) at an early age since she had to help contribute to the family budget. Then her magic showed up last year -- she's been spending increased time on the streets in critter form as she totally freaks out about people trying to 'recruit' her for magical training (she believes it amounts to selling yourself into comfortable slavery).

Has astral perception and empathetic healing for certain. Still trying to decide if I invest in improved reflexes or not (if ever there was a game where one could possibly go without, this could be it?). I have this character almost fully put together except for figuring out the last of the negative qualities.

On the other hand, if we end up with a good quorum of adepts already, I also have something resembling a face mostly built.

Trivia notes:
- for an adept with resources E, the most sensible thing to buy normally would be a 2 point Qi focus .... which will be inactive pretty much the whole time. So worth buying, but possibly not worth putting the karma into at start.
- Much more interesting to play with the Shapechange spell now that Howling Shadows is out!

You can buy Qi Foci at 6000? Im making an update.

[adamu]

I just want to say - for no constructive reason whatsoever - how very overjoyed I am this game will be on this site...the other board is driving me CRAZY!

I have so very much I want to do with the campaign right now and so very very very little time - I sit down with a precious fifteen minutes and I can spend literally half of that waiting for pages to load on that other site.

The more we can move here the better!

(pointles rant over)

[Raiderj]

I just want to say - for no constructive reason whatsoever - how very overjoyed I am this game will be on this site...the other board is driving me CRAZY!

I have so very much I want to do with the campaign right now and so very very very little time - I sit down with a precious fifteen minutes and I can spend literally half of that waiting for pages to load on that other site.

The more we can move here the better!

(pointles rant over)

Aaaamen. Minus 2 Kamra for Spirit Claw Foci.


On his Foci: He was given it when he started his “tutored lessons” as an induction gift. He was favored for his potential and hard work by the people in charge of the program and had it given to help him excel in spiritual combat. He wears it like a badge of pride. It is the Renraku Logo.

[Beta]

I just want to say - for no constructive reason whatsoever - how very overjoyed I am this game will be on this site...the other board is driving me CRAZY!

I have so very much I want to do with the campaign right now and so very very very little time - I sit down with a precious fifteen minutes and I can spend literally half of that waiting for pages to load on that other site.

The more we can move here the better!

(pointles rant over)

Have you asked/suggested/nudged people to agree to move their threads over? Mercy and I made the move for Preston and I'm very glad we did.

[Aria]

What better way to celebrate my triumphant return to come- the forums than to try something new and experimental, eh?

The first concept that came mind was a parkour adept/urban exploring street urchin. Very in tune with life interstitial city life, but has never once seen anything of nature outside of a park or that one night slept in the zoo. I'm torn between going full on athlete's way get anywhere style or more invisible, or whether to go Bat or Raven.

Welcome back!

Don't forget background count (looking at you Raider, I think some of your powers are going to be wiped out!) min 2 throughout the game. I'm inclined to take the harsh approach (rather than missions FAQ) in that anything that is aided by magic takes a D penalty...yes, that's harsh indeed but other than wanting to not make this 'magicrun' there's an in-game reason too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Raiderj]

Welcome back!

Don't forget background count (looking at you Raider, I think some of your powers are going to be wiped out!) min 2 throughout the game. I'm inclined to take the harsh approach (rather than missions FAQ) in that anything that is aided by magic takes a D penalty...yes, that's harsh indeed but other than wanting to not make this 'magicrun' there's an in-game reason too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I thought Background Count only affected Skill Rolls?

[Digital Heroin]

Welcome back!

Don't forget background count (looking at you Raider, I think some of your powers are going to be wiped out!) min 2 throughout the game. I'm inclined to take the harsh approach (rather than missions FAQ) in that anything that is aided by magic takes a D penalty...yes, that's harsh indeed but other than wanting to not make this 'magicrun' there's an in-game reason too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I was operating under the impression that background count would play a bit of havoc, aye. My understanding has been (and I'm rusty, I admit that) that background count has two primary effects for an Adept. The first is Active powers suffer a straight up loss of potency, reflected in their levels being lowered. The second would be a dice penalty for a skill liked to something with a Passive power.

Alternate idea was a test subject kid, something akin to the Bag of Organs lifestyle option. They would have escaped from a clone-organ facility fairly recently, only to run afoul of whatever brings the kids to the desert. I like the idea of a fairly 'blank' character who is far less savvy, and but guarded.

[Aria]

I thought Background Count only affected Skill Rolls?

From Street Grimoire:

A background count impose a negative dice pool penalty
equal to its rating for all tests linked in any way to magic (such
as spellcasting, summoning, and skill tests that use active adept
powers such as Killing Hands or Improved Sense).

My reading of it is that the all is key here, the mention of skills is caveated by 'such as' ...note it is my understanding that the missions FAQ is more lenient but for this particular game everything gets gimped! Focused Concentration adept power can avoid penalties of course...

[Raiderj]

Well im keeping my powers but that foci is gone.

[Beta]

As I was trying to settle on what to play, I took a look at what other people have come forward with, and I thought some others might be interested in seeing the summary.

So far three people have characters up on Obsidian Portal (here, look for the ones with "R!" in front of the names), Adamu and I have posted about taking part on both the ShadowGrid (SG) and Dumpshock (DS) threads, Digital Heroin has posted on the Dumpshock thread, and Gilga has posted on the Shadowgrid thread. Those who haven't posted on OP yet are obviously best considered tentative, as we may or may not actually get ourselves together in time.

RaiderJ -- Vincent (alternate world young Vexboy) -- (gunslinger?) adept, follows DragonSlayer. Up on OP

Mercy -- Maya -- suvivalist, linguist, archeologist in training. Up on OP

IrnOrchid -- Lindsey -- black magic conjurer with Chaos mentor. Up on OP

Adamu (SG, DS) -- young as you'll allow (12?), child of a rich, old money family with Victorian values. Been raised to inherit power and use it responsibly. As such has had a lot of rigorous education and training to that end. Also some high-end, very civilian ware - mental enhancers or stuff to keep you alive in car crashes, stuff rich people would give their kids.

Digital Heroin (DS) -- Kasper Ellis -- parkour adept/urban exploring street urchin (also developing a 2nd character, 'blank')

Gilga (SG) -- -- Dana -- 'Prototype transhuman' Mysad with all the fixings

Betx (SG, DS) -- Addie -- face-like under-confident over-achiever, I think.

[Digital Heroin]

Kasper Ellis, my Aurora Warrens born street kid is all but done. I am just roughing out some details. He's been developed as an anarchistic daredevil with a head for mischief. Totally about getting into trouble, then talking or running his way out of it.

That said, I will be developing a second kid, simply known as `Blank.` He is going to be... interesting.

[Beta]

Updated post 13 with character updates. It does indeed look like most people are taking that background count as a challenge to be overcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) So I'll give Rusty a skip, and will be going with my other character, tentatively named Addie. I have tomorrow off, and hope to have time to finish writing up a character description and translating the Chummer build to OP.

ETA: Qui k question -- it it isn't a spoiler, can you give us a time of year for before they vanish? Working on an IC background piece that I'd like to tie into the school year. You know how six months can be forever at that age!

[Aria]

Updated post 13 with character updates. It does indeed look like most people are taking that background count as a challenge to be overcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) So I'll give Rusty a skip, and will be going with my other character, tentatively named Addie. I have tomorrow off, and hope to have time to finish writing up a character description and translating the Chummer build to OP.

ETA: Qui k question -- it it isn't a spoiler, can you give us a time of year for before they vanish? Working on an IC background piece that I'd like to tie into the school year. You know how six months can be forever at that age!

Last actual memory is early summer...fits with the hot environment you find yourself in...school wasn't quite finished for the year so you appear to be missing your finals (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

[Aria]

As I was trying to settle on what to play, I took a look at what other people have come forward with, and I thought some others might be interested in seeing the summary.

So far three people have characters up on Obsidian Portal (here, look for the ones with "R!" in front of the names), Adamu and I have posted about taking part on both the ShadowGrid (SG) and Dumpshock (DS) threads, Digital Heroin has posted on the Dumpshock thread, and Gilga has posted on the Shadowgrid thread. Those who haven't posted on OP yet are obviously best considered tentative, as we may or may not actually get ourselves together in time.

RaiderJ -- Vincent (alternate world young Vexboy) -- (gunslinger?) adept, follows DragonSlayer. Up on OP

Mercy -- Maya -- suvivalist, linguist, archeologist in training. Up on OP

IrnOrchid -- Lindsey -- black magic conjurer with Chaos mentor. Up on OP

Adamu (SG, DS) -- young as you'll allow (12?), child of a rich, old money family with Victorian values. Been raised to inherit power and use it responsibly. As such has had a lot of rigorous education and training to that end. Also some high-end, very civilian ware - mental enhancers or stuff to keep you alive in car crashes, stuff rich people would give their kids.

Digital Heroin (DS) -- Kasper Ellis -- parkour adept/urban exploring street urchin (also developing a 2nd character, 'blank')

Gilga (SG) -- -- Dana -- 'Prototype transhuman' Mysad with all the fixings

Betx (SG, DS) -- Addie -- face-like under-confident over-achiever, I think.

Thanks for the summary!!! Don't worry about being late to the party though, this one is deliberately designed with a vague pool of NPC/PCs so that people can come and go as they like. I'm also happy (at the moment) for people to have multiple characters (as long as the whole thing doesn't become a combat resolution nightmare down the line!)

[Digital Heroin]

So Scrap is still in! (She's not going to be a combat-heavy type, unlike DR064-0035111)

[Aria]

Initial IC is up: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=41614 post away...I leave to you to decide if you are one of the quartet Aria saw ;D

You can post queries here for a bit and then once the IC gets going we can move back to the master OoC thread for that kind of thing. We will probably run a 'combat turn' thing on OP like I am trialling with CoF

[Aria]

Raider, can you remove the quote please from your IC? Thanks!

[Raiderj]

Raider, can you remove the quote please from your IC? Thanks!

As long as I can quote this one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Beta]

Finally got character intro typed up. (edit) character sheet is done ... in chummer. Translating to OP will have to be tomorrow.

One thing to check. Looking at the (possibly fatal) 'code of honour: (don't kill or let other kill) those weaker than herself' Is this OK?

========================================

[ Spoiler ]

I’ll write the proper essay for Careers class later, this one is just for my head memory. At least that is the plan, so Ms. Nguyen, if you read this I’m sorry, I screwed up and handed in the wrong one,please stop reading RIGHT NOW!!!

Who am I? I’m Addison Kent. Yes,, I know Addison is an old-fashioned name, but I'm named after my Mom and my Grandmother. Just don't call me Addison the third; maybe Addison the Least? Or just Addie, like pretty much everyone does.

My grandmother --Addison the great I call her-- is a judge and studied law at Harvard, despite growing up as a military brat and living through everything from the return of magic to VITAS to the breakup of the old USA. She is every bit as smart and success-driven as that makes her sound. She married a writer -- my grandfather died when I was young so I can't say a lot about him, but I've heard that while he was creative he didn't have the same sort of academic brilliance that my grandmother has.

My mother is Addison the OK. She studied biology at the University of Pennsylvania but went into journalism after graduation. She really is a smart woman, but I've never heard her win a logical debate with my grandmother, she isn't on that level. She married a public relations expert, which aside from making potential conflict of interest issues represents the second generation of women to marry someone less rigorously intellectual.

Genetics are not always predictable, but here I am, the third generation of watered down intellect. It isn't like I'm anything like stupid, but even with hard work and all the advantages my family can bring me -- from dining room debates to tutors to bioware implants at an age most people wouldn't be allowed to get them -- my marks are only decent. It isn't just that I'm not getting into Harvard Law, I won't be studying law anywhere, or getting into any prestige programs, you know?

I'm ‘good with people’, as Mom is always quick to point out when she's trying to convince herself that I'm not a disappointment. You know that old saying about shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations? I try not to be the spoiled brat who will party away the family reputation, but I'm just not anything all that special, I wonder how much of that saying was just from the watering down of bloodlines? Some days I think that the best thing I could do for the family is seduce the smartest boy I can find, and hope for kids smarter than me. Isn't that a life goal to make a girl feel good about herself?

So I bust my butt, hoping that I can keep up the illusion of hope for the future at least as long as my grandmother lives -- I think even Mom could better accept my limitations if she didn't feel that she was disappointing her Mother by raising an inadequate kid. The sleep regulator is a lifesaver, as I can babysit almost every night -- gotta make those contacts, schmooze those possible future patrons, and show my ambitions, right? And still I have time to do all the homework and studying.

The sleep regulator. One of several bioware enhancements to help me be vaguely adequate. Most of the rest are more health things. Grandma was onher varsity swim team, Mom was a competitive distance runner and still spends forty-five minutes a day on the treadmill. I was the sickly kid. I was always drooping, oozing, wheezing. Addison the great was sure it was a failure of character and had mom put me into every character building opportunity available, from wilderness camping to field hockey, but more often than not the only parts I liked were the theory and practice, and my body would fall apart when things got real.

I still don’t know if I like the various bioware implants I ended up getting to help me out, but good on Dad for standing up to Grandma for once. It was him who got me into doctors who concluded that I did have a mix of allergies, asthma, and underdeveloped immune system. So I got lungs that move more air, a tougher stomach, better toxin filters in my blood. And because Dad is convinced that some day I’ll be at risk and in need of protecting myself, some stuff to speed up my reflexes and I’m not a walking electric eel.

Sexy right? ‘You make me tingle, are you leaking?’ or ‘Addie, I really like you, so like you’ll give my car a boost, right?’ I mean, if anyone did kidnap me, once they realized what they had, they would totally throw me back in disappointment.

The one good thing that came out of all of that was Judo. Turns out I’m not terrible at all sports, just the character building ones that Addisons Great and OK believe in. Dad stood up for the self-defense so much that I ended up getting enrolled with a top end sensei, and it turned out I liked judo and was decent. Of course, he didn’t believe in ‘ware, at least not for a girl my age, so I got kicked out of the one good thing my parents ever put me in.

Only to land in something WAY more awesome! Credit Mom for once, she found a teacher of real Jujitsu,not sport Judo. Eric believes that anything that lets you win a fight is worth using, that you use every advantage you have. Like he says “You are a teenage girl, if you are fighting a man, are they going to use their greater strength and reach? Of course they are. So you use everything you have, from looks to tricks to electro shocks.”

Eric is pretty amazing that way, on top of having dark eyes that make me totally orbital. I mean he is ancient, like thirty or something, and a martial arts teacher, so no way would I ever be allowed to date him, but no harm in thinking about what his tusks would feel like if we kissed, right?

I’m doing really well in his class, and I even started helping teach some of the little kids last month. Not really teaching, but helping out with form and leading katas and stuff. I like that, I’ve always liked kids. Maybe because I was always so sick I know how much it matters to be treated as real, even if you are little and weak and stuff. Whatever the reason, I’m pretty great as a babysitter;, kids and parents all like me and I know I do good stuff with the kids. Maybe it sounds conceited, but for some of those kids I think I’m the best thing in their life.
I
Actually, I wouldn't mind being a teacher of some sort, I think. I think I'd be good at it, and I'm good at wrangling kids. But in my family being just a teacher wouldn't cut it. A college professor, and instructor at a military school, something like that maybe, but we already covered that I'm not really a high flyer, right? So I have this talent, but going for a job that really uses it wouldn’t be acceptable. Unless maybe I just did it for a few years until marrying that theoretical really smart guy.

So who am I? I can’t be the woman my foremothers want me to be, I can’t the person that I think I’d be good at, and I don’t really see another route. So I’m just a kid trying to figure myself out, like most everyone else in grade ten.

[Beta]

I've finally got Addie up on Obsidian Portal.

[Aria]

Thought this might help picture the scene: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Califor...1!1e1?hl=en

[Beta]

Very helpful -- thanks!