Recruitment: Dunkelzahn Wants YOU! Options

[Ol' Scratch]

The Premise

Maybe you were a beat cop who got caught behind enemy lines in Chicago when the events of Bug City unfolded. Maybe you were a mortician who discovered the corpse you were about to open up was possessed by a shedim. Maybe you were a big game hunter on safari in Africa when you stumbled upon a hereunto unknown species of jungle gryphon. Or perhaps it was something else entirely.

Regardless of the circumstance, you were approached for recruitment by the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research soon after that fateful encounter with the paranormal. Or, more correctly, for how you handled that encounter. The psychological evaluation you took which determined you were one of those rare few who could be trusted to do the right thing regardless of morality or legality certainly didn't hurt either.

As far as the books are concerned, you are an occult investigator and paranormal consultant working for the DIMR. The truth, however, is that you are part of a team of troubleshooters that the institute calls upon in order to attend to matters that are often of a rather questionable legal status. The acquisition of protected flora or fauna specimens, recovery of magical treasures belonging to "private collectors," the investigation of paranormal reports and the oversight and protection of important archaelogical digs are all examples of the types of things you may be called upon to do. Occasionally you have even been sent to work with an attaché from the institute's parent company, the Draco Foundation, to attend to some of the more unusual bequests in Dunkelzahn's will.

In exchange for your services, the DIMR pays you a lush six-figure salary and grants access to their world-famous resources. Fat wallets, a copious amount of free time, state of the art toys, challenging and diverse experiences, and your every need catered too — it's the dream job of any thrillseeking professional. The only drawback is that you can't tell anyone what you really do for a living...



Character Submissions

At this stage, I do not want to see any character sheets. None whatsoever. Not a single attribute score or skill rating. If you throw any stats my way, you will be cruely mocked and taunted for not reading this paragraph. If you do it again, we shall be forced to taunt you a second time. Do it once more and I'm pulling out the elderberries, bitch.

That said, what I do want to see are character concepts. "What the frag is a character concept," you ask? A character concept is a brief outline of your character's premise, history, and the experience that lead to his or her recruitment by the DIMR. What a character concept is not is a detailed account of the character's life since birth or any other superfluous aspects of his life beyond the requested information.

Here are the key points I'm looking for in submissions:

• Character's Name
• Character's Profession (Race and Archetype)
  
• Background Summary: A brief synopsis of who and what the character is.
• Reason for Recruitment: Why did the DIMR recruit him?
• Background Quality: Any quality of your choosing that relates to the character's professional or social life.
• Random Quality: A single quality chosen at random that has nothing to do with the character's professional or social life, but is instead just a curious quirk they have.

Feel free to be original and spontaneous when selecting the aforementioned qualities. The following is an example of what I'm hoping to see.

Oliver Sinclair
Former Secret Service Agent (Dwarf Bodyguard)

Background Summary: Born and raised in the slums of the DeeCee sprawl, Oliver Sinclair dreamt of following in his grandfather's shoes and becoming a fabled Secret Service agent. His grim determination to change his lot in life allowed him to resist the temptation of joining the thrill gangs of his neighborhood and to otherwise avoid any temptations that would have surely doomed his chances of obtaining his dream. All of his hard work eventually paid off and, by 2049, Oliver had earned a master's degree in Criminal Justice at Radford University thanks to a track-and-field scholarship. Soon thereafter, the young dwarf was amongst the first metahumans accepted into the UCAS Secret Service.

In the years that followed, Oliver proved himself several times over. It was thus no surprise that when Dunkelzahn declared his intentions to run for president, he was one of the first agents assigned to the high-profile candidate. When the President-Elect was later assassinated in 2057, Oliver was the only bodyguard on duty that night to have survived the blast. His failure to protect the First Wyrm really his the dwarf hard, and when he was finally released from the hospital six months later, he submitted his resignation to his superiors.

Reason for Recruitment: Beyond his first-hand experiences with all kinds of weird drek he experienced while safeguarding Dunkelzahn, Oliver survived the blast that claimed the First Wyrm's life and created the DeeCee Rift. His training and professionalism were also key points for his recruitment.

Background Quality (Compulsion): Even to this day, Oliver is devestated by the fact that he was unable to do anything to save Dunkelzahn from his assassination. He has sworn on the frosted breath of his forefathers that he will not allow another person under his care to come to harm, and he is more than willing to risk both life and limb to see that personal oath carried out.

Random Flaw (Mild Coulrophobia): On Oliver's sixth birthday, his parents hired a clown for the celebration. Unfortunately, that was also the day the clown spontaneously goblinzed into a troll, traumatizing little Oliver and his friends. Ever since then, he gets the creeps whenever he sees a clown.

In a nutshell, have fun with the setting and don't be afraid to explore all of your options. Recruitment will occur from all walks of life from around the world, so don't feel compelled to limit your options to the UCAS or even North America. It is very unlikely that former shadowrunners will have been recruited, however, so try to focus more on concepts revolving around SINners rather than SINless.



Things to Keep in Mind...

Just so you're not left completely out in the cold as far as what to expect, here are a few tidbits to help guide you in crafting your concept. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate in the least to ask them here so that everyone can benefit from the answer!

Concepts: It is highly encouraged that you submit more than one character concept for the game. Why? It's simple, really: It gives me, as the gamemaster, more control in creating a group of characters who will be compatible and capable of working together as a team. Players often have different ideas of what works and what doesn't, and this is just one small safeguard to help solve that potential problem. If you simply can't think of more than one concept, that's perfectly fine, too. But I would really like for everyone to at least try.

First Come, First Serve: There's not even a longshot of a chance that this will be the case. Submissions will be open until I state otherwise. So while there is no rush to get your concepts posted, don't dally too long in doing so!

Dateline & Base of Operations: The game will begin early in 2070 and will be based in the Boston Sprawl in the UCAS, though many of your missions will often take you all over the globe. Likewise, you have probably been working for the DIMR for at least two years, so you will not only be intimately familiar with the organization but also with one another. We'll discuss this in more detail in the near future, however.

The Setting: Consider canon material (at least as far as the more mysterious storylines and metaplots go) regarding the Sixth World to be little more than conspiracy theories or Matrix rumors, even aspects that are known to be rock-solid facts in most games. Obviously, things that are well-known — such as Lowfyr being the CEO of Saeder-Krupp or Chicago's invasion by insect spirits — are excluded from this, while more esoteric "facts" such as the existance of immortal elves or the truth behind Aztechnology are not. Likewise, events such as the riots that occured during the initial days of goblinization or the witch hunts detailed in Emergence were isolated incidents rather than global phenomena. If there is, however, a specific event that you want to revolve your character around, do not hesitate to do so! If the concept is great and the character is accepted, bam, that conspiracy theory just became fact... even if only to your character.

Recruitment: You and your fellow troubleshooters will be recruited from all walks of life and from all over the Sixth World. Don't feel obligated to be from the UCAS or even North America. Feel free to incorporate any metahuman or metahuman variant race into your concept (even if there are no official rules for them in SR4 yet); racism is much more tame in this setting than the canonical one. Just keep in mind that you were all legitimate — or at least semi-legimate — professionals before your recruitment into the organizations. Shadowrunners and street thugs aren't exactly the caliber of people the DIMR was looking for.

Salary: Your character will receive the equivalence of a High Lifestyle in the Boston area in addition to 5,000¥ per month. This lifestyle includes a gold Nightingale medical contract and one or two vehicles of choice (up to a luxury sports car or motorboat). Don't worry about the exact details, however, as that will be covered in later steps of the character creation process once characters and players are accepted. Just know that you're very well off and have very little to worry about regarding your personal life.

Family: As regular joes, there's no need to avoid having a spouse, children, or a social life in general. Sure, you can't tell any of them what you really do for a living and sometimes things can be dangerous, but when you're off the clock you're free to live life to the fullest. You're not constantly being hounded by the police, megacorporations aren't out trying to squash you, and mob bosses aren't out looking for revenge. Not usually at any rate. ;)

Resources: Cutting-edge technology and magic are readily available through the DIMR and their relationship with MIT&T and other similar institutes. Any supplies relating to these two fields will be available at significant discounts, and your characters will have ready access to the equivalence of a beta clinic. Expendable supplies such as ritual and conjuring materials, target ammunition, and Matrix access will be free of charge in most cases. The same goes for mission-specific equipment including fake SINs and passports, standard vehicles, airline tickets, communications and spy gear, and (usually) a hefty expense account via certified credsticks or local currency on top of that. If getting the equipment across borders is risky, you will instead be supplied with a name or two and some additional cash in order to get the gear after you arrive. In other words; don't sweat the details in this regard either.



Final Comments

All right, I think I covered all the basics. I would like to see all character concepts posted here (not in PMs, not in IMs, and not in email). I will only be accepting four players and thus four characters for this game, though if I see one or two other concepts that really jump out at me, I might consider stretching that to six. But six will be the absolute maximum.

I'm also looking for players who are not only open-minded and creative, but who can also post on a very regular basis (meaining you can read and post multiple times a day, including weekends). If you don't expect to be able to live up to that, please don't submit any character concepts. Nothing slows down and breaks a game faster than having to find replacement players.

Oh, one final note! If you are accepted into the game, you need to have a good sense of humor and you must be able to take friendly abuse and insults not only from me, but from the other players. Likewise, you must be able to dish it out as good as you get it. I hate playing with people with whom I have to be all skittish and reserved around, so I'm going to try and avoid that in this game. You got that, jerkwad? Good.

That said, show me what you got!