Seeking Seattle runners…, Recruitment thread for a PbP game in Seattle, 2072 Options

[Kerenshara]

After a good bit of poking and prodding, and not a small amount of encouragement, I have decided I'd like to test the waters for interest of me running a PbP game here on DumpShock.

Here's the basic idea, and an up-front list of house-rules / options I would go with:

All optional dice caps will be used:

• The maximum Hits (NOT Net Hits) from a Skill Test that you may apply are equal to your relevant [Skill x 2] or 1, if defaulting. Skills are supremely important in my view, and it helps encourage rounded characters.
• The maximum positive Dice Pool Modifiers you may apply to a Skill Test roll are equal to your relevant [Attribute + Skill]. No matter how favorable the conditions, you can only take advantage of so much if you're a novice or ungifted.
• You may never roll a final Dice Pool of greater than 20 dice on any single Skill Check. This keeps things from getting silly and broken. With 20 dice, you may in theory buy 5 hits, the maximum on just about every single chart in the game.
• NOTE: Use of EDGe negates the above caps for the roll where a point of EDGe is used to boost the initial dice roll.

Now, if that sounds a bit harsh, there are some things going the other way to balance things out.I will be using KarmaGen, as presented in Runner's Companion, with an initial pool of 750 Karma for character generation + 50 Karma pos-creation. The cost of statistics will be 3 x New Rating, since they haven't erata'd the thing yet, with the initial pool of 750 Karma. If you wish to use the extra 50 Karma to improve a stat, you need to pay 5 x New Rating as normally written in SR4A.

IF you choose to play a Technomancer of an Awakened character, I DO NOT count the cost of the Qualities directly related to those abilities against the 70 Karma limit on Qualities. That would include:
• Technomancer
• Paragon
• Wild Technomancer
• Adept
• Mystic Adept
• Magician
• Mentor Spirit
• Aspected Magician
If you have another quality you feel should be added to that list, I will listen and approve/disapprove on a 1-on-1 basis. Latent Technomancer and Latent Awakening still both count against the limit.

I do NOT consider the "Martial Arts Qualities" from Arsenal to be subject to the 70 Karma limit.

I WANT to see more (non-elf) metahumans in this campaign, and I may "incentivize" any character created that is a dwarf, ork or troll, but it will be AFTER I see a background, character sheet, and answers to (at least) the 20-questions.

I WILL be adding a couple contacts to each character, but that's going to be a surprise. I MAY decide to offer extra "points" of contacts based on Stats and Skills, but I haven't decided that yet.

You WILL be allowed to take FREE Knowledge and Language skills equal to [(LOGic + INTuition) x 6]. Remember, these are Skill Tests, so your Hits (not Net Hits) will be limited to [Skill x 2].

I do NOT include MAGic / RESonance and EDGe under the (50% + BP Cost of your Metatype) limit on Attribute purchases.

IF you wish to purchase a Metavariant whose BP cost is greater than the base Metatype's cost, you must pay that difference x 2 in Karma. Please contact me before selecting any Metavariant.

SURGE is allowed, but again, you must run the chosen qualities by me ahead of time.

Starting Funds are limited as normal, but you may purchase additional post-start funds with the 50 Karma extra at a rate of 2,500¥ per point of Karma, no limits. You must still acquire any equipment whose Availability is greater than 12. Talk to me about it.

<Darth Vader Voice> "No Gauss Rifles!"

IF you plan to play an Awakened / Virtuakinetic character with cyber-, bio- or geneware, please talk to me. The exact cost of the "lost" magic point will depend on your history and my evaluation of your character sheet, but it will probably be less than the full nominal cost for the last point.


OK, now that we have covered the CrunchyBits^TM, and frightened off the majority of readers unless I miss my guess, on to my "world" rules and "flavor".

First: Drain / Fading can not be "healed" by any means except natural rest.
Second: First Aid does not "heal" damage, it merely counteracts the wound modifiers, making it much easier to make it through to where you CAN rest and recuperate. Combined with the cap on DP modifiers, good First Aid and Medicine skills become very important skills for SOMEBODY on the team to have. Remember also that the maximum number of boxes "treated" by First Aid is equal to the First Aid skill rating.

Those are the BIG ones for me. I won't make healing slower, but I don't like it to be trivial, either.

I will be using armor degradation and the personally fitted armor rules from Arsenal, but FFBA (Form Fitting Body Armor) is already considered to have benefited from them. I will also be using some custom numbers for some of the firearms in the game. If you want a custom Mentor Spirit or Paragon, talk to me; You will find me surprisingly flexible. If you have an interest in the "deep" Mentor Spirit rules I presented months back, talk to me.

Now, here're the big "Flavor" ones:

This game will have some elements for the Pink Mohawk crowd, but if you expect your characters to survive - much less thrive - they'd better have a pair of Mirror Shades tucked away somewhere. Creativity and curiosity will be rewarded, but acts of blatant... rashness will get your character killed. You don't need to be perfect to make it, you just have to try.

I take skill ratings VERY seriously. I VERY much subscribe to the "fluff" descriptions of the Rating levels in the main book; Nearly anybody can take levels 1 or 2 as hobbies or secondary competencies, but if you have a 3 (Professional), that's good enough to make a living with and I'd like to know why/how your character has it. 4 (Veteran) represents a LOT of effort on the part of somebody, so make sure you explain that in your background.

You will be starting out in Seattle during 2072. I am not currently planning to have this campaign span the globe, but after the first 'run(s), that's going to depend on you folks.

One last thing for now:

I plan to run significant portions of this campaign (anything you want to handle off-screen or 1-v-1 with me) via Yahoo! Messenger. It's free and quick to install (http://messenger.yahoo.com), and I'm almost always on my BlackBerry^TM, so you can usually reach me easily that way. That should save a LOT of turn-around time. It will also mean people can communicate with each other off-screen and that usually helps build cohesiveness. Just make sure if a 3rd party would be interested reading about it in the IC thread that you put it in there after you're done.

That's it. If you're still interested after slogging through that Wall-o-Text, post and let's see if there's enough interest for this to get off the ground. I'd like a minimum of 6 players, and I think we could handle up to 8, depending on specializations. Remember: rounded, somewhat generalized characters are going to have an easier time; Specialists who can't do anything outside their laser-like focus will have a rough time. And as a hint: it's usually the one you didn't see that gets you, so smart 'runners have decent Perception.

• Screen Name...... | Character Name........ | Gender | Race. | Main Role........ | Special..... | Scondary Role..............

Active Characters

1. Karoline......... | Tempest............... | Female | Human | Close Combat..... | Mystic Adept | Infiltration...............
2. BlueMax.......... | Orb................... | Male.. | Troll | B & E............ | Technomancer | Driver.....................
3. JoelHalpern...... | Mach.................. | Male.. | Troll | Knife Fighter.... | Adept....... | Heavy Weapons..............
4. milk ducks....... | Tasunke Luta.......... | Male.. | ..... | Face............. | Mundane..... | Infiltration & Fire Support
5. Adamu............ | Al Guthrie............ | Male.. | Human | Generalist....... | Mundane..... | ...........................
6. Marwynn.......... | Moses "Moe" Kennedy... | Male.. | ..... | Sorcerer......... | Magician.... | Rigger (Xport & Drones)....
7. Embers........... | Jordan Oakleaf........ | Female | Elf.. | Combat........... | Adept....... | Stealth....................
8. Dr. Funkenstein.. | Magnus MacManus....... | Male.. | Dwarf | Conjurer......... | Magician.... | Investigation..............
9. Generic_PC....... | ...................... | ...... | ..... | ................. | ............ | ...........................
10. Trench........... | ...................... | ...... | ..... | ................. | ............ | ...........................
11. OPEN............. | ...................... | ...... | ..... | ................. | ............ | ...........................
12. OPEN............. | ...................... | ...... | ..... | ................. | ............ | ...........................

Backups:

• PBangarth........ | Stardust.............. | Male.. | Human | Defense Magic.... | Magician.... | Healing & Repair Magic.....
• OPEN............. | ...................... | ...... | ..... | ................. | ............ | ...........................

>>EDIT<< This already came up, so I will touch on it now. Initiation / Submersion. You MAY purchase up to one (1) level of Initiation/Submersion with your starting 750 Karma. I have placed NO restrictions on the spending of the extra 50 Karma (if you want to use it to buy additional qualities, talk to me first), but I have ONE limit at character creation on Initiation/Submersion: your Maximum MAGic score may not be more than one point above your actual MAGic score. So, to take level 2, if you have no 'ware, you MUST have purchased MAGic/RESonance 7 either with starting Karma or the extra 50. This means that if you did purchase both the Initiation 1 and MAGic 7 with the initial 750 Karma, you COULD get up to Initiation 2 and MAGic 8 if you took an ordeal and a group. I reserve the right to approve ordeals and groups, of course.