Recruitment: SR4 Twisted Minds Act 0, Who is brave enough to walk my mind? Options

[Jaid]

no, that's alright... the mage i already finished has some basic ingredients for a weak hacker-in-a-box if you want some minor help sometime. (ie a not-very-impressive agent with some basic, common programs).

the technomancer, OTOH, is encountering rules difficulties, and i am experiencing writer's block as far as getting a background to work (i have some basic ideas on it, but not nearly enough to base the character on).

[GingerKid]

[Feshy]

[Toptomcat]

Could you let me know if any of these contacts are not OK? My previous GM was really picky about what contacts he'd allow. Thanks.

That Guy Who Does That Thing. A fixer of unknowable racial origin and gender, considering he communicates only through heavily-encrypted text messages using a complex lingo taught only to his customers. That Guy Who Does That Thing takes secrecy and anonymity to a sometimes ludicrous extreme.
"The rodeo clown is to leave the coop when the clock strikes blue."

Megami, female elven CIA counterintelligence officer. She knows her way around the Agency: rather than being unsubtle and just 'losing' the records pertaining to a case she's asked to help stall, she just kicks it into a beuracratic subcommittee of a subcommittee of a bunch of outside academics who aren't cleared for anything that could help accomplish anything. Obcessed with old flatvid anime.
"That Evangelion boxed set you got me is worth its weight in gold these days. Don't thank me for getting the Agency off your back- I should be thanking you."

Marilith Millions, assasin for hire. A kidnapping run went pear-shaped on her a few years back, and she got stuck with a pathologically trusting eight-year old hostage that nobody would pay for. Two years later, she couldn't bring herself to just cut her losses and sell the poppet to organ-leggers. Stockholm syndrome kicked in with a vengeance, and Marilith now has herself an ten-year-old partner in crime.

Jordan, female human (for now) talismonger and mage. Has magical powers with bizzare side effects: her spells usually do what they're supposed to, but also do wierd things like changing the caster's gender (three times now,) cause nearby mirrors to display disturbing images, or force nearby mages into the astral.

Scott, ork bartender/bar owner and weirdness magnet. If it's freaky, SOTA or in the news, it shows up at his bar. A drunken merc burned a hole in the wall with the Ares MP Heavy Laser Plus two days before it hit the open market. Four people drinking at it suddenly expressed SURGE simultaneously, and a metal table leg turned unexpectedly into orichalcum. An insect shaman was a regular and vanished suddenly during the Bug City debacle. And he swears he's seen Elvis three times.

Aldolf von Leiterhoef, psychotic human male German weapons dealer/smuggler with a nasty habit of slipping really heavy, truly nasty stuff into standard orders...like putting a radioactive 'dirty bomb' into a box of grenades, or substituting capsule rounds with VITAS for gel. A neo-Nazi.
"And this, the SPECIAL 9mm caseless! An excellent Jew-killing round, I got twenty boxes just today."

Simon O'Connel, male dwarf professor at MIT&T and a leading authority on unusual foci/magical items. His actual spellcasting abilities are minimal, obscured by a good deal of cognitive bio and cyberware, but his theoretical knowledge and analytical prowess is beyond peer. Also a fiendishly clever practical joker, he manages to completely shut down the main campus building about once a year (and has never been caught!)
"The summoning focus is the crux of the whole thing. All the rest is basically analogous to the insulation of a wire: necessary for safety, but technically inert and not actually needed for function. If these safeties are successfully removed from the spell design, the eventual effect will be to put tarantulas into every air duct in the building.
Should be fun. Come around here about four on Thursday."

Sven, male human Scandinavian decker with a passion for bodybuilding. Has access through his uncle to some top-of-the-line programs, which help make up for his fair-to-middling unmodified CMT Avatar and only slightly above-average decking skills. Sculpts the Matrix to look like Valhalla.
"Sure, I'll get you the files if you spot me at the gym next Thursday."

Eduardo, goofy, enigmatic male human Asian fixer who surrounds himself with bonsai. He specializes in runs for the Japanese and UCAS governments, as well as putting customers in touch with gunsmiths. He has a good sense of humor and is very well-liked.
"This run should be a cinch. There are only ten thousand things that can go wrong, not the usual forty or fifty thousand."

Street Doc, Dr. Pollison. A senile old coot who thinks he's working in a prestigious hospital, he is in fact running a shadow alpha clinic run by his ostensible nurse, an elven Dove mage named Diana. He is generally racist and bigoted to anyone who's not white, male, and 'old money:' however, despite his incredible medical/surgical skills, he never seems to realize that 90% of his patients are dirt-poor metahumans.
"F**kin trogs should all just die in the poorhouse...there, now how's the knee, Mr. Mutilator?"

Mao Mao, female human Chinese fence specializing in small arms and chemical/biological/pharmaceutical goods. She is about four feet tall and savagely confrontational, a textbook case of Napoleon syndrome. She is also an incredible polyglot, speaking over thirty languages. This can be interesting when she starts cussing you out: with so many languages to choose from, she never runs out of invectives or repeats herself. However, her good prices inspire her clients to tolerate the abuse.
"@#$(*(_%#$^*(^@#(%$&)#(*&_*@%_)#@$*)@&$)(&(*$)&#@%&^!&@)(**&^%#&*__$*#@)(*&^#@$@!(_*@%#&^_%_()#&*)_($@*)!_&#)%@(&%^#@*(^&*#)@_)+@$#*!!!!!"

Talismonger, Talks-With-Walls-And-Trees-Apparantly. An orcish Lion shaman talismonger prone to having conversations on his headware radio at top volume, and over other conversations.
"SO I SAID TO HIM, THEN I SAID the meet'll be difficult to set up, that's not exactly Girl Scout cookies yer sellin THE GOLFER WAS REALLY A VIKING! HA HA HA!"

Molly Malone, female elven UCAS military officer in the quartermaster's corps with a passion for a Matrix game called Omni that pits two participants in all manner of virtual contests. Not above slipping a little 'hardware' to a friend. Enjoys old flatvid anime.
" So the last one was kendo and this one is a speed-reading contest? GOD, I love this game."

Max, male ork mechanic who uses rigged drones to do all his repair work. He himself is completely paralyzed, and communicates through a trideo projector on a motorized wheelchair.
“*purple happy ideogram*”

Eduardo, goofy, enigmatic male human Asian fixer who surrounds himself with bonsai. He specializes in runs for the Japanese and UCAS governments, as well as putting customers in touch with gunsmiths. He has a good sense of humor and is very well-liked.
"This run should be a cinch. There are only ten thousand things that can go wrong, not the usual forty or fifty thousand."

Monroe, male ork leader of the gang that claims Codger's neigborhood as their territory. His primary source of power is his gang's status as a go-between in a combat-drug smuggling ring. In a former life, he was a Japanese art student, but took to the streets when he goblinized and his parents disowned him.
"An original Rembrandt? Six thousand grams of the pure stuff."

Bruce, Force 7 Free City Spirit that takes the form of a titanic St. Bernard with a barrel around his neck containing items that prove beneficial to the dozen or so people he irregularly visits.
"WOOF."

Mao Mao, female human Chinese fence specializing in small arms and chemical/biological/pharmaceutical goods. She is about four feet tall and savagely confrontational, a textbook case of Napoleon syndrome. She is also an incredible polyglot, speaking over thirty languages. This can be interesting when she starts cussing you out: with so many languages to choose from, she never runs out of invectives or repeats herself. However, her good prices inspire her clients to tolerate the abuse.
"@#$(*(_%#$^*(^@#(%$&)#(*&_*@%_)#@$*)@&$)(&(*$)&#@%&^!&@)(**&^%#&*__$*#@)(*&^#@$@!(_*@%#&^_%_()#&*)_($@*)!_&#)%@(&%^#@*(^&*#)@_)+@$#*!!!!!"

Otto Von Brauchisch, last survivor of the Third Reich. The escaped testbed for the Leonization genetic age reversal process, Otto is over a hundred and fifty years old. He was there for the dawn of special ops, served actively in the Waffen-SS, and was the favored protege of the legendary special operator Otto Skorzeny. Still an unrepenetant Nazi- after all, what has fascism done that capitalism done wild hasn't already inflicted on the Sixth world five times over?

Maestro, gunsmith/shadowrunner. A professional criminal for fifteen years and running, the Maestro understands that the key to succeeding at a job is having the right tool, and knowing how to use it. The subtle power of a narcojet pistol, the surgical precision of a sniper rifle, and the unfocused devastation of a claymore mine can all be powerful tools to apply to a run- and he can use them all with skill and confidence. If he can't find the peice he needs in his considerable arsenal, no worries- give him a week or two and he'll make it himself.
His street name comes from a bizarre and unique weapon he has designed and made his firearm of choice. Cross-linking his smartlink with a musician's synthlink and extensively redesigning a gas vent with valves and precise tonal proportions, Maestro has transformed a standard Ingram LMG into an exquisite wind instrument that plays a requiem for his enemies as he guns them down.

Dial-A-Cache, unique shadow service company. Founded by a pair of former runners who found their habit of scattering equipment caches across Seattle was very much appreciated by their teammates, Dial-A-Cache secrets guns, knives, ammunition, armor, and other bits of basic 'running equipment all across the city. Just call them up, and one clandestine credit transfer later, they'll tell you how to get to the nearest pile of their goodies.

Moria McTaggart, reporter for NewsNet. Her habit for digging up corporate secrets that many consider best left unhidden has led her to cultivate underworld contacts as a matter of necessity: Codger's one of them. He's given her info that’s saved her rear, once or twice: if she comes across something big, she’ll let him know.

Mad Abdul of Mad Abdul's Taxi Service. A former Islamic Jihad driver of captured Humm-Vees in the Iraq war, Mad Abdul makes his living by going where other transport services can't or won't- through areas dominated by motorcycle gangs, slums where road maintinance is nonexistant, or extraterritorial corporate properties where outside vehicles are shot on sight. He careens around Seattle in a battered, bullet-ridden taxi with bolted-on armor and the last remnants of a scorched, mud-spattered, bloodstained yellow-and-black checkered paint job. Don't expect to take a road-legal route- or even a route that mostly involves roads- and be prepared for your eyes to water when you see the fare...but there's no one who can get you from A to B faster.
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
"There's guns under the seat, feel free to join in!”

Grinder, gang leader. Leader of the motorcycle gang the Reds, Grinder is a remarkably competent, if self-taught, mechanic. The Reds run a vehicle chop shop that both funds their operations and gives them their vehicles, and are notorious for cobbling together ‘Frankenbikes’ out of dozens of parts from other motorcycles, cars, scooters, planes, motorized lawn mowers, and the like.
“You drive with a rudder! And it’s got missiles! Isn’t it wiz?”

Raphael Aguinaldo, Spanish master of exotic martial arts and Codger's sparring partner. He learns exotic martial art styles the way other people collect stamps, and holds black belt equivilents in drunken boxing, Krav Maga (an Israeli style), and Pankratos (an ancient Greek style), as well as traditional Shotokan karate. He is the primier martial arts instructor for the Seattle branch of the Yakuza, and as such holds considerable prestige within that organization- and is the highest-ranking Yakuza official without Japanese ancestry. As such, he balances on a razor's edge, forever defending his position from traditionalist elements.
"No, Shotozumi-sama, I was *not* drunk during that demonstration. I must regretfully correct you, Shotozumi-sama. It is a style of martial arts. Yes, I am sure, Shotozumi-sama. Yes, I am *very* sure.
Please do not order me to cut off one of my fingers, Shotozumi-sama..."

Amy Martinson, chemist. She started cooking up and selling designer drugs, toxins, and plastic explosives in college to help pay off her student loans: after they were completely paid off after only six months of work, she dropped out of college entirely and devoted herself to supplying the criminal element. She can make you anything from pure hydrochloric acid to riot-control concretizing foam to thermite to cyanide to combat drugs.
"Three weeks of all-nighters cramming for a bioneurochemistry test'll mess you up worse than LSD ever will. I know, I've done both."

Yao Wang, Chinese fixer. Mao Mao is a retired shadowrunner-gone-fixer, a man who provided sniper cover for dozens of 'runs back in the mid-2050s. He's known as a good man to work with, so long as you don't plan any double crosses...most people who try two-timing him, or the contact he hooked you up with, end up with a bullet in their brain. One one memorable occasion when both sides of an arms deal tried to double-cross each other, he shot them both.
"I've got an interesting little job lined up for you. Most employers in this buisiness value anonymity, but this one's interesting. Every time I try to trace his background, I end up dead-ending at phony credentials from the obviously fictitious Sixth Congregational Church of Rodney. Reminds me of that one run with Babs...anyway, you up for it?"

Nikolai Ivanovitch, human fence in the Organizatsiya (Russian mafia). He’ll buy and sell just about anything- from pirated copies of the latest sims to cyberware still warm and reeking from its previous owner to illegal drugs by the kilogram. However, he specializes in art objects, favoring early Soviet propaganda art especially.
“A grenade launcher? Why think small, comrade- I can get you a howitzer!”

Sean MacKenzie, dwarven talismonger (retailer of magical goods). Sean runs a combination magical goods/freeform sculpture business, and has an eccentric reputation for his tendency to make the items he enchants extremely strange and totally unique.
“The thatched teapot helps with summoning, the fur-covered toilet’s nice for ritual sorcery, the Hello Kitty doorknob glued to the bottom of the Ben and Jerry’s does a little bit of everything, and for the love of God don’t touch the stuffed koala.”


I am of course not planning on taking all of these, but having a list of approved ones would be nice.

[Feshy]

That's quite an impressive list, even with a couple of duplicates!

I get the feeling you've seen a few animes... ;)

Okay, here are my thoughts on the contacts:

• That Guy Who Does That Thing -- Approved
• Megami -- Approved (try to pick only one anime-adict, lest they fight over payment. Oh, and I had an Australian Water Dragon named Megumi once...)
• Marilith Millions -- Approved
• Jordan -- Approved with Caveats -- I'm not going to have true gender bending on a whim. However, a self-sustaining full-sensory illusion that wears of at the completion of the current lunar cycle? Certainly a possibility for wild magic. Of course, it's entirely possible that he'll be kidnapped for research by people wanting to study the phenomenon, or worse, attract the attention of "something else" that has an interest in it.
• Scott -- Approved with Caveats. Of course, some of his stories may be just that, stories... But darned if that isn't a perfectly neat, round hole behind the bar...
• Aldolf von Leiterhoef -- Rejected -- I don't like to give the players anything for free (VITAS, dirty bombs, etc.)
• Simon O'Connel -- Approved
• Sven -- Approved (We goin to PAMP YOU AP!)
• Eduardo -- Approved
• Dr. Pollison -- Approved
• Mao Mao -- Approved with Caveats -- I don't know just how fluent she'd be in ALL thirty-some languages. But she sure knows the cures and swears of that many... (and a lot of them she will know fluently)
• Talks-With-Walls-And-Trees-Apparantly -- Approved
• Molly Malone -- Approved (try to pick only one anime-adict, lest they fight over payment)
• Max -- Approved
• Eduardo -- Duplicate
• Monroe -- Approved
• Bruce -- Approved with Caveats -- If you choose this contact, you will have no way of, ah... actually contacting him, even with magical help. He will help you according to his own whims, needs, and ultimate goals. So in many senses he won't be a "contact" per se. What an obscure reference he must be by 2070...
• Mao Mao -- Duplicate
• Otto Von Brauchisch -- Approved with Caveats -- I'll stick closer to the political side of Nazism and Fascism rather than what has become the overshadowing racist angle since the discovery of the death camps. In other words, the death camps would have come about out of necessity to provide an enemy to the masses rather than out of some truly racist convictions -- at leat that's how Otto rationalizes it.
• Maestro -- Approved, though he sounds like a bad anime reference ;) But still playable.
• Dial-A-Cache -- Approved I like this idea.
• Moria McTaggart -- Approved
• Mad Abdul -- Approved with Caveats -- The Iraq war will have been too long ago by 2070 (unless I'm forgetting another in-game war, which I might be.) But the middle east remains a dangerous area. Perhaps he handled transportation in and around Tehran after its destruction by the Great Dragon Aden. After the arrival of the Shedim that appeared there after Dunklezahn's assassination, he left. He's Mad, but not Crazy -- and besides, business really dropped off after that.
• Grinder -- Approved with Caveats -- Given the quote, I'd like to point out that what a ganger calls "missiles" may be somewhat different than what a shadowrunner would call a missile ;)
• Raphael Aguinaldo -- Approved
• Amy Martinson -- Approved
• Yao Wang -- Approved
• Nikolai Ivanovitch -- Approved
• Sean MacKenzie -- Approved (and never, ever, touch the stuffed koala)

So, that's most of them approved, several approved with a few changes, and only one that I'm really against.

By the way, that's an absolutely huge list. Then again, I think I'm approaching 100 NPC's in the little world I'm creating for the larger game that I hope this becomes, so I suppose I don't exactly have room to talk.

[Feshy]

Oh, one other bit of news: In 18 or so hours, I will be leaving by car for the shores (peninsula?) of hell -- Florida (a minimum 12 ho ur drive.) I will be there until just before the new year; and I will only have sporadic internet access during that time. So if santa brings you an amazing character hook for christmas, don't be surprised if it takes me several days to get back to you on it.

[DireRadiant]

Bubbles

What everyone knows

She's a Troll. First thing anyone probably notices, once you see past the glowing contrasting colors of her girly outfit. Under her glowing chrysantheum flowered see thru rain slicker is her four color Dazzle pattern camoflage jumpsuit in Glowing Puce Green, Violent Magenta, Tokyo Neon Yellow, and California Blazing Orange. Clear plastic slip ons reveal her artistically painted toe nails with a variety of the latest holovid cartoon show characters in cheery poses. Around her waist is a worn utilitarian brown leather tool belt with a variety of standard hardware tools and measuring devices. Stuck in one of the tool belt holders is the latest issue of Teen!, with the cover of Simplicity, the latest hot synth sensation. The belt buckle is a large sheild emblazoned with a horned troll head over a script "E Simpson".

She's constantly chewing gum, blowing bubbles of various sizes, and continuously moving about, tapping feet to music, picking things up and examining them, occasionally taking them apart or checking them with her metering tools.

[Toptomcat]

Sorry about the duplicates, and the pair of anime addicts- I just went through my Shadowrun folder and copy-pasted every contact I've ever written up for any of my characters, as well as a few of the runners. I deleted a lot of dupes, and contacts based on each other, but those slipped through the cracks.
Full character up by the weekend.

[Jaid]

[Feshy]

[Jaid]

also useful in the event everything gets covered in that really gross sounding ice cream flavor... spumoni or something like that... i suppose...

hmmm... DR doesn't know something about your twisted mind that we don't know, does he?

[DireRadiant]

[Jaid]

Spook can make Bubbles small(er) and unnoticeable.

and uhhh... i'm pretty sure it would be more effective on shadowruns than, say, being clearly visible to even the most casual observer.

of course, just how much smaller is a bit iffy i suspect. depending on your attributes, your best chance may be a smallish troll. maybe a metavariant?

and as far as unnoticeable, that would be a whole different spell ;)

[DireRadiant]

But who dresses up as a shadowrunner all the time? That would be boring. And kind of wierd in it's own way.

When the run starts, out comes the can of spray on matte black absorbent foam removable with a special catalyst stick. Just keep it out of your eyes cause it stings.

[Feshy]

[BlackHat]

[DireRadiant]

[GingerKid]

[Toptomcat]

Hey, we can't all look like 'Matrix' rejects. :P

[Toptomcat]

'cuz it's easier, I gave ya a PM with the character sheet in.

[nick012000]

Any openings still left? I have an idea for an Orc Street Samurai, who goes by the street name of The Silver Samurai, due to the cosmetic surgery he's had that recolored his hair and eyes all silver, replaced his teeth with chromed replacements, the silvery mirrorshades he wears, and the silvery-white suit underneath his silvery lined coat. He dual weilds a pair of chromed Ingram Smartgun X's, somewhat modified and attached to a gyroharness he wears under his coat.

[Toptomcat]

All these obvious types- Codger will either have an aneyurism at working with them or rejoice at all the morons to hide behind.

[skyekicker]

Would your group want someone to play a technomancer? I built a Technomancer using the normal rules but I probably could improve her using your rules.

[Feshy]

nick012000 and skyekicker

We've already got 5 people, which is as many as I think I can run in this part of the game without it being very crowded. But if it goes well, it is part of a larger plot that has the potential for working in a lot more players (two or three teams, which I'm guessing is the limit to the number of runners I could GM for at once without suffering some sort of breakdown ;) ) So I should have room for you guys that time around. But for now, we're full. Thanks for the interest though!

Toptomcat

I got your character by PM. I'll look over it closer some day when it's not christmas and get back to you :)

Everyone

Merry whatever you celebrate everyone!

[BlackHat]