My wareless mundane PC, A Case Study Options

[Brahm]

Slim, Human Male, 400 BP

Appearance

To look into Slim's face is to look into a calming, ageless ornamental garden pool, and just as easily forget it when you look away. Slim appears vaguely caucasian, but clues of the NAN portion of his blood are there if you are looking for it. Or it could easily be confused as some other ethnic background. He stands 1.75m (5'9"), weighs 70kg (155lb.), has a thin, mostly hairless face with hazel eyes, slightly off-fair skin, and straight black hair. He is 28 years old, but by visual appearance only looks to be anywhere between 20 and 40.

Background

Slim was self-employed as a middleman for both contraband and marginally legitimate goods in Pueblo metro and area. He also occasionally did security and "counter-security" jobs for the bigger smuggler and black-market players in the area. However one night his luck took a turn for the worse and kept on sliding till he had lost most of his wealth, including his PCC citizenship share, to a gambling debit. Losing his PCC citizenship forced him to pull-up and leave town. Now he is just another of the SINless masses of the Seattle area who, when necessary, carries around all his worldly possessions including a couple changes of clothes in a hockeyplayer-showing-up-at-the-rink sort of way.


Attributes

Bod 3
Agi 4
Rea 5
Str 2
Cha 3
Int 4
Log 1
Wil 3
Edg 6

Init 9
IP 1
Essence 6.00


Active Skills

Athletics (Group) 2
Close Combat (Group) 3
Influence (Group) 4
Outdoors (Group) 1
Stealth (Group) 4
Exotic Ranged, Microflare 1
FirstAid 5
Intimidation 2
Perception 5


Knowledge Skills

Blackmarkets 2
Tribal Politics(PCC) 1(3)
Corporate Secturity(Security Devices) 2(4)
Thaumatology 2
Card Gambling 1


Language Skills

Zuni (Native)
English 4
Romance 1


Qualities

Blandness
First Impression
Guts
Scorched
Sensitive System
Weak Immune System


Gear

Actioneer Business Suit (5/3)
Urban Jumpsuit w/urban camo design (6/6)
Stun Baton, Extendable (non-canon, cross of Stun Baton but telescopes back in for concealment)
Survival Kit + Gas Mask + Micro Flare Launcher w/10 rnds
Survival Knife + 200m Microwire stored inside
Gecko Tape Gloves + Rappelling Gloves + Wire Clippers
Glue Sprayer

Contact Lenses, Flare, Imagelink, Vis(3), Skinlink
Glasses, Flare, Imagelink, IR, Vis(3), Skinlink
Earbuds, Spatial, Audio Enh(3), Skinlink
CMT Clip w/Vetor Xim OS, Skinlink
Sensors(Micro): Camera, designed to pin under back of collar
Sensors(Secure RFIDs): Microphone * 2, Olfactory(3), Geiger, Motion
Trodes, Skinlink (one in ball cap, one in hat matching Suit)
Medkit (4) + Extra Supplies * 2
Stimpatch(3) * 2

Fake SIN (3), "John Earl Walker"
Fake SIN (3) w/License(4) for Stun Baton, "Wayne Rouge"
Lifestyle:Squatter (Coffin Motel)

[Brahm]

Campaign Background

GMed in person by "Eddie Furious", the setting is urban Seattle where a Shadowrunner team is just fitting together and trying to obtain that polished state of "professionalism". The power scale of the game is such that the rest of the PCs are not powergamer tweaked 400 BP. So when Slim throws down 14 exploding dice for an Edge up front Infiltration Test, or 15 dice for Firstaid using the Medkit(4) and Edge that is about as big a dice pool as you see at the table.

Edge refreshes at the start of every gaming session, gaming sessions being about 5 to 6 hours long.



So far I've played in 2 sessions. Met the GM through DSF. Later I will post up details of how things have gone for Slim so far. But the short of it is he has survived and even contributed. He also managed to even pull of some rather entertaining cinemanics by prevailing when going up against a speeding car while on foot with only a survival knife and a spraycan of glue. 8)

I also plan to attempt to keep people abreast of future sessions to give an idea of what a mundane PC accomplish in SR4.

[Drace]

[Brahm]

Keep in mind that by prevailing I mean accomplishing a goal. Eddie Furious might clarify or comment if he happens on this thread, but as I recall it:

Corridas de Toro

The team split :oops: and the hacker wasn't present to get an ID lock on the vehicle. Besides it was another runner team so it is safe to assume they'd be spoofing an ID and therefore wouldn't leave much of a trail. So Slim decides to take it upon himself to do something about this.

The vehicle had had about 30m of alley to accelerate from standing still, and Slim only had the survival knife inhand. The knife has a GPS, so it should work fine as a tracking device. But he figures it'll need some extra help from sprayon glue to stay with the vehicle. The GM ruled that Slim needed to make a Reaction Test (4) roll to bring out the can of glue in time, effectively a Quickdraw with a higher Threshhold. With a Rea 5 Slim dips into his luck reserve. A point of Edge up front nets 4 hits, an average roll and enough to get the can out.

Then the GM called for a Composure Test, aka Sanity Override Test, to take on the car instead of just stepping around the corner out of the alley. That's 6 dice, and I didn't know the Threshhold upfront so I rolled it straight up. Average roll, 2 hits. Since the GM guesstimated that the action was nigh-on suicide that wasn't enough. But rolling another 6 dice covered it off. So 2 points of Edge down just for the privilage of getting to try to stick a knife to the car. I don't know the GM, he might have been trying to save Slim here. But I was having nothing of that! :) Slim is a gambling man both at and away from the card table.

Slim then spends one Simple Action to spray the glue onto the knife blade, no Test, and his second Simple Action to attack the car. This is where the GM said something like "Target is moving fast modifier for ranged combat only? Not anymore!" So with only a base pool of 4+3 dice I decide it is time for Edge up front again. Luck was a Lady, 8 successes on a roll that averages 5! I don't know how many I needed, but the GM didn't call it a Critical Success so I guess it was a hard thing to do. I'm also thinking that very bad things would happen Glitching that roll.

Then the really sticky part so to speak ;) , not getting run over. The GM rolls and tells me upfront the car got 8 Successes and also mentions that this is indeed an armoured vehicle with a fairly high body. Slim has only Body 3 so even when wearing 6 Impact armour getting run over by the car is going to hurt, but not for long. Nice job on building up the tension Eddie. :smokin: :vegm: Point number 4 of Edge goes in up front. Still this is going to be tough.

First roll is promising. Three 6s, two 5s, and junk. The reroll gives a 6 and a 5. Time...to...die? But the second reroll of the one remaining die comes through with another 6, and a 3 on rerolling that. Glancing blow! GM rules that Slim is still going to have a bruise on his hip, but nothing worth marking down on the Stun track.

The car fishtails out of the alley and speeds off into the night with the GPS enabled survival knife stuck to the side. :D


Epiloge

While being a fun thing to do the utility of tracking with the survival knife is debatable. But in the end it at the least removed an unknown by allowing us to determine that it was an autopilot decoy car. :sleepy: The hacker was later able to locate it on a highway and use a traffic control camera to get a visual on it before it got into an accident with an unmanned autopilot cargo truck.

[Azralon]

A real action hero would have, while diving for cover, tossed the knife in front of a tire at just the right angle to make sure the vehicle ran over it point-up and forced a crash test. ;)

(Called Shot: tire, -3. Extreme difficulty: threshold 4. Spend that Edge!)

[Brahm]

[Azralon]

Runflat or not, it'd still have a GPS-enabled knife stuck in its bum leg.

But yeah, I'd hate to break up a set. I'd also hate for the opposing runner team to get out of the vehicle and vent their frustrations upon you.

[Brahm]

[Brahm]

Slim the Argo-naught or Your Insurance Is Going To Cover That, Right?

When last we left our intrepid heros they were lamenting the loss of both their grenade laden van and their GPS Survival Knife. They also had the small problem of having lost the trail of contract targets.

I guess I never got around to explaining the job: We were to stop, by whatever means nessasary, a team of runners that were attempting to penetrate the Renraku Arcology. Our run was to stop at the doorstep. If they, the Numbers Gang hired by some Tir Ghost chap, managed to enter the Arcology the job was a failure.

So some more legwork and we picked their trail again, down on the water in a large cargo boat that had Tir diplomatic standing. Basically a floating consulate. Reconnaissance and legwork found them stocking up on rebreathers and renting a nice motorboat. We surmised they were going to try go up the Arc's tailpipe.

Noone had Pilot Watercraft, so Slim decided to pop down to the Sim Shack for a refresher course. Spent 4 of his 5 karma earned so far. After all having grown up in the desert "I've been around boats all my life."

So now we needed was a boat, and a fast one because the Numbers Gang had one with a top cruising speed of about 45 knots. The rigger/decker used his Fake ID (6) to convince a dealship of his outstanding credit, and arranged to try out a very expensive boat for purchase. :please: We rented a limo and Slim, as the personal assistant/butler, and the rigger/hacker met to salesman to pick up the boat at the docks.

After stopping for the rest of the team and the gear we waited to intercept the target once they moved away from the protection of the Tir ship. We spotted them at 800m using our night gear scopes, and the Troll shaman had a Force 4 water spirit attempt to Conceal us. They still spotted us and pursuit began. Fortunately we had shopped well and we had the speed advantage. With Slim at the wheel we were closing, and they never really resisted. Our spirit made a couple of accident attempts, which they avoided. At about 500m gunplay began, as a full auto volley ripped into the very expensive finish of "our" boat.

Slim mostly kept his head down, using PIP on his contacts coupled with his camera sensor stuck up over the dashboard. Their hacker had a small VTOL drone drop a grenade on the back of our boat, and we all got sound perception checks to notice it. Slim normally does well on these things, with Perception 5, Intuition 4, and Ear Buds with Enhanced rating 3. But he rolled a single succcess, and six 1's. Glitch! The sound startled him and as he turned to look at it he threw the boat into a flat spin. Driving test to see how far we fell behind in pursuit. GM ruled we'd fall 6 - hits Combat Turns. This pursuit was chewing up the boat, didn't think we could afford the extra time. Edge up front, 12 exploding dice with 2 rounds of rerolls and Slim gracefully *cough* handled the boat out of the spin. Only one passenger failed the Reaction (2) test to stay on their feet, but oh how that stubby legged dwarf whined. "Hey I've been around boats all my life, but grenades dropping on them is new to me." :)

More gunplay ensues. Fortunately I had brave shipmates to draw fire away from the hull and they had managed a handful of hits on their boat and crew too. Unfortunately their mage summoned a water spirit of his own and I was forced to make a couple of Accident checks. The spirit must have been BIG and using Edge, or the GM was just rolling hot because both times Slim faced a Threshhold of 8 hits. Edge up front managed the first one handily, but came up short on the second. Another driving test of 6 - hits to determine how many Combat Turns we fell back. 4th point of Edge used and I didn't even need to finish the rerolling to reach 8 hits. "No problem, I've been around boats all my life."

At this point we'd closed within a few hundred meters, and some of the team have taken some serious hits from some souped up rounds (the GM calls them Thumper rounds, I'm not sure what they give for numbers because Slim doesn't pack ammo). The mage had sent a bound fire spirit in and also summoned a spirit of air, but they hadn't faired much better than the spirit of water, and both had been banished. So she decided to step it up a notch. The Numbers Gang was all under cover, so she decided to shove a Flamethrower straight down boat's figurative throat. Force 10 that is. :eek: She till then had only taken 4 boxes S, and has 2 boxes of P leftover from earlier in the run. She connects with the Flamethrower, and their boat is engulfed in an explosion that shakes this corner of the Sound.

She also has a dozen dice to resist with, and uses her sole Edge point. Still this is 8P drain, and she rolls very poorly. You can fry an egg on her sloping forehead as she eats 6 boxes of Physical. :(

But the day is won, as we move in to confirm the kill. We scoop a bit of equipment, but find no bodies on board. So the mage pops out to astral and about 10m below the waves under their boat she finds an ENORMOUS dual natured creature, snacking on a corpse, that turns and speaks to her astral form. The shaman books it back to her body, and Slim peels out as tentacles break the surface of the water to rip apart the smoldering remains of the Number Gangs boat.


Epiloge

Our Johnson paid us the remainder of our fee for thwarting the Arcology run, and a handsome bonus for ensuring no relalitation by the Numbers Gang. Back on shore Slim used his medkit to do some prelimarnary healing, and got everyone back to near full health. Followed up by the shaman using Heal, after resting away some of the Stun damage, there were little more than a few scrapes and bruises left.

But what of the extremely expensive boat that was shot all to crap? Well it seems that the dorf had his swank boat party crashed by pirates, those dastardly heathen of the high seas. His Fake Id survives its brush with the law, and since the purchase hadn't been completed the boat gets covered by the dealer's insurance. The dwarf, shaken by the harrowing experience of being accosted by pirates, cancels his order for the boat.
8)


Thoughts on Slim's Effectiveness

Slim did well piloting the boat with limited AR, and using the expensive, stylishly retro steering wheel option on the cruiser. I think he did as well as he did because the other team didn't really try to break off the pursuit, so the 1 IP per combat turn was fine. Slim was mostly just holding the course, and saving his 1 IP till towards the end of the Combat Turn incase something came up. If involved in a more interactive vehicle combat he would have been far more outclased. If he had gone VR it would have greatly made up for this, but he is going to be hesitant to do that with the Scorched Quality. Here we see how 5 BP for that Flaw, even though Slim wasn't intended to be a rigger or hacker, isn't much of a bargin at all.

Once again the Edge proved extremely effective in having a weak skill function like a moderate-to-strong skill, pulling the bacon out of the fire 3 times. The Firstaid was also effective, and had this been time sensitive after the run this would have been very helpful getting us back up and in fighting condition within a few hours instead of a day or two.

[Brahm]

Couple Things I Missed

The spirit attempting Accident on our boat was very quickly eating through Slim's Edge, just as our shaman's spirits apparently had eaten through the Numbers Gang's Edge. Before the troll shaman had cast the Flamethrower she had banished their spirit, and none too soon as Slim was down to a single remaining point of Edge at that point.

Second, with cash in hand Slim has asked his fixer about where to find the "squarest card table in town". Of course Slim has learned his leason and won't be gambling with money he doesn't have, right? I mean it isn't like he has a problem, he can stop aaaaanytime he wants to. *cough*

So make sure to tune in next week when Slim DOESN'T reenact Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. :cyber:

[Eddie Furious]

[Eddie Furious]

[Eddie Furious]