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emo samurai
post Feb 9 2006, 02:32 AM
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I have a character in mind; he's a Dragon shaman named Shen who was born in the PRC right around the time it disintigrated. He was born with a very Zen sort of outlook on life and healing powers. People came from miles around to partake of his wisdom and healing.

Then the government caught him and locked him up, because the Chinese government is like that. He stayed there until Lung appeared and claimed the neighbouring Sacred Mountain and the land around it as his territory. Shen escaped in the aftermath and managed to run all the way to Seattle. Before, he was very Buddha; now, he's more like Fu Manchu or something.

He's very charismatic, as befits a shaman, and very logical, as befits a dragon shaman. His affect can shift as needed, cunning and hidden within a deliberately ominous magical shadow one moment and postmodern and silly the next. He has contacts the world over and knows how to manipulate gangers, Triads, drug dealers, and terrorists to his inscrutable ends.
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emo samurai
post Feb 9 2006, 08:22 PM
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What? No doomed attempts to stifle my creativity?
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Moon-Hawk
post Feb 9 2006, 08:27 PM
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QUOTE (emo samurai @ Feb 9 2006, 08:22 PM)
What? No random attempts to stifle my creativity?

Everything you are doing is bad. You are a terrible person, and I think you smell like poo. :)

Seriously, though, it sounds like an interesting concept for a character. I'm interested to see what happens when you post the character sheet. Then all of your ideas will be torn apart and everyone will tell you how to make your character, tear up your character sheet, call you silly names, and dance on the tattered remains of your soul. But we do it because we love you. :D

edit: Ha-ha, I caught your edit with my quote. :P
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emo samurai
post Feb 9 2006, 08:36 PM
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Random isn't such a bad word; doomed is just better.
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Lagomorph
post Feb 9 2006, 09:11 PM
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What cyber ware are you going to give him?
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Azralon
post Feb 9 2006, 09:31 PM
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QUOTE (emo samurai @ Feb 9 2006, 04:22 PM)
What? No {random/doomed} attempts to stifle my creativity?

That'd be like trying to stifle a brush fire with gasoline. 8)
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TinkerGnome
post Feb 9 2006, 09:33 PM
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The background is workable. Personally, I'd like to see a lot more flesh to it if it were a PC in a game I was running. As it is now, it's kind of sketchy. Sketchy can work, out in the end, though.
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emo samurai
post Feb 9 2006, 09:47 PM
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Do you mean that there isn't enough background?
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TinkerGnome
post Feb 9 2006, 11:18 PM
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Keep in mind that I mostly play online of late and that online character backgrounds tend to be quite verbose. There are two major points in the background where a little bit more detail would be good. The prison arrest is good. Why did he really get arrested? Did he do something to draw attention? Did someone betray him? Did he learn something from it?

Secondly, at the end you talk about how he knows how to manipulate various criminal elements. Where did he learn those skills? Did he have a teacher? Did he work his way up in one for a bit before breaking off to be an independant agent?
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emo samurai
post Feb 10 2006, 01:27 AM
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1. The PRC is generally anti-magic, isn't it? And they also wanted to study him. His magic empowered him, and communist governments don't tend to like that.

2. The Triad sounds good. He'll figure out how to undo his "betray us and die" tattoo and run away at the age of 15. He'll also be an elf, which will make him awesome.
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September
post Feb 10 2006, 03:07 AM
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What if you had him as a sort of 'evil master' beforehand? He was this magic guy, slowly enslaving the countryside through a few throw-away heals, illusions, and control manipulations. Only the timely intervention of the People's Army saved the farmland around his house from becoming his vile demesne. Now he's back, and he's got plans...
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emo samurai
post Feb 10 2006, 04:29 AM
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Dude, I'm the LAST person who'd want to portray them in a positive light. Plus, I wanna be good...
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Ryu
post Feb 10 2006, 12:01 PM
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I like the background and would allow it in our campaign. Disappointed?

What you would need to develop is his place in the seattle underworld/shadows, as it makes tying your character into the gameworld much easier. A shared area of living with other characters (the Redmond Barrens in our case) might be a good idea too.

As for the character bashing, bring on the stats :P ;)
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runefire32
post Feb 10 2006, 02:49 PM
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Personaly I'm not superfond of the backgroud there...bit too much "i'm superpowerful and can do anything"...but it does fit in with the rest of your stuff.

To me it just doesn't mesh together well...especialy the last part...

QUOTE
Shen escaped in the aftermath and managed to run all the way to Seattle. Before, he was very Buddha; now, he's more like Fu Manchu or something.


All harmony and now evil villian with a equaly odd moustache?

and...

QUOTE
He has contacts the world over and knows how to manipulate gangers, Triads, drug dealers, and terrorists to his inscrutable ends.


Where the hell did he learn to do this? Why would he learn to do this if he followed zen or buddha? How did he get all these contacts world wide?

Course if you're going for the I was super powerful, and then was captured and oppressed for it, but then i escaped and became more powerful and angry...i suppose it works...
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chevalier_neon
post Feb 10 2006, 03:53 PM
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... why would you run the shadows is another question.
I could understand a campaign based on this kind of character's background, but I can't see how this guy could be a shadowrunner...
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emo samurai
post Feb 10 2006, 05:49 PM
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Here's my explanation for the character. As a child, he was precociously wise and had all the healing mojo. He was vernerated for the sometimes comforting, sometimes unsettling, but almost always true spiritual aphorisms he regularly came up with and tailored to each person's history. Something to note is that he was very secular; he cared nothing for the superficial norms which tend to become the very religions they were meant to merely represent. He was very much the embodiment of Zen. This, of course, pissed off the PRC, which is very anti-religious.

His imprisonment lasted for about a year, until the part where Lung takes over a mountain. He escaped and was quickly scouted out by a Triad, whose incense master couldn't wait to tattoo him with an "obey us or die" spell. This lasted about a year, until he managed to dispel the damn thing and kill the incense master and ascend to his postion. Now THIS is where he learned to manipulate people with fear and ingenuity. He tired of this after about 5 years, when he decided to fake his own death and set out on his own; being still SOMEWHAT enlightened, he didn't take to ruling over others with fear very well.

He now believes in the power and duty of each individual to discover truth for himself; even though he used to look back on his days as a messiah with nostalgia, his time as an incense master has taught him the dangers of blind faith. Which is why he is a shadowrunner; he's very independence-oriented and self-guided. His affiliations with the groups he uses are cursory and business-oriented; he never treats them as anything more. He spends all his money on food, preferably natural, training, and magical supplies.
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hyzmarca
post Feb 11 2006, 02:07 AM
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Sort of like Crying Freeman, then.


The outline is good but it would be nice if you gave more detail about the time leading up to his arrest and on his bitter catharsis as an unwilling triad lackey. Who were the people in his life? What were his relationships like? Did he have any magical training? What event or series of events led to his arrest? What was his experience in prision like? He he treated well and given three meals a day? Was a tortured regulary. Did the other inmates buttrape him or was he held is solitary confinment? How did the triad find him? What were his duties during his unwilling internship? What vile and horrific acts transformed his outlook so much? How exactly did he dispell the tatoo and kill his former master?
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emo samurai
post Feb 12 2006, 12:20 AM
Post #18


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What I think I'll do is have his village be peaceful until a massive, if gradual, Triad incursion that takes place over the course of several years. They'll see him as a threat to their political power, kill his family and network of people loyal to him, and capture him at the age of 15. The costs of recruiting him unwillingly will be seen as small compared to the power that can be gained from him. I'll skip the PRC; they're too boring.

He'll have had magical training by their incense master and get taught the basics of how to do the basic recruitment stuff. This'll form the basis of the tattoo-undoing skills that enable him to betray the incense master. In his confrontation with the incense master, the incense master will confess to Shen that he was in much the same situation as Shen was, but the tattoo was upgraded by a much more powerful magician before the incense master was able to figure out how to dispel it. In fact, he deliberately made the tattoo easy to dispel and put him on the tattoo job so that Shen could have a fighting chance in breaking it. All the degradations that Shen suffered over the years were given out unwillingly, and in the final confrontation, it is unclear whether it is Shen who kills his master, his master's enchantment, or himself. He'll skip the part where he becomes incense master and run away.

A large part of this character will be angst over the fact that his tormenter was in fact the very man who empathized with his situation the most. He has no idea whether he should be glad of the man's death or to avenge it by somehow taking on the undoubtedly nigh-omnipotent mage who tattoed him.
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Lagomorph
post Feb 12 2006, 08:33 AM
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that last revision is pretty good ES. Sounds like a decent character.
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emo samurai
post Feb 12 2006, 08:48 AM
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I'll post stats tomorrow.
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Glyph
post Feb 12 2006, 09:49 PM
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I agree with Lagomorph that the last revision is pretty good.

Just a note on the stats, though. If your campaign uses a lot of house rules, you might want to mention any that apply (such as starting with more than 400 build points, or having a higher maximum Availability cap, etc.). Otherwise, you will get a lot of replies correcting "errors" that might simply be your campaign's house rules.
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September
post Feb 12 2006, 09:51 PM
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I like the moral angst angle. Nice idea.
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emo samurai
post Feb 13 2006, 03:37 AM
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I'm hoping that whatever GM I make this for will allow more than 200 BP for stats. It's hard to find things to spend the BP on, even for a mage. Perhaps especially for a mage; after his 6 magic and magician edge, that's 120 BP to spend on clothes.
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Crusher Bob
post Feb 13 2006, 03:49 AM
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Magic and edge do not count towards the 200 bp limit.

Also, you will need lots of skills, which will eat up at least 80bp.
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emo samurai
post Feb 13 2006, 04:24 AM
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I think, with his unique background, more than 35 points of flaws are needed.
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