Diary Of A Madman’s Lab Rat, Emo's campaign from a player's POV Options

[FanGirl]

Saturday, April 8
Hello, chummers. I understand that your very own Emo Samurai has kept you all entertained with his madcap campaign plans, and you’ve probably been wondering how these plans are actually going to play out when inflicted on an actual group. Well, that’s where I come in. You see, I know Emo Samurai in real life, and he has convinced me and three other people into joining his campaign. I join of my own free will, though I’m not completely aware of what I’m getting into.

Anyway, Emo let it slip to me that he posts his ideas on these forums, so I decided to join Dumpshock and give you all the benefit of my perspective as a player in his campaign. I plan to do this by keeping a sort of open diary on this thread, chronicling my experiences and thoughts about the campaign. I’m not going to read Emo’s Dedicated Threads, and I urge you all not to give me any spoilers about their contents: it’s very important that I know as little as possible about what’s in store for me. In order to accurately present the effects of Emo’s campaign on my as-yet uncorrupted psyche, my only sources of information about his plans should be what he chooses to show or tell me.

To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, I feel that I should start by telling you about myself and how I came to know Emo. I’m a 19 year old girl, currently in my freshman year at a small liberal arts college. I’m very booksmart—you’ve probably noticed that I write like I’ve swallowed a dictionary—and I have an abiding love of sci-fi and fantasy. I mention that last bit of information because it was through the college’s Sci-Fi Club that I met Emo, and it was during one of the club’s gatherings that he approached me about joining the campaign. I declined his request initially because I was then in the process of joining another SR campaign, but when that fell through due to scheduling conflicts, I was free to join Emo’s group.

Emo seemed delighted by the prospect of my joining, and last Saturday he gave me a copy of SR4E in pdf form. (UPDATE--April 13, 2006: I hadn't realized that pdfs were copyrighted in the same way that physical books are, so I didn't realize that I was participating in illegal file sharing until today. I therefore purchased the book online just now to escape the wrath of the Big GM In The Sky. Remember, kids: stealing is wrong.) I studied it on and off over this past week, and finally wrote up my character sheet on Friday. Since Emo had steered me towards exploring the wonders of the Matrix, I read up on technomancers and fell in love with the concept. I took the technomancer from SR4E’s Sample Characters section and tweaked around with her to fit with Emo’s house rules. These house rules include 450 BPs, no limits on stat maxing or Qualities, and Complex Forms equal to one’s Resonance (you have to pay 3 BP for them, though). Thus, Fangirl was born: an eccentric young woman whose phenomenal Resonance power is only matched by her boundless optimism and sense of playfulness. I gave Fangirl’s sheet to Emo for approval yesterday, and he was so impressed with me (none of the other group members had even looked at the sourcebook, let alone drawn up their sheets) that he gave me 20 more BPs out of generosity.

Today, he brought me to meet with the other players, two guys I already knew and one I didn’t. Like me, all three guys are new to the shadows. At the meeting, Emo explained choice details about Sixth World life, and asked us what we wanted out of the campaign. We answered that we would follow the “mercenaries with a heart of gold” model, and wanted a campaign with a mix of seriousness and silliness. So far, I’m the only one with any concrete idea of what she wants her character to be like; the others have vague ideas at best. Luckily, they have two more weeks to figure it out, which is when Emo plans to have our first gaming session.

I'll post further entries as events warrant. Any questions, chummers?

[emo samurai]

You... you didn't like him? Why? WHYYYYYYYYY?????

[FanGirl]

What? Who are you talking about? What did I say?

[emo samurai]

Oh... I saw

[hyzmarca]

[emo samurai]

I think epic and overpowered can work in Shadowrun, though. They make blood mages, people you can conceivably turn in for a million dollars, 8th level initiates+. And anyone can die with a critical glitch while his enemy rolls all 5's and 6's. This works for runners, and it works for enemies.

Epic and overpowered isn't THAT overpowered in Shadowrun. Unless you're a dragon. Or an 8th level blood mage...

[hyzmarca]

Well, you can always throw something more powerful at the characters up to the point where Ristul is one of the PCs (although some others may disagree with that assertion). However, it seems that the SR4 system is more suited toward lower level campaigns can gets rather silly when one has enormous dice pools. Of course, 470 BP characters aren't overpowered.

[FanGirl]

Actually, I can use my calculator to generate a string of random numbers between one and six. The string can be as long as I want it to be, so it will take me just as much effort to roll twenty d6s as it would to roll two. 8)

[warrior_allanon]

Fangirl, my hats off to you, though we all like some of emo's ideas, not everyone likes all of them. with that in mind and the fact that your playing a technomancer i show the path to enlightenment by way of ducks top ten list be very careful how you use it

[Lindt]

See my take is Emo, ya make GREAT comic relief. For most DSers, your SO far over the normal line, its really quite entertaining. But un like many ofthe really over the top peole, your not abrasive, and even likeable at times.
Much like the cyberzombie powerpuff girls. But much more, emo, and prone to flipping out and killing everyone.

Actually now that I think about that Ill take it back, its CZ PPGs.... no good can come of that what so ever.

[ronin3338]

Wow. Everybody's being all nice, and welcoming... I feel bad.

I feel bad 'cause my first thought was, "Emo met a girl?!"

:P

Seriously, I can't wait to hear the reports from the trenches.

[hyzmarca]

[emo samurai]

[FanGirl]

I thought that you might like to see my character sheet. I should mention that I get 470 BP, no extra penalty for maxing skills or attributes, 4*Cha extra BP just for contacts, and Complex Forms with ratings equal to my Resonance for only 3 BP each. I also had the opportunity to add 2 Essence points worth of cyberware without penalty, but chose not to take it.

[ Spoiler ]

EDIT: Following the recommendations of people who have posted after this, I erased all my sprites and put the 12 BP I gained into Willpower and a Pistols specialization. I then changed said Pistols specialization from Light Pistols to Heavy Pistols, and (because Emo said I would get equipment during the first mission) erased all my equipment except for my lifestyle and my fake SIN, which I upgraded. This costed exactly 10,000 nuyen or 2 BP, meaning there was no cash left over like before, so I had to recalculate my starting nuyen, too.
EDIT: Realized I had 6 more BP for Knowledge Skills, so I put them in Music. Before her first run, Francine supported herself by working in a small independent music store, so this is plausible.

Francine "Fangirl" Adams
Human Technomancer

Attributes
Body: 3
Agility: 3
Reaction: 4
Strength: 2
Charisma: 4
Intution: 6
Logic: 6
Willpower: 4

Edge: 2
Resonance: 6
Essence: 6
Initiative (Matrix): 10 (13)
Initiative Passes (Matrix): 1 (3)

Active Skills
Cracking Group: 4
Electronics Group: 3
Dodge: 2
Negotiation: 2
Perception: 3
Pistols (Heavy Pistols): 1(+3)
Tasking Group: 5

Knowledge Skills
Music (Non-Top 40): 1(+4)
Classic Cartoons: 3
Corporate Matrix Security: 4
Data Havens: 3
IC Identification: 3
Matrix Theory: 3
Operating Systems: 5

English: N
German (l33t): 2 (+1)
French (l33t): 3(+2)
Chinese (l33t): 1(+1)
Japanese (l33t): 1(+1)

Qualities
Technomancer (5)
Natural Hardening (10)
Moderate Penicillin Allergy (+10)
Mild Dust Allergy (+10)
SINner (+5)

Living Persona
Response (Full VR): 6(7)
System: 5
Firewall: 3
Signal: 3
Biofeedback Filter (Natural Hardening): 4(5)

Complex Forms--All At Rating 6
Analyze
Armor
Browse
Attack
Exploit
Decrypt
Edit
Scan
Stealth
Track
Spoof
Defuse

Contacts
Mackie Messer (Fixer, Mentor, and Father Figure): Loyalty 6/Connection 3
Anne Bavard (Gossip Blogger): Loyalty 2/Connection 5

Weapons
None yet

Armor
None yet

Other Stuff
Low Lifestyle (2 months)
Fake SIN (Rating 6)
400 :nuyen:
Vehicle? I don't need no stinkin' vehicle!

--REVISED EDITION

EDIT:

[Ophis]

Nah, they're just lulling you into a false sense of security plus SL James doesn't seem to be here yet. I'm sure he can muster some nasty.
As a note you aren't the only girl on DS, and some of us DSers have long standing relationships with girls, some claim to be married, but they are quite old so can't be trusted.
Welcome have fun, read about the cool grit Emo ignores, smack him, on our behalfm when he goes into berzerk Leet(I will not use the f'ing numbers) speech anime frothing.

Are you sure you can't guve us a picture?

[ Spoiler ]

Ot doesn't have to be of you any pic will do.

[emo samurai]

1 0|\||_ :nuyen: 133R53R|< 1337 VV|-|3|\| 17'5 VV4RR4|\|73|).

[FanGirl]

Okay, here's a picture of what I might look like if I were a South Park Character.

If I had a nose it would be cute.

I've resolved not to put an actual photograph of myself online because of all the creepy bad people who might find it and use it for their own twisted purposes. If you really want to know what I look like, you could ask Emo to describe me.

About Emo's l33t-sp33k--When I first said I would join the campaign, he informed me that "it will roxxor." He actually said the word "roxxor." :rotfl:

Oh, and I assumed that there are other females here. I just figured that the males form a sizable majority, that's all.

[emo samurai]

That's "r0xx0rz."

[FanGirl]

Oh, because "r0xx0rz" is so much less nerdy than "roxxor." :P

[emo samurai]

No, it just r0xx0rz more.

[caramel frappucc...]

[emo samurai]

No, she's a girl. The internet has darkened your soul, robbing you of your ability to trust.

[FanGirl]

[emo samurai]

It's the spell quickened into my aura.

[caramel frappucc...]

Emo attesting to anything is a testament to the veracity of the opposite, therefore I must be right.