Recruitment: Fallen Angel, SR4 - Startup Game Options

[Critias]

I dunno. Maybe I'll pick up a copy if I find it for super ninja cheap, at Gencon. But no one better expect me to like it!

[Mister Juan]

[venenum]

Umbra (A.K.A. Dmitri ********) grew up in northern Russia. His family has a tradition of specilizing in warfare, so he choose to learn the art of the blade. Unknown to the rest of his family he was also awakened. To hone his arts he would travel away and practice his magic and combine it with the art of the blade. It was on one of these trip he met Frigus Rogus, a free fire spirit, who gifted him with a gauntlet and sword made of magicly hardened blue tinted obsidian. Little did he know what power they possesed. When halley's comet came around again he chanded slowly and painfully in to a giant horned beast(troll), unfortunetly his family had found out about his magic and his mutation so they tried to kill him. Unfornetly for the assassin who attacked him Frigus was visiting at the time the assassin died but the family also thought that Dmitri was dead. And so dmitri ran.

His last name is for the GM's eyes only im afraid along with some other information.

[Critias]

[TheOneRonin]

Yeah...my sentiments exactly...

[Mister Juan]

I believe this will express my feeling better than words:
:please:

[TheOneRonin]

In case you got lost, the DND boards are that way------------->

[venenum]

[Critias]

EDIT to edit: Allright, nix all this. I'm not gonna play some assault rifle monkey, when there's cooler shit I could be doing. Threw together a new guy today, after that "practice run" with character creation. More later.

Edit to add: And, Venenum, it's not so much that it's over the top as that it sounds like a D&D character. Really. Except for the Halley's Comet reference, specifically, couldn't that be for someone's super cool horned-demon fighter/mage or something? Magical gauntlets, a powerful sword given to him by a free spirit, yadda yadda yadda. What about that character screams "I fit into professional criminal society," really?

[Grinder]

[Mister Juan]

:evil: "goooood goooooood" says the giant laser shooting firebreathing beetle.

[venenum]

[Critias]

You're not offensive. You also don't have to explain (not the least of which, you don't have to explain things like Halley's Comet because I know). It's just that it's a very D&D flavored background, dude, despite some (new) ties to the "russian mofia." I'm not trying to be a jerk, and it doesn't matter if I'm a jerk or not anyways, because it's not up to me to decide who's in or not, it's up to Vegas. If she decides you're playing, you're playing.

And, who knows, maybe your background is the coolest thing ever and we're just not appreciating it properly. It might help if you used the "spell check" button right here built into the DSF, it might help if you capitalized consistently (MFB, for instance, gets away with never touching his shift key, but he's predictable about it, and at least structures sentences properly, so we let it slide), etc, etc. As written, your background of "learned how to use swords, got a buddy that's a free fire spirit, got cool stuff from that free fire spirit, that free fire spirit killed assassins," etc -- comes off as a little rough around the edges, a little tough to read, and a little tough to take seriously.

So, because we can, we'll give you a little static for it.

[venenum]

Critias, i never meant anything about you being a jerk in any way. I have taken some of you suggestions in mind.

[Vegas]

Hey y'all... I'm glad to see I"m still getting submissions of characters, and unfortunately some drop outs already.

I will give you all a heads up right now. Life exploded on me and I'm headed to St. Louis on Thurs. Aug 10th. I have printed out everything anyone has sent me up to this morning and will be reviewing it on the plane and in the airport and during my downtime over the weekend. I'll be updating the list in the first post soon, so if you're not up there in 10-15 minutes from this post, I haven't seen your goods or seen your post up here in the thread. I will *hopefully* have some access while I'm away, but if not I will push back the date of who's going on the run by a couple of days to give everyone a fair shot.

I'm getting stoked about the submissions and just for the game in general. Hell I'm even psyched about possibly converting Critias to "come to the dark side" and give SR4 a chance :P

Heh.

Be patient with me kids, I'll get this up and running ASAP and hopefully be making it worth your while! :D

[Grinder]

[Thanee]

[ARKARY]

[Critias]

General rules question (Vegas can answer, natch, if she gets here first, if not anyone will do) on Qualities. It says you can't spend more than 35 points on positive qualities, and you can't earn more than 35 points from negative qualities.

Does that mean you cannot have more than 35 of either (even if they balance out, exactly, so points are neither lost nor gained)? I mean, if I go hog wild and find 50 points worth of negative qualities that I like, can I only have 35 of them...or can I find 50 points of positive qualities I like, too, and keep them "in balance," and be okay?

[BlackHat]

[Critias]

Well, it seems like they can add up awful fast. I mean, shit, say I'm making up a character who was raised out in the boonies by his paracritter-hunting (and tour guide/safari guide sort of thing) dad, right? No real social skills, and a rough-around-the-edges education. Some corp moves in and buys their land, his dad gets killed as part of the corp land-grab, and now this "backwoods hunter Adept" (or whatever) decides to go to Seattle in order to take that corp down.

Just a random character made up right off the top of my head. Buckskin wearing tobacco-chewin' guy, lots of tracking and sneaking and long-gun skills, let's say. A dedicated shooter, the sort that gets left in the car for Meets, but praised and beloved by his team when the shit hits the fan. I got the idea (just now), from playing Gun on my X-Box.

And guess what? He can't even just have Antisocial and Uneducated, the two you might describe as his "defining characteristics." 40 points, just for those two. Too bad! Nevermind tossing in some amusing Incompetent skills for various Drive or Electronics, or Gremlins (to show he's just not used to newfangled stuff like that), or any sort of Allergy to Pollutants (etc, etc).

It really seems like you hit that 35 "ceiling" real quick.

[BlackHat]

Well, again, I could be wrong about my interpretation... but I would point out that you totally can take both of those flaws, you just won't recieve more than 35 points for them. :-)

The idea of a character with 50 points in flaws reminds me of some of the characters you could make in SR3 (not so much in SR4) where, if you wanted to make a quadrapalegic, highly phobic, combat-innept blind pirate... you could but no self-respecting Shadowrun team would want to work with you.

I suppose two big flaws isn't terrible. You'd only have the two points of notoriety to start with - which, while regretable, doesn't end your career before it starts.

[Thanee]

[Critias]

Allright. Thanks for the clarification.

Vegas -- character sheet and background/description sent, via PM. Have a good trip (in as much as a business trip can be "good").

[Cedric Rolfsson]

General Rules question opinion:

I tend to agree with Thanee. I will outline why below.

SR4 P. 77 "Positive qualities have a BP cost, like everything else. A player may not spend more than 35 BP on Positive Qualities."

This language certainly seems to say that you may not spend more than 35 point on Positive Qualities. It does not say anything about loss, net loss, gain, net gain, etc. concerning the number of points. In fact it specifically states that Positive Qualities are 'like everything else.' so it would suggest that Positive Qualities are no different from Attributes or Skills in that regard. It states that a player may only 'purchase' 35 points worth of Positive Qualities.

SR4 p. 80 "Negative qualities provide bonus BP that may be used toward the cost of attributes, skills, qualities, and other resources and abilities. Characters may not earn more than 35 BP from purchasing Negative Qualities."

This language would appear to be equally clear, a player may not 'earn' more than 35 points by taking Negative Qualities, no matter what they are spent on. The language includes the purchase of 'qualities' as merely one of a list of possible uses for these points and makes no distinction between using those points for 'qualities' or using them for Atts., Skills, etc.

It would appear that while a character could take more than 35 points worth of negative qualities he would only be allowed a total of 435 BP to spend as a maximum under the standard Character Creation rules.

One of the standard 'rules of statutory construction' under American jurisprudence states that we read unambigious language to mean exactly what it says. If we apply that rule to the SR4 book then it would appear that 35 BP in Positive Qualities is the maximum (like 200 BP on Atts) that may be spent. 35 BP could be gained from the 'purchase' of Negative Qualities at most.

My humble opinion, disregard at your leisure.