Recruitment - In the land of Nine Dragons, Enter t, Mysteries of the East Options

[Konsaki]

Very interesting concept, MK. Looking forward to working with him.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

Well, brace your character for a little dose of political incorrectness. Hikaru is female and japanese after all :P (I hope she dosn´t have hearing augmentation to understand all my PC´s grumbling). He´s not a big deal of a racist or sexist, but he´d probbaly have mumbled thinks like "Why did Jhonny get a schoolgirl, to do a wujen´s job" if anything went wrong with her magic during the run or she lacked some spell, that would have been usefull.

This post has been edited by MK Ultra: Nov 11 2006, 07:33 PM

[Konsaki]

LOL, If thats the case with just that, your character is going to have a freaking field day with Hikaru. :grinbig:
I have the framework for her background in my mind, and as soon as I throw it down into text, I'll post it. Like I said, your character will probably have alot of fun just being around mine. :grinbig:

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

"What fun is in herding a bunch of snotty kids?! mumble-mumble subborn children grumble-mumble might at least learn something, before they kill themselves! grumble-grumble Next time, Jhonny better finds someone else to babysit!"

I´m very curious :D

[Konsaki]

"Heh, Grandpa is talking to himself again... I think oyaji forgot his meds." :D

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

He would be sulking for a while after this kind of reply.

[Konsaki]

Ah... Much fun to be had having an old hound in the group with a young kitten.

[DireRadiant]

Johnny Wang

What Everyone Knows

Johnny Wang is a short pudgy amiable cantonese who dresses in tailored dark grey suits with brilliant white cotton shirts and slim dark red ties. He wears slim gold rim glasses and a discrete but expensive antique gold watch on his left wrist. Johnny is not known for using an external commlink.

Johnny is a johnson of known known affiliation, specializing in corporate data steals. Johnny is a genial host, always providing a 13 course traditional dinner before a run. Johnny very clearly for this run emphasized a respect for people's lives, though he indicates understanding of the perilous situation may require violent measures.

As part of including anyone on the team, Johnny Wang very clearly checked references and knows a great deal about each person he has hired for a job. He has often revealed his knowledge with solicitous concerned questions, such as asking how someone's mother is doing.

[Konsaki]

So I assume that with that much knowledge, he is at least a C-4.

[Konsaki]

Hikaru Matthews

Background

[ Spoiler ]

Mom told me stories about when she was younger. She ran in the shadows you know. A great shaman, though she says she was only good and lucky to stay alive to retirement. She says she retired for my sake and has loved every minute of it, something about being relaxing. Dad agrees with her, but he still keeps up his job so I don’t know.
Er... I guess I better introduce myself before I get too far into this. My name is Hikaru Matthews, or so the fake SIN Dad got me says, even so, I like it. I guess I should start from the beginning to clear things up.

Mom was a great shaman shadowrunner before she became pregnant with me. Like I said, she says she was just lucky, but I know she was great at what she did. She ran the shadows of Tokyo and was pretty famous as the ‘Lightning Priestess’. She and Dad met up because of her job and well... I was the outcome.
Dad was... well IS a fixer in the shadows. He never really quit his job after marrying Mom, says it’s because it isn’t too dangerous if done right. Well, because of that, he spends a lot of time at home and helps out Mom in the shop and played with me while I was growing up. Oh yeah, Mom opened up her own Talismongering shop after I was born. She doesn’t make that much money, but it gives her something to do and reason to gossip with her friends.
When Mom was about to give birth to me, they decided to do it in house and hired an awakened midwife to handle it. With her powers, Mom says it was pretty pain free and safe. The only downside is that I don’t have a legit SIN, but Dad fixed that pretty easily.

What they got was an average, though beautiful, elven baby girl, me. Mom and Dad love me like nothing else, and I love them too. They raised me all the way up until grade school, where I started like all the other kids my age. I wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t the worst either. There were some things I was picked on about, like being an elf and only half Japanese, but everyone got picked on, so I guess it was all pretty good for the most part. That is, up until I was ten...
The year 2061, I will never forget it. It left me with many things, and took away a few in turn. My god, it hurt like hell... I’m just thankful that the only luck I did have that day was that it happened while I was at home. Mom and Dad were freaking out almost as much as I was. You would too if your head felt like someone was trying to drag your ears from the side of your head to the top and at the same time trying to rip your nails out with a pair of pliers. At least I can say that this those were the most painful changes and the others were either less painful or painless.
When it was all said and done... I wasn’t me anymore. It was sort of pitiful really, thinking back on how I cried and cried. Think about it, you are watching your Saturday afternoon anime about the ‘Moon Sailor Cats’ when after a painful evening, you are one. I wouldn’t leave the house for the next two weeks while my mother and father tried to figure out what was going on.

Of course later on they found out that I wasn’t the only one this happened to, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Cat ears, tail and claws... I lost my identity, and so did so many others to some degree. We found out later on in those two weeks that those weren’t the only changes. My eyes started changing from the green I got from Dad to the purple they are now and the roots of my hair started showing the pink it was going to be from then on forth.
I cant say that it was all bad, I guess. With the change in my ears, I could hear better than before. My eyes change wasn’t only with the color but with what I could see too. I started seeing heat along with the normal light spectrum. Things often come in three they say, and this was no exception either, because along with the big change, I also awoke to the world my mother always spoke about. At the time, they used this excuse to try and calm me down. Well, it did work a little, them showing me that I was still Mom’s little girl, even with the changes.
The only reason that I only stayed two weeks at home was that my mom found a way for me to look normal again, even though I wasn’t the same. It was some sort of spell that I couldn’t understand at the time. I saw myself in the mirror, the before me, but still felt the changes. I know now what it was and am thankful Mom knew that spell.

She would cast it on me each day before I went out, making me look normal again, and sustained it with one of her foci until I came back right after school. This went on for a few years until she taught me how to do it myself and also taught me how to bind a focus to my magic. It made my day to finally be in control of how I looked instead of having to rely on Mom. I was growing up, I thought and truthfully, I was. I was growing more into the body I now have, and I don’t just mean like a normal girl would. I was becoming more comfortable with the changes.
Anyways, I kept up the ‘Mask’ to keep things easier until I fully graduated... Well, almost. Hahaha, you should had seen the look in my classmates’ eyes when I walked in with purple eyes and bright pink hair. God, they almost fell out of their heads. You see, one day, I think I just turned seventeen, I walked out of the house with my normal mask up, but stopped at one of the corner stores to use the bathroom. While in the stall, I dropped my mask and redid it with out covering my eyes or hair colors. I was the ‘rebel’ of the class after that, not really because I did anything bad, but because I wasn’t the same anymore. Heh, if they only knew.
It was about the same time that I started feeling something, or I guess hearing it would be more appropriate. It was faint but something was trying to talk to me and when I asked my mom about it, she helped me with some focus techniques.

It was pretty uneventful, other than that, up to graduation. I spent the next few months helping Mom out in her store, learning spells, techniques and listening to stories of her when she was running in the shadows. I was captivated by her escapades and the sounds of action she talked about. It was too late when she read into my plans to follow in her footsteps and tried to stop me. I was dead set on finding adventure.
I knew somewhat what Dad did for a living, and I basically had to bug the ever living shit out of him before he finally caved and started giving me small runs... and I mean small runs. Delivering packages mainly, until I gained more skill with my spell craft and he moved me up to escorting some salaryman or other small timer.
I wanted to have adventure, and after a year of small shitty jobs, I bugged my father again. This time, since he saw how well I was doing with the small stuff, he introduced me to a friend of his who worked down in Hong Kong and needed someone with my skills. Johnny Wang was his name. I was ecstatic upon hearing the news, but made sure to listen to everything my parents were warning me about because they told me that I could die doing this. I didn’t want to die, just have an adventure.
So I did what they said and loaded up on some special gear that my father gave to me along with some hand me down gear that my mother used during her time and was still good. Finally, she gave me my most precious and amusing going away gift. A power focus that she said would increase my magic ability greatly but she had it made into collar... A collar. Good to know she still has a sense of humor as she laughed when I pulled it out of the box. Oh well, I know she loves me and so does Dad. I always wear it and think of them.

Well, I spent the night flight from Tokyo International to Hong Kong thinking of what I was going to do. Dad already gave me an address to a place that Mr Wang helped hook me up with and some basic Chinese Dad had picked up during normal work with his job. He also gave me a data file that I read on the flight to help me with ordering food or asking where the bathroom was... real basic stuff, but it came to me pretty fast.
When the wheels hit the tarmac, I was tired and ready to crash in the place Wang set me up with. Once I was through customs, I took a taxi straight there and crashed for the day. The meet wasn’t for a few days, so I was able to wander around some and get used to the changes in atmosphere. Once of the most interesting things I saw was the occasional person walking around that looked just like me. I did a quick search about it on the Matrix and found out that Hong Kong has the biggest body modification fetish in the world. When I opened my eyes, I saw more and more people who had modded their body to look like anime characters or actors. It gave me an idea, and on the day of the meet, I walked in under a full mask. I looked like a normal person: black hair, brown eyes, the works. When I introduced myself to the group of people though, I dropped my mask fully and saw the looks from the others. It was interesting to say the least.
I decided not to keep my mask down more often after that to see how people would react, though I didn’t push my luck. I didn’t want to jeopardize the run that I came here for, luckily I didn’t... I think. The run was pretty smooth compared to the stories my mom told me. Everything was going great, up until I saw Wang’s corpse on the floor of the hotel room we were supposed to meet up at to get our pay.

[DireRadiant]

I've received various backgrounds, character sheets and concepts from enough people to start doing a review cycle. Some great ideas out there.

Recruitment is NOT closed until we actually start, and even then, who knows what may happen. I am looking forward to receiving details from the others that have expressed interest. I know I mentioned 4 to 8 players, but will take 9 if everyone that has expressed interest submits and is approved.

Check the Original Post for review status.

[Vegas]

Ok, it's like wicked early and I've had all of about 2 hours of sleep, but the description of "Tough Old Wang" just made me almost fall out of my chair this morning laughing.

Thanks DR. Heh. :D

[Konsaki]

Yeah, I laughed when I read that too. :D
Sucks to hear that you only got 2h of sleep though. :(

[Vegas]

That's what I get for going out last night when I have to work this morning... Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled recruitment thread

[toturi]

[BlackHat]

That is a good question, since bonuses (like edge) could potentially be wasted if the cap is near 16 already.

I took it to mean (and could be wrong) that DireRadiant'd prefer not to see characters chucking around 20-something dice for their one "thing". I figure, in the case you described, the "character" could either be considered having 16 or 18 dice (since it is very unlikely he would ever not get his smartlink bonus), but saying "Oh, well, he's under 16 dice in total darkness!" doesn't really qualify it as "under 16".

[Konsaki]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure DR just doenst want the "I can throw enough dice that I dont have to worry about it" scenario. My guess is that Edge can go over the 16 dice cap since it is an expendable stat, you run out of it, but if you just had enough modifiers (10 Agi, 7 Pistols, smartlink, plus whatever else) that you can easily jump up above 16 dice, its probably too much for this campaign.

[DireRadiant]

Modifiers don't count as far as what I'm looking at in the pool cap. This would include a smartlink, which wouldn't count as base dice.

My thinking here is that 16 dice = 4 successes if you buy successes, which is the best result. Having more dice is overkill.

[toturi]

[DireRadiant]

Edge is a modifier

[toturi]

Very well then. Here's my character. The names are placeholders until I can think of something better. The concept and rough build is below. I will write the background once I go through the HK section of Runner Havens again.

[ Spoiler ]

Zhao Zilong AKA Cloud

Human Adept
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 4
Strength 3
Charisma 2
Intuition 5
Logic 3
Willpower 3
Edge 6
Magic 5

Athletics 1
Firearms 4
Stealth 4
Influence 1
Perception 6

Corporate Rumors(Street Knowledge) 4
Hong Kong Triads(Street Knowledge) 4
Mercenary Groups(Street Knowledge) 4
Security Companies(Street Knowledge) 4
Street Rumors(Street Knowledge) 4

English N
Cantonese 1
Mandarin 1
Japanese 1
Sperenthiel 1

Adept Powers
Enhanced Perception 5
Direction Sense
Sound Dampening
Sustenance
Improved Reflexes 2

Positive Qualities:
Adept

Negative Qualities
Sensitive System
SINner
Spirit Bane(Blood Spirits)

Contact
Wei Xiaobao - Fixer 3/3

75000 :nuyen:

[ Spoiler ]

Zilong was named after a member of the 5 Tiger Generals of the 3 Kingdoms Era. His name was one of the few things that his parents gave him. They abandoned him with his grandparents soon after his birth. He was raised on the streets of Hung Hom in Kowloon City. He learnt very early on that in order to survive against the voilent gangs and Triads, you could run or you could hide. Being small and agile, he quickly learnt to hide very well. He also learnt to speak English from an early age because his grandparents were English teachers and spoke mainly English at home. After his grandfather died after being beaten for failing to pay protection to a local gang controlled by a Yama King, he took up the burden of supporting his grandmother by joining Combat Inc as cannon fodder. The stress of being cannon fodder triggered his Awakening. He was often the first to spot an enemy or to detect an ambush. During his time with Combat Inc, he came to be friends with a smooth talking logistics officer by the name of Wei Xiaobao. After their contracts with Combat ended(during which Combat moved to Macao and Zilong's grandmother died), Xiaobao stayed in Hong Kong to work his network of connections and offered Zilong a place in his stable.

[DireRadiant]

I now have 7 characters under review. recruitment will close by Friday Nov 17th at the latest.

I'll start the OOC thread as soon as a couple PC meet final approval. I expect that to happen in the next few days.

I believe we can plan on the IC thread goign up by Nov 20.

For those people that have expressed interest, but have not yet gotten me anything to start review, please do so soon. You don't need a complete workup to get started on the review process. I don't want to close recruitment when someone has done 90 percent of the work in creatign a character, but I think that may happen if I don't hear from people soon.

[DireRadiant]

I have now 8 PC under review. Time is approaching for some possible hard decisions.

[Fortune]

Concept isn't coming together. Don't wait for me.

[DireRadiant]

Started an OOC thread.

I have 9 character submissions, I am not looking for any more. A couple people are almost complete and are in Final Review, which means I am going to double check the numbers, but otherwise all my questions have been answered satisfactorily. Adding gear nuyen costs is tedious.

This thread is for any character creation questions, if any.

The ooc thread is used for game information, there will no doubt be some question about the run the team did, and it's the place to share information about each others characters.