Homemade Negative Qualities, Yours, mine, ours? Options

[lorechaser]

[Butterblume]

[bibliophile20]

I have a positive quality (yes, I know that this isn't really the thread for it) in response to a complaint that I've been hearing about the hacking rules, i.e. that someone like FastJack, supposedly the best hacker in the world, period, only rolls four to six more dice than someone with an average skill of three, which means that he would only have an average of two two three more hits than John Q. Hacker, hardly the sort of power expected of Sir Legendary Hacker.

So, after a bit of consideration:

L33t Hax0r
Cost: 10-15-20 BP
Maybe you were practically raised in the Matrix or even helped build it, or both, but one way or another you're a demi-god of the virtual world, a big fish with big teeth in the virtual sea. For each level you gain an additional die to any and all Matrix actions, and at the 20 BP level you can choose to, instead of the bonus dice, have the threshold lowered by 1, because, damn, you make this look easy!

This quality can only be taken at chargen if the character has all of the skills in the Electronics and Cracking skill groups at a minimum of level 4, with the Hacking skill at a minimum of level 5, and cannot be taken by Technomancers. This Quality can also not be taken in conjunction with any quality that is a direct detriment to Matrix skills, such as Codeblock or Incompetence (Electronics or Cracking skill). This Quality may be combined with Codeslinger.

~*~
Opinions? So, going back to FastJack, we have a Hacking skill of 7, a L33t Hax0r bonus of 3, a Codeslinger bonus of 2, bringing us to 12, plus his personally coded programs, which probably have ratings of 7 or maybe 8, which would give him a total of 19 to 20 dice, which sounds reasonable to me, considering the superhuman level of skill that he reportedly has.

[Spike]

[djinni]

[lorechaser]

See, I don't think the signs are going to require reading either. I think there's a green section, an orange section, a purple section, a red section. And the sign has a green arrow pointing one way, an orange another.

Or you simply pull up your AR map, and select the area you want to go to, and you get an overlay of glittery light that points the way.

It will be an inconvience when you're busting in, and someone messages you. But do people really message in 2070 like that? Or do they simply send a voice-message? I mean, iPhone already has video voicemail planned. 60 years from now, with Commlinks, I think that'll be standard.

Again, I think it's how you see the world of 2070. To me, part of the implied dystopia is that things we take for granted are lost arts.

I point to the fact that you can submit essays in txt as proof. ;)

[ShadowDragon8685]

Reading and writing aren't going to become lost arts, I'm telling you. Sure, the majority of SINless may be, but Joe Wageslave is going to need to be able to read, as is anybody who actually lives and functions inside a city.

[lorechaser]

If the majority of the SINless can't read and write, you're either going to come up with icongraphy to serve them, or miss out on a huge portion of the population.

I'm thinking most corps will come up with something...

[ShadowDragon8685]

[lorechaser]

To some extent. But they have to get their cheap clothes and Squishes somewhere. Maybe the 'raku company store, or Ammo World is all writing, but I think you'll find you can get most of what you want at Stuffer Shack with just pointing.

This is actually a really interesting point, that came up obliquely. ;) This particular flaw defines a lot of what you think your world is like. So while it's 5 points in my game, it may well be 10-20 in yours, which reflects our different outlooks.

[ElFenrir]

Well, Updated Amnesia quality:

Amnesia: 5/10/15/20


Well, you can't remember crap. Higher levels have higher drawbacks. Maybe you were brainwashed, maybe you were injured, maybe you suffered from a bad brain disorder, perhaps a prototype mind-altering spell went wrong, maybe you were abducted by aliens. At any rate, parts of your life simply aren't there...or SOMETHING is there, but it wasn't what happened...

5: The past few years of your life are unaccounted for, or are something else that really happened. You remember, say, your childhood, and your teen years(to a point, depening on age, etc), but theres a chunk missing. The player makes the character, then is encouraged to work with the GM to figure out what REALLY happened during that time. The GM is encouraged to throw a few loops in there without the player's knowledge as well. You might have some unaccounted gear or some folks you dont know how you meant, or might have someone pissed at you and don't know why. Piecing together things is possible, with alot of legwork, a good hacker friend, and the like, though the character might not like what they find...

10: A bit more severe, you're missing(or have falsified) about half your life, and not necessarily in order. You have an idea where some of your skills came from, but not all of them. You might know a language or two you don't remember learning. As above, the player still makes the character, and writes up some background, but the GM has a little more leeway with the background here, and is encouraged to come up with a bit more. Siblings, old spouses, old bosses, people wronged might(and probably will)pop up now and again. This version of the Quality is probably the most used, examples like the 'programmed killer or secret agent'. Character probably is under a different name and ID than his real one, and might confuse the two. They perhaps might have some flashbacks now and then. A portion of Knowledge BP can be handed over to the GM for purchase in some strange knowledge skills for flavor. The character will have a hard time accounting for this missing or falsified part of their life, and most likely will not like what they find when they dig, and might even upset people by digging.

15: While the player in question still mostly creates the character(numerically), the GM has a bit of say here. Assume the player can choose the basics, but a portion of BPs and resources are handed over to the GM for use in choosing, and are kept secret from the player. The character probably remembers nothing of his real name and life, the GM creating 90% of his backstory, with the player in this case throwing a few ideas here. The only thing this character rememeber is probably the past year or two of his life, but no more. Positive qualities(if any) should be chosen by the GM, as should other Negative qualities. Most knowledge skills(save a couple) should be handed over to the GM in this case, and the player only chooses his native language. Very hard to uncover here, because of the amount missing.

20: In this case, GM has full control over the character creation process. The player knows nothing except a few basics written on a dummy sheet...an(extremely probable) fake name, gender(which may or may not be what they started as), race(hey, elf poser/ork poser/human looking exist for a reason), and other odds and ends, with gear that they have no idea how they got, and skills that they don't know, though perhaps they are let on to one or two of VERY recently known ones. They even dont know what they can do, they might have an IDEA, but these people dont remember any more than 6 months of their current life. When in dice tests, player says if they want to try something, and the GM does so. This character has to go through a lot to learn what he has, why he has it, how he has it. GMs should watch out that players do not choose this for the simple fact they are too lazy to make their own character. GMs have a bit of work with this one, having to write a 'real' and 'fake' backstory, the fake given to the player.

Hopefully this works, I always loved the amnesia flaw and would like to bring back an old SR3 character concept i had utilizing it. It takes a little work and some GM/PC collaboration, but i think it can be totally workable. If anything, the one that needs be watched is that 20 point, for reasons of lazy players stated above.

[Moon-Hawk]

edit: okay, you mentioned lazy players, I might've missed that on my first skim though. Sorry. Leaving my post unchanged though; but I'm aware that much of it is agreeing with you.


I like amnesia too, but here's another way to look at it:
Player: "I don't want to write a background, and I don't want to have to deal with any pesky personal attachments like family, I just want to sort of appear and start kicking ass. But if you want to make a secret history for me that surfaces so that the plot will revolve around me and make me the center of attention that's cool. Oh, can I have some extra BP for that?"

Sure, as a GM you can choose to be really mean with the flaw, but as the GM you can choose to be really mean without the flaw, too. I'm not sure amnesia is worth the number of points it's usually given.

Now the version of the flaw where the player gets a blank character sheet and has to figure stuff out, that's a concrete disadvantage (although it still has all the attention grabbing effects I mentioned) and is worth something.

I'm not saying that amnesia isn't a flaw and isn't worth any points, but as much as it would suck for you or I to have no memory, for a PC it's inconvenient, but also usually represents either laziness or a desire for an inordinate amount of attention from the GM. Amnesia can be fun, but it doesn't deserve TOO many points. :-)

Just my 2 centinuyen.

[ElFenrir]

Well, Amnesia always has been one of those flaws that has a bit of controversy in it, and of course, thats because its misused. Incompetence being the biggy, people argue whether someone should just say 'my characters old-school and has Incompetence in tons of mechanical and electronics skills'. Some might say just write it in the background, dont take the points and be done with it, while the other side says incompetence with computers, electronics, cars and the like IS indeed a disadvantage in this time period, and it deserves stuff to offset it.

As it gets mentioned with Ambidexterity, its advantage isnt so big it needs to be worth BP to purchase. Using 2 weapons isnt as advantageous as one might think, and some folks think it matters not what hand is being used. While some say otherwise.

Amnesia can be looked at the same way. Some people might say 'just make up what you want, give the GM a few ideas and let him run with it, for no points either way', and the other camp says 'the amount of stuff that can be in the background can truly hinder the character, and so it should be worth points'. In fact, Amnesia could include other negative qualities that the character has no clue of until it happens. Not knowing your whole life can be a real hinderance to some, to others, not so much.

Dark Secret was another. In this case, the character KNOWS something, and knows that, it cannot, in any case, be uncovered, for whatever reason. It being uncovered could lead to a plethora of other things(Hunted, Hung Out to Dry, family being targeted, friends being targeted, etc.) The 2 points that Dark Secret was awarded, some felt, was way too cheap, since it could possibly lead to thinks MUCH harsher, like Hunted-6. Again, other camp said that too many stereotype emos took this and it was easy to abuse.

Well, really, the same could be said about many positive and negative qualities, when you think about it. There will always be folks who disagree one what constitutes a flaw and what doesnt. :)

[Moon-Hawk]

[ElFenrir]

I rememeber the old days of Fantasy Role-Playing, where your local-boy-done-good fighter raised in a field of flowers in a happy cabin in a well-adjusted family was no different than the dark, brookidn amnesiac fighter who was trained to be an assassin, watched his family horribly tortured and killed, is being chased by 3 kingdoms and a dragon, has 3 dead fiancees and a pet dog that haunts him as they live in a fungi-infested cave in hiding. The only 'advantages' and 'disadvantages' were the minus 1 to Cha and 1+ to Con your dwarf got for being tough but gruff, and the level limits that were a tradeoff for a multi-century lifespan and thermographic vision. :grinbig:

Then in the TSR days kits came out, which gave variants of character that had BUILT IN advantages and disadvantages to balance each other out.

Somewhere down the line someone came up with the bright idea of 'customizing' your old advantages and disadvantages, dividing the camp into the new kids who liked this customizing idea, and the grognards who wanted their cursed fungus cave living fighter the old fashioned way.

Eventually someone came up with the idea of having them worth 'points' rather than other advantages/disadvantages, so people could purchase advantages at the cost of other things or have a ton of bonuses for living cursed and haunted in a cave of glowing possesed fungi.

Edges and Flaws were born, while half the world rejoiced, the other half condemed the hundreds of toothpick-allergic amnesiac badgerphieliac assassins that cropped up.

The battle continues to this day. :grinbig:

[Moon-Hawk]

Hahaha!
Bravo, ElFenrir. Nice explanation.

[Dashifen]

Sig!

[ShadowDragon8685]

[SoyKaf Adict]

I found this topic out of shear coincidence looking for Yakuza stuff... And it just so happened to be in one of the posts. 1 word searches for the lose! But I found this and lurked it for an hour reading over all the positive and negative qualities created I'd like to add a few... I'll admit most of them are just concoctions of mine, and some of them affect the party and I've all ready heard people saying qualities that affect the party rather than just the person are lame, but I think these are less taxing and more fun to work with on most levels.

Unknown Cyberware: 2-10 BP

The character is the average Shadow Runner, but in the mix of StreetDocs and DocWagons a lot of them don't remember most of the procedures, but damn if her leg doesn't itch something fierce after that last gash! The character has a "hitch-hiker" implant that takes up essence normally, but the character has no recollection of having the privilege of giving the "O.K." Such lower BP gain implants might be cortex bombs with a short fuse or embedded in your madula oblongata, surveillance material systems hardwired to your nervous system, and the simple such things that can be removed, if you're fast enough. Some of the higher BP gain implants are those that Corps have groomed to make some hellish experiments come to life. Toxin pumps, nano virus fail-safes, thought and emotion blockers, area EMP and cortex bombs, etc...

(I gave it a range because it depends how quickly the fail-safe cortex bomb goes off after you access the data in that hidden Datajack (Thank you SNES ShadowRun) is entirely up to the GM, as is the set back to when it finally runs down the timer. Once it's gone it's gone, thus why it can go so low. This should definitely be consulted with them.)

The Lemon: 2/5 BP

Okay, so you decided you buy the cheap one... Big mistake! One important item the character bought was a bad buy and he doesn't know about it... yet. Whether it be Cybernetics he didn't know were hand-me-downs, A Focus that's got one too many cracks in it or the sedan that doesn't cruise so well after a few miles on the odometer. The item in question won't be useful all the time and will cease to function on occasion at 2 BP, at 5 BP the item will actually break at a very inopportune moment. This must be placed on an item that will have significant set backs if it is broken. Never buy from street vendors, how many times have I told you!?

(A musing, like a mild Gremlins, best possibility is with Amnesia or if the GM decides to give the character a nice extra 2/5 BP and tacks this little baby on and let the good times... not happen.)

Greenhorn Hopeful: 5 BP

Every cloud has it silver lining, every person gets their fair share, every piece of drek gets fed into the characters ears they take from anyone with a lick of experience compared to them they take like it's the fraggin' 16th Edition of the Bible in gold plating, and it gets irritating real quick. The Greenhorn Hopeful is new to the biz, and everyone knows it. Asking questions, and sticking by the character that mostly resembles their ideal of the word "hero" is what they're good at, and whoever is bound with the lovely task of dealing with this pecker wood gets the short straw. -3 to dice pool in social situations where the party is involved and they're present. On the other hand, fun times have been had at the expense of the newbie, especially if the "hero" is malevolent in teaching his would-be pupil. A Composure Test of Intuition + Willpower(4) can stay their hands and mouths for a little while... But it's only a matter of time.

(This I find is a humorous and fun negative quality even though it makes the party suffer it allows them to get back, heh, being at the mercy of all the "hero's" tutelage. It also adds role-playing fun when they're at a seedy bar in the Barrens talking to a rough Johnson and Purity Princess 2070 orders a hot chocolate.)

Tweaked: 5 BP

The character in question is not insane, not crazy, not odd in anyway... Until he decides something's worth shootin' and that's everything. Some call it trigger happy, some call it jumpy... But it's really just labeled Wired Reflexes without the benefit of aiming. Tweaked characters make cool diplomatic situations turn into heated bullet-filled debates. Any time there's a stand-off, a sound mistaken for a guard on a stealth mission, or the shoot-first-ask-questions-later interrogation method applies... The Tweaked character makes smooth situations turn into sandpaper and is almost always the first to pull for his gun, doesn't mean he shoots it off first though. Composure Test Logic + Willpower(4) will keep him from doing something TOO stupid. -5 to social dice pool when trying to calm tensions between parties and the character is present.

(Heh... Good luck with this one. You might think that though Tweaked and Greenhorn Hopeful cost the same BP they're not costing appropriately, it's because the calming of tension is very specified, the social penalty applies for ALL rolls where the Greenhorn can muck things up while being amidst conversation. That's the difference.)

Big Mouth Small Gun: 10/15 BP

The big mouth is a dying breed... And there's a reason... They like to talk drek, and then it comes back at them in the form of a lot of sharp things and bullets. Not only do they talk drek but ALL of this clan claim the wondrous ability to not be intimidating at all. This character is classified as Unaware for all Intimidation rolls, and is labeled as being under Rat's teachings when a fight turns out. The character must use his first initiative action to find cover and stay there. They make the same willpower test but the threshold is 3 + each combatant to even think about shooting. At 15 BP the drek talk must happen at every opportunity that presents itself, and the character is always considered Assisting in a team roll when another character uses intimidation, roll 1d6 on a 1-3 he critically glitches for his assistance. Followers of Rat that take this pay either 5 or 10 BP respectively.

(Brackit picks up the drug dealer, "Tell me where your boss is, or else!" Chuckles noticing the gun has been forcibly removed from the dealer's hand finally gets his courage back, "Yeah! Or Brackit here is gonna butter your bread!" The drug dealer's face shifted from terror to amused disbelief, as Brackit looked slowly at Chuckles with a mix of contempt and utter loathing. "We'll talk later..." The drug dealer laughing in the background, Chuckles suddenly became 5 inches shorter behind the bar counter.)


Please comment on modifications to the BP gain and such, I need more opinions on the disadvantages. They seem acceptable and not totally or extremely detrimental, but definitely annoying.

[ornot]

[Nasrudith]

New Flaw: Street Stupid 10 BP
Your character hasn't exactly grown up remotely near the street and doesn't pay much attention to popular culture. All street knowledge skills cost double karma, and are treated as unaware if no ranks are possessed. In addition the character receives a -4 penalty to the etiquette dice pool when dealing with the street level. (GM descresion, but gangers, prositutes, panhandlers, apply.) Finally the character cannot start with lower than middle lifestyle.

[Omer Joel]

Dependent
Bonus: 5 or 15 BPs
A character with the Dependent quality has a loved one who depends on her for support and aid. This could be a child, a parent, a spouse, a sibling, an old friend or even, in some extreme cases, a pet. The character has to devote time and resources to the care of her dependent; the dependent migt also serve as a point of leverage against the character by her enemies. If this negative quaity is taken at a 5-BP level, it represents a dependent who, while needing the character's suppot in enral, can take care of himself most of the time (examples for this would be unemployd spouses or children beyond the age of 10). At a 15-BP level, the dependent cannot take care of himself, and the character must either tend to the dependent's needs around the clock or hire someone else to do so (examples for this would be young children or very elderly and disabled parents).

Day Job
Bonus: 5, 10, 15 or 20 BPs
The character has a "real" job besides shadowrunning, which burdens him with responsibilitis and robs away a portion of his time. However, such a job also confers some advantages - the job arns te character some nuyen, it could serve as a cover for shadow-activity, it might be helpful for money-laundering, and it might give the character a good place to meet new contacts.

[ElFenrir]

[bibliophile20]

[ShadowDragon8685]