Witch Hunt: OOC, Alphas have to stick together. Options

[2bit]

This is the master OOC thread for the game "Witch Hunt". If you're interested in joining the game in progress, please post in the thread "Recruiting: Witch Hunt". Enrollment is currently: CLOSED

In this game, the player characters are mundanes tasked with fighting Awakened opposition as militant members (known as Alphas) of the anti-awakened policlub Sons of Apollo. The year is 2070, and ever since the infamous terrorist mage cult "Winternight" destroyed the world's information infrastructure five years ago, a growing fear of magic and the awakened has taken root in first world countries across the globe. Magicians in the UCAS must register their talent with the government, and Congress has tightened the reins on what they legally can and cannot do. As if life wasn't hard enough for those with the Talent, they might also be unlucky enough to come across one of these guys in a dark alley:


The Alphas
Orion (Cakeman) - human, animal handler
High Rise (yoippari) - ork, hacker/rigger
Null (Glyph) - human, street samurai
Malleus (imperialus) - elf, face

On hold:
Nobody!


This post has been edited by 2bit: Jun 1 2007, 12:25 AM

[2bit]

The New Stuff that Came to Pass

In this setting, Winternight was a terrorist mage cult and received nearly all the blame for the attack in 2065. In the wake of the second Crash, anti-Awakened sentiment experiences a strong resurgence. In 2066, the Magician Registration Act is passed, requiring awakened citizens of the UCAS to register their status with the government. Public spellcasting of any kind is prohibited. Licensed magic use is limited to the areas of Security, Health Services, and Entertainment, and even these endure heavy overwatch. Although magical education programs continue, they are effectively neutered.

Vaults of magical knowledge are lost during the Crash, and by the time the new Matrix comes online, very little of it returns to the public domain. What is left remains mostly in corporate, shadow, government, and foreign hands. Although information is still attainable, most of it is illegal to use, as are the methods ultimately used to acquire it.

With the new matrix come technomancers, which are still rumors at this point in time. It is well known in the shadows that people who can "hack with their freaky radio brains" exist, but just who and what they are remains a mystery. People in the know are afraid that magicians have learned techniques that let them perform sorcery and conjuring in virtual space. Others believe these people are the next evolutionary step. Because of the ever present awakened stigma, no one's talking.

[2bit]

Magic Outside the UCAS

Megacorporations
Megacorps held onto most of their respective caches of magic knowledge. For the sake of politics and PR, both internal and external, corps have cut way back on their visibility in the magical goods market, with some leaving it altogether. There is still good money to be made in the security sector of this market. All of the Big Ten, with the exception of Evo and Wuxing, have passed laws similar to that of the UCAS, mostly to appease the public and governments of their host countries. Internally, however, not much has changed.
Awakened employees of megacorps have been affected less than others. Their abilities are already on file with their employer. Their personal advancement has always taken a backseat to the needs of the company. They are watched a little more closely, but in most companies, "due diligence" in this matter doesn't mean much.

The NAN
The Native American Nations suffered a political setback with their refusal to adopt any new law to restrict the use of magic. They have gained a reputation as the "Free Magic" nations because of this, and relations between the individual NAN members have never been better. There is a great shamanic fellowship happening there now, and some say they're on the verge of a native american renaissance. While non-shamanic practitioners are allowed to do their own thing, they receive their share of suspicion, and there is a growing desire to make shamanism the Official Tradition of the Native American Nations (whatever that means!).

[2bit]

The Sons of Apollo

The Sons of Apollo is an anti-awakened policlub based in FDC, with major presence in Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans, Detroit, and St. Louis. It has gained significant influence in recent years, feeding into the paranoia that has gripped the post-crash world. The policlub preaches materialism and trust in physical things. Its members cherish wealth, physical and mental health, skilled workmanship, but are truly cemented together by the anti-awakened movement.

[2bit]

Posting Instructions

"Speech" [cyan]
<Coms (spoken)> [yellow]
<Coms (subvocal)> [violet]
<Text Message> [black]
Thoughts [darkkhaki]
Memories [lightgrey]

No sigs in the IC thread, please!

Post a Place, Time [orange] only if your scene is different from the one in the post above yours.

Due to story considerations, none of your characters will begin the game with close ties to one another. All of you, however, know each other, or at the least, know of each other. You may have worked together as Alphas before, seen each other at rallies, have the same friends, etc. None of you are what you would call friends.

Ok - please check in, introduce yourselves, and figure out relationships. Once we have a final body count, make sure we haven't lost any of the original four, we can begin the IC.

[Trigger]

I am going to be away from my computer for awhile (due to technical difficulties) and I won't be able to post for awhile. I will try and update as often as I can, but I can make no guarantees on it. Sorry for the trouble. Thanks.

[Cakeman]

Found the thread! I'll introduce my character by posting his background. It's subject to change as we move along if we want to have our characters know each other.

[ Spoiler ]

A name! (This is always the hardest part for me...)

Orion grew up as Harry Smith, and still uses that name outside of the Alphas. He's a young human male, skin tone and features suggests a heritage from central america. Indeed his father moved to Seattle from Aztlan and settled down here. Harry's father worked hard, something difficult to do sometimes but always imprinted into his children that a proper human does an honest days work, supports his family and his friends, and generally doesn't complain or rant but endures. Harry has a sister and had an older brother, maybe he still has btw, but Harry's father and mother (a local girl) were devoted members of the Humanis Policlub. When Harry's bigger brother goblinized he was cast out and has not been seen since then. Harry's mother felt so guilty that she fell ill, and succumbed to a "metahuman spread" disease a few yeas later when Harry was in his teens. Harry was a devout policlub member as a child, but his fathers hard work allowed him to attend school and he adopted a more liberal point of view. When his brother left, he secretly decided this was not for him. So Harry finished school and then promptly left home.

Harry worked where he could, carrying crates or serving in restaurants. Life was hard but he did what he could. One day he passed by a rally, people talking about just the things his father had preached: skill, an honest days work and they said material wealth would follow. He stopped, someone noticed and recruited him to the Sons of Apollo - it wasn't that hard, as Harry's personal views were more or less aligned. He remembered Winternight and how frightened he'd been when all that happened and all this anti-magic made sense, mae a lot of sense and so he adopted that view too.

With the help of the policlub he moved to a block close to the Seattle headquarters entirely populated by members. The place was clean and well kept, everybody knew their neighbors, everybody helped each other and everyone worked hard. It's a nice place and a perfect example of how the Sons wish things to be.

Harry has a nice way and a likable look, and even participated in some rallies. He talked to people and helped recruit them, and the members upstairs noticed him. He was pointed in the direction of the Alphas and spent some time getting tested and passed (since he believes in the policlubs doctrine, is morally flexible and listens to the higher-ups) and is now a member under the name "Orion". He took the name himself as he enjoys stalking and tracking, and he thinks about learning how to use a bow some day when he has some spare time. And motivation.

He always liked the dogs hanging around the schools back yard when he was a teen, and to everyones amazement they didn't rend him limb from limb. He spent a lot of time with them during his upbringing, ran the streets at night and even picked up a puppy. His parents didn't let him keep it, but when he moved out the first thing he did after getting a place to live was getting two dogs. Now they're three grown up and he has two puppies, a few birds and a large aquarium.

Now Orion is 21 years old, currently between girlfriends and lives with his animals in a somewhat nice part of town. He constantly munches on Azzie snacks and complains about a headache if he has to go without.

Hmm... sure I've forgotten things. Just ask me and I'll fill it in.

[imperialus]

Waiting for approval from 2Bit on my background but here is a draft at least.

[ Spoiler ]

So ya wanna know about Malleus? Meh, you’ve been tipping well I guess I could tell you some of what I know. First off his name is Marcus, but don’t let that get out. He’s somewhere around 27 years old now. He grew up with his sister here in Redmond. Dunno what’s up with their parents, hell I doubt he does, never talks about em at least. Him and his sister were small time hustlers, they’d run card scams, trade bits of tech and sell whatever they could scavenge off the street. Only thing that made them any different than every other pair of street kids in the plex was that his sister, Labrador was a dog shaman. She only knew a few spells but she helped run their scams and the two were fiercely loyal to each other.

About 7 years ago though that all changed, Lab caught wind of some stash of Yak BTL’s that had been dumped in Puyallup and they both went into Glow City to try and track them down. A clan of feral ghouls attacked them and somehow they got separated. Malleus made it back to Redmond about a day later, a bit scratched up, but none the worse for wear. Lab though was missing for a week and when she finally made it back to their squat something about her had changed. She was aggressive, even towards her brother, and their scams, which usually ended with the pair running as fast as they could and disappearing in the warren of alleys that made up Redmond started turning into fistfights and worse.

Things came to a head one day when Lab stabbed a friend of theirs after she got caught stealing a dehydrated soyburger from him. Malleus confronted her and within a few minutes it had escalated in a full scale screaming match. It was only then that Labs new nature finally revealed itself full force. Something had happened to Dog during that week she was lost in Glow City, he’d become a toxic and like the feral dog that she became, she turned on those who’d previously deserved her undying loyalty. Unfortunately for Malleus he almost found out too late. Lab summoned a spirit of beasts that took the form of a rabid pit bull and sicced it on Malleus. As Malleus wrestled with the dog he frantically threw a brick at his sister in an attempt to get her to call the spirit off. It struck her in the head and she collapsed to the ground. Several of their other friends managed to beat the spirit until it dissipated saving Malleus’ life. Unfortunatly the same could not be said for his sister. The brick had shattered her skull knocking her into a coma that she never woke up from. She died about a week later.

Since then Malleus has held a deep and abiding distrust of mages and an outright hatered of toxics. After all if his sister, one of the strongest people he knew could become a toxic shaman what could be said of all the other mages out there. He sees mages as ticking time bombs until their magic can be burnt out of them. He has a tough time blaming the mages themselves instead viewing magic as a curse that must be cured. Toxic’s are abominations and he’ll go out of his way to hunt down and destroy them but he views average mages or shamans with a combination of pity and concern. He began using his skills and street smarts for the Sons of Apollo and his connections with Seattles underground has made his rise within the policlub almost meteoric.

Malleus lives in a nice apartment in downtown Seattle somewhere. He keeps a Welsh Corgi named Lab to remind himself of his sister as she was. For the past two years he has had a rather stormy on again off again relationship with a Topless waitress at some higher end club in the buisness district. I think they’re more off than on right now, I havn’t seen her come by with him in a few weeks but they always end up back together. He’s sometimes in here with a cop… can’t remember his name off the top of my head though.

Malleus is 27 years old. He is average height for an elf and keeps his hair in a neat business like cut. His left forearm has a latticework of scars across it, reminders of when his sister’s spirit attacked him. He usually dresses like a professional, black suit dark glasses and stylish gloves but it has only been a few years since he got off the streets so he still remembers how to dress down without sticking out like an elf in the ork underground.

[yoippari]

My current backgroud was written as a concept but 2bit wanted a bit more so I tagged on some extra information. Nothing as specific or creative as your's though. I'll post my background tomorrow after I've added flavor.

[2bit]

Just so you know, a lengthy description like that is great, but by no means required :). Hopefully Glyph will check in with Null soon.

[2bit]

I just wanted to add, kind of in opposition to what I just said, that your characters' backgrounds are really important to this game and I appreciate everyone fleshing them out so thoroughly. I don't need them to be extremely long (Glyph did the "50 questions" thing) but the more details, the better.

[imperialus]

Oh, out of curiosity, do you use the house rule that gives you natural Chax2 in free contact points? I only ask because I know lots of GM's that do.

[2bit]

Something like that, yes, in the recruitment thread I mentioned that characters get Alfred Ancient as a free Mr. J contact, and their CHA in additional free contact BPs.

[Glyph]

Here's Null - kind of the short version, since our characters aren't supposed to know each other that well.

[ Spoiler ]

Null

Description
Null is a tall but thin young man, long-limbed with a wiry build. His hair is dyed a stark white, Unkempt and spikey. His cybereyes are cyan, and sometimes he forgets to blink for too long, creeping people out. He has an old scar on his forehead. He usually wears business casual clothing, except in areas where it would stand out, where he dresses down with palpable relief - he is more accustomed to street punk clothing, but feels that being well-dressed is part of accepting the credo of the Sons of Appollo. This has notably improved his hygiene, too, but despite his nappy attire, he is still often a bit rumpled and unkempt looking.

Background
You have heard that Null was a chiphead squatter on the downward spiral towards burnout, before being brought into the Sons of Appollo. He certainly seems to have adopted the credo of the Sons of Appollo with a born-again kind of zeal. He may not be a BTL addict any longer, but he still seems a bit "off" - facial tics, manic-depressive episodes, odd little habits, and a tendency to either drone pedantically about things that he doesn't quite seem to understand (Sun Tzu quotes when they don't really apply to the situation, etc.), or to mumble incoherently. He is shy to the point of incoherency around women in any kind of relaxed social situation. He has adopted a health food kick, going on about his protein shakes and supplements, but occasionally he will snap and binge on junk food at a Stuffer shack.

He gained his position as an Alpha by displaying the ability to follow sometimes distasteful orders without question, and by demonstrating an aptitude for remorseless violence when needed. He is rumored to have received extensive bodywork - at the very least, he has cybereyes and enhanced reflexes, as well as a ghastly weapon - a monofilament whip hidden in a fingertip compartment.

Those who have worked with him can attest to his ability in combat, and he is decent at jobs that require some sneaking around, too. He follows orders well, but sometimes can seem a bit lost when he doesn't have any orders

Null lives in an upscale place in Ballard, and tries to keep his biz far away from there. His apartment is fairly spatious, well-furnished if a bit spartan, and obsessively neat (the housekeeping bot does a good job, although it occasionally gets stuck in a corner and has to be nudged out).

[imperialus]

[2bit]

I don't think anyone took First Aid, so that street doc will come in handy.

[imperialus]

Ooo... In light of that I dropped my pistols to 2, got myself First aid 1 and bought a rating 6 medkit leaving me with 410 :nuyen: left. Hey at least I'm not defaulting.

[Trigger]

Next time I have a chance to get on a computer I will post up information on Tyler, as I do not hae my information on him with me at the moment. But I am still interested in this game, so please don't couint me out yet.

[2bit]

What's your time frame look like? Better to start without you and introduce you along the way?

[yoippari]

I'm still working on background, mostly making it backgroundy instead of a list of personality traits.

Are there any other blatent skill holes? armory? cybertechnology? navigation? heavy weapons? Well, I guess navigation is the only one of those needed.

[2bit]

You'll be the one the needs Heavy Weapons, Mr. Rigger. I don't consider any of those others to be critical skills.

Armorer - this is necessary for someone to have (unless you don't mind buying new gear often), but that someone could be a contact.

Cybertech - rarely needed, and any good Medcial contact will be able to provide it.

Navigation - Not often needed, can be defaulted to Intuition, and Mapsofts add dice to this test (30 :nuyen: for 6 dice!)

Ok: Null's done; I think Malleus is done now but I'd like you to give me your final draft; Orion is getting his skills and gear shifted around; Tariq is filling out his background and getting skill & gear tweaks. Please have these done by Sunday. I'll post the IC thread as soon as I have everyone's background and char. sheets. If there are minor gear tweaks to still be made, that's ok, we can start anyhow.

I'll introduce Trigger's character, Tyler, along the way when he's able to post regularly again.

[2bit]

yoippari's character will be known as High Rise.

[2bit]

Work out any common background you folks have by this weekend. The IC thread will go up Monday.

[imperialus]

As far as common background goes one of Malleus' contacts is a bartender named Tinman at a bar called the Yellow Brick Road. The bar is owned either by the Poli-club or one of its supporters and Malleus tends to hang out there quite a bit.

Malleus' other contacts are;
Skeeze: a Street Fence/petty dealer (drugs, guns ect.), used to fence Malleus' stuff when he was a kid.
Lieutenant Ryans: A Vice Detective, helped Malleus get off the street.
Mars: an ork ganger and friend from Malleus' streetkid days.
Stitch: a Streetdoc, fixed Malleus up after the incident with his sister.
Mr. Campbell a minor corprate lawer, Malleus only recently met him at the Yellow Brick Road.
Kassandra: Topless waitress at a different bar in downtown Seattle, Malleus' on/off girlfriend.

[Cakeman]

Well I caved in and got First Aid 1 too, so maybe we wont bleed to death while taking a cab back to the street doc :) Seemed like the sensible thing to do, now with our patron greek god and all.

Common background:
Orion is still quite young and will follow the lead of someone taking charge in a situation. He likes to party, and spends a night or two per week downtown in some semi-nice club. He tries to be of help to the policlub by helping out at public meetings, talk to interested people etc so if someone else does that too, maybe a passing knowledge because of that?

Orions contacts include his childhood friend Genbu who now has a foot firmly placed with the yakuza, a policlub guardsman (James) who handles critters for the policlub and a (yet) nameless bouncer who Orion can pay to be able to skip the line at the club.