Cha 1 Uncouth Rigger, How should I deal with him? Options

[ShadowDragon8685]

I find that I have a Rigger player who has submitted a Charisma 1 Uncouth character. I know for a fact he's an unrequited munchkin.


How should I deal with this? He's essentially Unaware of social skills; does this mean even a little kid can convince him to do what they say with a single success? (Reading the description of Uncouth, it references Success Tests, but I can't find them, nor can I find the description of Unaware under skill descriptions. I am thusly confused.)

[Wakshaani]

Note that his skill of 0 applies to resisting as well... Intimidate is going to make him wee himself and run, he's so easily conned that street salesmen are *always* giving him "gold" watches, and for the love of Gwar, don't let him near the negotiating table!

"Hey Bob, you got any ideas?"

"Naw, my Leadeship skill's unrollable ... I got NUTHIN'."

We won't even start on the horrors of him trying to get equipment.

"Aailability 4? Bwa-haha! No, sorry, you can't get up the nerve to ask anyone in the store for help, let alone where "The good stuff" is. You're lucky you didn't wee on yourself when the cute girl at the register smiled at someone beside you."

[ShadowDragon8685]

Oh, this is going to be FUN...

But he's planning to play the "Rigger in a Bunker" archtype. Not even rigger in a van, rigger in a bunker. I expect that he plans to place all of his purchases via the Matrix.

[WhiskeyMac]

Wireless paint will make his concept pretty much non-playable. But my best suggestion is to hand back his character sheet, tell him "NO!" in a firm and parental voice and then tell him to remake the character realistically. You say he's a munchkin and yet you will let him get away with one of the most munchkin tactics. Nip it in the butt and maybe he'll change.

[ShadowDragon8685]

WhiskeyMac, I've already told him about wifi blocking paint and wallpaper essentially turning any interior space into a faraday cage.

He just dosen't care, insisting he can provide air support and extraction.


I think I'm just gonna shut him down quick and make him suffer.

[Demon_Bob]

[odinson]

Just have the first 4 or 5 runs where all he does is drive the characters to the job and pick them up after. Have everything to the job be uneventful and everything after it be uneventful. He'll either get bored and go looking for trouble, if the other players don't stop that quick it's your chance to make big trouble that is a almost tpk, or he'll decide to make a new character thats a little less muchy..

[Jaid]

buying stuff shouldn't be an issue, as long as no tests are involved. thus, he could buy anything that is 100% legal to buy, provided it wouldn't require ID of any sort...

so he could probably arm his drones... provided they only use tasers.

and he could build/repair them. so long as it's stuff you could reasonably salvage from a scrapyard.

but basically, it's gonna suck. a lot. in the kind of way that makes you say "why are you a shadow runner if all you can't even spend the money you earn".

also consider having him lose drones on his salvaging runs... after all, someone owns that junk, they can't just be letting all the cheapskate riggers steal it =P

[kzt]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Okay, I have advised the player of exactly what Uncouth means...

He is now searching for another flaw to take.

[Demon_Bob]

[Jaid]

there are no 20 point flaws worth taking. taking any of the 20 point flaws is roughly about as good of an idea to take as it would be to punch yourself in the crotch with brass knuckles. repeatedly.

[WhiskeyMac]

Unless it's a 20 point flaw allergy or phobia that's uncommon. Yeah, it's a little munchy but when the trigger comes up ... :vegm:

[djinni]

[Glyph]

Uncouth makes a character functionally unaware with regards to social skills, meaning that the character can't even default for any social skill he doesn't have, and even for social skills he does have, he will have to make tests for things that other characters would know as a matter of course.

I don't think it should affect resistance rolls. Let him have his one piddly Charisma die to resist con, etiquette, and negotiation tests!

The flaw is in the RAW, and three of the sample characters have it. One of them is a typical techie nerd, and the other two are violent thugs. But they still have contacts, and they can still function, albeit at the fringes of an outlaw culture.

Solely on the basis of the character type (smelly, reclusive rigger who spends most of his time in his van), the Uncouth flaw would seem to fit. Your problem with him seems to be more metagame-related. Namely, he's a munchkin. But I would refuse to accept the character outright, instead of wasting the other players' game time teaching this one guy a "lesson".

[kzt]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Actually, he's been scared off of Uncouth...

Now he has taken the Astral Beacon, in combination with Spirit Bane.

Yes, I know that he's not allowed to have Astral Beacon, but he's also taken Infirm as a way of being Paraplegic.

So he's a rigger in a bunker, who cannot move under his own power, with the Spirit Bane flaw and the Astral Beacon flaw...

I'm going to give him a Latent Awakening. For free, just to screw with him.

Then, randomly, during some game, like every fifth game or so, I'm going to roll 1d6 (if I'm feeling nice) or 2d6 (if I've had a bad day). These rolls will be to the determine the Force of the Free Spirit coming to kill his character. :)

[WhiskeyMac]

Wow, this guy is munchy to the core. What will you do for his next character? :D

[hobgoblin]

watching munchkins dig their characters own grave via the (ab)use of flaws never get boring :smokin:

[ShadowDragon8685]

Actually, he twinged to the fact that it was a bad combination, dumped Spirit Bane, and took Elf Poser...

Sigh.

[Jaid]

he's taken infirm? well, obviously he's totally clueless then. he's not a very good min/maxer.

you know *why* infirm is such an incredibly bad idea?

well, here's an example. we'll use a fictional player with a character who has the infirm flaw... we'll call him bob.

GM: "bob, roll a perception check"
Bob: "i can't."

now, imagine that exact same scenario... for each of the following skills:

climb. disguise. escape artist. gymnastics. infiltration. navigation. palming. running. shadowing. survival. swimming. (also parachuting, diving, and tracking, but those aren't quite as bad).

when i said that the 20 point flaws are never a good idea, i was including infirm in that. whether or not he needs these regularly, he *will* need them at some point. this guy is supposed to be a shadowrunner... he can't even try to climb stuff. he can't even try to sneak. he can't even try to conceal his illegal equipment. he can't even try to escape being tied up. he can't even try to conceal his identity. he can't even jump. literally... this character is incapable of jumping. all it takes is one hacker with a decent stealth program to trace his location, and this guy dies. the end. he can't detect anyone who makes even a halfway decent attempt to sneak up to his bunker (such as a SWAT team). he can't hear them breaking in. he can't sneak or hide from them. he can't pretend to be someone else. this guy is a corpse just waiting to happen. unless he has skillwires (and puts more than the 20 BPs from infirm towards those wires and the softs) or blows well more than 20 BPs on a few critical skills, this concept is not viable. (unless of course you houserule the infirm flaw to not be a death sentence, that is).

[Buster]

Shhhh, no one tell him he's better off taking multiple Incompetencies instead of Infirm/Uncouth/Uneducated.

[ShadowDragon8685]

[mfb]

there is nothing--nothing--more amusing than a munchkin who sucks at min/maxing. you should let this guy make whatever character he wants, and then give us a play-by-play of each session. you won't have to go out of your way at all to screw the guy over--he'll do all of it himself.

[WearzManySkins]

look at the IC Reflections of a Full Moon thread in the Welcome to the Shadows, there is an uncouth? rigger/hacker there, read and enjoy, he is played very well.

WMS