Recruiting: Down in the Gutter - Second Phase, Life in Redmond's Newest Street Gang Options

[Jaid]

As far as the Arnis De Mano thing goes, I do find it odd that the smart thing to do in a fight is to go on Full Parry and stare at the other guy until hopefully he tries hitting you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Could be worse though, we could have all done what's truly the most logical option: Take the Unarmed Combat skill up to 2 w/ the Parry Specialization just so you can qualify for Krav Maga's Draw Weapon & Take Aim as Free Action benefits. Nothing like training Martial Arts just so you can shoot people in the face better. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

I kinda wish Orks weren't quite so good. Cuervo'd make so much more sense as an Ork from a raw efficiency standpoint it's ridiculous.

1) actually, the *best* thing to do is take ambidexterity and the two weapon fighting maneuver that lets you both attack *and* full defense at the same time, with no reduction in either pool.

2) you don't need unarmed skill to have a martial art. in fact, for some of the martial arts, it makes more sense to have a weapon skill, and in the case of at least 2-3 i would say that weapon could very logically be a gun skill.

[edit] point 3 only applies for a ganger campaign, because strength is actually not useless in a ganger campaign =P [/edit]

3) orcs are actually pretty BP efficient, but i'm fairly certain unless you want agi, int, log, or cha at >4, >4, >4, and >3 respecitvelly, troll is more efficient (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (humans get 10 BP at a cost of 0 BP, giving the best % and decent gross value, plus leaving lots of BP for skills etc. dwarves get 40 BP for 25 BP in attributes, orcs get 50 BP for 20 BP, and trolls get 80 BP for 40 BP. also, a troll's extras are pretty danged awesome for a ganger campaign... running faster is handy, as is the reach bonus for melee combat! elves, otoh, are terribly inefficient, getting only 30 BPs in attributes for 30 BPs in cost)

heck, i was halfway tempted to make spook a troll (still am, in fact) but i think i might need the BPs for skills and i don't intend to give him the troll equivalent of 1 in str and bod =P

[Whipstitch]

1) actually, the *best* thing to do is take ambidexterity and the two weapon fighting maneuver that lets you both attack *and* full defense at the same time, with no reduction in either pool.

I already did that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


As far as Ork Vs. Troll goes, normally I'd just point out that Agility and Intuition are crappy attributes to have a lowered cap in, but in a gang campaign where cash is limited and where throwing down with fists is likely to be more viable than in most Shadowrun games (or at least that's what the wiki page led us to believe (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ), the troll's natural armor, thermographic vision, ridiculous strength and reach bonuses easily make up for well, everything. The Ork and Troll bonuses become particularly invaluable in a campaign where skills are subject to a lower than average cap but attributes are not. That's why I'm hoping that the GMs will look charitably on some of my more min-maxy design decisions, since I know exactly how I could have made a Cuervo a Human-Looking Ork with almost the exact same sheet (1 more Willpower, 1 more Body, 1 less Charisma) for 5 less bps than what the current sheet coughed up (and I know I could do a lot better than that sheet too). As it is he's not really better than anyone currently in the gang at anything, except maybe Infiltration (and then only by a point) and has a ridiculously bad mentor penalty in exchange for some serious magical potential if he ever manages to scrape together some Karma. But until then his current Powers are all NERPS for the most part.

Theme wise, I rather like him though-- It wasn't intentional, since I hadn't really read much about the other PC backgrounds when I started on the character, but in many ways Cuervo is the Anti-Legion. Both had hardass fathers, but they went in two vastly different directions once on their own and aren't likely to meet eachother halfway any time soon.

[Eyeless Blond]

Welcome aboard Eyeless!

Hmmm, what will Baby make of Drip....interesting...(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well we'll see. Hopefully I can find more than a series of tiny snippets of time so I can actually work on getting all this stuff entered in the right format.

Question: what lifestyle would you assign to actually living out of a car? I mean, it's a subcompact, but Drip doesn't take up too much space...

Heh, but I may have to rethink that anyway, might have to upgrade to a sedan. No way is he going to fit in there comfortably with a Doberman. And the gear shuffle continues...

Nevermind; scraped together enough to get the larger car.

Still wondering what living out of your car can do to your lifestyle.

[Eyeless Blond]

Oh yeah, and where do you guys usually troll around to look for headshots? My search-fu is weak when it comes to images.

[Slipshade]

Oh yeah, and where do you guys usually troll around to look for headshots? My search-fu is weak when it comes to images.

I found a modeling agency on the web that wasn't a front for a Porn shop. I'll see if I can find it again.

[Bearclaw]

I found a modeling agency on the web that wasn't a front for a Porn shop. I'll see if I can find it again.

Do they have any giant, heavy featured models of mixed African, Asian and Hispanic descent?

[Eyeless Blond]

Not sure it'll find what I'm looking for at a modeling agency... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Slipshade]

Not sure it'll find what I'm looking for at a modeling agency... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It had all kinds, but that is the only way I found a bunch of pics in one place. Hard thing was finding one of those sites that seemed legit and not having it turn out to be and escourt service.

[Eyeless Blond]

So, any luck tracking down that URL?

Oh, and on a different note, is there any possibility of getting a Microscopic Vision mod for glasses/goggles? I notice that all the mods in the BBB are available both for eyes and for glasses, but not in Augmentation. I presume they forgot, as they didn't have a Gear section. Would it be fair to price the upgrade at 130 Y and Availability +4? That seems to fit the pattern made by the rest of the upgrades.

[Slipshade]

Eyeless - Sorry, can't run that search from work. I was serious when I said you get a lot of "other" sites when you type in modeling agency. I'll run it from home. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Whipstitch]

In Arsenal you can buy "Science Tools" as well as "Forensic Tools" in Kit, Shop and Facility sizes which presumably have microscopes and give dicepool bonuses to material analysis provided the Tools cover the appropriate discipline. Unfortunately, such items have an availability of 8.

[Eyeless Blond]

Right, and I don't expect to be doing forensic analysis in DitG; it's too much like my actual job. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Vegas]

Eyeless

Living out of a car, no matter how large is gonna be a Squatter lifestyle (no running water, toilet etc).

Let us know if you need any help posting up a CS or whatever on the wiki. We're here to help!

Jaid

Talked to WR this afternoon for a few moments, having your character being able to much more than trauma work really isn't gonna fly. Removing bullets from people, stitching them up sure, no problem. Installing wired reflexes and doing all the technical surgery stuff to go with it... not so much. We're not making scaled down shadowrunners, we're making gangers for this game, most gangers aren't gonna know trauma surgery, let alone how to install datajacks and synaptic boosters.

[Eyeless Blond]

I'd take issue with that primarily because of how highly available many types of 'ware are. Getting a datajack in the '70s is so easy they have idiots doing it in mall kiosks, the same idiots who pierce ears now. Cyberware has, by the '70s, been around for half a century; the internet isn't even that old, and we've already got spammer/phisher gangs in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, running scams in places without even running water. Sure, the syndicates and huge transnational gangs can do it better, but even two-bit nobodies in the middle of nowhere can learn to use technology to get what they want, especially if the technology is old, commonplace, and well-established (the Internet now, cybertech in 2070).

And are you seriously telling me that you need to be syndicate-level to be an organlegger or street doc? Tell that to the people who wake up in bathtubs full of ice even today, with our (decidedly primitive) medical technology. By 2070 I wouldn't be surprised if simple implant surgery couldn't be conducted out of a Biotech kit, let alone a shop (which should be capable of used/standard/alphaware cyber, and used/standard bioware, maybe even some of the lower-level gene stuff.

[Jaid]

ah well. don't really see the current concept working without at least the skills (if not the equipment) to implant, and in any case the gang appears to have lots of people who can basically perform trauma surgery, so i'll scratch that concept since it's not really bringing anything new to the table.

and i can't really say i have anything else stuck in my head that's gonna fit as a ganger concept (i know *i* would have problems with someone bringing a drone army into a ganger campaign) so i guess i'll just bow out =S

[Dantic]

I'd take issue with that primarily because of how highly available many types of 'ware are. Getting a datajack in the '70s is so easy they have idiots doing it in mall kiosks, the same idiots who pierce ears now. Cyberware has, by the '70s, been around for half a century; the internet isn't even that old, and we've already got spammer/phisher gangs in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, running scams in places without even running water. Sure, the syndicates and huge transnational gangs can do it better, but even two-bit nobodies in the middle of nowhere can learn to use technology to get what they want, especially if the technology is old, commonplace, and well-established (the Internet now, cybertech in 2070).

And are you seriously telling me that you need to be syndicate-level to be an organlegger or street doc? Tell that to the people who wake up in bathtubs full of ice even today, with our (decidedly primitive) medical technology. By 2070 I wouldn't be surprised if simple implant surgery couldn't be conducted out of a Biotech kit, let alone a shop (which should be capable of used/standard/alphaware cyber, and used/standard bioware, maybe even some of the lower-level gene stuff.

Like the doc in Minority Report, doing an eye transplant in a dirty run down apartment? However, you also have to kind of look at game balance, and consider how invasive the ware is, cyberlimbs and datajacks are one thing, maybe even semi-automated. Skillwires, VCRs, Wired Reflexes, Bone Lacing, etc. would probably require at minimum one trained assistant. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

[Eyeless Blond]

Well the highly invasive 'ware would be a higher threshold, naturally, and then of course there's getting ahold of the 'ware itself that'd be a problem.

But a datajack? Cybereyes? Other things with an Availability of <=4? They've been around for decades; by 2070 they should practically install themselves, with injected nanopaste forming most of the delicate weave of mesh that makes up the jack, or the optic nerve surrogate that links to the occipital lobe. Again, we're talking decades of these things being on the common market; they're as much commodities as keyboards and mice are today, and about as hard to plug in.

[Dantic]

I added a pic for Twiggs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Slipshade]

So, any luck tracking down that URL?

www.newfaces.com

[Eyeless Blond]

Wow, with a name like that I can see how you could mistake it as a front for a prostitution ring, or child slavery auction site. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Fresno Bob]

After looking at a few pages of muscled male models for something that might have been Aziz, I have decided to go to the gym more.

[Eyeless Blond]

Sheesh, now where do you find pictures of people who aren't hamming it up for the camera? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Vegas]

Eyeless,

Shoot me a PM on what you're looking for and I'll work my "Search-Fu" for you. I've been told I'm good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Slipshade]

Sheesh, now where do you find pictures of people who aren't hamming it up for the camera? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Heh, it only took me about 200 pics to find one that looked right for Baby. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Slipshade]

I've been told I'm good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Oh you are soooooo leaving yourself open.