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

[Whipstitch]

I just go by what the book says rather than rely on the information Knasser once plucked from the aether. Knasser can go on all he wants about mean, median, and mode but meanwhile I'll stick to the shorthand the book provides. It's worth noting as well that the the book's table never says "average" when describing a 3, it says a 3 is typical, so despite what Knasser says you could easily make a strong argument that they meant most people have an attribute of 3 regardless of the rest of his reasoning. It's a moot point anyway, as far as I'm concerned, since I do not believe the game was meant to portray a character with an attribute of 1 or 2 as being unable to function anyway, although it is certainly a marked disadvantage. The whole conversation really belongs in another thread though.

[Bearclaw]

Bearclaw - would you consider Rico having been a part of the Brickhouse Boys? They were an aspiring chop-gang. Seems fitting. Plus, I was thinking of making my PC (a troll rigger) from the Brickhouse and then we'd have a nice cluster of survivors. I'm not too sure about that peacoat business, though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

That works for me. Rico's number 1 priority is biz, and the Brickhouse Boys seem to have been much bettter at that than the Corsairs.
Yea, I'd have to do some thinking to make the Pea-coat thing work into the picture I've got in my head. I guess it being heavily lined with armor won't mess up the look much.

[Spike]

Yay! More 'Boys!... Woot! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)



On another topic, I was vaguely thinking of posting a couple NPC ideas, no connection to Maus, but as I'm not sure how they'd mesh with the landscape I want to run them by someone before just posting them to the wiki.

Got an approval process for stuff like that?

[Vegas]

Spike

Go ahead and post NPC ideas here, really I think almost anything flew back when we were creating them. We can give the final yay/nay and have you post them on the wiki NPC page after that.

Ikim

We'd like to give you a chance to build Alex up on the wiki. If you'd go and apply for membership I'll approve you and build pages for Alex for you to start filling out, or get help with filling them out.

[lkim]

Honestly, I'm not familiar with the wiki space. Can I just post it on here?

[Vegas]

Ikim

Go ahead and PM everything to me and I'll work on getting everything up on the wiki.

You'll need to have:
Stats
Background (the 30-questions)
Gear (with availabilities and costs)
Takes on all the gangers and other Kingsgate gangs

Your pages will be built Here when I'm done with them.

[Dantic]

Dantic

Thanks for the offer for stepping up to the plate to help with Matrix rules and possibly the Matrix GM position. I know WR1 will take it under advisement and consider your offer.
Also, are you done retooling/tweaking Twiggs? If so we'll re-check him and get him in the queue for final approval as well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Thanks!

Yes, done updating what was requested, fixed some spelling and grammer errors (my little mini OCD/anal thing) no mechanics changed, all stats, gear etc. are the same, mostly just added to background.

[Bearclaw]

OK, I'm a little confused as to how I meet up with this new gang. Do we all just happen to be in the same bar on November 1, or does the word go out that Legion is claiming the same territory he used to run, and is looking for gangers to help him run it, or what?

My picture on myself on November 1 is walking out of the clinic with a new scar on my chest, hopping on my hog, and trying to figure out where to score a quick 2 large so I can get a new deck, some product and get back in business. If there's a new power forming on the street, I wanna be in on the ground floor, but I can't wait for other people to get organized before I'm earning again.

[Spike]

Okay, I'll spoiler them up, though we've shown that my ability to spoiler is limited at best... (speaking of: how DO you get multiple spoiler lines? All I can do is nest them...)


Zulu Betty and Mahdi Junior...

[ Spoiler ]

Zulu Betty
(Spike)
Connection: 3

One thing you can say about the barrens is that folks are real colorful. Zulu Betty is no exception. She's got a past mysterious as any you've never heard of, and she don't do anything the way most folks do. Word is she moved to Redmond thirty years ago, wandered around a bit before setting up shop. She's an elf, and rumor has it she was born a man. Rumor says a lot of things. For the last 10 years or so she's been building up a little fiefdom right in the back ends of the barrens, as far from Touristville as they come, down 'round Outlander turf. Ain't a gang, no mistake. For three blocks of turf, you live there you pay taxes, not rent, and her Regulators enforce the law, old school eye for an eye law. Three blocks ain't much, but there is a little micro economy down there. They raise devil rats in cages for meat, and grow crops somehow, every home has a rooftop garden.
There's some trade with the outside, not much just raw materials mostly. Seems they don't want to become reliant on outside goods. Word is she's freindly with the Mahdi in Puyallup, maybe even took some ideas from him. Visitors aren't welcome, but can get by if polite, but no one wants to rumble with the Regulators... they keep feral ghouls as attack dogs, and that's just a little too hard core for most. Still, you want to know what's going on, Betty knows.

Mahdi Jr.
(Spike)
Connection: 2
They say a troll walked away from his nice SINner life, his salaried job moving heavy boxes around. Shed his name, rounded up any troll that would listen to him and spoke to them of a better life. Some listened, some didn't. One day that troll took his brethen and they walked into the worst neighborhoods of Puyallup and started tearing down the shanty town, the ruined buildings, everything that men had made with their bare hands. And when they were done, they started building a new community, one sized for Trolls. They recruited heavily, and kept the smaller metahumans out for a long time. There were wars, wars the average SINner will never hear of as the Trogs fought to protect their community, and to expand it. The Mahdi died five years ago, old age some say, poisoned by outsiders others say. They say his body turned to stone, right there in his great seat, watching over his children.
Troll Town is still there. The troll they call Mahdi Junior wanders Redmond, trying to get other trolls to listen to him, to migrate to troll town, or if they can't to build a new one in Redmond. He's young and vigorous, and he's got ties to a powerful force in Puyallup, along with some loyal followers of his own scattered around.

[Vegas]

Bearclaw

You don't have to worry about being introduced to the gang... WR1 will be responsible for bringing your character into the game in some fashion. Of course the character needs to be finished on the wiki and approved by him before that's going to happen, so it's incentive to get your sheets done so you can get into the game (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

ALL NEW PLAYERS

Guys, the Friday deadline DOES NOT APPLY to you. You do not have to tell us where your character will be at the timestop, WinterRat1 is responsible for bringing your PC into the game in any way shape or form that he chooses.

[Bearclaw]

Bearclaw

You don't have to worry about being introduced to the gang... WR1 will be responsible for bringing your character into the game in some fashion. Of course the character needs to be finished on the wiki and approved by him before that's going to happen, so it's incentive to get your sheets done so you can get into the game (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

ALL NEW PLAYERS

Guys, the Friday deadline DOES NOT APPLY to you. You do not have to tell us where your character will be at the timestop, WinterRat1 is responsible for bringing your PC into the game in any way shape or form that he chooses.

That's all you need to say!

[Dantic]

Just a heads up for my fellow gangers.

Rico is too tall for an Ork, unless he's just freakishly tall.

Maus is also a freak, which from your background/concept, that's what your aiming for, but you might want to make your character description reflect that a little more, you say he's a giant of a man, but I don't think that quite accuratly captures what you see when you look at a man who is 6'4" tall and weighs in excess of 300 lbs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) that's heavy enough to be playing professional football as a lineman, and those guys are not chisled muscle.

Everybody wants their character to stand out from the crowd, but you guys may stand out in a not-so-good way. Just my two (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) worth. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Spike]

Well, In Maus's case he DID start out, conceptually, as an Adept.

More: He spent his formative years as a 'fighting dog'... you seen what real dogfight dogs do for training? That's some crazy stuff...


Then again, while i'm all over the top describing him, without magic or cyber, or any guns/real armor, he's probably pretty dang fragile... If there was a 'distinctive' flaw, I would have taken it and not felt at all guilty.... though taking exceptional strength would have been a possibility (damn! Should have done that after the adept thing collapsed!!!! ah well... maybe next character...)

[Slipshade]

Damnit I've gone over those numbers five times!!! I'll go over them again, see what I missed. GRrrr...

There is a reason he doesn't have an OS... check his negative qualities. He's not retarded, no, but he is essentially mimicking the behavior of people around him. People have commlinks, so he has a commlink. It doesn't do much for him, but damnit, he's got it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I'm not sure why the takes are bugging me so much. I've looked at almost everyone's characters for ideas on what to do, but somehow the takes just slide right on by. I'll make sure to check Grack's closer.

I'll edit the specializations. Gimmee a sec, I'm juggling. I think I only left one default skill in (first aid) because I thought it was likely to come up.



EDIT:::: Got it. I spent the right amount, I just put the wrong number int he bottom row for willpower (wrote 30bp when I spent 20... no idea how that happened. Whew.. thought I'd have to sacrifice something there...)

Spike,

I think Dantic was having a similar problem with takes. It helps sometimes to put in a short character quote and then a longer out of character description as to how Maus would actually act around each individual. Some will likely annoy him, others he would see as an alpha to him and some he may see as pups or mates and that would really change his attitude.

It also helps to thing about how he would think about these people after knowing them for say...a month. That is what I did, when I made my takes.

Always remember that takes are not set in stone! We expect them to change and be updated periodically on the wiki.

Hope that helps a bit.

[WinterRat1]

Okay, I'll spoiler them up, though we've shown that my ability to spoiler is limited at best... (speaking of: how DO you get multiple spoiler lines? All I can do is nest them...)


Zulu Betty and Mahdi Junior...

Spike - I don't know if you missed it or no one told you or whatever, but one of the key guidelines in creating NPCs is not to make ones that materially affect the game world on a large scale.

While I don't have a problem with the ideas behind your NPCs, at this point in the game introducing them would effectively mean suddenly entire regions in Kingsgate (Betty's three block haven and Mahdi's Troll Town) just sprung up out of nowhere. If they did exist, they are large enough that they should have been impacting the game and the story all along, which they obviously did not.

If you had done this during the game setup phase I might have run with it. Now though, introducing either NPC and their associated organizations would dramatically impact the balance of power, and more problematically, should have impacted the balance of power throughout the history of the game.

Bottom line is, I will sadly have to reject two ideas that are perfectly fine, but due to the timing involved aren't really feasible in our current setting.

If you're going to make NPCs, always ask yourself if it makes sense that character hasn't played a role in Kingsgate so far; if the answer is no, then that character is too big and won't be viable to introduce at this stage of the game.

Thanks much for the effort, you did a good job, and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Spike]

I put in really brief statements, best I could summon from a breif overview of the characters on the wiki. Since so far none are Brickhouse Boys all he'd probably know is what he can see/might have heard, so it's quick takes only for now.

He's not exactly a deep thinker, more of a gut reaction type (stats do reflect that, oddly enough....) and I figure once he's pegged someone that's it. He doesn't think too much of why or how, this guy is a boss, that one isn't. Without the context of play, history, in most cases it reflects how he'd react just in general. Women are purely periphrial, they exist as whores, as sexual objects of the moment, but beyond that they just don't register. Since he's not an order giver, anyone beneath him (even perceptually) also fails to register. Its the equals and the alphas, even if its just in his mind, that matter.


Anyway, I'll do some thinking on the whole... maybe lighten up on the background. Maybe, if I can see how I'd do it*, I'll actually go with the 'exceptional attribute' thing. I've got time, yeah? A slight shuffle of attributes wouldn't be totally amiss.




*Strength OR Body are viable choices, probably sacrificing points from Reaction and/or agility. I actually like his mental stats the way they are. Also, depending on comments from the peanut gallery I could defintely see reducing Gracie and Tock to people he knows. They could be useful or useless... either way. Either way I don't see them much as 'contacts'... though again, I've struggled with the entire 'street level' contact thing here already, so I could be a lost lamb bleeting in the wilderness here. If people like him as is... :shrug:




EDIT:::: I expected that, Winter, thats why I ran them through here first. Technically, in Redmond Mahdi Junior is a nobody... Trolltown is in Puyallup, but yeah (and three blocks seemed awefully small to me, but honestly, other than the name Zulu Betty was entirely improv... though the idea of an elf transexual seems amusingly offbeat....). I could alter them to make them less impactful (though, what exactly Zulu Betty does, other than amuse me, I still have no idea. Information broker? Colorful freak? ) and Mahdi Junior could just be DREAMING of making a troll town... Damn, now I've gone and got all attached to them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Bearclaw]

Just a heads up for my fellow gangers.

Rico is too tall for an Ork, unless he's just freakishly tall.
Everybody wants their character to stand out from the crowd, but you guys may stand out in a not-so-good way. Just my two (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) worth. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

For weight, I went with the old 25 kilos per body point. For height, I just made him tall enough that he wouldn't be fat at that weight. And he's only 16% over average, which is far from "Freakish"

[Slipshade]

He's not exactly a deep thinker, more of a gut reaction type (stats do reflect that, oddly enough....) and I figure once he's pegged someone that's it. He doesn't think too much of why or how, this guy is a boss, that one isn't. Without the context of play, history, in most cases it reflects how he'd react just in general. Women are purely periphrial, they exist as whores, as sexual objects of the moment, but beyond that they just don't register. Since he's not an order giver, anyone beneath him (even perceptually) also fails to register. Its the equals and the alphas, even if its just in his mind, that matter.

Ok all of that could be said with slight tweaks for individuals.

I can tell you that you will need to add more before you are actually accepted. Nobody gets away with...my character just doesn't register them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I can tell you that Baby and Nevada will register with you, because neither of them sit around and let anyone get over on them. So they will make an impression one way or another. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Like them or not. If he thinks they are whores...that is all well and good. Put it down on your take. "Just another whore like that other one. This one just has blond hair." That is a perfect quote! Then add a little out of character stuff.

If you are having trouble with a take read everything about that other character that they have put in their background and in the IC thread.


It it helps think of yourself as the lowest on the totem pole. That will mean everyone registers.

[Spike]

Oh, I'm not suggesting that they wouldn't register once he got to know them, at least on some level. The problem is, would he have noticed them at all as individuals prior to joining up (which is where he's currently at: In limbo).


Like I said, I think I need to lighten the tone of his presented psychology a bit, put more room in the mental filing cabinet. Right now the depiction is a bit overly simplistic.

If you want my take, based off what Maus wouldn't know: Nevada seems to be doing her best to stradle that line that confuses him, she's a whore who wants to be taken seriously, give orders and move up. Unlike the heartbreakers he can't just hand wave her away and not think about it because she'll be right there doing it, to him even possibly.

Baby just falls into the catagory of potentially useful small fragile things that are alternatively protected (family), used (most everyone else), ignored (when not being used or protected) or hurt (when told to, if not family).

I've got a day or two to polish up the psychology of Maus, remove the rough edges and make him a better fit, but ideally, if you want to make Maus think of you as something other than a small fragile thing, GREAT! Make him, thats something of the point with him. His limited worldview, and avoidance behavior SHOULD be challenged.

Right now I'm trying to read up all the IC stuff, the character backgrounds (always working from the perspective of 'what is obvious to outsiders) and such for a dozen characters or more... gimmee some time to get more than a line or two (from a taciturn golem at that...) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Dantic]

For weight, I went with the old 25 kilos per body point. For height, I just made him tall enough that he wouldn't be fat at that weight. And he's only 16% over average, which is far from "Freakish"

What old 25 kilo per point? news to me, and a human male at 16% over average height would be nearly 6'9" okay, how far from freakish is that? guess it's relative as to how much time you spend around other pro bastketball players? My main point was, that you would really stand out like a sore thumb, but that may be what you want. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

[Dantic]

Oh, I'm not suggesting that they wouldn't register once he got to know them, at least on some level. The problem is, would he have noticed them at all as individuals prior to joining up (which is where he's currently at: In limbo).

None of us have gotten to know them IC (as some of us aren't IC yet) which is why it's been suggested to look over posts and the wiki, then write the takes as though you've known everyone for at least a month. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Spike]

None of us have gotten to know them IC (as some of us aren't IC yet) which is why it's been suggested to look over posts and the wiki, then write the takes as though you've known everyone for at least a month. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

I'm a terrible prognosticator. Heck, three or four 'sessions' into the game I may decide Maus's character growth is going to be completely different than what I've predicted so far. Games tend to go like that for me...

[Vegas]

I'm in complete agreement with what Slipshade has been saying and trying to get you all to open up a bit more and get creative.

I do have to say however I'm utterly amused with the fact that everyone still brands 'Vada as a whore, though she hasn't turned tricks consistently in over 2 years... I guess once branded, always branded (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) So really Spike your perception of her isn't THAT far off even for Maus IC'ly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Just letting you know you've got some leeway to play with the takes. You can go the route of reading the IC, looking over CS's and "futurecasting" your takes of that character as if they had been in the gang.. otherwise, it is somewhat of a cop out for those people not starting with the Ravens to just say over and over "Don't know em' yet" Really when the game started, a number of us that came from outsider gangs didn't know any more about the other PC's that characters starting now... we just made it up and adjusted it as we played. We expect the same from you guys.

[Spike]

Well, if it helps, my understanding is that most prostitutes don't turn tricks 'consistently' either. Its an on again, off again business unless you are some poor damned soul snatched off a plane and locked in a house for the rest of your short, miserable life.

I've been working on it, I swear. I think everyone has at least one line now... its a start.

I just take a bit to get warmed up to people, even made up people.

[Dantic]

I think Dantic was having a similar problem with takes.

I do have to say however I'm utterly amused with the fact that everyone still brands 'Vada as a whore, though she hasn't turned tricks consistently in over 2 years...

I definitely need to add to Twiggs' takes, help clarify some on his underlying motivations, will work on that tomorrow, other than that char is still ready for re-re-ummm... you get the point, review, so don't feel that you are being left behind or that by any measure that your character is finished, or over detailed, these guys mean it when they say they want a lot of character development before approving. I'm still hanging in there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)