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

[Spike]

Actually I was referring to the 'fallen from grace' bit that just about every posted concept (except possibly Axe, who is working the related theme of 'Grace, in hell' instead of having fallen...)

[Havok]

And Feeler, who's just a shell-shocked kid who likes fixing things. My first concept, Dante, wont work because monowhips are 12r and so is wired reflexes 2. I guess I could replace a monowhip with a regular weighted whip. Any thoughts? I wanted him to use two monowhips while on the back of a bike. Scary, but he had enough edge to pull it off.

[WinterRat1]

I don't mean to be abrupt, but for these particular concepts there's no point in waxing poetic:

Though if I hear one "I know this goes against the rules, but can I...." Or one "Can I just tweak...." or anything to that effect you can forget it.

That guidance from Slipshade earlier would apply to Dante, Todd, and Doc, all of whom violate various Character Creation Guidelines.

Axe is just Grack the Remix.

Feeler is just Drip the Remix.

[HeySparky]

I don't mean to be abrupt, but for these particular concepts there's no point in waxing poetic:



That guidance from Slipshade earlier would apply to Dante, Todd, and Doc, all of whom violate various Character Creation Guidelines.

Axe is just Grack the Remix.

Feeler is just Drip the Remix.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with duplicates. Though you missed one... Feeler can't have a shop. Chargen won't allow it.

And nobody, NOBODY, is Grack.

[Havok]

I don't mean to be abrupt, but for these particular concepts there's no point in waxing poetic:



That guidance from Slipshade earlier would apply to Dante, Todd, and Doc, all of whom violate various Character Creation Guidelines.

Axe is just Grack the Remix.

Feeler is just Drip the Remix.

I hate to disagree but according to your posted house rules, the only character concept that violates your posted guidelines in any way is Doc, and that's with his high medicine specialization. Even then, it says in your character creation section, and I quote: "Specializations that raise skill dice above 4 (e.g. Blades 3 w/Specialization in Swords would effectively grant 5 skill dice to Sword related rolls) must be specifically explained." Everything I have worked up so far I've rigorously followed the rules posted on your site , and in the very start of the post I wrote that I wasn't married to any of the ideas. They were just quick, down and dirty rough drafts of character concepts for you guys to look at and see if any of them appealed to you. If you dont want more players, then just tell me and I'll stop posting, but unless you have specifics for me please don't just say I'm not following your rules, because I can only go off of what you've posted on your site.

--edit--
I realize that might have sounded bitchy, but I get really defensive when I've rigorously followed the letter of the law to the T and someone complains that I'm not following the rules. So my apologies but what I said still stands. How can a character concept be illegal?

[Havok]

Axe is just Grack the Remix.

Feeler is just Drip the Remix.

Again, I hate to argue, but Drip is specialized towards the electronic side of technology, where as Feeler would be much more into the physical side, taking things apart and putting them back together. Their skills would complement rather than compete. And in what way is a straight-up gang-warfare soldier in any way similar to a combat mage? As I said earlier, I was just throwing some ideas out there. If none of those ones are acceptable I can come up with some new ones if you'd like.

[Whipstitch]

Now, I'm not a staff member, so please take my advice with a grain of salt.

Try not to take things so personally; I merely wanted to swap a few numbers from by the RAW Mentor Spirits around and was told that it would not be allowed, so please be aware that in no way is anyone singling you out. The simple fact of the matter is that there's a lot to keep track of with play by post games and that character concepts need to stay within the guidelines and pre-existing options when at all possible in order to cut down on confusion.

Nobody's accusing you of being outright abusive, we're just saying you're making things more complicated than they need to be. Think of it in terms of creating extra work and you'll start to understand why the staff has some misgivings. Dante has essentially a houseruled version of Wired 3, Todd has Hung Out To Dry (which no longer exists) and as has been pointed out Doc's too skilled for his own good. Moreover, you've put in a couple stipulations to keep track of such as "Any and all karma MUST go to..." and "Must spend two actions..." which likely isn't something the staff is terribly comfortable with since there's other ways to go about attaining similar character concepts without creating new undocumented qualities and drawbacks.

For example, Dante could have Wired 2 as his single high rating item (and only piece of 'ware, since you cannot dip below 3 essence) along with the High Maintenance Implant, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy or Buggy 'Ware flaws from Augmentation. Doc would be better off simply taking a skill rating a single point lower, OR by taking the Aptitude Quality in order to qualiy for having two skills at rating 4. And of course, there's always just the option of taking the skilll group at 3, since that is considered professional level, after all. With Todd it'd be a simple matter of acknowledging that Hung Out To Dry is no more and that connection ratings higher than 3 are a no go, which may very well exclude you from having the kind of contacts you desire. It's not so much that your concepts are bad so much as the fact that you need to keep your execution of those concepts within the letter of the RAW and the existing chargen rules.

[Havok]

Thank you for the input. I had intended Dante to have for all intents and purposes a working version of wired reflexes 2, maybe I didn't get that across in my post, although I posted earlier that he might not be able to be played as is unless Exotic Weapon: Whips applies to monowhips as well in which case he can live with just having normal whips at the moment.

As far as Hung out to Dry, I wasn't aware of it not existing anymore, I'm using DaeGenn which is obviously outdated, sorry about that. As far as I'm concerned, he simply doesn't have those contacts anymore and they're just flavor text for his past and now he has all new contacts that are street contacts.

Now in Doc's case, I dont see any stipulation about taking Aptitude twice on the site? Thus raising medicine to 5 and first aid to 4 for Doc, which solves that problem right there. (Also, I somehow skipped over the part about Doc not being able to have burnout addictions. I can't think of any other way to explain his rejection from the medical community though.)

And I wasn't asking for any rules to be bent really, I was imposing my own personal restrictions on the characters because I thought it would give them some good roleplaying quirks, not in an attempt to create more havoc for the DMs. As a DM myself I can understand the concern lol. I've been playing shadowrun for over 5 years now and I've had my fill of uber-skilled, well adjusted characters lol. Psychoses are a normal thing and certain things make sense. Like, if a techwizzie is going to be in a gang it makes sense that his idols are his fellow gang members, if a doctor has a problem with alcohol, it makes sense he can't learn anything more until he conquers that problem. Hopefully that clarified some of the issues?

And another question: as far as Feeler goes, wouldn't it be acceptable for him to have a shop as his single high-rating item? Its only rating 8, its only 5000 nuyen, and it fits in the back of a van. And could he then have two rating 8 items instead of a rating 12? And can you have one item at a rating six and one at availability 12 or do they have to be the same item? Sorry about the barrage of questions! One more, and thats the last one promise! If my archetypes aren't what you're looking for, is there anything you are looking for in particular?

[Whipstitch]

Oh, I understood that it was intended as Wired 2, but I just really wanted to point out that such a thing is the kind of complication the staff likely wants to avoid. It's a lot easier for everyone to remember what the rules are for a situation if your PC has Wired 2 along with a couple of by-the-book negative qualities rather than a set of Wired 3 that is for all intents and purposes Wired 2 paired with penalties that aren't in the books. It also helps avoid niggling questions like what would the appropriate essence cost be and all that other nasty stuff.

[Eyeless Blond]

Dante: won't work, because characters with Essence < 3 won't work. You could pull it off with Wired 2, and no other 'ware, or maybe some Biocompatability edge, but you still run into the notoriety issue.

That's the biggest problem with many of these builds: most of them are either local heroes/villains, or even famous with the major tier 1 gangs (Yakuza, Triads, Ancients, etc) or the general public, as in this case. This is a third tier gang we're running here, the bottom of the bottom. Our biggest fears are going to be along the lines of having food to eat tomorrow, or getting half our team eaten by a random ghoul that a normal runner would take out with a well-thrown knife at 100 paces. None of our characters have any business even knowing people in the Yaks or Tiads, let alone being (in)famous in those lofty echelons of the underworld. We don't get to deal with Yaks, or Tiads. We don't even have the resources to hold our heads up against any of the other third tiers in the area; we don't have a single vehicle amongst all of us that would be worthy of inclusion on the Asphalt King's Motor Pool list, for instance.

Then there's the fact that each of these characters are highlighted by crippling mental and/or social flaws. In a game like this one, where the vast majority of time will be spent interacting with other players and the game world in general, these are going to be very problematic flaws, not just for you, but for the rest of the group who will have to interact with you. This isn't a shadowrunning team; this is a gang. The other players, not the teeming masses of NPCs, will make up the vast majority of your social interactions. For your Flaws to mean anything, they will have to hinder your interactions with those other players, which in turn hinders their characters. In other words, your mental/social flaws aren't just going to affect you; they're going to affect everyone around you.

This is in fact the reason I've decided to get rid of the Delusions flaw, and go with a mental flaw that only affects my character, and in a discrete mechanical way (a Phobia; I'm waiting to make a few more changes before ). It makes things easier for everyone who will have to interact with my character, doesn't interfere as much with the group dynamic, and will in general make things more fun for everyone.

I mean, this is all said now knowing anything about how you play. Maybe you're another adamu, capable of bringing to life a character who, by all conventions and common sense to the contrary, ought to be an impossible concept for a forum game. But, and I say this meaning no disrespect, you're probably not. I'm not, and most of the people here are not. But even if you are, keep in mind that such a character will cause a lot of grief for your fellow players, and unless it's really worth it there will be a major disincentive to include your character, and thus you, in anything.

[Eyeless Blond]

Oh, and it's definitely no on the two rating 8 items instead of a rating 12; otherwise Drip would have a Control Rig. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Slipshade]

Havok

Skills of 5 will not be permitted no matter what you use to get around that rule. You can only have one skill at 4 and none at five period. This includes specialization and other work arounds.

We (the GM and helpers) are tired of tracking the multiple ways that people have tried to get more points through work arounds that don't make you (IE everyone) technically have a skill over 3, but in reality you are rolling more dice.

I know that in shadowrun everyone tries to squeeze as much out of BP's that they can, but anything that gets you more total dice in a skill than is specified in the DiTG rules for character gen will be disallowed period.

Please don't take this as an attack. We all have had to readjust our thinking when it comes to this game and Character Gen.

One other thing. The comments on having character's similar to each other isn't just about stats it is about concept and character.

Everyone

Thank you for stepping in with input, but I think the comments of character concept viablitity should be left to WR1, Vegas and a lesser extent myself.

Pointing out rules violations are fine, but I don't want to discourage potential players because someone not involved in the recruitment process downplays the potential players concepts.

[HeySparky]

Actually I was referring to the 'fallen from grace' bit that just about every posted concept (except possibly Axe, who is working the related theme of 'Grace, in hell' instead of having fallen...)

I noticed that as well. Smacks of re-tooled 400 bp concepts. Which is fine.

----

Havok - the sort of defensive contentiousness that you're displaying is the kind of stuff the GMs don't have time for. The rest of us will try to guide you and tell you useful things. Don't get defensive - we're here to help. We've been through the mill already.

Feeler can have a Shop as his single above-6 availability item. He cannot have it in a vehicle - as that makes two above-6 items (the workshop vehicle mod). I interpreted instances in the concept of 'the shop' as a facility. Which is clearly out of bounds.

EDIT: The GMs will be helpful and tell you useful things too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) But they're dealing with a game with about 2 dozen players in various states of activity - getting approved, answering chargen questions, oh and that little thing - making IC posts.

[Havok]

Again, thanks for the input. I'm still pretty new at this whole gang concept, and I've only had a couple of days to read up on things, so sorry for any inconsistencies as far as concepts go. Like I said before, I'm not married to any of the concepts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . I guess what I was trying to convey in my characters mostly was the capacity for something more than just struggling on the streets for the rest of their lives, a (however distant) attainable goal other than just survival. Most of the base archetypes have already been covered on the site, I guess the problem with trying to make characters that stand out is they're the first to get squashed hehe. So in light of recent developments, I've decided to rework a couple of my previous concepts and add some new ones.

[Havok]

Havok

Skills of 5 will not be permitted no matter what you use to get around that rule. You can only have one skill at 4 and none at five period. This includes specialization and other work arounds.

Again, I apologize for my earlier post, I was mostly just irritated at the shoot-down without any explanation. My question about Doc still stands about the Aptitude quality. Heres a quote from the site:

Aptitude: This quality works as per normal and also raises the character generation cap on the skill by one. The cost to raise a skill from 4 to 5 is 8 bp. After character generation, the cost reverts to normal. This quality could also be used to gain two skills at 4 (the cost to go from 3 to 4 is not raised).

That's perfectly alright if Aptitude is no longer available, but like I said earlier without knowing, I can only go off of what's on the website. I'm making some major changes to a lot of the concepts, will post revised concepts shortly. Sorry if I p/oed anyone, especially wr-1 :'(

[Spike]

Oh, I wasn't meaning to criticize, merely comment....



.... though it does create in me the near irrational desire to make an 'ordinary guy' concept with nothing exciting at all about him.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[WinterRat1]

How can a character concept be illegal? Simple, when the concept violates the preexisting guidelines laid down for what characters will and will not be allowed, and with one exception (Axe), four of your five concepts did exactly that.

Dante – Wired Reflexes 3 exceeds both the availability and essence limitation. Monowhip exceeds the availability limitation.

Todd – Contacts exceeded both the maximum Connection Level and types of contacts allowed (high level and well-placed/connected) and the Hung Out to Dry flaw does not exist.

Doc – Specializations pushing skills to a total dice pool higher than 4 are not accepted, which your cybertechnology (bodyware) 3 (+2) would do.

I even missed Feeler having a Shop, which Sparky caught.

I hate to disagree but according to your posted house rules, the only character concept that violates your posted guidelines in any way is Doc, and that's with his high medicine specialization. Even then, it says in your character creation section, and I quote: "Specializations that raise skill dice above 4 (e.g. Blades 3 w/Specialization in Swords would effectively grant 5 skill dice to Sword related rolls) must be specifically explained." Everything I have worked up so far I've rigorously followed the rules posted on your site , and in the very start of the post I wrote that I wasn't married to any of the ideas. They were just quick, down and dirty rough drafts of character concepts for you guys to look at and see if any of them appealed to you. If you dont want more players, then just tell me and I'll stop posting, but unless you have specifics for me please don't just say I'm not following your rules, because I can only go off of what you've posted on your site.

--edit--
I realize that might have sounded bitchy, but I get really defensive when I've rigorously followed the letter of the law to the T and someone complains that I'm not following the rules. So my apologies but what I said still stands. How can a character concept be illegal?

You still want to stand by this statement?

While I’m here, you also had at least some variant of a house rule tacked on to 3 of the 5 characters (Dante, Todd, Doc) which we (Slipshade, Vegas, and myself) have repeatedly said over and over and over in this thread is not allowed. Slipshade even reminded you of this immediately after you asked if there was still an opening!

If you really want to get technical, you also missed everything we posted in the Recruitment Thread, not least of which was my elaboration on what constitutes ‘specifically explained’, which is NOT the same as ‘come up with generic remotely plausible definition that anyone could come up with in 10 seconds flat’.

You did not follow the rules on the site for four of the five concepts posted above, and I even missed one of the ones (Feeler) that didn’t.

You did not follow the guidelines and answers to questions we’ve posted multiple times in this thread, several of which specifically addressed some of the things you wanted to do.

All of this shows me you clearly did not, in fact do your homework by reading the thread and the wiki since you then posted concepts with components that we just told you we did not want to see.

And then, instead of asking for clarification on where you may have gone wrong or politely presenting why you believe you are in the right, you decide to just go off and then justify it with, ‘I get really defensive when I've rigorously followed the letter of the law to the T and someone complains that I'm not following the rules. So my apologies but what I said still stands.’

If you want to get defensive fine, but for someone who ‘rigorously followed the letter of the law to a T’, the results don’t match the claims. I wasn’t complaining you weren’t following the rules; I was telling you you weren’t following the rules. There’s a world of difference between the two.

Instead of getting defensive, why not ask what someone else sees before getting all snippy about it? We’re here to help people, as even a remote perusal of this thread would have shown, and we’ve been more than willing to discuss and work with people when we haven’t seen eye to eye with them.

For my part, I apologize for the abrupt nature of my post, it has less to do with your concepts personally and more to do with the fact that was only the 28th time we had to address the same issues.

As far as competing concepts, there’s nothing technically wrong with having multiples of the same concept. Nonetheless, I was pointing out that Feeler would be moving into a niche that Drip (and Child, who I forgot to mention) already occupy. Is that a problem per se? No, but you haven’t done anything to distinguish the concept from them either.

And this comment:

And in what way is a straight-up gang-warfare soldier in any way similar to a combat mage?

Maybe you ignored the character files when going through the wiki, which is certainly a possibility. Maybe you haven’t read through the IC thread yet. But no one in their right mind would remotely, and I mean REMOTELY assert that Grack is a combat mage.

Sparky is correct, no one is Grack, but that’s because Grack takes it to a whole other level. Beyond that, Axe is basically a toned down version of Grack. It wasn’t a criticism or a rejection, simply saying you basically presented me a character which is already functionally identical in tone, style, and concept to another existing one, without giving me anything that distinguishes this concept from the preexisting one.

If you’d study his concept on the wiki before spouting off, you would have seen the comparisons. Is there room to disagree on my assessment? Sure, but you might want to make sure you have some clue as to what you’re talking about before you start that discussion.

There, now you have a detailed and specific response to your challenge. Satisfied?

As for the rest of your questions, the others have done a great job of providing additional detail for your information. Thanks all for the help everyone.

[Slipshade]

Havok,

I would guess that that would be WinterRats call, to be honest, but I believe that the use of Aptitude per the site is still ok to use. You are spending the extra bp to get apptitude and BP to raise the skill. Again, final say is WR1's.


But These questions are exactly the hand holding that we don't want to do at the moment, since recruitment is officially over, so your best bet is to either not go with this concept or start thinking of concepts that don't use aptitude.

Best way is to get accepted at this point is to think of an interesting concept that has no rules questions and run with it. IF you can't do that then you may want to wait until we open recruiting again sometime in the future.

Hope that helps.

[Vegas]

Havok

I understand that you've read the char gen rules on the wiki (and that's much appreciated!) However, there are a number of things that various people have been pointing out that don't jive with the spirit, concept and general over all playability of this game... I'm actually with Sparky in the sense that I don't mind similar character concepts and skill sets, as so long as they're not near carbon-copies of an existing PC (or NPC). A few of your concepts have similarities to other PC's, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they're carbon copies, it's a fine line to walk.

I'd HIGHLY suggest (if you haven't already) reading through this thread in it entirety so that you can see what other characters have gone through to get approved even at the concept stage. We're brutal about what we let in, and we don't hold that fact back from anyone attempting to join the game. Yes, you may have attempted to follow the chargen rules on the wiki but believe me not everything is on there, or the chargen rules would be a mile long with acceptable and not-acceptable situations for each and every character.

Also reading this thread will give you a better feel for what we're asking for in concepts/backgrounds (i.e. we don't allow contacts to the syndicates and upper tier gangs just because of the power imbalance as well as the feasibility of why someone with those connections would be in a LOW level street gang in Redmond) We are NOT shadowrunners (we may WANT to be some day, but we're not now), we're better than average street scum, but not by much. Everyone is trying to trick out and tweak out their limited BP's, we've ALL been there and know how hard it is. We all end up with some form of a "one trick pony" as a character, because the build points just don't allow us to be really good and lots of things.

In the "official" capacity as has been recently granted to me, I can tell you the following.

* No, you CANNOT have 2 rating 8 items in place of your 1 Rating 12 From the rules "Each mundane character may have one item of up to rating 6 and avail 12." One item that has BOTH a rating up to 6 and an availability of 12 is allowed. Yes it's the same item, and if it's only rating 4 and has an avail of 12, so be it.

* Feeler could have a shop, however that would blow his ONE high rating/high avail. item. So no other gear/cyber/bio for him over a Rating 4 and Avail. 6. Also keep in mind the 1bp = 2,500 nuyen rule with a limit of 20bp spent on resources. Like Sparky pointed out you wouldn't be able to get the mod for a vehicle to make it transportable (because of the avail.) so that causes problems to an extent.

* This is an insanely social game, where a lot of your RP is going to be driven by interacting with the other gang members on your own with out the "hand of the GM" guiding you along every step of the way. WR1 does do major events to steer the plotline, but this is a different sort of animal from your typical "shadowrun" based games on PbP or tabletop. Keep in mind also that The Ravens (the gang) can afford to be a little more particular about who they choose to accept into their ranks. I'm not discouraging you from giving your character quirks or issues or whatever you want to call them, just understand that if it's TOO socially crippling it may have to be changed before playing in game if you're accepted, which could seriously cause you to re-work your character.

* I've got no problem with you imposing your own self restrictions on your flaws (i.e. buying them off with karma before buying any additional skills and the like) however using said flaws to get around rules that are in place (either on the wiki or in this thread) are not acceptable.

* The Aptitude quality does allow you to get the benefit on bp reduction on raising a skill to a 5, however... with the caveat of the No skills alone or specialized above a 4 without VERY GOOD explanation w/ a background to support it. Just having the quality doesn't "allow" it. The concept you've given (even with the alcoholic aspect of the game, which is VERY similar to an NPC in play already FYI) doesn't clearly give the explanation that we'd need to approve it, hence we make the note of it that it's not allowed, because for that it takes a LOT to impress us to say "Yeah we'll approve that"

* We can always use more bruisers, fighters, asskickers etc. They make up the Rank and File of the gang for a reason. Yes we all want our characters to be "special" to have something that they can do that others can't, or that they can do it better than everyone else. I like original character concepts with backgrounds to match, and if you can look over the gang roster on the wiki and find a niche that you feel you can exploit with a character or something that you can fill in the gaps with, by all means go for it.

Everyone else has really said a mouthful already about the concepts and I don't want to repeatedly beat a dead horse or make you feel like you're not welcome to continue to offer a concept to the game.

[Bearclaw]

OK, I think Rico is done.

Two questions:

1. I've got 18 nuyen left from buying, does that disappear? And do you roll the starting nuyen, divided by the number of days (2) that I've got lifestyle paid for?

2. I wanted a gym membership (the idea being he's working the climbing walls, swimming pool, etc to spend his first 10 karma on the Athletics group).

[Vegas]

Bearclaw

You can buy Rico a couple of books on chip, or some music or something small with the 18 nu, I know a few of us have done that, something trivial but useful.

As for starting cash, we've just been rolling based off our lifestyles, not divided by anything. So go ahead and do that for now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'll give Rico his first once over (as will Slip I'm sure) this afternoon/evening.

[Havok]

Thank you all for being so helpful. I reworked an old concept and brought out a new one. Ok so here goes, we'll see how this works. Any suggestions or comments would be helpful (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Dante: Still sticking with the wired reflexes 2, still sticking with whips (not monowhips, just regular ones or chains for now) and bikes. Giving him a darker past, raised in the burbs, fell in with the "wrong crowd", wanted to be a shadowrunner but wasn't good enough. He got cybered up from a low-life street doc, but the operation laid him up for 6 months, and he still hasn't quite recovered from it. Without money to support himself, and nobody would hire him without a SIN, his luck finally ran out and he wound up on the street, and that's how he fell in with the BB's. After shit went down and he was one of the survivors, he fell in line with the rest of the Boyz in the new Ravens. What Dante really wants in life is a shot at the big money, the fabled shadowrunning industry.

Sly: New concept
As long as he can remember, saftey has lain in not being seen. If the other guy can't see where to put a bullet in your head, you can slit his throat. If you're hungry and nobody can see you, you can eat for free. If Lonestar is after you, just disappear. His parents were killed by gangers while he was still a child, and the government tried to put him in a homeless orphanage with all the other SINless babies. Time and time again, he tried to escape that horrible place, and time and time again they caught him. Until one day he got good enough and made it out. From there he quickly learned that the streets were a bad place, and sometimes you had to do bad things to survive. At his core, Sly is basically a good person, if you ignore the kleptomania and the whole killing people bit. He loves children, he's relatively good looking, and he's always got a kind word for a friend. He's not the person you want at your back though, if you've pissed him off.
Sly is stealthy, intelligent, and capable of being ruthless if necessary, but he prefers not. He has skills with knives and garrotes, pistols, palming/pickpocketing, and some light cyberware. He's been through the mill as far as street-level gangs go, but he's looking for something more in the Ravens. He believes in the gang and will do all he can to forward their cause without putting himself totally at risk.

[Vegas]

Havok

For what it's worth.. I kinda dig Sly's concept.

[Slipshade]

I'm with Vegas.

Lets see some concept for Sly. Develop his background some more.

Bearclaw - I will look Rico over as well as soon as I can.

[Havok]

Unfortunately I don't have time before I leave for work but I'll work up a more in-depth character concept for Sly when I come back. He's a sneaky little bastard, the kind of guy you want on your team cos' he's good at getting stuff, breaking into places, and making the other guys dead before they make you dead, but not the kind of guy you'd want at your back. Because he might still be pissed about you stealing that simchip from him last week.