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

[Vegas]

Now might be a good time to point out I have a perpetually open offer of trading bonus BP/karma/free training time for various 'special projects'. So if you REALLY need to squeeze out a few more points somewhere, I'm always hiring...

Hey.... I could use some free training time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Dantic]

Dantic
I'll approve you on the wiki momentarily so you can start statting up Twiggs. I will also build pages for him like I did for Cuervo and link you to them here in the thread. As mentioned before, if you don't have a lot of (or any) wiki experience we're more than happy to help you get stats up on the pages, all you have to do is ask (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thanks, yes I am a Wiki newbie. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/embarrassed.gif)

[Eyeless Blond]

Dunno if anyone here still cares, but I did go ahead and finish Drip, and posted him in the SR forum:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=20971

I adapted him to a slightly more traditional chargen set (no 25BP cost for Resonance, no double cost for Resources, BP lowered to an even 300), but he could easily be retrofitted to DitG rules. Like I said, I like the little guy enough that I'll build him even though he wasn't accepted. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Whipstitch]

Hey, Meriss... Just how bad does Ink dislike Azzies and how much of that carried over to the Locos? Because I was thinking of making Cuervo be of mixed Azzie blood rather than Cuban. Could be fun if Ink is mostly just fronting and is simply more full of himself than truly racist (the wiki stuff gives me the feeling that if Ink happened to be born a one legged albino Night One instead of a Cuban he'd still declare himself the best (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ), but I thought I'd ask due to the restrictions on writing in personal conflict.

[Vegas]

Thanks, yes I am a Wiki newbie. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/embarrassed.gif)

Hey for a "newbie" you're not doing too badly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Just take some advice from a wiki veteran (I've got my scars and my walls have holes to prove it too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )... Save early and save OFTEN.

Nothing worse than doing a TON of edits and then either wikispaces barfing for an "update" or it just generally being a cock. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Whipstitch]

Question: Animal handling would fall mostly under Instruction and perhaps a dash of other skills, right? Like if I wanted to try gathering up animals like stray dogs and train them as guard animals that might require Etiquette/Leadership to get them to trust me and Instruction to get them to do what I wanted, right? Just asking because I'm considering taking a level or two of Animal Empathy in my quest for appropriate niche skills for a sneaky-scavenger/fighter-who-doesn't-like-fighting to take. Figure Cuervo better be good for something or else Legion's liable to dream about tearing his arms off Chewbacca style. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[EDIT] The more I look at it, the more Instruction seems extremely narrowly defined. I'm guessing Leadership would be the better choice after all.

[Jaid]

heh, i'm getting an urge to design characters i'll probably never get the chance to play =S

interesting to have gotten to see what happened to my old character from way back, thanks for that summary of red october shade (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

if i wasn't so certain i'd somehow manage to become to insanely busy to join in (happens every time i join a PbP game without fail), i'd toss a character concept into the ring =P (mundane even!)

[lkim]

Hey, sorry I wasn't posting much this weekend. I'm not usually on the net during the weekend, but I did read all the post and I'll finish up the concept and what not by tonight possibly post during tomorrow.

[Neuntöter]

Second draft.

[ Spoiler ]

The small warehouse was damp and dark. Scarcely illuminated by shards of light entering through boarded up windows, like bright wounds in the shadows. In the back of the hall where the man was crouching the darkness was almost tangible and the only source of faint light was the glowing tip of his cigarette.
Now and then he would draw on it, and its extending glow would briefly reveal dark blotches and stains on the ground. If he inhaled particularly deep the orange light would wash over several lifeless bodies a few feet away. At those times you would have just enough time to note their disconcerting shapes and the weird angles of their limbs before the shadows would mercifully swallow them up again.

"It wasn't your fault, you know?"

A pale girl with black hair was standing a few meters behind him in one of the stripes of light.

"I told them it was safe. It obviously wasn't. I shouldn't have left them alone."
"I might as well have killed them myself."

The girl looked up from him to a sliver of almost obscenely blue sky in one of the windows.

"There was no way you could have known this would happen."

The man got up and crumbled the still glowing cigarette butt in his fist.

"You knew."

The girl hesitated for a moment and absentmindedly touched the silver ankh hanging around her neck.

"Their time had come."

"So that's what this is to you then? One big fragging parable?"

The girl pursed her lips and stared at him defiantly.

"That hurt, you know?"

The man strode past her towards the exit of the warehouse.

"Like I care right now."

Outside he blinked into the dawning light of All Saint's Day. Overshadowing his eyes with one hand his other searched through the pockets of his business suit. The suit had certainly seen better days, once midnight black and elegant it was now dusty and torn. Yet it was still a pretty smart suit and it made him look slightly out of place here in Kingsgate. His hand finally found what it was looking for and procured a crumbled pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out with his lips and then fingered for his lighter.

"What are you going to do now? You certainly don't look like you want to hear my advice any time soon."

The girl was behind him leaning against the splintered doorway.

"Your advice was what got me into this situation in the first place, so no thank you, My Lady."

He fumbled the lighter open with one hand and lighted his cigarette. The girl frowned.

"It was you that came to me for counsel and help."

The man barked a short laughter. "Yeah, right."

"It was your soul that was suffering from all that injustice and sanctimony you witnessed in your life. And it cried out to me."

The man combed his slightly longer black hair back with his hand and looked at his desolate surroundings.

"Well, you certainly helped to improve my standard of living then."

The girl smiled sadly.

"That wasn't what I meant, and in your heart you know it. You just can't admit it to yourself."

The man glared at her, but before he could answer there was a wavering next to him as if the air had become liquid at that place and something had just upset the surface. A moment later a small and bright goldfish hopped out of it and swam through the air to the man. He seemed to listen to the fish for a moment, then nodded and the little thing jumped back into the air and vanished with a barely audible plop.

"You heard him, Will. So what are you going to do? You will probably need others."

The man loosened the knot of his tie and started walking away from the warehouse with his hands deeply buried in the pockets of his pants. The girl sighed and then watched him until he vanished around the corner. From behind her in the back of the warehouse in the shadow she could hear the questioning voices of children. She turned around with a half-smile.

"I know he is stubborn. But, you know him. He'll come around."

Then she walked back into the building, and after a few feet the shadows seemed to rise up and swallow her and the voices.

i experimented a bit with the background and view of story-telling. I personally like this version better. The principal story is the same, but a lot of details will be changed to not make him look like such a smartass.

Incidentally, do cigarettes come cancer free by 2070? I am toying with the idea of a condition geas requiring him to smoke.

[Dantic]

Incidentally, do cigarettes come cancer free by 2070? I am toying with the idea of a condition geas requiring him to smoke.

Nah, but lungs are easy enough to replace. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

[Neuntöter]

heh, that's perfectly fine with me. I had a pretty sweet scene in my head where Will's Mentor was advising him against smoking. I imagine that that coming from Miss Grim Reaper herself has a certain persuasiveness.

[Drogos]

Well, unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do this afterall. I was hoping to be able to play at work, but workload just got piled on me and I don't forsee it. I would try to do it at home, but I rarely make time for gaming at home as it is so I'll just step back and take a look from time to time about how it's going. Thanks for the warm welcome and sorry I can't do it right now. I'll keep reading though (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Neuntöter]

One thing i did notice was that compared to Felix and Grack, Will has a certain expertise in Ritual Casting. Combining that with a spell like Clairvoyance and a few samples of Material Links of various strategically situated buildings or car wrecks could provide valuable intel. Or material links to members could be used to track gangers that have been MIA.

Ps: Ugh, well... i just read through the Ritual Spellcasting rules again. I somehow had it stuck in my head that the length of the ritual was [force of spell] in hours or something along those lines. Turns out it is [12hours - caster's magic rating]. So much for that theory then.

and i drew up a possible List of his Knowledge and Language Skills.

[ Spoiler ]

English N
Japanese 3
Latin (Legal terms) 2
UCAS Law (PK) 4
Rhetorics (PK) 2
Mathematics (AK) 3
Psychology (AK) 3
Magical Theory (PK for a Hermetic mage? Not quite sure) 3
Philosophy of Life and Death (IK) 2
Scavenging (SK) 1
Kingsgate Area Knowledge (SK) 1

[Dantic]

I need to make a Fence type contact for Twiggs, I was thinking I could flesh him out and make him a pawn broker and put down a pawn shop somewhere on the grid and come up with a description for it too. Working on Twiggs first, but puting it out there as a possible side project.

[Dantic]

I need to make a Fence type contact for Twiggs, I was thinking I could flesh him out and make him a pawn broker and put down a pawn shop somewhere on the grid and come up with a description for it too. Working on Twiggs first, but puting it out there as a possible side project.

Umm, belay that, going to use Sutherland from Legion's contacts for him, still if needs some work for fleshing out him, or his pawn shop, let me know.

[Slipshade]

Neuntoter - Knowledge skills are capped, just like active skills

Per Wiki:

* PCs may buy only one skill at 4 (and none higher). Skill groups and all other skills are capped at 3.
* Specializations must be limiting in some way (i.e. No generic ‘Martial Arts’ specialization for Unarmed Combat that effectively raises your Unarmed Combat skill to 6)
* 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.

I will disallow any specializations that raise skill dice above 4 unless your rationale really impresses me. If you want to know what really impresses me, take a look at the Living in the Shadows Guidelines thread and you should have an idea of what will impress me. If you need more specific guidance, ask me.


WinterRat of course if the final arbiter of what he will and won't allow.

I made the same mistake with knowledge skills too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Neuntöter]

i was kind of suspecting that, but wasn't too sure about it since i saw a few rating 5 and 6 knowledge skills or people with several rating 4 ones among the existing gangers.

thanks for pointing it out, going to amend that now.

incidentally, are Language and Knowledge Skills considered to be separate "groups" in this case? Or does a UCAS Law 4 prohibit me from having Japanese 4?

[Slipshade]

Neuntoter - Doesn't mean you won't get one. If you feel really strongly about a skill you and WinterRat can talk it over. It's possible that is what the other gangers did or they have already earned and spent karma or bonus BP's they got.

[Neuntöter]

nah, I'll only really start bugging him about stuff like that if the concept actually gets through.

UCAS Law 6 was kind of a stretch anyway, and the surplus points help diversify a bit.

[lkim]

Hey, as promised, here's 30 questions for the background stuff.
It's only 1st draft, so there will be changes. May be a lot.

[ Spoiler ]

Personality
"I'm simple fellow, omae. Living in the street makes you to be simple, don't you think? We all live day by day using whatever necessary and whatever we have to survive this harsh place we call home. Most of people, including me sometimes, become too simple. In my opinion, most of us are just an animal, using our instinct and muscle, instead brain to survive to see the next day."

He is cynical, who believes himself as realist, and put on the mask of optimist.

Description
"What do you wanna know? You've seen me and heard me. What else do you want to know more?"

He's an average guy that doesn't stick out too much from any physical aspect. He's about 2 meters in height, have dark skin, shaved head. But besides that no one really remembers anything else about him after seeing him just once.

That is just from looking at him. Once you had some conversation with him, however, those description changes drastically, depends what kind of mask he put on.

He believes that interacting with others is kind of game he can play, and plays well. He may act as if he's just someone that came too far from his safe house in the bell, just to taste the "edge," or street hardened street ganger with no fear of whom to die in the fight.

Sometimes, if he feels cheep, he'll use personafix.

Quotes

Background
1. Where and in what kind of environment did your character grow up?
"Shelter at the Catholic church of St. Charles. Yeah, I that's the one in the Black Plague's turf. It wasn't too bad. Of course I did get beat up a lot by looking like human."

He's born in Nov. 26th of 2050 at the shelter of Catholic church of St. Charles. He's life wasn't too bad living in the shelter and church, getting some degree of education was possible in the church and food wasn't tasty, but at least there were food to eat. So, all in all, he's youth wasn't too harsh, although he's human resemblance put him in a lot of trouble as well as lot of beat up. But at least he had his parents with him almost all the time.

2. What are your character’s relations with their family? (Does your character keep in touch? Where are they now?)
"My family? There are no family living in the street, omae."

His biological parents, both are Black Plague members, are long dead. Both of them had been infected with HMHVV in '57 got killed by "family" members, when they have found out. He saw the whole event when he was only 6, and he still silently hates all Black Plagues.

He now believes there are truly no "family" in the street. Only "packs" of animals, who's interests are for themselves only. He knows he's only one of the animal of the street too.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background? (Is it relevant to them?)
"Well, you see my skin? This ain't too much tan or spray-on body color, you know?"

He's not sure of his true ethnic background. Although he believes he's descendent of African American.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
He stands tall at 198 cm, with lean and toned body shape. Although he looks as if human, he is an elf. Only elfish trait he got is sharp facial features, but that can be done with cosmetic surgery now days, plus he does lot of cosmetic surgery to go with the current trend, he's not even sure what he's real face looks like anymore.

5. What does your character dress like?
Most time he'll be dressed in some not-too-restricting cloth, jeans and long-sleeve shirts are his usual dress code. He did own lot of clothing 2 years ago, but right now, only cloth he got is one that he's wearing currently, which is black combat boot, dark and loose jean, long-sleeve shirt, lined coat, and sunglass. During the down time, if he has money to blow, he'll most likely to spend on cloth to expand his choice.

6. What are your character’s physical quirks?
When in conversation, he does use lot of facial expression and body movement.

Skills, attributes, resources
7. What did your character always want to be? (How did they go about getting this job/position/ability/image? Did they succeed?)
When he left the Church of St. Charles, he did what he can to survive. Selling body was what he could do best at the time, so he did just that. On the occasion he had better job at playing some actor roll, mostly extras on the porn sim, and he had this dream about becoming the actual actor sometime. While he knows it's too damn hard to become an actor in sim movies, he did go to the auditions many many times, but all got rejected. Which lead him to make his own sim movies (mostly porn) starting himself. Selling these armature sim movies was not bad, but didn't bring the money as he wanted to. That's when he decides to make BTL (mostly dreamchip) and start producing it. He gave up on his dream to be an actor now.

8. Where and how did your character learn their Active and Knowledge Skills?
Most skills are learned through out living in the street. He has learned the combat and physical skills when he was fighting to survive in the street. Social skills, when he was selling body and acting and technical skills when he was producing BTL and Sim porn.

9. Where and how did your character get their major equipment and ‘ware?
He doesn't own much of gear now. Only thing he have right now are set of cloth, bike (which he stole after leaving prison), and low-end commlink he just picked up from pawn shop. He doesn't have any cyberwares yet, but he met a cell mate who knew someone in the Redmond who had connection with this street doc and have agreement to install cyberwares once he gets to the town.

10. Where and in what kind of place does your character currently live?
He used to live in Evergreen Height APT, paying the protection fees to local gang. Now, he doesn't know where to live, he hopes he'll be able to go back to same place.

11. Who are your character’s contacts? (How did they become contacts? Why do they still talk to your character?)
Street Doc, who'll do the cyberware implents once he's in the town.

12. Who are your character’s enemies? (How did they become your character’s enemies?)
He doesn't like Plagues and there belief. Most of all, he hates Father Ron for implanting that stupid ideas to the gang.

13. For Awakened characters, how did your character learn their magic? For non-Awakened characters, how does your character feel about magic?
Magic in the show biz is great. But if I ever see a mage out on the open street, I'll be cautious.

Personality
14. What are your character’s personality quirks?
Besides hiding behind masks of other persona, none.

15. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
He loves sex and sim movies. Dislikes Plagues. Other than that, he can live with almost anything street life may throw at him.

16. What is your character’s moral code?
He's moral code is 7 deadly sins and opposite of 10 commandments.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
He now believes there are truly no "family" in the street. Only "packs" of animals, who's interests are for themselves only. He knows he's only one of the animal of the street too.

18. What are your character’s personal motivations?
He's motivation to live and survive in the street is to kill Father Ron. Or better, make him see he's idea in the Plagues are fault, thus his life are too.

Running with the gang
19. Why does your character run with the gang?
He hasn’t run with the gang yet. He'll be coming home, found out he's protectors are gone, and starts recruiting. He decides to run with the gang for the protection, and many be his skill in computer and BTL production will make him little stronger animal to survive in the street.

20. When and how did your character join the gang?
Never joined the gang yet.

21. How does your character contribute to the gang? What is his role; not just in terms of how he/she makes money, but where does he/she fit in the social hierarchy?
He can give them BTL operation as well as Counterfeit operation.

22. What would make your character ever leave the gang?
He'll leave when he sees they are no longer benefit to his survival.

23. How does your character feel about their life in the gutter as part of a street gang? What is their view of the rest of the world? (i.e. Non-gangers)
He now believes there is truly no "family" in the street. Only "packs" of animals, whose interests are for them only. He knows he's only one of the animals of the street too.
Rest of world is not any better than street life. Only thing different is that one wrong step in real life makes you come to the gutter, but wrong step in the gutter get you gutted

24. If your character could have their ideal life outside of the gang, describe what that ideal life would be.
If he could have ideal life, it'll be life of movie star. Red carpet, super models, Champaign and party.

25. What ambitions does your character have for the gang as a whole? What ambitions does your character have for their place within the gang?
As a member of gang, he'll want the gang to grow big, and stronger. Which helps him to survive longer and many be hit big. For the placement within the gang, he'll not care what place he's in as long as he gets covered.

26. If your character is a recent addition from another gang, how does your character feel about joining a new gang? If your character is not a recent addition from another gang, how does your character feel about the new arrivals to the gang?
When he joins the gang, it's his first gang to join. He's not excited about it, but feels it's his time to become one of animals in the pack to protect him from the other packs of animals.

27. How does your character view relationships within the gang, both romantic and friendship? How does your character view relationships outside the gang, both romantic and friendship?


28. What is your character’s view of the other gangs in the area?

29. What is your character’s attitude towards/view of the gang as a whole?
He now believes there is truly no "family" in the street. Only "packs" of animals, whose interests are for them only. He knows he's only one of the animals of the street too.

30. What is your character’s view of each of his fellow gang members? Answer for each gang member listed below. (Update this as membership roster changes or significant events occur. Specify events or reasons that led to changes in perception. Do not delete prior perceptions, just add what has changed and why.)

and this is just numbers

[ Spoiler ]

Name: Alex Cole
Street Name: Haven't decide one
Sex: M
Age: 20
Race/Metatype: Elf (30 BP)

Stats
Body: 3 (20 BP)
Agility: 3 (10 BP)
Reaction: 3 (20 BP)
Strength: 3 (20 BP)
Charisma: 6 (30 BP)
Intuition: 3 (20 BP)
Logic: 3 (20 BP)
Will: 3 (20 BP)
Edge: 2 (10 BP)

Active Skills (118 BP)
Dodge 1 (+2 Melees)
Unarmed 1
Club 2 (+2 Bo)
Pistol 1 (+2 SA)
Athletic Group
-Climbing 1
-Gymnastics 1
-Running 1
-Swimming 1
Perception 1
Con 2 (+2 Seduction)
Etiquettes 1 (+2 Street Gang)
Negotiation 1 (+2 Bargain)
Cracking Group
-Cyber combat 3
-Electronic 3
-Hacking 3
Electronic Group
-Computer 2
-Data Search 2
-Hardware 2
-Software 2
Pilot Ground Craft 1 (+2 Bike)

Knowledge Skills (18 Free BP)
BTL Dealers 1 (+2 Redmond)
Computer Background 1 (+2 BTL Production)
Counterfeit Operation 1 (+2 Black Plague)
Gang ID 1 (+2 Redmond)
Gang Turf 1 (+2 Redmond)
Gang Politic 1 (+2 Redmond)

Qualities (-30 BP)
Home Ground (Free)
Human-Looking (5 BP)
Addiction (Mild, BTL) (-5 BP)
Allergy (Mild, Sunlight) (-10 BP)
Scorched (-10 BP)
SINner (Criminal) (-10 BP)

Gears (20 BP)
Lined Coat (700)
Cyberware
- Commlink (Fairlight Caliban w/ Novatech Navi) (11500)
- Cyber Eye Rate 3 (w/ Eye Recording Unit, Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low-Light Vision, Thermographic Vision, Vision Enhancement (Rate 2), Vision Magnification) (7750)
- Cyber Ear Rate 3 (w/ Audio Enhancement (Rate 2), Damper, Ear Recording Unit, Select Sound Filter (Rate 2), Sound Link) (6750)
- Simrig (5000)
- Muscle Replacement (5000)
Suzuki Mirage (6500)
(6800) to spend on Gears (Programs, Lifestyle, other gears)

2 unspent BP remaining

This is only first draft, so there will be some changes before final.

If there are something to modify, just let me know.
Thanks

PS. I was little hurry so grammar might be bad. I'll fix as I come up with more drafts.

[Dantic]

Some more on Twiggs

[ Spoiler ]

Personality
Twiggs is a hyper little guy with a healthy dose of paranoia. He fidgets quite a bit, cracking various joints at random. He slouches most of the time, seeming like he wants to meld into walls, furniture, etc. He likes to talk a lot, especially talking trash. He can be annoying at times, most people either like him or hate him, with few feeling indifferent.

Quotes
"Hoi chummer! Come on, find the red queen, not the black queen, remember red is right. You look like a smart fella' come on ten nuyen, easy money."
<grunts> "yeah, nice shot flat face. that tough guy thing works for ya, sorry what I said about you're mom, I forgot she only likes getting slotted by orcs" <more grunting>

More Technical Stuff

[ Spoiler ]

Statistics & Race (0 bp)
Height: 165 cm (5'5")
Weight: 59 Kgs (130 lbs)
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown

Gender: Male
Age: 19
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Race: Human


Attributes (200bp)
BOD 3 AGI 5 REA 4 STR 2 CHA 3 INT 4 LOG 3 WIL 3 EDG 3 ESS 4

Qualities (-10bp)
Positive
Toughness (10 bp)
Home Ground (0 bp)

Negative
Addiction, Mild (Novacoke) (-5 bp)
Criminal SIN (-10 bp)
Weak Immune System (-5 bp)


Active Skills (106bp)
Skill
Rating
Att
Total
Cost

Blades (Kinives)
1 (3)
AGI
6 (8 )
6 bp

Climbing (Freehand)
1 (3)
STR
3 (5)
6 bp

Con (Fast Talk)
1 (3)
CHA
4 (6)
6 bp

Dodge
3
REA
7
12 bp

Etiquette
2
CHA
5
8 bp

Negotiation
2
CHA
5
8 bp

Palming
4
AGI
9
16 bp

Perception
3
INT
7
12 bp

Pistols
2
AGI
7
8 bp

Running
3
STR
5
12 bp

Shadowing
3
INT
7
12 bp



Knowledge Skills (0 bp) (21 free)
Skill
Rating
ATT
Total
BP

Redmond Gangs
3
INT
7
0 bp

Area Knowlege (Redmond)
1 (3)
INT
5 (7)
0 bp

Sport Stats (Urban Brawl)
1 (3)
INT
5 (7)
0 bp

Club Music
2
INT
6
0 bp

Fences (Redmond)
1 (3)
INT
5 (7)
0 bp

Drug Dealers (Redmond)
1 (3)
INT
5 (7)
0 bp

Lonestar Procedures
2
LOG
5
0 bp

Street Hustles
3
INT
7
0 bp


Languages
Language
Rating

English
N

Spanish
2

Or'zet
1



Contacts (6 bp)

Sutherland
Fixer C2/L4
It's said that those who can't do, teach. Such is the case with Sutherland, a thirty-something male pawn shop owner. He was never any good at the violence of the streets, and lacked any motivation to understand the more technical aspects of the Sixth World. What he did have, however, was an uncanny ability to organize and a memory for names, faces, and abilities. Over the past three years he's successfully parlayed his meager skills into a small business 'fixing' probems. Coming from the streets, he's familiar with the gangs of the area and how useful they can be to certain corporate or shadow entities. He provided the necessary interface between the Ghurkas and several employers, resulting in three or four mutually beneficial jobs. To say he has a soft spot for Twiggs, would be misleading, he recognizes that the skinny little dodger is a good source for a steady supply of cheap gear, so taking care of eack other is sound buisness. Twiggs also likes to talk more than his average customer, and a little company now and then is a nice change.

Resources (8 bp)
¥20,000 to spend
Gear List


Money
Low ¥3d6*50

[Whipstitch]

Think I could get away with English 3 w/ the City Speak specialization (reasoning? Uh, he was raised in Seattle by bilingual parents) or should I knock it down to just 3 or 2 plus the specialization? It always kinda bugged me that there's no "polyglot" or "bilingual" Qualities available in SR4 so you could make a character who was effectively fluent in multiple languages, especially when you consider the prevalence of multi-ethnic communities and the fact that even North America balkanized.

Also, is Urban or Kingsgate an acceptable specialization for the Survival skill? It seems like Urban would be kind of a freebie considering the scope of the campaign-- I just put down "Home Turf" instead, to play it safe, but I figured it never hurts to ask.

[EDIT] N/M, I dropped the English down a notch and found something else fun to do with the point.

[Jaid]

bah, here i go again... i hope this works out better than the last time.

i have a couple of (very) quick character sketches to throw into the ring (so to speak). figure i'll see which one interests you most, and work from there, since both are fairly interesting to me. these are, of course, pretty bare bones outlines of the characters in question.

possibility #1
Blade, Dwarf Male, warrior and weaponsmith. he's good with low-tech weaponry (in both areas), but pretty much stays as far away as possible from anything electronic (gremlins will be a feature of the character for sure). probably he'll be somewhat specialised in crossbows (i promise i won't make a trollbow-esque character (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ), with some skills in blades and maybe a bit of unarmed and throwing (probably no martial arts skills, but he would certainly be interested in learning). lost pretty much everyone he cared about to ghouls when they went crazy during red october, and would mostly be up for joining the ravens largely because he figures the splintered crash elements within the gang will want to do horrible things to the 162s (and whether they do or not, he figures there'll be war with them sooner or later). would be useful both as a soldier and as a source of income (heck, quality melee weapons gotta be worth more in the barrens, and a projectile weapon which has scavengeable ammo has got to have it's appealing qualities also i figure).

quotes:
"Self-lighting cigarettes?! Keep those things away from me, you wanna get us both killed?!"
"Bloody piece of junk, I'm gonna rip this thing apart and rebuild it properly so the damn thing works! Get me a crowbar!"
"Hmph, the drek they pass off as weapons these days. That thing won't last 3 seconds in a real fight. Here, lemme show you what a real one looks like..."
"Hah, got 'im from 80 meters! We're eating well tonight, boys!"

in the event you want to see more on blade, i'm going to be wanting to know how you feel about a specialisation in inadequate tools in armorer and industrial engineer (if it's ok, and if i could take the skill up to 3 + specialisation since the specialisation will only cancel the inadequate tools modifier) and whether or not i can have something between a tool kit and shop with much more limited applications (for example, something that would be useful to build only blades, or primitive weapons in general, etc, mainly looking for portability. something that could fit in a wheelbarrow or equivalent would be nice (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ) also, it would be handy to know, scavenging for parts to turn into weapons (bolts/arrows, spears, etc): what would be the skill for this? i'm thinking survival fits the bill quite well, but you seem to use perception for searching people so i'm not sure on that one.

possibility #2
Mask, Human Male, decker/rigger. leaning towards a focus on stealing unattended drones. started off in life as a rat farmer (if this clashes with ye olde rat shaman in the group, this could easily change to pigeon farming or something (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ) very lazy as far as anything physical, that's what his drones are for. would be handy for rebuilding (for example building housing that the gang can charge for) and fortifying territory, as well as starting up a farm (as long as he doesn't have to go there in person (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) ran away from home in young teenage years, was turned into a bunraku puppet, was traded around between owners and largely doesn't remember much of the following time until managing to escape at age 15 (6-8 months ago). mostly picked up hacking by trial and error and matrix data havens, he's pretty new at it and nervous about trying his skills on anything with real defenses. tends to wear a mask most of the time

quotes:
"Can't someone else do it?"
"Well, I could make rat stew, rat kabobs, roast rat, boiled rat, fried rat... no wait, scratch that last one, this pan's got a hole in it."
"Yeah, sure it sounds easy to you, you don't have to worry about what IC he might have in his commlink."
(sarcastic)"Oh sure, i'll just hack it slow. What with the real solid connection here I should only eat dumpshock 5 or 6 times before i find anything, great idea."

[Meriss]

@Whip: Ink has no major problems with you being an Azzie. He just doesn't like being called one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) And yah even if he was a one legged albino Night One, He'd stll think he was the best damn Cuban one legged Night one around. The main thing for me was simply to come up with a alternate ethnicity than everyones Azzie. (no offense, but it just seems like every one in SR makes an Azzie at one time or another)

[Whipstitch]

Yeah, that makes sense, I just wanted to double check-- I'm half Mexican (don't actually speak Spanish worth a crap though), and I have family from Texas that takes the whole "We're tejano, not Mexican" thing fairly seriously, even though they get along perfectly fine with Mexicans (moral of the story? Texans are weird). As far as the everyone's Azzie thing goes, I don't take offense; despite the fact that there's an entire country filled with Aztlaners on the same continent, I've noticed that in that Azzie PCs still seem to somehow end up outnumbered by vengeful asian female assassins in SR lore (although, Seattle does have a higher Asian population than Hispanic... but still), so I figure I could still do worse on the ol' cookie cutter hierarchy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . Besides, having a theme and perhaps even fitting stereotype is a quick and easy way to give people a mental image of your character, much like you did with Ink.


@Jaid. Yeah, the whole rat farm thing may be a bit of a problem for my Shamanic Way Adept. Not so much that he can't eat rats, per se, or would necessarily mind someone eating one too much, (he's done it himself; infanticide and cannibalism in lean times is business as usual for rat colonies, since survival is everything), but I was planning on splitting meals with rats etc. as being a part of his Ritual Geas, and I'd think having access to an outright rat farm would make things too easy on him even if he could allow one to exist without pissing off his mentor (doubtful). Besides, pigeons lay eggs and aren't as well known for being escape artists, so maybe they're a sign he's moved up in the world (relative term). Having a past in rat farms could still make for high comedy though-- Maybe you could make Cuervo nervous and set off his Combat Sense for some weird reason he can't put his finger on. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)