Recruiting second stringers Options

[Dakka]

The game in a nutshell:

SR4: I have all the books so they're open, plus Sprawl Survival guide if you wish to flesh out your living space.
Points: 400 BP but, dont worry about that yet as I want concepts first.
# of players: 5

The 'meat' of the proposed game:

I want flawed characters, possibly a little comical but not so as to take away from the game. For example..the Face is a middle aged former used car salesman, the muscle is so punch drunk he cant help but slur his words and, the rigger has so many DUI's that his regular vehicle has a device he has to blow into to start it (breath-alyzer). I'd like to see negative qualities actually be incorporated in a character and not some point shuffling so you can get some more "goodies".

Feel free to expound upon my examples or create your own.

I'll reiterate again...comical is fine but not so as it takes away from the game. Being comically flawed doesnt mean retarding the play of the game.

Hope some of you are interested.

[crizh]

I've been working on a TM character that I could adapt. I think I used Infirm as a main flaw but I haven't looked at it in a couple of weeks so I'll have to check. Most of the work is done, I've just been waiting for something to come up so I can flesh it out....

I also have an idea for either a Rat Shaman or a Rigger that specialises in sewers that might fit depending on the circumstances.

[last_of_the_grea...]

I have an ork adept I'd like to use. He's a sort of warrior/diplomat...with a thing for revolvers and the uneducated flaw. He's actually more of a survivor type, but he thinks he's a warrior and diplomat. Improved Reflexes 1, Kinesics 2, Commanding Voice, Sustenance, Nimble Fingers, Linguistics and Improved Pistols 2...his charisma and social skills are rating 2, so he's not great at it...but he thinks he is. Native language English, Fluent in Or'zet and 1 point in both Japanese and Salish...but a logic of 2, so he's not as smart as he thinks he is either.

Basically he's got enough stuff to be useful, but not great at anything but shooting his revolvers. Sound like fun?

[Ellipsis]

Hey this sounds like a good time possibly. It immediately made me think of a Hypochondriac Vegan Troll Street Sam/Barbarian type who started off life as an actor on a third rate trid shadowrunner show. After the show gets axed and he can't find a role anywhere, and needing to keep up his homeopathic medicine cabinet takes a job as a sec guard for (some corp here). One night while on guard duty while mixing up his green tea with echinacea, the alert goes up and its all men on deck to thwart some real live runners (who turn out to be some two bit thugs in too deep) Anders (that'll be his name or something like that) rises to the occasion and takes the two punk runners down with his stun baton, (careful not to touch them without some rubber gloves on, which are tough to get in magnum troll size) after which he decides if he could stop them he could be them and takes his little savings to get a little chromed up and live his former role. Hoping he doesn't have to touch anything too gross...Or meet any of those ghouls...or worse someone with that weird vampire virus...or a nasty cough...here have some tea...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif) Just a heads up though, if you let me play with you I've never done a PbP before but i've been lurking in this forum for a few weeks checking it out. I've also never played SR4 (I do have the corebook though, and a bunch of 2nd ed sourcebooks), I started with SR2 about ten years ago and have kept up with the stories and books but with no one to play with for years so I'm probably a bit rusty. If you're willing to work with that or you think this guy might work out let me know, sounds fun!

[Dakka]

crizh's rat shammie or dwarven sewer dweller and the ultra clean Troll sammie might make a great pair lol

Last of the mikeys: care to flesh your concept out more for me? or provide me with the hook for him, is he a jack of all trades and master of none type?

[gobogen]

How about the super-arrogant hacker type? The kind of guy whose unjustified self-confidence finds its equal only in how much everyone around him just wants him to shut the frag up. He's always loud about how good he is and how much every run is only a success because of his amazing skillz (without going far on the leet speak side though, cause well.. it can be annoying for real).

This brings me to the fact that I'd like to try out to really rp the Elf Poser negative quality. Never really seen it tried out seriously, and a hacker could be a great candidate for this, what with the odd personalities associated with that line of work. A quality I'd like to try out also to go along is Codeblock on something related to hiding his trails (say all uses of Stealth outside of cybercombat for instance), since he's so arrogant that he really has trouble with working the code that goes with that (mostly because he likes to leave hints as to the fact that HE's the one messing up a system). Possibly add in low pain tolerance for taste, to show his general flimsiness (as affirmation of "elfiness"!)

Is this the kind of character you'd be looking for?

[CollateralDynamo]

Hmmm, this gives me a mind to try out an AmerInd type character. Someone who knows more about his history through the trids then through actually living it. Probably even a shaman. I'm picturing someone who is wearing leathers and warpaint all the time and has geasa where he actually has to dance or hum some Hopi tune to cast his spells. Or, if there is too much magic in the room, a street sam that does the same thing might be equally entertaining.

[BlackHat]

Sounds like you had no problem finding people. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) I'll be very interested to see what sort of characters people end up with.

[last_of_the_grea...]

crizh's rat shammie or dwarven sewer dweller and the ultra clean Troll sammie might make a great pair lol

Last of the mikeys: care to flesh your concept out more for me? or provide me with the hook for him, is he a jack of all trades and master of none type?

He THINKS he's a jack of all trades. The hook is that he wants to fit into his peer group, be that the underground or his runner team. To do so he'll act like he's smart and knows what he's doing/talking about. He's actually just a convincing dummy.

Basically he's the SINless product of the Ork Underground who raised himself. He's confident and sees himself as a "smooth operator," a mover and shaker on the rise. In reality he's a bit player. He's uneducated and not too bright, but he fails to realize this. He's the kinda guy who, knowing nothing about a topic, try and talk (convincingly, thanks to his magic) like he knows a lot about it so he'll fit in...then he'll act on that "knowledge." He'd talk to Gobogen's "arrogant hacker" about computers while having absolutely no knowledge about them whatsoever. He'd talk with Elipsis' troll sammie about veganism and how it's unhealthy for a big troll like him, pulling pseudo facts out of thin air to support himself...then compliment him on his fighting skills and his choice to run the shadows. Fortunately he's usually lucky and tough enough to get through whatever trouble he gets into with a minimum of injuries.

So, high body and strength (8/7 respectively), low charisma and logic (2's), and 3's or 4's everywhere else. Edge of 5 as well. He fights well, especially with his revolvers, which he likes because they are easier to take care of and use. He's got just enough Influence and Stealth (2 for the groups) to be useful and a touch of magic (Kinesics 2, linguistics and commanding voice)

I could Email you the character sheet if you like.

[Caesar]

I'll throw mine in for the face. He's a former sports agent who got caught up in the high life and ended up over his head. Maybe some btl addiction with a little bit of scorch or some gambling debts. need to flesh him out some.

[Ellipsis]

Ohh, serious odd couple possibility there hehe, "I am NOT sitting next to that dirty little thing again I don't CARE if they're shooting at us! Just try not to touch me okay?! Here have a tissue." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[crizh]

Ohh, serious odd couple possibility there hehe, "I am NOT sitting next to that dirty little thing again I don't CARE if they're shooting at us! Just try not to touch me okay?! Here have a tissue." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Just wait till you hear the 'through the U-bend' infiltration plan....

Ahhh, the hideous possibilities of Shapechange....

[Dakka]

Alright! looks like a good crowd of scrubs...errr.... shadow-challenged.

[Ellipsis]

I can only imagine the extraction call coming in...
"Squeak! I'm trapped in the third floor ladies room toilet! It's overflowing! Someone get in here with a toilet snake on the double!! *glub glub*"
"Is it because I'm a Troll that I always have to play the master of the custodial arts? That's just racist, and I'm not sitting next to him...grumble, next time I'm using the plunger." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Dakka you have any ideas for when you'd like to get this thing rolling? I could start work up the char this weekend. And as a side note anyone have a lead on a good SR4 chargen program?

[last_of_the_grea...]

Sorry about the lack of talking yesterday...madness at work.

So, it appears I must adjust my ork to make him more of a second stringer.

I must emphasize the uneducated feat. No schooling at all! He's an uneducated "know-it-all." Product of the Ork Underground, so he managed to pick up some Or'zet thanks to his Linguistics power (making him a kinda idiot-savant with languages), though he only knows Or'zet and English. He survived mostly due to his Sustenance power.

His hook is that he wants to fit in and he does this by talking about all the things he knows nothing about as if he were an expert on the topic. If someone makes him look ignorant by, say, actually knowing about what he's talking about and using that knowledge in a discussion, he gets all aggressive and threatening with strangers, throwing childish tantrums with those he wants to fit in with.

I am open to suggestions on how to adjust this guy and make him a second stringer. Perhaps a couple of incompetancies?

[Marduc]

I have a former SWAT combat mage, who has serious trouble with spirits. He quit the star after the shutdown of renraku acrology, where his father lived. Now he has a thing against both renraku and AI.
During the cleaning up of the Universal Brotherhood mess, he went against the bug spirits, but he played on the wrong team. Knightwatch was on the winning site an he was set to cleanup duty for escaped bugspirits. After losing team members he got the neg quality spirit bane bug spirits. He is also a very religous person, worshipping the Lady, wiccan style. To be precise the Crone. --> praying geas and a talisman geas

[Digital Heroin]

Thoughts of a narcoleptic Rigger come to mind when you say flawed, but not hindering gameplay flawed. Now we're not talking Duece Bigalow "I got's to wear a helmet" narcoleptic, but a more true to the real deal (from a guy with the real deal) type. He wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel, but he might just nod off while the others are inside doing something and he's playing getaway driver.

I've been chomping at the bit for a chance to come back to the boards, waiting for a game to start up again...

[Dakka]

Lots of good concepts. I'll be keeping the recruitment open till tuesday and then will make that hard decision of the cast.

[Mickle5125]

mmm... I had a troll bouncer with MPD I could throw out there...

[Dakka]

MPD as in Multiple Personality Disorder?

[Mickle5125]

Oh yes... imagine the fun when the big, mean troll suddenly thinks he's a little girl....

[Dakka]

LOL, what is the cause? BTL addiction, childhood abuse?

[Dakka]

I'd like everyone to think about the causes of your 'quirks' and any possible ways you cope or try to counteract them (if you're inclined to do so). I understand genetic things like narcolypsy cant really be explained so....dont worry about that.

[Mickle5125]

For the game I played him in the first time, the MPD was a side effect of some rather interesting experiments that the military performed on him. However, that was also a fairly high power campaign (we took out a gang leader who was uniting the gangs of the barrens (and took out most of the gangs in the process) by strategic use of lots of guns, drones, explosives, powerlines, and a mage overcasting fireballs and rolling really, really well on his soak tests.)

As for this game... it sounds alot lower powered than that game was, so I'll have to think and research causes of MPD if the experiments idea doesn't float.

hmm... *wanders off to think and plot ways to torture his character*

[Digital Heroin]

The cause for narcolepsy would be genetic, indeed, but there are different degrees depending on just how bad it is. Of the classic symptoms we have:

- Excessive daytime sleepiness: Despite a full night's sleep, the sufferer will periodically get extremely tired, and will not be able to fight the desire to just sleep. This will usually not occur during periods of physical exertion or heightened mental exertion, but more often during 'downtime' or periods of waiting/repetitive mental activity;
- Sleep Paralysis: Wherein a sufferer is unable to control their motor functions for a period of time after waking from a night's sleep (or less often when going to sleep), resulting in them being awake but paralyzed;
- Hypnogogic Hallucinations: Vivid dreamlike experiences which are often fear inducing, and occur while dozing or waking up;
- Cataplexy: A temporary loss of muscle control (ranging from drooping facial muscles to total body collapse) resulting from sudden stimuli, such as fright, anger, surprise, or even laughter; and
- Automatic Behavior: Where a sufferer will conduct conversations, go about activities, etc, all while unaware of their doing so, in a semi-sleep state.

I myself suffer from EDS, which is the hallmark, and the occassional bout of automatic behavior, with the hallucinations becoming a more frequent factor lately. Thankfully I am not on the level where cataplexy's an issue, and I've only once experienced sleep paralysis (and hope to hell to never have it happen again).

It's livable, and amusing even to me... I could see the rigger suffering from EDS (which all narcoleptics do), the occasional hallucination, and from cataplexy. The former two would more often be roleplay fodder, but imagine the evil that would the the Rigger losing all motor functions for a combat pass when someone gets the drop on the team. Sure, if he's jumped into something it's not a problem, but if they're on the run... ouch...