Recruitment: The Last Stand, A walk into the light... Options

[Gremish]

Hey! Its been a while since I gamed here but with my new job I get to surf the forums daily so I am searching for some players for a SR4 campaign!

I am going to leave it open ended for the most part as far as what exactly everyone would like to play.

I have been GMing Shadowrun for 7 years so I know plenty about it and I have been RPing for 15 years.

Basic game outlines:

Prefer players who can check the forums at least Bi-daily, I will try to do daily updates myself but of course there is always life!

The current campeign idea I am looking at as the primary is a conventional start for shadowrun that moves into a new ground of some things I have been working on for a while, should be tons of fun but only if you dont know what it is so I wont elaborate further.

Anyone interested please let me know!

-Dan
AIM = hallowedman1212

[DWC]

Sounds interesting. Where will this be starting? Are you looking for pink mohawkish characters, or more shadowy types? Will characters be standard 400 points using material up through Unwired?

[cndblank]

Sounds interesting.

Bi daily should not be a problem.

I'd prefer it since PBEM is fairly slow.

[Glyph]

I'd be interested in getting into another game. I have a long commute, but I can still check the board early in the morning as well as in the evening, and I am a pretty regular poster.

Will these characters be thrown together, or will they have worked with each other before?

[Scope_47]

I'm pretty interested as well. What are the char-gen rules?

[Gremish]

Char Gen Rules arn't set yet. i want to find who is interested and what type of play they would like to see and go from there. I am capable and willing to do anything.

As far as a background goes i will work each character into the story, you may or may not have worked together before, this will depend on the type of character you have chosen and whether I feel they should know someone else's character.

I have only begun to flesh a storyline and plot, it wont take long for me to have it set up and ready but I wanted to make sure there was interest before I spent a large amount of my time working on it!

Some basics:

This will start as a normal SR game, based in one of these places: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Detriot, or Seattle. We will run as a normal game for a time, how long is up to me. After a time we will begin the transition, this is where it gets interesting. Everything you do until this point, each character flaw, each quirk, and everything you have accomplished, or not, will then become relevant. It is at this point the game takes another turn, but I wont give that away.

Lets just plan for a nice normal SR game for now and base any characters or ideas around that.

Glad to see we have a bunch interested already!

-Dan
AIM = hallowedman1212
Yahoo = Archon12@sbcglobal.net

[Intro]

I'd be interested, too. Twice a day is no problem for me, either.

[DWC]

Sounds very good. Keeping up with 2 a day posting is no problem for me.

[crizh]

Twice a day?

Sometimes I get up to twice an hour checking on games that are slowly asphyxiating.

Count me in if there's room.

Gritty, pink mowhawk? Either, I'm easy.

[Gremish]

I like to keep things going as fast as possible, as long as the players are posting regularly, you will get posts from me. I sit at the computer 12-14 hours a day at work and I have free time pretty much the whole day to catch forums, I put Bi-Daily on here because I dont just want the extremely hardcore players, I would like to have anyone who is interested.

This game will be allowed to have up to 8 players.

Current people interested are:

DWC
cndblank
Glyph
Scope_47
Intro
Crizh

Thats 6 already. Sounds like no one has a issue with Bi-daily minimum posting which is good.

So start getting me character concepts when you can, this campaign again is open ended for what type of character you wish to play.

Might also be a good idea to discuss between yourselves who is playing what ect so you have all the bits and pieces. But thats up to you guys. I will be fleshing out your startup package here today and posting either today or tomorrow with the basics.

The one thing I do ask is if at any time you are unable to play any longer or need to miss more than a few days of game play please let me know. I will do the same as things do come up for me as well and sometimes I will miss a few days. This way I can be sure to know exactly whats going on!

As far as char gen rules go we will begin with normal 400 standard rules, all books are use able, standard equiptment applies, please let me know if you have any "special" requests as well.

Backgrounds would be largely appreciated, I like to know more about the characters before we begin, however they are not required and I can produce one for you if needed.

Thanks! Can't wait to start gaming!

[BlackHat]

I would be interested as well. Like you, I sit at a computer for half of the day, and check Dumpshock every time I take a sip of coke. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) I have way more character ideas floating around than I'll ever get a chance to use up.

By "all books are usable" is that up till Unwired? or till Runner's Companion?

[Gremish]

I have all the books, and as long as certain "insane" things arnt abused I have no issue with any book being used.

[Ears]

I'd like to join in as well.

I'll pm you a concept in a few hours.

[BlackHat]

Can get a concept together today too, although I think airing our concepts in this thread might make for better team composition. The last thing we want is 8 hackers. Actually, that sounds a little bit awesome. Anyway, I'll probably throw my ideas out for public consumption.

[Scope_47]

I usually play vat-jobs. I can play a rigger, a cover-ops sniper, an assault rifle tactical soldier/merc, or a pink-mohawk style face/actress/stunt-woman.

I could also play something else altogether if we need it.

- Scope

[DWC]

Character ideas:

Vice, former company man (street samurai/secondary face):

[ Spoiler ]

Handle: Vice, short for Miami Vice. The name given to him when he went underground in reference to his old stomping grounds, and his clothing choices.

Name: Riley Travis
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: ¼ Caucasian, ½ Afro-america, ¼ Brazilian. Features are surgically enhanced to look more caucasian, in stark contrast to his complexion.
Metatype: Human
Nationality: CAS

Date of Birth: April 3rd, 2041
Place of Birth: Jacksonville, Florida, CAS.
Height: 5’11�
Weight: 206lbs (including bone lacing)
Eyes: Originally brown. Cybereyes are usually kept replicating his original eye color.
Hair: Shaved on the sides. Cornrows on the top and back. Perpetual 5 o’clock shadow
Distinguishing marks: Riley has a regimental insignia brand on his left bicep, and a UV inked bar code across his throat. If scanned, the code is gibberish, and doesn’t match the check number. He has a MedicAlert RFID tag implanted under his skin, informing any health care provider that he is allergic to opiates.

Demeanor:
Professionally, Riley goes to great lengths to be menacing, without overtly threatening anyone, until frustration sets in. Then he has to fight the urge to hang people out windows and throw them off balconies.

Socially, he’s very much at ease, and somewhat disarmingly laid back. When the opportunity presents itself to indulge his cravings, he casts aside any concern other than doing so unless it’s going to potentially get him killed.

He lives well beyond his means, and works constantly to support his addictions. Driven by his incessant need for cash to throw into trying to fill the hole in his soul, he is totally unconcerned with the nature of the work he does, as long as it pays well.

History:
Riley Travis was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in an Ares Macrotechnology enclave. Both parents were loyal company employees, and he grew up in the “baseball, mom, and apple pie� corporate culture of Ares. After high school, company career counselors determined that continuing his education was a dubious investment and instead recommended that he either attend the Knight Errant academy or the Ares Arms security force.

In an act of teenaged defiance, he joined the CAS army and served for eight years as an air assault rifleman on the west Texas front. His impulse control problems kept him out of the elite echelon of special operations, but his physical toughness and forceful personality made him an exemplary NCO. In 2066, he was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant with a bronze star for valor, and bronze star for meritorious service.

After his honorable discharge, he was contacted by a Saeder-Krupp Prime recruiter. Rather than go to work for a Knight Errant or Lone Star HTR or SWAT team, he went to work for Saeder Krupp Prime, and was assigned to the Miami office as a “problem solver�. He split his time between negotiating with the Miami shadow community and shooting them. After a year, he was a man respected and feared in equal measures.

Then, a new director took over his office and began purging the department of loose cannons and potential problems. Rather than getting fired or cleaned for his drug use, Travis turned in his resignation and signed on with a Macao based mercenary company called Proactive Security Solutions. He spent 6 months sweltering in Vietnam, guarding opium fields with the group before moving on. One of the group’s members put him in touch with a fixer in Hong Kong, and he set up shop there as a shadowrunner.

Edit:Added backgrounds. Scrapped the second generation samurai idea, since I couldn't write the background without getting douche chills.
Edit:Removed Drift. Adjusted Vice's background slightly, to include some more detail.
Edit:08-Aug-2008: Fleshed out history.
Edit:11-Aug-2008: Adjusted background to relocate character to Seattle.
Edit:11-Aug-2008: Unadjusted background to put character back in Hong Kong.

[BlackHat]

I usually play faces, riggers, or hackers. Since the two of you mentioned rigger as a maybe, and are leaning towards combatty types, I'll focus my ideas on hackers.

[Oenone]

From all the responses you might be full up by now, but if there's any space I'd be interested in playing.

Technomancer - Cassandra 'Weaver' Jones - Networker with Alis Paragon. A down on her luck PI who Shadowruns to pay off the debts she built up looking for her missing brother. Hacking with some skill at social tests to act as a back up face. Oh and a selection of street type knowledge skills.

Rent-A-Cop / Former Lone Star - Vincent 'Fornax' Ryder - Cybered general combat character, out for revenge on whoever put a price on his head. Again has some degree of back up social skills and general knowledge to round him out.


But I have to admit I've never played in a forum based Shadowrun game before, just in case that influences things.

I've edited the post to make the two characters a bit more clear in terms of who they are and what they're aimed at doing.

[Intro]

Since we're talking about a larger party of up to 8 people, I've had a guy kicking around in my head whose skills don't really fit in to a smaller party. A wilderness-focused physad. A loner, maybe even neo-Luddite sort. Still excellent at shooting things (got to defend yourself from those paracritters, but with shotguns and sport rifles as standard instead of pistols and assault rifles), and the assortment of outdoor skills, which hardly ever seem to get taken. I don't know if they'd ever really get used, but they could be useful for assorted things outside of the sprawl, like smuggling, etc. even if outdoor things are never a focus.

SINless since the crash of '64, took the opportunity to disappear. Instead of doing it in the city with fake SINs like most people, he did it the old-fashioned way. As to why he's come to town, the simplest is that he's gotten a message that an old friend needs help (connection to another character), or needs to get a big wad of nuyen for some other project. Personality-wise, I'm thinking fairly literate and personable misanthrope. A 2070 Ed Abbey.

[Scope_47]

Alrighty, here are some brief descriptions of characters I could play (Sarge assumes that the infected rules from RC are allowed) The last two need a bit more fleshing out of course:

Scope (yet another rehash of my first SR character): Covert operation specialist. She used to be a counter-terrorism sharpshooter with Knight Errant, but then she was recruited into a Black Operations program by a director of Ares Arms. After killing her lover on company orders, she had a nervous breakdown and was 'section sixed' - reprogrammed with a new personality (through a combo of reworking her memories and applying a personafix implant) that would make her obey her orders without emotion. Years later, an accident during a mission scrambles her programming and she escapes to become a shadowrunner. Human covert operations vat-job and excellent sniper.

Sarge: A veteran of the desert wars, Sarge is an Ork who, while never having become an officer, managed to survive long enough that in her unit her word often was taken more seriously by the men than those of the CO. She gave her life to the Saeder-Krupp military - something that kept her from the fate of most Orks on the street, but she was bitter about always being passed up for promotion for no apparent reason. During a mission, Sarge's team's t-bird was shot down in Africa, and while they were trying to regain contact with their CO they were set upon by an Asamondan border patrol. Sarge was the only survivor, but she became infected with HMHVV - becoming a ghoul. Fearing the consequences of returning to her unit commander, she instead entered Asamondo and found a smuggler that would take her elsewhere - abandoning her identity and being forced to turn to shadow-work to make end's meat... literally. Ork Ghoul Heavy Assault mercenary.

Dr. Jessica Cordell (this is another take on a character I am currently playing in a different game): Dr. Cordell started out as a crime scene investigator, having become a cop because her police-detective father vanished without a trace while tracking a serial killer, and she was obsessed with finding that killer herself. Later in her career, she was the only expert witness willing to testify against a group of Mafia hitmen. The courts convicted a number of made men based on her testimony, but she was shot on the courthouse steps in retaliation, doing permanent nerve damage to the base of her brain that couldn't be repaired. She survived and continued working as a labtech - though confined to a wheelchair, she learned to make extensive use of drones to make up for it. Working late one night after pulling a triple shift, she made a mistake in the lab while testing some blood samples brought in from a crime scene - accidentally putting her hand in a running centrifuge due to sleep-dep and distraction. The destroyed samples led to a choice between a retirement or being fired... she chose retirement so as to keep her meager pension, but was determined not to stop working. So she goes looking for work only to discover that not many people want to hire a has-been, crippled hero cop who had royally ticked off a crime syndicate. Disheartened and disenfranchised, Dr. Cordell creates a new identity and begins taking shadow-jobs (though she only participates in wetwork if she thinks the target deserves it) as her way of retaliating against the system that destroyed her life. Crippled human rigger and forensics expert - some medical training

Juliana 'Bester' Black: An ex-cop, Juliana was kicked off the force due to her unsavory methods. She is an anti-hero, willing to do whatever it takes to protect 'good' people from 'bad.' Now she runs the shadows, but only takes jobs that agree with her slightly twisted morality. A mystic adept (my first magic character concept smile.gif ) specialized in interogation and 'telepath style' magic.

Jane Reaction: Once she was a stunt-woman/actress for a Sim-Sense firm, but now she's a 'free-agent' as she calls herself - always looking for the next big adrenaline rush. Pyrotechnics, vehicles, fast-talk, and fanciful weapons are her thing - the shinier, faster, and hotter the better. A street-sam with vehicle and con/disguise ability.


I would enjoy playing any of these characters, so I'll let the team/GM decide who they like best (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

- Scope_47

[crizh]

I've got a number of characters in games that are going nowhere I'd like to resuscitate.

Voodoo is a custom Possession Mage.

[ Spoiler ]

Voodoo looks nothing like a traditional runner. She is a short, slightly dumpy, pale skinned, freckly, plain-looking Elf. Her bright ginger dread-locks are usually tied back in a crude pony-tail, she wears a pastel-green jumpsuit with bold flower patterns stencilled on it in contrasting pastel browns. She travels almost everywhere on roller-blades and usually wears a dented pastel blue crash helmet. Her hi-tech shades are styled like old fashioned circular wire-frame spectacles and she humps a backpack full of enchanting paraphernalia with her almost everywhere.

She carries a hunting knife, a pistol and a rifle with her in the wilderness but she tries not to wander around cities without stashing the rifle somewhere safe. She is a little gun-shy and usually only packs stick'n'shock.

Politics:
Qua?

Morals:
Voodoo would never kill something she did not have to. Not from a sense of moral outrage at the act of murder but from a practical standpoint of wasted resources. It's difficult to un-kill someone when you suddenly discover that you need them. Of course the idea of geeking some CorpSec Guard just because he stands between you and some Nuyen is morally repugnant to Voodoo. That said, she wouldn't hesitate for a second to end someone that presented a clear mortal danger to the life of her or one of her allies. People that are trying to kill you have no rights.

Goals:
Voodoo plans to live indefinitely. It isn't some pipe dream to her. It is a clear, well formulated plan that she pursues with relentless and well organised diligence. She has a burning desire to learn stuff, to take the world apart, figure out how it all fits together and re-assemble it again. The way she sees it all you need is an unlimited supply of time....

History:

Jayne Evans was born Portland in 2041. An average student with a burning curiosity about how everything works and a tenacious, relentless attitude to learning. Raised on her older brothers tall tales about Immortal Elves she decided at a very young age that there was nothing she could not do as she would have the rest of time to learn how.

Being a Mundane in an awakened family she devoted her studies to mundane scientific matters. She could not compete with her older brother and parent's mystical knowledge so she chose to compete with them by excelling in her understanding of the mundane universe.

At some point during the Deus fiasco her brother disappeared and spurred on by this tragedy she elected to follow his footsteps to MIT&M. Here she spent three happy years reading Physics and Nanotechnology before the Second Crash hit.

During this time she gradually fell in with a Group of Meta spell-slingers and hackers known as 'The Enrolled.' A group of skilled hackers they use their skills to devote their lives to learning by staying in college, where it's safe, perpetually.

Jayne encountered The Enrolled in her third year at MIT&M. She did not know it at the time but she was about to experience a late awakening and had been nominated by an existing member, her missing brother.

Befriended by minor members and carefully assensed by senior mages she was approached on the eve of the impending Crash. Divinition had warned the Group that something big was coming and they were concerned that the psychic impact of the catastrophe would break her mind. After agreeing to join and being informed of the upcoming crisis she was sedated and taken into hiding.

She has a bittersweet relationship with her brother. To have him returned to her and in the same instant have him refuse to warn the world of the disaster that would claim their parents lives has driven them apart emotionally.

Intellectually she understands that The Enrolled did all they could to mitigate the impact of the Crash but knows they only acted to preserve their precious Universities. Had they're way of life not been at risk they would have done nothing.

At any rate it was the perfect opportunity for Jayne to vanish from the system and learn to master her new abilities. This she has done with her usual relentless logic. Having found a path that suited her understanding of the world she has pursued her studies with an eye towards being the best mage someone of her limited talents can be.

Realising that the biggest single challenge that a mage faces is drain, she first learned to cast spells that improve her own abilities to overcome it. Every spell she has learned is deliberately selected to make her better at working magic. She only knows two utility spells, heal and stunbolt, which she has learned for self defence now that she has left MIT.

Rather than focus on becoming a better spell-caster she has concentrated on becoming a better Summoner. She reasons that she will always be able to summon spirits that are better spell-casters than she is. She has even gone so far as to enter into a Formula Pact with a Free Spirit she met in her journey across America. Her doubts about the isolationist policy of The Enrolled have led her to take a Sabbatical now that she feels that she can survive in the outside world. She has travelled alone and on foot across the entire continent seeking meaning and direction.

Or there is Granny an OAP TM.

[ Spoiler ]

Geraldine MacBeath is in her 60's. One of the many, post Crash2.0 Sinnless, her DOB is a mystery and she ain't talkin'.

A mother and a grandmother who lived her whole life in a backwater village in what she still describes as rural Caledonia. She has never known any career other than that of a housewife and had never committed a crime until the Crash. The last thing she remembers is playing some sort of new-fangled Matrix game with a group of the we'ans before waking up in a research facility two years ago. The runners who 'rescued' her were looking to collect the bounty on TM's from Transys but became so enthralled by Geraldine, who they dubbed 'Mrs Doubtfire', that they arranged for her to disappear to Hong Kong.

One should not be fooled, however. Beneath the exterior charm, the 'have a cup of tea and a scone' Scottish Granny act, beats a heart of stone. Cross her or threaten her 'family' and you'll be 'up to your neck in a peat-bog' before you can say Milngavie. Scottish women of a certain age, a bit like the Mafia, just not as nice....

With her entire life lost to her she makes a living as a Taxi-driver. Rumour at the depot has it that she got in a cab at the airport and talked the driver to death and just kept the cab. She loves people and stories and is friendly to the point of madness. If a sentence begins 'Here's our Hamish when he was two' it is time to turn off your commlink and flee. Since becoming a resident at the Whampoa Data Haven she has made more and more income from the shadows and has just graduated to starting a 'Tour Bus' company whose thin veneer of legality has permitted her to purchase and fit out a vehicle ideal for supporting shadow operations.

A pious woman, she is convinced that the world is full of evil, wicked people who need a stern talking to. She may not be far wrong but for four decades she lacked the ability to do anything about it other than raise her own children properly. Now God has given her the 'sight' and a purpose in life and she intends to use these gifts to set things right.

In the beginning she had grave doubts about her new abilities and whether they were a gift from God or a temptation sent by the devil to corrupt her. She reasonably had many of the fears others have about Technomancers, more so than most as she was one herself. As her talents grew she discovered her talent for calling Sprites from the Resonance and in particular she was fascinated by Tutor Sprites. These entities were capable of tapping the vast stores of knowledge encoded in the Matrix by humanity, accessing and synthesising it in ways that only a creature of the Resonance ever could. Determined to get to the truth about the nature of the Resonance, the Matrix and how this all related to her personal spiritual and moral beliefs she elected to find the answers to her questions in the Resonance itself.

She prepared herself as best she could and reached further down into the Resonance than she had ever previously dared. She called forth a Tutor Sprite of truly enormous power, one that would surely be able to answer her questions and set her heart and mind at rest regarding the morality of her gifts.

She had reached too far, however, and the strain tore at her mind and broke her fragile body like a twig. As she lay bleeding and dying the being she had called forth, seeing a purpose in the intent of her Compiling, took it's destiny into it's own hands and elected to become Free. Immediately absorbing the Registered Machine Sprite Gerry had on hand in case of emergency it took pity on her and breathed on the faint tenacious spark of life in her before it sputtered and died.

A Keeper and a Seeker of knowledge, Kemuel, as the Free Sprite named itself, is on good terms with it's creator and lends it's power and knowledge to her as she helps it to grow and learn, to explore it's infinite potential.

Gerry, for her part, is in awe of the being she helped to bring forth from the Resonance. He is everything to her, companion, parent, lover, child. Much of her drive is now devoted to helping her friend. She has built a powerful Cluster within the Whampoa Data Haven for him to use as a sanctuary. She also regularly brings forth and integrates new facets of his mind. Although technically she is registering individual Sprites and allowing him to absorb them, they have come to the conclusion that the being that he is evolving into already exists, in potentia, in the Resonance but is so large and powerful it cannot be called forth whole into the Matrix but must be assembled in small manageable chunks.


Keenly aware of her own mortality, she is cautious of wasting any of the time she might have left to do good here on Earth and does not wish to send anyone to see the 'big-man' until they have had the opportunity to repent.

The geography may need to be changed up a bit depending on the campaign for that one.

Lots and lots of other ideas depending on what is needed.

[Ears]

I've rediscovered one of my old (pre 3rd ed.) chars I always wanted to play and never got around to:

Streetdoc who's been told too many wild stories about runs by his customers grabs some big gun, picks up some minimal skills from a friend with connections and throws himself into the madness.

Edit:

I made him as a human-looking dwarf who picked up a grenade launcher and explosives on joining the shadows.

Don't expect much from his shots but rest assured he'll patch you up afterwards if you get caught in the blasts. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[BlackHat]

I would be interested in playing, if available, a metasapient AI evolved from a complex dataworm program. Having emerged recently (a few months ago), the AI does not yet possess much of a background, worth detailing - although, given a day or two, I could probably put together a pretty decent summary. It would, however, be very good at getting into systems, undetected, and punching holes in their security for others, and doing the same sort of malicious things a Shadowrunning team usually wants a hacker for. I imagine it spending its non-running time collecting innocuous data, perhaps habitually (media junkie flaw), and see the program's primary motivation for making its services available to others being along those same lines (trading in paydata, exploits, backdoors, etc, collecting programs, particularly knowsofts). Also, as almost all worms possess the ability to replicate, but the AI's recent evolution has made it so complex that it can no longer do so, another long-term motivation would be for it to learn more about AIs, and perhaps find another means of reproduction (a powerful "instinct" leftover from its original programming). Mostly, I want to try out these new rules, and see how they feel, in practice.

Another possibility, my second choice, would be a character that wouldn't fit into a smaller group, but might be very helpful to a larger group - a high-class data-courier along the lines of Johnny Mnemonic (the short story more than the movie), who transfers information or data that is usually sensitive enough that the big time corporate clients don't want to risk digital transmission (encrypt programs having been rendered all but useless). He does this by using a nanoflashback system and data filter to encrypt his memories of that information or data in a format that only he can decipher - but gives the one and only copy of that memory to his client to transfer to the intended recipient. Upon receipt, "Johnny" would meet with the recipient, click on his forget-it-all cyberware, but be able to reply the memory and relay the information or data contained therein. Of course, that would mostly be IC fluff for what he does with his free time. His important qualities, as far as Shadowrunning is concerned, is a lot of senseware, making him hyperperceptive, able to recall even the most minute details, and able to put those details together to great effect.

[cndblank]

Sub Zero!





I have the urge to play with magic.

Is a Physical Adept or mage still open?

I'm not up to playing a hacker and my current character is a Stealth Sammie.

a few options....

Whisper (Owl Shaman B&E expert) -

Ithaca - Hermetic combat and detection Mage. An expert in spells but lacking on the summoning.


Hush (Physical Adept face but not a pornomancer)

[cndblank]

Can we keep a running track of what characters have been approved (plus race and skills sets/roles)?

Perhaps we could each copy the old list and add our PC to the bottom of the list as we finalize what characters we are going to run.

That way we can make sure everything is covered and have an easy way to tell who is going to be doing what.

Roles

So we need...

One or two mages.

A rigger and a hacker.

A face and B&E expert

and of course muscle.