Trans-global Ghost Cartels campaign, OOC administration Options

[Unseen]

Technomancers are a bit tricky to build and very, very DP hungry. Beyond Resonance, TMs need to "purchase" Tasking skills and complex forms (think Technomancer "programs") are bought at 1 bp per level, which is much more expensive than buying programs for hackers (maxing out a hacking prog costs approximately 3300 new yen, so one could buy two maxed-out hacking progs for what it costs TMs to take one CF to level 2). Being an Orc afforded me some durability in meat space, but the fact remains that TMs are not warriors, and my skills reflect it. I may have to hide outside the building somewhere and do all my work from the Matrix.

That said, I'm still considering a hacker. Cyber/bioware is sexy, and I could fashion a human hacker to be pretty damned tough on and off the net.

[Knight Saber]

Knight Saber, Lamia is well constructed. I see some cool Knowledge Skills that will come in handy.

You should list your native language (presumably English?) in your languages list. For slow thinkers like me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)

Peter

Thanks!

Ahh, there's my cultural imperialism showing. Yes, it's English.

I'm thinking about adding Gremlins 1 and Mentor Spirit (Dark Goddess) to her. I'm kind of old-fashioned though... having a hermetic mage with a mentor spirit feels odd. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've got a question about the fake SINs. Isn't the limit on gear rating six or availability 12? A fake SIN has an avail. level of 4x rating, so 3 would be the tops. Yet even template characters have them at level 4.

[Octopiii]

Octopiii, you gotta love a character that knows fish! Glad to see some muscle showing up in the group.

I think you over charged Fishbreath for Attributes by 20 BP. Possibly, you overlooked the fact that orks start with STR 3. Have a look.

All the core books are available for use.

I haven't checked the restricted vs. forbidden thing. Have another look at that to be sure.

Peter

The extra 20 BP went towards his metatype - I wish I had an extra 20bp!

Jake is right about the restricted v. forbidden, except I don't have any fake licenses for forbidden equipment; the two guns I have licenses for are the AK-97, which is 4R, and the Ares Crusader, which is 7R. Though after looking at it, it turns out Ex-Ex ammo is F! Ah well, i'll scrap that and buy some grenades... say 8 High-Explosive grenades sounds nice!

[ChiPsiUp]

Okay, lemme pose my character. This is everything EXCEPT his gear, since I'm still working out what drones to buy. The main issue is keeping track of how much resources I've spent... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Everything else is complete though.

[ Spoiler ]

Name: Patrick Fitzgerald
Handle/Street Name: Skullcracka
Race: Human
Gender: Male


Stats
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 5
Strength 2
Charisma 2
Intuition 4
Logic 4
Willpower 3
Edge 3

(Body Points 200)

Active Skills

Aeronautics Mechanic 3
Automatics 3
Automotive Mechanics 3
Electronics (Group) 4
Gunnery 4
Perception 2
Pilot Aircraft 5
Pilot Groundcraft 5
Pilot Anthroform 4
Hacking 3
Armorer 2
ElectronicWarfare 3

(Skills 180 points)

Knowledge Skills
Ork Culture 2
Goblin Rock 2
Safe Houses 4
Drone Identification 4
Vehicle Identification 3
Matrix Security Systems 3

Language Skills
English *N
Japanese 1
Chinese 3
Orcish 2

Positive Qualities
High Pain Tolerance (2)

Negative Qualities
Ork Poser
Allergy to Shellfish (Mild, Uncommon)
Addiction to Jazz (Mild)
SINner (Common)

(Points from Qualties: +10)

And for the background and gear to come soon!

[Octopiii]

Technomancers are a bit tricky to build and very, very DP hungry. Beyond Resonance, TMs need to "purchase" Tasking skills and complex forms (think Technomancer "programs") are bought at 1 bp per level, which is much more expensive than buying programs for hackers (maxing out a hacking prog costs approximately 3300 new yen, so one could buy two maxed-out hacking progs for what it costs TMs to take one CF to level 2). Being an Orc afforded me some durability in meat space, but the fact remains that TMs are not warriors, and my skills reflect it. I may have to hide outside the building somewhere and do all my work from the Matrix.

That said, I'm still considering a hacker. Cyber/bioware is sexy, and I could fashion a human hacker to be pretty damned tough on and off the net.

I don't know; I know TM's are tough with 400, but hopefully they're not so gimped we can't make one with 450 .

Let me see.. ok, you have a lot of complex forms. They're nice, but a TM really lives or dies by his sprites; CF's should be saved for stuff you think you will be using either constantly or in battle where you can't afford the -2 or potential fading damage. Defuse, for example, is pretty situational - if you come across a data bomb, you can thread up defuse or compile a Sprite with that CF to do it for you (which also allows you to get the heck out of the node, just in case (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) ). Command is another thing you can probably leave to your sprites or thread, unless you think you'll be using/taking over drones regularly. Some of the CF's are useful, but don't need to be super high, like Encrypt. One CF you may want to look into is Shield from Unwired.

You should max out either compiling or registering. Drop St to 3 and Bod to 4 and Natural hardening - that's 30 more bp, in addition to the BP's saved paring down your CF's; you may want to consider upping Reaction and Athletics, or just dropping athletics and buying dodge instead. Do you have Unwired? The new sprites in there are very good, in particular Paladin and Code sprites. Pick a stream that gives you one or both of those sprites, and preferably one that has intuition as its drain stat to make up for your orkish subpar mental skills. However, with bound sprites, a TM can put some major matrix hurt on.

Alternatively, you can make a combat hacker who uses Wired Reflexes to hack via AR instead of VR (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . You miss out on the +2 die bonus, but you're more useful in a fight. Unfortunately, TM's just aren't that great in physical space (unless they use Machine sprites to operate drones with, that's pretty nasty!)

Edit: If you're lucky, Peter may allow you to start the game Submerged. The new Echos in Unwired go a long, long way to make TM's good.

[Unseen]

PM'ed. I'm definitely going to need a hand with this.

I don't know; I know TM's are tough with 400, but hopefully they're not so gimped we can't make one with 450 .

Let me see.. ok, you have a lot of complex forms. They're nice, but a TM really lives or dies by his sprites; CF's should be saved for stuff you think you will be using either constantly or in battle where you can't afford the -2 or potential fading damage. Defuse, for example, is pretty situational - if you come across a data bomb, you can thread up defuse or compile a Sprite with that CF to do it for you (which also allows you to get the heck out of the node, just in case (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) ). Command is another thing you can probably leave to your sprites or thread, unless you think you'll be using/taking over drones regularly. Some of the CF's are useful, but don't need to be super high, like Encrypt. One CF you may want to look into is Shield from Unwired.

You should max out either compiling or registering. Drop St to 3 and Bod to 4 and Natural hardening - that's 30 more bp, in addition to the BP's saved paring down your CF's; you may want to consider upping Reaction and Athletics, or just dropping athletics and buying dodge instead. Do you have Unwired? The new sprites in there are very good, in particular Paladin and Code sprites. Pick a stream that gives you one or both of those sprites, and preferably one that has intuition as its drain stat to make up for your orkish subpar mental skills. However, with bound sprites, a TM can put some major matrix hurt on.

Alternatively, you can make a combat hacker who uses Wired Reflexes to hack via AR instead of VR (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . You miss out on the +2 die bonus, but you're more useful in a fight. Unfortunately, TM's just aren't that great in physical space (unless they use Machine sprites to operate drones with, that's pretty nasty!)

Edit: If you're lucky, Peter may allow you to start the game Submerged. The new Echos in Unwired go a long, long way to make TM's good.

[pbangarth]

Wow, lots more entries than I expected at 01:15 my time! Great to see. I will pay closer attention tomorrow after some sleep.

In regards to Submersion, and Initiation for mages, I think I will stay away from those in the beginning. There is a LOT of campaign here, and opportunities may well arise to take some in-game time off to build major character improvements like that.

Peter

[Knight Saber]

Oh, are emotitoys going to be limited in power/dice? They're available off the shelf for a pittance and provide much better results than a Detect Lies spell, for instance.

[Fyndhal]

Oh, are emotitoys going to be limited in power/dice? They're available off the shelf for a pittance and provide much better results than a Detect Lies spell, for instance.

I bought one, with the expectation that it'll be nerfed hard. It's mainly for showing off to club chicks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ChiPsiUp]

Who needs emotitoys? xD I got lie detection software, empathy software, and thermographic imaging. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Me an me drones are basically emotitoys! With guns!

[pbangarth]

ChiPsiUp, I see Edge in Skullcracka's Attributes list, under which you have 200 pts. for 'body attributes. The Edge at 3 would add 10 to that 200 but I don't see it accounted for. Also, I count 118 BP worth of skills, not 180.

Hmmm.. addicted to Jazz. That should be fun. I wonder... if he's addicted to Jazz, wouldn't he know that better than the Knowledge skill Goblin rock? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (Yes, yes, I know it's THAT Jazz!)

I'm looking forward to some good chase scenes!

Peter

[pbangarth]

Could someone please give me a page reference for where emotitoys are described?

Thanks,

Peter

[Octopiii]

Thanks!

Ahh, there's my cultural imperialism showing. Yes, it's English.

I'm thinking about adding Gremlins 1 and Mentor Spirit (Dark Goddess) to her. I'm kind of old-fashioned though... having a hermetic mage with a mentor spirit feels odd. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've got a question about the fake SINs. Isn't the limit on gear rating six or availability 12? A fake SIN has an avail. level of 4x rating, so 3 would be the tops. Yet even template characters have them at level 4.

That's a error in the printing - my pdf has rating x 4, my book has rating x3, and my book is newer (and also has the table for drug availability and cost, which my pdf does not!)

Peter, Emotitoys are on p.57 of Arsenal; Empathy software is p. 60.

[pbangarth]

That's a error in the printing - my pdf has rating x 4, my book has rating x3, and my book is newer (and also has the table for drug availability and cost, which my pdf does not!)

Peter, Emotitoys are on p.57 of Arsenal; Empathy software is p. 60.

Go with ratings X 3. Thanks for the reference.

Peter

[pbangarth]

The emotitoys on p. 57 of arsenal seem to be underpriced, as they are listed as being constructed with empathy software, but the empathy software on p. 60 costs 5 X as much. I think we should go with the costs on p. 60, and add the 2000 nuyen for the minidrone version as per p. 57.

Also, if the emotitoy is to be used discretely, (ie. no verbal question to the toy such as, "How does Mr. Johnson read, Pikachu?"), the user should probably be able to link to it through wifi or cable in order to get the emotional readings silently.

EDIT: I would give a close read to the restrictions in the description of empathy software, too. The bonus from the software is not general.

Peter

[pbangarth]

This reflects info in the 14 January 2009 entry in the Original Post.

The players for the first game, on 24 January, 2009 are:

Fyndhal - Mau - cat shaman
Knight Saber - Lamia - hermetic mage
Octopiii - Fishbreath - ex-armed forces guy
unseen - Invisible - technomancer
ChiPsiUp - Skullcracka - rigger
Iscariot - face

tentative start time: 20:00 GMT (12 noon PST, 13:00 MST)

If there is a problem with this start time, let us know as soon as possible.

Peter

[Knight Saber]

I did some editing on Lamia... took off her Aptitude for Spellcasting (I got mixed up and thought it was needed to get a 6 skill without paying double... but that was attributes I was thinking of).

I added Manabolt, changed Detect Magic to Clairvoyance, bumped up the weapon focus to 2, added 5000 nuyen of general gear (flame and shockproofed the coat, fake licenses, assorted little things), one to contacts and broke up the Conjuring group 3 to Binding and Summoning 4.

Also, it was pointed out that Incompetent: Hacking isn't really a limitation, as it's software, not default skill, that lets you hack. Should I change it to something else?

[Iscariot]

Just checking in to let you know I am still playing, just going over my character a bit before I post him.

He's going to be a Surged elven social adept. Mostly a skill monkey, but not totally useless in a fight.

[Unseen]

Peter, I don't think I'll be able to make that time. I'll probably either be on a plane, or in an airport. I'll catch up with you guys next run, I guess. In the meanwhile, I'll iron out the kinks in my character.

[pbangarth]

Too bad, buddy. See you next time, if the time shift to Korea works.

Peter

[Unseen]

Too bad, buddy. See you next time, if the time shift to Korea works.

Peter

I'll make it work.

[Knight Saber]

Ack, I had the day wrong... Saturday I can't be on until 8PM Mountain time... Noon I could do Friday or Sunday.

[pbangarth]

Hey! People are bailing, left right and centre. If Sunday is doable for others, I could do it then, too. Get together here and decide if a switch in date is OK. Otherwise, I will go ahead with the four remaining players on Saturday.

I will be away from my computer tomorrow, so just go ahead and work things out. When I get back, I will be asking help to set up the online interface.

Peter

[Fyndhal]

Sunday is fine by me.

I tweaked Mau a bit, and updated his entry in the original post. I'm pretty happy with him at this point and won't be doing anymore tinkering. So, he's final, unless you find a problem.

[ChiPsiUp]

Sunday the 25th is a no no. Not at noon anyhow. I can make Sunday evening if people are okay with that. I'm pretty sure I've said this repeatedly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) I'm fine the week after that but not 25th at noon. Earliest on Sunday the 25th would still be Sunday at 5 pm (PST)... unless people want to play it earlier in the morning, say from 8 am TILL noon. That I could manage.

BTW, did you figure out what program you'll be running it on?