Looking to play...or GM... Options

[Marwynn]

That's a great concept, I admit I'm having a bit of a time reconfiguring my brain around this campaign but I'm having fun doing so.

The character that popped into my head immediately was a treasure hunter of sorts. A Mage, no doubt, and definitely on away missions. His suite of spells include Catalog, Astral Window, Detect Life and numerous other manipulation and illusion spells to get the team aboard swiftly and safely. I've included Vehicle Mask in there as well, to change the appearance of any runabouts or secondary ships we may be using.

I view him as an Infiltration expert, getting inside somewhere unnoticed. But he can't do this on his own.

CollateralDynamo'll have to do the talking but my mage can back him up magically.

To him the sea is nothing more than wet land. Different rules apply but he has no connection to anything outside him, he is self-centric but enlightened enough to not be totally selfish (ie, he'll share something that's "rightfully" his because it'll make people like him more and they may save his life).

I have some background stuff already brewing too. Excited.

[CollateralDynamo]

You're welcome on my boat, Milk, God ain't.

Sorry, channeling Mal there for a moment. I like it! It will be interesting to see how a chaplain fits in with us, should be a lot of fun. And two utilitarian mages around will be quite excellent, you'll probably want to make sure you aren't stepping on each other's toes though.

Knight, with you as captain and me as your XO we should probably have some sort of history together laid into our backgrounds. If we don't start off trusting each other we'd make for pretty poor heads of staff. I am envisioning my character as an out of work police officer who used to work in some sort of undercover narcotics and smuggling unit in and around the Miami/Carib. League beats. Maybe I was your contact on the inside for a few of your raids? Anyways, the XO needs to make sure everyone is doing as the Cap says, which means I need to know for a fact you are worth trusting, Captain. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[milk ducks]

Sorry, channeling Mal there for a moment. I like it! It will be interesting to see how a chaplain fits in with us, should be a lot of fun.

Hah, to be fair, when I said "chaplain" I intended mostly to indicate that he's available for spiritual advice and whatnot. He probably isn't representative of any specific religion the way that, let's say, Shepard Book is. But he does represent a wellspring of actual and metaphysical knowledge that the crew can chose to interact with if they want.

And yeah, I don't want to step on anyone's toes in the magic department. I'm new to playing an Awakened character in SR, so if Marwynn wants, he can choose all his spells first (since he'll be more combat-oriented anyway, I want his selections to exactly fit his needs; I can get by with whatever). I see my character focusing more on the Health, Illusion, and Detection circles than anything else, probably.

-milk.

[Marwynn]

Well my selection isn't exactly combat oriented. I have all of Stunball. My "combatness" comes from shooting people. I daresay with Spirits your Shaman might be more effective in that regard.

Stunball, Astral Window, Catalog, Detect Life (Extended), Heal, Improved Invisibility, Trid Phantasm, Vehicle Mask, Levitate, Fix, Influence, Alter Memory.

Not exactly a combat machine. He's there to support, and to look at things that are hidden. Choose whatever you wish, some redundancy wouldn't hurt. I was never really one to throw Fireballs and the like. But if that becomes necessary and you'd rather be the one casting some of these spells primarily I'd free up a few for some more flexible spells.

[milk ducks]

Ah ok, man. Uhh, you're gonna have to be patient with me in regards to spell selection. Like I said before, this is my first attempt at an Awakened character. I've got some time to sit down right now though and look through the book. I'll probably post a semi-solid slection tonight when I get home from work. But yeah, I do want him to be mostly summoning-oriented.

-milk.

[Ears]

Well, I don't know whether we'll really need an engineering officer but I bet a good all-round mechanic can't be useless. Everything that floats WILL get punctured sooner or later, after all. And of course we'll have some drones, a few jetskis, probably a small boat, one or two bikes, some kind of landrover or something comparable aboard as well, if I get the mission outline right.

I got half a concept lying round from earlier: A Troll from some African all Ork + Troll merc unit who got the mechanic role because a) he lived long enough to learn it and b) he was the units forklift, so he had plenty of time to watch gear get repaired.
Guess he got fed up with looking at sand and wanted to see some water instead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Basicly he'll fix anything, land sea, air, installations, guns and although I bet other characters will be much better at fixing specific gear (especially if they aren't dumb trolls as well) that should come in handy.

And of course he'll be able to hold his own in a fight and happily go on boarding parties.

Does that sound like someone who would get selected for such a crew?

[Marwynn]

Ah ok, man. Uhh, you're gonna have to be patient with me in regards to spell selection. Like I said before, this is my first attempt at an Awakened character. I've got some time to sit down right now though and look through the book. I'll probably post a semi-solid slection tonight when I get home from work. But yeah, I do want him to be mostly summoning-oriented.

-milk.

No problemo. If you want some help in spell selection there are plenty of threads or you can ask us here. I gravitate towards Awakened characters for some reason. Do you have Street Magic? There are quite a few good spells there too (a lot of the ones I have or usually take are from SM).

Will your tradition have the Spirit of Man in there somewhere? This may be powergaming a tad but it has the ability to have one of your spells as an optional power. So a good spell selection lets you effectively double your spells. A Support Spirit with Heal or Fix? Yeah imagine the possibilities.


Ears that sounds good to me, we'll definitely need our own mechanic.

Should we also buy our own secondary vehicles? I'd love for some of those SeaDoos to come standard, electric ones.

[milk ducks]

Ears, that sounds like a great addition to the team. The question now is, "Do I have the balls to call that guy 'Scotty'"?

As to the Spirits of Man question, yeah, the Shamanic Tradition says I use the following spirits: Beasts (Combat); Water (Detection); Earth (Health); Air (Illusion); Man (Manipulation). I do have Street Magic, and I may flip through it for some additional information on Traditions, but Shamanic seems to fit my character concept nicely. The only question I have right now -and this may be answered as I flip through the rules in a sec- is in regards to summoning spirits according to my tradition. I know that when I summon a spirit, I can ask it to perform certain services for me, but are the services I can ask from each spirit entirely limited to how they relate to my tradition? For example, if I summon an Earth Spirit (health), can I ask it to use its Guard ability to protect the crew from dangerous accidents? What about its Search ability, which has no real connection to the health or protection of my allies (unless I want him to go find me some medicinal herbs out in the wild, or a medkit or something)?

And if I have a spirit companion that gives me, say, +2 to Earth Spirits, does that mean I get a +2 dice pool modified on all Health spells? Or would I only get a Health pool modifier if I had a companion or ability that gave me +2 to Health spells specifically?

Or, let's have a look at Spirits of Air (Illusion): I assume I could ask it to use its Conceal ability to hide the ship and it's crew from possible detection, but could I ask it to use its Engulf power to fill the lungs of an enemy with toxic fumes? Doesn't seem very "Illusion-y" to me, but maybe I just don't understand what I'm reading completely.

Also, under the Materialization power, it says that Materialized critters gain Immunity to Normal Weapons. That seems pretty, uh, strong. Am I reading that right?

-milk.

[Marwynn]

Only if the spirit is bound does it truly limit what Spirit a category it's in.

All it does for normally summoned Spirits is to colour your viewpoint of it. For example, you'd see the Air Spirit as a constantly changing wisp of smoke a haze or a mirage. A Water Spirit (Detection) may be manifested as some sorta shark or hunter of the deep.

As far as I know the Spirit's abilities are innate to it. It may make more sense for your Air Spirit of Illusion to have Fear than say Elemental Attack, but both are still within its parameters.

Yes on the Earth spirit being able to Guard and Search. Health, in this case, is served by the overall well-being of a crew not tripping on their own two feet.

No on the Mentor Spirits (or any other bonuses). You get +2 on Health spells alone.

[Penta]

I agree here, more points on contacts would be very nice since my face is practically required to take one or two in every port of harbor on that seaboard. If I can't get free points I'll need to hash out some sort of Group Contact (general rules in the RC) with you Penta.

Also, names for the game:
- Marquey Marque and the Funky Bunch
- Pirating, the Non-Software Variety
- Blood on the Seas, Wind in the Sails
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

So far as contacts and points go - I'm willing to consider it...I honestly need to reread RC.

So far as names: I like "Blood on the Seas", but it feels long.
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I'm going to sit back now and let you guys hash out characters - this also serves a general warning to anybody who wants to get in on the campaign who's lurking:

We currently have...6, 7 people? I remember a few out of the previous 9 saying they didn't want to do a cyberpirates campaign.

I will take up to 10. (There, I might add, lies one big benefit of a Cyberpirates campaign from a GM point of view: The group can be a lot bigger than your average SR group.)

Just say hi, hash out your roles with the others. I'm going to ask -one- person to keep a running check on who's doing what. Nothing much, just so I have someone besides me keeping count and making sure we don't have toes being stepped on. (Because as fun as role conflicts can be for RP, OOCly they suck.)
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When you think you have a character done, here is what you do:

PM me. I will give you an email address.

Mail everything to that address.

What I'll require:

A background. It's a text medium, so I really look at these. Use the 20 questions as a starting point, but feel free to expand on them.
A character sheet. Use any of the automated character generators you wish. Keep in mind the required skill(s) I posted upthread, most importantly the requirements for swimming (preferably unchipped, for...reasons that should be obvious...) and Nautical Mechanics. NM you may have learned any -number- of ways, especially if you're just getting it at 1.
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Chances are, we'll go back and forth on the background, the character sheet, and everything for a bit. You might try to slip stuff past me, I might catch it, I might notice an incongruity in the background or the char sheet...whatever. I try not to be a hardass, but I do look for holes. Eventually, however, I imagine I'll approve it. Once it's approved, it's locked-in and unchangeable except in-play.

At that point, two things happen:
I save a copy of background and character sheet on my laptop for reference.
You, optionally, may post the approved background and character sheet on the forum, for the OOC knowledge of your fellow players.

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Once everybody has locked-in their characters, I'll kick off play.
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Group stuff:

Milk ducks made the great point that in any story like this, the ship is oftenasmuch a character as the, er, characters.

Hence, once I sit down with Knight Saber and hash out ship stuff, I'm going to set out a competition for karma. Actually, I'm going to set out the competition now, but it'll start once Knight or I post that we've figured out and agreed on some stuff, like what kind of ship you'll be using (which will determine a few of the things below, I imagine). Try to make this a consensus thing.

Reward: 2 karma (per active non-GM contributor)
Tasks: Come up with a "ship packet" for GM and player use.
What the packet should include:

Name of the ship (I'll determine the applicable prefix when me and knight determine what kind of ship it is)
Flag of Registry
Ship dimensions and basic data (floorplan recommended)
Ship background (is it new? old? Well-maintained? Used and rusty?)

In a very real sense, take the ship and, as it were, bring it alive. Introduce her as a character.
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Also: You guys will have the ability to get stuff through your Johnson to be held in common by the group - the J will also arrange for the requisition of the ship (possibly at a discount) and any necessary/desired modifications. All of this will be noted by me and...either Knight or CollateralDynamo in a log - the cost of the ship (plus mods) and any other equipment you request (no Avail limit on common-held equipment; standard rules apply for personsl stuff) for common use will all, in total, make up the no-interest loan that you'll be working off.

Milk, I'm not sure any character should "come with the ship". Just a personal opinion.
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I'm going to introduce some House Rules here in regards to watchstanding and training time.

On-the-job training will -decrease the time- needed to learn said skill. Every hour on watch will subtract a half-hour from the time needed to learn skills (taking a week as 7 8-hour days, as I think the SR4 rules do for extended tests generally). This may not seem like much, but recall that a watch is up to 8 hours: That's half a day off your time before you make a single roll for a full 8-hour watch.

[Knight Saber]

Here's a rough, not quite first draft of my naval commando/captain of the ship/street sam. 2 points left and no contacts, no qualities, no social skills and no underwater demolition. He does meet all the ship owner prereqs though. Lots of underwater skills and cyber.

[ Spoiler ]

Body 4
Agility 5 (7)
Reaction 4 (6)
Str 4 (6)
Cha 2
Int 3
Logic 30
Will 3
Initiative 7 (9)
Edge 2
Essence 1.62
200 BP

Qualities:

SKILLS:
Automatics 5 20
Infiltration 5 20
Athletics Group 4 40
Outdoors Group 3 30
Perception (Visual +2) 2 10
Diving (cybergill +2) 2 10
Pistols (Automatics +2) 2 10
Pilot Watercraft 3 12
Blades (knives +2) 1 6


Gear 40 BP 200K
Bioware:
Muscle Toner (2) 14K .4
Muscle Augment (2) 16K .4
Sleep Regulator 10K .15
Synthcardium (3) 30K .3
Bioware Essence= .62

Cyberware:
Wired Reflexes (2) Alpha 64K 2.4
Plastic Bone Lacing Alpha 10K .4
Cybereyes (3) Alpha with Vision Mag, Vision Enhancement (3), Smartlink, Flare Comp, Low Light 18.5K .32
Cyberfins Alpha 7K .24
OXSYS Cybergill Alpha 9K .2
Internal Oxygen Tank Alpha 1.3K .2
179,800

[Penta]

...Hmm, looking over it and thinking, two things:

Okay, let's make that 400 BP a range between 400 and 420 for everybody.

Second, I'm dropping the Master Requirement on Pilot Water Craft from 3 to 2.
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Oh, I forgot. You need the SINner quality (or a rating 4 or better Fake SIN), Knight.

[Knight Saber]

...Hmm, looking over it and thinking, two things:

Okay, let's make that 400 BP a range between 400 and 420 for everybody.

Second, I'm dropping the Master Requirement on Pilot Water Craft from 3 to 2.
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Oh, I forgot. You need the SINner quality (or a rating 4 or better Fake SIN), Knight.

420 BP will help a lot. You mentioned the fake SIN (and 4 is the highest you can get without the restricted gear quality). Having two fake SINs and two fake boat registries (at least) would probably work out well.

Ship-wise, I was picturing an old surplus navy craft, one that my guy bought at scrap prices thanks to an old friend in the navy (I'm thinking he's a UCAS vet, who moved to the Carib League to get a couple of nations between him and the UCAS). Something along the lines of a patrol cruiser or corvette, like the USS Freedom. Given how long a ship can last, it might even BE the Freedom in 2072.

[Marwynn]

Also consider a Catamaran, so it doesn't sink easily. But that may make hiding it via Vehicle Mask difficult, I dunno.

420 sounds great. What's the word on contacts?

[Penta]

I was thinking much the same...I dunno whether we should use the Ohio-class corvette or something smaller.

[Penta]

Also consider a Catamaran, so it doesn't sink easily. But that may make hiding it via Vehicle Mask difficult, I dunno.

420 sounds great. What's the word on contacts?

Contacts - I'm gonna have to look up the rules in RC, something I haven't yet had the chance to do.

Catamaran - No, instead it flips over easily. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[CollateralDynamo]

Contacts - I'm gonna have to look up the rules in RC, something I haven't yet had the chance to do.

Well to help you out, group contacts are technically a real rule, but they kind of change contacts up a lot so let me explain what I was thinking of doing with them: I want to use it so that I can know two or perhaps three smuggling groups that operate on the eastern seaboard. This would mean that they would need to have memberships of around 40 and be "nationwide" in size. This basically means I need to pay an extra 8 buildpoints (ouch) to have them as a contact. Would this be doable? Should I try to come up with the back story of these smuggling groups or do you have some ideas already in the works?

[Penta]

I'll go with it - so long as you come up with the backstories. Only 2 groups, though.

[milk ducks]

Yeah, I was a bit iffy on having the character come with the ship as well; that's easily fixed. I'll start to work right now building up the character, but I'm not super-familiar with the Carib League right now, so the background should follow along shortly. And for the record, I'm totally down with using a rusted-out 2070's version of the Freedom.

-milk.

[Penta]

Remember: PM me for my email, email the packet, then post when it's approved.

Keeps the thread from being 70 pages full of drafts and nitpicking and sausagemaking.

[Knight Saber]

How will lifestyle levels work, since everyone is (presumably) living on the ship? It does affect things like your credit score as well as where/how you live. Or will we just handwave it and put it as part of the struggle to keep the boat up?

[Penta]

Yay, I found where I did a lot of the pondering when I last tried this campaign:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=19271 - I would put it as a link, but for some reason the side panel isn't working.

I'll manually quote posts below where the points still seem applicable - there's certainly more, but it's getting late.

From post 66:

"Remember that as a ship at sea, you're all going to need to do a lot of things which are handwaved on land for yourselves, or at least keep track of them.

For example:

Supplies. This includes provisions, fuel, etc.! Intelligence. A lot of the little things.

Weather: will be a factor. ICly, the Caribbean is (mostly) covered by the various national weather offices (the UCAS and CAS both, for the record, maintain the National Weather Service as a governmental operation (Public fury nuked any chance of privatization in the early part of the 20th century, after private forecasters were caught "degrading" emergency forecasts to encourage subscriptions)), and there's generally cooperation among all parties on technical matters. Forecasts have not improved in accuracy - the Awakening messed with weather patterns worldwide, screwing forecasting models all to hell, and the Crash of 29 forced mass-rebuilding of the sensor networks (in a fit of enlightened self-interest, the corps actually did donate the gear and the cash to help set it up - everybody gets screwed by hurricanes, after all), which was completed in 2037. As such, it's only been in the last 30 years that a consistent, full-coverage collection of weather data has been resumed. Error rates and accuracy are at the same level as in 2007, mostly because nobody has again put forth the massive amounts of computer power that would be needed to improve it any farther. The 2070 Atlantic hurricane season was active but non-fatal (no storms made landfall, but 2 Category 4 and higher storms did develop), and January in the Caribbean region is almost perfect weather."

From post 67:

"Forgot something: The weather babble means:

For :nuyen:500 per month, automated basic weather reports are sent to maritime customers via satellite or shore-to-ship databurst (within 12km of land) from the weather agency responsible for your region (for most of our purposes, either the CAS or UCAS weather service) @ 1200 UTC daily. An additional :nuyen:300 per month gets you more detailed and updated reports sent at 0000 and 1200 UTC daily, with a final :nuyen:300 getting you just as detailed forecasts sent at 6 and 18, as well. (More forecasts means you have more current weather data.) "

From post 109:

"Okay, my gut instinct is:

Obviously, fuel costs will vary based on where you buy. Duh.

But for argument's sake, I'm going to say a liter of Diesel fuel is (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) 5, at least at game start. (The cost may go up if there are difficulties in fuel supplies at a particular port, or if the market price goes up for other more global reasons.) The economy is for cruising speed. I plan on playing fast and loose with numbers, so we'll call cruising speed 2/3 of maximum operating speed, with 20% over that possible if you redline the engines (which will damage them!), at a cost of +50% fuel consumption....plus the engine damage. Lower speeds = less fuel usage, of course. "

From post 127:

"Lifestyle: Up to you.

If you live on ship at all times, you live in a really cramped space - even most yachts aren't particularly spacious.

That said, an unmodified yacht has Middle Lifestyle "features", I suppose you could say. (Things like food and water will be determined by your own purchases: Nutrisoy for low lifestyle is cheap with minimal flavorings, costing maybe cents for a day's worth; 14 days provisions costs maybe :nuyen:1000 for a group of 10 people with ordinary eating rates. Middle lifestyle, you get nutrisoy, but it's with every flavor assortment you can imagine, and you also get fresh fruits and veggies, though the cost is closer to :nuyen:2500. High, it's fresh fruits, a limited supply of real meat, and real alcohol, costing closer to :nuyen:5000. Keep in mind that, while the USN is "dry" mostly because of the long-ago Prohibitionist motives of Josephus Daniels, there are good reasons why you don't want alcohol aboard ship.)

I'll be happy to adjust those costs, they're really back-of-the-envelope."

[milk ducks]

Quick question before I go to bed; is the Home Ground quality available for purchase? The book says that we can choose a Home Ground that's no bigger than a large building or a small neighbourhood. Seems viable that our characters would have a bonus to all of their active skills while on their boat (infiltration bonus because you know exactly which panels groan under pressure; gunnery bonus due to understanding the natural feel of the boat's movements over the waves; etc), but I can see how it might also be too powerful considering how much time we'll be spending there. So it's up to you, Penta. Just throwing it out there to see what you thought; either way is fine by me.

-milk.

[Penta]

Too powerful is exactly my thought. Also, the boat is something you'll just be getting at play start.

[Knight Saber]

Speaking of qualities, I was thinking about taking the 5 BP version of Erased for the captain, so all sorts of criminal activity would get erased off whatever SIN she's using. It strikes me as very handy... perhaps too much so. What do you think?