Emerging Experiment, Rules light, character driven PBP - any interest? Options

[Aria]

Word of warning, this is an experiment, I’ve GM’d and played a lot of SR in the past but always face to face, never like this. I’m hoping it will work but please bear with me. I’m also not all that familiar with the SR4 rules hence the desire to sideline them in favour of story telling and ‘learning as I go’.

I’m looking for 1-3 players for now, perhaps more if there’s sufficient interest but I’m not sure how many the game can cope with at the moment. A former player/GM of mine may make an occasional appearance as co GM when he can make the time or I can bully him in to participating.

The game will be begin at the start of 2070 (SR4A) and the protagonists will be a loose affiliation of fixers or other ‘shadow movers and shakers’ that control events from afar rather than getting in to the down and dirty events themselves. The game will be dice free and about making strategic decisions and helping the story to unfold indirectly rather than by shooting people…of course you can order someone to be shot, employ shadowrunners etc to get your work done… Events will be linked to the Emergence campaign, possibly with some back story from the Renraku shutdown and will introduce the odd canon character to add some depth and tie in with the SR story.

My plan is for the players to help to tell the story by sponsoring shadowruns, actively seeking out their own assignments and pursuing their own individual agendas. I’ll try and give you the freedom to do whatever you want within the rationale of the SR universe… Of course if you claim to resurrect the Big D, defeat the horrors and take tea with Deus you may find that something happens to your nasty delusional mind! Characters will still be statted up, largely for the purposes of comparing against NPCs...

Rather than a blow by blow account of events in ‘real time’ the majority of posts will be about chunks of time, although I’m not ruling out the need for me to conduct conversations with players occasionally. This may mean that I expect more from you in one go but as I said, this is an experiment. Hopefully the episodic nature of this will mean that it won’t matter so much if someone is unable to play for a bit.

Character concepts could be info brokers, fixers or ‘small’ corp Johnsons and I’m sure you can come up with more. I would prefer no mobsters as I’m not that comfortable with doing justice to the organised criminal world (no pun intended) and prefer it as background. The game introduction will probably be one of you being introduced as a new member to the ‘fraternity’ assuming two or more players.

Main character build: 500BPs.

Race: Human / Orc / Elf / Dwarf / Troll… I’d prefer the ‘normal’ 5 unless you’ve got a compelling reason for a changeling or other weirdness. No technomancers at this stage.

Stats: As normal

Skills: I’m thinking of removing the cap of the number of skills at 5 or higher and skill groups at 4. We’ll see how this pans out, no raging abuse please.

Qualities: Positives as normal. I like negative qualities that provide plot hooks!

Resources: 250K max but lifestyles, safe houses and fake IDs will be ‘free’ and you can spend as much as you want within reason…no ‘Bill Gates’ please and bear in mind what comes easily can be easily taken away (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif) . We’ll stick with gear availabilities as normal unless you have an argument for why you have harder to come by equipment.

Contacts: at least 50BPs spent here please…you’re meant to be fixers after all. I’ll provide the group with a ‘stable’ of runners that are shared but feel free to have your own as separate contacts. You are important people and will mix with some of the other movers and shakers in the Seattle world, shadow, media, corporate and political.

Anything else as per normal character gen.

Let me know if you have any questions or observations… Aria

[Crank]

I'm not sure on what specifics I would make, but I would definitely be interested in making something.

So since we would be the string pullers, some of our contacts would be our direct underlings, correct? One or two loyalty 6 goons for body guards, for example.

[Aria]

Well I'd be happy for 'goons' to be under the free lifestyle costs...if you want someone with a bit more sophistication then yes, they should be in your contacts costs.

[Aria]

Cast of Shadows (pt 1)

My 'voice' during the game will probably come via Monarch, a semi-retired 'external assets facilitator' and one of the original founders of the 'fraternity'. He'll be used as a vehicle for offering any hints and prodding the action along if it needs it.

Name: Richard Quinn (aka Monarch)
DOB: Unknown - around 2010
Nationality: Unknown (assumed British)

An urbane figure who relies on his easy smile and apparant good nature to put people at ease around him, he has successfully negotiated the shadows for the past thirty odd years and is now living out his retirement in an aquaology in the South Pacific. He maintains a wide ranging network of contacts across the Americas, Europe and more recently Asia but seldom meets people in the flesh any longer, preferring the security and annonymity of the matrix.

______________

Here's a stab at the stable of runners available to you. The teams are more fleshed out as they are made up of a number of characters I have played or seen played over the years and are being resurrected here. I will flesh out others as required and provide additional information as requested / needed. The individual runners are little more than names added to the architypes from the rulebook at the moment.

Prime Runner Team: Balefire (500-600 BPs each)
Pay Expectation: 20-25K nuyen / runner med-high end run

Set up by Mother (rigger/hacker) and Bale (combat mage) in 2066. Team members also include Mother’s daughter Silk (infiltration specialist/adept) a hacker called Aria and a second infiltration specialist called Escapade (infiltration specialist/face). Technically very capable, they have reached the enviable stage of being in a position to pick and choose their jobs based on the agendas set by the team. They typically favour a subtle, even invisible approach using a large number of drones for infiltration and, in an emergency, fire support.

Pro Runner Team: Expeditors (450-500 BPs each)
Pay Expectation: 15K nuyen / runner med-high end run

Medusa/Narcissus (samurai/face) put the team together in 2068 for a specific run but their effective teamwork meant that they have maintained a fairly stable group and have an excellent success rate. They specialise in hard, fast, ‘shock and awe’ style infiltrations, overwhelming resistance and escaping before a coordinated response can be implemented. This is achieved through a combination of excellent pre strike intelligence, stealth and heavy weaponry. Archon (infiltration specialist) works point, whilst Hades (hacker) provides matrix cover. A former merc. Hazard (samurai/rigger) provides firepower and transport and then they contract additional help if specifically required, in particular, magical support.

Runner Team: Revenants (400BPs each)
Pay Expectation: 10K nuyen / runner low-med run

Morgue (samurai) created this group as specialists in extractions and they have numerous successful runs under their belts. Cypher’s (adept) abilities to change his appearance have been particularly useful to the team whilst Masque (weapons specialist) backs them up when a more violent approach is required. Reaver (mage) compliments Cypher’s abilities with an array of illusions and GridReaper (hacker) provides the same role in the matrix to spoof their way in to places they don’t belong.

Individual Runners (400BPs)
Pay Expectation: 5-10K nuyen each for a low-med run

Bounty Hunter - Melody
Bounty Hunter - Hopper
Combat Mage - Hemlock
Covert Ops Specialist - Locksmith
Covert Ops Specialist - Pepper
Drone Rigger - Echo
Face - Whisper
Gunslinger Adept - Opium
Hacker - Escher
Hacker - Synapse
Mage - Ozone
Occult Investigator - Era
Physical Adept - Cinnamon
Rigger - Tangent
Street Samurai - Solomon
Street Samurai - Granite
Street Samurai - Dimples
Street Shaman - Blizzard
Smuggler - Riptide
Weapons Specialist - Ash

[DireRadiant]

I'm very interested in participating. This sounds like you are going far more for a collaborative storytelling effort, with you and your co GM providing resolution and common dramatic elements for everyone to work with?

Do you still have room? Do you just want to see some submitted character concepts for this?

[Mickle5125]

sounds like an interesting game. Let me work some numbers and see if I can come up with a decent character to bring to the table before committing, though.

I'm going to be pretty busy for the next week or so, but can get a concept thrown together by early next week. When are you looking at getting this off the ground?

[Aria]

This sounds like you are going far more for a collaborative storytelling effort, with you and your co GM providing resolution and common dramatic elements for everyone to work with?

That's what I'm aiming at, yes (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

I'm not in a massive rush, I've still got some prep to do to get the game timeline sorted in my mind. If people want to come up with character concepts and some stats then that would be great. Hopefully the game will start in the next couple of weeks but we'll play it by ear depending on how much pre start character development people want to do...the rounder the characters at the start the sooner the PCs can begin driving the action!

[DireRadiant]

Proposed Character

You might think she's just another Dwarven UCABC Biker Chick with Pistols, her mother deludes herself that she's a hard working apprentice accountant, her myriad "uncles" thinks she's a wily wheeler dealer like her mother used to be, her old gang think she's hell on wheels, and she thinks she's just a girl out for a little fun.

Merrideth Lee, aka China Doll, aka CD is a Fence/Smuggler specializing in trading and delivering high value packages along the North American rim from the Aleuts to Aztlan. Anything as long as she gets to ride her bike.

[Mickle5125]

Do you allow changelings?

I have a changeling character from a previous game who would have eventually developed into a fixer.

[Aria]

China Doll sounds good...hope you've got plenty of fake IDs for those border crossings, oh, and lots of fuel (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I think I'll keep Seattle as the main base of operations but there's opportunity for foreign travel too.

As to changelings I've personally always found them to be excessively magical for my tastes (I know this is SR not cyberpunk but i like a bit of grit in my dystopian universe) ...that being said I'm not going to rule anything out and given the events in Emergence then it might offer some interesting perspective.

Just so I know, has everyone who's interested read or run Emergence in the past? Need to know how much of it will need tweaking to keep things fresh, there are plenty of threads there without repeating stuff you've done already.

[Mickle5125]

I have not read through Emergence.

[DireRadiant]

I have, but haven't read Emergence.

[Digital Heroin]

If you've still got room there is a fixer character I developed for another game here before a rough work/mindset patch dragged me away. He simply goes by the name The Suit, though he is a fairly public figure when not pulling strings. The Suit is a disgraced (but still well liked by the public) ADA, former Horizon Johnson, and fulltime corporate legal consultant who sidelines in information brokering and managing of deniable assets.

Jared Engels walks the fine line between legitimate and illicit through layers of deniability (he often uses the Matrix or a Troll named Gaz as a front for his meets), savy (he's been around the law his whole life, and knows just what he can push), and connections (cops, lawyers, a mega, and a top-rate Hacker to keep him nice and Erased).

He was built contact heavy (like, 100BP contact heavy) on 450BP so he should be easy enough to point up for this game. So far his contacts are a blend of police, political, and legal, with a pet gang to do his really dirty work... given the extra 50BP I'd further expand upon them, as Jared himself is a fully realized character.

[Aria]

Ok guys, sounds like there's a good level of interest to get this thing kick started. If Digital Heroin, DireRadiant, Mickle5125 (and Crank?) would like to put something in place then that would be great. I'm more interested in the '20 questions' at the moment than the stats (and in particular how/if you were affected by the Crash 2.0), although a rudimentary contact list would be useful. If some of those contacts are already fleshed out in your mind or from previous games could you note that, otherwise I will asign names to contacts and background later on as required.

Until you have fixed character names does anyone mind if i abreviate your user names, saves me some typing? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

My initial thoughts are that China Doll will be the 'newcomer' to the group if that meets with approval, the first 'session' will be an introduction of her to the 'fraternity' as that gives a reason for a bit of in character 'my name is...and I do...' etc. If anyone has an idea for an alternative name for the 'fraternity' then let me know, otherwise we'll stick with that.

A

[DireRadiant]

In Progress. Feel free to review and comment though.

China Doll

[Crank]

Ok guys, sounds like there's a good level of interest to get this thing kick started. If Digital Heroin, DireRadiant, Mickle5125 (and Crank?) would like to put something in place then that would be great.

Yeah, I'm still in. I've got two ideas in my head and I just need to settle on one. I'll have something for you by this weekend.

[Aria]

In Progress. Feel free to review and comment though.

China Doll

Looks good to me so far...perhaps you might want to tweak your contacts to get a few with low loyalty but with reasonable connection to spread your source base a bit?

A

[DireRadiant]

Looks good to me so far...perhaps you might want to tweak your contacts to get a few with low loyalty but with reasonable connection to spread your source base a bit?

A

Thanks for taking a look. I'm thinking the Triad group contact, which are the "Uncles" is intended to be the generic pool of contacts who represent the ability to fence or obtain almost any gear in a standard time frame. It's really a group of 50 or so people. Does this fit with what you are thinking I need to have, or do you want more individual contacts instead? I can also put a few more BP into contacts, there's still plenty of room for tweaking.

Edit: did an update on the contacts question. I know you mentioned not wanting organized crime. I've thought of another idea that might work better for what you want, and could switch the Uncles to be Wuxing based instead.

[Aria]

Edit: did an update on the contacts question. I know you mentioned not wanting organized crime. I've thought of another idea that might work better for what you want, and could switch the Uncles to be Wuxing based instead.

Only that I understand the motives and background of a corp better than an ancient order of hoods...bad movies aside! I'll work with either but I like the Wuxing angle.

How's everyone else getting on? Sorry for my silence across the weekend but most of my posts will be during the week.

[DireRadiant]

Only that I understand the motives and background of a corp better than an ancient order of hoods...bad movies aside! I'll work with either but I like the Wuxing angle.

Ok, Group 88 of Pacific Rim Import Export, PRIMEX, a wholly owned Wuxing subsidiary coming up

[Mickle5125]

Basic concept of my character:

SC grew up in a rough neighborhood. He and a group of friend formed a small gang for their own protection, and slowly expanded, eventually enveloping their neck o' the woods and forcing others out. The gang now focuses on protecting their turf, but SC wasn't satisfied staying at that level and has been expanding his influence since. His contacts will be street level mostly, with a small handful of higher level contacts for harder to procure items.

[Crank]

I'm still working out the details, but my basic concept is a mage that's used to run the shadows, but found that pulling strings was more lucrative. I'm deciding between a human and a troll. I've kinda of formed an idea of how each one's personality would work but I need to settle on the one I like better. I wish I had something more concrete, but I had a busy weekend.

[Aria]

Sounds like it's going well on the whole...'The Suit' sounds like a replacement for Monarch, Mickle has got the street angle covered, China Doll is our smuggler and Crank will sort magical entanglements...

I'll hopefully have the initial timeline sorted in my mind by the beginning of next week so if you could answer the 20 questions in the next week to 2 weeks that would be great, then we can get motoring!

A

[Digital Heroin]

I'm re-formatting The Suit for the web as we speak, however I'm sailing until the weekend, so if my answers are sporatic I'm still around. Just fleshed out the rough on The Suit's extra contacts, which leave him with a solid legal/police/mob mix with an eclectic smattering of other people thrown in as well. He's got nineteen individual contacts, four groups (though none too loyal to him), and ShadowSEA.

This guy is definitely a string puller.

[Digital Heroin]

And here it is, the roughed up version of The Suit. It's pretty much a lift from his last incarnation, with added contacts:

Jared Engles

Sheet:

[ Spoiler ]

Basics:

[ Spoiler ]

Name: Jared Engles
Alias: The Suit
Metatype: Human
Age: 45
Citizenship: UCAS/Horizon
Residence: UCAS/Seattle
Occupation: Legal Consultant/Fixer

Attributes:

[ Spoiler ]

Physical Mental Special

Body: 3 Charisma: 4 Edge: 4
Agility: 3 Intuition: 5 Essense: 5.09
Reaction: 3 Logic: 4 Initiative: 8
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 Ress/Magic: N/a

Skills:

[ Spoiler ]

Active Skills
Athletics Group Rate 1 + STR 3 = 5
Con Rate 3 + CHA 4 = 7
Ettiquite Rate 4 + CHA 4 (+2Corporate) (+2Legal) = 8(10)(10)
Intimidation Rate 4 + CHA 4 = 8
Instruction Rate 2 + CHA 4 = 6
Negotiation Rate 6 + CHA 4 (+2Diplomacy) = 10(12)
Perception Rate 4 + INT 5 = 9

Knowledge Skills
(Professional) UCAS Law Rate 6 + LOG 4 = 10
(Professional) Corporate LAw Rate 4 + LOG 4 = 8
(Street) UCAS Politics Rate 3 + INT 5 = 8
(Street) Horizon Rate 4 + INT 5 = 9
(Street) Security Companies Rate 3 + INT 5 = 8
(Street) Seattle Shadowrunners Rate 3 + INT 5 = 8
(Academic) Literature Rate 4 + LOG 4 = 8

Languages
English N
Japanese Rate 1 + LOG 4 (+2 Linguist) = 7
Spanish Rate 1 + LOG 4 (+2 Linguist) = 7
Korean Rate 1 + LOG 4 (+2 Linguist) = 7

Qualities:

[ Spoiler ]

Positive:

Erased (10BP)
What better way to ensure your record stays just how you'd like it to, and all of those nasty little recordings of you stay off the Matrix than to have your very own hacker on retainer? Skytale does the deed in this case for Jared, and he is very, very good at what he does.

Local Fame - Seattle (5BP)
While it has been nearly a decade, plenty of people still recognize the Assistant District Attorney of Seattle who allegedly slept with a Mafioso's teenage daughter, and then tampered with the evidence in one of his collegue's cases in order to make sure the Mafioso didn't see jail time. While the allegations were false, Jared took it as a chance to bow out of public office. Oddly enough the public sees him as some kind of fading cult hero, more than likely because of his reputation before that.

Privileged Family Name (5 BP)
Before his downfall Jared was a household name in Seattle, and one that was spoken with pride. Hand in hand with Lone Star, Jared was responsible for deftly picking apart several major Mafia operations, and was seen as the city's golden boy. Though he has somewhat fallen from grace, his name still has a lot of pull in all the right places. Needless to say he doesn't get parking tickets.

Trustworthy - Negotiation (5BP)
Linguist (5 BP)

Negative:

Day Job - Income: 15000/month (15BP)

While he operates in the shadows as a fixer, Jared still maintains a lucrative legitimate law practice. As senior partner on Engles and Associates he may not see the inside of a courtroom too often, but he spends plenty of time in the office managing the substantial caseload his name has attracted.

Records on File - Horizon (10BP)
SINner - UCAS (5BP)
Bad Reputation (5BP)

While his record prior to the incident may have been spotless, the allegations surrounding trial tampering and illicit affairs within the context of the Seattle Mafia have left Jared's image tarnished. In certain strata of legal society this stain will never go away.

'Ware:

[ Spoiler ]

Implant Grade Rating Essence

Shiawase ExecutiveSuite Line Silverline Aplha - .76
Sigma II Headware Commlink - - -
ATC 3318 Pearl Image Link - - -
Datajack - - -
Attention CoProcessor - 3 -
Math SPU - - -
Sleep Regulator - - .15

Gear:

Armor:

[ Spoiler ]

(3) Zoe Executive Suit w. Short Jacket 5/2

On Hand:

[ Spoiler ]

Glasses w. Vision Enhancement, Flare Compensation, Image Link

At Home:

[ Spoiler ]

Vehicle:

[ Spoiler ]

Range Rover Model 2071; Black; Limo Tinted Windows

Comlink:

[ Spoiler ]

Sigma II w. Novatech Navi (Uprated)
Response Signal Firewall System
4 5 6 4
Programs: FTL Matrixware Power Suite, Eurosoft Clavicula
Gear: Sim Module


2X Disposable, 1 Active