In-Game character creation, ...or, turning a salaryman into a runner Options

[TimeKeeper]

Ok, I got a player and now I'm GMing (some of you might remember me from about 5 months ago... Yeah, I'm the guy that moved out to Guam.)

Anyway, I started a game with a buddy of mine. The idea was this, he was a semi-un-willing extraction target. The job included a new SIN and ID for the mark once he joined the corperate ranks. Thing is, on the exit, the run gets hosed, 2 runners end up dead and the third in a coma. (I had my Uber-NPC Drake Hardedge playing wheelman get the team and the mark out).

Here's the Rundown:
Team:
Male Ork Merc (Brick)
Female Human Mage (Maggie aka Target 1)
Male Elf Street Sam (Target 2... ok, he had no name)

The team's contract was liquify the mark's assest, and then turn them over to the corperation. This was to purchase him a new apartment and other lifestyle changes (along with adding a sizable bonus into the company bank.) Brick set up the meet and had Drake on tap for the extraction. Drake knew a decker to pull off the assest situation and the run was planned out. On the exit, corpsec gets wind of this and blows away the team. Drake hauls hoop in and out and takes Brick to a street doc.

After a long night where Maggie dies due to massive lead poisoning and the mark has a fun night with a pair of twin prostitutes (one caucasion human, one black elf. One cybered and the other a physad. Both protect him from getting attacked by a local gang as they go into the alley for their fun).

Did I mention the player was new to RPGs in general? Anyway, so Drake spills out the situation. Seems there was one small problem with Brick's plan. Only his team knew the Johnson's contact number. And Brick's in a coma. So Drake hands over the character's (who's player brillently came up with the name Dick Steel) entire assests in certified cred. About 1.2 million.

Right now, the Dick is spending his money on expensive hotels and cheap women/booze.

The plan is for Brick to wake up once Dick's player gets his head out of his ass and decides to play Shadowrun. I figured Brick was up and coming but this run totalled screwed his rep. He figures that by taking this guy under his wing (along with a couple of other grenhorns) he can partially redeem himself.

Point is, this guy is basicly just an average Joe (straight 3s across the board) without cyber or magic (yet. It remains to be seen what "Special Project" he was working on and was aquired for) with 1.1 million nuyen. How can I introduce the gear to him that he'll need to survive?

[Shadow]

You want my advice?
[sarcasm]
Take all your character sheets. Everything you have written about these characters. And then find a shredder. Once all the evidence has been destroyed hire a hypnotist to erase your memory. Once that is done, make all new characters using nothing but the CORE rule book. Once you have done that, try real hard to play the game sober. I think you will find these problems wont present themselves in your games any more.
[/sarcasm]

Have fun, play Shadowrun.

[TimeKeeper]

Yeah, and I would probably help if I actually had REAL players too wouldn't it!?!?
But I don't have that so I'm going to have to convert some (worked back at my last commands). But you're probably right about playing sober, he did have a few drinks that night.

(So I took advantage of him...)

Besides, if I had the book with me I probably would have just used it to beat him upside his head with it.

You may be sarcastic, but I'm replying truthfully.

Hopefully, I have a couple of other players that can bring him around.

[MrSandman666]

Still, interesting concept. I'm also just about forming a group, converting some new players (well, partially) as usual, since there are simply no SR players around!
I think it's a cool idea to have them start as usual Joe and Jane Average and let them enter the Shadows from there.
I'd really like to expand on this point.
Any ideas how ordinary people might slide into the shadows? Of course there's ordinary stuff like being disillusioned about the corp, betrayed by the corp, unwilling extraction target, officially dead... Any other ideas? I'll post my own, too, once I can come up with anything.

Has anyone ever done this? Using a Build Point system, how would you restrict character creation for sararimen (apart fom using common sense on equipment and contacts)?

Thanks a lot...

[Tom Collins]

Had one person in a group that I was in who was quite literally a stock broker. He was also a thrill junkie and greedy for more money than his job could provide, and shadowrunning filled both of those desires quite nicely. Given that he had a SIN and contacts in Seattle's high society, he could do things and get in touch with people that normal runners like the rest of us couldn't. It more than made up for his lack of combat effectiveness. That and he could help laundre our money when we got it and even invest it for us (He is the only one of the original PCs that is still actively running, all the others have retired).

[MrSandman666]

Yea, sararimen are good faces, in many situations.

One more aspect to come to my mind: how do you assemble a group exclusively of sararimen? Except for maybe one semi-experienced. (only have one or maybe two experienced players in my group).

[Siege]

A common thread -- they work together, they live near each other, they share a common interest and so on.

Why would anyone run the shadows? Someone's child was kidnapped is a common and effective hook. Or the child has run off into the dangerous underbelly of the big city and parent enlists some friends to help him find his kid.

The salarimen are coming out a bar late when someone staggers out of the alley and collapses in the arms of the most sympathetic character and expires messily but not before pressing a bloody chip into his (or her) hand.

And it wouldn't be hard to find a good salariman who might have a passing familiarity with low-end combat skills.

-Siege

[Czar Eggbert]

The best description of a Sariman to (kinda)runner conversion is in the shadowrun novel Never Deal With a Dragon. Basically you have to make the character fear for his life, or have some cause to complete, something that makes him need to continue his life as an outcast. What I would recommend is to take his money away and slowly introduce him to a life of crime. Ya he'll start out underpowered, but say that maybe he can eventually sell what info he has for some 'ware, or a deck, or even have him awaken. I would also give him a few months of "hard living" off screen to change some of his stats around without having to spend karma. Offer him 2-3 Attribute points to put in physical stats, and 4-8 skill points to put in combat skills and street etiquette, for while he's training with Brick. Give him the Hunted Flaw, but also a Guardian Angle Edge (Brick). Brick got him into this and now he's a fugitive wanted for stealing valuable assettes, on the run from the corporate strike teams trying to recover him, or get rid of him, and let him know exactly how he'll be treated when they get him back.

I'd run it like this. Start the next gaming session with him having fun in the whore house, and a corp strike team breaking in to recapture him. Have Brick and a couple of others get there at the last minuit and save him. In the mean time have the prostituet steal his certified cred stick. Have brick offer to take him under his wing and teach him how to survive on the streets. Make sure the player character knows there is no going back. Have brick offer to pay for some basic cyber ware, SGL, maybe boosted, datajack. Give the player a list of ware and let him chose 2-3 peices, that or give him the option of Awakening due to a traumatic experence that brings the power to the surface(high powered spirit attacks him, killer spell, spontainiously summoning a spirit of the sky to catch him when he's tossed off a 20 story building). Later once he's fully become a SR slowly bring him up to speed with the gear he needs for his chosen profession, either by looting the "bad" guys, gifts by "concerned" partys, sale of whatever project he was working on, or he recovers some of his money from the prostitute.


-The Eggman
-Wow I don't think I've ever rambeled this much before.

[Siege]

Yes, but he was asking about an entire team of salarimen who run the shadows -- kinda, sorta.

-Siege

[moosegod]

Well, for the "getting on the street" angle, you could put them all under one guy. You know, Brick is paying off a huge favor to somebody to protect the favoree's cousin and friends. Have Brick act as a sort of "spokesman" for the shadows, and use him to help the team out. When Brick has paid off his favor (IE: The team is good enough) fade him out, letting people keep him as a contact.

[TimeKeeper]

when did I say team? Anyway, the other characters that I mentioned would be newbie runners and them along with Dick Steel (the salaryman) would be the new members of Brick's team.

Small backstory was that Brick was batting .800 (not a thousand but he was still doing good) then he messed up big time on what was basicly a simple run (doesn't it always happen that way?). So with his rep in the shitter (He lost his entire team, ended up in a coma and couldn't complete the run) he trys to salvage what's left by training these new guys.

[Siege]

Sorry -- Sandman did, a couple posts up.

-Siege