Shadow's Dawn: Diving into the past- recruitment, Recruiting reserves Options

[Ol' Scratch]

Okay, here's a list of some things I'd like to do as far as leg work goes. I'm not sure how much time we have, so I'll probably have to streamline it a bit. But for now, here's the list in order of priority/desireability.

• Language: Spend an hour or two speed-reading "Aztlander for Dummies" off the Matrix, and watching a number of Aztechnology speeches and the like so that Ambrose can pick up the language, accent, and dialect suitably enough. (Using this Linguistics and Multi-Tasking adept powers, the latter of which so I can do other things at the same time.)
• Disguises: I'm going to assume I had the foresight to bring a few doses of my Elixir of Metamorphosis with the idealized human form with me. Pending your response below, I'd also try concocting one or two more using the ritual samples included with the datafiles.

I also wasn't really happy with my Knowledge Skills so I went and rebuilt them from scratch. I think this selection is a lot better. But if any of you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Also, despite Seth being really generous in this regard, I decided to stick to the same limits as Active Skills.

Knowledge Skills

[ Spoiler ]

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS

Ancient Weapons & Armor (Design) 4
Anthropology 3
Archaeology 4
Biology (Metahuman) 4
Botany (Parabotany) 4
Chemistry 4
Current Events 3
Cutting Edge Technology (Medical) 4
Esoteric Trivia 3
Forensics (Alchemical) 3
Fourth World Remnants (Power Sites) 3
General History 7
Magical Background (Enchanting) 6
Magical Theory (Enchanting) 6
Modern Technology 4
Philosophy 4
Physics 4
Psychology 3
Spirit Lore 3
Talismongering (Metallurgy) 4
Theology (Gnostic) 3
Zoology (Parazoology) 4

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Dwarven (Barsavian) 2
English (Techno-Jargon) 3
Japanese 2
Or'zet 4
Sperenthiel 4
Theran 1
Trollish N
Windling 1

Linguistics: Arabic 1, Egyptian 1, French 1, German 1

[Seth]

4th Age Remnants is a knowledge skill. Nice thing about knowledge skills is you can just invent them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Its mostly the skill of knowing (and recognizing) people that have been around since the 4th age.

My personal goal would be to focus on finding those signatures the datafiles

You already have them, I will go back and make the briefing a little clearer. One of the council's lackeys masked himself as each of the three mages, and you studied him.

I didn't respond to your question earlier. The briefing you have is your copy of the briefing notes you were given as flew to Aztlan (on a plane that was flown by a shadowrunning / smuggling team recruited for the job). I'd like to roleplay your response to them as flashbacks in the game.

[Ol' Scratch]

Regarding 4th World Remnants, cool. I was looking for a way to cover that angle anyway (I was using "History of the Fourth World" with a Personal specialization, but that didn't feel right).

And doubly fantastic with the signatures. Wait, does that mean we have a ritual sample, too? :O Can I use a portable alchemy kit to brew an Elixir of Metamorphosis for one or more of them during the flight, or would I need my full lab for that? I'll revise my plan above based on the response. I wasn't sure what was going on, truth be told. :)

[Seth]

The material samples are sadly not included in the security briefing. Now if someone had the metamagic "sympathetic link"...that could be exciting.

As an aside it might be interesting if some of you are get ritual magic: as a magical group you could do some fairly serious mojo.

[Ol' Scratch]

Drats, foiled again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Ol' Scratch]

Regarding Ritual Spellcasting: Are you going to be employing a lot of house rules to make this work for us? If my memory isn't completely abandoning me, I believe everyone has to be of the same tradition (an easy house rule to get past) and they have to have a magical lodge equal to the number of participants and the lowest skill level cannot be less than the number of people participating. So if six of us wanted to perform Ritual Spellcasting, we'd need a minimum Lodge of rating 6 and everyone would have to have Ritual Spellcasting 6 or higher.

So all around, it's not very practical for a large group. But we can certainly have a small subgroup that's gifted in that arena. Assuming no house rules, of course.

[Seth]

Ritual spellcasting the recipe:

• All members must be of the same tradition, or members of a magical group
• Have a primary caster with an ok amount of ritual spellcasting (2+)
• All other casters need ritual spell casting 1 (cannot default to it)
• I person needs "great ritual" from street magic (cannot be the primary caster, but he is the reason it works)
• Get as big a lodge as you can, up to the level of the primary casters ritual spell casting
• Spend a point of edge when casting the spell
• Get a decent astral spotter or have "sympathetic link"

So assume primary spell caster rolls: skill 4 + magic 9 + edge 4 + aid sorcery 9 + foci/background/mentor + all the other successes = say 26 + foci etc + all others. With 3 of you supporting and getting 10 successes between you (very conservative, as they can roll edge as well, and have aid sorcery / foci / ... as well) that would be around 40 die

This means that you can hit someone with a force 13 spell from a level 4 lodge. A force 13 spell with 40 die backing it up is fairly serious mojo!

The only house rules I am thinking of introducing are:

• You have been members of a magical group for so long that you are no longer at any penalties for ritual spell casting with multiple traditions (normally takes twice as long)
• You can use anyones lodge (not against RAW as far as I can tell - rereading the section as I type), but if the primary spell caster doesn't mask as a legitimate user, then the rating of the lodge acts as a magical barrier against the spell.

This of course means that someone has to get great ritual, otherwise you are looking at a force 4 spell with maybe 20..30 die backing it up, and its lot less impressive.

[Ol' Scratch]

This really sounds interesting, though I don't recall the rules reading anything like that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Of course, I never paid much attention to them to begin with, so ignorance abounds on my part!

That said, do you think it would be cheesy if I included a point or two for Ritual Spellcasting considering I have an Incompetent: Spellcasting quality? I originally had that on my first draft, as well as a couple of spells so I could take advantage of my Spirits of Man, but it seemed kind of weird to me. Would love to hear your guys' opinions on the subject. I can certainly afford to shift a few points around to get at least rank 1.

[Seth]

Totally different skill, and more its totally different usage. Gets you some spells for your spirit of man as well if you want

[Ol' Scratch]

I think part of my problem was that there's no real way to explain how I got the spells in the first place. Despite the character creation rules allowing it, learning a spell requires a Spellcasting Test. Ritual Spellcasting isn't a suitable replacement. And...

Wait, why am I talking myself out of this?

[pbangarth]

Wait, why am I talking myself out of this?

It's best to get all the wrinkles out at the start, rather than having to retcon.

This does sound interesting. Maybe Mandala can get 1 level in Ritual Spellcasting. Or he could be the one who gives 9 dice in Aid Sorcery. Hmmm. can each spellcaster in the ritual who can Bind have his own spirit for Aiding?

[Seth]

It's best to get all the wrinkles out at the start, rather than having to retcon.

This does sound interesting. Maybe Mandala can get 1 level in Ritual Spellcasting. Or he could be the one who gives 9 dice in Aid Sorcery. Hmmm. can each spellcaster in the ritual who can Bind have his own spirit for Aiding?

I would get it anyway: you can use it for astral tracking. I suspect you will be aiding the primary caster, otherwise its 4500nuyen and a potentially deadly load of drain. The spell casters IIRC can bind their own spirits, and use their own foci and edge.

You can be certain that the bad guys will be using ritual sorcery, as will many of the other 4th age remnants. Its a slow but powerful tool.

[pbangarth]

I would get it anyway: you can use it for astral tracking. I suspect you will be aiding the primary caster, otherwise its 4500nuyen and a potentially deadly load of drain. The spell casters IIRC can bind their own spirits, and use their own foci and edge.

You can be certain that the bad guys will be using ritual sorcery, as will many of the other 4th age remnants. Its a slow but powerful tool.

OK, back to the drawing board. At least I have those BP I spent on 4th Age Remnants!

[Ol' Scratch]

Cripes, I'm feeling more and more useless. "It's okay guys, I can help protect us from this massive incoming ritual spell that we have no idea is being cast; I have Counterspelling 3!" <dies three seconds later> (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Seth]

Cripes, I'm feeling more and more useless. "It's okay guys, I can help protect us from this massive incoming ritual spell that we have no idea is being cast; I have Counterspelling 3!" <dies three seconds later> (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You'll be glad to know that assensing is your friend. You have a very good chance to spot the incoming spell (the bigger it is, the easier it is), then you get behind a nice big ward, get some people help you countermagic, and have a good healer near by. Increase body/Increase willpower are your friends (being possessed by a nice spirit to buff your body is not bad). You can also astral track them to their starting location, and head them off, or you can try and deal with their ritual spotter. You could even try and do an astral quest to break the link.

If you decide to tough it out though, you summon a nice big force 7+ish spirit and ask it to countermagic. Just as a start: countermagic 7 + your ward 9 (you do make your own wards don't you) + attribute + edge gives you around 20..25 die to resist with. Other people can add their countermagic using teamwork, so you could easily get 8 or more bonus die there.

But in practice a GM that does that without good reason is no different to one that snipers someone in the head from 2 miles away, thats actually more likely to kill some one.

In the games I have played and GMed in, we mostly use ritual magic to deal with low powered/magically inactive targets or track people and call in the troops. Powerful magicians tend to cancel out other power magicians, and it comes down to the grunts kicking the door down and blasting away.

[Ol' Scratch]

If it wasn't clear, I was just picking on myself for not being as combat-oriented (or defensively-oriented) as I often am with my characters. I'm kind of nervous about screwing this up and ending up like Senor Chang's mage in Community's Dungeons & Dragons episode. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[sabs]

Is Great Ritual a Metamagic ? If it is, I'll pick it up.

[pbangarth]

Yes, it is on page 57 of Street Magic.

[Aria]

Ryl has some background story up and running now on page1 of this thread.

I'm a little nervous being the only decker on this little jaunt, mainly because I really don't know the rules...when I eventually get the rest of my stats posted please pull apart with a fine toothed weapon foci!!!

Any build tips in advance of that would be much appreciated!!!!!

[sabs]

I know Hackers pretty well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) so if you don't mind some kibitzing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I can help.

[BlackHat]

Any build tips in advance of that would be much appreciated!!!!!

Unlurking for a bit. Some random hacker advice (having made a ton, and played a few). Feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

[ Spoiler ]

The skills you have down look like a decent start. Prioritizing Cracking skills over Electronics skills was a good call. Also, it was good that you didn't skip on electronic warfare. The main question of viability as a hacker will come down to your choice of gear (which is currently blank) - what your commlink looks like, and what programs you have on it. Since you're neither a TM, nor a cybered up hacker, you'll be at a slight disadvantage, but you should be able to be "good enough" if you're willing to sink a lot of cash into covering all of your bases - particularly since software and hardware are "build" skills, which should allow you to go over the availability 12 on programs/commlink if you want, according to that houserule.

I thought Seth was using a houserule about hacking (logic+skill, hits limited by program rating) but I don't see it listed so I might be thinking of another game. So, assuming that hacking is RAW, you'll want your program ratings high - as high as you can get them - and you'll want your commlink pimped out enough to run them and not slow down.

You'll want options on some of the programs (especially cheap "common-use" programs). One of the best is "ergonomic" which you would want on programs that you would often have running like analyze, stealth, encrypt, eccm, etc. You'll want commlink modifications (custom user interface, optimization, and simsense acceleration if you can get past the 14 availability with your hardware skill).

Common-use programs are so cheap you might as well get them all. Out of the hacking programs, I usually prioritize stealth above all else, then exploit, decrypt, defuse and scan, to allow you to find and hack into the node in the first place (nothing worse than having low-rating encryption or data-bombs thwart your high roll to hack into something because you forgot to get decrypt/defuse or electronic warfare skill). After that, sniffer and spoof are good for overhearing matrix traffic and spoofing commands without having to hack the high rating system in the first place, but are pretty situational. I usually avoid all cybercombat, completely, since IMHO once cybercombat begins, alarms are usually ringing and you've already blown the hack. Your mileage may vary, especially if hacking into systems that cannot afford to shut down to evict you. ECCM is good for making sure you can connect in an area with interference, but I've found wifi-blocking (or systems with wireless disabled) to be more common than ones with a lot of ECM. Track is also situationally useful. Generally doesn't help you hack into anything, but for the right kind of run, it can help a lot.

[Seth]

Don't worry: you get to face Zero on your own (see security briefing).

Programs:
You want to buy all your programs at 6. Pirate software is much cheaper (p94 unwired) but has a high monthly maintenance cost. If you pay the full cost, the programs won't degrade. Program options are important: ergonomic is nice on a few programs (the ones you run all the time), optimisation is critical as it lets you run a program above the maximum rating of the commlink, mute is awesome for exploit and spoof.

Commlink: The hardware skill acts like the software skill for availability. See table SR4a p222, so you can start with response 6 if you have hardware 4. You might as well start with all other attributes at 6.

Skills: Most hackers I have played with rate "hacking" as a killer skill, and recommend starting at 6 with a spec in exploit. You should get at least 1, and probably 4 in electronic warface and cybercombat. I would probably get the electronics group at 4: gives you hardware/software 4, which lets you get better equipment as described above. You might want to consider a few points in gunnery, pilot and perception skills so that if you should hack a drone, you can use it.

Qualities: Code slinger (hacking on the fly) is good (other options good too). More than metahuman is good if you have those few points in gunnery and pilot.

Attributes: Intuition and willpower are the really important ones (intuition especially, as its initiative). Logic is a bit useful, but for some reason not very.

Cyberware: Encephalon and maths spu are good.

Geneware: PuShEd and daredrenaline are good.

Nanotech: I personally am not a fan of nanotech, but many people like the logic skill boosting nanoware. Note though that as you take damage the nanotech gets zapped. However as a drake I'll give you a bonus: the nanotech vanishes when you are in drake form, so damage taken then doesn't impact the nanotech. I don't know if thats RAW or not. If you get nanotech, get a nanohive in a cyber hand or foot.

Bioware: I don't think helps you much

Remember the bioware and cyberware you get as deltaware for the cost of standard, but not geneware or nanotech (a nanohive counts as cyberware for these purposes to make life simpler).

Adept powers: As an adept I'd get enhanced skill(hacking), enhanced skill(cyber combat) and consider enhanced skill(electronics warfare or computer). I like multi-tasking a lot: as using matrix perception is a free action. Heightened concentration is awesome, as it lets you ignore loads of minus's (wound penalties being a big one).

[Aria]

I haven't had a chance to look at the hacker advice yet but I've updated my sheet again. I'm still over the BP limit by a bit and there are more things still to consider so it's a work in progress (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I went for an implanted comm so I don't need to worry about elastic bands!

Don't I use logic for all my hacking skills?!?

[sabs]

No, not really, not unless Seth decides to use the really excellent alternative rules.

[Seth]

Ah: I don't really like the excellent alternative rules: if people get lucky I like them to get the benefit of that luck, and I like hackers to be able to do something other than hack (otherwise they will be just better if they were a technomancer IMHO). I quite like an alternative system that uses logic + skill, and assumes that the hacker has good programs and equipment, but its so far away from RAW that I'm not going to run it on dumpshock.

We are using the standard hacking rules in a pnp game and they seem to work well. I have some minor whines about them (mostly I think the probe rules are flawed), but overall it seems much better than previous efforts. The party hacker tried a low logic hacker in the pnp game, and it just didn't work. You probably only need about logic 3 or 4 though. (Someone needs to make those hardware + logic rolls to hack into the wired systems, and matrix knowledge skills can be useful)