Recruiting for Online, Google Hangouts Based Game, I've never tried it before, but I want to give it a shot! Options

[Speed Wraith]

We are currently locked up for recruitment!

I’m looking for between 4 and 6 players, and things may be locked up at this point. Since this is an experiment for me, this will be a traditional-ish campaign, based in Seattle. As a result more or less traditional roles will be needed for the team. Characters should be thought of as competent runners who are up-and-coming. Anything from an official 4E book is fair game, but I ask that players avoid the more exotic races (especially infected). Those races/infected are not prohibited, I just find that a dietary requirement is distracting to players, and some exotic races can have trouble blending/fitting in. I don’t generally crack down too hard on players, but vampirism is always about the blood (or flesh), and I will not ignore such requirements. Additionally, I will award a small amount of karma, which can be spent prior to the game starting using the normal rules, to any player that gives me a few paragraphs of history/background/explanation of Qualities.

If you’re interested or have any questions/suggestions chime in here for now.

We will use the JMH standard for character creation using karmagen, so 1k karma, 625 attribute cap, metatype cost is equal to BP cost and attributes are 5* for cost.

I’m currently thinking about sessions about four hours long, every other Saturday. I’m thinking 2pm EDT for a start time. With luck, and assuming I can get a chance to review characters soonish, we can try to have our first session on the 25th of August. Since characters are being finalized at this time, and I've been bogged down with administrative tasks and learning to use this new technology, I'm bumping the official start to August 1st. I will be hosting a Hangout on the 25th anyway for a short time just so we can have a meet 'n greet and make sure that we can figure out the technology a little better. This won't be a four-hour gaming session so much as a 30-60 minute session so we know what we're doing when we go live.

Players will need to have a Google email account to allow access to Hangouts and Docs/Drive. Send me a PM with your gmail address and I’ll begin building a group contact list, then distribute it to everyone. Feel free to create a new account if you want to retain privacy or otherwise keep this account separate from others (I’m planning on using one of my alternate accounts because my own Drive space has been filling up fast lately).

Once you have a gmail account, follow this link to the Tabletop Forge application’s home page. Scroll down and you’ll find a section titled, “How do I use Tabletop Forge?” Click on the "g+ Hangout" button and it will launch Hangout, install any required plugins, and add the app to your Hangout apps list.

[Raiden]

Like I said Im interested, I can gaurentee back story with any of my chars. I can probably cover most roles,, though Im not completely competent on the hacking system :/. I was wondering if instead of BP I could use karmagen? if not thats fine i Just prefer it :3. I could maybe add some suggestions. also have another who may be interested.

[Speed Wraith]

Hehe, yup, you're the previously mentioned "DS member penciled into a slot." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Raiden]

>:3 MWhahahaha. lol. if you seem to be lacking of members, I know Thorguild, Derezzed, and I think Fautline ( dunno if i spelled them all correctly) where looking for games. so If no one seems to be interested I could send a PM

[Speed Wraith]

Oh, I nearly forgot. I'm not opposed to using karmagen, I'm just not as experienced with it as the BP system. If folks looking to join would prefer to use it over BPs, we can go with it, no problem, I'll adapt. I will say that initiation/immersion at chargen will be out since I'm looking for an up-and-comer feel, but with the bonus karma for fleshed out characters, it could still be possible.

[Thorguild]

Hey all,

I can play. I have a mostly done Karmagen face-mage. I'll spruce him up.

Thorguild

[Iduno]

What time (and timezone)?

I can be pretty flexible on Saturday, it'd be good to know.

[Speed Wraith]

I'm thinking mid-to-late afternoon so that folks still have Saturday nights open to them, but I'm usually pretty flexible time-wise too. The grocery list is never that long and the fiancee won't drag me to the pool once it closes in a few weeks. I'm on the East Coast, so my time zone is Eastern (GMT-4).

[Raiden]

I have a char two basically done. adepts one uses pistols the other is unarmed. Or if need be I can easily make a combat hacker, im pretty good any time sat. If it gets moved to a weekday I do not know when will be good at the time. (also on east coast)

[_Pax._]

I'm definitely interested. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

As for character generation, I'll only ask that we all use the same method and means of creation. It's the only way to properly provide for intraparty balance. I don't care if it's 400BP, 750 Karma, 1K Karma, or whatever. Just, please, "only one". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Timewise, I can make time almost any day of the week, except one Sunday a month - because I GM a face-to-face game of Shadowrun. First actual session is in 10 days, in fact (which means it's about time to study up on the adventure - I'm using Missions Season 4).

[Speed Wraith]

Yeah, I wouldn't want the headache of having some characters built with one method and others built with another. So far people seem to be leaning towards karmagen, which does have the major advantage of making villains easier to scale and if new/replacement characters are needed, they can leap in with comparable stats (I don't like bringing new characters in at a power level below the rest of the group).

So far it sounds like we have four folks who are interested, and I have a friend local to me who is also interested, I'm just waiting to make sure he can clear it with the wife since he's part of my own Sunday group also.

My plan for the next few days is to play around with the Tabletop Forge app for Google Hangout, try and hammer out a specific time, and write up the intro adventure. Once we can get a schedule folks can agree to, we'll start PMing email addresses to build an email list and setup a shared Google Docs folder for general use and so that I have easy access to copies of everyone's characters.

So far it looks like a magician face and a combatty adept, what else are people thinking about?

Pax and I are often active on this board at the same time, maybe its time for me to change my profile pic to something a little less common (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

EDIT: Buddy doesn't think he can commit after all. I kind of expected that, but no biggie.

[Iduno]

I was thinking about a hacker/rigger or infiltrator as long as magic and face were already taken care of. I could probably put something else together instead if there were skills we were missing.

I'd agree with standard 750 point karmagen. It is 5 points per stat, and pay the BP cost in karma (20 karma for orc, for example) for race? Anything anyone is considering for their backstory that would not work out well with other character types (astral hazing, an elf, hermit who never leaves the barrens, etc.)? Areas of town people want to live?

[Raiden]

well my gunslinger is an ex SWAT member, I like the backstory I did for him. the other. doesnt really have one yet :/.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I'm definitely interested. Kind of a noob to 4e (have played two 4e runs since playing 1st edition back in the mid 90's) but I've been working my way through all the books and am not completely clueless (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) .

I've got a couple human CQC focused 400BP runners w/ backstory (amnesic gunfu adept living on the fringe of the tourist strip off the 405 in Redmond and an ex-MCT legacy street sam w/ yak ties w/ an apartment in Tacoma) ready to roll; a dryad adept con artist pacifist infiltrator w/ Master of a Thousand Faces (w/ as modest of an apartment you can find in Bellevue) that is ready to go aside from writing down her backstory; and another 3 (healer/fire support mage, quadriplegic hacker/rigger, and a fire support/infiltrator sniper) that are ~85-90% finished.

Never tried karmagen but it shouldn't be too hard to convert if you still have space.

I'm also in the eastern time zone. Saturdays are generally pretty flexible for me, only regular conflicts I've got are Wednesday and every other Sunday night tabletop games and work on weekdays to ~7PM though.

[_Pax._]

I would really, really like to play a Rigger. I've tried a couple times, and had the game die out from under me. I'm determined to get a decent chance at it, eventually!

Second choice would be a hacker. I've got a really good 1K-karmagen workup for a Hacker Adept.

Failing that, I've got several other general concepts I could work with. Most of them Adepts; I'm fond of Adepts for some reason. 'Course, I'm also fond of Ghouls as PCs, so maybe the fondness for Adepts isn't so surprising after all.

With that said ... I just need to know what generation method we'll be using, and if it's Karmagen, which version of it we'll be using.

[Iduno]

5 people. Do we have 5 specialties? Mage, rigger, face, maybe a non-rigger hacker. I had an idea about a story for a rigger that's been knocking around in my head for a bit, but I could see what I could come up with for an infiltrator.

Speed Wraith, what kind of security would we be looking at? Cyberware scanners, unmanned scanners, assensing, pressure plates?

[Thorguild]

My 14-year-old son would also like to play if there is room. I'm good with this as long as we are playing a PG-13 game. I'm not big on graphic sex, swearing, or explicit torture. Not just for him, but for me as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Can we stick to a Big Budget Action Movie style of violence and debauchery level?

Thanks,

Thorguild

[Speed Wraith]

I'm very rigger-friendly if only because my first character was one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Actually, my first character was a decker, but I just never liked him as much as old Speedie. Travel will be on the table, which can be hard on vehicle or large drone riggers, but most of the work will be local. Idunu is looking at a rigger/hacker concept, so you might want to work together to see if you guys can cover different angles of the hacking/rigging thing. Perhaps one of you has a focus on virtual combat and observation drones/utility vehicles, the other does traditional hacking and has the combat drones/vehicles? Just a thought.

I will be updating the initial post shortly to reflect decisions on character build and a narrower time frame. It looks like we have five folks ready to tweak characters and toss them my way, so it would pay to have that settled.

It occurs to me that I have an older version of the Runner's Companion at home, since I saw 3*Attribute for karmagen and I thought it was 5* like post-gen karma costs, was there also a change in metatype costs? Any other changes from the first printing?

[Speed Wraith]

My 14-year-old son would also like to play if there is room. I'm good with this as long as we are playing a PG-13 game. I'm not big on graphic sex, swearing, or explicit torture. Not just for him, but for me as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Can we stick to a Big Budget Action Movie style of violence and debauchery level?

Thanks,

Thorguild

That question I'll leave up to the rest of the group to decide if they're comfortable with it or not.

I will warn you that I do have an occasional tendency for casual swearing, and while I'm rarely as bad as my namesake (Speed Wraith was a prolific cusser, once used it as a special skill to replace intimidation when she had a really bad day and just didn't want her Toyota Elite getting scratched by pesky go-gangers), my dialogue or impromptu responses may be sprinkled with vulgar language, depending on the situation. Those rare times I've seen a romantic relationship go to what The Sims calls, "Woohoo!", it is always off-screen. In fact, the last time that happened the character involved didn't even remember the encounter as he'd succumbed to peer pressure earlier in the evening and had smoked a Laes cigarette.

Usually I avoid having folks who are really young due to unpredictable maturity levels, but with a parent directly involved, it makes it a little easier. I was once that age playing Shadowrun, so I'm a little sympathetic, but again, I'd prefer the other players make that call, since he'd be their teammate.

5 people. Do we have 5 specialties? Mage, rigger, face, maybe a non-rigger hacker. I had an idea about a story for a rigger that's been knocking around in my head for a bit, but I could see what I could come up with for an infiltrator.

Speed Wraith, what kind of security would we be looking at? Cyberware scanners, unmanned scanners, assensing, pressure plates?

Wouldn't you like to know! Seriously, it all depends on the job at hand. I try to avoid needless scenes of harassment outside of a run, but if it exists in the rules (and sometimes even if it doesn't), it could show up on a run. Note that when I say "run" here, I'm not talking about the whole adventure, but the core-run itself. Assuming there is one; sometimes stories are about cleaning up old plot points or individual character's problems/development needs.

[Iduno]

Usually I avoid having folks who are really young due to unpredictable maturity levels, but with a parent directly involved, it makes it a little easier. I was once that age playing Shadowrun, so I'm a little sympathetic, but again, I'd prefer the other players make that call, since he'd be their teammate.

We could probably take a look at the character background (or the parts our characters would know about?) to see if we agree with the maturity level. Then again that might mean we'd all have to prove we can be mature. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

It occurs to me that I have an older version of the Runner's Companion at home, since I saw 3*Attribute for karmagen and I thought it was 5* like post-gen karma costs, was there also a change in metatype costs? Any other changes from the first printing?

I remember seeing somewhere Ancient History posted his errata for karmagen, but I haven't been able to find it. It hasn't made it into the non-German Runner's Companion. That explaination is probably also better left to a forum search.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I started converting the dryad con artist/infiltrator using the default 750 karmagen rules in the latest version of Chummer last night w/ the CHAx2 free contacts house rule turned on. Looks like it's got 1 to 1 Karma to BP for metatype, 5 to 1 for attributes, 2 to 1 for qualities, 4 karma for a new active skill and rank x2 past that, no free knowledge skills, 2 karma for a new knowledge skill and 1x rank after that, 2 karma per point of connection/loyalty on contacts, and 1 karma/¥2500.

It seems like she might turn out a bit more powerful (or well rounded) under these rules than the 400BP build. I was able to add stronger tech skills to her, so she could do some back up hacking (or ECM if that'd be more useful). She's got an OK medicine rating as well. I could swing her secondary proficiencies towards a more active combat role rather than matrix support as well if that helps more.

I'm totally flexible as far as what character/role(s) to play, so just let me know what roles we need and I'll adapt or create a new runner to fit.

Left to my own devices, most of my character concepts and typical dialog can tend to wind up closer to R rated than PG-13, but I don't feel the need for explicit sexual descriptions/content in a game (can't necessarily say the same for graphic violence, judicious profanity, drug use, and adult themes however, it's Shadowrun after all).

[_Pax._]

5 people. Do we have 5 specialties?

Spellcaster
Face
Rigger
Hacker
Shooter
Infiltrator
Melee

... with many possible hybrids, of course.

[...] 14-year-old son [...] PG-13 game.

I'm fine with that in general - though I'll probably be on the high end of PG-13, just as a matter of habit. We can always use a "fade-to-black" deal, and as for language, when playing SR I tend to use SR-specific "swears" (frag, drek, etc) anyway.

Also, what Sid said in his last paragraph.

EDIT TO ADD: in fact, I've made characters your son's age - including for Shadowrun. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) One of which I'm pondering using for this game, even.

[Speed Wraith]

Okay, so it sounds like it is 5* for attributes and the metatype cost is what isn't in the book. Everything else looks to track with the standard rules for karma. I really need to get the revised thingy up, but I'm being lazy while my boss is away and skimming forums while flipping around Memebase, heh.

[_Pax._]

Okay, so it sounds like it is 5* for attributes and the metatype cost is what isn't in the book. Everything else looks to track with the standard rules for karma. I really need to get the revised thingy up, but I'm being lazy while my boss is away and skimming forums while flipping around Memebase, heh.

My only remaining question is:

Do we use 750 Karma, with 375 max for attributes?

Or do we use JMH's 1000 Karma, with 625 for attributes?

I'm fine with either, I just need to know before I start building (all my existing karmagens were builtwith the 1K version).

[Speed Wraith]

I've updated the original post for this thread and I recommend everyone skim it at least. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

In addition to basic email and hangouts using the Tabletop Forge app, I will likely create a shared folder for the group for general purposes, background stuff, post-run fiction (I do that sometimes), and whatever other random but useful items I can think of. I might even check into using Google Groups to see if it offers any additional functionality, but I'm not sure that will be necessary.