[X] My Assistant

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Spikes, a Massive Troll Ganger trying to become a professional Shadowrunner... 11'1" (3.41 Meters) Tall and 1124.2 Pounds (511 Kilos). He stuck out a bit. But boy was he fun to play, in both Detroit (3rd Edition) and Hong Kong (4th Edition Conversion). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, He was pretty Distinctive. Do you know how hard it is to get tailored suits in that size?

[Manunancy]

Spikes, a Massive Troll Ganger trying to become a professional Shadowrunner... 11'1" (3.41 Meters) Tall and 1124.2 Pounds (511 Kilos). He stuck out a bit. But boy was he fun to play, in both Detroit (3rd Edition) and Hong Kong (4th Edition Conversion). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, He was pretty Distinctive. Do you know how hard it is to get tailored suits in that size?

Easier than getting them off-the-rack....

[Lionhearted]

Once played a giant with the large quality(edge?), I think he was upwards 6 meters.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Easier thangetting them off-the-rack....

This is true... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Once played a giant with the large quality(edge?), I think he was upwards 6 meters.

Woah... That is Large...

[Lionhearted]

He had a very hard time finding a ride, eventually got him a custom built motorcycle that I bet wouldn't be street legal anywhere. He was kinda handy for getting people into places although, as he could easily reach the second or third floor of most buildings.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

He had a very hard time finding a ride, eventually got him a custom built motorcycle that I bet wouldn't be street legal anywhere. He was kinda handy for getting people into places although, as he could easily reach the second or third floor of most buildings.

Yeah, no doubt. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[nezumi]

Did he crawl through runs on his hands and knees?

[Lionhearted]

Fortunately it was a barrens focused campaign so not very much corridor crawling. He didn't last very long as I was in my "concept of the month" phase.

[Kliko]

How did he end up? (getting killed)

[Lionhearted]

He didn't, he just went on to do "something else" while my new (equally bizarre) character joined the group.
Given that he was a nordic berserk physad, well he probably went on to Valhalla at some point.

[Shaidar]

Just to clarify, the flaw states very clearly what it does, which is reducing target numbers by to physically track/locate the character in question. The problem is that I don't remember anything about actually performing said tracking/locating. There isn't any kind of page/book quote for the task. If anyone knows where I can find something on that subject, please tell me.

There is no hard mechanic specifically for tracking/locating.

However, as Distinctive Style was a Social Flaw I'd say that the modifier should apply to any attempt to locate the PC or information about them. Knowledge skill rolls relating to areas of knowledge that could be linked to the character (initial leads about character), asking around about the elements of their Style would modify the Social skills used for Legwork rolls (SR3 pg253), or directly sensing the character would be Perception (SR3 pg231).


Cop sees Neon green substance smeared on the top door jamb of the Stuffer Shack he and his partner were called to for the petty theft call. He was on the desk sergeant's drek list lately.

Cop asks bum outside recently robbed Stuffer Shack, "What did he look like?" (Legwork roll with Bum. [Easy Interrogation (Charisma)] test)
Bum replies, "Hard to miss, he was an African-American Troll with a 0.5 meter tall Neon green Mohawk." Points down the street, "He went that way."

Cop enters African-American Troll with a 0.5 meter tall Neon green Mohawk into the police report fields for perpetrator. "The bum said he went south." His partner drove south. Police computer responds with 5 additional incidents linked to Troll and Neon green Mohawk within the last year. (Knowledge Skill: Lone Star Procedures)

"Pull over near that bar up ahead," cop tells his partner. (Knowledge Skill: Gang Identification) "I got a hunch."

Cop asks ganger outside bar, "Seen an African-American Troll with a 0.5 meter tall Neon green Mohawk recently?"
"No.
"Really, are you sure?"
Totally, chum."

[Tiralee]

I explained it, to my group, as something, you're not quite sure what, that makes you memorable, and somewhat obvious...

They took it anyhow. (In creation)

And then they paid a ton of karma to lose the disadvantage after the first time they were tracked by an unfriendly force.

-Tir

[nezumi]

Lone Star has rules for forensic tracking, if I recall. However, they make it WAY too powerful, so you may not want to do that.

Overall Shaidar I think has the strongest suggestion. If someone is doing any sort of legwork on your character, he gets a -2 to TNs.

As a GM, I also rule it increases the likelihood of you appearing on the evening news by about 50%.

[Kagetenshi]

I waffled over whether to engage in thread necromancy for this, but I think it's important:

As a GM, I consider your aura a form of dress, so having a distinctive aura is acceptable.

Every aura is distinctive. A single success on an Assensing test is sufficient to recognize any aura the Assensing individual has ever seen before—they don't even need to have previously Assensed that aura, just seen it. In consequence, I don't see much room for an Aura to get even more distinctive, especially not in a way that resembles the usual affect of the flaw (best I could come up with is to dispense with the need for Assensing and make the recognition automatic, which… ew.).

~J

[Umidori]

There's also the -teeny tiny- matter of the rules for Distinctive Style specifically stating they have no effect on Astral or Matrix searches...

~Umi

[All4BigGuns]

There's also the -teeny tiny- matter of the rules for Distinctive Style specifically stating they have no effect on Astral or Matrix searches...

~Umi

Create a custom NQ. "Distinctive Astral Style" for those distinctive auras.

[Kagetenshi]

There's also the -teeny tiny- matter of the rules for Distinctive Style specifically stating they have no effect on Astral or Matrix searches...

Right, but that was already mentioned, so Nezumi was presumably indicating that he would be willing to expand interpretation beyond canon in this. My point was that there's simply no room to do so—Auras are already about as distinctive as they can possibly be without the test automatically succeeding.

~J

[Shaidar]

Data Shadow
Bonus: 5 BP/level
The character has a prominent feature, history, style, name, or other piece of information that makes him easy to locate in the Matrix. Any Data Search Test involving information about the character is made at a +2 dice pool modi er for each level of this quality (max. 3). Additionally, the threshold for any Track Test is reduced by one per level of this quality.

That would cover Matrix Searches, but there my SearchFu fails. I can't find a similar NQ for Magical/Astral searches.

[Kagetenshi]

Actually, the closest thing mechanically to an Astral Distinctive Style would be Astral Impressions, though it's a loose fit. Note that this is SR3, and Data Shadow does not exist.

~J

[Halinn]

I waffled over whether to engage in thread necromancy for this, but I think it's important:

Every aura is distinctive. A single success on an Assensing test is sufficient to recognize any aura the Assensing individual has ever seen before—they don't even need to have previously Assensed that aura, just seen it. In consequence, I don't see much room for an Aura to get even more distinctive, especially not in a way that resembles the usual affect of the flaw (best I could come up with is to dispense with the need for Assensing and make the recognition automatic, which… ew.).

~J

A distinctive styled aura could expand it to being so describable that Joe the KE wizard-cop knows that Bob the Ares wagemage saw that aura back during the warehouse break-in. Then he calls in reinforcements to the Stuffer Shack to take down a rogue runner.

[nezumi]

I waffled over whether to engage in thread necromancy for this, but I think it's important:

Every aura is distinctive. A single success on an Assensing test is sufficient to recognize any aura the Assensing individual has ever seen before—they don't even need to have previously Assensed that aura, just seen it. In consequence, I don't see much room for an Aura to get even more distinctive, especially not in a way that resembles the usual affect of the flaw (best I could come up with is to dispense with the need for Assensing and make the recognition automatic, which… ew.).

~J

Every aura is unique. Not necessarily distinctive. Just like every dollar bill is unique, but the one where Georgie has been painted up with lipstick and purple hair is distinctive.

A mage walks into a bar and sees four accountants and a werewolf. The mage can remember their signatures and match them in the future, but only one of those is going to make him do a double take.

[Lionhearted]

You need a better punchline Nezumi...
A mage, a werewolf and an accountant walks into a bar is an interesting start (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Kliko]

We should put a vampire somehwere in there... or a lawyer.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

We should put a vampire somehwere in there... or a lawyer.

Aren't they one and the same?