Mars Alpha recruitment Options

[FuelDrop]

Okay, here's the general idea for a game:

The PCs are all corporate employees who've just been transferred to the Mars colony. Combat light, little traditional running, corporate missions.

Is anyone interested?

[nezumi]

What edition?

[pbangarth]

"Combat light". Does that mean we are all armed with lasers?

[FuelDrop]

I'm good with either 4th or 5th edition, depending on what the players end up wanting.

Combat light means that combat will not be the primary focus of the game.

[FuelDrop]

Sorry, I haven't been very eloquent so far.

The concept I'm going for here is that the PCs are a group of newly transferred corporate types who've all come to mars on the same ship. They all get grabbed by the head of operations almost the moment they step off the transport and get sent off to repair the communications array on an outpost which hasn't reported in since a large sandstorm. After that, the team will return to the alpha complex and get involved in the standard jockeying for position you'd expect in a corporate environment.

A couple of points about the campaign:

Everyone will have a corporate SIN. This won't be a negative quality, it's a requirement for working on mars.

This campaign is going to have large sections that are player-driven, as the PCs will have the option of playing dirty to improve their chances of promotion by taking down the competition.

Most non-implanted gear will not need to be bought during chargen, as the corporation will provide things like clothes (Evo HEL Suits will be standard), weapons and ammunition (sidearms for security personnel, with heavier weapons based on the officer's proficiencies and the mission in question), Drones and vehicles (again on a mission by mission basis), Commlinks and Decks, that sort of thing will all be provided by the mother corporation.

Given the mana vacuum on mars I'm expecting a tech-heavy group rather than magic heavy. Some areas will have more or less mana on tap than average, but fair warning that being a mage will be a handicap.

PS: Yes, I have just gotten my hands on a copy of Doom 3 BFG edition. No, you'll not be fighting off a demonic invasion... well, unless you really want to.

[nezumi]

SR4/5 aren't normally my poison of choice, but I've played at conventions. Since it's combat light, do you think a knowledge-light player would fit in?

[FuelDrop]

SR4/5 aren't normally my poison of choice, but I've played at conventions. Since it's combat light, do you think a knowledge-light player would fit in?

Probably. I'm primarily planning to focus on the role playing stuff, with the rules hopefully being fairly incidental.

On the other hand, a knowledge-light character might be hard to fit in, what with mars being a science outpost and all. I suppose a security officer won't really need that much knowledge...

BTW, it's going to be assumed that if you've got high ranks in an academic or professional knowledge skill then you've got a degree associated with it.

Hmmm... I think I'm going to go with 4th edition for this one, since most of the splat books I own are for 4th.

[nezumi]

I've got a lot of knowledge about Mars! I wrote for Eclipse Phase. And reading the wiki, the Shadowrun material on Mars is pretty skimpy. Is there a book I need to pick up?

[FuelDrop]

Well, we're likely to be using the rules from Hazard Pay if we go 4th or Run and Gun if we go 5th. However, neither of those are exactly vital. Nice to have if you already own a copy, but don't go and buy them just for this game.

[pbangarth]

How about the first archaeologist on Mars? I always wanted to be that... like, in real life.

[FuelDrop]

How about the first archaeologist on Mars? I always wanted to be that... like, in real life.

Sounds fine to me. You can come along to investigate those rumors of dragon bones being dug up, Dr Jones. Just leave the whip by the door.

[Marcus Tarrow]

Do you have room for a fairly longtime lurker to join your trip to the great red dustball in the sky? I've played various RPG's for years, but my group broke up before we could get our teeth into Shadowrun properly. I've been getting my SR fix by dropping onto dumpshock a few times a day and following the tales on here instead (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I had a battlefield medic written up that should only take a modicum of tweaking to suit the change in environment. Personnel are valuable after all - I mean the pricetag on bringing Dr Jones' replacement to mars would be horrific (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[FuelDrop]

Do you have room for a fairly longtime lurker to join your trip to the great red dustball in the sky? I've played various RPG's for years, but my group broke up before we could get our teeth into Shadowrun properly. I've been getting my SR fix by dropping onto dumpshock a few times a day and following the tales on here instead (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I had a battlefield medic written up that should only take a modicum of tweaking to suit the change in environment. Personnel are valuable after all - I mean the pricetag on bringing Dr Jones' replacement to mars would be horrific (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Of course you're welcome to join. Are you coming in as a doctor, or a security consultant with medical training?

That gives us three, and I was hoping for a medic. How's your guy's Psychiatry? We'll probably end up dealing with a few headcases before the game's over...

[FuelDrop]

Some quick notes:

Firstly, PCs aren't going to have much cash per say, with monthly salaries of a few grand apiece. What you'll be buying gear from is your department's budget, which is basically a pool of cash that you can use to order in stuff you need.

Now the catch is going to be that you'll probably all be assigned to a single team with a group budget, out of which will come your living expenses (Minimum high lifestyle costs per person, since living on mars isn't exactly cheap) and your pay (Set salary unfortunately, but it still comes out of your monthly budget).

On the bright side, there are several ways you can stretch or increase your budget:
1) Professional knowledge: Accounting + logic will let you increase your budget by 2% per net hit, with a check that can be made once per month.
2) High loyalty earned with someone higher up the corporate food chain can increase your budget. You can't start with your boss as a high loyalty contact.
3) Crafting skills (Armorer, Hardware, Various Engineering Skills, Cybertechnology) mean you can fab the parts on your nanoforge and assemble equipment yourself, cutting costs by up to 50% (You can cut corners to reduce both difficulty and costs for an item by up to 4 points of threshold and extra 20% discount [total 70%] but each point and 5% gives the device a rating of gremlins. For Cyber/Bioware [which will be harder to forge] you can instead choose to make the 'ware count as second hand, even though it's new, dropping the cost and crafting threshold but increasing essence costs). Also ignore canon, the nanoforges work just fine.
4) Forgery skills and hacking skills can artificially increase your logged output, increasing your apparent value to the company and thus netting you a bigger budget.
5) Sweet-talking someone higher up the food chain also works, similar to using contacts but as a 1 time increase rather than the regular boost of the contact.

Additionally, only security officers will be allowed to carry weapons (barring some event that makes distribution of weapons necessary), and even they're going to be limited to gel rounds most of the time. Hull breaches are bad. That said, you'll have plenty of access to blunt objects like wrenches, pipes, ect. and can undoubtedly improvise a firearm should you really wish to. The point of having a base on mars is that you can screen everyone who comes in VERY thoroughly, so in theory heavy security isn't needed...

Finally, I value player input into where the campaign is going to go. It's your story after all, so if there's any goals your characters want to achieve then either post it or message me and I'll do what I can to make it possible.

[nezumi]

I'm still interested in jumping in. Since it's low-combat, I'd probably go techie. I'll avoid your newfangled SR4 matrix and focus on hardware.

[FuelDrop]

So far we've got:
nezumi, Technical expert.
Marcus Tarrow, Ex-military doctor or possibly Security specialist, subcatagory field medic.
pbangarth, Archaeologist.

Is this correct?

I'd like to add a 4th person but if you guys are happy with a 3 man team then I can already see where to go with this group.

Quick vote: Shadowrun 4A or Shadowrun 5? (note: if 5th will be house-ruling Logic+Intuition x 3 Knowledge skills. Knowledge skills are going to be important for this game, so short-changing you guys with them seems kinda petty.)

Also, if 4A then what is everyone's preferred Chargen system, BP Karma or Priority? In both cases it's a numbers game with whichever system gets the most votes is the one we're going with. If someone puts a compelling argument out for their choice and you feel like changing your vote, all I ask is that you make sure you're clear when you post your new vote.

[pbangarth]

I don't know 5 at all, so I would need serious help in chargen to make my PC. So, I would like 4A, and karmagen in that. I like the idea of being able to make someone with a lot of different lower level skills.

Funny you should make the allusion to Indiana Jones. I have played one archaeologist several times, in Virtual Seattle and here in DS, who has a back story that explains his presence in the shadows (basically looking for the one-armed man). His birth name is Nathaniel Jones, and he is the great grandson of Indiana. I keep playing him because I have yet to resolve in play the issue that put him where he is. The campaign keeps dying!

I would like the idea of doing him again... in this alternate universe he runs away to Mars to get away from the underworld figure who hunts him.

The sticky part is, he has always been an adept. I will have to figure out if I can bend the story to fit a non-magical PC, or whether I should start from scratch. The latter might be a good idea, as currently "Professor" is the semi-fixer/johnston in the game I run here on DS. ALternate universes for the same character at the same time? Hmmm... split personality, anyone?

[FuelDrop]

I don't know 5 at all, so I would need serious help in chargen to make my PC. So, I would like 4A, and karmagen in that. I like the idea of being able to make someone with a lot of different lower level skills.

Funny you should make the allusion to Indiana Jones. I have played one archaeologist several times, in Virtual Seattle and here in DS, who has a back story that explains his presence in the shadows (basically looking for the one-armed man). His birth name is Nathaniel Jones, and he is the great grandson of Indiana. I keep playing him because I have yet to resolve in play the issue that put him where he is. The campaign keeps dying!

I would like the idea of doing him again... in this alternate universe he runs away to Mars to get away from the underworld figure who hunts him.

The sticky part is, he has always been an adept. I will have to figure out if I can bend the story to fit a non-magical PC, or whether I should start from scratch. The latter might be a good idea, as currently "Professor" is the semi-fixer/johnston in the game I run here on DS. ALternate universes for the same character at the same time? Hmmm... split personality, anyone?

As for the Adept thing, I can help you a bit. I was meaning to bring this up before, but forgot:

Custom metamagic: Inner strength.
Ignore 1 point of mana vacuum per two initiations you possess (minimum 1).

This is just off the cuff, and can be negotiated.

So how are you thinking of having Dr Jones end up working for Evo? I think it'd actually be great to have one guy with some street smarts who's so good at what he does that the corps are willing to overlook it dropped into the most corporately sanitized environment imaginable. Awesomeness!

[Marcus Tarrow]

Of course you're welcome to join. Are you coming in as a doctor, or a security consultant with medical training?

That gives us three, and I was hoping for a medic. How's your guy's Psychiatry? We'll probably end up dealing with a few headcases before the game's over...

Thanks for having me. I hope my occasional lack of familiarity with things doesn't slow the game down at all. Everyone feel free to smack me upside the head and correct my ways if I do anything stupid (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I was leaning towards the latter of the two, with the general idea for the character having being a medic first who received some combat training later on. Maybe he'd make more sense as an ex HRT medic rather than ex-mil? It'd shift his skillset towards non-combat skills and give good reason to keep what combat skills he does have fairly non-lethal. He'd probably feel bad if he had to actually kill someone but he can deal with that if / when it happens (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I'm flexible on the character though. If what you've got in mind would work better with a doctor I might be able to work something out. Psychiatry is something I know little about so i doubt I could RP it convincingly. I could probably pull off chemistry or engineering without embarrassing myself too much but I can see how those'd be less storyworthy than picking apart the inner workings of someone who's gone a lil crazy in a very confined space.

As for ruleset 4th is the one I've got some familiarity with. I'm ok with either chargen method. I only really know of 5th what I've seen here and (if speed is an issue) it'd take me a few days to get hold of the 5th edition book.

[nezumi]

I'm SLIGHTLY more familiar with fifth because I've played it at cons, but I think I have the 4th edition book around somewhere, so either is fine. Both use the same mechanical system for basic skill checks, so I figure once we get started, I'll make up for any rules-knowledge deficit with good roleplaying.

[FuelDrop]

We've got 2 votes out of 3 for 4th so far, so that's looking like it'll be our poison.

MT, make whatever you want to play and I'll work the game around it.

One thing I can imagine is that a HTR medic would have good practice with subduing unruly patients. Just a thought. I'm doubting that there's going to be much killing done in this game as, well, getting people to mars is VERY expensive and they tend to be top-tier personnel, so killing people is likely to be frowned upon. There are some metacreatures that have been brought over for testing and there may or may not be genetically modified abominations in one of the top secret labs, both of which might get loose if something went very wrong. In that case lethal force is reasonably acceptable, I suppose. I just recommend not bothering to pick up the heavy weapons skill as it's unlikely to ever come up.

[pbangarth]

As for the Adept thing, I can help you a bit. I was meaning to bring this up before, but forgot:

Custom metamagic: Inner strength.
Ignore 1 point of mana vacuum per two initiations you possess (minimum 1).

This is just off the cuff, and can be negotiated.

So how are you thinking of having Dr Jones end up working for Evo? I think it'd actually be great to have one guy with some street smarts who's so good at what he does that the corps are willing to overlook it dropped into the most corporately sanitized environment imaginable. Awesomeness!

So, what chargen method are you thinking of? Points allowed? Would Initiation at chargen be allowed?

That is a relatively esoteric metamagic, which would make sense for someone planning to go to Mars, but someone who ended up here on the run might not realistically have chosen it while expecting to live on Earth.

The Dr. Jones I have played spent a lot of time excavating in desert conditions, so that would be a clear 'in' for work on Mars. He was also a rising star in the field of Archaeology till he was framed with murder and theft. Got off because of a good lawyer, but shunned by the general academic community nonetheless. The adept powers the original character concept has were mostly directed towards making his research work better, and yet were transferrable to work in the shadows.

I don't know that the Inner Strength metamagic would have all that much effect on Mars. It may make more sense to forego being an adept and go for some technological enhancements instead.

Off the top of my head, I don't know what the mana level is on Mars. Can anyone help me on this point?

Thoughts?

[FuelDrop]

Also, everyone gets an agent to be their Guide/Secretary/Personal Manager/Corporate Observer. It comes prepackaged with a bunch of useful programs like data search, encryption, data files on mars, personnel files on the people you'll be working with, a library related to the owner's field of expertise, and a helpful little subroutine that keeps corporate apprised of your activities. Because EVO cares about you! (Yes, you'll be able to have someone hack that last bit and doctor the information corporate receives. It's an obstacle to overcome, not a railroading device.)

[FuelDrop]

So, what chargen method are you thinking of? Points allowed? Would Initiation at chargen be allowed?

That is a relatively esoteric metamagic, which would make sense for someone planning to go to Mars, but someone who ended up here on the run might not realistically have chosen it while expecting to live on Earth.

The Dr. Jones I have played spent a lot of time excavating in desert conditions, so that would be a clear 'in' for work on Mars. He was also a rising star in the field of Archaeology till he was framed with murder and theft. Got off because of a good lawyer, but shunned by the general academic community nonetheless. The adept powers the original character concept has were mostly directed towards making his research work better, and yet were transferrable to work in the shadows.

I don't know that the Inner Strength metamagic would have all that much effect on Mars. It may make more sense to forego being an adept and go for some technological enhancements instead.

Thoughts?

So far it looks like Karma generation, with 1 vote for and 1 vote doesn't care. Yes, initiation will be allowed during Chargen.

The mana vacuum levels you're looking at are going to be:
Life Support/Arboretum/Hydroponics bay -1/-2, based on size.
Mars City (largest settlement) -3
Alpha/Beta/Delta labs -4 (this is where most of the game will take place)
Remote site (regular population 20-30 people) -6
Mars wasteland -8
(I believe space is -12, right?)

Now the trip over from earth is at least 1 month, and if you have magic then it's reasonable to assume that the corp isn't going to squander that talent so they'd provide a trainer with the relevant metamagic and your tradition on the way over. So it's not unreasonable for you to have picked up the metamagic specifically for this trip.

If you think that waving the adept angle is a better option for you then go for it. Adepts will definitely be at something of a disadvantage due to the mana void, but on the flip side actual magical talent will be invaluable should an artifact with magical power get dug up. Whichever you decide, some knowledge on magical artifacts makes sense for an archaeologist in the awakened world.

A couple of other minor points:

1: I'm assuming that unless either there's something you should get a perception check for or you specifically say you're looking around or the like that you're buying hits with perception. It should save some dicerolling, and I'll try and highlight any point where making active perception checks is a good idea.

2: I would like for a bit of co-operation with character building, so that everyone's dicepools for their primary skills are within the same ball park (within 4 dice of each other is really ideal. I'm trying to avoid having one guy with 12 dice in his specialty and then someone else with 54 dice. That way everyone's about equal in their specialty and I can build challenges around those numbers). You guys decide among yourselves what power level you want to play and I'll roll with that, but I'd prefer to have everyone on the same page.

3: Since mars is fairly undefined as a setting in shadowrun we get to do some worldbuilding. Naturally as GM most of that falls on me, but if anyone wants to make a suggestion go for it.

4: Unless otherwise specified all equipment is assumed to have been modified to work on mars, meaning all weapons have Extreme Environment modification 2, vehicles are all electric rather than internal combustion based and have life support systems, ect.

[nezumi]

Is there a recommended chargen tool I should jump on, or do people usually do this by hand?

Regarding creating Mars, how much material are we already working with? I know a few corps have set up habitats; I seem to recall Ares and Yamatetsu, although apparently Evo as well, I presume with the primary purpose of research at this point. I seem to also recall something about dragons on Mars, or indications of such, which I imagine to be a major point of research. Has that developed at all?

How old is this outpost at the time of the game?

Also, what's the posting rate? My weekends tend to get filled up, but most weekdays I'm fine.