Merc Campaign Help Needed, Ghost information Options

[Paul]

As we sit furiously scanning books, I decided I'd search DSF for more information as I knew the books are light on what I want. But 'lo and behold the search function wil not work for some reason on my browser. (Mozilla Firefox) I have tried three times now, and will keep trying. What' I'd like is a thread or two that discusses the Tir ghosts and what they are.

Much thanks in advance.

[FenrilKnight]

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...3&hl=tir+ghosts

Here's a thread about the Ghosts allowing in other races. Not sure if that what you were looking for.

[Critias]

What exactly is it you're after? What sort of gear they use, what sort of niche they fulfill, what sort of metaracial breakdowns they tend towards, what sort of stats to give them...? Numbers, or background/fluff? "Info about Ghosts" is pretty broad.

[Paul]

Nothing specific too be honest. We are developing a characters background, and we realized we didn't hae enough information. He is an elf, and we're thinking about having him be a former ghost-but before we do we want to make sure our understanding of what the ghosts are and do is complete.

Thanks for the link FenrilKnight. I'll be looking at it soonish.

[FlakJacket]

You've got Corporate Punishment right? 'Cause that's the book with the stats for a team of them in. Not so much what or who they are but gives the a general idea of the make up of a team of them.

[Paul]

I do have that, must have forgotten that was there. Thanks.

[Backgammon]

FIY I use Firefox and the search works fine, so that's not the problem.

[Charon]

IMO the Ghosts are too elite for a starting PC to be from their ranks but YMMV.

What I mean by that is that if a starting PC is badass enough to be a Ghost, then either the Ghosts have lowered their standard significantly or they are just not as elite as they are supposed to be.

Otherwise, what we know about them is that they are essentially all elves, mostly adepts with some mage, a few cybered. They do counter terrorism, hostage and deniable black ops. They do everything, basically, even shadowrunner kind of work. It's common for a government that doesn't give a damn about what others think to not care too much about full deniability.

From corporate punishment,

All those who are awakened seems to be initate of some level. In corporate punishment they are all 3+ but they were handpicked. I still get the impression that all of them are initiate, at least upon induction.

The cybered are all beta or better (the government pays, after all) and in corporate punishment the fire support had move-by-wire 3 beta (yeah, it costs mucho dinero).

They all seem to go for speed over being tough to kill.

They all are in top shape and peak mental conditions. Most of them had 32 or 33 points of attribute before racial modifier.

Not a single one of them had less than stealth 8. Not kidding. Even the mage had stealth 8 while his sorcery was 7!

Their combat specialists have a lot of 8 to 6 in appropriate combat skills. And they have a lot of skills, they train very broadly. The fire support specialist in particular has all 5 firearms skill at 8 and heavy weapon at 6.

Their specialty is obviously ambush. The initial shock of battle is terrible with those guys.

The unit presented in CP was composed of (all elves) 1 seargeant (adept, initiate 4), 1 fire support specialist (cyber, crack shot with everything including sniper, stealth at 11) 1 mage (initiate 4, more widely trained with weapons than many samurai), 2 tactical support specialist (adept, both initiate 3, standard SWAT type), 1 small arms specialist (adept 3, essentially a killer with blades, pistols or his barehand)

[Fortune]

[Critias]

Other than what's already been mentioned, just check out the appropriate tidbits in Tir Tairngire (old school) and/or Shadows of North America (west side!) for a bit more about them. Check out their game stats from the book someone's already mentioned (Pistons' adventure, IIRC), but check out how people think/talk/feel about them from the other sources.

The thing to remember, or at least the thing I try and remember with my Ghost, is that they're as much the bloody right hand of the secret police as they are Rainbow Six.

Think of them like the SAS, during the 1970's. They were war heroes (from a generation earlier), they were great soldiers, they were a sharp-as-a-cougar-fineblade combat force, yes...but at the same time they were making trouble makers disappear, they were terrorizing the terrorists, they were the ones who decided to use "Big Boy's Rules" against the IRA. When you heard about them, you heard about them killing (not arresting) people. When you didn't hear about them, you assumed they were the ones who shot someone, anyways.

There's an almost-stigma to them, after SoNA, I think. Given the way the Tir has been portrayed as wrong and Rinelle terrorists are being portrayed as right -- the Ghosts are very soundly on the "wrong" side, and are the ones responsible for much of the violence/brutality. They all have Stealth of 8+ because they need to be quiet in big nasty jackboots.

But, anyways. That's just me. I've got some fiction I might post sometime if there's an interest, but that's 'cause my longest running character's background (and even current history/actions) is fairly tightly wound up with the Ghosts.

edit to add: I just started up a thread with some short fiction in it. I was gonna just post it to this one (since it's just about Ghosts/Rinelle), but I figured I might as well let everyone see it. Check it out if you wanna -- it's my spin on how Ghosts can operate, and the sort of jobs they do lately inside the Tir.

[Paul]

We're not using starting level characters, just so people know. we're using 750 points of karma on BeCks. Allof the characters are supposed to veterans, experienced professionals. We're running a higher powered campaign.

Thanks for the input though, I'll definitely be taking some of this into consideration.

[Aes]

Considering the Tirs policy of keeping blood/skin samples on freeze as ritual links even for tourists, I'd be more worried about how a Tir Ghost could ever get AWAY from government service without being geeked by a ritual team.

[Vuron]

With 750 karma on becks2.0 a workable Tir Ghost is pretty doable. That would be roughly 275 karma on top of a base character archetype which is pretty damned hefty IMHO.

Sure you'd be meat for the really fierce Tir groups but you'd definitely be playable.

Like people have said the shost go for speed and stealth rather than stand up and duke it out style combat.

I'm going to assume a cybered ghost rather and an initiate physical adept as well they get a bit wonky.


Naturally an elf (do they even let non elves join- racist ponces)

First maxed out physical attributes with the possibility of exceeding starting maximum if allowed on quickness (likely with the enhanced attribute quickness edge) with above average mental stats 4s at least on intelligence and willpower and likely a 5-6 for charisma.

Second crazy amounts of skill points invested in active skills. At least one-two shooter skills of 6 or 5/7 unless you are allowed to exceed skill limits (even then few 8s as those eat massive ammounts of karma even as specializations) with most of the shooter skills being without specialization to reflect maximum versatility. Carromeleg 6 with 3 manuvers is pretty much a given for unarmed combat likely backed up with something like edged weapons 4-6. Athletics 6 and Stealth 6 are pretty much mandatory with diving and parachuting of 4 pretty much also required. Medium levels of technical skills.

After the base skill package think about what speciality you'd bring to the team (combat medic, explosives expert, team leader, electronics expert) and you'd likely have a 5(7) in related skills. For instance a combat medic might have Biotech 5(First Aid 7) while the team leader might have Small Unit Tactics 6.

Honestly if you aren't spending at least 40% of your karma on skills you are likely not doing the character justice.

Finally I'd go with a stealthy mix of cultured bioware and beta cyberware (personally I'd leave the deltaware for Paladins and Bratach Ghael only). Stepped Wired Reflexes 3 beta would be the most common item as MBW is heinous. Combined with muscle toner twinkage and your quickness reaction and init are pretty much frightening.

You'd pretty much want to hit first and fade in combat if you can't take it down in one round you let the mage on the ghost team take over.

Basically it's about playing to the elven strengths instead of going for damage resistance but still remaining well rounded.

[Paul]

[Charon]

For fun, I ran the tactical "support specialist" from corporate through chargen using becks. They seemed the weakest of the lot.

It took me 679 karma without investing anything in ressources.