OOC: Last Laugh, Bring snacks for free karma Options

[scoundrel]

KK speaking - this will be my doppleganger for the WttS forum.

This is the designated OOC thread for Last Laugh.

All right guys, here's the deal. You have a week to get me your character, or else I'm going to assume that you've dropped out unless you tell me otherwise. Send them to kacklingkactuar(at)gmail(dot)com. Here's a recap of the guidelines:

[ Spoiler ]

• Creation systems available: 115 Build Points. You can use Priority or Sum-to-Ten as long as you subtract 10 BP worth of stuff from your final character. Yes, I'm aware that the Harlequin modules were intended to be high-powered, and the game will eventually become that way, but I don't want you guys to start as hardcore professionals right off the bat. Sweat not, because I'll be modifying the NPCs so that the team doesn't get smeared within the first 5 seconds of combat.
• No deckers. No riggers. I just don't know their rules well enough.
• 4 Edges and 4 Flaws max, with no more than a 6 point difference between them. Aptitude is not an available Edge.
• Gear limits: Standard 8/6 avail/rating. Modified equipment is okay. Custom stuff will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but don't bother sending in something that's just the munched out big brother of an item that already exists, because it will be turned down.
• Your background must be a minimum of a page in length and accompanied by a list of answers to 20-Questions. Extra karma will be awarded for absolutely awesome backstories.
• If you disagree with any of the above, let me know so I can arrange for you to be shot. Just kidding. I'm a pretty flexible GM, so if you want something not covered by the rules, drop me a line and we'll talk.

No NSRCG print-outs for your character sheets. As much as I love NSRCG, it just isn't easy on the eyes. I prefer MSWord format, but will accept anything else as long as it looks clean.

One thing to keep in mind when writing your background is that this game will start off only a little above street level, so make a character that fits.

You guys will start the game as a team. This is important. You've all worked together in the past, you're all good friends, you've all got each other's backs. You should use this thread to coordinate the character building process (i.e. what skills the team needs, who should cover what, etc). You should also share backstories, though of course you don't have to, and shouldn't, reveal anything that your character wouldn't.

Your team is one of the many that work for a dwarf named Jonathan Korbin. He's the man who brought you all together, so incorporate your ties with him into your background. When you're working out how to go about doing this, keep in mind that he only employs people that he knows personally and likes. To make the job easier for you, here's a short description of him:

[ Spoiler ]

As a fixer, Korbin is capable, straightforward, and trustworthy. He has a reputation for taking care of his own, and if a job goes south, he would shoulder the responsibility without hesitation. It's a well-known fact in the streets that Korbin only employs green runners, men and women who are still wet-behind-the-ears but whom he thinks possess that rare spark of potential that can eventually make them something much more down the road. No one really knows why he does this, since there are countless professionals who would gladly work for him if given half the chance. He immediately releases a runner team from his employ when he thinks they've gotten good enough at the craft to handle themselves in the bleak, unforgiving shadows of underworld Seattle. He also owns a nightclub called Abbadon's Hellfire on 10th Avenue and Madison in the Downtown area, which is often frequented by his runners since they can get in for free.

And here's a brief history:

[ Spoiler ]

Life is a strange thing. Some people muddle through it without really being aware that it's there. Others see it merely as a transitory period between eternities of nothingness. Still some take the mathematical approach, and analyze it like an equation to find the most efficient way of solving it.

Then there are those who rein it up, saddle on, belt out a battle cry, and ride that beast as fast as it can go until it finally collapses from sheer exhaustion. Jonathan Korbin is one of those people. One of the oldest dwarfs on the Seattle scene, Korbin had done and seen many things in his time, a lot of which he would sell his soul to forget. He had been born the son of a two-dime street whore in the Redmond Barrens, and, like the bastard children of most prostitutes, never knew who his father was. His mother fought everyday to make enough money to keep both of them alive. She had dreams of raising her son to be something more than another piece of street trash, and did her best to instill in him fundamental morals and a value for education.

Korbin got a chance to break free of the Barrens when an urban revitalization project erected a new school in the slums. He was one of the few lucky enough to be selected, and his razor-sharp mind soon brought his academic performance to a level far beyond that of his peers. It wasn't long before corporate scouts began to notice him. A few years later, he was granted acceptance into one of the most prestigous universities in the UCAS. He graduated top of his class, and was on the road to becoming a powerful player in the corporate world.

His career came crashing down when one of his superiors was busted for embezzlement and used him as a scapegoat to avoid a lifelong prison sentence. His professional life destroyed, Korbin had no choice but to pack his bags and hit the streets from whence he came. Educated men are a rarity in the shadows, and intelligent men even more so. Korbin hooked up with a powerful criminal syndicate calling itself The Six Sons a couple of months later, and within three years held the position of second in command inside the organization. Eventually, the gang dissolved after taking too much heat from Lonestar, and everyone went their separate ways. Korbin, now armed with an intricate knowledge of how the street works and enough dirt to bury half the major crime bosses in Seattle, chose to employ his skills as a fixer in the shadows.

Lastly, everyone gets a free rating 6 fake SIN. As far as the IRS knows, you all work on the day-shift security team for Centra Corporation, which, incidentally, happens to be one of Korbin's multitude of phony companies that don't really exist.

[gobogen]

woo hoo !! I made it 8)

[gobogen]

Well, to summarize my character, Winchy is a very large troll with a very good heart and a tough life of rejections behind him.

Ok, as per team building. We should definitively start simply by stating what our character will be good at. That way we'll easily see if there's something missing or if we have too many characters good at the same kind of stuff. I'll wait to see what others have before starting putting numbers down; I'm flexible on my character's abilities since he could have trained in various areas... (limited by his low intelligence though),

His abilities are what you can expect from a 'fighting-oriented' troll:
- specializes in combat (close and ranged) and use of many different weapons
- cybored for fighting (so good starting money .. ;) )
- I plan on giving him some wired or boosted reflexes amongst other things.
- Good in Athletics (maybe a good bit of Stealth too)

[Glyph]

Caitlin Snow is a hermetic sorceress, and DocWagon HTR burnout. She is a healer, but more of a combat-oriented one.

Her spells are mostly healing and offense (stunning spells). Skill-wise, she has mundane skills to complement her magical healing (First Aid, Medicine), and good social/tactical skills - things like psychology, leadership, HTR tactics, negotiation, etc.

She is very green as a runner, but the others could have met her earlier - either in her former vocation as a DocWagon employee, or at one of the group's hangouts (bar, nighclub, etc.). One of them might have even suggested 'running to her, when her career was beginning to fall apart. And she would have been on at least a few runs with the group by now.


@KK: Is Corbin one of our two starting contacts, or a "freebie"?

[Digital Heroin]

Warden is a large, well muscled human. Just about anyone who knows him as a friend knows he was a fire fighter in the past, just about anyone who cares to dig will know just why he left. He doesn't talk about it, or his past, much himself.

Skills are the hallmark of my mundanes, which is what this guy is, totally, no cyber. His specialties are going to lie with:

- Axes (Natch)
- Some firearms, though not heavily
- Demolitions (Likely improvised)
- Arson (Aye, he's using his past to his advantage now)
- Athletics, and such are also going to factor, plus he'll likely be able to handle a truck...

He'll also have a good deal of gear, since being mundane and human allows for some nice free points for resources.

Edit: Just noticed there's two former civic employees in the team, which is interesting. Might be there's only one person the old fire Captain talks about his past at all with... though it'd be pre-badness past...

[Glyph]

The other interesting thing I noticed, reading Tanka's character, is that both sorcerers have strong face and leader-type skills. They have very different orientations, though. Tanka's character is a streetwise survivor, almost the opposite of Caitlin, who is very new to the shadows.

[Digital Heroin]

A thought just occurred to me, in line with something you mentioned earlier Glyph... it would stand to reason a firefighter and a medic would have met at least once, even if in passing.

[Tanka]

Rand is the utility Sorcery Adept (Mage). He knows spells like Light, Create Food, Makeover and other such spells that are handy on the fly. He knows maybe one or two combat spells, but they are mainly as a "last resort" use.

His Face-type aspects include Leadership and Negotiation, as a result of his time leading a small but well-to-do gang from the Barrens. He left them just before joining the shadows and still maintains a small amount of contact with them on the side.

(Anybody who recognizes the character name gets 5 cool points from me. :P)

[Tanka]

scoundrel: Do you allow purchasing of Spell Points with Build Points or are you sticking to 1 Spell Point/25,000 nuyen?

[Slacker]

Slacker is about 1.91m tall. He doesn't seem to have much natural bulk, but he does seem to have a lot of 'ware (still haven't decided how much of it will be obvious). He doesn't talk about his past much, if at all, but after a few runs you can tell that he didn't grow up on the streets. He also seems well educated. He seems to have problems with his family and may have even muttered something about his brother being evil incarnate.

He claims to be a pacifist and even uses non-lethal ammo, but you have also heard him make some pretty ruthless comments.

Another oddity is always talking about how he wants to save up enough money that he never has to work again, but after virtually every run he seems to go out and spend his share on new 'ware or gadgets. So, you can't imagine that he is saving much of anything.

He spends alot of his down time playing games on the Matrix. In fact, when everybody else is doing their own legwork he goes back to his place and logs into the Matrix. Sure, he claims that is where he meets his contacts, but has he ever actually come up with any information others hadn't already mentioned? Not that you can recall.

[edit] He is in no way a decker, he just plays games on the Matrix. That and word processing is about all he knows how to do with his computer.

[scoundrel]

Glyph - Korbin is a free level two contact.

tanka - I'm going to go with the books on this one and say that you can only make a nuyen-spell point exchange, at the listed rate of 25k to 1.

Just outta curiosity, is there anyone in the group who has read or played either Harlequin or Harlequin's Back?

[Tanka]

I've read both.

Anybody who hasn't read/played them, don't read the spoiler!

[ Spoiler ]

I was hesitant to submit a Sorcerer specifically for the first section in Harlequin's Back. Then I smacked myself for premature metagaming. :P

[gobogen]

Haven't read any of this... I don't even know what the campaign is about.

[Digital Heroin]

I just considered something odd... a Vengeful pacafist... I know it's not so original, but a guy who spent most of his life saving people, then went on a warpath, is bound to have a twisted little brain...

[Glyph]

I haven't read or played either of the Harlequin modules, although I have heard about them.

Tanka: The only Rand that I can think of is Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, and proponent of the philosophy of objectivism.


Caitlin could have first met Warden at a fire/accident. She might have met one or more of the others before she became a 'runner, too. I mean, DocWagon probably meets runners on a fairly regular basis, either "Damn, I hope DocWagon gets here soon!" or "Damn, we gotta geek this guy before DocWagon gets here to pick him up!"

[Digital Heroin]

Rand al'Thor, if my spelling's correct. Robert Jordan's painfully long (I mean I stading them in '91, and I don't think he's finished yet) Messiah figure for the Wheel of Time.

I've got a bit of work to do with Warden, and a shift in the morn, so I'll be finishing him tommorrow hopefully, if in rough.

[Slacker]

[Tanka]

DH and Slacker: Bingo. I have to say the end of Book 9 was the best written chapter of any book I've ever read. Then Book 10 came out. Ugh.

[gobogen]

Ok, I worked on Winchy quite a bit.

He's going to be heavily specialized in combat. And heavily equipped for it. Lots of ware, and almost only for use in fighting situations.

I also worked on his personality.

He's a very loyal friend with deep wounds on the inside. He doesn't take insults lightly neither to himself or his friends. He still fights to defend Metahuman Right and does not tolerate racism of any kind - especially not against him. He is the kind of guy that's easy to trust when you know him well cause he will always make you feel important. He cares for his friends' life like his own and would probably die to save any of you.

On runs, he's very professional and at the same time seems to enjoy what he's doing. Not that he likes killing ... he just likes fighting ;). You'll never hear him talk during meets. That's because he doesn't like to show it when he doesn't understand something and because he knows that others are more skilled them him in metahuman interactions.

[kackling kactuar]

gobogen: I still need 20 questions from you. I realize that a lot of them have already been indirectly answered through your background info, but just humor me. :)

Everything else looks good to go.

[Glyph]

A dog bite on my hand is slowing down my typing, but I should still have Caitlin in by the deadline. But I want to post this part up here. This is the first draft of how she met the other runners, so I want the rest of you to look it over. Let me know if any parts contradict your own backgrounds, or how you envision your characters' personalities. That way, I can make any changes before I submit the final character. Thanks.


Warden:
Caitlin initially met Warden at an out-of-control tenement fire. She was favorably impressed with his competence. He gained a similar good impression of her, as she talked down a strung-out squatter with a street sweeper who was impeding the rescue efforts, and levitated a toddler down from a balcony. He was far from impressed by the rest of the DocWagon crew, however, who seemed more like callous mercenaries than medical personnel. He couln't believe it when Caitlin actually had to JUSTIFY saving the toddler. As runners, she and Warden trust each other, and can discuss things from their former vocations that they don't share with others.

Winchy:
She was on the DocWagon squad that picked him up once, when he was on the wrong end of a shotgun blast. They have been on a few minor runs together, and both like to patronize the Arena, a laid-back sports bar. Actually, it was while she was at the Arena, uncharacteristically subdued, trying to figure out what to do next (after her career at DocWagon derailed), that Winchy suggested that she would make a good 'runner. They often make trivial bar bets on various sporting events - to her perpetual annoyance, Caitlin usually loses.

Rand:
She originally met him when her squad went into the Redmond Barrens to extract a client. Her squad leader apparently made a deal with Rand, of some kind of contraband, in exchange for Rand's gang guiding them around the worst areas of the Barrens, to retrieve their client. Later, she got to know him near the beginning of her 'running career. They were the magical backup for the not-too-bright muscle-boys guarding some crates by the docks. The muscle were not exactly scintillating conversationalists, so she and Rand had lengthy talks about magical theory, applied tactics, and other subjects. They get along quite well (for two natural leaders), deferring to each other's areas of expertise with surprisingly few clashes of egos.

Slacker:
She met him casually when he was getting some 'ware from Dr. Prentiss (before the "misunderstanding" that led him to becoming a street doc). She has been on a few runs with him, and has run into him at a few places such as the Arena, Matchstick's, and Tam's Under the Needle. She thinks he needs to be more serious, and he thinks she needs to lighten up, but both of them know better than to try to "change" the other. They will occasionally take a little dig at the other, but with no serious malice behind it. She WAS irritated when he coined the moniker "Ice Queen" for her - and it wound up becoming her street name. She retaliated by coming up with "Slacker" for him, but while the name stuck, her revenge fizzled when he didn't seem to mind it.

[gobogen]

This looks very good and fits nicely with my background. No problem there. Thanks for coming up with that, this kind of stuff will bring the team together much more easily.

[scoundrel]

[scoundrel]

One day left, and I only have characters from Slacker and gobogen. The rest of you suck. :P

[Tanka]

Hey, I got kidnapped for the weekend. I have an excuse! :P