Poor Bubbles is going to be so sad. Getting all dressed up, and no one wants to play!

How's Codger look?

I like the idea of creating (even if we won't know one another initially) a list of who will be playing, and what their character basically is. (what roles they hope to fill, etc) as well as a description of them maybe in everyday life.

Something a lot like what DireRadiant did with Bubbles.

I know we're probably ot going to start out already knowing one another - but when we do meet, having a description already out there might help us visualize what we're going to be working with. (Again, using Bubbles as an example, right now, I imagine her as a grotesque nasty chick doing her best to fit into tiny clothes - this may or may not fit with what the author intends, but based on the description, I'm seeing a butt-nasty "thing" with too much make-up and tons of colors and dazzles to draw your attention away from the fact that she's a hideous troll. Of course, I never liked metas much anyways, so I'm probably just projecting.)

I suppose, it would be unfair of me to ask for this without providing one myself, so here I go.

"Dual"

What everyone knows (or would know, if they knew him, or would see, when they saw him, etc)

(Note: This description is of the character in everyday life, not necessarily mid-run - thus, no mention of sweet illegal equipment )

Dual isn't very old, or, at least, he doesn't appear to be. He's in his early 20's, and his clean-shaven and scar-free appearance do not immediately suggest a life of crime and violence. He doesn't possess any obvious cyberware, and doesn't even have a datajack. The commlink he keeps clipped to his belt, is a simple-looking black Novatech Airware - nothing too fancy or expensive. He is usually dressed in stylish clothing, prefering darker colors, and has a black lined coat with the Roman numeral "two" in gray on the back.

In everyday life, Dual seems pretty normal to those around him, especially when he intends to blend in. However, when he's bored or idle a perceptive observer might notice that he often appears distracted by something - either looking away at something no one else can see, or moving his lips as if speaking (but making no sound). Sometimes his eyes seem empty, as if he's a million miles away, and other times they seem almost alive with energy, darting back and forth at the people around him.

...

Dual is a hacker, and that's the main role I expect him to fill. I hope he can hold his own as both a rigger and a gun-bunny, but that has yet to really be determined (what few drones he has are intended to aid his hacking), and his skill with pistols has a long way to go. He's going to be very into team tactics and organization, but still very green (so I wouldn't expect an old pro like Codger to give him much room to lead).

I've played riggers and deckers a lot in SR3, but this would be my first SR4 attempt, so I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't forget something vital.

I'll leave his background for now (Feshy has it) since we probably don't know one another, and it'd make for more interesting role-playing if you didn't already know everything that's ever happened to him.

When Shadowrunning (and able to bring his illegal gear), Dual wears a glossy black full-body suit, with gray trim along the shoulders, arms and legs, and a gray Roman numeral "two" on his back. On the inside of his forarms, two light-pistols (with attached silencers) are strapped to gun-slides. The outfit is complete when he pulls a glossy black mask over his face, or activates the suit's active-camo, and 360-degree visual sensors.

hmmm... have a visual of my character... just have to figure out how to get it into written format... hang on a bit... i'll write it out and consider if i am missing anything before i post anything more... i'll most likely just edit this post to include the description actually...

[edit]

ok, here goes Spook:

The first thing you think when looking at him is that there just doesn't seem to be much to look at. a little on the small side, he looks like he's pretty young, with a gaunt figure... or at least, what you can see under the gray duster he's wearing. you can't make out much of his face either, under the AR goggles he's wearing, and the smog protection respirator he's wearing*, and the fedora covers most of his head pretty well.

there's just something a little odd about him though... you're not sure, maybe it's how he's standing, or how he moves, but there's just an odd feeling to him that you can't quite place your finger on...



* DM approval pending. i know respirators are commonly worn in heavily polluted areas such as tenochtitlan, but if it's freakishly weird to do so in seattle, he won't be wearing it until the run starts. as i didn't clear it with the GM first, we'll see how Feshy feels about this.

in terms of gear, he has a hidden arm slide with a predator, and he also has a taser in a concealable holster that he carries when not on runs. he has a pair of earbuds, and wears urban explorer armor.

[/edit]

[edit2] on further thought, he may or may not be wearing it, but he always will have it on him, probably hanging around his neck if he isn't wearing it... if the air is clean enough, he won't be wearing it, pretty much. [/edit2]

Jaid
If I recall the new seattle sourcebook correctly, Seattle has a good solid month of "Black Flag" pollution days in the late 2060's, and that isn't likely to have changed by 2070. So respirators are probably very common on those days, and familiar enough not to worry pedestrians even on clear, smog-free days. Wearing one *every* day is probably slightly unusual, but by no means unheard of -- think wearing brown shoes in the summer: etiquette minded people will snub their noses. The 'star is only likely to take it as a single small warning flag -- that is, guy in a respirator even on a clear day is normal; guy with feature-obscuring clothing in a dark alley late at night is too many red flags at once not to investigate.

Everyone
As you may have guessed, I've returned to my secret lair from the land of beaches and humidity.

It looks like you guys are as eager as I am to start things off So here's what I propose. As soon as I work out just where everyone's contacts stand in things and get a few write-ups ready (and work out the last few character issues), I'll create the in character and out-of-character threads. If you're still fiddling with your character and want to make some changes at that point, just hold off on posting in the in-character thread until you're happy with your character. That way, if everyone is ready, we can start early. If not, no harm done.

I'm not certain on the exact day I'll start the threads; there are a number of factors (including how much time I can drag myself away from my xmas toys. I may not have been a good boy, but neither was Santa -- and some good dirt and Mrs. Claus's telecom address work just as well as a year of good behavior in my experience) Does this plan sound acceptable to everyone?

sounds good to me

A Story you may hear about Bubbles , you are free to form your own opinions.

The StoreFront Job

We scoped out a sweet deal, this place was part of a chain, tiny store front, but it served as a transfer point for special shipments. It was the hub for the entire Seattle distribution. We checked out their routine on the previous release, so we knew what we needed. Problem was we needed at least an hour after the break in to get enough time to get the material to the sim pirates and of all the things the manager of the store actually broke out some special retro mechanical locks. No way we could do a smash and grab and get enough time, so we hit the comms. Turns out an old fence I knew, knew someone who knew someone and so there we were, engines warmed up, route scouted, the pirates all ready to go when all of a sudden "POP" and I got Betsy half way down the street, leaving half my slicks on the road, before I realize it was the darned locksmith showing up.

Next thing I know, I'm standing next to this gum chewing trog with fingers like sausages handling these little metal toothpicks on these set of locks. Pop pop those locks just open on up. Darned obselete things. Then one of the locks gets all jammed up or something. She just looks at me, blows out this enormous bubble, bigger then my head, then says, "You ready to run little cute tusker boy?" and I just about wet my pants. She sucks all the air out of the bubble, pinches apart the chain with the tips of her fingers on one hand. As the chain pools on the ground she presses me back out of the way with one meaty paw, while in the other she unspools something and next thing I know the whole store front grates is coming apart in sections.

The fraggin alarm light is blinking on the controls just inside the glass door, and she steps over the grates, gives me a wink, and says "Start counting to 10 cutie...". I'm thinkin frag that, in that time Betsy could get me two blocks away. But I stick it out. Couple swipes with her card, she's in, and she hooks up a box to the alarm controls and punches a few buttons. Lights go green, and in I go. Darned if she don't grab the back of my pants as I run in and give me a slap. I turn around to glare at her and give her the stare, and she's got my mask in her hand and even bigger super trog sized grin on. Trying to stare down someone with a tooth bigger then two of your fingers grinning at you is kinda hard.

Lucky for me it turns out she re routed the external surveillance feed and all she had to do was wipe the internal memory in the cam. I'm not sure if she did though, she took the cam with her, saying something about wanting a memento of our date.

I heard later that her name is Bubbles.

I'm game.

just a thought... are we going to be starting as an already formed team, or are we pretty much just gonna be thrown together to make a team for this run?

if we are already a team, then there are a few things we should do:

1) figure out a leader (i nominate Codger, in the event we start as a team).
2) figure out how to split up our pay... ie, equal shares, everyone spends as needed to cover their personal expenses, or do we cover team expenses first (like if we needed a drone, explosives, or whatever) and then split it up, etc.
3) figure out who does what... for example, do we even *have* a face, as such (i presume Codger will at least be able to talk to someone without getting us all killed, but that doesn't necessarily make him a face...)

anyways, i suppose i forgot to mention this when i was describing Spook... he's a mystic adept, a little more on the magician side of that, and not very much on the adept side of it.

Yeah, I only remembered that from your original post of your concept. I think that if GingerKid is playing Snapp as our fifth, he said he was going to be an elven face with some B&E skills.

So far, I count Dual, Spook, and Bubbles as having posted something about their characters after the game was full. I believe Snapp was the forth (though not sure - jsut guessing by the posts that were made) and that Codger is the fifth.

I think Feshy mentioned that since a lot of our backgrounds involved being new to shadowrunning that we wouldn't start as an established team. (That also saves us having to re-configure our supplies if one of us can provide thigns for the others at lower cost - like sharing cracked programs).

Once we team up, we can work all of that out though - and the other stuff like who should be the leader and division of payment and stuff. I have my personal opinions, but I'd rather see our characters work it out themselves.

hmmm... i'm the only magic in the group, then... this is really tempting me to spontaneously alter my character sheet for something we may be wishing i could do shortly

blech, now i have to consider options...

and ponder on the vagaries of the RAW...

eh, don't worry... just looked into it, and plan B won't work, for several reasons:

1) power focii cost too much... the 10 BP for lowering my magic would buy a force 2 focus... which i then couldn't bond anyways i thought it would only cost 8 to buy, then 2 to bond...
2) power focii don't raise your magic as far as maximum force of spells/spirits etc. so, switching 1 point of magic for a force 2 power focus would have completely destroyed my character, and i wouldn't have done it anyways.

anyways, if it had worked, then i basically would have just gained the equivalent to a negative quality making me more dependant on the focus.

and it would all have been for an ability that i planned on picking up eventually anyways (although it's gonna be a tough decision to make which way to go first) it definitely is an ability that completely fits the character though... i was just too squeezed to do it, is all as it stands, i would need to find another 25 BP in my build to do it, and to put it simply... that ain't gonna happen. i'm all for RP, but i'd like to roleplay a *competent* character, that won't get us all killed by relying on him, thank you very much

anyways, i don't want to say exactly what it is (it'll come out in a bit)

Exactly, play what you want to play. Besides, there isn't much this team is lacking right now, and what I have planned I had originally planned for three characters anyway. Not that I don't plan to give you plenty of rope to hang yourselves if you want to, but I don't see a whole lot in act 0 that will really challenge a team of five. Unless, of course, you go looking for trouble -- that's the advantage of having planned out a whole campaign ahead of time, there's *plenty* of trouble to find if you go looking.

As for working out team dynamics: most of the characters backgrounds had them being new to shadowrunning and this seems to fit well the idea of a new team thrown together by a johnson. Besides, I like seeing people work out team dynamics in character and under pressure; that's half the fun It's like free mistrust and divisiveness that I don't even have to plan for or instigate! Uh... I mean... I'm sure you'll all work together just fine...

Codger is the Alpha and the Omega. TopTomCat was the first to respond to the thread, but last to get a character to me. Not that order matters; as GM it's my job to make sure everyone suffers equally.

Since everyone seems eager and responsive, I'll try to get the in and out of character threads started quickly.

All right, I've started the IC and OoC threads, according to what I said before. Posting in the IC thread is considered finalizing your character, and there's no rush as we're already two weeks or so ahead of my origional planned start date.

Read the OoC thread before postin in the IC thread.

That's about it, enjoy the game!

Woof, holiday madness is almost over.

I will post a general description of Snapp in the next couple of days. Life should be back to normal after the 2nd.

To get the OOC stuff about him. His main role will be as the face, but he can be sneaky and can use pistols pretty well. You may not see him out from cover during a gun fight as he has a bit of a glass jaw.

Just to close this off, here is a description of Snapp if you were to see him out and about.

The first thing you notice about Snapp is people don't seem to notice him. He is your typical elf. A little over 6 foot with pale blond hair and blue-grey eyes that seem to take everything in. However, when people are asked to describe, they say, "Uhhh....He looked like an elf." He always seems to where the same style of pants and shirt. The pants always have many pockets like cargo pants of the late 20th century and a plain long sleave shirt that sometimes has what looks like a hood attached.

He has no noticeable cyber except a datajack. He talks, moves, and acts very smoothly, however to someone who looks a little harder sees it to look a little forced or fake.

He never looks armed but noone goes unarmed all the time.