Starting recruitment for an SR4 thread

400 BPs,
straight from the book,
no house rules or conversions.

Basic premise is a series of short inter-connected runs in the Seattle metroplex, designed to help players get familiar with the rules and mechanics.

If you only want to play in one run, that's fine--I'm willing to recruit and add more people in between runs.

Throw a post in here with a brief concept, from there you can give me some stats. Right now the ideas and concepts are more important to me so that we can have a well-rounded team.

-Stephen

How does this sound?

DES, Male Human Rigger/Shaman, City rigger, Tribal spirit son , smuggler, runner, conflicted by the lure of the machine, and the recent discovery of his spiritual heritage. Or is it all just the spirits in the machine?

I'm game.

Copperhead:

Ork Covert Ops dude with a few drones (eyeball and spiders)

thin, slight tusks, bald with a pair of stylistic copper-colored tatoos running from forehead over the skull all the way to the back.

A son of the Ork underground, has most of his shadow experience in B&E and other thieving, but has done one wetwork before, and didn't like it much.

SINless, so he doesn't have much choice in terms of occupation, but enjoys the adrenaline rush too much to ever quit.

Julius Jufri aka JuJu

A human shaman spell slinger.

JuJu spent his whole life to this point studying magic. The quest for power consumed him. There was never enough. One day he was in his favorite library talking to a fellow awakened about magic, when a lady ran past him screaming for help. She was being followed and shot at by a seedy looking man. JuJu went back to studying. It had nothing to do with him. Lucky for her one bullet came a little two close to JuJu. Enraged JuJu hurled a powerful bolt of energy at the attacker, killing him instantly. The girl thanked JuJu profusely, and in that moment JuJu had an epiphany. It wasn't enough to become powerful. He had to exercise that power. So began his life in the shadows.

Holy Smokes!

A McQ 4th Ed game - I'm so in.

Female, human, weapons adept. Early-Mid 20s. She was a young woman, newly awakened to her adept powers and studying dance on a scholarship, when Crash 2.0 hit. The days of chaos that followed opened her eyes to the great nobility and depravity of metahumanity. And required her to indulge in great measures of both. She experienced an awakening of sorts as she embraced a life in the shadows as the world fell apart around her. She has become keenly attuned to her environment and those around her, especially their mental states as telegraphed by their bodies.

She has a legit SIN, but maintains a false identity for shadow work.

EDIT: Scratch that. I might come up with an idea.

Just tossing an idea around, was always interested in Technomancers.

Human male, from Pueblo. He spent a few years in LA. Having a rather sketchy history. He cropped up in Salish Territory in '58, changed. He spent a few years living in Spokane. But on a job to Seattle he fell in love with the density of the Seattle Matrix. He's always been involved with shady business, but he rarely brings light to his technomancer abilities, even going through the effort of carrying a commlink.

Because of his past in the corporate world, he usually tries to take the role of Face for runs. He has a love a money, but a distaste of conflict... at least when it applies to things not in the Matrix.

i'm in.

Wolfgar: Elf phys ad weapon specialist

Wolfgars father ran the shadows of Seattle for a time, finally settling down to with his fixer to raise Wolfgar and his sister Ash. Starting from an early age both wolfgar and his sister were trained in armed and unarmed combat, vehicles and survival. Now, Wolfgar has come to Seattle to follow in his father's footsteps with his onld weapons contact as fixer.

Black Widow, Elf Face/Assassin. A lady with a stunning smile and a health (or prehaps unhealthy) knowledge of poisons and other nasty chemical substances. Enjoys manipulating people and getting her way. Thrives in social circles.

Ok so I have a rough idea.

Widget
Technomancer with a wide focus (hacking and rigging) who has taken to the streets to find his/her father. She was born to a elven woman who was a shadow decker before the 2nd crash. That's all I have right now but will work some more on it.

Wow, I was going to ask if I could get a Hacker in, but that appears to be taken. It looks like the only hole left is BMF.
As I like that role, I'd like to present Hunter Musashi, ork street sam/walking nightmare with a katana. He looks and acts just like what he is, over paid, over grown street scum with too much ware and a chip on his shoulder. Although not big on chit chat, he's well connected on the streets, with connections in the shadows, on the streets and in organized crime.
He's chilled a lot since his younger days, and he's trying to grow past his street origons, but you know what they say. You can take the Ork out of the Barrens, but you can't take the Barrens out of the Orc.

I've always wanted to try one of these games, btu i don't have a copy of fourth yet.

Looking forward to playing a game with you guys in the future.


how often do you guys post and so on?

I'd put in a suggestion but I'm short on ideas, and this game look spretty full

Mr. P--Usually there's a major bump once a week, with posts from each player every day or so. If you don't jump in this time around, I'm sure I'll have gaps to fill when the next run starts...there's always some attrition as RL kicks in.

Here's what I'm seeing so far:

DireRadiant--DES, Rigger Shaman (human)
Fix-it--Copperhead, Covert Ops (orc)
GingerKid--JuJu, Combat Mage (human)
Sparky--NAMELESS, Weapons Adept (human)
Maxxi--NAMELESS, Technomancer Face (human)
Warrior--Wolfgar, Phys-ad Weapons Specialist (human)
Tashio--Black Widow, Covert Assassin/Face (elf)
Buddha--Widget, Technomancer Hacker/Rigger (elf)
Bearclaw--Hunter, Street Sam (orc)

9 people have submitted concepts.

Let's get some stats to fill those concepts out a little bit. Make some characters and remember that I'm looking for a team. It's okay, if your character is the quiet type, but I don't want lone wolves who hate working with the team. (I've seen too many games implode from PCs casting spells on other PCs and lone wolves running off and damn near dying before they realized that certain threats are meant to be dealt with by a group.)

You have one week to send a character my way--Either PM me or e-mail me. stephen(DOT)mcquillan(AT)gmail(DOT)com

If I don't get a character by Friday 01/20/06, I'll presume that you are withdrawing your name from the game.

Questions, comments?

Ok the biggest snag I am hitting right now is I can not find a copy of SR4 anywhere. Anyone have any suggestions?

Buddha...you should be able to download the SR4 PDF, can't remember where though. I'll ask Alex (who I know has it) if you'd like.

I'd like to throw myself in as well when the game needs a replacement. I have a Technomancer already built from the short while I was still in SD and wouldn't mind running her a bit. Don't want to step on any toes though so let me know if you need any fill-ins.

Good luck!

Tweaking my concept to cover some riggery/driving and more techy ends of the spectrum. Don't want to dilute her too much - there is still so much butt that needs kicking - but having two or three capable drivers and gunners couldn't be a bad thing.

I got my PDF copy from www.battlecorps.com, but apparently a site called drivethrough rpg sells it too. I believe the addresses were on www.shadowrunrpg.com

I'd also just add that I'm too not going to step on any toes, but if a space opens up I can put together a light demolitions, B&E, and light guns (pistol/machine pistol/maybe assault rifle?) combo guy.

that's pretty much where my concept falls, CX2, but having a partner would be nice. if anyone drops.

Blitz/CX2--Throw some characters in here, the group is large enough that I may just split it into 2 threads.

I wasn't meaning to imitate anyone, I didn't think I saw something quite like I was thinking of but I might have misread or missed something. This would be my first game anyway, but I'm quite comfortable with the build point system.

Here was my basic idea:
Small triple-A-corp-wannabe company (okay, maybe not small, but not quite Ares or Renraku) putting together a shadow team to get the drop on their opposition, and maybe hire them out or something like that. The competition got wind and hit the company's board (cut off the head and the snake dies...) on the basis that they were an easier target. Team splits and goes their ways, my guy (haven't come up with a name yet), drifts to wherever it's set but kept in touch with the team's former armoury specialist who's now a smuggler (putting her knowledge to good use). He never let on, but he always had a slight crush on her (not much, just curious about what it would be like to take her out).

And because the company was cheap my character was one of the sinless.

I was thinking demolitions skill of about 3 or so, maybe hardware 1 with specialisation in maglocks, pistols with specialisation in light pistols and automatics with specialisation in machine pistols. Also climbing of maybe 2 or 3. Equipment wise I was thinking one of those Security 600 pistols (30 round clips ), a Steyr machine pistol and maybe some form of assault rifle if things get too hot. Also a grapple gun with rope, rapelling gloves (monowire rope...), one of those urban explorer jump suits (6/6 armour) and the ever present trenchcoat as backup. Foam explosives for demolitions as well (almost forgot to mention it).

If the weapons choice looks odd I'm thinking he's the sort of guy who doesn't like to be overly encumbered whilst working. Perhaps he thinks "There are two sorts of job - the sort where you wished you hadn't brought so many guns, and the sort where you wished you'd brought a tank."

Probably going to say he's British too, since I'm British and it would explain any cultural or language differences. I've noticed quite a few differences between the use of words and slang in US and UK english.

I'm about to start wworking on the character's specifics now, please let me know if there's a problem of any sort.

Edit:
I've got the numbers more or less finished, just need to work on the background and find a name. I don't mind if the whole character concept is rejected, I wanted the practice building characters and I'd like to have one or two characters on hand for possible future use.

Hey there, heard that SR4 was out, and wanted to come test out my writing skills. I've been playing a lot of D&D (cause that's all i can find groups of) but I wanted to test out SR4 real badly. So, I was hoping to get a submission in. Not sure if I have made my char quite right yet. but I had drummed up my favorite char of sr3 and brought him back to square 1 in a brave new world.

My Submission:
Crum - Troll! Biker! Carries BIG COMBAT AXE! also a physad. Grew up in the streets of Seattle. Shunned as a child. Did dirty work and robbed peoplet as he grew up. Found out besides that he was a troll he was able to see some weird alternate vision deal. (he's not smart) Crum smash. Crum kill. Crum strong. Crum thick body. Crum unkillable.

I'll have to change his official story to match the new game. He works under McGee - his loyal and trusting friend from childhood.

should we start sending in char stats?

edit: for OOC: He's big, strong, kinda slow and dumb. Meat tank Archer, combat axe (3 reach) and killing hands. Sees Astral so can fight astral problems too. He's your front line damage soaking machine. Does things the easy way. Smash in the front door, smash anyone in his way, grabs package or person etc., smash out the back door. Also physical intimidation comes in handy.

The way I read the rules on free knowledge skills it said you start with points equal to logic+intuition*3, and can buy more for 2bp each point. This sounds to me like you can have knowledge skills of total level equal to this before you need bp, for example I have logic 5 intuition 3 giving 24... so I could, for example, have 6 knowledge skills at level 4 but would still need to pay 1bp per specialisation. Could someone let me know if I've got this wrong please, I've managed to fill up the 24 but it took some doing (it seems an awful lot), but then again compared to what we know in RL maybe it's just how it seems in list form.

You're absolutely right. But, it's really not that bad of a thing. Knowledge skills are fairly arbitrary IC. Even if the max is 42 free knowledge skill points. (intu-6 Log-6 +Cerebral Booster 3) that would be an average of 10 knowledge skills at 4 or more. So you have a good chance of knowing about topics with 10 knowledge skills. But that's still 10 skills out of hundreds. And IC it was rare if you used to use knowledge skills often. Common ones were knowledge seattle- metroplex-geography, Gang Info, Corp Security Tactics, and other stuff. But all this would do was to "help" you in your planning stages. It made it easier to do the legwork and you could roll on whether you know the mark, or the area/building, or what type of secutiry would be at a warehouse! Howecer, there are SO MANY knowledge skills that I believe 42 free points still isn't too much. Sometimes, lack of knowledge is bad for runners (being shipped off to africa to assasinate some rebel leader) and can be exploited no matter how much knowledge the team may have. There is never anything you can know too much of!

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

By the way, if my initial character isn't suitable I could try and see what skills are available to put together a street doc type guy. Background would probably be that he was apprentice to a street doc, and was being increasingly shown how to keep the place running, when his boss was killed by Humanis (meta, maybe dwarf, in a bar relaxing when Humanis goons decide to throw a party). I'd have to check what medical skills are available other than first aid though.

Shame the rulebook doesn't cover medical equipment beyond medkits and patches, it might have been interesting.

One clarification on knowledge skills--any augmentations granted by 'ware, do not get added into the calculation of how many free points you get.

CX2--I'm going to divide the group up and try to tailor the Mission variables to the group that gets hired (your fixer wouldn't call you if the job required a completely different skill set...) That said, make the character you want to play.

cx2: combat medics are QUITE handy during runs. (game experience on that one)

Okay thanks, I'll see if there's enough medical skills to make a doc type guy.

Rokur:
I appreciate the sentiment, but I was thinking more like surgery type equipment, and other long term stuff rather than first aid. I'd consider including a van for the street doc guy, saying it was the old doc's "ambulance" of sorts.

If I ever ran as GM I'd consider house ruling it as a "workshop", but I haven't the experience and totally respect the decision to keep it house rule free. It's probably simpler without house rules for all involved.

Basically I want a few runs without any house rules, and then if I feel things need to be addressed that are not covered in the soon to be released sourcebooks, we can move on.

That being said, if you want to buy multiple medkits and a GMC Bulldog step-van, you can make a mobile chop-shop. The description of a med-kit shows that it can handle most of the tasks that can go on in an ambulance. Multiple medkits would facilitate triage by allowing multiple medics to work from the same ambulance as happens in modern day.

Thanks, that's good thinking. I'll do that.

Can you take a skill group and then break that skill group in chargen?
IE take Influence 4 and then pump say etiquette to 5 or can that only be done once in play?

No, the rulebook states that you can't break up a skill group in chargen. You can break it up when raising skills with karma later, but it's harder to raise all the different skills seperately.

Unfortunately I can't give a page ref because of the way I use the pdf. I've had to convert it to an rtf file (I'm blind and using speech software, it makes it easier). I'll try and dig up the quote though. It's in the section about generating a character. The idea seems to be that this would be cheating the system, it'll probably be near the bit that says you can't have skill groups above level 4 at chargen.

Edit:
Okay, sorry, looks like I remembered wrong. This section from an example suggests it isn't possibleotherwise though.
[q]to be a weapons specialist in more than just name, he wants
to be the best shooter possible. Brian opts to acquire
skills individually, since skill groups are limited to a
maximum rating of 4 for starting characters. He can only
have one skill at Rating 6, so he decides to put those points
in Pistols.
[/q]
Besides, technically speaking you're not paying BP to upgrade skills at chargen but to buy them. By a strict interpretation this means you are, for example, paying 40bp for firearms 4 rather than paying to upgrade it from 0 four times. If you go by this strict interpretation then breaking up skills in chargen's not possible. Of course the final decision's up to the GM, but it makes sense this way.

Ok, have a copy of SR4 (Praise be to the God of All Things Paper!) so I 'll get my charcater done up by this weekend. Now I return to reading!

Tashio--The examples seem to indicate that if you buy a group at character creation to save points then you are limited at rating 4. If you want a single skill higher than four, you would have to purchase the skills separately.

Okay thanks.

To help me out when reviewing characters can everyone include the pt breakdown. (These are auto calculated if you use one of the Excel spreads in the Community projects forum.)

Also, please remember ratings and availability--No rating higher than 6 or availability higher than 12.

Skills--You can have 1 skill at 6 OR 2 skills at 5, nothing else can be higher than 4. This means that you cannot have 1 skill at 6 and 1 at 5 or 1 at 6 and 2 at 5. (It's been happening on a lot of characters so I thought I would remind everyone.)

Lastly if you take a negative quality, please read the entire text and give me all appropriate information. If you take a negative quality that has multiple stages let me know how severe it is. Also, I will enforce negative qualities, so a character with "Uneducated" may have to make tests for basic actions requiring a CommLink such as placing a phone call.

It's not my intention to be mean, so please let me know if I came across as harsh.

I had taken "Uneducated" because the Sprawl Ganger archetype had it, but after reading it, it doesn't suit my guy at all.
So, I fixed it with a severe alergy to Silver and Gremlins 1.
I can totally picture this guy spending hours wrenching on his Hog, trying to figure out why it doesn't start sometimes.
And I'm loving Incompetence. Talk about a way to get points for stuff you would have role played anyway
Incompetence - Con = a guy who sucks at lying.

You should be able to get *2.5 for taking incompetence in a skill group

I'm gonna back out as it looks like the character I have already done is not quite in line with your guidelines and actually already has earned karma. Was hoping to get her into a game as is. As much as I'd like to, I don't think I have the time to come up with a new one any time soon. I'll work on one though for the future in case you have dropouts. Drop me a line, you know how

I know I'm a bit late in the game, but I'd really like to try my hand out at an SR4 game.

I was thinking of trying out a rigger (more of a vehicle guy than drones). But I'll be ready to play pretty much anything the group would need.

Mister Juan--As long as you can get a character in by Friday, I'll accept you.

Blitz--I'll call you when it's time.

I was thinking of running a human-looking ork hacker with bad luck and a low tolerance for pain (with a day job as a low-level spider for a corp).

Is that alright?

DireRadiant--DES, Rigger/Shamanic Conjuring Adept (human) **
Fix-it--Copperhead, Covert Ops (orc)**
GingerKid--JuJu, Combat Mage (human) **
Warrior--Wolfgar, Phys-ad Weapons Specialist (human) **
Tashio--Black Widow, Covert Assassin/Face (elf)**
Bearclaw--Hunter, Street Sam (orc)**
CX2--Patch Up "PU", Combat Medic (human)**
Rokur--Krum, Meat Shield (Troll) **
Crystal Monkey--Kevin McKnight, Hacker (Human-looking Orc)**

Buddha--Widget, Technomancer Hacker/Rigger (elf)
Mr. Juan--Nameless, Rigger (??)
Sparky--NAMELESS, Weapons Adept (human)
Maxxi--NAMELESS, Technomancer Face (human)

So far I have received characters from the people with ** next to their name. If you've sent me a character and I haven't marked your name, re-send it to me and hit me with a PM.

With 13 people requesting to play, I'm going to close registration at this point. Once I get characters in I will be dividing people into 2 teams. If there is someone you really want on your team, let me know in your e-mail and I will do my best. Anyone who I have not received a character from by the cut-off point is going to be dropped out of the running. I hate to do it that way, but since I'm taking all comers, I'm going to use the deadline as a filter.

Edit: Updating Roster

deadline is friday??

I should have Copperhead to you finished by tonight. or early friday morning.

would have him sooner, but my net connection was broken last night. (stupid U tech support) and I have classes until 6 this evening.

Fix-It--Yes the deadline is Friday, last Friday (1/13/06) I gave everyone seven days. No worries on getting it to me tonight. I'm going to look at my e-mail first thing Saturday and cut from there.

Dire--Noted.