Saturday, April 8
Hello, chummers. I understand that your very own Emo Samurai has kept you all entertained with his madcap campaign plans, and you’ve probably been wondering how these plans are actually going to play out when inflicted on an actual group. Well, that’s where I come in. You see, I know Emo Samurai in real life, and he has convinced me and three other people into joining his campaign. I join of my own free will, though I’m not completely aware of what I’m getting into.

Anyway, Emo let it slip to me that he posts his ideas on these forums, so I decided to join Dumpshock and give you all the benefit of my perspective as a player in his campaign. I plan to do this by keeping a sort of open diary on this thread, chronicling my experiences and thoughts about the campaign. I’m not going to read Emo’s Dedicated Threads, and I urge you all not to give me any spoilers about their contents: it’s very important that I know as little as possible about what’s in store for me. In order to accurately present the effects of Emo’s campaign on my as-yet uncorrupted psyche, my only sources of information about his plans should be what he chooses to show or tell me.

To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, I feel that I should start by telling you about myself and how I came to know Emo. I’m a 19 year old girl, currently in my freshman year at a small liberal arts college. I’m very booksmart—you’ve probably noticed that I write like I’ve swallowed a dictionary—and I have an abiding love of sci-fi and fantasy. I mention that last bit of information because it was through the college’s Sci-Fi Club that I met Emo, and it was during one of the club’s gatherings that he approached me about joining the campaign. I declined his request initially because I was then in the process of joining another SR campaign, but when that fell through due to scheduling conflicts, I was free to join Emo’s group.

Emo seemed delighted by the prospect of my joining, and last Saturday he gave me a copy of SR4E in pdf form. (UPDATE--April 13, 2006: I hadn't realized that pdfs were copyrighted in the same way that physical books are, so I didn't realize that I was participating in illegal file sharing until today. I therefore purchased the book online just now to escape the wrath of the Big GM In The Sky. Remember, kids: stealing is wrong.) I studied it on and off over this past week, and finally wrote up my character sheet on Friday. Since Emo had steered me towards exploring the wonders of the Matrix, I read up on technomancers and fell in love with the concept. I took the technomancer from SR4E’s Sample Characters section and tweaked around with her to fit with Emo’s house rules. These house rules include 450 BPs, no limits on stat maxing or Qualities, and Complex Forms equal to one’s Resonance (you have to pay 3 BP for them, though). Thus, Fangirl was born: an eccentric young woman whose phenomenal Resonance power is only matched by her boundless optimism and sense of playfulness. I gave Fangirl’s sheet to Emo for approval yesterday, and he was so impressed with me (none of the other group members had even looked at the sourcebook, let alone drawn up their sheets) that he gave me 20 more BPs out of generosity.

Today, he brought me to meet with the other players, two guys I already knew and one I didn’t. Like me, all three guys are new to the shadows. At the meeting, Emo explained choice details about Sixth World life, and asked us what we wanted out of the campaign. We answered that we would follow the “mercenaries with a heart of gold” model, and wanted a campaign with a mix of seriousness and silliness. So far, I’m the only one with any concrete idea of what she wants her character to be like; the others have vague ideas at best. Luckily, they have two more weeks to figure it out, which is when Emo plans to have our first gaming session.

I'll post further entries as events warrant. Any questions, chummers?

You... you didn't like him? Why? WHYYYYYYYYY?????

What? Who are you talking about? What did I say?

Oh... I saw

I think epic and overpowered can work in Shadowrun, though. They make blood mages, people you can conceivably turn in for a million dollars, 8th level initiates+. And anyone can die with a critical glitch while his enemy rolls all 5's and 6's. This works for runners, and it works for enemies.

Epic and overpowered isn't THAT overpowered in Shadowrun. Unless you're a dragon. Or an 8th level blood mage...

Well, you can always throw something more powerful at the characters up to the point where Ristul is one of the PCs (although some others may disagree with that assertion). However, it seems that the SR4 system is more suited toward lower level campaigns can gets rather silly when one has enormous dice pools. Of course, 470 BP characters aren't overpowered.

Actually, I can use my calculator to generate a string of random numbers between one and six. The string can be as long as I want it to be, so it will take me just as much effort to roll twenty d6s as it would to roll two.

Fangirl, my hats off to you, though we all like some of emo's ideas, not everyone likes all of them. with that in mind and the fact that your playing a technomancer i show the path to enlightenment by way of ducks top ten list be very careful how you use it

See my take is Emo, ya make GREAT comic relief. For most DSers, your SO far over the normal line, its really quite entertaining. But un like many ofthe really over the top peole, your not abrasive, and even likeable at times.
Much like the cyberzombie powerpuff girls. But much more, emo, and prone to flipping out and killing everyone.

Actually now that I think about that Ill take it back, its CZ PPGs.... no good can come of that what so ever.

Wow. Everybody's being all nice, and welcoming... I feel bad.

I feel bad 'cause my first thought was, "Emo met a girl?!"



Seriously, I can't wait to hear the reports from the trenches.

I thought that you might like to see my character sheet. I should mention that I get 470 BP, no extra penalty for maxing skills or attributes, 4*Cha extra BP just for contacts, and Complex Forms with ratings equal to my Resonance for only 3 BP each. I also had the opportunity to add 2 Essence points worth of cyberware without penalty, but chose not to take it.


--REVISED EDITION

EDIT:

Nah, they're just lulling you into a false sense of security plus SL James doesn't seem to be here yet. I'm sure he can muster some nasty.
As a note you aren't the only girl on DS, and some of us DSers have long standing relationships with girls, some claim to be married, but they are quite old so can't be trusted.
Welcome have fun, read about the cool grit Emo ignores, smack him, on our behalfm when he goes into berzerk Leet(I will not use the f'ing numbers) speech anime frothing.

Are you sure you can't guve us a picture?

1 0|\||_ 133R53R|< 1337 VV|-|3|\| 17'5 VV4RR4|\|73|).

Okay, here's a picture of what I might look like if I were a South Park Character.

If I had a nose it would be cute.

I've resolved not to put an actual photograph of myself online because of all the creepy bad people who might find it and use it for their own twisted purposes. If you really want to know what I look like, you could ask Emo to describe me.

About Emo's l33t-sp33k--When I first said I would join the campaign, he informed me that "it will roxxor." He actually said the word "roxxor."

Oh, and I assumed that there are other females here. I just figured that the males form a sizable majority, that's all.

That's "r0xx0rz."

Oh, because "r0xx0rz" is so much less nerdy than "roxxor."

No, it just r0xx0rz more.

No, she's a girl. The internet has darkened your soul, robbing you of your ability to trust.

It's the spell quickened into my aura.

Emo attesting to anything is a testament to the veracity of the opposite, therefore I must be right.

OOOOOOhhhhhhhh.... I'm really devious, it seems.

Devious is as devious does. lol

Someone should really start a poll to find out the truth.

emo: you think the lesbian elf thing was bad? Try doing a search for "MasterShake" some time. THAT was scary.

Oh, and for the record, married, 25, wife posts on here as Plan B. Not the only female in our games either. It's not unheard of . Heck, there was a whole thread about whether or not girls are more bloodthirsty or... oh never mind. It was a long scary thread.

I have no doubt that you fall toward the female end of the gender spectrum (after exaustive research I have rejected the theory of human sexual dimorphism and reached the conclusion that there is only a single gender which varies along a semifluid spectrum). The question that everyone wants to know the answer to but all are afraid to ask is "where do you want your dikoted AVS ally spirit to fall on the gender spectrum".


Your technomancer is going to get slaughtered in the first firefight if you aren't careful. Light pistols suck less than they once did but they still suck. I'd recomend for a new player to specialize in heavy pistols and get an Ares Viper Slivergun instead. The AVS is the single most abusable weapon in the game (hence the joke that you probably aren't getting). It always has been and always will be. Smartlink contacts/glasses/goggles and a gas vent would also be be good considering her low skill.

I'm not to familiar with minmaxing technomancers but you might consider reducing some of the services on some of Francine's sprites and increasing your willpower. She can reregister them in game for no cost other than fading and you'll have to do so eventually or compile new ones. Either way she'll take fading and willpower fill help with that.

Just so you know, you'll have time to register sprites in the middle of the first game. I saw your character sheet, and you'd spent, like, 40 BP on them. Don't do it. Don't even spend one. Plus, just so you know, don't worry about equipment at all. It'll be provided to you soon enough. I won't help you with lifestyle, SIN's, or vehicles, but anything you can buy at a store will be readily available.

The control rig only gives, like, +1 in all tests with rigging. Under my rules, that resonance loss will take away 1 force from EVERY complex form she has.

And I can't help but visualize MasterShake as some thin, pasty, bald, bespectacled boy in a Vampire larper's cloak walking around and dissing everyone's lack of intelligence and subservience to the great Canon in the sky.

ouch, that's pretty harsh. Why do it that way, since taking away resonance limits drops her resonance, there-by limiting her may CF's? What you're doing is basically making it so that she wastes karma every time she raises a form.

No, what I mean is that her complex forms are AlWAYS set at her resonance, and she only has to buy them once for 3 BP or 5 Karma. It's not that she gets less in this game, she just has more to lose.

oh, well hell, in that case, she should do it anyways. Get a little cyber, she's saving a butt load of karma instead of having to improve the rating one step at a time.

What rating? Does Resonance help with rigging?

You can't add a gas vent to a slivergun (or any other heavy or light pistol).

Yeah; keep your Resonance.

you get a power for every 3 ratings points for sprites, like you do with spirits. One od the powers they get is an auto soft. SO if you've got a good enough rating, you can have them have their relevant vehicle skill, plus gunery. Maybe a 'clearsight' , that sort of thing. Plus you can go over a 6 rating.

I revised my character sheet to fit with most of your recommendations, but I did not add a VCR for a few reasons. First, Fanny can just make a sprite control vehicles if she needs to (as Damen and fistand pointed out), second, the very idea of unnecessary surgery makes her squeamish, and third--and perhaps most importantly--Fanny views her Resonance as a divine gift, and she would never willingly give up even a fraction of it unless doing so would serve the greater good. I'm sorry, but I believe that breathing soul into one's character is more important than minmaxing the hell out of him.

Hello, James. You may be interested in knowing that I've been warned about you.