James McMurray
Apr 21 2006, 06:31 PM
LOL I'm sure that's exactly what he meant.
frostPDP
Apr 22 2006, 12:07 AM
Yeah. Cuz, yanno, I love mages so much they don't have to pay the penalty.
EVERY attribute has a backstory. I tend to think that mages not being able to get, yanno, a datajack without losing 1/6th of their magic attribute is a penalty in its own right.
If your character is a bum mage, the penalty is that he's a highly noticable bum. If your character is a former military mage, then he's formerly military. Magery, Adeptness, etc all tends to come with SOME amount of back-story.
Kremlin; unfortunately life has been too hectic for me to have time to give it more than a very quick glance.
Another thing to remember is that character backstory doesn't end with the start of the game. It keeps growing. When a character drops a security guard, doesn't it make sense that a bullet casing left behind could lead to identification? Or perhaps a corp the runners juiced over earlier gets their own runners together and gets a little shadow-scuffle started? Backstory has EVERYTHING to do with what a character has.
I don't like "My character is Joe Average with magic" any more than "My character is Joe Average with a cyberarm + Shotgun." A character's backstory is what makes it all up; one of my friends had a PhysAd who was once with Lone Star and tried to stop a high-ranking cop from killing a person in cold blood. He not only failed, but was framed for the murder. Or was it that he was simply framed...? Anyway, he has a vendetta against Lone Star.
Bottom line: If you would just allow a magical 1 million to appear out of nowhere, that's fine for your GM style; since I like a little depth, I prefer not to allow that.
Kagetenshi
Apr 22 2006, 04:21 AM
| QUOTE (frostPDP) |
| When a character drops a security guard, doesn't it make sense that a bullet casing left behind could lead to identification? |
No. Among other things, SR guns are caseless by default.
| QUOTE |
| Or perhaps a corp the runners juiced over earlier gets their own runners together and gets a little shadow-scuffle started? |
Against the rival organization, sure. Against the Shadowrunners? What's the point? The entire purpose of a Shadowrunner is to have zero knowledge, zero ties.
| QUOTE |
| Backstory has EVERYTHING to do with what a character has. |
No, that's story. Backstory is, by definition, everything that happens before a character enters play.
| QUOTE |
| Bottom line: If you would just allow a magical 1 million to appear out of nowhere, that's fine for your GM style; since I like a little depth, I prefer not to allow that. |
Mmm, straw men.
~J
Taran
Apr 22 2006, 04:29 AM
| QUOTE (frostPDP) |
| EVERY attribute has a backstory. I tend to think that mages not being able to get, yanno, a datajack without losing 1/6th of their magic attribute is a penalty in its own right. |
Sure, but it's not an excuse for instant gankage. This whole mess got started when you bragged that you kill any character foolish enough to start with a million nuyen in resources. If you're talking about backstory then ok, fair enough, but that's not how this digression began, and it's not why people are yelling at you.
| QUOTE |
| Bottom line: If you would just allow a magical 1 million to appear out of nowhere, that's fine for your GM style; since I like a little depth, I prefer not to allow that. |
Serious question: do you believe that people are reacting badly to your opinions on max-resources characters because they don't like depth in their games?
mfb
Apr 22 2006, 05:16 AM
| QUOTE (frostpdp) |
| Bottom line: If you would just allow a magical 1 million to appear out of nowhere, that's fine for your GM style; since I like a little depth, I prefer not to allow that. |
where, exactly, does anyone in this thread say that backstory is bad? that they don't like having characters with depth? the problem is, you seem to think that having depth somehow equals having character flaws, that characters with high resources should have to pay a cost above and beyond the point value of what they're getting--but only in the case of resources.
yes, i agree that there should be some explanation for why the character has high resources. what i disagree on is that part where this explanation somehow has to hurt the character. i don't see any problem with playing a retired ex-mercenary who parted with his company on amicable terms, but who is now getting back in the game for some reason. i don't see any problem with playing an ex-corporate mage who was quietly pushed out of the corporation because of internal politics. there are plenty of reasonable, interesting explanations for why a character might start with high resources that don't involve losing all their arms and legs.
Kagetenshi
Apr 22 2006, 05:22 AM
| QUOTE (mfb) |
| characters with high resources should have to pay a cost above and beyond the point value of what they're getting--but only in the case of resources. |
To be fair, that same monumentally stupid conclusion also appears in the Shadowrun Companion. Or maybe I should say that page 68 has some blank spaces on it.
~J
mfb
Apr 22 2006, 05:26 AM
i'm actually assuming he's already using those rules. i basically include that in the point cost of the resources.
Wounded Ronin
Apr 23 2006, 10:44 PM
Sweet. I come back to work on Monday and I find out I don't have to reply to this thread because the replies I was gonna write have written themselves. An automatic forum!
Taran
Apr 24 2006, 01:26 AM
Your bill is in the mail. Don't worry - we know where to find you.
Wounded Ronin
Apr 24 2006, 09:46 PM
| QUOTE (frostPDP) |
If your character is a bum mage, the penalty is that he's a highly noticable bum. If your character is a former military mage, then he's formerly military. Magery, Adeptness, etc all tends to come with SOME amount of back-story.
|
What if my ninja gained his adept-ness on the Island of Tranquil Dreams by hanging upside down from trees for hours, running with a thirty foot ribbon tied around his waist so fast that the ribbon never touched the ground, and hanging out with passive-aggressively asian monks who for some reason know all about how to train an assassin?
YOU ARE AN OUTSTANDING MASTER OF THE WAY!
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