no, seriously. i am. here's proof--i'm Monday. don't have the sheet finished yet; i'll post it when it's done.

just wanted to announce this so that everybody who complains about me posting here even though i don't play the game can finally hush their speaking-holes.

Congratulations!

Good show. But if you go technomancer, be prepared to be nothing BUT a technomancer. They are a karmic black hole that makes the karma needs of awakened characters seem laughable and puny in comparison. Also, it's really hard for a technomancer to diversify into other things. Your complex forms also won't be as good as a starting hacker's programs.

However, in a session I played recently, I (temporarily) had a Black Hammer complex form of 9 (which I used to one-shot a tough security hacker) and a Stealth of 7 via smart use of sprites. A well-played technomancer knows how to make their advantages work for them.

Hey mfb, I started to seriously consider a middle ground between otaku and technomancers for my website. But as I mulled it over, the only thing I could really think of, mechanically, was allowing technomancers to have connectivity cyberware without Resonance penalty (datajacks and the like) instead of radio brains. They'd lose the Signal rating out of their living persona in exchange for the Signal rating for whatever device they are using, but that's about it.

Well, that and general theme/mood development, but that's something that could exist for technomancers even as they are now.

congrats on playing a TM mfb.

I found a really great optimization yesterday that should help my own TM quite a bit.

You will want to get max complex forms at max rating at chargen, the reason is that complex forms are MUCH more expensive karma wise than skill groups.

My TM has Tasking, Electronics and Hacking skill groups at 2, and 10 CFs at 5. To take the 30 bp from CF's and use them on the skill groups to raise to 3 would mean that during play I'd have to spend around 96 karma to raise the CF's to get back to 10 CFs at rating 5 , or spending 45 karma to raise the skillgroups all from 2 to 3. which means that in relative terms, it's twice as effective karma use to dump into skillgroups rather than complex forms.

If I could, I'd drop points to get those at rating 6, but I'm having to draw the line somewhere.

here's something i'm curious about--with the dearth of flavor for TMs, how have people been playing theirs? my guy is basically batshit loco, struggling desperately at every moment to hang onto his sanity. he sorta accepts what he sees and hears (several of his technomancer abilities manifest as his many tattoos talking to him) without actually believing that any of it's real. a practical example of how to function if you're no longer able to trust your own senses, sorta.

My TM does accept what she sees and hears as "reality," she just has doubts about whether certain ordinary experiences are really ordinary - as opposed to being carefully orchestrated by an evil AI in order to manipulate her into following his agenda. She's heard about how Deus twisted his otaku into serving his horrible ends, and she's terrified of the prospect of being twisted in a similar way. Ever since she discovered that there's a fourth AI, she's been questioning almost every moral dilemma she encounters (e.g. "Oh Em Gee! That old lady is being mugged! I have to help her...unless that's what he wants me to do! But she needs help...unless she's actually working with him! But - Aw drek, the mugger got away...").

AI / Alice Inside (Alice if your her friend):

Alice knows she 'talks' to the machince, but perhaps since her views of the world are slightly skewed anyways (or more accurately rarely cares what the 'norm' is) doesnt overly bother her anymore.

Shy very introverted, Alice developed very much a loner. She had lots of imaginary friends, and it seemed natural when they started talking back. Not caring if she was 'going crazy' or 'just imagining them' she soon learned what she could and couldnt do.

Know she knows she is 'different' from most, but doenst let it bother her. She 'plays along' with most and carries a comlink or three. Doesnt directly draw attention that half the time she forgets to use them.... but 'tries' to fit in sinxe people just hassle her less.

She like the early mages... the world might think you are crazy, but when you can prove you can do the stuff, well the look on their faces sort of prove you arent crazy

peace

I can only hope that Cain is not playing also. That could be the Unholy Trinity that signals the Twilight of Man.

Keep us updated!

Take that TM to a dead zone. Think he's loco now? Have those talking tattoos all of a sudden not talk. Should freak him out a bit more than nomal.

Yeah tell me about it.

Alice is currently working for somebody who lives is a isolated bunker..


She chats with his Fridge, lights, and the few other wireless things people take into the bunker, since she cant talk to anything outside....

Now the one I am dreading is the first time somebody hits her with a jammer stronger then her signal..... Not sure what that kind of overload the GM will decides does to her.


(edited to fix an possibly embarring freudian slip)

"His um refrigerator, thats what I said." (Ok sp alice might have a crush so far on the only person she's met that hasn't reated her as a freak (or more recently a good looking body), but actually seemed interested in her abilities and 'her'....)

A TM that I am currently playing has named himself David Gurney. Basically he is a 30+ year old man who a marketing executive testing the latest in nano-trode rigs when the crash happened. He was stuck in VR for days, and when he came out, his entire life had been erased. (David Gurney is a character form a twilight Zone episode who awakens to find that no one, not even his wife, recognises him).

He basically became a bum, wandering the UCAS, talking to his imaginary friends (based on people he had known in his past life), until one day he asked a friend for a coke and one rolled out of a machine.

He doesn't really know what to make of his abilities, but he isn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Being an ex marketing exec/coprprate con man, he is all for the quick sell and easy fix, and also about "conning" systems into doing what he wants.

Monday, human technomancer:


generating the numbers took me about as long as it does to create a good SR3 char. coming up with a concept that fit SR4's streamlined ideas about street levelness took quite a while longer. for several days, i was torn between trying to crappy-ize a character (my concept for a troll TM with cyberarms was going okay, right up until i got to the section on cyberlimbs) and just using the default TM from the book--a character which fell fairly far short of my standards for awesomeness.

Um... Knives with str of 1? And no pistol? This strike anyone else as odd?

Our group's kind of got the pistols thing handled. And a knife in the belly with enough hits behind it, Strength score doesn't matter much, it'll still suck.

Max rating of a CF at chargen is Resonance, you have Stealth at 6 and a Res of 5.

bah. one of the things that slipped my attention. his Str was originally higher. hmm... could go pistols, i guess, but pistols are less crazy than knives.

ah, good catch, re: Stealth.

You could for a more exotic weapon then.

A pain inducer or a super-squirt. Though that might be considered more bizarre than crazy.

went with clubs (batons) and a shock baton. can't argue with an effective 12 Str for damage. plus that juicy AP.

Oh indeed, it's simply shocking!

Monday's boots crunch in the gravel. Why this J couldn't meet somewhere civilized, somewhere with fucking pavement, is beyond him.

Nice.

Suggestion: While the Tasking Group is certainly tempting, the Decompiling skill is frankly useless - you're better off dropping it entirely and spending the extra 6 BPs on a +1 to your Registering and increasing the last CFs to 5.

On your choice of CFs: Honestly, Technomancers are never ever going to be any good in Matrix combat. Seriously, they do not have the CFs to waste on that sort of thing. Fortunately, Registering Sprites is free, it just takes time and causes Fading - so after a few weeks of playing your character it is reasonable to assume that you'll have your limit of registered Rating 4 Registered Spries. They can fight very well indeed.

Essentially it means that CFs like Armor and Attack are wasted on you, while CFs like Sniffer and ECCM are must-haves.

---

From a RP perspective, Technomancers talk to and rely on sprites even more than Magicians do to Spirits. And unlike Spirits, which are actually quite visible to other people, Sprites exist entirely in inaccessible chat rooms most of the time. Technomancers, therefore, are way farther into the realm of crazy-talk than are Magicians. Sort of.

The thing that sets them apart is that everyone else is talking to their Matrix chat-room buddies in AR all the time too! Because Technomancers spend all their time talking to entities on-line, they actually fit into mundane society much better than Magicians do. The absolute crazy-talk isn't even visible to the naked eye. When they say "I'm talking to my forum friends" - that's completely reasonable for a person in 2070 to be doing. The fact that the "forum friends" are actually made out of the forum rather than being other enthusiasts around the world is nuts - but not immediately obvious to those around them.

So most TMs are going to come off as obsessive fans. Of something. Maybe an old trid show, maybe a pen and paper RPG. They need to check in with their forum several times a day - and we certainly don't know anyone like that, do we?

The thing is, if you actually go in depth research on a Technomancer's stories, they don't add up. The trid show they obsess over was never actually aired. The forum they are always reading doesn't "exist" and the commlink they are always typing on has been broken for months. If you investigate a TM's stories closely, they are like A Beautiful Mind - none of the people, places, or events the Technomancer interacts with on a daily basis are "real".

But of course, they are real - just in a Resonance Realm, not here. They come off as Comic Book Guy, but it turns out that they're talking to space aliens. If you look at them peripherally they appear to be obsessives. If you look at them closer it appears that they are completely delusional. But unfortunately if you look at them even closer it turns out that they are sane and you are crazy. Good times.

-Frank

"Technomancers are never ever going to be any good in Matrix combat"

Don't know about that the one real 'fight' Alice had she whooped pretty good (admittedly was a fight, against the 'stock' decker, and rolls favored Alice, but think even with 'average' rolls fight would have been won. Alice had a F-4 sprite on stand-bye but never even called it in.

Now I will say the one BIG disadvantage TM's have is damage. Things turn nasty and TM's bleed while decker needs to reboot.

Totally agree on Sprites being your best friend.... If you want to munchkinize (and even have legitimate roleplay escuses to) if you aint 'on a run', sleeping, or possibly busy with a significant other, you work on re-registering the biggest baddest most impressive sprite you can sucessfully re-register.

Jumping from Exploit-5 to explot 11 or 12 for 6 turns is well worth a 6-7 hour coding sessions

And if you are parnoid or need to be total 'stealth' .. Stealth 5 is good, Stealth 11ish means Deus Ex himself aint gonna spot you for the 6 turns the sprite is aiding you.

TMs not being good at Matrix combat--now that's going to take some getting used to. if anybody ever asked for proof that TMs and otaku are two different critters, there it is.

traded out Attack for Sniffer and Medic for ECCM, keeping Armor since i figure i'd rather have something to defend with if i get attacked. Medic's only handy for keeping my sprites up, and i can create a sprite with Medic easily.

yes, but otaku have the advantage of being completely uhittable in Matrix combat, combined with the advantage of being able to have a big-damage attack out of the box. show me an otaku who doesn't start out with a 6D attack program and rating 6 cloak, shield, and armor, and i'll show you an otaku who needs to go back to chargen school. add the fact that with the fact that they're faster than most deckers, and the fact that all their persona ratings are universally 2+ points higher than an equivalent decker's. otaku rule the gosh-darn heck out of Matrix combat. the lack of an icon damage monitor rarely comes up, for otaku, because few ever get a chance to hit them, and those that do get a shot in find their attacks soaked to 0 damage by a high bod rating and a fat stack of armor. what otaku aren't all that good at is actual hacking--datasteals, overwatch, etcetera--unless you max out their Control channel and specialize in Validate Account. (edit: damn, my otaku obsession is showing again. sorry if the above para is a bit scattered; i've been awake for 24 hrs and counting.)

re: BTW: yeah, i re-read the rules for Addiction after i put that in. i left it in because a) letter of the rule or not, it's disadvantageous, and i'd rather use/modify and existing flaw than write up a new one; b) it doesn't specify physical health; and c) BTLs aren't a substance either.

I think that addiction is in the spirit of the rule. Good idea!

i'm not a psycholologizer, so i couldn't begin to tell you what the direct impact of spending at least 2-3 hours per day searching the Internet for pictures of mutilated bodies, and storing them for later perusal, would be. but i can say with fair certainty that the effects would be, psycholologizically speaking, bad. you can believe that looking at pictures isn't addictive if you like, but google disagrees with you.

'sides, this is SR4, which means it's the GM's call whether or not compulsively searching for pictures of holocaust victims is an addiction or not. my GM's going to say it is, soon as he wakes up. problem solved!

see link above. and this is SR4, man! the spirit of the rules is whatever the GM says it is. that's supposed to be why it's so great, right?

anyway. Rotbart says one of my addictions is against the rules. he may be right, he may not be; it doesn't really matter to me. if you agree with him, change that flaw before you use this character in your games. if, y'know, using characters from intraweb boards in home games is your thing.

CF are limited to 3 times logic+intuition or something (I forgot) at char generation

yup. the number of CFs you can have, regardless of rating, is equal to (Log*2). that should be ten. i've got ten CFs, right? i did last time i counted, but there have been edits.

edit: yeah, 10.

Ah OK, then this was the limit. I knew there was something but forgot what it was . . .