Hello everyone,

I've been playing on these boards for quite a while, then I've stopped, and now I'm back again. (I missed the community)

I have played SR quite a bit, but never as a GM, even though I have been GM'ing f2f in other role-playing games. Now I feel like I'm slightly behind regarding the new rules and the new story, and I will be spending some time re-reading the SR4 Rulebook (I don't have any other source books btw). Nevertheless, I want to try my hand at running an SR game/campaign.

What I want to know is if there would be interest for players to join in a friendly game with a newbie gamemaster like myself.

I would make it the theme of the game: newbies. We'd be playing a few short runs so that I get used to being on this side of running things. To incorporate that, I'd require all runners to be newbies (the players don't have to be, obviously, since more experienced players and GMs would actually be of help). So runners with no running experience whatsoever.

They would be running their first run for a fixer named Sonic, an ex-runner jack-of-all-trades who has just retired and thinks that he can hold his own in the shadow buziness; i.e. a fixer who's a newbie as well. They probably just answered to an ad on the matrix shadowland, met once or twice with Sonic (who will be a free contact), and then received their first call for a job.

Special Rules for Character Concept/Background:
- No running experience, although other experience is just fine of course.
- Limited knowledge of shadowrunning; no fixer, johnson or runner contacts will be allowed for instance.
- No restrictions on the "power-level" of the characters though, just consider that the runners are starting their career in this game.
- Make it very clear how and why you're trying to find work as a shadowrunner.

Character creation will likely be something along the lines of 380 BP.

I expect the game to start the week of February 5, to give me the time I need to refresh my knowledge and think some more about the game. I'll pick the players based on concepts alone (full backgrounds also welcome) and I do not want to receive character sheets (!!). I'll probably take 5 players given enough interest. You can submit in this thread and PMs are fine too. It's not going to be on a first come basis and you have until next Monday to submit character concepts. We will then proceed to the character creation process.

So who wants in?

Beckett, Troll Mage Scholar.

Born a troll, Beckett is a Career Scholar from London, discovered early he was admitted to one of the top Magical schools in the area. Now aged 35, he was researching for his masters in Parazoology when he stumbled across a collection of animals he'd never seen before. After being spotted by security he fled the area.

Shortly thereafter he began to be plagued by spirits and other summoned creatures, and often felt he was being followed. deciding discretion the better part of Valor he left London for Seattle. He was introduced to Sonic via a friend of a friend as someone who could help him out in a spot if need be. Besides Sonic he's managed to locate a local Talismonger.

More at home in a library or his study with a heavy book and his ever present pipe than stuck in his new dingy apartment in Seattle. For what its worth at least the weathers about the same, just as miserable. He is currently searching for a University which would allow him to study in return for tutoring and lecturing, so far with little luck.

Holden Farrar, Chaos Mage, Magical PI

Idon't have all the details worked out in my head yet, just wanted to throw my name and at least a character name and simple concept on type into the ring.

Hey, great to hear that some people are interested.

@ Trigger, what exactly do you mean by chaos mage?

Would a ganger fit?(not a runner but is in the shady side of the street) I have runners havens and could use one listed there. Also, a little hiccup while registering so i emailed you my interest. (By the way the forum staff is way fast in replying/fixing issues. _

I'm open to all kinds of backgrounds, including ex-gangers. As long as you have a good explanation for why he wants to become a shadowrunner (as stated in the first post), that's really fine. Looking forward to the full character concept.

If you use a gang from that book and it's an integral part of your character, it would be good to include a description of the gang in an eventual background for the character, since I don't have it and would be happy to know more about them.

And everyone please use the private message feature of these forums to contact me if you want to discuss something privately (sounds a bit redundant hehe).

Edit: On second thought, I'd rather play Crazy Cyber Ninja (with, of course, our beloved GM's blessing).

I am looking at 3 gangs (from the runners havens book)

The Chulos, a Mexican/Atzlander ethnic gang (read Latino): tenative concept is muscle with a focus on unarmed combat with some firearms skills.

The Blood Brothers, an African American ethnic gang: Concept is firearms, muscle and intimidation (spread equally....but perhaps thin at chargen.....and yes i am thinking Samuel Jackson in pulp Fiction lol)

The Cereal Killers, a matrix gang that "runs" in the seattle matrix. Concept.....well, a little easy to see as its a matrix gang. ( I'm inspired by the movie Hackers on this one lol)

If any of these 'pop' to you let me know...currently working on all 3 at the moment.

Side note: If no one approaches to play a Hacker and it fits best to have one i'll play it.

I would love to join a newb game. I have been playing shadowrun for a while but I am still kind of new to sr4, and am very new to forum gamming. So this would be a great one for me. Plus I always like to start from the ground up.

Wanted to make a phys add. Grew up training in Martial Arts. He wants to try the shadowrunning just because what he hears of it. Going to probably be a big wake up for him.

I've played a fair amount of SR3, and am currently playing a SR4 with some people here, but I've never played a message board game so I'd definately be a newb to it as well, but I've read through enough of the message board games to get the hang of it, I think.

I'll have a concept ready for you ASAP. I'm thinking of running with a face of some kind because I haven't done that in a while.

By the posts it seems the interests are (if I may consolidate them)

(tenatively)
2 magically gifted
1 rigger/ muscle/shooter(?)
1 psyad
1 face
Please forgive if i've misread/understated your concept (it isnt my intention)

so, that makes my choice easy...i'll concentrate on the matrix ganger.

Well, I'll try my best to help players new to the forum format to get used to it in the game. Best advice for now is just to look at other games run here for inspiration and understanding the pace, feel, etc. of a forum game.

Again, I'm glad to see so many people showing interest. I'm expecting to receive quite a few more concepts than there will be room for players in the game, though, by the looks of it. I guess having to reject some players is a part of running a game online that I'll have to get used to ..

EDIT: I won't mind people submitting more than one concept/background and don't feel obliged to either.

Questions as I'm making this PC:

Would an info broker count as a fixer (a no-no on your list of contacts)?

Should I put other gang members as contacts?

Oh, extra concepts? Hmm...

Crazy Cyber Ninja
Cybermod geek who's just a little unbalanced. Not party-killing unbalanced, of course. Just not all there. He'll be the epitome of 2070's squalor and decadence--probably a chemical junkie as well a BTL mental case, and no doubt loves video games almost as much as real violence. He'd be shadowrunning to pay for his cybermodding habit, and because what else is a crazy guy who's covered in metal going to do for a living?

Edit: His name will be Charlie.

Well I'm not sure about all of this just yet, but I'd rather see people work on a more elaborate background first, and worry about how to put it into a character sheet later. No matter what you want to make, it can happen and we can figure out the "stats" for it when it's time for that. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by info broker, but if he doesn't work directly with shadowrunners daily, I'm fine with it.

Info broker buys and sells data (paydata) so in loose terms he's a specialized fixer (deals only in data)

which leads me to another, that of deckmeister (fixer who specializes in decks...commlinks tweaked out)




EDIT: if not allowed maybe i just have a names of these individuals and have to work on gaining access to them.

As far as I'm concerned, this is all good. If you want to include something that I don't want for the game start in the end, then I'll just have you take it out of the char sheet when the time for that comes. No worries.

Amok

Icon: a stylized goblin with an old style (1900's) aviators leather cap and googles. chanting amok...amok...amok....amok

Amok, as he's known on the 'trix and especially to the matrix gang he belongs to, the Cereal Killers is out of school, out of a real job and recently out of his parents house. Amok flops between the few gang members he knows in real life, a couple abandoned lofts,and a few dive motels/coffin hotels when he has the money. The need to make money (without any real actual work) has led him in the direction of shadow work. Amok is as childish at times as he is cheerful with a touch of ADD that can grate some of the more gruff types.

A good page for handy SR resources, in particular the Cheat Sheets.

I'll definitely throw my cap into the ring.

Ex-DocWagon Medic... I'll send you the full story through PM.

That's a SWEET link ES Sparky

Yeah seriously, I love the Matrix hacking programs but I'm still learning its ins and outs... It's really hard to grip, this makes things a little easier. And not just for hacking.

Hey Sparky, good to see that you're still hanging out around here!

Great link too. Very useful.

Are you still taking new players?
I have a technomancer that never really got off the ground.
She's an ex-otaku that ran with the gangs after the Crash 2.0 as a need to stay connected with some sort to Tribe. She's had to discover her gifts on her own and only has a few ex-otaku friends still around.. some Technos shun her as she's been 'tainted' with 'ware from her past life.

I'll clean up the sheet and give the link if I can get in.

This is all in the first post, but I do accept and treat equally all character ideas I receive until Monday morning. And I don't want to see any kind of sheet, even if you have it. I just need character concept and background.

Here's a character concept, I'm working on a more fleshed out background:

Nathan Arizona - Face

Nathan is a former PR manager for a major PR firm in Seattle. He was good at what he did, and his socially oriented adept powers helped him land a number of major contracts for the firm. Unfortunately, Nathan has two major problems: He can't stop gambling away all of his money, and he has extremely bad luck.

He now owes almost 75,000 nuyen to the mob. He managed to talk them out of killing him outright, but now they want him to do a favor for them, and it doesn't seem like what he's going to have to do is going to be very legal. It might involve dealing with "shadowrunners" or perhaps even becoming one himself.


If you don't want the mob to be involved, then I can edit things in favour of him still owing a lot of money, but he's lost his job and shadowrunning is really the only way he sees to get the mob their money quickly. Either way. =)

Good to see you too, gobogen. Good luck with the game.

Also for consideration:

Carlos "El Gamberro" Munoz

Carlos is a streetwise (like most in the gangers in the metroplex) Latino who runs with the Chulos gang in the metroplex. In his 23 years of life he has been the guest of the state and local facilities for a total of 8 years...so far. Carlos is at a crossroads in his life...it's time to move on, or move up......shadowrunning these small jobs for Sonic will give him the skills, the juice and the cash to do either of those.

In his role (if chosen) as a shadowrunner he lives up to his nickname..El Gamberro means 'the Thug'.


I am by no means withdrawing my application for Amok....just trying to up my chances of getting in.

Charlie
When you're a skinny tweaker with bad teeth, poor locution, and an uncomfortable staring habit, you tend not to have many options in life. This made things simple for Charlie, who was never very good at making decisions anyway.

For example, when it came time for Charlie to leave mom and dad and start his own life, Charlie decided that he would run drugs for a living (that's what his older brother did), and save up enough money so that one day he could afford to live in a nice apartment, and maybe find a nice job doing manual labor where he could listen to music all day and never have to worry about crazy parents shouting and cursing at him all the time. Charlie never stole any drugs, and in exchange for his reliability and naivety, he was be given more jobs running drugs, and got more money to boot. Drug running worked great for Charlie for a while, because if there's anything Charlie is good at, it's getting shit on. When things went wrong, he could take the beatings. When cops showed up, he could take the fall. And when mobsters learned that Charlie was planning to leave the business, and decided they were going to break every bone in that skinny little tweakers body, Charlie had the money to pay for some new ones.

Sharp ones, he decided. Perhaps the first good decision Charlie has made for a long, long time.

So either this party is going to be jagging for the next fix, or they're going to be dealing drugs on the side. Hahaha, I didn't know drug-dealing was so popular!

I've not said anything in my character concept that she was any kind of junky or drug dealer... though I guess running with the gangs would - in some way - deal with drugs, alcohol abuse and such...

BronzeWyrm, or often just Wyrm (called such for her Bronze Dragon matrix icon) probably would be considered your average late teens skater punk... though her talents and Matrix speech make her stand out a bit from the average street kid.
She uses her experiences with the Tribes to comprehend her new Technomantic powers, though probably relies on tech and toys to do jobs than most Technomancers.

When she's not hanging out with friends, she crashes at her parent's place. Her father owns a tattoo shop which Wyrm works at on occasion when she's tight on cash. She's talented in hacking, fixing electronics, tattoo art and a bit of drone rigging. She's not much of a fighter, but can manage a gun if needs be.

Well good job so far everyone! I like the ideas I see and I'm not looking forward to having to make a choice on Monday.

I don't mind that characters have similar pasts (gangs, drugs etc.), and everyone should really play what they want to play - and feel most comfortable playing. And by that I'm not trying to imply that you're all a bunch of drug-dealing junkies. I'd never do that

EDIT: I just went through all applications already received (including some PM's), and I count 9 interested players up to now. I already feel bad for some of you guys.

Here's another concept, who I'd actually prefer playing over Nathan.

Samuel "Skippy" Colt
Samuel was, at one point, a career bartender. It felt like, at one point or another, he'd worked at all the trog bars in Seattle. He's spent over half of his shortened orc lifespan behind the counter at various drinking holes, and he'd finally saved up the money to buy his own place, Skippy's. He knew a lot of shadowrunners in his time, but he liked being a bartender enough to avoid that scene for the most part.

Skippy's gained a decent regular clientele, and was a pretty hopping neighborhood pub, but one morning, Skippy arrived to open the place to find it on fire. It burned to the ground, and because of his somewhat seedy past, he was essentially uninsurable. Skippy now had nothing. He swore revenge against the people who burned down his bar, but he has to find out who did it first. He's also not sure that his skills will be up to par when he finds them, and he needs money, desparately.

So, Skippy has picked up his trusty shotgun and headed into the shadows, looking to earn some coin and harden himself for the trials ahead.

Esteban Ruiz Recalde

Esteban still remembers his first day as a member of the Yucatan resistance. He was 14 and the crew of El Angel Enojado was in port, just north of Zone Ghost, for a planned ambush on a Aztlan supply convoy, but short a man. For some time Esteban had assisted the men and women of El Angel with small tasks, sticking close to them to pick up skills and trying to demonstrate his competency to get a position on that boat. Every time it came into his small town he would be waiting on the dock, ready to assist in tying the ship, cleaning weapons and equipment, and anxious to pick up any supplies the guerilla cell might need. On that day, when Esteban learned of the lack in manpower, he begged Captain Alvarez to take him along, sure this was the time for him to make a difference. The second mate wasn’t keen on the idea, but Alvarez threw the boy a battered AK, thought he looked big enough to carry it, and welcomed him aboard. It was one of the happiest moments of Esteban’s life.

The ambush went well, with the supplies diverted to Zones Ghost and Lagos, and Esteban had a full time position on El Angel Enojado. His duties revolved around menial labor to start, maintaining the ship as it traveled between ports, clandestinely smuggling supplies to cells along the coast, but in time he picked up a few technical skills from his new foster family. They continued to perform attacks from the small village where Esteban had lived, finding their fair share of both successes and failures as the civil war continued.

That lifestyle ended when Esteban and the crew came into their home port, a day late due to engine trouble, to find the populace exterminated, apparently victims of Seven-7 or a similar neuro-toxin. Whether the murders were a mistake of the Aztlan military or callous method to eliminate a potential terrorist camp, Captain Alvarez didn’t care for the timing of the whole thing; If the engine hadn’t had trouble, El Angel would have likely been in port during the attack. He determined to dissolve the cell, worried it had been compromised. As such, the ship made port in Amazonia, and the crew parted ways with varying emotional impact, and Esteban was once again on his own.

He found work on a tanker, blending in for a time and eventually finding his way to Seattle where he resides now on probationary citizenship. The romanticized “fight against the corps” mentality of ‘running had a certain familiar appeal to Esteban, and coupled with some hard hangouts and harder friends among gangs and mercs, he’s found an opportunity to transition back into the type of work with which he’s most acquainted.

Now that's a freakin' background story... -applauds-

I beleive that today is the day that anxious Shadowrunner sit in their various hangouts.... awaiting the call from Mr Johnson... or in the case of this thread, anxious wannabe shadowrunners await that first call....

The five characters and players in this game are:

Amok, Hacker/ganger (Syndicate_Killer)
Charlie, "Crazy Cyber Ninja" (Woozy)
Erik "EatMe" McKinney, ex-DocWagon employee (SoyKaf Adict)
Joshua Noble, Hermetic Mage (Redjack)
Esteban Ruiz Recalde, pirate/smuggler (Cthulhu449)

I'm really sorry to the other players who wanted to join. You all had good concepts and it's of course nothing personnal. Believe me when I say that I would have taken all of you, but I had to make up my mind and it wasn't easy.

Next post will contain character creation rules.

Welcome to the game

What I'll need from you is a complete background and a character sheet.

Background Information:

I want to learn more about the life of your characters. In particular I like to know specific NPC names relevant to your story (even outside of just the actual contacts on your sheet), so that they can possibly be incorporated into the game later. More information is always a plus, since it gives me material to use. It's good to think for instance of the 20 questions (without going crazy on all the details).

Character sheet:

I'm sticking to my first feeling of giving 380 BP, max 200 in phys/mental attributes. Availability 12, regular rules. Talk to me if you really want to include something else. I will give additionnal BP's individually to those with thorough backgrounds. Anything not in the standard character creation rules must be approved by me first.

Everyone will start with a connectivity 3, loyalty 1 Fixer contact by the name of Sonic. Sonic was activily advertising in the shadows that he was a new fixer and looking for runners to work for him since a few weeks before the beginning of this game. You have met with him at least twice because he wanted to know you a little bit before giving you a run. Let me know how you think your character actually met him.

If you have any questions please post them here or PM me.

You can email character sheets and background info to me in text, html or document format. My address is peg__peg__peg (a) hotmail (.) com and please include something to the effect of Shadowrun or Dumpshock in the title.

You'll have Amok in your mailbox soon.

Have a question so I can link specific dates into my recent history: What is the date you will assign to the first IC post?

Second, what city will the game start in?

Thanks!

It's funny that I haven't even mentionned the city, but as usual the setting will be Seattle in the year 2070. Play will begin on Friday, March 7, 2070 (or maybe the Thursday, not sure yet).

I'm assuming that your char's have all met individually at least once with Sonic (within at most 20 days of the start date), who will have asked about your skills, experience, and job preference (do you do wetwork), and told you what Shadowrunning is about, in case the character was somewhat clueless. Your character now knows - at least in theory - about all the basics of shadowrunning: what shadowrunning is (commiting [dangerous] crimes for others who pay high in return), being criminals you must cover your physical, data and magical trails, and all the usual stuff about confidentiality, professionalism, security, meets, payments, whatever. You're free to decide what your characters make of that. He's decided to take your character under his "employment" and that when he gets a job you'll be on his first team called out.

Even if your characters are all new to running, they at least know what they have to do. I don't want the game to be about amateurs, but rather about how shadowrunning careers might begin, when the runners are yet to have any experience.

As a rule, you all start with a notoriety and street cred of 0, in game terms. We will be keeping track of those during gameplay.

If you need more info, please ask.

Great!
Next question: In order that we have contacts to get our restricted gear, IDs, etc. Are quasi-shawrunning contacts (specificially a decker, a street doc and a well-connected joy-girl) ok?

BTW: The 7th is a Friday

Contacts:

Any and all contacts are ok, including street contacts, except for: Fixers, Johnsons, Fences (note that specific contacts can fence some types of goods without being just a fence), and actual runners. A street doc is ok, and so is a talismonger or arms dealer, but a street shaman who runs on the side is not. This is mostly for the feel that you are beginning your running career, but of course I don't want to prevent the characters from having lived on the streets for a while.

About the date, I had checked that the 7th is a Friday, by thurs I meant we might start on the 6th

Character sheet sent to email account, will be working out the rough spots on background and send that out shortly.

History sent for Joshua Noble (aka Simon Vindicre (aka Partytime)).. Elven prodigal son who found out you can't always go home... Working on character sheet now.

I have received Redjack's and Cthulhu's background info. Syndicate_killer, could you resend what you've sent me. I don't have anything from you yet.

And btw, I'm quite happy with what I've got up to now.

I resent my pc in two parts to your email.

Sent in by PM...hope it doesnt clog up your inbox lol

How about Crazy Cyber Ninja and the ex-DocWagon employee?
Looking like any of our characters will know each other before hand?
Last question, do you have a target date for the game kicking off?