Hey everybody! I've joined a few games here on the dumpshock and while there are several games starting right now, i'd like to fire up one more - if there are enough players left looking for a game.
I've been running the shadows since v1.0 both as a player and a GM. This will be my first GM for a Shadowrun forum game, but not my first forum game and far from my first time as a Shadowrun GM. I have a game on another board still going strong almost a year later now, so I'm a bonified forum game addict for the long term..

As this is a forum game and they tend to take months to get to a point a table top game can in an hour, I may award karma based upon good role playing during the course of a game or even award skills/contacts/etc during gameplay to keep enthusiam high (better be some real good roleplaying though. )

I would like to set an expectation of two posts per week. Real Life happens though. If a player will be AFK for more than a few days, just post in the OOC and give us a heads up. PM me instructions and I can remote your character in order that the game can continue with your presubmitted actions. (We all know that sometimes you can take a week or two of vacation and still make most of a combat scene)

As a note on posting style, I would appreciate it if posts that make assumptions on NPC reactions/scene details/major new events would be cleared via PM till we get a good feel for each other's posting styles. I will also use the SPOILER tag to provide private information inline as well. All dice rolls should use http://invisiblecastle.com/rolldice.py and reference in in the OOC thread.

I'm looking to pull together a new team of character low in power, but not necessarily newbies. Start with the basic book rules for a starting character and add in the following limitations:
- 380 build points
- No skills at level 6
- Max one skill at level 5
- Max one contact at rating 4. None above rating 4.
(As in the book, loyalty is only limited by your ability to pay for it.)
- Max rating availability 9
- I will consider certain items with availability of 10
(if the back story/concept is well developed and supports it.)

Don't rush out and make a character yet. I'd like to start with a concept - maybe even an abbreviated history. If this draws the interest of more than five players, I'll select from the posts and build a team of five. As appears to be tradition on this board, multiple concepts will be considered. Concepts may be posted in this thread or sent via PM.

Assuming I have sparked enough interest, I will select the team by 2/10 and will open up the IC thread on 2/18. The game will be in the Puyallup Barrens, Seattle; March 1, 2070.

The feel for the game will start at the street level, you can have an AK-47 but carrying it out in the open may draw the attention of Lone Star. A shoot out with gel rounds or regular ammo happens in 2070. Explosive rounds may warrant an investigation. Pay attention to the security rating of the neighborhood you are in. It may mean the difference between being overlooked by the Star for looking like runners and being brought in for 'questioning' just for being on the sidewalk. Characters can come from any and all walks of life, but should have a reason for dropping off the grid and entering the shadows. They need not live in, nor come from the Puyallups, that's just where the campaign will start.

I've tried to answer most of the questions I could anticipate, but if you have more feel free to drop a post or PM.

Thanks for any and all interest.
-Redjack

Mark me down as interested...

Aeryn, Elven Smuggler

Aeryn is an elf, born in '43. She was a member of an all-elven street gang in the Puyallup Barrens in her younger days, but when the gang was wiped out by one of the bigger, meaner gangs around, the Spikes, she decided that she was better off on her own. Looking for some ways to make a living, Aeryn finally became a smuggler. Being quite athletic and stealthy, and good with the bike, this was something she could really excel at. The grudge against the Spikes grew lesser and lesser the more she became detached from her past. Over the years, Aeryn earned some decent Nuyen and a few affiliations, mostly with one of the local Yakuza clans and the organization running an underground marketplace known as the Crime Mall, who were always in need for new goods, which obviously needed to be transported to the Puyallup in some fashion. The money was quickly spent, in order to make her better at her job. She aquired some cyberimplants, hot new wheels, forged papers, and various other equipment, even a few drones to act as additional eyes for her.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. some suggestions for the character generation:

Since it's Puyallup...would a ganger from the Chulos be an appropriate concept?

Brass...? Check. Moxie... chutzpah...? Check and check.

Ever since the lightning strike - and the clinical (and legal) death that followed - Grace Fontana has has had a special spring in her step. A certain spark. A willingness to take risks. She's a small-time thief, fast-talker and lightly-cybered adept who lives life on her own terms now. Not that she was ever a stickler for rules or propriety.

Ancients Go-ganger, who resides in the Ghetto of Tarislar in Puyallup.Part muscle, part speed demon, all attitude. (lol)

In Runners Haven it mentions alot of the 'younger' members are disgruntled by the long life span of the current leadership.

More notes on the Puyallups:
Underworld 93: A fixture in the Seattle Jazz scene, this bar situated in the northern most part of the Puyallups, it is known in some circles as a Yakuza establishment.

Kenran-Kai Yakuza: This clan operates in the Puyallups. Their primary focus is as gang control with hijacking and protection thrown in for variety. They also, to a lesser degree, manage some of the local smuggling through the Puyallups. In the end however, they are under the strict control of Shotozumi.

Crime Mall: This abondanded three story mall on the edge of the Puyallup downtown has been used by criminal elements as a merchants bazaar since just a few years after the crash of '29. It is only open on certain nights of the month to guard against raids by the Star. Those in the know can easily find out when.

The farther south in the Puyallups you go the more you need a respirator. As far south as Tarislar, everyone wears a filter all the time. The residual effects of the four volcanos worth of lava and ash.

I am thinking maybe a ork movement adept...powers like wall running, great leap, freefall....an adept who plies his powers towards being the best damn courier he can be. Inspired by the likes of Parkour and free running, he is one agile little guy (for a ork). Works as a courier out of the Ork Underground (I think there is an entrance in Underworld 93 if I am not stupid) and he specializes in working the old highrises and large apartment buildings of the area.

Color me interested.

Trigger stole my idea, though.

Yea, I got an adept of the invisible way in PM as well. Seems a popular choice. I think we are destined to have at least one adept.

Well, I don't care much for Invisible Way adepts.....I like me a Parkour Athlete's Way adept

Oh man, a whole group of free running adepts would RULE. That would be awesome. Some more brawn, some more brain. It wouldn't be hard to make Grace conform. I'm all over that if others are interested, and then no worries Draug.

Maybe a set of adept powers to get and then after that you go your own way. Like, I was thinking of taking Killing Hands just to get the Elemental Strike (Electricity) as a fun part of Grace having been struck by lightning, not as any direct furtherance of her other strengths. Though, having hands that carry an electrical charge has plenty of non-combat uses...

I would love to run in a adept group...it would be so awesome

I have added a character concept to my initial post, based on some of the stuff you posted above.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. One more question about the character generation... do you use the fairly common house rule with free BP for contacts equal to CHA x2 (or x3)?

I guess a big decision the free-running types need to make is are we a pre-existing group with a shared background, or do we OOC pick some set skills and powers we should have and then work our backgrounds together. I tend to lean toward the former.

Which means my concept is and will be undeveloped until there's some consensus about that.

Are we together from the start? If so, what are the motivations for working/playing together?

- Exploring the adept powers? (We just like to hang out, hone our skills and challenge each other...)
- Something more nefarious? (Imagine if we all had face-sculpt the stuff we could pull...)
- Purposefully making a shadowteam? If so, then we'd need to pick or assign roles or be choosy with the jobs we take, since we'd probably not be a general purpose team.

I would love to play in this game. I really feel like playing a troll by the way. So here's one concept and I'm also considering the idea about a group of adepts.

Markus Carlton

Mark used to be a bouncer for night clubs downtown of Seattle. He's a well-connected guy who knows the ins and outs of the night life in Seattle. He's a big strong guy that got involved with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. With his now criminal SIN, he can't get any kind of legal job that he would be good at, like bouncing and bodyguarding, because no one wants to deal with an ex-convict. Therefore he can only turn to the shadows for income now.



Also, I like the idea of an adept team. I think we could work something out along the lines of what ES Sparky is saying. I'd like to be a troll myself, and as such could focus on melee combat on top of being the fastest troll you've ever seen. He could also take astral perception and a weapon focus for some pretty awesome dual-being fighting power, to have a member focused on magic.

I think to be realistic, this group would have to have a common background to some extent. I think that for such a group to make sense, they have to have decided to intentionally learn adept powers of similar nature in order to work well together. It seems unlikely that you can find the perfect combination of adepts just by chance. For instance, they could have all grown up together, in an orphanage, boarding school, or on the streets of the barrens (or pullayup) for example.

I'm in favor of a group that complements itself, to be the least one-dimentional possible, although all getting the same adept power(s) can be a tremendous advantage that we can't ignore.

It'd be a rather simple matter of making my Ancient into a PhyAd...focusing on driving....being a daredevil...and a little fighting skill to boot.

So? An entire group of Parkour Adepts? That's the plan?

Not sure we are going for an all adept team, I was only making mention of how easy it would be to use my concept along the lines of such a team. (No need to go out looking for an intiate group later lol)

I believe Redjack wants a balanced team (whether that team is all adept i suppose is left to his judgement and/or the type of submissions he recieves.)

Storm has already changed to a mage. If everyone else wants adepts I'm ok. The diversity I'm looking for is the various elements for a team: face, driver, muscle, etc. The backgrounds are already pretty varied: Former ganger turned smuggler, top-tier ganger, former bouncer...

Good stuff. Keep it coming.

Welcome to the boards, Storm!

A bit more on Mark.

Mark has started running a year ago, always working for Kilroy, while also doing odd jobs for other contacts. He was already cybered to some extent, and he went on improving his body with the money he made. Mark is tough as nails now, and a scary sight for those in his way. From bouncer, he's now more of an enforcer and he's getting the hang of running the shadows, developing some skills and knowledge specific to running.

Depending on the type of team, he could be built entirely differently but with a similar background. Such as being an adept with the astral perception power and good assensing - very useful for a bouncer. Other powers could include perhaps critical strike, killing hands, and sensory improvements.

I'd honestly like to play him either way, I don't mind which it's going to be.

By the way, are we allowed to buy fake SINs and up to what rating?

It was just like any other day for any other person. Well, kind of. Leah didn’t quite have the ‘normal’ life, per-se. Her parents had long since died or left or something to that effect. Since she was about five she’d been living with this lady that everyone just called ‘Grandma’. Grandma took in orphans so they didn’t have to live in an orphanage; she liked the idea of a family of misfits.

This particular day Leah had gone to the store and was on her way back to Grandma’s with a bag of groceries. Yea, she saw them coming, but what were the odds they’d make a move on her? She was an average kid, scrawny, nothing worth noticing. Or maybe, that’s why they came at her. All the same; one moment she was walking along the seemingly deserted street, save for the two gangers and herself, and the next she was taking a punch to that knocked her to the ground - the bag of groceries falling and its contents busting.

One ganger held her arms down while the other moved elsewhere. Her natural instinct told her to struggle and fight back, but she remembered all the time she spent training. Her body relaxed and within moments she had control of the mind of the ganger that was on top of her. Within seconds he got up, pulled out his gun, and shot his partner that was holding her arms. Then, taking care to move away from her, put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.

Leah got up and wiped her bloody lip, “You shouldn’t mess with someone’s free will. People always get hurt.”


Thanks ES_Sparky.

Death Jester…..DJ

Like many more than the Ancients would care to admit, DJ isn’t a Tir exile but, a native born son of Seattle. DJ grew up in the elven ghetto of Tarislar in Puyallup idolizing the Ancients, even more than the local gang the Silent P’s who kept the peace in the neighborhood. It might have been the freedom their bikes represented or even the fact the Silent P’s looked up to them just a bit but, DJ knew he wanted to be one of them.

DJ began his road to joining by being a look out, then a go-fer while they worked on their bikes until he was accepted as an apprentice member. DJ served several years as an apprentice member learning what it means to be an Ancient, DJ now knows it’s a time to watch for any spies trying to infiltrate the gang’s membership. DJ earned his name and his place in the Ancients on a cold and wet October night. Even though the LS patrol men kept beating after every wise crack he made….he kept making them. DJ slipped into unconsciousness on the cold wet concrete of the bars parking lot but, not before he told the LS cop that his wife scratched him harder than he hit…..he drifted off to the feeling of a cold muzzle pressed to his head.

DJ woke hours later, sore and bruised to a gathering of Ancients around him in the back of the bar. Feeling the lumps on his face and grimacing as pain shot through him as he moved. DJ looked around and smiled.”Pussy must have finally called for back up.” DJ remembers what one of the old ones had said. “That’s what it means to be an Ancient…. to redline it and watch the white line blur….to redline it chummer.”

DJ mulls over Kilroy’s proposal…doing this is pushing the boundaries of his vows, possibly even skirting them a bit. DJ hears that voice from so long ago in his head “That’s what it means to be an Ancient…. to redline it and watch the white line blur….to redline it chummer.”

It has been brought to my attention that all combat spells carry an availability of "8F" as well as Plastic Body lacing. So, I'm removing the restriction on availability "F". I just ask that items with an "F" availability be of note in your history.

Enjoy!

Paul Winchell...Tigger

A short ork with red orange hair, Paul was born the runt of his litter and thus had to fend for himself more than usual for an inhabitant of the Ork Underground. He quickly grew to take care of himself and began work as a courier along the tunnels under Seattle. His natural skills allowed him to succeed easily at the job, as he could get almost anywhere from the underground to the largest of high rise apartments. This made him the go to courier if you needed to get something delivered and make sure that it got there in one piece and on time.

When he awakened his powers developed along the same lines as his natural skills and also granted him the Sight. But he fell into the powerful lure of bioengineering and the promises that came with it and he had himself enhanced a little. Since then he has lost his Sight due to the disruption of parts of his essence but he hopes to one day regain the power.

Tigger is excellent at moving, getting to places that others can only dream of without a ladder and climbing gear. He has also studied some Shaolin Kempo Karate as it is the most naturally attuned to his own abilites.

-I also have the sheet almost done and I will be sending it your way soon for approval.

Additional Puyallup Information:

The Gianelli Family is the prevalent Mafia in the district. Unlike Tacoma, where they are taking a beating from the Yakuza and the Vory, they are holding their ground in the Puyallups. They are known to recruit from the local gangs and even supporting some of them against the Kenran-Kai clans to keep the Yakuza pre-occupied. In addition to fencing, loan-sharking and smuggling operations they are known to hijack the occasional load from their competitors.

I'm interested:

WhizKid Ganger- Cynic

Cynic grew up in the Barrens, Hells Kitchens to be exact, and there's nothing they can show him that he hasn't seen before. Life was the cheapest commodity in the Barrens, Puyallup or Redmond, and he knew bone deep that if caught a round tonight not a person in the world would care. The ones who used to care had been scattered to the winds by the Blood Monkey thrill gang over the course of the last two weeks. He watched the half dozen Blood Monkeys standing at the mouth of the alley, laughing and joking with one another, just like the Devilkids had done two weeks ago. The powerball spell itched inside his head, begging to be let out. Tonight he'd get his own back.

Grayson Wallace
aka Grayson Pierce
aka Greg Randall
aka Gary Nakamura
aka Gianni Fontana

Grayson's biological mother was a promising geneticist who got hooked on BTLs while finishing school. After graduating she got fired from job after job as her addiction grew worse. She became more and more obsessed with simsense superstar Alan Wakefield. She spent what little money she had buying Alan Wakefield belongings and simsense props. Some real, but mostly scams. She was convinced they loved eachother, that he wanted her to have his babies. She stalked him, ignoring requests and finally restraining orders that neither approach him or contact him in any way until she was arrested after breaking into his Seattle condo. But she had gotten what she needed and, using contacts she gained in her work as a geneticist (and her own morally questionable knowhow) she managed to create a series of viable embryos. She implanted herself with an exceedingly illegal clone-hybrid that was born a few months into her prison sentence. The child was removed into the care of the state. When she was released she was denied custody of her child. Her child with Alan. She went even further off the deepend and created another clone, convinced that the strength of her love would somehow be understood. Again, the child was discovered and removed. And again.

Grayson only knows sketchy details of his genetically dubious past. He bears a striking resemblance to simsense superstar Alan Wakefield, so is inclined to believe the tragic ridiculousness of his mother's story. The state agency that recovered his siblings is close-mouthed on how many brothers - or sisters - he might have. His mother died a number of years ago, strung-out and wasting away in her apartment, chipped out of her gourd on her beloved... Alan Wakefield.

Grayson bounced around from foster home to foster home, biding his time as he moved from one awkward or dangerous situation to the next. He was shrewd. Quick to see through people. Learning how to manipulate them, to give them what they wanted - or to appear to give it to them - to get what he wanted. Even so, life was rough. He tried to run away with his sweetheart, a smart young girl who should have known better. They got all the way to the Tir Border before getting turned in. The State wasn't too fond of 'difficult' kids. He'd had a short leash after that. Implanted RFID tags that monitored his whereabouts. They said they'd take the tags out when he reached his 18th birthday. They didn't.

He moved out of his last crap foster home. He got a crap job. Made crap money. Had a crap girlfriend. He disappeared into the drifts of crap that make all the other crap happen. Life was still rough.

Until he died.

Or seemed to. He was out on a rooftop, looking at a storm rolling in over the shitty neighborhood he'd moved into. Lightning flashed. Heat. He woke up on a slab, tagged and bagged. His heart seemed impossibly slow, his thoughts, his movements. After the panic settled, he worked out what had happened and as he returned to a normal state of consciousness he slipped out and onto the streets.

A free man, resurrected by a crash of lightning.

That's an interesting piece of history there Sparky. Did you come up with that on your own or did you take the general idea from somewhere else and make it fit your character?

Heh, thanks. It's a bit of dog's breakfast, but it's my own dog's breakfast. Still, nothing new under the sun and all that... I may have inadvertently stolen stuff, but not by design.

The crazy mom came out of trying to figure out how a concentration of adepts might crop up in a single neighborhood, I figured some genetic experiment. I didn't want to go military/corp, so the crazy mom was born.

Here is a recap of what I have so far:

Aeryn (Elven Smuggler/Former Ganger {Silent P's}) [ Thanee ]
Death Jester (Elven Ganger {Ancients}) [ Syndicate_Killer ]
Grayson (Human Adept ) [ ES_Sparky ]
Tigger (Ork Movement Adept) [ Trigger ]
Buzz (Ork Underground Explorer/Soldier) [ Draug ]
Markus (Troll Street Sam or adept/Former Bouncer) [ Gobogen ]
Leah (Human Hermetic Mage) [ Storm ]
Cynic (Human Wizkid Ganger) [ Cedric ]

Let me know if I got anybody wrong..
-------

The 410 Crash?

This is going to be interesting....the gang and racial ties are going to heat this group up. The Silent P's are part of the Leasa which is on bad terms with the Ancients, since those disaffected with the Ancients turn to the Leasa. And the P's would also be notorious Troll haters and we have a troll and two orcs on the team. Also I can't see either of the gang members being cool with a Wiz ganger either. I know my ork isn't noiceably orkish, and I would have taken the Human-looking quality if I had the BP....I might still if I get that extra 20 BP.

Also...I didn't read a definite on the free contact BP equal to x2 or x3 Cha...you said you were going to mull it over and I don't remember seeing a definite answer.

Also, alot of the younger Ancients have gone over to the syndicate....the disgruntled ones (And DJ is edging on the disgruntled side by character concept)

By the way. For anyone not familiar with the cultural reference of Kilroy, look to Wikipedia.

As a note, his icon in VR is always of the cartoon figure and always facing you no matter where you turn or how many different people are around him. Each perceives Kilroy to be facing them.