Just to let you guys know, tomorrow still is great and fine by me (had a small computer hiccup a few days ago, totally killed my xp install, decided i've been done with xp for a while and moved over to ubuntu). So, I'll need to see about getting openrpg working on it, but other than that, I'll be there.
I was just offered a job with IBM doing tech support, so after my last 2 weeks at the grocery store, my schedule should stabalize out very nicely.
Full Version: New York Noir
Nice. Actually, Face's are the main type of chara I play. I'll put up my prebuild concept.
Arilus "Traceur" Larski
Concept: Neo-Anarchist Conman Traceur Elf Biosam
Arilus is a biosam whose social skills effectively let him blend in with the rush of Corporate Manhattan. He's also an active practitioner of 'Parkour Advance,' a martial arts adapter version of Parkour, or freerunning. Ari's philosophy, besides his Neo-A leanings revolve about the three responses to conflict: Talking it out, fighting it out, and running away. He's reasonably adept at all three. My intial build started out with a adept, since with freefall, wallrun, and great leap, its kinda a perfect fit for a traceur. However, he became little more than a gun bunny with gymnastics as I ran out of BPs, and I want him to be able to be able to equally fight and talk.
Background:
Everyone has a story. Even Neo-Anarchist *chuckle* terrorists. Ours are usually a bit more interesting than Joe Wageslave. I mean, how many Joe Wageslaves can say their parents decked into Malaysian Indepedant during the Crash and stole a hefty sum of cred? Great people, my parents, by the way. Neo-A's and retired runners all their life. Manhattanites, fighting against the corpo-facist regime that controls our beautiful city. Well, until they moved to Berlin. I put it down to a mid-life crisis. Anyway, I've been grown into this life. Been caught a few times, too. Kina unnerving when my fake SIN fails and my face pops up on all the local screens flagged as criminal, but you get used to it. After all, like the great David Belle once said, 'There are three responses to conflict.' I'm pretty good at handling at all of them. There's just such a rush when you jump from building to building, evading NYPD copters and drones. I'm no adept, but what I can't do with magic, I make up with pure 'ware. 'Sides, I got the whole Neo-A thing to do, s'well, scan? One day this city'll be free again. Until then, it's one hell of an interesting place to be.
Description:
Arilus is an elf, standing at about 6'4. He's tall, and extremely lithe, with almost buzzed white blond hair. His eyes are naturally a deep indigo, but he only keeps that color for his cybereyes when he's safe on the Lower East Side or around Penn. Otherwise his eye color changes, every little bit helping to throw off the recognition software taking his picture five trillion times a day. Multiple scars cover his body, and where he doesn't have scars, he has tattoos. He speaks with an immediatly recognizable N'Yawkah accent, and walks with a slouch, his body rolling in a way that reminds one of a hunting cat. His skin is a light cinnamon color, reflecting his mixed italian/russian/latino heritige, and his slightly pinched eyes show traces of asian ancestry as well.
Couple of rule questions, too. The concept is based around the art of parkour, a freerunning sport invented by David Belle. Parkour on Wikipedia
I was kinda inspired by the thread recently about Parkour as a martial art, so I wanted to adapt it as such. NYC is perfectly adapted to freerunning, and I actually am a traceur in the NYC area. While I haven't done crazy movie type stunts, I'm thinking with 'ware and magic, those stunts are actually performable. But as for the martial arts rules, I don't have Arsenal currently
, but I do have Cannon Companion for SR3, and I'm wondering if the rules are similar at all, and the maneuvers. Also, I probably won't be able to make tonight's game, but I'd love to sit in and watch, if I can get the server/port/channel. I'm assuming its IRC, no?
Anyway, comments, suggestions on the concept? I look forward to playing.
Arilus "Traceur" Larski
Concept: Neo-Anarchist Conman Traceur Elf Biosam
Arilus is a biosam whose social skills effectively let him blend in with the rush of Corporate Manhattan. He's also an active practitioner of 'Parkour Advance,' a martial arts adapter version of Parkour, or freerunning. Ari's philosophy, besides his Neo-A leanings revolve about the three responses to conflict: Talking it out, fighting it out, and running away. He's reasonably adept at all three. My intial build started out with a adept, since with freefall, wallrun, and great leap, its kinda a perfect fit for a traceur. However, he became little more than a gun bunny with gymnastics as I ran out of BPs, and I want him to be able to be able to equally fight and talk.
Background:
Everyone has a story. Even Neo-Anarchist *chuckle* terrorists. Ours are usually a bit more interesting than Joe Wageslave. I mean, how many Joe Wageslaves can say their parents decked into Malaysian Indepedant during the Crash and stole a hefty sum of cred? Great people, my parents, by the way. Neo-A's and retired runners all their life. Manhattanites, fighting against the corpo-facist regime that controls our beautiful city. Well, until they moved to Berlin. I put it down to a mid-life crisis. Anyway, I've been grown into this life. Been caught a few times, too. Kina unnerving when my fake SIN fails and my face pops up on all the local screens flagged as criminal, but you get used to it. After all, like the great David Belle once said, 'There are three responses to conflict.' I'm pretty good at handling at all of them. There's just such a rush when you jump from building to building, evading NYPD copters and drones. I'm no adept, but what I can't do with magic, I make up with pure 'ware. 'Sides, I got the whole Neo-A thing to do, s'well, scan? One day this city'll be free again. Until then, it's one hell of an interesting place to be.
Description:
Arilus is an elf, standing at about 6'4. He's tall, and extremely lithe, with almost buzzed white blond hair. His eyes are naturally a deep indigo, but he only keeps that color for his cybereyes when he's safe on the Lower East Side or around Penn. Otherwise his eye color changes, every little bit helping to throw off the recognition software taking his picture five trillion times a day. Multiple scars cover his body, and where he doesn't have scars, he has tattoos. He speaks with an immediatly recognizable N'Yawkah accent, and walks with a slouch, his body rolling in a way that reminds one of a hunting cat. His skin is a light cinnamon color, reflecting his mixed italian/russian/latino heritige, and his slightly pinched eyes show traces of asian ancestry as well.
Couple of rule questions, too. The concept is based around the art of parkour, a freerunning sport invented by David Belle. Parkour on Wikipedia
I was kinda inspired by the thread recently about Parkour as a martial art, so I wanted to adapt it as such. NYC is perfectly adapted to freerunning, and I actually am a traceur in the NYC area. While I haven't done crazy movie type stunts, I'm thinking with 'ware and magic, those stunts are actually performable. But as for the martial arts rules, I don't have Arsenal currently
, but I do have Cannon Companion for SR3, and I'm wondering if the rules are similar at all, and the maneuvers. Also, I probably won't be able to make tonight's game, but I'd love to sit in and watch, if I can get the server/port/channel. I'm assuming its IRC, no? Anyway, comments, suggestions on the concept? I look forward to playing.
QUOTE (Tarantula @ Mar 13 2008, 11:43 PM) 
I was just offered a job with IBM doing tech support, so after my last 2 weeks at the grocery store, my schedule should stabalize out very nicely.
Congrats, that's awesome!
QUOTE (quentra @ Mar 14 2008, 08:01 AM)
Arilus "Traceur" Larski
Concept: Neo-Anarchist Conman Traceur Elf Biosam
Concept: Neo-Anarchist Conman Traceur Elf Biosam
Sounds good
QUOTE
Background:
(...)
(...)
Hmm. Overall good, but too bright. Too much hope, ya know. I'd like more Noir. Not saying I want a depressed goth teenager here, but can you inject a little harshness into his background? Perhaps lots of debt to the wrong people - past altercations with one of the syndicates for borrowed money, living in crummy rents, beatings by the cops, etc. I love the Neo-A parents though - especially about them moving to Berlin
QUOTE
Couple of rule questions, too. The concept is based around the art of parkour, a freerunning sport invented by David Belle. Parkour on Wikipedia
I was kinda inspired by the thread recently about Parkour as a martial art, so I wanted to adapt it as such. NYC is perfectly adapted to freerunning, and I actually am a traceur in the NYC area. While I haven't done crazy movie type stunts, I'm thinking with 'ware and magic, those stunts are actually performable.
I was kinda inspired by the thread recently about Parkour as a martial art, so I wanted to adapt it as such. NYC is perfectly adapted to freerunning, and I actually am a traceur in the NYC area. While I haven't done crazy movie type stunts, I'm thinking with 'ware and magic, those stunts are actually performable.
Cool. I saw a couple of Parkour movies, including Banlieu 13, so I get your vibe.
QUOTE
But as for the martial arts rules, I don't have Arsenal currently , but I do have Cannon Companion for SR3, and I'm wondering if the rules are similar at all, and the maneuvers.
, but I do have Cannon Companion for SR3, and I'm wondering if the rules are similar at all, and the maneuvers.Hmm, the rules have significant changes actually. Parkour is not listed as a MA, but we could base it off Capoeira and tweak from there, though I would say we're talking about a mutated 2070 Parkour that includes offensive capabilities.
QUOTE
Also, I probably won't be able to make tonight's game, but I'd love to sit in and watch, if I can get the server/port/channel. I'm assuming its IRC, no?
Sure, I was about to invite you. We use OpenRPG actually. It's a bit of a bitch to install at first, but it works pretty good once you get it going. Once you install it, go to server "Veav II". Our room is called New-York Noir and password is backgammon. You can add me to your MSN if you have - michelgagnon99 at hotmail dot com
Awesome, I'll IM you as soon as I get home. Quentra at hotmail for my msn. I was thinking of a custom MA, but the capoeira idea doesn't sound bad. Actually, I forgot the add in the BG that he was a Criminal SIN and has been beaten numerous times, hence the scarring. I'm kinda suprised that you got the brightness feeling, its more of a sarcastic cynicism. He is a Neo-A, after all, living in whats basically a Z-Zone. He's not really all happy-uppy, more of a wisecracking adrenaline junky with mood swings and an augmentation addict. I should have the build up later today, I'm actually quite pleased with the result. And yeah, I'm calling the version of Parkour he uses 'Parkour Advance', until I can think of a better name 
EDIT: My chara sheet V1, minus all the cool stuff, like my maneuvers and such.
EDIT: My chara sheet V1, minus all the cool stuff, like my maneuvers and such.
[ Spoiler ]
Looks really good actually. I don't think I have any modifications at all!
You really should take at least 1 decent fake pass for Manhattan though.
You can also take "Manhattan sneak routes" as a knowledge skill, which you could roll against to help your character in his infiltration tests when trying to move around without a pass. It's optionnal.
Also, your main weapon is a SMG. Good, but not very subtle, you won't really be able to carry it around casually. A pistol would be better, but again, this is up to you. You could just melee anyone that gives you unexpected trouble and bring the SMG when you expect a party. Since that SMG is actually the biggest piece of firepower the team has (minus spirits), it might be worth keeping it around though.
You really should take at least 1 decent fake pass for Manhattan though.
You can also take "Manhattan sneak routes" as a knowledge skill, which you could roll against to help your character in his infiltration tests when trying to move around without a pass. It's optionnal.
Also, your main weapon is a SMG. Good, but not very subtle, you won't really be able to carry it around casually. A pistol would be better, but again, this is up to you. You could just melee anyone that gives you unexpected trouble and bring the SMG when you expect a party. Since that SMG is actually the biggest piece of firepower the team has (minus spirits), it might be worth keeping it around though.
Slickness. I think I'll halve my Neo-A Philosophy and take Manhattan Sneak Routes at 2 or so, since it'd make sense that'd he'd know them. Where can I find fake passes and such? Is that in Corp Enclaves?
It's just a Fake License from SR4.
Manhattan rolls scanner ratings (2 to 4 usually) vs your Fake License rating. The restrictiveness of the neighbourhood determines the rating of the scan. I always tell you the security of the neighbourhood, so its an informed decision how to act inside.
Manhattan rolls scanner ratings (2 to 4 usually) vs your Fake License rating. The restrictiveness of the neighbourhood determines the rating of the scan. I always tell you the security of the neighbourhood, so its an informed decision how to act inside.
Coolios. Minor changes, then. Still don't have any maneuvers (mainly cause I don't have Arsenal:P) But I got manhattan sneak routes as a knowledge skill and halved my Neo-A philosophy. Also some yen juggling, moved a contacts loyalty down to 1, used that BP for recs.
EDIT: Hopefully finished sheet. Added Martial Arts Quality, rejuggled BP, bought maneuvers.
EDIT: Hopefully finished sheet. Added Martial Arts Quality, rejuggled BP, bought maneuvers.
[ Spoiler ]
Sorry I missed on Friday, but life got held up unexpectedly for a few hours, nothing too major, and should still be able to make thursday. Busy packing up some stuff right now, but I'll have time to check back here later tonight and look over the new character.
Right, this Thursday is still good for me. Redjack/Quentra/Tarantula, can you guys make a Thursday game?
Yepyep.
Actually, I think I can. 7-10 cst/ 8-11est?
Yep. Oh and I know we ran pretty late last time. If anyone ever has to stop don't be afraid to say so.
Also, some more Karma for you guys:
Sean: 1 base + 1 RP + 1 never missed a game (6 total so far)
Jim: 1 base + 1 RP + 1 excellent use of skills (6 total so far)
Jason: 1 base + 1 RP (4 total so far)
Also, some more Karma for you guys:
Sean: 1 base + 1 RP + 1 never missed a game (6 total so far)
Jim: 1 base + 1 RP + 1 excellent use of skills (6 total so far)
Jason: 1 base + 1 RP (4 total so far)
Ok, finally finished moving all my stuff and had a chance to look over things a bit.
Our new guy looks like he could take out our entier group in a fight if he wanted, but overall looks like he'll be fine. I do have two questions though.
First is a more rules based one. I noticed you have Cityspeak 3 as a language, but from what I understand, it would actually be a specilization of a language skill. As in you could have German (Cityspeak specilization) and thus speak German, but be really good with city based slang. It's assumed that if english is your native language, that you can also speak all the dialects just fine (cityspeak, matrix slang, corp jargon, etc). At least this is what I understood from the rulebook. Ok, so it wasn't really a question, just something I wanted to pick at, but now a real question.
Why did you go for Con 3, Neg 4, Leadership 2 instead of the influence skill group at 4? Those skills seprate cost you 36 BP, and the package at 4 would cost you 40, so only 4 extra points to raise con by 1, leadership by 2, and etiqutte from nothing to 4. I know your likely hurting for points, but I think those 4 would be well worth freeing up. Anyway, just my two creds.
I'll have to check out martial arts at some point. I've had the book since it came out but haven't had much of a chance to look at it.
Our new guy looks like he could take out our entier group in a fight if he wanted, but overall looks like he'll be fine. I do have two questions though.
First is a more rules based one. I noticed you have Cityspeak 3 as a language, but from what I understand, it would actually be a specilization of a language skill. As in you could have German (Cityspeak specilization) and thus speak German, but be really good with city based slang. It's assumed that if english is your native language, that you can also speak all the dialects just fine (cityspeak, matrix slang, corp jargon, etc). At least this is what I understood from the rulebook. Ok, so it wasn't really a question, just something I wanted to pick at, but now a real question.
Why did you go for Con 3, Neg 4, Leadership 2 instead of the influence skill group at 4? Those skills seprate cost you 36 BP, and the package at 4 would cost you 40, so only 4 extra points to raise con by 1, leadership by 2, and etiqutte from nothing to 4. I know your likely hurting for points, but I think those 4 would be well worth freeing up. Anyway, just my two creds.
I'll have to check out martial arts at some point. I've had the book since it came out but haven't had much of a chance to look at it.
From what I remember of the fluff, City Speak is a language derived from English, Spanish and Japanese. I leans heavy on slang usage (and of course not only knowing which word from which language to use when, but also how to conjugate them), so simply having a fluency in the 3 base languages will not work. It is favored in the varous Barrens of Seattle an like areas....
Thanks Redjack. I must have missed that as I thought it was just a slang. Is it perhaps not in the core rulebook? Am I correct about matrix slang and stuff like that being a speciality of individual languages?
Well, I'm showing my age here and having played since sr1. Sorry I have no reference, though I imagine AH could fill in some details... I opened a topic here to discuss.
QUOTE (Redjack @ Mar 16 2008, 08:59 PM)
From what I remember of the fluff, City Speak is a language derived from English, Spanish and Japanese.
I remember that quote too, I think it was in the old Seattle SB of all places. In any case, in previous games we treated it as a seperate language rather than a specialization, though I think SR2 actually had cityspeak has a specialisation. So... whatever. I'm fine with it being a separate language.
For me, cityspeak is mostly just spoken in the barrenish hellholes, not so much in the street by common gangers. It'll come in usefull if you take a trip to the Bronx (which is said barrenish hellhole in my game)
I'm working thursday till 10MST. Sorry guys.
Ok, we'll see about next week then.
When's that IBM job starting!
When's that IBM job starting!
I'll take a look at the point juggling, cause you bring up a good, well, point. As for cityspeak being its own language, honestly, I don't see understanding english as being able to understand city-speak. Its a conglomeration of english, spanish, chinese, japanese, and prolly some russian thrown in there for funsies. So I listed it as a separate language, but its not that being of a deal. As for the usage, Ari is a Neo-A, and I'm betting that Z-Zoners speak more cityspeak than english. It should be pretty pervasive in major culturally integrated sprawls, but thats just my interpretation.
EDIT: I decided to take influence at 4, so i dropped gymnastics a point to compensate. Should be fixed mostly now. My chara isn't that good at combat...C'mon now
EDIT: I decided to take influence at 4, so i dropped gymnastics a point to compensate. Should be fixed mostly now. My chara isn't that good at combat...C'mon now
[ Spoiler ]
QUOTE (quentra @ Mar 17 2008, 04:47 PM)
I'll take a look at the point juggling, cause you bring up a good, well, point. As for cityspeak being its own language, honestly, I don't see understanding english as being able to understand city-speak. Its a conglomeration of english, spanish, chinese, japanese, and prolly some russian thrown in there for funsies. So I listed it as a separate language, but its not that being of a deal. As for the usage, Ari is a Neo-A, and I'm betting that Z-Zoners speak more cityspeak than english. It should be pretty pervasive in major culturally integrated sprawls, but thats just my interpretation.
EDIT: I decided to take influence at 4, so i dropped gymnastics a point to compensate. Should be fixed mostly now.
EDIT: I decided to take influence at 4, so i dropped gymnastics a point to compensate. Should be fixed mostly now.
It is mentioned as a lingo (language speciality) in the SR 4 book, but your obviously talking about something different then what they have, which would likely be better known as street slang. So yeah, my lack of early shadowrun knowladge showing. And don't worry too much Redjack, I'm sure retierment has its advantages and such
(And I've played 1st edition of games that are even older then SR, so no big)QUOTE (quentra @ Mar 17 2008, 04:47 PM)
My chara isn't that good at combat...C'mon now
Certainly no combat monster or gunbunny, but well, speaking for myself at least, half my physical stats are 1s and I think I have a 1 in a single weapon skill. As for the others, well I'm not entierly sure, but to my knowladge they don't have much in the way of combat (But seeing as we've had no combat so far, it is hard to say for sure). Actually, to be honest, I'm sure a drunken bum could take my character down
Starts on the 31st... so hopefully I'll be a bit more available after that.
While we have some time, I'd like to poll you guys on how you think the campaign is going. You don't have to answer all questions and you can be as verbose as you want.
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguiing?
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
* How do you like the NPCs?
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
* What do you want more of?
* Other comments?
Thanks
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguiing?
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
* How do you like the NPCs?
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
* What do you want more of?
* Other comments?
Thanks
Well, mine are likely to be less verbouse, as I'm a short answer kind of guy.
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
I'd kind of like it if we progressed a bit more in each session. I know it can be hard, as typing has it's speed limits, but it seems like there is too much time when the little info box says that noone is typing anything. Other then making sure at least one person is always doing something, I don't know what else could be done to speed things up. I may pull out a timer and take some notes of things we do well and things we do poorly, see what we can maybe do to improve.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguiing? I really like it so far. Disappearence is cliche sure, but there are only so many things out there, and the story so far has me guessing and getting to draw conclusions which may or may not be right, we'll see.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away? Well, my character would be worthless in combat (besides his low combat abilities, he isn't physically there anyway) so I guess my substitue would be cybercombat or more difficult systems, but I think things have been fine so far.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside? I like it, I think you give enough description to let us know what is going on and let us get a feel for the area without taking too long and slowing up the game. For the sake of moving things along a bit quicker though, I'm willing to sacrifice your detailed descriptions of my matrix searches and such. I think they're great, but I know they take a good deal of time, especially when I'm trying to do several things in quick succession and others are trying to do stuff as well.
* How do you like the NPCs? Quite memorable, except for their names, but that is a personal thing, I can never remember names. Maybe I should start writing them all down so I can keep better track. My character has good memory, so would be nice to be able to play that a bit better (Without having to look through all the logs)
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to? Very happy, I almost feel like I'm taking up too much time occasionally, which is actually the opposite of what I was expecting (Some GMs don't give hackers much to do, and some give them alot of hassle about using their skills from a distance)
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign? Right now I'd have to say how infrequently we play. I know I've missed a game or two, which is my own fault, but even counting when I've missed we don't seem to play more then once a month, so it is all the more difficult to remember what is going on in general, much less smaller things.
* What do you want more of? Sessions. Hopefully with the new job coming our scheduals will be a bit more regular and we could set up a more stable schedual.
* Other comments? Can't think of much else, suppose it was slightly more verbose then I thought it would be, but oh well, said what I wanted.
P.S. We're not on for this thursday any more, right?
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
I'd kind of like it if we progressed a bit more in each session. I know it can be hard, as typing has it's speed limits, but it seems like there is too much time when the little info box says that noone is typing anything. Other then making sure at least one person is always doing something, I don't know what else could be done to speed things up. I may pull out a timer and take some notes of things we do well and things we do poorly, see what we can maybe do to improve.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguiing? I really like it so far. Disappearence is cliche sure, but there are only so many things out there, and the story so far has me guessing and getting to draw conclusions which may or may not be right, we'll see.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away? Well, my character would be worthless in combat (besides his low combat abilities, he isn't physically there anyway) so I guess my substitue would be cybercombat or more difficult systems, but I think things have been fine so far.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside? I like it, I think you give enough description to let us know what is going on and let us get a feel for the area without taking too long and slowing up the game. For the sake of moving things along a bit quicker though, I'm willing to sacrifice your detailed descriptions of my matrix searches and such. I think they're great, but I know they take a good deal of time, especially when I'm trying to do several things in quick succession and others are trying to do stuff as well.
* How do you like the NPCs? Quite memorable, except for their names, but that is a personal thing, I can never remember names. Maybe I should start writing them all down so I can keep better track. My character has good memory, so would be nice to be able to play that a bit better (Without having to look through all the logs)
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to? Very happy, I almost feel like I'm taking up too much time occasionally, which is actually the opposite of what I was expecting (Some GMs don't give hackers much to do, and some give them alot of hassle about using their skills from a distance)
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign? Right now I'd have to say how infrequently we play. I know I've missed a game or two, which is my own fault, but even counting when I've missed we don't seem to play more then once a month, so it is all the more difficult to remember what is going on in general, much less smaller things.
* What do you want more of? Sessions. Hopefully with the new job coming our scheduals will be a bit more regular and we could set up a more stable schedual.
* Other comments? Can't think of much else, suppose it was slightly more verbose then I thought it would be, but oh well, said what I wanted.
P.S. We're not on for this thursday any more, right?
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
Yes, I would definitely like the story to develop a little faster. Instead of one mission per game, we are only really getting through one scene. I'm not suggesting ramping up to one run per session, but I expected to wrap a run up by four.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
Story is new enough. Feel like the details/leads are light. Not sure if we are on track for the number leads per scene or are missing lots...
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
Since the game was billed as low/no combat I am ok. Granted I am probably the most combat capable, so if one sneaks in...
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
I think they are balanced ok.
* How do you like the NPCs?
The first night was really good. Not much interaction since then.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
I just don't quite feel into the character. I am used to playing mages and hacker/riggers. I can get into those characters, but wanted something different for this game. Not really sure I like it as much as I would have a mage.
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
Speed of play.
* What do you want more of?
NPC interactions, faster discovery of storyline.
* Other comments?
If some of your longer descriptions were prepared ahead of time you could paste them in and that might speed up play... but I know as well as anyone that time is not always available to do that..
Yes, I would definitely like the story to develop a little faster. Instead of one mission per game, we are only really getting through one scene. I'm not suggesting ramping up to one run per session, but I expected to wrap a run up by four.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
Story is new enough. Feel like the details/leads are light. Not sure if we are on track for the number leads per scene or are missing lots...
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
Since the game was billed as low/no combat I am ok. Granted I am probably the most combat capable, so if one sneaks in...
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
I think they are balanced ok.
* How do you like the NPCs?
The first night was really good. Not much interaction since then.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
I just don't quite feel into the character. I am used to playing mages and hacker/riggers. I can get into those characters, but wanted something different for this game. Not really sure I like it as much as I would have a mage.
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
Speed of play.
* What do you want more of?
NPC interactions, faster discovery of storyline.
* Other comments?
If some of your longer descriptions were prepared ahead of time you could paste them in and that might speed up play... but I know as well as anyone that time is not always available to do that..
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
Faster results would be nice... I feel like I/we are missing hints you're throwing out, and we don't even realize it. Also, typing is a limiter, as is/was my schedule, but hopefully with the new job, I can manage to get a regular schedule going, and thus we could get the game going on a repeating basis.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
Its good so far. Definately digging the magic-y side of it. You obviously put lots of thought into it, which is a big big big PLUS in my book.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
Not too bad. Honestly, I'd be kinda worried about jason messily splatting at the first sign of combat. So, for now, I'm good with not having it.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
Definately good. All sorts of great fun descriptions, and definately gets me in "the mood".
* How do you like the NPCs?
NPCs are pretty good, love my contact, not to mention our johnson. Haven't met too much else in the way of things, the son was well thought out I think, so so far, keeping the important ones interesting and the goons passable is good for me.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
Hes a little weak with his spells, which is alright, I guess. Its a big hard to sling mojo around though if you take 1-4 stun each time though.
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
Speed. We go slow, its mostly my fault, I apologize to all you guys, and thank you very much for putting up with my horrible work schedules. Hopefully with the new job, I'll get a better schedule that will actually work around my shit.
* What do you want more of?
I dunno, detectiving I guess. Seems like we're playing more of a run around in the dark till you hit something, more than we are oh, this clue means this and this, so lets check that out and go from there.
* Other comments?
Again, thanks for all your patience guys, and hoepfully we can really get this thing taking off!
Faster results would be nice... I feel like I/we are missing hints you're throwing out, and we don't even realize it. Also, typing is a limiter, as is/was my schedule, but hopefully with the new job, I can manage to get a regular schedule going, and thus we could get the game going on a repeating basis.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
Its good so far. Definately digging the magic-y side of it. You obviously put lots of thought into it, which is a big big big PLUS in my book.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
Not too bad. Honestly, I'd be kinda worried about jason messily splatting at the first sign of combat. So, for now, I'm good with not having it.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
Definately good. All sorts of great fun descriptions, and definately gets me in "the mood".
* How do you like the NPCs?
NPCs are pretty good, love my contact, not to mention our johnson. Haven't met too much else in the way of things, the son was well thought out I think, so so far, keeping the important ones interesting and the goons passable is good for me.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
Hes a little weak with his spells, which is alright, I guess. Its a big hard to sling mojo around though if you take 1-4 stun each time though.
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
Speed. We go slow, its mostly my fault, I apologize to all you guys, and thank you very much for putting up with my horrible work schedules. Hopefully with the new job, I'll get a better schedule that will actually work around my shit.
* What do you want more of?
I dunno, detectiving I guess. Seems like we're playing more of a run around in the dark till you hit something, more than we are oh, this clue means this and this, so lets check that out and go from there.
* Other comments?
Again, thanks for all your patience guys, and hoepfully we can really get this thing taking off!
* What do you want more of?
I dunno, detectiving I guess. Seems like we're playing more of a run around in the dark till you hit something, more than we are oh, this clue means this and this, so lets check that out and go from there.
[/quote]
But that relies quite a bit on our own intelegince and intuitiveness. Even if we're playing sherlock holmes, doesn't mean we can deduce everything he can, and just making a roll and having the GM feed results is no fun. I don't know, personally I think we're doing the whole detective thing. We started out groping in the dark thanks to the whole 'Find Eze, the end' sort of start our Johnson gave us, but we looked up info on him, seached his house and went to his office, then tried going from there. And I don't know about you, but I've deduced a few things already (or have some guesses at least) as to what might be going on.
Speaking of holmes, you have to remember that in 'real life' (Because SR is so close to real life) cases don't fall out as easily as they always do for holmes.
I dunno, detectiving I guess. Seems like we're playing more of a run around in the dark till you hit something, more than we are oh, this clue means this and this, so lets check that out and go from there.
[/quote]
But that relies quite a bit on our own intelegince and intuitiveness. Even if we're playing sherlock holmes, doesn't mean we can deduce everything he can, and just making a roll and having the GM feed results is no fun. I don't know, personally I think we're doing the whole detective thing. We started out groping in the dark thanks to the whole 'Find Eze, the end' sort of start our Johnson gave us, but we looked up info on him, seached his house and went to his office, then tried going from there. And I don't know about you, but I've deduced a few things already (or have some guesses at least) as to what might be going on.
Speaking of holmes, you have to remember that in 'real life' (Because SR is so close to real life) cases don't fall out as easily as they always do for holmes.
* How do you feel about the pace of story development? Do yo wish you'd get results faster?
I've only played one session, but we got a scene done, so I don't feel like its progressing overly slowly. If the games are only once a week though, I'd rather have two to three, but time is of the essence, as they say.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
I can't really comment on that one so far, seeing as I haven't really seen enough of the story just yet. I have a feeling its interesting though.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
The lack of combat doesn't really suprise or bother me, mainly because the game was billed as little to no combat. My chara is pretty combat oriented, but I'm fine with focusing on his face aspects.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
The immersion isn't bad, and I do feel shadowrunny, as you say. I would like the descriptions to be a tiny bit more verbose, but that takes time, so I'm fine with the current ones.
* How do you like the NPCs?
The NPCs are fun. Well, the one I've interacted with so far. Its one thing dealing with a PC, who are, oddly enough, more predictable in social situations than NPCs, at least in my opinion.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
I'd like some more jumping on rooftops but then again, my character is a traceur. So far, he's playing well.
* What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
I don't really have any complaints per se, mainly I'd like to see less idling time, but I understand that people are distracted. (Multitasking=MUD + AIM + OpenRPG=Distraction)
* What do you want more of?
As I said, I'd prefer more verbose descriptions, and maybe speeding up the pace a bit, but other than that, I'm having a lot of fun.
* Other comments?
I'll prolly have more once I play a few more games, but from what I've seen, everything is pretty good. Looking forward to the next session.
I've only played one session, but we got a scene done, so I don't feel like its progressing overly slowly. If the games are only once a week though, I'd rather have two to three, but time is of the essence, as they say.
* How do you like the actual story? Cliché, boring, intriguing?
I can't really comment on that one so far, seeing as I haven't really seen enough of the story just yet. I have a feeling its interesting though.
* How do you feel about the lack of combat so far? Itching to blow someone away?
The lack of combat doesn't really suprise or bother me, mainly because the game was billed as little to no combat. My chara is pretty combat oriented, but I'm fine with focusing on his face aspects.
* How do you like the mood and immersion? Are there enough descriptions and are they good enough to get you to feel all shadowrunny inside?
The immersion isn't bad, and I do feel shadowrunny, as you say. I would like the descriptions to be a tiny bit more verbose, but that takes time, so I'm fine with the current ones.
* How do you like the NPCs?
The NPCs are fun. Well, the one I've interacted with so far. Its one thing dealing with a PC, who are, oddly enough, more predictable in social situations than NPCs, at least in my opinion.
* Are you satisfied by the play you are getting out of your character? Do you feel like you are not playing him like you thought you'd be able to?
I'd like some more jumping on rooftops
but then again, my character is a traceur. So far, he's playing well. * What are the biggest problems with the campaign?
I don't really have any complaints per se, mainly I'd like to see less idling time, but I understand that people are distracted. (Multitasking=MUD + AIM + OpenRPG=Distraction
)* What do you want more of?
As I said, I'd prefer more verbose descriptions, and maybe speeding up the pace a bit, but other than that, I'm having a lot of fun.
* Other comments?
I'll prolly have more once I play a few more games, but from what I've seen, everything is pretty good.
Looking forward to the next session.
Ok, thanks everyone.
So I think we are all agreed that games progress rather slowly. As was said, I often notice no one typing and that's a big part of the slow pace of games. Perhaps that's due to not knowing if I'm done typing my stuff or waiting, everyone expecting someone else to say something. If that's the case, we could come up with a OpenRPG equivalent of saying "over" on the radio... When I'm done I could say "(your move)", and if you expect someone else to say somehting yo can say "(waiting on Jim)" or something.
Alternatively, we had discussed moving to Skype... I would be up for that, and I am certain that would quadruple game speed. In that case though, everyone needs to have a microphone or headset, which I don't know if it's the case. But that would pretty much eliminate the slow pace.
There's one comment I'm curious about -
That's interesting because of the first day you had that interaction with Hans Sidower (the fat fixer). But subsequently you also had interractions with Kenneth Yung and then "Jackhammer" last game. Do you feel like those interractions were less interesting? That you had less back-and-forth with them, that it was more "monologue-ish" from them?
Thoughts?
So I think we are all agreed that games progress rather slowly. As was said, I often notice no one typing and that's a big part of the slow pace of games. Perhaps that's due to not knowing if I'm done typing my stuff or waiting, everyone expecting someone else to say something. If that's the case, we could come up with a OpenRPG equivalent of saying "over" on the radio... When I'm done I could say "(your move)", and if you expect someone else to say somehting yo can say "(waiting on Jim)" or something.
Alternatively, we had discussed moving to Skype... I would be up for that, and I am certain that would quadruple game speed. In that case though, everyone needs to have a microphone or headset, which I don't know if it's the case. But that would pretty much eliminate the slow pace.
There's one comment I'm curious about -
QUOTE
* How do you like the NPCs?
The first night was really good. Not much interaction since then.
The first night was really good. Not much interaction since then.
That's interesting because of the first day you had that interaction with Hans Sidower (the fat fixer). But subsequently you also had interractions with Kenneth Yung and then "Jackhammer" last game. Do you feel like those interractions were less interesting? That you had less back-and-forth with them, that it was more "monologue-ish" from them?
Thoughts?
Well, I've got a microphone and all that, I'd have to go find and download Skype, but that doesn't seem like a big deal, would be great to be able to speed things up by going to speech. As for knowing when people are done and such, I think a simple solution would be the use of '.' '..' and '...' at the end of our messages (The ' are just there help with confusion in this post, wouldn't be there in game play).
The simple '.' means we're done and expect something else to happen before we're likely to say anything else. A '..' means that we've got more to say or do, but action is able to continue without it, and a '...' means that important things are still on the way.
I'm sure '.' will be fairly interchangable with '..'as people who finish with '.' may find something to say or remember something, but the use of '..' is great for backgammon because if he is trying to make stuff happen for multipul people (Talking to an NPC and hacking into a commlink) he can give the info needed for one part, end it with '..' and then start working on the info for the other person.
And of course the use of '...' lets us know that the person has more to type, once again, really handy for Backgammon so he can break long descriptions and such into smaller bits for us (So we're less likely to get distracted waiting 5 minutes for a long description).
And of course us players can use it as well, I'd think mostly for the sake of stating an action of ours, then going to look up some relevent bit of info in our book, make dice rolls, look up stuff in notes, or otherwise allow us to start acting and give us a chance to do whatever we need to finish. I'll do a real quick version of what it may look like;
Backgammon: Gulstaff, you have entered the door to the north, you are now by yourself, standing in a dark room. The pungent stench of mildew eminantes from the wet dungeon walls.
Gulstaff: I cast a spell...
(after looking over his spell list and looking up the spell description) Gulstaff: I want to cast magic missile.
Backgammon: Why are you casting magic missile, there's nothing to attack here?
Gulstaff: I'm attacking the darkness.
Backgammon: Ok, you attack the darkness. There's an elf in front of you..
Backgammon: He's wearing a brown tunic and has blue eyes.
Gulstaff: Hi, I'm Gulstaff, sorcerer of light.
Elf: Then how come you had to cast magic missile?
Backgammon: Ok, you guys are being attacked...
Annoying guy: Do I see that happening?
Backgammon: No, your outside at the tavern..
Annoying guy: Cool, I get drunk
Backgammon: There are seven ogres surrounding you.
So there you go, sounds about like a typical game for us right? Anyway, I'm sure we'd use '.' most of the time, but the others can definetly be helpful, especially stuff like 'Ok, you guys are being attacked...' because it gives everyone a chance to turn to the combat section, look up their weapon stats, and so on while backgammon moves on to describing exactly how we are being attacked.
The simple '.' means we're done and expect something else to happen before we're likely to say anything else. A '..' means that we've got more to say or do, but action is able to continue without it, and a '...' means that important things are still on the way.
I'm sure '.' will be fairly interchangable with '..'as people who finish with '.' may find something to say or remember something, but the use of '..' is great for backgammon because if he is trying to make stuff happen for multipul people (Talking to an NPC and hacking into a commlink) he can give the info needed for one part, end it with '..' and then start working on the info for the other person.
And of course the use of '...' lets us know that the person has more to type, once again, really handy for Backgammon so he can break long descriptions and such into smaller bits for us (So we're less likely to get distracted waiting 5 minutes for a long description).
And of course us players can use it as well, I'd think mostly for the sake of stating an action of ours, then going to look up some relevent bit of info in our book, make dice rolls, look up stuff in notes, or otherwise allow us to start acting and give us a chance to do whatever we need to finish. I'll do a real quick version of what it may look like;
Backgammon: Gulstaff, you have entered the door to the north, you are now by yourself, standing in a dark room. The pungent stench of mildew eminantes from the wet dungeon walls.
Gulstaff: I cast a spell...
(after looking over his spell list and looking up the spell description) Gulstaff: I want to cast magic missile.
Backgammon: Why are you casting magic missile, there's nothing to attack here?
Gulstaff: I'm attacking the darkness.
Backgammon: Ok, you attack the darkness. There's an elf in front of you..
Backgammon: He's wearing a brown tunic and has blue eyes.
Gulstaff: Hi, I'm Gulstaff, sorcerer of light.
Elf: Then how come you had to cast magic missile?
Backgammon: Ok, you guys are being attacked...
Annoying guy: Do I see that happening?
Backgammon: No, your outside at the tavern..
Annoying guy: Cool, I get drunk
Backgammon: There are seven ogres surrounding you.
So there you go, sounds about like a typical game for us right? Anyway, I'm sure we'd use '.' most of the time, but the others can definetly be helpful, especially stuff like 'Ok, you guys are being attacked...' because it gives everyone a chance to turn to the combat section, look up their weapon stats, and so on while backgammon moves on to describing exactly how we are being attacked.
Well, the problem with using . .. and ... is that it has legitimate uses in text. I could end what an NPC says with ... indicating the NPC trails off and doesn't finish his thought, but as a GM I'm actually done talking. And .. and ... are far too similar.
I prefer being much more explicit or at least uses characters that have no legitimate text uses. // could be "i'm done", (...) including the parentheses could be "more to come" and (*) could be no comment/waitin for someone else to talk.
I prefer being much more explicit or at least uses characters that have no legitimate text uses. // could be "i'm done", (...) including the parentheses could be "more to come" and (*) could be no comment/waitin for someone else to talk.
QUOTE (Backgammon @ Mar 17 2008, 12:22 PM)
Ok, we'll see about next week then.
Ok, let's start looking to lock in a date. Thursday the 27th is good, Friday the 28th is bad for me.
Hmm. If we play on night that I have to wake up on the next morning, then tha cuts the play time by alot. I can go till like 10pm EST, but I could start earlier, say 7pm EST.
That would be 6-9cst. I could swing that.
Ok, so everyone else -
Thursday 7pm EST to 10pm EST (convert times to you local zone) ?
Thursday 7pm EST to 10pm EST (convert times to you local zone) ?
Oh, damn. I'm not gonna be able to make it on Thursday...Gonna be on a damn train for the better part of the evening.
I'm working 1230-9pm MST that night. SOrry guys.
No worries, I would have had to go pick up my wife somewhere in there too, costing us half an hour.
Had everyone sounded off on the use of Skype? Could everyone go for that going forward?
Had everyone sounded off on the use of Skype? Could everyone go for that going forward?
Depends on whether I can dig up my mic Its somewhere, just not sure where.
Its somewhere, just not sure where.
Ok this week is a bust. The 4th is not good for me. How about the 11th?
Backgammon - You want to do a Skype test Thursday night?
Backgammon - You want to do a Skype test Thursday night?
QUOTE (Redjack @ Mar 26 2008, 10:12 AM)
Ok this week is a bust. The 4th is not good for me. How about the 11th?
Backgammon - You want to do a Skype test Thursday night?
Backgammon - You want to do a Skype test Thursday night?
11th is good so far.
Yes, Skype test sounds good. My Skype name is olivier.gagnon.1
Tarantula is working late, but if everyone can try to swing by and make sure everyone's headphones, speaker and stuff are all configured right, and then next game (aiming for the 11th) can be Skype and things will go massively faster.
Knew I was forgetting something, compleatly didn't remember to bring my mic with me, oh well, I should be able to scrounge one up at the local walmart or something for a few bucks, though I won't be able to swing out that way till friday, either that or I can have it mailed to me, but point is I can get one by the time we play next.
As for my . .. and ... idea, sure, we could just leave the . exactly as it is and do / vs /// or something like that for the other two uses. I was just trying to come up with something a bit easier then (waiting for X) all the time.
As for the 11th, seems like it should be fine to me.
As for my . .. and ... idea, sure, we could just leave the . exactly as it is and do / vs /// or something like that for the other two uses. I was just trying to come up with something a bit easier then (waiting for X) all the time.
As for the 11th, seems like it should be fine to me.
I'll tinker around with getting skype working for me. Looks like they have a ubuntu version, so it shouldn't be all that difficult.
It will make logs much harder to have though, unless someone wants to be a transcriber
It will make logs much harder to have though, unless someone wants to be a transcriber
I suppose we could have audio recordings of the sessions if we wanted, or get a speach to text thing, or just rely on our memory (Yeah, I know I'm screwed).
Do you guys really read the log before every new game? I just jot down the critical points of the game in my GM Book and use that to refresh my memory. I can start off with a quick recap of the previous game, and that should be it. If you had a particular epiphany about tying evidence A to evidence B, during a previous game, though, you should probably write it down so you don't forget it next game. Aside from that, I think we'll live without the log. Remember, we'll be going A LOT faster now, too.
I dunno, I like the log. Makes it nice to have a history of our goings on.
Well, I was mostly joking about that, but I do agree that having the logs is kinda nice, but not having them is a small price to pay for speeding the game up so much.
Well, the 11th should work fine for me, I get off work at 6pm MST, and should be home around 7pm MST.
Alright peeps, how's the 11th looking for our first Skype game?
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