"They say, this is the City, the city of Angels. All I see is dead wings."

The Twins hit LA hard, but it is slowly coming back into its glory days. Horizon pretty muchs runs everything nowadays, but as of January 1st, 2072, all the non-corp citizens of LA are now full fledged PCC Citizens, complete with the voting rights. Another vote to re-allow business permits to the Azzies is coming up in November, wonder how it will turn out this time? More seawalls have gone up and Shiawese has built some new Desalination plants off the coast, bringing more much needed fresh water to the city. P2.0 is all the rage, but invites are very hard to come by, and it doesn't seem like Horizon is going to be offering a new wave of invitations to anyone soon. Aztechnology is still stretched thin, dealing with issues on pretty much every front, but that hasn't lessened the number of troops they have in San Diego. It feels like everything has been pretty steady in LA for awhile, but that can only mean that something big is going to be happening soon.

*~*~*~*~*~*

It is July, 2072 in Los Angeles and you are new runners. Either new to the area or new to game, it doesn't matter, because nobody knows who you are, and everything in LA revolves around how many people know you. So, you are stuck in a Catch-22, can't get a job without some rep, but you can't get no rep without a job. What's a runner to do?

Lucky for you, someone has decided to vouch for you, using their name to push your own, and well, finally a job has come your way. Just don't screw it up, because it's not just your rep you will be screwing over.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Now, for the technical stuff. 400 BP buld, SR4A rules. I highly recommend being familiar with the write up of Los Angeles in Corporate Enclaves. Gear and qualities allowed from SR4A, Augmentation, Arsenal, Street Magic, Unwired, and Runner's Companion (maybe some from Running Wild, I just haven't had much of a chance to look it over yet). I have some specifics though:
-No Free Spirits, AI, or Infected.
-Restricted Gear allowed to be taken once.
-Martial Arts does not count towards the 35 BP positive limit.
-Clear any metatype outside of the core five with me.
-I would prefer no Possession traditions, unless you clear it with me first.
-Free BP for Contacts equal to Charisma x 2.
-I would like the 20 Questions answered, as well as some information on your Contacts.
-Your character should want to be part of P2.0 for some reason.
-Start with a free contact: Apollo, a fixer. Loyalty 2, Connection 4.

I am looking for a team between 3-6 people large. If I get more submissions than that I will give preference to those with the 20 questions answered thoroughly, Contacts fleshed out, and on the needs of group for balance.

I will looking to start the game by early to mid next week, so that gives about 5-7 days for submissions. PM me your sheet when you have it ready.

I am looking forward to this one.

That definitely sounds interesting.

I'm fairly open to what kind of archetype I would go for, maybe a shaman (recently made one for another game, but that one doesn't seem to get going, sadly).

On friday and saturday I will spend 4.5 hours each in train (christmas party on friday evening), so there is plenty time to put a sheet together and reread the chapters in Corporate Enclaves.

Bye
Thanee

Definately interested. Not sure on the 20 questions thing though

Have an idea ill run by you in PM.

Z

I answered Zed via PM already, but if anyone else has questions about the 20 Questions, I am referring to Pg. 18 of Runner's Companion, entitled Character Quiz.

I didn't think there were 20 questions there, which always confused me when people call it that

I'll tentatively throw my hat in. I'm not sure what concept I want to use, especially since my two most recent ideas fell under the 'No free spirits, AIs, or infected' rule

Yeah, I think the "20 questions" thing goes back to older editions of SR where the "companion" book had 20. Not sure though.

I will probably throw something together. I have a martial artist (close combat specialist) I've been working on for a while, and the rule that MA qualities don't count against the 35 would allow him to spend a few more points there to be more interesting, so I will probably go with that. Should be able to get it together in a day or two.

That or the classic game '20 questions', which works its way into a fair few expressions such as "What is this, 20 questions?" or "Got it in 1 (As opposed to 20)."

Sent PM, Trigger. Face/Hacker.

putting together a wheelchair bound paraplegic Rigger who sits in an armoured van and interacts via drones and the Grid. Oh and running through these 20 questions he is turning out to have a major chip on his shoulder with Ares and pretty much the world because of the loss of his limbs.

Definately keen to play. I do not bring matrix chars so a mage or a sammie.

I've been working on a char recently, street sam, uses Cybertechnology skill and Evo Orderly with Valkyrie Module, as well as Street Doc contact to jump in, to implant his own ware for free. I'll have to revise him a bit, take away some Restricted Gear. Specific deadline for this?

So, to this point we have the following who have shown interest...

Thanee - Street Shaman
zed - paraplegic Drone Rigger
Karoline - undecided
BlackHat - Martial Artist (Close Combat Specialist)
Fuchs - Face/Hacker
Cthulhudreams - Mage or Street Samurai
Xahn Borealis - Street Samurai/Street Doc

That actually looks like a pretty good mix right now.

Bye
Thanee

Hmm, two casters, two techies, and two combatants. Sounds like I'm the classic 7th wheel here

Depends on which way Cthulhudreams goes (we could have 3 combatants and only 1 caster). Also, we seem to only have 1 face (or half a face, depending on how much of the character focuses on hacking). I don't know enough about the two possible street-sam concepts, but we might end up with 2-3 melee combatants, and nobody with ranged combat specialty - so there might be a niche that needs filling there, too. Also, since Trigger said he was looking for 3-6 characters, it is unlikely that all 7 characters would make up a team (so there probably won't be a 7th wheel, in the first place).

Still, keeping tabs on what other people are making seems like a good call, since he said he would narrow down the list based on party makeup.

And right now Sarial needs some work on his drone load out to be game legal. A Doberman with a GE Vindicator minigun is ... probably banned

I know a lot of people have already expressed their interest in this game, and I might be a little late in the race... but I'd love to try something out. I'll have a character concept up by tonight. Probably a Face with some combat skills.

Not a specific one. Probably Tuesday or Wednesday of next week is when I will announce the team and get the game rolling.

Hmm, I think I'll do a religious fanatic with a rating 7 in explosive...

Sorry, I'm having some trouble thinking what I want to play. I always like trying new concepts and such. Oh well, I have a while to figure it out, and if I don't there are already enough people anyway

What do ya know, I was just going through that list, and there actually are 20 there. I was pretty sure there was more like 40-50, though. Weird. Less work than I was anticipating, though.

@Trigger
Everything done and PMed. If you're ok with everything I wrote done, I'll start working on a character sheet.

Go ahead and start on it. I like the character, he will do well in LA.

If you've still got room, I'm working on a Adept face, with some minor skill in guns. I'll PM it to you after I'm done.

Love your hair

Looking at the party mix, I'll go with a mage... but I will be effective in combat. Got a character, most of the questions and stuff done, tidying it up now.

Oh, hey, just realized we are sevearly lacking in stealth. I think I'll work out some sort of infiltrator type. Kinda wanted to have some fun with traceless walk, walkwalking, and umm... crud, whatever that one is that lets you run on water.

The 20 questions are from the SR2 base book where they are listed and explained on pp. 47-48. Sans explanations, the questions are:

I'm working on a Hollywood Mage - Fashion, Make-overs, Trid Phantasms, Physical Mask, etc. She would be okay in a fight, but pretty focused on the magic. She would be running to try and build up a P2.0 following enough to launch what she hopes will be a modeling and acting career.

I am actually referring to the new set of 20 Questions that are present in Runner's Companion on pg 18.

I have been thinking more about the start of this, and to make sure that everyone is on the same page, everyone's character should want to be part of P2.0 for some reason (fame, work opportunities, jump starting a legit career, etc.). Also, everyone will start with a shared free contact: Apollo, a highly charismatic Elf fixer who in his great generosity has taken you on. He is Loyalty 2, Connection 4 for free, though you can buy up his loyalty to 4 at creation if you want.

I will add this information to the first post as well.

You're also missing some Investigation! Don't forget about me! Damn, looks like I don't lurk fast enough on here... Goes and sulks back into the shadows.

I just had to mention that this is a REALLY cool concept.

Sorry to interrupt the thread, but it's killing me. What does "P2.0" mean? I think I missed something important somewhere.

Its some social networking type thing. A really hyped up version of modern day facebook. At least that is what I remember. It is in one of the setting books where it talks about LA. I'll have to take a look at some point.

It is in the corporate enclaves book.

Persona 1.0 is your normal life.
Persona 2.0 (or Pito) is your online persona - basically an AR social networking program - "live-networking, blogging, reputation, and sim, all in one." Horizon rolled out an "open beta" in LA, and the book makes it sound like a LOT of important decisions are now being made based on how many people follow your Twitter feed.

I figured it was something like that, thanks.

Weird, I could have sworn I'd read about it before, but I can't find my book. I wonder if I lost it somewhere

Yeah, basically P2.0 is your Facebook, Twitter, Professional Blog, Private Blog, and pretty every other social network function rolled into one. It has three rating on it that determine your popularity:
-The C Scale: Or the how close are you Gary Cline scale. It rates you on how many steps away from Gary Cline you are, between 1 and 8. Cline himself is 0. So if your sister (5) is dating the son (4) of Horizon Mid Level Manager (3) whose associate (2) is the mother of Cline's personal massage therapist (1), then you are a C-6.

-The M Scale: Or the Membership Scale. Basically how many people you are networked to, essentially your friend's list.

-The S Scale: Or the Subscription Scale. How many people are subscribed to your blog, or 'Me-Feed'. This shown as a percentage of all P2.0 users. Anyone (even people with P1.0) can subscribe to the feed of someone with a C-4 rating or higher, but you must have a P2.0 network membership to subscribe to anyone's feed with a C-3 or lower.

I just sent off my character sheet, but I forgot the 20 questions/background. I'll send them along in a bit.

Edit: Make that some time later tonight or tomorrow. I'm tired of working on my character for now.

I've been toying around with playing a technomancer/face style guy if you've got room. I've been very interested in playing or running in LA so this is very relevant to my interests.

Go ahead and write something up. I already think I have more submissions than openings, so I am going to be making some cuts anyways, but I will be keeping the people who submitted on a hold list in case someone drops out. Plus, Horizon is friendly with Technomancers , so LA is the place to be. You could also have a contact in the Long Beach Collective, a group of technomancers living in house boat type structures in the area of flooding that used to be about the area of Long Beach.

I really don't mind being on the waiting list... Gonna be making my character and sending it in soon. Do you have a CharGen program where I can just send you the file? or do you want me to convert to WordPad?

Wordpad would be nice. My computer is old and that is about all it has.

Right on, Ork Smuggler originally from Louisiana almost finished. His background should prove interesting.

When a person gets their invite to P2.0 and first signs up they are given 10 invites that they can send out...invites tend to sell for 10,000 and Up...umm isn't that just a really easy way to make a whole hell of a lot of cash? Thats something that didn't make too much sense to me about the whole P2.0 system.

No one is going to pay to be invited to P2.0 by someone who no one has heard of. It probably notes who invited you, and if they are popular, then you must also be popular.

I won't ask for to play since the game is full, though it looks like an interesting game. One question, however: Who is Gary Cline? IIRC, he is Horizon's CEO, but I'd like backup. Or not.

Sent sheet.

Cline is the CEO of Horizion, thats why he is the center of P2.0

As to people paying for invitations, yes, people buy the invites off of the black market, so they are almost certainly getting them from random people selling their invites.

People would especially pay for invitations from people with a low C-rating, because their C-rating would automatically be 1 higher than that persons. They would also pay for invitations from people with a large M or S rating, because that is more people who will likely go "Oh hey, X just got invited by Y and I love Y, so I'll go check out X"

Given the importance of P2.0 to many, I can totally envision there being people who are willing to spend quite a bit to get invited by the right people. Paying for a good invite can also be a quick-start tactic for someone who is new to the area, as it will give them good ratings, thus making it easier for them to 'get in' with all kinds of people, from employers to the local club scene.

Edit: Oh, and the whole reason I was going to post in the first place, I finally got an idea for my character. Will be an actress of sorts who moonlights as an infiltration expert. Very good at disguises and stuff, and has done some 'cat burglar' type roles to explain why she has stealth suits and B&E gear and such. I'll try and hash it out a bit more, I fell asleep this afternoon semi-accidentally, so I'll likely be up most the night.

Edit2: Hmm, was planning on having her established a bit already, but that isn't what the start-up says. At least not in the shadows, which seems fine... oh, hehe, just got an idea. Perhaps she is lined up for a small part (Or large part, we'll see how she turns out) for a new sim as a runner of some kind and is 'encouraged' to get some 'first hand' experience, or just decides to get some on her own. Once again, have to hash that out some with the personality.

Edit3: Also, the initial post seems to indicate there are a limited number of invites out there. Anything that is a limited commodity is going to have some serious value behind it.

In this game though, in 2072, there is a very definite lack of new invitations out there. Each new P2.0 member is only getting 2 or 3 new invitations, if any at all. New people with high C Ratings don't even get invites to give out. Horizon has been creating a higher demand for P2.0 by decreasing the supply of new accounts.

Makes sense.