I chose Philly as it was teh second-largest city in the US in terms of population (Er, well, UCAS) and had virtually *no* exposure. Working on a sourcebook for it that I can pass out to my players, complete with shadowtalk and so on.

Seattle's where the big boys play, but you can get your START in Philly.

Last of the Six Pack, with a sort of member to follow.

Rhino

Race: Ork (20 BP)

Attributes: (170 BP)

Bod: 7
Agi: 3
Rea: 3
Str: 6
Cha: 2
Int: 3
Log: 2
Wil: 3
Edge: 2

Essence: 6.0
Initiative: 6
Passes: 1

Active Skills: (120 BP)

Close Combat Group: 3
Firearms Group: 3
Outdoors Group: 1
Stealth Group: 1

Armorer: 2
Etiquette (Military): 1 (3)
Intimidate: 3
Perception: 1
Pilot Ground: 1
Throwing Weapons (Grenades): 1 (3)

Knowledge Skills:

Military Proceedures: 3
Metahuman Rights Movement: 2
Ork Baptist Religion: 2
Sioux Nation: 2

Languages

English: N
Sioux: 2
Spanish: 1
Japanese: 1

Qualities: (0 BP)

Guts
Toughness

Mild Sunlight Allergy
SINner

Contacts: (8 BP)

O.R.C. organizer (2 influence/2 loyalty)
Shadow Reporter (2 influence/2 loyalty)

Resources: (2 BP)

10,000 Y

Lifestyle:

Low (1 month prepaid)

Gear and Such:

Sony Emperor Commlink with Renraku Icho O/S (Response 2, Signal 3, Firewall 2, System 2)
Sim Module
Basic Programs: Anaylze (2), Browse (2), Command (2), Edit (2), Encrypt (2), Scan (2)

Survival knife
Fichetti Security 600 with 60 standard ammo, spare clip, and concealed holster
Colt Manhunter with 80 standard ammo, four spare clips, and concealed holster
2 Pepper Punch Grenades
3 Smoke Grenades

Armored Jacket

Fake SIN (2)
Fake Gun Liscense (2)

Micro-Tranceiver (4)
Glasses with image Link
Earbuds
Flashlight
Glowstick

20 RFID tags
40 Disposable Plastic Restraints
Armorer Kit

Low Lifestyle (1 month prepaid)

Background

They say that there's only two ways out of the slums of Philly ... you either turn to crime or you get good at sports. Turns out that there's a third way ... you can get a government job. That's what Rhino did, joining the UCAS army, hoping to save enough cash to get himself an education, do his mom proud. He's got five brothers and sisters, two of which got sucked into gang life at a young age, but he managed to play it straight, stay in church, stay in school, and fly right. He was a hard-working, if uninspiring student, and actually graduated high school. His friends, almost all of which dropped out years ago, actually treated him *worse* for this, claiming that he thought that he was "Better" than them and that he was losing touch with keepin' it real. When he left to join the Army, his family saw him off, but his friends were nowhere to be found.

The Army was good to Rhino, giving him hot meals, a decent bed, and organization... Rhino was never cut out for leadership, but he followed orders well. He was a bit surprised to see so many Metahumans and so few Just Humans, but, hey, he's from Philly, so no big. He was a happy little infantryman of average marks who was sent out West, to babysit the Sioux border with the rest of his squad.

Then Crash 2.0 hit.

Oh, the border stayed solid, they made sure of that, but things got rough for a while, with martial law kicking in, paranoia for a year, and anti-radiation pills for the fallout of nuclear detonations. Still, things calmed down, and he got back to a fairly normal life, settling down with a nice cornfed girl who had a thing for men in uniform. She even worked as a nurse on the base, helped keep things nice and tidy.

Rhino probably would have been content to stay there for good, living out a lifetime soldiery position and maybe getting married, having a small family of five, six kids, and generally being happy, until he overheard a conversation that his girl was having about "The Experiment." He leafed through some of her files when she was at work, finding that the anti-rads the Orks in the unit were being given were placebos, to see how Orks reacted to possible radiation infection as part of some study from above. As furious as she was when she found him going through her files, he was even more angry over being betrayed. He went to tell his CO about it, was assured that it was being taken care of, then went home.

They came in the night, dragging him to a cornfield in the middle of nowhere. When they removed his blindfold, he got to see his commander, along with faceless men backed by the glare of headlights. He wasn't being killed ... he didn't know anything, really. A scandal that they could cover up with a phone call, a document that was destroyed, an airheaded nurse who was being re-assigned to a more private facility ... nothing major. But a body? A body was always a problem. Too much damn paperwork. No, he was being bought off. A ticket home, a medical discharge, and five grand in his pocket to forget he ever saw anything. Plan B was a bullet, a stray Sioux insurgent who gets discovered by a BTL-topped soldier who takes one for the team. Did his mother really want that letter?

Once back in Philly, Rhino puttered about aimlessly for a while, doing some volunteer work in a local shelter, trying to get his head screwed back on right. He tried slipping the story to a major news outlet, but ... no footage? No documents? No evidence? Then there was no story. He tried getting a job, but nothing really clicked. He even applied to Lone Star, but his clean record and tusks made him realize what the answer would be even before they said no.

Napoleon found him after a bit of searching. Napoleon needed a military guy, someone that could handle a firefight calmly. Finding tweaked steroid freaks was easy, but they couldn't get where he needed to go. He needed somebody clean, that could walk through a Cyberware detector without a worry and still kick hoop. The money was good, the unit comraderie was there, the loyalty was there, but... crime? Rhino'd walked away from that as a kid, and now he'd be falling down the road to damnation?

It took a while, but Napoleon's not a guy who takes no for an answer. Rhino signed up, on the condition that he gets veto power. If he doesn't like a run, if it isn't clean enough, then they walk away. Thusfar, it hasn't ben an issue. Turns out that basic B&E work doesn't involve much gunplay and, when it does, it's firing on the run, rather than to wipe somebody out. Napoleon's not a fan of wetwork or killing in general, and the few times that they've had to get ugly, it's been against genuinely bad men. For now, he's Napoleon's right hand, team muscle, and all-around bedrock for the team, but he's been burned by loyalty before. It remains to see if he'll be burned again.

Rhino's a good guy, by and large, and well liked by the team. He's a cornerstone, with a good moral guideline and keeps them from doing anything too tetchy. He's there mainly to glower, look big, and BE big, keeping meetings in line by his presence and getting them out of tight situations with raw physical power. He's a legitimate citizen, with a SIN, a military history, no criminal record, authorization to buy firearms ... he's an *amazingly* good find, even if he doesn't know it. He's also well-versed in military matters, admitedly as only an infantryman, giving a tactical wall for Napoleon to bounce ideas off of. He's a bit slow and measured, the last one to agree to a plan after he ponders it for a time, making sure that everything's good to go.

Rhino serves as the team's strongman and backbone, keeping their morals centered and being the shoulder that everyone relies on. When the drek hits the fan, he can grab any one, or even any TWO, chuck 'em over his shoulder, and retreat without breaking a sweat. He's also a genuinely nice guy and a stable platform, a touchstone that everyone else can revolve around.

Napoleon, for example, relies on his brute strength and loyalty, as well as his miliitary training, in his plans. He can trust Rhino completely, and he can be used as a surprisingly handy infiltrator... Nobody pays heed to the Ork Janitor, for example, or the Ork in a truck that picks up your trash. The ritzier parts of town can draw eyes, sure, but Rhino's not got a bit of 'ware in him, so can get through scanners without a problem. Heck, he even has a legit SIN and a military background! They don't really hang out much, but they plan together, with Rhino serving as the wall for Leon to bounce ideas off of.

Princess, meanwhile, is on the one hand amazed at how much hoop Rhino can kick while, at the same time, also wants to show him up. It's a friendly rivalry, mostly on her side. They can chum around fairly well, but she always tries to get him to loosen up while he tries to get her to straighten up. They make good drinking buddies, tho he gets upset at her for starting barfights, and have different fave Urban Brawl teams, which they discuss while watching the game and drinking. They have a lot in common, but he weathered it better than she did. She needs him to keep her grounded, he needs her to drag him out of his shell.

Rhino and Lord Prometheus sometimes clash, but not badly. Rhino sees Prometheus as a kid, which he is, and tries to look out for him, but Prom is a bit too gung ho just yet. He's never been really *hurt* out there, and is still playing a game, in all honesty. Prom is a nice studybuddy, however, and will be helping Rhino with the upcomming college load. Rhino surprises Prom by being more interested in learning than the average Ork, but also serves to show Prom that there's a whole other style of thinking out there.

Rhino and Phoenix? There's an odd couple. They just *love* to bust one another's hoop whenever possible, cracking wise and sniffing at each other's weaknesses, but, they work well as a team. Princess is pretty sure tha Pheonix has a Mancrush on Rhino, tho she never mentions it when Phoenix is around. They don't really hang in the same circles, but, they sometimes trade off on racial issues, having a few spats over it.

Rhino and Tot act like a big brother and little sister. He's convinced that she's insane half the time, but, she's "Family" so he takes care of her. Even more than Princess, Tot *drags* him to clubs, pimps him out at her friends, pushes him to the dancefloor to meet cute girls, and spazzes out over his reluctance to deal with AR and the wireless matrix. He's been giving her pointers in fighting techniques and target practice, she helps him socialize, and, overall, they just gel. She's small enough to help him gets tuff, he's tall enough to help her ... it's a great bond between the two.

Rhino's Shadow Reporter contact is a rookie intern at the Philadelphia Inquirer, one with some Blogger roots and a connection to the Shadow broadcasters. She got wind of his story and tried to help out, but got stonewalled. She's young, a very "Driven college liberal" sort, now in her sophmore year at the same university that Rhino will be attending. With a foot in three worlds that he needs, the two will, over time, build up a strong bond, but, for now, are still in a feeling out process.

Note that, currently, Rhino's fairly underarmed... he has the Fichetti that most of the rest of the team is issued, as well as a personal "Hand cannon" in his Colt Manhunter, but he uses standard ammo (He expects to get stopped as an Ork and doesn't want to be found with something hot), nor does he have MilSpec gear, such as an Ares Assault Rifles or body armor. he was turfed from the Army without being able to snag these and, since then, hasn't really *wanted* to get anything stronger. It won't be long, however, since he and Tater Tot handle the heavy weaponry, at least in theory.

(( WakkaNotes ))

Posting as he was first made, when I somehow missed that there was an Availability 8 assault rifle. D'oh! The eventual goal is to get him a nice armored jacket and Ares Alpha, but, for now, he's supposed to be an Ork who's used to racial profiling ... he gets stopped by the Star, he's ex-military and liscensed to carry, say, a Fichetti Security pistol for personal protection and an armored vest won't raise eyebrows. He doesn't give off a "Runner Vibe" nor does he pass as a street ganger. His eventual heavy loadout would be kept in reserve for when stuff hits the fan, rather than worn on a regular basis.

Kitsune

Race: Human (0 BP)

Attributes: (180 BP)

Bod: 2
Agi: 4
Rea: 3
Str: 2
Cha: 3
Int: 4
Log: 3
Wil: 3

Edge: 2
Magic: 3
Essence: 6
Initiative: 7
Passes: 1

Active Skills: (138 BP)

Athletics Group: 2 (Gymnastics: 4)
Close Combat Group: 1
Electronics Group: 1
Influence Group: 2
Stealth Group: 3 (Infiltration: 5)

Archery: 2
Escape Artist: 3
Locksmith: 3
Perception: 3
Throwing Weapons: 2

Knowledge Skills:

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies corporation: 3
MCT Ninja Traditions: 3
Poisons: 3
Psychology: 3
Business: 2
Chemistry: 2
Finance: 2

Languages:

Japanese: N
English: 3

Qualities: (+10 BP)

Adept
Double-Jointed

Mild Addicion to Zen
Sensitive System

Adept Powers:

Combat Sense: 2
Enhanced Perception: 2
Improved Gymnastics: 2
Improved Infiltration: 2
Natural Immunity: 2

Contacts: (9 BP)

Fixer: 3 influence/2 loyalty
Fence: 2 influence/2 loyalty

Resources: (3 BP)

15,000 Y

Gear and Such:

Knife
Sword
Shock Glove

Light Crossbow (Wrist-mounted)
8 Injection Arrows filled with Narcojet

2 Shurikens dosed with Narcojet
2 Throwing Spikes dosed with Narcojet
2 Flashbang Grenades
2 Smoke Grenades
2 Pepper Punch Grenades

Disposable Syringe with 1 dose of Narcojet

Armored Clothing

Sony Emperor Commlink with Renraku Ichi O/S (Response 2, Signal 2, Firewall 2, System 2)
Sim Module
Basic Programs: Analyze (2), Browse (2), Command (2), Edit (2), Encrypt (2), Scan (2)

Glasses with Image Link
Goggles with Lowlight Vision and Flare Compensation
Earbuds

Fake SIN (2)
Disguise Kit
Latex Face Mask
Lockpick Set
Keycard Copier (4)

Micro-Camera with Lowlight Vision
Micro-Microphone
Micro-Motion Sensor

60 RFID tags
20 Plastic Restraints
Miniwelder
Gas Mask
Flashlight

Climbing Gear
Rapelling Gloves
Grapple Gun
Microwire (100 M)

Background:

HATTATORI Keiko was picked from her family when standard MCT magical testing revealed her innate Adept nature. A corporate family with loyalty to the company, they were honored to send their daughter off to a special school (And the promotion for her father that followed was welcome as well), but aside from occasional letters from home, they were basicly divorced from her by the time she was thirteen and haven't seen her in years.

Keiko was raised in an MCT magical academy for children, eventually trained as a Kunoichi, a female ninja, specialized in the art of deception, seduction, and infiltration. She was an average student, known better for her quiet loyalty and willingness to subsume herself to her betters, never one to rock the boat. Fresh from her graduation, she was sent to Philadelphia, one of three new recruits for the operations there.

Within three months, barely settled in and adjusting, she was given her first solo assignment, tasked to bring in a Shadowrunning team that had recently caused an executive to lose face. He wanted revenge, personally, even though the company, proper, had no such need for a private matter. She was tasked with finding them and bringing them in alive, by whatever means neccessary. It took her nearly a month to track them down, but, in the end, she did, and began to quietly pick them off, one by one, using her disguise talents, poisons, and ambushes to do so as she was no match for most in a fair fight.

Once she had gathered, and delivered, the team, she expected to be rewarded for doing a good job. Instead she was lambasted for having taken so long, then told that she had been chosen not for her talent but because she was expendable. Puzzeled, she asked for an explaination but was given a gas-filling room as her reply. She freed her captives, and, together, the seven were able to break out, foil her contractor, and escape. Now homeless, Keiko assumed the working name of Kitsune, a mischevivous Fox spirit, and decided to take personal time, to figure out where she would now belong. She betrayed her oaths by helping the team escape and believes that she can't go back to MCT, but, she doesn't feel that she can trust anyone else yet, either. She's managed to make a couple of professional contacts as she tries to set up her new life, but still has a long way yet to go.

Keiko is ordinarily quiet and studious, trained to follow the "Unassuming girl" role for most of her life. Being betrayed so casually by her superior made her panic and take a rash action which she regrets, but she also found this new freedom to be something of a rush. She's starting to build a new identity for herself and could go any number of ways. Her biggest problem is that she's had the individuality ground out of her after years of corporate life and, at eighteen, is a virtual blank slate. As Kitsune, she tops her attire with a fox-spirit face mask (Her 'goggles') and is not at all a fair fighter. She prefers setting up traps, especially poisonings, or taking advantage of targets when they're most vulnerable, such as when they sleep. She's willing to kill, but vastly prefers to get a job done as quietly, and cleanly, as possible.

Keiko is a small, slender Japanese girl with a dancer's grace and a shy, submissive nature, wearing her hair medium-length and in a traditional style, blendingly easily amoung average salaried workers. She's adept at wearing other faces and personas, having not yet developed one to call her own ... she's a weapon with no master, unsure of what to do next, other than survive. She's capable of killing, but takes neither shame nor enjoyment form such a task, thinking of it as just another tool that she can use or discard as the situation requires. Her largest problem, at this time, is her general loss of purpose and society... no friends, no home, no family, she's adrift and looking for who she will become.

She has crossed paths with the Six Pack since their initial meeting, sometimes as an ally, sometimes an enemy, but most times as a rival. She ad Napoleon get along far too well, which worries the rest of the Pack, who don't believe that Kitsune can be tamed. Princess, in particular, has a low boiling anger at her, due to being ambushed in their first meeting and ongoing romantic tensions between herself and Napoleon and Kitsune and Napoleon. The others don't paricularly like or dislike her, but don't *trust* her, so, she's never been allowed to officially join the team.

I haven't read the whole thread, so pardon me if I'm repeating someone, but here's my two cents.

You say, "I was considering limiting the time any individual player gets at any given time to about 10 or 15 minutes. What do you think? The characters will, of course, sporadically work together, but it will be a highly individual game."

While it seems cool as you think about it, imagine your other players, sitting there...idle for up to a quarter of an hour. a World of Darkness game I play in works something like this, and I'll tell you right now that it's not a great idea. It's very hard to keep focused when you're not in the action. Your players will drift off, start their own conversations and generally not enjoy the game as much.

Other than that, you're idea is pretty cool. I've read a bit of Gibson and it seems his stuff quite good. Just make sure you keep in mind what the players will enjoy, not just what sounds good as a campaign concept.

I've actually played a World of Darkness game mostly in this style, and it was hands-down the best roleplaying experience I've had (if you care, it was Demon, set in Los Angeles). The key to it is that the players aren't always working alone. Sometimes they team up. It's usually not everybody working together, but it's usually at least pairs of players, sometimes three at a time. So, it's not always going to be one player at a time.

The reason I stayed interested in the Demon game while my character was not involved was because the stories of the other characters were intriguing. I liked hearing what the other characters were doing. Also, at any given time, my characters skills may have been called upon - the other characters knew of my character's existance, and where to find him. So he may have been called upon for some computer work. Or for some breaking & entering (his Demon powers were suited to that).

There are ways of getting players to actively involve the others, without you having to explicitly put them together. A social character might need some information on somebody he's impersonating, or following, or grifting, so he might call the hacker up. The hacker might need access to a system that doesn't have matrix access, so he calls up a black ops-style character. This way, even if the situations are presented by the GM, it feels like the characters are making the decisions. It's kind of like present-day, sleight-of-hand, card tricks, and magic. It's misdirection, and the illusion of choice.

Could be an interesting subject for a gaming talk or paper. I may have to start writing it.

Also, I think Gibson's style can be adapted to suit the styles of the players. If one player wants more hack & slash, then it's possible to give it to them. They just have to be contracted for that sort of thing. Molly was a combat specialist, and she got some action. There were razorgirls in Johnny Mnemonic, and a good amount of combat too.

I just want the players characters to experience something more street-level than I've done in the past. I want grit. And I think that can be done in a cinematic way, as well as in a realistic way, as well as in any other way that a player wants. I'm just looking for flawed characters in a flawed world. Too many player characters are perfect. Normal. (Well, except for their stupid-ass addictions and allergies).

So, I guess what I'm saying is that in order to get the "Gibson" feel, the characters have to feel real. That's the great thing about Gibson's characters. You cared about them.

So, in conclusion, I will do this as a GM:
-- Create believable - and not just believable, but real - NPCs
-- Create situations with real motivations and real consequences
-- Give the players guidelines on what I need from their characters
-- Ask players to edit their characters if anything ridiculous pops up

I will ask the player for:
-- Characters using the Cyber Noir creation system
-- Characters with real, relevant flaws
-- Characters with real background
-- Characters with real goals

Of course, in the preceding lists, "real" means "feels like real", but I figure that was assumed.

Well personally I've never much cared for the SOTA Rules, but I'm thinking about toying with the idea of adding in a SOTA expense similair to the Lifestyle Rules, but I;m not quite sure how much to charge per month.

Oh well, I imagine that we'll all be able to pull the new SOTA Rules out of our ARSEs when it comes out.

I think a Detective campaign can probably achieve more grit and Noir than a regular Shadowrunner campaign. When you have Detective players investigation something or other, it's easier to take your time describing scenes in all their gritty cyberpunk glory, as well as actually induce a sense of "oh my god!" in the players.

I caught a bit of "Total Recall: 2070", the old 90s TV show. Man that show was so cyberpunk it hurt. The acting isn't all that good and stuff though, but if you want inspiration, maybe you can download it from bittorrent or something.

I'm by no means going for a regular Shadowrunner campaign. I'm going for something a bit different.

And I see no reason why I can't take time describing scenes in this case.

I'll see if I can get a hold of Total Recall: 2070. Sounds like some good inspiration in any case.