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Sphynx
Ok, when our current GM hands over the reigns in December, he's told me he intends to play a character with the 5 point Amnesia flaw....

Now, I'm not looking to screw the guy over, even remotely, I want to make him a cool character with lots of interesting 'tools' etc that he has to discover. To break him into our group, AFTER generatting an acceptable character using the BP system at 130 points (135 if you count the Amnesia) I'll be adding 150 karma to his sheet based on how I think the character would have advanced.

Anyways, I want to create a character that is not a wimp, not a "screw the player" but at the same time not necessarily a 'tank' either, which will fit into our already solid group (we run with 8 players).

Current characters are:
Leader/Face: All 6 in all attributes, decent in combat, more skillwires than God and a good 500k+ worth of softs.
Street Sam: Cyberninja girl with Titanium Lacing, Muscle Aug 4 and hellish unarmed damage/skill but with stealth and athletics that make a PysAd seem klutzy.
StreetSam: Speed Demon, 19+5D6 and a non-comparable gun skill.
Phys Ad: The 40+ dice Daisho character.
Mage Ad: every 'Sense' available, and all the Detection spells at Extended Range, Tattoo'd.
Spirit Shaman: Ally Spirit, Power Focus, and stays in the Astral Plane fighting Astral problems.
Rigger: SecurityRigger/DroneRigger/Driver.

I think the only thing missing is 'my' character, the spell-caster, so thinking this is the most likely route, but I don't want the new character to even remotely mirror my character, but to be perfectly honest... I suck at making characters not like my Shaman, they all end up being mirrors (as alot of you know, since I've remade the same character, 2 deaths, since starting on this Forum). And of course, the one Shaman has some decent combat spells, but he's rarely with the group in physical form.

Or maybe, to give the group a bit of weakness, a lack of spell-casters might be a good choice too... really in a mix over this (hate it when someone does this to me). So, anyone got a(ny) good idea(s)? Last time this guy played a Troll/Ranger-X character with like a 20ish Strength (overkill and couldn't do crap in close quarters, but this was before we found the Eratta about adept's Increased Attribute, mod instead of max).

Thanks in advance for any help in brain storming.

Sphynx
Siege
Go covert ops/free-lance spy.

Which means the player could find lots of clues to lots of different identities the character has used over the course of his career. Figure out which one is real and why seemingly nameless minions are hunting for him.

-Siege
snowRaven
Sphynx, gimme a day and I'll come up with a spellslinger concept for you upsidedown.gif something abit unusual I think.
nezumi
[rather stream of thought, sorry]

2/7 characters are spell casters and you think they need more? I also notice you don't have a decker. If you want a rounded group, make a decker (but I'm guessing you've already thought of it and dismissed it). It sounds like you're playing the amnesia flaw by making it so he has these powers, but doesn't know about 'em, so I'll try to play on that. I don't want to actually do all the number crunching because I'm not THAT bored, plus there's no reason for you to munchkin the guy, it takes half of the fun out for him. You do have a really solid group as it is, and I doubt you need another fighter (plus they can probably cover for him for a bit until he finds himself, so feel free to screw him over for plot purposes in the first few battles).

I wouldn't mess with the totem connection, so just make him hermetic (although shamans tend to have much funner excuses for getting amnesia... maybe set it up so he lost his memory from using a particular wacky weed which he felt gave him spiritual awareness, and then when he regains his memory swap that flaw with addiction: wacky weed so it starts over : P ).

I'd probably make him into a researcher, since that has a LOT of good plot hooks. Possibly give him a weapon skill, but give him plenty of b/r/science skills and, obviously, all the magical skills. Either set him up with a mnemonic enhancer or some neat headware memory plus a fun geas (then you can lock up more plot hooks in that noggin of his). Give him a mess of utilitarian, especially manipulation spells. Also, I'd give him one high levelled, very specialized spell not from the books and don't count the BP cost for it. It could be something like maintain cybermancy, or even better, give him the ability to do blood sacrifice, except he's either forgotten a vital step or has developed those pesky ethics things.

What you should have in the end is someone who was involved in some sort of serious incident involving a hard hitting magical corp. He's worth a lot of money and either he has something locked up in his head, or the corp thinks he does. He'd have a number of useful low level spells (mostly manipulation) he can unlock early on and a few high level ones he can figure out at useful moments, plus he has a geas he needs to figure out. His cyberware/bioware isn't obvious, so if he wants to use it he needs to find out its there first. Plus, eventually he can find that he has some super special power which, while it won't upset game balance, it's quite illuminating into his past. And, of course, he has a slew of generally useful skills for making it through life as a know it all science guy until he gets his feet under him (it'll be lotsa fun watching him build his own bomb or use his skills to otherwise out think the hard hitters).

Alternatively, make a hard core, cybered stealth/sniper character. This gives you the option of packing in as much unknown cyberware as you want. Give him maybe a small headware deck (with something in headware, of course), some wicked expensive eyes, some sort of internal weapon and either dermal plating or bone lacing, plus, of course, some reaction enhancer. Then, if you feel so inclined, give him something more cutting edge. Maybe give him a prototype rheuthium skin coating (not totally functional yet, of course, and prone to breaking, but quite, quite valuable), some sort of biometric key or just the good, old fashioned cranial bomb.

Headware memory/mnemonic enhancer really is super fun for amnesiatic characters. Just like Johnny Mnemonic, you can put whatever you want in there and say, for some reason or another, he can't access it unless he has a druggy dolphin (no wait, getting off course). Put in something fun, either a cryptographic key or highly technical documents, so even if he can access them, it looks like gibberish and he needs to go jump through hoops to understand it. Or put on granny porn (which will fully justify the -5 flaw and why he lost his memory).
Kagetenshi
I'd personally suggest a master tactician or something, maybe with some decking on the side. Small Units Tactics, Tactical Computer/BattleTac (I'm assuming that availability limits are loosened; if this is incorrect the character concept is workable but will be much less complete in and of itself), a bunch of stuff like that.
If you wanted to be really evil, you could make the character the ultimate assassin. No combat skills except Throwing Weapons and maybe Unarmed Combat, then give him Chemistry, Demolitions, Stealth, Engineering, Vehicles Skills, that sort of thing up the wazoo. Maybe make him a spellslinger for the Accident power and some spells, though those leave traces.
Ooh... or you could make him a faded Otaku whose mind couldn't handle the fact that he lost his abilities... Computers skill around 10 or so, but an inexplicable feeling of alienness and loss within the Matrix...

~J
easytohate
I would suggest an investigator type, someone who knows a lot of people (or at least did) this would make some very interesting situations as he is confronted by contacts he does not remember. I would generate a wide base of knowledge skills along with creative mundane bend toward technolgy. An everyman of sorts, essintialy someone who dosn't realize thier own knowledge base. Electronics, Demolitions, Computers. Magic active is really not a question in amnesia, so if he is magic active, then I would put a bend toward paranormal studies or even atlantis research. Or whereever else magic goes in your game. On the magic side of things, I would develop some unsual or unique spells for the character things one can't learn but would have to develop.

Siege
Actually, Magically Active could be amusing if the shaman is summoning spirits without realizing it...

-Siege
TinkerGnome
There's a new Keanu Reeves movie coming out sometime in the near future which would make a great concept for an Amensia character. In essence, he was a scientist who worked on top secret projects and had his memory wiped after each one. When he finally retired, he found out that he'd voluntarily signed away his (sizable) compensation and received only an envelope with 19 items. I only saw the trailer, of course, but he'd apparently built a machine to see the future in his last assignment and sent himself the 19 items as clues on how to change an undesirable future (signing away the retirement was an exclaimation point toward the items to make him think about 'em). It'd make a great amnesiac character, even at 5 points (he'd know his name, but not much else).
BitBasher
That's the new John Woo directed movie "Paycheck", and it's Ben Afflek not Keanu Reeves.
Lilt
One thing I'd try to make sure of: Make sure that the other players won't just be able to fix him up immediately. A character with mysterious powers he can't explain would be looked at by a magician for a coupple of seconds before he was informed that he was an adept or had XYZ cyberware. Perhaps consider going for an interesting skillset. Maybe even give him something odd that's not in the books (like bioware versions of most-commonly cyber implants, or hybrid cyber/bioware).
Dim Sum
I ran a campaign not too long ago where all three player characters were -5 point amnesiacs built with 150 Build Points total inclusive of all flaws. I've posted the Awakened character here for you - the only thing I'm worried about is that your group looks a little munchkinny (no offence) and geared to rumble while I created a balanced (not bad-assed but not a wuss) character based on a background story I had for the guy (so this character is NOT optimised):

150-point Wujen magical adept
Human male, Chinese-Danish descent, height 1.78m, weight 67kg, slim wiry frame, short black hair with subtle streaks of blond, dark brown eyes, left-handed, deep scar on left side of his neck.

Race 0 points
Adept 30 points (Magical Adept)
Resources 15 points (200,000 nuyen)

Attributes 58 points


Body 4
Quickness 5
Strength 6(cool.gif
Charisma 3
Intelligence 5
Willpower 6

Essence 6
Magic 4/6*
Reaction 5(6) + 2d6

*2 pt loss from cyberware (offset by Incantation & Gesture geas). Effective rating: 4 if geas broken.

Karma pool 1
Hacking pool - (no cyberdeck, yet)
Combat pool 8
Spell pool 5

Skills 50 points
Athletics 4
Aura reading 1
Bike 3
Biotech 3
First aid 5
Computer 3
Programming 5
Conjuring 6
Eitquette 1
Triad 3
Kung-fu (White Crane) 6(cool.gif
Kick attack (2 points for maneuver)
Pistols 5
Sorcery 5
Spellcasting 7
Stealth 5
Submachineguns 2
Uzi III 4

Accountancy, UCAS 5
Accountancy, Europe 4
Data havens 3
Dragon lines 1
Law, UCAS corporate 3
Magical theory 5
Medicine 3
Pokemon collections 1

Languages
Chinese 4
Chinese R/W 2
Danish 4
Danish R/W 2
English 6
English R/W 3

Adept Powers Cost
Improved Strength +2 1
Improved Kung-fu +2 1
Magical power 4 4 (yields 24 spell points + 3 bought at char gen)

Cyberware Essence Cost
Cybereyes 0.2 5,000
Flare comp. (0.1) 2,000
Image link (0.2) 1,600
Vis mag (optical) 3 (0.2) 6,000
Boosted reflexes 2 1.0 80,000 (alpha)
Chipjack 0.2 1,000
Datajack 0.2 1,000
Smartlink 2 0.4 7,000 (alpha)

Spells
Alter memory 4(6) - exclusive
Barrier, physical 4
Combat sense 2
Imp invisibility 1
Levitate 2
Lightning bolt 4(6) - exclusive
Mana bolt 4(6) - exclusive

Edges & Flaws
Aptitude (Sorcery) 4
Focused concentration 2

Amnesia, total -5
Distinctive style -1

Brief Background
Johnny Chang was a Smart Kid TM (Intelligence 5) who was Stubborn TM (Willpower 6) and wouldn't listen to his immigrant parents who counselled him that the white devils had nothing to offer him and run with his own kind. So Johnny found some friends who knew some friends who inducted him into the Really Cool TM world of the Tongs.

Johnny was a whiz with computers and his Wonderful Tong Friends TM showed him how easy it was to make Easy Money TM on the Matrix by funnelling a little here, a little there without hurting anyone - after all, the businesses they hit were covered by insurance, mei chor ba? When his parents wanted him to go to college and become a doctor, the Tong even paid for his education - what truly Wonderful Tong Friends TM he had! They taught him Really Cool TM kung-fu and made him aware of his magical gifts - all he had to do in return from time to time was show up for a drive-by shooting (fun, fun, fun with guns, guns, guns!), erase some memories, and run some errands as a courier.

But in college, Johnny met The Girl of His Dreams TM reading for a double-major in Accountancy and Law. He dropped out of Med school to pursue the same course to get to know her much to his parents' dismay. The Tong was happy with his choice since his education would benefit them but The Girl of His Dreams TM persuaded him to cut his ties to organised crime and take an innoncent hobby like Pokemon. Enraged, the Tong killed The Girl of His Dreams TM and his parents. Filled with Furious Vengeance Born of Grief TM, Johnny shed his past life to become a Tragic Hero With A Manifest Destiny TM. He fought his way into the Tong's Cliffside Retreat TM and wiped out the triad. Victorious, our Tragic Hero With A Manifest Destiny TM stood atop the sea balcony contemplating his Furious Vengeance Born of Grief TM when a dying Tong sze kau made a Called Shot, Left Cranial Sphere TM. The Tragic Hero With A Manifest Destiny TM fell over the balcony and into the sea below. He washed out to sea with the tide and was rescued by a passing Smuggler Boat Captain With A Plot Hook TM because he reminded the Smuggler Boat Captain With A Plot Hook TM of his own son lost long ago.

biggrin.gif
Steel Eyes
I've been working on couple of ideas kind of close to this here are a few of them.

1. Clonal Bioware - A new type of bioware, one that does not hamper magic in any way and/or is difficult to discern without invasive surgery.
2. The character is an initiate and is subconsciously masking himself to hide cyber/bio and they're magic potential.
3. He holds the Hidden Life of a Free Spirit, you will probably want to change the powers received a little bit as they are too powerful.
4. He has a spirit that is protecting him. All these strange things happen around him that he has no control over.

When I get my notes I'll post some more.
Dim Sum
Sorry, Sphynx, forgot to add that the really funny thing with Johnny Chang will be figuring out that:

a) he's Awakened - at first glance/scan, he'll look like a sammie / decker
b) what the hell the specific incantation and gesture are to make his magic work

You'll have to tailor it so that there are clues for the player to discover, of course. In my campaign, the PCs came across a security video showing Johnny throwing spells while doing some weird hand movements and shouting something. biggrin.gif Up until then, they thought he was either a sammie or a cybered physical adept.

[Edit] His Essence is also 4 (6 with geasa), not 6. Sorry.
Tanka
Uh... Essence can't be gaesed back? If they could, man would some of my characters have a lot of 'ware...
Dim Sum
*Sigh* Semantics ....

I meant 6 Essence with 2 points geased .... indifferent.gif
Tanka
Heh. Gonna say... Time for a Troll that can take as much 'ware as he wants because he just does silly things while... er... breathing! cyber.gif
Dim Sum
QUOTE (tanka)
Heh. Gonna say... Time for a Troll that can take as much 'ware as he wants because he just does silly things while... er... breathing! cyber.gif

Heh, that's not such a bad idea. You can make one SCARY troll loaded down with cyber/bio who doesn't know what he can do till he tries. eek.gif
Tanka
I can make one scary Troll using SR2 or SR3, but it's more fun in SR2. Bioware limited by your natural Body Rating... No Availability limits... SOTA6 edge... Yowsers!

Speaking of the massively-cybered Troll, I might.
RedmondLarry
Just some ideas...

Initiate 2, 3, (whatever) magician, who naturally masks, has enough cyber for essence < 1. and enough skills to look like another Samurai to the group. Doesn't know to go astral (has forgotten how), doesn't know to allocate Sorcery dice to Spell Defense. Could play 6 months or more without knowing he's a magician. Perhaps a spirit or his dreams eventually tell him, or a dragon, or he finds a magical weapon that works really well for him (he bonded it long ago).

Alternate idea: Actual character is an amnesiac magician in an almost-coma in a hospital somewhere. His (her?) only remaining connection to the real world is Sense Link to his ally spirit Possessing a Willing Troll [OK, bend the rules to allow it]. The Troll was willing because he got tired of people teasing him, and with the spirit in him he could seem much smarter, nicer, and things were really much better. Character has realized he has a split personality [just tell him that] but when he forces it he is in control. The GM plays the other personality (the Ally) who doesn't know much of the world and is willing to go along with the "dominate personality". So the character continually sees the world through the Troll's eyes and can walk and talk however he likes. The combination is always Dual-Natured (no penalties in physical world) but can't seem to shape-change or regenerate like the other characters expect. Things become really weird when the character earns Karma but can't seem to spend it on increasing attributes or skills. Sometimes the magician goes to "sleep" for a while, and the Ally/Troll walk around and do things on their own. When the magician "awakens" it is as if his other personality did things on its own -- which the ally can tell him of and pass him visions of. The ally may have been conjured just shortly before the accident and know very little of the world, or what he himself is. Ally has Sorcery and at least one spell, and knows what it is. Provide enough masking so the truth is not revealed till you want. You decide if the Ally/Troll combo has access to Troll skills. Troll does not earn Karma while possessed. Ally does not earn Karma.

Alternate idea (good for 1 or 2 adventures): He's a pizza-delivery boy with amnesia. Give him the real character after the team has fun figuring it out.

Alternate idea: Work out with the guy that his job is to play an NPC on the team for a month, make them all care for him and depend on him, and then kill him off (perhaps senselessly). Reminds all the players that death is part of the shadows. Only needed if it's been too long since the team experienced a death. Don't ever need to tell them it was an NPC. Then he gets his real amnesiac character, perhaps with more points because of the assistance he provided you.
Entropy Kid
GM: "Roll five dice."
PC: "I got SMGs at five?"
GM: "Maybe you're defaulting."
PC: "...."

Ah, the amnesiac character.

Even though it's a pain, I'd do all the rolling for the PC, asking them "how hard" they're trying or if they want to hold back a little (assigning combat or spell pool). Once they've performed a skill enough times, tell them what the rating is and let them roll for tests. Combat skills are figured out pretty quickly, others slower. Attributes pretty much take forever, except Body and Intelligence.

My co-GM and I talked a player into taking full amnesia. He wanted to be Plot-Monkey so we figured this would work. We told him things would be difficult, but he was ready for it.

The idea: He was an associate of someone (or something) powerful, Darke, Lofwyr, whatever. They made some crazy bet and the PC was altered from his original form and had his memory erased. We were going to set a trail of odd clues for him to follow in order to find out who he was (name, age, sex, metatype) and what happened to him and why. It was going to be a parallel story and we were going to try and otherwise play a normal game. He was going to have skills that'd benefit the team, rounding out their weaknesses. It was also an opportunity to mix edges and flaws together. Amnesia+Photographic memory, Dark Secret + Friendly Face. etc. Mysterious cyberware of course, and I mean in addition to what he'd be able to find normally (but just have no memory of).

Amnesia is a great roleplaying flaw no matter what the character type (discovering cyberware only slightly less scary than some accidental sorcery), but it also gives a chance to make some really weird things if the player is up for it.
The Jopp
How about bending the rules a little? Let him have false memories and skills? Let him create a character with a background and skills but in midgame his original memories starts to take over and replace the false ones.

You MIGHT want to tell him IF he should be allowed cyberware or not. Perhaps a face character who is really a conjurer?

It could be uncomfortable to have your SMG skills suddenly replaced by Sorcery or something. He could be initiated and have Masking to hide the magical abilities from others, without even knowing it.
Sahandrian
Instead of a normal decker, how about an otaku who thinks he's a decker? Uses a low-grade cyberdeck that probably doesn't even work, when in reality it's all his entirely natural ability. I don't know enough about otaku (don't have the Matrix book, just read stuff on the forums) to really go into more detail than that...
Herald of Verjigorm
QUOTE (Entropy Kid)
We were going to set a trail of odd clues for him to follow in order to find out who he was (name, age, sex, metatype)

If you can't figure out at least one of those without clues...
Sahandrian
QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm)
QUOTE (Entropy Kid)
We were going to set a trail of odd clues for him to follow in order to find out who he was (name, age, sex, metatype)

If you can't figure out at least one of those without clues...

I've seen both. Granted, one was an elf who was absolutely convinced he was human (plastic surgery, etc), but the other was a shaman who actually didn't know whether she really was a she...
Glyph
Here's an idea, kind of inspired when I saw Dirty Pretty Things - not based on the entire character from the movie, but the general concept of someone who has fled corruption in a third world country, leaving tragedy behind him, to make a living in a new land where he has superlative medical skills but can't really use them for legitimate work.

You can start him out huddled against some crates near the docks, his heart beating rapidly and with no idea where he is or how he got there. All he knows is that he is carrying a satchel that seems to have medical gear in it. As his background develops, you can bring in the corporation exploiting his homeland, the secrets that he might have discovered, family members still in danger (which will be very important to this particular Totem), etc.

He makes a good addition to the party because he can fill the medic role (for mundane first aid, he rolls 7 dice, plus 6 complementary skill dice from his medicine skill, plus 6 complementary skill dice from the Savior medkit, at -4 TN (from Aptitude, the Savior medkit, and Microscopic Vision). Then, his magical healing will usually be plenty to heal up the rest. He can also cast a mean stun bolt, assist with spell defense, summon spirits, act as a face, and contribute to a firefight. He is very versatile - that is good to keep an amnesiac on his toes - he learns he is a good medic, then learns he is a good face, then finds out he is fast, etc. And this is just the basic 130-point version. With the extra Karma, you could take him in several different directions.


Here is the breakdown:
Dwarf: 5
Edges: +9
Flaws: -9
Resources: 0 (5,000 - 10% = 4,500)
Attributes: 56
Skills: 39
Magic (Adept of the Magical Way): 30
TOTAL: 130

Male Dwarf Adept of the Magical Way - Shamanic/Leopard Totem
Attributes
Body: 5
Quickness: 5[6]
Strength: 3
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 7
Willpower: 7
Essence: 6
Magic: 6[4]
Reaction: 6[8]
Initiative: 8 + 2d6
Combat Pool: 10
Spell Pool: 6

Active Skills -
Biotech/First Aid: 5/7
Conjuring: 6
Etiquette: 6
Negotiation: 6
Pistols: 5
Sorcery: 6
Stealth: 4

Knowledge Skills -
(Languages)
Congo Tribal Dialect: 6 R/W: 3
English: 5 R/W: 2
Japanese: 5 R/W: 2
(Other)
Chemistry: 6
Magical Background: 6
Medicine: 6
(Meta)Human Biology: 6
Paranormal Critters/Wild: 1/3
Triage Procedures: 3

Adept Abilities -
Magical Ability: 4 with Chanting Geas
Improved Attribute/Quickness
Improved Senses -
Improved Scent
Microscopic Vision
Increased Reflexes: 1

Spells -
Stunbolt: 6*
Diagnose: 6*
Heal: 6*
Sterilize: 6*
* = Exclusive for -2 Drain

Totem modifiers -
+2 for Combat and Health spells
+2 for all Nature Spirits at Night
-1 to resist Illusion spells

Edges -
Aptitude: Biotech
Bonus Attribute Point: Intelligence
Bravery
Friendly Face
Sense of Direction

Flaws -
Allergy: Silver, Mild
Amnesia (5-point)
Bio-Rejection

Contacts -
N/A

Lifestyle: Streets
Cred: 100 Nuyen certified credstick in his pocket, 1,000 Nuyen certified credstick duct-taped to his ankle.

Gear carried/worn:
Wears ordinary clothing and a secure ultra-vest. In a doctor's satchel (of 100 Nuyen cost), there is a Savior Advanced Medkit, Spare Medkit Supplies (x1), 4 Antidote (6) Slap Patches, and a Bio-Monitor.
Nion
I just had a weird idea. How about not letting the character know how many dice he is rolling. Let him roll a shitload of dice, and remember which ones are the real ones. Might be fun. nyahnyah.gif
Sphynx
Well, I've been thinking of what people have said and here's the concept I'm thinking of (thoughts welcome).

Fading Otaku with datacompressor, headmem, ear recorder/dampener, eye corder,lowlight/flarecomp. (The Johnny setup).

Once a great Otaku, he's almost completely Faded (TN 9 on his next BDay to lose it all) and he's suffered amnesia from tackling some IC that is beyond his degraded state. Hopefull will think he's a Sam with a hella Hacking Pool. By the time he realizes he's a Fading I'm hoping he's Faded. But, since that's a loss of a nice 30 BP, I'm thinking that his Fading has opened his latent ability as a Shaman of.... Spider (Sorry, got this whole WhiteWolf Weaver image in my head). nyahnyah.gif

No starting spells (I really suck at picking spells, so this makes it his task), but uncontrolled Astral Perception at times.

That's the best combo I could come up with from the vast array of suggestions. Not sure if I want to make him an Aspected or not. Maybe I'll use my alternate BP system for magic on him. 30BP can surely buy alot of magic.

Anyhows, that's just the basic idea I have right now... help filling in details might be nice as well. Also, hafta work numbers (I hate this part) to make sure he fits into the power level of the group and doesn't take the spotlight away from someone else.

Then again, maybe it's just a crazy/stupid idea and I'll need someone to point that out. nyahnyah.gif

Sphynx
Tanka
Wai-wait... Fading Otaku, who, once Faded, goes Spider Shaman?! Nice! You could always give him the equivalent of natural spellcasting or somesuch... Just at random times when he's about to get beat up (either physically, astrally, or Matrix-ally (Is that a word?)), have him cast a spell you've pre-thought for him. Something that would obviously save his life at the moment.
snowRaven
How about making him a Spider Magician Adept? As he fades away, have him intuitively develop powers needed for just that certain occasion - whether a spell (i.e. Magic Power and an approperiate spell at Force 6 - preferrably 'spiderish' spells like Gecko Crawl, Net/Bind, Cripple Limb) or a power (suitable powers would be Freefall, Thermographic Vision, Combat Sense, Increased Reflexes, Improved Stealth, Astral Perception, Killing Hands, Quick Strike).

Each time he develops a power/spell, have spiders appear in some way.

Either give him the spells and skills as freebies - set aside points for them at creation (he was always a magician, but once the Deep Resonance 'found' him those abilities were suppressed) - or 'steal' Karma from him for them.
Sunday_Gamer
Heya Sphynx ol' boy, I won't get into the actual character as you seem to have that all taken care of but I thought I'd chime in for "Fun with amnesia!!"

Picture a run, a run involving entirely too many players: the mandatory corp, a gang, the mob, the yaks, maybe some Seoulpa ring action, the cops, the runners and everyone is after a chip. Just a HUGE clusterflarg gone horribly horribly wrong. Last people known to have "the chip" are the runners. Now imagine whatever crazed scenario you need to have 95% of the people involved be dead dead dead.

Only a few choice people still live and know about "the chip", and anyone who actually knows where the chip was last seen knows that the runners had it last.

Now the fun starts, of course your amnesiac PC is the last living member of the running team that did the job. Being an amnesiac, your PC remembers nothing, has no clue who any of these people are or what the hell they're after.

You could milk this for fun for YEARS!! Everyone once in a while, one of the people involved can show up, trying to capture the PC to get the location of the chip from him. I'd even go so far as having one of the parties be a pretty girl who, upon discovering that the PC doesn't recognize her, learns of his amnesia and decides it would be best to stay close to him to be there if and when he unravels the mystery. Your PC could spend years without realizing that his girlfriend is actually the woman who killed his entire team and failed to kill him in the explosion that took his memory.

I know I know, I'm a sick bastard =)

Sunday
Sphynx
Actually, Sunday.....

My mind is not made up. frown.gif It just sounds too exotic (calm down boys, I didn't say erotic) and a waste of char-gen effort for a Faded Otaku gone Spider Shaman. Nice character for a book maybe, but it seems too.... bizarre really.

Now I'm thinking about something alot less Bizarre.... A Force 6 Free Spirit who's manifested into human form and doesn't realize she's not really Human (Yep, Masking and female....).

I figure it I got him dikoted, and.... err... wait..... nyahnyah.gif

Seriously, I am considering that kinda Free Spirit as an option (after all I'll probably only run it for a couple of months before he wants to GM again) and slowly let him figure out what he really is.

Sphynx
Matrix Monkey
Mmmm... amnesiac cyberzombies grinbig.gif
I once whipped up one of those using BeCKS (and the 2M¥ rule).

The basic story was that she woke up naked in an alley somewhere, chromed from the neck down, equipped with an autoinjector and 3 months worth of CZ jolt-juice and completely unaware of any cyberware until she 'downloaded' the appropriate control software to access it.

I'll try to dig up that sheet somewhere smile.gif

[edit]

Shazbot!
Looks like I don't have the sheet lying around anymore, but I just might recreate her, just for fun grinbig.gif
Sphynx
Ok, for those interested, here's the character I decided upon.... wink.gif

Human Military Officer. Brad was at the top of his game, he'd outdone all his colleagues and proven himself to be the brightest, strongest, most mentally, physically and socially fit of his class, graduating top honors to a direct promotion of Captain amongst his Corp Security. Even then, he'd excelled, and demonstrated the peak a human could achieve. Secretly, he even led one of the local Humanic Clubs, successfuly leading a group of followers who indulged themselves upon the misery of the 'lower' kinds....

2063 a not so happy Ghoul was set upon by these merciless types, and succeeded in infecting Brad at about the same time the SURGE started to hit the world. Brad got hit by the worse of all the worse. He Goblinized during the period that he also became a Ghoul. End result: a Troll abomination, plagued with Chronic Osteocuspus and excessive Dermal Deposits. His corp set upon him with interest, confining him into the darkest recesses of its internal labrynth underground. Chained to walls while he was tested and prodded, he turned into little more than a mindless monstrosity who barely remembered his name, and nothing more. His one blessing.... he also developed Adept like powers which would take time to discover.

This ends the story for Char-Creation which resulted in:

Str 12, Bod 13, Qui 5, Cha 1, Wil 4, Int 1 (60 BP)
Original Human Stats were:
Str 6, Bod 6, Qui 6, Cha 4, Wil 4, Int 4
Other BP's went to: Ghoul Troll Adept (45 BP)
Unarmed 6, Athletics 6, Stealth 5, Etiquette 1 (18 BP).
He'd forgotten all non-natural skills but retained enough of himself to retain the smallest level of etiquette possible (don't blow your nose in a woman's hair).
Amnesia (+5 BP), Resources 500 (+5 BP), Surge (-5 BP), Chronic Osteocuspus (10 BP), Dermal Deposits (-2 BP), allowed the purchase of Exceptional Strength (-2 BP), Bonus Strength (-2 BP), and 4 levels of High Pain Tolerance (-8 BP) leaves 1 BP from a 123 start (I had been misinformed on the starting BP used).
Thinking of explosive Adept powers: Distant Strike, +6 Unarmed, 2 levels Mystic Armour.

After creation, Brad suffered at the hands of the corp, trying his best to remember who he was, and from where he came. He literally willed himself into a state of complacity, meditating instead of yielding to his beastial nature, and spent his time in isolation regaining his lost ability to rationalize and analyze. He dived into his own powers, examining them from within, and perfecting his own mind and body with the same will that drove him as a human.

Charisma from 1 to 5 = 37 karma (5 is the Racial Maximum now)
Intelligence from 1 to 5 = 37 karma (5 is the Racial Maximum now)
Willpower from 4 to 6 = 22 karma
Grade 2 Initiate, no Ordeal, no Group = 39 karma
Karma Pool +7
Spent: 142 of 150

Additional Powers: +2 Str (14 Str) with a Geasa of Condition, and +1 Mystic Armour.

Brad will be 'found' during a Raid on the Corp I think. Reason I chose this charater instead of the others is because it closely resembles both his style of playing and his previous characters (troll, high strength/body, etc) and at the same time poses an interesting challenge in roleplaying as an ex-humanis who's become one mugly ucking fother, even for a Troll. I've also decided that he was much more skilled pre-amnesia, but would have to relearn all skills/knowledges from scratch without the bonus edge points of being uneducated (I feel that my generous allowance for the amnesia flaw gives me reign to do that)

Sphynx
Kagetenshi
Muahahaha. Sounds fun.

~J
snowRaven
Very interesting character concept

Personally I doubt I'd granted that raise in Charisma from 1 to 5...but that's just me upsidedown.gif

Neat backstory and combination of freakishness (I mean...an osteocuspic extra dermal plated troll ghoul... I don't even want to TRY to imagine what he looks like...)
CoalHeart
Sphynx your character is nifty and all. But while he was in the corp or whatever they should of installed non retractable dual dikoted spurs. And change your skills to cyberimplant combat, since for as long as he remembered he had them and learned to use them as if second nature.

so with your 14 strength at that would give you 14+(14/2)+1 = 22 S damage. Then also can be upped by successes, and at some point swapped out and gotten weapon Foci installed.

Distance strike works on any melee combat. So you could swing your arm and cut down a building and not even be anywhere near it smile.gif

Take the geas of something fun to RP, or maybe a talisman, A ring he was going to give his girlfriend in an old life, but forgot all about now but knows the ring is very important to him or something.
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