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Thomas
Gathering a team
I need a group of runners to “liberate� some data from a secure facility.

Setting: Seattle Shadows, 2070; SR4 rules.

If you’re interested:
Put a brief character concept on this thread, for example:

Merc. Chrome Troll gunbunny with Demolitions skill. Has a policy of “shoot first, there will be no questions� and a penchant for using bystanders as makeshift clubs.

Note that the above character would not fit well in this mission.

As your respective Fixers will be told this much when requesting personnel, here ya go:
Mr. J.: "I need some people to do some B&E work at a secure facility. The facility is secured by matrix, magic and mundane means, and the data I need is off-line. Who do you have for me?

Character creation guidelines: I would like characters that are ready to graduate from the small-time and gain some rep. To that end I would like for you to follow these rules:
400BP, 1 free fixer contact (2,4), 10,000 nuyen of extra resources.
After I approve your character I will be giving 30 – 70 karma for you to improve your character before play starts.
Tarantula
Heres Gyre. Technomacer. Excells at getting into nodes, getting what he needs done, and getting out without anyone the wiser. Has some drone skill as well as the ability to lay down suppressive fire should the situation warrant it.

[ Spoiler ]
Thomas
@Tarantula

Tentatively approved. See PM for further details.

@All

How I would like to play:

Posts at least once per week. We may move faster, but I’d rather not move slower.

Submission of a character is consent to allow the GM, or a fellow Dumpshocker of your choosing, to play your character in your absence. This is only to be used to move the game along. If I play your character, they will basically go along with the group. I hope that this will not need to happen often, but I have been bitten by Real Life enough to know that it’s good to have a backup.

I expect players to give each other and the GM respect and to have a sense of humor and fair-play, I have been lucky so far and this hasn’t been a problem, but I don’t want to start now. As I’m sure all of you know, this medium of communication doesn’t allow for cues we rely on in RL, so if you aren’t sure of how to take something – ask.

Ol' Scratch
Liam "Belfast" McGuinness (Human Conjurer)

As a former Knight of the Red Branch, Bel had to be smuggled out of Tir na n'Og and is currently living on the lam until things cool down. He specializes in spirits and conjuring (non-aspected however), practicing a unique tradition of folk magic, but has the abilities of a well-rounded runner. Doesn't have much in the way of offensive magicks aside from the spirits at his command, relying instead on a pistol tucked under his peacoat for when things get a bit too ugly.
Thomas
@Doctor Funkenstein

Sounds interesting, PM me when you flesh it out.

<edit>
PM received, character approved biggrin.gif

thomas
Redjack
Bobby "Rock" Rockford
Bobby was born in the Carbando neighborhood of the Puyallup Barrens twenty-five years ago. The last quarter century taught Rock a number of lessons: Trust nothing you can't see and only half of what you do; There are few problems that the proper applications of explosives can't solve; The true measure of a successful run is whether or not anyone but the Johnson knew you did it.

Rock started running with the gangs young and by the time he was sixteen he graduated to security for third rate vendors in the Crime Mall. By seventeen he had been told he had magic potential that he was unaware of. He spent some time trying to learn to cast spells and conjure spirits to new avail. He even took some martial arts classes, but he was no Bruce Lee. He was no faster, no stronger.. There were no spells and no spirits... Eventually he gave up on that hokey nonsense and stuck with what he knew.
Scope_47
This is a variation on a character that I enjoyed playing in a face to face game that didn't last very long (the game, not the character LOL). She has a more complicated back story, but here is the basic idea.

Fixer’s Comment to Johnson: Yeah, this one is a vatjob… covert operations specialist and sharpshooter. Stealth and Physical security are her bread and butter – expert on infiltration, sensors, maglocks, and security procedures. She isn’t pleasant to talk to, but she knows her job – and she’s one of those ‘philosophic’ types - so the job gets done, period.

Concept: Sarah ‘Scope’ Sneider is a cross between a street-sam and a covert ops specialist. Her specialties are in Stealth, Security Procedures, Hardware, and Firearms. Formerly she was an Ares security sharpshooter in New York, and she loved her job there. Then she graduated to covert operations and had an emotional breakdown following a mission of friendly assassination. Ares’ solution to this was to fry her brain with BTLs until she was thoroughly brainwashed into a good soldier again. She got out when the crash wiped out her records, and she worked for an Ares corper exclusively for a while in New York as a deniable asset. Now she’s doing her best to ‘reboot’ her life and throw off the last remnants of the brainwashing - having fled to Seattle and cut all ties with Ares. Bottom-line: she wants to live her life – good and evil are just social constructs to her due to cyber-psychosis, but she’d rather be good if given the choice. However, everyone has to make a living somehow, and her talents don’t exactly fall into that ‘good’ category.
Thomas
Ok, a recap of who’s in:
These players are approved, and are working their final character sheets:
Tarantula playing Gyre
Doctor Funkenstein playing Liam "Belfast" McGuinness
Scope_47 playing Sarah ‘Scope’ Sneider

Redjack – I need your character sheet
Vegas
Ok, I'm interested, would have to slightly "tweak" a character to work for the requirements however, wouldn't be too difficult I don't think.

How many team members are you looking for? I'll toss my hat in the ring with my Adept just in case smile.gif

Cai Lian, a.k.a. Willow

Born in Kowloon Hong Kong within a Triad-connected family this Adept grew up amidst corruption, death, drugs and prostitution as her moral norms. She blossomed into her magical talent at a young age and was kept from being thrown to the brothels because of it.

Lian was born into the Triads on February 1, 2046, a daughter of a connected family (her Mother’s brother is a “Lieutenant�). Growing up she was potentially “product� for the Smoke Circle Society, an item to be bartered with at a moment’s notice. However when her potential as an Adept was discovered, she was quickly developed and molded into an asset instead of another body in a brothel. She was always a quiet girl, not just in voice but in everything she did. From a young age she was able to sneak about without being noticed and that lead to a lot of eavesdropping on conversations that she didn’t or couldn’t understand at such a young age. Once she learned of her powers, she used that skill to focus her newfound gifts and started following The Invisible Way.

She was a bright girl with a gift for fiddling with locks and being able to spring open some of the more difficult and archaic mechanisms. They were games of skill that her father provided her, puzzles and things to bend her brain. This interest grew into exploring the electronic side of locks and security as she grew older and the technology developed and kept creating new puzzles for her to try to crack.

Her curiosity, her skills and her obsession with what was behind lock and key naturally merged into her “profession.� She became quite proficient in infiltration and breaking and entering. She didn’t get her thrills from stealing what was under lock and key, but more from the rush of actually beating a system. Using her Triad connections, she has been able to amass a good quantity of quality gear to aid in her quests and in the process of dealing with the shadier sides of Hong Kong’s societies, managed to make a small reputation for herself working both in and out of the Triads. When a “run� went horribly wrong she was shipped over to Seattle to make “amends� and restore her family name.

While her talents may make her stand out, nothing about her physical appearance does. On a glance she is as unforgettable as the faceless masses of Asian residents that swarm the streets of Seattle on a daily basis. Also to her benefit she’s learned ways to alter her appearance which comes in handy when she is working on a job that has surveillance as it’s hard to track someone who 5 hours later looks nothing like she did on camera.

She has permission to work jobs outside of the Triads purview, however they insist she not work anything that could be considered a conflict of interest and they to expect a cut of her pay when she is “hired out.� Even though she’s not strung out on Red Orchid and turning tricks in a seedy brothel somewhere she could still be considered a Triad whore.


Ol' Scratch
My girlfriend is interested in playing, too. Unfortunately her account hasn't been approved by the administrators yet (a new feature?), so she asked me to post her concept for her. Please feel free to contact her via me in PMs and whatnot until she gets her account approved. biggrin.gif

Garrett Blackthorne (Covert Ops Specialist, Human Adept).
Thrown into lockup for crimes he was completely and undeniably guilty for, Blackthorne made a few shady deals and unscrupulous contracts in the underworld to get broken out... most of which he's since renigged upon. He's now looking to freelance in the shadows in order to pay back the debts he owes and get the mob off his back. He's a master of infiltrating secure locations, and prefers more romantic weaponry such as crossbows and swords over those garish firearms.
Thomas
I’m sorry to say, for the time being, recruitment is closed. dead.gif

I’m impressed by the number of submissions so far. I don’t rule out perhaps needing more players, but I need to sort out what I’ve gotten so far.

Some metagame information: A “good� three person team could carry out this run, IF nothing went wrong. If, on the other hand, the drek hits the ventilator, all bets are off.

Given that info, and what has already been discussed in the opening post, what do YOU all think.

What’s a good team size? How many mages, gunbunnies, hackers, etc. are needed? How many ways is too many to split the reward?

Comments?
Thomas
@Redjack – approved pending receipt of background.

@Vegas & Doctor Funkenstein – You can always vote that there needs to be more than four on the team, and of course Doctor Funkenstein has the option of having Liam suggest a wee bit more muscle.
Ol' Scratch
I'd certainly like one or two more players along for the ride. Makes things more interesting. Gives everyone more opportunities to play off other characters, gives us a bigger skill pool for situations we come across, and so on and so forth.

On a more OOC if slightly somber note, online games often have players coming and going as their availability tapers, so having more players on hand not only helps keep the story going, it makes it easier to work replacements in without disrupting the flow fo the game.

So yes, I'm definitely for a couple more. Six would be a really good number in my book. Oh, and for the record, a big nyahnyah.gif to you for implying that Belfast is a wuss. You wound me, man. Deeply.
Vegas
Of course I'd like to play, but it's really up to you guys that have been approved already if you guys want a bigger team or want to run with what you've got biggrin.gif

That being said, I'd of course love to be considered to "fill-in" if someone drops out and you guys keep the group small.
Scope_47
Out of character, I think that whatever number of people Thomas feels comfortable running through what he has planned would be best - the more personality and flavor infused into a game via more characters the better as far as I'm concerned, but having GMed a lot of systems I know it can get hard to manage too many PCs at once.

IC, Scope would be concerned if the team were to become too large - she's had bad experiences in the past with larger teams (apparently some people's idea of a distraction to cover up the sound of thermite is to blow the building up! LOL), and it usually seems like a Johnson knows more than he says - so the larger team is indicative that the J. expects the run to go down Charlie Foxtrot lane. Even so, she'd really like another mojo-slinger on her side - particularly a counterspeller.

But like I said, that's an IC opinion - one that would affect her decisions in-game, but not one that would make her overly upset about the run. Challenges are good - she lives for this drek.

(edited to correct fragmented sentence)
Thomas
I’m going to cover a lot of ground on this post:

@Vegas – Ok, the concept is great, PM me a character sheet that fits my submission rules.

@Doctor Funkenstein:
On the one hand – Your GFs concept looks great; I remember discussing a human covert ops adept with you back in the day. PM me the sheet and details – you know what I want. I envy you in that your GF wants to play, nice to have common interests.
On the other hand – maybe the admin approval thing is a symptom of DS’s problems WRT profiles, etc.
On the gripping hand – I didn’t mean to imply Belfast was a wuss. He might rightly think the team a bit small during the IC meet. Now, if I had said that he was just another drunk Irishman, worthy of being beaten like a red-headed stepchild – THEN you might have an issue.

Note: for anyone who didn’t know I’m yanking his chain in jest, lighten up.

@Jazz – My heritage allows me to say; “I stand wi mi cousins the Scotts, who, if they weren’t so drunk, could stand by themselves."

@All – We’re moving along nicely; we may well be gaming by next weekend.

Vegas
Thomas

Awesome! Expect a PM soon. One question, the "free" fixer contact, Connection 2, Loyalty 4 or the other way around?
Thomas
@Vegas – Sorry, no. The fixer is Loyalty(2), Connections(4). Looking forward to meeting Ms. Lain. Since your concept and that of Doctor Funkenstein’s as-yet-unnamed-girlfriend’s character, Garrett Blackthorne, overlap I may ask you to modify Ms. Lain. This is in deference to a player who doesn’t have direct access to the forums.

@All – As I clarified for Vegas, the fixer is Loyalty(2), Connections(4). Her name is Jean Benson, you’ll get to know her better later in the game. For now it might be helpful to know that she only recently moved up to Loyalty(2) – and only because of your successful track record. On a related note, she cannot be improved with your karma preward. (I made up a word, hehe.) biggrin.gif

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Buster
Since we already have a mage, I'm thinking of trying out a "bunker mage" that specializes in astral combat. He can fly astral overwatch for the team providing spirit removal, ward removal, and scouting. I can even provide on-earth support by materializing spirits.

Sound good?
Thomas
The cast so far:

Scope_47 playing Sarah ‘Scope’ Sneider – Character finalized, ready to play.

Doctor Funkenstein playing Liam ‘Belfast’ McGuinness - Character finalized, ready to play.

Tarantula playing Gyre – Character sheet approved, waiting to see how preward karma is used.

Redjack playing Bobby "Rock" Rockford – (sorry for the delay) Character sheet approved, waiting to see how preward karma is used.

Vegas playing Cai ‘Willow’ Lian - Character sheet approved, waiting to see how preward karma is used.

Doctor Funkenstein’s as-yet-unnamed-girlfriend playing an Unnamed Character – No sheet, background or concept.

@Buster – As I posted on Jul 21 2007, recruitment is closed. Feel free to PM me a character sheet and background. I can keep it on hot-standby in case there is attrition – either through PC death or incapacitation, or player getting eaten by Real Life.
Saqqara
@Thomas. I PMed you with Garrett's full sheet.

Here's a bit of his concept and background.

Garrett Blackthorne
Truth or Consequences. It's a great policy to live by. Especially when you've lived the life Garrett has. Growing up his life was one disagreement with his father after another until he decided to strike it out on his own. Leaving the small town for the big city of Phoenix, Garrett met up with street gang who quickly initiated him by beating the hell out of him, granting him a recognizable scar vertically across his right eye. The scar was a mark of pride for him until it was used to identify him in conjunction with a planned hit arranged by the gang, pinning him and condemning him to a life in prison.

Clever enough to pull the strings of several mob hitmen who had been victims of recent sting operations, Garrett convinced a local don to pull a few strings on the outside and get him out on parole early, in exchange for his street talents. Truth or Consequences. He should have known better than to renigg on that deal.
Ol' Scratch
Gasp! The as-yet-unnamed-girlfriend has a name!
Thomas
I’m going to be opening up the OOC and IC threads this evening, please don’t post to them until I give you the go ahead.
Thomas
@Scope_47, Doctor Funkenstein, Tarantula, Vegas, Redjack:
Your characters are go. Please read the first two posts in the OOC thread. You may ask questions there.
If you wish, you may post in the IC thread on Ms. Benson’s call.
OOC:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=18401
IC:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=18402
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