Sorry, it's just that I'm used to that being a neccessity. Once left a meeting knowing the team had to extract some guy who we had pictures of, and drop in off at a certain time and place and get paid, only to be told that since we never specifically asked the guys name, where he lived, or who he worked for, we didn't have that information.

We had assumed that information was in the file the J had handed us, apparently the file only contained photos.

Heck, I almost regret not checking those addresses were in London.

Can Alexander see this, Mr. da Vinci?

That's too bad because you started to think in the right (read: my ) direction.
It's not my style to copy a (more or less famous/thematically fitting) complete name (there's exceptions to this as well: see my cabbie contact), I piece it together from parts that match the char/sound good/fulfill my wacky criteria/ideas, and then I google it up and either
-start again because the name matches 'somebody wrong',
-try to integrate something from the namesake (see the german composer part) or
-ignore it/never find out about it (decorative tiles example).
The Dorn/Thorn thing is actually conforming with the aforementioned primary aspect and one of the secondary ones.

Continue/Retry? Please insert coin.
[Disclaimer: never expected that my choice of char names would be discussed at this length - maybe I should've just told...("but where's the fun in that?" my weird sense of fun asks my tired fingers)]

Fine with me.
Can't promise about Lex though...he has a mind of his own. * evil, mad laughter offstage *



@Meriss:
I want to know about the 'White Star Lines' and 'The African Star'.
Is that common knowledge (if yes, what is it? marine transport company and ship?), do we need to make background knowledge checks (in case anybody got something appropriate) or is that legwork?

I'd like to know your opinion/ruling for buying hits (the 4 dice, 1 hit stuff). Is it allowed, strictly forbidden, only in case of enormously huge dicepools (if yes, how many would that be?)?

GM only (remember the puppies!):



@All:

I 'recently' noticed a serious lack of grit around here...

And that made me wonder: how dystopian are the awakened, steampowered 1870s in Britain anyway?
Sure, most people had a hard life at that time: children working in coalmines, lots of physical work without a regular coffee break or holidays for anyone but the rich folk, crappy medicine for everyone (no antibiotics or anything useful like that, not even if you were wealthy enough to afford the health care) and so on.
Still, are there any additional hardships in this steamrun setting and what are they?
Do we even 'need' them (who needs megacorps for slavery like working conditions? ask the housemaids/servants in any upperclass mansion)?
Player ideas? GM 'hammer of ultimate ruling +1'? Discuss.

Now, now did I miss something. If so. Please could you explain what i'm missing and what are you talkin' so I can correct it...

Greeeat. I can recall a number of ideas I mentioned while you were still cooking this game up. Now I don't know which ones to feel guilty for.

Np

But even its time of wonders or Dystopian World of Victorian Era Shadowrun, Shadowy and dark, foggy anf grim awakened world...

Still there is light in world and this light maybe is for others their families and huspands or wifes, and in this case this is wife and she is 'lovely'...
Maybe in other cases these huspands or wifes are lovely, too. Unless of course hes/shes troll or orc

Thank you. Ofcourse now that I'm awake enough to make a proper post instead of just putting my hand up for some CSP or actually read the article I linked instead of just looking at the pretty pictures, I realise that the Cullinan Diamond wasn't discovered until 1905. So stealing it would have been very impressive indeed.

Prof. Arthur Pendington: Knowledge Skills
...
The Works of Leonardo DaVinci 3

I presume you take sanity in lieu of coins?

Okay, my mistake was assuming it would be as straight forward as a "Taxi Driver" called Bickle. So to work backwards on your naming methodology, I need to figure out what aspects of the character came AFTER you came up with the name, ignore that, then try to figure out what the original character concept was and figure out which aspects contrbuted to a name, and then try to divine using an extremely vague set of criteria, the multiple possible inspirations for individual fragments of the name. That's insane, though not as insane as the theories I managed to come up with following the 'thorn' lead.

Theory 1)
Character uses Drones -> Drones=Robots -> Robots called Thorn?
One Must Fall 2097 had a robot called a Thorn, and in that game the "plot" revolved around a project called Nova (the N for Nathaniel) in which a human brain was kept alive inside a robot, much in the same way Alexander put's spirits and sprites in his drones. Also, all the scientists on the project were killed in a fire.

Theory 2)
Thorn. Roses have Thorns. Music/Sound seems important. Ah HA!
Zen wrote "N(athaniel)", putting emphasis on the 'N', sooo Guns N' Roses. And Axl Rose is the lead singer, Axl = Alexander! It couldn't be simpler!

Now I get it, how could I not realise it earlier! Dorn -> Thorn -> He's a little prick.

Sure do. GO BOBCATS!!!

On the dystopia front, the industrial revolution was a dystopia in many ways. Not only did you have the things Meriss mentioned (disease, crime, class gaps), but there was a fear that machines would put people out of work (the Luddite fallacy)which gave companies a lot of leverage over their employees (trade unionism was almost non exsistant at the time), who might not only be getting paid less, but now had to work around machines that could quite easily kill or injure them making them unable to work. I big parrallel for me is the exploitation not only of people, but of nature. Where there was once rolling greens hills and countryside dominated by a pastoral and agrarian culture, the land was now barren mounds of dirt being raped for it's precious coal and iron ore. The decline of pastoral and agrarian culture forced people to the cities where population increased exponentially, creating the equivalent of a sprawl or metroplex. The use of fossil fuels meant pollution was high and even the upper classes had a hard time avoiding the filth. And ofcourse the high population density combined meant disease spread even quicker, and up until 1870 people didn't even need a licence for a gun.

You don't really need to make anything up for the Victorian Age to seem dystopian, it's really just a matter of attitude and emphasisng the bad over the good.

...doesn't really answer my question...

Sure, my favorite currency! (especially since I seem to spend lots of it myself, leaving me ...broke)

Alriiight....it's really OK if you keep a little bit of that sanity for yourself...no need for 'all in', really.

what about just starting with

?
hint: char background might help here

Well, ...yes. To quote myself:

[Disclaimer#2: We really don't need to keep this up forever, although I admit that I enjoy your theories, as they seem even stranger than my own at times.]


@Meriss:
Alexander won't ask Brookes for more info at this point, yet he won't be the one who announces this discussion closed neither. He'll just sit there and absorb as much info as he can get, so next chapter is fine with me and I'm all for getting some Karma.

Again: GM only

Fine with me...sounds kinda 'normal' though.

Oh, you were actually asking if you could see it? I thought you were just poking fun. I don't know, Arthur was holding the note pad in his hand and writing, whilst sitting towards the back of the room with his back to a wall, I think I said. Was AND sitting next to him? Was he trying to see what he was writing? I was under the impression he has too engrosed in his own machine to pay much attention to anyone but Brookes. Arthur wasn't trying to hide what he was writing if that's what you're asking. It was only a fluff thing, maybe the apparent gibberish stops the casual observer from reading it, but that's it.

Yeah, probably should have moved this insanity to PM (or atleast spoiler tags) some time ago. Apologies to those who may have been unhappy with the distraction.

Well far be it from me do dissaude character interaction. It's entirely probable that when Arthur asked if Brookes had any more information on the targets that he lowered the notebook, possibly in a fashion that meant it's contents were viewable to others in the room, and that as he spoke AND looked in his direction and saw it. Like I said, he wasn't trying to hide it, so if you want for AND to have seen it, it's a simple matter of justifying how.

@marghos: Hold off on the buying of more simple gear like ammo, as part of the intention of my character is that he can make this stuff (if it wasn't obvious from his background, that's partly how he's been supporting himself since leaving Oxford).

@Meriss: I can do this with the the gear and skills I have, right?

[INSANE BANTER]
AND. That was one of the reasons? I had considered acronyms, but never thought of logic gates. Well, I'm not going to figure this out now, but maybe if I come back to it later on (Since you REFUSE too just tell me... I'm starting to think there is no deeper meaning, just like the TV show. "Lost I say, ...LOST!"). In the meantime, lets try others.

Bismarck: Obvious, as mentioned. Though it can't be where the name comes from 'in game' since the battleship wasn't built until the 1930's. Of course the ship was named after Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), who research reveals was the first Chancellor of the German Empire and earned the nickname "Iron Chancellor". Being a man made of metal certainly suits, so maybe not as obvious as I first thought?

Han Lo Yang: Well there's 2 approaches here. One is the obvious in game stuff like Han=Hand, and Yang is the white 'upward seeking' part of the Taijitu which fits the celestial adept thing, with Lo as a connector, so something like 'Hand of the Heavens'. Then there's the more literal approach with translating it, Lo fits in the same way as previously *I think*, as does Yang to some degree (though there are many other meanings for it aswell). Han can also be lots of things (I'm using a really simple chinese-english dictionary here) including violent, and a few refrences to heat and fire (for the elemental strike perhaps?), but not hand. There does seem to be a 'mouth' theme though, which puts a new spin on the 'Sensual' street name.

I'll try some others later.

And finally: Steam Powered Computers.
[/INSANE BANTER]

@DEBO: Martin doesn't know that (I know it now) so let see how things come off. Martin may also need new contacts to deal with so he makes his move..

@All: This group or team edge pool sounds really good idea. I think i'm gonna steal it to our own campaign. But I have to say that I can't nominate just one char to get extra that 1 karma, so here are my noninees:
- fistandantilus3.0
- Critias

Ah, cool. Like I said, I'm always interested in how people come up with names (and other details), though I geuss tearing out my hair trying to figure it out what of dozens of of possible, almost completely arbitrary methods someone I've never met might use to determine the name of a particular character, can also be fun.

Well (after a quick search), he was still the Minister-President of Prussia before that, and a very important leader and politician. He also gave his famous 'blood and iron' speech at this time (1862), too express his opinion that military force was the best way to unify Germany. I think that's plenty of justification for him to be called Bismarck.

Trying to search for hints as to the origin of character names is getting less and less fruitfull, and though I am learning fun new facts (like Dr John Sebastion Helmcken, a London born physician, played an integral role in the establishment of the Canadian Confederation, or that General Jacob Hurd Smith become notorious during the Philippine-American War when he gave orders to "kill everyone over the age of ten" and gained the nicknames "Hell Roaring Jake", "The Monster", and "Howling Jake"), I think I might have to stop.

And move on to figuring out how people choose their characters birthdates.

Ditto

Erm, I was really sure I read 7:50 in your last IC post...

...

...*sigh* guess it's time for the comfy cushioned room and the funny white jacket with the oversized arms ...again...

Check.
Let's move on with the list then, shall we?
Perception rolls (or related out-of-combat-GM-called stuff).
-Are you going to do them secretly behind the internet equivalent of a GM screen?
-Should we players provide rolls in advance that you're going to use when they're needed (weird method, I know, but I heard that some groups actually do it this way)?
-Are you just going to call for them and then we'll roll (open or in spoiler tags)?
-[insert other]?



@Critias:

[Cartman voice] No, Mr. Hany, I didn't tell you to murder Prae. No, Handy, that's a bad thunderfisty! Respect my authori-tae! [/Cartman voice]

[edit: aw crap, Prae returned to ruin my joke...sly bastard]

No big mystery? That's like the most mysterious part about your char now!



@DEBO

[Yoda voice] Contradiction I sense in you. [/Yoda voice]

You'd be hurting my feelings here if I had anything even remotely similar to that.
That was just plain and simple raising-the-voice-in-a-slightly-crazed-way-eyes-wide-open-looking-mad stuff, not some stupid TV reference. I'd never do that, you know. *cough*

Are you still keeping up your point that our chars 'aren't that similar at all'?

Yes, I'm a nice person like that.

Fine, you wan't to wait too? We'll see about that! Would your character do THAT!

@Prae: I always enjoy a good mob. Tell us about the light sabers!

@Meriss: Is one day the interval for the extended test? How many hits do I need? Or am I reading the extended test rules wrong (One test every interval until you achieve hits equal to the threshold)?

@ZenZen:Hiding a link in a quote of something I wrote doesn't qualify as 'just telling'. And that's assuming that's even the 'primary' reason, which I doubt. In anycase I refuse to play into your sick mind games any longer!

/goes and searches variations of Alexander Nathaniel Dorn and LOST.

Oh, this should be fun!

Interesting. Why is he still keeping the name then?
Loyalty? Nostalgia? Sarcasm? Lost so much of his humanity/personality that he can't think of/doesn't care about a new handle?


@Prae:

*chimes in* Yeah, after timing your return in such a devious way - just to invalidate my Hand-slapping - you have to explain yourself now, should there be even a spark of hope for redemption left in you.


@DEBO:
[banter mode]

Umm, do what?
-Analyzing the situation and assessing other chars?
Check.
-Thinking snappy comments about them?
Check.
-Ratio of interior monologue to speech about 9:1?
Check.
-Considering himself the smartest person around?
Check.
-Pushing others to speak up first IC for tactical reasons?
Well okay, your initiative was higher in that matter...

Maybe 'just telling' is too strong a phrase for that. What about 'inspired humour'?

[mad, shrieking voice] BLASPHEMY! FIRE UP THE STAKE, IT'S HEATHEN BARBECUE TODAY! [/mad, shrieking voice]
[/banter mode]

I that. Am I a bad person now?



@All

*coughs at the smoke coming from the stake* Alright, looks like I got a position free now. Any volunteers?

Have a good weekend.

Oh, and just a heads up (since the days are slipping away from me and they're looming ever nearer) -- I'm gonna be out of state and off-line a few times later this month, myself. Gencon (mid-August), and Dragoncon (Labor Day weekend) are sneaking up on me.

I Love Mind games!

Crit - thanks for the heads up.

@Meriss: You could say that our teammates are slowly warming to this situation (or mission) they are in and they are still sniffing around these all new 'allies' they are bound to work with. And with luck we maybe can avoid all open hostilities among team.