For those who stumble on this:
This game is not open for recruitment, and the thread posted here is to discuss details of the character generation and general game, before it starts, amongst the GM (myself) and the players. (Vegas & WinterRat1)

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Alright, you both know pretty much what we have to hammer out here. Since I've discussed the game to some length with the both of you, independently, I will try my best to summarize everything here so we're all on the same page.

So here are the big points:

-The game is SR4, and we'll be using all SR4 rules

-Character generation rules will follow SR4 rules, to some exception:
*since there are only the two of you, build point have been upped to 500BP, so you can cover a lot more things, and make up characters that probably have more experience in the field (or are just more gifted, up to you!)
*ratings and avail have the usual cap, although I will be open to suggestions: if there is a certain piece of gear you want/need and can justify/explain it properly, I will probably let you have it
*free BPs for contacts only: this I think we need to discuss a bit. I was leaning toward charisma X 4, but I was also thinking of giving you each a few contacts template (as in; you each get to know.... I dunno, 4 other runner type people)

-Theres only the two of you as players, namely, Vegas and WinterRat1

-The game is set in 2070

-The game will start in Seattle, since this is probably the setting we are all most comfortable to start with. Opportunities to travel out of Seattle will rise up.

-Both of your characters have known/worked with each other for sometime; you're an established pair/team.

-Any type of characters go.

-I will, either later today or during the week, post a list of characteristics/character traits from which I'll ask each of you to pick one that is either relevant to your character, or something you can incorporate in his background/personality. Trust me, this is for.... dramatic effect

So, any questions?

How this work is that you each pick one word, from one of the categories. Once someone picks from a category, said category becomes unavailible.

Exemple: WR1 picks something from A, Vegas cannot pick hers from A.

A: Warrior, Soldier, Paratrooper

B: Vengeance, Death

C: Healer, Doctor, Love

D: Repentance, Salvation, Poetry

E: Justice, Fairness, Harmony

F: Caretaker, Judge

G: Mercy, Compassion, Hope, Visions

Whoot! So it begins.

Mr Oomph, I believe, sounds better than Mister X.

Suggested 'Schtick': Anti-Personnel

Logic: Since the three of us were working together to actively benefit our careers (primarily Mr. Oomph's ), it stands to reason most of our moonlighting would involve taking down people. Obviously we wouldn't be doing stuff against our own corp, just people within it.

Some of the following specialties come to mind:
- Assassination
- Blackmail
- Bodyguard
- Investigation
- Extraction
- Security

Basically, taking down our rivals within the corp, by any means necessary. Thoughts?

I like it.. any or even all of those specialties would give opportunities to showcase either (or both) character's talents at any given place or time.

I think the whole blackmail/investigation bit is a given no-brainer for standard corporate espionage and maybe somewhat their focus niche? Extractions to bring in key people under Mr. Oomph's wing and thusly boosting his image/reputation.. Security/Bodyguarding when needed and they could have just dipped their toes into the Assassination pool when things went to shit and Mr. Oomph's head turned into Fine. Red. Mist.

WR: thanks for the reminder and heads up in IM's gives me something to think about for certain.

I'll try to toss up a character skeleton in the next 24-48 hours depending on what inspiration strikes me and how much of my time is eaten up with Thanksgiving festivities.

Hot damn this is gonna kick ass.

Hey quick BP spending question.. if we're able to initiate at game start, what the karma to BP conversion (or is there one?)

Trying to figure out just how much I've got to spend along the way

FYI, I asked Mister Juan about skill caps at chargen earlier. He said he 'trusts' us and we can ignore the chargen skill caps. The quotes were his, I'm just repeating them.

EDIT: I also suggested that it might be interesting if Mister Juan developed Mr. Oomph instead of us. I thought it might give him/her more personality and throw some fun surprises our way instead of making them just a somewhat static image of what we envision him/her to be. That ok with you?

Fine by me if MJ wants to take on that responsibility to create Mr. Oomph.

I'm tweaking a character, I'm hoping I can put fingers to keys long enough to crank out a 20-questions skeleton in the next couple of days.

The question initiation has me thinking we might be better off to tone down the BPs to something regular, and just add karma. My only issue with karma is that I quite frankly haven't looked at the math enough to know what is resonable.

If you spend it optimally (advancing attributes from one to 6), 1 karma = 1 a bit more than a buildpoint. If you spend it sub optimally (doing other stuff), 1 karma is less than half a build point.

Just to help out

There's no real reason to initiate, it was more of a semi-twinky way to gain back the ability of a magic point lost to possible cyber/bioware.

500 bp makes for an interesting game since there's only 2 of us off to do this little shindig... my preference would be to keep it there instead of backpedaling to 400 bp + some karma amount...

WR and I spoke some more earlier today, we've got at least the generic framework set up for character history... should be a lot of fun.

I agree with Vegas. I'm ok with it if she can't initiate (just like I'm ok with it if I can still only spend 50BP on Resources...), but the difference between 400 BP + Karma and 500 BP is a significant amount of skills that make our characters much more diverse and well rounded, which is something we'll need if we're flying solo.

Of course, you could always cap her initiation, say no more than 1 or 2 Grades of it. And you could always raise the amount of BP I can spend on gear. After all, it's the Thanksgiving season here in America, and that would give us some good reasons to be thankful to you.

BP cap for ressources is at 65BP, and for the sake of initiation, 1 k = 1 BP

Happy?

I am now! Add Mister Juan to my list of things I'm thankful for!

Sorry I haven't figured out all the rules/mechanics stuff.... I'm mostly concentrating around building up a good story and catchy characters, and not how much BPs you guys should have for ressources

If you have any other quesiton, just fire away!

After several hours pouring over all things Matrix related, I think I'm taking the plunge guys.

I think I'm doing it: Samurai/DECKER!!!

EDIT: As for the why, it just makes our pair so much more versatile and really adds flexibility to our gaming and uniqueness to the character. Plus, there's so much you can do with the Matrix and I've always wanted to explore it as a player. With all the talk going around about how broke the SR 4 Matrix system is, I think I want to see for myself.

Hahahahah SUCKER!

Just kidding! I can't wait to see how he turns out!

OK, I cannot squeeze the Simsense Booster, Move-by-Wire 2 and Encephalon 2 all in. The million nuyen question is, should he be a decker first or a sniper/samurai? I can't conceivably go with both equally, unless Mister Juan decides to raise the cap we can spend on BP...

Even if he does though, I don't think it would be enough to customize everything I would need to get below the Essence 6 cap. Any thoughts on this?

As an aside, this is pretty interesting. The more I read it, the more I like the SR 4 decking system. It's far from perfect, and there are definitely some loopholes/problems that need to be closed/addressed/clarified. Overall though, it's much simpler, more consistent, and easier to pickup and understand than say, SR 3.

I haven't read up on Technomancers yet (and don't plan to in the near future) but overall I think I have a much better handle on the Matrix in a much shorter amount of time than I expected.

WR I honestly have no clue which way YOU want to go... though making a decker who has decent combat skills (perhaps dropping MBW for this char) could come in SUPER helpful in the long run... having access to a PC with matrix capabilities beyond your average computer user would be a bonus too.

But that's just my $0.02. YMMV and all since I know you were itching to get MBW this time around

Of course I wouldn't be opposed to upping a BP cap either

Ooh, great suggestion!

Upping the BP cap WOULD solve a lot of problems...

BP stays at 500.
As I mentioned to WR1 yesterday, if you REALLY need to raise those ressources to, lets say, 75 or 80BP, I can live with that.

It's definitely not a resources issue for me... just that we're a two-person team and trying to "do it all" which we (WR and I) both need to stop doing and just make fun characters to play and get this show on the road otherwise we'll overthink everything to death and we'll get frustrated and annoyed and what not.

I just haven't had time to push gear from my excel sheet to my wiki. and I need to finish up her BG, but i've got a show this weekend and it's kinda consuming all my time right now save for a few moments here and there to pop in/on DSF

Hey MJ,

What's the approximate date of game start IC-wise? Trying to work our backgrounds from that date backwards

Getting closer and closer to having this all together... I think

One more thing. Contacts.

I know that there were discussions that happened in IM's that didn't make it to the thread here and I just want to make sure that all three of us are on the same page so that we don't sink points into something we don't need, or points we don't have.

MJ - I've got IM's between us that talked about CHA x 5 for "freebie" contact points PLUS one fixer for free along with 3 "runner" type contacts and that you would set the connection and loyalty ratings for those 4 contacts.

Are we still rolling with this, or the CHA x 4 as in the posts above?

I know WR and I are trying to get our characters wrapped up in time for the holidays because our time is getting tight as it is. Any more specifics you can give us would be most excellent

I like contacts, so we'll use the charisma x 5, as well as the bonus 4. You can pick the types of "runners", names, personalities, etc... I'll set the C/L rating for them. Same thing with the fixer. I'll give you the actual numbers this weekend.

As for a start date, we'll begin on june 1st, 2071.

Here are the numbers for the extra contacts.
-All runners are at C2/L3. They aren't exactly prime runners, but aren't newbies either. Think "regular starting PCs".
-The fixer itself, who's persona I'll provide to you as soon as I have your backgrounds (so I can tailor him a little bit) is C5/L4.