I'm interested in starting up an MSN/OpenRPG/whatever game. I would GM. I'm looking for a very small group - 1 to 3 players max. Games would be 1-2 times a month, perhaps even less, most likely on Friday nights, as that's just about all my schedule can handle.
Setting and campaign style would be decided together. I'm sorta aiming for a fairly 'traditionnal' shadowrun campaign, set perhaps in Hong Kong, but I'm open to any suggestions. Using SR4 rules.
Any takers?
Full Version: New York Noir
I'd definately be interested. Would need to know a more specific time window so as to see if I can ensure that I get that time on that day off from work.
Awesome, glad to have you aboard!
Ok, I think that's all the interest we're going to get for now. We can intergrate new players later if ever anyone else wants to join. One player is fine by me, anyway. Tarantula, can you let me know what your email is?
Hey, I'd like to join as well if that's still an option.
Yeah, sure is. PM me with your email.
Well I was going to move detail-deciding to email, but hey, this is a discussion board, so may as well do it here for now.
First off, to try to answer Tarantula, I plan on having games Friday nights, which to me means from like 8 to 11-12. As I said, there'd be no real patern to what days exactly we end up playing, but we would always schedule games, meaning at least 1 week's notice. If you can't make it, no sweat, this is meant to be a no hassle game. If we end up with games too infrequent for everyone's taste, we'll look at that then.
Second, setting. I'd like to hear your ideas, what you'd like to play. How much magic, what city, what type of characters, any plot focus you'd like to explore, etc.
I'm envisionning an urban game, fairly low-powered, mostly story-driven. I'd like to have the focus not be on combat, since I find MSN games aren't really that great for big combat scenes. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be shootouts or anything. I like my shadowrun perfectly violent.
First off, to try to answer Tarantula, I plan on having games Friday nights, which to me means from like 8 to 11-12. As I said, there'd be no real patern to what days exactly we end up playing, but we would always schedule games, meaning at least 1 week's notice. If you can't make it, no sweat, this is meant to be a no hassle game. If we end up with games too infrequent for everyone's taste, we'll look at that then.
Second, setting. I'd like to hear your ideas, what you'd like to play. How much magic, what city, what type of characters, any plot focus you'd like to explore, etc.
I'm envisionning an urban game, fairly low-powered, mostly story-driven. I'd like to have the focus not be on combat, since I find MSN games aren't really that great for big combat scenes. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be shootouts or anything. I like my shadowrun perfectly violent.
Well, I'm changing positions starting the week of christmas, which should leave me with the evenings off from now on, so that should work out just fine for me. Low power urban can be fun, just gotta figure out who what etc i'd wanna play.
Lets see, most fridays should generally be open with me, especially if I have plenty of warning in advance like that, so any days are fine.
Low powered urban sounds good to me. Seattle is the only city I really know anything about, and even that is limited, but wherever is fine.
I'd likely make a hacker type, to that end are we going with the basic matrix rules or one of the boards rules? Or would you just prefer no hackers?
Low powered urban sounds good to me. Seattle is the only city I really know anything about, and even that is limited, but wherever is fine.
I'd likely make a hacker type, to that end are we going with the basic matrix rules or one of the boards rules? Or would you just prefer no hackers?
I'd prefer Hong Kong or New-York over Seattle. If you don't have Runner's Haven, you could play a foreigner in HK, so your character's knowledge is on par with yours. As for New-York, as SR info is limited, I would, er, how to say, always explain things before they happen to your character... not kind of pull shit out of nowhere and penalize you for it, if you see what I mean.
Hacking is definately good. Depending on what Tarantula feels like, from you wanting to play a Hacker, we can either make a pure-hecking campaign (information liberators, trid pirates, etc) where hacking is really the focus, or if Tarantula wants to go in another direction, then it might be best if you both make fairly generalist characters, with a certain degree of specialization in a certain field, without losing a general roundness for the character. I want to take this approach because, as this is a few-player game, having 2 widely different characters might not work well (i.e. 1 stay at home hacker and 1 kill everything sammy).
Hacking is definately good. Depending on what Tarantula feels like, from you wanting to play a Hacker, we can either make a pure-hecking campaign (information liberators, trid pirates, etc) where hacking is really the focus, or if Tarantula wants to go in another direction, then it might be best if you both make fairly generalist characters, with a certain degree of specialization in a certain field, without losing a general roundness for the character. I want to take this approach because, as this is a few-player game, having 2 widely different characters might not work well (i.e. 1 stay at home hacker and 1 kill everything sammy).
Either of those sounds locations sounds good to me, and I honestly wouldn't know much about seattle other then the gangs and the very general location of things. Hong Kong would be kinda fun, no idea about New York.
I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work actually. If the place we're going into is accessable from a distance then I can talk to him through commlink, hack cammeras for him, provide tactical info about the building etc etc. And if I have to go into the place for whatever reason, well, then he has to do a bit of guard work and I have to learn to plop myself down behind cover before I dive into the Matrix.
Now, a hacker/mage combo may be a bit more difficult, and we'd definetly both have to be fairly generalized with just a focus in our areas, or I the hacker would have to be.
Of course if you use FrankTroll's or FrankieTroll's or whatever his name is exactly, rules for the matrix, hackers can actually use the matrix for combat, kinda cool stuff but alot to go over, makes hackers work alot like mages with the matrix being their astral plane.
But all that aside I'll wait and see what he has to say for now.
*edit*
P.S.
How many BP are we looking at useing, since you said a low powered game. Also, would you be adverse to using my nanohive rework? You can find it in the general discussion section or whatever it is called. Short story of it is that it costs a smaller amount of essence then what the book has, and makes it more capasity intensive to use in cyberlimbs.
I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work actually. If the place we're going into is accessable from a distance then I can talk to him through commlink, hack cammeras for him, provide tactical info about the building etc etc. And if I have to go into the place for whatever reason, well, then he has to do a bit of guard work and I have to learn to plop myself down behind cover before I dive into the Matrix.
Now, a hacker/mage combo may be a bit more difficult, and we'd definetly both have to be fairly generalized with just a focus in our areas, or I the hacker would have to be.
Of course if you use FrankTroll's or FrankieTroll's or whatever his name is exactly, rules for the matrix, hackers can actually use the matrix for combat, kinda cool stuff but alot to go over, makes hackers work alot like mages with the matrix being their astral plane.
But all that aside I'll wait and see what he has to say for now.
*edit*
P.S.
How many BP are we looking at useing, since you said a low powered game. Also, would you be adverse to using my nanohive rework? You can find it in the general discussion section or whatever it is called. Short story of it is that it costs a smaller amount of essence then what the book has, and makes it more capasity intensive to use in cyberlimbs.
New York or Hong Kong would be fun, I don't have too much knowledge of either, so the tourist idea works well for that.
I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work. I mean, thats only one character (if hacking via AR)
Hacker/mage could be extremely good for surveillance and the like, but not so much for duking it out straight up. I could definately go for a hacker/mage (Since it seems Karaden is interesting in a hacker) as a detective style investigatory team.
I don't see why a hacker/sammi combo wouldn't work. I mean, thats only one character (if hacking via AR)
Hacker/mage could be extremely good for surveillance and the like, but not so much for duking it out straight up. I could definately go for a hacker/mage (Since it seems Karaden is interesting in a hacker) as a detective style investigatory team.
Heh, I ment hacker/sammi combo as in one person is the hacker and the other is the sammi, with the hacker acting as support for the sammi, giving tactical info and such.
Hmm, detective stuff, would be kinda interesting. Hacker could look up info, hack cameras, trace accounts and plenty of other things, while the mage could locate people via magic, read thoughts, and do other magey things. Mage would likely have to act as the face too since a decent Cha is needed for magic type stuff anyway.
Hmm, detective stuff, would be kinda interesting. Hacker could look up info, hack cameras, trace accounts and plenty of other things, while the mage could locate people via magic, read thoughts, and do other magey things. Mage would likely have to act as the face too since a decent Cha is needed for magic type stuff anyway.
A detective campaign would work really well, so if you guys are up for that, works for me. One Hacker and one Mage would work well, like Karaden said.
No house rules for now. We can implement some if the need arises, but I see no reason as of yet. The only one I generally use is limiting Extended Tests to 4 rolls (4 rolls being mathematially optimal for allowing you to succeed while making some tests actually impossible, instead of just taking longer, such as decrypting).
The standard 400 BPs is fine. In my mind "lower power" is going to come from the play style and plot, not the characters so much.
I think I'm leaning more towards New-York, so as not to have to worry too much about cultural differences so much. There isn't much to know about NY, anyway. I'll be making most of it up, combined with what little has actually been written on the city. It sums up to: big city, lots of shadows, intricate layers of security, shiny on the outside, rotten in the inside.
The intricate layers of security part is because NYC is run by a consortium of corporations instead of civil governement, so all they care about is business. There is a manhattan-wide system of ID checks than scan citizen's "passports", allowing them into some sections and disallowing them from others. Get the workers in, keep the rabble out. A (few) good fake SINs are therefore mandatory if you want to be able to get around.
As for your actual detective status, here's a few ideas I can think of:
* Shadowrunners working for fixers and such as usual, but you guys happen to specialise in fiding out stuff
* Special FBI/CIA/Whatever Governement agents snooping around NYC looking for evidence that would allow the governement to take down the Consortium and replace a civil governement
* Draco/Atlantean detectives looking for something shiny and magical in NYC, trying to keep it quiet so as to not attract the Consortium's attention
* Local NYC detectives working from the bright side of the light, looking down into the darkness
Anything else you guys can think of?
No house rules for now. We can implement some if the need arises, but I see no reason as of yet. The only one I generally use is limiting Extended Tests to 4 rolls (4 rolls being mathematially optimal for allowing you to succeed while making some tests actually impossible, instead of just taking longer, such as decrypting).
The standard 400 BPs is fine. In my mind "lower power" is going to come from the play style and plot, not the characters so much.
I think I'm leaning more towards New-York, so as not to have to worry too much about cultural differences so much. There isn't much to know about NY, anyway. I'll be making most of it up, combined with what little has actually been written on the city. It sums up to: big city, lots of shadows, intricate layers of security, shiny on the outside, rotten in the inside.
The intricate layers of security part is because NYC is run by a consortium of corporations instead of civil governement, so all they care about is business. There is a manhattan-wide system of ID checks than scan citizen's "passports", allowing them into some sections and disallowing them from others. Get the workers in, keep the rabble out. A (few) good fake SINs are therefore mandatory if you want to be able to get around.
As for your actual detective status, here's a few ideas I can think of:
* Shadowrunners working for fixers and such as usual, but you guys happen to specialise in fiding out stuff
* Special FBI/CIA/Whatever Governement agents snooping around NYC looking for evidence that would allow the governement to take down the Consortium and replace a civil governement
* Draco/Atlantean detectives looking for something shiny and magical in NYC, trying to keep it quiet so as to not attract the Consortium's attention
* Local NYC detectives working from the bright side of the light, looking down into the darkness
Anything else you guys can think of?
Funny how being on the right side of the law seems like a highly odd concept, I suppose it is in shadowrun. Anyway, the first and last ideas pieq my intrest the most. Good old classic style (sorta) or a rather odd for shadowrun but litiraily classic setup.
If this is what we're going to go with I can start fleshing out my character. I'll post what I have when I have it.
Oh, I really would like to know about the nanohive though, as it'll affect me since I plan on getting some nanites at start.
Could have sworn there was something else I wanted to say, but can't remember it right now, maybe I'll remember as I'm working on my character.
If this is what we're going to go with I can start fleshing out my character. I'll post what I have when I have it.
Oh, I really would like to know about the nanohive though, as it'll affect me since I plan on getting some nanites at start.
Could have sworn there was something else I wanted to say, but can't remember it right now, maybe I'll remember as I'm working on my character.
Unfortunately I don't have Augmentations, so I don't really know what the problem is. Reading the thread over, it seems you have a point, but I don't know to what point the Hive was perhaps meant to be installed in a cyberlimb. Still, I think I'll allow it, so you can go ahead and use it.
Have you guys decided on a date/time for this game?
| QUOTE |
I plan on having games Friday nights, which to me means from like 8 to 11-12. As I said, there'd be no real patern to what days exactly we end up playing, but we would always schedule games, meaning at least 1 week's notice. If you can't make it, no sweat, this is meant to be a no hassle game. If we end up with games too infrequent for everyone's taste, we'll look at that then. |
Ah you don't have it? I'll be sure to include related bits about anything I get from there then. As far as I can tell there isn't anything in the falvour text that suggest that it is 'supposed' to be used in a cyberlimb, and was mearly an oversight and lack of clarification. Looks like we might have a thrid person interested? Well, we'll see, time to work on that stuff (was sleeping for a while, long night.)
Ok, got my character together. I can make changes as needed, but here is what I have (Spoilered for eaiser viewing of the thread)
Oh, and I added basic info on stuff that appears in Augmented for your convienince.
Whew, that was kind of long, but there you have it. I'm going to work on a better name as well as add in all the SINs (about 6 fake and his real one) another time.
*edit* Considiering adjusting BP a bit so that he doesn't have so many 1s, may drop a point or two of edge or lower some skills a bit... we'll see, curious what the GM thinks.
Oh, and I added basic info on stuff that appears in Augmented for your convienince.
[ Spoiler ]
Whew, that was kind of long, but there you have it. I'm going to work on a better name as well as add in all the SINs (about 6 fake and his real one) another time.
*edit* Considiering adjusting BP a bit so that he doesn't have so many 1s, may drop a point or two of edge or lower some skills a bit... we'll see, curious what the GM thinks.
Ok, hold it. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
First I'd like to hear from Tarantula on what setting he prefers, as that will have a huge impact on what kind of stats/personalities your characters are going to have.
Second, I'd like to see basic character concepts before stats - a small paragraph of general background, basic outline of personality, how you intend to play him. Then stats, then the rest of the background (of big importance to me is how you got your cyber and experience).
Finally, from a purely numbers background, for this game I think a well-rounded character is going to work much better, as there will be much more roleplaying than roll-playing. Going with 6s and 1s probably won't work well. I'd like to see much less specialisation and more generalisation - 3 to 5s over a wider range of capabilities than needle sharp at doing one thing really well.
I do appreciate the Augmentations notes. FYI Catalyst owes me some Battlecorps money, which I plan to use to get Aug, but it's taking a while. I will pick it up ASAP though.
First I'd like to hear from Tarantula on what setting he prefers, as that will have a huge impact on what kind of stats/personalities your characters are going to have.
Second, I'd like to see basic character concepts before stats - a small paragraph of general background, basic outline of personality, how you intend to play him. Then stats, then the rest of the background (of big importance to me is how you got your cyber and experience).
Finally, from a purely numbers background, for this game I think a well-rounded character is going to work much better, as there will be much more roleplaying than roll-playing. Going with 6s and 1s probably won't work well. I'd like to see much less specialisation and more generalisation - 3 to 5s over a wider range of capabilities than needle sharp at doing one thing really well.
I do appreciate the Augmentations notes. FYI Catalyst owes me some Battlecorps money, which I plan to use to get Aug, but it's taking a while. I will pick it up ASAP though.
I'm definately up for the mage/hacker detective team. New york sounds like fun (and watch out for those new york devil rats). So, I'll get brainstorming while I'm at work today, and I'll throw up a basic concept tonight before I go to bed.
Any chance you're still accepting players?
One of my other games died, and I'd love to join in on a smaller scale game if scheduling would work out - what time zone are you in Backgammon?
One of my other games died, and I'd love to join in on a smaller scale game if scheduling would work out - what time zone are you in Backgammon?
I've been thinking about a human adept. Part face, part martial artist, part infiltrator. Lots of broad skills and half a dozen contacts. No min/maxing. Geared towards a low/moderate street level game.
@Tarantula: Awesome. Get back to me on what kind of detective game you'd like, as per the choices I mentionned. Karaden mentionned either normal shadowrunners with an investigative bent, or actual police detective.
Thinking about it now, I think I'd prefer shadowrunners, so if you're all ok with that, that will set it for the campaign then.
@Redjack: Very good. Looking forward to that.
@Scope: I am EST. I guess I can take one more. I'm relunctant to take many players because 1) scheduling becomes exponentially harder and 2) it's easy to get bored when nothing is happening with your character over MSN. But if you're interested, I'll take you.
Note to anyone else, though - no more players at this point. Thank you.
Thinking about it now, I think I'd prefer shadowrunners, so if you're all ok with that, that will set it for the campaign then.
@Redjack: Very good. Looking forward to that.
@Scope: I am EST. I guess I can take one more. I'm relunctant to take many players because 1) scheduling becomes exponentially harder and 2) it's easy to get bored when nothing is happening with your character over MSN. But if you're interested, I'll take you.
Note to anyone else, though - no more players at this point. Thank you.
I did actually take alot of steps towards not min/maxing my character, and as I said I'll likely change a few things around so that my stats don't look so lopsided (You'll notice that I did in fact avoid a 6 stat (Well, edge, but it has a +1 bonus) and any skills at all above 4)
I also took the learning nanites with the idea of using my first few game's worth of karma to get a decent number of skills at level 2-3 to help round him out.
I'll get you my character concept as soon as I know which setup we're going with, since that will obviously have a large effect on what sort of background he will have.
Hmm... four players now? I'd think a detective thing would be a bit more difficult to pull off with so many people. Oh, just got an idea, perhaps we could set up some time soon where we could all get on whatever medium we're going to use for the game and just chat for a bit, make it easier to get these details hammered out then waiting a day for each person to post.
I also took the learning nanites with the idea of using my first few game's worth of karma to get a decent number of skills at level 2-3 to help round him out.
I'll get you my character concept as soon as I know which setup we're going with, since that will obviously have a large effect on what sort of background he will have.
Hmm... four players now? I'd think a detective thing would be a bit more difficult to pull off with so many people. Oh, just got an idea, perhaps we could set up some time soon where we could all get on whatever medium we're going to use for the game and just chat for a bit, make it easier to get these details hammered out then waiting a day for each person to post.
| QUOTE |
| Hmm... four players now? I'd think a detective thing would be a bit more difficult to pull off with so many people. |
Yes, but I think we'll be ok. I'm starting to toss plot ideas in my head and they are surviving the thought of 4 guys going at it instead of 2 (eewww that sounds dirty).
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Oh, just got an idea, perhaps we could set up some time soon where we could all get on whatever medium we're going to use for the game and just chat for a bit, make it easier to get these details hammered out then waiting a day for each person to post. |
That's a really good idea. On the subject of the medium, so far I'm thinking OpenRPG. I used to do it on MSN, but I dislike the lack of dice roller, and while there was a lot I didn't like about OpenRPG when I looked at it, it's free and has a dice roller, so minimally, it will do. If anyone knows any other product, I'm all ears. I was actually thinking about coding my own, but I'm probably too lazy, even if it would only take a day or two.
| QUOTE (Backgammon) |
| Yes, but I think we'll be ok. I'm starting to toss plot ideas in my head and they are surviving the thought of 4 guys going at it instead of 2 (eewww that sounds dirty). |
Yes, yes it does.
Guy on guy on guy on guy action aside, I ment that among other things it means that we're going to end up being a bit more spesilized, as we won't need 4 people who are all good at searching a crime scene for clues, whereas with two people that isn't such a bad thing.
| QUOTE (Backgammon) |
That's a really good idea. On the subject of the medium, so far I'm thinking OpenRPG. I used to do it on MSN, but I dislike the lack of dice roller, and while there was a lot I didn't like about OpenRPG when I looked at it, it's free and has a dice roller, so minimally, it will do. If anyone knows any other product, I'm all ears. I was actually thinking about coding my own, but I'm probably too lazy, even if it would only take a day or two. |
I've used OpenRPG before (though don't currently have it installed) and I think it works fairly well as far as chat based things go. There are some nice extras you can download to make it a bit easier to use in some regards, and more helpful in others.
You Sir, are a better programer then me (which isn't difficult, but still)
And as for a time to set up the meet I'm open for the forseeable future (before christmas week) except for this wendsday.
Like I said before, shadowrunners with investigative bent would work well. As far as my mage concept, I was leaning towards stealthy, detection spells, shapechange (for easier access to places), and probably a mentor spirit such as owl, or one of the other "wise" ones (haven't looked through them lately). Also, definitely would look towards picking up psychometry as one of his first metamagics.
Stupid Double Post. 
Well, tues/thurs this week I'm off, and friday I'm off at 8:30pm (MST). Not too sure on availibility, since I've got a funeral we're getting setup (my grandpa) so that'll throw a monkey wrench in my scheduling at somepoint.
Well, tues/thurs this week I'm off, and friday I'm off at 8:30pm (MST). Not too sure on availibility, since I've got a funeral we're getting setup (my grandpa) so that'll throw a monkey wrench in my scheduling at somepoint.
| QUOTE (Tarantula) |
| Stupid Double Post. |
Heh don't worry about it, change it to add what time your open for a meeting so we can get stuff set on the game in a more timly manner.
Okay, I have exams through wednesday, so my free time is erratic. After wednesday I should be for the most part free.
I have a few ideas for characters, not sure what I want to do yet though. Here is what I have it narrowed down to if you have suggestions. All of them have helpful skills for investigation and a little bit of 'face-ness', mainly they are just different personality types - names are of course runner handles rather than real names:
Sally Perkins: Formerly an investigative reporter, Sally was investigating a runner's escapades, but had become enamoured with the runner and took him up on his offer when he asked her to come with him and become a runner. After running the shadows together for a year, he upped and vanished without so much as a goodbye. Sally is somehow still an idealist in spite of it all. Face with sneaky and reporterish skills and some 'ware.
Juliana 'Bester' Black: An ex-cop, Juliana was kicked off the force due to her unsavory methods. She is an anti-hero, willing to do whatever it takes to protect 'good' people from 'bad.' Now she runs the shadows, but only takes jobs that agree with her slightly twisted morality. A mystic adept (my first magic character concept
) specialized in interogation and 'telepath style' magic.
Spooky Sierra: Spooky used to be a covert operative for Cross-Applied Technology, but she took her leave when they were bought out by Ares following the crash. She has a cynical outlook and an eye for detail, but her personality and sense of humor border on the macabre - hence her nick-name. Covert ops street sam.
Jane Reaction: Once she was a stunt-woman/actress for a Sim-Sense firm, but now she's a 'free-agent' as she calls herself - always looking for the next big adrenaline rush. Pyrotechnics, vehicles, fast-talk, and fanciful weapons are her thing - the shinier, faster, and hotter the better. A street-sam with vehicle and con/disguise ability.
I have a few ideas for characters, not sure what I want to do yet though. Here is what I have it narrowed down to if you have suggestions. All of them have helpful skills for investigation and a little bit of 'face-ness', mainly they are just different personality types - names are of course runner handles rather than real names:
Sally Perkins: Formerly an investigative reporter, Sally was investigating a runner's escapades, but had become enamoured with the runner and took him up on his offer when he asked her to come with him and become a runner. After running the shadows together for a year, he upped and vanished without so much as a goodbye. Sally is somehow still an idealist in spite of it all. Face with sneaky and reporterish skills and some 'ware.
Juliana 'Bester' Black: An ex-cop, Juliana was kicked off the force due to her unsavory methods. She is an anti-hero, willing to do whatever it takes to protect 'good' people from 'bad.' Now she runs the shadows, but only takes jobs that agree with her slightly twisted morality. A mystic adept (my first magic character concept
) specialized in interogation and 'telepath style' magic.Spooky Sierra: Spooky used to be a covert operative for Cross-Applied Technology, but she took her leave when they were bought out by Ares following the crash. She has a cynical outlook and an eye for detail, but her personality and sense of humor border on the macabre - hence her nick-name. Covert ops street sam.
Jane Reaction: Once she was a stunt-woman/actress for a Sim-Sense firm, but now she's a 'free-agent' as she calls herself - always looking for the next big adrenaline rush. Pyrotechnics, vehicles, fast-talk, and fanciful weapons are her thing - the shinier, faster, and hotter the better. A street-sam with vehicle and con/disguise ability.
| QUOTE |
Sally Perkins: Formerly an investigative reporter, Sally was investigating a runner's escapades, but had become enamoured with the runner and took him up on his offer when he asked her to come with him and become a runner. After running the shadows together for a year, he upped and vanished without so much as a goodbye. Sally is somehow still an idealist in spite of it all. Face with sneaky and reporterish skills and some 'ware. |
Hah, I like this one a lot! Kinda of a post-Mulder Scully vibe to her - starts off an outsider to the shadows, and to help cope with the loss she actually becomes part of it, creating a sort of love-hate relationship with the shadows and her self-esteem. Very Noir, very awesome.
| QUOTE |
Juliana 'Bester' Black: An ex-cop, Juliana was kicked off the force due to her unsavory methods. She is an anti-hero, willing to do whatever it takes to protect 'good' people from 'bad.' Now she runs the shadows, but only takes jobs that agree with her slightly twisted morality. A mystic adept (my first magic character concept smile.gif ) specialized in interogation and 'telepath style' magic. |
Mmm. A bitter ex-cop following her own path is a good private eye background, but I like this a little less.
| QUOTE |
Spooky Sierra: Spooky used to be a covert operative for Cross-Applied Technology, but she took her leave when they were bought out by Ares following the crash. She has a cynical outlook and an eye for detail, but her personality and sense of humor border on the macabre - hence her nick-name. Covert ops street sam. |
Might be a little too much of a high profile. An ex-Cross spy could do better than a rundown semi-legit private eye outfit. Unless you want to inject flaws into her - she's a drunk, lost her nerves, etc.
| QUOTE |
Jane Reaction: Once she was a stunt-woman/actress for a Sim-Sense firm, but now she's a 'free-agent' as she calls herself - always looking for the next big adrenaline rush. Pyrotechnics, vehicles, fast-talk, and fanciful weapons are her thing - the shinier, faster, and hotter the better. A street-sam with vehicle and con/disguise ability. |
Yeah, this is neat to. The burnt out actress, used, chewed up by the industry, now living for herself, drinking, sleeping with disgusting men, fearless in the face of danger (bit of a self-hurt, suicidal bent), looking for thrills and dangerous work. Very cyberpunk, works for me too.
So Jane and Sally are my fav I guess.
Note to everyone else - you can see I like dark, self-destructive characters with loads of personnal foibles and weaknesses, not dedicated, clean, shiny pros. Think Film Noir, anti-heroes, barely pulling themselves together long enough to actually complete a job.
Actually, I think I'm going to reconsider BPs. Think we'll go with 350 BPs. That should "force" you to tack on Flaws and cut back on shiny gear and gadgets. If you just need to go over a bit to finish the character idea you had, that's ok, though.
To give you an idea, here's out I see your team description:
Sometimes things get misplaced. Sometimes people go missing. Sometimes the people looking for these things would rather it not be known they have an interest in finding them. That's when they call you. You slither along in the shadows, equally at home in the backdoor drinking dens or the trendy corporate nightclubs. Sometimes getting answers means a split lip or bruised ribs. Sometimes yours, sometimes other people's. When you find what you're looking for, and you get that reward money, well, then maybe you'll put a little away, save for that nest egg, one day move out of this shit hole rotten town. But then again, a cold beer and a hot sim chip is much cheaper, and it gives you such a valid reason for hating yourself anyway.
I just installed OpenRPG. This Friday is looking good for me.
Sean Michael O'Malley
He was born in a neighborhood referred to affectionately by the locals as "Little Ireland", founded by refugees from the foundation of Tír na nÓg. Growing up he got into his fair share of street fights and while he was never top dog, he had a reputation for a wicked hay-maker. Sean is known for his uncanny ability to disappear in a crowd and ability to talk his way into, or out of, most situations.
Sean Michael O'Malley
He was born in a neighborhood referred to affectionately by the locals as "Little Ireland", founded by refugees from the foundation of Tír na nÓg. Growing up he got into his fair share of street fights and while he was never top dog, he had a reputation for a wicked hay-maker. Sean is known for his uncanny ability to disappear in a crowd and ability to talk his way into, or out of, most situations.
I personally really like Sally, after that Juliana sounds good and could actually have a history with my character as he is ex-cop as well.
Sorry my char has so many shinies, but I just can't resist, they're so... shiny
Now for my background:
Jim used to be a Lone-Star 'detective'. He was good at a crime sceen, so long as it was properly secured, he never was much good in a fight. Of course his best work was being able to trace things back through the matix, useing unoffical methods to get data that the star wasn't supposed to have. Unfotently he was eventually caught, and Lone-Star decided to sell him out rather then try and keep him around. He managed to escape though, as a friend in the force tipped him off in advance. His SIN was never made criminal, but he couldn't really show his face either. Using everything he'd learned from his investigations, it wasn't that difficult for him to move into the shadows, and now offers his investigation skills to whoever has the nuyen.
That is it for now. Time to go back and adjust Jim some.
Now that I actually have the background writen down I know several of the things I'll adjust to bring him down to 350 BP, as well as some other changes.
Sorry my char has so many shinies, but I just can't resist, they're so... shiny
Now for my background:
Jim used to be a Lone-Star 'detective'. He was good at a crime sceen, so long as it was properly secured, he never was much good in a fight. Of course his best work was being able to trace things back through the matix, useing unoffical methods to get data that the star wasn't supposed to have. Unfotently he was eventually caught, and Lone-Star decided to sell him out rather then try and keep him around. He managed to escape though, as a friend in the force tipped him off in advance. His SIN was never made criminal, but he couldn't really show his face either. Using everything he'd learned from his investigations, it wasn't that difficult for him to move into the shadows, and now offers his investigation skills to whoever has the nuyen.
That is it for now. Time to go back and adjust Jim some.
Now that I actually have the background writen down I know several of the things I'll adjust to bring him down to 350 BP, as well as some other changes.
| QUOTE (Backgammon @ Dec 10 2007, 10:12 PM) | ||
|
Sounds like you and I like the same sort of characters - I just hadn't finished fleshing them out, but I don't think I've ever written a character that hasn't been somewhat self destructive / fragged in the head.
To give you an idea of what I've had experience playing before (BTW, I've never made a character without some serious flaws hehe), here's a short on those chars...
[ Spoiler ]
<EDIT>
Ok, I went ahead and fleshed out the characters a bit and played around with 350BP stats to see if I could make them work (I've never played in a low-power game before, so I'm hoping I'm correct that a dice pool of 8 to 10 is considered really good for the setting). Sally came out really well. Jane didn't come out quite as well, but still workable. So at this point I think I'll play whichever one fills out whatever is needed to fill out the group. Both are Noir-inspired characters, Sally obviously being the reporter archetype and Jane being the femme fatale archetype.
More complete backstories (still not finished - my finished backstories are usually really comprehensive and therefore several pages +grins+):
Sally Perkins: "I could walk out that door right now if I wanted... leave this drekhole behind, go back to reporting... if I wanted..." Sally used to be an investigative reporter named Polly Sackhoff - a regular hotshot for the Ares News Network. She'd already made her career with her in depth report on organized crime with an exclusive interview with Vory cleaner Nicholae 'Rasputin' Vladinov, but she was the sort that just didn't know when to quit. She had been investigating a string of dissappearances and serial killings - even made it to some of the crime scenes before Knight Errant. First they threatened her with charges of interfering with an investigation, and then they hit her with obstruction of justice. "But I knew there was something else there - I could always taste a story... so I kept digging... down to the grisly truth buried behind the 17th precinct..." Sally discovered that a cadre of crooked cops had been selling perps to organleggers on the sly... it was the sort of story that would win a pulitzer. "I didn't think they could stop me from going to press... I was wrong... they picked off everyone I'd sent the story to one by one... my manager, my decker... even my fragging camera-man..." When the assassin came for her, he found her in tears with her head in her hands. He didn't even care that she was waving a gun around... "Somehow he knew that I hadn't intended the gun for him... if he'd been there a few minutes later, his job would have alreay been done..." The cleaner, Kleis 'Kool-Man' Karinov, had a rare moment of pity - or perhaps attraction - and spared her, instead helping her fake her death. It was a strange relationship they had for the next year - at first he treated her like a lost puppy, then like a friend... and finally they were lovers. All the while he introduced her to the shadows - even had her help on a few jobs, but he never let her see or become involved in his wetwork. Then he vanished without a trace one day - not even so much as a goodbye. "I waited for him... I kept thinking that he'd come back... in a way I think I'm still waiting... but I could walk out that door if I wanted..."
Jane Reaction: "Holy fragging hell!!! Can we do another take, that was Wiz!!! oh drek... I think I broke something..." Janet Stackhouse was on the way up in the world. An actress reknowned for her insane live-action stunts, she'd been playing a recurring Femme Fatale support character named Jane Reaction on the Trideo series Night Stalker, and her character had become so popular that the network wanted a spin-off series. "I was on top of the fragging world... I couldn't afford to slow down... you can never slow down in the biz..." She deserved the break... she'd carved out her own soul and squandered her pay for the ware she needed to stay ahead in the stunt game... but even that wasn't enough. "Its never enough... there's always a bigger fire, a longer jump... each a more spectacular near death experience than the last..." Janet had been taking stimulants for a long time for the edge she needed in the biz, but she overdosed just before filming the final scene for the pilot episode. "I felt like the world was standing still... it was going to be the best stunt I ever pulled... jump a motorcycle out of an exploding building into a moving t-bird... I was so close I could see the look on the pilot's face... that's when my heart gave out..." The drugs in her system caused her to go into seizure in the middle of the stunt - directly causing the death of two other stuntmen and the pilot of the T-bird. A reporter on the scene recorded Janet's last words before she went unconscious again... "That was fragging awesome." After recovering from a cardiac replacement, Janet was ready to go back to work... but the company informed her that the series was cancelled and she was fired... and then they handed her a bill for the damages to the studio. "That was the end of the actress... I became someone else after that... a lot of someone elses..." financially ruined, Janet fell apart and turned to BTLs just to get away from it all - each one more extreme than the last. "One night, I woke up in a seedy nightclub backstage with a p-fix chip in my hand... I found out I'd been singing there for a month... so I put the fragging chip back in... it was easier that way... I'd have stayed that way too... if it weren't for Jimmy... he was the sort of die hard fan that I wouldn't have given the time of day before - the regular stalker type that actually beleived the trid was real..." Jimmy found Janet singing at the club, and he bribed his way backstage where he confronted her. "You can't let us down, you're mother-fraggin' Jane Reaction, he'd said. I figured... hell, I'd been everyone else... I'd try being her for a while... I mean, who wouldn't want to be a hero in real life?" As it turned out, Jimmy had managed to buy most of the Jane Reaction props and costumes on the online auction for dirt cheap - it was worthless after the PR disaster of the accident... Jimmy also had run afoul of a go-gang, and he expected his action hero to save the day just like in the trids. So Janet slotted some electronic courage and rode on in. "It turned out that the so-called go-gang was just a bunch of teenage rabble... but it gave me a taste of what I'd been missing... Jane Reaction was back in action!" That was the start of Janet - now Jane - putting her life back together in an odd sort of P-fixed way. Its still a long road... "but at least I'll have some frag-all fun along the way."
Yea, I rounded Sean out at 400. I trimmed, cut and amputate and came down around 360.
Will you be allowing negative qualities over 35 points? Non-standard qualities like phobia and obsessive compulsive behaviors?
Will you be allowing negative qualities over 35 points? Non-standard qualities like phobia and obsessive compulsive behaviors?
360 is ok. If you want, you can bust the Flaw limit. If you want to use homebrewed flaws, run them by me first.
I believe that Redjack was referring to the mental flaws contained in the cyberzombie/cyborg chapter of aumentation. Things like phobias, multiple personality disorder, etc.
Being able to bust the flaw limit is a good thing I think
Being able to bust the flaw limit is a good thing I think
Heh, but he doesn't have the augmentation book so he can't know about those sets of extra flaws .
P.S. Awsome stories, I still like sally better, but that is just me.
.P.S. Awsome stories, I still like sally better, but that is just me.
Right, no Augmentations sadly.
If you include anything from that book, give me a short description of it. Mental flaws sound awesome, so you can use those.
If you include anything from that book, give me a short description of it. Mental flaws sound awesome, so you can use those.
Cool
Like I said, I'm still playing around with stats. I like Sally and Jane pretty equally well - whichever one I don't play will get shelved for a rainy day
I'm just afraid that Sally's skills will overlap too much with Sean and Jim. Her big things are contacts (29bp worth!), lots of perception, social skill group and stealth skill group. Some ability with a pistol, but not much good in a fight (combat paralysis). Also some very small lock-picking ability and forgery skill. Basically, she has the skills of a nosey reporter rather than a runner.
Jane's skills aren't so much overlapping - she has decent combat ability (about 10 dice) with her Rugers and whip, Con, Disguise, pilot:Ground, athletics, and Intimidation. Essentially she'd be good at playing 'bad cop' or being muscle... as well as doing con-jobs and seductions for info. Skillwires give her tracking, pilot:air, pilot:water, demolitions, and auto-mechanic.
I might be able to round Sally out a little more by going over the flaw cap though.
Like I said, I'm still playing around with stats. I like Sally and Jane pretty equally well - whichever one I don't play will get shelved for a rainy day
I'm just afraid that Sally's skills will overlap too much with Sean and Jim. Her big things are contacts (29bp worth!), lots of perception, social skill group and stealth skill group. Some ability with a pistol, but not much good in a fight (combat paralysis). Also some very small lock-picking ability and forgery skill. Basically, she has the skills of a nosey reporter rather than a runner.
Jane's skills aren't so much overlapping - she has decent combat ability (about 10 dice) with her Rugers and whip, Con, Disguise, pilot:Ground, athletics, and Intimidation. Essentially she'd be good at playing 'bad cop' or being muscle... as well as doing con-jobs and seductions for info. Skillwires give her tracking, pilot:air, pilot:water, demolitions, and auto-mechanic.
I might be able to round Sally out a little more by going over the flaw cap though.
Well, my perception is looking like it is going down some with the reworking, and to be honest, if someone else can fill the perception roll, I'm more then happy to have him being more specilized in his matrix work and less so on the actual on scene stuff.
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/phobias.htm
This is a useful link if you are interested in doing Phobias from Augmentation.
The basic way a phobia or mania works is very similar to allergies. Same BP bonuses as allergies (based on common-ness or uncommon-ness of your trigger), but you only take the die pool penalty when exposed to your phobia or resisting your mania. At the moderate level, you'll take risks to avoid your phobia or crave exposure to your mania once a day. At severe, when exposed to the trigger you have to make a logic+willpower(3) test to do anything not related to your phobia or mania.
Example: Sally Perkins has moderate Athagoraphobia - the fear of abandonment... so any time a friend or fellow-runner leaves her presence without explanation or saying that (s)he'll be back or see her tomorrow etc, she is overcome with fear that she'll never see them again - taking a -4 die pool penalty until she has confirmation that the other person hasn't abandoned her or until the end of the scene as per GM discretion. Since this is something that people who know her can usually easily avoid doing to her, this is probably an uncommon trigger and therefore only worth 10BP.
This is a useful link if you are interested in doing Phobias from Augmentation.
The basic way a phobia or mania works is very similar to allergies. Same BP bonuses as allergies (based on common-ness or uncommon-ness of your trigger), but you only take the die pool penalty when exposed to your phobia or resisting your mania. At the moderate level, you'll take risks to avoid your phobia or crave exposure to your mania once a day. At severe, when exposed to the trigger you have to make a logic+willpower(3) test to do anything not related to your phobia or mania.
Example: Sally Perkins has moderate Athagoraphobia - the fear of abandonment... so any time a friend or fellow-runner leaves her presence without explanation or saying that (s)he'll be back or see her tomorrow etc, she is overcome with fear that she'll never see them again - taking a -4 die pool penalty until she has confirmation that the other person hasn't abandoned her or until the end of the scene as per GM discretion. Since this is something that people who know her can usually easily avoid doing to her, this is probably an uncommon trigger and therefore only worth 10BP.
Shame your link isn't working right now, something about too much bandwidth. Anyway, that basicly sums it up. I'll post quick what a few of the ones I'm looking at getting do.
Augmentation Addiction:
Basicly need to make a Logic+willpower (1) test at -4 every so often to avoid doing everything in my power to get a better ware of some kind, going so far as to lie, beg, steal, etc. to get it.
Biosystem Overstress:
Bioware just doesn't mesh well with me, takes twice as long to heal and get fatigued twice as quickly.
I-IID (Implant-Induced Immune Deficenicey)
Immuine system is constantly fighting the bioware, reducing my resistance to other things, giving a -2 on dieseses, drugs, toxins, and other compounds.
Yep, fun stuff there. Also going to work a bit more on the background and may end up seeing a substantial shift in it.
Augmentation Addiction:
Basicly need to make a Logic+willpower (1) test at -4 every so often to avoid doing everything in my power to get a better ware of some kind, going so far as to lie, beg, steal, etc. to get it.
Biosystem Overstress:
Bioware just doesn't mesh well with me, takes twice as long to heal and get fatigued twice as quickly.
I-IID (Implant-Induced Immune Deficenicey)
Immuine system is constantly fighting the bioware, reducing my resistance to other things, giving a -2 on dieseses, drugs, toxins, and other compounds.
Yep, fun stuff there. Also going to work a bit more on the background and may end up seeing a substantial shift in it.
Ok, for ease of use I'll just mirror it on my own webspace... I still had the window open from last night
Phobias
Phobias
Wow, very awsome, and here I was just thinking of going with good old fashion acrophobia.
*edit*
Considered making a joke about Algrophobia, but changed my mind, as it could have pissed some people off.
*edit*
Considered making a joke about Algrophobia, but changed my mind, as it could have pissed some people off.
Question: The limit of spending only up to half the total BP on attributes is still in effect, correct? So no more than 175 points on attributes (effectively 170), right?
I'd forgoten about that, good call Scope.
*edit*
Oh, and I'm just going to throw this out there.
Anyone -not- able to be around on OpenRPG at about 7p.m. EST this friday so we can hammer out any last things that need be done? Doesn't need to last long and can be earlier or later, but just want to start trying to get a time together. Remember, not a real game, just a Q&A sort of thing.
*edit*
Oh, and I'm just going to throw this out there.
Anyone -not- able to be around on OpenRPG at about 7p.m. EST this friday so we can hammer out any last things that need be done? Doesn't need to last long and can be earlier or later, but just want to start trying to get a time together. Remember, not a real game, just a Q&A sort of thing.
Hey wait... There is an issue with that... It takes 160 points to be average... (human with 3's in everything..) dropping the attributes to 170 is a little harsh.
7pm est. Will try. 8pm est would be better.
7pm est. Will try. 8pm est would be better.
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