Nice, nice, and double nice. Consider it home, and it also fits in well with the first batch of descriptions I have coming for the beginning of the game (Only because I was tired and mistakenly described it as if you didn't know anybody/anything there. No need to fix it [mostly] now!), whenever that may be.

CE: Change it to "casting spells during daylight hours" as kind of a psychological thing. I doubt you'll be in sunlight much, and when you are, it'll be for a few seconds anyways.

Fair enough.

Well, read Doc Funk's description of the little spot he paid for. As for books... If you can find something in book form, it's gonna be pricey (Unless the guy is just trying to get quick money) to buy them printed. Most of the stuff is electronic now, IIRC.

The lists for Hermetic Library printed is in SR3 Core, so for just regular books... anywhere between 20 and 100, depending on rarity. Something recent will cost about 20, whereas something from Shakespeare or something just as far back or further will hit 100 and up and up. Something popular will also cost less, so Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet will be about 30 or 50, softcover or hardcover, respectively. Shakespeare's lesser-known works will hit probably that 100 mark.

Edit: Books are also not so friggin' huge. 6m^3? Riiiight... That's, what, 3x2x1 on average? So 9 feet wide by 6 feet tall by 3 feet deep is wrong. Probably another point at which they're confusing meters with feet. Even 6ft^3 is off. Probably only 0.5ft^3 (3in wide, 1ft tall [sure...], 2ft deep [sure again...]), and most likely much less.

If you like GunnerJ, I can throw in some cash to help pay for your library assuming you go for the conditions of living in the Bloodbath. I set aside about 25,000 nuyen for literature and whatnot (since my character was an English and Theater major).

I believe the core rules give a rough approximation of how large a paperback hermetic library is. I don't remember even a Rating 6 one being *that* huge, so it probably shouldn't be a problem. I'll see if I can find it later when I get back to my books.

Everything to do with the actual mechanics of the character will have to wait until I go back to college tomorrow, but my idea behind his library is that he'd have a good number of books related to his craft, in the form of a Force 4 Hermetic Library, and a whole lot of other books. When I said a "big" library, I wasn't refering to the physical size so much as the number of books he owns. A lot would be scientific/technical journals (part of his character's background, which I'll post latter tonight), and there would be a good number of fiction books, as well as works on philosophy and religion.

T TANKA:

He's a rough sketch of his rollout of "normals" books:
-30 recent books: printouts of scientific and technical literature from the past ten years or so, 30 * 20 = 600 nuyen
-25 works of fiction, popular (mostly fantasy, SF, magical realism and experimental creative writing), 25 * 25 = 625 nuyen
-15 classic but common works of literature, 15 * 30 = 450 nuyen
-10 classic and rare works of literature, 10 * 100 = 1000 nuyen
-20 classic but fairly uncommon philosophy and religion texts (including the Bhagavad-Gita, Buddhist Sutras, the Illiad and the Oddesey, the Republic, Leviathan, Descartes's Meditations, the Communist Manifesto, and the writings of Cicero, Hume, and several others), 20 * 100 = 2000 nuyen
-15 popular/textbooks on the subjects above, as well as more common and easier to find religious texts like the Bible and the Koran, recenty printed, 15 * 30 = 450 nuyen

TOTAL: 5125 nuyen. I'll have to do a space estimate later...

Could these books serve a practical function? Like, could I have a "rating 4" philosophy library, that would act as a complementary skill on related knowledge tests when the character has access to the books? This is not covered anywhere in the canon rules, I'm pretty much making it up as I'm going along.

T FUNKANSTIEN:

I'm thinking my character's priorities would put resources at D, that's 20000, right? Yeah, any financial help your char can provide would be greatly appriciated, but again, until I can get my SR books, I won't make any final calls for character mechanics. Thanks though!

Okay well, if the head vamp doesn't mind little cliques being formed or if he just doesn't have to know about it, then I'm in Doctor Funkenstein. Also, since the Bloodbath is a cave, would it be reasonable for me to assume that I could have my lodge in it?

Sure can. Size-wise for your personal stuff, it's the equivalence of a Middle Lifestyle. For comforts (food, power, water), entertainment, and furniture, it's a Low Lifestyle. You can also put your lodge down in the commons area if you like (which is where the living space, kitchen, and things like that are).

I'm also going on the "doesn't really have to know about it" angle for the Bloodbath, too.

Alright, since it's a "He doesn't know" deal, I'll edit some of the intro. Won't be much, so don't fret over it Doc Funk. It'll still play the same.

It'd probably be better if I stick it in my personal area since they kind of hamper things like astral travel.

Provisional character outline for "Thinker." Any comments or corrections (re: game metaplot, especially) are welcome.

Real Name: Hans Tessle
Race: Human (vampire)
Birthdate: 1985
Birthplace: New York City
Date of Infection: 2017

Thinker was born to a family of fairly well-off professors at St. John's University in NYC. He attended his parent's college in 2003, and was a dual biochenistry and philosophy major, earning his PhD in both subjects in 2011. He was a very capable student, but was somewhat withdrawn from college social life. As a committed freethinker, secularist and skeptic in mystic claims, most of his friends shared his views. He was starting his career as a scientist and a skeptic right when the Awakening happened.

While many scientists scrambled to find plausible explainations for the strange events, and some even opened new lines of research into parabiology and magic, some scientists ardently denied that anything supernatural was going on. Dr. Hans Tessle was one of them. Used to being on the attack and challenging others to provide support for their claims, he barely knew how to handle being put in the defensive position, where his opponents had the facts on their side, and his views were increasibgly based on explaining away evidence. It wasn't supposed to be like this, he told himself. I studied hard, I had a passion for knowledge. Why, at the very start of my career, does everything have to stop making sense?

Increasingly, his theories on what was really going on became untennable, and his name was so discredited that he couldn't get published. He took any research work he could get his hands on. One promissing item turned up in Seattle in 2017. It concerned reports that strange people were becoming infected with some disease with all the symptoms of horror-movie vampirism! This was too good to be true, he though. He could see random, bizarre mutations making people shorter or slightly thinner and taller, with pointed ears. He could see cold readers and technologically aided frauds simluating "magic" spells. But vampires! This has to be something else, some teenage fad, some practical joke. Finally, he thought, a chance to expose a "miracle" of the "Awakening" as a myth, and to restore his name! The job was to find and study a so-called vampire.

He went to Seattle, and naively threw money around and dropped names in all the wrong places. He found a vampire: he was told that one of the "vampires" was willing to expose the whole thing as a fraud perpatuated by aging gothic types looking to cash on on the Awakening. All Dr. Tessle had to do was go to a certain address at about midnight and meet him. His optimism at returning to the limelight of the research world shut down his common sense. That night, at the age of 32, Hans Tessel was infected with HMHVV.

Years of pain and confusion followed. He was banished from the sun, banished from normal life, forced to feed off of other humans to live, like a predator. But worse, infinately worse for him, was facing, in his own life, how wrong he was, how the prinicples he held all his life, the principles he'd fought for and sacrificed his career for, were completely false. Magic was real. His own daily life was the proof.

Eventually, his anger passed. He finally noticed how beautiful the Astral plain, open for him at all times, was. He understod. There was a whole new world, a whole new reality, waiting to be discovered. He'd wasted so much time because of his dogmas, but now he had an eternity to study, to learn, to explore, to discover the truth of the Awakening. The one called "Thinker," previously known as Dr. Hans Tessle, was born.

He recently found a kindred spirit, or at least one who shared his interests, in a nosferatou named Dominic. He lives in a corner apartment in Domanic's underground "lair," and does his best to keep to himself and his studies, but will talk to anyone who can offer a sympathetic ear to his theories and thoughts.

Yummy. Just check the typos.

Just so you all know, when I read "Immunity (Age...)," I read it as looking how old they were when they were Infected/Awakened into HMHVV-infected peoples.

One thing I never thought of... Were there any cases or rumors of Vampires Goblinizing? If so... DH could be infected before Goblinization Day. If not... He may have to wait until 2021 or so. Could be tricky.

Excellent job! I'm envious.

So I take it we should share our histories with everyone else once we finish them? Wasn't sure if we were going to do that or not.

I just did it. While Thinker keeps to himself, he can talk at length about any subject, and one of his favorite subjects is himself, so none of this would be Top Secret Super Muchacho Information to the rest of his "housemates."

PS- thanks for the compliments, BTW. Yes, the typos are bad, I typed that up in a hot five minutes in notepad, so I didn't have much time to edit except for formatting.

So how's everyone coming along?

I'm almost done working out the details for my character, and he too will sware an oath to live at the Bloodbath.

Ok, the character sheet is done. tanka, I'll PM you were to find it and after I get back from lunch I'll make a post here describing the character and what you guys would know about him.

I just have a quick description of what Dominic looks like and what type of personality he has (via his personality profile and zodiac signs). I'm not sure if we're sharing backgrounds or not... so, here you go...

DOMINIC D'ARCHANGELO
Nightclub Owner and Social Engineer

Basic Stats: Born in Bremly, England, on September the 29th, 1972. This makes him a Libra born in the Year of the Rat. His personality archetype according to the Meyer-Briggs Personality Test is ENTJ (Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging).

Image: Dominic (picture) is a tall and slender Londoner with a soft accent and a seductive voice that simply oozes sex. He has slick black hair with a widow's peak just starting to turn silver with age, a sharp nose, and brilliant ice-blue eyes flecked with sunset gold. If bested at a game of chess (or any other time for that matter), he flashes a charming smile. He has a bit of a Eurotrash vibe about him, but it is easily belied by his quintessential good looks and charming demeanor. Dominic is always dressed in the latest fashions, preferring darker colors, and is immaculately groomed.

Now I remember what I was going to do... I'll finish Thinker today.

Grey is the group enforcer. Few can match his skills in combat and even fewer his ferocity. It is rare that anyone see his face, as he usually keeps his body fully covered, but those who have are shocked at his appearance. His body is well muscled and covered with scars, his skin is the color of ash, and his hair is a shimmering black. His eyes are completely black with a small white slit for a pupil. No one knows where he came from or anything about his past, and if you had to guess, neither does he. For all the things that would make those who live at the Bloodbath keep clear of him, he does regard them all as friends and he is fiercely loyal, but he has also shown that he is not one to cross, for his vengeance streak is a mile long.

In combat he prefers to use his weapon focus, but if he must do things from a distance, he does it with a Ranger-X Longbow, rather than a gun. Several people have asked him why he chooses the bow over the gun and he always shrugs it off, saying it feels more natural in his hands. He does not shun technology however, for his ninja suit is covered in ruthenium polymers, and his bows are smartlinked.

I had some fun with HeroMachine

Grey
Grey (with mask)

More info on Thinker:

Appearence: 6'1", 190 lbs, blue eyes, thinning brown hair, somewhat pale skin, walks with slightly stooped shoulders ("Tall man's disease").

Personality: Thinker dresses and acts like a university professor, the type that every freshman wants to take a class with: friendly, open to new ideas and debate, and full of amusing anecdotes. He does, however, have a tendancy to ramble on about his own research and theories. He keeps to himself mostly, trying to unravel the great mystery of the Awakening.

Role: Thinker is one of the group's spell-slingers, and doesn't specialize in any one area. Indeed, he prides himself on having a wide and varied repritoire of spells for any occasion. He is no slouch in personal combat, if it should become necessary to activate his powers for self-defense. Mostly, he acts as an intellectual support, trying to use his wits and knowledge for his advantage and that of whoever he finds himself cooperating with.

tanka, I'll PM you the actual character sheet.

I love how completely opposite GunnerJ's character and my own are from eachother. Should be fun to RP out.

Well, I wouldn't say completely opposite... "severely at variance," maybe.

I'm still working on a more suitable and tangible description of my character. I'm just rather slow about such things as I put way too much thought and time into every little thing I do with my characters during the creation period.

In any case, are we the only three still around? Where's our Banshee and Dzoo?

I'm here, just having a bit of a problem rounding out my characters bio so it's probably going to end up coming out half-assed for the sake of starting some time this year.

BTW Doc, I tweaked my character's resource priorities such that I won't need to ask for handouts, but thanks for the offer anyway.

Yay, more for me.

It's cool. I still have the 25,000 grand library anyway. You're welcome to peruse it whenever you like.

Anyway, here's a link to a butchered (meaning, stats-free) character sheet for Dominic. It doesn't have much on it yet, but it does go into more detail about his appearance, talks about his goals in the game, and gives the rough draft description of his nightclub, Club Bedlam. Let me know what you guys think.

Dominic d'Archangelo

Note also that I'll be putting up information on the Bloodbath and whatnot here, too, as soon as I get around to it, as well as anything else you guys would know in general.

That is a sweet ass character sheet, Doc!

Heh, I think the grand library is going to be one of Thinker's favorite places...

A question about enhanced physical attributes: if there are no modifiers on it, such as uses-per-day or duration, is it assumed that all physical attributes are boosted by the critter's (or in this case, character's) essense all the time?

Correct.

OK, I'm going to assume DH completely dropped, I thought he was still holding the Dzoo spot. If you know anybody who wants to play still, let them know there is one Dzoo spot and two Vampire spots left.

<uses his Influence power to get Tanka to read and respond to his PMs>

Hey, look, it worked!

I didn't even read this post. That's... Kind of scary.

Doc Funk is a... A... Nosferatu! Scary! *run/hide/cower*

Silly Nossie, you're not supposed to be badasses, you're supposed to be DER PUPPETMEISTERS, pulling all sorts of strings and levers and crap!

<waves a hand to shut Gunner up with Compulsion, then returns to his lament>

I'm having trouble deciding on some of my spells. I was wondering if you guys could help me out by critiquing my selection and offering some suggestions. Here's what I have right now. Those marked with an asterick (*) are "must-haves" for my concept.

Alleviate Allergy*
Alter Memory*
Fashion*
Healthy Glow*
Improved Invisibility
Increased Reflexes 3D6* (have to make up for you speed demons somehow)
Levitate*
Magic Fingers
Makeover*
Mob Mind
Spirit Blast (only selected in case no one else has a counter for the "watcher pack" tactic)
Trid Phantasm*

Note also that I have powers like Compulsion, Fear, and Influence, so I don't need to 'double up" on spells that perform similar affects, like Control Thoughts, Foreboding, Influence, or Mind Probe. You'll note a general lack on combat-oriented spells, too, and that was intentional.

He also gains a bonus on Illusions and Manipulations, but a penalty on Combat Spells.

Thanks in advance!

Looks like a good, well rounded spell list to me.

Did you buy extra spell points? If not, those are going to be pretty low force...

What combat skills does he have? If he's mostly an uberface, then it might not be worth it to take the increased reflexes spell. (Then again, you only HAVE to take it at force one...) This runs the line of metagaming, but Thinker has Imrpoved Invisibility already, at very high force, so if you're hurting for spell points, you might keep it low, or not at all. Come to think of it, Thinker has magic fingers too, but it's such a cool spell!

Are any of the other players going to bulk up on combat spells? Thinker only has one (Stunbolt), and while it'd be good to have Spiritblast, it'd be better for someone without penatlies to use it. If you need a good offensive spell that you won't get shafted with because of totem modifiers, maybe try an elemental manipulation spell?

Again, if you spent massive amounts of cash on spell points, then go nuts, but if you need to prioritize, them be my suggestions.

Another question: are vampires dual natured? Their essense in Critters doesn't have a Z next to it...

I have the spell points I need.

He has virtually no combat skills, save for Pistols 1 (Tiffani Needler 3). He does, however, have a very competent Bodyguard (Level 3 Contact). If he gets into a jam and is undefended, he'll make a tactical retreat. He's not the aggressive type.

I really didn't want Spiritblast at all; like I said, it's there solely for the Watcher Pack attacks. I imagine that would be popular with vampire hunters as it would give 'em a sizeable penalty on melee attacks, which is why I rationalized it. I wouldn't object to putting those points into something more appropriate for my concept, though.

If you have Improved Invisibility at a high Force, I might go ahead and get Physical Mask instead. Kind of do that whole Incubus thing.

Nosferatu are the only dual-natured vampires. Everyone else is "mundane" I believe. Like you said, there's no Z and I asked Tanka about it already.

Now how did I miss that little "Z" next to the Nosferatu's Essence... I'll be... It's there, and I was about to reprimand Doc Funk for being wrong.

See, a GM can be wrong!

Shut it.

This knowledge is not for the scum... I mean, players, to know.

You say that like it's a good thing. Sure, I don't suffer any penalties while astrally perceiving, but I can't stop astrally perceiving either. <shakes his fist angrily>

And don't worry about it, I forgot that the Z meant that when I was originally asking you about all of that. I feel like such an idiot.

Don't worry, I won't pit you against any L3 Initiate Wendigos that will decide to possess you and shout "Boo!" whilst using Fear on your teammates.

Yes, that happened to me. *shakes fist*

No, it will not ever happen to you. Possession is just so... Icky!

Out of curiosity, do dual-natured individuals stop being dual-natured (their body at least) while astrally projecting?

And how exactly are we going to be handling Stun damage and things like Drain in this game? If you stick with your original argument on the main forum, does that mean that we actually become more formidable spellcasters while projecting (all Drain is Physical regardless of Magic)?

Also, since Nosferatu don't have the Induced Dormancy bit that other vampires do, does that mean I remain fully functional when deprived of oxygen (or do I just not breathe at all unless I want to pretend I am/speak)?

Frek. Was the information I gave for Bedlam, his nightclub, sufficient or did you want me to go into detail about the security measures, who the bouncers are, who the on-staff magician is, and all those other things? Note that I'll have the Facility, Lifestyle Payments, Advertising Budgets, and all of that stuff detailed on the main character sheet.

Oh, and last (for now) but not least, how do you want us to determine our starting cash? You know, the 3D6×100¥ bit...

I think so, since your "soul" leaves your body.

Ok, I have found out that you can't link directly to pictures when using GeoCities, so here is the page you can go to and see what Grey looks like.

HeroMachine is fun!

Grey, with and without his hood.

I would really like to join this game.
I would need to know the rules for vampires in shadowrun though. In what book do you find the rules for vamps ?
I believe two of the three spots available are ordinary vampires, what's the 3rd spot ?