Ok the 1st thing I am going to need is the method or way that most of you receive info on new jobs so I can throw up the intro posts. Thanks!

Not sure if I covered this before but I award 1 point of karma a week on Mondays so add a point and let's get started. Thanks again for waiting and I also allow a one week grace period for tweaking characters assuming you don't make any severe modifications (street sam to holistic shaman, etc). I will need final character sheets emailed to me by Sunday night.

As before feel free to ask questions, throw in feedback, etc.

Main contact (especially for Yakuza related stuff) would be Winter.

Godzilla would get most of his work via Victor Legos, his fixer. Victor refers to him as Morph.

This is the first time I've played an RPG by forum post, so I may need a quick primer on the mechanics of it

Should we post our characters in this thread?

Spider has a regular Fixer contact, through whom he normally gets jobs. I'm happy to flesh out the details of that or leave those up to you, as you prefer. I still need to fill out the bare bones of Spider's background in any case.

DS

/popcorn

You guys better put on a good show =P I'll be watching!

That picture is pretty much exactly how I'd imagined Munkir's mentor spirit looking. Apart from the sword as Korean blades are straight edged.

I'm going to shut up now and enjoy the show =D

When I'm on the reservation, jobs roll through Mynce. If this one smacks a bit too much of personal vendetta for the Society, then through my information broker/fixer--Mother Spider.

That would be coming through Patric for me. Don't generally care much about the spesifics of the job so long as it involves damaging Ares or the Yakuza.

Stupid double post after already posting after myself... oh well... um.... how do we roll dice here?

Going to put up a copy of my character sheet, both for easy online refrence and to ask if anyone can point out anything that I have blatently forgotten to add (like knowladge skills earlier)

Character Sheet


Background:


Notes to self:

Most of my work comes through Victor, but occasionally Whiskey Jack, the night club owner, might pass along some requests or arrange a meeting with mutual friends.

Sending out a character tweek later tonight

Karaden - or anyone - do you think I should drop demolitions since you're taking it? or stick to the character theme I have going as a weapons expert?

Really up to you. In a group this large it is understandable to have some overlapping skills, I may not always be able to get to the point and you can, or we may want to set up multipul explosives at the same time. Of course it is also another skill you could get. I'd honsetly say it is up to you. If you can get something really handy it may well be worth it, but if what you get isn't particularly useful then it may be better to have a 'backup' demolishonist.

Ok, gonna keep it, he has a thing for grenades. He specializes in improvised devices...might come in handy.

Wow, this is definitely a dark group of characters I mean, not that I'm a bright shining snowflake out of the group, but I'm definitely outclassed by the crazy guy that drips acid and the grim reaper troll.

As a general note, slot me into the utility mage role. Pretty decent ally spirit, and lots of utility spells, like Imp. Invis, Trid Phantasm, Heal, Spirit Barrier, Physical Barrier, Levitate, Detect Individual, etc.

Rayne's not so much dark, as a bright, shiny ball of hate.

Yeah, I might of went a little over the top. I figured it was either the grim reaper troll from hell or Shrek... The grim reaper troll ate Shrek so that narrowed down my choices some

I actually like the way this has started so far, Red's acid fingers were a little creepy and McQ's freaky bloodsucker really set the stage. "Never forgive, Never forget"

Awesome intro posts so far.

For dice rolling I prefer a method that lets me know what attributes/skills are begin used and then a total of hits from the roll, see the example below for a Shadowing Roll with a specialization in Tailing:

Shadowing Sp:Tailing + Intuition
01 02 02 03 05 05 06 06 (4 hits)

You're welcome to use web based or computer die rollers or go old school with actual dice. Make sure you declare Edge use and all that. Please feel free to remind me of any modifiers/effects that may affect a roll since there are 8 of you and 1 of me. I am going to forget some details, it happens sorry.

Based on my schedule I will be bumping on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday with the understanding one of the days may be dropped as real life dictates but I want at least two bumps a week. So as I mentioned in the original recruitment thread my plan is to assign a player the role of leader so when things stall out like they can in play by post games, I can look to that player to help me get things up and running again. I have picked Fenris as that point person since I have played/runned with him in the forums and at numerous table top games. I want to avoid a drop in forward momentum if a player drops out of sight for whatever reason. That work for everyone?

I will be throwing out the initial posts to bring everyone together tomorrow in the late afternoon. See ya all then.

PS I edited the list of characters so take a look.

I'll send you the newest version of Munkir in two seconds Buddha, he's now a Mystic Adept with a penchant for throwing knives as well as chopping people up with spurs and other blades. Makes the character much cleaner overall. Balanced out some skills, and spent a huge chunk of on linguasofts and knowsofts.

Rules question.

While channeling a spirit who has the ability to aid sorcery, can I have it use it when I cast a spell? I'd think yes, but things get messy when you have the channeling metamagic (and ally spirits to boot!). Nothings stated about the interactions of those type of things.

Oh, and for the record. My character is definitely dark and creepy as well.

Edit:

Forgot to add that my Fixers name is an Elf named Sadie. So job's would either be through her, or alternatively Jude or Lucy, as sometimes their customers tip them off to interesting goings on.

Dropped a second intro post to elaborate on my character a bit.

His hatred of the Yakuza is a new thing; I figure week(s) old. He is not known on the street as Godzilla and at this point I figure he has only struck at the Yakuza once, having tracked down the specific group of thugs who turned his world so dark.

BTW: Did we ever get a final tally of who all is affiliated with Black Star and any who are members of Triple-A?

Rayne is not affiliated with either group.

Munkir is not a Affiliated with Black Star or a member of Triple-A.

Hads is affiliated with whichever one is not the actual initiation group, as he has no magic.

Oh, and Redjack, not to be really picky or anything, but those where Katakana and not Kanji.

And good to have you along Eze.. Kind of funny though, in another game I'm playing in we are currently on a run to try and find a guy named.. Ezeckial, who has vanished for an as of yet unknown reason. Just thought it was kinda funny.

Anyway, is it just me, or is there a high concentration of awakened people in this group, even by normal 'shadowrun groups have highly sqewed % of awakened people' convention?

I noticed that myself. And glad to be here.

Eze's been my internet tag for a while, ever since I started playing WoW. It's a bit more unconventional then the other ones I was using before then.

Black Star is the anarchist group, Triple-A is the initiation group. So Hads would be a member of Black Star.

Great posts so far by the way guys.

No, I ment Eze's for the sepiku, should have said that I suppose.

Krossfire is not affiliated with either group, but he has Victor Lego as a fixer contact. He also provides security for a nightclub. Either of those two could be used as tie ins...

Yah, the leader of the small group Munkir jumped committed Sepuku when he was offered the chance of an honorable death.

Bonus points if someone knows how the names Munkir and Nakir (Nakir being the name of his ally spirit) are related to the scene described in the IC post.

Hint: It has to do with the question he asks them.

Alright, time to catch up on things in order:

On nomitations:
Congrats to all who immediately made it in game.
Yet there are many (minus 1) lurking around you, eagerly awaiting your fall (this goes double for treacherous Mundungi/Mundungae/Mundungen/Munpluralform), so:
You better always remember to watch your back.
...
And your front.
And your car.
And your food.
And squirrels, yes, definitely watch out for squirrels...


On IC intros:
Buddha:
I really like the atmosphere you set there (nice pic, btw). You think piano got a chance to invite her to a fancy dinner sometime?

Redjack:
The whole 'involuntary casting in your sleep' thing is great.
I mean, just imagine the possibilities of casting 'Dream' while you're asleep, or wake yourself with a friendly 'Trid Phantasm'.
And when you're really not a morning person and your phantasm fails to work his/her charm - switch to 'Bugs'. (or *cough*Orgasm*cough*)
Although waking up with drain damage kind of sucks...

BishopMcQ:
Rayne's not really a vampire, right? What with all the hunger for blood, roaring instincts and cold breath you mention...
Otherwise I might have to put a 'Exotic Melee Weapon: Wooden Stakes' skillsoft on my shopping list.

Dirtz:
Oooh. I would've loved to see how the situation turned out with Shrek instead.

Karaden:
Wow. Talk about a properly prepared hit. So many exactly placed charges...or did Hads snipe with rocket launchers?

Ezeckial:
Grrr! Traitor! That slap was mine!

Fenris:
Nice. I like Ally Spirits that are more proactive and independent. Care to share the naming details (kanji/translation/noticethatI'mtotallyoffwithmyassumptionofitbeingjapanese)?

ZenZen:
Get me a spot inside and you too will learn about the dark, cruel and corpseladen misdeeds of the man known as 'piano'... *flashlight illuminating face from below* *mysterious handwaving* *"wooouuuuooo"-sounds*


On mage surplus:
That didn't surprise me much, given the situation with 300 extra Karma - in that range awakened chars have a distinct advantage (or at least had the chance to cover their weaknesses), especially with no hard restriction on Initiation and the second-PC-option called high force ally spirit.
I hope you all remembered to Dikote™ them...


On japanese:
Seconding the kanji/kana issue.
Also note: Whether intentional or not, spelling 'gojira' with katakana was absolutely correct (TOHO does it this way and they should know...), he doesn't have kanji associated with his name.

The proper hepburn romanization of '切腹' would be 'seppuku', not 'sepiku' and I got my doubts about this yaks' choice to commit it in a situation like this. (no offense intended, though)
/lecture


On my own char:
While definitely on par with his (future) teammates in terms of grim and accumulated bodycount, he's not what you'd consider an avenger (although yaks do have a special place in his cold, cold heart ) - not yet, at least.
Being mundane, he's no member of the AAA and while more of a nihilist himself, he got good connections to the anarchist underground and thus he should be no stranger to Black Star circles.
Oh, and you don't have to worry about friendly fire with him - if he kills you, it was fully intentional.


Anyhow - keep it up, I'll be closely watching this game, biding my time and throwing popcorn (& poison darts) as necessary.

I admit I had debated for a while if I should use explosive charges or rockets for a while when I was doing up that scene, but I finally settled on rockets, since placing the explosives would have required alot of lucky guesswork (Or more explosives then even hads would use... usually) on where exactly the gangers would be standing. It was infact two frag rockets and one HE rocket for the case. And of course an APDS sniper round on the guy's skull (Yes, APDS on a skull is overkill, haven't I mentioned this already about him?) Fun fact: he was on the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, and his rockets use a propelent that doesn't leave a smoke trail (Military grade rocks)


As for the katakana, gozira actually, the tentens make it a zi instead of a ji and I changed the r to an l as that is how it is generally pronounced, but anyway, Japanese for Godzilla none the less.

How the heck did you manage to post Kanji anyway? Not something I see rominized enough, so I don't doubt your right, and now that I think about it it does have a double p, but I still thought it it was an i not a u, oh well, maybe just from always hearing it mispronounced. I'd agree with the unlikelyness of it, but I'm not too fussed, makes for a good story.

As for secret meanings in Fenris's names, I don't know of any from Japanese, though I'd hate to be caught with a name starting with baka (Which rarely means anything particularly good when used as a prefix) but it doesn't really mean alot, Japanese have lots of funny names if you actually go and take them as words (Mountain being one of the most common ones.)

Nope, not a real Vamp with HMHVV etc.

So it was rockets and not a longshot test at setting explosives, after all.
I wouldn't worry too much about a single APDS round though, he was on the safe (and professional) side to have it chambered in case his target started running and he had to take a center mass shot to be sure.
The military rockets, on the other hand, are a very expensive area to overkill in...
(Cool fun fact, btw - I appreciate details like that.)


I'm not sure where you get a 'zi' from, the tenten (or dakuten) makes a 'ji' out of the 'shi' (in hepburn, at least).
Regarding r/l pronounciation: my experience is that they (native speakers) tend to pronounce it somewhere inbetween, more like 'r' in some words, more like 'l' in others, but generally have a hard time differentiating between the two (try accurately pronouncing chinese and you'll get to know the problem too - either you grew up with it, or it's hard to distinguish between and recreate certain sounds).
Anyhow, I get the feeling of certain derailing/off-topicy tendencies here (that I'm not quite innocent of myself *cough*).

About posting Kanji:
It's called an IME (input method editor) and comes with most OS's for all common languages that need them (basically all that got more than some 30 characters).
It's not usually part of a standard installation (at least not when you live in a country using the latin alphabet, which keyboards were designed for) - either select when freshly installing your OS or just add afterwards - you might need your OSs' install disk for that, though.
What you do for japanese is (after installing):
-select japanese keyboard layout - a small window from the IME will pop up where you can select between katakana/hiragana/kanji, drawing board and others
-type phonetically
-switch between different choices (especially important when writing kanji, of course) with 'space key' as necessary
-select with 'return'
The drawing board option is fun as well when you know how to draw a certain kanji - while it generally looks like crap drawing with the mouse, the recognition rate is surprisingly good (at least with the simple ones I tried...).

Alternate method:
-find the kanji you're looking for on any website
-copy
-paste


On Fenris' chars: Yep, baka-anything for a name would be unusual at least, so I figured 'Bakatare' to be ironic. In what way I cannot say without the owners' explanation, though...


@Bishop:
Phew, i'm relieved (your char should be as well - her 'death by pencil-backstab' was really close). Is she a changeling or a poser, then?

Changeling, fangs and odd skin/hair. The blood feeding and anger are ingrained into her psyche from youth--she doesn't remember much about her first few years except that she was living on the street until her master took her in at 16. Now it's part of her magic and personal addictions.

True, but his main supplyer is all military grade stuff, so it isn't a big deal for him.

Ok, now back to the Japanese derail. Yeah, your right, don't know what I was thinking.. well kinda do, thought it was a tsu, not a shi, and somehow got them mixed up to give me the z from tsu and the i from shi.. go figure. And yeah, it is a kind of inbetween, but usually if it is a native japanese word (Hirigana) it is more of an l sound and if it is from another language (katakana) it is more of an r sound. At least that is how it usually seems and makes my life easier.

Didn't know that you could do that and have it post properly on forums and such, very cool.

People do weird things when they're about to die, think their souls are being judged by the angel of death..... And have the suggestion power helping them out

There's some fun things you can do with spirit powers.....

Godzilla played by Redjack - elf shaman
Bakatare played by Fenris - human hermetic chaos mage
Rayne played by BishopMcQ - human physical adept
Hads played by Karaden - human heavy weapons expert
Krossfire played by Dirtz - troll street sam
Munkir played by Ezeckial - human Mundungu

Hmmm... Any signs of our hacker or dancer...?
Vance played by Gerth - dwarf mafia made decker/hacker
Spider played by Sponge - elf ex-dancer/martial artist

I saw where Sponge said he is a new pbp player. I'll PM him and see if he's found the threads.
Looking up Gerth, I see his is a new member with 0 posts...? Must have submitted his character via email?

Correct on Gerth. He's waiting to get his account approved so he can post.

Ezeckial As far as your rules question it seems to be allowable, I'll chat with a few GM friends who have run quite a few more games than me and will let you know but for now let's go with it being ok.

Sorry late night last night but I am throwing up IC posts this morning.

I f we don't see or hear something from Sponge by Sunday I will be dropping him and bringing in another runner from the back up list. Thanks Redjack for PMing Sponge, I appreciate the help.

Also please do not post light grey on grey (or at least on my screen it's a grey background), it makes it a total pain in the arse to read and my eyes are not getting any better over here.

Edit: Good to see ya Sponge.

Eze - You are correct in your assumptions of irony. Got called that so many times when he was being trained by the Yaks that it stuck

As for the naming of the spirit, I was originally going to do something like a variation of wisdom, but ended up bastardizing it into something that is, as far as I know, not actually a word in Japanese.

My fucked up eyes thank you deeply.

Post is up. You have until tomorrow at noon to meet so let me know if there is anything you all are going to do in the time between. Also let me know what time you're arriving at the location as well so I can stage the IC posts accordingly. Thanks all!

Munkir and Nakir are angels of death, in the Islam tradition they question a persons spirit and determine if their wait for rebirth is enjoyable or horrific. Very cool concept...

@Sponge, don't let your noobiness stall your posting. I'm new here also and often get intimidated by the quality some of these guys can write with. The most important thing is to participate, learn by doing. Mistakes WILL happen but everyone here just wants to have fun so don't worry about it.

Yah, that new grey color is much better. Much easier to read.

Personally I don't know anything about the Japanese language, it's Fenris, ZenZen and Karaden, who know this type of stuff.

Glad to see your alive Sponge, don't worry too much about your post, just write something that fits your character and you'll be fine. (For the record this is my first pbp as well).

I know the feeling of waiting for your account to be confirmed, I thought I was going to miss the deadline for this as well waiting for mine to be confirmed.

As for the aid sorcery, that'd help bring my spellcasting dice up out of the gutters. I'll still have the smallest dice pool among our casters (probably), but that's the way he's designed. I'm coming up with all sorts of complications and rules questions aren't I... Oh well, he's cool, that's all I care about.

@Buddha
When summoning and binding, since I am using invisible castle, do you want me to roll the resistance rolls or await a reply from you for the spirit resistance?

Assuming you want me to go ahead and roll resistance since I'm using an online roller:
You can also look up the history of all rolls for this character at: http://invisiblecastle.com/search/?search=Godzilla


BTW: Is there any positive effect to me for the spirit of man glitching the summoning resistance test?

Yes, add another service to the summoning. Something would happen to a player only seems fair the spirit should get something for glitching.

On resistance rolls and the like, I am fine if you're using a web based roller like above. If you're doing it yourself let me know and I'll roll the tests as well as any for NPCs you're interacting with. That way nothing is every under a question of bias or fudging. Cleaner all around.

Godzilla's agent browsing for information about the meet location.

Hmmm, this gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. IIRC the international district is Yak territory, more so Hanzo Shotizumi's backyard! ""ello, my name is [insert name]. You killed my [insert deceased relation], prepare to die".

@Buddha,

I want to backdate my little italian job about a week or so if its not a problem.

When I punch in the address to my seattle mapsoft what comes up? Bar? diner? sports arena? morgue?

Local area knowledge check or can we assume our group knows we're headed into the lion's den?

Do you have a timestamp we can start using? Time/day/month/year or is it not necessary?

What kind of format do you want us to use when we post? include comm info?

Sorry, just being a noob...