yeah, that's fine. Actually if anyone notices any little things they left off their sheets, just feel free to add them. There is a lot of gear in Shadowrun and it's easy to overlook stuff. Just let me know.

Oh, and Jazz comes in a puffer kinda like an asthma inhaler. It's prepackaged so you don't need to worry about a delivery method.

I was just poking around Youtube looking for music for Crushers and realized that there already is a genre called TrollMetal... I'm not sure if I should be amused or frightened.

I just realized I never found this out - what is the rating limit? I.E. could I get, say, a Rating 5 Fake SIN for 20 rating, or is that out-of-bounds?

Also, may I invest in "Clothing for all occasions" without having to list each type separately?

Rating limit is standard at 12.

As far as clothing goes I usually break it down as follows. Really just spend what you feel is reasonable though.

"Street cloths" 100 for enough to wear on a regular basis. Jeans, T-Shirts, kahkis ect.
"Stylish cloths" 1000 for enough to wear on a regular basis. Just like street cloths, but it's the right brand name and therefore 'stylish'.
"Buisness cloths" 500 per outfit. Suits, jackets, stuff like that. An Acctioneer is (armoured) 'buisness' attire.
"High end cloths" 1000+ per outfit. Tailored suits, fancy dresses, bags with the designers name on them, all that stuff. The sky is the limit on the price of these cloths.

Alright, I've finished my character. Online character sheet posted below, .xls is at http://www.mediafire.com/?tzxhgtptxdx . If we can't post Mediafire links in Dumpshock, someone tell me and I'll remove it.


Streetname: Loki
Primary SIN: Locyr Cahara
Concept: Money-hungry because he was always deprived of luxury as a child, he is still loyal to the core. He runs for prestige and money/favors.
Race: Elf

Attributes: # BP
Bod: 2 (2)
Agi: 3 (3)
Rea: 3 (3)
Str: 2 (2)
Cha: 8 (8)
Int: 5 (5)
Log: 3 (5)
Wil: 2 (5)
Magic: 5
Edge: 3 (3)
Essence: 6

Skills: 47

Knowledge Skills: 24 (23)

Negative Qualities:
Incompetent (longarms) (5)
Combat Paralysis (20)
Gremlins 2 (10)

Positive Qualities:
Exceptional Attribute (charisma)

Cyber/bioware: 0 (0)

Gear:
High Lifestyle, 1 month
3 outfits Business Clothes
Commlink (Fairlight Caliban with Novatech Navi)
Thundercloud Contrail (Racing Bike, pg108 Arsenal)
Greatcoat
Fake License, Rating 4
Fichetti Tiffani Needler
50 Rounds Flechette Ammunition
Fake SIN, Rating 3
5 outfits Street Clothes
2 outfits Stylish Clothes
6 outfits High End Clothes

Contacts: 23
Tinman (Fixer) 2/3 [free]
Jones (Mr. Johnson) 4/4
"Coach" Colasanto (Bartender) 5/5




Tell me if it needs any changes.

Just as a note, Fake SIN's are also availability ratingx3, not x4. One of the many errata they released.

Edit: Unless I'm crazy Nigel, you have an awful lot of unspent BP...at least 80 something, assuming you used all 50 you could on resources, and it doesn't look like you spent that many. Unless I'm missing something obvious, like you meant you spend 147 on skills, and not 47.

I'll have to look over it in more detail but I'll say right away he's very light on active skills. He doesn't even have any combat skills. He'll be very good at talking but not much else. I'd suggest either dropping your Charisma down by a point to free up 25 BP's (it isn't worth it to max an attribute at chargen) or dropping some of your knowledge skills down a bit. The BK's for the social skills for example will likely very rarely prove useful and his interest in high fashion of 6 would be more likely in a small time fashion designer than a Shadowrunner.

Imperialus: Alright. I'm kinda new at this character stuff (I've only made 1 other so far, and that was with two experienced players/GMs). Charisma isn't maxed out due to Exceptional Attribute, which in retrospect was not a good idea. I'll take away some of the knowledge skills and add some more active (probably Pilot Ground Craft and shooting pistols). Thanks for the tips!

Seraph Kast: I didn't know that about Fake SINs, very useful. The chargen.xls told me I have no unspent BP. I only spent 9 on resources, as well. I'll rework it, hopefully with the help of another (more experienced) player.

Not sure, I just totalled up what you have on the one in the forum, it could be something is out of wack with the spreadsheet, or that there's stuff on there you didn't account for in the forum version. Heh, just don't want to see you make a character that's at 75% the BP of everyone elses.

I went through and crunched the numbers. The numbers are right, the numbers are just a little odd because it's calculating an exceptional attribute, a maxed out charisma and a bunch of points put into knowledge skills.

Next IC post is up. Cya all tomorrow . Feel free to ask Tinman or Sybercat any IC questions you might have. Neither of them know anything more about the run though.

Alright, I've revised it (with the help of Imperialus, thanks much!).


Locyr Cahara 2.xls shows that I have 405 BP, but Tinman is free and the 5 points from that don't count toward my total. The .xls has no way of knowing that, though.

I did have some difficulty spending most of my money (I had 2325 left after I'd gotten what I wanted and more) so I got a Fake License and SIN for low-risk encounters. Feel free to suggest better purchases of stuff.

Streetname: Loki
Primary SIN: Locyr Cahara
Concept: Money-hungry because he was always deprived of luxury as a child, he is still loyal to the core. He runs for prestige and money/favors.
Race: Elf

Attributes: # BP
Bod: 3 (3)
Agi: 3 (3)
Rea: 3 (3)
Str: 2 (2)
Cha: 7 (7)
Int: 5 (5)
Log: 3 (5)
Wil: 2 (5)
Magic: 5
Edge: 3 (3)
Essence: 6

Skills: 100

Knowledge Skills: 24 (12)

Negative Qualities:
Incompetent (longarms) (5)
Combat Paralysis (20)
Gremlins 2 (10)

Positive Qualities:
First Impression

Cyber/bioware: 0 (0)

Gear:High Lifestyle, 1 month
3 outfits Business Clothes
Commlink (Fairlight Caliban, Novatech Navi, Subvocal Mic)
Thundercloud Contrail (Racing Bike, pg108 Arsenal)
Greatcoat
Fake License, Rating 4
Fichetti Tiffani Needler
50 Rounds Flechette Ammunition
Fake SIN, Rating 4
5 outfits Street Clothes
2 outfits Stylish Clothes
6 outfits High End Clothes
Berwick Suit Jacket (3/2), Dinner Jacket (2/2), Trousers (1/1)
Armour Vest (6/4)
Lined Coat (6/4)
Actioneer Business cloths (5/3)
Maglock 6, Card-reader, Anti-tamper 4, Biometric (Loki)
Contact Lenses (Flare Comp, Image Link, Vision Rating 3)
Ceramic Knife
Savalette Guardian
70 Rounds Regular Ammo
+3 to Starting Resources

Contacts: 30
Tinman (Fixer) 2/3 [free]
Jones (Mr. Johnson) 4/4
"Coach" Colasanto (Bartender) 5/5
Mr. King (Beat cop) 3/4
Doc Jalopy (Street doc) 2/3
Sybercat (Hacker) 2/2

Magic: 40
Kinesics 2
Improved Reflexes I
Combat Sense 2
Commanding Voice
Mystic Armor
Improved Sense (Flare Comp)

Minor question on my (Mack's) Perception roll.
Given the cyberEyes (Vision Magnification 3 is supposed to add 3 dice to perception) and the ears (although that does not seem to apply to this case) I would have expected to roll 9 dice. I presume there was a reason for getting only 6, and would be curious what the situation modifiers were.

Note: I am assuming that the 0 hits result will stand, not looking to change that.
Mostly, I am trying to make sure I understand the vision mods for later circumstances. I had hoped that low light, thermographic, and vision enhance 3 eyes would givve me 9 dice in circumstances where I was likely to be looking at / for things, and 7 dice otherwise.

The background noise from the band is goign to more than neutralize any advantage from my earbuds. Heck, I expect it is going to take concentration just to hear Tinman accurately

Thanks,
Joel

That was me quickly looking at your character sheet and forgetting you had the vision enhancement. I added it to my quick pools list now though so it won't happen again.

The earbuds only help with auditory cues, in this case you were noticing something about Tinman's face.

Heck, I probably yanked the earbuds when the music started anyway. I only mentioned them for completeness. I understand that they would not have applied anyway.

Thanks,
Joel

I was wondering if you let your characters take (x) months of whatever lifestyle, and then some of another in case the first one blew up? Not in the literal sense, I mean if it was found out to be yours or whatnot. I ask because that'd be a nice way to round out my lifestyle, a few months of Squatter (so I can rebuild my funds if that does happen).

LOL

Actually in SR4 there are no rules for multiple lifestyles. According to the RAW you have a single lifestyle that reflects your overall standard of living, this includes food, entertainment, and all that sort of stuff. In my head at least this makes sense and saves trying to figure out how much a lifestyle costs when you aren't using it. That said though, I do use safehouses somewhat differently. Rather than costing 500 per day which IMO is just ridiculous you can, with a call to an appropriate contact (Tinman for example) rent a 'safehouse' lifestyle. The cost is 4000 per month, or 1000 per week. The amenities are similar to a low lifestyle but security is extremely tight (at least equal to a high lifestyle). Other possibilities include renting a coffin motel or cheap motel room at 30 or 100 per night, or 150 or 500 per week respectively. This includes amenities equal to a squatter or low lifestyle but you need to provide your own security. Either of these options can be done on extremely short notice and saves constantly needing to make payments on a lifestyle you never use.

What? you're saying you aren't a fan of some Swede screaming into a microphone with fiddles in the background? You aren't the one who got that music stuck in your head while slogging through YouTube trying to find music that would make Crushers seem like a real live, hellhole of a bar.

I see. I'll definitely need to keep that "safehouse" lifestyle in mind.

Forgot to mention that 90% of the various safehouses will be run by assorted organized crime groups. It might be good to check up on who's keeping the lights on if you piss off any syndicates. Just as a free tip any safehouses set up by Tinman will be run by the Vory. Wouldn't do much good to go to ground after killing a bunch of Yak's only to realize they're the ones that own the building you're hiding out in.

Also a professional safehouse lifestyle includes food delivery, drycleaning, a rolodex of various shadow services that make housecalls and is basically set up so that you don't have to leave if you don't want to. It's boring, but at least it's safe.

This is mostly just a filler post, I'll try to post the meet at Chiaroscuro in a couple hours.

Loki: It's up to you if you want to pursue any kind of relationship with Sybercat. If you do, add her as a loyalty 2 connections 2 contact. Consider bedroom antics to be handwaved during downtime. You don't need to worry about her cramping your style any time soon. It's more a friends with benefits relationship than dating, and she's not the jealous type. And yes this is one of the perks of being a face.

Sweeps: You might want to split the cash up among the team. Use it for situations that you don't want to broadcast your PAN information but you still want to hand over some money. Cash is still reasonably common, especially for small purchases and among the lower classes. 5 dollars is equal to approximately 1 nuyen.

Can I ask a huge favour, this is probably not convention, but could you add the words IC and OOC to their respective threads.

When we get email notices they both are called "Greenhorns in Seattle" but the topic description is not included.

I had a kind of mini spoiler when I read this thread before the IC.

It went like this:

CASH!! WHAT CASH!!!???

EDIT:
Am I giving some to Sybercat too?

there's not really a need for him to... this is, after all, the OOC thread...

Hey Dusty, when you're posting in the IC board, be careful to avoid posting the reactions of PCs for them. Some people can be rather cranky about that

Just a friendly word of advice.

Unfortunatly I can't edit subject lines which is what I would need to do to get the emails to display the proper title. That's why the recruiting thread still says recruitment is open.

Don't worry about Sybercat. She has her own resources. She'll take a cut of the payoff for the run but incidental costs aren't an issue for her.

This is good advice. I realize I sometimes ascribe actions to PC's like when I had Loki take the van with the rest of the team rather than striking off on his own but that falls more under the category of GM prerogative and is done in the interest of speeding the story along or introducing plot twists (like a possible budding romance). There isn't much point in waiting up to a day or so for Nigel to post a response to a conversation that over a table would take all of five seconds but you'll notice I didn't make an overall decision or roleplay any kind of reaction for him. For all you know Padre might be a money grubbing mercenary, who wouldn't blink twice at an opportunity to get handed some cash with no strings attached.

In my experience once characters begin to get more fleshed out and the PC's develop closer relationships with each other then this bit of PbP etiquette tends to fall by the wayside but initially at least it's best to let people roleplay their own reactions. Once you know (or have a pretty good idea of) how a given character will react to a set of circumstances then it's a bit more acceptable to insert small reactions like how I did with Mack and his reaction to the Trog Metal band. I already knew he had a taste for classical music and didn't like Dark Angel's recording so it was a pretty fair assumption to say that he was not going to be a metal fan either.

Right! Point taken.

I'll edit the post to a more suitable nature.

So $1250 each,

Also, having difficulty finding the cost for something like Jazz. Anyone offer help so I can add a couple of doses to my character? I know it's late, but having the addiction should mean he has the drug on him. Or he at least forgot it and left it at home.

1000 each actually. There are 5 of you plus Sybercat.

Yeah, for some strange reason the Dev's didn't include drug costs in the BBB...

Jazz is probably the most common combat drug on the market, lots of low end security companies use it to give their officers an edge but its use is restricted. In terms of combat benefits, +1 Reaction and +1 Initiative is pretty significant and it doesn't have any really nasty side effects when you crash like Cram does but it's got a short duration so I'll give it the same price/availability as Red Mescaline from Arsenal. 50 availability 4R.

Also keep in mind that with a mild addition you don't need to be popping Jazz too often. Right now your addiction would be more psychological than physical. You know you're not the fastest kid on the block so you feel you need the Jazz to give you that speed boost when things get hairy. Whenever you take a hit just make sure you note the time and roll for the duration 10x1d6 and remember to roleplay the aftereffects when you crash. Fortunately crashing from Jazz only lasts about 5 minutes.

Yeah, I think I'll pursue a relationship with her. Nothing binding or committing, just friends with benefits as you said. My roll for starting cash (I keep forgetting to link there) is here, for a total of 7500. Add 1000 to that and it's 8500 (I'll keep track of character money in my sig, if that's all right).

Dammit! Sorry again! ADHD bugging my game a bit here. Forgot about Loki.


So is that per dose?

Nigel and Mickle: I'm writing up the description of Chiaroscuro and am coming to the realization that something is missing if I describe it in purely mundane terms. I've decided to give each of you the astral perception ability for free. I'm going to treat it in a similar manner as I do AR, in that for the most part you can just ignore it, I'll just assume that it is always on when it needs to be and off when it will be inconvenient. It'll only help you guys out, never come back to bite you. If at some point you feel like taking a more dynamic hand in its use then you can initiate and pay the power points to assume full control of it.

Dusty: Yep, that's the price per dose.

Actually 1000 UCAS dollars is 200 nuyen. You might want to track your hard cash separately.

Ok, put me up for 4 doses, I have one on me and the rest are at home. Ok?

Ok... First real post of the adventure is up. Up till this point we've been chugging along the railroad tracks while I tried to set the scene and get the group together. Now the ball is in your hands. Just a couple suggestions to point you in the right direction since the initial legwork is often one of the most challenging aspects of a run.

If you want to try and wrangle more money out of Icelady make an IC argument and a negotiation roll.

You might want to ask Icelady some more questions about Angel, his music, his friends, his band, whatever springs to mind. If you do give me an etiquette roll.

You could also take a look at your contacts list and see if any of them might have a connection with the music industry. Feel free to get in touch with them and ask whatever but post an etiquette roll for good measure.

As far as what the adventure itself has planned, you could go check out Dynamo at Xanadu studios, try and track down Angel's bandmates, see what the cops know, or go poking around Haven. You might even want to ask the Bartender here at Chiaroscuro if she knows anything, after all Angel was supposed to have a gig here tonight.

*edit* and everyone gets 5 karma for making it through the intro.

Just as a quick question: how much should we use this thread to coordinate things? I'm going on the assumption that most of the stuff we need to do should be brought up in game, with maybe clarification here if need be.

It's up to you guys, I've seen both methods work. My advice would be run with the IC discussions. It gives you more of an opportunity to describe your characters which is always good in a PbP.

Just edited my post with a question or two for Icelady.

Quick Appology, comrades. I don't know how often I'll be able to post, because I just got back from college and my computer's not connecting to the internet for some reason. Therefore, I'm stuck sharing a computer with my workaholic dad and my brother who's in high school. I'll try to post at least once a day, maybe every other... but I thought I'd give you warning about this.

No worries Mickle. Computer troubles can't be helped. We'll try and keep Padre out of trouble.

Actually wanted to ask you guys something. Do you like the Youtube links to the various songs? I think it helps inject a bit of life into the game, especially since this particular adventure is so focused on music. I always listen to music when I'm working on SR stuff, (though my personal tastes tend more towards older punk bands) and Shadowrun has always struck me as a society that marches to the beat of it's music, and it plays a huge role in most peoples lives.

With regard to the music, my reaction is to say it's nice, but don't take a lot of trouble for it. There is a definite elegance (I liked the "trance music" for the bar.)

Joel

I'd like to roll my gossip knowlege skill to see what I know about any of the people involved. What should I roll with it?

Yeah, I enjoy the music additions. It's always nice, and whenever I play something in person with friends, we always have music to set the mood.

Intuition.

Youtube Music! A VERY nice touch, I actually cringed at the Troll music earlier, and got way down how my Character would feel.

By the way I like how this is working out. Your all very good, and Imperialus, you've done an amazing job of looking after us Greenhorns.

finally at 28 years old I am playing Shadowrun, and I feel like a little excited kid over it. LOL

Mickie, as a man who works with computers all day long I sympathise with you. They can really bugger your social/hobbie schedule up.

You young kid I stopped running a 1st edition SR game 14 years ago. And as I was the only GM, I never got to run, just to ref. (That was in Minneapolis. Since leaving there, no RPGs of any sort.)
So, Imperialus, I really appreciate this. It is starting to come together, and if it keeps on this track I hope you are willing to run it for more than just this one scenario. (There's no point in talking about several failed efforts to find a f2f group for this game out here.)

Thanks,
Joel

PS: The other nice thing about this setup is that it ought to work even when I am traveling on business.

Hey, it's no problem. I'm quite enjoying myself too. The PbP format lets me monologue a lot more than is normally possible in a f2f game. I'm a history major so I do a lot of writing and managing something like this gives me an excuse to keep writing, and in a much more entertaining format.

I wouldn't worry too much about where we'll go after Dark Angel wraps. I expect it will take 5 or 6 months at least to get through. It's a pretty long adventure with quite a bit of legwork (Mack and Hex don't need to worry, there's plenty of shooting people in the face too) so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm considering running Emergence afterwards assuming no one has read it. Otherwise I have a whole stack of old adventures that could keep us busy for years.

On another more game related note. Just to expand on Sybercat's comment about Icelady being too close to the job. Make sure you keep this in mind. She isn't like a traditional Johnson who is a largely two dimentional representative of a larger organization. She represents herself, and herself alone. Her resources are limited, she's connected with the target, and she is mortal. If she gets into trouble you guys might need to bail her out to keep your payday intact. If she dies Ares won't just roll out "irregular assets manager" number 47 to accept the paydata and give you your money.

*edit* also I believe we have two votes for checking out Xanadu first? Just trying to get a feel of what I should start typing up next. Feel free to get in touch with your contacts too (though 11 at night might not be the best time to be phoning them). I'll try and keep contact facetime to a minimum so we don't end up with a page and a half of me going back and forth with one PC so if you want to, give me an etiquette roll, tell me their connection/loyalty rating, and give me a general sense of how you're approaching the contact (quick com-call, email, meet in a bar/restaurant/back ally ect.) in addition to the questions and I'll take it from there.

Yeah, I think I'd like to check out Xanadu as well. I could possibly get my beat cop to give me any info, but I'm busy right now. I'll type it up later.

EDIT: Actually, never mind. I'm sure somebody else will, and I doubt I'll get much more information than them.

Never read emergence, actually. Had a .pdf version at one point to check it out, but, TM's have never really appealed to me, and I never got around to it.