Dumpshock Forums > 800 Point Characters...want to make one?

InfinityzeN

Apr 24 2009, 04:51 PM

*Update 2.0A* (Still need gear, completed background, and more quotes!)

QUOTE

I took a concept, Frank Trollman's Former Company Man, and built it out to the Nth degree (or at least as far as you can with 800BP)

. He is a good all around jack of most trades, with pretty good combat and face pools. Pretty much, if you have any slot other then Hacker that needs to be filled, he can do a decent job of it. Plus he is a well of information on a huge array of topics. I mean, the guy has 380BP in skills!

The Former Company Man
"There are things you can see that will make your silence worth more than your life insurance policy. It's best to notice that before other people do."

Background
Background: The Former Company Man used to work as on behalf of a corporation's shadow activities in house. Part killer, part handyman, he once did "stuff" that the corps would prefer to not talk about.

Goal: This character should be able to cover his tracks. He should be able to blend into a crowd, follow a man, and do it all without leaving footprints. This is a man who managed to escape a non-competition clause, he should be able to get things done without drawing attention to himself. At the same time, he should be able to fall in for whatever it is that the team needs getting done. He's not a face, he probably tries to avoid getting filmed, but he should say "Fine, I'll do it." as often as possible.

Stats

[ Spoiler ]

Gear
Haven't bought yet. Has $153,850 to work with.

Key Pools

[ Spoiler ]

pbangarth

Apr 24 2009, 04:57 PM

A handy guy to have around!

InfinityzeN

Apr 30 2009, 10:54 PM

Yea that was the point. He is not a twink in any one area. He is a "No Skillwires" twink in doing a little of dang near everything. Actually decent in a fight (4 passes and 17 dice w/ smartgun), can drive/pilot most things, healer, stealthy, demo skills, social, decent repair skills for near everything, etc.

I could see him useful in almost any situation. He is not as good as a specialist but throws enough dice to cover any holes and back up the specialist. His high edge helps there too, since when the chips are really down he can throw a pretty good chunk. If I had more points, the cracking skill group, and more points in the electronics skill group would let him cover for a hacker too.

pbangarth

Jun 17 2009, 09:23 PM

So, if I were to win the lottery, who would be interested in an all-expenses-paid, sit-down game at a luxury resort using their favorite character from this list?

Of course, Jake would have to be GM. That OK with you, Jake?

Draco18s

Jun 17 2009, 10:10 PM

QUOTE (pbangarth @ Jun 17 2009, 05:23 PM)

So, if I were to win the lottery, who would be interested in an all-expenses-paid, sit-down game at a luxury resort using their favorite character from this list?

Me!

Ryu

Jun 17 2009, 11:02 PM

You don´t need to let me play a drake in order to get me there...

pbangarth

Jun 19 2009, 04:18 AM

Damn! That ticket felt so ... right!

Oh well. Next week I'll buy the winner.

rubberduck

Jun 21 2009, 05:26 PM

Did anyone get around to making a face? Meet Carmen.

Carmen
Born in 2013 to a poor latino family, by age 16 Carmen entered the porno industry. With a high degree of flexibility and unnaturally high Charisma (literally so once she discovered her adept powers), she quickly became popular. As she gained in experience, and uncovered further magical talents, she became more and more sought after, and acquired a fan club that persists to this day. But by age 42, after 26 years in the industry, Carmen got bored with the porno industry. So she changed profession. Dramatically so. Seeking excitement, she moved to Hong Kong and set up herself as a fixer. Info-broking wasn't the only thing she did, however, and she also got hands on experience on several runs, some of them international in scope. During this episode, she met her current husband, and in 2067 a pregnant Carmen moved back to LA with her husband to settle down. She still had her fingers in info brokering, and moved around in the background of the political scene. Unfortunately, she accidentally stepped on some toes that she should not have. A month ago, Aztechnology agents broke into her house, and abducted her husband. Carmen stashed her son somewhere safe, and declared a vendetta on the people responsible. Since then it has been a game of cat and mouse between 250 Aztechnology black ops agents, and one woman that has been scorned.

Stats

[ Spoiler ]

Key Pools

[ Spoiler ]

pbangarth

Jun 28 2009, 05:56 PM

rubberduck, I'm curious to know more about how Carmen is evading/dealing with the Aztechnology horde. How about a little story over in the Vignette thread?

overcannon

Jul 4 2009, 05:57 PM

Don't know if there is one of these yet, but

Adept Supertank, 800BP

[ Spoiler ]

Key pools are:

Unarmed Combat: 17
Unarmed Combat DV: 18P
Armor: 29/27
Resist Damage: 41/39
Regenerate: 20
... and 6 edge in case that doesn't get the job done.

Good luck killing this guy.

InfinityzeN

Jul 9 2009, 02:20 PM

Actually not all that insanely hard to kill. No character is unkillable from soak. It just takes a good guy (Watcher for example) with a weapon that will give you a -16 AP.

Also, your BP in attributes seems a little screwy and I know that your improved ability is too high.

Draco18s

Jul 10 2009, 03:42 PM

Link to Watcher, please? I'm interested in seeing how he's got -16 AP.

InfinityzeN

Jul 10 2009, 05:59 PM

Ares Thunderstruck Gauss Rifle.

p. 30 Ares Thunderstruck Gauss Rifle
Add the following sentence to the end of the weapon description: “Halve all armor but smart armor against the gauss rifle (before applying the AP modifier)”.

Watcher is post #243

Draco18s

Jul 11 2009, 03:04 AM

QUOTE (InfinityzeN @ Jul 10 2009, 01:59 PM)

Ares Thunderstruck Gauss Rifle.

Oh, of course. The naval mounted cannon of death.

Keep in mind that that thing kills any character outright. You shouldn't be shooting at people with it.

InfinityzeN

Jul 11 2009, 03:23 AM

Actually, the Ares Thunderstruck Gauss Rifle is an assault cannon that can be bipod fired. And Watcher uses it in much the same way as modern day snipers use a .50 (IE: Shooting vehicles, hard targets, or guys at extreme range).

ElFenrir

Jul 12 2009, 09:44 AM

QUOTE (pbangarth @ Jun 17 2009, 05:23 PM)

So, if I were to win the lottery, who would be interested in an all-expenses-paid, sit-down game at a luxury resort using their favorite character from this list?

Of course, Jake would have to be GM. That OK with you, Jake?

I'd do it. I'd love to give Azael a spin. But my ticket, given my location, might be a bit more than the others.

Draco18s

Jul 12 2009, 06:25 PM

QUOTE (ElFenrir @ Jul 12 2009, 05:44 AM)

I'd do it. I'd love to give Azael a spin. But my ticket, given my location, might be a bit more than the others.

He could take us all to an all expenses paid trip to a resort in Finland, you know.

Just to spite you.

overcannon

Jul 12 2009, 11:48 PM

QUOTE (InfinityzeN @ Jul 9 2009, 09:20 AM)

Actually not all that insanely hard to kill. (Updated for even more spattering undead troll goodness!)

Watcher ambushes you from a mile away. First shot (26 dice, +3 aim, +5 for Edge, -4 for extra damage, ignore range) hits you with 11.94 successes, doing 24.94 damage against an effective armor of 10. So your soaking 24.94P with 22 dice, which will so an average of 7.33, and take 17.61P damage. You fall down from the first shot due to phyisical overflow.

Then he has three more shots that round made with 27 dice (26 dice, +1 aimed, ignore range) before you even have a chance to regenerate. Death in one combat round is damn near assured. Oh, and you have no chance of fighting back due to your inability to find his mile away crazy high stealthed ass before he shoots you and after that first shot your laying on the ground bleeding and waiting for regeration to save you while he splatters you all over the place.

No character is unkillable from soak.

Also, your BP in attributes seems a little screwy and I know that your improved ability is too high.

So he can be fiat killed. Whoopee.

The point is, aside from dedicated ultra snipers, he can just take damage and ignore it.

That said, 8 magic and 6 edge will put the BP/Karma up over 400 and he does have the Dzoo-Noo-Qua boost to all attributes except magic. Lastly, 4 in improved ability is legal with the shadowrun rounding conventions. Otherwise, 7 in a skill isn't worth it.

overcannon

Jul 13 2009, 12:54 AM

Well, I'm too lazy to make a proper reply to the watcher, but I do need to produce something that can kill both The Supertank and the Watcher and survive.

So I present the item in question, the Abridged He Who Watches the Watcher

A tertiary concern is to max out the demolitions skill and related attributes. That means 7 in Demolitions, 6 Logic and 6 Edge, or 19 dice rolled, 6.33 hits +2.09 hits + 0.34 hits + .06= 8.82 ~9 hits

The secondary point is a Zuggsmachine piloted by an AI equipped with a Satellite uplink with an AI version of a dead man's switch and an off-site home node.

The main point is as follows: Dump 800,000 on 533.33kg of rating 15 plastic explosive. What this leads us to is on an average damage value of, 23.09*23.82 or a DV of 550 on average. This means that the lethal blast diameter of approximately 500 meters that 53P of explosive damage counts as an instant kill especially when factoring in the whole shattered skyscrapers flying out of the blast radius.

So the question is, would a truck that has had over 150,000 dumped into it to make it completely nondescript be able to make it within 250 meters of the Watcher.

Considering that looking for a truck in a city wouldn't be particularly useful without using data acquired elsewhere, you would need to locate it using scent. With a level 2 life support system, there is no scent. no engine or exhaust modifications functions as prevention of sonic detection. Thermal imaging will only show a truck. Considering that there is no means to detect a generic vehicle like the zuggs when it's cargo is shielded properly, but inconspicuously. So, we can conclude that the vehicle can get withing 200 meters assuming that it knows the location of the watcher to a 50 meter accuracy.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call in the business the "Fiat Kill."

And that doesn't even require a fully fleshed out character.

Glyph

Jul 13 2009, 01:01 AM

QUOTE (overcannon @ Jul 12 2009, 04:48 PM)

Lastly, 7 in improved ability is legal with the shadowrun rounding conventions. Otherwise, 7 in an ability isn't worth it.

Actually, pg. 63 of the main rulebook, under the Skill Ratings heading, last sentence:

QUOTE

The maximum modified rating allowed is 1.5 times the natural rating (making 9 the maximum achievable, or 10 with the Aptitude quality).

I'm not sure if SR4A changes this. But hey, that just means he can get something like elemental strike with the 0.5 PP.

overcannon

Jul 13 2009, 02:05 AM

QUOTE (Glyph @ Jul 12 2009, 07:01 PM)

Actually, pg. 63 of the main rulebook, under the Skill Ratings heading, last sentence:

I'm not sure if SR4A changes this. But hey, that just means he can get something like elemental strike with the 0.5 PP.

I meant 4 in improved ability. But I suppose that pg 63 trumps the typical conventions, but I do truly hate system inconsistencies.

InfinityzeN

Jul 13 2009, 01:50 PM

It is not a system inconsistency. You have always rounded down for attribute and skill modified maximums. In fact, I'm pretty sure you are suppose to round down for everything.

overcannon

Jul 13 2009, 04:36 PM

I would make two contentions. Firstly that any 800 point character, back story or not, is a numbers exercise, as are any 500 point and 400 point characters. Secondly, back story, at least from my perspective, should be campaign specific, and as such, I am not very interested in writing a backstory for a character who will never be, or if used will be altered and modified to fit the specifics of the situation.

But that said, he has both twink armor and not. Typically, he has an armor rating (ballistic that is), of 22/18, which doesn't break 40 to soak, but is still pretty good at 34. I.E. he doesn't need cheesed out super armor. He just has that for kick in the door assaults.

Oh, and I did recognize the fact that he can be killed, and fairly simply. He is extremely vulnerable to head and spine injuries, considering how regeneration does not function against them. That and no one can resist a 60P explosion, so that is an option too.

Perhaps it's just me, but I find it fun to do a numbers exercise, and if the point of an 800BP character thread is roleplaying first, and fun second, then my apologies for disrupting you. I suppose that it isn't possible to see someone having fun with a concept and avoid saying "Yeah, well my character can kill it," because even though it fits the OP requirements, it doesn't meet more important tertiary requirements. And thank you for the Ad Hominim argument, it certainly has shown me why I am in error, and must change my ways to fit your concepts.

But thank you for the conditional invitation. In kind, I would care to invite you to a wonderful place where if people have a non-empirical disagreement, they can avoid conversing with each other. I think they call it the internet, but I would ask Al Gore as to it's actual name.

But in all due seriousness, I don't give a damn whether or not you feel that my character is a monster rather than a character. I would rather not see a reply to this, and I would prefer to never converse again via this medium or any other, but I will neither presume the right of invitation nor the moral highground. Simply said, I am glad that I have not met you, and I sincerely hope that that trend can be continued. Good day to you Mr. InfinityzeN.

pbangarth

Jul 19 2009, 03:43 AM

I would like to point out to all and sundry that Coldhand Jake asked us to give him whatever we can come up with, including the twinkiest. We shouldn't take someone to task for doing what Jake asked, or even for taking a tiny bit of pride in creating a 'monster'.

InfinityzeN

Jul 23 2009, 06:52 PM

Monster, not 'monster'. Dzoo-Noo-Qua are non-sentient.

Glyph

Jul 24 2009, 02:23 AM

While they and the Loup-Garou were originally presented as feral, mindless beasts, they are more like ghouls in SR4. Most of them are mindless beasts, but there are some individuals whose intellect has not been destroyed by the transformation. Actually, it's not too big of a change, because even in the Paranormal Critters of North America book, there were hints of that (shadowtalk where someone recounts a Loup-Garou speaking, and where a bounty hunter talks about a Dzoo-Noo-Qua demonstrating cunning tactics).

InfinityzeN

Jul 26 2009, 02:24 PM

True, I will give you that one. I went off more than I should have. Now lets get back to building characters shall we.

pbangarth

Nov 6 2009, 03:34 PM

OK, high-power gamers. Here is an opportunity. Check out THIS POST for an announcement for a game on December 8th in Nanaimo, British Columbia. 400 BP plus 400 Karma after chargen. I am playing a version of Oro the Unstoppable I posted here a while back. The revised version is posted in that thread. The GM is looking for lots more role play than roll play, and says he has cool challenges for Oro and any that might go with him.

It's out of the way in the northwest, but the setting is gorgeous. Vancouver Island and the west coast of Canada is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. And it will be way warmer there than the rest of Canada in December!

I would love to see one or more of you there!

AKWeaponsSpecialist

Nov 27 2009, 10:53 PM

OK, don't know if this is still accepting additions, but I've got one for ya.....

Elf Mystic Adept (Norse Tradition)
4 Body
6 Agility
5(6) Reaction
2 Strength
7 Charisma
5 Intuition
3 Logic
5 Will
16 Magic
5 Edge

4 Influence
5 Artisan (Guitar)
4 Sorcery

Sorcery Aspect
Incantation Geas (must sing)
Gesture Geas (must play guitar)
Gremlins 2
Sesnitive System
Spirit Bane (plant)

Adept Powers: Enthralling Performance, Commanding Voice, Improved Reflexes 1
Spells: Deflection, Ice Sheet, Sonic Wall, Soundwave, Mob Mood, Powerball, Chaotic World, Alter Temperature, Fashion, Sonic Aura, Interference, Shadow, Mist, Foreboding, Hot Potato, Orgy, Sound Barrier, Mass Sight Removal, Mass Hearing Removal, Blizzard, Frost, Screech

pbangarth

Jul 27 2010, 07:57 PM

So, it looks like Coldhand Jake has dropped this idea for now. How about we take turns GMing for these guys? It would be insane to think up something that would be competition!

Coldhand Jake

Aug 23 2010, 08:42 PM

Actually, I had completely forgotten about this thread after I discovered I wouldn't be attending Dragon*Con 09. I'm amazed to see it's still going!

Give me some time to look over what's here, I'm really excited to see I started a trend!

Coldhand Jake

Aug 23 2010, 09:14 PM

QUOTE (pbangarth @ Jun 17 2009, 03:23 PM)

So, if I were to win the lottery, who would be interested in an all-expenses-paid, sit-down game at a luxury resort using their favorite character from this list?

Of course, Jake would have to be GM. That OK with you, Jake?

Sounds great, considering round 1 of this was a state away at Dragon*Con, and the only thing slowing it down now is money for the trips...

pbangarth

Aug 23 2010, 11:26 PM

No lottery winnings yet, but I'm still gambling away....

pbangarth

Sep 11 2012, 03:04 PM

Did anything ever come of this exercise?

Beorn

Aug 16 2013, 06:53 PM

Guess not...
Seems to be dead...
Would have made a great actual-play podcast.

Ryu

Aug 16 2013, 08:59 PM

QUOTE (pbangarth @ Sep 11 2012, 05:04 PM)

Did anything ever come of this exercise?

I have not won the lottery either.

pbangarth

Aug 26 2013, 08:47 PM

QUOTE (Ryu @ Aug 16 2013, 03:59 PM)

I have not won the lottery either.

Still working on it!

Our home game, stalled at the moment [

], has a bit of the feel of these characters, as we built them with 1125 karma.