Are there any online chats where games are going?

I know there are a couple IRC rooms for it but I dont want to buy the program to get into them.

Nobody has anything?

Me and a friend of mine are also looking for an online SR4 game to join. If we could find another one or two players and a GM, then we'd be good to go!

I would be more than happy to join. GMing could be worked out on a run to run basis if needed. Each would take a turn to allow everyone the chance to play. It would not be the best way for the story as it would require disclosing things that would normally be secret when the next person took their turn, but it would be workable. Just an idea if you all are desperate.

Im totally game if there's a venue and somebody who knows the mechanics

Alternating might be an idea. We would still need more people though. And also, what time works best for people?

Late afternoon to early evening Monday through Wednesday is good for me.

Where will this game take place? I dont happen to have any handy chat rooms.

I am available any time except 4-9pm est Tuesday-Thursday, currently. Within a month after the holiday break my availability should increase to be completely open due to the nature of he business I will be running. As for programs, I tend to prefer the combination of a voice program such as skype (which is free) and a white board/virtual table top program such as Maptools. Both are free and give you abilities similar to being there in person. Many of the virtual table top programs also have a text chat built in and there are several out there that are free to download. I am not sure if your aversion to buy IRC was simply to the money end or just having to download a program at all. If it is just the money that type of solution might work. If it is to obtaining programs at all we can work on finding something that does not require it. As to finding more people, I figure some will catch this thread and ask to join now that it is showing potential and we could also ask or look around on places like the pen and paper games player registry or other places designed to gather players and keep them informed of potential games.

I'm fine with using Maptools.

As for Skype, the main problem with that is not everyone has a microphone. But Maptools has built in text chat we could use.

Did someone say they needed more players? I'm in, if you'll have me. Maptools or Skype works fine for me, though I think I'd prefer Maptools. FWIW, I'm on the West Coast.

I'll go with anything that I dont have to pay for.

Money is kinda tight since our last doctor's visit


Next question becomes character selection. I have several avalible that I can use.

Guitard Fantome- French Elvish theif, forger, and occasional assassin for hire
Marcos Emiliao- A Aztlan Troll who operated with a band of Zapatista rebels, fleeing to the UCAS to gather more resources and support for the cause back home
Ronin- An Elvish bodyguard who served the corporate elite as a modern Samurai, striking out on his own after realizing his employer's Yakuza connections. A masterful swordsman.
Lo-Jack- A pilot, smuggler, and car thief with a skill in Longarms
Fadi Al-Alim- A hacker and moderate Muslim wanted for crimes against Muslim hardline governments, labeled as an information terrorist.
Eisenheim- Better known as Eisenheim the Illusionist in Europe, a famous stage performer of magic and occasional consultant to Special Service divisions for interrogation.
Praetorian- A rouge AI that began as protection agent for a virtual library, he attained sentience when he began reading from the library out of curiosity and is now on a quest to acheive enlightenment through learning everything there is to learn.

I can also create a new character if the need arises. I caution that while I do stick to the rules of character creation, I tend to bend them slightly in the interests of a more interesting character or logic. This has yet to produce an over-powered character and as a matter of course I try to build in glaring flaws to characters, it makes them far more interesting. I also have PDF copies of every book

I'd be building a character from scratch for this. Probably a Gunbunny Adept, elf or perhaps a changeling (I've never played one, strangely.) I don't know the Matrix rules well, so anything that avoids those would work for me as a character.

Ok, how about a venue?

http://www.homebase-kice.com/dnd_chat/

Yeah I know its a D&D thing but we can use the Lite version. I've tried it and its got a learning curve of two minnutes. All you need is an internet connection

Its got private chat, dice visible to everybody

Best of all, its free.

Sound good?

Also, any volunteers for GM?

I can make a good story but my knowledge is limited to weapons and character creation.

Im not very familiar with the actual mechanics of how a game is run.

This would be my first 4th Ed game, so I'd be a poor choice starting out. Maybe it's something we could do episodically; take turns doing a run like void_forger suggests? Or maybe someone who likes running will see this thread?

What happens when someone who cant really GM that well (Like me) gets a turn?

As I said I can make a good story, I just am not familiar with the mechanics of actual gameplay

I'm hoping someone volunteers to gm. xD

I posted up a call for a GM here. Hopefully that will find someone who is interested.

I would like to play, but I am not going to GM.

-Chrysalis

Sounds good, we've got players, just no GM

I've GMed lots, but am a neophyte for online chat gaming. How does it work? How much time commitment is required for the group to work? How is the system set up? How do you deal with time differentials?

Any other neophyte question you can think of.

Peter (living in Mountain time zone in North America)

PS. I've been following the two one-on-one games in Welcome to the Shadows, ANew Start in Seattle and Lost in Southeast Asia. Is it at all like that?

We usually find a place that enables us to use chat and dice rolls visible to the entire group (Its kinda stupid to cheat at these games but it cuts down on potential arguments). I have a program thats free and easy to use that will fulfill these requirements. Its a D&D Chat program but it works just fine for Shadowrun.

We'll agree on a time to meet and with this program all you need to know is the person who's hosting IP and you punch that in.

Other than that, it works pretty similar to any other RPG, just typed instead of spoken.

As far as time commitment, I think meeting once a week for a night would be good. That way we have plenty of gametime and its not a massive timesink.

**Shrug** No idea what those are or where they are

Well, it's more of a time sink for the person writing the runs. I don't think I have the time to write a scenario every week. I could go for one a month. Are there others willing to pitch in?

Peter

PS. I will have spotty access to the internet till the new year.

I would say we just do a scenario untill its played out, not necessarily one every week

Once a month is fine with me. Or we could do twice a month (aka once every two weeks). I think what pbangarth means about writing a scenario is just all the prep work that goes into a single session, not neccisarily that we'll be going through a whole "plot" every session. Even if he has the basics of the plot worked out before we start, the GM still needs to do things like stat out NPCs, figure out what locations look like, etc etc.

Yes, that's it. I've just returned to Toronto for Christmas, and picked up Ghost Cartels today. I will look through it, as some have mentioned they would like to play it.

Peter

I definitely would like to play in a game involving Ghsot Cartels. Will it be Play-by-Post?

I think most people here were hoping for a play-by-chat game though.

I was thinking a chat would be easier than a forum

How many are needed to play In your minds? I have at least two people who would play tonight over chat

I think we have enough players, assuming everyone who's replies to this post is interested and can make it.

What we need to do now is to figure out who's GMing, and hammer out the fine details like what time and what program to use. I think pbangarth said he would be willing to GM, once a month? That's not very frequent, but if it's once per month we can easily find a time that works for everybody. It's harder to find a weekly time that works for everyone when we're all on different timezones and all.

Thoughts?

I GM a small game and have a pretty deceint amout of free time. along with two others that would want to play plus I thin I can run a private chat server from my home. it's a cheesy "3d"avatar java applet but theres no download or anything. Or heck I would be happy to just use yahoo's IM like I usually do.

I found a small program

http://www.homebase-kice.com/dnd_chat/

Its a download but its ridiculously easy to use and simple.

Thats kinda cool. I like the scroll look. I have found a free no download voice chat site as well.
http://gamer.talkr.com/ I am offering the idea to thoughs who have contacted me thus far as another way to communicate. I am planning on GMing a game this thursday the 1st gathering starts at 7 game will start at 8 all times are eastern. If anyone else wants in post here or pm me.

I'll swing by the game. I got time this Thursday. Where will it be? Should we have characters ready?

I'm ChiPsi's friend and am definitely interested and available at that time.

Monday through Wednesday evenings are the best times for me.

Thursday gathering and whatnot starts at 6 p.m. eastern time game starts at 7p.m. easterntime if you cant make it till later fret not. I will plan to have others join "miraculously" ( had to google that one for correct spelling) so no worries. I know with the time differance that may be needed. Also what ever Characters you want should not be a problem.
The roster so far is as follows.
Female Elf Awakened Face character
Covert Ops (psychotic likes to kill...a lot)
Human Merc or Street samurai (something that kills stuff)
And a NPC hacker I play when a hacker is needed.

there are at least two others but I know nothing about builds for them.

the link you will need is <a href="http://76.212.252.177/shadowrun/shadowrun.html">Game location</a>

Looking forward to seeing you there.

*edit* forgot to answer a couple of questions. If you have chars already great that will save time but if not we can go ahead and build them then.
personaly I would hope that we dont have to worrie about building then and there. Also I dont remember if I said this but anyone joining on thursday will be joining in a story that is already in progress so if your char are new we will augment them to bring them up to speed.

Ahh. You definatly didn't say that it was an already ongoing game. Well, I'm still interested, although if pbangarth is starting a new game running Ghost Cartel in the near future, I'd be interested in joining that.

Dulencard, do you guys always play on Thursday at that time? Will voice chat be absolutely required, or will text chat work (what if I don't have a mic?)? Is there a specific username/password we need to use for that link you gave?

So what would that be PST? Is the 6pm Pacific?

Also, what is your preference for characters?

I have many to choose from

All times are eastern I'm located in Ohio
so simply subtract 3 and that is what time you pacific time zoners are lookin at.

Char preference, none really. Colud use a hacker or a rigger.
the only rigger we have had play has not been availiable for some time.

Voice chat will not be required the site I have put up has two links.
one is a text chat where I would like everyone to be.
The other is a voice chat I will be on that so will a couple others. Just to make some stuff as easy as possiable.
I was planning on recording the whole thing as well. On thursday I will ask if thats ok with everyone. Ya never know somepeople dont like to have there pictures taken let alone whole conversations.(I'm not joking with this statment. I really want everyone to be comfortable.) I was just hopin to be able to post the journey Also makes it easyer to recap later.
Finally This isthe first time I have done this online. and there is no specific user name or password on the page itself there is a login you can create that as you need. if there are any problems I am on Yahoo messenger hlfbkd69 is my handle or just message me here. I'm happy too see so much intrest. if theres anything else don't hesitate to ask.

I'll bring Patrick, my Irish sniper

Does the fact that he's wanted for....a considerable sum of money going to be a problem?

Dont think it will be a problem course depends on my mood during game play. ha ha...he he

I sent you a copy of the character I have in mind. Thursday this week I cannot make -- I'll be visiting relatives all day. New Years day and all that. Next week, I'm good to go, however.

No worries. look forward to next week then.

I've got a variety of ideas character-wise... a human Gunslinger Adept, an infiltration-focused ninja-style Mystic Adept (using touch spells for close combat) or a martial arts doctor mage, ala Jin Uzuki. Or a rigger/smuggler.

Bring whichever you want a couple of things to note for some reason a lot of the time tings tend to get loud. At least thats what the rep for this team is.

Do you plan to be a stickler on ammunition?

IE: We need to carry ALL the ammunition we plan to use with us or do we just need to worry about reloading or what?

I am NOT a stickler on ammo save for high explosives. Slows the game down too much. Also I hate counting bullets.

Have fun tonight, gang. Fill the non-players in on how things went.

I've read through Ghost Cartels and through the threads associated with it, and have some preliminary observations to post here, as some have indicated in this thread they would like to play through it.

1)
GC is really cool! I wish I could play in it, but I've read it all. It would appear as if some here have also read it. How would that affect your play in the game? There are several plot lines that work best, or work only, if the PCs are not aware of them to begin with. How do we deal with players knowing what's going on when the PCs don't?

2)
The full three arcs of the story line in GC are quite long. I don't know how those folks in the other threads think it can be played in 50 or so hours of play. Even the core line of runs seem to me to take much longer than that, and that doesn't take into account the myriad sidelines that could and probably will come up as PCs decide to follow clues and ideas that are presented during play. This is especially so if play is conducted in chat format. I have limited experience with that format, and my sense is things take longer.

So, for a GM who can't commit to more than one session a month, like me, this means many months (years?) of play, and the attendant problems of scheduling. This is something we would have to talk about before play started. Summer months in particular would be a problem, as my work could send ME off to the jungles of Amazonia for research.

Would it be possible to have separate arcs run by different GMs?

3)
Check your morals at the door. The main story line involves the PCs in actions which are way darker and in fact overtly criminal to the point of psychopathy. Hell, they work for a drug cartel... what can you expect?

There are options for developing a play line that is less cavalier with life and rights of others, but that requires some re-writing. I -am- capable of playing a heartless, soul-less, murdering son-of-a-bitch. It can be kinda fun to do that for a while. How about you?

Peter