Last-minute Updates to Jack. I fixed his multiple-gun skills, and noticed that some of the skills that I had B/R skills for do not actually have B/R Skills (I guess you just use regular demolitions for explosive making *shrug*). So, that freed up enough nuyen to pick up enhanced articulation, which should add a die to a lot of his skills, and a handful of other vehicle B/R skillsofts (and two knowsofts). Spent the remaining karma, on a a decent actual pistols skill, and a point in some other skills (which would hardly ever be used).
Jack "Everyman" Koverman, aka "Renaissance Jack" (or, rarely, "Meat-Puppet" or "The Manchurian Courier")
Here is the breakdown (BeCKS2):
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Human: -25
Resources: 120
Attributes: 196
Skills:119
Magic: 0
Edges: 40
Contacts: 0
TOTAL: 450
Sheet
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Metatype: Human (-25)
Attributes (196)
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- Body 4
- Strength 4
- Quickness 6
- Intelligence 6
- Charisma 6
- Willpower 6
Essence 6 -> 0.221
Magic 0
Reaction 6
Combat Pool 9
Karma Pool 1+1 from Daredevil
Skills (119)
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- Athletics 1
- Small Unit Tactics 1
- Computer 1
- Negotiation 6 (30)
- Etiquette 6 (30)
- Tai Chi 6 (36)
- - Focus Strength (2)
- - Focus Will (2)
- - Kip up (2)
- Light Guns 4 (14)
Knowledge {90}
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- Data Brokerage 6 (21)
- Compression Techniques 6 (21)
- Encryption Techniques 6 (21)
- Cybertechnology (Headware) 5 (7) (21)
- Data Courier Procedures 3 (6)
Languages {-/-}
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- English 6 (-/-)
- - English R/W 3 (-/-)
Edges (40)
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- Daredevil (15)
- Blandness (10)
- Good Reputation (10) - I know its not likely to come up much.
- Friendly Face (5) - Again, aware that it will only help when getting in with new crowds
Contacts
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- Dr. Nolan Ventris - Legitimate Doctor - Fitted Jack with his initial cyberware, and helped get him started in the business of trafficking data. Later, he installed upgrades as Jack started to make some money and wanted to reinvest it in his new profession.
- Andrew Watcher - Fixer - Acts like an agent or liason for Jack, finding clients and verifying them without Jack needing to know too much about them. Jack has always wondered just how good a job Watcher can do at this, if the client is worried about people knowing too much - but it makes him feel better on those jobs where the data lock needs to be on, and Jack hasn't gotten fucked over by a client too badly yet.
Resources 997,250/1,000,000 (120)
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Permits (Possess and Transport)
- Data Lock, Encryption (1000)
Cyberware {Total: 683,700}
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- Induction Datajack (3K) [0.3]
- - With Integrated ASIST Interface (1K)
- - {1} Data Lock (1K) [0.2]
- - - With Rating 10 Data Encryption System (10K)
- - - And Integrated Data Compactor, Rating 4 (19K) [0.125]
- - {1} Data Filter (5K) [0.3]
- - {1} Router, 5 Port (1 bodyware, 3 headware), (2.1K) [0.14]
- - - {1} Knowsoft Link (1K) [0.1]
- - - {1} Skillwires, Rating 6, 162 Mp (486K) [1.2]
- - - {1} Headware Memory, 1 Gp (1024Mp) (153.6K) [3.414]
Bioware {Total: 40,000}
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- Enhanced Articulation [0.6] (40,000)
- Activesofts, Rating 3, Pluscode 2 (7500 * 16 = 120,000) {Size = 432 Mp}
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- - Athletics
- - Stealth
- - Small Unit Tactics
- - Edged Weapons
- - Clubs
- - Pole Arms/Staffs
- - Whips
- - Unarmed Combat
- - Light Guns [Pistols, Submachine Guns]
- - Medium Guns [Rifles, Assault Rifles, Shotguns]
- - Heavy Weapons
- - Throwing Weapons
- - Projectile Weapons
- - Laser Weapons
- - Gunnery
- - Launch Weapons
- Activesofts, Rating 3 (2700*43 = 116,100) {Size = 1161}
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- - Diving
- - Diving B/R
- - Parachuting
- - Parachutting B/R
- - Computer
- - Computer B/R
- - Electronics
- - Electronics B/R
- - Edges Weapons B/R
- - Clubs B/R
- - Pole Arms/Staffs B/R
- - Whips B/R
- - Light Guns [Pistols, Submachine Guns] B/R
- - Medium Guns [Rifles, Assault Rifles, Shotguns] B/R
- - Heavy Weapons B/R
- - Throwing Weapons B/R
- - Projectile Weapons B/R
- - Laser Weapons B/R
- - Gunnery B/R
- - Launch Weapons B/R
- - Biotech
- - Armorer B/R
- - Demolitions
- - Interrogation
- - Intimidation
- - Leadership
- - Bike
- - Bike B/R
- - Car
- - Car B/R
- - Fixed-wing Aircraft
- - Fixed-wing Aircraft B/R
- - Hovercraft
- - Hovercraft B/R
- - LTA Aircraft
- - LTA Aircraft B/R
- - Motorboat
- - Motorboat B/R
- - Rotor Aircraft
- - Rotor Aircraft B/R
- - Sailboat
- - Submarine
- - Vector Thrust Aircraft
- Knowsoft, Rating 3 (4050*11=44550) (Total Size = 297 Mp)
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- - Economics
- - Engineering
- - Chemistry
- - Psychology
- - Sociology
- - Biology
- - Medicine
- - Megacorporate Policies
- - Magic
- - Sorcery Background
- - Conjuring Background
- Linguasoft, Rating 3 (1350*14 = 18,900) (Total Size = 378 Mp)
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- - German
- - Spanish
- - Russian
- - French
- - Sperethiel
- - Or'zet
- - Hindi
- - Arabic
- - Korean
- - Japanese
- - Cantonese Chinese
- - Mandarin Chinese
- - Italian
Bull's 50+ Questions - (I didn't finish all of these, but got some good stuff in there - it is always worth doing)
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1. What is your characters Sex?
Male.
2. What is your characters physical size?
Average. He actually works quite hard to maintain an entirely unremarkable appearance.
3. What is the color of the characters Hair, eyes, and skin?
Short dark hair, dark eyes. Caucasian skin, just a hint of mixed heritage.
4. What is the character's general appearance (i.e., How does he dress, etc.)?
Jack usually dresses up - suits from Armante', Vanshion Island, Zoe and other tres chic lines - due to dealing almost exclusively with corporate or wealthy clients. Even though he may be little more than an errand-boy, he is a firm believer in dressing for the job you want, not the job you have. Additionally, in the circles he travels in, such suits actaully help him blend in and avoid drawing attention.
6. What is the characters date of birth?
September 17th, 2038 (which should make him 27 years old)
7. What is the character's family life like?
Jack was born to SINless parents. They got by, and he never dug too deep to find out how, but his life wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. His parents were not bad, but always hoped for better for him. When his current job opportunity popped up, he took it, and never looked back. He claims that his disconnection to his family is because having people close to you is a danger to both of you - but he really just doesn't like being reminded of his lower-class roots and that his new suit-and-tie lifestyle is all a charade.
8. Has the character begun his own family?
No. He is a charismatic person, but he travels a lot, usually on business he cannot discuss (or doesn't know about himself), and is very focused on his career.
9. Where or how was the character educated?
Jack's education was very limited growing up. He had the good fortune of getting in with some people who thought he would make an inconspicious-looking courier, and has been moving up that ladder ever sense getting an on-the-job education in Shadow-work.
10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living?
His primary occupation is as an independant data courier, but has been known to assist in various other roles for his clients via skillsofts - often as a support role, because (unless the client is providing the 'softs) Jack's skills are often sub-par.
11. What are the characters political and religious beliefs?
Jack is not religious at all, and after loosing the majority of his essence in cyberwar surgery, he seems to have become even less spiritual. Politically, he prefers not to hold strong opinions one way or the other. His loyalty is to whoever is paying for his time.
12. Describe the character's Moral code. Include how mercenary he is, whether or not he'll kill innocents, etc.
Jack's moral delimmas usually involve remaining blissfully ignorant of whatever it is he is transporting, and absolving himself for any responsibility for how it might be used. He has thought about it quite a bit, but this profession doesn't allow for picky couriers. On a few occasions, when the job was particularly sensitive, or the client is particularly paranoid, Jack's datalock has been activated and a peak-controlled persona-soft has occasionally been used to give him a personality agreeable to whatever the client needs done.
13. Does the character have any goals?
His major goal is to make some serious money trafficing data, to pay for cyberware upgrades (alphaware, better skillsofts, etc). Of course, this will soon become a non-issue, to be replaced by goals like survival, and escape.
14. Why does the character run the shadows? (Why does he run the shadows still, rather than getting a "real" job?)
Jack considers his profession a "real" job, and would only consider himself a part of the shadows because of the often shadey clientelle he sometimes deals with.
15. What kind of personality does your character have? This should not necessarily be obviously stated in the background, as it is more important for actually playing the character, but it may colour or add mood to the history.
Jack tends to have a very cool, calculating personaltiy that borders on cold. He feels very detached from the world, and often from the people and organizations he deals with. He's a courier, and has a strict professional code of honor that prevents him from getting too concearned about his clients, or the repercussions of whatever operation he is enabling.
16. What special qualities does the character posess? This does not refer to skills, but rather at other things, such as How he gets along with people, does he plan ahead, etc.
Jack has a very agreeable personality. He is used to working for other, more powerful/rich/influential people, and putting himself entirely at their disposal.
17. Are their certain things the character can't or won't do? Why?
There are certain things Jack would prefer not to have to do - or at least not to have to know that he is doing them. He isn't a violent person, and would avoid wetwork where possible. Of course, when persona-fix'ed, what he will and will not do is no longer up to him - just one of the many reasons why he avoids a personality re-write whenever possible.
18. What things, people, or ideas does the character hate?
19. What things people, or ideas does the character love?
20. What is the character's name? Give both full birth name, as well as nicknames, street names, etc.
Jack "Everyman" Koverman, aka "Renaissance Jack". Occasionally nicknamed "Meat-Puppet" or "The Manchurian Courier", but rarely - his reputation is overall, very good.
21. Determine what your character used to do, before becoming a shadowrunner (very important).
Independant Data Courier - typically corporate (or wealthy, at least), and often involved in shadey deals (information "transfer" between corporations, dealing with organized crime syndicates, etc). That already straddles the line between Shadowrunner and legitimate wageslave.
22. Decide why your character left his or her old job, if he had one (also important).
The major event that caused his job-change was having the poor fortune to end a job in Chicago when the walls went up.
23. Come up with a reason for why the character became a shadowrunner. (This very often will tie in with #22. This is not the same as #14, but rather why he started running the shadows originally. What led him to it?)
Jack didn't have a lot of other options in life. He was born SINless, but had enough raw talent, charisma, and luck to fall in the with right influential people and get himself a gig as a professional deniable asset - and a walking data-safe. He got a corporate SIN, and a really decent commission. Going into the Shadows was a lot better than ending up a burnt-out ganger in the barrens.
24. How did your character come to know his or her contacts? Contacts are an important part of Shadowrun, decide how and why you know them.
Explained in the contacts section.
25. Does the character have a SIN? Does the character actually use it? Or is the character one of the SINless masses? This may be affected by the character's previous employment.
Jack has a valid SIN. He has also used a number of forged SINs during his travels (often provided by the client when one was necesasry). His SIN is registered as a licensed data courier, with a permet to possess and transport heavily encrypted data.
26. Is the character a full-time shadowrunner? Or does the character lead a Batman-like double existence?
Full-time. Jack is almost always working, or working to find work. He likes living large, and that requires a steady stream of clients with a niche he can fill.
27. Which person(s) or group(s) do you love the most?
28. Which person(s) or group(s) do you hate the most?
29. Which person(s) or group(s) do you respect the most?
He respects people and organizations that show a high level of professionalism - even corporate types or organized crime syndicates rank higher than a cop who means well, but goes back on his word.
30. Which person(s) or group(s) do you fear the most?
31. What is your favourite colour?
Chrome or metallic silver.
32. What is your favourite food and/or drink?
He is not particularly picky, but enjoys the prestige of eating expensive food - even if he can't taste the difference. He enjoys the feeling of being wealthy.
33. What place would you most like to visit?
He has done a great deal of travelling. There isn't anywhere he would prefer to be more than anywhere else - unless some exotic location meant an opportunity to add to his already impressive library of knowsofts on somebody else's dime.
34. Which person(s) or group(s) are you most loyal to?
His loyalty is to himself, first, and his client, second. Everything else, including the law, comes third.
35. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the most enjoyment? (Warning: Answering Sex for this question can and will result in penalties to your character!)
36. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the least enjoyment?
Any job that requires the use of his data lock. He had the thing installed because it has become almost a prerequisite for the best-paying jobs - but every time he goes under, he worries that he won't wake up again. Personafixes are just as bad, but a lot of clients require them - so they KNOW they can trust you. One of these days, Jack is sure he'll end up in some Bunraku parlor working for spare change - but luckily, his good reputation, and Watcher's (one of his contacts), have seen that he hasn't gotten double-crossed yet.
37. What annoys you the most?
38. What (if any) is your favorite form of art?
His response would be that he is not particularly taken by the arts. Honestly, though, he enjoys acting (particularly simsense stars) - and is likes the idea of being someone else enough that he has made a living out of it.
39. What is your greatest goal?
40. What do you think is your characters best quality?
Adaptability. He and his "agent" often play up the fact that Jack comes loaded with a library of useful skills that he can bring to bear on your problem - but that if the client wants something specific, they can literally program him to be anyone they want. He is often loaded with skillsofts enabling him to better defend the data, and on the few occasions where personafix software was on the menu, programmed to be a completely loyal employee for the duration of the job - with every confidence that Jack would not and could not remember any of the events. Unlike a lot of other data-couriers, Jack prides himself on being customizable to any particular job.
He has managed to collect a rather remarkable library of personal skillsofts, which he puts to use when not the job (and which he offers to clients at reasonable rates). His collection
41. What do you think is your characters worst quality?
He tends to not take responsibility for anything. He tends to work for other people (even if he is freelance) and prefers to leave the majority of the decisions, moral choices, etc up to them. This makes him someone who is unlikely to take initiative - and even less likely to take responsibility. He prefers his place as a well-oiled, sometimes critical, cog in the machine.
He is also someone willing to sell his body (or at least the implants in them), and sometimes his mind (if the client thinks that a sim-soft or peak-controlled personafix will help him do the job) to anyone willing to meet his price. As he lost more and more essence, he became more convinced that he *is* his job, and has gone out of his way to keep himself anonymous, with few ties to other people.
42. What is the most important thing you have ever done?
Hard to say. He is not usually aware of the repercussions, actual or potential, of what the data he is carrying might be used for. There was at least one time, however, that he was needed for a job, specifically, because he has an unbelievable amount of space in his head - more than almost any other courier, and way more than is usually necessary. He had no idea what it was, but after being put through upload-compression program and his cyberware data-compactor, it still managed to use up almost all of his available memory. Whatever the ten gigapulses of information was about, it must have been important. He was paid handsomly, and had the distinct impression that there were a number of groups after him, but the client had provided him with a security team of shadowrunners who intercepted and dealt with all of the issues.
43. Which religion (if any) do you follow?
None. Even less spiritual, after having a great deal of his head replaced with chrome.
44. What is your most treasured possession (and why)?
His cyberware. Without it, he'd be out of a job, and back on the streets where he group up.
45. What are your three most common dreams?
Normal varied dreams. Instead, listing 3 interesting nightmares.
A bizzare nightmare where he is aware that his datalock has somehow been locked into the "on" position. Even though he remembers the whole dream, he spends the whole time running around, looking foolish, and messing things up in a desparate attempt to reset it. When he wakes up, he goes through some mental exercises to make sure his memory is there before trying to get back to sleep.
Another nightmare where people are hunting him down - presumably for whatever it is he is carrying in his head. This sort of thing is expected, in his job - so he often writes the dream off as nothing important.
A nightmare where he is meeting a client for delivery and download, and they discover that the data has somehow gone missing from his head. This is more of an embarrasment dream - and he spends the dream trying to appease the upset client and appologise for his screw-up.
46. What is the Characters current relationship with his family?
He doesn't really keep in touch with his family at all. He says that the more distant and disconnected he is, the safer they remain - but, in reality, he just doesn't like being reminded of his lower-class roots and that his new suit-and-tie lifestyle is all a charade.
47. If the characters family is still alive, what do they do, and where do they live?
Not sure. He assumes they are in the same city (Seattle) although he hasn't checked up on them in years.
48. Where did the character learn his Skills?
The majority of his skills were learned on the job, once he got himself crammed full of optical memory and started selling his space to the highest bidder. However, due to his reliance on skillsofts, he doesn't actually possess too many genuinely useful skills. He has a knack for social skills, however.
49. Does the character have a good luck charm? What is it, and why?
No. He has been described by others as lucky, but he has a hard time believing in such things.
50. What type of music does the character like?
While he's not overly passionate about music, he likes anything where he can listen, and pull apart the pattern or rythm. Heavily computerised music tends to be more mathimatically precise with its patterns, so he favors those sort of genres.
51. List any past serious relationships that your character has had, and give a brief overview of the relationship.
He has dated, usually no more than once, and no serious relationships.
52. Where does your character live? Why does he live there?
He usually lives out of (generally high-class) hotels, as he tries to stay constantly on the job, and travels a lot.
53. Remember, your Gamemaster likes detail, so if you can think of any other little details, quirks, or whatever that you think might please the almighty GM, then add them in as well. Oh, and your GM won't use any of these details against you at a later date. trust me...
If it is, would an external control deck end up being a brick within a day or two? Could a signal booster be something we could start with as gear? Perhaps if it is attached to a non-cyber remote-control-deck which you've already mentioned riggers could keep?
The deadline has passed and submissions are closed. You guys came up with some awesome characters, and I wish like hell I could accommodate everybody, but unfortunately that is not possible, so now comes the shittiest part of being a GM - picking the team. After much deliberation, and believe me when I say it was a tough call in several cases, the final roster is as follows:
That giant list of activesofts gives me a headache so I'm just going to give you every single active skill at rating 3. Keep the knowsofts and linguasofts as is.