Hey,

So, I'm gonna try Missions for the first time at ConnectiCon 2009.

I'm probably going to recreate my old Virtual Seattle character. (He was one of the first PCs in that campaign, was part of the first table at the premiere of the first mission at ConnCon back in the day, seemed appropriate)

As I understand it, that campaign doesn't count for previous history/karma etc, so I'm basically making a new character, and the history is just roleplay fluff. Is that right?

Also, is anyone else here playing at ConnectiCon? So far I seem the only one who signed up on the Warhorn site.



-karma

Also, how do the various Latent qualities work?

Your GM presumably let you know when he or she thinks it should trigger, but as written, the rules indicate that the GM also decides how it manifests. (like whether Latent Awakening turns into Adept, Magician, or Mystic).

Is this true, or does the player get to decide?

The former would fit a home game, but the latter would fit a Missions style game better.

Thanks,




-karma

Virtual Seattle... whoa old timer The old RPGA days. "Dark and Stormy Night", "Some People's Kids", and "What If They Get Off the Island" were great mods. And Ed De Jesus should write the sequel to Island-- as it's been several years now.

VS Karma doesn't port, that's correct. Depending on what you played, SR4 may leave a bad taste in your mouth if you try to recreate your old character-- not saying SR4 isn't as good, it's better in almost all aspects, but you can't get some old SR3 characters using the SR4 rules. Some things just feel different too.

I personally want to see two characters/things at every table I play: a hacker (no longer termed decker) and a mage. No need to scream replies about, how are you going to do this, w/o a (whatever archtype). I love to see those other chummers too. Especially faces that get me goods with no or minimum markup in price But if I have those two at the table, the other characters are probably filling in what I'm missing.


As for latent, I don't have the book infront of me and won't venture a guess until I read the quality again.

Interesting now that I've read it. IMO, this should be added to the list of qualities not allowed for SRM, as it doesn't do well for our network game. As is, this is how I'd expect it to be ran.

One of the "drawbacks" is that the GM picks-- but since this also allows a GM to decide as to what's needed for the game, and most GM's (all the good ones) don't exploit rules to ruin a players fun just to "show them", I don't think this is really an issue. As SRM doesn't want to add rules to the game, it works as this: the GM picks, but I bet the GM will let you tell him what you want. You still are spending your karma on it, after all.

One of the "breaks" in this quality is that you can (and should!) get cyberware/bioware and not lose a point of magic. Only your max will be decreased. But come SR4A, you'll be paying Magic * 5 to increase your magic. Since you can't start the game w/ any magic skills, spells, foci, or magic attribute-- you are in an uphill climb and should take advantage of this compensation.

As for when it manifests-- I'd ask a GM if it does if you have any of the mentioned events take place. If you take serious wound, you feel close to death, a NPC dies in front of you. Some may tell you yes, some may make you make a Will, or Edge test. There doesn't need to be a hard and fast rule for this.