Knight has it right...Sort of...I will say that I have not determined your initial sponsor, but it could be a corp...or a government...really depending on my mood when I write the setting if we go the cyberpirates route.

CollateralDynamo,

I like your face idea... contacts and lots of them would be important in a game that would do a fair amount of moving around from place to place.

I don't have a solid idea myself yet... perhaps a former naval commando in the street sam role, or a gunslinger adept. A "sea elf" shaman also has some appeal, should there be room for magic users.

I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sea from me...

Shall we start with our characters? I'm itching to see what everyone wants to do, I'll fill in a hole or two if there are any still with this many players.

LIKE!

Do I lose my geek license if I admit to never having watched Firefly?

Wow, our DM is now on geek probation....having second thoughts now...

Seriously though, if this campaign gets off the ground and we decide that we will be a cut above scum of the earth pirates (which I hope we will), the series would definitely be worth a once over. They are all free on hulu if you want to check them out.

Nope, but it's now up for renewal.

Quickly! Quote something from Star Wars!

Have you decided on points and any special rules? I am thinking Mage here, a bit of a tomb raider perhaps. But as I said, whatever the team needs.

400 points. I may allow more, but ya gotta convince me.

Only position I'm going to enforce requirements on specifically: The ship's Master (not necessarily its commander, but sometimes the same person) is the one legally responsible for the ship.

There are specific skill requirements attached to this to get a license.
----

Requirements for the Master:

SIN (Real or a fake of at LEAST rating 4)
Skills required:

Maritime Law 2
Pilot Water Craft 3
English at least 4
Swimming 2
Navigation 3
---

Also, for sanity's sake, because this is a navalish campaign...Everybody must be able to swim. In the 1500s-1800s, maybe it would make sense for ya not to be able to swim...but not in 2072.

Finally, everybody will get a common contact of Kevin Roberts, a fixer of Loyalty 2, Connections 4. Free contact.

Other than that, please do settle upon roles in the ship's crew amongst yaselves.

Edit: Forgot to add.

The Magical Google Globe says you'll be starting in Miami, in the Carib League. Yes, you'll be starting out in the Carib. So sue me, I'm feeling uninspired.

Everybody please please please take a common language.

Sounds good. I feel a lot more comfortable with the Pirates idea now that it's been laid out a bit more for me; thanks for that guys. It's just after midnight now, and I'm pretty tired, but I'll pop on tomorrow before work to see what kinds of characters you're all into and try to decide on one for myself. I can tell you right now that I'm probably not interested in taking over the position as Captain or Leader or whatever, heh. It's not that I'm not interested in the responsibility, I'd just like something a bit less complicated for my first SR game. We need a designated (mounted) Gunner?

-milk.

Hitting the hay really soon, but I was toying with my idea. Would it be too corny to take Poor Sense (sight) and wear an eye-patch? I'm an adept! I won't get it replaced!

Also, since I am doing the face thing, I was thinking my position on the ship would need to be pretty high up. I'm not calling dibs on captain, but 1st mate or quartermaster seem to be the only two sensible options. If nobody has a problem with it I would be willing to take captain and get the boat, but I will bow to anyone else who wants to do it.

Good stuff, good stuff. If this is a pirate style game perhaps instead of extra BP we get free contacts? Knowledge Skills are (Int + Logic) x 2, so maybe free contacts can be (Cha + Int) x 2? Or whatever. Lets us have good contacts without sacrificing the character's skills.

I suppose we can all take English as our common tongue, probably easier for all involved.

Gunnery - I'm taking at least 1 rank, for those situations.
Diving - Ditto.
Escape Artist - Ditto. Don't want to get tangled up down there.
Blades - Buckle some swash!

Does everyone have a role in mind? And yeah not that interested in being the Ship's Master. But if no one else will, I'll do it.

I might be interested in playing a character that's a sea-shaman or something. I've just got a vague idea right now, but maybe someone who's seen by the crew as a good luck charm more than an actual asset in combat. Great with navigation, always full of stories. Part-time priest and maybe defacto doctor? Quasi-crazy, sea-water drinking type guy? I might be interested in something like that, if the other players think there's room for the character.

Going to bed now, take it easy guys.

-milk.

OK, I'll be the captain/owner aboard, a special forces naval commando who retired and bought a boat (What kind, in general, GM?), but found his old, violent life hard to escape from, especially after trying to make money legitimately with his boat failed.

Weren't we going with the 2nd vote idea? LOL

I'm going to run with the cyberpirates, and I'll take a combat expert for all those bloody boarding jobs.

Otherwise I vote for the straight shadowrunning

http://www.hulu.com/search?query=Firefly

there you go....watch, enjoy, get that geek license renewed.

About now, thinking hacker/covert ops specialist. Might read up on the rules for a rigger, but I'd rather leave that to someone more experienced.

Roles I suspect will be needed in terms of ship crew:

Commanding Officer (could take other roles)
Executive Officer (could take other roles)
Gunner (likely a rigger)
Helmsman/Pilot (Could be same as gunner)

I'm unsure, with rigged ships, whether a ship of any size -needs- an engineering officer.

Other than those 4 roles, I fully expect everybody else to be doing boarding.

Which I will let you organize as you will.
---

The background, copied from my previous campaign (because it still works and I'm lazy!):

Privateering will be the theme. Grab your towels.

Next up: starting setting (We mgiht stay in this area, might move. It'll depend on how the story goes.)

For my sanity's sake, we're going to start in the Western Atlantic. This area can range ANYWHERE from the Grand Banks off Canada to the Atlantic coast of South America North of Brazil (The classic "Spanish Main"). Data's just a lot more available for this patch of ocean.

Like the pirates and privateers of old, this will actually be a somewhat "amphibious" campaign. The focus will be the water, yes, but you may well end up doing a fair bit on land, too.

Okay, background info as you make your characters:

Unknown to the characters

The Congress shall have power: ... To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; ... - Article I, Section 8, US Constitution

As stated in numerous parts of the SR canon, the UCAS Constitution is basically a copy and paste of the US Constitution, with deadwood such as the 18th and 21st amendments removed, and the electoral college replaced by direct popular voting.

However, Article I contains an interesting thing. One nobody noticed when they were doing that cut-and-paste job, which really was rushed.

Letters of Marque and Reprisal. The commission of privateers, private ships armed and outfitted by private parties, and given a commission by a government to make war upon specified targets.

Nominally, they need to be issued by Congress. In 1856, most countries then existing ratified the Declaration of Paris abolishing the things...But the US, because its Navy was tiny at the time, never did. (Though it did say, during the American Civil War and Spanish-American War, that it would abide by it, the US never became a party.) As the UCAS formally succeeds from the USA, not Canada, this still holds true.

Well, by 2072, the UCAS Navy, while powerful, can't do some things without either engaging in an act of war, precipitating an international incident, or causing severe political heartburn.

So it, like everybody else, outsources. Unlike previous efforts in history, this one actually has Congressional approval, through the intelligence subcommittees. (The line item for it in the budget is in a classified annex, obviously - tucked away in the oddest places, too.)

Known to the characters

The starting city: Miami. The starting date: 1 October 2072

The parameters:

You'll have been brought together as runners only days before, on the 27th September. Your Johnson offers you some...interesting terms. Apparently, you were cleared by his employer (There's no clue who it might be, but the otherwise non-descript Johnson's manner suggests he's government or military; his voice suggests UCAS or CAS origin) previously, so he lays it out:

You'll essentially be acting as modern day privateers. From time to time, through secure channels, we will designate missions for you to perform. A pay rate will be noted. Your accepting now will be deemed your acceptance for later. Also, if you come across things - maybe you see or hear things, or acquire things, or so forth - that may be of intelligence value to us, you are to report them through channels which will be provided. Based upon the value and coroborration behind the intelligence you submit, you will be paid a minimum of two thousand nuyen per report. That number can, by the way, go up, the Johnson notes.

Otherwise, you're privateers. Whatever captures you make that we didn't tell you to make are yours to do with as you wish. No slave raids, however, will be permitted, even if you aren't working on things for us at the time.

In exchange for all of this, you'll get an initial budget from which to acquire and outfit a ship and to otherwise equip yourself. This will be a loan, but no interest will be imposed and no set term for payoff - just realize that you won't actually see money from this employer until you -do- pay it off, either in money or in information (or services) of value.

Oooh oooh.

Old Thread Reading convinced me of something.

Everybody must have Nautical Mechanics at at least 1, or be willing to learn it on the run.

Why?

Damage Control.

Meanwhile - the old game was named "Marque and Reprisal".

Now seeking suggestions for a new name for this game.

Slippery When Wet
Tales of Paranormal Monkey Island

I dunno.

So we have a Face Adept, an ex-Naval Commando, a sea-elf shaman, and one interested in gunnery and possibly rigging.

I would request some way to calculate free contacts. With all the potential requisites for the campaign I think it'll balance out.

I'm still interested in another Mage character... Will work on a concept. Perhaps a spy or infiltrator.. the "intelligence" guy aboard.

Yes, I would have to attack you with a parrot.

Knight, I'm logging on surreptitiously before class, so I'll get back to you on the boat issue this afternoon.

Keep in mind that I feel free to ignore list prices on the boat, instead setting it for whatever I think might be good for the game. GM's privilege.

Also, one word: Surplus.

Alright, so if we are going with that nomenclature I'd like to throw my hat into the ring for XO (Executive Officer). I have most of the basics for the character set up and ready to go. With the face skills I should be a suitable mouth piece for our CO and with my combat and leadership skills I should be at least marginally useful in boarding ops. Anyone have a problem with me basically being the 1st Mate?

We should definitely have a rigger for this ship, that said if someone is whipping up a hacker, it only takes a few extra points to make him capable of jumping into our freighter and doing the piloting and gunning. Hopefully we can get costs of autosofts for the boat on the johnson's tab and maybe this thing could even steer itself for a vast majority of the time, but somebody has got to interface with it.

I agree here, more points on contacts would be very nice since my face is practically required to take one or two in every port of harbor on that seaboard. If I can't get free points I'll need to hash out some sort of Group Contact (general rules in the RC) with you Penta.

Also, names for the game:
- Marquey Marque and the Funky Bunch
- Pirating, the Non-Software Variety
- Blood on the Seas, Wind in the Sails

Pirating like its 1799
The Perfect Storms
RDRR

EDIT: Scratch those character concepts of mine.

I have a combat mage of sorts, with blades and automatics and a nice suite of support spells.

As titles go, "Slippery When Wet" gets my vote. I think it's important to mention that in some of the most successful stories like these, the ship itself should basically be considered a character in and of itself. The relationships between Han and the Falcon, Mal and Serenity, or Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl are solid, and they add a lot to the story because the ships themselves have a personality all their own. It'd be nice if our ship could be viewed as a fleshed-out character like any other NPC; I'm not necesarily suggesting it's an AI with a literal personality all its own, just that it should be more than just a mobile base.

Sounds like when we start, we'll have just purchased the boat. Is it possible that my character (a sea shaman) has a deep, spiritual connection to the ship, like he's got a lodge built down in the hull, and that when the players acquire the boat, he was part of the deal? I'd like the character to view the open seas as a place of rioling spirits and unchained elemental energy; sailors live and die by the elements (Earth is the refuge and shelter of coastal harbours; the (sea)water itself represents both serenity and chaos; the beasts of the ocean and the sky are both life and death; the sun is your hope and the night is your compass; wind (traditionally) represents fate and destiny; etc, etc). The character is tied spiritually to the boat, and sees it as a part of this grand scheme in a very real way.

As "class roles" go, I'd like him to be more utility than straight combat (most of his combat will be in the form of summoning, I think); he'd be the crew's de-facto medic, their chaplain, their (spiritual) navigator who can see beyond sensors and blueprints, and their empathic link to the ship itself. I can't honestly imagine this character boarding other vessels and taking part in any "away team" activities. Rather, I imagine him more as a guy who'd stay behind with the boat, armed with an AK97, prepared to summon powerful spirits to aid his allies; whether in combat directly, or in utility functions, like summoning a spirit of the wind to grant the crew fog cover on approach to their target.

If that's cool with everyone, that is? I can make another character if this one doesn't fit what you're imagining.

-milk.

That Blood on the Seas name sounds good. And yeah, I'll work on the hacker/rigger deal.

And your shaman concept sounds interesting. I see a potential for a tech vs magic between our two characters. And... I dub thee Albatross.

Hell yeah, that's an awesome name man, thanks.

-milk.

That's a great concept, I admit I'm having a bit of a time reconfiguring my brain around this campaign but I'm having fun doing so.

The character that popped into my head immediately was a treasure hunter of sorts. A Mage, no doubt, and definitely on away missions. His suite of spells include Catalog, Astral Window, Detect Life and numerous other manipulation and illusion spells to get the team aboard swiftly and safely. I've included Vehicle Mask in there as well, to change the appearance of any runabouts or secondary ships we may be using.

I view him as an Infiltration expert, getting inside somewhere unnoticed. But he can't do this on his own.

CollateralDynamo'll have to do the talking but my mage can back him up magically.

To him the sea is nothing more than wet land. Different rules apply but he has no connection to anything outside him, he is self-centric but enlightened enough to not be totally selfish (ie, he'll share something that's "rightfully" his because it'll make people like him more and they may save his life).

I have some background stuff already brewing too. Excited.

You're welcome on my boat, Milk, God ain't.

Sorry, channeling Mal there for a moment. I like it! It will be interesting to see how a chaplain fits in with us, should be a lot of fun. And two utilitarian mages around will be quite excellent, you'll probably want to make sure you aren't stepping on each other's toes though.

Knight, with you as captain and me as your XO we should probably have some sort of history together laid into our backgrounds. If we don't start off trusting each other we'd make for pretty poor heads of staff. I am envisioning my character as an out of work police officer who used to work in some sort of undercover narcotics and smuggling unit in and around the Miami/Carib. League beats. Maybe I was your contact on the inside for a few of your raids? Anyways, the XO needs to make sure everyone is doing as the Cap says, which means I need to know for a fact you are worth trusting, Captain.

Hah, to be fair, when I said "chaplain" I intended mostly to indicate that he's available for spiritual advice and whatnot. He probably isn't representative of any specific religion the way that, let's say, Shepard Book is. But he does represent a wellspring of actual and metaphysical knowledge that the crew can chose to interact with if they want.

And yeah, I don't want to step on anyone's toes in the magic department. I'm new to playing an Awakened character in SR, so if Marwynn wants, he can choose all his spells first (since he'll be more combat-oriented anyway, I want his selections to exactly fit his needs; I can get by with whatever). I see my character focusing more on the Health, Illusion, and Detection circles than anything else, probably.

-milk.

Well my selection isn't exactly combat oriented. I have all of Stunball. My "combatness" comes from shooting people. I daresay with Spirits your Shaman might be more effective in that regard.

Stunball, Astral Window, Catalog, Detect Life (Extended), Heal, Improved Invisibility, Trid Phantasm, Vehicle Mask, Levitate, Fix, Influence, Alter Memory.

Not exactly a combat machine. He's there to support, and to look at things that are hidden. Choose whatever you wish, some redundancy wouldn't hurt. I was never really one to throw Fireballs and the like. But if that becomes necessary and you'd rather be the one casting some of these spells primarily I'd free up a few for some more flexible spells.

Ah ok, man. Uhh, you're gonna have to be patient with me in regards to spell selection. Like I said before, this is my first attempt at an Awakened character. I've got some time to sit down right now though and look through the book. I'll probably post a semi-solid slection tonight when I get home from work. But yeah, I do want him to be mostly summoning-oriented.

-milk.

Well, I don't know whether we'll really need an engineering officer but I bet a good all-round mechanic can't be useless. Everything that floats WILL get punctured sooner or later, after all. And of course we'll have some drones, a few jetskis, probably a small boat, one or two bikes, some kind of landrover or something comparable aboard as well, if I get the mission outline right.

I got half a concept lying round from earlier: A Troll from some African all Ork + Troll merc unit who got the mechanic role because a) he lived long enough to learn it and b) he was the units forklift, so he had plenty of time to watch gear get repaired.
Guess he got fed up with looking at sand and wanted to see some water instead.

Basicly he'll fix anything, land sea, air, installations, guns and although I bet other characters will be much better at fixing specific gear (especially if they aren't dumb trolls as well) that should come in handy.

And of course he'll be able to hold his own in a fight and happily go on boarding parties.

Does that sound like someone who would get selected for such a crew?

No problemo. If you want some help in spell selection there are plenty of threads or you can ask us here. I gravitate towards Awakened characters for some reason. Do you have Street Magic? There are quite a few good spells there too (a lot of the ones I have or usually take are from SM).

Will your tradition have the Spirit of Man in there somewhere? This may be powergaming a tad but it has the ability to have one of your spells as an optional power. So a good spell selection lets you effectively double your spells. A Support Spirit with Heal or Fix? Yeah imagine the possibilities.


Ears that sounds good to me, we'll definitely need our own mechanic.

Should we also buy our own secondary vehicles? I'd love for some of those SeaDoos to come standard, electric ones.

Ears, that sounds like a great addition to the team. The question now is, "Do I have the balls to call that guy 'Scotty'"?

As to the Spirits of Man question, yeah, the Shamanic Tradition says I use the following spirits: Beasts (Combat); Water (Detection); Earth (Health); Air (Illusion); Man (Manipulation). I do have Street Magic, and I may flip through it for some additional information on Traditions, but Shamanic seems to fit my character concept nicely. The only question I have right now -and this may be answered as I flip through the rules in a sec- is in regards to summoning spirits according to my tradition. I know that when I summon a spirit, I can ask it to perform certain services for me, but are the services I can ask from each spirit entirely limited to how they relate to my tradition? For example, if I summon an Earth Spirit (health), can I ask it to use its Guard ability to protect the crew from dangerous accidents? What about its Search ability, which has no real connection to the health or protection of my allies (unless I want him to go find me some medicinal herbs out in the wild, or a medkit or something)?

And if I have a spirit companion that gives me, say, +2 to Earth Spirits, does that mean I get a +2 dice pool modified on all Health spells? Or would I only get a Health pool modifier if I had a companion or ability that gave me +2 to Health spells specifically?

Or, let's have a look at Spirits of Air (Illusion): I assume I could ask it to use its Conceal ability to hide the ship and it's crew from possible detection, but could I ask it to use its Engulf power to fill the lungs of an enemy with toxic fumes? Doesn't seem very "Illusion-y" to me, but maybe I just don't understand what I'm reading completely.

Also, under the Materialization power, it says that Materialized critters gain Immunity to Normal Weapons. That seems pretty, uh, strong. Am I reading that right?

-milk.

Only if the spirit is bound does it truly limit what Spirit a category it's in.

All it does for normally summoned Spirits is to colour your viewpoint of it. For example, you'd see the Air Spirit as a constantly changing wisp of smoke a haze or a mirage. A Water Spirit (Detection) may be manifested as some sorta shark or hunter of the deep.

As far as I know the Spirit's abilities are innate to it. It may make more sense for your Air Spirit of Illusion to have Fear than say Elemental Attack, but both are still within its parameters.

Yes on the Earth spirit being able to Guard and Search. Health, in this case, is served by the overall well-being of a crew not tripping on their own two feet.

No on the Mentor Spirits (or any other bonuses). You get +2 on Health spells alone.

So far as contacts and points go - I'm willing to consider it...I honestly need to reread RC.

So far as names: I like "Blood on the Seas", but it feels long.
---

I'm going to sit back now and let you guys hash out characters - this also serves a general warning to anybody who wants to get in on the campaign who's lurking:

We currently have...6, 7 people? I remember a few out of the previous 9 saying they didn't want to do a cyberpirates campaign.

I will take up to 10. (There, I might add, lies one big benefit of a Cyberpirates campaign from a GM point of view: The group can be a lot bigger than your average SR group.)

Just say hi, hash out your roles with the others. I'm going to ask -one- person to keep a running check on who's doing what. Nothing much, just so I have someone besides me keeping count and making sure we don't have toes being stepped on. (Because as fun as role conflicts can be for RP, OOCly they suck.)
---

When you think you have a character done, here is what you do:

PM me. I will give you an email address.

Mail everything to that address.

What I'll require:

A background. It's a text medium, so I really look at these. Use the 20 questions as a starting point, but feel free to expand on them.
A character sheet. Use any of the automated character generators you wish. Keep in mind the required skill(s) I posted upthread, most importantly the requirements for swimming (preferably unchipped, for...reasons that should be obvious...) and Nautical Mechanics. NM you may have learned any -number- of ways, especially if you're just getting it at 1.
---

Chances are, we'll go back and forth on the background, the character sheet, and everything for a bit. You might try to slip stuff past me, I might catch it, I might notice an incongruity in the background or the char sheet...whatever. I try not to be a hardass, but I do look for holes. Eventually, however, I imagine I'll approve it. Once it's approved, it's locked-in and unchangeable except in-play.

At that point, two things happen:
I save a copy of background and character sheet on my laptop for reference.
You, optionally, may post the approved background and character sheet on the forum, for the OOC knowledge of your fellow players.

---
Once everybody has locked-in their characters, I'll kick off play.
---

Group stuff:

Milk ducks made the great point that in any story like this, the ship is oftenasmuch a character as the, er, characters.

Hence, once I sit down with Knight Saber and hash out ship stuff, I'm going to set out a competition for karma. Actually, I'm going to set out the competition now, but it'll start once Knight or I post that we've figured out and agreed on some stuff, like what kind of ship you'll be using (which will determine a few of the things below, I imagine). Try to make this a consensus thing.

Reward: 2 karma (per active non-GM contributor)
Tasks: Come up with a "ship packet" for GM and player use.
What the packet should include:

Name of the ship (I'll determine the applicable prefix when me and knight determine what kind of ship it is)
Flag of Registry
Ship dimensions and basic data (floorplan recommended)
Ship background (is it new? old? Well-maintained? Used and rusty?)

In a very real sense, take the ship and, as it were, bring it alive. Introduce her as a character.
---

Also: You guys will have the ability to get stuff through your Johnson to be held in common by the group - the J will also arrange for the requisition of the ship (possibly at a discount) and any necessary/desired modifications. All of this will be noted by me and...either Knight or CollateralDynamo in a log - the cost of the ship (plus mods) and any other equipment you request (no Avail limit on common-held equipment; standard rules apply for personsl stuff) for common use will all, in total, make up the no-interest loan that you'll be working off.

Milk, I'm not sure any character should "come with the ship". Just a personal opinion.
---

I'm going to introduce some House Rules here in regards to watchstanding and training time.

On-the-job training will -decrease the time- needed to learn said skill. Every hour on watch will subtract a half-hour from the time needed to learn skills (taking a week as 7 8-hour days, as I think the SR4 rules do for extended tests generally). This may not seem like much, but recall that a watch is up to 8 hours: That's half a day off your time before you make a single roll for a full 8-hour watch.

Here's a rough, not quite first draft of my naval commando/captain of the ship/street sam. 2 points left and no contacts, no qualities, no social skills and no underwater demolition. He does meet all the ship owner prereqs though. Lots of underwater skills and cyber.

...Hmm, looking over it and thinking, two things:

Okay, let's make that 400 BP a range between 400 and 420 for everybody.

Second, I'm dropping the Master Requirement on Pilot Water Craft from 3 to 2.
---
Oh, I forgot. You need the SINner quality (or a rating 4 or better Fake SIN), Knight.

420 BP will help a lot. You mentioned the fake SIN (and 4 is the highest you can get without the restricted gear quality). Having two fake SINs and two fake boat registries (at least) would probably work out well.

Ship-wise, I was picturing an old surplus navy craft, one that my guy bought at scrap prices thanks to an old friend in the navy (I'm thinking he's a UCAS vet, who moved to the Carib League to get a couple of nations between him and the UCAS). Something along the lines of a patrol cruiser or corvette, like the USS Freedom. Given how long a ship can last, it might even BE the Freedom in 2072.

Also consider a Catamaran, so it doesn't sink easily. But that may make hiding it via Vehicle Mask difficult, I dunno.

420 sounds great. What's the word on contacts?

I was thinking much the same...I dunno whether we should use the Ohio-class corvette or something smaller.

Contacts - I'm gonna have to look up the rules in RC, something I haven't yet had the chance to do.

Catamaran - No, instead it flips over easily.

Well to help you out, group contacts are technically a real rule, but they kind of change contacts up a lot so let me explain what I was thinking of doing with them: I want to use it so that I can know two or perhaps three smuggling groups that operate on the eastern seaboard. This would mean that they would need to have memberships of around 40 and be "nationwide" in size. This basically means I need to pay an extra 8 buildpoints (ouch) to have them as a contact. Would this be doable? Should I try to come up with the back story of these smuggling groups or do you have some ideas already in the works?

I'll go with it - so long as you come up with the backstories. Only 2 groups, though.

Yeah, I was a bit iffy on having the character come with the ship as well; that's easily fixed. I'll start to work right now building up the character, but I'm not super-familiar with the Carib League right now, so the background should follow along shortly. And for the record, I'm totally down with using a rusted-out 2070's version of the Freedom.

-milk.

Remember: PM me for my email, email the packet, then post when it's approved.

Keeps the thread from being 70 pages full of drafts and nitpicking and sausagemaking.

How will lifestyle levels work, since everyone is (presumably) living on the ship? It does affect things like your credit score as well as where/how you live. Or will we just handwave it and put it as part of the struggle to keep the boat up?

Yay, I found where I did a lot of the pondering when I last tried this campaign:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=19271 - I would put it as a link, but for some reason the side panel isn't working.

I'll manually quote posts below where the points still seem applicable - there's certainly more, but it's getting late.

From post 66:

"Remember that as a ship at sea, you're all going to need to do a lot of things which are handwaved on land for yourselves, or at least keep track of them.

For example:

Supplies. This includes provisions, fuel, etc.! Intelligence. A lot of the little things.

Weather: will be a factor. ICly, the Caribbean is (mostly) covered by the various national weather offices (the UCAS and CAS both, for the record, maintain the National Weather Service as a governmental operation (Public fury nuked any chance of privatization in the early part of the 20th century, after private forecasters were caught "degrading" emergency forecasts to encourage subscriptions)), and there's generally cooperation among all parties on technical matters. Forecasts have not improved in accuracy - the Awakening messed with weather patterns worldwide, screwing forecasting models all to hell, and the Crash of 29 forced mass-rebuilding of the sensor networks (in a fit of enlightened self-interest, the corps actually did donate the gear and the cash to help set it up - everybody gets screwed by hurricanes, after all), which was completed in 2037. As such, it's only been in the last 30 years that a consistent, full-coverage collection of weather data has been resumed. Error rates and accuracy are at the same level as in 2007, mostly because nobody has again put forth the massive amounts of computer power that would be needed to improve it any farther. The 2070 Atlantic hurricane season was active but non-fatal (no storms made landfall, but 2 Category 4 and higher storms did develop), and January in the Caribbean region is almost perfect weather."

From post 67:

"Forgot something: The weather babble means:

For :nuyen:500 per month, automated basic weather reports are sent to maritime customers via satellite or shore-to-ship databurst (within 12km of land) from the weather agency responsible for your region (for most of our purposes, either the CAS or UCAS weather service) @ 1200 UTC daily. An additional :nuyen:300 per month gets you more detailed and updated reports sent at 0000 and 1200 UTC daily, with a final :nuyen:300 getting you just as detailed forecasts sent at 6 and 18, as well. (More forecasts means you have more current weather data.) "

From post 109:

"Okay, my gut instinct is:

Obviously, fuel costs will vary based on where you buy. Duh.

But for argument's sake, I'm going to say a liter of Diesel fuel is 5, at least at game start. (The cost may go up if there are difficulties in fuel supplies at a particular port, or if the market price goes up for other more global reasons.) The economy is for cruising speed. I plan on playing fast and loose with numbers, so we'll call cruising speed 2/3 of maximum operating speed, with 20% over that possible if you redline the engines (which will damage them!), at a cost of +50% fuel consumption....plus the engine damage. Lower speeds = less fuel usage, of course. "

From post 127:

"Lifestyle: Up to you.

If you live on ship at all times, you live in a really cramped space - even most yachts aren't particularly spacious.

That said, an unmodified yacht has Middle Lifestyle "features", I suppose you could say. (Things like food and water will be determined by your own purchases: Nutrisoy for low lifestyle is cheap with minimal flavorings, costing maybe cents for a day's worth; 14 days provisions costs maybe :nuyen:1000 for a group of 10 people with ordinary eating rates. Middle lifestyle, you get nutrisoy, but it's with every flavor assortment you can imagine, and you also get fresh fruits and veggies, though the cost is closer to :nuyen:2500. High, it's fresh fruits, a limited supply of real meat, and real alcohol, costing closer to :nuyen:5000. Keep in mind that, while the USN is "dry" mostly because of the long-ago Prohibitionist motives of Josephus Daniels, there are good reasons why you don't want alcohol aboard ship.)

I'll be happy to adjust those costs, they're really back-of-the-envelope."

Quick question before I go to bed; is the Home Ground quality available for purchase? The book says that we can choose a Home Ground that's no bigger than a large building or a small neighbourhood. Seems viable that our characters would have a bonus to all of their active skills while on their boat (infiltration bonus because you know exactly which panels groan under pressure; gunnery bonus due to understanding the natural feel of the boat's movements over the waves; etc), but I can see how it might also be too powerful considering how much time we'll be spending there. So it's up to you, Penta. Just throwing it out there to see what you thought; either way is fine by me.

-milk.

Too powerful is exactly my thought. Also, the boat is something you'll just be getting at play start.

Speaking of qualities, I was thinking about taking the 5 BP version of Erased for the captain, so all sorts of criminal activity would get erased off whatever SIN she's using. It strikes me as very handy... perhaps too much so. What do you think?