Last week I thought of the best NPC of my life I can't believe I didn't think of this in time for the srm ny campaign GAH!!!

Ayumi Fujji is a second generation japanese american and sim star of global fame who plays glamorous martial arts savy sex symbols in multilmillion nyen action sims. Every guy wants to be with her, every girl idolizes her and the poperatzi is always trying to get footage of her.

The real Ayumi is very different from her glamorous smiling media image in real life. She's certainly not mean or arrogant in fact quite the opposite: ayumi suffers from a severe social anxiety disorder. She has no problem acting in a predetermined environment but interacting with people is another story. Ayumi always walks around wearing oversized glasses and always with her front teeth out biting her lower lip. She is usually found hunched over her comlink playing matrix games in the corner of the room. When approached by the players (or anyone else) she will crane her head up just enough that they can see her eyes franticly darting back and forth as she panics searching for a response. if she is on a comlink her thumbs will move faster in concert with her panic. If not she will begin slapping her hands together either with her finger tips or perhaps by making fists and rapidly pounding her foreknuckles together. if the players ask what's bothering her and try to comfort her she may bite her nails and blurt out "ummmmmmm........................I'm just kinda shy". At this point she may use some of the drugs her psychiatrist has prescribed to help calm her anxiety. They will either be in pill or inhaler form depending on what drug they are experimenting with that week. If the PC's read her mind they will hear "oh god say something say something you retard you look like an idiot they think you're a moron now you're so stupid you should go home and hang yourself!". If one of them touches her in a friendly manner she might yelp in shock and quickly apologize. In fact "I'm sorry" is perhaps the phrase she will utter most often...she will constantly apologize for everything (even things that aren't her fault). If they are mean to her she may whimper and run off to a corner. If one of them touches her in anger she will quickly bring her foot up to kick them in the head; in fact her fighting talents are probably the only thing about her confident sexy characters that isn't fake (if anything she's even more lethal than her characters). Ayumi begin training as a little girl to defend herself from bullies and is now on par with the likes of Bruce lee holding the rank of master in karate, taekwondo and kung fu. After striking the character she will of course apologize. Now having panicked if another character attacks (or yells at her loudly) she will quickly down him and apologize too. Should she down all the players in this manner or perhaps a similar event occurs with hostile npcs she will realize the severity of her predicament and state "Oh no I'm going to get in so much trouble." (even if she was not at fault). Should the characters befriend her this will pass after they spend enough time with her for her to get comfortable around them. After that she will be normal warm and friendly (and is fairly charismatic). She will also shower them with extravagant gifts in an attempt to make up for her perceived inadequacies and buy their love (she will try to disguise these as thoughtful heartfelt symbols of friendship so the character does not think they are tacky bribes)
Ayumi could be many things someone the pc's are protecting, following, spying on trying to earn as a contact or just the charity case they take to help delude them into thinking that they're not really heartless mercenaries.

I have an excel character sheet to upload but I don't know how.

She sounds really interesting,

The trouble with a runner hanging out with a Sim star is it attracts attention anyone who has close contact with a starlet attracts media attention. Whom are Ayumi Fujji's mystery friends, and any manager worth his salt would love to spill the rumor she knows shadowrunners.

My advice for a possible introduction is, her manager hires them to retrieve her when she's been kidnapped. This can have a few twists say the manager arranged her kidnapping for publicity but the group he hired decided to hold her for ransom for real. Or maybe after the rescue is complete her manager wants to make a sim about her rescue. The problem being Ayumi Fujji as timid as she is may give away to many details that could be traced back to the PC's identity. A last twist could be Ayumi Fujji hired the kidnappers because she wanted a vacation but her contract wouldn't allow for it.

It could also work from the other end where the manager pays the team to kidnap her for publicity. (with certain restrictions like no-lethal force used to subdue the guards). Of course Ayumi Fujji has no idea the kidnapping isn't real. Or Ayumi Fujji say through an old friend(whom became a fixer) hires the runners to kidnap her so she can escape the pressures of her career and contract and have a little vacation. But the PC's have no idea their client is also the one they kidnapped. (the Johnson appearing as the timid girl with glasses).

For another introduction,

I happen to think Simstars make good PCs too, although obviously they only exist well in certain game types (they're very out of place in gutterpunk for example.) particularly those sorts of games where the characters are famous in a legally deniable but slightly obvious way - spies, diplomats, etc.

While the general concept is fun, I find the "totally insecure/totally martial art bad-ass" combo rather over the top. Decently skilled I could buy, but I feel you push the thing too far.

one of the contacts in the runners handbook is a simstar...they'd workout fine....and she'd make a great pc too a simstar's career would be an excellent source of adventures. THough I intended her to be an innocent and niave character too socially inept to plan her own kidnapping as a shadowrun. also with her income she could cut back on her life style spend some money on bioware and become a kick ass street samie (it would help her stunt work too)

oh also I forgot something....if they hack her comlink they'll find numerous amatuer poems and short stories she's written but never had the courage to publish.

btw that's the point she's not a badass at all... she just pretends to be on screen. The juxtaposition and irony makes her excellent comedy relief as well a surprise for unexpecting pc's to deal with and is an interesting challenge to play as a pc if anyone is interested.

btw how do I upload that file?

When you write "if anything she's even more lethal than her characters", I read it as meaning an extremely high martial art/hand-to-hand proficiency, and that is what I find hard to believe when combined with the rest of the character.

Decent, even a bit above average yes, it makes sense - at least a bit of real proficiency makes for a good sim - but maxed out as your wording hinted at, no.

I love it!

Her introvert persona makes her almost an idiot savant - if she gets into a situation she understands, suddenly she becomes completely heroic in stature and ability, while the PCs are the only ones that know she's usually terrified. I keep coming up with little scenes for her, and it's awesome.

A gunfight breaks out, and the team's troll throws Ayumi into an opening elevator. Too late, they realize that the elevator was occupied, and the corp goons smugly hit the Door Close ARO and wave goodbye. The team panics, blows away the opposition, and rush to the lobby to find Ayumi hugging her knees to her chest, making herself look small, in a corner behind a potted plant. The elevator has five broken corp goons... She's really sorry.

A crimelord is about to order his goons to open fire when she draws a katana she picked up in the last fight and leaps onto his desk. She holds the blade thoughtfully, and intones in Japanese: "This is the blade of my Grandfather's Grandfather. It has tasted the blood of many men, and it hungers for more. Even now, I can hear it whispering," she hisses "kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!" She glares at him, and sheaths it. "But I rule it, because I am a true human being. Not like your master, the mad animal!" She stands, arms akimbo, and shouts to the assembled men. "No one here doubts his crimes! You follow him only because of the giri a man must show to his lord, but what of the giri that a lord owes his men?" She looks at the crimelord, whose eyes are lowered in shame. "You know the old ways. You are also a true human being. Know this, then: he would ask your men to die, die upon my blade, as so many have already tonight, when the heavens have decided this injustice can only end in single combat between he and I. Stand aside, my honored brother, and let the will of the heavens take its course." He nods his head, and over his men's protests, he gives Ayumi the location of the boss' hideout. As they leave, someone asks "...the Hell was that?" One of the players (who was handed a note) replies "That was her big speech from Yakuza Blade 3." Ayumi smiles, weakly. "In the film, the oyabun tries to kill me anyway. I'm glad it worked this time." ...then she is messily sick into a plastic plant.

The team is in a Mexican standoff, and tensions are mounting. Someone yells for Ayumi to take cover, and she breaks for it, getting two steps before tripping. She falls with a girlish yelp, hitting her knee on the floor, and whimpering in pain. She starts to sob. After a few awkward seconds, one of the bad guys asks "Are you...are you okay?" The boss is sweating. "Shoot 'em you idiots!" Nobody opens up. "Man, screw this, I'm going home." The bad guys take off.

The suave elf NPC sidles over to Ayumi, and says something debonair. She looks at him, carefully puts down her drink, bows to him, and rushes out the door. He is deeply confused, and you catch him trying to be subtle about checking his body odor.

Thats a really nice idea. I like it a lot. Go for it, please, and keep us updated how it works out.

YES! EXACTLY!

I've been thiking of 4 characters I'd player her as:

south park: The homeschooled girl kyle falls in love with

Boy meets world: The actor that looks exactly like corey's best freind shean when he visits the set of boy gets accuainted with the universe

big bang theory: raj who cannot speak in front of whomen unless he's drunk

Chocoloate: a thai action where the main character is an autistic girl who loves chocolate and becomes a martial arts genius from whatching tv.

though in regard to "chocolate" I want to point out that yumi isn't autistic or mentally handicapped in any way mentally she has it complately together. It's just when it comes to social interaction she's to shy to verbalize herself (like raj). When she has to talk to someone she isn't familiar with turns into a stuttering social clutz.

anyone know how I upload that char sheet?

Let me tell you about the one I've made up. I've been itching to use her but I haven't had the time or place:

New action starlet "Anna Kalishnikova", star of the shadowrunning sims AK-70 and her newly released sim, AnnaK-71.
--

"Anna Kalishnikova is the hottest Czech import to California. Having signed on with Horizon Media, AnnaK is a sassy, sexy, blonde haired, blue eyed woman who kicks ass with martial arts and automatic weapons that takes no shit. A major hit globally, she is the fastest rising star of action sims everywhere. Rumor has it that she's related to some major Russian avtoritet back in the Old Country and left to escape a hard life on the streets.

The AK series (as dubbed by the press) describes the adventures of a cold hearted, Eastern European street samurai who travels the world, taking the most dangerous jobs no other shadowrunner will touch. In her debut sim Ak-70 she is hired to protect an Yakuza oyabun at the request of her mentor, fearing an assassination. Arriving too late to commence the job but already pre-paid, Anna is honor bound to fulfil her duty - so she singlehandledly hunts down the entire crew, the sim ending after a pitched 15min adrenal burning gun battle which has redefined the choreography of action sims this decade.

In AK-71, she is hired to assassinate a corporate VP - only to find that she has been the patsy for the job and someone else claimed the kill. Anna must then fend of corporate hitsquads, shadowrunners, ultimately ending in an brutal fight sequence against the ultimate assassin who took out her mark, leading her to the man behind it all.

Currently on tour promoting her latest sim, rumors already abound of her next sim. Director Sam Billington had only this to say:

"We're extremely happy with Anna and the franchise and how it is performing. We've been very keen to take on board fan input and we promise to deliver an even more breathtaking sim and we promise it will involve magic - on a scale previously never seen in a sim before."

This reporter is having a hard time imagining a more intensive action sim - unless it involves taking out a dragon. But lets face it, if anyone can bring it to a Great Dragon, Anna can."

--

Anna K is intended to be a by-product of Horizon Media. They wanted to see would it be possible to truly manufacture a starlet from the ground up. And in essence they did. Taking a former SINless street urchin Czech girl, through combination of hyper intensive psychotropic brain conditioning, drugs, therapy, ASIST biofeedback, they have re-programmed Anna from the ground up using a heavily customised program. designed to do in months what would typically take years.

This entire project is a multi-million dollar experiment by Horizon and the entire success or failure of the project, rests squarely on Sam Billington's shoulders (as the person who came up with the entire scheme). Should this work, Horizon forsee a vast array of applications for the technology - everything from staff conditioning, prisoner "re-education" programs, consumer loyalty programs, espionage training, interrogation, military applications - virtually unlimited uses.

Anna K represents the first public success of the program (I haven't come up with a name for it yet).

'Anna' now believes she is fanatically loyal to Horizon. At the age of 9 she ran away from a sexually abusive Vory uncle. She eventually began working the streets as a prostitute before she was taken into a Mafia brothel. Eventually a Japanese hitman hired her to kill on of her regulars, which she did, before fleeing to Japan under the employ of said hitman - who would only become known to her as 'O'sensei'. O'sensei (who took pity on the girl but also fell in love with her) took her to the finest Chiba bodyclinics and had her implanted with the best he could buy - beta-grade move-by-wire systems, muscle toner and augmentation, cyber eyes, ears, commlinks, titanium bone lacing and a bunch of additional headware and hardware. He then proceeded to train the femme fatale in a variety of martial arts -- Ninjitsu, Judo, Karate, Jiu-Jitsu. Under his tutelage, AnnaK and OSensei became the finest assassins in the world before she retired from her art, and approached Horizon and pitched the idea of making a series of action sims based on her lifestory (which is why they are so convincing!).

Of course this is all a lie.

Should anyone investigate her past they will find none of the names or places match. No-one of them exist. No-one has ever heard of her working the streets or know her name. That said, savvy runners will recognise she could have undergone cosmetic surgery, altered her story significantly, etc, but the truth is it is completely fabricated. Language analysis will reveal her accent to be truly Czech (which is the only thing that is real about her). Should anyone get the opportunity to examine her cyberware (HA!) they will find that nearly all of it is made by Horizon subsidiaries, poking immediate holes in her story about the 'wares origins.

I've really grown quite attached to the concept - but like I said, I just haven't seen the right opportunity to use her. I have had a few ideas on how/where I want to use her (I think I have posted a few brain dumps here before on her). But PCs I'd imagine could be called in to do anything - extract her to work for another megacorp (only to find she is fiercely resistant), investigate her past, hired by Russians or Yakuza to try and find out where/what this woman is really up to. Or MAYBE one of her false memories is actually a little too close to the truth, and someone wants her dead and perhaps the PCs are hired to protect her.

- J.

Depending on how precise you want to get with the language you may want to change this. O'Sensei means "Great Sensei" but the implied meaning in japanese is a Sensei that has died, and it would be considered rude to use the title for a living person.

Unless, of course, you want the implication to be that the sensei is supposed to be dead, which would be cool as well.

Well, since nobody else said anything...

Go to MediaFire or Box.net and get an account. Then upload your file and link to it in your posts.

I thought it was O'Sensei in the Irish sense.

If she is really that insecure or has a social anxiety disorder, it would show in her wet Simsense feed. She would be a TERRIBLE simsense star. Sims replicate all of the senses and the internal emotions of the star playing the role. You literally BECOME the character that is recorded in a sim. A simsense star has to be a method actor of the highest caliber and has to be able portray the emotions of their character to the fullest. No one would go into martial arts action sim if they were assaulted by feelings of inadequacy and anxiety on a constant basis.

My feeling is that "I get it. You saw the movie "Chocolate"." But this isn't a viable NPC unless you address the simsense issues. She could easily be a Trid actor (which doesn't have an emotive feed) or someone who doesn't make movies but makes advertisements. Maybe she even has a twin sister who doesn't have the same issues (but also doesn't have the skillz) and the media company makes two takes, one with the martial artist and one with the twin and merges the two together so that the anxiety doesn't crap all over the sim feed.

He said her disorder depends on the level of uncertainty in the situation she is in. So, if she has read the script, and is therefore not uncertain of the outcome, she should do pretty well, will actually be confident, in fact.

I have a hard time believing someone with a "severe social anxiety disorder" or equivalent would be an effective sim actor. The acting biz is so full of uncertainty (especially when running an action scene), and spontaneous reactions to uncontrolled situations are utilized by many sim studios as well to get more "authentic" wet recordings. The idea seems a bit too contrived to be believable (at least, not without resolving the medium versus the actor), especially when you take into account the other sim stars that have been written in past SR fiction.

I don't disagree with you, but, it's his game, so, whatever. You know what I mean? As long as he can rationalize it to his players...

It is something of a fun concept, though, I agree, it's slightly over done.

That did occur to me as well, and it's an angle that should be addressed before the players call you on it. I can think of a couple work-arounds, however.

First, it has been established simsense feeds are edited - if the actor has a headache or a mosquito bite, that's not going to make it to the final release. Is the editing sufficient to cover anxiety of the level Ayumi seems to suffer? Maybe. As a quick handwave, it would do the job, but it feels like a bit of a cop-out to me.

A deeper solution might be that she really is comfortable when she's working from a script. I've always found social anxiety is much worse with strangers and unknowns then people I have an established relationship with, even if it's simply Client or Subordinate - I know exactly how I need to behave, and that makes me comfortable. Further, when she is working from a script, she's not technically Ayumi (I imagine this idea needs no explanation on a roleplaying game forum) so she has a different set of responses. Ayumi the off-duty actress might break down when yelled at, but Ayumi the Action Hero has to fight down a cold rage. The major decisions about what she's going to say and do are already agreed upon by the writers and directors, so she knows she can't make a mistake and screw it up, and that's a huge load of anxiety she doesn't have to deal with.

When she's with the runners, she's outside of this safety net / comfort zone.

I imagine her a lot like Hannalore from Questionable Content.
<EDIT> Man, I wasted an hour looking for a good Hannalore strip and three dudes posted already. Curse you internet!

Well, it is established that there are a lot of "baseline" tracks that editors can use to manage the simsense feed, altering details for the senses and emotive tracks. However, it reduces the authenticity and impact of the recording, since the audience typically knows that the edited effects aren't "real" (similar to how current movie audiences lose the impact from viewing a movie when they know a portion of the movie is greenscreened/bluescreened).

Perhaps the disorder wasn't nearly as bad when the media corp first picked her up. But the sheltered environment, the rigors and stress of making a sim, and apathy on the part of the studio to her mental state has made her severely worse. If she had sought help and was given therapy, she might be a relatively normal person, but the star-studded life of sim-acting has washed her further down the tubes.

In the present sense, yes he is dead.

- J.

The simsense star might be a social chameleon. Given a role she might embody it perfectly, but once the role is over she goes back to her real persona, the one that she began pretending to avoid.



My theory on simsense stars is they're more like reality tv "stars" than actors. An actor has to make you believe something when you are watching and listening to them, but inside their heads anything can be going on. A simsense star; you feel what they feel-- it's not really pretending, it's how vibrantly they feel that's the key to the "performance". That's what sets a simsense star apart from any Joe Blow that straps on a rig. There's probably some overlap there, a Method actor who can trigger emotional states would probably be a good model for a simsense star. Likewise, a mage with a Control Emotions spell, or a spirit with the Empathy power would probably be a welcome addition to a set.

There's probably an element of narcissism and exhibitionism to it, as well (as with many performers). Maybe they start to feel like, why feel anything at all if someone's not recording it?

Interesting. Not quite as good as the raven familiar Jim gave one of our players, but then, the raven was the best NPC ever made ever. Tabby was the runner up (a catgirl, and no, the two didn't exactly get along).

Tabby = Tabitha the catgirl changling fixer from SR Missions Denver?

Sounds like Tabby alright, my own character Lightning Jack would regularly hit on her during the course of that campaign. He called her honeykitten. Though her role from the print version was slightly altered and the GM defaulted to Tabby if the fixer contacting us about a Johnson was unnamed.

Lightning Jack and Tabby the catgirl... hmm... almost sounds like the setup for a joke is in there somewhere... I just can't seem to think of one right now.

I'm to full of leftover turkey... Tryptophan is getting the better of me.

As an actor (and roleplayer), my experience is that the best acting comes from someone who feels what their character feels and speaks from their character. Still, the most important aspect of a SimSense star is their ability to experience strong emotions.

Does the fact he's an Elf help you with your joke?

Different Tabby. Scion game, not ShadowRun.

Hehe thanks

It might help to know she was originaly supposed to be a trid starlet but since those are kind of pase now she's a sim starlet.

Well I did adress this already but perhaps I should be more specific her actual phobia comes form social "introductions" and only social introductions. During interviews acting and buisness discussions (though her agents usually handles the later) she doesn't feel self concious. Her fear is of saying the wrong thing tos someone she's trying to make a good impression on. During an interview she's just being asked some questions she already knows about (carefully screened by her agent and prepared for to grant the false impresssion of a glamerous confident media icon) when it's busness (which her agent handles) she's not trying to impress someone socially so she's also okay. Simsense is all pretend so she has nothing to be afraid of (it's also prepared ahead of time so she knows just what to say). Again there is no fear. Remember she's taking prescription drugs to help her controll her axiety too.

Besides A sim star isn't supposed to be calm they're supposed to be emotional. A calm mind is one devoid of emotion and a sim star is supposed to feel emotion throughout the sim. hypotheticly if she was nervous that fear help her summon up emotions (anyone who's ever acted knows what I mean). For example with a bit of mental preperation she could cloak social fear as fear of that nonexistant dragon or turning that pounding heart into a rush of rage. That pounding heart could even be fear of her new lover or joy at having won his hand in the end of the sim. But as I said her axiety is triggered by trying to make a good first impression on someone she's meeting in a purely social encounter. Also the way she acts when no one's looking (bare in mind the teeth are out when she doesn't need to look sexy) is less glamerous. She knows how to act when someone is whatching her and feel on command when the simrig is on.

the whole irony behind the character is how she can be so sexy and glamerous in public and such a dork in private.

I hope that explains her better.

and no I haven't seen the movie chocolate in fact the only thing they had in common was that she was an ironic martial artist. My nps is supposed to be more of an Ironic celebrity.

o'sensei=irish....ROLFMAO.....I'm gonna use that great twist ending for a courier run....ever see that gi joe episode about the viper?

In My opinion, it is a pretty outstanding conept for a character, especially an NPC as you intend her to be... It seems to me that she should have a Negative Quality that impacts her "First Impressions" such as the reverse of the Positive Quality... -2 Dice for Social Interactions on first meetings, or some such...

But again, I like the character a great deal... might just yoink it for our Hong Kong Game...

Keep the Faith

I gave her the 15 pt common/moderate social phobia: first impressions I'll upload a sheet soon.

Btw I think I forgot to mention that I was inspired to come up with this character after whatching an episode of macross frontier where the shy and unassertive ranka winds up being a movie star.

Would you really want to be a simsense star in a action movie? Look at Bruce Willis in Die Hard, I'm not sure If I want to walk on broken glass.

That's an interesting point from the other side too. What about people who want simsense adventures that are more like the heightened realism of the movies? I mean, you could put the 'ware on some soldiers in Desert Wars and then sell the results but I see that being a niche market. Most people would probably rather vicariously live the massaged heroism of the typical War Movie.

well, the simsense star doesn't do that scene (the stunt double does and they overlay that pain track with the other emotions of the star) but I'd *guess* that they turn the pain track down a bit for the fans

Well you know, I doubt that the 'actual' actor feels anything other than "I hope I don't screw this scene up" or "Wow this is going good," and maybe a "when am I going home?" I'm sure Bruce Willis (die hard, Die Hard fan) wasn't feeling the same emotions as actually running for his life, probably not anything similar. Or does simsense acting involve the advanced control over your own emotions, to the point were you could manipulate how you feel? I never liked Simsense kinda things. Didn't like feelies in Brave New World either.

it's evolved; back when everything was done in front of live audiences 'in one take' (stage theatre, before movies) or 'in one take' variety shows (post moving picture) the emphasis was on actors who could improvise quickly to cover the inevitable mistake, were good at memorizing lines and could pull off a believably consistent character overall.

with the advent of multiple take movies more emphasis was placed on each take, improvisation became less important, memorization became almost pointless, and it was more about creating believable scenes and not necessarily a believable overall character (less immersion)

with the advent of green-screen/CGI extensive scenes we started emphasizing ability to act into space, imagining your opposite in place, reacting to images in your head instead of another actor on stage, etc.

in the world of simstars the important trait in acting is believable feelings. it doesn't necessarily require advanced control, just the ability to immerse yourself into the scene or character.

I'm sure post editing does alot of smoothing to catch and cut out-of-character feelings; but the best stars would be the ones who can 'feel' what the character feels consistently without remembering they're not really that person, at least until the director calls cut!

You can do some work during the take too - there's enough drugs, personachips and mind-altering spells floating around to take care of a lot of issues. Add the editing, and odds are you could have a monkey as a simsense star. Probably not a good one though.

A combination of training and light grade mood-altering during the takes can probably make her able to feel right. There's also the option of having an 'emotive double' to edit the takes with 'live' rather than 'canned' emotions.

Interesting perspectives. Still not fully on board with it, but that makes it a little more believable.

Okay, that would be worth chipping into. An entirely non-human experience, especially one as agile and lovable as an ape? Awesome! Imagine: An ape in Amazonia covers three miles in ten minutes without touching the ground! I'd also sign on for running with centaurs and swimming with dolphins.

Regarding Die Hard, it might also make more sense for certain types of storytelling to be third-person, even as Simsense. I've been in fights and car accidents, and I generally had no idea what was going on. An external view on action scenes allows for much greater appreciation of the scene. Imagine if Die Hard was simsense, but you were simming as a 'studio audience' in the room? You could smell the burning debris and the gunsmoke, you could feel the explosions kick you in the chest, and you would even have your emotions kicked up a notch when it's appropriate - the jokes seem a little funnier, and the bad guys a little scarier (just like being in a theatre where everybody else is laughing their head off - it's contagious) but still have the experience of not *being* a hero, but *watching* a hero.