I'm thinking about it, but I'd basically just be getting a better hobgoblin (seeing as I'd be hard pressed to used Fangs I could just take Vindictive anyhow for a 10 BP discount from the metavariant), so I'm still on the fence if I can justify it to myself

EDIT: Whoever wrote up the meta variants must have been staring into a bottle or something all night long.

Whoever wrote all of the Runner's Companion's character creation section have been staring into a bottle or something. Oddly, enough, the exact same thing is true of the Battletech equivalent; both books are packed with great fluff, but often horrible additional character creation rules. Karmagen seems okay, but all of the metavarients, SURGE thingies, and HMMVV portions are completely broken, as are a good number of the qualities.

Anyway, I say go for the character you were planning, but an ordinary ork. At the very least, an Arab character would have great interaction with mine

Forty-niner Class Surveyor

The ocean can hold great wealth, as evidenced by the great number of oceanic petroleum deposits that were exploited during the second half of the 20th Century and beyond. In the Sixth World, the slow march of time means that even more land-based resources have been exploited, and so the possibility of oceanic prospecting becomes profitable not only for oil, but also for precious metals such as gold and platinum, and even orichalcum during the "Orichalcum Rush" of 2061. That latter event, in fact, created an immense demand that quickly dried up, leading to the decommission of huge fleets of surveyor vessels.

Oceanic surveyors are often fair-sized vessels, intended for months at sea. Many, including the typical Forty-niner class, use multiple hulls in order to provide a stable platform for their sensitive sensor suites and large core-sample devices (in the Forty-niner's case, this is a SWATH type hull with two large cylindrical sections that remain under water, supporting the rest of the ship's hull above). The Forty-niner itself is roughly 35 meters long and 15 meters wide, with an intended compliment of about 5 crew and 10-15 geologists and mining specialists. The boat has an odd form factor, with a mostly flat top deck intended to provide a large working space, dominated by a 30 meter tall derrick which occupies a 5 meter square region amidships (collapsible for movement or bad weather), intended to provide a stable anchor point for deep core samples. Most vessels dedicate a large area to the bow for use as a helipad to allow easy delivery of supplies and extra specialists, as well as removal of samples to better land-based analysis facilities as necessary. Forty-niners also typically carry a pair of small submersible drones (SK Neptune or similar). They are equipped with a modestly sized mechanic facility and a sophisticated chemistry lab for maintenance and testing, respectively.

Forty-niner Class Surveyor
Length: 35 meters
Beam: 15 meters
Draft: 6.5 meters
Displacement (Typical): 600 tons
Accommodations: 5 single cabins, 8 double cabins
Fuel Tankage: [I have no idea]
Fuel Use: [no idea, should be pretty bad]


Handling: -2
Acceleration: 10/15
Speed: 30
Pilot: 2
Body: 28
Armor: 6
Sensor: 3
Availability: 14
Cost: 300,000

Similar Models: Prospector, Goldrush
Standard Upgrades:
Additional Fuel Tank
Large Landing Drone Rack x 2
Special Machinery/Core Sampler
Workshop/Chemistry
Workshop/Nautical Mechanic

I was going for a more Chekov (old Enterprise Chekov, not the new smart Chekov) kind of navigator. Sulu was the helmsman.

Oh God, who's Kirk?

Double post

Mwuahahaha.

Wait, does that make me Uhura?

Damn right!

...Who's spock?

....You all scare me.

So, the ship's Enterprise?

We need some Red Shirts.

No, qnd hell no.

It's dead, Jim.

Note to self: Name something Enterprise, even if it is the fucking lifeboat.

Hey, I like Trek too, but TOS is cheesy and the new movie just sucks.

What do people (especially Penta) think of my boat offering? I'm especially concerned that I priced it right - I think I may have erred on the expensive side.

Also, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to name our ship Enterprise.

Yup, not an uncommon ship name. I like the boat at first brush. Seems pretty reasonable and a real nice pick for "inconspicuous".

From a GM perspective, I'm not sure how to represent the disadvantages to a SWATH hull, but that may be a minor detail. To be honest, I think SR4A presumes all hulls to be monohulls.

I figured that I'd covered it with the low maneuverability and speed Speed 30 actually makes it like the slowest boat in the game.

Yeah. Which brings up a thought, aren't these things supposed to be faster than monohulls?

Catamarans, yes; SWATH, no. SWATHs are essentially pretending to be submarines, which makes them very stable, but rather slow.

The ship I based it on is a large research vessel of 200', capable of making 15 knots. What's the knot/SR4 speed conversion factor?

Honestly, there aren't really any real disadvantages to a proper catamaran versus a monohull; they're more stable, have more deck space, and are often faster to boot. They are a little harder to maintain, though, I think.

Or how about "Fucking Enterprise" instead? As privateers we are going to fuck up someone's day.

Imagine the captain going, "This is the Fucking Enterprise! Heave to and prepare to be boarded!"

Or introducing himself as the captain of the ship. "Captain Jack Sparrow of..."

No vulgarity in ship names, the Coast Guard has to approve all ship names (ICly and IRL, I believe). Also, while OOCly the ship name is up to you guys, ICly your employer is naming it.

So far as ship hulls: I could see a Catamaran or a Monohull being used - with some bias towards the monohull. SWATH would scrape against the bottom of any number of harbor entrance channels, I think.

Leisure marinas, yes; commercial ports, no. The Forty-niner is more of an industrial ship than a personal craft.

Still, both you and group have to agree, anyway.

Damn fucking right, that's why it's so good! And the JJ Abrams version... Do NOT get me started, that is NOT Star Trek. That is some mildly entertaining Sci fi action movie with some familiar names. I am having trouble resisting ranting.... As for ship name... IC, I'd want to call it the Sea Weed. And have a hydroponics bay on board... No wait, is betameth smoked? Also, I don't know about you, but from what I've seen of this Swath thing, it just looks embarrassing... A nice speedy yacht seems fine, or maybe a corvette? Maybe the Celebrian Striker?

Well, I've got Pilot Watercraft 6, so I'm a damn good Sulu, and Nautical Mechanic and Navigation both at 4 so I'm Scotty and Chekov, too. God knows how you're gonna understand me. Actually, Aquaman (my char), is from Tampa, so I'm not sure how to do the accent. Either way, I don't care if you call me a confederate

Vital Stats


Physical and Personality Description

Active Skills


Knowledge Skills


Magic


Qualities


Augmentations

Gear

Contacts

Oh well, back to the drawing board then.

@Faraday

Your character says:

Active:
Biotech Group 4
-First Aid (6)
Electronics Group 4
-Computer (6)

Can't specialize skill groups and can not split them at creation, so am I missing something?

That's not specializations, that's augmented numbers. (Haven't put in Magic yet, thanks for the reminder though)

Edit: Magic done. Keep in mind that Improved Skill power now improves the *rating* of the skill itself.

Sorry about that being nosy On that note - is that Karma or BP? Not sure which to use myself.

No worries, I needed to add in the magic stats and actually write in that my hacking skill is augmented to 9.

Jolly Roger's Karmagen SR4A style. I <3 well-rounded. Just don't try making ghouls or goblinoids and you should be ok.

Two Intelligence Officers wouldn't be a bad thing - one to collect the data, the other to analyse it.

Any chance of a ruling on emotitoys (and perhaps empathy software)? Such as either banning them or limiting their effects to judge intentions only? As is I really dislike their implementation.

I do too, but I can't seem to settle on what to do with them. Thusfar my gut is saying we should all voluntarily agree not to use the damn things. Not a ban, but the same effect. I won't use em if you don't.

going back to ship names what about the Black Pearl?

Penta, I will get you an updated character sheet tomorrow.

Been playing around with the karma gen rules and on the surface they seem a lot more powerful than the BP rules.

For a quick sketch of what I'm getting at:

750 Karma leaves you with 375 karma to spent on attributes - that'll get you:

5,5,5,4,4,3,3,3

400 BP (so 200) can get you:

5,5,3,3,3,3,3,3

As for skills a collection like this:

Skill group: 4
Skill: 6
Skill: 4
Skill: 4

Would cost 96 BP or 146 karma. That's "only" about 50% increased cost on the karma gen side, which doesn't seem like a lot considering the karma-to-BP ratio you get - not to mention the extra attributes from before.

This surprised me considering how people generally say Karma grants more well rounded where as BP is better for Min/Max'ing. Karma gen gives better returns on skills it would seem, and for you to get better returns on the attributes you'd have to make a character look something like this in stats with BP:

5,5,5,5,5,1,1,1

which, to me at least, is pushing the boundaries of good taste a bit. Note that Karma gen still wins out compared to the last example - the results are slightly different with metatypes, but in general you need as many stats on 6+ as possible to be able to match karma gen in returns. BP probably has a slight edge the more BP/Karma you convert to

I realize you don't get Knowledge skills for free in Karma gen, but even if you forced people to put, say... 50 karma into it, Karma gen to me seems like the superior option by far.

I'm a bit torn, since I like that karma gen allows you to take stuff like Etiquette (Navy) from the start to round your character without feeling like you're punishing yourself, but on the other hand Karma gen seemed to leave me with characters that seemed considerably better off in a straight BP-to-Karma conversion.

Can anyone confirm/disprove the math or have anything else to point out?

Depending how bored I am in the next weeks, I can try respeccing Cherry with Karma and seeing how she turns out.

I admit, karmagen loves humans (they could use some love). But keep in mind that any metatype with a attribute bonus will have to pay more in karmagen to be "average", much less above that.

For an extreme example:
A troll buys str and bod 9:
That's 300 karma right there. No investments in any other stats yet.

So while humans can get a lot of (relatively) high stats in karmagen, any other metatype will be hard pressed to get equivalent stats to their BP counterparts. They can still get good skill ratings though.

I don't want to violate Disney's trademarks, they might send the Mousecutioners after us.

Dark Oyster?

I still like Enterprise.

Me too.

Hmm... Shady Clam

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds dirty?


EDIT: Spelling!

<.<


No.

The Hungry Hippo?

A few ideas.
The Rusty Anchor
Commerce
Don't forget we need a spoof chip. I mean we could go by two names and pray our description never gets out.
Give us your cargo now! is a goof name to have as a spoof

I'd like to note that, as the last week of class comes upon us, that I'm not entirely certain what the dollar-nuyen exchange rate is, but I'd happily spen $10,000 on a Sleep Regulator. Honestly, I would take out a freaking loan; that bitch would pay for itself pretty quickly.