I might be a player in an upcoming Ghost Cartels game, and I'd like to know (without spoilers) what a recommended party makeup with 3 players would be. I could run two toons if necessary, so 3 and 4 member party suggestions please.

Thanks!

Mage, 2 Muscle one of which that can drive. Not much for drone riggers or straight hacker types.

What about a face? I'm glad to hear we can do without a hacker or drone rigger, as those are the two archtypes we would have the most trouble filling. Would 2 mages and a face (with minimal combat ability) do well, or are there situations where a mage just isn't appropriate?

There's atleast one situation where the mages and face would have great difficulties. Without giving away too much they will have to overcome a BC that would be a crippling. The same situation is why I suggusted 2 muscle types. A face iirc won't be much help for most of the scenario, it's more action oriented lots of chases and gunfights and infiltration and such.

How "pink" is the campaign? Would standing out cause a big issue?

I'd say medium-rare. IMHO, it's always better to not stand out, but there a few instances during the campaign where subtlety kinda becomes irrelevant. Some mundane firepower is a definite must, and I'd suggest at the very least 4 PCs.

I'll run 1 muscle and 1 mage, then. IIRC you reduce the effects of BC by your Initiate grade, but I can't seem to find the rule. Could someone give me a page number?

I believe you are referring to the Metamagic ability, Filter. It is in Street Magic. There is also, Geomancy, which you can use to alter the BC, but it takes a while I think.

Depends on what you mean by stand out. It's not black suits and mirror shades but it's not exactly freak week either. I guess it's really how your gm sees the world. Reviewing my notes it's a fairly combat heavy campaign, but a face would be more helpful than I originally remembered. You face some hefty opposition.

Each ghost cartel group should have at least one character who likes trying new drugs. It'll be more fun that way.

Fun for the GM, anyways

For the gm anyway. Medium-rare is a good way to describe the level of pink. It's a fun campaign I really enjoyed it.

EDIT- Scooped! Curse you! Dr.Rockso Curse you! The beret illustrates your evil genius.

GAH! Get out of my brain!

That's who is supposed to enjoy the game right? Players just exist to suffer for for our pleasure. Only just started the GC timeline and already the face is nervous about new drugs. But then she is undergoing for her awakening.

our line-up is troll-mage, technomancer/face and rigger/sam. really a misfortunate combination. the first one is doing most of the job, nr 2 was crucial sometimes, but is sitting around most of the time and the latter really shouldnt be a hybrid ^^
you definitly need two mustles and maybe a face/mage with a nice hacker-connection

Thought it was crowded in here. Oh well, manifest destiny and all that. It's my brain now.

My toon is an ork Rasta with a pet Fenrir Wolf. His doggy goes around with a Physical Mask disguising him as a large wolf hybrid (though not nearly as large as he actually is - Fenrirs are almost 5 feet at the shoulder!).

That could get....interesting

I recommend some muscle and at least one magician (if only because you will most definitely need one in the final arc). Significant parts of all three arcs are investigation and legwork (at least as many as those with gunplay), meaning that both faces and hacker/TMs will have plenty to do. We built in spotlights for pretty much all character types except possibly vehicle riggers. If you still think Matrix types are less useful consider the critical difference a hacker/technomancer might to a team during the Baltimore tower events or in Neo-Tokyo. Riggers have it hardest since it's a globe-trotting campaign and they won't be carrying around their pimped out heavy stuff, on the other hand I see no reason why a drone rigger couldn't stash a couple of rotordrones and a few microdrones in the Olaya luggage replacing some of the need for muscle.

Yeah, I'm not sure how I'm going to get Marley (the wolf) past security :-/

Can it be reasonably done without a matrix specialist?

Gosh, dire wolves didn't have these problems in WoW, did they?

I'm going to go for extended masking and a quickened physical mask spell, I think. Extended masking will get quickened spells past wards, right?

[Edit:] What I meant was "can Ghost Cartels reasonably be run through without a Matrix specialist?".

Short answer: Definitely yes.

Long answer: As mentioned above the campaign involves a significant amount of legwork and since you'll be travelling some of it will be in sprawls where you're unlikely to have many contacts. The Matrix is a great resource with regards to info-gathering, so a hacker/TM is at least as useful as a face. The instances where a hacker/TM might get to shine, don't hinge on their participation (instead they simply give a significant edge to the team in those circumstances).

I don't think the wolf will be a problem actually.

You definately don't need a matrix specialist. There's not very many times I remember one being critical. A hacker/face would be a good role for someone if they wanted to be one. Definately not needed however. As I said before there's also basically no need for a rigger, but there is a chase scene so someone with driving skills helps.

You can do the campaign with just muscle and mages as long as they aren't all antisocial pyschos. Then again no matter what type of mix if ones a psycho it's generally not going to go well.